Mulder Residence
Washington, D.C.
April 2nd, 1979
2:47pm

"Phoebe wants us to meet her at someplace called 'Beyond Beyond' in Craiger."

Mulder said, as he walked back into his bedroom, after talking to his best friend from back home in Martha's Vineyard, but who was also currently in D.C. on holiday with her family.

Gimble (the only friend he had made since moving to D.C) was sitting on the carpet floor, his back against the edge of the mattress, looking through some Star Trek books that he didn't own... yet.

"Dude, I can't believe you screwed that up. She's really cool... and hot" Gimble looked up, and waved his left hand around, confused by his best friend's lack of skills with the fairer sex.

"Uh, thanks! Come on, we better leave now"

Mulder snatched up the keys to his Gremlin from off his desk and a leather jacket from the back of the chair and walked out again. Gimble scrambled to his feet, grabbed his wallet that had obviously fallen out of the back pocket of his jeans when he sat down an hour ago off the floor, and followed him.

"Dude, slow down!"

Beyond Beyond
Craiger, Maryland.
April 2nd, 1979
4:21pm

Dana and Melissa were crammed into the small booth behind the constantly ca-chinging cash register of their favourite hang out spot 'Beyond Beyond'.

Missy had dragged Dana there after school one afternoon, about a week after they moved to Craiger. She had gushed about Corinda and Sunlight the whole time they walked there that first time, and that hadn't really changed in the months since. She was always learning something new or having another insightful conversation with the co-owners about Meditation, or about what certain types of crystals helped with what.

As the name suggested, it was a spiritual, new agey store and café that sold various religious trinkets, candles, incense, tarot cards and spiritual books, and it also held Meditation and Enlightenment classes in the back rooms. Dana and Missy attended Corinda's Meditation class every Tuesday night.

Dana blew across the top of her tiny homemade, tie-dye ceramic tea cup and quickly sipped the hot jasmine tea that she had ordered while Missy was busy looking around and talking to her new friend and co-owner, Corinda.

Melissa slipped her recently purchased crystals from a brown paper bag that she had bought earlier and begun playing with them. She had been talked into buying a blue aragonite, a purple amethyst and a black onyx.

"Corinda says that the amethyst..." Missy held the crystal up, twirling it in her delicate fingers" is for balancing your chakra and curing nightmares and insomnia."

"Uh huh, that's nice."

Dana wasn't paying attention. She had a tendency to zone out when her sister started to talk about the more way out there aspects of this stuff.

Meditation was one thing, but healing crystals? Dana wasn't so convinced.

"Doesn't this one look awesome? It's a black onyx, helps to get rid of stress! And this one, this one is my favorite... it's an aragonite, for calming and soothing the soul. It's so deep, Dana!"

"Maybe you should grab one for Charlie" joked Dana.

Their youngest brother, Charlie, was constantly wired and on the go. Sometimes they would joke that he couldn't possibly be a Scully. They both laughed.

Suddenly, they heard the welcoming bell above the door tinkle loudly throughout the store as some new patrons entered the store.

"Whoa..." Missy craned her neck and watched as a tall young man with floppy brown hair and green eyes walked in.

She watched, as the young man tried to help his friend untangle from the beaded curtain that covered the doorframe.

"What? Who is it?" Dana slid across the dark maroon leather seat and peeked her head around the wooden back of booth.

"I don't know. I've never seen him before..."

"Why are you freaking out then?"

"Look at him!"

"I'm looking at him, Missy. Geez!" Dana huffed.

"He's SO cute!"

"Which one?"

"Seriously?" Missy shook her head, sighed and rolled her eyes at her naïve younger sister "The tall, gorgeous one... of course!"

Dana looked at him harder, trying to see what her older sister saw... and felt something inside her body click. She didn't know what it meant but it made her feel really weird, like she had a thousand butterflies in her stomach.

Missy "accidently" knocked the black onyx crystal off the star and moon pattern tablecloth covering the booths wooden table as they walked by, causing the young man to bend down and pick it up for her, giving her the perfect opportunity to introduce herself to him.

But the young man handed it to Dana instead. Mulder was in denim jeans, a white tee covered by a black leather jacket and converse sneakers. Their fingertips touched, just for moment, and Dana pulled away when she realized.

"She can be so clumsy sometimes, sorry. Thank you for picking it up for us, it was really kind of you..." chuckled Missy, as she slinked out of the booth. Dana rolled her eyes and stood up too.

"No problem" he said, tearing his attention away from Dana and giving Melissa a quick smile.

The young man reached out a hand to Dana, in an effort to introduce himself. Dana was wearing black leggings, an oversized beige colored sweater and brown leather lace up boots.

"Mulder. Hi..."

Dana looked down at his hand surprised, and then back up at his smiling face for a moment and shook the young man's hand.

