Planned Vacation

Planned Vacation

THURSDAY - X-FILES OFFICE

He wasn't quite sure how he'd got talked into this. Well he was. He'd been told to, ordered to. But normally that didn't make any difference. So why did it make a difference this time. Why was he going along with it. Take a vacation, go away, don't take any files, don't get into anything. He was only following orders, but Skinner had looked like he was going to feint when Mulder said that it sounded like a good idea. And when he'd taken up the paperwork confirming it to Skinner's office, Skinner had looked panic stricken.

Why was everyone suspicious? It wasn't as if it was the first time he'd been on holiday. Even in the recent past there had been the trip to the Arctic, the week in New Mexico and of course that visit to Puerto Rico. There had even been a weekend break in Hong Kong. Yes, and a cruise off the coast of Norway. Hmm, maybe that was why they were suspicious. Well they needn't be. He was going to do nothing. Eat some real food. Swim a little. Run some. Read. Write those articles he'd been promising the Lone Gunman guys. Lie on the beach and listen to the breakers. Sleep. He tried not to smirk, ok so now the image was getting unrealistic. No wonder they were suspicious.

But it was only for a week. He could do a week without work. He wasn't that obsessive. Well, ok, so he was. But he could come home when he got bored. It's the thought that counts. A week wasn't very long, not like three weeks.

Three weeks was like, forever and that's how long Scully would be away for. So the third week was some kind of pathology conference, fun if you were into that sort of thing he supposed. But the other two weeks were real vacation. She'd really booked to go on a real break, at a real hotel, in a real resort. It was unreal. It was unbelievable. Talk about extreme possibilities. Two weeks. Two weeks? She'd been talked into it by an old college friend. She'd blushed guiltily every time the subject had come up in conversation. He'd only found out that she was going to Florida when that item came on the news about the shuttle and she'd made some comment about visiting the launch pad.

What was the problem? Was she worried that he'd follow her, haunt her? Weird. She spent so much time nagging him about where he was, where he'd been, where he was going. And now she was just going to vanish for two weeks. Interesting.

He would get very bored without her. Skinner had panicked so much over the possibility of Mulder being left alone for three weeks he'd been trying to think of things to keep him out of trouble. Some of the proposals were just so transparent that Mulder had trouble stopping himself from laughing.

"I think you should go on the Influencing Skills Course." Skinner had managed to say it with such sincerity as well. Luckily Mulder had been able to talk him out of it.

They'd compromised on the idea of a week's vacation. Mulder was a little worried about what Skinner might have planned for his return. But that would be next week's battle.

Skinner would never be unsubtle enough to try and distract him with crop circles, cattle mutilations, lights in the sky. It would be something more exotic. Werewolves? Been there, done that. Possession? Again. Ok so it happens, but every flake on the prison block tries a shot at that alibi.

Still. Scully's vacation was an interesting subject, what was she being so coy about? She obviously had a guilty secret. Her college friend was definitely female, he knew, she'd made an utterly outrageous pass at him last time they met. He'd feigned stupidity.

Not that it was that hard to feign, after all he did practice, he sniggered at a sudden flashback. Skinner's little project for them last week. His mind went back to last Friday night.

THE FRIDAY BEFORE

VIP protection. Congressmen and wives. FBI men in full body armour outside but in here tonight just the illusion of a party. Plenty of Agents milling around but carefully chosen and dressed to blend in. Not that they did blend in, but the attempt at disguise did help preserve some of the illusion.

It wasn't the first time they'd been selected as part of the incognito face of the Bureau. They were smart, resourceful and if something out of the ordinary happened they'd be good judges of what to do and they could shoot straight. And, as Mulder said sarcastically when the assignment appeared on their schedule, Skinner thought that Scully cleaned up well.

Some of the young wives clung to their powerful men. Others were restless. They were studying the options and as the champagne flowed their studies became more intense.

Mulder looked around the room and panicked. Where was Scully? She was the only person who could get him out of this. It started off ok. He was only being polite, his mother would have been proud of him. His dance teacher would have been proud of him. White and middle class and growing up on the Vineyard, how could he have avoided learning to dance? He supposed he was meant to be flattered by the attention he was getting, but he wasn't.

