May 15, 1998
Gaithersburg, MD
Gibson is sitting on the floor numbly watching The Simpsons when he hears a set of three voices approaching the room he's in – from the way they're thinking, it seems they're law enforcement.
Darn, he just wanted some peace and TV.
"Hi," Mulder greets him as he crouches down to his line of sight. "My name is Fox. This is Dana and Diana. How are you doing?"
Gibson can tell that he seems genuinely interested in the question, even if he is anxious to get somewhere else with this conversation. Fascinating. "I don't mind it here; they get all the good TV shows. Where I live, in the Philippines, all we get is Baywatch."
The male agent turns back to share a look with the two other agents with him, the three of them momentarily amused at the fact that this boy-wonder is such a, well, kid, and then the man looks back Gibson. "What's wrong with Baywatch?" he asks without much consideration, thinking that as a man he can surely appreciate the advantages of watching a mind-numbing TV show with scantily clad hot, beautiful women. Actually, it's a very nice image when I need to…
Oh, God. "You've got a dirty mind," Gibson criticizes the male adult.
Mulder is at a loss of what to do or say. He's the real deal, he thinks to himself, turning back in wonder to look at his partner – and there is no question in his mind that his partner is Scully. Can you believe this kid? He asks her with his eyes, but it's the thought in his head that reaches Gibson's brain.
She smirks back at him, amused that he has just been berated by this twelve-year-old boy. It doesn't take a mind reader – heck, it doesn't even take an adult – to see that Mulder's mind is, indeed, in the gutter a lot.
They're a funny pair, the child decides.
"Your parents are going to pick you up on Friday, Gibson," the redhead speaks for the first time, "to take you back home."
There is no underlying thought in her mind, the boy notices, just the words she stated. Diana, apparently, has a lot more to think about – she is amazed at his abilities, and also admiring Mulder's growth in the past years. As for Mulder, well, he only wants to move things along so he can play some chess and prove his point.
"I don't want to play any chess," Gibson tells him beforehand.
The sentence seems to have come out of nowhere for both women in the room, but for the male agent, it makes perfect sense. He is once again surprised at the boy's powers. "How do you know I want to?"
"'Cause you got that cheapo chess computer in your hand."
Scully snickers.
"It's not so cheap," Mulder says back with mock indignation, pulling the electronic chess board from under his arm. "Don't you want to see how fast you can beat it?" Come on, I dare you.
"No," Gibson disputes, looking away to watch the cartoon on screen.
Here we go. "Maybe because you can't," Mulder points out as he turns the TV off and pierces the boy with his gaze. The child averts his eyes, sensing both women's conflicting thoughts, before the man goes on, "I'm right, aren't I? You know what I'm talking about. You knew the moment I came in."
Scully is confused by Mulder's actions. What exactly is he doing?
Diana is admiring the agent and the man he's become. Look at him go… imagine the things we could accomplish together.
Mulder is focused on making his point. "That's how you win, isn't it… how you know what your opponent's going to do? You get inside his head. You read his thoughts." This boy is Scully's quantifiable proof. At last, she's going to have to believe me. "That's how you knew that man was going to shoot you… isn't it?"
He seems proud to have figured the kid out so quickly, happy to find a personification of a scientific breakthrough. He's glad that his partner is here to see this, this is something they've been working for together for years, him even longer. This reminds him of all the times he had gone with Diana to visit psychiatric patients who claimed to have mind-reading abilities – Diana… who is now back in his life out of nowhere and he still has no idea what it means.
Gibson can hear him perfectly, like his thoughts are being transmitted live in an acoustic concert. "I know what's on your mind – I know you're thinking about one of the girls you brought."
"Oh?" Mulder is not so self-assured anymore. Where is he going with this?
Scully is further perplexed, raising an eyebrow as she watches the two in front of her. Diana, on the other hand, seems entertained as she glances at Scully and then looks back at the kid, waiting for him to go on.
"One of them is thinking about you," the boy assures the room, with a very proud tone at being able to one-up the adults.
