FEEDBACK: hmm, well...umm...two words: be kind
ACHIVE: Absoulutly! Just tell me when and where!
Connections
Agent Dana Scully's heels click on the basement hallway. They were followed by Agent
John Doggett's firmer, longer strides. The two agents were off-handedly discussing their most
recant case involving a pyromaniac that needed no gasoline or matches to start his destroying
fires. Disturbingly similar to a Scully had worked on at the beginning of her career with the X-files.
Agent Scully pushed open the basement office door and stopped in her tracks. Sitting in
front of Mulder's...no her desk sat a teenage girl with long dark hair and glasses. She was
dressed casually in jeans and a flannel shirt. The girl smiled hesitantly at the two agents.
"Hello, I've been waiting for you."
Scully stepped into the room "You have? Why?"
The girl didn't answer, instead she aimed her smile at the other agent.
"Hello, Agent Doggett."
"Hello...could you tell us who you are and how you got in here? You don't have a
visitors' badge on," he said, pointing at the girl's shirt.
"All in good time agent. You didn't ask me why I've come, and that's the most important
thing."
"Look, I don't know who you are, but I don't like being played games with-"
"Why are you here?" Scully interrupted. She had learned that people looking for the
agents in charge of the X-files usually had something important to say.
The girl didn't answer for a minute, directing an intense stare at Scully. She seemed to be
waiting for something.
"I've come to help you, both of you, but Agent Scully most of all. It's about Mulder,"
Help? Scully thought, How can a sixteen year old girl help the FBI with a case on a fast
trip to nowhere?
The girl's smile brightened and her eyes danced with humor "My name's Julia, and I'm
fourteen, not sixteen. That's quite a compliment."
Scully's eyes widened "You're...you're like..."
"Like Gibson, yes."
"What?" Agent Doggett broke in "How do you know about Gibson?"
"He's my friend" Julia said simply. She turned back to Scully "You might want to sit
down," she nodded at the chair behind the desk "This may take a lot of explaining."
Scully sat down carefully while Doggett leaned against the immense filing cabinets.
Julia took a deep breath "One thing everyone realizes sooner or later is that no one is
entirely unique unto themselves. We are all made up of separate traits that make us who we are.
Agent Scully, you discovered the problems with exact matches last year."
Scully nodded a small smile playing with the edges of her lips.
"Because of the mix-and-match way we are put together it shouldn't surprise you that I,
and in fact a select number of others share Gibson's ability."
"So you can read thoughts?"
"Yes, Agent Doggett, I can, just as Gibson can, and it's no use thinking snide comments,
it won't change the facts."
Doggett looked startled.
Julia looked a Scully again "Gibson told you his talent is like a radio with many voices. I
have a radio too, but unlike Gibson, I have the ability to do what we call tuning. I can focus in on
one person at a time, and I can also block my thoughts from others like myself. That, Agent
Doggett, is how I managed to get inside."
"You're aware that you're in danger," Scully said, ignoring Doggett's second jolt.
Julia smiled sadly "I'm never out of it. I work with the police department on
missing-persons cases. I invite danger." Her smile disappeared and her eyes turned desperately
unhappy. "The need to get out of the danger the men posed is what got Gibson into more trouble
than he deserved. Yes I'll explain" She said before either of the agents could comment. "We
knew the men that were looking for us wouldn't stop until they found someone. Gibson
volunteered, and I didn't stop him. I should have, it was my mistake. He was too young then."
"Then? As opposed to..." Doggett asked.
"Now it would have been fine. People with our talent must grow up quickly. But I'm off
topic. I came here to help you." she breathed a sigh. "I came here to help you because I couldn't
hold out any longer."
"Hold out against what?" Scully asked quietly, wondering if this girl had was in more
danger than she had let on.
"A number of things. First of all my own heavy guilt streak. Agent Scully, you remember
Mulder's abnormal brain activity last year?"
"Yes. I also recall there was an unauthorized surgery to remove it."
"And you also know he was still dying" Julia said quietly.
Scully audibly sucked in a breath. The fact the Mulder had hid that important fact from
her still stung.
"You should know they didn't remove all of the area showing activity...and because of it
he still retains some of the thought reading power he held."
Julia let this sink in. Suddenly the implications of the new information struck Scully.
"You mean you can talk to him?" she said with wide eyes "You can locate him?"
Julia's smile came back and she nodded.
"Where is he?"
"I can't tell you."
"For heaven's sake, why not?" said an impatient Doggett.
"Because there is no way you can reach him, and by the time you can, I won't be around.
They'll have found me."
"Then why did you come here in the first place?" Scully said, trying to conceal her
disappointment.
" I told you, because of my heavy guilt streak. Mulder has been pounding on it. He
needn't have bothered. Listening to your thoughts was quite enough to get me here."
"You've been listening to me?" Scully said, with deliberately controlled rage.
"Yes. Please don't be mad. He talked me into it.:
Scully's eyes went wide "You transferred my thoughts to him?"
