"Go be a doctor, Scully." 

After all this time, his words still rang in her ears. And, so, she had gone to be a doctor. Wrenching herself free of his hold, giving up the quest in which he was so solidly entrenched. Pushing herself away from all thoughts of little grey men from outer space, or virus-carrying bees.

She had gone to be a doctor. Her research in the field of infertility had earned her much success. The Scully Clinic had helped many a happy couple finally hold their own child in their arms. But all the research in the world had not helped Dr. Dana Scully. The answer to her own barrenness was still unsolved.

Through the years, she had kept up with his work. Her friend John Byers called often, mostly just to talk, but sometimes, to tell her of Mulder. Byers and his wife had come to her with their own infertility problems, and with her help, were now the parents of twins. It was through Byers that she had learned of Mulder’s new partner - a young woman named Celia Brown. It was an odd pairing, the 48-year-old experienced FBI agent working in Violent Crimes and a 26-year-old rookie fresh out of Quantico. She smiled to herself as she thought of another young rookie assigned to Mulder those many years ago.

Two days earlier, she had received a call from Assistant Director Gary Ayers. Ayers had been a student of hers from when she was teaching at Quantico, and he knew of her expertise. A.D. Ayers had asked her to lend her help to an unusual case under investigation, involving the harvesting of ova from young women.

It was an odd feeling to be walking through the halls of the J. Edgar Hoover Building again. Here and there she recognized a few faces, but mostly, the building seemed populated by impossibly young people.

With a shock, she realized that she was standing in front of Walter Skinner’s old office. Only, now, this office belonged to Gary Ayers. She swallowed a lump as she remembered that Skinner had died shortly after she left the FBI.

"Dana, thank you for coming." Ayers stepped out of his office door. "Come on down the hall, the meeting is about to begin." He took her arm and steered her toward a conference room, one she had been in many times before. As she took a seat in the back of the room, she looked quickly around for familiar faces, but recognized no one.

Ayers began to describe the case to the twenty or so agents in the room. Just as he dimmed the lights in order to display some slides, Scully heard a slight hubbub on the other side of the room. She thought she heard someone say, "Spooky," but decided it was just her imagination playing tricks on her ears. After Ayers finished his presentation of the known facts, she suddenly heard the voice she had been waiting to hear.

"Gary, have any of these women been interviewed about the possibility of abduction?" Mulder was standing against the wall, still in the shadows.

Ayers clicked on the lights. "What kind of abduction, Fox? Little green men? Flying saucers? Tractor beams?" A collective chuckle went across the room, almost as if they all had been waiting for this question.

Mulder was irritated. "No, not necessarily. This is similar to a previous case I worked on over 10 years ago . . ."

Scully stood up. "Gary, I think you need to listen to Agent Mulder. This could be related to a previous case, where a number of women were taken and had their ova harvested by a group doing illegal research. That group disbanded, but were never caught and brought to trial."

The silence in the room was deafening. Everyone in the room was looking at her as if she had grown two heads, except for Mulder who was grinning from ear to ear.

Ayers recovered quickly. "Ah, agents, let me introduce Dr. Dana Scully. You may know her by reputation. Dr. Scully was a well-respected agent here ten years ago before leaving the FBI to go into private practice."

The room erupted into conversation. Ayers finally regained control of the discussion, and finished up the meeting. As the agents left the room, Mulder made his way to her.

"Well, if it isn’t the enigmatic Dr. Scully." Mulder was still grinning, and she smiled back, as he wrapped both arms around her in that familiar hug. Still holding onto her hands, he stepped back and looked her over. "Looking good, Scully."

She smiled up at him while assessing his condition. Streaks of grey at the temples, glasses a little thicker than she remembered, but still handsome enough to take her breath away. "Not looking too bad, yourself, Mulder."

As they stood there gazing at each other, Ayers came up. They quickly let go of their hands and turned to face him.

"Mulder, what are you doing here? You aren’t assigned to this case." Ayers was clearly irritated.

