Title:  Prometheus, Unbound (1/1)
Author: Lynn Gregg
Classification: VR
Rating: PG
Keywords: Mulder/Scully romance
Archive: Anywhere, with my name & address attached
Comments: pythia@aye.net
Spoilers: Post-Modern Prometheus
Summary: A discussion on the way home after the "Great Mutato" case.

Disclaimer: The characters herein are the property of Chris Carter, 1013
Productions, and Fox Broadcasting. No copyright infringement intended.

Pythia's notes: Just a little piece of fluff to keep me entertained in
between bouts of working on a larger story. Enjoy!

********************
Prometheus, Unbound*
by Lynn Gregg      *
********************
 

     <Such a perfect, tragic cliche,> Fox Mulder mused, heading east
out of Bloomington on a small Indiana byway. His thoughts were as dark
and clouded as the day. Their most recent case had been as surrealistic
and convoluted as a Tim Burton opium nightmare--and
simultaneously, as stereotypically predictable as a paperback gothic
novel. The hideously scarred monster with the soul of a poet, driven
to dark and desperate acts by a cruel and uncaring world...

     "That was me back there, Scully," he said softly, addressing his
partner, who stared pensively out the passenger window at the gray
November landscape sliding by. "That boy. The Great Mutato. He was
me."

     "We never even knew his name." Dana Scully turned slightly in her
seat, casting him an oblique look. Her fathomless eyes were troubled.

     "The ending was all wrong. That isn't the way it was supposed
to end. There should have been a happy ending, Scully. *Someone,*
somewhere, deserves to have a happy ending for once."

     "I'm not sure there is such a thing, Mulder. Can you really be
happy about something *ending*?"

     He considered. "Major surgery. Hemmorhoid attack..." He trailed
off, sighed. "I know what you mean. Still... Do you think there can
ever be a happy *anything* for someone like that?"

     "You mean for someone like you. And the answer is yes. Yes, I
do, Mulder."

     Mulder was sinking rapidly back into the depressive morass of
his thoughts. "He has nothing. No family, no friends, no partner.
He's alone, endlessly seeking that which he cannot find--that which
may not even exist..."

     "*You're* not alone, you know."

     "No." He pulled his gaze from the road unrolling before them,
turned to look at her. "No, I'm not. Not anymore."

     "Not for a long time now. And never again."

     "I want the happy ending, Scully. If not for Mutato, for me. I
need it. I don't think it's too much to ask."

     "I heard you whispering to Izzy, about how you thought the story
should end. What's your idea of a happy ending to this, Mulder?"

     Mulder coasted the Taurus onto the shoulder. "I envisioned...
the townspeople putting aside their torches, their prejudices and
fears...seeing simultaneously the angel in that boy and the devils
within themselves. And then...then I imagined the whole town taking
the boy to a concert--"

     "A concert?"

     "--A Cher concert. Front-row seats for you, me, and him. I
could *see* it, Scully--see the joy on his face as he looked at
his idol, his fantasy of love and acceptance come true. She would
sing right to him...step down off the stage and hold out her hands
to him, lead him onto the stage and dance with him. And then..."

     Scully looked at him, breathless, expectant. "And then...?"

     "I--no. Nevermind. You might shoot me again."

     "Try me."

     He cleared his throat. "And then...Then I would hold out my
hand to you, Scully, and you'd take it. I'd sweep you into my arms
and we'd dance together. *That* would be a happy ending."

     "Mulder." She reached over, laced her fingers through his,
waited for his eyes to lock with her own. "If we danced together?
That wouldn't be a happy ending."

     "No?"

     She leaned forward, smiling, to brush her lips lightly across
his.

     "No. That would be a happy beginning."
 

~~FINIS~~

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