From: April L Mowry Date: 22 Mar 2000 06:08:28 GMT Subject: NEW: The Wrong Partner PG (1/1) Title: The Wrong Partner Author: Ms. AM Email: ALMowry@pathway.net Rating: PG I think. Category: V Spoilers: General knowledge S7, Pre-En Ami Summary: A time for reflection on evil. Feedback: Yes, may I have some please? Archive: Sure no problem. Disclaimer: I own the rights to nothing...rats! The Wrong Partner (1/1) January 2nd, 2000 The room is lit only by the luminous glow of numerous TV monitors. The flickering images and static upon the screens create a strobe-like effect, which brings an eerie feel to an otherwise normal room. The air in the room is cloudy, hazy with smoke, if you weren't used to it I suppose your throat would feel dry and your eyes would sting. I'm used to it. I like it that way. Picking up the remote lying nearby, I push play. The whirring sounds of one VCR as it starts is followed by several clicking sounds. I advance the film to the right spot, the right frame. This room is like my own personal theater and I smile when I stop the screen on the image I was searching for--Dana Scully. Dana Katherine Scully. Dana K. Scully M.D. Special Agent Scully. They all have such a nice ring to them. I've watched her carefully through the years. She was chosen to bring about Mulders downfall and instead became his support. She was, and is still, full of surprises. I hear the dull footfalls just before the door opens, illuminating the room briefly. I don't stand in greeting, I don't need to be cordial nor do I need this man's respect. "Did you succeed?" I ask, pivoting around in my chair to face him. I snub out my cigarette and immediately light another, barely noticing the growing number of butts in the ashtray beside me. I smirk at him before taking a long drag and exhaling. He waves his hand in front of his face, which only serves to agitate the new smoke and join it with the old, stagnant haze already in the room. His reply is to toss the videocassette onto the table, it slides a few inches striking the ashtray and sending up a cloud of whitish-gray ashes into the air. I reach for the tape, stand and take a few steps, inserting it into a VCR. I know he hasn't left yet, I attempt to act casual at the fact. "You're still here?" "Yes, I," the man swallowed. "Why are you doing this?" I smile wickedly and reply, "Because I can, Mr. Black," finally acknowledging him by name. "Because I can." Frank Black stares me, considering, before he turns and pauses with his hand on the doorknob. He lets out a sigh, "They are good people... You shouldn't, you aren't..." "It's not really any of your concern, now, is it, Mr. Black? I would think you'd concern yourself with your daughter--after all we wouldn't want to jeopardize your tenuous custody by doing or saying anything *rash* now... Would we?" "No." "Well then, " I start and take another drag off my cigarette, "I'm glad the issue is settled to your satisfaction. It *is* settled, correct?" "Yes, it's settled." I grin at the sad resignation in his voice; he doesn't look at me again when he exits the room at last. I sit back down and press play on my newest tape and I smile at the images before me. Mulder and Scully, standing side by side. They are looking up watching a TV. I notice Mulder's eyes shifting to Scully's face; he looks expectant, almost antsy. He leans a little closer to her and I watch his hand slide around her back, pulling her slightly toward him as their lips meet. I watch as they continue kissing gently for several seconds, both their eyes closed, shutting out the world around them for one sweet moment. I lean forward, pausing the tape just at the moment they part. I am focused on the dreamy look in Scullys eyes and I chuckle softly, "Ahh... Agent Scully... And Mulder, ever the gentleman." I press several more buttons on the remote until a still image of Dana Scully fills each of the monitors, moments frozen in time. I reach over and pick up the files resting on the table. I know each one inside and out. Which one to choose, that is the question. I press another button. Two tapes start playing simultaneously. One is Mulder, lying on a table looking like Jesus, crucified by science and technology. He wears not a crown of thorns, but the one apparatus capable of subduing and herding the miniscule fragments of the Tunguska virus still within his body into an operable location. The specialists still haven't been able to deduce exactly how the virus became active. Perhaps the faint traces of CGR on the rubbing combined with the electrical resonance of the elevator and the proximity to Agent Scully