From: dryad@dazzleships.net   
      
   Disclaimer: Alas, alack, they are not mine. Yadda, yadda, yadda   
      
   Title: The Witness   
   Author: Dryad   
   Rating: PG13   
   Spoilers: followup to Ravens and Crows, S6, Diana Fowley era   
   Archive: Sho'. A note where would be nice.   
   Summary: Ten thousand paper cuts.   
   Feedback: I like it. hekateris at gmail dot com   
   Note: This comes some months after Ravens & Crows and a couple   
   of years before Country of the Crepescule: DoYou Like Our Owl?   
      
   ~*~   
      
   It was the hair, followed by the upright, all business stride. The black   
   skirt suit finished with black heels. The no-nonsense 'don't fuck with   
   me' attitude. Bill hesitated, then called "Dana!"   
      
   She turned, blinked slowly. "What are you doing here?"   
      
   He squeezed his keys at the tone in her voice. "I'm meeting a friend   
   whose sister was just murdered."   
      
   "Oh," she said, ducking her head. "I'm sorry."   
      
   "How long are you going to be in town?" he asked, wondering if she   
   was thinking what he was thinking, namely, he knew what Paul was   
   going through and damnit didn't she understand he didn't want her to   
   die too? "Maybe we could have dinner?"   
      
   "Bill..."   
      
   "Come on, just one meal. Just the two of us."   
      
   She glanced up at him then, plainly wishing she were some place else   
   entirely. "Why don't you come up to my room, we can talk there."   
      
   He followed her into the nearest elevator going up, watched her press   
   the 15 button."So...what brings you to San Diego? Mulder snipe   
   hunting again?"   
      
   Looking like she'd sucked on a lemon, she said, "You can get out right   
   now if you're going to continue."   
      
   Rocking back on his heels a little bit, he made the 'who, me?' face even   
   though he was a little ashamed at his comment. If he really wanted to   
   get her back, as their mother had said during Christmas, he was going   
   to have to lay off of Mulder. "Sorry. Seriously, what are you doing here?"   
      
   "Our jobs," she snapped. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath.   
   "We're investigating a possible serial killer."   
      
   "I haven't heard anything on the news."   
      
   "And hopefully you won't. This is my floor."   
      
   Bill didn't remember her ever walking so fast, but she marched down   
   the hallway as if wolves were nipping at her heels. She stopped at 1518,   
   fished her key card from the inside of her jacket, pressed it into the   
   slot. The light blinked LED green and after a brief hesitation, she entered   
   with Bill close behind. Inside it was all Dana, neat, tidy save for the   
   athletic shoes kicked to one corner, a slight spill of white shirts from a   
   navy nylon bag on the floor. There was a sudden absence of sound and he   
   abruptly understood what was odd. There was a connecting door open   
   to another bedroom and what he had heard was a running shower that   
   had stopped. A wave of warm, soap-scented moisture flooded the room   
   and  Bill hoped against hope that Mulder would leave them alone.   
      
   Dana sat down at the table and powered up her laptop. "I'm sorry, I   
   don't have a lot of time today."   
      
   "Me neither," he said, pulling out the other chair and sitting down. The   
   table was littered with paperwork and manilla file folders, albeit neatly   
   stacked. There was a yellow legal pad filled with black scribbled notes,   
   at the bottom of which were two hand-drawn outlines of a torso slashed   
   and asterisked. He looked away, glanced at her face, felt how much she   
   wished he was simply gone from her presence. He hated to admit it,   
   but for weeks after Thanksgiving he had had trouble sleeping. The   
   nightmares  of what could have happened he expected, the nightmares   
   of his  responsibility for her death staggered him. He suspected it was his   
   subconscious trying to make sense of how he felt. He loved her, he did.   
   There was just, he couldn't, he was used to thinking of her as his annoying   
   little sister, not as a law enforcement officer with the duties and   
   responsibilities the job entailed. And he knew there were consequences.   
      
   Or maybe he was just old-fashioned that way, wanting to protect the   
   women and the children from the horrors of the world. Good man that   
   he was, Dad had always impressed the importance of duty upon Bill. But   
   it was different for girls, wasn't it? Their duty lay with family - surely   
   there was nothing wrong with that? Any woman who could do what she   
   had done at Thanksgiving - it wasn't right, it wasn't natural.   
      
   Mulder poked his head through the doorway, saw Bill, stepped in fully,   
   naked save for the towel wrapped around his hips. "Scully, have you   
   seen my glasses?"   
      
   She nodded towards her bed. "On the side table."   
      
   "Thanks," he retrieved his glasses and left again.   
      
   He didn't close the door.   
      
   Glasses on the side table. Hunh. Bill wasn't going to say anything about   
   it. The look on Mulder's face was enough to keep his mouth shut. This   
   time. Bill was going to tell her that he and Tara had decided she couldn't   
   see Matthew again if she was working, but what came out of his mouth   
   instead was, "Why do you do it, Dana?"   
      
   "Do what?"   
      
   He gestured helplessly. "This? You could be a doctor anywhere you   
   wanted. You could work with children, or be a heart surgeon, Dad said   
   that's what you were going to do when you first went to med school. I   
   don't understand what happened to change your mind."   
      
   Dana gave another one of those heavy sighs and rubbed the bridge of   
   her nose for a moment. "I really don't want to talk about this, Bill.   
   I've made   
   my choices and I'm happy with - "   
      
   "Happy?" he spluttered incredulously before shaking his head "No, no,   
   forget I said that. God, why can't we ever just talk like normal people?"   
      
   "Maybe when you stop questioning me and my motives. Or come to realize   
   that I'm not a little girl anymore, someone you can't bully. Now, if   
   that's all   
   you have to say I have to return to work."   
      
   He didn't know what to say.   
      
   A phone rang, was answered. A few moments later Mulder stepped in again,   
   this time in black socks, dark gray boxer briefs and a pale blue Oxford. He   
   was looping a fantastically bad tie around his neck. "Scully, they just   
   found   
   another one."   
      
   "We're done here," Dana said, eyes cold when she glanced at Bill.   
      
   He stood, shook his head again. "I don't think we are. Mom says we need   
   to work this out for the sake of the family, and I'm beginning to think   
   she's   
   right."   
      
   "Let me give you the short version, Bill; I'm not going to quit the job,   
   I'm   
   not going to become a doctor, at least not at this time."   
      
   "I said nothing about any of that!"   
      
   "You don't have to, because we have this same conversation virtually every   
   time we meet," she twitched one shoulder. "I'm tired of it, Bill, and if   
   the only   
   way I have to avoid doing this is to avoid you, then that's what I'll do."   
      
   "Jesus," he huffed in disbelief. How could she say any of that to him? "How   
   can you say that to me?"   
      
   Behind her, Mulder came into the room, shrugging on his suit coat.   
   "Sorry to interrupt, but we have to go."   
      
   Dana nodded, directed Bill towards the door with one hand.   
      
   Still shaken, he walked out into the hallway, turning around as they   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)