Chapter Text
~• Christmas 1993 •~
It was two days before Christmas. Margaret and William Scully had their four children as guests in their house. For old and new times' sake, everyone took to decorating with joy.
“...with boughs of holly...” Melissa hummed the carol from the ladder by the window where she was hanging her homemade ornaments.
Dana observed her brothers on their way to the door. They didn't notice her or her mother or their sister. Bill held the car keys high, the slightly shorter Charlie jumping next to him, trying to reach them in an imitation of childhood antics. The door slammed closed behind them.
“Getting the tree was so much easier when it was your father doing it,” Maggie commented.
“They'll agree on who's driving by the time they get there,” Dana assured.
“They have to get back too, you know,” Melissa added.
“As long as we're not there,” Dana finished.
“Melissa, what have I said about your crystals?” their father asked as he came up behind his wife.
“What's wrong with crystals?” Melissa turned to them. “They make beautiful decorations.”
"Well, they're not traditional. Meaning they're not decorations."
"Then why do we use plastics? They're not traditionally used either and pollute than crystals." Melissa retorted.
"You got that idea in your magic circles."
Melissa sighed. "New Age. Besides, what about the rich? It's okay to make decorations with diamonds, rubies and emeralds. The fact that these are cheaper quartz doesn't make them any less appropriate."
"Melissa, dear," Maggie butted in, "It's okay, it looks good without them."
"If nothing else, quartz brings good luck."
Maggie sent a look to her husband, in part to gauge his mood, in part to draw attention to herself. She needed to derail that conversation.
"Dana, dear, how's work?"
Disinterested, her William walked away.
Dana didn't even attempt to hide her disappointment. "It's fine," she told her mother. She didn't want to go into the details with her parents, and not really with Melissa either.
"You liked it better before," Maggie commented knowingly, hopefully.
"No!" Dana exclaimed almost a little too quickly. "I mean, I liked it just fine. But this is more or less a promotion. And it is good."
"That may be true, but that's not what Mom meant," Melissa came to stand by her. "It's not about promotion, she wants to know whether you're happy where you are."
Maggie nodded.
"It's not about my happiness. I need to move on, to progress." Melissa never understood that. She loved her work and would be perfectly happy to keep doing it until the end of her life; she didn't care about the recognition of her efforts or career advancement.
"But if you're unhappy, surely you can get transferred to another department."
"What about the people you work with?" Melissa let her interest be known.
"What about him?"
"'Him'? You only work with one person?" Now Maggie sounded disappointed. A large team was perfect, only one coworker... she didn't know what exactly that meant.
Dana was cornered. She sat on the now vacated stool. "It's a small department. Just me and my boss."
"Oh, sweetie," Maggie stepped up to hug her daughter.
"No, mom, it's okay. It's still is that higher rung I wanted. I may get another promotion next year."
"Okay, but what is he like?"
"Um..." One look at Melissa told Dana the aim of her curiosity may be to gain some info their brothers didn't have. She wasn't sure she wanted to play that game.
"He's okay."
"That's good."
"That's all you can tell about him? You've been together for months. That can't be all you can say about him," Melissa complained.
"There's not much, really. He's dedicated, doesn't belittle me, isn't sexist..."
William passed the open door to the living room and nodded in satisfaction, but none of the women saw him. Melissa gave out a dissatisfied harrumph.
"...he's good at what he does." Dana shrugged.
"...and he's tall and dark," Melissa teased.
Dana laughed against herself and hid a smirk. "He's not one of your cards, Melissa. King of poles or something."
If Melissa had her deck handy, she'd throw each and every card at her sister.
"Well..." Dana shrugged. "He's tall..."
"Aha!" Melissa yelped triumphantly.
"...and he has nothing to do with poles. He looks..." Dana shrugged. She never thought about how Mulder looked until then. If she had given a description of him to one of the FBI artists, the drawing would look nothing like him. He just looked... familiar. There was only one word that came to mind: "...plain."
"Plain?" Melissa said incredulously.
"How old is he?" Maggie asked the first different question that she could think of.
It was another question that surprised Dana. "He's older than me," she offered.
"How much? Ten years? Five years?"
She couldn't do anything but shrug again. She had no idea. She had never asked and he had never told her.
"So, you don't know how old he is, but you know he's older than you?" Melissa asked ironically.
"Yes. Age difference has no effect on our work." Or our relationship, some rarely heard part of her said.
“Touché.” As a peace offering, Melissa gave Dana one of her crystals. Dana took it, even though she had no idea what to do with it. Looping its ribbon around her wrist, she made a passable temporary bracelet. She held it up to the window where the early winter sun shone. It diffracted the light into many tiny suns, admired by both sisters. While Dana saw reflected and bent beams of light, Melissa no doubt saw the magic of the Universe. It was her sister through and through, but Dana realized it was also something Mulder might see in that scene.
A great sadness suddenly overwhelmed her. It was a sadness of sympathy. The thought of her partner's inner world contrasted starkly with the cheery mood in the house, with decorations and the smell of cookies coming from the kitchen and Melissa humming Deck the Halls again, with their mother joining in. Dana kept staring at the crystal in hope of hiding her suddenly somber mood.
“What is it, Dana?” Trust her mother to notice everything.
“Nothing. Nothing. Just something about work. All this talk of it made me think of something. It's okay,” she smiled to convince her. “I'm happy, really.”
“Are you sure this work is good for you?”
Dana unwrapped the crystal from her wrist and put it in her pocket. “Well, it's not a bed of roses, but I knew that going in. I want it and I love it,” Dana assured both. “It's not spoiling my mood. Seriously.”
She made a decision to leave her work outside the house. She would just enjoy the company of her relatives and when she returned to office next week, she would be ready to work, newly motivated and happy.
~•~