From: "Jim & Carol Gritton" Subject: New: Stephanie: First Person - Life Just Needs A Little Bug Spray 1/1 Date sent: Wed, 9 Jul 1997 14:31:34 +0100 I did not write this, I am posting it for the author. Please send all comments, feedback etc., to hanchow@cyberway.com.sg Title: Stephanie: First Person -- Life Just Needs A Little Bug Spray Author: HBL Rating: G Keywords: Mulder/Scully married Classification: S (borderline MSR) Spoilers: none Summary: Accompaniment to Carol Gritton's 'Sarah' stories using Stephanie as first person. Disclaimers: Fox Mulder and Dana Scully do not belong to me and never will. They are the near-perfect creations of Chris Carter, and belong to Mr Carter himself, 1013 productions, and FOX broadcasting. Even the kids aren't mine either *sniff*. They belong to Carol Gritton, who in my humble opinion, wrote some of the best 'G' rated fanfic I've ever read. Storyline and nonsensical nonsense belong to me oh my... yipee! Author's note: Hi! My very super first attempt at fanfic, so be lenient!! I know it isn't much of an MSR, but, ah well, I tend to write out of point sometimes. Hope you'll enjoy reading this as much as I've enjoyed slogging the hell of myself writing it! Million thanks to Carol Gritton who helped my this far. :-) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- ---------------------------------------------- Stephanie: First Person -- Life Just Needs A Little Bug Spray Life was going okay for me I guess. I mean, I didn't fall sick for the past month, the TV programmes weren't too boring, I did okay in school, and stuff like that. Until now. I couldn't believe my eyes when I heard it. "Mom's what?" I asked, coughing and choking and going crazy all at the same time. I felt like as if a bomb had gone off in me. "You heard it. She's pregnant. Heard her telling Dad just minutes ago." Sarah said. I couldn't believe how cool she stayed through all this. I mean, I was going nuts. Josh was oblivious to everything. He kept shushing us up because Power Rangers was on TV and he couldn't catch what Goldar was roaring about. It was pretty dumb. I mean, what else would Goldar say besides 'Ha ha, this time I'm gonna win ya Power Rangers. Yar' dooooomed...', and somehow always ended up being doomed himself? "She couldn't be! She shouldn't be! Isn't us three enough?" I said. I know I probably sounded crazy, but I coildn't think of anything else to say. It was like dropping a time-bomb that had already been set at a 3-seconds in front of me and expecting me to do something about it fast. The thought of a screaming baby pouncing on me is enough to give me nightmares for a week. Besides, three is enough. "You should be happy for mom, Stef. It's a good thing." "Yeah sure. And go through all that smell and screaming again? After what I went through with Josh, I'm sure if it's such a good idea after all." I sat down next to Josh and watched the commercials, and I didn't know if there were some sort of mind-link between the box and me, a commercial of baby diapers began to show on screen. Sarah quickly grabbed a few books, her bag and her sweater. She was going for a major math quiz and it was amazing how calm she was. Sometimes I wish I were Sarah. "I gotta go. I'm runing late. Wish me luck you two!" she said as she reached for the rusty door knob. "Wish you luck," I said, waving to her. "May the Force be with you!" Josh shouted, trying to sound like the macho side of Luke Skywalker. As Sarah was about to leave, something struck me. "Sarah?" I asked. "Yeah?" she said impatiently, obviously in a big hurry. "Does Mom still loves us all the same? I mean, after the baby?" "Sure." Sarah replied, and dashed out. But I didn't think she heard the second part. I sat at the window, looking down at the streets and the tiny cars all over. I saw an old lady walking to and fro in front of the main entrance of the apartment for about five minutes when finally a policeman approached her and pretty soon both of them disappeared. I felt a tap on my shoulder. "Hey." It was Mom. She sat down next to me and looked directly into my eyes. It was sort of scary because she only did this whenever she sensed something was wrong. I looked away from her. "What's wrong?" Mom asked as she held my hand. I felt a nice warm feeling all over me. "Sarah said that she heard you telling Daddy that you're..." Darn. My throat went dry all of a sudden. "Having a baby." I finally blurted out. Mom seemed surprised. "Yeah." she replied. I removed my hand from