Title: Scully's Nightmare Before Christmas
Author: Todd China
This story Rated R for violence, language, and sexual situations.

Summary: The title alone is good enough.

Dana Scully took a pleased look at the Christmas dinner she and her mother had worked so hard to prepare, a meal which consisted of turkey, mashed potatoes with gravy, cranberries, ham, eggnog, and various other goodies. Gazing down at her vague, shadowy reflection in the brown gravy that topped her mashed potatoes, Dana thought for a moment about Mulder.

The whole family was gathered around the banquet table in Margaret Scully's decorated home: Dana, Margaret, Bill and his family, Charles, Father McCue, and various other aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends of the Scully clan. With bubbly, ebullient enthusiasm, Bill was relating, for the entertainment of all, his choice stories and jokes.

"...so I said," Bill continued, "You can just bite me!"

The Scully family laughed in mirthful appreciation. Dana, who still was staring at her gravy, smiled along with everyone else.

She could see it now - the way the stray brown strands of Mulder's hair hung over his exquisite forehead, which was constantly lined from the intensity of his thoughts. The way his upper eyelids shaped themselves around his sharp and intelligent eyes. The sexy, undulating shape of his face, that flowed like a river. And oh, the lines of his mouth, the curve of his upper lip... don't even get me started on his upper lip, Dana thought with a thrill.

"Dana," Mulder's lips moved as he spoke. Dana could imagine his mouth forming the word she so longed to hear from his lips. Mulder said the words with affection, tenderness, and most of all, love. Dana, Dana. How I long for your ethereal embrace, my sweet Dana. Smiling and cupping her face with his soft, smooth hands, Mulder looked for an eternity into her eyes.

"... You know, when I was stopping in LA, I saw a funny magazine, and there was a 'teen relationships' poll," Bill said, beginning another story.

"Dana!" Margaret Scully said, interrupting everyone as she nudged her daughter. "Aren't you going to eat?"

"Huh? Oh!" Dana said, her Mulder daydream rudely broken. Blushing, she took her fork and began eating her turkey with dainty bites. Everyone else, who was listening to Bill with rapt attention, had already halfway finished their meals.

Smirking, Bill looked at his sister for a moment before continuing his lame joke. At least, to Dana, it seemed lame, unbearably lame. Especially when she would much rather be hearing Mulder's voice fall like music on her ears, rather than her own brother's grating voice that assaulted her ears like a belch.

"...And question 7 says, A bald guy asks you to a book burning," Bill said with boyish eagerness, reveling in the limelight he was enjoying at the Scully Christmas dinner table.

"Not an old, fat, male pattern bald guy," Bill said, "but a gorgeous, young, German bald guy."

Chewing on her ham, Dana pictured to herself the look in Mulder's eyes as he would tell her that he loved her.

"Dana," Mulder would say, "I love you dearly and truly."

Taking a long, deep sip of eggnog, Dana smiled as she closed her eyes, tilted her head back slightly, and heard her partner caressing her with his voice, which was throaty and trembling with emotion and passion. Ah, the thought of Mulder feeling passion for me, Dana ruminated quietly and blissfully. Ooohhhh.... Ahhhh.....

"...You respond," Bill said, "with option A..."

"I've realized I can't live without you, Dana, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. You don't know how many nights I have longed for this moment. How many nights I have dreamed of the treasure of your love."

"But Jerry Springer says Nazism is wrong!" Bill said. "Then, there's B: What kind of books? Should I bring some?"

Now to the cranberries. Dana scooped up a small portion with her fork and slipped it into her mouth.

The kiss was like a fire raging through the Yellowstone forest. Uttering a low, passionate moan that throbbed with unadulterated human desire, Dana hugged Mulder tightly as he wrapped his beloved arms around her. As their tongues squirmed in each other's mouths like a pair of wild weasels duking it out to the death, and Dana, with a gasp of intimate excitement, felt Mulder's smoldering organ through the tenuous barrier of their clothes threatening to take off into the stratosphere like a NASA space shuttle, a delicious quiver of erotic electricity riveted her entire being, right down to her trembling little toes.

"C," Bill said, "is, Will there also be a weenie roast?"

The family gave an appreciative chuckle as they prepared themselves to be knocked dead by the final punchline of Bill's joke. Bill was loving it, of course. He was the man of the family now, after all, and it was his duty to entertain everyone, a job he took on with gusto.

