New Breed, 2B
by Genie VB
*
Krycek departed with an angry pounding on the door and
a
wary glance over his shoulder lest another red-headed
beast
latch onto his back to finish the job.
He hadn't wanted to hurt Mulder, not really. Well, part
of him
had. The part that didn't feel anything, the part that
started
just below his left shoulder. The part that reminded
him daily
he was less than whole and it was because of Mulder.
What he'd mostly wanted to do was goad Mulder. Pick at
him,
get it to somehow stick in his head that they were here
for the
long haul just like he was.
Like he himself loved it here. Oh, yeah, regular
Hilton.
It was a prefabricated purgatory but they were all
gonna have
to simmer in it if they wanted to see anything of
humanity
survive.
Already the reports were coming in. Smokey kept them
all informed.
Widespread panic at the hundreds of ships moving across
the
land. Frightened hoardes hiding in their basements from
the
lights in the sky.
'Course, no one but Smokey and the Big Boys had any
access
to topside to see it for themselves. But then, those
who went topside
tended to disappear. They died.
Like almost five billion others were going to in the
next few
months.
The shit storm cometh.
Mulder had the opportunity now to be part of the fight.
Him
and Scully, to live. And their kids, somehow, to
survive.
Isolating them the way they had been forced to was no
way
to gain their trust but Krycek knew Mulder. The man
fought.
Not just against him or Smokey or abducutions or
injustice,
he fought everything. Even good sense.
So Scully was made part of the deal, years ago. Chosen
for him.
Didn't the stupid shit get it yet? Daddy wanted his
Mulder alive and
knew Scully, unknowingly, would help him attain that
end. She
was his gift to his son and she would survive along
with him. Pretty
damn nice gesture if you think about it.
Smokey had arranged it all. Had sacrificed his whole
life to the
Work.
Krycek rubbed his aching jaw. Jesus, what a right that
little ball
of fire possessed. Mulder had himself his own fighter,
his own
protecter. His own goddamn best friend and lover with
him and
he was too stupid to appreciate it.
Few in the mountain could enjoy such status. Few had
been able to
choose. Most had just been paired off.
Krycek hadn't even been given that. He was too valuable
as
he was, in his type of work. His specialty.
Besides, he'd wanted his balls left in peace. That had
been
his gift in exchange for joining the work. His bargain.
No goddamn
needles, no doctors, no drugs, no mother-fucking alien
DNA injected
into him anywhere and especially, not _there_!
***
LATE THAT NIGHT.
They lay side by side, facing each other.
Up until that night, each had, in unspoken agreement,
slept with their
backs turned. It was the only drop of privacy afforded
them in their
four hundred square foot world.
But tonight, each had read the others mind and knew it
was time
to talk. To calculate and weigh the options and make a
plan.
And make a decision.
"I'm glad you're here, Mulder." Scully took his hand,
twined her
fingers in his, not letting go.
She could see the question in his eyes. The fear for
her, too.
The hatred for what was being done to them. The anger
for
all of it. "I didn't...want it to be like this." He
offered. He had
nothing else to give her. No box of chocolates or wine.
Or
walk on the beach. No fireplace to warm them and
encourage
their burning for each other.
"I know, it's okay. I wanted it to be you. Not just
because of
all this. For a long time I wanted it to be you. And
then they
took my ova and..."
Mulder raised her hand to his lips and kissed the back
of it.
Left his mouth there. It would erase nothing. None of
the pain.
It would not make the four walls vanish.
"I'm sorry I shut you out for so long, Mulder."
"It's okay, you were hurting, Scully, I understand."
"No, well, that, yes, I was doing some thinking, some
serious
thinking about all of this, about what we're about to
do..." She
saw his eyes mist at it. He wanted her, it was there in
his
dialated pupils and the steady movement of his chest.
"I meant
for these last few years. Ever since the cancer, ever
since losing
Emily, since losing the ability to have a child of my
own, I
shut you out."
"No, you didn't-"
"Yes, Mulder, I did, even if you didn't see it. I knew,
even though
I loved you. _Love_ you."
His breath caught.
"I love you and I've known that for a long time but I
denied it and
fought it. I blamed you in part."
She saw him swallow painfully. It was breaking
something in him
to hear that but she wanted total openess now. Complete
truth.
