Physical Pain IV: Dishes and Toes
By: Becca S.
AgtQuacker@aol.com
IceTea1013@aol.com

                   



**This, like the other three, is based on personal experiences. Do not EVER
drop a stone bowl on your toe from a high place. It hurts like heck.**

No infringement meant with Fox and Dana. Mulder just really needed new
dishes
and I was the only one around who would write him to the store.

XxX

For the second time that weekend, Mulder had wandered over to Scully's
apartment. 

The first time, yesterday evening, he had dragged her out to a warehouse. In
retrospect, it was one of the most idiotic things he had ever done. They had
been at the site for a total of four minutes when Mulder had provoked a rat
into nipping his hand. Mulder would never again pick up what he thought to
be
an old rag.

Instead of going to hear Garrison Keillor at an outdoor stage, she spent the
night listening to her partner whine.

This time, when Scully saw Mulder in her peephole, she simply didn't let him
in.

So he let himself in. Scully watched him over the top of her book as he
approached her on the couch.

"Why didn't you open the door?"

"Mulder, when we exchanged keys I wasn't inviting you to come and go as
you
pleased."

"I don't come in when you aren't home..."

Scully raised an eyebrow and Mulder corrected himself. "I don't
*usually* come
in when you aren't home, but when I hear you come up to the door and then
walk
away without opening it..."

She interrupted him, "Fine. How's your hand?"

"It's better. Thank you, by the way."

Scully put down her book, folding the top corner over to mark the page.
"Mulder, what is it this time?"

He started to answer, but she held up her hand, silencing him.

"Let me guess. An old man had a nightmare that his wife had been in a
car
accident. He was awoken by a phone call from a Highway State Trooper who
reminded him that he had never been married." 

Mulder shook his head. "Actually, I wanted you to go look at something
with
me. Not work-related."

"What do you want to look at?"

Mulder sat down in a chair next to Scully. "I broke my last dish
today."

"Dishes? You want me to go with you to look at dishes?" 

"Yeah. So, you want to come?"

Scully was about to tell him she didn't want, or for that matter, *see* why
she should go when she remembered Mulder's fashion sense. Because if his
home
design ideas were as bad as his ties...

"What dishes did you just break?"

"They were plasticy with ugly ivy vines around the edge." Mulder
made gestures
with his hands as if he could show her what they looked like.

"Plasticy? Mulder, those kind of dishes are almost impossible to
break!"
Scully's grandmother had owned a set of those when she had been a little
girl.
Her brothers often used them as Frisbees when no one was looking.

"They are not. They melt too." Scully shook her head. Mulder
probably used a
cereal bowl in the oven.

"Fine. I'll go. Let me feed Fhut-Fhut and I'll meet you down by the
car."

XxX

Now Scully knew why Mulder had wanted to bring her along. She spent her time
looking at the dishes in the homeware department while Mulder dawdled along
at
her side messing with crystal goblets and complaining about different
designs
in silverware.

"Why can't there be one standard set that everyone has? Then it would
be
simple to replace!" Mulder picked up a particularly ugly designed fork
and
waved it in Scully's face.

"Mulder put that down. I told you not to touch anything." He
frowned and set
the fork on a table.

"What kind of dishes are you looking for?" Scully pointed out
various types
and waited for a response.

"Which ones won't melt?" Scully sighed and turned back to the
stoneware.

XxX

An hour later, Mulder still couldn't decide which he wanted. 

One set of hand painted glazed dishes had caught his eye, but the price had
been enormous. Mulder suggested that he and Scully get married. Then perhaps
Skinner would buy them the dishes, and then they could get a divorce.

Scully smiled at him. "How do you know I wouldn't fight you for
them?"

Mulder frowned.

"How about these?" Scully pointed at a set of mix-and-match pastel
dishes.
Mulder immediately went to look for the accessories. He had mentioned
earlier
he wouldn't even consider dishes that didn't come with matching salt and
pepper shakers.

When Mulder walked back over to her, he held a napkin dispenser that matched
the pale blue dishes and looked like he had taken it from a table at a
roadside diner.

"Now all I need is a jukebox!" Mulder wandered around a few more
minutes
before deciding on the mix-and-match plates in the darker colors. Picking up
a
already boxed set, he handed it to Scully, then moved to get another two
boxes
for himself.

When they got out into the parking lot, Mulder tried to remember where his
car
was. 

Scully, who could actually see over the box she was carrying, started
walking
past Mulder to the right.

Mulder's left leg moved as he stepped forward, catching the back of Scully's
right leg. Scully fell backwards, knocking Mulder over as well as herself.

When Mulder got up to ask Scully if she was hurt, he noticed his two boxes
had
landed on her right foot. Moving them off, he noticed the look of pain on
his
partner's face.

"Mulder, I think you crushed my toe."

XxX

After loading a very brave and angry Dana Scully into his car, Mulder went
back for what he hoped was left of his dishes.

Packing them up, he drove to the hospital.

Mulder insisted on helping Scully into the emergency room and he held her
hand
as the doctor bent her toe back and forth.

"It's broken." The doctor set Scully's injury and told her to be careful for
the next few days.

Mulder picked up Scully's shoe as she used a crutch to get out of the tiny
curtain enclosed room. "Nice nail polish, Scully. Silver glitter over
purple?"

XxX

Mulder drove Scully home, and she swore to herself she would never go
anywhere 
else with him on the weekend. They couldn't even go to the mall without one
of
them being injured.

Mulder tried to help Scully up the front stairs to her apartment, but she
rudely insisted he not. Unlocking her apartment door, Scully hobbled over to
her couch. Letting her crutch fall to the floor, she sat down and threw her
legs onto the cushions.

Mulder brought her a bag of frozen corn and placed it over her foot.

"Works better than an ice pack."

"Well, you better eat that when it thaws, because I'm not." Scully let her
head fall back against the armrest.
"Scully, you need to look at the bright side here."

Her head snapped up, "Bright side, what bright side? My big toe is broken!" 

Mulder grinned at her. "Yeah, but none of the dishes broke."