"Option D: I have David Hasselhoff's autograph!" Bill said, laughing at his own joke and slapping his thighs, which gave a meaty 'smack' sound. Everyone burst into laughter all around the table. Dana noticed her brother had finally gotten to the end of his story and gave a weak smile before continuing her dinner.

Breaking off the kiss was as difficult as pulling a bar magnet out of an MRI chamber, but it had to be done, or they would have clearly suffocated from their own breathless delight. Dana pulled her partner's head down and their foreheads touched. Their eyes were closed. They took deep, slow breaths as they both contemplated the stunning strength of their passion.

"Mulder," Dana would say, "Don't ever let me go. Promise me you'll love me forever, with all your heart, all your soul. Forever and ever."

"I promise. And I swear... by the moon and the stars in the sky - -"

"Dana!" Bill said loudly and with good cheer. His annoying voice shattered Dana's wonderful fantasy as she felt herself being jarred back to reality. Looking at her brother, Dana thought to herself, I don't remember his eyes being red...

"You look... flustered. Has that jerkoff partner of yours been dicking with you again?"

"Bill!" Margaret said with an angry whisper. Dana turned her head to look at her mother, who smiled. Dana looked at her brother again. Little white horns were growing out of his head. Steam was shooting out of his ears.

"That Mulder... is one... sorry bastard," Bill hissed demonically.

Dana sat bolt upright in her chair with alarm. What the hell was going on?

"Father McCue, perhaps you could speak to Dana for a moment," Margaret said in a shrill voice. With rising horror, Dana saw horns growing out of the top of her head, as well, with a horrendous stretching sound. Dana rapidly turned to face the others around the table, shuddering with fright as they all began sprouting horns out of their heads and their eyes turned red.

"Dana," a demonic Father McCue intoned, his voice rising to a roar, "You've been very bad this year. You have been drifting from the Church. You have been thinking impure thoughts. An inveterate sinner like you is doomed to burn in the steaming pits of hell!!!"

Father McCue shot up from his seat and, withdrawing a cross from his pocket, thrust it in front of Dana's face as he furiously made the sign of the cross and proceeded to throw a glassful of (presumably holy) water in her face.

"Out, Jezebel! I call upon the angels in heaven above to smite the hideous demons that have corrupted your soul, you unholy bastion of evil!!!" he cried at Dana, as if the force of his voice would exorcise the demon he was yelling at.

A ringing sound broke the silence that followed. The devils were all staring at her.

"I'll get that," Dana said as she got up to answer the telephone.

"Hey Scully," Mulder said when Dana picked up the phone. Blinking, she grabbed a napkin and wiped her face down as she headed for the kitchen.

"Yes, Mulder?" Dana said, smiling with the remembrance of her sweet, dreamy encounter with Mulder minutes before. He was calling for one reason, and one reason only: to confess his undying love for her. Her daydream had been more than just a fantasy, it had been a prophecy of things to come. Why else would he call on Christmas Eve?

"I need you to do an autopsy," Mulder said in a matter-of-fact voice.

Sighing, Dana looked down. Her family was in the next room and could not tell that she was talking to Mulder. An autopsy. Wonderful.

"Is that all you've got to say to me?"

"Merry Christmas, Scully," Mulder said dryly, before hanging up.

When Dana got to the FBI morgue, the body had been wheeled out to the center of the room. As Dana approached nearer, she noticed the still-covered body had a red and green stick-on ribbon taped to the head area, along with a Christmas tag that bore the image of a decorated wreath along with the pithy message, "Happy Holidays." Dana didn't have to look twice at the note to see that the handwriting was obviously Fox Mulder's.

Son of a bitch, Dana thought sardonically. It's one hour to Christmas, and he has me doing a damn autopsy. Was this his idea of a sick joke? Did he derive some twisted enjoyment out of torturing her, when it was plain, to her at least, that they were head-over-heels in love with each other?

"I'm going to wring his fucking neck," Dana said as she pulled back the cover.

She gasped in horror as she found herself face to face with a dead, pale Emily.

Or someone who looked very much like Emily. The pain came sharply and quickly, stabbing her heart as the memories of last Christmas returned in full force. She had loved this child so much, yet the girl had been taken away from her as quickly as she had been given to her. For one brief, shining moment, Emily had been what Dana had always dreamed of having, in all her private moments, in all her most tender dreams... a daughter. A dream that had been stolen from Dana by her abductors with as much arbitrary cruelty as the cruelty of Emily's death. And now she was gone. Just gone.

