Dancing By RocketMan >lbontger@wmcstations.com< Disclaimer: Mulder, Scully, XF belong to CC, 1013, and Fox. No fringe intended. The opening line I got from a commercial. Caelyn is the name made by Rohan and Angela for their baby girl. Isn't it a beautiful name? Summary: Alternate Reality. MSR. PG ====== "Cascading stars on the slumbering hills They are dancing as far as the sea . . . Take me with you on this journey. . . Find the answers, ask the questions Find the roots of an ancient tree Take me dancing, take me singing I'll ride on till the moon meets the sea. --Loreena McKennitt, "Night Ride Acorss the Caucasus" ======== Dancing "Daddy, Daddy. Watch me." The little girl stood poised on her tip toes, waiting for her father to look up and notice her, to smile his faint smile and show her she was alive, she was important. The father did not. "Caelyn, Daddy doesn't feel good right now." The little girl turned in her light blue dancing outfit and her tap shoes skittered across the hard wood floor. Her dark brown moody eyes stared back under light lashes and under a curly head of red tinted brown hair. Caelyn's lips puckered and she nodded, putting a finger to her lips. "We gotta be very quiet for Daddy, right?" she said in a mock whisper. Scully smiled at her. "Right. And when Daddy's headache goes away, you can show him your tap." Her smile lit up her long, oval face and she traipsed off, her shoes making loud noises and scuffing the floors. Scully turned back to the man sitting slumped in the chair, not at all feeling sorry for his sorry looking state. "Mulder," she started. "Scully. Please, not now." he murmured. She frowned and checked over her shoulder to make sure Caelyn was in her room, playing. Then she hunched over him and began running her hands along his body, searching for wounds or broken bones, or something that would tell her why he was being so dismissive. He pushed away her hands when they connected to his ribs, wincing and hissing as if she were a wild animal come to kill him. "Mulder. Your ribs could be broken ..." "They're not though." "How do you know?" "I've had broken ribs before. I'd be in a whole lot more pain." She raised an eyebrow at his attempt at humor and pulled his jacket from his shoulders and then off of him. She hissed in her own breath when the bloody gash on his side glared out at her. The hands holding hers away teetered and she swooped in, placing her hands just above the long wound, hovering there as if she had special healing powers. Caelyn chose that moment to come into the living room. Mulder panicked. Blood wasn't something a three year old should see. "Caelyn! Go back to your room. Right now!" "But, Daddy --" "Caelyn, do it right now." Mulder's voice was threateningly low and laced with an undercurrent of pain that made him sound cruel. Caelyn flew back to her room. Scully glared at him. "What the hell are you trying to do to her Mulder?" She fled after the little girl, leaving Mulder bewildered and wondering what in the world had just happened. **** When Scully came back he was barely conscious and he had to bite the inside of his cheek to pay attention to her words. He found it too hard though and simply interrupted her. "Is she okay?" Scully's eyes turned soft at his honestly needing question. "No, Mulder. She's three years old and she doesn't understand why her Daddy yelled at her for no reason. To Caelyn, that's equivalent to not loving her Mulder." His face blanched and he winced as she dressed the gash. "But I do love her. She knows that." Scully sighed. "Mulder, I know you love her and I know you love me. So I can take it. She doesn't have that to fall back on. She only knows that she has to somehow please you Mulder and that no matter how hard she tries, she can't." Mulder physically reacted to her words, stiffening in his chair and then rising out of her care to step forward. She hauled him back. "Mulder, don't you dare move another inch until I'm through. And listen to me this time, Mulder." "This time? What?" She suddenly grew frustrated with him. "Is this how it was with you and your father, Mulder? Did you wish he would love you and did he wish you would stop getting in his way?" He bowed his head and she could see him shaking. She felt awful for saying it. "I'm sorry, Mulder. I --" "No. No. I need to hear that. I didn't even realize ... I swore I wouldn't be my father, Scully. I swore it. And I