A/N: I started posting this after I wrote a lot of it, but it's catching up to me. Sorry for the long breaks between chapters lately! Thanks for the feedback!
Spoilers: (for this chapter) X-Cops specifically. Yes, I said X-Cops. Don't ask. Just read.
Tomorrow
By Jillian
CHAPTER TEN
Scully rolled over and looked at the clock. Five thirty. She had half and hour to roll back over, and fall asleep next to Mulder. Turning around, she was startled to see his eyes open, intently gazing back at her. How long had he been awake? Had he been watching her sleep? It didn't matter to her, all that mattered was that he was there. He had always been there. He had this uncanny ability to make her feel better, he was almost calming. Almost. One could wonder how someone could find Fox Mulder calming--he's a man full of surprises, adventures. When he was with her, however, Dana Scully felt safe, felt at home. It was truly beyond explanation, but she felt it. Maybe it was because all her worst moments since she had met him, had been those times she was without him. Maybe it was just a natural instinct, a feeling, to feel safe when she was with him.
"What are you thinking?" She asked thoughtfully, as he kept his gaze on her.
"Why on earth a woman like you stays with a guy like me." He smiled.
"You know why. I love you, Mulder. I always have." She smiled back at him.
"I know, I'm a lucky man." He said.
"I'm a lucky woman, too, Mulder. I always have been, even in those times you were stubborn, or irritating, or ditching me.." She trailed off, saying all of it playfully.
"You had your moments too, Scully. What about those first few cases, when you wouldn't trust me? When you wouldn't believe." He asked. "When you would tell me that we knew nothing and that was all you were going to write in your field report."
"I knew a lot less back then, Mulder. About you, about the truth... I didn't want to believe that there was a higher power none of us knew about within our government. I didn't want to believe that two FBI agents could be knocked around for driving down a road and taking pictures. I wanted another reason." She said. "That's not to say I didn't trust you. I mean, maybe I didn't trust as I did later on, but that trust grew quickly. Within weeks, I was believing more than you knew. It was my job to disbelieve." She said.
"And we all know you're a perfectionist." He added.
She smiled. "I almost miss those days, when nothing mattered the way it matters now. Back when you and I could banter back and forth, disagreeing and arguing. Then it may have pissed us off, but now it's fond memories of our first days together."
"Not to say those times were bad, but I think we had better times." He grinned.
"Of course we did, but that's not to say that those simple touches you would place on my back as we walked didn't mean something to me... Just as much as your touch means now. It always meant something... Even when I though you were a lunatic." She smiled, content to be thinking of anything besides all that had been on her mind.
"And now you're sure of it." There was that grin again. "And even back when I thought you were a spy, I still knew there was something about you I couldn't get away from."
"Even when I wore those hideous suits?" She smiled back.
"Well, it was what was under the suits I was more interested in seeing." Mulder said.
"Profound, Mulder, very profound."
"Scully?" He asked.
"Yes?"
"Why are we discussing this so early in the morning?" He asked. The entire conversation had been carried on in a volume not much higher than a whisper, almost as if they were being careful not to wake someone.
"I don't know." She said. "Maybe because I turned around and you were staring at me." She grinned.
"Well, I'm an insomniac. I shouldn't keep you from getting your rest." He said.
"I haven't got much sleeping time left anyway. Besides, you took my mind off of everything else that's going on." She said.
"And now it's back on everything else?" He asked.
"Unfortunately." She said.
He moved in briskly and kissed her lips, the kind of kiss that made you want to stay for more... The kind that made you forget all of your troubles.
"Maybe I can take your mind off of all of that again." He said. She liked it when he was romantic, being that she was never a really romantic person. Sure, she'd read her share of romance novels (a guilty pleasure of hers, along with ice cream out of the carton) but she had never been the one to set up a dinner with candles and roses. The closest she got to romance was the sounds of Tchiakovsky in the background... Simply because she enjoyed classical music. She glanced at the clock.
Five fifty. Damnit, she thought. They'd spent to much time talking and staring.
"I wish I could let you take my mind off of it, but I simply haven't got the time."
