Mon, 22 Dec 1997 
From:k-9wac@juno.com (Tamy Erickson)

Title: The Necklace
Author: Tamy "the Pooh" Erickson
e-mail: K9WAC@juno.com
Rating: PG (really!)
category-S
spoilers: Emily
Key words:M&Sc friendship/No Romo, only bonding.
Summary: A little look into Scully's past, in an attempt to explain the
glaring inconsistency of the Necklace time frame. Last scene of Emily
&Post Emily (as opposed to Emily Post?)
 My ramblings: this is what happens when you get net pals that are
'shippers. Well, no shipper here, but gosh, Bill sure does make Mulder
look good in the same light.
Thanks to Julie for tolerating me lately. Mac & Vickie, I guess, get
thanks for poisoning my brain with Mulder-nice stuff. What a concept! And
Tigger for sending me such great hints to clear up the story. To bad I
don't listen to everything you say sometimes. <G> And big thanks to my
hubby's company that provided this neat laptop to allow me to work while
he plays Panzer General.
Disclaimer: No copy write infringement is intended. Don't sue, my Cattle
Dog eats lawyers, and scares cops. And nibbles on the ankles of anyone in
my house. And The Border Collie  sheds. In Black & White. HA!
Finished, started, and completely written on 12-16-97.
Archive-Anywhere, anytime. Leave my name, e-mail address and all with it.
That's all I ask. If you want to put it in a zine, I do artwork, too.
-----------------------------------------------------
The Necklace     
     by Tamy 

