Title: Twist
Author: fran58
Feedback to: fran58@WonderHorse.net
http://www.WonderHorse.net or
http://www.WonderHorse.net/authorspgs/fran58/fran58.htm
Category: Story, Angst
Rating: NC-17
Distribution: Wherever - just let me know.
Spoilers: Lots, probably – goes off into its own universe sometime after
Amor Fati
Disclaimer: X-Files Characters owned by Chris Carter, Ten Thirteen
Productions and 20th Century Fox.
Summary:  Scully/Other, Mulder/Other
         Scully lunches with her mother,
        UST and a do-re-mi,
       Mulder gets to climb a tree.
Or: Mulder and Scully are confused and angst ridden.  The Gunmen make an
appearence.

Author’s Note: My beta’s are gods.  Really.  Thanks to addicted2fanfic
for her friendship, support and hand holding and to the terrifying
FabulousMonster for knowing more about the English language than anyone
should.  And thanks to Tesla for a kind word.


Twist

The knocking woke her – a siren’s call in the form of a fist hitting
wood.  Automatically, she reached for her robe and stumbled out of the
bedroom, following instinct and sound. Barely awake, she didn’t even
blink when she opened the door and Mulder stood in front of her.  All
those years of his late night visits kicked in and she stepped back to
admit him.  It wasn’t until he was fully in her apartment that she woke
up enough to realize she hadn’t seen him in nearly two years.

“Well, to what do I owe the honor?”  She said quietly, not really
believing he could be standing in front of her.

Mulder shrugged.  “Just thought I would stop in and say ‘hi’.”

“At two in the morning?  After two years?”  She leaned in closer and
made a show of sniffing the air surrounding him.  “Have you been
drinking?”

“I’ve been dreaming.  Bad things.  You were dead.  There were
vultures...”  he paused.  “For months, I’ve been dreaming.”

She continued to stare.  “You had bad dreams and decided you needed to
check up on me?  Now?  Mulder...”

Mulder shrugged again, gave her a lopsided smile and lifted the paper
bag she had just noticed he was carrying.  “I brought coffee.”

“Okay... I guess I’ll offer you a seat then.”  Scully nodded at the
couch and moved to the arm chair, pulling her robe tighter.  “But I
don’t have a lot of time, Mulder.”

And there they sat, unmoving.  The silence of the night hung between
them like translucent glass.  Mulder finally stirred and set the bag on
the coffee table, removed two cups and handed one to Scully.  She
reached for the beverage awkwardly.

“So, Scully, I like your hair.”  His voice sounded abnormally loud and
strained quiet room.  “It’s longer, I like the way you’re letting it
curl some.”

“You woke me up in the middle of the night, after two years, to tell me
you like my hair?”  She was having trouble believing Mulder was flesh
and blood, and not a figment of her imagination.  He looked much the
same.  His hair was a bit longer, too, and he had a tan.  She thought
that maybe she could see some gray starting to peek through the brown.
A few more lines, but essentially the same face as she knew two years
ago.

It felt odd to be in his presence once again, as if he had never left
and as if an eon had passed at the same time. Trust Mulder to waltz back
into her life like nothing had ever happened.  Some deeply buried part
of her wanted to rejoice, but was overshadowed by the part that
remembered the pain and humiliation.  Scully drew a breath, knowing that
she really could not articulate her feelings, but should try.  She was
distracted by a glimpse of orange stealthily stalking Mulder’s
unsuspecting left foot.  The animal edged closer, gathered himself
together, and pounced, catching Mulder’s ankle with his claws.

“Ow, dammit!  What the hell was that?”

Score one for the home team, Scully thought, suppressing a smile.  Aloud
she said , “That’s Captain Marvel.”

“I thought you were a dog person.”

“I like cats, too.”

“Where’d you get him?”  Mulder reached a hand down tentatively, and
stroked the cat’s back.

“Langly found him lurking around the alley behind their building.  He
thought I should have him, to cheer me up.  Plus, he matches my hair.”
Scully shrugged.  “Langly logic.”

“To cheer you up?”

She fixed him with a look.  “Langly found Marvel a year ago last
November.  A few months after you decided my existence on earth wasn’t
worth acknowledging.”  The words came out brittle and hard.

“I see.”  Mulder withdrew his hand from the cat and shifted in his seat.

Scully waited for more, but nothing seemed forthcoming.  She leaned back
against the chair trying to sort through the rush of emotions Mulder
brought up.

Sighing, she said,  “I don’t know about you, Mulder, but I have a job I
need to get to bright and early.  The coffee was a nice gesture, but...”
her voice trailed off.  Mulder suddenly sat bolt upright, and was
shushing her.

“Scully, there’s someone in your apartment,”  he said, craning his head
around.  Scully could see now that his hair was long enough in the back
to brush the soft, blue collar of his T-shirt.

