Title: Pathetic (1/1)
Author: RocketMan
E-mail: lebontrager@iname.com
SPOILERS::::::The Ghosts Who Stole Christmas, whatever that ep was
called. This is post ep, of course, I got sucked in, what can I say? Oh
and it helps none that I just saw Gillian Anderson on Leno tonight.
Sheesh, she's so bubbly!! 

~~~~~
Pathetic
~~~~~

Her sudden grin knocked him back for a second, and he fumbled for the
couch, his own smile wider for her child like glee.

What was it about Christmas and Dana Scully?

She ripped into the paper, her nails making short work of his massive
taping job, and her tongue sticking from the side of her mouth as she
concentrated.

His own curiosity couldn't be contained, and he pulled the paper from
her gift with quick agility, all the while watching her face for that
first moment when she saw his present.

Her eyebrows shot up and her mouth dropped open as she unrolled the
thick parchment. A small laugh escaped her throat and she turned to him,
the gift clutched in her hands.

"This is hilarious," she said and her eyes swept the landscape of an
alien world, the tint of blue and grey and rose the perfect match to her
apartment.

"Well, it's funny. When we were in Nevada, at that motel, do you
remember that guy that sat outside every day and offered to draw your
picture?"

She frowned, recalling the older man's rumpled clothes, the stacks of
canvas and colored pencil and paint sitting next to him and his eyes
focused far away.

"Well, you kept saying no, and he kept bothering you and so I sort of
made him a deal. I told him if he stopped pestering you, I'd buy
whatever he managed to concoct."

Scully's eyebrows rose higher. "This was what he came up with?"

It was a very remarkable sketch of her face in the far left corner, done
in soft grey and rose, and then a sort of moonscape below, with a few
strange EBE's standing on the ground, and a starfield in the background.

He grinned. "Well, I sort of helped him out."

She shook her head and pushed his hands over to where her gift for him
lay abandoned.

"Open it, Mulder."

He gave her another quirky grin and pulled the package to him, quickly
ripping away the last of the paper.

It was flat, almost like a necklace box, and a shiny black. He glanced
up to her waiting face and flashed her a speculative look.

He lifted the lid and let out a breath, then laughed.

She beamed and he pulled the keychain from the box, letting it hang in
the light, slightly twisting.

"Oh, wait, Mulder," she said, leaning in to push on a little button.
"Listen."

Faints strains of the theme music from the "Twilight Zone" played from
the back of the little toy flying saucer, and when the song came to an
end, a tiny green alien popped up and waved.

He laughed out loud and looked over at her. With her face so close, he
could see how her eyes turned bright bright blue with her happiness.

"This is too much," he said and shook his head.

"I thought it was so you."

"Well, you've got me pegged."

She twisted her hands along the poster, rolling it up tighter.

"This was great, Mulder," she said softly and a ghost of a smile played
along her lips. "Even if you did have to bribe the guy."

He hooked his finger on her wrist and gave her a look of pure innocence.

"No way, Scully. I didn't bribe him. He begged to draw you, really."

"Right. And it was his idea to put the aliens on the moon, too."

He looked at her incredulously. "You think I'd place them on the moon?
Come on, Scully, if you knew anything. . . .And reticulans are grey not
green."

She sighed. "I still say you bribed him."

Placing his hands over his heart, Mulder staggered back from her. 

"You wound me," he moaned.

Her face turned stricken and she half rose, a strangled noise coming
from her throat.

He stood too, quickly moving to touch her arm.

"Scully?"

"That didn't happen, Mulder. It didn't happen. That was all in our
heads, right? Just, just the stresses of being. . .being stuck doing
Domestic Terrorism, and. . .and-"

She rambled, voice growing fainter as she trailed off, at a loss.

He nodded slowly. "Right. In our heads."

"I wouldn't. . .I'd *never* shoot you, Mulder."

"We both came pretty close."

"No!" 

She practically shouted it to him, pulling away.

He frowned at her and pushed her back to the couch. "Maybe we should
talk about what happened back there."

