Description: Scully/other. No romance. An attempt at humor.
Summary: Scully runs into a rather strange old college classmate.
Disclaimer: Scully, and The X-Files are property of Chris Carter and Fox - no copyright infringement intended.
All feedback is greatly appreciated at: Isis_Bastet@excite.com

* * *

The ash colored beam of headlights danced across the windshield of the 1997 Ford Taurus. Scully’s loud sigh penetrated the air, the only other audible sound being the low mumbles of the radio. Pulling a hand out of its position on the steering wheel for a quick moment, she rubbed at her eye, trying to dissolve the tiredness behind her gaze.

The turn signal clicked as she pulled off the main road and onto a narrow street leading to a local grocery store. Luckily the store was open 24 hours, and the workers in the store recognized Scully as a regular late-night customer. Stepping out into the brisk December air, Scully clutched at the sleeves of her beige colored trench coat, pulling it more tightly around her to ward off the chill. She supposed most of the other FBI agents spent weekends doing shopping, that is weekends when they were in their homes. Scully enjoyed being out at night, so she didn’t mind. These days it seemed as though she wore a constant cloud of fatigue over her head, so she paid the drowsiness no mind.

The noisy doors slid open as she entered, announcing her arrival with a series of creaks and grunts. Within moments she was trudging down an aisle, full hand held cart at her side. She normally only picked up the bare necessities if she went shopping after work, but tonight she felt less rushed, and decided to buy more than the usual amount.

Surprisingly, there were a few scattered customers in the three available lines, so Scully chose the closest line. Looking at the person in front of her, she took note of the shoulder length shaggy brown hair, and T-shirt of the tall man that read “200lbs of Whoop Ass.” Before she could decide whether or not to grin or grimace, the man turned his face to the side, its familiarity startling her. Catching her view out of the corner of his eye, the man spun around and said warmly and loudly, “Dana? Wow, is that you?”

Oh god. Missy had once told her that not remembering someone's name had to be one of the most embarrassing things that could happen to a person. At the time she had scoffed at her, but now she couldn’t have agreed more. The strong pointed nose and hooded brown eyes looking at her, were accentuated by the wide moustache and bushy eyebrows surrounding them. With his heavy, pear-shaped body and scruffy beard his hand seemed as though it was made to fit a beer can firmly in its grasp.

“You have changed so much! And look at your hair! It’s so much shorter now! Wow, you really look great!”

Stumbling blindly for an answer, humiliation flamed her face. The man appeared oblivious to her reaction, and instead pulled her into a tight hug, running his bear-like paws up and down her back. “You’ll never guess who I ran into the other day. Danny! Danny Houser!”

Memories suddenly flooded her with a blinding flash of light, as Scully sucked in a breath. Danny Houser. This had to be his old friend, then - ah, what the hell was his name. Ed? No. Ted, maybe? It had to have been something that ended with a D. Or was that his last name?

Stepping out of the hug, Scully attempted to ease the sudden awkwardness with a question. “So, what is Danny up to now anyway?”

“Woah, a very interesting story. Wait, do you wanna go get something to eat and get caught up?”

Damn.

“Uh, actually, I’m just so tired now and I don’t know how I even managed to find time to come out here.” Scully knew she was a horrible liar, and had been told so since childhood. An “honest face,” her mother had called it. To a 6yr old Scully that had simply meant that Missy could get away with stealing cookies while she could not.

Seeing his crest-fallen expression, Scully couldn’t help herself and hurriedly added, “But a rain check would be good.”

“Oh cool, how about Marge’s Diner around the corner from here.” Scully nodded, and then proceeded to make time arrangements for tomorrow night.

“So, I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

“Yeah, okay.” Scully turned and started toward the exit door.

“Oh, and Dana?”

Stopping in her tracks, she craned her head around in his direction to throw him an expectant glance.

“You really do look great.” The next thing he did made her want to spit. Or vomit she wasn’t sure which at the moment. He winked at her.

