Title: Sidetrip to Nevada Author: Devin Email: franny122004@yahoo.com Website: http://franny122004.tripod.com Rating: PG-13 Category: SR Keywords: MSR/MSM, Post-ep Spoilers: Three of a Kind, Biogenesis, and FTF Summary: When in Nevada... Disclaimer: They belong to CC, DD, GA, and the Fox Network. Washington D.C. "In my office. Now!" Skinner's voice boomed down the phone line. 'Damn it!' Scully thought. 'I almost got out of here. I have to catch that plane to Africa.' Resigning herself to her fate she took the elevator up to Skinner's office. When she got there his secretary gave her a sympathetic look and told her to go right in. "Sit down," he snapped at her. "I want to know exactly what you two were thinking." "Sir, with all due respect, how can we be in trouble? Mulder isn't exactly in any shape to be flouting orders," her mind went to Mulder in the padded cell he was currently residing in but she mentally shook herself and brought her mind back to the meeting, "and all I've been doing is sitting in the basement and visiting him." "This has nothing to do with your actions as of late. This has to do with your actions of a month ago. I want to know what possessed the two of you to get married!" *** Hotel Lobby 4 weeks earlier "Hello, Mulder? Can you hear me?" Scully said into her cell, relieved that she had finally gotten through to him. "Yeah Scully I can hear you. Where are you?" "I'm at the hotel. Where are you?" "What hotel, Scully? What are you talking about?" "What do you mean 'what hotel,' Las Vegas. I'm in Las Vegas, aren't you?" "Uh no. I haven't left home all weekend." "You called me." "Nope, can't say that I did." "What do you mean you didn't call me?" Suddenly it dawned on her what must have happened. She didn't know how they did it but they must have figured out a way. "Oh man, I am gonna kick their asses." "Scully what on earth is going on?" Mulder asked sounding more confused by the minute. "The Lone Gunmen, they tricked me into coming out to Vegas." "Do you mind filling in the gaps here? The Gunmen are out there with you?" So she explained to him about the whole weekend. How she got a phone call from him early in the morning asking her to fly out to Vegas, how they told her that he was out of reach at the moment but that he wanted her to help them out, and how she went to do an autopsy and couldn't remember anything that happened from then until she woke with the Gunmen standing around devising a plan to help someone escape. "Wow, sounds like you had fun this weekend." "I don't think 'fun' is quite the word for it," Scully answered through gritted teeth. Mulder seemed to consider this for a second and then said, "Well then why don't we make it fun." "Excuse me?" He could almost hear the raised eyebrow that went with that statement and couldn't help but smile. "You heard me. Listen I'll call Skinner and get some time off for both of us, he'll probably faint but what the hell. I'll fly out and meet you there, maybe even help you inflict pain on the Gunmen. What do ya say?" "Mul..." but she didn't have the energy to protest against this plan. In fact, it sounded like the best plan he'd come up with in a while. "Okay." "Really?" he asked, trying to hide the shock in his voice. "Okay, I'll call you when I get to the airport," and he hung up. *** McCarran International Airport If anything gives you time to dissect and analyze a situation it's a plane trip across country with a 3- hour layover. So, suffice it to say, Mulder had gone over his conversation with Scully several times. Eventually he just gave up trying to figure it out, at least for the moment. When all the passengers disembarked he was one of the first out, which was quite a feat since he was not in the front of the plane. He strode purposefully toward the shuttle to take him to baggage claim but stopped when a familiar voice spoke from behind him. "It doesn't help a girl's self-esteem when a guy just walks right past her." And sure enough when he turned around there was Scully wearing a very amused expression, probably because of his shocked one. He quickly recovered. "Well see I have this hot date that I really can't be late for." "They wait for you to order the movies before they start them, you won't miss a single moan." "Aww, Scully that hurts. I fly all the way out here to keep you company and you just make fun of me. You don't think I could have a real date lined up?" "I find it remotely plausible that you could get a date. " They grinned at each other and headed toward the shuttle. *** Mulder's Room "So what do you want to do?" he asked as he surveyed his hotel room. "I hate to burst your bubble but this town doesn't wake up until the sun goes down." "Vampires." "Desert." "Skeptic." "Sucker." "Sure, fine, whatever." "Arg, don't ever say that again or I will be forced to hurt you." By this time they were