|
Title: Future Tense Summary: Mulder wakes up in the future with a few surprises. Disclaimer: The Scully, Mulder and Walter Skinner and any familiar characters belong to my idol, Chris Carter (but, if he ever wants to send me a gift...) Fox and 1013. Dedication: To my future children. . . Mulder awoke to the bright light streaming from his window. Wait, it wasn't his window, it was a hospital window, and he wasn't on his futon watching some porn movie or sci-fi thriller, he was on a hospital bed and the television in front of him was black and off. He was confused, and bewildered, where was Scully and why was he here?" Nurse! Nurse!" he called as a short petite woman with black hair entered. "Oh, Mr. Mulder, you're awake, I'll call your family, they've all been very worried," she said, smiling at him, "Would you like me to get you the paper or turn on the television before I go?" "No, no, but get me Scully!" he called out as she left. Mulder stared out the window into open space. There came a knock at the door. "Come in, "He called out as a short young lady with red hair and brown highlights entered. She had hazel eyes and looked not quite old enough to even be 20. "Oh! We were so worried about you! Don't you ever do that again!" she said walking up to him and hugging him tight. She smiled of lilacs and daises, it was a familiar smell, but he couldn't pinpoint it. "Excuse me, but who are you?" he asked as she stepped back. "Don't tell me you don't remember! God, not again!" she said, slumping back into a chair next to the bed helplessly. He noticed she had put a small brown leather backpack next to her chair. He could also see MAM engraved on it on a small golden plate. It looked like it had been an expensive gift, maybe for the girl's birthday. "No, I'm sorry, could you just get me Scully, Dana Scully," he said, as if talking to a three-year-old. "Yes, Daddy, I know, believe me, I know. I'll go get 'Scully' ok?" she said, picking up the backpack as she stood up. He noticed she said 'Scully' as though it was the wrong thing to call her. He was this young woman's father, that was for certain. "Wait!" he called as she was about to leave. She turned around, he noticed she was wearing bleached denim shortalls and a purple polo shirt, and she reminded him of Samantha, if she had grown to her age and had redder hair. "Yes, Daddy?" she asked, he noticed she had his eyes. She looked frustrated, and a little nervous. "Could you just answer me 2 questions?" he asked "Sure, name it Daddy." "What's your name and how old are you?" she smiled at the simple question, just happy he wanted to remember. "Margeret Alexandra Mulder, but you call me Princess, and I'm 14, ok?" "OK, thanks." "No problem, Daddy, be back soon!" she called as she left the room. Outside the door she crouched down against it, a tad bit more emotionally drained then she had been when she entered. It was bad enough having your dad in a coma for 2 weeks, but then lose his memory-for the third time! But then her mother, a short redheaded woman whose once glorious red hair now had a few streaks of gray, came up from where she had been sitting on the bench outside the door. "He doesn't remember, again?" she asked, crouching to her daughter's size. "Mom! He forgot! I understand once, maybe twice, but three times!" "I thought maybe sending you in first would make him remember, you two are so close." "I know, he wants 'Scully' Mom!" "Oh, not that again!" her mother said as she got up first then gave her daughter a hand to get up." Well, go sit on the Bench, ok, Meg? I'll go talk to him, ok?" "Ok, Mom, good luck." "I'll need it. Aunt Sam will be here soon, watch for her." "I will," she said, sitting on the bench her mother had just occupied as her mom entered her father's hospital room. "Scully! Thank God! That Margaret scared me! I thought we had gotten over the April fools jokes!" he said, hugging her as she entered. He felt a little chip rub into his stomach where her left hand was. "And she said Scully like it was the wrong thing to call you!" he said, as she stepped back. Then he saw her, her hair had a few thin streaks of gray and that and her few wrinkles added character. Then he saw the huge engagement ring on her left finger followed by an exquisite wedding band with diamond chips in the gold band. "Mulder, it wasn't a joke. Would you like a paper, maybe?" she said, looking for the Washington Post she knew the nurse had brought him. "No, I want to know what's going on!" "Mulder, calm down, your cholesterol is already bad enough!" she said, holding his arms. Her touch made him quiver, like it always had, and she smelled like Margaret had, lilacs and daises, but as Margeret had the scent of ambitious youth, she had the scent of the calm and wise. "Ok, please, a; Tell me where I am and when it is, then B; Explain Margaret and stuff to me." "Ok, it's