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Title: Through the Rose-Colored Looking-Glass Summary: Mulder and Scully go out on a case, only to find themselves in another world. And, believe me, things are not as they seem.... Feedback is more than welcome! This is my first attempt at fanfic, so please, tell me what I'm doing right! Tell me what I'm doing wrong? I'll accept all comments-good and bad. But, please, if you're going to tell me I suck, do it in a kind way. Here's the first installment of a two part series. No copyright infringement is intended. Agents Scully and Mulder belong to CC&C, Fox, and whoever else, Jon Davies and Diana Monroe are mine, and only God could have created characters as weird as Emma, Carissa, Nicole, Paula, and Mike. So, with that out of the way, on with the show! She is a natural redhead, but her hair is dyed jet black. Her suit is very expensive looking, probably an Armani. Mid twenties, very pretty, but all first impressions of her would be as a spoiled rich brat. Her pouty mouth is set in a false smile with pretenses of warmth, but her eyes are cold and guarded. She has seen too much for one as young as she. Each calm, evenly spaced, step brings Special Agent Diana Monroe one step closer to her destination; the old copier room in the basement-third door on the left. She didn't want this assignment; it, kind of, fell in her lap. As she walks, Agent Monroe silently curses the Powers That Be. What had she done to deserve this? A voice startles Monroe out of her thoughts. "What do you want?" demands Special Agent Jonathan Davies, as they meet in the hallway. "Are you Jon Davies? I'm Diana Monroe. I've been assigned to work with you." "Well, go back to whatever hell they sent you from. I'm resigning." It was just then that Diana noticed the cluttered box of personal items that Davies carried. "No one cares about the truth anymore. Now it all has to do with what's popular." "Well, pardon my boldness Agent Davies, but what does that have to do with you?" Monroe knows the answer before he opens his mouth. "I have dedicated my life to the pursuit of the truth. Just like him," he says, gesturing to a large dusty portrait. "At least in his day there were people who cared... people who weren't content to be spoon-fed what the government thought that they should know." Jon pauses, lost in thought. "His was a better time," agrees Monroe. "But why follow in the steps of one gone so long. Life now isn't so bad." "For you, maybe," he corrects her. "No one wants to believe anymore. Hopelessness is all that's left." Davies sighs. "That's not true," whispers Monroe. "I want to believe," he studies her carefully. "Do you believe in the paranormal? Or the possibility there of?" She pauses before replying. "Well, if you're like him, I'm like her," she says smiling up at the painting. "I have to say no." "Finally!" exclaims Davies. "Finally what?" she asks? "Finally I've found someone to play Scully to my Mulder. Come on, I'll show you my, err, our office. It's the old copier room." "Third door on the left, I know." Davies looks down at her, simply because he is taller. "You don't believe in fate, do you?" Her eyes lose some of their frostiness. "Maybe I do." They walk back down the hallway, leaving behind two of the greats, who now exist only in that dusty, old painting. A small gold plaque at the bottom is difficult to read, even for those with the sharpest eyes. Time, and dust, have dulled the inscription. But those who pause, and look closely, can still make it out: Dana Catherine Scully 1964-1997 Fox William Mulder 1960-1997 Lost in the line of duty May they finally have found what it is they sought. Chapter II Vandergrift, Pennsylvania 5:00 p.m., May 30, 1997 Route 28 "Mulder, tell me again, why are we here?" Scully asks, more than a little annoyed. "Oh, just because I love to spend two hours on a plane, watching you get airsick. And the two hour drive, with you driving, of course, is just the icing on the cake." She punches his shoulder playfully, never taking her eyes off the road. "Fox, I happen to be very proud of my driving." "You know that your mother is the only person that calls me that." She smiles. "You get along with my mother better than I do." They both break into peals of laughter. "Hey," says Mulder. "We're