Scully Residence
Craiger, Maryland.
April 4th, 1979
7:13pm

"Dana, you've got a phone call..." Maggie Scully called out.

Missy jumped off her bed, pulled her bedroom door open so fast it nearly hit the wall and leaned casually against it, watching as her sister came out of her room. Dana was standing by the hallway table where the second phone lived, the book she was reading (Moby Dick) still in her hand, thumb holding the mark of the page.

"Hello?"

"It's me..."

Dana was silent.

Mulder hesitated... and added.

"Mulder"

He rested his forehead against the wall, quietly trying to knock some sense into himself.

"Oh, Hi... Wait, why are you calling me? Do you want to talk Missy? How did you get our phone number?"

"Phonebook. No. Uh, I was actually calling to speak with you"

Melissa was suddenly standing right behind Dana. She turned her head, and watched as Missy mouthed "Who is it?". Dana scrunched up her face, and waved her away. Melissa didn't move.

"Ok..."

Now Mulder was silent. He assumed she remembered him. Not in an arrogant way, no, he just thought she would.

"Mulder? Are you still there?"

"Yeah. I'm here" Mulder scuffed his shoe against the baseboard, leaned against the wall and shoved his free hand into the front pocket of his denim jeans.

"So, what did you want to talk about?"

"I was wondering... if maybe... you would like to go see a movie" Mulder said and then added quickly "with me"

"Just the two of us?" Dana looked at the wall in front of her skeptically.

"Umm, yeah... but if that makes you uncomfortable, you can invite someone to come or I can ask Gimble to join us" Mulder added, nervously.

"And um, what would your girlfriend have to say about us going to the movie theatre alone... together?"

"What? Who? Oh, you mean Phoebe. Uh, she's not really my... I mean, I thought we were-" Mulder rambled on.

Dana laughed and bit her bottom lip.

Mulder was beginning to love that laugh, which seemed a little crazy but also felt right somehow.

"Well, she went back home to the Vineyard yesterday. So, I don't really know"

"Oh...", Dana forced herself to stop laughing, to be more serious "Is that where you're from... originally? Martha's Vineyard?"

Missy was staring at her again. She looked really mad and it made her want to laugh again. Like she couldn't believe she was being so rude to the cutest guy she'd ever seen.

"Yeah. I moved to DC with my dad last year..."

"Yes!" Dana exclaimed without warning. She didn't know what made her say yes... but something inside was telling her it would be worth it.

"Yes?"

"I would like to go see a movie with you" She assured him.

"You would?" He sounded shocked.

"Uh huh. I just have to ask my parents... and Missy will probably have to come too"

"Missy?"

"Yeah. My older sister, Melissa. You met her the other day too, remember?"

Mulder slapped his free palm against his forehead.

"Right. Oh, ok. Cool."

Maggie Scully listened for a moment longer, and then hung up the downstairs phone that was hanging on the kitchen wall near the oven.

Melissa rose to stand again, as she watched Dana put the handset back down on the receiver carefully.

"What the hell was all that about? Tell me everything.. now!"

Mulder Residence
7:32pm

Mulder stood there, holding the phone in his hand, dumbstruck by what had just occurred.

"Wow" he whispered to himself, a smile playing on the corners of mouth.

"Fox?"

"Coming!" Mulder sighed then walked down the long entryway and into the small kitchen.

"Who called?"

"No one. I called someone, a friend... I didn't think you'd mind"

"Oh. Ok, fine. Just don't keep the line tied up for long, you know my work is 24/7"

Bill Mulder sat at a tiny faux wooden table stabbing at a frozen TV dinner, drinking his lukewarm coffee and making a face at the bitterness with every sip.

"Yeah. I know, dad. I was quick, I swear" Mulder mumbled, annoyed.

"It wasn't that Phoebe girl was it?"

"Nope. Phoebe hasn't called since she got home last week..." Mulder explained to his father, as he popped some sunflowers seeds into his mouth, and chewed down on his anger and the seeds.

Based on his father's disdain for Phoebe, and how he would treat her when she came to visit every couple of months, there was no way he was even going to mention that he was speaking to another girl, or that her name is Dana.

"Goodnight"

"Night" Mulder said as he turned to walk back down the hallway, and into his bedroom.

