Cockroaches. When Dana Scully agreed begrudgingly to disprove Special Agent Fox Mulder’s findings on extraterrestrial life and beyond, she didn’t think it would lead to her standing in a house full of roaches.
Hours earlier, Scully was crouched over a bug exterminator. A dead one.
“And you said two other bodies were found in the same condition?” She asked the Sheriff, who simply nodded. She sighed, pushing herself up from the ground and removing her gloves. Mulder looked at her expectantly.
“What?” She asked, widening her eyes. “I’m not going to tell you that this man was eaten apart by cockroaches.”
He looked at her dumbfounded. “Scully, these weren’t kids. This was a trained exterminator and the other two victims were molecular biologists and an astrophysicist!”
“There were no insect bites on the body,” she started. “No allergy or fatal reaction on the skin due to the cockroaches– I mean you’re basing this all on speculation and human observation. You don’t know what they saw..”
He relented, used to her denial. He knew that he didn’t have any solid proof.
But hours later, a new call came.
“Scully,” she answered from the autopsy quarters.
“Scully, it’s me,” he said. “There’s another body.”
“Suspected roaches again?” She asked, putting down her scalpel.
“You better get down here.”
When she arrived in the basement, she saw two teenagers practically shaking in fear, the very same sheriff as before, and Mulder crouched over a kid on the ground.
Scully knelt down too, putting on a single glove and moving aside the boy’s sleeve.
“There are marks this time..” Mulder observed.
“Not from any cockroaches,” she pointed a pinky at the markings, lowering her voice to a whisper. “Looks self-inflicted. Like he was having delusions and tried to… well, cut them out.”
“Cut them out?” The Sheriff piped in, the outward claim making the teenagers next to them gasp, the young girl letting out a cry.
Scully shook her head at his bluntness– having hoped to keep this under wraps.
“He severed an artery,” she said, just to Mulder this time. She stood, wrinkling her nose. “What is that smell?”
Mulder scratched the back of his head, not wanting Scully to disprove the case even further.
“These kids had some sort of lab,” the Sheriff spoke up much to Mulder’s dismay. “Smells like a septic tank, don’t it! Look at this bong!”
Scully pursed her lips.
“You called me out here for three teenagers having a drug-induced hallucination?” She whispered, angrily.
“Scully, you have to believe me. This can’t all be a coincidence,” he insisted. “The consistent mention of cockroaches, the mysterious deaths with no indicative wound–”
“There were indicative wounds!” She interrupted. “An indicative artery slice!”
He huffed, backing up, knowing he’d lost the battle again.
“Mulder,” she said, calmer. “I’m just saying that there are other possibilities, especially with the drugs he was on. He could have suffered specific and real-seeming delusions, in this case, insects infesting their epidermis. It’s not unheard of, it’s called Ekbom's Syndrome.”
"Ekbom’s Syndrome?” He parroted.
She nodded. “Where the victim cuts himself in an attempt to extract the imaginary insect.”
He appreciated that she was at least trying to reason alongside his findings. It was a step in the right direction.
Traveling back to the lab, Mulder and Scully dispersed: Scully back in the autopsy room, and Mulder off… doing whatever he does.
Scully had just snapped on her surgical mask when she heard a high pitched, girly scream. She tore the mask back off, pushing through the doors into the nearby women’s room.
The room was completely empty to her shock. She bolted across the hallway into the men’s room finding a distraught Mulder holding a glass jar.
“Mulder?” She asked, out of breath and surprised by the jolting scream.
“Scully?” He asked, sweat forming on his brow. “I mean, hey Scully, what’s up?”
“Was that you? What happened?”
He dragged the glass jar from the floor, up the wall, trapping the insect inside. “No, wasn’t me. I think there was a little girl in here before.”
“In the men’s room?” She asked, lifting a brow.
There was a lull while he pursed his lips, squinting his eyes a bit in the process.
“...Anyway, take a look at this,” he motioned to the jar. “I think I got one.”
“What? A cockroach?” She asked, intrigued.
