Chapter Seven
Whiting Institute, San Francisco, CA
September 24th, 2000, 12:15 p.m.
"Are you sure you really want to see them while they're being fed?" the guard questioned Scully, who removed the SIG Sauer from her holster and signed her name into the registry.
"You make it sound like they're animals," Scully declared.
"Well, they're not much different. You see, after we deliver their food to them, they become...disturbed. There was a man that came in two weeks ago to see them during breakfast, and although we keep them under very strict security, they still managed to stab him in the thigh with a fork. They're now limited to spoons and Jello because of that incident," she explained.
"I'm on a tight schedule." The sentry shrugged, handed Scully the obligatory panic button, and buzzed her inside where another guard met up with her. "Do they still go by their given names?"
"You can ask them yourself...they've been awful talkative these last few days," he told her and let her into the "Eve" cellblock.
"Would it have something to do with the visitor that she was talking about? The one that came two weeks ago?" Scully wondered.
"Possibly."
"What did he look like?"
"Guy had a prosthetic arm--and you know how people can look like animals, right?"
"Yeah?"
"If I had to pick one for him, I'd say a weasel. I'll be just out here if you need anything. Remember the button." He shut the door behind himself and locked it.
Scully trudged skittishly down the cement hallway. She heard some giggling coming from the end and as her stride became more confident, it ceased. "Cindy? Tina?" she called as she reached the "Eve 9" and "Eve 10" cells.
"Good day, Agent Scully," Tina greeted her, and Scully gasped as she twisted around to look at the girl.
"Yes, good day, Agent Scully," Cindy echoed. Scully turned to face the hallway so that she could keep both of the teenagers in view.
"How did you know I was coming?" she asked.
"We just knew," they both stated at the same time.
"Well your voices have changed quite a bit. But I see your homicidal tendencies haven't."
"We didn't kill Mr. Krycek," Tina smirked.
"No, but you tried."
"Would that have been such a terrible thing if we did?" Cindy retorted smugly.
"You have me there. Why did he come visit you?"
"For some more tests. He tried to draw our blood," Tina replied.
"And so you stabbed him in self defense?"
"More or less," Cindy said. "And now they give us mush because of it. What if someone took away your gun because you shot someone on the job, Agent Scully?"
"It's my job to protect people and in order to do that, sometimes it happens. Let's not worry about that, though." Scully took a glimpse at the empty "Eve 7" cell. "What happened to her?"
"Dead," Tina informed the FBI agent.
"She committed suicide," Cindy added.
"How? She was in a straight jacket the last time we saw her," Scully was incredulous.
"In 1995, straight jackets were deemed cruel and unusual punishment in California. We appreciated that ruling," Tina smiled.
"Strangled herself with her own bed sheet," Cindy proclaimed.
"Are you sure that she did that?" Both girls nodded in unison.
"We heard it all. And when we turn 50, it'll happen to us as well," Tina announced. "Dr. Kendrick wasn't able to correct that flaw."
"Nope, she wasn't," Cindy echoed.
"Girls, I need your help with something." Scully withdrew a folded up piece of paper and held up a picture of a grown up Eve 8, who was of course, identical to Eve 7. "I know she's still out there. What does she do?"
"Obstetrician. She used to visit us all the time, when we first got here. But when she found out that we couldn't conceive, she stopped coming," Tina uttered.
"What's her name?" Scully's brow furrowed.
"Dr. Anne Gossamer. She's only three months away from her due date," Cindy told her, and they began to click their tongues in tandem. "They'd better hurry."
"So you know that these experiments have started up again?"
"Affirmative," they replied at the same time.
"That was why Mr. Krycek came," Tina stated.
"And left with a gash in his leg," Cindy joked, and they started to laugh.
"Can I ask...what happened to all of the Adams of the project?"
"Dr. Gossamer knows."
"Where is she?"
"Use your federal status to find out. We cannot supply you with that data."
"By the way, Agent Scully, where's your partner?"
"Back at the office," Scully swallowed her anger.
