From drjudd@rainbow.net.au Fri Aug 30 08:57:02 1996 OFFSPRING DESLEA R. JUDD drjudd@rainbow.net.au Copyright 1996 DISCLAIMER This book is based on The X Files, a creation of Chris Carter owned by him, Twentieth Century Fox, and Ten-Thirteen Productions. Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, Walter Skinner, and a number of lesser characters including Bill Mulder, Mrs Mulder, Samantha Mulder and her clones, Maggie Scully, Melissa Scully, Captain Scully, Sharon Skinner, Kimberly Cooke, the Cigarette Smoking (Cancer) Man, the Well Manicured Man and his offsider, Frohike, Quiqueg, Gautier, Jean Gautier, Ellen, and Alex Krycek remain the intellectual property of those parties. A number of other characters are the author's creation and are copyright, and may not be used without her written permission. These include but are not limited to Dr Karen Koettig, Agent Grbevski, Melissa Samantha Scully, Grace Skinner, Clone 1 (Cynthia), Clone 3 (Carolyn), Clone 4 (Catherine), Dr Sam Fieldman, Dr Paul Sturrock, Dr Marion Pieterse, Wendy Tomiris, Serena Ingleburn, Amarette, Dr Jillian Maitz, Hallie, and Emily Trent. Any queries concerning ownership of minor characters not mentioned here should be directed to the author. (See Pt 1 for complete spoiler, content, and comments info). A few spoilers from Pilot, Duane Barry, Ascension, One Breath, Colony, Endgame, Anasazi, Blessing Way, Paper Clip, Nisei, 7.31, Piper Maru, Apocrypha, and Avatar. I've rated this book R just to be on the safe side, but I think it's more PG-13, in truth. There's some low-level sex (three scenes, more emotional than anatomical), low-level bad language, low-level violence, and that's about all. Comments, good and bad, are welcome; but make sure they're constructive, please! My e-mail is drjudd@rainbow.net.au, but don't worry if you see something else in your "reply" header like magna.com, because Rainbow.Net shares a server with another ISP called MagnaData. And if you think my work's worth stealing, I'm flattered; but don't even think about it. Archivists, feel free to add this to your collections; but be sure to let me know. OFFSPRING BY DESLEA R. JUDD (16/18) EIGHT Pathology Federal Bureau of Investigation Washington, D.C. March 29, 1997 "Well?" Scully looked up from her microscope. Skinner and Mulder were there. She looked back down, made some notes in a file, removed the slide, and put it away. Only when she had finished did she acknowledge the men. She sat down and beckoned for them to do the same. "Melissa is basically a normal infant. Her blood and tissue are not dissimilar to what would be considered normal, her organs are in their normal places, she responds to stimulii in a way which is within usual percentiles. Her blood," she added with a grin at Mulder, "isn't green and it doesn't dissolve whatever it touches." There was a relief which she was careful not to express - or even acknowledge. In the back of her mind, she had feared that Melissa would be like the Samantha clone, the one who had died all those years ago, and corroded before her very eyes. If, as Samantha had believed, the sperm which had been implanted within her was that of a clone, she was extraordinarily lucky that Walter had made her pregnant before it could. Mulder said wearily, "Touche." Scully's tone became grave. "That having been said, there were a number of unidentifiable substances in her system. They have points of similarity to substances such as, variously, enzymes, hormones, T-cells, and so on. Her secretions are somewhat unusual, but don't seem to have any malignant properties. Her immunological responses seem unusual, but we can't know more about that until they can be studied in depth. At the very least, it will have to wait until she's weaned; because we don't know what anomalies might be being passed on from me, in light of the radiation incident. I must admit, I had some reservations about feeding in the first place, but I've analysed samples and they seem fine." She paused. "Her brain scans did show some anomalies, also, but they don't seem to be related to disease. They anomalies are focused around the brain stem, and could be expected to impact on the central nervous system." Her brow furrowed. "I don't have any answers. She could turn out to be completely normal in every way that counts. Her biological abnormalities - anomalies - whatever you want to call them - could turn out to be completely benign, and or dormant." Mulder's voice was piercing. "But you don't believe that." Scully bowed her head for a moment. "I don't think anyone would go to such elaborate lengths for something which was intended to be dormant. That having been said, genetic engineering is only as precise