The tears welled up in her eyes. Clutching her microcassette recorder in one hand and the body cloth with the other, Dana bent over Emily's youthful face and began to cry with quiet tears. The body had not yet begun to decompose. Had Emily felt the same kind of love for her, the love that can only exist between a mother and her daughter?

"I'm sorry, Emily. I love you," Dana said, her voice breaking, her eyes closed.

Emily's eyes flew open.

Mulder, I am going to have your head, Dana thought bitterly. She hadn't thought he could be so unfeeling as that.

Dana was brutally yanked out of her own inward thoughts as she felt two hands grabbing her throat, squeezing the air out with vicious, inhuman strength. Dana looked down, startled, and felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end as she realized that Emily was somehow alive, and she was trying to strangle her.

Emily's eyes burned like a cold fire, and her face contorted into a shocking expression of pure hatred.

"IT'S YOUR FAULT. ALL YOUR FUCKING FAULT. MOTHERFUCKER!"

"Emily - " Dana said in a choked voice, her hands flailing.

"YOU WEREN'T THERE FOR ME. YOU WERE A TERRIBLE MOTHER!"

Dana could feel her vision fading to black as Emily, her face flushed and her breathing rapid, tried to squeeze the life out of her. She had to do something quick, or it was all over. With a mighty effort and a silent prayer for forgiveness, Dana lifted her right hand that held the recorder and brought it smashing down onto Emily's angry face.

In an instant, Dana felt the small hands momentarily relax their grip for a moment, and she pulled herself back from the autopsy gurney. Dana gasped again as Emily, a sharp, bloodless indentation now in her forehead, staggered off the gurney and began walking to her.

"I HATE YOU," Emily shrieked again. "I BLAME YOU FOR EVERYTHING!!"

"No," Dana said, stumbling backward to the doors, knocking a chair down in front of her to ward off her daughter.

"I'M DEAD BECAUSE OF WHAT YOU DID TO ME!!!"

"It's not true, Emily. Please, I love you - " Dana said helplessly, her voice weak.

"YOU FAILED ME!! YOU FAILED TO SAVE MY LIFE!!!"

When she reached the door, Dana collapsed to her knees, her heart unable to withstand further the blackness of Emily's hatred, and she put a shaking hand to her forehead.

Dana saw the horrible Emily zombie closing the gap, and with a last effort, she opened the door, dragged herself out of the morgue room, and shut the door firmly behind her. As she sat on the frigid floor of the hallway with the doors against her back, Dana felt a succession of soft thuds. Emily was screaming on the other side, throwing herself against the door, again and again. Dana tried to shut her eyes to the noise, and to the pain.

Thud!

It wasn't real, she thought, none of this is really happening, all I have to do is close my eyes and breathe deeply, and this will all go away -

Thud!

This has to be the worst Christmas I've ever had in my life -

Thud!

"Lord," Dana said as she knelt on the cold floor in prayer and closed her eyes, the tears still flowing in a stream, "I - I know that Emily is with you in heaven. I pray that she'll know how much I miss her. Tell her I never wanted to let her go - tell her I love her - that I'll always love her - tell her - oh, God..."

Dana's hands flew apart and onto the floor, and for a long time, she remained in that position. On her hands and knees, her forehead against her own knuckles, her eyes closed, the tears wetting the waxed floor, she listened to the heaviness of her own labored breathing, and to the whispers of her tormented heart.

The pounding on the door stopped.

After what seemed an eternity, Dana picked herself off from the floor and headed home.

It was almost midnight, Dana noticed as she walked out the elevator as it stopped on her floor. I'm having a complete emotional breakdown, Dana thought miserably to herself. All I need is a good night's sleep, and to forget all about this horrible, horrible Christmas -

"Dana Scully."

Dana stiffened at the voice. It was a voice that she knew. Slowly raising her eyes, Dana saw first a black pair of boots, then a pair of faded jeans, then a black leather jacket, then the face - the face -

The face of Alex Krycek.

"Merry Christmas, Dana."

Krycek smiled a genuine smile of affection as he took two steps closer. Dana took two steps backward, retreating to the elevator but finding it closed. With her back pressed against the wall, her trembling fingers probed the wall behind her and finally found the "down" button.

