From jimcaz@dircon.co.uk Thu Mar 06 12:39:42 1997
Subject: [XFF] New: Spring 1/1
From: "Jim & Carol Gritton" <jimcaz@dircon.co.uk>
Date: Thu, 6 Mar 1997 18:39:42 -0000
--------
Disclaimer: Fox Mulder, Dana Scully belong to Chris Carter, 1013 and
Fox TV.  They are used without permission and no infringement of
copyright is intended.  I do this for the love of it!

Rating: G

Classification: V

Spoilers: Season 4 - post Memento Mori.

Summary: Musings for Mulder on his early morning run.

Comments appreciated and gratefully received at the above address.

Spring 1/1
by Carol Gritton (jimcaz@dircon.co.uk)

     Fox Mulder stopped running and bent over to catch his breath, his
hands resting just above his knees.  Sweat trickled down his unshaven
cheeks and into his eyes, and he lifted an arm and wiped it across his 
face.  All around him in the park were the signs of the coming season,
the snowdrops and crocuses heralding its arrival.
     Spring. 
     That time of year when everything was bursting into life after a
long winter's sleep.  Spring was a time of renewal, of rebirth, of
lengthening days and nights.  Of warmer, sunlit days chasing away the
cold gloom of winter.

     Rested, Fox started off again, slowly at first.  His thoughts
turned to Scully, and his pace increased, his feet pounding against the
hard surface beneath them.  Blaming and punishing himself for what had
befallen her.  Would she look at Spring in the same way, knowing that
this might well be the last one she ever saw?  There was no sense of
renewal for her, nothing to look forward to other than a slow,
lingering death from that thing in her head.  Fox's chest heaved
painfully, his lungs fighting for breath as he pushed himself harder
and harder, until he was almost on the point of collapse.
     What would he do without his partner, his friend?  He knew he
would have to carry on the search for the truth, if not for himself,
then for her.  He owed her that much.  He shook his head, and berated
himself for thinking that way.  Scully wasn't going to die - she was
going to beat this thing, and he was going to help her.

     He lifted his eyes to the pale blue sky, felt the watery sunshine
on his face.  A gentle early morning breeze stirred the still bare
branches of the trees - branches that in a couple of weeks would be
dressed in the bright green foliage of the new season.   His route took
him past vast banks of colourful crocuses, and the first of the early
daffodils nodded in the breeze.  He'd never paid much attention to the
surroundings as he ran each day but today he looked with new eyes.     
 Scully's eyes. 
     He tried to imagine how she must feel, knowing that she might
never again see the daffodils and tulips, the cherry blossom and the
lilac.  To never again smell the sweet scent of the lily-of-the-valley
or the lavender, or caress the velvety petals of a deep red rose. 
Simple pleasures, yet they meant so much.

     Spring. 
     A time of renewal, and for Fox, of renewed purpose.  He would find
out what had been done to Scully and why.  And if there was a cure, he
would find it.  He wouldn't let her suffer this alone.  He would suffer
right along with her, just as he always did.  Blaming himself, carrying
the guilt for all the things that had been done to her - his partner,
his friend - because of him.  

The End