TITLE: We Can
AUTHOR: stellar_dust
EMAIL: stellar_dust_x@yahoo.com
WEBSITE: http://katycat.net/xfiles
ARCHIVE/FEEDBACK: Yep.  (:
SPOILERS: Never Again
PAIRING: M/S
RATING: PG
CHALLENGE: Beatles song ("We Can Work It Out")
WORD COUNT:  WAY too many.  So much too many 
that it's going under a cut.  Got carried away.  
A bit.  Um.  Sorry.  ... I'll get the next one 
down to 100.
SUMMARY: He was trying to send her a message with music.  Scully sighed again, aggravated.  How juvenile, and how very *Mulder*.
DISCLAIMER: I have always thought that it's a 
crime, so I will ask you once again: Can I 
borrow them?  Just for a little while?
DATE: 05/31/2004


Mulder finished whatever he'd been doing at his 
computer and stood up.  

"I'm going home.  I'll see you tomorrow, 
Scully, okay?" he asked quietly.  He was 
probably avoiding her eyes, but she couldn't 
tell, because she wasn't watching.

She nodded.  She wasn't sure if she was 
speaking to him, but suspected she probably 
wasn't.

He closed the door behind him and disappeared.  
Scully sighed, fingering the old, dried rose 
petal in her lap.  She saw her life in that 
petal: a withered memorial to what might have 
been.

"Try to see it my way / Do I have to keep on 
talking till I can't go on?"

Scully jumped.  Music was blaring from Mulder's 
computer speakers.

"While you see it your way / Run the risk of 
knowing that our love may soon be gone / We can 
work it out .."

He was trying to send her a message with music.  
Scully sighed again, aggravated.  How juvenile, 
and how very *Mulder*.  

She rolled her eyes, got up and walked to the 
other side of his desk, intending to shut the 
music off and work on the expense reports she 
still needed to file.  Expense reports from the 
*damn* hotel he'd sent her to for no reason.  
She sat down in his chair and rubbed her 
temples.

Scully reached for the mouse - he had a whole 
playlist set.  And he had an open document on 
the screen.  Addressed to her.

She was tempted to ignore it.  But even annoyed 
as she was, she couldn't do that to him.  She 
took a deep breath, and began to read.

"The expense reports are finished, Scully.  So 
is your insurance claim for the hospital and a 
first draft of the case report.  All you have 
to do is fill in the parts I don't know, and 
sign everything.  I'll do them all, from now 
on.

"I ordered a desk from HR.  It'll be small, but 
we can put it wherever you want.  Hell, I'll 
sit there, and you can have this one, if you 
want.

"I'm self-centered and possessive.  You've 
known that about me for years, Scully; I'm not 
going to change.  But I'm doing my best.  I 
know that I take you for granted sometimes.  If 
you want to transfer off the X-Files, or just 
.. avoid me for awhile, I'll understand.  I 
understand that you need to have a life apart 
from work.  Truly I do.  It just .. hurts that 
you would do something like this, without a 
word to me, and that I wasn't there to protect 
you.  That's egotistical, but it's how I feel.

"I love you, Scully.  There's no other way to 
say it.  And I'm sorry.

"I know it isn't always about me.  I just wish 
that, sometimes, it could be about *us*.

"You can close this and ignore it, and I'll 
accept that.  Or you can think about what I've 
said, and talk to me.

"I'm going home to order a pizza.  Company 
would be great.

"Mulder."

Oh.

Scully blinked at the screen, trying to hold on 
to her indignation.  *Mulder* doing expense 
reports?  She'd have to go over *that* one with 
a fine-toothed calculator.  And how *dare* he 
object to her doing things on her own, the 
number of times he'd ... 

"Life is very short / And there's no time ... "

Was he actually *apologizing* for loving her?  
No, Mulder ...

Scully sat through "In My Life," "Hello 
Goodbye," "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away," 
and "Long and Winding Road" before she grabbed 
her coat and followed Mulder to his apartment.

She crushed the petal into the trash can on her 
way out the door.