Dana Scully (mulderitsme) wrote in thedoorway, @ 2015-09-02 11:30:00 |
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Mulder had almost not wanted to leave Samantha alone for the evening, but he'd pulled himself away eventually after giving her a tight hug and promising her that he'd come by in the morning to check on her. He was half thinking of calling into SWORD to see if he could take a few days off this week to help Samantha get settled. To see her and talk to her, knowing that he had no idea how long it would last. He hoped that she would stay, that he could get to see her do all of the things that he had never had the opportunity to do at home. If there was a bonus to this place it was that he got to do exactly that - being with Scully, raising William, not being chased all over the world by secret government and aliens. It was late, and he knew that there was a strong possibility that William was asleep, or at least that he was supposed to be asleep, and that he should be quiet as he entered the apartment so as to not wake up his son. He hoped that Scully would be awake though. He wanted to talk to her about having Samantha over for dinner the following evening. He pushed open the door and walked through, closing it quietly behind him as he stepped forward into the living space. "Scully?" his voice was low, but could easily be heard in the main part of the apartment, hopefully without waking up William. William had been asleep for nearly an hour but Scully was still in the nursery. She was simply watching her son sleep and occasionally stroking his cheek with one finger. He would murmur and shift a little whenever she did but he did not wake. She was trying to keep from thinking but it wasn’t working very well. Samantha Mulder was here. Well, a Samantha Mulder was here. One who, from their past experience, may or may not be the real Samantha Mulder. For all that she wished this to be true, for Mulder’s sake if nothing else, she couldn’t help but worry. They’d been fooled so many times in the past that she felt an obligation to be suspicious. How many times had they thought they’d found Samantha only for it to be… a clone or whatever else there had been. She heard Mulder’s low call and finally turned away from the crib. She pulled the door almost closed behind her as she headed out into the main room. “Mulder. Is it…” She hesitated for a moment before continuing. “Is it really her?” Mulder stepped across the room to slide his arms around Scully's waist in an embrace. He felt like he could breathe again for a moment. He had no way of knowing precisely, of course - there were so many possible variables and he had thought it was her before only to realize later that it was not. But this seemed right, and she had come from the Tesseract - which, it could be from an alternate reality he supposed - but it hadn't been. "I think so," he murmured against Scully's hair. "I'm actually quite certain of it. She seems to have been looking for me - ran away - and… well, it matches what I ultimately thought happened to her in the show. It could be a trick, but I don't feel that it is. Three years of waiting and hoping and she's here, and I don't quite know what to do now," he laughed shortly at the irony of this. He stepped back and glanced at the closed door. "William's sleeping? Can we - would you like some wine Scully? I don't think I can sleep right now - not just yet." Scully sighed when Mulder embraced her and wrapped her arms around him in turn. She felt a little bit of her worry and concern fade and somehow that kicked her mind away from the circle of thoughts that had been spiralling around. How long had they been like this? Able to centre and settle each other with little more than a touch. Since they’d met? Or maybe since that moment of (embarrassing) panic at the motel when Mulder taken her seriously enough to settle her nerves and though he’d teased, he hadn’t mocked. She nodded a little. “You’ve been certain before,” she said cautiously then she sighed again. “But the tesseract…” She was silent for a moment. “I haven’t heard of it bringing through anything… false.” Dangerous, yes, even an enemy from what she’d seen and read about at SWORD but false? She smiled a little. “He’s been asleep for an hour now so he should stay asleep as long as we don’t wake him up.” She nodded. “Yes, please. I’m not sure I can sleep yet either.” Yes, Mulder had been certain before. There had been times when he'd been certain that a lead would take him directly to his sister. Times where he had thought that he'd found Samantha but instead it had been a clone, a falsehood, a lead that led nowhere. But this hadn't been any of those things. He was nearly certain that this was his sister. Or at the very least some version of his sister's life. He pulled back and walked towards the kitchen, finding a bottle of wine, two glasses, and opening the wine to pour it before looking back at Scully. "Well, or something that isn't the same timeline as ours. There are people that seem to exist in realities that are similar, but parallel. This could be that I suppose - the possibility of it is there and cannot be ignored entirely - but I am certain that this is Samantha. Not a clone, not a pretense - but Samantha." The words felt surreal to say and he sat the bottle of wine back down, his hand still wrapped around it as he allowed that reality to sink in. "She said she was trying to find me, that she's been held by our old friend cigarette man, her memories stolen or suppressed, but she'd been remembering more recently and she'd ran away. I'm