Only Just Begun 

By Lisa Cole 

E-mail: gilly1013@hotmail.com 

Website: http://www.geocities.com/timidrose/ 

Archive: PLEASE! Just let me know. 

Feedback: All feedback will be carefully watched over, protected and 
worshipped.
 
Category: V, A, post-episode for Requium

Rating: PG-13 

Spoilers: Requium 

Summary: Mulder is back. Need I say more? 

Disclaimer: Last time I checked, I didn't surf, and my name wasn't 
Chris, so I guess that means they're not mine. I'm not Karen 
Carpenter either. 

Thanks: To Darkstar

Author's Notes: This is a revision. I have tried to make "Ironic 
Miracles" and "Only Just Begun" into one story. Please tell me what 
you think!!

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X 
Before the rising sun we fly, 
so many roads to choose. 
We start our walking and learn to run. 
And yes, we've only just begun. 
~The Carpenters, Only Just Begun
X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~ X~X

~~~~~~ 
Mulder 
~~~~~~ 
I stand in complete awe. I'm frozen, utterly and completely frozen. I 
can't move. I don't really know what happened. I blinked, and in a 
micro second I was simply standing in my hallway. Apartment 42, yup, 
that's me. 

Everything has been a complete daze. I don't know how long I have 
been gone ...The things that I saw are indescribable. But all I kept 
thinking about was Scully ... Scully ...Scully. Oh God, where is she? 
I have to find her. Tell her I'm actually back. My mind starts to 
rush in a panicked haze, running, running, twisting, spinning.... 

Suddenly, as if the good lord himself could feel my panic, (I'm 
getting religious. What the hell did they do to me up there?) I hear 
that all too familiar noise: click click click. Could it really be 
her? 

Oh God. I almost feel like jumping up and down like a teenager on a 
sugar high. It's her. It's really her!! But she hasn't noticed me 
yet. Her head is bowed, and she's looking through some papers. Oh, 
the trouble she must have gone through trying to find me. Don't worry 
Scully, I think. No more... Oh lord. Her overcoat just swung open... 
Could it be? 
 
"Scully?" 

Why isn't she saying anything? She's just standing there, her eyes in 
a glaze, her lips moving in a silent prayer to herself. It's worse 
than I thought. My disappearance has literally left her crazed. 

"Scully, it's all right now." 

I move towards her slowly, as to not startle her trance. I can see 
her hand grasping her gun. I would prefer to run, but I have come 
this far without dying, lord knows it would be a tragedy to be killed 
by the very person who has kept me alive all this time. Talk about 
irony. 

I finally reach her, and am greeted with widened blue saucers of 
amazement, of fear. Oh God, the fear. 

"Don't be scared, Scully. It's me. I'm back. I'm home." 

Suddenly, like a light burst in her brain, like china crashing on the 
kitchen floor, she is broken from her trance, and I see the light 
return to her eyes.

"Miracles are possible, Scully." 

And I seize her mouth, I absorb her, and as always, I relish in the 
ironic miracle that is our love.

But soon, Scully breaks the kiss, and starts asking me questions, 
just as I knew she would. How? Why? Where? And all of the above.

But I couldn't help it. I was smiling. "I should be asking you the 
same things."

I couldn't believe it. Scully was pregnant with my child, with our 
child. After all this time, our love had finally conquered all, 
manifested itself into something real and tangible. 

I knew Scully would be a magnificent mother. I could tell in the way 
she moves and speaks; firm in her delivery, but gentleness hidden in 
the message; in the way she nursed me when I was hurt, in the way her 
hands swept across my skin in feather-light touches.

Soon, Scully convinced me to go to the hospital, though they couldn't 
find anything wrong with me. In the car, on the way there, we both 
broke down. The pure weight of it all just hit us like a ton of 
bricks, and I had never seen Scully cry so much in my life. I felt 
guilty for causing her so much grief, but I felt elated to be back in 
her arms again. And I swore to her I would never let her go.

When we got home, I rocked her in my arms, telling her 
everything. "It was phenomenal, Scully, but all I thought about was 
you. You are all that matters to me now. We have so many roads to 
choose in life, but the road that leads me back to you is the only 
one that matters."

I meant it, and for once, I know that she believed me. Now, we will 
finally be able to live that normal life Scully was talking about. 
It's true. It is always darkest before the dawn.

~~~~~
Scully
~~~~~

Words eluded me when Mulder first came back. It had been seven months 
since Mulder had first gone missing, and with each passing day, my 
belly became bigger, and my essence emptier. I had just come from The 
Lone Gunman's with some new files to look over, but I really didn't 
think they were going to help. At that point, I knew only a miracle 
was the answer. I never would have even admitted to saying such a 
thing years ago, but Mulder changed my entire outlook on 
life ...Miracles are possible. And it was a miracle when he finally 
appeared.

