More Information Needed (PG)

She heard his voice as she approached the office. “Yeah, I can meet you. I know, I’m sorry I haven’t . . . Okay, see you in a little while.” He turned with a startled expression on his face when he heard her enter the office. “Gotta go, yeah.” He hung up quickly as Scully stopped and just looked at him.

“Hi, I didn’t hear you.”

“Obviously. What’s going on?”

“Huh? Oh, just something I’m workin’ on.”

Her eyebrow asked the question, but he turned back toward his computer. She started to call him on it but instead turned toward her own desk. It was nice finally having a place of her own to keep files and things.

He was uncomfortable and she couldn’t help watching him. Since they had grown . . . closer in recent months he hadn’t acted like this. Did he have a new source and was afraid to admit it to her? They were close now, very close and there was no reason - She was brought back to the present when he rose abruptly from his chair. “I, uh, I have to run an errand. I’ll be back after lunch.” He was gone before she had the chance to respond. He hadn’t been exactly running, but he obviously didn’t want her to accompany him.

He hadn’t acted like that in years. What kind of information was he afraid to share now? The frisson of guilt didn’t stop her. She headed for his phone and pressed redial.

”Hi, this is Sonja. I’m busy right now, leave a message and I’ll get back to you.”

Scully just stared at the phone for a long time. She was more shaken than she wanted to admit. This woman’s voice was husky, sexy. Phone sex? He didn’t need phone sex any more, did he? Who the hell was Sonja? Wait, surely after all this time she didn’t have anything to be insecure about.

Unsettled she shut down her computer and headed for the lab. There were several things she could check into there and get her mind off of, of things she didn’t want to think about.

*****

He was relieved that his errand was over, but also annoyed that it had been necessary. He hated having anything to do with that stuff. Scully wasn’t there when he returned. That depressed him slightly. He wanted her to be here. He wanted to have been able to go to lunch with her. Hell, he always wanted to be with her.

When they had first gotten together he had worried, just a little, that they would be spending too much time together. She had often spoken of wanting ‘a life’. He had always assumed that the unspoken words there were ‘without him’. But he discovered the more time he spent with her the more he wanted to spend with her. Yeah, the sex was incredible, the pent up lust he’d had for her wasn’t used up yet, not by a long shot, and he was beginning to think it never would be. That was fine with him.

Now where was she?

*****

She changed out of her suit and now stood in the kitchen, pouring herself a glass of wine. She still wasn’t herself and she didn’t want to admit it. She hadn’t returned to the office after lunch, wanting to get herself together. She sighed, and opened the refrigerator.

She realized she had been standing, staring into it without really seeing it when she heard the key in the door. She tensed immediately, closing her eyes.

Mulder let himself in. He hesitated just inside. Not only had she not returned to the office after lunch, but she had turned off her phone as well. He’d been caught off guard when Sonja had called. Having that desk in the office meant she was there more, which was good 99% of the time. He could have ‘alone’ time at his apartment if he wanted to; the thing was he didn’t want that much alone time anymore. Hence his arrival at her apartment, which was feeling more and more like home every day.

He looked up to see her standing in the doorway to the kitchen, just watching him. “Scully? Are you . . . is everything okay?”

She turned away from him and reached for her wine. A chill went up his spine and he moved toward her. “Scully?”

“I wasn’t sure you were coming over. I thought you might ditch me tonight.”

“D-ditch you? What are you talking about?”

“We’re individuals, Mulder. There’s no - “

“Scully, what are you talking about?” he interrupted her quickly. He didn’t want to hear the words that seemed inevitable.

She looked down into her wine, seeing his hand come out to her and she stepped back. “I’m not . . . “

“Talk to me, please.”

She looked up then. “Who’s Sonja?”

He blinked, clearly caught off guard at the name. Shit, he shouldn’t feel guilty but he did.

She turned away, walking around him and into the living room.

He closed his eyes and sighed. How the hell . . . He followed her into the living room and took a seat beside her on the couch. “Sonja.”

“No, don’t.” She held up her hand. “It’s none of my business. I’m sorry.”

 "That’s not - “

“We both have other - “

”Scully, she’s my financial advisor.”

She looked up at him then, clearly not even beginning to believe that.

He nodded. “She handles my investments and I wanted to do something . . .”

“Investments,” she finally said. “You were going to overdraw your checking account when your water bed leaked. You have ‘investments’?”

He nodded. “Sonja needed my signature.”

“Your signature,” she repeated.

“Yeah, that’s why she called.”

“And you rushed out to see her.”

“Well, she needed it right away,” he said confused.

“So it wasn’t a nooner?” she looked him squarely in the eye.

 “A noo - are you serious? She’s nearly 70 years old! She worked for my father and I just . . . inherited her.”

For the first time Scully seemed to be listening to him. “Your father?”

Mulder’s shoulders slumped.

“You, you really have a financial advisor?”

“Well, I don’t have that much to do with her, but yeah. I wanted to do something and I needed to, well, I needed her advice.”

“I guess I don’t think about your money.”

“Neither do I when I can get out of it. Dad left everything to me because he knew Mom would be looked after. Now, mostly it just sits there.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what - “

“I should have talked to you about it - “

“No! It’s none of my business. I’m sorry.” She started to rise but he took her hand.

“It is your business, in that way that everything about me is your business; even when you don’t want it to be. The guys are having a rough time right now, financially. They won’t take anything from me for all the work they’ve done over the years. I, I’m buying their building, so, you know,” he shrugged, “no rent.”

“You’re buying their building? You don’t even own your own place.”

He shrugged again. “It seemed like a good idea.”

“It’s a wonderful idea, if you really can afford . . . I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t think it’s too . . . “

“Mulder, we’d be dead many times over without them.”

He jerked at that. “That’s not - “

“I’m sorry.”

“What?” he looked up at her. “Sorry?”

“I, I didn’t . . . I shouldn’t have . . . “

“Scully, what?”

“Gotten jealous,” she murmured.

“J-jealous?” A light grew in his eyes and his lips twitched.

She rolled her eyes, but before she could speak he squeezed her hand. “I should have talked to you about this.”

“No, you don’t - “

“Well, it’s your money too - “

“Mulder!”

“You need this information. You’re my next of kin, my sole beneficiary, my - “

“Mulder, stop.”

“I should have said something earlier but - “

“Stop.”

“Why?” He looked honestly puzzled.

“Because, because it’s not my money. It has nothing to do with me.”

He just looked at her, not speaking until she grew very uncomfortable. Finally he leaned back. “Do you really believe that?”

“Well, yes. I - “

“But you got jealous over a 70 year old woman - “

“She has a very sexy voice,” Scully interrupted.

“I’ll be sure and tell her you think so. But while I am delighted that you got jealous - “

“Mulder - “

He continued as though she hadn’t spoken. “I think you need a little more information about us, about what I see as ‘us’; because if you still don’t understand what you are to me, I’m doing something very wrong.”

They sat and looked at each other for a long moment, then she reached over and took his hand. “Bought a building, huh?”