From: "spree1737 " Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2000 17:10:41 -0700 Subject: submission Source: direct Author: Axe (aka, Sprewell) Title: Day for Night (1/2) Classification: S, X, MulderAngst, ScullyAngst Rating: R (for violence and swearing) Disclaimer: Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, AD Skinner and The X Files belong to Fox and 1013 Productions. No copyright infringement is intended. All original characters belong to the author (me!) Distribution: Anywhere is fine by me, but please let me know where it's going so I can visit. Thanks. Feedback: Please, please, please!! My e-mail addy is: spree1737@my-deja.com. I'd love to hear from you, but no flames thanks! Authors notes: OK, here is where I do a major amount of thanking people! First off, thanks to my Stepdad, who let me jibber at him a lot; thanks to my mother, who read it, liked it and also let/s me jibber about The X Files all the time (and thought up the summary below); Judith, who sent in some very helpful feedback; the place I used to work, 'cuz it's where I thought up the bones of the story; and most of all Jess, who beta read this and was the first person who read it and liked it. Lets not even mention the computer problems we had! Thanks a lot Jess, you're great. :o) Summary: Working on a case, Mulder finds his shadow, while Scully sees his reflection. ***** ****** He sat outside in his car, waiting. He had spent the last week watching this house, noting when she came home and when she went to bed. He looked at his watch, in about fifteen minutes it would be dark and he would walk up and knock on that door, pull out the ID in his pocket and come up with some reason why she had to let him into her house. Then he would find out why. ****** ****** Blood. Blood was everywhere. It covered every surface. The chains that were attached to the ceiling and held her up by her wrists glistened with it. New wet blood mixed with old dry blood as it spilled onto the floor below. He looked at her face. Damn, it kept changing. The woman, his sister and back again. Which was it? Did it matter? No. He'd tried. Tried to talk some sense into her, but she hadn't listened to him. So it was the only thing to do. He picked up the knife. ****** ****** Fox Mulder woke with a start, gasping and covered with sweat. He peeled himself off his couch and made his way into the bathroom. He splashed cold water onto his face and rubbed his eyes. Nightmares were a normal part of his life, he was used to them but these were different – these he would have and in the time it took him to walk from his couch to the bathroom where he now stood, he would have forgotten what they were about. The memory just gone. He looked at his watch. It read 5:36. Good, he could go for a run, come back, have a shower and some breakfast and then go to work. Then he could meet Scully, chase some natural oddity of the world and forget about the non-existent memories of nightmares that tugged at the back of his mind. ****** ****** For the past three weeks Washington DC had been in the grips of a heat wave that few had ever experienced before, in the sweltering heat peoples' tempers were frayed and getting more so. People were trying to stay indoors as much as possible and avoid the blistering heat. However, it was only the fortunate few that could do this. Most had to go to work and sit in offices that were all too confining, where the shear number of people in one room and the added temperature caused angry looks in the direction of whoever had just brushed past their shoulder, as if blaming them for the injustice of having to come in and work in this incinerator/office and even the damn heat as well. Most of the time there was only one thing that everyone agreed on: when the weather became more reasonable, it wouldn't be a moment to soon. There was also something else that prayed on their minds, something that caused more suspicious looks and more arguments than the heat. For the past two months eight women had been found in different parts of the city, badly beaten and stabbed repeatedly until they didn't seem to have much of a torso left. That left the pathologists performing the exams on their bodies fumbling round trying to find out if they actually still had a heart in their chests. Or for that matter any of their vital organs. All the victims were between the ages of 32 and 40, with long curly brown hair, 5'3" and 5'8" and all of them were single. They had seeming just let the killer into their house and then he had knocked them out, tortured them and then dumped their bodies. By the end of the first month four women were dead and police were getting nowhere, fast. They finally gave up and asked for the help of the FBI, but after another month and several hundred man-hours they still had nothing except a vague profile. The perpetrator, they decided, was probably white, male, between the ages of 25 and 40, of average to above average height, athletic build and probably posed as a person with the authority to enter their house and someone they could trust such as a police officer. In that month four more women were abducted and murdered and the only thing that they could sure about was – excluding a miracle - next weekend it would happen again. That was, however, as much as they could do and as Friday evening rolled over to Saturday morning another woman had been abducted. Jane Alexander, a 34-year-old waitress was found early Monday morning propped up behind a collection of trashcans. ****** ****** MONDAY. Fox Mulder sat in his office looking dejectedly at the file that had just been presented to him by Skinner. He liked to think that he was an even-tempered person most of the time but this heat was really beginning to grate on his nerves, and he was finding it hard to keep his ever shortening fuse in check. The last thing he wanted was to be sitting in his non-air conditioned office trying to work through a file that had been handed to him because no one else wanted to touch it. Sure it was only two months old, but the stick that the local police and the Bureau had taken in that time had got it on the fast track to the basement office and the cluttered desk of Fox Mulder – the FBI's crack profiler (former...sort of). Mulder sighed and loosened his tie more; he flicked over the first page of the report and then closed it. He shut his eyes, it'd just have to wait for a bit, yes he knew it was a priority case and yes he knew that it was the type of case that he would normally dedicate himself to completely and utterly until the bastard was behind bars. But today he wasn't feeling normal, today he felt so tired that he just wanted to flop onto his couch and sleep and preferably wake up somewhere cold; today he was so tired that he couldn't focus on the pages of the report. However, sleep was something that Mulder was trying to avoid right now. He'd been having nightmares for the past two months, worse than the usual ones but he couldn't remember what they were. The problem was that as much as he tried not to sleep he failed miserably; every night he fell asleep the moment his body hit the couch. He remembered the first time he'd seen the news about the latest murder of the 'DC Slasher' as the press had nicknamed him, for some reason the pictures of the women the 'Slasher' had killed had made Mulder feel unbearably sick and he had ended up in his bathroom throwing up. Just his luck that he'd end up getting assigned to the case. Mulder tried to focus on the report again. . Maybe he could ask Scully to read it out to him later, that idea amused him slightly, Scully sitting there looking professional glasses on, reading out crime scene details and autopsy reports like some perverse bed-time story... ****** ****** "Mulder?" a hand gently shaking his shoulder, "Hmm..." he tried to swat it away. God he was so tired, why was it the only times when he could actually sleep where the times everyone wanted him to get up and do things? "Come on, Mulder, you've got to wake up" "...'Nother couple of minutes" Scully grinned. It wasn't every day that she heard Mulder ask for more time to sleep, and if it hadn't been that Skinner had just personally told her to get her partner and go out to the crime-scene in that annoying 'I'm your boss and I can make you leap through circles of fire, so don't mess with me' tone of voice he had, she probably would have left him. But now she couldn't; she shook him again, "Sorry Mulder, I would but you've got to get up and take a look at a crime scene...you know your job?" Mulder looked at her and gave her his best puppy-look, "Sorry I think that you must've mistaken me for someone else...I only go after aliens and blood-sucking worms" Scully smiled, "Well I heard that you help catch serial killers on the side, so..." He rubbed his eyes, "What case is it?" "I'm guessing that one" she pointed to the file he'd been sleeping on, "You know the 'DC Slasher' homicides?" He gave her a sheepish look, "Good thing that I don't drool eh, G-woman?" Scully gave him a disapproving look, "Quite, I wouldn't have liked to have to explain that one to Skinner. Ready to go G-man?" Mulder nodded and got up, man how he wanted to go to bed. ****** ****** Mulder, Scully decided, was ill. After five minutes in the car he had suddenly pulled over and asked her to drive. Something that she couldn't recall him ever doing before. At the time she had reasoned that it must be because he'd wanted to get a look at the case file so that he was a least vaguely familiar with it. Now, though, she knew that wasn't it, he kept drifting off to sleep and jerking himself awake, staring out the windshield or his window for a couple of minutes and then start to drift off again. Most definitely strange behavior off Fox Mulder: insomniac of the decade. She looked over at Mulder again, but now he was sitting up straight looking out the windshield with a blank expression on his face, "Mulder...?" nothing, "*Mulder!