Shades of Beauty--Chap 13

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Kalin glanced at his desk top clock while listening to
Mulder tell a story about some creature he had come across
who ate livers of all things. <Two hours?!? Where did the
time go? Catherine is gonna KILL me!> Not wanting to stop
Mulder in mid-sentence, Kalin glanced over at Agent Scully
once again. She seemed to have completely zoned out of the
conversation within the first five minutes. As Kalin
continued to watch her he realized something, she was
ASLEEP! They were making enough noise to wake the dead,
and she was asleep!

Seeing that Mulder was drawing his tale to a close, Kalin
decided to call his attention to his partner, "I do believe
your partner is asleep, Mulder."

Kalin watched as Mulder first looked over at her with a
mildly curious look on this face. The expression quickly
changed to a softened look as he made his reply, "I do
believe you're right, Peter."

When Mulder didn't look right back at him afterwards, but
instead kept his gaze focussed on his partner, Kalin had to
comment, "How long have you two been together?"

Kalin watched a confused expression appear on Mulder's face
as he responded, "Over six years, but I would have thought
you would have that information already." He then adopted
half a smirk, "Unless of course you've finally given up on
following me."

Mulder nodded knowingly, "Yeah, just like they never
nicknamed me 'Spooky'. Seriously, Peter, what's up?"

Realizing that there was no way he was going to get out of
this unscathed, Kalin decided to try the direct approach,
"How long have you and Agent Scully been in a romantic
relationship?"

Mulder got an apologetic look on his face, "Nope, sorry,
Pete. She's just my partner."

"Oh, nothing, Mulder, just wondering when you were gonna
stop bullshitting me," Kalin challenged. He knew that it
wasn't a good idea to challenge Mulder, but what else was
he supposed to do? It was becoming painfully obvious that
Mulder was lying through his teeth about his relationship
with his partner, but there was nothing he could do about
it unless Mulder himself allowed it. This decided, he
plowed forward despite his better judgement. "Come on,
Mulder, I have NEVER known you to shy away from something
because it's against policy. Years ago you were
practically shouting to everyone in hearing range that you
were involved with Diana Fowley. How is this any
different? And don't you dare say it's just because I'm a
Special Agent in Charge now. We both know THAT's an
excuse."

Kalin watched as Mulder started to squirm. He had never
seen the man so uncomfortable with something as simple as
this. Usually Mulder was the one who went around
announcing to everyone who he was in love with at the
moment, but he seemed to be shying away from it now. Kalin
just couldn't make sense of it all. He watched as Mulder
cast one more glance at his sleeping partner as if he could
gain reassurance from her mere presence.

When he did reply, it was soft and almost a whisper,
"Scully's not Diana. We're not involved. That's just the
way things are."

"WHY aren't you involved?" This whole exchange was
becoming more and more like the twilight zone for Kalin.
Mulder, the man who went after every halfway attractive
girl they had ever met, wasn't going after this one lady
who he obviously cared about quite a bit? The very idea
was ludicrous.

"We're just not." Kalin could practically see the walls
building themselves around Mulder with these words.

Trying to stop the construction, he quickly blurted out,
"But you love her don't you?"

This question brought Mulder up short. Kalin watched as
Mulder's gaze went back and forth between him and Scully
five or six times. He saw the moment when Mulder finally
gave up and looked back him with a sigh. "Yeah, I love her
more than anything."

The sadness in Mulder's eyes was so intense that Kalin just
had to ask, "What did she say?" although he was already
fearing the answer.

"She said, 'Oh, brother', rolled her eyes, and walked out
of the room." His voice practically cracked on the last
words.

Kalin could not believe that anyone, let alone this person
who had so steadfastly tried to defend Mulder, could be so
cruel. "How could she do that?" he asked in disdain.

Mulder shrugged, "I was drugged to the gills at the time.
I don't think she believed me."

"Yeah, I know," Mulder replied with a self-deprecating
smile, "no sane person would." He shrugged again, "Don't
worry about it, Peter, you got enough to worry about
without me bothering you as well."

"No, buts this matter is closed," Mulder stated with
finality. Kalin watched him and decided that this matter
was far from closed, but he would let his friend go on it,
for the moment.

Never being a good liar, Kalin decided to tell a partial
truth. "I can't say I'll never bring it up again, but,
yeah, it's over." He watched as Mulder started to relax,
"Just one more question first."

