From: Hillary Date: Sat, 15 Apr 2000 05:29:21 GMT Subject: NEW: measurements 1/1 Title: measurements 1/1 Author: Hillary < Phriendly11@yahoo.com> Homepage : www.homestead.com/hilsphishpage/fanfic.html Rated : PG Catergory: Vignette Spoilers: all things Disribution : Anywhere, anyhow.Just drop me a line and tell me you whisked it away... to a faraway fanfic island Summary: I can't help myself. Jeffrey made me do it! No, no matter your thoughts on " what happened"; this is a follow up piece. Disclaimer: These characters are not mine! I mean that! Thanks: to the lovely, lovely, lovely Miss Jessica B.- I shout from the rooftops HAPPY BIRTHDAY since it's coming up...and thanks for all of your amazing talent and advice. Also thanks to you, for reading. - MEASUREMENTS - It's like this : there is a rhythm in life. Find it at your wrist, the frantic banter of your heart, beating there in slow, steady smoothness that you can't ignore. If you did, you'd be missing the picture; the instance, the suggestion of the divine. Dawn will make its way to Mulders apartment. He'll awake to a shaft of sunlight, falling on his eyes and making him blink, a sleepy kind of twitch. His arm will cross the mattress and land on the rectangular snooze button but he will not re succumb to the bewitching slumber. His body, stock-still, will wonder where she's gone, sensing her absence, wondering her path. And somehow he'd know she'd left to take a bath before the sun thought of rising, making her way home with slow steps, encasing her body in the bath she mentioned wanting to take, days before. *** The phone rang. It's shrill exclamation caused his head to shoot up, momentarily paused in it's contemplation. He reached for it slowly, wondering why anyone would be calling now, at 7:11 in the morning. " Mr. Mulder?" Feminine. Smooth. Natural. " Yes?" He answered, swirling sheets about his toes and thinking of the caller, wondering why her voice was familiar. " It's Colleen Azar ." Colleen. Crop Circles. Yes. He swung his legs over and around, they made an arc in the wrinkle of the fabric. " Hi there." He said , stupidly, moving as though drugged to the kitchen, seeking the coffeepot and water. " I hope I didn't wake you?" She sounded as though she meant it. " Actually, you didn't. So, what can I help you with this fine morning?" His voice echoed sarcasm, but it was a beautiful morning, from the look of the sky, already azure. He poured water from the faucet and she spoke again " It's about your partner." " My partner?" He paused and dumped coffee grinds into a paper towel. He needed to remember the little filter things. Mental note. Mental note. " Yes, Dana. How is she?" He saw the two cups in the sink; she'd emptied and filled them with water, and it made him smile. " Fine." He answered. " In fact, I think she's better than she's been in a long while. Why?" His eyes scanned the counter for a note, and finally fell on paper. In neat, Scully handwriting, it read : Thanks. Thanks. " Well, I was concerned about her, that's all. I'm glad to hear that she is doing well." He mumbled something unimportant, reaching in the cabinet for a mug. " Well..." Colleen said. The end of the conversation. He made an attempt at pleasantry, thanked her for her call, and then hung up the phone. He sipped the hot coffee as he returned to the bedroom, dug in the closet for suitable clothes. He took a shower and thought of those cups, so neat and nearly clean in his sink. *** Scully grabbed the box of doughnuts and walked into the elevator. Her eyelids felt stiff from not sleeping enough for days, her back was sore from attempting sleeping upright on Mulders couch. The dull ache persisted despite her early morning bath. The thought of it made her smile, it turned the corners of her lips as the elevator stopped, the door opened. Colleagues stepped inside and either nodded a "hello" or ignored her. She reciprocated and thought of coffee. The elevator doors opened and she stepped outside them; into the hall; down to the office. It was dark inside. Mulder scarcely arrived before 8:30 and the clock read thirteen after. He was sure to not arrive for at least fifteen minutes. At least. She made coffee, flipped on the computers, checked her voice mail. Ordinary things, things without signifigance. She sat and shuffled through mail, sorted files. Looked at the clock intermittently. Mulder made it by eight forty, armed with a sly smile and a box of bagels. " For you." They said, extending their respective boxes. *** He watched her at noon. Her head titled as she looked down at reports, the soft arch of her neck reading whatever was written in reverence. It was beautiful. He tapped his pencil on the desk. Today was endless, in the way Tuesdays often were. Outside it was beautiful, and he longed for distraction. Thinking of spring and outside and Scully lowered his productivity. Considerably. She looked up and met his eyes. They looked at each other a long moment and he spoke, finally. " Colleen called ." " Oh?" Her