"So play hooky. Be a little late. C'mon, Dana, live a little. You don't *have* to be in the shower at exactly six o'clock each morning, you know." He persuaded.
She silently smiled to herself, crawling back over to face him, thinking What the Hell... You only live once.
Dana Scully, or Dr. Katherine Carter, walked into school still applying her lipstick fifteen minutes later than usual. Oh well, her students would miss fifteen minutes of one on one tutoring. She could stay after school to make up for it... She had more--important--things to tend to this morning. She was just at her door when she saw two students waiting outside the room.
"Sorry I'm late, girls, you can meet with me after school for more time." She said.
"Uh, Doctor Carter, you've got a little.." The girl rubbed her own teeth in imitation of the lipstick dotted on Scully's.
"Ugh, thanks." She replied, wiping it off. "I'm a little disheveled this morning." She smiled.
"Yeah, we all are, with Gina and all." The other girl said.
Gina. Scully's heart leapt from that peak Mulder had left it high upon, crashing back down into the pool of guilt.
"Yes, well, it's a comfort to know she's okay." Scully said.
"The scary thing is they don't know what this guy's injecting people with. He could come after any of us.." The girl said.
"Well, there's extra security at the school building, I'm sure nothing will happen. The bell's going to ring for first period in about a minute, so why don't you guys meet me after your last class? We can go over some things to prepare for the Regents Exam, we've only got a week left. And don't forget, my final is Friday."
The girls smiled and left. School was on its last leg, the last day of formal classes would be the following Wednesday, and that Thursday students would come in to take their Regents Exams. Then, Scully had a two week vacation until summer school began.
The day progressed as usual, except for Scully returning home a little later than usual because of the after class tutoring. Mulder had written an article about the governments involvement in producing an alien-human hybrid. He had experienced so many things he wanted everyone else to know about... He would have liked it better if the truth could grace the pages of an upstanding paper like the New York Times, but he knew it wouldn't happen. Nobody ever believed his stories, nobody except those who had seen it for themselves, or UFO Weekly readers, people obsessed with finding out the things Mulder told them. His typing was interrupted as Scully walked in the door. He trotted down the stairs to meet her.
"Hey, Scully. How was work?" He asked.
"Fine. It looks like Gina will be better in time to take her exams, so at least she won't have to take the course again this summer." Scully replied.
"Good. I presume you didn't make any more of the liquid.." He began.
"Of course not. I can't endanger their lives. We'll let Skinner take care of it in DC." She said.
"All right." Mulder said. "Should we call and see if the production has begun?"
"Yeah." Scully said, reaching for the phone. She had put Skinner, Reyes, and Doggett on speed dial. Skinner picked up his office phone after two rings.
"Hello," He said. It was his usual gruff, demanding greeting.
"Skinner, it's Dana Scully..." She said.
"Dana, hi. What's going on?" He asked, sure she wasn't calling just to chat.
"I just wanted to know if the liquid was being produced." She said.
"Yes, it is. I found a young lab assistant to head the project. He reminds me of Agent Pendrell." He said.
Scully smiled faintly at the memory and said, "Good. We can't produce it here anymore, for obvious reasons." She said.
"We could use your expertise in DC." He said.
"Well, I have a two week vacation coming up. Maybe I can come down." She said.
"Okay. Until then, we're using the directions you faxed us. Stay safe." He said.
"You too, Sir." She said, falling back into old habits. She hung up the phone.
Within ten seconds, it rang again.
Scully picked it up, thinking it was most likely Skinner who had forgotten something.
"Hello?" She said.
There was a pause, and then a disguised voice. She cringed, disguised voices never brought good news. "Dana Scully, you have been warned. Do not produce the liquid."
"Who is this?!" She demanded. "I haven't made a damn vial of it!"
"But you have faxed procedures to Washington." The voice replied.
"How do you know that? How did you get this number?" She said, her voice rising several decibels.
"The same way we know everything about you. Even your favorite student."
"Listen, you son of a bitch, you leave those school kids alone!" She said. "You're business is with me!"