here." "Where?" "Vandergrift, Pennsylvania. Home of the, home of the... Well, there isn't anything extraordinary here. Except what we came to investigate." Scully waited for him to continue. "And that is?" "Three local teenage girls. Turn right here. We're meeting them at this town's hotspot. The local Pizza Hut. Whoa. This is really Hicksville." Chapter III Pizza Hut 5:15 p.m. Fifteen minutes later, Agents Mulder and Scully were gathered around a table with four demure looking teenage girls, plus one guy. After they had ordered, Mulder got down to business. "I was told I was meeting three girls." The pretty redhead, who somehow reminded him of Scully, answered. "I'm the new recruit. Just got diagnosed yesterday." "Diagnosed?" asked Agent Scully. Just then the food arrived, preventing Scully from questioning further. "So why don't you girls tell me what happened." The blond with the braces spoke. "You know already," she said in a detached tone. "That's why you're here." "You'll have to excuse Paula. She can be very, straightforward, at times. By the way," said the pretty brunette. "I'm Carissa. We didn't get around to introductions. You know Paula, that's Nicole, and this is Emma, our favorite bottled redhead." Emma spoke. "And this guy," she said pointing to the tall boy beside her, "is Mike. I figure if I'm ever in trouble, he's a constant. I know he'll be the first to turn tail and run in the other direction." She laughs. "Besides," says Nicole. "He's our witness. I know you don't believe that we can do what we do." Nothing could prevent Mulder from asking the question on his mind. "What exactly is it that you do?" Carissa smiles. "We know things you couldn't possible know." "Like what?" asks Scully. "I know," Emma pauses. "That tomorrow I'm going to be angry with Carissa because Nicole will tell me that she and Mike were necking at the movies last week. Carissa!" "Hey Emma, you're wrong this time. I would never cheat on Matt. Wait, you were at the same movie with Jon? Paula's boyfriend?" Paula's blue eyes grow wide. "Jon and Emma? It's really too bad that he found me necking with Matt, opps!" "My boyfriend?!?" exclaims Carissa. Nicole sits calmly across from the bewildered agents. "What?" she asks. "Am I the only girl in this county who's not necking with someone else's boyfriend?" A moment later all four girls were pouting, eating their pizza silently. "Wow," Mike exclaims. "Aren't they amazing?" "Which one of us?" snaps Emma, just as Agent Scully starts to applaud. "What a wonderful show, girls. I didn't know that small towns like this produce such wonderful actresses." She smirks at Mulder. "So you don't believe us?" asks Emma. "Well, this should change your mind. Give me your necklace." "Why?" "Scully, do it." Even Mulder is fed up with these girls, who he is sure are frauds. "Here." Emma holds the necklace in her hand for a moment before passing it to her friends. "Okay," she begins. "We'll all say one thing we learned from the necklace. I'll start. You lost someone you loved. You felt responsible. Um, a woman. Your sister? Yes, that's it. Your turn Nick." "I see, you were taken, taken away. Far away." Nicole closes her eyes. "You were dead, or close to death. You weren't wearing the necklace. He had it," she says, pointing to Mulder. "Was I right?" "Both of you were," Scully says. "How??? Never mind. What about you Paula?" "Miss Scully, I'm not as good as they are. I just see feelings, sometimes sketchy pictures. Nothing clear. But here goes." She holds the cross tightly. "You love someone. You're...worried. If it's the same guy that wore this for awhile... don't worry. Ahhhhhh...." Paula rubs her temples. Scully gasps as Paula's nose begins to bleed. "Paula? Paula, are you all right? I'm a doctor." Scully tries to comfort the young girl, who is now holding her head in agony, unaware of the blood flowing from her nose. "My purse," she gasps. "My pills, the green bottle." Agent Scully grabs the girls purse and opens it to find more than a dozen bottles of pills. She finds the green bottle and tosses it to Paula, who immediately pops two of the pills. As she starts to calm down, Paula notices Agent Scully examining the many pill bottles, some of them all too familiar. "I have a brain tumor. A year and a half now. They didn't think I'd last a month." She smiles. "Actually," speak