Title: Remember When? Part three: Life Happens
Author: Jen Zoromski
All other information in the first chapter.
Thanks to everyone who has reviewed. You guys are awesome! Thanks so much. Sorry that its taken so long.
Well, enjoy!
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Bethesda Nursing Home
June 9, 2052
Catherine gently shakes the old woman awake.
"Mulder!" the woman cries out.
"No, it's Catherine."
"Oh dear, what happened?"
"You fell asleep," Catherine pauses, "You were telling me a story."
"About what dear?"
"You don't remember?"
"I think I do, but I just want to make sure. You know how it is with the Alzheimer's."
"You were on you're way to find your son."
At first the older Dana Scully stares at Catherine, confused. She tries to recover the images of the past. She tries to let the voices from her past talk to her, talk through her. After a long moment she a small smile graces her lips.
"Do you remember when?" Catherine asks.
"Remember when what?" She asks.
"All of this happened?"
"We pulled off to the side of the road and--" she blushes slightly, even at eighty-eight the normally stone faced, Dana Scully, couldn't keep her cheeks from turning crimson. During her years as an FBI agent just thinking about Mulder in a romantic way, especially when he was still around made her embarrassed.
"It's all right," Catherine reassures her, "I'm a big girl, I can figure it out."
"That's good, dear. How old are you Katie?" Scully asks her.
Catherine looks at her taken aback.
"I'm twenty-six," Catherine swallows hard, "My mom always called me Katie."
"What happened to your mom?"
"She died when I was four."
"Oh, dear I'm sorry."
Catherine smiles at her, trying to reassure the old woman that she didn't strike a nerve, but the smile was her way of keeping the tears at bay.
"No, its all right," Catherine tells her.
Dana Scully looks away for a moment. Staring at the pictures all around her room. It's her life. The life that she can't remember. Pictures of a young man with auburn hair and dark hazel eyes smiling as he stands next to a brown-haired man and a woman with really dark hair, starting to show signs of age.
She picks up the picture, running her fingers softly over the young man's face.
"This is William."
"Who are those people with him?"
She stares at them, but like all of the other details she can't find an answer to the question. Somewhere in her memory they are there, but she can't access those memories.
"I have no idea."
Catherine nods, placing her hand reassuringly on the old woman's.
"I want to hear more of this story."
"Did you know that we helped to save the world?" Dana Scully asks absently.
"No, I didn't. What happened after the roadside stop?" Catherine inquires.
"You know after everything that I've forgotten that entire year I remember like it was yesterday. I remember the details, the specifics. How is that possible?"
"Alzheimer's is a strange disease."
"How come you're not a doctor, dear?" Dana Scully asks out of no where.
"I graduated from medical school, but chose not to practice."
"Why's that dear?"
"I thought that I could do something better with my life, I was thinking about doing investigative work, like with the FBI or something."
"The FBI's still around?"
"They had quite a scare in 2012, but it is still there running strong. It's just that my uncle doesn't want me to join the FBI," Catherine pauses, "He told me that so much in our family has been lost because of the FBI, but I can't even imagine what could be sacrificed."
Dana Scully weakly smiles, knowing exactly what can be lost.
"Everything."
The room is intensely quiet.
"After the roadside stop we drove non stop to Montana."
"Why Montana?"
"That's where William was."
"I thought that they closed adoption records."
"They did," Dana Scully says with a twinkle in her eyes, "But Mulder and I had our resources, even when we were on the run."
"So what happened when you got to Montana?"
"Life happened…"
TBC
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More to come! Please R&R
Thanks!
~Jen