Then, without another look at her, the man turned back around and left the store.

~ ~ ~

The next day went by fast, to her great disappointment. Just my luck, she thought, when I want the day to go slow it flies.

She drove aggressively, feeling her frustration seep into the steering wheel. She was angry with herself for offering a rain check, and frustrated that she had done so. Although, trying to console her decision, that had been before the wink.

Now, she had a name and past to go with a face. His name was Wilfred Gilamor, a spoiled rich beer guzzler whose parents had decided to make something out of him after his awful high school student abilities became evident. His father had gotten him into the University of Maryland, intent on making a doctor out of him to carry on the Gilamor name. The sad thing was he didn’t trust his son enough to carry on the family business, but yet he saw no harm in having him be a doctor. After one month Will had latched onto the class genius, 17yr pre-med Danny “Houser” Vedner. Then, to the astonishment of his parents his grades began to steadily climb until he was practically on the Dean’s List. Before he had met Danny, however he had chosen to bother Scully instead, for exactly one week. During that time, if she had had a gun Will probably wouldn’t be here right now. Will had to have been the most annoying person Scully had ever come into contact with. His appearance alone was enough to make you run screaming for the hills and it was just disaster time when he opened his mouth.

Dressed sharply in a deep blue pantsuit, Scully arrived at the diner, straight from work and twenty minutes early. Choosing a spacious booth in the back, she seated herself and took a slow sip of water.

Before long, a small woman with short, cropped brunette hair appeared in front with a nametag reading ‘Kay.’

“Would you like to order now, Ma’am?”

“No, uh, I’m waiting for someone who should be here shortly so I’m going to wait.”

“Would you like anything to drink while you wait?”

“No thank you, this water’s fine.”

An hour later, an empty water glass sat in front of her as well as an empty booth. Where. The hell. Was he. Scully had been early there was no doubt about that, but definitely not an hour early. They had agreed to meet at 6:30, and it was now 7:35. And if ‘Kay’ threw one more sympathetic glance at her she was going to throw a glass of water at her. She would even take one off the table next to her, if she had to.

Five minutes later, Scully was dully glancing out the window when a large car pulled into the parking lot. Its body’s glory was shielded from view, until it parked underneath a headlight. It had to have had at least 7 different colors painted on it, and that was just for starters. Large rust spots surrounded the door’s worn handles, and when it opened the loud creak was audible through the thick glass of the window. It had to be Will, Scully had no doubt about that. Her assumption proved to be right, when the large man saw her face in the window and waved roughly, with a toothy grin on his face. Smiling wanly, Scully tilted her hand up and gave a small wave in return.

A rush of cold air greeted her along with Will, as he plopped down on the bench opposite her. “Hey there, Dana!”

His hair hung loose and scraggly around his face again, and he wore wrinkled tan khakis with a faded orange T-shirt. To Scully’s relief, no vulgar sayings adorned the shirt.

“Sorry for making you wait, the traffic was just awful and then I had to stop somewhere along the way.” Then he did it… he actually winked at her again.

Dear God, save me now.

Hoping that he would let it pass, Scully chose not to comment. Then, to her disappointment he went ahead and continued anyway.

“I had to pick up a little something for later, since we haven’t seen each other in so long.”

Scully desperately hoped that the horror she felt was not visible, as she grabbed the menu in front of her and valiantly tried to concentrate on its offerings. Thankfully, she noted that Kay was making her way over to their table.

“So, are you two both ready to order now?”

“Yes, we are,” Scully said quickly.

“Wait a second there, Danes I haven’t had a chance to look yet. Could you come back later, er-” squinting at her nametag, he finished with “Kim.”

“If you need another minute, that’s fine.”

Scully watched in dread as Kay turned to leave. Oh god, she had to stop her.

“NO!” Scully’s voice came out way louder than she expected, to her utter embarrassment. “I mean, no, I can order now while Will decides what he wants.”