He could brush off the subtle ones by feigning that he was too stupid to understand the invitation. But try as he might it was hard to feign misunderstanding of the more overt messages. 'I'm on duty,' only worked if people were willing to play along. But when the reply was. 'So when do you get off? I'd love to help you get off.' Well, then it was hard to pretend. He couldn't even act that stupid.

He escaped to talk to Scully who was standing by the bar.

"Hi Scully."

She regarded him coolly. She attempted, not very successfully, to inject as much civility as she could muster into her reply. "Yes Mulder. What is it?"

He shuffled nervously. "Er, well. It is a pronoun. Hi is normally a form of greeting. And this is a tonic water."

She frowned, "you've been busy."

"No."

"Your fan club are waiting for you." She said sarcastically.

"I doubt they'll wait for long."

"So you'd better get back to them."

"It's not in my job description."

"It should be, you'd do better in the performance reviews."

"Thanks." He said looking sheepishly the floor. He paused. "I'd hoped that you would have rescued me by now, but it's still not too late, you could still bail me out."

She puzzled over the remark, bail him out? "Don't tell me you're scared of them. What, you think one of their husbands is going to send Skinner after you?"

"What? I'm trying to save my honour and you think I'm worried about my job."

She put some teasing into her voice. "Save your honour? Sheesh. I'd have thought this had to be the most flattering evening you've had since you got that interactive 'singles bar game' CDROM for Christmas."

He choked on the sip of tonic he'd just taken. "Flattering? You think the beef in the butcher's shop is flattered by the attention it gets from the window shoppers?"

Scully was almost starting to believe him. "So you don't think it's your scintillating wit and personality they are latching on to then. I can't believe you're offended by being eyed up as available meat, not with your video watching habits."

He smiled and adopted his most serious, scholarly voice. "You're forgetting that there's difference between fantasy and reality and anyway the videos aren't about beef."

Scully started to smile.

Mulder continued in his best, 'I know you don't believe I'm a psychologist but I am', voice. "They have older husbands for real life, as a joke they want something a bit different. The bar staff and waiters are too risky, no deterrent if they decide to kiss and tell. A Fed's a much safer bet, one of them kisses and tells, he'll get fired."

THURSDAY

Dana Scully looked at her desk and sighed. She kicked her foot at the table leg as punishment for sighing. She'd been so proud of herself for taking two weeks vacation. A whole two weeks. And to prove to the world she really meant it she'd agreed to go on that holiday with Jenny. She couldn't believe that she'd done anything so stupid. A single's hotel. Dana 'no life' Scully was going to prove to herself and the world that she had no life. Jenny would be partying, Jenny would meet the man of her dreams, or if Jenny got really lucky, several men of her dreams. And Dana would wake up with a hangover one morning, fall asleep by the pool and get sun burnt.

Well at least that had been what was going to happen. But then Jenny got mumps. Those were the kinds of hazards you faced teaching five year olds. So what was it to be? Two weeks of comfortable boredom at home or two weeks of uncomfortable boredom and embarrassment away. She wanted to come in to work but Mulder would never let her live it down if she did. She compromised on cancelling the hotel reservations and deciding that she could make up for lost home time. She could spring clean. Go shopping. Visit her mother. Go out with some old friends. Ha. Who was she trying to kid, she was going to spend two weeks worrying about Mulder and reading the latest forensic medicine journals.

She wondered what Mulder was going to do with his week off. "Fox."

Mulder sat up quickly, startled to hear her say his name. "Where?" He said, peering theatrically around the room.

Scully blushed and tried to cover her tracks. "Sorry. Mulder. So when do you head out to wherever it was you said you were going to. Where was it again?"

"I didn't say where I was going. We were playing keeping secrets if you remember. And I'm going tomorrow night." Mulder rocked back in his chair again. < Fox. Fox? Since when and in what context? >

She sighed again.

Mulder took over the questioning. "What about you?"

"What about me what?" She said disconsolately.

"When do you leave?"

"Pardon?"

