Disclaimer:  The characters in this piece of fiction
that were taken from the television show, "The X-Files"
are the property of Chris Carter, 1013 Productions, and
Fox Broadcasting.  No infringement is intended.  Any
other characters used are the property of the author,
Diana Alexander.

Rating: PG-13 for language

Classification: SR

Keywords: Melissa/other romance

Spoilers: Anasazi/Blessing Way/Paper Clip

Summary:  A different turn of events of the Anasazi
trilogy seen through the eyes of Melissa Scully.

Author's Notes:  This is a strange idea that came upon
me one night, and so I had to write it.  I'm a tad
nervous about it, so let me know what you think at
dmulder@nettaxi.com, please :)

*    *    *    *    *
More Things Than Life and Death
by: Diana Alexander
(dmulder@nettaxi.com)
*    *    *    *    *

I walked into my apartment after work with a sigh.
Things had been difficult for me in the year since I
moved back to the Georgetown area.  Mother is around,
but we don't get along as well as we should.  We never
had.  However Dana is close, and she needs my help, so
I stay.

They don't know what happened to me after I dropped out
of the University of Maryland sophomore year.  I don't
remember a great deal of it, but what I do remember,
they don't want to know.  I was recruited into a
government Project. It was not the first time I had been
there, and it would not be the last.

That much, I have Seen.  I grasp the slender crystal
dangling from my neck.  I never take it off.  It is
almost like a pair of glasses for my visions.  It allows
things that are indistinct to come into focus enough to
be seen.

Something is nagging at the back of my mind.  A
premonition that something is about to happen to Dana,
or something is wrong.  Well, I had known something was
wrong ever since I told her to talk to Mark.  He helped
me regain some of my own memories, and I'm hoping he can
help her.

She is so blinded by her own walls that she can't see
what's happening here.  The moment she showed me that
chip, I knew what it was.  I knew what it was used for.
I have one implanted deeper, and closer to the skull.
Each of the projects implant a chip in a different
section of the body.

I'm here for a reason.  I know that eventually They will
make me choose between my friends still held bound by
the Project and my family.  I'm worried that they might
have gotten someone else to go ahead and do the job,
since every time I've tried to call in the past few
days, she's not been home.

I reach for the phone again and lean back on the couch,
closing my eyes and reaching for the crystal.  I see
Dana coming through the door as the phone rings, and a
smile crosses my face as I allow the vision and my
worries to fade.  Within moments, she picks up the
phone, "Hello?"

"Dana, it's your sister," I nearly laugh at myself for
stating the obvious.

"Hi."

"Hi, where have you been?"

"I-I had to go to Boston.  For a funeral."

"Well, I was worried about you," I notice that I sound a
bit nervous, and she picks up on it. That's one of
Dana's talents, even if she doesn't consciously realize
it.

"Why?" her voice is wary, and I defend myself
instinctively

"Because I hadn't heard from you since you saw Dr.
Polmeranz," 'Well,' I told myself, 'it *is* a logical
reason.'

She paused, as though wondering to tell me something or
not, and apparently decided to tell me after all, since
her next words were "Missy, something strange happened
to me today and I'm a bit freaked out by it."

"Okay, look, I-I want to come over. I want to talk to
you.  Are you going to be there for a while?"

"Yeah..."

At the sound of her assent, I hang up the phone and head
out the door, rushing to talk to her, to get to her
before some member of the Project that was put under
pressure or a lower Syndicate pawn comes along and
murders my little sister, knowing that I could never do
so myself. I barely get out the door when I see him.

He works for the FBI, the same as Dana and Mulder do,
but he also works for the head of the Project. I've seen
him around and he's always referred to under one name.
Ryan.  The door clicks shut behind me and I lean against
it. I can hear the phone ringing inside, but I have no
desire to answer it.  As he watches me, Ryan smirks in
such a way that makes me uncomfortable.

"What do you want?"

"I've come to offer you a choice, Scully," he almost
purrs, and it makes me ill to hear it.

