From: RhiaRamsay Date: 21 Feb 2000 19:40:14 GMT Subject: New: Deeper Magic From Before The Dawn Of Time (1/2) Title: Deeper Magic From Before The Dawn Of Time Author: Elizabeth L. Iacono Rating: PG Category: Story, Romance, Humor Keywords: Mulder/Scully Romance (married) Spoilers: Closure Summary: For some, death is not as permanent as it seems, and Mulder and Scully find this out first hand...or...it's only when you stop looking for something that you actually find it. It's yet another story in the Crystal Moonlight Series (don't shoot me! I'll get back to the other series soon, I promise!). This one is different from the rest because neither Mulder nor Scully is narrating it, but a third person is. Actually, it's from Samantha's POV. Now I know exactly what happened in Closure, and I'm not pretending it didn't happen. I'm just having a little fun with it. *g* And I know some people will get mad at me for calling Mulder and Scully Fox and Dana, but I really doubt Samantha knows that, and I don't believe she would call them by their last names. I've been writing this series out of order, so here's how it's supposed to go: Crystal Moonlight Resting Here With Me Zanies And Fools Who Don't Believe In Sensible Rules Finding Home Deeper Magic From Before The Dawn Of Time Feedback: Any comments or complaints go to RhiaRamsay@aol.com Archive: Gossamer and Spookys, anywhere else just drop me a line so I can visit it. Disclaimer: You all know by now that they're not mine. Deeper Magic From Before The Dawn Of Time Elizabeth L. Iacono I remember hearing something once about the best laid plans of mice and men, and how they rarely go as planned. That's what I felt like at that moment. I had set out with a very specific purpose and mission, and soon I found that it was all shot to hell. The problem was: I was alive. Okay, that made no sense, even to me. To quote 'The Sound Of Music' I'll start at the very beginning. My name is Samantha Anne Mulder, born November 21, 1965 and died on December 11, 1979. I was dead, and I have been dead for the past 21 years. And therein lies the problem. I was dead, and then suddenly I wasn't. But back to my story. I'm not even very sure of the circumstances of my own death, one minute there were men coming to get me, and the next minute I was floating through the air, my body just gone and me no better than a ghost. Those 21 years were nice though. There were many other children like myself, ghostly spirits made out of starlight. I think we were somewhere on Earth, but on another plane of existence where no one else could see us, and where we could wait to be reborn again into new bodies. I guess because we died so young and without reason we got the chance to start over. On rare occasions though the living can see us, I don't know why but they can. This was how I saw my brother again, just a few months ago. The last time I'd seen him was all the way back in 1973, when I was still alive. After the doctors messed up my memories I couldn't remember much about him at all. But after I died it seemed that it all came rushing back and I could remember everything. Especially my brother, Fox. Even though the last time I saw him he was a bratty 12-year-old, I still recognized him at first glance. I'd sort of watched over him over the years, being dead gives you a sort of omniscience that really comes in handy, especially when you want to keep a watch on loved ones who have a tendency for trouble. I reassured him that I was all right, that I wasn't in any pain anymore, and that I was happy. I think it worked, because the smile on his face was so bright. There was one little thing I didn't tell him (no, it's not a bad thing). I didn't tell him that in a few months his wife, Dana Scully (another well kept secret) was going to conceive a child. Twins, no less, one boy and one girl. This was going to be my chance for rebirth. I was told (don't ask me how, things are different when you're dead) that I would go into the baby girl's body. She was waiting for my soul. I was so happy about it, even though I wouldn't remember anything, I would still be with my family. So I had set off to find Fox and Dana. I knew I had to to get to my niece's body. This was where things started to get screwy. First of all, I wasn't sure how to find them in real life, before this all I'd done was just observe them from the plane. I just started walking then, heading east towards where the sun rose. But then there was a light, a blue-white light that blinded me and I'm pretty sure knocked me out because the next thing I knew I was lying on the grass blinking my eyes as if I'd just woken up. Talk about disoriented. I had no clue what was going on. I could see that I was on the side of an empty road, and that it was nighttime. I was wearing a white shirt and sweater with a flowered skirt, pretty much the same thing I'd been wearing for the past 21 years. Trying to get to my feet was hard, for some unknown reason I was really weak. Unfortunately I kneeled on a few rocks and was sent tumbling once more. It got stranger though. When I finally turned over and got rid of the grass in my mouth I saw that my knees had started bleeding. Normally, that