Title: Healing Author: Trixie Email:scullymulder1121@hotmail.com Category: V Archive: Anywhere, just keep my name & email attached Spoilers: Emily. Summary: Uhhhhhhhhhhhh. . . Bill Scully's thoughts, during a 'missing' scene from the episode. . . .? Feedback. Please? Writer will beg for feedback. 'Healing' He’s in love with her, I think. I can’t be sure. I won’t let myself examine things, further than I already have. It’s already stretched my sanity, to the point of snapping, just having him in my home, these past couple days. Strides into Dana’s life, like he has a right to be there. Like he isn’t responsible, for her almost losing it. For this child, that it’s killing Dana to lose, right now, that she holds, refusing to release, even after she’s died. Like he isn’t responsible for killing Melissa. Bastard. Stupid, sorry, son of a bitch. Mom sits behind Dana, afraid to touch her, to disturb her. And where is he? On the other side of the bed. Sitting in a chair, his hand resting on top of the kid’s head. Emily. Dana’s daughter. Touching her, his eyes filled with tears, face contorted, like that of a grieving father. Yea, right. Like he has any right to grieve. It’s Dana’s loss, not his. Although how it’s effecting her, this deeply, I’ll never know. She barely knew the kid. And yet. . . she can’t let go. The machines stopped, nearly an hour ago. And still, she hasn’t released her, hasn’t found it inside herself to let go. We all came in, after the Doctors told us she was gone. Dana barely seemed to notice. She hasn’t cried yet. That’s something about my baby sister, not everyone understands. Just because she isn’t crying, doesn’t mean she isn’t feeling. We’ve never blubbered, we Scully’s. We never believed Dad would have stood for it. And that’s all Dana’s doing now. Refraining from displays of unnecessary emotion. Being a good little trooper. A good little soldier. But sometimes. . . Sometimes, I knew Dana wanted to let go. That she wanted to curl up into a ball, and cry, when something hurt her. When she got dumped, for the first time, when she was seventeen. Letting her lower lip tremble, and a few tears spill, when her puppy was hit, when she was twelve. Letting go, after Dad died. At the funeral, she never shed a tear. She just stood there, stoic and upstanding, as she’s always been. As I look back on it, I don’t think Dad would’ve minded the display. I don’t think he would’ve minded her letting go, cleansing herself by crying. Maybe it would’ve healed her. Imagine that, Dana Katherine Scully, experiencing the cleansing release of tears. Never. She’s too good for that. Too strong. And it’s only gotten worse since she started working with Him. Mulder. His name’s like a curse to me. A plague, that’s seeped into every facet of my life, infested it, rotted it. He made a light, go out of Dana’s eyes. He’s distanced her, from the family. Dana swears it was her choice, nothing to do with him, that it’s her life, and none of my God damn business. I think she’s in love with him, too. God knows I *certainly* can’t let myself contemplate that one. Nor can I understand it. I look at him, and I see a loser. And obsessed, driven, insane, loser. She looks at him, and sees some kind of tarnished hero. A white knight, with a few dents in his armor. I know she sees the insanity. How could you miss it? But she doesn’t fear it, like a normal person would. Hell no. She embraces it. Stands beside it. Respects it. Defends it. Believes in it. How can you have faith, in insanity? He’s moving now, reaching his hand over Emily, to Dana. It lands on her shoulder, and for the first time, I see her look up, her eyes meeting his. What is so fucking special about him, that she’ll react, to *his* touch, and not Mom’s? Not mine. I feel my hand enclosed, by a much smaller, but far more steady, one. I look down slightly, Tara’s gentle presence infesting my soul. I offer her a tight smile, squeezing her hand back. My wife, so small, but so strong. She’s kept me from killing Mulder, a thousand times now. I will never be able to repay her that debt. Because I know, if I actually killed him, Dana’d come after me, with a ferocity of a mother, protecting her young. It’s a sad state of affairs, indeed, when a man knows his sister would choose another man over him. "Scully." That’s another thing. He can’t even call her by her first name. It’s Scully this, and Scully that. Sure, he tries to cover. He calls her Dana, when he’s speaking to others about her. When he’s speaking to me, as rare as that occasion is. But when speaking directly to her, it’s always Scully. Just like he’s always Mulder to her. Fuck, she instructed both Mom, Tara, and me, to call him Mulder, years before I’d ever laid eyes on him. "Scully." Again. Softer this time. I almost didn’t hear it. Wouldn’t have, if I hadn’t