| Disclaimers in The
Date - Prologue...
The Date - Part 1 Scully's Apartment "See you then, Langly. Uh huh... completely sure. Of course I want to spend the *whole* day with you. I told you so last night. No, I haven't changed my mind. Positive. And, why should I? Stop. I know what I want. Surprise me, then. Now, 'bye..." Lislita ends the call, rises from the tall, wide-seat stool. In her cousin's downy, fleece-lined slippers, she pads her way to the refrigerator. Yawning, she opens its door, thinking it would hit the spot. "Don't even think about it, 'prima.' You're busted big time." Scully is leaning against the adjoining wall with her arms folded, sporting a mock glare she bounces off Lislita. "Bu...but, Dana... He's...sweet. Already I find myself liking him very much. Very big time, like you say." Same, old Dana, her cousin thinks; always listening in on private conversations. Scully crinkles her nose, finding it strangely amusing how crossed their wires are at the moment. "I'm referring to what you're about to do with that juice, Cuz. Use a glass? Please?" Watching her, even at this early hour, vivacious relative comply with her minimal request, she treads lightly, sounding unassuming. "Been up long?" "Since about six-thirty." She sips. "I couldn't stay asleep any longer. I'm so excited. I can't wait to see him again." This sounds like the start of something weird, Scully ruminates, noting the twinkle in her cousin's eyes. She cocks her head, and looking pensive says, "You've made plans to go out with Langly, I take it." A dubious prescription of expectancy laced her voice. "Uh huh." Lislita's voice is saturated with a good deal more anticipation. "He wants to show me the DC he knows. The places he likes." ....Oh, that should be interesting, Dana judges, suppressing the urge to ask her cousin if she likes dives where the menu is exclusively cheese steaks. And spending the bulk of her day in Radio Shack. "He'll be here by eight." She sips more juice, looking more like an eager child having been told she's going toy shopping, rather than a sophisticated 'Televisa' soap veteran who'd run out of options. "Why the sigh, 'primita?' Dana, what is wrong?" Her receptive eyes overcast in short order. "Oh, it's nothing don't mind me." "It sure doesn't look that way, 'primita,' looking like that." Lislita puts her drained glass in the sink, thinks better of just leaving it there, so decides to clean up after herself before her relation tells her to. Finishing, she goes back to the stool to sit. Her long, slender legs dangle. "What is up?" Scully travels over to the fridge to get juice for herself. She uses the same glass her cousin's just rinsed and dried. "Well...it's just that, since it's Saturday, and I'm off, I thought we could do something together--finally. Sunday, and it's, 'so long; wish you could've stayed longer. See ya,' and you're gone, Leese. That's all." "Oh..." It's Lislita's turn to sigh. "This is true. We haven't done much together. Dana, I'm sorry..." "It's all right." "'Ay,' I wish I had more time to visit, but there are the cruise shows I'm booked to sing in. Next week, and--boom." She'd used her hands to mimic an explosion. "The Caribbean season blossoms into high gear over the next several months. Not that I'm booked throughout, but I'll be 'muy' busy regardless; whether I'm sailing, or not." "Hey, not your fault, Cuz. Mine. My workload and schedule were murder this week, literally. Mulder offered to cover for me so I could take off to be with you, but I didn't think it was right, doing that." Lislita brightens. "I know. Take a cruise on my line. I can get you a discount for family. Will you be vacationing soon?" "Not soon enough, I'm afraid." Sloshing down another swallow of oj, Dana wipes her mouth off with the kitchen towel, shaking her head afterwards. "Come with Langly and me, then, for today. Okay? Come. We'll have fun, the three of us. No-- even better--invite Mulder. You and he go well together." "No, that's all right. I have a strong feeling Mulder's and my tagging along wouldn't sit too well with Langly...your date." Thoughtfully, "I mean, after all, you're going on a date with him, right? Albeit an all day one." Lislita thinks her cousin's evaluation over. The beginnings of a demure smile tug at the corners of her full, rosy lips; rosy, their natural, vibrant color. Her smoky eyes dance. "I'm the one who asked him, so whatever he thinks is fine with me. He's very..." "Not the usual sort of man you date?" Scully pipes up, beating Lislita to the punch. She sighs again, trying not to sound overly critical and judgmental. Trying, but not succeeding to any successful degree. "You two certainly hit it off last night." ....They sure didn't hide the fact that something had changed between them after coming back from the convenience store, Scully considers. They'd made it blatantly obvious Their hot hands were all over each other during the ride home.... 