From: "Erykah" Subject: Answer I: Hi, This is Dana Scully (1/7) I've had so many technical probs posting this that I'm beginning to think that it's cursed. Read at your peril... :-) Apologies if you've already received some or all or this, but I've never posted it directly here. If you wanna archive this, please read my disclaimer, then email me. I wont refuse, I'm just big on respecting people's rights. Tiny moral premise which I like to live by. TITLE: Answer I - Hi, This Is Dana Scully AUTHOR: Erykah Miszti EMAIL: Erykah@hamadryad.com RATING: R NOTES: Mulder-angst. Whatever it seems this IS an X-File. SUMMARY: Scully's gone missing and no one knows where or how. Mulder finds solace in the form of her answering machine, but what *really* happened to Scully? DISCLAIMER - It is out of respect that I put this disclaimer stating that The X Files are the property of Chris Carter. I find it no hardship to do so. I would hope that other writers would grant me the same respect if an idea of mine grew to the same proportions as The X Files. This disclaimer cannot prevent litigation against me, which is okay because that's not why I put it here. Respect must go where it's due. This is not a justification for some of the actions committed by people on Chris Carter's behalf in the suppression of free speech. XXXXXXXXXXXXXX Hi, This Is Dana Scully Sunday 4:02 AM "AAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!" Mulder screamed. His breathing was rapid and sweat poured off his body, soaking through the grey T-shirt and sweat pants. He couldn't remember what the dream had been about but knew that it had been bad. The apartment was still and silent as a grave, which is exactly what it felt like to Mulder. Moonlight snuck covertly around the edges of the drapes but then broke noisily across the carpet and cut the walls into jagged zig-zags. Water circled endlessly in the fish tank, filling the room with a flowing sound that should have been soothing to Mulder's fractured nerves but somehow just wasn't. Automatically Mulder's hand reached out for the phone and dialed Scully's number, needing to hear her voice and diffuse the ache in his skull. He swung around so that his feet rested on the floor and put his head into his hands. The phone rang once before he remembered. Scully wasn't there. The ache increased and spread to his heart. The receiver slid out of his grasp and hit an empty pizza box, before the flex pulled it back to dangle off the table. He didn't hear the ringing tone continue regardless. Just over a mile away the phone's soft burr echoed eerily in the closed-up stillness of Scully's apartment. Then the answering machine - which no one had remembered to turn off - cut in and picked it up. "Hi, this.." It began and Mulder turned instinctively towards the sound, startled by the voice he hadn't heard in three weeks. Half-crazily, he fell to the floor and scrambled for the receiver. His sleep-blurred eyes and drug-fuzzed brain made co-ordination difficult so, by the time he held the receiver to his ear, all he heard was the long beep and the expectant silence. His heart felt crushed like a paper airplane thrown at speed into a brick wall. Expectant rush turned to a bitter despair so pungent that it left a bad taste in his mouth. He stretched to replace the receiver in the cradle without standing up from his place on the floor. He fought back the sour tears which had sprung to his eyes with the renewed pain of her loss. Mulder sighed and reached for the receiver again. He silently acknowledged exactly how sad what he was about to do actually was, but did it anyway. He hit redial and listened as five soft repetitious rings wheezed into his ear. His heart began to beat fast again as the ringing stopped and the machine picked it up with a loud, determined, click. "Hi, this is Dana Scully." Her voice intoned and he could hear that rare but cheerful smile in every word of the short message. "I'm not here right now, but please leave a message and I'll get back to you." Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! Mulder began laughing and his laughter echoed strangely, not only in his apartment, but through the tinny phone speaker into the filtered moonlight blue of Scully's as well. The irony of the message made the laughter hysterical. So simple, his mind informed him, just leave a message and she'll get back to you. The laughter died a sudden death as his brain began to process sensory messages again. The answering machine was just that, a machine, not a magic link to the person he was without. She was gone. Maybe permanently. He just had to get used to it. Silence reigned on the end of the phone line. Unending silence. Worse than the silence of a grave, because at least a grave was an ending. This was like silence of Samantha's disappearance; an emptiness of mind, loneliness of spirit and, above it all, an absence of words. Vast nothingness. No truth. No explanation. No words to say what he felt. No way to make her know that he cared. He returned the phone to the cradle once more. XXXXXXXXXXXXXX Monday 8:20 AM "Hi, this is Dana Scully.." Mulder hit the cut-off button angrily with his thumb. Momentarily he placed his hands on the steering wheel and closed his eyes in an attempt to pull himself back together. Just once more, he'd promised himself, he would only ring her number once more. Yet today he'd already rung four times. She'd only been gone three weeks but it felt like she had been absent from his life forever. He knew that it was stupid to keep calling the machine and that it wouldn't bring her back, but it meant that he could hear the sound of her voice. He remembered every word she'd ever said to him but that was inside his head. The answering machine was outside speaking to him; filling his auditory receptors and stimulating his senses in a way that his memories alone couldn't. The sweet sound, so soft and low, warming his blood when it felt as if nothing else could. There was a truth so perfect just in the way she spoke the words, in the remembrance of the way that voice said his name. A tear began to gather in his eye but he had no intention of letting it fall. Ordering himself back into his protective shell, Mulder opened his eyes, put away his cell, pulled a bottle of pills out of the same pocket, took one and, only then, got out of the car. The Mulder that crossed the parking level to the stairwell would not be recognizable as the same one who had repeatedly called his missing partner's answering machine over the last 36 hours; never leaving a message and never getting the answer he hoped for. During the day the pills he took helped focus his mind onto the cases, then he took different pills at night to wash it all away again. To the agents and colleagues he passed in the corridors, foyers, elevators and stairwells of the Hoover Building he was still the same Mulder. The same object of ridicule he had always been. No one saw any difference in him because no one bothered enough to look for one. No one, that is, except Assistant Director Skinner. He didn't know what to say to bring his most troublesome agent back from the edge this time but he would damned well try. For Scully's sake, and to assuage the guilt and pain that he felt over her second disappearance, he had to make sure that Mulder didn't destroy himself. "Agent Mulder," Skinner began as Mulder seated himself in the chair opposite his desk on that Monday morning. "At the end of last week we discussed the possibility of your taking a short vacation to recuperate." "Yes sir," Mulder agreed blandly. "But, since I haven't been, nor am I, ill I decided that there was no need to 'recuperate'." His face remained a closed mask of indifference which didn't worry Skinner too much because Mulder always put it on when he felt emotionally unstable. He *was* worried about the way Mulder's hands were trembling, about the pale tone of his skin and about the deep etched lines and bags around his eyes. "Well I disagree." Skinner told him flatly. There was no answering response on Mulder's face, no way to gauge his reaction to the statement. "I disagree so strongly in fact," Skinner continued. "that I'm prepared to recommend that you attended mandatory psych counseling, unless you voluntarily take a vacation." The mask broke with a vehemence that was stunning. "No sir! No counseling." He stated on a mighty exhalation, even as he propelled himself up and out of the chair. "Then you'll take the vacation." Skinner remained seated, using the calmness of the action to gain the authority in the situation. Mulder towered over him aggressively but Skinner's authority was a stone wall. "I'm perfectly capable of making decisions regarding my own health." Mulder responded. Skinner merely inclined his head and returned eye contact. "Then choose the vacation Agent Mulder, or we'll turn the matter into the hands of a counselor and it'll go on your record." "You think I care about my record!" Mulder said