The mist of the seas had suddenly cleared, and Mulder was there to see it. Out of the deep blue came the Queen Anne, sturdy and strong; even with electricity. And when Mulder got close enough, he boarded the ship. After his experiences on the ship, he somehow lived to remember what he went through; even after the ship had been destroyed, as Scully told him it had been. And he swore he remembered that Scully had been right there on the ship with him. Only, when he questioned her of this, she only told him he was delusional. Typical response. But Mulder knew he'd stumbled onto yet another X-File. As usual, Scully didn't believe it, and he knew she couldn't believe until she could get her hands on some kind of evidence. Meanwhile, all was as normal as could be in the X-Files department.
It was a beautiful spring day in Washington, DC. With the sun shining off of the numerous reflecting pools scattered about, the weather made for a perfect April 13th. At least, it would have been perfect had Mulder and Scully not been stuck inside FBI Headquarters doing fieldwork. For weeks, things in the paranormal division had been relatively slow. In turn, they had been stranded for weeks helping other agents in various branches of investigation finish up last-minute cases. Scully performed background checks and filed information while Mulder gave his insight on cases and searched for further information on them. Fieldwork was definitely Scully's least favorite thing to do.
"Hey, Scully?" Mulder called to her from behind his desk. He was looking intently at his computer screen, which was turned just out of Scully's view from her desk. From where she sat, he appeared to be very content with what the screen was displaying.
"Yeah?" she answered in an uninterested tone, figuring he'd just dug up more "information" on yet another UFO sighting. Besides, she was swamped with her own work; she didn't need Mulder's typical 'I want to believe' theories and daydreams. She glanced up at that preposterous yet all-too-familiar poster of his.
"Take a look at this." he motioned for her to look at what he was looking at on his computer screen. Slightly irritated, she rose from her desk with a sigh, sauntered over to his desk and looked at the screen with him.
"All right, what am I looking at?" she questioned him, pursing her lips in disappointment. She was, however, somewhat satisfied with what she saw. At least it wasn't an alien abduction web site or a UFO sightings chat room. But what she did see puzzled her.
The screen showed something resembling a map or a grid. It was completely blue except for a few pale white lines: 6 running vertical and 6 going horizontal. Also, it appeared to have just the edge of The United States on the far left hand side of it, and in the upper middle section, it had Ireland and Greenland. There were two points with their coordinates written next to them on it. But the coordinates were in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
"You're looking at the exact location where the RMS. Titanic sank, Scully." he answered, motioning to the points on the grid. When she didn't reply, he continued, "Exactly 88 years and one day ago. She struck the iceberg here, and sunk right about here, 3 hours later." he finished after turning her attention to the points on the grid once again.
"Yes, Mulder, I know what happened to the Titanic. Why the sudden interest in it?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. And then she saw it. He got that look in his eye; that familiar look he got whenever he was about to tell her something he knew she wouldn't like, but would eventually amaze her in the end.
"For 7 years and counting, on this very night, people from all across the Atlantic Coast have been having visions. Visions of themselves and those close to them being on the actual Titanic just before it sank. All of them were believed to have had out-of-body experiences, but they were never heard from again."
"I don't recall anyone being killed from an out-of-body experience that took the victim onto a ship that sunk 88 years ago." she countered, looking at him doubtfully. "'Sunk' being the keyword here, Mulder," she added with a grin.
"Now, call me crazy, but I think--"
"You're crazy, Mulder."
"That's not what I was hoping to hear."
"That's not what I was hoping to hear either, Mulder, but that's not the point. The point is, is that unlike you, I need some proof, some shred of evidence to remotely believe that UFOs or little green men have been accused of re-sinking the Titanic itself for 7 years." Finally she let it out. She figured she'd save them both a lot of time if she just put to rest the idea of investigating this case, if you would even call it that. After all, she knew where he was going with this: he would somehow link it to the government or extra-terrestrial activity or something of that nature. She'd just saved him the trouble.
"I never said anything about little green men, Scully. But if that's what you're suggesting, you've been working with me too long." he countered, returning the grin to her. He loved to play with her skepticism; she did, after all, have so much of it to give. But then again, he thought to himself, that's sort of what made Scully...Scully.
Apparently, she didn't take the joke the same way Mulder had intended it. Disgusted, she sighed and replied, "I'll see you on Monday, Mulder." He answered with the same to her reply as she wearily sauntered out of their office and into the hallway. Mulder continued his work on his computer, listening to Scully's high-heeled shoes as they clicked their way down the tile hallways until she reached the elevator, where they disappeared.
