Date sent: Sun, 13 Jul 1997 11:01:40 -0400 (EDT) From: misfiled@xtalwind.net Subject: NEW: Liver Lips (1/1) by Nancy TITLE: Liver Lips AUTHOR: Nancy EMAIL ADDY: misfiled@xtalwind.net SPOILERS: none ARCHIVING: Please post to atxc and Gossamer. DISCLAIMER: The X-Files and characters of Scully, Mulder and Skinner belong to Chris Carter, 10-13 Productions, Fox Broadcasting, and the actors who portray them. Used without permission and no infringement is intended. All other contents owned by the author. RATING: G CLASSIFICATION: Story KEYWORDS: lips family sex SUMMARY: Scully explains the facts of life to a neice. **************** Liver Lips (1/1) by Nancy _____________________ Friday, March 1 FBI HQ, Washington, D.C. Special Agent Dana Scully was *almost* late for work. she fumed to herself as she impatiently waited for the elevator to arrive. Standing, as she was, at the edge of the FBI's bull pen, it was hard not to feel as if all eyes were on her, noting her *almost* late arrival. With a sigh of relief she finally entered the haven of the elevator. Going down. One down. Now all she had to face was Mulder himself. He, of course, loved it when she was late. He loved to come up with incredible, outrageous reasons for her infrequent tardiness. Most of them seem to center around her non-existent love life. She could tell it was going to be a long morning... and it was only 7:57 am. Striding down the dim hallway towards the X-Files Division office, her heals clicking out a smart rhythm, she replayed the phone call she'd received earlier that morning. The phone had rung just as she was passing through the door on her way to work. Grudgingly, she'd gone back to answer it before the machine switched on. 'Hello?' 'Dana, it's mom. You remember that Anita's spending the weekend with me beginning tonight?' 'Yes, Mom. You've mentioned it several times. I promised to come for the afternoon on Sunday, didn't I?' 'Dana, well... I know this is very short notice but Anita wants to know if she can come and spend tonight with YOU. I think she has something on her mind, and wants to talk to a woman younger than her granny about it. I know it's really short notice, honey, but could she come over tonight? I'll drive her over and we'll meet at your apartment about 7. Ok?' 'Mom, tonight? We just got back from a long case and I was looking forward to 24 hours downtime! Can she wait until Saturday night?' Dana winced as she recalled the whining tone that had entered her voice. 'Dana,' her mother lightly scolded,' Your Anita's favorite aunt, and it's not like you'll have to entertain her. She *is* 13 years old. She just needs to talk with you. How about this--you take her tonight, and I'll pick her up at noon on Saturday. Then you just come for supper on Sunday. That will still give you most of Saturday and Sunday alone.' Chastened, Dana had found herself agreeing. So now she had a prepubescent niece coming to spend the night, when all she'd really wanted was a long soak in a candle lit tub, a quiet read under the quilt and an early night to catch up on sleep. Thinking back to her and Melissa's teen years she knew she'd be lucky if she slipped into bed anytime before 3 a.m. _________________________ She arrived at the office door on the dot of 8:03, and tried to slip in without gaining Mulder's attention. Fat chance of that, but you never knew... Easing through the door, she saw that he was playing with the slide projector again, arranging the order of the slides to coinside with a lecture he was giving the following week at the Academy. 'Morning, Scully. So, what was he this time? Blonde or brunett? Buff or brainy? To make you all of 3 minutes late, he must have been some hot stud!', Mulder cracked without even looking over his shoulder. 'Stuff it, Mulder.', Scully groused. 'Three lousy minutes! How come you always just get to oversleep or have traffic problems? You always make me sound like some kind of party girl -- me! the one in this office who hasn't had a real date in 4 months! He was a buff blonde.' Mulder did a quick double take, before realizing she was returning his tease. 'So, traffic problems, Scully?' he deadpanned. 'No, worse. Phone call from mom laying on a mild guilt trip. I told you my younger niece was coming for a weekend at grannys? Well, now it's become a Friday night with Aunt Dana, as well.' 'Something wrong with your mom?' Mulder frowned. He was genuinely fond of Maggie Scully. He'd spent some special time with her during the months that Dana had been missing. 'No, nothing like that. Apparently, Anita has something to talk over, and her 'favorite' aunt has been chosen to sooth the pre-teen angst this time.' 