Story 4: Belmont, Ohio, 3:36 P.M. by Sarah Segretti

[wendelah1]

This week's post was nominated bywendelah1. That would be me. I read this story for the first time this year, although it was originally posted back in September 2000. It is rated PG for a couple of naughty words, the category is VRA, although I haven't a clue what that is supposed to mean. The author's summary says: "A minivan, some classic rock, and a trunk full of babygear. All is not as it appears." Yes folks, this is AU, MSR, babyfic and songfic. Happy Holidays! I hope you enjoy it, too. I don't know why Sarah Segretti never archived it but here it is:

http://groups.google.ca/group/alt.tv.x-files.creative/msg/92d0d0913d9895c0?dmode=source

Let us know what you think; let the author know what you think; and please, let us know your suggestions for next time.
Come on, people, we know you are out there! Please,  I am at home on disability and I am lonely and bored! Don't make me beg...

Edit: as pointed out, by tree, this story is also at Gossamer, and on her webpage, which is somewhere out there in cyberspace. My bad, folks. I should have looked closer... her webpage is now down. But Gossamer lives!

Comments

[tree]

category explanation: Vignette, Romance, Angst.

also, it's archived on her Gossamer author page, although perhaps that's not what you meant by archived. it's also available on her website.

[wendelah1]

Can you post the actual website because the link I have is broken? Is the email address valid?
No, it isn't, I already tried it. Rats. I was all excited, too.

[tree]

erm, did you mean to reply to my comment? her website is the same as the link above, just minus the filename, http://s88210564.onlinehome.us/segretti/. someone from the scullyfic list might have her current email address - did you try mrsblome@yahoo.com? that's the email on her most recent fic.

[wendelah1]

I did try it, but that doesn't mean I typed it correctly. I will try it again. Thank you. You are very patient with me.

[tree]

*laughs* copy&paste is my friend. :) also, i don't actually know if that email address works, since her last fic is from 2003. but i thought it might be worth a shot.

[wendelah1]

I did try it again. Undeliverable. Too bad. I understand she has a Live Journal but she doesn't want anyone to know she wrote fic. That person didn't have her email address either, or at any rate wouldn't give it up to me. I don't know how to contact the Scully Fic List. Is it active?

[tree]

ah well. i used to be on the list - actually it's called e-Muse now, i forgot. you can find details on how to sign up here.

it's a shame she doesn't want anyone to know, because she wrote some wonderful stuff.

[wendelah1]

It is a shame, but I guess it is something she decided to separate from her life here on LJ. I wish she hadn't stopped writing, too. I have this fantasy that the new movie, if it is really great, will bring old fans back into the fold. I am such a dreamer, huh.

[tree]

then we're both dreamers, because i'm hoping the same thing.

[wendelah1]

This is OT but I have been compulsively checking anjoufic since I woke up. She hasn't posted part 12. I am getting anxious.

[memento1.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to say that I did send her feedback at the mrsblome@yahoo.com address last month and got a reply back! So it's still a viable address.

[wendelah1]

Sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you. I have been very ill. I still am. I like the choice of Arizona Highways. It was one of the first long XF novels I read, and it is one of my favorites. This will give me something to read while I recover. Welcome aboard!

[memento1.livejournal.com]

Awww, I hope you're feeling better! I'm definitely interested to hear what people think of it, since there's just so much to that story.

[dictatorcari]

it's sweet...i like it. but i'm really a sucker for anything msr that doesn't look like it was written by a slow-track seventh-grader. :)

i keep searching my brain for recommendations, but everything i'm reading (the words series, the magician) takes ages to read. i promise i'll let you know if i think of something relatively short!

[wendelah1]

I am glad that you liked it. I tried to find something relatively upbeat to read for around the holidays. I will write more later, about what specifically appealed to me about this story.

And baby makes three

[wendelah1]

"A minivan, some classic rock, and a trunk full of babygear. All is not as it appears."
Well, when you traveling with small children, it rarely is. It was the author's summary that got me to read this story in a genre that is so different from the case files that I love. There are so many little details in this story that feel right to me, and bring the story alive.

