Twelve
Scully walked downstairs slowly sometime the next morning. She could hear voices and movement in the kitchen, and she presumed all five of her houseguests were in the midst of helping themselves to a mishmash of preserved foods for breakfast. It reassured her that though she had woken up in bed alone she had not dreamed the previous day. Or for that matter, the alien invasion itself, she realised. If she had just dreamed the previous day she would have woken up in the sand. That would not have been a welcome surprise.
Unless she was still dreaming. Scully hesitated on the stairs, thinking back to an old case with Mulder. Surely the aliens had taken all the hallucinogenic spores with them.
Biting her bottom lip, she decided to keep moving. If she was dreaming so be it. Her new motto of living in the moment was a good one, so if she was trapped in a dream it was going to be the best dream she'd ever had.
"Morning," she whispered as she entered the kitchen, running her fingers through her long, loose hair and heading to the cardboard crate of water someone had put on the bench. She remembered it was one of the boxes she had found at her mother's neighbour's house and smiled as she retrieved a fresh bottle. She removed the cap and took only a tiny sip before setting it on the bench beside her and turning to face her friends. They had all stopped talking as soon as she announced herself and it was unsettling. "What?" she asked, once she looked into their eyes and reassured herself they had not vanished as they would have had she really been hallucinating.
"How are you feeling this morning?" Monica asked. "You sleep okay?"
"Best sleep in a while," Scully admitted. "I'm okay. I'm just...processing."
"Skinner and Shannon were just taking Gibson and I through how much is in 'the raft'. I think it should be called 'the semitrailer' because they way they tell it, you've got enough food and water to get you to the Antarctic."
"Not quite," Scully laughed.
"But with all of us?" Monica pressed cautiously. "Although you and Mulder have a lot here too that we can probably take. I think we'll be okay. Hungry?"
"What's on the menu?" Scully asked cautiously. "Any fruit?"
"I got peaches," Sarah announced, staring in Scully's general direction with a welcoming smile. "You can share. You came down just in time Dana. Monica and I just convinced everyone to let us do something really thrilling today." Scully laughed when she saw Sarah grinning excitedly at her. Scully had no idea what could be 'that' exciting. She still thought the previous day had been pretty exciting.
"I couldn't help noticing that you have a rather large amount of shampoo in your bathroom," Monica added in a slow, coy tease, leaning back against the bench. "So, as a special treat, we are going to fill the laundry basin with water and wash our hair."
"No way," Scully whispered, her eyes widening at the prospect. Her hair had not been washed since before the invasion. It was disgusting, varying between extraordinarily greasy to drier than straw, and it was constantly filled with sand no matter how often she combed it. But she had never thought to expend her precious water to actually wash it. Not with shampoo. Even though she had washed her hair thousands of times, the prospect of doing so again seemed surreal. She had simply thought she never would.
"We wouldn't need that much water," Sarah assured her hurriedly, sensing her hesitation in her silence. "We would use the same water, but please, please say yes Dana. Monica and I both agreed we are dying, and did you know her husband John has kept shaving? And Gibson shaved this morning. So has Walter. A double standard, don't you think? We're the ones that have to take our pants off to squat in the sand. What do we get?"
"Sarah," Skinner laughed. "Shaving takes a tiny amount of water, not even half of those little bottles. We're talking about filling a laundry sink with at least five bottles. I know you can't see honey, but Dana's hair is down to her waist. It's a mane."
"We can fix that," Monica piped up with a grin. "Mine's grown a bit longer than I like anyway. Let's cut it, Scully. What do you say?"
"I-" Scully was struck dumb. She had just woken up, she had only seconds ago convinced herself she probably was living in the moment despite the sceptic inside her telling her 'reality' was too good to be true, and now Monica wanted to cut her hair? What the hell? She felt her fingers coming up to again trail through her hair. It was long, and it was becoming very thick, and she felt herself smiling at the thought of having shorter hair when Mulder came home. So she would look fresh. So she would look less like a crazy desert woman and more like the woman he had met in his basement office so many years ago. "Okay," she whispered. Sarah started clapping and Monica laughed at the display.
"Oh brother," Skinner sighed.
"I told you she'd cave," Gibson pointed out dryly. "But I think more importantly, Scully this morning you should first make sure Monica is okay." Monica rolled her eyes.