and the chip were causative factors. I don't think I need to know for sure. It was a grand day when I was able to toy with Mulder's subconscious and his dreams. I gave him what I wanted him to see, the world *I* created just for him. What Mulder must have thought, watching his dream-self glide through the world of domestic bliss. Truthfully we had to subdue his mind reading capabilities, effectively immobilizing the virus and causing it to regroup in one area of the brain. I remember the moment *my* image was changed. Later through analysis of Mulder's brain waves there was an indication of two dreams occurring at once...one externally influenced and one internally produced. I lean closer to the monitors, one shows Scully having a conversation with an empty room... or is it an unseen presence? I notice her kneel, bowing her head in prayer. I click on another monitor; this one showing the actual dream I created for Mulder, my own Mulder-movie. It was perfectly plotted until the last act. I watch the screens, I see Scully collapse on one, and on the other witness 'myself' mentioning a name *not* in the script... hers. "They're all dead... Scully too." "Scully, Scully's dead?" He manages, before starting to cry, starting to question... starting to fight. From that moment on, some other force controlled the dream. I felt myself become a bystander and no longer the creator and it was only moments until the image of Dana Scully waltzed into the picture and declared Mulder a coward. But that was months ago. Sending Diana's keycard to Scully was a stroke of genius on my part. I thought Diana had done a pretty good job of driving a wedge between Scully and Mulder. I knew Scully suspected her and she was right, but she couldn't get Mulder to believe her suspicions. I figured by showing both Mulder and Scully Diana's change of heart, the wedge would deepen the chasm between them. I was wrong. Watching Scully beg Mulder to come back to her, to live, her tear on his face and then a few days later Mulder referring to Scully as his touchstone. Jesus, I didn't know Mulder was such a romantic. I guess after seven years I should know the two of them can't be broken up so easily. And that's just the way I like it. It's odd, as much as I feel I've created Mulder, I feel I've nurtured Dana Scully and now looking back over the years, through the events, I wonder if I haven't been going after the wrong partner. Dana Scully has something special. I'm convinced she has psychic tendencies, which she suppresses. I think I'll just wait for the right time and until then I'll ponder which of these files I'll use to entice the lovely Agent Scully. March 15, 2000 Agent Mulder is happy. He still wants the truth, but he isn't pursuing it with a vengeance anymore. He still has the X Files and he still has his partner. His mother is dead and he has accepted that he will never find Samantha alive. That part of his life is closed. He is ready; he's been ready to be more to his partner than just friends. I want to see some of the old Mulder. I want to re-ignite the fire he's always had. They are becoming closer. In fact Scully is truly all Mulder has in more ways than one, to work with, to trust...to love. I know he told her once, in just those words. She was afraid to believe then, maybe she still is. Their most recent case dealt with a man and folk magic... she believed. For some reason Dana Scully is opening herself up more and more to the strange and unexpected. She's become harder and yet softer at the same time. She's letting Mulder into her heart and allowing herself to love him back. It's so damn obvious they are heading for a real relationship and all that it encompasses. Christ, that off-the-cuff comment he made to her one time about marrying him, there must be some secret desire there for that eventuality...we can't have that. It's time. Stirring things up is my specialty. In my hand is the folder I've chosen. I'm not going to use it on Mulder, not directly anyway. I've used Scully against Mulder for too long in one way or another. I'm not going to use her in that particular way anymore, this one and if it doesn't work the other folder is just for her. This is for Scully. She isn't the wrong partner any longer. The End.... Authors Notes: Ok after En Ami airs and I find out exactly what CSM is doing to entice her I will follow this up, by using an idea I have for the end of the series, if DD was to either not return or only part of the season. Whoops, I didn't manage to get this out before the ep aired, bad me, but it was at the beta readers long beforehand, I swear...trust me.