House of Cards - Chapter 15 By Jennifer T. Brooks E-Mail: Jenntou@excite.com ****************************************** Sheraton Hotel Washington, DC June 12, 1999 4:30 pm Dana Scully sat at the head table during the reception dinner hoping that this day would soon come to an end. Watching Fox Mulder declare his love for and marry another woman was the hardest thing she had ever done in her life. Up until that point in time she had thought that breaking up with Walter and having an abortion was the worst thing she had gone through, but now she realized what true emotional pain she was capable of feeling. She felt as though part of her soul died upon the alter that afternoon and the rest of her body was grieving for it. She was glad that Blake had come as her escort. Having him there made the day bearable. She couldn't believe that Mulder had actually married another woman. Didn't he know that wasn't how the story was supposed to end. He was supposed to realize that it was her that he loved, and not Natasha. He wasn't supposed to actually go through with the ceremony. Didn't he know that? She was glad once the dinner was over and the dance floor was open. She found much needed comfort in Blake's arms. "Darling, what is wrong?" Blake asked her as he spun her around the dance floor. "Everything Blake. I feel like I'm part of a bad dream and that I am going to wake up and everything is going to be back to normal." "I thought you were happy that they were getting married." "I lied." "If you didn't want them to get married why did you act like a supportive friend all these months." "I don't know." "How can you not know." "I just don't. I thought that I was doing the right thing at the time." "And now you realize that it wasn't. Well I'm sorry to say that it is a little to late for regrets, Natasha is now Mrs. Fox Mulder and there's nothing that can be done about it." "He wasn't supposed to marry her, Blake." "Why wasn't he." "Because they weren't meant for each other." "And you were meant for him?" "Yes. No. I don't know." "Dana, you need to decide what you feel for once and for all. This isn't healthy and it is damn confusing for me. Do you think he loves Natasha?" "Yes." "Do you think she loves him?" "Yes." "Do you love him?" "I don't know." "Okay, do you want to be with him?" "I don't know." "Okay, that's fair. Do you want him to be happy?" "Yes." "Do you think he's happy with Natasha?" "Yes." "Then what is the problem. Fox Mulder and Natasha have seemed to have figured out what they want and they are happy. You are the one that needs to figure out your feelings. You've admitted to me that you know that they love each other and are happy. Why can't you accept that and be happy for them?" "Because it was supposed to be me," Dana said softly as Blake gathered her even closer in his arms as they moved around the dance floor. ******************************************* FBI Headquarters Washington, DC June 21, 1999 8:00 am Dana Scully opened her morning mail to find another mysterious letter addressed to Mary. Inside the plain white envelope was written: Ask Mr. Skinner. He knows the truth. He has been lying to you. She started to pick up the phone to call Mulder but remembered that he was on his honeymoon with Natasha. She decided to go see Walter Skinner about the note even though the thought of seeing him again was discomforting. Once is his office she discovered that he wasn't busy and had time to see her. "What can I do for you, Agent Scully?" Walter Skinner asked as he escorted her into his office and shut the door behind her. "Sir, I'm sorry to bother you, but there was no one else I could turn to right now," she said as she sat down in the chair across from his desk. "Are you in some sort of trouble?" He asked concerned. "No, it's not that. I keep getting these notes. I got the first one about a month ago. It said "you aren't who you think you are." A couple of days later I got one addressed to Mary and it said, "Mary, Who are you?". Today I got another one that said, "Ask Mr. Skinner. He knows the truth. He has been lying to you." I'm confused as to what these notes mean and if I'm the intended target." Walter's face paled when she had said one of the notes was addressed to Mary. Someone knew about her parentage and intended for her to find out. There was no way that he and Maggie could keep this from her. She was going to have to find out soon, before she found out in an anonymous letter. "I have no idea what the note means, Agent Scully. I appreciate you bringing this to my attention. Right now they seem harmless, but it is good to be aware of a potential situation. Please keep me informed if you receive anymore," He said as he dismissed her from the office. As soon as she was out the door he picked up the phone and dialed Maggie Scully's number. "We need to talk now," He said into the speaker. **************************************************** FBI Headquarters Washington, D.C. June 22, 1999 2:30 pm Dana Scully sat across from Walter Skinner