| Disclaimers in The
Date - Prologue...
The Date - Part 3 Dulles Airport Expressway >From the van's lumpy bench seat, in back, Scully reiterates for the third redundant time, "Look, Langly, stop beating yourself up about it." The special agent casts dubious eyes at him. "I should have gotten the anti-theft device fixed, but I kept putting it off." She pats his shoulder again, and notices he winces. Their eyes meet in the review mirror. He's in the throes of negotiating an easy switch into the far right hand lane to make the exit for United's terminal. "So just stop already, 'Kay? The Saturn's tagged with the Bureau. They'll locate it, no matter how long it takes to. The FBI always recovers its vehicles. The track record's amazing. So, to coin a phrase, be cool." "Sure," Langly says after a moment or so of deliberation. "Only, if I were you, I still wouldn't get my hopes up about seeing it again. Even as we speak, it may already be chopped up, or stripped clean down to the chassis for parts." Lislita angles around in the front seat and gives her cousin, sitting pretty, smack dab in the center of the springy seat, a warm smile. She's a lot more relieved now, than when she and Langly had trooped back to Scully's in the wee hours of this morning. Scully hadn't been as ticked off as they'd both feared, by their slinking in with only two hours to spare till the crack of dawn. "That's one of the things I adore so much about Langly, Dana," Lislita whizzes in, "he's always looking on the brighter side..." Her eyes are pari passu orbs of mischief. "Who, me?" "You've noticed that too, huh?" Scully tosses into the conversational frying pan. "The perennial paranoidal optimist. That's Langly." "Yo, watch that paranoid stuff. Want me to get a complex?" "*Get a complex*?' Since when hasn't it been full-blown?" Scully needles. "Wow...and I thought I had the cover-up down, man." Scully chuckles again. "Although, I must admit...when you guys hadn't shown up by three A.M., I was ready to summon the National Guard. So, I guess it's true what they say..." "What do THEY say?" Langly pitches, hyper-inquisitively. "Paranoia will destroy ya..." "I'll haveta remember that. He eases his grip on the steering wheel. "But, like don't forget...we were bookin' all the way back from Arlington. Wanna know how many buses it takes to get from there to your place?" Narrowly, he misses the bumper of an airport shuttle bus ahead of them. Lislita looks askance at him, smiling. He balloons his cheeks, then noisily deflates them. "Uh, not really," Scully assures, and does a time check with her wristwatch. "I'll take you at your tone that it's got to be some staggering figure." "Well, not exactly staggering, but it took four. That's kinda a lot, right?" "Why didn't you catch a cab?" "It wasn't happenin'.
Nobody wanted to stop. Maybe they had something weird against blonds." Scully
considers what he's just said. "It was fun; every step of the way. Now I can say I really had the grand tour," Lislita insists, without a hint of reservation, smacking him with the widest of grins. Langly, for a speedy second, removes his eyes from the roadbed. He shoots her an affectionate sideways glance, wishing oh, so very hard she wasn't leaving today. They'd talked up a storm about scads of things, but there was a lot more ground that had to be covered. Just not enough time; not nearly enough to bask in her fineness. The end of January was a long, iffy way off. Too much time for him to miss feeling her in his arms, and kissing her tender lips; her tender everything. Who knew if he'd even be able to get away then, if Y2K made everything go bust? Seeing her again might not be possible for ages....bummer! Something is definitely in the air, Scully judges, as she eyes them cagily, giving each other furtive peeks, speculating. She mandates that she won't label it love...but, she wouldn't be surprised though, and she sighs, studying the back of her cousin's smallish head. Lislita was....Langly this, and Langly that, never grabbing a wink of sleep for herself, as she kept going on and on about their event-filled day. He'd arrived with the van at about six-fifteen, because he'd promised her he'd drive her to the airport. How he'd managed to procure the vehicle, without the other Gunmen coming along for the ride, he hadn't said. "Trying real hard not to sound like a spoilsport here," Langly says. Then, to add serious leverage, he gives Lislita a visual tweak. "We sure as blazes could've done without being car theft victims." Playfully, she winks back at him. "Guess we should count ourselves lucky not being victims of a carjacking, though." "See. It's all in how you look at things," Scully tosses in. He is pulling them up in front of the frenetic United terminal. "I thought you were going to park..." "Yeah, me too. I got mixed-up and goofed," he says, sounding contrite. Mentally, he whips himself for getting the two off-ramp exits confused. "Sorry," he mutters. "Look, I'll plant my good-byes here. 