Progeny (3/9) by Zephathah Disclaimers and such in part 1. Do not archive at Gossamer. Missing chapters available at http://zephathah.tripod.com/ ________________________________ Chapter 3 ________________________________ Their steps echoed down the hall, the low sound of his dress shoes hitting the tiles contrasting with the higher-pitched clack of her heels. They walked through the Hoover building without speaking, both their arms swinging as they passed by offices and through bullpens. They were a force, their impact causing a path to open before them and heads to turn behind them. It was clear these agents were on a mission, and they were not to be fucked with. The set of Scully's chin betrayed no hint their work had once again become intensely, painfully personal, no indication a few hours ago she had collapsed under the burden of accumulated agony. When she'd wakened, she'd discovered a thin shell had grown over the injuries done to her heart. It was enough to get her through this meeting with Skinner; it would get her through until this case was theirs. It had to - she didn't have any other option. Her eyes had opened this morning to find Mulder's face a few scant inches from hers, his long lashes resting on his cheeks, his mouth slightly open, one hand curled beneath his cheek. The sight had warmed her, and she'd almost smiled before she remembered why he was there. He was there because she couldn't handle it anymore. She had broken down last night; there was no other way to describe it. And he'd been there when she'd needed him. She was grateful, but his presence made her vulnerable, because it made her feel. She'd reached out a hand to stroke his cheek, softly, the way he'd touched her last night when she hadn't had the energy to do anything more than let him take care of her. She couldn't shut him out. It might hurt more that way, she would feel everything more keenly, but he was a part of her life. Any effort to keep him at arm's length would only hurt both of them. So they walked down the hall to Skinner's office as a team, two partners, united in purpose, stronger together than they could ever be apart. ******** "Frankly, the only reason I'm willing to assign this case to you is because no one else would know what to do with it." Neither agent responded; they continued to watch Skinner as he toyed with the pen in his hands. He leaned forward in a sharp movement, putting down the pen and folding both hands in front of him on the desk. "Agents, I'll give you this case, but I need some answers. You've seen this before." It wasn't a question, and neither of them answered it. "Where? Nothing like this has shown up in your reports. Tell me what's going on, and maybe I can help you with whatever it is." The partners exchanged glances and apparently came to some agreement. It was Scully who decided, Skinner could see that. She read whatever message Mulder was sending with his eyes, sent back one of her own, then turned to Skinner, ready to speak. "Sir, we haven't had a chance to analyze the contents of the vials, but based on past evidence we have reason to believe we know what we'll find." "And what is that, Agent Scully?" "Human ova, from a number of women including myself, removed when we were taken, mostly throughout 1993 and 1994." Skinner looked toward Mulder to confirm what he was hearing. Mulder merely returned his stare. Clearly, this was Scully's story, and Mulder would let her tell it without his usual half-assed commentary. Skinner returned his attention to Scully to find her studying him, gauging his response to what she was saying. He nodded for her to continue. "Further, we also have reason to believe that when we perform a DNA test on the child, it will show that she is my biological daughter." She stared at him, expressionless. Skinner tried to get the blood flowing in his brain again. He didn't want to ask, but he had to. He wouldn't be able to do anything for his agents if he didn't have the whole story. "What is the evidence that leads you to believe this?" She dropped her gaze without lowering her head and said in a low voice, "You mean aside from the fact she looks like me as a child?" Mulder reached out to place a light hand on her knee. She placed her own hand over his and resumed speaking without lifting her eyes, staring at the plain wood front of Skinner's desk. "Two years ago, in San Diego, I - we - found a child. She was very ill. We think she was some sort of hybrid; that's why she had green blood." She looked up into Skinner's eyes. "Her name was Emily. For reasons too complicated to explain, we had her DNA tested. I was her biological mother." She felt Mulder increase the pressure on her hand and she squeezed back. She'd wanted to be so much more than just her 'biological' mother. "She died. We never opened an official file on her. I was on vacation at the time, and after she died we didn't have enough evidence of wrongdoing. We added the relevant information to existing case files surrounding my abduction." Scully took a deep breath. Dear God, there was more. "We've known for some time that while I was missing, whoever had me taken also had all the ova removed from my ovaries. They apparently have been using the ova in gene manipulation and hybridization experiments, growing children as lab rats. Evidently, They're still performing those experiments. "At this point, we aren't sure if the lab found last night had