From: believe_the_lie@lycosmail.com Date: 23 Jan 1999 05:46:20 -0800 Subject: NEW Consequences 1/1 by Brit*Vik --------------------------------------------- Consequences Author : Brit*Vik Date : The wee small hours of 16/1/99 Category : Comedy (attempt) Rating : A few bad words - PG, I suppose Spoilers : Fire, a teeny bit Archive : Please, just let me know, and keep my name and addy attached. Summary : Mulder and Scully investigate a fire spirit. In reverse. Disclaimer : Hey, if Chris wants to borrow my characters, I'm not gonna stop him. Feedback : I am absolutely desperate for feedback. I'll reply to every single piece I get. Comments : Felt like doing it in reverse so I did. Email : victoria.farrell@hulme-grammar.oldham.sch.uk On with the show- "Consequences" August 15th 9:12 am Dana Scully strode into the office and slammed the door with considerably less decorum than usual. "You're late," her partner snapped as ungraciously as he could through swollen lips. "Shut up," she said, reverting to childishness rather than coming up with an answer more suiting her intelligence and temperament. "As appealing as that is, we need to talk. Skinner wants our report at 9:30. What are we going to tell him?" "We'll tell him the truth - it was a hoax." "I'm still not convinced of that, but anyway, I meant about this," Mulder said and gestured vaguely in the direction of his bruised and swollen face. `How unselfish' she thought, but aloud she said, "The truth - you walked into a door." "You slammed it in my face!" "You shouldn't have followed me," Scully retorted. "Look, can we at least try to be civil in front of Skinner?" "Fine," she glared. "Fine." He walked out of the office without even a glance back at his exasperated partner. Scully sighed. It was going to be a very long day. August 14th 10:57 pm "You're nuts!" "Listen to me, Scully. I'm not saying that Gebberman isn't the spirit that everyone's been seeing, I just think there may be a deeper psychosis at work here. I mean, maybe he saw something that triggered his current mental state." "You do *not* believe that, Mulder," Scully shouted, exasperated. She was finally letting some of her feelings bubble over. It was time to confront Mulder. "Gebberman even admitted that he just did it to add credence to the local legends and increase tourist interest in the town. He was wearing battery powered Christmas lights, for heaven's sake! You've just com up with this wacky theory to piss me off." "Scully, may I remind you that I am actually an Oxford educatde psycologist?" "And if you ask me, that was four wasted years. You never use that training except for developing these insane theories that can never be proven." "Not exactly wasted," he shot back, wanting to hit her where he knew it would hurt. "At least I met Phoebe." "Well why don't you run off and live with Phoebe then? Or Sue Brownstone?" "All right. I will." There was a moment of utter silence in the room. The only movement was the tears that rushed to the front of Dana's eyes, threatening to spill. Then she turned on her heel and headed for the door. Mulder jumped up to stop her. "Scully, wai-" His words were cut off as the doot slammed in his face. Hard. Mulder sank to the floor, unconscious. 8:32pm Scully entered the motel room sedately and tried to push aside her rising irritation with her partner. "Mulder?" she called. Mulder exited the bathroom. He'd just got out of the shower after his post-dinner run and his damp hair clung to his forhead. His tight-fitting vest showed off every single variation in the landscape that was his body. Dana swallowed a lump and focused on the file in her hand. "We've got the results back on the blood test we ran on the blood found on the tack." "Anything good?" "Yep - the person who stood on the tack suffers from a rare blood disease. Nothing serious, as long as they receive regular treatment." "Anyone being treated locally?" Mulder asked, pulling on *that* grey T-shirt. "One Mr. Arnold Gebberman." "Let's go." "Hang on a second. He hasn't done anything illegal. What are we gonna do?" "He trespassed. We'll give him a warning and issue a statement saying that the spirit was, in fact, Mr. Gebberman." "Ok, I'll drive." In order to avoid another argument, Mulder silently placed the keys in her expectant hand. 11:51 am "I've checked the house. The mains electricity wire has been cut," Mulder said, with a resigned sigh. He hated being wrong, especially when it meant that Scully was right. "I found a tack on the floor, under the window - the `spirit's' escape route. There's some blood on the tack that Mr. Brooker is pretty sure doesn't belong to him. I'm sending it off for tests." 