Chapter 28: Elizabeth
It was four days before Walter was home again. Dana had convinced him that while he was in the hospital anyway, he should have the plasmapheresis to eliminate the nanocytes from his body in order to minimize any further damage to his heart. He had agreed, and though the procedure made him feel worse than the heart attack had, he was glad to know no one would ever have that kind of control over him ever again.
The whole local branch of the Scully family turned out his first night home. Charlie and Charlotte cuddled together in the big overstuffed chair, Skinner in the other and Scully and Mulder occupied the sofa in between. Maggie buzzed around, fussing over Walter, covering his legs with a blanket, bringing him drinks, food and his meds.
Walter wished she would sit down so he could hold her. His stint in the hospital had been the first time they had spent the night apart since Walter officially moved in and he had missed her terribly. He felt bad, worse than bad, weak, and he just wanted to have Maggie close, but she just couldn't seem to sit still.
"Maggie, sit down, you're making me dizzy." Walter was trying to be flippant, but Maggie took him seriously. "You're dizzy? When did it start?" She took his face in her hands and looked at him intently.
He reached up and took hold of her wrist, tugging her gently until she sat on his lap in the big chair. He put his arm around her shoulders and patted her head affectionately, whispering, "Shhhh" and kissing her face every time she protested.
They all chatted and watched tv for about an hour when the phone rang unexpectedly. "Who is that at this hour?" Maggie wondered as she stood to answer it. "It's probably Bill." Charlie said, "I told him Walter was being discharged today when he called yesterday. It's three hours earlier in California. You know he always forgets that it's later here."
It was obvious from Maggie's frown when she came back in the room that it wasn't her oldest son on the other end of the phone. She handed the handset to Walter. "It's Kim, she sounds upset."
"Kim, what's wrong?"
Kim's voice came through, sounding almost frantic. "It's Elizabeth, Sir. Do you remember that I told you I thought she might be in trouble?"
Skinner searched for the conversation in his foggy memory of the hours before his heart attack. "I remember you mentioning something, yes."
"She called me tonight. Her boyfriend got drunk or high and beat her up. She's really scared and doesn't know what to do. The police have been there and gone. I'm getting ready to go over there, but if he's still there, I don't know what good I'm going to be." She stopped talking abruptly, as of realizing possibly for the first time Skinner had just been released from the hospital hours before.
"Sir, I forgot. You're in no condition..." She trailed off.
"I may not be Kim, but I have Mulder and Scully here right now. I will send them straight away. You stay where you are. What's the address?"
When he hung up the phone, he explained what was going on to the rest of the family. When he finished, Maggie's face was red. Domestic violence occurred much more often than she'd care to admit among the women she mentored and she had seen her share of battered wives and girlfriends left on their own after the police had done their due diligence.
She leveled a look at Scully and Mulder that Scully knew well. She was about to issue an order and would accept nothing less than exactly what she wanted.
"Fox, Dana, you go get that girl and bring her straight here. Do not leave her alone anywhere." Maggie's face was stone.
Charlie stood. "I'll go with you. I may not be FBI, but another hand couldn't hurt."
Dana nodded at her brother and the trio set out quickly into the cool spring night to execute their rescue mission.
Elizabeth Tanner lived on the western outskirts of DC. Even though it was late and traffic was light, it took Scully, Mulder and Charlie almost an hour to get to the address Kim had given them.
It was a modest apartment building, well kept but inexpensive. They could tell from far off which apartment was Elizabeth's , mainly due to the big, burly linebackeresque man pounding on the door and swearing.
"You bitch! You can't keep me out of my own apartment! When I get a hold of you I am going to kill you!"
Mulder and Charlie took the man by each shoulder and pinned him against the wall as Scully broke out her cell phone to get the local police back on the scene.
"What the Hell!" The man sputtered and tried to fight them off, but they kept him under control until Mulder was able to get a set of cuffs on his wrists. "FBI, dirtbag. Unless you want a federal charge, I'd calm down."
