Moving On
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: none really
Category: DRR-MS Married –AU
Summary: Mulder and Doggett are talking about partners, friendship and love.
Disclaimer: 1013 and CC own them.
Notes: I really appreciate Doggett and Reyes and I feel the need to tell their story too with a little help from Mulder and Scully. It’s my first try at DRR.
Thanks to my two wonderful friends Xdks and Tali for their work on this story and for the support they give me on a daily basis!
***
He was pacing the basement office nervously. Where the hell was she? If he tried to be really honest, the real question should have been: With whom?
She
had left for lunch at
He had to admit, it was his fault. She wasn’t going to wait for him forever. His partner was an attractive and intelligent woman and she had just to smile and the men were on their knees. He had tried to ask her out but had spent too much time rehearsing his speech and had lost his nerves. He was over his ex-wife now. He was ready to move on. The wounds of the past had healed when he realised that he wasn’t in love with his ex anymore.
He was still pacing when someone entered the office and cleared his throat. He jumped, in surprise. They seldom had visitors and he wasn’t in the mood for chit chat.
“Doggett?”
“Mulder! Sorry I was..”
“…lost in thought. I saw that. I was wondering if you were free for lunch?”
“Where’s Dana?”
“My wife has left me to my own devices. She’s gone to meet Monica for
lunch, as you probably know. I am not due at
Doggett felt relieved at the news. So Monica was out with Dana. There was still hope after all. His spirit rose.
“Okay but just remember one thing, your wife has explicitly threatened certain parts of my anatomy if I tell you anything about any X-File…so no shop talk!”
Mulder smiled smugly. He knew all about his wife’s threat to Doggett. Scully didn’t want them involved in the X-Files anymore. It had been the promise she asked of him before agreeing to marry him, and he had accepted without a hint of regret. The conspiracy seemed to be dead or at least dormant and as long as there wasn’t any imminent danger, he had adopted a low profile. The safety of his family took precedence.
“No shop talk then.”
Mulder sat down and looked around the office, feeling nostalgic. He had spent the worst and the best days of his life here. Now it belonged to Doggett and Reyes, but didn’t seem all that different. He could see the attraction between the two agents, born of friendship and a totally diverging vision of the world. John Doggett was the epitome of scepticism while Monica Reyes was ready to believe. It was another match made in heaven and he couldn’t help but smile at the way fate had paired another sceptic with a firm believer.
Doggett sat in front of Mulder trying to decipher the man. At first, he had not appreciated this man very much because of his beliefs and because of his reputation. He had got to know him through Dana Scully: This woman of science, who believed in the paranormal because of her association with Mulder, couldn’t be a crackpot too. He quickly understood that the bond Mulder and Scully had formed was beyond friendship and partnership. Once he had learned of the pregnancy, he’d had no more doubts. They had a personal relationship and some part of him couldn’t help but suspect that Mulder had knocked her up and run away to avoid his responsibilities. He’d been ashamed of these initial suspicions when he had stumbled on Mulder’s dead body in that clearing.. The agent had clearly been tortured to death and what had he really done to find Mulder? Nothing. Scully never ceased to believe while he had accepted gossip as proof.
When Mulder was miraculously resurrected, they had fought over everything and anything. Mulder had suspected him of being a player in the conspiracy game and had been jealous of his relationship with Scully. He’d wanted his X-Files back, but after the oil rig incident, Mulder had quit the FBI to save his sorry ass and they had come to a new understanding. Since then they had been able to build something. Doggett couldn’t exactly call it friendship, but they were working on it.
“What are you smiling at, Mul-dah?”
“I was remembering the good old days down here, with Scully. How is it working out with you and Monica?”
“Just fine. She is a bit of a riot but we do good work together”
“Dana told me, you knew each other before..”
“We were never romantically involved if that’s what you’re getting at” Doggett answered dryly.
“It wasn’t what I was going to ask, but it’s obviously a sore subject for you.” Mulder stated.
Doggett felt cornered. He knew that Mulder was a trained psychologist. How could he explain to this man? How could he tell him what a fool he had been all those years ago? Then he realised that maybe Mulder was one of the few who would understand because he’d had the same feelings toward Dana and had apparently taken a long time to declare his love for her.
Doggett had felt something for Monica from the beginning, when they were searching for his son. He was married to Barbara and, even if their relationship was crumbling, he couldn’t break his vows. He wasn’t the kind of man to commit adultery, so he ignored his attraction for the beautiful brunette and tried to forget about her.
“We met in 1993 after my son’s disappearance. I was a wreck and she was the only one not to treat me with kid gloves. She was caring, but understood my need to be involved in the investigation. Barbara, my wife, couldn’t get over her guilt. Luke was with her when he just…disappeared and she never really forgave herself. His death was also the end of my marriage. I couldn’t accept that I was unable to find the bastard that killed him. It became an obsession. Her guilt, my obsession. It just stopped working.”
“I understand. When I lost my sister, I became a loner. I was a loner for twenty-five years and then I realised that my one and only real friend was there, waiting for me. We had loved each other for seven years without ever saying the words and took it all for granted.”
“I’m feeling exactly that way. I feel like I’ve lost so much precious time with Monica. We are friends but we both need more. She’s ready and waiting for me to get my shit together, but maybe it’s already too late.”
“I was thinking that too but one night, Scully came to me. She’d had it with waiting and decided to take matters in her own hands. I’ve never regretted it.”
“What are you saying? I wait for her to come to me or I grab her the second she enters the office and kiss her until she can’t remember her own name?”
Mulder never got the opportunity to answer.
“Kiss who?” Reyes’ voice asked.
Monica Reyes and Dana Scully-Mulder were back from their lunch and had just caught the end of the conversation between the two men. These two men were more alike that anyone would believe, both being guilt ridden and insecure. They had suffered the same kind of loss, and their loss had weighed heavily on their relationships.
Doggett lowered his head, embarrassed at being caught by his present and former partners. Mulder turned around, plastering a victorious smile on his face. The timing had been perfect and it was time to exit with grace. He stood up and went to his radiant wife, kissing her chastely on the cheek. They were still prudent and reserved inside the FBI building. It was a remnant of their days as partners in the X-Files. He then smiled at the surprised Agent Reyes.
“Come on, Doggett, tell the lady who you want to kiss!” Mulder teased.
“Time for us to go” whispered Scully to her amused husband.
“Just when it was becoming interesting!” he whined.
“Mulder…”
“Okay…”
The two former X-Files partners left the office. A dead silence came over Reyes and Doggett. They were both embarrassed and didn’t know how to address the issue, though they couldn’t ignore the elephant in the room. They had done that for ten years now and it was time to act or to let go. Their eyes met, clear blue scanning deep brown. What they saw in each other’s depths was unconcealed love. For once, the walls were down and they could read clearly what everyone else believed to be true; they loved each other.
They covered the distance separating them as if they were in slow motion. Their arms went around each other and their lips met. There was no place for chaste. Their raw passion came immediately to the surface and their mouths opened under their respective tongues insistences. Under the insistence of their respective tongues, he held her tight against him. She moaned when she felt the effect she had on his southern anatomy. There would be time to talk and to explain, but today it would be about passion and relieving tension; they had lost too much time already. When their lips separated, they exchanged one look and all was understood on both parts. They fled the office for somewhere private to merge two starving bodies.
The end