Isolation (16/16)
by ML 

email: msnsc21@yahoo.com
Rating: PG13 for mild violence and swearing

Type: Gen, het. M&S, a character/other pairing 
Disclaimer: You know the tune, sing it with me now: I don't own
them, I'm just borrowing for a while.  The original characters:
they're mine, all mine.

Author's Notes: This was written for the 2010 XF BigBang.  
I couldn't have done it without Wendy's expert beta.  Bouquets 
of thanks to her! That said, if there are any errors or omissions, 
that's my fault.  More notes at the end of the story.  

Summary: It's time to come out of hiding and get back to the
business of saving the world.  Mulder is looking for people to help
him and Scully do just that.  With so many of his former friends and
colleagues either missing or dead, he gets help from an unexpected
quarter -- and finds that he's not the only one who's ready to get
back into circulation.   

Takes place in 2008, after the events of "I Want to Believe".

We never gave up, we never will.  In the end, if that's the best
they can say about us, it'll do.
-John Fitzgerald Byers

x-x-x

Chapter Sixteen

Scully kept Byers in the hospital that night.  She suggested that
Annie go back to the house, but Annie insisted on staying at the
hospital for as long as Byers was there.

The others had all gone back to the warehouse once they'd had a
chance to see Byers for themselves.  Neither Langly nor Frohike
seemed anxious to stay in the hospital any longer than necessary. 
They used the excuse that they wanted to get started on better
security for the warehouse.

"I'm keeping Byers here an extra day," Scully told Mulder.

"Why?  Is there anything wrong?"

"No, I think he's recovering the same as Langly and Frohike.  I'm
doing some extra bloodwork, and I was able to reserve a small amount
of the antidote that I'm going to have analyzed."

"Are you going to analyze it here?"

"I won't do the analysis personally, I have someone else in mind."

"Who?"

Scully just smiled.  "Let's talk about it a little later."

"The enigmatic Dr. Scully," Mulder said, teasing.

"You're a smart man, Mulder.  If you think about it a little, I bet
you can figure it out."

x-x-x

At the end of the second day in the hospital, Scully told Byers that
she was releasing him.  "You're welcome to come back to the house."

Byers shook his head.  "I think I'd rather go back to the warehouse.
I don't want to make Annie feel worse."

"I understand."  Scully put her hand on Byers' arm.  "Give it some
time.  This is difficult for both of you."

"Probably more for her than for me, because I don't remember," Byers
said.  "But I can see how hurt she is."

Annie elected to go back to the house with Mulder and Scully. 
Fletcher had taken himself off sometime earlier, though Mulder had
extracted a promise from him to meet at the warehouse the next day.

Skinner had also promised to come, and would bring Doggett and Reyes
to report more fully on what they'd found in Chicago.  It would be
their first full strategy meeting.

"What happens to me now?" Annie asked Mulder and Scully on the way
back to their house.  She'd spent some more time with John, at his
request, but their conversations had been awkward and stilted.  It
seemed like every topic was a potential land mine.

"I think it's too soon for you to make a decision about what you
want to do," Scully said.  "Give it a little time."

"I can't go back home, can I?"  Annie asked.

"I'm afraid not," Mulder said.  "You really are in witness
protection now.  You wouldn't be safe."

"You can stay here as long as you like," Scully added.  "I hear you
have a background in microbiology.  I work at the University; I'm
sure we could figure out a position for you there."

"Do I have to change my name, become someone else like Brian -- John
did?"  Annie asked.

"We're still trying to assess the threat," Mulder said.  "At a
minimum,  we don't think you'd be safe going back home.  We don't
know what the people running the program that Byers and the others
were in might do.  At the very least, they might use you to try and
get to Byers."

"I don't see why," Annie said.  "He has no obligation to me.  He
doesn't remember me."  She was proud of herself for not bursting into
tears when she said it.

"Of course he has an obligation to you," Scully contradicted.  "Even
if not you personally, he would never want anyone to come to harm
because of him."

"Well, that's reassuring," she said with a touch of sarcasm.  "I
used to tease Brian about being a secret superhero.  Now it seems
like it's true."

"Only the saving the world part," Mulder said.  He pulled the SUV
into the garage.

Scully gave him a look.  "Mulder --"

"We'll talk more tomorrow," Mulder said to Annie.  "There are some
things you don't know yet.  It's too late tonight to get into them."