Mulder opened up the files of the seven victims and read each one of them individually. They didn't really seem to have many similarities amongst them. One disappeared in the middle of the night with no sign of warning, struggle, or abduction. Another vanished during a power outage at her office along with three of her co-workers. One of the others had disappeared while out fishing one afternoon. He just couldn't grasp the common ground of the matter. He knew there was some connection as there almost always was. He just had to know where to look.
By the time Scully had driven home and returned to her apartment, it was almost eight o'clock. As much as she hated to admit it, what Mulder told her at the office was starting to make her think. He must've seen something she had overlooked when he told her about this case. But what? Something had caught Mulder's eye and his instinct as well, and she actually wanted to know what it was. Realizing where her thoughts had taken her, she scolded herself for even considering this case. It wasn't even a case!
She sighed and changed into her nightclothes, then got into her bed. But as she was falling asleep, her thoughts flew again to Mulder. As a matter of fact, she wondered what he was up to right now.
He jammed his key into the door of his apartment, unlocked it, and went inside. All was normal in his untidy apartment, and for some odd reason, he liked to keep it that way. He took off his coat and tossed it over the back of his sofa. He got ready for bed, then laid on his couch as he began to fall asleep. He filled his mind with thoughts and explanations of the case he'd researched on. He had to admit, he seemed to be going nowhere, fast. Eighty-eight years, seven unexplained disappearances, and, if the pattern continued, at least one more mystery would be added to his list. One more victim would be claimed tonight. Just the thought of knowing someone was going to be killed at any moment upset him because he couldn't do anything to stop it. He was a federal agent, trained to respond in life-threatening situations, yet this one he was powerless to stop. It was utterly disturbing to him. He almost thought about calling Scully to try to convince her that what was happening wasn't something to overlook. But he decided against it, figuring she was asleep already. And in a short time after that, he fell asleep as well.
Both had subconsciously fallen into their own dreamless sleep. All seemed to be normal, as Scully had suspected. That is, until she woke up on April 14th, the very next day.
Since it was the weekend finally, Scully allowed herself to sleep in that day. When she did awake, she didn't feel as rested as she hoped she would be last night. Figuring there was no harm in trying to get a little more shut-eye, she kept her eyes closed and turned her head away from the sunlight pouring in through her window. She laid there for a short time, then it hit her: something was different.
By this point, she decided she was too troubled to be able to go back to sleep. She frowned, eyes still closed, as she tried to discover what made her feel so out of place. Sighing, she sat up in her bed and wearily opened her eyes.
She shrieked in surprise at what she saw, and was about to obtain her gun had she not taken a second look. There, asleep next to her in the same bed, was none other than Mulder. She stared at him as he woke up, jaw dropped, wide eyed and disbelieving. He slowly opened his eyes as well, and when he saw Scully, he had a similar reaction. Bewildered, the two stared at each other for some time before reacting.
"Scully.." he managed to say to her after the initial shock wore off. "What are you doing here?"
"What am I doing here? What are you doing here?!" she demanded. Her eyes swept over the room they had awoke to. "Where are we?!"
The room's walls were made of chestnut wood and carved intricately to every detail. It wasn't a small room, but it had a lot of chestnut furniture to match the wall tapestry. There was a grandiose fireplace on one end of the room, matching everything else. The carpet looked brand new, as did everything else in the expensive-looking room.
"I think we're on the Titanic, Scully." Mulder answered her finally.
"Mulder," she protested. "We can't be on a ship that sunk 88 years ago. You know that as well as I do." With that, Mulder got up out of the bed and walked over to a closet near the entrance to the bathroom. "What are you doing?" Scully asked him as he opened the closet door and took out a full tuxedo.
Holding up the tuxedo to himself, he grinned and asked, "How do I look?" She just stared at him. His reasoning, which Scully didn't understand, was that he was brought to this ship--the Titanic--and he was simply going to play along until he discovered the explanation for all the chaos. Meanwhile, he rationalized with himself, he was going to have some fun. Seeing that Scully was still thoroughly unimpressed with him, he turned back to the closet, and this time extracted an enchanting sky blue dress. He walked back over to her and handed it to her.
"Mulder, if you think that for one second I am going to--"
"Come on, I really do think there's something to be discovered in this case. Please?" he cut her off. When he saw she was finally beginning to consider what he was asking her, he grinned and said, "Just go with it, Scully." and with that, he laid the dress down on the bed beside her. She reluctantly rose from the bed, carrying the dress with her, and walked into the dressing room as Mulder walked to the bathroom to change as well.