would be a minor setback--if one was alive, and not dead. Being dead meant you didn't have a physical body that couldn't get cut. That's where I panicked. I practically pinched myself to the point of drawing more blood in my haste to determine that I now had a very physical body. I wondered what the hell was going on. Did this mean I wasn't dead anymore? I thought suddenly. At this point I did was any person who was once dead but now faced the possibility of having a body and being alive again would do. I fainted. This time I came to with another light, only this one came from the end of a police officer's flashlight. "Are you okay, miss?" he asked me. It took a couple of seconds to realize that 1) my body was still solid, 2) the police officer could see me, and 3) my voice was very hoarse (from disuse?) and all I could produce were a couple of croaks. "Miss? Are you all right?" the cop asked again. Yet again, I croaked. The cop knelt down next to me. "Miss, I'm going to take you to the hospital," he said. 'No!' I thought frantically, attempting to shake my head no. Last time I was in a hospital was bad enough, I didn't want to go back. But apparently people don't listen to teenage girls who look kind of beat up and can only croak. So the cop picked me up, put me in the back of his patrol car, and sped to the hospital. While he drove I spent my time stretching out, trying to get my muscles working again. I also did a bit of thinking about my current situation. There were a few things that as dead I had that I didn't have while I was alive. First of all was the blue glow that surrounded me as a spirit. That was gone, my skin was a typical flesh color, albeit a little grimy. I was also solid. Before, I was able to walk through a wall if I wanted to. Now? Thud. And I've lost the omniscience too. It was nice being able to know almost anything you wanted. Now, I can't even figure out what state I'm in. I didn't even know how Fox would react if I went to see him like this. I still have to see him, I know that much. What's bothering me is that I just told him pretty much that I was happy where I was and that it was time to stop searching for me. And now that he's sure to have moved on with his life (twins on the way would certainly spur that on) I suddenly show up again. It's not going to be a fun sight. Maybe I'll just let the guys at the hospital run some tests and when the genetics match up then we'll see where it goes, I thought. Soon I saw the glaring lights of the emergency room entrance, and I could feel myself beginning to panic. Hospitals were not good. They poked and prodded you too much and asked too many questions. I didn't have much of a choice though because two nurses were heading towards the car with a gurney in between them. Oh great. The nurses hauled me out of the car and put me on the gurney. Then they began the preliminary checks, taking my pulse, shining a light in my eyes, trying to see how bad the cuts on my knees were. "Can you tell us your name?" one of them asked. Sorry, I thought, you're not getting that out of me. I managed to raise a hand to bat the light out of my eyes and get my voice back enough to mumble "Leave me alone!" You'd think they'd listen, but no. From there they wheeled me into one of the examining rooms, and then they thankfully left me a lone (although the doctor would have to come soon). In that brief waiting period I had gotten a look at where I was once more. It was a dull old examining room, I'd seen ones like it before. Granted, this one was more modern than the last one I had been in but things looked like they still had the same general purpose. I also figured out that my voice was pretty much back to normal, which was a very good thing. I was going to need a voice. The doctor then walked in interrupting my train of thoughts. He looked pleasant, but after my former life I was always paranoid. Hey, I had a right to it. He put his clipboard down on a counter in the room and turned to me, still lying on the gurney like a dead fish. "So I hear that the police officer and the nurses couldn't get a name out of you. Do you think you could tell me instead?" he said. Now here I had two options. I could play it silent and keep my mouth shut totally, or I could be a smart-ass. "John Brown, ask me again and I'll knock you down," I said. Guess I opted for smart-ass. The doctor looked at me with an annoyed look on his face, knowing full well that wasn't my real name, but that he wasn't going to get anything more out of me. "Since we're not going to get anywhere with that, why don't you tell me how you ended up passed out on the side of the road." Now that I could do, at least an abbreviated version. "Well, I was walking along and I tripped over some rocks. I must have banged my head because the next thing I knew the cop was shining his flashlight in my eyes." "That doesn't explain what you were doing walking along a nearly empty road this late at night," the doctor said. Damn, this guy was stubborn. I shrugged, feeling the smart-ass come out to play again. "I felt like it," I smirked. The doctor rolled his eyes. I guess he must have given up. He should have known that if people don't want to talk