He kicked his converse sneakers off, sat down at the desk pushed up against the only free wall in his room (it was a simple set up; bed, desk, wardrobe and nightstand but you could barely see the carpet for the mess of clothes covering it) and flicked the lamp switch on to see his English homework.

"She said yes" Mulder sighed happily.

He looked at the framed photograph of his younger sister, Samantha. She was hanging off a metal frame jungle gym at the park down the street from their house on the Vineyard. She looked happy. Mulder remembered standing behind his mother, antagonizing his little sister as their mother took the picture and that was why it would always be his favorite image of her.

Occasionally, he would talk to her. To Samantha. Like the old days. It's not like he could talk to his mother or father about what was going on in his life. So, he would talk to her and hope that she could hear him... and that she was OK.

He used to have constant nightmares about Samantha, but those nightmares had slowly started to be replaced by dreams starring the cute red-head he met at 'Beyond Beyond' the other day. Like she was a light in the darkness that his life had become.

Scully Residence

7:34pm

"I will. I just have to ask mom and dad first" Dana pushed past her older sister and made her way toward the stairs but was stopped by Melissa's questions.

"What? Why won't you just tell me who it was?"

"Fine!" Dana spun around on her heel, frustrated.

"So? Who was it? And what did they want?"

"It was that guy... from 'Beyond Beyond'"

"Gimble?" grinned Melissa.

"Nope. It was the other one, Missy"

"No way! What? How is that possible?" Missy wondered, confusion etched on her face, as she stood on the top step of the carpeted stairs, watching as Dana bounded down them to speak with their Mom and Dad.

It didn't make sense to her, that it would be Mulder calling. Gimble seemed more like the type of guy who would be interested in her nerdy younger sister.

Maggie Scully was leaning against the countertop by the kitchen sink, smiling, when Dana entered.

"Mom"

"So, he sounds nice... the young man that called. Where did you meet him?" Maggie smiled, softly.

"Umm, that place in town where Missy and I go for yoga class; 'Beyond Beyond'"

Dana stood by the warm oven, looking through the glass front she could see a tuna casserole baking for dinner. Melissa casually wandered into the kitchen/dining room and sat down at the table, listening intently to the conversation.

"Oh. How lovely!" Maggie Scully looked over at her eldest daughter. Melissa looked at her mother, blankly. This wasn't her doing, as much as her parents would assume it was. She was just as shocked.

"Yeah. His name is Fox. He asked if I would like to see a movie with him, but I told him that I would have to ask you and Ahab first..."

Bill Scully Sr suddenly appeared in the kitchen, looking between the fiery, stubborn women in his life.

"Starbuck, you're only fifteen. No boys, remember?" Ahab said, gently but sternly.

"But daddy, it's not a date" Dana tried to convince her father.

"Bill?" Maggie Scully walked over to her husband and rested a hand on his arm.

"It's a group of kids hanging out... he's bringing a friend, and I'm sure Missy would be more than happy to come too" Dana turned to face her "Right?"

Missy nodded enthusiastically.

"And where will you be seeing this picture?"

"We call them films or movies now, dad" Missy added, and received a very pointed look from their father.

"Well, I don't know... I said I had to ask permission first but I'm sure if I asked, it could be the movie theatre in town" Dana smiled, hopefully.

Dana didn't want Missy to be there, but she was somewhat scared about going alone. She had never been out with a boy before, so she would keep her mouth shut and put up with her shenanigans if it put her more at ease about the whole weird situation. She barely knew this guy, but she had a feeling about him, one that made her feel like he was a good guy and that this wasn't a trick or game that he was playing on her.

"And where does this punk live, exactly?"

"In D.C with his father" Dana explained.

Bill Scully Sr looked at Missy. The image of her wrapped around some punk, lips locked... when she was just thirteen years old still haunted him, and he imagined it would never leave his memory for as long as he lived.

"If he comes to the house first, and you go the theatre in town... then I will agree to this outing. Because I trust you, Starbuck. Just this once though"

Melissa squealed from her corner of the kitchen/dining room. Maggie Scully gave a thankful smile to Bill Scully Sr, while grabbing an oven mit to remove the family dinner from the oven.

"Dinner will be ready in five. Can you girls check on Charlie?"

"Thank you! I love you, Ahab" Dana hugged him.

"Sure thing, Mom" Missy answered.