as the knowledge which informs it. If the people who did this are ignorant as to the precise properties of this genetic material themselves, then it - whatever it is - may indeed be dormant - or even harmful. We just can't know that, until she grows." Skinner chose his words carefully. "Can you make any predictions about Melissa's future, Dana?" Scully shook her head. "Not really. The fact that she appears normal cosmetically is tremendously important. It sounds relatively minor, but it isn't. We can monitor her privately and raise her in a conventional manner, and if she does show behaviours or capacities which might cause her problems in living in society, we can help her, or even hide her if we have to. That's something we couldn't have done if she had looked abnormal in some way." She cleared her throat. "The most we can draw from that, however, is that she can live a fairly normal life - at least unless she manifests some characteristic in the future which might preclude it. We can't draw any conclusions about her nature from that. Some of the most anomalous and damaged people look completely normal. We don't know what these people were playing with when they did this. Probably they didn't, either." "You mentioned the brain. Any speculations on psychological impact?" Skinner brainstormed. "Probably nothing at a conscious level, though we can't be sure of that, of course. As I said, I think the most affected area will be the central nervous system." Scully made a face. "As to what that means, I don't know. The CNS is probably the least understood of the bodily systems in how it functions. Sensations, motor skills, cognitive abilities - those are all related in some way to the central nervous system. Melissa could be heightened or diminished in those capabilities, or perhaps exercise them unusually." "Psychic abilities, telekinesis, ESP, and PSI have all been linked to the central nervous system," Mulder noted. "It's a theory." Scully was dubious, but her tone was mild. "I won't pretend I'm not worried by these findings, but at this stage all worry is speculative. She is well and seems to fall within normal percentiles. All we can do is wait." Skinner looked away. Scully tilted her head to meet his eye. "Hey. Walter." Her voice was gentle. "It's going to be okay." He looked back at her, then Mulder. Finally, he nodded and gave a weak smile. Scully smiled back. She only wished she believed it herself. West Tisbury Martha's Vineyard, Massachussets April 3, 1997 Two weeks later, Mulder, Scully, and Skinner sat back, sipping on their drinks and relaxing with a leisure quite foreign to any of them. They were at Mulder's father's home in Massachussets - his <> home, Mulder reminded himself: his father had left her the family home in his will, despite the long-ago breakup; and against her better judgement she had moved there and rented the Chilmark house out. Yet it was as though his father lived on here, and the fact of his death was something he kept stumbling over, as though he had forgotten. But how could he forget? They had arrived earlier that morning, showing up unannounced. Virginia Mulder had shown no surprise; she was used to her son's surprises. They weren't close on a day-to-day basis, but there was great love between them - a love born of a shared hell at his father's hands. "Mom, this is Walter Skinner," Mulder had said, "and my partner, Dana Scully, I believe you've met." Ginny had shaken hands with Skinner, who held Melissa; but Dana she had embraced warmly. Somewhat taken aback, Dana had returned the embrace. "I remember you, Dana. I remember what you did for me at Bill's funeral. I never did thank you." Dana blushed. "Mrs Mulder, I-" "Ginny," Virginia corrected. "Please." Three days after Bill Mulder had been gunned down, Mulder, too, had been presumed dead after being caught in a fire engineered by Cancer Man. He had survived, and he had come to Scully in a dream, telling her that he lived. Scully had never acknowledged the dream, even to herself; but on an impulse, she had gone to Bill's funeral and told Ginny that her son was alive. Unknown to her, Virginia Mulder, who had lost her son and his father in the space of a week, had with methodical calmness decided to suicide. Scully's words had been all that had kept her alive until Fox had returned. Now, Ginny invited them in and welcomed them warmly. Not a particularly domestic personality, she had nonetheless pampered them, ensconsed them in the sunroom with food and drink, and cooed with a middle-aged woman's self-deprecating delight over Melissa. After a lively morning tea, the two men left to buy lunch over Ginny's protests that she had enough to feed them all. She and Dana remained