House of Cards - Chapter 16 By Jennifer T. Brooks E-Mail: Jenntou@excite.com **************************************************** The Beltway Washington, D.C. June 22, 1999 5:30 pm Dana rode in silence in Diana's cherry red mustang. She really didn't picture Diana driving this kind of car. Not that she had given a lot of thought to it. She just assumed that Diana would be apt to drive a four-door sedan than a racy convertible. "Why the silence Dana?" Diana asked, "Anything you would care to share with me?" "Give me a few beers and I might" Dana replied wryly. "That almost sounds like a challenge Dana, one that I think I'm up to." They reached the Four Provinces Pub in a short amount of time. Diana pulled up to the curb and let Dana out so that she could get a table while she parked the car. Minutes later Diana joined Dana at a table near the bar. Approaching Dana, Diana noticed how tired the younger agent looked. She sat down and noticed that Dana had already ordered a beer for each of them. "I see you have already ordered for us, Dana." Diana said matter of factly. "Actually those two men over there, " Dana said while pointing, "ordered it for us." "In the bar for less than 5 minutes and someone tries to pick you up. I'm impressed." "It isn't that impressive, look at them. But I do admit it is flattering though. All the opportunities I have to meet men I have Mulder by my side. His presence makes it hard for men to approach me. They automatically assume that he's my boyfriend." "Well I can see why anyone would make that assumption." "Why, because we're two people of the opposite sex eating together?" "It is more than that, Dana. I think it has more to do with the way you interact with each other, even in public." "What do you mean, the way we interact?" Dana asked as she took a large swig of her beer. "You know what I mean, the looks, the touches." "Hold on there, Diana. What looks? What touches?" "I have seen the way that you look at each other when you talk. You have a way of shutting the rest of the world out. By looks, I don't mean to imply that you are constantly winking at and ogling each other. It is more than that. Your faces light up when you talk to each other. Fox gets a look on his face that I have never seen before. It is a look of partial amazement, wonder, inspiration, devotion, interest, and love." "Give it up, Diana. You sound like a greeting card. Mulder does not look at me that way." "He does, and you do the same to him." "I think if I was looking at him like that I would remember it." Dana quickly took another drink of her beer. "I don't think it is something either of you do consciously." "Anyway, why are we talking about Mulder? He's married now." "You were the one that brought it up." "Yeah, but all I said was that he was a deterrent for me getting a man of my own," Dana tried to explain. She really didn't want another man. Only Mulder. "Okay, fine. New topic. What got you so upset today that you are taking leave?" Ouch. Diana sure got straight to the point. "I just needed a little break." "Is that all?" "What other reason would there be?" "You tell me." "Diana, you have been working around Mulder too long. He's the one with hidden agendas and motives, not me." "That's true, but you don't lie very well. I can see it on your face." "You can't." "I can. I can tell that you are hiding something from me. Something that you don't want me to know." "Look, Diana. I don't mean to be rude to you, I like you and all that, but butt out of my business. This doesn't concern you." Dana didn't mean for the words to come out as harsh as they had. "Okay fine. Go and your vacation, run away from what ever you feel you need to keep to yourself." "Diana, I didn't mean for it to come out like that. I'm sorry. It has been a long day and I'm just really tired and on edge. I'm not taking a couple of days off to deal with some deep dark issues or whatever the hell you think I'm doing. I just need a couple of days off from work to catch up on housework, reading, etc. It is nothing more than that. I do appreciate your concern though." "I'm concerned. I do care about you, Dana. Who knows why I do. You are really a royal pain in the ass sometimes." "Thank you, I'll take that as a compliment." "I have one more thing to say and then I'll never bring up this topic of conversation again," Diana said as she looked to Dana Scully for agreement. "Just so you know, if you ever need to talk to someone about anything I'm available. It doesn't matter what time of day or night it is, or what the subject matter is." "I appreciate that," Dana Scully replied. As well meaning as Diana Fowley was, Dana knew that there were some issues that you just didn't discuss with anyone. ************************************************** FBI Headquarters Washington, DC July 1, 1999 8:00 am Dana Scully slowly made her way to her office after a leave of absence. For the first three days she had laid in bed and didn't get out of it except to use the bathroom. On the fourth day she resolved that