Subject: New "Sixty" SR, Angst++++, MSR From: Dawson Rambo Date: Tue, 22 Jul 1997 05:10:39 -0700 "Sixty" By Dawson E. Rambo Disclaimer : Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, Walter Skinner and any other tangentially mentioned characters created by Chris Carter remain his copyrighted property, the property of 1013 Productions, and the property of Fox Television, a unit of 20th Century Fox, Inc. No infringement of any copyright is intended. Characters created by the author remain his property. Original Post : July 20, 1997 Archive Entry : "Sixty" Classification : SRA+ Rating : PG-13 (Adult themes) Archive : Any public accessible server. Missing Parts : http://www.azstarnet.com/~drambo Feedback : All feedback (good or bad) to: drambo@azstarnet.com Mailing List : Email to drambo@azstarnet.com with subject SUBSCRIBE. Notes : None Casting : Wallace Shawn, "Dr. Myers." Timeline : Indeterminate, but assume that the season ender didn't actually "happen." Summary : Mulder at Scully's deathbead. Note : This story was originally intended to cover the last sixty seconds of Scully's life. That much is still going to occur, but I decided that a bit of backstory and what filmmakers call "coverage" was needed in order for this to make any sense. WARNING: >>>SEVERE<<< Angst ahead. Character dies. -1- Johns Hopkins Medical Center Tired, he thought. So damn tired. Mulder could barely lift his head from the bed. When he did, his gaze caught hers, and she smiled as warmly as she was able. The face that stared back at him didn't resemble the face he had come to know over the last almost-five years much at all. Her eyes were sunken, her skin sallow and parched-looking. The sickness, combined with the aggressive radiation and chemotherapy had caused her gums to recede, loosening some of her teeth. Her lips were dry and cracked. Only her eyes remained. Those azure, ice-chip-blue eyes stared back at him from her cancer-ravaged face. For the past four days, they had been the only means with which to communicate with her; the tumor had long since pushed through the bone protecting her brain and had attacked her speech centers. At first nothing more than a combination of a stutter and a slur, before long she had found it difficult to form words, and then the gift of speech had left her abruptly in the middle of a word, the middle of a thought, and, typically enough, in the middle of an argument with him. In the middle of his preparations for the crushing grief he knew would soon be upon him, Mulder had never stopped to think that there might be a time when she would be with him, technically alive, but that he would be unable to hear her voice. And so the last four days had been harder than the months that had preceded it. Skinner, for all his countless, dwelled-upon faults, had somehow known, had somehow understood, and had granted Mulder what amounted to an endless paid leave of absence. Mulder had been chagrined to find out that Skinner had filed it under the same classification of leave that a husband received for a dying wife. Dying. The word still tasted so strange in his mouth. Even with the evidence before him, directly before him, Mulder found it close to impossible to accept that Scully was dying, that her life was coming to an end. An end. The word was so final, so ultimate. No do-overs, as Sam would have said. Samantha. He smiled at Scully, the need for talking to her long since gone. He would have liked for them to have met. Not for the reason that Scully would have suspected, the ultimate in I-told-you-so one-upmanship, but for the simple human need to have one of the most important women in life meet the other most important woman in his life. Although, at this moment in time, Mulder would have been hard-pressed to declare which was the most important. Mulder had a sneaking suspicion that if the chain-smoking bastard himself had arrived in the last day or two with a videotape of Samantha reading that day's paper, with the promise of reuniting them if Mulder were only to leave Scully's side, he would have just shot the bastard right between the eyes and continued the vigil. He glanced at his watch. How long had he been by her side? Counting backwards, he realized that he hadn't left Scully in almost eighteen hours. Time seemed to both drag and fly at once. Drag, in the sense that part of Mulder, the selfish, immature part of him, wished that this was over, that the ordeal would end so that grief could begin, so that he could move on to whatever it was that came next, and that Scully could do the same, that she could move on to whatever came next for her. Reuniting with Ahab, with Melissa, finding the inner