Friday May 16th, 2018, and you're at Johns Hopkins University-" He cut her off. "2018! Why am I at Johns Hopkins!" "Calm down, Mulder! You have bad damn cholesterol, deal with it! Its where the EMT's took you. Margeret is your daughter, your only daughter." "My daughter! Do I have other children!?" "Um, yes, William, 20, Walter, 18 and Brian, 16." "Whoa! 4 kids! I must of been very busy, because as far as I can calculate, it should be the morning after the fire." "Well, it makes sense, that's as far as you remembered the past 2 times." "This has happened twice before?!!" "Yes, when Margeret was 5 and 12." "God! What happened this time?" "You were going walking with Meg 2 weeks ago, and you got hit by a car, you pushed Meg away and you got hit, all you did was break your leg though," she said, he noticed the cast on his left leg. "Ok, now what else major has changed?" "Um, we both married, I resigned, I settled down and had kids, you kept working and The X-Files became respected, now your A.D. under Skinner, whose director, um, Mom and Skinner married, you found Samantha and you and I lived happily ever after." "Ok, now explain to me why my own daughter acted like my asking for my best friend by her name was wrong?" "Well, she doesn't know me as that and in front of her you don't call me that anymore." she was starting to have fun with this, would he figure it out?Gosh, he could be so dense sometimes. "What does she know you as?And who did you married and who are you now and why didn't I try to stop you from quitting?" "Well, actually, it was your idea for me to resign." "Why would I do something so damn dumb?" "Because I was pregnant." "Oh." "Let me finish. I'm Dana Scully still." "What?" "I kept my maiden name, my husband insisted." because it was what you wanted me as. You are so dense sometimes Mulder! "Oh. What does she know you as, where are my children and my damn wife?" "Good question, where are your kids, be right back." Out in the hall was her own mother, now Maggie Skinner, Walter Skinner, William Mulder, who was the identical version of his father except his mother eyes, Walter was tall, with auburn hair and blue eyes, Brian had brown hair, blue eyes and was tall, only Meg seemed to be the perfect blend, short, red hair, hazel eyes, her father lips. "Mom! Well?" William said, going and hugging his mother. "Oh, Will! He doesn't remember, Meg talked to him, and everything. I hinted, but he didn't pick up, maybe you kids should all go in and hint." "Ok, Walt! Bri, Meggs, let's go!" William, the tallest said, leading the bunch of his younger siblings who he was overprotective of and loved into the room to their forgetful father. Mulder looked as his hospital door opened and 4 young people, including Margeret, walked in. There were 3 young men, all tall, 2 with brown hair and blue eyes, and one of the young men had reddish brown hair and blue eyes. Only Meg had his eyes. "Hey! Dad! What's up?You missed the homecoming game! We won!" the middle boy, who he assumed was Walter, 18, said as he came up to his father. "You won?You play football?" he asked, proud and confused all at once. "Yes, I'm the quarterback. I'm the only one who play's football, Meg, Will and Bri all play basketball," he said, looking at each sibling as he spoke. "Ok, lets slow this down, ok?Could you all tell me your *full* name, age and a little about you?" he asked, he felt like he was new to school, not a father with his children. "Well, I'm William Fox Mulder, 20, and I'm going to school at Manhattanville for pre-med, then I'm going to study forensics and pathology." The tallest young man, said, walking up and shaking his father's hand. "Ok," Mulder said. "I'm Walter Stephen Mulder, 18, I'm a senior at St. Joseph High School, I'm going to Berkeley to study law next year." "Ok, got it," Mulder said. "I'm Brian Charles Mulder, I'm 16, a sophomore at St. Joes to, I'm on the basketball team, and I hope to go to Oxford for pre-med then come here for forensics and pathology too." "God, another doctor, you guys must of been around Scully a lot growing up." "You could say that Daddy," Meg said, coming up from behind her oldest brother, she sat on the chair she had previously sat in and slowly, cautiously took her father's hand. Looking at her small hand, it reminded him of Scully after he had chased a lead on Sam to the Arctic." And as you know I'm Margeret Alexandra Mulder, 14, I go to Our Lady of Mercy Laurlton Hall, and I want to go to Yale for pre-med and UCLA for medicine, except I want to do pediatrics, I've always wanted to be a doctor," she said, smiling at him. He notice a small, gold cross much like Scully's on a chain around her neck. He reached up and held it, she held it over his hand, her hand much smaller in comparison. "Mom gave it to me for my 13th birthday," she said, smiling at him. Then a nurse came