A Different Path  
by Kate Buckley (SpookyKate@aol.com)
6/11/95
The characters Walter Skinner, Margaret Scully, Dana Scully, and Fox Mulder
belong to Chris Carter and Ten Thirteen Productions and are used without
permission. No copyright infringement is intended.The idea for this story
came to me after I had a dream. It's the first XF story I've ever written.
It's just a short story that I wanted to get out of my system. I hope
everybody enjoys it. All comments welcome. 

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     Dana Scully glowered as she pushed the lawn mower in the sweltering
heat. 
     "It's not fair," she muttered to herself.  "I'm fifteen. I need money.
 But can I get a job?  No. I have to work my ass off at my stupid house
doing my stupid chores all summer."  She felt sort of strange.  It was as
if she had been here before, a long time ago.  Dana was too mad to really
notice the feeling.   She paused to wipe the perspiration off her forehead.
 
     "Excuse me," a voice said.  Dana looked up, startled.  She saw a man
who looked very familiar, but she was sure she had never seen him in her
life.  How did he get on her family's property without her noticing anyway?
 Dana opened her mouth to question him, but she was too surprised to say
anything.  The man...his sad eyes and his height....  she knew them.  From
where?  He spoke. 
     "You are Dana Scully, aren't you?"  Dana nodded.  Despite her parents
warnings of strange criminals and the fears they had spoken to her about,
she couldn't help but talk to this man.  Talking to him seemed so normal,
so natural, so routine. 
     "Who are you?" she asked him.  "Do I know you?" He smiled sadly, his
expression so full of pain Dana wanted to comfort him. 
      "Who I am is not important," he said. "Sometime in your life you will
meet someone who looks just like me.  Stay away from him" - his voiced
cracked and Dana saw he was ready to cry - "he will endanger your life. 
Avoid him at all costs." Suddenly Dana was encircled by so many people she
knew - her mother, father, sister, and brothers.  Her friends from school,
many of her relatives and many of her neighbors.  But also some people she
didn't recognize at first - Assistant Director Skinner, her co-workers,
many of her supervisors at work, some of her friends who lived in her
apartment building.  Dana was confused, and she didn't know where to start
put the pieces together.  Suddenly she realized she wasn't fifteen, and she
hadn't lived at home for years.  The man was Fox Mulder, her partner and
friend.  Dana heard the crowd screaming,  "Look what you've done!" 
     "Stay away from her!" Margaret Scully screamed at him with pure
hatred, "Keep away from my baby girl!" Dana felt the ground spinning
underneath her feet. She looked at Mulder dizzily. He was being attacked by
the mob. 
     "Remember!" he shouted at her.  "Choose the right path. Stay away from
me!"  Then everything went black.  In their separate apartments, Dana
Scully and Fox Mulder both awoke with a start from the same dream. 
Unknowingly, they glanced at their clocks in unison.  2:43. Scully stayed
awake long enough to mutter, "That was weird," then drifted back to sleep.
Mulder was left lying awake with his thoughts and his riddling guilt. 

                                                                  END

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Note:My story's time is movable.  It is set in any time after Scully's life
has been threatened recently and now she's okay but Mulder still feels it's
his fault.  Because Scully has been in danger so many times and Mulder
always feels so guilty, there are many times this story could take place
in.