"And Mulder. And your unborn child." The voice replied.
"How do you know that I'm preg-" She was cut off mid sentence.
"Remember, you have been warned, Miss Scully." The voice said, followed by a click. And then silence.
"It was them?" Mulder asked.
"I'm so sick of there being a 'them', Mulder. I'm tired of fighting an unseen enemy. They know about Skinner producing the liquid at the Bureau. They knew everything. They must be the same people who tried to lure you out that night on the train." She said. "The Super-soldiers."
"But we knew that already." Mulder said.
"Mulder, how do you think they knew about the production?" Scully asked.
"I don't know. While you were at work today I checked the obvious places for bugs, but I didn't tear the house apart. It didn't make sense... The house was empty when we bought it. Where could they hide a camera?" Mulder asked.
"Well, they knew about my students, about how I was creating it in the school building. Maybe they've been watching me at work. But then again, they also knew I was… Pregnant."
"Well, then maybe they've been watching you everywhere..." He trailed off. "Scully, let me see your briefcase." He said.
"You don't think there's a..." She stumbled off. She knew they had advanced technology. They had came up with their own toxins, why not tiny cameras? She had read about ones small enough to be sewn into the threads of clothing. Fiber optics could easily be hidden anywhere.
Mulder dumped out the contents of her briefcase, searching it for about five minutes while they stood in silence. Finally, he dropped it to the ground. "Nothing." He said. He wished the Gunmen were around to search, they were better at this than he was. Mulder watched a frustrated sigh escape Scully's lips. It couldn't have been in one of her outfits, being that she changed them all the time. It would have been too difficult to put some kind of tracking or surveillance device in each piece of clothing she owned. Then, it came to him.
"Scully, let me see your cross." He said.
"What? Why?" She asked, as she undid the clasp. Although she questioned him, she trusted him not to do something stupid. She never denied his requests.
"You never take it off, Scully. They could have watched you everywhere with this." He said.
"Mulder, I've had this cross since I was a small child, you know that. They weren't watching me then."
"Yeah, but maybe when you were abducted... Or when I found the cross in the arctic. Maybe they inserted some kind of tiny camera..." He said.
"No, Mulder, that doesn't make sense. That was when we were fighting a different enemy. That was the Syndicate, these are Super-Soldiers." She said, as he looked at the cross in his hands.
"But maybe they're all one. I mean, they must be. Krycek knew everything about the project. So did the Smoking Man." He said. "When the hybrid projects began to fail, they moved on to Plan B for surviving Colonization. Super Soldiers."
"Smoking Man and Krycek are dead." She said firmly. "Along with the rest of the Syndicate."
"Yes, but maybe they had been used." He said. "Maybe that's why Krycek wanted to help me..." He said, thinking of Krycek's appearances.
"What?" Scully asked, confused.
"Nothing. Listen, what if they created the Super-Soldiers? As a way to save themselves, from colonization, after we had found out about the hybrids and the black oil. But then it backfired." His voice rose, as it always did when he got passionate. "The Super-Soldiers used the Syndicate for their information, but then killed them all off. They infiltrated the government, the FBI, on their own. And Krycek knew it, and that's why he told us he wanted your child to be born. He wanted the project to succeed... And CancerMan knew it, but he was old and weak. All he could do was hide. And Jeffrey Spender knew it, and he tried to stop it, by preventing William from developing into one of them... Scully, it all works out, it all makes sense." He said.
"Maybe so, Mulder, but what has that got to do with my cross?" She asked.
"Maybe before the people behind the Super-Soldier project were watching you, the Syndicate was watching you. They knew everything. And when they were gone, the Super-Soldiers kept watching you, but less quietly. They used it against you, to try and lure me out. Think about it, the Syndicate knew about all the most important moments, and you're cross was around your neck. They must've started tracking you either in Antarctica, or during your abduction..."
"Do you see any bugs on it, Mulder? I don't think I could ever get rid of it, it means too much to me.." She began.