He nodded, moving it across the wall to the sink on the adjoining wall.
“Ready?” He asked, preparing to lift the jar.
“Wait!” Scully called, taking off her shoe. “What if it gets away?”
“Don’t kill it! We need it for testing.”
She stood, shoe in hand anyway, nodding for Mulder to lift the glass up.
He lifted it slowly, both eyes trained on the sink. When he lifted it up completely, he found it empty.
“What…” He shook the glass over the sink, tapping the bottom. Scully grimaced as if expecting it to fly out.
“Mulder, stop that,” she grabbed his arm. “Mulder it’s gone. Did you even see it in the first place?”
He scoffed, mouth agape. “You think I’m crazy like the kid with the bong in the basement, don’t you?”
“The kid with the bong in the basement– this isn’t Clue, Mulder, and I’m never going to finish the last autopsy you sent up for me to do if you keep calling me away from the table.”
Scully left the bathroom, Mulder calling out a weak “you didn’t answer the question!” before the door clicked shut behind her. “She thinks I’m crazy,” he said out loud to no one in particular.
Scully finally managed to wrap up her autopsy, hoping to eventually go home– a rare occurrence lately, when the phone rang.
She exhaled through her nose before answering.
“Who died now?”
“The medical examiner,” Mulder said. “His body was found next to the toilet, you’ll never guess–”
“Covered in roaches?”
“Okay, so maybe you will guess. So the bathroom–”
“The bathroom where you did that girly scream? Near the examination room?”
“I– no, Scully, that wasn’t me I already told you,” he rubbed the bridge of his nose.
“Right, the little girl, I forgot.”
“Anyway,” he continued. “There are no marks from the bugs, but his eyes are red and dilated.”
“Bloodshot eyes right near a toilet,” Scully relayed. “Mulder, you know how this sounds. That doesn’t sound like the roaches had anything to do with that. If anything, it sounds more like some kind of strain or aneurysm.”
“But the roaches,” he tried.
“Did you catch any of them?” She asked, being met with silence. “I’ll take that as a no. I don’t know what to tell you, Mulder. I just hope that you’re not implying that you've come across an infestation of killer cockroaches.”
Mulder was nearly silent the rest of the call, Scully suspecting she may have been too harsh in her skepticism. She sighed, going home, but not to rest.
Mulder was surprised when his phone rang an hour later.
“Mulder.”
“Mulder, it’s me. Listen I’ve been doing some research,” she started.
His eyes instantly lit up on the other end of the phone. “You have?”
“Yes, listen, there was a cockroach species in Asia that was recently found in Florida,” she read off her screen, shoving a spoon full of ice cream into her mouth. “They exhibit different behaviors than the traditional breed.”
“Do they attack people?”
“Well, no,” she took another bite. “They’re attracted to light and can fly for longer distances.”
“But do they attack people?”
“Mulder, I’m simply suggesting that what you think– what you discovered, is a new and more evolved breed of cockroach.” Her spoon clattered to the floor. She bent to pick it up, talking away from the speaker. “One that is attracted to people, rather than light.”
“What?”
“One that is attracted to people, rather than the evolved species from Asia that happens to be attracted to light.”
There was a pause.
“Scully, what are you doing?”
“Eating ice cream,” her voice was smaller.
“While you’re looking at cockroach species?”
She realized that she was doing exactly that.
“Well,” Mulder continued. “What flavor?”
“Chocolate chip cookie dough,” she replied, setting the dirty spoon aside and glancing back at the large roaches on the screen. She was done eating.
She researched bugs for way too long. She wanted to prove to Mulder that she was taking him seriously, after all. She felt bad shooting down his ideas again and again, opting to change. This was something she could possibly prove– something she might be able to narrow down to science and entomology.
“Mulder,” he answered.
“Mulder it’s me,” Scully shouted over the rain pelting down on top of her car.
“Scully? Where are you?”
“The car,” she said vaguely. “Where are you?”
“My apartment,” he replied, seemingly amused. “It’s late.”
