From: "Debbie Cullen" Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 16:14:55 -0400 Subject: Story Submission Source: direct TITLE: It's Not Her AUTHOR: Debbie Cullen djc45@hotmail.com RATING: G CLASSIFICATION: Mulder/Scully KEYWORDS: SPOILERS: Beyond The Sea (1 x 12) Little Green Men (2 x 1) 3 (2 x 7) Irresistible (2 x 13) Pusher (3 x 17) Wetwired (3 x 23) SUMMARY: Mulder's thoughts as he goes to identify the body at the morgue in Wetwired. FEEDBACK: Please! I appreciate all feedback - for or against. DISCLAIMER: Anything X-Files that I may have used, do not belong to me. They belong to Chris Carter and 1013 Productions as well, of course, as David and Gillian who bring Mulder and Scully to life so vividly every week. NOTES: Just another addition to my "What If ..." series, which are all directly related to a specific episode(or episodes) - being missing scenes or different twists. IT'S NOT HER After Scully disappears in the night and Skinner tells Mulder that they have no choice but to treat her as armed and dangerous, Mulder knows that he has to find her first. Not knowing where else to start, he decides to check in with the Lone Gunmen. If they have been able to figure anything out about that receiver, maybe he'll have a clue as to how to help Scully. When he gets there, they explain to him how they think the receiver has influenced the people of the town. They tell him that the TV stations, after going through this receiver, are emitting subliminal messages. These messages are making these people paranoid and inclined to murder. Scully must have picked up the subliminal messages from watching those videotapes. "But why wasn't I affected?" Mulder asks. "That's the part we don't quite get," Langly tells him. Mulder looks back at the computer screen. Then he asks, "Could color have anything to do with it?" "It's possible," Byers replies. "Well, I'm red-green color blind," Mulder says. "That's probably it then," Byers says. Just then Mulder's cell phone rings. He answers and listens for a minute. Then he says, "I'll be right there." He hangs up and gets up to leave. "What's up?" "They think they found Scully," he says as he heads towards the door. "Is she okay?" Frohike asks. "No. They think I should go down and identify the body," he says as he walks out the door. By the time he got to his car, his emotions had risen to the surface. He got in the car, put his head down on the steering wheel and cried. After 10 minutes, he sits up and wipes his eyes. He starts the car and pulls away. As he drives along, his mind starts to wander. He remembers the first case they worked together. When Scully came into his room with those bites on her back. How scared she had been! How she had trusted him even then. She had seemed quite comfortable dropping her robe and showing him the bites. God even then she was so gorgeous! Then there was when her father died. He felt so bad for her. He wanted to reach out and let her know that he cared, but he didn't know how. He could tell that she wasn't handling it nearly as well as she wanted everyone to believe. He would have given anything to take that pain away from her. Then there was the time he took off to Puerto Rico. He had been led to believe that an abandoned UFO communications depot was once again receiving signals. He thought he finally had hard evidence of the existence of alien life. Scully had risked her life and her career to rescue him. She really was his guardian angel. Then he thought about how he missed her when she was missing. He had slept with Kirsten Kilar, but only because he missed Scully so much. She was the one he really wanted to be with. Then there was Donnie Pfaster. What a real sicko he was! When I realized that he had Scully, I was terrified that I wouldn't be able to find her in time. I have never been so relieved as when I saw her walk through that door. Finally she let me put my arms around her and comfort her. It almost seemed like she wanted and needed me to. That incident with Robert Modell was something I will never forget. If I didn't know before, I certainly knew it then - just how much my partner really does trust me. I never thought Modell would be able to manipulate my mind the way he did. She must have really trusted me. I had a gun pointed at her head. I was going to shoot her. I even told her to run. She didn't move. She stayed right where she was. She didn't even really seem frightened. She knew I couldn't shoot her. She trust me more than I trusted myself. She talked me out of it and I ended up shooting Modell instead. He is just pulling into the parking lot at the morgue. He parks the car, turns off the engine and just sits there. It's like he's trying to get up the courage to face the task at hand. He closes his eyes for a minute. He opens the car door and heads towards the attendant over in the corner. He stands in front of the window. Once again he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. He then opens his eyes and opens the blind. He sighs a sigh of relief. "It's not her," he says. He then walks away and returns to his car. THE END