she wasn't going to act like a victim, they would have expected that of her. Who they were she didn't know, she only knew that was what they wanted for her to do. The rest of her time off she spent catching up reading her medical journals. Today she had to face the music. Opening her office door she was surprised to see Fox Mulder sitting in her chair behind her desk. He quickly took his shoes off of her desk once he saw her. "I hope you have a good reason for sitting in my chair, Mulder?" She asked. "Don't I always?" "Come to think of it, No." "Aw Scully, you wound me. Anything good happen while I was gone?" "That's right," She said remembering suddenly that he must just have gotten back from his honeymoon, "How was the vacation. You don't look like you got a tan." "Well, we never really left the hotel room." Dana Scully started to blush as the realization set in as to what he meant, "Too much information, Mulder. Way to much. You could have just stuck with the old it rained the whole time excuse." "Naw, then I wouldn't have gotten to have seen you blush." "So what brings you to my office. Did you need something?" "No, I just wanted to stop by and see how you are." Dana Scully started to panic. Had he found out about Walter Skinner being her father? Fox Mulder saw the panic in her eyes and asked, "What's wrong Scully?" "Nothing is wrong. Everything is fine." "Bullshit Scully. I can see it in your eyes." "You can't see anything in my eyes except for my retinas, irises and pupil's. By the way do you think you could call me Dana every once in a while. It is my name." "After seven years of being called Scully, why the sudden change of heart, Dana." "It's nothing. I just prefer to be called Dana." "Fine, then Dana it is. Don't think that you can start calling me Fox though." "I wouldn't dare," She said with a smile. "I heard from the gossip mill that you got into trouble while I was gone and that they even called in your mother. What did you do? It must have been bad. I have done some questionable things and they have never called my mommy," Fox said jokingly and Dana tried to maintain her composure. She thought quickly how she was going to get out of this one. "I wasn't in trouble. They just had some things that they wanted to talk to me about. It wasn't big." "Yeah, well then why is there this rather large memo on your desk informing you that you have a meeting with Skinner as soon as you get into the office?" He asked nonchalantly. "This is Bullshit. Bullshit, if he thinks that he can now start ordering me around and use his office and position for personal means he has got another thing coming to him," Scully yelled, losing her temper, as she grabbed the memo and tore out of the office with Mulder trailing behind her. ******************************************************* FBI Headquarters Washington, DC July 1, 1999 8:22 am "Agent Scully, Assistant Director Skinner is waiting for you. You may go right in," Holly said as she motioned to the open door to his office. Dana Scully walked briskly by her, entering the office and slamming the door behind her. Mulder was left standing in Holly's office in shock. He had never seen Dana Scully this mad. "How dare you," She seethed at him, "How dare you use your office and position to summon me up here. You have some nerve." "Dana, calm down and please take a seat." "Don't you tell me what to do." "I'm not telling you what to do, I'm merely making a suggestion. Lets sit down and talk like rational adults," He suggested. "There's nothing I have to say to you," She said coldly, still refusing to take a seat. "I believe that there's a lot that needs to be said. I have tried to contact you for weeks Dana, and you won't answer your phone, your door or your E-mail. How long are you going to try to ignore me." "I'm not ignoring you." "I believe that you are. You can't hide forever Dana. Sooner or later we're going to have to discuss all that has happened." "You'll have to excuse me then. This is something that I'm not going to deal with right now or discuss with you, "She said as she started to make her way towards the door. "Dana, when are you going to stop running away from me and admit that I'm your father?" Walter Skinner asked her passionately as he grabbed her arm. "Let go of my arm." Dana said through clenched teeth as the pulled her arm out of her grasp. "Dana, this isn't healthy. If you don't want to talk to me about this whole situation please talk to someone. I can't stand to see what this is doing to you." "Perhaps you should have thought of that 34 years ago when you slept with my mother." "I regret that our actions have caused you pain. However, I will never regret loving your mother." "I really don't want to hear about you and my mothers love. She betrayed my father and you betrayed your best friend. You and your precious love will not destroy my life." "What do you want me to say to you? What will make it better for you?" "Nothing." "There's absolutely nothing that I can do or say?" "You can leave me the hell alone