From: ephemeral@ephemeralfic.org
Date: 12 Dec 2002 04:31:42 -0000
Subject: On the Bridge at Sunrise (1/1) by Anna
Source: direct

Reply To: a_greenway1318@yahoo.com.au



TITLE:  On the Bridge at Sunrise

AUTHOR:  Anna Greenway

EMAIL:  a_greenway1318@yahoo.com.au

RATING:  PG

CATEGORY:  UST

SUMMARY:  Remember that scene from 'Rain King' where Mulder 
nods that he understands how someone can see pictures in 
clouds?  

ARCHIVE:  Let me know.


************

Dana Scully's fingers reached for the last birthday card.  
She opened it one last time, smiling at the photo of her 
nephew inside.  She pulled the photo out, and dropped the 
card in the bin.  It fell on top of all the others from her 
family.

Sighing, she put the photo on her kitchen bench and wrote 
herself a note to buy a frame for it.  She crossed to the 
door, locking it, and then headed for bed.

************

One Week Later

Buried in the comfort of warm blankets and stacked pillows, 
she stirred.  Her eyes drifted first to the window, and after 
noticing no light was coming through between the curtains, 
she rolled over a little to look at her bedside clock.

4.30 am.

She squeezed her eyes closed and snuggled down further in to 
the bed.  She was falling asleep to the calming sounds of the 
night when she identified one that sounded out of place.  
There was the traffic, and someone in the next apartment had 
their television up too loud, but there seemed to be a 
tapping coming from her lounge.

She sat upright in bed, immediately forgetting its comfort.

She wriggled to the side of the bed, and retrieved her gun 
out of the top drawer.  Silently, she brushed her hair away 
from her eyes and firmly placed both hands on her gun.  Her 
bare feet on the carpet made no noise, and she paused in her 
bedroom doorway before turning the corner.

'Is there anyone there?' she called, walking down her hall.

Silence.  

She stopped, trying to calm her breathing.

'Hello?' she called.

She reached the kitchen and a figure came around from the 
corner.  She spun and held out the gun to them.

'Scully, it's me!'  said Mulder, holding up his hands.

In the darkness, she squinted at the figure in front of her.  
Not lowering the gun, she hurried to the nearest lamp and 
switched it on.  

'Mulder?' she said.

He nodded and lowered his hands.  

She closed her eyes, lowering her head for a moment.  When 
she opened them, she looked at him, crossly.  'It's four in 
the morning!  What are you doing here?'

He shook his head and crossed the floor to her.  He put his 
hand on her shoulder and gently pushed her in the direction 
of her bedroom.  'You'd better get dressed.'

When they reached her bedroom doorway, she spun around, 
removing his hand from her.  'Wait a minute.  Where are we 
going?'

'We have an appointment.' He said.

'An appointment with who?'

'I can't say.' He said.  He looked away from her piercing 
eyes.

She rolled her eyes.  'Mulder, this is happening too often.  
You can't just force your way in here in the middle of the 
night, and drag me off to some... unimportant X-File!'

'This is important.  Please.' He said.

She sighed, giving in to his pleading eyes.

************

Half an hour later, Mulder was parking the car on the side of 
the road.  Scully, who had been dozing, opened her eyes and 
looked around at their surroundings.  It was an inner city 
park, on the side of a slight slope.  It was extremely shady, 
and gave off a feeling of peacefulness.  It was the type of 
park that you would take a break to walk through on a 
stressful day, and afterwards would return to work feeling 
calmer.

But now, Scully looked from the park back to Mulder.  
'Mulder?'

Ignoring her confused look, he put the key in his pocket and 
got out the car.  It was before sunrise still, and the park 
gave a beautiful view of it.  He had only watched it once or 
twice, but each time it had been such an incredible feeling 
that he had sworn he would make Scully experience it.

He walked away from the car and up the hill a little until he 
was under his favourite tree.  He then sat down in the cool 
grass and his hand automatically reached in to his pocket for 
a sunflower seed.

He saw his partner finally get out the car, slamming the door 
of the car.  She then stormed up the hill and stood a few 
feet from him.  He looked up at her, and watched as she tried 
to decide how to handle the situation.  She finally settled 
for a fairly diplomatic approach.  'Mulder, what are we doing 
here?'

He shrugged and gestured to a grassy space beside him.  'Sit 
down, Scully.'

She drew in a slow, deep breath, building her patience, and 
after another minute sat down beside him.  'I assume there's 
a perfectly good reason as to why we're here in the middle of 
the night.'

He turned to look at her.  Even through her frustration, she 
managed a small smile.  'It's not the "middle of the night".  
It's nearly sunrise.'  He pointed out to the horizon at the 
sun slowly rising with a golden softness.

