#open casket funeral? I will have an on the desk chair funeral to ensure I have it with me to my grave lol

[giantkillerjack]

Me: [Took dog to vet. It went fine, but pushed my body to its absolute limits.]

Me: [Got home and cried because I remembered I can't play my new fave videogame in my comfy chair because the game broke on console and I have to restart the game on the PC]

Me: !!! oh shit I am like really really fragile I need to lie down and unwind by scrolling thru tumblr

Me: okay I'm all settled in, lemme just real quick read this comic about someone missing their dead cat

Me: [reads beautiful heart-wrenching comic, recalls that all love must end in grief and that one day everyone dies, especially our pets]

Me: ... okay I see now that I have made an error.

Me: [uncontrollable hubristic sobbing]

[originalhybridloverfics]

I'll Always Remember You

Summary: [AU Canon Divergence - if Serkan had met his daughter in the wake of a true tragedy]

Serkan's world is turned to shambles with devastating news. Mistakes etched in stone. Consumed with regrets he has to find a way to survive and be the father his daughter needs him to be in the wake of her mother's death when on he wants is Eda, smiling back at him.

[This will break your Edser heart. Consider yourself warned.]

A/N: I apologize in advance if this fic makes this cry but I did warn you. It's Serkan and Kiraz heavy with Edser dreams and flashbacks.Also I am no expert on the legal matters or turkey funerals and I am sure I got it wrong on so many levels and for that I apologize once again in advance.

“Serkan Bey!” Layla rushed into his office with an urgent look. The telephone clutched in her hand.

“Not now, Leyla!” Serkan said sharply. “I am in the middle of a meeting.”

“But Serkan, they say it’s urgent and won’t stop calling until they get in touch with you.” Leyla insisted clutching the phone tight in her hands.

Serkan’s annoyance was high. He had been getting calls all morning from an unknown number and he ignored it because it was more than possible it was reporters and he did not want to deal with those vultures today.

He has been having a bad week ever since he woke up in a cold sweat, his heart hurting. He went to the doctor and was told there was nothing wrong with his heart. Furthermore, he couldn’t explain it but there was an empty feeling inside him. An emptiness he never felt before.

He forced a smile for his clients. “I’m sorry for the interruption.”

He held his hand out for the phone and Layla nearly tripped over her feet in her haste to hand him the phone.

“Hello,” he spoke sharply into the phone.

“Am I speaking with Serkan Bolat?” A woman’s voice echoed down the line. Her tone is professional.

“Yes, you are. What is this about?” Serkan asked.

“My name is Ayla Yavus and I am with Child Protective Services. I am calling on the behalf of a young child. Kiraz-”

“I don’t understand.” Serkan cut her off. “Why are you calling me? I have no children.”

“Well, according to Kiraz’s relatives. You do. You are from their understanding her biological father.”

Serkan pushed his chair out abruptly and walked out onto the terrace. Layla followed, closing the door behind him.

“Explain,” Serkan demanded.

“Kiraz is five years old. She was being raised by her mother in Italy unfortunately, the child’s mother was in a fatal car accident a little over a week ago. We had her in our custody for only a few hours before placing her in the temporary custody of her mother’s aunt.:

Serkan’s heart pounded, fear lancing through him. “And her mother’s name?”

“Eda Yildiz.”

Serkan’s phone clattered to the floor as she spoke the one name he would have given anything for her not to have spoken.

His knees gave way beneath him and he caught himself on the ledge, sinking to the ground, he turned pressing his back against it.

“Serkan Bey!” Leyla called out in alarm. “Are you alright?”

“Tell everyone to go home.” his voice was low barely above a whisper.

“Serkan Bey?” Leyla questioned.

Serkan looked up at her and Leyla fell back a step by the devastation written on his face. “I want everyone out of the building. Now!” His voice was loud, like a clap of thunder causing Leyla to jump.

There was something so terrifying about his demeanor that Leyla immediately rushed to clear the building.

Serkan didn’t move, he felt like the world was falling away and not in the good way he remembers when he was with Eda.

He felt like everything around him was dying while he was left to suffer in agony in a world without light and sunshine, without flowers and kindness. Without his star and the beauty that brought him to life.

