The only way you could, well, tweak those Scully-less scenes toward the end is to imagine her dream-vision as removed and camera-like. It may be a tweak too far. But, darn it, I want those scenes of comfort to be dreamed. It changes them, IMO, from a bad mistake to something poignant and powerful.

The epigraph and the final scene tease us toward that interpretation too.

You might say that I'm trying to do Oracle a favor. Heh. Yeah. I'll await her fervent thanks.

Wendy tells me Oracle was still in her teens. There was a fic writer in earlier years who went by wen--not Wendy--who was also reportedly quite young. It would be interesting to discuss one of her stories. She was polarizing, by which I mean she polarized me.