Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Teenager By Starbuck_Jayne Starbuck_Jayne@mulderandscully.co.uk www.geocities.com/Starbuck_Jayne Rating: PG I would have said-don't think there's anything too bad in there. Spoilers: Fire, Je Souhaite, and Requiem I suppose. Keywords: MSR. Disclaimer: Not mine wish they were but the characters of Mulder, Scully, Skinner Doggett etc all belong to Mr Carter, 1013 Productions and Fox. Archive: Anywhere just please keep my name and e-mail attached, but no flames please 'cause I am way too delicate! Summary: It takes a chance encounter with an old flame to make Mulder realise his true feelings for Scully. Author's Notes: Ok this is set in the gap between Je Souhaite and Requiem. Feedback: Yes please. It keeps me alive :) Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Teenager Caitlyn took a drag of her cigarette and swung her legs aimlessly. A hand rested on her abdomen, swollen with maternity. "You see," she blew smoke in languid curls, "there is no white horse. Prince Charming doesn't just ride in and whisk you away like in some fairy tale. Honey, you find your own love." Her companion looked unconvinced. "Cait, you're nineteen and you got knocked up. You have no choice but to stay with this guy. You think that's love?" Caitlyn glared at her, more out of annoyance that she'd divulged her true age in a bar than anything else. "Fine," she retorted, "but I don't see you riding off into the sunset anytime soon." "Maybe I'm just waiting for the right guy," the young woman smiled and traced a finger around the edge of her beer bottle. A subtle perfume of cheap scent engulfed the area immediately around her, but it didn't diminish her natural appeal. Completely unaware of the attention she was attracting she ran a hand through long red hair, eventually flicking blue eyes upwards to punctuate her sentence. "Did you not listen to me at all?" Caitlyn waved her cigarette dramatically. "True love is pure Hollywood!" "Cait, just because you don't believe something doesn't mean that it isn't real. And do you really think it's wise to be smoking like that when you're three and a half months pregnant?" There was a pause as she waved cigarette smoke away with her hand. "You wanna hear a story?" Unsure that she did, Caitlyn pursed her lips in a way that displayed both badly applied lipstick and nicotine-yellowed teeth. "Well, you're gonna here it anyway," she swallowed the last of her beer before leaning forward and beginning in a hushed tone. "Ok, it's about 2000, maybe 2001-I forget sometimes. Anyway, J.Edgar Hoover building, Washington D.C. The whole place is practically deserted, except for two F.B.I. Agents, probably the most dedicated in the business..." XXXXXXX The clock said 11.10pm, but Dana Scully felt pretty sure that it was already well past midnight. As each second passed with a laborious tick, she couldn't help but wonder what had become of her partner. After having left in search of food, he should have been back over an hour ago. Scully sighed and lifted her coffee cup, studying the curdled dregs almost absent mindedly, unsure if she could be bothered to make a fresh pot. Deciding eventually that it wasn't worth the hassle, she returned to typing her latest report. Harvard had not been best pleased about the disappearing body trick, and there was a lot of paperwork to be taken care of. The fact that she'd spent the night before watching "Caddyshack" hadn't exactly helped matters either. Still, Mulder had been warned-tomorrow night it was "Steel Magnolias" or nothing. She smiled on remembering the look on his face: "You really know how to hold a grudge, don't you, Scully?" Still, he wasn't going to refuse the chance of a night in with Scully, not to mention a meal that wasn't salvaged half-burned, half-still frozen from the microwave. Scully stretched and took off her glasses. If Mulder wasn't going to show up then she saw no reason why she had to keep on working. Besides, she'd only be asleep for a few minutes. She couldn't quite place what had woken her. It may have been the soft click of the central heating going off, or the distant chiming of midnight on the clock outside. Although, the most probable cause was the clatter of wood against metal, as Mulder thrust open the door and consequently struck the filing cabinet. "Mulder! Where have you been?" "Scully! You have pen on your face!" On instinct Scully pressed a hand to her cheek, causing her partner to grin in a way that informed her of her gullibility. "So..." She eyed him up and down. Surprisingly neatly dressed considering it was midnight and he'd been missing some two and a half hours. No food though. "Are you going to tell me where you've been or can I go home and try again in the morning?" She checked her watch and made a move to