She looks disappointed, and he can't blame her. Tell him back in the 90s that there'd come a time when Scully wouldn't even want to look at him, and he'd have laughed. Insist on it, and he'd have been angry - upset even. He wants so badly to reach across the table and touch her, to reassure her, but remembering how to be around her is harder than it sounds. Scully being here has to mean being here without any expectation on his part, and if he betrays the real depth of their relationship, that'll shift in an instant.
"You could be the first," he says, matching her tone only insofar as he, too, can't quite make himself sound like he's joking. "We'll watch out for more. And until then - Scully, I want you to know that you can stay as long as you want. You're not...unwelcome here. Mi casa es su casa."
Quite literally, in fact. He's never made any effort to try and buy her out. The idea of it means she's never coming back, really never coming back, and Mulder's pretty sure he might as well throw himself off the roof at that point. What the hell's the point of him when they aren't a team?
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"You could be the first," he says, matching her tone only insofar as he, too, can't quite make himself sound like he's joking. "We'll watch out for more. And until then - Scully, I want you to know that you can stay as long as you want. You're not...unwelcome here. Mi casa es su casa."
Quite literally, in fact. He's never made any effort to try and buy her out. The idea of it means she's never coming back, really never coming back, and Mulder's pretty sure he might as well throw himself off the roof at that point. What the hell's the point of him when they aren't a team?