Tomorrow
By Jillian
CHAPTER FIVE
Two days later, in the afternoon, the "Carter's" received a knock at the door. Mulder walked over and opened it, to see two happy people standing outside. Neighbors. Wonderful. Couldn't they just put up a sign that said "antisocial conspiracy theorists" up front?
"HI!" The woman said, far to excited. "I'm Jane Fairfax, and this is my husband, Scott!" She said, gesturing to the heavyset man next to her. She was blonde, with some bad makeup and bushy eyebrows. Judging by the terrible black routes, and color of the aforementioned bushy eyebrows, she was not a real blonde.
"Hi, I'm Bill Carter. Kathy, the neighbors are here!" He called. Scully trotted over to the front door.
"Hi, I'm Kathy. Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too! We would've came sooner, but we were away on vacation. So where are you guys from?" The woman asked.
"Well, my wife was a Navy brat and grew up all over the place." He said. "I'm originally from South Carolina, but we met in Manhattan at NYU." He said, coolly. As if it really happened.
"Well, we just dropped by to let you know you have friends next door! If you'd like, you can come on over--"
"Thank you, but we've got a lot to get done today." Mulder said quickly.
"Yes, we're very busy with moving in and whatnot." Scully said, just as quickly.
"Well, nice seeing you." The man said.
"You too!" They said, walking away.
"Neighbors, Scully." Mulder smiled.
"Hooray." She mocked enthusiasm.
"Do we have to be friends with them?" Mulder asked.
"I'm afraid we might." She smiled.
The days progressed in similar, boring fashions. Scully began to wonder what they had told her family. Did they have a funeral for her? For Mulder? Did Charlie and Bill Jr. fly out with the family to say goodbye? Her mother... How did she deal with believing she lost two daughters? The thought was too much for Scully, and tears formed in her eyes. Why should her mother have to believe that? Breaking their biggest rule--secrecy--she took out a piece of paper one morning before Mulder was awake.
Mom,
I am writing to let you know I am alive, but I'm hiding. I have to hide, or they'll kill me, and Mulder. It's for the same reason I had to give up William, because Mulder and I must fight the good fight. You cannot tell anyone, not Bill Jr., not Charlie. Nobody. Only you, AD Skinner and two Bureau agents John Doggett and Monica Reyes, know Mulder and I are alive. I love you, Mom, I couldn't let you believe you lost two daughters. I was not supposed to write you even this short note, for the safety of all us. If they knew you know... They will do anything to find us because we know how to destroy them. I will try to write every now and then. I love you, Mom. I always will.
Your Daughter,
Dana
Crying softly, she sealed it in an envelope and searched for a stamp. Addressing it by heart, she slipped it into her purse. Looking at Mulder sleep, she felt as if she could watch him in his peaceful dream forever. Walking over to him, she touched his face and leaned over him. She placed a feather light kiss on his lips, but his eyes fluttered and he looked up.
"What was that for?" He asked.
"I love you, Mulder." She said quietly. It was not a phrase they often threw back and forth, it was something understood and rarely said.
"I know you do, Dana. I love you too." He said tiredly.
"I'm, uh," She began to change to subject. "I'm almost finished with the magnetite. I think I've got the exact melting temperature to keep the molecules in tact."
"Mmm," He sighed tiredly. "Good, Scully, good."
"The kids have been making fun of me for always being in the lab." She smiled. "What can I say? I'm a nerd."
"Wouldn't want you any other way. That confusing science talk is a turn on, Scully."
"I'll remember that." She smiled, leaving the room. "I'll see you later, Mulder."
Scully stood over a Bunsen burner, mixing a silver liquid. When she was content with its texture, she turned off the burner, and using a dropper, administered a drop onto a slide. It was the beginning of June, and the room was hot, but she didn't notice. She was *sure* she had it right this time. Putting the slide under an electron microscope, she looked down. It was the same structure as observed in the solid form. She had been right! Silently thanking God she had written down her procedure to arrive at this result, she whipped out her cell phone.
"Hello?" She heard Mulder ask.