“You mean besides me and you?”

He nodded, reaching around to his back and she heard the pop of a snap
being released.

“Mulder, you don’t need your gun.  Why on earth do you have a weapon
with you, anyhow?  You’re not with any law enforcement anymore.”

“I don’t need my gun?”

“No, it’s all right, it just a - “ her voice trailed off as the bedroom
door opened and a dark haired figure stepped out, stretching, rubbing
his eyes.  “It’s just a friend, Mulder.  It’s okay.”

“A friend.”

“Yes,” her voice had gone soft.  She felt a smile play around her lips
as she watched Leo scrub his face and attempt to flatten his hair.

Mulder leaned back and slouched, entrenching himself in the sofa.

The other man gave Scully a sleepy smile combined with a questioning
look.  “Hey, I thought I heard voices.”  He caught sight of Mulder and
extended his hand.  “I’m Leandro Vega,“ he said approaching Mulder, who
was forced to slide forward on the couch, and then stand in order to
shake hands.

“Fox Mulder.”

“No way.  Dana’s old partner?”  A grin spread across Leo’s face.  His
teeth were white and even against his skin  “I never figured I’d get the
chance to meet you.”

“Mmm, well... I was just leaving.”

Leo waved his hand.  “No, no, don’t bother.  I’m on my way out.  I have
an early day tomorrow anyhow.”  He glanced at Scully.  “Walk me to the
door?”

Scully nodded and followed him.  She could see Mulder shift and turn his
head when she reached up to give the other man a peck on the cheek and
murmur to him, low and sweet.  Mulder shifted again and she felt a
twinge of annoyance –  he was the interloper here.  She shouldn’t have
to monitor her actions.

When the door closed, Scully turned to face Mulder.

“So tell me, what’s the real reason for this visit?”

Mulder shrugged, suddenly deflated.  “Stopping by seemed like a good
idea at the time.”

“In the middle of the night?  Why not just call me?  It isn’t as if you
don’t have my number.”

“I wanted to make sure you would be here.  I didn’t want to give you the
chance to hang up on me.”

She nodded.  “I might have.”

“I know.”

“Look, I tried to call, but it seemed too impersonal.  I thought I
should make nice in person.  I just needed to see that you were all
right.”

“Your timing still needs work, Mulder.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, it’s late, I need to get back to sleep.  You can let yourself
out, right?”  Without waiting for a reply, she turned and started toward
her bedroom.

“Scully, wait... please,” said Mulder, his voice unsteady.

“No, Mulder, I can’t.  I really can’t stand here and pretend we’re old
friends catching up.  If you really want to talk, come back another
time.  Call first.  I can’t stand to think that you might just be here
to kill time, or whatever you think you’re doing.  I couldn’t stand to
have you walk out again.”  Her voice broke.

“You’re the one who left me.”  Mulder’s voice was tight.  Out of the
corner of her eye, Scully could see him ball his hands into fists.

“I went on vacation, Mulder, *vacation*.  I went to see relatives in
Ireland.  That’s it.”

“You took a leave of absence - for three months.  That’s one hell of a
vacation.”

“Well, that’s all it was.”

*************************


“Well, look what the cat dragged in.  And at such an early hour, too.”
Frohike closed the thick door against the lightening day and began to
re-fasten the locks.

Mulder stopped a short way from the door and turned to Frohike.  “Yeah,
sorry about that.  I didn’t really think about the time.”

Frohike shrugged and grunted.  “We were up anyway.”

Mulder took in the surroundings, blinking through the dim light.  It
*had* been a while.  Well over a year, most probably, since he had
stopped to see the Gunmen.  Not much had changed.  In fact, Mulder could
have sworn Langly was hunched over that very same PC the last time he
was here.  And Frohike was wearing his frightfully familiar furry vest
accessorized by black gloves, with the fingers cut out.  The only
missing piece was Byers.

“So where’s Dapper Dan?”  Mulder asked.

“Byers went out for some breakfast,”  Langly answered from his stations
without taking his eyes from the monitor.  “We’ve been up all night.
I’m not too sure he’s going to greet you with open arms, Mulder.”

Mulder nodded.  “Right.  Well.”  He moved further into the room.  “What
are you working on?”

“Just a side project running down some anomalous DNA sequences your
part..., uh, Agent Scully came across a while back.  She thought it
might interest Byers and I’m helping him out with it.”  At the mention
of Scully’s name, Langly pushed his thick black frames up with one
finger in a nervous gesture.

“It’s ok, Langly, we all know she isn’t my partner anymore.”
“Boy do we ever.”  Mulder started slightly at the sound of Byers voice
so close behind him.

“You know, Byers, I get that you’re angry with me.  You made that clear
last year when I was here.  But I can’t figure out why, after all this
time, you still carry a grudge.  It just doesn’t seem like you.  What
horrible thing have I done?”