*" He turned to look at her, but his eyes were somehow different...they were...hard, angry what the? Where the hell did that one come from? She glanced back at the road, "You OK, Mulder?" "Why wouldn't I be?" "You just don't look well, that's all" "I'm just dandy" 'Dandy'? Uh uh, no way, not a Mulder phrase. Scully looked back at him, he still had that angry look in his eyes so she let it drop. But minutes later she found herself looking at him again, the angry look had changed to a glazed, vacant one. Now she was getting really worried, she pulled over and tried to get him to talk to her. Without much success. ****** ****** Mulder stood waiting. He wasn't sure who he was waiting for, but he'd know when he saw them. There were lots of people milling around him, but none of them took any notice of him. He had a closer look at what was going on about him: the place was swarming with cops, feds and a crime-scene team. And then there was the crowd. Through this haze a face kept flitting in front of his eyes. It was a woman. The crowd was disappearing, and the face came back. It was familiar. Red. Red what? Hair. That was it: red hair. Suddenly he felt a stinging across his face. ****** ****** "Ow!" Mulder lifted a hand to his face and rubbed the side of his face, "Whatcha do that for?" Scully put her hand underneath his chin and turned his face towards her, "Mulder, are you OK?" "Yeah I'm fine" he touched the tender stop on his jaw, "But I think that I'm going to have a bruise. You've got one hell of a slap there, Scully" he grinned at her but the intense relief on her face made him serious, "What about you?" "I'm fine. You just scared the hell out of me back there, that's all" "Uh?" The concerned expression returned, "Mulder, do you remember what happened?" He shook his head, "No. I think that I fell asleep. I-I had a dream" "You've been completely non-responsive for the past five minutes. And you weren't asleep, your eyes were wide open" "Oh" "You want to tell me anything, Mulder?" he shook his head again. Then it struck him: Rhode Island. That's why she's so worried. "Listen Scully, I haven't gone and done anything stupid. I promise" Scully gave him a doubtful look but nodded, "Do you remember what you 'dreamt'?" she asked, "No" "Mulder, I think that..." "No Scully, no hospitals. I'm OK I just haven't been sleeping. I'll get over it. Now can we go?" she opened her mouth to argue "No. I'm fine. Anyway if I don't turn up at the scene and Skinner hears about it, his going to chew us out...again". Reluctantly, Scully started the car and drove off. Mulder fell asleep thirty seconds later. ****** ****** Mulder sat in the car trying to stay in the shade and fight down the waves of nausea that washed over him. He'd walked onto the back lawn of Mr. and Mrs. Kelly, feeling like he recognized the house and the garden, but couldn't place it. Then he'd looked at the crowd of bystanders, watching the proceedings with interest, suddenly able to ignore the scorching weather now that there was something else to occupy their minds. He felt like...like he'd just been standing there, himself. The worst shock came when Scully had pulled back the cover that was on the body, he had stood there dazed, knowing that he had seen this scene before, seen this woman before. It had reminded him of...of what? Then he'd stumbled back to the car pushing his way through the crowd, just needing to sit down. Scully had watched him go but hadn't followed, she did after all have a job to do and she would be able to talk to Mulder later. It turned out the neither Jim Kelly or his wife Kate, knew who the young woman was, nor did anyone else. Kelly had found her when he was taking the trash out to the shed just before he went to work. Scully was disturbed by the way Mulder was acting and her complete inability to do anything about was making her frustrated. Having to find Mulder and rescue him from a ghost-ship in the Bermuda Triangle had been hair-raising. Trying to find Mulder and save him from an unknown retrovirus had been scary and she'd thought she was nearly going to lose it when the ER doctor hadn't listened to her and the nurse said Mulder's heart had stopped. However, both those times and the ones before and after there had been something definite, something obvious to do. But this time...this time she didn't know what to do. If there was one thing Scully wasn't used to and didn't like, it was not knowing what to do. And it was scaring the hell out of her. Having gotten all the information that she could, Scully walked back to the car, she could see Mulder with his head on the headrest and his eyes closed and she thought that he had gone to sleep again. But he opened them when he heard her approach, "How'd it go?" he asked, "Fine. Shame you didn't hang around long enough to find out" "Sorry" "Mulder what is up with you? You take one look at the body and then stumble away, looking green like some fresh new agent who's never seen a dead body before!" the worried look had come back, Mulder noted. He shrugged and smiled weakly at her, "I guess the heat must be getting to me" "Mulder..." he cut her off, "Look Scully, can we not do this here?" "Fine. We'll do it back it the office" she got back in the car and started it, "I can hardly wait" ****** ****** On the way back to their office Mulder suddenly picked up the file and started quickly going through the photos, each time he looked at one he felt sick. He had when he first looked at them in the car outside the Kelly's house, there'd also been something else bugging him, something that he couldn't put his finger on. It didn't seem right somehow. One minute the suspect was organized, calm and able to gain entry to his victim's houses with relative ease. Then he suddenly became totally the opposite, stabbing them in a blind rage. It was almost as if the propose was to destroy evidence rather than kill. Then something clicked into place. "Scully look at this" "I can't, I'm driving remember?" "Well, all of the victims torso's were nearly destroyed, right?" "Right" "But the level of violence that would seem to indicate that the killer was in a rage" "Yeah. I'm not following" "OK listen. The killer plans far enough ahead to be able to gain entry to the victim's houses without any trouble, then he kidnaps them and keeps them alive for two days. What's he do in those two days? The autopsies revealed bruising round the women's wrists, consistent with rope or chains, and on their arms and faces. But due to the amount of damage done to the torso - especially the chest area - it couldn't be determined whether or not they had been tortured beyond the beatings they received" Scully remained silent waiting for him to finish, and was surprised to see Mulder watching her expectantly, "So, what? You think that he tortures them and then stabs them repeatedly so that no one will see how badly he's hurt them?" "Exactly" Mulder said triumphantly, "Mulder, that doesn't make sense" "What do you mean?" "He *stabs* them so we can't see how badly he's *hurt* them? Stabbing someone usually doesn't indicate caring about the pain and suffering that you've just caused, Mulder" "Look, Scully, he's disturbed. I-I don't think he means to kill them" This shocked Scully and she didn't bother to try and disguise it, "What?" Mulder didn't what to get into this. He knew he was right. He couldn't explain how he was right - he just knew he was. And frankly, at this point, he didn't want to think about it – he was too tired to think about it. His explanation of 'he's disturbed' was bull. It was a nice smokescreen to get him out of going into details that he didn't want to go into, but he knew that Scully wasn't at all convinced. "I don't know. Maybe he just wants someone to talk to, or just wants someone around. But they say or do something that annoys him so he beats and tortures them, only then he's wracked with guilt...or sadness, something...so he tries to cover it up by stabbing them. It doesn't make sense I know, but as I said: he's disturbed – it makes sense to him" suddenly Mulder was feeling exhausted again, he leaned his head back against the headrest and closed his eyes. Scully's voice reached his ears and he was able to stay awake long enough to hear what she was saying: "Well, we'll run it by Skinner" that was all he needed. Mulder thought that he grunted to let Scully know that he'd heard her just before he went to sleep. He hadn't. ****** ****** "Guilt, Agent Mulder?" Skinner asked, Mulder nodded, "Yes, sir" Skinner didn't like this. The evidence that Mulder had just presented him with was not the kind of thing that he had expected. Usually the man picked up on things that other agents didn't see, that was what made him so good at his job, but this didn't sound right – Guilt? Mulder's reasoning of 'he's disturbed' hadn't helped to alleviate this doubt about Mulder's suggestion, but he'd been right about stranger things and they had nothing else to go on, so he decided to let it go for now. "So, how exactly does this help us?" Mulder shifted slightly in his chair and went into lecture mode, "Well first off it tells us the that the killer planed the kidnappings, but not the murders. Instead of just seeing a victim on his way back from work or something, picking them up and dumping them. It also tells us that actually he's not really enjoying what he's doing, but feels that he hasn't any choice because he can't let anyone know what he's done. In all it tells us that he would probably like to stop, but won't because every time that he kidnaps a woman he has no intention of killing her" he paused, "And it also tells us that as much as these look like rage killings, the suspect is, in fact, completely calm and collected about what he is doing, he might not like it but he feels that it's the only way" why did that sound so familiar to him? Something was trying to claw its way out of his memory banks and he pushed the thought, whatever it was, back to where it came from. Mulder had this odd sense that he didn't want to deal with what was trying to resurface. "I see. Can you suggest any particular course of action, in order to help prevent this happening again?" asked Skinner, "No, sir" "That wasn't exactly the answer I was looking for, Agent" Mulder shrugged, "What can I say? The murders seem completely random, although only in as much as there's no connection between the victims. Except that they all look similar and stay within a particular age range. The bodies are also dumped randomly" he sighed, "The only thing that seems to be consistent is that he has stuck to a similar MO so far and his victims have all been in the 32 to 40 age range and they resemble each other". Mulder wished that this meeting would be over soon, he couldn't really think straight and he kept having this nagging feeling that he was missing something. He just wanted to go home take a cold shower and collapse on his couch and sleep. But now Scully was asking him a question, "...What do you think, Mulder?" He looked at her and blinked, "Sorry Scully, what was that?" "I was saying that the guy obviously didn't beat, torture and then stab them to death in the street or in their homes because somebody would be bound to notice and there is also the lack of blood at the scene, we know they were killed somewhere else and then dumped. So he must've taken them somewhere. Somewhere quiet, where it probably wouldn't be noticed. What do you say we have a look at some of the abandoned buildings around the city?" Mulder could have slapped himself for missing it. He turned to Skinner, "I think that it's a good idea, sir. Agent Scully's got something there" "Very well, Agents, I'll arrange to have the rest of the team set that up" he stared at Mulder for a minute, "Meanwhile Agent Mulder, I want you to go home and get some rest - you look like hell" Skinner waited for him to start arguing, instead all he got was a very quiet but definitely relieved, "Yes, sir" Skinner was taken aback for a second but quickly regained his composure, "Very good. That'll be all for now thank you, Agents" and with that Mulder and Scully left. ****** ****** Back in the safety of their own office, Mulder slumped into his chair and buried his head in his arms, he wished that this heat would go away, he wished that this case would go away and more he wished that this sense of dread building up inside him would go away. "Mulder, what's wrong?" "Nothing Scully, I'm just tired that's all" "Mulder, I sat through all of that meeting waiting for you to mention something about the abandoned buildings, but you didn't say anything. Don't tell me you missed it" He gave her a weary grin that came out more of a grimace, "Maybe I'm losing my touch" "Mulder, Skinner was right, you should go home and get some sleep" He gave her a quick nod, "Yeah, I'd like that" "Come