Disclaimer: I don't own the X Files
Note: Huge thank you to Kyouryoku Senshi for being my beta!
Explosions
Gabby's life had never been good, but she had known no different. When she was very young, she believed Diana to be her mother. Diana would be in and out of her life, but she was the only constant woman. Whenever Diana would appear, she would shower Gabby with praise and affection that Gabby later realized came from guilt that the woman held for the death of her mother.
She remembered the day she realized that Diana was not her mother. She was watching a movie and in it, realized that family members generally looked alike. Something clicked in her head and she ran to the mirror. She looked at her dark skin and her braided hair, and saw the obvious differences between her and Diana. This then begged the question: who was her real mom?
She wanted to find out. Her studies had been going well and on days where she was good she was allowed to go on walks around the facility. On one of these days, she was able to slip into Diana's office. Diana was out of town and Gabby had used her new abilities to get someone to open it for her.
Once inside, he began to search the filing cabinet that sat behind a desk that held a nameplate reading, Diana Fowley.
She saw a file that read: G86. Gabby knew that was her reference number. Each child had one, but only the unfriendly doctors used it when referring to the little ones.
She opened the file and on the first page were two pictures. One was a young woman with a stunning smile and the other was a young man with a fade. The pictures looked like school photos. Both were smiling.
Gabby could tell from sight that these were her real parents. She looked at the report under it and began to read of how they were killed in cold blood for no reason, except that a certain group wanted their baby.
Her mother's name was Briana Lewis, her father's was Jordan Hill. They were just teenagers.
Gabby read how her mother had been abducted many times as a young teenager and the pregnancy was something that should have been impossible.
There were pages to read, but Gabby could sense someone headed toward the office she was in, so she made her exit.
Later, Diana watched the video servallience and saw Gabby breaking in to the office. She reprimanded the little girl and was met with stony silence. Gabby would not look at her or talk to her. It was after that day that Gabby attempted her first escape.
She was then moved and tried again. This continued as a pattern; some attempts better than others. Once she was even outside the building before they caught her.
She hadn't had a friend before William. Most of the other kids there were not powerful enough to reach, but she could reach William. She wondered if it was because his mother was also an abductee.
Many of the children's parents were everyday people who just happened to get caught up in this mess, but he came from a family with a history.
They talked and she liked him right away. In her own mind, she would plan escape attempts with him.
When she heard Dana Scully enter the building, she wanted to beg them to take her and she was so happy when William insisted that they save her too.
Now she sat in a cell in the basement, where they put the troublemakers.
They pumped her with medicine that blocked her abilities and she was sure that they had done the same to William, Gibson, and Shelly.
She knew that they had to be down there too.
She had no idea where they would have taken Scully, Mulder, and Skinner and she felt a panic that was unusual for her.
Her whole life had been a series of unknowns, but she had always faced them alone with no one else to suffer any consequences.
When she had befriended William, he had told her of his birth parents and his real parents, which is how he referred to them. He told her that his birth parents were going to find him and it was only a matter of time and he told her she could come with.
She would try to imagine this, but had no real context but for the books and movies she was allowed.
As Gabby lay in the bare cell, she tried as hard as she ever had to reach out, but she knew that it was doing nothing.
Her concentration was so intense that when the first explosion hit, it knocked her against the wall and to the floor where she fell unconscious.
When Skinner opened his eyes it took him some time to adjust to the true darkness of the room he was being held in. He tried to remember where he was and why he was there but his head hurt so bad he was having trouble thinking.
He could see almost nothing but he could tell that he was on a small, uncomfortable cot with a thin pillow. He lay his head back on it and stared into space and tried to jog his memory.
Scully lost her memory… we found her and went to find Mulder and… and William. Gibson helped us.
We found them. William was fine… But Mulder was not fully recovered.
Diana.
Diana Fowley.
It came rushing back and he sat up too quickly. They had hauled them back inside and took the kids and Gibson somewhere else. Scully fought it and tried to get to her son, but they injected her with something that knocked her out pretty quickly. Skinner had begun to fight harder seeing them carry her away and he soon felt the pinch of the needle, followed by the blackness.
Skinner understood enough to know that Diana had to be just the face of the operation. Someone or a few someones were pulling the strings here.
He looked around the room and saw that there was what looked like a shuttered window on one wall.
He walked over to it and touched the shutter. In the blink of an eye, the shutter flew up, disappeared into the ceiling, and the room was filled with morning light.
Skinner was momentarily blinded by the harsh light, but soon he became aware of his surroundings.
The room was even smaller than he imagined. There was a toilet next to the cot and enough room to pace a bit, but nothing else.
It was less than half the size of the basement office. He examined the walls for any cracks or weaknesses for what felt like forever until he made his way fully around the room.
Right as he was about to pound on the door and demand to see Diana, a small slot in the door opened and a tray of food was produced. The slot closed before he could get to it, but it didn't stop him from yelling after the guard.
A few moments passed and Skinner had given up when the slot opened again and the guard slipped a note in.
