I'd like to thank Elaine for telling me something I needed to hear.

  The Wedding

  Scully always had been a traditionalist.
  That was why the music accompanying her march down the aisle was the
traditional music for these ocassions. And why she wore white. And, thought
Mulder, she looked as beautiful as brides always did.

  ****

  He'd never imagined that this day would come. Never thought that one day she
would be walking down the aisle. Never thinking that he would be there,
looking over the crowds of people, taking a quiet pride in her calm, her
beauty, in the admiration in their eyes. But he was.
  All their cases; the danger they had somehow survived. Their success had
always been improbable, considering the forces arrayed against them. The
bureacracy of the FBI, the enmity of their fellow agents, the shadow
conspiracy that they had slowly uncovered. *They* knew it existed, even if
few others did. *They* believed, when the rest of the world couldn't, or
didn't, or didn't want to.
  Despite the vast difference in their attitudes, their approaches, they had
much in common. Courage. Trust. A need to seek out the truth, wherever it
was, whatever it cost. And the cost had been high.
  His father. Her sister. Three months of her life. Trust in their fellow
man. Faith in the essential good of the human race.
  And yet, despite the price they had paid, the compromises they had made,
they were here. Today. And despite all the times they believed there was no
chance for the future, today Scully was a symbol of hope. A bride.

  ****

  Mulder's thoughts as Scully approached the front of the church were
turbulent, mixed. All this time he had dared to hope that he and Scully
could be more than partners, more than friends. And that hope - the voice in
the back of his mind, asking 'what if?' - had come very close to wrecking
their partnership. Because he had wanted more.
  He smiled a private, secret smile. Those watching would take it for pride,
maybe. Or joy. None knew his thoughts. Inside, he was telling himself, with
a mixture of happiness and sadness, that this was the end, in a way. No more
hopes, but no more fears either. No more attempts to win her - but no more
terror at the thought of losing her. No more dreams of what *could* be. 
  No more might-have-beens.

  ****

  His reverie ended as Scully stopped, facing the clergyman at the alter.
The man in black spoke.
  "Who gives this woman in holy matrimony?"
  Mulder stepped forward, proud of his role this day. Proud that Scully had
asked *him* to walk her to the alter. She had promised him at the same time
that if and when he married, she would be there behind him. Best woman. He
had smiled and thanked her.
  "I do."

  THE END