Heart Turned Inwards: Revisited by Keleka
Part II of the Heart Turned Inwards Series
by Keleka and Shoshana
Heart Turned Inwards: Revisited
By Keleka
Email: [email protected]
Distribution: Gossamer, Spookys, Xemplary,
etc.
Rating: G
Spoiler Warning: Requiem
Content Statement: MSR
Classification: VR
Keywords: MSR
Summary: Love is ageless. Sequel to "Heart
Turned Inwards"
Archive: Sure! Please tell me where so I can
visit.
Disclaimer: Get real! If I owned this cash cow,
do you really think I'd be living in Mississippi?
Feedback: It's certainly welcome in my house!
Author's Note: Huge steaming piles of thanks to
Fabulous Monster, Shoshana, and TBishop,
who graciously beta read my stuff, usually
without too much complaining and always with
great insight.
All my fanfic (X-Files, Hawaii Five-0, and Star
Trek) can be found at
http://www.geocities.com/keleka3/
Heart Turned Inwards: Revisited
by Keleka
Even before he opened his eyes, he recognized the sounds and smells of a hospital emergency room. He ran a quick mental checklist. He could feel his legs and arms, his head didn't hurt, and his heart was beating strong if the persistent bleep he heard was from a heart monitor. He felt a slight numbness in his left arm and guessed he was hooked up to an IV. Moreover, he felt neither pain nor the mental fuzziness of pain medication.
Reasonably certain he wasn't dying, Fox Mulder opened his eyes to confirm his suspicions. He found himself in a relatively quiet emergency room. He rolled his head to the left and could just barely make out the metal tag on the heart monitor. "Georgetown Medical Center." Yes! If he was in Georgetown, Scully had to be close by.
Now if he could just remember where he'd been and what happened to him. He had to concentrate for several moments before--in a sudden flash of coherence--it all came to him. Oregon, Skinner, Bounty Hunter, spaceship. He'd been abducted. He lifted his right hand to his neck and found his confirmation in Scully's cross pendant. He smiled softly.
When he raised his arm, he caught the attention of a nurse who quickly approached his bed. "Hello, Mr. Mulder," she said softly. "We were wondering whether you were going to join us tonight."
Mulder returned the smile. "Scully," he said. "I need to see Dr. Scully."
The nurse patted his hand gently and gave him a slightly puzzled look. "I'll let Dr. Scully know you're awake, Mr. Mulder. Now you just rest."
He closed his eyes and tried to get his thoughts in order. He had learned so much in the brief period the aliens had kept him on their ship. He finally had the answers to so many questions. He had so much to tell Scully.
In a few minutes, Mulder heard soft footsteps approaching. He opened his eyes and saw a tall, lanky man wearing a white lab coat with a stethoscope draped around his neck. His brown hair was long, reminding Mulder of himself as a college student. The man even had the misfortune of having a prominent nose, just like himself. But it was the eyes that struck Mulder. He'd only seen that depth of blue in one other person.
The man picked up the medical chart at the end of Mulder's bed and made a pretense of looking at it. Mulder noticed that the man's hand was trembling slightly which he found unusual for an emergency room physician. Finally the man looked at him, smiled, and moved to stand beside him.
"Agent Mulder, I'm Dr. Andrew Scully. I'm the doctor who admitted you."
Mulder was confused for a moment and then realized the mistake. "Oh, I meant Dr. Dana Scully. My partner at the FBI. Is she here?"
Dr. Scully said nothing for a moment and then stepped away to pull the curtain around the bed, offering them some privacy. He pulled up a stool and sat down next to the bed.
Mulder could feel his heart starting to race, a feeling that was confirmed immediately by the heart monitor. Dr. Scully reached over to turn it off. He studied Mulder intently.
"Where is she?" Mulder said, his voice rising. He could feel the sense of panic starting to wash through him. Something wasn't right here. He needed to see Scully right now, dammit! "What's happened to her? Is she okay?" His eyes pleaded for information.
