Futures Past 06: Hazel + Gold = Green
Arvy


DISCLAIMER

None of these characters belong to me, and like so many 
worthy people before me, I'm only borrowing them for a short 
while. All characters refered to herein belong to CC, or 1013, or 
Fox, whoever owns the rights to them.

Author's Notes

I think I'm starting to see a pattern here. Long, short, 
long, and short again. I'm talking about the length of the 
stories in this series. We're now at number six. I know I 
promised a long one next, but this is just a little thingy that 
occurred to me while I was coming up with ideas for Crossover. 
Timeline wise, I set it a few weeks after Flying Lessons. Don't 
worry, the next one is just around the corner.

You don't really need to know what happened in the previous 
ones, except maybe to know that Mulder and Scully are now 
together. Also, the agents have returned to DC by now, and are 
still in the process of getting used to their newfound skills. 
The others in the series so far have already been sent to 
Gossamer. If you can't find them, email me at unmai@bigfoot.com 
and I'll be happy to forward you a copy. Also, all my work to 
date is up on my website at http://www.bigfoot.com/~unmai.

BTW, if you didn't get the title at all, see the endnotes.

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Futures Past 06:
Hazel + Gold = Green
by Arvy 

J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building, Parking Lot
Friday, March 20, 1998
7:52 AM

'Aaaaarrrrrrrggghhhhhh!!!' 

The silent scream echoed in her head as Dana Scully 
vehemently kicked her car door shut. 'I knew I should have gotten 
that damn battery checked. Damn! Damn! Damn!' The litany of 
curses did nothing to ease her frustrations. The car had been 
giving her trouble since before her vacation, but this was 
absolutely the last straw! 'First, my hair dryer blows up. Then, 
that damn sword rips through a perfectly good dress. Again. Now, 
this.' She groaned. What more could go wrong today? She knew 
she'd been putting off getting that scabbard sewn in. The 
temporary sword holder was slowly wearing down her coat pocket, 
and the sword itself was a certified skirt hazard. This was the 
fourth one she'd buried so far. The day could only look up from 
here. She gave a silent thanks that the car had at least managed 
to get her to work before dying, instead of stranding her in the 
middle of a busy freeway.

Sighing, she made a mental note to call the mechanic before 
the day was out as she headed towards the basement office. 'The 
perfect end to this perfect day,' she thought sarcastically, 
'would be if Mulder drags me off on another of his wild goose 
chases.' Suddenly, a day of mindless paperwork didn't seem so 
bad. At least, nothing could go wrong there. She quickly chased 
disturbing thoughts of exploding pens and computer viruses out of 
her mind. She rapped on the office door before entering, deciding 
to help her luck along a little, if nothing else.

Mulder looked up as his partner entered the office, 
wondering why she'd bothered to knock. She'd stopped doing that 
years ago. He was about to say "Good Morning." when he caught the 
look she threw at him. 'Uh, oh! What did I do now?' He ran the 
past week's events through his mind, trying to determine anything 
that she could possibly find fault with. Nothing glaring jumped 
out at him. He heard her ask what was on the agenda for the day, 
and was surprised at the relief on her face when he pointed to 
the mountain of paper lying in his inbox. He wouldn't have 
thought it possible, but the mention of paperwork actually seemed 
to calm her down some. 

"Bad day?"

"Don't even ask. If one more thing goes wrong, I think I'll 
scream."

"Aww, come on. It can't be that bad." Then, noticing the 
pantsuit she was wearing, he ventured, "Skirt again, hunh?" He 
smiled at the resigned sigh she let escape. "I keep telling you, 
but you keep putting it off."

"Ok. Fine. I'll get it taken care of this weekend. 
Satisfied?"

"Hey, it's not my skirts that keep getting shredded, you 
know." Hearing her noncommittal grunt, he shrugged, then turned 
back to the report he was filling in.

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9:51 AM

After a few hours of non-stop paperwork, however, she was 
starting to revise her notions. She could practically feel her 
eyeballs beginning to putrefy from the monotonous motion of 
looking over the expense vouchers, autopsy forms, case reports 
and the thousands of other minutiae that the government routinely 
saddled them with. Deciding to take a break, she got up to get 
some coffee. 'Damn!' She looked from the empty coffee pot to the 
guilty look on her partner's face.

