Category: Story
Pairing:  Mulder/Scully
Rating:  PG-13
Disclaimer:  Don't own 'em.  Chris Carter does.
Spoilers:  For "One Breath"
Archive: Okay for Halloween page on Speciality Archive, nowhere else
thank you.
Feedback: All comments are welcome.  Send to cicilean@yahoo.com

============
AGAIN
"A Ghost Story"
by CiCi Lean, 1998
cicilean@yahoo.com
============

"We're fine."

If I'd known those were going to be my last words, I should have
done better.

"Slow down, Mulder."

"We're fi..."

Well, needless to say, we weren't fine.  In fact, I didn't even see
that patch of ice coming up ahead, not that the pitch blackness of a
country road at midnight was any big help.

I remember nothing after that.  No crash, no shattering of glass, no
pain. There were no tunnels either, no bright lights, no angels with
harps playing "Danny Boy."

There was a sudden stop, as if reality were a big-screen TV from
which the plug had been pulled.  One second I'm driving, talking to
Scully, and the next...nothing. Total darkness. Couldn't have seen
my hands in front of my face.

Assuming I still -had- hands, of course.

I felt no pain, no fear -- didn't even have to go to the bathroom.
It was, all in all, a pleasant feeling, and I wouldn't have minded
staying that way, except for this slight niggle in my mind, this
bothersome feeling I had, itching like a bug bite on my soul.

The feeling that there was -something- important I was forgetting,
and it seemed to pull me onward, until there actually -was- a light
coming into my line of vision and slowly, it enveloped me into its
blue-white softness.

All concept of time and space was gone, and I didn't know when I'd
arrived there, or, even -where- the hell I was.  All I knew was that
I was walking down a clean, white hallway, quite pleasing in its
austerity and complete lack of functionality.

I'd suppose I could have literally walked alone down that hallway
for eternity but after a few -- oh, I dunno, years, I finally met
someone else, and that annoying little niggle, that -something- I
was forgetting, sparked off again.

It was a Someone with red hair.

Who was more beautiful than eternity was long.

Immediately, I straightened my tie, or what I thought was my tie, in
an unconscious mimicry of an action I'd done at some point before...
before all of this.

She didn't seem to notice.

I decided to be suave.  Hell, if I was where I thought I might be, I
couldn't miss.  "What's a nice girl like you doing in a hallway like
this?" I joked.  Suavely.

She blinked, grimaced, and then turned away.

Damn, I thought.  I must have been sent to that -other- place.  But,
hey, I saw no closing times posted anywhere, and as far as I knew, I
had ample opportunity to improve my technique.

I tried a different approach.  "Hello?"

This got a glance, and a raised eyebrow.  "Hello," she replied
noncommittally, as if we were on a supermarket checkout line
together, and all she wanted to do was buy her frozen peas and get
the heck out of there.

But I was too busy staring at that eyebrow.  The niggle jangled
again, this time clanging throughout my mind.  You are forgetting
something, you dolt, it said.  Wake up!  It's here.

Helloooo.

Apparently she was feeling it as well, staring intently at my hair
and even raised a hand to try and pat down my eternal cowlick,
something I suppose I'll never shake. But, she recovered quickly,
and bit her lip before speaking.  

"This may seem odd..." she began.

"This may -seem- odd?" I interrupted. "You have a flair for
understatement."

She ignored me.  "...but I'm getting this very strange feeling when
I look at you.  As if..."

I nodded.  "As if I'm reminding you of something important.  Same
here."

She shook her head.  "It must be a mistake."

"Yeah," I replied, but we knew in our hearts there were no longer
any mistakes to be made. 

We continued to stand, and stare, and wonder, when it hit us
simultaneously, both of us babbling at once.

"Mulder?"

"Scully?"

"Oh, my God..."

"Jeez."

For, oh, I dunno, years, we stood gaping at one another like a pair
of goldfish dumped into a sink during a water change.  Safe to say,
this was not what either one of us were prepared for.

But is anyone?

"I guess I should have slowed down, huh?" I asked, mournfully.

"Good heavens," said Scully, awed by the fact that we were not only
deceased, but that the afterlife appeared to be a school basement
with a new paint job.

She glanced at the white walls, and then back to me, as if either
one of us could give her some answers, and then, did something I'd
never seen her do before. At least not in the place we'd left
behind.  She smiled at me...

And shrugged while she was at it.

"Well, Mulder.  I guess we're dead," she said, joyfully, grinning
from ear to ear.

I'll admit, I didn't exactly see a cause for celebration, but our
situation didn't seem to be a cause for mourning either.  It just -
was- and I had surprisingly little trouble accepting it.

