#Death Jabs as Healthcare?

[msclaritea]

"What if Bill Gates tabled the idea to the CIA of Population Control? Not just the future management of Population Growth, but also the Control of the remaining Populations who would eventually realise what was going on. It involved the idea of Ethnically cleansing the Populations that hold most of the Land Assets the greedy 1% desire. The Populations of the USA, the UK, Australia, Canada & New Zealand predominantly. What if Bill Gates devised an Ethnicity Specific Weapon of Mass Destruction, mRNA Covid-19 injections, which he planned to use alongside the Poisoning of Water Supplies & the removal of Nutrient Rich Food by Genetically Modifying it? The Food looks great, but holds no Nutritional Value. What if Gates also Pollutes the Air we breathe with Chemtrails all leading to a shortening of Life? What if Gates was then given the role of Global Population Control on a limited contract, 2020-2030 along with a Licence to Kill? That he then publicly divorced in an attempt to shield his equally complicit wife & their Children from the dangers his new role would bring? His Licence to Kill allows him to target aircraft carrying individuals that could adversely effect his plans, like the Cancer specialists whose flight went down recently? What if he was gifted the contract to operate the new global digital currencies through Microsoft, meaning he earns with every single global transaction? What if the reason there are no "Property Of" signs on 5G towers are because they are Gates owned? And what if this ultimate salesmen managed to convince or blackmail the Leaders of our Nations that this was in fact a good & profitable idea?

Sell Eco-Terrorism as Geo-engineering?

Sell Death Jabs as Healthcare?

Sell Bio-Terrorism as a Pandemic?

Sell Financial Terrorism as Inflation?

Sell Digital Control Management Slave Systems as Convenient?

If the answer is Yes to any of the above.

Bill Gates is a Terrorist."

White Rabbit Podcast, Twitter

Who Is Bill Gates? (Full Documentary, 2020)

[frances-baby-houseman]

I would have bled out in the parking lot

Amber Nicole Thurman's death is on Trump's hands

Bess Kalb

Sep 17

In 2019, about six weeks after my first child was born, I found myself on the bathroom floor in a small, but nonetheless unsettling puddle of blood.

“Oh no,” I remember thinking. “I just did the laundry.”

I called out my husband’s name, but the sound caught in my throat. The pain I felt inhaling to get enough air out of my lungs to yell the two syllables in “Char-lie” jabbed my guts like a bicycle spoke to the abdomen.

So I was quiet, trying to keep breathing in a way that didn’t move anything inside me, and the pain pulsed a bit, then steadied, then dulled, then evaporated into whatever hell ether it came from.

Because there is no G-d (unless there is, in which case I abbreviated His name so as not to desecrate it, and also thank you, King of the Universe, for subscribing to this newsletter) this was the one time in my life I hadn’t brought my phone with me to the bathroom.

I decided to sort of slither-lumber to the door like a lame harbor seal, because I didn’t want to stand and loosen the spoke that had just stabbed me. I reached for the knob and let the door creak open.

The cat was there, looking at me right at eye level, keenly aware what was happening, and completely unmoved by it.

“You are dying,” he blinked, “Pity. Have a nice time.” He sashayed away.

Fortunately, our house in Los Angeles was small enough that from the bathroom door one could see everything. My husband was sitting on the couch with our infant, and I knocked on the open door to summon him. Within one one thousandth of a second, he set the baby on the (since-recalled) donut pillow and was holding my head.

I sat up. I breathed. No pain. I took a picture of the bloody mess on my husband’s phone, texted it to myself, he found my phone, then I texted the picture to my OBGYN.

Apologies for being graphic, but within the puddle there was something roughly the size and shape and color of a fig.

“Is this ok?” I said to my doctor, the bicycle spoke scraping lightly at my insides again from all the lumbering.

“Come in,” she replied.

Within two hours, I was in the waiting room of her office, accompanied by my terrified but SMILING mother, who was still, as is the Jewish custom, in town for “a few days or so” after the birth.

An ultrasound which felt like the finger of Satan himself revealed there was retained placenta in my uterus. If I hadn’t come in, there would have been more hemorrhaging, then sepsis, then whatever the cat foretold.

The next day, I was in surgery getting a Dilation and Curettage.

I went home, pumped the anesthesia milk, then fell asleep perfectly fine, my sweet newborn cooing merrily in the bassinet next to his alive mother.

Amber Nicole Thurman’s story was the same as mine, but it happened to her in Georgia in 2024, not California in 2019. She was a Black woman in a healthcare system that disproportionately kills Black women, especially postpartum. In 2021, the Black maternal mortality rate was nearly three times the rate it is for white women. Post-Roe, the toll is and will continue to be staggering.

Because post-Roe, the procedure that saved my life, the D&C, is something doctors cannot perform in states where matters of life and death have been left up to non-medical Christian-supremacist superstitions.

I know the pain Amber Thurman felt when that placenta dislodged and carved its tiny, treacherous hole in her uterine wall. I know the terror she felt when she saw the blood, and the rush of dread when she thought of what her child would do without her.

And when I vote in November for Kamala Harris and every progressive down-ballot candidate, I will do it because she can’t. And I will do it so that women in Georgia and Idaho and Texas and North Dakota and South Dakota and Utah, Arizona, Nebraska Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Florida, South Carolina, and West Virginia won’t have to meet the same completely preventable doom.

This election isn’t just about Amber Thurman. Every day of my lucky, breathing life is about Amber Thurman. Because the only thing that separates us, is one of us bled out under the right Supreme Court.

Let’s raise absolute federal hell about it.

-- From Bess Kalb's newsletter The Grudge Report. I pay for this substack -- though it's free-- and think this is a message worth sharing far beyond her newsletter.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved in our archive

By Fiona Callingham

The NHS has said people could be unknowingly spreading the infection to others.

The NHS has issued a 10-day Covid warning in a bid to reduce the spread of infection amid a rise in cases. According to the latest data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), Covid cases in England rose by 17.8 percent in one week while deaths increased by 27.3 percent.

In the week up to October 9 there were a total of 3,496 Covid cases - 529 more than the seven days prior. There were also 163 deaths (up by 35) and 2,622 hospital admissions (up by 149).

Although there are no longer any mandatory rules about self-isolation if you have Covid, the NHS still advises avoiding contact with others if becoming ill. The UK's health body warns that COVID-19 spreads “very easily through close contact with people who have the virus”.

It explains: “When someone with COVID-19 breathes, speaks, coughs or sneezes, they release small droplets containing the virus. You can catch it by breathing in these droplets, or by touching surfaces covered in them and then touching your eyes, nose or mouth.

