text file (8k)

She'll always keep him guessing.



RATING: PG
CLASSIFICATION: post-ep, V
SPOILERS: post-ep for Theef
DISCLAIMER: Not mine; they belong to CC, FOX, etc.

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As Scully left the hospital room, Mulder turned and looked after her. "You do keep me guessing," he whispered to himself as he watched her disappear into the hall. After pausing for a beat, he followed her out the door and downstairs to their car.

When they finally returned to the motel that evening, Scully sat at the table looking over autopsy results on the doctor's wife while Mulder sat on the bed with the TV remote in his hand. While in the old days, the two of them would have been engaged in these disparate activities in their respective rooms, these days it was just a given that they would sit together in one room or the other until one of them (usually Scully) decided it was time to call it a night. Often, they both automatically walked into the same room once they got the keys and didn't even bother to decide which room was whose until 10 or 11 at night.

Scully had purposely seated herself with her back to the TV, and Mulder had courteously left the volume off while flipping channels, so she didn't even realize that he had turned the set off and been watching her for the last 15 minutes. Whether it was her awareness of the continued silence or the feeling of being watched, she finally turned her head to see her partner staring at her.

"You've been rather quiet tonight, Mulder. Something on your mind?"

He replied a pensive, "Yeah," but said nothing more.

Setting down the papers she had been holding, Scully turned in her chair to face him. "Are you going to share it with me, or you gonna make me guess?"

Mulder couldn't help but smile at her word choice. That same phrase that he had spoken to himself at the hospital had been running through his mind all day: "You do keep me guessing." Pulling himself up from his slouched position on the bed, he set down the remote that was still resting in his hand and crossed his arms over his chest. "Guess."

"You're wondering whether or not the Knicks won tonight because you haven't been able to find the score."

"Actually, no, but that reminds me. . . . " Mulder reached for the remote to turn the TV back on until Scully sounded an objection. "Okay, two more guesses."

"Ummm, you're . . . thinking about using one of those voodoo dolls on C.G.B. Spender."

"No, but it's not a bad idea. One more guess."

Scully dropped the light-hearted tone of her last two guesses and leaned forward in her chair, giving Mulder a very direct look. "You're wondering if I actually believe that Peattie was able to use hexcraft to affect his victims."

Mulder didn't respond this time, other than to blink. Scully had left him speechless. One more time on this case, she had said the unexpected. Somehow, she had known exactly what he was thinking. After a long moment of silence between them, he finally found his voice. "Scully, have you tapped into the secret of psychic powers and not shared it with me?"

"No. But after seven years together, I'd say I've gotten to know my partner pretty well."

Mulder looked back at her seriously. "How is it that after seven years, you can read my mind, but I seem to have no idea what words will come out of your mouth from one moment to the next?"

Scully smiled at him cryptically and turned back to her papers as she responded, "I told you Mulder, I'll always keep you guessing."

After she had returned to the file, Mulder continued to watch her for a moment, waiting to see if she would look back up at him or not. She knew he was waiting, and so she purposely kept her eyes glued to the page in front of her, although it wasn't holding her attention.

"So?"

Scully turned her head back toward him. "So, what?"

"So, do you actually believe it?"

Setting down the paper again, Scully stared contemplatively at the wall in front of her. After a long pause and a sigh, she looked back at him. "I don't *not* believe it."

"What *do* you believe? I mean, after seven years of working on these cases, listening to my theories so many times that now you can anticipate them before I even speak . . . after attempting to rationalize and debunk every paranormal phenomenon known to mankind . . . what do you believe?"

Scully turned to face him again and thought for a long moment before she responded. "I believe that there are truths that science has not yet discovered, but that some of these truths may have already been around for a long time, passed down through traditions and stories in various cultures that have embellished them over the generations. I believe that nature holds mysteries that are yet to be explored and that when we encounter these mysteries which we classify as unexplained, it is the tendency of the rationally-minded to discount these phenomena as being implausible. And I believe that belief itself is a very powerful force that can sometimes have an even greater effect on people than the very thing in which they believe."

"Scully, I think you've been in Washington too long--you equivocate like a politician."

"Nooo, I've been walking the line between the plausible and the fantastic for too long. I've learned how to act as an interpreter."

"Making my theories palatable for the skeptics?"

" . . . which is something you still haven't developed a talent for, like with Dr. Wieder, for example. Telling the good doctor that his wife and father-in-law had been hexed was not exactly the best way to gain his cooperation."

Mulder shrugged. "People need to hear the truth, even if they don't like it."

"Okay. . . . But sometimes people need to be eased into the truth rather than struck in the face with it in one swift blow."

"So, I lack your finesse. That's why I bring you along with me."

Scully smirked. "It's nice to know I'm useful for something."

Mulder smiled back at her. "Well, that, and you're pretty good at filling out paperwork. Skinner's usually less disgruntled with your reports than with mine."

At that, Scully turned back to her papers. "Then I'd better get back to doing what I'm best at." Her reply was meant as a playful repartee, but there was a certain heaviness to it, as she knew that statement was laden with truth. This time, she did return her attention to the autopsy report.

Another moment passed, as Mulder still sat there quietly, still watching her.

"Scully?"

Once more, she looked over at him. "Yeah?"

"I don't care what the rest of the world thinks of my crazy theories. But, in the end, if I've convinced you of even one of them, that's enough for me."

Scully smiled at him. "Mulder, I'll always keep you guessing."


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