Dana Scully had never been so excited to see the sun go down. She approached her father with her hands behind her back, clearly nervous, playing with the hem of her shirt. He was standing in the kitchen, his back to her, with his strong hand around a glass of scotch.
"Ahab?" She asked, quietly. He turned, with a mostly stoic face, with just a quirk of an eyebrow. He never knew his daughter, or any of his children, for that matter, to be soft spoken.
"Yes, Starbuck?" He replied.
"I was hoping I could get your permission to do something." A smile pulled gently on the corner of his mouth. That would explain Dana's quiet voice.
"Go on." He said, slightly curious.
"I would like to go across the street in a half an hour. There is another kid there with a telescope and I was hoping to learn more about the constellations and all that." Mr. Scully's ginger eyebrow raised a little higher on his large, pale forehead.
"Another kid?" He asked, skeptically. Dana, never shy, looked her father in the eye.
"Well, a boy. But he seems to know a lot, and I'd like to learn more about that kind of science because I really only know biology right now and astronomy is interesting." Her father smiled. It was always science with Dana. "It's just across the street." She offered.
"Permission granted, sailor." A smile spread across his daughter's face. Quickly, she snapped her hand to her forehead, grinning the entire time.
"Thank you, Captain!" Dana's father watched in amazement as his daughter immediately sprung into action- grabbing a pot, filling it with milk, and placing it on the stove. She squatted down and grabbed two thermoses, placing them on the faux marble counter next to the pot. She then turned behind herself, reaching, while on her tip-toes, for the cabinet. The tips of her fingertips brushed the plastic, gold coloured handle, opening the door and finally, barely, reaching the box labeled "Carter's Movie Theatre Popcorn". She placed this in a pot on the stove, next to the milk, and put a lid on it.
"So what's this boy's name?" Her father inquired. "Your mother will want to know." Dana's face quickly changed into what could only be called mortified.
"Oh no, Ahab, please don't tell them. Mother will make it into a romantic thing and she'll tell Melissa and then Melissa will want to go." This caught her father's interest. Her daughters had their differences, sure, but usually they were close.
"Why wouldn't you want Melissa to go with you?" He questioned. She sighed.
"Well because they're the same age and she'd probably try to kiss him or something, and I wouldn't like it if she took over like she always seems to." Her father smiled.
"Alright, I won't tell her anything. And it's just across the street?" She nodded fervently. "Well, don't forget to tell him how to navigate using the North Star, just like I taught you."
"I'll tell him, Captain." She assured her father, a serious expression on her face.
"You never told me his name." He commented.
"Well, It's not his real name, it's a nickname, but he told me to call him Fox." She said, shyly. Fox, huh? Silly name, but he's a kid, I suppose. Mr. Scully thought to himself.
"I want you in this house at 10:00, but preferably earlier. Have a good time, Starbuck." Dana's childish smile made her father smile too; they were just a daughter and her father, both with carrot coloured hair; standing in a warm, cozy kitchen; grinning at each other.
By the time it was dark, Dana Scully had a small backpack on that she usually used for hiking, filled with hot cocoa and popcorn, a notebook, and three different coloured pens (red, blue, and black), as well as a thin yellow highlighter and a fat blue one.
"See ya, Ahab!" She says, opening the screen door with a screech and hurrying down the parched, vaguely green lawn. All she can hope is that Melissa doesn't see her. Dana pauses at the curb, looks both ways, dutifully, and keeps jogging, her hair once again bobbing up and down with her. She steps up, her black Mary Janes tapping once, twice, three times on the brick steps leading to the door. As she raises her tiny fist to the door she hears a hiss. She turns, surprised, to see a sideways face. It's Fox.
"Don't knock, or Jeffrey will know you're here." He pronounces the name with such contempt and annoyance it catches her a tiny bit off guard. "Come on around to the back." He instructs seriously. He turns to walk away and then turns back. "Nice backpack." He comments, somewhat sarcastically, and struts into the backyard. She huffs and follows him. When she finds him, he is lying on a blanket that looks like it's Native American, with large brown patterns that form almost-pyramids. He is wearing a green dress shirt and a yellow vest, with brown slacks, but no shoes. "He looks comfortable", she thinks, and kicks off her black shoes and sits next to him. She sticks her hand into the bag, pulling out a bag of popcorn.
"Wait, you have popcorn?" He asks, his voice yelps, almost cracking. She turns to him, a ginger eyebrow raised (a movement she absolutely picked up from her father) and a slight smirk on her face.
"Now I thought you said my backpack was stupid." She taunted him. His mouth opened, a mixture of shock and offense.
"I did not! I said it was nice, thank you very much!" He retorted. She stuck her tongue out.
"I don't know, Fox…" Suddenly, he lunged, hand diving into the backpack and coming out with his prize. He grinned triumphantly. She simply pouted.
"Alright, Fox, tell me about the stars."
And he does. His voice is so soft, and gentle, but captivated at the same time. He tells her of Hercules, the hero, wearing the skin of the Nemean lion, who died after he was poisoned by his wife, but was then immortalized by his father, Jupiter, in the stars.