“Right…” she said, veering to stay on the road between the lines. “Listen, there’s a building up here that I read about. They were investigated for disguising themselves as a department of agriculture.”
“You’re investigating a conspiracy?”
“No, listen, when I was researching the, um, aggressive roaches,” she forced out of her mouth, “I stumbled upon this place. They experiment on new species from all over the world– the answer could be here.”
“Are you trespassing on government property, Scully?” He asked, secretly proud that he’d weaseled his way so deep into her head.
“I have my badge,” she replied, trying to appear relaxed.
She stopped the car, getting out just as the rain began to let up. She walked up the dirty road, halting at the door.
“What’s wrong?” Mulder asked through the silence.
Scully adjusted the phone to the other side of her cheek. “The door’s locked.”
“No one else is there?”
“It’s abandoned, Mulder..”
He heard faint clicking on the other end.
“What are you doing now?”
“Picking the lock,” she whispered, strain in her voice from concentration.
“Who are you and what have you done with Dana Scully?”
“Mulder, shut up.” The door finally cracked open with a loud creak. “I got it.”
She stepped inside, the building looking more like a house than a government lab. There was a kitchen, a fridge, faint shapes that she couldn’t quite make out in the dark.
“It’s a house,” she reported back, reaching in her pocket to pull out a small flashlight. “A regular two-story suburban house.”
“Do you see any–”
“Oh my god,” Scully interrupted.
“What?” He asked, voice serious.
“Mulder, the walls…”
“What about them? What’s happening?”
She aimed the flashlight at the kitchen wallpaper that seemed to be rippling. The striped wallpaper moved up and down as if it were alive itself. As if something lay right beneath the surface. She leaned closer, angling the light into a small hole in the wall.
“Cockroaches!” She said, panicked. An endless flowing trail of roaches flowed from the wall in pace with each other. “The whole.. Mulder the walls..”
They were suddenly everywhere. The walls were covered, the floor, the cabinets, the appliances, all moved and rippled with the brown-shelled bug.
“Scully? Scully, get out of there,” he said, worry evident in his voice.
Her flashlight flickered, “No, no, no,” she called, banging the flashlight on the palm of her hand, nestling the phone between her cheek and her shoulder.
“What? Are you okay? Scully?” Mulder called, but Scully was distracted as the light of the house flicked on.
The whole building was illuminated now. Scully looked around, seeing no signs of any roaches. The walls were normal, the kitchen was restored, the house was completely ordinary. What wasn’t ordinary, however, was the woman standing in front of her.
“Scully, what’s going on?” He asked, voice rising.
“Mulder… gotta go…” She hung up the phone, eyes glued to the brunette that stood before her.
She dropped the phone into her back pocket, forgetting about the roaches altogether. The woman in front of her was tall, lean, and absolutely gorgeous. Her dark brown hair was cut into a bob, her bangs complementing her face nicely. She wore a plaid shirt that unbuttoned at the top, the bottom tucked into the smallest cargo shorts Scully had ever seen. And her legs, God, her legs…
“Can I ask why you’re trespassing on government property?” She asked, placing both hands on her hips, interrupting Scully from her ogling.
Scully just stared before blinking and reaching into her jacket pocket. “I’m a federal agent,” she said, holding up her badge.
The woman didn’t falter, though, quite the contrary. “So am I,” she said, reaching for her own badge.
“Agent Dana Scully, F.B.I,” she stated.
The brunette displayed her credentials as well, “Doctor Bambi Berenbaum, U.S.D.A. Agricultural research service.”
“Bambi?” Scully couldn’t help but smile. “Your name is Bambi?”
Scully realized that it was a rude question after it was too late. She opened her mouth to speak, but Bambi just shook her head. “My parents were naturalists,” she said with a knowing smile. Scully guessed that she must’ve gotten that question a lot.
Scully just smiled, looking down at her feet, suddenly shy in the woman’s presence.
“What’s a woman like you doing in a place like this?” Bambi asked, moving further into the kitchen.
“You study them personally?” Scully asked, now sat next to Bambi at her desk in a separate lab-like room. There were roaches crawling around in an impressive terrarium that sat on the large wooden surface.