in the sunroom, Dana nursing Missy. They were silent for a time, but then Ginny said reflectively, "You know, this morning is the first time I've felt at home here since I moved back." "I wondered why-" Ginny looked up, and Dana broke off suddenly. "I'm sorry, Ginny. I don't want to pry." Ginny gave a grim smile. "You wondered why I came back, when Fox has certainly told you how horrible those years here with Bill were." Dana nodded cautiously. "He was right; they were horrible years. But they were also my years with my children - with Samantha." She looked at Dana and Missy. "You understand, even though Fox doesn't." Dana nodded, holding the baby against her breast, not trusting herself to speak. Ginny went on. "That was why Bill left me this place, really. Even in the hatred, Bill and I shared something no-one else could enter into - the pain of losing her. And when he threw me out with nothing but Fox, he was wrong - he knew that. Leaving me this place was him making amends. It was him giving back what he'd taken from me - my home." She shrugged. "Bill had to wait until he was dead to admit he was wrong. That's what he hated about Fox. He saw in Fox the integrity he didn't have himself. That's why he treated him so badly...because whenever he looked at my son, he saw his own shame. He could never tell Fox he was proud of him." Dana bowed her head a moment. "Ginny, I think Mulder's father did tell him in the end. He doesn't talk about it very much, but I know they reached some kind of understanding the night he died. Mulder seemed to make peace with his father in some way." Ginny's voice was reflective. "I hope so." She paused, and her tone lightened. "Tell me, Dana, why do the two of you call each other Mulder and Scully?" Dana smiled, shrugging slightly. "I don't know. He makes everyone call him Mulder, you know that. I think he felt, in the beginning, that he had no right to call me Dana if I called him Mulder. Now, we're on different terms. I would let him call me Dana, and he might even let me call him Fox, I think; but somehow, Mulder and Scully seems right." Ginny seemed to accept this, and they fell once more into silence. Finally, she asked, "Dana, are you going to tell me whatever it is the three of you came to tell me?" She bit her lip. After a long moment, she said quietly, "I think that should wait until they get back, Ginny. It's not my place." "All right." The men returned, and the four of them had lunch. Melissa slept in her bouncer. But where morning tea had been lively and chatty, lunch was strained; all four lost in thought, their faces lined with anxiety. They retired in silence to the lounge room. There, it was Virginia Mulder - who feared what was to come but who, like her son, wanted the truth - who broke the quiet. She cleared her throat. "I do realise that this isn't a social call, however pleasant it's been," she said. "The three of you have something to tell me, and I would like to know what it is." Mulder spoke. "Mom-" He broke off, suddenly losing his nerve. Scully regarded him for a moment, and finally, she said what he couldn't bring himself to. "Ginny," she said gently, "it's about your daughter. It's about Samantha." Virginia nodded slowly. She had suspected as much. Mulder looked gratefully at Scully, finding his voice once more. "I told you once that the woman who claimed to be her, wasn't." Ginny nodded. "To be honest, Fox, I thought you told me that to make it easier after she died. I admit that she didn't feel right, somehow; but who else could she have been? Why would she lie?" Mulder bowed his head. "That's a long story in itself, Mom, and to be honest it's beside the point. To put it briefly, she wasn't Samantha, but she needed my help, and she thought pretending to be her was the only way to get it. She knew so much about us because she knew Samantha. She died before she could tell me where the real Samantha was." The <> Samantha? Something about his phrasing gave Virginia some idea of the truth. A suspicion arose in her mind. Before she could stop herself, she said, "Fox, was she a clone?" All three stared at her, Mulder speechless. Scully spoke. "You knew about the cloning?" Ginny hesitated for a long moment before she replied. "I knew there were cloning experiments. Bill was involved in them. I didn't know they were cloning Samantha, but I knew they had her. I should have guessed." Mulder nodded. "Yes, Mom. The woman who came to us was a clone. There were others, too. But we found her - the real her." "How do you know?" Ginny asked suspiciously. Mulder glanced at Scully for help. Neatly, she bridged the gap. "There were - certain properties in the blood of the clones which made them quite recognisable