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PART 3 ( R )
NEW MILFORD, CONNECTICUT

The morning was spent going to a sporting goods store and renting a 
tent, some sleeping bags.  I bought a little propane tabletop stove and a 
couple of the small tanks that go with it.  I figured I could use that in the 
future.  I bought some canteens and rain ponchos.  We were renting 
some stuff but I decided to buy a few things, just to have them.

Before I was through, I'd purchased a hunting knife with a 6" blade on it 
and a compass in the end of the handle.  That could come in handy.  I 
picked up two little lunch size coolers and a tarp to put under the tent for 
protection from the cold ground.  Scully purchased some supplies to 
supplement her first aid kit.

Finally, we were ready to go and I purchased two of those back pack 
racks that go on your back and had the salesman show me how to pack 
all the stuff into it.  I purchased an extra flashlight and some batteries and 
film for my camera.  When all was said and done, it fit rather nicely.  I took 
the bulk of it, but even mine wasn't too heavy.  All we would have to carry 
would be the small coolers, which we could stock with some sodas and 
sandwiches.

Next stop was the grocery store where we bought sandwich meat and 
bread, fruit and juice and soda to carry along.  We would be a little 
weighted down but I figured it couldn't hurt to be prepared.  

XXXXXXXXXX
NEW MILFORD POLICE DEPARTMENT
02:30 PM

Finally we made it to the police station where we talked with the Chief of 
Police, Brian Wasley and his right hand man, Captain Cole Seavers.  
They gave us all the paperwork in their files along with reports from the 
State police in Litchfield that had assisted in the investigation.  

Two couples had come to Cornwall.  One couple was on their honeymoon 
and staying at the Hopkins Inn in Warren, a small town about 13 miles 
away.  They were from Florida.  Seemed odd anyone from Florida would 
honeymoon in Connecticut, but I guess we always want what we don't 
have.  They sweated nine months out of the year and must have figured 
Connecticut in the fall would be a treat.  


Patsy and Carl Lehigh were 24 and 25 years old.   Patsy was a secretary 
for a manufacturing outfit and Carl was a toolmaker at the same place.  
They rented a nice condo.

The other couple was New Yorkers who had a summer cottage in 
Cornwall.  Caroline and Keith Putnam were in 36 an 37 years old.  He 
was a doctor and she was a marketing executive.  They owned a 
penthouse in New York City and a house here in Cornwall.  Neither 
couple had kids.    

Both couples had gone camping in Dudley Town, having heard the 
legends and looking for a little adventure.  Neither couple had been heard 
from again.  

The Lehigh's were middle class folk and the Putnam's weren't 
millionaires, but they were what most people would consider rich, or well-
off, depending on who you asked.  So there was no connection in ages or 
professions or income level or living circumstances.  Curios, no 
connections, except Dudleytown. 

The Lehigh's were reported missing by their families when they failed to 
report back at the expected end of their honeymoon.  The Putnam's 
neighbors reported them missing after they didn't return from their 
weekend camping trip.  Concerned neighbors called New York and their 
respective job offices to make sure they just hadn't returned to New York 
and slipped under their radar.  No one had seen them.

The New Milford cops along with several Troopers from the State police 
had gone to Dudleytown to investigate.  The entrance to Dudleytown, 
aptly named 'Dark Entry Road' was cleared for a fire road but still only 
wide enough for a couple of people.  A car would never make it through. 
They had found no bodies, but had found scattered clothes and camping 
gear that they had tagged and bagged neatly to check for fingerprints.  
There was no blood.  All the cops had been spooked while there.  They 
reported feeling taps on the shoulder, turning around to find no one there, 
tripping and falling on perfectly level ground as though someone had 
stuck out a leg and tripped them intentionally.  Of course, nothing was 
seen.  The only other evidence, neatly tucked into an evidence zip lock 

bag was a pile of shit.  It was now labeled 'Wolf Scat'.  

Charming.

I laughed when Scully crinkled her nose at the bag, wondering at their 
need to confiscate this little gem.  I looked at the Captain.  "Captain 
Seavers, does this bag of droppings indicate that you think some kind of 
animal could be involved?"

He answered me calmly.  "Not necessarily, but since we weren't finding 
anything obvious, I figured it couldn't hurt to take everything we saw.  You 
never know what might turn out to be important.  I'd kick myself if this 
turned out to be pack of rabid coy dogs or something I overlooked it."

I nodded.  "Good thinking.  Believe me, we've seen and heard of a lot 
stranger things."  He swelled a little at the tiny compliment.

Scully inquired in her best G-woman voice, "There was no blood though, 
right, on any of the clothes or anywhere else?" Scully asked.

"No, Ma'am, not a drop.  We checked all the clothes.  All the hair fibers 
belonged to humans, we assume they belong to whoever was wearing 
them.  The colors match."  He handed Scully some photos of the two 
couples.  Both couples looked young and happy and carefree.  I saw 
Scully swallow hard.  It seemed that seeing carefree, happy couples was 
bothering her more and more these days.  I felt the familiar stab of guilt at 
all that working with me had taken away from her.

She looked up at me.  As though reading my mind she said, "Don't even 
start that, Mulder."  

I smirked at her.  "Sorry."

No matter how many times she did it, it still surprised me when she knew 

exactly what I was thinking.  It was a little freaky.  I'd been told that I had a 
'poker face' by many people, but somehow, Scully seemed to be able to 
read me like a book.

"I looked at the Chief.  So tell me about the legend of Dudleytown."  

Chief Wasley gazed at me as though trying to determine my sincerity in 
wanting to know.  "Well, there are several.  One claims that the place was 
cursed because of the Dudley's ancestors.  There were four brothers, 
Abiel, Barzillai, who were soldiers from the French and Indian Wars and 
Gideon and Abijah.  Governor Dudley put any non-puritans to death and 
it's claimed that one of the people he had executed cursed the Governor, 
the town and all his descendants.  The legend grew as time went on 
because mysterious and horrible things tended to happen to anyone who 
lived in Dudleytown.  

The other legend has it that ancestors from England started the curse 
when they tried to unseat the King Henry in the 1500's.  One story holds a 
Dudley ancestor responsible for the Black plague in England.  Say he 

brought it back from the war in France, killed his troops with it and then let 
it loose on the English population.  

Whether they were born and raised there or lived there a short time, 
everyone came to untimely or weird ends.  There are accounts of people 
going 'mad' and rambling about demons and such.  Among them is 
William Tanner who was suspected but never convicted of killing 
Gershom Hollister who was found dead, hacked to pieces on Tanner's 
property.  One story says the curse killed him, another says he fell to his 
death raising a barn for Tanner.  Either way, a lot of people died. Lots of 
sickness and lots of accidents.   The first Dudley's arrived in the town in 
1747, although it was founded in 1738 by Thomas Griffis.  It was called 
Owleyville at first because of the proliferation of owls in the area.  Later 
when Dudley was the prominent name in those parts, they changed the 
name to Dudleytown."

He looked at me and Scully as if to gauge our reaction.  Scully smiled and 
said, "Go ahead and continue.  We've heard a lot weirder things."

The Chief seemed to relax under her benevolent smile.  Confident now 
that we weren't going to dismiss this or call them all ignorant hicks.  They 
probably got a lot of that from big city outsiders, as they seemed to be 
calling us around here.

"Well, by 1800, it was a thriving farming community and produced quite a 
few famous people.  Mary Cheney married Horace Greeley who ran for 
president in 1872.  He lost, she was struck by lightening and then he went 
mad.  Nice couple!  There was a major's son, Ebenezer porter who ran a 
seminary and had chronic pulmonary disease of some kind.  Andre 
Andrews was  a prominent attorney who died of cholera."

Officer Seavers joined in at this point.  "The period following the Civil War 
is purported as the worst time.  The town processed iron ore during the 
war and prospered but the people talked of malevolent spirits and 
specters that dogged the village.  Nobody has really come up with an 
adequate explanation for why such a prosperous town went into sudden 
decline.  Old Albiel Dudley made a fortune and then went mad in his later 
years and his fortune was squandered.  He died penniless and a ward of 
the town.  Then there was the Carters."  He shivered when he said this 
name.

Scully encouraged him.  I decided to keep my mouth shut since she 
seemed to be doing a good job of getting them to open up just by smiling 
at them and looking attentive.  I could tell that they were both trying to 
impress her, Seavers more than Wasley, who was probably old enough to 
be her father.  "Go on, this is fascinating."

I knew she didn't believe a word of it.  But her acting job was 
commendable.  She glanced at me and I suppressed the smile tugging at 
the corners of my lips.  "Well, William Tanner, who lived to be 104, he 
went half-crazy after Hollister died and required constant care near the 
end of his life.  Seems lots of others went 'mad'.

Scully kept her 'interested look' on her face.  "Tell me about the Carters."

Silence reigned for a few moments, then Chief Wasley piped up.  "Well, 
Nathaniel Carter moved there and purchased old Abiel Dudley's house 
from Barzillai Dudley in 1759.  He was married to Sarah Bennett and they 
had six or seven children, one of whom was dead before moving to 
Dudleytown.  They only lived there for four years but then pulled up 

stakes and took four of the children and moved to New York.  One son, 
Nathan was left behind.  Don't know why and he's the only survivor.  The 
wife and baby were killed in 1764, just a year later by Indians, who 
kidnapped the other three kids and killed Nathaniel when he made his 
way home.  There were two girls, Sarah and Elizabeth.  Sara was stark 
mad until her death from her trauma with the Indians and her sister, 
Elizabeth did eventually marry but was stricken with some illness and was 
a partial invalid for most of her life."

Scully was nodding her head thoughtfully.  "Wow.  You guys really know 
the history of this place and the families.  That's impressive, having all 
those details.  Anything else?"  I looked at her and smirked at her 
shameless attempt to stroke the two officers.   She smiled back at me, 
her eyes twinkling.

Seavers spoke up again. "Oh thanks.  Well, we did bone up on it after 
these disappearances, although most folks around here know the basics 
anyway.  It's a local legend, hell, they probably teach it in school!"

Scully graciously laughed at his lame attempt at humor.  The Chief 
nodded at Seavers.  "Go ahead, you keep on with the story.  I want to get 
something for these folks to take with them."  He got up from his chair and 
sauntered out into the hallway, leaving us with Seavers.

He nodded at us.  "Well, let's see, about ten years after the Carter 
massacre, an epidemic struck Dudleytown and Nathaniel Carter's brother, 
Adoniram and his wife and child died because of that.  Young Nathaniel 
adopted the indian way of life and his decendent Ta-Wa was a prominent 
advocate of Indian rights later on.  