The military didn't pack like this for Normandy, he thought. Who knew someone this small would need all this stuff?

As the mother of a formerly small, now very grown up, son, I remember all too well the amount of stuff that must be carted around when traveling with an infant or a toddler.

"A minivan?" was all she could say, the baby balanced on one hip, as he got out.

Back in the day, the mini-van was the vehicle of choice for a new family, and a 1998 tan Dodge Caravan would be so common as to nearly disappear from view. They discuss the cupholders and the miles per gallon.

"Cupholders." She gave him the same look he usually got for coming up with lunatic theories that linked vampires, aliens and Janet Reno's deputy assistant attorney general.

The baby seemed to have the same expression on his face as his mother. Man, heredity was spooky. Mulder nodded. "Twelve of them."

They start the trip and then the songfic part of the story kicks in. Mulder has left on the classical station, which is playing "Scheherezade." Although he has ostensibly left the station on to please her, he can not resist a little poke.

"Have you ever considered that 'Scheherazade' might be the 'Freebird' of the classical music format?"

For a brief second, she didn't answer, and he held his breath. Then he heard her snicker softly. "I like to think of it as the 'How Soon is Now,' frankly."

"You're dating yourself, Scully. The Smiths are *so* '80s."

She ignored him, as he expected. The familiar pattern was comforting, even if she did seem to be going through the motions. "It's a more interesting work than you give it credit for."

This ploy is eventually effective and he gets permission to change the station. He hopes for something upbeat, because as Segretti has been giving us hints of all along, this is not just an ordinary family vacation get-away. It is something more serious and sad, and perhaps, final.

I found the resolution of the William arc to be so heartrending that I resisted even watching the episode for the longest time. In fact, I resisted season nine in its entirety. Those DVDs sat in their box unopened, their owner sticking to her sworn path of "Deny Everything." When I finally broke down and watched the episode, I was shocked at the cruelty of the writers toward Scully.

I avoid babyfic for this reason. It just makes me sad, because I want to believe in a happy ending for the perfect little family that we got to view, so briefly at the end of season eight. I want to believe and I can't. It didn't happen, something else did, something unimaginable to me, as a mother.

In "Belmont, Ohio," Sarah Segretti lets me envision an ending to The X-Files that isn't quite as sad, quite as hopeless, quite as heartless as the one we were left with at the end of "The Truth." I still cried when Mulder starts singing along to "I can see clearly now the rain is gone..." but the tears were not the bitter tears I shed over the loss of William. Although she wrote this before season nine aired, it is not as bleak as it must have appeared when first posted. It is a happy ending, by comparison, and for just a little while, I let myself believe.

Re: And baby makes three

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

I found the resolution of the William arc to be so heartrending that I resisted even watching the episode for the longest time. In fact, I resisted season nine in its entirety. Those DVDs sat in their box unopened, their owner sticking to her sworn path of "Deny Everything." When I finally broke down and watched the episode, I was shocked at the cruelty of the writers toward Scully.

I avoid babyfic for this reason. It just makes me sad, because I want to believe in a happy ending for the perfect little family that we got to view, so briefly at the end of season eight. I want to believe and I can't. It didn't happen, something else did, something unimaginable to me, as a mother.

I haven't watched that episode, and I'm not going to. Cruelty is exactly right, but beyond that I can't see the scenario as psychologically realistic at all. Giving a baby up for adoption at birth? Possible, albeit heartrending. I can imagine Scully doing that in season one, say, if she had gotten pregnant accidentally and been unable as a Catholic to go through with an abortion. But in season nine, after her infertility, and having lost and found Mulder, and having given birth to and raised their baby... no. I can't see that she would ever choose that, and if she had to, it would destroy her.

Enough said. I am depressing myself.

