Going Lunar--Epilogue
by Lolabeegood

E-mail: lolabeegood@gmail.com
Distribution: Archive freely with my name attached

Rating: R
Categories: S, R
Keywords: Mulder/Scully RST, Post-Movie
Spoilers: Everything up to and including IWTB
Summary:  A meteor shower in the summer of 2010

Author's Notes: 

Just a little scene that has been working itself out in my head 
and I thought I'd put to paper. 

You might want to read the first 8 parts to see where I'm going 
with this one, but it still works on its own.  

Thank you to everyone who stuck with me through this little series.  
It started out as a kernel of thought about Mulder and Scully and 
telescopes and became more.  

I do not own the characters.  I do not make any money from this.

Enjoy!

*************************************

Mulder set up the Adirondack chairs on the back lawn and tried 
to determine which direction was most accurately north-east.  

"Mulder," she called from the back porch, "Do you want something 
to drink?"

"There's a bottle of wine in the trunk of the car," he smiled 
to himself.  "I'll get it and bring it back here."

"So, you came prepared?" she asked slyly.  "And I thought we 
were roughing it tonight?"

"There's also an air mattress and a selection of cheeses and 
crackers.  We're not animals, Scully!" he laughed.

She laughed at his joke and went back in their house to grab a 
sweater from her overnight bag.  It was their last night in 
their old farmhouse and it coincided with the Perseids Meteor 
shower on the east coast, so Mulder was determined to enjoy 
the show.  

They had bought a place in San Francisco and had been living in 
Virginia for almost a year now.  They both enjoyed the warm 
weather and the change of atmosphere.  Scully's whole family 
was now located on the west coast, so it seemed like a good 
place to settle and start fresh.  Their house was a small arts 
and crafts bungalow with a nice yard in an older neighborhood.  
It was a far cry from the farmhouse in Virginia, but, they had 
decided, it suited them quite nicely.  

Mulder had taught a course in policing at the local college 
this summer, as a trial run.  He had enjoyed the work and the 
college had relished in his expertise.  They had offered him 
two more courses in the fall term.  He had accepted without 
hesitation because he not only liked the teaching, and the 
income, but he had enjoyed the spark his students had 
ignited in him for police work.  

Scully was working at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital as a 
medical researcher and surgeon.  She was working as part of 
team looking into neurological disorders in children and 
trying to reverse the effects of them.  The work was 
challenging, and heartbreaking at times, but she relished 
in the pursuit of making these kids lives better.    

"I should have brought a compass," he muttered to himself as 
she joined him in the yard.

"What?" she asked, confused as she put a hand on his bicep.

"The meteor show is in the northeast and it should be starting 
about now." He didn't answer her question.

She walked around to one chair and slid into it while 
balancing an open bottle of wine.  He looked down at her 
and smiled.

"No glasses?"

"Nope," she smiled up at him.

"I'll get the cheese and crackers," he turned to go.

"We don't have a knife either; Goodwill took it all away 
a few days ago."

"I have a Swiss army knife," he yelled over his shoulder 
as he walked up the stairs.  

She sat in the darkness of their yard and smiled.  This 
house was the first place they had ever lived as a couple 
and, as of tomorrow, it belonged to someone else.  She 
suspected the family moving here was going to tear it down 
and build their own home on the property, but she didn't ask.  
They would never come back this way again, so in her mind, 
the house would always stand in this spot as a reminder of 
their years living in seclusion.  

She admired Mulder's ability to make his way back into 'the 
real world' again.  It was a long time to be without social 
engagements and casual conversation and he had done pretty 
well with the adjustment.  He still seemed quieter and more 
reflective in groups, and spoke only when he needed to.  He 
didn't like large crowds and had pulled on her elbow saying 
he was leaving early, several times at dinners they had 
attended for her work.  Most of those times, she had left 
with him.

He seemed to really like teaching though.  She had candidly 
watched him from the back of a classroom one time and she was 
amazed by his abilities.  He came alive at the front of the 
room.  There were no inhibitions and no introspective moments.  
He spoke without care and seemed to relish in the questions 
that came from his large audience.  In the classroom, Mulder 
was at ease.  

"For my lady," he said, startling her as he appeared at her 
side with several cheeses on a platter, crackers and a Swiss 
army knife nestled in the middle of it all.

"Where'd you get the platter?" she asked.

"It was in the bottom of the fridge with some questionable 
contents," he winced.  "I washed it thoroughly with your 
shampoo and now, it's not only clean but it smells like 
papaya."

She reached over and smelled the platter before picking up 
a piece of cheese and a cracker and taking a bite.

He walked around to the other chair and slowly lowered 
himself into it so he didn't drop the platter.  Placing the 
platter on the two wide armrests between them, he took some 
cheese and popped it into his mouth.

"Anything, yet?"

"Not yet." She sighed as she took a swig of wine from the 
bottle and then handed it to him.

"You're all class, Scully." He snickered.  "If those hoity 
toity donors that you attend all those dinners for, could 
see you now."

"I have never pretended to be hoity or toity," she murmured 
back.

"Yeah, but they see you in those fancy dresses with your 
hair done and your heels and they would never picture you 
in ripped jeans and cowboy boots drinking from a wine bottle 
in a backyard that looked like something out of Deliverance."

"No, I guess, they wouldn't," she smiled slyly at him "but 
they don't know me, like you do."

"No one knows you like I do," he whispered back.

She smiled at the comment.  

"Are you going to miss the place?" she asked.

"Scully, we haven't lived here..."

"You know what I mean," she interrupted.

He thought for a moment and took another drink of wine.  "I 
don't know if I miss much, anymore."

"Huh?" she asked turning to look at him.

"I think I spent most of my life missing things.  I missed my 
sister, I missed the family I lost when she was taken, I missed 
the X-Files when they were taken from me, I missed Will...and, 
I missed my freedom when we came here.  Now," he paused to 
think, "I'm just happy.  I have you, I have my freedom,. I 
have a great job, and I have a nice life.  I just want to 
enjoy it all, and stop thinking about the past."

She took the bottle from him.  "There are some parts of the 
past worth remembering," she said as she took a drink.

"There are," he smiled over at her.  "What I mean is...I want 
to stop missing things.  I love my life; Scully, however it
turned out and...I guess, I now appreciate everything that got 
me to where I am.  I don't miss it so much as I have come to 
terms with it."

"Mulder!" she said breathless as she looked at the night sky.  
A star had streaked across the black night.  

He turned his head upwards and, taking her hand, watched the 
show that was about to unfold before them.

*****************************
The end.