From: Rina Jans <rina@bossina.nl>
Date: Mon, 3 May 99 11:58:31 +0100
Subject: The Final Phile 1/2

Title:		The Final Phile  1/2

Author:	MacMiep  (rina@bossina.nl)

Category:	Conspiracy/MSR

Spoilers:	Season 5 / Fight the Future

Rating:	TRA

Summary:	Story about the last episode(s) of the X-files

Warning:	Violence and romance ahead

Disclaimer:	The names and characters used in this story are not mine.
They are owned by Chris Carter, Fox and Ten Thirteen Productions.
I've used them without permission. I just wanted to amuse myself (and
hopefully others).

Feedback: 	This is my first fanfic. Tried to make it suspenseful.
Would like to know if I succeded. Friendly, 	constructive criticism
is welcomed and appreciated. 		

Dedication:	To US-Philes Starbuck (Jessica) and Catwoman for
inspiring and encouraging me to start with this.

Thanks to:	Elizabeth Flynn, for editing this story (what was a hell
of a job, as I'm not a native English writer -- I'm Dutch). And to my
Dutch beta-readers: Askey/Spectre and BlueSylph.

******


The Final Phile  1/2


Reservation desk of Hotel Flying Dishes, Roswell, New Mexico.

"What? This can't be. I made those reservations myself just the
other day!"

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but I only have one room vacant at the
moment. We're completely full because of the UFO conference. And
there has been a telephone call this morning that the reservations
should be changed. It was somebody from the Federal Bureau of
Investigation."

As the receptionist speaks, Mulder comes in, carrying the luggage.
Scully turns around: "Mulder, did you make that call?"  Her voice
is full of suspicion. 

But before he can answer, the receptionist says: "No no, that call
was made by a woman." Mulder smiles, and although he doesn't know
what the discussion is about, he says: "You see, Scully, you
can't always blame it on the men."

She just sighs. "All right. You said it's no use to find another
hotel in the neighbourhood?"

"Yes, ma'am, like I said."

And while signing the guestbook, Scully grumbles: "Well, then we
just have to fit in, I suppose." The receptionist just shrugs his
shoulders.

As they stand in the elevator together in silence, Mulder watches her
carry only one key. "Afraid to lose a pillow-fight, Scully?" he
says with a big grin. 

"Behave yourself, Mulder. Otherwise, you may sleep on the floor."

When they arrive at their room, Mulder throws the bags on the huge
bed and leaves immediately. Scully follows him to the door:
"Mulder, where are you going?"

"Oh, don't wait for me, I have to run some errands. I'll see
you in about an hour," and that's all he tells her before he
steps into the elevator again. 

Scully just turns around and slams the door. Dammit, she thinks, he
has something in mind and he won't tell me what. The same old song
again. Just trying to protect me by just leaving me out of it.
Mulder.... She sighs. It indeed is not the first time he has done
that. Well, she muses, I'll just start unpacking. Should have
gotten used to this years ago.

Standing in the elevator, Mulder thinks about the same and just bites
on his lip. Why do I always do that? he wonders. She's strong.
There isn't a thing she can't handle. I've known her for so
long that I should rely on it, but it seems as the years pass by, I
only get more protective. Well, I don't want to think about it
anymore.

He shakes his head slightly and walks out of the hotel. But the
thought remains. He's just too afraid to admit to himself that He's
scared of something happening to her because of his impulsive
behavior. She has gone through so many horrible things because of
that. He wants to protect her. But you just hurt her now by not
telling her what you have in mind, a voice tells him over and over.
Yes, each time he does this, there is that small voice in his head.
The same voice that wants him to pour his heart out to her. Tell her
the reason for his protective behavior. Well, maybe in another life,
he sighs as he steps into the car again. Seconds later, he turns on
the car radio just to forget about it and drives off.

The agents were assigned to the UFO conference in Roswell to
investigate some new UFO sightings that had happened shortly before.
Mulder also wants to get some new data from spotters and hear their
stories. But shortly before he drove to the airport this morning, he
received an anonymous letter. Somebody asked him to come to an old
factory facility just outside town. There was an odd sentence in it:
"Before I step out of this life, I want to give you something you
have searched for for years, Mr. Mulder."

In the rear mirror, he can see there's a thunderstorm on its way to
Roswell. "Well, I don't think we'll keep it dry tonight,"
Mulder sighs. About a few miles ahead, suddenly a large bolt of
lightning strikes the ground. "That's odd," Mulder muses.
"The storm hasn't reached that point yet." The air is clear,
and he can see some stars. Nothing else. He decides not to dwell on
it and continues to drive, but faster. He's running late.
Hopefully, his contact will wait.

When he finally gets there, about half an hour late, according to the
letter, there's no one waiting for him. No car. He shuts down the
lights and gets out. Maybe the other person didn't expect him to
come this late. Just before he's about to get back into his car
again, the increasing wind blows a strange smell. It takes him a
while to recognize the smell of burning rubber. He shuts his car door
again and walks into the wind. At an open area, the smell suddenly
disappears. Mulder walks back, realizing he must just have passed the
place which causes it. 

Then he sees it. A blackened spot in the sand. He pushes at the sand
with his shoe, and in the beam of his flashlight, the black spot is
getting bigger. Something has burned here recently and someone has
tried to cover it up with fresh desert sand. He walks back to his car
to get a spade. 

The covered burned ground is about the size of a car. At the left
side of it, where the driver's door could have been, there's an
other spot. Mulder gets on his knees and it takes only one sniff to
recognize it: burned flesh.

He concludes that a car had been standing here; the driver stood next
to it. Then something came and burned them away. It must have
happened very fast and it had no effect on the surroundings. The
desert grass around hasn't been affected. To Mulder, it looks like
the spontaneous self immolations he saw once, but what about the car?
A car can't burn like this. 

Then he remembers the strange lightning. Mulder leans on his spade
and thinks. Was this the person he was supposed to have met?
Probably. The ground still feels warm; this did not happen long ago.
But what was his contact going to tell him? Was it so important that
he or she had to be eradicated? Scully has to see this, he thinks.
Maybe she can make something out of it. 

Just before he walks back, something cracks under his foot. It's a
small lead box, just close to the burned spot. It is blackened with
soot, but seems intact. Mulder realizes that it's the only thing
that survived the accident. It could be a clue to what happened here,
Mulder thinks. He also takes some samples of the soot.

There's nothing else what could be of other importance, and so
Mulder drives back to town. Just before he gets back into the hotel,
the thunderstorm finally breaks out. He realizes it's no use to go
back there now. The rain will wipe out most tracks and it would be
difficult to see because of the darkness.

As he steps back into their room, Mulder hears the shower going. He
immediately wants to tell Scully about what he's discovered and
finds himself waiting in front of the bathroom door. As the
waterstream goes on for several minutes, he gets impatient and knocks
on the door. "Scully, are you finished?"

"Yeah, just a minute," and as the water stops: "Mulder,
what's up? What took you so long?"

"I've got some news. I have to show you something. Can I come
in?" he asks, his hand on the doorknob. She hasn't locked the
door.

"Have you ever seen a naked woman before, Mulder?" her voice
sounds severe from behind the bathroom door. 

"No, not that I recall," Mulder answers, trying to sound deadly
serious.

"Well, it has to happen sooner or later, doesn't it" she says
as the door swings open. 

Mulder's eyes widen and he whistles. "You didn't ask me if I
ever saw a beautiful one," he says without moving a muscle in his
face. 

Scully leans challengingly against the shower door. Her hair is
wrapped up in a towel, and she's wearing a bathrobe. "Well, what do
you have?" she says, trying to be serious, but he can see she's
blushing. 

Mulder shows her the samples and evidence he found. They sit down on
the bed together as Scully looks at them. She gets up and walks
across the room to get some tools out of her medical bag to study the
evidence. 

Meanwhile, Mulder cannot keep his eyes of her. It's obvious she
hadn't used a towel before she put on the bathrobe. The contours of
her body are perfectly shown. Yes, he has seen her naked before, so
the cloth holds few secrets, but he has never really watched her. He
has never watched her like this. "Mulder, I'm talking to you." 

He startles. You fool, he thinks, angry with himself, keep in focus
on the case.

"Mulder. I realize you don't see things like these every day, but
could you please stay in focus?" she says as if she can read his
thoughts. She could feel his eyes on her as she walked through the
room to get her magnifying-glass. To her own surprise, it did not
make her feel uncomfortable at all. 

"Sorry, Scully, I guess I'm just tired," he tries to excuse
himself.

"I need a microscope to do this right. So why don't you go and
take a shower now? We can do this in the morning. Tell me about it
later, I'm tired too."

"You're probably right. And by the way: I can't wait to hop
into the bed with you," he says with a big grin. 

"Well, in that case, you'd better get yourself cleaned up,
Mulder, because otherwise, you do sleep on the floor!"

One look at himself convinces him she's right. His clothes are
covered with dirt. Mulder takes his bag and heads for the shower.
When he comes out, Scully is already in the double bed. 

"I see you've already chosen a side," Mulder says with a smile
while slipping in. He's only wearing his boxers, and Scully
immediately speaks her opinion about that.

"Mulder, do you have to sleep like this?" 

He answers he normally does, but if she's getting excited by it, he
would consider to get rid of the shorts too. She turns around,
saying: "Mulder, get some sleep."
 
Mulder turns out the light and everything stays quiet until about ten
minutes later. She feels cold and moves around a bit. Mulder, lying
next to her some distance away, speaks irritatedly: "Scully, could
you lie still for just five minutes? I can't sleep when you keep
moving like that." She apologizes for being cold. 

Mulder reacts ironically: "What? You're lying in a bed with the
sexiest man in the FBI and you tell me you're cold? Women!" 

"Mulder, don't make a joke out of it. We only have one blanket
and are lying two miles from each other."

Mulder turns around, gets himself closer to her and starts rubbing
her back with his hands. "That better?" After doing that for a
while, he impulsively wraps his arm and legs around her. To him, it
feels completely natural to do this, and to his amazement, Scully
doesn't argue at all. She must be too tired, he thinks. But then,
he feels her pulling his arm tighter around her waist, and he
realizes she's as comfortable with this as he is. And so he gets
himself even closer and they fall asleep, warm and relaxed.

While they are sleeping, a woman is yawning at a monitor placed in
the room above. She did not expect this to be such a dull job.
Suddenly, her cell phone rings and a voice asks: "And how are they
doing?"

The woman watches her monitor. "Well, she still has her pajamas on.
They've actually been sleeping for about half an hour now. We
should have put some kind of aphrodisiac in the drinking water,
sir," the woman says, smiling faintly. 

"What?! You mean they just went to sleep?"

"Yes sir. I'm sorry, sir."

"Okay, that's it for now. I'm calling you back in."

"But sir, it still can happen. She is lying in his arms right now,
would that be enough?"

"Is she?"

"Yes, sir, but I think the only reason for that is that she said
she felt cold."

The man ends their conversation by saying that if something was going
to happen, it would have happened by now. He puts down the phone and
turns to the small, dark room, where a few other men are talking
quietly. They have already noticed that this night did not bring the
expected to happen. 

He briefs them shortly about the new involvements. After that, they
discuss the situation. "Well, we thought we were well-informed, but
I suppose we were wrong about them." The other: "Just like I
said, they won't be so stupid to blow it all now." "But we need
to stop them before they realize how close they are," the other man
argues. 

As he says that, another man stands up and turns to look outside the
window. "Are they? I thought that problem was solved. Mulder will
find nothing in Roswell."
 
"They do not even know how to find the truth about each other, how
will they find the truth about us?" Everybody is laughing, except
the man from the phone. "Don't make a joke out of this,
gentlemen, we just have to stop them before they get at something. It
indeed was my idea to try to let it come out that they are lovers and
it seems to you that I have failed, but you don't have to push it
under my nose," the man said, obviously irritated. 

"We have to find a way to separate them. How about our man in the
FBI?" he suggested. "Well, like I told you, he's the only one
left there. We can't risk losing his cover by making him accuse
them over and over. They know there's a mole. He has to keep quiet
for now. If we lose him, we lose everything."

"But we still can create a situation to embarrass them," another
says. "Just let my men do their job and I'll get you a picture
that a porn magazine would not resist."

"No. It has to be natural. If you fake anything and embarrass them,
they will just fight it and get stronger. To embarrass or blackmail
them is not the clue. The only way they really become vulnerable is
when they do get romantically involved, that will be their Achilles
heel. That's what we really need."

"Maybe we just have to give them a case in which some romance is
implied?"

The man with the cigarette hasn't spoken a word until now. "I
have heard of an interesting case in Florida that needs to become an
X-file. And it will lead them off the topic. Buy us some time."

"Well, the trick with the single room has missed its impact, so I
suppose you give it a try." The Cigarette-Smoking Man picks up the
phone, and a few hundred miles away, a woman shuts down her monitor,
packs her equipment and leaves her hotel room. 

Just after that, one floor below, Scully awakes for no particular
reason. Or maybe it's because of Mulder's weight, leaning against
her. His arm and one of his legs are still nestled around her. She
can feel his heart, beating close to hers. The regularity of his
breathing and heartbeat tells her he's in a deep sleep. She shivers,
although she's completely warm now; this is one of the moments
she's dreamt of but could never imagine happening. His right arm is
close around her, his hand under her tummy, the warm breath on her
neck. 

It has been a while since she felt this way: completely safe. Maybe
long ago, as a child in her mother's arms. When Mulder offered to
warm her feet, she first thought it might not be a proper thing to
do, but he was a gentleman and, to be true, she loved it. 

She slowly turns around and rolls Mulder gently on his back. She then
lies still, her face against his shoulder and her arm on his chest.
So warm. In the twilight, his sleeping face looks so relaxed, so
innocent. No emotions to hide, just peace. She never expected to see
him that way. But now she does and by just lying there and looking at
him, she suddenly feels an upcoming desire. 

Slowly, her fingers follow the profile of his neck and shoulders. She
feels as if she wants to touch him with her lips, but then she
realizes it just can't be. So she only kisses him on the shoulder
very softly so he won't notice. Then she presses her face against
it and closes her eyes again. Soon she falls asleep again with a
faint smile.

Later that night, Mulder is moving around. His face is streaming with
perspiration; he's having one of his nightmares. In it, he's
leaving the hotel again, just like he did that evening, without
telling Scully where he went. 

As he walks to his car, she stands in front of the window, looking at
him with her arms crossed, obviously upset. He can see she's
crying. Just as she turns after he realizes this, an enormous
explosion destroys the hotel. Scully is thrown out of the window by
the force, and when Mulder turns around again, he sees her flying
through the air, surrounded by a cloud of glass and fire. Then as he
hurries to find her, he does -- she's lying dead on the street. He
realizes that, if he had let her go with him, she would be alive by
now. That's the moment he wakes up, frightened.

For a moment, he feels panic, but then he sees Scully still lying
asleep next to him. He breathes a sigh of relief as he feels her arm
around his chest and her face pressed against his shoulder. Watching
her silently, he feels the upcoming desire to touch her. He's leaning
in as if he's going to touch her face with his lips and kiss her
awake, but he changes his mind at the last moment. He gently kisses
her on the top of her head and then lies his forehead against it,
careful not to awake her. Then he takes her hand and holds it close
to his heart. 

***

In the morning, Scully doesn't get a chance to investigate the
evidence Mulder found. As soon as they get up, Skinner calls and
orders them to Florida, to investigate a more urgent case, according
to his superiors. Mulder protests, realizing that they now have the
chance to get close to something crucial, but the Bureau wants them
there. So they take a flight back to Washington to be briefed by
Skinner. 

