From: "Magrat" Subject: 'Face to Face' by Magrat Date sent: Sun, 10 Aug 1997 18:00:10 +0100 TITLE: Face to Face 1/2 AUTHOR: Magrat E-MAIL ADDRESS: moosifer_jones@geocities.com RATING: PG CLASSIFICATION: XR SPOILERS: NONE KEYWORDS: MSR SUMMARY: Mulder & Scully investigate a town where passions are running high... DISTRIBUTION: anywhere except atxc, as long as name & addy attached E-MAIL COMMENTS TO: moosifer_jones@geocities.com DISCLAIMER: usual, everything belongs to CC/1013/FOX except the things that don't. No infringement of copyright intended etc etc. 'Face to Face' words & music by Danny Elfman, recorded by Siouxsie & the Banshees 1992. But all the rest is mine... AUTHOR'S NOTE(S): (i) This story has at its heart the Siouxsie Sioux song "Face to Face" which was written by Danny Elfman for Catwoman in Batman Returns. Watch the movie or listen to the song if you can. Wrowl! (ii) I sort of wanted to write an American Gothic x-over, but this story resisted the move to Trinity. (iii) I'm not a 'shipper! not! not!! NOT!!! ************************************ FACE TO FACE 1/2 by Magrat ************************************ It was a routine X-File; in as much as there could be a routine X-File. The usual local law enforcer calling them in to investigate a series of unusual deaths; a standard internal flight across to a standard Marin County town; a typically dark hire car which Mulder insisted on driving; two more non-descript motel rooms. The usual. "Agents Scully, Mulder,' Sheriff Buck greeted them warmly when they entered the morgue. He nodded at the neatly laid out corpse, "This is the twelfth murder in the last four weeks." "A serial killer?" Mulder asked. Scully thought she could glimpse a hopeful look in his eye. "Nope, that's the funny thing. in each case the murderer has given themselves in willingly and admitted to the crime. I've got Mrs. Carmen's husband down in the cells now." "So why have you called us in?" Scully put on her best officious frown; she was really hoping to get out of doing an autopsy this weekend. "Well after the ninth corpse, I got suspicious," Scully resisted looking at Mulder; she just knew he would raise an eyebrow at that one, "so I had our coroner run some tests. Here are the reports," Buck passed over a thick wad of files, "Mrs Carmen here is untouched." Scully inwardly groaned; there went her pleasant weekend. She drew Mulder off to one side with a light touch on his arm. "Mulder, tell me why we're here?" "Well, there's the deaths, the fact every single perpetrator has handed themselves in, plus, " he gave her a sly grin, " there's a very good local wine here that has a fantastic reputation. I thought I'd get a crate to take home." "Mulder, you don't drink!" "No, but my dinner guests do." "Seriously, you brought me all the way here to stock your wine cellar?" "Hey, I got you a corpse to dissect, didn't I?" the look on his face reminded Scully of the gleeful look her old cat used to give her when dropping a dead mouse on her bare feet. She sighed. "Thanks Mulder, just what I wanted. What do I get for Christmas?" "Seriously, Scully, don't you think something is a little odd?" "Okay: you check out the psycho, I'll do the corpse." ********************************************************** Mulder came back into the interview room with a bottle of the local mineral water and a couple of paper cups. He sat opposite Jacob Carmen. The man was displaying no strange tendencies, no lurking psychosis. He seemed like a regular guy who had suddenly snapped. "Tell me again, Jacob, why did you kill your wife?" Jacob sighed and took a sip of water. "I came back from out of town this morning. I'd been on a three day haul delivering stuff to the next State. When I got home, Sherylyn was behaving strangely..." "Define strangely, " Mulder interrupted. "Well, she was happy to see me. Too happy. I'm the first to admit we were going through a bad patch until six weeks ago. This was the first time I had been away since we patched things up. I wasn't feeling great and her behaviour just struck me as too..." he looked around for inspiration, then gave up," just too happy." "So you killed her? For being happy?" "Yes. Well, no. I accused her of seeing someone else. We had an argument. I went inside to get a drink and I saw her go over to Ben, our neighbour, and they were hugging and laughing and I...just saw red." ***************************************************** Scully paused in writing up her autopsy notes and got another cup of water from the cooler. After the calm reflection brought on, as always, when she was in an autopsy room, she was feeling better about this wild goose chase. Hah, wild wine chase, she thought. Mulder could be a pain, but, as always, a pain she held affection for. She had had a look around while collecting the blood work from the lab, getting some fresh air, and she had liked what she saw. The town was quietly affluent and all the residents appeared to be welcoming, courteous and downright happy. There were worse places to spend the weekend with