EN ROUTE TO LOS ANGELES FIELD OFFICE
1400 PST
Driving in LA is very much like driving in DC, only with more convertibles, louder music, and different mentalities. Traffic wasn't as bad as Scully thought and her lead-foot got her away from Sydney's house faster than legal but not fast enough for her tastes.
As she pulled away from Sydney's beautiful home by the beach with the picket fence and the new puppy and the seemingly perfect life that Sydney Bristow led—though Scully knew it was far from perfect—Scully pulled out her cell phone and dialled her brother's number.
Charlie, the baby of the Scully clan, had dropped off the family radar several years before and, other than a gift on her birthday and cards at Christmas, Scully hadn't heard from her brother since before Ahab died. She knew she had to take a great deal of the blame for the rift—she and Charlie, being the youngest, had been closer than the others and, with her work schedule, Scully hadn't had the time to deal with her baby brother—and Scully didn't like that the first time she used the phone number since he'd given it to her the year before wasn't to talk to her brother, but to yell at her partner. But, like many things in her life, Scully just let it go and waited for someone to pick up the phone in New York.
Finally her brother picked up the phone, just as the voicemail was about to kick in. "Hello?"
"Hey, Charlie," Scully said, a smile spreading across her lips despite the reason for her call.
"Da…na," Charlie said slowly. Scully smiled. He definitely wasn't happy to hear from her. Good. If he was already afraid she'd kick his ass her job was just that much easier.
"Where is he?" Scully asked pleasantly. Psychological warfare. Something she had learned growing up with two brothers. Something she had perfected since meeting Fox Mulder.
"He who?" Charlie asked dumbly.
"Charlie," Scully said in a warning tone.
Charlie started to appease Scully with news from their other brother, Bill—something that, of late, she couldn't care less about—but in the background she could hear grumbling.
She knew that voice.
Mulder.
"He's right there, isn't he?" Scully interrupted. "Put Mulder on the phone, Charlie. NOW."
There was a muffled shuffling and then her partner came on the line. "Hey, Scully. I see you got my note."
"You don't see anything, Mulder. Why the hell didn't you just call me and tell me what was going on instead of running off with a vague and disturbing note left with the Gunmen that I wouldn't have even received if Skinner didn't think that I should find your skinny ass before taking any steps on the top priority case we were assigned that has gotten more and more convoluted as pieces of information drift in from random but reliable sources. I'm glad you left a note and I'm sure whatever Charlie needed your help with is valid, but we've got a Senator's murdered daughter, her widower who I haven't seen but I doubt is very distraught by her death, his girlfriend, the CIA, and about fifty levels of classification above my clearance to deal with and I can't do this on my own. So get your ass on a plane to LA right now or I swear I'll…"
"You'll what?" Mulder asked.
Scully took a steadying breath. It was a threat she didn't want to make, but if she had to, she would make good on it. She just prayed she wouldn't have to.
"I'll leave. And you'll never see me again," Scully said.
"I'm on my way," Mulder said without a moment's hesitation.
Scully beamed and fought the urge to cheer as she heard Mulder make an apology to her brother who seemed to take the abandonment fairly well. But then again, Scully reminded herself, Charlie had always been pretty flexible. It was something that had made it easier for him to move around so much when they were growing up. Bill had been stiff and rigid like Ahab, bending only to the will of the Navy and the sea. Maggie had followed her husband faithfully, even if she only saw him about six weeks out of the year, less sometimes if there was a new ship to break in or an assignment that the higher ups thought only Ahab could handle. Melissa has curled herself up in her own world and had moved out on her own as soon as she possibly could, finding an apartment that she fell in love with and refusing to move ever again. And Scully had gone with the rest of the family, working her ass off to please her absentee father who was absentee with one of the few good reasons—not that there were any really good reasons not to see your children grow up—to be absent, altering the course she set for herself at the age of ten only when she decided that she could help more people with the FBI than in private practise.
"Call me with your flight information. I'll call Skinner and let him know that you'll be joining me," Scully said, her voice cool and collected, not giving away any of the emotion she felt pushing against her carefully constructed walls that were built to protect her against extreme emotional expression.
"Alright," Mulder said. "Um… Scully… you'll explain the whole LA thing to me when I get there, right?" he asked lamely.
"Only because it'll help with the case," Scully said. "Now get going. I'm just pulling up to the field office now. I've got some things to check out. I might be able to get some information from an old friend, but if that doesn't come through… well, I'll tell you when you get here."
"Just promise me you aren't going to leave," Mulder said. The unspoken 'me' hung over both their heads.
"I don't want to leave the X-Files, Mulder, but I will if I have to," Scully said.
"I wasn't talking about the X-Files," Mulder said gently. It was the closest they had come to replaying the hallway ordeal since the attack of the alien-virus-carrying killer bee. Scully just wished they weren't on opposite sides of the continent.
Sighing softly, Scully closed her eyes and leaned back in her seat. "We'll talk when you get here, okay? I don't want to have this conversation right now, not with three thousand miles between us," she said honestly.
"I really am sorry, Scully," Mulder said pitifully.
"I know you are," Scully said. "You always are," she added sadly before hanging up and turning her phone to silent as she got out of the car. She hated hanging up on Mulder, but her emotions were running so high that she knew she would end up saying something she would regret.
The field office had been a bust. She had spent almost several hours going through whatever they had. It turned out that they didn't know anything about Senator Reed or his daughter other than what was already public record.
As she left the building and headed back to the rental, Scully mentally listed off what the past few hours wading through paperwork and dealing with the usual egos had been.
A dead end.
A waste of time.
And a welcome distraction from her problems with Mulder.
Scully was a little surprised when the only message on her voicemail was Mulder giving her his flight information, but she hoped that he was just respecting her wishes to wait until they were together to talk about the problems they were having. The only thing that worried her about that was that she wasn't sure she would be able to talk to Mulder about their problems when they were together. The man was so frustratingly sexy that sometimes he made rational thought impossible for the logical scientist Dana Scully prided herself on being. Just one look at that full, pouty bottom lip and she was gone. And when his eyes met hers and every ounce of his passion was directed at her, no matter how briefly, it took every last bit of Scully's strength to keep her knees from turning to water.
"Ooh boy," Scully sighed before starting the car and heading to LAX to pick up her partner.
The Alias chapter 4 went up fine, but I posted the X-Files chapter 5 in chapter 4's place. Sorry about that. Please go read the interview with Syd and Scully if you haven't seen it yet.