Dana gasped as Krycek stepped in close and pressed his hands against the wall on both sides around her.

"What do you want, Krycek?" Dana said hesitantly, trying desperately to keep an angry tenor to her voice. This was, after all, a man who had betrayed her and Mulder, a man who had been present at Melissa's death, a man who had been involved in the murder of Mulder's father. His name was Alex Krycek, and he was a complete scumbag.

"I wanted to give you a Christmas present."

"Whatever the hell it is, you can keep it; I don't want your shitty present."

"You're hurting my feelings. Don't you want a present?" Krycek said as he fiercely pressed his burning lips to hers. Krycek's mouth devoured her own with an insatiable hunger, and for a second, Dana felt her emotional guard crumbling. Finally, with a titanic effort, she managed to squirm out of Krycek's smarmy lip lock.

"What's wrong, Dana? I think you should know that I'm desperately in love with you. You can't imagine how much I've so badly wanted to hold you tenderly in my arms, how much I've wanted to hold you, and never let go. You can't imagine all the times I've thought about the way your hair moves when you walk, the soft whiteness of your shapely legs, the sensual curve of your hips, the delicate slope of your shoulders, the blue heaven of your eyes, how I've pictured to myself a thousand times the way your face lights up like the stars when you smile... Your eyes sparkle, the color comes to your fair cheeks, and your lovely lips form the most wonderful sight in the world."

"Leave me alone, Krycek - I don't love you, and I never will, I'm sorry, but that's the damned truth - "

"Is it?" Krycek hissed with desperate passion. "How could I ever forget that crucial moment when the hope sprang eternal in my poor, love-stricken heart - the moment when you saved my life? Your partner Mulder was going to kill me, but you shot him. You chose me over him, Dana, and I was so grateful to you, the dream of your love sustained me through my imprisonment in the missile silo, through the time when I got my arm cut off in Tunguska. I dreamed that I would find you and tell you how deeply I feel about you. I think you felt it, too. When you shot Mulder, you looked at me, and I could have sworn it was a look - a look of compassion and tenderness, a silent, electric acknowledgement of deeply hidden primal urges - I've treasured that moment in my heart, played it over in my mind a thousand times. Can't you find it in your generous heart to bestow on me the treasure of your love?"

Krycek leaned in for another kiss.

"I'm sorry, Krycek, but - "

Alarmed, Dana could see Krycek's swinish lips pucker up like a Venus flytrap as the fateful moment drew near. He loved her, and no one, not even Mulder, had confessed such feelings to her out loud. Was it possible for her to love Krycek, she asked herself. A decision had to be made; there could be no turning back.

" - but I just don't deserve you!" Dana exclaimed as she yanked her head forward, head-butting Krycek right in the mouth.

"Owww!!"

"Fuck off, Krycek!!!" Dana cried as she grabbed Krycek by the arm and spun him around, reversing their positions, and slammed him against the closed elevator doors. As Krycek's head slumped over in a pained daze, Dana reached out, grabbed his left prosthetic arm, and with one swift, brutal motion, tore it off.

The prosthetic arm settled into Dana's grip like a baseball bat as she swung it with all her might against Krycek's abdomen, forcing him to double over and wheeze for breath.

"Spare me your pitiful, pathetic, vomit-inducing delusions, you ratty piece of pond scum," Dana sneered as she swung again, eliciting from Krycek another shout of pain.

Dana grabbed Krycek by the shoulder and spun him around again. A "Ping!" sound went off, signaling the arrival of the elevator. With a sadistic snarl, Dana swung again with all her might, this time connecting with the backs of Krycek's knees. Krycek's knees wobbled as he collapsed to his hands and knees like a beaten down dog.

The elevator doors opened, and Dana wasted no time.

Dana gave a martial arts yell as she rapidly spun around, her leg shooting out to deliver a fast and powerful back kick to Krycek's ass, sending him tumbling into the empty elevator car. Krycek slammed into the car with a resounding crash.

"If I ever see your face again, you're a dead man!!!" Dana said as she pointed a finger at Krycek. Krycek could only gaze at her in excruciating physical and emotional pain as the elevator doors closed, shutting him away from her heart forever.

