Date sent: Tue, 11 Nov 1997 21:16:51 -0800 (PST) From: X-Lydia Subject: fanfic inside: "Sit Down, Agent Scully" Title: Sit Down, Agent Scully Author: X-Lydia email: X-Lydia@rocketmail.com Rating: PG Category: S Spoilers: Memento Mori Keywords: none Summary: Did gene surgery transform Samantha Mulder into Dana Scully, or is the truth even more frightening? Disclaimer: Chris Carter made them; Ten Thirteen Productions owns them; I'll give them back, good as new, when I'm done playing with them. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sit Down, Agent Scully He was speaking like he meant every word and whoever was on the other side of that desk had better listen. He always spoke like that; it was as much a part of Walter Skinner as his posture, ramrod-straight, gut permanently sucked in, eyes front, Marine. The words, which he spoke like he meant, were something else again. The words sounded strange, foreign, alien, coming from Skinner. "Sir, you sound as if you'd gotten hard proof of some of Agent Mulder's theories." "I have stuck my neck out, backing him up, enough to have earned it." Skinner stared hard across his desk. "As have you," he added quickly. He would have no interruptions. "I have backed you up as well, and listened to both of you under circumstances I don't care to describe. You, therefore, will listen to me now." "Yes, sir, said Dana Scully uneasily, still wondering what atomic energy, hypnosis, and genetic research had in common this time. "What can you tell me about gene surgery, Doctor Scully?" "It's still in the experimental, if not the theoretical stage. It involves culturing genetically altered cells and returning them to the donor body, as a means of curing certain hereditary diseases." "What else could be done with it?" "The popular journals have made frivolous suggestions about certain other hereditary conditions," Scully said carefully. "One such article was called 'A Nation of Barbies'. Another suggested modifying transsexuals at the genetic level." "I don't find that at all frivolous," said Skinner, handing Scully a folder full of typed pages and glossy black-and-white photos. "I find it disturbing. As for this- " Scully turned the pages, slowly at first then faster and faster. "Where did you get this?" "What's important is that we have it," said Skinner, and that we keep it." Scully flipped back to the title page. "Doctor Krebs and Doctor Kani?" Skinner handed her a photocopy, marked with highlighter and the footprints of many declassification stamps. "They were both brought here under Operation Paperclip." Scully handed back the folder and the photocopy with pale cool hands, recalling several unpleasant memories. "Three guesses why Paperclip scientists would be experimenting with gene surgery and not publishing the results. Next question: What can you tell me about the use of hypnosis to recall lost memories?" Scully took a deep breath. "I wouldn't recommend it, Sir." "And why not?" "Because the hypnotic state is a suggestible state, and there is a the danger of implanting false memories through leading questions. Hypnosis as a means of obtaining testimony is falling out of favor, for much the same reasons that so-called 'truth serum' did." "Can hypnosis be used to remove actual memories?" "Of course, Sir. Hypnotic subjects are often instructed to forget having received earlier suggestions." "Would you be willing to undergo hypnosis?" At least he's asking, thought Scully. "Sir, does this have anything to do with my abduction?" She fingered the small scar on the back of her neck. "Not in the way you might think," said Skinner, "but I wouldn't be surprised if the same players are involved. They would at least be interested in the possibility of altering someone's identity right down to their genes." "They wouldn't even know they'd been changed," said Scully. "Then you understand how big this is." Scully glanced around the office. Assistant Director Skinner was briefing her on a matter of enormous implications for all law enforcement, as well as one hell of an X-File, briefing her in words that she might have expected from another. Changing identities from the inside out? Personal, even racial characteristics? It was the stuff of bad spy thrillers, yet someone had invented the possibility of actually doing it... "Is it possible, Sir, that Krebs and Kani falsified their results?" "It's highly unlikely," said Skinner, sounding annoyed. "I have proof, besides those notes, that they actually did it." A horrible feeling came over Scully, followed by an even more horrible thought. "Sir?" She was white as a ghost. "Has something happened to Agent Mulder?" "Agent Mulder is the least of your worries or mine right now," snapped Skinner. "Where is he??" "Save that tone of voice for your enemies, Scully!" Skinner counted backwards from ten, staring oddly at a corner of his desk. "Right now he's resting comfortably at Walter Reade with a slight concussion. He was standing right where you're standing now, going over some documents with me earlier this morning, when he fainted, hitting his head on my desk on the way down." "When can I talk to him?" "After I'm done," said Skinner. He pointed at a chair. "Sit down." Scully sat, not enjoying it. She wouldn't have expected to find a comfortable chair in Skinner's office, but sitting in this one made her feel even shorter. Nothing to do about it but sit up very straight and look up. "Agent Mulder knows about this. He's read through those notes." "What about the hypnosis, Sir?" "I'm not ordering you to undergo hypnosis. I won't stop you from volunteering, but I don't think you'd want to." "I have a choice?" Skinner shot her a dirty look. "I guess that was uncalled-for," she sighed. "I'm giving you a choice. I'm also giving you a choice of participating in the field investigation or temporary assignment to the forensics lab, supervising Agent Pendrell." Scully's eyebrows shot up. "I recommend the latter." "Sir...why?" "Because you're too important to the bureau as Dana Scully!" "Just what does that mean?" "I don't want you taking any headshots, for one thing. I don't want to lose a trained forensic pathologist and a good agent." Skinner fingered some more documents on his desk. It usually was a lot neater, thought Scully, distracted. "And I don't want to lose any more evidence." He was staring through Scully now, like he was looking all the way to Viet Nam, or like he was irritatedly wondering how she'd look as a brunette. "Sir??" "Sit down." "I am sitting down, Sir." Skinner handed Scully two manila folders, plain except for gummed labels. She