While My Pretty One Sleeps
Sara B. 2004
He watched her sleep. Red hair fanned over the white pillow and her body so still. Only the slight snuffling noise of her breathing spoke that she lived.
Why was she here?
She hadn’t been what
he’d expected. Somehow with all the planning and analysis they had gotten
her all wrong. Five underlings wheedled through stacks of profiles for months
to find the right partner for Mulder. One that would lead him to the path of
his ruin.
The search had started as
soon as Fowley’s transfer was ordered. They had dangled Diana in front
of him, allowed him a ‘taste’ before they pulled her away, Diana Fowley.
Diana had been the perfect agent. She was hungry for power and stopped
at nothing. At least until... that is another story.
Diana had been in place for
three years and it was time to move her out, to force Mulder into position.
This one had been chosen. The plan was that Dana Scully would dismiss the lunatic in the basement office. Shun him and ridicule the man. Being
the skeptic she was ensured it. A scientist would never take the X-Files seriously. The result would whet the man’s appetite for someone who believed him. To return to someone he already knew and trusted.
He’d return to Diana.
That was the plan. But it all went out the window when they chose this woman. She
surprised them all. Not only did she not dismiss, shun or ridicule Fox Mulder
she supported him. She gave him her science to help substantiate his wild claims. Dana Scully believed in Mulder. Oh yes,
Dana Scully may not believe in his beliefs but she believed in the man. Not because she was ordered to but because that was
who she was.
Dana was lovely. Not his type, no not at all. But she was a beautiful woman. He’d preferred women who by their very presence changed the temperature of a
room. Women who turned heads as they passed and were always just a little too
good for him, or so they thought. He loved that feeling of power he had when
they succumbed. When he overcame their aloofness.
Women like Teena Mulder.
He remembered the moment
when his old bunk mate, Bill Mulder, introduced them. Until that moment he never
understood the term “sparks fly.” Two weeks that was all it took. Two weeks and he was sampling the fruits of her passions. Theirs had been a fast and furious affair that burned hot but didn’t have the time to burn out and
smoldered still.
The order from above came,
put a halt to it. It was never clear how anyone knew but they had. There was no option but to comply. He’d broken
one of the few rules in this game. He’d broken a trust with one of the
Consortium. It didn’t matter that Bill never knew, someone did and he paid
for it. Yes he paid dearly for it, but he’d taken his punishments without
complaints, they were right.
The night the affair ended
he’d tried to break it up ‘softly.’ Their lovemaking was slow
and tender but he could feel that she knew something was going on. He’d
been as gentle as he could but still there were tears and acrimony.
Encounters in recent years
proved she still harbored anger and some hatred.
He supposed that once her
marriage to Bill ended they could have seen each other again. By then he’d
reached a level of power that would have made that possible. He could have pursued
it but he knew that Bill still loved her and he still needed Bill Mulder. All
was lost when he ordered Bill’s execution. Even he was not monstrous enough
for that.
Teena Mulder had been his
one. His only one. She was his ideal
by which he compared all others. He wasn’t a saint, he took his pleasures
when he wanted but everyone paled in comparison. Including that poor creature
Cassandra, the woman he finally married.
Teen Mulder was in his blood
so he decided to remain a bachelor. A month after the affair ended, orders came
down along with a name and a complete dossier. Cassandra Wykes was the daughter
of one of the old guard. Again they gave him no choice. She too, was not his type. Cassandra was fair and thin, pretty
but common. Cassandra didn’t know how to challenge him she was compliant,
always giving. Cassandra was ‘old’ in her thirties. At a time when most women came into their own she was spent.
The marriage was quickly
arranged. Cassandra never raised any objections and he always suspected that
she was in a similar situation as he, no choice. They met, he wooed her and they
went to Vegas for a quickie wedding. Three months from introduction to fate accompli.
He’d been stationed
at Edwards when orders came through for transfer to Fort Bragg. He’d been at Bragg only two days when he ran into Bill Mulder.
Bill had heard of his marriage and insisted the four of them meet for dinner.
He was not a man used to
feeling apprehension, but apprehensive he was as he walked into the restaurant. He
was sure Cassandra knew something was bothering him something more than a dinner with some old friends, she held tightly to
his hand.