Before the next step or that step would be based upon a
lie
and it's foundation would crumble. "But I don't now. I
choose
to stay with you, Mulder. I had lots of opportunities
to go. I stayed
because of _you_. And because of our work. But mostly
you."
"Scully-"
"No, let me have my say. Whatever happens from here on
in, it's
total truth between us and not because it's the right
thing to do,
but because it's the only thing I could live with now.
I won't get
through this if you try to protect me or hide from me,
like you've
been doing. You do it too."
"I guess we both learned to be cautious, even with each
other."
Scully placed one palm on his cheek. "No more." Kissed
him
once on the lips, quickly.
Mulder stared at her as if all his demons had just
suddenly packed
their bags and left town. "Scully, I........
........._love_ you."
It was the way he said it. He didn't need to make a
speech as she had.
He couldn't, wouldn't have been able to find the words.
He didn't
need to appologize. He'd been appologizing since that
first time.
Since they took her away on a mountain and left him to
grieve
and tear through work and people like a man gone mad. A
specific
kind of madness, a broken heart that still held a
breath of hope. One
breath.
Mulder didn't need to say anything because everytime
for the last six
years, when she saw him look at her when she was
feeling low, or had
a sniffle, or was late coming in for work, his head
would snap up with
frightened, needful eyes or with carefully wrapped joy.
God how those
eyes of his could speak.
One glance. Ten thousand words.
Scully frowned in thought. "One more thing." She was
whispering,
"I want to leave here. I don't know who or what to
believe, but I do
want to leave here with _you_. I won't let them dictate
our future.
But I don't think it can be done unless they think
we've been defeated.
Unless it appears to them that they have gained our
trust and
cooperation."
"What's your idea?"
Scully bit her lip. "I doubt they would expect a
pregnant woman
to be comfortable for long in a space this size, with
one bed and
one toilet and one upright shower stall."
"You think they'll move us to a different location once
you're-"
"Yes."
Mulder swallowed. He looked terribly sad. "I didn't
want it to be
like this."
"I know. But it's not the place. The place means
nothing, Mulder.
It's us. It's _you_."
He reached for her and she for him, and that night it
became more
than a kiss or a touch of a hand.
Soon, the last wall between them, the final hurdle that
took them
beyond hiding and into the realm of truth, faith, hope
and love,...
Fell.
**
Scully became pregnant. And Mulder became a fussing,
doting, annoying moron who wouldn't let her do
anything
at all. In fact, he was nearly driving her crazy with
kindness.
"Mulder, for God's sake, I'm only two months along,
I can still lift a plate!"
For a while that had reined in his soon-to-be-
a-daddy-and-therefor-terrified coddling of her.
But it soon returned. The terrified part in
particular.
Because just what was growing inside Scully? He
asked it silently everyday. Dozens of times a day.
Scully seemed unconcerned, however, about the
physical nature of her fetus and went about daily
living as if she were Mrs. Laura Petrie. Occassionally
he would even catch her humming a tune and
rubbing her stomach which was getting rounder.
Just like his eyeballs were. He'd never seen a woman
go through it before. Not really.
Not the day to day tiny changes in mood, appetite,
weight,
water-retension, sex-drive, complexion. Somedays she
glowed like an angel. Others, she looked downright
ill.
It was facinating and frightening and wonderful.
To Mulder, it was also the sexiest she'd ever looked.
It
made him blush for what it did to _his_ hormones;
sent them raging like a bull down an avenue. He
wanted to shout: I DID THAT!
Scully of course recognized all of this and pretended
she didn't notice when his gaze would fall upon her
and
travel south, stopping on her protuding stomache.
Those hazals would caress her tummy for long minutes
as
she moved about the room, or even when he did. She was
worried lest he strain his neck and injure himself with
all
the contortions he resorted to necessary to still look
at her
when his back was turned and she was behind him.
Somehow, he still managed it. Tiny little glances to
see:
was the stomach bigger? Was it lopsided? Boy? Girl?
Scully could see he was also asking himself: It?
To her, though, it made no difference. She didn't know
why,
but it didn't. It just did. not.
It was a baby and that's all that mattered.
He'd understand eventually.