“Serkan Bey,” Leyla returned, speaking tentatively. “Everyone is gone.”

“I want you to leave too,” he said not looking up.

“Serkan Bey, I don’t feel comfortable leaving you in this state.” Leyla protested, fighting back her fear of his anger.

Serkan looked up at her. “I don’t care what makes you uncomfortable, Leyla. I want to be left alone,”

Leyla didn’t want to leave him. Especially, after witnessing the devastation in his eyes but if she continued to refuse Serkan’s anger would erupt.

“Okay, if you need anything. I am a call away.” Leyla reluctantly grabbed her things and left the building.

Serkan wasn’t certain how long he stayed there, but he felt the wind pick up as the sky began to rumble.

With an effort he pushed himself up, grabbing his phone from the floor, and headed inside.

Mindlessly, he climbed the stairs to his office, and pulling out a bottle of liquor off the shelf he kept for guests, he grabbed a glass, setting it down on his desk.

He moved to his safe, pulling out a box, not bothering to close the safe he moved back to his desk taking a seat behind it. He sat the box down and opened it.

Side by side incased in the fabric were his and Eda’s engagement ring, his platinum band with her name inscribed into it, and sparkling flower engagement ring.

He reached, his chest tightening as his fingers brushed her ring.

Serkan swallowed hard, the phone call haunting him. Eda was gone, leaving behind a child.

Their child. A child he never even knew about.

How was he supposed to handle this? He could barely hold it together after learning that the only woman he ever loved was gone.

How was he supposed to be strong for a child and raise her? What was he supposed to say to her? How would he look at her and see her mother and not break down every fucking time?

He was on a cliff and he felt like he was going to slip off it at any given moment.

His phone rang again and he reached for it blindly, not checking the caller id. “Hello,” his voice was hoarse.

“Mr. Bolat, this is Ayla Yavus. I’m with-” “I know, we spoke earlier.” Serkan cut her off, he pulled the phone away to clear his voice and sound more presentable.

“I thought I give you some time to deal with the news from earlier. I know this is difficult-”

“Difficult? It’s impossible. You have no idea what this feels like.”

“Maybe so but you need to pull yourself together and gather your strength. You have a little girl who is going to depend on you for everything.” Ms. Ayla replied matter-of-factly.

“How is this going to work?” Serkan asked. “Do you bring her to me? Do I just take custody? Do I come to her?”

“As I said during our first phone call, currently, Kiraz is in the custody of her mother’s Aunt, Ayfer Yildiz. While it is believed you are the father of Kiraz we will need to perform a DNA test and a background check to ensure it is safe for the child to be in your care.”

“It’s my child. Of course, she will be in my care,” What the hell did they take him for?

“After all this is taken care of you will come and take your daughter into your custody. Now, if you do not wish to take responsibility you can sign over your rights and custody will be given to Ms. Ayfer.”

“No, I won’t be giving up my parental rights.” Serkan hadn’t even seen a picture of his daughter but she was the last thing tethering him to Eda. There was no way he would let her go.

He knew absolutely nothing about raising a child but he knew he would do anything to protect her and give her a safe home. He would love her as much as he loved her mother.

“Thank you for your time, Serkan Bey. We will be in touch.” the line clicked.

Serkan dropped his phone onto the desk and he reached for the bottle of liquor and filled the glass in front of him.

He made a few calls after downing the glass. Using his contacts to find out if a funeral has taken place and if not where and when. He needed immediate results.

When he ended the call he poured himself another drink and another.

Later he was awakened to the sound of his phone ringing. It was his contact calling to tell him that the Yildiz family was returning to Istanbul.

It was all Serkan needed to know. Ayfer was having Eda brought back to Instanbul to be buried next to her parents.

He didn’t know how he was going to bring himself to attend the funeral but he owed Eda that much and so much more.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Two days later his head pounding and feeling like he had the worst hangover of his life, he was pulling up outside the cemetery, sunglasses over his face, dress in his best black suit.

He stepped out of his car and saw a gathering of people. There was a lot. He saw people from his company. Serkan wasn’t surprised. Nearly everyone who ever met Eda became enamored with her. In his eyes, she had to be the most beloved woman in the world.

