Subject: NEW: Ascendit (post Gethsemane) PG-13 1/7 From: DrSela@hotmail.com Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 06:41:04 -0600 ***please do NOT respond to the address above*** Title: Ascendit Authors: Birte Kalveram and Katharine Magnuson Rating: PG-13 (mild languange) Classification: T-Adventure Spoilers: Gethsemene, various from throughout the series Keywords: Summary: The sequel to Gethsemene...Mulder is NOT dead, they are coming a bit closer to the Truth (or are they?) and this is what we think is *really* going on. They're not gonna get together in this one and if you want to know more simply read it... ABOUT THE AUTHORS: The following story is written by Samantha and T'Sela, two victims of an all girls boarding school... does that say enough???!!! We are both mega lovers of fanfic, and this is a very early attempt at writing it ourselves. Anyway, it's a three day weekend and we desperately need something to do so we can procrastinate on our papers.... Somehow we did not manage to finish writing this over our weekend so we ended up completing it throughout summer vacation. The story just kinda took on a life of its own and kept growing. DISCLAIMER: The characters aren't ours, we just want to play with them a bit. They belong to Chris Carter, 1013 productions, et al. Only the ones you're never heard of before, those from the old lady to the lab tech (no NOT the read headed one...), those are ours. You're free to use them but it would be nice to send an E to either of us telling us about it. We just want to know where our toys are... WARNING: STRANGENESS AHEAD!!!!!!! Written under the influence of Coca Cola and Surge, this story is caffeine spawned. Also, apologies at the start if there are some z's where there should be y's. This is being written on a German laptop, and half the writing team doesn't know where the letters are. Also this story is being written while blasting "Songs in the Key of X" over the entire campground - so BEWARE!!! RATING: PG-13 for language. This is definitely not MSR because we wanted it to be as realistic as possible (as if X-Files and realistic would go together...) A little of Scully angst as well but let me assure you, it's gonna be fine in the end. SPOILERS: A big one for Gethsemane ( wasn't that to be expected...). Some general ones scattered throughout season 1 to 4... COMMENTS: Email any comments to leahd@geocities.com or katharinerose@hotmail.com . _______________________ Ascendit -- by Katie and Birte "Ouch!" Still half way asleep, Special Agent Fox Mulder sat up and rubbed his head. Hell, he still was not used to sleeping in a real bed with a headpiece. He yawned and stretched - or rather attempted to - he was rolled up in a blanket and couldn't move. He still couldn't understand why Scully had to lock him up in this tiny little room with only a table a chair and a bed AND NO COUCH. That meant he actually got enough sleep, for once in his life. So here he was, couch deprived and with no way of getting out of this room, except for flushing himself down the toilet in the adjacent bathroom, and considering the possibility of encountering Tooms once more, this didn't seem to be an option. But still there was one advantage of being dead. After a long discussion with Scully she finally had agreed to snatch his video collection from his apartment before it was officially closed and they had gotten him a new TV and VCR.... he thought, rubbing his injured head. He glanced at the VCR, hoping to discover the time, but it was blinking 12:00. He searched around for his watch. It wasn't on the table next to his bed, or on top of the TV, or piled with the clean clothes Scully had brought for him. Then it occurred to him. He was dead. All his personal effects, including his watch, were in some storage box in some corner of the morgue. It had not been fun trying to smuggle him out of there. Thankfully, someone had conveniently misplaced his body, and he had got a little help from a nice little red-headed lab tech. It had been even less fun being locked in a cold storage drawer for the entire day while Scully had given her report. And with only a body bag for warmth! He had been very glad to get out of there. He laughed at the thought of the people following them, Scully only now, trying to figure out why she was directing the moving company with the bed up here. Why couldn't it have been a couch? That would have been easier. But now the room, although much bigger than the morgue drawer, was feeling claustrophobic. He longed to open the window and let a little air in, but knew that was out of the question. Those people who were following Scully would be watching this place, too. After changing that blinking 12:00 on the VCR, he popped in a tape, with the mute on. No noise, no attention. No light either. Scully had stuffed the crack below the door with a towel. She had better get back here with the food, he thought. I might just starve to death. He laughed silently at his own joke, and settled back on the bed. * * * "I'm fine, thank you. I think I can handle the rest alone." "Are you sure? I mean, the last couple of days have been pretty tough for you and I thought you might need some more help." Skinner looked at Scully with concern. She however, had a hard time keeping an straight face. True, the last few days had been tough for her, but more in the way that she now had to do the work for two and in addition, had to feed that other person, too. She turned around and motioned him out of the office. "No, I really think, it is best if I do this alone. I also suspect I know my way around this office better than you do." She hoped he would interpret that slight quivering in her voice as a struggle to fight crying and not laughing. And he did. He silently turned around and walked out of the door. It looked like the incidents of the last few days had hit him pretty hard, too. He usually never left without complaining about something. And did she only imagine it or was there really a slight trace of guilt in his features? But what the heck. Internally she rejoiced. She finally had a desk of her own! However before she eventually could claim the desk she had to master the task of cleaning out the office and the desk itself. And that did not prove to be an easy one. She had to get rid of all his personal stuff, put it in a box and store it. Technically she was supposed to throw away as much as she could and send the rest to his mother. But she knew him well enough to know that he would kill her for that, if she really did it. She could probably go for the throwing away most of the stuff part without putting herself into life threatening danger, but she had to face the challenge of storing away the rest of it without any other members of the bureau noticing it. After spending almost three hours working herself through the piles on the floor, she finally reached the desk. For a short moment she played with the thought of leaving and continuing tomorrow, but then she looked at the tremendous amount of garbage piling in front of the door and she changed her mind. She would need help to haul away all this junk anyway and so she could finish cleaning out the entire office as well before she called for that help. She turned around to face what was probably the biggest challenge she had encountered during the course of the last two weeks - his desk. She took a deep breath, let out and enormous sigh and opened the first drawer. Or rather attempted to open it - it was stuck. she thought as she took a closer look. After she dug through the unidentifiable mess of paper on his desk, she pulled out several file folders, full and empty , a stack of computer disks, an empty coffee cup with an interesting collection of rare species of molds in it and several pens that were still writing. Somewhere in the middle of the stack she also found his laptop. Batteries dead. After placing these newly discovered treasures on the chair, she grabbed a broom and swept the rest off the desk with one determined stroke. Now to the drawers. Not much to her surprise, those drawers had an odd resemblance to his fridge. After saving the long missed pair of handcuffs, she simply pulled out one drawer after another and dumped the contents on the growing stack of garbage in front of the door. A mixture of petrified pretzels, Big Mac wrappers and a bag of melted gummi bears that had an odd resemblance to green clone blood made up the peak of the stack. Under that was the assortment of odd papers, pictures, magazines that had obviously come from the Lone Gunmen, and at the bottom, an old Playboy. <1990's Playmates of the Year? Mulder, have you ever cleaned your desk?> Everything was liberally seasoned with sunflower seeds and empty shells, of course. Finally! She looked at her watch and realized that it was way after midnight. With a sigh of resignation, she grabbed her laptop and squeezed herself past the growing mountain. * * * Back home in her apartment, she dug through her drawers to find something eatable that was not too healthy. She played with the thought of going to Burger King once more, but that would probably raise suspicions since she did not eat that stuff. She finally pulled out a bag of carrots, several slices of wheat bread and a box with leftover macaroni and cheese from yesterday's dinner. On the way to her car she remembered she also needed to get something to drink, so she made a quick stop at Safeway. Pick up some root beer, she thought, that's not too healthy. And some sunflower seeds. To appease the dead man. * * * The phone in Mulder's apartment rang. The answering machine clicked on. "Hi, I'm not here. Leave a message. And no, Frohike, you can't have Scully's number." After the beep, a woman's voice said, "Fox, if you're there, please pick up the phone. I'm worried about you. Call me, soon." Mrs. Mulder hung up her phone. She hadn't heard from her son for a few weeks now. Lord knows she had tried. She needed to talk to him. She had things to tell him. She had wanted to tell him for a long time now, but she hadn't been able to. She couldn't say anything to him when he had asked. She thought they were watching her. When the danger had passed she tried to contact him, but he had left for the Canadian Rockies. He was supposed to be back four days ago. She hadn't been able to contact his partner Dana either. It seemed they had both disappeared off the planet. She tried their office again, but got the voice mail. An answering machine greeted her at Dana's apartment, and Fox's cell phone seemed to be either out of batteries or broken. She tried the last option. She dialed the number, a number that was written no where, and when it was answered, she asked the voice on the other end, "Where's my son?" "Hello, Mrs. Mulder," said the man on the other end, between puffs of his Morley cigarette. "No one has told you then?" "No one has told me what?" "Agent Mulder killed himself. I'm terribly sorry to have to be the one to tell you." "You're lying. Fox would never do that!" "I wouldn't lie to you, Mrs. Mulder. His death is a great loss to all of us." The phone went dead in Mulder's mother's hand. * * * Scully looked at her watch. 