Chapter 21
Accountability
by Pam Gamble

The bullet whizzed by Scully's ear, materializing
again in Cancer Man's chest. Fresh blood mixed with
old in a morbid geyser, causing his skin to pale
noticeably as he fell back against the wall.

His gun dove from his hand, tired bones sliding down
the wall as life rapidly drained from him. His eyes
flashed weakly, questioningly, to Mulder, then Scully,
guns warily raised once again.

Standing sideways, one eye on the fated corpse before
him, Mulder turned to identify the source of the shot.

Scully wasn't startled by the voice that emanated from
the hallway. But then, nothing startled her anymore.

Mulder's jaw, however, was close to scraping the floor
as his sister stepped from the darkness, leading with
her gun.

"Amanda?" gasped the thready voice from the floor.

Amanda looked down for only a moment at the body of
her husband on the floor, keeping her gun trained low
and straight. Her voice was at once empty and filled
with hatred.

"David told me what you did. What you made him do."
She choked back tears. "He was wrong, I know that, but
he did what he did to protect me, us. I believe that.
He did it because he loved me." She stepped closer.
"You never loved me." She pulled back on the trigger
slightly. "You took me from my family. You took my
husband. You lied to him like you lied to me." 

Tears broke free, streaming down her face. Mulder had
lowered his weapon to his side, Scully uncertainly did
the same, ready in an instant to finish what Amanda
had started.

"You took my baby. Were you going to keep her too? Lie
to her? Or..." Her body was shaking so badly Mulder
didn't know what would happen if she were startled. 

"Amanda", he whispered softly. "Put the gun down."

"David taught me to shoot, told me I'd need to protect
myself." Her face crumpled. "But I never thought I
would have to protect myself from my own father." She
let out a low whine as her knees hit the floor before
him. "I loved you."

Blood coursed from his chest, and Scully found she had
absolutely no desire to stanch the flow this time. She
quietly reached into her pocket for her phone,
requesting an ambulance. Two bodies. No rush.

A frail hand reached out. A hand which had once
controlled so much, which had taken so many lives, in
its last moments trying to grasp the instrument of its
destruction, the one thing it may actually have been
able to love.

"Amanda..."

And in the end, she would take that away from him too.

Mulder willed him to hear her strong, deliberate,
words, before beginning his descent into hell. 

"My name is Samantha."



EPILOGUE: Perfect

Three months later


He knocked.

A superfluous action, serving only to announce his
arrival.

He'd been out of town for eight days on a VCS consult,
while she'd stayed behind to run the office and have
her way with a few cadavers. Yesterday on the phone
she had even conceded her "time as a universal
invariant" theory, as she was sure this week had
lasted a year.

He'd missed her so much there were no words. Luckily,
they wouldn't be needing those for awhile.

When the door creaked open he could do nothing but
exhale loudly.  his body screamed. .

"Hi," she purred, all wicked innocence.

"Hello," he panted, and in one step was inside,
slamming the door into the frame and her body into the
door. A teenager at the end of the school dance,
overwhelmed with hormones and heat.

Her hands sunk into his skin, kneading him like a
kitten. Her lips hummed over him, happy little noises
as she consumed his smell, his texture, his taste.

"God, I...missed...oh, god, Scully." Her fingers were
blindly wrestling with his belt buckle, and he yanked
her hair back as her hand made contact through the
interfering fabric. Wild eyes met, and he decided the
words could wait.

He'd just become dreamily aware of her foot trailing
up and down his leg, when a tiny sound resonated
through her body.

Knocking.

Door.

Shit.

Scully's eyes flew to his. She shook her head, resting
a finger against his lips. Maybe they would go away. 

They didn't knock again.

They pounded.

Heaving a disgusted sigh, Scully pressed her hands to
his chest, pushing him firmly away. She twisted until
she was eye-level with the peephole.

Never one to let opportunity escape him, Mulder
pounced on her neck, sucking and biting and burying
his face in her hair. He felt her body stiffen as she
reached behind her, patting her waist, realized she
was looking for the gun that wasn't there.

His arousal dissipating like a spring rain, he quickly
took his own weapon from its holster and placed it in
her hand. She motioned for him to look, and he
realized what had panicked her.

Nothing.

