A Winter's Tale, Part 4
Dec. 25th, 2007 08:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anjouficTitle: A Winter's Tale 4/21
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
comice aka Anjou (Anjou@rocketmail.com)
Posting Date: December 2007/January 2008
Rating: R for language and sexuality; M for Mature readers
Classification: Mulder/Scully, UST/MSR, AU
Archive: No archival until the story is completed, please. I'll be submitting to Ephemeral and Gossamer myself.
Spoilers: Through Two Fathers/One Son (S6), then AU. In other words, no Arcadia and beyond. Mytharc-y.
Disclaimer: All X-Files personnel belong to 1013 and Fox. All other elements are mine.
Author's Note: I'm full of Christmas cheer, and hope that this entry finds you the same, whether or not you celebrate Christmas.
Daily posts can be read on my fic journal:anjoufic, as well as Ephemeral and other XF fic sites. The whole tale will be archived at my website, No Other … , maintained by the generous dtg, when it is completed.
As always, thanks to my sister and editrix, Suzanne, for her support.
Summary: Cast your memory back to the dark days of Season 6, to the period immediately following the confrontation between Mulder and Scully in the Gunmen's Office. It is late winter, dark and cold, the landscape obscured and transformed by snow and ice. One must step carefully, for the very ground can be treacherous. This is a lesson Mulder and Scully have already learned when the pristine snow in Antartica yielded a long-buried secret. But the winter can hold many secrets, and could tell many tales, if it so chose.
This is but one.
*~*
She was only unconscious for a few seconds and when she began to rise through the strands of clinging grey fog, she could hear Mulder's voice, reassuring the child. "No, she's OK, honey, she's just really tired." She could feel his arms, one underneath her legs and the other around her back, as he carried her, then laid her down upon a soft surface. "Why don't you go into the bathroom and get her a glass of cold water?" Mulder suggested in his calm, kind voice and she tried to lift her hand, but it felt leaden.
"Scully," he said to her quietly and urgently, "Scully, please wake up." He was chafing her hands and wrists like they did in Victorian novels and she was surprised to feel that it actually helped.
She tried to say his name, but all that came out was, "Mmmm …"
He tilted her head up and trickled some cold water into her mouth and then laid her head back down. There was a pause and then she felt a spattering of cold drops on her face. "Mulder," she complained.
"Oh, thank God," he said. "I'm sorry, Scully. What should I do? Should I sit you up so that you can put your head between your knees?"
She shook her head and opened her eyes. "No, too much blood pressure change and I'll probably faint again," she murmured.
"Eat this," Mulder ordered and handed her half a Twix bar.
She opened her mouth to protest again, but Hannah was half-hiding behind Mulder, and the child still looked terrified at her dramatic entrance.
"When was the last time you ate something, Scully?" Mulder demanded of her, and she looked up at him in exasperation. He was still wearing his overcoat, and by the creases in it, she assumed that he'd liberated it from one of their storage lockers. He looked tired, but he was wide awake with fear and worry, the energy practically snapping off of him.
She started to say "I'm fine," but stopped herself before she actually uttered it. Casual white lies between them had done nothing but create more problems over their years of partnership. "I've been too worried to eat," she said levelly.
Mulder looked startled, but dropped to his knees next to the bed. She thought that he might touch her again, and she tried to will herself not to flinch this time. "I'm sorry, Scully," he said sincerely, "I really am, and I can explain everything, but …" He stopped waving his hands around and ran them hard through his own hair.
Hannah. The little girl had moved away to the end of the bed and was staring at them with a very worried expression on her face. She looked to be about four, or maybe five years old, with a mop of auburn hair that spilled over her shoulders in loose curls. Her eyes were dark blue, much darker than Dana's own. She bore a resemblance to Emily, but was clearly not her clone.
"Can I introduce you to someone?" Mulder asked, "Please?" He radiated anxiety and tension.
Scully stared at him and tried to get her voice to work, but nodded instead, eating a bit more of the candy bar.
Mulder stood up, taking off his overcoat and spreading it over her before he turned and smiled at the child standing warily at the end of the bed, looking from him to Scully with measured curiousity.
"Hannah banana," Mulder said, and the child tucked her chin down and looked up at Mulder. He took a long step and then crouched down beside her in a catcher's pose. "Hannah banana," he said again, drawing her name out until she giggled. "Can I introduce you to someone?" He asked her formally.
Hannah didn't answer, but stepped into the vee of Mulder's legs, leaning against him, peeking at Scully shyly from underneath her hair.
Mulder gave her a squeeze. "Hannah, this is my friend Dana Scully."
Hannah just stared at Scully, but didn't say a word.
"Do you remember that I told you that my friend Dana might be shocked to see you?" he asked her.
