Chapter 5: Alien
Margaret Scully’s Residence
21:43
Mulder pulled the car to a stop outside the house. So far they still hadn’t said anything beyond monosyllables. They sat there in silence for a few moments before Mulder shifted to look at her.
“I..I’m not sure what to say.” He said. Scully smiled depreciatingly and looked up at him.
“You seemed to know exactly what to say earlier.” She stated sardonically. He looked away.
“What are you going to say to her?” He asked.
“Nothing about past lives.” Scully replied hiding behind the sardonic tone still.
“Scully..” He complained.
“Mulder, don’t!” Scully cut in. “I’m not saying that I don’t believe it but I’m not saying that I do.”
“That’s not an answer!”
“It’s the only one I have.” She opened the door and got out.
Mulder fussed with his seat belt, finally managing to undo it and climb out of the car.
“Scully!” He called over the roof. She stopped half way up the path to the door and turned back to face Mulder. “I love you.” He blurted in an uncharacteristic display of emotion.
“I know.” She answered with a smile, then turned and walked away. “I’ll call you.” She replied over her shoulder.
Mulder sagged against the car roof and watched as Scully knocked on her mother’s front door. The door was opened immediately and Margaret Scully embraced her daughter, waving to Mulder over her shoulder. He waved back, viewing the woman in an different light now having memories of her as a forcefully middle-aged man in peasants rags, a fresh-faced nurse, a little girl with braids and a brave soldier in a cavalry uniform. Scully waved back at him as she went inside and closed the door.
Mulder shrugged and pulled a wry face, then got back into the car.
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“Mom?” Scully said over the rim of the hot chocolate.
“Yes, Dana.” Her mother called from the kitchen, from which was also emanating the smell of home-made chocolate muffins. Scully had been trying to broach the topic for half an hour. Determinedly she stood up and headed for the kitchen. Her mother looked up from the bowl she was stirring and smiled broadly as Scully set her cup down on the counter. Scully turned and leant on the counter, watching her stir the cake mix. “I remember when you were small enough to sit on the counter-top.”
“You always pretended to be cross with me but I knew you weren’t really.” Scully told her with a smile. Margaret Scully stopped stirring and regarded her daughter.
“You know, I think you’re still not too big to sit on the counter.” Scully laughed.
“Is that a joke about my height?” She asked.
“You want to ask me something.” Her mother countered. “Something you think is important.” Scully shrugged.
“I just wanted to know if there was a special reason why you called me Dana.” She was pleased that it didn’t even sound quite like a question. To top it off she leant forwards and stole a fingertip full of the cake mix from the bowl in her mother’s arms. Her mother swatted her hand away playfully and Scully dropped her prize into her mouth.
“Your father and I thought it suited you.” Maggie said as she turned away.
“That’s the only reason?” Scully was less subtle this time.
“You were expecting another one?” Came the rapier quick counter.
“No.” Scully shrugged, thinking the conversation over. She picked up her cup and drank her hot chocolate.
“As a matter of fact there *was* another reason.” Her mother continued. Scully lowered the cup and feigned nonchalance with a politely inquiring expression. Maggie put the bowl down and tapped her daughter’s sleeve with a single finger. “I have something you should see.”
With a shiver of something she didn’t want to identify, Scully recalled Mulder’s words the night before.
“I want you to listen to this.” There was an offer she should have refused and she had the feeling that her mother’s was another one of those. Still, she was too curious for her own good. She followed her mother to her bedroom.
Scully found her mother searching through a cardboard box. Triumphantly she pulled out a faded leather bound folder and gestured Scully to sit with her on the bed.
“Did your father ever tell you the story about your Great Great – I think that’s right – Aunt?” She asked as she flipped through the book. Scully tried to sneak a look and caught only a quick sight of some old photos, drawings and paintings.
“No.” Scully replied.
“I’ll just see if I can find the picture first.” She said, still searching. “Ah!” She exclaimed. “There!” She handed it to Scully, pointing to an approximately A5 size water colour. “A friend of your Great Grandfather’s – I’m sure there should be more greats then that, oh well – he painted that on the boat when they came to this country.”
Scully took the painting and stared at the central figure of the posed group. The woman was dressed in a fitted green velvet dress that looked a little bit faded and worn. Her straight red hair was piled up underneath a matching velvet hat with a long green feather. The artist had drawn particular attention to her blue eyes which sparkled mischievously out of the flat canvas. It was her.
“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” Maggie Scully said. “The resemblance was interesting when you were little but it’s stunning now.”
“Her name was Dana?” Scully asked but knew the answer. The man standing on her left bore more than a passing resemblance to Walter Skinner and the figure on her right looked kind of like Mulder.
“Yes, she was Dana Scully.” Her mother didn’t say anything about the startling similarity of the men to other people she knew and Scully wasn’t sure if she was aware of it or not. “She was drowned on the voyage over from Ireland. She’d just got engaged to a young man on the boat.”
“Andrew MacClean.” Scully said absently. There was silence as she stared at the man in the painting who looked like Mulder. The smile clinched it.
“You know Dana, I believe in past lives.” Maggie Scully said softly. Scully turned her head sharply to look at her. Her mother smiled understandingly. “So did Missy.” She added pointedly.
“Mom..?” Scully questioned warily.
“Dana, the truth is a Circle.” She said succinctly, making steady eye contact.
“Oh mom! You can’t mean…?” Scully exclaimed.
