Tegan Chronicles

Origins of Truth 7

When Dana came home Tegan was asleep in the living room and Janet was sitting at the dinning room table. She sat the bottle of Compazine down as Janet looked up. "Long day?"

"Yeah."

"Well pack your bags. You're staying with Sam the next two nights. I'll take care of Tegan and Cassie can help. You can come back in time for dinner Sunday."

"I can't."

"You can. Sam's expecting you, and I think it'll do you both good."

"Are you sure you don't mind?"

"Mind, it was my idea. Now go pack before I change my mind and I go stay with Sam and leave you here." She smiled as Janet stood up.

"Thank you." She hugged her before going to throw some clothes in an over night bag.

"Janet?" Tegan called out from the living room.

"What do you need?" Dana came in from the kitchen.

"Where's Janet?"

"She's at Sam's. I thought you could use a break." She watched as Tegan struggled to move. "What are you doing?"

"I need to go to the bathroom."

"Think you could tell me so I can help you get into the wheelchair?" Dana pulled it over to the side of the bed. "You really are hard headed."

Tegan grunted as Dana helped her into the wheelchair. "Where's shadow?"

"Cassie's walking him." Dana wheeled her to the bathroom off the dinning room, and helped her.

When they returned to the living room Tegan told her she wanted to stay in the wheelchair for a little while.

"Are you hungry?"

"Nope." Tegan stared at the black screen of the TV.

"Janet said you haven't eaten anything today."

"I'm surprised she even noticed."

Dana looked at Tegan for a minute. "She does care you know."

"Whatever, I'm not hungry."

"You need to eat." Cassie followed Shadow into the living room.

"When did you become the expert?" Tegan pointed for Shadow to lie down.

"I've been taking lessons from my mom." Cassie retorted.

Tegan sighed; she was on the losing end of the argument. "So, what's for dinner?"

"Take out." Cassie and Dana answered in unison.

"So?" Dana eyed her wondering if she'd actually eat. "What do you want?"

"Where are you ordering from?"

"Anywhere you want," Cassie answered.

"Anywhere?"

Cassie nodded, silently hoping Tegan wouldn't go for Thai food.

"I'll take a chef salad from Fran's with ranch on the side."

After Dana and Cassie decided what they wanted Dana went in the kitchen to call in the order.

"Can I play?" Cassie pointed to her game system.

"I don't care." Tegan spotted Janet's medical bag. "Could you hand me those scissors first?"

"Sure." Cassie pulled out the bandage scissors and handed them to Tegan before turning on the TV and game system. She looked back over her shoulder to see Tegan had one blade of the scissors shoved under the edge of her cast. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing, my leg itches."

"You're not supposed to put stuff inside your cast." Cassie knew a lie when she heard one.

"Play your game." Tegan nodded to the TV with her head.

Cassie held her hand out. "Give me the scissors."

"I thought these things were supposed to be able to cut through a penny." She ignored the teenager as she tried to cut into the fiberglass cast.

"Dana!"

Dana had just hung up the phone when she heard Cassie call her name. "Yeah?"

Cassie looked up as she came into the living room. "Tegan's trying to cut her cast off."

"Tegan." Dana moved swiftly to her side. "Give me the scissors."

Her chest hurt to bad to allow her the strength to cut into the cast, but she wasn't giving up.

Dana watched her continue to struggle with the scissors. She was beginning to wonder if sending Janet away for the weekend had been the best of ideas. She realized how easy it would be to get the scissors away from Tegan. She could grab them and probably gain possession with just a simple jerk, or she could simply push on Tegan's chest just hard enough for her to let go of the scissors, but something told her that wasn't the best way to handle the current situation. Instead she moved in front of the wheelchair and knelt so she could look up into Tegan's face. "What are you doing?"

"I can't walk with the cast on." Tegan continued to concentrate on her task.

"Do you remember where you are?"

"Yes, I'm completely lucid. I'm at Janet's, you're Dana Scully, that's my dog sitting over there. I'm Major Doctor Tegan Kiser of the United States Air Force…"

"Alright." Dana stopped her. "So since you should know why you need to keep that cast on, why don't you tell me why you want it off so bad?"

"I want to go home."

"Ok." Dana nodded.

"Janet doesn't want me here."

"Of course she does." Dana disagreed.

"No, she doesn't. She told me as much last night."

"I don't believe that." Cassie spoke up.