"For your fun in the sun resort."

"Oh. I don't know."

< Don't know? > How could she not know? She'd not said where, but she'd made sure he knew when, for how long and that it was a 'real' vacation with a real friend not just some sop to Skinner. Mulder hesitated and then slipped effortlessly into Fed mode. Quiet, confiding, polite, professional.

It caught Scully off guard. She told him she'd cancelled her trip because Jenny had mumps.

< Mumps? > Aargh. He just hoped Scully had already had them because he hadn't. And frankly mumps would not be a good idea. Least, that was what he'd heard. His voice coaxed and cajoled her to reveal more.

He sat back and listened. Well either his interrogation technique had become dramatically more effective against her defences, or Dana Scully really needed to talk. At least he was in the clear over the mumps thing, she had already had them. But was she really confessing that she was going on a single's holiday? Or rather not going because Jenny had fallen ill? Yes she really was. Extreme possibilities indeed.

Mulder thought about it and said the words before he thought of why he shouldn't. "Why don't you come to the coast with me. It's not a Florida hotel. It's a beach house on the Atlantic but it's civilised. It's Mike Barry's, he's on vacation in Mexico with his family, it's their normal home so it's not like a beach hut or something, there's a real kitchen and there's plenty of room."

She stared. How dare he proposition her? She sighed as she realised that it probably wasn't that kind of proposition. He'd just miss her if she wasn't around to argue with.

Mulder stared back. It wasn't that stupid an idea. Was it? And she called him Fox. And that had to mean something, he just couldn't quite imagine what at the moment. But they weren't just colleagues. They were partners. They trusted one another. They liked one another, or at least he liked her. He'd never been quite sure if she liked him. Sometimes she seemed to. But even when she didn't, she seemed to trust him. Was it really such a shocking idea.

She snapped out of it and spoke with a light heartedness she didn't feel. "I don't think Skinner would approve."

"I wasn't planning on inviting him."

She swallowed and thought back to last Friday night.

THE PREVIOUS FRIDAY

Dana Scully couldn't take her eyes off him. She tried but they kept being drawn back. VIP protection. Congressmen and wives. The illusion of a party. The Agents didn't blend in, but the attempt at disguise did help preserve some of the illusion.

They were smart and they could shoot straight. And, as Mulder said sarcastically when the assignment appeared on their schedule, someone thought that they cleaned up well.

Dana Scully wasn't so convinced about that. Her hair looked good, she was happy about that. But, she had to wear sensible clothes, ones that she could actually move in if she had to and sensible shoes, ones she could run in. And trying to find some way of keeping her gun concealed had just about finished any attempt at glamour. She looked at the women, she felt dowdy in comparison.

She looked at Fox Mulder and for an instant cursed being born female. Why didn't men have to compromise style for practicality? Ok, so Mulder would have preferred tee-shirt and jeans but he looked perfectly comfortable in his tuxedo. And as for where he was keeping his gun. Well he looked as if the bulges were all in the right places so she just had to assume that the suit was very well cut. She looked at Mulder, she felt dowdy in comparison.

Of course what wasn't helping was the fact that a number of the ageing politicians had tall, stunning, young wives. Not bimbos, Dana guessed. Political power and wealth attracted a slightly more sophisticated strata. But they certainly looked like bimbos.

Some of the young wives clung to their powerful men. Others were restless. A night out on their best behaviour was ok but this conference had been going on for days and it was hard to keep up that level of focus for so long. And providing it was discreet, their husbands were too ambitious to worry about minor lapses. They were studying the options and as the champagne flowed their studies became more intense.

Dana Scully tried not to resent the way they flirted with her partner. She even tried not to resent the way he obediently collected fresh glasses of champagne for them or the way he smiled at them when he led them to the dance floor.

He had the nerve to sidle up to her as she stood bored and self conscious by the bar. The bar? Perrier water was the strongest thing she'd taken and even that was giving her indigestion. And now Mulder was trying to play for pity, she wasn't going to play along.

"You'd better get back to them." Scully muttered sarcastically.

"It's not in my job description."

"It should be, you'd do better in the performance reviews."

