AUTHOR'S NOTE: I do not own X-Files or the characters. This was written for entertainment purposes only.
(I dedicate this story to Melissa. Thank you for giving me the idea for this story and inspiring me to write one-shots when they are so difficult for me. Sorry it doesn't have smut... but I hope you like it anyway.)
~*o*~
He sat there in the near-darkness, staring at the wall. He felt like his life was over, and in many ways, it was- looking for his sister had been his life for so long. Now she was gone. Samantha Mulder was dead. He'd never see his sister again. His heart was broken.
"Mulder, I got here as soon as I could," Scully said as she walked in the door. "I heard about Samantha... and I'm so sorry."
"They found her bones in the woods near my childhood home," Mulder said dully. "My sister is gone. I'll never see her again..."
"I'm so sorry," Scully repeated as she didn't know what else to say. She took Mulder in her arms and she held him. And as her arms banded around him, he finally let the tears surface. They rushed down his face like raindrops, helping to cleanse him of his pain.
"All this time, I thought we would find her... but now I know, it was only a dream. It's nothing more than a nightmare that I can never wake up from. My sister is dead," Mulder stated.
"I know that it hurts, Mulder... but now that you know the truth, you can move on. You will no longer be driven to search to the ends of the earth and beyond so relentlessly. Samantha is gone... but she's at peace now. Just like Melissa."
Mulder looked in Scully's eyes and he knew she spoke the truth. She would know of the pain he felt, because she too had lost her sister. When Scully lost Melissa, it had almost broken her, but as time passed, the pain had become less raw. She was now able to speak her sister's name without bursting into tears.
"Thank you, Scully," Mulder said as he brushed his lips against hers. He knew she'd comfort him as no one else would. She was always there for him... more than anyone else and he trusted her.
"When will it stop hurting so much?" he quietly asked.
"I don't know," she replied honestly. "Grief has no time-table. There are going to be times when it's really going to hurt, like her birthday... or the anniversary of the day she was taken. But with time, the pain begins to ease and you'll learn to live with the loss. One thing's for certain, things will never be the same."
"No, it won't be," Mulder agreed as his lips made contact with hers again. He was lightly sipping at her skin, tasting her sweetness because it helped dissolve his pain.
"Are you okay, Mulder?" she asked as he picked her up in his arms and carried her toward his bed.
"I will be," he answered as he lay her down against the pillows and stared into her eyes. "I'm ready to live again."
She wrapped her arms around him as he joined her on the bed. "Hold me?" he asked quietly as he melted into her embrace.
"I'll stay as long as you need me," Scully promised.
"I think I might need you forever then," he whispered before burying his face in her hair. Inhaling her scent, he was lost. He had found the perfect balm to ease the pain of his sadness. He had discovered it in Scully's arms.