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mldrgrl · 7 years

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msr headcanon: Scully takes Mulder to her high school reunion pretending he's her husband bc she's embarrassed that she's one of the only people of her class that isn't already married

Reunitedby mldrgrlRated PGSummary: This isn’t totally what you wanted, Anon, I’m sorry, but it’s the only way I can see it.

From time to time, mail still arrived at the house for Scully. Technically, it arrived at the PO Box Mulder maintained where they used to collect their mail, but it had been his alone for two years. At first, he used the trickle of mail that came through to call her, knowing full well it was mostly junk she’d never want, but it was the only legitimate excuse he had for awhile. It had been quite awhile since her name showed up in his PO Box, but he didn’t need excuses anymore since he saw her nearly every day at work.

He brought her the Alumni Newsletter she received with a cup of coffee. She thanked him for both, took a sip of the coffee, and then through the newsletter in the trash after a mere glance.

“You're not going to read it?” Mulder asked, retrieving the sealed booklet from the trash can.

“A high school newsletter? I don't think I've ever read one.”

“Hm.” Mulder ripped the circle of tape holding the pages together and opened it up. “Rosalee O’Brien hyphen Bingham, senior class president, announces the 35th reunion for the graduates of the class-”

“I know what year I graduated,” she said, reaching across his desk to take the newsletter back. “No need to remind me.”

“You don't want to go? It's in…” Mulder paused and held the newsletter up and away from Scully's searching fingers. “June.”

“We don't know where we'll be in June. A case could come up.”

“Never heard of personal time?”

Unable to grab the newsletter, Scully crossed her arms. “Mulder, you wouldn't know personal time if it walked through the door and bit you on the ass.”

“Well, things change.” He gave her the newsletter which she folded and put in her briefcase.

Scully sat down with her coffee in front of Mulder's desk. “What's on the agenda today?”

“I think we should go.”

“We?”

“We haven't been to a reunion since Kroner, Kansas.”

“You say that like it's the same as going to a movie.”

“What kind of movie?”

Scully rolled her eyes a little and reached over to take the file off Mulder's desk since he didn't seem to want to share it with her. The conversation about the reunion fell by the wayside as he finally started presenting her with the known and unknown information on their new case.

Two months later, Scully was packing up her briefcase for the night when Mulder swiveled in his seat and leaned back to look at her.

“What time should I pick you up?” he asked.

“For?”

“The reunion’s tomorrow.”

“The what?”

“Your high school reunion.”

“How in the hell did you even remember that?”

“It's been on my calendar for weeks. You didn't mark it down?”

Scully snapped her briefcase shut and gave him the eyebrow. “I never RSVPed,” she said.

“Sure you did.”

“Mulder…”

“Did you know that Rosalee O’Brien hyphen Bingham is married to a dentist? Two kids, Paul Jr. and Mary Katherine, after her mother, but they call her Kate. Paul Jr. just joined the practice with his dad and Kate's finding herself in Europe. Nice lady. Can't wait to see you.”

Scully dropped into the chair across from Mulder's desk and glared at him. “I can't believe you would...you would just…”

“It'll be fun.”

“I highly doubt that.”

Mulder pursed his lips and then sat up straight and smoothed his tie down his chest. “Remember back when we were on the road and we used to...talk?”

“Yes.”

“You said once that you thought it was so strange to look back at your life and know that anyone who ever knew you before you went on the run with me was never going to know you again.”

“And you thought that meant I wanted to then go to my high school reunion ten years later?”

Mulder looked down at his desk and gave a small shrug. “I can call Rosalee and tell her something came up.”

“No,” Scully said, quickly. “No, don't do that.”

“But, you don't want to go.”

“No. No, I would rather stay home and think about ways to kill you and make it look like an accident.”

Mulder grimaced. “I thought you liked high school.”

“I did. For the most part.”

“So why don't you want to go?”

“I don't know.”

They had reached a stalemate of sorts. Mulder knew when not to pry, and Scully really couldn't offer more of an explanation.

“What time is this happening and where?” Scully asked.

“Downtown Baltimore, 7 o’ clock.”

“And you really want to go to this?”

“I do.”

“Why?”

“It's not often I get to meet people who knew you before you were my Scully,” he said, and then quickly added, “the Scully I know.”

Scully licked the sloped her upper lip and looked away from Mulder. “Alright,” she said, standing and picking up her briefcase. “Pick me up at 6:30.”

“Okay.”

Their first exchange with a former classmate, Tracy Llewllyn nee Parker, was a shining example of what Scully couldn’t explain to Mulder as a reason for not wanting to attend her reunion. Tracy was manning the nametags outside the door of the hotel ballroom the reunion was being held in. Scully tried to dredge up some sort of memory of the woman, but her mind was a blank.

“Dana Scully,” Tracy said, handing her a badge with Scully’s name and a smaller, black and white version of her senior photo underneath. “I remember you.”

