From: Scott Miller Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative Subject: NEW: All Things (1/1) Date: Mon, 1 Jan 1996 16:29:47 -0600 (CST) Hello again. I am hoping that I can create a whole series, rather like the Generations series (thank you so much for writing stories that are very well-loved, Macspooky!) beginning with this story. I hope that you can find a bit of humor in it, but be forewarned, it is a M/S romance. This story takes place right about now in X-File time, if any of you are wondering. And, yes, there is a reference to Melissa's death (sniffle) so now you know why. And now, may I proudly present, the...DISCLAIMER! All characters portrayed in this story belong to Chris Carter (aka GOD!),1013 Productions. No copywrite infringement is intended because I really would like to college. And now...On with the story. __________________________________________________________________________ All Things By Kathryn (Kate) Miller FBI Headquarters October 31, 1998 10:13 A.M. Dana Scully paced about like a caged mouse. She was more nervous than she could ever remember, with the excpetion of the time she waited outside the office where she would be assigned a new job in the bureau. That, however, seemed like it was ages ago. Today, well today was something much bigger and much better. It was her wedding day, and on Holloween too. Of course that had been his idea. It was far from suprising though. The way he put it was, "Geez, Dana, we have tempted fate so much already, the way I look at it is, they are so tired of paying attention to us, they've stopped. So, we have nothing to worry about." Ah, yes, he had a knack for explaining things like that. Oddly, though, she comepletely believed that they really didn't have anything to worry about. They had been through so much together that they were surely entitled to a care-free, happy marriage... right? Well, they would just have to wait and see. 'Speaking of waiting,' she thought, 'where the hell is he?' As if on que, her husband-to-be entered the room. "So, how is my fiancee?" Asked a gleeming Fox Mulder. Scully could have sworn on a bible that Mulder had suddenly grown years younger after they had become engaged. Of course, that had only taked a few years off his grief-stricken face. What really made him younger was her return. She had been back for almost three years now. Funny that she had appeared so soon after Scully had lost her older sister. She remembered it all so well. They had been up in a small island off of Maine investigating a string of murders that seemed to center around one person. _________________________________________________________________________ Seal Harbor Cove, Maine December 17, 1995 "So, what exactly are you trying to say, Miss McClennan?" Asked Scully in a compasionate tone. Sarah McClennan, a thirty-year old woman who was about six inches taller than Scully with dark brown hair and grey eyes, had lived in Seal Harbor Cove for as long as she could remeber. Now, however, she was stiring up some murky water because everyone she seemed to talk, turned up dead. Everyone from her best friend to a local librarian. "I...I don't know myself these days. I try to talk about it with some of the other people on the island, but every time I do, they turn around, give a phony excuse, and walk away. What am I saying though, you wouldn't understand," Sarah answered saddly. "No, you're right, I wouldn't understand completely, but I do know a little what it is like. You see, Miss McClennan, my partner and I are a social outcasts in the bureau. Everytime we exit an elevator someone in the room cracks a joke about us. I know it is nothing like your predicament, but I can sympathize a little with you," Scully said warmly and in her sweetest and softest tone. Somehow, though, she still kept that authoritive voice that kept her alive in her field of work. "Oh, I'm sorry," Sarah returned, looking away very sheepishly. 'That motion,' Scully thought, 'I have seen that before.' "Tell me, Miss McClennan, what exactly were you trying to figure out? We need to know becuase it may help us catch the killer," Scully asked. Both Mulder and she knew that she had nothing to do with the murders. She had taken a polygraph and passed with flying colors, and she had over twenty wittnesses placing her at the opposite side of the tiny island when the murders had occured. Unlike the case with Lucy Householder, though, she knew that there was no way that she was niether commiting the murders nor an accomplice to them. She was simply trying to find the puzzle piece that was within a very close grasp. "Well, Miss Scully, I was only trying to find out about my childhood," Sarah answered in an innocent mannor. "You see, I can't remeber anything about my past. I only remember my twenty-first birthday. Before that, everything is missing. I have tried going to the library and looking up my birth