been watching the scene before me, so intently. There’s genuine agony in his voice. Sympathy. Love. I ignore it, safe, secure in my beliefs. Mulder is bad. He doesn’t deserve to have my baby sister in his life. Doesn’t deserve to have her look at him, with those eyes she has, to smile at him, to save his ass, to give a shit about him. He doesn’t deserve any of it. "Scully, look at me." The voice is firm, as he rises, and moves, moving past Mom. Who the fuck does he think he is? Pushing Dana’s mother out of the way, so he can. . . . what? Tell her she has to let go of her dead daughter, so she can help him chase little green men, prove to the world he isn’t as insane, as everyone knows he is? Not my sister buddy. But before I can do anything, Mom has moved, letting him pass her, easily, looking almost grateful for his interference. Dana’s face is away from him, still focused on Emily. Eyes closed, I could almost deceive myself into believing she’s only sleeping. But I know better. We all do. Mulder leans over her, his position such, that I can see both their eyes. He moves further, almost, but not quite, obscuring his gaze from my vision, his entire being focused on Dana. "Scully," he whispers again, his hand returning to her shoulder, a million things I can’t begin to hear, or understand, spoken with the two syllables of the name, he calls her by. "Scully, you have to let her go." "I can’t. Mulder, I can’t." I feel my heart seize, then stop, inside my chest. I’ve never heard that much pain, that much hopelessness, in my sister’s voice. My heart goes out to her, so much, that I barely even feel the sting, that she responded to his voice, when she wouldn’t to mine, or Mom’s. "You have to," he tells her firmly, so firmly, I find myself agreeing with him. "But Mulder, how can I leave her?" she asks, and I hear the pleading, the desperation, in her voice. "How can I leave my daughter?" How can she leave her daughter? It’s as simple as that. How can she? I couldn’t. I look down at Tara’s over-extended middle. If it were my child, I’d be bawling like a baby, clutching he or she tightly. Dana’s stronger than I am though. She had released Emily, shortly after the girl died. She’s just been lying there, facing her, watching her, almost as though willing life back into the little body. And then, Mulder does the damnedest thing. He moves a hand to her chin, and forcibly turns her head, to look up at him. I can only see their profiles now. I expect her to hit him, for daring to turn her head. Instead, she just stares at him, silently, almost waiting for him to give her permission to react. "She isn’t here anymore, Scully," he tells her, his voice quiet, intense, so much so, that once again, I’m inclined to believe him. Jesus, is that how she’s drawn into his delusions? Does he hypnotize her with his voice. "She isn’t here anymore," he repeats again, his eyes flickering to the lifeless little body, beside Scully. Her eyes follow his line of vision, focusing once again on Emily. I am almost shocked to see her lower lip tremble, ever so slightly, her face beginning to contort in pain. "She’s here," he continues, still quiet, still intense, a wealth of emotion, and affection for her, in his voice, as he moves a hand to her chest, placing his palm over her heart. "And here," he adds, running the same hand to her temple, placing two fingers there, gently, almost as though taking her pulse. Dana’s breath hitches for a moment, and I see her eyes well up with tears. Still, she doesn’t allow them to spill over. Still, she persists in being strong, in not letting go. "It’s time to go Scully," he whispers, and I watch her control slip just a little bit more, his fingers staying at her temple, just barely stroking. "It’s time for you to leave this behind, and live your life, with her inside you. Not here, but with you. Always with you." And she cracks. The first tear spills down her cheek, then another, then another. And he’s helping her sit up, sitting on the end of the bed, pulling her against him, her head on his shoulder, his hand stroking her hair, while she cries. Dana, my little sister, who’s never cried, not since she was eight years old, not in front of me, at any rate, begins softly, quietly crying, just holding him, the cries soon turning to sobs, then disappearing all together, the tears, just flowing, constantly. As I watch him hold her, I feel the jealousy begin. The hate. The contempt. He’s responsible for so much pain. So much death. And she loves him more. She chooses him, to be the one she lets her defenses down with, the one she clings to. The one she heals with. And then I push it away. I make myself forget who she’s letting hold her, who she’s letting be with her, who she’s healing with. I focus on the fact that my baby sister, is healing. ~~~~ END