TITLE: It Had To Be You AUTHOR: Katwoman E-MAIL: kris_harnage@yahoo.com FEEDBACK: Please! Don't make me beg more! It would NOT be a pretty sight! DATE WRITTEN: 20 February 1998 DATE POSTED: 17 May 1998 DISTRIBUTION: Sure. Fine. Wherever. Just let me know! RATING: PG CATEGORY: SHAR SPOILERS: US5 up to and including "Kitsunegari" CONTENT WARNING: Mulder/Scully Romance dead ahead -- non-relationshippers, turn back now or face your doom! KEYWORDS: Angst, angst and more angst, with a touch of humor thrown in here and there and eventually romance SUMMARY: Scully tells Mulder she's tired of being his "back up plan," causing him to finally confront his true feelings for her. DISCLAIMER: I do not own them and never will. (Sniff!) The wonderfully enigmatic Dynamic Duo belong to Chris Carter, Ten Thirteen Productions, yadda, yadda, yadda. I also do not own the movie "When Harry Met Sally ..." -- director Rob Reiner's company, Castle Rock Entertainment, has that claim to fame. I am merely borrowing some of the film's fabulous lines from the extremely talented writer Nora Ephron. No copyright infringement is intended. COMMENTS: OK. My best friend, Shannon O'Connor, challenged me to this one, being that "When Harry Met Sally ..." is one of my all-time favorite films, I've seen it at least 30 times and can practically recite every line from it. She wanted me to re-write the ending of the film, making it fit Scully and Mulder. As you can see from the above dates, I wrote this three months ago, but am just now getting around to posting it! DEDICATION: Well, this one's for you Shannon. I hope you, and every other reader of fanfic, enjoy this! And thanks for the challenge! This was a LOT fun! "IT HAD TO BE YOU" By Katwoman December 29, 1998 6:35 p.m. "If you're there, please pick up the phone, I really wanna talk to you," Mulder said into the phone. (extremely long pause) ... "The fact that you're not answering leads me to believe you're either: A. Not at home, B. Home, but don't want to talk to me, or C. Home, desperately want to talk to me, but trapped under something heavy. If it's either A or C, please call me back ..." "Hi Mulder," Scully said, finally picking up the phone, a hint of irritation in her voice. "Hello ... hi ... hi ... I ... I didn't know that you were ... that you were there," Mulder said, trying to sound nonchalant. "What are you doing?" Long pause ... "I was just on my way out," said Scully. "Where are you going?" "What do you *want*, Mulder?" she asked, now sounding very irritated. "Nothing ... nothing. I ... I just called to say I'm sorry," Mulder said in as sincere a tone as possible. "Oh?" Extremely long pause ... "For what I did," Mulder explained. "I never should have." "I see." Another extremely long pause ... "I gotta go," Scully said. "Wait a second ... wait ... wait a second," Mulder said. "What are you doing for New Year's? Are you going to the Bureau party? 'Cause I don't have a date, and if you don't have a date, we always said that if neither of us had a date, we could be together for New Year's. And we could, you know ..." "I can't do this anymore. I am not your consolation prize. Goodbye." The phone slams down in Mulder's ear. Mulder thought. "Oh God, what have I done?" Mulder said out loud to no one in particular. ##### Scully finally released her tight grip on the phone receiver, sat down in a chair and promptly burst into tears. she thought. Scully finally composed herself, dried her eyes and grabbed her coat and purse. She couldn't be late for dinner with her mother. While driving to her mother's home in Baltimore, Scully contemplated the situation. She was extremely relieved the Bureau was closed for the holidays from Christmas Eve through January 4. At least she had five days until she had to face Mulder again. By then, she'll have worked up enough courage to tell him they could no longer have contact that wasn't work-related. A professional relationship with him was all she could handle now. ##### FBI New Year's Eve Party Hyatt Regency Hotel Washington, D.C. New Year's Eve 1998 11:48 p.m. "I don't know *why* I let you drag me to this," Scully said to Katharine, a good friend and fellow FBI agent. "Because, you need to get out and mingle with other single people ... date ... get on with your life, Dana," said Katharine. "Oh, come on, Katharine," Scully said. "You know it wouldn't do me any good. Not in the state I'm in right now." "No, you come on, Dana," Katharine said. "I'm trying to be a friend here, and I don't want to be harsh, but I think you finally need to face the facts. Things apparently are *not* going to work out with you and Mulder. It's evident now that it was no big deal to him. He obviously