Scully's Girl

Chapter 8

 8

“You were talking up a storm in your sleep last night, Dana,” Vicki commented, sitting up in bed.

Scully thought to herself that the girl did not look very well rested, despite a solid night’s worth of sleep.

“Was I?” She responded.

“Yeah. It sounded like you were taking to that friend of yours who was just killed. Was her name Kate?”

“Yes. I was talking to Kate. But I actually wasn’t asleep.”

“Did she come to say goodbye to you?”

“Yes.” Scully was not surprised by Vicki’s immediate acceptance of visits from the dead as fact. After all, what right would the girl really have in taking a skeptic’s viewpoint, being herself a human-alien hybrid?

“Are you going to be all right, Vicki?” Scully inquired as the two of them sat down at the kitchen table with their coffee. “Maybe I should stay home today, in case C.G.B. tries anything.”

“No,” Vicki protested. “If he does try something, and you’re here, you’d only be putting yourself in danger.”

“Okay. I don’t want you to go outside for any reason, Vicki. If you absolutely have to smoke, then turn on the fan and open the window.”

“Okay.”

“And don’t answer the door. Or the phone.”

“Of course I won’t. I’m not stupid, Dana.”

“I know you’re not. I’m worried about you, that’s all. I don’t want anything to happen to you. I love you, Vicki.” It felt good to say ‘I love you’, even though the person she was saying it to wasn’t Fox Mulder. And she meant it. She did love Vicki, loved her in a way she could neither explain nor fully understand.

“Maybe he won’t even come after me again,” Vicki suggested, draining the last of the coffee from her cup. But it was obvious enough that she was frightened.

“We need to get you back home to San Francisco as soon as possible. You’ll be safe there. I don’t think C.G.B. knows where you live. He didn’t know about you until you came here. I’ll look up flights today, see if we can get you out of here as early as tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Vicki agreed quietly, successfully holding back the tears that wanted to leak from her eyes. She didn’t want to leave D.C., didn’t want to leave the older woman she had fallen in love with. But Scully was right. She would be safe back in California. And perhaps Dana Scully and Fox Mulder would be safer themselves with her back in California. But on the other hand, what if she wasn’t safe there? What if C.G.B. Spender followed her home? He knew about her now. He had the means to find out where she lived, didn’t he?

These thoughts reached Dana Scully’s mind, even though Vicki had not consciously directed them at her.

“All we can do is try,” she said, reaching out to tuck a strand of Vicki’s hair behind her ear. “I’ll look up flights.”

“Okay. Do we have time to roll before you have to go? It might make me feel better.”

“We could make time,” Scully replied with a smile. “Mulder probably expects me to come in late by now.”

Vicki hadn’t been so gentle this time. She had handled Scully downright roughly, in fact. Almost desperately. Not that Scully was complaining. She had enjoyed it immensely. And Vicki did seem less agitated now.