From: ephemeral@ephemeralfic.org
Date: Sun,  8 Nov 2009 17:59:35 -0600 (CST)
Subject: J. Edgar, Junior by ML by ML
Source: direct

Reply To: msnsc21@yahoo.com


Title: J. Edgar, Junior 
By: ML
Email: msnsc21@yahoo.com
Archive: just let me know where
Spoiler / Episode Reference: Squeeze
Rating: Everyone
Disclaimer:  I still don't own them, darn it, just 
the action figures.  But I'm grateful to Chris 
Carter, 1013, and Fox, not to mention all the 
actors, for bringing these characters to life and 
giving me so much enjoyment.
Synopsis:  There are many different kinds of 
invasions. 

Acknowledgments: to the Posse, always, and to Circe 
Invidiosa, who gives my stories a lovely home:  
http://ml.invidiosa.com/index.html

Author's notes:  This is the third story in an 
exploration of the early seasons.  They are loosely 
tied together but can be read as standalones as 
well.

x-x-x

J. Edgar, Junior by ML

Baltimore Field Office, FBI

Tom Colton straightened his tie and his shoulders 
as the elevator door opened.  He always enjoyed the 
walk through the bullpen to the incident room.  It 
was something to be assigned to a high-profile 
case.  His career was on track.

If you want to be a blue-flamer, act like a blue-
flamer, was his motto.  He strode confidently 
through the bullpen.

"Hey Tom," one of the agents called.  He inclined 
his head slightly, acknowledging the greeting, but 
not returning it, the picture of a man focused on 
his case.

This could be the making of him.  He would do 
whatever it took to crack this case.  Maybe he 
wasn't in the New York office, Like Marty Neal, but 
he was closer to DC.  

ASAC Fuller was already there.  Damn.  He'd wanted 
to be first.  He might not be a toady, bringing in 
coffee and doughnuts to curry favor, but he wanted 
to show that he was on the ball.  That he had what 
it takes.

"Colton."  Fuller greeted him.  "Anything new?"

What, in my sleep?  Colton thought.  But aloud, he 
said, "I'm going over the reports again, Sir.  Just 
want to make sure I'm not missing anything."

"I'm not sure there's anything to miss, Colton," 
Fuller said.  "No discernable point of entry, no 
murder weapon...I think we might need a little 
assistance on this one.  Violent Crimes still has 
Agent Mulder on call."  He grimaced.  "If we can 
tear him away from watching the skies, that is."

Oh no.  Colton could see his rapid rise up the 
ladder slowing to a crawl.  It was like admitting 
defeat to ask for help, but even worse to call in 
"Spooky" Mulder.  Here was a guy who by all 
accounts was extremely talented, first in his 
class, the fastest rising star in the FBI.  And he 
pissed it all away.  He didn't want to be 
associated with that train wreck, in any way, 
shape, or form.

"It's no shame to call in outside help," Fuller 
said, seeing his expression.  "Sure, Mulder has a 
rep for being kind of 'out there,' but he can still 
read a crime scene like no one else."

Colton thought quickly.  He didn't want to appear 
uncooperative to his superior, but there had to be 
a way to salvage this situation.

"Actually, I have someone I'd like to talk to, 
informally," he said.  "She has a forensic 
background, and she might have some insight.  Let 
me talk to her first."

"Who's that?"  Fuller asked.

"Dana Scully.  She has a medical background, and 
might have ended up in the VCS herself but they 
decided she was too valuable in the Forensics Unit 
at Quantico."

"Yeah, I know her name -- she's partnered with 
Mulder now, isn't she?"  Fuller had a half-smile on 
his face.  "And partners talk to each other -- way 
to get Mulder's expertise without asking him.  Nice 
move."

Colton flushed a little.  "I think she might like 
the opportunity to do some real work for a change, 
Sir.  We'll do ourselves a favor while giving Agent 
Scully a chance to see how a real investigation is 
run."

"Sure, Colton, go ahead.  Invite your friend to the 
crime scene, and we'll see what happens."

x-x-x

Colton watched as Dana Scully walked away.  He was 
pretty sure that she'd go running to Spooky with 
this.  If she didn't, no harm, no foul; Dana would 
still put in more hours and thought on the profile 
than all the team members combined.      

He couldn't figure out how she got stuck partnering 
the FBI's resident crackpot.  It wasn't because she 
wasn't good at her job; in fact, strings had been 
pulled to keep her at Quantico as a teacher and 
rumors had her on the fast track to head the 
Forensics Unit one day.