when they bled. Samantha cut her hand for us. Her blood was quite normal." Mulder took up the story once more. "Samantha was held prisoner on a government station in North Dakota. We found her and we wanted to bring her away, but she wanted to rescue some other abductees. There-" He stopped suddenly and hung his head in his hands. Scully opened her mouth to finish, but Skinner quietened her, taking her hand. This was something Mulder had to do himself. He looked up once more, his voice breaking. "There was an explosion, Mom. I couldn't get her out in time. She led someone out and went back in just before it blew. Then she called us, and told us to get out, and she was still in there when it went up. She- she saved our lives-" He looked down at his hands, resolutely fighting back tears. This was his failure, and he would face it, and admit it. He didn't want them to pity him. Facing his mother once more, he cleared his throat. "I didn't want to tell you, Mom. I didn't want you to know we'd lost her all over again. But - you had a right to know-" Virginia cut him off, taking his hands in hers. There were tears in her own eyes. "No, Fox, you were right to tell me. You shouldn't have to carry this alone." "I did my best, Mom," Mulder said brokenly, finally giving in to the tears. Scully, beside him, could bear it no longer and put her arms around him, and he wept against her as though his heart would break. Skinner rested a hand on his shoulder, unsure of his ground, but moved with compassion. Ginny's brow creased as he quietened. She knew Bill had thrown it in his face when they had lost her - lost the clone, she corrected herself. She felt for her son. "You did more than your best, Fox. You found her. And she died saving others. We may not have had the chance to know her, but we know what kind of a woman she was. That's something I couldn't have had without you." She gave him a sorrowful smile. "You did good, Fox." There was silence for a long moment, and Mulder looked gratefully at his friends. He turned back to his mother. "There's more," he said, the strength returning to his voice. Virginia nodded. "I thought so." Skinner took up the story. "Ginny, your daughter was involved in some experiments in genetic engineering. The cloning was only one of them. Another experiment involved using human ova and tampering with it. As far as we can make out, this was with a view to creating a breed of human capable of surviving biological warfare - and possibly nuclear warfare as well." "A super race?" Ginny asked. "We don't think so," Scully answered. "Just a survival race." She paused. "Among the ova used were ova which originated with your daughter. A number of the other women kept prisoner were pregnant with your daughter's children. As far as we know, none of them survived the blast, either." Virginia put a hand to her mouth. "Dear God, no wonder she wanted to save them. My poor Samantha. And those poor babies-" And then she broke off in sudden realisation. She glanced over at Missy. "Oh, my God." Mulder took his mother's hand. "Scully was abducted, too. We got her out. We didn't realise at the time that she had had Samantha's ova implanted, too. When she and Skinner got pregnant, they didn't realise - they didn't know-" Scully admitted gently, "Melissa isn't mine and Walter's - not genetically speaking. She's Walter's and Samantha's." She was silent a moment, her gaze falling on the child she had borne who wasn't hers. "We thought you should know." "This is my grandchild?" Ginny asked tremorously. Scully met her gaze. There were tears in her eyes which she rebelliously held back. She still hadn't made peace with the fact that Melissa wasn't hers. Maybe she never would. She nodded. It was Mulder's turn to put an arm around her, and Walter smoothed back her hair, almost paternally. Virginia was silent. Finally, she said quietly, "Thank you for telling me. It means a lot to know that she lives on, somehow." Scully nodded. "My sister died last year, Ginny. I knew that I would want to know if - well, if it had been her." "I can understand if the answer is no, but-" Skinner cut her off. "We're happy for you to be part of her life, Ginny. Not even so much on Samantha's part as on Mulder's. He's as much a part of the family as Missy is." Mulder shot him a stunned glance, touched. Scully smiled at both men with great warmth. She felt as though, in bringing her family together, Walter had lifted the cloud of a moment ago. Melissa woke then, with a lusty cry. Scully moved automatically to comfort her, but she stopped. She turned to Ginny. "Do you want-" she broke off. Ginny broke into a smile. "Yes." She went to the bouncer and lifted her up. "Thank you, Dana," she