"I have a first name," I snap back at him in what I hope
sounds like annoyance. "My sister is the only one still
living who responds to that name."

"Fine, *Melissa*," he emphasizes my name and it only
serves to make me more angry.

I cross my arms over my chest and glare at him before
speaking again. "Well, I know you're here for a reason,
so why don't we just get down to the facts."

"The facts, Lissa are that you are as much of a pawn as
I am.  However, I'm sure that thought runs through your
mind often, since they promised that if you returned to
the area, they would spare your sister's life.  She
means a lot to you, doesn't she?"

"I wasn't the one she was spared for," I respond with a
scowl. "They have the one that she was brought back to
wrapped around their figurative pinky finger."

"Do they?" he arches his eyebrows at me. "Then, there
are your little friends still under the Project's hands.
Maybe you would listen if they started disappearing, one
by one... Rickster... Storm... Cassi... oh, and let me
not forget about Daniel."

Daniel.  Gods, not Daniel...  Daniel Armstrong and I had
met years ago... so many years ago.  He was nine, I was
eight, I was scared and he reassured me. We crossed
paths too few times over the years, but we still loved
each other deeply.  The last time I saw him was the last
time I was taken, at age thirty.  He was still deep in
the bowels of the Project when I left, and I miss him
still.

"No, not Daniel..." I look at him appealingly and his
only response is an icy stare.

"Go to your sister's apartment, or I'm sure that they
will use you as the pawn you were meant to be, Lissa.
Dana Scully and Fox Mulder have stepped on too many toes
lately, and they must be stopped.  You are the one we
send.  Do not fail, Melissa Scully, or else you will
never see the outside world again."

The Project's messenger disappeared so swiftly, I could
have sworn that he literally vanished.  Of course, there
were people within the Projects who could do that, so I
was not surprised.  I felt my back sliding against the
wall as I weighed my choices.  It was either go to
Dana's apartment and kill my own sister, or risk
forgetting what colour looked like... neither choice was
appealing.

Perhaps there was something I could do to prevent Dana's
murder.  She didn't need to die, and what she and Mulder
were doing is right.  I know that without any doubts,
but I worry about Daniel, and about Cassi and Storm, who
have lifes and loves outside of the Project walls.  Rick
has helped so many people escape from their tyranny... I
can't risk them.

Maybe I can walk the line.  I have to. There's no other
way I can do one or the other without committing suicide
afterwards.  And I'm not ready to leave this world quite
yet.

I rise to my feet and head towards my car again, making
the quick drive to Dana's apartment. Something is wrong
though.  I don't think Dana's here, but I have to check.
I see an unpleasantly familiar face when I enter the
apartment... a split second before he pulls the trigger
and everything goes black.

When I next became aware of my surroundings, I was
looking down at my own body, wrapped in so many bandages
that at first I'm not certain that it's really me.  Then
I hear my mother's voice...

"Uh, my daughter was brought here. I'm trying to find
her..."

The voice of one of the doctors answers her, "Okay, all
right, what's her name?"

"Scully. Dana Scully."

There's a long pause before he responds by asking my
name instead of my sister's. "Melissa Scully?"

"No, no... that's her sister," Mom answers, sounding
worried about me.  I hadn't known that in a long time,
and I just close my eyes. I can feel the love that she
couldn't show me due to my own rebellion and placement
in something I could never tell her about wash over me.
'Mom... I'm sorry...'

The doctor is speaking again, and I struggle to pay
attention. "Well, we just had a Melissa Scully in
surgery with a cranial gunshot wound."

Mom runs into the room, and sees my body laying there,
unconscious but nowhere near dead.  I know that.  I am
hooked up to a respirator, though, and my face is
bandaged.  She approaches my unconscious body, crying.
"Missy? It's Mom."

The doctor looked uncomfortable to be intruding here as
he continued to tell her what was being done to me while
I stood there, mutely watching what I could not change.
"We took drastic precautionary measures due to the
nature of the head wound. We've induced coma to try and
relieve the trauma on the brain."

Mom looked up at him and asked, "Is she going to be
okay?"