Is it me? Scully ponders awkwardly. Technically he's on his mind, yes, but it's not as if she's really thinking about Fox Mulder himself, more of a side-thought. And if it's not her… Is Agent Fowley thinking of him in a more specific way?
Diana was indeed thinking about Fox, the man. She is so grateful to be here with him again, witnessing such a breakthrough they had first started looking for together all those years ago. "Which one?" She boldly asks the kid. She's got nothing to hide about this.
Gibson looks closely at Mulder, who apparently now thinks he needs to channel all of his energy into this one single thought to get through to the boy. Hey, kid, please do not do this to me right now.
"He doesn't want me to say," the child announces, to Mulder's utmost relief.
Still, the adult man chuckles uncomfortably, glad to have bought himself at least some extra minutes for the time being. He stands back up as he faces Scully, the adrenaline rush waning through his body and making him shiver at the close call. "This kid's going to need round-the-clock protection," he tells her objectively, also glancing at Diana before he promptly makes his way out the door.
Scully immediately follows him out to the hallway, asking him to explain what just happened and inadvertently starting their customary back-and-forth, the one where he tries to defend a non-scientific theory and she pushes back under the argument of it being one of his ludicrous ideas.
The plat-du-jour we're going to be serving this time is Gibson's mind-reading powers.
They're both comfortable in their debate, aware that disagreeing is what makes them so good together, and it really brings them closer, not only figuratively speaking but also literally, with Scully actually stepping into his personal space as their professional argument heats up.
This is definitely their inadvertent weird form of foreplay.
They're in their own private world, oblivious to their surroundings, until Diana's voice interrupts their conversation with her own contribution to their topic of discussion.
Scully doesn't even try to hide her disdain at Agent Fowley's meddling in their dynamic as she turns her head to watch the brunette, and Mulder feels like this probably ranks in the Top 10 most inopportune times to have your ex-girlfriend drop in on you. He really needs to get out of here.
"Well, let's test him; I think the kid will stand up," he declares about Gibson, hoping this will appease to Scully and put a pin on this discussion for the time being. "Let's run a brain scan and a psych evaluation on him," he assigns tasks, to his partner's annoyance and his ex's satisfaction. He knows that he won't be able to keep up appearances for much longer, so he makes an executive decision to rip the band-aid off for once and for all. Briefly glancing at Agent Fowley, he looks away and then says in retreat, "You know what to do, Diana."
His subtle acknowledgement of their history makes the older woman feel hopeful as Scully's world shatters. They both watch him leave in silence for a few seconds before the redhead turns around to face the older woman and speaks up. "So, you two know each other?" she asks, hoping she's managed to sound indifferent and not any of the pain she feels show in her voice.
Even if Scully is a master at hiding her emotions, Diana is still an astute, experienced woman; she can tell exactly how disappointed and hopeless the younger woman feels right now. "It was a long time ago," the brunette says with what she would like to pass for an easy, conciliatory smile and not arrogant disregard as she goes back to Gibson's room.
To Scully, this feels like the beginning of the downfall of any possible plans for a future together with her partner. How can she compete with a woman who looks and thinks like she could have been genetically engineered to perfectly cater to Mulder's specific taste?
What was I thinking, she laments to herself. She takes a couple of deep breaths to try to get herself together and marches back into the room where the prodigy child is, watching Diana already in conversation with the boy and explaining that they will need to run some tests to check how his brain works.
Gibson hears it all, but his attention keeps going back to the younger woman standing by the door who is considering that for some reason her world has been shattered to pieces.
Once Diana is done going over the exams they want to conduct, the women decide instinctively to split up to optimize their efforts to organize the kid's immediate tests (or, the way Gibson sees it, they also seemingly want to spend as minimum time together as possible to stay out of each other's way and avoid any and all conversation about Special Agent Fox Mulder). While the older agent suggests she takes some time to prepare a preliminary psychiatric evaluation for the boy, Scully takes the child to draw some blood for testing and conduct an EEG and a PET-Scan for starters.
About two hours later, the female agents reconvene, and Scully lets Agent Fowley take the lead on Gibson's routine psych eval – as routine as someone who thinks like Mulder would go for, apparently. The redhead watches as the other woman handles the testing with practiced ease, filling in Mulder's shoes much better than she would have expected.
