Title: Unfinished Business Author: Sarah Warnock (StrBuck99) Rated: PG-13 (minor bad language) Spoilers: none Keywords: Mulder/Scully romance : character death Summary: As a spirit, Mulder makes a promise to remain with Scully until he can let her know just how he feels. Disclaimer: Nothing associated with the XFiles belongs to me in any way, shape, or form whatsoever. They belong to Chris Carter and 1013 Productions, which is probably all for the best anyway :o). UNFINISHED BUSINESS After the continuous spinning and slow paced movement through darkened space came to a halt, I stood to try and piece together the haze of what had just happened. The last thing I had remembered, Scully and I had been in what seemed to be a neverending pursuit of our murder suspect in the back alley ways of New York. It had been dark, and the chase had started so unexpectantly that we hadn't even a chance to grab any flashlights. I remembered the abandoned alleys, it was dark, the corners were completely masked in blackness. What little light there was came from far off street lamps that reflected in the puddles beneath my feet, as they echoed on the pavement with each running step. Turning a corner, I saw a figure scrambling up a wall but then he turned and....that was it, then there was that strange feeling of having no control, it was all going so fast but then tremendously slow all at once and now here I stand. Once I have collected my thoughts and begin to come back to reality, I realize that I am still in the alleyway...just standing here. The man is gone, but now I'm here with Scully. Good, Scully is here...she'll know what happened. Which is good because I am completely baffled. Walking over to her, I see her crouched down near the sidewalk with her back to me. I stop behind her and put my hands in my overcoat pocket. "Hey Scully, what happened here? I think I must have blacked out or something." She keeps her back to me, it's as though she didn't even hear a word I said. "Scully? Hey Scully." I reach my hand out to rest on her shoulder, but it doesn't even touch her. Instead my hand passes through her as if I'm made of vapor. Opening my eyes in complete disbelief I bring my hand up to my face and study it. I turn it over again and again, but it doesn't seem to look any different than it did earlier that day. Again I attempt to make physical contact with her, but once more it's in vain, she doesn't feel a thing and my hand passes through her once again like smoke. It's at this moment she finally says something. "Mulder...why? Why couldn't you have just waited?" They are angry words, but they come out in sobs. At this moment I advance a step or two forward so that I can see over her hunched form, there before her sprawled out on the ground is a body. It is laying in a pool of blood, with its eyes wide open in surprise. She has crouched over it, and now glides her hand gently over the eyes closing them. I am the body, I was killed...I'm dead. But how can this be? I'm right here. But she can't see me, can't hear me or feel me...and I can't touch anything at all. I'm only an apparition, a ghost. And here Scully is, alone, or so she thinks...and as I hear her cry in this cold and dark alley I wish more than anything that I can let her know I am here still, and I think of how stupid I was to never let her know how much she meant to me. All these years I had...I took for granted, thinking I had all the time in the world to tell her that I loved her. I didn't have all the time in the world, in one split second all that time was taken from me. I wasted all those minutes that we shared together, and now look...dead. Well, I will find some way of telling her I love her, and until I do I will not leave her side. ******************************************** 3 months later: The time has gone by so quickly, I don't know if its due to the fact that I'm a spirit now and maybe time has no meaning or perhaps it's the fact that so many changes have taken place. Without me, Scully was unable to continue working on the XFiles...she partly gave them up but also Skinner thought it best to close them down. So since my death, she has returned to teaching at Quantico which I think is really best for her anyway. She has more time to be at home, and do things that make her happy...although she's rarely happy anymore. Sometimes I'd give anything to see her smile, those award winning smiles have become rarer and rarer these past few months. I've been with her every moment since that night, by her side as she teaches, when she's grocery shopping, cleaning the house, and even when she sleeps. In the afterlife sleep is of course not a requirement anymore, so I just lay by her in the dark room and watch her sleep. Sometimes she is plagued with restless nightmares, and it doesn't take a genius to know what they are of. Its at these moments, when she's crying and trembling from the memory of the alley that I wish I could just hold her. Every now and then I think she knows I'm near, she has a look of familiarity and stops what she's doing. Maybe she does know I'm with her, even if just for a split second. But being my skeptical Scully she most likely pushes that idea aside as only a figment of her imagination, telling herself there's a simple explanation for it. And then she continues with whatever it was she was doing. Today she seems more languid than usual, she hasn't even gotten dressed yet and it's nearly 3 in the afternoon. She has stayed curled up on the couch, in her flannel pj pants and white t-shirt watching daytime television only getting up to grab a glass of water or use the bathroom. Sitting in the chair next to the couch I can see in her eyes that she's not even paying attention to the channels as she passes through them, her eyes are glassy and I wish I could read her thoughts. What is she thinking about? What is that brilliant mind of yours pondering Scully? A knock at the door brings her out of her thinking process and once again I can see reality return to her eyes. "Just a second." She calls out to the closed door. Getting up from the couch she wraps the blanket from the back of the couch around her small fragile frame, and pads over to the door in her bare feet. I remain seated, knowing that she can make it to the door and back just fine without me. She opens the door and over her I can see her brother standing there...great. All I need now is Mr.Asshole himself visiting. "Hey Dana. How are you?" He doesn't even wait for Scully to reply before he makes his way in and shuts