As they entered the house, Scully said.  "It's been a long couple of
days.  I think we all need a good night's sleep."

"I guess I'll say goodnight then," Annie said awkwardly.  "Thank you
for letting me stay here."

Scully watched Annie slowly climb the stairs.  "I think I should
talk to Annie," she said to Mulder. 

"Do you want me to come talk to her too?"  Mulder asked.

Scully reached up and kissed him on the cheek.  "It's okay.  You've
had a long couple of days, too; go on up, and I'll be there in a
minute." 

Mulder went on ahead as Scully knocked softly on Annie's door. 
"Annie, it's Dana.  Can I talk to you for a minute?"  There was no
answer.

Annie didn't look up when Scully opened the door.  She sat at the
desk with the borrowed laptop, looking at the entry she'd shown
Brian, when he was still Brian and not John Byers.  The face was so
familiar: the kind, intelligent eyes and serious expression.  He
looked cute with a beard.  She remembered teasing Brian about growing
one, and he never would.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" Scully asked.  "Do you want to
talk?"

"I don't think I can think of anything more to say," Annie told her.
"This is so far outside anything I've ever experienced.  I wouldn't
know where to begin."

"I understand.  It's far outside my experience too.  I've always
relied on science," Scully said. "I've seen and heard of so many
things I couldn't explain by any science I knew.  But that's the way
I've always approached them.  With your background, I think that will
help you, too.  Maybe not tonight.  When you're ready.  It's a good
way to begin to deal with the unexplainable.  You start looking for
the pieces that make sense, and go from there." 

"None of it makes sense right now.  I don't know if it ever will."

"Just -- don't give up hope.  We're going to do our best to figure
out what was used to restore their memories.  The memories weren't
erased, only hidden somehow.  Maybe, just maybe, we can figure out a
way to restore their other memories, too."

"How can you be sure?"  Annie asked.

"About restoring their memories, I'm not sure.  But I don't think
you can ever give up hope.  Without it, nothing is possible.  But
with it, sometimes seemingly impossible odds can be overcome." 
Scully fingered the cross at her throat.  "Don't give up," she
repeated. 

x-x-x

Mulder turned and smiled as Scully walked into their room.  "Alone
at last," he said softly.  

Scully walked into his arms and hugged him tightly.  "We got them
back, Scully," Mulder murmured into her hair.  "We got them back." 
They held each other close for a long while, neither speaking.

Finally Scully looked up at Mulder.  "We did.  They're alive,
against all the odds, and they seem to be okay.  Except that they've
lost six years." 

"It has to be asked.  Do you think we did the right thing, Scully? 
Was it worth the price?"

"I don't know.  You said yourself once that sometimes the costs are
too high.  I think it depends on who you ask.  To Annie, or to
Connie, I'm sure it's not.  If Langly, Frohike, and Byers knew what
they'd left behind, they might not think so either.  Would we have
done the same thing, knowing what we know now?"

"I don't know either.  We tried to give Byers a choice, but that
choice was taken from him.  Maybe we should have left well enough
alone."

"But once we knew, could we have left them alone?  I don't believe
it was an option.  I suppose you could say that the ends justify the
means, or if we hadn't intervened, they might have been used for more
nefarious purposes.  There's no way to know for sure.  Sometimes I
think we only know afterward."

"I guess we could have the fate versus free will argument again.  Or
do you mean that history will judge us?"

"Maybe.  I just know that not doing anything was not an option.  We
can't afford to sit back and wait for things to unfold."

"It seems like you're arguing from my side," Mulder said with a
small smile. 

"I've always been on your side.  Even when it didn't appear that I
was.  Someone has to keep you honest."

"I know.  Even if it took me a long time to win you over, it was
worth the fight."  He pulled her back into his arms and kissed her. 
"I'd do it again, in a heartbeat," he murmured.

"So would I," Scully said, kissing him back.  "And we may have to,
before this is over." 

Down the hall in the guest bedroom, Annie fell into bed, not
bothering to do more than take off her shoes.  She missed Brian more
than she could express.  Is this what being widowed felt like?  No
wonder her father hadn't wanted to go on without her mother.

Dana Scully had told her not to give up.  What did she know about
loss?  Her man hadn't been stolen from her.  She sat there so calmly,
talking about science and hope and not giving up.  
 