The Maitre D escorted them
to the table where Bill and Teena already sat. He purposely didn’t look
at Teena while he introduced his new wife. His eyes moved of their own volition
and sought her out. His jaw dropped, Teena blushed and Bill started to laugh. Teena was pregnant, very pregnant.
He stared until Bill broke
the silence, “didn’t think I had it in me did you?” His only thought was ‘no and I still don’t.’
For her part Teena never
said anything but he had his suspicions. Suspicions that were confirmed when
Bill came into his office with pictures of the newest Mulder; Fox William Mulder, born October 13 at 10:47 a.m. after thirteen hours
of hard labor. He weighed in at 8lbs 4oz. and was 21 inches.
Fox, her nickname for him,
‘my sly Fox.’ Fox William, named for his two fathers. Fox for the man who planted the seed and William for the man who would raise him.
The birth of Fox marked the
end of his marriage. He really had tried to make a decent home and be a good,
if mostly absent, husband to Cassandra. But from the moment he saw Teena in her
pregnancy glory his marriage was doomed. Even the birth of Jeffrey could not
forestall the inevitable. Their marriage died a sad and painful death after too
many years of hurt. He never even saw their son.
That brought him back to
the present, to this woman lying there in a drug-induced slumber. This woman
was not one a man would notice first. Not that she wasn’t beautiful, because
she was, but hers is a quiet beauty. She didn’t flaunt herself. Were she another woman she might display their flash and garner certain attentions. But that wasn’t Dana Scully’s style.
This woman was an acquired
taste for the discriminating. One began to see her beauty, her real beauty (her
mind, her compassion and mostly loyalty) only when one spent time with her. Dana
Scully was worth the effort to get to know. One moment she was in the periphery
of a man’s mind and the next she was a necessity of his life. The packaging
is only the icing.
My son chose this woman and
no one else would do. You Dana Katherine Scully have my son’s heart and
he will have no other. We tried. We
paraded woman after woman in front of him and nothing. Some may have had promise
but he soon lost interest. We thought Diana Fowley would succeed. She nearly did. We miscalculated his interest when we sent
her to Europe. We thought he would follow. He didn’t. But he always followed you. We returned her too late; he’d
already chosen you though I don’t think he’d even admitted it to himself at the time.
Who knows, even had she captured
his heart again there was no guarantee you still wouldn’t have won? A chance
meeting, maybe a case or two and I think he would have left Diana for you.
Would you have taken him
back?
So here you are in all your
glory. You bare none of the attributes he’d always shown a preference to. Those preferences ran so similar to my own, sophisticated women whose confidence boarded
onto the point of arrogance, leggy, brunettes with large breasts were our preferred types.
Everything Diana was; everything Teena was. But in the end it was you,
this short unassuming redhead that he wanted, no he needed.
I understood and often wondered
if I had a Dana Scully of my own where my life would have lead. ‘You my
dear are glorious, the essential woman.’
You were jealous of Diana,
and for a time we thought he’d return to her. You even seemed to be helping
in fact. They spent quite a lot of time together did you know that? Probably not. Fox has a lot to learn about being open and
honest. He’d justify it to himself by saying he didn’t want to hurt
you. On the other hand he demands to know everything about those in his life,
you most importantly. One evening they had dinner at her apartment, this was
after El Rico, she tried to seduce him but turned her down. Diana was furious. So much so that she wanted to execute you.
I regret that we didn’t
know Fox’s preference for you before your abduction. If we had, this trip
would not be necessary. We wouldn’t have taken your ova and we wouldn’t
have had to reverse the procedure now. Tomorrow you will wake up not remembering
how I drugged you. We have the whole scenario scripted. You will meet the source, he will be killed but I will kill the assassin before he kills you. It is an added benefit that I will possess the disk and with it the science contained on it.
By now Fox will know of my
involvement, I made sure to leave just enough clues. He will be angry with you
at first and quite possibly doubt you for a time, but soon he will realize how relieved he is to have you back unscathed. If anything this little adventure may speed up your interminably long flirtation to
move toward the inevitable.
“Sleep well beautiful
Dana. We have prepared you to be the mate of my son. The mother of future generations. My legacy will live on.”
End
Sara B.
