Ahab's Funeral

by Trycee

Timeline: Season 1, episode Beyond the Sea, the Missing Scenes.

Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Files, this is written for fun not profit.

Mulder answered the phone at 2 am. For a moment, there was silence. "Scully?", he said, listening to his partner breath heavily.

"Mulder?", a small voice said.

Mulder sat up from the couch. "Scully, what's wrong?", he said, as his heart began to race. He hadn't heard from her during the entire day, it was Christmas, and as her new partner he didn't feel the right to invade her holiday in any fashion, not even with a friendly phone call.

"Mulder...", she said in a ragged voice.

Mulder jumped to his feet and grabbed up his gun. "What is it Scully? Are you okay?"

Scully breathed heavily as Mulder waited for a few intense moments. "Mulder, my father died...my mother just called..."

"Scully...I'm so sorry..."

"Mulder, I don't think I can drive to my mother's right now..."

"I'm on my way...Stay put," he said, frantically, hanging up on her as he grabbed his car keys, coat and raced to his door.

Within 15 minutes, Mulder was pulling up to her door. He looked up to her window and could see her silhouette as she stared out of the window watching him. He sighed as he looked up to her face, he could barely see her features in the dark and he wasn't sure if she were crying. Mulder wasn't sure he could handle seeing Scully cry. He stepped out into the wet street and walked over toward her window. He pointed in both directions, one way lead to the stairs or elevator up to her hallway and then to her front door and the other was her side door through her kitchen which lead straight to the street. When he pointed to her kitchen door she shook her head no feverishly. He nodded and then walked up the stairs. He knocked on her front door and when she didn't answer it, he pushed it open. He'd only been to Scully's apartment briefly within the past few months and he felt it was a little too personal to be coming during the night to her apartment. He liked Scully both professionally and personally...he thought she was definitely a woman he could see himself ending up with but it was clear that she was a staunch professional and he didn't want to jump into anything or push her and ruin what had quickly become a strong partnership between them. He'd done that once with Diana Fowley which had resulted in the quickest marriage on record and he didn't want to repeat his past mistakes with the beautiful red head. She was his partner and partner only, no matter what his dirty little mind could conjure up.

He chastised himself for thinking about her in this way, after all she was still standing at the window staring off into what, he wasn't sure. Mulder didn't say a word, he just stood in the doorway, waiting for her to make the first move. She finally turned around as if she were startled to find him standing there.

"I fell asleep in my clothes," she said, looking down at herself. She glanced over to the chair, the chair where she'd seen her father less than an hour ago, before her mother had called to tell her he had died.

"I better go change...", she said, turning toward her hallway that lead to her bedroom. "It'll be just a second..."

Mulder sat down on the edge of the sofa. He could hear her fiddling around somewhere down a darkened hallway, he didn't dare look around. He could see the Christmas tree still alighted but before he knew it, Scully had returned, dressed in sweat pants and had her overnight bag with her. He stood up and opened the door for her. She glanced at him briefly and then stepped out of the door into the hallway. Mulder locked the door behind him. He placed his hand on the small of her back and she didn't flinch which surprised him. He guided her down the hall and then out to his car. The hour drive was in silence to her mother's home. He had never been there so she directed him only speaking when necessary. Mulder kept silent, trying to allow Scully to come to grips with her grief in her own way. Mulder couldn't even imagine how Scully felt at that moment, though he figured she was still in shock. He had lost Samantha as a pre-teen and that lost had scarred him for life. Though the relationship with his parents , either one of them was non-existent, he hadn't lost them like Scully now had. His words failed him, he figured it was best to keep quiet. He didn't know what to say to Scully at that moment and he wasn't sure she would want him to speak.

He pulled up in front of the Scully residence. He could see a red headed woman appear in the doorway though he couldn't make her out. Scully turned to him. "Thank You Mulder...", she said, with a far-off look in her eyes.

"Scully," Mulder said, touching her hand briefly. "If you need anything..."

"I'll call you...," she said, cutting him off.

"I'll inform the A.D. Take as much time as you need...", he said, looking her directly in the eye.

She nodded and then turned from him, looking at the outline of the red head in the doorway. She sighed heavily as if she were trying to gather up her reserve and grabbed her bag, stepping out into the night and walked quickly up to the front door. The door opened and Mulder could see her and the red head embrace. A moment later the door closed as he sat there listening to the idling of his car. He then pulled off to head back home.

"Dana", Melissa said with sadness, hugging her younger sister tightly.

"How are you taking it, Missy?", Scully questioned, looking up into her older sister's eyes. Scully was holding in her tears well, just as she felt she needed too.

"I'm in shock...", Missy said, peeling the jacket off of Scully's shoulders.

Scully nodded and stood there a second with her sister. "Where's mom?"

"Upstairs, crying...", Missy indicated, pointing upstairs.

"What happened? What exactly happened to dad?", Scully said, dazed.

"I don't know," Missy said, wiping away her tears. "I just got here too a few minutes before you...Mom was at the hospital when she called us..."

Scully breathed with her shoulder's slumped. "He died here at home?"

Missy nodded and pointed to Ahab's favorite chair. "She called the ambulance when he didn't respond...they just got home from..."

"From my house...", Scully said as a twinge of guilt overtook her. She closed her eyes as Missy engulfed her in her arms.

"Dana...it's not your fault...there's nothing you could've done..."

"I'm a doctor, Missy...", she said, pulling from her sister's grip. "I should've insisted they stay the night...in my spare room..."

"You know dad wouldn't have gone for that..."

"Dana?", Maggie called out from upstairs.

"I'm here!", she said, glancing up towards the landing.

"Dana, up here!", Maggie cried out.

Missy grasped Scully's hand and they both walked up the stairs to their parents bedroom. Maggie's face was streaked with tears and she was still dressed in the same clothes she was wearing at Scully's home just a few hours earlier. Maggie sat on the edge of the bed, her hand covering her mouth as she tried to cut off her cries. "He's...He's gone...", she said, in between gulps of air.

Scully stepped over to her mother's side. She wrapped her arms around her mother as Maggie cried into her shoulder.

"Missy...Missy," Scully said, trying to her sister she knew was still standing just a few yards beyond. "There's Valium in my bag...Bring two..."

"I don't want to take anything," Maggie spoke as she tried to mask her tears. "My...My husband...", she said, turning to look at the empty side of the bed where William Scully Sr. would lay. "How can I ever sleep in this bed again?"

Within a few minutes, Missy had returned with two pills in her palm and a glass of water. Maggie accepted it and washed it down with the water. Missy helped Scully lay their mother down and cover her with a blanket.

"Does Bill and Charlie know?", Scully whispered, looking at Missy.

"She wanted me to call but I couldn't...", Missy said, kneeling down next to their mother. Missy eyes were filled with tears as she glanced over to Scully. "I'll stay with mom...you go ahead and call them..."

Scully nodded. She turned and walked down the steps. She grabbed up the phone and dialed her oldest brother first, Bill. After the sixth ring, a sleepy headed Bill answered the phone. "Mom?", he said, into the phone.

Scully could hear an unknown woman's voice in the background. "Mom?", he said again.

"Bill," Scully said.

"Dana?"

"Yes," she said, in a whisper.

"What's wrong?"

"Bill, I need you to come home...Dad died..."

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