“You are more likely to catch it indoors and in crowded places.”

he NHS added that you can still be infectious for “up to 10 days”. You can also still catch or spread COVID-19 if you:

Do not have symptoms Are fully vaccinated Have had the virus before. Therefore, if you test positive for Covid, the NHS says you should:

Try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for five days after the day you took your test if you are 18 years old or over Avoid meeting people who are more likely to get seriously ill from viruses, such as people with a weakened immune system, for 10 days after the day you took your test.

If you have symptoms of COVID-19 or have tested positive, there are things you can do to help you avoid passing it on to other people, including those you live with:

Cover your mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze and encourage children to do this Regularly clean surfaces you touch often (such as door handles and remote controls) and in shared spaces, such as kitchens or bathrooms Try to stay away from other people, including those you live with, until you feel better Let people who need to come into your home know that you’ve tested positive or have symptoms Think about asking friends, family or neighbours to get food and other essentials for you avoid indoor or crowded places (including public transport or large social gatherings) or places where there is not much fresh air if you need to leave your home Wear a face covering when it's hard to stay away from other people Let healthcare professionals know about your positive test result or symptoms if you’re asked to attend an appointment in person. This comes as a new variant is now thought to account for one in 10 Covid cases in the UK.

The XEC variant was first discovered in Germany and has since been found in 27 countries across Europe, Asia, and North America.

The global case count exceeds 600, including 82 confirmed instances within the UK.

It is thought to be highly transmissible due to a number of mutations it carries with experts believing it could become the dominant strain.

Symptoms Symptoms of Covid can include:

A high temperature or shivering (chills) – a high temperature means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature) A new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or three or more coughing episodes in 24 hours A loss or change to your sense of smell or taste Shortness of breath Feeling tired or exhausted An aching body A headache A sore throat A blocked or runny nose Loss of appetite Diarrhoea Feeling sick or being sick. Booster jabs will be available until December 20 this year. They will be offered to those deemed most vulnerable to Covid, which include:

Over-65s People aged between six months and 64 years with health conditions that make them more vulnerable People living in care homes for older people Frontline health and social-care staff, including in care homes for older people.

The NHS will contact eligible patients directly, but they can also book their own appointments now via the NHS App, GPs, pharmacies, drop-in clinics, or by calling 119. Anyone also entitled to the flu jab, will be offered this at the same time.

[penumbramewtwos]

So- I'm new to the blog, so please forgive me if this has already been answered...

What happened to Racheal?

She looked like she was still quite young in the pictures you've shown...

You're all good m8, and welcome to the blog ^^ It's humbling to have people come across it and want to know more!

Rachael in her 60's still looks like she would be in her adult years mostly due to better skin care and healthcare in the future. some of the shitposts I've made with her, she's been younger but sometimes older. The photo of them together in the comic, she's probably 40ish. (I do have to make it a habit of marking her age more often lol) The more unsatisfying answer to her age is: When I designed her, my art skills weren't (and still probably aren't) capable of aging her up in a fashion I was happy with, she was stuck in an uncanny valley. I'll retry it one day soon :> but I'll stick with the skincare lore XD

In regards to what happened to Rachael? (assuming you mean what was her cause of death?) I can give the vague answer (below) or the nitty gritty truth under the 'keep reading'. Spoilers for that one (as it's meant to happen in the fanfic).

Rachael was severely poisoned when battling Okita's creator (Professor Drake) and her Deoxys. Rachael and Okita were trespassing in the early hours, before they were caught and a fight broke out.

Thanks for the ask! [spoiler content under here]

Both Rachael and Okita were sneaking into Professor Drake's mansion to retrieve documents to prove that Aunuran mewtwos were created by her, to incriminate both her and Team Helix Rocket. Rachael was both severely poisoned by an enhanced poison jab from Deoxys. In an attempt to save her from Deoxys' attack, Okita used her black hole attack for the first time in battle, hitting both of them; breaking their bones in the process. The difference being, Deoxys are immortal, just like mewtwos.

That leads into the events that are 'dreamt' up by Okita in the first chapter. :>

[darkmaga-returns]

Extracts of the the Judge’s reasoning and analysis:

On November 4, 2020, Plaintiff Brianne Dressen received AstraZeneca’s experimental COVID vaccine as part of a clinical trial in Salt Lake County. 4 Velocity Clinical Research, Inc. (Velocity) administered the trial on AstraZeneca’s behalf. 5 Before receiving the inoculation, Dressen signed an informed consent form (ICF) that outlined her rights and responsibilities as a trial participant and disclosed possible side effects of the vaccine.6 Under the terms of the ICF, the parties agreed AstraZeneca would “reimburse[] for time and travel in the amounts of $125.00 per each completed study visit and $30.00 for each completed phone call.”7 The parties also agreed that a “study doctor” would “provide medical treatment or refer [Dressen] for treatment” if Dressen became ill or injured while participating in the study.8 Additionally, AstraZeneca disclosed that it had an insurance policy to “cover the costs of research injuries as long as [Dressen] followed [the] study doctor’s instructions.”9 AstraZeneca confirmed it would “pay the costs of medical treatment for research injuries, provided that the costs are reasonable, and [Dressen] did not cause the injury [her]self.”10 At the same time, the parties agreed federal law may limit Dressen’s right to sue for injuries caused by the vaccine: Due to the coronavirus public health crisis, the federal government has issued an order that may limit your right to sue if you are injured or harmed while participating in this COVID-19-related clinical study. If the order applies, it limits your right to sue the researchers, healthcare providers, any Sponsor or manufacturer or distributor involved with the Study. You may be prevented from making claims for injuries that have a causal relationship with the use of the investigational product in this Study, including, but not limited to, claims for death; physical, mental, or emotional injury, illness, disability, or condition; fear of physical, mental, or emotional injury, illness, disability, or condition, including any need for medical monitoring; and loss of or damage to property, including business interruption loss. However, the federal government has a program that may provide compensation to you or your family if you experience serious physical injuries or death. If funds are appropriated by Congress, compensation for injuries may be available to you under this Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program.11 Within an hour of receiving the vaccine, Dressen’s right arm began tingling.12 The sensation, a condition called paresthesia, soon spread to her right shoulder and left arm.13 Later the same day, Dressen began experiencing a host of other symptoms, including blurred vison, tinnitus, nausea, and sound sensitivity.14 Dressen first visited an emergency room three days after receiving the vaccine.15 The doctor who treated her diagnosed her with a “vaccine reaction.”16 She returned to the emergency room four days later, and the next day she visited a nurse practitioner at Utah Valley Neurological who diagnosed her with an “immunization reaction.”17 Thirteen days after receiving the vaccine, Dressen visited an otolaryngologist to seek care for “acute sensitivities to light and sound.”18 The doctor noted Dressen was suffering from “a likely side effect due to an increased immune response to the vaccine.”19

[ricisidro]

#DOH reports 120 new cases today November 3, bringing the total nationwide caseload to 4,120,411 cases. ⬇️

#COVID19 #Philippines #PH

NCR accounted for 35% (42) of the country's cases while 78 (65%) of the day's cases are in the provinces.

