Letonia - 1/10

In a world where the government was quicker to act on the mutant threat, Dana Scully is about to make a discovery that changes everything.

Okay, so, here's the deal. Started in early 2001, this is the first piece I ever wrote. If you feel the need to read it, these are the things you must know:
1) It departs XF continuity around December 2000.
2) I like Doggett, though his presence here is limited.
3) The X-Men don't really come in until part 2.
3) I now fully realize quite a few major issues. Feel free to laugh at the random plot twists and blatantly obvious errors.

Thanks to, in no particular order: Craig, BGirl, SK850, AJ, Jenny, McGarry, Lindy and Quantos, Pokey, Char, Chelle, Kappa, Smoria, and Kaydee, all of whom have, at one time or another, beta'd, helped me out with this story, or my writing in general.

Letonia
1/10
Series: Under the Dark or Night (or 'Angst, Changes, and Various Reasons No X-Man Should Be Allowed Up On a Roof')

“They all think you’re dead, you know.”

He looked at her intently, his eyes daring her to deny it, to tell him that she knew how to fix it, to make it all better.

Daring her to chose the easy way out.

She flopped back on the bed (*her bed*, a part of her mind whispered to her). She could feel his eyes still on her, from where he stood by the (*her*) door, waiting on her decision.

Because this was what it all came down to, all of it. She had to choose.

She stared up at the ceiling and wondered how it had come to this.

*

“I think that you should’ve called him Fox,” Mulder said, bouncing Evan on his knee.

“Please, I’m not that cruel. I’d never condemn a child to the amount to teasing a name like that would incur.” Dana Scully smiled as her son waved a hand at her partner and gurgled happily, who’s only response was a huge grin. She reclaimed her son from him then, simply for that fact that if Mulder's grin grew any huger, she was afraid that the corners of his mouth would get stuck to his ears.

Mulder protested, of course, he always did. He loved Evan as if he were his own. Doggett did too.

Doggett had turned into an unexpected ally. He’d helped her out throughout the pregnancy, running out of the office at odd hours to get her pickled eggs and ice cream, covering for her when the morning sickness was at its worst, just being there for her when she needed a friend. If it hadn’t been for him and Skinner, she didn't know how she would’ve survived the past year, with Mulder’s disappearance on top of her pregnancy.

*Mulder and Doggett and Skinner,* she thought with a slight smile. Her friends. It didn't matter to them that not even she knew who Evan's father was. They'd always be there for her, and for her son.

Mulder was looking at her with those hang dog eyes again.

“Don’t you think that you’ve held him for long enough? You have all day to be with him,” he said, doing his best to inject the expression on his face into his words. Scully smiled wryly before handing over her son. Mulder cradled him in his arms, and the expression on his face changed. He lifted him up high, and held Evan’s mouth close to his ear. “What’s that you say? You want your Mom?” He quickly passed the boy off to her, and she realized why Mulder had been so eager to hand him over.

“Wuss,” she said as she went to go change the child’s diaper.

Scully poked around in Evan’s room. There had to be a diaper in here somewhere, there just did. She hadn’t....no, she’d forgotten to buy diapers last time she was at the store. Evan was making his discomfort known now. She grabbed one of the cloth diapers that she kept around just in case, and changed him quickly. She’d have to hurry if she wanted to make it to the store before it closed for the night. Mulder poked his head around into the room. Scully opened her mouth to tell him that Evan was fine, he’d just gotten a little cranky.

“You got any sunflower seeds?” Mulder asked, his face full of hope.

“You ate the last of them when you were here the other day.”

“You haven’t been shopping yet?”

“Well, I’m sorry, but I’ve been a bit busy lately, and seeing as how you’re the only one I know that eats the things, it’s not exactly at the top of my list.” She was snapping, and she regretted it as soon as she the words had left her mouth, but she just couldn’t help herself. She knew that he didn’t actually live here, but at times it seemed like it. He wasn’t even back at work yet, and he’d returned home from god knows where two months ago, at the same time that Evan had been born. She could respect if he needed time to heal after that, but all he seemed to be doing was eating her food and avoiding having to do work of any sort. Now he was looking at her with those eyes again, not realizing that that expression had really started to wear thin with her.