She couldn't think straight.  She still didn't know what was going
on.  She had to rely on her hosts right now; she had no choice. 
She'd been left with nothing: no husband, no home.  She wouldn't be
Annie any more either, she supposed.  But she'd still have Annie's
memories.  It was completely unfair.  

Dana Scully had said something about working in her lab.  If she
couldn't go home again, she would need a job, and a place to stay. 
She didn't want to just hang around hoping that Brian -- she had to
remember to call him John -- would remember her.  

Maybe this was the dream, and she'd wake up back in Perdita, with
Brian beside her...

The pillow still smelled faintly of Brian.  She hugged it to
herself, and tried to sleep.

x-x-x

Back at the warehouse, Byers tried to sleep too.  He could almost
believe that the intervening six years had never happened.  There
were enough changes in themselves and their surroundings that none of
them could quite manage that, though Frohike and Langly were giving
it their best effort.  He should, too.  He was still having trouble
processing everything that had happened.  They were too, even though
Langly was acting a little superior, having been the first one whose
memory was recovered.

Six years, completely obliterated.  He was married, or had been
married, anyway.  He had no memory of it, except as a memory of a
daydream: the kind of daydream he used to have about Susanne.

Would Annie be staying around?  Did he even want her to?  They'd had
a couple of awkward conversations.  He'd gotten up on his high horse
about something. He hardly knew what he was saying.  He just kept
looking at her, trying to remember her.  She seemed to know him. 
Except he wasn't who she thought he was.  He wasn't the man she'd
fallen in love with and married.  He'd made her cry, and he felt bad
about that. 

After several minutes of tossing and turning, he gave up and
wandered out to the lounge.  The television was on, but the two
occupants were fast asleep.  Connie was on the sofa and Gibson slept
in a recliner, his glasses still perched on his nose.  Byers found a
throw and put it over Connie, and carefully took Gibson's glasses off
and placed them on the table next to him.

He could see a light coming from the kitchen and heard low voices. 
Langly sat at the kitchen table.  Frohike was at the stove.

"Hey Byers," he greeted him.  "Want some huevos rancheros?  There's
plenty.  And there are brews in the fridge."

Byers got a beer and a glass from the cupboard and poured the beer
into it carefully, keeping the foam at a minimum.  Langly watched him
and shook his head.

Langly still looked strange.  His hair was growing back, although it
stuck up like a bristle brush at the moment.  His glasses were
different, too.  But he had on a Ramones tee shirt that someone had
found for him, and he was banging away at a laptop, muttering to
himself, pushing his glasses up when they slid down his nose.

"What are you working on?" Byers asked him.

"I'm still trying to figure out who that son of a bitch works for,"
Langly said.  "I think he's due some serious payback, and I want to
know if there are others like us out there."

"Much as I hate to admit it, you've got a point, Langly," Frohike
said.  "But first things first.  It's time to circle the wagons. 
There's been some weird shit going down, and we have to get to the
bottom of it.  Mulder's counting on us.  As is the beautiful Dr.
Scully." 

"Look who's talking: the Gnome that Time Forgot," Langly said.
   
"Okay, Rip van Langly," Frohike says.  "Let's see some of that kung
fu you're always saying you have.  Time's a-wasting."

"Gentlemen," Byers interrupted.  "We have no time to lose.  Let's
get to the business at hand."

-end-


Frohike: Buddy, fight the good fight. 
Langly: Both of you.
Byers: Never give up.

-From "Jump the Shark", the Gunmen's 'last words'.

x-x-x

Author's Notes:  I've only been able to watch "JtS" once, and if I'd
been a spoiler hound at the time, I might not have watched it even
then.  I think I knew from the moment the credits rolled at the end
that the Gunmen weren't really dead, but where did they go?  What
have they been doing?  The idea of giving them secret identities
occurred early on.  I just needed to figure out who would have helped
them and why.  Enter Morris Fletcher, who to paraphrase Dr.
Nacimiento, "practically writes himself."  He is a lot of fun to
write, the big lug. 

It was my good fortune that Wendy was willing to beta the story. 
She has been extremely helpful and patient.  Thanks also to Donna H.
who  offered some suggestions and encouragement along the way, and to
the Posse for their cheering me on.

Thanks for reading.  I hope you enjoyed it.

msnsc21@yahoo.com

October 19, 2010