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For the next 2 weeks,
he visited her every day. And he brought roses every Monday, Wednesday,
and Friday. He had the distinct feeling that she was beginning to expect
them. Maybe he was spoiling her.
It felt good
to spend time with Scully and joke with her. Mulder had missed it more
than he realized. It felt like the world had suddenly begun revolving again.
It was the Saturday
at the end of the second week. He had been talking about work, again, when
something occurred to him. “Hey, Scully? Could you do me a favor?”
“Sure, Mulder.
What is it?”
“Could you laugh
for me?”
“Laugh?”
“Yeah, you know-“
“I know what
a laugh is, Mulder,” she said as she rolled her eyes. “I mean, why do you
want me to laugh?”
“I don’t think
I’ve ever heard it.”
“Sure you have.”
“When?” he challenged.
She paused, thinking.
“Our first assignment together.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh.” He nearly
dropped the subject, but then continued. “Well, that was over 5 years ago.
Do it again.”
“What, now?”
“Yeah.”
“I can’t do it
now, on cue, just like that.”
“Why not?”
“Nothing’s funny
enough right now.”
“I’m not funny?”
“Mulder, you’re
funny weird, not funny ha-ha.” She smiled.
“Thanks,” he
mumbled. “Well then, what does make you laugh?”
“I don’t know.
Really insanely ridiculous stuff.”
“Like what?”
“I said, ‘I don’t
know.’ Try something. You’re pretty good with the insanely ridiculous.”
“Is there some
reason why you’re picking on me today?”
“No reason in
particular.” She smiled. “Go ahead.”
“Okay…” He thought
for a moment. “Alf had an affair with Eleanor Roosevelt.”
She smiled. Darn.
“Alf? Try again, Mulder.”
They went on
for a while when he began getting frustrated.
“Y’know, Scully,
I’m beginning to wonder if you actually have a decent sense of humor.”
“Try something
real. Or, at least something you think is true.”
“Ok… I heard
that there’s a dog named Oscar in England who can hypnotize people.”
She grinned.
“Oh yeah? How does he do that?”
“You just look
in his eyes and you’re hypnotized. I saw it on the Discovery Channel once.
The people just looked at him and fell asleep.”
“And what does
the dog do with this?”
“They say he
gets people to give him food or to quit smoking.”
“Is that how
you quit? You looked into a dogs eyes, fell asleep, and woke up a non-smoker?”
“How did you
know about that? Not the dog part but the smoking part.”
“It was on your
file.”
“Really?”
She smiled. “No.”
“Oh. Well, how
then?”
“I have my sources,”
she said mysteriously.
“Fine, Scully.
Be a bitch about it.”
She smiled again.
“Well, aren’t you gonna try some more?”
“Nah, you’re
hopeless. I give up.”
And yet again.
“I guess that means I won.”
“I didn’t know
this was a game.”
She shrugged.
“Oh, well.”
There was a long
silence.
“Hey, Scully,
if you really are bored, I can bring you some magazines or something.”
“That’d be nice.
As long as their not your magazines.”
“I don’t think
you have to worry about that.”
“Why not?”
“Cuz I gave it
up.”
She paused. “What?”
“I gave it up.”
“Pornography?”
“Yeah.”
“You gave up
pornography?” she said incredulously.
He gave her an
odd look. “Yeah.”
She laughed.
She laughed so hard, tears started streaking down her face. “You’ve got
to be kidding me!”
Mulder couldn’t
drop the surprised look on his face.
“Oh, come on.
You can’t be serious. You’re almost as devoted to that as you are to your
work.” She looked at him closely. “You are serious, aren’t you.”
She frowned slightly, though still looking like she was concealing a smile,
then looked him in the eye. “So, why’d you give it up?”
“I realized I
had higher priorities.” Let her think about that for a while. She
looked puzzled, but smiled slightly and took his hand in her left. She
looked down at their hands.
They sat in silence
for a few moments when Scully began seriously examining his hand with a
somewhat stunned look on her face.
“What? What is
it, Scully?”
She pointed to
the middle of the palm of his right hand. There was an imprint of a cross.
Dana’s cross. She fingered the necklace. Scully knew. She knew that it
was her pendant that made the imprint. Mulder wondered what she was thinking.
She was probably putting together the fact that he hadn’t touched the necklace
since that first time he visited her, and that it should be gone by now.
Does she know? Does she remember? He looked her in the eye. “I’m
guessing this is pegging me for a Christian.”
“How did that
get there, Mulder?”
He paused. “I’m
not sure you’ll like or particularly want to hear the truth. Let’s just
say it was something a friend gave me to help me get through a difficult
time.”