"You see, Scully, there's a perfectly good explanation as to why we've been randomly selected to go back eighty-eight years onto the Titanic itself." he rose his voice slightly so she could hear him.
'We are NOT on the Titanic, Mulder!' she said to herself. Figuring she wouldn't fight him, she replied in an inattentive tone, "You've got an explanation?"
"Well, I'm working on one," he answered. Scully rolled her eyes at that comment. He continued, "I'm thinking that you and I were brought here to grab onto just a portion of the truth. That somewhere in this mixed-up time-traveling experience we are to endeavor together, we'll learn something new that has impact on the X-Files. We've just got to be ready for it. And I think we need to interact with the people on this ship to the point where they trust us and can accept us as one of their own. So are you with me on this, Scully?"
For once, she was actually considering what he was saying to her. There was something in his voice that she seldom heard. It was just one of those times. One of those times where she knew this was something he needed her to be with him for. And hesitantly, she would 'go with it' just this once. "Yeah, I'm in." she answered finally.
Mulder had his tuxedo on by now, and he stepped out of the bathroom to see how well it fit him. He walked over to a full-length mirror which was stationed in one corner of the room. He uncomfortably tugged at the white bow tie around his neck and shook the discomforting sleeves of his tuxedo jacket down into place. 'Maybe first class isn't quite as luxurious as I expected it to be,' he thought as he looked himself over in the mirror one more time. "Hey Scully," he called as he turned to face the dressing room. "Are you ready..." his voice trailed off when he saw her.
She had just emerged from the dressing room, and her sapphire-blue daydress looked astonishing on her. It was a low-cut off-the-shoulder dress, but she also had a silk shawl that hung delicately over her pale shoulders. Being an old-fashioned dress, its waistline seemed unusually high, near the middle of her ribcage, and the body of the dress flowed gently all the way down to her heels. It was made of the finest silk and had the most intricate detailed flower designs patterned with tiny off-white pearls. And as he suspected, the sky-blue brought out her eyes like nothing else could. He couldn't help but smile at her. But he didn't expect the sight of her to make him lose his train of thought.
"Mulder?" she said, snapping him back to reality. "Are you ready to go?"
"Yeah." he grinned as he walked over to the door leading to the hallway. He opened it, ushered Scully out before him, and shut the door behind both of them.
They both walked side-by-side down the first class hallway, passing closed doors identical to their own. As they passed other first class couples, Mulder nodded to them as a greeting, and they each nodded back to them. As if taking notes on how to be a first-class passenger, Mulder offered Scully his arm, and she linked hers with his, just for show.
Finally they were about to emerge from the long corridor. There were extravagant glass double doors leading to the upper class deck and two doormen opened them simultaneously when Mulder and Scully arrived at them. 'Oh my God,' Scully thought to herself when she saw the view. 'I don't know how or why this happened...but we are on the Titanic.'
The massive ship swept across the vast blue sea with ease. The decks in front of and beneath them were golden brown and shining clean. On their deck, couples leisurely walked, nodding to those whom they passed. On the deck below them, some second and third class passengers laughed and danced about while others leaned far over the railing, memorized by the churning ocean. As they gazed out toward the morning horizon, all they could see in front of them were billows of the Atlantic. It was like a dream.
Mulder and Scully continued to walk along, more than disbelieving what they were actually seeing. Granted, Mulder had wanted to believe they were given a free ticket aboard the Titanic, but he was still awe-inspired. After what seemed like hours of walking around on the decks, they finally just stopped to enjoy the view.
"Mulder," Scully finally said with an amazed smile on her face, "What is going on?" He took the obvious hint that she was asking how they could possibly be on the ship, when all the skepticism she could muster up told her to believe the opposite.
But before he could attempt to answer her, another couple walked by them, but this time, they stopped to speak with Mulder and Scully. "Good day." the man said to Mulder, then nodded to Scully. "It certainly is a lovely day for a walk on the boat decks, is it not?" he continued.
"Oh, most definitely." Mulder, answered, mocking the man's politeness. There was a brief pause of silence before Mulder continued, "Forgive my manners! This is--" he almost introduced her as Special Agent Dana Scully, but luckily he caught himself. "Ms. Dana Scully, and I'm.." he questioned his real name. 'Fox' didn't exactly sound classy enough for this couple. "David Mulder." he lied. He held back a laugh when he saw the look Scully flashed to him before greeting the couple.
