TITLE:  The Whipping Boy
 
AUTHOR:  Myriss
 
EMAIL ADDRESS:   myriss1013@yahoo.com
 
DISTRIBUTION:  Ephemeral:  Ok.
 
Others okay but please keep my email address and header
attached.  And drop me a line so I will know.
 
RATINGS WARNING:  PG-13 (contents may be disturbing)
 
CLASSIFICATION:  X
 
KEYWORDS:   3POV, Implied MSR, *no smut*
 
SPOILERS:  Nothing really.
 
SUMMARY: Who is to blame?
 
THE DISCLAIMER:   Any character you recognized from the tv
series belongs to 1013 and Fox.  I am just borrowing them.
 
*AUTHOR NOTES - It's a little weird.

THANKS to Carole for beta-ing
 
The Whipping Boy
by Myriss (myriss1013@yahoo.com)
 
******
 
They came to the Home one day.  Outlanders. Agents from the
FBI. For a brief moment they stood in the doorway, looking
a bit lost, before they stepped through, their faces
smoothing into professional masks.
 
"Teresa Young?" the man said, flipping open his badge. "I'm
Agent Fox Mulder."
 
He was a tall man with dark hair. Each of his features was
irregular on its own...a nose a little too large, a small
chin, too high a forehead--but yet they pulled together
into a startlingly attractive face.
 
But he was a man and there was no male that I trusted save
for one. I stepped back, wanting to hide but knowing there
was no place for me to go.
 
"Teresa Young?" he repeated.
 
I darted a frantic eye at the doorway. My father stood in
the doorway, his face set, his lips thinned. I trembled
with fear.
 
The woman behind him stepped forward. She was a small
little thing with red hair. She reached out a hand and
touched him on the arm...just a mere touch.
 
He stepped back and she moved forward.
 
"Miss Young?" she said in a smooth, calm voice. "I'm
Special Agent Dana Scully from the FBI. We have some
questions about Miriam Holder."
 
My stomach fell. My limbs became heavy. I could not move.
 
"Do you know a Jonas Outlander?"
 
Oh, Jonas! I thought sadly. Miriam had succumbed to
pressure. They were going to blame Jonas for what they did
to her...
 
 
*****
 
My father did not like Agent Scully. I could tell by the
stoniness of his face...the curl of his lips...the glint in
his eyes....Here was a woman that went against everything
my father and the other Men of the Home believed in. She
was an "Abnomination"--an "Unnatural Woman".
 
And he did not like the fact that Agent Mulder...a
man...was allowing her to lead the investigation.
 
"Jonas Outlander is a bad seed," my father spit out. "A
simpleton. His mother was a whore."
 
"Was she not your sister?"  Agent Scully pointed out.
 
My father glared at her. "I have no sister, Agent Scully,"
he said, his voice biting. "And Jonas Outlander is no kin
of mine."
 
 
****
 
The agents wanted to speak to me privately but my father
refused, protesting loudly. They insisted.
 
Angrily he consented and I was left alone with them in the
back room.
 
"How well do you know Jonas Outlander?" Agent Scully asked
me, her voice was calm.
 
She seemed to know that I couldn't speak to Agent Mulder.
He frightened me.
 
I glanced over my shoulder fearfully. I could hear my
Father pacing angrily in the hall, no doubt listening.
 
"He didn't hurt her," I whispered.
 
"They say he is the one that hurt Miriam Holder. Raped her 
and beaten her badly." She leaned closer and said softly. "If
you know who may have done this, you need to tell us--"
 
I bit my lip and shook my head.
 
"It wasn't Jonas," I whimpered. "Jonas would
never...Jonas would never hurt anyone..." I gulped and took
the plunge. I would feel the wrath of my father but I did
not care.  "They're lying about him--he didn't do it--!"
 
"Teresa!" my father roared my name in the hall.
 
I started and clutched my skirt tightly in my hands.
 
"I have to go," was all the I could say and I whirled and
ran out of the room.
 
 
 
*****
 
I got it when they left. Father was so angry that he even
hit me in the face and left a bruise on the side of my
face. He usually didn't aim so high...Appearances were
everything for Father, you know.
 
"Damn you, girl! You tell them!" he yelled, twisting my arm
until it popped. "You tell them what we told you to tell
them!"
 
I shook my head defiantly. Standing up to him always made
them worse but I couldn't let Jonas to take the blame for
their doings. Jonas has never been anything but good to
me...
 
They didn't care about him. They never did. They never
could see beyond the sin of his birth....
 