turning away. "I can't leave the X Files. I need them to.." He told the wall. "To search for your sister?" Skinner cut in and Mulder turned back to face him, the bland mask forming instinctively. "For Scully?" Skinner continued, meeting his eyes. "To work yourself to death as a punishment for not finding them?" He added softly. "Do you really think that's what they would want?" "If I take time off for emotional reasons when Sc.." He broke off the word and rephrased. "..When I don't have a partner still working, it could give Them an excuse to close the X Files." Mulder argued weakly but insistently. "If I suspend you and make you attend mandatory counseling it'll be a better one." Skinner replied coldly. Mulder's eyes widened and his face tightened aggressively. The eye contact between them became a battle of wills. Skinner broke it first and stood up, but it wasn't a victory for Mulder. Shuffling paper absently on his desk, Skinner began to speak again. "Take the vacation Mulder," He looked up at the young agent and caught his eye again. "I'll take care of the X Files." Mulder said nothing. "You can trust me." Mulder still said nothing. The seconds seemed to stretch into hours before Mulder finally spoke. "I have no choice." He replied with a shrug. "This time you don't," Skinner acknowledged. "but I'm doing this to make sure that your ability to make choices in the future isn't hampered by the choices you make today." "I'll thank you later." Mulder tacked on sarcastically as he headed for the door. Skinner gave a half-smile to himself. "Agent Mulder?" He called out, stopping him and causing him to turn back. Skinner waved a piece of paper at him. "I've already filled this out, I just need your signature." Mulder crossed to the desk and signed the vacation request form with an ungrateful flourish. "You'd better keep your word." He commented bitterly as he dropped the pen back onto the desk and straightened up. "Just get some sleep Agent Mulder, you're starting to look like Frankenstein's bride." Skinner said in an off-hand tone as he placed the form into an already bulging file. "You can go." He returned to the paperwork in front of him dismissively. Mulder shook his head and left. XXXXXXXXXXXX "No!" Scully yelled out angrily at her captors. "M-u-u-u-l-l-l-l-d-e-r-r-r!!!!" She shrieked as if in pain and the word stretched out, echoing brokenly and getting ever more distant. Calling to him. She needed him. "Scully!" Mulder cried out, waking up from the nightmare. ***End of part one. XXXXXXXXXXXXXX Hi, This Is Dana Scully (2/7) Mulder's apartment Wednesday 23:45 It took him a second to re-adjust to his surroundings. The darkened room was filled with the sound of strained breathing but it wasn't just Mulder's. He fumbled on the floor by his side for the remote control and stopped the tape. The forced heavy breathing disappeared instantly and the picture on the TV set cut to snow. Mulder stared at it for a long moment, wanting it to hold the answers, wishing that it could be that simple to find them. The dream had been nothing more than his conscience punishing him, supplying him with images of her being taken that were simply not true. Mulder had not seen Scully taken from him, he had been a hundred miles away chasing after shadows as usual. His own mind was working against him to make him mad; making him see her being dragged away by indistinct figures, hearing her fight them and call for him whilst not being able to do anything to stop them. Forcing his attention away from the shuddering, darting dots on the TV screen, Mulder reached for the bottle of pills on the coffee table. Dreamless sleep was the only thing that would get him through this. He'd batter the thought of her out of his head with the drugs and when they wore off maybe things would seem better. If not, there were always more pills in the bottle. He shook a couple out onto his hand and was about to throw them down his throat when his traitorous mind threw up an image of her face scowling down at him but with concern showing through in her eyes. The memory of the look cut him to the heart almost as much as seeing it in the flesh would have. The pills were not, and never would be, the answer. The panacea they offered would not help him or Scully, only the people they were working against. Mulder dumped the tablets back onto the table and watched as they skittered across the smooth surface, coming to rest a fraction away from the opposite edge. He reached for the phone. He had only one other option. The speed dial button gave him instant access to her number, but the last number redial would have done the same. This was the fourth time he'd called since he got home from work. Five rings. Click. "Hi, This is Dana Scully. I'm not here right now, but please leave a message and I'll get back to you." Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! Mulder took a deep breath. "Uh, Scully.." He laughed at himself for talking to her when he knew she wasn't there, but didn't hang up. "..Scully, I know you can't hear this but.. I need to say it out loud." He closed his eyes momentarily, then began in a more determined tone. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have just taken off like I did." It became easier to talk. "It was a lie Scully; the Silver Pyramid, Davidson Papers, all of it. They used them to get me away so that they could take you again. I feel that.. I'm sorry Scully. That's all I can say, I'm sorry." There was just the dead emptiness that was the only answer he could get from a machine. He pushed down the button and cut the line. XXXXXXXXXXXXXX Five rings. Click. "Hi, This is Dana Scully. I'm not here right now, but please leave a message and I'll get back to you." Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! "It's me. I had the dream again. The one where you're calling out to me for help. I know it's just my own guilt, but it feels so real when I'm asleep. If it would help you, I'd keep saying sorry until my tongue fell out. I'd do anything Scully if it would just bring you back." Click. Burr. XXXXXXXXXXXXXX Five rings. Click. "Hi, This is Dana Scully. I'm not here right now, but please leave a message and I'll get back to you." Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! "Scully, it's me. I didn't really have a reason for calling. I just wanted to hear your voice. I miss you." Click. Burr. XXXXXXXXXXXXXX Five rings. Click. "Hi, This is Dana Scully. I'm not here right now, but please leave a message and I'll get back to you." Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! "It's me. I'm bored. Skinner wont let me go back to work yet. Between the *surfin' the Net* with Frohike and channel surfing on the TV, I seem to have exhausted all other possibilities. I just seem to have no motivation for anything beyond calling you. I know you're not there and I don't know if you'll ever be there again, but...uh.I'm thinking of you. Bye Scully." Click. Burr. XXXXXXXXXXXXXX Five rings. Click. "Hi, This is Dana Scully. I'm not here right now, but please leave a message and I'll get back to you." Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! "You know, sometimes the stars just seem to melt into each other and the universe seems out of balance. The night feels empty right now Scully. Where do all the people go when they disappear off the streets. Into warm homes? With loving families and cute pets? Are people out there happy Scully? Am I the only one who feels so alone? I had the dream again. I wish you were here. I'd treat you better. I promise I would. We could go out and do things. Behave like real people perhaps.find out if it's possible to feel happy, 'cause right now I can't even imagine what that feels like." Click. Burr. XXXXXXXXXXXXXX Five rings. Click. "Hi, This is Dana Scully. I'm not here right now, but please leave a message and I'll get back to you." Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! "Hey Scully, Skinner's finally relented. He's letting me go back to work. Guess he figured that I might as well be useful while I torture myself, seeing as I've been doing that anyway. Don't worry, I wont go overboard. No more than usual. I miss you." Click. Burr. XXXXXXXXXXXXXX Five rings. Click. "Hi, This is Dana Scully. I'm not here right now, but please leave a message and I'll get back to you." Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! "Scully, you'll never believe this but Langley had dinner with a girl. No, he wasn't trying using her to get info on a conspiracy of any kind. It was a bona fide *date*. She's a cute girl, conspiracy theorist...guess she'd have to be! Anyway, gotta rush, I'm flying to Albuquerque to look into the killing of some grad students by a giant sand worm. Figured I'd check out Los Alamos at the same time, you know - for the heck of it. Speak to you later." Click. Burr. XXXXXXXXXXXXXX Five rings. Click. "Hi, This is Dana Scully. I'm not here right now, but please leave a message and I'll get back to you." Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! "It's me. You wouldn't have it believed it Scully. Honest to God, it was an eighteen metre long sand worm, about two metres round with these incredible jaws as big as my head. I swear! It was a-mazing! I nearly got eaten! I got the dream again while I was away. You were calling for help again, but I was paralyzed and couldn't help you. I wanted to. I really wanted to. I'm sorry.I'll call again later." Click. Burr. XXXXXXXXXXXXXX Five rings. Click. "Hi, This is Dana Scully. I'm not here right now, but please leave a message and I'll get back to you." Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! "Scully.I.It seemed so.I think I was.It couldn't have been..I wish you could tell me.Or are you trying to and I'm not understanding..?" Click. Burr. XXXXXXXXXXXXXX Five rings. Click. "Hi, This is Dana Scully. I'm not here right now, but please leave a message and I'll get back to you." Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! "It wasn't a dream, was it Scully? That's the truth, isn't it? I did see you..I was there, wasn't I? What do I do? How does that help? I was there and I couldn't do anything.. Scully.I miss you *so* much..and it's my fault..it's my fault." Click. Burr. XXXXXXXXXXXXXX Five rings. Click. "Hi, This is Dana Scully. I'm not here right now, but please leave a message and I'll get back to you." Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! "I'm sorry about the last few calls. It took me a while to get myself together. I just really miss you Scully, and the idea that I wasn't there for you drove me crazy for so long. To find out I might have been there. and seen. what happened. I lost it for a few days. I even took the pills again. I know I said I wouldn't, but I couldn't get through those nights without them. I wanted to forget you Scully and the only thing that would get you out of my head was the medication. I don't know how you got so deep inside my brain. no one else ever did. You're a part of me Scully. That's why I can't believe you're gone. How did I manage last time? How did I get through three months without going mad? And why didn't I tell you how much you mean to me? It would be a lie to say that I didn't know and you know I don't like lies. I just participate in campaigns of misinformation, you remember that line? The Case Of The Ghostly Protector, Watson might have called it. Holmes and Watson, alias Mulder and Scully, break up the arms manufacturer's nasty little scam. That wasn't what I wanted to say. just more misinformation to prove a point I was using it to avoid. The truth is Scully that it's all between misinformation between you and me, and I used it to.. I don't know what I used it for. All I know is that.I miss you.. more than that.. that wasn't what I wanted to say. like any of this rambling monologue has been. You're important to me Dana Scully. You're the only person I trust and you're the only person I love. Hell, you may even be the only person who loves me.. I don't know.. I feel like I know everything about you, except who you are. That doesn't make sense, does it? I guess that goes for all of this. I want you to come back Scully. the message on your machine promises it and I'm holding you to that G-Woman. I guess I've fulfilled the request to 'leave a message' so you owe me. You're not getting out of this one. I miss you." Click. Burr. Margaret Scully stared down at the small grey box that was her daughter's answering machine and wiped the tears out of her eyes. She wanted for a second to rewind the tape and listen to the other messages, but decided not to. If they were like the one she had accidentally overheard, then they were meant for Dana alone. The tape was almost at the end, so she searched the drawers for a fresh one and removed the full tape from the machine. Maggie neatly labeled the tape, put it into a case and placed it on Dana's bookshelf where it would not get forgotten. If Dana - *when* Dana, she corrected herself - got home, the tapes would tell her all she needed to know, even if Mulder couldn't. She put the new tape in the machine, ready for the next time Mulder needed to call. ***End of part two. XXXXXXXXXXXXXX Hi, This Is Dana Scully (3/7) "Freeze or we shoot!" The man shouted but Mulder and Scully kept running. Gunfire exploded behind them. Breath coming in short bursts they managed to keep a distance of one corridor length between them and their pursuers. What seemed like a dozen or more pounding feet sounded just beyond their line of sight. They were chasing them though the maze-like structure of the building. The twisting and turning corridors seemed to go on forever. Shots had already been fired and they both knew that they couldn't afford to get caught by the men. Alarms began blaring, their nasal whine bouncing around the walls. They kept running. A steel blast door appeared around the next corridor. Mulder and Scully came to a sliding stop and looked at each other. The pounding feet got closer. "There's no way back!" Scully observed breathlessly. "Then it'll have to be through." Mulder stated, indicating the door and moving towards it simultaneously. In the distance the alarms continued to drone and yelling voices could be heard. Mulder pulled at the door handle and, although it didn't seem to be locked, it was pretty heavy. Scully came over too and together they succeeded in hauling it open. Just in time they went through the door and began to push it closed. The men rounded the corner. They leveled heavy duty rifles at the gap in the door. Mulder continued pushing it at door while Scully took aim around the door frame with a gun that was useless in comparison to the firepower they were packing. Her shots hit no one but provided just enough covering fire to allow Mulder to slam the door shut and spring the massive dead bolts. Shots continued to bounce off the steel door for a few seconds, then there was silence. The sound of the alarms was now deadened by the sound-proofing offered by the door. Mulder rested his head on the cool metal for a second, allowing it to quiet his troubled thoughts. It wasn't true. it couldn't be. "Mulder.?" Scully said suddenly. He lifted his head and turned to see what she was looking at. The room was full of bodies floating in tanks. "Is this.?" Scully asked in astonishment. Mulder turned to look at her in horror. Two doors on the other side of the room burst open and heavily armed men in black streamed inside with rifles leveled on the horrified pair. There was a noise like an explosion. An ear-splitting sound that echoed inside Mulder's head. The floor seeming to move and shift under his feet, knocking him off balance. A brilliant white light completed the assault on his senses, blinding him to the scene in the room. Scully screamed. Mulder woke up on the couch in his apartment. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Five rings. Click. "Hi, This is Dana Scully. I'm not here right now, but please leave a message and I'll get back to you." Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! "I remember Scully. I know what really happened the night you disappeared. We found something. Something important, but why did they take you. and return me here with false memories? It makes." XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX ".no sense. I've spent most of the night trying to work it out, but it seems so much like a dream still. I'm actually doubting my sanity Scully. What if I'm wrong and just making all this up to try and give your disappearance some kind of explanation. Am I assigning this an explanation that I can live with to cover up the awful thought that I'm guilty for them taking you because I believed their lies about the Silver Pyramid being a transmitter? Did any of that truly happen? Was there ever a Silver Pyramid at all or is this all a lie somehow implanted into my mind? Why did they take *you*? Why not me? Why not me?" Click. Burr. The Smoking Man leaned forwards and clicked the tape recorder off. The drone of the dead tone ceased. Immediately he reached for the packet of Morley's and lit one. He slowly inhaled the smoke and reveled in the way it calmed him. Oh he wasn't stupid, he knew that it wasn't calming at all, it was just the nicotine fix calming down the craving that had already started to torture his mind even after only minutes of not having a cigarette. Everyone's an addict, he thought as he stared at the moon. It was all just a matter of degrees. He took a longer draw of the drug-filled fumes. He pulled himself back from the tangent to the contents of the tape. The wiretap had proved more interesting lately than it had been in quite a while. The man smiled around his cigarette. Mulder, it appeared, had forgotten his paranoia and was acting very indiscreetly indeed. It worked to their advantage, obviously, as it was a useful way to keep track of the workings of that astonishingly complex brain. Who needed the implant. There