From: "Emily Miller " Subject: Fw: Before: Bicycles Date: Sun, 3 Aug 1997 13:31:19 -0500 DISCLAIMER: None of them are mine. RATING: PG CLASSIFICATION: S SUMMARY: A "what if Mulder and Scully ran into each other as kids" story. If you've read my other "what if", Best Friends (not archived at Gossamer currently), the events in this story are remembered by none of those X-People. Before: Bicycles EMILLER little.green.man@earthling.net "I wanna go with you guys!" 5 year old Dana Scully whined as she watched her 8 year old sister, Melissa, and 11 year old brother, William, throw towels, sunblock, and food into bags. Their new home was just a few miles from the ocean and a safe, roped off area of water where children often went to swim, since they could do so without nagging parents along. Bill and Missy were going there today, a warm, sunny day in mid- July. "I wanna go, too!" 3 year old Charles piped up, trying to pull the bag away from Bill as though that would change the older children's minds. "You're too little," Missy said scornfully. She always tried to act like she was older than she was, and it always drove Dana and Charles crazy. "We better let 'em go, Missy. If we don't, Mom might get mad and say NOBODY can go." Bill, as the oldest, felt he had to be the peacemaker. Plus, he LIKED his younger siblings, for reasons Missy couldn't figure out. They were the most annoying brats in the world, in her opinion. "Yea!!" Dana cried, which was unlike her. She usually didn't speak anymore loudly than neccessary. "Yea!!" Charles cried with her, mainly because she did, but also because he liked noise. So Bill lifted Charles up on the handlebars of his old bike, and Missy did the same with Dana. All 4 knew it was forbidden, but what could happen? They were only going a little more than 2 miles! "Are there gonna be dolphins or sharks?" Dana asked cheerfully as she hung on for dear life while Missy weaved, trying to balance as they picked up speed while going down the slightly inclined street. "I hope so. Maybe they'll eat you!" Missy replied, and Bill laughed. He deliberately swerved sharply to the right, causing Charles to scream in mock terror. Dana looked at them, both laughing and enjoying the ride, then glanced back at Missy. She wished SHE could be riding with Bill. Missy was so mean sometimes. "I was asking BILL," She informed her sister, sticking out her tongue in typical 5 year old fashion. Missy just stuck her nose in the air as best she could without losing control of her bike. "Doubt it, Dana, but we might see some fish," Bill said quickly before a fight- even one only with words- broke out. "Do that curve thing again!" Charles yelled, and then laughed gleefully as Bill complied and swerved the bike again, this time to the left. Missy, watching them, suddenly felt a little guilty for how she had acted. "Want me to try that?" She asked Dana. Dana thought about it for a minute. "I'm not too heavy?" She finally asked. "I guess not..." Missy said, but she didn't sound very sure. All 4 rode for awhile in silence, until Dana spoke up. "Try it, Missy." So Missy picked up speed and jerked the bike to the left- too much. She felt it fall out from under her and she slid sideways on the road for a moment, not sure of what was happening. The bike had fallen not only to the side but also forward, and so just missed falling on her. But Dana, who had been trying as hard as she could to stay on, was thrown forward. "Dana!" Bill yelled, putting a foot down to stop himself. He lifted Charles off the handlebars as quickly as he could and ran to his younger sister. She lay on the hot, black road, unmoving though he could see no blood anywhere. "Dana!" He yelled again, not caring that she was right in front of him. She moaned softly, opening her eyes and looking up at him, then tried to get up, and he could see a long cut on her face, but nothing serious. Then she tried to put pressure on her left arm, the one she had landed on, and screamed like nothing he had ever heard before. Hearing this, Charles and Missy, who had only torn the skin on her ankle sliding across the ground, came running over. "Dana?" Charles asked, looking down at his sister, who was again lying on the road. Tears caused by the agony that had raced through her arm slowly ran down her bloody face. Bill took charge then. "Dana, I'm gonna pick you up very carefully and take you to that house across the street so we can call Mom," he said. "It hurts... my arm hurts, don't touch it, Bill, please!" She pleaded, trying to curl up as though that would keep him away and wincing as pain once again seemed to be all she could feel. Hard as it was, he ignored her pleading and gently put one hand under her neck and one under her knees and lifted her, very slowly. She clutched the broken arm to her chest, sobbing now with both fear and agony. Charles, watching worriedly, grabbed Missy's hand as Dana cried. For once, Missy didn't even consider jerking it away from him. Bill walked carefully across the street to the house he'd pointed out the Dana, not that she had seen looked. It was a nice house, smaller than theirs, but still fairly large. He hoped somebody nice lived there as he leaned over to knock. Seconds later, a small face appeared at a window next to the door, just before it cautiously opened. "Hi," The little girl said shyly. She looked about Dana's age, maybe a little younger. "Hi," Bill said. "I'm Bill Mulder. My sister Dana hurt her arm really bad, can we use your phone?" Before the girl could reply, an older boy appeared. "You're not supposed to talk to strangers, Sam," He said, glaring at Bill and Dana, who's cries had quieted considerably. "But it's just a couple of kids," The girl, Sam, argued. "I told you to let ME answer the door," The boy replied, jerking her away. She kicked him on the back of the leg before running off. "Can we