Something is wrong with Scully. Bad wrong, I think. I can't figure out what it might be. I don't think it's physical, she seems healthy enough. I was worried that she might have caught something from her roommate But there's no symptoms: coughing, sneezing, sudden trips to the restroom for either possible reason.
It isn't work. Things have been going as smoothly as they're ever likely to go with the kind of cases we have, but she doesn't seem to be really involved in it lately. She's just going through the motions, and that is not like her. She seems distracted half the time, like her mind was a million miles away.
Shit, maybe it is work. The kind of work we do isn't really the kind you can just leave at the office. I think everyone who enters the Bureau realizes that, in time. Sometimes it takes over completely till there isn't anything that is completely outside the job. Everthing, and everyone, is touched and colored by what we do, what we see. A lot of agents can't take that, and they burn out. I think maybe that's what's happening to Dana.
I can hear you now. "None of your business." It is my business--I'm her partner, and our lives often depend on our intimate knowlege of each other. Scully is keeping something from me.
I hate that.
She should know by now that I can't resist a mystery. If she'd just tell me what it was I could probably dismiss it. I could commisserate on whatever, offer a shoulder for leaning or crying, and that would be that. But no, she has to be secretive. Yes, that's not too strong a word. She's secretive. It's almost like a challenge has been thrown down. Who am I to ignore it?
I'm an FBI agent, right? Gathering information, finding out, is my job.
She won't discuss what's going on in her life outside work, so I asked her to grab dinner. She declined, saying she was tired. Understandable. I asked about lunch the next day, but she had to run home. She's been doing that a lot lately. "Why?"
"I just do, Mulder."
"Hardly an answer, Scully."
"If you must know, I'm sick of fast food, and I forgot to pack a lunch."
I decide to be shameless. "You could invite me."
She stares at me. "Free still isn't well enough for visitors."
"Still? Scully, maybe that woman should be in a hospital."
"It's nothing really threatening, it's just hanging on longer than I expected. I can take care of it."
"Well, she could stay in the bedroom." Dana smiles then, and it's... odd.
"She's been pretty much staying in the bedroom all the time lately. But some other time, Mulder."
If I judge correctly the roommate, Free, has been pretty sick now for well over a week. I'm of the opinion that if you're too sick to work or see people for over three days, you ought to be in a medical care facility. Dana has hectored my butt into the emergency room for what I consider to be less cause.
Is there something really wrong with her? If so, why would Dana be reluctant to discuss it? I'd think that more opinions would mean more options for help.
The more I think about it, the more I begin to believe that the roommate is the key to all this. But Dana won't talk about her, except to repeat that she's not well enough to see anyone. Or speak to anyone.
So I decide to snoop around a bit. Big surprise, huh? I go to Free's place of business. Well, her place of employment. Typical convenience store. Grubbier than some. A harassed looking woman is instructing a tall, skinny youth in the operation of a cash register. She scowls when I show her my ID. "What, another one of you? What now, you gonna tell me Paulie here is wanted for terrorism, and I gotta give him up?"
I don't smile, looking at him intently. "Is he?" He turns slightly green. Haven't lost my touch. "I'd like to speak to you about one of your employees. Her name is Free..."
"Does she wanna come back?" The woman is so eager she steps on the tail of my sentence. "Look, tell her if she comes back she can have assistant manager. That'll be a raise, and a weekend off each month."
Somehow I don't think that would be such a good bargain for the exertions they would probably want in exchange. "I wasn't aware that she wasn't here anymore."
"Oh, yeah. At first she was just out sick. We don't got paid sick leave, of course..." *of course* "I mean, she could have just come in and worked the register. But that roommate of hers came by and told me she was getting time off. Practically threatened to sue me." Sounded like Scully.
"So, when did she quit?"
"The next day. Can you believe it? No warning. I had to work a double shift."
"She came in? I thought she hasn't been able to leave the house."
"No, she didn't come in. It was that roommate again. Marched in and said Free didn't work here anymore. She quit, mail her paycheck. No notice. I don't care what the damn regulations say, they ought to dock her for that."
"Let me be clear on this. The roommate, what does she look like?"
The manager blew out her lips. "Little. Red hair, real red. Lots of freckles."
"You're sure?"
"Hell yeah, she hung around all the time on Free's shift."
"If you weren't here, how would you know?"
"Security tapes."
"I'd like to see them."
"Why?"
"You know, the ATF is considering another sting operations soon, and they're looking for suggestions of areas to target..." I find myself sitting in a cramped back room with a VCR, a moniter, and a stack of video tapes.
The manager lingers in the doorway behind me as I start to view the tapes. This is the first time I've actually seen Free. She's a pleasant enough looking woman. She seems tired in most of the tapes, though. That must be because she so seldom seems to stop moving. Aside from brief, very brief, breaks she's constantly cleaning, stocking, or serving customers. I have a suspicion of how much she was paid, and I don't blame her for quitting.
Dana is there, all right. She's there a lot. They seem at ease with each other, friends. The woman will occasionally touch Scully in passing, a pat on the arm, or back. This is different. Scully isn't a touchy-feely sort of person. But I see no distaste, no tension, no attempt to politely deflect the contact. In fact...
Is it my imagination, or is she deliberately putting herself close to the woman? There are definitely times when she gets to the point where most people would consider it an invasion of personal space. Free doesn't pull away, placidly continuing with whatever she's doing.
In one of the last tapes, one that must have been made just before Free moved in, they are at the counter. The security camera is focused on that spot. The customer side of the counter is in the foreground, the clerk area disapprears into the background. It is one of the rare truly quiet moments on any of the tapes.
Dana leans on her side of the counter, Free leans on the other. Free is studying a newspaper. Even with the less than crystal clear picture, I can see that she has been marking off ads on the page. They speak, and I wish that these cheap security systems had sound. After a moment she gets a piece of paper, and obviously copies something down as Dana speaks. There is another brief conversation. Free gives Dana a rather winsome smile, and Dana heads for the door.
Free turns back toward the camera, moving back out of range. Just at the edge of the camera's scope, Dana pauses, her hand on the door, and looks back. She is looking after the other woman, there is no other object that might draw her attention there. And she has a look on her face... Then she goes out.
I rewind the tape and replay that one section. Then I do it again. Finally I freeze the frame, and put my face very close to the screen, studying it. What is in that expression? I want a closer look, but the tape is fuzzy from being recorded over again and again. Still, there are certain people who can probably help me with this. "I'll be taking this with me."
The manager shrugs. "Suit yourself. There wasn't a robbery or shoplifting on it, so we can spare it." She slips it in a paper bag for me, and follows me out to the front. As I'm leaving, she says, "You know, I don't know what Free told that roommate of hers, but this job is not a fate worse than death."
"What makes you use that term?"
"Well, the red head said she'd shoot Free before she let her come back. I think that's a little extreme, don't you?"
"I dunno. I haven't seen this place at peak rush hour."
Another peculiarity. Threats are not Scully's style. I can't imagine what would make her feel strongly enough to do that. It was unprofessional. That's one of the most dire insults you can use, in Scully's opinion.
Yes, the relationship with the roommate seems to be the key. It's not spoken of, but I know of Dana's... preferences. I know about Rene, and others. It didn't surprise me when she took a roommate. It doesn't shock me to think that they might be romantically and sexually involved. But...
I compare them mentally. Scully is half a head shorter than Free, slender where the other woman is substantial. I think about Dana's secretiveness, her increasing isolation, her absorbtion with her roommate...
I'm afraid my partner may be involved in a manipulative, if not abusive, domestic relationship. I have to find out, before she's hurt.
