"Into the sea of waking dreams , I follow without pride, 'cause nothing stands between us here, and I wont be denied."

SCYLLA
by TeaL

"Diana!", Scully screamed,
"We have to get out of here *now*!"
"I'm coming......I just stepped in something.....", Diana Fowley yelled back from behind a large stack of boxes in the abandoned warehouse where she and Scully had been following up a lead.
"Diana...NOW!", Scully briefly debated whether to keep running as far away from the explosive rigged warehouse as she could or double back for her fellow agent.
Her conscience snapped into gear and just as she was about to start running in Diana's 'general' direction she saw Diana appear from behind the boxes.
Scully breathed a sigh of relief before once again running for the door......Diana a few strides behind unable to catch up with Scully's younger, more powerful legs.
Bursting out from the dark warehouse into the bright mid-afternoon summer sun, Scully was momentarily blinded.
Hands chose that moment to grasp her firmly and haul her into an ambulance where she was isolated from Diana and restrained.
"*What* is this all about?", Scully asked the figures in decontamination suits that sat opposite her checking readings on a Geiger counter. "Who are you and where are you taking us!"
They weren't really questions as Scully knew from experience they would not answer her anyway.
She was rewarded with a needle puncture in the arm and just before she lost consciousness she heard the all too close sound of an explosion. 'The warehouse', Scully's last clear thoughts as she drifted off.
****
Scully sat in a decontamination Chamber staring at the wall. It wasn't a particularly interesting wall but after almost 12 hours it was simply a case of either playing 'Identify the unidentifiable strange splotches on the wall'....or go Crazy, which would inevitably happen anyway.
Scully focused on one particular sickeningly red smudge that she had decided resembled a Horses head....
Scully gasped and stood for a moment with her mouth hanging open as she realised something, It could have been a portrait of Diana.... the resemblance was uncanny.... spooky even.
Scully started giggling.
She then found the idea of herself giggling extremely funny and doubled over in hysterics.
Mulder chose that moment to walk in.
"Scully??", He asked frantically as he rushed in unsure if she was laughing or crying......either way she seemed to be in pain.
"I'm fine Mulder", She said, tears streaming down her face, "I was just killing time", she gestured at the wall.
"Ah, I see you've discovered the blood stains.......I always thought that one there looked like a horse, what do you think?" He asked while staring at a wall it seemed he'd stared at many times before.
Scully didn't answer.
Mulder glanced over at her to see her standing stock still with her mouth hanging open.
"Blood stains? I just spent 12 hours in decontamination in a room with *blood* stains on the walls!?", She exploded.
Mulder smirked, "It's ok Scully, this rooms gone through the decontamination process so many times you could lick those walls."
Scully glanced at him. "Not real high on my list of fun things to do while in isolation Mulder."
"Hmmm yeah, well anyway you checked out clear so they're letting you go."
"I'm almost afraid to ask Mulder.....but clear from *what* exactly?"
"The warehouse, you, Diana.....it was a set up. A contaminant was loose in the warehouse, luckily for you it wasn't airborne. After you were both safely out of the warehouse the team found it and contained it," he informed her.
"And then the building exploded," she said quietly. Realisation suddenly clear in her eyes, "They knew! They never 'contained' it, they let the building explode....." She looked at Mulder. "There was a lot of important scientific data in there and they didn't even try. Those Son's of Bitches took the easy way out!" Scully fumed.
Mulder's eyes met hers as he shakily said, "Either way Scully, it would have been no help to Diana, she....Ah...." he trailed off.
"Oh no....Mulder....I'm *so* sorry", Scully suddenly felt a twinge of guilt begin to grow. "Did she suffer?"
"WHAT?! Oh...no, she isn't dead, Scully , it doesn't seem to be fatal," Mulder gestured for Scully to follow him out into the hall and led her over to an observation window that looked into a room directly opposite Scully's.
Mulder spoke as Scully glanced in trying to get a clear view of the figure on the hospital style bed.
"It's *believed* to be a form of meningitis. It has similar symptoms to meningococcal Meningitis but if that's what it is then it's a whole new strand of the disease. It's unlike anything they've ever seen....it's alien for lack of a better term. Not only does this attack the brain, it also attacks the......" Mulder trailed off.
Scully looked up at him for a moment and he avoided her gaze.
"Scully", he finally managed to continue, "This ...whatever it is....it's flesh-eating."
Scully's hand went instinctively to the back of her neck, it had been feeling rather stiff ever since the warehouse.....
"But she will survive?"
Mulder nodded,"Yes, although they haven't yet identified it, they found no trace of the bacteria in your system and Diana has been responding well to treatment. Everyone's confident she'll pull through...but isolating it in her system took a little longer than expected and she may have some...scarring, perhaps even brain damage. She's a fighter though and brain activity so far seems normal," Mulder shrugged, "It's still early though."
Scully placed her hand sympathetically on his arm and tried to get a better look at the heavily bandaged figure.
Although a part of her felt sadness and a little guilt about Diana being like this....a larger part was ecstatic.
She *hated* Diana and trusted her about as far as she could throw her. Scully was a strong woman , but Diana had a bigger build, Scully could no problem kick her around and knock her out, but actually lifting Diana over her head and throwing her was a feat she doubted even Mulder would be capable of. Though the sudden mental image Scully received of throwing Diana like a Javelin almost made her smile ....and forget the nagging guilt.

