From: th-001@paranoia.co.uk
Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2000 19:55:16 +0100 (GMT+01:00)
Subject: xfc: The Sky is Broken (post-Requim, rated G)
Source: xfc

TITLE:        The Sky is Broken
AUTHOR:       TH001
FEEDBACK:     th-001@paranoia.co.uk

DISTRIBUTION: Ephemeral, Xemplary, Gossamer are fine. Any where else?
	      Just give me a heads up in email form.

SPOILERS:     Requiem, En Ami
RATING:       G
SUMMARY:      The Bureau wants to know how and why Scully is carrying
	      Mulder's baby.

DISCLAIMER:   Chris won't mind if I borrow his characters for a little
	      bit of shameless fantasizing, will he? And Moby ... you
	      do such good music, surely you mind my (*ahem*) quoting?

AUTHOR NOTE:  This story does not fit into the pattern of my other two
	      Requiem-related pieces -- "All Things Recounted" and
	      "Missing You." I instead took another road. Feedback
	      would be greatly appreciated.

	      * In case you weren't aware, the song 'The Sky is Broken'
	      by Moby was the song constantly repeated throughout
	      Gillian Anderson's wonderful episode "all things."

              As far as I can put it, I'm going to assume the 'En Ami'
	      occured in middle March.


                      ----------------------------------
                       i watch it lift up to the sky

                       i watch it crush me
                                       and then i die.
                      ----------------------------------


THE SKY IS BROKEN


   She sat on the bench outside the hearing room, alone. She had
already checked her outward appearance for probably the tenth - no,
eleventh - time in little less than five minutes. Floods of adjectives
rushed over, describing her inner turmoil - anixous ... nervous ...
cared ...

   Bloated ... dizzy ...

   And for the eleventh time in that short five minutes she had been
waiting, she glanced down to her abdomen. The product of six months was
taking a physical toll on her - the bulge was no longer able to be
hidden. She had given up last month, when passing agents would give her
stranger looks than what was normally passes about her. The elastic
wastebands on her pants had long ago been streched beyond their normal
wear.

   And she hated the stares.

   She knew they whispered to each other when she stepped off the
elevator to see Skinner for her almost-daily visits. Did they really
think she couldn't seense the mystery that followed her? She figured he
felt almost as guilty as she did for Mulder's disappearance - he had
been there, after all. For as good of friends as you can be with your
too-serious boss, she was glad she had someone to talk to.

   The door was on the right of the wood bench, and it slowly opened to
reveal Skinner, dressed crisply in his black suit and stark-white dress
shirt. As he approached her, she rose to meet him.

   He simply nodded, not uttering a word. As she made a beeline for the
door, he caught her arm.

   "You have seen the test results, haven't you?"

   She slowly nodded. How could she not have seen them, she was the one
who ordered them, wasn't she? Of course she had seen them - she had
spent the entire night continuely asking herself how. How?

   And it was those test results that prompted this hearing.

   "They're going to hack you to bits, you know. Critisize every
thought that ever entered your mind."

   She nodded again. "I know, sir."

   With that he realised her arm. She walked - no, her stride was
slowly becoming a waddle - to the dark door. Standing in front of it,
so close to it, she took a deep breath, and twisted the silver metal
door handle.

--- --- --- --- --- ---

   "Agent, how would you characterize your relationship with Agent
Mulder?"

   She was a little taken aback by the interrogator's way of getting
the point. She knew where this was headed, she knew what they were
trying to make her say she did.

   She wasn't going to.

   "Agent Mulder and I were ... partners. We've worked together for
almost eight years now, and ... I guess it would be fair to call him a
good friend."

   The interrogator studied her as if mocking her.

   "JUST friends?" the interrogator asked, overemphasising 'friends' as
if she were talking with a friend in high school about the two teachers
that always ate lunch together.

   "Yes, ma'am. Just friends."

   The interrogator picked up the manilla folder sitting in front of
her, and she knew what contents lay in store. Scully took a deep breath
as the interrogator painstakingly read the file over, even though she
was sure it had already been read.

   "Agent Scully, I don't mean to question your answers, but, well,
these test results beg to differ with your 'just friends' statement."

   She swore, if there were teenage girls sitting in the back of the
room, they would have all simulteniously giggled and snicked at that
remark.

   "Agent Scully - to coin a phrase Mr. Starr made so famous - have you
ever had sexual relations with Agent Mulder?"

   There was a tense air in the room as each of the investigating
officers anticipated her answer. She kenw they, too, had read the
results. Taking a breath to maintain her strong exterior, she answered
the interrogator's question.

   "No ma'am."

   The interrogator almost seemed to be amused by her answers.

   "No, agent? Would you mind standing up for the board?"

   Unsure of where this line of questioning was going, she stood,
unsteady and unsure. Scully turned slightly sidewise to show the room's
audience the child of six months grow inside of her.

   "Agent Scully, these results say the child you are carrying was
conceived on March 15. Today is September 7, making this child six
months old."  The interrogator motioned toward Scully's stomach. "You
look six months pregnant, Agent Scully." She was then allowed to sit
down once more.

   "Agent Scully, where were you on March 15?"

   She swallowed slightly, trying to decide how to phrase this without
sounding completely stupid.

   "I was following up on a lead on a case of ... personal nature
during that time period, ma'am - unaccompanied. However, on that day
you mentioned, I cannot account for approximately five hours of time.
It is my belief that during this time, I was inject with a fertilized
embroyo, as I am unable to conceive children naturely."

   The interrogator seemed bored by her recounting of facts.

   "Agent Scully, I'm glad you believe that, but such a procedure would
require massive amounts of equipements, not to mention the time."

   "As I said earlier, I cannot account for five hours of that trip."

   The interrogator referred to her manilla envelope once more as she
continued.

   "For the sake of arguement, who might have performed this ...
procedure?"

   "I believe it was the same men who took me six years ago, implanting
a chip in my neck," She motioned to the back of her neck, feeling the
scar of the chip. "... and whose removal resulted in almost fatal
cancer. As a result of the ... tests ... performed on me, my ova were
harvested, thus leaving me bear."

   "As for Agent Mulder?"

   "Agent Mulder was admitted to the hospital a year ago for a brain
abnormality, and was subsequently operated on by unknown persons ..."

   The interrogator waved her hand to cut Scully.

   "So, you're saying that Agent Mulder's extracted sperm from this
procedure and your ... stolen ... ova were fertilized in, let's say, a
Petri dish, then implanted via invitro fertilization while you were
investigating a case, and that you have no subsequent knowledge or
proof of any of this?"

   She nodded her head.


_______________________________________________________________________

FEEDBACK:     th-001@paranoia.co.uk

written June 2000