Title: Blooming (1/1)
Author: RocketMan >lebontrager@iname.com<
Disclaimer: Mulder and Scully belong to CC, 1013, and Fox. No fringe is
intended.

SPOILER::: post ep for Closure--MSR

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Blooming
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When she woke in the morning, the stiffness in her back from the motel
mattress and the headache after the long night was all pushed away as she
saw it.

A rose.

Perched across her pillow so that the scent of delicate beauty was
blooming in her head and just touching her lips. She smiled into it and
sniffed, her eyes closing and her mind not quite awake enough to recognize
the importance of the flower in her bed.

Flower. In her bed.

Her eyes opened wide and she half-raised, feeling disoriented as the motel
room spun back to her. But Mulder was sitting on the desk chair, where he
had dragged it to her bedside, and was watching her carefully. She noticed
oddly that his figners were on his knees, carefully balanced as he leaned
forward.

"Scully?"

She blinked and looked down at her pillow, at the short stemmed rose so
bright against the dingy white of the sheets.

"Mulder? What's wrong?"

He shook his head and smiled at her. "Just wanted to be here when you woke
up."

"Oh," she murmured and brushed her hair back from her cheek. She'd been
lying on her stomach when she woke, and now she was half rolled on her
side, looking at him with the rose in the outside edges of her view. She
was almost afraid it would disappear. Either of them.

He smiled again, that Cheshire-cat smile that made her just a bit nervous.

"Why?" she blurted out, feeling sleepy and confused.

He wanted to laugh but he just leaned back instead. "Today's Valentine's
Day, Scully, and I'm a free man."

"What?"

"Monday. February 14th."

She blinked and glanced back to the rose, then slowly picked it up and
inhaled its scent. It was tightly budded, still a deep dark red, and the
stem had been stripped of thorns.

"It's beautiful, Mulder."

He grinned full-fledged this time and leaned forward to brush the hair
back again from her cheek. His touch sort of mesmerized her and she stayed
transfixed in his eyes, waiting for whatever it was he would do.

"Whenever you're ready, we'll go to breakfast, then catch our flight."

She looked over at the rose, impressed and touched and delighted, but
trying to fit this into the overall scheme of things.

"What time is that?" she asked.

"Ten. It's eight right now."

She nodded and slowly stood up, moving out of the light touch of his hand
against her shoulder. When she passed by his side to gather her clothes,
he brushed his hand against her hip and made her pause.

"Things will change, Scully. Last night I. . .like I said, it was the end
of the road."

Her eyes flashed with a bright spark of fear and he shook his head
quickly, dispelling it.

"The end of my road, but not. . .not ours, Scully. There are answers for
things, even more so now that I know part of the story. But I'm not
trapped by my past any longer."

She reached out a hand and brushed it across his cheek, still in her
dream-dazed, rose-induced confusion, reality becoming blurred by the lines
he was erasing that morning.

"You've stopped," she said softly, not believing it.

He nodded. "I've stopped. It's best."

She bit her bottom lip and twirled the flower stem in her fingers, letting
a small sigh escape her lips.

"For your sake, Mulder, I'm relieved."

"And for yours?"

"I can't help wonder what this means for the X-Files, for our work."

"It stays. You definitely stay, Scully. See the rose?"

She smiled and glanced at it again. The tight small bud, the push to
bloom, the blood red of the tips and the healthy green of the leaves.

"Things are very clear to me, Scully. If they're not for you, I
understand. But things are so much clearer now. The important things are
here. I've not had a sister for a long time, but I've had you. There are
no tears."

She nodded and leaned down to hug him quickly, smelling the musky sleep
scent of him. He was clutching her back harder, trying to impress his
embrace upon her memory. Things were so very clear. It was amazing what
seeing his sister's spirit could do for him, how it had released him, how
it had freed his life to do and be and experience and live. He could live
again. For too long he had put that on hold.

No longer. He was after Scully now. With a passion, a drive, that rivalled
anything he felt when he worked to solve a case.

"Up to pancakes?" he asked.

She nodded and stepped away from him, heading for the suitcase and her
clothes.

"Let me get a shower and get dressed."

She felt a snag at her waist and turned, only to find that Mulder was mere
breaths from her own body, that his fingers were dizzying her skin with
feeling, and that she wanted to kiss him very badly. This thought
astounded her and she tilted her head up to look at Mulder, wondering
about where the idea had come from.

"One thing first, Scully."

She nodded, the rose's stem pressed against her stomach, the small flower
delicately held away from her breasts so that the petals would not be
shaken loose. She was half-unconsciously inhaling its fragrance and in
doing so, she somehow breathed in Mulder's soap and sweat. Her hand
clenched reflexively and she dipped her head back down.

His lips touched hers gently, his lower lip just brushing her mouth and
his fingers moving swiftly to caress her shoulders. She moved in close to
him, bringing her hands around him to touch, to just touch something of
the man so softly pulling her from sanity. His thumbs were now sliding
along her neck, to her chin, tilting her head up further for him.

And then they were simply breathing and watching each other, separated by
a thin atmosphere of air and chemistry, oxygen and flames. She licked her
lips and gave a tiny sigh.

His thumb brushed once across her lips, following the path of her tongue,
and then he gave her that gentle, shy smile that raced through her blood.

"Since this is the end of the road, Scully, maybe we can get out of the
car. Be normal."

She smiled back, brilliantly, like a sunrise for slowness and dazzle, but
she shook her head.

"Normal's boring, Mulder. I like roses on my pillow in a motel room and a
kiss in the hospital."

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end
adios
RM