"I'm FINE."
"Hang on," Scully promised, stepping back from the bench and looking around, her hands on the brown cotton pants covering her hips. "Where's my pack?"
"In the living room still," Gibson answered. Scully smiled her thanks and disappeared around the corner. She returned a few minutes later with her first aid kit and a second, durable, 'environmentally friendly' bag of medical supplies which she had taken from a DC hospital before they had left. She put both on the bench but turned her attention to the very full green bag. She removed a stethoscope and slung it around her neck.
"Sit," she ordered Monica, pointing to the stool Gibson was sitting on. Gibson slid off immediately and Monica sighed but complied.
"Does everyone have to watch?" she asked pointedly.
"If you want me to trust you with my hair, then you can trust me not to embarrass you. I'm just going to take your blood pressure."
"Oh, well that's easy," Monica laughed. "I think I'd know if it was high."
"Not necessarily," Scully pointed out cautiously, retrieving the cuff. "I couldn't fit the mercury in the bag, so we're doing this the old fashioned way with the aneroid. Arm on the bench please." Monica let Scully wrap the cuff around her upper arm and inflate it as she both listened to her pulse through the stethoscope and looked at the dial. Monica watched her carefully once the pressure from the cuff dissipated, and Scully caught her eyes and smiled gently. "Nice and low," she promised. "You said last night you were taking supplements?"
"John cleared out a Nature's Own somewhere along the way," she laughed. "Iron, calcium, folate, blah, blah, blah."
"It's true," Gibson promised. "She takes like ten pills a day."
"Once I could keep them down," Monica added positively. "So it's low? Is that where it's supposed to be?" Scully nodded, stretching for the notepaper and pen still by her kitchen phone. She wrote down the result before she forgot it, and showed it to Monica silently, who relaxed. "Great," she agreed. "I kept telling them all I was fine."
"No more long walks," Scully ordered. "The fact you all took so long to get here is probably a good thing. And just one more thing." Before Monica could argue Scully put the stethoscope back in her ears and rested it over her stomach, looking at the second hand of the watch on her wrist and counting. "Okay, now I'm happy," she laughed when she caught Monica glaring pointedly at her. "You want to hear it?" she asked. Monica's expression fell in shock.
"W-w-what?" she asked. Scully stared at her blankly, her blue eyes wide. She removed the stethoscope from her ears and slung it naturally back around her neck.
"Do you want to hear the baby's heartbeat? It doesn't take a medical degree to listen through a stethoscope Monica. Here."
"Oh," Monica whispered, taking a deep breath. "Oh, okay."
"Can we all take turns after that?" Gibson asked. If anybody else had asked Scully might have thought they were making fun or being snide, but Gibson was smiling and the sight was so unfamiliar to Scully that she knew he was being genuine.
"If you ask Monica very, very nicely," she replied, handing the stethoscope to Monica and watching her put it into her ears. Scully directed the small circumference of metal to where she had found the strongest heartbeat and watched as Monica shut her eyes and listened. "You okay?" Scully asked after a few seconds. Monica nodded and opened her large, brown eyes to smile, removing the stethoscope from her ears.
"Here," she said. "You take this now before I start to cry." Scully grinned. "Thank you, I didn't even think to try that," she added. Scully simply shrugged. It was her job.
"I want you to tell me if you start feeling faint," she stated professionally. "It's common. You look like you're in your third trimester. I'd guess around seven months, but time out here isn't really relevant so we'll let nature take its course. Have you been getting hot?"
"It's the desert," Monica deadpanned. "I am always hot."
"Good point," she laughed. "All right then. I'm happy. Gibson, are you happy now?"
"Yes," he replied smugly. "John would kill me if anything happened to her."
"What else is in the bag?" Monica asked, hoping to divert some attention away from her. She had loved listening to her son's heartbeat, and she would listen again later, but in private and away from the others, where she was in a space and a frame of mind to really connect. She was pretty sure Scully wasn't 'actually' finished with the exam either. They would be heading up to the bedroom sometime that day for what Monica could only imagine was a much more thorough physical.
"In the bag," Scully repeated thoughtfully. "Ventalin, antibiotics, insulin, adrenaline, sedatives, bandages, scalpels, tourniquets, syringes, morphine, lots of surgical stitches and a few other serious medications I hope I don't have to use. In the box is everything standard to treat minor wounds, infections, headaches, etcetera."