I wish I could reassure her that I will be, but I know
that it's very possible that I will never see her again,
and she won't know just how much I love her.  I know Mom
has Dreams.  If I'm able, I'll appear to her there, and
tell her.  I have to.

The doctor also tries to reassure her, "We've done
everything we can right now. We'll being monitoring her
around the clock," he paused, watching Mom try to stop
crying, then he turns to the nurse standing in the room.
"Why don't we get Mrs. Scully a comfortable chair?"

I disappear from my hospital room with a sigh, "So much
for walking the line, Mel."

I walk through a wall, and find myself standing in a
grimy stairwell.  The door clangs open, and Dana runs
out, Mulder on her heels.  He calls out desperately,
"Scully, wait. Scully!"

When he reaches her, he grasps her shoulder and turns
her to face him.  She's panicked, and tells him, "I have
to go there."

"You can't go."

"That bullet was meant for me."

I shake my head at Dana's statement. "Dana, they're
watching me.  They know that the first place you'll go
when you find out is to my hospital bed.  Don't go
there, Dana, please..."

"If they're trying to kill you, that's the first place
they're going to look," Mulder pleaded with her.

Mulder's statement shocked me.  It was as though he had
either heard me or that we were on the same wavelength
for a change.  Personally, I think it was the former,
since Mulder and I will never be on the same page.  The
boy is showing some potiential after all...

She murmured under her breath, "Those bastards..."

Mulder escorted her down the stairs, "We're going to
call someone I think can help. It's the only thing you
can do for her right now is try to crucify them."

I smiled.  There was hope for them yet.  It had been
obvious since I'd reentered Dana's life a couple of
years ago that the man was deeply in love with her, and
she felt the same if any of those conversations we
shared was any indication. He would willingly kill
himself to keep her safe, and I suspect she would do
likewise.

Then again, I could have been hanging around Storm
Austin too long.  The woman is a die hard romantic and
matchmaker if ever I saw one.  After all, she did help
me to realize that what I felt for Daniel was more than
just friendship.

I sigh and close my eyes for a moment, then I heard a
voice that was starting to become disgustingly familiar.
"So, you managed to do it, then?  Save your sister and
kill yourself?  Lissa, you should have known that
they're not going to let you die."

"Yeah, so?" I place a hand on my right hip and glare at
him, restraining the urge to strangle him, even though I
know that he would be gone before I could even get close
to him.

"So I suggest that you start saying bye-bye to your
friends, Mel, because they'll be coming after you soon."

I hated his words, but I knew he was right.  I was
running out of time.  He saw my slight nod and
disappeared again, and I sighed before I made my way to
a school we had both attended.  I sat down on the
concrete stairs and prepared to wait.

After a few moments, a familiar looking blonde woman
walked up to the stairs out of nowhere, looking
stressed.  I called out, "Hey Storm, have a seat.  I
have something I need to tell you."

She sat down across from me and propped her back against
the handrail. "What's that, Mel?"

I sigh as I prepare to tell her what I need her to tell
the rest of our friends, "Well, Storm, I wanted to make
sure that my wishes about the funeral were taken care
of."

"Mel, what are you talking about?"

"Storm, I'm dying.  I'll be dead before morning. You're
going to have to help Dana through this."

"What?" Storm stared at me in shock, but my only
response was to nod and to try and figure out how I was
going to tell her this.  A smile crossed my face, and I
started talking.

"Storm, it's my time... Mom and the rest of the family
will want a proper funeral, I want you to throw me a
party.  This is not a case of me going into the dark to
never be seen again, but rather a celebration of the
immortal soul.  Tell Dana. She'll understand."

"Let me make sure I heard you straight, Mel.  You want a
*party*?"

"Yeah, Storm.  I don't want to die like that, with
people mourning me, and remembering my memory more than
they remember me.  I don't want them to remember me as
this dead person laying in the coffin.   I want them to
remember the smiling person I was.  I am."

"I will."

"Thank you, Storm," I whisper as everything fades to
black.