**
In her third month, they were moved to a three bedroom
"facility"
more suited to her physical needs.
It was heaven to luxuriate in a bathtub. Hot water.
Hot, not merely
lukewarm which is what they'd been living with.
Mulder seemed to fuss ever more as Scully's stomach
began to
really grow. He teased her about her slightly waddling
gait and
her "cute" little dimples and her "sweet double chin"
until she found
herself becoming more and more curious about how it
felt to kill
a man.
"You KNOCKED ME UP, you male PIG!" She screamed at him
one day when the bathroom called her for the tenth time
that
morning and after he had said one too many cutesy
things.
Mulder cringed but there was nowhere to hide. They
were
still locked in. Bigger place. A bedroom, a
kitchen/living room
combo and a full bath.
But it was still a prison and they were stir-crazy. He
was. She
was just pregnant.
He seemed to pick the wrong thing to say at the wrong
time in
the wrong way. That was the way it was some days.
Other days she would glow like a china doll and smile a
lot
and hug him and say how much she loved him.
He liked those days much better.
It wasn't long before Scully looked like she was ready
to pass
a basketball.
It worried him. She was so tiny. Built so small. Could
she even
do this? What if something went wrong? What if she bled
too
much? What if...? Until Scully sent him to the bathroom
for
a shower and to get him out of her hair for ten
minutes.
Occassionally, he'd take her in with him and wash the
baby.
Soaping up her distended belly with the "outsy" with
hands so
gentle and loving, it often made her cry. Under the
shower spray
he never knew.
But he knew she loved him. He knew because she showed
him
in every way as much as she could in their confined and
often
frustrating three room universe.
And he showed her, at night, (in the only possible
position), with
tender, tender kisses and passionate massage with
trembling hands
and loving from a penis so hard, it drove her wild.
One night, as he filled her from behind, shoving home
again
and again, she came with such force, she almost ripped
the skin
off his hand that was cupping her breast.
Six years. For SIX years - God, what she'd been
missing!
***
Scully, eight months along, came up with their little
escape plan.
She whispered one day they should talk, and Mulder
matched
his voice to hers, "I thought you wanted to wait until
after the
baby came, Scully? How can you possible travel any
distance
in your condition?"
"I'll manage. I have an idea, Mulder. It'll get us out
of this
three room box at least, but you're going to have to
use that
fantastic brain of yours and come up with the rest on
the spot
once we're out that door."
"What's your idea?"
**
It was so simple. Really, it was too simple. It
couldn't possibly work.
Scully faked birthing pangs and, after Mulder pounded
on their door and
shouted at the top of his lungs for minutes upon
minutes, the guards
showed, took one look at the woman lying on the bed,
knees bent,
a bloody smear on her pants crotch and fled to get
help.
Help came in the form of two nurses, one male and one
female.
With Mulder's assistance, Scully was lifted onto a
geurny and the
whole group moved out and down the hallway.
Appearantly, no-one believed that Mulder would ever
think of
trying to escape when his Scully was about to pop.
Mulder looked at Scully when they seemed far enough
away from
their living quarters but not too close to anywhere
else except
empty corridors in every direction.
Scully looked back. He moved his head, an almost
imperceptable
nod.
Scully pulled the tiny areosol can from under her bra
and sprayed
all those around her, some of it even hitting Mulder.
He had, of
course, held his breath.
All fell, including the two guards who had tagged
along.
Mulder, still holding his breath, helped Scully off the
geurny and
they hurried off down a long tunnel opposite to "home"
or
the nurses destination. An infirmary meant people. And
they
wanted to meet no people on his journey.
Well, just one, actually.
But that would be asking too much. Luck wasn't on their
side
these days.
Scully panted, not running, not walking. Little,
hurried steps,
holding her stomach with one hand and Mulder's with the
other
as he all but carried her along.
"Where to, Daddy?" She asked.
"I don't know- wait." He read a painted sign.
"BIO-CONTAINMENT",
and an arrow to show the way. He looked down at her
questioning
doubt.
"Better than running in circles." he offered and they
pushed on.
**
"BIO-CONTAINMENT" was not an area, they soon
discovered, that held
teeny alien fetuses. It was the enormous section of the
complex
dedicated
to the filtering and removing of outside toxins from
the circulation
system
that fed air to the entire underground structure.
