Domestic Disturbances

Title:  Domestic Disturbances
Author:  ML
Distribution: Gossamer & Exemplary, yes. If you’ve archived my other stories, yes. All others, please let me know so I can come visit. Thanks.
Spoilers: First Person Shooter specifically, but Requiem too.  Even a *hint* of S8 <g>.
Rating: Teens and older
Classification: V, MSR
Keywords: Mulder/Scully Romance
Summary:  Life is a series of upheavals.

Disclaimer: The characters mentioned in this story are the property of Ten Thirteen, Chris Carter, FOX, etc. I mean no infringement, and I receive no remuneration for this.

Author’s notes:  This is part of the “Another Gray Morning” series of stories, dealing with Mulder’s return. This story takes place between “Comes the Dawn” and “Beloved Protector.”  You don’t have to read the others to get this story, but if you haven’t, treat yourself ! <g>

BTW, I have tried very hard to avoid knowing spoilers for the coming season and therefore any which show up in the story are inadvertent.  However, there are a few things which I think are common knowledge and which may be part of the story.  A few more notes at end.

 

Domestic Disturbances

by ML

He hasn’t been back even a full day, and already they’re arguing.

This wasn’t an unusual state of affairs, and under normal circumstances he’d even find it reassuring. But everything seemed turned sideways now.

It started innocently enough. Scully had gotten out her medical kit to give Mulder a preliminary examination before Skinner returned to take him to see the Gunmen.  Mulder was, to say the least, resistant to the idea.

He sat on a chair in the kitchen, clothed only in his boxers, fresh from his shower.  He’d certainly been in this position before–half naked in front of a fully-dressed Scully–but this was different.  He really did feel perfectly well, and he was pretty sure that even more extensive tests would reveal nothing unusual.  If They implanted anything, or changed him in any way, it won’t be detectable by human technology.  He didn’t know why he was so sure about this, but he was.

Her scrutiny of him was a little unnerving.  Looking at him with desire, with concern, with anger–all these things he understood, even welcomed.  But this clinical, professional examination made him feel less like a person and more like a–a–test subject.  Not a position he wanted to find himself in again, ever.  At least he wasn’t strapped to a table, and Scully’s hands were much more gentle than the vague memories he shied away from.

“Scully, seriously, you don’t really need to do this,” he complained as she poked and prodded and tapped.

“Yes, I do.  For my peace of mind, if for no other reason,” she said, unfazed by his protests.

“But I’m fine,” he insisted.  “I would *know* if there was anything wrong.”

“How could you possibly know that, Mulder?”  She was holding his wrist lightly in her fingers, counting his pulse.

“I just would,” he said lamely.  It was going to be hard to explain why he seemed to know certain things.  He didn’t really understand it himself.   He concentrated instead on the feel of her fingertips on his wrist, wishing for more, wishing he could touch her back.  But when she was Dr. Scully, he knew better than to try and divert her from her purpose.  He sighed and resigned himself to it.  However, he did add,  “Scully, I want you to know I draw the line at the `turn your head and cough’ part of the physical exam.  If you want to fondle me, I don’t want it to be for medical purposes.”  He grinned at her.

Scully didn’t grin back.  Instead, she sighed a little.  “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, Mulder.”

A sudden fear gripped him.  “Are you okay, Scully?”

She did try to smile reassuringly at that, but told him, “well, other than the fact I had what amounts to major surgery to have the baby, I’m fine.  But recovery from something like that takes a while.”

“Oh.”  He wasn’t sure what he was feeling at this news.  Anxiety for Scully, certainly.  Shame that he hadn’t realized before what an ordeal she’d been through, and not just because of his abduction.  The shame was increased slightly by a feeling of disappointment. What a selfish bastard he was.

“Don’t beat yourself up about it, Mulder.  It’s not your fault, you know,”  she said gently.

“Well, I think I have *some* part of the blame, if that’s what you want to call it,” he said.

Scully raised her eyes to his.  “Mulder, no matter what you might think, I am *not* sorry about this baby.  I don’t expect you to feel the same right now.  Maybe you never will.  I’ve had a long time to think about it, and to accept it.  You don’t know what I’ve been through in the past eleven months.  If you want to know, I’ll do my best to tell you, but…”

“What do you mean, IF I want to know?”  Mulder could just barely keep from shouting.  “OF COURSE I want to know!  I’d rather know what *you* went through than what *I* went through, and I’d give anything to have been here with you, instead of where I was.  How can you doubt that?”

“I don’t doubt it, Mulder.  I told you that last night.”  He voice was measured and calm.  She busied herself with her kit, digging out the pressure cuff, wrapping it around his biceps and pumping it up.  “Now try to breathe normally while I do this.”