If I'm recalling correctly, there was another epidemic in 1813 that was 
even worse and scores of people died in that one.  By the end of the 
1800's, there weren't many people left but there was a tale about an Irish 
immigrant and his wife whose sons were chased out of town for stealing.  
The mother died of tuberculosis soon after the boys ran off to escape the 
law.  Shortly after that, the guy's house burnt to the ground.  I think that 
was in 1901."

I decided I had to step in here for the simple reason that I'd been quiet too 
long.  "Is that the end of the story?"

"No.  The last settler there was a physician with a big practice in New 
York City who moved there by the name of William Clark.  He and his wife 
bought the land, cleared it and built a cabin there in order to enjoy 
summer's away from the city.  I guess they did O.K., for a few years, but 
then he was called into the city on an emergency.  The wife begged him 
to return soon, acting all weird.  When he came home, she was stark 
raving mad and all she could do was laugh maniacally.  He'd only been 
gone for 36 hours. He padlocked up the house and left and never 
returned."

"Since then, everything crumbled and all is left is the foundations and 
some fallen beams.  It was horribly overgrown, but in recent years, some 
people have gone and cleared the area of brush because tourists wanted 
to check it out.  The town didn't want to be getting sued because city folks 
were wandering in there and would probably break their necks."


Scully's head tilted to one side.  "Uh, no offense."

We smiled.  "None taken," I responded.  So then what?

"Well, since then, there isn't much to report except that hikers and 
campers have reported unusual quiet there, and feeling specters nearby.  
Vehicles have died at the entrance to Dark Entry Road and won't start 
again.  Weird stuff like that.  When you get there, you'll know what I 
mean.  It's a weird place and it has a weird feel to it."

"Weird how?" Scully inquired.

"I can't explain it.   You have to feel it.  It's downright spooky, though"

She chuckled.  "Yeah, well, my partner is the King of spook.."

"Thanks a lot Scully!" I exclaimed.  I smiled to let her know I was aware 
that it was a tease.  We all smiled.  

Seavers closed his eyes as if he was thinking.  The eyes snapped back 
open at his next words.  "Oh yeah!  I almost forgot.  You can't take 
pictures there."

I looked at him with an inquiring eyebrow.  "Why not?"

"Too dark, and even if it's high noon on a sunny day, they don't come out.  
Really weird.  There was a T.V. crew tried to go up there one time.  They 
saw big black shadows and felt like they were being suffocated and none 
of their equipment would work.  They fled.  There's all kinds of stories of 
people seeing strange lights and glowing animals."

Now Scully's skepticism finally made a visible appearance.  "You can't be 
serious?"

He looked at her with a rather blank look on his face.  "I'm totally serious.  
I didn't say that they were true, I'm saying that's what people have said.  
It's up to you whether or not you believe it.  There was a lot of tragedy for 
one small town though.  I was spooked when I was up there, I won't lie to 
you.  But I think sometimes superstition causes people to imagine things, 

myself included.   Power of suggestion and all that."


Scully nodded in agreement.  "Exactly, I agree 100% and I think that most 
of these stories, the recent ones anyway are the result of exactly that.  An 
astute assessment."

I hated it when Scully warmed to people who shared her skepticism.  I 
knew it was the same situation as her being threatened by Diana's 
agreement with my beliefs.  I knew it was irrational, but at the moment, I 
knew exactly what she meant.

"But there is a strangeness to the place, a weird feeling.  Technically, 
folks aren't even supposed to go on that land.  But you know, thrill 
seekers or kids, whatever, they can't resist checking it out.  They rip down 
the No Trespassing signs and go on in.  These two couples didn't rip 
down any signs but they went in.  And I'm rather surprised about the 
Putnams.  Having a house in Cornwall, you'd think they'd know it wasn't 
allowed and be afraid of repercussions from the locals, but I guess not."

Scully was quiet for a few moments.  Then she asked, "Officer Seavers?  
What do you think happened here?"

He looked at her and shrugged.  "I honestly don't know.  I'm inclined to 
believe they went hiking and got lost in the forest, but it seems they would 
have found their way to civilization by now.  But then again, there's over 
250 acres of woodland out there and they could anyplace.  And there are 
black bear in those woods."

I was curious about what they had done beyond gathering evidence to 
investigate the case.  "Has anyone flown over the area to see if they 
could spot them.  If they saw a plane, they might do something to attract 
attention if they were just lost."

"No we  haven't.  We don't have a chopper and chartering a plane is too 
expensive.  This small force can't afford stuff like that.  That's one of the 
reasons we called you in.  One, because these couples are both from out 
of state which gives you jurisdiction.  Plus you have the resources to do a 
manhunt if necessary.  We just don't have that kind of juice.  Ya know?"

We both nodded.  "O.K., let's get out there then."

The Chief poked his head in and motioned to me.  He called me over to 
tell me he'd put a shotgun in my trunk.  I asked him how he got the trunk 
open and he just grinned at me.  I decided not to pursue it.  These 
country folk were crafty.  It was easy to be lulled into a sense of 
superiority and a feeling that they weren't that bright sometimes.  Nothing 
could be further from the truth.  It was just that there environment and 
their knowledge were different from ours.  They were smarter and more 
self sufficient than us in many ways with our reliance on high technology 
and creature comforts.

Then I asked, "So anyway, Chief, can you spare someone to take us out 
there."

Captain Seavers looked a little pale.  "I ain't going in there again.  I know 
it sounds silly.  And although I'm a skeptic like your pretty partner here, 
that place really gave me the willies."

Scully looked at him.  "You wouldn't have to, Captain, just bring us there 
and point it out.  We'll hike in alone.  I just don't want to spend what's left 
of daylight driving around lost in the sticks."

He chuckled, "I can do that.  I know you folks aren't too good with 
directions like, 'take a left after the 4 limbed maple tree.'"  We all laughed 
at that.  "I'll lead the way in my cruiser.  If you like, I could leave you the 
cruiser and take your car.  That way you could leave the cruiser near the 
foot of the woods and people would know it was cops in there.  They'd be 
less like to get curious and come wondering in that way."

Scully raised an eyebrow.  "Really?  Where we come from, cop cars are 
like magnets for bystanders."

Cole smiled at her, "No ma'am, not out here.  Most people respect the 
authorities around here.  You're probably not used to that, huh?"  Scully 
nodded to indicate he was right.  His tone of voice changed to that of 
conspiratorial.  "Well, you've certainly got ALL of MY respect."

Was he flirting with her?  I turned to look at Scully.  A lovely pink was 
gracing her neck but hadn't risen into her face yet.  He was flirting with 
her.  The bastard!  I laid my hand possessively on the small of her back 
and turned her towards the door.  I glanced at him over my shoulder and 
gave him my best male 'Alpha' look.  He lowered his eyes.  I was 
suddenly having one hell of a testosterone fit.

"What's the hurry, Mulder?"  Scully asked as I ushered her quickly out the 
door.  

"Let's just get going."

We got in the car and waited for Captain Seavers to fetch his cruiser and 
pull out ahead of us.  My hands were clenching and unclenching on the 
steering wheel.  Forget it.  Let it go.  She was a beautiful, sexy woman.  
Men were going to look at her all the time.  If I was going to be with her, I 
had better get used to it.  Not that men hadn't been looking at her all 
along.  It bothered me then too.  But now that I'd been intimate with her, 
the thought of someone else encroaching on her made my blood boil.  I 
was instantly threatened, and embarrassingly insecure.  

That one little comment, in that flirtatious tone of voice, had made me 
green with jealousy.  I was feeling entirely too territorial and I knew she 
wouldn't thank me for it.  I was rather flattered when she was jealous over 
me.  But somehow I didn't think that she would feel the same way about 
it.

After a few moments of silence as I followed the Captain down Route 
202, she asked, "What is it, Mulder?  Spill it."

"Nothing."

"It's not nothing.  You won't look at me."

"I'm driving."

"You know what I mean, you're about to snap the steering wheel in two  
you're gripping it so tight.  You rushed me out the door and now you're 
silent.  Quit bullshitting me, what is the problem?"

I sighed.  "You're not going to like it.  I figured I'd spare you."

"If we are going to have an intimate relationship, Mulder, we have to start 
talking.  And spare me what?"

Intimate relationship.  Is that we are having?  "Exposure to my 
Neanderthal tendencies."

"Neanderthal tend..."  She paused. "Oh, I get it."

I chanced a glance at her and to my surprise, she was grinning like a mad 
woman.  "What's so funny?"

"You."

"And what's so funny about me?"

"You were jealous, weren't you?"

"Moi?"  I asked with exaggerated drama.

"Oh Mulder, chill."

"Easier said than done.  I just think about someone else touching you and 
I go nuts."

She smiled again.  "No one else is going to touch me, Mulder."

"You sure?"

"How could you ask me that?  Of course I'm sure.  But you cannot control 
what other people do or say, Mulder.  You have to let that stuff go."

"I'm trying.  You're a beautiful woman, Scully.  I know you hate the 
mention of that when you are working because you think it reflects badly 
on people's abilities to see your other talents, but that isn't true.  Whether 
you like it or not,  you are drop dead sexy and people are going to notice.  
If you found the cure for cancer, people would still notice your beauty.  In 
one way, I'm happy for you and like to see you admired.  I want you to be 
admired for your brains AND for your beauty.  In another way, I feel like 
peeing on you."

"Peeing on me?!"

"Marking my territory. How primitive is that?"

She giggled.  "Thank you for the compliments, Mulder.  I don't think I'm as 
stunning as you seem to think I am, but I'm glad you think so.  But that 
doesn't mean everyone does."

"Everyone does, trust me.  I may not know much, but I know men and the 
looks they give and what they mean."


"Do you trust me?"

"Of course."

"Then what's the problem?"

"I don't trust THEM!  Not as far as I could throw them."

There was silence in the car for a few moments.  Then her voice came 
out softly and quietly.  "Mulder, if you trust me, REALLY and truly trust 
me, then you don't NEED to trust them."

I looked at her then.  She was watching me for my reaction as her words 
sunk into my jealousy clouded brain.  She pointed forward, "Watch the 
road, Mulder!" 