"Sorry, I forgot to turn it on."

She closed her eyes, nodding. "I'll just go to the 
cafeteria."

'Maybe I should take a hint and follow her example,' Mulder 
mused. After a few seconds, he closed the file he was working on 
and headed for the door. He opened it just in time to see a 
security guard raise his hand to knock on the door.

"Can I help you?"

"These were delivered for Agent Scully," the guard said, 
holding out a bouquet of roses.

Mulder held out his hand to receive them. "I'll make sure 
she gets them." He took the roses and closed the door on the 
guard's face. He headed back to his desk, thoughts of the coffee 
break now long forgotten.

'Who would send her flowers?' Today wasn't anything special. 
Not her birthday, and definitely not any anniversary he was aware 
of. Puzzled, he turned the bouquet around in his hands until he 
found the card hidden among the flowers. His breath caught as he 
read it.

"Hey, Dana. I just got into town. What say you ditch work 
and meet me for lunch? How's Chez Antoine's sound? I'll be at 
home till 11, so give me a call.

Love,
Chuck."

'Chuck! Who the hell is Chuck?' He could feel the faint 
sensation growing inside, and knew without looking in a mirror 
that his eyes had gone from their usual hazel to an iridescent 
gold. But if he *had* bothered to look in a mirror, he would have 
noticed the slight green tinge that lay hidden behind the gold. 
He was sorely tempted to just crush the card and throw it and the 
roses into the trash. Whoever this Chuck was, he had some nerve 
asking his Dana out.

He took a deep breath as common sense slowly overcame his 
jealous rage. He brought the involuntary reaction under control. 
'Trust, remember,' he repeated to himself. 'Trust her. She loves 
you. Give her the flowers. You'll see. She'll either not call 
this Chuck person, or she'll call and politely refuse.' He let 
out a relieved breath at this reassuring thought. He even went so 
far as to smile a little, looking forward to seeing Scully put 
Chuckie boy in his place.

He got the card back into the bouquet and the flowers onto 
the desk just in time. He had barely taken his seat when Scully 
walked in with two cups of coffee. She placed one on his desk, 
looking from the flowers to Mulder with a questioning look on her 
face. He took the cup and sipped from it gratefully.

"Thanks. The flowers came for you. The security guard 
delivered them a few minutes ago."

"Oh? Okay." She took the flowers and smelled them 
appreciatively. "They smell wonderful," she said, turning to her 
chair. She barely caught the fleeting scowl that passed over 
Mulder's face as she pulled out the card and read it.

Mulder was not happy when he saw her reaction to the 
flowers. But he was shocked at her reaction to the card. He 
watched her read it, then smile to herself. It was as if her bad 
mood from a couple of hours ago had completely evaporated. He 
wondered again who this mysterious guy was that could lift her 
spirits so. What she did next completely threw him for a loop. He 
saw her reach for the telephone and dial a number from memory. 
'She knows his number?' As far as he knew, Scully's last date had 
been well over a year ago. This boyfriend must have been some guy 
for her to remember his number so easily. Suddenly he saw his day 
take a downturn.

"Chuck? Dana... I'm fine. God, it's been so long. How are 
you?" Scully leaned back in her chair, lazily twirling the phone 
cable around her finger as she talked. "Yeah, Antoine's sounds 
great... Nah, I'm not doing anything important right now. Just 
more boring paperwork." As she said this, she swiveled her chair. 
Her gaze fell on Mulder, and she was taken aback at the black 
look he wore. He wasn't looking at her, but the scrunched up 
pieces of paper on his desk left little doubt as to his state of 
mind. She allowed herself a small, hidden smile. 'Oh my God! He's 
jealous!' She saw his scribbling on a piece of paper, his pen 
clutched tightly in his hand. Although, what he could be writing 
on a blank page when he was supposed to be filling out case 
reports was beyond her. Any doubts she had were removed when she 
finished her conversation, "Yeah, I'll meet you there at noon... 
I've missed you too. Bye." She put the phone down, her eyes 
widening as she saw Mulder clutch the pen harder, hard enough to 
shatter it.

'Should I tell him?' She tried hard to hide the widening 
smile on her face, finally turning away from Mulder and 
pretending to look through the papers in front of her. 'Nah! He 
looks so adorable. I think I'll let him stew for a while longer. 
Besides, it's great payback for all those years of innuendoes and 
leers.' With that thought, she turned back to her work.