certificate, but there was no Sarah Elise McClannan to be found. Shortly after that the librarian that suggested I look for the certificate, Miss Kohn, was killed in a car crash." "Oh, really? We didn't know about that. Is there anything else you can tell me?" Scully asked after noting the accident Sarah had mentioned. "Well, as you know I tried to ask my parents, but they not only wouldn't tell me, but I later found out that they couldn't tell me. They didn't know about my past either. They said I was given to them a few days shy of that birthday. I was going to ask them more, but..." Sarah couldn't finish her statement. Her wounds were still raw from the recent death of her parents. Whoever was responsible was quite thurough. "I'm so sorry, Sarah, is there anything that my partner or I can do?" Scully asked compationately. "No, not really, I am staying with my parent's friends, the Thompson's. Speaking of your partner, where is she?" Sarah asked with genuine curiosity. "He." "Sorry." "It's okay. Easy misinterpritation. Anayway, he's out looking for any clues to help further connect you to the reason people are being killed. You must understand, though, you are not, by any means, a suspect, okay?" Scully said. "Yes, I know that. Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go feed my dogs," Sarah said, rising from the white couch she had been seated on. "All right. And thank you for your time. We really appreciate it. One of us will get back to you if we find anything important, and in the mean time, please be careful, okay?" Scully answered getting up for the rocking chair she had been sitting in. "I will, and please, try to find that killer. I fell awful about all the deaths," Sarah said as she walked down the hall from the living room they had been talking in. "We will try our best," Scully said, more to herself than to Sarah. _________________________________________________________________________ Later that day Scully finally located Mulder. Leave it to Mulder to manage to become invisble on a ten square foot island. He was sitting on a giant rock that overlooked the ocean. He may have been sitting right in front of Scully, but he was miles away. She quickly sat down beside him and turned to look at him. He wore the facant expression that meant he was in deep-thought. Finally he turned, looked at her and opened his mouth to speak. The words were nowhere to be found, though. Scully took that opportunity to talk. "Mulder, what is wrong with you? The entire time we have been up here, you have been acting strange," Scully said with an edge of fear and worry in her voice. "I can't...I mean, I don't really know, Scully. All I can do lately is think about Samantha. I keep seeing her being taken away from me, hearing her call my name, pleading. I just can't take it anymore, Scully, I need to know she is alright. I know she isn't dead, I can feel it, but I need to see her again," he asnswered, still staring into the sea. "Mulder, I know that you miss her greatly, and I don't mean to be cruel, but I need you here right now. We have to find the phycopath that is murdering all the people Sarah McClennan has interacted with. We'll find her, you have to keep faith in that, just, please, come back to me. You are slipping into a dark place, where you can't think right, and you have to come back, do you hear me?" Scully pleaded. "Alright, Scully, I'll try to stop thinking about her, I promise, just stop quoting Melissa." he said. "What?" Scully asked. "Nothing. What did you find out from Sarah?" Mulder asked, gingerly avoiding any mention of Melissa. He finally turned and faced the tiny red-head beside him. "She is trying to find out about her childhood. She said that she could not remember anything prior to her twenty-first birthday. Everyone she has talked to about her past has been killed. So, as I see it, one of two things is happening. First, either this is one, very big coincidence, or, two, someone doesn't want her snooping," Scully said seeing that he was, indeed, paying attention to her. "I, for one, place my money on the latter of the two." "You're right, it has to be the second one, because the chances that it is one big coincidence, are too great. Now the only question is who is trying to hide Sarah's past, and why," Mulder answered. "You're right, but right now, we need to get something to eat. It's getting late, and we can't do anything if we're hungry," Scully said stepping off of the rock and helping Mulder up. "Okay. There is a place near our hotel that is supposed to have great seafood," Mulder said as the two walked off to their dark green Taurus. ___________________________________________________________________________ Jacob's Bed and Breakfast 3:08 A.M. It was the dead of night wheh choas broke out. Mulder and Scully were both sound asleep. The one night that Mulder needed to have been awake, he wasn't. They were the only two people