Scully was flipping through the TV Guide when the phone rang.  Not removing her eyes from the listing of her favorite Friday night show, ‘Homicide', to read the highlights blurb, she reached over absently, and picked it up.  She pressed the receive and said, "Hello?"  Now, if this was Mulder, tonight WASN'T a good one for him to come over.  They'd done nothing but argue, fuss and fume, well, she had done much of the fuming, all day at the office.  She was none too thrilled with him right now.  "Who's this?" she said, hearing the rudeness in her voice.

"Uh...oh...uh, hi, Scully.  This is Langly."

It's Langly, she thought <be nicer>.  Mellowing her tone a fraction, she said, "Oh, hi.  How are you?"

"Like, I'm cool..."

"Great.  By any chance, did I happen to leave my green felt pen at the lab the other day?"

"No, I haven't seen it, sorry."

"Oh, guess I have really lost it.  So, what's up?"  She heard him clear his throat quite extensively, so quickly she asked, "Is everything all right?"

"Stuff's fine, Mulderbu--uh, Scully."  Was this really a good idea?, he wondered, hesitating.  Was he treading on sacred ground?  Crossing a boundary he had no business crossing?  Vegas was Vegas.  This was D.C. again, and he wasn't the big, bad jackpot winner, just a boyish man who lived inside himself too much.  <Quit freakin', brainiac; just ask the chick before you die of suspense>  "I was wondering...what I mean is...do you think you'd want to see the new 'Star Wars' with me?  'The Phantom Menace'?"

Scully set the TV Guide aside, wide-eyed, and repeated his question.  "With you?"  And then added, "Now?"

"Yeah."  He swallowed a dry, scratchy swallow.  "If you're not busy, or something, that is..."  <Whose idea was this, man?  Mine?  Uh oh, a flashback!  Maybe she was right.  Maybe I should have my head examined. All that acid I dropped, and weed I smoked in high school and college is finally takin' its toll on my dingy grey matter>

"Hello, Langly, are you still there?"

"Yeah, man, I'm still here.  See, I asked Mulder if he wanted to go with me tonight, but he said he's not inta 'Star Wars'.  Says those movies are for little kids and terminal acne cases."  The disappointment in his voice was clearly evident.

Scully rolled her eyes, thinking that, that sounded exactly like something insensitive Mulder would say.  He could be so thoughtless.  She felt herself bristling.

"Are you inta 'Star Wars'?  Or are you like Mulder?  You think they're dumb kiddie flicks?"

"Well, if they're for young children, then I'm ten years old.  Don't let Mulder's vapid comments bring you down.  His steady diet of porn and gory horror films are all he knows.  I LOVE 'Star Wars'!  Princess Leia was--wait, what do I mean was?--STILL is one of my role models!  I've got the special editions of the trilogy as part of my video collection."  Langly's heart skipped a beat.  She took a breath and continued, "So, in answer to your question concerning if I feel the way Mulder does, in two words, NO WAY!  Uh...when does the movie start?"

Langly smiled, and the butterflies in his stomach mercifully toned down their willy-nilly flight.  "The last show's at midnight.  Too late?"  He bit his upper lip.  Scratching her head, Scully thought about it.  He sighed, and clicked the mouse absent-mindedly on his monitor's screen, just for the distraction.  "Yeah, it is.  Scrub it then, Scully.  I just thought...well, maybe you'd like to check it out with me.  Sorry I--"

"Well, I am somewhat tired..." Her voice trailed off and she looked at her watch.  "Where are you?"

"Where else, Scully?  In the lab.  Frohike and Byers took off for Cape Cod early this morning to investigate reports of spontaneously-occuring, toxic red tides at Martha's Vineyard.  I'm holding down the fort because we're expecting one of our contacts, a Brazilian stationed in the rain forest, to stop by with some time-sensitive data at around midday tomorrow."

"'Kay, listen, I'll be there to pick you up in, say, thirty minutes, which will make it about ten twenty-five.  That's plenty of time, don't you think?  You have tickets already?"

He nodded.  "Straight up.  I stood on line for five hours this morning to get 'em, after 'Hike and By' left.  I bought a ticket for Mulder, 'cos I thought he'd be a sure thing."  <Exceptional!  I'm going to see 'The Phantom Menace' with the coolest chick I know!  Oh yeah, Oh yeah. Pay back for all those times I cleaned my plate>

"Where's it playing?"

