Truth (9/12)         
by Fallon

Category: Post-The Truth/Pre-IWTB
Thank you to Singing_Violin for the beta!


Chapter 9

The next day they went looking for a grocery store out in the
middle of Nowhere, Nevada. It was a fairly nice day weather
wise and Mulder wanted to play basketball, a revelation that
irked Scully very much.

"C'mon," he said. "Let's just shoot a few hoops, okay?"

"Mulder, no," she said.

"Yes, Mulder," he teased. "Oh, God yes."

She swatted his arm in playful annoyance. "We're in public,
Mulder," she said. "Try to keep it classy."

"Oh, look," he said playfully, "Cucumbers." He ran over to the
vegetable stand and grabbed one.

"Mulder..."

"I wonder what we could do with these..."

She gave him a warning look and he suddenly stopped the
behavior. She wondered briefly what his psychology professors
would have said about that.

They continued to walk through the grocery store, picking up
cereal, toilet paper, and other necessities before heading to the
checkout line. Just then, Mulder spotted someone he recognized,
standing beside a strange man and holding a little baby. It was
Phoebe Green.

Scully must have recognized her too, because she hurried it up
with the self-checkout.

They'd almost made it to the car when Phoebe snuck up behind
Mulder and tapped him on the shoulder. "Hello, Fox," she said
in that annoying English accent of hers.  "Shacking up with your 
FBI partner, I see. Patterns never do change."

"Shsh," he said frantically, reaching out for Scully. "Look,
Phoebe, I don't have time for this. You can't tell the FBI or
anyone what you've--that you've seen us here. You just can't."

"Oh, darlings, I know. I'm just shopping with my family now.
Where's your son?"

Scully could already see the smoke practically coming out of
Mulder's ears. "It's time to go, Mulder," she said carefully, as if
trying to judge his sanity by his reaction to a mere sentence.

"Yes, we were just going," Mulder said, neglecting to say
goodbye to his former lover.

Scully closed the door to their car and he got into the passenger's
seat. They sped out of the driveway as quickly as possible.

"What do you think she wanted?" he asked her as they pulled
back into the motel parking lot.

"I don't know. Well, for one, I think she went there because she
was trying to do her groceries."

"You don't think she was following us?"

"No, I don't. She has absolutely no reason to seek revenge. Look
at her. She has her own life now. No offense but she definitely
isn't pining after you anymore." Scully added a wink so it
wouldn't be so hard on his ego.

"Gee, thanks," he teased, reaching over to tousle her hair. It was
then they realized that they were still in the hotel parking lot, not
getting out of their car.

Scully unlocked the door while Mulder carried in the groceries.
They stumbled into the tiny hotel room, managing to squeeze all
the perishables into their mini-fridge.

"I guess we're leaving the rest of this out on top of the TV,"
Scully mused, holding a bag of cinnamon rice cakes and a loaf
of sliced bread.

"I guess so," Mulder agreed. "Well, I'm going to take a shower."
He looked tired.

"Okay," she said. He knew she was a morning shower type of
person. "I'll get dressed for bed," she added.

When Mulder finally turned on the faucet, she had already
climbed into bed, dressed in her favorite blue silk pajamas. She
recalled having a similar pair when she was pregnant with
William, and wearing them at a time when Mulder foolishly
pretended to question William's paternity. Those were the days.

The shower droned on in the background for what seemed like
forever, and then Mulder approached her sleeping form, dressed
in his boxers and a grey T-shirt. He brushed a strand of copper
hair away from her face and pulled back the covers, spooning up
to her and trying not to wake up Junior by rubbing him too close
to her silk-clad bottom.

He was successful in that, but he stirred her awake anyway.
"Mulder," she mumbled, reaching over to cup his chin with her
tiny, delicate hands. "Are you going to sleep?" she asked him.
For a second he thought she was going to propose that they have
sex, but he hoped not because he wasn't in much of that mood.

Instead, she reached over to her bedside table and pulled a book
from the drawer in the nightstand. He was surprised she still had
books given their situation. She'd left most of it in safekeeping
with her mother.

He held his breath when he realized it was a Bible. He
understood now, at least from her perspective why she kept it
with her. He briefly wondered why she carried one of her own
when every hotel had one. But, he knew when he got involved
with her that she was a woman of faith and this particular Bible
was probably a family heirloom. It didn't bother him.

"I prayed and prayed when you were gone," she said, running
her hands over the cover of the Bible. "And I prayed for William
to be normal. But what if he wasn't?"

"William *is* normal," Mulder replied simply. "We both have
to believe that...for his sake."

"I know. I mean, he looked normal. He smiled and laughed and
played like a normal baby. But that was where the normalcy
ended. He was just so...different."
"With the mobile spinning thing?"

"Yeah. With that among other things."

Mulder leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on his partner's
forehead. She looked so peaceful in her half-asleep state.

"Why don't we get some sleep?" he asked, knowing full well it
wouldn't be easy.

"I can't sleep after running into your ex-girlfriend and having her
ask all those rude, obnoxious questions. Can you? And How did
she find us anyway?"

"No. Not really. And I'd heard a while back that she married an
American. Must have heard the rest from the grape vine. Hey, Scully?"

"Yes?"

"Phoebe Green was my fiancée. It was only for a couple weeks
right before we broke up though." He worried that telling her
would be a bad thing for them.

"I know."

"You know?"

"Yeah, I figured it out when we saw her that time after we first met."

"Oh." He breathed a sigh of relief. He was glad this wasn't going
to built yet another wedge between them. "Were you ever
engaged, Scully?"

"No."

"Do you want to be?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Mulder. We already have what we need."

"I didn't ask what you needed," he said. "I asked what you wanted."

"What I want isn't very practical." That was enough food for
thought to get them both to fall quickly into an uneasy sleep.