He couldn't see anything. Just hallway. Whoever it was
must have been waiting for them around the corner,
pressed up against the wall, ready to move when the
door opened.

Fighting his alpha-male instinct, he moved back as she
slowly turned the doorknob, gun raised to shoulder
level.

His heart thudding with fear and residual lust, he
backed across the room to retrieve her weapon from the
endtable. Frantically, he tried to remember if he'd
been shadowed in the parking lot. Would he have even
noticed in his condition?

"Hi!"

In an instant he was behind her, snatching the gun
from her hand. An embarrassed smile crept across his
face as both of their faces tilted downward. 

"Hello, Lauren." Scully slumped back against him in
amused relief, looking up and down the hallway.
"Where's your mom?"

Scully knew where she wasn't--in jail. When you have
two FBI agents attest that a shooting was in
self-defense, no one asks too many questions.

"She's coming. She told me to wait until she got here,
but I knew this was the right number." The child was
beaming, impressed with her own ingenuity.

"Lauren!" Samantha hurried down the hallway, Jason in
tow, wearing the bored-with-life expression common to
most 10-year-old boys. "Didn't I tell you to wait for
me?"

"Yes!" she announced, thrilled to supply the right
answer.

Jason thunked his sister playfully on the head. "You
gotta listen to mom, pipsqueak," he said sternly.

"I do listen to mom, buttmunch!"

Jason's arm reached behind his mom to whack his sister
on the butt. She turned to stick out her tongue, then
glanced back to the two startled adults still hanging
out of the doorway. 

One grin and Mulder felt his heart burst.

"Enough!" whispered Sam. The two kids called a
temporary truce, but promised each other with their
eyes that this matter would be settled at a later,
more appropriate time. Possibly with a pillow fight.

The authority in her voice turned to hesitation.
"Well, now that we've completely invaded your space, I
was actually just in the neighborhood, and thought I'd
stop by to see if you wanted to join us for dinner.
Nothing fancy, just pizza...unless you already had
plans?"

Scully blinked, her mind trying to assimilate the
barrage of sensory input. Children fighting, dinner
invitation, Mulder's hands in warm and inviting
places. Overload. She turned to him, the light in his
eyes answering the question for her.

"We'd love that."

"Great! We'll wait downstairs. Come on guys."

"Actually, why don't you come in and we'll order
takeout?"

"Oh. I, well, are you sure?"

With whoops of victory the two kids disappeared into
the darkness of the room, plopping down in front of
the TV. Mulder watched them, making frantic mental
notes of things he would need to hide if this was
going to become a frequent occurrence.

He stood by his sister as Scully circuited the room,
turning on lights and relocating breakables with the
grace of a seasoned pro.  Finally, she picked up her gun and
motioned for Mulder's, removing the bullets and
carrying them both towards the bedroom.

"How are you doing?" he asked quietly.

"I'm okay, most of the time. My therapist is great."

He nodded. "So, you were in the neighborhood?"

Sam nodded. "David bought the van from a dealer down
here, and there was a recall on some electrical
doo-flotchy. Didn't take too long."

He grinned at her. "Is that the technical term?
Doo-flotchy?"

Her eyes shone. "I believe it is, yes."

"Don't let him fool you, Sam," Scully warned as she
returned to join them. "The only thing he knows about
cars is how to change the radio station."

He smirked at her. "Are you challenging my manhood,
Scully?"

Any witty remark she came up with was lost forever to
the sound of splashing from across the room. All three
adults looked up to see Lauren up to her elbows in the
fishtank.

"Lauren, stop pestering the fish," Samantha ordered as
she quickly closed the distance between herself and
little Jacques Cousteau.

Mulder's hand slunk around Scully's waist. He could
feel the longing that tightened her chest. They had to
talk about this. Soon, if this was something she
really wanted. 

But there would be other nights for that.

"Sorry about tonight," she whispered, clutching his
fingers within her own.

He smiled into her hair. "No," he said, squeezing her
tightly back against him. They watched in amusement as
Sam settled Lauren back onto the sofa. Jason had found
Mulder's basketball, and was dribbling away on the
hardwood floors. A steady rhythmic thud slowing
pounding hearts to 4/4 time. 



"No." He ducked to kiss her neck. "This is perfect."

The End 


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