OMG A TRICK PIE. The trick pie is what Mulder remembers most about their meeting, afterwards, her ability to deflect jokes into something more serious and still have them exist, in a separate sphere, as jokes. So the next time he brings her an actual trick pie - he has his sources. In retrospect it was probably not the best idea, but he's always been charming and not actually good at any kind of social interaction; he's never had to be - most people he doesn't want to talk to at all, and they're put off by his eccentricity to begin with, and Scully is just. Well. Scully is Scully. He's still pretty embarrassed though, when she opens the foil on the pie plate and a paper snake jumps out, and all she does is look down and say, "Oh, a trick. How nice. Like a children's game." And then she takes him in and feeds him dinner, and asks him wherever in America can she find good tea, not this Lipton in bags that she's been drinking out of desperation. He's obligated to find out after that. He starts to learn about her, but never all about her, her smile courteous always but distant; he starts to discover, through years of being inappropriately intrusive, the softened edges of her belief, worn-away; and thinks of Scully, and the ache of knowing, the shapes and disappearances of things.
Oh man, at first Gaius would have professional admiration, but after a while he's get pretty tired of it; he tries to comport himself with as much dignity as he can, but one day he tells Merlin, in direct contradiction of everything he's said previously, that sometimes knowledge gained from books can never hope to outmatch intuition and experience. Of course Merlin says something to Arthur, and Arthur pretends not to trust Merlin's opinion ever but eventually suggests the same to the king; Merlin really doesn't have the sense that God gave a fly.
Mulder tries to bond with Morgana, who is of course really suspicious, and Scully's all *eyebrows*, like, "A little young, don't you think?" and Mulder has no idea what's going on; the thought hadn't even occurred to him.
(you are amazing)
Oh man, at first Gaius would have professional admiration, but after a while he's get pretty tired of it; he tries to comport himself with as much dignity as he can, but one day he tells Merlin, in direct contradiction of everything he's said previously, that sometimes knowledge gained from books can never hope to outmatch intuition and experience. Of course Merlin says something to Arthur, and Arthur pretends not to trust Merlin's opinion ever but eventually suggests the same to the king; Merlin really doesn't have the sense that God gave a fly.
Mulder tries to bond with Morgana, who is of course really suspicious, and Scully's all *eyebrows*, like, "A little young, don't you think?" and Mulder has no idea what's going on; the thought hadn't even occurred to him.