Title: The Call - The Ask - The Answer Author: Dryad Rating: R (to be safe)(subject matter)
Spoilers: Season 9 Archive: If'n ya like. A note where would be nice.
Summary: (can't spoil it, sorry!)
Feedback: Be brutal. You know you want to. hekateris at gmail dot com
He dialed the number, waited for the machine to kick in, tried to think of what to say and how to say it.
"Hello?"
He closed his eyes, released the breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. "Pam, it's me."
There was a short, shocked silence on the other end of the line.
"Melvin?"
"Yeah," he says, trying hard to sound gruff and Steady Freddy instead of crying into the phone.
"How did you get this number? No, never mind, I don't want to know."
Frohike nodded, managed to say 'yeah' again. He took another shuddering breath, felt his face flush from the effort of holding back the tears.
"What is it? What's wrong?"
"Pam...I need a favor."
"A favor? Melvin, it's been thirteen years since I last spoke to you and now you need a favor? Are you kidding me?"
Frohike turned around and leaned against the frame of the door, the phone's curly cord wrapping around his shoulders. He kept his voice low so Byers and Langly wouldn't overhear. "You owe me."
She sighed on the other end of the line, and then a radio was turned on, top 40 as was her habit. Still. Flatly, "What do you want."
"I need the Underground."
"Jesus, you don't ask for much. Anyway, I'm no longer involved. The need died down once pedophilia left the headlines. So I can't help you."
"Pam."
"I can't help you," she whispered harshly. "I have a new life now, I can't get involved, they can't find out."
"Pam!" he repeated. "Pam, I wouldn't ask if it wasn't necessary. I would do it myself if I could, if I knew who to trust, but you're the only one I trust."
Another silence.
"Even now?"
"Yeah," he said. He smiled a little. "Even now."
The song on the radio grew louder, then softer, became tinny and shrill as she moved away from it. "Let me grab a pen...how old?"
"Under a year."
"Girl or boy?"
"Boy," Blue eyes, creamy skin, happy giggles, can move mobiles with his mind.
"Mother?"
He nearly strangled himself on the cord when he bent over, the agony of what he had to do almost sending him to the floor. "Can't make it."
"She better be in a coma and a full body cast," growled Pam. "Okay,
when and where?"
"Pam...this one's important to me. It's personal."
"But you're not the dad, right?"
He had to huff a laugh at that. "No, no I'm not."
"This is it, Melvin. There can't be any more after this."
"There won't be."
The date was set. The time and place to be announced on the day.
Frohike hung up, wrung out from contacting his past. With luck he'd never hear her voice again after Thursday. All he had to do was breathe deeply, and then, then it would be over maybe.
The phone rang as he was putting it back on the shelf. He snatched the receiver off the cradle, thinking it was Pam again, thinking she'd changed her mind. "Hello?"
"It's Skinner. Did you do it?"
"Yeah, yeah I did," Frohike bit his lip and asked what he most wanted to know. "Is she sure?"
"You know what she's like once she makes her mind up."
"I'll kick Mulder's ass if he doesn't understand."
"Get in line," said Skinner. "Call me when you're ready."
The dial tone sang in his ear obnoxiously until he hung up, too.
It was time.
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There are only two lasting bequests that we can hope to give to our children.
One is roots, the other wings.
~Carter Hodding
Note: This was supposed to be a one hour challenge, but I'm sick and kept falling asleep. Call it 1'15". 'William' still enrages me - here's part of how I see how the adoption came about, because lets be honest,
there's no way Scully could have gone through the normal channels.
The Underground - remember in the 90's when people who were getting divorced would accuse their spouse of child abuse and then go on the lam? No? Well, for a little while it was a thing.
Purity Control .net/puritycontrol hekateris at gmail dot com