the door behind him. "I flew in from San Diego a few days ago and mom told me what happened and how worried she was about you so I thought I'd drive up and see for myself how things are." He gently embraced his sister in a hug. "I'm fine Bill." Of course she said that...what else would Scully say? "Mom didn't mention that you were coming out to visit." She pulled away from him and stepped back to look up at him. "Yea well it was sort of last minute. I think she wanted me to drive up and surprise you. Surprised?" Sticking his hands in his pockets he walked over to the couch and sat down. I still hadn't moved. "Quite surprised. So she told you about Mulder huh?" She too walked over and sat down on the couch next to her brother. "Yes, she did. I'm sorry Dana, if I don't seem too upset about the whole situation but you know my feelings towards Mulder were never very admirable. I think you might be better off with him gone." He looked her straight in the eye when he said this...and in the pause that followed it felt as though my heart had sunk completely to the floor...if I had a heart that is. "How dare you Bill. You have no right coming in here and telling me what would make me better off, especially where Mulder is concerned. You knew nothing about him, or what we were to each other." She has stood up by now and had both hands on her hips...watch out Bill. "You may have no remorse for Mulder's death, but you could at least be a little sensitive considering the fact that I'm your sister and this is killing me." "I'm sorry that you don't see this my way Dana, but you know I'm right. You know that this may be killing you but that the longer you worked with him you would probably have ended up dead in the end." Bill, too stood up and was now towering over his sister so that I couldn't help but also stand. It was a protective move even though I knew that an apparition really couldn't do anything if need be. "Not that I would have let you work with him that long. You may think I was just going to let you continue to be taken in by all Mulder's bullshit but you're wrong...I had a deal with an FBI director in San Diego to request your transfer there. Mulder's death just beat me to it." This angered me to the point of no return, thinking that nothing would come of it I angrily swept my arm along the coffee table and to my surprise, everything that had once been on the table crashed to the floor in a heap of broken glass, toppled frames, and magazines. "What the.....?" "Bill why don't you just go...leave. Come on...." And she guided him to the door. He willingly left, after which Scully turned and looked around the room in apprehension. She knows. She must know now. "Mulder? God Dana, get a hold of yourself and don't be ridiculous. It was just a coincidence." And with that she walked over to the mess I had made and began to clean it up. No, I can't let this go...she knows I'm here. Walking over to her I lean down next to her and watch her face...I let my love for her overwhelm me and consume me until I feel as though I may burst. At this point I speak. "Scully." She stops picking up the broken glass and freezes. Lifting her head, I swear she can almost see me. But she sees nothing. "Mulder?" Oh my god! She heard me...I let the tears fall from relief. "Yes Scully...I'm here. Open up your mind, please." By now the emotions are so dense that you could cut it with a knife. I see her looking at me, or in my direction, but then her eyes seem to focus and her mouth drops open in surprise and fear at the same time. "Oh my god. Mulder...I see you." At these words I am struck dumbfounded, here we are crouched in her living room floor, Scully and a ghost. Too bad the XFiles are closed. We both stand, but the whole time we never look away from each other. Cautiously she reaches out her hand and lightly touches my chest, she actually touches me! And I can feel her and she can feel me! I can no longer stand it, I take her in my arms and hold her so tightly that I'm afraid she can't breath but she makes no protest. "Scully.." I'm sobbing by now," I can't believe this is happening. I've waited, hoping you would know I was here...and now you know." I pull her away from me and stare into her eyes. "I've never left your side, not since that night. I've been here the whole time." She's crying now too, and I reach my hand out to brush away her tears and stroke her hair. How long I've waited to do that. "Why did you leave? I needed you Mulder! I still do. You and your goddamn impatience...you couldn't have just waited 5 minutes for the backup...5 minutes Mulder!!! And you could still be here! Alive!." Her tears were tears of hurt and anger, she was crying full force now and I pulled her to me again. "Shhh..Scully. I think this was my chance...to finish what I didn't when I was alive. I think that's why I'm still here...you know the whole unfinished business theory? That if someone dies before they finish what they were meant to do while alive, they don't cross over until they do it? Do you know what my unfinished business is?" I lay my head atop hers waiting for her to answer. "Finding the truth, your sister. The Xfiles...." "No Scully, none of that. My unfinished business is you, I never told you what I had bottled up for so many years thinking I had all the time in the world to tell you." I take her head in my hands and look down at her tear stained face and swollen eyes and I smile because she is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. "I love you." This prompts fresh tears, but this time they are happy tears. And even as I feel the change take place, I smile...knowing that someday we will be together again. In a place where we won't have to run or hide from danger and where we can be together without risks or consequences. I sense that I am beginning to fade, and Scully feels it too. In the last minutes that I am physically with her, I touch my lips to hers and whisper once again, "I love you," before I am gone. But Scully knows I'm never really gone, in many ways I will never leave her side. THE END Cut! Okay that's a rap peoples...I hope you enjoyed it, first of all I hope you read it...I hope SOMEBODY read it :o) If you have any comments or even criticisms please e-mail me at StrBuck99@aol.com because only through feedback, whether it be positive or negative, can I ever grow as a writer. I wanna say hi to all my friends online, Mantaba, DurNacc, Krizpang, Timon1013, PoshFan150, SheleShele, Drainbamij, kmgh24@juno.com, JJFriz18, and if I forgot anyone...oh well.