"Where are your pills?" Skinner asked gently. Scully blushed.
"What pills?" Monica asked. Gibson opened his mouth to reply but shut it, reminding himself it wasn't his place. Besides, Scully was ready to talk. There wasn't any point not saying anything, she realised. Monica was the only one in the room who didn't know.
"Mulder and I had the means to end our lives in the bunker amongst the medical supplies we stored there," she whispered after a long pause. "I took the pills with me to DC. That's what I was going to use. They are still in my possession, but I can't tell any of you where they are. I hope you respect that."
"What do you mean you can't tell us?" Sarah asked, confused.
"They're a weapon," Scully answered seriously. "They are not the answer to depression and if, IF there comes a time when one of us is so seriously injured that a decision must be made, then it will be made by that person's closest relative or partner here, in conjunction with my advice and an examination of our situation, and I will be administering any and all medications necessary to end things. That's the long-shot scenario out of the way. On a more day-to-day basis, I'm happy to divvy out aspirin no questions asked, but I'm the doctor here. I know about the taking of ALL medication. If you're hurt it could impact on how I treat you in an emergency. Understood?"
"I don't see how that's fair when you're the one who took medication to use irresp-" Shannon stopped mid-sentence when Skinner turned to stare at her, pleading with her not to argue. "Okay," she sighed, conceding defeat quickly. "You're the doctor, after all."
"Look," Scully sighed, tucking her hair behind her ears and grimacing. "I want to clear this up-"
"That's not necessary Sc-"
"Dammit Gibson let me say it!" she huffed impatiently, glaring at him. He raised his hands in surrender and his eyebrows in surprise, silently telling her to continue. "Look," she repeated firmly, staring at her hands as they braced the edge of the bench. "I know you all know that a couple of months ago I had a breakdown. Skinner, it was not anxiety and you know it. But it was an episode, it was an isolated collapse of my ability to hold onto a piece of myself I needed to survive. I could not understand why I had been left behind. Well, now I know I wasn't left behind, and at the same time I know why I was." She lifted her eyes and looked at their faces, all focussed on her.
"However, the one part of myself I have never lost confidence in is my ability as a doctor. I happen to think I'm a pretty good one. You might not have signed consent forms but I consider myself to be your doctor and none of you get a say in that. I'm sorry, but that is how it is going to work. Does anybody have a problem with that?" They all shook their heads silently and Scully released the breath she had held, shaking her head. "I care about you all," she whispered. "I don't have anything to treat accidental overdoses or bad reactions to medications. And those pills are a certain death. I never... I'm taking a walk."
The screen door clattered loudly behind Scully as she hurriedly stalked away.
"Still a little sensitive I see," Shannon whispered gently as the kitchen fell into silence.
xxx
Sarah giggled at the sound of water hitting water as she and Monica held open bottles over the sink in the laundry an hour later.
"This is horribly wasteful you know," she teased. Monica laughed.
"I know, but once we wash our hair we can go up to Mulder and Scully's room and cut it. Do you want yours cut too?" Monica reached out and gently ran her fingers through Sarah's loose, blonde hair, which fell around her collarbones in grown-out layers. "You usually keep it shorter than this?"
"Usually. I don't know what it looks like now. Is it bad?"
"It's better than Dana's," Monica assured her with a gentle laugh. "We can even it off if you like; you'd have sort of a long bob. Not necessarily very straight, but it might look neater."
"I don't care if it's not straight. I already know how it's going to go when we get to other people," she explained. "Everyone will be like they always are and look at the tall, tan blonde girl and think she's really pretty and stupid, and then they'll realise I'm blind and not care that I'm smart and not care I was pretty once anyway. So an uneven trim I can deal with; it's not like I'll have to see it."
"Don't ever listen to what people tell you," Monica told her with a serious frown, her voice soft. "We won't let anyone act that way towards you, and maybe if Dana's hands aren't shaking we'll let Doctor Scully handle your hair with surgical precision."
"Where is she?" Sarah asked, concerned and biting her bottom lip.
"The laundry here is just by the back door, and last time I stuck my head around and looked out she was sitting in the sand about twenty metres away. I'll go and get her once this is full. Are you and she good friends?"