'Favorite Aunt, huh, Scully? How'd you rate that status?', quipped Mulder. He knew Scully took family very seriously, and being rated *favorite* by one or more of the kids must have warmed the cockles of her heart... 'Mulder, I'm always the *favorite* because of my jobs. One, I'm an FBI agent. Two, I'm not only a doctor, I'm a pathologist. What could impress little boys more than dealing with dead people! And, three, I'm not around near as much as the other aunts to meddle in the nieces and nephews lives. Therefore, I'm the perennial favorite.' 'If you didn't want her to come over tonight, why not just say 'no' to your mom? Oh, forget I asked such a stupid question. Who says 'no' to your mom!' 'It's not that I don't want to spend time with her, I'm just worn down from our last case. I was looking forward to a quiet evening and an early night. Now, I expect I'll get to bed long after midnight.' 'Scully, this kid's what--12, 13 years old? How much can she have to say? Your family's the poster people for *normal*. Bet you she's talked out by 10pm.' 'Mulder, would you like to put your money where your mouth is? 5 to 1 odds, I don't hit the sack before 2 a.m.' 'You're on, Scully. Any idea what the kids problem will be? I could draft out dialogs today and send you home with cue cards on all likely problems.' Mulder offered with a sly twinkle in his eye. 'No thanks, Mulder. I won't intentionally drag out the conversation longer than is natural, but there's no way you're winning this bet, even with flash cards to speed things up.', Dana declared with a slight grin of her own. _________________________ After lunch, Mulder looked up from his keyboard and inquired,'So, Scully, what *do* 13 year old girls have to be angst ridden over?' Scully, staring across their desks, asked, 'Mulder, *what* did you study at Oxford? Psychology, wasn't it? Didn't you have a semester, at least, in child psych? Beside, you were young once. What did 13 year old boys worry over?', She sat back to listen to what was sure to be an interesting response. Mulder thought for a second, then smirked. 'Let's see. Girls; kissing girls; asking a girl out to the dance; our bodies. Facial hair, pubic hair. Height, strength... length.' The last offered with a comical wiggle of his brows. 'What could a girl have to compare to those?', he inquired with an innocent look. Scully just gave him a sad smile and began to enumerate. 'One: boys. Two: her period. Three: bodies. Four: popularity. Five: dating. Six: the mysteries of make-up. Shall I go on?' At his rapid head shake, she stopped listing. 'Now you see why I expect to pull an all-nighter? Since I'm a doctor, she's probably chosen me to explain the facts of life and boys to her. I remember Melissa trying to explain it to me, when all she knew at that point was what her best friend remembered from *her* moms' lecture. I seem to recall that most of that lecture ran along the lines of 'Don't let a boy get inside your clothes'. Then our mom overheard Missy and I discussing the possible reasons a boy would *want* to get inside our clothes and almost blew a gasket! She demanded to know what boys were trying what on whom, and why hadn't we told her! We explained, she explained, and that settled the matter until we were ready to ask more questions. God, what have I gotten myself into tonight?' Scully moaned, burying her face in her hands, elbows propped on her desk. 'Well, don't call me. I've never envisioned giving a facts of life talk to my own child, let alone someone else's 13 year old niece!', Mulder said earnestly and dived back into his own mountain of paperwork. __________________________ Arriving home just before 7pm, Dana wasn't surprised to find her mom and Anita sitting on the steps outside. Firmly fixing a smile on her face, she parked her car and grabbed the bags of munchies she'd stopped for on the way home. Girl talk went best with munchies of all kinds. 'Hi, been waiting long? C'mon in and we'll make some hot chocolate.', Dana offered, feeling a real smile take over as pleasure at seeing her niece again took over. Smiling, Maggie shook her head and replied, 'I want to get home before the streets ice up for the night. Anita, I'll be back for you at noon. Mind your Aunt Dana, now. See you tomorrow, honey.' After hugging both Dana and Anita, she trotted back to her car. Shrugging, Dana turned to Anita and putting an arm around the girls shoulder and a bag of grocery into her hands, led the girl into her apartment. After putting away the munchies, making the promised hot chocolate, and getting Anita settled in the guest room, the ladies retreated to the living room and curled up at opposite ends of the loveseat. 