AN: These next two chapters seem to go together so I will post this one tonight and another one sometime this weekend. Please read and review. Thanks.
Chapter Seven
After Mulder's dramatic fall, the pleasant outing was ruined by the weight of unanswered questions and it was decided to make the trip back home. They returned to Gull Cottage in the late afternoon, took time to freshen up, and then agreed to meet in the living room. Carolyn and Daniel were surprised when they walked into the room and found that the other couple were already there, talking quietly to one another. With a quick kiss for one another, Carolyn went to sit in her favorite chair near Daniel's portrait, and he stood by the fireplace mantle under his portrait.
The room was quiet as they all regarded one another.
"Well, I'm sure you must have questions…" Carolyn began.
"More than a few," Scully agreed and stared at the Captain who now looked like his painting.
'Scully, he's a ghost. That's how he managed to save me!" Mulder grinned at the Captain. "Thanks by the way."
"You are most welcome. We could hardly let a guest of our fall off a cliff and die no matter the stupidity or clumsiness of that person, could we?" He said in a suave voice.
"Hey!" Mulder glared at the Captain, and Scully snorted in laughter.
"Daniel!" Carolyn reprimanded him.
"Apologies my dear, but it is the truth.' He inclined his head towards his wife, and then looked at the two on the couch. 'Questions?"
"Yeah, let's start with basics. You are the original Captain Gregg?" Mulder asked.
"What do you think? A reasonable likeness?" he modeled himself in front of the portrait.
Scully couldn't help herself, she sighed as she looked at the Captain, which caused Mulder to give her a suspicious look, but she didn't notice. The portrait was striking, but the man himself was, well, remarkable, she thought. The reddish brown of his hair curled at the nape of his neck, and she had the strangest desire to straighten out those curls, his face was handsome and his eyes were striking. Yup, if she wasn't with Mulder, and if the Captain wasn't so obviously attached to Carolyn she would consider making a play for the man. Quite a treat for the eyes.
"Scully? Earth to Scully." Mulder waved a hand in front of her face, she blinked and looked at him.
"Mulder, what?"
"Where were you just now?" She heard the undercurrent of jealousy.
"Just thinking," she stole a brief glance at the Captain, and blushed when he met her gaze and returned the smile.
Carolyn just shook her head, knowing exactly what was going on. "Please ignore Daniel, Dana. He's a hopeless flirt."
'My dear?" he raised an eyebrow.
"Just admit it, you can't help yourself.'
"Can I help it if women find me attractive?"
"Women used to find me attractive," Mulder groused.
"Some women still do," Dana took his hand and squeezed.
'Yeah, you say that now after you've been undressing him with your eyes," Mulder teased.
"Mulder!" Scully flushed, and hit him in the thigh.
"Ow!" He grimaced and rubbed the spot that she hit, and then looked back at the Captain. "Small but mighty,' he said and she hit him again. "Stop that!" He drew a breath. "So, you really, truly are the original Captain Daniel Gregg?"
"At your service," he bowed.
'You lived in the 1800's..."
'Born 1825 and died 1869…'
"You really did die of asphyxiation? It wasn't suicide?" Scully asked.
"It was never suicide! It was a blasted accident!" His blue eyes blazed in anger for just a moment and a soft breeze blew through the room.
"Errr…sorry? Geez, you think he'd be over it after all this time,' he muttered to Scully.
"All right, you say you're the original Captain Daniel Gregg, but can you prove it?" Scully asked.
"Prove it?" Daniel looked at her as if she had gone mad. "What do you mean, prove it?"
"Scully, it's not like he has his birth certificate."
"Actually we do,' Carolyn piped up.
"Okay, but that will prove the date that Captain Daniel Gregg was born, it won't prove that it's you." Scully pointed out.
"Are you mad? How many ghosts do you know that would claim to be me?" the Captain looked at her as if she had lost her mind, and Mulder heard the distant rumble of thunder.
"My Scully is a bit of a skeptic," Mulder said.
"You want proof, do you?" His blue eyes twinkled in devilment, and with a shake of her head, Carolyn settled into the chair for the show.