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12:41 PM

Mulder sighed as he finished one report and turned to 
another. 'Where is she?' He glanced at his watch, then at the 
door, his ears straining to hear the familiar clicking of the 
heels, waiting for the familiar sensation to wash over him. 
'Trust, trust, trust...,' the voice at the back of his mind kept 
reminding him. And for the hundredth time, he wished he could 
pull that little voice out of his head and strangle it. 'Of 
course I trust her,' he screamed back at it. 'It's just this guy 
I don't trust. I swear to god, if he so much as touches a hair on 
her head, I'll... I'll... I don't know what I'll do, but you can 
bet it'll be something he'll never forget. Not in this lifetime, 
and not in any of his next ones either.'

He tried to picture the two of them having a nice, innocent 
lunch together. And suddenly, images of some stranger's legs 
brushing against Scully's intruded on the quiet scene. He felt 
the familiar anger again at the thought of his Scully in another 
man's arms. 'I think I'm going to be sick.' He considered getting 
in his car and swinging by Antoine's just to take a look. After 
all, what could it hurt? As long as he stayed far enough away, 
she wouldn't even know he was there. Right? He spent the next ten 
minutes convincing himself that this was not the stupidest idea 
he'd ever considered in his life. Finally, he decided he was 
convinced enough, and stood up... just as Scully breezed into the 
office. He quickly sat back down.

"How was lunch?"

"Hmmm? Oh it was great. Wonderful, in fact. I haven't seen 
Chuck in so long. This was a great pick-me-up."

"Anyone I know?" He couldn't keep the hurt tone entirely out 
of his voice. Why had she never told him about this guy?

She was enjoying this. She'd almost forgotten the look on 
Mulder's face when she'd talked on the phone earlier. So she 
decided to toy with him a little longer. It wasn't often she got 
to pull the wool over his eyes, and she was going to milk this 
for all it was worth. "Chuck? No, I don't think you've ever met 
him." She strolled over to her chair, affecting a dreamy look on 
her face.

Mulder's eyes narrowed as they followed her moonstruck glide 
over to her chair. If he didn't know better, he could've sworn 
she looked smitten. Wait a minute! He did know better, didn't he? 
He heard her next words as if through a haze.

"In fact, I asked him to come by at five. My car battery 
died just as I came in, so he's going to drive me home. Also, I 
thought you might like to meet him."

'Meet him. Sure, just before I punch his lights out,' he 
thought, a glint appearing in his eye. 'Calm down. Breathe... 
breathe...' "Great," he said aloud, "I'm looking forward to it." 
'Wow, I can't believe I said that so calmly. Give the man an 
Emmy, folks.' Then he caught the look on his partner's face. The 
dreamy expression had been replaced by a smile. His brows 
furrowed in thought, but he pushed it out of his mind when he saw 
her turn back to her work. Sighing, he turned to work on his own 
reports some more, trying to put the conversation, and Chuckie 
boy, out of his mind for now.

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4:40 PM

'Well, that was a productive afternoon.' Mulder hadn't done 
so little work since... Hell, he worked more trying to get to 
sleep than he had in the past four hours. Thrice, he'd been 
caught staring at her. Of course, he hadn't been caught the 
million or so other times, he silently congratulated himself. He 
was interrupted by her voice.

"I'll be right back, Mulder. I just need to freshen up a 
bit," she said as she headed for the restroom. She smiled all the 
way there.

'Great. Now she's going to *freshen up* for him,' Mulder 
thought darkly. Less than five minutes later, Mulder looked up 
when he heard the knock on the door. 'Now who could that be?' It 
wasn't Scully. He'd have felt her. Then he remembered. 'Great. 
Chuckie's here. Early too. Isn't *this* great?" His thoughts 
dripped with sarcasm. Aloud, he said, "Come in. It's open."

The door opened to reveal a dark haired man who looked to be 
in his early thirties. Mulder couldn't put his finger on it, but 
the man looked somewhat familiar. 'So this is Scully's mysterious 
boyfriend.' He looked him over from head to toe, sizing him up. 
He was somewhat surprised to see a similar look of appraisal 
being turned in his direction.

"Hi. You must be Chuck. Sc... er, Dana mentioned you might 
be coming by. She just stepped out for a moment. Why don't you 
have a seat," Mulder said, pointing to Scully's chair.

