Reconnection

Sara B. 12/05

Scully shut the door behind her mom; she was alone. 

Her mom had brought her home from the hospital and had found any number of reasons not to leave.  Finally Scully had to nearly kick her mom out.  She felt guilty but this was necessary and she needed to do it alone.

She leaned against the now locked door and surveyed her home.  She stood up and walked around.  Touching the bric-a-brac that made up her life; the life she had before her body was violated.  The destruction from the night that Duane Barry kidnapped her was long cleaned up but she could see it all in her mind and her scream for Mulder’s help echoed in her ears.

Scully turned on the TV and realized it was on the same channel that she’d watched the night before her abduction.  She turned it off and flung the remote dejectedly. 

She wandered to her desk and saw the neatly arranged mail.  The bills were missing, presumably they’d been paid, but the catalogs, magazines and the minutia that makes up junk mail sat there, in three large piles.  Not one piece of ‘personal’ mail in sight and that made her sad.  She hadn’t realized until that moment the people she’d left behind. 

Her eye caught the date on the desk calendar and she was lost.  It had not been advanced and remained on that horrible day when she’d been stolen from her life.  Scully gripped the desk chair just to keep her footing.  Her father’s voice invaded her mind, ‘buck up, Starbuck, you need to stay strong if you want to feel safe again.’  Her grip tightened on the chair back, she needed to be strong; she refused to give in to the calling comfort of the chair.

Scully jumped at the knocking at her door, not knowing how long she’d stood there.  She took a tentative step forward and was happily surprised her legs carried her weight.  Checking the peep hole she smiled to see Mulder standing on the other side; grateful that he was there.

“Hey, Scully, I just. . .”  Mulder stopped his excuse for dropping by in mid sentence and raised his hand to her cheek.  He held out his wet finger for her to see, remnant of a tear she didn’t know she’d shed.  Mulder guided her to the couch.  “Want to talk about it?”

Scully knew he wouldn’t press her but he deserved to know something that might affect his partner.  “It’s silly really.”  He gave her a look that spoke his concern louder than words ever could.  “I finally got my mom to go home.  She wanted to stay but I needed to,” she shook her head, not knowing exactly what to say.

“Reconnect,” Mulder offered.

“Yeah, reconnect.”  Scully touched his hand.  “I just walked around looking at everything.  I was doing fine, nothing really bothering me.  Then,” she expelled a large breath.  “Then I made my way to the desk.  The calendar was still turned to, to ‘that’ day.”

Mulder moved the short distance and pulled her into his embrace.  “Mulder, it was like this place ceased to exist for three months; just like I ceased to exist.  Everyone in my life moved on and I’m where I was three months ago.”  She pulled back enough to look in his eyes.  “For three months everyone I love didn’t know if I was alive or dead or even if they would ever see me again.  My mom, Missy, my brothers, my friends, you.”  She pulled him close again, “oh, God, Mulder, what it must have done to you.  Another person from your life taken.  I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”

He loosened his hold and placed his hands on either side of her face and smiled.  “Only you, Scully.  Only you would worry about me after going through such an ordeal.”  He kissed her forehead and hugged her close again.  “I missed you, Scully.  Nothing had meaning, not even the work.”  She pulled back and he saw the question in her eyes.  “Guess no one told you.  Skinner reopened the X-Files.  I’ve been working them alone but I can’t wait till my partner comes back to work.”

Scully’s face brightened.  “We’re back, Scully, We’re back.”

She nodded, “yeah, we’re back.”   For the first time since her return, time began to have meaning.

End