they won't. "Fine. Now let's take a look at those knees of yours," he said, pulling up a stool. After a few minutes of examining he looked up. "Well you're going to need stitches on both of them. Another doctor will come in to clean them up. Is there anywhere else that hurts?" he asked me. I bit my lip thoughtfully. When I thought about it my shoulder did feel kind of achy, but there was a reason for that. "Well, my shoulder kind of hurts, but that's happened before because I busted my collarbone a few years back." A few years, almost thirty years, same difference. "Would you mind removing your sweater so I can take a look at it?" the doctor asked. I figured since I had brought it up I should at least do what he says, so I shucked off my sweater. The doctor pulled the collar to the shirt down a little and examined the area near where I had broken my collar bone. While he was doing this he started to tell me something out of the blue. "Did you know that there have been girls getting attacked around here lately?" he asked me. "No, I did not," I said honestly. "Because you know what happened when the policeman found you sounds awfully similar to what some of the victims of the attacks have reported," he mentioned calmly. Okay, now he was beginning to scare me. What was the point of this jabber? "Really?" I said, sounding totally disinterested. "Yes," the doctor said. "Well, nothing seems broken in your shoulder, although old breaks can be aggravated by stress. I'll request an x-ray just to be sure though. And about the attacks, because the way you were found was so similar, there are some people, FBI agents, who are going to want to talk to you." I felt my eyebrows shoot up into my hairline. FBI agents? As in the same kind that Fox is, I thought. Then, I got this strange feeling in my stomach that said something was coming. Something big. Finally the doctor left, to my utter relief. I knew that the FBI being at the same hospital I was at was just purely coincidence...wasn't it? I thought that it would just be too strange if it turned out that Fox was there at that very minute. Of course, everything had been weird up to that point, why should this be any different? I pushed myself into a sitting position. Lying back on the gurney like that just made me feel really helpless. I still couldn't shake the feeling that something big was going to happen. I could practically feel it in my newly returned bones. Thinking about that made me so distracted that I practically jumped three feet in the air when another doctor walked in, this one rolling a tray filled with antiseptics, bandages, needles, and stitching equipment. "Hello," she said, just a little too chipper for my tastes. "Let's just get your knees cleaned up, then we can stitch them and you should be good as new." I sighed and slouched down, preparing myself for the pain. "So what's your name?" she asked. I rolled my eyes. "Did they tell you ask me that?" I said. The doctor shrugged. "You got to give a girl credit for trying," she said, opening a bottle of antiseptic and beginning to clean up my knees. "Ow!" I hissed at the first touch of the burning liquid. "Don't worry, I'll make it quick," the doctor said, making her movements quick and efficient. It was a good effort, but it still stung. At that moment another person walked into the examining room carrying a clipboard and what looked like a file folder. I felt my face go white at the sight of this new person. I remembered my thoughts about how the FBI being in this hospital at the same time was just coincidence and decided that maybe it was time to rethink that idea. No, the person walking into the room wasn't Fox, but someone very close to him: Dana Scully. I had to work very hard to keep my jaw from dropping. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX End Part One Part Two XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX "Hi," she greeted me. "I'm Agent Scully with the FBI. I'd like to ask you a few questions about tonight." Well she seemed nice, I thought. I got the feeling that this was it, that maybe I'd be finding Fox a lot sooner than I thought. Although I still wasn't sure how I was going to go about it. "Uh, okay," I said, hearing my voice come out very unsure. Maybe I should have stuck to croaking... "Good," Dana said, flipping up a page on her clipboard. "Now, I've been told that you refuse to give a name so we'll get tackle that problem later." I breathed a silent sight of relief, even though I knew the topic would not be dropped that easily. "Could you tell me how you received those injuries?" she asked. "You mean did someone attack me? Is that why I'm injured?" I said, deciding to cut through the bullshit. Dana nodded. I gave a half smirk and said "I can safely say that I was not attacked by anyone, I'm just that much of a klutz." It's true, I am a major klutz, I was always banging or scraping something. I was one of those girls who always had Band-Aids on her knees. I've always been like that. When I was really little I dislocated my right elbow-twice. I spent my first birthday with my arm in a sling. "I scraped up my knees when I tripped over some rocks, and the shoulder thing is from when I