<![CDATA[From eroddv@tigger.eon.net Tue Apr 08 09:04:28 1997
Subject: Hourglass (revised) 1/4
From: Rhiannon <eroddv@tigger.eon.net>
--------
TITLE: Hourglass 1 of 4 - Revised
AUTHOR: Rhiannon
E-MAIL & COMMENTS TO: eroddv@planet.eon.net
ARCHIVE: Okay, just note that this is a revision of my earlier story by the
same name!
SPOILER WARNING: Through Momeno Mori! This was originally done in response
to a challenge on the EP list last month to cure Scully's cancer. Although
I already cured it in my first attempt at fanfic (Sudden Gift of Fate). BUT
that was post Leonard Betts and pre-Momento Mori and all the proverbial
cards weren't on the table, although all the players were in the game
(except Kurt, Kirk, whatever). Anyway, this story is done specifically for
the challenge and hopefully will be something "different". I think I took
the coward's way out on the first try and for some reason I just *can't*
leave the subject alone.
DISCLAIMER: Ah, these characters aren't mine (unless they don't seem to be
from C.C.'s World, then, I made 'em up). X-files, Scully, Mulder, Maggie
Scully, Walter Skinner, Cancerman (I CANNOT be politically correct on that
guy), The Lone Gunmen, Samantha, etc. belong to Chris Carter (bow down
before him for he is God), 1013 Productions and Fox (we're bigger than God)
Broadcasting. I'm only playing with these characters and will return them
to their rightful owners (who include the enigmatic Gillian Anderson and
enchanting David Duchovny) when I'm done. I'll even try to return them in
the same condition I borrow them - except D.S. will be sans the tumour
between her eyes as required by the Challenge.
WARNING LABELS - (like the ones they should put on sad country songs):
Angst (for all), S - for Story, MSR (can't see 'em or write 'em any other
way). Anti-shippers, stop reading NOW before I taint you.
NOTE: This has been revised or (as my old prof from U of L would say)
"tightened up" with some advice and suggestion from Yvonne Richards. Thanks
Yvonne. If you've already read it, feel free to hit the delete key now!
SUMMARY: A surprise force behind the scenes sets up a way to cure Scully.
June, 1997
A spring breeze gently rustled the curtains. Dana Scully rolled over and
looked at the clock. 5:50 a.m. When had she started waking up so early?
It seemed every day was more precious than the last and she wanted to be
aware of every moment as it passed. The feeling that her life was slipping
away like sand through her fingers was always there. The lyrics of a song
played through her mind. "Seize the day. Seize whatever you can. Life
slips away just like hourglass sand." Her hourglass was rapidly draining of
its sand and she was beginning to grow weary of the struggle.
It had only been four months since her cancer had been diagnosed. Since
Penny Northern had died. Since she had resolved to carry on and to survive,
somehow. Lately the only force sustaining her resolve was Mulder.
Mulder. How quickly they had moved from partners and friends and to
something more. Not quite lovers. They had yet to share the act that would
consummate the love they shared. It was an unspoken vow between then. Not
until she was well. Not until it was an act, not in anticipation of the
end, but in anticipation of the beginning of their future.
Over the past four months they had chased leads and avenues, doctors and
treatments. Even threats of going public with the DAT tape contents had not
inspired Cancerman to provide any information. She was beginning to think
he had none. If she was going to die, she wanted to bring him and his
friends down first.
Her thoughts of press conferences and CNN news' specials were interrupted by
a key turning in the front door. Mulder. He had taken to coming over early
in the morning, bringing her breakfast in bed on the weekends. At first she
had protested. But he just kept showing up on Saturday and Sunday mornings
with a grin on his face and something delightful from one of the local
bakeries in a bag.
Scully knew he was worried because she was losing yet more weight. Her 5'2"
frame had shrunk to just under 100 pounds. Thinner than she had been since
high school and determined to make cheerleader, just like Melissa. She
*had* done it. The Scully stubborn streak and a very revealing outfit had
insured her garnering enough votes from the mostly male judges. It had not
lasted long. She quit before the first game. The basketball coach put his
hand where it should not have been during a practise and suggested that she
meet him later in his office, if she wanted to stay on the squad. Later
that day she had quietly explained to him that if he ever touched another
girl, and she heard about it, she would see that he was sent to a place
where the only females around appeared in glossy pictures on cement walls.
