Title: Facciata

Author: sitarra

Email: all okay

Classification: S, A, R

Keywords: MSR, AU, S/o kind of

Rating: PG-13

Spoilers: all things

Summary: 'She was an engaged woman but he wanted her. He wanted to break down her façade.'

Disclaimer: I don't own the X-Files, the X-Files characters, or the song used at the beginning of every chapter. But I really wish I did.

A/N: I've discovered I have a weakness for AU stories. I just had to give it another shot and this time I didn't get bored with it. The exerts of the song used throughout the story at the beginning of every chapter is Christina Aguilera's song 'Still Dirrty.' I knew it'd be perfect for what I wanted to show with this story. With the title meaning façade, that should give you a hint as to what the story's about and why I used the song.

Progress: Complete

Special thanks: much thanks to Daniel S. Bennett (he told me to put that) for putting up with my endless, undecided notions. And Kathie for helping me feel better about my story and writing. And Samantha for helping me in general and always keeping me laughing in German class.

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'There's a woman inside of all of us

Who never quite seems to get enough

Tryin' to play by the rules is rough

'Cause sooner or later something's gonna erupt'

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October 18, 1998

Dana Scully. Scully. She'd become quite attached to her name in her thirty-five years of life. She'd grown fond and proud of it. How dare Daniel suggest she take his name! After she'd made a name for herself in the business. She was finally of status, people knew her name, her work – there was no way she was changing her name.

She stopped her fuming long enough to switch back into work mode. So far, it had been an extremely slow day. She was left with almost nothing to do. The last of her week-long patients had been released earlier in the morning. She was beginning to wonder if one could literally die from boredom.

She was making her way past the ER doors when it happened. Paramedics burst through the doors, two gurneys moving just as fast.

"Dr. Scully, gunshot wounds. It's pretty bad," one of the EMTs said to her. She quickly sided up next to him.

"What happened to him?"

"FBI agent shot in the left shoulder. He's already lost consciousness on us once. Bullet's still lodged in there."

"What's his name?"

"Fox Mulder."

Dana saw the man's eyes flutter in response to his name. Were they green or brown? It didn't matter; she'd never seen such beautiful eyes.

She took a hold of his hand, mostly for medical reasons but something else pulled her to do it. He was pulling her in.

"Mr. Mulder, I need you to hang in there for me," she said to him slowly. "I'm Dr. Scully. I'm going to get that bullet out, but I need you to stay with me until we get there."

The haze lifted from his eyes, albeit momentarily Dana knew. His grip tightened on her hand, surprising her, to gain her attention. His lips moved to form words she had to strain to hear.

"You… beautiful," his voice rasped. The corners of his mouth turned up with a weak smile. Despite the urgency of the situation, Dana allowed a small smile to slip.

"Thank you, Mr. Mulder. Now, I want you to keep your eyes open and focused on me. I need to know that you're awake," she explained to him, her heart racing at the situation. Or maybe it was the man in front of her. "I want you to nod your head and promise me."

It looked as if it took some effort but he managed to nod, his eyes staying on hers.

"Promise… beautiful."

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She saw those gorgeous green eyes every time she closed her eyes. She couldn't stop thinking about him. Or what he had said. She knew there was the possibility that he was simply delirious at the time but there was something about the intensity of his eyes that told her he was still in his right mind.

She couldn't remember the last time the sincerity of a man's comment made her feel so good. She missed the way she used to feel so exhilarated, so loved. His hand was so warm when she held it earlier; of course he also had a fever developing at the same time but it was warm and comforting nonetheless. She never wanted to stop looking into his eyes either.

A sudden burst of laughter brought her back to the party at present. Her arm made its way back to Daniel's, remembering again that he liked her to keep up an appearance. Luckily the group around her didn't notice she was the only one not laughing.

She was tired of these formal events, tired of being put on display by Daniel. But she endured it. She knew how much it meant to him to be there on his arm. But after what seemed like the millionth party, her arm was getting pretty tired.

"Dana? Dana, what's wrong?"

She was brought back to the group by the second. She put on that familiar apologetic face she'd recently added to her list of masks and turned her face her fiancé.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?"

"Is something wrong, Dana? You're so far away," Daniel noticed.

Dana smiled apologetically at him. "I'm sorry, I'm just not feeling like myself this evening. Would you mind terribly if I went home?"

"No, not at all. The evening's almost over anyway," he mused, glancing around him. "Why don't you go on home and relax and I'll call you later?"

Dana smiled gratefully. "That sounds good." She stood on her tip toes to kiss his cheek. "Thank you. I'll talk to you later."

Daniel smiled widely at her and watched her until she was out the door.

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'God, I hate that smell.'

That was Mulder's first thought as he woke up. He was aware of the dull pain coming from his shoulder but he paid no mind of it.

He opened his eyes slowly, darkness assaulting his eyes. He saw the full moon shining back at him through the window, a few stars even twinkling at him.

He couldn't hear much except the beep of his monitors and the clicks and thuds of footsteps walking past his door.

"Mr. Mulder, so good to see you're awake."

Or maybe to his door.

The happy nurse continued, "You've been out almost twelve hours. We expected you to be awake hours ago. Must have needed the sleep. How do you feel?"

His throat was rough but he managed. "Thirsty."

The nurse poured him a cup of water from his bedside and handed it to him. "Drink slowly," she reminded him. Reluctantly he complied.

The nurse still continued. "I'll be your nurse at night. My name's Anna. Whenever you need something, just push the call button over here on your right."