I looked up and swerved back onto the road.  I'd been heading for the 
ditch!  Jesus, this was not the time to have this conversation.  I realized 
what her implication was.  If I trusted her, then I trusted that if someone 
were to try to be inappropriate with her, or make a serious pass at her, 
she would turn them down.  If I trusted her to do that, then I didn't need to 
trust THEM.  So being jealous was an expression of lack of trust on my 
part.  Shit. Shit. Shit.  I was supposed to be the psychologist here!

"You're right, Scully.  I'm sorry I acted that way.  I can't promise I won't 
feel possessive about you ever again, but I'll try to remember that I trust 
you when I'm getting pissed at someone else.  I understand what you're 
saying, but it's not 100% about trusting you."

"It's not?  How so?"

"It's that, ... I don't know where this is going.  This would be easier if I was 
secure in this relationship.  But I'll be honest, I'm not.  We've been pretty 
vague about it so far.  So I'm not secure yet about us being a couple.  It's 
too new, ya know?  Hopefully that will improve with time ... that is if you ... 
want this to ... continue.  I'm still afraid you will change your mind or some 
young charmer will rip you away from me.  I don't want appear to be a ... 
jerk.  But you didn't have the greatest reaction either, when you ... saw 
me with ... her."

I didn't want to say Diana's name.  I was choosing my words carefully.  I 
didn't want her to feel cornered.  Cornered Scully was not a happy sight.  
She was silent again.  I hoped she was understanding what I was saying. 
I was also hoping that she would give me more of an idea what was 
happening with us.

She sighed deeply.  Then, "Hello pot, this is the kettle?!  Is that what 
you're saying?"  I glanced at her and she was smiling.  Smiling!  That was 
a good sign.  I smiled back at her.

"The difference is I had a different reaction to you being jealous of me.  It 
didn't upset me."

"It didn't upset you?  Then how did it make you feel?  You sure felt a need 
to explain yourself."

"It felt like ... like my heart got bigger."  I heard a little gasp from her.  "I 
was afraid to believe that you were jealous.  I was afraid to believe that 
you cared about me enough to be jealous, or that you cared about me, 
THAT way."


"Well, I think I answered that question last night!"

"Yeah, you did, but you still haven't said what ... how far this is going.  If 
... what the rules are ... or ... you said you were physically attracted to me, 
Scully.  That's all you said and that you were jealous of Diana."

"Rules?  I don't know, Mulder.  I guess we'll make them up as we go 
along.  If you're asking if last night was a fluke, a one-night stand, I'll tell 
you it wasn't.  I don't do one-night stands."  A quick flash of Ed Jerse 
zipped behind my eyelids but I didn't say anything.

"I didn't sleep with Ed Jerse," she said quietly.

"Christ, Scully!  Did I say that out loud?"

"No."

"You freak me out sometimes."

She chuckled.  "Why?"

"How the hell do you know what I'm thinking all the time, it's creepy."

"I don't know.  You're not Mr. Subtle and you wear your heart on your 
sleeve sometimes, or your thoughts anyway.  Your heart is a little harder 
to read, but your thoughts, well, they aren't so hard to fathom or guess 
at."

"I think you're the spooky one in this partnership."

"They do call me, Mrs. Spooky!"

I blurted out, "Yeah, I wish."

Silence.  Oopps.  That was the wrong thing to say.  Stupid.  Why can't I 
ever keep my mouth shut?  I mumbled, "Sorry, Scully, I didn't mean to ... 
make you uncomfortable."

"It's O.K., Mulder.  I know you were just teasing."

"Yeah, whatever."

"Were you?  Teasing that is?"

I didn't know how to answer her.  All I came up with was, "There's truth in 
jest.  But I didn't mean for this to get all heavy all of a sudden.  Just forget 
I said it, slip of the tongue."


She changed the subject abruptly.  "Mulder, he's turning."  Good thing 
one of us was paying attention.  I redirected my attention to the Captain's 
cruiser which was indeed turning left onto Route 341.  We were passing 
'Grampa Snazzy's Log Cabin'.  It was an antique shop.  God, people 
really named places things like Grampa Snazzy's?  Too weird.  You know 
you're in the boon docks when ..."

"We should check out Grampa Snazzy's on the way out, what do you say, 
Mulder?"  

I chuckled.  "I was just thinking I might be in a time warp.  I honestly didn't 
think there were places really named things like that."

She laughed, "I think it's quaint."

"Quaint is one word for it."

"What else would you call it, this whole area?"

"I'd call it 'twenty miles past the last sign of civilization.'" 

"It's not the first time we've been out in the middle of nowhere."

"No, but it always makes me a little on edge for the first few minutes."

"What, no cell phone reception give you slight withdrawal symptoms?" 
she teased.

"Something like that.  I guess I really am spoiled."

"He's turning again, Mulder, right fork there, by the sign for Route 45."

"Ooo, look, Scully, the Warren Country Store and the Warren Package 
Store.  Business!  It's a veritable thriving metropolis around here!"

She giggled again.  I loved to make her smile and laugh.  She was openly 
gawking as we traveled down the two lane road lined with trees and fields 
and large two story homes with nicely trimmed lawns and vegetable 
gardens.  "God, Mulder, there are some nice homes out here!  Look at 
that one, that's three stories!"  

"Never seen one before, Scully?" I teased.

"Of course I have, but it's usually an apartment building.  I've never seen 
a three story home that was a one-family.  If I did, I don't remember.  It's 
just so beautiful out here.  Look at the leaves."

We crested a slight hill in the road and what looked like mountains 
covered in forest appeared before us spread out on both sides of the 
road's horizon.  Yellow, orange, red and brown leaves blanketed the 
horizon in a spectacle of color.  I took a moment to take it in.  "It is 
beautiful.  I can see why people come out here to see it.  You won't see 
this in D.C."

"Or Florida either."  I nodded, acknowledging her reference to the young 
couple from Florida that had probably come to Litchfield County to enjoy 
the beauty on their honeymoon.  What a shame.  I had a weird feeling 
about this case.

"So, Mulder, do you have any theories yet?"

"Nope, but I have a weird feeling."

"Tell me about it."

"No I mean, this is different.  Normally I would be looking for something 
paranormal, especially dealing with a local legend.  Those legends are 

usually based in some sort of fact at least concerning the events that 
created the legend usually did happen in some form or another.  But 
something tells me that isn't the case here."

"Why?"

"I think they are still alive, Scully."

"You do?"  She sounded surprised.

"Yeah."

"Why?  What makes you think that."

"I don't know.  No blood.  Clothes were there and scattered, but nothing 
was torn.  Their tents were still perfectly pitched and undisturbed.  
Something doesn't fit, doesn't jive, just doesn't make sense."

We were both silent then for a few minutes.  We started down a long 
mountain side as the road wound back and forth, making it's way into the 
bowels of a valley.  Less and less houses were to be seen.  We were 
really getting 'out there'.  I felt a sense of unease and shook my head at 
the silliness of it.

"What is it, Mulder?"

"I don't know.  Are we a couple?" I asked out of the blue.

She hesitated, but then said, "Yeah, I guess we are.  I don't know.  We've 
been a couple in a lot of ways for some time now, but like you said, 
neither of us has figured out what is happening here.  We may know what 
we want to happen but we are feeling our way cautiously.  I'm still unsure 
what I'm seeking.  I know I want more from our relationship.  I want the 
physical part.  It seems ridiculous to deny it now, to me anyway.  I just 
know that I can't ignore how I feel about you anymore.  Its too much damn 
work.  It's exhausting, and I just can't do it anymore."  She paused.  "I will 
say this, Mulder.  I want you, in a big way.  And I don't want anyone else, 
haven't for a very long time."

I felt a warmth spread through my chest at her words.  "I want you too, 
Scully.  But nobody needs to be genius to figure that out."

She smiled.  "So you're thinking that whatever is happening is happening 
to 'couples', and now we are a 'couple' and that puts us at more risk than 
we would have been in before."

"I guess. I don't know."

"Well, whatever is going on in there and whatever happened to those 
people, we want to figure it out.  So if our being a couple 'attracts' 
whatever is in there, if anything, to us, then that's a good thing, right?"

"Maybe."

"You're forgetting that we are armed Federal agents, Mulder.  Those 
couples had no weapons, except maybe a knife.   You thought to bring a 

compass, but they probably didn't.  Hell, they could just be wandering 
around lost.  The Chief mentioned that part of the legend was people 
getting lost in that forest surrounding the foundations.  I've been in forests 
like that where everything looked the same.  We know how easy it is to go 
in circles."

"Don't you think they would have made their way out by now?"

"Maybe, maybe not.  He's bearing left again, Mulder."  I dutifully followed 
the deputy.  The roads were getting narrower and the trees were closer to 
the road, some with branches twining together far above our heads to 
form a canopy over the road.  It made you feel like you were driving 
through a tunnel.  Breaks in the leaves allowed shafts of sunlight to 
penetrate the canopy and made odd looking light beams that lit up the 
road like a bunch of flashlights.  

"Are you having shades of 'The Legend of Sleepy  Hollow' here, Scully?"  
I joked.

She chortled.  "Oh boy, this whole legend thing is really getting to you, 
isn't it?  They are just legends Mulder.  And based in fact or not, they are 
based on events that happened years and years ago.  Not in the present 
day.  Today, there are very real people out there, possibly committing 
very real crimes.   In the olden days, people were suspicious to the point 
of ridiculousness.  Remember the stories of the Salem witch trials?  
People came up with explanations of things they didn't understand by 
blaming them on the devil or on ghosts or God's vengeance or witchcraft.  
It was a common thing back then.  

As we know, science and technology has explained millions of things in 
the past 100 years that were formerly credited to the unseen.  It was 
there, we just didn't have the technology to see it then.  People got sick, it 
was God's vengeance, or witch's magic.  Now we know it's just germs!  
Think about it.  You can't take these legends seriously or to heart.  It may 
be helpful to know the events that created the legend, but you can't 
subscribe to the explanation of the reasons for those events.  People 
were ignorant back then."

"Sometimes I think people are more ignorant now."

"How so?"

"Sometimes I think we are not meant to always know why things happen.  
Back then survival forced people to get along, the pilgrims and the 
Indians.  The Protestants, those buckle shoed kill joys were rigid in their 
believes, but they made peace with 'savages' in order to survive and 
learned in the process that people are just different, not necessarily 
wrong.  And they helped each other with trade and barter.  They also 
accepted a lot of what happened as God's will and moved on."

"Yeah, so what does all this have to do with what is happening now?"

"I don't know.  I just think that sometimes things should be left alone.  
That unrest is caused by people poking their noses where they don't 
belong."