1:15 AM. She was on her way out of the Safeway with the groceries when she realized she had left her cell phone at home. She unlocked the door to her apartment, and looked around for her phone. She found it sitting next to the answering machine and saw the little red light blinking at her. She pushed the play button, and heard the concerned voice of Mulder's mother. "Dana, where's Fox? I haven't been able to find him, and I'm getting worried. Please call me and let me know if he's alright." she thought. They hadn't taken into account Mulder's mother. She ran out of the house, grabbing the cell phone as she went, hopped into her Crown Victoria, and sped to Mulder. * * * ----------- Totally perplexed, Mulder stared at the neat stack of paper in his hands. He closed his eyes, shook his head and stared again. Then he plopped back onto his bed and stared at the ceiling as if the answers to all the questions in the universe were hidden in there. It simply couldn't be true. Were they playing a bad trick on him? But they would never do that. They were way too paranoid to risk coming to his 'apartment' without an important cause. And this actually sounded like something Scully would do. She would not want to rely on what others had told her. She needed evidence. She needed the assurance to have it seen with her own eyes. She needed it to be proved by her science. And even though this attitude had changed quite a bit during the course of the year this sounded like something she would do. It actually made it more plausible. She had become more open to his theories, theories that could not always been proven scientifically. Still, she had to rationalize everything. He smiled as a thought occurred to him. Three years ago she would have probably made sure he was locked up under professional psychiatric care if he had told her about the theories she was now investigating. She had changed. But they did not know that. That was why she still could play the skeptic. That was why they were able to fool them. Completely. He stretched and laid back onto his pillow. It was just awesome how they had fooled everybody. They had formed a conspiracy against a conspiracy. True, it was only a small one compared to the one in their government. They were only five people, but they were powerful. Powerful because they were so small that they could be absolutely sure there were no leaks and nobody suspected anything. It was entirely plausible that Scully would not believe in his theories of the alien corpse being real. It appeared accurate that she would be full of contempt for him and his proposals, that she wanted to distance herself from him. That she would not want to be held responsible for 'Spooky' Mulder's theories. But how wrong they were! It was true that Scully did not believe in the alien being real until it could be proven differently. He had begun to show doubts himself. There was too much at stake to blindly believe. But one thing was for sure, real or not, the alien had been a tool to split him and Scully apart. They had used it to create a cleft between the two agents, to put them against each other because they had gotten too dangerous. Maybe they were closer to the truth than they had thought. Conventional methods such as closing down the X-Files, killing off their families and themselves had not worked so they had started this desperate attempt. And to the outside it seemed as if it had worked. If they only knew... Content with himself and the world Mulder shifted and drifted off into a light slumber. But not for long. He jerked into an upright position. If all this was true, and he was pretty damned sure it was, then there was no doubt that Scully was up there in the Canadian Rockies - alone - putting herself in danger. Well, she wasn't really alone. Frohike was with her. But that did not make it less dangerous for her. Frohike was a nice fellow and extremely smart but he had no sense of defending himself in any situation. What if the killer that shot Arlinsky and Babcock came back right now? Well, that was not very likely, Mulder was dead and with him the threat to discover the truth. But what if... a shiver went down his spine ... what if her cancer got worse - hell it already was metastisizing - and she was up there without any help, bleeding to death? He violently shook his head, trying to clear it of there thoughts. He forced himself to think of something else. * * * Deep down in the Lone Gunmen's office, one third of them snapped at the remaining one: "It's about time!" Langley went to work to adjust the satellite dish while Byers consecutively entered five passwords into the computer. He was in the process of wildly clicking on icons and entering commands when a voice was heard from the other end of the room. "Shit." 'What's wrong?" He looked slightly perplexed. "The dish is stuck. Automatic control doesn't work." "Guess you have to go climbing again....." "Grrrrrrrrrrmmmblll...." Langley turned to the door, mentally preparing for the challenge of climbing up to the top of the roof. In bright daylight nevertheless. What if somebody saw him and wondered what he was doing? * * * Scully sat on a boulder in some distance from Frohike and watched him in amazement as he did the last fine-adjusting of the satellite dish and antenna. What in the world did he need all this junk for? She shook her head and watched as he switched the laptop on that was sitting on a small rock he had cleared of snow. He typed in a few commands and a high-pitched beep sounded through the tops of the mountains. He typed in some more commands, his hands moving faster than her eyes could follow. The beeping ceased and the snow on the screen slowly formed into an image of Langley, his blond hair sticking out in every direction. "What happened?" she typed after she had moved close enough to reach the computer. "Use the mike," came the answer back through the speakers. Meanwhile Frohike unpacked a video camera, connected it to the computer with a seemingly endless cord and walked into the cave once more. "What is he doing?" asked Scully, more than slightly confused. "You'll see," came the only answer. "Now, turn a little to your right, a little further down - freeze, that's perfect! Now, give me a close up of that wall there, closer please. Now get that crack there. And that edge over there on the right." Obviously he was talking to Frohike now and she started to figure out what they had planned. "Scully," his voice ripped her out of her thoughts, "someone has been trying to contact your cell phone for quite a while now. Wanna talk to him?" "Er, sure. How's that possible?" "We'll log onto your phone and transmit the conversation through our network." "But how are you getting through? I mean, aren't those phones supposed to be secured against a third party listening?" "You'd better not ask." "OK then, put him through!" Scully sighed and moved closer to the mike. "Scully." "Agent Scully, this is Agent Wagner from Boston. I've been trying to contact you for quite a while now. Did you miss your flight?" Oh god, those people from Boston. She had completely forgotten about them and now it looked like the situation was getting somewhat out of hand. She was sitting up here in the freezing cold on a peak of the Canadian Rockies and was talking to some agent in Boston. "Excuse me? I was not supposed to arrive there until tomorrow. Did anything go wrong?" 'No, we were just told you would arrive today. Any problems? I mean, you did not pick up your phone for a long time." She looked at her watch. 8:15 p.m. "No, I er, was just taking a shower. It's alright. Let's not make a big fuss out of this. I'll be there and we'll forget about this misunderstanding." She hung up. Hopefully he had gotten the message. She nodded at Frohike who had once again emerged from the cave and he began to disassemble the equipment and pack it away. At least it had been good for something. She did not want to imagine what would have happened if she had not answered her phone. He would have probably called Skinner and endangered their entire mission. Not that she did not trust Skinner, she knew he was on their side. But she also knew that he was more involved in everything than she wanted him to be. It was not his choice, she suspected there was more going on. She had heard about his behavior while she lay in the hospital, being treated for her cancer. She just knew there was always the possibility that he let something slip under great pressure. She had anticipated that those people from Boston would have called the airline first to check the flight information, but obviously this Agent Wagner was not the brightest of all. No wonder he needed help. * * * Agent Scully sighed and curled up in her seat, using her trench-coat as a blanket. To hell with it, should it get wrinkled, she did not care. This flight was not very long, but she needed all the rest she could get. After all, she'd had a long night. After they had arrived in D.C. Frohike had driven her to a small lab were she dropped off the ice sample to be analyzed. The one and only technician was still at work. Then they had stopped at the Lone Gunmen's. They had already gotten a geologist on the act. She was working on the data they had gotten by filming the cave - over the net. Apparently the Lone Gunmen had connections everywhere. Literally and figuratively. Finally home she had taken a shower, this time for real, and repacked her suitcase. And then it had already been about time to catch her 8:00 a.m. flight. * * * Mulder was woken up by a strange noise - his stomach growled. He rolled over and and tried to fall back asleep. If he had the choice between some leftover carrots that weren't even cooked and semi-hard wheat bread, he'd rather starve. Especially since he had already gone through the entire bag of sunflower seeds. The evidence was spread over the entire floor. Then he faintly remembered seeing a brown paper bag the last time he had been awake. he though as he jumped out of bed and headed for the desk. There it was. He opened the bag impatiently and turned away in disappointment and disgust. Scully had given the Lone Gunmen orders, that was for sure. And they'd followed them better than she herself had ever done. He held the bag upside down and dumped its contents on the desk. Whole wheat bread. Low fat cream cheese. Bright red apples. Some bananas. Concentrated OJ - they even made him work! A prepackaged salad. And as a snack granola bars. No extra gram of sugar or caffeine. With a sigh of resignation he plopped himself on the chair. Hopefully that case in Boston wouldn't take too long. This was more healthy food than he could stand. * * * "Hello, I'm Rick Wagner, from the Boston department" said the older agent, extending his hand. "You must be Agent Scully." Scully didn't respond, just gave him a blank look. "We spoke on the phone last night?" "Oh, right." Scully was searching through her coat for her baggage check tags, before realizing she hadn't checked any luggage. "I'm sorry, you'll have to excuse me. I spent last night studying the case file, and didn't get much sleep" By the time Agent Wagner had greeted her at the airport terminal, Scully had a good guess as to the cause of the recent string of odd deaths in Boston. After going over the file on the long plane ride from Alberta, Canada to Washington, D.C., she had been pleased to realize that she wouldn't have to spend much time in Boston. The case was mundane in comparison to the majority of the X-Files she had investigated