wants to be 'just friends'. Maybe that's all he can handle -- just keeping things as they are, or, well ... *were*." "Well, I can't anymore ... I just can't -- things are *not* the same now," Scully said. "At least not for *me* --- I'm going home." "You'll never get a taxi," Katharine said. "I'm going!" Scully said more sternly. "It's almost midnight," Katharine pleaded. "Well, the thought of not kissing somebody is just ..." Scully's voice trailed off. "I'll kiss you," Jarrett, Katharine's husband, offered sympathetically. "Come on, stay. Please." "Thanks Jarrett, I ... I just have to go," Scully said. "Oh, wait two minutes," Katharine said. "I'll call you tomorrow," Scully said to Katharine. Scully turned and headed toward the exit, desperately trying to fight back tears. ##### Meanwhile .... Downtown Washington, D.C. New Year's Eve 1998 11:48 p.m. Mulder was walking across the front lawn of the Capitol building, hands in his jeans pockets, shivering in the cold. he thought. He knew, however, that no matter how warm a coat he wore, he could never shake the coldness in Scully's voice over the phone two days earlier. Mulder rounded the Capitol, crossed the street and started walking down a sidewalk past a line of stores. He'd stop once in a while to look at something that would catch his eye. Mulder thought, trying in vain to console himself. A woman's laughter made Mulder turn his head. He saw a couple, arm-in-arm, across the street, pointing at something in a shop window and laughing together. The woman's laugh reminded him of Scully. He hasn't heard Scully laugh out loud a lot in the nearly seven years they've known one another, which made the few times he has heard it all the more precious to him. He loved her laugh -- the way her gorgeous baby blues would light up when she was amused. She had a wonderful smile, too, a special smile that she shared only with him at private moments or when she knew he needed it most. She knew him so well, she could always tell when he needed that special smile. Mulder's most memorable moments with Scully over the past seven years began to crowd in on him, playing themselves across his mind as he sadly walked through the streets of D.C. -- standing in a rain-soaked cemetery laughing together ... her sitting on his hospital bed revealing how she was "afraid to believe" ... returning her cross necklace to her when she finally woke from the coma ... wiping barbecue sauce off her mouth when she got a little overzealous eating ribs ... the one time she allowed him to comfort her after she was rescued from the clutches of a psychotic fetishist ... her sitting vigil by his bedside as he recovered from the effects of a deadly retrovirus ... him sitting vigil by her bedside more times than he ever wanted to count ... the relief he felt when he realized the body he'd been called to I.D. was *not* her ... standing in a hospital hallway hugging one another -- not wanting to ever let her go, but knowing he had to ... the night he found out her cancer was in remission ... her trying to keep him warm in the cold Florida woods ... the relief he felt when he saw her standing beside him and realized she *hadn't* shot herself in the head ... There were so many moments with Scully -- both good and bad -- and he remembered them all vividly. The last scene to play across Mulder's mind was his favorite of all -- kissing Scully under the mistletoe at the office Christmas party two days before Christmas. If he concentrated hard enough, he could still feel the heat of his lips on hers -- the electricity between the two of them. The image was burned on his brain. Apparently, she did not feel the electricity, too, and didn't enjoy it as much as he did -- for she immediately rushed out of the office and never came back. She didn't call him on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day ... or the day after that ... or the day after that ... he thought. he remembers her saying again. Mulder suddenly found himself running. ##### Hyatt Regency Hotel 11:58 p.m. Scully had finally pushed her way through the crowd and saw the exit to the ballroom in sight. She also saw her partner rushing through the door, panting, apparently out of breath from running. ##### Mulder rushed through the main entrance to the Hyatt Regency Hotel's ballroom and saw Scully headed right toward him. She was gorgeous in a strapless midnight blue gown with a flowing, floor-length, full skirt. Her hair was pulled up, with soft curls framing her exquisite face. Mulder thought. ##### Scully thought. Scully froze where she was, waiting for Mulder to approach her. She clenched her jaw, threw back her shoulders and gave him a defiant look. ##### Mulder