"At the new ten-plex, near the mall over here.  It's about a mile."

Scully rose from her couch and glided over to the VCR.  As she searched for a suitable video cassette, she said, "I'm on my way.  I just have to set my VCR for 'Homicide'.  That'll only take a sec."

Langly grinned and declared, "Sounds like a plan."  He felt a surge of welcomed relief rush over him.  He hadn't bombed out.  She actually wanted to go with him.  She was going.  <Maybe I'm not such a 'loser' after all, Frohike>

Seizing a practically blank tape, she said, "See you in a jiff, Hackerman."

"I'll be waiting for you outside our place, Scully.  See you then."

He smiled even larger when she insisted, "Dana, okay?  Call me Dana, Langly.  I think being on a first name basis is in order since Las Vegas, huh?"

"Whatever you say works for me, Scul--I mean Dana."

<Dana Langly?  Now that's a mind blower, man, the way she said it, like that.  A real trip minus the crashing afterwards> His eyes widened, and he heard himself say softly into the phone, "Only if you call me Ringo."

The short, ring on practically every finger, Beatle popped into her mind again, and she grinned, but didn't laugh.  "Ringo it is, Langly."

************************
11:40 p.m.
The New Capitol Theatres

The huge theatre was packed out.  Even though The Movie was playing in two additional theatres in the multi-plex, every single seat was filled, which was why Scully sat with her hand resting on Langly's seat, saving it for him.  He was at the concession stand buying movie food.  They had arrived at the multi-plex ten minutes ago, and had been very fortunate to get such neat seats, two together; on the aisle, a smidgen back from the middle of the theatre.  Langly had told her that he couldn't sit too close to the screen because, if he did, after about an hour into a film, his temples would begin to throb.  This movie was too important to get a stupid headache.  Scully had said she was fine anywhere.  The only thing that got on her nerves, and gave her a naggy headache was noisy, inconsiderate people you had to 'shush' for them to be quiet.

She was surprized that she wasn't feeling so tired and headachy now, in spite of the difficult day with her partner.  Why was Mulder becoming such an obstinate pain in her butt lately?  It was like having two jobs.  Working the X-Files, while needing to stroke, cajole and, sometimes, just to keep the peace and end the fruitless, maddening bickering, flat out give in.  Swallowing proven facts, and dismissing valid findings in order to stifle his constant whining, and mitigate his pathetic sulking was all too often becoming the rule of the day.  She considered whether bothersome Diana, his galling ex, was lurking around in the background somewhere, fouling him up.  Making him think she still really cared about him, or more likely, manipulating him into thinking that getting herself re-assigned to the X-Files would solve all his problems.  His biggest one being Scully.

<Ooooh, Mulder, why can't you accept it?  We made a mistake, we didn't commit a crime, getting intimately involved with each other.  Working together and then, over time, falling in love.  Falling in love?  Is that what happened?  Or was it more like falling into co-dependency?  Cultivating, a real bad habit?  I don't even know how to answer that, anymore, and I doubt very much you could either.  Where along the line did you stop being honest?>

Her head started to hurt then, so she closed her eyes, and forced herself to think:  'Star Wars...'Star Wars'...'A Long Time Ago, In A Galaxy Far, Far Away'...concentrate.  The beloved, opening strains of the Movies' world famous theme, which had the innate ability to transport one from the here and now, to the Lucas then and there, assailed the embattled stronghold of her mind's eye, and she sighed.  Accordingly, a truce was reached whose terms went...

<No more thinking about moody, mopey Mulder for the rest of the night. Got that, honey?>

"Dana?  Are you asleep?"  A soft, monotonal voice full of concern, spoke.

Her eyes sprang open at full attention to behold Langly standing in the aisle, bearing a jumbo-sized tub of buttered popcorn, with lots of extra butter, a bottle of Poland Spring water for her, and a giant- sized Coke for him.  Sticking out of one jacket pocket was a box of Goobers for them to share, and out of his other pocket, a bag of Twizzlers and Bon-Bons, just for him...although, if Scully wanted some of either, he would never deny her.  Not with those kooky, champagne- sparkling eyes of hers.  Talk about serious; deep, man, deep.

