open post.

[jowls]

Leave prompts, you'll get nonsense.

Comments

[rockitlike]

[ Mulder doesn't need to know how she ducked into the bathroom for a quick cry. Emily-- somehow their daughter, even if Mulder had no hand in making her and she had only the most tenuous (but critical) connection herself.

A girl whose whole life was pain and violation and loss. Scully misses her terribly; not all the time, not with this intensity. ]

One, or we'll need a hundred more. It's the empty space that matters. Not the size of it.

[jowls]

[ Mulder can guess what the long silence means, and not solely because he knows her; he's sitting quietly someplace, not crying so much as staring into the middle distance and wondering how much Emily would look like Scully by now. How old would she be? He has to count back...twenty-four? Twenty-five? In a better world, she'd be a college graduate, pursuing some passion, coming home for holidays and making her mother proud.

(And him, too. When it was clear Scully wanted her, Mulder wanted her, too. But just as with William, it's hard not to think of Emily as Scully's little girl.) ]

I'll pose for as many normal photos as you want, as long as there's room for William and Emily in them.

[rockitlike]

There's always room

I have some pictures. Not many.

[ William's are unremarkable, if few and precious. The ones of Emily are technically stolen evidence; she doesn't feel any guilt about it, and she imagines Detective Kresge doesn't, either. ]

Maybe we're ready to put them up.

She should grow up knowing her siblings however she can.

[jowls]

[ Is he ditching whatever he was doing to do but picture frames? Look, no one can tell this man what to do. ]

What do we tell her?

[rockitlike]

I wish I knew.

That she had a sister who died, and we miss her so much? That she has a brother who can't be here, and we hope someday he can come home?

Fox, there's so much we have to teach her, I don't know how to do it without scaring her.

[jowls]

I don't, either. She has the best chance of any of us of having a normal life.

I don't want to screw it up, Dana. I want her to have everything.

[ time to pull over to the side of the road and maybe also cry. it's fine. everything's fine. ]

[rockitlike]

We're not going to screw it up.

I have faith in us. All of us.

[jowls]

One of us should.

[rockitlike]

Some of it is going to be hard. But it's everything I want, now. I wouldn't change any of it.

Maybe the fluke worm thing.

[jowls]

The fluke worm was bad enough that I think we should nuke every fluke worm on the planet. The ecological damage can't be worse than what we have now.

[ hm. ]

I still can't believe we're here.
It was all worth it.

[rockitlike]

I know. I meant it-- I wouldn't change anything. I think we needed all of it.

And it makes us uniquely suited to tell her all the things she'll need to know, growing up with us for parents.

[jowls]

"Yes, honey, real aliens. But don't be afraid - Mommy and Daddy kicked their asses back to deep space. Probably."

[rockitlike]

We'll have to be careful to vet anything she tries to bring for show and tell. The last thing we need is to leak classified data to kindergarteners.

[jowls]

Would kindergartners really find it interesting? Most of the classified stuff doesn't have pictures.

[rockitlike]

Well, non-classified might not be much better. The last thing we need is her class having nightmares about the Great Mutato.

[jowls]

Or the time her mother nearly ate a cricket, for that matter.

[rockitlike]

I can't believe you still remember that.

People eat insects all over the world, you know.

[jowls]

It was a memorable case.

And none of those people are Special Agent Dana Scully.

[rockitlike]

It's very eco-friendly. Some experts think insect protein is the future.

It was an interesting case.

[jowls]

They're going to have to figure out how to make ants taste like a medium-rare steak before that happens.

It's not every day you get to rub elbows with circus royalty.

[rockitlike]

I wonder if any of them are still out there, doing shows.

[jowls]

Does anyone go to the circus anymore? I can't remember the last time I saw one advertised.

Maybe they're all having a sunny retirement down in Florida.

[rockitlike]

I still see ads so someone must be going. Though I think they don't have animals anymore. Maybe no one goes twice.

Maybe. Though I'm not sure Florida would be on my short list of places to go.

[jowls]

Somehow I gamed my Google searches out of targeted circus advertising. Or you made some terrible, terrible mistakes with yours.

Yeah, maybe not. Decent hideaway while we were there, though. Too bad we couldn't have shared a trailer.

[rockitlike]

Never a shared trailer or sleeping bag when you need one.