In a small village in Florida there have been five people killed
under suspicious circumstances. Together with these killings came
stories about ghost sightings by a large number of the village's
inhabitants. The entities appeared to these people while they were
sleeping. They fulfilled the pleasant dreams they had first, but
turned them into nightmares almost immediately. As if dreams come
true, but in a negative way.

Skinner tells them the witnesses who survived and gave their
testimony weren't specific about the true nature of the dreams, but
just described them as "private" or "erotic." All the victims
died of suffocation. They all carried small bruises and spots all
over their bodies, especially in the lower chest region. 

As he reads the dossier again in the plane, Mulder just has to
chuckle about it. 

Scully's opinion is obviously different. "Mulder, this isn't
funny. Five people were killed here. And I can't believe it's all
because of just some erotic dreams that became real."

"Haven't you seen that James Bond movie?"

"Which one?"

"The one with the femme fatale who killed her lovers with her
thighs ... or did you just keep your eyes focused on -- what's his
name -- Pierce Brosnan?"

"Mulder, I have seen that movie, yes, and I noticed the girl but
Brosnan isn't my type."

"Oh, that leaves some hope for me, then?" says Mulder with a big
grin. 

"Well, sometimes, I just think you act more like James Bond than an
FBI agent, Mulder ...."

"Hmmmm... you know James Bond gets all the women he wants."

Their conversation is interrupted by the pilot announcing that they
are about to land. Scully just stares intently out of the window,
although there is nothing to see yet because of the darkness. She's
glad the pilot ended their conversation just in time. After last
night, she feels a bit sensitive, although she tries to hide it from
Mulder. They never were so close for such a long time. She has no
regrets at all, but there's something in the air now that gives her
a restless feeling. It obviously didn't affect him -- he's just
the same as ever, talking, making jokes. Or is he really? She has
doubts. Maybe he's just trying to hide it, as always. But his eyes
cannot lie to her.

And as her mind thinks this over, she suddenly feels his hand. It's
touching hers very gently, whitch gives her goosebumps. She knows his
eyes are on her again, but she doesn't meet his gaze. To her
relief, the lights of the airport can be seen just then and she leans
toward the window to get a better sight. She can see Mulder's
reflection shake his head slightly with a faint grin after removing
his hand slowly. 

After a two-hour flight and another one driving in a rental car, they
arrive late at night in the small village. The local police station
is closed so they decide to go straight to their motel, where they
both have rooms in standard FBI protocol for agents on tour. Tired as
they are, they immediately go to their rooms to get some sleep.

A few hours later, while Mulder is lying asleep, a red-haired naked
woman suddenly appears from out of nowhere and slips into Mulder's
bed. Without hesitation, she starts to kiss and touch him on his
chest and neck. Mulder awakes slowly, opens his eyes and recognizes
her. 

Before he can even finish the words: "Scully? What are you doing in
my bed?" she kisses him on the mouth. 

After a moment of amazement, Mulder begins to respond to her kisses
and touches. 

It is obvious they are going to make love, but when Mulder tries to
roll her over to get some breath, she throws him roughly back on his
pillow. He starts to struggle to get loose, but she grabs his arm
firmly and twists it against his back, hurting him.

"Scully, what are you doing? This is not you!" 

He struggles again to get loose, but she's too strong. When he turns
his head away from her continuing kisses, she begins to squeeze him
with her thighs, so firmly that he has trouble breathing. Soon his
face turns purple. 

Then suddenly, just when Mulder is about to lose consciousness, he
hears Scully screaming from behind the connecting doors to the next
room. "Mulder, open the door, wake up!" 

He tries desperately to let out a sound, but he can't. He's going
to start blacking out, and he can't stop it.

Everything stays quiet for a while. But not for long. After a few
seconds, the door is kicked in and the real Scully runs in, her
service weapon aimed. In front of their eyes, the woman under which
Mulder is lying vanishes.

Mulder gets himself up in the bed, frightened, catching his breath.
"That woman was about to suffocate me!"

"Oh God, she looked exactly like me." Scully watches Mulder's
red face, concern written on hers. 

He smiles, rubbing his jaw. "I didn't know that you were such a
wild woman, Scully." 

"So I thought the same of you," she says seriously. "I think we
both were fooled here." She sits on the bed and sighs. "I managed
to get rid of him."

They look at each other in amazement, realizing what would have
happened, if...  

"I don't know about you, but I'm not going to sleep alone this
night," she says. 

Mulder pats at the blankets. "Well, you're welcome, but only if you
behave yourself." 

Scully gets up, shuts the door and slips into bed next to Mulder, her
gun under her pillow. 

After he turns out the light, Mulder whispers in her ear: "If you
have plans to seduce me, please ask before you jump on me." 

Scully smiles faintly before she falls asleep.

In the morning, Scully opens her eyes. The watch on the nightstand
says it's half past seven and she decides to get up and take a
shower. She tries to get up, but notices that Mulder's arm is
around her waist, holding her close. She lies still for a moment,
listening to him breathe. 

Then he stirs and she speaks to him: "Mulder, are you awake? I
would like to get up, but you're holding me." 

He murmurs something like: "Mmmuuuh... what time is it?" 

"Half past seven."

"Oh no, that's much too early," Mulder says, clearly still
half-asleep. He pulls her closer to bury his face between her neck
and the pillow, not willing to let her loose: "Mmm ... you're so
warm. Stay." 

Scully tries to get loose again and Mulder awakes. "I warn you. I
took wrestling at high school," he says, smiling, his eyes still
closed. 

"Well, in that case I don't have a choice, do I?" she asks. 

"No."

Scully relaxes and closes her eyes again. They lie still for a
moment. Mulder relaxes, and that's the moment she's been waiting
for. She grabs his arm, flips him quickly and pulls her arm around
his back with one knee under his arm. She folds her hands together
and gets herself lying on his chest, squeezing him. Mulder is
overwhelmed, and before he can react, he is trapped. He tries to get
loose, but it's no use. 

"I took some judo at college!" Scully says with a laugh. "This
is called =8Cmoone-ka-ta-me,' the third ground-fighting grip."

Mulder, embarrassed by his defeat, again tries to get loose. But her
grip is steady, so he grasps her in the side and tickles her, making
her giggle. For a while, they wrestle around a bit for fun, until
finally, Mulder has her back in his grip again and turns her over.
Then, at the same moment, they both stop laughing and he lets go, a
bit embarassed. 

Scully smiles: "You see, Mulder, a woman can always defeat a man,
even in bed."

"Oh yeah?" His eyes are burning: "How can you say that if you
haven't seen the whole program?" 

Suddenly, the atmosphere is changing from laughter into something
else. A moment they both realize they are at a point they could lose
their self-control. To just let happen what must happen. 

He gently brushes her hair out of her face and looks her in the eye.
As if by a magnetic pull, he slowly moves his face closer to hers,
intending to kiss her. The same sensation makes Scully lift her head
toward his. They both close their eyes, just about to touch, just as
a cell phone starts to ring. 

Scully seems to breathe a sigh of relief, even as Mulder hits his
forehead on the pillow: "Saved by the bell."

She turns around, takes the cell phone and answers it. As she does,
Mulder realizes that it is his, but it's too late. She passes it to
Mulder as soon as she realizes that it's Skinner for him. 

Soon, his color is rising, because Skinner makes it very clear that
he wants to know why Scully is picking up Mulder's phone in the
early morning, sounding drowsy.

While Mulder stammers, Scully gets up quickly and leaves for her own
room, to take a shower and get dressed. As she's having breakfast
in the dining room half an hour later, she watches Mulder running
outside. She smiles as she thinks about it and wonders what might
have happened if Skinner hadn't called. 

Her feelings are shaken up by this event. He's getting rid of his
energy now, she thinks. He must be realizing, the way she is, that
they both are vulnerable for these kind of situations. If they want
to keep their relationship professional, they have to avoid
situations like that one. 

Vulnerability toward each other, essential in a romantic
relationship, is out of the question in their profession. It's too
dangerous for that. But she has to admit to herself that the desire
is there. And the night proved that it is slumbering in both of them.
Oh, God, she thinks, I wanted it to happen. So badly. But it can't
be. It just can't. If we carry this thing through, we would be so
vulnerable. It would give Them an advantage. If they found out about
it, they could use it against us. That would end everything.

Deep in her heart, she knows she has to talk about this with Mulder.
But -- as always -- he keeps his feelings inside. So they do not talk
about it at all. In fact, for quite some time, they avoid looking in
each other's eyes longer than necessary, anxious as they are to
stir up the fire.

***

When the case is done, they go back to headquarters for a debriefing.
As soon as they are back in the building, one of their colleagues
walks up to them: "Skinner wants to see you both in his office
right away. He is really pissed off."
 
As they walk in, Scully starts in. "Mulder, we have to talk about
this. What are we going to tell him?" 

He keeps on walking, so she takes him by his arm. "Mulder, talk to
me. We have to hash this out first." 

Mulder stands still, looking around, obviously nervous. "I'll
think of something."

"Mulder, we have to get this clear. What are you going to say?"
she pulls him aside. 

He looks her in the eye. "You came to get me to go running." he
says and walks straight on.

Skinner asks both of them in separately. They both do their best to
hide their nervousness, and fortunately, he believes their story, or
at least acts like it. 

When Scully closes the door behind her, she finds Mulder just around
the corner of the hallway, hitting the vending machine for a soft
drink. After he succeeds in getting himself an iced tea, he turns
around. "Well? Did you survive?" 

"I'm okay, Mulder." 

Later, she realizes that it wasn't usual concern or anger in his
eyes. It was something else. But before she can bring with the
subject up again, duty calls. Skinner wants their report within the
hour. At least for now, the whole thing blows over. And will not be
spoken of again.

In Skinner's office, a phone rings. "Well? Did they have a
plausible explanation?" 

Skinner answers: "Yes, sir, they did. It is nothing to worry
about."

And in some other room at FBI headquarters, a phone is slammed down.
"Dammit!" 

That Friday night, in a dark room somewhere in Washington, a man is
watching a videotape. He still finds it difficult to believe the two
agents did not use the opportunity to get in some romance. It was him
who sent the female agent out there. Just to watch them love each
other. The tape failed to register that, but the talking about the
evidence Mulder brought in that night is much more interesting. He
immediately picks up his phone. 

"I just watched the video our woman in Roswell made last week. She
overlooked something more important." 

It takes his companion a few minutes to get there. After he has seen
it, the first man says: "We know our man wanted to hand all the
information he had over to them before he faded. We searched the
place and found nothing. Mulder did. This video proves it. Check out
what it is. If it's important, get it. No restrictions, this has
top priority. And no mistakes this time!"

It is also not until that weekend that Scully gets a chance to
investigate the small lead box Mulder found back in New Mexico. At
home, she has a small microscope, and together they look at the small
piece of material inside. 

"It's microfilm, Mulder. It carries traces of burning. Maybe
someone tried to destroy it, but the lead box gave it some
protection. You can see the material partly melted into the box used
to store it." 

Mulder bends over to the microscope. Cheek to cheek, they observe the
subject. He spontaneously pulls his arm around her waist and kisses
her cheek, smiling: "Dr. Scully, you're just great. I had no idea
what it was, but it had to be important." 

Then he tells her where and how he found it. It's no use to go back
there now, but they do have this. "But how do we find out what's
on the film?" 

Scully feels herself blushing, but stays with the subject. "Well, I
can't do this at home. First, we have to get the film out of the
melted material, and then ..." 

"Would you care for some pizza? I'll pay." Scully looks
surprised at Mulder's smile. "I'll go get some wine, or do you
have some in -house? We can do that tomorrow," he says as he points
to the microscope.
 
After a moment of amazement, Scully stands up and walks into her
kitchen. When she returns with a bottle of red wine, Mulder has
already taken up the phone and called for pizza delivery. They sit
down at the couch together for a while, in silence, sipping their
wine. 

That's odd, Scully thinks, when Mulder found some important
evidence, he used to push the whole world aside and make us
investigate all the ins and outs immediately. What's keeping him
from it this time? She looks at her partner. He's lying back on her
couch, his eyes closed, sipping the wine. He's up to something, she
thinks. But what? Maybe he's just tired.

"Scully?" His voice sounds hoarse. 

Before he can continue, the doorbell rings. Mulder looks at his
watch. "That's quick. It usually takes them over fifteen minutes
just to deliver the pizza." 

Scully walks to the door. "Who's there?" 

"Pizza." 

As she lays her hand on the doorknob, a terrifying feeling that
something is completely wrong comes up to Mulder. It makes him react
in a quarter of a second. 

He runs toward her, the last few feet diving through the air, just
before bullets explode through the door. He screams. Scully falls on
her side with Mulder on her and just after she realizes what's
happening, the door is kicked in. 

She had taken off her holster as soon as she got home, but Mulder
still has his on. With one shot fired, Scully shoots the masked man
down. Then she extricates herself from underneath Mulder and checks
if the man came alone. 

There's no one else in the hallway. After she makes sure the
man's dead -- bullet right in his skull -- she turns to Mulder,
lying motionless on the floor. 

On the carpet below him, there's a big red circle growing very
fast. 

"Oh my God. Mulder!" 

Scully kneels beside him and turns him over. He groans. It takes her
no more than a second to see that this is bad, very bad. He has taken
a hit or two in his belly, and the wounds are very severe. Quickly,
she takes a pillow from the couch and pushes it on the wounds. Her
next move is to the phone, but when she goes to make the 911 call,
she notices the line's dead. Her cellphone also isn't working.
Just when she searches for Mulder's, one of her neighbors shouts
from out of the hallway. 

"Miss Scully, are you allright?" 

"Do you have a cell phone?" she shouts back.

"Yes." 

"Call 911, there's a federal agent down here!" she shouts as
she runs toward her kitchen to get some towels. As she returns,
Mulder is still conscious, although barely. 

"I've made the call, they are coming. Oh my God." Her neighbor
steps back as he sees the dead man on the floor and Mulder in pain a
few feet away. "Can I do something?" 

Scully's medical brain is working at high speed. The ambulance can
be here within five minutes. Mulder can be in hospital in fifteen, on
the operating table within half an hour? 

"Yes, you can help me. Lift him by his legs so I can roll a bandage
around his belly." Her neighbor does as he's told and she quickly
winds a sheet around Mulder's waist tightly, in a desperate attempt
to slow the bleeding. 

"Keep his legs high now," she says as she goes to get some
pillows and a blanket. 

Mulder watches their efforts in silence. He can tell it's bad. 

"Scully..." he whispers. 

"Don't talk now, Mulder, spare your strength." She kneels
beside him and takes his hand. It's cold. He closes his eyes, to
concentrate on the warmth of her fingers around his. "You have to
hold on, Mulder, the ambulance will be here right away. Keep
conscious."

"The.. the .. evidence.. save it, Scully. He probably came for
that. We could have them with this..." 

"Mulder, don't talk." 

"I have to, I'm so tired... wanna sleep.." He closes his eyes
and Scully realizes that this is the first sign that he's losing
the fight. 

"Mulder, stay with me!" 

He opens his eyes just for a brief moment. And as the sound of the
ambulance's siren gets louder, Mulder can feel the life fading from
his body. He's still losing blood, and his hands are getting very
cold now. 

"Pull his legs higher!" Scully shouts at her neighbor, who still
stands silently beside them. And to Mulder: "Come on, Mulder, stay
with me." She slaps him in the face in desperation: "Don't you
die on me now!"

Mulder opens his eyes again. He wants to say something, but he's
almost too weak to make himself understood. Scully gets her ear close
to his mouth to understand what he's whispering. 

"Then give me something worth living for."