"This is Ms. Katherine d'Bough, and I am Mr. John Jacob Aster. It is a pleasure to meet your acquaintances." the man answered formally. Scully looked stunned. She didn't know if Mulder knew or not, but they were speaking with the single richest man on the entire ship. "M'lady and I," he nodded to Ms. Katherine, referring to her. "Were just off for a tour of the boat decks. Would you be so kind as to join us?" he offered.
"We would be obliged." Scully answered before Mulder got a chance to. She wasn't about to miss an opportunity like this one. Katherine and John walked ahead of them, and when Mulder offered his arm to Scully, she grabbed ahold of it, pulling him down close to her. "Mulder!" she said in a frantic whisper. "Do you have any idea who we were just talking to?!"
"An old boyfriend?" he joked, only to receive a 'look' from Scully.
"That was John Jacob Aster. *The* John Jacob Astor! He's the richest man on the ship! I--I can't believe that was truly him! I just can't believe it!" she whispered as she finally settled down, took his arm, and began to walk behind them.
"Welcome to the RMS. Titanic, Scully." he grinned, then returned his line of sight to straight ahead of him. Scully grinned for a moment until it finally registered to her what he had said. She turned her gaze back to him briefly, as if to do a double-take, still not quite believing where they were.
They all leisurely walked about the boat decks, marveling at the ship's size and capacity. 'David and Dana' hadn't expected to, but they really hit it off with them. They talked literally for hours, mostly mindless chatter about the things most acquaintances of first class would, and time eventually got away from them. The time had gotten to be about 3:00 in the afternoon when they ended their tour of the ship near the captain's lookout. They took a quick look inside, and shortly after lingering nearby, Katherine and John returned to one of the endless first class parties.
Mulder and Scully investigated slightly further, however. They peered inside the wheel house when no one was watching them, trying to gain some bearings on where they were. Mulder looked over to the numerous controls on the panel by the steering wheel. He spotted the direction they were heading (Southwest), their exact location in coordinates, and other free-hand notes written on loose-leaf paper. His eyes wandered back to the coordinates, and that's when the striking truth dawned upon him. Titanic will sink. Tonight.
He could hardly think. This incredibly sturdy and luxurious ship would be at the bottom of the Atlantic in about 10 hours, and no one even suspected it. Shocked by his own ignorance, he turned to Scully, but when she questioned him about the stunned look on his face, he turned back to look inside the window of the wheelhouse door again, without answering her.
When the first mate that was steering the ship left momentarily, he made his move, Scully following. He walked over to the steering wheel and looked down at the control panel he'd observed earlier. He was right about the coordinates, and he frantically searched through some of the hand-written notes beside them. One said that the captain had lit the last engine boiler, meaning the ship was already going at its maximum speed. Another said that they were expecting to arrive at their final destination the morning before they were expected. The last one declared a warning to all mates on board the ship to keep an eye out for icebergs, because they were becoming more and more abundant according to the direction the ship was heading. Mulder called Scully's attention to the last one immediately.
After reading it aloud quietly, she looked up at Mulder, fear in her eyes. "Mulder," she said, "We have to do something about this." she walked quickly to one of the rooms adjoined to the wheel house, looking for someone to show the message to, but Mulder stopped her before she found someone. "We have to get someone to wire a message to ships near us that we need help or something." she told him.
"Scully, how are we going to convince anyone that this ship is going to sink? This ship was built and is believed to be unsinkable. We can't just tell someone that we need immediate assistance because in about.." he checked his watch. "Nine hours, this unsinkable ship will be at the bottom of the Atlantic. They'll never believe us."
"I don't give a damn whether anyone believes me or not!" she replied, trying to lower her voice. "Mulder, we have a chance to make history what it--what it should have been. And I can't stand by and let all these innocent people die when I know I could have prevented it! Now are you with me, or not?"
"Okay, but we have to hurry." he answered her. They walked into the room with all the telegraphs inside of it, and Scully sat down at one of them. She put on the headphones next to one of them, and began to tap out her message to anyone nearby who was there to listen. "That's impressive, Scully!" he commented on how easily she tapped out her Morse Code message. "Did your father teach you that?" he asked. She nodded, not stopping her code. Finally, she took off her headphones and angrily put them down on the table as she turned to Mulder.
"It's no use. No one's there to answer me. They're all just too far away to detect the radio waves sent from us." she explained. "The only one I could reach, the Carpathia, can't be here until morning. When it's too late."