Handing his cup to Anna, he tested his ability to talk again. "Thank you… Anna," he managed, his words broken. "Doctor?"

"Dr. Scully will be by first thing in the morning. You're currently her only patient until Monday."

"Name?"

"I just told you--Dr. Scully."

Mulder shook his head. "First."

A knowing smile spread across Anna's face. "Her name is Dana. And she's thirty-five in case you're interested. You're not some kind of stalker, are you?"

Mulder chuckled and shook his head.

Anna pulled up a chair. "Good, then what else do you want to know?"

Anna loved Dana with all her heart, she was like a daughter to her, but she didn't think Daniel was the right man for her. He was too controlling, even if Dana couldn't see it. She'd been blinded by him in Anna's opinion.

No, Daniel wasn't the one for her but this man Mulder is, Anna knew. They'd be perfect together. And she was going to make them both see that.

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Dana could practically see his smile before she even entered the room the next morning.

"There's my beautiful doctor," Mulder said, delighted to finally see her again.

Dana did her best to hide her smile but she feared he could still tell it was there. "I'm glad to see you remember me, Mr. Mulder."

"I could never forget such a beautiful face."

Dana averted her gaze, this time not trying to hide her smile. "Mr. Mulder…"

"Just Mulder," he corrected. "I hate all that mister stuff and I hate my first name."

"Okay then. Mulder, just because nurses let you get away with that doesn't mean I will."

He hid a smile. "But you're still smiling, Dana, so I must be doing something right."

Dana chose to not answer, deciding instead to look at his chart. Or at least until she understood what he said.

"Wait, how do you know my name?"

"I guessed," he shrugged with on shoulder.

Realization dawned on her. "It was Anna, wasn't it? I swear, she's worse than my own mother."

"Relax; if anyone's to blame it's me. I asked, she told me. I'm curious, I can't help it."

"Speaking of being curious, is that what got you shot?" she asked an eyebrow quirking upwards.

He waved it off. "Nah, this was the result of a bust gone bad. I was in the suspect's line of view. I tried to jump out of the way but… here I am."

"Well, I have good news and bad news for you, Mulder. The good news is that we removed the bullet and your arm is going to be fine. You should heal completely in about two months."

"And the bad news?"

"The bad news is you're staying here until Tuesday. We have to make sure an infection doesn't set."

Mulder smiled, unknowingly making her weak in the knees. "Sounds like good news to me. I get to spend time with you."

"I have other patients, you know," she pointed out to him.

"Actually, unless a dire situation pops up, you have no other patients until Monday," he smiled. Dana's face fell.

"I'm going to have to talk to Anna about a few things," she muttered to herself.

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Later, Mulder turned off the TV when nothing caught his interest. He debated whether or not to push the call button again. The nurses were getting fed up with it bit it was worth their angry looks when he got to see Dana again.

"Ah, screw it. I don't care if they get mad at me," he said out loud to himself, pressing the call button firmly.

He only had to wait a moment and was delighted when he saw Dana instead of his daytime nurse.

"What is it now, Mulder?" she said in lieu of a greeting. "You know, the nurses are beginning to hate you."

He shrugged off that comment. "I just wanted to see you."

"Mulder, you saw me twenty minutes ago."

"So? Maybe I like talking to you and, of course, the beautiful face doesn't hurt," he spoke honestly.

"Mulder," she groaned. "You are so infuriating."

He smiled again. "But you still keep coming back."

She couldn't deny that. Impulsively she got the pad of paper she carried around with her and a pen from her pocket. She scribbled on it quickly before handing it to him.

"Top number's my pager, bottom number's my cell phone," she explained. "If you're going to bother the nurses to get to me, let's just eliminate a step."

She almost lost her breath as his handsome smile covered to his face.

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Mulder was about ready to close his eyes and forget about the world for the night when he heard it. He often heard the nurses gossiping outside his door and he normally paid no mind to it.

But when he heard his beautiful doctor's name, he perked up in bed.

"… I've never seen her so happy. She might as well be walking on air," nurse number one said. The second voice he recognized as Anna.

"I'll tell you on thing, he's a lot better for her than Dr. Waterston is. For one thing, he's simply charming."

"That he is," nurse one agreed. Their voices moved further away from his door and he silently cursed that he could hear no more. But what he heard next made his blood turn cold.

"Oh, Anna, have you seen Dana? I need to know if she's set a date for the wedding yet?" a prominent male voice spoke. Mulder's jaw tensed just listening to him. But at the same time his heart was shattering into a million pieces.

"I haven't seen her in a few hours, Dr. Waterston. Sorry." Was it him or did Mulder detect a hint of sarcasm in Anna's voice.

He could hear footsteps departing as well as a pair getting closer.

"Is it true, Anna?" he spoke as soon as she entered. Even in the dark, he could see the sadness in her eyes.

"I'm afraid so," she confirmed sadly. "He proposed about a week ago."

Mulder mutely nodded, his gaze going to the window on the opposite side of the room.

"But don't let that discourage you," she hastily added. "She needs someone to make her see the light. She's become a different person ever since she met him. There are days when I honestly don't recognize her emotionally. You're the type of man she needs."

Mulder slowly met Anna's green eyes. "Is she unhappy?"

"Doesn't look so happy to me. I've seen her smile more in the last two days than I have in the last years."

A determined look grew in his eyes. He liked his odds.

"I guess I'll have to do something about it then."

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Continued in next chapter………