on, I'll drive you back to your place" "OK Scully. That'd be great, thanks" She followed him out the door; the way he was acting was scaring her. Mulder didn't just usually go along with everything she said, not unless he had planned on ditching her, and she knew this wasn't what was happening here. She made one last attempt to find out what was bothering him, "You sure you're alright?" "I'm fine" had she expected anything else? . One of the other things that was bothering Mulder, one which he had absolutely no intention of sharing with Scully, was that it had taken a huge amount of effort on his part not to walk straight back into the AD's office and ask to be taken off the case. Beg to be taken off if need be. ****** ****** TUESDAY. The next day wasn't much better; Mulder could still hardly keep his eyes open and there was no way that he could focus on the pages of the report. He sat at his desk, with his head in his hands, steadfastly attempting not to look at the faces of the women in front of him. In an obscure kind of way they reminded him of his sister, it was the hair. There were other things too, but mostly it was the hair. He could almost feel Scully looking at him from 'her corner', He dropped his hands and sighed, staring at the report in front of him so that he wouldn't have to look at her, "What is it Scully?" "I'm worried about you, Mulder. You've been acting weird for the past..." "Six years?" he interrupted her, "Scully, you of all people should know that 'weird' is a normal state being for me" This was fast beginning to annoy her, "Mulder, don't try and pull that 'I'm-Spooky' crap with me! For the past two days you have been blanking out, almost unable to keep your eyes open for more than ten minutes at a time, you can't focus properly and your attention span is equivalent to that of an amoeba!" Mulder knew that he should probably be getting annoyed now but he just couldn't gather the energy to do it, "Can we go and take a look at these buildings now?" Scully stepped back a couple of paces like he just thrown a bucket of ice cold water at her, "I'm not sure you should be going anywhere" she managed to say. He sighed again and looked at her, "Fine. Just make up your mind, so that I can come with you or stay here and get some sleep" "You want to sleep here?" "Scully at the moment I would happily sleep on a bunch of hedgehogs in mating season. So...am I coming or not?" She couldn't decide which would be best. If she left him here then she wouldn't be able to make sure he was all right and going by the way he'd been acting lately, she didn't think that he should be left to his own devices. Also everybody in the rest of the team would be wondering why he hadn't graced them with his presence. If he went with her though, she could keep an eye on him and make sure he didn't get into any trouble. The other agents wouldn't notice there was anything wrong, only that he was working hard on the case. Scully motioned towards the door, "Alright, you're coming with me" he bobbed his head and left the office. ****** ****** "So, what now?" They stood in a dilapidated warehouse on the corner of some street that Mulder couldn't remember the name of. The air was dry and dusty, cobwebs covered most of the surfaces and the ceiling looked like it was going to collapse at any moment. Sunshine burst through every crack in the roof and subsequently through every hole in the floorboards on the first floor and then down to the ground floor, added to what was coming through the windows it looked somewhat like the laser shows that they sometimes put on at carnivals and the dust particles swirled about in the rays. . There was a shuffling noise and Mulder swung round to find himself staring into the eyes of a very big rat, perched on the edge of one of the shelves, "Boo!" he said to it and watched it scuttle back the way it came. He could hear someone moving about upstairs, and noticed that Scully wasn't standing with him anymore, "Scully!" he called, a muffled voice from upstairs answered him, "Mulder I'm upstairs" "Hey, Scully, I'd be careful if I were you – the ceiling doesn't look too hot" "Mulder, you're never careful" there was a pause, "But I will" Minutes past and Mulder was beginning to get more and more exhausted, he couldn't find anything of interest on this floor and so went back to watching the dust and the sunlight. ****** ****** "Mulder!" he could see Scully running towards him, "Mulder! What happened?" he sat up and blinked, "Nothing" he did his best sheep impression, "Must've fallen asleep again" "Fallen asleep?...Mulder you fell asleep standing up? Are you crazy?" Scully was beginning to panic, this was definitely *not* normal behavior for Insomniac Boy. She checked his pulse – fine, his head was OK – at least on the outside - and he seemed with it. But there was something about his general demeanor, that worried her, so she decided to take the bull by the horns, "Mulder what the *hell* is going on?" "Look, Scully, I told you...I'm just..." "Tired?" she snapped, "Yes I can see that. That wasn't what I was asking you" "That's it, honest" "Yeah, and there's a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you. Is it something to do with this case?" "I'm going now, OK? I don't want to discuss this with you, we have just spent all day searching buildings very much like this one and it's gotten us nowhere, I'm hot, I'm thirsty and I'm wiped-out. I would like to hand in our findings – or lack of them – to SAC Curtis and then go home. Is that to much to ask?" Scully was angry, very angry. He was putting himself at risk with this attitude and his complete refusal to tell her what the problem was didn't help. She couldn't do anything if he kept shutting her out like this. However, trying to get him to talk to her when they were both ready to claw each others eyes out was possibly an endeavor doomed from the start, so she settled for having the last word, "Sure. Fine. Whatever" and with that she stalked out the warehouse, leaving Mulder to make his own way out. ****** ****** Once outside Mulder scanned the street, noticing that there was a nightclub just down the street, the 'Silent Nite'. Right. There was what seemed to be an apartment or storage area stuck on the top of it with all the blinds pulled down over the windows, "Hey, Scully, come take a look at this" She walked over and stood next to him, "What?" "What do you think that is?" he pointed to the blinds, "Could be a lot of things. I doubt that it's an apartment, the noise from downstairs would make it almost impossible to think, let alone sleep" He nodded eagerly, "Exactly. The noise from downstairs would be such as to make any noise from upstairs inaudible" "So what you're suggesting is that the killer lives above a night-club because the noise is so bad that no one would hear the women being tortured?" "No, I doubt that he actually lives there" he smiled, "Not even this guy is that insane. No, he probably rents the place merely from the purpose of holding the women, staying with them until the club closes and goes home to get some rest" she nodded, "You want to check it out?" "Sure" They stepped out into the road, crossed over to the night-club and banged on the door, "We're closed" said a voice within, they banged again, "I said: we're closed" A tall, well-built man with bright ginger hair in a crew-cut, and sharp blue eyes, wearing a plain white T-shirt and a pair of blues jeans opened the door and stood in front of them. Scully saw the stubble on his square jaw, it gave him a rugged but rather attractive appearance, however, going by the drawn look on is face, it was more to do with lack of sleep, than with fashion. Scully pulled out her ID and Mulder followed suit, "We're Agents Scully and Mulder with the FBI" Scully said, introducing them. "We don't want to come in sir, we were just wondering what the room or rooms on top of the club, are used for" "They're rented" "What are they used for?" "I don't know. Some guy rents them" "Do you know what this man looks like, Mr....?" Mulder asked, "Fielding. Aaron Fielding. And no, I've never seen him; Steve was the one he spoke to about it. I wasn't here..." "Steve?" Scully broke in, "Steve Collins, he used to work here but then he got sacked" Fielding shrugged, "The guy comes in through the back, so I never see him" "Do you know where Mr. Collins is now?" "Uh uh, I haven't seen him since he left" "Do you know any way that we might get in touch with him?" "Nope, 'fraid not. Like I said: I haven't seen him" "How long ago was it that the apartment was let?" Mulder asked, "About two, three months ago, I guess" replied Aaron, "Do you think that we could take a look at the rooms?" "Well...erm...sure, but I don't think the door is open" Aaron stood back and let them in, shutting the door once they were inside. The smell of smoke and alcohol mixed with disinfectant was overpowering and they had a hard time not to gag, Mulder turned to Aaron and grinned, "Nice place to work" "Yeah, I've got a university degree in History. I guess that's what you get for studying a useless subject, eh?" he pointed to a door behind the bar, "It's through there. You'll see a door at the end of the hall, that's the way out and its locked. If you walk up to it, you'll see that there's a set of stairs that lead up to the front door" "Excuse me, Mr. Fielding. You said that the man who rents the rooms comes in the back. Would that be through the door that you said was locked?" Scully asked, Aaron nodded, "Yes. Gordie Lyle and I have got keys and so has the guy" "Those would be the only keys?" "Yep" She continued to push, "So there's no one else who has access?" Aaron smiled, "Nope, not that I know of Agent Scully, sorry" "And who is Gordie Lyle?" "The guy that owns the club" "Right. Thanks, Mr. Fielding" Mulder turned to his partner, "Coming, Scully?" he motioned towards the bar. ****** ****** Just as Fielding had said, the door to the apartment was locked. This fact now had Mulder somewhat frustrated and he was beginning to consider breaking down the door, his face must have betrayed what he was thinking, because Scully shook her head, "No, Mulder. We haven't got any probable cause" He knew she was right but there was something about this place that made him sure that it had something to do with the murders, "We could go and see if Fielding's got a key" ****** ****** As it turned out Fielding didn't, explaining to them that there was only one and that was in the hands of the man renting the apartment. They made their way back outside, where Aaron stood with his hands on his hips, squinting at them in a vain attempt to keep the sun out of his eyes. Mulder handed him one of his cards, "Well if you remember anything else, Mr. Fielding, please give me a call", Aaron took the offered card and examined it closely, grinning from ear to ear, "Sure thing, Agent Mulder, sure thing" "Thank you for your time, Mr. Fielding, you've been very helpful" said Scully, "That's OK ma'am" said Aaron and disappeared back inside, closing the door. Mulder and Scully made their way back to the car and got in, "So, Scully, I don't know about you but that sure as hell got my interest" "Yep. It certainly sounded hopeful, but on the other hand it could just be some accountant who's got a load of porno movies and his wife doesn't know about his interesting video collection" Mulder put a hand on his