Mulder, she thought, and he's taken me to most of them already. She got another refill of water and went back to her report. ************************************************** Scully caught herself humming as she walked back to the motel room, arms laden with files. The late afternoon sun felt good on her skin and she was feeling more glad to be alive than she could remember. Optimistic about the future too, not weighted down with her life for once. "Hey Scully!" "Mulder." He had run up to her, his jacket swinging over his shoulder, shirt sleeves rolled up. It made him look relaxed, less restrained. "Why don't we go into town and get a bite to eat? Buck tells me there's a great restaurant near the lake." "OK, Mulder." Scully surprised herself: her heart had jumped a beat when he asked. Why? They were always going for meals together, it was no big deal, nothing new. "It has that infamous wine. The Passionflora. I'll meet you there at eight?" "OK." She walked down the motel path from him and he found himself watching the late sun glint in her hair. Why did he feel like he'd just asked her for a date? They were always discussing case over a meal, this was no different. ************************************************** Mulder was surprised at the decor of the restaurant; it was very opulent, especially considering the reasonable prices. Scully would be impressed; he normally took her to such dives. Well, he thought ruefully, not *took*, that implied that they were a couple and that wasn't their relationship at all. Although he had made a effort not to look rumpled tonight, even bothering to shave again. It was the good-naturedness of the town, he rationalised, it made him want to make Scully happy. The locals seemed to exude happiness. Well, it *was* California. The large restaurant belonged to some bygone age: dark red velvet drapes hung against the walls, lit principally by candlelight. A quartet were playing jazz standards by the small dancefloor. One couple was already dancing, holding each other close. Mulder had taken a seat facing the door, a suspicious habit he couldn't break, and he watched as the room filled; there were a lot of townsfolk coming in to eat. They all looked radiantly happy, smiling and hugging one another. "Mulder?" Scully stood in front of their table. She looked...ravishing. She had changed her customary trouser suit for a simple dark red dress with thin shoulder straps. Her hair was hanging loose and she was wearing a dark, blood red lipstick he had never seen her use before. He was suddenly conscious that his eyes were betraying him but didn't want to look away. After a second too long's eye contact she broke it, sitting down and talking about the case. The case didn't make it past the starter. Mulder had had to keep dragging his attention back from just watching Scully's lips to listening to what she was saying. He hoped she hadn't noticed; he just didn't want to make eye contact again. He read the label on the wine bottle instead. The infamous wine was fermented using the local mineral water, he read. For some reason he didn't care. They had talked about, well, Scully wasn't sure what. Nothing and everything. Not the case, for once. She finished her wine and signalled for another bottle to be brought to their table. She was finding it hard to pay attention to what Mulder was saying, his eyes were talking about something else entirely. He kept flashing his rarest of smiles at her; the genuine care-free smile she had only seen once before on her birthday. She felt warm inside to know he was smiling at her; that he was happy to be with her. A singer had joined the band now and the ambience of the restaurant was subtly shifting. The choice of music was strange for a restaurant; sensual languorous music that Scully thought she recognised from somewhere. It made her feel like vamping it up at her partner. It made her feel sexy and loving, made her body call out for him more than ever before. She caught eye contact with Mulder, just for a second. A long second, a second that she felt revealed far too much of how she was feeling. She dropped her gaze and began to fidget with the cruet set. He put his hand over hers, stilling her restless fingers. She felt an electric shock bolt her head up and they locked gazes. "Do you dance, Scully?" He didn't lead her on to the dancefloor; she lead the way. They began cautiously; he wasn't used to holding her this way. The song changed; something more sultry and they began to dance closer, slower, confidently, deliberately. She drew closer, so they could both feel the inch of air vibrating between their bodies. The had not broken eye contact since they had reached the floor. She could feel his breath; the magnetic restraint as they held their bodies so close without touching. He put both arms on her waist, wanting to pull her across that last divide. He realised that he was afraid to kiss her, afraid to break the spell. "Scully." She put both arms around his neck, drew his head down. "Mulder." Their lips met; both trembling, barely touching. "Dana." Their hips met; burning together, fusing hard. "Fox." They kissed again; longer; deeper; harder. ******************************************* [END OF PART ONE] ******************************************* TITLE: FACE TO FACE part 2/2 AUTHOR: Magrat RATING: PG CLASSIFICATION: X/R SPOILERS: NONE KEYWORDS: MSR SUMMARY: Mulder & Scully investigate a town where passions are running high... DISTRIBUTION: anywhere so long as my name & addy is attached E-MAIL COMMENTS TO: moosifer_jones@geocities.com DISCLAIMER: usual, everything belongs to CC/1013/FOX except the things that don't. No infringement of copyright intended etc etc. 