Cluster.
Wayfield, Virginia.
May 18, 2010.
She was standing in her front yard, both hands resting on the shoulders of a child with the moon reflecting in her eyes. Her pulse quickened with expectation. She felt the adrenaline beginning to pulse in her veins. It was reminiscent of the old days, when a break in the case indicated that someone, somewhere, was going to be victimized.
"What do you mean?" Scully demanded. "Who found her?"
Iden was shaking. She looked away from the moon, her lip trembling. Her fear was palpable. Her eyes darted to the road and back. "He's going to kill her!"
It all came to her suddenly. Iden was having a waking vision. She was seeing Katie again. Scully grabbed the girl and dragged her toward the front steps, ordering Frankie back into the house as well. She went in for her gun, tucking it into her pants.
"I want to go with you!" Iden whined.
Scully held up her hand, keeping the girl from following her back outside. "Go into my bedroom and lock yourself in. If anybody comes to the house, you don't open the door, okay?"
She went out to the SUV, struggling with the keys. When she was on the road, giving her home frantic glances in the rearview mirror, she called the local police station. She got an automated message and punched through to the receptionist.
"I need to speak to Hector Queen right now."
"Officer Queen is on patrol, ma'am, I could-"
Scully hung up, calling his personal number.
"Hello? Dana?"
"Hector! What is the status of Katie Whitehead?"
"Whoa, what's going on?"
"Give me her status, Hector!"
"Okay, okay. Let me ask." She heard him requesting the information over the radio. "This is Officer Queen. 140, I need you status." Her heart began to hammer at the total silence he got in response. He repeated his request. "That's strange," he murmured to her. "Hold on." Scully heard something beeping, and then an engine starting. "Does anybody have eyes on 140? Does anybody know if Danny is still sitting on that house?"
Scully pushed her SUV as much as she could without hurtling herself into the ditch. She could still hear Hector trying to contact his officer in the background. She had the sick feeling that Danny was far beyond being able to answer that call.
"I'm not getting anything," Hector said. She heard his sirens blaring. "I'm on my way out there right now. Just sit tight Dana."
"I'm on my way, too," Scully said.
"No, no, you stay away from this. I'm calling in backup."
"I have a responsibility to that girl, and I'm closer."
"Dana you can't just-"
She hung up on him – a common theme for the day – and pushed the SUV a little harder. Her mind was going in all directions. She thought of Iden wailing the night before, the terror that lived in her as she witnessed what was about to happen. She heard the Iden's words again, the fearful whisper about the fate of the innocent young girl.
Katie lived way back in the woods. Her house popped up before the town did. Scully could see flashing blue lights echoing through the trees, but there was no siren going off. She came upon the police car parked beside the driveway, the door open, the engine running. There was no sign of the officer. Scully cut off her headlights and drove on, parking a bit closer to the house, but not so close that anyone would hear her coming. She loaded her gun and cocked it, flicking the safety off for the first time in a long time. It felt natural in her hands.
She cut the car off and slipped out, leaving the door cracked open to avoid slamming it. Katie lived with her father and grandmother – her father worked nights at the tire factory in the next town over and her grandmother was well into her seventies and confined to a wheelchair. Scully knew them both personally from the hospital, as she had spent many late nights sitting with Mary while she waited to perform her physical therapy. It was the whole reason she was Katie's doctor. Mary had insisted that Katie join Scully's very short patient list, trusting no one else with the girl's care.
Her knowledge of the family weighed heavily on her mind as she passed between two cars. One of them was Katie's, a beat up Intrepid, and one was a dented white Crown Victoria, eerily similar in appearance to a police car.
She went up the front steps, listening for signs of activity inside. She heard crying. She was filled with the instinct to protect the child inside. She went back down the steps, circling the house, trying to get a look at what was happening. She finally found a window near the kitchen, and what she saw chilled her. It was out of place in this beautiful town.
Katie was on her knees, sobbing, staring at the ground. Beside her was the officer Hector had been calling. Scully had seen him around town. His wife had come to the hospital the other day, and Scully had been the one to perform a pregnancy test on her in the free clinic. It was positive. His name was Danny Gutierrez, and he was dead. He had a gunshot wound to his temple. His eyes were still wide with shock. He was splayed awkwardly beside the teenager.
Holding the girl there, gun in hand, was a hooded figure, his face visible because of the harsh kitchen lights. Scully pulled out her cellphone and snapped a picture of him, gasping and ducking down when the flash went off. She shrunk into the bushes.
She heard him curse inside. Footsteps came across the front. She heard the door open. Instead of sitting around for him to find her, she crept to the back, peeping through the back window. She tapped on it, aware of the gun-wielding stalker coming around the house toward her. Katie looked right at her, her eyes widening. Scully beckoned her.
Katie came to unlock the door and Scully scrambled inside, locking it back. She raced for the front door just as the suspect came to the back. She threw on the deadbolt and urged Katie upstairs, running after her. "Go to the bedroom. Go!"
