~~Title: String Of Pearls (1/1) ~~Author: Chel Scully ~~E-Mail address- delphia@mailcity.com ~~Rating: G ~~Category: S ~~Keywords: ~~Summary: Mulder and Scully question a psychic, and she gives them a strange reading of the future that sounds a lot like a Soul Asylum song... ~~Disclaimer: Mulder + Scully + Skinner + Mrs. Scully + all real X-File elements = belonging to Fox and 1013. I think that sums it up. ~~Author’s note: I was in a rut, and I heard this wonderful song, "String of Pearls" by Soul Asylum, on my dad’s station (92.9 FM KISM is the number one station in Whatcom County!! YAY!), and I was inspired. Thank God for International Lyrics Server at www.lyrics.ch, without it I would never have remember all the words. Oh, yeah, and thanks to Liv for giving me the idea to write a shortfic that made no impact on the rest of the stories... (Liv is the Pathetic Mulder Mistress... read some of her fic!) X~~~~~~~~~~~~ String of Pearls ~~~~~~~~~~~~X "All right Mulder." Scully planted herself firmly in the doorway. "So why are we really here?" Her partner turned to look back at her, grinning innocently. "What do you mean, Scully?" She sighed. "We wouldn't happen to be here because the only witness to the murder is a woman who claims to be a professional psychic?" "We've been working together too long, Scully." He continued strolling past the uniformed officers taking notes and evidence. "Mulder!" She protested, ducking around the officers with less grace than her partner. "The police department here already has this case under investigation! Skinner isn't going to accept any excuses for us being out here wasting our time like this..." "Don't you want to know your future, Scully?" "Mulder, many so-called psychics use modern psychology to create statements that seem true at the moment, and after evaluation of the statements most of them were discovered to be false, but only the statements that were correct were given the attention, thus adding credibility to the psychic's reputation. You yourself said this once." "Then I guess I'll know if she’s lying, right?" Mulder presented his badge to a few officers trying to coax information out of a distraught middle-aged woman. "Are you Amanda Swanson?" He asked the woman. She nodded feebly. "I'm Special Agent Fox Mulder, this is Special Agent Dana Scully, we're with the FBI. I'd like to ask you a..." "...Pearls..." Amanda shifter her gaze to somewhere beyond his head. "Excuse me?" The short, older woman sat down on the couch next to her. Her eyes had a distant far-away look, and all signs of emotional stress had left her body. "She swings the string of pearls on the corner, the street lights reflect the light in the water..." "Mulder, she..." He silenced his indignant partner with a sharp noise and a quick wave. Mulder sat on the coffee table opposite Amanda, and watched her intently. "The string, it breaks, and the pearls go flying..." Amanda continued, in a slow tone, her voice rising and falling as if she were singing, or reciting a poem. "And they splash and bounce, and roll 'cross the wet street. As she bends to chase the pearls, a car swings 'round the corner, she darts from the eyes of the panic-struck driver... with a tail... who's racing to the delivery room 'cause in the back seat his wife is busting out of her womb..." "A driver with a tail?" She questioned in her usual skeptic Scullytone. Amanda didn't seem to hear her. "And the sack breaks and out come the Siamese Twins who grow up to become the first President with a tail and two heads..." She stopped. "Two heads..?" Mulder pressed. "Are better than one," Amanda finished. "The first President with two heads and a tail." He grinned up at Scully, who was still standing with her arms crossed in front of her chest. "That's not so vague. We’ll _know_ when that happens." "He puts his heads in his hands, says I've got to put my heads together..." Amanda intoned. Scully snorted. "...I can be the best President ever, and not just President Fend-For-Yourself..." "Mulder, this isn't very interesting," Scully commented. "A President with two heads and a tail isn’t interesting to you, Scully?" "...Signs his name, takes the blame, for all the names with no shame in their beliefs..." Amanda suddenly shifted her weight uneasily. "*They* adjourn and *they* leave, and in walks a man with a cigarette and a knife and blood on his hands..." "An assassination?" Mulder wondered aloud. Even Scully couldn't help but be interested. "...And he sweeps everything under the rug, and goes home to his kids, and gives them a hug. But his wife was not there, she had just left a letter that said 'You'd be much, better off without me...'" Amanda readjusted her position on the couch, and the sound of her casual dress fabric against the upholstery of the couch filled the suddenly eerie silence of the room. "Now his wife Diana took the train to her ex-lover's funeral, who died in the bathroom, hit his head on a urinal. When they got together, the knowledge was carnal, and Dana Scully was there, and they had quite a catfight..." Scully jumped at the sound of her name coming out of the woman. Mulder looked at her curiously. "And they fell into the hole where the casket was resting, and the AD just left in the middle of the service, 'cause death was one thing, but women made him nervous. And he ran to his car and drove 'round the corner..." Amanda’s tone, which had quickened with talk of the funeral, slowed dramatically. "Then something in the street caught the light in his eye. He pulled over, reached down, and picked up a pearl from the gutter..." Mulder's look of interest deepened. Scully frowned thoughtfully. "...And he didn’t know what to think, and he brought it home, and washed it in the sink." A faint smile crept onto Amanda's round face. "And he gave, the pearl, to Sister Margaret Scully, who could not accept it, so she gave it to Rachel, her young granddaughter who was missing a pearl on the necklace that breaks late this night..." There was a moment of silence. Amanda blinked, and her eyes focused on the two startled FBI agents in front of her. "That'll be 15.95," she said curtly. Scully almost jumped. "Excuse me?" "Well..." She smiled. "I _am_ a professional." ~~~~~~~~~~~~X "Now, be honest Scully, wasn’t that just a little interesting?" Mulder asked, opening the door to his car. "I don't think 'interested' is a word that can describe Skinner when he finds out we spent most of today questioning a 'professional psychic,'" Scully answered tartly. She walked to her own car parked next to Mulder's. He smiled. "Maybe you can use your feminine wiles on him. Remember, women make him nervous?" He watched her return his smile. "Hey Scully, it's late... how about we go catch some dinner?" "I'd love to Mulder, but..." She glanced at her watch faintly illuminated by the street lights. "I have to pick my niece up from her friend's house." "Okay." He barely masked his disappointment with casualness. "See you tomorrow, Scully." Scully drove down to her niece's friend's house in the dark night, still mulling over the issues the 'psychic' Amanda Swanson had raised. How had she known her mother's name, her niece's name, Mulder's ex-girlfriend? She shook her head, and cleared it quickly. He niece was bent over on the corner of the road. "Rachel!" Scully pulled over and rolled down the window. "Are you okay?" "Yeah..." Her niece straightened up, and held out a broken string half-strung with pearls. "My necklace broke, and I was just looking for the pearls." X~~~~~~~~~~ fade out (like a song!) ~~~~~~~~~~~~X To send compliments, constructive criticism, cute Mulder pics... On AOL Instant Messenger: ChelScully On ICQ: 14580789, Chel Scully or Chel On Mailcity: delphia@mailcity.com On Yahoo: pusher1189@yahoo.com On WBS: Chel12562 Liv: ":::Giggle::: And he wears briefs!!" Ris: "Duh, like everyone already knew it, you little monkey children." Suzie: "If anyone tells you there's no cause for alarm, they're probably lying." Kel: "Eastman came out of the East to do battle with the amazing RRRAAANNDOOO!" Sam: "HOOOHASH! HOOOHASH!" Me: "Don't thank me, just throw money."