staying at the hotel that night, except Arye and Susan Jacobs. They were on the first floor, though. Mulder and Scully were on the third. It was Scully that first smelled the smoke. She woke up with a start and immediately ran over to her door. Her school training taking over, she felt the doornob to see if it was hot. Sure enough, it was searing. She quickly ran over to Mulder's room. They had a connecting room and he had left his door unlocked. She ran in and quickly woke him up. "Mulder! Wake up, now!" she screamed. "What?" he said sleepily. "Mulder! The house is on fire, you have to wake up!" She was getting desperate. She could now hear the flames outside. "Fire! Oh my god, Scully I can't...what do we do?" he was visibly scared and shaking. "I don't know, I guess we're going to have to jump," she answered running over to the window. It was more the thirty feet down, but there was an overhang that would take off about ten feet. Still, they could be killed jumping. Mulder quickly ran over to the window as well and began to step out. "Wait, Mulder, let me see if there is a ladder or anything in here, first," Scully said as she began to rummage through the sweater chest at the end of his bed. She soon came to what she was looking for. "Mulder! Get back in here!" Scully yelled over the roaring flames that were now in his room. "We have to go to my room because it doesn't have an overhang. I think we have enough time, but we have to hurry." The two quickly ran over to Scully's room which was temporarily smoke-free. Mulder secured the end of the fire-escape ladder under the windowsill and insisted that women and children go first. It appauled Scully that, even is a time of crisis, he still had his macabre sense of humor. Scully climbed out onto the ladder and began the descent. She went as quickly as possible because Mulder was still up there and he was the one with a fear of fire. As she got to the ground she yelled for Mulder to come on down. While Scully was climbing down the ladder, Mulder had discovered a vital puzzle piece, though it wasn't yet enough to finish the puzzle. He heard Scully frantic call and began his descent as well. He got out just in time becuase shorly thereafter the entire room exploded into a single ball of flames. About ten feet from the bottom, the fire reached the window's ledge and caused the ladder, with Mulder on it, to fall the rest of the way down. "MULDER!" Scully screamed as she saw him fall and land right on his back. She ran over to him, checked his pulse, and confirmed that he was still alive. Her scream prompted the Jacobs to finally run around to their side of the gothic mansion. "Oh my god, is he all right?" Asked Susan who was clearly worried. "Yes, but he needs medical attention, he may have a severe concusion," Scully answered, never letting her eyes off of Mulder. "Our neighbors called, and a firetruck and ambulance are on the way," Ayre said. "There was another fire, though, so our house isn't going to make it. We were afraid you two hadn't made it out. I'm glad you found the ladder in his room." "I'm glad you had one there, otherwise, we wouldn't have made it out," Scully said, finally hearing the sound of sirens in the distance. Twenty minuted later Mulder was on his way to the island's small hospital, and the firemen were searching for the cause of the fire. Arson. Only Mulder knew who the arsons were. __________________________________________________________________________ Seal Harbor Cove Hospital Room 143 December 18, 1995 Scully had sat at Mulder's bedside all night and was praying that he would wake up soon. She had to tell him what she had learned, which wasn't really all that much. It was comfirmed that, not only was the fire started by an arson, but it had been started at the end of their hall, right in front of Mulder's room. She knew that the arson was trying to kill them because they had talked to Sarah. As she sat there she realized that Sarah might be in danger too. She was about to get up and tell the woman at the front desk to get ahold of Sarah, when Mulder finally woke up. "Scully," he managed to whisper. "I'm right here, Mulder, do you need anything?" Scully asked. "Yeah, to tell you what I saw last night before I climbed down the ladder," he answered, trying to sit up. Scully got up and helped him. The doctor's confirmation was indentical to Scully's initail diagnosis; he would be a little stiff, but would be able to walk again when he regained consciousness. He escaped the fall with only a slight bump on his head, which was extremely lucky. "What did you see, Mulder?" she asked after returning to her seat. "First, you have to get Sarah McClennan down here now. Intuition tells me she is in great danger," he said, watching Scully make her way to the door and out the hall. He only hoped it wasn't too late. While he was still awake the night before, it occured to him that Sarah