"No, no, we mean Agent Mulder. What's the matter...you lose him or something?" The girls chuckled together again. Cindy took some of the pea soup in her bowl that had congealed and launched it with her spoon onto Scully's very expensive and fashionable designer suit. Scully's fists curled into balls as she stormed out and crashed one of them onto the door separating her from the guard.
"Had enough, huh?" he inquired.
"I almost started to feel sorry for them," Scully growled and made her way to the entrance to pick up her weapon. "Is it possible for me to view some of the old registries?"
"How old?" the same sentry that signed her in asked.
"Maybe one or two years. I'm looking for a specific visitor going by the name Dr. Anne Gossamer."
"Mmm. Let me see here..." the woman dug underneath her counter and searched through her records. Several page turns later, the guard found an entry. "She was last here in June of 1999."
"Did she give a city of origin?"
"Ah, one moment. Yes. Greenwich, Connecticut." Scully groaned and slid the panic button lethargically across the counter. "What on earth is the matter?"
"I just came from that side of the country," she grumbled. "Do you know how many airports I've just come through in the last three days? I feel like a piece of chain mail."
"At least you can pick up frequent flyer miles."
"I...hate...flying," Scully deplored.
Scully's Apartment, Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
September 24th, 2000, 10:13 p.m.
The first thing Scully did after she tossed her belongings onto her kitchen table was to press 'play' on her answering machine. "You have 6 new messages," the synthesized female voice announced. Beep
"Scully, this is Agent John Doggett, your partner."
"Hmmph...just in case I forgot," she mumbled.
"Detective Gardener's been trying to reach you all day. I know we said that we were going to drop the case, but I thought you probably might want to at least send her some of the case files. I think you said that you would a couple of nights ago, unless my hearing's gone to the dogs. I also would have tried to do it myself, except for the fact that they're not in the X-Files office. Did you take them home to work on them? Anyhow, I understand that you're on vacation now, and so I won't bother you on your cell phone...so call me back at least tomorrow to let me know what's going on, please. I'm at the office now, but you can reach me at my home after six."
"The man may not be as keen as Mulder, but at least he has some manners," she commented and hung up her jacket.
Beep
"Dana Scully, we at Avalon Spa know how stressful your week days can be," the machine continued.
"Oh yeah?" she sneered and dug out a letter opener from her top center desk drawer. "Week day? What's a week day?"
"Come rest your body, mind, and spirit while we pamper your every need. We are located not too far away from your home in Georgetown..."
"I still wanna know how the hell they got my number. I gave a gift certificate to Mom, and yet they still continue to harangue me with their damn advertisements."
"Call us for an appointment today."
Beep
"Dana Katherine Scully, where in the world are you?" It wasn't until her mother's voice came on over the speaker that Scully froze in her tracks from doing her nightly ritual of mail trafficking and disrobing. This was the only multi-tasking chore that she did both mindlessly and habitually. But there were few times when Dana Scully was petrified to the bone, and her mother's raised voice could do it every time. "This is the third time this month that you promised you would come over for dinner, dear. " By now it had calmed down into despondency.
"I wouldn't mind it so much except for the fact that you never remember to call me until half an hour beforehand that you can't make it. And this time, you didn't even call! Now what's the matter, sweetheart? I know you're going through a lot these days, and it's important for you to share it with someone, if not your own mother," she sighed. "I only want what's best for you, Dana, I hope you know that. Now please call me back."
Beep
"Senator Mattheson fights for the people's rights. Only with your continued support can we continue his quest for-"
"I don't think so," Scully interrupted the machine and pressed the forward arrow button. Beep
"Agent Scully, I'm sorry to bother you on your personal line, but Agent Doggett gave me your number. This is Detective Janine Gardener, of the Flagstaff Police Department, by the way. I could really use some background information from your X-File reports right now."
"I'll bet."
"Please fax them to me over at (770). 691.0583. Thanks. I really would appreciate your time and trouble. Sorry to hear about your boss. Hope he's feeling better."
