This is for the X Files revisited contest on Tumblr as apart of Octoberficfest.
Disclaimer: I don't own the X Files.
Triangle Revisited
What if Mulder never got out of the Triangle?
The water was ice cold and he hit it hard. It felt like running into a brick wall. He could see 'not Scully' above him shouting for him and trying to throw the life preserver his way. He didn't want to see this version of Scully he wanted to see his Scully.
The blackness took over him and the last thing he saw was 40s Scully running back inside.
The first thing Mulder heard was Scully's voice yelling for him to breathe and he felt her mouth pushing air into his lungs. He coughed up some water and opened his eyes and saw that it wasn't Scully who had saved him. Well it wasn't his Scully, it was the Scully from 1939.
His eyes were glazed but as soon as he was breathing she pulled him toward the life preserver.
She put it over his head and continued to tread water with one hand on it.
"Help!" She screamed desperately.
He shivered in the cold water. It didn't seem like anyone had heard her calls and he wondered if this was how it would all end.
That is why he was very surprised when he saw a face lean over the side. It was the German officer who looked like Skinner that helped them as they were escaping.
"Hold on!" The man shouted down and disappeared for a moment.
"Scully?" Mulder croaked out.
She ignored him and watched for the man on deck. He reappeared and threw another life preserver over the side.
Not-Scully pulled it over her head and turned to Mulder to make sure he was still conscious, "Hold on."
The officer pulled her up first. It took some time for him to pull her up until she finally reached the guardrail and pulled herself on deck. They then pulled him up together with some effort.
It was slow going but eventually they had pulled him on deck and laid him out. He was still struggling for breath. The woman was shivering so much she could not even talk and the officer noticed this. Mulder noticed that she was in her undergarments and he realized that she must have taken off her evening dress so she would not get tangled in the water.
"I will go get blankets." The not Skinner offered and went to look.
Mulder had no idea where he was planning on finding them but he hoped he was quick about it.
Mulder was still coughing up water.
"You're not Scully." He said stating the obvious and put a hand on her arm. He was shivering as well and he wished that he could take her into his arms.
"I don't know who that is."
"What's your name?" He asked.
"Dawn Shannon. Yours?"
"Fox Mulder."
"Weird name. Ok Fox, why the hell did you throw yourself off the side of the boat?" Her words were choppy as she shook with cold.
"I needed to get back to her." He started to move closer to her and she scooted away.
"And you thought that jumping into the water would get you there?"
"I don't know. I mean, that is how I got here."
She shook her head but said nothing. They sat in silence for what felt like forever before the German officer finally returned with two blankets.
He laid one over her shoulders and put the other one over Mulder.
"Who are you? Why are you helping us?" Dawn asked him suspiciously.
He looked at her tiredly and spoke with a German accent, "I am a spy for the U.S. government. You two are American and were being chased by the Nazis so I helped."
She did not seem convinced but let it drop and put out her hand, "Dawn Shannon."
"Walter Sturmer" He said as he shook it.
"Is the fighting still going on inside?" Dawn asked as she wrapped the blanket tighter around her.
"It seems so but when I was in there it looked like the crew was winning. I am planning on trying to help as soon as you two are safe."
"Help me get him to my cabin. I need to find the man I was assigned to protect."
Mulder felt a wave of tiredness come over him and found that he couldn't stay awake.
When he woke up he was in what he assumed was Dawn's cabin. It was small but cozy. He saw her standing in a small closet dressed in more sensible clothes.
"Thank you." He said startling her slightly.
She turned to look at him with fire in her eyes, "That was a stupid move. We both could have died."
He paused for a second and thought how much she sounded like Scully, "I know. I'm sorry. I just need to get back."
"You're crazy you know that?"
He nodded at her. "So I've been told. By someone who looks a lot like you, actually."
"I need to go find the man I'm protecting and get the crew to turn this ship around. Don't move. If you jump again I'm not going in after you."
She was out the door before he could respond.
Mulder was terrified. He had no idea what to do next so he decided to start by taking off his wet clothes.
He hung them on a towel rack in the tiny bathroom and wrapped a towel around his waist. He went back to the bed and wrapped a fresh blanket around his shoulders.
As he warmed up he tried to process his surroundings. Considering that he arrived here in the water he'd thought it was a relatively safe assumption that that was how he would get back.
