From: ACW Date: Tue, 18 May 1999 05:57:28 GMT Subject: New: Between Two Points (VA, Biogenesis, Scully first person) Title: Between Two Points Category: VA (it's a long-ish V, though.) Rating: PG (because stress is not for children. No racy content.) Spoilers: Biogenesis, brief references to Ice, Demons, Folie a Deux. Keywords: Angst, Scully introspection. Summary: Inside Scully's head on her journey from NM to DC after Skinner's distress call. Disclaimer: Standard disclaimers apply, natch. Characters and situations copyright Fox and 1013. Author: ACW Author's Notes: Mmmm! Angsty Goodness! My version of a couple of scenes from Biogenesis that we didn't see. This should be safe for everybody. I'm still fairly new at this, but nobody flamed me the last time I poked my hand out of the ground, so we'll see what happens. I tried to avoid cliches, but one or two may have slipped in. Feedback: koogle@my-dejanews.com Archive: Sure Between Two Points By ACW The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. I remember that from elementary school. I was feeling out of place, standing outside a hogan near Gallup, NM, when I remembered that truth. My phone rang. I heard my boss' voice clearly: Mulder. Serious. As quickly as possible. It was already dark in the Southwest. I felt that I should stay, as an investigator; but as a partner I was already walking that straight line to my rented car. I followed it straight to the tiny airport in Gallup where I talked my way onto a commuter plane. I prepared a long list of reasons in case anybody tried to stop me, but all I needed was the badge. This wasn't the first time it had come in handy. As I boarded the Desert Air Beechcraft 99 15-seater headed straight for Phoenix, I pushed time out of my head. I couldn't allow myself to stand still on the moving sidewalk in the Phoenix airport. I took steps as long as my legs would allow, straight to the gate to board an America West 767. The last flight out of Phoenix was a red-eye to to Chicago. I stared straight ahead during most of the flight, as if my concentration would help the plane go faster. I repeated words in my head. I'm coming, Mulder. I'll be there. Luck was with me as I found my connecting flight: an early morning United DC-10 straight out of O'Hare to Washington National. I kept my head clear as best I could. I had to stay calm: Mulder. As quickly as possible. The taxi line at National was mercifully short. I was inside the Beltway. I could be with him in ten minutes. Minutes. Time. Two points. Straight line, I thought as I strode through the terminal. It was serious, Skinner said. As quickly as possible. I crushed my fingers into my hands, biting my palms with my nails and said a silent prayer that I wouldn't be too late. I did not stop to wonder what might be waiting for me. Straight to Georgetown University Medical Center. Straight into an elevator. I didn't stop to think, I went straight to where Skinner had told me to meet him. Straight down a bright clean hallway into a darkened room where he and Diana Fowley watched Mulder on video monitors in the company of several doctors. Strangers, all of them. Psychological trauma. God. It was not what I had expected. I heard his voice calling my name, as I had heard it flying over deserts, mountains, plains, cities. I blanched in the light from his image on the screens. It was not what I expected, my partner locked in a room with the noises in his head. It was not what I expected, these strangers standing, watching, wringing their hands. These helpless people with their party line. I shook my head as I gathered my wits. I needed all my strength. Mulder needed all my strength. I had travelled a great distance to face them at this crossroads: an antiseptic corridor in a hospital that is, ironically, less than a mile from my apartment. Like stones, they threw words at me; all of them, one at a time. I remembered the the Icy Cape, my gun pointed at him. "He said I was the only one he could trust." I remembered the Rhode Island, his gun pointed at me. "He's a danger to anybody who comes near him." I rememebered Illinois, his arms bound to the bedrails. "This is very serious." This was not happening again, I told myself. "He asked for you last night." But it was. I heard his voice; I heard their voices challenging me with every word. I stood as straight as I ever had, with ice in my veins, and raked my eyes over them, all of them. Their words were lies. I knew the truth: they stood together, against me. It didn't matter to me why. 'He's not a danger to me,' I spoke the truth. As I left them, I called them liars, they'd know that I knew. I wanted them to know. Now I stood at a locked door, able to hear Mulder still calling my name from behind it. "Do you have a key to unlock this door?" I asked the an orderly calmly as I flashed my badge once again. He did. As he hesitated, I reached for my weapon. It took everything I had not to crumble at the sight of my partner's in the thin hospital gown, raging as he maintained a vigil against the unblinking eye of the video camera, the noise in his head not allowing a moment's rest. I didn't make a sound. I didn't know if he'd be able to hear me over the rush. I stood in the opposing corner seeing him through a watery filter, feeling a tear on my cheek, wanting to complete my journey by running straight to him to fight off the demons with my own hands. I felt another tear, and another, dribble down my face onto my neck. I called out for Mulder in my head, my voice as rough as his. It was then that he turned to face me, then that I spoke aloud. I needed to hear my own voice. 'I'm here, Mulder.' 'You came.' I stared at him from a few feet away. 'Scully,' he pleaded through the noise. His face was contorted, as if he was trying to expel the sounds playing around his head. His head battled with his body 'Yes.' I smiled at him in solidarity . I was with him. We drifted closer to the center of the oddly lit room toward each other. He was a few inches away from me. I lifted my eyes straight to his: the shortest distance. The truth would set him free--Mulder's truth and mine. I knew he would be with me as I continued our journey. -30-