Alpha

X-Files minific by Raietta

 

* * *

 

They're watching TV together in Scully's room at the hotel, Mulder with the remote control, both sitting on the bed, cross-legged, sleepy.

 

"Hey," Scully says, in that low-key, slightly rough, dispassionate voice of hers, "Ally McBeal's on FX."

 

"Yeah? So?" Mulder replies, glancing at her. He wonders if they've always sounded so alike, their inflections, their even tones, their slightly scratchy sounds. He keeps the channel on ESPN.

 

"So, change the channel," Scully says, giving him a stern look. "I'll miss the first part."

 

"But I wanna see who won the game," Mulder whines, but Scully is beating him with a pillow, and this is so unlike the Scully he's known for so many years that he only keeps the remote away from her reaching hand for an instant before giving in. Capitulating easily before that grinning face, that laughing voice, the smiling eyes. Scully seizes the remote in triumph and flips through the channels until she finds FX, little skinny Ally moaning and groaning away to that horrible lady singer's voice. Mulder sits back and sighs, grumbles about how incredible it is that Scully can actually enjoy this awful show, and silently thanks all the gods he doesn't really believe in for the case on the mutilated bodies, the lone wolf in the snow, the wolf biting Scully's thigh, the change, Scully's now-deep golden eyes, the Change.

 

"Who'd ever have thought that you'd end up an alpha," Mulder mutters, teasing.

 

"Shaddup, Mulder," Scully replies, grinning, then leans over and gently nips him on the throat, and he leans into the touch and sighs.

 

The End