In the NCR, twelve LGUs had low digits cases while five LGUs had Zero COVID: Mandaluyong, Marikina, Malabon, Navotas and Pateros.

Outside the NCR, all provinces had low single digit cases or ZERO COVID.

Zero COVID deaths today. The total death toll remains at 66,736.

The active cases decreased to 2,792 from 2,816 active cases earlier this week. ⬇️

The national positivity rate slightly increased to 5.5% up from 5.3% earlier in the week.⬆️

The healthcare utilization rate remains at low risk.

Mask up correctly and stay in well-ventilated areas specially for the elderly and vulnerable groups. For additional protection against the threat of COVID-19, get the updated vaccine and booster jab. If you have symptoms - test and isolate.

Happy Friday ! Stay safe !

DOH site: https://doh.gov.ph/covid19tracker

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jun Isidro (@rcisidro)

[winderlylandchime]

THE MAN MADE HIMSELF A SHIRT. I REPEAT THE MAN MADE HIMSELF A SHIRT! That was why he took my markers earlier today! And i had the audacity to think he’d be normal and that the mind map paper was the worst of it all. He took a white shirt and wrote with a sharpie ’Team Brian’ on it. He said he even watched youtube videos to learn how to like stitch it in but gave up after he hurt himself with a needle. He made 3 extra shirts, 2 for our parents that he express sent to them and one for me. He wrote a note with the package to our parents that said ‘if you love me, you’ll wear it’ So I cannot wait to see how that goes (fr imagine getting that sent to you, just a shirt and a note.) And the best(?) part of it all is he wore the shirt to the damn doctor check up! I almost forced him out of it but then at the last second thought to myself ‘for the content..gotta let him be dumb for the people on tumblr, they would want me to do it.’ (At this point I’m just going with the drugged up idiot flow) The doctor took one look at him when he walked into the office and sighed. I forgot that they had to deal with him for two days during his new found love, so i have no clue what all he put them through. And he tried to ignore it at first but my brother kept pulling at his shirt and smiling at him so the doctor went ‘(brothers name) i see youre in the arts and crafts part of your obsession..’ and all my brother said was ‘bro…i mean Doctor Bro, you have no clue. I am stressed! I am tired! I stayed up all night thinking. Nobody cares about my feelings. Nobody cares about what I have to say and think, i have no one in my corner. And now the worst of all, he ran off with a kazoo player! Do you know how dumb that is?!’ The second my brother looked away, the doctor looked at me and mouthed ‘kazoo?’ And I mimicked a violin and the guy had to cover up a laugh. I feel like the doctor is cursing at HIPAA cause if i was him, id want everyone to know about this dumbass at my work. I will report back when my parents get the package (should be like two days or so). He asked at the post office if they will receive it in less than a week ‘because it is important, very, very important! Like life or death situation’ and then he panicked that they’d think he is sending something illegal so he went ‘it’s shirts! Like this one’ *shows his shirt* and then idk what went through his head because he went ‘it’s from a show I’m watching. I swear im not just being weird about Brians’

Dear sweet anon, I was settling in with an afternoon coffee on the couch to do some work on my tablet and your message popped up before I turned on my work DND (otherwise every notification I get is like 👀 surely someone reblogging this this is more important that the thing I am literally paid to do, you know how it is). And I’m so glad that I saw this before I “hunkered down” for some paperwork. Blech.

Nobody cares about my feelings. Nobody cares about what I have to say and think, i have no one in my corner. OH BROTHER ANON you have tens of people in your corner. We DO care about your feelings and one day you will know.

The arts and crafts part of his obsession! I die. He’s going to get an etsy or redbubble store before this is over and start selling fanart phone cases (not a jab, I have a fanart phone case!).

So about HIPAA. HIPAA only applies to healthcare information and identifying information. So for therapists, that’s basically everything (although I will frequently say a client recommended a TV show to me because that is not healthcare information [uh your brother’s qaf obsession would be though] and it’s not identifying). And HIPAA doesn’t apply to consulting with other medical professionals without identifying information (so I could say to a fellow therapist “I have a client who ripped his stitches after surgery due to excitement about a TV show, my own bar for how normal this is is a bit fucked, should I be concerned?”) So I can absolutely guarantee that your brother’s doctor is at the very least telling his fellow doctors about your brother. I promises you they are in the break room laughing about this.

IAN PLAYS A KAZOO. Sorry if this shows up in a fic of mine in the future… this is very Brian coded. No offense to kazoo players. I’m sure they are a lovely bunch who do not deserve to be grouped in with Ethan.

[patients-and-patience-dca-au]

In the afterevents of the pizzeria fire that resulted in the destruction of so many animatronics, the death of the night guard, and the suicide of Henry Emily, Fazbear Entertainment Incorporated decided that they needed a fresh start. As the public's wariness wound down once more, Fazbear decided to cash in on the growing mental healthcare market. And what better to clear their name than a building and programming meant to keep children safe and alive?

It started with the VR game of course, a lighthearted jab at the past, to show they've changed, they're safe now. Soon after, the "brand new" Fazbear Inpatient Facility opened and began accepting patients aged 0 to 18!

Now, 7 years down the line, Fazbear has had moderate success with the hospital. There have been hiccups, sure, but any new building has those, right? They're even ready to expand into research and development! Everything is going great, considering it's a mental hospital.

So why can't you shake the nagging suspicion that the troubles are just beginning?

I'm sure it's fine.

[lorphic-news]

