Subject: NEW: I Want To Believe (One Son post ep)
Date: Mon, 15 Feb 1999
From: Vickie Moseley vickiemoseley1978@yahoo.com
Title: I Want to Believe
Summary: Fill in the Blank for 'One Son'. Scully, the Gunmen,
a
bottle of tequila and only one lime. The truth is out there or
rather,
in here.
Spoilers: One Son, Triangle, Unusual Suspects, the one with
Mulder in 91 and Arthur Dales, a bunch more probably.
Rating: PG,
Category: V A UST Mulder/Diana (urp!) New category heading:
Soap Opera For purposes of MTA, Mulder is brain damaged in this
ep.
Disclaimer: Dear Chris: since you're now doing 'As the X Files
Turn', I've decided to do you one better. Hope Mulder has his
brain returned to him by Aqua Mala. I'm not infringing because I
really doubt anyone would pay for this crap. I just barely sat
through it for free.
Archive: Yes
Notes: Well, I pride myself on keeping the characters within
'character'. Apparently that is NOT the goal of CC and FS any
longer. But I had to rationalize to myself why Mulder is so blind
when it comes to Diana (though apparently only for this
particular
episode and The Beginning) and also, why the Gunmen aren't
equally under her spell. This fills in the blank from Scully
storming
off and Mulder picking the lock.
Thank you to Brandon for words of wisdom, Susan for beta
reading while beta writing <G> and love and prayers to
Kathy.
Come back to us safe and sound.
I Want To Believe
by Vickie Moseley
vickiemoseley1978@yahoo.com
Frohike jumped at the knock on the door. He looked over at his
companions and then at the TV monitor of their front entrance.
"I had a feeling 'Red' would be back," he muttered
and went to the
door, unlocking it with ease. "Agent Scully. Forget
something?"
Scully stood in the doorway, hesitation in her eyes. "No.
It's
nothing. I'm sorry. I should go."
Byers and Langly had joined their friend and Langly reached
past
Frohike to grab the woman's sleeve.
"We got a bottle of rotgut tequila and two limes. I think
you came
back here for some explanations."
She chewed on her lip and nodded solemnly.
"Then come on in. We live in a shitty neighborhood,"
Frohike said
lightly and closed the door behind her, locking it back up
completely.
"Where is he?" she asked, looking around the room.
"Left about five minutes after you. My guess is he's over
at
Diana's." When Frohike saw how her face fell at that
revelation, he
quickly jumped to assure her. "He's going to see what he can
dig
up on her."
"I wouldn't be so sure," Scully said dully.
"You mentioned
tequila?"
Byers shot his two friends a relunctant look, but moved off to
the
small kitchenette, coming back with four glasses, a bottle and
the
aforementioned limes. Taking a pocket knife out of his jeans,
Langly sliced one of the limes in fourths and poured each person
a
hefty shot.
"Sorry, Fro has us on a salt free diet," he said
apologetically as he
handed Scully a glass and a portion of lime.
"That's OK. I don't think I'll notice," she said
dryly and sucked
once on the lime then downed the shot in one gulp and handed the
glass back in a silent gesture to be refilled.
Langly grimaced, but poured another shot, this time a bit
lighter
than the last and handed her the glass again. She repeated her
actions and then handed him the glass, this time upside down.
"So. Start explaining," she motioned them on to the
kitchen table,
taking a seat closest to the door.
Byers chewed on his lip for the time it took to sit down, then
sipped
at his tequila and cleared his throat. "We don't know
everything,"
he said by way of caveat.
"But you know more than I do. You knew Mulder back then.
You
knew Diana. What the hell was between them that makes him
believe her over me? Over you?" She sat back, arms crossed
over
her chest, giving the distinct impression that what ever they had
to
say, it had better be good. Damn good.
Langly took up the gauntlet. "OK, you know they were . .
.
involved." He licked his lips and sipped some of his own
drink.
"We just didn't really give you the whole story the last
time."
"We were hoping that Mulder would do that for us, the rat
bastard," Frohike interjected.
Langly shot his smaller friend a whithering look. "But
since he
didn't . . ."
"Guys, I don't have all night here. I have some decisions
to make
and I need to make them soon. Now, what can you give me? And
don't worry about my feelings. At this moment, I don't think I
have any left." She tapped her foot impatiently.