With her face close to his, Scully looks him in the eye. She cups his
face in her hands and kisses him on the mouth, very gently for a few
seconds, without speaking a word. 

They keep their eyes locked until the ambulance personnel show up and
take him away. After quickly taking the evidence from her microscope,
Scully follows them to the elevator. Mulder's eyes are open, still
focused on her, as if he is forcing himself to hold on, concentrating
on her, remembering that she's the one to live for.

Outside, Assistant Director Skinner and a few colleagues are just
stepping out of their cars just as she is about to step into the
ambulance. "Agent Scully, what happened?" 

"I'm sorry, sir, I'll have to tell you later -- I..." 

"Agent Scully! Mulder is being taken care of now, there's nothing
you can do!" but before he can prevent her from getting into the
ambulance, she gets in and it leaves. 

"Dammit!" 

Skinner even gets more angry as a young boy walks up to him: "Did
somebody order a pizza? Mister?" 

On the way to the hospital, with one hand, Scully holds Mulder's.
"Tell them to prepare the operating room and have three bags of
O-negative* blood ready in the ER! And have a surgeon bring in a deep
line as soon as he gets there!" she shouts at the driver, who's
informing the nearest hospital by radio. 

Then she turns her attention back to Mulder. He is still conscious,
but too weak to speak. She can't think of anything to say to him
without betraying how frightened she is, so the ride goes on in
silence. There are many thoughts spinning around in their minds right
now. Mulder doesn't feel any pain as long as he keeps his eyes on
Scully. He never thought she would go for this, he realizes.
Scully's just scared. Losing him scares the hell out of her. And it
has nothing to do with the job they're working on.

At the hospital, Mulder goes straight to surgery. When he's on the
operating table, a nurse walks up to her. 

"Are you all right, ma'am?" 

This is not a surprising question, Scully notes, as her clothes are
soaked with blood. 

The nurse shows her to a small bathroom to clean herself up. In front
of the mirror, seeing herself covered with blood, Scully bursts into
tears. For the first time in her medical career, she felt real panic.
One part of her, the calm doctor in her, just did what she had to do:
give first aid and shout orders. But the other part of her, the real
Dana, came shining through just that moment she thought she'd
really lose Mulder. The personal side she always tried to keep away
in her profession. 
She had showed her real self to Mulder, afraid as she was to lose
him. Was it an attempt to make a final statement? Show him she loved
him? 

She watches herself in the mirror, her vision troubled with tears.
Was it, Dana? She just lets the water stream around her hands, to
rinse the blood off. She hesitates. If he doesn't make it through
surgery, this will be the last ...

A knock on the door rouses her from her thoughts. 

"Agent Scully, are you in here?" It's Skinner's voice. 

"Yes sir, just a minute." 

Quickly, she washes her hands and face. Just before she goes back
out, she checks herself in the mirror again. Yes. Her serious face is
back again. Only someone who knew her well would notice the turmoil
of emotions behind it. She smiles. Mulder would.

Skinner is pacing up and down the hall as she comes out of the
bathroom. 

"Any news, sir?" 

"No, he's still in surgery. But what can you tell me? You just
walked out of a crime scene, agent! It wasn't necessary to escort
Mulder into the hospital, why did you refuse my orders?" 

"I'm sorry, sir, I was the only one who knew the circumstances
behind the incident. It should be me lying on the operating table. He
pushed me away from the door and got himself shot. He saved my
life."

"I understand. But don't let it affect you too deeply, agent
Scully. You would have done the same for him. It's part of the job.
Keep that in mind, whatever might happen." 

"Yes, sir."

"Now tell me what happened." 

Scully hesitates. Must she tell him about the microfilm? Mulder asked
her to keep quiet about it until they found out what it was they had
on their hands here. It is obvious the would-be assassin did not come
to kill them alone. He probably wanted something. But how did he
know? 

"We have evidence that the man you shot was bugging your room. He
had an laser-microphone on him that is used for that purpose. Your
neighbors at the other side of the street saw him exit their
building, just minutes before you shot him. What did you discuss?"

"Well, we just talked about the recent case and what to write in
our reports for you on Monday. Mulder ordered some pizza and I opened
a bottle of wine. But when the doorbell rang, it wasn't the
pizza." That last sentence comes out sounding bitter.

Meanwhile, the small plastic evidence bag is still in her pocket, but
she keeps her mouth shut. She always had her doubts about Skinner and
if it is so important to kill for she can't be careful enough.
First, though, she has to find out what's on the microfilm. 

"Let someone take you home now, Agent Scully. We'll discuss this
further tomorrow." 

"I'd like to wait here, sir, until Mulder comes out of
surgery." 

Skinner nodds. "Agents Willmore and Van Dyk will keep an eye on
you. If this was an assassination attempt, they might try again."
He touches her shoulder briefly and leaves. 

After a two-hour operation, the surgeon walks up to her. "Well, Dr.
Scully. He made it."

Scully lets out a breath of relief. "Can I see him?" 

"He's in the ICU now, but he's still unconscious. We'll keep
him that way for a while, just to make sure he's getting enough
rest. I know what a difficult patient he is. By the way, you did a
good job giving first aid." 

Scully tries to smile, but her mouth doesn't seem to move. 

"Fortunately, only one bullet did some real damage -- it ruptured a
vein. The other one just grazed him. And he lost a lot of blood, of
course. Other than that, he'll be fine."

At his bedside, she has to fight her tears. "Is this worth it,
Mulder? Dammit! You want to know the truth so desperately that even
if you could die for it, you would go on. It's always been that
way. And I thought I was different. I always thought it was your
quest, not mine. I always thought that I knew what was really
important in life. For you, your quest came always first. But I know
now that I'm as committed to that quest as deeply as you are.
Because I am committed to you, Fox Mulder. To you."

***

The next day, after coming back from a meeting with Skinner, Scully
finds the Lone Gunmen at Mulder's bedside. Mulder -- still kept
unconscious by his doctors -- has always trusted the Gunmen. That is
why she decides to ask their help with the recovery of the microfilm.
 

The day after she hands it over, when they meet again in the
hospital, Frohike takes her aside. "I looked at that half-burned
microfilm you gave me. It will take a while before I can make
something out of it. The material is partly melted in to what remains
of the container. How did you get it?" 

"Mulder found it a few weeks ago, somewhere in New Mexico. Probably
on a dead man. Can you make anything out of it? It could be the
reason for Mulder lying here." 

He raises his eyebrows. "This could be dangerous. We have to be
very careful. I'm trying to get the right equipment first. Don't
wanna spoil it."

It takes Mulder about a week to get himself released from the
hospital. According to his doctor and to Scully, this is much too
soon, but when he called her and asked her to come and pick him up,
she doesn't refuse. 

Just as she is about to leave home, her cellphone rings. It's
Frohike. He sounds very excited and asks her to come by as soon as
possible. 

"Oh and Scully, bring your laptop, will you?"

Scully hurries to pick Mulder up at the hospital. She tells him about
the call she got, and Mulder wants to go there immediately. Together
they drive to the Lone Gunmen's residence. On the road, they are
caught off-guard by the police and fire brigade, all in a hurry. A
police roadblock stops them in traffic just two blocks away. 

"What's going on?" Scully gets out of the car and shows her
badge to an officer. 

"Well, there has been a gas explosion. The fire brigade is checking
out the area for more leaks."

She leans back into the car. "Mulder, stay here. I'm going to
find out how we can get to the boys."

As she walks on on the pavement, constantly showing her badge, a
cloud of smoke hides the contours of the building she's trying to
find. Suddenly she sees it. That is, she doesn't. There is no
building. It's the Gunmen's. There's nothing left of it. 

There are a few ambulances across the street, but none of them
carries a body. 

"Are there any survivors?" Scully asks a fireman. 

"We're still looking, but I wouldn't put my money on it."

She turns around. Some distance away, a figure stands in the thin
smoke, head down and hands on his knees. After walking up to him, she
sees tears in his eyes, mixed with guilt. 

"They knew the risks, Mulder," she says. "So did you." 

"Yeah. But they weren't so lucky."  

Firemen are still searching for victims, but it becomes clear there
are no survivors. It doesn't take long before three bodies are
found. 

"Now we'll never know what that film was all about." Mulder
sighs. 

He's trembling on his feet, so Scully leads him back to her car. She
has to put her arm around him to support. The last few feet he can
barely walk, still weak and not fully recovered. 

Once they are at his apartment, she makes sure he lies down at his
couch. Together they watch the evening news. There's nothing about
the explosion.

"It isn't even on air, Mulder. They don't think it was a
bomb."

Then she remembers she still carries her laptop. She hasn't checked
her E-mail today, and as her daily habit, she plugs Mulder's phone
in to check it. At her own personal address she finds one message
that carries an attachment. It takes several minutes to download. As
she opens it, it comes out to be from the Gunmen.
 
Surprised, she shows it to Mulder. "Look, this was sent just a few
minutes before the explosion."

"They must have known something was about to go wrong," Mulder
says, watching the document on screen. "Frohike probably sent you
the scans he made from the microfilm." 

Scully double-clicks on the attached document to open it, but the
image that appears doesn't make any sense. 

"I still can't make anything out of it, Mulder." 

It is obvious that Frohike didn't send Scully an uncoded version of
the data. 

"Mulder, this is useless. We can't show this as evidence, even if
we could find the code he used."

"Hmmm ... let me think. You said this was sent a minute or so
before the explosion?" 

"If my watch is correct and if the police were accurate, yes."

"Well, then, he didn't have much time either to code this stuff.
It can't be too difficult."

But it is. No matter what he tries, Mulder can't figure out what code
Frohike was using. The investigation about the dead man in Scully's
apartment also does not take them very far. The man was an ex-Marine,
and that's it. He had been out of the service for more than 10
years, but there is no record of jobs, social service, no wife, no
family. No one to claim the body. 
 
Police investigation of the explosion that killed the Lone Gunmen
shows that it was a classic gas explosion. Officially, the FBI isn't
even involved in its investigation. The two agents have to work on it
in their spare time.

"Who ever did this did a very good job," Mulder sighs as he reads
the report. "Forensics found nothing at all that could indicate an
assassination." 

Maybe there's an answer in the scanned microfilm. But as neither one
of them is an expert in decoding stuff, it takes them a lot of time
to find the solution, as they are anxious to ask the FBI experts on
this for help.

Life returns to normal. One night, they again discuss the case, but
there's no clue. 

"They probably think that all the evidence was destroyed by the
murder of the Lone Gunmen," Mulder says, rereading the report yet
again. 

"We still have no evidence for that, Mulder. Maybe you're right,
but who ever did this did it very professionally." 

They are both sitting on the couch at Mulder's apartment.
Scully's PowerBook sits on the table, their service weapons next to
it, loaded and ready to shoot. The radio is on loud. Scully is
working with some effects in Adobe Photoshop. Maybe the scans were
coded with visual effects. Mulder already tried to alter the
data-encoding itself, but it just could be a visual effect within the
document.

Mulder watches her tiny hands move rapidly along the keyboard while
he reads aloud some possibilities from "A Visual Quickstart Guide
to Adobe Photoshop 5."
 
"Wait a minute ..." she takes off her glasses. "This could be
it!" 

By trying some different levels on the sharpening tool and increasing
it, the picture is getting clearer. 

"That's it, he just blurred it, used an effect, then mirrored the
whole thing. We've got it, Mulder."

She programs the effects quickly under a shortcut, and after several
minutes all the scans appear clearly at the screen. 

"He really did a good job -- there is little that can't be
read," Mulder says. He's just stunned that it could be that
simple. "Would you like some beer? They deserve a drink." Without
waiting for her answer, he goes up to the fridge.  

Scully is not a regular beer drinker, but she feels she owes it to
Mulder and to his friends. He has known them for a long time. They
were the first to tell him about the Conspiracy. And now they told
them about it in their last moments. This knowledge makes her feel
sad. How many men and women have lost their lives because of this?
She looks up to Mulder. She almost lost him, he almost lost her.
Twice. Or was it more often? She sighs. 

"This whole thing must come to an end, Mulder. We have to get these
bastards." 

Mulder tosses her a can and she opens it. 

"Yeah, but don't spill my beer on it," Mulder sounds bitter. 

The beer is streaming across her fingers toward the floor. She
doesn't care about it and neither does Mulder. With "To Frohike,
Byers and Langly," she clinks her can against his and swallows the
cold beer quickly The cold fluid feels like a knife in her throat.

"Yeah," Mulder says. "To our late brothers in arms." 

They stand together for a moment, in silence. Before they resume
their work, they exchange a determined gaze. Determined to get to the
bottom of this. Together.

As they continue reading, they soon realize that this is very
important indeed. The microfilm carries documents with data,
obviously belonging to the Conspiracy organization. Names, projects,
bases, equipment, financial matters. Mulder remembers the coordinates
The Well-Manicured Man gave him to find Scully in Antarctica. That
base is listed, but there is much more. The abduction program, the
pact with the aliens, hybrid and cloning programs, weapons
development, are all named and listed. 

Mulder gets his atlas. From the geographical numbers they can tell
it's a worldwide organization. There are even United Nations
documents listed. 

"I suppose who ever made this must have had plans to come out with
this information, or to blackmail them," Scully says. "Look, this
was taken from a computer screen. And this is just a photocopy. A
handwritten letter. Kind of a collection, Mulder. Look at the dates;
it took years to get these pictures."

"Yeah, this has to be somebody from the inside. Maybe he or she
wanted to quit." 

"Mulder, look at this, do you recognize it?" Scully points at the
screen. 

It shows a map. There's a railway bridge, a road, some bushes and a
fence and a bookstore. Three points are making a triangle. A classic
ambush: one on the bridge, one behind the fence and one in the
bookstore. The map is dated October 1963. 

The pieces are come together, and answers one of the questions of the
assassination of President John F. Kennedy, a question that has been
hotly debated since then.

"So it wasn't a lone gunman after all," Mulder sighs. 

After a moment of consideration, they discuss what to do with this --
still incomplete -- information. It's obvious they cannot use it as
real evidence. Anyone could create digital scans and make anything
out of it. How can they know that this is original?

"We can't take this to the FBI. We have to get this to the
highest authority," Scully says.

"I'll call my contact in Congress right away." 

"Mulder, this is worldwide, don't you think we should go even
higher than that?" 

"You mean the President? You're kidding."  He's about to smile,
but by the look into her eyes, Mulder can see she's serious. As
always. If there was any doubt in his mind, it is gone by now. 

"You're probably right. I'll go to Senator Matheson right away.
He might be in the position to get us there." He stands up and
walks to the door. "Let's go immediately."

Scully shuts down the PowerBook and follows him.

They drive to Capitol Hill. They're lucky; the Senator is working
late. After waiting for more than an hour, they enter his office. 

It takes Mulder some effort to convince the Senator of the importance
to meet the President in person without telling the reason why. The
Senator insists he has to know what this is all about, so eventually
they take a walk into the park. There, close to the fountain, so they
can't be overheard, Mulder explains. Scully has taken her PowerBook
and shows Senator Matheson some scans. His face turns white as he
reads. They seem to convince him immediately.

"I'll arrange a meeting. Wait for my call." Then he turns
around and walks back. 

Mulder follows him: "But sir, what are you going to say?"

"Well, this is a matter of national and global security, and
that's what I'm going to tell him." 

He continues to walk and leaves the two agents behind. Scully watches
him. Beside her is Mulder, hands on his hips, biting on his lip. 

"He doesn't believe us, Scully. Or he's up to something," he
says with concern in his eyes. 

"I agree, Mulder." He glanced at her, amazed. For once, they
agree on something. 