“I knew that you knew when you asked about your name.” Her mother said softly. “I knew Fox the moment I met him, in your apartment with your blood on his hand. That’s why I trusted him with your cross. Then when Walter walked into Missy’s hospital room, I knew him too.” She smiled sadly. “Why do you think I’ve been trying to play matchmaker with you and Fox? It’s meant to be honey.”
Scully hung her head, as it seemed that she had been doing all day to avoid things.
“I know.” She whispered, repeating what she told him to his face earlier that evening.
“But you still don’t really believe it, do you?” Maggie asked and Scully shook her head, biting her lip to stop the tears that were threatening. Her mother sighed. “That’s not so strange. It takes a lot to believe in something. If a belief comes too easy Dana, then it usually isn’t true. Truth needs to be fought for and that’s painful.”
“And this is true?” Scully asked her. “The Circle of Truth? It was real?”
“I believe so,” She answered. “and Missy believed it.” She squeezed her daughter’s hand. “She wanted you to believe it but I told her she couldn’t force it. She wanted Fox to believe it too, but he couldn’t believe it anymore than you did.”
“Mulder didn’t?” Scully asked incredulously. Maggie smiled.
“Mulder doesn’t believe as hard as he appears to. He wants to believe Dana, that doesn’t mean that he does. He recognised me and Missy when you were ‘gone’ but he refused to accept us. We understood that your death wouldn’t be the end, but he couldn’t. Missy dragged him back from the edge of the abyss honey, only one of Us could have, but he still didn’t see who she was. Faced with the Circle head on, he still didn’t believe.”
“I want to believe.” Scully whispered, then laughed. “I’ve turned into Mulder!” She added sarcastically. Maggie put an arm around her.
“I wish Missy could have seen you as you are right now. She would have been so happy to see you accepting this.”
“But I’m not accepting. I’m so confused.” Scully answered her.
“Confusion is the first step towards wisdom. If you’ve been living with a lie, then the truth must seem alien in order for it to be true.”
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Mulder’s Apartment
23:45
Mulder made the concession of straightening his vest and boxers to cover more appropriately before opening the door of his apartment. He rubbed a hand over her stubble rough jaw and looked down to see Scully standing there. She smiled wryly and shrugged.
“Uh, mom thought you might like some muffins.” She gestured with a Tupperware box.
“Sounds, uh, sounds lovely.” He took the box off of her and stepped back to let her come in.
Scully hurried past, unsure now what she planned on saying to him. Mulder closed the door and put the box down on the table by the door. He watched as she came to stop in the middle of her room and pulled herself together.
“How’s your mom?” He asked after the silence became awkward. Scully took a deep breath and turned to face him.
“She knows.” She blurted. “About the Circle. Missy knew too.”
Mulder stood there gaping for a second but recovered quickly. He ran a hand through his hair and pulled confused face.
“How did she..?” He asked. Scully smiled wryly.
“Mom says that she – and I quote – ‘just knew’. Missy was regressed.”
“How is that your family *always* manages to surprise me.” Mulder smiled. “Just when I think you’ve got no punches left to pull, there’s always something.” He laughed at the end.
“Talking of surprises. She showed me a rather surprising painting.” Scully added, pulling it from her purse and handing it to him.
He looked down at the faded water colour. It was undoubtedly Scully in the centre, as well as him and Skinner standing on opposite sides of her. Standing next to Skinner/Michael Scully was a man he knew to be Daniel Scully but didn’t ‘recognise’ as he did the others. Mulder looked back up at Scully.
“Is this enough to convince you?” He asked bitterly.
“No.” She said with a half-smile.
“Scully.. what *more* do you need..?” He complained, turning away from her. Scully picked the painting out of his hand and lay it carefully aside. He looked down into her eyes questioningly.
“I don’t need any more proof.” She said into his eyes. “Because I *know* the only truly important thing.” She paused to draw it out. “I love Fox Mulder.”
He was happy to hear the words but they didn’t mean that she believed and he needed her to believe. She grinned broadly.
“Just as much as I loved Kieron Fox, the Merlin of the Circle of Truth.” She added. There was a tense silence as he searched her eyes for what he needed to see; the truth lost to him in the flames on a spring evening in 1122. He didn’t find it because he should have been looking inside himself for that. What he found in her eyes was hope.
“Do you believe?” He asked, needing the answer.
“Yes.” She breathed, then set a skeptical expression on her face that freaked Mulder a little. “Now I just need to make you believe it, don’t I?” She stated. To Mulder is seemed a cryptic statement but Scully just followed it with a broad smile. “Kiss me for God’s sake. It seems like I’ve been waiting for 384 years.” She told him sardonically, saving his soul.
“Yes Miss Scully.” He replied.
And that’s exactly what he did.
XXX
Post-Script:
To say that they lived happily ever after would be to make things far too easy.
Scully may well manage to get Mulder to stop wanting to believe and start actually believing in the Circle. In addition, he does still need to find Samantha, the missing member of the Circle. Will knowing that Krycek should be one of them mean that Mulder wont beat him up again? Then there is the problem of the Cancerman, who has already been responsible for Scully’s death at least four times in 878 years. And, not wanting to be picky, there are still 122 years left of the 1,000 years of darkness before the Circle is likely to be able to re-form. Anything could happen in that length of time.
There is also a small matter of an entire story thread of alien invasions, biological warfare, etc., written by other people (and called The X Files) which has singularly little to do with what I have just finished writing and you’ve just finished reading. But that doesn’t matter, does it?