Title: Lightening Shadows IV-Raindrops On Roses
Author: Elizabeth L. Iacono
Rating: General
Category: Story, Romance
Keywords: Mulder/Scully Romance
Spoilers: Slight one for Anasazi (We all know by now that Scully
shot Mulder.) And a very slight (Blink and you'll miss it)
spoiler for Bad Blood.
Summary: The other side of the story. Shannon Ramsay-Parker
dreams about her missing brother.
This story is a little different from the rest of the stories in
this series. The others were all from Mulder or Scully's point
of view. This one is from Shannon's point of view. Shannon is
one of the people in Mulder's dreams. She was in the other
stories(Ahem! Hint, hint!). This is what she's dreaming.....
.....Oh, for God sakes just read the other stories!
Feedback is always welcome in my home. Any kind can be sent to me
at RhiaRamsay@aol.com
Archive-Please do, just e-mail me to tell me where it is.
Don't send to Gossamer, I already did.
Oh, here we go again. Fox and Dana are not mine. They belong to
the Surfer Boy, 1013, and Fox. Shannon, Mama, Colin, Johnathan,
Connor, Sage, and Ryan are mine. I'm pretty sure there's no chance
in hell CC would create these characters. Especially Ryan .
Lightening Shadows IV-Raindrops On Roses
Elizabeth L. Iacono
Shannon Ramsay-Parker looked in her little boy's, Connor,
room. Well, he wasn't that much of a boy anymore. He was going
off to college in a few weeks. Her daughter, Sage, had already
been in college for the past two years.
Most people didn't believe she had college-aged kids. She
was actually forty-three years old, and had aged well. She
had oak-brown hair with some grey only by the temples, and
sparkling hazel eyes. Shannon left the doorway and headed back to
her own room in the large townhouse and looked mournfully at the
empty bed. Johnathan, her husband, was away on a business trip.
She never slept well when he was away. That and the fact that
insomnia was a family trait. Shannon stripped down her bathrobe
to the old Yankees shirt that was serving as a nightshirt and
crawled into bed. She couldn't get to sleep without doing some
deep thinking on some serious topics.
She was thinking about the little brother she'd lost when
he was only three years old. Fox was one of the sweetest little
kids she'd known, and most three-year-olds had a tendency to act
like spoiled brats when she babysat for them when she was ten.
They still hadn't figured out how he disappeared. It was just
one day, he had escaped everyone's' sight, and then there was a
strong wind, almost unearthly, and then, a minute later when the
wind died down, Fox was gone. And they hadn't heard anything
about him in thirty-five years.
Shannon dropped off to sleep with a slight tear in her
beautiful hazel eyes.
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Shannon recognized the place in her dream immediately. It
was Gramma's house in Ireland. She found herself rising out of
bed, and then putting on a dark blue dress with little pink
flowers on it...
Wait a second, she remembered this day. It was the day her
and Fox and their other brother Colin had gone out to play in
Granpa's rose garden early in the morning.
Shannon slipped on the dress, found her sandals, and went
out the door. She found Fox waiting outside the door for her.
He looked exactly the same as in the pictures they all had from
before his disappearance. The oak-brown hair with the little
tuft that just wouldn't lie flat in the front, bright hazel eyes
identical to her own, and a full lower lip that he used to pout
whenever he didn't get what he wanted. He was ready to go out
too. They'd told him about going to the garden last night and
Shannon was sure as anything he didn't sleep a wink last night.
But someone was missing. "Where's Col?" she whispered.
"I think he's asleep," Fox whispered back.
Shannon nodded and then walked to Colin's room, Fox following
closely behind. She opened the door to find Colin dressed to go
out, but sprawled across the mattress fast asleep. "That louse,"
Shannon muttered, and then to Fox, "Wanna help me wake him up?"
Fox grinned. She motioned to him to go over to the other side of
the bed by Colin's head. Shannon went to the opposite side and
grabbed an earlobe lightly. Fox followed suit.
And they pulled.
Colin's eyes shot open, but before he could scream Shannon
clamped her other hand over his mouth. She leaned in close and
said "Mornin', Sunshine!"
Colin shook his head free of their hands. "I'm up, I'm up!"
"We're gonna be late," Fox said.
"For what?" Colin asked, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
"The garden, silly," Fox responded.
Colin swung his legs out of the bed and hopped down.
"Awright, let's go."
The three kids headed downstairs, but they stopped when they
came to the big kitchen. There Gramma was standing at the old
kitchen table mixing something.