He tells her of Perseus, who won golden sandals from the Gorgon Sisters, and who used Medusa's own reflection to turn her into stone, he too was immortalized by his father, Jupiter. Dana can't help but wonder why Jupiter had so many half human children.
He tells her of Andromeda, who was chained to rocks near the sea because her mother boasted she was more beautiful than Juno, who was Queen of the Gods. Juno sent a sea monster and Andromeda was sacrificed to apologize. Perseus, though, killed the sea monster for Andromeda's hand in marriage.
She tells him things too- she tells him about the North Star, how you find it, (by drawing a line between the little dipper, big dipper, and Cassiopeia) and how you can never get lost with it.
"You know." He starts. She turns to look at him. It's getting late, and he has finished his hot chocolate (and part of hers, she notices with disdain). "I love the Greek and Roman stories about the stars, but they're not my favourite. This surprises her- the way he talked about those stories, with such care- she couldn't believe they weren't his favourite. "There's one, that my sister told me. The only thing is, well, uhm." He stuttered.
"What?" She asks, immediately.
"It's sort of a song." He murmurs.
"Tell me!" She demands.
"Well why don't you sing?!" He shoots back.
"Because I don't know the song and I can't carry a tune." She states. He looks skeptical. "Not even Joy to the World, or any of the hymns I learned in church. Now sing me the song, Fox!" He sighs, and even in the dark, Dana thinks she can see a faint blush.
He hums a few bars, in a light key, probably a major key, Dana thinks to herself. That's about all she learned from her music classes, anyways.
"I didn't know what time it was, the lights were low…." He starts off hesitantly. She nods at him to continue.
"I leaned back on my radio, oh, oh…. Some cat was laying on some rock n' roll, lotta soul, he said." He sings quietly, shyly, but with purpose. Dana cannot help but feel totally enraptured. Fox furrowed his brows slightly.
"Then the lights on, they seemed to fade, came back like a slow voice on the radio wa-ave." He turns to her, and smiles, a little less shy than before.
"That was no DJ, that was hazy cosmic jazz." They way he enunciated the last part sounded mysterious and mischievous at the same time. The grin on his face only helped that impression. He takes a deep breath, looks away, and sings-
"There's a starman, waiting in the sky." He looks at her again, and continues:
"He'd like to come and meet us, but he thinks he'd blow our minds-" At that, he wiggles his eyebrows up and down, and rolls his eyes about. She giggles.
"There's a starman, waiting in the sky; he's told us not to blow it, 'cause he knows it's all worthwhile, he told me, 'let the children lose it, let the children use it, let all the children boogie" He is smiling again, and he is so sweet, and his voice is so calming that Dana finds herself feeling sleepy, and then she finds herself being shaken awake.
"Hey. Was I that boring for ya?" He asks, cheekily.
"No, it was wonderful. Wait. What time is it?" She asks. Fox looked down at his black M*A*S*H watch and replies
"9:58, why?" Her eyes open so wide, Fox thinks it might bug out of her head.
"Shoot! Curfew! Ah, I gotta go!" She says, throwing her bag over her shoulders. Fox looked equal parts surprised and disappointed. "I'm sorry-" She starts. "My father is a military man, and he'll kill me if I'm late. Thanks for tonight, honestly, it was great." Fox stands up, almost pleadingly. She smiles at him, grabs his hands, which she notes, are very warm, and places a soft kiss, like a butterfly, on his cheek.
"Goodnight, Fox." She says quietly
"'Night, Dana." He replies, just as quietly.
And just like that, she takes off, her red hair illuminated by the moonlight.
She realizes, the next day, that she's slept in, later than usual. When she heads downstairs she also realizes that she forgot the thermos Fox used, so she threw on her blue bellbottoms and a floral top and headed across the street. She noticed something small and metallic on the front steps. She reached it, only to find her thermos, with a small note attached.
"So I guess last night was the last night I was gonna be around, I think my dad got into the fight with the cigarette guy we were staying with. Sorry I didn't get to say a proper goodbye and all that. Thanks for telling me about the North Star."
-A Very Foxy Starman
P.S. Don't forget to look for me in the stars"
Dana held the note to her chest. A wave of sadness washed over her, although she wasn't too terribly surprised he'd run off without her. Somehow, it doesn't seem unlike him. "He seemed like he'd be awkward at saying goodbye anyways" She comments to herself, trying to make herself feel better.
Later, either in the process of moving, again, or maybe stolen by a jealous older sister, the note disappears. She misses it, and without it, as she ages, she forgets his name.
And for his part, he is distraught when he visits two years later and finds two elderly people in the house across the street, instead of a young girl with scarlet hair.
A/N: Mulder loves David Bowie confirmed. Actually, that might make a more accurate summary, but oh well. Next up: Major Tom. I'm thinking them in college together. Who knows. We'll see. Eventually. I have a job and school and I should've spent this time studying for APUSH, but ah well. I also like how when Mulder and Scully first meet there's some romance and then they shut it down, then they go into being platonic soul mates for a while and then fall in love. Those chapters might follow that sort of arc. Also, this reminds me of my own experiences- I had people I adored when I was seven, like people I met at girl scout camp, who then I totally cannot recall the names of. Alright, now I'm rambling. I'd better go study the Industrial Revolution ya next time.