Of course, there were other rumors about Dana 
Scully and one of the guest instructors at 
Quantico.  He knew better than to bring that up.  
Dana didn't talk about anything she didn't want to 
talk about, and you didn't stay friends with her if 
you tried to make her.  He didn't want to piss her 
off too much; she might still be useful.  

Lately, he'd heard through the grapevine that she'd 
been asking for a field assignment.  She wanted 
some hands-on investigative experience.  Pairing 
her with Spooky Mulder was probably a good move in 
that case.  He wouldn't get her hurt or killed, but 
he'd probably drive her right back to Quantico.  
Dana Scully was very by-the-book and by all 
accounts Mulder was not.

And yet she actually defended him, calling him a 
"great agent."  Maybe she was just trying to save 
face, put the best possible light on her 
assignment.  He'd knocked Dana off her high horse 
just a bit when he told her everyone was calling 
her "Mrs. Spooky."

That wasn't strictly true, at least not yet.  He'd 
thought it up on the spur of the moment.  He'd 
always been the one to come up with the clever 
nicknames, the ones that stuck.  Like J. Edgar, 
Junior.  He couldn't wait until Marty Neal fell on 
his ass, and he was sure it would happen.  The guy 
wasn't that smart, he just caught a lucky break.

He got out his phone and called ASAC Fuller.

"So how'd you do with your friend?  Is she going to 
talk to Spooky?"  His boss asked.

"They're meeting us at the crime scene tomorrow 
morning," Colton replied.  He couldn't lose here.  
If Mulder got too spooky, he could say he hadn't 
asked for his help, just talked to a former 
classmate about the case.  If Mulder came up with 
anything helpful or significant, he'd already made 
it clear to Dana that this was his case, and he'd 
get the credit for the solve.

x-x-x

Usher Crime Scene

He began to have regrets almost as soon as Mulder 
walked in the door.  Mulder looked like an ordinary 
enough guy, looked him straight in the eyes, firm 
handshake, all that.  Then he started acting weird, 
answering his comment about "little green men" in a 
serious way.  It wasn't until later that he 
realized Mulder was pulling his leg.  What a guy, 
making jokes at a crime scene.  He focused on, of 
all things, the vent.  He pretended to find 
something there.  Dana seemed to take it all in 
stride.  Honestly, how did she work with this guy?

Well, if she did well with the profile, he'd talk 
to Fuller about requesting her transfer.  They'd 
make a good team.  Dana was so thorough, and worked 
so hard, and she'd owe him.  Fuller would be 
pleased, too.  Another win-win for him.

x-x-x

Baltimore Field Office

"I had a reaction to that stupid question!"

Colton looked on with satisfaction as his superior 
ripped Mulder a new one.  Just as he'd figured, 
Mulder had done his best to take over the 
investigation.  He'd been there at the arrest, and 
somehow managed to get a couple of questions into 
the lie detector session.

But Mulder screwed himself up, putting forward some 
crazy story to try and make the case against Tooms 
stick.  Nothing he said made any sense.  Colton 
tuned him out entirely.

Dana might still be worth salvaging, but she turned 
down the opportunity to keep working with his team.  
Incredible.  Didn't she get it?  Mulder was poison, 
a career-killer.  How could Dana turn down a chance 
to work with the VCS over working with Mulder?

Now they were back at Square One.  No suspect, no 
meaningful evidence, only Dana's profile, which may 
or may not have been tainted by Mulder's ridiculous 
theories.

He was sorry for Dana, he really was, but she said 
she could look after herself.  She was going to 
have to, because after this, there wouldn't be many 
people willing to stick their necks out for her.

x-x-x

The call came as he was driving in to work the next 
day.  Another murder, same M.O.

Somehow, this was Mulder's fault.  He filled Dana's 
head with nonsense, caused her to write a faulty 
profile.  Mulder's insistence that her profile was 
correct, and Dana's continued support of Mulder, 
was all the evidence Colton needed. 

He'd gotten so tired of the legend of "Spooky 
Mulder" at the Academy.  So many instructors would 
invoke Fox Mulder's holy name and they used real 
examples of profiles that the Boy Wonder had 
written, that helped catch this one or that one.  
Maybe he was great at one time, but not any more.      

When he got to the scene, the Baltimore PD 
detectives were already there.  They gave Colton 
sidelong glances as they went about their 
investigation.  He could feel his authority 
slipping away.