Even at 15 she had been imbued with a need to protect not only herself but
also others.
When she was in her first year in University she learned the coach had been
charged with sexually assaulting one of the female gymnasts on the school
team. The police were looking for former students who had been approached
by the coach. She immediately called the investigating officer from half
way across the country and gave a statement. The day she stood in court and
told the jury what had happened to her four years' earlier, the coach stared
at her with disbelief. She had simply raised her eyebrow at him as if to
say: "You didn't think I was serious, did you. Never underestimate a
woman!" Was she still that woman now?
The door to her bedroom opened. She had boosted herself up against the
pillows and smiled at the man standing in the doorway. He smiled back,
holding a bag from Dunkin Donuts.
"How did you know I was craving donuts this morning?" She smiled. "And,
more importantly how did you know I would be awake at this ungodly hour."
"Actually, I didn't know you would be awake." Mulder said down on the edge
of the bed. His eyes looked as though he had not slept at all. "But, I
couldn't sleep and figured I could sit around and stare into space here as
well as I could at my apartment."
"Mulder, you look like hell." Scully took the bag of donuts and set them on
the nightstand. "Did you sleep at all last night?" His shrug told her
everything. "Another night with the Gunmen searching for the missing
piece?" Mulder and the Lone Gunmen had been crawling around the globe on
the Internet looking for a treatment for her cancer. Something new.
Something to give them hope and a future. Together.
"The guys have found a doctor in Europe. He has been experimenting with a
magic bullet type of drug for brain tumours located where surgery is
impossible." Mulder had been chasing down leads like an Irish Wolfhound
chases deer. Rapidly and with no mercy.
"And. . ." Her eye's burrowed into Mulder's, questioning. The silent
language the two of them shared had expanded in recent months. Before, the
looks had been an extension of their work together. Somewhere, the line
between their jobs as FBI Agents Mulder and Scully and their lives as Fox
and Dana, man and woman, rubbed quietly away.
"He checks out. Frohike hacked into every computer on the Continent to
verify the man's story. Even called up his third grade teacher. She
remembered him and faxed us a school photo." He took her hand in his and
held it up to his cheek. He smiled. "So, up to a trip across the Atlantic?"
"I suppose." She pulled Mulder close to her and slid down so that both were
laying on the bed, his head resting on her shoulder. "But, first you are
going to curl up quietly and sleep for a while." Mulder started to protest
but as Scully began to trace gentle circles on his back, he gave in to sleep
and moved into her embrace.
Several hours later, Scully awoke and looked down at the man who lay
sleeping next to her. His head rested between her breasts with the teal
green silk of her pyjama top forming a frame around his face. Sleep
softened Mulder's features. He looked like a small boy peacefully lost in
dreams. This was an image she would carry with her. A memory that would
get her through the dark times she feared lay ahead. Mulder's eyes opened
and he smiled up at her. Neither moved or spoke. There was nothing to say.
For the moment they were just two people holding onto each other and a dream.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
June, 1997
Somewhere in Germany.
"Do you really think she'll come?" The woman looked at the man in the lab
coat as he looked through the file in front of him.
"She'll come. He'll bring her." The man closed the file. "He and his
little friends were checking me out last night. I expect they'll be here soon."
"I hope you're right," the woman turned to leave the office. "She means a
great deal to him. You have me. I won't let you take her as well."
"Yes, Samantha, I promise I'll do everything I can."
End of part 1.
Song lyrics from "Seize the Day" by Carolyn Arends borrowed without
permission but I wholehearted recommend checking out her CD.
From eroddv@tigger.eon.net Tue Apr 08 20:39:57 1997
Subject: Hourglass (revised) 2/4
From: Rhiannon <eroddv@tigger.eon.net>
--------
TITLE: Hourglass 2 of 4 - Revised
AUTHOR: Rhiannon
E-MAIL & COMMENTS TO: eroddv@planet.eon.net
Disclaimer/spoiler warning/etc. - See part 1.