Mulder looked at Kalin like he had grown another head.
"They would split us up."

"Mulder, I highly doubt they would split you up for
something like that. Besides, I got the impression that he
wants to keep you together." <THAT got his attention, >
Kalin thought as he watched Mulder's head shoot up.

Now Mulder had Kalin's full attention. It wasn't often
that Mulder completely and totally refused to comment on
something. It always seemed like he had something to say
on just about everything. And now, the fact that Mulder
was holding back on what he had to say was starting to
drive Kalin crazy. Exasperated, Kalin said, "Come on,
Mulder. We both know there was a reason you asked in the
first place. Now, why don't you just tell me what it is so
that we can both put this matter to rest."

Mulder appeared to be considering it. "Scully and Skinner
are really worried about me on this case. They're not used
to me being in profiler mode, although they did get a taste
of it once. I guess they just don't want me back in the
mental hospital."

Kalin, who had been nodding his head through the whole
explanation, raised his eyebrows at the last. "They're
aware of the psych ward you were on? I thought they hadn't
put that in any of the records."

Kalin watched as Mulder glanced warily at Scully before
continuing. "No, they don't know about that time. And I'd
like to keep it that way, understood," at Kalin's nod, he
continued. "They're just scared that I might end up on one
at some point in the future." Then, almost to himself, "I
almost did the last time they saw me profile."

The suspense of not knowing was killing Kalin, "What was
the last profile you did?"

Mulder looked him straight in the eye with a look that
chilled Kalin to the bone before saying one word,
"Patterson."

They sat in silence for several moments, both of them
afraid to make a noise. The only sound in the room was
that of Scully's breath. Kalin found himself hypnotized by
the steady cadence. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out. In.
Out.

Kalin was beginning to wonder if they were ever going to
talk again when Mulder asked, out of the blue, "How's
Catherine doing? I haven't seen her in a while."

Kalin cleared his throat before speaking. "Catherine is
doing fine. I have to be getting home to her soon,
actually, not that your company is anything less than
entertaining of course. I talked to her this afternoon.
When she heard you were coming up, she insisted that you
come over to eat something one of these days."

"Isn't she always?" Kalin replied with a sigh. "Actually,
I think she just wants to make sure that you eat at least
ONE good meal this month. She still has nightmares about
how skinny you were the last time she saw you."

Mulder adopted a wistful look on his face. "Her and Scully
will get along wonderfully."

As they shared a laugh, Kalin watched his friend closely.
Mulder genuinely seemed to be happy with the way things
were going. He just hoped that this case wasn't gonna
change all that. Taking in the fact that not only was
Agent Scully sleeping sitting up in the chair next to the
next, but Mulder looked like he was about to fall asleep
himself, Kalin decided to call a close to this meeting.
"I'll see ya tomorrow, Mulder. Try not to get into TOO
much trouble before then."

"Yeah, Ok." Mulder started to get up and then stopped
suddenly, "Hey, Peter, where are the keys to the car?"

Mentally hitting himself up side the head for almost
forgetting, Kalin reached into his top desk drawer and
pulled out a set of keys. Tossing them to Mulder, he said,
"Lot 10, Slot 6."

Mulder caught the keys in midair. "Thanks," he replied and
then turned to his partner.

Kalin was trying to ascertain how Mulder was going to wake
his partner when he did the unexpected, he just reached
down and picked her up. "Isn't she gonna get upset?"

Mulder glanced down at the sleeping Scully in his arms
before responding. "Nah, she'll just be glad I didn't wake
her. She has a hard time getting to sleep sometimes."

Kalin watched in amusement as the topic of the conversation
appeared to start to wake up and then go right back to
sleep at Mulder's whispered, "Shhh," tucking herself even
closer into Mulder's chest than she had been before.

Watching this whole play, Kalin had to comment. "I think
she's sweet on you, Mulder."

Barely restraining the urge to laugh, Kalin said, "You
better get out of here before she wakes up or someone sees
you."

Mulder turned, still smiling, and headed out the door. He
threw a, "Goodnight, Peter," over his shoulder as he left.

Watching the retreating figure, Kalin shook his head
slowly. This was definitely shaping up to be an interesting
week. Now, if only they didn't nave this killer to contend
with, they might actually have a little fun.

SO? What do you think? The next part (Interlude 3) should
also be coming to you tonight.

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