Title: Wedding Rings
Author: Elizabeth L. Iacono
Rating: G
Category: Story, Romance
Keywords: Mulder/Scully Romance
Spoilers: Squeeze
Summary: Mulder and Scully share a dream without 
knowing it.

This is a weird little idea I had that just had to 
get written.  Basically it involves dreams, time 
travel, and a little bit of romance.  Mulder and 
Scully aren't really involved in the main part of 
this story, but it has definite shipper overtones, 
so unless the noromo's want to write it off as a 
figment of a dream and ignore what I believe will 
happen in the future don't read this story.

Technically this story is part of the Fais Me Sourire
series in that it uses the same girl, Vera, but it
takes place long before that storyline starts,
so you don't have to have read those stories.

Disclaimer: I don't own Mulder or Scully (though 
I wish I did), Tom Colton, Phoebe or Diana (and 
I'm glad I don't).  I do own Vera and Rebecca.

Feedback: Hey, who doesn't like feedback?  The 
addy is RhiaRamsay@aol.com

Wedding Rings
Elizabeth L. Iacono

     The dream took hold of Fox Mulder and he 
found himself in a room.  It was empty, with only 
a few boxes, a bed frame, and a mattress in it.  
A window was open on the side and some fresh 
spring air was coming through it, even though the 
sky looked like it was about to open up with rain.

     Suddenly he heard someone call out his name.  
"Mulder?"  He turned around to see Dana Scully 
standing there in her usual work outfit.  He 
looked down at himself and saw he was also 
wearing his suit.

     "Scully?" he said back.  "What's going on?"

     Scully shook her head.  "I don't know.  
I think I'm dreaming."

     "Yeah, me too," Mulder said slowly.

     "How can we be having the same dream?" Scully 
asked.  The whole dream so far was too surreal.

     "People have before," Mulder said, beginning to 
walk around and explore the room.  "I've got documented 
cases on it."  Out of the corner of his eye he saw 
Scully rolling hers.  "Really," he emphasized.

     "Let's look around a little more," Scully said.  
"I want to get a better idea of where we are."  She 
turned around once and walked to the door of the room.  
Mulder followed quickly, not wanting to be left behind 
in this dream.

     They found themselves in a hallway with three other 
doorways aside from the one they were in.  Each taking 
a room, Scully found a bathroom and Mulder found what 
looked like it could have been a little girl's room.  
The walls were nondescript, but the multitude of dolls 
on the floor and the little dresses piled up in an 
opened box gave it away.

     "It's just an apartment," Scully said, coming 
into the little girl's room.

     "A pretty large one, if this is where the bedrooms 
are," Mulder commented.

     "Yeah, the stairs are right next to this room.  
Let's take a look downstairs," Scully said, falling 
into the familiar investigative patterns of their work.

     The stairs led to a short hallway, which opened 
up to a large, airy apartment, filled with the scent 
of a rainy day.  They began to explore the apartment.  
To the right of them was an entryway and a large room.  
"This looks like it could be a living room, judging by 
the furniture," Scully said, looking at the furniture 
that was a little more ornate than for everyday use.  
"Especially if there's kids here, this stuff wouldn't 
be used everyday."

     Mulder turned and walked to the back of the 
apartment.  "This must be the dining room.  The 
kitchen is right through here."  They both walked 
through the doorway Mulder was waving at.  It was a 
rather large kitchen, with a top of the line 
refrigerator and stove.  There was an open door 
that faced out on a grassy backyard.

     Silently they walked into the last room left 
on the floor.  There was a set of sliders open to 
a green backyard with a high wall surrounding it.  
With all the trees and plants and even the small 
pond in one corner, it looked like something out 
of a movie.  It was still pretty empty, but it had 
a TV set up in one corner, and some more stuffed 
animals on the floor.  Mulder got a kick out of it 
that one of the dolls was a stuffed Marvin the 
Martian doll.  "Then this must be the family 
room," Scully whispered.

     Before Mulder could answer a little girl with 
dark red hair and eyes that looked green in the 
darkness of the house came running through the 
open sliders into the house, but stopped short 
when she saw Mulder and Scully.  "Who are you?" 
she asked.

