From: ephemeral@ephemeralfic.org
Date: Tue,  4 Nov 2008 15:24:43 -0600 (CST)
Subject: Changes by serafine
Source: direct

Reply To: poeyfarre@yahoo.com


Title: Changes
Author: serafine
Category: Drabble
Summary: Mulder looks at Scully with fresh eyes.
Disclaimer: No profit, no money, no foul, no sue.
Spoilers: Mulder's thoughts during a scene in X-Files: IWtB
Feedback: Treasured lovingly and fed well at poeyfarre @ yahoo.com
Website: serafine-fic.livejournal.com
Final Completion Date: 11/03/08

This is my first piece of X-Files fiction in many years.
This was something I wrote off the cuff the night I saw the 
latest movie.  It has not been proofread by another soul - 
all mistakes are mine.  Any feedback would be appreciated.

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Mulder stood in the falling snow and really looked at Scully.  
Looked at her like he not done in a long time. At the hardness 
of her face, the intensity in her eyes - an intensity born not 
of her convictions, but of her refusal to let him in.  What the 
hell was she doing - coming here to Father Joe's?  She did not 
believe, she had never believed in things like this.  Not with 
Boggs, not with Clyde Bruckman.  Not once did she really 
think it could really be true.

It had been sixteen years and he could still see her standing in
the rain with him Oregon, arguing like there was no tomorrow.  
The freshest, most naive face.  She was one of the most beautiful 
things he had ever seen.  Intelligent, graceful, courageous.   He 
could always see that young woman in her, lurking in the depths 
of her eyes - but not tonight.  This was someone different.  When 
had she changed?  When had she stopped letting him in?  Scully 
would always talk to him, at least tell him what she was thinking, 
usually try to draw him out into a debate.  Now, it was 
just a solid wall of silence.  Determination had turned her into
intractable marble.

Who had she become?  A doctor?  She dealt with living patients 
now, not corpses.  They received the blessing of her bedside 
manner.  This physician standing in front of him was someone 
else, truly Dr. Dana Scully.  The FBI agent he had spent so long 
disagreeing with and challenging and learning to love was gone.

Or maybe it was him that had changed?   Had he spent so long 
locked away in that office, looking for answers to an 
unanswerable quest, that he had grown stale?  Complacent?  A 
crazed recluse?

The FBI agents were loading back up.  Leaving him behind.   
Mulder looked at Scully standing there, her silence enveloping 
her like armor.  This wasn't working, not for either one of them.
He made a snap decision.  He had to go - he had to discover the 
truth.  Not only about this case, but about himself.   Mulder
walked away from this person, wrapped in Scully's glorious hair 
and shining eyes.  Walked away from the only thing he had ever 
truly trusted. 

Maybe he could find himself again.  And she would be willing to 
come home.

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the end

thanks for reading 

serafine
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

"Life is pain, Highness.  Anyone who says differently is selling 
something."
    - Wesley in The Princess Bride