She nodded, “I study how insects respond to changes in light, temperature, air currents, and food availability. So we can determine the best ways to eradicate them.”
“But why the big secret?” She asked. “I had to dig to find this building and that was after checking the F.B.I database.”
“Do you make a habit of flashing your credentials, Agent Scully?” She deflected, leaning back in her chair and angling herself more to face her.
“I–no…” She started, tucking a hair behind her ear self consciously. “These cockroaches look normal, though. Are they?”
“They’re a common species,” she said, calmly.
“Are any of them attracted to people? I read about species that were developed and adapted to be attracted to light,” she said. She didn’t know why she was so nervous, she knew that her research was accurate. And she was competent enough, even if she was out of her medical field of study.
“Not really,” she said. “I mean, there are cases where a cockroach has crawled into someone’s ear or nose.”
“Their nose?” She asked, making a face. “Like in Arachnophobia?”
“No,” she said, amused by Scully’s face. “Those were spiders.”
“No, I know, I was just saying like–”
“I’m teasing,” Bambi said, smiling, eyes lingering across Scully’s face. Scully’s mouth fell into an ‘O’ shape. She really wasn’t used to this.
She directed her attention across the room, distracting her nerves.
“What’s that?” She asked, nodding to a device with a cockroach on top.
“A project of mine,” she stood, walking over to the roach, clicking a button on top. The light makes the exoskeleton grow blue. “See how it resulted in a colored flare? A brushed discharge over an insect's exoskeleton surrounds the conductive medium of its body fluid...”
Scully listened intently, nodding along as she absorbed the information. As a doctor, someone interested in science, she found it fascinating. As Bambi continued talking, though, her brow furrowed.
“... my theory that UFOs are actually insect swarms.” She finished.
“What?” Scully asked, snapping out of her daze.
“Insect swarms,” she repeated. “Typical sightings are shared with nocturnal insects swarming through an electrical air field. There’s typically humming, lights, objects hovering in the air in a nonmechanical manner. And then, of course, the sudden disappearances of the “crafts” in the sky.”
“That’s.. Interesting,” Scully said, unsure of what to say.
“Everything about insects is interesting,” she started. “They’re remarkable creatures– beautiful and honest.”
“Honest?”
“Eat, sleep, defecate, procreate. That’s all they do. And, well, that’s all we do too. Except they don’t kid themselves that it’s anything more.”
Scully was surprised by her answer. “You’re so passionate about this– about them. You remind me of my partner.”
“You have a boyfriend?” She asked. Scully couldn’t gage whether she was put off or just curious.
“No,” she shook her head, answering too fast. “I mean, my partner at the bureau. At the X-Files.”
“X-Files?” She asked, leaning over and grabbing her hand. “You work with unexplained phenomena?”
Scully felt herself go red at the touch. “Yeah, we–”
Her phone rang. She cursed under her breath, not wanting the moment to end. She reached into her pocket with the hand that Bambi wasn’t gripping intently and silenced the call.
“You’re not going to get that?”
Scully shook her head, not caring who it was. “No. Probably junk,” she said, glancing down at Bambi’s lips. “I love bugs.”
Mulder stared at the phone while he bounced a basketball up and down in his apartment. When was she going to call? Was she okay? Was she cockroach dinner at this point? He couldn’t think about anything else.
The rhythmic bouncing of the ball did little to relax him. It’d been almost an hour since Scully hung up on him.
What was she doing?
‘What am I doing?’ Scully thought to herself.
Scully didn’t flirt with people– she barely had a life outside of her work. Yet when she got back home, all she could think about was Bambi. Even her name didn’t seem so ridiculous anymore. She found herself saying it, testing the words out on her lips. Bambi Berenbaum. Doctor Bambi Berenbaum.
‘God, she was a doctor’ Scully thought, dreamily, as she collapsed back onto her bed. It had been so nice talking to someone else in the field. Even if their fields were different and their beliefs didn’t align, they were both women surrounded by men. Both women in science, who loved science. Her logic and her need for concrete experimentable proof was something that Mulder could never understand. Mulder.. Mulder!