Chuck's face brightened at the mention of her name. "You 
must be Fox Mulder. I've heard a lot about you. It's nice to 
finally meet you." He came forward and extended his hand in 
greeting.

Mulder was somewhat surprised at the warm greeting as he 
shook hands. He tried to find any malicious intent on the guy's 
part, but his tone seemed genuine. He was finding it slightly 
awkward to resent this man. 'He's after Scully, remember,' he 
prodded to remind himself why he didn't like Chuckie boy so much.

The minutes stretched into an awkward silence as they waited 
for Scully to return. After a few moments, Chuck said, "I haven't 
seen Dana this happy for a long time. Whatever changes she's been 
going through must really be agreeing with her. And, actually, I 
think you may have had a hand in it."

Mulder's raised an eyebrow as Chuck continued, "After Emily, 
I was afraid that she might think she didn't have anything to 
live for. I'm extremely grateful to you for helping her through 
that."

Mulder's jaw dropped. She'd told him about Emily? Just who 
was this guy?

"And I just want you to know that no matter what Billy 
thinks, I don't blame you. Dana has always made her own choices. 
She's never let anyone intimidate her."

Mulder was about to ask him how long and how well he knew 
Scully. He talked as if he'd known her all his life. Just then, 
Chuck's last words finally filtered through his conscious mind. 
'Billy?' "Billy?" he repeated aloud, just as he felt Scully 
return.

"Yeah. I know my brother can get a bit over protective 
towards Dana. But, ever since Missy, well... you know..."

"Oh, he knows all right. Mulder wrote the book on the 
subject."

Both men turned to face the door.

"Hi, Chuck. You're early." Scully walked in, grinning at the 
foolish expression plastered over Mulder's face. She gave Chuck a 
hug, wishing she'd gotten back a little sooner. But the look on 
Mulder's face was priceless. If she wasn't careful, she'd burst 
into giggles any minute now. "Mulder," she said in a calm voice, 
"I see you've met my baby brother, Charlie." She'd wondered if 
she'd been wrong to lead Mulder on. Now she was sure. She 
wouldn't have missed this for the world. She finally let out the 
laugh that had been building when Mulder turned to her with a 
look that clearly shouted, "I'll get you for this." But even so, 
he couldn't hide the goofy grin that seemed to have become 
permanently etched on his face for the rest of the day.

The End
Futures Past 06:
Hazel + Gold = Green
by Arvy 

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End Notes

Okay, how many of you thought that was just plain silly? The 
thing is, I've never read a story where Scully makes Mulder 
jealous on purpose. When I thought of it, it just sounded like so 
much fun. This could have easily become an angst fest, but I 
think I managed to write it so it came across as more humorous 
than sadistic on Scully's part. Anyone disagree?

And the title. Okay, hazel obviously refers to Mulder's 
eyes. But how many of you realized the gold was because he's also 
a vampire? And the green is for the green-eyed monster. When I 
came up with the title, I thought it was obvious. My beta reader, 
on the other hand, didn't get it, and thought it was dumb. 
Comments?

Next, a note about the continuity and timeline in the 
series. I think the agents spent the rest of February in Seattle 
and returned early in March, just in time for Mind's Eye (thus 
skipping the time when PatientX/Red and the Black were set). This 
story happens a little after Mind's Eye. Also, I guess starting 
from the next one, the series will probably start veering off 
from canon. I'll try to integrate the non-mytharc X-files 
episodes as I write, if possible. But for the next story that I 
have planned, the current CC arc about aliens just won't work. 
So, although I loved the movie, season five's 'Patient X/Red and 
the Black' and the movie never happened in my universe.

Finally, the feedback request section. I realize this one is 
pretty short compared to the previous ones. I was trying to put 
Crossover together, and this one just popped into my head. So 
what did you think? Send any and all responses to 
unmai@bigfoot.com. And keep tuned for the next monstrosity. It's 
coming...

Futures Past Chronology:

01 - The Awakening        (Oct 1997)
02 - The Light of Day     (Jan 1998)
03 - My Funny Valentine   (Feb 1998)
04 - Crossover            (Feb 1998)
05 - Flying Lessons       (Feb 1998)
06 - Hazel + Gold = Green (Mar 1998)