both grinning so hard that their cheeks hurt. What they hadn't noticed, but were becoming very aware of now that they had stopped talking, is that with each word they had inched closer and closer together. They stood there for a moment the tension almost palpable between them but then the moment was gone and they were back in their comfort zone. "You want to go find the Gunmen?" "Sure." *** "Oh come on guys, we're not here to kill you. You can open the door," Mulder yelled through the door that stayed adamantly closed. The Gunmen had been hesitant to open the door when Scully first knocked and had blatantly refused to come out once they realized that she had brought back up. "How can we be sure of that?" was Frohike's nervous reply. "The lack of trust here hurts." Scully had finally had enough of this so she pushed Mulder out of the way and talked through the door. "Frohike, you know I would never hurt you," anyone would have to be deaf to miss the pout in her voice. "At least not without your permission." It was almost comical how quickly the door opened after she said this. "Oh look they are here," she said while giving Mulder an amused look. As they walked into the room a couple things grabbed their attention right off the bat: there were a lot of empty bottles lying around and Byers wasn't there. Langly greeted them but did not look up from his computer. Frohike had followed them over after he had closed the door. "So what brings you to our humble abode on this lovely Vegas afternoon?" "We got hungry and wanted to see if you guys cared to join us." Scully looked confused and asked, "We got hungry? When did we decide this?" "When we were waiting outside for fifteen minutes," Mulder replied with a shrug and a lopsided grin. *** When they got down to the lobby they were greeted by the familiar clamor that went with casinos. The guys were discussing animatedly the next month's issue of the 'Lone Gunmen' with Mulder and arguing over the validity of their cover story when a man that looked like he'd had one too many nearly barreled Scully over with his attempt to walk to the elevator. He looked up to make a slurred apology but stopped short as a look of recognition spread over his face along with a slimy smile. "Hey Red, I'd almost lost hope that you'd show up here tonight. I see you still have shorty hanging around," he said with a dismissive gesture toward Frohike. Then, in something they could only assume was meant to be a whisper, he said, "Ditch these guys and meet me up stairs in ten minutes." "Uh sir, I think you've made a mistake," Scully said in the most controlled voice she could manage and tried not to glare at the other three who were having trouble controlling their laughter. The drunk gave a little laugh and shook his head, which momentarily threw off his balance. "Oh there's no mistake Red. This is the greatest opportunity of your life." He tried to add a suave smile to this but failed miserably. Suddenly Scully remembered a way that she had used to get out of a similar situation in college. She looked over at Mulder and pasted on her most apologetic look. "Honey, I swear I don't know what he's talking about." She walked over to him and put a hand on his cheek. "You know I'd never cheat on you." To his credit Mulder caught on to the situation rather quickly and wrapped his arm around her waist in a possessive embrace. "Of course I know that sweetheart." Then turning to the drunk said, "I think you should go now," in a voice he usually reserved for suspects. The drunk looked back and forth between the two and decided it wasn't worth getting his face rearranged and continued his stumbling journey to the elevator. He had barely disappeared from view when they all started cracking up. After calming down enough to be able to breathe they headed towards the restaurant area of the hotel but as they passed the bar they noticed one lone figure sitting in a corner. Byers. "Hey guys go on without me, I'm going to go asked that lush over there if he wants to join us before he's not even in striking distance of sober," Mulder said as he waved the others on. Once they had gone a couple paces ahead Mulder walked over to where Byers was sitting. At first he didn't seem to notice that anyone was around him and he just kept drinking but before Mulder could say anything he looked up and said, "What?" Only slightly startled by the bitterness in his voice, people don't get drunk for nothing, Mulder explained how they had spotted him in the bar and that they were all going to dinner and that he was more than welcome to join them. Byers snorted, "I can't eat with those guys right now, they don't get it. I'm never going to see her again. You know what? I don't know why I'm explaining this to you, you won't get it either." "What are you talking about?" "Susan. I'm never going to see her again. And