 
*****
 
 
Later that night after everyone was asleep, I slipped away 
to the Mother Tree,my wrecked arm cradled gingerly against my 
chest. I knew Father would be even more angry, but he
would not follow me there...no matter how much he wanted
to...
 
No matter how much he preached about the ignorance of
superstition, he was afraid. He was afraid of the Mother
Tree...
 
It was said that many years ago...in the dark of the
night...a woman, heavy with child, had fled the Home from
the heavy fists of her husband. With nowhere to go...no
place to hide...her own kin having turned their backs
against her...she had fled into the night...into the dark
woods that surrounded the Home.
 
Her husband had followed....
 
It was said that the earth, taking pity on her cries and 
pleas for help, had answered her...
 
She had vanished beneath her husband's astonished eyes and
flaying fist.  In her place, a sapling of a tree had
appeared....it had grown and grown, towering over the
husband, slashing him with its branches and making him
shriek with pain...
 
He had made his way home and died, but not before telling
what had happened to him. The next day, the people from the
Home had found the tree...a thick, gnarly tree with a
shape--some say--of a pregnant woman. At the foot of the
tree, in its heavy tangle of roots, they found an open
womb. Inside the tree, a newborn baby....
 
It was said the Mother Tree became a haven for women who
fled from the Home. It was said that the men who went after
them were found dead, heavily slashed....
 
And it was there that my father's sister fled when her
angry father came after her...
 
And like the baby that was born so long ago, Jonas was
found cradled in the embrace of the Mother Tree. And like
the mother before her, Jonas' mother had disappeared, never
to be seen again....
 
...It was here that I took my refuge. I curled up in the
tree womb and pressed my hot bruised cheek against the
coolness of the earth. If I listened hard, I could lose my
pain in the heartbeat of the earth...
 
"Tess?" his gentle voice said from above me.
 
I opened up my eyes and looked up.
 
It was Jonas. He was a very small man, slight in build with
beautiful, slender hands. His hair was clipped closely to
his head and he wore no beard. Both marked him as an
Outlander, not belonging to the Home. And he was the only
Man from there that did not fear the Mother Tree.
 
I could see the fine wrinkles radiating from his leaf green
eyes. He was older than me...almost as old as my
father...but unlike my father who grew heavy and grey...
Jonas stayed youthful...with an aura of fragility to him. 
He was like a leaf hanging from a branch of a dying tree.
 
The Home had taken him in, not out of love or devotion or
even duty, but rather fear. They feared what would happen 
if they didn't. They called him simple because he could not be
taught to read or write, or even tie his shoes (I often
tied them for him), but I have always strongly suspected 
that they confused knowledge with wisdom...gentleness for
weakness.
 
But in my eyes, Jonas was, oh, so wise. It did not matter
to him that they treated him so cruelly. No, Jonas loved
them unconditionally...even those who I believed didn't
deserve this precious gift...And they paid him back by
blaming him when thing went wrong.
 
He was their Whipping Boy.
 
"You okay, Tess Girl?" he asked. He carefully lifted and
inspected my bruised face.
 
"Oh, Tess," he whispered, his voice sad and filled with
grief. He reached out a hand and gently stroke my cheek. I
could feel the pain seeping away...the gentle tingling
warmth of his fingertips on my arm. He stroked the pain and 
bruise
away.
 
"There, there," he said. He gave me a last pat on the
shoulder, but not before I saw the bruises on his face and
the stiffness in his arm.
 
I closed my eyes.
 
He had taken on my pain.
 
I opened my mouth to speak but he just shook his head.
 
We did not speak. There was nothing for us to say.
 
 
*****
 
 
The agents came by once again. And once more, I refused to
name Jonas as the person who hurt Miriam.
 
"He didn't do anything," I said, my face set. I could feel
my father's eyes boring into my back. "He didn't do
anything. Jonas would never hurt anyone."
 
My Father looked severe. "She's afraid of him, Agent
Mulder," he said sternly. He refused to speak to Agent
Scully unless he had to. "He threatened her if she told."
 
"He didn't!" I protested. "Jonas would never hurt me!"
 
I ignored my father's stormy glare. Recklessly, I turned to
Agent Scully. "Don't you see?" I pleaded with her to
understand. "Don't you see? He's their Whipping Boy!"
 
I saw her eyes flicker quickly to her partner. Then she
gave a small nod.
 
I could tell she did. She did understand. I wanted to cry
with relief. For some reason...she understood....
 
 
*****
 
They refused to speak to the agents or any other agency
that came after this. They clustered together and became a
silent wall.  
 
They tried to lock me in my room but I was able to sneak
out to the Mother Tree.
 
It was there I was able to meet Agent Scully.
 