“Besides the whole Scully business, you mean?  Nothing, probably.  That
was enough.”  Turning his back on Mulder he said to Frohike, “I got all
the fixings, eggs, milk, mix and blueberries.  I’ll put it in the
kitchen.”

Mulder watched Byers move away stiffly, aware that other man was
practically seething.

Mulder turned to Frohike when Byers was out of earshot.  “I meant what I
said, I really don’t get it.  I understand why he was angry initially,
but now?  Why carry that anger with him for so long?”

Frohike moved to stand in front of Mulder.  “He’s angry on Scully’s
behalf.  We all were, Mulder, but especially Byers.  He and Scully have
become... muy simpatico since you disappeared  He feels like you turned
your back on a friend.”

“Yeah, you squished her like a bug,”  Langly said staring again at his
monitor.  “A little, red-headed bug.  You didn’t even invite her to your
wedding.  That sucked.”

Mulder sighed and flapped his arms up and down in a useless motion.  “I
know, I know.”  He turned to Frohike.  “What about you?  How come you
aren’t running me off the family farm, too?”

“Eh, I’m too old for that crap.”  Frohike waved a gloved hand.
“Besides, I figure you had your reasons.”  He scratched at his neck.
“Byers is upset about the Susanne situation, too.  There’s been nada
communicación lately.  He’s stressing over that.  Happened once before.
It’s always hard on him.”  Frohike paused, shifting on his feet.  “So,
how is the freelancing?  Is that organization we hooked you up with
working out for you?”

“They’re working out.  They put me onto some other groups that have been
helpful.  Things are moving along -- Karen’s been supportive.  That
helps,”  Mulder answered, relieved to talk about something else.
“Between them and a certain agent-who-will-remain-nameless filtering
pertinent information through you three, I’ve been able to keep on top
of things.  I’m lucky to have a few contacts left in law enforcement
that are willing to do the occasional favor.”

There was a sudden snort from Langly.  “So how come you never answered
Scully’s calls?”  he persisted, still glued to the screen in front of
him, not looking at Mulder.  “The least you could do is thank her for
only risking her job and passing along highly valuable information.”

Mulder shrugged.  He could hardly explain his reticence about contacting
Scully to himself , much less anyone else.  Guilt, he knew, was a major
part, but he wasn’t about to start a dialog on all the crap buried in
the trenches of his psyche with Goldilocks.  Not now, anyway.

Mulder felt a bubble of annoyance at the protective attitude the two
were displaying, and at Byers’s huffiness.  He tamped down his feeling
and asked in what he hoped was a reasonable voice: “I was hoping to get
you guys to do a little digging for me.”

Frohike nodded.  “What, exactly did you have in mind?”

“A guy named Leandro Vega.  I need...”  his voice trailed off as Frohike
held up a hand.

“Already done, my friend.  Scully asked us to do it herself some time
ago.”

“Last year,” put in Langly.  He had finally pulled his attention away
from the monitor, swivelled in his seat, and focused on Mulder.  His
hair was pulled back in a ponytail that swung as he moved.  “He’s an
okay guy.  Plays a mean game of Tetris.  Came to our New Year’s bash in
January.  Too bad you couldn’t make it.  Turned out to be a blast.”

Mulder ignored the dig and turned to Frohike.  “So what kind of
information did Scully want?”

“The same thing I expect you want to know.  Was he really what he
appeared to be, was he affiliated with the Smoking Goon in any way.
That sort of thing.”

Mulder had some other specific pieces of information in mind, as well as
what Frohike had outlined, but let it pass.  “So what did you turn up?”

“Nothing of any consequence.  The guy is what he appears to be.  No
apparent interest in conspiracies, secret governments or aliens.”

“What else?  You said nothing of any consequence.  What are you leaving
out?”

Langly turned back to his monitor, fingers tapping away.  “He had an
arrest record, but it was from a long time ago.”

“And...”

Langly shrugged.  “And, it’s of no consequence.”

Mulder felt the bubble of frustration rising again.  “Langly –“

“Mulder,”  Frohike broke in.  “The arrest was when he was practically a
kid.  He was just eighteen and still in high school.”

“Go on,” said Mulder.

Frohike sighed softly.  “He was arrested for statutory rape, but he beat
the charge.”

“Power to the people,” said Langly.

“*Rape*?  This is of no consequence?”

“*Statutory* rape.  Not forced.”  Mulder snorted, but Frohike shrugged
and went on.  “He was getting too friendly with his sixteen-year old
girlfriend.  They were in high school.  She was from a rather prominent
family, and when daddy found out his little girl was screwing some no
account kid from a poor family, he called in a few favors and had Leo
arrested.”