with Mulder over the years. In two weeks three women and two men had been found dead in their homes in wealthy neighborhoods. The cause of death listed on the autopsy reports was heart failure, which would not be considered odd if not for the fact that these five had all been young, health conscious, athletic, and with no prior history of heart disease. Odd as that seemed, it wasn't quite bizarre enough to be considered an X-File. The classification had been given to these deaths because each victim had been found with multiple bite wounds and in close proximity to the dead body of his or her dog. From the coroner's reports, it seemed the bites were pre-mortem, but that the humans had died before the canines. * * * Mrs. Mulder looked at her watch and stepped on the accelerator. It wasn't that she did not have enough time, it was for sure that he wouldn't be home yet. Still, she wanted to be prepared for everything, you never knew what happened. She had to be there at all expense. She parked her car in one of the parking lots to the side of the apartment building and entered the elevator. When the doors opened again she stepped outside and sat down on the stairway leading to his apartment door. She had to wait a long time but she also had a lot to think about. The longer she was thinking the more infuriated she got. All her worry about Fox's disappearance and the thus resulting consequences began to turn into anger against the man she had known for such a long time now. This was not the way it was supposed to happen. This was not even the way she had ever imagined it happening. Unlike that past September night he had not asked her. He had not even bothered to tell her. He had simply taken her son away from her. And she had thought it had been long over. By the time she heard the elevator doors open her decision was standing. He was going to pay for it. * * * When she watched him take off his tie and loosen his collar a wave of nostalgia overcame her. She struggled to toss it aside as if nothing happened, she had business to take care of. When their eyes met she did not turn away, she continued to stare at him, anger and frustration in her eyes. It had not been easy for her to gain admittance to his apartment but she finally had succeeded. He had no other choice to get rid of her. He returned her gaze. "I've been telling you for the twentieth time now that I'm telling you the truth. Why don't you believe me?" "His body wasn't even returned to me. I want proof!" "I can't give you this proof. You have to go the official way if you want it like that." She suddenly had lost all the urge to fight him. She glared at him once more and then turned away. She would uncover the truth and then get him. His thoughts obviously already trailing off, he let his eyes search through the living room, scanning for a small red and white box. * * * "His body has been *what*?" "I'm telling you again, it has been misplaced. I know that sounds awkward but that's the way it happened." "How can you misplace a body? I thought this was the FBI here..." Skinner thought as he desperately searched for a way to explain to Mrs. Mulder that her son's body really had somehow disappeared from the morgue. Nothing spectacular had happened and no security systems were alerted. It had just been missing by the time they wanted to start the autopsy. Not that they had really needed an autopsy, it was more than clear from what he had died, but someone had wanted to make sure. "I am terribly sorry, I can't explain it. Seems to me that something like that could never happen. However, here are some pictures and the preliminary reports, That should be more than enough to convince you." Skinner handed her some file folders. Mrs. Mulder opened the first folder and swayed a little before she sad down in one of his black chairs that were always standing in front of his desk. She touched one of the pictures and frightened at the thought that this was the final proof. He had been telling her the truth, here she had the proof, black on white. She skimmed through the reports and shrank a couple of inches in the chair. It was not the loss of her chance of revenge that was so devastating, it was the loss of her son. Now she could not hope for him to be returned again. She closed the folders and placed them slowly on the desk, she had seen enough. Skinner still could not believe that Mulder's body had disappeared into thin air. The only explanation he could think of was that this still was the department of the X-Files, nothing that happened here was explainable. Maybe they had taken his body and they were now debating over the issue whether he was real or not. * * * By the time she reached the third "crime scene," Scully was about ready to fall down dead herself. But she had figured out what had killed those people and their dogs. The scene at this apartment was similar to all the others. The owner, a young man, had been found on his kitchen floor. There was a small amount of blood on the linoleum, and dog food scattered about. And tipped over against the island in the center of the kitchen was a bag of "Doggy Delights" dog food. From the amount of kibble still in the bag, it was apparent that the bag was new. "Agent Wagner," Scully said as they climbed into his blue Chevy Lumina, "I think I know what caused those deaths." "Please, go on." "I believe these deaths were caused by contact with the dog food. I'm sure this will be proven with a few lab tests. I picked up a few pieces at the last home, and would like to get them tested." Scully handed him a small evidence baggy with a few little brown bits of dog food. "I'll take them to the lab. I think you may just be right. I'll drop you off at the hotel. You should get some sleep. You look like death warmed over." "Actually, if I could go to the lab with you, I'll wait around for the results, and if I'm correct, I'd like to catch the next flight back to Washington." The lab worked fast. *Obviously they aren't as busy here as in D.C.,* Scully thought as she drank her coffee. It tasted like it was left over from the Civil war, but it was caffeinated. She was going over the lab results. It seemed she was correct. Agent Wagner was on his way. He had gone back to the "crime scenes" to pick up kibble from each to be tested, and had been called when the lab results had returned. Wagner opened in the door just as Scully had approached it to leave and find the little girls' room. When the door swung open, it had hit Scully directly in the face. "I'm terribly sorry, Agent Scully! Are you all right?" Scully grabbed hold of the counter for balance until the dizzy spell went away. "I'm fine. If this is the extent of injury I encounter on this case, I'm doing well," she said with a weak smile. She sat down and motioned for Agent Wagner to do the same. "It seems I'm correct. Mixed in with the dog food is a combination of substances know to cause heart failure in people, but which is quite harmless to dogs. It was blended in such a way that it could be absorbed through the skin with the addition of moisture. "But what caused the dogs to bite their owners and the die themselves?" "The bite marks are rather simple to figure out. The dogs were all very loyal companions to these people, according to friends and family. The dogs were trying to move the victims, leaving bite marks. The cause of the dogs' deaths were more difficult to determine, especially since I'm not a veterinarian, but another compound was found in the kibble. Strychnine. You'll have to contact a Vet to be certain, but I think those dogs died of strychnine poisoning." "Agent Scully, I think you may be correct, again." "Agent Wagner, I think your department can handle it from here. I'll be heading back to D.C." "I hope you don't plan on working the weekend. You look like you need a day off." "Thank you, but I'm afraid I have some things I have to do. Could you give me a lift to the airport? I think my bags are still in your car." * * * Scully dug through her kitchen drawers in search for coffee. There had to be something left somewhere. It was about ten o'clock at night and she was about to collapse and fall asleep any moment now. But she couldn't, she had way too much to do. First she needed to get some food to Mulder, the Lone Gunmen had left her a message telling her that they hadn't been able to look after him that day and would do that later on in the early morning. They had left him with enough supplies. But knowing the kinds of supplies they had provided him with, she knew they weren't enough. Then she needed to type up the official report to hand it in to Skinner the next day so she could continue working on her old assignment. Then she had to unpack and reorganize her things so she would be ready for whatever challenge she would encounter during the next couple of days. She sighed as she opened one empty cupboard after another - nothing eatable left in there. Her kitchen was turning more and more like Mulder's, which was a pretty scary thought. She finally gave up, splashed some cold water into her face and sped to the nearest Safeway - once again. She was not feeling very well and after picking up some Advil she wandered through the aisles in a stage of pity for him, herself and the rest of the world. When she finally came across the cereal aisle, her basket still almost empty, she decided to do him a favor and surprise him. She grabbed two enormous boxes of Lucky Charms and headed for the dairy products. She picked up some milk, chocolate pudding, Jell'o and finally decided for some more chocolate milk as well. Then she proceeded to pick up some muffins, oreos, Coke and stocked up on instant coffee. * * * Mulder was in a bad mood. The Lone Gunmen hadn't come to bring him food today, he did not know what was happening, he needed to talk to someone - half sentences were still better than nothing - and he had even lost interest in his videos. When he heard a noise at the door he was almost about to bark at them for being so late when he found himself staring at Scully who was carrying three overstuffed grocery bags. He couldn't help but smile. His smile even grew when he stuck his nose in one of the bags and he glanced at Scully in disbelief. Meanwhile she sat down on the bed and watched him as he eagerly unpacked the remaining two bags. With a boyish smile he ripped open one of the boxes of Lucky Charms and filled a large bowl with its contents. Then he poured the milk over it. He stuck a huge spoonful into his mouth and closed his eyes. When he opened them again he looked at Scully. "Thank you. That's been so nice of you." He was almost speechless. "Is there anything I can do for you?" "Well, you could make us some coffee," answered Scully, barely able to keep her eyes open now. When Mulder turned around a few minutes later, two cups of hot, steaming coffee in his hands, another smile stole its way onto his face. Scully was curled up on his bed, her red hair spread all over his pillow, her chest rising and falling slowly. He set the cups back onto the desk and draped the blanket over her. Then he turned around again to so sit down at the desk and to take care of his food. He was careful not to crunch too loud. * * * Three hours later, Mulder looked up from the files he had just finished reading and rubbed his eyes. The Lone Gunmen had given him interesting