From: ephemeral@ephemeralfic.org Date: 20 Sep 2002 15:07:22 -0000 Subject: Rain\'s Waltz by Everleabae Source: direct Reply To: Lizascorner@yahoo.com TITLE: Rain's Waltz. AUTHOR: EverLeabae SUMMARY: A month after Mulder left, Scully misses him terribly. TIMELINE: early season 9? I made it be spring. KEYWORDS: MSR ARCHIVE: you know you wanna ;). Please? SPOILERS: early season 9. RATING: G. FEEDBACK: I'll love you forever!!! You can even trash it if you want! And yet I'll respond!(lizascorner@yahoo.com) DISCLAIMER: they belong to CC, 1013, etc, not me though. Too bad. WRITTEN: 9/16/02--wow, all in one day. That's an achievement, Liza!!! NOTES: you won't get away this time!!! They're at the end. Rain's Waltz by EverLeabae Cold. I'm cold. No, I'm not. But then why am I shivering? It's such a beautiful spring day, why should I be shivering? But then, it's not really as wonderful as one might think. After all, it's 2 o'clock in the afternoon, but it's too dark for me even to read without a lamp. It's raining. A soaked, heavy sheet of gray lies high above the earth, dripping water on the hard asphalt bed below. I follow a tear with my eyes, one of hundreds that wept form the sky and landed on the other side of my window. It flows undeterminably downward, catching others along the way and dragging them down too, leaving a wet trail behind. ------------------------------------------------------------------ The apartment was quiet. The only sounds surrounding her were heavy breaths form the other room, which escaped from the tiny mouth of a sleeping baby. And the endless pounding of the rain. In this quiet hour, she was so lonely. The sight from the window wasn't sufficient company, but she continued to stare. She didn't wait for anything. Though a whole month had already passed by, Dana still couldn't help but glance at the door from time to time, or mistake the jingle of a wind-chime from the next apartment for the ring of her doorbell. But she was adapting to the solitude, leaning to suppress her pointless hopes. Today, however, the rain brought it all back. Something about it made her remember his face, the last smile he gave her, putting all his effort, albeit futile, into erasing the red from her cried-dry eyes. It rained that day, too. Just a well placed wet quarter of an hour, around which she now tried not to measure her life. There hadn't been a drop from the sky since. Some little inner voice that just refused to be tuned out whispered to her often that he would come back when the fields could drink from the heavens again. Now, the land was surfeited, but her soul still longed for him. Dana looked from her blotted reflection in the glass down to the floor, examining the uncomplicated patterns of the carpet as her mind tried to work its way out of the labyrinth of thoughts. She didn't mean to be so girlish about it, but the sheer romance of the story whispered by the tapping droplets pulled her hope out of the deepest burrows of her consciousness and put a rosy blush on her cheek. What could possibly stop him from knocking right now? Wait, can't you hear his footsteps? Stop, listen... No, it's just the rain. Grow out of it, Dana! She brought her hands together so that the thumbs touched, and looked down at them. For just a fraction of a second, the almost-identical fingers looked like little children, twins. She shook the thought away, not knowing what it meant. But it stayed with her. For no reason at all, tears sprung in her eyes and she jerked her head back up, throwing out the feeling. Was it pity? She detested pity. She was proud from birth and thus she wanted no one's misunderstanding sympathy. Especially not her own. She snuffled back the moisture in an effort to bring herself back. But she didn't really know why. Who could she possibly be hiding from? William? She didn't want to admit that it was the secret hope she harbored, that by some--for lack of a better word-- miracle, Mulder would walk through the door right to her, throw his arms around her body and live happily ever after. The fourteen-year old inside was still alive and well, bubbling to the surface once every other while, reminding of her much-needed existence. But sometimes she was so terribly unwanted... A small sound form the hallway reminded her that time was passing with every moment, caring not whether she tortured herself aimlessly or filled every moment with a task fulfilled. Choosing to leave the nostalgia slumped on the couch, Dana got up and starting walking to her baby's room, when the echoing noise from the other side of the wall sounded again, alarming her for some reason. Waiting to hear it repeated again, she stood in that one spot, but her ears only met the noise of the softening shower outside. Throwing a train of what-ifs off the track leading to her mind, she checked up on William, lingering a little to smile at the essence of love embedded in the soft features of his small face. That's how the now-grounded hormonal teenager would put it, but she was locked up tight in the best-hidden room of her adult counterpart's mind. She walked back to the living room and picked up her book. Perhaps it would bore her finally to sleep. But before she had a chance to find her spot, 5 continuous thuds from the hall reached her ears. Each seemed to be closer. Footsteps. Then a sigh. Her breath caught. The 14-year-old Dana crossed her fingers and shut her eyes tightly, whispering that, God, I'll do anything, just please, please... Four rapid taps. Not the window--the door. Another heavy breath. But she sat, paralyzed, glued to the hard chair. It can't be...Just open the damned door!!! Didn't you order pizza before? I don't think so... she got up, and suddenly she stood at the door, watching herself from outside her body as her physical entity looked through the peep-hole...What do you see? Nothing. There's no one there. There must be someone? No, the hallway is empty... she forced a dry and raspy 'Hello' out of her throat. Getting no answer, she called again, more sure this time. "Scully?" she could almost believe she heard his voice. But she knew it was her imagination. Then suddenly the voice called again, louder. Was she really doing this to herself? No, she didn't tend to be suicidal. She moved her hands to the lock as her spirit joined with her body once again. The third time her name came in a whisper, and before the last syllable reached her ears, her eyes gave her a gift she thought she wouldn't get even for Christmas. She lifted her hand to his cheek, gently stroked the rough unshaved skin, afraid he would dissolve into air if she applied too much pressure. He smiled at the gesture, and saw the corners of her mouth drift farther apart before letting tears win the battle. Then Mulder suddenly became serious again, locking his eyes with hers as he turned his head to kiss the palm of her hand, which rested still on his cheek. "Gonna let me in?" he asked, and a frivolous laugh of relief erupted through her sobs. She stepped around the door, giving him entrance, then shut it behind him. Following another brief moment set apart for visual memorization, she threw her arms around his neck in an embrace, whispering something incomprehensible into his ear. This can't be real, she thought. But it was. Flesh and blood, and in need of a shower, he stood there with her, as sure as her younger self had been that this fairy tale would come true. She was right, for once. But, no, she'd always been right. You just have to learn to listen to the little people. They do know what they are talking about. Indeed. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~the end~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Notes as promised: I don't fell like writing them anymore. But anyway, now that school's started again, I have to busy myself with something that will take me away from that evil environement for at least --what was it?-- two hours. I might make a mean sequel, so if you like the end the way it is, don't read it if I post it.I was actually going to put it in the story but when it started getting late I thought I'd do it some other time,but I really wanted it finished, so yeah.ok, it's sven in the morning, I have nothing left to say, except maybe a yawn. And just to be nice, I'll dedicate this to Rebecca who had a birthday a few days ago. Later that day: now that I've comehome and faced my scholarly demons, I got more self-critisizing notes!!! I know the ending was lame-y, but if I'd gone into more detail, it wouldn't have been even more of a drag. So, if you read all the way through, you deserve an award! I'm not realy spell-checking these notes, btw, so yeah. As you can see, I really like to repeat myself. Feedback, people!!!!! Lights out...