McClannan might not be who she thought she was. Becuase she had no recollection about her past, it just might be that she was a victim of what the Lone Gunman had called 'personal rearranging,' or brain-washing. Now all they had to do was take Sarah to a phycologist and have her undergo hypnotic regression. That way they could see if they could find out who Sarah really was. Scully returned and told him that they had called her and told her her to come to the hospital immediately. "So," she said after sitting down again, "what did you see?" "About three men running from house, loading some sort of equiptment into an unmarked jeep, and quickly driving off. What does that sound like to you, Scully?" Mulder said. Scully, who was appauled, answered simply, "Like a governent consperacy to me." "Right, now here me out on this," he contiued. He told her everything he knew as she sat in a dazed state. After all that she had been through and seen she could do nothing but believe it all. "Mulder, I am going to get a cup of coffee. I, for one, got very little sleep last night," Scully said, rising from her chair. "Fine. Don't be long though." He said, reaching for his TV remote. Scully had not walked ten feet from Mulder's room when she ran in to Sarah, literally. Scully took one look at the woman and picked up on the fact that she had been crying rather hard. "Sarah? What's wrong?" All she could answer was, "What is happening to me? The Thompson's died last night of poisoning. I don't have anywhere to go now." Scully proceeded to tell Sarah of her plan and she readily agreed. "I'll do anything to stop innocent people from being killed." "You seemed like that kind of a person. You go on and find my car, dark green Taurus, while I tell Mulder, okay?" "Okay." she said, loping off. An hour later, Mulder remained in the hospital as Scully and Sarah flew back to Washington. They agreed that Mulder would catch his own flight back when he was discharged. They knew it was risky to split up, but, hey, they did it all the time! Before Scully left, though, Mulder told her all she should need to know about hypnotic regression. She, in turn, promised to call if anything should arise. They could only hope that nothing would happen while he was on his flight. ____________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Michael Johnson's Office Washington D.C. Two hours later, Scully and Sarah sat in a local phycologist's office. Becuase Dr. Michael Johnson and Mulder were good friends, Michael canceled an appointment in order to see Scully and Sarah right away. Scully explained what she wanted to accomplish. Michael was very understanding and got right underway. He began by asking simple questions about Sarah's present. What was her name, her parents' names, address, and so forth. Then, about an hour later, he asked the more detailed questions about what little past she could remember. She described in detail her 21st birthday, almost as if she were reciting something she had memorized. Then he asked the much more vital questions. "Tell me, Sarah, do you remeber when you got your diver's license?" Michael asked. "No." "What about your 13th birthday?" "No." "What did your first house look like?" "I have lived in the same house all my life." "What did your room look like before you got the new bed on your 21st birthday?" "I don't know." "How long have you had your TV?" "I don't know." "Do you remeber first getting your dog, Shampoo?" "No. "What about Sandy?" "All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small." Sarah replied automatically, "Sarah, when did you get Sandy?" "All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small." She answered again. "Alright, when did you first get a phone?" "All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small." "What's going on?" Scully asked. She honestly thought it was something that Michael could fix. She had no idea that he joined her in that same boat that had no paddle and was stratigically placed up stream. "I have absolutley no idea. Where's Mulder? He might know what to do." Michael asked. On the couch, Sarah made no move. "I could try to call him. How long can she stay that way?" "Usually a person in this state can stay that way for little while." "Good. I'll be right back. I'll try to call him. Hopefully he isn't on the plane yet." Scully got up out of her chair and walked outside of the room. She had to hope that he didn't have his phone off. She dialed his number and after the third ring he answered. "Mulder." "Mulder, it's me. We have a bit of a problem here." "Yes? Try and make it quick, my flight leaves soon." "The questions were progressing quite nicley until she started to chant 'All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small.' Michael doesn't know what to do. We hoped you..." she abruptly stopped when she heard his phone drop. "Mulder?" she said in a paniced state. "I'm