Ron DeSantis calls for grand jury to investigate Covid vaccine

Gov. DeSantis Announces Investigation into Any Potential COVID-19 Vaccine Wrongdoings DeSantis: What Happened at Twitter 'Is Not Even Close' to the Totality of the Censorship Around C19 "Your policies or your positions or your analysis of this medical science should stand on its own. And if it's not able to accept criticism, if you can't defend the policy against valid criticism, then maybe you need to be looking in the mirror," expressed Governor DeSantis. "But that's not what these elites wanted to do. They wanted to just cocoon themselves from any criticism and to try to denigrate anybody that had a different way of thinking." Full Video: COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine Accountability Roundtable; Plan to Investigate Vax ‘Wrongdoing’ & Petition Supreme Court - Gov DeSantis 12.13.22 Public Health Integrity Committee: Gov. DeSantis Announces Plan to Investigate ‘Wrongdoing’ by COVID Vaccine Manufacturers. "Today I'm announcing a petition with the Supreme Court of Florida to impanel a statewide grand jury to investigate any and all wrongdoing...with respect to COVID-19 vaccines," he says. "In Florida, it is illegal to mislead and misrepresent, especially when you are talking about the efficacy of a drug." “That will come with legal processes that will be able to get more information and to bring legal accountability to those who committed misconduct.” “We’ll be able to get the data whether they want to give it or not. In Florida, it is illegal to mislead and misrepresent, especially when you are talking about the efficacy of a drug,” he added. DeSantis also announced that Florida is establishing a Public Health Integrity Committee, which may replace the politicized Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “And so in Florida, we’re creating what we’re calling the Public Health Integrity Committee,” he said. “It’s a committee of expert researchers that will be able to assess recommendations and guidance related to public health and healthcare, but particularly being able to offer critical assessments of things that bureaucracies like the FDA, CDC, and NIH are doing.” “Anything put out, you just assume, at this point, that it’s not worth the paper that it’s printed on,” DeSantis noted. The Florida governor also noted that not only did the vaccines not result in a reduction of all-cause mortality, but excess mortality actually INCREASED following the introduction of the shots. “2020 obviously there was an increase in excess mortality because COVID was there, then you have the mass introduction of mRNA vaccines in 2021,” he said. “And you would think that there would be a reduction in excess mortality, and there just wasn’t in the places that had really high mRNA introduction. And you did not see a decline in all-cause mortality and you still had persistent excess mortality in many of these places.” Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo, who was also present at the roundtable, claimed the state will study “the incidence in surveillance of myocarditis within a few weeks of Covid-19 vaccination for people who died.” Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo: Significantly higher risk of cardiac death for mRNA vaccine recipients if young, male "The theme is the same There's what makes sense, and there's, unfortunately are telling the public." The roundtable discussion featured numerous physicians and experts, and topics ranged from the censorship of experts who dissented against the official narrative to universities forcing students to wear ineffective masks and take the experimental COVID shots. DeSantis first announced a COVID accountability initiative last week after citing several studies showing an increased risk of myocarditis and pericarditis in young males who received the experimental jab. The CDC has previously admitted that the shots do result in an increased risk of myocarditis. Data continues to come out revealing the COVID-19 shot is not only ineffective, but extremely unsafe. Source: https://rumble.com/v20bgby-governor-ron-desantis-hosts-roundtable-with-surgeon-general-dr.-ladapo.html Read the full article

[bouncyballcitadel]

(Almost) a year’s worth of Citadel!

I posted 1,613 times in 2021

1515 posts created (94%)

98 posts reblogged (6%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 0.1 posts.

I added 5,853 tags in 2021

#citadelwip - 1399 posts

#elliot sanford - 695 posts

#ellen sanford - 686 posts

#peter grey - 672 posts

#davy jackson - 657 posts

#ivy sloan - 635 posts

#jean liu - 608 posts

#victor uytterhoeven - 224 posts

#victoria uytterhoeven - 206 posts

#citadelafterdark - 71 posts

Longest Tag: 78 characters

#free shipping if you send it to that friend you’ve been in love with for years

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

going off the "super chill fight" ask, how would the ROs react if the MC got hurt by a patient? like the patient lashed out or something and punched MC really, really hard

ouch

I'm going to answer this ask assuming the patient is still riled up and ready to fight.

Eli: Immediately ready to throw hands, professionalism be damned.

Davy: Would automatically step between the patient and the MC, so the MC didn't get hurt any further. “Touch them again, and you’ll regret it.”

Jean: "No!" -jabs finger at patient- "You do not behave this way. Sit the fuck down. If you so much as move, so help me--"

Vic: Would make themselves as tall and threatening as possible. "I would choose your next move very carefully."

Dr. Grey: Would say very coolly, "I highly suggest you don't try anything like that again." His tone? Absolutely terrifying.

Dr. Sloan: "We are in a hospital. You will behave like you are in a hospital. Calm down, sit down, or I will have you on your ass outside of this hospital so fast, you'll still have an IV in you."

104 notes • Posted 2021-06-04 04:03:51 GMT

#4

If this is your MC, like this post 🤡

115 notes • Posted 2021-09-19 22:38:06 GMT

#3

RO reactions to MC getting physically hurt trying to protect them? Like pushing them out of the way of smt

ouch

Let's go full drama and say the MC pushed them out of the way of a car.

Eli: "Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. No, no, no." Would be half trying to perform first aid, half crying/sobbing hysterically. Would not leave the MC's side--the paramedics would literally have to pry them away (and, even then, probably wouldn't succeed).

Davy: Outwardly, calm and collected, trying to do damage control and keep the MC awake. But, their fingers are shaking. And there's a tremble in their voice. "Why would you do that? Why would you--"

Jean: Would be having a full-blown panic attack. All medical knowledge has left their brain. Crying, gasping for breath, calling out the MC's name. Cradling the MC's head in their hands. "MC. MC. Please. Don't--don't--"

Vic: Would go into crisis mode and immediately start first aid. While waiting for the ambulance, would be holding the MC's hand in a death-grip. "If you fucking die on me, I'll never forgive you."

Dr. Grey: Would be the calmest out of the ROs. Scarily efficient, immensely protective. Don't even think about fucking up around him right now--paramedics, he's looking at you (and, yes, he will be riding in the ambulance). "Hey, love, stay with me. You'll be all right. You'll be fine."

Dr. Sloan: Like Vic and Dr. Grey, would immediately stamp down her feelings about the matter to administer first aid. Still, her heart's racing in her ears--and, fuck, where's the ambulance? She normally has a short fuse, but watch out now--one misstep with the MC's care, and she'll be tearing into you. "You'll be okay. Just keep your eyes on me."

116 notes • Posted 2021-06-04 03:32:54 GMT

#2

Case Two: Chapter One is here!

Enjoy y’all!

As always, comments/feedback/messages about coding errors appreciated! If you send in a coding error, please attach a screenshot with the error that pops up!

Updated demo here!

Banner courtesy of @deflatedball​!

230 notes • Posted 2021-09-25 00:03:06 GMT

#1

Thanks for Clicking!

As a healthcare professional-in-training, I’ve been working on a medical drama game with a healthy dash of romance added.

Please note, Citadel and this Tumblr may contain adult themes unsuitable for underage readers such as graphic depictions of medicine (including death), strong language, and sexual content. 

Please enjoy and leave comments/suggestions/etc.! Also, feel free to leave something in the ask box! 

It’s the not-so-distant future, and the landscape of medicine has been irrevocably changed. Once incurable diseases are now completely manageable. Metastatic cancer. Alzheimer’s. These patients have a new lease on life, and it’s all thanks to Citadel Health’s NINO technique. But, like all innovations in medicine, there’s more to it than meets the eye…

Play as a first-year surgery intern at Citadel Health. Will you become the star intern and curry the favor of the chief? Or will you uncover Citadel Health’s secrets and break a story or two? This will be the best and worst year of your life. Don’t forget to save lives and break some hearts along the way.