"Morning, Gramma," Shannon said. Colin and Fox were too
busy yawning to say anything. She was probably right in that Fox
hadn't slept at all last night.
"Ye be going out to see the garden, right?" Gramma asked them.
"Uh-uh," Colin said around a yawn.
Gramma went over to a cabinet and pulled out a wrapped
bundle. "Well, just in case ye don't make it back in time for
breakfast, here's something for ye." She handed the bundle to
Shannon, who was the most responsible of the three.
"Okay, Gramma," Shannon said and they turned and went out the
kitchen door that was already open to let the fresh morning air in.
The garden was bordering on the cliff, and surrounded by a
thick, four-foot high stone wall. It worked pretty well to keep
inquisitive kids like Fox from getting out and falling over the
cliff. They got there by a dirt path that their Grampa had put
in when he started the garden. Inside the garden was as many
different types of roses and other flowers that you could ever
think of. On one side, the wall went right down to the edge of
the cliff. It left a long tract of bright green grass on a
slope that was perfect for lying on.
Shannon reached the garden gate first and pushed it open.
The scent of roses overwhelmed her senses and she breathed in
happily. The two boys followed in after her. Colin immediately
went for the grassy patch.
"Where ya going, Col?" Shannon asked.
He pulled two comic books out of the waistband of his
pants. "Reading."
Shannon frowned. "But I thought you were going to help
us pick some of the flowers? Grampa gave us permission to."
Colin shrugged. "Picking flowers is for girls and babies,"
he said with finality and sat down to read.
Shannon felt Fox tugging on her dress. She looked down and
saw that his lower lip was stuck out stubbornly. "I'm not a
baby," he said.
"I know that but Col gets stupid when you wake him up too
early. C'mon, let's go get some of those flowers. I'll show
you how to make a chain out of them later."
"Okay," Fox said and headed for a patch of roses. No more
than a minute later she heard a yelp come from his direction.
She shook her head and headed his way to see what he'd gotten
into this time. She found him sitting at the base of a rosebush
sucking on one of his fingers.
"What happened, Fox?"
He held out his hand to her. "Something poked me."
She took the hand and concluded that he'd just gotten
pricked by a thorn. "It's just a thorn, Fox. Rose bushes are
full of them. Watch out for them next time."
"Awright." He turned back to the rose bush and Shannon
turned to go back to her own patch, but five seconds later Fox's
next question came up. "Hey, Shan, did it rain last night?"
"No, why?"
"The roses are all wet."
Shannon went back over and took a look at the roses. "It's
called dew. Sometimes it forms overnight. But it does look like
raindrops." Shannon smiled to herself and began to sing.
"Raindrops on roses
And whiskers on kittens."
"Oh, God, she's singing again!" Colin called from over on
the grass. "Put a sock in it Shan!"
"Be quiet!" Shannon yelled.
"Yeah, we don't have to listen to you!" Fox called.
"Aw, Fox, you're still sore about Christmas," Colin retorted.
"There is no such thing as gift-eaters, Col!" Fox yelled.
"Oh, be quiet, both of you!" Shannon yelled, exasperated.
She went back to picking her flowers and began singing again.
"Raindrops on roses
And whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles
And warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages
Tied up in strings
These are a few of my favorite things."
Shannon walked over to the grass where Fox was now sitting
with Colin. Fox had dumped his whole stockpile of flowers on the
ground in front of him. Shannon added hers to the pile and sat
down next to Fox. "I think we have plenty here to make a nice
chain."
"How do you make one?" Fox asked. Shannon quickly
demonstrated the braiding method for the flowers. And then
Shannon began to sing again.
"Girls in white dresses
With blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that play
On my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters
That melt into spring..."
Shannon trailed off as she looked at Fox's hands. The image
blurred, and the soft child-like hands changed into slender,
long-fingered, grown-up hands, not unlike Mama's. Shannon felt
her head spinning and then the dream changed.
She was still in the garden, in the same grassy spot, but
this time she was with six other people, and she was her normal
age. To the left of her was Colin, and the woman she knew now
as his wife. Directly behind her she sensed her own husband,
Johnathan. Shannon looked down at what was in her arms, and saw
one of the most beautiful babies she'd ever seen in her life. He
(Somehow she just knew it was a boy) couldn't have been more than
a month old, but he had a full head of dark hair and such bright
blue eyes.