"I don't think you can call us friends," Sarah whispered. "Not like you and she are friends, I mean. I remember that night, at least I figured it was night since Walter and Shannon had been away so much longer than usual, and when they came back they had Dana with them. Walter was carrying her and she was unconscious. He sounded very scared. I managed to follow them upstairs and listened to them talking. They had already been stockpiling medical supplies. They stuck an IV in her hand-"
"They did not!" Monica gasped. Sarah nodded.
"Shannon did. She'd seen it done in the army and at the place where they made her into a supersoldier. But I think Uncle Walter was pretty nervous. His voice was how he sounded when he realised I couldn't see. Anyway, they were calling her by name like they knew her, but all I knew is that they had found another person who was alive. Walter didn't want to leave her and Shannon came and explained that somebody Walter used to work with had been found, that she was badly hurt but that she was a doctor and when she got better she could look at my eyes. Shannon's been lovely about this whole thing, you understand. She didn't mean to upset Dana just before. That's just how she talks."
"I know," Monica assured the younger woman. "So when did you first meet Dana?"
"Not until a week later. Shannon told me a couple of days later what had actually happened, because I kept asking if I could meet her and how she was doing. I don't think Dana left her room in the first week. Then suddenly one day she came to me and introduced herself and confirmed she was a doctor. She looked at my eyes and asked me a bunch of questions about my medical history as though nothing had happened to her. She said I was completely blind but she told me she did not understand how that could be, because she had seen the flash also, and she could see perfectly."
"Gibson told us it was stronger in the cities. And you were in DC, which if it really is destroyed must have been ground zero, or at least one of the centres of attack. If the light Dana saw was probably coming all the way from DC, it might have been weaker."
"She said even with her eyes closed it was like she could see everything in her room," Sarah whispered wistfully as though speaking a fairytale. Monica nodded sadly. "Dana is a very quiet person," she observed. "She is private. She has said almost nothing of Mulder, but we did not really speak properly until just before leaving to come south. I knew somebody who slit their wrists once so I wanted to give her space to heal. That sounds stupid but I think it worked. She has been extremely nice to me, and you have as well. You don't even know me and I can't see you; I don't usually spill my guts like this to strangers, but for some reason I just know I can trust you."
"You can. You can always trust the FBI," Monica assured her dryly. Sarah laughed. "I will go and get our friend," she added more gently, pulling up a stool and urging Sarah towards it. "You wait here. I won't be long." Sarah nodded patiently, listening as Monica's footsteps faded and the back door opened and closed.
Monica stood behind Scully in the sand and put her hands on her hips. Scully's head was bowed into her raised knees, and the hot breeze was blowing her orange hair around her back and shoulders. Skinner was right, Monica decided. It was a mane. It was so thick and long and Scully was so petite it obscured almost all of her when she was hunched over so tightly. Not for much longer, if Monica had her way.
"Are you going to make me sit down and then haul myself back up five minutes later?" she asked. "Because I'm not so good at that anymore." Scully said nothing and did not move, but Monica knew she had been heard. She also knew she was not sitting down. "Dana," she whispered kindly. "The sink's full. Come on. We're going to have a girl's day okay? We can wash our hair and cut it and paint our toenails and eat chocolate, anything to get out of this survivalist mindset just for a day. Sarah needs this just as much as you or I, and she is really looking forward to it. Skinner, Gibson and Shannon have walked into town. It's just us."
That got Scully's attention, and she raised her head and turned around, staring up at Monica from the ground. She was trying to hold a straight face but her lower lip was quivering and her eyes were wet, her cheeks streaked with remnants of earlier tears. Monica stretched her arm out so her hand was close to Scully's face.
"I know the fact Mulder's alive and coming home doesn't fix things," she whispered. "I know it probably makes it worse in some ways. I know you remember more about that night you cut your wrist than you let on to everyone else, and I know it had to do with Mulder. I know you're still uncomfortable with what you contemplated. I would be too."
"It's not that I think you all don't trust me," Scully finally spoke, standing with Monica's help and brushing her hands over her flushed cheeks. "I do. It's that maybe I don't fully trust myself yet. Can I tell you something?"
"Always," Monica assured her, watching Scully stare off into the distance to gather her thoughts and composure. When she turned back, she had a sad smile on her face as though she was about to reluctantly divulge a special secret. Monica took a step closer so the conversation seemed more private, and waited.