eyebrow arched. " About you." He said. " Me?" It remained high on her forehead, a question mark. " This morning." " Hmm" " You're fine?" " Yes." " Great then." She looked back at her files. Mulder returned the tempo of the pencil, down up, down up. *** Evening came too quickly. When the day was over, she suddenly didn't want to see him leaving. He looked as though he felt the same way. She could remember falling asleep, the night before, this morning really. This morning. Her head fell upon his shoulder like it was a welcoming pillow ,a comforting haven. Silence had overtaken her and she then had fallen asleep. " I didn't hear you leave this morning." He said, suddenly, the query unexpected . She closed her eyes, wondered why he'd chosen to ask this now. " Do you ever wish that I didn't go?" She asked, changing the subject but not entirely. She wanted to know the answer to the larger question. She moved her eyes to him slowly, as though afraid to know his expression. " Yes." He answered. " Do you ever wish - " " Yes." She answered, not needing him to repeat her question for him. She stood. He followed. She felt akward; as though they were suddenly strangers. They stared each other in the eye. " That's good to know." Mulder said. He smiled, a quirky grin. It made her laugh for just a moment. She moved to the door, her steps slow. She felt compelled to leave, knowing it was needed, was somehow necessary. " Scully." Her name. His voice was melting over her. She stopped, tilted her head upward, as though giving her face to the sun, or looking at stars in the sky. Her eyes were closed. Her hands flexed and opened. She turned and looked at him. Her heart was beating, a sound that thudded in her ears. He seemed close but he really wasn't. Even if she stretched her arms and hands and fingers out she couldn't touch him. She resented the distance. She wanted him near her. " Mulder?" She asked, surprised at her voice. Normal, matched. Vaguely concerned. He stood there, not moving, a hint of a smile on his lips. " Goodnight" He said. *** Time moves slow at times, fast at others . He walked down the hall after the door had long closed behind her, her hair swinging ever slowly in their revolution as she pivoted to the door, a haunting smile on her lips as she had spoken. " Goodnight." His steps were echoing, they drenched the corridor in sound. He pushed the elevator button. The doors opened to a silent car. The doors started to close and suddenly were stopped by a hand. Sometimes he thought her hands tiny, supreme in their amazing hidden skill. Their multiple talents masked by diminutiveness, by smooth skin and well manicured fingernails. " Stop it, will you?" She asked, before seeing him. Her tone was terse; demanding. His fingers found the door button and he pressed it. The doors swung to accommodate her and she entered, looking mildly surprised at his being there. She was smiling, the momentary amazement of seeing someone she hadn't expected to see until tomorrow giving her a sense of illogical happiness. He smiled back, without thinking, the grin came unconsciously and spread across his face. " I thought you left." He said, and she nodded.She tucked her hair behind her ear, and it was though it was the night before, when his hands had traveled the same path. He could almost feel the silky texture in his fingers. " I know. I had to take care of something first. It just was- " " Fate." He said. She pursed her lips and seemed to ponder it for a moment, before laughing, a rich full laugh he hardly heard from Scully. " Yes, I suppose it was." She shook her head, half in amazement, and a little bewilderment. " So.." He said, still smiling. *** The car door opened and let in two other agents , their expressions dour, eyes downcast, happy to be going home. They looked at Mulder and Scully and wondered at the source of their grinning faces. For Tuesday, that was an uncommon sight. The ground floor arrived and the doors opened. Mulder and Scully walked from the car, their smiles only remincient in their eyes as they walked across the foyer. They kept an even pace. Footfall matched footfall, a silent rhythm that had taken seven years to perfect. His hand found her lower back and guided her through the door, as people watched. The security guard stifled a smile at the two's apparent jovial nature this afternoon, and their elevator mates looked after them as though perplexed. It is far too easy to miss the natural rhythm of life. To take all that you have and see it for what it really is, a complex puzzle, a strange pattern of events leading to one place. One destination. When they become visible, when they define their meanings in a bright light of awakening, there is logic. An answer to all the questions that plague an existence. It gives depth to the inherent meaning, the never-ending cycle of birth and death and renewal. Find your place, follow your heart. Each step is the beginning of a journey. One which winds itself together to give purpose to your soul. *** The end.