peace that eluded her for so much of her life. So that her ravaged body could rest for all eternity; no more needles, treatments, chemicals. No more fighting an invader that defied defeat, a silent, invisible killer that had been an uninvited guest in her body. So, Mulder knew, he could get on with the guilt. It was there, looming in the background, waiting to pounce the moment the little green squiggle lines on the cardiac monitor slowly collapsed and went flat. The moment the steady rise and fall of Scully's chest stilled for all time. That's when that particular monster would leap from the shadows and consume him whole. She stirred on the bed and made a motion with her hand. Her forefinger and middle finger pressing against her thumb. Pen, her hand asked. Give me something to write with. He handed her a pen and held a small pad under her hand. She scribbled a word, five characters, the letters jagged with exhaustion and infirmity. Story, it said. Tell me a story, she'd asked. He looked into her eyes and thought that his heart would stop. She smiled at him, a soft, warm smile that he knew she had always reserved just for him. Oh, she smiled at other people. Rarely, but she did. But his smile, the Mulder smile, was such a rare, electric occurrence that he found himself looking forward to them, treasuring them as they happened and thinking back on them after they'd gone. "A story, huh?" he asked. Slowly, painfully, she nodded. Mulder felt his stomach muscles tightening into a knot. The pain was increasing, they told him. The analgesic dosages had been increased to the maximum allowable levels. Soon, the doctors said, soon they would do nothing for her. The pain would transcend medicine's ability to control it, and there would be nothing left for Scully except the pain. And the waiting for it to stop. Mulder shifted on the seat beside the bed, trying to think of a story he had never told her. He decided to make one up. "Do you remember the Samantha clone?" he asked. He looked, and sure enough, her brow creased. She had never accepted that the... being that had claimed to be a clone of his sister. She had been unable to explain it, however, and she had finally told him that she was just going to file it under "Wacky" and forget about it. "Anyway," Mulder continued, "...you do remember the case?" She nodded. "Well, there's something I never told you about that case." Scully's right eyebrow danced, just a little, and Mulder had to look away to hide the shining in his eyes. "I had a dream that night, Scully. A dream about you and me and her. Not that...thing, but the real Samantha. I dreamt that she did come back, and that she had been somewhere, and she had wonderful stories to tell of where she'd been and what she'd seen. She told us of faraway places and people that looked like you and I, and thought like you and I, and wanted to help this world, these people, join the community of worlds that lived between the stars, the places and communities that are just waiting for this world to realize that we are not alone. And that you saw the truth in her words, that she had brought something, some incontrovertible piece of evidence that even your pure scientific mind couldn't find an explanation for." He managed to look at her again. Her eyes closed, her face peaceful, if only for a few moments, the pain forgotten. Mulder heard the reassuring beep of the monitor and sighed. She was asleep. Good. The door opened, and Mulder looked up. Dr. Myers was there, looking grim as usual. He made a motion with his hand, a "C'mere" thing that Mulder understood. Sighing, he stood. Reaching down, he grasped her wrist and squeezed gently. I'll be right back, he thought, and in his mind he heard her voice answering him, the sound of it clear and beautiful. I'll be here. -2- New York City "How much more time can we wait?" a man asked. Another man glanced at him through a cloud of smoke. His voice was soft, apologetic. "It does not matter. Anything we do now will not matter." The first man leaned back, scratching his chin. "Why is that?" "I miscalculated," the second man said, exhaling. "I guessed wrong." "And now she will die?" The second man nodded. He was sad. There were those that said the emotion of sadness had been surgically removed from him years ago. "That is unacceptable. This will turn the Mulder man into... a crusading liability. He has nothing to hold him back now, nothing to check his actions. He will stop at nothing to uncover the truth." The second man smiled a thin, humorless smile. "Oh, I'm not too sure of that." "What do you mean?" "Mulder's crusade has always had a specific target. Give him what he wants, and he's