FF: "Firstborn." (Chapter 2/?)

["Elaine Dalier'" <ellie_dee@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

TITLE: "Firstborn." (Chapter 2/?)
AUTHOR: Ellie Dee
EMAIL: Ellie_Dee@xxxxxxxxxxx
CATEGORY: X-Files/Buffy the Vampire Slayer X-over.
RATING: PG-R
SUMMARY: A pair of murders and a kidnapping in Sunnydale strikes close
to home with Agent Scully and the Scoobie Gang. Can they work together
to solve the case before a young girl dies?
SPOILERS: Consider anything up to and including Season 3 on BtVS or
Season 6 on the X-Files fair game.
DISCLAIMER: Any characters you've heard mentioned on TV were created and
owned by Joss Whedon, Chris Carter, Fox, and WB. They just decided to
come visit and play with the beings inhabiting my rather warped mind.
ARCHIVE: Anywhere, just please let me know where it goes and try to keep
my name and Email on it.
FEEDBACK: PLEASE!!!!! This is my drug of choice and I really need a fix.


"Firstborn." (cont.')
By: Ellie Dee


Chapter 2



Scully remained silent for some moments. Finally, wiping the tears
from her eyes, she raised her head to face her partner.

"It's my fault Mulder," she began. "It's all my fault."

"Scully, what are you talking about?" asked Mulder as he handed her
his handkerchief.

Taking it, she wiped her eyes again and blew her nose. Then after
taking a deep shuddering breath, Scully continued.

"The girl, Mulder. I have to find her. I... I can't let anything
happen to her."

"Dana, I know kidnappings are hard to deal with, but why do you feel
it's your fault she was grabbed? And what makes you think Skinner is
going to let us in on this case. I mean, it's not even vaguely an
X-File."

"Mulder you don't understand, I have to save her. She's my daughter."

Hearing this Mulder felt a cold chill run down his spine. Trying to
make his voice calm and reasonable, he gently took her hands in his
own.

"Scully, listen to me. This girl is Willow Rosenberg, she isn't your
daughter." He slowly took a breath. "She isn't Emily."

For a few seconds Scully remained quiet and looked confused. Then, as
if a light went off in her head her expression changed to one of
frustration.

"Mulder," she began, "will you just shut up and listen?"

Pausing for a moment, she continued.

"Willow Rosenberg IS my daughter."

Mulder tried to keep an open look on his face as he listened. But
evidently he failed.

"I'm serious," she told her partner. "Haven't you ever wondered why
I don't talk about when I was in college? The reason is because of
what happened to Willow."

"You see, my freshman year was the first time I had been out on my own
own. At home I'd always had my family around, especially Bill. Ahab
was often at sea, so Bill felt he had to be the man of the house."

"I didn't date all that much in high school and any boy who asked me
out, never did more than twice. I think Bill made sure he scared off
any who seemed to get serious."

"So when I got to college I cut loose a little. Went to a lot of Keg
parties, dated around."

"Well I met this one guy, a senior named Donald Clarke. He was also a
Physics major and we ended up getting pretty serious. Donald was my...
he was the first man I ever made love with. And no, we didn't use any
type of birth control."

Mulder started to speak but was cut off.

"Before you ask Why?, the answer is very simple; I was in love. You
know, young and stupid."

"Anyway it was May before I realized I was pregnant. So one night
after dinner we went back to Donald's apartment and I told him."

"When I was through he looked at me and asked me what I was going to
do about it."

"I started to speak but he interrupted me by telling me how he had no
intentions of helping out. It seems he had accepted a graduate student
position at Princeton. He told me that he had no plans to get married
or of having children and that if I wanted an abortion I'd have to pay
for it myself."

Stopping to wipe her eyes again, Scully took a few deep breaths and
went on.

"I was so upset I ran out of his apartment. I ended up walking around
campus for hours, it was after 2 in the morning before I got back to
my dorm."

"When I got off the elevator, Joyce, the RA for my floor stopped me. I
must have looked pretty bad, she took me into her room and asked me
what happened."

"I wasn't thinking very straight and I wanted to talk to someone so I
told her everything. When I was through she asked me what I wanted
to do."

"Mulder I honestly didn't know. I had thought about it for hours while
I was walking. But all my options seemed bad. I mean, nice Catholic
girls don't have abortions and they don't come home with a bastard
after their first year at college."

"Anyway Joyce listened to me and got me calmed down enough to sleep.
The next day she took me down to the Student Clinic. When we got there
she introduced me to one of the nurses who talked to me about
adoption."

"She pointed out that in general adoptions the birth mother had no
guarantee that her baby would end up with the best parents. Also the
mother ended up with outrageous medical bills."

"The nurse explained that private adoptions resulted in the baby being
placed with an ideal family. And that the birth mother would be helped
out financially."

"It all sounded too good to be true. Then Joyce spoke up and told me
the same thing had happened to her two years ago. And that she had
placed the baby with an excellent family."

"I was so desperate that I jumped at it. Two days later a lawyer
contacted me about setting up the adoption. She was from an LA law
firm called Wolfram and Hart."

