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TITLE: #Need (1/1)SUMMARY: Playing on her computer on a Saturday night, Scully learns what she *really* needs.
#Need, by Moon
With an irritated sigh, Dana Scully hit the enter key again. She had been trying for nearly 2 hours to access a suspect's email, without success. She stared sullenly at the red blinking message flashing on her screen: Access Denied. She sighed again, looked at her watch, and stretched.
<I've gotta take a break before I go crazy,> she thought wearily.
Wandering into the kitchen, Dana caught site of a bottle of expensive wine that she had been saving for a 'special occasion'.
<Ha. This stuff will be vinegar if I wait around for someone to share it with.>
Absently, she picked up the bottle and studied the label without seeing it. Reaching a quick decision, she tucked the bottle under one arm and grabbed a corkscrew and a wine glass, and started back to her computer.
After opening the bottle and pouring herself a glass of the good red wine, she sat back down in front of the terminal. Grinning wryly at the flying saucer screen saver that Mulder had installed while she was napping one day, she tapped a key to bring back up the hateful screen she had been glaring at a few moments before.
<That's odd.>
Instead of the mocking message she had seen when she decided to take a break, she now seemed to be on a different server altogether.
"What key did I hit???" she wondered aloud.
She soon realized that she was on the Undernet server of IRC, although she still had no idea how she had gotten there. Browsing through the chat room list, she couldn't help but laugh at some of the names. Did people really have nothing better to do on a Saturday night?
<Wait a minute, Dana. You are at home, alone, and you are *working*. Now, who is more pathetic here?>
She made a face at her reflection in the screen, and moved the mouse to close the window. Just as she was about to click the X, she stopped.
<Fate, Dana.> She could almost hear Melissa's voice in her head.
Sighing, she took a gulp of wine before granting her subconscious another quick scroll through the list of rooms. Halfway down, her hand on the mouse froze, and she stared at the screen. Still not sure why she was doing it, she double-clicked on the name and entered the room called, simply, #Need.
There were only 3 other people in the room, and they seemed to be deep in conversation. Not wanting to interrupt, Dana's hands on the keyboard remained still, and she simply watched the words scroll by. She realized that she had wandered into a rather interesting session of cyber sex. Quickly she checked to be sure that her real name wasn't available to anyone who might be looking for it, and was amused to see that her nick was "MsS". Laughing at herself, she leaned back in her chair and 'listened'. Gradually she realized that only two of the other people in the room were actually participating; it seemed that the third was listening in like she was.
It wasn't long before she became completely absorbed in the action taking place on her computer screen, so when a small DCC window popped up in front of the main window, she closed it in annoyance without checking to see who it was from. A few seconds later, it was back. Glaring through cyberspace at the irritatingly persistant person, she realized that it was the other silent member of the chat room, inviting her to chat privately.
Glancing at the half-empty wine bottle, she thought, <What the hell,> and answered in the affirmative.
Once in a private room, she became a bit apprehensive, wondering if she had made the right decision.
<Don't be ridiculous, Dana. You can always just sign off.>
"Okay," she whispered to no one in particular. "Just for a few minutes."
Taking a deep breath, she gingerly tapped a few keys.
MsS: Hello.
YKOOPS: Hi MsS. What brings you here on a Saturday night?
MsS: Boredom, I guess. I was working, and got sick of it. How about you?
YKOOPS: Something like that.
MsS: I've never done this before.
YKOOPS: You've never done what? Talked in a chat room?
MsS: No, I never have.
YKOOPS: You're kidding! Well, welcome to your very first chat experience, MsS! :::bowing:::
MsS: I hope I don't do anything stupid.
YKOOPS: Don't worry, I am happy to teach you.
MsS: Am I allowed to ask you about yourself?
YKOOPS: Of course! What do you want to know?
MsS: Well, are you male or female?
YKOOPS: Male. I take it from your nick that you are female?
MsS: Yes. What do you look like?
YKOOPS: Tall, dark, and handsome. How about you?
Dana's fingers hesitated above the keys. Should she give him a description of herself? She took another sip of wine and grinned, then began typing again.
MsS: Tall, blonde, and beautiful.
YKOOPS: Yumm! What do you do Ms. Tall, Blonde and Beautiful?
MsS: I'm a model.
Dana had to pause for a moment to collect herself because she was laughing so hard. When she recovered, she realized that her new friend was waiting for a response.
YKOOPS: What do you model?
By now Dana could hardly sit still in her chair. She was having a wonderful time, and she felt completely safe in her anonymity. But she was also starting to feel a bit.....naughty.
MsS: Well, swimsuits, sometimes.
YKOOPS: And the other times?
MsS: I have appeared in several.....men's magazines.
YKOOPS: That is *very* interesting. Much more so than my job, I'm afraid.
MsS: And what is that?
YKOOPS: Let's just say I work for a large organization. You know how it is....thousands of employees, tough to distinguish yourself.
MsS: Yes, I understand that very well.
YKOOPS: My name is Marty, by the way. What's yours?
Dana hesitated for a long moment. No way was she going to give this guy her real name. But suddenly she was tired of always being so damned conservative. She had used aliases before, but they were always just as reserved as she was.
<For once I am going to be someone completely different,> she thought defiantly, and instantly discarded all of the false names she would usually have come up with.
MsS: You can call me Jezebel.
YKOOPS: Nice name. That your real name, Jez?
MsS: Close enough.
