TITLE: BACK IN THE DAY (2 of 2)

AUTHOR: DAVID HEARNE

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"What? My turn?"

"Uh-huh. Tell me the big embarrassing story of your youth."

Scully thought that over, then said, "Okay. Fair is fair. I'll tell you the
tale of my first romance."

"Who was the lucky guy?"

"Who said that it was a guy?"

Mulder's lips pursed for a moment, then he frowned. "Very funny, Scully."

"What's so funny?"

"Are you going to spend the rest of the day harping on 'the straight male
psyche?'"

"Do you think that I'm making this up?"

"Uh...are you?"

Scully smiled and said, "Well, I don't think I should even bother to tell
you now."

Mulder looked up at the ceiling and shook his head. "Maybe we should discuss
the peculiarities of the straight female psyche as well."

"I'm sorry, Mulder. Look, I'll tell you a real story, okay?"

"You mean, about the fire and your prom date?"

"How did you know..." Then it was her turn to frown. "Eddie Van Blundht."

Regret popped all over Mulder's face. "Uh...yeah. He...ahem...he sent me a
letter. Told me what you had...you know..."

"Why, that little...wait, you actually read his letter?"

Mulder squirmed in his seat as Scully looked at him for another long time.

Then she shrugged and said, "Okay. No harm done. At least, my story was
nowhere near as embarrassing as yours."

"What do you mean? That's it? That was your pinnacle of teenage
recklessness?"

"What can I say, Mulder? I was a good little Catholic girl."

Mulder groaned.

"Such a creature does exist, you know."

"Yeah, well, I guess you saved your rebellion for after high school."

A silence dropped onto the table. Then, Mulder quickly said, "I'm sorry. I
shouldn't have..."

"No. No, you're right. Choosing to be an FBI agent instead of a doctor was
my big act of rebellion. In a way."

"You know...you've never really told me why you made that choice."

"There's no story to tell there, Mulder. I just got the idea in my head one
day and I couldn't let it go. I don't know why. Maybe because it seemed so
outlandish. It was the thing nobody expected me to do. It wasn't just my dad
who was against it. Most of my friends thought that it was so
out-of-character for me. They simply couldn't see me as an FBI agent."

"I can't see you as anything else."

Scully smiled. "Thank you."

"Of course, you have to think about the life you might have had. You could
have..."

Mulder cut himself off, but it hadn't kept the ghost of the past seven years
from rising up. He saw all of the pain and heartache running through those
years like a river of tears. You could trace the river back to that one
brash decision Dana Scully had made.

Scully saw the guilt in Mulder's eyes.

She touched his hand.

"Mulder...I feel pain. And I get angry at everyone who has hurt me,
including you. But what I don't feel is regret. I consider myself very lucky
to have met you."

Mulder placed his other hand over Scully's hand. "Not as lucky as I am."

They let that touch last just for a few moments.

Then Scully gently pulled her hand away and said, "How did we get started on
this?"

"I think it began with you bitching about how old you were."

Scully looked at Mulder.

Then she stood up. "We still have some time before we have to go to work.
How about we go out there and find out which one of us really feels old?"

At first, Mulder thought, aw, shit. Then he thought about what had kept him
going through these long, rough years and what had spurred him on down a
seemingly endless road.

"Scully, the day those little legs can go farther than me..."

"These little legs will be dancing on your middle-aged carcass before the
day is through."

"Not a chance. I have a secret weapon that keeps me going."

"What's that?"

"Thoughts of you, Caroline, Amanda and Abigail all by Southhill Pond and
you're all..."

A second later, an elderly man was almost knocked over as he attempted to
enter a McDonald's restaurant. He barely avoided being run over by a tall,
giggling dark-haired man being chased by a short, red-haired woman. He
watched them rush off down the sidewalk and shook his head.

These young people. No respect for elders.

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