up Carissa. "We all have tumors. That's what Emma meant by diagnosed. Paula's had hers for the longest. I was diagnosed about a year ago. Nicole, it's been about, what, nine months?" Nicole nods. "And like Emma said, she was diagnosed yesterday." "I'm really glad you guys came today," says Mike. "These girls are nuts; they think they all are going to die next Sunday." "Not die. Just move on," says Nicole. "And even though you don't know it; all of you," she says, pointing to Scully, Mulder, and Mike. "Will be going with us. In fact, we were only wrong about one thing. The time is now." Just then, the rest of the Pizza Hut fades away. The four girls hold hands and first their faces, and then their whole bodies disappear in a blinding flash of light. Scully and Mulder hear voices in their heads, even though they can only see each other.Mike, is that you? Guys, Mike is part of the conciousness. He must have had a tumor. Miss Scully, Mr. Mulder? It's Paula. I just have to tell you, when you wake up, things will not be as they seem. Just then Agents Scully and Mulder find blissful unconsciousness. Chapter IV 10 am the next morning Somewhere on the outskirts of Vandergrift An abandoned, rundown barn Agent Fox Mulder opens his eyes to the rafters of a barn. He is still kind of sluggish, and his back itches from the hay, but otherwise he is okay. He looks for Scully, but can't see her. "Scully!?!" "Ohhhhhh...." Scully is unconscious behind a hay bale. "Acchoooo! I hate hay fever." As soon they had collect themselves and Scully stops sneezing, they found their way out of the barn. They had no form of transportation, so they had to walk two miles into town. "Owwww... My feet hurt..." Scully whined. Mulder, in his walking shoes, was fine, but, because of her high heels, Scully had to stop to rub her feet every few steps. Just as they had reached mainstreet, a cold chill ran down Scully's spine. For, there before them, was...them. Scully and Mulder saw exact duplicates of themselves, but the doubles didn't seem to notice them. In fact, the few cars they saw on the way to town hadn't seen them either. "Scully, this is really weird." She smiled, through her terrified expression. "We're through the looking glass." "We're through the looking glass." If Agent Mulder couldn't hear the fear in his partner's voice, he could see it in her eyes. Clear, blue eyes that looked as though tears might pour from them at any moment. Their, opposite selves, didn't seem to notice them at all, as the two couples past each other. Mulder noticed an odd look in his double's eyes, while at the same time, Scully noticed something even wierder. Something very, very hard to miss. "My God, Mulder. She's, I'm, pregnant!" "To put it lightly," replied the stunned Mulder. Indeed, even in this dimension, Scully was small, making her nine-month profile look even larger. Just the fact that such a tiny woman could have something that big inside her and still manage to remain upright was amazing to Mulder. But at the same instant, he had to admit that pregnancy agreed with her. "Wow," was all he could manage. "Yeah," replied Scully. "I'm really fat!" As they watched, the alternate Scully bent over in pain. "Oh, Fox! I think I'm in labor." The other Mulder looked flustered. "No, I mean you're not even due yet." "I love you sweetie, but wake up! I'm three days /overdue/! Ohhhhhhh!" "Well, we have to go to the hospital!" Mulder looked as though he'd forgotten what a hospital was, much less where he could find one. "There isn't any time! Sam's house is just around the corner, we could go there and call an ambulance." Even though by now, Scully was speaking between contractions, she could always remain calm. Both Mulders were always amazed by that quality. Mulder and Scully stared as their doubles rounded the corner. A full five seconds had passed, before they were startled out of their thoughts. "Ohmygosh! No, no, no. This wasn't supposed to happen like this!" They turned to where the startled voice had come from. To their surprise, this someone was speaking to them. "Well, don't just stand there!" Emma hissed at them. "Come on, If I keep talking to thin air, people are gonna wonder. We'll go some place we can talk." With that, she turned on her heel. Scully and Mulder, who, at the moment, didn't have