Date: 6 Apr 1998 05:06:09 GMT From: dayflow Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative Subject: Ring Story: A Sudden Change (1/1) Title: A Sudden Change - Ring story (1/1) Author: dayflow Email: dayflow@hotmail.com Disclaimer: X-Files, Mulder, Scully, not mine, their CC's, 1013, Fox, yada, yada, yada... no infringment intended... don't sue! Please! Starving Student with 5 pennies and free ice cream *yum* coupon to name! Rating: G Classification: MSR Spoilers: a little bit of Fire, The Field Where I Died, Unusual Suspects, Travelers Summary: Scully finds Mulder's wedding ring... Timeline: during season 5 Feedback: pretty please with cherries on top! at dayflow@hotmail.com Archive: gossamer, emxc. anywhere else, please ask first! - don't worry i won't deny you! :) DON'T POST TO ATXC! I'll post it myself. Author's Note: I wasn't sure about this. any suggestions about Mulder's and Scully's characters and how they'd REALLY react, let me know! I'll revise til it's right! This is my first post! EVER! be kind... *~*~*~*~* Scully rifled through Mulder's desk, intent on finding her new stapler. "How can the man I love be such a slob?" she murmured. *The man I love....* She smiled and hugged the thought to herself. Fox Mulder loves me. She sat back in his chair and began to remember... his nervousness when he first asked her out on a real date... their first kiss in the rain... the way her heart leapt when he said the three words she'd waited years for... the way his hand felt at the nape of her neck while he rained soft kisses all over her face... Stop it! I'm at work, there are bugs everywhere, and I need my stapler! She started looking through his desk drawers when she felt it... "What the..." she thought as she picked up the smooth piece of metal with her fingers. A ring? She pulled it out slowly, then held it up to her face to inspect it closer. A man's gold wedding ring. What would Mulder have a wedding ring for? Then she saw the inscription: FWM & GLA 6/19/89 Her heart screamed out "NOOO!" but only a soft gasp escaped from her lips. She fell back into his chair and automatically began playing with the ring, trying it on all her fingers, twirling it around, lost in thought. He was married! He didn't tell me... Ohmygod... Why didn't he tell me? Her head knew it was possible. He's a handsome, intelligent, intense man. He's had relationships before me, just like I had before him. Remember Phoebe.... But her heart was in pain. He didn't tell me! He doesn't trust me... maybe he doesn't love me like I love him... maybe he still loves her.... Who is she? This GLA? Grace? Gina? Gillian? Is she blond, brunette? Tall and leggy with curves in all the right places? Everything I am? Everything I'm not? What happened to her? Did the he push her away? Did he abandon her for the X-Files? Did she hurt him like Phoebe? Did she leave him? Did he leave her? What if she died? Is she dead? Is he still in mourning? In pain? Does he feel guilty? Does he still love her... Does he love me? All her doubts and all her fears came crashing down. She collapsed on Mulder's desk, her head in her arms, her body shuddering with her sobs. Her head knew it explained a lot. Why it took him so long to take the next step. Why it was so hard for him to admit he loved her. He'd been burned before, probably more times than she knew. Her heart only knew that Fox wasn't her's anymore... She had to know. *~*~*~*~* Mulder found the envelope on his desk. When he opened it, his wedding ring fell out. "How?" he murmured as he caught the ring. When he pulled out the letter and saw Scully's writing, fear crept into his heart. Oh no... I never told her... -- Fox, Do you love me? Do you trust me? Or do you still belong to her? I have to know. I can't use the FBI for this, I need to hear it from you. Please, tell me. I'll be at home waiting... Dana -- Mulder sat, in shock, at his desk, with his wedding ring clutched in one hand, Scully's letter in the other. "She knows..." he murmured. Damn Giselle for coming back to haunt me again! I'd forgotten... *~*~*~*~* It was 1988. He was with the VCS when he met Giselle, a new recruit to the FBI. It was simple to strike up a conversation. Even easier to get to know her. Soon, he had taken her under his wing, become a mentor of sorts. But it became deeper, more intimate, for both of them. Mulder fell in love. She was intelligent, witty, tall, and beautiful, with strawberry blonde hair and bewitching green eyes. And she adored him. Maybe that was why he fell in love, because, for once, he felt loved. They were married in June of 89, before a Justice of the Peace. It was a small ceremony - both of them had little family that attended. But then the accident with the Lone Gunmen happened. And nothing was ever the same. He became extremely paranoid, full of questions and doubts about everything. He became obsessed with the X-Files. They