been abandoned intentionally or if the raid surprised them into action. We won't know more until we've had an opportunity to examine the evidence." She fell silent, obviously finished with everything she had to say for the moment. Skinner was stunned. How could she sit there so calm and collected, when she was probably going to leave from here to order an autopsy for her own child? God, she wasn't planning on doing it herself, was she? Well, that was one thing he could help them with, if they were willing to trust him. When he spoke, his voice was low, and it carried his unspoken sympathy and respected her wish to keep this as professional as possible. "Agent Scully, I have a friend, someone I trust, who's a pathologist. Would you like me to ask her to autopsy the child?" Out of the corner of his eye he saw the shock on Mulder's face, but he was focusing on the woman in front of him, whose eyes had seen too many horrors in the last seven years. Those blue eyes softened marginally as she said, "Thank you, sir. I hadn't known whom to ask." Skinner nodded and began writing notes on a pad of paper. "Her name is Teresa Lawson. I'll have her get in touch with you." He signed something on the file that lay open before him, closed it, and handed it across his desk. "Good luck, Agents." Both his agents stood, and Scully took the file from his hand. "Thank you, sir." For understanding. He nodded at her, then caught Mulder's eye before the agent could turn away. Take care of her, the look said. Mulder nodded once, unsurprised that yet another person should care so much about his partner, and followed her out of the office, his hand resting on her lower back. ******** "Her name was Laurel." Scully looked up from her laptop to see Mulder standing in front of her, a small stack of papers in his outstretched hand. An offering. With a remarkably steady hand, she reached up and took the pile from him. Clipped to the top of the papers was a photograph, a 3x5 snapshot of the little girl with a man and woman, both of whom looked to be in their early thirties. Mulder came around the desk to stand beside her as she traced the figures that smiled up at her from the picture. "Karen and William Steadman," he continued. "She had the embryo implanted, and Laurel was with them from the time she was born." Her eggs in someone else's body, her baby carried in a stranger's womb. Last night that information would have hurt beyond belief. But Laurel wasn't Dana Scully's baby; she was Karen Steadman's baby. The barbed, metal spring coiled within her had found some release in her early-morning catharsis, and she felt only relief that the child - Laurel - had even for a moment been as happy as she looked in this photograph, snuggled in her mother's arms. In every way that mattered to both mother and child, Karen Steadman had been Laurel's true mother. Mulder was hovering next to her. She gave him a brief smile for reassurance and asked, "What happened to them?" "They were killed in a car crash a little over two years ago." Something in his voice warned her there was more. He was looking at her carefully, too carefully. "Two years ago?" she asked tightly. He nodded. "Right after we found Emily." Scully blinked back sudden tears and glanced down at the picture again. "Laurel?" "Social Services had her in custody for a day - long enough for her to be entered in their Child ID program - before she was released into the custody of one Jack Laurence, who claimed to be her maternal uncle. Nothing else until they found Laurel in the warehouse. I'm going to put the guys on it, see what they can find." Two years. Ripped away from her family and turned into nothing more than a lab experiment for two years. With an effort, she pulled her mind back to the present moment and reached for the inter-office envelope lying on the desk. "A courier delivered the report from Teresa Lawson, Skinner's pathologist friend," she told him. "Scully, you didn't have to-" he began. She cut him off, saying, "Mulder, it's okay. I'm okay. I can't hide from this just because it hurts." Her voice rose, taking on an edge. She took a couple deep breaths to settle herself, then continued. "I haven't looked at it yet." She turned and looked at him steadily. "I thought we could go over it together." His heart contracted. She was trusting him with so much. "Most of the test results won't be back for a couple of days, but there's plenty of information to look at here, plus the reports on the vials." Miraculously, her voice stayed even despite the tremors she felt inside. Then his hand was on her shoulder, grounding her. He tried to smile and said, "Come on, partner; let's get out of here. We'll order in and go through all these reports." He took her hands in his, and she let him pull her out of the chair until they were standing inches apart. His arms wrapped around her and pulled her closer. She leaned into his embrace without hesitation. She was tired, so tired. "I know," he murmured softly into her hair. She hadn't even been aware she'd spoken aloud. Maybe she hadn't; it scarcely mattered between them. She gave him a squeeze and stepped back. She still had to make it out of the building, walk the gauntlet of too curious agents who had no doubt heard the latest rumors. And God only knew what the rumor mills were spinning today. Agent Scully's alien love child? An almost hysterical giggle escaped at the mental image that thought