"She's fine, Agent Mulder. She's not here right now, but you'll see her soon. I promise."
Mulder relaxed a little. He wasn't sure why, but somehow he thought he could trust this young doctor. "How did I get here?" he asked after a moment.
Dr. Scully ran his hand over his face. "To tell you the truth, we don't know for sure. One minute you weren't here. The next minute you were lying unconscious on a gurney in the hallway. We found your weapon and your FBI identification in your jacket pocket."
"What's wrong with me?"
"You're a little dehydrated. There's no indication of any other injuries. We were waiting for you to gain consciousness before we decided what to do with you." Dr. Scully looked away for a moment. When he looked back there was a sadness in his eyes that Mulder couldn't comprehend. "There's something I have to tell you, Agent Mulder, and I'm not entirely sure how you're going to take it."
"Just tell me," Mulder said, bracing for the worst.
Dr. Scully nodded. "You're just like she always described you," he said softly. He smiled when he saw the confusion in Mulder's eyes. "You see,...Dana Scully is my mother and you...Agent Mulder...you're my father."
***
A few hours later, after being thoroughly poked and prodded by his son, Mulder stood in front of a mirror in the men's room. He looked the same as he looked just a few days ago, before he had gone to Oregon. His hair, his eyes, everything was the same. His world, however, was upside down.
At first, he had been skeptical. How could thirty years have gone by? But in some ways, it made perfect sense. Einstein had predicted as much in his theory of relativity. The alien ship Mulder had been on had traveled faster than the speed of light. To Mulder, it seemed as though he'd been gone only about two days, but here on Earth, over thirty years had passed.
Mulder heard the door to the men's room open and saw Andrew Scully step up to the vanity. Mulder looked, wide-eyed, at his reflection right next to that of the young doctor. His son. They were the same height and they shared the same hair coloring, nose, and firm jaw line. Andrew's--but he saw Scully's--blue eyes looked back at him curiously.
"Spooky, isn't it?" Andrew said.
Mulder laughed. "Yeah, it is. But I don't understand. Scully couldn't have children."
"I think it would be best if Mom tried to explain that."
"Mom." It made Mulder pause. It was so strange to hear anyone refer to Scully as 'Mom.' Then it occurred to him that Scully must be sixty-six years old. He felt panicked. What if she wasn't well? What if she had a husband?
"Your mom...is she...okay? I mean...her health?" Mulder asked cautiously, almost afraid to hear the answer.
"She's great," Andrew said. "She just retired last year as Deputy Director of the FBI."
"Wow!" Mulder was impressed. Deputy Director was only one heartbeat away from the Directorship. "I always knew Scully would go places without me to hold her back."
"She wouldn't want to hear you talk like that,...um.... Dad."
Mulder stared at Andrew's reflection until the younger man broke out into a lopsided grin. "Sorry. I just had to try it once to see how it felt. I've never had anyone to call 'Dad' before."
"It's...it's okay. Actually...I kind of liked it."
They were quiet for a moment, still studying each other in the mirror. Somehow, this conversation was easier for them both because it was taking place between two reflections.
"What about your stepfather?" Mulder asked, trying to sound casual even though his heart was racing.
"There's never been anyone else," Andrew said. He chuckled. "When I was little, I tried to play matchmaker between Mom and Uncle Walter, but I didn't have much luck."
"Uncle Walter? Skinner?"
He nodded. "They were very close. He was like a father to me. He coached my Little League team. Took me to Orioles games. Came to Parent/Teacher conferences with my Mom. But they were just...friends."
"Where is he now?"
Watching in the mirror, Mulder saw Andrew's eyes tear. "He died five years ago. Not long after I graduated from medical school."
Mulder reached for his son's shoulder to comfort him. "I'm glad he was here for you. He was a good man."
Andrew nodded, blinking back the tears his memories invoked. He was so much like his mother, Mulder thought. He was beginning to realize that this world would be nothing like the one he had left.
"I think its time to go, Andrew. Did you tell your Mom we're coming?"