     Scully looked at Mulder before answering.  
He gave a slight shrug indicating that it 
couldn't hurt.  "My name is Dana and this is 
Fox.  What's your name?" Scully asked politely.

     The girl shook her head.  "Nope.  Mommy and 
Daddy say I'm not s'posed to talk to strangers."

     Mulder knelt down to the little girl's level.  
"Well, your parents are very smart, y'know."  The 
girl looked at him warily, then looked around the 
room, pulling on one of her dark red pigtails.  
After a few seconds she spoke again.

     "Are you guys vampires?" the little girl 
asked.  Mulder raised both his eyebrows and 
looked at Scully, with a similarly shocked 
look on her face.

     "Why?" Mulder said, wanting to know where 
this was coming from.  This dream was getting 
creepier and creepier by the moment.

     The little girl waved at the mirror neither 
one had noticed sitting by the doorway to the 
family that led into the living room.  "'Cause 
you're not in the mirror.  Vampires can't be in 
mirrors," the little girl said with conviction.

     Mulder and Scully turned around and stared 
into the mirror.  It was true.  They had no 
reflections.  Scully looked at Mulder and mouthed 
"Definitely a dream."  Mulder nodded slightly in 
agreement and looked back at the little girl.

     "Well?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

     "Well, we're not vampires," Mulder said, 
grinning.  "I guess we're just invisible."  
Neither Mulder nor the girl noticed Scully 
rolling her eyes and rubbing her forehead in 
the background.  Even in his dreams Mulder 
could be totally ridiculous.

     "Cooooollll," the girl drawled.  "I've 
got invisible friends.  My friend Sherri has 
one too.  Her name is Ariel."  The girl stuck 
out her hand.  "I'm Vera."

     Mulder took her hand.  "Very pleased to 
meet you Vera."

     Vera turned to Scully and stuck her hand 
out again.  Scully took it and smiled.  "Same 
here, Vera," she said.

     Then, Vera grabbed their hands again and 
started pulling them in the direction of the 
kitchen.  Mulder stood up quickly, almost tripping 
over his feet in the process.  "C'mon," Vera said.  
"I want my parents to meet my invisible friends."  
Mulder and Scully couldn't help but follow.

     As they passed by the sliders a strong, wet 
wind blew inside, swirling around them.  Scully 
felt her hand dissolve from Vera's grip.  She 
looked over at Mulder and saw the same thing was 
happening to his body.  Then, blackness descended 
on both of them.

     Vera turned around and saw her invisible 
friends were gone.  "Hey!" she screamed.  
"Where'd ya go?"

     Someone came through the sliders and 
smiled at her.  "We're right here, V.  Daddy 
and I just went to get some more boxes out of 
the car."

     Vera looked at her mother.  "Not you, Mommy.  
My invisible friends.  They left, and I wanted you 
to meet them," she pouted.

     Mommy smiled and put the box she was carrying 
down on the floor.  Vera looked so much like her 
father when she pouted.  It also wasn't the first 
time she'd had invisible friends.  "I'm sure 
they'll be back, and then we can meet them, 
okay, V?"

     Vera was still pouting, but she finally 
said "Okay."

     "Good," Mommy said, and tousled the red 
hair on Vera's head that was so many shades 
darker than her own.

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July, 1993
Fox Mulder's Apartment

     Mulder sat up on his couch, breathing heavily.  
Unlike most of his dreams, that one was tame, but 
something about it had shaken him.  He couldn't 
pinpoint the meaning of it, unlike most of his, 
which were usually about Samantha disappearing.

     It was just...strange.  "And very real," he 
said out loud.  That was what was bothering him 
about this.  It felt real.  Not real as in a 
memory real, but...real as in it was happening 
at that very moment.

     Mulder shook his head.  It was just a dream.  
Dreams had a tendency to feel very real at times.  
It was a normal occurrence.  He laid back down on 
the couch to try to get back to sleep again.  
Scully wanted him to go to take a look at a 
crime scene a friend of hers had told her 
about.  Something about a liver being 
ripped out with bare hands......

