"Hope is a waking dream." Aristotle

Epilogue:

The Morning After

Jack held Scully in his arms. She felt so damn good. He felt her soft curves, her soft texture, her soft down insides-

Her soft down insides?

Jack opened his weary eyes. He stared at a white ceiling. Morning light drifted in through a large window above his head. Jack shut his eyes and opened them again. The morning light burned into his mind. His head felt like it was waging a savage revolt against his body, and losing.

Jack sat up in the bed. There was no Scully, only a pillow in his arms. Jack saw a room service menu on the night desk. So he was in a hotel. His temples throbbed in response to his thinking. Had Jack partied last night away and ended up here. Had it all been- just a dream?

Oh God. Was it just a dream? Even with all that had happened, Jack still wished with all in him that it had been real. *God, it had felt so real!* Jack looked around the room. It had some fancy furniture. A posh hotel. Jack sighed, and he felt an deep ache inside his chest. He felt so alone.

A ringing phone split into Jack's head like an axe. Jack picked it up.

"Hello?" Jack's voice sounded hoarse.

"Jack! Where the hell have you been?!!"

It was his dad.

"I got a call from the office saying you stormed off yesterday! What're you thinking? This is your future! I tried your cellphone-"

Jack stopped paying attention. The voice just became a loud background noise. Had he been fantasizing and quit his job, then gone out and gotten wasted? Was he so crazy that he made up things in his mind? The more Jack thought, the stronger the ache in him became. Alone.

Eventually Jack hung up. He stood up, and fell back into the bed. *Note to self, stand up slowly*. He successfully tried it again, and managed to stumble over to a mirror on a wall behind a desk. He didn't look so bad. If you didn't count his face. Jack tried to brush his hair with his hands into some orderly shape.

He sighed. Alone. A note on the desk caught his attention. It had some phone numbers and an email on it. Which chick had given Jack this? Then Jack caught the name at the bottom of the note.

Dana.

*What the fu-*

There was a knock on the door. Jack, dazed, stumbled over and opened it up. Scully stood there.

"Hey Jack. You feeling better?"

Jack numbly stared.

"You don't look that good," she said, cocking her head a little, "maybe a hospital would've been better than putting you up in here."

Jack managed to crack a goofy smile.

"I, uh, I, uh- sorry I'm not fully dressed." He was in his boxers.

"I noticed." Her eyebrows arched.

Jack blushed a crimson red.

She continued, "Come on, Mulder wants to talk to you at the hospital. He's doing a lot better, now. Thanks to you."

Jack went back into the room's bathroom and pulled on his old clothes.

He walked to the hallway where Scully was waiting. He thought of having friends like Mulder and Scully. He smiled. Maybe he wasn't so alone after all.

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So that's my story. Hope you liked this ending. I actually liked it better than some of the chapters. I like to think I've got a bit of Jack in me: the charming attitude, the disarmingly good looks, the obsession with a certain red-haired agent- whoops, I've said too much! ;-) Anyhoo, I've got another story coming out, so I'm gonna work on that, thanx for reading this far,

- from Me, (the incredibly charming writer)