All Which It Inherit 3: Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made On Headers and Notes by Brandon D. Ray (publius@avalon.net) BEGUN: August 22, 2000 FINISHED: November 14, 2000 =========== Epilogue =========== Sunday, November 5, 2000 //Speak to me, baby, in the middle of the night.// The words are echoing inside her head as she awakens. For a few seconds she is confused, disoriented; this place, this hospital room, this bed -- they're familiar, but not what she was expecting. But rapidly it all comes back to her, rushing through her and rising to the surface, even as her heart sinks into deep despair. He is gone. She knew it, almost the instant that it happened. She realizes this in retrospect, although she denied herself the knowledge at the time. But the yawning emptiness that suddenly opened within her mind last night could have no other meaning. The phone call from Skinner, relayed to her by Frohike, was merely confirmation of something that had already struck like a knife at the very core of her being. He is gone. She weeps for a while, silently, but with great racking sobs, letting the grief roll over her and claim her. She knows that later she will have to be strong; later she will have to face Skinner and the Gunmen, and perhaps Krycek and Covarrubias as well. But these few moments are hers, and she will not deny them to herself. Eventually the storm of emotions passes, and she is calm again. Slowly, and with wonder, her hand passes gently across her belly. It is still flat and unchanged; just from looking at her, no one would guess at the miracle that lays within. But the doctor told her last night, and showed her the test results .... //Speak to me, baby, in the middle of the night.// Again she hears the words, and somehow they comfort her. She associates them with Mulder, of course, and as she closes her eyes she can almost feel his presence in the room. She holds her breath and listens, straining to catch the words, and now she fancies that she can hear him breathing, can feel his warmth next to her, can feel the weight of his body as he shifts slightly on the mattress. It is a fantasy, a lie, and she knows it, but for the moment she cannot force the illusion away. God, she misses him. She sinks further into the waking dream, and imagines her lover moving closer, his hand touching and caressing her through the thin material of her hospital gown. Slowly his hand moves upward along her torso, leaving a trail of heat as it goes, until finally, gently, oh, so gently, he cups her breast, the pad of his thumb brushing lightly across her nipple. She gasps, and arches her back in ecstasy, and since this is a dream -- albeit a waking one -- abruptly her hospital gown and underclothes are gone, and she is naked to Mulder's touch. Both his hands are on her now, touching and stroking her in the most intimate way imaginable, making her feel as if her entire body is on fire. And then he adds his mouth to the equation, drawing one of her nipples between his lips and gently suckling and licking, even as one hand slides downward to explore her hot, eager wetness. She lifts her hips in frantic encouragement and wraps her arms around his head, trying to hold it tightly in place, not wanting the slightest scrap of pleasure to escape. This is how things should be, she thinks, the errant thought flying through her mind as her lover's fingers enter her with slow deliberation. Soon they are plunging in and out of her, each time at a slightly different angle, and she cannot stop the constant moans of pleasure as she imagines what soon will take the place of those fingers. He releases her nipple and moves slightly away, and she cries out in disappointment. She wants it all, she wants everything, and her mind is so fogged with arousal that all she can think is that this has been taken from her. She clutches frantically at his head, trying to guide him back to her breast, but he chuckles and somehow manages to evade her. Seconds later, she finds out why. His lips touch her again, this time on the abdomen, his tongue flicking out to sample the flavor of her skin, then gently probing at her navel. It would tickle if she weren't so aroused, but in her current state all it does is stoke the fires of her passion, driving her ever higher on the bright, golden spiral towards orgasm. His mouth moves lower, browsing across her skin, tasting here, kissing there, nipping gently in still a third place. All the while his fingers keep pumping into her, probing and exploring, plumbing the depths of her most private place, sending waves of pleasure and arousal coursing through her. At last his mouth reaches its destination, and she nearly shrieks from the wonderful agony as his tongue pushes its way between her delicate folds. God, this feels good. Dear, sweet Jesus. She humps her hips, rotating them and angling them, trying desperately for more contact. The tip of his tongue lightly strokes her clit once, twice, then moves away; an instant later, he's sucking her labia gently into his mouth. This is a dream. Fuzzily, distantly, she tries to remind herself of that. Just a dream; only a