"You mean the living are disturbing the dead and if we just minded our 
own business, everything would be fine?"  She was incredulous and it 
sounded in her tone of voice.  This was the Scully I had come to know 
and expect, always the skeptic.

"Maybe."

"Jesus, Mulder.  You are talking about respecting the privacy of 
apparitions!  That's absolutely ridiculous.  We are investigating the 
disappearance of two couples here, not setting up infrared to detect 
ectoplasm that we should remain blissfully ignorant of!"

I sighed at the sound of her incredulity.  "Whatever, we've been over this 
ground before, Scully and we are never going to agree.  I respect that you 
disagree with me.  I like it.  But I would like to discuss it sometimes 
without it turning into a pissing contest of beliefs.  Do you always have to 
be so incredulous and sarcastic?  It makes me feel like an idiot."

I really was tired of how these conversations always ended up.  I liked the 
fact that she didn't agree with me on everything, but that didn't mean that 
it always had to turn into an argument, did it?

Her hand reached over and squeezed my thigh through my jeans.  "I'm 
sorry, Mulder."  She sounded deflated.  "You're right, I don't know why I 
feel the overwhelming need to smack your theories down.  I know you 
don't feel less about me because I don't agree with you."

"I wish I could say the same."  I was sad now, realizing this was an issue 
that had never really been resolved between us.  Sure, we trusted and 
respected each other.  And she went along with my hunches, to a point.  
But, did she really and truly respect my beliefs? 

"You think I think less of you because you belief in the unseen?"

"Sometimes."

"Oh, Mulder, I do not!  I swear."

"Look Scully, let me put it to you this way.  I respect your belief in God.  I 
don't believe in God.  I don't believe in an all powerful being up there 
passing judgment on us as individuals and mapping out our lives.  I don't 
believe there is a higher power up there that I need to atone to, or do 
penance for my sins against.  But I respect that you believe that.  I've 
never ridiculed it.  I've never told you your belief in God was ridiculous or 
silly.  It's what you believe and that's O.K. with me."

I heard her swallow noisily.  "Oh my God, you're right, Mulder.  I never 
thought of it that way.  By making fun of your beliefs, it's like I'm making 
fun of you as a person.  What I believe is an integral part of who I am and 
how I behave and how I live my life.  Just because your beliefs are 
unconventional doesn't mean that they aren't equally a part of what 
makes you who you are.  In fact, maybe more so, because you've had to 
fight the tide of resistance and the conventional morays of society.  I'm 
sorry, Mulder.  I didn't even realize.  It wasn't my intention, you have to 
know that, right?"

"Yeah.  I know, Scully.  But you could disagree with making fun or 

ridiculing.  When you reject my beliefs by verbally ridiculing them, it's like 
you're rejecting me and who I am.  It's O.K. to disagree, but when you call 
my thoughts ridiculous ... "

"No!  Never!  I love who you are, Mulder!"

I glanced at her again.  She looked so chagrined and contrite, it killed me.  
"It's O.K., Scully, I'm used to being ridiculed, and I can tell the rest of the 

world to go to hell, and I don't care what they think."  I paused.  "But I care 
what you think, Scully, and I want you to ... accept me ... and it hurts 
when you don't.  I want so bad for you to ..."

Softly, she replied, "Love you?"

I nodded, swallowing the tears that were gathering in the back of my 
throat.  Just as softly, "I do, Mulder."

I glanced at her again.  She was looking at me with concern.  "You do?"  
God, I sound like an insecure, little kid.

"Yes, I do."

"Can you say it?"  She hadn't said it last night.

"Can you?" she shot back.

"Yes."

"You first, Mulder."

"I asked first and besides, I did already tell you, last night." 

"I know, but ... "

The words just rolled off my tongue easy as you please.  "I love you, 
Scully.  I'll never be able to tell you how much."  Silence.  More silence.  
"It's O.K., Scully, just forget it.  Neither of us needs to be discussing this 
right now.  It really isn't the time."

Her voice was a whisper, "I love you too, Mulder."

My breath hitched at the sound of her whispered words.  She loved me 
too?  She loved me!  Holy shit.  And she'd said it, barely loud enough to 
hear it, but she'd said it.  I felt my chest tighten and reached over to put 
my hand on the back of her neck.  I felt her shiver and delighted in the 
fact that she would react to that simple touch from me.  I looked at her 
and she was hiding her eyes, looking at her lap, her fair falling in her face.  
I glanced between the road and her as I tucked her hair behind her ear.

"We'll talk more later, Scully.  We're going to be O.K., no matter what 
happens."

"Yeah, I think we will be."  She gave me the most sheepish, but dazzling 
smile.  I could only return it.  

The rest of the trip was made in silence as I once more concentrated on 
my driving as the roads became narrower and the center line 
disappeared.   Captain Seaver pulled into a dirt path off the road that 
opened into a clearing.  I could see a well worn foot path going into the 
woods beyond the clearing.  He shut off the engine of his cruiser and 
exited the car.  Scully and I jumped out and stretched our legs.  The ride 
had taken almost an hour.

I caught myself staring at her chest as her arms reached for the sky over 
her head, one hand trapping the opposite wrist and stretching her 
shoulders taut.  Her breasts poked forward through her tank top and the 
flimsy bra she was wearing.  I longed to cup them in my hands again.  
Maybe tonight.  She had a plaid wool long sleeved shirt on over it.  I 
glanced at the Captain and he was staring too.  I waved my hand in front 
of his face and he darted his eyes away guiltily.  

As usual, Scully was oblivious to both mine and the Captain's admiration.  
Amazing.  She was so unaware of her appeal.  It was one of the things 
that made her so damn unique and irresistible.  She looked at us and 
asked, "What?"

"Nothing," we both said at the same time and I couldn't help smirking at 
him.  He smirked back.  Surprisingly, our little talk seemed to have given 
me some peace and confidence.  I was still insecure, but not nearly as 
irritated as the first time he'd gawked and flirted with her.  She loved me.   
My new mantra was to be, 'I don't need to trust him.  I trust her.  I don't 
need to trust him.'  This was not to say that I didn't want to make her wear 

a sandwich board that said 'Mine' or 'Property of Fox Mulder.'  Oh, better 
not let that little thought ever see the light of day!  She'd kill me.  

The cop pointed to the path.  "There it is agents.  Not hard.  Follow the 
path.  There are some wooden signs like the one at the edge of the forest 
there to mark your way, but you shouldn't need them if you stay on the 
path.  It goes directly to the site.  We did put up some crime scene tape 
around the perimeter of the area, along the outside of the foundations, 
just in case.

Scully smiled at him.  "Thanks, Captain.  We'll look around, probably 
spend the night and get in touch with you tomorrow and let you know if 
we find anything.  If we don't, we may call in a chopper or charter a plane 
to fly over the area to see if can see anything unusual.  But, one step at a 
time."


He became suddenly somber.  "And if we don't hear from you?"

Scully answered quickly.  "You will."

I looked at him.  He was really scared for us.  Who knew how much of it 
was justified.  "If you don't hear from us by noon tomorrow, give us a 
couple more hours and then send some State troopers in after us, and 
call this number.  I pulled out my wallet and handed him Skinner's 
business card.  The Captain seemed suitably impressed.  

"Who's this?"

"Our superior," I answered.  "He'll know what to do if we go missing.  
You'll have all the help you can stand."

"Good to know."

I had no idea if he would have all the help he could stand, but if it would 
put his fears to rest, then so be it.  I saw Scully open her mouth as if to 
say something and I nudged her gently in the shoulder.  He closed her 
mouth and just looked at me.  Her question was clear, 'What is this all 
about?'  My answer was 'I'll tell you later.'  Apparently that was clear too, 
because I saw the almost imperceptible nod of her head.

For all I knew, Skinner would be glad we disappeared.  I knew that wasn't 
true, but I also knew he wasn't overly fond of us and the trouble we 
caused sometimes.  But regardless of his personal feelings, if two FBI 
agents go missing, the Bureau has to look for them.   Bad publicity if they 
didn't.  They would have to make at least a show of searching for them.

Scully stuck out her hand and the Captain took it and shook it, holding it a 
bit too long, I thought.  But I tamped that feeling down.  She smiled at 
him.  "Thanks for your help and I'm sure everything will be fine."

"Good luck."  He turned on his heal and went back to his cruiser, circling 
the clearing and heading back out to the road.  We both immediately went 
to the trunk and began unpacking our backpacks and coolers.  We both 
secured our weapons at our waist.  I strapped a shot gun on the back of 
my pack before I hoisted it up.  

Scully asked, "Where did you get that, Mulder?"

"The Chief lent it to me.  He said even if there were no human beasts out 
here, there might be bears or coyotes and I should have a rifle just in 
case."

"Oh goody, that makes me feel better."

I chuckled.  "We are going to be in the woods, Scully."

"Don't remind me.  We never seem to have the best of luck in the woods.  
Remember that lovely little trip to the forest to find the loggers?"

"Don't remind me." I threw her words back at her.  "But we're better 
prepared this time.

"Let's hope so."

I helped her hoist her pack onto her back.  We each grabbed a hand 
cooler.  We had packed one with 6 juices and 6 sodas, all it would hold.  
We had full canteens as well.  Hers was packed with six sandwiches and 
a couple of apples and pears.  We weren't planning on being in here more 
than overnight.  I just hoped that turned out to be the case.  I had an eerie 
feeling about this place and we weren't even there yet.  I shrugged off the 
feeling and began hiking into the woods with Scully close on my heels.  
She looked tiny under the load of her backpack.  I knew she would never 
complain about the weight, but neither of us was used to carrying this 
much weight on our backs and I figured she would tire before I did.  

Running kept my legs strong and my stamina up.  I knew Scully worked 
out, but it was more anaerobic and aerobic exercise in her case.  I 
resolved to watch her carefully and stop at the first sign of fatigue.  The 
cop had told us that it should only take us about a half hour to reach the 
site, so we shouldn't have to stop, but you never know.

The walk was actually peaceful and about 100 yards in the path widened 
so that two people could walk abreast.  I motioned Scully forward and 
took her hand in mine.  She smiled and we continued on.  I shortened my 
stride and moderated my pace to fit hers.  I knew she had to jog to keep 
up with me sometimes, but with all the weight of our packs, I didn't want 
to give her any reason to exert herself.  I turned her hand up so I could 
see the back of it in my palm.  The ends of her fingers reached only to my 
second knuckles.

"What?" she asked.

"Your hands are so tiny."

"Only compared to yours, Mulder."

