#and also the relief and joy when mulder finally exits the gate

[actual-changeling]

Post-Chimera fic with a moment similar to Ellen asking Mulder about having a significant other but it's Scully having to grapple with that question.

Maybe she picks him up at the airport (she misses him & also he almost got drowned so she's even more concerned—what if he didn't get himself checked out, what if EMTs missed something, what if there's still water in his lungs and he develops pneumonia, what if...) and gets roped into a conversation by someone waiting to pick up their partner.

"Are you waiting for your husband, too?"

"He's my—"

Husband. Well. No but not no. Technically no, but Mulder is still Someone and the most important person in her life, so—yes?

Scully doesn't want to lie but she can't decide if it's really a lie when the sentiment behind the word is true, when the weight of what Mulder is to her is not just equal to a spouse but even more than that. She panics a little a lot, and the words get away from her.

"He's mine."

It should sound odd or overly possessive but, somehow, it doesn't. It sounds right. Whatever it is they are, they both know—without having to say it out loud—that they belong to each other in a fundamental, can't-imagine-myself-without-you way.