'So, Anita. Granny says you wanted to talk with me about something.', Dana offered as a conversation starter. She knew Mulder was going to loose his bet, since it was already 8:30 and Anita hadn't even hinted at what was troubling her young mind. 'Aunt Dana, I'm just so embarrassed! And I don't even know where to start or how to really explain...', Anita whispered. She sat at her end of the loveseat, plucking at the threads of the blanket spread across their legs. 'Anita, you know you can ask me about anything and it will stay strictly between us. No reports to granny or your parents. Just between us. Is it about boys? Anita blushed but muttered, 'No. Not really.' Scully tried again, 'Sex?' Anita turned scarlet and blurted an emphatic, 'NO!'. Then whimpered, 'Aunt Dana, the kids call me names.' Small tears of mortification streaked her face. She looked so ashamed, huddled there on her end of the loveseat. Dana slid down and put an arm around her. 'What kind of names, honey?' Pouring out came the whole story, riddled with teen angst. Anita was one of the few 'early developers' in her class. While most of the girls had yet to develop enough breasts to really need bras, Anita was already nicely developed, making her a novelty to the boys and an object of envy of many of the lesser developed girls. Somehow the name 'Betty Boobs' had started making the rounds, and eventually it was spoken to Anita's face. 'Aunt Dana, I've tried to ignore it. I've even tried to get them to stop saying it, but I always hear it! I feel so , I don't know, outside and alone now. I mean, some of the girls won't hang around with me, and some of the boys won't *not* hang around! I just want my old life back.', Anita wailed. Scully took a new look at her niece, and was surprise at herself. Like many adults, she'd failed to notice that the girl was physically growing up. Even that morning, when her mother was saying that Anita wanted to speak to her, Scully intellectually knew the girl was 13, but still pictured in her mind the young tomboy with scabbed knees and missing teeth. 'My God,' Scully thought, 'that's not how she's looked for at least 2 years. When did she start growing up?'. Stroking the child's head and murmuring soothing words, Dana thought back to the view she'd arrived home to a few hours ago. Her mom and Anita sitting on the steps. They were almost of a height sitting down. Anita's face, it had thinned down, lost the last vestiges of baby fat. Taking Anita's coat, Dana remembered seeing but not noting, that Anita had developed a waist. Yep, that had been a indentation above the hip bones and under the bust. Smiling, Dana turned her niece to face her. 'Anita,' Dana started, ' you're growing up now, so you'll have already come to realize that not everything is fair in life. As has been rudely pointed out to you, your body is maturing faster than some of your classmates. Unfortunately, this happens, and there isn't a thing you can do to stop it. Telling you to live with it isn't going to help the hurt, and fighting back won't make you feel better either. You've come to a time where you'll have to start accepting and dealing with some challenges in life. Right now this one is very hurtful, but it won't last forever. Now, do you have friends among the class who aren't a part of this? That still hang around with you?' 'Yes, my best friend, Sydney, and a few other girls. Even some of the boys are cool and don't tease me, at least to my face.' 'Ok, then. So now, even if the REST of the class aren't friendly, have you really lost anything? You still have your best friend, and several others who don't seem to be intimidated by peer pressure. You'll find that quality in friendship is much more important than quantity.' Dana suddenly found herself comparing her friendship/partnership with Mulder to those she had had in the Academy. Many like Colton, tarred her with the same brush they used on Mulder. Mulder, fortunately, never held her former friendships against her. 'Aunt Dana, why does it hurt that they call me 'Betty Boob'? I've never been Miss Popularity, where I had to have everyone like me, so why does this bother me now?', Anita asked quietly. 'Because you're human. No one likes to be made fun of, especially if it's for something they can't change. I know. I've been there myself.', Dana replied. 'What do you mean 'I've been there myself'? What would someone make fun of you about?', asked an incredulous Anita. Her Aunt Scully was so together. So pretty. Everything seemed to go right for her. That was one of the reasons she'd wanted to talk to her, but it had also made her afraid to start the conversation. What if Aunt Dana *didn't* understand? That would've been just too embarrassing. Anita scooted around on her seat to face her aunt and reached into the snack bowl at the same time. Sitting crosslegged on the cushion, she leaned back against the arm of the seat and gazed at her aunt with open trust and curiosity. Seeing that look, Dana made herself comfortable in the same position and fortified herself with a handful of trail mix, then a swallow of punch. Clearing her throat, she began: 'You've seen my school pictures, the one's that grandma keeps on the mantle?' At Anita's slow nod, Scully continued. 