Title: Oubliette: Sacrifice

Author: Pattie

Category: Angst, Missing Scene.

Spoiler: Oubliette

Rated: PG

Summary: A scene that should have been done, but wasn't.

Feedback: trish59@444.net

Archive: After_the_Fact, Gossamer. Others please ask.

Disclainers: Scully, Mulder and The X-files are the
property of Chris Carter, Ten Thirteen, and Fox Studios.
I am not taking money for fanfiction, and I intend no
copyright infringement.


Scully ran her hand lightly across Lucy Householder's
bedding.  She could almost feel the pain Mulder was in.
He had tried so much to save both her and Amy Jacobs. She
saw her partner staring through the window and wished to
God they hadn't had to see all this. After several minutes,
it was Scully who broke the silence.

"What you said... about suffering and dying to save Amy, 
and that this was the only way for her to forget what Wade 
did to her all those years ago.  Do you really believe
that?  Do you really believe she tapped into Amy when Wade 
kidnapped her?"

Mulder turned slowly.  His eyes spilled over with salty
tears.  "You know how some people say, *I feel your pain*
so effortlessly when you know they're just being nice?"

"Well, yeah, Mulder.  I try, I try not to do that.  What's
your point?"

Mulder sat beside Scully on the half-way house bed. "Maybe
in some way, on some level, Lucy sacrificed herself so no 
one else would have to suffer the isolation, torture and 
despair that she did. I can feel her desolation."

"Mulder, I doubt she even knew that man was in the area,
let alone even out of prison. And to suggest that Lucy
Householder became some sort of Savior, like Christ, well
that's just... so far-fetched. There's a kind of empathy
we feel for someone when they've lost someone, when they're
down, but a literal taking on of someone's physical pain?
No.  Maybe Lucy had seen him in town before Amy was taken, 
and, and relived her own abduction simply from memory."

"Great coincidence, don't you think?  I feel very down
now, and maybe it's not so much the death of Lucy, but the
sympathy I felt for her when she was alive and going through 
all of Amy's suffering."

Scully brushed Mulder's arm.  "You're grieving for her, You
got close to her, Mulder. That can affect us sometimes in this
line of work."  She tried to be soothing, but sensed Mulder
wasn't really comforted by her words.

"I feel that Lucy Householder, in losing all those years, her 
adolescence, even her innocence, died many years ago, in
a way." Mulder's voice was close to breaking. "And I can
see how that would make her lose herself.  I know I lost
a part of myself years ago."

"Your sister," she whispered. "I know. It's something that
is always with you. I know you feel guilt that you couldn't
keep her from being taken." Scully put her arm around her
partner's shoulder and whispered, "Let's go home, Mulder.
Let's just go home."