From: EPurSeMouve Date: Tue, 9 Jul 2002 00:44:29 -0700 (PDT) Subject: NEW: Along the Way (1/1) by EPurSeMouve Source: xff TITLE: Along the Way AUTHOR: EPurSeMouve [epurxf@yahoo.com] CATEGORY: VRA RATING: PG SPOILERS: "The Truth", I suppose DISCLAIMER: Good grief, does it even really matter? DISTRIBUTION: You want it, you got it. Just let me know. SUMMARY: It's Scully who has problems. Dedicated to old friends, and the good times we still share. Along the Way By EPurSeMouve epurxf@yahoo.com Dana remembers things. Dana remembers Missy, at the age of eleven, dressing up in her Easter Sunday dress, draping a lace tablecloth over her head. "Prince Charming is coming!" she yelled at Billy when he teased her. "And he's gonna kick your butt!" Dana remembers Missy, who once believed that life, in the end, is a love story. It took Missy several disappointing boyfriends to focus on other things, but Dana remembered Missy's mistakes, and learned from them. Dana never let herself forget that life isn't a love story - life is just what you make of it. It's Scully who has the memory lapses. It's Scully who has problems. Because it's Scully who would follow Mulder to the end of the world. No matter how much she might fight it. And she tries to. When Mulder won't tell her things, when Mulder says no to her pleads, when Mulder seems to think nothing of sacrificing everything for his personal crusade... The crusade has meaning for her, as much meaning as ever. But Mulder means so much to Scully. And when he can't acknowledge that, for whatever reason, every word he speaks becomes a sucker punch. Dana remembers a enigmatic man who wore his heart on his sleeve, but kept changing his shirt. Who lost his sister and didn't speak to his father and couldn't bring her flowers without cracking a joke. It's Dana who can rationalize his behavior, keep it from getting to her. She hasn't been Dana since he went into hiding. The wounds have been too raw to bandage. She's lost herself in his quest, lost herself in their son, lost herself in the search for answers. But now that he's back in her arms, back where everything makes sense, Dana's thinking again. Dana's thinking about Mulder, and William, and Melissa running through the house, a tablecloth slipping off her red curls as she looked for Prince Charming. Life isn't a love story, Dana thinks. Life is loss and pain and sadness and sacrifice. But there's also hope. Even if all we can hope for is that love happens along the way. AN END NOTES: This is just a snippet fic that I found, something I wrote after the finale when I was trying to think some things through. I read through it again, figured it wasn't so bad, figured some other people might like to read it, as well. It's a bit late, but maybe that just makes me retro. *g* It's been a very, very long time since I stopped by this party. I don't know if I'll be dropping by again any time soon. But it's nice to see some familiar faces again. Nice to remember what this is like. Feedback very welcome at epurxf@yahoo.com. I do remember what that's like. *g* ===== "Isn't life hard enough without us making it harder?" -Ed, "Ed" green fire burns at http://grapefruithead.com/epur/