"What next?" she sighs. 

"Let's go get something to eat. I'm starving."

While the're having dinner in a small bistro, Mulder's cellphone
rings. It's the Senator. He only speaks a few words: "Tomorrow
morning, 10 o'clock, White House. You've got five minutes.
Don't be late, takes about half an hour to get to security at the
gate. Meet me there."
 
"And?" Scully can't hide her curiosity. 

"Well, tomorrow at 10, we'll going to meet him." 

Scully still feels some distrust, and one look in Mulder's eyes
tells her he feels the same. But they have to wait and see; there's
no real indication to justify their common feeling.

After dinner, Mulder drives Scully home. As she gets out of the car
and walks to the entrance of her building, he shouts: "Yo, Scully!
Put on a nice blue dress tomorrow, you know the man's got a weak
spot for that!"

That night, on a parking ground somewhere outside Washington, some
large limousines are parked in a circle. Men get out. Discussion is
hot. They don't seem to come to an agreement. Suddenly, someone
pulls out a gun and shoots one of his opponents. The others watch
this silently and nod. Then they all get back into their cars and
drive off. 

In the morning, Scully stands before her drawer, remembering what
Mulder said last night. Well, she doesn't exactly think about the
words he used, but about the gaze that came with it. In her job as an
FBI agent, she rarely has an opportunity to wear nice blue dresses.
Keep to the point, Dana, she tells herself. If he had asked you out
on a date, you could try a dress. Not for an appointment with Bill
Clinton. And she chooses her usual apparel: blouse, dress pants,
blazer.

Just after she comes out of the shower, her phone rings. It's
Mulder. 

"My car won't start. Could you come and fetch me?" 

Quickly, she gets herself dressed and hurries to her parking garage. 

She drives to Mulder's, where he is waiting for her. He walks
toward her as she is arriving. She gets out and walks up to him. 

"We have to hurry, we're late." 

He takes her arm as they walk back across the street to the car, when
suddenly, an explosion throws them to the ground. As they roll over,
they can see that it's Scully's car that has burst into flames. 

"Scully, are you all right?" Mulder asks, concerned, as he sits
up.

"Yeah, Mulder, I'm fine." Her face is blackened with dirt.

"Let's get out of here." Mulder holds his hand up to get a cab. 

"Oh my God ... Mulder. I left my notebook in that car!" 

"Doesn't matter, we're in danger. Let's go!" 

And as they sit in the cab, after giving destination to the cabbie,
Mulder comments after a deep breath: "Now I know why my car
didn't start." Both cars must have been set with delayed-action
explosive devices, making sure that their drivers were well on their
way before they went off. And the tactic almost worked.

Once on the road, they both realize that without the evidence they
won't have a chance to convince the President. But the appointment
has been made and they can't just walk away now. Scully is trying
to use her cellphone to call for backup, but it doesn't work and
neither does Mulder's.

The car radio is screaming. The program is interrupted by a
newsflash. The DJ's voice trembles as he reads the following: 

"Just a quarter of an hour ago, two heavy explosions took place on
both the helicopters President Clinton was using to fly from the
White House to National Airport. The helicopters immediately went
down and burst into flames. This news is yet unconfirmed by the
government, but the explosions were witnessed by hundreds of people,
in their cars in morning traffic. We have also been informed that The
Federal Bureau of Investigations has also been hit by a huge
explosion. This event is also unconfirmed yet. It is unknown how many
casualties there are and if the President is one of them. It is also
reported that there are no phone lines working in and outside of
Washington."

In the back of the cab, this news comes like a slap in the face.
Mulder just lets his head fall down. "Finally defeated ..." he
whispers, fighting his tears. 

Scully takes his hand. "They must have panicked. In case they
couldn't kill us, they just had to kill him." 

"We just have to find out more about this. Let's get to a
television."

The cab driver stops the car at Mulder's request and Scully follows
him into a lunchroom. It's crowded in there; people who heard the
news on their way to work streamed out of the Metro to get some
information. They get themselves near the bar. Nobody talks, although
there are dozens of people still coming in. The television is the
only sound heard. News channels are working on top speed, but there
still is no confirmation from the government that the President is
dead. The possible assassination of President Clinton is the main
subject on all channels. 

"Mulder, the radio spoke of the bombing of FBI headquarters -- we
have to go there and find out. Maybe we can do something." 

But just then, the first live pictures of the building are shown. 

There's nothing left of it.

Scully feels tears welling up in her eyes. So many people killed. The
working day just begun. But there's no time to mourn. As they walk
out of the lunchroom, they see a string of military vehicles passing
by. 

"This is no good, Mulder. They could be looking for us." 

They both know they can easily be recognized. They must get out of
Washington as soon as possible. Both their lives are in danger and
they cannot be protected by the FBI in this chaos. There's only one
option left: to run. 

There's a car parked just across the street with its keys left in
it. It's obvious its owner left them before he walked into a nearby
shop, intending to watch the news. Mulder doesn't think twice, runs
across the street and gets into the car. 

"Get in, quick!" he shouts at Scully. 

She hesitates. "Mulder, that is not your property." 

"This in an emergency. Come on, Scully." 

Without further protest, Scully gets herself next to Mulder and they
drive off. The owner hasn't even noticed his car being stolen.
Mulder suppresses the impulse to speed. Scully turns the radio on.
All programs are about the possible assassination now. After driving
for about an hour, they hear the confirmation. The President is dead.
As Vice President Gore is abroad, there's some confusion among the
press about who is the highest authority in the country at the
moment, forcing researchers to actually consult the Constitution. A
state of emergency has been declared and the National Guard called
in. With all the military stationed over the country, at crossroads
and other strategic places, it looks as if a coup has taken place. 

Mulder and Scully manage to avoid the military for a while, but after
a few hours of driving, they get hopelessly stuck in traffic. About a
mile ahead, they can see all cars are held at a roadblock. There's no
escape.

"Get yourself on the floor, Mulder, and let me drive. I'll handle
this." 

Mulder does as she says and pulls a blanket over himself. Scully gets
rid of her coat and jacket and loosens some buttons of her blouse. 

Well, she thinks after rubbing her hands through her hair, glancing
at herself in the rear mirror, this should be sexy enough.

The young soldier gives her a big smile as she lowers down the window
and leans challengingly out of it. 

She smiles at him. "Hi, handsome, what's the matter?" 

"Well, we're looking for some criminal suspects, ma'am." 

"Do I look like one to you?" 

"No, ma'am, but I need to see some identification."

"Sure -- oops, I think in all the excitement I left my license at
home. But you could come home with me, and I'll show it to you."
And with that she tries to give her sexiest smile. 

"Yeah, but ... okay, I'll let you through if you give me your
phone number." 

"Any problems?" 

A superior officer is stepping out of the communications truck and
walks up to them. His face stiffens as he sees Scully. He carries a
piece of thermal faxpaper in his hand. He looks at it and then at
Scully, again and again. One moment she wonders why, but then she
sees it in the officer's eyes. He recognizes her, probably from a
faxed photograph. Scully pushes the gas pedal down and screeches off
before the sergeant can unlock his gun. 

When they already are at a safe distance, bullets hit their car.
Mulder gets himself back on the backseat, and smiles at Scully with
an encouraging "Nice try!" 

But his face gets filled with concern, as soon as he notices that the
soldiers get into their jeeps to follow them. After a few minutes
they are out of sight, but before Mulder can let out a breath of
relief, Scully notices that the car is losing fuel. The bullets have
probably hit the fuel conduit. As the car finally loses power, she
gives a push at the steering wheel, causing the car to slip. They get
out and push it into a dich. 

"Maybe we get a chance by making it look like an accident,"
Mulder says. 

He enlightens the fueltrack with a match. It takes a few seconds for
the car to burst into flames. There's no one in sight yet. They now
have no option left but run away through the bushes. Behind them,
they hear the jeeps arrive. Soldiers get out, orders are shouted. But
it's getting dark soon this time of year and that is to their
advantage. After running for about 20 minutes, they arrive at another
highway. There's a gas station nearby, where they manage to jump on
the back of a Canadian truck. It's heading north. 

The truck is carrying cans of fruit and vegetables. Mulder uses his
knife to break a few open. They have to eat; it has been a while
since breakfast. Silently, they have some food together. It's also
very noisy in the freight area, so neither of them have much
opportunity to talk. But if they could have, they would find their
minds echoing in common thoughts. 

Thoughts like "This is it." This is where it ends. We lost the
battle. Basta. Finito. Over and out. Everything around us has been
destroyed. People blown away. And there is nothing we could do about
it. Nothing. They're just too powerful. 

The bitter taste of defeat and disappointment is the only thing left.
There's nothing left to do now. It's no use. Nothing. 
But there's one small light left in the encroaching darkness, a
kind of light. A new consciousness, finally forced up to them by
these new circumstances. They have to face it now.

And at the same time, they both reach for the other's hands. As
they touch, they both look up in surprise. They just sit close to
each other, holding hands in silence. And then, after a while, they
press their foreheads together and close their eyes, just to feel the
other's presence. And to let their minds share their new common
thought: We still have each other. 

While the agents are sleeping in the back of the truck, in several
places around the world there's a strange phenomenon being watched.
All the bases, labs and grounds where employees of the Global
Conspiracy do their jobs are being destroyed by lightning. It
destroys everything in its way. Buildings fade away, leaving nothing
but burned ground. It's like what Mulder saw back in New Mexico,
only in a much larger scale. 

Late at night, the truck halts and the agents awake. After eating
some fruit again, they get off to stretch their legs. A sign shows
that they are just a few miles away from a motel. The driver has
parked his truck on a parking place and obviously intends to spend
the night.  

"Well, what shall we do next?" 

"We must be close to the Canadian border. Maybe we should just walk
over it." 

"Mulder, we're not sure of where we are. And it's too cold for
that." 

"Then let's spend the night in that truck." 

Scully shivers and looks at the sign again. "Maybe we should just
go to that motel to get some sleep." 

Although he feels this purpose is making him a bit nervous, Mulder
agrees. 

"Maybe we better go in disguise, Mulder -- they could still search
for us here." 

She puts her hair in a scarf, just to hide her distinctive hair.
Mulder puts on his glasses and Scully suddenly looks six months
pregnant with Mulder's coat wrapped up under hers. Dressed like
this, they approach the small motel.

After signing in as Mr. and Mrs. Luder, the receptionist asks Mulder:
"Would you like a room with one bed or two?"

He starts to say two, but Scully corrects him immediately: "One bed
please!" and to Mulder: "Honey, it might be less comfortable with
my tummy, but my feet are freezing." 

Mulder is struck speechless momentarily and only gives her a short,
amazed look.

As they walk to their room, they don't speak a word. Mulder is
obviously nervous; his hands tremble when he uses the key. Scully
carefully guides his hand and helps him to unlock the door. She looks
up at him, but he's afraid to look her in the eye. 

Once they're in, she softly squeezes his arm, saying "I'm going to
take a shower," and walks straight to the bathroom, leaving Mulder
confused. 

He can't help but notice that his hands are still trembling. 

He makes a fist, bites his knuckles and walks up and down the room
while he hears the shower going. He doesn't know what to do. What
does she want? Should he go after her? He takes off his coat, loosens
his tie and the buttons of his shirt, and walks up to the bathroom
door. The door is ajar. 

She left it open for me, his mind tells him over and over. One moment
he finds himself at a point to really go in, but no. He just stands
there, staring at the door. The thought of Scully naked only five
feet away makes him more nervous. He wonders what is taking her so
long. 

In the meantime, Scully is also wondering what to do next. If he
comes after her, she doesn't have to take the first step. She holds
her ear against the shower door. She is waiting for him, but then she
remembers his nervousness and decides she has to. Mulder is just too
shy.

She steps into the room, a large towel wrapped around her. The lights
are out and she has to wait a moment until her eyes get accustomed to
the dark. Then she notices the bed's still empty. Mulder is standing
beside the window, peering into the darkness, his fingers between the
blinds. 

"Mulder, why aren't you in bed yet?" she asks. 

He tries to say something like, "No, you can sleep, I'll keep
watch," but there's a thrill in his voice, and he dares not to
look at her. 

She tries to be reasonable. "Mulder, why do you have to keep watch?
It's no use. And what if they find us? We would never get out of here
anyway."

Then she walks up to him, and carefully takes his hand away from the
blinds. 

Mulder can feel his heart beating in his throat, but he does find the
courage to look into her eyes. They stand completely silent for a
moment, watching each other. Investigating. Mulder is about to make a
move, but he still hesitates. 

Then she whispers: "Fox, this may be the only night we have."

Slowly, her words reach his mind. They are spoken with so much
determination and with such devotion that he feels the last boundary
within himself fade away. She has never called him Fox before.
Because he asked her to. He never wanted her to get too close. But
suddenly, her statement makes him realize the professional distance
that always stood between them was in fact never there. The only
distance there really was consisted of calling each other by their
last names. And now that distance is finally broken. Every piece of
the puzzle falls perfectly in place with this. It is as if a
transparent skin is falling off. 

Fox moves his hand to touch her skin tenderly, as if she were made of
china. Dana looks up to him and sighs. Those eyes. Pulling like a
magnetic field. Slowly, their bodies move toward each other and their
lips touch in a long, deep kiss.

***

In the early morning, as sunlight comes shining through the window,
the room looks like a mess. Items of men's clothing and a towel are
spread all over the place, accompanied by all the tools that FBI
agents wear in the field.

A short look at the bed shows the two lovers lying in each other's
arms. They're both in a deep sleep. 

Suddenly, a sound breaks the silence. Shadows cross the sunlight. The
door is opened from outside, very slowly. 

Two men are coming in. They both carry a gun. One of them makes some
fast gestures toward the other. After putting a silencer on his
weapon, this man steps toward the bed. 

That's the moment Mulder awakes. 

He sees the man and his gun, screams "No!" but it's too late. 

Four silent shots are falling. In a desperate effort to protect her,
Mulder throws his body on Scully, but she's already been hit.
Before life fades, he looks at her face, still in peace. Then his
eyes freeze.

The second man quickly checks out on Mulder and then they both run
off to their car. 

They leave Fox Mulder and Dana Scully for death under the bloody
sheets...


***


To be continued...


Story by MacMiep - rina@bossina.nl

Edited into colloquial American English by Elizabeth Flynn



From: Rina Jans <rina@bossina.nl>
Date: Mon, 3 May 99 11:59:29 +0100
Subject: The Final Phile 2/2


Title:		The Final Phile  2/2

Author:	MacMiep  (rina@bossina.nl)

Category:	Conspiracy/MSR

Spoilers:	Season 5 / Fight the Future

Rating:	TRA

Summary:	Story about the last episode(s) of the X-files

Warning:	Violence and romance ahead

Disclaimer:	The names and characters used in this story are not mine.
They are owned by Chris Carter, Fox and Ten Thirteen Productions.
I've used them without permission. I just wanted to amuse myself (and
hopefully others).

Feedback: 	This is my first fanfic. Tried to make it suspenseful.
Would like to know if I succeded. Friendly, 	constructive criticism
is welcomed and appreciated. 

Dedication:	To US-Philes Starbuck (Jessica) and Catwoman for
inspiring and encouraging me to start with this.

Thanks to:	Elizabeth Flynn, for editing this story (what was a hell
of a job, as I'm not a native English writer -- I'm Dutch) and to
Starbuck for co-writing the letter. And to my Dutch beta-readers:
Askey/Spectre and BlueSylph. 