was no doubt that Mulder asked the right questions. Just how much *did* Mulder remember of that night was the important question. The ultimate danger was that the memory subversions They had used to overlay the real memories of that entire week would disturb the more intrinsic subversions. Something which would never do at all. He picked up the phone. "Get me Bill on the line." He ordered. "Immediately." XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Mulder dreamt vividly that night. Wild contortions of people screaming his name. Distorted sounds. Blurred visuals. Too dark. Too bright. Too loud. Too quiet. Scully's face, twisted with pain. The Cancerman smiling through smoke. A syringe of blue liquid, looming large ahead of him. Samantha crying. Circling lights in the sky. His father grinning at him, saying something. Too quiet. Scully screaming. Too loud. Scully bathed in green light. Frozen in the light. ***End of part three. XXXXXXXXXXXXXX Hi, This Is Dana Scully (4/7) "No!!!!!!!!!!" Skinner yelled as he snapped back into wakefulness. He'd sat up with the exclamation but now he crashed back into the pillows breathing heavily. His overheated skin was filmed with sweat and his ears were ringing from the remembered sound of the explosion. and the screams. Skinner momentarily buried his head in the damp pillow trying to block out the sound. It didn't work. With a massive sigh of frustration he propelled himself onto his back so that he could stare at the ceiling with limbs draped every way across the entire bed. He kicked off the sheets and let the air cool his naked flesh. Guilt seemed to swirl around him like a thick fog, bringing with it images that he'd spent the last three weeks trying to forget. He let his eyes close but that just made it worse. Why Scully?, he'd asked from the representative of the powers which had made the decision. An insistent knocking on his apartment door forced the thought away. He glanced at the clock as he put on his robe. 3:29 AM. He retrieved his gun from the top drawer of the bedside cabinet. "Just this once," He murmured as he went to the door. "Let it be a gorgeous blonde with a thing about balding men." He shifted his grip on the gun in his right hand and opened the door. Skinner sighed inwardly when he saw who it was. "Mulder," He began. "Do you know what time it is?" "This isn't a social visit." Mulder replied grimly. "It couldn't wait." Skinner opened the door reluctantly. Mulder strolled inside, turning to face Skinner only after the door had closed again. He gestured towards the gun held loosely in Skinner's hand. "That's a little paranoid, isn't it?" He commented sarcastically. "Just tell me what you want Mulder?" Skinner replied, crossing to place the gun on the coffee table before turning back to Mulder. "Then maybe both of us can get some sleep tonight." "That's just it." Mulder said as if it were something momentous. "I haven't been sleeping well lately." "Well speed'll do that to you." Skinner said looking him straight in the eye. Mulder's face betrayed slight shock before closing up. He didn't deny it. Skinner smiled. "How did I know?" He asked before the other man could. Mulder gave a mocking but inquiring look. "I have my sources, but don't worry. I'm gonna not tell anyone." Mulder jumped on that statement. "Why not?" He asked seriously interested. "Surely it would be considered a threat to my ability to do my job." "They'd kick you out of the Bureau for it." Skinner answered flatly. "Who would that benefit?" "You tell me." Mulder shot back instantly. Skinner laughed to cover the moment. and the answer. "Mulder," He began. "Despite everything, you're still the best FBI agent I've ever encountered. Your loss always has been unacceptable." There was a long pause while Mulder contemplated his response. "You've said that before." He replied at length. "Because it's the truth." Skinner answered. "You know now why I felt that then," Mulder nodded. "Well, it's more than that now. You've a part to play in uncovering something very important; you and Scully." For a second the silence was deafening. Mulder's face tightened and when he spoke it was like breaking glass. Cold and sharp. "Do you know happened to Scully?" He bit out. Skinner hesitated inwardly and it was an effort to make the out-facing mask remain intact. <"Scully!" "Mulder!" "You!" "You're too late." "Let her go!" "I don't believe *any* of this!" "Take me instead!" "Mulder!" "You lied to me!" ""What do you want with us?" "Colonization?" "No!!!!!!!!!!!" . the light . and the explosion .> "No." He replied flatly, but then hesitated again. "But she came to me for information." "What information?" Mulder demanded. "She wanted to know what I knew about the silver pyramid." "What did you tell her?" Mulder's face was a mask of ice that was actually succeeding in scaring Skinner and he had to fight not to show it. "That it's a communication device for transmitting beyond our planet. For contacting extra terrestrials." Skinner was hating this. "How do you know what the pyramid is for?" Mulder was puzzled. "And why'd she come to you?" Skinner took a deep breath before answering. "Because Scully and I work for a secret organisation dedicated to." He was cut off by Mulder loud guffaw. "You fucking liar.!" Mulder exclaimed as he went for his gun but Skinner was quick. He grabbed his own gun from the coffee table and took aim. Stand-off. "I want the truth!" Mulder stated. "I'm telling you the truth!" Skinner replied. "Fine!" Mulder commented lightly but didn't lower the gun. "So what does this 'organisation' do?" "We want to find the truth about extra terrestrial life and our government's knowledge of it." He answered. "You expect me to believe that Scully." Mulder began. "She's been lying to you." Skinner cut him off. "We weren't." "You're lying." Mulder interrupted. "You have to trust me." Skinner insisted. "Why should I?" Mulder threw at him. "Why should *I* trust *you*?" Skinner shot back. Mulder was momentarily thrown. Skinner lowered the gun. "We didn't tell you because we didn't want them to know that we knew you were their pawn." He took a shaky breath. "They've been using you to fudge the truth about extra terrestrials. They turned you into everything you are for that sole purpose." "You think that." "Mulder, Scully was trying to help you avoid their lies." He paused. "You've asked yourself why it was her taken and not you." He looked at Mulder squarely. "It was because they found out that she knew the truth about that. Because she knew you were their puppet." "You're lying." Mulder stated nervously. ".and I'm not listening to it anymore!" He lowered the gun looking panicked. He replaced it in the holster even as he hurried out of the apartment. "Mulder!" Skinner called after him. "Mulder, come back!" But Mulder had gone. Skinner swore violently at his departure. He could only hope that Mulder didn't blow this by not believing him and thank God that he'd done a bug sweep yesterday afternoon. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Mulder stared at the lines of white powder laid out on the mirror for a long time, but he wasn't deciding on whether or not to take them. In fact, he was so immersed in his thoughts that he'd actually forgotten about it. It wasn't true. Skinner was lying. He had to be. Mulder's anger built and built but he couldn't decide in which direction to vent it. He wasn't even sure what he was angry at. Skinner, for lying about Scully? Skinner, for telling the truth? Or did he believe Skinner and was he angry at Scully for gaining his trust with a lie? He picked up the phone and hit the speed dial. The message calmed his anger and let him get his mind more into focus. "Scully, Skinner told me something today that. " His mind cleared and one word exploded into it. Why hadn't he thought of it before? WIRETAP! ".shit!" He exclaimed and slammed the phone down. ***End of part four. XXXXXXXXXXXXXX Hi, This Is Dana Scully (5/7) Exact location unknown Somewhere in Washington DC The beep of the answering machine sounded loudly and for a moment there was a long pause. Then came Mulder's voice. "Scully, Skinner told me something today that..shit!" Then there was a loud crunch as the receiver was slammed down. The Cancerman laughed throatily, but the young man who had brought him the most recent of the surveillance tapes merely frowned, unable to understand the joke. The elder man smiled at him thinly and explained. "Agent Mulder appears to have finally recovered his senses." He told him. "He knows about the wiretap?" The young man asked in amazement, "I wonder what made him . return to his old self.?" Cancerman mused out loud. "Maybe it was the meeting he had with Assistant Director Skinner this morning." "What meeting?" Cancerman demanded angrily, no one had mentioned that to him. The young man stepped back in genuine fear. "They.. uh. Mulder went to see him early this morning at his apartment." "What did they talk about?" He