From: Scott Miller Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative Subject: NEW: That Day (1/1) Date: Mon, 1 Jan 1996 16:28:58 -0600 (CST) Hello fellow readers! I know you hear this a lot, but you are just going to have to indure it again. This is my first attept at fanfic so be gentle, please? Since it is *was* November (very near the time of Scully's disappearance) I felt compelled to write my rendition of "the anniversary." It didn't get posted right, so you're getting this a little later than I had thought, say, January. If you seemingly shy away from the prospect of our two favorite agents becoming involved, then pick another story out of the hundreds to occupy your time. Enough with the boring stuff, however, except for the discalimer. The characters of Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, and Margaret Scully belong to Chris Carter (BOW! BOW!). No copywrite infringment is intended. You wouldn't get anything from me anyway, save for a few-hundred stuffed animals. The song, "Dreaming While You Sleep," (on the "We Can't Dance album) belongs to Genesis. No infringment intended there either. Oh, and if you get the chance, listen to it, it's a great song. Now...on with the show! __________________________________________________________________________ That Day By Kathryn Miller FBI Headquarters Washington DC The Office He had been acting weird all day. She had tried asking what was wrong, but the only response she got was the "Mulder-look" and an 'I'm fine.' It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out, though that, if ever a campaign of mis-information, this was it. Scully had tried to come up with a reason that he would be more depressed than ever. Had he been staying up too late with his video collection? She doubted that. Was it the anniversary of Samantha's abduction? No, wrong date. Had he not been getting enough sleep? That was a real possibility. If that was the case, though, what was the cause of his additional loss of sleep? Frankly she was getting a little tired of coming up with leads that led to more dead-ends. 'What did you expect?' her inner voice said, 'you *do* work in the X-Files division. What *did* you expect, the problem to magically appear and then be solved in a snap, like one of those fifties sitcoms?' Scully forced the voice to be quiet and decided to confront the problem head-on. "Mulder, what is wrong with you?" Scully asked in her official FBI voice. "I told you, Scully, I'm fine," Mulder responded as he looked up from the file he had been reading, while simultaniously staring off into sapce. "That's not going to work this time, now tell me why you've been acting depressed and a little out of it all day," she commanded as she got up from her chair, placing her hands on her hips. "Look, I need to work this out on my own, okay? So why can't we just drop it?" he returned, feeling his anger rise. "We are not going to drop it. We have been partners for three years, and I was *really* hoping that we didn't have to keep major secrets from each other any more," she fired back, her anger rising as well. "I was too, Scully, but this is *my* problem, and I hate to trouble you with it. I think you owe me that much." His anger was finally beginning to snap. "Mulder, I am very worried about you, and I want to help. I think you owe *me* that much." "God, do you have to be so stubborn? I just wish that *once* you would give in to what I have to say *before* you get hurt!" He instantly regretted saying that, for he could see the hurt in her crystal-blue eyes. He did the only thing he could think of then, he picked up his coat and ran out the door, leaving a tear-filled Dana Scully in his tracks. ______________________________________________________________________ Scully's Apartment Three Hours Later She was furious. Even three hours later, she could still not believe the words that had errputed from her partner's mouth. Sure, she was upset at first, but now she was just plain angry. She had tried watching TV, but the sitcom's theme song reminded her all too much of the realtionship she had thought she shared with Mulder. 'What good does it do to be there for someone if they refuse you?' she thought. She then tried cleaning her entire apartment, but she kept finding things that reminded her of Mulder. She finally gave up and collapsed on her couch in tears. 'What are *you* doing, Mulder?' her inner-voice chidded again. 'On your couch in the dark, no doubt. And you thought you had feelings for him. What did you know? He only thinks of you as his side-kick. You share all your secrets with him, but you, what do you get? Miserable evenings like this.' She was so absorbed in her own grief that she never noticed the envelope slide under her door. A whole box of tissues and an hour later, she finally managed to pull herself up from the couch and to the front door. She wanted to double-check that it was securley locked. On her way over, though, she stepped on the envelope. She quickly picked it up and walked back over to her couch. The contents were that of a brief note and a tape. She set the tape on her coffee table and proceeded to pick up the note. _________________________________________________________________________ Dana, I want you to know that it is for your own good that I not tell you what is wrong with me. Please listen to the song on the first side entitled "Dreaming While You Sleep." It should help explain a little of what I am feeling right now. After you have finished listening to the song, read the back side of this note. Mulder _________________________________________________________________________ It was brief and sloppy, but he had called her Dana. That brought new tears to her eyes. She respected Mulder enough to do what he said, and set the note back on the table and picked up the tape. She then hurried over to her stereo, put the tape in, fast-fowarded it through five songs, puched play, and headed back to her couch. She didn't understand what Mulder meant by the song until the very end, when she really started to listen intently. The words she heard hit her like a ton of bricks. All my life, I'll be haunted by, All my life, just one moment in time, All my life, until the day I die, And it will live inside of me... I will never be free, all my life, Trapped in her memory, all my life, 'Till the day that you open your eyes. All of my life, you lie silently there, All my life, in a world so unfair, All my life, and only I know why, And it will live inside of me. I will never be free, all my life, Trapped in her memory, all my life, 'Till the day that you open your eyes... As the song faded away, she sprang from her couch and into her kitchen. During the song it had become clear to her that he would never forget her in the hospital, in a coma, because of what he thought was his fault. She found her calandar and stared at it. It was that day. The day she disappeared. 'Oh my god!' she suddenly thought, 'The note!' Upon that realization, she ran back to her couch and snatched the note. She quickly flipped it over and read. __________________________________________________________________________ Dearest Dana, I hope that you understand now. Don't try to find me, for it will be useless. Please, *please* understand, that this is for your own good. Love, Fox ___________________________________________________________________________ 'Oh no, no no no, tell me he didn't...' She suddenly panicked. She didn't know what to do for a second, but she then ran and grabbed her keys and ran out of her apartment. She could only hope that is really wasn't too late. She had to try and stop the man she loved. _________________________________________________________________________ Mulder's Apartment He had managed to slip the envelope under her door without being heard. As he stepped into his car it was exactly 10:21. Now, an hour later, he sat in his apartment with a knife in his hand. He couldn't live with the fact that he was a total failure anymore. He had let his sister be taken away, and also his partner. She was the only person he could trust 'And the only person you could really love.' his inner voice rang out. He had involved her in something she should never have been involved in, and had watched her suffer because of it. He simply couldn't stand it anymore. After she had emerged from her coma, he thought he would be okay. In fact, he was, until the anniversary had come. All of the guilt suddenly flooded and overwhelmed him. So, as he sat there, knife in hand, he said aloud, "Please forgive me, Dana. I don't mean to hurt you. Please just know that I love you and will never forget you." With that he took one last glance at the clock, 11:21, placed the knife in his left wrist and cut... _________________________________________________________________________ Scully's Car So many thoughts were running through her head. Her mother had told her that Mulder had blamed himself completely for her abduction. She had also said that he had completely lost it. They had talked it out after she woke up, and she had thought that he was over it. Apparantly she had been wrong. She drove as quickly as she could without going too much over the speed limit. She couldn't risk getting stopped by a cop. By then it could be too late. "Please, Mulder, don't do it. I don't blame you, so don't blame yourself," she pleaded out loud. She looked at her clock, 11:18. 'Only two more minutes and I'll be there,' she thought. She was having a little difficulty seeing because of the tears streaming down her face. Sheer will was what drove her on. She had to be in time, she had to be. Finally she arrived at his apartment. She ran from her car and up his apartment's front steps. She took the stairs because it was considerably faster. She glanced at her watch, 11:21. She arrived at his door and unlocked as fast as she could. If there was ever a record for how fast someone unlocked a door, she had just broken it. She plunged through the door and didn't see him. She paniced for a bit as she ransacked his apartment looking for him. She finally found him in his bathroom, his arm in scalding water, with a giant slash up his left arm. She cursed him for knowing how to slit one's wirst. Why couldn't he have tried cutting it the way they do an TV? That was gaurunteed NOT to work. She could only hope that his heart would soon slow enough to the extent that he would not loose very much more blood. As he was now, blood was pouring out of his left arm. "MULDER!" she screamed as she rushed over to him. "Mulder, NOOOO!" She quickly ripped off part of her blouse and wrapped it around his wrist as tight as she could. She reached for her cell-phone, dialed 911, and told the paramedics to hurry. "Everything's going to be okay. It