From: palmerdolph@yahoo.com   
      
   Title:  One Thought   
      
   Author: probe   
      
   email me with feedback(begging like a puppy)   
   PalmerDolph@yahoo.com   
      
   Classification: post invasion/ Angst   
   this was a halloween challenge fic   
      
   Thank you! Thank you! to MaybeAmanda who was my beta(she's   
   really smart) and also Franthe Wonderhorse who has to   
   virtual hand hold with me through every new fan fiction   
   experience   
      
   Disclaimer:  I'm just a fan with an over-active imagination.   
   Please don't sue me!   
      
      
      
      
   (18 months earlier)   
      
   February 1999   
      
   El Rico Airbase   
      
   West Virginia   
      
      
      
   I had wrapped the alien fetus in newspaper before stuffing it into   
   my backpack. The truth was that the thing scared the fuck out of   
   me.  I didn't want it defrosting on my watch, couldn't risk anyone,   
   of any species, getting pissed off at me this late in the game.   
      
   I slung my pack over my shoulder and bolted out of that place – the   
   faceless rebels would be right behind me and we were all screwed –   
   deal off and no survivors if they got the little frozen freak show   
   before I did.   
      
    I had the company car's speedometer 50 miles over the limit   
   until I reached the hangar doors at El Rico.  If the cops had tried   
   to stop me, I fully INTENDED to mow them down with the   
   arsenal piled in the backseat.  But no problems –   
   maybe there was something in the air that smelled like the end of   
   the world.  No one gave a shit about my car speeding to the airbase   
   hangar.   
      
   Spender took the fetus as soon as I got there.   
   It looked like he hadn't bothered to let long lost Jeffrey in on the   
   big exodus from earth.  I shrugged it off.  That was his business.   
      
      
   The hangar was damn cold and the looks I was getting from my fellow   
   space-bound passengers equally icy.  Diana made it a point to avoid   
   eye contact – to let me know she was avoiding eye contact.   
   staring me down, then turning away as if she didn't recognize   
   me.  I guess she wanted it obvious that she considered herself   
   far above the assignments we'd shared in Europe, especially those   
   parts where we'd fucked.  She was part of the elite inner circle   
   now,   
   one of the nameless, and she expected me to act accordingly. Bitch.   
      
   Cassandra Spender got wheeled into the mess.  I guess we were all   
   ready to go -- me, and a bunch of people who would just as soon kill   
   me or let me die.  I have to admit it: eternity was already looking   
   a little tarnished before Mulder and Scully showed up.   
      
   Skinner was behind them, his head shiny, sweat dripping down the   
   sides   
   of his face.  Mulder nodded at Diana and got the privilege of   
   a return nod.  Mulder was about to charge in my direction. I have   
   no idea what he might have said to me -- maybe he just wanted to hit   
   me one last time before his Close Encounters wet dream was   
   realized. God forbid I should hit him back and scratch that   
   priceless   
   alien-enhanced head of his.   
      
   How the hell had they gotten him here? Maybe Diana deserved her   
   haughty stance near the old boys.   
      
   Mulder didn't quite make it into my face though. A small hand had   
   his   
   arm, stopped him in his tracks.   
      
   Scully wasn't staying.   
      
   "This isn't right Mulder." Her voice was breathy and low and   
   absolutely certain.   
      
   "It's the only way to survive," Mulder told her and he sounded   
   primed for a fight.  Before anyone could blink he had his gun out   
   and trained on his partner. "You're not going anywhere."   
      
   All conversation stopped and Diana joined Mulder behind the barrel   
   of his gun.  "Agent Scully, what's the problem?" she said in her   
   newly awarded voice of authority.  See, this was why it took   
   someone like Diana, someone willing to do whatever it took to work   
   her way into this hangar, so damn long to get out of those vague   
   European assignments – she just can't objectively judge her own   
   success and failure. I think Diana expected to gun down Scully for   
   being a party pooper or some such shit.  Which was all wrong, of   
   course.   
      
   "He won't shoot her," I said calmly. And that was the truth, even   
   if Scully and I were the only ones who believed it.   
      
   "Put down the gun, Mulder!" and Skinner had his out, too.  This was   
   getting interesting.   
      
   I know the bluebloods had to be wondering who the hell   
   had invited these three to their salvation.  Someone behind me   
   actually gasped, and it was all I could do not to turn and stare.   
   Give me a break!  Was anyone in this room innocent of spilling   
   blood or letting it be spilled for them?   
      
   "Mulder," Scully put her hand on the gun.  Scully looked unafraid.   
   Her pale skin was nearly glowing in that gray-lit cavernous room.   
   I remember realizing then that there was one innocent person –   
   someone who wouldn't climb over a corpse just to save herself.   
   Outside, a powerful wind rattled the entire building but the   
   low tones of her voice were plain.   
      
   "You go on," Scully said. "You need to see your sister and you   
   need to see the truth."   
      
   Watching her give up this escape I'd prized so highly for so   
   long - I felt something. It affected me – that's all I can say.   
      
   Diana looked relieved when Mulder lowered the gun and hung his   
   head to put his gun back in its holster. He started crying.   
   Of course. Pussy.   
      
   I remember thinking – I give him a year, maybe two, without her.   
      
   Then Skinner had her by the lapels.   
      
   "Scully, you'll die. They're all going to die."  But even Skinner   
   knew he stood less chance than Mulder of swaying Scully's opinion.   
      
   "I want to do what's right," she told him.   
      
   Mulder dragged her into a bear hug.  He was sobbing out loud, by   
   then -- very pathetic.  Probably Skinner was crying too.  Little did   
   the bald bastard know that there was no chance in hell his name had   
   made the guest list for this cruise.  Looks like he could have used   
   some of Scully's heroism that night.  What a shame.   
      
   The hangar doors opened and light spilled into the room.  If Scully   
   was going to leave then it was time to go.  Mulder gripped her   
   hard.   
      
   I pried them apart. "Come with me," I said and I actually   
   pulled her from her trench coat because Mulder had it like a vise.   
      
   Don't even ask me what I was thinking – I'd take it back if I   
   could.   
      
   I nodded Mulder towards the light.  "There they are," I told him.   
      
   Oh, he looked – of course he fucking looked.  I mean, here they   
   were -- the answers, the truth, the missing sister!  Hell, Scully   
   would keep just a little longer.   
      
   Mulder turned and I took Scully into my jacket,   
   dragged her out of the hangar and out of the light and into the   
   darkness on the other side.  And this is the part that continues   
   to fuck with me.  Why?  What the fuck did Scully do to me?   
      
   Because it WAS her. She fucking blinded me with her fucking   
   Idealism Spell.   
      
   I gave up certain survival with the cowards and traitors in that   
   hangar.   
   That hangar was where I belonged!   
      
   Maybe Mulder regrets that moment – turning to the light of the ship   
   and away from her -- just as I regret not doing the same.  But this   
   is   
   how we wound up:  Me, with all the hell of catastrophe, plague and   
   invasion, fighting beside this woman I believe in --   
   the ONLY thing I've ever believed in, but who hates   
   my guts, and Mulder…   
      
   Well, I have no idea where he ended up.   
      
      
      
      
   Halloween 2000   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)