Outsiders (1/1) Deirdre (deirdre@x-philes.com) Author's notes: A short scene I wrote back at the beginning of summer, inspired by the season finale. Of course, I now know it couldn't have happened in the time frame I wanted it to (after Scully's 'betrayal' - since she collapsed instead of leaving ;-) so consider it some sort of alternate universe. Category: V Rating: G Spoilers: Gethsemane Summary: A scene with two characters after some choices. An alternate universe to Redux, written before Redux. Disclaimer: The X-files belong to CC and 1013. No copyright infringement intended. ***** >From across the street, a man watched the door of the J. Edger Hoover Building, his almost hidden eyes searching the crowds exiting and entering. Groups of school-children darted up and down the front sidewalk, their screams and laughter piercing the air as they waited to board their buses, while somberly dressed men and women attempted to avoid them. A security guard stood just outside the door, his gun casually hidden beneath his jacket, nodding graciously but carefully observing all that entered. Several little groups of foreign tourists milled around, their cameras ever at the ready but ignoring an older man standing off to the side, his grayed and ragged coat showing years of use, who had shouted a small circle clear of the roaming crowds yet continued to lecture. A normal grouping of various people for this time of year. The tourists, the children, the panhandler, they all were accepted - they all formed the normal backdrop of life for a late afternoon in DC. But his roaming eyes settled upon none, gave none even a fragment of his attention. Instead, they constantly wandered through the crowds, settling upon and rejecting each person. Always looking. Although only approaching five o'clock, rain-heavy clouds darkened the sky to a grey dusk, occasionally throwing a couple raindrops on the cool gusts of wind. But even as people began to hurry their steps, the man remained at his post, eyes restlessly scanning the ever-changing crowds. As the sky grew darker, he moved once, to shift the baseball cap shading his eyes, but remained as still as a statue, upon his seat. The late afternoon crowds swept up and down the sidewalks, ignoring him as they all pursued their lives. And as they changed, as faceless people escaped to their cars and distant homes, only to be replaced by more people intent upon their destinations, he continued to wait. There are times when decisions, when attitudes or mistakes place people just outside the flow of normal humanity. Although their bodies remain in the world, other people's eyes flicker across their figures without pausing. They remain unseen, outside other people's sphere of life. Outside a world they once inhabited. The man sat, searching the seas of humanity, yet not a single glance settled upon him. He faded into the background of life, so uninteresting that none spared a moment of their day to register his presence. Yet, he seemed to prefer this invisibility, to encourage his complete isolation. He made no motion to attract attention, and allowed the people to pass undisturbed. As the streets emptied and the storm drifted closer, the darker thunderheads overtaking the city, the streetlights flickered on in the dusty darkness. Pools of light and shadow spilling across the sidewalk. But he remained at his post, eyes watching each scurrying figure heading down the street. Taxis dashed by down the street, most bearing unlit signs as they hurried their passengers to where ever they wished to go. A small figure, her shoulders drooping, stepped out of the building and the man suddenly straightened up, his eyes settling and lingering upon her petite form. Her red hair hung limply in the humidity as she paused to open an umbrella under the light right outside the glass doors. For a moment, she paused, watching several filled taxis race by, then began walking in the direction of the Metro. He stood up in his little patch of shadows and took a hesitant step in her general direction. Across the street filled with traffic, she suddenly stopped and turned, looking directly at the pool of darkness in which he hid. A quizzical frown creased her tired face and she squinted slightly, peering through the misting rain. He stood completely still, not even breathing. With a shrug, she glanced away, turning her eyes down towards the sidewalk. He relaxed slightly and moved more deeply into the shadows, an expression of both relief and disappointment crossing his face. Just before she passed out of his sight, a man raced past her, catching her arm with his elbow. Her briefcase went flying, but he completely ignored her, hurrying away into the night. The other, standing in the darkness, made no move to help her. But he watched intently as she retrieved the case from the puddle where it had fallen, brushed off the clinging water, and continued her way down the street. The darkness swallowed her and he stared at the point where she'd vanished for several seconds. Then he quickly turned the other way and walked off into the rain without a backward glance. End. ***** Author's notes and a request You know how you feel sometimes, when you've made a choice, and feel like you're not quite connected to the world any longer? Like the choice you've made has changed your life forever, and it'll never quite settle back into the track that you forced it off of? I was trying to go after that feeling with this story - that both Mulder and Scully made a choice like that in Gethsemane (seen from pre-Redux). Scully, whether her 'betrayal' of Mulder was a plan by both of them, or a choice she made presuming Mulder was dead, has forced her career and her life off the path it's followed for the past few years. Mulder's is even more extreme: by committing 'suicide' he has separated himself completely from his life for a while. They're both feeling as outsiders at the moment, and I tried to put that into a picture. I know it doesn't fit with the 'real' Gethsemane-Redux story line, but did I succeed in creating that feeling? (I was trying to write a mood piece) I'll take any comments ...