'Bye." He reaches over, and makes a long-range grab for Lislita. She frowns, shaking her head in denial, and rears back from him. "What?" "I want you to come with me to the gate." "But there's just not enough time, Leese." "Yes there is!!" "No, there isn't!" Her frown jells into a full scale pout. Langly tries to make light of the whole thing. "Your face's gonna stay that way, despite its being beyond pretty. Next time, huh? We'll have plenty of time to do sayin' g'bye right..." ....Next time(?) Scully ponders, coming forward on the seat. "No, 'mi amor'..." Lislita pouts every bit as masterfully as Scully does; reknowned Bureau-wide, for her pouty facial gymnastics. "No--I don't want to leave you like this." "Check. I know the feeling..." "I want you right there for the final, final good-byes..." Pragmatically he clinches, "I hear ya, but, Scully's the one who should be there with you. Not me. She's *family*. C'mon now. Okay? You've got a lotta hustling to do. You still haveta get yourself checked in and miss your flight? You've got fifteen minutes to get yourself aboard that plane, so like I said, later--" "No!" Lislita insists, looking as ornery as a mule sinking in quicksand, not moving a muscle. "Unreal!" Langly stares at her, incredulous she is being so stubborn. "Like, please?" These Scully babes, man--phew--he reflects, as another two minutes are lost to history. "Hey, I've got an idea," Scully intervenes between the soon to be separated couple, with this sudden thorn between them. With a knowing look on her face, she smiles. Anyone with even twenty/forty vision can see they're really sold on each other. Her subconscious prods. No, I *don't* need to be reminded....Langly and my cousin? I'll really have to think about this.... Byers and Leese, I could see, maybe, but she and supergeek? What am I missing here? "Guys, how about this? I'll stay with the van." Langly switches around in his seat in a flash, preparing to re-open his mouth in protest. "It's okay, Langly. You go with Leese. Get her luggage squared away, then get her to the gate. *I'll* say my good-byes here." "But, Scully..." "But nothing, Langly." "Oh, thank you, Dana." Lislita flings herself at her cousin and hugs Scully for all she's worth. Through the shower of kisses, the traveler effuses, "I love you *so* much, 'primita.'" "That goes double for me, Cuz." "Are you sure, Scully?" Langly fires at the FBI agent who has her arms wrapped around her bouncing relative. "Yeah, I'm sure." "If you're carryin' your badge, you could flash it so they won't hassle ya about leaving the van unattended. Then we could all go." Scully sneers at the very notion of his suggestion. "Can't do that. I try to play by the rules as best I can. What if all FBI Agents flashed their badges around for unofficial reasons? Who'd take us seriously when there's a *real* emergency? What right do I have to inconvenience other folks?" "Good questions, but Mulder says--" Scully grimaces, and Langly shrinks in the seat. "Yeah, I know what Mulder says. He tells me often enough, when he thinks I'm being little Miss Rule Book. But now's not the time, nor place to get into Mulder's private fantasy world of procedural make-believe. Get her bag, Blondie, and hop to. That's an unofficial order!" "Like, I'm so gone..." The cousins exchange another brace of embraces, glad to have shared what time they'd had together. "I'll call tonight, Leese." "Think about taking a cruise real soon, Dana. Discuss it with Langly. We've already made tentative plans..." *That* raises both her eyebrows. Langly's face contorts a little; the being on pins and needles look he's got down pat. Scully watches her winsome cousin link arms with the lanky beanpole, who dutifully has the rollie in tow now, and who is saddled with unruly locks currently gallivanting in the stiff breeze. She shrugs. Leese and Langly? Stranger than any fiction I've ever read, or investigated.... She nods, when another novel thought hits.... I wonder if we Scullys could handle having a dyed-in-the-wool, conspiracy theory-loving, authentically eccentric hacker in the family? *That* would spark a rise out of 'Tia' Maggie's eyebrows too, and Bill would jet propel himself through the roof the way he does when I'm in Mulder's company. If time will tell....I'm certainly not going to....especially when it comes out that Langly and Mulder are very old friends.... Suddenly, a fleet-footed airport traffic attendant is vying for her attention, at the driver's side. Carrying a fire-red stop sign, he pre-emptorily tells her to move along. xXx Security
