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Rated: PG
Spoilers: 2Shy
Category: X-File, Post-Ep.
Archive: Gossamer, any other nice home. Be sure
to ask, though! (It's archiving ettiquette.)
Feedback: Coddled, considered and taken seriously
at: patfiler2016@outlook.com
ALL NITE COZY CAFE,
CLEVELAND OHIO.
4:30 PM EST
It had been a very draining case, both physically and
emotionally. Before driving back to DC, Mulder and Scully
decided the have a bite to eat and coffee. They had just left
the correctional facility where Incanto had been incarcerated.
Mulder knew that this case had been particularly disturbing
for his partner. "Scully, I know you probably don't need to hear
this, but I think Alan Cross was way out of line. I mean... Well,
his little display of chauvanism throughout the case."
Scully shook her head. "I'm used to it, Mulder. Funny, how so
much has changed for us over the decades and yet how little
has changed."
"How so, Scully?" Mulder sipped his coffee and leaned back
a bit. "Even an officer his age knows how capable women are
at their professions, and you showed him. Maybe he was just
envious of you."
"Envious?" Scully pushed a baked potato around with her fork.
"How so?"
"I think you had a stronger stomach for that case than he did,
and he resented it. Even after all his years on the police force,
that kind of thing... well, makes even the most weathered officer
want to vomit."
"Well, I think things haven't really changed as far as male
standards of beauty. All these women had some padding on them,
they'd been rejected before, I'm pretty sure of that. The fact that
they hid behind keyboards, or lonely hearts columns... it just tells
me they've been hurt by the so-called 'standards' of beauty imposed
upon them by shallow men, beauty magazines, fashion magnates,
and Madison Avenue. Unattainable standards at that."
"Is that why you won't eat your potato?" This case had his insides
doing flip-flops, too, but he wasn't about to say it. "Scully, that is an
awfully generalized indictment of men. I'll give you a few points for
the magazines and the media, but not the thought that all men are...
visual."
"I know, I know. But still 'thin is in', 'the beautiful princess' fairy tales,
'take twenty pounds off before summer', all these things. Mulder,
women haven't gotten beyond these ridiculous ideals of beauty and
desirability."
"Scully... " Mulder glared at her.
"Well, don't you agree a thin, pretty woman is much more desirable
than an overweight, plain woman?"
"No, I do not. I think I should tell you that some of the most thin and
outwardly beautiful women I have seen can be rude, self-absorbed
and downright uninteresting, with the intelligence of a cucumber."
Scully took a forkful of potato. "I didn't mean to lump you in with
shallow guys, Mulder. It's just, it's still hard for women to feel beautiful
enough, intelligent enough and meet decent guys with which to live a
normal life."
"And they died for it, in this case. They went the chat line route, some
miscreant like Incanto got to them before they met up with a decent
guy in their everyday lives. Scully, are you sure maybe you're not
wondering, I mean, I don't want to get personal... well, are you sure
you're not wondering whether you could end up lonely, gaining weight
while you wait for Mr. Right?"
"I haven't thought of it that much, Mulder. I would like a normal life,
if that's what you mean. Whether I gain weight or not, and whether I will
have to be patient for Mr. Right to come along remains to be seen,
doesn't it?"
"So, in other words, it doesn't bother you? I mean... not having it all?
Right now?"
Scully poked a few kernels of corn around, stone cold silent for a
moment. "A little."
"A little?"
"Maybe more than a little. But maybe these things just take time,
Mulder. Like forging partnerships."
"Are you coming on to me, Scully?" Mulder gave her a small smile. He
figured a big laugh would get him clobbered.
"Eat your vegetables, and let's get out of this town, Mr. Charisma.
After the Incanto case, Washington looks better to me all the time."
"Will you still like me when I'm fatter and older? Would anyone consider
dating ME then?"
"Where'd that come from, Mulder?"
"The human side of me, Scully. Even men have their doubts."
This gave Scully food for thought. She hadn't considered that, perhaps,
someone like Mulder could feel those doubts, those insecurities.
"Hmm... " was all she
could say.
END
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