Tired and exhausted from her devastating encounter with Krycek, Dana brushed off her coat and found the door to her apartment. Fumbling with the keys, Dana finally succeeded in unlocking her door, and she walked inside.

The lights were already on. Suspicious, Dana unholstered her gun and walked inside, ready to shoot at anything that moved.

"Dana," Mulder's voice came softly from the sofa, which was near the lighted Christmas tree. Dana breathed a sigh of relief as she replaced her gun and headed over to him. The green, red, blue, and yellow lights from the tree played softly against Mulder's face as he looked at her attentively.

"Mulder," Dana said, rolling her shoulders in weariness, "What more do you want from me? You send me to do a horrible autopsy on my own dead daughter, on Christmas Eve, no less, and now what? What, that wasn't enough for you, you heartless bastard?"

"No, Dana, wait," Mulder said as he got up and put his hands on her shoulders, before looking her in the eye.

"I know I've been a real jerk lately, and I want to make it up to you. I'm sorry." Dana crossed her arms and gave Mulder the evil eye as he fished in his jacket pocket.

With a soft smile, Mulder pulled out a cubical, black, velvet-covered box, and handed it shyly to her.

"Mulder, what - "

Dana frowned in confusion as she opened the box and found a glimmering diamond ring.

"Merry Christmas, darling," Mulder said as he took it out. Tenderly holding Dana's hand with one hand, Mulder gently slipped the ring onto her finger with the other. Dana's heart felt like it would melt, and she was blushing furiously. What did it all mean?

"I - I can't accept this," Dana said uneasily.

Before Dana could protest further, Mulder reached around her neck, pulled her close, and gave her a passionate kiss that pulsated with urgency. Dana moaned as she kissed him back, and Mulder slammed her back to the wall, kissing her all the while. He had her positively cornered. Concern gave rise to alarm as Dana felt Mulder's hands groping her body shamelessly and his hips began thrusting against hers, the bulge of his crotch ready to rip through his jeans and stab her in one brutal impaling motion.

This was too much, too fast. With all her strength, Dana jerked out of the way of Mulder's hungry mouth and shoved him away.

"Stop it, Mulder. You're hurting me."

"Well, that's the point, sweetie-pie."

Dana stared in horror as Mulder's face suddenly morphed into the face of the alien bounty hunter.

"What - what's going on?"

The bounty hunter planted his fists on his hips and stood before her, licking his lips in excitement.

"I want you, that's what," the bounty hunter said. "The very sight of you turns me on, makes the green blood boil in my veins so much, that I can't take it anymore. I want to feel your body close to mine."

The bounty hunter paced back and forth before Dana, stopping to look at her every now and then, as he continued his speech.

"How can you deny the sexual tension that was between us when I first confronted you in that motel room three years ago? When you grabbed me and held me against the wall with your gun, it gave me the most tremendous hard-on, Dana. And that's when I knew that I had to be with you. The rest only confirmed my conviction that it was meant to be. You have no idea how erotically gratifying it was to grab you and throw you against the wall, and when I sent you crashing through the glass table, it was all I could do to keep from ravishing you on the spot. And how could I forget the moment when I ransomed you on that bridge? The feel of your warm breath on my hands and the heat of your body next to mine truly sent an ecstatic thrill coursing through my every vein. I gave you up that night, but I dreamed of returning to you, someday. With every alien clone that I stabbed in the base of the skull, I felt closer to the ultimate goal... closer to home... closer to you. Whenever I was alone in my spaceship and gazing at the stars in the sky, you were in my thoughts, always."

"You're dreaming, pal, if you think I will ever sleep with you."

The bounty hunter pressed his taut body against Dana's as his face came inches from hers. Dana squirmed under him as his tongue began dancing over the side of her face.

"Surrender yourself to me, Dana. I promise you we'll have the most shattering sex the universe has ever known. With my alien sexual prowess, I will give you an orgasm that is out of this world. As I hold you in a sweaty embrace, steadily pumping into you like an oil drill, you'll feel yourself being torn into a million pieces, and will scream my name in pleasure - "

Before the bounty hunter could say what, in fact, that name really was (Dana didn't think she would ever, under any circumstances, cry out "Oh, Bounty Hunter!!!" in pleasure), the door to the apartment suddenly flew open, and a man dressed in a neon contamination suit burst in. The alien bounty hunter looked to the intruder with instant horror, and Dana recognized, with a surge of happiness, the face of Mulder behind the suit's face shield.

