TITLE: Empathy
AUTHOR: stellar_dust
EMAIL: stellar_dust_x@yahoo.com
WEBSITE: http://katycat.net/xfiles/
ARCHIVE/FEEDBACK: Please.
SPOILERS: Conduit
RATING: PG
CHALLENGE: Lost & Found
WORD COUNT: 142
DISCLAIMER: I don't own them, I just explain 
them.
SUMMARY: "Mulder, when something upsets me, I 
usually pray."
DATE: 09/02/2004


He is quiet on the drive, quiet on the plane, 
quiet as they wait for respective taxis to take 
them to cold apartments, and she doesn't know 
him well but she knows this case has hurt.

"Mulder," hesitantly, and the bleakness in his 
eyes is what his sister left behind, "when 
something upsets me, I usually pray."

He stares, and then his cab is there and he is 
gone.

-----------------

He doesn't know her well but he knows her care 
is honest, and though he hasn't been to church 
in years the pain is raw and bleeding and he 
sends the cab to St. Michael's instead.

His prayer is fumbling and confused and the 
stained glass and warm oak paneling make the 
photograph fade to bleary dull profane 
inconsequence, and he isn't ready for it to 
hurt this much -

He doesn't go back.