Slowly Dana Scully walks to the hospital's changing room, her back is aching horrible after this 7 hour surgery and her head feels like it is pulsating with the frequency of her heartbeat. A bath would be heaven on Earth now, but the shower has to be it. For now.
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When she reaches her locker, she notices all the chats around her. Colleagues arranging meet ups for the evening or the weekend, planning birthday surprises for other team members or talking about sports. No one even notices her when she grabs her towel and shower supplies and heads to the shower. No one talks to her. No one asks her, if she would join them for an after work drink.
The warm water of the shower eases the back pain and the headache vanishes bit by bit; finally, she thinks, before her mind jumps to the question if anyone would miss her if she didn't return to work tomorrow. She is working hard lately and that's valued by her colleagues, but she is isolated socially. Every gathering or party has been avoided due to the circumstances at hand. They weren't on the run anymore when she started working here, but she had to hide the fact that she was still in contact or more precisely still married to Fox Mulder and living with him under the same roof.
Two years ago the FBI dropped the charges against Mulder. The moment they both dreamed of for so long. They made plans for the future and he wanted to start working again, but his brilliant mind couldn't deal with the fact of doing the same things and tasks day in day out. He quit the first job. He quit the second job and he was fired from the third because he did not show up for a whole week. The only response to that was a shrug of his shoulders and he went back to his "office", a small room in their house where he set up a desk, pinned all his newspaper articles on the walls like wallpaper.
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She turns off the water a lot more relaxed. Putting her towels around herself she goes back to her locker and starts dressing. Black Chantilly lace underwear she once bought, because he loved seeing her in it. Back then she was thrilled wearing it, imagining what could happen later at home, now it's just a piece of clothing or a hurtful reminder of what they once had. Before he completely shut her out of his life. The black pencil skirt which ends just above her knees, the fitted emerald blouse and black blazer with her high heels serves as an armour. She looks perfect. Professional. With a nod here and there she leaves the changing rooms and elegantly walks to the parking garage where her SUV was waiting, ready to bring her back to the brutal reality and loneliness of her private life. The realisation and bitterness of loneliness and isolation was a very slow process. She never really needed anyone else before Mulder started drifting away from her and there are no friends left from their time in Washington. She is far too occupied with work. And with Mulder.
