Chapter 2: "Who Would Have Thought?"
Disclaimer: I don't own them. Don't both suing me, I have no money. It's not worth it anyway.
* * *
Fox Mulder held the door open for Grace, Maggie and Dana as they exited the bar. They headed back to the dormitory on foot as they continued to chat.
"Dana, what do you plan to do after college with a degree in forensics?" Fox came up along side of her. "Going to be a doctor?"
"Depends if you're asking me or my parents," Dana's smile disappeared.
"You too?" Maggie turned around. "My God, if my parents had my way I would have been married with four children by now." She took Fox's arm.
"My father would have wanted me to remain at the bookstore in Kensington," Grace nodded. "My mother would have wanted me to be the Queen of England."
"Marry Gnarly Charlie?" Maggie laughed. "Prince Edward is the younger one, but he doesn't have a shot at the crown."
"What about you?" Dana turned to Fox. "What do your parents want you to do?"
"I'm sure my mother would want me to be a lawyer, doctor, whatever. My father and I haven't spoken, really spoken to each other, since high school graduation. I'm not even sure that he would care what I did with my life."
"His parents are divorced," Maggie said quietly to Dana. "They hardly speak to each other much less their own son."
"Sorry to hear that." She said solemnly.
"Thank you," Fox said softly. "I came here to get away from it all, the fighting." He sighed.
"Eventually you're going to have to talk to them some time, I can't keep telling her that you're out when I pick up." Grace said. "She already thinks that we're having an affair."
"An affair?" Fox laughed. "No, no more romance for me. Not after Phoebe."
"She still asks about you, I see her in the library every once in a great while." Maggie sighs. "In fact, that's all she talks to me about. 'Where's Fox? Why hasn't he called? Please do tell him that I'm ever so sorry.'" she said in a mocking British accent.
"You haven't spoken to her since it happened?" Grace asked.
Fox nodded. "Not since that night. Can we talk about something else? I'm starting to feel uncomfortable."
"Sorry, Fox." Maggie leaned closer to Dana's ear. "I'll tell you all about it later."
"Where the hell are we off to?" Grace stopped in the courtyard in front of the tower on campus near the library.
Fox checked his watch in the faint moonlit night. "It's not even nine- thirty. If you guys wanted to watch a movie, you can come back to my room."
"Don't you have to study for that human diversity exam tomorrow?" Maggie walked closer to him.
Fox shrugged. "I can always study later tonight, the exam doesn't start until one so I can work straight through lunch after my Greek poetry class."
"Priorities, Fox. Remember you said you wanted to work on them," Grace scolded.
"I think Doug just rented All the President's Men from the video store."
"I call the sofa!" Maggie said as she ran towards the dorms.
* * *
Dana was having a good time, she had no problem admitting that. Normally she wouldn't dare say such a thing, but this was different. She was having fun on her own. Away from her parents and her siblings. Away from the impending school year and the worries of starting her senior year of high school. She was free and clear of any responsibilities here, not that she would ever admit that to her own mother and father upon her return.
"How was your trip dear?" her father would ask. "Get a chance to have some fun in between all that research?"
"Yeah, Dad, Research. met some new people. met a guy. kind of cute actually. He's an American."
Dana stopped herself and looked over to Mulder who had retreated to his desk in order to prepare himself for the following day's exam. Maggie and Grace were wrapped deep within the movie to notice Dana's staring at him. In fact, she was so enthralled herself that she didn't notice that she was looking at him for quite sometime.
She was embarrassed and quickly looked to the movie before he noticed her gaze.
It had been a month since her break-up with John Dalton, the boy she had been dating for almost an entire year. They had first met when being assigned study partners in their CCD class. John lived only a few blocks away from her house and would come over to see her brother, Charlie, even though they were not the greatest of friends. While in Chemistry class, their teacher pared them up together for the unknowns assignment and he asked her out on a date that day. She said yes for some reason, something she no longer understands or remembers. Had someone asked her, she probably couldn't explain why she decided to be with him in the first place.
Charlie had always warned her about him, to just stay away from him. As he had put it, "there was something wrong about that kid." Charlie was right, John had no soul. He wasn't a complete monster or anything, he didn't enjoy torturing small animals for the hell of it or anything like that. No, there was just something lacking in John. He didn't really care for anyone except for himself, and he would remind people of that fact. He only wanted what was best for him. Dana noticed that a few months into their relationship but thought that it might be just a phase he was going through. It wasn't.