stuff, but this time nothing was of great value for him. It was all speculation. What he needed were the lab reports from the piece of ice they had gotten from the cave and the geologists answers to the pictures they had taken. He stood up and looked at Scully who was still sound asleep on his bed. He briefly played with the thought of waking her up and telling her to go home but he dismissed it quickly. Going back to sleep was probably the last thing she would do once she woke up. She just had too much to do. He wished he could help her, but that was impossible right now. He was stuck here in the attic, depending on Scully and the Lone Gunmen and could't do much more than reading through all the stuff they gave him and trying to come up with possible theories and solutions to those. The only thing he could do now was to let her sleep and get at least some rest. He knew she would be mad at him but he was concerned about her health. She was more that just exhausted and with her cancer she should really take care of herself rather than running around trying to solve one mystery after another. But he knew she would never give up her search for the Truth and a way to save him. He decided to let her sleep some more. Two hours later Mulder sat down on the edge of his bed and gently shook Scully. "Hey Scully, it's time to wake up!" She squinted and shook her head, unsure about her whereabouts. Then it occurred to her that she had brought Mulder something to eat and then had fallen asleep on his bed. "Hey, don't fall asleep again! Are you alright?" "I'm fine, Mulder. What time is it?" He stood up and turned away. If there had been the possibility of jumping out of the window right now he would have taken that chance. "Oh, about four a.m." "What?! How am I supposed to do all my work now? I have to be in my office in four hours." She grabbed her coat and turned to go. "Hey wait! Relax. Nothing is going to happen if you are a little late this morning. And I know you can do your work in four hours. It just has to be a little less than perfect this time. When was the last time you had something to eat?" "Er, I don't know. Probably on the airplane, why?" "Because you need something to eat. Here." He filled an enormous bowl with Lucky Charms and handed it to her. "You're free to go after you eat this." Scully sighed in resignation and grabbed the spoon. After all she was hungry and this stuff actually didn't taste too bad. * * * Scully rang the doorbell and waited for the Lone Gunmen to open the door. She rang again. Were they even too paranoid to open the door in daylight now? Well, at least she knew they were here, they lived in the same building as their office was. Probably too paranoid to go out on the street that often. Well, maybe they did't even have a life besides computers, who knew - however, considering that geologist... Finally Langley opened the door and motioned her in. He looked like he hadn't gotten very much sleep either. Byers was busy at the computer, he looked like he was enjoying himself in a chatroom. Well, not quite. He was obviously enjoying himself, but he was talking to that geologist again, hacking on the keyboard and looking at pictures on the screen. "Have a seat and look at this. We got some interesting results." Langley pointed to a chair and quickly removed a stack of the newest issue of "The Lone Gunmen" from it. "Very interesting," added the ever neat Byers. "Of course we need some more radification, therefore more tests are necessary, but the results are pretty clear." "So what's the point?" Scully found herself growing impatient. "According to the latest results you should be in for some interesting twists. Come on, I'll drive you to the lab so we can pick up the results." Even Byers wouldn't tell more. These would be some really interesting twists. Byers held open the door on the passenger side for Scully as she started to complain. "Why do you have to drive me? I'm fully capable of driving myself." Apparently not, at least not the Lone Gunmen. "Shhhh, we can't risk anybody overhearing the directions to the lab, we want to keep them safe. You remembered what happened last time, don't you? Besides I'm curious about about the results as well, and so are the others." Scully calmed down a little and relaxed. And if even the Lone Gunmen were curious she was really up to something. * * * Finally after a long exhausting drive through morning rush hour traffic they reached the lab. After Byers had punched in a long number into a pad next to the door they entered and were greeted by a young technician in a white lab coat. He looked like he hadn't closed his eyes once the past night. Still it was amazing he had finished the analysis already. He turned around, his lab%20coat flying after him and lead them into the innermost part of the lab. Except for the desk, which was overflowing with loose papers and folders and seemingly endless computer print outs with meaningless combinations of numbers, the lab was clean and organized. It was a pleasure to look at. It even looked more organized than her apartment right now. Before they entered however, he stopped at a small table with an humongous coffee pot which was even bigger than the one they had used in the VC's canteen area and poured himself a huge cup. Scully eyed the pot in desire. By now she felt like she could hardly stand on her feet much longer. She eyed again. Obviously the technician seemed to be much better at picking up a person's feelings than either of the Lone Gunmen because he continued to pour her a mug of coffee that seemed about half as big as the coffee pot. Did they even make mugs like that? He looked at her questioningly. "Just sugar, please. A lot." A little sugar in addition to the caffeine could not be of any disadvantage right now. She needed to stay awake, that was all that counted. He handed her the cup and she took a huge sip. She instantly felt better now. On with the work. Once they all were in the lab the technician started to talk. "I don't know what this is, I don't know why you gave it to me to analyze and I don't know what these results will mean to you. And trust me, I don't even want to know. I suspect you have your reasons for this and it is pretty important, I've known you guys for a while and you're probably trying to save my life by not telling me anything about this." Byers smiled. "I don't know why you wanted this done in one night but you're likely to have your reasons so I did it. And even if I don't know what's going on the results are amazing. But let's go through this in some sort of order. First you asked me to analyze the ice core you took with respect to age. What I found out is that this is a bad imitation of fifty year old ice. The air inclusions could be dated back almost exactly fifty years according to the partial pressure of carbon dioxide, helium and other trace gases. However, on a closer look, the molecule count of some of the other trace gases of other inclusions like ash or pollen are off. Some are entirely missing and some are at the same percentage as they are today. Besides, the changes between the different parts of the ice core occur in intervals and not as a smooth change." Scully shook her head to keep her mind clear. So far everything spoke for the alien corpse to be fake. "This is a very interesting finding, but not quite as interesting as some of the other facts I discovered. You asked me to carbon date the cells found in the ice, providing there were cells to be found. Well, I found cells, at least something I considered to be cells since it was nothing I had ever encountered before...taking into consideration that the presence of chloroplasts in mammal cells is not usually something we learn about in our biology classes. There were other differences as well, such as inclusions and granules containing unidentifiable compounds and an LPS layer on the outside of the cell membrane that is usually only found in bacteria. But I won't go deeper into this, simply because it is not of that much importance for your purpose right now and I can't quite comprehend it anyways." Scully smiled thankfully. She was a M.D. after all but in her state of mind right now everything beyond the basics simply went by a little too fast. The technician took a deep breath and continued. "Let's backtrack to where we originally came from. What I found were not only single cells, but rather an abundance of them, ever a large number of cell clusters which proved to be quite helpful in my further investigation. The carbon dating proved the cells to be no older than six months, probably less than that. However, with my new equipment I managed to discover even more. According to cell structure and the percentage of other compounds present in the cell, the cells seemed to have grown in a steady but stepwise fashion, nonetheless under stable environmental conditions, which are only found in a lab environment. This leaves no other conclusion than the indication that these cells, or the being they belonged to had been cloned and grown in a lab on petri dishes. Although it seems likely that the original cell has once belonged to a living being, although I could not imagine what kind of being, I'm simply stating the facts here, non of them seemed specialized in a different way than the others, indicating that the being they came from was definitely not alive. From what I have found out..." Here he let his gaze shift from Scully to Byers and back, "...it seems to me that this is a rather intelligent plan to fake the presence of non terrestrial beings on earth. It was covered well, but it seems that is was designed to be recognizable as a fake under closer examination. It is all doable with the help of today's state of the art technology except for one thing - the cells themselves. There is now way I know of, and trust me I know my way around well in this branch of science, designing this kind of cell so it can live and divide. I'm lost with that one." He handed each Scully and Byers a folder and continued, "I don't know at all why you had me investigate this and what purpose the the results will have but I do ask you to let me know what happened when everything is over and you feel you no longer put me in any more danger than I already am by doing so." Byers shot him a look. "Of course I will destroy or cover up any evidence and will totally forget about anything I've ever done and heard until you return." He smiled, obviously he knew those fellows well. Now Byers smiled as well. On their way out he opened his mouth for the first time. "Thanks a lot, you don't know of how much importance this is for us. Now go ahead and get some sleep before you do anything else because we might need you again sometime soon..." When Scully shook hands with the technician her mind was already somewhere else. This was incredible, she hadn't expected so much reliable information and these new discoveries certainly changed the perspective of looking at things. * * * When they were on their way to the next stop, the geologist, Scully had the feeling as if she was stuck in a jar of molasses. They were still stuck in between thousands of early morning commuters and a slug would have moved faster than their car. They were loaded with a lot of new discoveries and were about to learn about a lot more but non of it seemed to make