A Nose by Any Other Name
by PJ
eksphyl@yahoo.com
Category: MSR (duh)
Summary: (Response to Finis Romantics Fanfic Challenge. What if Scully
decided to go with Mulder during the desert scene in Dreamland 2)
DEDICATION:This story is for Lynda, since it was her idea!
SPOILERS: Well, I'd have to guess Dreamland 2...
This picks up right after she told him he can't change back, or he'd
wind up with his head in a rock...
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"What about him, or me, whoever he is?"
He'd meant to lighten the moment, but her answer was desperately
urgent, as if she only ever needed him to understand this one thing.
"He's *not* you," she said forcefully.
Mulder looked back towards the car. Their car. "Everyone thinks he is."
"Not everyone, " she assured him, reaching out to squeeze his arm. "I
thought Frohike was gonna punch him."
Mulder chuckled. "Where, in the knees?"
Scully smiled, and he felt his heart lift for the first time since
she'd told him. Told him he couldn't get his life back. Couldn't get
her back.
Well, she was his life, wasn't she?
"At least you can continue your work. What better place to uncover the
truth, Mulder?"
He nodded. "And I have a very close contact at the FBI."
Apprehension froze her pretty features. "Actually, no, you don't." He
shook his head. "I've been censured, Mulder, Relieved of my..."
"No, no, you have the flight data recorder. You have evidence Scully,
you can get your job back."
His shouting was drowned out by her whisper, by the determined look in
her eyes.
"I don't want it back."
She reached for his hand, only to be startled by the blare of a car
horn.
"Excuse me, some of us *have* a life to get back to," Morris called
from the open car window.
Scully eyed Mulder, then walked menacingly towards the driver's side
window.
"I still have my gun," she whispered sweetly, "and they would *never*
find your body out here."
Morris gulped. "I think I'll just sit back and listen to the radio,
huh?"
Scully nodded, and made her way back to her partner. There was a new
resolve on his face, or at least she thought there was. She hadn't yet
learned to read Mulder's signals in someone else's eyes. She shivered
involuntarily.
He knew she must be having second thoughts. He braced himself for her
words, knowing that he was now on a journey where she couldn't
possibly follow. Tears burned his eyes as he cursed what he would have
seen as a blessing, a miracle, just five years ago. Until she had
given him the gift of a life he actually *wanted* to come back to.
Her eyes closed, and a fast-forward vision of the future raced through
Scully's mind. A future where the eyes that had once reassured her now
brought only bittersweet longing. Where the hand that had once held
hers for comfort now always had an ulterior motive. Where the lips
that had only spoken the truth as they knew it had been employed to
spread deception and to tow the party line.
He squeezed her hand to get her attention. He had to give her an
opening, so she could extricate herself gracefully from this
situation. "Scully, you have to go back. Someone has to keep him from
ruining my reputation. God, Scully, I could get *promoted*. Do you
really want that on your head?"
She wasn't amused. "You told me once that you couldn't do this alone."
She searched his face, saw that he remembered. "So what makes you
think I can?"
"You're stronger than me," he answered quickly.
The headlights shone around her head like a halo. "Only with the
strength of your beliefs."
The man in front of her smiled, a decidedly Mulder smile.
"I don't know, Mulder. I'd been thinking about a career change, anyway."
"Oh?"
She nodded thoughtfully. "Maybe, I don't know, somewhere in, say,
Nevada?"
A reverence filled him. He was in awe of her, and he couldn't bring
himself to speak, to utter any sound, except the resounding chorus of
her name.
"Scully."
Tears filled her eyes, as she asked two questions, one aloud. "Think
you have any pull at this new job, Mulder?"
"I'm sure we could work something out."
A tiny doubt seized him, and he took her face in his hands. "Scully,
look at me."
Her eyes found his.
"Are you sure? Even, like this?"
She shut her eyes again, and raised her hand to his face. Her fingers
traced over the face of Morris Fletcher, but her heart knew better. It
felt his rough cheek, his nose, his bottom lip.
"I'm sure."
He needed to know that she understood what she was really doing.
"You'd be giving up your life, too."
She nodded, then glanced back toward the car. She spoke slowly,
weighing each word. "Yes, but I don't want my life if you're not in it."
Such a simple sentence. No grand declarations of love or passion or
destiny. Just a few words that told him everything he would ever need
to know.
Mulder cleared his throat. "Joanne--his wife, my wife. I think she's
leaving me."
Scully nodded. "We'll try and explain things to her tomorrow.
Considering the way Morris has behaved this week, I'm not sure divorce
is a bad idea."
I love you seemed like such a meaningless thing to say in light of
everything she'd relinquished for him, but he so desperately wanted to
say it. To give something back.
"Scully, I.." He leaned down to kiss her, but was stopped abruptly by
her hand on his chest.
"We still have an audience, remember?"
Frustration rained over his features, and he straightened, looking
around. He took her hand and pulled her in front of him, steering her
behind the dilapidated wooden shed.
"Better?" he asked.
"Mmmhmmm," she mumbled, her lips pressing into his, and there was no
mistaking his passion. For once, she was glad she'd never kissed him
before. It would have made this time seem less genuine, somehow.
They walked back around the corner, to find Morris scrambling to get
back into the car. "Dirty little spy," Mulder grumbled, much to
Scully's amusement.
She folder her arms and turned to him. "Think we should tell him?"
Mulder thought for a moment. "Nah. He can think of something to tell
Kersh. I can just hear the gossip in the hallways now: Did you hear?
Agent Scully ran off with some married man..."
Scully rolled her eyes, and smiled as she walked to the passenger door
of his car.
Morris leaned out the window. "Hey, hey, Dana, where are you going?
C'mon, babe, we.."
His voice was drowned out by the sound of the engine starting, and
Scully opened the door, sliding into the passenger seat next to Mulder.
Where she belonged.
THE END
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