TITLE: Rainbow over the Beltway (Part 1 of 1)
AUTHOR: Leslie Sholly
E-MAIL: PennySyc@aol.com
DISTRIBUTION: Anywhere, with my name and address attached. And please let me know!
SPOILER WARNING: None.
RATING: R (language)
CLASSIFICATION: VR
KEYWORDS: MSR
SUMMARY: Scully's bad day takes a turn for the better.
DISCLAIMER: Chris Carter, 1013, and Fox own the characters of Dana Scully and Fox Mulder. I mean no infringement or disrespect.
FEEDBACK: Would be very much appreciated at PennySyc@aol.com (Leslie).

Rainbow over the Beltway by Leslie Sholly

***********************
FBI Headquarters
Washington, DC
***********************

"Come on, Scully, our chariot awaits!"

Mulder's too-cheerful voice was an unwelcome interruption to Scully's concentration. She was sitting in the basement office, laptop open on the table before her and neat piles of paper everywhere. There was a dangerous look in her eye that Mulder seemed determined to ignore as he rushed eagerly about the room gathering files.

"We didn't have anything scheduled today, Mulder," Scully pointed out. "I was counting on spending the day catching up on this paperwork."

"Aw, come on, Scully. I've already requisitioned the car."

"Just what is this about?" Scully stubbornly continued to rifle through her papers.

"It's a fact-finding mission, Scully. A promising lead."

"Leading . . . where?"

"Beltsville," Mulder admitted reluctantly.

"What's in Beltsville, Mulder?" Scully asked, mentally answering her own question: not much.

"The usual--lights in the sky, multiple sightings in the past week."

Scully's sigh was exasperated. "Mulder, do you really need me? You know that nine times out of ten these things don't pan out. I've got a lot to do here as you can see--"

"It's not my fault you lost the coin toss," Mulder said smugly.

"Whatever, Mulder. Anyway, it's going to rain."

"Nah. It's not supposed to rain until tonight. Come on, Scully," he wheedled. "I need you on this."

Scully hated the feeling coming over her. She was going to go with him and she would no doubt regret it later. Mulder's power over her was undeniable, and at the moment she resented it. She couldn't refuse him, but if she had to give in, she was going to do it as ungraciously as possible.

She slammed the lid of her laptop, pushed her chair out violently, and stood up. Mulder's face brightened and Scully resolutely suppressed a twinge of guilt. How did he perceive her? How did she present herself to him, that after all this time he still was surprised that she was coming along for the ride? Didn't he realize the effect he had on her?

Without speaking she stalked past Mulder and headed for the garage.

**********************
Beltsville, Maryland
Four hours later
**********************

Scully was tired, she was hungry, and she was full of righteous indignation.

Their lead had turned out to be another crackpot. It was surprising, really, how full the world was of old men, half-senile and hungry for attention. Scully had recognized this at once, but Mulder had wasted hours interrogating the old man, his neighbors, and the local P.D. before finally reaching the same conclusion.

Now she stood on the old man's porch and saw that things were rapidly going from bad to worse.

Mulder, shame-faced, had slunk out to the car and left Scully to soothe the old man with reassurances that he could call them again if necessary. Before she could join him, the heavens had opened and rain was now pouring from the sky.

Of course, the old crackpot didn't have an umbrella. Of course, in her annoyance at Mulder, Scully had rushed out of the office without hers. Of course, she was wearing a freshly dry-cleaned suit and expensive new pumps. And of course the old man's yard was nothing but a sea of mud.

Scully waded through it as fast as her little feet would go, but she was drenched to the skin well before she reached the curb and the dubious sanctuary of the car. The look she gave Mulder when she got in practically flayed the flesh from his bones.

"I'm sorry, Scully," he said contritely.

She continued to glare stonily as water ran in rivulets from her soaked hair.

"You were right," Mulder offered.

His attempt at mollifying her did nothing to cool Scully's ire. "Damn straight, I was right, Mulder! I was right about the sightings, I was right about the rain. But your admitting that now doesn't make me dry, or pay my cleaning bill, or get the fucking paperwork done!"

Perhaps deciding discretion was the better part of valor, Mulder opted to stay silent.

Scully's seething was almost audible when, five minutes after they got on the Beltway, traffic came to an inexplicable and utter standstill. She pinched the bridge of her nose between thumb and forefinger as the honking horns increased the pounding in her head.

After fifteen silent minutes in which the car advanced less than a mile, Mulder ventured, "At least it's stopped raining."

"Way to look on the bright side, Mulder," Scully shot back. But she did open the steamed-up window to get a look at the traffic.

Almost like magic, the sour expression disappeared from her face and she felt her heart lighten. "Mulder, look!"

"What, what?" Mulder asked, his tone indicating expectation of a flying saucer sighting at the very least.

"Look at the rainbow!" Scully exclaimed.

Spreading across the clearing sky, stretching from one side of the horizon to the other, was the arch of a rainbow, every color of the spectrum softly glowing.

"I've never, ever seen a whole rainbow," Scully said, oblivious to Mulder's perplexed look. "Usually there's just a little piece of one, you know? And you can't see all the colors so clearly, either. But this--it's beautiful." Her voice was almost reverent.

"It's pretty," Mulder conceded. "But I wouldn't have expected you to get so worked up about the purely scientific phenomenon of white light being refracted by raindrops."
,br> "It's more than that, Mulder."

"Right. Now you're going to tell me that it's God's promise that there will never be another flood."

"God does have a hand in rainbows, Mulder. I do believe that. He's the Great Designer, the One who set everything in motion. Just because there's a scientific explanation for rainbows doesn't mean God didn't plan it as a bit of beauty in the world." Scully automatically defended her position to Mulder, but there was no rancor in her tone. Once again she stuck her head out the window to drink in the rainbow, noticing as she did so that several other commuters were doing the same.

"It *is* a promise of sorts," Scully said reflectively.

"A promise of what?" "That there's always beauty in the world, if you're open to it, if you know where to look . . . even on a rainy day, when you're in a rotten mood." Scully drew her head back into the car and really looked at Mulder for the first time that day. His eyes, his smile--everything about him was beloved to her. She knew he saw himself as someone who had brought her nothing but tragedy and loss. She knew he suffered from guilt for what he felt he had done to her. He didn't realize that in the midst of all the darkness she had found in the world, he was a precious light to her.

She smiled at him and took his hand. "Thank you, Mulder," she said simply.

"For what?"

"For putting up with me when I'm grumpy. For dragging me out of the basement on another wild goose chase. For broadening my horizons and showing me new ways of looking at things. For taking me places where I get to see rainbows."

And the smile that brightened Mulder's face at her words and her touch lifted the last touch of gloom from her heart, cheering her more than any rainbow ever could.

THE END

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