Title: Bad Luck?
Author: The one and only, Gillian Leigh.
Summary: The plot thickens.... (well, not really, it's just that the introductions are over, and now we get into the part of the story where the characters begin to interact a lot more...)
Author's Notes: You all have Jinxd and cursed to thank for this chapter being up tonight. She persuaded me to post it. But fair warning, chapter four is going to be a week or two from now.... (Hey isn't that what I said last time? :oP)
~(X)~
The four Mulders sat around the coffee table, cartons of Chinese food in hand, as they talked and joked. Eventually the conversation settled, as Mulder assumed it would, on Coach D.
"So do you know anything about her, Eve?" He asked, taking a bite out of his egg roll. Eve simply shrugged.
"What about her coaching abilities?"
"She's great with the kids. I don't know how she has that much patience," she said, reading her fortune silently before shoving it in her pocket.
"What did it say?" her father asked.
"What?"
"The cookie.."
"Oh. It said, 'Lessons are often learned through loss'. Cheery, huh?" Mulder laughed at his daughter, and shook his head. She crumpled the fortune up and unceremoniously dropped it in the center of the table.
"Aren't you worried that that's bad luck or something?" he asked, the lopsided grin that he had passed on to all of his children forming on his lips. His daughter rolled her eyes.
"For some reason, I don't believe that a little piece of paper has any control over my future."
~(X)~
That night, Mulder was awoken from the uncomfortable slumber that came with sleeping on an air mattress on your hardwood floor by the sounds of crying. He scrambled from the floor, and saw that the bathroom light was on as he passed by Gwen and Jake who were asleep on the pull-out couch. He found Eve huddled on the floor, with her head resting on the toilet seat, clutching her side, sobbing.
"What's wrong, Eve?" he asked. She continued to cry and said,
"I-it hurts! I-it hurts so ba-ad!"
"Show me where it hurts," he commanded gently, pushing her long hair away from her face. She pointed to a spot on her right side, and when her father prodded it gently, she cried out in pain, and he said,
"I'm sorry, sweetheart. We're going to have to go to the hospital. I just have to call Grandma so she can come stay with your brothers and sisters, alright?" She nodded, and he rushed into the living room and picked up the phone, placing a call to his mother.
"Hello?" she answered, sleepily.
"Mom, it's me."
"Fox, w-what time is it?" she asked, the question followed by a shuddering yawn.
"It's nearly two in the morning."
"What's wrong?" she asked, suddenly more alert.
"I need to take Eve to the hospital. She's got really bad abdominal pains. I just need you to watch Jake and Gwen for me."
"I'll be over in five minutes."
~(X)~
It was 2:15 a.m., and Dana had caught her second wind, as she always did around that time of the graveyard shift. She was talking to her colleague, and friend, Dr. Jim Barker, when a tall man burst through the doors of the emergency room, holding a young girl in his arms.
"I need a doctor!" he yelled, and as Dana jogged over to him, she recognized him to be Fox Mulder.
"Mr. Mulder, what happened?" she asked, studying the limp girl he held, a girl she recognized as his oldest child, Eve. He recognized Dana as well, and said,
"I found her in the bathroom, throwing up. She was clutching her right side, and on the way to the hospital, she just passed out."
"Let's get a gurney over here, stat!" she bellowed, and Mulder gently laid his daughter on it. Eve opened her eyes, and looked frightened, searching for her father. He gripped her hand. Dana looked into the girl's eyes as she spoke.
"Hi Eve. You're in the hospital. I'm Dr. Carver..."
"Coach D.," she said, weakly. Dana smiled.
"Yes, that's me. Now Eve, I'm going to press on your abdomen a bit, tell me when it hurts." She applied gentle pressure in a lateral motion across Eve's abdomen, moving from left to right. Once she reached the right side, Eve gasped, and before Dana could even remove her hands, the girl promptly threw up all over her, and Mulder.
"I think we've found the source of the problem," Dana said, acting as if she hadn't just been projectile vomited all over. "Mr. Mulder, Eve has appendicitis. It's best that we get her into the OR as soon as possible. They'll do a more extensive evaluation in Pre-Op, but I'm sure that this is what's causing your daughter's pain. I need to get myself some new scrubs, and then I'll scrub in and perform the surgery myself." He was clearly daunted by what was going on, and could only say,
"You're a surgeon?" She gave him a good-natured half-smile and said,
"Yes. I have been for two years now," she paused, and turned to Dr. Barker.
"Jim, can you find Mr. Mulder something in the line of a clean pair of scrubs, and talk to Betty in Laundry about cleaning his clothes for him?" Jim nodded, and started to walk away, only to find that Mulder wasn't following him. Dana understood.
"You can have a moment with Eve if you'd like, Mr. Mulder, before we take her up to surgery."
Additional Author's Notes: Feedback will be fed grapes and fanned on a chaise in the warmth of the Greek sun!! xxilovedavidduchovnyxx@yahoo.com for comments, questions or criticisms!!