Message-ID: <358439C2.7AE2@wmcstations.com> Date: Sun, 14 Jun 1998 20:59:58 +0000 From: Lyle Bontrager Reply-To: lbontger@wmcstations.com X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01Gold (Macintosh; I; PPC) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: lbontger@wmcstations.com Subject: The Way II: Merchandise References: <3583F715.6D55@wmcstations.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Title: The Way II: Merchandise Author: RocketMan >lbontger@wmcstations.com< Disclaimer: Mulder and Scully belong to CC, 1013, and Fox. Everyone else too, except mine. SPOILER:::::::::CHINGA::::::::REDUX see part one for other. The Way II: Merchandise ===== "Love. . .bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures al things." --1 Corithians 13:7 "And now I will show you the most excellent way." --1 Corithians 12:31 ===== The National Mall was a long strip of lawn that ran basically from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial, but was more widely known from 3rd to 14th Street as simply The Mall. Strolling it would probably take an hour, and he was nervous and jumpy as it was, but the relative lack of tourists for an August morning caught them both by surprise. They took Pennsylvania Avenue to 7th street to keep them smack in the middle and waited. Sam had said she'd find them. Scully studied the small building across from them. The National Archives Building with its communal fountain, shared by the Museum of Natural History and the National Gallery of Art. She wondered how in the world she had ever remembered their names. It'd been a few years since she had actually been in either and she had the strange urge to simply walk right into the Natural History Museum and lose herself in the cave men and dinosaurs. Not that she didn't have her very own cave man sitting on the park bench before her, but at least those inside didn't make life so hard. The grass was a brilliant shade of too hot green and the trees drooped as if they knew the day's coming events and mourned for them. "Mulder, how can we be sure this isn't a set-up?" "Because she sounded real. . ." She snorted and sat down again, her body barely touching his, but enough to remind him of all he had to lose if he wasn't right. "She's lost her father, Scully. Or the man she thinks is her father. And I've told he enough to make her stop and question what's been done to her." "Does she look like that clone?" she asked softly. His face relaxed and he glanced at her. "Yeah. Brown hair, curly and wild, with these awesome grey green eyes, sometimes brown even." "When she walked in, you memorized her." she stated flatly. Mulder nodded. "When you walked in, I memorized you." Scully watched his eyes rove the Mall and tried not to think of what his words meant. "What did I look like to you then, Mulder?" He threw a startled glance in her direction. "Why?" "Never mind. I was just thinking." He gave her a devilish grin and said, "I thought I smelled something burning." She nudged his arm and pretended not to notice him anymore. But his chuckle made the corners of her mouth tilt up and her eyes light. He saw the way her hair seemed to be crystalized with the way the sun dazzled along its length. Her eyes were amazingly blue today, caught up in her concern for him and something else he couldn't quite place. He thought it might be hurt. Suddenly she stiffened and his eyes jerked in the direction she was staring. "Fox?" He sucked in a deep breath and rose to meet the slender woman cutting across a small group of suits heading out to lunch. She shook her head wildly and shoved him back down. "Fox, I don't have much time. I'll tell you all I know and then I have to leave. But first, promise me this. You won't do anything until three days have passed." "Three days? Why the hell-" "Please Fox." Her mouth was quivering in the same way he remembered when she begged to watch her own television show. "Sam, look-" "I need time to get my family to safety." He blew out a huge breath and looked to Scully as if seeking direction. His partner nodded softly and he turned bak to his sister. "It's that big?" "It's . . . it's that big." Mulder sat back in his bench and rubbed a hand over his chin, moving closer to Scully as Sam sat down beside them. "Fox? Promise me?" "I promise." "Agent Scully will make you keep your word, Fox." His angered eyes turned to hers. "I keep my word, Samantha." Sam's lip trembled again and she steeled herself before going on. "There's a warehouse in Tennessee. Charlotte, Tennessee. I heard them talking about this place all my life, Fox. It's got some kind of weapons in there, big huge things. Maybe nuclear." She took out a slip of paper with the address written in bold script across it. It looked like a piece torn from an envelope. "What makes you say that?" Scully asked. "They talked with my father all the time about shipping these weapons back and forth. They needed some odd things too. Pharamcutical resources, doctors, physicists, all kinds. I don't know why all the medicine or the nurses and doctors, but I do know that there were weapons in there." "Did they use those words exactly?" Scully asked, realizing that Mulder couldn't cross examine his sister. "Yes. . .No. Maybe? They called the weapons merchandise