**Somewhere in Germany.**
Samantha Mulder-Campbell looked through the one-way glass at her brother.
The brother she had not seen in almost 25 years. It was strange, she had
only known about her brother for the past 10 years. In that time, she had
found out everything there was to know about Fox Mulder. Including the fact
that he was hopelessly devoted to his partner, Dana Scully. As she watched
the two of them she could see they were not just partners. They were in
love with each other. It made her smile and confirmed that her decision had
been the right one.
The people who had taken her from her home and family so many years before
had their reasons. She had tested in the top .000001 percent of children in
the world in intelligence. The lure of such a mind was too much for the
Quorum to resist. They made their deals. First with the American shadow
government. Then with the training centre in Frankfurt. Then with Samantha
herself. That deal had taken years. After many years of education,
training and indoctrination in the ways of the Quorum.
At first, she had wanted to go home. More than anything. To see her mother
and her father and even her brother who had teased her relentlessly. To
sleep in her own bed. To wear her familiar clothes and play with her
friends from school. Slowly many of these memories faded. Her family
became a dream and her old life ceased to exist.
It was not that they did not take care of her. She was cared for by a kind
and loving family. It just was not her family, even though she could not
really remember them. After about five years spent learning, soaking up
information on every subject known to humankind, she began to learn about
the Quorum.
It was not evil, as she had first believed. Well, there was a certain evil
in taking young children away from their families, but it was for a greater
good. The Quorum abducted (or involuntarily recruited, as they called it)
and trained the greatest minds of the day. They encouraged genius and gave
the members the resources to pursue research light years beyond what was
being done anywhere else.
This was how Samantha Mulder had trained as a doctor and then a researcher.
She had focused on the treatment of previously untreatable cancers. It was
not in her nature to quit. When she had found her long lost family, she was
amazed how similar she and Fox were. True, their skills were in different
fields; but their sense of determination bound them together as though they
had been raised side by side.
Therein lay the dilemma. If Samantha revealed to her brother that she was
alive and happy, it would take away his motivation to seek the truth. From
her home in Germany, she was able to follow his work. To see the leaps of
logic he made when pursuing a lead were amazing - a real gift. She was
thrilled and very proud to be his sister.
After many hours of discussion with her husband, she had decided not to
intrude on Fox Mulder's world. His search for her was the fire in his soul.
It gave him reason to go on. Samantha also had selfish reason. As much as
she valued the work she and the other members of the Quorum did, she wanted
to exact revenge on the men who had allowed her to be taken from her family.
The Quorum had long since stopped doing involuntary recruitments. They had
severed their ties with the shadow governments of the world, including the
one that had been responsible for her abduction in New England so many years
before. But she knew the shadow government and its players were still there
and still active.
Now, she worked behind the scenes hoping that Fox would find a way to
extinguish the power of the shadow players. Once that was done, she would
find him.
Scully's illness had been a turn in the road Samantha had not anticipated.
Just as his search for her abductors fuelled her brother's passion to search
for the truth, Scully kept him grounded and able to cope when his was ready
to give up. Samantha did not who was behind Scully's kidnapping several
years earlier. She suspected that it was the same shadow players who had
taken her so many years earlier. It did not really matter to her now. What
matter was keeping her brother's search alive. His added desire to find the
truth behind Scully's abduction was central to his search. Without Dana
Scully, Samantha was certain Fox Mulder would give up on everything that had
mattered in his life, including finding her.
As soon as she had learned of Dana Scully's diagnosis, Samantha
Mulder-Campbell thanked the powers that she had chosen her profession well.
It was as if she was meant to save this woman who seemed to complete her
brother. As if all her life's work had lead to this inevitability.
To succeed she had to create a doctor to administer the treatment she had
been working on for almost three years. One of the many public faces the
Quorum kept on retainer stepped in to fill the need. In order to make the
Quorum work, it was necessary to have individuals who could take credit for
the inventions and discoveries made by the Quorum members. To do otherwise
would have ended the project many years before. Samantha's public face was
Calvin Hofer. He was a medical doctor and an oncologist. He had taken
credit for many of Samantha's discoveries in the past. This was just one
more time he would follow her instructions and make history.