"I didn't shoot you. You shot me," she said, and her words sounded far
away, lifeless.

"No. No, I came in and you were on the floor and you said. . .said you
wouldn't have ever thought. . .and you shot me."

She glared up at him.

"I did not. I wouldn't ever, Mulder."

"You have before."

She gaped at him, pulling back, working her hand out of his grip.

"Would you again?"

She buried her head in her hands, pushing back the overwhelming
knowledge that she almost *had* shot him, almost *had* pointed her gun
and pulled the trigger.

"If I. . .thought. . .you'd hurt yourself. . .maybe. . .maybe I would."

In that silence, she stumbled on her thoughts and violently shook her
head.

"No, no. Never, Mulder. I. . .don't know why it happened or what was
going on, but I-"

"We saw the same people, Scully. All in our heads?"

She was staring out at nothing, remembering words about proving him
wrong, about fighting with him just to fight.

"Why. . .why not?"

He was getting a little bitter feeling in the back of his throat, like
the times she'd stand there and deny what she'd seen, so obviously seen.

He wasn't going to let it ruin the night though. She'd taken time to
come see him, to put aside her Christmas duties and visit him.

"Let's just watch television, all right?" he said finally, searching for
the remote.

She nodded as he felt around in the cushions, pushing his fingers
through the fabric.

"Uh, Scully, lift up a sec."

She raised her hips from the back of the couch and he quickly plunged
his hand down the back of the cushion, finding his lips mere inches from
her thigh.

He found the remote and jabbed at the power button, causing it to click
on and then back off.

She snorted and he eventually managed to keep the television on,
flipping until he found "Weird Science" on some national station.

For a moment, there was just the stillness of their aborted
conversation, lying weakly in the space between them, but then she
relaxed and pulled her legs up, arms encircling her knees.

"Hey, Scully?" he said softly.

She glanced to him, her face catching blue dull light from the
television.

He reached out and touched her knee, then let his fingers slip along a
piece of errant hair.

"What matters is, we didn't do it. We're stronger than ghosts. . .or
delusions," he added, smiling. 

She sighed. "I was so sure. . .sure you'd never shoot me, and then, you
came in, crazy. But something told me it wasn't you, it wasn't really
the you I know. It was the scariest moment of my life."

She shivered and buried her nose between her knees, lips brushing along
his hand.

"Ah, you admit it then?"

"What?"

"You were afraid?"

"I told you that. . .I don't like things I can't control. We couldn't
get out. That freaked me."

He nodded. "And the blood you smeared along the floor, didn't?"

"Mulder."

"Just asking."

She sat there a moment, then turned a sly eye on him.

"Did you really take my keys?"

His eyes shot down to meet hers, then he licked his slips and looked
away.

"I plead the fifth."

She rolled her eyes and a soft sigh escaped.

He laughed. "You wanted to be there anyway. . ."

He shut out the words of Maurice that were screaming through his head.

Narcissistic. . .

"No, I did not," she shot back, similarly attempting to ignore the woman
telling her she argued just to argue.

They smiled sheepishly at each other.

"We're pathetic," he mumbled.

"Don't drag me into this. It's all you, buddy."

He grabbed her waist and pulled her over, making a face.

"Whatever. Of the two of us, I'd say you were way more pathetic."

She growled and pushed back. "And who takes his partner's keys just so
she can't drive home?"

He held up his hands in mock surrender and shrugged his shoulders.

She sighed. 

"Thanks, Mulder."

Puzzlement raced across his eyes.

She gently pushed his arms down. "Thanks for Christmas."

He nodded, then brushed into her lips as they headed for his own.

Quickly he froze, then eyed her.

She smiled and stood up again, grabbing her coat.

"I'm going home, Mulder."

He nodded, standing too. "Think you can get some sleep now?"

She smiled. 

"Yeah," she said softly, then turned and walked out his door.

He slumped back into the couch and closed his eyes.
~~~~

end
adios
RM--okay how bad was that?