a lot." Mulder sat up straight. "Merchandise?" "Yes. And . . . and I'm pretty sure they called them weapons. I don't think I would have gotten that idea unless they'd said it." "Why do say that?" "Well, because at first, I thought they were talking about little kids." ~~~~~ "Mulder, you promised!" He paced his apartment and looked at her with a growl of frustration. "The merchandise, Scully! Don't you get it? People! Samantha thought they were talking about little kids because they were. You know what they can do, Scully. What about Emily?" Her face whitened and she turned away from him for a second, gathering her will back. "That was low, Mulder." His hands were already touching her shoulders in apology, face turned into a frown of self-rebuke. "Scully . . . If there are children in there, I can't wait three days." "When did you suddenly join a children's crusade?" she whispered. "Since they could be yours . . ." He heard her hiss and felt her jump from his fingers as if he'd stung her. "Mulder, we have no proof of any of what she said. We don't even know if she's *real*, let alone telling us the whole truth." "Scully." "She could be some kind of clone sent to make you-" "Scully." "-think that something's going on, when instead, it's all an-" "Scully." "-elaborate hoax to get us shut down-" His hands shot out and grabbed her hard, yanking her back to him. She stopped breathing and stared up at him. His eyes were wide and his pupils dilated as if he had suddenly snapped. "Scully. Either way. I can't let this go." She sagged in his grip and he let her fall to his couch. "I know, Mulder. I know." There was silence for a long time and then she looked up at him, her chin working back and forth and her eyes a watery bright blue. "Do you really think there are more like Emily?" ~~~~~ "Well, Agents, this comes as a surprise, considering I usually have to force one of you to take a vacation. But at the same time?" Walter Skinner regarded them with a renewed interest, his voice tinged with a certain underlying warning. Scully's eyebrows met and she turned to look at Mulder. He was blushing. "Ah . . sir, it's not like that. We just feel it pointless to take our vacation time separately, since it's more practical than one of us sitting around for a week. Agent Scully convinced me that this was a good idea." Scully's eyes flew wide for a moment, but she regained herself and managed a level look as Skinner caught her eye. "Agent Scully?" "Uh, well. My mother wanted me to visit with her for awhile at her sister's and I think I deserve some time off." "And why does Agent Mulder come into this?" "Well, sir, when I came back from Maine I noticed that Mulder was less than productive. In fact, I believe we had more work than when I had left. Therefore, I considered it prudent for Mulder to take off a week as well." The Assissant Director nodded his head once and carefully looked Mulder over. "All right, then. You have your week. Since it's Thursday, I expect you to come in Friday, but after that, you're officially on vacation." ~~~~~ "Well, at least it's making you keep your promise, Mulder. And we couldn't tell Skinner what we were really doing in that time. He'd never approve of it. Hell, *I* don't approve of it." He glanced at her. "Why are you going then?" She glanced quickly to him. "Do you have to ask, Mulder?" He sighed. "I'm just anxious. How do we know they haven't packed up and left by now?" "Mulder, no use in worrying. We get there when we get there." "It'll take longer though. I wanted to start out today." "It won't be that bad in the car, Mulder. If we take turns driving, then we may not have to stop." "I think that's a good idea. If they can check up on us through airports, then I assume they could through motels." They fell silent and Scully watched the sunset through his closed blinds, noting only the changing colors as it shone and pierced its way through the room. The couch was oddly starting to feel like home, but she stood and attempted to leave. He caught her belt loop and gently pulled her back down. "Scully, I don't want you going back alone." "Why the hell not?" "You've been gone all day. . .they might have gotten in . . . I don't know who to trust but you. I don't even know if I can trust Samantha. They could be feeding her lies . . .setting us up." She watched his eyes and the clouds behind them. "Mulder, I thought we'd gotten past this." "What?" "Tell me the real reason why you don't want me to leave. I want the truth from you, Mulder. All the time. That's a new rule with us, okay? The truth." "The truth . . . those reasons were true." "Give me all of the truth. How can I trust you if you don't tell me everything?" She was still hurt over Samantha. It didn't take a psych degree to figure that out. His jaw muslces worked along his skin and bone and she took his hand in hers, squeezing it. "The truth is Scully, that I'm scared to death they'll take you from me again. I couldn't live with that." Her breath caught and she shook her head. "Couldn't live with that? Or couldn't live without?" The sun finished its setting and paused on a breath for his words. "Without." Brilliant night burst from the sky with stars and moon and darkness. "I couldn't live without you." ~~~~~ end part two In Him adios RM