He thought a change of subject might be in order.  “Guess I’ll have to go shopping for some new clothes,” he said, approaching a subject he was reluctant to address head-on.  “Scully, do you have any more of my things here?”  This morning, she had surprised him with a suitcase containing some of his favorite clothes, as well as socks and underwear.  It tickled him to imagine Scully digging through his dresser to pack his case.  But the image of her up to her elbows in his boxers was a little more than he wanted to think about.

“A few things,” she said.  “Most are in storage.”

He imagined Scully packing the contents of his apartment in boxes, deciding what to keep and what to get rid of.  He suspected that she got rid of very little.  But he still asked.  “I guess you had to get rid of the furniture and stuff, though, huh?”  He couldn’t come right out and ask about the apartment itself.  “I already know what happened to my videos.  Frohike couldn’t wait to tell me.”

Scully smiled faintly at that but was clearly uncomfortable with the conversation.  “Actually, your furniture is all still there.  I have your PC here, and your files, and a few other things in the second bedroom.  I sublet your apartment.”

Mulder’s jaw dropped.  “How did you talk the landlord into it?”

“Skinner was helpful there,” was all Scully would say.  “Anyway, I put most of your things in storage, but the big furniture stayed in your apartment.  Frohike’s been keeping an eye on things for you.”

“You sublet my apartment to FROHIKE?”

“Calm down, Mulder, or I’ll have to do this all over again.  We shouldn’t be discussing this while I’m trying to take your blood pressure.”

He slumped back in the chair.  “A guy goes missing for a couple of days, and look what happens.”

Scully merely raised her eyebrows and he continued, but endeavored to speak calmly.   “Who’d you rent it to, someone at work <god, I hope not>?”

“A friend of Byers’, actually.   I met him, he seems okay.”

“But, Scully, why?  You could have just let it go, or you could have used the power of attorney to get the money to pay the rent–”

“It just seemed safer somehow to have someone living there.  Someone we could trust, who would keep an eye out for your things.”

Just one more little sign of Scully’s faith in him.  Was it any wonder that he loved her?  He will never, *never* be able to adequately repay her.

He wasn’t sure whether to be glad or disappointed to know he still had his own place.  Glad in the sense that here was more evidence of Scully’s faith in his return.  Concerned because he couldn’t just assume that his home was with Scully <and their child>.  He took a deep breath.  <It doesn’t mean she doesn’t want you here> he told himself.  <She’s just doing what she thinks you’d want.>

“You can go over there whenever you like,” she added.  “Calvin knew when he moved in that he might not get much notice to move out again.”

She watched him for his reaction and he forced a smile, trying to make what he said next a joke.  “Are you throwing me out?”

The remark was dead in the water even to his ears.  Scully frowned and said,  “I just don’t want you to feel an obligation.  I don’t want you to feel compelled to do something before you’ve given it some thought.”

“Scully, you don’t have to handle me with kid gloves.  I’ve bounced back from worse than this before.”  And as he said it, he realized he could have chosen his words better.  “You know what I mean, don’t you?”

“Let’s talk about all this later, okay?” was all she would contribute to the conversation, but he caught the sound of her sighing as she turned away from him.

——

Maggie Scully came to watch the baby, arriving before Skinner.  Mulder wasn’t sure what kind of reception he would get from Scully’s mom, considering the fact that for all intents and purposes, he knocked up her daughter, and then deserted her.  No matter how unwillingly he did so, that was the reality.  He didn’t even want to think about Bill Scully’s reaction when *he* found out.

But Maggie greeted him with open arms, tears of joy in her eyes.  It took him aback.  The sight of anyone glad to see him took him aback.  Even after seven years of witnessing Scully’s joy at his various returns, he couldn’t quite believe it.  Yet not just Scully, but his whole little circle seemed very glad to see him.  Even Skinner was obviously relieved, though Mulder suspected that it was more on Scully’s behalf than his.

Skinner had been acting almost paternal since Mulder’s return, which was weird.  He wasn’t *that* much older.  Still, it was more acceptable than any other kind of non-

professional interest.  Especially where Scully was concerned.  In the past, Mulder had sometimes suspected that Skinner harbored a little crush on Scully.  Not that this was so surprising.  Any man with half a brain and decent eyesight wouldn’t be able to help himself.

————

Skinner found a moment to speak to Mulder privately while Scully was in the bedroom with her mother.

“How is Scully?”  he asked.

“She’s doing okay,” Mulder assured him.  No need to air their differences to him.

“You just be aware of what she’s been through for you,” Skinner warned him.  “You have no idea what these last months have been like, and Scully will never tell you.”

Skinner playing the heavy parent again made him angry, and the fact that Scully had just finished saying almost the same thing to him made him even angrier.  “I realize that and I don’t need you to tell me.  I don’t even know what *I’ve* been through in the past months, but I’m more concerned for Scully.”

