Chapter Text
Scully arched her back in the car and pulled each arm across her chest in an attempt to stretch her muscles. Nothing was helping. They had been sitting in that car for six hours longer than necessary. All she wanted was a hot shower, a cold beverage and the other thing that she pretended she didn’t do while they were on the road.
Her partner looked over to her from his spot in the driver’s seat and studied her trying to regain the feeling in her backside. He was about to make a comment when his phone buzzed and he put it up to his ear. “Mulder… You’re kidding. Okay we’ll see you in the morning.”
Scully stopped her stretching and slumped uncharacteristically in her seat. “What?”
“They caught him. He was buying a new shovel of all fucking things at a twenty four hour K-Mart next town over,” Mulder scoffed. “We can go.”
They had been on garbage details, surveillance and other scut assignments under SAC Michaud since their office was turned into a giant ashtray and put under general assignment. Next week they were going to Dallas.
“No briefing tonight?” Scully asked as she put on her seatbelt.
Mulder started the car and shook his head.”Nope.”
It was two a.m. and they both wanted to crawl into an over-bleached bed that smelled musty because it was better than sitting any longer in the car.
Long nights in the car prompted too many discussions that bordered on too personal or possibly sexual. They were itchy for more exciting work and with the X-Files gone, their curious minds focused on each other. It was a bad idea for them to be put on any kind of close-quarter detail. It felt like the universe was testing them to see if they would finally snap and give into passions and desire. They might.
“Mulder can you stop at that McDonalds?” Scully asked as they pulled onto the highway.
“Need a McFix?” Mulder teased.
“I need a bathroom break and something to eat. I don’t think there are any other places to get something healthy around here,” she said regretfully.
“If you put on one pound Scully from eating anything unhealthy you might work it off with all the stairs we’ve been doing on bomb detail,” he mentioned. “Besides, you might do well with an extra el-bee.”
“El-bee?” she repeated. “A pound?”
“Yeah,” Mulder glanced over to her and gave her the appreciative once over that usually he reserved for inappropriate times when she couldn’t kiss that look off his face. Not at a stop light in a dead town with no one to stop them. “You’re not teetering on some edge of unhealthy weight. Isn’t your blood pressure remarkably low?”
Scully sat up a little straighter and made her confused face at him. “You think I need to gain weight?”
He shrugged. “You look good no matter what weight.”
The light turned green and he pulled onto the highway.
“It’s hard for me to ignore statements like that, Mulder,” Scully said as she tugged on the edge of her collar.
“Don’t,” he instructed. “You know you’re beautiful, don’t you?”
He was talking so cavalierly and openly as though him calling her this was a normal Thursday night occurrence.
“You have a great figure,” he continued. “Curves where you should. Firm other places.”
“Where would you know I was firm?” Scully asked.
Mulder reached across the car and slid a hand behind her back between her and the seat to rest at the spot he normally touched as they walked. “There.”
“Mulder!” Scully was shocked. He must be overtired because his boldness was surprising even for him. Mulder pulled his hand away and shrugged again. “I didn’t think… I guess I worry about my weight.”
“Well you shouldn’t,” he admonished.
She watched him for a beat and felt grateful as they pulled into the fast food establishment’s parking lot.
Scully got out first and groaned. “My back is so tight and this motel doesn’t have the magic fingers.”
“Do you…well…I mean…I could give you a massage?” he offered. “At the hotel?”
His face looked innocent enough she might take him up on that.
“Feed me first and then we’ll talk,” she bartered.
“You want the number five?” Mulder asked as they entered the building and she nodded. “I’ll get the food, you pee first. I’ll hit the head when you get back.”
They were efficient if anything. When she was washing her hands she stared at her reflection in wonder what Mulder saw when he looked at her. She felt like they were friends but reeling to stumble over the edge to something else. That was emotional. He mentioned her good looks in the past but she sloughed it off as other innuendo he would never make good on.
While her figure was still in good shape, she wasn’t the buxom babes from his video tapes. She was comparing herself to women who were the literal fantasy to his masturbatory habits. And if she did compare, yes her breasts were smaller, her skin wasn’t tanned and she had freckles across her nose she covered with powder every day. More like the annoying lab partner than a lover. So maybe he looked at her like that in a non-sexual way.
Scully found Mulder at a booth along the window with their food and he darted to the bathroom when she sat down. His bathroom trip was remarkably quicker than hers since he probably hadn’t spent time studying his face and wondering what she thought about him.
“You can give me a massage,” she told him as he sat down and his face lit up. “I want to take a long hot shower first-”
“With-”
“Alone,” she stopped him and his face fell. “Mulder, you make a lot of comments about sex with me for a man who has never had sex with me.”
His cheeks flushed and she wondered if maybe the late hour had gotten to her head too. She felt embarrassed she ever said anything.
“I didn’t think you looked at me that way,” he mumbled and took a large bite of his burger.
“Likewise,” she replied and picked up two french fries.
Fat tasted good. There was no arguing about that.
“I don’t want to say anything that would spoil my chances at getting to give you that massage,” he said after he swallowed. He took a sip of his iced tea. “It would be a shame to miss out on that opportunity.”
Scully took a bite of her sandwich and chewed for a moment. When she swallowed she focused her eyes on his face. “I think if we both admit to observing the other in a way that would go beyond a partnerly intent we could very well go into the act of a massage between friends with less tension.”
“I doubt that but okay I’ll admit it,” Mulder quipped.
Scully smiled. “Okay. Food, shower alone, massage.”
“Still going on alone, eh?” Mulder said and shook his head. “That’s a damn shame. I could have multi-tasked in there.”
“So could I,” she replied in a low voice that she could tell affected him in more ways than one.