walked straight up to Scully. "I've been doing a lot of thinking and, the thing is, I love you," he told her. "What?" she said, looking shocked. "I love you!" he repeated. "How do you expect me to respond to this?" Scully said, sounding angry and confused. "How about you love me, too?" Mulder said. "How 'bout I'm leaving?" Scully pushed past him, headed for the door. Mulder went after her ... "Doesn't what I said mean anything to you?" he asked, sounding extremely hurt. "I'm sorry, Mulder," she said, turning and facing him again. "I know it's New Year's Eve. I know you're feeling lonely. But you just can't show up here, tell me you love me and expect that to make everything all right. It doesn't work this way!" She turned and started walking away again. Mulder went after her again ... "Well, how does it work???" he nearly shouts at her, trying to be heard above the crowd cheering. "I don't know," Scully turned to face him again, looking forlorn, "but not this way!" She turned away again, but this time he grabbed her arm and whirled her around to face him ... "How 'bout this way? I love that you get cold when it's 71 degrees out ... I love the way you second guess every minute detail of every 'way-out' theory I come up with on every single case ... I love the way you chew me out when I ditch you, even though you know I'm just trying to protect you ... I love that after I spend a day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes ... I love that you're the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night and the first person I want to talk to when I get up in the morning ... I love the way you raise your right eyebrow when you're looking at me like I'm nuts, like you are right now. You know what, Scully? You're the worst kind of woman -- you're high maintenance, but you *think* you're low maintenance! And I love that about you, too! And it's not because I'm lonely. And it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible!" Scully's eyes had been growing wider and wider throughout Mulder's little monologue about her. "You see! That is just like you, Mulder!" Scully said, her eyes welling up with tears. "You say things like that, and you make it *impossible* for me to hate you! And I hate you, Mulder," tears run down her face. "I really hate you!" Mulder looked down at her tenderly. "Hate you," she mouthed at him. Mulder smiled and pulled her in for a kiss. They kissed passionately while "Auld Lang Syne" was being sung all around them. When they finally parted, Mulder looked at Scully lovingly, then said, "What does this song mean? My whole life, I've never known what this song means!?! I mean, should old acquaintances be forgot? Does that mean we should forget old acquaintances?" Scully started to say something, then rolled her eyes as Mulder continued rambling ... "Or does it mean that if we should happen to forget them, we should remember them? Which is not possible because we already forgot." "Well, maybe it just means that we should remember that we forgot them or something ..." Scully smiled and started laughing. "Anyway, it's about old friends." They melted together in a kiss once again, the final barrier between them gone for good ... ##### At a weekend encounter group six months later ... "The first time we met, we hated each other ..." Mulder began. "No, you didn't hate me. I hated you," Scully corrected him. "No, you just couldn't stand that I was right about the alien abductions, and have been many, many times since then," Mulder countered. "And how many times have I been right and you *haven't* admitted it?" she retorted. "OK, ok, I give Scully. Anyway, we were friends for a very long time ... and then we weren't." "And then we fell in love," Scully said sweetly. "Three months later we were married." "Yeah, it only took three months," Mulder said. "Seven years and three months," Scully corrected, sounding a little embarrassed. "We had this ... this real wonderful wedding," Mulder said. "It was great." "Beautiful ..." Scully added. "We had this enormous three-tierd wedding cake. Everyone loved it." "But they loved the groom's cake even more," Mulder corrected his wife. "It was the talk of the reception." "Yes, I'll give you that one, Mulder," Scully said, almost laughing. "It's not everyday you see a gray groom's cake with a tiny bride and groom on top being abducted by aliens!" "This is true," Mulder said. To which Scully said, while nodding, "Yep." #####FINIS##### Hit the music and roll the credits! --------------------------------------------------------- "Scully, should we be picking out china patters or what?" -- Mulder, "SMALL POTATOES" ---------------------------------------------------------