Title: Remember When?: Rediscovery
Author: Jen Zoromski
All other information is in the first chapter
Thanks everyone for the feedback! Enjoy!
*********
Roswell, New Mexico
May 20, 2002
Mulder and Scully lay on the rumpled motel bed, clinging to one another for dear life. Their bodies fit perfectly together as he lays behind her, his arms wrapped around her tiny frame.
Both of them continue to breathe in slowly, one of their rare moments of being content in sleep.
Mulder stirs. Opening his eyes slowly he looks around the room, a look of panic comes over his face, before realization finally hits him. Mulder remembers everything now. He slowly gets out of bed and heads for the bathroom, closing the door quietly behind him.
The shower starts to pound on Mulder's back. Piercing water hits his back massaging away from of the built up stress. He closes his eyes, leaning his head back and just letting the water hit his skin.
***
A dark figure chases Scully through a dark alley.
A piercing cry echoes through the lonely alley.
Scully approaches an infant's car seat and peers in, cautiously - a small baby with deep hazel eyes and blond hair with a tint of red stares up at her.
William.
Footsteps come closer and Scully looks away from her son.
"He's in danger and only you and Mulder can protect him," the raspy voice tells her through the shadows. "You have little time."
***
Scully sits up with a start, sweat pouring down her face.
"Whoa, Scully, it's just me," Mulder tells her with his hand resting on Scully's shoulder.
Mulder studies Scully's ashen face. A look of inquiry comes into his eyes, but in knowing Scully for all the years he has learned not to pry.
"We have to get to him," Scully says starting to panic.
"Get to who? Scully are you all right?"
"William - he's in danger," she whispers repeating the shadowy figure's warning.
"Are you sure?" Mulder inquires, very concerned.
"Mulder trust me."
"So its one of those motherly intuition things?" Mulder says trying to lighten the atmosphere.
"If you only knew, Mulder."
Highway 24
Somewhere in New Mexico
2:18 p.m.
Scully stares out the window watching the scenery pass them by. Nothing much in particular. A few pieces of brush, a lot of sand, but that doesn't concern her at the moment - she's lost in her own thoughts.
Mulder, too, doesn't talk. Some moments they don't need to. He looks over at Scully, concerned, but how many times have they been in this situation? How many times have they been on the run from someone or something? How many times?
"Scully," Mulder whispers.
She continues to stare out the window, lost in her own thoughts.
"I shouldn't have given him up," Scully says, her voice quivering.
Mulder places his hand over hers, trying to reassure her.
"You were trying to protect him."
"I trusted a man that I shouldn't have. I trusted a weasel--"
"--No, Scully, you needed to protect him."
"Mulder, I listened to Jeffery Spender, a scoundrel, that neither one of us trusted three years ago. What made it different?"
"The life of a child," Mulder replies softly, "Our child."
"I miss him so much," Scully tells him biting her lip to keep her from crying.
"Me too," he responds.
They both become silent again as they pass across the state line between New Mexico and Texas. Another state. Another couple hundred miles before they need to ditch the Expedition and get a new car. And then after that another few more hundred miles: zig-zagging across the country to make sure no one is following them.
"Mulder?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you have a plan?"
"When don't I have a plan?"
"Wonderful," Scully says sarcastically, almost reminiscent of their earlier years together.
"What? Scully you can't doubt me that much. When was the last time I was wrong?" Mulder asks innocently.
Scully shoots him one of the patent 'Scully' looks - the one between anger and humor.
"Okay, so maybe I was wrong a few times."
"A few times, Mulder? Do you remember the fluke man thing? I think that could count for at least a few wrong decisions."
"Wow, Scully I've been gone for nine months and you just don't change," Mulder says playfully as he looks over at her grinning.
"Mulder," Scully replies in a tone that wipes the grin off of his face.
"Sorry," he pauses, "being gone for all of those months made me wish for the easier times. The times when I was just known as 'Spooky Mulder' and not a threat to the alien invasion for the end of the world."
"Do you have any idea what I went through during those long months?"
"I can only imagine, but you know my life wasn't peachy either."
"Look, Mulder, just forget it. I'm tired and I don't want to have this conversation."
"Scully we need to have this conversation," Mulder insists.
"Not while you're driving. You might run into something," she says turning towards the window and trying to get comfortable.
"What am I going to run into?" Mulder asks staring into the vastness of the open Texas plains.
"Fine. So you want to have this conversation. I was so damn worried about you. I thought everyday when the phone rang that it was someone calling to say that your body turned up at a local hospital, dead. I thought that this time around I wouldn't get lucky enough to have you come home," Scully pauses for a breath. She's starting to become worked up.
"Scully--"
"--I'm not done. I was always waiting for the aliens or the mutants or the super soldiers or who ever the hell the newest threat was to come after me and to take our son away. And then there was a part of me that worried everyday when I went into work I'd end up in a case where I wouldn't make it home to William. I'd worry about him growing up, about him being a normal child. And a part of my heart was taken with you and I didn't think it would be returned because we've gotten so many chances before. I kept thinking that our luck would have to run out."
As Scully's rampage went on Mulder had guided the car over to the side of the road, placing the vehicle in park. Tears glisten in the corners of Scully's eyes and Mulder takes her into his arms. She breaks down in sobs, her head resting on his shoulder.
After what seemed like an eternity Scully's sobs slowed and she pulled her head away from his shoulder.
He gently takes her head into his hands, staring deep into her eyes.
"You and William were all I thought about. The idea of seeing you and him was what kept me going, kept me from giving in. It kept me from laying down and letting them win. Scully, you are my reason for living, my reason for coming home."
Scully smiles through her tears.
Mulder leans in and catches her lips with his. At first the kiss is gentle and soft, but passion takes over. In the middle of nowhere Texas Mulder and Scully rediscover one another. A discovery that has taken nearly a year to be complete. A discovery that could come back to remind them of what they are really living for.
TBC
*******
Please Review! Thanks…more to come in Scully's story!
~Jen