Mulder knew that Scully had to be searching for him and felt guilty that he had put her in this position. He was always letting her down; it makes sense that he would die letting her down.
He lay back on the bed and tried to think of what to do next but quickly fell back asleep.
When he opened his eyes next Dawn was sitting on a chair near the bed reading. She looked up when he stirred but said nothing.
"So it's not a dream." He said flatly.
"I wish." She said, "They turned the ship around but now we don't have any course. It feels like we haven't moved at all. We are trapped. Is this what you had in mind?"
He tried to gauge her mood. Her crossed arms, narrowed eyes, and pursed lips told him it was hostile, "I don't know what I had in mind. I just knew we could not leave the triangle."
"You either have a screw loose or you are a Nazi." She said evenly.
Mulder chuckled, "Your modern counterpart thinks the same thing."
"What that you're a Nazi?"
"No that I am crazy"
She sat back in the chair with a huff but kept her posture closed off.
"Who is the woman I remind you of?"
He swallowed and felt a pang in his heart, " She's my partner; my best friend. I'm not from this time. I'm from the future which is where she is and you are nearly exactly like her, Scully."
"That's the name you keep calling me. I think that you need to see a doctor and get your head checked. I'm gonna find you your own room. I want to sleep."
"Where is the scientist? What about the Nazis?"
"The Nazis are being held below and the scientist is safe in his room."
Mulder sighed in relief.
The first few days on the boat were full of excitement as they all tried to figure out what was going on. The ship would not move no matter what they did and after they exhausted all of their options three small crews embarked on lifeboats with supplies for a couple weeks in hopes of finding help.
It was so strange. Logically the ship should have run out of food and water weeks ago but it was like everything in the triangle was in status. He wondered if they would be stuck there forever.
Mulder found it hard to sleep and had taken to writing down his experience in the form of a journal to Scully. He would write out his feelings to her and tell her about the day and dream of the future. The journal was filling fast with his harried words and dried teardrops. As time went on he tried to adjust to the idea that this was life now.
Agent Shannon was sharp as a tack and outspoken. She reminded him a lot of Scully but she seemed to lose her cool easier. During the day she would be doing anything from making repairs on the ship to teaching some of the school age children math.
Dawn was pretty different from Scully, though some things were the same. He kept track of these in his mind. Like Scully she never wanted to show weakness. She seemed to be more willing to believe him, though, which may have been due to the fact that the evidence for them being stuck in the Bermuda Triangle was pretty damning. Then there were more subtle differences like how Scully smelled like vanilla and mint but Dawn smelled like roses. Dawn reminded him of how Scully was when she was first assigned to the X Files. When she let herself relax she had the most beautiful smile and a laugh that made his blood pump faster.
At first she avoided him like the plague when they were not trying to find solutions but after a week Mulder could not handle the loneliness and tracked her down. They had taken to walking the length of the ship back and forth and talking for hours. He told her stories about his time and the X Files that made her laugh in disbelief. He didn't talk much about Scully, Dawn seemed to feel uncomfortable when he did.
They were on the ship for three months before he and Dawn kissed.
Dawn kissed him on a pretty night when he found her standing on the deck of the ship alone. Her hair was down and blowing in the wind. Her hair was much longer than Scully's and hung down around her waist.
When he saw her face he saw that she had been crying. He took her hand but she pulled it away.
"I don't need any comfort." She said not looking at him.
"I didn't say you did. Maybe I do. Thinking about your family?"
She nodded, "With me here my mother will be all alone. She has no one else. She will never even know what happened to me."
She rested her chin in her hands and looked up at the stars, "I suppose you miss your friend."
"I am mostly worried that she is out there looking for me and that she will never find me."
"Do you love her?" This time she looked directly into his eyes and he got a chill down his spine.
"Yeah and I never told her. I might never get the chance." Mulder had given this a lot of thought. He'd wondered if she knew anyways, he hoped that she did.
Dawn surprised him by putting her hand to his cheek and looking at him with kind eyes.
Before he knew it she was kissing him.
This was different than their first kiss. The first kiss was rough and desperate and ended in a punch, this kiss was soft. He felt her smile against his lips and was shocked when he felt her tongue run softly over his lips. He shivered and wrapped his arms around her waist. In return she put hers around his neck and pulled her body against his.