"They won't come here," I reassured her as she looked
warily around at the wilderness that was the Mother Tree.
"They hate it here. They're afraid. The men are. Even most
of the women."
 
She frowned at that. "Why?"
 
"They fear the Mother Tree."
 
And I told her the stories.
 
The night was cold and our breath came out as white puffs
of smoke.
 
"Tell me about Miriam, Tess. Tell me what you know."
 
I looked over my shoulder toward the Home, suddenly very
frightened about what I was doing. I was becoming an 
Outlander,
breaking away from the Home. Then my eyes went to the 
Mother
Tree that stood so strong before us.
 
I took a deep breath and said, "Miriam was flighty. Her
father was more indulgent than most fathers here at the
Home. They said he was too indulgent...that she was running
wild." Oh, how I envied Miriam's supposed freedom.
 
"They said it would be the ruin of her--" I broke off. It
was very hard to go on. My hands were beginning to shake
with fear and cold, but Agent Scully was very patient.
 
"An outlander was driving past the Home. He was lost. He
stopped and asked her for directions. She told him. He went
on his way. Very innocent--" My voice trembled. "Someone
called her out about it. She was brought before the Home
Council to be judged. They found her to be a whore, Agent
Scully, and she was punished."
 
Her eyes widened in horror. "Are you telling me that Miriam
was raped and beaten as punishment?"
 
I swallowed. Then nodded.
 
"Did her parents know? Did they try to stop it?"
 
That was the horror of it all.
 
"They knew," I said. "And abided by the council's 
judgment."
 
I turned back toward to the direction where the Home lay.
 
"She didn't come here to the Mother Tree," I said. "Like
most of the women at the Home, she was afraid of it. She
was afraid that she would disappear like the others. 
Instead she ran away to the Outlanders. And that's why you are 
here."
 
Agent Scully rubbed her mouth with her hand. "Why didn't
she tell us what happened? Why did she blame Jonas?"
 
"The outlanders sent her back here. Back to the place where
her attackers walked freely. She was afraid what they would
do to her if she didn't. So she blamed Jonas." I shook my
head sadly. "They always blame Jonas."
 
"Is that what happened to Jonas' mother? Was she judged,
too?"
 
A chill crept into my bones. "People wondered how she
became pregnant, " I said. "She never left the house and 
when she did, she was always under the eyes of either her father or
brothers. She was never alone, Agent Scully. Never. Not
even at night. They say Jonas was the spawn of a devil--a 
devil who dwells there--" I nodded at the Mother Tree. "and came
to his mother at night and impregnated her. That's what 
they say. And they rather believed that than the truth. The 
truth is the only devil here was the man who raped her, than later
beat her and called her a whore."
 
Agent Scully turned abruptly away, hiding her face. Then
she turned back to me.
 
"I need to get you out of her, Tess," she said urgently. "I
need to get you and your sisters out of her before it is
too late."
 
"Oh, Agent Scully," I said sadly, "It's already too late."
 
*****
 
My mother was so angry at me.
 
"How could you do this to us!" she screamed at me as they
loaded us and Jonas into the cars, then turned her face
away from me. She didn't want to look at me.
 
In turn, they asked me, "How could your mother let them do
this to you?"
 
I could tell them, but would they understand? I'm not sure
I could myself. My mother had been a biddable daughter.
Dutiful to her parents' wishes, she had married a man of
her father's choosing. Her husband--my father--was years
older than she was. In fact, my mother was his third wife.
Two had died before her and I had brothers and sisters
older than she was.
 
By the time she was nineteen, she had what any Home
Daughter was taught to strive for and she never questioned
it. She just accepted it.
 
There was no compassion in the world of absolutes. The Home
saw no shades of gray. There was Good and Evil and no
in between. Women either followed the Home laws or were
judged...
 
It did not matter if the woman was an Outlander or a
federal agent...She had broken their rules...She had taken
their children away. She had stolen their Whipping Boy...
 
So when Agent Mulder came and said that he couldn't find
Agent Scully and she wasn't answering her cell phone, I
knew what had happened...
 
They had taken her to be judged...
 
 
*****
 
He went crazy when he realized what happened. Nothing
seemed to calm him. Finally, a bald-headed man grabbed him 
by the arm and said sharply, "You need to settle down, Mulder.
You're not helping anything if you go to pieces! Listen to
me, Agent! I need you here! Scully needs you here!"
 
Something he said got through and Agent Mulder stopped, his
breath in shallow pants, his eyes deep pools of despair.
 
"We will find her, Mulder, " the bald-headed man said in a
more gentle voice. "We will find her."
 
