Mostly, she just can't wrap her mind around what could possibly have happened-- what could cause such a rift. And recent, too, evidently; he says it's been a year but a year is nothing when it's one of seventeen. No wonder he's so palpably uncomfortable around her.

(If anything, it's the pulling back that will let it slip. Their relationship is already deep enough in '97 that she wouldn't second-guess his touching her hand; the distance will seem stranger than anything else could.)

"I-- thanks," she says, her shoulders dropping a little as she forces some of the tension out of herself. "I mean it. It's-- I'm really glad, Mulder. I wouldn't want to try and figure this out without you, or with anyone else."

After all-- they are a team, still.