From: ephemeral@ephemeralfic.org
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 14:53:19 -0600
Source: direct

Reply To: Mulder62711@altavista.com


TITLE: The Strongest Emotions
AUTHOR: jeri
E-MAIL: Mulder62711@altavista.com  <--take note!
WEBSITE: http://www.geocities.com/agentjerisfic/
RATING: PG
CATEGORY: XR
KEYWORDS: MSR, ScullyAngst, MulderAngst
SPOILERS: If you have a solid, nearly obsessive knowledge of 
the series, you'll be fine.
ARCHIVE: Yes to Legacy, Gossamer, and those who ask nicely.
STARTED: December 2, 2000
FINISHED: December 4, 2000

SUMMARY: Some things aren't as momentous as we think they are.

**DISCLAIMER: 
Oh I wish I were a Mulder/Scully owner
That is what I'd truly like to be
But since I'm not a Mulder/Scully owner
Everyone belongs to Ten-Thirteen!

^*^*^

February 15, 2001
Georgetown Medical Center
3:42 PM

And so it came to pass that on this cold afternoon in February, 
Dana Scully was in the middle of preparing to give birth to 
her child. And there was much huffing and puffing and cursing 
the absent father.

Not that he'd chosen to be absent. No, it hadn't been his choice 
to up and sprain his knee as they rushed from their apartment 
to the car when she announced she was in labor.

Luckily, Dr. Verenna figured that there was at least two more 
hours to go before the pushing would begin, and so Mulder 
would be back in plenty of time to witness this momentous 
occasion.

And it was momentous indeed. It had been only one month ago 
that Mulder had mysteriously turned up in an Oregon hospital. 
He'd showed signs of weightlessness and had a few mysterious 
scars, but was otherwise in fine health. He'd been overjoyed 
to see his partner again, and even more so when he discovered 
the miracle he'd helped create, however unknowingly.

With his return, all the little details Scully had insisted 
on putting off were completed. An ultrasound confirmed her 
gut feeling that she was carrying a little girl, and she was 
finally able to think about names. After nearly a week of 
debate, they settled on Colleen Maria Mulder in honor of their 
mothers, Margaret Colleen and Christine Maria respectively.

Though the five months that he'd been missing had gone by 
agonizingly slowly, the month since he'd returned had sped by 
all too quickly for either of them. It seemed they had just 
gotten back to the level of intimacy that they'd stepped onto 
nine months ago when she began labor. Silly Colleen was a week 
early.

Not that Scully and Mulder were going to complain.

Mulder was soon back at her side, coaching through her 
contractions in a way that seemed to come naturally to him, 
given the fact that they never were able to attend any sort 
of class.

And ninety-four minutes later, Scully was holding her slimy, 
sticky daughter in her arms.

A nurse handed a towel to Mulder, and he reached over to begin 
cleaning his daughter of the blood and amniotic fluid and...

Yellow? Yellow goo?

Both Mulder and Scully looked at each other, and as they did, 
their daughter and the hospital scene melted away into yellow 
goo...

^*^*^

May 6, 1999
Brown Mountain, NC

Skinner frowned. How could two agents just disappear in the 
middle of a field? Even agents as trouble-prone as Mulder and 
Scully didn't just disappear...well, at least the didn't used 
to...well, never in the middle of a field, anyway...right?

If he were Mulder, where would he go? Skinner took a wary 
glance upwards, then shook his head and refocused on the 
field below. As he did a quick survey of the land, he noticed 
a slight depression off to the west side. Curious, he walked 
over to take a closer look.

Twenty-eight minutes later, the battered bodies of Agents 
Mulder and Scully were laid out on stretchers before him.

^*^*^

May 15, 1999
Mulder's Apartment

Scully knocked on the door, but after not receiving an answer 
after five minutes, she used her key and entered. Mulder was 
sitting on his couch, just staring into space.

"Mulder? You okay?"

He just nodded his head; he didn't turn to look at her.

Scully sighed, walking over to the couch to sit next to him. 
"Nice try, partner. Tell me what's bothering you. Tell me why 
you didn't show up at work yesterday and why you're avoiding 
my calls."

She gave him a few moments to gather his thoughts, but when 
he still didn't answer, she scooted closer to him, placing 
her arm around his shoulders.

"It's about that last hallucination, isn't it? About Daniel 
and your abduction and the...and the baby?"

Mulder heaved a sigh, but still didn't look at her. "Yes. Of 
all the...why that? Why did we have to hallucinate that, Scully? 
And why did it last so much longer than the others?"

"I don't know, Mulder. Maybe...well, if you look at all of the 
dreams together, it seems that they reflected our strongest 
desires and fears. The little grey, your death, being found, 
a baby...I guess those emotions were closest to the surface, 
and the...the hallucinogen fed off of that."

Finally, Mulder looked at her, his eyes sad. "So the last one 
lasted longest because that emotion was the strongest?"

"That sounds like a very sound theory, Mulder." Scully sat 
back. "Dear Diary, today my dreams came true as Agent Mulder 
posed the most practical hypothesis."

"Ha ha," Mulder smirked. "But really, Scully, is that the most 
likely theory?"

With a small smile, Scully nodded.

"Well, that's all well and good...but how do we know this isn't 
just another hallucination?"

"I thought about that," Scully admitted. "And I don't think 
that there's really any way to tell. I mean, sure you can shoot 
Skinner again, but maybe that won't work this time. The only 
thing that leads me to believe that this is for real is the 
fact that we didn't suspect we were still underground just 
before we got out. Both times before when we supposedly got 
out, we'd just said that we thought we were underground. Then 
we crawled out or were rescued. This time we firmly believed 
we were really living in real life when Skinner found us."

"That's...that's what I was thinking, too, Scully," Mulder 
agreed.

"Good! So now you know that if you don't show up to work, 
you'll get fired for real, right?" She stood up and crossed 
her arms as she spoke.

He chuckled. "I got it, Scully. But I think you can help me 
out on Monday."

She rolled her eyes and sighed. "Fine. I'll call you."

Mulder shook his head. "No, you won't need to call me. You 
can remind me in person. In fact, you can set the alarm and 
make sure the snooze button is only hit once."

An eyebrow crept up her forehead. "What are you suggesting, 
Mulder?"

He stood up, moving close to her. With one arm on her shoulder, 
Mulder replied, "I believe it's time for a long talk...about 
our strongest emotions."

THE END

^*^*^

Don't freak out. I don't really think that's what gonna happen. 
The idea just popped into me head, and I had to get it out 
before it nested and produced offspring.

"Maybe only in our blind belief can we ever find the truth."
--Amy Grant, *Grown-up Christmas List*