switch off her laptop. "Wait!" Mulder grinned, seductively removing a key from his pocket. "Oh what is that?" Scully was not in the mood for guessing games, and this was starting to look suspiciously like the beginning of one of her partner's "brand new x-file" speeches. "This," he spun the key on his finger for effect, "is the key to a haunted house." "Mulder," Scully rubbed her temples, "I know I've said this many times throughout our partnership, but right now I mean it more than ever before: please tell me you're kidding." "Come on now, Scully, you know that cliches are the very basis of the X-Files!" Now that she knew he was leading her on the sense of relief that she didn't have to spend another night playing mind-games with a couple of supposed ghosts far outweighed her curiosity. Removing her jacket from the stand she headed for the door. "Mulder, you can either come with me and tell me on the way out, or you can stay here and tell me in the morning." "Where's your sense of fun, Scully?" Was the basic dialogue that drifted through the Hoover building's basement passages as the two agents made their way back towards ground level. XXXXXXX Caitlyn's attention had wandered to a young bartender who was struggling through the hoards of people in an attempt to collect glasses. "Cait!" "Yeah, Katie, is this story actually going anywhere, Hun?" "Don't call me that. Yes, but you're going to have to listen rather than eying up everything that comes towards you wearing pants!" "Ok, fine, I'm listening." "Right, well the next day Dana Scully arrived at work, totally unsure what to expect. Her partner had lost her interest after firing a series of cryptic clues about their next case at her. In the end she'd just given up and gone home. Still, it wasn't as if Mulder handing her a plane ticket at 6am in the morning then whisking her off to the airport wasn't unusual. She felt pretty sure that she'd have been subjected to worse..." XXXXXX "We're going where?" Scully held the plane ticket in the air, studying it from a distance as if that might change the destination. "England." "Why?" "There was an American business man, went missing over there in suspicious circumstances. There's been a team of agents out there for a few weeks now but they weren't finding anything so I managed to convince Skinner to let us have a look." "Mulder, are you sure it's wise to be flying to England, apparently totally unnecessarily, to investigate a case that's already being investigated by the bureau and has no paranormal connections at all, as far as I can see, just a few weeks before we're due to be audited?" Mulder grinned at her cynicism. "Scully, I promise we can rent "Steel Magnolias" whilst we're in London," he slipped a hand round her shoulders and guided her towards the door. xxxxxxx Seven hours later they touched down in London. Night had fallen and the last of the summer warmth was faint, but ardent in its attempt to linger in the air. However, it was fighting a losing battle, and as she stepped from the airplane Scully gave a slight shiver at the chill. The city's lights shone brightly, reflecting off the River Thames and making them generally quite dazzling to the beholder. It was getting late and the two agents were already too jet-lagged to care about finding their hotel, each one secretly hoping that the other would take care of it. Tired and hungry, they made their way dazedly towards a taxi and climbed inside, mumbling vague details of their accommodation before slipping into a gentle slumber. By 1am the adverse effects of over-seas travel had taken a different turn, and both agents had ended up sitting on Mulder's bed, discussing the case. "So I suggest that, after breakfast, we head towards his offices over here...do you have the name in your notes?" Scully flipped over a few pages of her comments, surprisingly well written considering she had been flying at 30,000 feet through turbulence for most of the journey. "Erm...ok it's a "Thames Road Buildings" about 2 or 3 miles from here I would guess." Mulder nodded approvingly before deciding to abandon the case and change the subject. "You wanna watch a movie?" "One of your movies? No." The two exchanged a glance and Scully smiled good- naturedly. "Ok...you wanna spend vast amounts of money on room service and charge it to Skinner?" "Mulder..." Since meeting Mulder, Scully had learned that playing by the rules never got anybody anywhere, but at the back of her mind was still the thought of the upcoming audit, and she wasn't sure she could sacrifice her job for the sake of a bottle of champagne and a few overly-priced delicacies. "So..." Mulder threw himself defeatedly down on the bed, arms behind his head and leaving Scully on the edge by his feet. "You could tell me about your childhood." "Mulder, you left