She smiled, taking the popcorn from him and settling it in her lap, between her legs; then her water.  "I never knew you were such a junk food junkie.  Thanks for my water and...did you get my little snowcaps?"

"Right here."  He sat down, handed her the box of bite-sized goodies and smirked.  "Try just plain junkie--ex-junkie, now.  I've done almost every drug, presecription included, on the planet."  He took a long swallow of his Coke to lower its level to prevent his spilling any of it on her.  "Ahhh!  That's good, man.  I love Coke--the soft drink, the soft drink.  I'm maybe the only guy I know who can get a buzz off this bubbly-ubbly stuff."

Scully arched her eyebrow.  "Really?" she intoned, taken by complete surprise.  "You did drugs, Ringo?  Uh, may I call you just Ring?  You're much too tall and blond to be the namesake of the beloved ringed one, besides, you don't even wear any rings.  Do you mind?"

"No prob.  My mom, a mainline Beatles fan, had a sense of humor.  That's where I get it from.  Hey, do what ya feel, and don't look so shocked about my doin' drugs.  It's not like I don't look the part.  I was such a hophead, it's a sheer miracle I manage semi-rational thought at all."  He threw Scully a teasing look.  "What?  I don't seem bent to you?"  His face had gone from jovial looking to deadpan grave.  "Video games salvaged my life!"

Scully's jaw dropped and she popped a few kernels of her favorite snack food into her mouth, never taking her eyes from his countenance.  "No more bent than the rest of us, I've begun to realize.  Although, I'd say you're unique.  What time frame are we talking here?  How long ago, and when did you stop?"

"Who said I stopped?"

Scully gave him a probing look.  "You did.  Just now.  Remember?  Or is remembering a problem for you?"  She accepted the Goobers he then handed to her.

"Puttin' ya on, man.  I'm clean; drugs are a crappy road to nowhere--if you consider death somewhere...I started in high school, did 'em all through M.I.T., and Grad School, those were some freaky, sick days.  I'm thirty-six now, so, yeah, I did 'em a stupid long time.  Like you know the commercial...'Say this egg's your brain," he encouraged, pointing to the imaginary one in his palm.  "'This is your brain on drugs.'"  Then, he smashed his right palm into his left.  "BAAAAM!"  He feigned hurting himself, then said, "'Get the message?"  He lifted his right hand and shook it.  "Sorry for getting the yolk and runny part all over you, and the popcorn..."

Scully started cracking up.  "You're a riot, Hackerman.  Okay, so you're bent, but you're funny bent, not scary, rampaging psycho bent.  That's the bent Mulder and I chase, sometimes.  Not good."  She reached down to get the Coke, he'd set on the floor, and took a sip.  "I've never done drugs, not even a hit of Maryjane, but maybe I could get some kind of buzz from this stuff tonight too.  So, how did you get off junk?"

After he took back his Coke, when she handed it to him, he looked at her and said unflinchingly, "Seven, solid years of brass tacks rehab at Betty Ford's.  Thank God I got the help I needed before it was too late, man.  It wasn't only vid games that saved me, it was stone cold therapy.  I was one sick puppy.  The last time I free based coke, the real thing, I almost died."

Scully never blinked once, she just kept feeding herself popcorn, as though she were watching an engrossing movie, which happened to be seated beside her, at present.

Seeing that he had caused the conversation to get too 'heavy,' he pointed to the popcorn, opened his mouth, and pantomimed that he wanted her to throw some kernels into it.  Deciding to indulge him, she started flinging popcorn into his mouth.  Suddenly, he began coughing when a kernel went down his windpipe instead of his throat.  He started turning very red, very quickly.

"Quick!  Drink some Coke!" Scully urged.  "No--water's better!"  She unscrewed the top from the bottle and carefully poured the liquid down his throat.

"Yo, yo, it's cool, Da--"  The hacking coughs persisted, so she made him drink more until finally he began to breathe normally again.  "Na.  Phew, I must be losing my touch.  I've never nearly choked on popcorn before.  It's the yolk the popcorn's covered with.  I hate egg yolks."

"Langly--that was very dumb of me; throwing popcorn down your throat.  You're a bad influence, you know."

He nodded his head fiercely then.  "Yeah, sure, but I kinda get off on that.  And, hey, it wasn't dumb, it was fun.  You got a problem with wack?"  Then, gently he reminded her, "I'm Ring now.  Langly got left in the lab.  Remember?"

