Tumblr Prompt Requested by scullysspaceship "Scully driving across town late at night to move a spider outside because Mulder's too scared"

msr / s7 / fluff

"Scully, I need your he-stop moving!" Mulder's voice screamed out from over the receiver pressed to her ear.

How Mulder possessed the ability to have her alert and anxious when she was sleeping soundly less than a minute ago, she'd never know, but here she was, clutching the phone in a white knuckle grip as she tried to make sense of Mulder's sounds of distress.

"Where are you?" she asked, throwing her feet over the side of the bed and kicking around for her slippers.

There was a moment of silence peppered with occasional curses, and she was about to ask again when a strangled cry of, "My apartment!" broke through, followed by a crashing sound.

"Mulder, what's wrong?" she all but yelled into the phone.

"I-um-I need...never mind. Never mind, sorry," he rambled before hanging up. The fear she could hear lacing his voice scared her, and, when he didn't pick up her multiple follow-up calls, she threw on her coat and rushed to her car without a second thought.

The only reason she was glad it was almost one am when he called was that her chances of causing an accident with her speeding were cut drastically. Between her desperation to cut the travel time in half and her incessant worrying, she was an even worse driver than normal.

Someone broke into his apartment and was trying to attack him.

He brought someone over to question them and it went wrong.

He was hurt.

He hurt himself.

He'd been talking to someone and she didn't know what to make of any of it. Why did he call her and change his mind? What wasn't he telling her? And, more importantly in this moment, why wasn't he answering the fucking door?

Her heart was pounding in her chest and her anxiety felt paralyzing. She called out his name twice before fumbling around for the key he'd given her. Drawing her gun, she burst open the door and called out "Mulder?"

"Back here!" she heard him reply from deep in his apartment. She kicked the door closed and made her way down the hallway.

"Are you hurt?" she asked.

"No, but do you have a newspaper?" he replied. The normalcy of the question didn't match the stress in his voice nor did it contextually make any sense.

"No, I don't. What are you-" her question died on her lips when she saw him, in just a t-shirt and boxers, holding a broom like a weapon and all his focus was on the corner of the room. She tried to look around him to see what he was doing, but he was too in the way.

He must've sensed her behind him because he backed up so he was closer to her while not letting his eyes leave that corner. "I'm sorry, Scully. This is stupid," he murmured in a slight whisper.

"What is?" she asked.

"There's a spider in the corner and anytime I get close to it, it moves and freaks me out," he admitted, readjusting his grip on the broom.

"I thought you said you weren't afraid of insects, you just hated them?" she asked, repeating his own words back to him.

"Spiders are arachnids. Totally different," he explained.

"Oh, is that so?" she laughed, locking the safety on her gun and putting it in her coat pocket since she hadn't had time to grab her holster.

"Why'd you put the gun away, I think it would have come in handy," he joked.

"Let me see that," she requested, grabbing the broom.

"I shouldn't have bothered you-" he started. She'd assumed he'd hung up because he was in trouble, not that he was embarrassed.

"Mulder," she comforted, resting a hand on his shoulder and grabbing the broom with the other. "It's fine, we all have things that make us uncomfortable. Let me help you." While driving across town after having been in a deep sleep wasn't her favorite thing, seeing Mulder like this was. He never acted this way around her. He wasn't acting like a child, it wasn't that bad, it was just Mulder trying his hardest to put on a brave front for her and it was incredibly endearing.

"Thank you," he sighed in relief, letting go of the broom and letting her take over.

To be honest - she wasn't a fan of spiders either. She was reminded of that fact as she slowly approached the biggest wolf spider she'd seen in her life, but she wanted to do this for Mulder. She made eye contact with the bug, two eyes trying to intimidate eight, and raised the broom above it only to slowly lower it inch by inch.

The spider wasn't having it and crawled up the wall at an unsettlingly fast pace. She heard Mulder's startled cry behind her and she had to bite her lip to prevent herself from laughing at him.

"Do you have a step stool and a sauce pan?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'll go get them," he affirmed before she heard his footsteps trail down the hall.