"They met in 90. November, I think, or maybe late
October. He
was still working VCS and somehow they ended up on the same
task force. There was a psychic involved and Diana was the only
one on the team who would take the woman seriously. Mulder
must have thought he'd found a kindred spirit." Langly
smiled,
then noticed the narrow eyed glare Scully was giving him.
"Not
that it's that important, mind you," he quickly amended.
"Anyway,
I think it was January when they moved in together."
"They lived together?" Scully asked, eyebrow
reaching toward her
auburn crown.
"Yeah. At her place. Mulder's had that dump forever,
probably
since he was in the Academy. I think it went condo after he moved
in and his dad put up the money for it. Anyway, he kept it, and
moved in with her."
Scully didn't comment, just waved her hand for Langly to
continue.
The other two men just nursed their drinks.
"So, about three months after they're together, Diana
comes up
pregnant. We didn't know at first. Mulder was truly bummed.
Came over one night and drank our entire inventory. Wouldn't tell
us why. I got the impression she wanted to terminate and he
didn't.
Anyway, about a week later, he calls us and asks if we'll be his
witnesses. They were getting married."
Scully didn't hide her shock. "Married?"
Frohike took up the story. "Married. Justice of the
peace. No
honeymoon, they had a case."
"But the Bureau . . ."
"Remember, they weren't officially partners. They just
sort of
managed to work on the same cases. There was no official sanction
they had to worry about," Byers was quick to add.
"So they got married. And Fowley was pregnant,"
Scully said,
reciting the facts so far. "Where's the child?"
All three co-conspirators exchanged looks. Frohike squirmed in
his
seat and then spoke. "They were on a case. Actually, Diana
wasn't
supposed to be on it, but Mulder wanted her help interviewing a
witness. 'Cept the witness turned out to be the perp. While
Mulder was checking the place out, the guy sort of let too much
slip to Diana. He knew the jig was up. So he pushed her down a
set of basement stairs."
"She miscarried," Scully concluded.
"Big time. Mulder shot the guy, just wounded him. Then he
handcuffed him to a railing and carried Diana to the hospital.
She
almost died from loss of blood."
Scully looked pale with this information, but said nothing more.
"Diana pulled through, she's good at that. Anyway, Mulder
did
what he'd learned to do from his family. He closed off. Shut
himself in the office and wouldn't come out. When he wasn't out
of town on a case, he'd just sleep there. Diana was on leave, she
was at the apartment. We tried to get Mulder to see what he was
doing, but he was too wrapped up in his own grief."
"But I thought he loved her," Scully said suspiciously.
Byers shook his head. "I don't know that Mulder
understood what
love was back then, Dana. He just knew Diana was someone who
would listen to him. That was something he'd never really had.
Love, I don't know. But I do know that he wanted that baby.
Wanted it more than maybe even Diana did. That's what almost
killed him. The thought that he was responsible for the baby's
death."
Scully closed her eyes. "Of course. He would assume that
if he
hadn't begged her to come and interview with him . . ."
"None of it would have happened," Langly finished
her thought,
confirming her suspicion.
"So she left him," Scully guessed.
"Not exactly. They sort of left each other. When Mulder
did go
home, it was to his apartment on Hegal Place. He couldn't face
Diana. For her part, I don't think she could face him, either. I
think she blamed herself, since he had to talk her into keeping
the
baby to begin with. Maybe she blamed him some because he wasn't
supporting her. I don't know. I just know that in the end, it
wasn't
anybody's fault. It just happened. They just . . . split,"
Byers said
sadly.
"So they divorced," Scully said quietly.
"Not at first. Diana took the job in Europe. She left him
a note,
didn't even call him to tell him she was leaving. The note said
said
something about the distance helping them find their way back to
each other or some other trash. Mulder . . . Mulder started to
drink. It was pretty scary for a time. He was drinking the whole
weekend away and during the week, he'd go through a fifth a
night.
And about four packs of smokes a day. Then, finally, he showed up
one day sober as a judge, wanting us to check out some
information
for him. He didn't say a word about Diana."
"Did they get a divorce? Eventually?" Scully's
stomach hit bottom
at the thought that they might still be legally married. She
wasn't
sure why that bothered her, but it did. Greatly.
