TITLE: "The Better Way" (1/1)
BY: Ten
E-MAIL ADDRESS: kristena@ocean.com.au

CATEGORY: V, MSR
RATING: PG
SUMMARY: What if Mulder had come back to Scully at her
apartment, instead of into the standoff at his apartment?
No Skinner around to distract from the moment or
expression of feelings...
TIMESPAN/SPOILER WARNING: Set during "The Blessing Way",
spoilers for "Anasazi".

DISCLAIMER: The X-Files and the characters of Mulder and
Scully belong to Chris Carter, Ten Thirteen Productions
and Fox Broadcasting, and are used without permission. No
copyright infringement is intended, no profit will be
gained.


X-Files: "The Better Way" (1/1)
by Ten, Jan 1997


Scully paced her sitting room. She had come back from
William Mulder's funeral. Hopefully she would not have to
soon attend another.

She had to hold on to the certainty of that dream. But
where was he? She looked at the vial on her coffee table
and shuddered. Too much was happening.

Wandering aimlessly towards her bedroom, she heard the
knock.

His knock.

The sitting room shot past in a blur. Wasting no time
with the peephole she wrenched the door open.

Mulder stood there, dressed in exactly the same clothes
she had sent him to the boxcar in. His expression was of
aching happiness and relief.

Was he a ghost? A vision like of her father? Did she care
at this moment?

He went to speak but she was on him, showing amazing
strength; her hug squeezing the air right out of him.
Scully heard this, and a mingled gasp of joy and pain.
His arms wrapped around her and he rested his head in her
hair.

Would a ghost feel this real? "You're alive, you're
alive..."

But a clone would feel real. A double would.

She pulled back enough to study his face, put up a hand
to run along his cheek, to feel and test and search for
surgical scars, to gaze into those eyes.

"It's me, Scully."

"I want to believe that." She pulled at his shirt,
opening buttons in a frenzy, then pulling the material to
his left, off his shoulder. There was the healing wound.
It wasn't make-up.

Thank God. He was real. He was back. He was safe. Her
hand was resting on his bare skin, tracing over it. Then
they were kissing passionately.

She heard keys jangling and both turned to see one of the
other apartment dwellers coming down the hallway. They
blinked and blushed, realising they were still half out
in the hall. The elderly man raised his eyes at the
spectacle, then gave a half grin, "Ah, so you do have
more of a life than me, young miss. I was worried."

"Excuse me, Mr Duven - ah, you can see him?" She was
being irrational, she knew.

"Yes... You're not having a dream. I could be, but that
water bill I just got seemed real enough. Word of advice
though - if you're going to undress him, best do it on
the other side of the door. Worked well enough for my
generation downwards...well, until all that outdoors
nonsense with Woodstock..."

"Thank you," Scully laughed, dragging Mulder inside and
shutting the door. There she immediately hugged him
again.

"I went to your father's funeral. I told your mother you
were going to be okay." she murmured, half into his
shirt, half into his skin.

"How did you know?"

"I just knew."

"You seem to know a lot about me, Scully."

"I do."

His gaze got even more intense. "Then you must know..."

"I do."

"And do you...?"

"I think you know me well enough for the answer."

They kissed again.


THE END.


(Author's note: I had called this one "Paperclip Rebent",
but finally twigged that although I was changing the
Mulder/Scully  "Paperclip" reunion, I had set it during
"The Blessing Way"... Damn, I liked that title too...)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Ocean Internet - "The Quality ISP"
http://www.ocean.com.au/info.html