am." "No, Mulder, no, you're not. I was overreacting. She'll be okay. She knows more than I do that you love her and I was the one that --" His lips came to hers and cancelled her words. He brushed his hands across her stomach. "I'm not screwing this up, Scully. She's my only little girl." She smiled and let him get up slowly, his face determined and his eyes just a bit frightened. Caelyn's door was closed and he stepped up to it lightly, chiding himself for fearing his three year old. But she had the fierce stubborness of her mother and his own indignation. "Cae?" The little girl looked up with a kind of held back hope, and he realized she was afraid to hope he was there to love her. "I'm sorry I yelled at you, Caelyn. I was wrong to do that. Will you forgive me?" She nodded but stayed firmly in her bed, her teddy bear clutched in one hand. "Caelyn, you know how I sometimes yell at Mommy but I don't mean it and Mommy always comes and kisses me because she knows I don't mean it?" "Yes." "Well, I didn't mean it again. I do some pretty stupid things sometimes. I was hurt, Caelyn, and I didn't want you to see that. That was all." Caelyn nodded and he had the feeling he was losing her completely. "Cae, I love you, baby. I do so much that sometimes I wish I could keep you away from anything that could ever hurt you. And I know that sometimes, I'm the one that hurts you and I'm sorry." Her face turned intensely frightened and he felt panic rise in him again. "No, Daddy. No. You don't hurt me. You don't." she said, rushing from the bed to his lap. He put his arms around her and smiled, smelling the scent of crayons and Scully's mothering mixed in her. Her little body wiggled around and he let go. "Caelyn, what did you want me to see? A dance?" She suddenly grew embarrassed and her cheeks flamed. He smiled as she reminded him of Scully. "Tap, Daddy." "Oh, tap. Right. Can you show me?" She nodded and ran to her tape player. The fast music started and she began an awkward rendition of whatever she had been working on in class. When it was over he stood up and applauded and whistled and swept her up in a big hug. "Wow, Caelyn. You must be the best dancer in the class, huh?" She giggled and smiled. "Yup." He could see Scully doing the same thing at this age. Neither of them had much modesty when it came to accomplishments. "So, I bet you get your wonderful talents from your mother, right?" She shook her head and wiggled out of his arms. "Nope, Mommy said I must have gotten it from you because she's horrible." Mulder's face lit into a grin. "You wanna go find out just how horrible your momma is?" Her eyes grew mischevious and she bounded up into his arms. "How will we do that?" "Well, I'll sneak up behind her and when I've got her, you play the music, okay Caelyn?" She seemed delighted to be in on something so secretive with her father after all the times they had kept things from her. She nodded and they went into the living room. Scully was standing, looking out the window and after a glance to Caelyn, Mulder went up to her and circled his arms around her. She had just relaxed into him when the radio came blaring out at them and Caelyn's giggle became lost in the music. Mulder began swaying and moving her around a bit. "What are you doing Mulder?" "Dance Scully. Caelyn showed me how, come on." "Mulder ..." "Dance Mommy!" Caelyn yelled, clapping her hands. "See, Scully you have to ..." he whispered into her ear. Caelyn wiggled in between them, standing on his feet and clinging to his belt loops and they moved awkwardly around the floor. Mulder saw Scully smiling and Caelyn laughing again and he knew he had fixed things. Everything was all right again. Scully looked down at Caelyn then up at him. "All I asked was that you let her know you loved her. You didn't have to gang up on me, Mulder." Her words were soft but her eyes were smiling and he bent forward and kissed her, managing not to crush Caelyn. He held her against him and simply moved back and forth, dancing only as a vague concept. His feet shuffled and his eyes closed and he realized he was dancing with everything he ever thought valuable right in his arms. "Mmm ..." he murmured into her ear. "I love it when my women can dance." He heard Caelyn's giggle and felt Scully's eyes on him and relaxed in the feel of his family. "Daddy. Daddy, watch me." Caelyn spoke up. And this time, he opened his eyes and watched. **** end adios RM