Re: And baby makes three

[wendelah1]

I quite agree. I am sorry to be depressing you. I have been thinking a lot about the end of the series, I suppose, because of the second movie filming. I keep trying to come up with a plausible scenario for M&S to be reinstated (and to have retrieved William) but none comes to mind, unfortunately. They really did a number on my head with the adoption. I can't imagine Scully going on after that, either. I can imagine, though, the torment she was in. She wasn't able to keep William safe. She tried contacting Mulder and only ended up nearly getting him killed in the process. She was between a rock and a hard place. Stupid writers. She was betrayed by her creators.

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

Oh. A lovely choice, Wendy.

The reveal is so subtle, and it sneaks up on you so slowly. I love the superficial normality of it... the minivan, the cupholders, all of the baby things. And then Scully's mood... at first you think that she's just having an off day, maybe she has postpartum depression, and then you wonder. The author says that she's familiar with the roads that Mulder and Scully are driving, and that shows.

One of my favourite things about the story is the way that it recapitulates all of the places that Mulder and Scully have visited over the years, traveling the journey in reverse. It shows up how far they have come, how much things have changed and how much they've remained the same. All that they've lost and all that they've gained. The power of this story comes from how difficult those two things are to disentangle.

And yes, I liked the music. It is used to good effect. Usually songfics are bad either because the music is intrusive or because the author has imposed their own tastes on the characters. (No, I don't think M&S would listen to Nickelback, thanks.) In this case, it definitely reinforces the themes rather than distracting from them. "Free Bird" certainly makes a lot of sense. Any mention of the Smiths gets me on board, although "How Soon Is Now" wouldn't have been my first choice. And "I Can See Clearly Now"... perfect. I could see the scene.

[wendelah1]

Thank you. I think this might now be my favorite of her stories and I loved "America's Games." This one just captured me from the summary right on through. I didn't hear a false note, although she is teasing us a little bit with the heredity is spooky line. Since the show did it all the time, I forgave her. I thought the song choices were perfect, too. I could completely see this scene unfolding as I read it. That is always the goal, but it is harder to do than one might think, isn't it?

[andrea-deer.livejournal.com]

I liked it very much. And I must confess I thought I wouldn't.

At first it looked like pointless roadtrip without anything happening and as much as I liked such views from the characters in some normal situations, if it's too long I wonder why it was even written? I mean, in my opinion story had to have something to say, even something meaningles, it can'y be just set of un-connected situations that happened on some road-trip without destination.

But the end just... makes sense out of everything. It sums it up perfectly and make it clearer. I really liked that. Because of that nice ending I could - while re-thinking and re-reading this fic - enjoy all the small details, because they are what I love in the story as long as they nicely pictured.

I enjoyed really much this fanfiction and the only thing I could complain about is Scully creation. Don't understand me in wrong way, it's very much Scully-like. *But* it's the way Scully acts in the end of 7th season and mostly 8th season and... I kind of prefer Scully from earlier ones, especially the 4th season. Scully who rarely cried and had those reflection-moods. I don't blame the girl with all the things she's been through she's expected to act that way, she's different because of all the things she's suffered... But I just don't liek to be reminded she suffered *that* much!
If it makes sense at all... xD

What I tried to say is that as much as this Scully from the story is autentic, *I* don't like this side of her. I prefer tough, strong girl who could fight anything and win. Yes, I'm strong!Scully obsessed ;)

Thank you for showing me that fic, it was worth reading ^^

PS. Sorry that I didn't manage to comment before new fic was posted *sigh*. Okay, I'm going to read the new one now ^^

[wendelah1]

Thank you for taking the time to read and comment. It is never too late. I agree that the story here is all about the little details that make it come to life. I much prefered this ending, with M&S and their child together, to the horrible ending that the show's writers gave us. I have a much different view of season 8&9 Scully than you, but we can agree to disagree. I hope you enjoy the next story. It is very different than this.

[andrea-deer.livejournal.com]

I agree to disagree ;) i'm not much fan of Scully in 8&9 season, sorry :D

*goes to comment new story thinking - if I'm not a shipper why I read so much MSR?*