From: ephemeral@ephemeralfic.org
Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2001 21:33:57 -0600
Subject: The Path by Paige Malone
Source: direct

Reply To: dru1013@yahoo.com


Title: The Path
Author: Paige (dru1013@yahoo.com)
Date: September 9, 2000
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Grotesque (sorta), and tiny ones for 
Requiem
Disclaimer:  All characters of The X-Files belong to 
Chris Carter, 1013 Productions, and 20th Century FOX.  
I am not affiliated or associated with any of these.  
I am not making any money off this so don't sue me!
Distribution:  Anywhere, just notify me please.  
Summary:  In the path of life there are only so many 
turns you can take.

XXXX

The Path 

XXXX

To say that Patterson was pissed was an 
understatement.  The understatement of the year.  

I could practically hear him fuming through the 
walls.  Which wouldn't be difficult considering we 
were staying in the equivalent to the quarters of 
Hell.  

Almost always, within a day, I could get a handle on 
the case, but this time, I couldn't.  Something was 
distracting me.  I still had yet to determine what 
exactly was diverting my attention away from the 
case, but I couldn't wait to figure out, so Patterson 
could stop chewing my ass out every second.  

It was driving me crazy.  

The knock on my door pulled me out of reverie.  

Agent Bennett stuck his head inside the room, "You 
still up, Mulder?  We're gonna leave around 6:30 for 
the briefing.  Don't even attempt to get out of it." 
he chuckles, "They just brought in some new agents 
today so you've gotta be there to fill 'em in.  You 
better get some sleep."  

"Thanks, Sam."

He smiles and shuts the door behind him.  

I suppose he is right.  I shouldn't be losing sleep 
over this.  Maybe in the morning this mess will 
straighten itself out.  

XXXX

42.  I trace the gold numbers, feeling their smooth 
expanse; as if they could give me the answers I seek.  
I pull out my keys and let myself in.  

The second I walk in I am hit with panic.  This is my 
apartment, and yet it is completely different.  It 
has painting's I've never purchased, pictures of 
people I don't know, furniture I've never seen.  I 
set my bags down on the dining room table and walk 
into the living room.  The layout is the same, but 
the rest is not.  

And that's when I see her.  On my couch, she is 
curled up on her side, a blanket pulled over body and 
something clutched in her hands.  

I know I shouldn't feel as calm as I do, but for some 
inexplicable reason, I feel at peace.  As if this 
woman, I've never seen, belongs here, in this 
apartment that is no longer my own.   I know none of 
this is right, although nothing has ever felt more 
right in my entire life.  

I bend down next to her and just stare.  My eyes are 
drawn to her hair, it's a magnificent auburn with 
flecks of gold.  I've never seen anything more 
soothing.  I tentatively reach out and brush a lock 
of fallen hair behind her ear and she smiles slightly 
in her sleep.

"Mulder."

I am in utter shock.  The fact that this woman knows 
me, dreams of me, is too confusing to even ponder.  
How does this woman know me?  How is any of this 
happening at all?

Before I have any time to even consider it, a book 
falls out of her hand and lands on the floor next to 
my feet.  I pick it up and turn it over to see the 
cover.  Baby Names.  

Well it appears we are way past the point of knowing 
each other.  This is all so incredible, but still, I 
can't comprehend how, or even why, this is happening.  
Or is it even really happening?  I have no idea.  

She begins to stir in her sleep, mumbling my name the 
entire time.  I reach out again and stroke her cheek, 
trying to comfort her.  

Her eyes open slowly and she stares up with me with 
clear blue eyes. 

"Mulder?"  

She sounds scared, relieved, joyous and confused all 
at once.  

Before I even know what I'm doing, I smile at her and 
answer, "Yeah, it's me, Scully."  Where I got her 
name from is a mystery to me, if it's possible I'm 
even more confused than her.

She throws her arms around my neck at my response and 
hugs me to her with more strength than a woman her 
size should have.  She's sobbing into my neck 
repeating over and over that she can't believe that 
I'm here, and that she has missed me so very much.  I 
don't where she thinks I've been or what I've been 
doing, but I'm so concerned for her that I don't stop 
to think about it.  

I put my arms around her and whisper words of comfort 
to her, telling her that I've missed her just as 
much. 

After a while she calms down and finally looks up 
from my shoulder and at my face.  I wipe the tears 
away from her cheeks and she gives me the best smile 
I think I've ever seen.  

It makes my heart flutter just looking at her.  How 
could I be so in love with this woman when I've never 
even met her?  But deep down, I know I've met her.  
I've known her for a very long time.  

But why don't I remember?  How could I not remember 
the years I've spent with, obviously, the best thing 
that ever happened to me?  

But Scully clearly doesn't realize that I've never 
met her.  That I'm not the same Mulder that she so 
desperately misses and wants. 

My fingers instinctively go up to my neck and I feel 
a necklace lying there.  I reach for the clasp; I 
know it belongs to her.  It has to, I can sense it.  
But she stops me and lies her hand over mine, "Keep 
it," she whispers faintly.

I nod slightly, I'm not really clear on what has just 
occurred, but it evidently has meant a great deal to 
her, and so it means a lot to me as well.  

The blanket has now fallen away from her and I can 
see her round belly.  I place my hand on her stomach 
and gaze up at her.  "Ours?"

Ours?  Where the hell am I getting this stuff?  
Didn't I just tell myself that I'm not the guy she 
wants?

She meets my eyes and shakes her head in affirmative.  
I look at her with wonder.  "But how?"

But how?  How the hell do I think?  I'm not a second 
grader anymore.

She shrugs, "I don't know, I don't think we'll ever 
know."  

The words sound so familiar to me, yet I know she has 
never spoken them to me, and I've never spoken them 
to her.  

"It's the best news I could have ever heard." I 
reply.  Okay, now I am positive I've had this 
conversation with someone, but I know for sure it 
wasn't her.  And it didn't have anything to do with a 
child.  

I observe the wonderment on her face over this 
miracle we have created.  

And that is the moment I am hit with a realization.  

No matter how I got here.  Why I arrived here.  What 
I missed out on, or what will happen in the future.  
I am positive, absolutely sure of the fact that my 
place in the world, my only place in the world, could 
be with her.  At this moment and for the rest of my 
life.  

She views the emotions running through my eyes and 
looks deeply into them.  "I love you."

And that is the moment that I truly understand love.

XXXX

There is a loud buzzing and my eyes snap open, I 
finally realize it is my alarm clock going off 
telling me the day is just beginning.  

There is a knocking at my hotel door and I rise to 
greet Bennett who is no doubt coming to tell me that 
we've got to leave soon for the briefing.

I open the door and sure enough it's Agent Bennett.  
He starts speaking to me, but I can't seem to 
concentrate on what I'm being told.  

Reflexively my hand reaches up to feel for the 
necklace I know was once there, and it remains.  

But all that rings through my mind is "One wrong turn 
and we wouldn't be sitting here together."

End

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