The next thing I know, I'm back at the hospital and in
my body again.  I feel like I just gave Storm my parting
shot, since everybody is of the opinion that I'm dead.
I sense Dana standing outside, and I hear Mom crying. I
wish there was some way I could really reassure them,
but I can't.  I can't talk, but I'm *not* dead.  Not yet
anyway.

It was some time later when the bandages were taken from
my face, and I fought the urge to open my eyes right
away.  I heard a long sigh, and when I heard the voice
of my older brother Bill, my eyes flew open. "Damn,
Missy, you've pissed off more than a few people."

"Like who?" My eyes narrowed as I swung my legs over the
edge of the bed and glared up at him.  He looked
embarrassed and angry both in the same statement.
Realization hit me, and I yelled at him, "You *work* for
these people?  Bill, you *are* a fool!  No, I take that
back.  You're an *asshole!""

He scowled at me, "I didn't have a choice in the matter,
Melissa, no more than you do now.  Get your clothes on.
I'm taking you back."

"Like hell you are!"

"Mel, I am not like you.  It does not bother me in the
slightest to murder a member of my own family if I am
ordered to.  Either I take you back now, Melissa, or
they find blood on the walls. Besides, there are some
people who want to see you."

My eyes move to the gun attached to his hip, and sigh.
"Okay, where are my clothes?" I pause before asking,
"And who wants me alive?  That cigarette smoking son of
a bitch who runs the Project?"

"That's a nice way to talk about the man who spared your
life," Bill commented idly and tossed me a bundle of
clothes and a pair of boots.

I pulled the sweatshirt he'd given me over my head and
reached for the jeans that had been with them. I rolled
up the sleeves on the sweatshirt and shoved my feet into
the ankle boots that were with everything else.  I
recognized them as a pair of Storm's that had gone
missing almost a decade ago. The sight of them brought a
scowl to my face, but I kept them with the hopes of
bringing them back to her one day, although I knew that
the chances were slim that I would be able to myself.
Maybe if Rick ran through again...

"Besides," Bill continued, interrupting my train of
thought, "I'm sure that there's someone there who would
be glad to see you.  I heard about that affair you had
with that guy..."

I closed my eyes.  I was really getting sick of the
reminders of what I had left behind when Daniel had
helped me out of the Project that last time.  Him, in
particular.  I dragged my bottom lip between my teeth
and bit it so hard that it nearly drew blood.

"Mel, come on," he said, grasping my arm and dragging me
out of the hospital against my will. Dana never saw me,
and neither did Mulder, though we passed him on the way.
He was probably so desparate to get to Dana's side that
he didn't pay us any mind.

I was thrown in the passenger's seat of the car, and the
door was slammed behind me, nearly catching a piece of
my anatomy in it.  I glared at Bill, but he just got in
the car himself and drove to the site of the familiar
compound on the outskirts of Annapolis, Maryland.  With
a sigh, I feel myself being dragged out of the car
again. If I wasn't so weak from the gunshot to my head,
Bill would have had a fight on his hands, but as it was,
I was relatively helpless.  I swore that that wouldn't
always be the case.

As we approached the room, I wrenched my arm away from
him, and told him snappishly, "I can walk by myself, you
know.  If I have to do this, then I'm not having my *big
brother* escort me to my doom."

"Fine, Missy," he told me in a tone of voice that
suggested that I was heading for my funeral.

"Fuck off, Bill," I told him quietly as a door powered
by some technology downloaded from the Starship
Enterprise slid open, and I entered, hearing the door
close between me and my brother. Despite my dislike of
the man in front of me, I was relieved.

"Well, Melissa Scully.  I heard a rumour that you were
among the deceased," he told me, exhaling a stream of
grey smoke in my face.  I fought the urge to gag, and
only smiled in response.

"Let's just say that rumours of my demise were greatly
exaggerated."

"I also heard that you disobeyed a direct order from a
superior.  A superior that we trained you to follow
without any questions."

"I was released from your little Project two years ago,"
I told him sharply. "I am now a civilian, not one of
your little toy psychics to fuck with."