and Maggie Scully. Maggie had called the meeting between the three of them so that Maggie could break the news to her about being Walter's daughter. Walter had not wanted to tell her, but was being forced to before whoever was sending her the notes told her first. He figured that her anger would be abated somewhat with the news coming from a family member and not a stranger. He was mystified as to who knew and how they found out. The whole mess reeked of the Cigarette Smoking Man. Maggie had wanted to tell her daughter the news by herself, but Walter didn't trust her enough to go through with it. He thought that she might lie and say that she told Dan, and then CSM or one of his cronies would get to her and tell her the truth. He had dreaded this moment for the past 2 months. He had thought up every scenario in his mind that would make the whole situation okay, but had failed to come up with one. Who was he kidding? They weren't going to be a happy family. She wasn't going to rush into his arms and start calling him daddy. He was going to be fortunate if she even acknowledged his presence after today. So, Walter insisted that he be there. He wanted his interests represented, after all she did have one-half of his DNA. In a sick way he wanted Dana to be a part of his life again. He knew her, he knew that she would go into her denial mode and act like nothing had happened. But something had happened. He was her father and like it or not she was going to have to accept that. "Dana honey," Maggie Scully began, "I called you here today because there are a few things I wanted to speak to you about." Maggie looked nervously at Dana for any signs of resistance as to what she was about to say. "That's fine, but why here in the office. What couldn't wait that could had to tell me here and not at home? Is it Bill or Charlie," Dana asked hurriedly while looking at her mother for an answer. He mind conjured up all kinds of images of the horror that must have befallen Bill, Tara, Matthew or Charlie. Why else would her mother be here? She had never dropped by her office before. "They are fine Dana," Maggie said trying to reassure her daughter. She hadn't thought that meeting at the FBI building would alarm Dana like this. "Well then why are you here? Why is AD Skinner here? Is this about my job? Am is be reassigned again?" "No, Dana. This doesn't involve work, at least not directly. Your mother and I want to discuss something of a more personal nature with you." Dana looked at him astounded, "I'm sorry, you may be my superior, but that doesn't give you any right to discuss my personal life with me or my mother." "Dana, I have asked Walter to be here. He has every right to be here." "What are you talking about." Dana asked. "You both are talking in riddles. Why am I here?" "I'm sorry Dana. There's no easy way to do this," Maggie said. "To do what?" She interrupted. "Dana, " Walter began. "No Walter I should be the one to tell her?" "Tell me what," Dana yelled. "Walter is your father," Maggie said as her voice shook. She didn't dare look at her daughter, afraid to meet her eyes. She instead looked to Walter for support, but he was too busy staring at Dana and her reaction. Dana thought she didn't hear her mother correctly. Did her mother just say that Walter Skinner was her father. Surely not. She must have been mistaken. "My what?" She asked incredulously "Your father, Dana," Walter said quietly. "You're NOT my father. My father was Bill Scully. Why would you tell me this?" "Because I could no longer keep the truth from you," Maggie answered quietly. "I was tired of living a lie, pretending that you were someone else's daughter when you weren't." "Very funny, that's a cute joke, Mom. You almost had me believing it. Seriously, why am I here?" She asked. "This is no joke Dana, Walter Skinner is your biological father." "You are LYING. William Scully is my father. He cannot be my father," Dana said as tears started to form in her eyes, "He isn't my father. He isn't. He can't be." "Dana, it is true. I'm sorry to hurt you honey, but he's your father. I never meant for you to know. When you were dying in the hospital I felt that Walter had a right to know he had a daughter." "So you never knew, sir?" She said while looking at Walter for the first time. "I had no idea Dana, believe me if I had known I would have always been a part of your life." "Oh God. Oh God. Oh God," Scully muttered while placing her head in her hands and leaning towards the floor rocking back and forth. Neither Walter nor Maggie knew what to say to her. Maggie got up out of her chair and went over to Dana. She placed a hand on her shoulder. Dana recoiled sharply and said harshly "DO NOT TOUCH ME. You have no right to after what you have done. How could you do this to me? I thought you loved me." "I love you more than anything Dana. I did this to protect you. Your father and I decided that it was best for you to never know." "My father," Dana laughed, "Who gave you the right to decide what was best