here. I dropped my book and, in the process of picking it up, I dropped the phone. Now you said she simply kept saying that?" "Yes. Do you know what it is?" "Oh my god!" "What?" "Scully, in this book I am reading, a senator's daughter disappears and this detective thinks he sees her in Japan. He has her undergo hypnosis and she gets stuck repeating 'Tension, apprehension, and dissension have begun.' The statement was requesting a password, so they find the book that the quote was from and reply 'Tenser, said the Tensor.' It takes two tries, but they managed to get by the block." "Mulder, you can't believe that's what's happening here...can you?" "Well..." "Mulder, that is completely illogical! No one can plant a menatal block in someone's mind!" "Scully, I don't believe it either. I actually laughed when I read it, but I cannot think of anything else at the time being. You might as well try it, I have to leave. my flight just got called. I can be there in about two hours. You might as well bring her out of it. Ask Michael to resume about thirty minutes before I get there. That way I'll be there in time to see you break the mental block, okay? Oh and do you know that rest of the statement?" "No, but I think it's a hymn. I'll call my mom and ask her to look it up. She has an old hymn book at home. Get here as quickly as possible okay?" "Fine. Bye." "Bye." Scully walked back into the room where Michael was still asking her questions. "Any luck?" Scully asked, sitting in a chair. "No," he replied. "I tried asking her quesitons that predated her 21st birthday and got that same response. Then, I tried asking questions that take place now. Now she won't even answer questions she knows the answer to. What did Mulder say?" Scully told him about their hypothesis. Michael was hard-pressed to believe it, but, due to lack of a better idea, agreed to try it in an hour and a half. He brought Sarah out of the hypnotic state, and Scully and Sarah left for the time being. ________________________________________________________________________ A Fast-Food Resteraunt Thirty Minutes Later "What happened?" Sarah asked, taking a bite of her hamburger. "Nothing, really. We're going to wait for Mulder to get here before we try anything else." "What do you two think is happening to me?" Sarah asked. "We don't know, Sarah." Scully didn't really want to tell her what they thought. She was certain it would only upset her. She certainly wouldn't want to be told, 'Oh, and by the way, you aren't who you think you are.' It was a little disconcerting. "Sarah, I have to go make a phone call. Wait here, okay?" "Okay. Do you mind if I ask who you're going to call?" "It's my mom's birthday and I need to wish her a happy birthday." "Oh." Scully exited the table and walked to the phone that was between the two bathrooms. She dialed her mother's phone number, and the answering machine picked up. 'Not now!' she pleaded, menatlly. "Mom, it's Dana. I need you to call me as soon as you can. It's really imp..." "Dana?" "Mom! You're there." "I just got home. What do you need?" "Do you know where that old hymn book of yours is?" Scully asked, looking to see if Sarah was still seated at their table. She was. "Yes. Do you need me to find it?" "Yes. Mom, do you remember a hymn that has the words, 'All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small?" "All things wise and wonderful, the lord, god made them all." Margaret finished. "Is that all?" "Primarily, yes." "Great! Thanks, Mom." "Dana? Are you okay?" "Yes, Mom. I'll tell you all about it later. Bye." "Bye, Dana." Scully hung up and walked back to her table. They spent the next hour talking about varoius things. They both preferred to leave the current situation temporarily out of mind. They left the resteruant in time to get to Dr. Johnson's office in time. ________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Johnson's Office Ten Minutes Later "Hello again." Michael greeted as the two woman returned. "Hi." Sarah replied, lying on the couch. Scully sat in her chair. Michael began his process again. Thirty minutes passed and Mudler wasn't there, yet. He had progressed to the point that Sarah was again answering every question with 'All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small.' "Do we wait for him?" Michael asked. "He should be here any minute now." Scully answered. Right then, in one of those miraculous things that only appear to happen on a blue moon or on TV, Mulder strolled in. He han't seen Sarah before, and when he saw her, he stopped dead in his tracks. He looked at Scully, communicated sliently to her, and walked back out of the office. "I'll be right back." Scully said to Michael. "It's Sam." Mulder stated after Scully had closed the office door. "Mudler..." "No, Scully. It has to be. She looks just like I had imagined her. What if she was returned to another family and now she is relapsing into her