Disclaimer: I do not own the X Files (I wish.)
Note: Thank you as always Kyouryoku Senshi for looking over my work and encouraging.
Phoenix
Dr. Dana Scully woke up confused and didn't know where she was. It took her a few seconds before she realized that she was in the apartment that she shared with her live-in boyfriend, Scott.
Arizona. I live in Phoenix Arizona.
She looked around the room and didn't see her mysterious boyfriend. She couldn't picture him in her head for some reason and she didn't know where he was.
This seemed to happen every morning. Dana had been in a car accident a couple weeks before and the doctor had told her that some memory loss and confusion was expected.
She didn't remember the accident at all, but she had a few broken ribs and bruises and had frequent headaches.
She still found herself often feeling uncomfortable in her skin. The only time she felt comfortable was at the hospital. She took a few days to heal and then got back to work, she found it strange, but didn't question it too much.
She felt like she was in a fog as she got ready for work and couldn't wait to get there and feel normal for a little while.
She heard shrill ringing from across the room and realized that it must be her cell phone. She looked at it and saw Scott's name flash across the screen.
She debated picking it up, but didn't have the energy to pretend to know him.
She stumbled around the room trying to find everything she needed for her morning routine.
After her shower, she looked sadly at the counter and wondered which toothbrush was hers.
Blue and orange… Which color do I like better? What's his favorite color?
She pondered it for too long and finally just picked the orange one. She knew logically it should not gross her out too much considering that it belonged to a man she was living with, but she was irrationally uncomfortable with it.
She knew logically they must have been sleeping together, but she couldn't remember it.
As she began to get dressed, she felt a flash of pain in her head. The pain knocked her to the bed and she held the bridge of her nose.
Quick images filled her head.
It was a man, but not the man who she was living with. The man in her mind felt familiar and safe. He touched her body in all the right places and the way he looked at her sent chills down her spine. She felt the love between them and wanted to cry.
Who is he? Who is he?
She pushed her fists against either side of her head and rocked back and forth. Tears ran down her face as she mourned the loss of a man that she never knew.
As the pain in her head began to subside, she curled up into a ball on the bed and cried.
She was late to work and was rushing in feeling on edge. However, no one mentioned anything. It seemed like they were aware of her injury and were giving her slack.
She put her things away in her locker after stopping for a moment and not recognizing the room. The image of another hospital locker room entered her mind and left quickly. She cursed under her breath and wondered how she could be a useful doctor if she couldn't even remember her locker.
Heck, I couldn't even remember my way to work.
She thought bitterly, sending up a prayer of thanks for smartphones.
The day was fine, considering. She would vaguely remember her co-workers, but couldn't really remember personal details about them. It was like she knew them from a dream.
Dana worked in a small hospital outside of the city in a very isolated spot. The commute turned out to be nearly 45 minutes.
She walked into a lab that she recognized as her place of work and sat at a desk that had her name on it. On her desk were different papers, reports, and requests for testing.
She knew this part of her life. She understood science and that was her job. So while the rest of the world was spiraling out of control science was her touchstone.
Touchstone…
The word brushed across her mind and she whispered it out loud.
'Even when the world was falling apart, you were my constant. My touchstone.'
It was a memory, this she knew. Dana also knew the voice in this memory even though she had not seen the face. It was the same man from her visions earlier.
Who is he? A former lover? A current lover?
She hated to think that she would be cheating, but she felt like she didn't know herself enough to be totally sure. Dana pondered this man, but as she did she found that she couldn't remember his face and as she went through the day, the harder it became to remember his voice. Eventually, all she knew is that she had memories of another man, but she couldn't recall them. She knew that by the end of the day she would forget about it all together.
When she realized that, a cold chill ran up her spine. She didn't know why, but she knew that she couldn't forget this man.
Not again.
Dana quickly went to her desk and searched for scratch paper. She realized with a smile that she could just put it all into her phone. For the second time that day, she was grateful for technology. She typed up all she could remember about the visions she had seen and wrote a reminder to keep a record of future visions.
I won't forget you.
She promised the man hopelessly, knowing it was a promise that she would break.