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.  

Visit my fanfiction, it gets lonely!
http://DennysX.cjb.net

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 
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-committally 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...