The Past Life of Dana Scully
Title: The Past Life of Dana Scully
Fandom: X-Files/BtVS
Prompt: 090. Home
Words: 875
Rating: PG
Summary: Just a little plotbunny I've had floating around for a bit. Did you ever wonder why, in the face of all those X-files, Scully still remained such a skeptic?
Gwen Reed was fourteen when the vampires killed her father. They couldn't defeat the Slayer so they went after her Watcher. They killed her father, her mother, her grandparents, and her sisters. Gwen and Jamie were the only ones who survived. They still feel guilty about that.
Once the Council found out, they were scared. Vampires working together was bad enough, but it was rare that the Watcher was targeted. If it got out that one of their own was so brutally and easily destroyed, it would damage the Council's standing in the world. The Council was a powerful, prestigious institution, it could not risk this information becoming public. Well, as public as these things became. So they covered it up.
Gwen and Jamie were sent away. They were separated. "It's for your own good" they were told again and again. Gwen, of course, believed them. What reason did she have to doubt the Council? Her father had always had such faith in it. "You'll be a Watcher too, someday," he'd told her, and she'd looked forward to that day, that day when she could make him proud the way his Slayer made him proud.
She did not doubt the Council's intentions; surely they had her best interests at heart. She left her home and her big brother and she went where they told her to. It seemed scary, but it was the best thing that they could do for her, they assured her. They couldn't have her talking about vampires to everyone she met. "Vampires!" they scoffed. "What an imagination!"
Gwen was so confused. Her whole life she'd been warned about vampires and demons. She'd been taught magic. Before she was six she could float objects and summon the four elements. And now, suddenly, her family was gone and these people she had heard speaking freely about Slayers and demons were acting as if she were crazy.
They sent her to a mental institution and took away her name. When she heard one of them talking to the nurse about how he'd found her wandering the streets, talking about vampires as if they were real, she realized what they were doing. Cleaning up their mess. And there was nothing she could do about it.
She was in the institution for two and a half years. She learned quickly, within the first day, not to talk about anything from her old life. She knew she would only be condemning herself. So she stopped, but it didn't matter. The Council wanted her there, so they kept her there.
She didn't doubt herself. She never thought she was crazy, she knew she was right. She got angry in those two and a half years. She had devoted herself to magic and demonology for years, trying so hard to become a good Watcher. And then they turned their back on her. Fine, then, she decided, she would turn her back on them.
She threw herself into schoolwork. She had to catch up for the years in the institution anyway, but she wanted to do more. Everything she’d had faith in had been shattered, she needed something else to cling to. Science especially appealed to her. Science was like magic, in a way, but in another way it was the opposite. Her aptitude for magic carried over into chemistry and the like, but science was about proving things and magic could not be proven.
Science became her new religion. She resented anything involving magic because magic had abandoned her, and eventually that resentment led to hate.
One of the nurses liked her a lot. They grew close and eventually Maggie Scully adopted her. And suddenly Gwen had a new family and a new name.
She decided she wanted to be a doctor. She always said it was to help people, but really it was part of her quest to prove that Science was Right and Magic was Wrong. Magic couldn’t be used to treat major medical problems, she’d learned that early on in her training. Science, though, science could. Medicine could. Every time a treatment was successful, she’d done something none of the Watchers could.
She didn’t know exactly why she joined the Bureau. She told people she wanted to serve justice, and she felt like that was true. After all these years she still wanted to fight vampires. Since science said there were no vampires, she decided to fight crime instead. Most of her new family didn’t approve of this move, but she did it anyway. Melissa supported her, and she was grateful for that. She and Missy were very close even though Melissa always tried to get her to “open her mind” to unscientific things like alternative medicine. Dana never told her sister why she hated to talk about things like that, never told her why hated Melissa a little every time she brought home a new book from the New Age section.
When they assigned her to the X-files she was…thrown, to say the least. Frightened, even. She hated the idea of having to deal with “paranormal phenomena” as her partner called it, on a daily basis. But she was there to prove him wrong, to prove the X-files wrong. She had to prove them wrong.