Scully sat with the girl, listening as the perp tried to break down the front door. He succeeded after four attempts. She heard him running up the stairs, banging around in the house, slamming his gun against the walls and cursing.
"Katie! Get out here, you bitch! Katie!"
Scully wrapped her arms around the teenager. She had locked the bedroom door, but she wasn't sure it would hold. She moved Katie into the master bathroom, instructing her to lock herself inside, and Scully waited right beside the door.
He was outside of it. She heard him breathing. "I love you, Katie," he whispered. He must have thought Katie was standing there listening to him. "Hey, sweetie, I didn't mean to scare you."
"Listen to me," Scully said, glad she could hear sirens blaring outside. "I am armed. If you attempt to enter this room, I will shoot you. The police are on their way. If you chose to stay, this won't end well for you." He was quiet, but she didn't hear him leaving. "Don't do it, Heath!"
Just then, the door was knocked open. The force of it took part of the frame down. Scully jumped back, surprised, and fired on the man who came through. He was looking around wildly, ready to fire his gun at the first person he saw. Scully hit him in the chest, a strong cluster near his heart, and he dropped almost immediately. His gun bounced a few feet away.
Katie started screaming in the bathroom. Scully tucked her gun into her pants and stepped around the body. "Let me in, Katie. It's me. It's Dr. Scully."
The door opened and Scully walked in, blocking the girl's view of the body. She stroked her face, doing her best to calm her. "Hey, hey, it's okay. Look at me. It's okay now. I'm not going to let him hurt you, okay? I'm not going to let anything happen to you."
"Is he… dead?"
Scully looked back, regretting the youth in the face of the man she had killed. "Yes," she responded softly. "Yes… he's dead."
She surrendered her gun to the police officers who rushed upstairs. Hector was among them. He helped her escort Katie outside. Scully stayed with her, one arm secure around her shoulders, until her father, Parker, drove up. He was a little over six feet tall, built like a tank with hands the size of softballs. When he got his arms around his daughter, his expression became dangerous.
"Where is this bastard?" he demanded.
"He's dead," Scully provided, getting a hard look from Hector, who was preparing to write down her statement. "I shot him four times."
Parker blew a hard breath through his nostrils. "Good."
Scully nodded, placing her hand on Katie's back once more before she went to join Hector. She sat in the back of an ambulance, constantly swatting away the hands of EMTs who insisted they get a look at the scrape on her shoulder. Part of the doorframe had whacked her on the way down. She had little patience for them. She didn't feel it, anyway. Her body was too wired.
"How did you know to come here?" Hector asked her. He had his pen and paper out. He was as respectful as he had always been in her office – his boys had fallen under her care after having a nasty encounter with a wasps' nest. He was one of the kindest people she knew in Wayfield.
She had no solid answer for that question. "You know the first part of the story. I saw someone following Katie this morning, and when I asked her about it, she admitted that someone had been stalking her – an ex-boyfriend. I just had this bad feeling."
"Me too," Hector said, jotting her words down. "When Danny didn't respond…"
"I'm sorry he died," Scully said. It was beginning to turn into a circus in front of the Whitehead residence. Every cop in the town was there, responding to the ominous call of an officer down. She hated to see the pain in their eyes. She looked up to watch the body being carried out. Officers started taking off their hats and staring at the ground.
Hector looked up, too, sighing. "He was just a kid. Danny was, what, two years out of the academy? He transferred from Houston, of all places."
Scully finished her statement – every grueling detail she could remember – and then called Iden to make sure she was doing alright on her own. Once she was satisfied that her little charge was safe, she volunteered to hang around and act out the encounter with Hector. He wrote everything down, grateful for the help. It was almost six in the morning when the police cars finally started pulling away. Scully came back outside, watching them tow the white car.
"She might have died, if you hadn't intervened," Hector said. He came up to her side, watching the car bob down the driveway. "She said she thought he might be suicidal. If we had rolled up, sirens going, he might have done something drastic."
Scully looked back at the house. "When can they come back home?"
"We called in a crew from Richmond to clean up the scene. It should take a few days." He looked sideways at her. "Honestly, you're the bravest person I know."
"This used to be my job," she said.
"Of course, the chief is going to want to chew you out for getting involved in police business," Hector huffed. "But you know that's just a formality to discourage vigilantes. What you did here was absolutely called for."
Scully started a slow walk back to her car, still pursued by the officer. "Why do I feel so guilty, then?" she wondered, almost to herself.
"You shouldn't," Hector insisted. He opened her door for her, still hovering while she started the car. "Hey, listen, if you need somebody to talk to about all this, don't hesitate to call me on my cell. You were always there when I had questions about Sarah."
Sarah was his youngest child, born on the day that his wife died. "Thanks, Hector," Scully responded, smiling when he finally got out of the way. She rolled down her window. "Do you happen to know which hotel the Whiteheads went to?"
