Title: Seeing Is Believing
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Tenth Doctor/Fox Mulder
Fandom: Doctor Who/The X-Files
Rating: PG-13
Table: doctorwho_100
Prompt: 77, What?
Author's Note: Continuation of I Want To Believe.
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the Tenth Doctor or Fox Mulder, unfortunately. Please do not sue.

***

Mulder didn't know what he'd expected to see when he walked into the Tardis -- but it certainly wasn't the sight that was spread out before him. The huge room, the console in the middle of it, and what looked like corridors in every direction.

He walked slowly up the three steps that led up into the ship, standing there with his mouth open and turning around in a slow circle. It seemed impossible to take it all in at once; the vista that met his startled eyes wasn't at all what he'd thought a spaceship would look like.

Where were the others? That was the first thing that leapt into his mind; it didn't seem possible that this man -- no, this alien, he corrected himself -- would be traveling alone. Especially not in a ship that appeared to be .... well, huge, from the inside.

He really couldn't think of a thing to say; there didn't seem to be words that would describe how he felt about what he was seeing. He must have been the only person on Earth to have made it into this place, he thought, finally turning to the Doctor and saying the first thing that came into his mind.

"It's .... bigger on the inside," he told the other man, startled to see that the Doctor's lips were moving along with his as he spoke. What was he, a mind-reader? There was no way that he could have known just what Mulder was going to say.

"How did you know ...." His voice drifted away when the Doctor smiled at him. He wouldn't have thought that a smile from another man -- much less a man who he knew was an alien -- could affect him the way it did.

His stomach was doing somersaults; his mouth had gone dry, his knees weak. Dammit, nobody should be able to affect him like this. And he shouldn't be so unprofessional as to be so swayed by a pretty face, even if he wasn't officially "on duty" at the moment.

But even if he'd been working, there was nothing he could have done to hold back his feelings. Though he was doing his best; this man didn't need to know that Mulder was attracted to him. That would only complicate things.

Not that all of this wasn't crazy and unbelievable enough as it was. Maybe he was finally losing his mind, living up to the "Spooky" nickname that he'd been given so long ago. He wouldn't be surprised if all these years of blind belief had finally made him go around the bend.

No. He wasn't dreaming, and this wasn't some hallucination. This was real. He was here, in a spaceship, standing next to an alien and conversing with him. An alien who looked disturbing like a human, and who actually seemed friendly.

"What is this?" he whispered, forgetting for a moment that there was someone with him -- someone who could actually answer that question, who could tell him all about what he was looking at. "I've never seen anything like this before."

"She's a Tardis," the Doctor said, sounding proud as he spoke, placing one hand on what Mulder took to be the control console of the ship. "Time and Relative Dimension in Space. That's why she's bigger on the inside, you see."

Mulder nodded, his eyes still moving around the large room they were in. That made sense; and he supposed that aliens had very advanced technology, so it wouldn't be hard for them to create this. But still .... it was a stretch of the imagination.

And the ship looked even bigger than just this room. He could see what looked like three diferent corridors branching off of this room; at the moment, he wanted to explore every one of them, but there was no telling what this man might do if he voiced that desire.

"I knew what you were going to say because many others have said the same thing before you," the Doctor said in answer to his question. The other man was now leaning against the console, his arms crossed over his chest, a smile on his face.

Mulder found it hard to drag his eyes away from the appealing picture the Doctor created; he looked relaxed and comfortable, leaning nonchalantly against the console, long legs crossed at the ankles .... like he was ready to answer whatever questions Mulder might have.

And not only that, but he looked good enough to pounce on. Mulder took a deep breath, trying to get his thoughts to back away from his appraisal of the Doctor's good looks. This wasn't a human being, he reminded himself sternly. He was an alien.

It wasn't fair that an alien could be so good-looking -- and so engaging. The Doctor seemed more than willing to tell Mulder anything he wanted to know about the ship, and that might extend to talking about himself and why he was here, too.

"I wouldn't have believed this if I hadn't seen it," he finally said, making himself stop looking around the control room and focusing on the man standing in front of him. "Okay, that might be a lie. I've always believed -- I just never thought I'd actually see."

"Well, seeing is believing, or so the saying goes," the Doctor told him cheerfully, nodding. "What do you say to going somewhere? I've been here for a while, and I'm feeling the need to try to find a bit of adventure. Would you care to come along?"

Mulder could only stand there gaping, shocked at what he was hearing. This man -- this alien -- actually wanted him to go somewhere in this .... this ship? What if he was being taken away to some far-distant planet and never made it back?

How could he find out if that was the Doctor's purpose? There was no other way but to ask, really. He took a deep breath, wondering just how he was going to put that question to the other man. But the Doctor's next words surprised him even more.

"There are no guarantees, you know. Just one trip. A little taste of the world that you might never be able to experience otherwise -- and then I'll bring you back. But I'm only offering you one trip. So, what do you say?" That smile flashed again, that engaging, enchanting smile.

So, he'd obviously be brought back. He wasn't being kidnapped for alien experimentation. Somehow, he couldn't see this man doing anything like that, anyway -- the Doctor didn't seem threatening at all. But Mulder had learned from long experience that looks could be deceiving.

He'd made a lot of snap decisions in his life, and Mulder knew that this one had already been made from the moment the Doctor had uttered that invitation. He was going to take off to wherever this man wanted to go, and hope that he was doing the right thing.

When was he ever going to get another chance like this? It was what he'd been waiting for all of his life, and there was no way he could turn his back and walk away from it. The answers to most -- if not all -- of the questions he'd been asking since he was a child were here.

Well, maybe not here, in this ship, he amended silently. But those answers resided with a man like the Doctor, out in space, not here on Earth. He might not be able to find out all the answers, but at least he'd be able to learn more than he knew now.

And he had to admit that the prospect of spending time with a man as attractive as the Doctor held its own temptation, too. Though he wasn't sure that the other man wasn't wearing some kind of a mask, or that his all-too-human looks weren't an elaborate illusion ....

Mulder stepped closer to the Doctor, reaching out to touch the other man's skin, unable to stop himself. "You feel real," he whispered, immediately wishing that he could take the words back. They seemed .... rude, somehow, unappreciative of what he'd been offered.

"I am real," the Doctor told him, a slight frown creasing his brow. "What, didn't you think I was?" He smiled again, his hand coming up to lay lightly over Mulder's own. "Again, back to that old saying. Seeing is believing, isn't it?"

"I've always questioned what I see," Mulder told him, smiling in spite of himself. "Well, at lest in some circumstances. Sometimes I'm all too ready to believe what I see with my own eyes. So I guess you could argue that the saying only applies some of the time."

"Then I'll have to go out of my way to try and answer your questions," the Doctor said, his smile growing until it turned into a laugh. Mulder found that laugh infectious; he couldn't help but laugh along with the other man.

This might be a mistake, but if he was going to do something that anyone else might say was stupid, then he was going to do it right. He was going to throw caution to the winds, and let this man take him wherever he chose to. It would be an adventure.

"I've got a lot of those," Mulder told him, dragging his gaze away from the Doctor's face and looking at the console. "Let's get this show on the road, then. Wherever you want to go, I'm game. Anywhere in the universe. I want to see as much as I can."

"One trip," the Doctor cautioned, his dark eyes widening. "I promised you one trip. Then I'm bringing you back here to Earth." Mulder could have sworn that his tone sounded unsure, as though the other man might not want to bring him back.

But in another moment, the Doctor was leaning over the console, looking back at him with another of those brilliant smiles. Mulder couldn't keep himself from smiling back; wherever he might end up, he had a feeling that this trip was going to be something he was never going to forget.

***