Chapter 21: MSR
Skinner will find some way to add the documents Scully has taken onto the evidence manifest. Mulder and Scully will meet with NASA and homeland security scientists and give them the schematics for the box that will kill instead of save. If the scientists bring the issue to their attention, they know they can be trusted. Skinner will interview the man apprehended in Portland to confirm and verify the information that Mulder provided.
Meanwhile the real work would be completed at Mulder’s house by Frohike and her two colleagues; an expert in hacking and surveillance and a mathematician with an interest in engineering. They would meet back at the house shortly after noon. Skinner leaves after eating a sandwich. Frohike arrives, is exhausted so Mulder gave her a blanket and pillow for the sofa. He walks Scully out to her car.
“Mulder, are you sure you want Sunny to stay here? She could stay with me. It's just -a young woman alone with a man. She might not be comfortable.”
“It's nice to know you still care, Scully.” Scully looks at Mulder in confusion. “You have been jealous of every female scientist that I have ever collaborated with.”
“Mulder that’s not true.”
“Remember, Bambi, the entomologist?” “But you were really interested in her.” “Remember Karin Berquist, the canine expert?” “But she was really interested in you.” “Now you’re jealous of Sunny Frohike?” “Of course I’m not jealous.”
Scully stops when she realizes that Mulder is laughing at her. It is his way of apologizing without apologizing for the tension earlier. “Don’t you know you are my favorite female scientist to collaborate with?”
There is both a familiar feeling and a shift of feeling in their interactions now. “Every single one of those women were your type.” Mulder thinks about how different all the women he mentioned were.“What’s my type, Scully?” “Intelligent.”
Mulder ponders that for a while. Phoebe, Diana, Moondance and Scully.
“That explains it.”
“What?”
“My attraction to you.”
Scully lets out one sob and a few tears. She had felt the absence of Mulder strongly in the last couple of days. Mulder stands awkwardly. He knew from experience it was best not to try and comfort if he was the cause of her pain. He gives her space to collect herself. “You’ve been through a lot these last few days.”
Scully, ever Scully, decides to hide the reason for her tears from Mulder and maybe from herself. “It’s disorienting to lose a day of memory. Plus to have the fear and anxiety we all have now with time missing. It’s happening to every single person in the country except you.”
Mulder considers that. He nods. Scully gets into the car. Before she drives off, he bends down to look in the window. “You will always be my family Scully.”