impotent." "Are you saying-" "Yes. We will return his sister to him. It's always been what he's wanted anyway. Why not-" "Her memories?" "I never said we would give her back alive," the second man pointed out. "Dead women tell no tales?" "Of course, it will look like natural causes." The first man considered this. "Payment in kind? For the loss of your son?" The second man sat upright, crushing his cigarette out. "No one is to speak of that," he whispered. "Ever." The first man shrugged. "It had to be said, sooner or later. How much of this is vendetta, anyway? How many lives have you-" "Always for your protection," the second man pointed out. "Always for the project." "And now the project stands in ruins, the baker's dozen of women proving that it was doomed from the beginning. What do you have to show for half a century of playing God?" Silence. "I thought so. Very well. Return his sister. Alive. Wipe her memories as best you can. By the time he's able to get anything coherent out of her, we will have dismantled the apparatus. He will find nothing, even if she takes him to the places she's been." "But she can identify-" "Who?" "I see your point. When?" "The return?" The first man sighed. "If you must continue to play your little games, then so be it. Return her just before the Scully woman achieves her final reward." "As you wish," the second man said, standing to leave. "As you wish." -3- Johns Hopkins Medical Center "Mr. Mulder," Dr. Myers said softly, "we need to talk. Mrs. Scully is waiting for us in my office." Mulder knew what was coming and flinched. Just like the threat of the guilt that was to come, this subject, too, had been looming for days. Shrugging to himself, Mulder followed the doctor to his office, trying to think ahead, trying to find the words, the arguments to counteract what he knew was coming. Upon entering the office he saw that they had planned for him, that they had been prepared. X-rays and MRIs were scattered around, some pinned the backlighted viewers, others piled neatly on the desk. Mrs. Scully sat in a chair, her eyes far away, eyes rimmed in red from crying. "Fox," she said softly, standing. She moved to him, enveloping him in her arms. The hug was brief, motherly. They parted and sat, the doctor moving behind his desk. "Mrs. Scully asked for this meeting, so I'll let her begin," he said gently, softly. "Fox," she whispered. "Dana...she...." "It's time," Mulder said, nodding. "Time for her to go." Mrs. Scully nodded, relieved that it wasn't going to be the battle she'd feared. "Her brothers?" "Waiting downstairs," Maggie said. "I've spoken with them. They understand that even though you and Dana never..." she left the thought unfinished. "That you are the closest person to her." "Did you show them the letter?" Mulder asked. Maggie Scully nodded. "Yes. Yes I did." The letter. Mulder's eyes lost focus as he jammed a hand into his pocket and fingered the folded piece of paper. He could recite it, word for word: Mom, Charlie, Bill - As I take these last steps towards the door that leads to my eventual reunion with Dad and Melissa, I need you all to know that you have been more than I could have ever hoped for. I can hear the voices of our ancestors calling from beyond, calling me to join them in everlasting life. I do not know what comes next, and contrary to what Mulder would argue until his own dying breath, he doesn't either. I want you all to know that I do not blame him, for he is my best friend, the man I have come to know above all others. I have little memory of what my life was like before him, little knowledge of the person I was before he came into my life. I know that you all will support him, that you will hold him blameless for that which has happened to me, for it was me who made the decision to stay by his side, it was I who joined with him, cleaved to him as a wife might have in other days, other times. It was I who made that decision, not he. And so, I have one final request of you, my family. I will watch over him from whatever world comes next; of that I have no doubt. But in this world, in this time, I ask you to watch over him as well, for he is family to us, to me. He is closer than a brother, closer than a parent, closer even than a lover to me. He is my other half, the part of me that is external yet makes me whole. And so when it is my time to leave, I ask that he be by my side, as family. I love you all, Dana. "...so, it is up to you," Myers was saying. "Excuse me?" Mulder asked, blinking. "I was saying that the only reason Miss Scully is holding on is because of you. We've noticed it in her charts. She weakens when you're not around, but the moment