From: "Diadem" Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2000 21:16:43 -0000 Subject: Scene 16: One Way (1/1) by Diadem Source: xff Title: Scene 16: One Way (1/1) Author: Diadem Category: V, A Rating: G Spoilers: Samantha eps Feedback: Of course! In fact, as this is kind of an experiment, I would really appreciate it. Diadem@cwcom.net Archive: Gossamer's fine, anywhere else please let me know first. Disclaimer: Mulder and Scully do not belong to me. They belong to CC, 10:13 and Fox, but please remember, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery! Notes: This is the sixteenth in a series of completely unrelated short, experimental pieces, that might be or might only be pretending to be monologues. The others can be found at http://www.angelfire.com/ak3/expositions/index.html Mulder POV. Scene 16: One Way (1/1) Scully's mad at me. Really mad. She's been in a bad mood for a couple of days, my fault, I guess, although I honestly can't think what I've done. It doesn't really matter. I know what made her storm out of here just a couple of minutes ago, though. We'd been on a case, in DC so we didn't have to travel, a missing cat that might or might not be wild, and seems to have a penchant for human flesh. For some people a totally crazy case, for us nothing out of the ordinary. But we invariably started arguing about it, Scully being rational, me putting across a slightly more radical version of events. All of a sudden she turns round and stares at me, hard, as if wondering exactly where I'd just sprung from. And then she said it. "Don't you ever think that there might be a different way of looking at things that's equally valid, if not more so?" Then she stared at me a minute longer, and left. And it hurt. It got me thinking, though. That afternoon the Gunmen had called me for their weekly check in. There are several things they monitor for me - women with chips, the Consortium (what little information they leave lying about), anything that turns itself into a continuing case. And almost since I met them they've been looking for Samantha. And this week they turned up nothing. Much like every other week, if I'm honest with myself. But what Scully just said to me... I can see truth in it. Maybe my sister is right in front of me, but I'm just not looking in the right way. Maybe she is Scully's rationalism, but I'm too arrogant to see past my own supernatural and paranormal crap to see her. She could be anyone. Well, almost. Probably not the Gunmen. Not Scully either. But any stranger I pass on the street could be my sister. The female police officer we talked to this morning could have been her. One of the victims in Scully's morgue, one of the people we have met on our cases, people who have suffered at the hands of others. Any one of them could have been her, and I would never have known. I guess I'm subconsciously looking for the person I have been told is Samantha. The woman CGB Spender brought to me, the clones, the woman I traded for my partner on that bridge. She could be right there, in front of my eyes, and even if I was wondering if it could be her I would never guess. She had long brown hair. Hair can be cut, hair can be dyed, hair can be styled. She could have short blonde hair by now. She had brown eyes, but even the colour of someone's eyes can be altered with lenses. I don't even know how tall she would be. Something tells me she's not four feet five inches any more. "There are other ways of looking at things." But I only know one way. I don't know how to look at things without seeing them through a filter, a haze that makes me see ghosts and aliens at every turn. Something that strikes me about my partner is that she an see clearly. Her first impressions of people are almost always right. Needless to say, mine aren't, but I never learn. I never manage to change my ways, change my instincts. I need to try. I need to get rid of that filter, or at least change it for a new one. And I need Scully to show me how. She's the one that made me see. There is more than one way. End Feedback would brighten my dull and dreary existence :o) Diadem@cwcom.net