'All those pictures show the same face, with few changes over the years. There was lots of teasing material in those school photos. Red hair, freckles, and a Roman nose. But, the kids I was in class with when I was 14 chose something even worse to make fun of.' Dana cleared her throat and continued. 'Unlike you, I didn't blossomed early. I'd barely begun to need a bra or make a ripple in my one piece bathing suit! I was still just 'one of the gang' in my mind. Sure, I'd begun thinking about make-up and dating, but only a little. Ask your Aunt Missy. Our dad was really strict about stuff like that! No make-up at all until we were 15 and no dating until 16.' 'So, it was a real surprise when one of the boys, Tim, asked me to the dance that spring. I'd been to dances before, but all the kids went alone and met there, except for the high school kids. They came as dating couples.' 'I said, sure I'd meet him there, because I wasn't allowed to date yet.' Dana squinted, trying to remember the sequence of events leading up to that disastrous dance. Taking a sip of her punch, she continued her story. 'Just a day or two before the dance, a 'friend' took me aside and told me that she'd heard that Tim was going to try to kiss me at the dance. I'll admit I was excited by the thought of my first kiss, but not necessarily about getting it from Tim Gaithers. Friday night and the dance arrived, and I went to the dance and had a good time with my friends. We all danced together. Boys and girls, and girls and girls, you know how they do, when they're to shy to dance with a boy? Well, during a slow dance, Tim made his move and at the last second I ducked the kiss. His breath was really rank!' Dana stopped talking until her niece stopped laughing, and was ready to listen to 'the rest of the story', as Paul Harvey would have said. Apparently, Tim'd bragged to his friends about the kiss, and I'd just cost him points with his buddies. Come Monday morning, I had a new nickname which that same 'friend' made sure I heard very quickly. I can still remember the avid look on her face, when she stopped me in the halls to commiserate with me over Tim's bragging. I didn't know what she was talking about, so she gleefully filled me in on Tim's revenge. 'When Tim had gotten back to his little crowd, they were cracking jokes about my not wanting to kiss him. He turned the facts into a story where *he* decided at the last second that he didn't want to kiss me. Since the boys hooted him down on that, he said, "Would you really want to kiss someone whose lips look like slabs of liver?" . So... I became 'Liver Lips'. Anita gasped, and said 'Oh, Aunt Dana! That must have hurt so bad! What did you do? That's as bad a Betty Boobs!' Scully sighed and said, 'What could I do? Nicknames, like slime, stick whether you want them or not. I had to learn to turn a deaf ear to it and after a while it died away. Someone else probably did something to earn them a name or notoriety of some sort and my lips became old news.' 'Grandma and Aunt Melissa tried to help, but there were just some nights all I prayed for was plastic surgery! I hated my face for awhile, then just learned to live with the teasing. Fortunately, most often what seems so horrible in your younger years can be out grown. As I grew, my lips finally came into proportion with the rest of my face.' Anita suddenly looked hard at her Aunt Dana, 'And the moral of this story is that some day I'll grow into proportion, too? Did you make up that liver lips story?!' Dana shot a look at her niece and simply said, 'Ask your father. He'll probably remember my walking around the house for a week trying to make my lips look smaller by curling them into my teeth. He certainly didn't help by making fun of me saying I looked like my dentures didn't fit right.' 