Besides, I didn't exactly have a choice.

"Guess so," I replied, as Scully held out her hand to me, and I took
it, surprised at its warmth and softness.  I'd known all sorts of
gross things about dead people, but she looked and felt pretty damn
good for one.

Figures.

Without another word, Scully tugged at my hand and led me further
down the passageway, as if she knew it quite well where she was
going... as if she'd been there before.

Her steps were purposeful and sharp, and her smile didn't fade once.
I tripped along besides her, and was very surprised to see a much
brighter light appear at the end of the hallway.  Our pace nearly
tripled when Scully saw it, as if our destination was now quite
clear, at least to her.

I didn't question it, why should I have?  I may have been dead, but
I wasn't alone. In fact, I was with the one person I could have
possibly pictured spending eternity with.

I only wish I'd told her that when we were alive.

Our walk turned into a jog, then a run, and I can't describe what
it's like to be able to run, top speed for what seems like miles,
without getting the slightest bit winded or breathless.  It was as
close to flying as you can imagine, and actually, I wonder if we
didn't take off a couple of times.

Scully was laughing as we ran, her hair flying out behind her, red
silk on the wind.  I'm sure I didn't look half as good, damn cowlick
was probably standing straight up, but it's a good thing that you
really don't give a damn about that sort of crap when you are in
that place.

Wherever that place was.

With a final sprint, we finally reached the end of the hall.  I
became hesitant to go further as the light was greater and brighter
than any I'd ever known, but Scully dragged me in behind her, just
as fearless and courageous dead, as she'd been in life.

I don't know what I was expecting to show itself.  Perhaps a chasm
or black sky, another hallway, or even nothingness, but what lie
behind that light was nothing I'd even imagined it would be.  

It was lake.

A lake with a small pier, a tiny boat and the bluest, most beautiful
water you'd ever seen.

"I knew it would still be here," Scully whispered, as we found
ourselves at the end of the pier, with the boat sitting still in the
water, as if it been waiting for our arrival.

Without hesitation, she stepped into the boat, and held her hand out
to me, beseeching me to follow her into the unknown, with sweet eyes
bluer than the water and a sunless, red sky shining behind her.

How could I possibly resist?

The moment I stepped in, the boat took off at a good clip toward the
opposite shore, and Scully sat down, patting the seat beside her.
Slowly, I followed suit, and she pointed to the land that was
rapidly disappearing from our view.

"You were right there," she said reverently, pointing to the now
tiny patch of green.  "With Melissa, and... someone else."  She
shook her head and sighed.  "But the boat was tethered to the pier,
and I had to stay, no matter how wonderful I knew the journey would
be."

Melissa.  And me.  A vague, terrible memory threatened, but, it
faded quickly, like a mist rising from water.

She turned her face up toward mine, her expression thoughtful. "Even
when the rope broke, and the boat began to sail, I still couldn't
go."

The old shore disappeared from our view, the opposite one growing
greener with each passing ripple of water.  I turned my sights away
from the land and concentrated on the woman besides me, still, as
ever, more beautiful than eternity was long.

She smiled at me, gloriously, and that smile lit the entire lake. "I
just couldn't leave without you."

Suddenly, I wondered if kisses were allowed in Heaven, but realized
that it wouldn't be Heaven if they weren't.  Without another
thought, I took her lips beneath mine and she responded joyfully,
with kisses that were as real as newborn jewels, jewels that were
still hot and alive in the Earth's core, not like the cold and dead
ones that scratched the surface of what we called life.  

Kisses that turned into love-making that was filled with greater
life than any we could have possible known before, an eternal
covenant of two souls that had never, could never, be separated,
especially not by something as trivial as death.

Now, how long, you might ask, did we drift along like that, souls
entwined, remembering lives past, and sailing toward lives future,
together, in life and in death, always as one?  

Oh, I dunno. 

Forever, maybe?

=========

May 9, 2010

Dear Diary,

Today is my tenth birthday.

Mutti got me this diary to write everything I want to in it.  It has
flowers on the cover, a little lock and a key she said I can wear
around my neck on a string. I can lock up all my thoughts inside and
no one will know them if I don't want them to.

I had all my friends at my party, and Tobias, my best friend, gave
me a ride on the back of his big bicycle, the one that has only two
wheels, instead of four. He was going very fast, and I told him to
slow down.

"Slow down, Tobias," I said.

"We're fine" he said.  "We're fine."

And, when we reached the bottom of the hill, after such a fast ride,
I suppose we were.

Love,
Lili

=========

The End.

Happy Halloween.
CiCi Lean, 1998
cicilean@yahoo.com