"The lawyer arranged for me to begin seeing a private doctor. While a
complete set of tests were being worked up, the lawyer began checking
out both mine and Donald's family histories."

"In less than a week a meeting was arranged between me and the couple
who wanted to adopt."

"They weren't newlyweds, they were several years older than I was. The
husband was a doctor and he had just finished his training as a heart
surgeon in Chicago. They had recently moved to Sunnydale so he could
start up his practice."

"Shortly after they were married they discovered that they couldn't
have children. Other than that they seemed perfect. They were well off
financially, both were well educated and they genuinely seemed to want
a baby to love."

With that said Scully became silent. Mulder waited some moments then
spoke.

"What happened then Dana?"

"Well they seemed like they really wanted a baby, but I don't think
that they thought of me as a person. Or at most they acted like I was
an employee. All they wanted to talk about were my doctor visits, diet
and exercises."

"That was when I brought up my problem. School was almost over and I
was about to head home for the summer. I was already beginning to
show, so my parents would know I was pregnant before summer was over."

"The lawyer then came up with an idea. She and the Rosenbergs would
arrange for me to continue taking classes that summer. And I would
tell my parents that I'd received some type of scholarship."

"So that's what I did, then four days before Christmas I gave birth to
a little girl. Six pounds nine ounces, bright red hair. She was so
beautiful Mulder, she didn't even cry." Scully paused as tears began
to fall again. "They let me hold her for a few minutes, then the nurse
took her away and I never saw her again."

"Three days later I was out of the hospital and at home. I told my
parents that I had the flu and spent the next few days in bed."

"Just after Christmas I received an envelope in the mail. It
contained a bank book to an account with $5000.00 in it and my name
on it."

"When I got back to school," she continued. "I didn't go to parties, I
didn't date. All I did was study. That was when the "Ice Queen" came
to be. I tried to forget about everything and to put the past year
behind me."

Then with her voice cracking, "Eventually I graduated and went on to
medical school."

Scully closed her eyes and bowed her head. Her shoulders began to
shake and streams of tears began to roll down her cheeks.

"It wasn't until I opened that bank book that I realized what I had
done," she moaned. "Oh God Mulder, I'd sold my baby!"

Scully pulled her hands from his and covered her face. To Mulder she
seemed to collapse in on her self. Her body was wracked with great
sobs.

Standing so quickly he almost fell, Mulder made his way around to face
her. Then, kneeling before her, he took Scully into his arms.

For years he had dreamed of this, of holding her. Of feeling her small
body next to his. But now all he could feel was helpless. In spite of
years of training in psychology he had no idea how to help the woman
he loved with her pain.

Through her tears, Mulder could hear her say, "For the longest time
Mulder, I thought that what happened with Emily was God's way of
punishing me."

Hearing those words, Mulder felt as if his heart were breaking.
Holding her tighter, he tried to soothe her. "Don't say that Scully.
What happened with Emily had nothing to do with Willow." From there
all he could make were soft wordless sounds.

Eventually her crying quieted and for some minutes Scully allowed
herself to relax in Mulder's strong arms.

Finally, pulling away slightly, she looked into Mulder's face. What
she saw there both warmed and surprised her.

He cares about me.... he loves me, she thought.

Leaning forward she gently kissed him on his cheek. The spark she felt
surprised her once again. "Thanks Mulder," she said as she sat back.

Then taking his handkerchief, she wiped her eyes one last time as she
stood. Turning she headed for the door.

"Where are you going Scully?" he asked.

She stopped and turned to look at him. "Mulder I'm going to do what-
ever I have to do to get Willow back."

Unsure of exactly what he should say. Mulder felt he had to see that
Scully kept thinking rationally. "Dana, Skinner's already choosing a
team to go out there. Why do you think he'll send us?"

"I don't expect him to Mulder. This is my fight, I'm not trying to
drag you into this."

"I'm going to go and explain to Skinner how I would be an asset to the
team. I'm a qualified field agent on top of being a Forensic
Pathologist."

"And if he doesn't agree with your argument," her partner asked
quietly.

Seeing her body language and the look on her face, he knew the answer
before she replied. "Then I'll go anyway and to Hell with the Bureau."

Without saying another word, Scully turned and walked out of their
office.

*****

For almost twenty minutes Scully had been waiting in Skinner's outer
office. Too nervous to sit she had been pacing since she arrived.

Finally, giving into the stares she had been receiving from Kim,
Scully sat on the edge of one of the chairs by the door. As she did
so the door to Skinner's office opened and Skinner stuck his head out.

As Skinner began Scully quickly rose, "Agent Scully as you can imagine
I'm very busy right now, can't this wait?"

"No sir, I'm afraid it can't. I need to speak with you before you make
a choice for the team to go to Sunnydale." Scully said quickly, afraid
she would be dismissed before she was finished.

Looking very put upon, Skinner ushered Scully into his office. "Very
well Agent, I can let you have ten minutes," he said briskly.