said, not without compassion for the latter's pain. Scully nodded, blinking back tears. This hurt much more than she had expected it to. But she knew she had done what was right. <> she heard her beloved Ahab say, <> <> Mulder stared out the window. Scully and the baby were out there, Skinner following them at a quicker pace. He caught up to her and greeted her, but there was no warm embrace. Instead, they walked together, almost gloomily. Mulder felt rather gloomy himself. As he watched, they came to a standstill and faced one another, misery in both their stances. Whatever they were taking about, it was serious - he was sure of it. It wasn't a fight, but it wasn't happy, either. His mother came up behind him. "Fox?" He turned, surprised. "Mom. I'm sorry - did you want me?" Virginia Mulder smiled faintly. "I just wondered where you were." She looked past him, through the window. "I should have known." He looked at her, confused. He waited. Finally, she went on, "Are you in love with her?" Mulder didn't speak the denial that sprang automatically to his lips. He turned back to watch them. Skinner leaned forward and kissed her, just once. Still dejected, but their steps lighter, the two of them turned back and began to stroll slowly back towards the house. "I don't know," he admitted finally. "Maybe." He paused, reflecting. "But you know what, Mom? I don't think that it really matters. What Scully and I have is so much more than anything like that. I don't grieve over her and Skinner. What they have together is good. He makes her happy. I don't need to be with her that way to love her, and to live that out." Virginia felt for her son. She put a hand on his shoulder. "Does she love you?" she asked, knowing the answer. Without hesitation, Mulder nodded. "Yes. She does." There was so little in life of which Mulder was sure; but he was sure of that. "Then maybe you're right. Maybe 'in-love' isn't what matters here." He turned to his mother. "You're a wise woman, Mom." Virginia gave a gentle smile. "And I learned it all from you." Mulder was waiting for them on the verandah. Skinner greeted him, then unobtrusively slipped indoors. Scully watched him go. When the door clicked shut behind him, she turned to him and said quietly, "Walter asked me to marry him." Mulder had expected this. What he hadn't expected was his reaction. He wasn't dismayed. He was pleased. He had spoken a more profound truth to his mother than he had realised. "And?" he asked, leading her to the bench. They sat down. To his surprise, she said firmly, "I told him no." He was stunned. He looked at her searchingly. "Scully...<>" She met his eye in surprise. He hadn't called her by her first name since...well, she couldn't remember. Maybe he never had. "Do you love him?" Scully nodded slowly. "Yes, I do," she said diffidently. "Then, why-" He stopped short. Because he understood. "Why have you never married?" she countered. "There's your parents' marriage, which I know wasn't happy - but it's more than that, isn't it?" He gave a rueful little smile. "Scully, I'm married already. I'm married to finding the truth, finding my sister...and now, finding out why. There's no room for anyone else in that, except you - you because you're part of it. Even if I could make it work, it wouldn't be fair. I couldn't do that to anyone I really loved." He met her gaze with comprehension. "And neither can you," he said. It wasn't a question. "And neither can I," she agreed with a touch of sadness. She smiled faintly. "Walter was right that day that we argued. One of us would be transferred. I can't expose the X Files to that kind of danger - not now. Besides, I need some stability in my life - in myself - before I can even think about taking a step like that. I can't achieve that while ever the truth about Melissa is out there. I need to know. I need the truth." She looked down at the child in her arms with a flicker of pain. "You've heard the truth, Scully," he said gently. Scully shook her head. "I've heard half the truth - if that. If Samantha really knew the whole truth, she'd be alive right now. She would have known enough to protect herself. She was a pawn." Mulder bowed his head. "I'm sorry, Mulder. I wish I could bring her back to you." He looked at her, suddenly pained, and nodded. "Maybe," he mused, "the only one who has all the answers is Melissa." Scully gave a watery smile. "Maybe you're right." Coming In Part 17: Reconciliation/Samantha's Memorial/Melissa's Baptism/Mulder's Baptism Of Fire -- _______________________________________ | | |Deslea R. Judd (drjudd@rainbow.net.au) | |"The Owls Are Not What They Seem" | | - The Log Lady, Twin Peaks) | |_______________________________________|