"The thing is," Scully whispered, raising her eyebrows as she spoke. Monica remembered the expression. Scully was about to say something that to her was almost a personal revelation, something she knew had happened but did not quite believe. Monica was intrigued. "That night," Scully continued. "I think everybody thinks that I missed the vein because deep down I didn't want to kill myself. I think everyone here thinks that I was strong enough to stop. The thing is, I don't think that I was. I don't think it was me."
"Who was it?" Monica asked curiously. Scully blinked hurriedly as another tear formed a lonely path down the centre of her cheek towards her jaw.
"I think it was Mulder," she hissed with disbelief. "You're right, I lied yesterday, and I've been lying to everyone for months. I 'do' remember. I remember everything. I didn't want to feel alone anymore so I asked for Mulder to come to me. I felt him hold me. I cut myself. It really, really hurt, which was strange because in my experience a lot of people describe it as more of a numbness, but I was screaming it hurt so much. I felt his arms around me, and I was scared so I asked him not to let me go. I cut myself deeper and then I heard this voice telling me to stop. It said, 'Don't do this sweetheart. Please stop', and it was Mulder's voice. I'd know it anywhere. I screamed that I hated him but I didn't mean it. I know he was not really there that night. I know it was all in my head. But when I close my eyes and go back to that place, he is there. In the memory he is there with me."
"I think he was there," Monica promised her wisely. "We would have been on the first half of the way here by then. There were some days when he said absolutely nothing, and there were nights he woke up screaming."
"He has really...bad nightmares," Scully explained with a deep sigh. "Because he sees it all so clearly, and he remembers them. He remembers everything. Sometimes they scare him so much. Did you and Sarah really fill the sink with water?"
"Five bottles and one bottle each for rinsing," Monica replied with a wide grin. "That's a whole eight bottles of water. It's nearly enough to go swimming in. But wait, before we go in-" She hesitated and Scully nodded, urging her to go on. "You said you think Mulder stopped you that night, which is wonderful and very special, but you do realise that doesn't mean you're not strong yourself, because I'm pretty sure that he hasn't been with you twenty-four-seven for the past couple of months all the times you've had ample opportunity to try again properly. You certainly always had the means. Just because you got a little help or spiritual guidance along the way, doesn't mean you're not strong."
"Did you say that to me yesterday?" Scully asked curiously, frowning at the sense of déjà vu. Monica chuckled, nodding.
"I think so. Has it sunk in yet?"
"It's getting there," Scully whispered, blushing. "I think I'll be okay when I see him."
"Do you want to go inside now?" Monica asked. Scully nodded definitely, crossing her arms over her chest. "And Dana," Monica added suddenly, resting her fingertips on Scully's shoulder. "I don't think anybody's told you this yet, but I am very sorry you saw your mom as one of those bodies. She was a really good person." Scully swallowed a sob of surprise and nodded. "Don't ever feel guilty that you're here and not with your family because, and I would never admit this to the others, but I truly am thankful you will be here, because I am a little bit nervous about being a mom 'here', and I missed you all these years, and it was hard being the only woman in the group. You have no idea."
"How many fights did you break up?" Scully asked, smiling as Monica wrapped an arm around her shoulders and turned her around to the house, urging them both to begin walking.
"I lost track on the second day," she replied, laughing when she saw Scully's smile widen. "Now the only question I have left is how short do you want to go?"
xxx
"I don't know about this-"
"Ooh, too late!" Monica exclaimed, snipping off a large chunk of Scully's hair. She caught it in her fingers and held it up so Scully could see it in the reflection of the mirror in front of her. They had brought up a tall stool from the kitchen so that Scully could sit at mirror height. She found herself staring in shock at easily thirteen inches of damp, orange hair. Sitting on the closed toilet lid beside them, Sarah giggled.
"How much did you cut?"
"Only a little piece, Dana's such a little whinger," Monica teased. "Don't worry Scully; I know what I'm doing. I'm much less nervous doing this than I was when you were in labour all those years back."
"How reassuring," Scully muttered dryly as Monica grinned and squeezed her shoulders.
"So we're going to about here, we decided?" she confirmed, holding her hands level with Scully's shoulders. Scully nodded, and her eyes were wide and nervous. "When's the last time it was that short?"
