Reunions 2: Recognition

Sara B. 06/2007

Scully sat in her motel room pretending to be reading but she was doing more wool gathering than anything of substance.  It had been two months since she started working with Fox Mulder and they hadn’t had a boring day yet.  She thought back to that first day when she opened the door to his office and saw all the strange things pinned up on the walls.  The predominant fixture was a large poster with a flying saucer with the words ‘I Want To Believe’ emblazoned across the bottom.

It took him a moment but Mulder finally turned to look at her and she recognized him immediately.  He’d changed so much from the young boy who held her hand while they talked about Moby Dick while waiting for their fathers to disembark.  Yes, he’d changed but his eyes were still that rich mixture of green and brown and they held the same look of wonder she remembered so fondly. 

Yes, the man sitting there over the light box preparing a slide show was the first boy Dana Scully ever loved. 

It had been two months and she still didn’t know if he remembered her.

During their first case he’d challenged her from every angle.  He’d infuriated her and fascinated her.  It was during their first case that he told her the tragedy of what happened to his sister Samantha.  Her memory of the girl was much less clear and she really only recalled that she had long dark braids and she sang to herself.  When he’d finished telling her what happened she’d wanted to wrap herself around him and tell him everything would turn out fine.  Thankfully, and regrettably, the phone interrupted them and they never returned to that moment of intimacy.

~

Mulder flipped through the channels looking for something to divert his mind.  After rotating through the channels for the umpteenth time he turned off the TV and tossed the remote.  His eyes wondered to the door connecting his room to his new partner’s. 

Dana Scully was an enigma, a living contradiction of terms.  She was the picture of reserve yet he’d seen glimpses of a fire within her ready to blaze up without warning for the right stimulus.  She could make men twice her size cower with her ferocity and charm even the most timid child with her gentleness.  She was a beautiful woman who tried to hide her looks in ill fitting clothing which somehow only served to enhance them.

Then there were those eyes.  The eyes that had haunted him since he was ten.  Yes, he remembered the little girl who sat reading Moby Dick while they waited for their dads.  The book was almost as big as she was and he was impressed that someone that young was tackling such a momentous tome.  Until that day he’d never met any other child that shared his great love of learning. 

They hadn’t spent really all that much time together but the little girl with the fiery hair and rosebud lips had made an indelible mark on him. 

That first day when she entered his cave - like office, he turned and was taken aback at how accurately his mind had conjured her.  That’s why it took him a few moments to take her proffered hand to shake.  He remembered how soft her hand felt in his and he’d been slightly reluctant to release it.  He also remembered how he’d wondered if her lips would feel as soft as they looked when he kissed her.  ‘When he kissed her, not if.’  It was that realization made him know he had to scare her away from him. 

He tried, Lord knew he tried, but she stood fast and refused to leave.  Stranger still, she seemed to like him and all his quirkiness.  He’d even been witness to her defense of him and his theories.

Mulder had a sudden urge to see her so he picked up the file and thought of a question just so he’d have an excuse for intruding on her.  He opened his side of the connecting door and found that her side was open about six inches. 

He knocked and the door swung further open and he was greeted with the sight of Dana Scully’s satin covered ass.  She was bent over doing some stretching exercises and Mulder felt a tightening in his, thankfully, loose sweat pants.

“Mulder, is there something that you want?”  Scully asked as she straightened.

If she only knew what a loaded question she’d just asked.  “I just saw this item in the statement from Michelle Stokes and I wanted your opinion.”

“Are you referring to her comments about the shirt?  I don’t think that information was ever released.”

Mulder worked to concentrate.  “That’s what I thought too.  I think we need to check into that with the police department, to make sure no one leaked.”  Mulder moved further into the room and took a seat on the bed.

“If they didn’t, I think that would place Ms. Stokes on the short list of probable suspects.”  Scully took a seat next to him and the light caught her eyes and Mulder couldn’t help but comment.  “You still have the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen.” 

Scully smiled and pitched her head forward in a shy gesture.  “So you do remember, I wondered.”

“I remember, you were the first girl, besides Samantha, that I liked.  You didn’t have cooties.”

“Why thank you, I think.  I remember how shy you were at first and how you overcame that to talk to me.  I was quite impressed.”  She nudged him with her shoulder.  “You were the first boy to talk to me that wasn’t trying to get me to introduce them to Melissa.”

“I don’t remember her or your brothers or even your mother but I remember the little red haired girl with the big book and the bluest eyes I ever saw.  And they still are.”

Mulder’s hand smoothed a lock of hair and placed it behind her ear.  “I remember this hair too; it was the second thing I noticed about you.”

“What was the first?”  She asked in all curiosity.

“That damned book.  It was so big and when I first looked over all I saw was the book with legs coming out of it.  Then I looked up and saw that hair, it glistened in the sunlight.  I also remember that you have a small beauty mark just above your lip, right there.”  He placed his finger right where the mark was.  “Why do you cover it?”

“You have no idea how hard it is to be taken seriously when you are as short as I am and then add that damned mole.”

“I like that mole and the freckles too.”

“God, you do have an incredible memory.  I remember this tall, lanky boy watching me and debating whether to talk to me.  You had your hands in your pocket and it upset your mother.  I also remember you kept rubbing your hands through your hair, another thing your mom wasn’t too thrilled about.  For some reason when our mothers talked you were nervous and it took you quite a while to calm down.”  Scully lifted one of Mulder’s hands and examined it.  “I remember how gentle you touched me with these; like you thought I might break.  You offered to watch me while the others greeted my father.  It was hard for me to walk away from you that day; I had the feeling you needed me next to you.”  She looked at him in the eyes, “silly, huh?”

“No, not silly at all.  I remember thinking I could do anything if you’d stay with me.”

“I’m here now,” she said quietly.

“That you are, Dana Katherine Scully, that you are.”  They indulged in a long look for several moments then, by mutual agreement they looked away.  “Now,” Mulder opened the file, “about the issue of the shirt.”   

End