"Why not, Gary? It’s a violent crime, and something I’ve investigated before. It’s a natural for my experience."

"Mulder, we all know about your experience. I specifically did not want you on this case because I’d like to approach it from a logical level. When are you going to realize that the UFO scare is over?"

As Ayers and Mulder continued to argue, Scully noticed a young female agent still in the almost empty room. The young woman was attractively dressed in a classic blue suit, a perfect accent for her rich chestnut hair. She was intently watching Mulder as he talked to Ayers. So, thought Scully, this must be the new partner. She turned away as Agent Brown shifted her gaze to include Scully.

"All right, Mulder, if you want to pursue your own avenues of investigation, go ahead. Just don’t get in my way. Dana, can I buy you a cup of coffee?" Ayers was ready to leave the room.

"No thanks, Gary, I think I’ll just confer with Agent Mulder a bit about the case. I’ll call you later with some ideas of my own." She watched as Ayers turned away.

"Scully, let me tell you some things I’ve found out." Mulder was slipping back into their old role as partners.

"Mulder, hold on. Remember that I’m just an advisor on this. I don’t work for the FBI any more."

"God, Scully, it’s good to see you. When you spoke up in the meeting, I thought I had finally lost it and was really seeing things. What are you doing here?"

As they stood in the hallway talking, Agent Brown approached. Mulder was so wrapped up in the discussion that he didn’t see her, but Scully was aware of her scrutiny. Finally, Scully put her hand on Mulder’s arm to slow him down a minute.

"Hello, I’m Dana Scully. And you are . . .?" Dana reached over to shake hands.

Mulder finally realized his partner was in the room. "I’m sorry, Scully, this is my partner, Celia Brown. Celia, my former partner, Dr. Dana Scully."

Agent Brown solemnly shook hands with Scully, and turned to Mulder. "Fox, could I speak to you privately a moment?" As they moved a few feet away, Scully noticed the way Agent Brown kept her hand on his arm. My God, she thought, she’s jealous of me!

Mulder’s cellphone suddenly rang, cutting short Agent Brown’s conversation. As he spoke to the caller, he turned and looked at Scully. Closing the phone, he turned to her.

"Want to ride along? There’s been another abduction." He lifted his eyebrows at her, the way he used to when they were partners.

Out in the parking lot, Mulder turned to Agent Brown. "Celia, you take your car, and Scully will ride with me. We may need to split up later." Scully could see the hurt in the younger woman’s eyes.

Once they were on their way, Mulder cleared his throat and finally asked, "Scully, what do you think of my new partner?"

"What do you mean, Mulder, other than the fact that she is in love with you?"

"Damn," he said. "I was hoping it was my imagination. I don’t know what to do."

"Oh, really," she said. "I would think you would be an expert at avoiding young women who have crushes on you."

She expected a scathing comeback. Instead, all she got was silence. After a moment, Mulder pulled out his cellphone and punched in a number.

"Celia, you go on ahead to the crime scene. I need to follow up on something. I’ll call you later."

"Mulder, what are you doing?" Scully turned to face him.

"We need to talk. We’ve needed to talk for years. Will you come to my apartment, or do you want to go somewhere more public?"

"Mulder, do you think this is a good idea? Don’t you think we are stirring up old problems that have already been solved?’

"That’s just it, Scully. We never solved the problem."

She sighed. "Of course I’ll go to your apartment, Mulder."

As they entered the elevator, Scully chuckled. "Mulder, I can’t believe you still live in the same place."

"Aw, well, Scully, I just never had any reason to look for another place. Besides, I couldn’t face moving all those books and magazines in the bedroom."

"Bedroom, Mulder? You have a bedroom?"

"Come in and see, said the spider to the fly." Mulder opened the familiar door.

"Actually, Mulder, I was more worried about bees." Scully looked down the hall.

"No bees, Scully. All bees have been banned."

Entering the living room, Scully was amused to see that most of the old furniture was still exactly where she had seen it last. She hung her coat on the familiar coat rack, and crossed the room to sit on the sagging sofa. Mulder was in the kitchen, opening the refrigerator.