was going quieter, which meant he was getting angrier. "Where's the surveillance tape?" "There isn't one." The young man shrugged nervously. "The.. uh.. there must have been some of problem with the bugs." "Yes." The Cancerman interrupted flatly. "The Assistant Director is the problem. Unfortunately he's one which we are unable to eliminate." The young man frowned and wondered why not, but didn't dare to ask. "We'll have to assume that Skinner has told Mulder the truth as he understands it to be and that he'll act accordingly." "Shall we continue the wiretap on Agent Mulder's phone?" The young man cut in. "Yes." The Cancerman mused for a moment, then looked steadily at the young man. "Contact the lab in Germantown and arrange for a Code 1013 on Agent Scully." "A Code 1013, right. Anything specific?" "Head wound, they can decide on the details." "Anywhere special for the drop off?" XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Watergate Complex Washington DC 12:31 The morning came and went again, turning into a gloomy and overcast day which hung over the capital city of the Land of the Free, and it's numerous satellite towns, like a bad mood during a particularly nasty case of PMS. It was not the best day of parking attendant David Scwartz's life. His wife had just left him, ending their fifteen year marriage and taking their three children to her mother in Baja, California. His car had picked today to break down, making him late for work and earning him a reprimand from his boss. The last thing he'd needed was to find a decomposing body lying on the river bank. His boss seemed to think it was God punishing him for being late. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Mulder's Apartment Alexandria 13:58 PM Mulder was still no closer to finding a believable scenario for Scully's disappearance. Who to trust? Somehow it had arrived at a choice between Scully and Skinner. He had thought that he could trust Scully but if Skinner was telling the truth then she was a liar. He had thought he could trust Skinner but if he was making up this story about Scully then he was a liar. One of them *had* to be lying and the awful realization had been tormenting Mulder for hours. Well that and the wiretap. Mulder winced. How could he have been so stupid!? Spilling his heart out over an open phone line so that Cancerman and his sweaty little accomplices could laugh over his state of mind. And the pills - he'd spoken about them. Thank God he hadn't been crazed enough to talk about the speed. The lines of speed on the table were still untouched, which was definitely a good thing. They would have provided even less of an answer than he already had. He'd taken the drug intermittently over the years, starting during those long and boring years in England when it seemed like everyone saw it as just a good way to stay awake during exam revision. The girl he'd first got it from swore blind that it made every essay you wrote into a seminal masterpiece. It didn't. It just made the essays incomprehensible to anyone who wasn't as high as you'd been when you wrote it. It never gave him any answers about anything but sometimes it just felt nice to be high. The true drug problem, Mulder mused momentarily, sometimes they just made you feel nice. How do you deal with a problem like that? "Just say no"? No to feeling nice, when otherwise you feel like shit? I don't think so. Of course, in the process of feeling nice they completely fucked you up, but Mulder didn't actually care about that. He was already fucked up. What was another dimension to his already pathetic existence? Maybe he'd get lucky and it would kill him. No, Mulder thought, he didn't want to die. He had far too much to do before that. He still wanted to live to be a hypocrite and tell his children not to take drugs because they fuck you up. He made a promise to himself that he *would* live to have children just so that he could word it like that. "Son," He said mock-seriously out loud. "Don't take drugs, they fuck you up.." He laughed bitterly. The distraction of the moment was welcome and he felt better for it. Mulder looked balefully at the substance still spread out neatly on the table. What had he been thinking? He bent down and swept the fine powder back into a small plastic sachet, dropping a little onto the carpet by accident. He picked up as much as he could but there was still a fine dusting left there. He'd clean it up in a minute. Mulder pressed the seal on the sachet closed firmly, then stood up and took it over to the bookcase. He slotted the sachet between the pages of a book on hallucinogens and their affect on the pineal gland. Mulder was about to go into the kitchen to get a damp cloth to clean the traces of speed off the carpet when the phone rang. "Mulder." He answered. There was a long pause, a tense silence from the other end of the line. "Fox," A female voice said eventually. "It's Margaret Scully." Her tone was choked by tears and Mulder gripped the phone a little tighter. "I.." "What's happened?" Mulder demanded as gently as he could manage. He didn't want to upset her more. "It's. It's Dana. I just got a call from the police.." She stuttered through tears. "Have they found her?" He asked desperately. "They found a body. " She began and Mulder's throat contracted violently, choking him. "..they want me to identify it. oh Fox, you will come with me. I can't go alone." She cried. "Of course." Mulder forced past his tight throat and dried out mouth. "Thank you. do you.. do you think it's." "I'll come and pick you up right away." Mulder interrupted her. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Georgetown University Medical Centre Department of Pathology 15:07 "I'm afraid that we're sure it is her but, as you know," Dr. Leaphe told Mulder as he guided him and Margaret Scully through the corridors of the building. "procedure calls for id by next of kin." "Where did you find her?" Margaret Scully asked through barely repressed tears. "Her body was washed up on the bank of the river near the Watergate Complex." The middle-aged doctor answered, biting his lip. "Any indication how she died?" Mulder asked stiffly. The doctor looked uncomfortable. "Uh, yes, and I feel I must prepare you for this, the body is not in the best condition. She sustained a nasty looking head wound and has been in the water for a considerable length of time." "Was the head wound the cause of death?" Mulder asked, attempting to control his emotions and failing. Maggie cried openly now and Mulder slid an arm around her waist. She, in turn, clung to him for support. "We can't be sure until we conduct an autopsy, but we think so." They turned a corner and entered the morgue. Maggie gasped involuntarily at the sight of the stark grey room with it's wall full of cabinets. "How could Dana work in a place like this?" She asked Mulder. "How could you get used to it?" "I don't think she ever did, Mrs Scully." Mulder replied, tightening his hold fractionally as Dr. Leaphe opened a cabinet and pulled out a tray on which was a body draped in a white sheet. The smell of formaldehyde in the room couldn't mask the rotting, vegetative, stench that came off the body. Maggie looked seriously up at Mulder for a long moment, then stepped out of his embrace and went to stand by the tray. Mulder walked the short distance to stand behind her, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Dr. Leaphe asked them if they were ready and they nodded. Mulder tensed in fear as the doctor pulled back the sheet. Maggie gasped and turned into Mulder's arms. Instantly her attempt at a facade of calm shattered and she sobbed violently into his chest. Mulder absently held onto her while he stared in horror at the face of the body on the slab. Someone had obviously tried to clean her up a little before they arrived but the red hair was still matted with bits of river mud, blood and fragments of shattered white bone, and clung to the decaying, green-tinged, goose-bumped flesh of her cheeks. The head wound was a stark gasping hole in her skull through which brain tissue, tangled with some kind of green algae, was visible. She looked like death itself. Maggie Scully sobbed her heart out in his arms. Mulder tightened his hold on her as he felt the bile rise in his throat. "It's her." Mulder stated in a choked voice, as the tears suddenly cascaded from his eyes. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Skinner's Apartment Crystal City 17:12 Skinner put the phone down on auto-pilot. Scully couldn't be dead. She just couldn't. He thought, as he fought back the wave of emotion that brought tears to eyes of the man who had thought he'd seen too much to ever cry again. It was time he told Mulder the whole truth about the night she disappeared. <"No!!!!!!!!!!!" . the light . and the explosion .