for me or Skinner. What the hell am I supposed to call you now?" She asked Walter Skinner. "You can call me what ever you feel comfortable with. I'm not expecting you to call me dad. I don't expect for you to see me as a father to you." "You're damn right. This cannot be happening. This is a bad dream and I'm going to wake up and things will be back to normal. Oh God, why me?" She looked up at her mother and screamed at her, "How could you do this to me. How could you?" Maggie couldn't stand to see the pain in her daughters eyes, "I'm sorry," She whispered. "You're sorry? That's it, you're sorry?" Dana Scully asked her mother incredulously. "What do you want me to say Dana? " "Something better than that. How could you do this to me?" "Dana, I don't know what you want from me. I apologized! I can't undue the past as much as I would like to be able to." "I don't know what I want. This is a lot to spring on a person. You had an obligation to tell me the truth a long time ago." Walter Skinner sat in his chair silently watching the brewing argument between mother and daughter. He knew the temper that both of the women were capable of exhibiting. There would be no concessions over this issue. There would be no happy ending. "Enough, this isn't solving anything." At that moment Dana chose to look over at Walter Skinner. She felt nothing but hatred toward him. She hated him for being her father. She hated him for sleeping with a married woman, a woman that happened to be her mother. She was disgusted and repulsed with him and herself, but most of all she wanted to die. Instead she did the only thing she knew how, she got angrier. "Mr. Skinner, why did you sleep with my mother knowing that she was a married woman?" She wanted to make his name sound as impersonal as possible. She wanted to hurt him. "Dana, that's rude to ask someone that," Maggie said shocked at her daughters question. "You are one to talk. Don't you think you are about 34 years too late to decide what is proper etiquette?" Dana said turning on her mother once again. "You were not raised this way Dana. Stop acting like an errant 12 year old." "How dare you tell me how to act. You were the one that was married. You made a commitment to God and your husband to remain faithful, and did you? You preached to me, forced your religion down my throat my whole life, all the while you didn't even believe it yourself. I can't believe you, I thought I knew you, but I guess I was wrong. Don't you lecture me on how to act. How many times did you cheat on Dad mom? 1 time, 3 times, 10 times?" "Dana, you will not disrespect me like this," Maggie yelled out while crying. Dana looked at her coldly, "You disrespected yourself the first time you laid down in bed with another man that wasn't your husband. Are any of my siblings Dad's?" Maggie Scully reached out and slapped Dana hard across the face, tears streaming from her eyes she said sobbing, "You may not agree with the choices I have made, Dana Katherine, and that's fine. I realize that you are upset that I never told you. I thought that it would have been too upsetting for a child to know. I didn't want to ruin Walter's career or his marriage. I did the only thing that could have been done back in the 1960's, I had you and passed you off as Bill's. If there was any other way out of the mess I would have taken the option." "You would have aborted me given the chance, wouldn't you." "Yes, No," Maggie answered quietly. "It would have made things a lot easier on all of us. But I did want you Dana, I did. You complicated my life too much. It would have been easier on me and my marriage if you didn't exist. Bill knew that you were not his and never let me forget it." "Would you both shut up, " Walter interrupted. "How is this helping anything? I loved Dana the moment I saw her when she was a baby. Had I known what you really thought about your baby daughter I would have gladly taken her and raised her. To think that you had something I so desperately wanted disgusts me. Dana is here now She isn't a child. Telling her that you wanted to abort her isn't going to solve anything Maggie." "Goddamn you Walter. Stay out of this, Walter, this doesn't concern you." "Stop talking about me like I'm not here. I'm not a child anymore. You two may have controlled my lot in life when I was younger, but no more. You both disgust me. What you have done is unforgivable. You know what? You both can stay the hell out of my life. I don't need a mother and father and never have. To me neither one of you exists." Dana got up and walked out of the room leaving Walter and Maggie staring after her. *************************************************** FBI Headquarters Washington, D.C. June 22, 1999 3:00 pm Dana ran down the hall not sure of where to go. She first ran to Fox Mulder's office and then realized once there that he was still on his honeymoon. She slowly made her way to her own office and sat down at her computer. She was upset and wanted to talk to someone. She stood up from her