"Yeah, sure...uh, wack?"

"Wack, as in wacko, you know.  Crazy.  Me."

Scully smiled at him warmly, recalling the revealing Las Vegas night she'd spent with him, and the great time she'd had.  "Langly wack is cool," she said with a positiveness in her voice that forced him to smile back.

"All right!  It's starting, man."

Looking around her anxiously, she said excitedly, "The movie?  Oh boy!"

He shook his head.  "Nah, nah layin' some Langlyspeak on me.  You could end up talking my lingo fluently.  You're off to a bold start."

"Would that be so bad?  I like the way you put things.  It's...it's uh, different, I mean, basically I get the gist of what you're saying."

Snickering, he took another long drink of Coke, studying her for a moment, and once he'd finished drinking, he told her to have the rest.  "My buzz is alive an' well.  Ya know, in my old junkie days, I came to these movies so freakin' spaced, I was in Leia's holograph, I jettisoned with the droids down to Tatooine and met the Jawas, and sand people right along with 'em.  I stood beside Luke when he chose Threepio and R2, I ran away with R2 to find Kenobe, I rode with Luke, Obi-Wan, and the droids to Mos Eisley, I sat next to Han in the cantina while he made the deal to take them to Alderaan.  Bla-zee, bla-zaa.  For 'Empire', it was worse because I was high almost all the time, and doing all kinds of hard-core junk then.  Man, I was so messed up..."

He sat looking blankly into space a moment or so, and then continued, "With 'Empire', I actually left my body for the fifteen times I saw the flick, and was in every scene; EVERY scene.  I--I kissed the princess first, not Han, man.  With 'Jedi', it wasn't as intense, because I was doing fewer drugs then, kinda cold turk on my own; I didn't succeed tryin' to quit freestyle, but it was pounding on me I had to do something or cease to exist, like soon.  'Sides, those Ewoks really creeped me out, so I made it my mission to avoid 'em."

Placing her hand to his forehead, she said, "You really are buzzed aren't you?"  She bit her lower lip and nodded.  "You're talking up a storm.  Why I ever thought you were the quiet one, whose shadow makes more noise, is a wonder to me."

"You got that right.  I start loosening up when I get to know a person better.  I'm feeling real good.  Want to know why?"  Scully kept regarding him with patient eyes and a little smile twisting on her moist lips.

"Why?"

"'Cause you're here with me."  He looked away for a second, hoping he wasn't talking too loudly, and also hoping he wasn't being obnoxious.  Hesitating for less than a moment, he knew he had to say it.  Looking her squarely in the face again, he said, "Maybe if I had known you earlier in my life, I wouldn't have felt the compulsion to become a walking pharmacy most of my waking hours.  You're good for my head."

Scully blinked, but unlike he, she didn't look away.  A captivating smile lit up her relaxed face, and she touched his hand.  "I think you're very refreshing for mine..."  He blushed then, much as he had in Vegas after she'd kissed him on the cheek goodnight.  He was about to say something in reply, when the house lights started to dim.

"Oh, man, don't freak, but it's starting, Dana.  Here we go!"

"I'm so excited!"  She clasped his hand and squeezed it, and Langly vigorously returned her squeeze.

"If the web pages and trailers are big tip-offs, the special effects are gonna blow us all away!  Awesome, man!!  May the Force be with us!" he shouted in a loud, animated voice.

"It already is," Scully assured, keeping his hand in hers.  "We're here seeing 'Star Wars' together, and becoming closer.  I think it's a good thing.  I really don't have many friends; close or otherwise.  I consider Mulder my closest friend, but I'd like to be one of yours too, Ring.  I like you.  A lot."

"Hey, I like you too," he said, nodding, glad she'd said so first.  "You really want us to be friends?  I always sorta thought you couldn't stand us 'Three Stooges'; like we were too lame to bother with, too far out there being nerds and geeky paranoids.  And that the only reason you had to deal being we've got Mulder in common.  Like we're not living, breathing people who've got honest to goodness feelings and all, so no stretch here--write 'em off.  'Hike, By' and me know we're perpendicularly quirky, but we're harmless.  Least we try to be.  We're dead serious about trying to make a difference about what goes down in the lives of our fellow citizens, and blow the lid off what needs blowing off.  That's why Mulder is the coolest dude we know!  He thinks the way we do, and gets nothin' but grief for his trouble.  He talks the talk; walks the walk."