"I got it." She said, excitedly.
"The liquid magnetite?"
"YES! I've got it! Mulder, Mulder, do you know what this means! This means we can produce large quantities, here, and send the results to John or Monica and they can sneak me into Quantico and I can teach them how to do and, and, this is amazing!"
"Scully, calm down, you're getting ahead of yourself. Let's produce some here first, make sure the plan's foolproof." He said.
"Okay," She said, giddy like a schoolgirl. "I have to go, the bell's going to ring. I need to clean up first." She smiled to herself.
"Okay, good work, Dana." He said, before hanging up.
Smiling ridiculously as she put things away, she placed the vial of the liquid into her briefcase. Suddenly, a student walked in. It was one of her freshman, a girl named Julie.
"Hey, Julie, can I help you?" She asked.
"You look happy, Doctor Carter. Whatchya workin' on?" She asked.
"Something that took me forever." She smiled.
"'Kay. Well, I just wanted to know if we need to gloves for tomorrow."
"Yeah, we're dissecting frogs." Scully said.
"That's sooo gross." She said.
"It's nothing, I've dissected an elephant, not to mention a person." She slipped.
"What? Like autopsies?" She asked.
"Yes, its, uh, a college requirement for my field." She lied.
"Okay, cool. See you later, Doctor Carter." She smiled, leaving the room to catch up with the boy waiting for her in the hallway. Scully had really come to like her students. It was almost as if they were friends. She would pay attention to them in the hallway, watching and remembering herself in high school. Back when thinks like dead frogs grossed her out. Back when her biggest problem was trying to find some way to not get caught kissing Marcus hello or holding his hand in the hallway of the Catholic school they attended. Before magnetite. But it wasn't worth being before her troubles… Those times were before Mulder. Before she knew what love was.
Dana Scully rushed home, to find Mulder at his computer typing up an article about Super Soldiers. He had made it vague, simply hinting at the possibility, and had just begun writing it. He had previously finished an article detailing his abduction experiences, and explaining Scully's as well. He didn't want to go to far into detail about the Super Soldiers because he knew the project was not yet in full swing, and they still had time to conquer it--he didn't want to compromise that.
"You have it?" He asked.
"Of course I do." She smiled.
"Let me see it." He said anxiously.
"It's just a vial of silver liquid, don't get overly excited." She said, taking it from her briefcase.
"Dana, this is it. We can survive this now. We can get mass quantities made years before colonization begins... And when it comes we'll be ready."
"I know. We need more metal. Who do we call?" She asked.
"The Bureau, um, the quarry in DC was full of it."
"We can get Skinner or Reyes or Doggett to get it for us, and I'll send them the procedure. We can also make more little by little at the lab at school. Get me the phone." She said.
He quickly left to get telephone, and handed it to her.
"Do you know Skinner's phone number?" She asked.
"No." He sighed.
"Damnit, me either. I have it somewhere... Wait, I'll call Monica." Scully said.
"You know her number by heart?" He asked.
"Well, I tried to have a friend while you were gone, Mulder." She smiled.
"As long as you don't know Doggett's number too well.." Mulder joked.
"Actually..." She said teasingly.
"Will you call already?" He asked.
Smiling, she dialed Monica's number.
"Hello?" Monica asked, picking up the phone.
"Monica Reyes?" Scully said.
"Yes... Is, is this Dana?" Monica asked.
"Yes, it is." Scully said.
"How are you guys? Where are you?" Monica asked.
"We're fine, very good actually, in New York. Staten Island to be exact."
"Nice, what have you been up to?" She asked.
"Well, I took a job as a high school teacher, and in the chemistry lab I developed injectable liquid magnetite."
"Oh my God, Dana, with something like that we could..." She trailed off.
"I know. You need to do something for us. Get John and Skinner to organize some way of extracting magnetite, from the quarry by the train station we were at that night. Once that's taken care of, I can fax you guys the procedures for production... You don't have any laboratory experience, do you?"
"No, I'm afraid I don't... I'm sure Skinner can set up a new lab assistant to produce it or show me or John how to."
