From: joannhere@gmail.com   
      
   *NO ARCHIVE*   
      
   TITLE: Consequential Loss   
   RATING: R (strong language)   
   CLASSIFICATION: X A   
   DATE: April 2006 - Book 1 completed   
   TIMELINE: S7 (with refs to S8)   
   ARCHIVE: Ephemeral, Gossamer - others please ask   
   AUTHOR: Joann H - joannhere@gmail.com   
      
   LEGALLY:   
   We all know the score. The characters are not mine, never   
   will be. They belong to some combination of Fox, 1013   
   and CC.   
      
   SUMMARY:   
   A last minute intervention by Krycek changes Mulder's life   
   forever, threatens to destroy Skinner, and sends Scully into a   
   dangerous pursuit.   
      
   Joins the X-Files timeline five minutes before the end of the   
   Requiem episode and then takes a very different course.   
      
   My grateful thanks to a whole long list of people. Honor who was   
   there at the beginning. Ann, MaybeAmanda, Probe, Lisby who helped   
   me bring this home. And to the guys on XOK who egged me on a vital   
   moment.   
      
   STATUS:   
   Book 1 is complete and will be posted in parts over the next   
   couple of weeks.   
   There will be another Book following on after this one, but I'm   
   not promising a particular delivery date on that.   
      
   On with the show!   
      
   =======   
      
   So which was it to be: an alien bounty hunter or Alex Krycek? The   
   throbbing glow of an extraterrestrial spaceship or the dim outline   
   of a delivery truck?   
      
   He turned, looking for the third option: Walter Skinner and   
   sanity. Saw nothing except a pulsating curtain of light and that   
   single narrow strand of darkness, a slender blindspot in the   
   ship's beam. In the shadows, the gray outline of a man, one arm   
   raised above his head, a ghostly silhouette against the blackness   
   behind.   
      
   Shifting through three-sixty degrees, Mulder looked for the   
   miracle that wasn't there. Now or never. Panic too close to the   
   surface to consider the consequences, he sought out the breach in   
   the shimmering wall and found it again. Story of his life, running   
   from the light into the dark. The shadows had never looked so   
   inviting.   
      
   ---------   
      
   EARLIER THAT DAY - Washington DC   
      
      
   Scully's mother seldom called during what she referred to as   
   "working hours" and knew better than to call Scully at the office.   
   Which meant that when Maggie called Scully on her mobile at 11:45,   
   Scully was obliged to take it seriously. She nodded an excuse to   
   the Lone Gunmen and headed into an empty corridor.   
      
   "I'm fine, mom."   
      
   "You didn't sound fine last night."   
      
   Scully, frowned at her mother's insight, thought back to the   
   previous night. She tried to recall the words she'd used,   
   wondering if she could wiggle out of them now. Mulder had flown   
   to Oregon, but she hadn't felt well enough to join him. How the   
   hell had she made a slip like that? She never admitted to being   
   ill. No wonder her mother was concerned enough to call again   
   today. No reply at Scully's apartment. Of course she'd try the   
   cell phone. "Really, it's nothing to worry about. Must have been   
   one of those 24-hour flu things."   
      
   "You told me here's no such thing."   
      
   Scully closed her eyes, wondering why she'd even said it.   
   "OK - you got me. Probably food poisoning."   
      
   "You were thirteen when you told me that."   
      
   Scully could hear the proud smile in her mother's voice and   
   couldn't help but smile as she replied. "Clostridium perfringes,   
   maybe."   
      
   "I'll bring you some food over."   
      
   "Mom."   
      
   "Or are you flying out to Oregon now?"   
      
   "No," said Scully, fighting to keep at least a semblance of a   
   smile in her voice. "Mulder will probably be back before I could   
   even get there."   
      
   She closed the call and returned to the office, chin up, shoulders   
   straight, walking proud and tall, defying anyone to see weakness   
   in her stance. She was dismayed by the expression of concern on   
   Byer's face.   
      
   She'd shrugged the Gunmen's questions off the day before. They'd   
   been surprises that Mulder was traveling to Oregon with Skinner.   
   "I've work to do here," she told them. Frohike had insisted on   
   driving her home that night, reminding her that dizzy spells and   
   city traffic didn't mix.   
      
   When they resumed work again today they did so only after asking   
   oblique questions about tiredness and food. They'd insisted on   
   supplying fruit juice and pastries, despite Scully's insistence   
   that she wanted neither.   
      
   "Time for lunch," said Byers, before Scully even had chance to   
   return to her chair.   
      
   Langly looked up at him, obviously ready to tell his colleague   
   that he had to be insane before catching the look in Byer's   
   eyes and turning to stare at Scully's pale face instead.   
   "Yeah, time for a break," said the blond, stretching his arms   
   behind his head as he rose.   
      
   Frohike had already taken up position at the door and was holding   
   it open, making it clear to everyone that the decision had been   
   taken; they were going to take a real break and not just call out   
   for sandwiches or a pizza.   
      
   Byers moved towards Scully, cornering her for a moment. "He'd   
   never forgive us if anything happened to you. We'd never forgive   
   ourselves."   
      
   Easy for them to say. She needed to be ready; Mulder was going to   
   need help and he was going to need it soon and, though she   
   couldn't pin down exactly what it was that she was afraid of, she   
   acknowledged the fear to herself. To Byers she admitted only a   
   bare minimum about tiredness and stress, knowing that he would be   
   reassured by a show of honesty, however incomplete.   
      
   Lunch was lunch. Eaten fast and tasting of dust and cardboard.   
   While the others indulged in tall cups of caffeine rich java, she   
   stuck to water. Even that was hard to swallow. She hustled them   
   back to work as quickly as she could and they agreed that she'd   
   compromised, but insisted that the next meal break would be a   
   longer one in which they all got to sit down.   
      
   Stress? She'd thought working with Mulder was stressful, but not   
   working with him was far worse.   
      
   He was out there looking for that UFO and she was stuck in DC.   
   Mulder's orders. Since when had she listened to an order from   
   Mulder? Smiling a little, despite the queasy feeling in her   
   stomach, her thoughts drifted back to their first case and a night   
   in an Oregon forest. Special Agent Dana Scully, the rookie kid   
   drawing her gun on the town's sheriff. Mulder, acting as the voice   
   of maturity, shaking his head and ordering her to stand down. God   
   - she'd been so young, so naive, so excited to be in the field. A   
   partner, not just another agent.   
      
   If she hadn't been feeling so damned sick, she'd have ignored his   
   little speech about not wanting to risk losing her. Rejected that   
   idea as well, as the dizziness returned full force. She'd have   
   ignored his words? Not possible. How could she, not when they were   
   practically a declaration of love, or as close to one as you could   
   reasonably expect while standing outside a meeting room in the   
   middle of the Hoover Building. Thank God for Skinner, at least she   
   knew Mulder had backup he could trust.   
      
   Didn't stop her feeling sick to the pit of her stomach though.   
      
   She threw herself back into her work and was grateful that the   
   Gunmen seemed equally absorbed in theirs, huddling around computer   
   screens looking for anomalies on satellite feeds.   
      
   Hours later, she was rifling through the files, still searching   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)