has to be, it just has to be," she said, tears flowing even harder down her face. "I love you Dana," he managed to whisper. "I don't want to ever hurt you, remeber that." "You won't ever hurt me, I promise. Just hang on okay? I love you, so don't leave me. *Please* don't leave me," she pleaded as she ran her hand through his dark brown hair. She continued to run her hand through his hair and whisper words of comfort as he finally lost consciousness. The paramedics finally arrived, O Negative blood in hand, and wheeled him out of his apartment. _________________________________________________________________________ Georgetown General Hospital 1:43 a.m. Scully paced the tiny waiting room, doing just as the room suggested. They had wheeled Mulder to the OR about an hour and a half ago, and she was growing very nervous. All she could think about was what her life would be like without him. 'It would be nothing,' a voice inside her answered. Unfortunately, it was right. She had grown to love the hours she spent in their cramped office each day. She loved even more being out in the field working along side him. She loved all of his witty comments and sarcastic humor. What she loved most of all, though, was spending after work hours going to movies, renting movies, going to sporting events, or even simply watching TV. They didn't have that much in common, but, as they say, 'opposites attract.' Her mother had arrived and gone to the cafeteria is search of coffee for the two of them. It was shaping up to be a very long night. Just as she sat down on the little blue, plastic chair, the doctor arrived. "Hello, my name is Dr. Hall," he said extending his hand. Scully looked a little brighter because he appeared to have a smile on his face. She silently breathed a sigh of relief. "Dana Scully," she returned. "How is he?" "Well, we took him up and hour and forty-five minutes ago. We attempted to repair the vein in his wrist, but he went into cardiac arrest," As he said that her heart stopped. "However, we managed to restart his heart and eventaully repair the vein." Those words brought great relief to Scully, so she sat down and began to cry. "Dana?" Margaret asked as she returned, coffee in hand, to the site of her weeping daughter and young doctor. "Dana, honey, what's wrong?" she asked as she put the coffee down, put a hand on Scully's back, and looked for a clue in the doctor's expression. "He's going to be okay, Mom," she anwered, sniffling. "Actually, we won't know for another thrity-six hours," Dr. Hall interjected. "No," Scully said as she looked up into his eyes with confidence, "he is going to be just fine." _______________________________________________________________________ Thrity minutes later, after bickering with the young doctor, Scully was allowed to see Mulder. The minute she stepped into the room, she was hit with an overwhelming sense of deja-vou. Suddenly she was back in the military hospital in Alaska, waiting to see if Mulder was going to have jello for blood or not. She actually smiled at the mental picture she recieved. 'Good for you,' a voice, her voice, said, 'You need a little humor in your life. After all, the man you now realize means your life, universe, and everything to you, is going to be alright.' She sat down in yet another plastic chair and reached for his hand. She had just about grabbed it when he mumbled something. She was sure he hadn't mumbled 'true love,' so what was it? "My love," he mumbled. 'Close' she thought. "Yes? Mulder, I'm here. What do you want?" she asked running her hand through his hair again. "To know you are here," he answered,opening his dark eyes. A brand new smile, one that was quite rare, surfaced on her wary face. "Well I am. Tell me something, Mulder." "As long as it doesn't have to do with cooking or medicine." He replied, smiling a little. His voice was weak, but present. That was all Scully cared about. "Why didn't you shoot yourself. Surely you knew that you had a very little chance of actually killing yourself by slitting your wrist. You are an FBI agent. You do have access to guns." Scully asked. "Well, if I my phych major was talking, I would have to say something like 'It was becuase, subconsciously, I didn't really want to die.' If my real self were talking, I would say somthing like, 'It would be because I was too miserable to get up and get my gun." he answered seriously. "Oh, Mulder!" she exclaimed, crying yet again. "Scu...Dana, I know now that I didn't want to die. It was most likely a little bit of both," he quickly said, trying to comfort her. He changed his approach at the conversation. "Dana, promise me you'll never leave me." "Fox, I love you, and I will never ever leave you. Now. I want you to promise me that you will *never* pull a stupid stunt like that again." "You have my word as a gentlemen. But, becuase I may never be that..." His tone went from kidding to dead-serious. "I will never ever do anything like that as long as you are by my side." "I always will be, Fox. I love you.' Dana said, kissing his lips softly. "Dana, I love you too." _________________________________________________________________________ The End Well, there it is. I hope it wasn't all that bad. And feed back is most welcome. In fact I need to hear comments. I am not very good in grammar, so cut me little bit of slack there. Let me know if you want to see a sequel. Thanks.