Comments, complaints and just plain talk to sheryl_martin@tvo.org
Summary: Melissa Scully ponders her sister's future...Rating: G, Vignette...Spoilers: Memento Mori, Elegy...
Family Matters (1/1)by Sheryl Martin
I remember a loud noise, like a branch breaking off a tree trunk.
Then the pain in my head and the sound as I hit the floor; the redness creeping across my vision in a flood of nausea.
It was like jumping into a mountain lake; that sudden shock of knowing something had just happened and you didn't know what to think.
But I've adjusted well, I think. Same as Dad.
Oh, we still fight. And he's as stubborn as ever, of course. Being dead doesn't change you that much.
What do you fight about when you're dead, you ask?
How to help the living, of course.
Dana, specifically.
Well, Mom too; but Dad takes care of that himself. He makes sure that she knows he' still close; that he still loves her as much as he ever did. It's cute in a way to watch - the way he moves around her; makes the breeze touch her skin in just such a way that she knows it's him. And she smiles, and we know that she knows. Mom was always a bit more open to these things than most people.
Dana, well... that's another matter.
Even before I got used to being here, I realised that the road is a two-way street - you can't communicate unless your target is a bit of a believer.
Not one of those hippies, as Dad would say; with that gruff voice that terrified half the neighbourhood. Not one of those druggies or scum that he threatened to turn us over to if we disobeyed his rules on things.
But the other way that you can communicate is when the walls grow thin between our worlds; when you can walk the road in between without the barriers so high that you can't see over them.
This usually doesn't happen too often. Halloween being the major focus point of that; but also when you're close to people and open.
Like Dad visiting Dana after he had died.
She never told me about it; never even hinted at it. I got it from Dad when I got here, surprising the hell out of me. I never thought she would be open to that type of visit - and of course my first thought was "Why not me?".
But he did love Dana so much. Even when they were fighting, he loved her.
I remember that confrontation in the living room; when she told them that she was going into the FBI, not taking her medical education and making a living in a hospital somewhere.
Dad was red faced and furious; Mom a bit weepy... Dana just Dana; her arms crossed in front of her and that lower lip trembling as she outlined her future.
I was in the kitchen, doing up the dishes. And for the first time I realised that she was my younger sister, but still her own person.
Very much like her father.
I heard that Fox visited her while wandering down that road himself. I'm glad he chose to turn to the right instead of the left and go back to her. Despite all the denials, I still think the two of them make a good couple.
And if they're connected like this, well...
But as I look at her, I see the shimmering around her grow; the changes in her body betraying her. She is more and more becoming not of her own world, but of ours.
Dad sits and shakes his head; mutters about the first time he forced her back to the world, about how he doesn't want both of us here.
Says it'll drive him crazy; having his two girls all over him without Mom to keep him company.
But we both know that the last time was a choice Dana made; a decision to go home that she could have refused. But this is much more serious; not of her own choosing.
And as her big sister I'm worried.
I watch her go through the motions; tell everyone she's fine, listen to her and Mom brawl over what to say to Billy and the others - and I watch Fox mutter to himself as he makes countless phone calls and calls in favours from people I never even suspected he knew to try and help her.
A part of me knows that if she comes here, he'll be right behind her. One way or another, those two are always going to be together.
I'd much rather it be there than here, personally. Somehow I think that this would be a bit much for them to handle; although I can see Mulder grabbing at Oswald's lapel and demanding to know the truth.
But I have a feeling, a sensation that she's not coming here yet. That there's a lot of mileage in my little sister yet; including a bit of history with that partner.
Dad's gone to visit her again. Try to get into her dreams and rock her to sleep, like he did when she was a little girl and plagued by nightmares. Curl her up in his lap and wrap his arms around her, humming some old sea dog song and send the monsters away so she can get some rest.
He's been going every night lately.
Me, I'm going to visit Mulder tonight. Should be interesting - the last time I paid him a visit it was a bit... revealing, to say the least.
Let's just say that he does dream about redheads a lot.
And not to play cards.
With any luck, we'll be visiting them both for a long time to come.
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