"I just called her. She wanted to come down but I told her we'd be right over. I don't want her coming out alone this late at night."
Mulder smiled, recognizing his own protectiveness in his son. "I bet she liked that."
Andrew laughed. "Yeah. Well, she said if I didn't get you there right away, she'd kick my ass."
***
Mulder barely noticed his surroundings as Andrew drove him through the streets of Georgetown. The only thing on his mind was seeing Scully again; he worried about how she would react.
"Did you tell her...about...that I haven't aged?" Mulder asked his son.
"I didn't have to," Andrew said, smiling softly. "She's always suspected that if you were returned, it would be like this."
"But how...?"
"Don't forget...she's a scientist. She explained it to me as soon as I was old enough to understand."
"That explains why you didn't seem too surprised."
Andrew took his eyes off the road for a moment to look at his father. "I hide it well," he said after a moment.
"Just like your mother."
"There's something else I think you should know...Dad." Mulder waited, giving his son the time he needed to get his thoughts together. Finally he continued. "You have three grandchildren."
Mulder was stunned. "Three? Grandchildren?"
"Twin boys and a girl. Fox, Walter, and Maggie."
Mulder stared at Andrew in disbelief. "You named my grandsons 'Fox' and 'Walter'?!"
Andrew laughed. "Mom said you wouldn't like it," he said. "But I wanted to name them after the two most important men in my life and my wife didn't think much of 'Mulder' and 'Skinner' as first names."
Mulder's mind spun as he tried to assimilate it all. He had a 30-year old son, a daughter-in-law, two grandsons, and a granddaughter. It was almost more than he could grasp.
Finally, Andrew pulled the car up in front of an elegant brick townhouse so typical of Georgetown. As they walked up the steps, Mulder stopped and turned to his son. The younger man looked at him quizzically.
"You're a good person." Mulder placed his hand on Andrew's shoulder.
Andrew ducked his head shyly. "Thank you,...but you don't even know me."
Their eyes locked. "Your mother would raise nothing less."
Mulder watched his son struggle to keep from crying. It was time to lighten the mood. There would be plenty of time to talk later. "Oh, and by the way, sorry for the nose."
Andrew laughed through his tears as he opened the front door with his key.
Mulder barely noticed the decor. All he had eyes for was the diminutive woman standing in the middle of the room. He studied her wordlessly for a moment. She had aged, but gracefully; her hair was the strawberry blond he remembered from their first year together as partners. Her brilliant blue eyes were just as penetrating as they had always been, though tonight they were clouded with tears.
"Scully." He said her name reverently as if it were the only word he knew. "Scully."
In Mulder's mind, it had been just two days since their last embrace. That was the night he told her he didn't want her to go to Oregon with him. She had put her cross pendant around his neck, telling him that she would always be with him as long as he wore it.
He reached behind his neck and unfastened the necklace, holding it out before him, the cross dangling from his fingers. He took several tentative steps toward her.
"I brought back your necklace, Scully."
She moved to close the gap between them. Gently, she took his face in her hands and smiled tremulously. "Mulder." It was her benediction, and he bowed his head in acceptance. As he encircled her in his arms, thirty years seemed to melt away from her face, and she was his Scully again. Beautiful. Powerful. Honorable. Perfect.
When they broke the embrace, Mulder fastened the cross pendant around Scully's neck. "There," he said softly. "Now we're both back where we belong." He wiped the tears from her cheeks and then pulled her hands to his lips for a tender kiss.
He noticed for the first time that she was wearing the claddagh ring he had bought her before he went to Oregon. He had left it with the Gunmen, planning to give it to her for Christmas. They must have given it to her for him. He was glad.
He fingered the ring for a moment, and then looked into her eyes.
"Two souls joined forever, Scully?"
"Forever, Mulder," she said just before he pulled her into his arms again.
Andrew Scully watched for a moment as his parents kissed, then slowly turned to leave, quietly closing the door behind him.
*end*
Continued in Heart Turned Inwards III: No Apologies