Beep
"Scully, this is your superior, Walter Skinner. Are you there? I know you screen your calls sometimes. Look, I really gave you those personal days off for you and your baby's sake, I wanted to let you know that. This is not really my decision, but, Kim keeps on asking me and asking me about you. She kind of has a sixth sense about her on these things--mentions how different you look and how much you glower. Is that even a word? Uh, I don't know what to tell her--so I just keep changing the subject every time she brings it up."
"Good. Keep doing that," Scully rolled her eyes and went back to sorting through her pile of mail.
"All joking aside, when are you going to let everyone know? You're going to start showing soon, aren't you? And then what are people going to think? If you want your secret to remain under wraps, you'd better give me a call soon. I'm running out of excuses and tangents."
Beep
"End of messages," the electronic voice asserted.
"Sweet Mary, Mother of God, if this is what my home phone's like..." she started over to the kitchen table for her cell phone but then brushed it off. "No. No, damnit, it can wait until tomorrow. There's only one person that matters right this second."
Scully went to her phone and picked it up off of the cradle. She then discarded the rest of her junk mail into the garbage as she waited for her recipient to answer.
"Hello?"
"Hi, Mom, it's Dana."
"Oh, thank God. I was starting to get worried."
"I forgot, Mom, I'm so sorry," Scully apologized and ran her fingers through her hair absentmindedly.
"It's all right, Dana. Incidentally, I did make the baked chicken like you asked."
"Aww..." she whined and now felt a stack of twenty pound weights leap up onto her chest. "Nobody makes it like you, Mom."
"So where were you?" Scully walked through her hallway and into her bathroom to turn on her tub's faucet.
"Uh, I was working on a case today."
"Well, there's a surprise. I have a daughter that works in the FBI that works on nothing but cases day in and day out. You're so ambiguous, Dana. You must have picked that up from Fox."
"It's amazing how much he's rubbed off on me. I think I might start eating those damn sunflower seeds if he doesn't come back soon."
"God will return him when the time is appropriate."
"Oh, Mom, you don't honestly believe that angels took him, do you?"
"I never said that, Dana. I said that God will make sure he's back in time just when you need him the most."
"Oh, damn it, Mom, I need him now!"
"Our timing does not always align with God's."
"You can say that again." She tossed several different powders and lotions into the tub and watched as they took form in the water.
"Maybe this is why..."
"What are you talking about, Mom?"
"Well, I'm saying...this is just a shot in the dark, so don't discredit me, Dana...I know how much science governs your life."
"Fine. I won't, speak your piece."
"Maybe this is why Fox's gone. You finally are admitting that you need him. It took you until now to admit it."
"Mom, we knew that years ago about one another--that we couldn't work without one another."
"I'm talking about your realizing that he's your other half. Work is temporary--love is long lasting." Scully hesitated on the line as she pondered her mother's revelation. She wasn't trying to be nosy, and she never tried to interfere with her relationships in the past. Maybe it was time that she listened to her mother's advice for once. "You're not still trying to convince yourself otherwise, are you, Dana?"
"Things are kind of...complicated between us right now. I don't know what to feel."
"It's this time then...that God has given you...to sort your feelings out. Perhaps you'd like to speak with Father McHugh about this."
"No, I can't." She eased herself into the bath and sighed contentedly as she felt the bubbles relax her stiff muscles. "There are some things that a woman has to keep hidden in her own heart, even from her own priest."
"Dana, I think you know what you feel...but you're afraid to admit to it. Your father was the same way with me when we were dating."
"How long did he wait to propose to you?"
"Well...I know how long it took for him to come back to me from his ship. But I don't know how long he pondered the question in his own mind before it popped out of his mouth to me."
"He never told you?"
"He said that he thought about it quite a bit for his two months at sea, but I can't help feeling that he wanted to do it sooner. Not that it matters anyhow, because those events were long ago. Did I ever tell you that once, his ship became lost in a storm? It happened just after we became engaged--he got called up again and left for the Pacific. I was so scared when I got the news...I just felt so helpless, and I just wished that I could have had the power to bring him back...Dana, are you still on the line?"
Scully mumbled something inarticulately in her sleep and dropped the phone into the water.