They exited the wheel house and disheartedly returned to the boat decks. They both rested their forearms on the railing and looked over into the ocean. Mulder stared into the churning ocean that would eventually consume the lives of most of the people on the ship. Then he saw a single teardrop fall from beside him and plummet silently into the ocean. He turned to Scully, and sure enough, she was crying. Still turned to the ocean, he could see her eyes were shut, though a look of pain still inhabited them as another teardrop began to fall from them, into the ocean. Without saying a word, he gently turned her toward him, and hugged her. They had both fallen silent, unable to express how they felt through words. Instead, they just embraced each other, feeling that if they let go, they would have nothing.
"Mulder," Scully finally said to him quietly. "There's nothing we can do. And if we're going to die on this ship--." Mulder pulled away slightly to look at her.
"We can't just give up that easily." he answered.
"But we can't change what will or will not happen. If we do die on this ship, I want know if there is indeed a lesson to be learned from this experience. And we have to learn it. It could be the very lesson that will save us." she continued. Mulder was amazed at how stoic she was being. She stared death in the face and refused to give up. He admired her for thinking that way, and so he followed in her path.
"Okay, if that's what you want to do." he said. They went back to their room and changed clothes for dinner, figuring that's what most first class people were doing right about then anyway. Scully changed into an even more extravagant dress than she had on before. This one was the same basic style, only this one was a deep royal green with off-white sewn-in abstract designs on it; much more formal than the last one she had on.
Again, they exited their room and walked down the corridor towards the familiar double-doors. They walked side-by-side again, arms linked, eyes forward. Everything appeared to be the same as it was before, but wasn't. They were silenced by the murky thoughts of what was to come that seemed to be drifting above them. They approached the glass double-doors once again, and they were opened for them again. This time, the sun was expected to begin sinking into the ocean in about an hour, and in about seven hours, the ship they were aboard would sink from beneath them as well. All they could do was wait.
Mulder and Scully found their way to the first class party room. Once again, a door was opened for them, and when they passed through it, they were amazed. Everything was made out of a light chestnut wood: the beautiful, grandiose staircase, the clock at the top of the staircase, and the sculptures at the bottom of the staircase. They walked down one side of the staircase, and were amazed again when they looked above them. There was an enormous stained-glass dome above them which was lit up by the light blue sky. It was truly a breath-taking room, complete with the light sound of a small orchestral band drifting through it.
Finally they reached their dinner table, and realized they were seated with John Jacob Astor, his mistress, and the ship's designer, Mr. Andrews. They greeted each other politely as usual, and they began yet another conversation.
"Mr. Andrews, you designed this ship yourself?" Mulder asked, just to make conversation. "It's truly a grand ship indeed." He'd picked up the 'first-class lingo' pretty well during his time spent on the ship so far, he figured with a grin.
"Ah, that it is." Mr. Andrews answered. "And I thank you for saying so. I carefully designed her from the keel up so she would be the most grand and sturdy ship possible." he added. Scully forced herself to say nothing.
"It certainly is sturdy!" Mr. Astor said, holding up his glass of white wine for a toast. "To The Unsinkable Ship!" he said as everyone at the table raised their glasses along with him. Reluctantly, Scully raised hers, as did Mulder.
After guzzling down most of the glass of wine, Scully placed her napkin back up on the table. "Excuse me," she said quietly before rising from her chair and walking quickly for the exit of the dining room. Mulder knew there was something wrong, even if no one else could sense it. He excused himself as well, and exited the room.
Mulder walked back up the opposite side of the staircase he'd come down before and went out the door toward the boat decks. There he found her. The sun was now setting slowly, streaking the sky with deep crimsons and yellows and splattering shimmering color onto the ocean's surface. Scully was standing where they were standing earlier, blocking the sun from Mulder's view. He watched her for a moment as the sunset spilled around her dark frame, trying to think of what to say to her. Finally, he walked up to her.
"Scully, I want you to know that--"
"Mulder, everything I know," she cut him off in a frustrated manner and turned abruptly to him. "Everything I've learned, everything I've studied is--is telling me that this entire situation is--impossible. That it can't be happening. And yet here we are, standing in what we believe to be reality, but can't possibly be real!" her eyes filled with tears as she studied his face for an answer. "Mulder, I just don't know what's real anymore. There's nothing that I can come to grips with that tells me what to believe and what not to. I'm--I'm just..lost."
He looked down at her, his hand gently caressing her cheek to comfort her. "Scully, you're a survivor. You have always been. You always will be." she looked up at him, her teary eyes growing a deep, mournful blue; the color the night sky had become since the sun set. "I want you to know that you will live through this. You're going to get into one of those lifeboats, and you will survive. I promise you that. No matter what happens, we're in this together, right?" She nodded silently.