anywhere else to be, followed her. They didn't know where they were going, until they were there. "Fox, give me my cell phone." "Dana, don't you think that you should be concentrating on breathing?" said an unfamiliar feminine voice. It only took Mulder a minute to place it. "Samantha, shut up! Fox, my phone. Now!!!" They watched Scully, who was stretched out on the couch, dial her cell phone. "Hey Missy! It's me. Guess what, you're gonna be an aunt! Yes, I mean soon. We're at Sam's now, but I don't think we'll be able to make it to the hospital. Ohhhhhh! Call Mom!" She dropped the phone as a another contraction hit. "Okay, Dana. Remember to breath!" "I wonder who's the father," Mulder mused, absentmindedly. Emma spoke up. "You can't figure it out? Get it through your head!" she said snapping her fingers inches away from his temples. "You are!" Mulder didn't have time to ask any more questions, as they were distracted by a soft crying. "Hello, baby!" Samantha Mulder looked fondly into the face of her niece. "Fox, Dana. It's a girl!" As she was handing the baby to them, Mulder seemed to finally notice who she was. "Scully, that's Samantha!" "And that's Melissa! And Dad!" "Hey Starbuck!" said Captain Scully. "Whoa, looks like we missed it!" "Ahab! It's a girl!" Everyone in the room was glowing, not just the new mother. Just then, the ambulance pulled up and away everyone went, except for Melissa. As she past Scully, she stopped. "Melissa!" called Maggie Scully. "Are you coming?" She shook her head. "No, I'll catch up." After everyone was gone, Melissa spoke. "Emma? I know you're there, so come out." Emma ducked out from behind one of the huge trees. "Hi, Missy," she said shyly. Scully could have sworn Melissa looked right at her. "Hello, Dana." "Wait," exclaimed Emma. "You can see her?" Melissa smiled. "Hello Fox. So nice to see you again." Scully decided to try an experiment. "Missy? Can you hear me?" "Dana, don't shout. Mom would have a fit!" She frowned. "Seriously Dana. Why are you here? I just saw you in that ambulance. I know you aren't dead, so why did you choose to separate from your body now? And you, Fox?" "Missy, you don't understand," said Emma. "They are from the other side." Melissa's eyes grew wide. "Go ahead. Touch her." Hesitantly, Melissa moved to face her sister. She extended her hand and Dana took it. "Dear Lord," breathed Melissa, using His name for the first time in years. Her face lit up with enlightenment as she hugged her sister. Mulder saw Scully's utter joy as she held her sister. It was then that he saw she was crying. "Oh, Missy," she sobbed. "We thought you died and it was my fault and I'm so, so sorry Missy." As the sisters hugged, Emma approached Mulder. "Well, Special Agent Fox Mulder. It's time to meet your sister." She led him inside the house where Samantha still sat, amazed at what had happened. "Aunt Sam?" asked Emma. "It's time." Samantha's eyes glowed with understanding. "He's here." Sam turned. "Where? Emma you know that I can't do the same things you can, see the same things you can. So, where is he?" "You're wrong Sam, you were so young when THEY took you. You can see!" Emma looked frustrated as she crossed the yard to Samantha. "I can't!" Emma suddenly seemed almost... serene! "Then I'll help you." She reached out and past her hand over Samantha's eyes. "Now, can't you see them?" "Yes! I can. Fox!" Mulder stared at his sister, whom he hadn't seen since he was twelve years old. Yet, it was undeniably her. "Samantha..." And he could say no more. He had found her and she was alive. The next thing he knew he was in her arms. "Oh, Sam," he cried for five minutes straight. "Well, Emma. Are you going to tell us what's going on?" Scully asked. "You forgot the 'or else young lady' part." She suddenly grew serious. "Let's go somewhere we can talk." She led them down the street to a small coffee shop-'The Best Cellar'. In the quaint environment, Emma was able to relax. Samantha leafed through a few new paperbacks while Emma explained everything, or tried to. "THEY made a mistake. We, me, Carissa, Nick, the others, we weren't supposed to die so soon. So we get another chance. Here. You see, in a way, this is the same world we left. But, in this one, I'm not dying." She paused. "We're not dying. But you, both of you, you're not supposed