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Title: Four Letters Summary: A Halloween challenge story. Mulder stared down at the paper in his hands trying to decipher what was written there. In his years as an FBI agent, he'd seen oodles of Medical documents... results of tests, x-rays, blood work, autopsies.... But this page was different. This one MATTERED. He sat there, completely still, pouring over the numbers on the page and trying desperately to recall the ones he'd seen on the last such document, and trying to remember what numbers Scully had told him were safe- were right. He guilted himself for not having paid more attention. He guilted himself for even looking. It wasn't on purpose that Mulder had run across the results of her latest volley of tests. He had gone into her desk to borrow a paper clip and when he tried to open the top drawer, it stuck on a manilla envelope and almost didn't open at all. He'd had no idea of the contents of the package when he'd opened it, as much to satisfy his own curiosity as to iron out the by now terribly wrinkled page. He had wrestled with whether or not to read it once he knew what it was, but his curiosity and concern got the better of him. After all, there was no real chance of discovery- Scully was gone for the afternoon... GONE. Why on earth did that word frighten him so much? GONE. Can any four letters be so powerful? And then he thought back to the last time he and Scully were apart... and discovered four letters with an even deeper meaning hiding somewhere inside him. No... he couldn't think about her like that. He'd spent years actively NOT thinking about those four letters. He studied the paper in his hand, and bit his lip a little trying his hardest to remember . Scully had shown him some previous test results on a similar piece of paper weeks before, but this carbon copy was even less legible than that one had been, and without Scully there to translate the few numbers he could read- he was at a total loss. He was shaking his head when he heard an unexpected knock on the door. Mulder left his seat and opened the door, revealing the unfamiliar face of a boy who appeared to be in his late teens. "Can I help you?" Mulder asked him. The boy responded by holding out a small, bright orange envelope. Mulder eyed him for a second before snatching the envelope, a little more forcefully than he'd've liked from the boy's hand. He then shut the door before the messenger had even the time to turn away, or get a word in. Mulder looked at the envelope in his hand. It was addressed to him in a familiar, and yet unrecognizable handwriting. He returned to where he'd been sitting, never minding that it was at Scully's desk. He tore open the envelope with the zeal and anticipation of a boy on Christmas. What he found inside was a greeting card accompanied by a small note. He went for the card first. It was in the shape of a black cat, and had the words,"HAPPY HALLOWEEN" printed across the top on obnoxious orange letters. The inside read,"Hope you have a purrrr-fect day". And it was signed, "Margaret Scully". Mulder then opened the small note she'd sent with it. The note read, Fox, Mulder had to chuckle a little. It was true that he and Mrs. Scully had become friendly over the past few years, she being the only person alive he allowed to call him Fox. And since Dana's cancer diagnosis, Mrs. Scully had even resorted to calling him a time or two. She had told him she could emote with him "in a manner that Dana would never allow me to." But even this newfound closeness did not lead him to expect a Halloween card from her. He looked down at the card which he'd callously tossed onto the desk. It was laying on top of the paper he'd been so absorbed in a few moments earlier. He studied the picture on the front and thought,"A BLACK CAT...HOW FITTING." He felt sort of like a black cat sometimes- like people had bad luck starting from the very minute he crossed their path. Samantha had been the beginning, and since then, he'd lost family members, informants, co-workers, and now it seemed he'd brought his curse on the one person that mattered the most in the world ro him. LUCK- four more letters that he seemed to be having a hard time with. LUCK; why was his so lousy? Especially when it came to that other four letter word- the one he WASN'T going to think about. He hadn't time to think about anything because, as he leaned forward onto her desk, Mulder heard a shuffling sound in the hallway outside his door along with Scully's unmistakable voice. He quickly snatched up her test results and shoved the page back into the envelope from whence it came, and stuffed the entire package back into her still ajar top drawer. He quickly gathered his note and card, along with the remnants of the bright orange envelope and was able to make it into his chair just in time to greet a smiling Scully as she walked through the door. She went immediately to his desk and presented him with an adorable Halloween gift basket, filled with goodies. He smiled as she walked over and placed an identical one on her own desk. "Happy Halloween, Mulder." She said as she fell into her chair. He was still smiling. She had been so distant with him lately that this came as not only a surprise, but as a great deal of encouragement to Mulder. He dared ask her, "Was this where you went this afternoon?" Scully nodded to him as she popped a chocolate espresso bean into her mouth. "I'd ordered these baskets from a place right outside of D.C. and I knew that if I waited until after work to go and get them that I'd never make it before they closed. And what fun is a Halloween basket if you can't eat all the candy on Halloween?" Mulder couldn't believe his ears- Scully had just said the word "fun" for the first time in months. He decided not to tell her yet about the present he'd received this afternoon, "Is that today?" he asked, not at all betraying himself to her, which made him proud. Scully just nodded at him, her mouth full with caramel corn. So, he continued, "Oh, I thought that maybe you had to see your doctor today or something." Scully shook her head as she swallowed and then told him, "No, not today...actually, I just got my latest set of test results in the mail yesterday." Mulder feigned ignorance, "Yeah? And?" He asked out of genuine curiosity, after all he'd never been able to decipher the paper he'd seen. "And everything's okay," she assured him,"The tumor doesn't seem to have spread any since the last time it was checked." Mulder couldn't help but bring a dim smile to his face just then. He also felt an overwhelming sense of guilt. He still blamed himself for her being sick. And he felt guilty about snooping in her papers today- he knew she'd never keep anything important from him. After all, who was it she'd called first after her diagnosis? Unaware of his thoughts, Scully looked Mulder square in the eye and smiled st him with a warmth he hadn't seen from her in quite a while. All of the sudden, four more letters popped enthusiastically into Mulder's head...HOPE. That was all he needed at that very moment- HOPE. And he smiled back at her. THE END
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