Elliot/Ellen Sanford (he/him, she/her): 

Your roommate, and Citadel Health medicine intern. You and Eli have known each other since the beginning of medical school. Can come off as a bit of a slacker, but cares deeply about providing the best possible care to patients. Aspires to become a geriatrician.

Davy Jackson (they/them):

Fellow Citadel Health surgery intern. Very self-assured, very sassy. Has huge ambitions to become a leading surgeon of the NINO technique and isn’t afraid to hide them. Whether they’re your friend, frenemy, or enemy is up to you.

Jean Liu (she/her, he/him):

Resident (hah!) coffee-drinker, and Citadel Health medicine intern. Born and bred in the Bay Area, this is really their first time out of California (and they’re already regretting it…). Would love to do a fellowship in Pulmonology/Critical Care to become an ICU attending.

Victor/Victoria Uytterhoeven (he/him, she/her):

One of the chief surgery residents at Citadel Health. Strict, jacked, and full of angst.

Dr. Peter Grey (he/him):

Chief of NINO Surgery at Citadel Health, and one of the early pioneers of the NINO technique. Perfect for your McDreamy fantasies.

Dr. Ivy Sloan (she/her):

Medicine attending at Citadel Health. Smiles rarely. Compliments residents even more rarely. Perfect for your House fantasies.

DEMO || DISCORD || KO-FI || AO3 || COG FORUM PAGE

Citadel After Dark (Spicy Asks) || Citadel Ouch (Angsty Asks)

Citadel Short Snippets

DJ Citadel (Spotify Playlist)

Citadel Surgery Intern Class

Artists I’ve Commissioned

11/28/2021

Happy Sun-yay everyone!

I’m in the middle of residency interview season, so I apologize for this very delayed progress note + the sporadic posting.

1) Case 2: Chapter 2 is at 17,000+ words...and I’d say we’re about at the halfway point. Most of you indicated that you’d like the next chapter released all at once when it’s finished rather than my releasing it in two parts, so please bear with me haha!

2) Thank you for your patience regarding asks! I’m going to shoot for posting one ask per day, but no guarantees...

3) There are now 21 (!) fics on the AO3 Citadel page. Check out some amazing content written by very talented people. Link here!

4) Another shameless plug for the Discord! You can find short snippets from me, as well as amazing content in both art/writing from others. You might also occasionally find me hosting Chats with Bouncy, where I hop into voice-chat and engage in shenanigans.

5) Commissions are closed (thank you to those who bought them up!). But, if you’d like to donate to support my writing, feel free to visit my Ko-Fi link! Donations go to commissioning wonderful art, so if you’d like to see more art, click that donate button!

Cheers!

Banners made by the lovely and very, very talented @deflatedball​

500 notes • Posted 2021-01-22 15:39:31 GMT

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[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil turns the tide with Covid-19 vaccines

Brazil is one of the fastest vaccinating countries on the planet, after a late and chaotic start that continues to take its toll on President Jair Bolsonaro.

[Image description: woman receives a jab of the CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine from a healthcare worker at a drive-thru vaccination post in Brasilia on September 13, 2021.]

Despite a slow start plagued by much controversy that still haunts President Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil's coronavirus vaccination campaign is now one of the fastest-paced and farthest-reaching in the world.

While boasting a globally renowned vaccination system, the country of 213 million people only started coronavirus inoculations in January, several weeks after the United States, many European countries and others in South America.

The rollout was delayed by political bickering under a president who belittled the pandemic and spread vaccine falsehoods, then hamstrung by logistical difficulties in the vast country.

But the country with the world's second-highest Covid-19 death toll – more than 588,000 fatalities reported to date – has seen its coronavirus vaccination rate pick up and its death rate tumble as imported jabs started arriving and local production began.

Continue reading.

[underthewingsofthblackeagle]

Omicron (V) - various reports

             The International Monetary Fund is warning that the new Omicron coronavirus variant is likely to delay the global economic recovery from the pandemic. The fund is expecting to downgrade its forecasts for world growth this year and next. That's even though the World Health Organization says it has no evidence yet of any deaths connected to Omicron. The new variant is spreading rapidly in many countries. South Africa in particular is seeing an alarming wave of infections. More young children are being hospitalized, and authorities are concerned that people who've already had COVID-19 are being reinfected. Healthcare workers in South Africa have their hands full since scientists there first detected the Omicron variant last week. And it's been found across South Africa. Just a quarter of the population has been fully vaccinated. But it is not clear yet how far the current vaccines protect against an infection with Omicron. South Africa's public health authorities warn that more children and young adults are being hospitalized with the coronavirus. Many countries have placed new restrictions on travelers from South Africa, and even shut borders. And the Scientists who alerted the world to the Omicron variant are facing a backlash at home. Face masks are mandatory, and there are limits on the number of people who can attend indoor and outdoor gatherings. But Omicron continues its invisible race across South Africa.

             The new Covid variant Omicron was present in the Netherlands earlier than previously thought, officials have said. It was identified in two test samples taken in the country between 19 and 23 November, which is before the variant was first reported by South Africa. It is not clear whether those who took the tests had visited southern Africa. Oxford University has said there is no evidence vaccines would not prevent severe disease, but earlier Moderna jolted markets when it said Covid jabs were unlikely to be as effective against Omicron.

             A top South African scientist says there has been a sharp rise in new cases in COVID-19 as the new variant omicron spreads across the country. But Dr Michelle Groome says more data is needed before any conclusions can be drawn about how infection and dangerous the variant is. So far omicron has been detected in over two dozen countries. It was first identified in Botswana and South Africa:  which has now been cut off from air travel by many nations. Here in Europe, the variant has been detected in at least thirteen countries, from Norway and Germany in the north, to Italy and Portugal in the south. Researchers say they will need 2 or 3 weeks to work out whether Omicron is more transmissible than the now-dominant Delta strain, resistant to vaccines, or causes more severe symptoms than previous coronavirus variants.

             THE World Health Organisation has said it expects to have more information on Omicron transmission 'within days', as the organisation calls for a 'balanced and proportionate approach' to tackling the variant. The WHO Director General, Doctor Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said blanket travel bans "will not prevent the international spread of Omicron", and also "place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods", as he called on calm. Whether the variant is more transmissible or evades vaccines are some of the major questions that still need answering. Vaccine developers have said it will take about two weeks to assess whether their shots are effective against it. Van Kerkhove said one possible scenario was that the new variant, which was first reported in southern Africa, may be more transmissible than the dominant Delta variant. She said it was not yet known if Omicron makes people more ill. WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said the agency believes the existing COVID-19 vaccines will work against the variant.