old self?" "Mulder. Don't be fooled again. That's exactly what that Samantha clone said had happened to her. I don't want to see you get hurt. Even if it is, that doesn't explain why poeple around her were killed." "I don't know Scully, but I think it's her. Call it intuition, but when I walked in their, I felt like I had had a glimps to the past." "Did it feel like it did when you saw the clone?" "No. I was uneasy about her. Turned out, I was uneasy for a reason." "Okay, maybe it is her. Let's go find out. I know the rest of the statement and I'll finish it when Michael asks her the next question." Mulder led Scully back in to the room, and they took their seats. Michael took that oppurtunity to greet Mulder and proceeded to ask Sarah the next question. "Sarah, what was your first-grade teacher's name?" "All things bright and beautiful, all creaturs great and small." Scully sat up in the white chair and answered, "All things wise and wonderful, the lord, god made them all." Sarah's position didn't change on the couch, but her facial ewxpression did. "Okay, now," Michael cut in, "What was your first-grade teacher's name?" "Miss Anderson." "Sam!" Mulder interjected. "Fox?" Sarah/Sam asked. "What's going on?" Michael asked. He would never forget this session. A minute ago he was clearly interrogating a woman named Sarah McClennan. Now that same woman was responding to the name Sam. "Mike," Mulder answered, "it's my sister. You know, I told you abour her." "But, how?" Scully took that que. She wasn't about to let Mulder pitch another one of his theories that seemed to go over so well with everyone. "We aren't exactly sure, Michael. We think that..." "She was brainwashed." Mulder interjected. "She was what?" Michael asked. "We think she may have been brainwashed. We can't offer any other explanation. Whatever it was that happened, we know now that obviously, Sam was 'programmed' to be Sarah." Scully said. "Fox?" Sam said, a little worried because he hadn't answered last time. "I'm here, Sam." he said, taking her hand in reassurance. "Well, since she's your sister, what do you want me to ask her?" Michael asked. "What happened while after she was taken from our house." Mulder answered. Scully looked over at Mulder and was very astute toward the fact that he looked like a small boy at Christmas. He was about to find out what really happened. "Sam, what happened after you were kidnapped from your house?" "I was taken to an airport and flown somewhere. I don't know where it was, I was bound and gagged." Mulder gasped at the concept of her being mistreated. Scully put her hand on his shoulder to show that she supported him. He simply looked at her, his eyes telling her thank-you. "Then what?" Michael asked. "When we got to the building, this man began to tell me why I was taken. All I rememer was that Dad had been straying from his work and this was a form of punishment. He said that he regretted having to do this to me, and that he hoped that someday I would be reunited with my family. I asked him what it would take to be able to have that happen, and he answered, "The death of my father." Is that true, Fox?" "Yes, Sam," Mulder answered. "He was killed in April." It was Sam's turn to gasp. "Mike, ask her what happened then." Mulder said. "Sam, what happened after the man told you all that?" "They began tp refer to me as Sarah. I tried to tell them that that wasn't my name, but they insisted. They told me my new name, birthday, parents name and everything else. I spent the next 13 years constantly reciting my new life. I tried to resist, but it was too much. Finally, when I was 21, I was flown to Seal Harbor and given to a set of parents. I don't know how they could live with the fact that I wasn't there daughter. Maybe they were infuenced like me, I don't know. Then, in the last six months, I began to remember you, Fox. I tried to ask my foster parents, but they said I was making up stories. Finally, I snooped without their permission, and they wound up dead. I asked every one I could think of, but they were killed too. Maybe they were trying to warn me to stop looking for my past. Then you two showed up, and I was okay. I only wish I could have seen you before now, Fox. Maybe I would have recognized you. I still don't know what my big brother grew up to look like." "It's okay, Sam. Everything's going to be okay now." Mulder said, reassuring her again. "Mike, can you ask her one more question, then bring her out?" "Sure, what?" "Ask her if she was mistreated." Mulder said, crynging at the very prospect. "Sam, were you ever mistreated by the people that took you?" "No, in fact, I had a very nice room with a bed and a stereo and everything. I received something new each time I passed a personlitly test." Mulder let out a sigh of relief and signaled to Michael to bring her out, while trying to keep from showing too much emotion. God forbid her would break