Fandom: X-Files/BtVS
Prompt: 090. Home
Words: 875
Rating: PG
Summary: Just a little plotbunny I've had floating around for a bit. Did you ever wonder why, in the face of all those X-files, Scully still remained such a skeptic?
Gwen Reed was fourteen when the vampires killed her father. They couldn't defeat the Slayer so they went after her Watcher. They killed her father, her mother, her grandparents, and her sisters. Gwen and Jamie were the only ones who survived. They still feel guilty about that.
Once the Council found out, they were scared. Vampires working together was bad enough, but it was rare that the Watcher was targeted. If it got out that one of their own was so brutally and easily destroyed, it would damage the Council's standing in the world. The Council was a powerful, prestigious institution, it could not risk this information becoming public. Well, as public as these things became. So they covered it up.
Gwen and Jamie were sent away. They were separated. "It's for your own good" they were told again and again. Gwen, of course, believed them. What reason did she have to doubt the Council? Her father had always had such faith in it. "You'll be a Watcher too, someday," he'd told her, and she'd looked forward to that day, that day when she could make him proud the way his Slayer made him proud.
She did not doubt the Council's intentions; surely they had her best interests at heart. She left her home and her big brother and she went where they told her to. It seemed scary, but it was the best thing that they could do for her, they assured her. They couldn't have her talking about vampires to everyone she met. "Vampires!" they scoffed. "What an imagination!"
Gwen was so confused. Her whole life she'd been warned about vampires and demons. She'd been taught magic. Before she was six she could float objects and summon the four elements. And now, suddenly, her family was gone and these people she had heard speaking freely about Slayers and demons were acting as if she were crazy.
They sent her to a mental institution and took away her name. When she heard one of them talking to the nurse about how he'd found her wandering the streets, talking about vampires as if they were real, she realized what they were doing. Cleaning up their mess. And there was nothing she could do about it.
She was in the institution for two and a half years. She learned quickly, within the first day, not to talk about anything from her old life. She knew she would only be condemning herself. So she stopped, but it didn't matter. The Council wanted her there, so they kept her there.
She didn't doubt herself. She never thought she was crazy, she knew she was right. She got angry in those two and a half years. She had devoted herself to magic and demonology for years, trying so hard to become a good Watcher. And then they turned their back on her. Fine, then, she decided, she would turn her back on them.
She threw herself into schoolwork. She had to catch up for the years in the institution anyway, but she wanted to do more. Everything she’d had faith in had been shattered, she needed something else to cling to. Science especially appealed to her. Science was like magic, in a way, but in another way it was the opposite. Her aptitude for magic carried over into chemistry and the like, but science was about proving things and magic could not be proven.
Science became her new religion. She resented anything involving magic because magic had abandoned her, and eventually that resentment led to hate.
One of the nurses liked her a lot. They grew close and eventually Maggie Scully adopted her. And suddenly Gwen had a new family and a new name.
She decided she wanted to be a doctor. She always said it was to help people, but really it was part of her quest to prove that Science was Right and Magic was Wrong. Magic couldn’t be used to treat major medical problems, she’d learned that early on in her training. Science, though, science could. Medicine could. Every time a treatment was successful, she’d done something none of the Watchers could.
She didn’t know exactly why she joined the Bureau. She told people she wanted to serve justice, and she felt like that was true. After all these years she still wanted to fight vampires. Since science said there were no vampires, she decided to fight crime instead. Most of her new family didn’t approve of this move, but she did it anyway. Melissa supported her, and she was grateful for that. She and Missy were very close even though Melissa always tried to get her to “open her mind” to unscientific things like alternative medicine. Dana never told her sister why she hated to talk about things like that, never told her why hated Melissa a little every time she brought home a new book from the New Age section.
When they assigned her to the X-files she was…thrown, to say the least. Frightened, even. She hated the idea of having to deal with “paranormal phenomena” as her partner called it, on a daily basis. But she was there to prove him wrong, to prove the X-files wrong. She had to prove them wrong.