Once she's done with the questions, Diana walks up to Scully and offers to stay overnight with the child. Not wanting to get into a pissing contest, the younger agent relents.
"You seem to know your way around this type of cases," Scully mentions cautiously. "Not what I would have expected from someone who's been working counterterrorism for the past years."
"You could say I took a page out of Agent Mulder's book," Fowley comments. "I admire how his career has turned out, actually; back when I joined the Bureau, the X-Files were nothing but a pipedream of his. He definitely seems more experienced now than when I first worked with him."
As another little piece of her heart falls off her chest, Dana grudgingly admits to herself that her partner was right – Diana really knows what to do here.
Mulder has been sitting on his couch for a good half hour, still in his work clothes, still going over the unexpected day's events in his mind. He feels wired, anxious about the fact that Diana is back in his life and that she just weaved her way into this case before he ever had a chance to explain to Scully who the other woman is.
Who she was to him.
It's close to eleven o'clock when he finally gathers enough courage to call his partner.
"Hey, Scully, it's me," he announces once she picks up the phone. He can hear the line go silent as if she's apparently holding her breath, steeling herself to talk to him. "Are you okay?"
The question throws her off-guard. Her partner is not the one to usually go for pleasantries when he calls her, especially not when he's got a case that is attractive to him as a juicy steak would be for a starving dog. Also, it still feels uncharacteristic of him – of them – to openly discuss how she's feeling, especially considering that apparently there is a blast from his past currently messing up their dynamic. Does it mean…
Nope. Not going there.
She decides to bypass his question and jumps ahead, "I've done an EEG a PET-Scan on Gibson Praise, as well as a full blood-work," she pauses, waiting to see if he will interrupt her, but he doesn't. "So far, everything appears to be mostly normal – I've scheduled a CT-Scan and full MRI of his brain for tomorrow starting at eight a.m. to further investigate how his synapsis work."
"Mostly normal, huh?", he comments, genuinely interested. "What about the psych eval, did Diana work on that front?" he asks without any qualms, and then regrets the question upon hearing the oppressing silence on the other side. "Scully?"
"Yes," his partner lets out in a long breath. "She seems to think his scores are impressive, so she decided to arrange for an additional evaluation with a parapsychological board in the morning. You know, cover all the bases."
The line remains silent once again and Mulder suddenly feels even more uncomfortable than he had felt before calling her. He doesn't fully grasp why Scully seems so bothered by the mere mention of Diana's name. Then again, she's probably upset that he omitted knowing the other woman; trust is a big deal for them. "Scully, I –"
"Agent Fowley stayed on the hospital with the boy," she speaks up before he gets the chance to continue. "I came home with his medical results to go over them in detail. You should call her if you have any questions on the preliminary psych evaluation; she'll be better equipped to let you know the specifics."
The way this phone call is going, one could call this their great cold war; no accusations, no upfront inquiries about the other subject they really want to talk about; just a lot of sidestepping and tension.
That's how it goes for them – one step forward, two steps back.
"I'll talk to her in the morning."
"Okay," she lingers on the line for a couple of seconds before she decides to hang up the phone without anything more to say.
Staring at the corded phone in his hands, Mulder sighs tiredly.
Mulder's phone call prompted Scully into action. She didn't want to throw in the towel and admit to him that she wanted to know all about Diana Fowley, but she would be damned if she was going to continue being kept in the dark about it.
So, she decided to drive to the Gunmen's.
After expectantly waiting for what sounds like seven sturdy locks and bolts being released, the sight of Melvin Frohike in childhood-themed pajamas and a Kevlar vest welcomes her on the other side of the door.
"Sorry… you caught me getting ready for bed," the elder man greets her sheepishly. "Come in, come in."
"Thank you," she says, looking amused and strained all at once.
Frohike closes the door without any of the previous precautions, giddy about having his Goddess all alone in their humble abode. "To what do we owe the pleasure at this late-night hour?"
"I need your help," she declares.