dream. Mulder is gone, and this man who is loving her, ravaging her, laying waste to her senses -- he is only a phantom, a figment of her desperate imagination. The real man, the true Mulder, disappeared last night in the woods of Oregon, taken by their enemies for reasons with which she, of all people, is all too familiar -- But God, what a dream. His mouth is now conducting an all-out assault on her, licking and suckling in just the right combination, never quite creating a pattern that she can anticipate, leaving her in a continuous state of delirious, joyous anticipation. And the pumping of his fingers continues unabated .... It hits her suddenly, like a brilliant burst of light, exploding outwards from her belly and washing through her with such force that for an instant she thinks she might fly apart from sheer ecstasy. The rest of the world shatters and drops away, shrinking to insignificance, until finally there's nothing in the universe at all, nothing but she and her lover and the bond that they share. And for several long moments her entire being is nothing but sensation. Slowly, so very, very slowly, her breathing and pulse return to normal, and she gradually settles back into her body. With that reintegration the sadness returns, the certain knowledge that he is gone, and that she is alone. She tries to take comfort from the fact that for a few more seconds she can still feel his presence, that she can feel the warmth of his body covering her, his weight pressing her down into the mattress. It may be an illusion, a dream, but it's all she's got now, and she desperately clings to it, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him closer, cradling him between her thighs for one more moment before she lets him go, and returns to the real world. Slowly, reluctantly, her eyes flicker open -- "Good morning, sunshine." For a few seconds, Scully stared up at Mulder as he hovered above her. His eyes were clear and bright as he looked back down at her, probing deeply into her soul as always. As she watched he raised an eyebrow and smirked, then leaned down and brushed his mouth against hers, and she tasted her own arousal on his lips. He was here. He was alive. "M-mulder," she stammered, her mind frantically scrambling as she tried to make sense of it all. "What -- what ...." "I hope you didn't mind the wake up call," he said, mischief still dancing in his eyes. "It seemed like the thing to do at the time." He leaned down for another kiss, this one longer, deeper, and automatically, she felt her body begin to respond. "Mulder," she gasped as he finally pulled away again. Her gaze flickered past him, expecting to see the drab, institutional walls of her hospital room, but they were nowhere to be found. In their place ... in their place .... Jesus. It was the Gunmen's cabin. She was in the room ... in the room that she and Mulder had shared for the past five months. Ever since they arrived here. Ever since the end of the world. Ever since the miracle that gave him back to her when she'd given him up for dead. He was here, and he was alive, and Kyle and Modeski and Byers were in the next room, and they were alive, too -- "Scully? You okay?" She forced her gaze back to her partner's, locking eyes with him and letting the sheer joy of being in his arms suffuse through her. It had been a dream. Nothing but a dream. Mulder was here, with her, and he always would be. They would always be together. Just a dream. Even as she thought the words, she felt a twinge, deep down in her abdomen -- almost as if something had moved. Instantly, she felt her eyes widening, and a sense of wonder and disbelief went racing through her. It was not possible. That had been a dream, too. Hadn't it? Hadn't it? "Scully?" Mulder's voice was more insistent now, and perhaps a little worried, and Scully forced her attention back to him. He was looking down at her, concern written in his features, and immediately she reached up and stroked his cheek, smiling widely as she did so. "Everything's fine, Mulder," she whispered, slipping one hand behind his head and drawing his face down to hers for another deep, soulful kiss. "Everything's wonderful." Her other hand slid between their bodies, pausing briefly, wondrously, to caress her own belly and the miracle that she somehow knew lay within, before moving lower, firmly grasping his erection and guiding it to her waiting entrance. Their bodies seemed to leap towards one another, uniting into a single entity all in an instant, as Scully gathered her lover into a four-limbed embrace. They were, by God, still alive, after five, long months, and they were going to stay alive, or Dana Scully would know the reason why. Slowly, their hips began to move, thrusting against each other with profound joy. And defiance. ==========THE END OF THE WHOLE STORY========== -- You're dead you bastards!! I was Krycek birthday party girl! -- Narida said this on AIM late one night. Don't ask. ;) ========================== But you *can* ask about my fanfic: http://www.avalon.net/~publius/MyStories.html You can also ask about my fanfic recs: http://www.avalon.net/~publius/MyRecs.html