WHEN BEGGARS DIE
by. Paul Wartenberg

SUMMARY: An ode to Pendrell, a comet, and what his gift for the birthday
girl may have been...I guess the Kelsy rating is V for vignette. 

COPYRIGHT: Pendrell is dead, so does that mean the fanfic writers can now
use him freely?  Aw, nuts.  Okay, so Pendrell, Scully, Mulder, and a
couple of other characters belong to Chris Carter and a legion of FOX
lawyers.  The comet appears courtesy of two guys, Hale and Bopp.  I (and
my twin Phil) appear courtesy of me mum and dad, with special thanks to
that Holiday Inn in Barcelona back in '69. 


"When beggars die, there are no comets seen
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes."
	--Shakespeare, "Julius Caeser"

	The box sat alone atop Scully's desk, odd pieces of personal items
and perhaps junk, although calling some of those knick-knacks that
wouldn't have been fair to the young man who once owned those things.
	She didn't know why the box was brought to her, since Pendrell's 
family should have been the ones to receive this.  Perhaps they had 
already cleared his work area and decided she was the one they could 
trust to hold onto them...
	"Did your mom bring more stuff for your desk?"  Mulder stepped 
around her to get into the office, worming his way to the far end of the 
room.
	"No, this is..." Scully shrugged and waved one hand toward the 
box.  "Pendrell's stuff."
	Mulder's smile faded as he briefly turned away.  He turned back 
toward the box and reached out for it.  "I got dibs on any extra staples..."
	"MULDER!"
	Scully reached over and ripped the box out of Mulder's hands, but 
not before Mulder had seized some papers resting atop the personal 
mementos.  He quickly glanced at them, then tossed one sheet to his 
partner.  "Relax.  It's ours anyways."
	"What?"  Scully reached for the sheet, glancing at the message.  
Pendrell's section chief had written that while Scully had to hold on to 
the box for Pendrell's family to secure, there were some items found on 
Pendrell's body that suggested they were for her or Mulder.
	Curious, Scully leafed through the box, coming across a set of 
sealed evidence bags containing some more papers.
	"Oh, of course," she slapped her forehead, remembering.  "Pendrell
said he had a present for me..."
	"Really?"  Mulder came around the desk to Scully's side.  "If 
it's another keychain, I'm in trouble..."
	She spotted the small bag containing two strips of paper.  She 
unsealed the plastic covering and pulled them out for a clearer view.  
"These look like tickets."
	Mulder took another sealed bag from her while she glanced over 
the print.  The tickets weren't for any concert hall or movie theater, 
instead they seemed to be for...
	"Tickets for the Rock Creek Planetarium," Mulder spoke aloud,
finishing her thought.
	Scully glanced at him, knowing he hadn't glanced over her shoulder
but still wondering how he knew.  "Tickets to the planetarium?"
	"Yeah."  Mulder passed the plastic bag over to her.  "There's a
pamphlet here on it.  A presentation on that Hale-Bopp comet, followed
by a laser light show done to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon..." 
	"Floyd?" Scully squinched her nose.  "That was my older brother's 
favorite band.  I didn't go for that..."
	"Oh, really, what was the band of your youth?..."
	"Jodie Foster's Army."
	Mulder gave her a look.
	"Punk band.  Early '80s.  Me and some of my roommates would drive 
up from College Park to New York, catch a show or two at CBGB's.  One 
night, I saw Talking Heads, before they made it on MTV, you know..."
	"No, I didn't," Mulder grinned.
	Scully smirked and him and palmed the small bag containing the
tickets.  "Hmm, another astronomical birthday gift.  Was there a theme
this year, Mulder?"
	"No, trust me, I didn't give Pendrell any recommendations..."
	"But this is odd," Scully noted as she held the plastic bag close 
to her face.  "There are two tickets here.  Was he expecting me to 
invite someone to...to..."
	Shock passed across her face.  "Oh, no......"
	Mulder, as always, was a little more clueless.  "I guess he was 
going to ask you out.  Amazing.  He finally worked up the nerve to..."
	He suddenly noticed the pale expression on Scully's face.  It took
him another second to realize what was wrong.  "Scully, are you telling me
you never noticed the huge crush he had on you?..."
	The tickets fell from Scully's hand.  "Oh, GOD, no..."
	"Scully," Mulder pleaded.  "You've got to be kidding.  Everybody 
knew, I mean everybody.  Hell, even I ragged on him about..."
	"...Mulder!..."
	He fell silent.
	She collapsed into her chair.  "I...I didn't know he felt that 
way about me..."
	"Scully," he whispered.  "Didn't you ever see him stare at you as 
though, well..."
	She glanced at him, trying to keep her tears from forming.  "I 
never noticed.  I just thought he was just being...eager to help..."
	"He was trying to impress you."
	"Mulder, please," she sighed, placing her head within her hands.  
"Before this, I was simply feeling regret over losing one of the few 
friends we had here.  Now I'm utterly miserable.  God..."
	They stayed like that for minutes, Scully silently looking back 
at all those moments between herself and Pendrell, wondering about the 
clues she missed, while Mulder simply watched her, worried his partner 
was once again devastated.
	"So," Mulder finally broke the silence.  "What did you want to do 
with the tickets?..."