******


The Final Phile  2/2

As soon as the men are gone, the police show up. An ambulance also
comes out of nowhere, and so does the coroner's van, even before
the ambulance personnel examines either of them. Mulder is hastily
pronounced dead, while Scully is heavily wounded but alive; they keep
her condition stable. 
The ambulance rushes away, seconds after Mulder's body is taken
into a body bag. The three coroners carry it hastily into the van.
Police who observe this argue with them, as the body should not leave
the crime scene, but they become silent as a certain badge is
produced. The van drives off. 

Once they are on the road, one of the coroners gets into the back of
the van and puts on some latex gloves. He opens the body bag. After
putting a small device on Mulder's head and a kind of IV into his
carotid artery, the coroner checks something on a monitor. It shows a
series of flat lines. The two in the front speculate about the time
of death. 

"It must be less than an hour. Take his temperature." 

The gloved man sticks a needle into Mulder's heart. "It's okay,
we've got enough margin," he says as he zips up the body bag.

After driving for about 20 minutes, the van gets off the road. The
driver parks it at an open place in the woods. Then the men sit and
wait. 
Suddenly, a dark helicopter with no markings on it appears above
them. It lands near the van. The helicopter carries a coffin. Within
seconds, the coffin and the body bag are exchanged, and the
helicopter takes off.

The coroners' van turns around and resumes its way to the
hospital...

Meanwhile, in the ER at the local hospital, doctors are fighting for
Scully's life. After the operation, it takes about a week before she
wakes up. Her family is beside her, but no one wants to speak about
Mulder. They won't let her see him. Won't tell her he's gone, anxious
as they are about her condition. Scully realizes nobody told her
family how they both were found. The fact that they're all skirting
any news of Mulder fills her with dread.

Later on that day, Skinner comes to visit. He happened to survive the
bombing of FBI headquarters, suffering only a broken arm. Scully,
knowing he will tell her the truth, asks him about Mulder. 

He tells her that he was pronounced dead at the scene. But she
refuses to believe it and wants to see the autopsy report. 

Skinner takes her hand and says: "Scully, Dana, look at me. They told
me how you were found. I didn't know. I really didn't know. How long
had you been lovers?"

She starts crying for the first time. 

"Listen to me," he says. "You have to ask yourself this. How do
you want to remember him? Would you remember him as the man you
loved, or as a corpse in an autopsy report you've read a dozen
times?"

Scully's unable to speak. She wanted to forget all about what really
happened. At first, she convinced herself she only had to mourn about
losing her friend and colleague. Not the man she loved. That part was
too hard for her to handle.

Slowly, she recovers. Depressed as she is, there's no motivation. She
refuses to practice her therapy. After nine weeks in the hospital,
her doctor comes to speak with her. She's sitting in her wheelchair,
staring out of the window. He tells her that the bullet they removed
out of her back did do some damage, but she will be able to walk
again, only if she works hard on it.

Then he starts asking her about Mulder. She refuses to answer, still
staring, eyes dim. 

"He gave his life to save you both." 

She looks up at him at these words, confused. What did he mean by
saying that?

"You're pregnant, Miss Scully." And with that, he leaves. 

It takes her a while before the words make sense. First, her sadness
grows, but then she feels strength. She cannot believe it. They told
her she would never be able to get pregnant, and suddenly, the most
unexpected thing has happened. 

This isn't possible, she thinks. But after she has seen the results
herself, she has to believe it. But still she doesn't get it. Why?
She can't get the feeling out of her mind that something isn't
right about this. She, as a trained physician, saw the results of her
tests, years ago. But the facts are here, there's no doubt about
it: She is going to have a child.

Filled with happiness, grief and disbelief, she gets herself back on
her feet again and starts working for her recovery. 

The investigation by the FBI panel about Mulder's death comes out
to be a farce. They don't pay much attention to it. Everything stands
in the shadow of the murder of President Clinton and the bombing of
FBI headquarters. 

Still in the hospital, Scully only has to testify by video. She
decides to keep silent about what really happened. The fact that they
were on run for Them, because of the evidence they found, isn't
important anymore. Mulder is dead, all the evidence is lost. It's no
use to put herself and her unborn child in more danger.

Based on police investigations, the panel concludes that Mulder and
Scully were just victims of a mistake: an ordinary criminal murder.
The evidence they presented was that the night before, a wanted drug
dealer slept in the same motel with his red-headed girlfriend and
that he looked like Mulder.

When Scully hears the results, she's relieved, but in her mind she
doesn't believe a word of it. It is just another cover-up. Skinner
also tells her that the panel also decided to give her an honorable
retirement from the FBI, because of physical and psychological
reasons. This is an unexpected new twist. They no longer want her in
the FBI. Why? After the bombing, they should be able to use any
personnel they can lay their hands on. Scully can totally recover,
the doctors said, and she hasn't told anybody about her pregnancy.
She also asked her doctor not to discuss it with anyone. 

Besides the fact that she already decided to quit the FBI, this fills
her with suspicion. Skinner also thinks this is weird. He tells her
he had nothing to do with this decision. He regrets she's leaving,
but also understands her own motivation. 

"Losing a partner is something you can or you cannot handle, but
also losing the man you love is too hard," he says.

It takes about three months before Scully's released from the
hospital. Although she's almost completely healthy again, she's going
to stay with her mother for a while. Maggie Scully still doesn't know
the facts about her and Mulder, or her pregnancy.

One day, when they are drinking tea together, Mrs. Scully comments on
her admiration about her courage to go on and fight. "First, you
were so depressed, we couldn't reach you at all. And look at you now,
you've changed. Something has changed in you, and it's not only
because of your recovery. What is really going on?"

It's the typical case of mother and daughter, always feeling by
intuition that there is something going on. 

Scully tells her she's pregnant. 

"You're pregnant? I thought you were told that you couldn't
conceive. ...  How long? Who's the father?"

"Three months," Scully tells her, and then waits for her mother
to make the connection. 

"Oh my God, don't tell me it's Fox," her mother exclaims.

Her family can't believe it. But they understand, when Scully
explains how she first kept all feelings for him away from herself,
but after her cancer she started to realize she was feeling more for
him than just friendship. And Mulder always seemed to be afraid of
getting too close to anyone, maybe due to his history of failed
relationships. Only that last night, he told her he had fallen in
love with her shortly after the first time they met.

Oh, if only they'd revealed their feelings years before. But she does
not allow herself to think of that. She cannot use sadness; she has
to go on. If not for herself, then for the only thing she has left of
him: his child.

But as time passes, doubts grow. Mulder's death, her unexpected
pregnancy, her discharge from the Bureau -- it just doesn't seem
right. 

First, she tells herself to forget about it all and to go on with her
life, but then she remembers Mulder. Always searching for clues,
going over every detail. His nature to believe that anything is
possible. She can't deny there are actually strange things happening
to her. The feeling she would betray him if she just went on without
questioning the occurrences gets stronger, along with those doubts.
And as she realizes that, she decides to start an investigation on
her own. 

It won't be easy, although she still has some friends left at the
Bureau. But she has to keep it secret from her former surperiors.
They wouldn't be happy if they heard about it. 

Her mother tries to talk her out of it. "Dana, you won't get him
back that way," Maggie says, trying to make her understand it's
no use. 

But Dana is determined to get to the truth. "Nothing can stop me
from that, Mom. I owe it to him. I learned so much from him. If I
just go on without even investigating what really happened, then
I'd throw it all away."

In fact, she has no idea how to get to the files now. Who can she
trust? 

But then she gets help from out of an unexpected corner. Agent Diana
Fowley, assigned to FBI headquarters again after the bombing, comes
to visit. After getting through some small talk, Diana starts to ask
Scully about what happened to Mulder. 

"Why do you want to know?"

Diana tells her about a conversation she overheard between Skinner
and another man.

"The man complimented Skinner about how he handled your case, that
you won't bother them anymore. The X-files are destroyed and closed.
I thought you would like to know."

Fowley says she has seen some photographs of the crime scene. The
fact that Mulder's body was removed within half an hour, before the
forensic detectives had arrived, seems strange to her. 

"I read a report from a cop, who said that the whole place was full
of CIA and that they took Mulder's body away, waving badges and
talking about national security."

Scully pauses. "Diana, would you do me a favor?"

Scully asks her to get to the dossier on Mulder's assassination --
for she is convinced that it was an assassination: a political
murder. 

"I already did." She grabs her bag and takes out a handful of
photocopies. "Thought you would like to read it."

Scully's hands tremble as she takes them. 

"I think I'll leave you alone with this." Then Diana goes. 

Slowly, Scully sifts through the papers. It is a police report. No
federal officers were present at the time, according to the report.
That's unusual when a federal agent gets killed. Well, maybe it's
because of the chaos with the assassination of the President, Scully
thinks. They were just busy cleaning up the mess after the bombing
and investigating the President's death.

But it's not long before she comes to the conclusion that the
police report is incomplete. And as she reads on, she notices how
difficult it is to get a clear view, because some files are missing. 

First: there's no accurate forensic report. Just pictures of the
crime scene, fingerprints, a simple declaration of death and a
ballistics report. 

Second: no autopsy report. In the summary at the beginning it is
listed, but with a large FBI stamp marked "Classified." Why?

She keeps searching. Sometime later, when she's in her fifth month,
Scully secretly gets to read Mulder's original autopsy report,
thanks to Diana and some friends at the office. There are photographs
in it, but none of his face. First, she can't find anything, but then
she looks at the photographs again. Together with some incomplete
data, she comes to the shocking conclusion that this report is not
about Mulder. Everything is there -- three gunshot wounds, blood
type, length, weight, eyes and hair type, scars, even his
fingerprints. 

But they forgot one small thing: this man autopsied does not have
chest hair.

After discovering this, she feels as if she's about to faint. She
remembers that night in the motel in vivid detail. His smell, his
tenderness, the softness of his skin, everything. Every bone in his
body, every place on his skin. She can still feel it all if she
closes her eyes. But it's no use thinking about that now. She feels
sick and confused, realizing that she can't tell anybody about the
things she just discovered. Why would they take Mulder's body? What
use can it be to them? 

Oh my God, she thinks, what if he isn't? She touches her tummy. And
this child, is it really his?

That second concern isn't too difficult to find out. The DNA
examination of the amniotic fluid lowers her worries; she can be sure
it's Mulder's. But that is not her first concern. If it wasn't
Mulder who was brought into the hospital that fatal morning, who was
it? 

Five months earlier. 

Somewhere in a closed cabin, at a secret base somewhere in the US, a
body is lying on a metal table. It's surrounded with all kinds of
tubes and devices. Beings, unrecognizable in large suits, are working
on it. Three gunshot wounds heal in seconds; new tissue grows. The
green fluid the body is bathed in reflects eerily, making the lights
of small laser beams spooky. There's a monitor at the side of the
table. The flat lines on it soon transform to indications of normal
cardiac behavior. With the changing lines comes the sound of regular
beeps.

Outside the cabin, the Cigarette Smoking Man is talking to a man in a
green army suit. 

"Did you hear?" He nods toward the cabin with a faint smile.
"He got her pregnant. We succeeded." 

"Is she suspicious? Did she read the autopsy report?"

"No. Skinner talked her out of it, and I'm glad he did. Otherwise,
we'll have to kill her at last." The CSM sighs, before he
continues. "She will be focused on the child now; she will realize
she cannot risk it. In fact, we gave her what she wanted the most.
She will be busy with that."

"Are you sure there are no traces left? If she's really going to
have his child, we can't risk that in 20 years, the kid wants to find
out the truth about his father. We can't send him back, there are too
many risks."

They argue about things like selling Mulder after wiping his brain
totally. If they have to give him plastic surgery or not. 

"Maybe one of our allies is interested," the CSM says while
lighting another cigarette.

"I would choose for another option: just kill him anyway. But we
need the money. We have to get back in business." 

It's not clear what they are deciding here. Before that becomes
clear, the two men in cabin get their attention by intercom. 

"It is fixed," they say. And then to one of the men: "We can
send him with today's shipment, if you wish." 

The CSM nods and continues his conversation.

Mulder's body, still in fluid, is placed in a large metal tube.
With a dozen other similar tubes, it is placed in a shipping
container. 

Workmen, also in green army suits, seal the container, and a black
truck drives off...

***

It's six months after Mulder's death.
Scully, now obviously pregnant, has decided to move. Her old apartment
carries too many memories and isn't suited for a child. She has
managed to
find a nice apartment a few blocks from her mother's house.

When she and her mother are together, putting up some wallpaper, the
doorbell rings. It's the postman. He gives Scully a notarial act. She
is
asked to come down to Washington, to the notary office of a Mr.
Weiss. It
has something to do with Mulder's will.

When she gets there a few days later, the notary gives her a sealed
letter.
On the envelope, it says: "To Dana Scully." It's Mulder's
handwriting, and
Scully's hands tremble as she opens it. It says:

Dear Dana,

Well, you see I call you Dana in here. Maybe it sounds strange to you
by
now, considering how seldom I called you by name. But right now, as
I'm
writing this, it makes me feel closer to you.
I'm sorry that you have to read this. Sorry not because of the
circumstances that it indicates, but because this means that I will
never
see you again.
Yes, they finally got me. Or maybe it's just a stupid car accident.
I hope not. I always wanted to die in armor, on the battlefield,
saving the
world. Making a difference. But I now realize, as I write this, that
if I
had to choose a way of dying, it would be in the line of fire,
catching the
bullet with your name on it. If that's the way it should happen, I
would be
in peace with it.
And now I'm taking this opportunity to let you know how important you
were
in my life, and how much I have appreciated your friendship.
You gave me so much, Dana. And I gave you nothing in return. Nothing.
Well,
maybe you disagree with me, but I'm not talking on a professional
level
here. I mean personal.
Maybe, in another time, another place, if the circumstances had been
different. ... I never spoke of my love for you, Dana; I never could.
You
were so close to me that I was afraid to lose you. Afraid to drive
you away
from me. I had almost driven you away once in our professional
relationship. I wouldn't be able to stand that, so I was afraid what
would
happen if ... if.
I apologize for not telling you about the feelings I had. I ignored
them,
put them away. But now I'm at a point that I cannot deny them any
longer. I
owe you the truth. My truth.
Sometimes, I dreamed of settling down, have kids. Live a "normal"
life.
Maybe even with you.
I saw it in your eyes too, Dana. That longing to create a home,
become a
mother. You also thought it would never happen. You thought you could
never
become a mother. But I knew you could. If I had lived long enough, I
would
have told you, but the good news is: you can still have kids, Dana.
The ova
that you thought you had lost have been preserved and should be
viable.
They have been entrusted to the care of a Dr. Abrams at the lab at
Quantico. You will know where to find them. I hope this news will
cheer you
a little. I wanted to tell you sooner, but I could never seem to find
the
right moment. Maybe I hoped for a moment that would never come.

Scully, I can't stand to think of you sad. We had some good times
together;
they were actually the best years of my life.
Thank you.

Mulder

The letter is dated a few months before he died. After reading, Scully
gently folds it in her hands, trying not to cry. The notary asks her
if
she's all right. And then, pointing at her tummy: "How many months?"

In her car, as she's driving home, Scully thinks about the things
Mulder
wrote. She decides to go to Quantico as soon as she can.
But when she's close to home, she feels a short, heavy pain in her
tummy,
as if she were going into labor. The pain continues and she gets
worried.
She tries to control the pains with her breathing, but then she
realizes
she's only six months pregnant and this can't be good. She rushes to
the
hospital. Her gynecologist examines her quickly and immediately hooks
her
up to an IV containing a solution that will stop the contractions.
Although
six months could be enough, it's not the ideal situation.

