Disclaimer: Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, the X-Files, and associated characters are property of David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Chris Carter, Ten-Thirteen Productions and Fox Broadcasting Corporation. They are used without permission and no copyright infringement is meant. Any elements not recognized as being taken from the show copyright Christina Shuy. Comments and other things sent to cshuy@netcom.com are much appreciated. Rating: PG; Spoilers: Umm... only faint ones, even for "Contact" Category: MSR, though non-shippers can read it too. Except maybe the end. Summary: Mulder and Scully *finally* go see "Contact" and also discover a few things about themselves and each other. Note: This is it... The finale of the Out To The Movies series. Well, at least for this summer... *giggle*. Hope you have all enjoyed it. It's been a nice ride for me. Out To The Movies V: "We Are Not Alone" by Christina Shuy cshuy@netcom.com September 27, 1997 Saturday, 2:00pm EDT The phone rang. A hand reached over and picked it up. "Scully." "Hey, Scully, it's me." "Hey, Mulder, what's up? Another case?" "Nope. Was just wondering if you wanted to go see 'Contact' with me. I'm at the theatre and they have a showing at 4:00pm. Great way to beat the boredom." There was an unspoken smile. Scully grinned. "Sure, I'd love to go!" "Okay, I'll get two tickets, then I'll pick you up in about half an hour. What would you like me to bring for dinner?" "Hmmm... how about one of those big, messy cheesesteak sandwiches?" Mulder laughed. "Woman after my own heart." "And stomach, and..." They giggled into the phones. The nonverbal communication even worked when they weren't face to face. "I'll be there in half an hour." "Okay. I'll see you then." Mulder was nothing if not prompt. Half an hour after the phone call, he was at Scully's door. Dana greeted him with a bright smile, and they both walked over to the dining table. After they made their way to the theatre and found their seats, they set the large tub of popcorn between them and hung onto their sodas... rootbeer for Mulder and iced tea for Scully. The movie began, and the opening credits were of dark blue lettering on a white background. Done in dead silence. "Wow... that's quite an effect." Mulder whispered, his breath tickling the hair on Scully's neck. She nodded, eyes still glued to the screen. The scene switched after the title of the movie was shown. It was a picture of the earth, rotating about on its axis and there was a slowly building noise... a *lot* of noise. Radio signals. The shot pulled back... farther and farther, faster and faster, until the only thing anyone watching could see were the streaks of starlight brought on by the effect. Suddenly, the shot pulled away and morphed into the shape of a human eye. The shot continued to pull away to show a young girl's face. "CQ, CQ..." the little girl's voice called. Dana released the breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding. It had been an extraordinary opening to the movie. "Looks like I'm going to need a bigger antenna." 8-year old Ellie Arroway declared, studying her ham radio set. The movie flashed forward at least twenty years. The setting was most certainly familiar to both Mulder and Scully. "Wow! Arecibo!" Mulder whispered loudly. The shot panned back to see Jodie Foster in the role of the grown up Ellie Arroway. "Looks like she got that bigger antenna." Scully murmured, brushing the back of Mulder's hand with her fingertips. The audience was introduced to David Drumlin, played by Tom Skerritt. At the moment of introduction, he was busy putting down the work of a younger scientist. "What an asshole." Scully muttered to herself, remembering all too well what some of *her* professors had been like. Moments later, Drumlin turned his attention on Arroway and began belitting her efforts to discover if life existed on other worlds. At that moment, Scully felt a great kinship to the man sitting next to her, holding onto her hand. She could also feel him shaking slightly. Apparently some of Drumlin's comments to Arroway and members of her team had hit too close to home. "Asshole." Ellie Arroway muttered as Drumlin turned away. "Glad she agrees with me," Dana mumbled before turning her attention back to her partner and best friend. "Mulder, are you okay?" "I... uh... yeah, sure. I'm fine." he shrugged and wiped at his tears. "Liar. Besides, that's my line, remember?" His only response was to scoot down in his seat and lean his head on her shoulder. Onscreen, it was dark. Ellie was seated on the hood of her car, earphones in place, listening intently. Suddenly, there was a grating/screeching sound and Arroway's eyes popped open. "Contact!" Mulder murmured, and squeezed Scully's hand. He felt a slight brush of lips against his cheek and when he dared to look, she'd already returned her attention to the movie. However, there was a smile on her face. Mysteriously, Ellie was summoned to a meeting with someone. That someone turned out to be H. R. Hadden. He smiled less than benevolently at his beneficiary as he granted her some of the answers she had been seeking, but not before revealling just how much he had been keeping an eye on her. "Is it just me, or does he remind you of Cancerman?" Scully murmured to Mulder. Mulder nodded, "He does..." The transmissions were deciphered and found to be a machine of some sort. Capable of carrying a passenger. Hearings were held to see who would get to go. Included on the list: David Drumlin and Eleanor Arroway. Ellie's final question during her hearing: "Do you believe in God?" Her answer: "There is no definitive proof either way about the existence of God." "I wonder... what does God have to do with who gets to go on the trip by the Machine?" Scully wondered. "Scully, you're Catholic..." Mulder answered. "That doesn't mean I'd answer that question. Besides, personal beliefs are no one's business and to make the judgment of who gets to go based on that... it's not right." When the decision of the committee was to pick David Drumlin to go in the machine plans which had been sent by the aliens, both Mulder and Scully felt the same type of outrage. Drumlin had been one to pick out the program Ellie had been running to eliminate. Much like they