To make matters worse, here was Mulder and Dana 
again.  He ignored Mulder, who had the gall to 
ignore him right back.

But Dana would not be ignored.  She took Mulder's 
part again, and accused _him_ of not cooperating!

"Whose side are you on?"  Colton asked.

Dana said simply, "The victim's."

As if he didn't care about the victim.  Of course 
he did -- how else would he crack this case?

Back in the incident room, he reviewed the case 
notes, even Mulder's, looking for anything he could 
hang a theory on.  It was all going to hell.  Even 
the SAC was looking at him funny.  When he walked 
through the bullpen, no one said a word.

The next day, it went from bad to worse.  When they 
were all gathered in the incident room, someone 
brought up the surveillance detail.

"What surveillance detail?" Colton asked.

"You didn't order it?"  Fuller asked.

"Who are we surveiling?" Colton asked, as if he had 
so many going on, he wasn't sure which one they 
were referring to.

"Eugene Victor Tooms.  You didn't order it?"  
Fuller repeated.

Damn that Mulder.  "No, and I think it's a waste of 
manpower," he said decisively.  "Call everyone back 
in.  I'll deal with this."

When Dana showed up later, he told her exactly what 
he thought of her flouting his express wishes that 
they stay out of his way.  Dana, however, was 
unmoved, even accusing _him_ of obstruction.

Maybe she was better suited to be Mulder's partner 
than he realized.  They both were so sure of 
themselves -- always thinking they were right about 
everything.

If so, they deserved each other, but he wasn't 
going to let them ruin his investigation.  As Dana 
left the room, he called Mulder to tell him the 
surveillance was off.

"This is Fox Mulder, I'm not in.  Leave a message."

Even his voice mail was cocky.  Colton elected not 
to leave a message.  Let him find out when he 
showed up for his shift, and no one was there.  
Maybe he'd blame Dana for screwing things up.

Yeah, they deserved each other.  That was the last 
time he'd offer to help Dana out.  Since she 
insisted on taking care of herself, he'd let her.  
When her spooky partner let her down, she'd find 
out how wrong she'd been to trust him.

x-x-x

Baltimore Field Office

The next morning, he was the first one in the 
incident room for once.  He sipped his coffee, 
studying the crime scene photos tacked on the wall, 
the picture of the concerned agent when Fuller 
walked in.

"I guess you didn't hear," Fuller said.

"What?" asked Colton.

"Tooms was caught in Agent Scully's apartment last 
night.  Attempted assault.  According to her, he 
went after her liver _with his bare hands_."

Suddenly his coffee cup was too hot to handle.  He 
set it down with an unsteady hand.  "This is a 
joke, right?  Who put you up to this?"

"I don't have all the details yet, but Tooms is 
locked up.  Agent Mulder found something at the 
suspect's residence that led him to believe Agent 
Scully was in danger.  He arrived at her apartment 
just in time to witness the assault himself."

"And you believe this story?"  Colton asked 
incredulously.

Fuller looked at him for a long moment.  "Are you 
accusing a fellow agent of lying?"

"No, Sir, of course not," Colton replied.  

"Look, I'm no happier about this than you are," his 
boss said.  "We let the guy go, and it turns out 
that he may well be the perp.  And you called off 
the surveillance."

"We did everything by the book," Colton insisted.  
"We had no evidence, nothing to hold him on but 
Mulder's 'theory'."

"Well, I guess he's earned his nickname all over 
again," Fuller said.  "Maybe you owe him an 
apology."

Colton paced around the incident room.  How did 
everything go south so fast?  There was no way he 
could have known.  It wasn't his fault.  And there 
was no way in hell he'd ever apologize to Mulder.  
Or Dana, for that matter.  Why should he take the 
fall when he'd followed procedure, did everything 
he was supposed to do?  Really, Mulder should thank 
him.  If he'd actually left the message for Mulder, 
he probably wouldn't have gone to the scene, 
wouldn't have found the evidence that led him to 
Dana's apartment...

...and maybe Dana would be dead by now.

Nah.  It wouldn't have happened that way.  Dana 
could take care of herself, she said so.  If Mulder 
hadn't shown up, she would have had the collar, and 
Mulder would have been left in the cold.

Mulder wasn't that smart, he just got lucky.  And 
one day when he wasn't, and fell on his ass, Colton 
hoped he'd be around to see it.  And Dana, too.

end.

feedback: msnsc21@yahoo.com