From: Maria Date: Fri, 5 May 2000 04:04:34 -0700 (PDT) Subject: xfc: {New} Replacement Evil *Spoilers for Orison* Source: xfc Title: Replacement Evil. Author: Maria O'Rourke Feedback: dk_scully_101@yahoo.com Webpage: http://geocities.com/Area51/Meteor/4816/ Spoilers: Orison and Irresistible. Summary: With Scully's worst demon gone, will another appear to take it's place? ~@~@~@~@~ He saw the look of pure confusion and fear pasted across her features. She wasn't the same woman who, just moments earlier had stood defiantly and stared into the face of the ultimate devil. She was no longer the prized Special Agent with the Federal Bureaux of Investigation who had an esteemed background in medicine and science and could stare things in the eye without blinking that no other normal human person could do. She wasn't the person who could hide her emotions in the blink of an eye and assure him with a brief smile that she was fine. She wasn't Dana Scully. He'd stared at her for a moment before she had swallowed and the tears had fallen. They had come so fast that he didn't think that even she had known they were coming until she felt the wetness on her cheeks. He looked at her sadly for a second before taking a step in order to comfort her but she shook her head, turning around and walking off into the bathroom. Not the en-suite that Donnie Pfaster had prepared for her gruesome end, but to the one that could provide her refuge from the body now staining her carpet. He looked to the ground below him and stared at the open-eyed monster that lay there. He turned as a policeman barged into the room, gun raised and ready to fire. "Sir, put your hands in the air!" he cried, joined in the blink of an eye by three more offices coming behind him. "I'm with the FBI..." he replied, reaching slowly into his pocket and withdrawing his ID. He flashed it to the officer who looked at it and nodded. "The man you're looking for is there...." He nodded in the direction of the limp body of Donnie and then proceeded to walk down the hallway. He entered Scully's bedroom and couldn't hide his dismay at the debris and devastation surrounding him. The over-turned iron shelves, the broken mirror, the shards of glass. The blood. He could see the remains of a fight that he should've stopped. He saw the remains of a fight to the death that he was glad had ended in Scully still among the land of the living. He walked past it all, heading through the door on his left. Heading into the bathroom where she would have met her end. He was heading into his worst nightmare. He walked in and the first thing to greet him was the smell of incense candles and the sombre setting that they provided. He looked around the bathroom, aware of the various shampoos and bath-oils laid out carefully on the ground next to the overfull bathtub and he felt shivers creep though his body that he never thought was possible. Clutching his stomach, he turned around and grabbed the eiderdown that was thrown at the end of Scully's double bed. He picked it up and proceeded to walk to where she was. He stopped outside the door, listening quietly to what was going on inside. He expected to find tears, maybe soft sobs or even a sniff here and there. He found nothing but a chilling silence. "Scully?" he said gently as he knocked on the door. "I've brought you a blanket..." He waited for a moment before he heard the click of a lock, only now realising that she'd actually locked herself in the room. Only her hand appeared. "Thanks..." was the meek reply as she removed the blanket from his hand and re-shut the door, locking it again as she did so. Sighing he turned as an officer approached. "Agent?" he paused. "Could you fill me in on what exactly happened here?" With a last look to the door, Mulder turned to the officer and nodded. ~@~@~@~@~ He stood and watched as they wheeled the body out her front door. The same front door he'd walked in roughly twenty minutes ago, gun drawn. The same door that he had actually come in late. From the mess in the bedroom, it wouldn't take an FBI agent to figure out what had transpired. The two bleeding faces, which had greeted him on his entrance, were proof enough. He turned as the door to the bathroom opened and a hunched over Scully exited, the eiderdown draped over her shoulders. "Excuse me..." he could hear himself say as he sauntered down the hallway, closing the bedroom door as he entered. It was really a blur until he heard himself ask that all-important question with her own chilling reply. "What if it were something else?" He stared at her for a moment before her eyes filled with tears and she stared up at him with an expectant gaze. "I saw the numbers '666' on my alarm clock twice Mulder..." she paused. "Do you know what they mean?" He found himself pausing before looking her in the eye. "I think that they mean that you knew what Donnie Pfaster was Scully and I think that they were a sign..." "But a sign of what Mulder?" she almost demanded and he swallowed. "Scully, before I came over here..." he paused. "Do you know what happened?" She remained silent. "I heard the song." She swallowed slowly and waited for him to go on. "I heard the same song you heard when you were 13" she felt him take her hand. "The same song you heard in the prison...." He paused again and looked at her, his hand griping her own hand tighter. "The same song that Donnie played tonight..." "What are you saying Mulder?" "You said yourself that the song was played when your mother told you about your Sunday School Teacher being killed, that it was the first time you realised there was true evil in the world..." He shook his head slightly. "You knew that he was evil Scully, you said it in the prison..." She didn't reply, just rose and went to the drawer and pulled out the first clothes she could lay her hands on. She turned after placing them in a bag. "For the first time in a long time Mulder..." she paused and stared at him. "I was afraid..." "It's understandable Scully..." he replied. "It's nothing to be ashamed of..." "I'm not ashamed." She sighed and leaned against her chest of drawers. "The fact of the matter is that I pulled that trigger..." she shrugged. "I knew what I was doing but I don't know what or who made me do it..." He swallowed and rose. "As far as I'm concerned Scully." he placed his hands on her shoulders. "You did nothing wrong and I know that to be the truth..." She raised her eyes to stare back into his. "Maybe you do Mulder, and I actually believe that you do..." she paused and he could see the tear-drops filling her eyes again. "But the trouble is that I don't know if I can ever believe it...." She turned and walked away from his hands, zipping up the bag and picking it up. She turned to face him again and reached up after a brief moment and touched her nostril. When her fingertips removed themselves, the thick stain of blood tarnished them. He stared at her fingers for a moment before returning his eyes to meet her own. She didn't seem surprised by the sudden onslaught of blood that was now running in a thin sliver from her left nostril. "But the good are redeemed Mulder and the evil are punished..." He couldn't allow himself to ask the question that was pushing itself into his mind as he stared after her form walking from the bedroom. Was that nosebleed a result from the attack or a sign of something that he had thought was gone for good? ~@~@~@~ Disclaimer: They don't belong to me, they belong to CC, DD, GA, FOX, 1013 etc but not to me...... ===== You can find my website at http://geocities.com/Area51/Meteor/4816