down in front of another man. Michael brought her out from underneath the hypnosis. She finally looked at Mulder, ran over to him, and hugged him. Scully simply watched, awed at the fact that he had found his sister. She realized that it was probably nothing like he had imagined it to be, but she knew he didn't care. There were no lingering signs that Sarah still existed, Sam was all that was left. "Sam?" Scully ventured to say. "Yes," she said, truning to look at the strange woman in the room. For the first time, Scully saw just how much she looked like a Mulder. She had identical facial features to that of Mulder and looked just like her real mother. "May I ask who you are?" Sam asked, shyly. "I'm your brother's partner. We work for the FBI, remeber?" "No." She truly didn't remember anything about her past. Scully hoped that she didn't had PTSS later. "Well, I would just like to say how much I am glad to see you. Mulder told me a lot about you, and he has spent his whole life trying to find you. Mulder, I am going to go home. You two need to catch up on a lot of things." Scully said good-bye to Michael, Mulder, and Sam, and drove home. ______________________________________________________________________ Two months after the occurance in Maine, the man simply known as Cancer Man, died. It was never determined how he died. A mysterious death for a mysterious man. Far away, in a remote island in the Caribean, two men sat arguing. "Great! There goes our inside link into the FBI!" One man said. "Yeah, well, it was those cigarettes! I told him, but did he listen? No," the second replied. "What do we do about Agent Mulder and Agent Scully?" "I don't care. The usual I guess. Don't let them have the truth, BUT don't kill them either. I think that man has had enough torment in his life. We owe that much to him. As for Scully, well, her sister wrongfully died, and that's enough to warrant her safety." "Okay." ____________________________________________________________________________ Over the course of the next three years, a lot happened. Primarily having to do with Samantha. Her mother, suprisingly enough, exepted her readily, knowing by heart that her daughter had returned. Scully and Samantha became very good friends. It was not uncommon that they would eat lunch together and laugh about all of Mulder's ideosyncrasies. Sam got a job at a local law firm and began to rent an apartment half way between Mulder and Scully's apartments. Though they could never figure out why, Samantha and Mulder were never persued by any mysterious men, their apartments were never ransacked, nothing, in fact, nothing out of the ordinary ever happened to them. Maybe it had somthing to do with the fact that Skinner's office didn't smell like a freshly lit cigarret anymore... _______________________________________________________________________ Washington D.C. October 31, 1998 *The* Office "I'm wonderful. How are you?" Scully asked. "I fine too. Sam's out with Mom looking for last-minute table orniments. The other ones were devoured by the mice in Mom's attic. Can I please see your wedding dress?" Mulder asked putting on his best 'puppy-dog' look. "No!" Scully said as she threw a pencil across the room at him. "Even if the people in charge of running fate have stopped paying attention to us, I want this to be a suprise. Now, I called you here because I wanted to give you your wedding present before the ceremony tonight." "Really?" Mulder asked, intrigued by that prospect. "Yes. No close your eyes and let me lead you to it," Scully said, putting her hands on his shoulder. "How do I know that you aren't going to run me into a wall or something?" he asked. "Because, I thought you bestowed more trust in me than that," she answerd matter-of-factly. "Fine. My life is in your hands now." With that she led him over to a large box sitting behing his slide projector. "Here, now open your eyes." Mulder opened his eyes and looked down at the large box. He opened it and simply laughed. Inside was a complete set of pots and pans. There was also a note that read. 'If you can catch serial killers and mutants than you can learn to cook.' The End (for right now) ____________________________________________________________________________ Thanks for reading this. Can anyone guess what book Mulder was reading? I'll tell you this, the woman's real name was Lisa Chelgrin in the book, though she lived as Joanna Rand for quite some time. The first person to give me the correct answer wins a prize. All comments are warmly welcomed. And I supppose I can put up with falmes too. I'll try to get around to writing the next installment pretty soon. No promises, though. I would love to tell you specifics, but, I never write what I think I am going to. I can say it will have to so with the developement of Mulder and Scully as an engaged couple. Keep your eyes out for it. Happy writing! And happy 1996!