From: millenniumporkchop@my-deja.com Date: Sun, 04 Jun 2000 13:44:26 GMT Subject: NEW: Taunted by an Offending Piece of Literature (1/1) TAUNTED BY AN OFFENDING PIECE OF LITERATURE WRITTEN BY: MP RATED: PG-13 CATEGORY: Mulder angst-I guess SUMMARY: Mulder feels that he's being made a mockery of by a book as it lies passively on a slumbering Scully's knee. DISCLAIMER: They belong to CC, DD, GA, 1013 and FOX and Margaret Atwood. SPOILERS: `Emily', infertility in general. Overseas fic readers will be happy to know there are no `Requiem' spoilers. DISTRIBUTION: Just ask :) FEEDBACK: I love it, I adore it, I'm crazy about it! Please send all comments to millenniumporkchop@yahoo.com This is dedicated to all of the wonderful people who sent me letters of encouragement after reading my first fanfic `Turning up in the Wash'. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- What on earth had possessed Scully to choose `that' book as light in- flight reading? Mulder pondered to himself as he stared hard at the offensive book's cover, which lay haphazardly on his sleeping partner's lap. The thought of it made his skin crawl and his stomach lurch, with guilt. Why had she suddenly felt compelled to read `The Handmaid's Tale' for God's sake? It wasn't even the type of book Mulder would usually read anyway, it was just by some unhappy coincidence that he'd read it. He'd picked the Margaret Atwood novel up off the floor of his apartment, one rainy Sunday afternoon and read it. Diana had left it there, he'd had a couple of hours to kill and Atwood's Gilead had fascinated him. Even now, over a decade later he could still remember the basic plot line- blame it on his photographic memory. The novel had been told by the point of view of a `Handmaid', a woman whose only purpose in life was to serve a `functionary' role. The Handmaid's sole reason for living was to bear children. Had Scully already read the book? If not what was it about it that had enticed her to buy it at the airport news agency? The blurb, the cover, word of mouth, maybe she'd just picked it out at random? The thought that Scully might have read it before was even more disturbing. Why would she want to come back to a book that classified women in her condition as `unwomen' and shipped them off to `colonies' or where the main character had had her child ripped away from her at a tender age, only to be seen again within the mother's fond, yet dimming memories? As he weighed up all of the evidence Mulder concluded that Scully either hadn't read the book before and had selected it as she knew Margaret Atwood to be a good writer or she'd decided to read it again believing that he didn't know what it was about. Mulder knew Scully would never flaunt such reading material in front of him if she knew that he had read it. The novel continued to glare at Mulder defiantly. It was mocking him, playing on his guilt regarding Emily and Scully's infertility. In the distance Mulder heard the lunch cart cranking up. This was his opportunity! Scully would awake momentarily and resume reading that damn book. It was taunting him at this stage, daring him to take some form of decisive action. In one deft swoop Mulder grabbed the offending piece as literature and tossed it into the lower part of the lunch cart as the stewardess attended to the other side of the aisle. After doing so he felt some warped sense of victory. *I'm going mad* Mulder silently mused to himself as he ran a frustrated hand through his hair and Scully stirred as the stewardess placed something unclassifiable down in front of each of them. Out of his peripheral vision Mulder saw the confused look on his still sleepy partner's face as she felt around her for the novel that had been heckling him for the last half hour. "Mulder have you seen my book?" Scully asked bewildered, feeling around under her seat. "Book?" Mulder asked as he feigned innocence. "No." He was really starting to believe that he'd finally lost it. -------------------------------------------------------- Comments? millenniumporkchop@yahoo.com