began to drift apart. He hadn't meant to; he still loved her. But his search for Sam and the truth slowly became the most important thing to him. And like another stake through the heart, she suddenly left. Her letter said she couldn't handle it all... his search, the X-Files, being alone. She'd found someone else, someone who paid attention to her, took care of her. "It's all my fault..." he'd constantly think. Crushed, he'd started smoking again. He always wore his ring, as a reminder, and punishment. As he became more involved with his work, he began to forget her, repress the memory but keep the pain as a warning to never let anyone into his heart again... Until Dana Katherine Scully walked through his door. *~*~*~*~* "Dana needs to know. But how do I tell her?" he asked himself. He sat in his chair, elbows propped on the desk, his head in his hands. How do I tell her about my doubts? My fears? My mistakes? I can't lose her... Not again. But if I don't tell her, I'll lose her for sure... She had to know. *~*~*~*~* Scully had spent the day on the couch, holding a cup of cocoa that had grown cold long ago, trying not to cry. And sometimes, she'd succeeded. But most times, the thought of Mulder loving someone else, leaving her for someone else, killed her inside, and she'd give in to the tears. She heard the knock at her door. "He's here..." she whispered, joy and pain mingling in her heart. Mulder stood in her doorway with his head bowed, as if embarrassed or ashamed. When he looked up and saw Scully, his heart broke in two. He could see the dried tears on her face, the hurt in her eyes. "Oh God! I caused this..." he thought. "I'm sorry, so sorry..." he said as he pulled her into his arms, rubbing his cheek against her hair. "I never wanted to hurt you." *But you already have!* her heart cried out. She couldn't let him hurt her anymore, and she started to build the walls around her heart. She wriggled out of his embrace and sat down on the couch while he closed the door. He knelt down in front of her, covering her clenched hands with his own. "What do you want to know?" he asked. "Anything... Everything. Her name." "Giselle Andrews..." *~*~*~*~* They spent the next few hours going over the fine details; how he met her, what the ceremony was like, the annulment. But Scully avoided the most important part until there was nothing left to ask. "Did you love her?" she finally asked. "I thought I did. I realized that she didn't love me. She needed a father, someone to take care of her. And I did that for a while, but I couldn't keep it up. And I realized that I needed someone to love me. It had been so long since I felt loved. And she made me feel loved. But she couldn't keep it up either. That's when I stopped wearing the ring... when I knew it was over." "Why didn't you tell me?" "Because I'd forgotten... I spent so many months trying to forget her, forget the pain. And I did, but I kept up a wall, so no one could get in and hurt me like that again. Until you walked through the door." He looked into her eyes as he said this, pleading with her to let him past the walls she had recently erected. "How do I know this love is real? How do I know WE are real?" Her voice started to grow louder, her fear apparant. She jumped off the couch and started pacing the room. "What if you leave me? In search of your truth, Sam, the Consortium, aliens, my abductors! How can I be sure you'll come back?" "I'll never leave you! And you'll never leave me! Not for those reasons. This isn't *my* search for the truth anymore. It's *our* search for justice. I'd never abandon you. Not even for the truth." He placed his hands on her shoulders and turned her toward him. "I love you that much," he whispered, unshed tears in his eyes. "What if you leave me for someone else?" she whispered back, staring at his chest. He pulled her into his arms again. "Never" he whispered. "Nobody could compare to you. Not Phoebe. Not Giselle. Not Kristen or Bambi or anyone else. You are ten times better than all of them combined. You are so much more than they could ever be. You are my guardian angel. You are a part of me; heart, body, mind, and soul. Remember... we're soulmates..." He led her to the couch. They cuddled against each other, a perfect fit. "I'm so afraid of losing you, one way or another," she said as she held him close, slowly letting him back into her heart. "Fox Mulder loves me... Fox Mulder loves me..." she began to sing in her head. He pulled her chin up and looked deeply into her eyes. "Ever since you walked through the door 5 years ago, I've been yours, and yours alone." "Sometimes, you do say the right thing," she said as she leaned in for a kiss. The End! -- *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* M: Scully? S: Yeah. M: Marry Me. -Chinga "Scully loves Mulder and Mulder loves Scully" - CC *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*