"Scully, want some bottled water? Everything else is kind of green and fuzzy."

"No, thanks, Mulder. I’m fine." She shook her head, realizing she hadn’t uttered that line in years. Something about being in Fox Mulder’s presence brought it out of her.

He came in and sat on the other end of the sofa. Looking at her for a moment, he got up, pushed papers off the coffee table, and sat on the table in front of her. Taking her hands in his, he sighed.

"Scully, so tell me, did you get the life you wanted? Did you think about me? Are you happy?"

"Mulder . . . do we really want to go there? What difference does it make now?" She looked into his hazel eyes, not sure if she was ready for the pain she saw. Pulling her hands away, she asked, "If you wanted to know, why didn’t you call? Surely you knew how to find me."

"I couldn’t believe you would go. I never dreamed you would do it. All the years we had together, gone like that. I couldn’t even function at first. Do you know I took a six month leave of absence after you left?"

"Don’t do this to me, Mulder. Don’t give me the hurt puppy dog act. You told me to go." She stood up. "Where’s the damn bathroom?"

He pointed, and she fled down the hall. Locking the door, she burst into tears. After a few minutes, she found a washcloth and cleaned her face. Looking in the mirror, she noticed a pair of pantyhose hanging from the shower rod. As she looked around the room, she realized that someone feminine used this room on a regular basis. Quietly opening the medicine cabinet, she saw tampons, deodorant, perfume . . .

"Cut it out, Scully. Get out of my medicine cabinet!" Mulder was outside the door.

She quickly slammed the cabinet door, and stepped out of the bathroom. He was leaning against the wall. She turned to go back to the living room, but changed her mind. Making a U-turn, she headed toward the bedroom.

"Where do you think you are going?" Mulder was amused.

"I want to see this bedroom of yours. All the times I’ve been in this apartment, I’ve never seen the bedroom. I don’t believe it exists!"

Opening the door, she stepped into chaos. There was a bed, but everything else in the room was covered in books and papers. Piles of magazines threatened to topple over from every corner. The closet door stood open, as boxes were piled up in the opening.

"Jesus, Mulder, don’t you ever clean?" She looked around in amazement.

"Well, yeah, sure I clean. I pick up everything in the living room and put it in here. That’s why you never saw this room." He stepped into the room behind her.

"And who sees it now?" The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them.

"No one that matters to me." He was deadly serious. Crossing to the bed, he sat down. "Come here and let me finish talking with you."

"You are kidding, right?" Looking at him, she could see he wasn’t. She stepped over a dictionary and sat down. He took her hands in his again. Raising one to his lips, he softly kissed the knuckles. Looking deeply into her eyes, he leaned toward her and began to speak.

"Scully, when you left I was lost. At first, I was so hurt and angry that I hated you. I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t work, I couldn’t cry. Then when Skinner died, something broke inside of me and I cried for days. That’s when I took a leave of absence and went to my dad’s summerhouse. I sat on that porch for months, until one day Byers showed up. Have you ever seen Byers angry, Scully? He is a dragon! He made me get cleaned up, and fed me, and poured all the alcohol down the drain. If it hadn’t been for him, I would be dead and buried by now. He made me talk about you. I finally understood what I had been doing to you, and was able to admit that I love . . ."

"What the hell is going on?" They jumped apart as Agent Brown stepped into the room. "Isn’t this cozy – the old girlfriend turns up and I find her in my bed. What makes you think you can just waltz back in here and take over?"

"Agent Brown, this isn’t what you think. We were just talking." Scully started to stand, but Mulder pulled her back down. He put his arm around her waist.

"Agent Brown," she said, "I know exactly how you are feeling. What Agent Mulder and I once had is long over. I have no intention of coming between the two of you. This is just closure for us. Please accept my apology."

With that, Dr. Dana Scully picked up her handbag and walked out of the room, leaving Mulder and his partner/lover/friend to confront each other.