He scans the crowd and nearly froze, Melo stood next to Ayfer, a little girl in between them, she had her face, buried in Melo’s side, her shoulders shaking as she cried. His heart pounded painfully in his chest, his eyes bounced around and landed on the closed casket and he froze, ice keeping him still.

Then as he locked eyes with Melo, he was moving.

He turned away. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t be here.

A hand landed on his shoulder.

His eyes snapped up and Engin stood before him. A frown on his face. “Leyla called and Ceren told Piril about today’s services. I’m sorry brother.”

“I can’t do this.” Serkan shook his head.

“You have to,” Engin tightened his grip. “For Eda. You will do this. I know it means little right now but I am here. Right beside you.”

For Eda.

The words echoed in his head and he nodded slowly. This wasn’t about him. It was about Eda and the respect she deserved from him.

He moved forward slowly, seeing more people he knew but couldn’t bring himself to greet them. There were art life employees, Eda’s friends, Efe. Her grandmother and so many more people but he ignored them. He ignored everyone.

He walked up to the casket and placed his hand upon the wood, his mind working as an enemy against him as he recalled with perfect clarity what it was like to touch her skin.

His eyes slid shut and he could picture her so clearly, the light shining behind her, her smile bright, eyes shining, her dark hair falling down her back in long luxurious waves, her skin perfectly tanned.

His knees grew weak, an ache in his chest. He couldn’t breathe, his vision darkened.

“Serkan.” Engin was there wrapping his arm around his shoulder, steadying him. “Breathe, brother. Breathe.”

Serkan shook his head. “I can’t! I cannot. What right do I have to breathe when she isn’t.” He shook Engin off and moved back toward his car. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t watch them put his star in the ground.

“Brother!” Engin was hot on his tail.

Others had noticed his pain but it went unnoticed by Serkan. Babanne was angry that a Bolat had come and was being blocked by Efe. Ayfer wanted to make Serkan leave believing he had no right to be there but her path was blocked by Ceren and Fifi wanted to tear into him but was being stopped by Melo who stood in front of her Eda’s little angel holding tightly to her hand.

“You don’t understand, Engin!” Serkan whirled around. “She was my breath and now she’s gone. I cannot be here. It’s too real and I need it not to be.”

Serkan’s fell back against his car, and his breaths came quickly. He recognized he was on the verge of a panic attack.

He slumped leaning against the vehicle heavily.

“Serkan, breathe,” Engin said and tried to show Serkan by taking a breath and releasing it slowly,

Serkan shook his head.

“Serkan,” Melo’s voice appeared suddenly and he froze, his eyes went past her to the little girl just a foot away, her cheeks wet with tears.

Melo crouched in front of Serkan and took his hand in hers. “Son-in-law. You need to breathe,”

Serkan looked at her blankly. “I don’t want to.”

“I know.” Melo saw the pain in his eyes, he looked so lost. She knew him. She never truly understood why he and Eda couldn’t make it work. But what she knew without a doubt was that Serkan and Eda had never stopped loving each other. “But you have to. Eda would want you to.”

“Eda,” Serkan’s voice trembled on her name. “She’s gone.”

“I know but she loved you. She loved you until her last breath and she would want you to be okay and for that to happen you have to breathe.”

Serkan nodded slowly and took a shallow breath and released it, he did it again and again and again until he started breathing normally just as a soft voice penetrated the air, the voice of the little girl.

“Melo,” the child sounded so heartbroken and lost.

His eyes snapped back to the little girl. “Kiraz?”

Kiraz stepped closer to Melo.

Melo’s lips trembled. “I see social services contacted you,”

Serkan nodded, frozen.

“Are you well enough to meet her?” Melo asked.

“I’m never gonna be ok again but I am well enough.” More so Serkan wanted to look in his daughter’s eyes and see Eda. He needed something solid that connected him to her to hold onto.

Melo nodded and gently took the little girl’s hand and urged her forward, “Come, Kiraz, I want you to meet someone very important. This here is Serkan Bolat, he was a very precious friend of your mother.”

The girl sniffled, taking small steps forward until she stood in front of Serkan. “Are you sad, too?” Kiraz asked. “Mom’s gone and she’s not coming back.” the little girl lifted a hand to her heart. “Does your heart hurt like mine?”

