Part 2- Writer's Tag: Milagro Alternate Ending "The Stranger Freed Her and Himself"
Teamed up with my girl @tofuttim to do Tag team writing. She wrote part 1- What was the car ride after Padgett said "Agent Scully is already in love." Check it out here on AO3: Link
I wrote Part 2, what happens next. Here's Mine, but suggest you do read hers first! AO3: Link
They returned to Mulder’s apartment; a surveillance trap set for Padgett.
She glanced at the coffee table and saw the Milagro charm Padgett had sent to her. She picked it up and twirled it through her fingers; reminding her of how she twirled a rose petal between her fingers the last time an impulsive decision had led her heart astray; Jerse .
Her heart belonged to Mulder then as much as it does at this very minute; but she could never get an indication as to what possessed his heart.
Certainly, he loved her; she knew he did, but in what way? In the way which directs him to care for and protect her; the behavior he demonstrates for her over and over again?
Or did he love her in the way she loved him; yearning for intimacy, a way that she never saw from him. Unless she was supposed to interpret his hand on her back as sexual desire and emotional need.
Scully sighed as she heard the seconds tick by on Mulder’s kitchen clock.
Why did she have to go to Padgett’s apartment? She wondered, knowing easily that the answer was genuine curiosity and a desire for attention that she never got with her heart anchored to Mulder’s.
Her brain still stuck around the words Padgett had said, Agent Scully is already in love . Little good did his admission do. The car ride had been silent and despite holding his hand briefly, Mulder seemed no closer; his heart was always just out of her reach; her desires never fulfilled.
She sighed, slumping into his couch, and closing her eyes. She fell asleep for a moment maybe, awakened by the clack of Padgett’s typewriter through their surveillance feed.
“What’s he up to now?” Mulder asked her as he joined her on the couch.
“He just started typing again,” she replied, listening to the earphones as the typewriter continued to clack. Then the machine stopped as Padgett collected his papers and stood.
They heard a door slam and suddenly a folded paper slid under Mulder’s front door.
Scully sat motionless as Mulder grabbed the note and opened the door. She heard him talking to Padgett in the hall.
“What is this?” Mulder said, angrily.
Scully rose to her feet and tiptoed towards Mulder’s doorway so she could hear the conversation.
“It’s a note to you both. An apology for any inconvenience I’ve caused. You won’t be hearing from me again. I’ve decided to destroy my book and I’m leaving,” Padgett said, calmly.
Scully peeked out into the hallway just to see Padgett turning into the stairwell, his unfinished book in his hands.
Mulder turned and handed the note to Scully as he re-entered the apartment.
“I really don’t understand what you saw in him, Scully,” he said, with an air of judgment that she was sure he was trying to hide but that she felt heavily on her soul.
She stared at him for a moment, no words to say. She couldn’t explain rationally her choice to go into Padgett’s apartment. Would she have kissed him, or perhaps more if Mulder hadn’t stormed in? I guess she’d never know. She knew her heart belonged in this apartment, to this man and not the other way around, but she couldn’t wait for him forever, and she certainly couldn’t allow herself to be judged by him.
She sighed and shook her head. Exhausted. She turned to his kitchen and stood against the counter, opening Padgett’s letter.
The Stranger apologized for intruding; for attempting to prevent the inevitable direction in which her heart was bound. Because if the stranger knew anything about life, he knew two hearts in love were to be protected; the magnificent worth of their shared desire must be cultivated. To go against this would be to go against the tides of the ocean, the winds on the plains. To go against this would be to curse his own heart to a life of loneliness. And so, by allowing her to seek the love of her partner, the stranger freed her and himself.
Scully gasped, dropping the note to the floor. Maybe Padgett did have some sort of psychic ability. It didn’t matter now; her feelings laid bare on the page.
Mulder scooped the letter off the ground and read it; she immediately stormed out of the kitchen, grabbing her keys, and heading for the elevator.
She heard footsteps and turned to see him chasing her down, “Scully, wait…” he said as the elevator closed. She took a deep breath as tears filled her eyes. She couldn’t see him right now, not with her heart exposed; open like the psychic surgeon was pulling it from her chest .
As the elevator opened to the lobby, she fled towards her car and as she unlocked it and got in, Mulder was entering through the passenger door.
“Scully, please…don’t leave. Talk to me,” he said.
“I can’t talk,” she cried. “I need to breathe, I need to go, Mulder.”
“Where are you going?” he asked, desperately concerned.
“Home,” she whispered. She couldn’t look at him. She stared into her lap, worrying her fingers.
“I’ll ride with you, okay? You don’t have to talk. Just let me be here; next to you.”
She turned the ignition and put the car in drive. He kept his promise, not saying another word. She barely heard him breathe; he was trying so hard to be silent. She cried a bit more. She was sure he thought she was mad at him; she wasn’t. She was incredibly frustrated at the inevitable push and pull of their relationship. That she was to spend her life next to a man that she loved more than anyone and that seemingly would never be hers, felt like life’s cruelest joke.
She pulled into her parking space and turned the ignition off. She exited the car without looking at him, but she knew he was following her inside. She opened the door to her apartment and held it for him. He went to her couch, still holding Padgett’s note and looked off in the distance. He’s just waiting for me ; how long will he just wait for me to say something? she thought.
She stepped towards her kitchen to get a glass of water, she grabbed one for him too and sat next to him on the couch, slumping back again and closing her eyes. Minutes passed; he stayed stoic. Finally, after having followed her up and down the stairs of two apartments and across town without saying a word, he handed her Padgett’s note and uttered two words.
She breathed deeply and looked at him, he looked like a shell of the beautiful confident man that she was working next to a week ago. This case had shaken him too, in a different way sure, but he looked tired and confused and hurt and yet somehow hopeful.
She hadn’t responded and he didn’t wait, his patience seeming to have dissipated from the earlier exercise in silence. “It’s me…and it’s you.” This time he said it as a statement of fact not a question.
She chewed on her lower lip and thought of how to respond. Padgett had accurately called out her love for Mulder, but was he as astute about Mulder’s supposed feelings for her?
“Please tell me it’s me, Scully,” he said, his voice shaking; unsure.
“It’s you,” she whispered. “Is he right…about us?” she asked, closing her eyes to wait for an answer.
An answer didn’t come, instead she felt a shift in the sofa and a soft, warmth faintly touching her lips; a gentle kiss.
She opened her eyes and found Mulder inches from her face, with a sweetness in his eyes he rarely shot in her direction. “He’s right.”
They sat and stared at each other for a beat; too tired for words.
“You look exhausted, Mulder,” she said softly, stroking his cheek.
“I am,” he admitted. “But this,” he paused and smiled, “this is good.” He said, pulling her closer to him. He laid down and gently dragged her with him.
He sighed and wrapped his arm around her; she pressed her back against his chest devouring every ounce of physical pressure he was offering her.
“Yeah, me too,” he said, stroking her hip now with his fingers, “for too long, and I don’t know how we got this far without accepting it from each other. I guess I was scared to have you get too close; worried you would get hurt.”
“I have been hurt by not having what I want; what I need from you.”
“Scully...” he gulped, his voice choked with remorse.
“It Doesn’t matter anymore. We’re here now,” she said, closing her eyes, pulling his arms tighter around her.
“We are here now; it’s love…” he whispered, before she felt exhaustion take them both under.