At first, I was frightened. I could feel someone watching me. I felt 
eyes bore into me like nails into wood. I grabbed hold of my gun on 
instinct, and jerked my head up, ready to fight fire. 

"Mulder?" I thought I was losing it. He was standing directly in 
front of me. I thought I was hallucinating. I had learned in the last 
seven months that pregnancy does strange things to the mind. I had 
some of the most surreal dreams of my life during those seven months; 
majestic mountains swallowing me, chasing buildings, drowning in my 
own tears … I found myself craving pickles and rocky road ice cream; 
Mulder's sunflower seeds and cream cheese. I will never understand 
it. 

Then, the unearthly vision I thought my mind had created was moving 
towards me. But all I could do was stand, like some monument in 
remembrance of the sanity I used to hold, but was slowly but surely 
losing grasp of. 

I just stood there; breathing, but just beginning to live again. How 
strange it was to actually feel my blood flow again. I simply wasn't 
used to it. But when Mulder came to me, planted that first kiss on my 
lips, I finally realized it really was him. I was finally awakened 
after seven months of walking death. 
  
I didn't care about anything except that Mulder was standing in front 
of me. I didn't even care that he seemed to just appear there. My 
scientific mind should have invaded the moment, and started to ask 
the questions: How did this happen? When did you get here? What did 
they do to you? Do you feel all right? But I just stood there and let 
my passion rule me, instead of my sense.

Mulder's simple kiss soon became warm and sultry, filled with a heat 
I had never experienced before. He started to run his hands down my 
back, and tiny pinpricked thrills started to rush through me. It was 
so much better than before. It was like we had just begun again, 
fresh and new. 

I was the first to break the kiss. Still out of breath, with my lips 
still slightly swollen and ruby red, the rational side of me had 
finally won the battle inside my head. 

"Wait, Mulder." 

And I started popping the questions at him, one after the other, like 
some crazed school teacher. But Mulder just stood there, a small 
smirk developing on his face. 

"I should be asking you the same things," he said. 

So, he just threw the same questions back at me again, and I 
remembered. I had almost forgotten amidst the frenzy that had just 
now settled in my brain. 

"I don't know how to explain it. I'm not even sure if I even believe 
it. This whole time, I thought I was just going to wake up from a 
dream, but it's real. No matter how many times I try to convince 
myself otherwise, it's real. We are going to gave a baby, Mulder." 

Mulder didn't do anything right away. I think for once, I had 
rendered him speechless. And then, a real smile, the smile I had been 
craving for so long escaped across his face, and he took me in his 
arms again. 

My voice slightly muffled from lying against his shirt sleeve, I said 
hoarsely, "Mulder, in all seriousness, are you all right? I think we 
should take you to the hospital. 

"This is the only place, I need to be now, Scully; with you, and our 
baby." 

With that, he smiled again, and held me tighter. But I just couldn't 
let it go. I had to know he was really all right. 

"We're here, Mulder, but I should really drive you to the hospital." 

He grunted, but obliged, and we made our way to the emergency room. 
At first, the car ride was fairly uneventful. Mulder just kept 
staring at me, this tranced look on his face, like some forlorn 
teenage boy. 

"Mulder, what is it?" I asked. 

"I was wrong. It's all worth it. It's worth it because you were 
there. Before I left, I felt like giving up, like it was the end. It 
may be the end for my quest, but it's just the beginning for us ... 
and our baby." 

I started to cry. I couldn't help it. The tears started to take 
command, and I couldn't see where I was going, so I had to pull over. 
Mulder held me, and we both let oceans fall. 

X~X~X~X~X~X~X 

Mulder and I made it safely back home after we finally made it to the 
hospital. The doctors couldn't find anything wrong, but we still had 
trouble explaining how Mulder could simply appear in the hallway. But 
for once I didn't demand a "logical explanation." All that really 
mattered was that Mulder had made it home to me ... to us. 

We stayed up all night, and Mulder told me everything. I listened, 
wide-eyed and unbelieving, as Mulder told me first hand about all the 
things he was trying to prove all these years. 

"It was phenomenal, Scully, but all I thought about was you. You are 
all that matters to me now. We have so many roads to choose in life, 
but the road that leads me back to you is the only one that matters." 

And Mulder wrapped his arms around me, and around my swollen belly, 
whispering into my ear, "We have only just begun ... We have only 
just begun." 




END