Without warning, a fierce thunderstorm blew up, the strong winds blowing open the windows, rain pelting the house. Startled, Mulder and Scully leaped off the couch and hurried to shut the windows, but they wouldn't budge, for no apparent reason they refused to close. Then the lights went out and except for the lightning they were plunged into darkness.
"Mulder!"
"Scully!"
Their hands reached out and grasped each other as the Captain disappeared and the laughter started. It was unnerving and raised the hairs on the back of their necks. It was unreasonable, knowing what they did, but Mulder felt a knot of fear in the pit of his stomach. The strength of Scully's grip told him that she was feeling the same way.
"Doubt me, will you?" he hideous voice howled throughout the house and the couple found themselves edging towards the front doors, they both shrieked as Daniel's disembodied head appeared next to them and they fled to the door.
"Open the damn door!' Scully cursed.
'I'm trying, but it won't budge!"
"Then do something! I am so going to kill you if we get out of this!"
Almost as if shutting a vacuum cleaner off, the atmosphere of the house cleared. The lights came on, the storm abated, and the mood in the house lightened considerably. The couple at the door looked at one another in amazement.
"Ca..Captain?" Mulder stammered.
"You called." The Captain appeared next to them, a pleasant smile on his face and they both yelped in surprise.
"Stop doing that!" Scully snapped.
"Convinced yet?" The Captain folded his arms and regarded them.
"I'm convinced." Mulder nodded. "Say you're convinced, Scully."
She nodded slowly, and then, a look of curiosity on her face, reached out to touch his arm. She watched as her hand disappeared through him. Then she looked back at the Captain who watched her with an amused expression.
"Okay, I'm convinced."
"Good. Back to the living room then," he said and disappeared.
"Damn! Wish I could do that," Mulder said as they walked back to the couch and sat down.
Captain Gregg appeared next to Carolyn, who scolded him gently.
"Show off!"
He smiled at her, the humor deep in his eyes. "Well, they did ask."
"Did you have to do so much?"
"They wanted to believe, now they do. Don't you?" Daniel turned to the couple on the couch and they nodded instantly. He laughed.
'That was impressive," Scully said.
"Thank you," the Captain inclined his head in acknowledgement.
"It really was. So you can control the weather?"
"To a limited degree, yes."
"It's very localized and tends to match his mood," Carolyn supplied helpfully.
"The sun too?" Mulder questioned.
"Good God, no. Just an occasional storm, or perhaps rain." He shrugged. "I had a lot of time on my hands to learn my ghostly abilities."
"Okay, so storms, which is a new thing to me, I didn't know ghosts could do this," Mulder said.
"Not all can,' Captain Gregg said, looking pleased with himself.
"You can levitate, use telekinesis…" Mulder continued.
"…appear and disappear at will…" Scully chimed in.
'…throw your voice, become disembodied…"
"…use fear on people.' Scully paused. "Oh yes, and be corporeal. That's quite a list."
"Yes, it is," the Captain straightened up proudly.
"Can you do anything else?"
"Like what?"
"Can you read minds?"
"No." Daniel looked offended at the thought. "Though I am somewhat sensitive to emotions."
"Empathic?" Scully asked.
"A bit."
"You have more than one form," she said. 'Corporeal and spirit?"
"Yes."
Mulder studied him for a moment before saying anything. "How about possession, can you possess someone?"
"I can, and have on rare occasions. It is not a wise thing to do as there is a risk of souls intertwining."
Mulder looked over at Carolyn and then curious, turned back to the Captain. "Have you ever possessed Carolyn?"
Oh, God, why did he have to ask Daniel that? She felt the blush rising as she looked at Daniel who offered her a heartfelt, warm smile.
"I have possessed Carolyn, my wife, on many occasions but not in the manner to which you are referring," he said in a warm tone, his eyes appraising her with barely masked desire.
"What?" Mulder glanced over at Carolyn and saw the blush and chuckled quietly. He thought it best to let that one go.
