Title: Afterglow
Classification: post-episode
Rating- G
Spoilers: Closure
Archive: I post at Ephemeral, but feel free to spread it around, just let me know where I end up please.
Summary: Some closure is attained for more than just Mulder.
Feedback: I know this is a short fic, but I need feedback like the air that I breathe... xenoprobe@hotmail.com or https://www.angelfire.com/scifi/xenoprobe

Disclaimer: Characters not mine, make no profit, have no money, do not sue...

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"Forever searching; never right,
I am lost in oceans of night.
Forever hoping I can find-
memories.
those memories I left behind."

Evening Falls- Enya

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Afterglow
By Xenoprobe

You held me tonight. When I saw you, I knew right away who you were to me. My legs couldn't carry me fast enough as I ran into your open arms. Solid. Real. You were there, I could feel your heart beating faster than light. But that's where we were, in a place so far beyond light that the glow was that of the moon, not of the sun.

I thought I'd forgotten. I thought, somehow you were a figment of my imagination. For so many years I believed you to be a dream, like a knight- a hero in my slumbering hours. You would arrive at my window and steal me away from the life I was subjected to. But even in dreams your face was shrouded in mystery. But tonight, it was you and I knew it in my skin that you were a part of me.

Your hands seemed so large, tangled in my hair. I could smell you and it made me think of home. A home I knew before the unraveling of time, before the clouds covered everything in sight.

Tonight the moon illuminated the hillside like a thousand stars, a thousand souls. I may have been a girl in this slipstream but my thoughts have aged. All around us were the whispers of release, the joys of freedom in the small faces in our midst. I wasn't the only one who knew you as a hero. But where the few others recognized a connection to you, I felt it in the pit of my stomach the moment you appeared. The lullaby of sounds in the air kissed and danced around us and you held me. Held me tight. I was home.

When we touched, all of you seemed to seep into me. I was overwhelmed with your capacity to love over all the anguish I could sense in the flood. I knew right then just how long this searched had been, as long as mine. The toll was high for us both. In finding you, you found something too; not just the answers of my afterlife but the answers to your heart. I could feel the other presence that occupies your heart and she is lucky to live in your time. There was a curious moment when you dipped your head down to mine and I knew this was an act you'd shared with her many a time. I was honoured you felt this love for me equally. I felt no need to question, this person has saved you as you saved me.

In the starlight, in the twinkle of your teary eyes, all my fears were quelled. All my years of wondering ceased in the flash of your smile. A chapter I never ventured to write was closed in your warm embrace. Now, when I think of you, I'll know that we are free and that my search for a brother-in-dreams was a valiant one, you were real all along.

I asked you for one promise... a promise I agreed to make to myself as well. I asked you to love. Love and rest for a while in this love. Take the time to understand that our search for each other has ultimately freed us of the pain we relied upon. Through your heart, I know you have someone to share this time with, someone who is equally relieved tonight.

I love you Fox... Be free.

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Peter Gabriel lyrics used without permission...