From: formysunshineboy Date: 1 Dec 2003 15:17:08 -0800 Subject: xfc: Breakdown by shawntaw (Companion piece to "Collapse") Source: atxc Title: Breakdown - Companion to "Collapse" Author: shawntaw Rating: I'd say R. Its definitely racier language-wise than I usually write. Spoiler: I don't have time to look up the title, but its the ep in Season Two when Mulder's Dad gets killed and Melissa is killed too. Disclaimer: I didn't create them, but I enjoy giving them a fuller life than they were allowed on the show. Thank you Chris Carter for giving me such neat toys. Summary: All that has occurred is changing Scully. Note: I've had a lot going on in my life lately. Had a minor surgery...went to an Autism Conference in Canada (my son's Autistic) and my wonderful father passed away this month. I just thought writing might be a good escape for me right now, so if it isn't exactly polished - I apologize. Hope you like... Feedback at shawntaw@hotmail.com And now the curtains rise........ ********************************************************************** ...round and round and round and round... Scully realized she had been stirring her tea for several minutes and made herself stop. She had zoned out again. She put down the spoon and took a sip of her now lukewarm tea. Scully grimaced and moved toward the microwave. The machine began to hum as it warmed her drink. Pictures of Melissa chased each other through her mind. Melissa as a child, defying authority. Particularly Ahab. Melissa running away from home as a older teenager, inviting Dana to go with her. Scully allowed herself a moment to wonder what her life would have been like had she taken Melissa up on the offer. Would she have traveled up and down the California coast as her sister had, taking what experiences life offered? Would she have joined the FBI? Met Mulder? Would Melissa be alive? The popping of her tea inside the microwave brought her back to the present reality and she swore loudly, stopping the microwave. Scully pulled out her scalding hot tea and set it aside to cool. Mechanically, she moved to the couch to fold the basket of laundry sitting beside it. The basketful of laundry that she had mechanically and methodically washed and dried. She felt cold inside. She was just going through the motions of living and she knew it. None of this made any sense to her, but some part of her desperately wanted to believe that it was all for some higher purpose. It had to be or what point to any of it was there? Scully reached up and rubbed a fingertip over her cross. She closed her eyes and tried to pray - as she had been trying to all day - and still nothing came to her. She didn't feel connected to God as she normally did. She felt far away....like he was too far away to hear her. It scared her. Scully took a deep breath and reached into the basket for something to fold. She carefully took each piece of clothing and folded it precisely. She mechanically smoothed each crease...pressed each folded bundle flat and exact until her whole world was smooth...fold....set aside by category. Underwear in a small stack here. Blouses smoothed out over the back of the couch to be carted into her room and hung in the closet. Socks with their ends folded together just so in a pile to that side and bras folded with the cups fitted together on this side. She wouldn't let the bastards that did this take her sanity too. Control was the key. Control. Her tea sat on the kitchen counter - growing cold. ********************************************************************** ********************** I just thought Scully would breakdown in her own unigue way.... Feedback at shawntaw@hotmail.com