fandomhigh | BWI Airport, Portalocity Lounge, Saturday Morning

So everyone else had, like, dramatic backstories and reasons to show up here and stuff. Which was fine, you know, if you were emotionally in the zone enough to go to those kinda lengths. Denise had just been, you know, chilling with her dad last night watching some hockey guys really pound in on each other - no, seriously, really get into it. One of them broke a rib or something, which was kinda cool.

Then she'd been dropped off at the airport, gotten a ticket stuffed into her hands, and that was that. No reason to get all dramatic and touchy-feely about it.

And now it was Saturday morning and she was on the airport. Sitting around. Chugging water and listening to her discman while watching the kids down the hall, trying to figure out how they were gonna croak. Sure, there was some kind of shuttle supposed to show up, but it wasn't there yet. A girl had to keep herself busy.

She figured the dweebs starting to mill around the terminal were probably classmates or something. Lame.

[[ ~~wait for the~~ ocd up! ]]

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"I hear it provides an excellent education," Tim said. "You?"

Um.

Um?

"...There were some legal difficulties. It's complicated," Scully said vaguely, scrambling for a reason to be here and realizing that while she and Mulder had come up with a fairly plausible backstory for herself, they'd left the answer to this simple question out. "I'm glad to hear it has high education standards, though."

So she had secrets. Probably personal life drama, nothing interesting, certainly nothing Batman would be interested in. Probably.

"Yeah, educational summer camp should look good on our college apps," Tim said.

"Which is still a few years away," Scully felt compelled to say. She paused. "How old are you?" And did she look fifteen, like Mulder and the guys kept insisting?

"I'll be fifteen in July," Tim said. "You gotta start the college stuff early if you want to get into somewhere good."

"Well, that's true," Scully realized, remembering her own obsession with getting into college and medical school from twenty years earlier. "Do you actually have a major planned already?"

"I have no idea!" Tim groaned. "What about you?"

"Medical school," Scully said promptly. "After a science degree." Like physics. Not that she wanted to re-write her thesis a second time. "I'm going to be a forensic pathologist."

Not 'I want to be.' Not 'I think it would be cool.' I will be.

She'd been like this the first time she was fifteen though, too.

"Why forensics?" Tim asked.

"I find the mysteries of the human body fascinating," Scully said very seriously. "And while the treatment of disease or injury is very important, I find that the greatest and most unexplained phenomena often result in death. Studying the final results of an ended life is one way to fight death itself."

"Like bringing people back to life?" Tim asked. That really didn't sound like a good idea.

"No, of course not," Scully said patiently. "That's science fiction."

~~As the mun facepalms.~~

"Life itself is still the biggest mystery ever."

"You have any interest in cloning?" Tim asked.

Given the hybrid clones and psychotic clones she'd encountered?

"Ew."

Wait, where did that come from?

"I mean, I don't think that's a viable area of research at this time. Not to mention highly unethical and likely to backfire."

She had a point, but Tim still felt vaguely offended on Kon's behalf. "The theory is interesting," he said neutrally.

"Oh, in theory. In theory it could provide the basis for huge medical break-throughs, as well as preserve endangered species," Scully said, sounding mildly perturbed. "It's the applications for human cloning and the fact that too many people don't see the unique individuality in each person that makes it problematic at best, and a minefield of painful emotional developments at worst."

She paused. Oh, God, she missed Mulder. This was the point at which he'd mock her for her enthusiasm or chime in with a rebuttal.

"..or so I have reason to believe."

Pushed some buttons there. Interesting. "Point taken," Tim said, raising his hands in surrender.

Scully shot him an embarrassed look. "I apologize. I have strong feelings on the subject." She blew out a breath. "I tend to go into too much detail."

BWI Airport, Portalocity Lounge, Saturday Morning

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