The Life of Dana Katherine Scully

A New Home (Again)

They had moved again.

Dana Scully looked around at the bare walls of what was going to be her new bedroom, sighing heavily. In her hands, she clutched the box containing all her personal items, each wrapped carefully herself with the perfect amount of bubblewrap so that there was enough to go around, but also enough to protect the delicate treasures from getting broken on the ride here.

Here was Quonochontaug, Rhode Island.

Yet again William Scully Senior, better known as Ahab to Dana, had been transferred to the Newport Naval base. Yet again, the US Navy captain had been required to uproot his family, mere months after settling in. It had happened so many times in Dana's life by now that she ought to have been used to it, but it didn't stop her from feeling somewhat down for the first few weeks whenever her father moved them all to a new home. On top of it all, they had been required to move right at the beginning of the summer holidays, so Dana hadn't even had the chance to spend some quality time with the few friends she made back in Charleston, South Carolina, her father's previous Naval base that he had been assigned to. Instead, she was stuck in a town which seemed to consist solely of Navy owned houses and summer homes, the majority of which were still empty.

At least I won't have to share with Missy anymore, she thought to herself, as she set the box down neatly in the corner. As much as she loved her older sister, Melissa Scully could be quite the troublemaker and in many ways, a room to herself meant that Dana was less likely to get into trouble because of her sister's rash behaviour.

The small redhead gave the new, stark room another sorrowful glance before she shuffled back downstairs to see if there was any thing to occupy herself with. She bypassed the two moving men in the entrance hall, who were attempting to manoeuvre their largest sofa through the narrow entrance into the living room, poking her head around the kitchen door.

Margret Scully has already started to organise the kitchen with Melissa, the surfaces covered with saucepans and plates. Missy was carefully taking the china out of the box, placing them on the sides whilst her mother was moving them into the cupboards in the way she wanted.

"Need any help?" Dana asked.

"We're okay for now," Margret replied, barely giving her youngest daughter a glance. "How about you see if your father needs any help? If not, you and Charlie could go and investigate the neighbour. See if you can meet anyone nice around here."

Ahab seemed as if he just wanted his two youngest children out from under his feet. Charlie had already dropped a box (fortunately only full of clothes rather than anything delicate), but Ahab was not in the mood to be taking any chances.

"Keep an eye on each other," he told Dana and Charlie, who nodded seriously in agreement. "Be back before six."

It was a strange town. There was the beach, which was a plus she supposed, but it was completely deserted. For the entire time they wandered around the town, they met no one. No dog walkers, or joggers. No one.

Charlie gave her a sideways glance. "Is it just me, or is this place just a little bit creepy?"

"It's not just you." Dana glanced around at their surroundings again. "It's too empty, right?"

Charlie nodded. "Is this what it is going to be like when it isn't holiday season?"

"Probably."

He sighed. "No point in even trying to make friends with anyone round here, I suppose."

"We'll probably move again just as we get settled, as usual."

They found themselves back at the beach with very little else to do. It had only just gone five and neither of them wanted to go back 'home', but neither particularly wanted to do much else other than lose themselves in their thoughts. The gentle swash of the ocean lulled the siblings to the point where their minds became completely void of thought and emotion. There they sat, watching the sun slowly creeping lower and lower in the sky.