chest and shook his head, "Man, do I know that feeling!" and he laughed, feeling good for the first time all day, Scully was happy to play along for a moment, "Hmm, but I know about your...habit, Mulder" "Habit? Anyway, I didn't think that you were my wife" Scully decided to ignore that one, whatever she said would most likely dig her into a deeper hole, she hadn't meant it like that and he knew it, but Mulder being Mulder would probably derive great pleasure from watching her squirm, "Well, lets tell SAC Curtis and see what he thinks" she said, changing the subject quickly. Mulder nodded, glancing back at the club and suddenly having a feeling of deja vu that was so strong it made him feel sick. ****** ****** SAC Joseph Curtis was a tall man, about 6' 4" and muscular, his blond hair was cut short but it was slowly receding, and he had a square jaw that always seemed to jut out in annoyance. Right now he was pacing. And worrying. Worrying was nothing new to Curtis, he worried about everything: his kids, his ex-wife who had his kids, his dog, his car, his job, the weather, if was to be worried about SAC Curtis would worry about it. Now, however, he was worrying about Agent Scully's partner. They had a meeting at 6.00 p.m. and Mulder was meant to show for it – it was 13 minutes past. Curtis reached the end of his pacing lane, turned on his heel and went back the way he came. He glanced at Scully, she looked concerned and just a tiny amount annoyed. Until three days ago Curtis had never met Mulder or Scully, he'd heard of them, of course, everybody had. Mulder was the crackpot genius profiler who was into the alien and paranormal shit; Scully was the scientist pathologist type, who would probably have a heart attack if you suggested that Charles Darwin was wrong. Curtis had been hesitant at first when he was told that he was going to get lumbered with them, but they had turned out to be all right, even if Mulder was a little strange. They'd done what they had been told and suggested a couple of useful ideas. Although Curtis wasn't convinced about Spooky's latest theory, but nevertheless he'd go with it until something better presented itself. He stopped at the other end of the room, checked his watch: 6:22. Great. Curtis sat down in his chair looking at the expectant faces of the other agents in the room, "OK everyone, we'll give him until 25 past and then if he still hasn't shown we'll start without him". Curtis flicked his eyes towards Scully who now had a set, expressionless look plastered to her face but Curtis could feel her oozing concern. "Agent Scully have you any insight as to why Agent Mulder is late?" he said, "No, sir" "Do you know where he is?" "At his apartment, sir" "Is he ill?" "I'm not sure, sir. He told me that he wasn't sleeping too well" Curtis raised his eyebrows, "I see. Then maybe he's overslept. Have you tried calling him?" "Yes, sir" Curtis inclined his head slightly, "And?" "There was no reply, sir" He decided to give up, there was no way in hell that she was going to say anything that might drop her partner in it. Curtis sighed, "OK people. Let's get on with it. Sanderford, Liemux?" the two agents that he addressed straightened and gave their report, "Erm, the ten buildings that we investigated, were empty. No one had been in them in a while, at least only a few homeless. There was no sign of blood, anything." said Sanderford. It was much the same for all the search teams. After twenty minutes it was Scully's turn to report and she was not looking forward to it, one part of her would have quite cheerfully killed Mulder for leaving her to do this on her own, where another part was worried about him and getting more so. She cleared her throat, . "Well, as with all the other teams there was no evidence that anyone but transients had been in the buildings that we looked at. However, while investigating the final building on our list, Agent Mulder had an idea" she paused, everyone was now listening her intently. Smith, she noted had actually sat forward in anticipation. "We had just left the warehouse on the corner of 18th when Agent Mulder saw a night-club the, er...'Silent Nite'. He suggested that it was possible that the killer might go somewhere very noisy so that no one would hear the victims crying out" "What exactly inspired this thought of Agent Mulder's?" asked Curtis, "Agent Mulder observed a...um...room or apartment about the club. The windows were all covered with blinds. He thought that it would be a suitable place for what he was suggesting and maybe we should add night-clubs and bars to the list of buildings to search" "So what did you do?" "We knocked on the door and asked what the rooms were. It turns out that a man rents the apartment. But when we asked for a description, Mr. Fielding...Aaron Fielding...said he was not there when the apartment was let. It was a Steve Collins who arranged it, but he's been fired and Fielding said that he didn't know Collins' address or phone number. Fielding also said that the guy only comes in through the back and only at night. So he's never seen him. Mulder and I would have investigated further, but the door was locked" "When was it let?" asked Smith, "According to Fielding, about two or three months ago" this caused a stir amongst the other agents. Smith whistled and said, "Jeez, Mulder" under his breath. Scully quickly tried to calm them down by raising a hand and explaining that it was all circumstantial, "This could just be coincidence but I think that it is worth finding out Collins' address and number, and who rents the apartment" Scully turned to SAC Curtis, " What do you think, sir?" "It's worth pursuing, Agent Scully" It was at this point that Mulder stumbled into the room, tripping over a table in the process and cracking his head on one of the corners. He landed in an ungainly heap on the floor, moaning softly. Smith, Curtis and Scully got up to help him, while everyone else gaped. Smith kneeled down by him and shook Mulder's shoulder gently, "Hey Mulder, you all right?" he asked. Mulder groaned in response, "Mulder? Mulder, I want you to open you eyes and look at me, OK?" Scully had arrived and was making sure that he hadn't done any damage to his head. She was dismayed to see that he was so pale that the only color on his face was the livid red bruise and a trickle of blood that ran down his temple from a small cut where his head had collided with the table, the thin sheen of sweat covering his face was also worrying. Sure, it was hot and everyone was sweating but this looked more like fever. "Mulder, open your eyes" He managed to drag them open halfway, "Sorry I'm late" he mumbled. "Going on you appearance, Mulder my man, you should have stayed home" said Smith. Scully realized that Smith and Mulder obviously knew each other, and she made a mental note to ask one or both of them about it later. "I'm going to prop you up against the table here, Mulder, OK?" Mulder nodded his head, instantly wishing he hadn't as pain shot through his head making his eyes feel like they were about to explode and again found himself trying to fight down the nausea that swept over him. He groaned again. "Don't move your head if you can, Mulder" "Huh, now she tells me" he grumbled. Scully smiled, trying to ease the mood slightly "Obviously you're not that bad. You're whining" With Smith's help she got Mulder sat up against the table leg, while he muttered something about "having sympathy for an injured man" and how he "never whined". This made Smith chuckle, "You know, Mulder, if I were you I'd give it a rest before Dana makes that head injury of yours much, much worse" Scully shot him "The Look" and contented herself with making sure that Mulder hadn't given himself a concussion. Having ascertained that he had, in fact, escaped with just a large bruise, cut and what would soon be an agonizing headache, she made him sit down in chair. Again Scully was concerned at Mulder's demeanor, he sat with his shoulders slumped, taking short shallow breaths. She put the back of her hand against his forehead, "God, Mulder, you're really burning up here" "What? Oh yeah, think I might have sunstroke or something" Scully opened her mouth to berate him about coming to work in such a state but Smith beat her to it, "Christ, Mulder, are you mad? If you suspected that you had sunstroke, you shoulda stayed home and called in sick or somethin'!" Scully suddenly decided that she liked Smith, he seemed genuinely interested in Mulder's health. He seemed pretty up on Mulder's ideas too. Curtis was watching the scene with interest, it wasn't everyday that you got to have the privilege of Spooky Mulder walking into your office and damn near giving himself a severe head injury. He looked around the room and realized that everyone one was still staring at the trio. He remembered a rumor that he had heard not so long ago about Mulder and his partner - it seemed that it was generally excepted that Agents Mulder and Scully were more than just friends. Seeing the way that Scully was fussing over Mulder at the moment, he could believe it but he resolved to withhold judgement until he had more evidence that they were breaking the rules. He'd keep an eye on them and if they were, Curtis would make sure that they regretted it. Curtis played by the rules and wasn't fond of people that didn't, from what he'd heard of Mulder the man's motto was "Rules are there to be broken", Curtis' motto on the other hand was "Rules are there for a reason", having two such opposing viewpoints on the world could easily end in a conflict. One which Curtis knew he would win. "Right. I want one team checking out the other abandoned buildings around the city, I want another finding out about the kinds of places that Scully mentioned and another finding out who this Steve Collins is" he motioned to the door, "Dismissed" As the other agents left, Scully informed Mulder that he would be going home until he felt better, an observation with which he strongly disagreed, "No, Scully, I'm fine. I'll just take some aspirin and forget about it" "You're ill, even if you haven't got sunstroke. You're in no condition to work" "She's right, Mulder" added Smith, "We'll try and find Collins. We'll be alright without you" "Great, now they're ganging up on me" Mulder said weakly, Scully grinned, "Yeah, with two of us you don't stand a chance" "Huh, I never did in the first place. Listen I just came from there, and I don't particularly want to feel like there was no point to this" he waved a hand in the direction of the cut, which was still bleeding slightly despite the handkerchief that Smith had give him to cover it, "Also, we've only got 'till Friday night before he kidnaps another woman. I should be here" "Mulder, I don't think that's a good idea. You probably still can't..." Scully stopped when she remembered that it wasn't just her and Mulder in the room. Smith would probably be OK but SAC Curtis was still there, taking a great interest in the proceedings. "Fine. You can stay, but I want you take it easy. No spending 12 hours straight working on the profile without food or water. OK?" "Sure" "I'll get Agent Smith to back me up with that one, Mulder" she turned to Smith, who still had a huge grin plastered on his face, "You don't mind do you?" Smith shook his head, "Uh uh, not at all. Anything for my mate Mulder" Mulder sighed theatrically, "I'm not your 