Once they got a good look at his face, it was evident that he was drunk, and possibly under the influence of some sort of drugs. He rared back and before Mulder could stop him, he head bunted Charlie in the face. Stunned momentarily, Charlie loosened his grip on the man and stumbled back a few steps. This was all steroid boy needed to get leverage on Mulder. Hitting him hard with his shoulder, he knocked Mulder to the floor of the hallway. Realizing that they were quickly losing control of the situation, Scully drew her gun as the hulk started toward her. "Freeze, FBI!" Her words and the sight of her weapon seemed to have no effect on him. She did however, draw his attention long enough for Charlie to jump on his back and get an elbow around his throat. It didn't take long for the giant man to hit his knees once Charlie successfully cut off his oxygen.
Hearing the commotion, Elizabeth cracked open her door just in time to see her boyfriend drop, Charlie, his face bleeding, on his back.
"Agent Scully, Agent Mulder!"She exclaimed.
"Keep the door closed, Elizabeth. Local PD's on the way. We'll talk to you after they've taken him to get sobered up." Scully gently pushed Elizabeth back into her apartment. She hadn't gotten a good look, but from the first glance, the bruises Charlie and Mulder were going to have would be nothing compared to the injuries this man had doled out on his girlfriend. Scully wanted to kick the unconscious, steroid ladened meatwad straight in the ribs.
Instead, she clapped her brother on the back. "High School wrestling finally came in handy, huh?"
Charlie laughed slightly, trying to catch his breath. "It's been a long time since I've been in a good old fashioned brawl. Kind of fun."
"Let's see how fun your head feels tomorrow." Scully muttered, nodding toward his swollen and bleeding eye.
Two local police officers came plodding up the stairs. Scully and Mulder flashed their badges and explained what had happened. The lug was coming to as they drug him downstairs to the waiting police car.
"Listen," Mulder told the officers seriously. "This man is now facing charges for assaulting a federal officer. There is no occasion which gets him out of lock up in the next 48 hours. Is that understood?"
The officers nodded and hauled the meatwad down the stairs.
Inside the apartment, Elizabeth looked like she'd gone three rounds with Mike Tyson. A black eye, broken lip, marks around her neck where he had choked her. There was no way she would be able to explain these injuries away, but nothing seemed to require more than basic first aid.
"Technically, this is Mike's apartment." Elizabeth explained tearfully. "But the police told him to find somewhere else to sober up so I thought he'd be gone at least until tomorrow. He does that sometimes, takes off and doesn't come back for a couple of days."
Scully placed a hand on her arm. "Elizabeth, my mother wants you to come and stay with her and AD Skinner for a couple of days. You can heal and come up with a plan for what you're going to do next. It'll be a safe place for you to stay."
Elizabeth began to tear up. "That is so nice!"
Scully stopped her before she got distracted. "Go gather up some of your things. We can come back tomorrow and get the rest."
They drove back to Maggie's house talking quietly. "Mike used to be a nice guy. Treated me well, but after he got into drugs, he turned into a different person."
Charlie, who was sitting in the backseat with her commiserating. "I had a girlfriend who had the same thing happen. She moved out west and fell in with drugs. Her whole life fell apart."
"Where is she now?" Elizabeth asked.
Charlie hesitated. "She died. And because of her drug problem, I missed out on the first four years of my daughter's life."
Elizabeth placed her hand on Charlie's forearm. "I'm so sorry."
Mulder and Scully exchanged a look in the front seat but didn't comment.
When they arrived back at Maggie's house, she had the kitchen table prepared with first aid products that might be needed to clean Elizabeth's injuries.
"Elizabeth, I'm so glad you're here." Maggie ushered her through the house and into the kitchen and began to clean her cuts and scrapes. "You don't deserve this honey. No one deserves to be treated this way. You can stay here until you find a safe place to live."
"Oh, Mrs. Scully, I don't want to intrude. I have a cousin in Georgetown I can stay with."
"Nonsense." Skinner boomed, entering the kitchen. "You'll stay here. Maggie won't have it any other way, will you dear?" He leaned between them and kissed her affectionately on the cheek. "Besides, we already have quite a houseful. You won't be intruding."
"Thank you so much Assistant Director." Elizabeth winced as Maggie touched a cotton ball of peroxide against one of the deeper cuts on her face.
