TITLE: FATHER ABRAHAM: CALL ME ISHMAEL AUTHOR: bellefleur EMAIL ADDRESS: bellefleur1013@yahoo.com DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT: sure RATING: PG CLASSIFICATION: V SPOILER WARNING: set during One Son DISCLAIMER: Not mine; they belong to CC, FOX, etc. SUMMARY: Krycek's ruminations on his ambitions and playing second fiddle to Jeffrey Spender. =================== I was once his golden boy. Fresh and green, given the prize assignment of keeping an eye on his favorite toy. I was found out and had to disappear, but my status remained high. I was on the fast track. All I had to do was play my cards right and I could be next in line for the throne. You see, he led me to believe that he had no heir. He was a lonely man; no wife, no children. He was a man of secrets, that's for sure. He kept the secret of his offspring to himself, all the while leading me on. In my eagerness to please, I made a mistake--a grand mistake that almost cost me my life. I wasn't even the one to pull the trigger, but it was my first taste of authority and leadership, and I blew it. The wrong woman died, and I became the next target. And so I played the prodigal, but in the end I earned my way back. I showed the old man that two could play at this game, that I could be just as despicable as he. Like him, I sold my soul to the highest bidder. A man who has nothing left to lose has everything to gain. I played my cards right, I pandered to his elders, and in the end I won back my position as first in line for the throne. Or so I thought. Then he played his trump card--the man had a son after all. He was fresh and green, the new pretty boy who had been given the prize assignment of Mulder's old job. Jeffrey had been handed the opportunity of a lifetime, and suddenly I had become superfluous. I was no more than the lackey, the servant boy to the prince with the responsibility to show him the ropes, only so he could have the authority to hang me with them. But the old man was a fool. Even worse, his new chosen one was a buffoon, and in the end he betrayed his father through his own ineptitude and ignorance. I'm tired of waiting for my chance. There's no place for me here. I was the first, and I deserve to be the prince, but some princes have to make their own thrones. END ========================= Author's Note: The title is intended as an allusion to the biblical figure of Ishmael (although the phrase itself comes from Moby Dick). You can find his story in Genesis 16 and 21. Two other parts to this series follow: "Aqedah" and "Monogenes"