engendered. Mulder raised an eyebrow at her, but she just shook her head and reached for her coat, suddenly feeling better than she had all day. "Come on, let's go." ******** He watched over the top of his glasses as Scully tried to keep her eyes open and focused on the page in front of her. Various reports and files lay scattered across her couch and coffee table, and the remains of dinner cluttered the room further. Mulder put down the file he'd been reading and placed his reading glasses on top of it. They were both beat; it had been a long day and they weren't going to make any more progress tonight. He moved to rearrange the debris on the coffee table, to make room for him to sit near her. She was completely oblivious, not noticing he was there until he reached out to take the report from her hands. She looked up at him, startled. "I'm fine," she said automatically, clutching at the file. "Scully, you've been staring at that page for twenty minutes. Why don't we give it a rest for the night?" She pulled at the file determinedly, forcing him to release it. "No, I'm not ready to quit yet." "*Scully*." She winced at his sharp tone. "Scully," he said again, more softly this time. His hand cupped her cheek, turning her face to him. "Pausing for a few hours sleep doesn't mean you're quitting." "I'm fine; I need to keep going. You don't understand." Her voice hardened with barely controlled pain. He replied softly, patiently, "I do understand. You're thinking it isn't right for you to relax, to not think about things for a while, to let it go for even half an hour, because there's a child, your child, lying in the morgue right now, and there could be who knows how many more out there, just like her." His words were true and straight to the point. How could she not spend every moment looking for the Truth? How many others would be tortured and die before They were stopped? Yes, of course he understood. He was the only one who did. He'd lost someone, too, and been unable to do anything about it. He knew about the guilt and the drive to keep going. And he knew about the weariness of the body that refused to let her continue without rest. "It's so hard," she whispered. Mulder drew her head onto his shoulder, threading one hand through her hair and using the other to hold her tightly to him. He pressed a kiss into her hair and spoke in a low voice. "I know, Scully. But we'll find Them." He pulled back so he could look in her eyes. "We've got enough to go on for tomorrow; we aren't going to find anything more tonight. We can both barely keep our eyes open." "But-" Scully started to argue, not wanting to give up quite yet. "Tomorrow, Scully," he said forcefully. "We can spend the morning following up on what we've found so far, and then we'll have more test results and probably something from the Gunmen, too. Ok?" She looked away, unable to agree without feeling she was betraying the unknown children who might need her. He tugged her chin back towards him. "You're allowed to take a break, Scully. The pain that's keeping you going, it will still be there in the morning." How had he known it was the pain that kept her upright through the day? Ironic, how the same thing that had broken her last night was what gave her the motivation to continue. And if she paused - if she relaxed - if she let go of it for even a moment - would she have the strength to take up the burden again? "And I'll still be here," he continued. "We'll do it together." "How many do you think there are, Mulder?" Her blue eyes were shining with unshed tears. He sighed, wishing he could say something to comfort her. "I don't know. They left behind a lot of vials- we can at least figure out what they still have." "If they'd just left the freezer plugged in..." Her voice trailed off and her eyes became unfocused. If only. The eggs might have been fine, if only... "We're close, Scully. They're running, and we'll catch them." He said it with finality, and his confidence seemed to give her some measure of strength. She sat up straighter and rubbed at her eyes. "All right." She let Mulder take the file from her, then took his hand as he pulled her up from the couch. "You'll stay here tonight?" she asked quietly, not wanting to ask, but not wanting him to leave. He grinned at her and replied, "I've been looking forward to that sofa all evening." She managed to smile back at him as she released his hand. "Thank you." "Anytime." He stroked the side of her face, then leaned down to place a soft kiss on her cheek. "You go on to bed; I can find the blankets." She gave in to her exhaustion and swayed into him, welcoming the vibration of his gravelly voice and his comforting, familiar scent. He put his arms around her for a quick hug, then released her and stepped back. "Sleep well, partner." "You too." It was an effort to turn away from him. She'd be alone tonight, alone with her nightmares. But Mulder will be in the next room, she reminded herself - then felt childish for taking comfort in that. Part of her felt she should be strong enough to handle this alone, but there was an increasingly vocal part of her convinced she was doing the right thing by allowing herself to need Mulder. He would always be there for her. She let that thought warm her as she dropped off to sleep. ******** end part 3/9 of Progeny Missing chapters available at http://zephathah.tripod.com/ Please send feedback to zephathah@yahoo.com