'Face to Face' words & music by Danny Elfman, recorded by Siouxsie & the Banshees 1992. But all the rest is mine... AUTHOR'S NOTE(S): (i) This story has at its heart the Siouxsie Sioux song "Face to Face" which was written by Danny Elfman for Catwoman in Batman Returns. Watch the movie or listen to the song if you can. Wrowl! (ii) I sort of wanted to write an American Gothic x-over, but this story resisted the move to Trinity. (iii) I'm not a 'shipper! not! not!! NOT!!! ************************************ FACE TO FACE 2/2 by Magrat ************************************ Scully woke with the unfamiliar warmth of an arm across her belly; his arm; his warm, sated smell as he slept next to her. They hadn't resisted any longer. She could barely remember getting back to the motel; just the desire that had engulfed them. The first quick, urgent hunger for completion and then the slow, wonderfully, agonisingly slow, second bliss as they spent the rest of the night teasing each other physically, repeating the unresolved tensions of the past four years, refusing each others desire until they could bear it no longer. Just thinking about it made her want to stroke him awake, to watch his surprise as his mind caught up with his body's arousal. The stack of abandoned files on the desk reminded her why they were there. She slid from under his arm; maybe she could skim-read all the files before he woke and then she could slip back and pull him close again. Mulder awoke in Scully's bed. It took him a moment to register where he was, and to realise that she was sat at the desk, pouring through medical reports, sipping at some water. It was something he'd seen her do many times before but normally she wasn't wearing his shirt and he wasn't lying naked in a bed that smelt of recent sex. "Hey?" She turned at his voice and gave him a lustrous grin. "Hey." "I, erm..." "Yes. We did, Mulder. I don't think I've ever called anyone by their surname as I've climaxed before; or been called by mine." He grinned sheepishly at her. "Believe me, Scully, I didn't plan this..." "No, Mulder, I know. I do think, however, that it was intentional." "What? Well, I've wanted to for years but..." "Not us personally," she brought her notepad over and sat on the edge of the bed, tucking her hair behind her ear. He smiled when he saw she was wearing nothing but his shirt. "I've been looking through the blood work on all the victims. To surmise, every one of those corpses had a higher than average seratonin level, much higher. Yet there was no trace of MDMA or MDEA in their bloodstreams." "Ecstasy?" "The drug Ecstasy is normally MDMA cut with cocaine, amphetamines or just chalk. But it shows up, even days after being taken. There will still be a trace a week later. In all twelve cases there is no sign whatsoever, but the extreme seratonin levels are not natural." He sat up, careful to keep the sheets over his lower body, took a drink from the water glass by the bed. "How long before the effects would wear off?" "Normally, with Ecstasy, a withdrawal effect occurs after a few hours due to the drug being cut with other substances. When pure MDMA was tested in a lab, the effects lasted longer; up to forty-eight hours." "Are you suggesting the victims were drugged?" "Not just the victims, the whole town. You've seen how happy and loving everyone is around here, " she blushed faintly, "and, Mulder, I checked the police reports; all the perpetrators were locals who had been out of town for over two days." "Also, they only share one motive, they're all crimes of passion," he grinned at the word, considering how they had spent the night, "so you think the perpetrators were acting aggressively because they were on a giant comedown?" "It seems that way, Mulder. I just don't understand why, or how." " No, it makes some sort of sense, Scully. What better way to control a population than to drug them into happiness? I think we may have stumbled upon an experiment, a trial run of a social control drug." He leaned forward as he explained, putting a hand on her thigh. Scully found herself thinking unprofessional thoughts. "We should visit Sheriff Buck, " she protested but Mulder had felt her response. "It's early, Scully, he'll still be in bed." The phone rang, distracting them. Mulder grabbed it. "Mulder." "Oh, good morning Agent Mulder, it's Sheriff Buck, I was trying to reach Agent Scully. I