Sliding Into Grey
by Elizabeth Rowandale

Email: bstrbabs@gmail.com
Disclaimer: It all belongs to Chris and Co. I just use and abuse
them out of love.
Rating: Older Kids
Classifications: Story, Angst, Missing Scene
Timeline: Set during "The X-Files: I Want To Believe"
Archive: Just let me know. 
Length: 307 words

Happy (slightly belated) Birthday katcorvi! Please forgive any faux
pas, I've been away from home a long time now.:)


She doesn't want this life. She never chose the dark path that
enveloped them for so long; she was dragged into shadowy caverns
by hands mixed up in her mind with Duane Barry. She held onto
walls for dear life (and the walls mix with carpet fibers in her
dreams). She bears the scars of the struggle.

Memories wake her from restless slumber, skin clammy and guts
churning as she gasps for breath.

He holds her in the aftermath. She forgets the nights alone; the
sweet scent of a child's breath.

She escaped into the daylight at the end of a decade, unable to fully
accept the warmth of the sun on her pale skin. He followed her into
the light. For a while.

He won't let go.

Of her.

Of the past.

She knows the shadows pull at his soul.

He's tasting temptation. She wants to hate all he's indulging.
*Wants to hate him.* But the darkness is both repulsive and
achingly delicious. Somewhere amidst the glimmer of remembered
life in grey eyes and the hiss of tires on rain-soaked pavement she
finds a whisper of home. She smells the basement office and the
pine of rental cars and hears the flicking change of projection slides
and the teasing voice in her ear as he leans close and whispers,
"Crop circles, Scully," -- like a wicked erotic treasure.

"I can't..." she breathes into the damp night, words losing strength in
the dark air between them.

He's asking her to follow him one more time. And she knows she's
delaying the inevitable. She'll follow. She'll always follow.

She lived in his shadow for a decade. Somewhere in the penumbral
light she found the essence of Dana Scully.

She is his. Always.

His fingers catch hers with the gentlest touch. The world fades.

"Mulder..."

She slides into grey.

***


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