TITLE: Unguarded AUTHOR: Caroline E-MAIL: willows626@yahoo.com DISTRIBUTION: Gossamer, Fandomonium, anywhere else ask first! RATING: PG CATEGORY: V, R, A KEYWORDS: MSR, Angst SPOILERS: Redux II DISCLAIMER: I do not own Mulder, Scully, or any other characters related to the X-Files. CC and 1013 are the creators and owners. SUMMARY: A seemingly unguarded moment between Mulder and a sleeping Scully, has an audience. AUTHOR'S NOTES: This was written for Fandomonium's Interim Challenge ~ observations of Mulder. ***** The room is dark when he enters; she is lying on her side facing away from him... facing the window. Even in the darkness, I see his eyes make a slow path over her form; I see the sadness in those same eyes as he takes in how frail she's become. She was always so strong, almost indestructable; it pains him now to see her weakened. He makes his way over to her bed, around the side to face her, to gaze down upon her. Love shines now in his eyes as he reaches out and brushes a piece of hair away from her face. He loves her. My God, how he loves her. It's visible to all, I'm sure, but especially to me. Especially now. I have not once been introduced to this man and yet I admire him. I admire the strength he displays day-in and day-out through all he's endured. Through all *they* have endured together. And though I have not yet begun to understand the web in which they've become inexplicably entangled, there is one thing I do understand: they are together. Partners in every sense of the word, it seems. They've been to hell and back, and return each time bound more tightly together than before. He kneels by her bedside now and the dam within him breaks. He weeps silently, for her. For them, maybe. For that normal life they've each secretly yearned for together, but will not know. And for this, I admire him all the more. This is a man who, from what I've understood, in the past has sought one thing and one thing only: the truth. His heart beat only for that truth. But now? Now it beats for her -- only her. Through their endeavors, his truth has become *their* truth, and without her, I know he views the truth as meaningless. I also know something Fox Mulder does not: it's not her time yet. It's not her turn to leave the planet, to leave him behind. A future still lies ahead for her... for them... and she is stubborn. No, she won't leave. I saw it long before the diagnosis. I saw it every time he would look into her eyes. A love as powerful as theirs will not be destroyed by a disease. The love I see between them is the truest love... a love that won't disappear even when a natural death tears them apart. His hand caresses hers as he cries and my heart goes out to the young man. It seems bleak now, Fox, but rest assured... she will live. My Starbuck is as stubborn as they come, and will not leave until you are ready to leave with her. ~FINIS~