Samantha looked up as Dr. Hofer entered the office to meet with his new
patient. The treatments would start immediately. It would be several weeks
before their effectiveness could be measured. Samantha sighed. Would she
be able to resist contact with Fox? She knew in her heart it was too soon
for them to meet.
But there was no reason she could not meet Scully. It did help that both
Fox and his partner thought they *knew* what she looked like as an adult.
The shadow players had given her the gift of anonymity. She raked her
fingers through her short, honey brown hair and picked up her pewter framed
reading glasses. Yes, she was several inches shorter than Dana Scully would
expect. She was also physically so unlike the supposed Samantha clones that
she doubted even her mother would know her. In researching her family,
Samantha had concluded that her eventual adult appearance was from her
father's grandmother, a woman who had died when Fox was 15. He probably
would not even remember her, but Samantha could not take the chance that his
eidetic memory had within it a picture of the soft, round woman she had
grown to resemble.
Samantha looked up as her brother and Dana got up to leave Dr. Hofer's
office. She watched Fox place his arm protectively around his partner. The
two shared a private look and left the office. Samantha flipped on the
intercom into the office. "So, Cal, how did it go?"
"I got the fifth degree," he said rubbing his temples. "Your brother is one
serious investigator. I managed to answer all their questions and she
starts the therapy this evening."
"Good," Samantha smiled. "Remember to administer the dosages exactly as I
have outlined. I know my treatment will save her. It has to."
End Part 2
From eroddv@tigger.eon.net Tue Apr 08 20:40:35 1997
Subject: Hourglass (revised) 3/4
From: Rhiannon <eroddv@tigger.eon.net>
--------
TITLE: Hourglass 3 of 4 - Revised
AUTHOR: Rhiannon
E-MAIL & COMMENTS TO: eroddv@planet.eon.net
Disclaimer/spoiler warning/etc. - See part 1.
Fox Mulder paced the hallway of the small private clinic. It was in a small
German town. So small, in fact, that he and the Gunmen had a difficult time
even locating it on a map. Right now he was glad they were away from the
hustle of a big city. Maybe these doctors knew what they were doing.
Treating patients in a clinic that was more like a health spa than a state
of the art medical facility.
<<What's taking so long?>> He thought as he paced. The first four
treatments had gone well but the fifth dose of the new designer medication
had caused a reaction in Scully's system. She had suffered dehydration and
nausea that made the traditional chemotherapy after-effects seem mild. For
almost 48 hours he had sat beside her, caressing her hand as it lay limp at
her side. She was not truly in a coma, but she was not fully conscious
either. Watching her asleep, but not asleep was wrenching. Dr. Hofer tried
to assure him that the reaction was to be expected. It was part of the way
the medication worked. That did not make Fox Mulder feel any better. The
truth was that what hurt his partner, hurt him just as deeply.
An hour earlier they had kicked him out of her room. Some specialist was
coming in to consult on the case and wanted privacy with Scully. Mulder had
not been happy leaving her alone with anyone, especially some mysterious
stranger. But, Dr. Hofer had made it clear that he was to leave and not to
return until the nurse came to get him.
Samantha looked down at the pale woman who lay on the stark white sheets.
"Damn it, Dana Katherine Scully," she said as she stroked the unconscious
woman's hand. "You are not supposed to get this sick. The medication
should be shrinking the tumour - hell, maybe it is, but we can't even take a
look until you open your eyes." A firm believer in the power of talking to
patients who seemed as though they could not hear a word, she continued.
"Besides, my brother is standing out in that hallway worrying himself to
death over you. I can't let you slip away from him. Losing me was bad
enough. But you are the key to finding out what happened to all of us and
who did it. Dana, you've got to come back from wherever you are. Do it for
yourself. Do it for me. And if you can't do it for either of us, please
come back for Fox. He loves you and, because he does, I love you, too."
Samantha slipped Dana's hand under the light blanket and adjusted the IV
next to the bed. She turned and walked to the back of the room where
curtains hid an almost invisible door. As she turned to leave, Samantha
looked back at the woman she had come to consider her sister, "Don't give up
life yet."