to be here. The 'you's who are supposed to be here are those happy new parents. I, I don't know what happened." Emma looked at her hands. "What about Melissa?" asked Scully. "What about me?" Melissa asked. "Missy, you died." Dana looked as though she was about to cry again. Melissa just looked stunned. "Umm, how?" "By a bullet that was meant for me." "I think I know why she isn't dead here." Emma said. "You saw yourselves-and believe it or not, you, or they live here. Hicksville, U.S.A. Here Agents Scully and Mulder don't exist. Only Fox and Dana." She paused. "Maybe you'll understand better if you know a little about yourselves. Two years ago, while working on a case, Agents Mulder and Scully found his long-lost sister Samantha. She had had a small medical practice here for about four years prior. After finding his sister, Agent Mulder had no interest in continuing to investigate the X-Files. He moved to Vandergrift to be near his sister, but not before asking Agent Scully to come with him. She did, and I was maid of honor at their wedding last year." Mulder looked puzzled. "Wait, today is still May 31, 1997, right." She nodded. "But I just saw you in the other... world. How could you have been maid of honor /last year?/" Emma sighed. "The same way I am Emma Scully. I have always been here. Dana, can I call you that? Anyway, when you were eighteen years old, your mom had to be hospitalized. Do you remember that?" "Yes, she had her appendix out." "She had a miscarriage, Dana. Me. She couldn't bring the baby to term because of the stress of being taken. That's when THEY were still being careful, abducting only during sleep and returning before morning." "Wait," said Agent Scully. "They took Mom, too?" "THEY usually take from the same family. I don't know why. Anyway, since they, you, had decided to settle down, here was the obvious choice. Vandergrift is quiet, uneventful, and besides, Sam was here. Good place for people like the Scullys to grow old. Good place for the Mulders to raise a family." Emma's eyes grew wistful. "And thanks to you, I'll be able to do the same." "How is that?" asked Mulder. "You stopped THEM. You stopped the lies. But most importantly, you stopped the abductions, the tests." Again, she paused. "I can't remember much about the other world. Did you stop THEM there?" Seeing his expression she continued, "No, no, you didn't. Or I wouldn't have been dying in the first place." Emma stopped, apparently finished. Everyone sat, sipping their cafe latees, contented. "You know, Mulder? Would it be so terrible?" Scully looked, well, Mulder didn't know just how she looked, other than beautiful. "Would what be so terrible?" he asked, hoping yet fearing. Daring to dream. "To live here." Dana! she chided herself. You are such a chicken! "Being married to you." Did I say that out loud? "Well, I've never seen any other two people make each other as happy as you, they do." Melissa smiled."And that's saying something." "Well, they are different than us." "Well," Emma broke the silence. "We should be going." "To where?" asked Scully. "The hospital. To see your daughter." During the trip to the hospital, no one said much. Melissa and Samantha chatted quietly in the front of the car while Mulder, Scully, and Emma just tried to make sense of it all. Actually, Emma seemed to have it all figured out, but Scully had a hunch that she wasn't as self-assured as she made herself out to be. As they pulled into the hospital parking lot, both agents were hit by a wave of apprehension. What if their other selves were somehow happier than they were? Even without the X-Files. Mulder didn't know if he could be happy here, without aliens, giant sewer flukes, ghosts, and psychics. The X-Files had become his life. Mulder looked at his partner, his best friend, maybe his only friend. And he knew that she was thinking the same thing. He had seen the look of utter joy on his double's face; but it was almost impossible to even dream of the woman who put it there. Sure, he loved Scully, but not really that way. She was his anchor; the only one he trusted. But, what if? Mulder suddenly realized that his life was empty, even with the flukeworms and aliens. But how could he fix it? His sister, it was hard to think of her like that, interrupted his thoughts. "Fox? Fox? Buttmunch! We're