It Returns Epilogue 1

I wake up the next morning with Mulder's arms wrapped around me on my bed in my almost empty room. We had made love all day yesterday, but after the initial confrontation between us, there was no conversation, just sex. I felt that we need to talk, so I tried to turn around to face him, but his arms were like a vice around my waist, trapping me. I dropped my hands to cover his and start to stroke them starting from his fingers and ending at his elbow. After a few minutes his grip on my relaxes and I lift the hand that was on top of me and bring it to my lips and kiss it before turning over and letting his hand settle again, but this time on my lower back. I watch him as he sleeps, not quite ready to wake him up and talk.

His face is relaxed and his lips are twitched up in a slight smile. He looks beautiful and I am reminded about my promise to fight, fight to live, fight for us. And I realize that I am totally and irrevocably in love with the man who has his arms around me. I reach out my hand and trace my fingers over is forehead, eyes, nose, lips and chin; before heading back up and running my hand through his hair. His hair is soft and feels like silk. I am struck by the irony that is hair.

I mean, women go to great lengths by putting in special oils and using special (and expensive) shampoos and conditioners to get their hair to feel like this and all men do is wash it whenever they take a shower and their hair feels like a dream. I watch as his half-smile grows and start to put more pressure as I rub his scalp. I know he's awake, but I keep rubbing his scalp anyway; he'll repay me in the shower.

Oh yeah, he's definitely awake. I can feel his morning glory grow even more as I massage his scalp. So I stop and move my other hand to his head and bring my mouth to his and kiss him. And if I thought his morning glory grew as I massaged his scalp, then it exploded when I kissed him. I let him roll on top of me and proceed to make love to me; again.

Afterwards we lay curled up together, sated. I had my head on his chest and my hand over his heart. His arms were wrapped around me once again. I am so sated, that I could fall asleep again, but I know I can't do that. So I sit up and stretch, before rolling out of bed. I feel his eyes on me the entire time, so I turn to him and grin before sauntering off the bathroom.

************************************X-Files************************************

My doctor seemed shocked when, I asked for an appointment a week later. Mulder pulled into the parking lot and got out with me. We held hands as we walked into the building. I signed in and sat with him in a corner. I leaned against him and rested my eyes, feeling him run his hands through my hair and his kisses to my temple, forehead and crown.

Finally my name was called and we followed the nurse back to the exam rooms, where my height and weight were taken. I was led into a room and given a hospital issue gown to change into with the nurse telling me the doc would be right in. I quickly changed into the gown and sat on the exam table while Mulder sat in the chair near me and had a death-grip on my hand and I on his.

The doctor came in and saw me with someone else, and from the look in her eyes; I think she understood why I had made this appointment.

"What can I do for you today Dana?" She asked.

"I want to fight, I want to live." I told her in a firm voice, but not looking at her. My eyes were locked with Mulder's.

"Why now and not sooner?" She asks next.

"Because now I have a reason to live. A damned fine reason to live. I have a new life to live and by God; I want this new life." I told her, still looking at Mulder. He gave me a smile and brought my hand up to his lips and pressed a kiss to the back of my hand.

The doctor took a deep breath before talking again.

"What if I told you it was too late; the cancer has spread too far? Just for clarification."

"I would find a new doctor and get their opinion." I was firm in my answer; this doctor had yet to really deal with the Scully family stubbornness.

"What if the other doctor told you the same thing?" She was pressing, and I had no clue why.

"Then I would find a way to live this life to the fullest for however long I had left." I am starting to get angry, but it fades to confusion as I see a small smile com over her face as she nods.

"Good. Now that you've said that I have a few ideas about how to treat your cancer. Now I want you to know before we start that I have no clue if it'll work. But here is my plan: No more alcohol, cut down on the coffee and other caffeinated drinks. I want you to run or walk a mile or two everyday if possible, I don't want you to have any loud fights, and I want to keep your stress levels down. I want you to gain a few pounds in muscle and fat. This part of the plan is to get you as healthy as possible, because phase 2 will drain your body; you'll get worse before you get better. As we start with phase 1 I am going to line up tests: an MRI every two weeks to track the growth as well as blood tests every week. While this is going on I am going to set up a chemo treatment plan as a plan B, but I want to see if I can't scramble the tumor out of you like the Ancient Egyptians did for their mummification. Well keep trying until you say stop Dana." She finished talking and looked at us to see if we were on the same page. We were and I nodded and agreed to this treatment plan, knowing that Mulder will partake in this as well; we both need to live healthier lives.

An hour later, after fine tuning some details, we left the office. Mulder drove us back to his apartment where I had moved in, not wanting to live where I had been; plus I had already given it up. We went through the front door and cuddled on the couch, the only sounds were our breaths and heartbeats. But after a time, Mulder started to speak.

"I love you Scully." He told me.

"I love you too, Mulder."

"I need to go into work tomorrow." He was almost whining like a toddler told to go take his nap.

"Mulder we need the money, if I'm going to have an MRI every two weeks and labs every week." I didn't want him to go back, but it was needed.

"Actually we really don't." He seemed a little sheepish at this announcement.

"What? Why?"

"Well I have a trust fund, and my parent's inheritance that they left for me in the will along with everything that they left to Samantha and her trust fund. I haven't done the numbers but with that alone we could live in a small house and pay everything for a few years with just my half, let alone Sam's half. I hope that Sam's half can help with the medical bills."

"Mulder I love you. But you know that you need to work to keep that brain of yours busy."

"I know, but I want to work from home a lot, profiles don't require you to be in the office a whole lot."

"What about the X-Files?" We had talked mainly about me and us this past week, not what was going on at the Hoover building. So I had no clue about what he was taking about.

"Well, a few weeks after you left, the division's solve-rate dropped drastically and Skinner had orders from higher up to shut down the X-Files. I was transferred back to the BAU and the Violent Crimes division; back to profiling. It worked for me; I knew what happened to my sister and I was involved with someone, so staying in town except for special cases seemed ideal." He shrugged and I picked my head up from his chest to look at him. His eyes told me that he really didn't mind his quest for the truth being shut down.

"Why'd the rate drop?"

"I went off after half-baked schemes and didn't follow protocols like we did. Plus I think it helped me to have to prove everything to you."

"And you don't mind being booted?" I needed clarification on this, because it astounds me, I never would have thought that this was possible.

"Well, at first I did, but it was short lived. And now, I'm sure that if you wanted to come back to work, Skinner would open them back up. But if we do that, our relationship will be moved to the backburner. This is why I never wanted to really start a relationship during my search for Samantha. But now I want us to be well . . . us. If I have to make a choice of having you in my life as a lover or as a partner; I chose lover. What about you Scully?"

"I would chose you as a lover, every single time, Mulder."