They looked into each others eyes as if to find an answer lying beneath them. Instead, they inched closer for what seemed like an eternity, and met with a deep kiss. They both closed their eyes, as if to wish that single moment would never end. Mulder's hands timidly found their way around her waist near the small of her back as the kiss deepened slightly. Scully didn't realize it until the kiss began to break, but her arms were cautiously around his neck, where they were when she hugged him before. Finally the kiss ended, but instead of moving, they just stood there and looked into each other's eyes again, not wanting to let go of the one thing they were certain was real.
All of a sudden, they heard a loud harsh scraping sound as the decks beneath them shook. Taken off-guard, they were split from their stance. Scully was thrown backward until she caught herself on the railing behind her and Mulder caught his balance before he fell backward himself, away from Scully. Once they caught their balance, more quick shudders trembled the floor beneath them, but this time they kept their balance. They looked up at each other, alarmed that it had actually happened. They both looked over at the iceberg that hit the deck below them as massive chunks of ice fell onto the deck beside it.
Frantically, they both ran down the stairs leading to the second deck to get a closer look. Leaning far over the deck railing, they saw it. It was a glacier-like iceberg which now had a small potion of it missing where the ship hit it. They watched the berg as they slowly floated away from it, almost as if it had never happened. Mulder and Scully turned to each other, dread in their eyes. Mulder was about to speak, but they both turned when they saw Mr. Andrews briskly walk past them both, with what looked like rolled-up blueprints. Scully took a step toward him to talk to him when he neared them, but he walked quickly by, as if he hadn't seen her. They followed him, and when he entered the wheel house to meet with the captain, they stood close enough so they could hear what they were saying.
"She can stay afloat with the first four compartments flooded, but not five. Not five." they recognized Mr. Andrew's light Irish accent as he spoke desperately to the captain. The captain muttered something back to Mr. Andrews in a low voice. "An hour. Two at the most." he answered him.
Scully panicked, for once in her life. She grabbed Mulder's arm, and they ran frantically down the nearest flight of stairs leading to the lower decks. They ran down the stairs and found themselves in a narrow, more simple looking hallway than the one they'd been in before. There were already a few inches of rising seawater on the carpeted floors. They finally came to the end of the hallway, only to discover that it continued on to the left and to the right. Scully went right and Mulder went left, and they started banging on people's doors and telling them to get onto the ship's upper deck with their lifejackets on as soon as possible. They'd gotten their message around to everyone on the lower deck by the time the water had risen to just above their ankles, so they went to the next deck, suddenly putting others before themselves.
Once they got to the deck above where the water level was, they saw that the ship's crew had already warned most of them to get up and get their lifejackets on. Then Scully saw something that really frightened her: the crews of the ship were hurriedly locking black metal gates over the doorways that lead to the upper decks. No one could get off of that floor of the ship until all the floors above them had been emptied. Mulder and Scully both ran towards one of the only remaining open doorways, and luckily got out just before someone came to lock it as well. Then Mulder realized that all the people they'd just warned on the bottom deck would soon be locked in as well. They ran back down to the lowest deck and were discouraged to see that the water level had already risen to just above knee level. People were running every which way, carrying luggage and their children, trying to speak to each other in foreign languages, and trying to find the stairs to get to the decks of the ship. It was complete and mass chaos. It was even worse when the mates of the ship began to lock those horrible iron gates over the thresholds. Mulder and Scully had just turned around to go back out the doorway they'd just come in only to find that there was a black gate blocking their way out.
"Oh God, Mulder!" Scully cried when she found no way to open the gate. Finally she gave up and said to him, "There has to be another way out! Stay here and I'll go look for another door." Mulder would have protested, but before he could, she was on her way down the stairs and into the hallway which now had so much murky water filling it, the water level had risen almost up to her chest. She waded through the icy waters unwillingly until she was out of Mulder's view.
Scully waded through the freezing cold water as fast as she could. She turned one corner, then another, and another. She slowly realized she seemed to be heading downhill, the wrong way, because she was going the way the ship was sinking. The water kept rising higher and higher until she couldn't even reach the floor anymore. She now had to swim through the empty solitary halls with only the sound of her tired panting echoing off the hallway walls. There was no other door she could find, and she was getting too tired to swim anymore. Finally, she headed back the way she came to make sure Mulder was okay, only to find that she was lost. Lost in a ship that would sink in a matter of hours with her trapped inside of it. She frantically swam to the end of the hallway she was in. She neared the corner, hoping she would be able to find someone or something that could help him. She held onto one of the pipelines lining the ceiling and swung herself around only to be met face to face with Mulder again.