“You do?” Scully asked.

“We had chemistry together. Andy Teller almost got expelled for cheating off your mid-term.”

That was not a memory Scully was particularly fond of, especially when she’d had to reject Andy’s claim that she’d allowed him to copy from her paper. She forced a weak smile as she affixed her nametag to her blazer.

“You must be Dana’s husband,” Tracy said to Mulder, handing him a blank tag and a Sharpie. “Just write your name down there.”

“He’s my partner,” Scully clarified.

“Oh, of course you’d be one of those modern girls,” Tracy said with a laugh. “It’s a wonder you even got married. I don’t think anyone would’ve expected that of you.”

“Why is that?” Scully asked, barely keeping the annoyance out of her voice.

“You were always so independent,” Tracy answered, somewhat hushed, as though it was a secret. “So what do you do now?”

“Scully’s a surgeon,” Mulder interjected, dropping the Sharpie back on the table in front of Tracy.

“A surgeon!”

“Well,” Scully said. “Actually-”

“Did you just call her Scully?” Tracy asked.

“Force of habit,” Mulder answered, taking a moment to affix his name badge. “We work together.”

“Oh, are you a surgeon as well...Mulder?”

“FBI.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I’m a forensic pathologist,” Scully said. “For the FBI.”

“You still work now that you’re married?”

“You know,” Mulder said, putting his arm around Scully’s waist. “Nice meeting you Tracy, but I think there’s a few people who just walked in the door that need nametags and we don’t want to keep you from it.”

Scully had felt the anger rising in her chest, bringing heat to her cheeks. If Mulder hadn’t pulled her away when he did, Tracy was about to be on the bad end of a verbal lashing. She didn’t have to remember the woman specifically to know she was probably going to encounter a lot of women like her in that ballroom. She’d gone to school with a lot of girls whose singular ambition was to find a Catholic husband, get married in the church, and produce a lot of Catholic babies. That wasn’t on Scully’s agenda, and it probably wouldn’t have been so strange if she’d been in high school today, but of the eighty or some odd kids she graduated with, she knew only a small percentage of them even went on to college, male or female.

“Why did you tell Tracy I was a surgeon?” Scully asked Mulder as they entered the ballroom.

“You are,” he said.

“Not anymore. And I wasn’t ever really...I mean, I have performed surgeries, but…”

“What do you want to be tonight, then? Doctor? Special Agent? Nuclear physicist? Oh, I bet you could pass for some kind of lawyer if you wanted to.”

“FBI is fine. And why did you let Tracy think you were my husband?”

“You’re the one that did that.”

“No, I didn’t, I told her you were my partner.”

“Scully, it’s synonymous to a lady like her.”

Scully sighed.

The ballroom was tastefully decorated with round tables with white linen tablecloths. A buffet was on one side of the room and a DJ was at the head, playing music that was popular in her senior year that he’d probably had to Google because he barely looked old enough to drink. The current choice was Pete Townshend’s Let My Love Open the Door and a handful of people were dancing in the center floor.

“Unbelievable,” Scully murmured.

“What?” Mulder asked.

Scully nodded slightly to the left. “The woman at that table was my junior year trigonometry teacher.”

“That woman has to be a hundred years old,” he whispered back to Scully. “Are you sure?”

“She looks exactly the same, even without the wimple and habit.”

“Your trig teacher was a hundred year old nun?”

“Shhh…” Scully chuckled slightly and gave Mulder a mild backwards slap on the shoulder with her knuckles.

“Recognize anyone else?”

“I don’t think so.”

“I’m dying to know what Dana Scully’s high school crush looks like now, so be sure to point him out when you see him.”

“My high school crush didn’t go to my school. He went to Missy’s.”

“You and Melissa didn’t go to the same school?”

“Missy refused to go to Catholic school past eighth grade. She told our parents if they sent her anywhere but public school, she’d not only find a way to get expelled, she’d get excommunicated.”

Mulder laughed and Scully smiled at the memory of her sister threatening their parents with enough vehemence that instead of punishment, she actually got what she wanted. Bill had been so annoyed that their sister wasn’t obeying the natural law of things, but Bill’s rigidity meant he was always annoyed at something.

Scully wandered the room with Mulder at her side. In one corner someone had set up a table with a yearbook, a posterboard of old photos and a few class papers to peruse. Mulder went for the newspaper while Scully inspected the photos. Seeing the faces of her classmates jogged her memory a bit and she was able to pick out a few by name.

“Looks like your basketball team wasn’t all that bad,” Mulder said.

“Don’t remember. Don’t think I ever went to a game, actually.”

“Chicken fingers will no longer be available in the cafeteria on Tuesdays, only Thursdays. Harsh.”

“But, always fish sticks on Fridays.”

“Hey, Scully, you’re in here.” Mulder opened the paper for her and she leaned closer. “Senior debate team wins city finals. There’s a picture.”

“That’s as far as we got. We lost in regionals.”