<Definitely NOT shy.  He's kind of like Pandora's box.  Whoa, boy, whoa>  "Mulder does have his moments," she had to acknowledge.  "I apologize, Ringo, for the way I've acted in the past.  Let's make believe we're getting to know each other for the first time.  How's that?  Hello, my name is Dana K. Scully.  Can we talk?  I'll be fair..."

"Sounds radical.  Yeah, I can get behind that.  Mulder, By' and 'Hike are my closest real buds; my virtual reality hangs are viable up to a point.  Far as chicks go, there aren't any chicks I consider my close friends.  Chicks get all weird and wired when it comes to being a friend, or a main squeeze or beyond.  I can't get inta all that.  Too 'Twilight Zone' for me.  If you wanna be my friend, Dana, hop aboard."  He squeezed her hand again.  "Since Vegas, you've been good for my head, like I said.  That, I can blade with."  He settled back into his seat, with her hand in his lap and got real quiet.  As the first brace of coming attractions rolled, he whispered, "This is the first, first-run 'Star Wars' I've ever seen not being totally strung out on drugs.  But, I'll still be able to say I saw the 'Phantom Menace' when I was 'high,' though.  High on Dana Scully.  The coolest 'high' I've ever had, man."

"You, you are soooo wack," she said through a giggle.  She wondered whether Mulder was privy to any of this stuff, he was freely spewing at her.  Who was this smooth talking devil, she marveled.  Boy, you think you know a person.  "Talk about being a trip, man.  You're, you're uh...outta sight."  She frowned.  "Uh, that's somewhat dated, isn't it?  See, I'm not that much of a hip person.  I'm just four-cornered Dana Katherine."  Then she broke up into raucous, carefree laughter, the kind when you know you're being silly, but you just don't care.  Langly reached over and tousled her hair.

"My third year at M.I.T., every other word was man, that's 'out-of-sight this, or 'out-of-sight, that.' It got so nobody wanted to have any kind of conversation with me; serious or otherwise.  Make sure that doesn't happen to you.  Certain expressions have a way of latching on and not letting go.  That's why I try to keep my tongue guessing.  I've thought about reconstructing my web page by adding my own dictionary.  'Langlyspeak Made Easy, The Unabridged Version'.  For those who dare to communicate by the seat of their pants."

The two teenaged girls behind them told Scully to 'shush' or they'd get the manager, when, from out of the blue, she gave an explosive belly laugh.  Trying to pipe down, but finding it extremely hard to do so, she felt like a teenager herself again.  She turned around and profusely apologized.  "I'm sorry, girls, it's HIS fault.  You know guys..."  The pretty girls nodded that indeed they did.  Scully gave Langly a good-natured slug, but, clearly, she saw that he was moving well into 'Star Wars' zone-out mode now, as the familiar fanfare swelled and lulled at the same time.

She sighed then, and contentedly thought, <I wonder what Mulder would think if he could see me now, actually having a second fun time out with, as he calls Langly, abductee bait?>

"Thanks for asking me to see this with you, Ring," she said in a tiny, wispy voice.

"Nope.  Thank you, for making the midnight scene here with me like this on such no notice.  You're a stand out act.  I'll see you after we arrive safely back in our galaxy.  Bye now..."

Scully could feel her laughter building again.  "See ya," she managed to say quietly. "Just make sure you don't get lost."

He turned to look at her, and whispered in a very moving voice, "No sweat.  I'll know when to come home, since there's this royally blazing new living, breathing friend of the female persuasion who's waiting for me...it wouldn't be getting off to a good start if I kept her waiting..." He eased his neck against the lip of the seat, and blissfully departed into The Movie.

As the opening scene of 'Episode One' began, Scully's look and feel of enchantment remained on her face and in her soul, and would do so throughout The Movie.  She was glad tomorrow was Saturday.  No having to get up early and haul herself into the office to wrestle a mongoose with killer eyes; literally, or the beast who wolfed down Manhattan.  Uh-uh-uh; you were strictly forbidden to go there--so Keep Away!  She sensed, by the manner in which the film was opening, that it was going to be a heady, action-packed ride way into the wee hours of the morning.  She eased back into her seat and joined Langly, without a moment's hesitation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
End

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