Serkan couldn’t keep the sob in even if he wanted to, his child’s heartbreaking words tearing it from his chest.

“Oh, Serkan,” Melo murmured squeezing his hand.

“Do you want a hug?” Kiraz asked as her shoulders shook. “Mom always said hugs were like bandaids for sadness.”

Serkan couldn’t bring himself to respond as he pressed his hand over his heart that was so broken beyond repair he didn’t know how it was still beating.

Kiraz tentatively approached Serkan and wrapped his arms around his neck.

Serkan was shocked and stilled but then this feeling overcame him and he couldn’t explain it. All he knew was he was connected to this girl and even if he hadn’t know the truth he would have felt it.

He wrapped his hands around the girl softly, and he heard her sniffle as her tears drip onto his neck, her shoulders started to shake. “My heart won’t stop hurting.”

“It will be alright,” he found himself trying to comfort his daughter, stroking her hair and rubbing her back. He didn’t think he was going to be alright again but his child, Eda’s child needed to believe that it would be. She needed someone to be strong for her and hold her when she needed it.

Serkan didn’t think it was possible but the pain in his chest became worst. He wanted Eda and he wanted to protect his little girl from the pain she was feeling.

The world was too cruel and he didn’t understand how life could be so brutal and unforgiving to take Eda away from him and especially away from the little girl in his arms.

“Shh, it’s going to be okay. Your heart hurts now but this will pass. In time you will find it won’t hurt as much.” he said and began whispering soothing words, even as his voice choked.

“How do you know?” She pulled back to look at him with a tear-stained face, and devastated eyes.

Serkan wanted more than anything to be able to answer her but he couldn’t. He said the words to comfort her but they were empty. He was certain the pain ripping through him would never stop.

Serkan looked desperately to Melo for help.

Melo moved closer and ran her hand soothingly through Kiraz’s hair. “Because pain like this doesn’t last forever, we live through it, we survive and it makes us stronger.” Melo smiled weakly, a tear sliding down her cheek. “The most important thing you have to remember, love, is that your mother will never truly be gone.” She placed her hand over her heart. “As long as you keep her in your heart she will always be with you.”

Kiraz’s shoulders started shaking again. a fresh wave of tears overtaking her and she reached for Melo.

Melo took her in her arms and stood. “Son-in-law, I know it’s hards but you should be here.”

Serkan stared at the broken girl in her arms and he nodded, forcing himself back to his feet on unsteady legs, he followed Melo back to the proceedings.

Engin kept close to him, ready to be there for him if need be.

During the proceedings, a small hand slipped into his and he clung tightly to it, he looked down at her and her shoulders were shaking as she cried silently.

He ignored Ayfer’s and Babanne’s glares and lowered himself to the ground, offering her a shoulder to cry on and she took it.

It was then as he watched the woman he loved being buried, holding the child created in his arms that he knew with absolute certainty he wasn’t going anywhere. He would do anything to protect his daughter from any more suffering.

He will never be able to make up for his mistakes with her mother but he could, protect her, raise her, love her. Do right by her.

And truth be told he needed her. He needed something to tie him to Eda.

Her small body leaning into his side was the only thing keeping him grounded.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Melo looked around Kiraz in her arms as she prepared to get in the car and leave. She looked toward Serkan’s car, knowing she needed to talk to him. There was so much that needed to be discussed. Especially regarding Kiraz.

He wasn’t by his car but she saw Engin and Piril, standing next to it.

She looked back to Eda’s fresh grave and her breath hitched. Serkan was there, kneeling in the grass, his head bowed.

“Isn’t mom’s friend going to leave, too?” Kiraz sniffled.

“I don’t think so,” Melo shook her head. “I think he wants to stay awhile with her.”

Kiraz squirmed out of her arms. “I want to stay too. He’s hurting. You’re not supposed to leave someone alone when they’re hurt.”

“This is a different kind of hurt,” Melo reaches to take her hand and usher her in the car but Kiraz was already moving away from her back toward Serkan.

She watched as Kiraz moved in front of her father, her little hands reaching up to wipe his tears before she put her arms around him.

Serkan went rigid but then he was folding forward and she watched as his whole body shook with grief, holding tightly to his daughter.