“Bummer. Left to right, Lisa Cunningham, Michael Smith, Dana Scully, Holly Campbell, and Rick Flanagan.”

“I wonder if Lisa will be here. I’d be curious to know what she’s been up to.”

“No love for the other three?”

“Lisa was the most ambitious.”

“Not you?”

“Next to me.” She smiled at him and he closed the paper.

They picked up some hors d'oeuvres from the buffet and sat down at an empty table for awhile. A few people came up to chat, but it was clear they really didn’t know each other aside from a few shared teachers they could remember. Mulder did finally get to meet Rosalee and her husband Paul, and they chatted like old friends for a bit, but Rosalee couldn’t sit down, she had people to greet.

At some point, the lights in the room dimmed just a little and more people began to gather at the dance floor. Scully began to wonder when she might be able to convince Mulder it was time to leave when he suddenly stood up and offered her his hand. She looked up at him, puzzled.

“Dance with me,” he said.

“Now?”

“No, at your fortieth reunion. Come on, Scully. Get up and dance with me.”

Scully took Mulder’s hand and he led her towards the dance floor. Endless Love was playing. She shook her head a little at him as he folded his hand over hers and put his other one at her hip. She rested her arm over his so that her other hand lay on the back of his shoulder and they swayed casually, but she felt a little ridiculous. He was dancing with her like they were in junior high and had never danced before.

“What are you doing?” she asked him.

“Leaving room for the holy ghost.”

Scully chuckled and stepped closer to him. He immediately wrapped his arm around her and pulled her up to his chest. Their joined hands came to rest near her chin. It was both familiar and comfortable.

“It’s been awhile since you’ve danced with me,” Mulder said.

“It’s been awhile since you’ve asked.”

“Maybe I thought you’d turn me down.”

Scully didn’t respond, and for a few moments, she just closed her eyes and swayed with him. He let go of her hand and brought his other arm down around her waist, crossing his wrists at the small of her back. She hooked her arms under his and splayed her hands against the back of his shoulders. He nuzzled her hair and she ran her hands up and down his back, but suddenly his posture changed a little and she looked up at him.

“Three o’clock,” Mulder said, without even looking at her. “I think that’s...I think that’s Rick, from your debate team.”

Scully glanced over to where Mulder indicated and her brows lifted into tiny peaks. “I think you’re right,” she said.

“Want to say hello?”

“I do, actually.”

Mulder loosened his hold on her and Scully backed out of his embrace, but she took his hand and led him from the dance floor. Rick stood off to the side sipping punch. He looked like he was trying to remain inconspicuous, but with his clergy collar, he stood out.

“Rick Flanagan?” Scully asked. “Or, should I say, Father Flanagan?”

Rick smiled and lowered the plastic cup in his hand. “Dana Scully,” he said. “What would you like to argue about today?”

Scully returned his smile and Mulder chuckled.

“This is my...this is Mulder,” Scully said.

Mulder and Rick shook hands.

“You don’t have to guess what I’ve gone on to do with my life,” Rick said. “Tell me what you’ve been up to.”

“FBI,” Scully said.

“Ah, I would’ve guessed lawyer. Never met anyone who loved an argument as much as you.”

“That hasn’t changed,” Mulder said.

“Don’t think I won’t shoot you in front of a priest, Mulder.”

“She’s just kidding, she left her weapon at home.”

“How’s your mother, Dana?” Rick asked. “I just remembered those days we would study at your house and your mom would put out the most delicious cookies I’d ever had.”

Scully hesitated a moment. “She passed a few months ago, I’m afraid.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. I’ll say a prayer for her soul.”

“I appreciate that, thank you.”

They talked for a few more minutes and then Mulder excused himself to use the restroom. A few minutes after that, Scully excused herself as well and went to wait for Mulder in the lobby. When he came back, she took his hand and steered him to the door.

“We’re leaving?” he asked.

“I only have so much social engagement in me,” she said. “Let’s walk for a bit though, before we get the car. It’s a nice night.”

“Sure.”

They walked hand in hand down the Baltimore streets. Scully pointed a few places out to Mulder that she used to frequent in high school, or where those places used to be. They circled back after awhile and Mulder gave the ticket to the valet to get their car. As they waited, Scully put her arms around Mulder and rested her chin on his chest.

“Thank you,” she said.

“For what?” he asked.

“Making me come.”.

A mischievous grin spread across his face. “No need to thank me,” he said. “I always loved making yo-”

Scully reached up and put a hand over his mouth before he could finish the thought. She shook her head at him and fought a smile. He kissed the center of her palm and she took her hand away.

“It was actually really nice just to be out with you,” she said.

“We could do it more often, you know.”

“I’d like that, Mulder. I’d like it a lot.”

“I would too.”

Scully smiled and then turned her head and rested her cheek against his chest as they waited for the car.

The End

#i wrote this #xf fanfic #msr #revival era #Anonymous

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