Character: Dana Scully

Fandom: The X-files

Rating: PG-13

Prompt: Azeem: A wise man once said: "There are no perfect men in the world; only perfect intentions." Vol 2. Week 11

Setting: Season Three Episode "Oubliette"

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Pissed was never a word that entered into their partnership. Scully could count on one hand the number of times she had seen Mulder angry with her. There were times he was irritated, yes, and perhaps frustrated with her, but few and far between were the times when Mulder was every really angry at her for something she did. His temper was legendary, frightening even. But it was never directed at her, if anything Mulder was more forgiving of her than often she was of him.

Right now, however, his ire formed a palatable barrier between them, a solid entity that vibrated with the heat of his fury. If it was an emotional attack she was used to out of Mulder, perhaps she would have simply shrugged it off as another of Mulder's childish outburst. But this wasn't his usual behavior…this was different. And her skin itched with the weight of the silent accusations she could sense rather than hear fall off his lips.

"What are you doing," she tried to be friendly, cavalier even as she leaned against one, temporary wall of the cubicle Eubanks had lent to them in the Seattle field office, a place for the two of them to set up shop in their efforts to assist in the Amy Jacobs case. On Mulder's borrowed computer she could see in black and white a photo of Lucy Householder, a mug shot from some arrest, her wide, hollow eyes glaring accusingly at Scully from across the space. It was the look that Mulder gave her earlier when she and Eubanks had attempted to bring Lucy in. Since then he hadn't bothered to look at her, or speak to her.

Unsurprisingly he hardly bothered to answer. He scrolled past Lucy's pathetic, waif-ish image, the little girl lost who had somehow gotten involved in this case, in a disappearance that wasn't so very much like the experience that Lucy had been forced through. Scully wasn't an idiot. She knew that Lucy Householder was a victim once herself. And she knew that she had no real, scientific evidence to link how Amy Jacob's blood got on her at the time, no matter what DNA tests said. It was likely no court could or would hold up any charges over her. But she had gone with the evidence, she had followed the genetic trail. And DNA told her that the other blood on Lucy Householder's uniform that night was the blood of Amy Jacobs. And if nothing else it meant that Lucy knew much more about what was happening then she was letting on.

And damn it all, why was Mulder treating her as if she had somehow personally betrayed him? She longed to smack the back of his head, hard, to do something, anything to earn a reaction out of him. But in this mood, she dared not. Push comes to shove, Mulder was dangerous when angry, and he was, much to her chagrin, taller and stronger than herself. Not that she ever believed in a million years he would lay a hand on her, or would do anything to hurt her. But it was best not to poke the angry bear in its den.

She sighed heavily. Despite the fact she could breath Mulder's desire for her to leave him alone, she inched into the cubicle, wrapping arms around herself protectively as she made herself a physical presence within Mulder's world. Petulant as he could be, he would eventually relent, look at her, even if it was in angry accusation. She leaned against the opposite wall, covered in the gray, tweed-like substance they insisted in carpeting offices with now at days.

"Eubanks has an APB out on Lucy. He suspects she might be heading out to where she was found years ago, but he's got men out looking for her."

Again silence. It was enough to make Scully want to scream, but she remained cool, still, her composure fixing her face as she watched the side and back of Mulder's impassive head. "Eubank suspects that Lucy perhaps suffers from a form of Stockholm syndrome, where she has in the years since her abduction begun to identify with her former kidnapper."

Her words were the catalyst to break down the wall of silence, if not the wall of anger from Mulder. His head whipped around, his eyes flashing. "You saw the video, did Lucy Householder look like a girl who thought her abductor was her new best friend?"

No, Scully admitted to herself. If anything Lucy Householder looked like more an animal than a child, a terrified girl who had been broken in both mind and spirit. "Mulder, you are a psychologist….you know that this isn't a perfect science. And who is to say what Lucy has done, psychologically, to deal with all of this over the years. You said it yourself it's a wonder that she has even managed to come this far."

"You didn't see the look in her eyes when I showed her that photo, Scully," his voice was raw and low, accusing in its insistence. "You didn't see the fear, the torture, you didn't have to chase her down as she tried to run, terrified….of a picture." He spat his words out as he spun his chair to face her in the confined space, focusing his anger on her now, leaving Scully with the distinct feeling of being slammed and pressed against the fabric covered barrier behind her. She was beginning to seriously rethink this idea of confront the agitated Mulder, even if she had tried to approach it reasonably.

"No, I didn't," she acknowledged reasonably meeting his rage evenly. "But there is a girl who is out there, Mulder, who is just as scared and just as hurt, and you are so focused on Lucy as a victim that you seemed to have forgotten Amy Jacobs. And this isn't about Lucy….or you. This is about her, and the fact she may not have much time."

She had hoped her words would have the effect of slapping reason into Mulder, but it was quite the inverse. In one, fluid motion he threw himself up, towering suddenly over her as shot towards the ceiling, reminding Scully just how short she was compared to him. It made her swallow hard as he glared down at her, filled with barely controlled tempestuousness as he leaned in closer. His voice was vibrating, low rumble as he spoke. "This has everything to do with Amy Jacobs, Scully, and with Lucy Householder. Carl Wade took both of those girls. And I don't think that Amy's blood on Lucy's shirt was a coincidence." His admittance of this last statement surprised her.

"Why," she demanded, trying very hard to be un-cowed in the face of Mulder's stormy mood.