> He bashed a fist into the wall, causing the wall to shake a little and the framed pictures to jump. One fell and it's glass front smashed to jagged fragments on the floor. Skinner saw nothing but Scully in that chilling blue light. ***End of Part Five XXXXXXXXXXXXXX Hi, This Is Dana Scully (6/7) Scully's Apartment Annapolis 23:45 Mulder ran his hand over the mantelpiece, drawing a small cloud of dust along its length and allowing it to drift off the edge and disperse slowly into the still air. The depressing gloom of the day had matured into a cloying humidity that seemed to suck all the energy out of Mulder's bones with the voracity of an energy-sucking vampire. The dust he had disturbed hung in the thick air like it was suspended in aspic. There was actually surprisingly little dust in the apartment. Mulder assumed that Mrs Scully had probably come in and cleaned the place as a way to make sure it would be nice for Dana's return. Except Dana would not return. The fragile hope that had remained intact for the last few weeks had died tonight in that morgue when Mulder had been forced to look down at her face. Her body mangled beyond belief by death and the bacteria that lived in the water of the Potomac. Mulder shivered despite the heat as he thought of microscopically small creatures feasting on Scully's flesh. She had been dead, and floating in the river, for three weeks at least. He had been tricked into believing that she would come back, tricked by is own mind which kept reminding him of the fact that she'd come back before. No matter what they'd done to her then, she had come back and lived. Borrowed time it had turned out to be and it was all irrelevant as she would have been dead soon anyway. Mulder had found out more at the hospital than he'd bargained for. While he'd had been away - Mulder had been told - and on the very day that she had died, Scully had been to the cancer centre at Georgetown and had been diagnosed as having only a few months to live. The autopsy, which Mulder returned to the hospital to get the results of, revealed that she'd died by drowning and that the head wound which had torn apart her skull had occurred after death. The body - Mulder distanced her - had probably been hit by the propeller of a boat. There were no drugs in her system, apart from a high blood-alcohol level and large quantities of nicotine. An analysis of the chemical content of the water in her lungs suggested that she had drowned a good 5 to 10 miles up river from the spot where she was found. Apart from it's suddenness, there had been nothing violent about her death that the autopsy could ascertain. There were no injuries that would suggest she had been attacked or forced into the river. Upon reflection the doctor judged that she was mentally unstable having heard the news about having a fatal cancerous growth and that she had either killed herself or had fallen into the water in a state of intoxication. The official cause of death would be put down as accidental death, although the doctor held a personal belief that it had been suicide. As he'd told Mulder, he'd seen a lot of deaths like this and most were stress-related suicides. Mulder didn't want to believe that. The doctor couldn't make that judgment, he hadn't known Scully like Mulder did. She was too strong a person to kill herself, besides there were a lot of anomalies to the timeline of events. Mulder dismissed the suicide scenario out of hand and, instead, contemplated the possibility that she had been pushed, or coerced, into the river. If he accepted either version of the truth, then his own memories - the dreams - were exactly what he had originally supposed them to be; his self- conscious forming events to enhance his guilt feelings. It would also mean that Skinner was a liar and not to be trusted. He didn't want to believe that either. Every way he looked at it, it still meant that Skinner was a liar. The body itself proved that, didn't it? Then again, what had Skinner actually told him? That Scully had gone to him about the pyramid because they were involved in a secret organization and that she had disappeared because she knew the truth about his - Mulder's - true connection to the conspiracy. If Scully had gone to the Centre after she'd spoken to Skinner, then maybe she did kill herself. If she had gone off on her own trying to use the pyramid as a communication device, someone might have felt the need to push her into the river. Mulder knew that Scully wasn't the best swimmer but she should have been good enough to get out of the river. That didn't make sense unless the head wound was to disguise something else, an initial blow to the head maybe. It was certainly effective in removing the area of her brain affected by the cancer, that was missing entirely. Mulder felt a wave of bile rise in his throat. It was useless to speculate without more evidence. It just kept going round in circles in his head. He had no evidence to corroborate or dispute Skinner's story and Scully was still dead. The room lit up as a lightening bolt slithered it's way across the sky, sending a wave of energy through the atmosphere and almost overpowering the sound of the apartment door opening. Mulder tensed and moved into the shadows of the room so that he could watch the door without being seen. A large shadow of a man advanced into the apartment but Mulder couldn't make out any features. Mulder inched silently around the edge of the room so that he stood between the man and the door, drawing his gun as he went. The figure appeared to be looking for something in the darkness. Mulder stepped from the shadows and put the gun against the man's left temple. "Don't move or I'll blow your head off." He said menacingly. The man froze instantly. "That wouldn't be a smart move Mulder, you'd only be doing They're work for Them." Skinner replied, a sudden bolt of lightening illuminating the room revealed his identity to Mulder, as he raised his hands in the air impassively. The gun was not lowered. Mulder didn't seem surprised that it was him. "What are you doing here?" He asked in the same cold tone. "You can put the gun away Mulder, I was looking for you." "Did you help yourself to a wander through my apartment too?" Mulder snapped. "What're you looking for?" Skinner mulled it over for a long second, chewing on his lip. The room lit up momentarily again and thunder rumbled thickly through the air. The storm was building up fury. "I was looking for a clue as to where Scully hid the pyramid." He stated suddenly. Mulder lowered the gun and stared at Skinner, who turned to face him. "She told me she was hiding it, but didn't say where." "Scully's dead." Mulder stated. "I wouldn't bet on that." Skinner muttered sarcastically. A bright flash of nature's own illumination lit up Mulder's disbelieving expression. "I saw her body, they fished it out of the river." Mulder told him flatly. "I heard the doctor's going around claiming it was a suicide, but Scully wouldn't do that." Skinner dismissed. "Did you know she was dying of cancer?" Mulder asked harshly. "What? Skinner asked skeptically. "Who told you that?" "The day she disappeared she'd been diagnosed as having only a few months to live." "The *day* she disappeared?" Skinner obviously still didn't believe it. "Yeah, so you've been lying to me." "Someone's been lying to you Mulder," Skinner cut in as another roll of thunder echoed through the night. "but it's not me. Scully didn't go to any clinic the day she disappeared. She was with me all day." Skinner paused momentarily, chewing on his lip again. "And we were both with you." Mulder's questioning expression was frozen in the blue glow of the lightening flash. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Research Laboratory Unspecified Location The storm raged outside, slicing up the tense humidity of the day with an electrical surge of gloriously massive proportions. Inside the laboratory all was quiet and still. The storm had knocked out the main power supply but the research facility had a back-up generator that kept all vital systems running, and there were some *very* vital systems to keep going. A female in a white coat was the only person in the well equipped high-tech lab. Oblivious to the raging storm, she poured the test tube of clear liquid into the test tube of orange liquid and frowned when it turned bright red. She busily wrote down the unsatisfactory result on the clipboard on the high desk next to her. A sound in the doorway made her start and she turned to she who it was. One of her 'patients' stood there with what appeared to be a concerned expression. She smiled reassuringly back at.him? It? Whatever! She'd known they existed for so long that seeing them hadn't been that much of a surprise but basic communication, such as working out what to call them, was all new to her. "What is it?" She asked out loud. The 'creature' inclined it's head and blinked once, the lids sliding rapidly closed then open again over the deep black of it's large eyes. "Any success?" It asked without opening it's mouth. This was more difficult to get used to than anything else. "No." She said defensively, her whole purpose here lay in the chemical substance in the test tubes that wasn't even her specialist field. "You will succeed." The alien told her inside her mind. It's certainty was scary but it was right, she had to succeed or she would never get to go home. "There is something on the television you should see." The ebe commented, giving greater rise to her suspicion that it was reading her thoughts. "Have you been watching Barney again?" She asked with a straight face. The ebe looked confused, as she'd known it would. "There never were any purple singing dinosaurs in the history of the Earth that I was taught. I still do not understand how one can exist now. Has it been genetically engineered?" The alien asked seriously. She smothered a smile. "What was it you wanted me to see?" She asked it instead. "It was on the early morning news." XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Scully's Apartment 00:21 "So what did we all do on this group outing? Have a picnic in the park? Or do the tourist thang?" Mulder asked sarcastically. "We broke into a top secret establishment to determine the validity of the pyramid communication device." Skinner deadpanned. "Have you been going to creative writing classes in your spare time? 