"Maggie, Charlie is making up the guest room. Mulder and Dana are staying the night too, I guess. I'm beat, I'm going to bed."
"Ok Walter." She followed him out of the kitchen and Elizabeth couldn't hear what they were saying, but she could see Maggie caress Walter's face and him bat her hand away in mock annoyance. They kissed each other gently before parting.
She sighed when Maggie came back into the room. "Everything ok?" Maggie questioned.
"Yeah. I want a relationship like yours with AD Skinner. You can tell that you two really love each other." Elizabeth looked so much like a lost little girl that Maggie thought her heart would break.
Maggie smiled at her gently. "I do love Walter, very much. I sometimes say that I have been lucky in love, but the truth of the matter is, I took my time and chose carefully. With my husband as well as with Walter. I spent some time alone because of that, but that time allowed me to develop myself. It was a good thing, in the long run."
"Gloria at work thinks Skinner is a total tight ass." Elizabeth said, remembering the day she spent as Skinner's temp secretary.
Maggie chuckled, "Well, Gloria doesn't exactly know what she's talking about. I expect that Walter can be very stern at work, when he needs to, I've seen some of that at times. But, when he cuddles my granddaughter to sleep on the couch, or when he does some little romantic thing, I see the person he really is. He's tough and sweet in the same person. My late husband was the same way. That's why I fell in love with them both."
Elizabeth sighed, "I don't think I'm ever going to find a love like that."
Maggie patted her shoulder. "You will dear. But you have to get to know yourself first. Otherwise, you have very little to offer anyone else.
Maggie got Elizabeth tucked into the guest room and finally made it to bed herself. Walter was already snoring on his side of their big bed. She considered his sleeping face. She was glad he was asleep. His doctor had specifically said that he shouldn't push himself anywhere except physical therapy, including sex. After four days apart, if he'd been awake when she came to bed, he would have tried to instigate something. She'd much rather have a live Walter, snoozing next to her with no sex than the best sex of her life and risk him having another heart attack. She only hoped he would feel the same way.
The next morning, Maggie was up early to make breakfast for her family. She had just finished a giant stack of pancakes when Walter came in to join her. He kissed her on the cheek from behind and poured himself a cup of coffee. "Good morning." Maggie greeted him, not pausing her cooking. "How are you feeling this morning?"
Skinner took a big swig of coffee, "Hmm, much better. Sleeping next to you does wonders for me." He moved closer and kissed the back of her neck. She shoo'd him away and patted his butt playfully with a roll of paper towels. "Don't get too many ideas Assistant Director. You heard what the doctor said."
"I know," Skinner assured her, "That doesn't mean I can't touch you, does it?"
She faced him and gave him a slightly exasperated look. "You're only torturing yourself. What time are you starting physical therapy today?"
Skinner rolled his eyes at her change in subject. "2:00. Are you and Charlie taking Elizabeth to get the rest of her things?"
Maggie nodded. "Yes. Fox called and confirmed this morning that her boyfriend is still in jail, so it should be fine. You'll be ok going to physical therapy by yourself?"
"I'll be fine." Skinner said a little curtly.
The rest of the household trooped in about that time, interrupting their conversation. Mulder and Scully were dressed for work, Charlie, Charlotte and Elizabeth still in their pajamas.
"Good morning kids." Maggie acknowledged all of the younger people in a group.
Mulder and Scully ate quickly and left for work. Charlotte spent most of breakfast staring at Elizabeth while slowly shoveling pancakes in her mouth. Elizabeth noticed her staring at her and blushed. Her face looked much worse than it had the day before and she was feeling self-conscious.
"My dad said a boy hurt you." Charlotte said finally.
"Um, yes, he did." Elizabeth told her.
"I'm sorry he hurt you. A boy tried to hurt me on the playground once and I poked him in the eye!" Charlotte told her proudly.
Charlie clamped a hand over her syrup sticky mouth. "Don't say that so loudly. Grandma will hear you." He hissed in a stage whisper.
"Too late!" Maggie called from the kitchen, "Charles Scully, what exactly are you teaching my granddaughter?"
Charlie blushed like a scolded child, making Skinner chuckle at the scene, despite his earlier annoyance. "Welcome to the family, Elizabeth."