"Mulder!" she yelped in surprise as she lost her grip on the pipeline and went under the rising water level. She came up immediately with a tired gasp after she went under and held herself up on Mulder's shoulder.
"You all right, Scully?" he asked her after she caught her breath. She nodded, then explained to him that she couldn't find another exit anywhere on this floor. "I think I know where one is." He answered. "This way." They headed the way Scully was already going before she ran into Mulder.
They swam until they got to where the water level hadn't risen as high yet. Finally they found a few flights of stairs and quickly ran up them. They were completely soaked in seawater, making everything more difficult to do because they felt so weighed down. Eventually they found themselves in the first class hallway. They ran down the hallway, bumping into people and continuing on without excusing themselves only to leave the passengers behind, stunned at their rudeness. They reached the familiar double-doors again, and without waiting for the doormen to open them, they kept running as they threw open the doors and finally reached the deck.
The once calm and soothing decks of the ship were now cluttered with chaos. Mass crowds of people were running all mostly in one direction: away from the deepening water. They were all carrying anything they could including family members and luggage and blankets. One woman was about to climb into one of the lifeboats being lowered, but the incline of the deck became too steep, and she slid, screaming, all the way back down the deck and into the icy water. Mulder and Scully's eyes both darted to a flare that was shot up from the deck beside them. It soared high into the air, lighting up their eyes with the sparks it set off.
"We gotta move, Scully!" Mulder cried over the loud yells of the crowd and crew members. He pulled her along with him, holding tight to her hand as they fought through the fury of the crowds. They climbed steeper and steeper up onto the ship, climbing over the debris left on the decks. Then they saw it: one lifeboat that was just about to be lowered half-full. They ran over to it quickly.
"Do you have room for two more?" Scully asked the crewman that was lowering the boat.
"Women and children only. Come aboard." he shouted over the raucous noise on the ship. Without saying another word, the crewman grabbed Scully's hand and forcefully began to pull her onto the boat. Scully tired and tried to jerk her hand away from his as she spoke, but couldn't.
"No! Wait! Can't you make room for him to come, too?!" she cried to the man, but received no answer. "Mulder! Mulder, I can't leave!"
"Scully, you have to. I'll get on the next one." he yelled back to her.
"No!" she said, then turned back to the crewman. "Let go!" With a violent shake of her arm, she freed herself from the man and walked back to Mulder. Turning back to the crewman who looked at Scully in utter confusion, she pleaded silently for him to let both of them get into the boat, but he ignored her and continued to lower the boat.
They watched the boat as it lowered until they could no longer see it over the railing. Without warning, a thunderous cracking sound split through the air. Mulder and Scully had no idea what was happening. The sound continued as if to repeat itself over and over again, like tree trunks splitting in half. About two feet away from where Scully was standing, the deck boards splintered and broke in half. Then they remembered: the ship was being broken in two. The pressure from the flooded part of the ship was putting too much stress on the center of the boat, and eventually, the rest of the ship became too heavy to stay afloat with the rest of the ship. They both grabbed onto the deck railings as soon as they could and held on for dear life. Horrified, they saw countless people being pulled into the cracks in the decks where they later fell to their death.
All at once, the flooded half of the ship finally let go. Scully held her breath as the rest of the ship plummeted back down into the water, crushing the people in the water below them. They seemed to fall for forever back to the ocean, hearing the massive sounds of the creaky ship as it dove down to the water below. Mulder and Scully both braced for the impact they would endure when the ship finally hit the ocean again, but they didn't expect it to be as bad as it was. Caught off-guard, they both along with everyone near them were thrown violently into the freezing waters below.
Under the water, all they heard were people's muffled screams and desperate thrashing to stay afloat. Finally they surfaced and found each other, determined to stay together until the Carpathia came to rescue them; if they could hold on that long. Neither of them had life vests, and the water was freezing cold. It was so cold, it felt like the time Mulder had rescued Scully from Antarctica, only even worse this time because they didn't know if they would ever make it back to Washington, DC.
They swam away from what was still afloat of the ship and watched hopelessly as it sank from under the people still on it. More and more time passed, and the desperate screaming that came from the crowds in the dark, frigid ocean had died down substantially. Scully and Mulder were still treading water, and Scully tried her hardest to hide the startling truth from herself: that she would very likely die of hypothermia at any moment.
