Title: Queen of Diamonds
Author: FirePhile (FirePhile@aol.com)
Spoilers: The Sixth Extinction
Rating: PG
Classification: VA
Summary:  Love and other delusions.
Disclaimer: These characters aren't mine, they belong to
1013, CC, FOX, etc, etc.

Author's notes at end.

From a safe distance, I sat with a cup of coffee in one hand and a cell
phone in the other, listening to my partner's recitation of the day's
events.  We were doing a bank robbery investigation, which so far was
one dead end after another.

But, I could not concentrate on the dry facts that Agent Martin, who
believed he actually had a chance on me, was relating.   I was too busy
watching Dana Scully arguing with the guards.  She was dressed in
linen, of all things, and I could sense even from here her distress.   It
was about time something broke through that hard shell of hers.  I
could feel her nervousness as she entered his room.  I wondered if she
would be hurt when Fox and I go off together and he joins the right
side. 

This was of course assuming he ever came out of his catatonic state.

My boss warned me that would happen.   I joined the organization a
long time ago --  I don't even remember the exact date anymore.  I was
assigned to gather information on abductees and historically the
groups in Europe were very reluctant in sharing their knowledge. 
Somehow, the women instantly trusted me.  I wasn't perfect, I didn't
come off as a hired escort and they related to me for some reason.  

I knew nothing about Russia, except for information I sometimes
received from Alex, he occasionally told me what was going on behind
the lines.  I thought for a small period we were each other's only
contact with the organization.  He would sometimes tell me what was
happening with Fox in America.  It broke my heart to hear how
stubborn he still was and I knew he needed me but I couldn't get back
to DC.   When Fox wound up at Tunguska about two years ago, I
received a communication instructing me to make sure he got out
alive.  I had to resist the urge to fly to Russia and rescue him myself.  I
realized he was now the rarest kind of test subject: alive, functioning
in the world, and completely oblivious to the damage that was actually
done to him.  He either stupidly thought the vaccine worked, or
blocked the event from his memory.   Traumatic events always tended
to disappear from his consciousness.  Then, came the key, the thing
that initiated the virus, the rubbing acting as a spell, his Queen of
Diamonds.

Let's play solitaire, Fox.  He'd now make a great poker player.  I knew
that Fox had received the assignment from AD Skinner, partly thanks
to Alex who believed there was something worth investigating.  But, I
could never figure out his motives.  

Poor Fox couldn't suspect what was happening.  I watched from the
sidelines, waiting for something to happen.  I half expected full alien
invasion, but it was nothing that drastic.  Against his will, Fox was
undergoing some sort of change, his behavior in Skinner's office
suggested a mental break down.  I had suspected something along
those lines for a long time, but nothing emotionally traumatic was
happening -- it didn't make sense.  I was called by Alex but was
reluctant to help.  

"Scully's away, this is your chance," he told me, really meaning our
chance, the organization as a whole.   "What would happen if a
student came by and found him in this condition?" I still refused to
help and then I received another call, this time from Fox who could
barely speak. 

"Diana...help."

His weak voice set my pulse racing, I could refuse him nothing.

"Fox, where are you?"  He was in trouble, the man I loved was in
trouble and he needed my help, I had to rescue him.

"Hallway...Biology...American."  And then he hung up, or passed out.
If Alex hadn't called me earlier I would have never been able to figure
out where he was.

I arrived at American University to find Fox still lying in the hall.  A
group of students had gathered around him along with a few police
officers.

"What's going on here?" A heavyset man in a blue uniform asked
as I stepped up to the group.

"My friend called and asked me to get him."

"The man on the floor called you?"

"Yes."

"I've seen him!  Isn't he one of the people investigating
Professor Sandoz's disappearance?" A student said unhelpfully.

"He really should go to the hospital.  We have the ambulance..."

"No, he's okay, just let me take care of him."  To reiterate my point, I
flashed my FBI badge and the officer seemed to shrink.

"Fox, it's Diana, I'll take you home,"  I whispered to Fox and he looked
up at me with pained and confused eyes and nodded slightly.

He leaned against me as I helped him stand and walk towards the
elevator.

"Are you okay?" I asked him and he turned to look at me with 
those same frightened eyes.

"No, something's wrong," he answered but was incapable of saying
anything else.

After I brought him back to his apartment, I stayed to see if he would
talk about what happened.  The only hint of his mental state I received
was from his phone call with her.  I could sense their
distance and smiled because it would only bring Fox and I closer
together.   After calling my boss and hearing no advice from him, I
removed my shirt and looked for something more comfortable to wear. 
Silk was not a good thing to wait in.