The baby is in some danger, so Scully has to stay in the hospital, to
get
some rest for her and for the baby. All the events and emotions of
the last
months have demanded too much of her condition. It's very frustrating
for
her to lie in bed most of the time, and not being able to continue
her work
investigating Mulder's death. She knows that as time passes, chances
are
getting slimmer that she can find out who was behind it, and tracks
will
certainly fade away. But her first concern now must be the baby's
health.

So the last two months of her pregnancy, she studies and catches up
with
the practice of medicine. This is, according to her plans to get on
with
her medical career as soon as her baby is born and grown old enough,
the
only useful thing she can do.

***

After the child is born, Scully lies in her hospital bed, with the
baby in
her arms. It's a girl. When she was in labor, her mom and
sister-in-law
were by her side, but now she has asked everyone to leave her alone
for a
while. She's crying. She doesn't know what to feel. Happy because the
baby
is healthy and a dream come true, but sad about the fact that her
little
girl will never meet her father.

Suddenly, the door opens and a man comes in, all dressed in black. He
wears
a beard and dark sunglasses, looking remarkably like the Governor of
Minnesota. 

"Well, 'Spooky' Mulder just seems to be capable of anything!" he
laughs.

"Who are you? What are you doing here? Get out of here before I call
security," Scully says, frightened and aware of how vulnerable she is.

"You better first listen to what I have to say before you kick me
out, Miss
Scully. Or you won't be able to tell the truth to her about her
father as
she grows up," he says, pointing at the baby.

Scully doesn't know what to do. She's too exhausted to defend herself
and
her baby. She pulls her child closer and just keeps her thumb at the
alarm
button, to call for a nurse if necessary. Without asking first, the
man
sits down at the foot of her bed and starts telling his story, as if
it
were a fairytale.

"Once upon a time, there were a man and a woman working on the same
job.
Both were chosen to do so by a higher force; it was all set up. The
man and
the woman had completely and diametrically opposite views of the
world and
everything that happened in it. The man did his job too well, so they
had
to give him a 'pain in the ass' as a colleague.

"But the people who chose this unlikely combination to work together
did
not expect the opposite to happen: that it did work perfectly and
that the
man and the woman made a hell of a team. It became clear that one of
their
strongest weapons was their, however unspoken, unconditional love for
each
other.

"From the view of their supervisors, they were both standing on the
wrong
side now. In the years that passed, they became more and more
threatening
to the people who originally assigned them to work together. In the
end,
their creators saw only one possibility: to kill them both.

"But not everyone agreed with that decision. While the man and the
woman
came closer to the truth, their creators became more divided. In fact,
there became two factions, first arguing against and, later on,
fighting
each other. All because of the actions of those two. Some of them saw
only
one way out: to kill the leader of the kingdom. By doing that, they
could
create chaos, destroy the evidence, and lead everyone off the trail.

"In the end, they chose a compromise: just kill one of the
troublemakers
and keep the other busy. They were capable of anything, so they
succeeded.
The man was killed and the woman made pregnant with his child. This
might
have been the end of the story, but one of the less powerful factions
played a few false cards and abducted the man's body to sell abroad
for
military experiments.

"It didn't take long for the other side to get suspicious. This
wasn't the
deal.

"Because the other side knew that a body is only worth its money
alive,
they weren't convinced of his death. They had to be certain of it, so
they
sent a knight to find him and kill him at last. But before the knight
got to
the place, everything was destroyed due to an accident. Many bodies
were
found. So the knight reported to his instructors that the man was
dead. End
of story? Maybe.

"But he didn't tell them that he wasn't sure about it. He knew the man
couldn't be a threat anymore, so he gave the entire affair the
benefit of
the doubt. The knight now carried a terminal disease, because they
had sent
him out there without the benefit of protection.

"And that was why the knight came to the woman and told her that
there are
indications that the man she loved and worked with might be alive.
Maybe
she already came to that conclusion by herself. If she did, she can't
have
the slightest idea where to search for him. But the knight could give
her
one."

Then he gives her an eight-month-old newspaper article, about an
accident
at a NATO airbase in Germany. On that base, a large accident occurred
involving some Cruise missiles, Scully remembers. A few hundred
military
people were killed, the base destroyed.

Before she can ask questions, the man rushes out, leaving her
confused.
Something tells her that this man's intentions are good.

Then her brother enters.

"Bill, did you see that man?"

"What man?"

"That man that came out of my room, just a second before you stepped
in."

He looks at her questioningly.

"Look, he gave me this." She shows him the newspaper article and tells
about the visit. But her family is very suspicious. They try to talk
her
out of it, but Scully decides to go to Germany as soon as she is
strong
enough. There is already too much time lost now.

Her mother and brother don't want her to go because they think it's
too
dangerous, but they understand that this might be her last chance. Her
brother wants to go with her, but this is something she has to do by
herself. It hurts her to leave her baby behind with her mother, but
this is
something she has to do. She needs to try to find him, even as she
has to
cross the globe to do so. He did that for her once. She owes it to
him and
to their child. Even if she could not find him, she can always say to
herself and their child that she tried.

****

Eight months earlier:

It's a quiet night at the Felderhofen Air Force Base in Germany. But
not 
for long. Suddenly, a large explosion in one of the ammunition
bunkers 
disturbs the silence, followed by a chain reaction of bunkers and 
buildings bursting into flames. Within minutes, the whole base 
has burst into fire or has turned into a crater. The sound of wounded
men, crying in pain, can be heard everywhere.

Out of the mess and smoke of a partly destroyed bunker, shadows
appear. 
They look like human beings, but they are moving on their hands and 
feet. Some of them are on fire. All of them are naked, while some
carry strange devices on their bodies. Most of them fall to the
ground because they are too weak or too heavily wounded to run. But
not one man. 

This man, his hair shaved off and similarly naked, is also crawling
away from the scene, but with much more speed. His eyes are wild and
filled with fear. There is only animal instinct left in his mind: to
survive.  

He runs for days without food, driven by fear. But as his hunger is 
stronger than his fear, and he soon learns how to feed himself. At 
night, he steals chickens from farms and eats them raw. During 
the day, he hides in the woods, searches for berries and wild
vegetables and sleeps, buried under fallen leaves. With that, he
manages to keep 
himself alive with that for weeks. 

The farmers are used to the loss of chickens by foxes, but there's 
one farmer who has lost a lot lately and gets tired of it. He decides
to 
stand guard, carrying a shotgun. As soon as two eyes appear from 
out of the hedge, he shoots without hesitation. But the cry that
comes 
after the shots fired isn't the yelp of a fox. It's human. This
scares 
the hell out of the farmer and he runs back into his house,
frightened. 
Meanwhile, his pray drags himself into safety, whimpering his teeth
in pain. 

If the farmer knew his name, he would have smiled. 

Fox Mulder doesn't get very far. The wound is painful and becomes
infected, and soon the infection poisons his body. So before he
reaches his hiding place in the hills, he collapses and falls in a
fevered sleep. 

Two days later, an old lady walks through the woods, looking for 
mushrooms and berries. While she walks, she hears Mulder, delirious, 
crying in his sleep. She listens carefully and then walks 
in the direction the sound comes from, her stick in her hands. 

Then she sees him. Without fear, she kneels beside him and lays her
cool hand on his forehead. Mulder immediately awakes, frightened. He 
tries to get up to run away, but he's too weak to move. The fever
took 
the strength in his body, and as the woman fetches her small wagon
and 
awkwardly pulls Mulder on it, he isn't able to resist.
 
She takes him to her small cabin in the woods. There she takes the
small lead pellets out of his body, washes him and puts him into bed.
Meanwhile, she keeps talking to him, calling him 'Friedrich' and
'mein Sohn.'

Mulder, still filled with some fear but too weak to run, resigns 
himself in his situation. Her constant talking slowly calms his 
fears. Most of the time, he's unconscious. He has a fever for days
and he 
can't move. He is so weak, she has to feed him like a baby. 

When he regains consciousness, she calm him down and starts 
communicating with him. The old lady has no fear of him at all
because 
he just looks like her son, who's bee missing about ten years. She 
shows him his picture and Mulder sees he looks a lot like the young
man 
on the photograph. 

Slowly she teaches him to speak a few words of German, even how to
eat with knife and fork again. As soon as his wounds are healed, he
starts helping her with the chores of the small farm. In the
evenings, she teaches him to speak, read and write. His character and
intelligence are still there, and he learns fast. 

But at night, while he's asleep, he has nightmares and she often has
to come to his bedroom and calm him down, because he's frightened and
screams. He speaks English in those dreams, she tells him, and also
that he often cries: 'Scully.' She asks him who or what 'Scully'
means, but he can't remember. The old woman doesn't speak English
herself, so she isn't able to tell him what he is really saying. 

Mulder, now named 'Friedrich' after the missing son, isn't satisfied
with his life. There never is a moment in which he doesn't feel the
desire to know who he is and what brought him here. Although he loves
the old lady for her kindness to help him and give him a roof over
his head, he feels that there is more. She still believes that he is
her lost son, but he knows he is not. But as much as he tries, he
cannot remember a thing 
before he got here, so he's just getting used to his new identity and
tries adapting to his new life.

About six months after he came to her, the woman dies suddenly.
Nobody except Mulder stands at her grave as she is buried. The people
in the village called her a lunatic and wanted to have nothing to do
with her. 

Mulder's alone now and decides to travel in search for his real
identity. The old lady has left him a shoebox full of German marks
and with this money, he goes to Berlin. Maybe there I can find
someone who speaks English, he thinks.
 
After he gets off the train he walks through the station's
corridor. Suddenly, two men pull him aside. One of them pulls out a
knife and presses it against his throat. They search him. As soon as
they find 
the money he carries, they knock him to the ground and leave. When he 
regains conscious, he realizes he has been robbed. Without money, he 
has no other choice than to live on the streets. There are a lot of
street people in Berlin. Most of them are lunatics and drug-users.
Mulder soon makes friends among them and adapts to his new life.
Where he comes 
and who he meets, he asks if anyone speaks English. 

Two new-age hippies from the States, hitchhiking through Europe, 
are the ones who tell him more. They overhear him when he is talking
in his sleep, lying on a bench in the park. Silently, they stand next
to him while he's having his usual nightmares. He shouts terms like
"FBI, you're under arrest!" but mostly, he's crying one name:
'Scully.' 

The two Americans get curious and wake him up. They ask him who he is
and where he's from, but he doesn't know. They feel sorry for him
and 
decide to help. The two Americans are the ones who tell him that it
is 
possibly a name he's crying. Due to his accent, they also think that
he 
must be an American. 

As he remembers none of his dreams after he wakes up, they come up
with the idea to smoke grass. Mulder tries a joint, and after a few 
inhalations he gets stoned and starts to speak in perfect English 
again. One of the hippies writes down everything he says and the
other 
keeps asking him questions. But he's only able to recall these things 
when he's stoned. Sober, he cannot remember a thing. 

He tries to smoke as much as he can and slowly, with the help of his
two friends, he can recall some pieces of it. He learns that he had
something 
to do with the FBI, a woman named Dana Scully, a conspiracy, alien 
abduction, Samantha, all of it. But everything comes in pieces and
without him remembering a thing when he's not stoned. With that, the
stories he recounts are too weird to be true, so the two hippies
assume he is just a lunatic and leave him. 

However, Mulder has tasted the possible solution to his problem.
Thanks to the American hippies, he has learned how to speak a bit of
the English language again and to know more about his real identity.
Now he wants to know more and tries any drugs he can lay his hands
on. He sniffs glue and cocaine, but mostly smokes grass if he can lay
his hands on it. The money for all this he gets by stealing car
radios. But none of the drugs is powerful enough to let him recall
everything he wants to know. 

Most of his companions, who live on the streets too, are junkies,
addicted to heroine. They introduce him to it, although he knows that
it is more dangerous han anything he has tried before. In a desperate
last attempt, he finally decides to put the needle in his vein.

He tows the tourniquet around his arm, after he has filled the
needle. 
Just when he's about to stick it into his vein, a phalanx of the
local police force enters the park and he gets arrested for drug use.

After questioning him, German police is convinced that this man is a 
lunatic. He keeps speaking confusedly in partly German and English
phrases, and what he says makes no sense to them. Without a real
trial, German justice convicts him to six months in a closed
psychiatric clinic. 
 
Once there, it does not take his doctors very long to discover that
this man 
might be one of the survivors of the accident at the air base. As
this is 
a matter of national security, his doctor calls his superiors, as 
instructed. 

One day, one of the male nurses takes Mulder to a small room and
gives 
him normal clothing. He tells him that his family has come to visit. 
Mulder's instincts are still intact, and he doesn't trust a word the
man 
says. He pretends he can't bend to put on his pants. The male nurse
helps 
him out, but Mulder then knocks him out and quickly changes clothing
with him. Dressed as an employee, he escapes from the closed
compartment. From there, it is not so difficult to escape from the
institute. 

Just before the alarmed German Intelligence Service arrives to take
him away, Mulder climbs over the fence and hitchhikes back to Berlin. 
Back there, he resumes living on the streets again, desperately
seeking 
for his identity.

***

A few days later, Scully arrives on a plane from Washington, in hopes
of 
finding a trace of Mulder. Without giving herself time to recover
from her jet-lag, she hires a car and drives from Berlin to the
former air base. 
It's approximately a two-hour drive. As a college student, she
learned how to speak and read German, so she has little problems
getting information. 

At first, she goes to a public library in one of the villages near
the 
air base. There she reads all the old newspaper articles dated around
the 
accident that she can lay her hands on. She finds out that after the 
accident, now nine months ago, there were a few madmen and madwomen
found, all with their heads shaved and all naked. They behaved like
wild animals. Some of them had traces of strange medical treatment.
German tabloids dated around those days spoke of rumors about
military experiments on humans. 

Maybe the inhabitants of the villages around the base have seen 
something, she thinks. If Mulder was on that air base and survived, 
somebody must have seen him. Although, deep in her heart, she
believes 
that this is the old story of a needle in the haystack, she travels 
through the area around the air base and visits the villages around. 

Meanwhile, she tries to imagine what a person on the run would do out 
here. Where would he hide? There is only one direction that 
leads to hills and woods, and she decides to look over there. In
every 
village, she goes to the local bar and shows Mulder's picture. She
has no 
success until, after a few days, she arrives in a village. 

Since the local bar is closed at the moment, she approaches a man
sitting on a bench in the village square. When she shows him the
picture, he tells her that the man just looks like the son of an old
woman who died about three months ago. She lived alone in the hills.
Her son had been missing for over ten years before he recently came
back, looking not a month older. None of the villagers really
believed that the man was her son, but the woman did and cared for
him. 

He tells Scully that there were rumors that the son came back as a 
lunatic who couldn't speak anymore and didn't know who he was. 
But the man does not know where the son went after the lady died. The
other inhabitants don't know it either. 

When she arrives at the cabin, there's no one there and no sign that 
anybody has lived here recently. No traces. Scully is in despair what
to do next. This seems to be a start, and a dead-end, at the same
time. But 
time is running out. She made a deal with her family she wouldn't
stay away longer than two weeks, and she only has one left. She
misses her baby, comes reluctantly to the conclusion that it's no use
to search any longer. Too much time has passed. 

There's no real proof that the mysterious man is Mulder, her mind
tells her over and over. 

But then she remembers the stories in the tabloids. They also spoke
of 
'lunatics' who behaved as 'wild animals.' She decides to visit a 
psychiatric clinic in the neighborhood. Maybe those survivors were 
transported there. 

She refuses to tell the doorman why she's here, so they let her wait
for 
over an hour before one of the doctors sees her. When she shows 
him Mulder's picture, he first seems to be very surprised, then 
shakes his head. He won't tell her anything anymore. He asks her to
leave. 