~ ~ ~

Ordering was a nightmare, plain and simple. First he had ordered the turkey, only to decide later that he didn’t feel like turkey so he ordered another dinner, this time ham. Then, the ham came with peas instead of carrots so it had to get sent back for that. Meanwhile, Scully had finished her mini eggplant parmesan and was working on finishing her apple pie. By the end of the dinner, Kay was once again throwing Scully sympathetic glances.

Trying to steer the subject away anything that had to do with carrots, Scully asked, “So you mentioned yesterday you saw Danny, what’s he up to now?”

“Oh man, Danes you’re not going to believe this. He’s working for the government!”

“The government? Which branch?”

“CIA! Isn’t that just too cool! I mean, I always knew Danny was going to turn out good but I never pictured him working for the government.”

Wow, was that a surprise. She had never dreamed that she was not the only med student to switch from medicine into government. And the CIA, imagine that.

“Well, how come you haven’t asked me yet how you had the pleasure of seeing me in Georgetown?”

Stifling a groan, Scully managed to utter, “Why are you in Georgetown?”

“Business. Bet you never thought you would hear the day when I’d be saying that.”

“No, to be honest I didn’t. What kind of business?”

“My father, they opened up another warehouse near here so he wanted me down here to take a tour. I said sure, why the hell not, and I get free food.”

With that he opened his mouth and laughed. Laughed isn’t an accurate word to describe it, though - more like guffawed.

Scully couldn’t help but laugh as well, and was still smiling when his laughter quieted down.

“So, Dana, how’s life in the FBI?”

“Life in the FBI?” Arching a delicate brow, she continued. “Good, I suppose.”

“You know I never understood why you wanted to join the FBI, seemed pretty weird to me. I mean, you were always one of those chicks that had class, but you weren’t snobby about it. That’s what I liked about you so much before. You had dignity, real dignity, but without actin’ all high and mighty like some of those other rich girls did.”

“Well, I guess I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“You better! Its not often I say something worth taking as a compliment!”

Scully let out a small chuckle as Will let loose with another loud laugh.

His voice then changed, and became wistful. “That’s what I always wanted to have… dignity. I would be content with just a dash of it, but I guess it’s something that you have to be born with.”

“Oh, I would say you have a dash of it.” To Mulder, her teasing tone would have been evident, but to Will it was not.

“Really?” He met her gaze with surprise, then seeing the intended joke reflected on her features flushed in embarrassment.

“No, in all seriousness, I think you do have dignity.”

“A dash of it?” Will coyly asked.

“Yeah, a dash of it,” Scully replied, smiling slightly.

At that moment Kay arrived, swiftly removing the dirty plates in front of them. “Here’s your check, sir.” Placing the paper on the table, she smiled widely at Scully and said, “Have a good evening.”

Reaching behind him and pulling out his wallet, Will figured out the tip and left it beneath a glass as he and Scully moved to the counter.

After leaving the restaurant, Will reached for Scully, once again enveloping her in a giant hug. “I can’t stress how great it was to see you again, Dana,” he said, his voice muffled against her. Pressing his body into hers, he took a deep breath, clearly smelling her hair.

At that moment, Scully made a decision. This had to stop. Now.

Breaking the embrace, Scully said, “It was nice seeing you too, it’s sure been a while since med-school.”

Walking toward her car with Will trailing behind her, she mentally crossed her fingers for the night to end.

“Wait, Dana, come look at this.” Sighing to herself she walked over and peered into his backseat only to see a large bottle of vodka. “The night is still young…”

“Look, Will, it’s been great getting caught up, but I’m not much of a drinker and frankly not much good company right now. So, it’s been nice seeing you, and take care of yourself.”

Congratulating herself on her quick, efficient escape, Scully unlocked her door as Will shouted his goodbyes.

“You take care now, Dana! And remember, keep a hold of that dignity!”

* * *

The End.

Isis Bastet

IsisBastet@excite.com

--
"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the
rational mind is a faithful servant.
We have created a society that honors the
servant and has forgotten the gift."
- Albert Einstein
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