Set just after the final moments of "The Truth".
Disclaimer: All rights to the X-Files goes to Fox and the production companies.
Maybe there's hope.
Scully can't believe it. She can't believe the beauty in this one, imperfect moment.
His arms are wrapped around her tightly and his face is buried in the crook of her shoulder as he snores softly. She smiles when she hears the familiar sound. She had only now realized just how much she's missed it during their time apart.
She tries her hardest not to think about that small era of her life—goes out of her way to keep herself from dwelling on those memories. They're just too painful for Scully to think about, and so she blocks them from her mind at every opportunity.
Mulder mumbles something in his sleep, and she carefully rubs her fingertips down his arm in an attempt to soothe him.
He sighs, and murmurs her name as he falls back into a deeper sleep.
Scully wishes she were more like Mulder. She wishes that she was able to sleep as easily as he could after a day like today. She wishes that her mind didn't race over the events from earlier, and that she wasn't frozen with fear with the idea that the door to their motel room could crash open at any moment. But most of all, she wishes that she didn't ache to hold the one family member that was still missing from her life. Though she suspects Mulder wishes that, too.
She feels her chin wobble, and pulls Mulder's fingers to her lips. No; she would refuse to think of William right now.
"Scully?" His chest rumbles against her back, and she smiles weakly.
"I'm awake," she whispers.
"What's wrong?"
She feels the pad of his thumb swipe under her eye gently, and is surprised to discover that she's been crying. "Oh nothing. Nothing. I'm fine."
But it's too late to hide her obvious distress, and Mulder pulls away so he can look down at her. "You're still a terrible liar." He smiles at her boyishly in an attempt to cheer her up, and frowns when it doesn't work. "Dana, what is it?"
She sniffs. "I'm sorry, it's just…" She looks down at her hands. "This is really happening, isn't it?"
He knows exactly what she means. "Yeah, it is."
Scully's face crumples as the force of what's really going on hits her square in the chest. "I can't ever see them again, can I? My family."
Mulder cups one side of her face with his hand. "You don't know that. We might be exonerated one day."
She sniffs and leans into his touch involuntarily. "You're a terrible liar," she repeats, and is rewarded with a hollow smile from him.
"Am not," he murmurs playfully, and then leans in to kiss her cheek.
She smiles slightly, and pulls him down for a proper kiss. He wraps her up protectively and rewards her with a soft caress across her lips that leave her with that warm feeling trapped just above her heart.
"There's always hope, Scully," Mulder whispers as they pull apart. "You and I should know that better than anyone."
Scully searches his face for something. She doesn't quite know what it is; all she knows is that she needs something to believe in, and right now he's all she has. And maybe, for now, that's all there needs to be. Maybe for once in her life she doesn't need to know all of the answers. Maybe it's enough just to lay here and be held by this man—this extraordinarily ridiculous man whom she has fought so hard and so long for.
Maybe it's enough.
"Mulder, how can you believe that? After all this time; after all we've seen…how can you still believe in a world where people like you and I will walk free?" Her voice breaks over the words you and I, but she refuses to acknowledge it. Refuses to allow everything that has happened to them to break her down in one, fast swoop.
He swallows, and she watches his Adam's apple bob. She's unable to tear her eyes away even though all she wants to do is look anywhere else. Mulder doesn't speak as the seconds go by; he simply holds her and plays with the soft strands of her hair. So she waits, and she keeps her eyes fixed on him.
"How can you not?" he finally counters.
Scully blinks at him, taken aback. The question isn't accusatory. Mulder's tone is soft and his face is simply full of questions. He honestly cannot understand how she doesn't see the same world he does—has never understood how she can't see it that way, really.
She purses her lips carefully as she thinks over her next words. "Because there are always going to be people in charge that would gladly do away with people like us. If you look at the evidence—"
"Exactly," he interrupts her. "You're absolutely right. There are always going to be those few people that would rather the truth be kept hidden away, and people like you and I be destroyed. But you know what, Scully? Those people are becoming outnumbered, and that's why I believe that, one day, they'll be overpowered."
Mulder watches her closely as she thinks over his words. She can see that familiar gleam in his eyes that she's come to recognize as the part of him that will never give up on any challenge.
Scully smiles ever so slightly. "If what you say is true, if such a world could really exist…do you believe that we'll see him again one day?"
He is quiet for a moment, and she can feel her chest squeezing her heart. His face is unreadable as he brings his hand up to tangle his fingers in her hair. His lips gently fall onto her cheek.
"There's always hope," he murmurs against her skin.
And for now—in the space of this tiny, imperfect moment—that thought is enough for both of them.