Scully was vaguely aware that someone had been in the room with her. Slowly
she became cognizant of the feel of the sheets against her skin, the quiet
hum of the monitor next to her bed and the feel of the cool liquid that was
entering her arm through the IV. Had it been a dream? She could remember a
woman's voice. A very familiar voice. Not a voice she had heard before,
but the tone and pitch reminder her of . . . Mulder. What his voice would
sound like if it were female. She could not recall what the voice had said,
but it had been comforting. It had called her back from an abyss she had
been close to once before. The voice anchored her to the here and now. To
this world. To her life.
"Mr. Mulder," the nurse touched his arm, "you can see her now. She seems to
be coming around."
Scully looked up as the door opened. There stood Mulder bearing a million
watt Muldersmile. The kind that made her warm from the inside out. "Hey,
you," he was at her side, "it's good to see your eyes open." It was true.
For the past two days all Fox Mulder had cared to see were the deep blue
orbs that revealed his partner's soul for anyone who knew how to read them.
Luckily, as far as he knew, he was the only one who could read Scully's
eyes. Right now they were smiling and there was a peace within them that he
had not seen in a very long time.
"I'm going to be fine, Mulder," she reached out and took his hand. "I just
know it. The worst is over."
"Is that what the specialist told you?"
"What specialist?" She looked quizzically at her partner. "I don't
remember any doctors, but I guess I haven't really been very observant if I
can read your face right now." She pulled Mulder down so that he was
sitting next to her on the bed. "I did have a dream about Samantha, though."
He looked up. "What?"
"I don't understand it Mulder, but I'll tell you what I remember." Scully
eased herself up on the pillows. "A woman was sitting next to me, talking
to me. I don't remember ever seeing her before but she sounded, she sounded
- Mulder you're going to think I'm crazy."
"No I'm not," Fox Mulder studied his partner's face. He had rarely seen her
as solemn as she was at this moment.
"Well," Scully took a deep breath, "she sounded like you would - if you were
female. And, she talked about you and said that I had to get better for
you." Scully fell silent and her eyes held his gaze for what seemed like an
eternity.
"I don't know who it was, Scully, but whoever managed to convince you to
pull out of the tailspin you've been in for the past two days, I thank them.
For giving you back to me. If they had to pretend to be Sam to get your
attention, that is okay."
Just then Dr. Hofer knocked on the door. "Excuse me. But we need to take
the patient for some tests."
Three hours later, Scully was sitting in the soft armchair in front of the
window in her room. She had changed from the hospital issue gown into a
gold satin set of pyjamas Mulder had presented to her earlier. Dr. Hofer
was coming up with the test results. She had demanded that they track
Mulder down - he had gone to his hotel to change - before Hofer gave her the
results. Mulder had been with her through it all and she wanted him there
now. Whether the news was good or bad, they would hear it together.
Just then the door opened. "Scully." In an instant, Mulder crossed the
room and was standing beside her.
"Relax, Mulder," Scully could tell he was worried. "Dr. Hofer hasn't said
anything yet."
"She wouldn't hear of me talking until you arrived," Dr. Hofer had walked in
behind Mulder. "If I were you, I'd keep this little lady close at hand.
She's pretty devoted to you." From behind the curtained door, Samantha
smiled. <<That's it, Cal, a little gentle nudging in the right direction.>>
Mulder sat on the arm of Scully's chair and took her hand. The air was
heavy with anticipation. Dr. Hofer could tell the pair were ready to
collapse under the weight of their questions. He opened Scully's file.
"Dr. Scully," he began, "as you know, the treatment we gave you targeted the
tumour using new techniques. Your last treatment, well, let's just say that
your reaction to it had us all a little bit worried." His eyes studied the
partners who sat quietly hanging on every word. "In any event, the last
test we did appears to confirm what we had hoped. The tumour has shrunk and
continues to shrink almost on an hourly basis. It is our opinion that
within the week the last traces should have been eliminated by the treatment."
Fox William Mulder and Dana Katherine Scully breathed out in unison. They
had not even been conscious of holding their breath for the past several
minutes. With the release of air, came the release of tension and emotion.
Their eyes met silently discussing what Dr. Hofer had just said. The
tumour, the cancer was fading.