chair suddenly. She had to get out of the office. She couldn't stay in the Hoover Building. Someone might come looking for her. That someone might be Walter Skinner or Maggie Scully. She really needed to talk to someone, but who could she call? She couldn't talk to Blake, Claire or Susan Lowenstein about this. What she had done in the past was one thing, and it was bad enough that they knew. But this was really bad. There was no way she could ever tell anyone about this. They would then know the truth about her and what she was capable of. She had willingly slept with her father. Only someone who is truly evil and sick in the head would do that. They wouldn't understand, she wouldn't be able to make them understand. They would finally realize what an ugly horrible person she really was and they would go away. "Stop it," Dana Scully screamed as she grabbed her ears to make the voices stop. She sunk to her office floor sobbing. No one came to see what was wrong. ************************************************** FBI Headquarters Washington, D.C. June 22, 1999 4:00 pm Dana thought to herself as she ran out of her office in no specific direction. She just wanted to be anywhere but in that office. They would look for her there. She was sure of that. She would go away where no one could find her. She needed time to decide what the hell she was going to do to clear this mess up. If she was going to take time off then she was going to have to ask her supervisor. Who the hell was her supervisor right now. The FBI reorganized departments and personnel so frequently that she often lost track of who she was supposed to be reporting to. She remembered seeing a memo regarding new direct supervision a couple months ago but for her life she could not recall who it was. She decided to take the safe route and go to Diana. She would know. She knocked quietly on Diana's door. "Come in," Diana said through the door. "Sorry to interrupt you. I was wondering if it would be okay to take a couple of days off." "Why aren't you asking your direct supervisor?" "I forgot who it was." "How could you forget. Surely you must be reporting to someone regularly." "No, not really. I'm pretty much left on my own. I leave all autopsies reports and the like in the VCS bin out front." "Dana, I'm surprised. I pegged you as a detail oriented woman and here you aren't even knowing who you report to,"Diana said trying to lighten the mood. From the minute Dana Scully entered her office she realized that something was very wrong. "I'm detail oriented, Diana. I just have a lot of my mind right now. Besides, for a while I was being bounced around on a semiweekly basis. I just stopped keeping track after a while." "Well this happens to be your lucky day. Even though you aren't under my supervision right now, I'm filling in for your supervisor, who happens to be Agent Horton, for the time being. If you want the time off, assuming that you have it, you can. What's up?" Diana asked. "I just have some personal things to take care of," Dana replied. "We all need days like those. Heaven should know that I do. Are you going to be in town this weekend in case we need to get a hold of you?" "I really don't know at this time Diana," Dana said. "What is wrong Dana. You seem disturbed. Is it anything you'd like to talk about?" Diana asked. "I'm fine, Diana. I do appreciate your concern though. I just have some issues I need to work through myself." "Don't hold in whatever is bothering you Dana. It isn't healthy." "What are you afraid, Diana? That I'll start losing weight?" After all this time Dana still could not admit to herself that she suffered from anorexia. "No, that's not why I'm concerned Dana. I know what a lonely place it can be when you don't let other people in, when you don't share your feelings. It's a cold place that I wouldn't wish on anyone. I'm here if you need someone just to listen, if nothing else." "Thanks Diana. I'm sure I can handle this myself." "Do you have plans for tonight?" Diana asked trying to lighten the mood. "No, I was planning on doing laundry. Why?" The last thing she expected was for Diana to ask her about her plans. She hadn't really planned on doing laundry. But, she didn't want to tell Diana the cold hard truth -- that she was going to drink herself into oblivion. Drink all her memories away. "Well I was wondering if you wanted to get a bite to eat, a girls night out." Dana thought to herself for a minute before responding. "That sounds like it would be fun." As much as she wanted to tel her no, the small part of her that needed to please everyone was saying yes. If she said no Diana might get suspicious and use her sources to find out what a terrible person she was. Drinking would just have to wait. "Well, let me make a few phone calls and then we can go. You chose the place to eat." Diana was stunned that Dana had accepted her invitation. End of chapter 15 _______________________________________________________ Get your free, private email at http://mail.excite.com/