know it's early but could you both come over to Shannon Avenue; there's been another murder." ******************************************* "He was found this morning. Apparently Suzie came back from a week long business trip this morning and killed her husband before turning the gun on herself. She left a note." Buck handed the note, already in a plastic evidence bag, over to Scully. She ignored the look he gave them both whilst she quickly read the note. "Did you enjoy your meal last night?" he asked in an innocent tone of voice. "Yes," Mulder answered for them," the local wine lives up to its reputation." Buck raised an eyebrow but couldn't really come back on that. "Same motives as before, Mulder," she said, steering the conversation back to the cases. She moved over to the bodies in the kitchen and knelt over them. A cursory exam showed that they had both indeed been shot. She looked up at one of the attending officers, "Can I have the blood work done on these two as soon as possible?" Mulder was looking around the room, trying to see a possible link to the other cases. There must be something they were ingesting that was the cause of the seratonin levels, but he could see nothing. He left Scully instructing the police about exactly what tests she wanted down and went out into the small courtyard garden, looking up into the sky. Could the drug, assuming their hypothesis was right, be being administered via the air? No, that was crazy, even for him. There wouldn't be enough control; and control was essential if it was an experiment. As he brought his gaze back down, he realised that a woman was leaning over the fence from next door, trying to get his attention. She looked as though she had moved to California in the Summer of Love and never quite come back from the trip. Her body language was all over the place, she couldn't stop moving for a second. "Hey, FBI man! Wanna know why they're nuts round here?" "Yes, I would." She glanced round furtively and giggled slightly. She kept looking at the Sheriff and Scully, visible in the kitchen. Mulder revised his opinion; she had *definitely* not come back to Earth after the Sixties. "Check out the water," she nodded urgently," I don't drink it see? I only drink rainwater, nothing unnatural. There's stuff in the water; didn't used to be, when I came the water was all perfect but now..." she shook her head, "they put stuff in it...I tasted it." "In the tap water? Who put it there?" She shook her head again and put a finger to her lips," spring water, tap water, men in suits, black suits, I *seen* them..." The woman looked over his shoulder and ducked away. Mulder looked around to see Scully and Sheriff Buck standing behind him. Buck nodded over the fence. "That's just Mad Margaret, she's been like that for years, sees conspiracies everywhere." "She said something about the spring water...?" Buck shrugged, "Oh that's one of her little theories, that and the alien insects. Why, the whole town drinks the spring water, it's where the tap supply comes from." Scully could see the tumblers clicking over in her partner's face, he took hold of the Sheriff's arm, "The whole town drinks the water? And the wine is produced using it?" He was already pulling the Sheriff away, but he called back over his shoulder, "Scully, check the water for unusual chemicals, and the wine!" "Mulder? Where are you going?" "To check out the source!" She turned back to the house with an inaudible sigh; looks like things are back to normal, she thought. *************************************** Mulder banged his palm against the car roof, "There was nothing there, Scully! No sign of anything going on. They *must* have been warned." Scully struggled over to the car boot with her bags, Mulder ignoring her efforts, as usual. Things were definitely back to normal. They hadn't mentioned the previous night at all. She didn't feel uncomfortable about it; they had both wanted it to happen, they had both enjoyed it, they were both adults who knew sex didn't necessarily mean love. She didn't know why she had expected his manner towards her to change; maybe because she had thought, felt, there to be more than sex there, their eyes had expressed so much more. "Well, we've got the test results, Mulder. Not that they are conclusive; there is a substance which shouldn't be in a water supply and it is also present in the wine," she clunked open the boot as she talked and tried to heave her bags in, looking at Mulder all the time, "the substance was absent from Suzie's body, present in her husband's. It doesn't prove if the substance was added by MIB's or was there naturally, but it's something." Her bag wouldn't fit. Scully looked down into the boot of the car. There were two crates of the local wine taking up most of the space. Looking up, she caught Mulder's wide, wicked, loving grin, "Dinner at mine, tonight, Scully?" **************************************** THE END **************************************** be gentle with me, it's my first.... e-mail addy: moosifer_jones@geocities.com