Melo lifted her hand to her mouth, her hand shaking.

She didn’t know how any of them were supposed to get through this. She was barely holding it together but she had to for Kiraz.

Nothing was ever going to be like before again. It couldn’t.

She only hoped Serkan and Kiraz would make it out on the other side. Together.

A/N: Did you cry? If you did I'm sorry. My muse is evil but I am a slave to her.

[shieldagentscully-blog]

SAS 5 - Great Minds

May 1994 - Washington D.C.

The body was a 34-year-old male, Puerto Rican, gang member who had been the star witness in a Department of Justice trial involving a cartel operating out of the Port Authority in New York, importing goods and drugs for distribution and sale on the black market. The case was run of the mill, honestly, and the unfortunate fellow had been pretty cut-and-dry as far as such cases went. There wasn’t much a bullet to the back of the skull was going to tell you outside of the fact that the caliber was enough to make an open casket impossible for his family. Scully did what she could to ensure that the funeral home didn’t have to deal with too much of a mess, sewed up the Y-incision and went back to her office to begin writing up her notes.

She was only mildly surprised to see anyone sitting in there. Certainly, she was used to the itchy agent or three who would on occasions camp out there with the impatience of a hyper two-year-old waiting for the results for their investigation, and in fact she had been expecting that very thing on the body she had just put into the freezer. She didn’t even pause as she rounded towards her desk, barely looking at the woman seated across from it.

“Javier de Valle was a standard execution, plain and simple. Was asked to kneel in a parking lot, hands behind his back while they put a slug into the back of his head. The exit wound obliterated much of the upper part of his face. I’m getting ballistics to give me the specs on the weapon used and if it’s traceable, and when they do, I’ll add those to my report. I should have something preliminary for you by the end of the day with addendums within the next 48, depending on how our trace goes.”

The woman merely blinked dark eyes at her, a hint of something tugging at her lips. “Well, that was a horrible way to die.”

It was the British accent that caught her attention, as few people from Justice ever had one of those. She paused, really looking at her visitor for the first time. An older woman, maybe in her 60’s, still clearly vibrant judging from the bemused smirk on her faintly lined face, hair slowly fading from brunette to silver. Her well tailored suit and elegant pearls made Scully suddenly very aware of the standard-order scrubs she was wearing and her own copper hair pulled up in a messy scrunchy at the top of her head.

“Ummm...I’m sorry, I thought you were from Justice, on the body I had sent down to me.”

“I wish I was now, it sounds fascinating.” She shrugged, regarding Scully quickly. “Let me guess, gang killing, likely drugs or some such, and your body was an informant?”

Scully couldn’t deny or affirm that, so she only stared. The woman only seemed more amused by that.

“Of course, it’s the sort of everyday, run-of-the mill stuff that the Department of Justice feels they need to send to Quantico, because nothing less than their best forensic pathologists would do. After all, not everyone can tell that a man having his face blasted off was shot in the back of the head.”

“In fairness, most people wouldn’t get past the face being missing, but beyond that, I suppose they could have used a New York City coroner. They are backed up for a week or more, however, and as this was a key piece for a DOJ investigation, they came to me, as they should.” Scully leaned back in her chair, regarding the stranger. “You know, Quantico is a Marine base. They don’t just let anyone in here.”

“Well, good thing I have the clearance for that sort of thing.” Her smile was now genuine as she leaned across the desk, placing a white card in front of Scully. It read “Margaret Carter, Director, Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division”

Scully suddenly felt her mouth go very, very dry.

“Director Carter,” she managed, clearing her throat and tugging at her blood spattered and rumpled top. “I...uh..how can I help you?”

“I just wished to say hello, introduce myself, and tell you that Agent Coulson is speaking to your friend on my orders.” Her expression was mild enough, but there was something of the predator in her as she leaned back, crossing her legs at the knees, pulling her skirt down primly. “I must admit, I find it admirable the devotion you have for Agent Mulder. It’s rare to find that in our line of work. Though, to be fair, you two aren’t exactly the standard for FBI agents, now are you?”

“May I ask why you are reaching out to Mulder?”

“Because I know his father.”

That gave Scully pause.

