AN: I have to skip some months ahead because I'm at a dead end on what to do after that scene or chapter.

Now with the story…

Seven Months Later

She never responded it. Gabrielle never wrote back. For some reason, that didn't surprise Mulder. He never expected her to write back, but for once, he wished that he were wrong. Gabrielle is a woman of her word. If she says that she isn't going to do something than she isn't going to do it. Gabrielle may have said that she didn't want to have kids, but she never said that she wouldn't have them. If she did, then Mulder would have definitely left her. But, she didn't say it, so he stayed and she knew that was the only reason he would stay. Don't get Mulder wrong, he loved Gabrielle, but he wanted kids. He wanted a family. Mulder would sacrifice getting married, but he would not sacrifice having a child. The problem was never marriage when it came to Gabrielle, but kids. And that is why Mulder was lost or more like confused. In her letter, Gabrielle stated how much she loved Mulder, but with a child in the equation…it wasn't going to work. Ironic, isn't it, he stayed for the child and she left because of it, or her, Randi.

Mulder wanted an explanation for Randi, them, just everything altogether, so he wrote a letter to her. Never got a response. He knew where she stayed, a mutual friend of theirs accidentally told him. Mulder never visited, it would hurt too much to see her, but now…now Mulder needed to know some answers to the questions he had to ask.

Mulder began to knock on the apartment door and not too soon after he began to knock, someone answered.

"May I help you?" The man who answered the door asked. The man had blond hair, about Mulder's height, and muscular. You could tell by the way he carried himself and the fact that he had on a wife beater.

"Yeah…does a Gab…does a Gabrielle O'Connor live here?" Mulder said as he rubbed his chin nervously.

"Yes, she does. But, she's not here. Why do you want to see her?" The man put cross his arms and began to angrily stare at Mulder.

"Oh, I just came by to visit her and catch up." Mulder said quickly as he began to walk away.

The guy just looked at him. "I'll tell her you came by. What's your name?"

"Fox Mulder." Mulder stated.

"Fox Mulder." The man whispered to himself as if he recognized the name. "Fox Mulder." He looked at Mulder. "Hold on one moment."

The blond haired man was gone for a moment, and then he came back. Mulder could see that the man held an envelope in his hand.

"This Fox Mulder." The man put the envelope in Mulder's face so he could see the name. "The man who wrote this letter to my wife. The man who fucked my wife for three years while I was in the army!" He shouted in Mulder's face.

"Wha…wha…what? Gabrielle was married?" Mulder managed to get out.

"No, she is MARRIED!" The man grabbed Mulder by his collar and pulled him, until they were face to face. "And if you ever touch my wife again, I'll fuck you up so bad that you wished that you were never a man!" He threw Mulder against the opposite wall, and then slammed the door. Mulder stood there in shock for a while.

"Gabrielle is married? Gabrielle's married?" Mulder asked himself, and then pulled out his cell phone and dialed his nanny.

"Hey, Melissa, umm…I'm going to get in late tonight." Mulder said in a low voice.

"Why? Is a new case in?" She asked.

"No, I just need to be alone for a while. I…I…I just need to do some thinking." Mulder rubbed his head. "I need to clear my head."

"Oh, alright." Melissa simply said, but she sounded worried. Then again, she was always worried about Mulder. "Bye."

"Bye." Mulder hung up and began to walk to his car.

9:00 P.M.

Big Sal's Bar

"Mind if I sit here?" A woman asked.

"Let me warn you that I'm not much company." Mulder said in a low voice as he toyed with his drink.

"That's why I came over here. If I sit at a bar someone might try to talk to me, but if I sit here with you, they might stay away. So, may I sit here with you?" She asked after she sipped her beer.

"I don't care."

Mulder was true to his word he wasn't much company. But, the woman didn't seem to mind because she was in her own world. She looked almost as unhappy as he was if not more. The only words being said all night were by the waiter and that was because he was taking orders for drinks.

"Why are you so upset, miss, if don't mind me asking?" Mulder asked because the silence was becoming unbearable.

"Why are you so upset, if you don't mind me asking, Mister?" She gave him a small smile.

"I've just had the worst day of my life and I needed to blow off some steam. You?" Mulder didn't want to tell her why he was so upset. She was a stranger who he knew nothing about. But, sometimes talking to a stranger helped.

"The same." Unshed tears shone in her eyes as she looked at him.

"Not as bad as mine." Mulder said as he started to drink his second glass of Scotch.

"How would you know that?" She raised an eyebrow as she tore a napkin and began to make confetti out of it.

"Well, my girlfriend of three years left me seven, eight months ago after out daughter was born. Today I went to go see her and found out that she's been married all long. The guy practically attacked me and I didn't get to see her. Good thing, because I don't know what I would've done if I saw her whether or not I found out about her marriage. She just did me so wrong. How do you leave someone with an infant?" Mulder shook his head. "I had to find different alternatives to feed my daughter Randi, and then it took her while to stop crying because she missed her mother. So, after she stopped crying for her mother, I had to find a nanny to go back work and stop dating because my therapist said it was unhealthy to attach myself to my daughter. Work is all right, but the dates end horribly because I always talk about Gabrielle, the woman who left our child and me. And did I mention that I'm still in love with her. What kind of bullshit is that? Now can you match that for bad day or a couple of bad months." Mulder challenged.

