Alternate Scenes

Cut and Alternate Snippets

This is a scene I was really sorry to cut. It was conceived very early in the development of the story, and when the timeline got drastically altered, there was simply no way to work it in. The only option would have been a flashback, but that wouldn't have served for the dramatic effect of this particular scene. So it never made it past outline form. But I'm still attached to it.:) It appears here in note form.

Scully is called into Skinner's office on business. At the end of the conversation, Skinner asks her very formally if he may ask her something off the record. (when the reader perhaps doesn't know that she and Daniel are engaged). Asks "Agent Scully, would that be an engagement ring on your finger?" "Yes, sir, it would." He nods. "Then, may I say...congratulations, Scully." It's hard to hear this from Skinner, because he is, of course, aware of much of the Mulder situation. But she just nods and says "Thank you, sir." "Might I ask who the lucky gentleman is?" Scully swallows hard. "Someone I knew a long time ago. He's a cardiologist. His name's Daniel Waterston." Skinner nods. "I wish you all the best, Scully." "Thank you, sir." And she wants out of there.

In the original notes for the scene in 14a in which Scully finally confronts Daniel about the lingering issues of guilt over the way they began their relationship and how it continues to effect their families, the end of the scene was much earlier in the dialogue with a slightly different twist. Ultimately this converation got merged with another outlined conversation, so the moment was lost. But I still harbor an affection for it.:) So, the original dialogue notes read like this:

Daniel: "What happens when two people--who would give the world for each other--are at their weakest at the same moment."

"I don't know."

"The world is rarely black and white, Dana. The older you get the more you see the many many shades of grey. Do you think this is ever what I pictured for my own life? That I didn't take my wedding vows as seriously as anything I have ever done? That the path of my life wasn't tearing me apart?"

"Dammit, Daniel. I've been living in every conceivable shade of grey for so long now...I'm not sure I remember what the sunlight looks like. I want some white light."

"You belong in the sunlight, Dana."

"I can't keep--I just...can we...could you just...just please kiss me."

This next one is decidedly inferior to the final cut. I still like this exchange, but what it was replaced with was by far the better choice for the scene. The following dialogue was originally written for the last moments of foreplay before Scully and Daniel begin to make love for the first time.

(standing close)
She drew a soft breath--warm air and the lingering scent of Daniel's aftershave.

"Daniel..."

"What, Baby...?" His voice was so soft. She didn't want to be melting.

She hated the thickness in her voice. "There are so many things...I haven't dealt with."

His hand was smoothing her hair, smoothing her nerves. "Like what?"

"There are a lot of things that...scare me."

"Dana..." The tenderness in his voice was physically painful. Her hand brushed the taut muscles of her stomach. As if by instinct, Daniel's hand rose to close over(upon) hers.

Okay, this next one is an alternate version. This final cut worked much better, but there were still lines in this version that I was sorry to let go of. In the early notes, after Scully's slip of the tongue in which she started to call Michaels "Mulder", she didn't show up at her Mom's door, but at Daniels. This event was (in the early notes), the catalyst for her to finally open up about the one subject left taboo between her and Daniel--Mulder. This idea was nixxed for several reasons. One, was that the Maggie Scully element needed to be dealt with, and this was the perfect moment for Scully to finally open up to her mother, finally let her comfort her for her loss and her pain--something she had been avoiding since the day Mulder disappeared. (Because, of course, letting her mother look through her like that, would have meant admitting to herself what she was really feeling, and how she felt about Mulder). Secondly, because the Mulder subject needed to remain taboo much longer between Scully and Daniel. And as it turned out, that barrier was NEVER quite crossed, even throughout their marriage. Which served even in Book III to add to the poignancy of the fact that Scully *did* open up to *Mulder* about the loss of Daniel.

So, anyway, here are the original notes for the scene to come at the end of the day of Scully's slip of the tongue...

(after leaving office after Scully calls Michaels "Mulder"... shows up at Daniel's door, he doesn't speak, she says simply "Bad day")

"Come in." He stepped back, sweeping her inside with a light but welcoming touch.

Scully stopped just behind the couch, waited for Daniel to close the door. Everything hurt. Her stomach ached with unshed tears, muscles clenched against a pain she refused to feel as anything other than physical.

She felt the softness in her surroundings; the plush carpet, the inviting cushions, the carved wooden lighthouse on the foyer table. There was comfort to be had here--if she could let herself have it.

"Dana, what happened?"

Daniel's voice startled her, and she withdrew a step when warm fingers brushed her temple. She tried not to see the hurt in his eyes, but it was like an accelerant to her own (anguish)

"It shouldn't...I mean, it was just a mistake, I shouldn't..." She closed her eyes.

Daniel waited.

It hurt to push the words through the band at her throat. "I called my partner 'Mulder'. I've never--"

She didn't know precisely what triggered the change--something in her, in Daniel's kind eyes, the cool air in the room or the words that hung within it--but detatched tension turned in an instant to open vulnerability, and she was melting into tears.

He came to her on the first choked sob. "It's all right. Dana, it's all right."

(at one point, somewhat later, Daniel kisses her. He then apologizes, saying it was the wrong time. Then Dana says it's okay, and then..."Actually...to be brutally honest, I was just thinking--it would have been nice if Mulder had done that once in a while." Daniel: "That was his loss.")

This one is just a short exchange that was originally planned to take place during Scully and Daniel's first "date night", whilst they were walking in the park and talking on the bridge, before the first kiss. But it just never fit into the evening as it flowed. And then the revelation therein took on more impact when it was fresh and new in the midst of Scully's later rant summarizing all the traumas of the past decade of her life. So it all worked out of the best, but this older version remains alive in my mind and I like the feel of the moment.

Daniel: "You would be a wonderful mother."

Scully looks away, arms on the rail, closes her eyes, heavy exhale. "I, uh..." another slow breath, "I can't...have children."

In consoling her, Daniel is stroking her cheek, reads her face, almost surprised, and says, "You wanted them?"

She answers w/o words, but it's obvious.

Chapter 25 got juggled a bit. This is during the "silent torture" day following Mulder walking out in the middle of the night after saying "I've never loved anyone else...", etc... Originally, there was no scene in which Josh re-appeared in Scully's office, but there was a scene in which Michaels came over to Quantico personally to inform Scully of Maley's hearing having been set rather than phoning her. That became the scene at Scully's apartment going over the case notes, however, there was a bit of dialogue intended for the original version in the autopsy bay that never worked in the new one, which might be of some small interest to someone out there.:)

Michaels: "So, how is Mulder doing?"

Scully draws a breath, lifts her eyebrows, fueling her nerve to discuss Mulder. "Mulder's good. He hates his job, of course. But I think he's willing to play for a while. Do his penance. It certainly won't be the first time."

"So, I've heard. Of course, you wouldn't know anything about that..."

"I can't imagine what you're referring to, Agent Michaels."

Michaels chuckles softly. "Any chance of you two workin' together again someday?"

Scully freezes, because of course there's another question there to her ear, at least. She shakes her head, eyes down. "I honestly couldn't say at the moment."

Gannon is picking up on the vibes.

"Dana...?"

She keeps her eyes down, swallows. "I'm sorry," she says at last, but before Gannon can ask anything further, she springs into action, looks up and asks him....