If she expected Director Carter to elaborate, she was mistaken, as she breezed by that tidbit. “Agent Mulder has been on our radar for some time, since before the FBI managed to snare him. It is unfortunate they did because they’ve squandered the talent as they always do. Bill Patterson is a jackass and always has been, but, that’s where they put your partner and nearly ruined him for anything else.”

Scully’s brain swum as the other woman rattled off the information, racing to try and keep up with her. “I’m sorry, you said that SHIELD wanted Mulder first?”

“Oh, we had every intention of taking him. Politics got in the way of that.”

“But Mulder was a profiler. He didn’t work anti-terrorism.”

“As brilliant as your partner’s mind is, Agent Scully, I didn’t want him because he knows how serial killers think. I wanted him because of the way he thinks; outside the box, without labels or preconceived notions, willing to turn the picture on its side and look at it in a different way.”

“I see.” She didn’t really, but she wasn’t willing to admit that. “And this has nothing to do with the X-files, the death of a high profile man in a global conspiracy who served as Mulder’s informant, or the fact that Mulder was infected with a strange virus whose origins cannot yet be quantified?”

“It could be all of that, too.”

None of this made sense.

“I’m sorry, Director Carter, but I find it hard to believe that a global organization such as SHIELD is going out of its way for someone the FBI has nearly written off. Why not just approach him out in the open, like you and I are? Why all the clandestine business?”

Far from offending the other woman, Scully’s tone made her laugh outright. “I knew I’d like you from the start. I pushed to have the pair of you, honestly, but Fury said to try the more obvious one first. I’m glad to see my instincts were right.”

Before Scully could feel nettled enough to demand answers, the other woman leaned over to a briefcase at her feet, pulling out a file she flipped open on her lap. “Dana Katherine Scully, born 1964. Your father was career Navy, retired a read admiral, your mother was a homemaker and now spends her retirement volunteering and working for veterans’ causes. You have three siblings, a sister, Melissa, who last we saw was driving up the coast of California to see friends in San Francisco. You have two brothers, both career Navy, one in San Diego, the other based in Norfolk, specializing in naval intelligence.”

She raised an eyebrow at that. “Interesting...might have Fury look into him.”

“Is there a point reciting my life story?”

“I like knowing about people.” She didn’t even look up from the page. “You graduated from Maryland summa cum laude taking a bachelors in physics, and then Stanford Medical, where you specialized in cardiology before switching to pathology and the FBI. Had it not been for Daniel Waterston, you’d have been making high figures fixing hearts, instead you are in the basement of the Hoover Building trailing after a man whose heart was broken years ago and he’s never been able to fix it. Why?”

She might as well have dumped cold ice water over Scully’s head for all the shock Carter caused. She hadn’t expected her to drop Scully’s previous sins on her like that.

“I...my father and brothers were Navy. I wanted to do something equally as worthwhile, to make a difference.” It was mostly the truth.

“And a broken heart from a man cheating on his wife wasn’t the reason?”

“Do you honestly think I’d still be here, doing this, if Daniel Waterston is the only reason I joined the FBI?”

Her answer seemed to please Carter. “You didn’t want to join the Navy yourself? You have brains, a medical degree, you could have excelled. They are always looking for that.”

Scully did know that, had even considered it, briefly. “When I was a girl, my father was more often away than at home. It was Vietnam, he was off at one base or the other, and my mother was left in San Diego fending for four kids and praying that he’d come home safely from wherever her was stationed. Granted, it wasn’t World War II, but we all saw the news every night, the names read off. I wasn’t interested in being shipped off to fight in a war and break my mother’s heart.”

“Even though women can be in the military, now, which was more than in my day.” Carter only sounded slightly bitter at that.

“There are other enemies and other ways to fight a war and I’m not Captain America, able to throw myself into battle and defeat my enemies by just beating them into submission.”

She had meant it as a small joke, a call back to SHIELD’s history with the SSR. She had struck a nerve, though. Carter’s geniality faltered, briefly, regarding Scully, as if attempting to stick her 5’2 frame into anything close to Steve Rogers and failing miserably.

“No,” she finally sighed, somewhat sad, somewhat humorously grieved. “Few people can claim to be as hard-headed or foolishly determined to fight unwinnable wars as Captain Rogers was. But, I think your friend, Fox Mulder, might just give him a run for his money.”