'Cause you're getting real good at this." Mulder jibbed with a razor sharp tone. "I'm telling you the truth." The AD insisted. "It sounds fantastical but only because the nature of the pyramid has been wiped from your memory." "For what purpose?" Mulder cut in. "So that you don't ask questions like that." Came the instantly wry response. "It was specifically requested." "Requested?" Mulder was disbelieving. "By who?" Skinner paused for a long moment, as if considering what to tell him. "By Agent Scully." He finally answered. Mulder's only response was to raise his eyebrows at him skeptically. "I've already told you Mulder that Scully and I were involved with an organisation that wanted to insure the information we discovered did not fall into the hands of persons who might use it the detriment to the people of the Planet Earth." "Oh yeah, and me knowing is detrimental because I'm being used.. by who? The aliens..? The government..?" Mulder queried sarcastically. "A section of the government working in combination with one of the alien factions." Skinner replied. "They use you as their conduit for collecting and disseminating information on real and supposed alien activity. By this they validate and discredit you simultaneously, making you the perfect way to manipulate even the more radical and less idealistic members of society whilst keeping you in the dark about the truth of extra terrestrial life." "And Scully knew about this?" He asked, a desperate note in his tone. "Yes, she and a man you referred to as Deep Throat were the both initially involved in discovering how much you knew." Skinner answered smoothly, giving the answers that had been rehearsed many times. "Deep Throat?" Mulder asked in shock, as if on cue. 'Skinner' tried not to smile. "His real name was Sebastian Von Schultz and he worked for military intelligence and the Syndicate for forty years before coming over to our side. He gave us the information on your role in this mess." 'Skinner' shrugged. "Von Schultz had wanted to give up on the Project sometime before but was frightened into silence by the treatment your family received. When he came to us his family were already dead. His wife and daughter were both killed in a house fire in '77, his son died in the Gulf." "Why are you telling me this now?" Mulder demanded suddenly, turning to talk to the wall. "What difference can any of it possibly have? Scully's still dead." "She's not dead." 'Skinner' stated and Mulder spun back to face him. "The body you saw wasn't really her. It was a. replica." "A clone?" He was incredulous. "Not exactly, it was never alive. They did it to throw you off the scent, which means she's in danger." "But you said that she asked for my memory to be wiped. Why?" "She wasn't abducted." He drew an unsteady breath. "She went with them quite willingly, in fact she asked to go." "Go? Go where?" Mulder demanded. 'Skinner' looked around nervously. "I'd rather not say here, but I can lead you to her." He told the younger agent. "Let's go then." Mulder began and headed for the door. "We can't just go racing off. This is too dangerous." He kept glancing around. "I'll go first and meet you again later." "Meet where?" Mulder asked and Skinner handed him a piece of paper. Mulder opened the folded leaf and read the black scrawl. 'Unit 5799, Heatherston Industrial Units, Germantown. 8pm.' He nodded his agreement to Skinner, who smiled reassuringly and headed for the door. Mulder shivered involuntarily as another roll of thunder shook the night. He couldn't help thinking that there was something wrong with this. "Skinner?" He called out suddenly. The AD turned back, a sudden lightening flash illuminated the room around them, then faded slowly. "Do you remember the town where the diner was that we met to discuss the digital tape a few months ago?" "I'm not sure. Why?" "I liked the place, but name's slipped my mind." "It was Aliceburg." Skinner replied with a smile. "You're sure?" "Positive." Skinner stated and headed out the door. "Right." He heard Mulder say before the door closed. Mulder turned away from the door and went to the window. He watched Skinner walk out of the building and off towards a car. He watched all the way until the car disappeared down the street. "Craiger." Mulder muttered. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX As soon as he was sure that he was out of Mulder's line of sight he shifted back into a more comfortable human form. He pulled the cell-phone out of his pocket and hit the speed dial. It was answered instantly in a curt tone. "Yes?" "It's done." He told the man stiffly. "He went for it?" Came the response. "Yes. Now make sure you complete the job, we can't afford another mistake on this." He added flatly. The shape shifter hung up and drove off into the night. ***End of Part Six. XXXXXXXXXXXXXX Hi, This Is Dana Scully (7/7) 19:44 Skinner knocked again on the door of Mulder's apartment. "Mulder?" He demanded, of the solid wooden surface. There was no answer. Skinner rolled his eyes in frustration. Mulder was no where to be found - not in the office, not at his apartment or at Scully's - and he wasn't answering his cell-phone. That always meant trouble but before Scully had always been somewhere around to keep him relatively safe. The outcome his time, without her, would be anyone's guess. The stakes had been bumped up three weeks ago. He let out a long breath and headed towards the elevator. He'd send out the usual feelers and then another fabulous dinner care of the Golden Arches beckoned. Skinner rubbed his tired neck as he watched the elevator doors close. It had been one of *those* days and he was sure that it wasn't over yet. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Research Laboratory Unspecified Location "I have to go just for a short while, then I promise I'll come back." The woman in the white coat told the head of the facility. "You can't go." It replied, speaking into her mind in that fashion which was so disturbing. "I *must*." She insisted. "I have to prove." "I saw the news report and that's why I can't let you leave." "If you saw the report then." She cut off abruptly when she saw It was resolute, then sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose in a gesture of frustration. "You must continue to attempt to isolate the substance responsible for the virus." "I'm not an expert in this field, I might not be able to." She stated. There, she'd finally said it. It was a relief. "You *MUST*." The grey alien insisted, echoing her own earlier assertion. "It's vital or we shall all die. Not just us but you humans as well." "But I have to see Mulder." She replied firmly. "I will come back and finish the job." "No! You will stay here!" XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Heatherston Industrial Units Germantown 19:56 Mulder crept through the shadows silently. Anyone looking when he passed would have been hard pressed to see him at all in his dark clothing; black jeans, turtleneck top and black rucksack. In any other location his clothes would have been considered sexy, here they were invisible. He knew he was walking into a set-up of some kind, but who wanted him here and for what? He needed to turn the situation to his advantage if he could. God, he wished he could have called Skinner but that would have betrayed the fact that he knew it was a set-up. That 'man' in Scully's apartment definitely hadn't been Skinner. There was his target up ahead: unit 5799. There was no sign of 'Skinner' or anyone else around the corrugated metal structure, but the lights were on inside. Mulder didn't step out into those lights immediately, choosing instead to scan the numerous shadows that cloaked the industrial estate in the early evening darkness. A patch of shadow to the left of unit 5799 moved slightly, betraying a shape there. Mulder's eyes flicked right, approximately the same distance and attempted to focus through the thick gloom of the twilight. Again there was that tiny movement of human being that justified many a paranoid's tales. He raised the night vision goggles and confirmed his suspicions. Two men, one on either side of the entrance but way back into the shadows. Each of them carried a high power rifle slung over his shoulder. Knowing now where danger lay, Mulder inched back out of the estate through the shadows to his car, parked some distance away. He flipped the ignition and headed away from the units. After a mile or so he turned back and, this time, drove into the complex and up to unit 5799. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Research Laboratory Unspecified Location It was easy to sneak out of the blank white cell that made up her room at the facility and head out through stark white corridors. With surprise on her side, it was even easy to conk on the head the little alien that guarded the inside door of the west wing of the project building and use his implant scan to open up the interior blast door. Once outside, she used a stolen set of keys to boost one of the grey Fords in facility's parking lot. Within minutes she was driving it out of the gates, even passing the security guard with a beaming smile. In her rear view she saw him reach for his radio and she put her foot down on the gas pedal. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Heatherston Industrial Units 20.03 Mulder climbed out of the car with a surreptitious glance at his surrounding. Up close, the unit's front was a towering mass of corrugated steel, which crouched awkwardly on its meagre foundations like some mythical monster waiting to pounce. Deep shadows cloaked the entrance and effectively hid the men that Mulder knew were waiting there with an unknown purpose. He strode towards and into the building with a confidence that had the effect of disguising his state of alert readiness. 'Skinner' was waiting for him. "You're late." He growled in a tone that was a perfect match for the Assistant Director. "I'm sorry, but us 'disinformation conduits' have a lot of work to do aiding cover-ups and that sort of thing." Mulder responded sardonically out of the corner of his mouth. "This is serious Mulder, Scully's life is in danger." 'Skinner' replied flatly. "You said you could take me to her." Mulder stated, abruptly back on track. "Where is she?" "We need the silver pyramid to find her exact location." 'Skinner' evaded, immediately sparking Mulder's interest. "You said that Scully hid it somewhere but didn't tell you the hiding place." Mulder commented. "That's right." 'Skinner' said. "But we can't find her without it." He paused. "I'm sure she left a clue with you." "Why would she do that if she asked for my memory to be wiped?" Mulder countered. "Safe keeping. She doesn't trust me, but for some reason she trusts you." "And why doesn't she trust you?" "Because I'm an assistant director of the FBI. Our group is primarily concerned with distrusting the majority of authority figures as the liars they are and Scully's as paranoid as they come." 'Skinner' stated. "She must be a good liar for me not to know these things about her after four years." Mulder muttered sarcastically. "She's the best." 'Skinner' replied. "That's why her hiding place for the pyramid will be a good one." "And you want me to find it for you?" Mulder asked guardedly. "For us, Mulder. We have to find Scully before it's too late." "What if I don't trust you?" Mulder questioned flatly. "You're just gonna have to." The fake assistant director entreated him. Mulder chewed on the problem inwardly. Someone - whoever the shapeshifter worked for - wanted Scully and the pyramid badly. For what purpose? Was she really in danger? Could they help her or was their intention merely to get the pyramid? Was she really alive at all? He forced that sickening thought aside and decided to play along for the time being. Play along until he could find the answers. "What do you want me to do?" He asked. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Mulder's Apartment 21.07 The man eased the pick into the lock on the apartment door and fiddled until the tumbler slid into place, opening the door before him. Stepping into the gloom of Mulder's apartment he went in search of his target. The silver pyramid. Unseen by him, another form moved silently in the shadows near the door. The dark figure watched him as he searched methodically. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Scully's Apartment 21.08 Mulder let himself into Scully's apartment and closed the door slowly behind him. His gaze lingered momentarily then caught on the key-chain in his hand, focusing on it as it glimmered in the moonlight. It was a pretty cool key-chain, he thought. He decided there and then to give it to Scully if she ever came back. He wasn't sure why. Something about it just seemed right somehow. He pocketed the chain and small bunch of keys then went for the light switch. A footfall in the corridor outside stopped him and he retreated into the shadows. He half suspected that it was just his own paranoia that made him do this, but it had been proven not to be paranoia on many other occasions. The footsteps stopped outside Scully's door and a key was inserted into the lock. The door opened. Mulder backed further into the shadows, his hand already going for his gun. Then the figure of a short woman stepped into the room. Her short bobbed hair bounced as she turned in the doorway to remove the key. Mulder stood momentarily frozen. Scully! His mind screamed. He placed a hand on her shoulder, just as she reached for the light switch and the sudden burst of harsh light made them both jump. She turned in shock and Mulder found himself staring down into the face of a skinny, brown-eyed, brunette. "Agent Mulder?" She asked tentatively after a reassuring deep breath. "Who the Hell are you?" Mulder demanded by way of an answer. "Amanda Davidson." She replied, getting her composure back way before he did. "I believe my husband started this mess by giving you our research notes and a silver pyramid." Mulder closed his mouth and tried to get a handle on the situation. He shifted his feet, opened his mouth to say something, rubbed the bridge of his nose in a tired fashion, and closed his mouth again. This was to go on for some time in their conversation. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Mulder's Apartment 21.20 Skinner arrived back at Mulder's door with his takeaway dinner in a brown bag in his hand. It seemed only sensible to wait for Mulder in the relative comfort of the agent's apartment, as opposed to the cramped confines of his own car. He knocked once, but received no answer. So instead he pulled out his key-chain from his pocket, fixed to which was an attachment that had proven useful on several occasions. He stuck the pick into the lock and set to work with all the skill of a pro. Inside the apartment, the man in black had stopped his in-depth search when he heard the footsteps and the knock. He was already standing facing the door, alert and ready, while he waited to see if the person went away. When he heard the sound of something inserted into the lock, he pulled his .38 pistol and aimed it roughly at chest height in the direction of the door. Immediately a figure stepped up behind him and placed their own .38 against the back of his head. "Drop it now." A soft female voice murmured menacingly. "Do it." She reiterated when he failed to comply. He clicked the safety on and threw it away gently. "Now, on your knees." The woman ordered. He was moving to do it, when the door opened and the bulky figure of Skinner appeared, silhouetted in the light spilling in from the corridor. The MIB spun around and attempted to pull his assailant off balance but she was too fast. She kicked him to the ground before her with a well aimed foot and stood over him. The gun was aimed back at his head before he even had a chance to fully get a grip on what had happened. "What's going on here?" Skinner demanded as he flipped on the light switch. In the middle of the room the MIB was sprawled on his back and the figure of a short but deadly woman stood over him. "Scully!" Skinner stated in shock. "You're alive!" Scully smiled grimly over at him. "Just another one of the undead." She replied. ----------------------------------------- End of Answer I: Hi, This is Dana Scully Thanks for reading and I love getting feedback so please write if you liked it. Two words will do.. Coming very soon - Answer: Intermission 1 Answer II: Mulder, It's Me For a complete version of this story, it's sequels and any updates please visit my web page. Classified Writings http://www.hamadryad.com/Classified_Writings/