"No, I've seen lots of women's hands and yours are tiny."

"How many women's hands have you held?"  There was an undertone to 
her question that made me smile.  I heard the question under the 
question. 'How many women have you been with?'  Dangerous question 
and one that every woman asked.  I wonder why when none of them 
wanted to know the answer.  I'd only had about three serious 
relationships in my life but I'd had quite a few casual ones that didn't last 
long.  And although not proud of it, I'd had quite a few one-night stands 
between Oxford and the day she walked into my life.   

I'd told her that the vampire chick was the only one I'd been with since 
she came into my life and that was true.  I'd come really close to sleeping 
with Diana again.  But she definitely didn't need to know that.  I'd been 
lonely and vulnerable.  I was a guy after all.  Now I was glad I'd resisted at 
the last minute.  At the time, I hadn't even known why.  Now I did.  I 
couldn't be unfaithful to Scully.  Of course that was ridiculous since we 
weren't even together that way at the time, but that's what it was about 
when all was said and done.

"Mulder?" she prompted.  Her voice was laced with uncertainty.  That was 
something that I didn't particularly like to hear in Scully.  But the he-man 
in me was delighting in it at the same time.  Weird how all my intellect 
conflicted with my emotions all the time.  That was probably why I was so 
fucked up all the time and confused.

"Not nearly as many as you're thinking, I'm sure."

"That doesn't answer my question.  And I know about your memory, so 
don't tell me you don't remember or you don't know."

Snagged!  "I've only had three serious relationships, Scully.  By that I 
mean ones that lasted more than three months.

"I know about Diana and Phoebe.  Who was the third one?"

"Lydia, Lydia Quist."

"Lydia?  I've never even heard you mention her name."

"No reason to.  She was my first love, my high school sweetheart.  We 
went out together for nearly a year.  We spent my last summer home 
together but then I went to Oxford.  There was no point in trying to stay 
together then so we broke up for obvious reasons."

"You stayed friends though?"

"Yeah.  She went to college in Boston.  I saw her a couple of times when I 
came home on holiday, but then we went on with our lives and I haven't 
seen her since."

"So those were the serious ones."

"Yup."

"Did you lose your virginity to her?"

"Who, Lydia?"

"Of course, who else are we talking about here?"

"Yes."  I couldn't help the smile that came to my face.  I was so innocent 
then and so in love. It was the last time I would feel safe until Scully came 
along.

"Good memories?" she inquired.

"Yeah, but I don't need to bore you with the details."

"I want to know. I'm not upset by it. I know you had a life before I came 
along."

"Not much of one."

"Oh, crap, sure you did, it's just different now."

"Better in every way."  I smiled at her and she smiled back.

"Ditto.  I want to know about your past, Mulder. I'm not threatened by it.  
So spill!"  This last was said playfully.

I chuckled.  "Being with Lydia that last summer was like magic.  I was so 
naïve and innocent then.  I thought I knew all the answers.  I was carefree 
and at peace.  I hadn't had a lot of peace in my childhood, but I had 
peace with Lydia.  Maybe that's why I loved her. I could be myself and 
she accepted me for who I was, not who she wanted me to be.  I felt safe 
with her and loved, unlike I felt when I was with my folks.  I'd lost my 
virginity and I thought I was such a MAN."  Scully giggled.  

I grinned.  "And after that?"

"I left for Oxford."

"And then Phoebe came along."

"Yup."

"Not going to elaborate on that one, huh?"

"I'd rather not.  Suffice it to say that I was young and dumb and played for 
a fool.  I thought I had all the answers and she taught me that I didn't 
have any.  It was my first real exposure to the big bad world of lies and 
deceit.  She was a master.  I knew it and I still couldn't resist her."

"Why not?"

"I don't know exactly.  I think that I just wanted to be loved so badly that I 
was starved for attention from anyone that would give it to me.  I used sex 
as a substitute for love.  I mixed the two up.  I know the difference now 
but I didn't then.  I had so little experience.  And when I felt that she was 
playing a game with me, I refused to give up.  I wanted to win the game."

"And you didn't."  It was a statement.

"No, I didn't.  I failed miserably and I wasn't a good sport about it either.  
She crushed what little ego I had acquired with Lydia and ground it into 
dust.  But even I have some self-respect and when she made me a 
cuckold, I had to leave if I wanted to have any dignity at all."

"She cheated on you."  Another statement.

"Frequently, with many different men as it turns out."


"How did you find out?"

"I caught her."

"Oh God, Mulder.  That's every man's nightmare."

"You bet.  Had a class cancelled because the professor was sick.  We 

were living together then off campus.  I came home early and found her in 
the bedroom with her legs in the air and some steroid lad's hairy ass 
staring me in the face."

"Oh Jesus, I'm sorry, Mulder."

"Ahh, live and learn.  I'm over it now."

"Are you?"

I looked at her.  "Yes, I am.  I was wrecked emotionally for a long time 
and gun shy too, but when I got back to the states and immersed myself 
in the FBI, the memories started to fade.  I felt like a loser, but then I 
started to get offers and I realized I wasn't such a loser after all.  I didn't 
have to believe Phoebe's assessment of me.  I could have my own 
opinion.  Phoebe was the only one that had complained about me in bed.  
No one else was.

"Then Diana was paired with me and you know that story.  Things were 
almost too easy until she left for Europe without blinking an eye and that 
was the end of that.  Apparently I was supposed to just forgive her for 
taking off without saying good bye.  Apparently it wasn't supposed to 
bother me that our relationship wasn't even a tiny consideration in her 
decision to leave.  So I pretended that it didn't hurt and went on my merry 
way.  But then women would hit on me from to time."

Scully was silent for a few more moments.  "So you got offers, huh?"

I grinned.  "Yeah."

"And?"

"And nothing, it boosted my confidence, restored it so to speak.  But 
shortly thereafter, I didn't have time for a relationship."

"I don't believe you were celibate all those years."

"No."


She looked at me again, waiting for more of an answer. This was the area 
I wanted to avoid.  Telling her about Kristen the vampire chick was bad 
enough.  When no more was forthcoming, she pushed again, like I knew 
she would.

"You don't want to tell me about that part of your life?"

"Nope."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm not proud of it."

"That doesn't matter to me, Mulder.  Christ, I know you're a normal virile 
guy.  I wouldn't expect you to live like a monk."

"Virile, huh?"  I waggled my eyebrows at her.

She shook her head in mock exasperation.  "Come on."

"No."

"I promise not to hold it against you."

"Be careful what you ask for, Scully."

"I can take it," she challenged.

"Are you going to tell me about your history."

"Can you hack it?"

"Yes."

"Then I can hack yours, cough it up!"

"I had a series of one-night stands and a couple of dating episodes that 
lasted about a month a piece and one that lasted for three months."

"Go on."

"What else do you want to know?"

"I don't know.  What type of women were they?"

"Usually professionals.  I've always liked smart women."

"What attracted you to them?"

"You want to know the truth?"

"Of course."

"They offered.  That was what attracted me to them, period.  Pretty 
shallow, huh?  I was a complete sucker for someone who 'wanted' me.  I 
was always a little surprised by it."

"That simple, huh?"

"Yup.  That simple and that primal.  Most of the time, I was frustrated, 
lonely and horny.  If someone offered, I wasn't about to turn them down.  I 
did practice safe sex though."

"I know.  I've seen your medical records. I know you're clean as a 
whistle."

"Checking up on me, huh?" I teased.  I was surprised she wasn't more 
upset about my admission that I was so shallow about those women.  
Most women would automatically assume that you were going to be that 
shallow with them.  In most cases, they would probably be right.  Most 
guys were either shallow or not and there wasn't much middle of the road.  
But we'd been together so long and knew each other so well in so many 
ways.  She knew that my friendship and feelings for her were anything but 
shallow.  We'd been through too much.

About then, the trees suddenly ended and we were abruptly standing in a 
bright clearing.  Oddly enough, althouth it was bright, you couldn't see the 
sun.  There were six old, crumpled, stone foundations with what appeared 
to be a fairly wide clearing running between them.  It was probably a road 
through the center of the 'town' at one time.  

Scully scanned the area.  "We'll have to be careful when we check out 
those foundations.  We wouldn't want one to cave in on us."

As soon as she said it, we both looked at each other as that possibility 
raced through our heads.  What if it was that simple?  I deflated. "No, 
Scully, the cops surely would have found them.  They were pretty 
thorough, despite being spooked.  If they took time to bag up dog shit, I'm 
sure they peeked into the foundations!"

She laughed at that.  "Yeah, but it wouldn't hurt to turn over all the 
territory they already looked at."

"No, it wouldn't.  But I'd like to get the tent set up and ready for sleeping 
first.  I want to light a fire and gather some of this dead wood so we have 
plenty to keep it going all night.  I don't want any uninvited critters.  I want 
to get all that done before dark.  Then I want to eat.  If there's any day 
light left, then we'll start looking."

"Sounds like a plan to me.  Let's figure out where to pitch the tent.  We 
want a fairly flat piece of ground."

We walked slowly down the center of the 'town'.  I can't describe the 
feeling that seemed to press down upon me.  I felt my heart rate speed up 

for no particular reason.  The air felt heavy and I noticed a peculiar lack of 
sound.  "Scully?"

Her voice was a little shaky.  "Yeah?"  She was whispering as though our 
normal voices would be a sacrilege here.

I whispered as well.  "Do you notice there is no sound?  No birds chirping, 
no leaves rustling, no nothing."

She nodded.   "That usually means something has disturbed the forest 
creatures and they are going into hiding."

"Maybe, but do you feel the air?"

"Feel the air?"

"Yeah, does it feel heavy to you?"

"Heavy?"

"What, are you a parrot now?"

She smiled tremulously.  "Sorry."  Reluctantly, I could tell, she admitted, 
"Yes, Mulder, there is something weird about the atmosphere here, but it 
could just be thinner air or an anomalous weather pattern."

"Is that what you really believe?"

"That's what I want to believe."

"But it's not what you really believe."

"I don't know what I believe."  I was silent then.  See, that was the 
difference between us.  I didn't always understand the things that I had 
seen but I did believe in them.  I trusted them more than the machinations 
of humans.  I could rely on them to act a certain way and I expected the 
paranormal to be dangerous and unpredictable and I respected that.  I 
had a healthy fear of all things unseen.  Not a paralyzing fear, but a 

healthy one.  Scully wouldn't accept or believe anything that she couldn't 
see, touch, taste or feel.