behind a career in psychology, remember?" "So maybe I should put my suppressed knowledge to good use." It was a familiar practice these days for the duo to spend time on idle chatter- sometimes there was little else to do. "Scully, do you mind if I ask you a question?" "Now, how did you answer this same question, Mulder?" Scully grinned and slapped his feet playfully." "How long have you been a red-head?" "Since University. Trust me, blondes don't necessarily have more fun. Nor do brunettes for that matter." "I disagree," Mulder said simply before moving on to his next statement, "You know Scully, some people associate red hair with passion". "Yeah? And some people compare a sneeze to an orgasm." Mulder was only momentarily stunned by his partner's semi-explicit metaphor. "You ok, Scully?" "Mulder, I'm fine..." she said, twisting a corner of the quilt between her fingers, "honestly." XXXXXX "So what's going on now then?" Caitlyn demanded impatiently-she wasn't a fan of slow moving stories. "Is he trying to get her into bed? Are they already sleeping together? Is she refusing to sleep with him?" "Why do you always assume everything is about sex?" Katie sighed heavily and stirred her drink with a straw. "Now do you want me to go on or not?" Caitlyn checked her watch before replying that she did want to hear the end of the story, even if it meant sitting still for the next ten minutes. XXXXXX The morning mists were rising, leaving behind a bustling city that basked in the early-summer sun. Mulder coaxed Scully awake, and she eventually stirred from her position at the foot of the bed. Somehow during the night she had ended up under the covers so that the partners had slept one at each end of the bed. "C'mon, Scully," Mulder was saying, "we paid for breakfast so we may as well eat it." Scully refused, saying she was too tired to be hungry and advising him to go on without her. "I'll meet you in the lobby in an hour," she said, already looking as if she might fall back to sleep. The plan was to be at the businessman's UK offices for 10pm where they would get some more basic background information. Then, whilst Scully traced the man's last movements, Mulder was to head over to the scene of his last sighting and see what he could learn from the other agents already involved. By 2pm he was in a hotel room in a very exclusive part of the city. None of the staff looked at all pleased to be welcoming yet another FBI agent, and the forced politeness was worse than if they had been downright rude to him. Mulder surveyed the scene. A couple of FBI agents were in one corner, comparing notes and sipping coffee. Then, to the right of him was a group of police. He couldn't see the face of the person who was obviously in charge, giving out orders as far as he could tell, but something about the figure, the voice, caused his mind to conjure up a picture of Phoebe Green. He shook the image away with a shudder, but then, as the woman turned, his fears were verified. He had no idea of how she had persuaded him, but at the end of the day's work he found himself sitting in a little cafe around the corner, twisting the edge of his napkin as Phoebe sat and drank coffee. "Fox..." He cringed at the use of his first name, but knew if he said anything she would only bear it in mind for the purposes of future irritation. "What a surprise it is to see you in these parts," she laughed. "Maybe it's a sign." Mischievous eyes looked out from under her hair. Mulder remained silent. "Are you just going to sit there and say nothing?" She asked. "Probably a good idea," he retorted, as he watched her strike up a match, under the pretence of lighting the little candle on the table. He knew it was meant as the tiniest little dig at him-considering his extreme dislike of fire. "There," she announced as she shook out the match, "very romantic." Mulder groaned inwardly. So this was her little game. "So tell me, Fox. How is that partner of yours...Agent Sally, was it?" "You know full well it was Agent Scully, Phoebe, and she's fine." "So she's over here too?" Phoebe stirred her coffee dreamily before blowing on it, sending steam cascading towards Mulder. She didn't wait for his response to the question, knowing the answer even before she asked. "Well, I'll have to act fast," she laughed enticingly. Mulder decided he'd had enough. Anything he had ever felt for Phoebe Green was gone even before he left Oxford all those years before. He wasn't about to get involved in her little mind games. As he rose to leave she rose with him, suddenly embracing him and forcing her lips on to his. He pushed her away. "No!" He wiped a hand across his mouth, "no." He repeated quietly. "Why Fox, surely you wouldn't turn down a simple kiss from an old friend?" She watched him carefully, surveying his