She reached for her phone on the end table, opening it to find several missed calls and voicemails. She felt the guilt immediately, dialing his number.
Mulder fell asleep with the phone in his hand, practically cradling it. He was fast asleep on the couch, but picked up before the first ring could even finish.
“Scully, are you okay?” He said, blinking awake immediately.
“I’m okay,” she answered, unsure of how much to divulge.
“What happened with the U.S.D.A site?”
“It’s a legitimate site,” she said. “They’re conducting experiments.”
She paused before adding: “I met one of the scientists.”
“You did? Did he have any answers?” He asked, sitting up.
“She,” she corrected. “She agreed with me. It’s a new species from an accidental importation. Bambi has a whole–”
“Who?”
She froze, biting the inside of her cheek. She hadn’t meant to say that. “Doctor Berenbaum. The entomologist working at the site.”
“Her name is Bambi?” He asked. Scully could tell what his expression looked like even without being in the same room.
“Yes, that’s what I said, anyway…”
“Her name is Bambi?” He repeated. She sighed.
“Yes, Mulder. Her parents were naturalists. She talked about UFO’s, you know, she had a completely opposing theory to your little green men.”
There was a silence before she heard Mulder inhale, “her name is really–”
“Mulder! Are you even listening to me?”
Scully fell asleep listening to Mulder’s endless jabbering, and now she was stirred awake by it.
“Mm,” she sighed, searching the sheets for her phone. “Hello?”
“Scully? There’s been another death.”
She looked over at her clock. 7:42.
“Where?” She slid her legs out from under the covers, rubbing her eyes.
“A motel,” he said. “Multiple guests corroborate the roach story– they saw them! You can't logically theorize your way out of this one, Scully. Unless you're going to claim suicide due to the lack of mints on his pillow.”
“I’m on my way,” she said, not as bemused as she had previously been.
When she arrived at the motel, she was met by Mulder jogging out to meet her.
“I tried your phone,” he said, leaning against her car as she rolled the window down. “One of the motel guests happened to be a doctor. He ruled it a heart attack.”
“He did?” She asked, suddenly disappointed, opening her car door anyway.
Mulder stepped back to allow her out.
“Maybe it was a heart attack from seeing the cockroaches,” she tried. “You know, a fear induced reaction.”
“I don't know, Scully, I’m starting to think you were right from the start. Maybe the exterminator did die of anaphylactic shock. The teenage boy from the self-inflicted wounds. The medical examiner from–”
“But what about the cockroaches at all the sites?” She asked, crossing her arms.
“Why are you suddenly so indignant about this roach theory?” He asked, matching her crossed arms mannerisms with an amused smile.
They were interrupted, though, by a medic in a white hazmat suit.
“This was found under the guest's pillow,” he said, dangling a plastic bag with a large dead roach in it.
“You caught one?” Mulder walked over, astounded, reaching for the bag. “That’s great, we can–”
Scully ran up, her short legs carrying her swiftly, snatching the bag.
“I need this,” she said, starting back towards her car.
Mulder squinted at her, devoid of explanation.
“For what?” He called after her as she jumped back into the car. “You’re taking it to Bambi aren't you?”
Scully swallowed at how easily she’d been figured out.
“Mulder, I have other contacts,” she argued, putting the car in reverse.
“Is she cute?” He called after her.
“Bye, Mulder!” She exaggerated a wave out the window, pulling out of the lot and disappearing down the street.
Mulder stood there, hip jutted out, unsure of what just occurred.
“So, can you tell what kind of cockroach it is?” Scully asked, leaning in to look under the microscope. For science reasons, not so that her face could be closer to Bambi’s.
Bambi turned her head. Their faces were so close but if she was nervous or even noticed, it wasn't evident.
“I should be able to,” she resumed her attention to the microscope. “...genitalia.”
“What?” Scully stuttered out realizing that she hadn't been paying attention to her words.