Skinner favored him with an intense glare.  “Just make sure you keep it in mind,” he hissed.  “No one has been more concerned with finding you than Agent Scully.  If it hadn’t been for her efforts, you would be just another unsolved case.”

“Trust me, I know what I owe Scully,” Mulder hissed back.  Skinner’s demeanor toward him almost since their first meeting had been that of a permanently pissed-off parent, but it’s gotten to be too much under the present circumstances.

Fortunately for both of them, the subject of their discussion appeared and ended it.

Scully had changed into street clothes and carried her coat over her arm.  “I’m going with you,” she informed Skinner.

Skinner looked at Mulder, who simply looked back.  He’d already had that argument with her and lost.

To his credit, Skinner didn’t even try to dissuade her.  Not that he could, Mulder thought.  She had that fierce look in her eyes, and it was worth a man’s life to cross her when she looked like that.

“I don’t have a line yet on where we could go for Mulder’s tests,” he said as they drove along.  “But I have a place  where we can send blood samples anonymously for analysis.”

“Is that strictly necessary?”  Mulder asked again.  “In fact, is all this subterfuge strictly necessary?  I want to get myself reinstated, get back to work.  Shoot, I’d just like to go for a run.”

There was a long, loaded pause before anyone answered.  Finally Skinner said, “I’m working on it, Mulder. All in good time.”

It was pretty obvious to Mulder that he wasn’t being told everything.  He tilted the visor mirror to look back at Scully and made a face at her reflection.  She smiled back very faintly but her eyes were still troubled.

————–

The Gunmen’s place looked pretty much the same as always.  Piles of junk covered every available surface, electronic equipment in varying stages of usefulness, several computer screens running programs hacking into who knew what.  There was, however, an indefinable difference in the air.  Mulder looked around, trying to place it.

The equipment the Gunmen had was always as state of the art as they could make it, but now it even looked it.  He noted several new looking racks and towers amongst the junky stuff.  He looked into the back room and saw not one, but three very new-looking Barcaloungers.  He raised his eyebrows.  “You guys sell out, or what?”

Byers said, “You remember that place in LA, the virtual game company?”

“Yeah, `First Person Shooter.’  How could I forget?  Getting my ass kicked by a computer construct is a highlight of my life,” Mulder grimaced.  “But I thought the game got destroyed.”

Scully rolled her eyes.  “It did, Mulder.  In a manner of speaking.  They created another one.”

“Another Matreya?”  he winced.  “Not a good idea, I think.”

“Think again, G-Man,” Frohike growled as he emerged from the kitchen, a plate of what looked like Rice Krispie Treats in his gloved hands.  “It’s not Matreya anymore, but the luscious Agent Scully.”

Scully looked extremely uncomfortable.  “That’s not what they’re calling it.  And I don’t think it looks anything like me.”

“Enough like you to get you a share in the profits,” Frohike corrected her.  “Thanks to me, mostly,” he added modestly.

Mulder looked from one to another of his friends.  “What are you talking about?”

Byers came to his rescue.  “Another game was developed to take the place of First Person Shooter.  They’re calling it `Red Avenger,’ and Scully is the model for the heroine, Red Dawn.”

Mulder stared at Scully.  “When did you model for THAT, and why wasn’t I there?”

“I didn’t model, Mulder,” she explained with a touch of exasperation.  “Somehow they mapped me during our time in the game.  Without my knowledge or consent, I might add.”

“Well, it got you a start on a college fund for Junior,” Frohike pointed out.  “And you gotta admit it, it’s a hot game.”

“Knock it off, Frohike,” Mulder warned him.  “So you guys are millionaires now, is that it?”

“Not exactly,” Byers said.  “But we *are* getting royalty checks fairly regularly.”

“Scully, too?”  Mulder wondered why she hadn’t said anything before, but realized once again that they’ve had very little time alone together.

“Not exactly, Mulder,” she said.  “I got a consulting fee, I think they called it.”

“You might have, too, Mulder, except you got your ass whipped,”  Frohike teased him.  “And guy action figures are a dime a dozen anyway.”

“Thanks, Frohike.  You really know how to hurt a guy.”  Mulder grabbed one of the bars off the plate and ate half of it in a bite.  “Hey, where’s Langly?”  It was strange not to see the trio together.

“He’s got the duty today, Mulder,” Frohike explained.

Mulder was already tired of the oblique references to things he had no part in.  “What duty?”  he asked impatiently.

Skinner broke in.  “It’s his turn to watch Scully’s apartment,” he clarified for Mulder.  “We all take turns.  Even–” he broke off, looking at Scully.

Mulder looked at Scully too.  “Even who, Scully?” he asked quietly.

She met his eyes squarely.  “Even my new partner, Mulder,” she said evenly.

Oh.

end.

Thanks for reading!

Other stories in this series: Another Gray Morning, Transfigured Night, Comes the Dawn, Beloved Protector