you enter the room, even if she is asleep, her heart beats more strongly, she becomes more aware. It is obvious to us, although medical science is unable to explain it, that you, Mr. Mulder, are keeping Scully alive through the sheer force of your will." Mulder blinked again, not sure that he understood. "I'm sorry?" Maggie Scully jumped in. "What the doctor is saying is that... Dana needs your permission, Fox." "Permission?" "To die." Mulder tried to swallow past the lump in his throat. "I...uh..." "Fox," Maggie said softly. "Dana is suffering. She's in extreme pain. The cancer is inoperable. We've tried every treatment known to man and then some. You've...done everything you can." She paused. "This is my daughter we're talking about, Fox, and I'm asking you...let her go. "Please. Let her go." Mulder looked at the woman who had become a surrogate mother to him, a woman that in another iteration of this universe might have become his mother-in-law. He fingered the vial in his pocket. And remembered. Remembered another letter, given to him by a man he'd never met, a man who had hand-carried it to him, a letter obviously written by Dana. Mulder- My friend, my best friend, one last favor of you before I go. I can ask only you because those that are my blood clan would not be able to find it within themselves to do what I must now plead of you. This is the second half of a binary poison. I have already taken the first part, and it will stay in my system for six to seven months. The second part is in the vial that the man who has handed you this letter will hand to you when you ask him to. And you must ask him, for he will not release it to you unless you do. The second half will cause me to fall asleep, and shortly thereafter, pass on to whatever comes next. All you must do is drip a small amount into my mouth. When my time has come, Mulder, please do this for me if I am suffering. I have no desire to suffer. You have witnessed my living will; please witness my dying wish. I have no idea of what comes after this life, Mulder. I was taught of everlasting life in the kingdom of the Creator. All I know, all I believe is that if I have memories of my Earthly life wherever I am going, I know that I will never forget you, or our time spent together. There is much I wish I had the time to say to you, words that I know you ached to hear, words that I myself ached to say. Memories that I wished to create with you, my friend, memories of a life spent together. Please do not hate me for abandoning you in the middle of our journey. Please do not think badly of me for being weak of body, for I was always strong of heart...for you. I know that it did not seem this way during our time together, but my thoughts were always filled with you, my heart was all but overflowing with you, my friend. I cannot remember what my life was like without you, and I hate that you will have to learn what that is without me. But as long as you remember me, remember us, I will live on forever. Love, Dana "I understand," he'd said then and now, said again. He'd held his hand out and the nameless, faceless man had turned the vial over to him. "Give us a few moments," Maggie said. Dr. Myers nodded and stood, leaving the office to the two of them. After the door clicked closed behind him, Maggie turned to the man she had so deeply hoped would be a part of her family someday, joined through the holy union of marriage. "Fox," she said, scooting closer to him. "Fox...Dana told me that she wanted you...only you...by her side when it was time. I will respect that. Charlie and Bill have decided to respect that as well. Please, give us a few moments to say goodbye, and then..." She couldn't finish. "I understand, Mrs. Scully," Mulder said, his voice dead, his soul even deader. Without a word, Maggie Scully stood and left Mulder alone. -4- Mulder stood in the hallway, waiting for the three of them to leave the room. The tears flowed freely down his face now. It's almost over, Scully, he thought. In a few minutes you'll be at peace, forever. The door opened. Maggie Scully exited, followed by her two sons. Bill stopped in front of Mulder, his eyes tight and rimmed with red. They stared at each other for a long moment. "Mulder," he finally said, and then after a minute, added, "Fox." Mulder closed his eyes, knowing what was coming. He was wrong. "She loved you," Bill choked out. "God knows why, but she did. Let her go, Mulder. Let the pain stop." He reached out and squeezed his sister's partner's shoulder, nodded once, and turned to leave. Charlie was next. "Mr. Mulder, I never knew you that well," he said softly, "but my sister thought the world of you. Thinks