Bambi just smiled, unaffected as always. “I said that I’d need to examine the genitalia. It’s how we differentiate the species.”
She nodded as if she’d known that information her entire life. “Right, of course..”
“Oh, wow!” Bambi exclaimed, leveraging herself against the desk to look even deeper into the scope. “Dana, look at this…”
Dana. Scully felt herself flush. It had been ages since anyone outside of her family had called her by her first name. Not that she minded, of course, it was professional courtesy. She wouldn't want the men of the bureau or her partner to be so colloquial. This felt different, though.
She got up and moved between Bambi and the microscope, looking in. “It looks like a dead cockroach.”
She sucked in a quiet breath as Bambi leaned over her, her front pressing into Scully’s back. Bambi’s hand scooped up a handful of Scully’s short red hair, pushing it to the opposite side as she leaned in to take a closer look. Their cheeks almost touched, she was practically on top of her from behind… she could have easily stepped to the side and pushed Scully out of the way.
‘Is she flirting?’ Scully thought.
She thought she had been crazy. Bambi was flirting… and talking. Oh, god, she was talking and Scully was not listening.
“I agree,” Scully nodded, having no idea what she just agreed to. She agreed that this woman was beautiful. And that she hadn't been between a woman and a desk since early college days.
“You agree that the roach is massively hung?” She asked.
“What? Did you… I didn't– I’m sorry, I wasn't–”
“Kidding,” she moved away, dragging a hand across Scully’s back as she slid up to sit on the desk. “Although he is quite large in that department. Uncommonly so for a roach.”
“You’re talking about his…”
“What I was talking about,” she backtracked, “was the mechanical elements.”
She tilted her head to the side, her bangs swaying slightly. Scully swallowed to keep her composure.
“Mechanical elements? You’re suggesting that this roach is man-made? Robotic?”
“Something like that,” she slid off the desk, pacing around the small room. “I’ve read about artificial intelligence in my science journals. There’s this one genius researcher whose life work is to implement robots into an insect form. I’d do anything to have some of his expertise.”
Anything?
“Mulder, it’s me.”
“Scully?” Mulder’s voice rang out, the noise from his side of the line almost unbearable. “Where are you?”
“Where are you?” She asked, covering her other ear in an attempt to hear him better.
“At a rest stop,” he said loudly. “There’s been some mass panic over these roaches. The whole store is trashed.”
A loud crash was heard in the background– the sound of two vehicles colliding. The collision occurred right outside of the store, accentuating the feverish hysteria that tormented the town.
“Mulder, what was that?”
“Nothing, Scully,” he dismissed, wide eyed. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Is it a bad time to ask for a favor?” She asked, chewing on her bottom lip, glancing into the other room to see a crouching Bambi examining the roach’s shell.
“No, Scully, not at all,” he said, chewing on something.
“Okay, well… what’s that noise?”
“The hysteric screams?”
“No, no, are you chewing something?”
“Oh, chocolate,” he shook the box into the phone. “They spilled onto the floor. Waste not want not, right Scully?”
“You’re eating them off the… never mind,” she rubbed a hand across her forehead. “I need you to pay someone a visit. A Doctor Ivanov.”
“The scientist?”
“You know him?” She asked, surprised.
“Well, sure, everybody knows him.”
Scully pouted. Not everyone apparently. She didn’t want to feel out of the loop.
“Sure, yeah, well Bambi–”
“Wait,” he stopped her. “Bambi? You’re telling me you’re still cooped up in that government building with Miss Berenbaum?”
“Not miss,” she corrected. “Doctor.”
“My mistake,” he ate another ball of chocolate. “So you’re Doctor Berenbaum’s errand boy now?”
“No,” she enunciated. “It’s for the case. She said that he’s been doing experiments on cockroaches using robotic technology. It could be the link connecting the strange behavior in this town, Mulder.”
“Huh,” he said, dumping the rest of the chocolate into his mouth. Scully pulled the phone away from her ear as the candy rattled around through the box opening. “Is she a brunette?”
“What?”
“Is Bambi brunette?” He asked again. “You like brunettes.”
