From: Medie Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2001 18:53:19 -0330 Subject: New: Those That Remain TITLE: Those That Remain AUTHOR: M. Edison FEEDBACK: Oh yes please! Be gentle though. ;-) CATEGORY: Post-ep to Within/Without, primarily a Scullyfic RATING: G-PG (I'm lousy at ratings) SPOILERS: Within/Without ARCHIVE: Yes, please, just let me know first. SUMMARY: Upon arriving in D.C. Scully goes to visit an old friend of Mulder's (and her's) to talk. Disclaimer: The X-Files, and associated concepts & characters belong to CC and 1013. Chloe's mine. *G* I'm just borrowing them for a little while...I'll put 'em back in one piece. Hopefully happier then when they started out. AUTHOR'S NOTES: There is an OC in this story and she's not going away. *WEG* Oh and while this story holds no Shippiness or Dippiness....there may be a little Doggett/Scully thing later on in the series. I like dat guy. *G* He made an XF fan out of me. (this story will be eventually found on my Miscellaneous fic page www.angelfire.com/tn/taycon/MiscFic.html ) Mucho thanks to my beta reader Julie Jekel! (Queen of XF fic in my opinon. *G*) Those That Remain by M. Edison In the darkened room, the curly-haired woman tossed and turned. The bed sheets tangling around her slender body as she tried to free herself from the dream. Tried to free herself from the confusing and strangely horrifying images. *Mulder, only not really Mulder, holding on to a young boy's arm with a blank look in his eyes and a vaguely familiar man pointing a gun at him.* *Scully, but not really Scully, grabbing a man by the throat.* *Scully, standing in the desert, looking up at a bright light in the dark sky* *Mulder, in some sort of examination chair, yelling Scully's name.* *Scully, lying on a linoleum floor, crying next to a puddle of a strange green substance.* *Mulder, surrounded by identical men, still in the chair staring up at nothing.* **** Chloe Alexander shot upright in bed, her eyes wide and her breathing erratic. "Something is *seriously* wrong." she informed the darkened room. Even as the words left her mouth, Chloe's own sarcastic nature let loose with a 'well, duh, when isn't something seriously wrong with those two?!' Freeing her legs from the mangled bed clothes, Chloe got up and slipped into her bathrobe. Already the psychologist in her was analysing the dream vision. As she dug around for her slippers, Chloe's mind tried to put a name to the unknown man holding the gun on Mulder. Well, the Mulder look alike. "I know I've seen that guy before..." the clairvoyant muttered yanking on the slippers. Walking into the kitchen, she put a saucepan on the stove and headed for the refrigerator to get the chocolate milk. Chloe'd just closed the fridge door when someone knocked on her door. Milk in hand, the FBI agent walked out to peer through the peephole. Surprise registered on her face and she released the deadbolt then yanked open the door. "Dana?!" Concern written across her face, the taller woman pulled Scully inside and closed the door. "What is it? Come in, sit down." Emotionally and physically drained, the petite redhead let Chloe guide her into the living room and relieve her of her coat before urging her to sit on the couch. Scully wasn't sure exactly why she'd come. The reason she kept telling herself was that Chloe needed to hear about Mulder from someone who understood the friendship she shared with Dana's partner. But the logical part of her said Chloe'd probably already been contacted by Doggett's team. Another part of her argued that if she hadn't, then Chloe deserved warning. Deep down though, Dana knew she'd come to Chloe because Chloe, aside from Skinner and the Lone Gunmen, was the only one left she could trust. Sitting down next to her, Chloe reached out to touch her friend's hand. "What happened?" Despite herself, tears welled up in Scully's eyes. "They..they..." The other woman didn't have to ask. She knew who 'they' were. As the pieces started to fall into place, she spoke gently. "Took Mulder?" Not trusting her voice, Dana nodded and looked down at her lap. Pain lancing in her own heart, Chloe pulled the redhead into a hug. It wasn't much but it was all the comfort she could offer. Assurances were useless. They couldn't be sure Mulder was still on the planet, never mind in the country. At that moment, the only thing they could be sure of was that he was still alive. At least, Chloe was sure. Scully...that was another story. It might not have been much in Chloe's eyes but that simple hug was a lifeline to Dana. Somewhere in her the dam broke and her emotions flooded out. It had been one thing to cry in Doggett's arms, it was another to share the maelstrom with someone who understood. Someone who was, no doubt, experiencing one quite similar. After all, Chloe thought of Mulder as another brother. Doggett barely knew him. Not knowing what else to do, Chloe stroked Dana's hair in a decidedly mothering manner as she cried softly herself. Together, they made a heartbreaking picture. The woman Mulder considered his best friend and the woman he'd all but adopted as a sister, trying to comfort each other while trying to deal with their own private pain. **** When the tears subsided, Chloe stood and got a box of tissues. The two women