'mate', Duncan" "Well, its all pretty irrelevant, Mulder. I'm bigger than you – that's all that matters" "You know what they say, Duncan, 'It's not the si..." "I hate to break up the guy talk but we really should be working or something" Scully flicked her eyes towards Curtis. Both men got the hint, "Oh yeah, right. Dana...erm...I can call you Dana, can't I?" "Yep" Smith beamed at her, "Good, er, you want me to stick around and help you keep an eye on him?" "That'd be great, Agent Smith, thanks" "Duncan" "Fine. Duncan then" Mulder decided that the pleasantries had taken long enough, "Would someone pass me that file, please?" As he went over it again he was pleased that the words stayed in focus. ****** ****** FRIDAY The rest of the week had been somewhat unsuccessful in that the abandoned buildings had turn out to be a dead end, as had the nightclub idea. Finding Steve Collins had proved more difficult than it was previously anticipated that it would be, mainly due to the fact that Steven/Stephen/Steve Collins was a common name and there were over 50 living in the DC area. As the week had progressed, the tension in the conference-room where the investigation was being run from began to build. The pressure to get a break in the case, to find a lead, to see something that had been missed before, added to the blistering heat that still refused to let up, had caused many arguments amongst the agents. One of which was a long-standing disagreement between Mulder and Agent Kevin Holt. Holt was pissed at Mulder's suggestion that the killer felt guilty for torturing his victims, he thought it was stupid, and had told Mulder as much. Since Wednesday, when Holt had arrived, they had had the same argument everyday; it would usually start with Holt making some derogatory comment about Mulder's profile, Mulder would then ignore Holt's digs until the man was stood directly in front of him, keeping up a steady stream of insults. Mulder would then quietly suggest that Holt backed off, because he was the one writing the profile, not Holt. Holt would then announce that Mulder was a loser or words to that effect and whisper something to Mulder, who would then look like he had just received a good left-hook to his jaw and then turn away. Normally this led to Mulder leaving the room until someone dragged him from the room next door, where he would be either reading the files or sleeping on them. Today was no exception. "Maybe if we had a profile that made sense it'd help!" ranted Holt. Scully looked up from the autopsy reports that she was going through – again. Mulder over in the corner of the room discussing something with Smith and Agent Wistrom, at Holt's outburst Mulder had tensed slightly and was attempting to engross himself in the conversation even more. But Holt was not going to be stopped his daily catharsis, "What the hell are we doing with him on the Goddamned case in the first place?" Holt slapped the top of the table, "The guy's lost it!" Scully sighed, she would have liked to go and stick up for Mulder but the last time that she had actually tried to Holt had started to include her in the insults, which she wasn't overly bothered about but later Mulder had asked her not to get involved. So now she just sat and wondered what it was that Holt whispered to Mulder at the end of his rant. Holt had begun to address Mulder personally and was slowly making his way over to where he stood, "So, Mulder, tell me. Is this about your sister? I mean, maybe you feel guilty yourself. You see what this guy is doing, and you think, "hey that's what I'd like to do" but the minute you've thought about it you feel guilty, so you assume that's how the suspect feels" Mulder just stood and listened without moving. Smith and Wistrom had backed away, leaving Mulder to deal with Holt by himself. It gave the impression of a cornered animal being stalked by a hunter. Scully got up and moved closer, if Holt started on at Mulder over his sister again she might take it up with him herself . Holt was now stood in front of Mulder, tapping him lightly on the chest. He was shorter than Mulder but a good few pounds heavier and his body language indicated that he believed he could kick Mulder's butt. "Hey, man, if you do feel guilty then who could blame you? You should feel guilty. You were meant to be looking after your sis and you let some bastard take her!" Scully stepped forward, refusing to listen to what Holt was spouting anymore, "Agent Holt I would suggest that you leave Agent Mulder alone before I report your behavior to the SAC" she said quietly. "Oh, I see, can't look after yourself now, eh, Mulder? Gotta get your pretty little partner to stand up for you? Figures" he tapped his forehead as if some brilliant idea had just struck him, "You want to know what I think, old buddy? I think that you made up this load of BS about your sister getting abducted 'cuz you were the one who killed her. You hate yourself so much that you convinced yourself that was what happened. Well, what do ya say, Foxy? Am I batting a thousand?" "Agent Holt that is a serious allegation and you have no proof with which to prove it. Now just leave it!" Scully said through clenched teeth, "Sure, maybe you didn't kill her, but you didn't exactly save her ass did you?" Mulder drew a deep breath and let it out slowly, "Kevin, please shut up. Please, OK. This is my profile and you can disagree with it if you want, but this little ritual we've got going here is becoming boring" "That's enough, Holt. Just go! Now!" The controlled tone in Scully's voice might at any other time have alerted Holt to the danger but right now he was on a roll and no one was going to stop him. Smith had also approached and was getting ready to remove Holt from the room using physical force if necessary. "You're so self absorbed that you can't see what's going on in front of you!" he leaned in closer so they were nearly touching, "Just like Sarah" he whispered, Mulder put out a hand to push aside Holt and leave the room, but Holt had other ideas and stepped to the side to block Mulder's path, "You're always going on about your stupid beliefs and always thinking you're right, maybe if you'd tried to listen to someone else, rather than being so damn sure Sarah mightn't have died. Maybe the others wouldn't either. Ever think of that? On the other hand, when it actually came to standing up for what you thought was right, what did you do? Let it go" Mulder looked Holt in the eye, "I will blame myself for just about everything that happened then, Kevin, but some of what happened was none of my fault. It was you" Before anybody knew what was happening there was a crack as Holt's fist connected with Mulder's jaw sending him crashing into the wall. Smith grabbed Holt's arms and man-handled him out of the room, while Scully knelt down next to Mulder, "You OK, Mulder?" Blood tricked down his chin from a cut on his lip, he wiped it away impatiently with the back of his hand, "I'm fine" She helped him get up, "Thanks" was all he said before walking out the room. Scully knew where he'd gone. Next door. ****** ****** "Mulder?" He was sat at the end of a large conference table with the photos and reports spread out in front of him, but he stared at them blankly, "Mulder? Are you alright?" Mulder shook his head and turned to look at her. his eyes had taken on the hard look that she was now used to seeing, "Leave me alone" he said it without emotion, merely making a statement, "I was just wondering how your lip was, Holt lade into you pretty good" This was a lie, Scully was well aware that Mulder's mouth would hurt for a while but it wasn't serious, if had been then she wouldn't have left it 30 minutes before going and checking up on him, what she was really interested in was who 'Sarah' was, "Its good, I'm good. Now leave me alone" Scully decided to ignore him, he never remembered what he said to her when he got like this, so she might as well bug him until she was satisfied he was alright, "Um, Duncan and I were thinking maybe you'd like to come with us for some lunch or something" "What part of 'leave me alone' don't you get?" this time it was said with an undercurrent of anger, "Hey, Mulder, drop the attitude. We just thought that you'd like to come with us. Take your mind off stuff" "I don't" Mulder stood up and took a couple of steps towards her, "Now get out of here before I do something I'm going to regret!" Fine, she'd come back later when he wasn't out of it and when he wasn't threatening bodily harm for being in the same room. She'd take that up with him later too. Scully held up her hands in surrender and backed away, making her way to the door, "That's fine by me, Mulder. I'll come back later" "Don't fucking bother!" he spat. Scully exited the room quickly. ****** ****** Scully knocked on the door to Mulder's office. It was weird, when things were going fine she always considered it to be *their* office but when there was a 'difference of opinion' or there was something out of the ordinary , the office suddenly reverted back to being *Mulder's* office. After being 'dismissed' by Mulder half an hour ago she'd gone back to going over autopsy reports and trying to find any evidence that would give validity to Mulder's suggestion the murderer had tortured his victims. She hadn't found any. So she had decided to go and find him, to see if he'd come back to planet Earth. If he had Scully was going to give him a taste of her best interrogation techniques. If he thought that Skinner was bad, she was going to make him realize their boss was soft and fluffy compared to her. Of course, if Mulder didn't remember and he was suitably apologetic, then she would forgive him and cut him some slack over the subject of Holt and this Sarah. But not much. However, he wasn't anywhere to be found, so Scully thought that maybe he'd holed up in his office and was fast asleep on some papers or something. Maybe he was sharpening his pencils. Scully knocked on the door again but no reply was forthcoming, so she tried the handle and was surprised when it swung open. As she had suspected Mulder was slumped over a pile of papers and photographs, asleep. The room was boiling, although both she and Mulder had sent hundreds of requests to get the air-conditioning working again, no one had been down to fix the problem. "It's a conspiracy" Mulder had stated once, on a particularly hot afternoon "Their trying to kill us by extreme changes in temperature". Now, stepping into that same room, Scully's first impression was that with a few wooden benches and some steam, they could turn the place into a rather attractive sauna. Hopefully, it wouldn't have too bad an effect on Mulder's tenuous health. "Hey, Mulder" nothing, "Mulder wake up" still no response. There was nothing for it she was going to have to go and shake him. Scully walked round to where he was slumped and gave his shoulder a gentle shake, "Come on, Mulder, rise and shine". He woke up and turned to look at Scully so fast that he nearly fell off his chair. Grabbing on to the side of his desk to steady himself, Mulder looked at her bleary- eyed, "Uh, Scully? Whattsup?" "I came to see how you're doing. How's the lip?" The body part in question had swollen and was a grey-black color because of the large bruise. It made him look like he was pouting permanently. Added to the cut on the side of his head and the general paleness of his