"Forgot this," he said gruffly and closed the slot before Skinner could respond.
It was written on the same kind of thin napkin that was given to him with his meal and was in Scully's handwriting.
It read:
I am fine. Don't know where we are. Guard seems to be sympathetic. Mulder in same hallway and is getting same note. Knock on door four times to tell me you got this. We can hear some if you put head right next to the slot in door.
The note was hastily written and torn in many places, but he could make it all out. Skinner did as the note said and knocked four times. He put his ear against the door and heard a faint knock back. It was quiet enough that he might not have noticed if he was not listening.
He wondered if Mulder was out there too when he heard three knocks from a different place and a response of three knocks presumably from Scully.
Now what?
After waking from a terrible headache to the noise of a tray of food hitting the ground, Mulder tried to remember where he was.
Once he remembered, he was pissed but found that he was still having trouble moving after an unknown number of months spent in a bed.
I'm definitely not thirty anymore.
He thought somewhat bitterly as he heard his legs and back creak and pop in response to his movement. He found the window covered with the automatic shutter and was also blinded for a moment by it.
"Scully!" He yelled out loud. He found that his voice was not as loud as he thought it would be. His throat felt underused and scratchy. He noticed a water bottle next to the food.
He grabbed for it as the slot opened again Mulder lunged for it, "Scully!" He tried to yell again, but it came out weakly.
He got no response, but for a small scrap of a napkin.
The napkin was from Scully instructing him to knock three times. He put his head against the door and heard a series of four knocks and wondered if that was Scully. He waited a moment and heard a response.
Skinner!
Mulder remembered seeing their bald friend/boss before blacking out. He then knocked three times and waited.
When he heard her response, he felt his heart clench for a moment. He hadn't truly seen her in months.
He remembered the young motherly Scully from his dreams and realized what an empty shell that woman was compared to the real thing.
The real Scully was somewhat damaged by life, but she was a bad ass who seemed to always find her way out of a terrible situation.
He held his hand against the door as if imagining that he could feel her through it.
Mulder waited and heard nothing more and figured that William and Gibson must have been taken somewhere else.
There were fuzzy memories of more people, but he couldn't recall. His stomach rumbled loudly and he looked at the food, what looked like scrambled eggs and two pieces of toast.
He lifted the tray and found a pen taped to the bottom of it. He pulled it off and began to write immediately to Scully. It was only after he had the pen poised and ready to write that he realized that he had nothing to say. He had no idea how they were going to get out of this. He took the piece of toast in this mouth and began to case the place. He finished his toast, but the eggs looked too questionable for him.
Hours could have passed while he went over every inch of the room. Every once in a while he would return to the door and listen for a moment but he never heard anything.
He was getting close to finishing and the light in the room showed him it was evening when the explosion hit. It threw him on his back and he waited a moment for it to pass before moving quickly to the door to put his head against it. He heard nothing and then knocked three times.
There was silence and for a moment he was scared until he heard a three-knock response from Scully. They both waited for Skinner and were relieved when his four knocks were heard.
Another explosion hit and Mulder's head knocked hard against the door.
"Scully!" He yelled. He needed to hear her voice.
"Mulder!" He heard her response so quietly, but it calmed him for a moment. There were other small rumblings and he grabbed the thin pillow from the bed and covered his head, knowing it would do very little if anything were to fall from the ceiling.
There was a sound outside his door that sounded like someone trying to open his door. He irrationally grabbed the pen to protect himself from the invader, but when he saw Scully's face as the door opened, he dropped the pen and moved quickly to her.
He pulled her close to him and held her for a moment until they felt another rumble and were brought back to the present. She took his face for a moment and looked at him with a small smile. She then ran to a door some ways down from his. They passed an open cell, which he assumed was Scully's.
"How did you get the keys?" Mulder asked as Scully worked the lock open on Skinner's door.
"The guard panicked when he heard the explosions. He freed me, showed me where you guys were, handed me the keys, and took off," she said as the door swung open.
"Noble," Mulder muttered as Skinner exited without any dramatics or questions.
He nodded at both his agents and Scully began to lead them to a door at the end of the hallway.
Neither men questioned her as she found the correct key and opened the door. As soon as they were through, the doorway an explosion shook the building that threw them to the ground.
"What the hell is that?" Scully yelled as she took hold of Mulder's arms to help him onto his still somewhat unsteady feet; the explosions were not helping.
No one answered Scully's question as they continued down an identical hallway filled with cells. Mulder wondered if there was others trapped in there, but didn't have time to think it over as another explosion hit.
"Dammit!" Mulder swore as his ass broke his fall for what felt like the millionth time.
Skinner hauled him back up.
When they got to the next door, it was a staircase rather than another hallway.
Scully paused and turned around, "This is where my knowledge ends. I know we are in a basement, but besides that I don't know what floor the kids are on or Gibson."
"Kids?" Mulder questioned.
Both ignored him as Skinner answered her, "Well, we have no where to go but up."