"Lucy was horribly scarred, marked forever by her experience. Everyday of her life, every moment of it all she can see is the dark cell she was kept in, that is her entire existence, even after thirteen years. Those type of marks don't leave you, Scully."

He of all people should know. "So she is somehow connected to Amy Jacob's through shared experience?"

"Something like that," Mulder acknowledged grudgingly, "You are Catholic, Scully, it comes up again and again in the stories of your own religious tradition, the martyr's who suffered as Christ suffered, who felt the same wounds and pain. They shared a commonality of experience."

"Amy is hardly Christ, and Lucy hardly a saint." Feeling nettled he again seemed to reduce her own faith to base superstition, she countered back with her familiar territory of science. "Psychic connection or no, Mulder, it doesn't explain how Amy's blood was found on Lucy?"

"Can you explain it, Dr. Scully," his challenge was almost mocking despite the seriousness of his expression. And she knew it was mocking, because she didn't have an explanation, at least not one that fit any more than his psychic connection theory.

"I don't know what to think, Mulder," she snapped, feeling cornered by his anger and his accusations. "I know that Lucy knows something more than she is admitting, and I want to know what that is."

"So do I, but now we have to find her," he smirked sarcastically, whirling away from her in one turn and facing the computer screen. She watched as he clicked on the screen with his mouse, inputting the information to print the flyers. She could hear in the distance the large, monstrous printer boot up, gears whining into life. It occurred to her, as she watched him bend over his keyboard, that his anger wasn't with her for not believing him. That was something she did on a fairly frequent basis, and it normally never upset him like this. And it wasn't even really her accusations that he was reacting this way solely because of Samantha.

"You're pissed that I told Eubanks, aren't you?" It was the only explanation she had for his reaction, and a guilt part of her stung at the fact that she knew without a shadow of a doubt this was the reason for Mulder's behavior.

"It was the one thing I asked you not to do, Scully," he murmured without looking up from the file. "I asked you to keep it to yourself…and then Eubanks is busting in this girl's door. Now she's lost, and Amy Jacob's is still out there."

He was hurt, yes, but not over Lucy Householder. He was hurt by what she did. Immediately justifications flew into Scully's mind, surfacing almost unbidden. "Mulder, what was I supposed to do. The DNA test came back conclusive, and Eubanks asked us here for assistance, anything to get this girl back."

"You couldn't trust me on this?" His statement was accusatory and yet pleading. He stood again, facing her, the brunt of his anger dulled by the confusion at her actions. "After two years, after everything you and I have been through as partners, you had to chose this of all things to question me on? Not alien conspiracies, not criminals profiles, this?" It was confusing to him, and to be honest it was confusing to her as well. "You are a woman of integrity Scully, no one says you aren't. But your integrity has never lain with the rules and politics of the FBI, always with the truth and the victims. Why question that now?"

His words, while low, steady, and quiet, cut deeply, and she felt her jaw twitch slightly as she controlled the urge to stare at him, mouth agape. "You honestly think this was about politics?"

"You have never, ever broken my trust before, Scully…not once."

"And what makes you think I broke it now?" She demanded, smarting from his assertions. "I had information at hand I thought was in the best interest of this case, to help get Amy home to her family." She thought of the girl, alone, in the dark, wanting nothing more than to see her parents and sister again, to go home. "Think about it, Mulder…if it was me, would you not want every insight into the case, no matter how small, in order to get me home again."

Scully fully admitted it was a slightly cheap tactic, playing on her own abductions and his lingering guilt over what happened. It had its effect though, Mulder backed down, though the fury that had been there was almost preferable to the hurt he displayed now. "I suppose then I'm not the only one with demons when it comes to cases like these."

She had opened the door to that, she knew it, but it didn't hurt any less as she realized that he had hit the nail a bit squarely himself. "Mulder you asked me here because you wanted me to keep you grounded, because you knew what these sort of cases do to you. I was trying to do what you wanted, what you asked of me."

"I also asked you to sit on this information, Scully, to not tell Eubanks, for the exact reason that just happened." He glanced across the top of the cubicles to Eubank's desk, close to the regional ASACS office. "If you believe for a moment I don't want Amy Jacob's back, Scully, you're mistaken. But I don't think that Lucy Householder did it. And I think she's being drug through this, reliving all of this against her will. And we are helping her do it. But right now, she's the only link we have to that young girl, only I don't think that you or Eubanks understand just what that link is. And now between you both we've lost it."

It was rare that Mulder had the righteous high ground on her. She mutely watched as his long legs stalked out of the cubicle, as he stormed moodily towards the printer. She had of course at the time thought twice about telling Eubanks. When the DNA results had come in, she had intended on waiting, talking to Mulder about it before she said anything to the agent-in-charge. But the idea of Amy Jacobs, alone and scared, her crying mother, her frightened sister, it had made her think twice, had made her speak up despite the fact that Mulder had asked her not to.

I suppose I'm not the only one with demons when it comes to cases like these….

She was no victim, she told herself as she trailed behind Mulder's longer strides, and for that matter neither was Mulder. Her own abduction happened well over a year ago, she had recovered physically and emotionally…for the most part. Her life, her world wasn't ruled by the specter of a long-lost sister and a broken childhood, it didn't drive her in everything that she did, in every case she took.

Her own sister's scattered ashes and the scar on the back of her neck from the chip that she had removed all coalesced to laugh at her and call her a liar. She ignored them as Mulder stood, glowering at the copy machine, print outs of Lucy Householder's doe-eyed faced glaring accusingly up at the both of them.