"Sir, I believe that I should be included in the team being sent to
Sunnydale. If Agent Brenner is correct and the local authorities are
interfering. Then my skills as a Forensic Pathologist could become
essential to finding the killer." She said as Skinner settled himself
behind his desk.

"Agent Scully, I do appreciate your interest in this case. But BSU and
Violent Crimes are already putting together a...." was as far as
Skinner got. His office door was pushed open and in came Agent Fox
Mulder, his arms literally full with case folders.

"Agent Mulder," Skinner's assistant exclaimed, "you can't barge in
there. The Director is very busy!"

Turning his head to face her. Mulder flashed her one of his patented
dopey grins. "Don't worry, they're expecting me."

"We are?" asked Skinner.

"Yes sir, you are." he said, as he dumped the case files onto
Skinner's desk, before turning to Scully.

"Hey Scully, didn't you explain what I was doing?"

"Uhm.... ah...well... you see sir," began Scully as she quickly looked
back and forth between her partner and her supervisor.

"Ah, don't worry Scully, let me go ahead and explain."

Turning to face their boss, Mulder began. "Well you see sir. When
Scully heard the name Sunnydale, she thought it sounded familiar. So
she went to try and check it out."

"It seems that while going through our files, she had come across
several references to Sunnydale."

"After rechecking the files she came up with an interesting oddity.
Apparently the Sunnydale area has been the site of numerous paranormal
or supernatural incidents."

"The native Indian tribes considered it a place of power. Dark power.
Their name for it translates to roughly House of the Coyote or The
Tricksters Place. Shamen would only go there if badly needed dark
magicks."

"Then when the Spanish colonized the area the priests started to refer
to it as "Boca del Infierno", The Mouth of Hell or The Hellmouth."

"Since then there have been a steady stream paranormal sightings; were
creatures, lizard people, ghosts, witches, demonic possession, even
vampires. The place is a regular grab bag of psychic disturbances."

Pushing his glasses up and pinching the bridge of his nose, Skinner
said, "Agent Mulder I don't have the time to discuss the possibility
of ghosts or demons or whatever."

"Well I never said there were any ghosts or demons in Sunnydale. All I
said was that there were reports."

Looking at his partner he continued. "Scully and I have discussed
this. For whatever reason certain areas seem to effect people in
different ways."

Beginning to see where her partner was going Scully joined in, "Same
as the full moon effects certain people for no reason."

"Right Scully. Anyway sir, we thought that these incidents could be
cult related, what with the ceremonial execution of the parents."

"Yes sir, they bare a striking resemblance to the... the... Thuggee
killings of India," added Scully hastily.

"So you think that the Rosenberg girl was taken in prelude to some
sort of sacrifice?" asked Skinner.

Catching the pained look on Scully's face, Mulder spoke quickly.
"Possibly sir but more likely she was taken in an attempt to force her
her to join the cult."

"Anyway, Scully and I agree that due to the occult nature of the case
she and I would be best suited for this investigation."

"Considering Mulder's Profiler background and my training as a
Forensic Pathologist. In addition to our experience in working the
X-Files." supplied Scully.

"Exactly," remarked Mulder. "So while I was gathering evidence to
backup our argument. Scully came up here to make our case."

Looking at the folders on his desk and at the two agents before him,
Skinner asked, "Am I to understand that these are all the files
concerning Sunnydale?"

Nodding Scully started to reply.

"No sir they aren't," replied Mulder.

Suddenly shaking her head Scully echoed, "No sir."

"This is only what I could get a hold of in the time that I had. If
you want all the files on Sunnydale, I'll need a few more hours and
several carts to carry them."

Mulder had to fight to keep from smiling, because the shocked look on
Skinner's face was priceless.

"Very well Agents," said a visibly shaken Skinner. "Based on what
you've told me, I'm assigning the two of you to this case. You're to
assist Agent Brenner in any way possible. I'll notify BSU and Violent
Crimes that another team has been assigned. Also I'll have Kim arrange
your transportation."

"So hurry and pack, I want the two of you out there by tonight. Good
luck." As they turned to leave Skinner quickly added. "And get this
off my desk."

Walking towards the elevators Scully spoke first, "Thanks again
Mulder."

"For what Scully?"

"For all this," she replied hefting the portion of the files that she
was carrying. "I don't know how you had time to look up all of these."

With an easy grin on his face Mulder answered her, "Actually I didn't,
I just grabbed all the files I could carry and headed for Skinner's
office."

Looking down at the files, Scully spoke up, "You mean you made all
that up about Sunnydale and its occult activity?"

"I didn't say that Scully. Everything I told Skinner about Sunnydale
is true. But I figured if I came in with an armload of files and
dropped them on his desk, he wouldn't bother to take the time to look
at them."

"Besides, weren't you the one that came up with the part about the
Thuggee?" he teased Scully.

Entering the elevator Scully thumbed the basement button. "I don't
know Mulder, I guess after almost six years you've rubbed off on me.
But I have to tell you, I've never seen anyone bluff that well."

As the elevator doors were closing, Mulder said with a smile, "Hey,
what are friends for?"


End of Chapter 2.


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