the world of you, I mean." Mulder said nothing. "If you love my sister," Charlie said, his voice quavering, "you'll let her go." And then he, too, turned to leave. Mulder felt himself starting to sob and opened his mouth, taking deep, wracking breaths. Mrs. Scully was last, and she held something in her hand. Mulder saw that it was a small velvet-covered box. Reaching out, Maggie took his hand and pulled it to her, placing the box in his palm and closing his fingers around it. "Do you know what a hope chest is, Fox?" She asked. Wordlessly, Mulder nodded. "Dana bought these when she was sixteen. Back then, she had a deep romantic streak." Maggie laughed, her voice hitching through the tears. "That was before she met Marcus. "Anyway...every girl dreams of her wedding, Fox, and Dana, as serious as she was, also had a side of her that was a dreamer. The side that her father used to encourage. She got some money from relatives on her Sweet Sixteen, and she bought these." Mulder opened the box. Two rings, two gold bands, stared back at him. Wedding rings. "She had no idea who she was going to marry, but she liked the idea of having these rings in her hope chest." Maggie took a deep breath, trying to speak past the lump in her throat. "I think...she would want you to have them." Mulder said nothing. He closed the box and stuck it in his pocket, next to the vial. Without a word, he turned and entered the room. -5- She was still there, her eyes closed. Mulder reached behind him and twisted the lock on the door. The room was windowless, stark...barren. Only the bed and the machines that monitored the slowly ebbing life of Dana Scully were in the room. The bed, the machines and...him. As if in a trance, Mulder moved to the side of the bed and looked down. Tenderly, he reached out and smoothed a lock of her hair back behind her ear. Not much hair left, he thought. The radiation had seen to that. He closed his eyes and remembered her hair. The color of fire and spun gold, mixed in with other colors, colors that had no name. Colors that belonged to her, to Dana, shades and hues that were uniquely hers. "Dana," he said softly. Her eyes opened. Weakly, she tried to smile. He pulled the velvet box from his pocket. "Your mother gave me these," he said gently. He took the smaller one out and fingered it, turning it over and over in his hand. He held it up to the light and peered through it. "I know I never said it..." he started, and then stopped. He felt the tears rushing through him, threatening to burst out of his chest with a strangled cry of rage and pain. "Oh, God, Dana!" he gasped. He held his breath, feeling the pain surging in his veins. Letting it out with a shuddering gasp, he tried again. "I know that I never told you...and I know I never showed you... but...God...Dana, I love you so much." The last two words had been spoken between two shuddering gasps of breath. He pulled the chair back to the edge of the bed and sat, dropping the velvet box on the bed. "I know that you don't want me to hate," he started, using the banal speech he'd prepared to gather his strength for what had to be done, what she'd asked him to do. "I know you don't want me to hate the people that did this to you. I know that. I can't promise you that. But I will promise you...I promise you that I will continue our search, our journey to find the truth. I promise that I won't go off half-cocked, that I just won't go looking to get myself killed so I can join you." He paused, still fingering the ring. "I promise that I will keep the lessons you have taught me close to my heart, Dana." He laughed. "That when I hear hoofbeats, I'll think of horses, not zebras." He stood, unable to sit any longer. "I promise that I will look at the world as you taught me to, with the dual vision of scientist and the wide, wonder-filled eyes of a child who never gave up her love of the sea or the mysteries it contains. I promise you that I will never know another like I know you." He stopped, and then began again. "I know...that I will never...love...another as I love you now. As I have always loved you." Holding the ring carefully, Mulder reached down and slipped it onto her left ring finger. Retrieving the box, Mulder removed the other ring. Her eyes were wide, watching him. He slid the ring onto his own finger, and surprising neither of them, it fit. Perfectly. "I will never take this ring off," he said slowly, looking deeply into her eyes. "This is...the last thing that you have given me, and I will cherish it as I will cherish your memory. For the rest of my life." He stopped, and then started again. "Because...in here..." he said, tapping his chest, "...in