YKOOPS: :::smiling::: Ok, ma'am, Jezebel it is! Does the name say anything about the person?
MsS: Tonight it does.
Dana's heart pounded as she finished typing her response.
<I can't believe I'm doing this>
YKOOPS: You came into the #Need room. What do you need tonight, Jez?
MsS: I don't know, Marty. What do you need?
YKOOPS: I asked first.
MsS: Okay.....let me think....
She sat for a moment in real contemplation.
<What DO I need?>
MsS: I need....to be held. I need to be touched. I need someone to tell me I'm beautiful, and that I am wanted. Too bad this is just the internet, right?
YKOOPS: Jez, if I could be there I would do all those things for real. But since I can't, will you let me do the next best thing?
MsS: What's that?
YKOOPS: Let me make you feel good tonight. There is something else you need, isn't there? Something you didn't mention?
MsS: Yes, I suppose there is.
YKOOPS: I can give it to you. Just imagine me, ok? Jez? This ok with you?
<This is never going to work, I don't have that good of an imagination, I don't even KNOW this guy! What the hell am I doing???>
MsS: Yes, it is.
Dana watched in wonder as Marty's words began to roll across the screen in earnest. At first she didn't feel anything, and she closed her eyes and tried to imagine what he must look like, but she couldn't put a face with his name. Finally, she conjured an image of someone she was thoroughly familiar with, thinking he would be the safest person possible for her to imagine. Mulder. She was shocked when Marty's words immediately began to have an effect on her after she had formed a mental picture of her partner, but then passed it off on the wine, which was starting to make her slightly tipsy, and a lot less guarded.
As he spoke easily of touching her, kissing her, holding her, Dana's hands began to unconsciously mirror his virtual movements. She closed her eyes and saw Mulder's face swimming above her; a look in his eyes somewhere between pure lust and pure love, maybe even a combination of both. Even after she opened her eyes, he was still there, in front of her. His mouth was speaking Marty's words; her hands became his, and they were touching her the way she had always wanted him to.....
<Whoa! Wait a minute here! What the hell am I thinking???>
Startled, she tried desperately to forget the terrifying thought and lose herself in the fantasy again.
YKOOPS: Jez? What's wrong?
MsS: Nothing...I...nothing. Don't stop.
YKOOPS: Are you sure?
MsS: Yes.
YKOOPS: Who are you imagining? Whose face are you putting with my words?
MsS: My....
YKOOPS: Yes?
MsS: Just someone I know.
YKOOPS: Jez? Can I call you by another name?
MsS: Um...sure, I guess so. What do you want to call me?
YKOOPS: Dana.
"What the fuck?!" Her hands froze above the keyboard. <How did he....ok, hold on, Dana. He didn't guess your name. It's probably just a coincidence. Don't get freaked out over nothing.>
MsS: Who is Dana, Marty? Who are YOU imagining?
YKOOPS: My partner.
Scully's heart stopped, and suddenly her eyes focused on his nick. YKOOPS. She turned it around in her mind, and the word blurred and became what it really was. SPOOKY, spelled backwards. She drew in a jagged breath and tried to still her shaking hands enough to allow her fingers to connect with the keys.
MsS: Your what?
YKOOPS: My partner. That big organization I told you about? Well, it's kind of the FBI. I was imagining my partner. She doesn't look anything like you, but.....
Dana thought very carefully before phrasing her next question, and then began typing slowly.
MsS: What does she look like?
YKOOPS: She's tiny, not tall. And she has red hair, instead of blonde. She IS beautiful, though. Unbelievably beautiful.
MsS: She is?
<She is?>
YKOOPS: The most beautiful woman I have ever known. I....I think about her constantly. In more important ways than I am thinking about her tonight. Damn, I can't believe I am telling you this. I guess I kind of ruined what we were doing, didn't I?
"No, you didn't," Scully whispered to her computer screen.
MsS: Marty? Do you still want to know who I was thinking of?
YKOOPS: Sure I do.
MsS: My partner. My best friend.
YKOOPS: Your partner? You mean your lover?
MsS: No, I mean my partner. I...wasn't exactly honest with you about my profession. Or the way I look, or anything.
YKOOPS: Ok, so you're not a model. What DO you do, Jez?
Dana took a deep breath.
MsS: I'm.....
She hesitated.
YKOOPS: Yes? What are you?
MsS: I'm an FBI agent.
There was a long moment of tense inactivity before he responded, during which Dana held her breath, and her heart, for dear life.
YKOOPS: Who are you?
MsS: Mulder, it's me.
YKOOPS: Oh my god.
MsS: What do we do now?
YKOOPS: I don't know.
MsS: I don't....Mulder, sometimes things can be said that aren't really meant to be...construed the way that they are. So if Jezebel misinterpreted anything that Marty said, I won't hold you responsible for saying them.
Another long moment of silence in which Scully tapped her fingers nervously across the keyboard without actually typing anything.
YKOOPS: Scully.....Dana, you didn't misinterpret anything. I said what I said because I didn't know it was you, but that doesn't make it any less true.
MsS: You mean....
YKOOPS: I mean exactly what I said.
MsS: I don't know how this happened; I didn't even mean to sign on tonight! Let alone...how the hell did this happen, Mulder???
YKOOPS: Fate?
MsS: Maybe.
YKOOPS: Dana? Are you alone?
MsS: Yes, why?
YKOOPS: Turn off the computer. I'm on my way.
Finis.
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