New Beginnings: Chapter Nine
Mulder sat at his old desk in the dusty basement office. Scully sat opposite of him, looking at him expectantly. Langly leaned against the doorjamb. Byers stood against the wall, and Frohike snooped through the file cabinets. They were all waiting for something, but they had no idea what it was. Mulder had called down the trio, and they simply walked into Mulder's old office. Mulder barely acknowledged their presence, but they did not speak up. They knew that whatever they were waiting for would come out of Mulder's mouth, so to speak.
Mulder's chair squeaked from months of disuse as he stretched back and put his legs up on his desk. He opened the left drawer and pulled out a dozen sharpened pencils. Just as he successfully flung the second pencil into the air, embedding itself in the tiled ceiling, another man entered the room.
"Mulder, what are you doing here?" Assistant Director Skinner asked Mulder. Mulder shrugged. Skinner then looked at the three suspicious men scattered around. "How did you guys get in here?"
"I used my key. Nobody changed the locks. You could have made it just a little difficult for me to come back, Skinner," Mulder quipped.
Skinner sighed. "And how did you three get past security?" he asked, referring to the Lone Gunmen.
"We came through the computer screens," Frohike said.
Scully sneezed. Then she laughed. Everybody looked at her, confused. She looked around. "It's like that time when we played the computer game and Mulder got stuck."
All five men smiled. After a second, Mulder practically flew out of his chair. He swung his legs off of his desk and his feet hit the tile floor with a loud boom that echoed down the hall.
"That's it! When her eyes are closed, she remembers everything. She doesn't recognize anybody because her eyes are open. There must be some link between her eyesight and her memory loss."
The other four men exchanged glances. Scully blinked, looking a little confused. She did not quite grasp what Mulder had said, but neither had anyone else. Mulder, ignoring their current state of confusion, continued to expand his new theory.
"Some ancient cultures believed in what we now call the Mind's Eye. It's what allows us to see what we dream and imagine. Some cultures feel that it is the root of visions. The Mind's Eye allows us to see those we know and recognize in our minds. It's how we envision childhood memories and such.
"Anyway, those ancient cultures feared that the Mind's Eye and its use is challenged by our own eyes. In essence, they feared that their descendents would leave their customs for new ways. It's the same fear shared by the Amish and such that their souls would be lost forever if they were to be photographed. Some tribal cultures even went so far as to stab out their own eyes in order to improve the eyesight of their Mind's Eye."
"So how does any of this relate to Scully's situation?" Langly asked, not following Mulder's train of thought.
"Well, as I said, she woke up and started spouting off things that we've done together. Certain cases, old jokes. Then, the next time she woke up, she kissed me. And, of course, she had her eyes closed. Then, she had another flashback. And just now, when she referred to our video game case, she sneezed. It is the only connecting factor among all of this."
Everyone sat silent for a moment. Byers spoke up, "What can we do?"
"I don't know."