'The Look' had been rebuffed by them both. If Mulder ever got that way with me, I'd have to tie him up, but he'd probably like that. But, Leese with Langly?.... The lithe beauty chuckles in fondness, remembering how all through their phone conversation of a few minutes ago, Langly had kept saying that if she wanted to change her mind about going out with him, it was 'cool.' 'It won't be the first time a, "tasty" bails on me,' he'd told her. "He is...so attentive in a charming boyish way. 'Padrisimo.'" "But he's not your usual type, though." Lislita hops off the stool. "Interesting, attractive men are *always* my type." With a spirited laugh, and a lilt in her walk, she heads for the bedroom to make up the air bed. "I'll shower quick, and get dressed. Please say you'll come. I'm sure he won't mind, Day. He being the gentleman he is." ....Oh, I strongly doubt he wouldn't mind.... "Langly?" ....A gentleman....well, yes. I give him that, Scully concedes. He's always been that, but....dear, God, forgive me.... "Attractive?" She upbraids herself for the hooting that had gently couched itself in her tone of voice. Lislita stops in her tracks and does an about-face. "You don't think he's attractive?" She looks crestfallen, totally surprised at her cousin's squeaky questions. "I think Langly is...'como se di'...uh, 'precioso...guapo, si. Guapo.' Uh, handsome, no?" ....*No*.... Scully puckers her mouth after the last essence of juice clears her palate. "Handsome?" She grimaces. "Cute then." Scully shrugs, her mind crimps for a moment, as a distant memory rises, then falls. ....Cutie?.... "Well...if you say so, but purely in a highly mathematically sort of...uh geeky way." Lislita wrinkles her brow. "Geeky? 'Que significa,' geeky?" "Langly's a geek, Leese," Scully says point-bluntly, blurting the first thought that had deluged her mind. "Even he knows it." "You say that like it's a bad thing, Day. I don't exactly know what means geek, but I don't think 'Tia' Maggie would like hearing you call somebody; especially somebody so thoughtful and nice, something unkind sounding like this geek word." "Geek's not a bad word. It's used to describe, usually guys, like Langly who are, who." She could see that the foundation of her disparaging explanation wasn't scoring any points with her scowling cousin. "Okay for simplicity's and impartiality's sakes, guys who are socially challenged. "They're not exactly the kind of guys who make a good impression. Case in point--Langly. Misfits--but I'm not saying it's through any fault of their own, generally, it's just the way it is. C'mon, at least admit that you go out with drop dead good-looking men, Cuz, in your theatrical universe. Not, well, not. Look, excuse my rude, but not men who're mercy dated. Men you HAVE dated like, well you've said so yourself...Luis Miguel, or that other hunky torch singer, uh...Alejandro Fernandez, and a fair assortment of actors and male models. Not like, like--" "Like Langly? Is that the name you're groping for?" "I'm sorry, Leese, but I--" "What you're trying to say is that I shouldn't go out with Langly because he's not good-looking enough? 'Incredible!' How can you think that way?" "No--no, I'm not saying that at all." "Then, what *are* you saying?" Scully drops the volume and power of her voice. "I just want you to have a really enjoyable last day here." This visit wasn't going to end on a sour note if she could help it. HELP IT, she yells at herself. This *is* Langly we're talking about, after all. Not some total loser. Right? ....I can't hear you.... Yeah, RIGHT. "I'm sure I will. He's so funny." ....More like funny looking.... But Dana relented, seeing how her cousin had her heart set on a Langly she'd never noticed was so 'appealing' before. "Then, I guess you will, hon. Only, just don't let him steer conversation solely to his pet conspiracy theories, or his indecipherable technobabble. If you let him, you'll live to regret it." "Oh, Day...that's okay. Langly is...he's very smart. He's fascinating..." She smiles when his term for something good pops into mind. "He's cool; and very brave." ....Brave?.... Is this Langly she's talking about? Following the distinctive rolling of her eyes, Scully mutters and acknowledges, more to herself, "Quirky." She rinses the glass in imitation of her cousin. "And try to get home at a decent hour. Emphasis on 'decent.' You've got an early flight tomorrow." She's a grown woman, Scully cautions. Where do I get off telling her what to do; who to do it with? I'm not the sickly, bedridden mother she lost long ago. What I am is an uptight loner who needs pathetically-invented excuses to be alone with my FBI-mate in the same bind of justifiable alibi. "Yes, Mom..." Lislita flashes her feisty cousin her perfectly straight pearly whites, flush with a moral victory. "Don't worry, I won't miss it. Can't afford to if I want to eat this winter. Thanks, Dana." "Don't thank me, just have a good time." ....Now, that went well, you female version of your paternal paragon of enlightened understanding, Scully overturns in her associative mind. ....Ahab salutes you....have fun, kids...contrition complete. "Now, let's see,"