Once outside, Dana's confused. He seemed to be upset, she thinks. But
she 
can't tell for sure that he recognized Mulder. This gives her hope
and 
fear at once. Maybe I wanted him to be upset, she thinks. I want to
find 
him so badly that I might see things that aren't there. She drives
off.

In the meantime, the doctor is calling the German Intelligence
Service.

On the road back to her hotel, she can't get that doctor's face out
of 
her mind. He didn't react normally, she's convinced of that by now.
She has to find out what is going on over there. She decides to do
this the Mulder way. 

She buys a pair of night-binoculars and some charcoal. At night, she 
dresses herself in black and drives to the hospital again. After 
surveillance for over an hour, she watches a car arrive. Two men get
out. 
At the gate, they show some ID and the doorman lets them in
immediately. 

This makes her suspicious and she decides to take her chance. She
quickly 
paints her face black with the charcoal and climbs over the fence.
Then she runs toward the office building that the two men entered.
Fortunately, there are no cameras at that side of the institute. When
she comes close to the office where she met the doctor this morning,
she overhears a discussion going on between the doctor and the two
men.

The men talk about an escaped patient and especially about his
connection 
to the red-haired woman who had come asking for him. The only thing
the doctor can tell them is how she looked like. He also tells them
that she 
had an accent. 

"I believe she's Dutch." he says. 

Scully smiles faintly. They don't have the slightest idea who she is. 
That's an advantage. But they don't speak a word about Mulder in
specific 
either. They talk about 'the escaped patient.' That means they must
be 
looking for him too, but also don't know who he is. They say that he 
probably went back to Berlin to live on the streets again. "If we'll
ever 
find him, we'll find him there. He probably wants to go on with the
life 
he lived there," one of the men says as they are about to leave. 

As soon as she hears those words, Scully decides to go back to Berlin 
too. She realizes that it will be her last chance, although she still 
isn't sure that it really was Mulder they were talking about.

The two German intelligence men who talked to the doctor go straight 
back to their headquarters in Berlin. Late at night, they arrive at
their 
office, to report their findings. They give Mulder's medical dossier
to 
the superior officer in charge and discuss the case.

"Gentlemen, I want to know who that woman is and why she's after this 
man. Are you sure she's Dutch?"

"No, sir, we're not, but the doctor told us that, so for now we
assume it. 
He said that she spoke German, but with an accent."

"Well, I'll let you two find out about that, but first I want to
contact 
our friend in the States. As I read this man's dossier, I see no
reports 
of certain medical treatment. I assume he might be a member of the
last 
shipment we got, just shortly before the base blew up. If he really
was 
one of our lab-rats, I can only check it over there. Our documents
were destroyed in the explosion."

The man looks at his watch and picks up the phone. 

Somewhere, thousands of miles away, a man wakes up by the sound of
his 
phone. "Yes."

"This is Gunter calling. Did I wake you?"

"Come to the point. What's going on?" The man puts on a dressing-gown
and immediately lights a Morley cigarette.

"I might have a problem with an escaped lab-rat. There seems to be 
someone who knows. A woman."

The man raises his eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"I'll send you a fax with a photograph right now."

The smoking man walks to a room next door and waits in front of his
fax machine. It takes about thirty seconds before an image comes out.
He nervously puts out his cigarette.

"Did you get it?" the other side asks. 

The smoking man nods, but stays silent and looks in total surprise at
the picture in front of him. 

The other man doesn't wait for his answer, but says: "A red-haired
woman came asking for him. She showed his picture. What can you tell
me?"

At the words 'red-haired,' the smoking man's mouth falls open. Then
it again takes a while before the the question is answered. The man
first tries to light another cigarette, but his hands tremble too
much to keep his match steady. Finally, he gives up and says: "Don't
do anything. Just try to locate them. I'll come right away."

Then he hangs up the phone. He yanks the thermal paper out of the fax
machine and crushes it in his hand. 

"Dammit! In the end, you have to do everything by yourself to make
sure it's done right."

He returns to his bedroom and starts packing.

***

The next morning, after driving an hour or two on the road back to
Berlin,
Scully notices she's being followed. At first, she thinks it's her own
paranoia, but then she slows down and sees the two men in the car
behind
her do the same. The intelligence officers -- she assumes they're
intelligence officers -- following her haven't got the slightest idea
who
they are dealing with, so they aren't very careful. After taking a few
wrong turns, she's sure she's being followed.

Once back on the streets of Berlin, Scully decides to try to find out
who
they are. She leaves her car behind and pretends to take the U-Bahn
into
the former East Berlin. At the station's restrooms, she quickly
changes her
clothes and wraps her hair in scarves, as though she's a Muslim
female.
When she comes out wearing her glasses and looking pregnant with her
bag
under her coat, the men are still waiting in the hall. They do not
recognize her. After waiting for more than an hour, they realize
they've
lost her and leave. That's the moment Scully's been waiting for. She
takes
a taxi and follows the men through Berlin.

It takes half an hour before the men drive into a large parking
garage. The
building above is heavily guarded with military personnel. Scully
shivers
as she reads the sign in front. It's the German Secretary of State for
Defense. She asks the taxi driver to drive on, but he first gives way
to
another car, a large limousine. Just before the barrier goes up, one
of the
back windows rolls down and a cigarette is thrown out, followed by a
cloud
of smoke.

The taxi driver drives on just then and on her request takes Scully
to a
hotel other than the one she had when she first came to Berlin, just
as a
precaution. Although she didn't notice the arrival of the
Cigarette-Smoking
Man, she feels that there really is something going on. It cheers her
up
and fills her with fear at once. But back at the hospital, she
overhears
the men saying that the man -- who she assumes to be Mulder --
probably
went back to Berlin, "to go on with the life he lived there." Why did
he say
that? she thinks.

At night, she walks along the Kurf=FCrstendamm, thinking. The German
defense
building is too heavily guarded to break into. And she can't just
walk in
and say "Hi." She has only five days left, according to the date on
her
plane ticket.

After walking up and down this street for several hours, thinking,
she sits
down on a bench, staring at the Ged=E4chtnis Kirche. She's sure she
has found
a track, but she doesn't know what to do next. She sighs. She wishes
Mulder
were here. He would know what to do. The empty place next to her on
the
bench suddenly seems empty. It makes her feel more alone than ever.
Maybe I
should walk on, she thinks, fighting her tears.

Just before she resumes her way down the street, she hears a homeless
person mutter. He's searching for food in a dustbin. When she passes
him,
she feels a thrill in her bones. She stands still and listens. Many of
these people are lunatics, she thinks. Those survivors of the airbase
were
mad too. Maybe Mulder has also become a homeless person. Maybe he
escaped
and is wandering the streets. Maybe that was what that man meant.

The only way to find out is to dress like one herself and search the
streets of Berlin. It will be impossible, considering the size of the
city,
but it might be the only option left. She goes to the market and buys
some
second-hand clothes. After splashing them with alcohol, she tries to
get
some sleep. At night, dressed like a vagabond, she starts to walk the
streets and bridges of Berlin, desperately trying to find a trace of
Mulder.

The night before she has to fly home, she sees a fight on a small
sidestreet. Two men are fighting. She thinks it's just a fight and
decides
to walk by, but then she sees two other vagabonds appear out of
nowhere and manage to push one of the men to the ground, putting some
hand-cuffs on him. This gets her attention. Maybe they are undercover
police, she thinks as she watches from a safe distance.

Then a small van stops under a streetlight and they try to pull the
third
man in. But the hand-cuffed man is resisting. Scully, hidden behind a
tree, cannot
believe her eyes when the man's cap falls off. She has to hold the
tree to
prevent herself from fainting. Her words come out weakly.

"Oh, my God. Mulder."

After realizing she isn't dreaming, she runs up to the men, who are
now
forcing Mulder into the van. Without hesitation, she takes her bottle
of
cheap alcohol and hits one on the head with the bottle, knocking him
out.
Then the other tries to hit her, but she gives him a kick where it
hurts.

The driver of the van gets out and aims his gun at Scully. But before
the
gun goes off, Mulder throws himself against the man. But it's too
late.
Scully is hit on her thigh, and falls down in pain. She lets out a
cry, and is then still.

For a few seconds she passes out, but after she opens her eyes, she
sees
Mulder, wrestling against the man with the gun. He has his hands still
cuffed, and although he's trying hard, he doesn't have a chance.
Seeing
this makes her so angry, in a final explosion of strength she jumps
on the
armed men and hits them sharply. The armed one cries out and lets go
of the
gun. Scully quickly smashes it against his head, knocking him out.

Scully and Mulder both get into the car, leaving the two men
unconscious
and another in great pain. Scully drives away, tires squealing, while
Mulder catches his breath next to her.

"Vielen dank, Fraulein!" he says with an admiring glance.

Scully bites at her lip in pain. She can feel the warmth of her own
blood
streaming from her thigh. After driving for a while, she parks the
car on a
quiet street, right under a streetlight. Her first concern now should
be her
wound. But her pain doesn't concern her anymore; she just feels
relief as
she looks at the man sitting next to her.

It is definitely Mulder, with a beard and speaking German. She
presses down
on the wound and looks around in the car to find a first-aid kit.
Mulder,
sitting next to her in silence, immediately understands what she's
looking
for and finds one, gesturing for her to get it. There's concern in his
eyes as he watches her dressing her wound.

"Maybe you better should go to hospital?" he says in German.

Scully tells him in her fractured German that she's a doctor herself.
The
bullet just grazed her; she was lucky. They sit still for a while, in
silence.

"Now you can help me with these things?" Mulder asks, still speaking
German. He turns around and shows her his hand-cuffs.

Scully finds a needle in the first-aid kit and with that as a pick,
she
manages to get him loose. Mulder rubs his wrists. Then he sees her
check
out the gun she took from one of the men.

"Who are you? You speak German, but you have an accent. Where are you
from?"

And then, when his hand gently brushes her hair out of her face: "You
do
not look like you live on the streets. You seem healthy and
well-nourished.
What is this about? Did you know who those men are?"

There is some suspicion in his voice, although he's overwhelmed by the
courage and beauty of this woman sitting next to him.

Scully keeps silent. She doesn't now where to begin. What should she
tell him?

"Are you American?" he asks suddenly, in English.

She looks him in the eye as if he's shaken her awake. He does speak
his
native language. Then she reaches into her pocket and brings out his
photograph, showing it to him. Mulder looks surprised at his own
image.

"My name is Dana Scully and I've been looking for you for almost a
year
now," she tells him, trying not to cry.

This brings some light to his mind. Although Mulder is still
suspicious, he
realizes that the woman sitting next to him might have all the
answers he
has been searching for. He can hear the thrill in her voice and he is
touched by it. He remembers the things the two Americans he
encountered
told him. They told him that "Scully" could be a name, much like
"Dana."

Scully proposes that they go to her hotel and look at all the
pictures she
brought with her. Perhaps that way, she can tell her story more
clearly,
and she also needs to take care of her gunshot wound.

The pain finally registers as she starts the car and starts to drive.
She
almost faints, but says nothing when Mulder asks if she's sure she's
okay.
She has to be strong now. But as they pass by, they realize that the
hotel
is being watched. One of the men they got away from is standing
against a
streetlight just in front of it. Scully recognizes him and realizes
that
they are now wanted by the Germans. In the rear mirror, she sees the
man
getting into another car, which starts to follow them.

"Maybe we had better get rid of this car," Scully says weakly as she
speeds up.

Suddenly, even as she's driving at high speed, she blacks out. Mulder
reacts quickly. He pulls her away and places himself behind the
steering
wheel, just before they hit a street sign. He skids on the pavement,
turns
around wildly and speeds away after hitting some dustbins. After a few
turns, he manages to lose their pursuers. Just then, he realizes he
can't
remember if he has ever driven a car before, although everything
seems to
come naturally.

Just as they are out of Berlin, Scully, shaken conscious again by the
rough
ride, faints for the third time. Mulder stops, takes her carefully in
his
arms and lays her down on the backseat of the car.

While driving, he glances at her frequently in the rear mirror and
wonders
who this sleeping woman might be to risk her life for him. What did
she
have to do with him in his former life to do this? He is touched by
her
courage. She must be the key, he thinks. He has to trust her, it's
the only
way to find out who he is. Although he is concerned about her
condition,
his eyes are glowing again. The feeling there is someone in this
world who
cares about him turns his whole being upside down. This must be what
life
is all about.

Mulder avoids the highway, so it takes them a few hours to get there.
The small cabin is still standing on the hill as they arrive, late at
night.

Mulder carries in the sleeping Scully. He watches her after he puts
her
on the couch. While she was awake, even as she was feverish, she told
him
a few things about his past. Mulder learned that he indeed worked at
the FBI and
that she was his partner. He is a little overwhelmed by this news. Her
story rings true, but still makes no sense to him.

He makes a fire in the fireplace after he places Scully on the couch,
her
leg raised high on the arm of the couch. She opens her eyes for a
moment.
He feels her gaze and smiles at her.

"Du sollst dir keine Sorgen machen." he says softly in German, as he
gently
brushes her hair out of her face. Then he remembers to speak in
English and if she wants to tell him more: "I'll take care of you,
don't worry. But you have to rest now."

Then she falls asleep again. The next few days, she is sometimes
conscious,
sometimes asleep. She is feverish. Mulder stays at her bedside for
hours,
gently cooling her body with a wet towel. But mostly, he just watches
her.
Sometimes she is delirious, but what she says in her fever makes no
sense
to him. 

The wound in her leg has infected and Mulder decides to fetch the
doctor,
even though she has insisted he not do so. He realizes this could be a
security risk -- as she told him -- but there's no other option. She
definately needs medical treatment by now. The doctor gives her an
injection with antibiotics. Soon after, she feels better, and one
morning,
she opens her eyes. Mulder is sitting at her side, smiling at her.
He's
had a shave, a bath, and clean clothing. She recognizes him and as he
speaks to her, she realizes she isn't dreaming.

"Well, you're doing better. Would you like something to eat?"

He has made some breakfast. She hasn't eaten for days, and she's
ravenous,
so she eats all of it. Mulder enjoys watching her. Then she asks him
what
day it is and concludes that she already had to be back to the States
by
now. Her family must be so worried, she thinks. There's no phone at
the
cabin, Mulder tells her, and he also says that she is going nowhere
right
now. First, her wound has to heal and she has to get her strength
back.

As she is getting better, he starts to ask her about herself and
himself.
They talk for hours. After he has heard her story, fantastic as it is,
Mulder believes that together, they can recover what has been lost in
his
mind.

But it doesn't take Scully long to conclude that Mulder needs
psychiatric
treatment. For that, they have to go back to the States. She doesn't
tell
him anything about their personal relationship or their child. To
tell him
the whole truth might scare him off, she thinks. And that's not her
first
concern, either. As he is officially dead, she has to think of a way
to get
him back into the States.

One night, Mulder, sleeping on the couch, awakes at a sound. He opens
his
eyes very slowly. Then suddenly, the light is switched on and he finds
himself looking right into the barrel of a gun. Two men drag him
roughly to
the bedroom.

A man in a black coat is pointing a gun at Scully. The other two throw
Mulder on the bed too, and look at the third, as if they're awaiting
orders. With large eyes, she watches the man in front of them, who
sighs
and lights a cigarette.

"Well well well, agents Mulder and Scully." He sighs again. "I
thought I'd
get rid of you both, but you two are like rats. You think you used the
strongest poison and killed them all, but there always seem to be
some that
survive."

"What do you want, you damned son of a bitch?" Scully tries to
express her
anger, but she's about to cry. The words sound desperate.