I sat on the edge of the bed and waited for something to happen.  I
resisted the urge to touch him, to lie down next to him, feel his body
against mine again.  I wanted him to see the love I felt when we were
together.  It reminded me of our first time together, I wanted him
again, but could not do it.

Didn't he see how I ached for him in my heart?  Couldn't he
understand that I loved him more than anyone?  Why was
he always so blind?

Around 3 am I went home after spending a long and uneventful night
near Fox.   He hadn't even dreamed, no sounds to help me at all. 
However, when I arrived back at his apartment ready for the day, I
found a very different person from the man I left.

He was irrational but more than that...he knew things that I never said, 
he could hear my thoughts and I realized it had begun.

For many reasons, I hit him with the taser.  The electrical charge gave
just enough time for the virus to take hold entirely, speeded it up just
enough.  He was incapable of fighting while unconscious. For a
moment, I'd worried that I killed him.  But, he was breathing and I
called 911.  I felt guilty about it as he twitched at my feet.  After all,
despite my duplicity and numerous acts of what could be considered
betrayal, I loved him and had loved him for so long.

This fact had been seized upon and cruelly exploited by my boss and
other people in the organization before they burned.  Those idiots, I
played them all, all along, managing what so many others had failed
miserably at, keeping Mulder as an ally while playing for the other
side.

I called my boss after the hospital and related the news, his praise
was worth my misdealings.  

"Nice work Diana, watch him, make sure no one figures out what we
know."

That plan was shot to hell when Kritschgau got involved.  How was it
that even in his current mental state Fox picked the one man who
could screw everything up?  I told them that Kritschgau should be
killed.  I even volunteered for the assignment.  He's a loose canon and
dangerous, I told them but they laughed it off.  Diana, they
told me, he doesn't even believe in aliens.  When will these idiots
realize that discrediting never works, the only real way to silence
someone is to kill them.

I wouldn't  make the same mistake, if anything happened to Fox, I
would personally kill Kritschgau. He would deserve it too, once or
twice that drug he gave might work, but in the long run, it reacted
horribly with the virus and only hastened the process.  I was beginning
to think that Fox wanted to die, but there was nothing in him that
needed proving.  He'd always been too stubborn when it came to the
whole idea of the truth.  He could never accept that events are put into
motion long ago and have only one logical conclusion.  He could
never understand that we were meant to be together.

I'd sooner keep him alive in this state than let him kill himself.

There's been no change, the doctors could do nothing for him, and he
was getting worse.  My boss said there was one way to save him, but it
was highly experimental and dangerous.  His partner was walking out
of the room.  She almost seemed upset, if she was capable of the
emotion.

Shit, she spotted me and she was angry.  

"What are you doing here?"  She demanded, but her heart was not in
it.

"I am checking after a friend."

"I know what you are,"  she said, her eyes like two laser beams. 
Foolishly, she thought that she knew me.  "If anything happens to him,
I'm holding you personally responsible."

I almost burst out laughing but stopped myself in time.  "Agent Scully,
I am as concerned for his health as you are."

She was actually speechless and settled for glaring at me like a
teenager.  Really Agent Scully, this was not high school.

"You do not make any more of his medical decisions Agent Fowley.  I
am his doctor,"  she said after a moment.  "If I see you near him
without either me or a nurse present I'll start OPR hearings against
you."

"For what?"

"He was fine before I left, I know you did something to him, God help
me I'm going to find you out and expose you for what you are."

"Listen to me careful Agent Scully, you're in over your head here,
go back to your cadavers.  There is nothing you can do."

"And you can?"

"You don't know what you're dealing with, leave it alone.  Some truths
are not for you."

For some reason, she went pale, "I'm his doctor, I will cure him, he
will recover."

"There is no cure," I whispered to her and she looked like she wanted
to slap me but walked away instead.

You might be his doctor, but you would have to find him first.  I took
out my cell phone and called my boss, it was time for that procedure
he mentioned.

After I hung up I looked down the hall at Fox's room.  And you'll
never love him as much as I do, I thought as I forced myself to focus
on the bank robbery and Agent Martin's inane flirtations.

We'll be together soon Fox, I promised him as I walked towards the
exit.

END

Author's Notes: The title is from the Manchurian Candidate and how
one character's brainwashing instructions are initiated by solitaire and
specifically the queen of diamonds.   This was all speculation and the 
taser thing is from the original script of Biogenesis. I used to have a
different view of Diana but Sixth Extinction really brought her to
psychotic life and suddenly, everything makes sense.  Email me if you
want my theory.  Special thanks to my beta team, you know who you
are and I'm so happy the season finally started.  Please send
any comments to FirePhile@aol.com