WEEKS LATER

"Fox?" a weary voice asked from the hospital bed.
"I'm here Diana," Mulder gently sat beside the bed and took her hand.
Scully sat in the corner of the room behind Mulder, leaning her back up against the large window mouthing 'I'm here Diana', scrunching her face up she ad libbed a few extra words.....
And accidentally let out a loud, exasperated sigh.
Mulder threw her a sideways glance.
"That... ah... that doctor sure is taking his time," Scully said quickly. "Fox??" Diana whined again.
"Yes?"
"Do you think my face will look okay??"
Behind him, Scully shook her head mouthing 'no!, no!', a large grin escaping her failing self control.
"I'm sure it'll look fine," Mulder reassured her.
The door opened and the doctor walked in carrying a tray of scissors, a scalpel and other large, very sharp cutting instruments.
"How are we feeling today?" he asked Diana.
Her barely visible mouth murmured a 'I'm fine'. Scully felt like slapping her with a copyright notice.....or just slapping her.... "Well, shall we see how the healing is going?" the doctor asked, although it wasn't really a question as everyone in the room knew he was planning on taking those bandages off with or without their consent.
The last bandage fell away finally revealing Diana's face.... or what was left of it. The steal-stomached, war surviving, 40 year experienced Doctor fainted... Mulder screamed... Scully almost fell out of the window she'd been leaning against.
"Ohmygod," Scully murmured before slumping to the floor, her body racked with laughter.
Mulder's hand grasped at the bedside table, his face turning evermore disturbing shades of green. His stomach was fighting a losing battle with his lunch.
"What's wrong Fox?"
The mangled mass of flesh moved.
Mulder let out a whimper as he ran from the room towards the nearest bathrooms... where he promptly threw up his entire stomach contents.
Mulder's actions sent a slowly calming down Scully into yet another fit of laughter.
"Dana?" a small voice asked.
"Hmmmm mmmm?" Scully managed to ask, it hurt to just breathe right now.
"How do I look?"
Scully quickly debated how to answer the question.
She could stand there and lie and tell Diana she looked beautiful... but even the blind mute in the coma on the third floor wouldn't buy that.
Plus Scully wasn't *that* good a liar, she was an FBI agent, not an Oscar winning actress. She was suddenly struck down with a mental image of being hooked up to a lie detector and answering, "You look as beautiful as you always did," causing the machine to explode which set off *yet* another attack of the giggles.
After a few moments she realised Diana was staring at her expectedly, still awaiting an answer.
So Scully simply told her the truth.
****
Mulder gripped the handrail as he made his way back down the hall to Diana's room, mentally preparing himself for what he was about to face. He figured if he didn't look directly at her he might be able to keep down what was left of his stomach lining.
Mulder had almost reached the door to her room when a scream even more high pitched then his had been reverberated through the hospital halls, originating from his destination, stopping him dead in his tracks. He saw Scully quickly come out of the room and shut the door....cutting off the source of the noise.
Mulder stared at her, his face paling.
"Is she okay?" he asked slightly worried for Diana's state of mind. Scully shrugged, "I guess it's going to take her a while to come to terms with her new appearance."
"She isn't the only one," Mulder added swallowing the bile that had crept up into his throat. "Maybe we'll be able to find her a good plastic surgeon," he said unconvincingly.
"Suuuure Mulder.... It *could* happen," Scully told him, patting his arm once again, then added, "We should leave her for a while, give her time alone."
Mulder didn't offer any resistence as Scully led him down the hall, away from Diana's room.....
'Give us time alone far away from the thing that should be taken to the glue factory and put out of it's misery,' Scully thought as they exited the hospital.

The End
Don't delay, E-Mail me today My Inbox is standing by :)
AN: If you noticed any technical mistakes tell me...I'm not trained in medicine, it was all guess work :)
I purposely didn't describe Diana because I wanted you to come up with the most hideous mental image ever and not be influenced by what I thought she should look like.... But just for a form of reference.... Has anyone ever seen "The Thing".... LMAO
The Title 'Scylla' is once again taken from Greek myth. Scylla was a beautiful woman who was turned into a revolting monster out of jealousy by Circe. The monster thing kinda reminded me of Diana. hehe. But wait there's more..... Scylla is also spelt Skulle and I'm pretty sure (like 99.9% sure) that the E is pronounced. I'm not saying Scully's an ugly monster BTW lol.
The lyrics from "Posession" were slipped in because I just don't think Scully should be denied the god that is Mulder.

Disclaimer:All things XF don't belong to me...if they did do you think I'd be writing fic?
All hail the almighty CC , I am but a meek servant girl who means you (and your creations) no harm.
"Posession" Belongs to Sarah McLachlan
~No horses were offended while writing this fic~

March 1999