her clasp and tried to smile. "So is it a girl?" I asked, trying to sound enthusiastic about the whole thing. "We're not sure yet. Your dad and I are still waiting for the doctor's call." Mom said, and before I could even say anything, Dad called for her and mom left me with my mouth open. --------------------------------------------- The weekends passed by really quickly. One minute I was pushing all my homework the next minute I was pulling out my hair trying to figure out sums and calculating how much homework I had left every five seconds. I never seemed to have a good smooth life. I guess that was why people say that "Life is full of ups and downs" because you would always be jumping up and down with panic and wondering if you even had time to breathe. I sat in class staring at the blackboard filled with scribblings. "Stephanie Mulder." I jolted. Gosh, what had she been talking about? "Can you tell me how is a composite volcano formed?" Darn. I wasn't paying attention just now. I glanced around me looking for help. Then I found out that the whole class was sleeping and didn't even knew I was standing up. Well, guess it was 'try-and-die' time. "Erm...explosions?" Some giggled. Charmain Micheals burst out in laughter and I gave her a look. I felt like wringing her neck. She hated me ever since first grade and I had hated her ever since I was born. "You obviously hadn't been listening." Mrs Sheardon said. Didn't she noticed that no one was listening? She continued," Now sit down and pay attention instead of dreaming away." She glared at me through those thick spectacles of hers. I wasn't even listening to her. All that was on my mind was that mom's having a baby and I didn't feel being part of it. School finally ended. For some reason, I felt very grouchy and horrid. I walked to my locker and thought of how mean the world had been. No fair. Then I heard loud voices. "Oh yeah? Then what about your parents? They're just a bunch of wackos hunting down werewolves and Draculas and monsters! I'll bet you're just as crazy as them, freakface!" "Your parents must be monsters themselves to have a boy like YOU!" Uh-oh. That was Josh. I whizzed around in time to see my brother punching a guy who was like a million times bigger sized than him in the stomach. The other boy punched him back. Slam. Punch. Pow. Wow. And Josh fell to the floor. I saw blood flow out of his nose. I ran towards them. "Stop hitting my brother!" I yelled. The way I was feeling right now no mugger or bully would dare mess with me. "Oh look, it's Miss Reticulian. How's the weather back there?" Big Bully said. "Fine enough to make me want to kick your ass." I couldn't care less for my choice of words. I was fuming. "Move away, Piglet. I don't fight minors." "Fight THIS." I gave him the biggest punch of my life. POW!!! The guy crashed to the floor. I turned to Josh and before I could even blink or anything, I felt someone boxed my face and I fell cold to the ground. I felt as if all my teeth broke. Then I saw this blackness all over me and I couldn't see anything at all after that. ---------------------- Ouch. My face hurt. I smelled my room and felt my blanket over me. I couldn't open my eyes, but I heard voices. "Oh god, why must this happen?" "Dana, it's all right. Stephanie's going to be fine. It's not your fault we lost the baby either." By some miracle my eyes managed to open ultra-wide. I never knew my eyes could do that. I kept still. "I didn't lose the baby for god's sake!" I heard Mom sobbing. My heart went right out to her. "I know. But everything's going to be fine. We didn't plan for this to happen. I'll always be with you, Dana." "Why must we go through all this, Fox? Why can't life be just one smooth road? Why?" The voices died down. I think they must had gone into the room. Why? The word rang in my head for a long time. Was was I here? Why did my face hurt? Why must mom lose the baby? 