Across the room, Dr. Hofer moved quickly to the door. He left and closed
the door behind him. Neither seen nor heard by the two people who were busy
contemplating what the results meant.
"Dana," Mulder breathed her name. She moved into his arms and buried her
face in his neck. He could feel her tears on his skin. They mixed with the
ones he was shedding. Tears not of hurt or loss, but tears of gratitude and
hope. Mulder gently lifted his partner from the chair and carried her to
the bed. There he pulled her into his embrace and held her to him like she
would melt if he released his grip. He wanted to carry her from the
hospital and to the hotel and make love to her right then. He wanted to
give her the ring he had bought almost a year earlier - the ring he was
afraid she would never wear. He was caught with an incredible desire to
find the nearest priest, minister, rabbi, judge - whatever - and marry this
amazing woman.
For her part, Scully could scarsely believe that what had been said and its
implications. She was not going to die. Suddenly the future that she had
felt slipping through her fingers began to reform before her eyes. Thoughts
and images came to her unbidden and uncontrolled. Her mind settled on a
image of Mulder dressed in a tuxedo standing under a canopy of flowers and
leaves. Her mother smiling with tears in her eyes. Frohike with tears in
his eyes. . . . She and Mulder decorating a house. Not an apartment, but a
house with a yard and a garden. . . . The next image both amazed and
frightened Scully. It was Mulder and he was comforting a small girl who
appeared to have fallen off her bike. The little girl looked up and Scully
saw herself at 7. But that would be impossible. She thought to herself.
Marriage. A home. That is possible. But I am infertile - whatever was
done to me made sure of that. If only that image were possible.
An hour later the nurse slowly opened Scully's door to check on the patient.
On the bed she saw the couple entwined in each other's arms. Both were
asleep and both were smiling. The nurse gently closed the door and went to
report to Dr. Mulder-Campbell.
End part 3
From eroddv@tigger.eon.net Tue Apr 08 20:41:22 1997
Subject: Hourglass (revised) 4/4
From: Rhiannon <eroddv@tigger.eon.net>
--------
TITLE: Hourglass 4 of 4 - Revised
AUTHOR: Rhiannon
E-MAIL & COMMENTS TO: eroddv@planet.eon.net
Disclaimer/spoiler warning/etc. - See part 1.
**SERIOUS MSR WARNING!!!**
Three weeks later.
Washington, DC
"You have the rings?" Fox Mulder paced nervously in a circle.
"Yes, Mulder, they are right here." Walter Skinner contemplated the young
agent who was rapidly wearing a hole in the carpet of the anteroom where
they waited for their cue. "For heavens sake, Mulder, stop pacing. You’re
making me dizzy."
Dizzy. That was the only word to describe the events of the past three
weeks. It was three weeks to the day that Scully had received her clean
bill of health from Dr. Hofer and the rest of the staff at the German
clinic. She and Mulder had returned to DC and her own doctor had confirmed
the evaluation of the German facility. The tumour which had been steadily
growing was gone. Scully was, as far as anyone could say, cured.
That night Mulder had taken her to their bench by the reflecting pool and
done what he had been planning for almost a year.
"Scully. . . Dana. . ." he had almost lost his ability to speak. "You know
I love you more than my own life." She had just stared into his eyes as he
spoke. "I have for a long time - hell, probably since the day you showed up
in my office with your naiveté and gung-ho attitude. Anyway, the past
months have been hard. Harder than anything I've ever been through. Just
so you know, I have been planning this for a long time - since before you
got sick. The time just never seemed to be right. . . ." He swallowed hard
and took the small box from his pocket. For her part, Scully was just
sitting, listening unable to speak. She knew Mulder well and she knew that
feelings were something he held close and did not reveal easily. On one
level she knew what he was going to say. On another level she was amazed
and surprised with each word that flowed from him. "Damnit, Scully, this is
hard for me. What I'm saying is I want us to be partners - real partners -
in everything. Will you marry me, Dr. Scully?" He opened the box.
Scully was crying. Tears splashed down her cheeks. She could not speak.
All she could do was offer her hand to the man sitting beside her and nod.