Scully murmurs to herself, watching Lislita pad down the hallway, "think I'll start the day off right with a heaping
helping of crow this morning....to be promptly washed down with a steaming
hot cup of gall, which never seems to be in short supply." xXx "GOD!" More expostulate swearing to flaunt his vespiary temper, then, "Why can't I have the van, huh? WHY? C'mon, how come? Sheeesh!" Langly is bouncing and flouncing, stalking and balking his way about the confines of the walkway between the eating area and the computer workspaces. Final detonation to meltdown imminent. "I need it total big time!" If his buds thought they'd heard him whine in the past, their ears were about to have the mother of all 'whinefests' of all time, inflicted upon them. "Langly," Frohike warns sharply, "stop whining. Give it a rest already." He grills Frohike's back with strafing eyes of lethal intensity, down to the final inches of his short fuse. "I'm not messin' this up! No van, no chick. No chick--I go ballistic!" In frustration, he rakes his 'stragglies' until hurting his scalp. "Ouch!" Frohike pours himself another freshly brewed cup of Mr. Coffee's finest. He doesn't bother to look Langly in the face to make reply. "Get a grip, m'man. First things first. Ya TCB, first, then ya get to party." "Yeah, Langly. Do us all a big favor." Byers pushes more scrambled eggs onto his fork with the remainder of burnt toast. "WE need the van more, and since you see fit to cast blind eyes to civic responsibilities, majority rules. As always. Duty first." Langly sees red, and bounds over to stand at Byers' side, toying with the idea of slapping the fork out of his hand. He doesn't though, and whines some more; only louder, with more sulk. "C'mon, guys...when do I ever ask for special favors?" He grinds the heel of his hand into his multi-creased forehead. "We've got a source to meet," Frohike reminds him. "That takes priority over your little tryst you're hell-bent to keep with Scully's hotie of a cousin, regardless of the repercussions." He and Byers nod in semi-unison, never straying very far from the same wavelength. "What repercussions?" Langly wails. "In the interests of national security? For the common good? Ring a bell?" "Rant on, Frohike. What about for *my* good, for a change? Why do I always end up with zip in the social arena?" "We've been together too long for your needing to be reminded, amigo." Sipping, in whimsy, he goes on, "There's also running the risk of alienation. You upset her cousin, and we'll pay the price, which begs for this explanation, 'cos I still don't get it. Exquisite Lislita wanting to make the couple scene with *you*? Maybe she needs glasses too. But regardless, it's like I keep sayin', there is NO justice, man." ....Gasket one set to blow, sir, standing by for number two.... Langly stays the course though, not wanting to give his cohorts the satisfaction of seeing him lose it in the biggest way ever. With a level edge to his voice he replies, "For your information, Lee asked ME out 'cos she likes me. She knows I like her. We got something goin' on. Shocked? That a drop dead gorgeous chick would actually wanna go out with me--or jealous? Huh, 'Hike? That's it--you're buggin' jealous. Ha, ha!" Waxing more churlish, he squawks, "I don't give a rats shiny hiney what you think! I'm takin' the van--gimme the keys. Where are they, 'Hike? You had 'em last. I mean it. I need it. Yo--I'll hot-wire if I have to, don't make me get freakin' ugly!" Byers and Frohike look at one another, and then exchange uncomfortable looks with Langly. Neither sides willing to back down. Finally, the shortest of the trio says, "Not this time, buddy." "Please, guys? How often do I get this lucky?" he whimpers. "Well, I haven't gotten lucky yet, but she might let me..." His fellow hackers sigh, half in recapitulation, half in resignation. XxXx Scully's Apartment Thick apology stains his voice. "Sorry I'm late, Lee. It took awhile getting over here..." Langly looks from Scully to her delectable cousin, then back to Scully with sheepish moue. "Don't have a ride...THEY took it. I had to bus my way over here." He shrugs. He'd wasted nearly over a half hour more, arguing with the stonewallers, to