Thanxthemselves had been singled out, but not nearly as bad. "Does this mean 95% of the world is suffering from delusions?" Palmer Joss, portrayed by Matthew McConaughey, asked, standing in front of Ellie after she'd been informed of the decision for Drumlin to go. "That's not what she said!" Scully protested. It was clear by the expression on Ellie Arroway's face that what Scully said had been *exactly* what she was thinking. In the end, it didn't matter. After a suicide bomber carried by a more fanatical Christian blew up the first Machine and Drumlin, there was announced to be a second machine. This time in Japan. Ellie was picked to go. Scully felt the excitement almost as if she had been the one chosen to go on the trip. "She did it... she *really* did it." Scully smiled to herself, and felt Mulder squeeze her hand. He was happy too, she could tell. Once the voyage started, the partners found themselves spellbound by the experience. Neither said a word as they shared the experience on the screen. Both were amazed. Ellie was meeting, onscreen, with the Non-Terrestrial Intelligence who had taken the likeness of her long-deceased father. It was 'the other end' of the track travelled by the Machine pod. "You must have downloaded my memories while I was unconscious. My father, the stars, even Pensacola..." Ellie whispered, remembering the radio contact she'd had with another ham in Pensacola when she was a little girl. "They're out there, Scully... I *know* they are." Mulder's breath tickled her cheek. "I want to believe, Mulder, I want to believe." she smiled back. "I was talking about her video recorder, and the fact that it recorded 18 *hours* of static." The head of the National Space Agency told the former National Security Advisor who had spent the past several hours belittling Arroway's experience. Earlier, Ellie had claimed that she had been 'out and about' for 18 hours even though it appeared to observers on Earth that nothing had happened. "Dear God, that sounds too familiar." Mulder murmured. "That I'll agree with." Scully nodded. "I *knew* they knew more than they were saying!" They walked out of the theatre together, unconsciously still holding hands, each lost in their own thoughts. The stars in the Virginia sky were just starting to make themselves apparent. Mulder took a deep breath. It was now or never. "Hey, Scully, since it's Saturday and all that, would you like to go for a drive with me? I don't feel like going home just yet.... I want to spend some time off-work with you." Dana smiled. "Sure. I'd be glad to go for a drive with you." When they finally pulled into the parking lot of a little, out-of-the-way place called Miss Molly's Diner, it was late, and the moon was just a little sliver in the sky. "You know, I'm glad we decided to do this... it was a good movie and all, but it was long, and that steak sandwich we had before the movie seems like a lifetime ago." Mulder said, slipping into the booth. "Yeah, that movie was intense." "Wasn't it, though? ANyway, let's go in... I'm hungry." "Mulder, it wasn't just your stomach growling during the movie. Mine was too." Dana grinned at her partner, who felt more and more like... well, like her best friend and the one person she would want to spend the rest of her life with. "I guess stomachs are like great minds... they think alike." Mulder couldn't help but laugh. "What can I get for you both?" A fair-haired waitress smiled at them. "Tuna fish sandwich, a slice of cherry pie and coffee." Scully smiled. "You know you're going to be up all nigth with that coffee, Scully." "Yeah... well, we don't have a case tomorrow anyway. I just want to stay up all night and talk." "Grilled chesse sandwich for me, please. And a rootbeer float." Scully looked in amazement as Mulder handed the waitress his menu. "I'll get this to you as quickly as I can." the waitress smiled, walking away. Mulder turned to look at his partner and best friend. "Must be fate, Mulder..." Scully grinned at him. "Wasn't in the mood for iced tea anyway." he winked back. Dana grinned. "Mulder-" "Scully, about calling me 'Mulder'... can we try out 'Fox'?" "Well, if I'm going to be calling you 'Fox', you should call me 'Dana'... all of this one sided first-name business is tedious." "I agree... Dana." He seemed a little uneasy, but, then, he didn't often want to admit something he had been feeling for a long time. "Going out to see movies with you... it's been really fun." "For me, too, Fox." she smiled. "So, Dana, what did you think of the movie?" "I felt it was Oscar calibre. Too bad the Academy won't think so. It was different from the book, but sometimes that can be a good thing." "You read the book? I thought you weren't into Science Fiction." "I'm not usually, but I wanted to see what Sagan thought. Not only that, it was on the course reading list I was given when I was in college." "Ah, the truth will out." Mulder smiled. "It usually does." It was then that the waitress returned with their food and drink. As they finished off what they had ordered, Dana noticed that her partner was watching her closely, though the look in his eyes was familiar, yet different, as though something had changed. "Mulder, is something wrong?" she inquired. "Scully... Dana... I... I want you to know that..." Mulder was clearly having difficulty completing a thought. "Fox Mulder, I want you to know that I have had a lot of fun going to the movies with you. In fact, there is no one else I'd rather have gone with." "Oh, Scully, I love you." he said, then froze, afraid he was making a fool of himself. Dana Scully only smiled. "I love you too, Mulder. Come here..." As he leaned forward in the booth, Scully stood up as much as she could and kissed him. At last. - The End - Note: I'm sorry guys, but "Contact" was not something I felt something I wrote could do justice to. I've tried to put at least a few scenes in, but, that's all... I'd recommend going to see the movie. "The Truth is Out There. Trust No One."- from "The X-Files" Pursuing a BS degree(Electrical Engineering)-EE 332(Systems Analysis)-Su97 "In the moment that you think you can't, you'll discover that you can." - Celine Dion - "Power of the Dream" "Let's get Dangerous!" - Darkwing Duck. Looking for work and a place to live... somewhere in the SanFran Bay Area.