TITLE: Impasse II: Her Prelude to Arcadia

AUTHOR: Denise Morgen

EMAIL:meadora@hotmail.com

ARCHIVE: Anywhere; just keep my name attached.

SPOILERS: Agua Mala, Arcadia, One Son

RATING: PG

CATEGORY: ScullyAngst

SUMMARY: Hmm...anyone else get the feeling that Scully was the one that accepted the Arcadia case? My own little look into how and why this might've came about along with some insight into why Bitch!Scully was on the rampage in this ep (not that I blame her!).

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay, this is my first attempt at a series. Not too sure how well this is gonna work so bear with me.

Impasse II: Her Prelude to Arcadia
by Denise Morgen

Scully stared thoughtfully after her partner's retreating form for a moment before turning back to her work. She tried unsuccessfully to concentrate on her paper work only to throw down her pencil in frustration a few seconds later. What was wrong with Mulder today? She knew how desperately he despised office work, but usually he could be counted on to contribute at least a little. Today he'd been little better than a zombie, staring off into to space with a glazed expression and sighing discontentedly at every opportunity. She'd be surprised if he'd even glanced at the form that had been sitting in front of him all day.

She took a deep breath and massaged her temples lightly with her fingertips. Even Excederin couldn't compete with a Mulder-induced headache. The man should be a field tester for Tylenol, she thought with a smirk. She grimaced slightly as another spike of pain hit her. "Then again maybe I should..." she said under her breath as she dug through her desk drawers for some painkillers. She seized the desired bottle with a triumphant sigh and shook a pair of capsules into her hand. After glancing quickly into her coffee cup to ascertain there was nothing to wash it down with she regretfully swallowed the tablets dry.

"Agent Scully?" a voice said from the office doorway.

Scully jerked her head up in the direction of the speaker to see Skinner's secretary Kimberly peering down at her anxiously.

"Yes, Kim?" Scully replied wearily.

"Assistant Director Skinner wants to see you and Agent Mulder in his office in ten minutes."

Just lovely, she thought. "Agent Mulder's unavailable at the moment, will you inform the A.D. that I'll be up shortly?"

Kim looked at her sympathetically. "Where should I say Agent Mulder is?"

She wished she knew... "Tell him that Mulder's in Betheseda picking up the lab results from the Florida case last week." Sounds like as good an excuse as any, she thought. Damn good thing she'd wasted her lunch hour picking those results up. Mulder owed her big for this one.

Scully stood up from her chair and stretched. This day just keeps getting better and better, she thought sarcastically. With their luck Skinner would have some nice serial killer case in East Nowheresville, Montana that VC needed Mulder to profile. Just where she wanted to be in the middle of February. Scully shook off her malaise and checked her appearance quickly before heading out of the office to upstairs.

Ten minutes later found Scully seated uncomfortably before a scowling A.D. She could tell that he was singularly unhappy that Mulder was skating out of this impromptu meeting so she attempted to smooth things over. "Sir, I apologize for Mulder's absence but we needed those results on hand before we could file the final report."

"I understand Agent Scully and as much as I'd like to have Agent Mulder here for this briefing it appears that for once he has a legitimate excuse." She couldn't help noticing the subtle stressing he put on the words 'for once'.

"Do you have a new case for us, Sir?" she asked to keep the conversation rolling. Scully was shocked to find that Skinner had paused uncomfortably and that he seemed reluctant to continue. "Is there something wrong, Sir?" she asked worriedly. Skinner's ongoing silence was beginning to unnerve her. She couldn't recall ever seeing the A.D. this nervous.

Skinner cleared his suddenly dry throat before continuing. "I do have a case that I'm considering assigning to you but I'd like your input before I officially give it to your division. While this case is technically not an X-File, the circumstances surrounding it necessitate that a male/female partnership with a certain 'dynamic' be assigned to investigate. You and Agent Mulder were recommended for the task.

Scully was feeling really confused now. She cocked her eyebrow inquisitively at the A.D. before speaking. "Sir, please explain; what circumstances necessitate male/female partners? And who recommended Agent Mulder and myself?

"The recommendation came from my superiors," He answered as he handed her the case file. "And as for the particulars, well, you can see for yourself."

Scully scanned the folder quickly before stopping abruptly to stare in shock at her supervisor. "Married?!" she exclaimed in surprise before she could catch herself. "You want Mulder and I to pretend we're married?"

Skinner struggled not to fidget nervously under her scrutiny. "As this case is not an X-File, you can of course reserve the right to turn it down sighting improper jurisdiction."

