Pity a human face,
And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress.
- William Blake, Songs of innocence (The Divine Image)
Part 2
Two years later Missy was shot by accident in Dana's apartment and
was hospitalised with a major trauma.
Dana and her partner Mulder were both MIA. Mulder had been MIA
for three days before Melissa's shooting and Dana had been
gone since that night.
Dana returned with Mulder the night Missy passed away.
I was with Mom when it happened, but had left before Dana turned up.
Mom was so scared during that time for both her daughters and for
the man she had begun to think of as a son - she was a complete wreck.
I've never seen Mom like that.
According to Mom, Dana had found her in the hospital cafeteria and that's when Mom broke down and cried saying that Missy had passed away and that she was in no pain when she went. Dana held it all in and sent Mom on her way, but Mom being Mom didn't leave right away: she went to the bathroom and washed her face then went to the room where Melissa had passed away to say a final farewell. That's when she found Dana crying in the arms of Fox.
Just over a year later Dana discovered she had cancer but didn't see fit to tell any of us about it. She had of course told Mulder as soon she was diagnosed, but Mom wasn't told until Dana started receiving treatment (that was stopped as it turned out the doctor was a phoney and trying to harm Dana instead of making her better). Dana being Dana made Mom swear not to tell any of the family, saying it was something personal - she didn't want to everyone to know. But Bill learnt about Dana's cancer when he went to D.C. for his birthday six months after the diagnosis - and of course Dana was pulled away from dinner by a phone call from Mulder. I found out a few days later. I received a phone call from Bill, telling me that Dana had cancer. She was in hospital suffering from acute hypoglycaemia due to blood loss from the cancerous tumour in her sinus cavity - and her partner who had the power to pull her from dinner a few nights before was nowhere in sight.
I told Bill that if Dana recovered I'd give her a call. I would have gone to D.C. but both George and his younger brother Henry had Chicken pox and I didn't want to put Dana at risk. Dana recovered from the blood loss and was moved out of ICU and onto the oncology ward to spend what was thought to be her last days. Mom and Bill arrived only to find Mulder with Dana - he made his excuses and went to leave but did have the manners to greet Bill. Boy was Bill not impressed with him! When I spoke to Dana (apologising for not being able to be there) she told me of the tension between Bill and Mulder, saying that Bill was being an asshole towards Mulder. I later spoke to Bill and he told me how much of a son of a bitch he felt that partner of Dana's was: "What a nerve that guy has! He only works with Dana he has no right to be there" ...and so on. I don't think I got a word in on that conversation other than "Scully Residence Charlie speaking", before Bill started on his tirade about Dana's cancer and her partner Mulder and what it was doing to Mom. In the end I gave up listening to him. I think what annoyed Bill the most was that a) Dana didn't tell either of about the cancer and b) the fact that Dana kept on working until she ended up in hospital.
Somehow, Dana recovered from the cancer and was allowed home. She spend some time with Mom and Mulder. Bill had gone home just after Dana was given the all clear, but I think if he hadn't had to ship out he would have stayed and made Dana and Mulder's life hell. Shortly after her recovery Dana returned to work but was on desk duty until she passed the F.B.I.'s fitness test and considered capable of returning to field duty.
That Christmas Dana discovered her daughter Emily. We were meant to fly to San Diego to visit Bill, a heavily pregnant Tara, Mom and Dana but as usual all of us ended up with the flu so we couldn't go - not with Tara pregnant and due to give birth any day. On Christmas day I received a phone call from a tearful Dana saying that the day she arrived at Bill's she answered the phone and the person on the end of the phone sounded just like Melissa, our dead sister. Dana traced the call and got Bill to drive her to the address that the call came from. The woman who owned the house had committed suicide (or so it appeared). What freaked Dana was that this woman and her husband had a daughter who looked just like Melissa did as a child. Dana dug a bit further and found out that the child Emily Sims was adopted. She then had a paternity test run and found out that Melissa wasn't the mother - incredibly, Dana herself was. I told Dana to phone Mulder to have him help her so she did. I was surprised by a call later that night to say that Mulder had arrived earlier that evening. God only knows how that man managed to get from D.C. to San Diego in such a short time.
Just after New Year the little girl died, leaving Dana beside herself with grief. Dana told me that even though she had told Mulder to leave, he came back within ten minutes and said he wanted to be with her when the end came. He got on the other side of the bed and hugged both Dana and little Emily. She died in the small hours of the morning about the same time Tara went into labour with Matthew who was born the next day. Tara was in labour for 16 hours - unlike Mary's 36 hour ordeal with George. As I was still sick I couldn't make the funeral: but of course I did give my apologies to Dana. After Emily's death Mom told me about Dana's inability to conceive a child; whether from the tests performed on Dana during her abduction, or from the chemotherapy we don't know. So Emily was the closest to a child Dana was ever going to get.
End of Part 2