             The new COVID-19 variant Omicron was first identified by researchers in South Africa. But they point out that doesn't necessarily mean it originated there. It is more an indication of the country's prowess when it comes to gene sequencing.

[darkmaga-returns]

The socialists in the UK National Health Service keep lots of data. They do research. That doesn’t make up for the long wait times that may exceed the window for required care or the outcomes; they do collect the data. The UK has been a gold mine, especially since the COVID era to which we can add this.

Effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination in children and adolescents

To summarize,

The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine provided children and teens in England with only about 14 to 15 weeks of protection against testing positive for the virus, according to a preprint study of over 1.7 million children ages 5 to 15 in the English National Healthcare System (NHS). Researchers investigating the safety and effectiveness of Pfizer’s vaccine in fully vaccinated, partially vaccinated, and unvaccinated children and teens, also found cases of myocarditis and pericarditis only in vaccinated children.

It didn’t work; kids didn’t need it, and some of those children paid a high price in exchange for the injections. Nothing new about that, you say, and true enough, but who doesn’t like to see researchers in health care systems producing meaningful analysis that confirms what you’ve been told is biased or disinformation (you anti-vaxxer!)?

The cabal of COVID “follow the science” creeps must dodge another unpleasant reality because the science you followed that led to your concerns (statements, reporting, opinion) was the better science. Superior. Again. That’ll twist some blue panties.

You were right about masks, distancing, quarantines, lockdowns, Paxlovid, essential businesses, Ivermectin, and the mRNA jabs being neither safe nor effective and utterly unnecessary for children (feel free to share more things you got right in the comments – it is a long and growing record).

The UK National Health Service has done us another solid. In the wake of the lies about the pandemic of the unvaccinated (they invented summer flu season), we were told that COVID might be causing myocarditis. That’s not true either. These researchers did report equal or slightly increased incidents of Wuhan flu in the unvaccinated kids (with a handful of severe cases and no deaths), but not one of those resulted in pericarditis or myocarditis.

[ricisidro]

#DOH reports 194 new cases today November 17 bringing the total nationwide caseload to 4,122,658 cases. ⬆️

#COVID19 #Philippines #PH

NCR accounted for 33.5% (65) of the country's cases while 129 (66.5%) of the day's cases are in the provinces.

In the NCR, only Quezon City had double digits cases with 20. Thirteen LGUs had low digits cases. Three LGUs had Zero COVID: Valenzuela, San Juan and Pateros.

Outside the NCR, the only province with double digits cases is Davao del Sur 10 (Davao City 9). All other provinces had low single digit cases or ZERO COVID.

Zero COVID deaths today. The total death toll remains at 66,746.

The active cases slightly decreased to 3,093 from 3,102 active cases yesterday.⬇️

The national positivity rate slightly decreased at 6.6% from yesterday's 6.8%.⬇️

The healthcare utilization rate remains at low risk.

Mask up correctly and stay in well-ventilated areas specially for the elderly and vulnerable groups. For additional protection against the threat of COVID-19, get the updated vaccine and booster jab. If you have symptoms - test and isolate.

Happy Friday ! Stay safe !

DOH site: https://doh.gov.ph/covid19tracker

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A post shared by Jun Isidro (@rcisidro)

[sigritandtheelves]

(II) Three Iterations of a Birth (and Death)

Part Two: Epiphany

PG-13 | 3.5k wds | s8 AU (Essence/Existence); angst with implied resolution

Summary: After William’s traumatic birth, a terrified Scully withdraws from Mulder.

A/N: Sorry it took 800 years. Part One, Tragedy, is here but you don’t need to read it (it’s another version of the story and very sad/dark).

—

Somewhere in this chain of events, Mulder had made some miscalculation. Rising threat put her in danger, and so he sent her away. If he could get her far from these monsters, from him, she might be okay. But then there had been the sea of headlights, too far from the highway, too near his destination to be anything but Them. From the air it had seemed a star or beacon. A light, he could say: he’d followed a light.

But to what?

The stink of blood was still in his nose. He’d held them. He’d held them both. Such tiny fingers reaching up and out of the blanket on her chest and he’d leaned forward to let them brush his nose. A clenching in his heart.

Soft words tried to come from her lips. “Mul... didn’t...”

He held her tighter and pressed his face to her hair. “They didn’t take him. He’s here. You’re here.”

She frowned and shook her head no. “You didn’t...” but it was too much for her and she drifted under again. He willed the pilot to fly faster. The sheet he’d wrapped around her was becoming damp and tacky with blood along its underside.

On the hospital’s helipad there was a frenzy of scrubbed healthcare workers, a gurney appeared, and he tried to answer questions as best he could.

Are you the husband?

He winced and ached. Mother and child were separated for treatment and he was kept from them both, shuffled to a blue plastic chair in some chilled waiting room in northern Georgia. Scully’s blood was on his jeans, dried and cracking on his fingertips. He recalled the small arm that reached from the blanket and he let his face fall into his hands.

—

In many years of his and Scully’s scuffles with rough-around-the-edges government mercenaries and violent semi-human teratological anomalies, Mulder had become well acquainted with pestering medical staff for information. He wasted no time getting to it now, but he realized something was wrong when their responses turned from annoyed to cold. No, they could not tell him about miss Scully’s condition, nor that of the child. No, he could not see her.

He had no FBI credentials to brandish at them and wore no wedding ring with which to legally pry. So he waited and paced and drank machine-processed coffee until he didn’t know what day it was.

Some eight or twelve cups later, he caught Monica Reyes at the vending machine and watched her stiffen when she saw him. He launched a barrage of questions at her. Where is she? Is she okay? What happened to the baby? I need to see her! Frown lines deepened on her forehead.

“She won’t see you,” she said.

Mild panic, a wave of dread at her words. He wanted to believe it was sympathy he saw in her face, but it could have been only tiredness. Finally, he managed, “Why not?”

Monica’s eyes were like daggers before she turned away. “She’s traumatized.”

“But she’s okay?”

She shoved a quarter into the vending machine with too much force. “What part of traumatized do you think is okay? She won’t sleep and won’t let go of the baby, not even to let her mother hold him.”

Mulder felt a jab in his heart. “Maggie’s here?”

The machine rumbled and a soda crashed to the bottom where Monica grabbed it. “She is. She doesn’t want to see you either.” With that, she gave him a look and walked back toward the room from which he’d been forbidden. He followed, but she halted quickly, one hand on the butt of her gun and the other held up to stop him. “No. She’s under FBI protection.”

“But I’m—“

Monica tilted her head, eyebrow raised, and his jaw hung open. He was what?

He was at a loss. Scully wouldn’t see him, wouldn’t let him see her, wouldn’t let him see the baby. Was there something wrong with it? Was the child sick? Was the child not a child?