*****
 
It was Jonas who led them to her. He seemed to know where
she was, but Jonas always knew when someone was hurting...
 
She was curled up in the roots of the Mother Tree. Somehow
she had gotten away from them and made her way there. It
was the safest place for her. They would not have dared to 
go there.
 
She had been beaten badly. Very badly. Her face was bruised
and bloody. I shied away from the thought they may have
done worse than beat her...
 
She laid so still that I worried that we were too
late...that she was already gone...
 
Agent Mulder fell bonelessly to her side. I could hear him
whispering her name as he bent over her, covering her still
face with his gentle kisses...
 
Painfully, I realized how blind I had been. So filled with
anger and hatred that I did not see what love was when I
finally saw it...
 
And when I did...I had destroyed it...
 
It was my fault that she was lying there with a broken,
cold body...It was my fault that the man who held her in 
his arms was in so much pain...
 
Jonas knelt by Agent Mulder. "Please," he said.
 
The agent looked at him, not understanding. I think he was
in shock.
 
"Please. I can help," Jonas said.
 
Agent Mulder nodded dazedly, before stumbling to one side,
keeping one hand on his partner. Jonas bent over Agent
Scully, lying his hands on her....
 
Nothing happened for a moment.
 
...Then the bruises and cuts on Agent Scully began to fade
away. Her skin smoothed....She coughed weakly...
 
"Scully?" her partner croaked.
 
A faint wisp of a voice whispered,  "Mulder--?"
 
With a sob, he gathered her in his arms and buried his face
into her neck, his hand shaking as he stroked her hair,
weeping...
 
Jonas staggered back on his heels, his face criss-crossed
with the cuts and bruises that had marked Agent Scully's
face...
 
I ran to him. "Jonas!"
 
He stood uncertainly, before collapsing to the ground, and
rolling onto his stomach, His body stiff with great pain.
 
I gathered him into my arms. He seemed weightless, fragile
as a brittle stick...
 
"Jonas?"
 
He opened up his eyes. They were shiny with tears.
"...didn't have enough, Tess," he mumbled. "not enough
strength...the Mother Tree gave..."
 
"Don't talk," I whispered frantically. "Rest, Jonas. Rest."
 
"Tess--" his eyes rolled back.
 
"Jonas!"
 
"Is he okay?"  A voice called out from behind. It was the
bald-headed man.
 
"He's hurt!" I cried. "Hurry! Please hurry!"
 
Oh Jonas!
 
I turned back to Jonas, but he was gone. My arms holding
nothing but air....
 
I stood up and whirled around madly, searching....
 
"Jonas!" I screamed.
 
There was a babble of voices. Stamping of feet. People
demanding to know what what going on.
 
The world was spinning crazily around me.
 
"Jonas!" I called . "Jonas!"
 
Then I saw her. The Mother Tree. Once so proud and strong.
It stood, shrunken...its leaves wilted...its branches
broken...
 
Shaking, I moved forward and touched the bark of the
tree....
 
It crumbled and fell at my touch....
 
The words kept drumming in my head:  
 
The Mother Tree was dead.
 
Jonas was gone.
 
 
 
*****
 
EPILOGUE:
 
 
They knew they couldn't get away with what they did. They
burned the Home down. Then, the women drank poison and the
men watched until they were sure the women drew their last
breaths, before turning the guns on themselves...
 
Who's to blame?
 
Was I? The only world that I have ever known was gone. I
had destroyed it without remorse...without hesitation...
 
I knelt before the Mother Tree. I could feel the wet earth
soaking through the skirt to my knees.
 
I had asked to see her and the spot where I saw Jonas for
the last time. Agents Scully and Mulder came with me,
although they kept their distance.
 
It was too painful for them to venture too close...
 
I wanted to weep but I was too empty and numb inside.
Instead, I touched the Mother Tree branches, so brittle
they broke off into tiny crumbles.
 
The Mother Tree was dead and Jonas was gone....
 
Dazed, I stood up and moved to the spot where Jonas had
last lain. What I saw made me dizzy...
 
There---exactly where Jonas had lain--was a tiny sapling of
a tree standing strong...
 
Trembling, I touched a leaf with a gentle finger.
 
It was the same green as Jonas' eyes...
 
 
*****
 
 
THE END
 
*AUTHOR'S NOTE*
 
For those who are interested, I am not aware of a Mother
Tree legend anywhere. It was something that I made up, but
knowing the way the universe works, I wouldn't be surprised
if it did exist *somewhere.*
 
Constructive feedback is always welcome.
 
Hope you enjoy it!
 
Myriss
myriss1013@yahoo.com