"Not all of them. I'm not that insensitive-" she stopped, biting the tip of her tongue. "No,
I haven't told him about that...and no I don't intend to."
Scully was relieved she hadn't said anything, but... "You don't intend to?"
"Tell Agent Mulder what?" Doggett asked.
"Nothing you should be concerned with now. No, I won't tell him. You can stop
pleading with me. You can do it the next time you see him."
"But I don't know when that will be. Please..."
"No! I can't!"
"Why?"
"Because there's nothing he can do! Don't you think he'd want to be here with you for
that?"
"Yes, I know, it's just that...what is it?"
Julia had gone ridged in her chair. "I have to leave"
"What? Wait!"
"I have to go... now!"
"What about-"
"I'll come to you. When there is a half moon. He's clearest then, I can't explain why. I
don't understand it. I'll let you know where to find me" Julia said in a rush. "Good-bye."
She fled out the door, leaving the two agents staring after her.
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"Well what was that about?"
"What? I think she explained everything quite sufficiently"
"The information you'd like Agent Mulder to know."
"It's not relevant to our job, and you'll be informed later this year, I can promise you."
Doggett didn't look relived, or even the least bit put off, but seeing the pleading in
Scully's eyes, he gave in. He hated to admit it, but he was beginning to like her. Even if her
hadn't, he respected her, and she had promised he'd be informed later. She would keep her word.
"All right then. I'm gonna head home, I'll see you tomorrow Agent Scully."
"Good night."
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Two weeks later, Scully came home to discover a note taped to her bedroom door.
You know what building.
-J
Mulder's, she thought to herself. A fitting place for a connection.
------------------------------------------------
At 6:55 Scully walked up to Mulder's building. A strange sense of peace washed over her. How many times a week had she walked to this exact spot in the years past? It would ever be familiar to her.
Before she could knock on apartment 42's door, it opened.
"Hi," Julia said. "Come in, we've been waiting."
"We?"
"Figuratively. I wish I could have him her for you in the flesh, but I can't work miracles."
Julia led the way to the couch and settled in comfortably. "I don't have any cases to work tomorrow. And you're lucky the half moon came on a Saturday. We can stay all night if you like."
"How exactly does this work?"
"You talk, and I'll translate what you say to him. I'll tell you exactly what he sends back."
"Tell him 'Hello'."
"You can just talk, you only have to specify if you don't want me to send something."
"All right" ------------------------------------------------
Agent Mulder smiled in the darkness. The light that was constantly in his eyes when he managed to enter Scully's dreams had been turned off for the moment, and he was grateful. It was hard to concentrate when that thing was on, which was of course the point.
He remembered vividly the first time Julia had contacted him. He'd thought he was hallucinating, but was intensely grateful when he'd discovered she was real. She had been his only companion, apart from dream-visiting with Scully.
Hi he thought
She wants to know how you are.
You're not going to mention the tests are you?
Heck no! That would be cruel!
Tell her I'm fine. Tell her the tests they do don't hurt me.
She's glad.
How's she?
She looks healthy, but there are circles under her eyes.
Lack of sleep?
That coupled with crying doesn't do wonder's for a girls skin. She says she fine. Gosh, you two get any more personal and I won't be able to translate. I'll be too embarrassed.
Crying? For me?
That would be my guess. She wants to tell you about some interesting cases.
Great!
There was one with a bat/man creature...Hmm....
Hmm?
One she's not saying aloud.
Why?
She almost got killed.
WHAT?
I'll tell you later, I looked up the entire story. I'll amuse you with the rest of them later. She's got a new partner.
Who?
John Doggett? Heard of him?...
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"Yes, he has. Says he's a good agent."
"He is. But it's different trying to work with him, I'm the believer of far-fetched therioes now."
"He's happy to hear that. In fact, he's mentally smirking."
"That in no way means I'm going to make his crack-pot theories pass without argument when he gets back here."
"He said to remind you his crack-pot therioes have always been right."
"I haven't forgotten."
"He's still smirking. I told him no one's perfect all the time and mentally blew him a raspberry."
"You're talking with him?"
Julia opened her eyes "Thoughts travel millions of times faster than words do, and he has incredible levels of concentration." Which he could never have survived the tests without,she added silently.
"That's interesting."
Julia was quite for a moment. "He wants to try something."
"What?"
"He wants to communicate directly with you."
"How do you mean?"
"Control my mouth...I've never attempted it before."
"You mean its possible?"
"Very. That's what all those amazing things you see on TV are, well, not all of them, but you get the idea."
"Is it dangerous?"
"Not at all. It's just that I've never had anyone control my body before. What can it hurt?"
Julia's body tensed then slumped. Her eyes slowly opened as if she was trying to stay awake. "Scully?" she said in a slurred voice. "It's good to see you."
Julia's body snapped suddenly. "I have to remind you not to tell him your pregnant. If I read that your going to, I won't come back, all right?"
"Fine"
She slumped again, her eyes struggled open once more."What was that about?"
"I think she lost the connection"
"Okay. Did you know I always wanted to tell you I love you?."