I guess that's why I was so puzzled by her faith in God.  The two ideas 
just didn't mesh.  I, on the other hand, had loads of faith in things I 
couldn't see, touch, taste or feel, just not in God.  I should be the one who 
believed in God and she should be the one who didn't.  So I guess we 
were both paradoxes in some respects.

I took her hand and walked briskly to the other side of the clearing.  The 
closer I got to it, the more the heavy oppressiveness of the air faded.  
Strange and definitely disconcerting.

We didn't speak again for quite some time.  We simply unloaded our 
packs, carefully lying things on the ground and pitching our tent in silence.  
When that was complete, Scully removed the sleeping bags from the top 
of each pack and unrolled them inside the tent.  I smiled when I saw her 
unzipping them and zipping them together.  Well, that was encouraging!  
At least she planned to cuddle up with me tonight, if nothing else.  I was 
going to be distracted here, so I wasn't even sure if I would be up for any 
hanky panky now that we were here.  I couldn't shake my feelings of 
unease.  Who was I kidding?  I was always ready for sex.  

I began picking up stray pieces of dead wood and carrying them back into 
the clearing.  It was several trips before I realized that when I stepped 
beyond a certain point, I could suddenly hear the forest sounds again.  
When I stepped over some invisible line, the silence was once again 
oppressive and eerie.  "Scully."

She startled and looked up from placing stones on the ground in a circle 
to create a safe fire pit.  "Huh?"

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you.  Come here a minute."  She didn't 
question me.  She just approached me with a quizzical look on her face.  I 
was standing inside the 'sound free' zone.  I turned her gently so her back 
was to me and put my arms around her waist.  

I slipped one foot against her instep and took a large step sideways, 
bringing her leg with me so she leaned outside the 'sound free' area.  
Chirping and rustling filled my ears.  I paused for a couple of seconds and 
stepped back to our original position, taking her with me.  It was like 
someone switched off a radio.  It was that startling of a difference.  I 
stepped out, I stepped in.  I stepped out, I stepped back in.

I turned her toward me.  There was a deep furrow between her eyebrows 
as she scrunched her brow.  Her mouth was open, accentuating the 
confusion on her face.  Her eyes were wide.  She looked confused.  But 
she also looked scared.  Or at least freaked out.  Finally she closed her 
mouth and swallowed.  "Mulder, what the hell?"


"I don't know, but I just noticed something else."

"What?"

"Captain Seavers told us that they had put crime scene tape around the 
perimeter of the foundations and there isn't a scrap of crime scene tape 
here."

She looked around slowly, turning in a three-sixty and nodding her head.  
"What does that mean?"

"It means someone removed it."

"Someone or something?"

"I don't' know, but surprisingly, I'm leaning toward someONE.  I think we 
should check the area around the foundations before it gets dark and see 
if there are any footprints or anything else we might see that the cops 
missed.  Of course, if there are foot prints, they could easily be the cops 
footprints.  But they probably wear those regulation shoes with their 
uniforms and the print is pretty easy to spot.  We need to look for a boot 
print or a sneaker print.  Something with tread."

She nodded.  "We should light a fire first."

"Yeah, I don't want to be caught in the dark.  Let's finish with the fire and 
then have a look around."

"Mulder?"

She seemed hesitant.  "What?"

She looked me in the eye and slowly said, "I'm scared."

I smiled at her and her face softened but still looked tentative.  She cast 
her eyes to the ground and I strode into her a step and caught her up in 
my arms.  She didn't protest and I held her tight, rocking slightly and 
nuzzling her hair with my chin.  I liked this Scully that was willing to admit 
she was scared and human.  I liked that she was allowing me to comfort 
her.  This was a big step for her.   Trusting me enough to show what she 
termed 'weakness' and I simply termed 'human', was a hard thing for her 
to do.  There were always so many layers to everything we did and said 
to each other.  Her statement would seem tame and natural coming from 
anyone else.  An admission of uncertainty that most of take for granted.  
But Scully was a complex person and her needs to be viewed as a 
competent and capable person was above average.  In fact, you might 
even say that she was obsessed with it.   I understood it more than she 
thought that I did.

She was raised by a Naval captain and a Navy wife.  Both were fiercely 
independent and had instilled that in their offspring.  Dana was also a 
product of the Navy Brat Syndrome.  They moved constantly and she 
learned not to become attached to anyone, anything or any place.  All she 
could count on to stay the same was her family.  Everything else was 
subject to change at a moment's notice.  No wonder she was hesitant to 
let anyone see inside.  

Intellectually, she knew that I would never leave her, never hurt her and I 
would never break her heart.  But emotionally, the habits of self-
sufficiency were so ingrained in her.  I would be a slow process of 
coaxing her out from behind the walls she'd built around her heart.  We'd 
shared passion last night.  And that passion was still resonating in my 
bones.  But as a couple, we had a lot of work to do on our communication 
skills.  For as well as we knew one another, we kept our secrets.  I was as 
guilty as she was.

"I'm scared too, Scully.  But we've been a lot weirder places and we 
always survive.  We'll get through this too.  Let's just take our time and be 
careful.  And I don't want you out of my sight."

She lifted her head abruptly, an automatic reflex protest forming on her 
lips when she saw my face.  She must have seen my plea there in the 
lines of my face, because her words died before they made it out of her 
mouth.  She nodded.

I added, "I don't want to be out of your sight either.  We need to stick 
together.  I know you hate it when I act protective, but this is about self-
preservation, for both of us.  I can't lose you, Scully, or put you in 
unnecessary risk any more than you would want me to be at risk.  If we 
are ever separated, it's not going to be because of something stupid, like 
being too proud to let someone look out for us.  O.K.?  Can we agree on 
that?"

"Yes, I'm sorry, Mulder."

"Nothing to be sorry about.  Let's get that fire going."

The next few minutes were spent in silence as Scully put leaves and 
twigs in the bottom of the fire pit and carefully placed the wood in 
increasing sizes in a teepee formation.  She removed a lighter from our 
backpack and lit the kindling.  We watched and blew carefully until we 
had a nice roaring fire in the middle of the pit.  She swept the excess 
leaves and twigs away from the area around the pit.  We then began a 
slow and careful search of the perimeter.  We did not go in opposite 
directions as usual to cover more territory more quickly.  We walked 
carefully, side by side and took our time.  From time to time we would 
catch each other examining the other and smile sheepishly at each other.  

We were relaxed and the eerie quality of the silence seemed to disappear 
as we held hands and slowly scanned the ground.  We had almost done a 
full circle around the foundation area when she suddenly dropped her 
hand from mine and squatted down to peer at the ground.  She picked up 
a twig and gently brushed a few leaves to the side.  There on the ground 
was a small piece of black metal, with ridges on one side.  She pulled a 
pair of latex gloves from her back pants pocket and put them on.  She 
carefully picked up the thick, heavy piece of metal that was about the size 
of a silver dollar.  A little chip was gone from one side but it was 
essentially a disk like shape.  The edges were ridged and there was 
something brown and dried on the edge.  It was about 1/4 of an inch 
thick.  I pulled out an evidence bag from my jacket and my small flashlight 
and shined it on the metal piece laying in the palm of her hand.  

It was blood, dried blood.  We both gulped and looked at each other.  
Scully's sarcasm creeped into her voice although she was trying to sound 
ironic.  "Not a speck of blood anywhere, ma'am."

I smiled ruefully at her.  "Are you suggesting that our friends on the police 
force were less than thorough in their search of the area?  That's 
something that would be easy to miss."

"Maybe, but whenever you have a scene like this, you are supposed to go 
over it with a fine tooth comb.  I think these guys were too spooked to 
look very carefully.  They got all jumpy and high tailed it out of here as 
fast as they could.  No one was tapping them on the shoulders, they were 
imaging it because they expected something weird to happen.  They 
bagged up wolf shit and didn't find this?"

She was hitting her stride now.  This was Scully at her most skeptical.  I 
could see her fear vanishing and the capable, inquisitive agent returning.   
If I looked close enough, I could probably see the gears spinning in her 
brain.  I held the open bag to her and she slipped the metal piece inside.

"What kind of metal is that?"

"I don't know, but you see the ridges on the edge?"

"Yeah, what about them?"

"I think they are part of a grip.  I think it's the end of a flashlight."

"A flashlight, that's some thick metal for a flashlight casing."

"You know those big mag flashlights?"

"Oh yeah, you're right, it looks just like the end of one of those, the cap 
over the battery compartment."

"Exactly."

"And the blood, Scully?"

"I think somebody got whacked on the head with it."

I nodded grimly.  "One of those flashlights could bust your skull if it was 
wielded with enough power."

She looked up at me.  "I know, I used to carry one for just that reason."

"You did?"

"Yeah, before they let me carry a gun."  She grinned at me.  "Then I 
retired my mag light."

I teased her, trying to keep the mood from getting too heavy.  "Sometimes 
you are a truly frightening woman, do you know that?"

She smirked.  "How so?"

"You were bad enough when you shot me.  I hate to think what kind of 
damage you would have done to my body if all you'd had was a 
flashlight!"

She chuckled.  "When I was in med school, I stayed up crazy hours in the 
library.  I would walk home often after dark.  A couple of times, I was 
spooked on the way back to the dorm, thinking I was being followed.  I 
told Ahab about it and he came to see me the next day with one of those 
flashlights.  He told me to carry it everywhere I went, even in the day time, 
but especially when I had to walk home at night after dark.  It was useful 
to have a flashlight anyway, and it could be a weapon if necessary."

"Smart guy, you're dad.  I would have sent a body guard."

She smiled up at me, shaking her head.  "No, my dad taught us how to 
look out for ourselves.  He made no exceptions for Melissa and I because 
we were girls."

"I know.  I can see that in you.  You're almost too independent though 
sometimes."

"Yeah, well the Scully motto in my house was that whatever had to be 
done it was done by all.  The boys had to help wash dishes and I had to 
mow the lawn.  There was no gender distinction in our house when it 
came to chores.  He meant to build teamwork among us and in some 
respects he did.  In others, he made us resent each other.  There were 
times when I didn't want to be self-sufficient.  There were times when I 
wanted to be taken care of.  I was tired of being strong."

"Are you still?"

She gazed at me with a sweet half smile on her face.  "Sometimes."

"I wish you'd let me take care of you, Scully.  I would love to do it and it 
would make me feel good about myself."

"About yourself?  How so?"

"I want to know that I'm capable of being a caregiver.  I want to know that 
I'm capable of not being selfish.  And I want to return all the comfort that 
you've given me over the years.  And finally, ..."