No suprise that the living quarters were so close to
it. Only the best
air
for the futures babies of the human race.
That was their first suprise.
The second came when they rounded a bend. Miraculously,
they'd
encountered no other living beings on their thus far
twenty-two
minute flight.
Until now.
"Holy sh-" Scully swore and halted. Mulder also.
Smoking man and he looked even more shocked than they
did.
"Wha-?" He began to say but Mulder didn't pause again
before
he grabbed the wrinkled old coot by the throat and
slammed
him against the wall. "Not one word. Not ONE or I swear
to god,
I will twist your head off."
"I wouldn't think of it." He wheezed, hands fumbling
with Mulder's
one that held him in an inhumanly strong grip. Hate
made mere men
into warriors.
"That's good. Good for us. Guess what, you're gonna
show us the way
up." Mulder announced.
"That's suicide. You'll be killed once you're topside,
the,.." WHEEZE!,
"
....the aliens,..they're everywhere..."
"I think you're lying."
"No, no, you've got to believe me..."
"SHUT-UP! I said no talking."
Cancer-Man struggled, his hands tembling, with age, it
seemed. Or
fear.
"You're shaking, Tar-Man. What's up?"
"Mulder..."
It was Scully. Mulder'd been having so much fun
garrotting the
old pecker-head, he'd forgotten where they were and
their
more immediate problem. "Yeah?"
"We should go now." she said.
"Yeah," releasing his catch, "Yeah. Sorry, Scully."
"And the shaking's because of this place. Filtered air.
No smoking
allowed." She reasoned.
Mulder had to smile at that. Served the old bastard
right. Somehow,
he seemed _less_ without his trademark stick of fire.
He seemed just
another old politician who'd worked one too many years
beyond
retirement. "Let's go." Mulder grabbed his collar and
their oldest
enemy
lead them to freedom.
**
MANY ELEVATOR RIDES AND MANY CORRIDORS LATER...
"This is as far as I go. If you follow this tunnel,
it'll lead you
outside."
CancerMan pointed them down their final walk. It wasn't
like the
rest of the structure, this tunnel was still rough, as
though just hewn
from the rock.
Mulder, Scully's hand in his, started to walk away.
"You'll die out there." His voice said to them as they
walked farther.
"We'll see." Mulder answered.
"Fox. Fox!"
Mulder turned and Scully instinctively held his hand
tighter.
"I'm your father."
Mulder shook his head, not in disbelief, but in sad
resignation. "Is
that suppose to mean something now?"
"You would have died if not for me."
""If not for yo-?!"...If not for you, how many would
NOT have died?!
Even if I AM your son. You took my sister from me, you
took Sam
and you left me with a father who beat me and
humiliated me. But you
know what? At least he was there! Where were you, you
son-of-a-bitch,
when my mother cried every night for a month? Where
were you when
my father, my father BILL MULDER, was murdered? Where
were you
when Scully was taken? Where were you ever when I
needed you?
You're not my father. And even if you are, you have
nothing,
- NOTHING - I need."
Mulder turned and Scully followed, giving no further
backward glances
to he who was the past.
"Fox." The voice was growing fainter but still echoed
down to them.
"You'll be killed. In here I offer you life."
Mulder called out but didn't look behind him.
Never again did he look behind.
"I'd rather we take our chances on what we find out
there than spend
one more minute breathing in your rotton stink!"
Scully followed Mulder, keeping pace now. The baby
stirred within her.
Life was growing there and it belonged to them.
Nomatter what he or
she looked like or was. It was their's. Their baby.
Their new life in what ever new world. Whatever new
breed of living
had to be done, they would do it.
Scully looked ahead to a distant light, an opening in
the rock wall.
The
artificial lights of the machine-carved tunnel,
embedded in the
rockface,
had ended meters back and were giving way to natural
rock, forged by
time and patience.
She could feel clean air and moisture on her face.
*
END!!
Well, folks, that's it. I might do a sequel to this
sometime. I mean,
Scully hasn't even had her baby yet...
GenieVB
MULDER CENTRICITY
www.geocities.com/area51/comet/4051/index.html
avan@home.com
(
geocities.com/txfssgfic)