Half way through their junior year, she was spending less and less time with him, her grades had become more important than anything else. John wasn't happy. He started coming over more and more often, on purpose, to keep Dana from her studies. Fortunately for her, her mother got wise to the situation and would not allow him entrance as long as Dana was working on her assignments.
Their last month together was the most explosive, John was starting to criticize Dana for her devotion to her work. He started to put her down and demand her obedience or he would leave her. Thinking quickly, quicker than John thought her possible of, Dana left him. She didn't muddy the waters or even pretend to be hurt by their break-up, she said it plain and simple to him that she no longer wanted to be around him.
"Don't come around the house, no one will welcome you. Don't call me, I won't answer if I know it's from you. Don't bother me or else I will be forced to use violence." She tapped her foot on that last note. She was serious.
"Dana, Dana," John laughed at her. "You're only a girl, what could you possible do to me?"
Without a second thought, Dana punched him in the gut just like her older brother Bill had shown her. John fell to the ground in an instant, she then elbowed the back of his neck. The wind escaped his lungs even faster than he had fallen, the force landed him on the ground, sprawled at her feet. Dana stood over him, fists clenched, ready to strike again. John didn't dare. Their last month of school, he hadn't even so much as breathed in her direction, let alone bother her.
After that failed "romance," she had vowed not to even bother with men again. Yet, here she was, thinking of another man.
Fox Mulder was four years older, in college, more than that, in college in England. The likelihood of her even seeing him again after she returned to the United States was moot. But there was something very attractive about this man. He was six-foot tall, muscular, short brown hair, hazel-green eyes, well educated, obviously intelligent, mature.
Dana looked back to Fox at his desk, he sat hunched over a notebook writing. With his other hand he reached for one of his books and threw it against the wall. The book's spine cracked, he looked over and flipped a few pages before he found the one he was aiming for and went back to writing.
He may not be that mature, Dana noted to herself, but he is very attractive.
"You'll have to get used to that," Maggie whispered in her ear. "Textbooks are not his favorite things."
"Hence the throwing," Dana nodded turning back to the movie.
"'Cracking,'" Grace corrected her. "We refer to it as 'cracking.' Throwing is something different, that's when he opens his window and literally throws the book out the window into the courtyard."
"Have you really done that?" Dana looked over to him, now wanting him to notice her.
"Just once, it was an algebra book. I hate algebra, ask Maggie."
"Last day of class his first semester here, he came back into the room and didn't even bother to take off his coat. He put his bag on the desk, took his algebra book and threw it right of the window. It was raining that day, the book was washed to pieces."
"It was done as an example to the others," he gestured to his large stack of textbook near the windowsill. "If they piss me off, out they go."
"You can return your books to the bookstore can't you? Don't they buy back used texts?"
"Only if the course is being offered again, and if the book is in fair shape. Mine wasn't." Fox shook his head.
"Let me guess, from all that 'book cracking' you did?"
"A book isn't worth reading if you can't crack it." Fox said seriously to her before turning back to his studies. "You should keep that in mind when you start studying at. where are you going again?"
"Berkley." Dana nodded.
"Keep that in mind when you start at Berkley. If you really want to have fun, you should try that right there in the bookstore."
"When are you allowed back in the bookstore again?" Grace looked over her shoulder to him.
"He didn't tell you? Fox was actually hired to work there last week." Maggie chimed in.
"You didn't tell me?" Grace gasped.
"Someone's in trouble." Dana laughed.
Fox hid his face with a notebook as Grace flung a pillow at him.
"It's no big deal, Grace. Nothing worth mentioning."
"Nothing worth mentioning?" Grace stood up and walked over behind him. "When one of us gets a car so we can all get off campus for a while, that is worth mentioning. When one of us gets a good mark, that is worth mentioning. When one of us gets a job, even if it's on campus, where they can. This is a paying job, yes?" Fox nodded. "Where they can be paid, have money to rent a car to get off campus for a while, that is worth mentioning!"
"I'll bare that in mind next time." He nodded.
Grace then picked up one of his textbooks and slapped him back with it.
"That, Dana, is the third book verb, 'beating.' Grace came up with that one." Maggie whispered to her.
* * *
Dana lay awake in Grace's dorm room. There was too much Fox Mulder on her mind. Who would have ever though that she would come to England to escape love and find it? Upon the realization that she was in love again, Dana only had one thing to say to encourage herself:
"Idiot."
* * *
That's it for Chapter 2. More coming, stay tuned. Thanks to all who have written in their feedback thus far. I hope more start reading.
