Chapter 2 THE CALL
Scully paced the floor, bouncing William. She watched her mother desperately wringing her hands. It had been two weeks since Margaret Scully had replied to the letter from Marissa Weston. Scully's reaction had been less than favorable. Melissa would have told her. Sure they were both in school at the time and rarely bothered to keep in close contact, a baby was definitely worth a phone call.
There was a phone call that was bothering her though, at the end of the Spring 83' semester. Melissa was staying in Philly over the summer with a boyfriend, a boyfriend named Marc. Bill and Charlie didn't remember much about the sporadic contact with Melissa during those years. Bill was working his way through the Navy ranks and Charlie was captain of the football team, Mr. All American High School Senior. Scully hadn't told her mother about the boyfriend named Marc, she didn't want to build false hope. After everything that she had put her mother through in the last nine years, all the broken promises and heartache. Mulder had only just returned, thankfully healthy and intact. It was only in explaining the end of the danger, the eventual defeat of the conspiracy that she finally revealed all that had been at stake. Her heart broke as the realization of true near misses and what Melissa had really died for fell upon Margaret Scully.
And now as all the pieces fell in to place; Bill and Tara happy and content with Matt and little brother Andrew, Charlie and Sarah, with three perfect little girls and Scully finally had her man and her miracle baby; Melissa was the one thing she could never have. Melissa was the piece from her heart that would never allow Margaret to be whole. This girl, this almost a woman with half of Melissa's name was chance. It was a possibility where none had existed before. Margaret had sent hair and blood samples, Scully had sent the DNA samples on file from the murder investigation. Today was the day. The call was coming. In a short while the mystery would be revealed, for better or worse. Was Marissa her last, best, only hope to fill the void?
Scully sat next to her mother. William leaned and stroked his grandmother's face with a chubby hand and all the gentleness a baby possesses. Margaret kissed his plump fingers and sighed heavily against her daughter. Dana had always been such a pillar of strength and resolve, both of which were quickly fading in herself. If there was ever a person to weather such a season as this, it was surely Dana Katherine Scully. And there it was, the detail that had nagged at her since first reading the letter. "I discovered that there was no Melissa Katherine." Katherine, the given surname, Dana's middle name. It wasn't much, but it was something. A reason to believe, a inkling of hope.
Mulder wandered out of the kitchen, carrying two steam mugs of Earl Grey. He had barely reached the couch when the phone rang.