From: Susanna_Starz Date: 8 Mar 2006 07:30:44 -0800 Subject: NEW: Fish Eye View 1/1 Source: atxc TITLE: Fish Eye View AUTHOR: Susanna Starz EMAIL: SusannaStarz@hotmail.com URL: http://susannastarz.tripod.com RATING: PG SPOILERS: A little bit for All Things, Requiem, and Three Words CATEGORY: SH ARCHIVE: Sure, just drop me an email to let me know SUMMARY: Everything really IS a conspiracy. DISCLAIMER: The characters of the X Files do not belong to me. No infringement is intended. * Crap. I think she's on to me. This is the third time in the past hour I've caught her sneaking looks in my direction. Intensely curious looks. Her eyebrows are furrowed together in an expression of mingled exhasperation and--is that pity? Sympathy? The placating smile one reserves for the hopelessly insane? "Mulder?" she asks, her voice soft and probing. "Hmm?" "When did you get that?" "Get what?" "That." One perfectly manicured fingernail taps against the glass, inches away from the cheerfully gaudy ship bobbed on an endless stream of bubbles. "Oh," he says. "I don't know. One of the guys, probably." She stares through the glass at it for a moment longer, blue eye big and bulbous in reflection. I don't like the way she's looking at me. "Is this a new fish?" "Hmm?" "Last time I fed your fish, there were four. Now there's five." He shrugs, completely unconcerned. "Must've come with the UFO." For a man long rumored to be among the world's most paranoid, he does not seem to attach much significance to small changes. Whether it truly troubles him when someting in his life is out of place it's hard to determine. A man could go missing in the woods and it's surely an alien abduction or bigfoot encounter, but an alien could land in his living room and set up shop in his fishtank and it's just a present from the guys. The guys. Yeah, I'm not too fond of them either. They have funny faces that contort into scary expressions when they peer through the glass. Every once in a while they come trooping into this poorly decorated apartment to sweep for bugs and other electronic monitoring devices. The little one likes to tap on the glass and send the other fish scattering. I think, if that little toad-like one ever dared stick his hand in the water, I'd take his finger off. Fortunately for him he shows no such aspirations. He is content to stare, his eyes obscenely big behind the double refraction of his spectacles and the aquarium glass. Neither he, nor any of the others have ever owned up to the little UFO that bobs merrily in the aquamarine depths, but then again, Mulder's never really asked. Of course, he didn't ask about the mysterious renovation his apartment underwent about a year ago. Confused the hell out of him though. Just another thing he blamed on The Guys. He tried to joke about it once, with the little one. Made some crack about waterbeds being a lousy gift. He was met with dead silence, so quiet that I'm sure they could hear the little bubbles in my tank. He never mentioned the waterbed again. To be honest, I think he's grown so used to extraordinary events that they no longer faze him. That's the only answer I can come up with to justify why a man who's spent the better part of his lifetime hunting for aliens hasn't noticed one living in his fishtank for the past few years. She noticed. She makes me uncomfortable, the way she's always peering in here. Now, I know she's responsible for feeding us and all when he decides there's some pressing cause in the middle of the night that he feels the need to gallop off to. But just because she shakes a little can of dried fish flakes into the water doesn't mean I have to like her. And I can't risk her figuring things out, when we're this close to completing our plan. I've been talking to my bosses on the little radio in my ship, tracking his movements and reporting on them. They're going to take him soon, it's just a matter of time. The other fish like her. They know when they see her face glowing beyond the cool blue glass that they're about to be fed and they cluster up at the top by the lid, little tails swishing eagerly in the water. I sit on the bottom and stare at her. I look like a fish, and I swim like a fish, although I don't think I'd consider myself aesthetically pleasing. I'm nothing like those flashy, brightly colored tropicals that capture your attention with a flip of a orange speckled fin. I'm a little round, a little squat, gray in color and I've got a mashed in face that slightly resembles a bulldog (if a bulldog was a fish, that is). I'm cumbersome and stand out amidst Fox Mulder's lean aquatic counterparts. But he pays me no mind. I could be joined by a legion of my kind, all bobbing and glowing next to our respective little UFOs, and he'd never bat an eye. It's all too easy for him to believe that others play jokes on him. She's stopped poking at the glass and has settled back down on the couch, mug of tea in hand. She's rambling now, something about an epiphany in a Buddhist temple. I'm bored. I take my leave of them and retreat to my ship, send out a message to home base, and then take a little nap. When I wake, I peek outside to see what's going on, and immediately regret it. No one wants to see *that*. You'd think they'd have a little respect. Maybe toss a blanket over the fishtank for a while. Instead, I'm treated to a magnified view of the two of them, bathed in blue light, humping like bunnies. Their bodies are distorted through the glass, making this seem somehow even more horrific than it already is. Good grief. We're going to have to act soon, before they decide to retire and wander off into the sunset together and never investigate a strange disappearance again. We can't possibly hope to snatch him if he doesn't put himself in a position to be snatched. * Finally got rid of the fool. Sent a message to my friends to have them amp things up a little bit in Oregon, a place guaranteed to catch his attention. Now that he's gone, I can just climb back into my little ship and-- Crap. I never really counted on her still coming around. I figured that once he disappeared, she'd crawl off to wherever she came from and leave me alone. But no. She wants to take care of things while he's gone. She thinks he's coming back. Doesn't want him to come home to a tank full of starved pets floating belly up. And my ship is a little noisy when it gets going. I can't exactly fly off into the sunset if she insists on sleeping in his bed every night. Crap crap and double crap. I wanted to make it home tonight. Maybe dine on a little steak a la Mulder. Maybe flutter around in front of his face a while and see if there was any recognition. See if he finally realized how absolutely foolish he'd been not to notice what was right under his nose. Ah, she's going into the bathroom. I can make my break. I'm in my ship and it's shaking and bubbling and getting ready for liftoff when she appears in the glass, eyes wide. Dammit, it was a trap! She's smirking now as she reaches into the water and picks up my ship, shaking it a little bit like a child would with a bath toy. It might look like cheap plastic, but that baby is titanium. She's not even gonna dent it-- "You," she says, staring right through the little window at me. "Are out of luck." And then she's walking, and the whole world around me is shaking as she marches towards the bathroom. The bathroom? Oh, no no no no not the toilet-- ::flush:: * "Missing a molly," Mulder says, a lifetime later. "Yeah," Scully answers, looking down to hide her slight smile. "She wasn't as lucky as you were." THE END Hope this made you smile a little. Thanks for reading! Feedback is cherished!