Fox Mulder waited in the back of the chapel. "You’re lurking, Mulder,
face it. You ran out and got the flowers, now you’re lurking", he thought
to himself.
The short ceremony was over, and Scully had told him earlier that she
wanted him to take her home. Home, not back to Bill’s. Home. They were
booked on a flight, set to leave in a couple of hours.  Mrs. Scully would
stay on to help with the new baby, and he would be there to help Scully
pick up the pieces when they arrived back in DC. He wouldn’t mind, never
did. That’s what friends were for, after all.
Shaking off his thoughts, he walked slowly up the aisle, passing Bill
(not Scully, he wasn’t Scully, only Scully was Scully-now where did that
come from?), telling Mrs. Scully goodbye, and promising to take care of
Dana once they got home. Bill was actually almost decent to him, Scully
really must have laid into the man. He would have loved to have seen that
confrontation!
He walked up next to Scully, standing to her side. Slowly, he walked
forward and placed the bundle of flowers on  the tiny coffin. Scully
joined him, wondering out loud about what kind of men could do something
like this, sacrificing a child for their own agenda.
Reaching forward, she took the flowers into her hand, placing her other
on the coffin. The talk now was of having their own proof. Mulder had to
turn around, he knew what was, or more likely wasn’t, going to be found.
These men couldn’t afford to have any evidence left behind. He touched
his pocket, to make sure the bottle was still there. It was. He silently
sighed. At the soft- gasp? Whimper? He wasn’t really sure what that noise
was, he turned. Scully stood there, in front of the open, empty coffin,
holding her cross in front of her.
He sighed silently to himself, not really surprised. Scully didn’t seem
to be to surprised, either. Disappointed, upset, but not very surprised.
The last time he saw the necklace, Scully had made sure it was on Emily.
She had pulled it from the sand that had been put in to weight the
coffin.
Clutching the small object in her hand, she slowly made her way over to
the front pew and sat down heavily.  He followed,  sitting next to her,
putting one arm around her shoulders and pulling her close to him. The
urge to protect her out weighing any other thought in his mind.
Scully looked at the necklace in her hand and gave a slight chuckle.
Mulder looked questioningly at her.
Smiling slightly up at him, she tried to explain, "*This* thing always
comes back to me."
"Oh," he murmured, "you mean when I returned it to you after the
abduction?"
"No, Mulder.  More than that. I lost this once before, too. Never thought
I’d see it again."
 "What do you mean?" he asked, slightly confused.
"See that spot on the chain? Right here?" She pointed a spot close to the
clasp. "and here," she pointed to the extra hoop that the cross itself
hung from.
"Uh, yes. Right there, where it looks like a piece broke?"
Scully looked up at him, breaking into the smile that could melt ice, in
his opinion.
"Well? You going to tell me?" he asked outright.
"Why not" she replied.
Settling her head into his shoulder, she tried to get comfortable. "Long
story Scully? Maybe I should call Skinner & tell him we’ll be late?"
"Not that long, Mulder," she replied lightly. "It’s just that after
everything that has happened lately, it’s just nice to be able to lean
back and feel safe. At least for now."
"Okay, " he replied, tightening his hold on her slightly.
"Well, I know you’ve noticed that Bill is somewhat of a verbal, mental
bully." She commented rhetorically.
Mulder snorted.Loudly. She shushed him with a look.
Continuing, "when I was 14 mom gave Melissa & me both the cross necklaces
for Christmas. Melissa was quite thrilled, as I’m sure you can imagine,"
she muttered the last part sarcastically. Smiling slightly at his
enthusiastic nod.
"I wore that thing all the time, day and night. I loved it so much, I
wouldn’t take it off. Not even the couple of times I ended up going to
the ER for stitches from rough housing with the boys. One day, oh, I was
almost 15, I was out playing football with Billy and his friends. He got
so mad at me, because I was so small, I could just run right in between
all the guys. He was furious, because I stole the ball from one of them,
I was on the other team. He reached forward and grabbed my hair. He
pulled it so hard, some of it actually came out in his hand. I really
don’t think at that point he was fully aware of what he was doing, his
friends were egging him on about the hot-shot sister. He started
screaming at me, telling me I was good for nothing, and to stop playing
if I couldn’t play fair."
"Scully," Mulder stared to say.
"I know, Mulder," it was a game, I was there to play. That didn’t bother
me anywhere near as much as him hurting me. It’s the first, and last time
he ever hurt me. I think it scared him, it scared me. I mean, he had
yelled at me before, but never, ever did he lay a hand on me.
"Anyway," she continued, after a pause, "he and his friends laughed and
went running off. A short while later I got home. Mom noticed right away
the tears that I wouldn’t let Bully Billy see. After bandaging the cut
on my knee, she looked up and noticed my necklace was missing. When she
asked me where it was, I knew it had to have fallen off, broken, when
Billy pulled my hair. I wasn’t about to tell her about that, Billy would
yell at me more. I wasn’t going to be a tattle tale.
I told her I was playing football, and it must have broken off when I
fell, or something. We went out to the field and looked everywhere. There
was so much sand and dirt in that lot. We never did find it.
"When we got home, Missy heard what happened, and offered me hers," she
stopped for a minute, then continued, "Mom was so upset about that, you
should have seen her face."
"I've seen that face, Scully. You don't need to explain it," Mulder
laughed to himself, thinking of the number of times he got that same
disappointed look from the daughter that learned so well from her mother.
"Then," she continued, in a voice that sounded almost ominous, "Billy
came home. Mom was so worked up by this time, she knew what the necklace
meant to me. She laid into him, up one side and down the other. All he
did was stand there, glaring at me. He finally told her that it was all
my fault, that I needed to learn how to be a real girl, and not goof
around playing ball and stuff.
"That did it. He got grounded for 3 days, I went to bed with a headache.
"A few months later, it was my 15th birthday. Mom had a big party for me,
invited my friends over, and handed me one of my gifts. I opened it, I
thought she had replaced the cross. It looked exactly like the old one.
That’s because it was the old one. Found out later from a girl I knew,
that Billy had her brother and everyone else out there in that lot. They
scoured it top to bottom. He was frantic trying to get back on  mom’s
good side. After about a week, they finally found it. He took it home and
tried his best to fix it. Then he gave it to mom.
"Of course, that got him back in her good graces. She had it cleaned up,
and then decided to wait and surprise me with it. As soon as I could
afford to, I had it fixed properly. Mom never noticed. I’ve never taken
it off since then, and never played football with Billy again.
"Come to think of it, I haven’t done much with Billy since then. I think
that was my big wake up. You know, he never treated Melissa or Charlie
like that. Just me. Think he always resented my being the baby girl,
getting attention.
"Well," sighing she went to stand, turning to him, she held out her hand
"not very traumatic as these things go, but I’ve just never quite
forgiven him."
Taking her hand, Mulder stood. Pulling her into a loose hug, he
responded, "now, at least, I know why I want to punch him in the nose
every time I see him."
"Don’t worry about that Mulder, I had a talk with him awhile back. He
won’t try to push us around any more."
"Oh, G-woman." Mulder lightened up, "what did you do to him?"
"It’s a long story. I don’t want to get into it right now. Maybe later,
as you'd probably say, though, FBI-1, Navy-0."
"Okay, I’ll expect that story," tugging lightly on her hand, he started
to pull her toward the exit.
"A minute, Mulder, please?" she asked.
Nodding, Mulder walked to the end of the pew and stood. He watched Scully
walk up to the still open coffin. Reaching in, she sifted the sand
through her hand. Very softly, she murmured, "as always, alone."
Closing the lid, she turned and started to walk out. Mulder fell into
step next to her. They were stepping out into the sunshine of Southern
California in winter. Just as they got to the foot of the stairs leading
to the parking lot, Mulder stopped. Staring into the distance, he gently
touched Scully’s shoulder. She stopped, looking up at his face, it seemed
so far away.
"What, Mulder?" she asked.
In a voice that didn’t quite match where the eyes were not focusing, he
muttered "you're never alone Scully, never."
Sighing, she knew he was right. He was the only friend she had and could
truly turn to now.
She just felt so alone.

comments? Tamy Erickson K-9WAC@juno.com