Disclaimer: These characters belong to Chris Carter and Ten Thirteen production. I intend no harm or profit from them. The sole purpose of this work is for entertainment. If you have comments plaes send them to rovermedic@yahoo.com. All comments are welcome.

This is a short piece that just filles the gap in the fianle as I saw it. I hope someone out there likes it.



Last Chance

She had the feeling before the phone rang. As she sat there alone she was surrounded by her friends and colleagues who were trying to console her and share her burden, but she was just that...alone. When John answered the phone and hesitated to answer her she knew. The syndicate had the prize in hand. They had the ability to eliminate the one man who stood in the way of their success and she had no doubt they would carry through. She had been able to remain detached from it all until John told her how they intended to end Mulders life, then reality settled in and her control melted. Eventually the tears dried and the numbness returned. John and Monica had stayed by her side the entire time comforting her but unable to offer any words of hope. Finally she told them she was tired and they should leave. Monica had cast a concerned look and he nodded in reassurance. She closed and lock the door behind them and went through the house and turned off the lights. She paused at William's door unable to bring herself to enter. She hadn't been in there since he had left and she couldn't now. She moved on to her bedroom and turned on a soft light. It was alien to her now. The room she had shared for a few brief weeks with Mulder and her son seemed to belong to someone else. She knew there was no point in looking in the nightstand, she would find nothing. John had discretely slipped away and taken her service weapon and spare clip. As she opened the closet door her eyes fell on a single box on the highest shelf. Stretching on tipped toes she carefully removed it and took it to the edge of the bed. She fumbled with the combination several times before it popped open. Inside was her back up weapon and some papers. She took the weapon out and examined it. She hadn't carried it since her days with Mulder and even then infrequently. At Quantico she seldom carried a weapon at all.

She reached inside the box again for the clip but as if by will of their own her fingers pulled out the papers instead. Gently unfolding them she scanned the contents. They were the emails she had exchanged with Mulder during his disappearance. They had been forbid to do so, but hope that they would all be together in the end had given her strength to go on. To live as a family with Mulder and William was the dream that forced her to endure the empty nights. Now she didn't even have a dream. They were all gone; William and Mulder forever lost to her. Even her mother had deserted her when she learned about William. Now that she had nothing to live for. It wasn't an unfamiliar felling. When she lost Mulder the first time only to find him dead the darkness had surrounded her. Only the thin thread of hope given to her by the tiny life growing within her had kept her plunging over the brink.

As she picked up her weapon she wondered if Mulder would forgive her. Watching him die again would kill her in itself. Again her fingers, by their own command, moved to the tiny cross that hung around her neck. The cross that had be so symbolic to her and Mulder and to her faith. How much more could she lose? She thought of Mulder and all he had lost; his parents and sister all gone now. His beloved X-Files denied to him and his son adopted by new parents. Yet even with death a certainty he fought on. Never wavering and never giving in. Scully sighed heavy and cleared her weapon then she returned it to the lock box. How she quit when he wouldn't? Somewhere there was an answer and if she didn't at least try to find it all would have been for nothing. Nine years wasted.

She reached for the phone and dialed the number by heart. He answered on the second ring. "Walter," the words came out as a whisper. "You once said you would do what ever it took to help me. I need you now."
There was silence on the other side for two seconds. "Agent Scully, Agent Doggett and I were just talking about that. How soon can you get over here?"

She opened a bag and feverishly threw items into it. Clothes and sentimental items she would take forever because she knew she wouldn't be back. Even if she failed, she wouldn't be back. The last thing that went into the bag before she locked it was her weapon.

As she crossed the room for the last time she stopped by the dining table and placed her badge. One way or the other she wouldn't need it again.

FIN

Rovermedic
22 May 2002