Mulder spent two more days in the hospital. All the test showed that he was in perfect medical health. Even his scars started to heal themselves. So they sent him home. Scully drove him and his single bag back to his apartment. She hadn't had the heart to sell it yet.
"Must feel good to be home." He made a noncommittal noise as he looked around. Scully proceeded in to drop the duffle in the bedroom.
"Something looks different." Mulder commented, feeling like an outsider in his own home. Scully was more at home here than he was.
"It's clean." Scully had been coming over every day, to feed the fish and to slowly make her way through the clutter. She had been getting it ready for sale. She now felt guilty. The situation was awkward, as if Mulder knew why it was clean. "Ah, that's it." Mulder looked at his fish tank while Scully played with her key ring. She didn't want it to be strange between them. when she had been sitting at his bedside she never thought it would be awkward.
"Missing a molly" She knew he was searching for conversation but it hurt her that all he could find to talk about was the damn fish. "She wasn't as lucky as you." Mulder sat on his desk and looked at her, surprised by the hostility in her voice.
"Mulder...I don't know if you'll ever understand what it was like. First learning of your abduction...and then searching for you and finding you dead. And now to have you back and, uh..." she couldn't force the words out. She stopped. He decided it was time to try humor " Well, you act like you're surprised." He laughed at his joke, but she didn't. He glanced away.
"I prayed a lot. And my prayers have been answered." She looked at him unflinchingly. He looked down at her stomach "in more ways than one.", now protruding quite a bit from her little frame. "yeah"
"I'm happy for you. I think I know... how much that means to you." Scully couldn't take it any more. There had never been this between them before, now…She had been on an emotional roller coaster for about the past week and was about to cry. "Mulder…"
He cut her off, whatever she was going to say never got out. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to be cold or ungrateful. I just... I have no idea where I fit in. Right now. I just, uh...I'm having a little trouble...processing...everything." he looked at her for a long moment then looked out his window.
Scully turned abruptly and he thought she was about to walk out of the apartment and out of his life. Instead she went into the bedroom and rooted through the duffle bag. She pulled out a sheet of paper. Slightly wrinkled and smudged but with a partial print clearly visible in chocolate. "This, Mulder, is where you fit in. I don't know how this got to the hospital, all I know is this. The day you were buried it was in my apartment. I had a dream and it was gone. It came out of the grave with you. Mulder, I don't know if you remember but for months you came to me every night. It was real Mulder. It was real." When Mulder didn't reply immediately it seemed to break down the last reserves Scully had and she slumped in place. She closed her eyes and focused on simply breathing.
She didn't hear him move until he wrapped his arms around her. Since he had woken up it was the first time he had touched her, sure he had brushed her hand on the way to the car, but now he touched her. He pulled her close to his chest and in his arms she felt so good. protected and loved.
He led her over to the bed and they lay down together, holding each other as they had longed to do for such a long time. Each had matching tear stains upon their cheeks. Mulder started to hum the melody of "Take My Breath Away", the love theme from Top Gun. The same scene they watched together more than three months ago, sitting on Scully's couch, eating Raisinetts. For now there was no question that it was real. "I love you, Dana." Mulder whispered. There was no need for her to say it, just as there had been no need for him to say it. "I love you, Fox, more than you can know."
Alright fokes, there's the end. again. sorry about the re-write, but I think it's better this way, what do you all think?