"Dana... Scully. Are you kidding?" Dana laughed.

Missy slapped Dana on the arm, staring daggers at her before returning her attention back to Mulder and giving him a forgiving smile.

"What?"

"Your name can't seriously be Mulder"

"Well, no. Technically my name is Fox... but I'd rather you called me Mulder"

"Ok. Mulder it is!"

Dana spent the rest of the exchange staring directly at his broad chest and shoulders (he was really tall) and trying to stop the butterflies from escaping out of her mouth

"Hello. Ignore her..." Missy pushed in front of the shorter red head "she doesn't really know how to talk to people"

Missy extended her hand to Mulder. He shook it very briefly. She was more forward than he would usually like and the younger red head was more intriguing to him.

"Gimble" Gimble smiled widely, at the Scully girls.

"These nicknames are a thing with you guys, huh?" declared Dana, looking up at Mulder and then down and across at Gimble. Mercifully, he was her height.

"Yeah. Sorry. I mean, you can call me Gary if you want. That's my name"

"Nice to meet you, Gary"

After a short silence, and a lot of intense staring between Mulder and Dana, they said their farewells. Missy and Dana slipped back into their booth and Mulder and Gimble sat at the cozy table a few feet away and to the left of them, waiting for Phoebe to show up for their meeting.

Gimble was reading a well-worn copy of 'Stormbringer', while Mulder gently kicked at the antique metal stand holding the table up and eating sunflower seeds from his pocket.

Sunlight watched from the doorway of his private room in the back of the store, where he held one-on-one Transcendental Astral Projection sessions with special customers.

About twenty minutes later the bell above the entrance jingled again.

As much as she didn't want to be, Dana was intrigued and watched on as Mulder's and Gimble's eyes went towards the new arrival. Missy's attention was on the girl from the moment she heard the door open, sizing her up and calculating her dwindling chances with Mulder.

It was Phoebe.

She was wearing a light denim skirt, a grey and blue NASA tee (which was more of a crop top now that she had grown out of it), black leather sandals that criss-crossed over the tops of her exposed feet and her long blond hair was parted into two braids that hung over both of her bare shoulders.

"Do you think that's his girlfriend?" Missy asked, extremely curious about the blond girl.

"Who cares?"

Corinda leaned over the front counter and pointed to the round wooden table where Mulder and Gimble were sitting and talking quietly in the back for Phoebe to see.

Phoebe strolled, like on an airport conveyer belt, right past the Scully girls and straight up to her friends.

"Hey, fellas" exclaimed Phoebe while she put a hand on her left hip and smiled brightly at Mulder and Gimble.

"You're late" Mulder pouted.

"And you're grumpy. Why?"

"Hey, Phoebe" Gimble did a pretty accurate impression of the Cheshire cat from Alice In Wonderland.

"I'm not..."

"You are, Fox. I got held up helping my grandfather with something, cool?"

"Sure. Fine"

Phoebe sidled up to Mulder, leaned in close and whispered "Sorry" while everyone else watched on enthralled and then she cuddled into him.

She shot a quick glance at the Scully girls, as she sat down next to Mulder, making Dana (but not Melissa) blush and look away quickly. Phoebe was tall, where Dana was short. Blond instead of a fiery red-head. Outgoing versus shy. And much more comfortable in her skin than Dana, apparently. They both had a galaxy of freckles dotting the bridge of their noses and across their cheekbones. Both were also unbelievably smart and determined though.

"Stop staring, Missy" Dana mumbled under her breath, so Phoebe wouldn't hear.

"Why?" growled Missy.

"Because... it's embarrassing"

"Whatever! Tell me about you and Ethan"

"Tell you what exactly about Ethan and me?" Dana asked naively, swallowing the last bit of her now cold jasmine tea.

"You know" Missy raised an eyebrow suggestively.

"Eww..." Dana scrunched up her face "He's my best friend"

Before Melissa could reply, they heard a voice coming from behind them.

"Well, that was intense! Do you know that guy?" Corinda inquired as she squeezed into the booth next to Melissa.

"Nope, he's cute though. Don't tell Sunlight I said that..."

Corinda didn't hear a word Missy had said, she was too busy looking into Dana's eyes and trying to figure out what had just happened.

Corinda had been ringing up a sale, but was distracted by the overwhelming feelings she was hit with all of a sudden. She looked over at the small group and smiled because she could see the energy bouncing between Dana and the young guy who had just entered the store. The exchange of energy. The soul connection. It was so deep, that she hadn't a clue how everyone else couldn't see it too. It was orange, blue, purple, green and silver, and it was swirling around them and only them. Even though Gimble and Missy shared their space with the other two, they were outside the circle of the shared aura.

"I won't. Did you feel what I felt, Dana?"

"Huh? Feel what?"

Melissa stared at Corinda, trying to work out what she was getting at, and wondering what she had missed.