busted my collarbone a few years back," I finished. "How did you break your collar bone?" Dana asked. I got a sudden flash of inspiration. There were certain things about the collarbone incident that only me and Fox knew. My eyes darted over to the closed door to the examination room. Maybe Fox was listening to us from right behind it, I thought. Please hear me, if not please have Dana tell him... "Well there's two versions of the story: the one I told my mom and what really happened. Which one do you want to hear?" I said. "I'd like to hear both actually, but why don't you start with what you told your mom," Dana said. I saw the pen in her hand scratching down notes on the clipboard. "Okay, well I-Ow!" I cried out, feeling a sudden sharp pain in my knee. I looked down at the doctor expectantly, who was pulling a needle out of my knee. "That was just some Novocaine," she said. "We have to numb the area around the cuts first before we can sew them up." "Oh, okay." I looked back at Dana, who was waiting for my story. I put on the innocent little girl voice and the lost puppy dog face I used with people who expected me to be a nice little girl. "Well, I was on the rope swing in our backyard when the rope broke and when I fell my collarbone broke." It was obvious Dana didn't buy the innocent route. If I know Fox correctly he probably used the puppy dog face on her a few times (he's the one who taught me, after all) and ten to one says she didn't buy it then either. "And what was the real version?" she said. My back straightened as I lost the innocent act, and my voice took on a more normal tone. "The reason the rope broke was because I was climbing up it to get to the tree branch it was tied to so I could prove that I could actually make it up there." Dana arched an eyebrow, and I shrugged. "I never said it was a good reason, just the real one." This time I could see I got a little laugh out of her. "So there was no one out there with you then?" Dana asked. "No one following you, or anything like that?" "Not one bit," I confirmed. "Okay then, thanks for your time," Dana said, and walked out of the room. I sighed and slouched down once more. "FBI agents give you the creeps?" the doctor said conversationally while she worked on my knees. I tried to look down at what she was doing but when I saw the needle and thread go into my skin and out again I had to look away before I threw up (could I throw up? There hadn't been anything in my stomach for 21 years...). "You could say that," I said, smirking a little. Soon the doctor was done and I was alone in the room once more, this time with a set of numb knees covered in bandages. I began wondering if Dana would report what I had said to Fox. It would probably make the whole thing a lot easier, if I came out and just said what had to be said without something to back it up he'd think I was crazy. Not for the first time I wondered how I had ended up in this predicament. I mean, this was as unlikely as anything could get. A person coming back from the dead, it was the type of thing that only happened in fairy tales and the Bible. But, I thought, was I really ever dead in the first place? I had no clue what had happened to my body, maybe that was a sign that I was going to be reborn into that same body one day. That's about when I quit thinking along those lines before I went cross-eyed. From outside the room I heard voices talking, and if I was correct it was Fox and Dana. I strained my ears to hear what they were saying, dying to know what they were talking about. My ears perked up when I heard the name Samantha, I was sure there was only one Samantha they could be talking about, although there was a slight possibility it was someone else. So I decided to move a little closer just to be sure. I looked down at my bandaged, unfeeling knees. It's like there was a big numb spot in the middle of my legs. Well, I might have been exaggerating a little, but they still felt funny. Giving my legs a few experimental flexes, I figured I could walk over to the door. I gently pushed myself off the gurney and lowered myself carefully down until I felt my feet touch the floor. When I was confident enough I released the edge of the gurney and started to walk. Thud. I guess not being able to feel my knees was as good as I thought because with the first step my knees gave out and I found myself face to face with the floor. "Nice going, Sam," I muttered as I pushed myself up on my arms and flipped myself over. I had myself settled into a sitting position when the door to the examining room opened. And this time, it wasn't Dana. I looked up to see the brother I hadn't seen in years staring down at me open-mouthed. Fox shut the door and hesitantly began to walk towards I was sitting on the floor. "Samantha?" he said. I could hear the incredulity in his voice. That's where I panicked. "Okay, I know that the last time I saw you on that field I said that everything was okay and that I was dead and everything like that but something happened and I don't know what happened but something did..." and on and on and on, I was a rambling mess. I shut up though when Fox kneeled down in front of me. "Sam, is it really you?" he