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The same time
Dana Scully's apartment

     Scully sat bolt upright in her bed, but then 
slumped back to the pillows.  That dream had 
disturbed her.  The whole thing with the house, 
and the girl, it just was incredibly strange.

     Another thing that bothered her was the fact 
that she was now dreaming about Mulder.  Something 
about that...well to be frank was downright spooky.

     Scully rolled over and tried to get back to 
sleep.  But that was going to be harder than she 
thought.  The dream wasn't letting her get any rest.  
But rest was something she did need.  Her and Mulder 
were supposed to be meeting Tom Colton at a crime 
scene first thing in the morning.  And she wanted 
to be there early to try and prevent the fight 
that was going to be inevitable when Tom and 
Mulder met.

     She thought back to something that Melissa 
had told her once upon a time: 'If a dream gets 
so annoying you can't get your mind off of it, 
try and analyze it.  Once you find out what it 
means, it won't bother you anymore.'

     Scully shrugged to herself.  It couldn't 
hurt, so she got up and retrieved the book on 
dreams Missy had given her when she'd entered 
the FBI.  She sat back down on the bed and 
opened it to the index.

     'Where to start?' she thought.  Scully 
saw the listing for children and decided to 
begin there.  She didn't even want to think 
about what the implications of dreaming about 
Mulder were.

     The book said that "To a female, a dream of 
small and well-behaved children might signify 
her knowledge of solutions to her current problems."

     Scully shook her head.  That didn't sound like 
what the dream was trying to tell her.  Her 
problems right then weren't many.  Life was 
actually pretty good for her then.  Even Mulder 
was shaping up to be a worthy partner, and 
possibly even a friend someday.

     She turned to another page in the book.  
'Let's see what dreaming about an apartment means.'

     Finally, one thing in the book seemed to 
apply to her.  "Dreams about large and airy 
rooms are often symbols of your acceptance that 
you still have more to learn."  Scully let her 
head fall on the book.  That was the hidden 
meaning.  It had finally made it in to her 
subconscious that not everything in this world 
could be explained by science, and she still 
had much more to learn about working on the X-Files. 

     Scully put the book down on the nighttable 
and turned out the light.  She felt a little 
lighter now, at least she knew she'd be able to 
get to sleep.  But there was still something about 
the dream.  Something real, like it had actually 
happened once or was going to happen.  But the 
feeling had passed and she drifted back off to dreamland.

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     Mulder realized he was dreaming again when 
he saw himself standing in the family room from 
the other dream.  He looked to the right of him 
and saw Scully standing there.  Together they 
looked out over the room.  It was more furnished 
than before.  The couch was arranged in a position 
where those seated could use both the TV and the 
fireplace.

     It was still spring outside.  The sliders were 
open once more and it was raining again.  The 
fresh breeze from the rain was blowing inside 
once more.  In front of the TV was the girl from 
before, Vera, reading a book.

     Before either one of them could say anything, 
Vera turned towards them and smiled.  "Hey!  I knew 
you'd come back.  C'mere and sit down."  She waved 
them over to the couch.  Mulder looked at Scully 
and shrugged, so they both went over and sat down 
on the couch.

     Scully was having a hard time thinking up 
things to say, so she thought back to the other 
dream.  "Where are your parents, Vera?"

     Vera shrugged.  "They're at work, Dana.  
They work late a lot."  She waved a hand in the 
direction of the kitchen.  "That's Rebecca in 
there.  She watches me when they're at work."

     "You remembered our names?" Mulder asked, 
impressed.

     Vera nodded.  "Yep.  Everyone says I got a 
really good memory.  Your name is Fox, right?"

     "Uh-huh," Mulder nodded.

     Scully looked over the coffee table, her eyes 
stopping on a black velvet box sitting there.  She 
gently picked it up.  "What's this, Vera?"

     Vera looked over at the box and scrunched up 
her eyebrows.  "That's Mommy and Daddy's wedding 
rings that they wear all the time.  But they had 
to get them cleaned so they sent them somewhere, 
but I'm not really sure where they sent them.  
Grandma dropped them off today while they were 
at work."  With that Vera turned back to her book.

