O as Outlaws


Arlington Public Library

Mulder and Scully were enjoying visiting the Arlington Public Library. For themselves -both were readers and had always found pleasure to wander in a library- and for expectations of the years to come -they had planned to bring their unborn child as soon as possible, and they even already liked to pick up and browse child books. They could now afford to spend more time in the building, Scully having slow down at work and Mulder essentially busying himself at home on his own schedule. They had no precise routines in the library, however they often split when arriving, each one following their own desire, requirement for work or just happenstance, then reunited in a random aisle and finally finished to linger together in the building for a while.

This day Mulder was the first to end his own path and had begun looking for Scully. He was heading for the children area via an obscure aisle filled by nonsense esoteric books when he saw Scully acting strangely right there in the spooky zone. He hurried to reach her and grabbed her right hand that was committing an offence.

"Scully? What are you doing? You, stealing a book?" Mulder whispered.

Scully immediately flushed and wasn't able to pronounce a word for almost one minute. Mulder didn't push her to give an explanation as he had quickly sensed how overwhelmed she was.

"It's a... Moby Dick kid book..." Scully managed to tell. "I... I couldn't help... all the memories coming back... I felt compelled to..."

"Okay then. Put the other books you didn't hide there. Hurry up!" Mulder said while dropping his own books on an empty place of the closest shelf.

Then he pulled her arm and dragged her toward the exit in a hurry.

"Mulder!" Scully shouted as she heard the dull noise of the volumes falling down to the floor -she hadn't had time to properly put her books beside Mulder's ones.

They didn't stop their purposeful quick strides until they reached their car in the parking lot. There, breathing faster than usual, they laughed like the two children they used to be so many decades ago.

"It's okay, Scully?" Mulder asked, suddenly recalling Scully's pregnancy. She was always in a so good shape that he could easily forget her condition.

"I'm fine, Mulder. Let's go back home before being caught as outlaws we have become."


Unremarkable House - Later in the evening

They were half-lying on the bed, encircled by pillows, Scully's body comfortably snuggled against Mulder's one, their faces, arms and chests lit by the flickering warm gleam brought by few candles put on their nightstands. Mulder, eyeglasses resting on his nose, was reading out loud for the fifth time the book they had illegally borrowed at the library, acting with his voice and gestures, showing and commenting the beautiful pictures to Scully, as if she was a child listening to her bedtime story.

"Enough?" Mulder asked when he finally closed the book.

"Yes, thank you. And promise me we would give it back tomorrow," Scully replied.

"Sure. We are still outsiders but no more outlaws... Though, I have highly enjoyed the thrill..."

Mulder put down his glasses and the book while Scully was blowing out the candles. Then, rearranging the pillows and the bed linen, they slid under the sheets and settled in their cuddle favorite position. They gradually fell asleep, wrapped in silence and a quietness they didn't break, both of them remembering bittersweet memories of their past when they were on the run and Mulder was a tangible and blatant outlaw.


Somewhere on an unremarkable road, in an unremarkable county - So many years ago

They had left the isolated log cabin in the woods for more than one hour and were driving now on an asphalt road, many luggage and belongings fulfilling the trunk and the back seats of their car. They had stayed and lived in this house for so many months -their true first home as a couple- the danger had been so far away from them for so long that they had accumulated too many stuff in their cosy nest. The whole hadn't been able to fit into the car.

As they were now obviously surrounded by civilization and were about to dive and settle into a quite normal life after being so long on the run -at least for Scully, Mulder still bound to keep a low profile for a while- Muder felt Scully's emotion and the tears she was holding back. He reached for her hand and squeezed it, while maintening his attention to the road.

"Are you okay, Scully?" he asked.

"I'm fine."

"Don't worry. Only mere happiness will come now. Soon we'll have the house you have ever dreamt of and you'll be a wonderful practicing MD in a pretty hospital. Well, I'm lying... maybe not the upper class house of a brain surgeon you'd deserve..."

"Thanks Mulder," Scully replied while smiling and squeezing back Mulder's hand.

A moment later she suddenly grabbed Mulder's right arm that was returned in its driving position.

"Mulder! Moby Dick! We didn't pack the book!" Scully shouted. "I've always wanted to bring it back..."

"Me too... We'll send money to the library. And Moby Dick will now have another life, surrounded by its companions, waiting for other readers..."

When they had settled in the cozy log cabin the sense of safety and comfort had came along and they had soon let go of Moby Dick and its associated evening ritual. They had stored the volume on a shelf that had been gradually filled by other books, Moby Dick becoming anonymous among them. All the books had been given up in the cabin.

"I guess I wanted to keep it as a souvenir," Scully whispered.

"We have our memories, Scully," Mulder softly replied. "You will always remember how it was, to be outlaws."


Somewhere in a secret place - So many months earlier the so many years earlier

At first Scully had been angry. They had taken too many risks this day, wandering in a not so small town, going shopping and then entering the public library. Too many people could have noticed them but Mulder wouldn't buy that -their disguises were on point, they perfectly knew how to avoid CCTV. Moreover he had needed access, documentation and informations that the library could easily provide and they both lacked simple social activities, distraction and a connection with humanity and culture. So, they have spent the afternoon in the library. And then, when they had left the town, heading for a series of secret locations where they would hide for weeks, Mulder had displayed a stolen book from under his clothes.

"Call me Ishmael," Mulder said.

"Mulder, what have you done!" Scully had shouted back.

Later in the evening, it didn't matter anymore, Mulder had managed to convince her. The stolen book would become their spiritual evening companion, a mean to discuss about human nature, fate and hope, truths and beliefs, white whales and peg legs. They would settle the more comfortably they could in whatever bed or makeshift mattress they would have and they would read Moby Dick out loud together -very often by candlelight or feeble flashlights. They could have been able to buy the novel in a bookshop but the illegal status of their one was a reminder of their own fugitive condition. The ink of the rubber stamp on the paper and the labels on its cover would recall them the carefree hours thay had spent in the library and would be a tangible bond to socialization.

One day the book would be returned to where he belongs and that would be the beginning of a new life. They would be free and no more outlaws.