"She said the only reason I was here was because she felt it was her responsibility to take care of me."

"My mom would never say that." Cassie defended Janet.

"Ok, she didn't say it. I said it, and she agreed." Tegan used her building anger to squeeze the handle of the scissors until it finally cut through the casting materials. "There."

Dana put her hand over the scissors before Tegan could move them and continue her mission. "Things sometimes get said in the heat of the moment."

"There was no heat." Tegan glanced over as the door bell rang.

"Cassie, can you get that. There's money on the counter, tell him you don't need change." She looked at Tegan. "Janet loves you."

"She sure has a funny way of showing it."

"She just needs to get some rest, she'll be fine when she comes back, you'll see."

"Move your hand." Tegan's voice had a threatening tone to it that Dana hadn't encountered before.

"Tegan?" She didn't back down, or move her hand which she realized may not be her smartest decision.

"I want to go home."

"Fine," Dana relented. "Put the scissors down and eat your salad. I'll give Jack a call and after we eat we'll take you home."

"What's the catch, besides eating?" Tegan didn't look over as Cassie came into the living room with their food.

"Cassie and I are going to stay the weekend with you. And you're going to leave your cast on."

"And Janet?"

"I don't know. That's really between you two, isn't it?"

Tegan nodded and pulled the scissors back and handed them to Dana. She'd managed to make a two and a half inch cut into her cast, and her chest hurt from the effort.

"I'll call Jack after we eat." Dana tossed the scissors back in Janet's medical bag and turned to face Cassie. "You need to pack clothes for two days and PJs after we eat."

"Don't forget your toothbrush." Tegan held out her hand for her salad as Cassie smiled.

"What do you want to drink?" Cassie handed the salad to Tegan.

"Pepsi."

"Dana?"

"Water."


After packing her stuff Dana had put the sheets from the sofa bed and air mattress into wash. She packed up the air mattress and returned the living room to it's prior state before Jack and Daniel showed up.

"So why are we doing this?" Daniel walked into the living room.

"Tegan wants to go home." Dana offered in way of response.

"And what's Janet say about it?"

"She doesn't know yet." Dana shrugged. "I'm going to call her after we get Tegan home and settled."

"Good luck with that." Daniel raised his eyebrows.

"So Kiser, are you ready to go?" Jack walked around behind her wheelchair.

"Yup."


"Where's your phone?" Dana asked after the guys left.

"There's a cordless on the charger in the dinning room."

"I'm going to go call Janet, and let Shadow out." Dana still had her coat on and took the phone out on the back porch.

"Hello?" Janet was surprised to see Tegan's home number on her mobile caller id.

"Janet, its Dana."

"Why are you calling from Tegan's?"

"She wanted to come home."

"And you gave in?"

"She was going to cut her cast off with your bandage scissors."

"I'm coming over."

"Janet look, I didn't call to ruin your weekend. I just wanted you to know where we were should you need to get up with us. Cassie is staying here too; she's taking Tegan's sleep sofa."

"Are you sure you can handle her?"

"I think that she'll do better now that she's here. But you might want to go home Sunday and pack a bag before you come over here, I'm still fixing dinner."

"If you need anything…"

"I'll call. Bye." Dana hung up and walked back in the house with Shadow.

When Dana walked into the living room Cassie was sitting on the couch watching TV. "Where Tegan?"

"I think she went to her bedroom."

"You think?"

"She was pushing the wheelchair with one foot, and when I offered to help she said she could do it herself."

"Ok." Dana walked down the hall to find Tegan's door shut. She knocked lightly. "It's Dana."

"Come in." Tegan grunted as she struggled to get her oxford off.

Dana opened the door and saw Tegan with her oxford unbuttoned and pulled halfway down one shoulder. And oversized navy night shirt with yellow stars lay on her lap.

"I can – can you help me?"

"Yeah." Dana stepped up and helped her change into her night shirt. "What else do you need?"

Tegan looked into her blue eyes for a second before looking away. "Sorry I'm such an ass."

"Because you wanted to come home?"

"I could have gone about it better."

"True," Dana agreed. "But you're under a lot of stress, so let's just forget about it ok?"

Tegan nodded. "Could you help me get to the bathroom?"

After Cassie went to bed Dana went to check on Tegan, she stood in the doorway for a minute.

"I'm awake."

"Shadow's in bed with Cassie."

"He always chooses her over me." Tegan groaned as she reached for the lamp. "You can turn the light on."