Hannah nodded, her eyes never leaving Scully, "Because I look like her little girl who died," she whispered, as Scully's heart constricted.
"Yes," Mulder said and squeezed her fondly, "you do."
"But…" Hannah whispered, turning her head into Mulder's shoulder, "she seems really mad at me."
"Oh no," Mulder said, "she's not mad at you, Hannah." He tipped her face up so she could see him, and wrinkled his nose and made a funny face. "She's mad at me."
"Mulder," Scully protested in shock, sitting up as his rumpled overcoat slid into her lap. "I was just very surprised."
Mulder jumped to her side as she swung her legs over the edge of the bed, "I'm fine," she said to him, "Really." She drew in a deep breath. "Hello, Hannah," she said.
"Hello," Hannah said quietly, worrying the material of her nightgown over her belly. She stood half-hidden behind Mulder.
"It's very nice to meet you," Scully said, feeling absurd, but extending her hand, as if this were normal, meeting what was most likely her daughter this way.
Hannah stared at Scully's hand and then looked at Mulder, who had returned to his crouch at her side. He nodded at her. Hannah's ready acceptance of Mulder stung just a little bit more than Scully would have liked to admit, but Hannah stepped forward and put her hand into Scully's and shook it briefly, then stepped back and looked at Mulder again before she turned and said to Scully, "Are you my mother, too? 'Cause I don't have a real mom."
Mulder answered before she could do more than gape at the child. "We don't know who your mom is, Hannah," Mulder said carefully, smoothing the hair back from the child's face. "But we're going to try and find out, OK?"
"OK," Hannah whispered, and peeked at Scully again, before she turned back and addressed Mulder. "I'd like to have a mom and dad," she said, and her sincere, innocent tone pierced Scully's heart. She couldn't quite stifle the gasp that followed Hannah's words, so she tried to cover by grabbing the glass of water and sipping it.
"I had a little chocolate stuck," she said weakly.
"You should put your arms up over your head," Hannah said seriously, "that's what Mulder told me to do when I ate the cake too fast and I choked." She continued on in a rush, not even waiting for Scully's response. "Have you had chocolate cake? I never had it before, but it was so good that I just wanted to eat all of it right away. I think I should have chocolate cake with every meal, for … " she searched for the word, turning to Mulder, "what was that word?"
"Dessert," Mulder said quietly. "Dessert is the sweet stuff that you get after you eat all your vegetables."
"You don't like broccoli very much," Hannah accused and Scully's eyebrow rose.
"But, I ate it," Mulder said lightly, "and then I could have my dessert."
"It was sweet potato pie," Hannah told Scully, "I didn't like that at all. I'd rather have the chocolate cake."
"Oh," Scully said, nodding. "Have you eaten a lot of dessert with Mulder?"
"After every meal," Hannah said, "since he came and took me from the hospital."
Scully sucked in a sharp breath, but tried to keep her voice level. "Were you sick, Hannah?"
"I don't know," she answered, reaching over Mulder's arm to pick up a striped tiger from the bed. Scully glanced at the bed and saw that the toy had several companions, all equally new-looking. "I lived there."
"Do you know what being sick means?" Scully asked Hannah, curiously.
"Mulder said it's when you don't feel good," Hannah said, "like being tired during the day, and needing to sleep all the time, or when your stomach hurts or your head does, but that didn't happen to me. Sometimes, when they'd give me the shots it would hurt for a long time, and then sometimes they made me very sleepy but I don't think that's the same thing. Is it?" She asked Mulder.
"I don't know, Hannah," Mulder said easily, making a stuffed rhinoceros lumber over to the child while she giggled.
He seemed about to say something else when Hannah continued, "Are we going to have breakfast now, 'cause I'm hungry."
Mulder looked at Scully appraisingly, and then said, "Maybe we should go out and buy some breakfast while Scully takes a nap."
Hannah shrieked with joy and ran across the room.
"Mulder, no," she answered, still sitting on the bed's edge. "I just need to go to the bathroom and freshen up and I'll be fine."
Mulder looked dubious at this pronouncement. "We've got another long drive ahead of us, Scully," he said, "I think it would be better if you stretch out and get some real sleep before we have to get on the road. We can bring you something back."
Hannah was already busily digging into a new-looking Blue's Clues suitcase. The thought of going outside with the child seemed more exhausting than staying here and being left out of whatever was going on. She glanced at Mulder to find him studying her again, and she sighed. She wasn't going to get any answers out of him any time soon, anyway.
"Coffee, Mulder," she ordered, "lots of it, and some bottled water." She walked to the bathroom door and closed it, resting her aching head against the cool wood. It wasn't thick enough to block out the small voice from the other room, the one that signaled that nothing was going to be the same. Again.
"And waffles!" Hannah exclaimed. "I like waffles!"
