Character: Dana Scully

Fandom: The X-files

Rating: PG-13

Prompt: Maximus: You don't find it hard to do your duty?

Cicero: Sometimes I do what I want to do. The rest of the time, I do what I have to. Vol 2 Week 19

Setting: Season Three Episode "War of the Corprohages"

AN: Technically this is Scully on Vacation, but it's before the infamous cockroach episode. And I always feel Bill gets such a bad rap from the fanfic community. As an elder sister, I get a lot of Bill's hesitation, so I treat him with a bit of a sympathetic hand. And of course, isn't it always the way when siblings get together, no matter how old they are, they act like children? I know my sibs and I do, (though they never come to see me in Southern California.)

AN 2: If you don't live in SoCal and don't know what In-N-Out Burger is…I'm sorry for you.


I'm dreaming of a white Christmas….

Bing Crosby's smooth voice juxtaposed itself jarringly over warm, mild sunshine, swaying palm trees, and green mountains rolling gently to the blue-gray sea. Scully enjoyed the feel of warm, Southern California wind on her face, glad that this holiday she would be free of the stinging cold, piled snow, and icy roadways of the Beltway area.

"Gees, Shorty, roll the window up, it's cold," Bill pulled his thing windbreaker closer over his workday, khaki naval uniform, glaring at his younger sister's teasing smirk.

"I'm thinking of one word to describe you right now Bill, and it starts with a 'p' and ends in 'ee'." She winked playfully, turning in her seat to check on the quiescent Queequeg, who whimpered and grunted mildly behind her. "Hope we get to your apartment soon, my Lord and Master will need a potty break soon."

"I can't believe Tara let you bring the dog," Bill grumbled mildly, shooting furtive looks towards the back seat. "It's not even a proper dog, Dana. You live in DC, you should have one that could protect you, like a Labrador, or a pit bull."

What was with men and vicious dogs? She had this same conversation with Mulder? "Labradors couldn't bite the head off a flea, and I don't want a big dog in my small apartment. Poor thing would go crazy with me gone all day." With Queequeg he was content to wander the small confines of her home, curling up on a couch all day to sleep. "Besides, whose to say a dog would bite off the head of any intruder that comes in?"

"I don't know, you've had plenty enough, it might help."

She didn't dignify her elder brother's comment with an answer.

The truth was Scully loved her eldest brother a great deal, though she hated to admit it out loud. The eldest of all the children, looked about as different from them all as could be, tall, lean, rangy, with dark hair rather than the Scully auburn. He bore more of a resemblance to Maggie than he had his namesake, the elder William Scully. But in temperament and inclination he as all Ahab, from the top of his uniformed shoulder, to the top of his shining, black shoes, he was Navy through and through, raised from birth to follow in his father's footsteps, on track to become a captain himself someday. He lacked a great deal of Ahab's wanderlust, that had gone to their sister Melissa, but he had their father's sense of honor, hard work, and loyalty, all qualities he shared with his youngest sister, Dana.

He also was practical, logical, and painfully protective, also traits he shared with his kid sister….which tended to cause the too siblings to buck heads quite a bit. It wasn't that they didn't love each other, or that they always argued, but their similarities hardly made it easy for them to have normal, adult conversations. Bill always tended to see Dana as still some gapped-toothed, seven-year-old, barefoot and with skinned knees, begging to shoot her father's gun. Dana saw Bill as her over-dominating big brother, trying to play Dad when no one could take the place of her beloved Ahab.

But then there were moments when he turned out to be the best, big brother in the world.

"So, you want In-N-Out," there was a naughty, furtive look in Bill's eye, the same one she would get impishly doing something she knew would irritate her mother.

"I thought Mom wanted dinner at six?" It was currently two, but Scully had to admit her stomach was on DC nor San Diego time, and she was starving. "She'd kill us for ruining our appetite when she flew out early to cook…."

"Shush, it's a sneaky burger, she'll never know," Bill pulled off the busy freeway, down a ramp to where a large, red sign proclaimed the single, best fast-food burger joint in the world. Scully couldn't help but let her mouth water, just a little. How long had it been since she'd eaten and In-N-Out burger? Hadn't she and Ahab snuck one like this when they had flown out for Bill and Tara's wedding?

"Two Animal-Style, Double-Doubles, no fries, Cokes." Bill bawled into the speaker at the ordering window.

"You realize Mom's going to smell it on us the minute we walk into the door," Scully warned impishly as he pulled forward, pulling his wallet out to pay. Grilled beef and onions and melting cheese assaulted her nostrils, and her stomach loudly proclaimed it didn't care.