expression. "Phoebe anything we had is long dead. You can't just decide to come back into my life and keep trying to pick up where we left off decades ago. People change Phoebe," he was barely controlling his temper, infuriated by the way she assumed she could just kiss him and he would respond and decide that he was still in love with her after all. "Oh come on, Fox. I find it highly unlikely that there is anyone else who would be betrayed by this. You obviously aren't with anyone special, or you wouldn't have come over here on a wild goose chase. Alone." She stressed the last word maliciously. "I'm not alone, Phoebe." He couldn't help it. The words were spoken before he could prevent them. She looked stunned. "Don't tell me you're involved with Agent Scully," she laughed dryly. "Why, that sort of behaviour could get you thrown out of the bureau." And it would as well, should she have anything to do with it. "That's not what I said, Phoebe." Mulder spoke quietly, but with an edge to his voice that warned her to leave it whilst she still could. "On the contrary, Agent Mulder. I believe that's exactly what you said." "Phoebe! I am not involved with Agent Scully!" People in the cafe had turned around to see what the fuss was about, but Mulder didn't care. Other people's opinions of him had never really been an issue in his mind. "I love her." xxxxxxx By 11pm Scully was forced to surrender to the pain in her head, and set off in search of relief. "Mulder?" She knocked and entered without waiting to be asked. Her partner was lying on his bed, presumably deep in thought rather than asleep. "Mulder, do you have any painkillers on you?" "What? Oh...yeah. Hang on," he fumbled absent-mindedly in a wash bag on his bedside table, then handed Scully a packet. She glanced down at it. "You ok, Mulder?" "Yeah. Fine." He answered a little too sharply, so attempted to correct himself. "Why?" "Oh, just that this is a packet of, what appear to be Spanish, breath mints." She turned the box over in her hands, "that expired in 1988." She handed it back to him, almost automatically placing the back of her hand against his forehead. "What's that for?" "There's obviously something wrong, Mulder. Now you don't have a fever so..." "Scully, I told you I'm fine," he almost snapped at her. "Well, you know where I am," she turned as if to leave, but he caught her hand. "Scully?" "Yes?" "I ran into Phoebe today." Scully was momentarily taken aback, but quickly regained her composure. "Green? Where?" "In Robert Wells' hotel room. She was, I don't know, the leader of some investigation by Scotland Yard. Loving every minute of it-lording it over us mere FBI agents." He laughed bitterly. Scully had no difficulty in believing the last part of his story-her encounter with Detective Green some seven years ago had shown her to be vindictive to say the least. This was a woman who was not afraid to take everything she had against her ex-lover and use it to try and destroy him. "Mulder, you know we don't even have to be here," Scully sat down beside her partner on the bed, causing him to move just slightly away from her. "I'm not letting her win this one, Scully." "Mulder, by saying that you're stepping right into her little game. Don't you see this is what she wants?" "You don't understand, Scully. You don't know her like I do," he sighed heavily. "I understand, Mulder, that you don't have to be manipulated like this." She squeezed his hand briefly, but he didn't respond to her touch. "She," he turned to face her, "she tried to kiss me." "It doesn't surprise me," Scully laughed softly and patted her partner's hand again. "Ok, well I'm going to try and sleep off this headache," she smiled. "And Mulder, if you want then tomorrow I'll come and help you kick Phoebe's ass." She turned around, but Mulder's hand on hers pulled her back. He was sitting up now, and in one swift movement he pulled her to him, studying her face for a few seconds before drawing her into a passionate kiss. XXXXXXX "Soon after that, my dad went missing for nearly a whole year," Katie concluded, "He missed out on nearly all of my mom's pregnancy." "Wait a minute," Caitlyn gestured wildly with her cigarette, "so you're telling me that the only reason he married her and they're still together is because he got her pregnant? Hun, that is exactly the same story as mine, only it's set in England like, 20 years ago." She stubbed out her cigarette triumphantly. "See! True love doesn't exist at all. The only reason people get married is because they get knocked up." Katie shook her head knowingly and laughed, Caitlyn was hearing what she wanted to hear as per usual. Still, in her own mind and those of several other secret listeners in the bar that night, true love was more than a one night stand and an unwanted pregnancy. X~The End~X