~*~
Part 5
Author:
comice aka Anjou (Anjou@rocketmail.com)Posting Date: December 2007/January 2008
Rating: R for language and sexuality; M for Mature readers
Classification: Mulder/Scully, UST/MSR, AU
Archive: No archival until the story is completed, please. I'll be submitting to Ephemeral and Gossamer myself.
Spoilers: Through Two Fathers/One Son (S6), then AU. In other words, no Arcadia and beyond. Mytharc-y.
Disclaimer: All X-Files personnel belong to 1013 and Fox. All other elements are mine.
Author's Note: I'm full of Christmas cheer, and hope that this entry finds you the same, whether or not you celebrate Christmas.
Daily posts can be read on my fic journal:
anjoufic, as well as Ephemeral and other XF fic sites. The whole tale will be archived at my website, No Other … , maintained by the generous dtg, when it is completed.As always, thanks to my sister and editrix, Suzanne, for her support.
Summary: Cast your memory back to the dark days of Season 6, to the period immediately following the confrontation between Mulder and Scully in the Gunmen's Office. It is late winter, dark and cold, the landscape obscured and transformed by snow and ice. One must step carefully, for the very ground can be treacherous. This is a lesson Mulder and Scully have already learned when the pristine snow in Antartica yielded a long-buried secret. But the winter can hold many secrets, and could tell many tales, if it so chose.
This is but one.
*~*
She was only unconscious for a few seconds and when she began to rise through the strands of clinging grey fog, she could hear Mulder's voice, reassuring the child. "No, she's OK, honey, she's just really tired." She could feel his arms, one underneath her legs and the other around her back, as he carried her, then laid her down upon a soft surface. "Why don't you go into the bathroom and get her a glass of cold water?" Mulder suggested in his calm, kind voice and she tried to lift her hand, but it felt leaden.
"Scully," he said to her quietly and urgently, "Scully, please wake up." He was chafing her hands and wrists like they did in Victorian novels and she was surprised to feel that it actually helped.
She tried to say his name, but all that came out was, "Mmmm …"
He tilted her head up and trickled some cold water into her mouth and then laid her head back down. There was a pause and then she felt a spattering of cold drops on her face. "Mulder," she complained.
"Oh, thank God," he said. "I'm sorry, Scully. What should I do? Should I sit you up so that you can put your head between your knees?"
She shook her head and opened her eyes. "No, too much blood pressure change and I'll probably faint again," she murmured.
"Eat this," Mulder ordered and handed her half a Twix bar.
She opened her mouth to protest again, but Hannah was half-hiding behind Mulder, and the child still looked terrified at her dramatic entrance.
"When was the last time you ate something, Scully?" Mulder demanded of her, and she looked up at him in exasperation. He was still wearing his overcoat, and by the creases in it, she assumed that he'd liberated it from one of their storage lockers. He looked tired, but he was wide awake with fear and worry, the energy practically snapping off of him.
She started to say "I'm fine," but stopped herself before she actually uttered it. Casual white lies between them had done nothing but create more problems over their years of partnership. "I've been too worried to eat," she said levelly.
Mulder looked startled, but dropped to his knees next to the bed. She thought that he might touch her again, and she tried to will herself not to flinch this time. "I'm sorry, Scully," he said sincerely, "I really am, and I can explain everything, but …" He stopped waving his hands around and ran them hard through his own hair.
Hannah. The little girl had moved away to the end of the bed and was staring at them with a very worried expression on her face. She looked to be about four, or maybe five years old, with a mop of auburn hair that spilled over her shoulders in loose curls. Her eyes were dark blue, much darker than Dana's own. She bore a resemblance to Emily, but was clearly not her clone.
"Can I introduce you to someone?" Mulder asked, "Please?" He radiated anxiety and tension.
Scully stared at him and tried to get her voice to work, but nodded instead, eating a bit more of the candy bar.
Mulder stood up, taking off his overcoat and spreading it over her before he turned and smiled at the child standing warily at the end of the bed, looking from him to Scully with measured curiousity.
"Hannah banana," Mulder said, and the child tucked her chin down and looked up at Mulder. He took a long step and then crouched down beside her in a catcher's pose. "Hannah banana," he said again, drawing her name out until she giggled. "Can I introduce you to someone?" He asked her formally.
Hannah didn't answer, but stepped into the vee of Mulder's legs, leaning against him, peeking at Scully shyly from underneath her hair.
Mulder gave her a squeeze. "Hannah, this is my friend Dana Scully."
Hannah just stared at Scully, but didn't say a word.
"Do you remember that I told you that my friend Dana might be shocked to see you?" he asked her.
Hannah nodded, her eyes never leaving Scully, "Because I look like her little girl who died," she whispered, as Scully's heart constricted.
"Yes," Mulder said and squeezed her fondly, "you do."
