From: Shannon O'Connor Date: 21 Dec 1998 05:20:10 -0800 Subject: NEW Childlike (1/1) by Shannon O'Connor Childlike By Shannon O'Connor shannono@iname.com ========== DISTRIBUTION: Gossamer Specialty Archive okay, goes to ATXC through XFC. Others, just notify me if it's the first story of mine you've archived. Thanks! ========== Vignette, Mulder first person, Mulder/Scully UST Rated PG Spoilers through "How the Ghosts Stole Christmas" Summary: Everyone should be a child at Christmas ========== Author's notes: I realized that, after all the angst I've written this year, I had a few dregs left in the schmoop bottle. I managed stretch it out with a little angst and introspection to make a vignette out of it. Hope you like. Thanks: To Stacey, the best editor in the world, with a New Years' resolution just for you -- to finish some of those WIPs I keep bugging you with! Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine, but the story is. ========== Childlike By Shannon O'Connor Everyone should be a child at Christmas. That's a hard thing for most people to remember as they get older. They start out as believers, but then they grow up, and they lose Santa -- along with the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy, and all those other childish things. But when they lose their belief, they lose a piece of the wonder that makes it Christmas. As I sit here today, I feel Christmas for perhaps the first time in my life. It's not a religous thing. It makes no difference to me right now how the holiday got its name, or why most people celebrate it. Or, at least, why it's supposed to be celebrated; somehow, that belief has gotten lost right along with all the others. But Christmas, in its secular form, is a day for joy, and laughter, and life, and love. Things I've been missing for much too long. Right now, I have all of those. And every bit of it is thanks to the woman at my side. We're acting like kids at this very moment, tearing into wrapped packages with unabashed glee. It's probably the most happiness either of us has ever displayed in front of the other, and it makes me want to freeze-frame the scene, preserve it under glass and keep it as a talisman against the gloom and despair that always seem to lurk just around the corners of our lives. And so I do the best I can and force myself to slow down a little, turning my attention from my own gift to focus in on her reaction to hers. I am rewarded for my restraint by the childlike grin that spreads across her face, the delicate laugh that escapes her mouth -- and then by the dancing blue eyes that turn to meet my gaze. She doesn't have to say a word. That look is all the thanks I'll ever need. And she doesn't say anything. She just grins at me some more, and then nudges me in the side with her elbow. "You gonna finish yours?" she asks teasingly. "Or you want me to do it for you?" I love this woman. As I turn my attention back to my gift, I make a silent vow to us both. Call it a New Year's resolution. I'm going to make sure we spend less time being all serious and grown-up, and more time acting like kids. We need to play more, and smile more, and laugh more. For ourselves, and for each other. The paper finally falls from my gift, and I feel a face-cracking smile spread across my face. I turn back to meet her laughing eyes again, and without my conscious knowledge, my arm goes around her shoulder and pulls her into a hug, which she returns without reservation. As I place my gift on the coffee table and bring my other arm around her to complete the hug, I realize that, for first time I can remember ... I'm actually looking forward to a new year. I want to say it out loud, to tell her what she's done for me ... but when I open my mouth, all I can manage is three words: "Merry Christmas, Scully." ==========END========== ========== Is it just me, or has the whole time period from Halloween through New Year's been melded into one long holiday? Shouldn't we just say "Happy Hallogivimas Days" and get it over with? ========== Enter my virtual world through: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Labyrinth/9298/ In Your Eyes (a first-person archive): http://come.to/InYourEyes Left Field (my fanfic): http://fly.to/LeftField