Title: Zero at the Bone


Author: musexmoirai


Rating: R for language and mature themes

Fandom: The X-Files

Spoilers: "Beyond the Sea"

Pairing: umm... shades of Boggs/Scully; Boggs' POV

Feedback: You know you want to.

Disclaimer: I don't really wish Luther Boggs was mine. I wouldn't mind a Dana Scully though. They actually belong to 1013, Chris Carter, Brad Dourif, and Gillian Anderson. Title comes from the Emily Dickinson poem, "A Narrow Fellow in the Grass" because Boggs is just that serpentine.

Author's Notes: For the contrelamontre flash-forward challenge. Watched the episode and was very excited to find out that Brad Dourif played both Luther Boggs in The X-Files and Grima Wormtongue in LOTR:TTT. He is a brilliant actor and his villians are awesome! The chemistry between Boggs and Scully in the episode was especially electric. Were I and my sister the only ones who saw a romantic possiblity between Boggs and Scully? Someone else please say they did too, for my sake of mind.

***

He was beginning to feel sorry that he had killed his family. He wished he had had a father liked hers.

Fathers must be a nice thing to have, especially if they loved you. Then he would be able to have a Happy Fathers' Day.

He had never had one. He thought about that Thanksgiving. The turkey was the best that year.

Thanksgiving and Fathers' Day. Both holidays. It would be a holiday two days later too. The state would probably celebrate as they gleefully gassed him out of this life.

She had used those words. She had if he dies threatened that no one will be able to stop me if her partner died, she would throw the switch and gas him out of this life for good, you son of a bitch!

Yes, he was a son of a bitch. That was because of all the people talking in his head. Goddamn victims were supposed to stay dead, not come back to taunt the living.

Sounded like a bad horror movie.

He loved her, yes, he did. He loved Dana Katherine Scully. Why not? Her father loved her, her partner loved her and they were both in his head right now. Taking up cranial matter. Telling him all about her dirty little secrets, unless she told him herself. Like the cigarettes. He liked finding out about her, especially direct from her mind. It felt like he was bonding with her.

Somewhere beyond the shore, we'll kiss just as before. Happy we'll be, beyond the sea…

Then there were those other thoughts he had about her, the ones about how tight her ass looked and how perky her breasts were. And these were from spending way too much time inside this cell.

He needed to get out. He doubted it would ever happen, even with his newfound Miss Cleo abilities. Fat lot of good they did him now, when he was scheduled to go on the electric chair any day now. But calm…calm… panicking never helped anyone. Think about something else.

He didn't like cigarettes. They smelled filthy.

He lay down on the stiff wooden board (a bed? bed? is this a bed?) and tried to go to sleep. He would tell her what he knew tomorrow. He would help her because she could help him but she had tried.

He wanted a cigarette.

***

He was terrified of the priest. Pissed in his pants terrified. And so starts the beginning of the end.

He was lead down the corridor. Try not to look side-to-side. Look straight ahead, like a horse. Then he wouldn't be able to see his parents, his brothers and sisters, and why oh why does the whole family have to show up for the damn event?

It's not like it's fucking Disneyland.

But she'll be here. He knows she will.

She wanted to know what her father's last words were, didn't she?

So she must come. There was no way about it.

So he keeps his head tilted to the side until the last moment when even the goddamn priest is leaving the chamber. Godamned priest with his full-of-shit Lord's Prayer. And who's it going to help, God? Who's it going to fucking help?

But maybe there's still salvation for him. Maybe she'll be here. Maybe at the last moment, she'll tell them not to throw the switch and maybe she'll save his life.

Because he's so fucking scared.

Maybe she loves him.

Because he loves her.

And now he looks up to where the window is, hoping to see a familiar beautiful face and copper-red hair. An angel of mercy.

She's not there. She's not there. She's not there… he cannot scream.

But he does cry.

They throw the switch.