sure finding me this age was as much a shock for her as me realizing that she was here was a shock for me." He pulled his hand back from the wine bottle to push one of the wine glasses towards Scully. She was worried, she supposed. She’d seen this too many times. Too many times where Mulder thought he’d found his sister, too many times when leads hadn’t panned out or they’d been deliberately blocked or it had turned out to be a clone or a trap or anything but his sister. Too many times when Mulder’s hopes had been raised only to be dashed to the ground. “Do you think she’s from our world but an early time period or from an alternate world?” She took the glass of wine and frowned. “She’s been held by him? Was he the one who took her? What about…” She waved the hand that didn’t hold the wine glass. “What you remember seeing?” "I think she's from our world, but earlier - she's a teenager, so she would have been from an earlier time period. She's not the age she would be when you and I are from," Mulder explained briefly and he took a seat on the chair and then a sip of the wine to settle his own thoughts on the matter. For half an instant he wished he'd gone with a beer instead, but it passed as quickly as his other thoughts seemed to have. He collected his thoughts together with what Samantha had told him. "There were so many leads, Scully. And what's she saying matches some of the things I thought in a case that I haven't yet lived - only watched on television. Who is to say exactly? She says she has been living in a place, she'd had a lot of tests that all she could really remember was living somewhere else, and that she had a brother. Her memories seem to be about as useful as mine are," he sighed. "But I'm sure it's her, Scully. I just - I know she is. She's here, and I'll get to help her here. That's really all that's important. And frankly, even if she wasn't Samantha from our world, it wouldn't matter. She'd still be my sister." Scully nodded. That she was from their world made it… easier perhaps. An alternate version might not share the same history as they did. Even small things could cause big changes so an alternate world might be close but not quite the same. Look at this world compared to their own. Most of the history was exactly the same up to the date and time she remembered, except that in this world they were fictional. That was a hell of a change. There was some frustration that yet again they seemed to have more questions than actual answers. And if Samantha had been held by the cigarette man then that was not exactly a comforting situation. She put her wine glass down and walked over to Mulder, worming her way under his arm and wrapping her arms around him. “Then it’s her,” she said, hoping she sounded more confident than worried. “The tesseract… I think the tesseract wouldn’t bring through a… a fake.” She smiled then. “I’d like to meet her. I’m sure the transition here is not going to be easy, especially if her memories aren’t entirely intact.” Mulder turned his gaze to her and he couldn't help a smile. Scully might not be entirely certain about what she had been offered here, but she was willing to accept it, to move forward and to continue to search through the truth - it was Scully and of course she was all of those things. He let out a breath of relief. "I was hoping you would say that. I was hoping perhaps we could bring here here for a few days - we have the extra office with the futon and she could stay there until she gets settled? Then perhaps find her an apartment on this floor. She's not very old - she might need some extra guidance rather than living by herself with strangers?" Scully’s smile settled into something more familiar and fond. This was undoubtedly what Mulder had been leading up to the whole time. It wasn’t something she’d ever say no to, even if her doubts were greater than they currently were. Family was family and despite being separated by distance and career, her family had always been important to her. Now, so too was Mulder’s. “Of course she can stay here. She’s a teenager, she can’t stay on her own. As long as she doesn’t mind becoming an instant aunt then she can stay here. We have the room.” She started thinking through the problems. “We might have to do some juggling in the living room to move the office out there and maybe consolidate a few things but then… most of our work is at SWORD now anyway.” "See, this, this is why we work so well together," Mulder grinned at Scully as she started working through all of the things that they would need to do. He should have known that she wouldn't mind - well, he supposed he had guessed that. "I'm going to take a day tomorrow and take her to pancakes in the morning, and I guess see if she's got anything or everything that she might need… whatever that is. I already told her about William and she'll be glad to meet him I think. It's hard to say exactly how she was with everything, you know? It's a lot to take in and that's even if you haven't been holed up and endured multiple tests before you were shot through a blue portal and landed in an alternate universe." Mulder felt almost giddy like he hadn't for a really long time. Samantha being here was something he'd hoped for, truly hoped for - but he had begun to lose hope that it would actually happen. But it had happened. The belief that it could seemed to have been justified into reality and his sister was here in New York, in Potts Tower. "I'll maybe text her tonight before we turn in - just to let her know. Or should I wait until tomorrow at breakfast you think?" |