'Like you, I had friends who didn't call me names and I adjusted to the idea that not *everybody* I came into contact with liked me or even gave me a chance simply based on how I looked. It also made me more aware of how *I* judged people. Some of the boys didn't like hanging around with 'liver lips' Dana, but some of them didn't care. I can't offer you any other assurances, except that this will pass. Try to pity those that call you names because their immaturity will hurt them more than any names you could call them in return.' Anita sat back and took a long look at her Aunt Dana. She'd somehow known, even as she'd hoped her Aunt could make it better that she really couldn't. Anita suspected she'd just wanted someone who wasn't a parent or grandparent to tell her the truth. Parents were supposed to tell you that you were pretty or smart. Aunt Dana, Anita knew, would tell her what Anita needed to hear in a manner she could handle. Her Aunt Dana was *so* cool. Now, how to broach that other subject...? 'Aunt Dana, you asked earlier if I needed to talk about boys? Well, would you tell me about....' Dana, hearing this introduction to the dreaded topic of sex, reached for the phone and hit auto-dial #1. When Mulder answered, she simply asked, 'What time is it?' Laughing, he replied,'11:23. Why? In bed already?' 'Oh, no. We've only covered one topic and it was a synch compared to the topic on the table right now. Not only will you owe me $5, but your buying lunch on Monday!'. Chuckling, Mulder sing-songed, 'Nighty-night, Aunt Dana.' Anita, cut off at the beginning of her second concern, incredulously asked, 'What was that all about? Who owes you $5 and why?' Special Agent/Dr. Dana Scully sighed and hung up the phone. Looking at the low munchie bowl and empty pitcher, she only said ,'Before we get started on the s-e-x talk, how 'bout we refill these? I think we're going to be here awhile.' Picking up the bowls, she pattered into the kitchen, muttering, 'Why didn't I have Mulder make up those flash cards? It could have cut the conversation in half! So much for seeing my bed before 2 a.m. Oh, Mom, you're going to owe me for this one!' ______________________ Monday, March 4 X-Files Division office Special Agent Fox Mulder swung into his office just before 8 a.m. and was pleased to see a somewhat refreshed Scully seated at her desk. Looking up from her computer monitor, she flashed him a brief smile and returned to her report. Shedding his suit coat, he carefully hung it on the coat tree then rolled up his sleeves. Heading for the coffee pot, he inquired over his shoulder,' So, Scully, what time did the sleep over wrap up?' Over the top of her glasses, Scully answered with a brief, '4:47 am. You definitely owe me $5 and lunch.' Still somewhat tickled at the thought of Scully giving a teenager a sex talk, Mulder nodded his head in agreement to lunch and asked, 'What was the big trauma? Did you have to preform psycho-surgery or just hold her hand for awhile?' Sitting at his desk and flipping his computer on, he turned to watch Scully rely. Scully, giving up for the time being on finishing her report, turned toward Mulder, and said, 'Well, the first topic was unwanted nicknames. Anita's gained one, and needed to talk to someone who hadn't already heard the story. Then the talk turned to boys, sex, makeup, etc, etc...' Mulder, with a wry smile, said, 'I guess we do know about nicknames, don't we, Scully? Did you tell her about Colton calling you Mrs. Spooky?' 'Mulder, Mrs. Spooky wasn't the first or most important nickname, I've ever been given. No, I told her of a name I was given in Jr. high that she could relate to.' 'Scully, you had a *name* in Jr. high? I'm shocked! A good little Catholic girl like you! What did *you* do to earn a name in Jr. high?' 'Mulder, I'm *not* going to discuss this with you. She *needed* to hear it, you don't.', Scully huffed. 'Oh, come on, Scully. You tell me yours, I'll tell you mine.' Mulder wheedled. Scully, glancing up, retorted, 'I already KNOW your nickname, Mulder. Not much of an exchange, really, now is it?' Mulder, looking rather sheepish, replied, 'Well, actually, Scully, 'Spooky' wasn't my first nickname either. My first nickname was 'Pickle Eyes'. Now, what was yours?' Flummoxed, Scully stared at him. 'Pickle Eyes?', she echoed, astonished. Mulder widened his eyes and said, 'Well, pickles are a greeny-brownish color, and I guess in Jr. high it was the closest someone could come to describing hazel eyes. For awhile it even mutated into 'Pickled Fox', you know, like 'pickled herring'? Come on, Scully, give it up. What was your nickname?' Rolling her eyes towards the ceiling of their ill lit basement office, she debated how long she could hold his curiosity at bay. Glancing across the office at a patiently waiting Mulder, she decided not long enough. Giving in, she began her story, 'When I was in Jr. high, my first almost date was to a school dance where a boy tried to kiss me....' _________________ began 3-10-96 completed 4-27-96 Nancy ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Some people prefer beauty before brains, because some people can see better than they can think! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~