Disclaimer- All I own of the X-Files are the nine boxsets. Mulder and Scully belong only to each other. Some Dialogue taken from the episode "Chinga"

Rating- G

Summary- Chinga, the way it SHOULD have been.

Chinga- An Alternate Ending

" Dead? How" Mulder asked over the phone

" Self-inflicted, it appears." Scully answered

"Huh … it sounds to me like that's witchcraft or maybe some sorcery that you're looking for there."

Local PD Captain, Jack Bonsaint watched Scully strangely throughout the conversation.

" No, I don't think it's witchcraft, Mulder, or sorcery. I've had a look around and I don't see any evidence that warrants that kind of suspicion."

"Maybe you don't know what you're looking for. "

" Like evidence of conjury or the black arts or shamanism, divination, Wicca or any kind of pagan or neo-Pagan practice. Charms, cards …. "

Mulder listens, spellbound.

" familiars, bloodstones, or hex signs or any of the ritual tableaux associated with the occult, Santeria, Voudoun, Macumba, or any high or low magic"

"Scully … "

"Yes" Mulder sounded serious

"Marry Me."

Scully sighed. A typical example of Mulder humour.

"I was" Then she broke off. Maybe she should go along with it. Show off a bit of her Scully humour.

"Yes." she answered.

"What" asked Mulder, incredulously.

"Yes." she repeated. "I'll see you when I get back."

Mulder hung up the phone, still in shock. Of course, she was joking. Wasn't she? He had been. Hadn't he. She wasn't serious. Was she?

It was his turn to sigh. Was he just supposed to take it as the joke he had originally meant it to be?

His mind flashed instantly to the beautiful engagement ring he had seen in the window of the jewellery store they passed regularly. He had caught her admiring it once, it was white gold, encrusted with rubies that brought out the auburn in her hair and studded with glistening diamonds tat matched the sparkle in her piercing blue eyes. he had always secretly thought that the ridiculously expensive ring would look best not in it's high security display case but on Dana's hand.

Maybe I should check it out. He considered. In the interest of the joke.

-

Mulder finished sharpening a pencil in an electric sharpener, and delicately blows the dust off the tip. He places it on the desk and carefully lines it up with about 20 more sharpened pencils. The door opened and Scully entered.

" Oh, hey, Scully. How you doing"

He laced his fingers together smoothly to hide the row of pencils." How are you feeling? Rested"

"I feel fine."

Scully was focused on the I Want to Believe Poster behind Mulder, the poster that grabbed the attention of everyone that entered the room.

"What"

" That poster … Where'd you get it"

"Oh, I got it down on "M" Street at some head shop about five years ago."

" Hmm. "

" Why"

" No. I just … wanted to send one to somebody."

" You do"

" Mm-hmm."

" Who"

Mulder opened his desk drawer and coughed to cover the sound of the pencils being pushed into the drawer and the drawer being closed.

" Who"

" Oh, just … some guy." She paused. " Jack. "M" Street"

" Yeah. Hey, does this have something to do with that case you were working on"

" What case? Uh, yeah. Yes it does."

" Did you solve it"

" Me? No. No. I was, uh, I was on vacation. Just … getting out of my own head for a few days. What about you? Did you, uh, did you get anything done while I was gone"

"Oh, God. It's amazing what I can accomplish without incessant meddling or questioning into everything I do. It's just …"

He was interrupted by a pencil dropping down on him. He looks up and another falls on him. Scully slowly raised her eyes to the ceiling. About thirty pencils are stuck into the ceiling tiles above his desk.)

" There's … got to be an explanation. " Mulder said embarrassed.

"Oh, I don't know. I think some things are better left unexplained."

Another pencil fell and hit Mulder on the top of the head. He looked innocently at Scully. She looked back at him, exasperated.

"But not all things." he carried on, charmingly, pretending that had never happened. "Can I come to your place tonight" he asked her.

"Okay-Wh-Okay" agreed Scully. she had been about to ask why, but then she realised she knew. The question that had been pressing on her mind all that week, and the answer she had given, that she had tried to push to the back of her mind.

She left the office in a daze.

He had been kidding. Right? She had been. Hadn't she? What if he wasn't.

-

Mulder's heart pounded with every footstep he took. Each one moved him closer to Scully's apartment. Pounding and Pounding and Pounding, as fast as lightning, Pounding and Pounding until-

His usual knock came. As well as attempting to calm herself Scully thought it was strange that she knew his "usual" knock. But that was nothing. He knew her usual phone ring, the way she smiled, the way she looked when she first woke up, the way she usually ran... the list was endless.

She realised she had been hesitating too long. It was now or never. She had to open the door.

"Hey." he greeted her.

He went to take his coat and as she reached for it, something fell out of the pocket.

Something in a small, black, heart-shaped box. Mulder knelt down to pick it up, while Scully watched him, almost in slow motion.

When his hand closed over the warm, soft felt he looked up into her eyes and something just felt right. the way it had never did with Phoebe or Diana.

Oh hell, I'm already down on one knee. he thought, and he clicked open the box..

"Marry Me, Scully" He asked again, definitely serious this time.

She gasped. "I-I thought you were kidding." she stammered.

"I was." he admitted. "but I'm not now. Were you"

She shook her head. But she said-

"Yes."

Mulder was extremely confused.

"Yes" he asked.

"To the first question." she explained.

Mulder looked at first like he didn't know what to do, then he slipped the ring on her finger.

"No more jokes Scully" he promised.

THE END