skin, he looked like death warmed up. "My lip?...Oh my lip, right. It's fine, aches a bit but it's fine" Mulder gave her nervous grin, . "Well, that's a better response than I got last time" Scully said lightly. Mulder's brow furrowed, "Last time? This is the first time I've seen you since Kevin smacked me one" "No, you went next door and I came to see if you were OK" she sat down in the chair opposite him, "You told me to get out" "I told you to...what?...I mean, I don't remem...er, sorry...I, er" he stared at his hands, wondering why it is that there is never a liver-eating, genetic mutant when you want one. "Yes" Scully nodded, "I said that I come back later and check you then. You told me not to 'fucking bother'" she narrowed her eyes and studied him for a second, "But you don't remember any of that do you, Mulder?" she asked with concern, "Umm, no, I don't. I'm, erm, I'm really sorry Scully. I thought that I'd fallen asleep again" "Mulder, I think that you should see a doctor" "NO! I mean, I'm fine. I don't need a doctor" "I think you do, Mulder, your acting very strangely and saying things that you don't remember, believing yourself to be asleep. You don't need to have an MD to tell that's not normal" Mulder stopped looking at his hands and checked his watch instead, 7:37 it read. He stood up abruptly, picking up his coat from the back of the chair as he made his way to the door, "I gotta go, Scully, but if anything turns up, erm, give me a call. I'll see you tomorrow. You should go home soon, Scully, get some rest" the last part came out garbled because he was already have way to the elevator, leaving his partner staring slacked-jawed at the doorway he had been standing in only seconds before. ****** ****** Every night for the past week he had sat in his car, here, in this very spot, watching as his sister as she arrived home, fumbling with bags of groceries as she tried to juggle them and open the door to her house. A few times he had actually considered getting out and offering her assistance, but she wouldn't have understood. She never did. He had thought that the last time was exactly that, the last time. He'd been wracked with irrevocable guilt as he realized that he'd just beaten and tortured his sister to death. He had considered killing himself there and then, but he hadn't. He just couldn't bring himself to do it and he hated himself for it – he was a coward just like his father had said. After spending an hour crying over what he had done, he'd somehow managed to sleep despite the racket coming from downstairs. When he'd woken at 4.00 a.m. he'd dumped the body in someone's back yard. It hadn't looked like his sister then, there had been some resemblance, yes, but it definitely wasn't his sister. It had given him a sense of hope, maybe she was still out there. That day as he left the building where he worked, he'd seen her walking down the street. The intense joy at seeing her, here and alive, made him feel light headed and giddy, but he hadn't let it slow him down. Jumping into his car he'd followed her home and watched her. He'd done the same thing everyday for the past five days. Tonight, though, was different. Tonight she was going to answer his questions, she was going to make him understand why she'd left him. He smiled. A name and a face kept tugging at his mind, one that just wouldn't go away no matter had hard he tried to get rid of it. Scully. Dana Scully. He pushed it as far back as he could so it was merely an irritation rather than the full blown proverbial thorn in his side like it sometimes was. Maybe it was more of a thorn in his brain. He chuckled at his own joke. Looking at his watch he saw that it was 11:30 and the lights in his sister's house had gone out half an hour ago. Time to get this show on the road. He stepped out of the car, closing the door quietly and crossed the street to ring the doorbell. He had to ring it four times before the bedroom light came on and she made her way downstairs. The hall light came on, "Who is it?" she asked from behind the door, her tone was one of both suspicion and worry. He held his ID up to the peephole in the door, "FBI, ma'am" the opened slightly but she still kept it on the chain, "What do you want?" he held his ID closer so she could inspect it better, "I'm Special Agent Fox Mulder, I believe there is an intruder in your house" "What?" "Please, ma'am, let me in so that I can arrest him. I'll explain later" Lisa Kistren took the door off the chain and let the FBI agent in, "I think there must be some mistake, nobody's come in tonight" she said. Mulder closed the door, and started checking the rooms downstairs, "I've had your house under surveillance for the past five days, I definitely saw someone enter by the window in the living room" "Oh". Why did she pretend that she didn't recognize him? She had to know who he was. Her little faηade wasn't going to do her any good, didn't she know that? She was going to answer him and that was the end of it. ****** ****** SATURDAY Scully stood outside Mulder's door contemplating whether or not to ignore the expected pleasantries by knocking on the door, or forget it and go straight for her key. Knowing his mental state at the moment, he probably wouldn't hear her anyway, she reasoned and let herself in. Mulder was stretched out on his couch, one arm wrapped around the TV remote, the other dangling off the side of his makeshift bed. Scully could see he was still sweating even though it was a) quite cool in his air-conditioned apartment and b) the heat wave that had been terrorizing the city had finally broken and it was simply a warm summer's day. OK, maybe not warm, it was still hot, but it wasn't the almost mind-numbing heat that it had been a couple of days ago. The swelling on his forehead and mouth had gone down a bit but not by much, so he continued to have the expression of a pouting boxer who no one had told how to duck. Scully looked at the almost silent picture on the screen, the early-morning news and weather. Why did he want to sleep with that thing on anyway? If the noise didn't get you, the flickering pictures, most certainly would. When she went to sleep Scully liked it to be dark and still. Quiet would have been nice too, but that was kind of difficult in a city, so dark and still would have to do. "...Special Agent Fox Mulder is reportedly working on the case. We have been informed that, although there are no definite suspects at this time, a great deal of progress has been made" the anchorman smiled brightly at the camera, before turning to the weather girl, "Over to you, Penny". Penny smiled at the anchorman, and then at the camera. Scully wondered, not realizing that at the exact same time, Penny was thinking the same thing. "Thank you, Sam. Yes, it's happened at last. Its cooled down and its gonna cool down even more, thanks to a north-westerly breeze coming across from the Atlantic..." "I thought you *had* cable, Scully" came Mulder's amused voice from the couch, "I do, but why waste the money when I can come over here and watch it for free?". Mulder sat up and scrubbed at his face with his hands forgetting the bruises and cuts, he stopped and winced when the injuries informed him *they* hadn't forgotten. He looked at Scully, who had taken up residence on the chair at his desk, "Why didn't you knock?" he asked, "I wasn't sure that you'd hear me" Mulder shrugged, he didn't mind Scully coming in unannounced and often he really didn't feel like his apartment was private at all. Anyone who could pick a lock or break the door down could gain entry to his 'home'. And frequently did. Not that he considered it to be 'home', it was just a place where he kept his stuff and crashed at night. When he could sleep that was, not that he'd been having any problems with that recently. He'd come home last night and been out like a light the instant his head touched the arm rest, he'd woken up once about 3:00 in the morning after a nightmare that he couldn't remember. "What's the matter?" Mulder asked, "I, er...wanted to ask you some questions". So this was it, the moment Mulder had been waiting for, and dreading since his bust up with Kevin. Maybe he could stall for a bit, "Mind if I get some coffee first?" she shook her head, "You want some?" "Yeah, sure, thanks". Mulder nodded and wandered off into the kitchen, returning five minutes later with two mugs of coffee and with a half embarrassed grin plastered to his face, "Sorry, I hope you don't mind black, the, er, milk went off" "Black's fine. You should try and spend more time at home, Mulder" His shoulder twitched up in a semi-shrug and he handed one of the mugs to Scully. Sitting down heavily, feeling dizzy all of a sudden, he took a deep breath and asked, "So, what do want to know?". Scully put the coffee on the table, she hadn't really wanted it but Mulder was offering and she did want this to go as smoothly as possible. "How come you know Agent Holt?" "He was a friend of mine in the Academy" Scully's eyebrow climbed up her forehead and she gave him an incredulous look, "That would be why he punched you in the jaw? And why from the moment he joined the investigation, he spent most of his time insulting you?" Mulder tipped his head to one side, "I said that he *used* to be a friend of mine" "So what changed?" "We had a small disagreement" The eyebrow rose again, "Looked pretty big to me" He turned his attention to the coffee in his mug and stared at it blankly, "The reason for the argument was big, but the actual argument wasn't. There wasn't any shouting. I think that was what got his hackles up – the fact I didn't shout or punch him, just listened, told him he was a heartless bastard and left" Mulder took a sip of his drink immediately wishing he hadn't. It was foul, "I don't think that he understood it. He probably thought that I should have stood up for myself more. But there wasn't any point, as much as I argued with him over it, he was right" "What happened?" "I told you" "No, I meant what did you fall out over?" Mulder leaned back into the couch and closed his eyes, "It doesn't matter". Scully decided it was time to change tactics, he obviously wasn't going to give her any more information on the subject, "Who's Sarah?" she asked trying to sound innocent. Mulder sighed, "Sarah Taylor" "Who was she?" Scully asked again. She suspected it was someone to do with a case but she thought it best to play dumb, "She was the victim of a serial killer we were trying to catch, she managed to get away from him before he did her any harm. She was in protective custody and Kevin and I were assigned to look after her" "So what happened to her?" Mulder opened his eyes and looked over to his partner, "You're not going to let this go are you?" he didn't bother to try and hide the resentment in his voice, although if she noticed, she didn't give any indication of it, "No. Mulder, you might not be the most popular guy in the Bureau but usually people stick to verbal abuse" "So, you want to know all the gruesome details?" Scully nodded her head, she wouldn't have quite put it like that but it was close enough, "Fine. Whatever. It doesn't matter now anyway. "I met Kevin at the Academy. He and I got on really well, we spent a lot of time around each other and I helped him study and stuff. Other than the fact that he was almost incapable making a commitment to a woman for more than two days, he