Gate Checkpoint "You're really gonna haveta book if you're gonna make it, girl! They're gonna leave without ya!" "No they won't--and I love you more! I'll call you as soon as I'm home." "Cool. Now get goin', or I'll carry you on board myself." "Ooooh, I'd like that, 'muchisimo.' Very much!" "You are wack, and so totally gorgeous, in more ways than the obvious. Man, I'm gonna miss you. Not seeing ya for so long's gonna be hard." "Ma'am, I'll need to see your ticket, please." "Oh, 'si', sure. Here it is..." She mashes her passage into the critical-looking woman's outstretched hand. "Purse on the conveyor, and step through this way," the automatous-sounding employee directs. Suddenly, Lislita's eyes are brimming with plentiful tears, as she turns from the x-ray machine to Langly. "I..." "Yo, none of those," he tells her firmly, but feels some wet 'weirdness' going on behind his glasses, as well. "We'll see each other again; real soon--promise. I'll be in Miami two months from now, before you really get to miss me. I swear." "Please, keep it moving, ma'am..." "I love you..." She looks back to him again, and runs the wrong way out of the metal detector, oblivious to the other perspective passengers jockeying to get to their gates. She molds herself to him one last time. Reluctantly, he has to peel her away. His cheeks are burning. They're the hub of causing a curious scene. He whispers into her shimmery hair, "Use my e-mail addy. Depending on whether or not--most likely *not*, 'cos the capability's still not there, you're able to receive 'em shipboard. I'll keep those e-mails comin'. Okay?" Too overcome by emotion, she can't speak. **FINAL BOARDING FOR FLIGHT 1013 NON-STOP TO MIAMI** "Go--git!" "I love you," she manages to choke out, finally. Her arms wreathe his neck for the last time. Langly separates himself from her in slow stages as he passes his thumb to and fro over the polka dot beauty mark hugging the right corner of her chin. "I love you too. I really do. We'll talk tonight..." In transfixion, he watches her streak down the wide terminal corridor; long auburn strands flying, her shoulder bag banging her every which way as she flies. Every few moments she turns back around and waves frantically. It's not until she reaches the gate proper, when she slows down. She throws him a kiss, whose motion threatened to throw her back out. When she waves again, he knows it's for the last time. He sniffs and flicks the fleshy base of his thumb over his nose. The ticket taker stationed at the point of flight entry accepts her proof of purchase with a professional smile. Lislita casts a final look in his direction...and then...she's gone... Sighing, Langly removes his glasses to dry off the moistened lenses. He mutters a curse, and thinks....knew this would happen....I *hate* these types of good-byes....they put me through the emotional wringer every time. After he sets his specs back in place, he srubs his stubbly cheeks with an open hand, still staring at the last place she was; missing her by leaps and bounds. He takes a few unthinking steps backward, getting a sense of her being very long gone; and it's only been less than two minutes so far. Her phone number, and Carnival's company e-mail address are stuck in his memory like hardened cement. Nothing short of his suffering severe trauma to the head will bring on his forgetting anything about her. He's about to turn away, but decides to look back one last time. What the!!!! He's seeing things; that's got to be it. It can't be--he's still wearing his glasses. Eyes playing tricks? Very easy to think so from this distance, but no--she's coming back. She's tearing back; exactly the same way she did when she went! She's running away from where she'd just gone. Before he can think that it's his mind playing tricks on him, not his eyes, he hears her proclaim after slamming into him, "I can't, 'mi amor.' Not like this; not right now. Now, I need to be with you." Then she's hugging him tight, her head resting atop his shoulder, as her rollie tips over, against his leg. "But, you can't just ditch your commitment," Langly gently reminds her, crushing her against himself; she filling his heart, not just his arms. "Won't you be in deep shi--uh trouble for not showing up? Your contract..." Lislita eases out of his arms to look up into his bemused face; her eyes steeped in smoldering mischief, fueling her passion. "Will I *be* in trouble?" She makes her lips one with his, then after the torid kiss of desire, soughs into them, "I'm *in* deep trouble...already." Langly nods in full accord, having considerable difficulty focusing clearly. He has, however, no trouble deciphering her meaning. He makes room for her on cloud nine... Nuzzling her nose with his, he says, "Yeah, me too, only this is the kind of trouble I've been dreamin' 'bout for a long, long time..." "Dana will think I'm crazy." Langly laughs in-between the little kisses he's planting on her forehead. "Well, she already knows *I* am. C'mon, let's show her how crazed we can be *together*..." xXx |