As he ran to get the items, she threw the broom on his bed and opened his window, sliding the screen out and setting it on the bed so she'd have a place to throw the spider. She heard him come back in and set the stool down in front of the spider-wall and he handed the sauce pan to her. "Thanks," she whispered as she crawled up the stool precariously, trying not to startle the spider.

When she was on the higher step, she stretched up onto her toes and raised the saucepan up to the ceiling, tapping it once so the spider would crawl away. Luckily it worked and the spider scurried down the wall just slightly, still trying its hardest to go undetected. As fast as she could, Scully took the saucepan and, flat side towards her, slammed it into the wall and trapped the spider beneath it.

"Did you get it?" Mulder asked excitedly.

"I think so," she smiled. She had one hand on the handle of the saucepan and the other on the flat side to keep all the edges flush to the wall. "Do you have something flat and thin?"

"Let me look," he answered before she heard him rummaging around.

She felt him step on the lower step of the stool, his body flush behind hers, as he leaned forward and slid a big, square piece of cardboard under the saucepan. "Got him," he exclaimed into her hair, his breath teasing the back of her neck.

"We have to get him to the window," she replied. This would arguably be the hardest part, and if they messed up, the spider would inevitably fall on them. She didn't need Mulder screaming in her ear.

"Okay," he declared, his concentration returning full force. He placed his other hand on top of her own, covering the top of the saucepan as he carefully removed their trap from the wall. "Okay, I'm going to step down, take your time so you don't fall."

She nodded and did as he said, staying within his arms the whole way down. When her feet hit the floor, she felt her back brush against his chest again, something that continued as they slowly shuffled towards the window. They shoved the items out the window, and it resulted in her hips pressing and bending over the windowsill as Mulder draped over her back. It reminded her of the time they played baseball together, except a bit more implicit this time as they were both wearing half as many clothes as they were then and he was pressed a lot more firmly into her.

If he registered their closeness, he didn't mention it, only saying, "I'm going to let go on the count of three okay?"

His breath was warm against her cheek and she simply nodded in response, not trusting her voice. "Three, two, one," he counted before letting go of the cardboard and shaking it.

They didn't see anything fall and she realized the spider must've still been in the pan and she started flailing it out of fear of the thing crawling onto her arm. Luckily, they saw the huge bug dislodge and fall out of the pan, disappearing into the night below them. They simultaneously backed up and looked at each other with pleased expressions. "Well done, partner," he praised with a smile.

She let out a breathy chuckle at how ridiculous this all was and motioned towards where she'd laid the screen down. "You owe me," she joked.

He bent down and grabbed the screen near their feet, but he paused on the way up. "Nice shoes," he joked.

She looked down and saw her pink fluffy slippers standing out prominently against his carpet. At the same time, she saw his gaze roam up her bare legs, coming to rest on the hem of her silk pyjama shorts that stopped at the tops of her upper thighs. She'd been so scared that he was hurt that she hadn't changed. The shorts combined with the fact that she wasn't wearing underwear or a bra and was only then left with a thin, matching, silky shirt had her overwhelmingly grateful she'd grabbed her coat. She'd been in front of him in her pyjamas before, but not her 'I haven't done laundry in weeks' pyjamas.

"Did you speed over here?" he asked, slowly standing up with an expression of intrigue covering his face.

"You hung up on me and weren't returning my calls," she defended as she watched him pop the screen back into place.

He shut the door and turned around to face her, realization slowly dawning on his face. "You thought I was in trouble," he stated guilty.

"I thought you were hurt," she huffed, feeling exposed both literally and emotionally since she'd accidentally made it obvious how worried she'd been.

"Aw, Scully," he murmured, grabbing her by her shoulder and pulling into him for a hug. She let her face fall into his chest and she relented, wrapping her arms around his middle as he buried his face into her hair, placing a kiss to the crown of her head. "Thank you."

"That spider made you scream," she mumbled against the cotton of his shirt, deflecting the moment they were having with an attempt at humor.

"It did," he agreed, rubbing her back once more before letting her go. "It really did."

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