and stay out of my life. If you ever call me into your office like this or use your position to make me talk to you I will not hesitate to go to the OPR. Am I understood?"She couldn't believe that she was actually having the nerve to threaten him. "I don't think you would ever do that Dana. Think about your own career. Several people in the past knew that we dated. Do you honestly want all that brought out into the open?" He hated blackmailing her like this but he didn't see any other options. "No." "I don't want to hurt you Dana, that's the last thing that I want. I know that this whole mess has caused me more grief than I have ever experienced. I didn't want for this to happen. But now that it has, we can't change what we used to mean to each other." Dana stood in front of him silently looking at the floor. "Say something," Walter said after a couple of minutes of silence. "There's nothing that can be said. This is something that you are going to have to deal with on your own. Don't try to use me to appease your own guilt. I have enough issues to deal with on my own. I'm sorry but I can't help you on this one. I can't be a daughter to you. I can't. I can't be anything to you. Please don't make this harder than it has to be. Please don't do this to me. Please, as a favor to me and for whatever you once felt for me, leave me alone," Dana asked tearfully as she opened the door to his office and exited leave Walter Skinner alone once again. *************************************************** FBI Headquarters Washington, DC July 1, 1999 Fox Mulder followed a very shaken Dana Scully through the halls of the Hoover Building. "Stop following me," She turned around to say to him, hoping that he would go away. "I'm not following you. I'm just going in the same direction that you are." "Semantics Mulder!" "Hey, it's not the same thing. Anyway, what the hell happened in there?" "Nothing." "Come on, this is me you are taking to Scully. Me, your good friend and confidant, Mulder. I know something went on in there because Holly and I could hear you yelling at him." "Oh God," she said as her face paled, "How much did you hear?" "Enough to know that something is going on between the two of you." "Could you be anymore specific than that Mulder?" "I probably could, but I'd rather hear you say it," He said bluffing. He had only heard her raise her voice. He could not hear the specifics of what was being said in the room. He was hoping that she would think that he had heard it all and confess what was going on between her and Skinner. "What do you want me to say Mulder?" Did he hear her say anything about Walter Skinner being her father? Did he want her to confess the truth, that she was devasted? She could have taken her mom telling her that any man was her father, any man but Skinner. "How about the truth," He suggested. "Mulder, this isn't a conversation I really want to be having. Not with Skinner, not with Diana, not with my mom, and certainly not with you." "What is going on Scully?" "You aren't going to stop bugging me about this, are you?" "Nope, you know me." "Mulder, this is something that I really don't want to talk about right now." "This is something that you need to talk about Scully. You can't keep this inside,"Mulder said as they reached her office. He closed the door behind her and motioned for her to sit in her chair. "No, I don't want to talk about it. That's all anyone ever wants to do. Talk. Talk. Talk. I'm sick of it." "If you think that by not talking about it, it is going to go away, I can tell you from personal experience that it won't." "I'm not that naive, Mulder. I know that it isn't going to go away, I just don't feel like discussing this with anyone. Period." "Scully, it's not that bad," He said bluffing once again. "Sure, it seems that way to you, but this isn't happening to you. How the hell can you sit there and tell me that it isn't that bad? Your mother didn't just tell you that Bill Mulder wasn't your father." Her mouth said the words before her brain realized what had happened. She had only meant to think the words, not say them. "Bill Scully isn't your father?" Mulder asked incredulously. "Apparently not." "Holy shit, Scully. That wasn't what I was expecting. How long have you known?" "A couple of weeks. For some reason my mother decided that after 34 years of me thinking that Bill Scully was my father, I needed to know the truth now. Wasn't that kind of her?" "If Bill Scully isn't your father, who is?" "No, we aren't discussing this. It is bad enough that you know that he wasn't my father, we aren't discussing my parentage. We aren't." "It is Walter Skinner, isn't it?" He asked. He suspected that Walter Skinner was somehow involved the way he had seen her tear into his office. "Yes. Yes, Walter Skinner is my biological father. Could we please just leave it at that and not discuss it anymore. I'm getting a headache," She said as she started rubbing her temples. "Sure Scully. Are you alright with this, with him being your father?" Mulder