"Not since Mulder was abducted."
"He's not going to recognise you," Sarah praised, wondering if Scully's hands had started trembling again. Monica had trimmed Sarah's hair instead of Scully, and quite well Sarah thought, considering how it felt. Both Scully and Monica had complimented her on the chin-length 'do'. It would curl a bit as it dried and Sarah was more than happy with Monica's efforts. She felt fresh again, and she had only had an inch or two taken off.
She could not imagine how Scully was going to feel, or how she was feeling sitting in the chair watching Monica cut more than half her hair away, but she had agreed after some persistent arguing on Monica's part that cutting their hair would be a healing experience for them all. In a way it was them cutting away what had grown since the invasion; it was symbolic of accepting the past but starting over. It was a girly thing to do, it was a good laugh, and most importantly they were all doing it together.
Scully had not even been able to argue.
Sarah already had received the impression that Monica was an open, free-spirited person, and hopefully she would be a positive influence on Scully. Sarah liked to be very open and friendly as well, her friends had always called her a hippie because of her more spiritual beliefs outside conventional religion, but it had been harder for her to reach out to Scully not being able to see her, knowing how vastly more experienced in the world she was, knowing that to Scully she was probably still just 'AD Skinner's niece'.
Scully had trimmed Monica's hair, but had been procrastinating about her own the whole time. Monica had humoured her until she could wait no longer. Sarah was just glad they hadn't had to hold her in the chair. She had never completely run her hands along Scully's hair in DC, and she had been surprised when she did to discover just how long and bulky it felt. No wonder Monica had suggested haircuts, she had realised. Plus, they had been singing old songs and eating chocolate all day without any interruptions. It was more fun than Sarah had experienced in many months, even prior to the invasion.
"How's it going?" she asked.
"It's going very well," Monica described. "But Dana has her eyes shut. I never knew you to be so attached to your hair Dana," she teased. "Or is it what the hair represents?"
"What does it represent?" Scully asked. She refused to open her eyes but her face and posture was relaxed and she sat very still, allowing Monica to concentrate.
"Why don't you tell me?" Monica retorted gently. "You've had long hair since Mulder was abducted and you were pregnant, and a lot's happened since then. What do you think will happen once it's all cut off?"
"I don't know," she whispered innocently. "It's not usually this wild you know. I get it thinned by the hairdresser when I get it cut. It just grows fast."
"It's still a pretty colour," Monica whispered, watching the long strands fall to the floor in patches. "Sort of a pity you couldn't donate all of this to one of those wig charities."
"How much longer?" Scully asked.
"I just started!" Monica huffed. "I want to get this as straight as I can so you look like a knockout when that sucker you call a boyfriend comes back."
"I can't believe you're not worried about them," Sarah mentioned casually.
"Mulder navigated us here all the way from Texas," Monica pointed out. "The only thing I'm worried about is that I haven't been around to break up any fights. Although I bet they come back all buddy-buddy. They have more in common than they think. There was no way Gibson or I could handle the trip, but regardless of that John was the right person to go. He understands grief so much better than the two of us."
"What are they both like?" Sarah asked.
"Mulder is quiet and incredibly smart," Scully answered, her eyes still shut. She felt lighter and she knew a lot of her hair was gone. Monica was working patiently behind her, letting her answer first. "He's very friendly though. And funny. He trained as a psychologist and used to work as a profiler for the FBI before starting work in the basement. I never liked him profiling. It was too intense and he is too intense himself to really handle it. It always scared me much more than anything we did on the X Files. Um, he remembers absolutely everything and he was very good friends with Walter, who saved us more times than I can count. He likes...R&B, crazy old zombie movies, spooky stories, basketball and baseball, and he is obsessed with sunflower seeds."
"Still?" Monica whined. Scully nodded briefly so as not to interrupt the careful snipping.
"He sounds cool," Sarah laughed. "Spooky!"
"He hasn't been popping sunflower seeds with you?" Scully asked suddenly, curious as to why Monica had responded to her final comment. He was never without them. Scully would have expected him to have picked them up at a shop along the way.
"Not even once," she replied softly, frowning in concentration at the back of Scully's hair, slowly edging her way around to the right side.
"And John?" Sarah pressed. "Is he just like Mulder?"
