TITLE: Rain Delay
AUTHOR: Samiam (Sampiper@aol.com)
RATING: G
ARCHIVE: Just tell me where to send the 
child support payments
FEEDBACK:  Seriously now, I'm on both 
knees here ... I've gotten 3 total from the 
last 2 stories I did ... Have I lost my touch?
SPOILERS: none
KEYWORDS: Post ep - The Truth, MSR, 
Mulder POV
DISCLAIMERS: Um yeah, you know what 
this is and you know the drill.
THANKS: Dallas, as always and for not 
screaming at me when she realized I was 
writing this in an email with no back-up on 
a tempermental computer that likes to drop 
me every 20 minutes ... Suicide writing folks, 
how's that for guts?

****************

I remember the first baseball game I ever 
saw in person.

I was 6 and as a reward for completing 
my first official year of school, my father 
took me to Boston on an overcast day in 
May to watch the Red Sox battle "Those 
Damn Yankees."  Dad was very much a 
BoSox fan.

Walking into Fenway was like walking 
into a dream.  I couldn't believe how awe-
inspiring the place was or how huge the 
great green monster really was.

My Dad went all out that day.  He bought 
me a ball cap and pennant.  Taught me 
how to keep score and eat a hot dog 
"like a real man" and even caught a foul
tip that came flying right at us.

For 7 innings we watched the Red Sox 
pound on the Yankees in a persistent 
drizzle that wasn't really enough to soak 
you, just enough to let you know it was
raining.  Then, at the top of the 8th inning 
with the Red Sox leading 5-0 and the 
Yankees just coming up to bat, someone 
unzipped the heavens and the rain came down.

The umpires immediately called a rain 
delay and groundskeepers rushed out to 
cover the field while the rest of the people
in the stands scrambled for shelter.  My
 father placed his hand on my shoulder 
as we stood in the concourse and told me 
the game was over anyway, no reason to 
stay so we might as well go home.  

I begged him to stay, I was having such 
a good time even with the rain that I didn't 
want it to end.  He smiled and said we 
would stay for 20 minutes to see if they 
would start play again then we would leave.

Almost 20 minutes to the second, the rain 
stopped, the sun came out and that familiar 
cry of "Play Ball" rang through the stadium.  
And in the next two innings, I was witness 
to one of the greatest turnarounds ever.  It 
was like the delay was all the Yankees 
needed to catch their second wind as they 
rallied for 4 runs in the 8th and then tacked 
on another 2 in the 9th to win the game.  
Against what seemed to be insurmountable 
odds, the Yankees pulled together, snatched 
victory from the jaws of defeat and instantly 
became heroes to an impressionable boy.

As my Dad and I walked out of the stadium 
after the game, he grabbed my hand and 
told me "Don't worry, son.  There is nobility 
even in defeat.  The Sox will get those Yanks 
tomorrow."

For years after Samantha's disappearance, 
I hung on to that memory as one of the 
happiest of my life but it is only now, standing 
in a dark motel room and faced with my own 
insurmountable odds, that the full meaning of 
his words come back to me.

I part the curtain slightly to stare out the 
window and watch the rain slide down the 
glass.  It's not long before I hear Scully 
wake and walk to me.  I don't turn to her, 
merely raise my left arm to lay it across 
her waist as she wraps her arms around 
me and rests her head on my chest to 
stare out the window with me.

We stand like that for a while before she
raises her eyes to my face and speaks.

"What are you thinking?" she whispers.

"That there is nobility even in defeat." I 
answer, my eyes never leaving the window.

"We aren't beaten, Mulder.  Not yet." She
pulls away slightly and reaches up to bring 
my face to meet her gaze.  "As long as we 
are still here, together, we can fight.  And 
if we can fight, we can win."

I pull her back to me and kiss her lightly 
before taking her left hand in mine and 
pressing my lips to it.

"You're right." I tell her before turning back 
to the window in time to see the rain ease 
and sun start to crest the hills in the 
distance.  "The game isn't over, the umpires
just called a rain delay."