do you know why? So I can continue to put out a newsletter and live in a hole. And none of you can even pretend to get what I'm going through. Langly and Frohike are in love with computers, computers can't leave you. And you, that woman's never going to leave you." He let out a sarcastic laugh. "Not that you haven't done your best to make her. Although I guess she's done the same to you. You guys are so weird." "Listen Byers, Scully and I..." "Are just friends. Funny how you knew I was talking about Scully." "Are you guys camping out here or what?" Byers looked at her slightly amused. "Ah Scully, just the person we were talking about. Grab a chair and sit a spell." She did get a chair but not without throwing a questioning look at Mulder, which he missed because he wasn't meeting her eye. "Okay, this is an inner... inter... interven. Uh, help me out here PhD people." "Intervention? What on earth are you intervening in?" Scully asked confused. "Byers," Mulder said as a warning. Ignoring him he continued, "Yeah, an intervention. But first I think we need more to drink." He flagged down a waitress and ordered another round for all of them. "Don't you think you've had enough?" "I haven't blacked out yet," he said simply as if this made everything alright and they should just back off. "Mulder, we should try and get him out of here. He probably drank all those bottles we saw in the room and is now on his way to drinking all the bar's got too." Mulder nodded but getting Byers to leave was far more difficult than either had anticipated. "C'mon man, you don't need another drink. Let's go get something in your stomach." "Hmmm, no I don't think I will. And don't give me those looks." He took another long gulp of his drink and continued, "Now as I was saying, all three of us have to have a nice little chat. But first... drink." "Look, if we drink with you then will you leave here?" Byers seemed to consider his options and then nodded. *** 1 Hour Later This was not a good idea. Now not only did he have a slobbering drunk Byers on his hands but Scully was starting to get tipsy too. The only saving grace was that the 'intervention' they were suppose to be having had somehow gotten sidetracked. "Okay guys that's it we have to get out of here." For some reason Scully seemed to find this statement hilarious and started giggling. "Mulder's right. We should leave before we get drunk." Apparently this was what Byers was waiting for and he got up, with some difficultly, and left. Once he was gone Scully turned to Mulder. "What do you want to do now?" "Scully you are so drunk," Mulder said with a slight laugh in his voice. "You can't prove that." "Well at least some things don't change. C'mon, you need to sleep it off." *** Scully's Room Scully had fallen asleep almost as soon as her head touched the pillow and was well on her way to REM. Mulder had decided to stay around, not wanting to leave her alone incase she needed something and to make sure she was okay. What he wasn't prepared for was the nightmare that hit her about twenty minutes after she had drifted off. At first it was a subtle difference, a deep frown appeared on her face, but then she started to struggle. Her arms were flailing and it took Mulder a couple tries to catch them but once he got a hold of her she started struggling harder. "Scully! It's just a dream, wake up. You have to wake up." Whether the dream got to be to much or his words pulled her out of the dream he didn't know but all of a sudden she sat bolt upright and almost caused a head collision. "Mulder?" "Yeah. What were you dreaming about?" He almost regretted the question when she shivered at the memory of it. "I think it was about Antarctica. I was in that container and couldn't get out. I kept trying but a pain in my chest kept stopping me, it felt like something was trapped inside me and was trying to escape." She shivered again and leaned against him and he held her as tight as he could. "I hate bees." They both laughed at this and pulled back from each other and then they were right back in the hallway. Only this time there was no bee, no apology, no terrifying feeling that the paramedics wouldn't come in time. There was only the two of them. One of them whispered that they loved the other but it didn't matter which one it was because they both might as well have said it. *** Lone Gunmen's Room Several Hours Later The phone rang insistently waking all three men. Frohike was the first to get to it. "What?" he grumbled, clearly irritated. His expression changed quickly to one of surprise. "Uh yeah, I'm sure we could find an Elvis JOP. How soon? Very? Okay, yeah we could do that." Frohike hung up the phone and turned to his two equally surprised friends, who had been listening intently to the conversation. They all shared a look and couldn't help it. They laughed. The End