"That's not a thing for a lady to say, Miss Scully. Or should I call
you
Mrs. Mulder by now?"

"It's me you're after, isn't it?" Mulder speaks for the first time.
He has
no idea who this cigarette-smoking man is, but clearly, the man is
familiar
with them. "Let her go."

The CSM laughs, but Mulder repeats: "Let her go!"

But it's no use. The man whom he speaks to unlocks his gun and shakes
his
head, saying: "In the end, you always have to do everything yourself."

He aims. Mulder places himself before Scully. "Let her go. Shoot me
if you
like, but let her go."

The CSM doesn't seem to change his mind. His gun is now close to
Mulder's
head. He cocks it.

Then, suddenly, the two other men interfere. They had stood in
silence for
a while, but after exchanging a few words, one of them says: "Das
k=F6nnen
Sie nicht machen. This is our country and our jurisdiction. We can't
allow
this."

This seems to confuse the CSM a bit, and for a second, he looks at his
companions. He's not paying attention to Mulder anymore. Then he
fires --
but not at the direction he intended to. One of the Germans falls
down.
Mulder sees it, but still doesn't think twice. He dives toward the
gun and
struggles for it. The gun goes off again. The CSM falls, Mulder below
him,
in hold of the gun, aiming at the other German. Another shot is
fired, two
shots. Then there's silence.

Mulder extricates himself from underneath the CSM. One of the Germans
is
dead, the other is holding his arm in pain. Niether of them had a
chance to
fire. The CSM lies motionless on the floor. 

Behind the bed, Scully sits up. She got down to the floor as soon as
the
shooting started. Her hands tremble. She's holding a gun. Mulder
realizes she's the one who shot the smoking man. He remembers the gun
they
stole back in Berlin. She must have had it under her pillow, and she
used
it during the struggle.

Mulder quickly takes both of the other guns and searches the Germans.
One
of them only has a small wound at his arm, so Mulder takes his own
handcuffs and cuffs him to his dead comrade.

Meanwhile, Scully examines the CSM. He's dead. She searches his
pockets.
She finds something she didn't expect to. "Mulder, look at this," she
says.

Mulder turns around. She's holding two passports. The names in them
are
Diana and Freddy Spoonful. Their two photographs are inside. Only the
signatures haven't been filled in yet.

"Mulder, maybe he didn't come here to kill us."

Mulder looks at the photographs in the passports. "Maybe he wanted to
make
us an offer. He fired the first shot, but not at us."

"Well, we'll never know what he was after; he's dead." But she doesn't
sound too sorry about it.

She finds more. Credit cards and some other official papers, all with
the
names Diana and Freddy Spoonful on them. She wonders why the strange
names,
then dismisses it.

"What's that?" Mulder points at a small black box at a chain around
the
neck of the CSM.

Scully gently takes it off. It's covered with blood, so she takes a
bedsheet and wipes it clean.

"Oh, my God."

"What is it?"

"It's like the lead box you found in New Mexico, Mulder."

She opens the box to be sure, and there it is. Microfilm. This one's
fully
intact.

In the meantime, Mulder tries to interrogate the man who survived.
"Who are
you people?" he says in German, but the man won't tell him anything.

"We have to get out of here," he says to Scully. "These men have
superiors
and if they don't come back, someone will come looking for them."

Scully agrees. She first dresses the man's gunshot wound, and then
she lets
Mulder carry her back to their car.

"You haven't lost your instincts or skills, as far as I can tell,
Mulder,"
she compliments him.

Mulder's just confused. "How do I know how to fire a gun? But I can't
remember I ever aimed a gun before. And I can't remember ever having
been
to New Mexico, either, let alone being in the FBI or having you as my
partner."

Scully smiles: "But I do."

***

It's not safe to stay in Germany anymore, so they drive all night,
heading
for the Dutch border. As soon as they have crossed it, just after
dawn,
Scully uses a public phone to call her mother, but not telling her any
details, just as a precaution, just telling her that she's safe and
she's
found what she was looking for. As soon as they get to Amsterdam,
they head
straight for the airport, intending to take the first plane
available. But
the flights are overbooked and they have to wait 24 hours before
theirs
takes off. They decide to see some of the sights of Amsterdam, and
pick up
some new clothing while they're at it; they're still dressed like
vagabonds.

In the evening, they go sightseeing the canals in a boat. It's a
quite romantic tour, and it gives them the opportunity to forget
about the situation they're in for a while.
But Scully is still uncertain about showing her affection for this
man. She
knows him as Fox Mulder, but he isn't the same person anymore.

Mulder apparently has fewer problems with it. He places his arm
around her
shoulders. Scully rests her head against his chest and closes her
eyes,
just to feel his presence. Even when he places his chin on the top of
her
head, she still doesn't speak. Silently, they watch the beautiful
view of
the bridges over the river Amstel, illuminated by thousands of lights.

Later, they arrive at their hotel room. While Mulder is taking a
shower,
Scully turns on the television to watch CNN. There's a live broadcast
out
of Congress. The committee of judges, assigned by President Gore to
investigate the death of Bill Clinton, reads their final report. She
hasn't
heard any news for about two weeks, so she watches with much interest.

And then she sees it. Somewhere in the background, she sees Walter
Skinner
and Diana Fowley together at a desk on the side of the hall. It takes
a few
minutes before the camera zooms in on them, and the titles on the
signs in
front of them become legible. It says: 'Director' and 'Assistant
Director'.

This surprises Scully. Diana hadn't told her she was involved in the
investigation when she came to visit her. She also didn't know that
Skinner
was and that they both got their promotions. But from the expression
on
their faces she can tell that they still aren't very happy.

It does not take very long before Scully realizes why. The report
that the
committee presents is -- at least to say -- very poorly put together
and
riddled with loopholes, according to the press commentary. The
conclusion
the committee makes about the events, now nearly a year ago, is that
it was
mostly likely that an unnamed terrorist organization intended to
disrupt
the government  in an attempt at a coup, but failed. With this
report, they
hope to kill the rumors that the assassins were actually government
workers. The FBI did investigate those rumors, but the committee
maintains
that this was all a hypothesis. The FBI, or at least what was left,
couldn't find evidence for this theory; this is all conjecture. The
truth
may never be revealed. And so, after almost a year, the committee
decides
to end the investigations and recommends all American citizens to go
on
with their lives.

Scully sighs. This is what she had expected. Like with so many other
incidents in modern American history, the truth may never be
revealed, not
as long as the government itself is involved in an investigation.

Mulder returns from the shower and immediately notices she's upset. He
gently lays his hand on her shoulder. Dana looks up at him.

"If they only knew, Fox. If they only knew."

He sits down next to her and watches the screen for a moment. The
commentator reiterates what has been said. No evidence, no
defendants, no
truth. Just that recommendation: to turn another black page in the
history
of this country. The film clips are played again, even panning over
the
shots of an unhappy-looking Skinner and Fowley; Scully glances at
Mulder,
but he doesn't even flinch -- there is no recognition.

"Dana, you told me we found evidence about a conspiracy against the
American people and the President, and that we were almost killed for
that.
And that the President was assassinated because we were going to tell
him
about it. Was that all about that microfilm you told me I found?"

"Yes, Fox."

"But what about the film we have now?"

Scully sighs. She knows that if the microfilm contains the same
images as
the first one, they are back where they started. They could do it all
over
again.

But she's not sure that's what she wants. The situation is different
now.
Mulder isn't Mulder anymore and can't testify, and she has another
responsibility now, their child.
She would never put her daughter in danger, or Fox. Does he realize
how
dangerous this was -- and still is? He can't.

She looks up at him. There's concern in his face as he watches the
news. It
must be difficult for him to understand.

"I'll think about it, Fox," she says, and turns the TV off.

He shrugs and leaves for the bathroom again, to brush his teeth.
There are
two beds in their room, and when Mulder returns, he automatically
slips
into the empty one. When she turns the lights off, they are quiet for
a
while, but then Mulder starts talking.

"Dana?"

"Yes?"

"How long did you say we've been partners?"

"For more than five years."

"That's a long time."

"It is."

"Did I get wounded a lot?"

She's startled at the question. "Why do you ask?"

"When I was taking a shower, I looked at myself in that mirror in the
bathroom. I have scars everywhere."

Scully smiles. "Well, I could tell you where  you got each one. Where
would
you like me to begin?"

The seductive tone in her voice confuses Mulder. He's glad the lights
are
out; he feels himself blushing. "Well, we're both tired, let's get
some
sleep."

"Good night, Fox."

"Night, Dana."

***

On the flight home, Scully thinks about what to do with the new
microfilm.
She feels she can't discuss this with Fox, but she knows she has to.
It's
his business too. But with his amnesia, he can't judge rationally or
with
knowledge. So she knows they have to delay this decision to when he
can.

Once back in the States, Scully makes the difficult decision not take
Mulder home with her. She takes him straight to an mental health
center. A
former professor of her works here as a psychiatrist, and she knows
she can
trust him; Mulder needs treatment. Dana and her former professor
agree that
other patients will only know him as Freddy and he will receive his
treatment in solitude, keeping him separate from the other patients
whenever possible. The center is about 80 miles from her home, but
when she
leaves him there, she promises to visit him every day. Then she
rushes home
to her baby.

Slowly, thanks to the therapy, Mulder recovers. After a few weeks,
he's
able to remember his his name and his past, even when he's conscious.
But
the therapy isn't enough. There's still a gap in his mind. Everything
has
become clear again but the last years of his life. In his sleep, he
still
has nightmares about this period, but he isn't able to remember them
clearly when he's awake.

He also has problems getting his memories back under hypnosis. There
are
just pieces of it. His doctor has never seen this kind of amnesia
before
and has no idea what to do about it. He has tried most known
treatments by
now. It seems that whoever did this to Mulder managed to deconstruct
that
part of his long-term memory totally. His childhood, his adolescence,
his
studies at Oxford -- he remembers everything from the past very well,
but
from the last five years only fragments. And there's another odd thing
about it. When he recalls the parts of the last five years under
hypnosis
that he can, there are only facts. No feelings. No terror, no joy, no
anger.

Those feelings and the missing parts have to be filled in by Dana. She
does, but she never tells him about the feelings they had for each
other.
She's afraid of doing that. She still loves him as much as she did,
but he
can't even remember her clearly just being with him. Slowly, she
realizes
that remembering his love for her seems to be out of the question.

She gets depressed. His character hasn't changed, but what if it
comes out
that the "new" Mulder does not love her at all? Does she has to
confront
him about his child? The child needs a father, but she thinks it's
wrong to
force a man to deal with the things he did in a life that is no
longer his.

Her mother notices that things are going the wrong way and asks her
about it.

Scully bursts out. "It seems as if everything is going wrong at the
end of
it all," she cries. "He doesn't remember me at all. I cannot tell him
the
truth. I don't want him to feel he has to do anything just because he
feels
obliged to do it."

This is one of the biggest dilemmas she has ever had to deal with.

In the meantime, Mulder lies awake in the hospital, thinking of
Scully. Her
care and dedication for him confuse him. He's still depressed about
not
having back his memory totally, but he feels as if it doesn't matter
when
she's around. She visits him every day. That is quite nice for former
partners, he thinks. Oh, I love the way she thinks, the way she
looks. In
fact, he realizes, I love everything she does. But she hasn't told me
anything about her personal life. If she were married or something
like
that, I think she would have told me. Maybe there is another reason
for her
to be here so often. Mulder decides to ask her, when the occasion is
right
and he has built up his courage.

After a few weeks, they walk in the garden of the hospital, talking
and
laughing. Scully's about to drive home and Mulder escorts her to the
gate.
Suddenly, he takes her arm.

"Dana, I don't know why it is, but everytime you come here, you make
me
feel so happy," he says.

She's not sure what to say. They stand still for a moment, looking at
each
other.

Then he asks: "Why do you keep coming, Dana? You finished your job;
you
found me, and you brought me back. But I still cannot remember you
clearly.
That must hurt you. Why are you still here? I only hurt you."

With that, he starts to cry, and Scully also feels tears welling up
in her
eyes. Before her stands the man she loves, but until this moment, she
has
felt that she couldn't reach him.

"You are a beautiful woman, Dana. You deserve better than me," as if
he can
read her thoughts.

He cups her face in his hands and leans in close to her. "If you
don't want
this, just walk away right now and don't come back, before I really
fall in
love with you," he whispers.

Scully doesn't think twice. She kisses him as if she's never going to
let
go of him again.

Then, while they are kissing and Mulder feels her body close to his,
he
sees flashbacks of him doing that before. It's as if the passion, the
physical touch, awakes something in his psyche that had been lost.

"Oh, God," he says as they stop to take a breath, "now I know it. I've
loved you before. That must be it. I recognize this feeling."

Scully starts to cry. She has him back. She finally has him back.

They agree that he's well on his way to recovery, and he can check
himself
out. That night, she takes him home to her apartment. There, on her
couch,
Mulder relives all the emotions he had lost for so long. He can't stop
talking, crying, shivering. While Scully holds him close, he feels
all the
fear, anger, wonder, love, and desire he has gone through. His deepest
emotions, those that had been hidden for so long, surface like boiling
water in a geyser. Sometimes she's afraid he's on the verge of a
mental
collapse, but she knows that this had to come out somehow. The doctor
had
warned her that his memory could come in pieces, or at once. The
latter has
happened. To give him comfort is the only thing she can do.

After shivering and sweating for hours, he's about to fall asleep in
her
arms, totally exhausted, but calm inside. Scully takes him to her
bed. She
takes him in her arms and holds him close, as if she wants to protect
him
from all the wrongs in the world. Then they just sleep until morning.

The sun is rising higher in the sky by the time Mulder awakes. He
feels as
if he has been born again, thanks to the woman lying close to him.
Silently, he watches her as she sleeps and can't imagine how he could
ever
forget this view. Slowly, he kisses her softly on her forehead. Scully
opens her eyes and feels as if she's dreaming again.

***

In the evening, they go to her mother's house. Maggie Scully welcomes
him
as a lost son, but leaves suddenly, after exchanging glances with her
daughter.

When they are left alone, Scully tells him she has to introduce
someone to
him. Within minutes, she returns, with the baby in her arms. Mulder
gets up
from the couch and watches them enter the room, amazed.

He still doesn't get it, even when she says: "Fox, may I introduce to
you
Melissa Samantha Amanda. Amanda, may I introduce to you Fox William
Mulder,
your father." Then she looks him in the eye.

His mouth falls open.

"This is our daughter, Fox," she says as she carefully hands the baby
over
to him.

He takes her gently, not speaking a word, looking in amazement at the
baby
in his arms. Tears come. Together, they sit down on the couch, still
silent, watching this little wonder of nature sleeping in Mulder's
arms.

He kisses her and then Scully.

Amanda awakes at the touch, immediately looks her father in the eye,
and
smiles.

***

A few days later, Assistant Director Fowley takes up her phone.
"Diana,
this is Walter. Could you come to my office for a moment?"

When Diana enters, Skinner is standing in front of the window,
peering outside.

"What's up?"

Skinner points to an envelope on his desk. The sender is unknown.
"It's
addressed to both of us personally. I wanted to wait until you came."

Skinner takes the envelope and opens it. There's a letter. It says:

"This is the heritage of Fox William Mulder. Use it."

They both look each other in the eye for a moment. They know: It was
a year
ago today.

Skinner says nothing but turns the envelope upside down. The sound of
the
small lead box that comes rolling out is the only thing that breaks
the
silence...


***



Story by MacMiep - rina@bossina.nl
December 1998 to April 1999

Edited into colloquial American English by Elizabeth Flynn