Title: Chapter 7: Gain
Author: Gillian Leigh
Disclaimer: See Chapter 6. I'm tired of writing them.
~(X)~
After the news that her cancer had relapsed, Dana was forced to take a sabbatical leave. She was approaching the entrance to her apartment building a full month after she and Mulder had called it quits, only to be confronted by the security guards dragging a girl, literally kicking and screaming from the building.
"I don't care who you are! You aren't allowed to just wander around the building. I don't know how you got in, but you are most certainly leaving now," one said to the girl.
"No, I came here to see Dana, and I'm not leaving until I do!" Perplexed, Dana increased her pace to get closer to the building. Upon reaching where the guards struggled with the girl, she saw that they were struggling with Mulder's daughter, Eve.
"It's alright," she said to the guards. "You can let her go. I'll take care of her." The guards released Eve.
"We would appreciate it, Ms. Carver, if next time you plan on having *this one* come over, you have her wait for you," the taller of the two guards said.
"Fine," Dana said, walking past the two guards, bag of groceries in hand, as she used her key to enter the building. They rode in the elevator, and Eve was unable to meet her eyes.
"Eve, what are you doing here?" Dana asked. "You know your father and I aren't seeing one another anymore."
"That's why I'm here. You two need each other," the girl pleaded, a strand of hair hanging in her face. Sighing with aggravation, Dana tucked the strand of hair behind Eve's ear, and said,
"Your father has never needed me. He didn't then, and he doesn't now. From what I hear he's doing just fine with your mother again." Eve slammed the door.
"God damn it! You just don't get it, do you?!" she shouted. "He's miserable! He's so deeply in love with you that he went back to *her* to get his mind off of *you*!"
"I'm dying, Eve, surely you know that. No one needs to be burdened with that," Dana said, quietly. setting her bag of groceries on the counter. Frustrated, Eve paced the floor of the kitchen, tugging on the ends of her hair.
"You're in denial about this too! My God, Dana, he was going to ask you to *marry him*."
"And then he found out I was dying and wanted nothing to do with me!" she shouted, angrily slamming the cabinet she'd just put a box in.
"No, Dana, he's angry because you lied to him! He's got major trust issues, and the fact that you kept from him that you have cancer doesn't help matter much. He thinks that you can't trust him enough to tell him things, and he's worried that you don't love him. I'm tired of seeing the two of you fuck up the best thing you've ever had! When you figure out what the hell you want in your life, give him a call. It'll take a lot to fix it, but if he means as much to you as you do to him, I don't see why the two of you don't just give it a shot." And with that she walked out of Dana's apartment, slamming the door behind her.
Dana knocked at Mulder's apartment door, and held her breath as she listened to his approaching footsteps. She nervously tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. She'd become so accustomed to wearing her wig that she sometimes forgot it wasn't actually her hair.
"Dana?" Mulder questioned, snapping her out of her reverie. "What're you doing here?" he asked, quietly.
"Your daughter is quite the speaker," she said, just as quietly.
"Did she come to your apartment? God, I told her not to do that!" he said, angrily. Dana rested her hand on his arm.
"No, she was right to come. I can't let things end like this. I can't leave things between us in such terrible shape." Mulder noticed that for the first time since he'd met her, she looked small, and very ill.
"Come inside and sit down, Dana. You don't look well." She sank gratefully into the couch, and smiled briefly before saying,
"I feel like such an ass." Mulder sank into the couch beside her, and she looked him in the eye before continuing. "I should've told you about my cancer when we first started dating. I justified lying to you by omission by telling myself that I was in remission, and that it wasn't affecting my life, so it shouldn't be a burden in yours. I was wrong, and I'm sorry."
"You should've told me sooner, but the way I reacted in the hospital didn't help matters at all either. We were both wrong."
"I'm not expecting things to go back to being the way they were before, at least not immediately, but I hoped we could at least be friends..."
"...with benefits?" he asked, raising his eyebrows suggestively. She laughed heartily, and he laughed too, and kissed her on the forehead. "We can be what we were before, Day. I'm willing to give it a shot. But under one condition..." She raised her eyebrows as he took her hand in his. "No more secrets." She smiled.
"Agreed." He surprised her by kissing her, when she was running out of breath, she pulled back and before Mulder's lips could reach hers again, she said,
"Are you putting the moves on me Agent Mulder? What makes you think I'm that kind of girl?" He simply smiled and pulled her into him again, kissing her forcefully. Mulder smiled, it was going to be a good day after all.
Author's Notes: Now aren't you glad you read this chapter and *didn't* send me an exploding package? :oP LOL. Oh, and by the way, expect some angsty plot type stuff in the chapters to come. It can't all be fluff, now can it?