was a good guy. "Anyway, we both graduated and ended up in DC. When Kevin and I found out we were ecstatic. You couldn't have wiped the grins off our faces with brooms. "Anyway, one night Kevin and I were keeping an eye on Sarah at the safe house and Kevin left the room we were in to get something to drink. I thought I'd dropped off" "So what went wrong?" she asked, "Well sometimes people used to tell me that profiling was just a job like any other - although I suspect they were just trying to get me to not become so involved with the profile – I don't think they believed what they were saying for a minute. They would tell me to try and leave the work in the office, not to take it home with me. But I never could do that, there were times when I'd just roam around 'til the early hours because I couldn't get whoever I was profiling out of my head. "And on this particular night I was having the same problem...I was supposed to be looking after the intended victim of a brutal serial killer but I just couldn't get out of profiling mode, I was still sat there trying to get into the guy's head and I don't know why, but I was angry. I'm not sure if it was me or I'd actually succeeded in my aim. Also, I was adamant that Irvine wouldn't come after Sarah, so I resented being stuck on baby-sitting detail. But whatever, the last thing I remember was Sarah talking to me, I don't even remember what she said to me now or what happened, but the next thing I know, I've got her pined up against the wall with my forearm across her throat, her mouth is bleeding and Kevin's dragging me off. "So while Kevin is interrogating me at the other end of the corridor about what had just happened, Bill Irvine has shot all of the other guards and comes waltzing up to the room where Sarah is sitting, even from where we were I could hear someone moving around, and there was no one meant to be there at the time, so I left Kevin to see what it was. As I turn the corner I come face to face with Irvine and his gun, he sees me and just pulls the trigger, he hit me in the side. Nothing fatal so long as I got to a hospital at some point in the near future, but it was enough to knock me out. "Later I found out that after shooting me, Irvine killed Sarah but Kevin was able shoot him before he escaped. I should have done more to make sure I was only concentrating on the job at hand, then I wouldn't have lost it. It was me that ultimately got her killed but Kevin should never have hauled me off so far away without posting other agents to watch her. We both messed up badly" Mulder let out a short, bitter laugh, "That really pissed him off. He would have reported me if it hadn't meant that it would have meant dropping himself in it too" This entire story had left Scully speechless, she couldn't believe her partner would be so negligent, "And no one questioned what had happened?" she said disgustedly, "We were the only people who got out of that whole scenario alive. I was injured and in the hospital and Kevin came up with this load of BS that made him and me the damn heroes, so in answer to your question: no, no one questioned it" Scully wasn't sure if she was hearing him right, he'd covered up how a group of FBI agents and a perfectly innocent woman had been murdered, "Didn't you have a problem with that?" Mulder snorted, "You bet I did. I heard about it when I got out of hospital, I went to Kevin and asked him what the hell he thought he was doing and told him that I was going to report what really happened. I mean, it was my fault, Kevin was to blame a bit, but about 99% of the blame was mine. I should never have lost my temper and when Kevin dragged me out there I should have remembered to tell one of the others to keep an eye on Sarah. He thought I would just go along with lying about it. He told me there was no point, that it wouldn't change what had happened and he said it was the most logical thing to do. I told him to shove logic, what about doing the decent thing. But he used our friendship to twist my arm. So I let it go but we never spoke after that. I think he got a transfer to Utah" Mulder waved his hand at her, "So now you all about that sordid part of my past, you still want to work with me, Scully?" Scully stood up and grabbed her coat, heading for the door, "I'll wait for you in the car". ****** ****** Although Mulder and Scully were working with other agents in the Slasher case, they were still trying to spend a lot of time in their office, mainly because it kept them away from the whispers and the knowing looks. "Christ, I don't know what to do, Scully. I can't concentrate and I can hardly keep my eyes open" Mulder sighed and tossed his profile notes on the desk, this was quickly followed by his glasses. "How much sleep are you getting each night, Mulder?" "Eight to ten hours" Scully lifted an eyebrow dubiously, "No, really, Scully, I've never slept this much in my life. The moment I hit the couch, I'm out for the count but every morning I wake up feeling like I've only had one or two" "It's Saturday, Mulder. No one would blame you if you went home and got some more sleep. And if anyone objects I'll cover for you" Under other circumstances Mulder would have politely declined this offer, but he wanted to go home so badly, "Um, OK, thanks, Scully. That soun..." the phone interrupted him, "Mulder" he answered, "What? Yes, sir...no...what's her name?...Lisa Kistren?...OK, sir, we'll be right there" he put the phone down, "A 30 year-old woman called Lisa Kistren disappeared for her home last night. They think it's our guy. Curtis wants us out there now" "Right. You want to go?" the phone rang again, "Mulder...Oh yes, hello Mr. Fielding...You did?...Well that's a great help...OK...uh hu...thanks Mr. Fielding that was very good of you...bye" Mulder replaced the receiver, "That was Aaron Fielding he sorted out Steve Collins' address for us" "Looks like we've got some stuff to check out" "Lets get it on". ****** ****** Lisa Kistren's house didn't yield anything overly amazing, although Mulder's belief that the killer was impersonating a cop or some other form of law enforcement officer, was given a big boost because she had seemingly just let him in through the front door. Even though most of the other agents agreed with Mulder, Holt was still causing trouble but he'd at least done it behind Mulder's back and not to his face. Scully had wanted to him to take it further and report Holt to OPC, but Mulder had decided it was best to just leave it, "It's not like I have a startling record with OPC myself, Scully" so he'd let it drop. After finishing up there Mulder and Scully had taken a trip round to Steve Collins' apartment. It was the usual plain block, similar to the one's that Mulder and Scully lived in themselves. They stood on the doorstep waiting for a reply to their knock at the door, "I don't think he's in, Mulder" "No, you're probably right" he sighed. Mulder was beginning to question the wisdom of coming into work on a Saturday, "What do you want to do?" Scully rapped on the door again, "Go back the office and see if Danny's gotten anywhere with that background check" Scully started back towards the elevator and looked at her watch, it read 3:54 p.m. "Mulder, why don't I drop you off at home, and I'll see what Danny's got. You look beat" Actually, this wasn't true. He looked fine. But she could tell by the way his shoulder's were slumping and how he was trying not to lean against the wall to keep himself propped up, that he wasn't feeling all that great. "Are you sure, Scully? I mean it's out of your way and I really should be at work" "Mulder..." she got into the car and waited for him to follow, "Can you focus on a page?" "Um, no, but that's besides the point. Curtis and Skinner are expecting me to be at work 24 hours a day" "You're not going to be any good to anyone if you can't see straight" she reasoned, "Scully, Lisa Kistren has until tomorrow before she's killed and we get called out to the crime scene tomorrow" "Listen, I know. I want to fine her before tomorrow, too. As do the rest of the guys but you've got to accept that short of a miracle, we're not going to" "But if I hadn't picked now to catch on the sleep that I've been missing since I was 12, I might have picked up on something that was missed, or I might have built up a better profile than the one I have" he rubbed his eyes, "Which any psych. student out of the Academy could have written, by the way" "Mulder, this isn't your fault" "Then how come I feel like it is?" Scully just turned the key in the ignition and drove towards Alexandria, ****** ****** SUNDAY Mulder's first thought was that his waterbed had sprung a leak again, his second was that it was damn sticky water and his third was that he didn't have a waterbed anymore. It was this third and final thought that dragged Mulder completely from the realm of sleep. He turned over and tried to push himself up and off the floor, only to lose his grip on the slippery surface and land flat on his face with a dull thud. It was at this point that Mulder realized what it was he was smelling, it was blood. Lots of it. He didn't know why, but he knew this was the apartment above the nightclub that he and Scully had visited. Mulder attempted to stand up again, this time slowly, and managed it after two or three tries. Once up, he squinted into the darkness of the room, finding that the only things he could make out were the windows, the venetian blinds that covered them were closed fully, only allowing a tiny amount of light from the streetlights outside into the room through the slats and what light there was, illuminated the one or two foot area surrounding the windows, but did nothing for the rest of the room. Deciding to make his way to the windows and open them to get some more light in, Mulder began sliding towards them, cursing the fact he hadn't spent more time practicing ice-skating. He had a feeling he knew where he was, going by the windows and the blood on the floor, he was probably in the apartment in the upstairs of the 'Silent Nite'. Although how he got there was a mystery, one he wasn't sure he wanted to the answer to. He pulled the blind on the window up and light flooded in. Well, not really but compared to what light there had been, it was a tidal wave. Mulder turned back to the room and viewed his surroundings. It was a small, sparsely furnished room, about 18' by 12', with one door directly in front of him on the opposite wall, a couch along the far wall as well as what Mulder guessed was meant to be a kitchen area, but which was, in fact, two cupboards with the doors hanging off their hinges and a sink. Along the other wall, the one opposite the so-called kitchen, there was another door, a pile of blankets and some rope. Mulder decided to investigate the blankets, he had this suspicion that they weren't actually blankets at all and this worried him. As he approached the 'blankets' he realized there was a specific shape to them and they were the source of the blood. He'd gotten close enough to make out it was a body, not blankets, and there was more blood here than where he had woken up. It was wetter as well, making it even more difficult to navigate and not find himself flat on his back again. Mulder recognized the body as what was left of Lisa Kistren. Her face was bloody and bruised and her chest had been attacked with such ferocity that part of it had caved in, leaving bits of bone sticking up through the tissue. Her hands were suspended above her head with rope attached to a hook in the ceiling. Suddenly he was overwhelmed by the smell and sight before him, the ensuing dizziness and nausea caused him to slip and land on top of Lisa's body, thankfully avoiding putting his hands in the hole in her chest. Mulder scrambled off her and threw himself into the corner, hyperventilating. Images from the dreams that he knew he'd been having but couldn't remember began bombarding his head. Sitting outside different houses. Stumbling up the stairs to this apartment. Jane Boise in this same position, crying. Trying to give Mary Allen some water. He tried to crawl further into the corner, the fast beat from his pounding heart thudding in his ears. What the hell was he doing here? Before Tuesday he had never set eyes on this place and now he was in a room covered with blood, remembering events that never happened. Just what the *hell* was he doing here? He pulled out his cell phone, fighting to stop it slipping out of his hands and pressed speed dial no. 1. It rang five times with no one picking up. He desperately tried to recall the period leading up to his waking up in the apartment. Had he been on surveillance? No. He'd gone straight to bed and fallen asleep seconds later. Asleep. Oh Christ. He'd 'fallen asleep' and managed to have entire conversations with Scully. And woken up with no recollection of his actions during that time. It rang another five times before Scully answered, sounding sleepy, "Hello?" "Scully, thank god! I..." he stopped, the thoughts swirling round his head suddenly clicking into place. 