Mulder knew that this was just an emotional reaction and he fully intended to pull away until she bit lightly on his lower lip. As soon as she did his mind was elsewhere.
She was wearing an A-line skirt that went past her knees and a white blouse that covered her shoulders and arms and as they continued kissing Mulder was desperate to get under them.
He began to pull her blouse out of her skirt when she pulled away. He closed his eyes for a moment and braced for a punch but she just took his hand and began leading him away.
Mulder knew she must have been taking him to her bedroom. The walk was not long but it was long enough for his mind to work and wonder if Scully tasted the same. He felt guilty. He felt like he was cheating on Scully even though he had never even kissed her.
He was distracted again as they got to her door. His mind was telling him to leave but other parts of his body were begging him to stay.
All thoughts left his head when she pulled him into her cabin and up against the wall. She took charge which was very fitting for her. He wondered if Scully would be that way.
He pulled away while his mind was still working.
Her face was flushed and her lips looked well kissed. She was not wearing makeup and her hair was windblown. She looked beautiful and for the first time when he looked at her he was not seeing Scully, he was seeing Dawn.
"You are thinking of her?" Her eyes were sad now.
"No… Well yes but not in the way you mean."
She didn't give him a chance to explain as she turned away from him and put her defenses up. Regret filled him as he found that he did want to kiss her, not as Scully but as Dawn. Mulder felt pulled in two directions as the two women became separate in his head.
He put his hands on her arms, "I mean that I felt some guilt that I was kissing another woman. Not that I…" He trailed off not sure how to finish the sentence.
When she turned around there was a slight fire in her eyes. It was a fire that he had come to recognize as hers, "I am not Scully. I may look like her and sound like her but I am my own person!"
"I know." Mulder responded quietly and tried to convey this to her with his eyes, "it makes no sense. Scully and I were never together in real life but I feel almost unfaithful having feelings toward another woman."
He saw a flicker of something in her face but she hid it quickly, "Well it doesn't matter. Sex doesn't always have to mean anything anyways and we have no idea how long we will be stuck here. We might as well enjoy ourselves a little."
She was deflecting but it still hurt Mulder slightly.
"I don't think you really mean that." He said and she avoided his eyes, "I know who you are. You are Dawn Anne Shannon, you were born in 1904 and had a brother who died of the flu. You never knew your father because he died in the World War. You can fix a car probably better than I can and you can swear like a sailor. You're favorite color is emerald green and you love The Wizard Of Oz which you have seen three times since it came out."
She pulled him back into a kiss and he could feel the tears on her face again.
They made love twice that night and afterwards they just held each other.
"I told you about my family, tell me about yours." Dawn said as she traced patterns on his chest.
"My dad was killed a few years back but my mom is still around. At least she is in my time. I had a sister but she was…" He didn't want to delve into the story of Samantha so he kept it simple, "she died when I was young. My mom and I are not close, my only real family is Scully."
She was quiet when he said that.
He broke the silence, "Why did you join the OSS?"
She rolled onto her back and looked at the ceiling, "I wanted to go to war and do something. My father died in a foxhole, a hero and I didn't want to sit at home and wait for it to come to the U.S. so I offered up my services. This is my first solo mission. They thought it would be easy which is why they sent a woman. I was excited to prove them wrong but it looks like that won't happen."
"You've kept him safe and away from the enemy, that was your mission."
"I suppose. So in your time does America get involved in the war?"
"Yep. In 1941."
"Do the Nazis win?"
Mulder shook his head, "But if they ever got Thor's Hammer they might have. Your mission is more important than you realize."
She sighed, "Do you think we will be stuck here forever?"
"Maybe. At least we have food. Who knows someone might come across us at some point."
"Hopefully before we all go crazy."
"Hopefully."
The sound of heavy pounding on the door startled both of them and Dawn grabbed her robe and ran to the door.
Mulder stayed where he was but could hear that it was the Skinner look-alike.
"Miss. Shannon an American boat has appeared! We need you on deck. I tried to find Herr Mulder but he was not in his room. I believe one of our lifeboats was successful!" Walter sounded out of breath and hopeful.
"Thank you Jesus. I will find Mulder you go back on deck." She closed the door and came back in with a smile, "Looks like we're getting out of here."
Maybe the X Files could be opened a little earlier this time.