"Finally?"

"I'm in love with you Scully and it kills me when you won't let me in, when 
you won't let me help."

"I can't help it."

"Yes, you can.  You choose not to.  But you have to understand that your 
pain is my pain.  It kills me to see you suffer and not be able to share the 
burden with you, especially when you've taken so much off my shoulders 
over the years and carried your share.  I only want to give that back to 
you."

"Eye for an eye?"

"Not exactly.  Does it make you feel good when you feel that you have 
comforted me and made me feel better after one of my near nervous 
breakdowns?

She smiled at my choice of words and tilted her head to one side.  She 
was so enchanting when she did that little head tilt thing.  "Now that you 
mention it, yes.  You tend to bring out my nurturing instincts sometimes, 
especially when you're hurt."

"Why do you think it would be any different for me?"

She continued to look at me then.  Quietly she acknowledged, "I see what 
you mean."  She paused.  "I'll try, Mulder, that's all I can promise.  I'll try 
to let you in."


"That's all I'm asking for, Scully.  I don't expect you to snap your fingers 
and change overnight and suddenly want me around like the handle on a 
piss pot."

"Handle on a piss-pot?"  She started to laugh.  "You come up with the 
weirdest expressions, sometimes!  Where the hell did that saying come 
from?"

I chuckled.  "I don't know, it's something my mother used to say when she 
was referring to something that was in the way or under foot."

"You weren't the only weird one in your family, Mulder."

"Not by a long shot."

From: donnilee@juno.com
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2000 19:10:11 -0500
Subject: RE:  "J is for Jealousy" by Donnilee
Source: direct

PART 3  - ( NC-17)
DUDLEYTOWN, CORNWALL, CT
7:00 PM THAT NIGHT

I lit the small Coleman lantern inside the tent.  We had just finished eating 
a couple of the sandwiches we had brought with us.  It had started to get 
dark.  The dusk blanketed the area in an odd sort of light that was more 
unsettling than I cared to admit.  Mulder called a halt to our search and 
find mission and we crawled in to change our clothes for bed.  Darkness 
had fallen at an unusually quick rate as though someone pulled storm 
clouds over the moon.  But the night was clear and you could see the 
stars, but the light diminished so quickly you could see it happening.  It 
was undoubtedly unsettling.

I debated whether to put on my pajamas.  I had zipped the sleeping bags 
together, hopefully giving a hint that I wanted to snuggle up.  I wouldn't 
admit it to him but I had been replaying the previous evening in my head 
on and off all day.

I kept hearing his voice echo in my head, 'Do you want to be TAKEN, 
Scully?'  Good lord!  The wave of arousal that flooded through me when 
his deep voice vibrated into my ear almost made me dizzy.  I'm still not 
sure how I managed to squeak out an answer.  He has no idea how he hit 
the nail on the head with that statement.  He was exactly right.  For years, 
I had wanted him to take the decision out of my hands.  

Subconsciously, I think I knew that if he ever kissed me for real, I was 
done for.  If his tongue ever entered my mouth, there would be no 
resisting him.  If I closed my eyes, I could still feel his warm, large hands 
on my breasts, his fingers pinching my nipples and his incredibly large 

hardness sliding in and out of me.  The feelings had been exquisite.   I'd 
had some good and some bad sex in my day, but I nothing had ever 
come close to that.  

I knew why too, besides the fact that he had a big dick.  He loved me.  
The others hadn't.  I loved him, and I hadn't really loved the others.  I'd 
tried.  I'd thought I was in love a time or two.  But now that I knew, or 
finally admitted that I was in love with Mulder, those feelings of the past 
paled in comparison.  I'd never felt the connection with someone while 
making love that I had felt with Mulder.  We were so 'present' with each 
other, both giving and taking all there was to take and give.  Once he 
really touched me there was no more guilt, no more fear and no more 
hesitation.  I wanted him like I'd never wanted anyone in my entire life.  I'd 
wanted to please him.  And hearing him groan his pleasure had excited 
beyond words.  The guilt, fear and hesitation didn't return until morning 
when we had to stop touching each other and venture back out into the 
real world.

I was full of fears, but I knew the time had come to face them down if I 
was ever going to find happiness.  No other man was going to grab my 
attention away from Mulder.  I knew that instinctively.  A few years ago, 
maybe, but not now.  He was too much a part of me.  That was scary 
because I knew that if something were to happen to him, if I were to ever 
lose him, a part of me would die with him, never to be found again.  To 
take that risk was enormous for me.  But he had been right when he 
threw the old adage in my face, 'better to have loved and lost ...'.  

He was right, as usual.  Would it be better to deny what my heart was 
telling me and spend the rest of my life unhappy, and unfulfilled?  No, life 
was too short and I should grab happiness where I could find it.  I realized 
how fast the years had sped by.  I was chagrined at all the time that had 
been lost.  This whole thing was easier said than done.

But in my heart, I knew that this was the RIGHT time.  Now was our time.  
Had we jumped in before, our fears would have won and overtaken our 
desire and our love for one another.  Now, the friendship was solid as a 
rock.  I was confident that it would not be broken, whether we, as a 
couple, worked out or not.  That gave me a feeling of peace and of 
courage.  I would always have him, at least as a friend.  But it would 
definitely be so much better if I could have him as my boyfriend, my lover, 
my husband.  Husband?  Don't go there yet.  

Snippets of our talk kept floating through my mind.  'They call me Mrs. 
Spooky.' --- 'Yeah, I wish.'  I felt like I was skating toward a cliff with no 
brakes.  It was scary but exhilarating at the same time.  So much of what I 
did with Mulder was like that.  It was the high wire act without a net.  I 
realized though, if I let myself think about it, that I did have a net.  His love 
for me and our solid friendship.  This could be a win/win situation, if I let it 
be.

So here I sat in a tee shirt and panties, lighting the lamp so that we could 
see what we were doing as we settled in for the night.  We put our 
weapons in the corner of the tent, leaving them in the holsters.  He was in 
nothing but his boxers and slid into the bags and scooted to the far side, 
holding the top cover up and nodding toward the bedding, inviting me in.  
I crawled in tentatively, unsure how I wanted to do this.  He had an 
amused smile on his face.

"Mulder, what's so funny?"

"You.  You look so unsure of yourself.  I'm not used to seeing you that 
way."

I kneeled in front of him as he laid on his side, still holding the covers up.  
"I'm sorry I'm so awkward, Mulder, it will get better."

"Don't worry about it, I think it's cute."

"Cute?"

"Yeah.  Now get down here and press that exquisite little ass of yours into 
my lap."  His voice was teasing but I could see the spark in them.  

I laid down on my side and rolled myself back into his body as he lowered 
the covers over us.  He reached around and zipped it up snugly.  One 
arm went underneath my neck and pillow and the other wrapped firmly 
around my waist and pulled me back tightly into his torso.  As promised, 
he had pulled my butt right into his lap.  He was so warm, I instantly 
started to relax until I felt his had slide up under my tee shirt and cup my 
left breast.  "Uhhh, Mulder?"

"Shhh, I just want to touch you.  I promise to behave."

"Yeah, sure, right!"

He chuckled.  "I will, unless you don't want me to behave."  He paused.  
"You do know that I won't push don't you?  I mean, I won't do anything 
you don't want me to do."

"There isn't much you could do that I wouldn't want you to do."  I felt his 
breathing deepen and his hot breath cascade down my neck giving me a 
shiver.  

"Do you want me to do this?"  His thumb and forefinger slide together and 
grabbed my nipple, pinching it hard and quickly, then rolling it back and 
forth.  I moaned low and arched my back.  The dart of sensation in my 
nipple had shot straight down between my legs and caused me to 
moisten and swell, just from that one touch.  Oh God, what this man could 
do to me with just one touch.  And I must say, there isn't a better feeling in 
the world, than feeling him stiffen and grow against me.  He pressed his 
burgeoning erection between my butt cheeks and ground himself against 
me.  My cotton panties were no barrier to the throbbing heat of his 
erection.

"Scully?"

"Mmm?"

"What do you want?  Should I stop and just cuddle you?"

Breath, breath, deep breath.  "No, keep going."

"Ooohhh, Scully, you are making me nuts, very quickly!" he murmured.  
His hand went to the hem of my shirt and yanked upward.  I grabbed it 
and yanked it over my head.  Screw it.  I went directly for my panties and 
pulled them down, kicking them off my feet and pushing them into a little 
ball in the corner of the sleeping bag at my feet.  He wasted no time and 
did the same with  his boxers.  This task done, he immediately pulled me 
back into him.  

His arm draped over my waist and glided over my abdomen and down my 
thigh.  He gripped the inside of my thigh and lifted my left leg to place it 
gently on top his.  This little maneuver not only opened me wide for him, 
but made my ass cheeks press together around his erection, which was 
still poking me insistently in the rump.  I could feel the evidence of his 
arousal leaking into the crack of butt cheeks.  He was flexing his hips and 
spreading it between my cheeks.  Little electric tingles shot up and down 
my spine.  I was breathing at a ridiculous rate now and made a conscious 
effort to slow it down.

His right hand wound his fingers in between mine and he squeezed.  I 
sighed.  Then his left hand moved down my stomach again and raked 
through my pubic hair causing me to quiver.  His low chuckle in my ear in 
reaction to my response, send another rolling wave of heat from the tip of 
my toes to the top of my head.  He whispered into my ear, keeping those 
tingles racing through my body.  "Scully, I want to make love you to again.  
Oh God, I didn't think it was possible to want someone like this."

I shuddered at his words.  My voice was quiet but firm, asking the same 
question I'd asked the night before.  "What do you want, Mulder?"

This time he wasn't confused or unsure.  He firmly slid his hand down to 
cup me between my legs and without warning, slid two fingers deep 
inside.  I gasped at the sudden intrusion.  He stilled, but then started 
scissoring his fingers back and forth.  It created an odd sort of cringing in 
my vagina that made me pant and want more.  He still hadn't answered 
me.  He extracted his fingers and I pushed my rear end into his hips in 
protest.  He murmured in my ear, "Do you have any idea how exciting it is 
to me that you respond to my touch like you do?"

"What do you want, Mulder? Tell me."

His left hand, still sticky with my wetness, gripped my hip.  His body 
angled slightly away from my back and all he said was, "THIS!"  And he 
slid that beautiful, long, wide, hard cock all the way into me until he 
bumped the entrance to my womb.  We both groaned, rather loudly.  The 
silence of this place, combined with the isolation of the tent, made it feel 
as if we were the only two people in the world.  The silence also made our 
sounds seem magnified.  My ears were so focused on them because of 
the lack of any other sound to interfere.