"Okay. Listen, for reference can you give me John's number, and Skinner's?"
"John's here now, if you need to speak to him. We're hanging onto Gibson for a while."
"That's okay, tell them I said hi, though."
Monica gave her the numbers and Scully gave them there's. Monica promised to call back soon with news when she spoke to Skinner.
"I'll let you get back to Mulder." Monica said.
"I'll let *you* get back to Doggett." Scully said, followed by some quick goodbyes.
Mulder looked up at her.
"John was there?" He asked.
"Yes, why?" She asked.
"What's going on between those two?" Mulder asked, smiling.
"I think they're, um, together... I've seen hand holding." She smiled.
"Just hand holding?" He asked.
"Well, they knew each other a long time ago... They use first names, too."
"You still don't use my first name, but then again I'm probably the only Fox on the planet." He smiled.
"Why are you so curious about John and Monica?" She asked.
"I don't know, it feels like they're stealing our thing." Mulder said.
"Our thing?" Scully asked, the infamous eyebrow raised.
"Yeah... Except they didn't have to wait seven painfully long years to make anything of the office sexual tension. Seriously, male and female partners, friends, and then they fall in love. Sound familiar?" He asked.
"Yes, but only because we probably stole this 'thing' from someone else."
"True, but still... They should have to wait. What about not ruining a friendship?"
"It didn't ruin ours, Mulder." Scully said.
"Ah, true. But we overcame the urges for seven years."
"Somehow.." Scully said.
There was a slight pause.
"Hey, Dana, it's Friday night. You want to go out?" He asked.
"Where to? We never go out." She said.
"Uh uh uh, now we're Bill and Katherine. We go out all the time!" He said.
"Do we really? Where to?" She asked.
"I don't know. They've got to have some good restaurants around here."
After calling their energetic neighbors for a restaurant suggestion, they decided upon a popular Italian restaurant, Angelina's. They changed, and Scully fixed her makeup and hair, and they left. They pulled up to a cute place, not too crowded, and were shown a table in the back. A candle was on the table, and it was pretty romantic, something neither of them were used to.
"It's weird... I don't think we've ever eaten in a place like this." Mulder said.
"How sad is that?" Scully asked.
"Very. We usually just order in... The fanciest place we went to was Casey's, and that was just a pub. I don't know, *Katherine*, maybe we could get used to this."
"Maybe, William." She smiled.
They ordered the most expensive wine in it's largest bottle, which was absolutely delicious. Both of them had chicken parmesan, which was just as wonderful. By the time the food was finished, they'd polished off the bottle of wine. Foregoing desert, they paid the ridiculously expensive tab, and got ready to leave. Walking to the car, the effects of the wine were obvious.
"Mul'er, you okay to drive?" Scully asked.
"Yes, you drank the most of the wine." Mulder said.
"Mm, did not." She said, followed by a long pause.
"I had fun tonight, Dana." Mulder said.
"You sound like it's our first date." She said, smiling.
"Well, we never actually went on a date." Mulder reminded her.
"Yeah, you're right. We started as friends, and then just jumped to the good stuff."
"The good stuff, Scully?" Mulder said, as he opened the door to the car for her, and they each got in. "It wasn't good before we started having sex?" He asked jokingly.
"No, it was just different... We used to take these car rides, like this one, on cases though, and we'd just sit here like idiots, not saying anything, and it was awkward. Well, not awkward, 'cause we were friends… But different." She began her first of several run-on sentences that night. "But then everything changed in one night, and then we were able to talk, really talk like this, on all the car rides." She said.
"You've had too much wine, Scully." Mulder said, amused at her sloppy appearance. It was amusing because of it's rarity.
"No, it's true, it's the little things that changed... Sometimes you call me Dana now. You never called me Dana unless it was really serious, but now you call me it once in a while, especially when your being emotional or romantic or something."
"I suppose you're right." Mulder said. After a pause, Scully looked over at him.
"Hey Mulder?" She said, getting his attention. "Let's get home so we can skip ahead to the good stuff."