His voice came out more ragged than he expected: “Is he okay? The baby?”

Her eyes softened, just a fraction. “Yeah. He’s fine.”

“I need to see them.”

But she shook her head, hand still on her gun, and left him behind.

—

“Mulder, I can’t help you. She told the staff not to let you in, and that’s her choice.”

“But why? Did she tell you why?”

There was a pause on the line and he could hear Skinner’s discomfort, his clenched jaw. “She’s afraid.”

“Of me?”

The sound was something like a sigh, half-choked. “Yes.”

Another long pause.

“She says you sent her to die.”

Mulder didn’t have any words after that, so he hung up.

—

He tried to imagine where he went wrong, where’d he fucked up first and hardest and most irredeemably. Going back to Oregon without her, maybe. He could have sensed then that something was wrong and changed everything. Little clues fell together in hindsight that, at the time, had felt only like encouragement: the sense of something huge—that he was onto something. He thought he’d been on the brink of real discovery, but it had turned out to be disaster.

It was re-entry, though, that he’d really fumbled. Driven by rage and confusion and this overwhelming sense of loss, he’d lashed out at the only person he felt he could really hurt. He’d been ripped away, and he came back to a different world. A different Scully. All he knew how to do was chase and fight, and he’d punished her for his lack of power.  

Alone, he sat in his darkened apartment, ruminating on what might have been. Three days he’d been sitting here, raging fruitlessly against his own solitude, replaying that last afternoon in Georgia. He pressed his fingers against his eyes like he could wipe the image away.

He’d stayed, despite the nurses’ warning, despite Skinner’s and Monica’s admonitions to go home. He couldn’t go until he’d seen her. Didn’t they understand that he couldn’t without seeing her face? Their faces: hers and the child’s. And he had—though only for a moment. He’d paced the hallways, stubble growing into a rough beard, circles growing under his eyes hour after hour until he’d finally caught sight of the trio of women in the far hallway—Scully in a wheelchair pushed by an orderly, Maggie and Monica behind.

“Sc—“ the sound croaked from his throat. He cleared it and tried again. “Scully!”

The woman in the wheel chair started, turned—and he caught the horrified look on her face. She held a bundle in her arms, he saw, and at the sight of him she gripped it tighter. There was none of the gentle recognition he expected. There’d been no misunderstanding: she was afraid of him. Terror was written all across her face and body.

No, he saw her mouth move. Her eyes were enormous, and almost in slow-motion he watched her try to lever herself out of the wheelchair, baby in arms. He watched her try to run, only to be held by the orderly, touched gently and comforted by her mother. (“Dana, it’s okay. You’re okay, he won’t take you anywhere.”)

Monica had turned in his direction, fury descending on her face as she stomped toward him. “Go!” She whisper-screamed, flinging her finger at him, shoving it at the exit behind him. “Get out of here! You’re scaring her!”

His chest filled with guilt and hot-lava shame. He’d wanted to call out to her again, wanted to say It’s ME, but he could see her panic and could not stand to think that he would make it worse. He stumbled back, catching the wall for balance, and then turned and hurried out of the hospital.

—

Most nights he couldn’t help it: he called Maggie’s house in fits of helpless desperation, needing anything to tie him to her, even the sound of her mother’s voice on the answering machine. Always the result was the same: a click before the machine could even connect.

After a week, Maggie finally picked up, voice sharp. “Fox, you can’t call here. It upsets her so much. She shakes every time the phone rings.”

“Thank you for answering,” he croaked. “I need to—I’m so sorry. I thought maybe she’d let me talk to her.”

There was quiet for a moment, and some rustling fabric on the other line. Then Maggie sighed. “She’s not well. She’s not herself.”

Mulder nodded, fingers gripping his hair and pulling at the short strands. “Why is she so afraid? What does she think I’ll do?” He spoke softly, like he might spook her, too, like he really was dangerous.

“She thinks you sent her to that place so those people would take the baby.” Maggie sighed. “She thinks you’ll send her away again… and that you don’t want her to keep him.”

He swallowed down fire and rubbed his unshaven face. He was looking rough, barely showered in the time since he’d driven home in a daze with his eyes burning the whole way. He let Maggie’s words sink in: that Scully thought he wanted the baby taken away. That she no longer trusted him with her life.

“You know that’s not true, right? She matters more to me than anything. She’s my… I need her.”

“She needed you! You should have stayed with her!” Maggie hissed.

He almost sobbed, desperate now and sensing that Maggie was pulling away. “I know. I know. I just—please talk to her and explain that I love her. I need her,” he said again.

A cold silence seeped through the line for a long moment. “Your son needs her too,” Maggie said, and then she hung up on him.

—

Two days later a cardboard envelope came in the mail, addressed in Scully’s handwriting. His pulse tripled at the sight of her arced cursive—his heart, the whole thing, squeezed so hard he couldn’t breathe. He was ripping at the envelope, pulling out the printed pages. Inside were the results of a DNA paternity test: perfectly straightforward, perfectly clear. With almost exact accuracy, it revealed that he, Fox Mulder, was the father of this entirely human child. He stared at the page until the numbers blurred. Probability of Paternity: 99.99%. Maternal alleles were counted as well. Nothing abnormal. Two human parents and one human child.

Shaking, reading the numbers over and over, he almost didn’t see the note she’d made in the left-hand margin: I ran these myself as soon as they’d let me into the lab. He’s yours. His name is William.

William. His son. Mulder didn’t make it back to his couch. He flopped down cross-legged in his foyer and let the paper slip from his hands. For two days he’d been haunted by Maggie’s words: your son needs her too. He knew everyone believed it already, had suspected and smirked and whispered about it for months, both before and after he returned. But he hadn’t allowed himself to believe such a thing could be true. His was a life of sacrifice and loss, near misses and furtive, stolen wins. No gift was ever without a price. This child could not have come into the world without some catch.

Yet here was the proof of this thing so simple. Here was his truth. Amongst of all their suffering—torture, abduction, disease, even death—they’d made something true and good. They’d loved each other, and from that had come an answered prayer. Yet he’d mistaken that answer for a curse, a trap. There was a tiny human in the world not because of cruelty, but because he’d finally let himself love. And from the moment he learned of this small life’s existence, he’d treated Scully like a bomb waiting to go off and reveal new deceptions.

He thought of her in that dark cabin in Georgia, screaming into the night, surrounded by strangers, bleeding into a filthy mattress. No wonder she was afraid of him.

It was long hours before he managed to get up.

—

Negotiations followed through Monica, whom he’d called in desperation: losing it, running on empty, a cracked shell. Please tell her I need to make things right.

Finally a concession: “She says you can come by, but not inside.”