here, Dana...you are my wife." Leaning down, he kissed her gently on the lips, once. When he straightened, he saw that her lips were moving. He could hear her trying to whisper something. Leaning down, he turned his head, straining to hear. "I love you," Dana Katherine Scully whispered. Mulder straightened. "I know," he said. "I always knew." Taking a deep breath, he let it out in a rush. Looking at her again, he said, "Well...it's time. It's time for you to go, my love." He reached into his pocket and found the small vial. "I got your note," he said, holding up the vial for her to see. Her eyes grew wide for a moment, and then softened in acceptance. "There's so much still to say...still to do," Mulder whispered. "So many things I wanted to..." He faltered, feeling the warm, slick tears sliding down his face. "...I wanted to...hold you...make love with you...I wanted you to be there when the demons left me, so I could come to you whole, complete. There was supposed to be...so much more TIME!" He stepped back, not sure if he could do it, not sure if he could complete this last, final request of hers. "But there's no time," he hurried on. "No more time." He uncapped the vial. "Dana...are you sure?" he asked. Looking into her eyes, he saw her answer. Her head nodded once, and then again, twice. "I'm sorry I couldn't save you," he whispered. "I'm sorry I let you down." Reaching down, Mulder gently pried her lips open and slowly tipped the vial over. A single clear drop hung on the rim for an eternity and then fell, slapping wetly against her lips. Scully licked her lips, closing her eyes. Her hand came up, fingers grasping the air. Mulder took her hand in his own, looking at the wedding rings they both wore. He reached down with his mouth and kissed her fingers, and then felt the fingers of her other hand in his hair, gently stroking. "Go in peace," Mulder said softly. He raised his head. He owed her this. He owed her to be the last image she had of this world. They locked eyes. "Fox," she whispered, her voice clear. Mulder's eyes widened in shock and surprise. He leaned closer, straining to catch every last word. "I'll be waiting," she wheezed. He nodded, unable to speak. "I love you...." she said. And was gone. Her chest rose one last, final time, held for a short eternity, and then fell. The heart monitor made a horrible electronic burp, and then dissolved into a steady annoying whine. Without looking away, Mulder reached over and shut it off. The room was silent. As silent as a tomb, he thought. He held her hand for close to ten minutes, the words to an almost-forgotten ritual coming to his mind unbidden. He said a prayer for her, asking whatever God it was that ruled the stars to look after her, to watch out for her, to keep her safe until it was time for him to join her again. So this is what it's like, he thought. This is what it's like not to have Scully in your life. It was unbearable. His mind was racing, the words coming one on top of the other, nonsensical, endless. Never hear her voice again never see her smile never hear her shoot down one of your inane theories never show her another slide of an spaceship never see her in scrubs after an autopsy never see her giving Skinner an earful never hear her saying "I'm fine" never hear her voice on the other end of the phone never hear "Mulder, it's me" again never able to call her when the dreams come when the pain comes when Samantha comes in the night never never never never. Never. And in his head, he heard it. A collect call, from beyond this life. Her voice, clear as a bell, beautiful as always, the one sound he had come to cherish above all others. Her voice, calling to him. He knew he was not insane, he knew it her, that she was reaching out to him from beyond, sending him a message, saying to him the words he needed to hear. Looking at the ceiling, holding her hand, Mulder hear the three words he thought he'd never hear again. "Mulder...I'm fine." -6- "Thank you," he whispered. Standing, he released her hand, laying it gently against the bed. He looked down at the ring on her finger and twisted it so the correct side was showing. He looked at his own hand, marveling at how the ring fit perfectly. Turning, he walked to the door, unlocking it and opening it. Maggie Scully was in the hallway. Her sons were nowhere to be seen. "She's gone," Mulder said softly. "No, she's not," Maggie said, clutching a hand to her chest. "She'll always be in our hearts, Fox." ------- THE END Feedback to drambo@azstarnet.com --- Dawson E. Rambo | drambo@azstarnet.com | Author & Programmer "Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup." -- bumper sticker