She followed his gaze to the beginning sunrise and then 
looked back at his face.  To her, he seemed unusually at 
peace.  His face was not the one she saw at work when they 
were dealing with Kersh.  And it was not the irritated type 
when he was writing a report.  It wasn't even the teasing 
type she often saw when they argued about a case.  It was 
restful.  And as she gazed at him, she began to feel his mood 
rubbing off on her.  

'So we're here for the sunrise?' she said.

He nodded and pulled a handful of seeds out his pocket.  He 
held his hand out to her, and she smirked for a moment before 
reaching out and taking one.  'Happy birthday, Scully.'

************

His elbows were resting on his knees, and he gazed out at the 
sunrise.  His partner was talking, but he hardly heard her.  
'What was that?'

'I asked why you like the sunrise.  What's so special about 
it that you got me out of bed at 4.30?'  It showed some 
slight irritation, but she had mostly got past that and was 
smiling at him.  

'I don't know.  It's just the atmosphere.  When things are 
going bad, and you have terrorists blowing up the western 
world, and your boss is trying to find reasons to kick you 
out of the Bureau... it's here.  We never appreciate it, 
Scully.  It's so calming.' He turned to look at her.  'And 
with everything you've been through lately, I wanted you to 
experience it.'

'You never fail to surprise me, Mulder.' She said.

There was a pause, and then he continued.  'Years from now, 
you'll look back at this and smile.  The way the sun slowly 
breaks through the clouds... the early morning joggers and 
the businessmen that start too early...' he shrugged.

'It is beautiful, I'll admit.' She said.  She looked away and 
smiled.

'What?'

She shook her head.  'Nothing.'

'No, tell.' He said, smiling.

She hesitated.  'When you mentioned the sun through the 
clouds, you just reminded me of something.'  He looked at her 
questioningly and she continued.  'Remember when you were 
trying to convince Sheila that she wasn't causing the bad 
weather?'

He nodded.

'And she told you she saw faces in the clouds?  The look on 
your face, Mulder...' she broke off with a small laugh.

'Is that strange to you?' he said.  'You've never done that?'

She rolled her eyes and looked away.

'All that education, Scully, and you still somehow managed to 
miss the most important things in life.' he said.  He moved a 
little closer to her and his eyes went to searching the sky.  
He finally decided on one small cloud above them.  He leaned 
back and pointed up at it.  'You see that?  It's a rabbit.'

She leant back herself, and looked at the cloud.  She 
couldn't help grinning.  'I suppose... you might be able to 
see that...'

His eyes wandered again and focused on a long, thin cloud.  
'And that one, Scully?  That's like an ocean wave.'

She squinted in to the rising sun to see the one he meant.  
'I guess so.' She said, but to Mulder, she didn't sound too 
sure.

'Try it.' He said.

'Mulder...' she said.

'No, go on.  Try it.' He said, smiling.

She sighed and looked up to the sky.  She searched for 
minutes before she found something.  A cloud off to the side 
through the trees.  'I guess... that if you stretch the 
imagination, you could say that's a pair of scissors.'

'Scissors?  Scully, that's pathetic!'  he gently nudged her, 
with a teasing look in his eyes.

'And what do you see, Mulder?  Elvis?'

He paused for a minute while he stared, and then looked back 
at her.  'It's a frog.  A sunbathing frog.'

She burst out laughing, then.  And in the sunrise, Mulder 
thought that he rarely saw her look more radiantly beautiful.  
'A frog, Mulder?  A *frog*?'

He shrugged.  'Like the gnomes, Scully.  You must have seen 
them.'

Her laughter eventually came to a stop and she drew her 
jacket further around her.

'You cold?' he said.

She nodded. 'It's a little chilly.'

'Lets take a walk.'

************

They ended up at a small pond in the middle of the park.  A 
delicate wooden bridge went over the top of it, and they 
stood in the middle of it, leaning over the rail, looking 
down at the few goldfish that were swimming among the lilies.

'Happy birthday, Scully.' He said, again.

She looked across at him and smiled. 'I hate to disappoint 
you, Mulder.  But my birthday was a week ago.'

He nodded.  'I know.  I wanted to celebrate it now.'

She looked at him, surprised.  'Why?'

He looked up from the fish to the sunrise down the hill.  'It 
just makes sense to me.  For most people, a birthday means 
they get a stack of cards in the mail box.  It's nothing 
special, and it's routine.  The card has a lifespan of about 
a week, if it's lucky, and then it's forgotten.  It doesn't 
leave a lasting memory.  I think... that the best present you 
can give to a person is a memory.  To give them something 
that they can hold for life.  And when they're having a bad 
day, they can look back and remember how that person loved 
them.'

She felt a few tears form in her eyes and she reached down 
and took his hand.  'Thank you.'

He squeezed her hand and they both looked out at the warm 
sunrise.  Not only warm because of the sun, but because of 
their joined hearts.

************
Eek.  Before you say it, I know Mulder was out of character 
in a lot of the dialogue.  It's a mistake I know of, but it's 
too hard to fix.

a_greenway1318@yahoo.com.au