11:21 am The house was small and sparsely furnished, reflecting its inhabitant, who stood looking slightly intimidated in front of the two FBI agents. "When I got home, everywhere was dark, just like I'd left it. I tried to turn the lights on, but the switch wouldn't work. And then I saw it." "It?" the pretty woman asked. He couldn't remember her name. "Something was glowing over in the corner. Soon I realised it was taking the shape of a flame. It was hideous. I heard a yelp and then it was gone." "Thank-you, Mr. Brooker, you've been very helpful, you've been very helpful." August 13th 9:03 pm "Mulder, we've interviewed four witnesses and their stories were almost identical." "Exactly." "This doesn't add any more credence to the stories. Can't you just see that they seem more contrived?" "Well, I think you're wrong." "And **I** think **you're** wrong." They both sighed and looked down at the masses of paperwork that surrounded them where they sat on the bed. Scully finally broke the silence. "If we're not going to say anything more constructive, I might as well leave." "What about the case?" "No one's endangered - it can wait till morning." "What about dinner?" "I'm not hungry. If you don't want to eat alone, you could always ask Sue Brownstone - I'm sure she'd be happy to oblige." Her last comment came out much more bitter than she had intended. Mulder ignored her. "What about-" "Look," she broke in and stood up, suddenly very annoyed, "it's been a very long day. I'm tired and I just want to go to bed." By this time, she was at the door. "Goodnight," she said firmly, and left. Mulder continued to look at the space Scully had just vacated. After a few moments he said gently, "Goodnight, Dana." 3:08 pm The lone car drove down the road, kicking up dust devils that were easily visible for miles around on the bleak, blank landscape. Its passengers had been awake for ten hours and travelling constantly for the last nine and a half, flying across the country for the first three hours then driving around the biggest state of America trying to locate Johnson, Texas, population 146. Both were tired and sweaty but the conversation flowed freely, interrupted occasionally by good-natured complaining from Scully that the case they were on was a waste of time. Mulder offered her sunflower seeds every other sentence, until finally she took some, just to keep him happy. "Wait, there's a building," exclaimed Mulder. It was a welcome surprise after the last few hours of desert. "A builing? It looks more like a shed," Scully replied, in reference to the small wooden structure ahead of them. Behind it were a few more of the wooden structures, some larger, some smaller, but all similar in appearance. "I think we may be here," said Mulder, ignoring her snobbishness. There didn't appear to be any people around and there was only one road, so they pulled over and exited the vehicle. Just as they were about to knock on the door, they spotted a woman across the street and approached her. "Excuse me, ma'am, is this the town of Johnson?" Mulder asked politely. `Is this even a town?' Scully thought to herself, but the woman responded positively so Mulder asked if she knew where he could locate Ms. Sue Brownstone. The woman's interest was obviously piqued. "I am she," she said in a honeyed tone that didn't disguise her strong Texan accent, making eyes at Mulder the whole time. Scully felt sick. "I'm Agent Mulder and this is Agent Scully. We're from the FBI. We need to ask you some questions concerning the fire spirit you reported seeing a few days ago." "Well, sure, hon'. Woncha come on in?" she motioned towards a door a few feet away. As Mulder walked through the door that Sue was holding open, Scully began to follow him, only to be elbowed out of the way by Sue. The rest of the interview progressed in a similar fashion. Sue answered all of Scully's questions looking at Mulder, and insisted on calling him "Shug" or "Hon'" the whole time. And Mulder was loving it. They still had two more witnesses to interview that day. Scully was beginning to feel very pissed off. 5:37 am The apartment was calm, ordered and quiet. Until a loud banging on the door shattered all peace and suddenly awakened the single inhabitant, who rushed to the door and peered through the peep-hole. When she what lay on the other side, she sighed and slowly opened the door. "Mulder, it's 5:30 in the morning. Something better be **very** wrong," Scully groaned, still warm from sleep. "We leave for Texas in twenty minutes. Get packing," he ordered, but it didn't sound like an order. Mulder had a way of doing that. "Why are we going to Texas?" Scully asked, already throwing things into a suitcase in her bedroom. "To investigate reports of a fire spirit," came the nonchalant reply. "This is a non-emergency situation. You could have told me yesterday," she snapped, but there was no malice in it. "What, and missed this? Nah, that would have spoiled it," he chuckled like a schoolboy. Scully groaned. She didn't know how she put up with him sometimes. "Why are we even investigating a fir spirit anyway? It's boring and pointless." "Scully, that's a very negative attitude." "See how positive you would be if you were me right now." "Point taken. Anyway, you never know what might turn into a valuable experience one day. This case could help save the world." "I doubt it," Dana replied, still manically packing her suitcase. She paused to smile doubtfully at Mulder. He smiled back openly and said, "Come on, Scully, it'll be fun." FIN "I am Gopher Boy Pondering reality, I am Gopher Boy Who will buy my raspberries?"