disclaimer: not mine, don't sue


An indirect flight to D.C. had been bumped up on the schedule.

She left for Him at 4:30.

He landed at the airport at 4:35.

Just like last time.

Just like in a movie.

Things were exactly the same.

And on the way over on the plane, Fox Mulder had done two things.

1) he called Skinner to tell him that he would need a few days (and possibly the rest of his Life [or the lack of one]) to himself to think things out

and

2) he promised (himself) that he would go talk to her first before he decided that he was Strong enough to be around her but never see her or touch her and never, ever love Her.

There were some things that needed to be done.

Not for his sake or her's.

But because it was what the characters in the movies would have done.

Of course, Mulder knew that

Real

Life

Is

Not

Like

The

Movies.

But when he showed up at the FBI field office, there was nobody there by the name Dana Scully. Nobody had seen Dana-the-dead since that morning.

"I don't believe that," Mulder had told her director. The director didn't know what to say. He had heard about but had never seen, touched, and never, ever loved Fox Mulder.

So he hadn't known what to expect.

"I'm sorry, Agent Mulder, she's not here. She left this morning."

"Does anybody know where she went?" Mulder asked.

"I'm not sure. Some strange things went on in her office today--"

"What kind of things?"

Mulder was an expert on strange things.

"She was shouting, and when I went down there to check everything out, she was hugging her partner."

Her partner, not her partner.

And while Mulder could believe many things, he did not believe that. How could his Dana Scully hug Mark-with-the-broken-nose?

After everything that happened.

Maybe he was losing her. Or had he already lost her?

"She hugged him?" he asked in a disgusted way.

"Yes. It was strange, but nothing appeared to be happening--"

"Where is her partner? I want to see him NOW," Mulder demanded.

"Hold on, Agent Mulder, I'll call his office--"

"I'll call his office because She is my partner!"

Even though he knew he would hear about it later (FBI got the bill, he got the lecture), he picked up the director's phone and dialed the standard switchboard number. He asked for him, not Mark-on-the-ground, not Mark-with-the-broken-nose, but just simply Mark Sloveny, though his name left a bad taste on his lips and set his tongue on fire.

"Special Agent Mark Sloveny," he answered.

"Where did she (She) go?" Mulder demanded to know.

"Excuse me, who is this?"

"This is the guy that punched your lights out, and if you don't tell me where Scully is right NOW I'll do it again!"

"Agent Mulder!"

"Agent Mulder?"

"I would advise you to give me an answer quickly."

"You're in Salt Lake City?"

"Yes! Now tell me where Dana Scully is!"

"Hold on. I'm coming down there. Please don't take this the wrong way. I just have to say this in person…"

"The clock is ticking, Agent Sloveny."

And he hung up.


Special Agent Mark Sloveny did no have to take the elevator up to get to his director's office.

Not like Mulder did.

Still, he arrived in the office in about the same time it took Mulder to get to Skinner's office. Maybe a little less. There was more to lose now.

"Agent Mulder," he started.

"I want to know where she (She) is and why she (She) isn't here," Mulder started as well, in a less friendly manner.

Mark's nose was still wrapped up, he noticed.

"Mulder, she isn't here. She left awhile ago." "You had to come all the way down here to tell me that? What, did you just want to see my face?"

"No, it's not that. I just… can't believe the irony of the situation."

Mulder had had enough of irony.

"What the hell do you mean? Can you please tell me, Mark (with-the-broken-nose) what the hell is so ironic about this situation?"

"Well, it's just… she left for D.C. to go find you."


Scully arrived at the airport (her old friend) around 8:30 that night. After a stop in Chicago (more irony), she was ready to see Mulder. After picturing his face and imagining his touch and smell for four hours, she was ready. She would never be more ready ever again.

She was going to knock on the door, but felt so uninvited. And loud.

And souls don't knock.

They just enter.

So she took out his key (her key, that he had given her to use so that she would not have to knock) and unlocked the door.

What she found she had not been expecting to find. After picturing and smelling Mulder for the entire plane ride (and before, when she was Waiting), she was not prepared to picture what sat in front of her.

An empty apartment.

With no Mulder.

Words could not describe what she felt, but she tried to find some.

Alone, she then realized, was not just a feeling or a state of being.

It was her life. Her Life (and her lack of one).

And as this thought wave hit her, she had no choice other than to fall to her knees and cry. For everything she had lost. For her own selfishness and the fact that she had been the one to lose it.

Her fault.

Her dreams.

Her hope.

Her heartache.

Is this what he felt when he showed up at the airport five minutes late?

Only his couch remained in the living room, too big to go into storage and too personal to be sold just yet. Scully somehow managed to drag her alone-ridden body (as if it were diseased) over to the sentimental piece of furniture and lay down on it, trying to absorb it or maybe disappear into it.

She promised she would not run away from him.

She sobbed on the couch until she reached that place between A Sleep and A Wake where nothing hurts and things hurt more than they normally do.


"She what?"

"She left for D.C. this morning to go find you. That's why we were shouting, Sir. She was promising me; promising herself that she wouldn't leave once she got there," Mark tried to explain. Mulder had to sit down. He couldn't take the irony.

"I can't believe the timing," Mark felt it important to add.

Mulder could.

They were exactly the same.

"What flight did she leave on?" was his next question. He had calmed down considerably. Mark's behavior still puzzled him, but if he moved fast enough (and in a separate direction), he would not have to deal with him much Ever Again.

"I'm not sure. Knowing Dana she would get the first one-way out, right?"

That was what she would do.

But that's not what would have been done in the movies.

There would have been something in the way.

"Something got in the way," Mulder whispered to himself, and got up to leave. "I hope everything turns out alright, Agent Mulder," Mark-who-was-not-on-the-ground yelled down the hall.

The director was still confused. At the irony… at everything.

He caught the next one-way to D.C.

The one that left at 6:30.

The one that she would have been on if the fates and the gods of love weren't so concerned with their movie.

I thought you were done playing, Mulder said to them.

There was an on-flight movie on the way home. A love story. One that would last the entire ride because this was a one-way (because he was never going back).

Man and woman.

Fall in love.

Don't know it.

Leave.

Find.

Leave.

Find.

Kiss.

Happily Ever After.

What comes next?

Your present and future.