Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1999 17:59:26 GMT Subject: NEW: Decent Proposal by Cassandra Lange Title: Decent Proposal Author: Little old me! (otherwise known as Cassandra Lange) E-mail: casie_lange@yahoo.com Rating: No bad words or anything explicit Spoilers: None Disclaimer: Puh-leeze don't sue me.This is yours, this is all yours, Chris. I only get like fifty baht for lunch money (I'll living in Thailand). You wouldn't get much off of suing me. Dedication: To my wonderful, patient, kind, thoughtful, fill-in-the-nice-adj-blank editor, Heidi, b/c the narrator is modeled after her (kinda) Note: Sorry for all the junk I've been sending you people. I will try to redeem myself with this story. Forgive me, I haven't been sleeping enough. ********************** Decent Proposal ********************** Of course, I've heard of Agents Mulder and Scully. The things they do, the cases they investigate. I even knew Agent Mulder his last year as a profiler. But that's where the association ends. I was and am not one of their buddies, let alone a confidante. So you can imagine how uncomfortable I felt having to share a table with Agent Scully. It wasn't my choice, mind you. The coffee shop was so crowded, I couldn't even see the counter. But I had nowhere else to go. It was the middle of the workday and I had just had a fight with my fiance, Patrick, about how he wasn't romantic enough, about how little attention he paid me. I didn't feel like leaving but I also didn't feel like standing around drinking my coffee. Then I saw Agent Scully. She was seated all by herself at a window seat, a cup of coffee steaming before her. Her fingers played with a little blue box, the type that jewelry comes in. Her red hair shone in the light of the sun which shone through the window onto her back. Her FBI id was still clipped to her left breast pocket, so I was sure who it was. She raised her head at that instant, and even I have to admit, she was certainly a beautiful woman. I wondered in the back of my mind how she and Agent Mulder couldn've worked together so many years without any sort of romance occurring. It was none of my business, of course, but I was curious nonetheless. She saw me then, a flicker of recognition in her clear, thoughtful eyes. She waved her hand at me, calling me over. I sat, not knowing what to say. "Thanks. I thought I had to stand." I finally managed. No answer from her, except a slight nod. She looked off in space, her right hand toying with the box. I shrugged, ordered my coffee from the waiter who had somehow fought through the crowd to our table, and fell silent studying her. What did I know of her? Well, she was a medical doctor who had joined the FBI right off. The X-files, those cases that involved the paranormal, and which she investigated with her partner, Agent Mulder, were her first field assignment. Other than that, I knew nothing of her. "Do you come here often?" I said at last. My coffee arrived then, dark and steaming. "Hmmmm?" Her fingers never stopped playing with the box. "Oh. No. Not really." "My fiance proposed to me here." I told her, though I'm not so sure why. "He said it was the best kept secret in the USA." I laughed, surveying the throngs of people. "Looks like the secret's out." "Hmmmmmmmm." was her only reply. I sipped my coffee awhile, then finally took the plunge. "What's in the box?" "Oh. This?" she picked up the box and held it up for my inspection. It was definitely some sort of jewelry. For just a moment, she seemed shy, school-girllike. "Agent Mulder...proposed to me." At first, what she said didn't fully register. "Proposed what?" Then her words took on meaning. "Oh!" Her face was smiling and radiant. "Congratulations." I told her. "You did say yes?" "I....." she faltered, opening the box to reveal a single diamond in a thin gold setting. She looked at the ring a moment, then continued. ".....I didn't know what to say, Agent Vincent." I could understand. I remembered when Patrick proposed. I was flabbergasted. I didn't say yes right away either. "Patrick..." I mumbled. What had our fight been about again? The coffee and the crowd and Agent Scully had served their purpose. I couldn't even recall what we had been fighting about. Her face took on a determined expression. "I'm going to say yes. I don't know why I didn't in the first place." "Good." I said, drinking my coffee. "Good luck." "Thank you. You've been a wonderful counselor." I was? I stared at her over the rim of the cup. I had barely said ten words to her. Oh, well, whatever I had said (or didn't say) seemed to have worked. Agent Scully was weaving her way through the crowd towards the cashier to pay her bill, her engagement ring already on her finger. I finished my coffee. Looking up, I saw that she was already gone, off to say yes and change her life forever, the way I had changed mine. I walked slowly towards the cashier, fumbling in my wallet. A photo of Patrick, the one I always kept of him, fell out. An impatient customer stepped on it in his rush towards a table and Patrick's smiling face smeared. I picked it up and played with it the way Agent Scully had played with her box. Paying for the coffee, I left the shop and ran all the way back to the Bureau. I just had the most sudden urge to see him, to see Patrick. Back at work, I found that Patrick had been called in by AD Skinner. I suddenly thought, 'Oh god, he's going to resign!' I sprinted towards AD's office and almost collided with Agents Mulder and Scully...holding hands. "Oh, Agent Vincent." said Agent Scully. Her voice sounded light and incredibly happy. Agent Mulder looked the way she sounded, as much as he possibly could. Agent Mulder's face seems incapable of sustaining any emotion. But I wasn't so concerned with them and neither were they with me. They walked on, lost in their own world, chatting about old times, I suppose. Something about an abduction and someone morphing into Agent Mulder. I was only half-listening to them, because coming down the hall, with an armful of long-stemmed red roses, was Patrick. I turned, took one last look at Agent Mulder and Scully going down the hall, hand in hand, and knew that they would be as happy as I was going to be.