no avail, and his attempt at hot-wiring had proven to be a dismal failure. "Uh, like, I'm sorry, for bein' late..." Scully strikes her patented arms folded over her chest pose. She regards him with eyes full of appraisal; her typical patronizing fashion having crested. Lislita gives him the most radiant smile he's ever seen a kept-waiting woman ever give him in his life. She extends her hand, inviting him inside the immaculate apartment and her good graces, he hopes. "Why? There's no problem, Langly. Really. You gave Dana and me another chance to reflect back on when we were girls." "Were girls?" Langly draws a blank. "Then what are you now?" "When we were *little* girls," his perspective date underscores. "Oh; oh, yeah...little girls." They'd rehashed more memories, and Scully had highlighted, feeling obligated to, additional idiosyncrasies which were part and parcel of being his exclusive property. Those particular oddities
familiar to Scully, that is, were outlined in detail before any dear cousin of hers embarked "...Back then, we thought we knew everything." "We *did*," Scully qualifies. "Like you don't know everything now?" Langly says, sounding genuinely surprised, and when he sees Scully's spikey expression, he wishes he'd kept his mouth shut. Quickly changing the subject, Lislita says, "I said you'd come, or else you'd call, if you weren't coming. But I knew you would. I'm so glad you're here." She squeezes his upper arm, and he relaxes in proportion to the mystical sense of well-being she engenders within in. ....Knew she'd be cool. She's a livin' doll. You worried for nothin', man.... He lets Lislita seize his hand, with her tugging him gently along. "Oh, yeah, like for sure. I would've called." Scully hasn't said another word, which makes him uneasy all over again. "Is it okay, Scully?" Langly asks, as though spot checking. "Of course. Come in." Once he's inside, looking squeamish, he hems and haws, "Uh, Scully...do you think like...uh, like maybe you'd let us use your car? Frohike and Byers had to meet this source somewhere in Maryland. They made a point of my NOT being able to use the van." While Scully mulls this nugget, Lislita nods along with Langly to lend encouragement. "Like it'd be awesome if we could. I wanna show Lee some of the deeply cool, out of the way places the average visitor'd never hit. Public transportation sucks the big one..." Scully raises her eyebrow. "How 'bout it, huh? Could you make it happen?" The word 'no' formed several times in her mind, and was all set to burst from her pouting lips, when her cousin abruptly intercedes... "Could we, Day? Pretty please...with 'azucar' on top?" ....Like I have a choice?.... "Well, I guess so. Sure." She couldn't allow Lislita having subsequent second thoughts about her equability. Could she? "Help yourselves, by all means." "Outstanding, Scully!" Langly reaches out to ruffle her shoulder. "We're in!" "Oh, thank you so much, Day. Sure you won't change your mind about coming along? You and Mulder?" Langly swallows hard, blinking, and looks as though the worst things imaginable have just happened; as though thieves had broken into the office and ripped off EVERYthing not nailed down. Or, a sensitive hack getting blown AND traced. He holds his baited breath. "That's be all right with you, isn't it, Langly?" Lislita asks, all round-eyed and innocently. Stammering, he starts to cover up his true feelings, but Scully cuts him off. "On behalf of an absent Mulder and my present self, I'll decline. Rain check. Next time." She goes to get the keys which are lying atop her TV. Upon returning, she interrupts their hushed conversation in a tactful manner. "Now get going, you two," she says, handing the key ring off to an appreciative and relieved Langly. Relief is splashed all over Langly's face. He snaps the Versace jacket Lislita's putting on, out of her hands, and helps her on with it. Eagerly then, he follows behind her to the door, and whispers on their way out, "Thanks, Scully, I owe ya a big, fat juicy one. Anytime, anywhere. You name it--ya got it." She smiles indulgently and softly replies, "Just take good care of my cousin, Langly. That's the greatest favor you can do for me. No...uh, no, shall I say, off-the-wall stuff? Copy that?" "Off-the-wall? Who? *Me*?" He'd sounded as though she'd meant someone else, even though she was sizing him up dead to rights. Lislita's face is one big grin, and she laughs the way she did when 'Billy' used to try to scare Dana and her, not Melissa; never Mel, with warty frogs. As she and Langly walk off arm-in-arm, he tosses over his shoulder, "Thanks again, Scully. Don't sweat it; she's in the best hands..." ....Oh, brother, Scully
regresses. xXx |
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