shared weak smiles as they dried their faces and lightly blew their noses. "Do you think you can help me find him?" Dana asked, her voice husky from crying. "You've been able to help us before." "Through a vision you mean?" At Scully's nod, Chloe looked thoughtful. "Well, I did have a dream tonight. Given the nature of its contents I believe it was a vision. It was about Fox." "What did you see!?" Dana sat up in an alert posture, blue eyes fixed intently on her friend's face. Forcing herself to try and relax, Chloe sat back and tried to objectively relate the images and sounds she'd experienced in her vision. When she was done, the clairvoyant looked at the other agent and waited for her reaction. "He was...He knew...I..." Dana rested her face in shaking hands. "Oh God..." Reaching out, Chloe rubbed Scully's shoulder gently. "Good idea, a little prayer wouldn't hurt." A faint smile ghosted across the redhead's face as she sat back to look at the other woman. "Dana...The important thing isn't that you may have missed saving Mulder; the important thing is that we know he's alive. Besides, what could one pregnant woman do against a ship full of aliens? Hormone them to death?" Chloe grinned for a moment then her face grew serious once more. "Right now, and I know Fox would agree, your priority has to be keeping yourself and your baby safe. Let us worry about tracking Mulder down." Dana looked pained. "But I..." "You can't sit idly by, I know. No one said you had to." Chloe smiled gently. "Let me help; let Skinner help. Heck, call the Lone Gunmen! You aren't alone here." The redheaded woman started to speak then paused, staring at her friend. "Wait a minute, I never told you I was pregnant!" Chloe grinned. "You also never told me that they kept you in the hospital to make sure you were all right. I'm psychic, remember? I saw it in my vision tonight." At the skeptical look Dana gave her, the profiler laughed. "Well I did! You and Skinner were talking. He mentioned it." She paused then shook her head. "After all the times I've helped you, had you ask for that help, when it comes to you personally, you're still not a hundred percent convinced of my Gift. Ever the skeptic, aren't you?" A wry smile graced Scully's face. "Not as much as Agent Doggett." The sentence seemed to come out of nowhere for Chloe and she blinked in confusion. "Excuse me?" "The Agent in charge of the task force looking for Mulder. You haven't been contacted by them?" "I may have." Chloe shrugged. "I've been down with the flu for about a week, just got over it yesterday. I haven't been in to work since last Tuesday and I've kept my phone unplugged. Had a splitting headache so the sound of the phone ringing was *not* something I wanted to deal with. I take it they're interviewing anyone closely connected to Fox?" Scully nodded. "Oh yeah. Especially after files disappeared out of the office." That led to a brief explanation of some of the events Scully had lived through. That explanation also led to more questions. "Chloe..." Dana paused before plunging ahead. "Did you know Mulder was sick?" "Sick?" The curly-haired woman frowned. "No. As far as I know he wasn't sick at all. Why?" Keeping a cautious eye on Chloe's facial expressions, Scully recounted the evidence Doggett had uncovered. All of it, including the headstone. When she was done, disbelief and shock were warring for control of the clairvoyant's face. "Dana...I don't know how convincing that evidence looked...but Fox never said a word about being sick to me, and we've never kept secrets from each other. I don't think...no I can't believe he was! He would've told me! And you!" She shrugged. "And I don't know *where* that headstone came from but Mulder never bought it. That's something I think he'd know better than to try and hide from me." Nodding, Dana couldn't help but feel relief flood through her. She'd never believed it herself but hearing someone else voice their own disbelief somehow validated her own opinion. "Doggett..." The name finally registered with Chloe and she looked over at her friend. "John Doggett?" Scully nodded. "You know him?" "Sort of." Chloe shrugged. "Mulder and I worked a case in New York a few years ago. One of the detectives working the case was named John Doggett. We didn't have much in the way of contact with him but I do remember him. Sounds like he's originally from the south with a bit of NYC accent tossed in for flavour? Kind of an intense guy?" "Yes, he's...been assigned as my new partner, until Mulder gets back." That last part was added with a fierce determination then Dana paused then looked over at her. "Thank you, Chloe." The clairvoyant grinned even as her mind tried to wrap around the bombshell Scully had just dropped. "No problem, hon." Deciding to put it aside for now, she surveyed her friend critically. "Stay here tonight, Dana. You look wiped. I was just about to warm some chocolate milk. Have a mug with me then I'll get you set up in the guest room." Rising, Chloe brushed a hand across Scully's shoulder as she headed into the kitchen. She'd intended to go back to work the next day anyway. But *now* she had every intention of going to work and finding Agent John Doggett...and smacking him six ways from Sunday. And she was going to *enjoy* it.