Shades of Beauty: Chapter 12

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Having completed the rest of the drive in silence, Rashen
pulled up into the parking garage under the building and
parked. He was still wary of talking for fear of Mulder
trying to kill him, but he had to say something, anything.
This silence was getting oppressive, and it was becoming
painfully obvious that neither of the other passengers were
going to speak first, so he took a deep breath and said, "I
guess I'll take you up to see SAC Kalin now."

He winced when he heard Mulder's short reply in his deadly
voice, "Yes, why don't you do that?"

Swallowing hard, Rashen slowly opened the door and got out
of the car. He was relieved beyond words when they both
followed him without saying anything. But the silence soon
became unbearable again and he said, "Ok, follow me," for
lack of anything better to say. He turned around without
waiting for a reply and walked straight to the elevators,
praying that this would all soon be over.

Rashen could hear Mulder and Scully whispering in the
background to each other as they walked, but he didn't dare
turn around even though his curiosity was eating him up
inside. He didn't want to have another run-in with
Mulder's temper if he could help it, <Besides, they're
probably talking about how much they hate me, anyway.>
With this thought in mind, Rashen tried to block out
everything except the sight of the elevator that was
standing before him, looking more and more like the holy
grail.

It took all of his willpower not to get down on his knees
and praise the Lord when he finally got to the elevator and
it opened immediately. Stepping inside, he was quickly
followed by Mulder and Scully and reached out to push the
button for the fourth floor. The small booth echoed
silence. Rashen couldn't help but think, <I've been in
cemeteries at midnight with more noise than this.> As if
that wasn't problem enough, Rashen had the uneasy thought
that Mulder was standing behind him and watching him while
he was methodically planning his demise.

Rashen let out a sigh of relief that he hoped was not
overheard when the door finally dinged and released them
from his prison. He walked quickly down the hall and
straight into Kalin's office without bothering to check and
see if Mulder and Scully were following him or not.

Kalin looked up from the reports he was trying to read when
he heard Rashen enter the room. Looking past Rashen, he
could see Mulder and Scully standing a good six feet behind
him, still in the entranceway. He took note of the way
that Rashen was sweating bullets and wondered idly about
that. When Rashen opened his mouth and Kalin heard the
slightly strangled announcement of his two visitors, Kalin
knew something was up. This suspicion was only confirmed
when, after dismissing Rashen, he caught Mulder giving
Rashen a look that should have struck him dead where he
stood. Kalin watched as Rashen paled even further and
sighed. Mulder was obviously well on his way to pissing
off all his coworkers. As usual.

With a sigh, Kalin decided it was best to attempt to get
any problems out of the way sooner rather than later and
asked, "Is anything the matter, Agent Mulder?"

He was so intent on watching for Mulder's response that he
was incredibly surprised when the answer came, not from
Mulder, as he had expected, but from his partner. He
watched in amazement as Scully stepped in front of Mulder,
rather defensively, he thought, and said coolly, "No, sir.
Nothing is wrong. Now what did you want to see us about?"

Now Kalin was even more curious. This little redhead
didn't look like she could take much of a beating, but she
appeared to be more than willing to protect Mulder from him
if necessary. Wanting to test this theory, he replied, "I
was not talking to you, Agent Scully. Would you answer the
question, Agent MULDER?"

Kalin then watched, awestruck, as Mulder actually looked to
his partner FIRST, before responding. This was incredible!
In all the time Kalin had known Mulder, he had never known
him to take into consideration the views of ANYONE else,
let alone one of his partners. He tended to leave them
high and dry without so much as a clue. <Maybe he has
finally met his match,> Kalin thought, wryly, sitting back
to watch this interplay.

When Mulder finally responded a scant second later, it was
in a very calm voice. "Nothing is wrong, sir. Could you
please tell us why you called this meeting so we can check
into our hotel and get some rest sooner?"

Kalin was suddenly glad he was sitting because otherwise he
would have fallen on his ass out of surprise. As it was,
he could barely keep the shock off his face. Mulder not
only said 'please', but he wanted to sleep? MULDER wanted
to sleep?!? Mr. 'I can go for three days straight without
a wink' wanted to sleep?!? <What the hell is going on
here?!? I guess Mulder really HAS changed. Jeez, he's
respectful of his partner, said please when he wasn't
trying to get me to do something against the rules, and
now, NOW he wants to sleep. When did I wake up in the
twilight zone?> Trying not to let on to Mulder that he was
so badly shell-shocked, Kalin stuttered, "Oh, um, yeah,
sure Mulder. Have a seat."

He saw the smile and knew what was going to happen before
it did. "What, no 'Agent' Mulder?" <Right on cue.>

He quickly supplied his lines to this little skit of
theirs. "Well, I prefer to keep the 'Agent' for when I
kick your ass. So, no, no 'Agent' Mulder today." He was
surprised and slightly relieved that he remembered his
lines so well after so many years. Kalin couldn't even
remember the last time they had played this game, but,
apparently Mulder still remembered it too because he heard
the expected reply less than a second later.

"What, no ass kicking? But that's half the fuuuun," Mulder
finished with a whine.

