From: ephemeral@ephemeralfic.org
Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2012 16:07:58 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: EBE (BTC) by Little Grey Girl
Source: direct
Reply To: dreamscatcher@wildmail.com
Title: EBE (BTC)
Author: Little Grey Girl
Rating: PG-13 with the intention of R
Classification: MSR
Disclaimer: If they were mine, I'd be rich.
As they're not, I have to work for a living.
Spoilers: EBE
Summary: Mulder displays a lack of respect for Scully's
professional boundaries. In a good way.
Written for S1 of the Bad Touch Challenge.
***
From their very first case together Mulder had a displayed a
tendancy to get into Scully's personal space, showing
no regard for professional boundaries. At first, if he's honest
with himself, he did it to try and intimidate her. Crowd her.
Force her to look up to him (literally) so he could show her who
was in charge.
He soon realised that she was not that easily intimidated. But
by then he'd become used to standing so close to her and was
reluctant to stop. She didn't seem to mind. She'd never called
him on it anyway.
If he was being snidey he'd say he did it to prevent her endless
rational explanations from getting lost in the ether as they
travelled the vast distance from her tiny (pouting, soft,
slightly quirked) mouth all the way up to his ears. If he felt
sappy he'd say it was because Scully gave off an air of
calmness, of warmth and safety, and that if he was near her he
hoped some of it might rub off on him.
The truth was probably somewhere in between. There was also
the fact that if he was close to her it made it much easier
to touch her. And Mulder had already become very fond of
touching his partner. Probably too fond but again she hadn't
called him on it yet so he continued to push his luck.
He'd already been in the office for two hours when she arrived.
He'd left her apartment the night before convinced that she was
wrong about the photo and that she was just too stubborn to
accept anything outside the realm of her strict scientific
world-view. Much as he hated to admit it though, she'd still
managed to sew a seed of doubt in his mind so he'd come into
work early to get the lab techs to prove her wrong.
Maybe it was some deep-seated father issues but he had really
wanted to believe that his Deep Throat contact was on his side.
That he hadn't been lied to and deliberately misled. Again.
He knows he startles her when he starts to speak without
letting her know he's there, but he's too wound up for niceties
this morning.
'I had the photo analyzed by the bureau's computers. Initially,
it appears to be legitimate.' He sits down at his desk and
adjusts the lamp to let her see the photo more clearly. 'The
film grain matches, the pattern and density, color levels,
shading. Then I noticed this. It's the moon, half full.'
He sees her lean closer as he points to the moon in the original
picture and then its apparent reflection in the windscreen of
the car in the enhanced image.
'I had the reflection in this window enlarged by 25. There's
the moon again, a quarter full.' He stands up and walks a few
paces away from her. 'Not to mention the fact that the window
couldn't even catch the moon's reflection from that angle.' He
turns back to look at her. She's still standing by his desk
and he can see the concentration on her face, almost hear her
thoughts as she processes what he's really telling her. 'You
were right, Scully. It's a fake. He tried to deceive us.'
He walks over to her, needing that proximity to get his meaning
across, to show her that he's serious about this. 'Now we're
alone on this. There's no one we can trust.' He's so close to
her now, their faces just inches apart. His words hover in the
air between them. She looks away from him as if she can't quite
bring herself to meet his gaze. Maybe this is it, he thinks.
He's finally pushed her too far. First he yells at her and
storms out of her apartment and now he crowds right up against
her in their office. Any second now she's going to haul his ass
up to OHR for unprofessional contact.
'They went to a lot of trouble to put us on the wrong track.'
He continues, his voice lower now, more of a rumble. 'There's
something here that no one's supposed to find.' His last words
are little more than a whisper. There's a moment of stillness
when he honestly doesn't know if she's going to laugh in his
face or run away but then she looks up and meets his gaze
straight on.
And he sees something there that he never expected to see,
never daren't hoped for. Acceptance. Loyalty. Understanding.
Things that he's been without for far too long. Which may
explain (but doesn't excuse) what he does next. Throwing that
final scrap of caution and pretence to the wind, he closes that
last monumental inch between them and presses his mouth to hers.
Her lips are warm and soft but completely still and he braces
himself for the inevitable pull back, reprimand, hard slap
across the face and slam of the door as she walks out of his
life forever. But then he feels her mouth open, just the
tiniest bit. And she tilts her head just a little to the side.
And his lips, which haven't moved, suddenly find themselves
engaged with willing partners as wonder of wonder she actually
starts to kiss him back.
It's slow at first and more than a little hesitant. Not at all
like the mad passionate groping session he's spent the last
several months trying to prevent himself from imagining. He
pulls away just a little and she follows him, her lips seeking
his this time as she presses herself against him more confidently.
His hands have found their way to her waist and she's gripping
his forearms with a surprising amount of force. He wonders
absently if her fingers will leave bruises but then he feels
the tip of her tongue brush against his and thinking suddenly
seems like a massive waste of kissing energy.
She seems just as committed to the venture as he is, tilting
her head to the side to find a better angle, teasing his tongue
with her own and holding onto his arms so tightly he wonders if
he's the only thing keeping her upright. It has already gone
far beyond a simple try-it-and-see embrace. They come up for
air and then dive back in again. His neck is getting sore from
bending over and she appears to be standing on tiptoe but
neither of them show any sign of stopping. When he presses
himself tight against her, giving her a clear picture of his
body's reaction to her, she makes a little mewling sound
that almost drives him insane.
And then she pulls away. And everything crashes down on him.
'Mulder.' She's breathless and flushed, her lips swollen and
well-kissed. 'Mulder we can't -'
Reality snaps back into itself, bringing with it a heap
of accusations and regrets. What has he done? How could he be
so stupid? He finally found a partner he could work with,
who respected him, whom he actually liked and he goes and
destroys it in a moment of hormonal weakness.
He can't bring himself to look at her and turns away,
reaching blindly for his jacket on the back of the chair.
He has to get out of here. Has to leave before she has a
chance to tell him that this was a mistake, that it is
inappropriate for them to get involved. That maybe it's
best if they don't work together any more.
'I'm sorry Scully. I'm sorry. I have to - I'm sorry.' He's
pathetic, mumbling like a little kid but, god help him, if he
stays there one more second he thinks he might actually cry.
But then he feels her hand on his arm, warm and reassuring
and he's so surprised at her quiet but clear 'No Mulder' that
he chances a look back at her. And he's floored to see not
embarrassment or regret in her expression but fondness, even
a hint of amusement.
She holds up a finger, indicating that he should wait and he
obeys, standing there stupidly while she scrambles around on
his desk for a pen and a scrap of paper, quickly writing
something down before she hands him the note.
"Not here. They might be watching."
He looks up at her and sees that little quirk of her lips
that he is rapidly falling in love with. She's not blowing
him off. She's saying not here, not no-way. He nods his head
towards the door and raises his eyebrows in a question. Her
lips quirk a little more, inching their way towards a full-blown
smile.
'Let's take a walk partner' she says softly. Mulder grins,
scoops up the photos from his desk and follows her out of
the office.
***
I couldn't get them to go any further this time I'm afraid.
I tried but they just weren't up to it. :)
dreamscatcher@wildmail.com
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