EPILOGUE

"This is the end. This story's old, but it goes on and on, until we disappear."

--Brand New, "Play Crack the Sky"

It's been a year since the day of the failed infiltration, a year since my most recent brush with death in the form of a gunshot to the gut. A year of healing, or reopening wounds, and sewing them back up again. A year living in desperate fear that the wounds would be infected, and never heal. But they had begun to heal, leaving faint scars across my life. Each wound, a bullet here, a scratch there, marking another moment, another split second. Another chance to recover.

In the last year, we have made progress. Progress in every aspect of our life, yes, but the pressing issue of the moment is progress in our fight against colonization. Over the past year, we've been tracking the members of the Consortium with the help of the Gunmen. After the fight between the alien rebels and the alien colonists put a supposed end to the project, the group of men included in the plans dwindled. Many were killed in the hangar that night, but new men soon took their place. Smokey is still around, and as long as he was, the work seemed to continue.

Krycek is alive, that we know, but underground somewhere. We've been unable to find him, though Mulder is dying to get his hands on the little rat. We have researched army bases, finding that the colonization date was kept only at maximum security facilities after it was found that Mulder had accessed them. They had covered their tracks impeccably, and it took us quite some time to locate another facility housing the base.

Mulder and I finally found a compound where we could find the date and the information, Mount Weather. It is nearby in Virginia, but security is extremely tight. It would take a meticulously planned infiltration, one without the help of the Bureau, to access what we needed. It was one thing to get backing from Skinner on getting inside a warehouse, but something else entirely when it related to the United States Military. Skinner was willing to believe our government was in on it, but we couldn't expect the man to back us on it, surely he'd lose his job if he did.

Our work is painstaking. Carefully and slowly we accumulated information from a variety of sources. The Gunmen set us up with keycards. Mulder had a meeting with an informant, whom we checked on before trusting. Our new policy was to make sure we had something to hold over the heads of those who gave us information, so that they couldn't betray us. We got a large portion of our intelligence from General stationed at the base, disturbed with the information and willing to work alongside us. After all, some people just can't stomach the idea that they have to willingly hide imminent destruction from the public for a living. In this way, along with other methods, we've gained access codes, blueprints, and tidbits of information that helped us along.

And here we are, planning to infiltrate in a few months. It's hard to believe it's been a year since Mulder and I got back together again. Looking back, though, the year has been more than just work. We've put more than just our crusade back together; we've put our lives back together. Today has been less difficult for me than I imagined it would be. Mulder is here for me, and Rob is in a better place. And I'm okay, for the first time in a long time. I'm with somebody I love, doing what I know is right. It's a sense of relief I haven't felt much in my life, but I've probably felt it more this past year than ever before.

We've adjusted nicely to being both lovers and partners, but there were some bumps in the road. I can remember more than one argument in our dark basement office, as we worked later than any two people should ever have to. I can remember talking out those arguments in a healthy way, and I can remember solving other arguments in an angry kiss, followed by a solution that was probably less healthy emotionally, but more fun physically. And in the end, whether it is in the office or in the privacy of our bedrooms, we always realize that the only way we can ever solve anything is to put aside our pride for a moment and talk about it. Of course, I suppose some things still go unsolved. Between the two of us, pride and ego is a big issue, but we both manage to suppress the urge to always be right once in a while.

There were perfect moments, too. We spent Christmas together, as this year it was at my Mom's in Baltimore. I don't think Mulder would have agreed to stay out in San Diego with Bill, but he did manage to put up with him for a little while at my Mom's for Christmas Eve dinner. We drove home and spent the morning together, opening gifts and sipping hot chocolate like regular people. We drank champagne on New Years. We went out to fancy restaurants, but still preferred little places that reminded us of Casey's. We spent lazy Sunday mornings reading the New York Times in bed. We spent a year making up for a decade of lost time.

And today, I have realized that I truly have moved on. Despite everything that has happened to me from the moment I walked into the basement office all those years ago, I have managed to recover. Mulder and I are okay. We're planning a new infiltration. We're living what is in some ways a new life and in some other ways our old life. We've begun to work the kinks out, and I'm sure there will always be problems. But now, with him here beside me, things are okay. Things are better than okay.

I never thought I could really forgive him. I never thought that things would be like this again, but here I am. Here I am on Mulder's couch, having just eaten a big dinner of take-out, sipping a glass of wine. Remembering a year in my life, and all of the years before it. Realizing that I'm happy. I'm myself again, the person I haven't been in so long. I don't have the perfect life, but I have the life that I know how to live. I have the life I'm happy with. I have a life with the man I love, doing the right thing, no matter how difficult that may get.

I've been many places in my life. I've lived all over this country at one time or another. I've called so many places home that I've lost count. Childhood homes in San Diego, college dorms in Maryland, Army bases all over the world, and apartments in Georgetown. Being here on Mulder's couch, as he sits down beside me to settle in for a movie, just feels right. Getting ready to find out what they kept us from finding last year feels right. Working on the X-Files, running across monsters and mutants, feels right.

I find Mulder catching my pensive gaze, and I see worry come to his eyes. He asks quietly what I'm thinking. And I turn to Mulder and say something that I never thought I'd be able to say after one night on an empty beach.

"I'm thinking," I pause a moment, "I'm thinking that we're going to make it. I'm thinking that our work is going to survive…that WE are going to survive. I'm thinking that I'm happy for the first time in a long time."

"I'm thinking the same thing," he says quietly.

We share a kiss, getting ready to keep fighting, together.

.end.

FINAL AUTHOR'S NOTES: Wow! I started posting this story ages ago, and I started writing it ages before that! And now I can say that it is FINALLY posted in its entirety. There are several people I have to thank for that. First and foremost, Agent Balinski, relentless proof-reader who works in exchange for early pieces of fanfic and any interesting gossip. Thanks for pushing and pestering me to write, and for being such a fabulous friend.

To Tefla, for her beta work, for reading, for being a fan, and for being a friend.

And yes, to everyone who read this. Because let's be honest—if you didn't tell me what you thought, I'd never bother to post and I'd never improve. I'm a whore for feedback and you guys kept me turning tricks! :-D I must especially thank those who reviewed each and every chapter—thank you for guilting me into posting new chapters. I'm sorry I kept you all waiting so long, because I know how impatient I can get when I'm into a fic. Thank you for sticking around, for reading, and especially for your feedback. It's good to know the fandom isn't dying.

Now that I've thanked you all, I can say that I am working on more new stuff. I have the beginnings/middles/ends/drafts of some short pieces that you should look out for in the next month or so. Also, I'm working on a longer casefile where Mulder and Scully hunt for a serial killer on the Jersey Shore. I'm very excited because it's the first story I've written that doesn't really center on MSR, but rather on a case. Although there is some lovely UST, and maybe I'll throw in a kiss… grin

So thanks for sticking around. I hope you had fun, I know I did.

To send feedback, criticism, conversation, help, advice, or birthday presents ;-D, e-mail me at

You guys rock!

THE END!