sense right now. Besides, her mind seemed to have itself shut down for the moment because she simply could not focus on anything and she could not even think straight. Sound waves obviously traveled slowly through the molasses, too, since Byers already was half way through his statement when she noticed that he was talking to her. "Sorry, what did you say again?" "In short, I said that we are almost there and from what I've heard from her over the net we're up to some more interesting discoveries." He pointed to a small piece of paper that was permanently taped next to the controls of the car. It said in big black letters: "Not In The Car!!!" So much for paranoia, but in this case it might be even true. This seemed to be of so great importance that some people apparently seemed to use all means to get what they wanted. Scully nodded and they remained silent for the rest of the drive. Eventually they pulled in front of a small townhouse with an organized and weeded front yard. Byers exited the car and straightened his jacket before he opened Scully's door once again. They ascended a couple of steps to the front door and he rang the bell. A small woman with blond curls answered the door and welcomed them warmly. From the corner of her eye, Scully suddenly noticed a movement in a window across the street, but when she turned around she could only see the curtains swinging back and forth slightly. Curious neighbors or spies? She decided to bring the young woman's attention to it. "Yes, since these new neighbors moved in, an old couple, I never felt completely alone. But I guess that comes with age, they're just a little curious and have nothing better to do." She winked and smiled. Obviously she knew better. Once they closed the door Martha, as she had introduced herself to them, seemed to relax a little. They continued to make small talk, complained about the weather and how tired everybody was. Although Martha did not look tired at all, considering that she most likely had pulled an all nighter as well, but the right makeup did wonders. Byers, in the meantime, roamed around the house with all sorts of technological equipment, scanning for bugs. After while he seemed satisfied and proceeded to open his briefcase, which contained an installment various instruments, he pressed a small button which was lableed with a spray can and started to talk: "Too bad bug lotion doesn't work in these cases..." Martha chuckled and changed from one second to another from the chatting young lady to a competent scientist. She let the two others into a a big room, once probably designed to be the master bedroom of the house which was stuffed with computers, geological measuring devices, stacks of paper and a nearly infinite number of various rocks in all sizes. Obviously this woman wasn't what she pretended to be. She typed in a password to inactivate the screen saver and pointed to the pictures and equations on the screen. "As you can see, I worked on this until the last minute. In contrary to what I usually get from you, however, I can only say that there's not much unusual and unexplainable going on here. Still, in the short time I've come to know you, I've learned a whole lot about the way you work and from the fact that you made so much fuss about this I've come to the conclusion that it is probably this usualness that is the unexplainable here." Scully sat down on the chair in front of the desk and tried to concentrate on the explanations. It felt like the coffee had hardly done anything and by now she was beginning to be thankful that Mulder had made her sleep at least a little bit. "If you look at these cracks, your first suspicion might be that they were caused artificially, by something that crashed from the sky a long time ago. However, after a closer look it becomes apparent that these cracks are a natural formation, over the course of the years the ground shifted a bit and when the tension in these walls became too great, they just cracked. Sorry, no alien spacecraft for you guys this time. Still I discovered something interesting. When you look at these small lines in this wall of ice, you can see that those were caused very recently and by an unnatural cause. In fact they indicate that this entire part of the wall was poured in about half a year ago, this is new ice without any enclosed pieces of rock or anything." Byers stood up. "Thank you very much, we appreciate your help a lot. These findings bring us a great deal further in our investigation. But right now we have to go because we are really out of time. We'll let you know if something else comes up." With these words he was out of the door, dragging a very confused Scully with him. Martha watched them go and looked no less confused. Outside Scully leaned against the car and sighed. "Well, at least this confirms what we already know about the ice itself and the cells found in it. It's a fake. I'm beginning to think of a theory of what could have happened and it fits in with everything else we know, but I can still make no sense of the nature of those cells. We'll have to wait and see what Mulder thinks. * * * "Come in," barked Skinner after Angela had announced that Agent Scully was finally there. One look at her, though, and he instantly regretted it. She was a little late, but she looked like she hadn't slept in days. She had probably spent the entire night writing the report for her Boston case just so that she could continue to work on her old case. He had never bought it that she didn't think this was an X-File, and even if she didn't it was still the key to finding out what happened to Mulder. He knew she had had her reasons for dropping the file, ever if he had no idea what. He knew for sure though that it wasn't that she wanted to get away from it, that wasn't her way of dealing with things. She probably needed to go to Boston without anybody knowing why or someone was after her and she needed to get out of D.C. He didn't want to ask, though, because the less he knew the less danger he would be for any of them. When she handed him the file he glared at her silently and placed it on his desk without even opening it. Trying to maintain his posture he told her: "Get out of here, I believe you have work to do. I don't want you to fall behind any further on your current case." Personally he wanted to tell her to go home and rest, but he knew that she did not want to be treated differently and he also knew that she also was the only one who could bring some order into this mess, with his hands tied he couldn't do very much besides being supportive and watching her back. This was also the reason why he didn't assign her another agent to work with in the X-Files. Right now he could trust no one in the FBI. * * * On the way back down to the basement Scully tried to find the reason for Skinner's strange behavior. He seemed like he knew exactly what she had had in mind and wanted to help her as much as possible. More and more she got the feeling that he wasn't actively involved in this and that he wasn't responsible for some of his actions. She knew the time would come when he would tell her, when there was no more danger for them to do so. Right now the only thing she could do was to try and involve him as little as possible. Considering that he wanted to help by all means would prove this very difficult, though. What she needed to do now was to get these new discoveries to Mulder as soon as possible. He was the only one with a mind open enough to think of theories weird enough to explain the presence of those cells and to tie them in with the rest of the evidence. She grabbed her car keys and headed off to question one of the witnesses again, one she knew for sure wasn't home right now. * * * Mulder stared at Scully over the top of his reading glasses. "Looks like someone majorly screwed up this time and it ain't me." "So what's your theory about all this? And would you care to explain why you think someone screwed up and why it is so important?" Scully was getting really annoyed now. Mulder had this boyish 'finally gotcha' look on his face and acted like they had all the time of the world and she didn't even know what was going on. He looked at her and realized that her had gone a little to far now. He pointed to the chair which, for some odd reason, was standing right in the middle of the room and sat down on his bed. "O.K. let's see if we can put this all in some sort of order. If I can articulate myself, that is. From what I can see from these files here I looks like they tried to fool us but somehow they haven't been careful enough and let something slip. Then they tried to cover their slip up by destroying that alien corpse and removing all traces of it. They didn't succeed, though, but they don't know that. They have no clue that we regained hold of some of the alien cells and got them analyzed. So far it looks like the luck is on our side this time." "Our biggest advantage is you, though. They have no idea that you are still alive." Scully began to comprehend now. Mulder took his glasses off and rubbed his forehead. "What we have to do now is to be very careful. We can't let them know in any way that we have an advantage over them. They're still more powerful than we are but if we play our cards right we can outwit them this time. Come on, let's figure out a strategy." With these words he sat down on the floor and spread his collection of files and loose pieces of paper over the entire floor. * * * "What have you done? And you are telling me now?" The wads of smoke seemed to thicken with these words. "I........I thought it didn't matter since we destroyed the corpse and they didn't notice." The young man in the dark suit backed off. "Bad enough that you acted on your own to destroy it. I accepted, though, because it actually served my purpose of tearing Mulder and Scully further apart. But now I have to hear that it was just cover up for some mistake you made? And what a mistake, it could have threatened our entire project. It could have given them something to use against us instead of making him shoot himself. You are very lucky!" "But there was no way that we could have engineered alien like cells in the time span you wanted us to. We thought it would be enough to make it obvious that it was grown artificially. We were planning on destroying any evidence before they could run any further tests and that's precisely what we did." The Cigarette Smoking Man inhaled deeply and focused his eyes on the young man. "You are very lucky that your plan worked and Mulder is dead now. Otherwise you would be dead." Without another word he turned around and left. * * * "So you agree on setting up this 'special little X-File' for our smoking friend here?" "Sounds like an interesting plan to me. I have no doubts that he knows what's going on behind all this alien business but I'm pretty sure that your ghost speaking to him from the dead will leave him speechless." "All right, now comes my time to haunt him." Mulder grinned mischievously. "I don't know exactly what this will do for us, but it can never do any damage if he is a little shaken." "Here's the tape and this is his address. I knew that it was good for something that I didn't shoot him the last time I was there. Leave it to the Lone Gunmen to place the tape. He'll be up for some big surprises." * * * When