Title: Another Day
Rating: G / K
Summary: For Mulder, another case means another battle in an ongoing war. For Scully, it just means another day. Scully-POV drabble. Complete.
Spoilers: None. This is a very general piece.
Disclaimer: Alas, none of the characters (or anything else really) belong to me. Chris Carter, Fox, and 1013 Productions own these guys.
Author's Note: Just a slight drabble from Scully's POV that came to mind when I was trying to find a way to start a completely different fic.
Another Day
Another day, another case.
My knees are shaking, and I gladly lean back against the bench which offers support. My nerves are all on end. I feel spent and frazzled, and I don't know how the events of the past few days will translate into a nice, logical field report for Skinner's desk.
Another case—another supernatural beastie that by all laws of science shouldn't exist.
I still don't even know what it was we were fighting. I know Mulder's theory—stereotypically involving no less than three alien abductions and government cover-ups, and inevitably resulting in the investigation being taken over by a couple of feds in suits who tell us the mess is "being taken care of."
Another government mess-up, another government cover-up.
I don't know how Mulder's still standing, but standing he is as he hassles the taciturn feds. Probably asking them to admit, once and for all, their high-security government secrets. He looks at least as ragged around the edges as I feel—the button-up shirt that started out this investigation as white is now smudged and smeared to a dull grayish brown. Against the odds, I smile. He's going to have one hell of a dry-cleaning bill. Might cost less just to get a new shirt.
It's not impressing the men, who shy away from his every move with a hint of distaste visible, despite the dark glasses. Not that I blame them. Something about Mulder is contagious—they're probably right to stay away. Getting too close…that can mean picking up his habits, his nuances. Even his crazy theories that have no basis in fact rub off over time.
Another government lie, another truth expertly hidden.
It's obvious how it kills him each time he ends an investigation staring down those suits, because he knows that he's on to something so important that they need to interfere to stop him. I watch as Mulder continues to demand information, but his pleas fall on deaf ears. Inside, I feel sorry for him. With the government always a step ahead, it's hard to come in first in this rigged race.
I didn't believe him. Not at first. But things happen—things that no government story can explain. It's all Mulder's fault. However skeptic I might be at times, the end of a case like this…well, it almost makes me want to believe, too.
Mulder turns away from the solemn-faced feds, knowing that it's impossible to get anything out of them. He comes to sit down next to me, to sigh with the characteristic knowledge that there's something more out there, something he isn't being told—something he desperately needs to know. "It was real, Scully," he says, his head in his hands. "It was real and here they are ready to turn it into something fake." The sorrow in his eyes is personal—every blow dealt to the truth is one that he takes personally.
What can I do other than offer him all the support I have to give?
"So they've won the battle," I say, leaning against him in exhaustion. "Don't the good guys always win the war?"
Even in the darkening light, I can see a small smile touch my partner's lips. He understands the way he has to treat this in order to keep going on, day after day. He knows just like I do that we can't let them get us down. Because every investigation that ends with a cover-up—that just means we were closer to the truth. I can't help but smile as well. Someday, I know, we'll get them.
Another impossible truth discovered and accepted. It's just another day.
Hate it? Love it? Either way, I want to know! Feedback is amazing…take the time to review.