asked tenderly. "I'll be fine," She said as the emotional barrier she had let down was reconstructed. "Shouldn't you be getting back to work?" Fox Mulder got her not to subtle hint that she didn't want to talk, and that this subject was closed for good. He left her alone to her thoughts as he went off to find his wife. *************************************************** FBI Headquarters Washington, DC July 6, 1999 3:03 pm Fox Mulder had tried repeatedly to get Dana Scully to open up to him. He had thought that once she had disclosed to him what was troubling her, she would be more apt to discuss it. He was wrong. He decided that no more phone calls or e-mails, he was going to do this in person. He found her in her office. "Scully, you need to talk about this. It is eating you up." "Leave me alone, Mulder. I'm fine. I'm dealing with this." "Right you are. You are a mess. You have dark circles under your eyes that no amount of make up could even begin to cover. In addition, you are unusually pale today and grouchy as hell." "Have you ever thought that I may be grouchy because I'm sick and tired of people like you trying to make an issue out of something that's not an issue." "Not an issue. What have you made up with your mother and father?" "Don't you EVER call him that. He isn't my father," Scully replied vehemently. "Okay, your biological father or sperm donor. Whatever term you are comfortable using is fine with me. But no amount of denial is going to get you past the fact that 50% of your genetic makeup comes from Walter Skinner and not William Scully." "That's it Mulder. I can't believe that I didn't think of this before?" "Think of what before?" He asked confused. "What if this were another trick of cancer man's's. No DNA test has been done to confirm that he's my father. They could be wrong. You are a genius," She said as she got up from her desk leaned over to kiss him on the cheek and left the office in a hurry. ************************************************ FBI Headquarters Washington, DC July 12, 1999 5:01 am The young lab technician held the vials of blood in his gloved hands. Margaret Scully Dana Scully Walter Skinner Someone had ordered a PCR workup on the DNA. Upon looking at the names again, the technician thought that they were a strange combination. As instructed, he picked up the phone on the wall and dialed a familiar number. "I just got the samples," The young man said nervously into the phone. "Proceed with your instructions," The man on the other end of the phone replied as he quickly hung up. ************************************************** FBI Headquarters Washington, DC July 19, 1999 8:00 am Dana Scully sat nervously at her desk fingering the large envelope from the lab, the envelope with contained the truth about her paternity. She quickly tore open the envelope and pulled the contents out. She skimmed the document to find what she was looking for. "There's a 99.99% probability that Walter S. Skinner is the father of Dana K. Scully." "No. No. No. This has to be wrong. This can't be right. I don't want him to be my father." She grabbed the report and quickly walked the short distance to Fox Mulder's office. She didn't want to tell him the news, but thought it would be much easier if she just came out and told him the truth herself rather than have him pester her about it. "Sorry to interrupt," She said as she saw Natasha and Fox Mulder in a tight embrace. They always seemed to be making out at the office. Scully found it tacky and unprofessional. "No problem, what's up?" "I need to speak to you now. Alone." Natasha took the hint and left the room but not before kissing her husband long and hard on the lips. "Did you want to show me something?" He said motioning to the envelope she held in her hand. "Yes. I got the DNA report back today." "And?" "And, Walter Skinner is my father." "Well we knew that might be the case." "But, this report has to be wrong. It can't be right. What if somehow Cancer man or one of his cronies managed to change the report? What if Walter Skinner isn't my father?" She said still not quite believing the report. "You really have been hanging around me a little too long. If you think there was a mistake have the test run again. For your own piece of mind." Dana Scully left his office and made arrangements to run the test again *************************************************** The test came back with the results the same: she was Walter Skinners daughter. She supposed that she had some type of obligation to tell Skinner and her mother the results, after all they did give her samples of their blood. At wasn't as if she had done the test in secret. She had thought about lying to them, but knew that they could easily get access to the report. DNA proved that Walter Skinner was her biological father. The test was accurate. They couldn't have fixed the tests, she had run them through twice. As much as she didn't want to, this was something she was going to have to tell Walter Skinner about in person. End of chapter 16