"Uh, no," Monica grinned. "John was in the NYPD and the Army before joining the FBI. That's how he knows Shannon. They were in the same company. He is what you might call 'straight laced'. He does NOT like R&B, he prefers the older stuff, Sinatra, classical, or in his words, music you can 'really' dance to. He likes his NASCAR and football, and he's got the most beautiful blue eyes. You can see right into his soul sometimes. We met when I was working for the FBI while he was still in the NYPD. His son was kidnapped and the FBI was called in to assist. We found Luke murdered not long afterwards. It ended John's first marriage. We always kept in touch but only by the odd phone call, and I didn't see him again until he called about five years ago asking me to come and help find Agent Mulder, who had been abducted by aliens, if you can believe that."
"So you weren't much help finding him at all then," Sarah quipped. Monica and Scully both laughed.
"No," Monica agreed. "Mulder has an inexplicable knack of finding his own way home from the ODDEST places."
"I'm really glad he was with you," Scully mumbled after a long period of thoughtful silence on all their behalves. "I'm sure he appreciated your compassion."
"They're giant teddy bears, I understand," Monica teased. "I've missed them actually."
"The anticipation is killing me you know," Sarah huffed.
"They'll be here any day," Monica promised.
"Not that!" she whinged. "Are you nearly done? I want to touch what's left of her hair!"
"Yeah, can I open my eyes yet?" Scully asked impatiently.
"Nearly," Monica sung. The bathroom became silent but for the slow snipping of the sharp scissors in Monica's hand. Twenty long minutes later, she put the scissors down and ran her fingers through Scully's hair, fluffing it in its semi-dry state to see how it looked less rigid. She grinned. "How does it feel?" she asked. "It looks amazing, Dana."
"Airy," Scully mumbled suspiciously. "And you would say that." She opened her eyes and they widened in surprise. Monica had cut her hair to the base of her neck. It did not even reach her collarbone, a good two inches above their 'agreed' length, but Monica was right, Scully realised with a growing smile. It looked amazing. "Wow," she whispered, staring at herself. She had forgotten what she looked like with shorter hair. It was thick enough again to look textured even, but still long enough to tie back. It lifted her face.
"I think by the sounds of this stunned silence you've found yourself a new career," Sarah told Monica as she stood and walked cautiously forward, hand outstretched. The floor was covered in their hair and slippery, so Monica took her hand quickly. She brought Sarah's fingers to Scully's hair, and Sarah laughed when she realised she could run her fingers along the back of Scully's neck. "What is that, fifteen inches gone?"
"Pretty much," Monica agreed. "So, Dana, what do you think? Was that a good 'wow' or a, 'I am going to kill you Monica' wow?"
"It's a, 'I can't believe that's me' wow," Scully whispered seriously, reaching up to brush her fingers over her eyes before she cried. "I think I love it." Monica beamed proudly.
xxx
Monica was leaning against the open front door as the sun set that evening when she saw Shannon, Skinner and Gibson return bearing more gifts. Shannon was dragging a pile of mattresses resting on top of a wooden slat which had ropes tied around it to assist her in tugging. Skinner's arms were loaded up with short, thick, wooden beams, and Gibson was carrying so many pillows and sheets he could barely see over the top.
"What on earth are you doing?" she asked once they stopped in front of her.
"We needed more beds," Shannon explained. "There's a dismantled double we think we can get into one of the rooms upstairs for you and John. There are also two other mattresses; a single to replace the bad mattress in the spare room, and a king single for Walter which can go on the floor somewhere. Two people will have to share the current spare room now; Gibson and Sarah, if she's got no objections. Where is she?"
"Sarah and Dana are both asleep," Monica answered, her voice soft. "I think we had too much fun, we're all exhausted, but I thought I would wait for you."
"There's another single not far from here so tomorrow we can replace the air mattress and get Sarah something more comfortable to sleep on. There's also another frame for this king single so soon nobody will have to sleep on the floor, far as we can tell."
"Wow," Monica mumbled. It was the same sort of 'wow' Scully had whispered hours earlier. Complete shock. "Thank you Shannon," she added. "That's really thoughtful. We really appreciate the effort to bring all this here." Shannon shrugged casually but smiled.
"No worries. It's going to get pretty crowded here soon." Monica grinned. Yes, she thought happily. It sure was.