he opened his apartment door to fetch his newspaper his gaze fell onto a small plastic case with a note attached to it. When he bent down to pick it up from his doormat he realized that it was a tape. When he opened the note a Tarot card slipped out of it and fell onto the floor. He read the note again and again. What was this business about spirits from the past? Leaving the newspaper in front of his door he walked back inside and popped the tape into his stereo. What the... At first he could only hear static but then he could make out a faint voice. This was not possible. It couldn't be. It had to be a fake. But then he knew this voice far too well, there was no mistake. This simply couldn't be happening, Mulder's spirit haunting him from the dead. And his voice sounded triumphant - but he had been depressed when he shot himself. What was that, he knew about everything now? He even gave a few examples. A shudder went down his spine. The tape had long gone dead when he was ripped out of his trance-like state by the smell of a burning filter. He dropped the butt in the ashtray and shook his head. He had absolutely no idea what to make out of this. * * * Scully hurried down to the basement. This morning she was on time although she hadn't gotten much sleep either. Three hours at the most. And she certainly didn't feel like she had gotten more. After having plugged in her laptop and hung up her coat she headed straight to the canteen. Caffeine, a lot of it, was the only thing now that would keep her awake. After she had poured the coffee into her cup she started adding sugar cubes. Two, three...whatever, let's just take what's left in here. She felt a little bit like the little kid with his hand in the cookie jar when she added that much sugar but she needed to keep her blood sugar level high. And since she didn't have time to eat, sugar was the only way to do it. When she put the cup down on her desk, neatly placing it on some file folders, she noticed that her mail sign was blinking again. Another one of these highly secret messages. From: ... To:DScully@FBI.us.gov Subject: Success is crucial now. :) ---------------------------------------------------------- Scully, I think he bought it. We got him! Fishing line is holding and he'll soon be on dry land. Got the info from an absolutely reliable contact. Can't say more now. Be happy, it won't be long now.... :-o -------------------==== Posted via Deja News ====----------------------- http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Post to Usenet From leahd@geocities.com Sat Oct 18 09:01:28 1997 Subject: NEW: Ascendit (post Gethsemane) PG-13 6/7 From: leahd@geocities.com Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 07:01:28 -0600 Scully leaned back in her chair and rejoiced. This was working better than she had thought it would. Soon they would be ready for phase two of their plan and then they would have caught him permanently. With his own bait. While she was contemplating the odds of her approaching victory her phone rang. She reached in her pocket and only as she answered her cell phone she realized that it was the phone on her desk that was ringing. She lifted the receiver and spoke for the second time: "Scully" "Agent Scully, I need to see you in my office. Now." Shocked Scully pulled the receiver away from her earlobe. He had no reason to bark at her. Especially in this volume. Then, however, he added: "I've got some information that might be helpful to you. It's best if you get it as soon as possible." "Sure. On my way, sir." She forced herself into a standing position and began walking toward the door. This time she took the elevator. Stairs only when she absolutely needed to. * * * Scully found herself slightly out of breath when she reached the door to Skinner's office. She blamed it on the lack of oxygen that was caused by sleep deprivation and continued walking through the open door into his secretary's room. "The Assistant Director is expecting you. Go on in," noted Angela. Scully tried to shake off the drowsiness and entered the office. Skinner nodded to her from behind his desk and motioned her to close the door. He began pacing restlessly behind his desk. "Agent Scully, I believe that we have discovered something that might most likely turn out to be a prominent lead in your case." Scully nodded and then suddenly touched her nose. When she moved her hand away she looked at the blood on her fingers. Then the world started spinning around her, faster and faster. She swayed and tried to find a fixed point with her eyes but she could only see everything through a grey haze. Skinner darted toward her from behind his desk but before he was even close to reaching her her legs failed and she dropped onto the floor. Skinner knelt down besides her and cursed himself for not having seen this come. It had been inevitable for some time now. "Scully, are you alright?" His voice was shaky with concern. Scully tried to speak but she couldn't create even the slightest hint of a sound. Then she tried to just move her lips but that did not work either. It was as if her the command center of her brain had suddenly been disconnected from her muscles, they were simply not responding. Only her eyes were still able to move and she turned them the direction she thought she could recognize his features. Then suddenly the floor seemed to disappear from underneath her and she was falling down a long dark tube. A seemingly bottomless tube. Skinner slightly elevated her head with his right hand and he looked at her. Her gaze had just slipped away from him, she was now staring at nothing particular at all. Then all of a sudden all her muscles relaxed. He could really feel the tension being released from her now. From his position on the floor he shouted at the top of his voice: "Angela, call 911! Now!" To hell with it if half of the Hoover building had heard him now. About half a minute later the door slammed open and Angela dashed into the room. "What happened?" Then her gaze fell onto the scene on the floor and her face went as white as the wall. "Jesus Christ!" She plopped down opposite of Skinner and in that position they waited for the paramedics to come. Skinner shifted a bit and held up Scully's head. "So she's at least not gonna suffocate here...all this blood." After what seemed to be an eternity four men, two of them carrying a stretcher, dashed into the room. "Well, we've been called to the FBI quite a lot, but it never happened to be in their own main building." The man's mouth twitched. Then he looked at his two colleagues working on the floor and his facial expression went serious. Skinner briefly updated him on what had happened. One of the men on the floor stated while working: "She's breathing, but shallowly. We've got to get her on oxygen!" Then they were out of the door and Skinner hastily followed after grabbing his cell phone. "Stand by Angela, I'll call later." * * * Byers paced back and forth and looked at his watch for the twentieth time in the last five minutes. "Why isn't she here yet? She's always on time." "Chill yourself. She'll be here in no time." Langley shook his head. It was unusual that Scully was late to one of their meetings but why this impatience. She would have her reasons and would arrive here eventually. Byers seemed to calm down. "She's probably on some investigation and hasn't found the time and chance to notify us yet." Yes, that would be the explanation. Langley went back to his task of organizing a stack of computer print outs. The data they had collected on the ice core. He skimmed a couple of the pages and found that this was more than enough to keep Mulder occupied for a while. Scully had now taken over the task of supplying Mulder with new information on the case and went to see him every night to bring him food for mind and body. Langley himself didn't really appreciate this too much. Of course Scully knew more about everything therefore she could keep him better informed but he always enjoyed talking to Mulder. It was always interesting to have even a little chat with someone whose ideas were weirder than his own. But he couldn't just pop in on his own initiative, that would be way too dangerous now. He had to wait until Scully notified them to take care of Mulder. He squeezed himself past Byers who was now sitting at his computer again and dug through the drawers in search for a file folder. How come they were always short of office supplies? * * * Mulder searched for his pillow in his sleep and when he couldn't find it he woke up. He rubbed his eyes and looked around. There it was. On the floor. What an obnoxious thing anyways. Couches didn't have pillows. In the process of placing his pillow on the spot where it belonged his gaze fell onto the display of the VCR. It was almost noon. He had slept in for a long time. But then he had stayed up until two to go over all the files Scully had brought him the night before and he had thought up ways to get on with their plan. By now everything seemed to run smoothly. He got up and searched through his paper bags. Almost no cereal left. Time for Scully to stock up on groceries again. He scarfed down two yoghurts and then grabbed some files and went back to work. There was still a lot of stuff to do. * * * Margaret Scully lurched out of the intensive care section and slowly moved towards the lobby in search for a phone. She had spent the entire night next to her daughter's bed after Skinner had notified her. "Mrs. Scully?" A figure in white approached her. "Yes." "I am sorry to tell you but there still hasn't been any improvement. She's still off life support and seems to be dealing fine with that but she has not regained consciousness yet." "Thanks." She wasn't sure if she could go through this again. Why her daughter? And this time she didn't even have anyone to turn to for support. Melissa was dead and so was Mulder now. And it seemed like her daughter was about to join them soon. She had spotted a pay phone and headed towards it to give Skinner an update of the news. Or rather the lack thereof. He had stayed with her for quite a while yesterday but then he had gone back to work. As he had said with two of his best agents gone he had more work than ever. He had promised though that he would do everything in his power to help her daughter. And he had even seemed pretty sure he could do something about it. She searched through her pockets for the business card he had given her yesterday and when she found it she picked up the receiver and started to dial. She was sure she could reach him for this was his cell phone number. * * * When Mulder was woken up by his growling stomach early the next morning he began to wonder where Scully had been. That night, after he had had two apples for dinner, he began to wonder why she hadn't notified the Lone Gunmen. She always did that when she couldn't come herself for some reason. And they always arrived sometime that day. The next day he seriously contemplated to have a file folder for dinner and began to worry. The morning thereafter he knew with certainty that something had gone wrong. Terribly wrong. Scully would never leave him that long without any notice. And neither would the Lone Gunmen. Either Cancerman had uncovered their actions and taken some precautions or, what was more likely, something had happened to