Scully began to reply but then stopped herself. Mulder would HATE this case. No, hate wouldn't even begin to cover it: abhor, despise, deplore, any of these words would come closer to the truth then mere hate. It would absolutely infuriate him to be stuck on a routine surveillance detail after finally getting the X-Files back. Dana allowed herself a tiny internal smile. Play the old ditch and drop game with her amid paperwork duty again, huh? Payback's a bitch. And she still owed him BIG for the whole Diana mess. But married to Mulder! Her subconscious prompted uncertainly. A trill of unidentified emotion lanced through her. She couldn't decide if the thought excited or terrified her. She squelched that flash of panic anxiously. She dealt with him every day; nothing was going to change just because they were wearing some rings from the props division...

A.D. Skinner broke into her reverie.

"Will Mulder be back soon? I need to know whether or not you'll except the case before-

Scully mentally bristled at the thought of having to consult Mulder on this one so she cut the A.D. off.

"We'll take it, sir."

Skinner seemed surprised by her quick answer, but before he could refute her she continued.

"We have quite a bit of restructuring to do before we can conceivably even begin to look into a new X-File, so it won't be a problem to take on this case. We'll take it." She said again definitively.

Skinner nodded his understanding before handing her instructions instructions and a flight itinerary.

"You leave for Arcadia tomorrow at 8 o'clock then. That will be all."

She scooped up the paper work and tickets and made her way to the door. Now to find Mulder and tell him the 'good news' about their new case.

This should be fun.

***

Just as she expected, she found him at the reflecting pool. She wondered again what exactly his problem had been today before shrugging it off. There were more important things to worry about now.

"Is this seat taken?" She asked quietly as she reached his side.

He looked up at her suddenly and she could tell he'd been unaware of her approach. She waited for him to make some response to her presence but he seemed to still be lost in his thoughts even as his eyes met hers. Finally he seemed take in her restless shifting and armload of paper work with a frown so he moved over and motioned for her to join him.

She slid tiredly onto the bench. Now, she thought gleefully, how to tell Mulder about-

"I'm not going to like this, am I?" he said as he cut off her mid-thought.

Damn! How did he know something was up? It was almost enough to make a person believe in psychic phenomena. "Why do you say that?"

"Call it a hunch," he answered with a small shrug. "So lay it on me Scully. Why are you wandering around downtown D.C. with half a file cabinet in tow?"

She toyed with several different responses before deciding it took to much energy to banter with him today. And something told her that she'd need all the strength she could spare to make through this assignment without strangling him. Instead she thrust the case file at him and sat back with a smirk.

"See for yourself."

Mulder looked at her quizzically for a moment before digging into the file. She could tell when he'd gotten to the section she'd reacted to by the sudden tensing of his body before he jerked his head up to meet her eyes.

"Married?" Came the strangled question.

Scully couldn't resist the blind-sided look on his face so she leaned in seductively and looked up at him through her lashes. She could tell he was unsettled by her uncharacteristic move into his personal space. Revenge is better than Christmas!

"In the mood to...play house, Agent Mulder?"

Deer in the headlights didn't even begin to cover the expression on his face as she suddenly started rambling off the particulars of the case. Mulder was still staring at her in shock when she finished speaking and straightened up. She could tell he hadn't heard a single thing she'd said.

"Mulder," she said, trying to break through his obvious haze. "Mulder! Did you hear me?"

Suddenly he snapped to attention. "Yeah, sorry 'bout that," he said distractedly. "Pick the rings up from props and book a moving van. Got it."

Damn photographic memory! The man could space off while she was talking and still retain enough to feed it back to her.

"All right, then." She said as she stood straightening her suit. "I'll meet you at the airport tomorrow morning, seven sharp. Don't forget to pack casual! We're supposed to be..." She broke off uncertainly. What exactly WERE they supposed to be? The file hadn't specified...

"A doctor and a research journalist?" Mulder supplied helpfully.

"Works for me," she said with a shrug. "I'll have background set us up."

"See you tomorrow." Mulder said as she retrieved her share of the files.

She nodded non-comittally and headed off towards the Hoover building. She'd been trudging along for about five minutes when she was overcome by the urge to turn around to see what Mulder was doing. A quick glance over her shoulder revealed that he hadn't moved a muscle from the position he'd been in when she'd left him save for a small smile. He was really taking this case hard. He was so stumped he hadn't even realized yet that they shouldn't even have this case! Give him about an hour before it hits him. She turned around an instant too late to see Mulder's hesitant smile transform itself into an exaggerated leer. But one thought echoed in her mind as she resumed walking:

This should be interesting...