"Such strong language..." he regarded me with an icy
gaze, and I lifted my chin stubbornly, refusing to back
down.  This was part of the Scully determination that no
one knew I possessed. Not even my asshole older brother
standing out in the hallway.

"There are times when strong language is warranted.  I
was taken against my will, commanded to do something
that I could not do, due to my own moral code.  What do
you expect me to do?  I can feel the bruises forming
already from the rough way I was treated.  If I am so
necessary, then why am I being treated like this?  And
if I am not, then why didn't you people just let me die
in the hospital.  I wanted to die with dignity, not as
some governmental lab rat."

"I understand that, Miss Scully, but we also have things
we must accomplish, and you were resisting being taken
back here, despite obvious connections that still
exist."

Why is everyone using Daniel against me?  Why? That's
the one thing I want to know most, yet I will never ask
him.  I stand there in silence, until by some unspoken
signal, the door slides open and I am taken out of
there, just as roughly as before.

He would not speak to me, and it's hard for me to
believe that it's my own older brother that I'm looking
at, the man who happens to have a tight grasp on my
forearm, and I dare not try to pull away this time.
After walking through winding corridors, a steel door
with a tiny slot for a window slides open, and I'm
thrown in. Before the door slams with a loud clang, I
see his face looking at me, and I feel incredibly
betrayed.

I manage to pull myself up a little bit when I hear a
noise and tense before a familiar voice caresses my
ears, and I relax slightly.  It's ragged, but it's still
blessedly familiar.

"Melissa... Melissa, what the fuck are you doing back
here?  I thought I got you out of here for good two
years ago." Even as I look up at him, I can feel the
bruises forming.

"Things didn't go according to plan.  I never planned to
be back here again,y'know," is my only response. "They
made me choose. Either I murdered my sister or I risked
the safety of you and everyone else I care about here.
I tried to walk the line.  I failed."

"What now?"

"I'll never see the outside again, at least not in
physical form.  Everybody thinks I'm dead, and to them,
I might as well be.  I'll never see them again." My
voice sounded amazingly matter-of-fact, and I could
almost hear his smile, and his voice changed slightly to
one only I heard.

"Gods, Mel, I've missed you.  I never thought I'd see
you again, especially not under these circumstances."
His green eyes blazed and he rose to grasp my hands and
pull me to my feet before pulling me into a tight hug.

I almost cried at the feel of it.  It had been so long,
and I forgot how much I needed to be held. I was as
stubbornly strong as Dana was, though I hated to admit
it.  She, on the other hand, was proud of it.

<Too long, Mel... it's been too damned long,> his mental
grin was passed down the wire to me, and I looked at him
with a smile.

<Yes, it has,> I answer as my knees go weak, and I
almost collapse. I would have fallen to the floor had he
not been holding me.

"Whoa... you haven't swooned in my arms since you were
sixteen, Mel," he teased lightly, though I heard the
underlying worry.  I smiled slightly.

"I was on drugs then, and you know it.  Gods, I hated
those injections... and well, it's been a rather tiring
week for me, and ..."

"Yeah, I know how that goes.  Mel, I can imagine you
would need your rest," he said as he pulled me toward
the bed against one wall.  It was a spare bed, and not a
hospital one.  It had always been Daniel's theory that
if they were going to put us through this much agony,
they might as well give us some place decent to sleep.

"You remembered?" his grin lit up his face as I was
tucked into his bed.  I smiled at this sign of still
being able to at least make him smile.

"Yes, I remembered."

After a few moments of silence, I heard him mumble,
"Hey, Mel, why don't you move over a bit?  This is my
bed too, y'know..."

I move over, and I feel him in the bed beside me.  After
a few moments, his hands tangle in my red hair, and I
pull away enough to roll over and cuddle against him.  I
hadn't felt this safe in a long time.

And despite all I know we still have to face, I fall
asleep, certain that everything will be okay as long as
we're together like this.  I'll have to face the facts
in the morning, but for the moment, everything is all
right...

*    *    *    *    *

-End-