From: "Heather Horn" Date: Sun, 28 Jan 2001 21:16:53 -0600 Subject: Story Revisions Source: revision Title: "The View from the Veranda" Rating: PG Author: Heather Horn Category: MSR, SkPOV Original Post Date: 07/27/00 Summary: Skinner's thoughts on the relationship between his two most devoted agents. Spoilers: "Requiem" Distribution: Anywhere and everywhere. Please keep my name attached and tell me where you are putting it. Thank you! Feedback: I would truly love to hear what you have to say about my work. I am always looking for ways to improve my writing, so please send your comments to heathabear@hotmail.com. Thank you! Disclaimer: "The X-Files" is copyright Chris Carter, 1013 Productions, and The FOX Network. No money is being made from this. No copyright infringement is intended. Author's Notes: Thanks to my wonderful teacher, Jennifer Fox - I am eternally grateful of you and I remain forever in your debt. Thank you for everything. Thank you to my magnificent editor, Marie Endres, for all of your hard work, kind words, and input. Marie, you are the best editor anyone could possibly ask for. "The View from the Veranda" (1/1) By Heather Horn "I'm pregnant." I blinked behind my wire-rimmed glasses, taken aback. I swallowed sourly, clenching my jaw as I tried to let it all sink in. "Is it - is it..." I could not finish the sentence, but I didn't have to. She bit her lip and nodded quickly, glancing up at me for a reaction, then quickly back down to her hands. It was a gratuitous question, albeit it contained necessity. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to absorb everything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours. My old buddy, Krycek, was back. Mulder had been abducted. I had seen a UFO. Scully was no longer barren. Scully was with child...Mulder's child. I had been their supervisor for a very long time, so long that I can hardly remember a time when I was not screaming at Mulder for his off-the-chart expenses for seemingly pointless investigations or nagging Scully for a plausible explanation. I watched them in the way that a father watches from the veranda as his children play Hide and Seek in the yard while the sun sets behind them. Sometimes I would join in the adventure, whether it was voluntary or because they each grabbed an arm and pulled me up from my chair until I could no longer refuse. From the sights I have seen, one might say that they were friends, best friends with the highest respect for each other. This is entirely true, but I have always had the slightest sense that there might be something behind it. Something that made me wonder if I was crazy, or if others saw it too - Mrs. Scully, or the Gunmen, or that Cigarette-Smoking bastard that people like to call a "man". At first I felt bad about profiling my most dedicated agents, but there were enthralling signs along the way, subtle but present. Not even a minute after Mulder awoke in the hospital with a gunshot wound to his head, he was bounding out the door on a search for his other half. He has climbed mountains, literally, for this woman. He has trespassed, beaten, and arguably killed for Scully. He would do anything to get to her; anyone and anything in his way could consider itself road kill. Then there is Scully, whom I partially expected to catfight Diana Fowley at the hospital last year. Oh, the lengths that she has gone to for Mulder. She applied her science time and time again to save his believer behind, sacrificed her heart more times than you could count on both hands and feet to make his beat again. She has dug through the depths of Africa, helped to conceal his "death"; she even kissed me once! The things she has done to pull through for that man. She always has, and there was not a single doubt in my mind that she would not be able to do it again. I wiped the stern look from my face, releasing much of the tension in the room. Then I put my hand on her shoulder, and gave her a crooked half-smile, which was all the smile that anyone could ever get from me. "Congratulations, Agent Scully." THE END Thank you for taking the time to read my story, I hope you enjoyed it! Please send all of your comments - kisses and flames are both greatly appreciated - to heathabear@hotmail.com. Thank you very much! You can find all of my fan fiction and much more at my website, Mulder + Scully = True Love http://mstruelove.tripod.com