"With what?" Langly's muffled voice interrupts, and she turns to see the blond man walking up to her, toothbrush in his mouth and stay-at-home clothes passing for his sleepwear.
Byers is just a few steps behind, covering his elegant long-sleeve blue cotton pajamas with a black terry robe.
Such a peculiar bunch.
"You've all heard of Gibson Praise, the chess wunderkind," the female agent cuts to the chase and then starts passing around image scans and medical results as she further explains, "These are a series of scans and neural electrical outputs of his brain and brain processes. There seems to be some suspicion that he's a fraud."
"Dorf on chess?" Byers sounds doubtful.
"Well, apparently, he wins by reading his opponents' minds," Scully clarifies.
"I love that," Frohike remarks in amusement.
"And you want us to what?" Langly asks as he sits in front of the lighted viewing box where he sets the PET-Scan image of Gibson's brain.
"Analyze the data… with an eye to the parapsychological," she reluctantly directs them, to the men's immediate surprise.
"Ooh… walk on the wild side!" Frohike cooes.
She doesn't feel like smiling at his teasing, remaining quiet for two, maybe three heartbeats. Second thoughts start to take over in her head, but she pushes them out; she came here for another reason, and she's not backing down now. Averting her eyes, she starts to speak as she switches off the viewer, "First… I want you guys to tell me who Diana Fowley is."
Just mentioning her name makes her want to puke.
The Gunmen look surprised in their own ways, Byers being the first to say anything. "Diana Fowley?" he exclaims the question. "Geez, we haven't heard that name in a while," he chuckles uneasily.
"Then you know her," Scully states, like she just got him to slip up with a trick question.
He glances around the room for support from his friends, and it's hard to say who is the most uncomfortable out of the three of them. "Well, yeaaah..."
Yeaaah.
Like it's so obvious.
Yeaaah, Scully… duh!
The air is stifling, and Langly grimaces as if it would make him disappear whereas Frohike searches his mind for something to say. "She was… Mulder's chickadee when he just got out of the Academy," the older man tries his best to sound like he's just stating facts. At Scully's pressing stare, he fumbles for something, anything, to add. "Good-looking," he affirms.
Oh sure, that's going to help.
"Well, she claims to have worked closely with him for a while," Dana continues in a professional tone, as if that's all that she cares about. As if learning about Mulder's personal history with Diana hadn't felt like a bazooka blasting through her torso.
Langly, bless him, follows her lead. "She was there when he discovered the X-Files. She has some kind of background in parascience," he shrugs, like it's no biggie that her partner's pretty ex-girlfriend's academic background is basically Mulder's version of mental porn.
"She got a legate appointment a while back. In Berlin…" Byers adds. "I always wondered why they split up," he muses aloud.
Scully grimaces at the sting, looking like she's saying Well, imagine that, right?
If Frohike thought he himself was a dimwit before, he now wants to smack Byers's head upside down.
Their friend's partner – actually, their friend, period – just stands there for a moment, trying to pretend she isn't wounded by all of this information, but her eyes suddenly shine with tears that start to form and she feels the need to avoid their gaze to protect herself. "Well…" she sighs, turning the light in the viewer back on and then steeling herself as she makes eye contact with them again to revert back to the original subject, "how about you boys see what you can find?"
The three of them do their best to ignore the hurt they feel for Scully as they settle themselves to start working. She remains standing in a strong pose, doing her best not to crumble in front of these men who were already Mulder's friends before she even knew them.
Oh God. We've just agreed to have a child together. Do I still want to go through with it? What if he wants to get back together with Diana now?
"This should take at least a couple of hours," Frohike speaks up in a kind but not overly sentimental tone and brings her back to the room she's in. "Do you want something to drink?"
"Actually, I think I'm going to go. I'll come back tomorrow around lunch time, if that's okay."
"Of course," her number one fan assures her.
Nodding once in goodbye to them all, she turns around and leaves the room.
Before she reaches her car, a single tear makes its way down her left cheek.
Damn.
Author's Notes:
Full disclosure: I read a lot of uplifting fanfics while reviewing this chapter. If you hate me right now, try doing that too.