"I don't know, but I'll try." The woman took a deep, and then began to speak. "Well, I was dating this guy Ethan for about two and a half years. We were perfect together. I got along with his parents and he got along with mine and our families got along. We wanted the same things out of the relationship and everything. So, one day, my friend and I were talking as she was helping me get dressed for dinner with Ethan. All of the sudden, she says that Ethan is going to propose to me. At first, I wasn't so sure about it, but when I thought about it he was taking me to eat at the most expensive restaurant in DC and my friend say that she saw him picking out rings. At that moment, I'm thinking that I am getting married." She stopped for a moment to think.

"So what happened?"

"So, I went to dinner all excited, but didn't show it. Ethan and I began to talk and he tells me that he got a job promotion in Atlanta. I thinking to myself, where do I fit into this equation? I just started my teaching job and it would look bad just for me to quit. Also, I ask him where is he going to stay because he just got this promotion, I mean literally. Ethan tells me that he has a friend in Atlanta and whatnot, and then says that this dinner is about more than us. It's about him being with the person his heart belongs to, which by the way, it belongs to a guy. His best friend Skylar from college, which was another thing, that confused me because Skylar is married with kids and is expecting another. But, Ethan claims that this is a recent discovery. A bullshit discovery that what it was." The woman snorted, and then gulped the rest of her beer door. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not homophobic or anything. But, I'm Catholic. And being gay is a…sin. It may seem as if I'm a hypocrite because I have premarital sex, but there are just some things that you do and do not do. At the same time, if that's what floats your boat, then do it. If that is the only way you can be happy and you've come to terms of where you're going to be in your afterlife or you don't believe in God, then do it. No one can stop you…don't let anyone stop you in your pursuit of happiness."

"So, what did you do?" Mulder asked as he leaned toward the woman.

"I let him go without a fight, but I was upset, disappointed, and confused." She bit back the tears that threatened to fall from her eyes. "He told me that if he never made this recent discovery then he would've proposed. That he wanted that family we used to always talk about." Mulder took her hand in his.

"And you really wanted a baby." Mulder stated as he rubbed that hand that was in his.

"Not now at least, but sometime in the future, you know. I've never been successful in relationships. It's either something is wrong with him, something is wrong with me, or we just can't communicate whether it is mental or physical. You have no idea how long it has taken me to find a successful relationship." The woman shook her head as tears fell.

"He really hurt you, didn't he?"

"Yeah." She whispered softly.

"You're wrong, I do have an idea of how hard it is to find or have a successful relationship." Mulder said in a low and caring voice. Mulder told her about the break up of his family and how he has being trying to have one of his own since then. He told the woman how he thought that every woman was the one when they were actually far from it, and how devastated he was in the end.

"I guess were both pieces of artwork, huh?" The woman said as she smiled.

"Only the best." For the remainder of the night they talked about other things that were unrelated to their failed relationships.

"I just realized that I don't know your name." Mulder said as he smiled at her.

"I don't know yours either." Mulder shook his head in agreement. "The name is Dana Scully, yours?"

"Fox Mulder." He waited to see what she would do.

"Is it a family name or something?" She asked as she played with her confetti from earlier.

"More like something. I don't know where I got my name from." Mulder looked at Dana asked she checked her watch. "You need to leave or something?"

"Yeah, it's getting late. Nice meeting you, Fox." Dana put out her hand for Mulder to shake.

"Do you live close to the bar?" He shook it as he was getting up

"Yeah, two blocks away."

"How about I walk you home? I wouldn't feel right just letting you walk home by yourself all upset and with the beer you just consumed." Dana looked unsure about what Mulder was offering. "Look, I've told you everything about me. You can check my ID and badge. I am who I say I am. And I won't try anything."

"But, what if I want you to." Dana looked at the ground as she said this, and then looked up. "What if I want you to try something with me, but only for tonight. Tomorrow we're strangers on the street and tonight…tonight we leave this insane world. What do you say?"

Mulder needed a release and Dana was offering just that. She understood what the others didn't and wouldn't judge or pity him. She knew what it felt like. Mulder told Dana's face gently in his hands, and then kissed her slow and softly.

"How soon can we leave?"

Oh, that night, they left the world several times. They left the world in the bar's bathroom, the alley, and her bedroom. So much pain just needed to be released and it was. Rationality flew out the window when Mulder agreed. They just had to have one another, but only for tonight. Only for one night.

Before dawn came, Mulder was dressed and almost out the door. But, before he left, Mulder gave Dana a kiss on the forehead. "Goodbye, Dana."

XXXXXXX

Mulder wasn't even in the door when he heard the words,

"Mulder, where have you been? You haven't called, checked in, or anything. Only that one time earlier yesterday." Melissa as she was torn between feeling pissed, relieved, and worried.

"Would you believe me if I said out of this world?" Mulder looked at her seriously, oh now she was definitely worried.

TBC…

AN: That is the best that I can do for now.Umm…I need to find my notebook for the other story to get started on that. Since I changed the second chapter from the original, I need to how the story is going go from there. Most likely the same, But there are a few changes that need to be done. I'm going to try my best to have correct grammar, but I'm really in a rush, so…

Remember that Melissa is the nanny. She's just worried because he didn't call her to check in.