Maybe a walk would clear her head. “Look, I’m running down to the store to get diapers for Evan. I’ll get you some while I’m there.”

“You want me to drive you?”

“No, I think I’ll walk. It’s only a few blocks over, and I’m still trying to drop a few pounds.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, but the store closes at six, so I have to get a move on.”

Mulder picked up Evan, then walked with her to the front entrance. He watched her gather up her purse and jacket, and as she slipped out the door, he couldn’t help thinking that she’d never looked better.

*

“That comes to three fifty, ma’am.” The shop boy, a freckled teenager, handed a yo-yo and an ice cream bar to the little girl at the front of the line, who solemnly fished out the proper change and lay it down on the counter one coin at a time.

Scully scanned the magazine rack idly. WOMAN SAVED FROM DEADLY FALL BY ANGEL! a headline screamed at her. *Is this all they have?* she wondered. Looking more closely at the zines on the stand, she did a double take. All she could see was bubble gum, TV Guides, and tabloids. The number of empty spaces told her exactly where all of the respectable magazines were.

Who read that trash anyway? And who was in such serious need of a life that they investigated it? But she looked at the line between her and the check out, and picked it up anyway. She’d be here for awhile. *Express lane my ass.* She thumbed open the cover and settled in for a long haul. BLUE HAIRED ABOMINABLE SNOW MAN SIGHTED WITH WOLF MAN!!!

Hadn't Doggett mentioned something about a case like that a few weeks ago? She checked the page number for the story and flipped to it, finding it nestled under a story about Darth Vader. Skimming it, she felt her opinion of tabloid journalists drop even lower.

Well, at least now she knew what all of the English students did after they dropped out of university.

The case was starting to gel in her mind, and a good three quarters of the incidents in the article were totally bogus. Doggett had tracked down the men, and there had been a simple explanation. There usually was. This time, like so many others, people had simply reacted badly to what they did not know. The blue man suffered from lycanthropy, a not uncommon disease which caused hair to grow all over a person’s body. He had admitted, under her partner’s scrutiny, to dying it bright blue for the shock value. The other one was completely normal, at least in every way that they could prove. Doggett had never been able to figure out what had made other people so unsettled around him. Though, by the sounds of it, he’d been a little put off as well.

The article had made it sound as though they were freaks of nature. Yes, the one had a disease, but nature had caused that. In her experience, nature threw all sorts of things into the mix.

There were no freaks of nature.

*My head hurts.*

When she finally reached the checkout, she had a full out headache, which was rapidly developing into a migraine. By the time she had her bag together and was headed out the door, she was starting to feeling dizzy and completely zoned.

*Why is that little girl just standing in the middle of the road?* The child from the store was stopped dead in the middle of the intersection, licking the ice cream sombrely. Where were her parents? The lass was looking straight at Scully, her eyes never wavering. So far, she’d been lucky, the street had virtually no traffic.

“Hey,” Scully called. “Hey, you have to get off of the road. It’s dangerous.” The girl gave no sign of hearing her, her gaze remaining steady on the agent. Scully quickened her step, and as she reached the the corner, she felt herself start to heave a sigh of relief.

She cut it short. The child was still standing in the middle of the road. She stepped off of the side walk, despite the fact that the walk light had just clicked off.

A faint zooming sound came to her ear. * Crap, there’s a car coming.* She caught site of it out of the corner of her eye.

When she’d been in medical school, one of the cadavers had been a little boy, hit by a car. She knew what a vehicle could do to a person. She still couldn’t forget what it (*him*) had looked like. Human bodies just weren’t meant to take that much force.

She’d broken into a run, without realizing it. Her grocery bag was lying abandoned by the curb. *Maybe it won’t turn,* something whispered. She wasn’t at the girl yet. She reached, reached, heard the squeal of tires. The guy had turned, and he was going way too fast. He wouldn’t be able to stop. Lunging, she felt fabric beneath her fingers. She threw her other hand out as well, connecting with the child’s back. She saw the girl stumble backward, still clutching the ice cream, her mouth open in a silent scream. She saw the asphalt rushing up at her, saw the shadow she cast on it in the car’s headlight, saw the pebbles that were littered on the surface. She caught an impression of chrome and forest green, then a door slammed shut.

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