“But she’ll see me?”

“Only at a distance. She’s still… she’s really scared, Mulder.”

So he drove to Maggie’s house and stood on the lawn in the June dusk. He’d showered and shaved, but cut his face with his shaking hands. He’d held toilet paper to his cheek on the drive, feeling unhinged, feeling mad with the need to see them. Monica was there too: fully armed for protection, nodding to Dana that it was safe. Scully came to the first-floor window with William in her arms. She held the boy where Mulder could see, her lips pressed to the back of his down-fuzzy head. Mulder’s breath caught. His baby. He was so much bigger already than he’d been in that helicopter. He wore a white onesie, and chubby legs poked out from his cotton-covered diaper. On his feet were the smallest socks Mulder had ever seen.

Mulder took a step closer and Scully startled, but didn’t quite back away. He lifted his hand to show her his empty palm. A gesture: It’s safe, you’re okay. In his other hand he held a stuffed elephant. He lifted that too, and danced its soft and smiling body. The infant squirmed, and Scully kissed his head again, bounced him a little. Mulder’s eyes burned, red-rimmed and teary. He sniffed.

When Scully gave him a nervous half-smile and backed away, he placed the toy elephant on the porch for her—for his baby William.

And then he drove home.

—

Later, on the phone, she let him speak, let him hear her voice.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” he said. He paced circles in his dark apartment.

“You didn’t believe he was yours. You didn’t want him.”

“I do want him. Scully, I was so stupid. I didn’t know. I couldn’t believe.” He thought of those chubby legs and those little blue socks. He thought of kissing the fuzzy head like she had, of holding the small weight against his chest.

“Mulder, after everything… you couldn’t believe?”

“I never thought—“ he sighed. “No miracle has ever come without a price for us, Scully.”

“He’s a baby, not a pawn. We made him and now he’s here.”

“And that’s not a miracle?”

“Not a calculated one.”

Mulder paused, remembering the small eyes and expressive face that had bobbed in front of the window, Scully’s haunted eyes that had watched him so carefully. “Not calculated, not planned, but still wanted.”

Now it was her turn to pause, to breathe deeply and work up the courage before uttering shaky words: “Why did you send me to that place? Why did you send me away?”

He stopped pacing in his bedroom doorway, dropped his head against the solid frame. His words sounded empty, even to himself, but they were the only justification he had. “I thought I was protecting you.”

“You always think that.”

“I know.”

“You weren’t.”

“I know.”

He heard another deep breath through the line. “I was so scared, Mulder. They could have killed me. They could have killed him. What would you have done? How could you let me go?”

His face crumpled and his heart thudded against his ribs when he thought of her dead in that place, of their soft infant harmed by alien hands. “I don’t know. I--” He squeezed his eyes shut and smacked his head against the doorframe again. “I’m so sorry. I’d never do it again. I’d never send you away.”

She was crying quietly on the other end of the line, but trying to hide it. “I have to go,” she said.

His impulse was to stop her, to keep her on the line because he was so desperate for her voice, for her. He opened his mouth to say wait!, but thought better of it. He let her hang up.

“Bye, Scully,” he said when the line was dead.

--

It happened this way, that she’d let him call in the evenings. He would press the phone to his ear and close his eyes and pretend she was in the room with him. He listened to the baby fuss and asked questions: how big? How much hair now? (The answer was always almost none, and he would laugh.) Does it hurt when you feed him? Can I get him anything? He’s going to be so smart.

“I miss you, Scully,” he told her, as he did every night. “What can I do? What else can I do?” He was feeling the phantom texture of her skin beneath his fingers, the line of her jaw in his palm. He wanted to smell her hair again and kiss the curve of her shoulder. He would settle for holding her hands, for pressing his lips to her knuckles, for a palm to the dip of her clothed back. He’d not been so long without her in years.

“Talking is good,” she said. “I like talking. I like hearing your voice.”

He swallowed. He needed more. “How can I see you again?”

She hesitated a moment. “I don’t know. I--” she breathed deep. “I need you not to pull away again. Not to run away.”

He thought nothing could drag him from her now, if she’d only let him in. “I won’t,” he said. “I promise.” He recalled his careless antics of the spring on the oil rig, in that Federal Statistics Center, and wondered what he’d really been chasing. Running from. He winced to remember. “I want to stay with you both.”

On the other end of the line he heard a small cry, heard rustling and the infant’s fussing grow louder as she picked him up, and then the baby quieted again.

“He looks like me,” Mulder said.

Rustling fabric again then a soft suckling sound as William ate. A sniffle--Scully’s. “Yeah.”

“Let me come in next time. Let me hold him. Show me what to do.”

A deep, wet sigh and then… “Okay.”

—

There were three strong women in the house but it might as well have been an army for the way their protective energy formed a fortress. He would never dare breach their trust. He was humbled in the inner sanctum.

Dana held William on the sofa. He was wrapped in a striped blanket and sleeping against her arm, jaw slack and lips wet. She didn’t move as Mulder approached, though her eyes were wide and worried, like he might grab the baby and bolt at any moment.

“You used to trust me,” he reminded her. He fidgeted with nerves, aching to touch them both. He took in the blue of her eyes and the roundness of her face, the way her hair lay on her shoulders now--still so perfect. Still his Scully. “Hi,” he said.

The smallest smile flickered on her face. “Hi,” she said. She loosened her grip on the infant and lifted him slightly so Mulder might take him. He bent and took the blanketed child into his own arms.

When he finally held his son, Mulder couldn’t help the tears that pressed at his eyes, that burned his nose and wetted his lashes. Here was this tiny person. Here was this whole life wrapped in gauzy cotton. This had never been a game with players and pawns, he realized, but he’d let Them make him believe it was. It had always been about this: small lives that were also huge, that were everything.

He sank down on the couch beside Scully, holding William to his chest. The small sleeping face wrinkled, grimaced, then blinked awake and yawned--such tiny, perfect lips. Then somehow his own eyes were looking up at him, searching his face. A miniscule hand reached out of the blanket to touch his nose, and Mulder kissed the unbearably soft palm. “Hey, buddy,” he whispered.

After a moment, Scully shifted closer. He felt her hand come up to touch his back like an absolution.

“I’ve missed you,” she said.

A fat tear rolled down his cheek and he could only nod at first. “Yeah.” He sniffed and wiped his face on his shoulder. “God, you’ve no idea, Scully.”

Her cheek came to rest on his bicep as she reached across to touch William’s head. The warmth of it, the weight of his child in his arms, were bringing him back to life.

“Stay with us,” she said, barely a whisper.

Mulder turned from looking at the baby to search her face. Her wide eyes yearned. He pressed a kiss to her forehead, then rested his head on hers. “Forever,” he said. “This is it.”