“Wha– I,” she stammered, looking back at Bambi. “That’s not relevant. I’m hanging up and sending you the address.”
“Okay, okay,” he surrendered.
“Wait,” she started. “Did you eat all that chocolate?”
He shook the empty box. “Uh, no, why?”
“Can you save me a couple?”
Mulder came through with Scully’s request an hour later, knocking on the unmarked door of the government building. It was Scully who answered the door, Mulder’s brow quirking up at her appearance.
Her blazer was discarded, leaving her in a ribbed tan shirt, her cross necklace fastened as always. She cleared her throat, opening the door wider as he held up a hand. In his grasp was a glass jar.
“You found another cockroach?” She asked, getting the attention of Bambi. Bambi walked over too, her hips swaying.
Mulder’s mouth fell open.
‘Oh, she’s beautiful,’ was his first thought. His second thought, however, was a pang of insecurity. Scully must’ve been infatuated with this woman. He would be too if he wasn’t so… caught up. Caught up in work, caught up in chasing little green men, caught up pining over his partner–
Scully snapped in front of his face. “Mulder, this is Doctor–”
“Bambi, I’ve heard a lot about you,” he brushed by Scully, shaking her hand.
She gave him a quizzically amused look, focus mostly still on Scully.
“Dana was talking about me?” She asked.
‘Dana?’ He thought, bemused. He tried not to make a face.
“He captured a cockroach from Doctor Ivanov’s lab,” she said, changing the subject.
“Doctor Ivanov?” She asked, looking at Dana. “You told him about his experiments?”
Scully couldn’t tell if she was upset by her divulging their conversation to Mulder and involving him in their own experimental secret, or if she was grateful for the proactive approach.
“How was he? What was he like?” She asked, easing Scully’s mind. She was more focused on her idol’s discoveries rather than her, she supposed.
“He was interesting,” Mulder said, eyeing Scully. “I found this in the hall. Is it one of the advanced robot roaches?”
She took the jar, holding it under her microscope expertly. She arched over the desk, leaving both Mulder and Scully to swallow thickly.
“This,” she started. “Is a typical cockroach.”
She stood up from her lab setup. “Sorry.”
“There’s a research facility that I read about on the way over,” Mulder said. “The cockroaches could be dung-eaters originating within the facility. That could be where it all began.”
Bambi stepped forward, interested. Scully took notice, her mouth turning down slightly at Mulder’s intelligent approach. “Don’t you think if these cockroaches are intelligent enough to be robotically engineered they would be able to perfect the extraction of methane fuel from manure?”
Scully didn’t know if she believed all of this, but she knew what Bambi told her and she wanted nothing if not to impress her.
Bambi nodded. “Dana’s right,” she said, making Scully smile smugly. “But we should listen to Agent Mulder. It couldn’t hurt to check it out.”
“Scully and I will go,” Mulder said.
“It’s Bambi’s forte, Mulder,” Scully argued, Bambi firmly at her side.
In the end, Scully won, like she always does.
Scully and Bambi rode together, the ride tense and Scully’s hands sweaty with nerves gripping the steering wheel. She couldn’t believe that they were in the same car. That all of this was going so… right. She never had luck with women– she got a bad date with a boring man every once in a while, but that was all.
She felt confident driving–like she was in control. Mulder usually drove, she was always the passenger. But this was her rental car, her case. She could pretend to believe in robotic cockroaches for the weekend.
When they arrived at the research facility, Scully exhaled carefully. Should she open the door for Bambi? Is that what people did when they took a passenger to a manure factory? She didn’t have much time to think, though, because Mulder pulled up next to them.
He hopped out of his car quickly– it was hardly in park, and went over to Scully’s side to urge her along.
Scully unbuckled her seatbelt, flushing profusely when she felt a hand on her thigh as Bambi leaned over.
“Should I come along with you?” She asked, her voice melodic.
“No,” Mulder said, opening Scully’s door and offering his hand. “This is no place for an entomologist.”
Scully rolled her eyes, refusing his hand, shutting the door with a slam.
