The Mall Incident
HOME
Title: The Mall Incident
Author: Jo
Catagory: I don't know. V?
Rating: VL,BV
Spoilers: The X-Files: Fight the Future
Keywords: Mulder/Scully friendship
Summary: On the outside, looking in, a third party watches
the antics of Mulder and Scully.
Disclaimer: Please, I realize I don't own them, but let me
play in my imagination for just a little while. I'm not getting
any money for writing stories when I should be doing home-
work. Characters are owned by CC, 1013, etc.
Special thanks: The Catwoman, for being a friend. And
Cindy, my roommate (good luck on her wedding), for staying
asleep while I wrote this.
Feel free to archive, but just tell me where it's going and
keep my name with it.
The Mall Incident
By: Jo
I don't know who they are, they just walk through the
Mall nearly everyday. The only reason I ever noticed 'em was
the woman. I noticed her first, walking alone by the reflecting
pool, pausing by a certain bench and running her fingers along
the top. She was alone for the first several times I saw her.
Sometimes I almost got the courage up to go talk to her. She
looked so sad at times, I thought maybe she'd like a shoulder
to cry on. Guess she already has one.
I'd seen her walking alone for about a week and a half
before I saw the guy. Just one day I was watching for my
favorite shade of red to come walking, but when I see her,
there's a nice dark head right next to her copper one. It took
me a couple more days to get up enough gumption again to get
close enough to see his face. Surprised me, you might say.
Red, that's what I call her, since I don't know her name, first
time I seen her, she was jogging, 'til she stopped at that bench.
I thought she was a college student, didn't really look more'n mid-
twenties. You know, maybe a grad student. Some of 'em like to
hang round here.
So I saw this guy with her, and when I get up close, I see
he's got t' be at least thirty-four. I'm thinking May-September
relationship maybe, a student and a Prof. But her manner's all out
of whack. She's got this serious thing going, don't smile nearly at
all, 'cept when she with this guy. Also, she don't move like a
student. She's got poise, the type people get when they've trained
themselves for a long time to walk or talk a certain way. It's
unconscious. It's confidence and control and 'watch-out-Jack' all
at the same time. Dangerous. One of the reasons I never went up
and talked to her.
I watch for both of them now, ever since she got this
companion. Maybe I'm still watchin' for her, but I don't think so.
I think I'm watchin' for both. One time, after she'd got this guy to
go walkin' with her, she showed up alone again. Then I saw him,
sitting on the bench, waiting. She wears a suit when she's with him,
and she was wearing a suit this time, too. She looks good, tasteful
suits, expensive looking. 'Course, most people in this town look
expensive. But she (and he, cause he wears nice suits, too) look
real fine, natural. They don't have the stony faces of the
politicians, or the greedy-avarice expression of business men.
Back to the time I was talking about, when I saw her
walking alone, and he's waiting for her on the bench. He's lookin'
at a newspaper, but I know he knows she's coming, 'cause he
threw a glance her way. She gets up to the bench and stands there,
waiting for him to say something. He points to the paper, like
there's something interesting in it, but he doesn't give it to her.
Instead, he stands and they talk for a moment or two. He's not
looking at her, but she's lookin' at him. She's got this look says
'don't give me any crap.' I sure wouldn't, but the guy doesn't
seem to care much about it. He walks off, like he's tryin' to
leave her, but she's not having any of it. She walks right along
with him, getting in his face. Finally he stops and I guess he
decided to play it smart and agree with her, 'cause she smiles. I
love when she smiles. Then they walked off, hand in hand.
They usually didn't really touch each other before.
They'd walk along, close enough their sleeves brushed, but not
actually making an attempt to touch. And half the time they
didn't talk. It drove me crazy, seein' 'em just walkin' along like
there was no-one else in the world, 'cept themselves, and they
wouldn't talk. Least I didn't see their lips move. If I believed
in that kinda stuff, I'd say there was some communication of the
mental kind goin' on. But when they did speak, their heads
turned towards each other, and it really was like there was no-
one else.
Even so, I saw this thing happen. They were talking, or
maybe not. I was behind 'em, so I couldn't see their faces. In
any case, they seemed oblivious to the world. They were near
The Wall, and I was pretending to look at names. Suddenly,
there's a commotion and shouts. Stuff like 'thief!' and 'help!'
and what do you know? A purse snatcher thought he might get
some good pickings. Wrong. Those two take off so fast, which
I was in awe of, seein' how Red likes to wear heels (she's kinda
short). But they're chasing this guy down, and Red is right up
there with her friend. The poor kid's surprised as all hell to see
these two suits after him and runs right by me. Sad to say, I was
too shocked to do anything, and I'm still watching Them. Here
they come, right at me. They're not too far behind the boy by
now, and the guy tells the kid to stop, he's got Feds on his
sorry tail.
I kinda stared after them in shock. They's fibbies, or
FBI agents. Then the kid ducks behind a tree and don't come
out the other side. They, and I know what's going down. They
slow up real quick and approach with caution. They head
round that tree from separate directions. Sure enough,
the guy (I really gotta come up with a nickname like I got
for Red) gets up to the tree and here comes an arm with a
nice little knife at the end. Damn, this kid's stupid. He
knows he's busted for purse snatching, and he wants to lay
a count of assaulting a federal agent with a deadly weapon on
top. And he's gonna get it too, 'cause I hear Red's friend
grunt when it hits him, and then the kid's on the ground and
Red's on top, snapping cuffs and reading his rights.
I've gotten close enough, as have a number of
people (we're all stupid here), to hear regular speech. Red's
got her cell phone out calling for an ambulance and a cruiser.
The whole time, she's got her gun trained on the kid. She's
not letting this guy get away. I don't know how she manages
it, but she keeps her gun on the kid (who intelligently had
decided not to fight anymore) while she checks over her
friend, partner? I've got a name for him now, Mulder. That's
what she calls him.
She doesn't have to wait for a cruiser to show, some
guy comes pushing through the crowd, flashing a badge. He's
a fibbie, too. Hell, it's JE Hoover day at the Mall. He takes
over the kid, so Red can help Mulder. Doesn't take too long
for the cops and the EMT's to arrive, and then the kid's
packed into the cage, and Mulder's on the way to the hospital
with Red. I don't think he was hurt too bad, there wasn't a lot
of blood. But lucky me, since I was right up on the front lines,
I get to spend the next half hour describing the events to
more cops. Didn't really matter, had nothing better to do,
wasn't like I was gonna check on Red and Mulder at the
hospital. Fortunately for a lot of us, the other fibbie takes
care of most of the legal stuff and we're pretty much free
to go. But I stick around, and I'm glad I did, 'cause I
got another name. Red's name. Scully. Least, that's her
last name. Still don't know their first names, but I do
know something else. Those last names shouldn't be
different, and there should be some rings mixed in the
equation.
The End
HOME
Email: whrosegarden@netexpressway.com
