From: Martha Date: 22 Apr 2002 14:34:00 -0700 Subject: [all-xf] NEW: A Life at Arm's Length (1/1) post JTS Source: atxc ARCHIVE: Okay to forward to atxfc, Ephemeral, and Gossamer PLEASE NOTE: This is a missing scene to Jump The Shark (US9) that DOES NOT alter the televised conclusion. For those who would rather not read this now - or ever - please hit delete. Disclaimer: The characters contained in this story are the creative property of 1013 Productions and FOX Broadcasting and are used without their permission. Rating: PG Classif: Missing Scene Keywords: Lone Gunmen Spoilers: Jump the Shark (XF S9), The Lone Gunmen (Season 1) Summary: What will it finally take to be the first to reach out? A Life at Arm's Length by Martha marthalgm@yahoo.com Throughout her life, Yves had kept people away. Not too close, she warned. Keep your distance, she scolded. She relied on herself; she needed no companionship, for those who had tried to provide it had failed her. Those few in the past that she had allowed access had misled and disgusted her, which fueled her distrust and drove her into a life of secrecy. She learned quickly their game of deception and amassed the means, through information and money, to keep her secrets. And then there were those whom she had loved who had died. There was Leonardo Santavos, who, in the space of a dance, had fallen in love with her and she with him. He had given his life to spare hers, even knowing that she had betrayed him and had deceived him all along. She had allowed herself to become attached, and again she was abandoned. Now she watched as Jimmy and the Gunmen silently communicated their good-byes, as the Gunmen stepped away from the glass to spare the two of them the full horror of what was about to transpire. Her first instinct was to grab Jimmy and pull him away, to save the innocent from the unfolding disaster. But she knew that Jimmy would not be torn from his friends, not now. And so she waited with him and served as witness to fallen heroes whose final moments must be preserved for the ages. Frohike was the first to falter. Frohike, who had known all along what kind of person she really was along with pieces of her past but who gallantly kept what little he knew of her secret in exchange for diverting the air disaster that saved Byers. Langly caught him as he slumped, then cradled Frohike to the floor when unconsciousness quickly and mercifully overtook him. She watched as Langly mouthed his name over and over, as his tears slipped under his glasses and streamed down his face in his grief. Byers knelt beside the two and placed his hand over Frohike's heart as a final loving gesture or perhaps to still the convulsions. Or, ever the analyst, perhaps to determine just how much time he himself had before the toxin overtook him. It did not take long. Byers stretched out on the floor beside them, his hand still on Frohike's chest. Yves could not see his face and could not tell if he had lost consciousness. When Langly grabbed his hand and shook it a few times with no visible response on Byers' part, she realized that he too was now gone. Her heart sank further when Langly turned back to look at the glass. She knew that *he* knew that he was now alone, and it would just be a matter of moments until his end. It had been over even before she was aware of it; Langly's eyes never closed, and he slumped over only when gravity pulled him down. To be the last to die might have been a comfort to Langly, as he was not alone. Where there was one, she had observed on many occasions, you could always find the other two. The only justice in this tragedy - if one must be found - was that the three had died together and in each other's arms. But her heart broke for Jimmy - he had to watch and there was nothing that he could do to stop it. In silent tribute, Yves placed her hand on the glass where the others had been moments before. The lies they had told each other, the animosity between her and the Gunmen dissipated with the knowledge that they had died to save her, just like Santavos. Jimmy had been the one to reach out then and comfort her in her sorrow, and she could only pay tribute to their memory by making her own sacrifice. She gathered up a grief-stricken Jimmy in her arms and held him tight. He tried to push away at first, not wanting to disconnect himself just yet from his friends, but Yves held him fast. Through the tortured crying, through the wailing, she clung to Jimmy and offered him some release from his pain. Within her arms, she held their memories, their comradeship. Byers' fairness, Langly's sense of play, and Frohike's stubbornness were all centered within Jimmy. However odd a fit he had seemed with the Gunmen at the beginning, he was now a perfect complement to the trio. He would never forget them, would not let the world forget them. She held them all within the circle of her arms. And she would never again let go. ~~~~~~~ Author's note: Although I have killed off the Gunmen in fanfic - several times in fact - it was never canon, and they would always show up again in my stories like nothing had ever happened. If Mulder can get out of a burning boxcar and CSM can recuperate in a snowy cabin after being shot in the chest, then I can choose to believe that the Lone Gunmen are still out there, fighting the good fight and arguing about cheesesteaks. end