Scully. He went pale. That had to be the reason. And the Lone Gunmen didn't know what had happened. He was pretty sure that they weren't the weak link in the chain. Nothing could happen that would force all three of them to retreat from the game. Scully. Mulder jumped out of bed and sprinted to the shower. He was going to find out what had happened. He was going to help Scully. To hell with their plan. It wouldn't be worth anything if something happened to her. It wouldn't work anyways if she wasn't there to help. And besides, he would starve to death here if nobody came to feed him. After a quick shower he dashed back into his room and searched for some clean clothes. Hmmmm, some jeans, a T-shirt, shoes, socks and lastly a grey sweater with a hood. At least no one would recognize him instantly if he was seen on the street. While he was running down the stairs he realized that he didn't have a car. Dead people didn't have cars. Dead people didn't have money either. He didn't have a single penny. There, the bus option was gone as well. Right at this point of his thought process he stepped outside and his gaze fell onto a row of bikes that were standing next to the apartment building. That was an idea. He systematically inspected every chain until he found one that looked promising. He yanked a couple of times and he had a mode of transportation. He did feel a little guilty but he promised to return the bike as soon as he had the opportunity. After all this was for a good cause. Soon he was on his way to the Lone Gunmen hideout and he realized that a bike wasn't the worst option to early morning traffic. He was going faster than most of the cars. Soon it started to rain a bit but he comforted himself with the thought that this would make it even harder for people to recognize him. * * * After a long exhausting ride he reached his destination and jumped off his bike. He didn't even wait to catch his breath but darted to the door and rang the bell. Then he leaned against the wall, for once to conceal himself from the people who might pass by as well as to rest a little. He waited impatiently. After a while the door opened and Langley stepped outside. He looked at the person who was standing in front of him and his jaw dropped to the floor. Then he shouted: "What in all the world are you doing here? You should be..." Mulder placed a finger on his lips and pushed himself past Langley. Once they were inside he started talking. "What do you think I should be doing? You let me starve. Did you think I would sit there and wait until I turned into a skeleton?" Langley's jaw dropped again. "What happened to Scully? What happened? Do something!" Mulder was getting nervous. But so was Langley. He grabbed Mulder by the sleeve and dragged him into the office. Two voices shouted in synchrony: "Mulder!" Mulder didn't want to waste any time now. Obviously the Lone Gunmen really didn't know what was going on. "No time for questions. I'll explain later. You know where Scully is? She seems to have disappeared for three days now." Byers and Frohike went pale. Frohike grabbed the desk to steady himself. Byers reached for his cell phone. "We'll find out now. I'm going to call a contact in the bureau now. They should know." He punched in a number and waited. Then he started to talk. Mulder pushed his hood back and shook his head. Water drops flew everywhere. After a while Byers slowly put the phone down and murmured: "Oh my god." Mulder was staring holes in the wall behind Byers now for he did not want to look in his eyes. "She's in the hospital. Unconscious. It's the cancer." Now it was Mulder's time to reach for a chair. He felt like he was paralyzed. This simply couldn't be happening. It had to be a bad dream. But then his stomach reminded him that it wasn't a dream. Byers smiled wearily and placed a hand on his shoulder. "You go and eat now." Mulder jerked into an upright position. "No. I've got to do something. We've got to help." "Later. You go ahead and put something on that's not completely soaked and then you eat. After that we'll see what we can do." "I think I've got a spare suit you can have for now," added Byers. Mulder was too shocked to complain. He let Byers lead him upstairs to change and then get some soup and a couple of sandwiches. When he came back downstairs fifteen minutes later he was already feeling a little better. At least he could think straight now. "Well, the plan is out of question now," he informed the Lone Gunmen. "We've got to do something else. And quickly, that is. That bastard knows how to help her. He just doesn't do a thing." * * * where his thoughts as he rode the elevator to a place deep down in the J. Edgar Hoover building. It looked like at least this problem took care of itself. Soon she would be dead and pose no more danger to the project. And he was about to take care of this ghost business now. At least he hoped to. Somehow it had to be taken care of... He called himself to order. Everything else went so well that a little 'spirit from the past' appearance shouldn't be of much concern. Still... He lighted another Morley. He just had to get a hold of that psychic that had sent him the tape. Then everything would be alright. He just had to make sure that Mulder's ghost never appeared to another person and told his story. Then he and the project were out of danger. If that ghost was real at all. It was, wasn't it? His only concern now should that nobody heard of his experience and his following actions. It would certainly weaken his position if anyone got wind of it. * * * Mulder looked from Langley to Frohike to Byers and back. Would they ever stop arguing? Preferably in this century? "I certainly don't think this would be a good idea," shot Byers at Langley. Frohike added: "Not at all. How could you even think of something like that! This would put her in certain danger." Mulder lost his patience now. He looked at his watch. They had been arguing for over twenty minutes now. Looked like this time their collective mind couldn't come to an agreement at all. Dammit, they were loosing precious time. Mulder decided to take the initiative. He stood up and left the room. They didn't even notice him so deeply were they engaged in their argument. He walked up the stairs and headed for Frohike's bedroom. He knew that guy was hiding a gun around here somewhere. It was just a matter of finding it. After he spent about twenty-five minutes searching through every single drawer he finally found something hard in the sock drawer. It was cold and felt good in his hand. There it was. It wasn't loaded, though. But he didn't have to look very far. Wrapped in an old woolen sock he found what we was looking for. Now he could take him to task. He stuffed the gun in his pocket and turned to leave. The three down in the basement still hadn't noticed yet. On the way out he grabbed some car keys and then made a promise to return every single item he had taken before he was out the door. * * * Skinner stuffed the phone back into his pocket and sighed. Why did it have to come to this? And the worst thing of all, he started to blame himself for everything now. Which was not entirely wrong, of course, but most of what had happened was simply out of his power. But he had had enough now. Now he would take his fate and that of his friends in his own hands. He knew this might cost him his position but his previous lack of actions had already cost things much worse than his position. He put on his coat and then picked up the phone. "Angela, would you please do me a favor and cancel all my appointments for today? I've got some, er, business to do." His secretary knew about what was going on and she did not ask for a reason. She did not even want to know. Then Skinner opened his drawer and reached for his gun. Today he would need it. Today he would do what he had wanted to do for so long now. Today he would put an end to everything. * * * Mulder parked in front of an apartment building he had come to know quite well by now. He knew he wasn't even supposed to know about it but one of his contacts had done good work a couple of years ago. As soon as he turned the windshield wipers off it looked as if he was sitting under water. Floods were pouring down from the sky and everything seemed to accumulate directly on his car. He forced himself to get out of the car and then dashed towards the entrance of the building. In a matter of seconds he was underneath a roof again but his hair was already soaking wet. He shook his head and started to ascend the stairs. He had time enough and so he decided against taking the elevator. Once he finally reached the right floor he started watching for neighbors. He really did not want to be caught in the act doing what he was about to do now. Luckily, however, no one ever seemed to be home in this remote building and so he decided to get started. He took out a little toolbox and began to mess around with the lock. It was surprisingly easy, though, and after only a couple of minutes he gave the door a hard kick and he was able to enter the apartment. Now what. He was way too early and so he decided to settle down and wait. He had had enough practice in that during the last few weeks. * * * An amazingly short time later Mulder heard a noise at the door. He went tense. But he felt more than ready to face the challenge. He stood up and waited. Then there was another noise and then a long time of nerve rubbing silence. He stood frozen in place and listened. For the longest time he heard nothing, but then the door opened. Mulder called himself to order and remained hidden in a dark corner. He would do no one any good if he rushed things now. Then he heard steps approaching and held his breath. However, the steps soon stopped. He strained his ears to hear at least something. Then he saw what could only be the beam of a flashlight and heard the ruffling of paper. He was curious now. After what seemed to be an eternity he decided to take action and slowly headed for the living room. * * * Skinners heart made a sudden jerk. Someone was here. But he knew for sure that he couldn't be home. He was at work. But who was this then. And why hadn't he acted earlier. He decided to turn the flashlight off and take cover behind an open door. Then he waited nervously. Mulder froze in place again. There it was again. But why did this person use a flashlight? And why did he hide now? Mulder grabbed his gum firmly and started to sneak toward the living room. Once he reached the door frame he took cover, turned on the light and shouted: "Whoever this is, come forward and identify yourself!" Skinner dropped his gun and turned into a block of ice. This place was haunted. He just had heard Mulder's voice. But this couldn't be, it had to be some sort of trick or something. Mulder was getting impatient now. "Hello? Anyone there? Identify yourself or I will shoot you regardless of who you might be." A shaky voice replied: "Mulder. I know this can't be you but it has to be you. No one else would act the way you do." Now it was Mulder's time to have a cold rush run down his spine. He had almost shot the A.D. But what in all the world was he doing here anyway? Then a smile crept over his features. He knew what had let the A.D. to this place. He suddenly felt very thankful that he wasn't alone on this world. "OK, I'm gonna