From: susanf34@comcast.net   
      
   *NO ARCHIVE*   
      
      
      
   Title: Etched in Darkness, Tinged with Hope   
   Author: Susan   
   E-mail: susanf34@comcast.net   
   Classification: post-colonization, a moment-in-time   
   vignette   
   Rating: G   
   Archive: No archive without permission.   
   Disclaimer: On paper, these characters aren't mine.   
   In my head, they are.   
      
   Summary: "So, what's a pretty girl like you doing   
   in a place like this?"   
   *******************************************************   
      
   Etched in Darkness, Tinged with Hope   
   by Susan   
   ~~~~   
      
   The clouds were tinged with green the afternoon I   
   asked her, the ground still black with ashes from   
   an attack the night before.   
      
   She'd just finished another ten-hour shift and was   
   standing in the front of the warehouse, waiting for   
   me to pick her up just as she did every day now.   
      
   She looked so different than she did six months ago,   
   her long chestnut hair pulled back off her face, her   
   already petite body at least fifteen pounds lighter,   
   and wearing clothes two sizes too big.   
      
   She'd been working so hard the past month, not only   
   treating the people who'd contracted the virus, but   
   also tirelessly working to create a vaccine, and   
   though she wasn't any closer to finding a cure now   
   than she was when we first got here, she continued   
   to get up each morning and keep trying.   
      
   I've never been more proud of her.   
      
   Of her unflinching determination, her sensitive   
   spirit, and her strong will not only to survive,   
   but to help everyone else survive too.   
      
   Simply put, she was incredible.   
      
   And though the sky was falling and the world was   
   breaking, it was that incredible faith of hers that   
   kept me going and kept me working down in the mines   
   twelve hours a day to build a place large enough   
   and safe enough to hold those of us that were left.   
      
   "So, what's a pretty girl like you doing in a place   
   like this?" I called out as I took off my hard hat   
   and walked across the street to her.   
      
   She smiled. "The same thing you are, Mulder," she   
   replied, tilting her chin up so I could give her   
   a kiss.   
      
   "Oh yeah, and what's that?"   
      
   She looked over at the ashes beneath the trees, then   
   up at the dark green sky and replied, "Saving the   
   world."   
      
   And it was at that exact moment that the words I'd   
   been afraid to say for all those years came tumbling   
   from my mouth.   
      
   "Marry me, Scully."   
      
   "What?"   
      
   "You heard me. Marry me and make me the happiest   
   man on what's left of the earth," I said, grinning   
   as I took her right hand in mine.   
      
   "But Mulder, I...I...I mean, we..." she protested.   
      
   "Yes, we can," I said, cutting her off before she   
   could say anything else. "Don't you know by now that   
   we can do anything when we're together, Scully?"   
      
   She thought for a moment, squeezed my fingers. "Yes,   
   I do," she replied. Then she stood on her tiptoes   
   and looked up at me, her eyes shining with tears,   
   and added, "And yes...I'll marry you."   
      
   "Wow, that was easier than I thought," I said, my   
   hat dropping to the ground as I pulled her into my   
   arms and peppered her face with kisses. "And better."   
      
   And things would be better once we were married.   
      
   And safer.   
      
   I could feel it.   
      
   Just as I could feel other changes coming.   
      
   And though I knew that more people would die before   
   she could find a cure, I also knew that someday she   
   and the other doctors *would* find a vaccine that   
   worked and that somehow I'd find a way to put the   
   world back together again.   
      
   Yes, the sky was etched in darkness that day, the   
   air thick with destruction, but as I held her among   
   the ruins, my heart burned with something brighter.   
      
   Hope.   
      
      
   ~end~   
      
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