"What happened to my daring, kid sister," Bill replied, taking the bag of hamburgers and passing them over to her as he pulled into an empty parking spot, killing the engine long enough so that they could unwrap the bundles of greasy goodness. Scully moaned softly as the bit into her sandwich, the snatching a proffered napkin from her brother as one, grilled onion slithered down her chin.

"I think your daring, kid sister grew up," she replied when she had finally managed to swallow her mouthful of burger. "And besides, I was never one to cross Mom, if you remember."

"You are such a liar," Bill choked around his own sandwich, snickering as he tried not to choke. "What about that time we all snuck down to the beach here, before we moved to Baltimore? We stayed out all night, Mom called the cops on us?"

She almost wanted to say no, but a vague memory of one summer night in July, shortly before Bill left for Annapolis came to mind. "God, that was right before we moved. You decided you wanted to hang out with your friend…what was his name?"

"Dennis…Dennis Jacoby had a Trans-Am. That's how it all got started, Missy had a crush on him and wanted to go too."

"And I threatened to tell if you took Missy and not me," Scully laughed, remembering how stubborn and angry she had been. "I was getting ready to start high school year, and thought I was just as old as all of you and could do things you and Melissa did."

"She wasn't even sixteen yet, and was trying to seduce my eighteen-year-old friend," Bill replied, still appalled nearly twenty years after the fact.

"She really just thought his car was sexy, Dennis wasn't really Missy's type." She took another bite out of her sandwich; savoring the taste that you couldn't find in burgers back east…she couldn't understand why. "How were we supposed to know that his battery would die if we left the lights on?"

"We were stuck there, three in the morning, in the days before AAA and a battery charge, no cell phones, and not a drop of change between us to call Dad. We were just lucky that cop who came along recognized us as Admiral Scully's kids."

"Or unlucky, we were grounded for weeks." Scully could still remember well the anger and disappointment from bother parents, especially Ahab, and how it hurt worse than when she had been paddled by the nuns as a child. "I still remember how jealous I was, you getting to leave for Annapolis and being free of Mom and Dad. It hardly felt like you got punished."

"Don't be fooled, I got punished." He finished the last bites of his hamburger, crumpling the paper up and tossing it in the empty paper bag. "Just not in the same way you guys were." He grimaced as he started the car again, pulling it out of the restaurant parking lot. "That was the first time in my life I remember Dad ever being angry enough to want to hit me…not just paddle me, but to strike me, one man to another."

"I never saw Ahab ever strike anyone. For a man of war, he hated violence."

"Doesn't mean he wasn't quite capable of it, just like I am, just like you are," Bill eyed her meaningfully as he pulled into traffic. "That next morning he pulled me into his study about as angry as I had ever seen him. Here I was, some smart-ass eighteen-year-old, getting ready to leave for Annapolis in weeks, and I let my younger sisters stay out all night in some guys car, down by the beach, where anyone could have come and hurt you guys."

"I think we ran across two homeless bums and a drunken migrant worker that night," Scully pointed out, finishing her own burger, neatly crumpling the paper between greasy fingers.

"But it could have been worse, Dana," Bill insisted.

"And it wasn't…honestly, Bill, its San Diego, not South Central LA, and it was quieter twenty years ago than it is now."

"That's not the point," Bill snapped, softening his harsh tone with a weary smile. "The point was that I was supposed to know better. I was supposed to be the elder brother, the responsible one, and the one taking care of the two of you, not getting you in trouble. What if it had been worse that night?"

"It wasn't…"

"But what if it had been, Dana," Bill's lighthearted mood shifted in a moment, and they were back to the over-bearing brother mode. She felt her jaw tighten, the taste of freshly grilled onion turning bitter in her mouth.

"Bill, if we are going to turn this into another conversation about my decision to stay with the FBI…"

"Dana, why is it you always turn this into something about you? Did it ever occur to you that I know you are smarter than I ever was, that you are brilliant, tough, capable, and strong? Hell, Dana…you're a doctor and an FBI agent, you make most of my buddies look like pussies." His mouth lifted ruefully. "Seriously how many of them can cut up a dead body and take out a criminal in a single shot? I know you've faced down horrible men…and I know you've killed them too. Don't think for an instant that I ever underestimate my little sister."

"And yet…." She waited for the other shoe to drop, for Bill to come up with the insult that would undercut her, remind her that she was still his kid sister, and always subject to his domineering.