There was a short silence as they opened the door to the factory, looking around. The only light came from their flashlights– the facility was devoid of people, but roaches crawled and squeaked along the heaps of dung.
“Lovely night, huh Scully?” Mulder tried.
“Mhm,” Scully hummed, shining a light on a particularly active pile of bugs.
“So. The infamous Bambi, huh?” He asked, squinting as her beam of light hit him square in the face.
“What is your problem with her, Mulder?” She asked.
“Scully, you’re blinding me.”
“Sorry,” she lowered her beam. “She’s a good scientist– she’s qualified, educated–”
“I’m not doubting her qualification, I–” He was cut off by a roach crawling across his foot. He let out a yelp, kicking wildly, Scully covering her mouth to stifle a laugh.
“Mulder,” she started, unable to hide the chuckle escaping. “Oh, Mulder, are you alright?”
He walked off into the opposing direction, straightening his jacket.
“I don’t like this case.”
“Mulder,” she jogged after him. “Don’t be embarrassed.”
“I’m not embarrassed,” he said, embarrassed. “There’s nothing here. It’s a facility full of manure and bugs.”
“You’re sounding more like the skeptic every day.”
“Oh, c’mon Scully. Do you believe any of this? Or are you just playing house with Doctor Berenbaum in her cozy lab?”
Scully flushed, folding her arms. “That is not what we’re doing. I didn’t even know that she’d be there initially.”
“No, but once you did see her you didn’t want to leave, did you?” He asked, accusingly.
“So?” She asked. “Maybe it was nice to find someone in the sciences– nice to meet a woman also exhausted by being surrounded by men all the time.”
“Scully..” His face dropped, a hand reaching out for her tentatively.
Her face fell too, involuntarily.
“I didn’t mean…” Before she could finish, another car crunched through the gravel outside of the facility.
They made their way to the entrance, finding Bambi in conversation with none other than Doctor Ivanov. His motorized chair moved closer to Bambi, her laugh able to be heard from the doorway.
“Is that a quote from “The Planet of the Apes?”” She asked, still something from something he must have said.
Mulder and Scully approached them, bewildered.
“One of my favorite movies,” he confirmed, making Bambi’s eyes go wide.
“Me too,” she said, excitedly. “I love science fiction. And… your work. I love your work. I’m fascinated by it.”
He began to wheel towards the road, Bambi walking next to him, gesturing excitedly as they discussed his research projects.
“Oh, Agent Mulder?” He yelled, spinning his chair in Mulder’s direction. “Your car was unlocked. The segments we discussed earlier– I can study them, can’t I?”
Mulder looked at his car, left open and his bag flipped around. He nodded dumbly.
Bambi’s hand found the back of Doctor Ivanov’s chair, swaying her hips as she gushed further over his various projects.
“I’m guessing that was Doctor Ivanov?” Scully asked, frowning. “She always did seem enthralled with him.”
“Smart is sexy,” Mulder said, looking at them longingly.
Scully looked up at him. His eyes seemed to sparkle in the moonlight–something she’d never really noticed before. She was disappointed that Bambi had come and gone so soon, but suddenly it didn’t seem to matter much anymore.
“Is there a roach in my hair?” He asked, noticing her staring.
“Um, no,” she averted her gaze. “I just… did you cut your hair?”
“No.”
“Oh,” she rocked back and forth on her feet. “Well, it looks nice.”
“Really?”
“Mulder, I’m sorry.”
“For what?” He asked, turning to face her.
“The Bambi thing,” she started. “For blowing you off. For grouping you into the men that underestimate the women in male-dominated spaces. You’re not like them– I know that.”
“I know that, Scully,” he said, reaching out an arm to pull her in from the side. “I know it’s different with girl friends.”
“Girlfriends?” She asked, startled. “We weren’t… we didn’t..”
“Girl friends,” he corrected. “Friends who are girls.”
“Oh,” she said, recovering. “Right. And you’re my boy friend.”
“Scully, Scully,” he tsked, pushing her lightly in the direction of her rental. “Don’t get me excited.”