Carolyn looked over to Daniel aware that he had not told them that he had the ability to put people to sleep, nor that he was very good at the power of suggestion, and his ability to stop time in limited amounts. Fair enough, he wanted to keep some things to himself.
"And Carolyn, how did you come to fall in love with him? With a…." Scully asked
"Ghost?" Carolyn laughed and reached for her husband's hand which he promptly offered to her. "Well, it wasn't in my plans when I moved here."
'She couldn't help herself, I was irresistible," Daniel said and stroked his beard.
"Daniel, you're misleading them. That wasn't exactly how we started."
"A few bumps?" Scully asked, amused.
"More than a few,' she grimaced at her Captain.
'It took us some time to chart a course on calm waters," he agreed.
"It took me a while to adjust to having a ghost in my life. It was about the last thing I expected when I moved away from Philadelphia and Bobby's in-laws."
"Bobby?" Scully asked.
"I was married before I moved to Schooner Bay, his name was Robert, Bobby Muir. It wasn't a good marriage, and if he hadn't died I think we would have gotten divorced. I can say that now, though at the time it was hard to accept. In truth our marriage was over long before he died. My in-laws tried to run my life, and that of my children, Jonathan and Candy." She paused and shook her head. "When I couldn't take it anymore I gathered up all the money I had and moved up here, to Schooner Bay. An isolated house on the coast was a perfect place for a writer, and I fell in love with the house as soon as I saw it." She sighed, remember that long ago day when she had first laid eyes on Gull Cottage, and then on Daniel's portrait. "The first thing I saw when I opened the doors to the living room, was Daniel's portrait. The first thing I said was that…"
"I was a magnificent man!" Daniel bounced up and down on his feet, full of admiration for himself. "I knew immediately that she was an intelligent woman."
Mulder and Scully exchanged a glance and laughed.
"As I'm sure you know by now, Daniel doesn't suffer from low self-esteem," Carolyn commented in a dry voice.
"I've noticed that," Scully commented and smiled at the Captain. Mulder poked her in the side.
"I soon discovered my family and I would be sharing quarters with a ghost, and I wasn't quite sure how to accept or deal with that. For a while I thought I was delusional, that I was imagining him, but he proved to be all too real. He became my friend, best friend actually, and constant companion." She turned to gaze at Daniel who was watching her carefully. "It took me a long time to admit that I loved him, I mean what sane woman falls in love with a ghost?" She laughed at herself.
"And though I knew better, I could not prevent myself from falling in love with Carolyn. She was the woman I had looked for my entire life and never found. How was I to know he hadn't even been born yet?" He shook his head. "It is against the very nature of the spirit world for a spirit to be involved with a mortal. I was not supposed to allow it to happen."
"You never told me that," Carolyn said.
"What reason was there for me to do that? I had already fallen for you and had no intentions of ever being anywhere else. I could have been banished but the powers that be are loath to take extreme actions unless absolutely necessary, especially as my interaction was limited for the most part to you and the children. I'm afraid we threw them into quite a quandary though when we got married." He chuckled.
"About that, were you always corporeal? And just how corporeal are you?" Mulder asked with a grin.
"No, I wasn't always corporeal, that was something I learned after the Muir's invaded my house." He gave his wife a fond smile. "I suddenly had reason to want to touch again." He reached out a hand to take Carolyn's hand in his. "And as for the rest of your question I will refer you to my wife of many years."
Damnit! Why did he keep embarrassing her? Carolyn felt the blush creeping up her face again and raised her eyes to see the interested gazed of the two former FBI agents. Clearly they were waiting for more of an answer.
"He's very…corporeal," she stammered. Surely they didn't want more details?
"But how can be? You don't have blood, no internal organs… so I don't understand," Scully said.
"Nor do I, but trust me when I say our love life does not suffer despite his ghostly status."
Mulder grinned at the Captain. "Cool!"
"Cool, indeed." The Captain smirked.
"I think that's enough about us for now," Carolyn said, switching the conversation away from this very private part of their lives. "How about you two? From the little you've told us, it sound like you've led rather spectacular lives. Can we ask you about it?"