"She finally sent divorce papers through a lawyer she had
here in
the States. He was served with them on the day that would have
been her due date."
"Nice knife in the back," Scully said evenly and
reached over to
pick up the glass again, taking the bottle and pouring another
good
sized shot. The three men watched her down it as she'd done the
first.
"He's not choosing her over you. You have to understand
that,
Dana," Byers said gently.
She graced him with a disbelieving look. "Oh, really.
Well, from
where I sit, it sure as hell looks like he's choosing her over
me," she
said bitterly.
"No, not really," Frohike joined in, shaking his
head. "He's just
having a hard time believing that the only other person to ever
believe _in_ him would betray him. And maybe, it's the old guilt
getting in the way of his better judgement. There's a lot of
baggage
cluttering up his mind on this one, Dana. Don't throw him to the
wolves because he's messed up in the head."
She grinned for a second, then closed her eyes as if in pain.
"I
haven't before. Not likely to start now." She sat there for
a minute
or two, then looked at the three men, each in turn. "So tell
me.
Why are you believing me and not her. You have history here, too.
She was there first."
Byers bit his lip and looked at Frohike. Langly stared at the
floor
for a minute. Frohike was the only one brave enough to face her
gaze. "You've never walked out on him. She did. Regardless
of
what happened, regardless of how much pain, she took off to
Europe. At the time, it was probably her own pain. But she stayed
there for seven years. That's more than enough time to pick up
the
phone and try to make amends. And from what we've seen, she
hasn't even really tried to make amends yet."
"Besides, uh, we, uh, well, we sort of . . ." Byers
stuttered and
drew in breath, then looked helplessly at Frohike.
"We tested her," the older man said sheepishly.
"Tested her? How?" Scully demanded, eyes narrowing
to pierce
him in her glare.
"It wasn't my idea, Dana. Honest to God! But Langly . . ."
"Hey, don't pin this one on me! Byers thought it up, remember?"
"Shut up and tell me what you did!" Scully's shout
silenced the
other three. Frohike stared at a the ancient orange shag carpet
beneath his feet.
"We called her first, when Mulder was in the
Triangle." At Scully's
angry gasp, he put up his hand. "We were going nuts. We knew
somebody had to get there fast. Langly thought, well, since you
were both in hot water, Diana had the connections to get us the
information pronto. It was always our plan to tell you, but we
needed that AWAC data _now_. So we called Diana at the office.
We told her that Mulder was in trouble. She said she'd do what
she
could, and to meet her at the Bureau. When we got to the office,
she was no where to be found. It smelled like a trap. And we all
know that she didn't show up in Bermuda. So basically, when she
could have helped, she didn't."
Scully sat there, staring at the three of them.
"Uh, you _mad_ at us, Dana? Er, Agent Scully? I mean, we
were
going to call you, too. We did. As a matter of fact, we went to
right away to find you. We weren't going to . . ."
"Enough apologies, guys. In a way, I'm glad you did that.
It's the
type of evidence I need. But it's not likely to convince Mulder.
Especially with all the 'baggage', as you say." She still
looked
desolate.
Frohike sighed. "I wouldn't know about that. I tell you,
he's
checking her out right now."
"Frohike, just because he went over there . . ."
"Dana, he didn't just 'go over there'. He asked to borrow
my
lockpick set. Said his was all the way over at the office. And he
called her apartment before he left. And he didn't try her
cellphone.
He was almost certain she wouldn't be home when he arrived. You
don't do that if you're just going to warn someone off."
For the first time that evening, a ghost of a smile shadowed
her
face. "No, you don't."
"He's never searched your apartment when you weren't
there,"
Byers pointed out.
"No, he just sits there in the dark, having used my key
to get in, and
scares the shit out of me when I walk in the room," she
replied
grimly.
"Well, that tells me something," Langly said
confidently. All eyes
turned to him. "She's never given him her key. And she's
been
back long enough to do that."
Scully sighed, but she sounded much stronger. "This is
all very
well and good, but I have to find a way to convince him of her
betrayal. He's going to walk right into something and I don't
know
if I can get him out in time."
Her cellphone rang and everyone jumped.
"Scully," she said briskly, then her eyes grew
wider. "Spender, you
better be telling the truth on this one . . ."
the end.
Vickie
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
45 to 55 for conviction
Can we go back to just running
the country now?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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