"I just wanted to see if you were ok. Do you need something for pain?"

"Probably."

"Alright, so pick your poison." Dana smiled lightly.

"Motrin and a sprite."

"You need something stronger than Motrin. How about Lorcet?"

"Just Motrin."

Sometime after midnight Dana woke up and stared up at the dark ceiling in the guest room. At first she wasn't sure what had woken her, except she'd been sleeping lightly afraid she wouldn't hear Tegan call out for help in the middle of the night. Was that what she had heard? Had Tegan called her name?

She lay there for a few more minutes listening to the silence before she slipped out of bed in a pair of cotton pajama bottoms with chili peppers on them that said hot stuff, they'd been a Christmas gift from Mulder, and a black t shirt. She moved quietly down the hall careful not to wake Cassie or Tegan. When she reached Tegan's doorway she heard what must've woken her up, a quiet sob. "Tegan?"

When she didn't answer Dana moved into the room almost tripping over the wheelchair on her way. "Tegan?"

"What?" Came the soft reply.

"Are you in pain?"

"No."

"You're crying," Dana pointed out.

She thought about denying it. "So?"

"Are you sure you're not in pain?"

"No."

"I can give you something for it," Dana offered.

"I'm tired of being drugged up all the time."

"It hasn't even been a week. It's going to take time."

"I know."

"So since you don't want to take anything, do you want to talk?"

"You talk."

"About?"

"You can sit on the bed." Tegan pointed to the empty half of the queen sized bed. "And tell me the story behind your tattoo."

Dana moved to the other side of the bed and sat down gently, resting her back against the foot board. The moonlight filtered through the window and landed on her face. Tegan couldn't help but think how jealous Janet would be if she could see them. But Janet wasn't here, Dana was. They were just talking, and Tegan wasn't even thinking about how beautiful Dana was. For the most part she'd barely even noticed.

"I'll give you the extremely shortened version." Dana ran a tired hand through her hair. "I was following a lead in Pennsylvania for Agent Mulder while he was on vacation. I met this good-looking guy named Ed, who'd recently gotten a tattoo on his arm. It had the most amazing red I've ever seen in a tattoo. So he asks me out to dinner and I take him up on the offer. I'm so intrigued by his tattoo that when he says 'If you're so interested get your own.' I do. And trust me I'm not the most spontaneous person, at least not since I was in med school.

"Ed made sure he told the guy to use the same red pigment that was in his tattoo. The next morning I wake up to an empty apartment."

"You slept with him?"

Dana shook her head no. "I slept over. The weather was really bad and he offered to let me have his bed and he slept on the couch. Anyway he had gone to get breakfast, and while he was gone the local PD showed up. A girl in the downstairs apartment had been murdered. Turns out Ed, the guy I went out with killed her. There was an impurity in the ink used and it caused auditory hallucinations. He thought his tattoo was talking to him. I was going to get him to a hospital for treatment, when he figured out I was FBI and his tattoo told him to attack me. In the midst of the fight I lost consciousness. Hit a wall too hard or something. When I came to I was in the basement of his apartment building, wrapped in a sheet. The furnace door was open and since I was not about to let him throw me in, he burned his arm. I guess he was trying to get the woman on his arm to shut up."

"You're serious?"

"Yep, it's all on file at the J. Edgar Hoover building."

"So did your tattoo talk to you?" Tegan grinned.

"No, there was so little dye used in my tattoo that it had no effect on me. That and I think Ed was probably a little unstable to begin with, he'd recently gone through a divorce."

"And I thought my job was dangerous."

"Your job is dangerous. You can't even fly a plane without crashing it."

"I'd laugh if it didn't hurt so much." She knew Dana was joking about her crashing the plane. "You know that wasn't my fault, right?"

"I know." Dana yawned. "Feeling better?"

"I'll feel better when I know where Janet and I stand."

"So if things don't work out with her, who is next on your list?"

"I don't have a list."

"So I can ask Sam out?"

"If you beat Janet to it." She didn't say she thought Sam was straight, because she really wasn't sure if Sam even knew her sexual orientation.

"I didn't take you for the jealous type." Dana leaned forward.

"I'm not, they just have a special bond because of Cassie."

"Yeah, I've noticed that." Dana thought for a second. "I don't really think you have anything to worry about with Janet, she's just tired."

"I hope." Tegan sighed. "I think I'll take that Lorcet now."