To her surprise, it didn't come. "I'm proud of you, Dana, I am. But I never forgot what Ahab told me that day, about watching out for you and Melissa. You accuse me of being overprotective, but you didn't make a promise to Dad that day. He told me that no young man worthy of entering into the United States Naval Academy ever let his sisters come to harm. How could he be expected to protect his country if he couldn't watch out for them?"

"You know Ahab is the one who taught me how to use a gun."

"I know," Bill chuckled. "And I know you can take care of yourself. You want to be angry with me, Dana, for wanting to protect you. But I made a promise, just as serious as the oath I swore as a naval officer, or that you swore as an FBI agent. And I've already let Dad down with Missy."

"Melissa was an accident, Bill," the burger in her stomach lurched painfully, the image of Melissa's blood staining her floor still bright in her mind.

"She was….but its all the more reason I worry about you, Dana. As much as I know you can take care of yourself, look at the danger you've been in since you transferred from Quantico? You've been abducted, nearly died…that enough almost killed Mom. And then Missy on top of it….ever since you started working with that crazy partner of yours."

"Mulder's not crazy," she snapped automatically, flushing, readying for a fight. "You and Dad always assumed he was."

"The man believes in aliens, Dana."

"He's trying to find out what happened to his sister, that's all." Scully glared at the side of her brother's head. "He was a big brother once himself, Bill…and much like you he feels responsible for Samantha. Perhaps you might find out that you understand him a bit more than you think you do, aliens not withstanding."

Her words got through to Bill, he immediately looked contrite, "Perhaps I would…but you can't deny the work that he engages you in puts my little sister in danger."

"Mulder's a good man, Bill."

"I'm not saying he isn't, Dana. You wouldn't be so loyal to him if he weren't. But I've lost one sister to whatever work you two are involved in….I don't know what I'll do if I lose a second. I made a promise, Dana, but I'm not an idiot. I know I can't protect you from everything. I can just warn you, worry about you…and hope you know what you are doing, Dana."

"I know what I'm doing, Bill," she replied, though without the heat she had felt moments before. Though, to be honest, there were days, like of late, she wasn't terribly sure she did know what she was doing. And she wasn't terribly sure Mulder did either.

"Now that we've had the traditional, Christmas chat where I act all big brother, and you get indignant, can we put it past us, and enjoy the rest of the holiday," Bill asked hopefully, pulling off the freeway towards the area of San Diego he and Tara lived. "Besides, the apartments it too tiny for us to be fighting the entire week. And we won't get base housing for another year at least."

"Base housing….like where we lived when we were kids?" She remembered all to well the small, cookie cutter houses that the Navy provided for the families of their officers.

"I'm shooting for the same, exact house. I thought it would be perfect for Tara and I when we do eventually get around to making those babies you and Mom want us to start popping out."

"Can I help it if I want a niece or nephew to spoil. All I have is this dog!" She glanced back to the patient Queequeg who still sat quietly in the back, despite the burger she knew he could smell in the car.

"I refuse to look at that dog as my nephew, you know," Bill glared at the carrier through his rear view mirror. "And how about you, when are you going to settle down."

"When the thought occurs to me to do it," Scully teased playfully. "I'm too busy to find a husband and make babies at the moment."

"And I'm not?"

"You're the one stupid enough to get married."

"I'm a good Catholic, Dana, you know I couldn't get Tara to sleep with me till I married her." She knew that was a blatant lie, Bill had been in love with Tara since he first brought her home to the family.

"I didn't see that stopping your good, Catholic self from behaving like the sailor you are," Scully arched an eyebrow at him. "Don't think I didn't hear about those either."

"You know nothing," Bill sneered.

"That's OK, I keep all the really good stories for later tonight, after we've had a few bottles of wine, and Tara wants to hear about you and Jenny Bennett and that one time on the football field after the homecoming game…"

"You wouldn't tell her that one."

"How much wine you got?"

"You are evil, Dana."

"Remember that when you get overprotective on my ass again," she smiled sweetly as they pulled up to the brown, stucco apartment building, Queequeg prancing in the back in anticipation. "Jenny Bennett, the sprinkler system, and a scar I'm sure that Tara has always wondered about."

"Why is it so nice having you visit on the holidays again?"

Scully chuckled as her brother brought the car to a stop. Grinning brightly, she leaned over to press a quick peck on her elder brother's cheek. "You can choose your friends, Bill, not the people you are related to.


To all of you who have read me over this last nearly year, and who have given me so much support, thank you. Scully has evolved in my writing thanks to your thoughts, support, and enjoyment. Merry Christmas, and much love to you all.