Mulder charged in and, grabbing the alien bounty hunter, hurled him clear across the living room, sending him crashing into the wall with ungodly speed.

"You okay, Scully?" Mulder said with worry.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Dana said as she collapsed into a sitting position along the wall.

"Oh,.... man," the bounty hunter groaned as Mulder came up to him and picked him up.

"Fucking prick cocksucker, I'll fucking flay your ass!!!" Mulder cried as he opened the balcony doors and threw him outside.

Dana watched through the closed glass doors as Mulder faced a dazed bounty hunter on the balcony. After a few seconds, Mulder reached out behind him and pulled out a huge helicopter machine gun, with which he proceeded to perforate the bounty hunter. Round after round of ammunition tore into the bounty hunter, and green blood and gore flew everywhere, splattering on the glass balcony doors in gooey chunks. By the time Mulder had run clean out of ammunition, there was nothing left except a green, pulpy, amorphous mass.

"What kind of wussy needs to pierce the base of the skull in order to kill this guy?" Mulder said to Dana through the closed glass door as he smiled at her.

"Where there's a will, there's a way," Mulder said.

Dana smiled. My hero, she thought.

"That's it?" Mulder said with surprise.

"What do you mean, that's it? That was plenty," Dana said as she snuggled up to Mulder.

They were both sitting on Mulder's sofa, watching "Sleepless in Seattle," with Dana comfortably nestled in Mulder's arms. It was Christmas Eve.

"Why can't you dream about something normal for a change - like you and me getting cozy?" Mulder smiled as he said this.

Dana smiled in return as she tilted her head and kissed Mulder softly on the lips.

"Well, Scully, actually I do have a Christmas present for you," Mulder said, walking toward the kitchen and returning after a moment with a gift-wrapped box.

"Why is this box so cold?" Scully said, feeling the box with her hands.

"Um, you'll see. It's no diamond ring, though."

Careful to avoid ripping the wrapping paper, Dana slowly opened the present and frowned as she pulled out... a gallon-sized carton of Rocky Road ice cream. Dana shot her partner a dubious glance, and Mulder shrugged.

"I dunno, Scully. I was eating some Rocky Road ice cream the other day, and it was nice and freezing, cold enough to burn my tongue off. The chocolate flavor was wonderfully sweet and gave me a real sugar rush, but the nuts were rocky and hard enough to crack my teeth and give me a splitting headache."

"And at that moment, you thought of me."

"Well... yeah," Mulder said sheepishly.

"I'm flattered," Dana said in a deadpan voice. Biting her lip for a moment, Dana stopped in thought, as if remembering something.

"Oh, yeah! I have a present for you, too, Mulder."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah. You're going to love it. Heh, heh," Dana said, smirking.

Dana walked toward her purse, returning with the wrapped gift.

Not sure what to think of it, Mulder carefully tore open the wrapping and a neutral expression crossed his face as he pulled out the digitally remastered, letterboxed, 25th anniversary edition of "2001: A Space Odyssey." Mulder gave her a look that seemed to say, "For the love of God, why???"

"I was watching this movie on cable last week, half-asleep by the second half, when it hit me. When those apes learn from the black monolith how to form weapons and kill their enemies, I wondered at how these ape-men could just make that sudden jump in logic - how they could conclude that making weapons was the way to go, and how they seemed to have been possessed by an unearthly inspiration. How did they jump to their conclusions? It was spooky."

"And you thought of me," Mulder said, smiling blandly.

"When the film cut to the scene aboard the Discovery, and Dave Bowman is running around the ship, I thought of you. I just couldn't keep from my mind the image of you running on the track like you always do, with those short shorts of yours, and a T-shirt with the sleeves cut off. And when Dave Bowman goes traveling through that strange portal at the end, I thought, 'this man is so far from home, he's millions of miles from home, he's far removed from everyone, he's in another zone completely in time and space.'"

"Just like me," Mulder said. Dana shrugged.

"Charmed," Mulder said, biting his lower lip, as he stared at the TV screen. Tom Hanks was meeting Meg Ryan at the top of the Empire State Building.

"Merry Christmas, Mulder," Dana said in a sweet voice as she got up, went into the kitchen, and came back with a pair of spoons. She opened the carton of ice cream and held it out to Mulder.

"Want some?"