	"...There will also be a perfect viewing opportunity on the 24th 
of March," a voice echoed across the darkened room.  "when the moon falls 
within the shadow of Earth, creating a partial lunar eclipse, darkening 
the skies long enough for a clear view of the comet over there..."
	Scully craned her head at a severe angle, keeping an eye out for 
the comet's image pasted along the planetarium's ceiling.  The theater 
was rather quiet, even with all the families and young children in the 
seats about her; the celestial images have always made an awe-inspiring 
impression on young minds.
	The seat next to hers was noticeably empty.  Mulder had begged to 
come along, but even he realized in the end that it would have ruined the 
mood for Scully.  She tried at first to think she was honoring Pendrell's 
last great desire, but as she sat in that darkness staring toward the 
pinpricks of lights slowly turning across the dome, she realized that 
desire was only half-realized.
	"To think," the presenter announced solemnly.  "The comet's 
journey will go so far from us, in an orbit so deep into space, that when 
it returns in 4000 years one may wonder if humanity will be here to see it 
visit this small blue world once again..."
	Scully left during the start of the laser show, taking her time 
as she strolled through the parking lot to her car.  She sat at the wheel 
for a moment, wondering if she should go home, when another thought crept 
through her mind, an impulsive desire...
	She drove out from the cities, far from D.C., far from Annapolis, 
somewhere along the Potomac where the river meets the Chesapeake.  There, 
with only the night sky to light her vision, she looked up to the northwest.
	The comet seemed to hover between the horizon and the moon, one
noticeable tail flaring in one direction while a fainter image fell in the
other.  There was utter silence as she watched it, a silly but hopeful
thought of what the sound of a speeding comet would make; still knowing
that the icy rock sped through space and yet amazed at how it appeared
stationary before the stars.
	Why did Pendrell want me to see this? Scully pondered.  She 
glanced about the night sky, remembering how romantic it was sometimes 
when she and one of her long-ago boyfriends counted the stars.  Perhaps 
Pendrell sought to achieve those kinds of moments with her, to create 
some magical moment of his own...
	Poor Pendrell, she sighed.  How could I have overlooked you?  To 
be honest, Scully never considered him as a possible lover, perhaps a 
friend, certainly one of the few people she knew in the Bureau who valued 
her and Mulder as good agents, rarer still someone who enjoyed his work 
without fighting his way up the career ladder...
	A very rare soul.  As rare as comets, Scully suddenly smiled to 
herself.  That will be how she will remember him then, a rare sight 
within the world around her, a lonely, bright soul that would circle by, 
bringing a simple light of honesty and good will in a dark world full of 
betrayal and danger.
	And so the comet continues its journey, she noted silently,
watching it hover on the night horizon.  And I will never again see this
one small yet precious jewel within the cosmos.
	Unless, she smiled to herself as she drove home, if Clyde wasn't
joking... 


The end.

Paul Wartenberg-------------------- | -----All Done.--------
z004799b@bc.seflin.org------------- | -----Bye-Bye.---------
village6@icanect.net--------------- | ----------------------
-----Scully Will Live-------------- | -----X-FILES----------
-----Freedom is in the mind and the spirit------------------
-----The body still must break the chains.------------------