"I know, it means a lot to me too. I remember finding it while searching for you in Antarctica..." He said. "I don't see anything on the cross itself." He said. "But.." He began, fingering the clasp of the chain. "Look, there's something here." He said. "Something tiny."
"What is it? Why would they have a camera on the back of the clasp? All they'd see was my hair." She contemplated out loud.
"I don't think it's a camera, it seems to tiny. I think," He said, looking at the tiny hole in the silver clasp, "it's a recording device. The next best thing to seeing is hearing."
"Oh my God... How long have they been listening to me?" She wondered.
"Why, Scully? You sing in the shower?" He teased, despite the air of seriousness in the room.
"Mulder, be serious. What do we do?" Scully asked.
"I don't know... Get rid of the chain, I suppose. We can buy another one." He said.
"It's not the original chain, anyway. I broke it in high school. I still remember," She began, a slight smile tugging at her lips. "It got caught on the collar of Marcus' shirt, before class one day when I was in his car. As I went to leave the car, I pulled away from him and it snapped. I had to make up a story about how I broke it, because my father would have killed me for being with Marcus in his car before class."
"Scully was a rebel." Mulder smiled.
"I've been saying it for years." She smiled back.
"Let's get rid of the chain." Mulder said.
"How?" Scully asked.
"I don't know, we can flush it down the toilet." Mulder said.
"The toilet?" She asked. "Good idea."
"Hey, I've flushed plenty of fish before." He said.
After disposing of the chain, Mulder and Scully ate a quick dinner of leftover pasta, being that nobody really felt like cooking. Between finding out they had been watched, and probably still were being watched from simply a different source, and hormones, Scully was worn out. Mulder, the insomniac, was not very energetic either. They could, however, manage to heat up some pasta, so that was their solution. By the time they had eaten, the sun had begun to fade from the sky as the moon rose. Sitting on their back deck, they enjoyed the fine summer weather.
"Look at the moon." Mulder said, after day had become night. "It's full."
"It's beautiful... As long as we're not out looking for werewolves." She smiled.
"Or wasp-men. Or drug addict pimps." He said.
"That was one of the worst cases we've ever had. Those film crews were so irritating."
"You have to admit that gay couple was amusing." Mulder said.
"You find something amusing in everything, even running from our greatest fears." She smiled.
"What's your biggest fear, Scully, your worst nightmare?" He asked.
"That's a tough question, Mulder. I faced almost all of my original worst fears... When I was a kid it was snakes, but I got over that. Then it was death, but I got so close to it, so many times, it didn't frighten me anymore... It became clinical, almost emotionless. After you cut apart enough dead people, it doesn't affect you the way it used to. I was able to overcome a lot of my fears, terminal illness, infertility, Donnie Pfaster," There was a nostalgic eye brow raise for the last one. "I suppose the only real fear I have left is being weak, looking vulnerable. I spent my entire life fighting my other fears so I would never have to seem weak, yet in doing so I made it something I was afraid of. Kind of ironic, huh?" She smiled. "What about you?" She asked.
"Well, my worst fear for a long time was never finding out what happened to Samantha... But obviously when I found out, I was free of that fear. Then I was afraid of being alone forever, which was illogical because even before we had the relationship we have now, we were best friends. Then there's fire, but you know that already. I kind of overcame that in a way, I guess. Quite frankly, I'm afraid I'm going to fail, and that colonization will happen. That William will never be old enough to see a girl naked, that our next child will never be able to see a member of the opposite sex naked... That I won't be able to see you naked anymore," He smiled, and she laughed.
"So basically, you don't want the world to end because there will be no more nudity."
"Pretty much." He shrugged. "And sunflower seeds. There would be no more sunflower seeds." He said.
"Well hopefully we'll never have to face that day, Mulder." She smiled. "I'm almost sure we won't."
"Yeah, well, just in case... I think we should take advantage of what we have right now." He said.
"What, nudity?" She asked.
"Dana Katherine Scully, I was referring to sunflower seeds, but if you think I can put my mouth to better use, than let's go--" She cut him off.
"Shut up, Mulder." She smiled, as they walked inside the house.
.End.