It took all of Kalin's self-control not to smile or the
game would be over. Instead, he put on his most serious
face and, looking straight at Mulder, said, "Nope, this is
officially an 'ass kicking free zone' for the next," he
checked his watch, "five minutes."

Giving the expected response, Mulder promptly went over to
the nearest chair, and, instead of sitting on it like a
normal person, stood up on it and shouted, "Woohoo! No ass
kicking for five minutes! PAR-TAY!" He then proceeded to
do an odd style of free form dance on the chair, calling to
Kalin, "Come on, Peter, join the party!"

Kalin might have actually taken Mulder up on his offer, as
he had been known to do in the past, but he was currently
laughing so hard he was having a hard time not falling out
of his chair while he was sitting, let alone dancing. He
remembered one time when Mulder had managed to talk ten
other agents into joining his impromptu 'party' and that
only made him laugh harder. With tears rolling down his
cheeks from laughing so hard, he gasped out, "Damn Mulder,
I'd forgotten why I liked you so much."

Scully just stood there in the doorway, forgotten, looking
back and forth between Mulder and Kalin. <What the HELL is
going on here?!?> she thought, trying to place some method
to their madness. Mulder had just been royally pissed off
less than a minute ago and now he was DANCING ON THE
CHAIR?!? Her sleep-deprived brain was having a hard time
wrapping itself around this concept. All she knew was that
it was becoming increasingly more obvious that Mulder knew
Kalin a LOT better than he had let on. Not that this
bothered her all that much, just that she would have rather
known this so she wouldn't have had to try and defend
Mulder earlier.

Deciding she was sick of being ignored, Scully cleared her
throat. Loudly. This action had a two-fold response.
Kalin immediately sobered up and wiped the tears from his
eyes, and Mulder got off the chair and used it as its
original maker had intended. They both adopted sheepish
expressions and refused to meet Scully's eye. Looking from
one to the other, she demanded, "What was THAT all
about?!?"

She watched as Mulder exchanged a quick glance with his
partner in crime, reminding her of a little kid caught with
his hand in a cookie jar before looking at her. "It's
nothing Scully, just releasing a little excess energy,
that's all."

"A little excess energy? You were dancing on your chair!"
Scully replied with a raised eyebrow.

Kalin jumped in, quick to try and defend Mulder. "It's a
bit of a tradition, actually. We started it back when I
first met Mulder. See, these cases get way to stressful
and everyone needs to unwind now and again. Besides,
jumping from one case to another with no downtime in
between is not a good way to manage things.

"I give Mulder five minutes of to 'party' before I clamp
down and ask him to start the real work. Sometimes,
depending on my mood, I even give him ten or fifteen
minutes. It helps keep him more manageable. Right,
Mulder?"

"Yeah, you're about as manageable as a mule," Kalin
responded with a laugh. "Remember the time when you got my
secretary to join you?"

"Hell, yeah, I thought she was gonna fall off the desk, she
was laughing so hard."

Mulder looked over at her, "Yeah, sometimes we sweep
everything off the nearest desk and just dance on top of
that. I think someone even turned the radio on one time."

Scully watched as Kalin tipped his chair back in
recollection. "Yeah, I remember. That was the time you
talked the entire floor into joining the party. Ten
agents, all dancing in the conference room on the table and
chairs. Now THAT was amusing."

"Hey, YOU were the one who kept telling everyone to go
ahead and join in when they came by the door to see what
was going on."

Looking back and forth between the two of them, Scully
realized that, at this rate, she was going to be sitting
here all night and tried to pull them back on track. She
looked pointedly at Kalin and said, "Was there a reason you
wanted to see us, sir?"

She watched as Kalin tossed an amused glance at Mulder,
saying, "She doesn't let up easily, does she?"

"Well, at least that gives her a snowball's chance in hell
of keeping you in line." Mulder gave him a wry smile and
he finally turned to Scully. "No, Agent Scully, there was
nothing of importance that I wished to discuss. I just
wanted to welcome you to the windy city and catch up a bit
with an old friend. Does that meet to your standards?"

"Good," Kalin said, turning his attention back to Mulder.
"So, how has everything been since I last saw you?"

Scully listened to the conversation with half an ear for a
bit before letting her mind wander when it became obvious
that there was no relevant reason for her to be there in
the first place. Her last coherent thought was, <I'm so
glad Mulder has at least a FEW friends here. That'll take
a bit of the strain off of me.>

So, now that you've seen the latest chapter, you ready to
kill me yet? I think I explained the dancing thing pretty
well, but tell me if you want more of it. Actually, just
tell me anything about any of it. I really want to hear
from you. OK, I'll stop talking now. Bye.

PS. The question for this chapter is: Should Mulder carry
a sleeping Scully down to their car?

=====
Poems are windows to the soul. They are the glue that holds the rest of the world together
and they are the helping hands that put our lives in perspective. You can survive without
poetry, but you cannot really live until you feel its presence for poetry is in every action,
it is in every word, every phrase that falls from a human tongue. It is in the movement of
the oceans and the songs of birds. It is in the air and in the sun. Poetry in motion is what
makes the days seem brighter and the stars look more radiant. You are poetry whether you
realize it or not, you are beautiful.