Now, three weeks later, Fox Mulder was standing in a steel grey tuxedo
wondering how he had been so lucky. He had been blessed so many times over
by a god he was not sure he even believed in. Scully had come into his life
unbidden and had opened up a part of him that had been closed off and
protected. Now she was waiting in a mirror image of the room in which he
stood ready to commit to him for the rest of their lives.
For her part, Dana Scully was calm. Part of her rationalised, she should be
nervous. In a few minutes she would make a commitment that she had never
dared believe she would make to anyone. Now, she was making a formal
declaration of a commitment she realised she had made a long time ago. She
knew that marrying Fox Mulder was the right thing to do. The doctors in
Germany had given her a second chance and she was not going to waste a
minute of her life. Across the room her childhood best friend, Cathy, was
straightening the jacket of her dress.
"Dana, are you ready?" Cathy adjusted the short veil that Scully was
wearing. Cathy could hardly believe where she was and the circumstances
that had lead her there. It had begun less than three weeks earlier with a
phone call in the middle of a Monday afternoon.
"Cath, it's Dana," the voice at the other end of the line brought back a
flood of memories. It had been almost a year since they had talked.
"Dana, what's wrong?" Cathy closed the file she had been reading.
"Nothing, I was just wondering if a busy attorney like you can pull herself
away from her practise for a weekend." Dana grinned to herself. She was
taking Cathy up on a promise the two of them had made almost 20 years
earlier sitting in Cathy's room in California. No matter what or where,
they would be at each other's weddings on two-weeks' notice.
"Why are you asking?" Cathy had a feeling what was coming next. "As if I
need to ask. It's that partner of yours isn't it."
"Gee, Cathy, am I *that* easy to read long distance?"
"Actually, yes, you are. We may not have spoken that often over the past
few years, woman, but every conversation with you has revolved around a man
who is named after a rather bewitching and cuddly animal. And, I'm sorry,
but I never did buy your "we just work together" line." Cathy was scanning
her dayplanner. "So, when's the big day?"
"Remember our promise?" Dana wondered if Cathy remembered.
"Two weeks - no, Dana, you can't be serious?" Cathy thought back to the
conversation so many years ago.
"Actually, two weeks from next Saturday. I'm giving you almost three weeks."
Cathy sighed. "Of course, I'll be there. I promised didn't I?"
The two women locked eyes and grinned, both of them remembering their
promise. Just then there was a knock on the door. It was Mrs. Scully.
"Sweetheart, are you ready?" Margaret Scully looked at her youngest
daughter revelling in the sight she had thought she'd never see: Dana
Katherine Scully in a wedding gown. It was a sizeable bonus that Dana was
marrying Fox Mulder. A young man that Margaret had loved like a son long
before her daughter had realised he was the one for her. "Fox is waiting
for you, honey. And he's so nervous if you don't get out here soon. Well,
I think he may need your skills as a doctor to revive him from the faint
he's working himself into."
Dana straightened her shoulders and picked up her bouquet of irises and
lilies. "I guess I better not keep him waiting any longer." She smiled and
followed her mother and best friend out into the garden where she and Fox
would declare to the world that, in deed and in fact, they were Mr. and Mrs.
Spooky.
The ceremony was simple. Two people promising their love and devotion
before friends and family. Scully looked around the garden area. Frohike,
who still professed his undying love, wiped a tear from his eye as she took
Mulder's hand. Skinner, their boss and ally, standing behind Mulder as his
support and best man. A number of people had been surprised at Mulder's
selection of Walter Skinner. Scully had not. Her mother was smiling, a
silent tear of joy slipped down her face.
One person neither Scully nor Mulder noticed was a woman slightly younger
than Scully standing silently behind the lilac bushes that separated the
garden area from the street. The woman watched as her brother took the hand
of his partner and best friend. Pledges of love and devotion. Promises
made. Rings exchanged. As the happy couple kissed, Samantha
Mulder-Campbell turned and walked toward the car that waited for her at the
curb.
"So," said the man behind the wheel, "did you see what you came for."
"Yes," was all she could say. In her mind she pondered the future. Her
brother and his wife. They had more challenges before them. If she could
help them, she would. And someday, someday, she would again take her place
in her brother's life. But for now, it was enough to know he was happy.
END
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