asked. I nodded, afraid that if I opened my mouth I would being rambling again. "Last time I saw you, back in February, you were a spirit, you had told me that you were dead." I nodded again. "What happened?" Fox asked. I sighed and rubbed my hand over my forehead. "I don't know. I know I was really dead, but then there was this light, and the next thing I knew I had a body again." I looked up at Fox, who still had that incredulous look on his face. "That's about all I can tell you," I said, dropping my eyes to the floor. "How do I know it's really you, that you're really Samantha?" Fox asked. "You look exactly the same as when I saw you out on that field, but how do I know?" "Well you heard the stories about how I broke my collarbone. You and me were the only ones who knew what really happened. And I couldn't have even told anyone about it because after they took me from you they did something to my memories and I couldn't even remember everything until after I was dead, at which point there would be no point to tell anyone." ('You're rambling again, Sam,' I thought.) I ended that little speech and started again. "Other than my memories all I can suggest is a blood test," I said, holding out my finger as if expecting to get pricked by yet another needle. "Would you mind?" Fox asked. "Just to be sure." "Not a bit," I said. "I want to prove this with something more than my memories." Fox nodded, but then he got a kind of funny look on his face. "Can I just ask you one thing?" he said. "Sure," I nodded. "They said you wouldn't give a name before. But what is your name really?" he asked. I shrugged. "Well, last I heard it was Sammi Anne Mulder," I smirked, using one of the nicknames he had for me. I guess I said something right because Fox smiled again, and then for some reason I launched myself at him, hugging him as hard as I could, regardless of my numb knees. And lucky for me, he hugged me back. From somewhere I heard the door creak, and I looked up to see Dana standing slightly in the room with a knowing and kind of happy look on her face. I grinned back at her, trying to reassure her that I was the real thing. And that's basically how I ended up where I am today. Fox got me out of the hospital by saying he knew my parents (he wasn't lying) and we headed back to Washington D.C. from there. Some extremely strange friends of him did the blood tests that proved without a doubt that I really was his sister (I could have told him that). Then we had to make up a story, because no one in their right mind would even believe the truth, that I was dead for 21 years and then suddenly came back. The story we concocted was simple, that I was the daughter of one of Fox's cousins and since my parents got killed in a car accident I went to live with him. The same friends came up with some bogus records for me so I was all set, and I moved in with Fox and Dana. Today is my first day of school here. I'm starting my sophomore year in high school, where I would be according to my age even though there were quite a few things I didn't know. That was a result of being held by those doctors during their tests, my education wasn't foremost on their minds. So that's how I spent the summer, Fox and Dana tutoring me on everything I'd need to know. They also filled me in on a lot of things that had happened over the past 21 years, and if I wanted to fit in I was going to have to catch up. I think I've done a good job of playing catch up. Dana's showing a little more now, you can tell she's pregnant, although mostly by her face. They still don't know it's going to be twins yet, so I can't wait to see the looks on their faces. As I walked into the kitchen that morning I saw both of them sitting around the table and I got a sudden flash of thought. I thought that maybe this was what was supposed to happen. That maybe I wasn't intended to be my niece's spirit, but that I was the one who was supposed to be reborn from the very start. That only when Fox really stopped looking for me that he would finally find me. I shrugged and filed the thoughts away to be thought through at another time. Right now I had a family to have breakfast with and a new school to tackle. In other words, I was right where I belonged. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX The title is from a chapter in C.S. Lewis's 'The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe'. In that chapter an innocent creature who was killed by evil was brought back to life by the deeper magic from before the dawn of time. Kinda fitting, huh? XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 'True love, it's the greatest thing in the world.' Miracle Max The Princess Bride XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 'Men will fight bravely and be heroes, but for a last ditch defense against any odds, get a mother.' Lightbringer High Wizardry XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 'This is the Fish Patrol in 210. Our flying fish has flown away. In fact, things are so rotten around here that even the pigs won't stay. But we'll fight to the bitter end. Beware the Fish!' Bruno Walton Beware the Fish XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX