Deception
By TBishop27@aol.com
Rated: R (For language)
Category: Angst Vignette, MSR
Summary: What happens when Mulder discovers he's been betrayed.
Disclaimer: This Mulder and Scully are mine. Chris has his own to abuse.
Feedback: Please, tell me what you think. Flames will be forwarded to that
dark part of my writer's imagination that roams the night in search of
victims.
Author's Note: Thanks to David, Shoshana and Shell for amazing beta and
indispensable advice. To Webmistress Grasshopper for keeping up the archive.
And to Xenith for contributions and counsel only a true Mistress of Angst
could bestow.
You can now find all my stories archived at The Literary G-Spot
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http://members.xoom.com/arcticfox42/Tbishop.htm
or try TBishopArchiveMirror
http://tbishop.freeservers.com/
DECEPTION
It was the shock of my life when I found out SHE had betrayed me. Had been
betraying me all along. I refused to believe it when Diana told me. But
then she produced the evidence. And I wanted to die.
Scully was with the Consortium. She'd been working for THEM all along.
Playing me for a dupe. The woman I was living with... in love with, was
nothing more than a whore for the Consortium, sent to spy on me, and keep me
in check.
Her abduction, her cancer, even Antarctica had all been carefully and
cleverly staged to make me believe and trust her, to make me depend on her,
to make me fall in love with her, to draw me further into the trap. She was
never in any real danger, Diana explained. She knew the cure to her cancer
would always be provided for her. It was all a lie. Scully was a lie. And
I was the biggest fucking fool on the planet.
I resisted believing it could be true, the things Diana was telling me, but
she showed me papers with Scully's signature, contracts with the Roush
Corporation dated just prior to her coming to work with me on the X-Files.
Signatures can be forged, of course. I sent them off to be verified. But I
needn't have bothered. I soon saw with my own eyes the deceit that had been
perpetrated upon me all these years by this woman who I thought I knew and
could trust...
My knees buckle when I see her with him, Krycek, the bastard who killed my
father and Scully's sister. My God, she'd even been willing to sacrifice her
own sister as part of the farce to deceive me! I'm sickened. Her loyalty to
the Consortium is real. And what I see before me now, her in his arms... is
also real. He's kissing her. His filthy hands are all over her as she works
the card key to the motel room door. Just before she pulls the drapes
closed, sparing me any more of the horror of their rendezvous, I see him
start to undress. Though I don't want to believe what I just saw, it
suddenly all makes perfect sense. No wonder she'd shot me to protect him.
It's Krycek who she really loves.
Diana helps me to the car.
She has to pull over shortly after we start driving, as I can no longer hold
the contents of my stomach. My whole world has been turned upside-down. I'm
living a nightmare that I will never wake up from. Images from the past keep
popping into my head, things I always believed were the truth are now
distorted with suspicion.
Scully... Not Scully. How could it be true?
I am sobbing like a baby by the time Diana gets me back to her place.
"I just don't understand..." I stare, unblinking, out the window at the city
lights. "I can't believe it! I can't fucking believe it! Not her..."
Diana hands me a drink she's fixed, and sips at one herself. "I hated to do
it, Fox. But you had to see for yourself what she is. You would never have
believed it otherwise."
I wipe some of the wetness off my cheeks. "No! There must be some other
explanation. I... won't accept this!"
"You saw her with Alex Krycek! She was kissing him! You know as well as I
do what happened after she pulled those curtains. They've been lovers a long
time, Fox. I'm sorry to be the one who had to bear the bad news. But I know
how much you value honesty. You deserved to know the truth."
There is no truth if Scully is a lie. God damn her! God damn her to hell
for doing this to me! The turmoil inside me threatens to push me to
insanity.
Part of me still loves her, wants to find some way to prove her innocent...
maybe she was forced into this, maybe they were threatening her, or her
family. God, anything is better than believing that Scully would willingly
work with my enemies to manipulate and defeat me. I don't want to believe
it. How could she be pretending all this time? How could she fake her
feelings for me so convincingly?
Another part of me knows damn good and well what I just saw and wants to kill
her, hates her for her treachery... That vision of her and Krycek will
forever be seared into my memory, along with the remembrance of what it felt
like to have my heart ripped from my chest and crushed beneath those
high-heeled shoes she wears. She's hurt me so deeply and completely, I know
I will never recover. I am torn, lost, and scared to death of having to go
on alone.
"Fox, I know how painful this must be. But you'll get past this. I'll help
you. We've always supported each other, and I want you to know that I'm here
for you."
Thank God for Diana. In my darkness, her voice gives me comfort. Her
familiar scent and loving embrace is all that stops me from eating a bullet
in my despair.
She tells me how she's been trying for years to get the proof about Scully.
How it nearly cost her her life on more than one occasion. But she's
remained true to me, determined to expose Scully for what she is, and put an
end to the Consortium's trickery. Diana is the shining beacon to the truth
I've been seeking for most of my life, and I cling to her now in my anguish
and sorrow.
"Come on, Fox. You've had a hell of a day. Let's get you to bed. Things
will make more sense to you in the morning." She takes the empty glass from
my hand and guides me to her bedroom. Without objection, I let her undress
me, and I fall into the turned down bedcovers, exhausted and distraught
beyond all reason. A few seconds later she slips into bed next to me, and
wraps me in the comfort of her arms.
She is the only one I can trust.
*****************************************************
Dear God in heaven, what have I done? I gave him to her, to THEM. But what
choice did I have? They were going to kill him. It was the only way I could
save his life. I can hardly see to drive through the tears that fill my
eyes. I have betrayed Mulder. In the worst way imaginable, I have entered
into a deception that will ultimately lead to his downfall.
I should have known when Diana showed up, something bad was about to happen.
She's always been an omen...
HE came to me, Smoking Man, with the most outlandish request. He wanted me
to step aside and let Diana Fowley take my place as Mulder's partner. I
laughed in his face, of course. He just smiled patiently, and went on to say
how I also needed to cooperate in a scheme to discredit myself in Mulder's
eyes. I had to convince him that I had been working for the Consortium all
along... that I had betrayed him.
I wasn't laughing anymore.
If he expected me to participate in his sinister plan, I knew he must have
had some way of ensuring my accession.
"Why would I do this?" I asked him, my heart beating double-time.
"To save Agent Mulder's life. I know how much he means to you, after all."
He took a long drag from his cigarette. "There are some who feel Agent
Mulder is less of an asset and more of a liability these days. With you at
his side, he seems to have grown a bit... wild, shall we say. Everyone
agrees Agent Fowley would be a more stabilizing influence."
"I'll bet." I crossed my arms over my chest defiantly.
He chuckled, and I watched the wisps of smoke escape from his lips. "If he
is not brought under control, there is no telling what might happen to him.
I'm sure you can see the dangers I'm speaking of."
"What I see is a man threatening the life of a Federal Agent."
"You misjudge me, Agent Scully. I don't wish to see any harm come to Agent
Mulder. That's why I'm here. To persuade you to do what is necessary to
protect him."
"After everything you've done to us, you expect me to believe you have his
best interests at heart?"
"It was assumed there would be a certain reluctance on your part. Therefore,
a demonstration has been arranged, something that should aptly motivate you."
As much as I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of seeing my fear, I
couldn't control the look of apprehension on my face as he instructed me to
three different locations to autopsy John Does, for which he promised me I
would find no apparent cause of death. He assured me they'd all died of
poisoning, although I would find no traces of it to verify that fact. And if
I chose to be uncooperative, or attempted to warn Mulder, there would be no
way for me to stop the same fate from befalling him. He promised that I
would see for myself just how easily it could be done. And he said he would
be in contact with me again soon.
I did the autopsies. And I didn't fail to notice the cruel attention to
detail. Each of the three men bore a striking resemblance to Mulder. It was
more than a little unnerving. Just as I'd been told, the cause of death in
all three cases was inconclusive.
I returned to the Bureau, uncertain of what I should do next. When I reached
the basement, Mulder greeted me with a kiss that tasted like peanut butter.
"Thanks for the cookies, Scully." He grinned at me.
"What are you talking about?"
"The cookies you left for me on my desk. Peanut butter. You know they're my
fav... Scully? What's the matter? What are you doing?"
"Mulder, tell me you didn't eat all of the cookies." I panicked, searching
his desktop for even a crumb.
He looked at me sheepishly. "Sorry, Scully, was I supposed to share?"
The stomach contents of John Doe number one included peanut butter cookies.
I watched Mulder like a hawk the rest of the day, never letting him out of my
sight. Well, aside from the time he went to use the men's room, that is.
"Scully, what's the matter with you today?" he asked, when he found me
waiting anxiously outside the men's room door.
I didn't dare tell him. "I missed you." I lied. It was clear he didn't buy
it, but he dropped the subject just the same.
By the end of the day I was a basket case. I'd carefully monitored every
drop of food Mulder put into his mouth, making sure he ate nothing that
matched what the three dead men had eaten. That night when we went to bed, I
slept with my head pillowed on Mulder, listening to the reassuring beat of
his heart, and comforted by the constant rise and fall of his chest.
In the morning we stopped for coffee at our usual drive thru. A nonfat latte
for me, black coffee for Mulder. At least none of the victims had ingested
coffee prior to their deaths. We were almost to work before Mulder took a
sip of his... he always thinks they make it too hot.
"Aghhhh! Yuck!" He made the most disgusted face and held the cup away like
it contained poison.
Oh my God!
"Mulder! What is it?"
"It's not coffee, that's for damn sure! Yuck!" He stuck his tongue out and
generally looked like he was going to be sick.
I took the cup from him and examined the contents. "Chai Tea," I told him.
John Doe number two.
The analysis came back as I'd suspected. It was simply Chai Tea and nothing
more. Another warning to me of just how easily they could take him.
But it was their third admonition that put me over the edge. The work week
ended, I had planned that Mulder and I would hole up in our apartment until
Monday morning, avoiding any and all contact with the outside world while I
tried to figure out what I was going to do about all this. I was deep in
thought, curled up on the couch, pretending to read a book, when Mulder came
into the living room foaming at the mouth.
"Scully, when did we change toothpastes?" he mumbled around his toothbush as
he continued at his task.
"What?" I asked absently.
He took the toothbush out of his mouth so he could speak more clearly. "I
liked our old toothpaste. Why'd you buy this stuff? Wasn't my breath minty
fresh enough for you?"
What the hell was he talking about? I hadn't bought any new toothpaste...
The second the realization struck me, I flew off the couch and raced into the
bathroom to confirm it. Someone had replaced our mostly used up tube of
toothpaste with a brand new supply. I had no way of knowing what brand of
toothpaste the third John Doe had used, but what did it really matter? The
point had been made. There was no where he'd be safe. Even in our own home.
Mulder must have thought I was crazy. As I stood there holding the
toothpaste, I started to cry.
"Hey, it's no big deal, Scully. If you want to change toothpastes, I can
live with it."
That's when I knew I had no choice.
I told them I would do it. There really was no other way. I'd tried in the
past to warn Mulder about Diana, and he'd stubbornly refused to listen. The
Consortium was watching me, my every move. Even when I couldn't see them, I
could feel their presence. Watching. I had no choice but to do as they
asked.
The worst part was when she brought Mulder to see me with Krycek. I hated
that slimy bastard touching me, let alone deceiving Mulder into believing I
was involved with the man who had killed Melissa, and his father. God, that
must have been a terrible blow to him. But that's precisely what they
wanted. They wanted him broken, in pieces, so Diana could put him back
together with her lies...
That's what she's doing right now.
The thought of him at the mercy of that deceitful bitch is almost too much to
take. Of course he will believe her. He always has. It's something I just
had to accept after a while, his faith in her. I was never able to get the
proof, the hard evidence that would damn her in his eyes. Because of my
failure, they've found a weak spot and are exploiting it.
I know if I try to warn him they will surely make good with their threat. So
I promise myself I will find a way to strike back at them. I will not rest
until every last one of those son's of bitches pay for what they are making
me do. Even so, I feel guilty as hell for doing this to him.
I'm working with our enemies. I am one of THEM now.
What he must be thinking of me after all this. How he must hate me. God,
Mulder, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry for hurting you. I tried to think of a
way out, but there wasn't any. Cancerman called checkmate, and all I could
do was concede defeat.
Soon Mulder will confront me. And I am going to have to lie to his face and
tell him that it's all true. I'm not going to be able to look into his eyes
when I do it. I don't have the strength to watch the effects of my duplicity
on this man that I love. I SHOULD look into his eyes. I should see the pain
and the hatred as punishment for my crime against him. But I'm afraid it
would break me. I would beg him for forgiveness and tell him everything...
anything to stop what I have begun, and make him love me again... believe in
me again. Anything to stop him from hurting.
I drive home and wait. That's all I can do now. Mulder will eventually show
up waving the evidence they've created and accusing me of the worst sins of
all. I will lose my job, maybe even be brought up on charges, my family will
be shocked and disgraced by what they think are my traitorous actions, and
Mulder will hate me for the rest of his life. I have to keep reminding
myself that I'm doing this to protect him. It's the only way I can force
myself to continue forward down this horrible path of lies.
*****************************************************
"Fox, who was that?" Diana asks, never taking her eyes off the road.
I return the phone to my jacket pocket and drop my head back against the
seat, releasing a weary sigh. "It was the lab, verifying Scully's signature
on the contract with Roush."
"I'm sorry, Fox, but I told you it was true. And anyway, you saw for
yourself at that motel..."
"Diana, how did you know she'd be there with him?"
She hesitates, and I watch her swallow a couple of times before she answers
me. Her eyes still straight ahead on the road. "I have a contact inside the
Consortium, someone close to Krycek and Scully, someone who is in a
vulnerable position and can be easily exploited. That's how I came to
possess the Roush contract too."
I nod.
"I know this is difficult for you, Fox. But at least it's over now. She
can't use you anymore. You'll be in control of your life without her
interference, and we'll be together again." She reaches across the seats and
squeezes my hand, turning her head to offer me a smile of hope and
reassurance. "With her out of the way, you and I can be partners once more.
It'll be just like old times."
Yeah. Great. Everything's working out just fine. I close my eyes and try
not to think about the confrontation that lies ahead. We're on our way to
see Scully. At the center of this web of lies is a deadly spider that must
be exposed and destroyed before she can inject her venom and kill her
helpless prey.
I hate what I am about to do. God help me if I'm wrong about her. There is
still some doubt. She could be being manipulated. Maybe seeing Scully will
make it all clear, erase the doubts and make this decision easier to live
with.
*****************************************************
I jump when I hear the knock at the door. I've been waiting all night and
most of the morning for him to show. Why he didn't just use his key, I don't
know. This is still his home, our home. He has every right to enter without
knocking. Is he already feeling so estranged from me? I walk to the door as
a prisoner to the gallows, slowly and on unsteady legs. I don't want this to
happen. But I know that it must.
As I open the door, I look at her, not him. I see victory in her eyes. I
wonder if she can see defeat in mine? I wonder if he can?
"Agent Scully, can we come in?" she says it so coolly, a practiced deceiver
skillfully playing her role.
I have a role to play now too, I remind myself. I HAVE to do this. I have
no choice. I turn my back and let them follow me into the living room. I
hear the door being shut and locked, but I don't turn around. "I would ask
you where the hell you were all night, Mulder, but considering who you're
with, I don't think I want to know." Forgive me, Mulder. They're making me
do this.
"Scully... I have recently been shown evidence that suggests something
inconceivable to me. It implies a betrayal... a deception that I would
sooner die than believe."
His words cut into me like the sharpest razor's edge. I can feel my life's
blood spilling out upon the floor. "I don't know what she's told you,
Mulder, but I've warned you before not to believe anything she says." I
stare out the window and struggle to keep the tears from forming in my eyes.
Diana jumps in. "No, it's YOU he can't believe! He has the proof, thanks to
me, of what you are and who you REALLY work for! Your little game is over,
Dana. You might as well confess."
This is where I'm supposed to validate her, pretend to be caught, and let him
hear from my own tongue that I am nothing but a pawn of the Consortium. A
tool used to deceive and beguile him. But there is only silence from me. My
mouth opens... the words will not come.
"I saw you with Krycek, Scully. Last night at the motel. I was there and I
saw you." His voice is monotone, dead, flat, emotionless... like he's
reading the words off a piece of paper.
Taking a deep breath, I screw up my courage and turn to face him. "I see.
Well, then I suppose there's no use in pretending anymore." I will NOT look
into his eyes. I CAN do this. I HAVE to do this. His life depends upon me.
"Actually, I'm surprised I was able to fool you this long. You really are
too easily duped, Mulder."
In my peripheral vision I see Diana's self-satisfied smile and a barely
perceptible nod.
Mulder steps forward and grabs me by my shoulders. "Why?" he demands. "Why
would you do this to me?"
I stare at his shirt collar. "Because the people... who you call enemies...
must succeed at all costs."
"Look at me, Scully! Look me in the eyes and tell me how it is you could
seduce and use me with impunity, how you could live a lie for all these years
without it weighing heavily upon your conscience, how you could abuse my
faith and my trust as part of a deception to further your own agenda! Look
at me, damn it! Look at me and tell me the truth!"
Before I can stop myself, my eyes meet his and I am trapped in his stare.
How many times have I taken refuge in those emerald depths? When I was
afraid or sick or hurting... I always found comfort in Mulder's eyes. I
always saw faith, and hope, and found immeasurable strength to get me through
the darkest of times. Long before we ever confessed our feelings for each
other, Mulder's eyes gave away the secret of his heart. Now, under his
piercing gaze, I begin to tremble. He is looking into my soul. I have to
get away, or he will surely recognize my duplicity. And if I look into his
eyes a moment longer, I will not be able to continue the charade.