here. It's a good thing, too, because you looked like you were ready to blow a gasket!" She smiled. Same old Samantha. Dana Scully's heels clicked on the shiny hospital floor. Even though she was a medical doctor, she hated the hospital smell. Except for this ward. This ward always smelled of talcum powder and fresh diapers. The Nursery. "You know, guys, that no one will question why we're here. The three of us are the aunts and no one can see you." Emma said. "Come on," she said holding the door. To Fox Mulder's eyes, she was the most beautiful baby he had ever seen. One glance at his partner and he could tell she was thinking the same. Astral Diana Mulder. Astral! Mulder caught Scully's eyes. "You must have chosen her name." She smiled. "Yeah. Diana is pretty weird." For many minutes they gazed in awe at the tiny baby. Mulder was sure that she looked like Scully; at the same time, she was positive Astral looked just like Mulder. "We have to go." Dana was startled out of her thoughts. "Missy, why?" "I don't know. We just do. Come on, let's go for a walk." They left the hospital, but didn't get in the car. They walked around to a shady grove and sat on a park bench. "Sis," began Melissa. "It's time for you to go back." "You too, Fox." Samantha smiled. "But, I lost you," he cried. " I don't want to leave you." She reached over and touched his chest. "You won't. I'll always be right here," she said, patting his heart. "Good-bye, Dana. May God go with you on your journey." Melissa smiled, as her face disappeared in a flash of white light. Soon, everything was glowing. The only person that Scully could see was Mulder, and he could only see her. That is, before the blackness swallowed them up. When they woke up, Dana Scully thought that she was awakening from a wonderful dream. Until she realized that not only was she not in her bed, she wasn't in anyone else's either. Scully was lying on a bale of hay. "Ohhhh..," she moaned. "Scully? Scully? You awake?" asked Mulder. For one blissful moment, Dana thought that her dream had come true. "Scully, they must have drugged us." "Who?" she asked. "Those girls. I should have known that their crazy story was just that. Come on. Let's go back to Washington." "In my opinion, the hallucination of the other world that was shared by both Agent Mulder and myself, was caused by a combination of drugs, probably some type of anti-depressant, that was laced into the pizza, and hypnotism. The unability to find any residual drugs is unexplainable. Also unexplainable is our inability to locate any of the girls. Pennsylvania archives have no records of anyone bearing the name of Emma Hommel, Nicole Terrana, Carissa Souchock, or Paula Lauffer, except for four birth certificates, dated in the late eighteen hundreds and four matching death certificates, all dated May 30, 1897. It is my conclusion that Agent Mulder and I were led to this town to be incapacitated for a period of one day. Why is unknown. X-file #6759986-240 remains unsolved." Agent Scully saved the file and thought about her hallucination. It might not be so bad. Astral Diana Mulder! Nope, she thought to herself. I'm not naming any of my kids Astral. The End "And that's the way it started," Diana finished. "How do you know so much about them?" Jonathan asked, pouring himself another decaf. "Astral Mulder, Astral Diana Mulder." At his shocked look, Diana smiled. "Mulder is a little too famous a name. And who would respect a girl named Astral? So I became Diana Monroe." She smiled. "So, they're still alive?" "Alive and well. And still a legend to live under. Oh, gosh! It's midnight. And we have to be on a plane tomorrow." As she got up to leave, he caught her hand. "What do you think happened? A hallucination?" he asked. She paused. "I don't know... Something cosmic." She smiled. "Go home, go to sleep." And she left. Wow! He thought. I wonder if this is how Mulder felt the first time he met Scully. We'll Jonathan, you know that she's the one. Now how are you gonna convince her of that? Jonathan left, without slamming the door behind him, for the first time in months. As he passed the portrait, he began to whistle. For now, the inscription has changed. Fox William Mulder & Dana Catherine Scully Joined in holy matrimony May 30, 1999 |
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