TITLE: Conhouse - Chapter Eighteen e-mail Address: ErinStone1@aol.com RATING: anywhere from PG to NC-17 - it's a crap shoot CATEGORY: Scully/Slash SPOILERS: None Keywords: Scully Slash/Other Romance Archiving: You bet - just let me know where. Disclaimer: Fox, Chris Carter and 1013 own them ALL, ***except Lena Conhouse, she's mine, and of course, Wanda, who is mine in the literal sense.*** Comments are welcomed. Please send them to ErinStone1@AOL.com When Lena awoke it took her several minutes to figure out where she was, and why she felt so bad. Her ribs ached and her head pounded. After a short time pieces of the former day's events started to come back to her· Ruthie. Cook. That dick. He was why she felt like a train wreck. Scully. Pain pills. A bath. Curling up with Mulder. And oh, hey, they finally knew now didn't they? About her. About her· thing. And where were they now? She lay quietly, listening for the now familiar voices of the two agents. Not hearing anything she wondered if they'd gone to work. Turning her head slowly she looked to the nightstand for a note. No note. The time read 7:43 am. If they were going in to work they would be gone by now, most certainly. The bedroom door opened slowly and Mulder's head peeked through it to look toward her. He looked surprised to see her awake. Slowly pushing the door open he walked to the bed with a glass of water in one hand and what Lena guessed were pain pills in the other. He stared at her strangely for a few seconds, and she worried that she had sprouted new bruises during the night. He actually was looking quite alarmed. Finally, possibly because he sensed her growing concern over his facial expression, he flashed a small smile and asked, "How are you feeling?" "Train", Lena coughed, swallowed and finished her thought, "wreck". Mulder snorted a small laugh and tried to hand her the pills. Lena opened her mouth instead and he gently placed the meds on her tongue. Reaching behind her head he lifted her slowly and helped her sip some water. When she had gotten the pills down he lowered her head back down to the pillow. He continued to stare at her, as he had when he walked in. Scully appeared over his shoulder suddenly, smiling; the smile faded and was replaced by a gasp. Lena was scared. "What?" Scully leaned closer, looking into her eyes. She did not speak. "What?!" Lena was now actively frightened. "Your eyes·" Scully said. Lena finally realized what they were seeing and she let out a relieved sigh. "Oh. The black." The agents nodded. "They'll change." Lena stated, shutting them. "When I heal they'll change." "Into what?" Mulder asked. Lena opened her eyes, "blue, green, maybe even white. The good news is that only you two will probably be able to see it. Of course, others like me are also privy to it." Mulder was fascinated. "The smell, is that you too?" Lena nodded slightly. The pain in her body was finally easing. 'Thank you, my friend, for pain pills she thought silently, raising her eyes to the ceiling. "Angel funk." 'It smells like oranges,' Mulder thought; 'cloves, spring;' he couldn't describe it entirely· "Is the smell just something only we can experience too?" Mulder was now completely caught up in Lena, Scully, however, looked disturbed. "Yes." Lena smiled, "occasionally a child will look at me oddly and I know that they can see my eyes or smell me." The comment made Lena laugh out loud and she winced. "Sorry, my dad has this joke about angel funk." The other two looked confused. "You had to be there." Lena said, smiling once more. "Animals always know, always." "I've heard of this." Mulder turned to look at Scully. "It's called 'Olfactory Reckoning.' It's been recorded throughout history by people who have experienced some kind of divine intervention in their lives, like, a miracle recovery from a fatal illness. These people have stated that right before their recovery they smelled something indescribable, so much so that they thought they were dying. I have a full X-file on this phenomenon." He turned back to look at Lena, his eyes questioning. "Yep - probably the angel funk." Lena said as she tried to sit up some. Mulder reached behind her back to help her. There was an uncomfortable silence between the three of them. Lena worried for what seemed like the hundreth time that this was all too much for Scully to take in. she looked at the red head, trying to read any signs that might be lurking in her expression. Scully smiled at her. 'I love you. You frighten me sometimes, but I love you.' Scully's voice rolled softly in Lena's mind and she closed her eyes, smiling widely. A knock at the door startled her out of the warmth of Scully's words· "It's my Dad, would you let him in?" Lena looked at Scully. "Your Dad?" Surprise was evident on Scully's face. "Yes, he's at the door." Scully turned and walked from the bedroom to the front door. She was ill at ease and down right spooked as she looked through the peephole and directly into the impossibly white eyes of Steve Conhouse. A small gasp escaped her and she briefly considered latching the deadbolt. It was unnerving to see just the black dot of a pupil where color should be. It made her think of Eugene Tooms and some of the other monsters she had seen over the past 5 years. She shook her head in an effort to clear it, and reminded herself that this man was not a monster. She opened the door. Wanda skittered from the hallway and shot into the apartment, running full steam for the bedroom. Large warm arms enclosed Scully and the smell of sandalwood and peaches and other indescribable things wafted into the room. When she drew back from Mr. Conhouse his eyes were light blue, just barely colored against the whites. They were beautiful. "You seen a little dark-haired girl around here anywhere?" He asked playfully, smiling a broad white toothed grin at Scully. She smiled back at him, somewhat overwhelmed by his presence. "This way." She swept her arm toward the bedroom. They walked into the bedroom where Wanda was now curled up on the bed beside Lena. Mulder stood and reached his hand out to Lena's father. "Mr. Conhouse?" "Mr. Mulder." Steve shook Mulder's hand with both of his and bowed his head. "It is wonderful to meet you my friend. You're one of my favorites." Mulder's head tilted slightly with confusion, "favorites?" Steve had already let go of Mulder's hand and seemed to not notice his confusion. He sat gingerly down on the bedside. "Hi sweetie." "Hi dad." Lena smiled at him as he kissed her gently on the forehead. Steve surveyed her cuts and bruises, touching each lightly. "You get into a fight at the Macys sale rack again?" Lena laughed, then winced when her abdomen protested. "Ruthie made it?" Steve asked. Lena nodded, still wincing. "Can I help?" Steve wiped some stray hairs off of Lena's forehead. "Yes please." She smiled self-consciously. "Close your eyes and breathe deeply honey." He held his hands a half inch from her forehead, slowly running them over her body, working his way down to her feet. The process took less than a minute. When Lena opened her eyes they were a rich dark brown. "Better?" "Much, thank you." Lena squeezed his hand in appreciation. Steve turned to the others; "She'll need to rest for today. There should be a marked improvement over the next few hours." He stood and without warning ran his fingers over Scully's cheek. The strangeness, coupled with the intimacy of the gesture startled Scully and she had to fight the urge to pull away. He looked into her eyes for a second, seeming to consider something, then let out a 'hmm' and dropped his fingers >from her cheek. Abruptly he said, "I have to go. Thank you for being so good to my daughter. She's lucky to have you two." He hugged Scully and then Mulder, who was more less board-like, his hands remaining at his sides. "Work on that son, you're a little stiff." Mr. Conhouse winked at him and walked out of the bedroom toward the front door, Mulder and Scully on his heels. Wanda remained happily on the bed with Lena. He left the apartment and turned in the hallway, addressing them one last time; "Have a safe trip." He bowed his head slightly at them and turned, walking down the hall and out of the building. Mulder and Scully stood in the doorway, staring at each other like a couple of mouth breathers. "Trip?" Scully said. "Where?" Mulder answered. At the same time, both said, "Lena." They walked back to the bedroom together. End - Chapter Eighteen