Disclaimer: I don't own them. Don't both suing me, I have no money. It's not worth it anyway.
* * *
Fox Mulder held the door open for Grace, Maggie and Dana as they exited the bar. They headed back to the dormitory on foot as they continued to chat.
"Dana, what do you plan to do after college with a degree in forensics?" Fox came up along side of her. "Going to be a doctor?"
"Depends if you're asking me or my parents," Dana's smile disappeared.
"You too?" Maggie turned around. "My God, if my parents had my way I would have been married with four children by now." She took Fox's arm.
"My father would have wanted me to remain at the bookstore in Kensington," Grace nodded. "My mother would have wanted me to be the Queen of England."
"Marry Gnarly Charlie?" Maggie laughed. "Prince Edward is the younger one, but he doesn't have a shot at the crown."
"What about you?" Dana turned to Fox. "What do your parents want you to do?"
"I'm sure my mother would want me to be a lawyer, doctor, whatever. My father and I haven't spoken, really spoken to each other, since high school graduation. I'm not even sure that he would care what I did with my life."
"His parents are divorced," Maggie said quietly to Dana. "They hardly speak to each other much less their own son."
"Sorry to hear that." She said solemnly.
"Thank you," Fox said softly. "I came here to get away from it all, the fighting." He sighed.
"Eventually you're going to have to talk to them some time, I can't keep telling her that you're out when I pick up." Grace said. "She already thinks that we're having an affair."
"An affair?" Fox laughed. "No, no more romance for me. Not after Phoebe."
"She still asks about you, I see her in the library every once in a great while." Maggie sighs. "In fact, that's all she talks to me about. 'Where's Fox? Why hasn't he called? Please do tell him that I'm ever so sorry.'" she said in a mocking British accent.
"You haven't spoken to her since it happened?" Grace asked.
Fox nodded. "Not since that night. Can we talk about something else? I'm starting to feel uncomfortable."
"Sorry, Fox." Maggie leaned closer to Dana's ear. "I'll tell you all about it later."
"Where the hell are we off to?" Grace stopped in the courtyard in front of the tower on campus near the library.
Fox checked his watch in the faint moonlit night. "It's not even nine- thirty. If you guys wanted to watch a movie, you can come back to my room."
"Don't you have to study for that human diversity exam tomorrow?" Maggie walked closer to him.
Fox shrugged. "I can always study later tonight, the exam doesn't start until one so I can work straight through lunch after my Greek poetry class."
"Priorities, Fox. Remember you said you wanted to work on them," Grace scolded.
"I think Doug just rented All the President's Men from the video store."
"I call the sofa!" Maggie said as she ran towards the dorms.
* * *
Dana was having a good time, she had no problem admitting that. Normally she wouldn't dare say such a thing, but this was different. She was having fun on her own. Away from her parents and her siblings. Away from the impending school year and the worries of starting her senior year of high school. She was free and clear of any responsibilities here, not that she would ever admit that to her own mother and father upon her return.
"How was your trip dear?" her father would ask. "Get a chance to have some fun in between all that research?"
"Yeah, Dad, Research. met some new people. met a guy. kind of cute actually. He's an American."
Dana stopped herself and looked over to Mulder who had retreated to his desk in order to prepare himself for the following day's exam. Maggie and Grace were wrapped deep within the movie to notice Dana's staring at him. In fact, she was so enthralled herself that she didn't notice that she was looking at him for quite sometime.
She was embarrassed and quickly looked to the movie before he noticed her gaze.
It had been a month since her break-up with John Dalton, the boy she had been dating for almost an entire year. They had first met when being assigned study partners in their CCD class. John lived only a few blocks away from her house and would come over to see her brother, Charlie, even though they were not the greatest of friends. While in Chemistry class, their teacher pared them up together for the unknowns assignment and he asked her out on a date that day. She said yes for some reason, something she no longer understands or remembers. Had someone asked her, she probably couldn't explain why she decided to be with him in the first place.
Charlie had always warned her about him, to just stay away from him. As he had put it, "there was something wrong about that kid." Charlie was right, John had no soul. He wasn't a complete monster or anything, he didn't enjoy torturing small animals for the hell of it or anything like that. No, there was just something lacking in John. He didn't really care for anyone except for himself, and he would remind people of that fact. He only wanted what was best for him. Dana noticed that a few months into their relationship but thought that it might be just a phase he was going through. It wasn't.