looked inside the folder with her name on it, and began to read about her own abduction. She remembered the unpleasant events vaguely, like a bad car accident. Her own body had already informed on her abductors, showing the results of what they did, so reading about how they did it offered no surprises - it was like reading about one's own car accident. She paged through the file with scientific interest and scientific detachment. There was more - where had they gotten all that personal information? FBI Academy, college, high school, Navy dependent medical records from when she was nine? Ten? The Bureau didn't investigate its applicants that far back. Scully picked up the other folder and began to read. She disapproved of obsessions in general, including her partner's obsession with his missing sister. She understood it somewhat, she herself had lost a sister, but the difference was that Fox Mulder wanted his sister back, he couldn't just calmly accept the loss after what? Twenty-three years? Fox Mulder didn't react to much of anything with calm acceptance. This file wouldn't help him any, either. "Wherever Samantha Mulder is now -" Scully took a deep breath. "- whoever Samantha Mulder is now, that is if she's still alive-" "This isn't about finding Samantha Mulder, this is about finding the Paperclip scientists," interrupted Skinner. "Samantha Mulder is evidence in this case," finished Scully. No wonder Skinner looked even more annoyed than usual. She could just imagine the AD confronting Agent Mulder with having lost yet another piece of important evidence, long before he'd even joined the Bureau. " You're evidence in this case, Agent Scully." She raised one auburn eyebrow. "This is connected with your abduction." Scully picked up the file with her name on it again. "How did they get these records, anyway?" She flipped through the pages. "This looks like my entire dependent medical record...almost." "What didn't they get?" "Everything between my birth in a Naval hospital and...looks like 1973. My first nine years. Minor injuries from roughhousing with my brothers. Childhood diseases. Childhood vaccinations. My smallpox vaccination; they'd have needed and wanted that." She picked up the other folder. "What an odd coincidence. It's almost as if they weren't interested in anything that happened to me before Samantha Mulder was abducted." "They have documentation of the smallpox vaccination," said Skinner. "They had access to the S.E.P. data." He took the folders from Scully and opened them each to similar pages full of binary number streams. "Which you and Agent Pendrell did excellent work in identifying." Skinner closed the folders and set them, side by side, before Scully. "You have a choice." He sounded like a Marine who couldn't admit how bad he'd been hit, not even to a medic. Scully stared at the folders for a long time. The soft sound of liquid on solid startled her. Tears from Skinner? Not even within the realm of extreme possibility. Yet he had the oddest look on his face, and he had his handkerchief out... then she saw the tiny blood-spatter on the folder with her name on it. She accepted the handkerchief from Skinner without protest. He sat back in his desk chair and folded his arms. "What," he demanded, "are you going to tell Agent Mulder?" "What have you told him already?" countered Scully. "Did you tell him he had a choice?" "Agent Scully!" Skinner noted that she did not flinch; slowly his face resumed his normal color. "No. I did not." Scully sat and stared, thinking it was a good thing that Skinner didn't raise his voice often. "He had his choice once, and he made it," muttered Skinner. "On a bridge in Bethesda." Scully didn't hear him; she was still expecting him to shout. "Agent Scully?" She stared at the blood drop on the folder again, then looked Skinner in the eye. "Agent Mulder has indicated in the past that his entire career goal is finding his sister. Were he to find her alive, he might resign from the Bureau." "I would be sorry to see him go." "We have documents that might not even be authentic, documents we might have been meant to find. Surely you wouldn't advise Agent Mulder or myself to make a major decision based on such insufficient evidence." "This is all the information we have at the moment," said Skinner. "For the past four years, I have been Agent Mulder's partner and I have been his friend. I have on occasion had to be his doctor and his devil's advocate. I have saved his life several times, once by shooting him. I have put my career on the line for him and I have reported on his activities - once - to Section Chief Blevins. I have been a sounding board and a guinea pig for his unorthodox theories. I will continue to do all these things as long as I am assigned as his partner, but I cannot give him back his sister! Even if I could, it would do him no good to get her back and then lose her again." Skinner stared back at Scully. "Samantha Mulder is evidence in this case, and we don't have Samantha Mulder. We never did." "Oh yes we do," said Skinner wearily. "Only she wasn't his younger sister, she was his older sister." Fox Mulder was known for his photographic memory as well as for his interest in the paranormal. Anyone's memories could fade like bad color film after 23 years, but a major detail like that? He'd been in therapy, he'd even tried hypnosis... "False memories are a terrible thing," said Scully. "My service in the Marine Corps in Viet Nam and my marriage to Sharon are the most important events in my life," said Skinner uneasily. "I asked you about hypnosis, and showed you these documents, to test what I already knew: the depth of your integrity and courage. You'd have made a fine Marine." "Thank you, Sir," said Scully, believing the interview to have ended. "Sit down, Agent Scully. As I was saying: I know now that I can trust you with what I'm about to say, and that it won't leave this office." "Yes, Sir." "I have undergone hypnosis myself, quite recently. Before my hypnosis, I remembered being wounded and MEDEVAC'd from Viet Nam, masked doctors standing over me, a helicopter ride - in 1973, the year of Samantha Mulder's abduction. Imagine my surprise at being hypnotically regressed to an idyllic girlhood in Massachusetts." "If I may ask, Sir - were you offered leading questions or hypnotic suggestions?" "No, I was not." Skinner reached into a desk drawer, came up with a tape, set it on his desk. "I recorded the session myself." "Have you told Agent Mulder about this??" "That's when he fainted and hit his head on my desk," sighed Skinner. ---THE END---