She looked over to where she'd seen Fox before. Where
there was once a little boy there was now a man. He had to have
been taller than Colin, she could tell that even with him sitting
down. He had the same oak-brown hair, with that tuft in the
front that just wouldn't lie flat. She could tell he had the
sparkling hazel eyes, and that full lower lip that was prominent
even in childhood. He was bent over a chain of deep red roses
that he was forming into a sort of crown. Suddenly he jerked his
hands back and began to suck on his thumb.
That was when Shannon noticed the woman lying with her head
in Fox's lap. She was small, but with a head of bright red, chin
length hair, and the same blue eyes as the baby she held in her
arms. Then, the woman spoke. "What did you do now?" she
questioned, looking up at him. She took a hold of his hand and
kissed the finger he'd pricked. "You have to be one of the most
accident prone people I've ever met, Fox."
Fox leaned over her and said with a smirk, "That's why
you love me so much, Dana." He leaned over her and kissed
her softly.
Shannon heard Colin sigh from next to her. "Oh, cut the
mushy stuff, will you? Just because you're getting
married in a week doesn't mean we have to put up with all this
lovey dovey stuff."
Both Fox and Colin's wife looked up at him. "Bite me, Col,"
Fox said while his wife whacked him one upside the head.
Fox leaned over and picked up the rose crown and placed it
on Dana's head. "See, I told you it would look good."
Dana reached up and felt the crown resting softly on her
head. She leaned her head back into Fox's chest and mouthed
'Thanks,' with a big smile on her face.
As Fox was leaning down to kiss her again the baby in
Shannon's arms began to cry. Fox straightened up and Dana sat
up, but still leaned back against his chest. "Give him here,"
Dana said.
Shannon complied easily, she felt she was doing the right
thing. Dana took the baby and cradled him to her chest. "See,
he just wanted his Mom," Dana said, smiling. "Didn't you, Ryan?"
Shannon shook her head, grinning. "Y'know, I never figured
out why you two didn't just get married before Ryan was born?"
Fox grinned back at Shannon. "Dana wanted to fit into her
wedding dress."
Dana turned around slightly. "Remember, Fox, just because
I'm marrying you does not mean I am not afraid to shoot you
again."
Colin came to attention. "Wait, what do you mean again?"
Shannon grinned to herself. Dana had told her this one before.
Fox pulled aside the left side of his tank top (think the
undershirt in Bad Blood) to reveal a round, white scar. "See
this? Well in 1995 I kind of went slightly crazy..."
"Slightly crazy?" Dana muttered
He looked down at her. "I was drugged."
"Is that what made you take a swing at Skinner?"
"No, I'd wanted to do that before, I just had an excuse to
act on it." Dana rolled her eyes. "Anyway, in order to stop me
from shooting someone, Dana shot me in the shoulder..."
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Shannon jerked to full awareness with a start. She'd never
dreamed that one before. Many times she'd had dreams that were
sort of memories of the past, but this one was just too strange
for words. She got out of bed and dressed quickly. It was times
like this that she grateful that she lived so close to her
mother. She'd be able to explain this one.
She headed downstairs to find a note on the fridge saying
that Connor had left for the day. This made it easier for her to
get to Mama's home. She drove like lightning to the house of
her childhood, only by the grace of God she didn't get a ticket.
Mama was standing at the foot of the driveway in her standard
blue dress waiting for her.
Shannon stopped the car and tumbled out. "What's wrong,
Shan?" Mama asked in her Irish accent.
"I had a dream, Mama." She then went on to explain the
exact events that had transpired in the dream. When she
finished, she asked "Well, what does it mean, Mama?"
"I think it's a sort of prediction. The Dragon's Blood
running through your veins gives you all sorts of gifts, maybe
this is one of them."
"Could it be predicting that Fox is going to come back
soon?" Shannon asked with a bit of apprehension.
Mama smiled at her. "That's what we can hope for. Come on
inside. We'll get some coffee."
Shannon shrugged and followed Mama into the house. She just
had a feeling that the next few weeks were going to be rather
exciting.
Stay Tuned for part five of Lightening Shadows
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The song My Favorite Things is From the Sound of Music, and it
ain't mine.
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"True love, it's the
greatest thing in the
world."
Miracle Max,
The Princess Bride
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"Men will fight
bravely and be heroes,
but for a last ditch
defense against any
odds, get a mother
Lightbringer
High Wizardry
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geocities.com/rhiaramsay)