Half way through their junior year, she was spending less and less time with him, her grades had become more important than anything else. John wasn't happy. He started coming over more and more often, on purpose, to keep Dana from her studies. Fortunately for her, her mother got wise to the situation and would not allow him entrance as long as Dana was working on her assignments.
Their last month together was the most explosive, John was starting to criticize Dana for her devotion to her work. He started to put her down and demand her obedience or he would leave her. Thinking quickly, quicker than John thought her possible of, Dana left him. She didn't muddy the waters or even pretend to be hurt by their break-up, she said it plain and simple to him that she no longer wanted to be around him.
"Don't come around the house, no one will welcome you. Don't call me, I won't answer if I know it's from you. Don't bother me or else I will be forced to use violence." She tapped her foot on that last note. She was serious.
"Dana, Dana," John laughed at her. "You're only a girl, what could you possible do to me?"
Without a second thought, Dana punched him in the gut just like her older brother Bill had shown her. John fell to the ground in an instant, she then elbowed the back of his neck. The wind escaped his lungs even faster than he had fallen, the force landed him on the ground, sprawled at her feet. Dana stood over him, fists clenched, ready to strike again. John didn't dare. Their last month of school, he hadn't even so much as breathed in her direction, let alone bother her.
After that failed "romance," she had vowed not to even bother with men again. Yet, here she was, thinking of another man.
Fox Mulder was four years older, in college, more than that, in college in England. The likelihood of her even seeing him again after she returned to the United States was moot. But there was something very attractive about this man. He was six-foot tall, muscular, short brown hair, hazel-green eyes, well educated, obviously intelligent, mature.
Dana looked back to Fox at his desk, he sat hunched over a notebook writing. With his other hand he reached for one of his books and threw it against the wall. The book's spine cracked, he looked over and flipped a few pages before he found the one he was aiming for and went back to writing.
He may not be that mature, Dana noted to herself, but he is very attractive.
"You'll have to get used to that," Maggie whispered in her ear. "Textbooks are not his favorite things."
"Hence the throwing," Dana nodded turning back to the movie.
"'Cracking,'" Grace corrected her. "We refer to it as 'cracking.' Throwing is something different, that's when he opens his window and literally throws the book out the window into the courtyard."
"Have you really done that?" Dana looked over to him, now wanting him to notice her.
"Just once, it was an algebra book. I hate algebra, ask Maggie."
"Last day of class his first semester here, he came back into the room and didn't even bother to take off his coat. He put his bag on the desk, took his algebra book and threw it right of the window. It was raining that day, the book was washed to pieces."
"It was done as an example to the others," he gestured to his large stack of textbook near the windowsill. "If they piss me off, out they go."
"You can return your books to the bookstore can't you? Don't they buy back used texts?"
"Only if the course is being offered again, and if the book is in fair shape. Mine wasn't." Fox shook his head.
"Let me guess, from all that 'book cracking' you did?"
"A book isn't worth reading if you can't crack it." Fox said seriously to her before turning back to his studies. "You should keep that in mind when you start studying at. where are you going again?"
"Berkley." Dana nodded.
"Keep that in mind when you start at Berkley. If you really want to have fun, you should try that right there in the bookstore."
"When are you allowed back in the bookstore again?" Grace looked over her shoulder to him.
"He didn't tell you? Fox was actually hired to work there last week." Maggie chimed in.
"You didn't tell me?" Grace gasped.
"Someone's in trouble." Dana laughed.
Fox hid his face with a notebook as Grace flung a pillow at him.
"It's no big deal, Grace. Nothing worth mentioning."
"Nothing worth mentioning?" Grace stood up and walked over behind him. "When one of us gets a car so we can all get off campus for a while, that is worth mentioning. When one of us gets a good mark, that is worth mentioning. When one of us gets a job, even if it's on campus, where they can. This is a paying job, yes?" Fox nodded. "Where they can be paid, have money to rent a car to get off campus for a while, that is worth mentioning!"
"I'll bare that in mind next time." He nodded.
Grace then picked up one of his textbooks and slapped him back with it.
"That, Dana, is the third book verb, 'beating.' Grace came up with that one." Maggie whispered to her.
* * *
Dana lay awake in Grace's dorm room. There was too much Fox Mulder on her mind. Who would have ever though that she would come to England to escape love and find it? Upon the realization that she was in love again, Dana only had one thing to say to encourage herself:
"Idiot."
* * *
That's it for Chapter 2. More coming, stay tuned. Thanks to all who have written in their feedback thus far. I hope more start reading.