     Scully opened the box and stared at the rings.  
They were truly beautiful.  She turned her head 
slightly to find Mulder's face close to hers and 
leaning over her shoulder.  Scully picked up the 
man's ring, while Mulder picked up the woman's 
one.  She twisted the ring around in her fingers.  
It was beautiful, and well made too.  It was simple 
gold, with a little pattern, barely distinguishable 
to the naked eye, around the edges of the ring.

     The woman's ring, Mulder noted, was much more 
detailed.  It was also gold, but it had a vine 
engraved around it.  The leaves of the vine looked 
like ivy leaves and were made out of tiny pieces of 
emerald.  Mulder looked up as Scully turned towards 
him.

     As they looked into each other's eyes the dream 
changed.  No one else seemed to exist except for them.

     "I, uh... I think I've got your ring," Mulder 
whispered as he stared into her eyes.

     "Yeah," Scully whispered back.  In her head, 
that little voice that kept reminding her this was 
a dream kept getting quieter and quieter and Scully 
got lost in the moment.

     Quiet as anything, Mulder gently picked up 
Scully's left hand and slid the ring on her ring 
finger, taking an extra moment to hold her hand 
tightly in his.

     Scully returned the gesture and took Mulder's 
left hand in hers, and slid the ring onto his ring 
finger.  They both sat there holding each other's 
hands tightly, the fresh spring wind still blowing 
around them, almost wondering what to do next.

     But thought wasn't really necessary.  All that 
was needed was instinct.  At the same time Mulder 
and Scully leaned towards each other and kissed 
each other softly, their hands with the rings on 
them gliding into the other's hair.

     For minutes the only thing moving in the room 
was their lips.  Then, without warning the room 
zoomed back into focus.  While Mulder was still 
kissing Scully, because he couldn't seem to stop, 
he saw through half opened eyes Vera lying on the 
floor still reading her book.  Behind him, he heard 
the sound of a door being opened and Mulder turned 
his eyes slightly and could have sworn he saw a 
flash of red hair...

     And then there was darkness.

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April, 2004

     Vera lifted her head up from her book when she heard 
the front door open.  "Hi, Mommy, hi Daddy!" she called out.

     "Hey, there Short Stuff," Daddy yelled back, 
while Mommy quietly reminded him to hang up his 
coat rather than just dump it on the living room couch.

     At that moment Rebecca came out from the 
kitchen.  "Hi, everybody.  Sorry this exit is so 
abrupt, but it's my mom's birthday tonight and 
we've got reservations for an hour from now."

     "No problem, Rebecca," Mommy said.  "We'll 
pay you next time.  Have fun tonight."

     "Thanks, bye!" she said and rushed out the door 
to the apartment across the way.

     Daddy went into the family room and sat down 
on the couch.  "So what did you do today, V?" 
Daddy asked.

     Vera looked up at Daddy from her sprawled 
position.  "My invisible friends were back today."

     "Really?" Daddy asked.

     "Really," Vera nodded with conviction.  
"Their names were Fox and Dana."

     Daddy leaned forward.  Something about this 
tale was...Before he could think anything else he 
felt his wife's hand pulling him up by the shoulder 
of his suit jacket.  "Mulder, can I see you in the 
kitchen for a second," his wife, Dana Scully-Mulder 
said calmly, even though he could tell she was 
thinking about something.

     Mulder followed her into the kitchen, waiting for 
the outburst.  Scully turned to him and rubbed his arm 
softly.  "Mulder, before you go off and think there's 
something strange about this, please remember that most 
kids have invisible friends."

     "I know, but still, the names...?" Mulder trailed 
off, knowing she'd know exactly what he was trying to say.

     Scully looked up at him, shaking her head slightly.  
"That's because those are two of the names she probably 
hears most often.  You should know that kids at this age 
still think of their parents as Mommy and Daddy, not as 
people who have names too."

     Mulder leaned forward and kissed Scully on the 
forehead.  "I know you're right," he pouted.  "But I 
can still pretend, right?" he grinned.

     Scully leaned up and kissed the smile.  "I wouldn't 
want it any other way."

     Mulder pulled his hand out from behind his 
back.  "Your mom dropped these off today."  Scully 
looked down at the black velvet box that held their 
wedding rings in it.  Mulder pulled hers out, lifted 
her left hand up and slid the ring onto it.

     Scully smiled up at him, an expression he'd 
learned well over the last eleven years.  She took 
the box from his hand, pulled his ring out, and 
slid it onto his hand.

     Mulder leaned down to kiss her, but before 
he could Vera called out from the family room 
"Hey, Mommy, when're we gonna eat?  I'm starving!"

     Scully smiled at Mulder's sigh of defeat at 
not being able to complete the kiss he was looking 
forward to.  She lifted his chin up to see the 
twinkle in his eyes, and spoke, "Like I said, I 
wouldn't want it any other way."

     Mulder smiled down at her and gave her a 
quick kiss.  "Me neither."

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July, 1993
Mulder's Apartment

     This time, Mulder sat up abruptly and almost fell 
off the couch.  He wasn't thinking about the little 
girl anymore, but of that kiss.

     Oh, God that kiss.  He would have never imagined 
that Dana Scully, the supposed spy, was such a good 
kisser.  It gave him a chill just thinking about it.

     But she was only a partner, and possibly a 
friend.  He didn't even think she was that gorgeous.  
She was short, and that red hair that reminded him too 
much of a little girl's at times.  He preferred taller 
women, with darker hair, more like Phoebe and Diana, 
though each of those relationships ended in heartbreak.

     Thinking a little deeper, he realized that Dana 
Scully had already wormed her way into his heart, no 
matter how hard he tried to scare her away.  But he 
knew that it was only to be just friends between the two.

     But, he could still pretend, couldn't he?

     Mulder looked at the clock and decided to get 
ready; maybe he could make it to the crime scene 
early.  He pushed all thoughts of the dreams out 
of his head, not realizing the importance the woman 
called Dana Scully was going have on his life.

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The Same Time
Scully's Apartment

     Scully opened her eyes and stared at the clock, 
which was directly in her sightline.  Then, she sat 
up and sighed.  It wasn't worth it going back to bed 
when she'd only have to get up in half an hour.

     She remembered the dream.  Aside from the 
appearance of the little girl again, there was 
that little thing with the wedding rings and her 
kissing Mulder.  One thing clearly stood out in 
her mind.

     My, God, the man could kiss.

     Scully shook her head to get those thoughts 
out of it.  Thoughts like that would NOT help 
during the workday.  She decided to look to the 
dream book again, just to get my mind off of this 
for the rest of the day, she rationalized.

     First, she checked rings.  "An image of a 
ring is a symbol of union, of success in 
relationships or work, or an indication of the 
changes that surround you."  Scully slammed the 
book shut, afraid to look any further.  The idea 
of a union, with Mulder, of all people, was an 
idea that was still sort of foreign, considering 
what had happened with her other relationships.  
'All it probably means is that our partnership 
will be a good one,' she thought with conviction, 
and she managed to convince herself of this.

     Then, on a lark, she decided to check what 
the book said about kisses.  "A dream of a very 
emotional kiss suggests that you are, or need to 
be, embraced and nurtured.  A dream kiss of the 
merest kind could reveal that you are ignoring, 
or even dismissing, something you feel is of 
little consequence in your daily life."

     Scully snapped the book shut once more, 
refusing to believe that she was ignoring 
anything in her daily life.  She got up off 
the bed and headed towards the shower, not 
realizing what the dream truly meant.

     It meant that it was best to stop fighting 
fate, and to just let things happen, and 
everything will work out for the best.

Continue on with the rest of the series......

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The dream meanings are from the book 'Dreams: Unlock 
the secrets of your subconscious' by Frank Garfield 
and Rhondda Stewart-Garfield.

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"Ah, true love, it's
the greatest thing
in the world."

Miracle Max
The Princess Bride
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"Men will fight bravely
and be heroes, but for
a last ditch defense
against any odds, get
a mother."

Lightbringer
High Wizardry
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