She drove silently, her mind focusing on everything and nothing at the same time. She had shot someone today. She had saved the life of a young girl, but she had also shot someone. There was dark symmetry in that. Where were his parents at? Who would the morgue call when his bullet-riddled body rolled onto the autopsy table? Who would shrink back in horror as they came in to identify his surprised face?
She was faced with the kinds of questions she had always faced in the FBI, but they were heavier now that she was older. She no longer had the protection of the department, or the sanctuary of paperwork. She was alone with her thoughts, always.
She pulled up to a rundown hotel on the edge of the highway. It was situated awkwardly between the mountains and the plateau that was Wayfield. It barely got any business, and Scully had heard rumors of it being populated by passing criminals, prostitutes, and vampires – the last one, of course, being a theory of Mulder's. It was also a very cheap place to sleep when you had nowhere else to go. Parker Whitehead chose it because he was not dancing beneath the money tree.
She knocked on their door. "Katie? Mr. Whitehead? It's Dr. Scully."
It opened almost immediately. Parker stood before her, looking just as grim and dangerous as he had when he had come to get his daughter. He stepped out with her, cracking the door. "Katie is sleeping," he informed her, glancing up and down the walkway.
She looked around him, seeing the teenager snoozing on the couch in the back of the room. She smiled, glad she looked at least a little peaceful. "How is she doing?"
Parker sighed. "She's scared, but it could be much worse." He cleared his throat, dropping his tough dad act for a split second. "You saved her life tonight, Dr. Scully. I can't even express… If I had lost her… you didn't have to… if you need anything…"
"I was just coming to invite you to stay at my house until this all gets settled," Scully said, cutting off his sad chain of sentences. She put her hand on his shoulder. "I think it would be a nice place for Katie, and I could keep an eye on her while you work."
He scratched his head, which he always kept clean-shaved. "I can't accept that. It's too much."
"I insist," Scully said. "Katie deserves to feel safe."
"What about your husband? Is this okay with him?"
"He's… out of town at the moment. We have an extra bedroom, and a couch. You two would fit right in. Please. I wouldn't feel right leaving you in this hotel after all you've both been through."
He drew in a heavy breath, and then he looked back at his daughter. His expression was sad. It was the look Scully wore when she came within inches of losing Mulder. It was the look Mulder wore when he came within inches of losing her. It was the ghostly feeling of having the most important part of life almost torn away.
"I'll bring her down that way when she wakes up."
Scully nodded, her hand sliding off of his shoulder. She could feel him watching her from the window as she loaded up in her car.
She made it back to the house at seven. Iden was staring at her through the window as she approached, and Frankie burst through the doggy door, doing laps around her. Scully waved at the little girl, unable to produce a smile for her.
"What happened?" Iden asked as soon as Scully stepped inside. "Is she dead?"
Scully kicked off her shoes, groaning when her feet began to ache. She trudged toward the bathroom. "No, Katie is fine."
"Oh. Are you okay?"
"No," Scully responded. She dropped her coat in the hall and turned on the shower. She looked at herself in the mirror. She had miraculously avoided getting blood on her at the scene, but she still felt like she was covered in it. Metaphorically.
Iden waited in the doorway. "What happened?" she repeated.
"I… She was in trouble when I found her, but I saved her," Scully said, wondering how to explain what she had done to a nine-year-old. "I… I got the guy who was trying to hurt her."
Iden was frowning. "I know."
"What do you mean?"
"I saw you kill the bad guy in my dreams. You shot him."
Scully leaned over the sink, groaning again. Her back was burning now. "Iden… forget about that. Just think about Katie, okay? She's fine. Your vision… it helped me save her life." Scully looked up suddenly, surprised by her own words. "You saved her life."
Iden shifted around, unsure about the situation. "Can we go to bed now?"
"How long have you been up?"
"Since five."
Scully adjusted the temperature in the shower, shooing the little girl so she could get undressed. "Let me shower first. If Katie comes to the door with her dad, let them in."
"Okay!"
When she was clean, and her hair was dried, and the house was glowing with the warm morning sun, Scully realized she could finally rest. She spent a little while in the windowsill, calling the house that Mulder was staying in over and over again and getting no answer. She welcomed her new guests, spent twenty minutes arguing with Iden about why she should have to go to school that day, and then crashed in the middle of the afternoon, curling up in her bed and locking the world out. She was occasionally awakened by the sound of the girls giggling outside, or Parker flipping through the television in the living room, but it was otherwise silent.
Her dreams went back to Mulder, and though it had only been a few days since she had slept beside him last, she longed for his return. She wanted him to explain what had happened to her. She wanted to share her sudden belief in psychic abilities, and get some reassurance about her sanity.
She wanted to lay against his shoulder, his protective eyes on her, and listen to his heartbeat until she awakened. But her bed was empty, and her mind was free to run wild.