'Falling asleep', people and places he'd never seen before seeming familiar "Mulder? Is that you?" she now sounded awake and very worried, And the dreams. The one's he didn't know about but could now recall in perfect detail. It made sense in some warped way for him to have been the one responsible for this. Mulder wanted to put the phone down on her then, but he owed her more than that. He owed her an explanation, he wanted her to know that *he* hadn't known what he was doing, that he had never lied to her. "Mulder? Mulder can you hear me?" "I'm sorry, Scully. I didn't know. I didn't know" he whispered. "Mulder, I can't hear you. You've got to speak up" Mulder cleared his throat and raised his voice, "I'm sorry. I never knew. Please believe me, I never lied to you. I just never knew" "Mulder, what are you talking about? Where are you?" "Oh Christ, Scully, it was me. I'm sorry" "You're not making any sense, Mulder, slow down. Tell me where you are" What Mulder didn't know was that while he was babbling at Scully down the phone, she was dragging clothes on and had just performed a very impressive feat of agility, managing to pull on a sweater, whilst still having the phone glued to her ear. "I'm the one, Scully. I killed them" his voice began to crack and tears rolled down his cheeks, "Oh god, what have I done?" This caught Scully's attention, "Killed who, Mulder?" "All of them, Mary Allen, Jane Boise, Lisa Kistren...all of them" thought Scully, "Mulder, I don't understand. What do you mean?" My god, how many times was he going to have to say it to her? Didn't she get it? He'd murdered 14 women. "The murderer that we've been looking for, Scully, it's me" "OK, Mulder. Just tell me where you are" "It's not OK, Scully. You've got to call the cops" she thought. "Sure, if that's what you want, Mulder, but I still need to know where you're at" "The night club we went to the, er, 'Silent Nite'" "OK, Mulder, I'm coming over" Mulder groaned, "No! Call. The. Cops!" Scully grabbed her car keys and was out of the door. "I will, I will. When I get there. I want to see you first" Well, it was better than nothing, and idea of facing the police with Scully there sounded a lot better than doing it without. "Alright" Scully heaved a sigh of relief and started towards 18th Street, "Mulder, I want you to promise me you'll stay where you are" "I'm not going anywhere, Scully. Not after what I've done" "That's good, Mulder, that's good" she switched the phone to the other ear, "Now I want you to stay on the line, OK?" "OK" came the barely audible reply. ****** ****** Scully was surprised to find the back door to the club was open, she even more surprised to find the door to the apartment upstairs locked. It shouldn't have been, if Mulder had broken in then it should have been open. She shook her head, maybe he thought he was telling the truth but she didn't believe that. Mulder, contrary to popular opinion, was not crazy. Sure, maybe he was slightly unstable and his sense of self-preservation was somewhat lacking, but she wouldn't – couldn't – accept that he had finally snapped and horrifically murdered 14 women. Scully was also sure that if they could find Steve Collins then he could clear this up. Unfortunately, the address that Fielding had given them was no longer current, Collins had moved out of the sixth floor apartment at roughly the same time as he'd been fired and no one knew where he'd moved to. The background check that she and Mulder had asked Danny for had been pretty much useless, Collins was adopted but the records were sealed and his medical records were also sealed. What they had found out was both of his adoptive parents were dead, they died in a house fire when Collins was fifteen and his adoptive sister, who was five years older than him had taken on her little brother and looked after him for six months, but she had been in a car accident and died. Then he'd been placed with a court appointed foster family where he'd stayed until he was eighteen. Not a happy childhood but it didn't really help them much except he fit the profile, but then so did Mulder. And it wasn't going to be very useful if they couldn't find him. Scully knocked on the door and waited for an answer that was not forthcoming, she knocked again, "Mulder, it's me" she said. There was a shuffling inside and a clicking behind the door as it was unlocked, accompanied by more shuffling but it did not open as she had expected. Scully pulled on the handle and pushed it open, stepping into the room. She caught the overpowering smell and quickly covered her mouth and nose, not that it helped much. Scully cast her flashlight around the room, finally spotting her partner crouching in the corner with his arms wrapped about himself, rocking gently backwards and forwards. He was covered in blood, it was smudged and streaked down his face where the tears had trickled and washed it away. His hair was spiked and stood on end with the stuff, and it glued his clothes to his body. she thought and shone the beam at the floor, a couple of feet ahead of her was where the blood began, or ended, depending on which way you looked at it. The blood was dry and brown but as she followed it further towards the heap in the corner it got redder and wetter, until it was almost fresh and it glistened in the light. The walls were clean, except for some bloody scuffmarks and handprints that were by the windows and the corner by the body. Scully guessed these were Mulder's prints. She looked for a way to reach him without stepping in the blood but soon realized it was impossible and took a tentative step forward. "Mulder?" she asked softly, No response. "Mulder? Are you OK?" louder this time, He lifted his head to look at her, recognition slowly dawning across his features. "Scully?" he asked hopefully, "It's me, Mulder" she took another step, hit a wet patch and nearly slipped, "Careful, Scully, it's..." his voice broke again, "Real wet" "Yeah, I get that" she reached him and crouched next to him, "Can you tell me what happened?" "I woke up on the floor...there" Mulder pointed to the middle of the room, "Couldn't see a thing, the blinds were down. So I opened them and found her. Then I remembered" "Remembered what, Mulder?" "The dreams" "Dreams?" "Yeah, at least, I thought they were dreams" he grabbed her wrist, "But I didn't know" "OK, you've lost me again. What do you mean?" "When I was asleep, I kept waking up from nightmares but I couldn't recall a thing about them. But they weren't dreams. They happened" Scully nodded her head slowly, "But you just said that you didn't remember them, so how do you know they were real?" "I said I thought I was dreaming – I wasn't. I was actually doing it. When I saw her I remembered" he looked at her imploringly, "What do you remember?" "Sitting outside their houses, being in here while they were still alive, sitting on the couch when they were dead, I tried to give them water but there's no glasses" "Mulder, do you actually remember coming here or killing them anything like that?" "N-no but..." "Maybe you were dreaming and you were just making the connections in your head, profiling while you were asleep" "Don't you understand, Scully? With the amount of sleep I was supposedly getting, I should have been exceeding myself. Not dropping off at every opportunity" he shook her wrist slightly, "But I wasn't sleeping, I was sat outside their houses watching them" "Mulder, I refuse to accept that you had any part in this" "It's the only explanation that makes sense" "No, actually it's the only explanation that doesn't" Mulder looked at her questioningly, "What makes more sense is that you made the connections when you were asleep, came here found Lisa Kistren and passed out on the floor. Then, as you said you remembered your dreams but you've gotten them confused with reality, Mulder" Scully pulled out her cell phone, "And what your going to tell the police is that you were survailing the night club, saw some movement behind the blinds, checked the back door, found it was open and came up here. You slipped on the blood and that's why you're covered in it, it's also why you've got it all over the walls" Mulder's jaw was beginning to hang loosely, "You want to cover this up?" he asked, not quite able to believe what he was hearing. Why was it every time he did something wrong it got covered up? "No, Mulder, I want to stop you getting convicted of a crime you didn't commit" "But what if I did do it and they find out that you lied? You'll end you in prison too" "It doesn't matter, because you didn't do it" Mulder let go of her wrist and hung onto her shoulders instead, "But what if I did?" This was going to be even more difficult than she'd thought. First she had to get Mulder to go along with her and then the cops were no doubt going to be as difficult as hell. It was time to try something below the belt. "Mulder, you trust me right?" he nodded slowly, "Well, I know you didn't do this. I was right in Rhode Island wasn't I?" "Yes, but..." "No buts, Mulder. If you trust me you'll do this" she paused for effect, "So unless I've been wrong for the past six years, and you lied just then about trusting me..." "That's not fair, Scully" "Yes it is, Mulder. You aren't to blame and I'm not going to let you be your own judge, jury and executioner" Mulder sighed, what difference did it make? Scully knew and she wouldn't let him kill anyone else, so what if he stayed out of prison for another few days? "OK, Scully, but if you find any evidence that I did it..." she cut him off, "Then I'll call the police" She dialed 911 and asked for police back up and an ambulance. The dispatcher told her they would be there as soon as possible. ****** ******