That made Scully snort loudly. “He just might.”

She wasn’t sure what it said about Mulder if they could mutually agree he was almost, but not quite, foolish enough to do something like take an untested serum in order to fight super-Nazis. Scully didn’t think she wanted to put the notion in his head.

“Back to the matter at hand, you joined the FBI to make a difference, to have a bit of adventure, use that incredible talent of yours to solve the world’s problems and not just triple bypasses. So, why are you stuck in Quantico again, dissecting gangland executions for needy DOJ prosecutors who got their short hairs in a twist because they didn’t protect their informants well enough?”

Scully nearly choked on her own spit as Carter dropped them neatly between them, all tweed and pearls, as cooly as she was discussing the weather. “Well, I’m here because that’s where the FBI assigned me after Agent Mulder’s unfortunate fall out and the closing of the X-files.”

“Are you seriously happy here, though, doing work any city examiner could do while teaching green-faced cadets how not to puke at the sight of blood and guts coming out of a corpse?”

“Is it what I’d like to do, no, but I’m knowledgeable at it.”

“I’m knowledgeable at how to make a good cuppa and not dribble on myself and yet you don’t see me at tea parties.” She sniffed mildly, disdain evident. “All this talent wasted because the FBI wanted to reign you in and shut you up. Are you really content accepting that?”

“And what, leave? To do what? Work for you?”

Carter only arched one dark, elegant eyebrow.

“I’ve never done the work SHIELD does. I’m a pathologist who has some skills in an ER, that’s about it.”

“You also have some knowledge on a virus known as ‘Purity Control’ correct?”

How in the hell did Carter know about that? “I’ve seen it, yes, but the evidence I have for it is gone now.”

“Yes, I’m afraid it is. But, I can help you and Mulder find it again.”

“How? His contact has already been killed.”

“Because the FBI has no idea what they are dealing with, but I do. SHIELD has been fighting them for decades. And I’m offering a chance for you to come alongside Mulder to keep up your work.”

Keep up their work? Opening the X-files?

“What is it that SHIELD does again?”

“A little bit of everything, Agent Scully, but primarily we protect, just like every good shield does. Things, places, but mostly people. We are what keeps the world safe at night, able to live another day, because there are things out there that are far bigger than armies or governments, and threats that no one could even predict or begin to understand. We are the first line of defense, and if we are lucky, the only one they ever meet. That’s the idea, anyway, and I should know, as I helped found the bloody place.”

Found? Scully’s eyes went impossibly wide as she stared at the woman in front of her. “You...helped to found SHIELD?”

“Why yes, darling, else the thing would have never gotten off the ground, though I daresay without Chet and Howard we’d have failed even getting that far. The threats didn’t end because Hitler was dead. There needed to be an organized group that could handle these sorts of bigger-than-life threats, ones that all the superpowers caught in their Cold War were too busy to pay attention to. Thus, SHIELD was born.”

All Scully could think in the heat of the moment was that the Gunmen would die of absolute envy at this moment.

“So you want Mulder to help you stop global threats?”

“Fox Mulder isn’t the only one we want.”

Scully knew it was coming, but even when the other shoe dropped, she still felt stunned. “I’m just a forensic pathologist. We are a dime a dozen.”

“You are a gifted scientist, a talented doctor, and you’ve managed to keep up with the likes of Mr. Mulder for over a year, which knowing his reputation I say is an impressive feet. Beyond that, I’ve seen your work. You have a clinical mind and a meticulous investigatory brain and I want it. The Bureau is wasting what talent they have here throwing you at gangland killings and raw recruits, you have more to offer than that.”

Scully glanced down at her scrubs, then at her desk, the piles of papers stacked in the corner, the notes scribbled across a legal pad, the tape recorder with her verbal notes on it from her autopsy. She hadn’t minded returning to the lab, really, but if she were honest with herself, she missed the field work she had been doing with Mulder, the true investigations, the search for the truth. Besides, if he was going to be working for SHIELD, he would need a minder.

“How is your insurance plan?”

At that, Carter smiled widely. “As long as you don’t mind the occasional experimental treatment, I think you will find it adequate.”

“Good, because you are going to find that Mulder is going to need it.”