Missy followed Dana back upstairs and into her room, they laid down on their backs, feet flat against the wall, heads hanging off the side talking about Mulder and his offer of seeing a movie (how weird it all was) and how they both didn't expect their Navy Captain father to agree to such an event.

"This is just so weird"

"Guess so" Dana murmured as she stared up at the ceiling.

"Please, my little sister being asked out by the cutest guy I've ever seen..." Missy turned her head to look at her "it's definitely the weirdest thing that has ever happened."

"Shut up!" Dana scrunched up her face at the diss, and slapped Missy's leg.

After dinner, Dana sleepily trudged upstairs, changed into her red plaid flannel pajamas and crawled into bed. Her eyes were heavy, and it didn't take her long to fall asleep.

"Agent Mulder. I'm Dana Scully, I've been assigned to work with you"

She was suddenly in a dank, dingy basement office. There were out of focus photographs, and newspaper clippings, adorning every wall she could see. Before Dana could make sense of what she was seeing, everything went fuzzy and she was transported somewhere else.

"I know that you and Dad were... disappointed that I chose the path I'm on instead of medicine but I need to know... was he at all proud of me?" "He was your father"

It was a cold, rainy afternoon; she was standing beside her Mother and siblings on a grey pebble beach watching the ashes of her Father being spread across the sea.

"Come on, lady... " "Mulder!" "Come on!" "I need your help! Mulder! Mulder!"

What she was witnessing, was flying by so fast now... she was on the floor of an apartment, a lunatic screaming at her from a menacing position above her injured body.

"Your sister's in critical condition" "Scully... Scully, wait. Scully!" "I have to go there, Mulder" "You can't go" "That bullet was meant for me"

She was in what looked like a dilapidated warehouse hideout with three men she didn't recognize and her silent shadow, Mulder. They were telling her something about her sister, but she refused to believe it.

"Who are the men who would create a life whose only hope was to die?" "I don't know. But the fact that you found her... and had a chance to love her... Then maybe she was meant for that too" "She found me" "So you could save her"

She was standing in front of a tiny coffin, in a church, and he was with her again(the older version of the boy she had just met). She felt an incredible sadness wash over her and saw the same pain on Mulder's face too.

"It has to end sometime. That time is now" "Mulder... " "Scully, you have to understand that they're taking abductees. You're an abductee. I'm not going to risk... losing you" "I won't let you go alone"

Abductee? Mulder was standing before her, telling her to stay behind but she didn't know why and she didn't want him to leave her, so she threw arms around his neck and the random hallway of the FBI office building faded away.

"It didn't take, did it?" "I guess it was too much to hope for... it was my last chance" "Never give up on a miracle"

She was back in the apartment from before, but she wasn't scared this time because Mulder was with her. She could feel his strong arms around her, and breathed in that unmistakable scent of his, overwhelmed with a feeling, it felt like they had lost something precious to both of them.

"What are you going to call him?" "William. After your father... " "From the moment I became pregnant, I feared the truth... about how... and why. And I know that you feared it, too" "I think what we feared were the possibilities. The truth we both know"

Now she was in the bedroom of the same apartment (she assumed), holding a tiny infant in her arms with Mulder holding both of them in his and her heart felt so full, that she couldn't imagine being happier than she felt in that moment.

"I promise to be there when you need me..." "Today I give myself to you..." "Now and forever" "I do"

She and Mulder were standing before each other, and he was smiling at her so intensely she could feel a blush appear on her cheeks but they weren't alone on this white sandy beach, there was a priest nearby and it dawned on her that this was their wedding day. The moment they made a life long commitment to one another and started to cry with happiness.

"Please. For me, Will. Can you keep an eye on your sister? Make sure she doesn't walk into any sharp corners" "Sure thing, Mom. Come here, Little One" "I love you"

The impossibility of what she saw before her next, was enough to stop her in her tracks; she was in the kitchen of a beautiful ordinary house (in the middle of nowhere) grabbing some plastic tumblers out of a cupboard and turned to see the grown up version of the baby she was holding, in the living room holding a little girl that she instinctively knew was hers too, and then Mulder appeared beside her and they smiled at each other, and to their children.

Somehow, the boy that she had met earlier was even more handsome. There were flashes of things she couldn't and didn't understand, and maybe never would. It was all so confusing and terrifying but also more than she would have ever expected her life to be.

She woke up with a start, covered in a fine layer of sweat, wondering what had just happened.

Dana had a vision, or dream... of them.