"Thanks." Scully noted the shy but playful puppy look. "I'd hoped that you would have rescued me by now, but it's still not too late, you could still bail me out."

He explained in the voice she always identified as the < I know I'm Spooky but that doesn't mean I'm stupid > tone how he'd inevitably attracted their unwelcome attention purely because he was a male FBI Agent.

Scully didn't believe that he thought that for one minute, she pushed him. "So if it's just being a Fed that makes you suitable, why not Skinner?"

"Because they've already got a powerful man as a partner, they don't want one as a dalliance."

"Ooh. They want you for a dalliance. You poor dear. So what about the other Agents."

Mulder looked around the room. "Too old." He moved on, "bad suit." He turned again, "his partner's protecting him," he emphasised the words.

"Aw come on. There have got to be other eligible men in here. What about..?" She looked around but was running out of names.

Scully stumbled to a halt. Ok, her partner wasn't flattered by the attention. He'd basically rationalised it as having nothing to do with him. Nothing to do with how good he looked in a tux. Nothing to do with the tall slender frame, the broad shoulders and the soft hair. And the eyes, beautiful eyes, eyes that you could drown in.

She realised he was waiting for a reaction and snapped back to reality. "Ok. I'll bite, you aren't impressed by the flattery. But that still doesn't explain why you haven't taken advantage of it. I wouldn't have thought you had anything better to do tonight."

He looked suddenly nervous. "I don't."

"So. I didn't think you had that many morals to hold you back." Scully wondered why she was being quite so harsh with him, it wasn't as if he needed to hear a lecture on safe sex or something.

"I don't, not really."

"It's just Skinner being around that's stopping you then?"

"No. It's just."

"Go on. I won't tell anyone." She suddenly paused and wondered if she'd baited him too much. What if he told her about Bob, because.

"I'm in too deep with somebody else." He was talking very quietly, it sounded like it was coming from somewhere inside him not from his lips. "It would be disloyal."

Scully stood and watched him as he blushed and shrank away from her. She felt absolutely stunned. He hadn't mentioned anyone. He didn't have time to have got into a real relationship. She'd always imagined that getting Mulder to fall in love was like waiting for the mountains to get worn down by erosion. Sure it could happen but don't hold your breath waiting for it. So the idea that he might be declaring that he was in love with someone was outrageous. 'In too deep', what sort of a gutless phrase was that? He could scarcely have had time to get to know them. She was horrified.

At last she spoke. "A bit sudden isn't it? I didn't know you were seeing anyone."

He closed his eyes for an instant then looked down at her. His eyes looked dark, bright, dangerous. "I see her almost every day."

Scully took the words in. They played back through her head. Almost every day. She tried to think who the description could apply to. She tried to think of something to say.

He took pity on her and himself. "Come on Scully. Protect me from them. Let's dance."

She nodded her head and let herself be led to the dance floor.

They stopped abruptly and Dana realised that while she was daydreaming. Skinner was talking to Mulder. Mulder turned to her. "Security alert. Come on. Time to go work."

THURSDAY

She realised he was waiting for her to speak, looking at her with soft bright eyes. Eyes that made her think of deep, still pools. Sometimes she thought, it would be so easy to dive into them. And, she reminded herself, so easy to drown in them.

She breathed deeply and feigned a sneezing fit to give her an essential few seconds to come up with a story. She needed this break even more than she thought. The plan took shape. She smiled sweetly. "It's a kind offer but I'm afraid I am going away, but it's just for one week. I didn't really want to go for two weeks on my own so I'll save up the time for when Jenny gets well. I was planning on coming back to work next week so Skinner won't have to worry about you."

No way. Absolutely no way. No way was that what she had been thinking. And no way was that what she had said earlier. She didn't know when or if she was going away because she had cancelled her hotel. Not changed her booking. She'd said she was spending her holidays the house and visiting relatives. Next time he interrogated her he would get it on tape. Better still, on video with the time and date stamp displayed.

He nodded politely and let her off the hook.

Yeah - ok. I know I don't do romantic comedy. But I'm writing something tricky at the moment and needed a breather.