in. "Mrs. Mulder is here," she said. "Oh, good, lets so guys, give Dad some time," Will said, Mulder expected to see a woman who would be his wife, instead he saw his mother. "Hello, Fox. . ." Out in the hall, Maggie Skinner took her grandsons and daughter to the cafeteria for coffee and a soda for Brian, and promised to get Meg a Diet Soda from the vending machine while she stayed on the bench doing homework with Grandpa Walter and talking about boys with Aunt Samantha. Grandmother Teena walked out of Daddy's room. No one really liked Grandmother Teena, and it was always Grandmother Teena, never Grandma, or Grams, they called her grandmother Teena and she called them by their full names, the relationship with her paternal grandmother was cold, but her maternal grandparents were warm and caring. "Margeret Alexandra?" she askedas Meg was concentrating on an algebra problem with Grampa Walter. "Yes, Grandmother Teena?" she asked, standing. "Your father wants to see you." "Oh, thank you." "Yes, bye." "Good bye!" she called as her grandmother walked briskly down the hall. She looked at her Grandpa, stunned someone could be so cold. "Don't worry, Meg, she's always been that way, even with your Dad and Samantha. It's not just you," he said, hugging her. "I know Grampa. I better go see Daddy." "Yup, and when you come back I'll help you with X=Z+a, ok?" "Thanks," she said, entering the room. "Hi Daddy." "Hi, Meg, um, where's your mother, I haven't seen her yet." God, not again, he didn't even remember his own wife of 20 years and partner for 25! "She's getting coffee with Grandma, Wills, Walt and Bri." "Oh. I'm sorry if this hurts you," he said, taking her hand. "It's ok. We're really close, you know, you taught me how to play basketball when I was 3, and helped me make the team. We go to Knicks games together, and an occasional Orioles game. We play one-on-one all the time, and sometimes when Mom works you take me on business trips instead, like last year to New York, and the night before we left, you were done and the Knicks were playing and you managed to pull strings and get us 2 center court front row seats. It was a good game too, the Knicks beat the Bulls." "Really? God, must be a very good game." "And we read, and go to movies and you even got me a dog for my 13th birthday." "Really?What did you name him?" "Spooky, he's a black lapso alpso." "Nice. I'm really sorry I don't remember. What does your mother do?" "She's a writer, so are you, and she's a consultant at Quantico." "Really? She works for the F. B. I too? What do I do?" "She works for the FBI too. You're a best selling Sci-fi writer, and an A.D. under Walter Skinner." "Oh, god, AD! Spooky's got an office, and secretary!" "Yes, yes he does. Um, I'll go get mom, ok?" "Yes, yes please Meg," he said as she left. Out in the hall her family was all there. "Mom, he wants you. I don't think he realizes it's you." "Should I of told him I was Scully-Mulder?" "You're not, though Mom," William said. "Well, here goes nothing," she said, walking into her husband and best friends hospital room. "Scully! Gosh, I feel so bad! Did you know my wife's a writer! What does she write?" he asked, now curious. "Romances, Mulder, romances. Her first one was about your romance together." "Really?How many has she written, what was it called?" "She's written 12, all best sellers, you've written 17 sci-fi best sellers, the one on your romance was called 'Basement.'" "Really?Gosh! What's her name?" he asked. Why did I marry her, and not you?Why did I let you get away, Scully, you're still so very beautiful, he thought, looking at her. "She's uses a pen name, Katie Boothe." "What's her real name, Katherine, Kathy, Kayla, Kathleen??" "Not exactly Mulder. Take off your wedding band and there's an inscription under it, maybe you'll remember." She was suddenly very grateful for getting the inscription 20 years ago. "Ok," he said, for once, not fighting her. Under it, in small cursive, it read: 'Love You, forever, D. S. M. ' He looked up at her, confused. "Well?" she asked as he put the band back on. "Who's D. S. M. ?Should I know?" God Mulder! "Your wife." "I know! What's her name Scully?I don't know it!" "Dana." "Dana? God, coincidence. Dana what?" "Dana, Dana Scully-Mulder." "You're my wife?" he asked, stunned. "Yes, disappointed?" "No! ! I was disappointed it wasn't you! Margaret looks just like you!" "I know. We were worried sick, Mulder! We all love you very much!" "I love you too, Scully, or what do I call you now?" "Love, Baby, Babe, occasionally Dana." And leaning close she added, "In the bedroom, Scully," she said, a devious grin on her face. A week later Mulder came home. He was starting to remember. Dana showed him their study, the kids bedrooms, the basketball court he made to play basketball with the kids, the master suite, and within a month, he was better. The End
|