Langly picked up the thread and continued.  “Fortunately for Leo, the
judge threw the case out.”

Mulder considered Langly.  It wasn’t like him to be so gung-ho about
someone.  “You a big fan of his, or what, Langly.  Because he plays a
good game of Tetris?”

Langly pushed away from the computer he was working on abruptly, lips
drawn in a thin line as he turned to face Mulder.  “You’re something,
you know?  You walk away from Scully, walk away from us, barely keep in
touch and expect us to kowtow when you decide to honor us with your
mighty presence?  Forget it, man.  You’re on your own.”

Mulder watched as Langly stalked off in the direction Byers had taken
minutes before.  He turned to Frohike, frustration written on his face.

“I know, I know, both he and Byers have their jockstraps in a knot
lately.  Leo helped Langly’s cousin out, the one he’s really tight with
– got her out of a sticky situation.  Langly’s been a devoted fan ever
since.”

“I guess I’m out numbered here, huh?”

Frohike waved a gloved hand.  “Langly will cool off.  He’s probably
feeling like you came in here gunning for Leo and over-reacted.”  He
studied Mulder for a moment.  “That isn’t what you came for, is it?”

Mulder shrugged.  “I don’t really know exactly what I was hoping to
find.”  He hesitated.  “I stopped by Scully’s apartment tonight – I
wasn’t expecting – anyone else to be there.  It threw me.”  He paused
again, willing himself to keep his voice level.  “So tell me about this
guy.”

“Leandro Vega, born July twenty third, nineteen sixty eight in Chicago.
Father emigrated from Guatemala, mother was born in Ohio.  One arrest,
which you know about.  Good grades through high school, went on to
obtain a Bachelor’s degree in Social Welfare from Illinois State
University.  He currently runs a recreation center for Intervention Now
– they’re a foundation that supports different social programs designed
to keep kids off the streets.  Oh yeah, he was the Chicago middle weight
youth boxing champion in nineteen, umm, eighty five?  Can’t remember the
name of the league at the moment.”

“Well, that accounts for his manly handshake,” said Mulder dryly.

“Yeah, the guy’s still in good shape.  I oughta hire him as my personal
trainer.”

Mulder gave a short laugh.  “Oh yeah, Frohike, now that’s something to
aspire to.  I’m sure he’d jump at that”

“Hey, stranger things have happened,” Frohike paused.  “So are you going
to tell me what you were doing at Scully’s?”

Mulder sighed.  “Trying to fix what’s broken, I think.”

“And your wife doesn’t mind that you’re out in the middle of the night
calling on other women?”

“Woman, Frohike – just one.  And no, Karen doesn’t mind.  I guess she’s
gotten used to my odd hours.  Besides, she’s out of town.”

“Uh-huh.”  Frohike sounded unconvinced.

“For a convention, Melvin.  A convention.  I’m a free man this week.”

Frohike nodded.  “I see.  So, you get what you came for?”

“I guess.  I just wanted to touch base with you guys.  The information
on Vega was incidental.  I was going to stop by anyhow.”  Mulder paused
and groped for the right words.  Nothing was going the way he’d
planned.  He felt out of sorts, slightly jumpy and stiff, like the
wooden puppet he owned as a child.  He was suddenly tired and wanted to
be home.  Home was safe.  No one would glare at him there and remind him
of what a schmuck he had been.  He dropped down into a nearby chair,
suddenly weary.

“What can I do, Frohike?  I want to put things right.  With Scully, with
Langly and Byers, with you.  I just don’t know *how* to put it right.”

“You could start by apologizing,” Frohike suggested, moving to a chair
in the other man’s vicinity and leaning toward him. “Scully was pretty
broken up, you know,” he said in a low voice, as if telling a secret.

Mulder nodded, matching his tone to Frohike’s.  “I know.  I was a little
broken up about that time myself.”

“Your relapse and the hospital, I know.  But Scully didn’t know, did
she?  And when she got back you had already pulled up stakes.  I don’t
think you understand how hard it hit her.  She’s always so collected,
that to see her fall apart like  that was... I can’t even begin to
explain the effect it had on those of us around her.  It was like
watching a tree die.  Little by little the leaves dry up and fall off,
leaving nothing but the naked limbs.”

“Wow, that was almost poetic, Frohike.  In a sick sort of way.”

“Fine, make jokes.  You weren’t here to see her, to see what happened.
She was like a sleepwalker with just a body, nothing inside.  On top of
that, during a case, she was exposed to a pathogen that made her sick.
Skinner forced her to take medical leave.  He threatened to have her
hospitalized if she didn’t.  You can imagine how she felt about that.”

Muler shifted, the chair suddenly too hard beneath him.  Christ, what a
mess.  Guilt and helplessness battled for prominence.  He wanted to fix
things, but had no idea where to start.

*************************

cont'd in part two