From: texgoddess@yahoo.com   
      
   TITLE: The End of Eschatology According to Fox Mulder   
   AUTHOR: Maidenjedi   
   FANDOM: The X-Files   
   RATING: R   
   CATEGORY: post-series, Mulder/Scully    
   SPOILERS: The whole series is up for grabs; specific spoilers    
   for "The Truth," "Ice," and "Bad Blood"   
   DISCLAIMER: Not my characters, my concept, or my show. Damn it.   
   ARCHIVE:  Anywhere is fine.  Already submitted to Ephemeral/Gossamer.   
   SUMMARY: The world isn't ending.     
      
   NOTES:  Idea taken from the speculation that our dynamic duo    
   could be separated at the beginning of the new film.  There are    
   no actual spoilers for the film within this story.   
      
      
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   "...in this separation I associate you only with the good, and    
   I will faithfully hold you to that always, for you must have    
   done me far more good than harm, let me feel now what sharp    
   distress I may." - Charles Dickens, Great Expectations   
      
   XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX   
      
      
   The world wasn't ending after all.  Fox Mulder and Dana Scully    
   were headed home.   
      
   They found out in Wyoming.  A message came to them through means    
   they both thought had died with Langly, Frohike, and Byers.  A    
   note on a table, a locker in a public place, and then a masked    
   voice on a tape recorder.  A day passed, they left Wyoming for    
   South Dakota, and another message was waiting for them.   
      
   "It's over.  You can come back."   
      
   Scully sat Mulder down in their motel room, and talked to him in    
   a voice she might have saved for a child.   
      
   "These are the facts, Mulder.  We haven't seen any signs in over    
   a year.  We haven't had to use the stiletto, or the magnetite, for    
   longer than that.  We haven't been chased or followed, we haven't    
   received threats."   
      
   "They could be better than we are, Scully."   
      
   "Mulder, we have these messages.  Two of them.  Will you at least    
   give this a chance?"   
      
   In the end, Mulder convinced Scully to wait.  If they heard    
   nothing else, they would continue as they had been, on the run.     
   Always moving, hiding their identities (Scully's hair was a dark    
   brown right now, and Mulder had grown a beard), working occasional    
   odd jobs and never staying in public for long.  Totally dependent    
   on each other, which suited Mulder fine.     
      
   Two days later, they received another message.  This time, the    
   voice was familiar.   
      
   "You can come home.  It's safe.  The world isn't ending."   
      
   Scully's eyes lit up in triumph, and Mulder conceded, but asked    
   that they take it easy.  They headed east, steadily, still below    
   the radar but with the tiniest bit less caution.  Scully washed    
   the dye from her hair, and she almost convinced Mulder to shave.     
   Except that she liked the way it felt on her skin, rough and kind    
   of wild, so she gave up after a token try or two.     
      
   Mulder knew things like that now.     
      
   They got to Kentucky before they sat down to decide exactly how    
   this would play out.     
      
   "Should we go to the FBI?"   
      
   "No, no government.  They probably already know about this but why    
   alert them further?"   
      
   "Yeah, you're right.  So what do you think?"   
      
   Home, said Scully's eyes, pleading with Mulder to at least give    
   her that.   
      
   "Okay.  Home it is."   
      
   -   
      
   They separated in Virginia, each citing the need to clear their    
   heads apart before continuing together.  Their parting had an awful    
   finality to it, a tolling of the bell for a partnership that was no    
   longer a matter of course.   
      
   She was visiting her mother, a tearful reunion that he hadn't    
   wanted to witness. After all this time, just thinking of Scully's    
   mom and her brother created a hard knot of guilt to gather in    
   Mulder's stomach. It was worse, too, with William lost to time.     
   They would ask, curious questions with an edge of accusation.     
   Just for flavor.   
      
   A part of him wondered if William might hold them together    
   after all, but he never said it aloud.  Scully hadn't wanted   
   to seek out their child, telling Mulder it would be cruel to   
   take him from parents he'd grown attached to.  Tears    
   slipped down her cheeks and gave her away, but he wisely    
   stayed silent. It made some sense, and Mulder never had    
   felt justified in making decisions about William.    
      
   Mulder had no family to seek out; he'd refrained from    
   snapping at Scully about that, about how she was the only    
   family he had in this world.  It was melodramatic and    
   after all, they'd had three years in the wilderness    
   together.  Scully had never been a wanderer at heart, she    
   needed roots, and she'd begun to fade without them.   
      
   He retreated to a motel room in Alexandria, deciding to    
   start with the familiar and work from there.  He considered    
   heading to Greenwich to tie up affairs that had gone neglected    
   for so long, since before Bellefleur.  He'd left lawyers with    
   directions but he'd anticipated they would all be alien-human    
   hybrids (or dead, whispers the blunt Scully-voice in his mind)    
   by now.  He wasn't sure he wanted to confront those ghosts    
   quite yet, though, so he decided to sleep on it and make a    
   decision in daylight.     
      
   Motels were so monotonous in design and decor that when    
   Mulder inevitably woke at 3am, he had no idea where he was.     
   Scully's absence from this bed gave him his answer quicker than    
   he might have liked.  He rubbed his eyes and stretched,    
   considering a late-night run to take some of the fight out of   
   him.  It had been a long day and sleep had never come easy or    
   stayed for very long.  He swung his legs out from under the    
   covers and as his feet hit the floor, he heard a familiar    
   voice that had never been the harbinger of much more than doom.   
      
   "Agent Mulder, I presume."   
      
   The voice came from the dark corner and Mulder's heart leapt    
   into his throat.  Such a disturbing turn of phrase, his mind    
   gibbered at him as he fumbled for a gun, a light, something.   
      
   "I guess it's not really Agent anymore, though, is it."  The    
   voice came into the stream of light coming from the parking    
   lot, all blonde hair and white face and cold blue eyes.     
      
   "Marita," he said, gasping a little.  "You scared the living    
   shit out of me."   
      
   "Did I?  I apologize."  She walked over and turned on the    
   standing lamp by the window, and shut the curtains all the way.   
      
   "I take it you got the message."   
      
   He nodded, the adrenaline fading slightly.  "We did.  I'm    
   still not sure I believe it, though."   
      
   "You should.  You never did pay any attention to what the    
   aliens were truly all about.  You just wanted to go after    
   the conspiring hacks who made up    
   the government."   
      
   Mulder wasn't quite sure how to respond.  "I always figured    
   the aliens would take care of themselves."   
      
   Marita sat down on the edge of the other double bed, her    
   slim figure barely denting the comforter.  "And they have.     
   Much like we almost did so many times."  Her eyes darkened    
   at that, and Mulder didn't have to guess what crossed her    
   mind.  "We didn't think it wise to reveal everything in our    
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)