"Scully's Birthday Celebration" . . . A pink sno-ball cupcake bearing a lone sparkle stick made its way through the busy restaurant and the waiters on duty began a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday."

     Scully looked up at the approaching staff as Mulder turned to face them, a stirrer jutting from inbetween his lips.

"Happy birthday to you.
"Happy birthday to you.
"Happy birthday to you, Dana."

      Mulder swiveled back around to face Scully. As the waiters hit her name, Mulder improvised with a bit more information, not quite squeezing "Dana Katherine Scully" into the same notes as "Dana." But he certainly tried, and all the while he chewed on the white stirrer.

     A look of utter mortification and a smile of half-embarrassment/half pleasure crossed her face and Scully lowered her gaze. The crowd around them, along with the waiters, began to clap and Mulder joined in enthusiastically. In between claps and barely managing to speak with the straw in his mouth, Mulder spoke in mock seriousness, "I didn't know it was your birthday, Scully?"

     The applause died around them and Mulder began clapping more rapidly to take up the slack. Scully leaned forward, "Mulder, you've never remembered my birthday in the four years I've known you."

     Mulder continued to clap.

     "That's the way I like to celebrate them," finally his clapping subsided, "every four years. It's like dog years that way."

     Scully ineffectually tried to blow out the sparkle stick, and as his words registered, she looked up at him, amused tolerance, and a smile, on her face. "Dog years? Thank you," she added dryly.

     With a happy smile alight on his face (and still chewing on the stirrer) Mulder gazed at her for a few seconds before turning slightly and bending down. "Oh, I got something for you."

     "Oh, you've got to be kidding," with utter seriousness, Mulder ignored her comment, facing her once more and offered a small, white box to her as one would offer a gift to deity. She took it gingerly as he added, "this is something that reminded me of you."

     She looked up, "what? An alien implant?"

     "Two actually. I made 'em into earrings."

     Without responding and with obvious trepidation, Scully pulled the box cover off and found . . . an Apollo 11 keychain. She dipped a finger in and pulled it out by the keyring. "Apollo 11," she said softly. Mulder gazed at her, a contented smile on his face and then directed, "read the back."

     Complying, Scully turned it over, squinting slightly and began to read aloud. "Commemorating Apollo 11 and the mission to the moon. July 1969." Mulder's smile widened as Scully looked up, "I'm touched," she said with genuine pleasure as well as genuine bemusement in her voice.

     "It's um --" he began in explanation, but was interrupted by a blonde woman who stepped up to their table.

     "Excuse me, are you Scully?" She turned to Mulder, "and Mulder?"

     Scully glanced over at him, extreme consternation on her face, as she asked in a low, very apprehensive voice, "oh, promise me this isn't leading to something really embarrassing."

     "Undressing in Front of Scully" . . . The military officer opened the door for Mulder and Scully to enter without words or expression. It didn't matter, the partners paid him no attention.

     "According to the military, there was no misunderstanding," Scully explained to Mulder as she walked into the small room ahead of him.

     "So all of a sudden they just decided to take responsibility for the crash of Flight 549," Mulder said sarcastically as he dumped the contents of his dufflebag onto a table.

     "They had no choice, not in light of all the facts that have come out."

     "Facts?" Mulder questioned as he unsnapped the first button of his jumpsuit, before pulling the top wide open and revealing a plain, white tee-shirt. "Have you heard their cover story?" he immediately answered his own question while he undid his cuffs, "that the control tower gave bad coordinates to a fighter pilot causing him to collide with Flight 549 over military air space." He took his jumpshirt shirt off and bent down to remove his shoes, looking at her all the while.

     "They allowed me to listen to the recordings," Scully offered as Mulder took off one shoe and set it aside and then the other. "If you believe them, then the coordinates," she didn't stop speaking when Mulder reached for the button at the front of his pants, but she did turn around, "that Sergeant Frish gave to the fighter pilot were the exact path that 549 was on," she continued, her back to him as Mulder finished undressing.

     "Agent Pendrell is Dead . . . "All I know is that --" Scully's voice broke slightly and her tone was filled with sadness, "this plane seems to be killing people as it sits there on the ground."

     Mulder gazed at her, a puzzled look on his face. She looked down briefly before glancing up and meeting his eyes, "Mulder, Agent Pendrell is dead."

     A grimace crossed his face and he leaned in, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.

     "Keychain Explanation" . . . Scully gazed up at the night sky, a contemplative look on her face. From her left came the creaking of a door as Mulder stepped out of Max Fenig's trailer. He was silent for a moment, gazing up in the same direction as Scully. Finally, he looked to her and after burrowing his hands in his pockets, asked somberly, "you thinking about Pendrell?"

     Without looking away, she responded softly, "I realized I didn't even know his first name." Mulder let out a deep breath, but didn't speak. Scully glanced down and reached into her pocket. "I, actually, I was thinking about the -- this gift that you gave me for my birthday." She pulled the keychain out, fingering it gently as Mulder took a step closer and looked over her shoulder.

     "You never got to tell me why you gave it to me," she flipped it over and looked at the inscribed words, "and what it means, but I think I know."

     His gaze rested on her, a look of complete love on his face, until she began speaking. He looked away briefly, contemplating her words.

     "I think that you appreciate that there are extraordinary men and women and extraordinary moments when history leaps forward on the backs of these individuals, that what can imagined can be achieved; that you must dare to dream, but that's there's no substitute for perseverance and hard work and teamwork because no one gets there alone, and that while we commemorate the greatness of these events and the individuals who achieve them, we can not forget the sacrifices of those who make these achievements and leaps possible."

     She took a deep breath and Mulder waited the barest second before responding, "I just thought it was a pretty cool keychain."

     Scully smiled and looked up at him. He motioned with his head and began to walk away. The smile still on her face, her eyes on Mulder, she followed.