use your phone?" Bill repeated, considering walking over to the neighbors. By now, Missy and Charles had joined them on the doorstep, and were both watching Dana. Charles' face showed a concern not many 3 year olds could show. "What for?" The boy asked suspiciously, but he was already opening the door wider to let them all in. "My sister hurt her arm," Bill said for the second time, and the boy seemed to notice for the first time the blood that was now clotting on her cheek. "The phone's in here." He lead them to a living room, and Bill put Dana on a sofa as gently as he could before calling home. As he explained to his mother what had happened and tried to assure her that Dana wasn't in a life- threatening condition, he watched her and the boy, who had come to sit by her feet at the end of the sofa. "What's your name?" He asked, and for a minute Bill wondered just how young this boy thought she was, then realized he was trying to get her mind off her arm. "Dana Katherine Scully. I'm 5 years old," She replied, looking up and over at him. "Hi, Dana Katherine Scully," He said, and she giggled. "I'm Fox." 'Fox!" She cried. "That's the stupidest name I've ever heard!" Bill, hanging up the phone after their mother promised she would be right there, quickly said," Dana, don't say things like that!" hoping to keep the boy- Fox- from getting mad and kicking them all out. But he didn't seem to mind. "I agree, Dana Katherine Scully." She laughed now, seeming to have forgotten all about her arm and face. Then she looked serious again. "Hey, Bill, where're Missy and Charles?" Bill realized he didn't know. They had followed him inside, then just disappeared. "Uh- oh," he muttered, leaving the room to go look for them. They weren't in any of the downstairs rooms, and they weren't in the upstairs master bedroom. That only left one room that he could see, unless they'd left the house. But,as he got closer to the almost- shut door, he could hear voices and occassional laughing. He pushed open the door to find Missy, Charles, and the other girl, Sam, stretched out on the carpet, reading comic books. Sam and Missy never looked up, Charles glanced at him and said," Hey, Bill." Bill jsut stood there, wtching them, until he heard the door open and heard his mother crying, "Oh, Dana!"> 'C'mon, we've gotta go," He said to Missy and Charles. They reluctantly got up and put the comic books back on one of the twin beds. "Bye, Sam," Missy said, and the little girl waved as they left. She looked sorry to see them leave. Downstairs, Margaret Scully was holding Dana, who was crying again at being moved. Fox was watching her, worried. But he didn't say anything except a half-hearted, "See ya, Dana Katherine Scully," as they left. The drive to the emergency room was long and hot for Dana. She wished she could have just stayed at that house, it made her feel better to laugh than to listen to her mother alternately yell at them for doing something they weren't supposed to and for talking to strangers and then asking Dana if she was sure she was okay. She was, if a little uncomfortable, trying to position her arm so that it didn't bump against the door. She wished they could just go ahead and get a cast on it and go home. Shifting again in her seat, she sighed, feeling more miserable than she ever had before in her whole life. Aweek later, she was still miserable. Bill, Missy, and Charles were at the ocean- this time their mom had driven them- while she was stuck at home flipping through channels on the television. Not surprisingly, there was nothing on to interest a 5 year old. Just as she was seriously considering the most boring thing she could think of to pass time, a nap, there was a knock on the door. "Dana, could you please go see who that is?" Her mom called from the kitchen where she was busy making dinner, even though it was only just after lunch. "Okay," She called back, glad for something to do. She hopped up from her dad's favorite chair, also HER favorite, and went to open the door. A man stood there, holding a small package with colorful balloons attached. "Ms. Dana Katherine Scully?" He asked. "That's me," She said. He handed her the package and left quickly. She glanced down at the treasure she now held- something for her and it wasn't Christmas OR her birthday. Not even Halloween! "Mom, guess what!" She cried, managing to balance the box and balloons in her mostly- covered hand while closing the door. She ran into the kitchen and showed them to her mom. "Look what I got!" Her mother looked at her for a second, then asked, "Who's it from." "Dunno," Dana replied. "You look." She handed her mom the package after pulling the balloons free and gripping them tightly in her good hand. "Fox and Sam Mulder... Who're they?" Her eyes widened and she laughed happily. "My friends." She didn't say anything else, just took the box again and and ran back into the living room. She let the balloons go and they floated to the ceiling- Bill would get them down for her- and ripped off the yucky flowery wrapping paper. She jerked the top off the white cardboard box and pulled out a note written in sloppy boy's print. She couldn't read very well yet, but managed to sound out most of the words and could guess at the meanings of others. DANA KATHERINE SCULLY- SAM SAYS YOU WON'T LIKE WHAT WE GOT FOR YOU, BUT I SAY YOU WILL. YOU DON'T SEEM LIKE THE KIND OF GIRL WHO LIKES DOLLS AND DUMB STUFF LIKE THAT. BUT IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, GIVE IT BACK AND I'LL GIVE YOU SOMETHING ELSE. FOX WILLIAM MULDER She looked in the box then and saw what they had gotten her. A plastic pair of handcuffs,a plastic badge that said "FBI" on it, and a plastic gun f some kind. She grinned, pinning the badge to her t-shirt and pointing the gun experimentally at the television screen. Wait until Bill and Charles saw what she had!