"But…" Hannah whispered, turning her head into Mulder's shoulder, "she seems really mad at me."
"Oh no," Mulder said, "she's not mad at you, Hannah." He tipped her face up so she could see him, and wrinkled his nose and made a funny face. "She's mad at me."
"Mulder," Scully protested in shock, sitting up as his rumpled overcoat slid into her lap. "I was just very surprised."
Mulder jumped to her side as she swung her legs over the edge of the bed, "I'm fine," she said to him, "Really." She drew in a deep breath. "Hello, Hannah," she said.
"Hello," Hannah said quietly, worrying the material of her nightgown over her belly. She stood half-hidden behind Mulder.
"It's very nice to meet you," Scully said, feeling absurd, but extending her hand, as if this were normal, meeting what was most likely her daughter this way.
Hannah stared at Scully's hand and then looked at Mulder, who had returned to his crouch at her side. He nodded at her. Hannah's ready acceptance of Mulder stung just a little bit more than Scully would have liked to admit, but Hannah stepped forward and put her hand into Scully's and shook it briefly, then stepped back and looked at Mulder again before she turned and said to Scully, "Are you my mother, too? 'Cause I don't have a real mom."
Mulder answered before she could do more than gape at the child. "We don't know who your mom is, Hannah," Mulder said carefully, smoothing the hair back from the child's face. "But we're going to try and find out, OK?"
"OK," Hannah whispered, and peeked at Scully again, before she turned back and addressed Mulder. "I'd like to have a mom and dad," she said, and her sincere, innocent tone pierced Scully's heart. She couldn't quite stifle the gasp that followed Hannah's words, so she tried to cover by grabbing the glass of water and sipping it.
"I had a little chocolate stuck," she said weakly.
"You should put your arms up over your head," Hannah said seriously, "that's what Mulder told me to do when I ate the cake too fast and I choked." She continued on in a rush, not even waiting for Scully's response. "Have you had chocolate cake? I never had it before, but it was so good that I just wanted to eat all of it right away. I think I should have chocolate cake with every meal, for … " she searched for the word, turning to Mulder, "what was that word?"
"Dessert," Mulder said quietly. "Dessert is the sweet stuff that you get after you eat all your vegetables."
"You don't like broccoli very much," Hannah accused and Scully's eyebrow rose.
"But, I ate it," Mulder said lightly, "and then I could have my dessert."
"It was sweet potato pie," Hannah told Scully, "I didn't like that at all. I'd rather have the chocolate cake."
"Oh," Scully said, nodding. "Have you eaten a lot of dessert with Mulder?"
"After every meal," Hannah said, "since he came and took me from the hospital."
Scully sucked in a sharp breath, but tried to keep her voice level. "Were you sick, Hannah?"
"I don't know," she answered, reaching over Mulder's arm to pick up a striped tiger from the bed. Scully glanced at the bed and saw that the toy had several companions, all equally new-looking. "I lived there."
"Do you know what being sick means?" Scully asked Hannah, curiously.
"Mulder said it's when you don't feel good," Hannah said, "like being tired during the day, and needing to sleep all the time, or when your stomach hurts or your head does, but that didn't happen to me. Sometimes, when they'd give me the shots it would hurt for a long time, and then sometimes they made me very sleepy but I don't think that's the same thing. Is it?" She asked Mulder.
"I don't know, Hannah," Mulder said easily, making a stuffed rhinoceros lumber over to the child while she giggled.
He seemed about to say something else when Hannah continued, "Are we going to have breakfast now, 'cause I'm hungry."
Mulder looked at Scully appraisingly, and then said, "Maybe we should go out and buy some breakfast while Scully takes a nap."
Hannah shrieked with joy and ran across the room.
"Mulder, no," she answered, still sitting on the bed's edge. "I just need to go to the bathroom and freshen up and I'll be fine."
Mulder looked dubious at this pronouncement. "We've got another long drive ahead of us, Scully," he said, "I think it would be better if you stretch out and get some real sleep before we have to get on the road. We can bring you something back."
Hannah was already busily digging into a new-looking Blue's Clues suitcase. The thought of going outside with the child seemed more exhausting than staying here and being left out of whatever was going on. She glanced at Mulder to find him studying her again, and she sighed. She wasn't going to get any answers out of him any time soon, anyway.
"Coffee, Mulder," she ordered, "lots of it, and some bottled water." She walked to the bathroom door and closed it, resting her aching head against the cool wood. It wasn't thick enough to block out the small voice from the other room, the one that signaled that nothing was going to be the same. Again.
"And waffles!" Hannah exclaimed. "I like waffles!"
~*~
Part 5
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-12-26 03:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-26 10:03 pm (UTC)Sorry for the ache!
no subject
Date: 2007-12-26 10:04 pm (UTC)Sorry for the anxiety!