'Why can't life be one smooth road?' "Hi Stef." I saw Josh's bruised face staring at me. I tried to smile at him but my face felt so painful that the attempted smile turned into an ugly grimace, which made my face hurt more. "How're you?" I croaked. I felt for my teeth with my tongue and was astonished to find them all intact. I taasted blood though. "Mom and dad are angry. Why?" Josh asked without answering my question. "I wish I knew." At this moment, Sarah came in, holding a glass of wahter in one hand. She sat beside my bed and I saw her face was all red. I think she must had been crying. I asked her what happened. "The doctor called today. Mom's not pregnant. She never was." "Why're you crying?' I asked. "No I'm not." "Yes you are. Your face is all red." Sarah got up and left the room. Josh followed. What was going on? I felt horrible, like this whole baby-business was my fault. Maybe I shouldn't have fought with the big guy. Maybe I shouldn't have complained about my life in the first place. Then maybe Mom could have her baby and we'd all be happy. The more I thought about it the worse I felt. Then I felt like crying, but I couldn't cry because my face still hurt. ---------------------------------- For the past week, Mom and Dad were feeling really down. Mom was terribly mad at me and Josh for fighting. She yelled at both of us so much that she ran out of breath in less than two minutes and had to sit down to gasp for air. Dad kept trying to calm her down, but I could tell that he was really angry too. Josh and I were grounded for a month, and I had to apologise to Big Bully in front of Mom and Dad. Of course I was still fuming at that time but I said 'Sorry' all the same. I didn't mean it and never will. If he ever bashed Josh up or called Mom and Dad names again, I swore I would even bite his ear. Josh wasn't so fortunate. When Dad demanded him to apologise to Big Bully, Josh shouted right into his face, "I'm sorry you're such an idiot!" Mom immediately slapped his backside and Josh ran into his room crying. Poor guy. I mean, the big guy was an idiot after all. Later, when Mom and Dad found out what really happened, they still kept real quiet. It was a tragedy. Being grounded for a month was a zillion times worse than getting the worse yelling-at in my life. And it wasn't like we did something terribly wrong. Sarah didn't say much either. She was pretty upset at Mom not being pregnant after all, but that was about it. I was playing 'Monopoly' with Josh when Dad came in and asked me to go to the drugstore to get a packet of band-aids for Mom as she had cut herself whle slicing the carrots. Mom had been cutting herself accidently pretty often these few days.I think she was still very upset about not having the baby. I got money from Dad and went out. It was chilly outside. The streets smelled of fresh air mixed with all the dirt on the road. I saw this gigantic poster on the wall which said "Do you want to be healed -- for life?" with lots of gibberish below it about some religion thing that I couldn't understand. I thought that the idea of being 'healed for life' was not a bad idea. In fact, it sounded rather nice and peaceful. I thought for a while that when I grow up, I'm going to be a great person who heals everyone of their troubles and then life would be great and everyone would be happy. I walked for about ten minutes when this miggle-aged man with a funny hat with holes all over and a horrible beard approached me. He wore tattered clothes and smelled as if he hadn't bathed in a million years. "Excuse me...excuse me.." he said, his arms outstretched towards me. I didn't know what to do. Maybe he was a begger, I thought. So I asked him, "Do you want money?" "Excuse me...excuse me.." he kept saying. "What?" I began to feel frightened. He could be one of those lunatics who went on killing sprees when they were bored like those in the papers. I clutched the money in my hand tightly. "Excuse me..." he said once more, staring at me. I was scared to death. Before he could say the second 'excuse me', I was already runnung away like crazy. I dashed back home and slammed the door. I didn't bother about the band-aids anymore. I ran into my room and slammed the door shut and didn't even answer when Mom shouted for her band-aids. ------------------------------------- I guess I was wrong when I said life was going okay for me. Life was never 'okay'. It was either horrible or by some luck, really great. I knew my life was great. I had a great life. I had a great family. I had great parents. And if there were to be any more problems coming my way, I knew I coild handle them, cuz' I'm not alone. I had my bug spray. ----------------------lll---------------- End of story. Hope you like this story! Coments, suggestion, criticisms, and the like go to ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ HBL, greatest freak on earth. http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Cavern/7699 hanchow@cyberway.com.sg _______ ( O O ) -------[[[-----------]]]---------- ME "Reseiliance in the face of Adversity"