I break from his grip and make a run for the door, but as I struggle with the
lock, I feel the hard barrel of a gun at the back of my head. Frantically I
continue to try to escape, but my damn fingers are clumsy in my panic as I
fight the bolted door. I can't face Mulder, not another second. I have to
get away... I have to get away...
*****************************************************
"Agent Mulder, unless you can explain this in a satisfactory manner, you will
be charged with the murder of a federal agent." A.D. Skinner glares at me
across his desk.
"She betrayed me. From the beginning it was all just a lie. She was nothing
but an operative of the Consortium sent to spy on me and keep me from
discovering the truth." I am suddenly choked with emotion and have to stop
to catch my breath, to fight back the waves of regret and remorse that
threaten to bring me to tears. I killed her. I didn't even hesitate. I
drew my gun and shot her dead with one pull of the trigger. This woman who I
had loved and believed in, placed my trust and faith in, had been deluding me
for years.
"You have proof of this, Agent?" Skinner's eyes are begging me to say yes.
The gentle hand of the woman next to me reaches over to squeeze mine. "I can
corroborate Agent Mulder's story."
Skinner frowns at both of us. "It's not that I don't believe she was dirty,
but it looks an awful lot like a vengeance killing, something even I can't be
sure didn't happen in this case."
"Sir, she was about to put a bullet in my head," Scully pleads with him. "If
Agent Mulder hadn't taken her down, I have no doubt that she would have
murdered me to protect the lie. Once I confessed, it made perfect sense for
her to kill me. I was the only one who stood a chance of exposing her. I
suppose she thought shooting me as I tried to escape would be a nice touch."
"This whole thing is absurd, but I must say it does reek with the smell of
cigarette smoke. I want full reports from both of you on my desk first thing
in the morning. I'll do what I can to help you out on this one, Agent
Mulder. But I hope to God you have a clear conscience about why you pulled
that trigger."
I do...
I saw Diana take the safety off her gun, and I saw her trigger finger
starting to move. I knew I had no time to think about it. It was either
Diana or Scully... there was no question in my mind which one I would choose.
They both fell to the floor when my gun went off. And for a few agonizing
seconds I actually thought Diana and I had fired simultaneously. I ran to
Scully, and my heart started beating again when I realized what had happened.
She'd only collapsed with the shock of thinking that she'd been shot. I
grabbed her up in my arms and held her tight against me, both of us shaking
so badly you would have thought we were suffering from hypothermia...
"Come on, Mulder." Scully urges me out of the chair, and out of my musings,
with a kindly nudge. "Let's go home."
*****************************************************
I've told him nothing yet of what happened, of how I came to be a participant
in the Consortium's plot against him. He seems to know I've been just as
much a victim in all of this as he has. I want to believe it was blind
faith, why he gave me consideration over Diana, but I know there must have
been something more. Do I dare ask how he knew? Or when he knew? As if he
can read my thoughts, Mulder suddenly appears in the doorway to our bedroom
and sits down on the bed beside me. I close up my laptop to give him my full
attention.
"They're getting sloppy, Scully. Which tells me they're desperate. And that
we're getting close to beating them. When I had the lab boys verify your
signature, I also had them authenticate the document. While it was dated
1992, the ink used to print it up wasn't available on the market until last
year."
So that's how he knew. But that seems like so little in the face of
everything else, him seeing me with Krycek, my own confession...
"Of course I didn't need the lab report to tell me it was all a lie. One
look in your eyes, Scully, and I had all the proof I needed."
I try to smile at him but I end up in tears. "Mulder, they were going to
kill you if I didn't cooperate. And now that their plan has failed, I'm
afraid nothing will stop them from taking you from me."
He pulls me into his arms. "They won't kill me, Scully. They'd have done it
long ago if they thought they could get away with it. If they take me out,
they risk giving credence to what I've been saying all these years. The last
thing the Consortium wants is the publicity that my untimely death would
incite." He smiles, and then his lips meet mine for a brief but deeply felt
kiss.
The confidence behind his words gives me some comfort, but what he said
earlier, about them being desperate, still haunts me. As I rest in his arms,
I can't help but wonder... If we really are close to exposing the truth and
bringing them down... in their desperation, might not they act rashly
someday, and take that chance Mulder is so convinced they'll never take?
~END~
Life is too short to drink bad wine.