"I'm too tired, Mulder," she said, shivering so hard she thought she might be sick. She was also out of breath from treading water for about 15 minutes so far, as was Mulder.
"Don't worry, S--Scully." Mulder answered, his voice shaking and weary. "They're coming. I know they're coming." They were silent for a few minutes longer, and they both decided to float on their backs to give their legs a rest.
Slowly, Scully felt her legs go numb, then the rest of her body seemed to become paralyzed in the wintry waters. She knew what was happening to her; it was what she knew would happen when she began to suffer from extreme hypothermia. She could do nothing. All she could do was stare blankly up into the dark sky that was now splattered with hundreds of visible stars. A silent tear streaked down her face and dropped into the water beneath her.
The sky stood, unmoving for what seemed like hours, but was only minutes. Then, something seemed to change. As she stared blankly at the sky, she noticed that the stars were getting bigger...and the sky was getting lighter. It was changing so slowly that she could barely distinguish the difference. The black and white both grew to be the same shade of gray, then to pure white. She saw nothing, felt nothing, heard nothing. All there was to her was white. ************
The phone rang, and her eyes sprung open as she shook her head in frightened surprise. She was out of breath from being jolted awake so quickly, and her eyes bolted around her familiar bedroom until she finally realized where she was. She was alive.
Without waiting to catch her breath, she sat up ruggedly, grabbed her phone, put it up to her ear and answered with a startled, "Hello?"
"Scully, it's me." It was Mulder, of course. She sighed in relief, surprised at how much she longed to hear his voice again. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Why do you ask?" she frowned.
"You just sounded sort of startled; that's all." he suggested.
"I'm fine..I just had the stangest dream!" she smirked, thinking how Mulder's Titanic case had really gotten to her head.
"Yeah, that whole Titanic thing is quite a rush, huh?" he laughed.
"What?"
"That wasn't a dream, Scully. We were there, you know. You remember that out-of-body experience case I told you about? Well, that's what happened to us. Both of us." he answered.
"..Okay, assuming this was an out-of-body experience, why is it that we are the only ones involved with the case to live through it?" she scoffed.
"You mean you still don't believe it actually happened?" he paused, but Scully was too dumbfounded to answer. "But you saw it. You lived through the sinking of the Titanic. Why is that still so hard for you to believe?" she was still too stunned to respond. Mulder laughed, "I'll talk to you later, Scully. Hang in there." They hung up.
Figuring she had to get as much closure as she could, she got dressed and went over to Mulder's apartment. She got out of the elevator at the end of the hallway leading to his apartment as a rush of cold air blew onto her. She shivered slightly, wondering if Mulder had his air conditioner working overtime or something. She walked down to the end of the hallway and knocked on door number 42, Mulder's apartment. He answered not long after she knocked, figuring those were her familiar footsteps coming down the hall.
"Hey, Scully." he said as he always did when she came over. She stepped inside and another shiver ran through her as she found that it was even colder in Mulder's apartment.
"Why is it so cold in here, Mulder?" she asked, holding back another shudder from the wintry air.
"My air conditioner's gone crazy on me. I'm having it fixed in a couple hours." he answered, walking over to his closet.
"Yeah, if you don't freeze first." she joked, then folded her arms over her chest to keep warm.
"Here, put this on. It'll keep you warm." he had a mischievous grin on his face. From his closet, he pulled out something light blue and threw it over to Scully, who was still standing by the doorway. She caught it, looked down at what it was, and was bewildered at what she saw. There, in her hands, was the exact same sky blue shawl she'd worn on the Titanic. Unable to respond, she just looked up at him, her eyes nervous.
"You recognize it?" She nodded slowly. "Sometimes in order to see, you have to believe, Scully." he stated, completely sure that was the lesson they'd learned while on the Titanic. "I know it's hard for you to believe." he said gently, walking over to her. "But I know one thing that did happen while we were on the ship." he finished, taking her hand gently and staring down into her eyes. She looked back up at him, both remembering the kiss they'd shared on Titanic. Slowly, she shook her head, her eyes filling with tears.
"Mulder, I'd better go.." she said quietly. She obviously remembered the kiss. She couldn't deny that it had happened, but she seemed to be able to deny their being on the ship. She found herself torn between which she believed to be real, and how real Mulder was to her. She took a step back from him, but she seemed unable to leave him. His eyes pleaded with hers not to go, so she didn't. Instead, all at once, she closed her arms around him in a warm embrace, just as they had done on the ship. "I do believe, Mulder." she whispered gently to him, then closed her eyes in silence.
The End