put my gun away and come forward. I already know you put yours down. You will come forward, too. And don't be too surprised, it's a long story. I'll explain later." With that he took a step forward. Skinner did the same. In the light the two men stared at each other. Suddenly Skinner turned white and had to grab for a chair. He had come here prepared to do anything. But he hadn't been prepared for this. Suddenly all his beliefs were shattered again. Mulder knew what was going on in the other man's mind. "Don't worry. Scully and three other contacts' of mine are the only ones who know. Hey, it was a lot of hard work to fake this death, ok?" Skinner shuddered again. "Don't worry, I know what's happened to her. And I believe you are here for the same reason as I am. Why don't we work together?" With those words Mulder turned the light off again and sat down on the couch. He gave Skinner a brief update on everything that had happened so far. Skinner still wasn't quite sure if he wasn't dreaming all this. This simply couldn't be happening. About two hours later Mulder stood up and motioned Skinner to do the same. "Go pick up your gun. You might need it. Although I have the honor of accomplishing the task." Then the two men dispersed into rooms further back in the apartment. And they waited. And waited. Finally a noise was heard. This time it didn't take long for the door to open and someone to step into the apartment. Mulder took his chance. He jumped forward. "Boo!" He waved with his gun. Cancerman went almost green. He needed to hold on to the door to steady himself. "No, I am not dead, although according to some of your experiences you might be likely to think so. And this gun isn't a too ghostly appearance either. It's pretty darn real, actually. And if you don't do anything soon you will be as dead as you once thought I was." In contrary to last time Mulder had no doubts now. He took a step forward. Cancerman started to squirm. This had gone totally out of line. Mulder was supposed to be dead. Gone. Not a threat any more. Thoughts ran through his head. And now he was here, threatening him once more. And the worst part was, he didn't even have the means to stop him now. Mulder had learned about his mother by now. Her well-being wasn't of any concern to him any more. She was still his mother, yes, but that was about all. This had only worked once. He also couldn't use his sister any more. He had fooled him once to often with his supposed knowledge about her. He had a faint clue of what had happened to her and nothing more. And somehow Mulder had come to suspect that. Suddenly he came to a realization. Mulder had become his fiercest enemy. He now was the one who had nothing left to lose. With all of his family either dead or lost or not cared for any more he had nothing besides his work in his life. Scully had been the only other person he had cared for in this period of his life. And now he was sure he had lost her, too. Mulder started to pull the trigger. "If you don't say anything soon you won't have the opportunity to do that any more. I will understand then that you don't have anything else to say any more." Cancerman had found the solution now. Mulder had just lost the last person he had cared for and now this was his revenge. He now had nothing left that held him back. But this wasn't entirely true. Cancerman knew better. He steadied himself. "You know I am the only person living that has the knowledge to help her?" "Help who?" asked Mulder although he knew very well who cancerman meant. But he wouldn't let himself get fooled into having mercy again. "You already used this excuse once to save your life. It's not going to work twice. Your game is over." He was getting nervous now. What if it was true that she might still have a chance to live? "And even if you do know, you're not going to do anything. It's already too late for that." Cancerman decided that truth was the only way to save his life right now. He had to weaken his enemy's position, regardless of the costs. Even if it threatened the project and everything. It at least would save his life. "No it is not. I was about to let her die because you were gone. It was the easiest way I could get rid of both of you. It never worked before, you know." This was more a statement than a question. "But now that you are alive I will have to change my plans a little." Mulder was getting furious now. "Not a little. You need to get her to recover totally from anything that might be related to her cancer and the abduction. Otherwise your health wouldn't last for very long. We all know what I am talking about. We already had more than enough of these situations happen. The next time I would be about to interfere with your plans she falls a little sicker again and boom - I'm out of your way again. And she's the one that suffers. She's the one that will die eventually despite of everything you say." He pulled the trigger a little more. "No this time I'm not going to take that for an excuse. I know the way you work. You wanted to get rid of me - it didn't work. Now you want me to be less of a threat for you. But I have nothing less to lose. Almost. There's still Scully. But I thought I already lost her. And I don't want her to suffer just for my cause. So you have to give her back to me. Back to her family. Completely. That's it from my side. I'm not making any compromises on her cost this time." Dammit, this wasn't going exactly where he wanted it to go. But he didn't have a chance. "I promise I will do everything to make her ok. She will have no further complications. I will return her to you and her family." Mulder loosened his finger a bit. "I don't believe you. I need a proof. I will let you go now, but if she isn't on the way to a full recovery in less than a month I will come back and kill you. And you know I won't change my mind." Cancerman just nodded. "Now you go and get things started. The sooner the better." He waved with his gun. "Go. Now!" Cancerman turned around and left his apartment. It was not wise to joke around with Mulder when he was in this kind of mood. And who knew how quickly he would change his mind if he stayed. Looked like he had no choice this time but to do what he had promised. He knew for sure Mulder wouldn't change his mind in that direction. Once Cancerman had left the apartment and Mulder was sure he was not anywhere in the proximity any more he let his gun down and walked back into a room in the back of the apartment. Skinner already walked toward him and looked at him questioningly. "Well, you heard it. There's no more to it. Probably a good thing you stayed hidden. If he really does what he has promised to do he will still be alive. You are better off and won't be in danger because he doesn't know you were involved in this." Mulder motioned his superior to go. "And for some reason I got the feeling that he will do what he has promised. For once, he doesn't have a choice." * * * Mulder sat in the small hospital room and watched the person lying on the bed in front of him. Her face was almost as white as the sheets but her hair was as red as ever, covering the pillow around her head and looking like a bright halo. He placed his hand over hers and let his gaze shift to the doctor, who was standing in the back of the room. "How long until she wakes up now?" "A couple more minutes." He scolded, "Be patient, she is not going to wake up faster even if you ask about it every thirty seconds." Mulder just shot him a look and returned his gaze to Scully. He pulled his chair a little closer and squeezed her hand. The doctor cleared his throat and turned to go. "I think I will leave you alone with her for now. Be gentle and call me if anything happens." "All right," Mulder mumbled, he wasn't even sure what the other man had just said. A few minutes later Scully began to stir slightly. She opened her eyes and blinked a couple of times, as if trying to focus. Then she tried to speak but her lips just moved without creating any sound. The next time she opened her mouth Mulder could understand her quite well, although her voice was still a little raspy. "Mulder...you look like hell." He grinned sheepishly and remembered the image that had greeted him the last time he had looked into a mirror. "Well, I haven't gotten much sleep lately." All over sudden Scully remembered what had been going on. "Mulder, what are you doing here? You should be in your attic, hiding." He placed his hand on her arm to calm her down. "Don't worry, everything is under control..." She didn't even let him finish his sentence. "Why are you here? What's been going on?" He crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Nothing you need to know about." Scully looked hurt. "I am disappointed of you. I thought by now you knew me well enough to know that you can't ditch me like this. You can't keep the information from me." Mulder realized that this had been a really bad thing to say, although he had just wanted to protect her. But she never wanted to be protected. "All right then, these are the two things you need to know right now. I am officially alive again and you will be, too." She glanced at him in disbelief. "You mean...?" "Yes, that's exactly what I mean. You're fine. You are cured and although it will take a little while for you to regain full health, there is no question that you will regain it eventually." Scully couldn't quite grasp the idea and tried to distract herself by asking about other matters. This was simply too much good news at once. "What else happened?" Mulder grinned again, this time not at all sheepishly. "I will tell you after you get some sleep. Right now you still are more healthy that you look like you are and I want to change that as soon as possible. I will be back tomorrow if you promise to get some sleep now." "I don't think I have a choice. Promise. But only if you get some sleep as well." He yawned intensively. "I will. See you tomorrow then." "Bye." At the door he turned around a last time to wave her goodbye. Right when he exited onto the hallway he saw Margaret Scully approaching from the other end of the hallway. He turned around and quickly escaped down the opposite end. He was definitely not in the mood to face more questions about his presumed resurrection. He had talked to her a couple of times already and every time he met her again she had more questions to ask and comments to make. Just like about everybody else he had seen the past two weeks. Most non-FBI personnel was satisfied with the explanation that this had been a complicated undercover action led by the government that had involved his presumed death. However, most people in the FBI knew that there was something wrong with this explanation although they could not quite point out what. While he was descending the stairs labelled 'emergency exit' he smiled at the thought of what might be the most uncomfortable long-term result of their little conspiracy. It would most likely give new rise to the use of his old nickname 'Spooky' Mulder now that he had risen from the dead. Very spooky indeed... FINE! It took quite a while to finish this but now it has come to an end - as close as an X-File could ever come to an end, that is :) Please send all feedback and constructive (!) criticism to one or both of the authors at leahd@geocities.com or katharinerose@hotmail.com .