Title: The Truth Is Not Enough Part4
Author: Dana_Maru
Summary: Scully reflects on life years after her family leave her behind

Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah, Mulder and Scully, etc aren't mine. There I said it!

23rd February, The Year 2064

Today is my 100th birthday. Yet I do not look any older than I did the day I turned forty. You see I am cursed with eternal life. I am cursed to watch all those I love die before me. First it was William, turns out they did know he was visiting me in Scotland. They sent one of their men onto the same plane he was going home in. Suicide bomber, apparently. /the explosion sent Mulder careering off the road, spinning into a passing lorry. Only Kiara and myself survived that crash. I suppose I could have let at least one of my loved ones live longer. But I couldn't bear to give them the curse I have. Kiara died last year - she was only sixty. And the only one to know of my eternal torture. My heart has been constantly ripped to shreds. If I could die, watching Mulder and the twins' lives wilt before my eyes, would have killed me. Instead, it broke my heart, and soul.

I am working in a hospice. And a man is very close to meeting the loved ones who died before him. It is a burden having to continue to forge documents to keep people from finding out. But I suppose one day, just like Mulder and I did to that man so many years ago, someone will discover me. I am no longer Dana Katherine Scully-Mulder, now my name is Diane Caterina Scullion. Not much different, but I don't want to elope too far from the old me and it's enough to keep me under cover.

I long for the day death will find me. Sometimes I even find myself wishing Mulder and I were still going on wild goose chases. But if he had lived, he would be 104 by now, and he would have ages - unlike me. Making it impossible for us to continue our old ways.

I could not pass on my curse to my family; I did not want to be the reason for eternal suffering. I was once strong, but living so long and seeing so much heartache has broken me. Cancer all those years ago made me realise I did not fear death as I thought I did. I even opened up to it, wanted to die. Now it's like I have the cancer again, I am willing God to take me before I suffer too much. I am weak. In body, and in spirit.

Beep. Beep! I read the message on my pager: "He hasn't much more life in him and he is asking for you." The man from the hospice is almost gone. It's time to make the decision. Well, it's not a hard one to make. He has no family to speak of, therefore he cannot watch them die. And I long so much to be with my family again. I think it's time I got rid of this curse.

I am sitting by his bedside now. The other hospice workers are outside and Shaun is grasping my hand.

"I don't want to die." He tells me, "I'm still relatively young! Why did He choose me?"

That made my decision a whole lot easier.

"Shaun ... I want you to close your eyes. Do not let death come to you. Let it take me."

"What?! No! I can't do that to you!"

"Please, Shaun. I have lived too long already."

"How can you have lived too long? You're only ... forty!"

"That is what I have led you and others to believe. In fact I am not. Let death take me."

He nodded and gasped as he glimpsed his first sight of death. It was approaching - and fast.

"Close your eyes. Now!"

He closed his eyes tightly and I turned to stare at death. It stared at me as I continued to glare into those eyes. And at last, death took me.

I am climbing. Climbing higher and higher. To white open space. Clouds. I am climbing a rainbow staircase to the clouds. Is this Heaven? As I climb higher, a Golden Gate is revealed to me. And standing at the opening of this gate are people, people who have died long ago. I see Tooms, Modell and a lot of the other people - if you can call them that - who we have investigated over the years. I hear my name.

"Yes, I looked at the list just a minute ago. Diane Caterina Scullion - aka Dana Katherine Scully is scheduled to arrive in ... um," he looks at his watch - "now."

I looked toward the voice to see AD Walter Skinner facing a groups of people I once knew. My mother is on his left, with her arm looped in his. They look so happy together. Melissa, Bill and Charlie are there. Surely I must be dreaming? My twins are there, looking no older than the fifteen years they were when our car crashed. And Kiara, looking like a nine-year-old again. How that works out I don't know! William looks up at me and nudges the others so they all turn round to inspect the latest and final arrival to their family. I am enveloped in a group hug that would have suffocated me if I were not already dead!

It is so good to be back with my family again. Each and every one of them are here to greet me. Apparently, my mother is now Margaret Skinner. She didn't get round to telling me that before the Syndicate caught up with my new father-in-law. My family takes it in turn to embrace me. At last, I see Mulder's face amongst the crowd. He is standing a little away from me, his arm around the real Samantha. His arm drops to his side and he walks toward me. He pulls me toward him. Kisses my forehead, his lips travel down my face, touching my nose and resting on my own lips.

"It's so good to see you! Kiara told me about the 'curse', I thought I'd never get to see you again!"

"I didn't think I'd get here either! But turns out there was someone who didn't want to die."

"Just a pity I can't send my thanks to him until he figures out how to get here."

I smiled and we turned back to the family. It truly is paradise here. Eternally together as one big happy family, in acres of clouds and rainbows and the expanse of stars around us.

Yes, this is Heaven. And I am going to love every minute of being dead!

~*~THE END~*~

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This is definitely the end of The Truth series. I'll be very grateful if you leave a review.

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