He began pumping in and out of me at a steady pace, but fairly slow as if 
he were savoring the feeling.  I could hear his breath hitching and the little 
grunts coming from the back of his throat.  I was never overly vocal during 
sex but I was beginning to realize the benefits.  If his sounds were 
exciting me so much, then why wouldn't mine excite him?  I had been 
trying to stifle them, feeling that my moans would be a violation of the 
silence around us.  But at that second as he gripped my hip a little tighter 
and started pumping into me harder.  I let the moans come.  "Ooohhh, 
Ooohhh, Ooohhh, Mul...der...yes.  Feels so good."  

"Ahhh, Scully, you feel so good.  You're perfect, this is perfect.  We're so 
perfect together."  All I could do is grunt in response and resume my 
rhythmic moaning that paused each time he smacked into my rear end.  

I raised my leg higher in the air and spread my leg as wide as I could over 
his hip behind me.  He didn't pause in his strokes, but his hand slid down 
to my curls.  His fingers flat he began brushing them down over my 
throbbing clit that was now swollen and pulsing with need.  The feeling 
was so exquisite, all I could do was whimper.  This sound apparently 
really effected him because he began to speed up again as his fingers 
swiped at me hard and furiously.  

My nipples hardened painfully as I felt the first clenching wave of my 
orgasm wash over me.  My head snapped back and I heard him grunt as 
my head made contact with his chest.  Oopps.  He didn't seem to mind 
though and kept pushing into me as my insides fluttered around him.  I 
felt dizzy and sated as I came down from the endorphin high, feeling my 
muscles quivering slightly.  My orgasm had not sent him over the edge 
and he panted out, "Roll onto ... your stomach."

I did and he rolled with me, never pulling all the way out.  His hands 
pinned mine on either side of head on my pillow and he began to pump 
into me hard.  His weight was on my rump and my shoulders and it felt 
divine.  The ground was hard but I hardly noticed except for the fact that 
my over-sensitized nipples were rubbing along the sleeping bag with 
every thrust and my pubic bone was being ground into the earth.  I nearly 
shouted as I felt more flutters skitter through my torso and my vaginal 
walls quiver around him again in a softer, but drawn out orgasm.  He 
shouted then and shortened his strokes, jerking his hips into my ass as 
he emptied into me shouting my name.  "Sccuullyy...Awwwshit, Oh God, 
Sccuullyy!"

He collapsed in a heap on top of me as we both panted.  I was dazed and 
nearly chanting in a whisper, "I came twice, you made me come twice.  
Oh God, I came twice.  That's never happened before."

He brushed the hair away from the back of my neck and kissed me gently 
along my hair line.  I realized we hadn't kissed throughout this entire 
episode.  I grunted and he rolled over.  I flipped over and sidled up to his 
side, throwing myself on top of him.  He was smiling a lazy smile and we 
kissed.  It was tender and soft and deep.  He hummed in the back of his 
throat and I smiled at him.  "I love watching you react to me too."

"I couldn't see your face in those positions," he murmured.  I missed it.

"I know, but I could feel you react.  Could you feel me?"

"Yes, I could hear you too!"  His voice was slightly teasing.

"Is it me or were the sounds more intense?" I asked.

"Because of the silence, you mean?"

"Yeah."

"I think so.  Or maybe it was just because my world shrinks to the size of 
your body and mine when I touch you and I don't see or hear anything 
else.  I'm not sure which."

That was such a sweet thing to say.  But I knew exactly what he meant.  It 
was the same way for me.  He combed his fingers through my hair, letting 
the strands slide through his fingers as if fascinated with them.  "Even 
your hair is soft."  His voice was a still a soft whisper.

"Mulder, I want to tell you something."

He looked serious suddenly, as though I was going to ruin this with some 
declaration of how wrong it had been to screw around out here on a case, 
or in the woods.  I smiled to reassure him and he nodded, waiting.

"No one's ever made me ... feel ... the things you make me feel.  It scares 
me, but at the same time ... I know it's the most RIGHT thing that's ever 
happened to me."

He smiled a gentle smile.  "I take it that means your orgasm was decent?" 
he teased.

I swatted him gently on the shoulder and he cringed in mock pain.  "More 
than descent.  It was incredible and you know it.  And I had two, count 
'em, two.  That's never happened."

His eyebrows went up.  "No?  Never?"

"Never."

He pulled me into another soft kiss and mumbled against my lips,  "Glad 
to oblige."  I chuckled and we kissed some more.  Then we heard 
something we hadn't heard since we'd been here.

Sound.  The cracking of a branch as though it'd been stepped on.  The 
sound was like a gun shot in the silence and we both jerked away from 
one another and scrambled for our tee shirt and underwear.  I scooted out 
of the sleeping bag and grabbed my weapon while Mulder unzipped the 
bag and threw the covers off of himself.  I put my gun between us and 
was in process of throwing my tee-shirt over my head when I heard 
Mulder move with the swiftness of a rattler.  Then I heard the contact of 
skin on skin and a distinctive grunt of pain that did not come from him.  I 
was in nothing but my underwear and tee-shirt, but my head emerged 
from then neck hole of my shirt just in time to see Mulder swinging my 
weapon to bear down on the opening of the tent.

A large shadow loomed outside the tent.  It was a person on his knees 
with his arms wrapped around his ribs.  Ironically it reminded of the pose 
Mulder found himself in on the floor of the elevator yesterday.  
Yesterday?  Was it only yesterday.  Since he had my weapon, I grabbed 
his.  They were identical anyway.  

Mulder hadn't even had time to put a shirt on.  Damn, we'd let ourselves 
get too distracted.  Somehow I couldn't seem to summon up the usual 
case of upset over that fact.  If we hadn't been distracted, we probably 
would have been asleep.  Mulder was in nothing but his boxers.  We both 
exited the tent carefully, guns trained on the man kneeling before us.  
Mulder grabbed the lit lantern just as he exited and held it up so that we 
could see the man's face.

We both gasped.  It was Carl Lehigh.  Alive and well.  Well, not so well.  
His face was swollen and covered with bruises.  His jeans were ripped in 
the thighs and his flannel shirt was little more than a rag.  "Jesus!"  Mulder 
exclaimed.


I stared, "Carl Lehigh?"

"Yeah," he gasped.  I slid the safety on my weapon and handed it to 
Mulder as he put the lantern on the ground.  I ducked into the tent, 
grabbing my pants.  I tugged my pants on and jammed my feet into my 
sneakers without socks.  I grabbed Mulder's pants, a flannel shirt and his 
boots, then reemerged.  I took our weapons as he quickly dressed 
himself, then turned to stir up the embers of our fire that had burned low.  
He added wood and soon had a fire blazing.  He grabbed an extra 
blanket and one of his shirts from the tent and came back out with those 
and our first aid kit.  I helped Carl to his feet and he staggered a bit, and 
then sat down on a log near the fire.

Mulder looked at him.  "I apologize for kicking you, but you startled the 
hell out of us."  He only nodded.  I addressed him, keeping my voice low 
and calm.  I could see he was shaking.  "Don't be afraid.  We're Federal 
agents, Mr. Lehigh.  We're here looking for you."  I looked at Mulder.  "I 
don't think we need our weapons, Mulder."  

I handed his gun to him and he stuffed it the back of his pants.  I did the 
same.  Carl still looked so scared.  I knelt in front of him.  I'm a medical 
doctor also, Mr. Lehigh.  Let me take a look at you.  He nodded numbly, 
still not speaking.  Mulder peered at him, staying back to the side of fire.  
He sensed that the guy would be more comfortable with me.  He did ask 
a question.  "Carl, can you speak?"

The man nodded and croaked out in a burnt voice, "Yeah, barely."  I 
winced at the sound.

I peeled his shirt off.  He had lacerations and bruises galore.  I snapped 
on a glove and began putting antibiotic cream on them, trying to be 
gentle.  He winced each time anyway.  When I was done, I covered the 
small ones with band aids and the larger ones with taped down gauze 
pads.  Then I noticed the brown stain on one leg of his jeans.

"Mr. Lehigh, is your leg cut?" 

He nodded to me, "Bad."  That seemed to be all he could get out.  I put 
Mulder's shirt on him.  It hung large over his slumped shoulders.  Mulder's 
shoulders were quite a bit wider than this guys.  

"Can you lay down on the blanket?" I asked.

"Sure, my back hurts, but it's healing."

I had seen the welts on his back, but they weren't open cuts so I had left 
them alone.  The man had been flogged with some sort of whip.  He 
gingerly lowered himself off the log and down onto the blanket I had 
spread on the ground.  I looked at Mulder.  "I need you help to get his 
pants off, I don't have scissors big enough to cut denim. 

Mulder went into the tent and emerged with the hunting knife he had 
purchased and handed it to me.  Then asked, "Or would you rather I just 
try to pull his pants off?"

I looked at Carl.  His eyes were huge and round as he stared at the knife 
in my hand.  I realized he'd probably been cut with a knife and lowered it 
to the ground behind me.  He took a deep breath and looked visibly 
relieved.  "Mulder, let's try to get them off without cutting."

Mulder knelt down next to him and began unbuttoning the mans jeans.  
He spoke softly and reassuringly.  "Carl, try to relax, man.  We aren't 
going to hurt you.  We want to help and we are going to get you out of 
here, O.K.?"

He nodded.  "Thanks."

"Can you tell us what happened?"

"There's a mad man up here."

Mulder nodded, encouraging him.  The lantern and the firelight cast weird 
shadows around the clearing but it was enough to see each others faces 
clearly.  "Do you know who he is?"

Carl closed his eyes and shook his head.  "No, but he calls himself the 
Avenger, one god's Avenging Angels, constantly spouting off about the 
sins of whores."

Mulder smirked.  "Oh brother."  The guy nodded in commiseration, then 
continued.  Mulder carefully peeled the man's jeans off, exposing a large 
bleeding wound in the thigh about four inches long.  The skin was pulled 
apart and gaping open nearly three quarters of an inch.  Mulder visibly 
swallowed  the urge the gag and looked away.

"Don't look, Mulder, I'll take it from here."  I was just glad he was wearing 
underwear.  Carl actually chuckled.

"So the lady has more stomach than you, eh man?"

Mulder chuckled.  "You don't know the half of it."  They smiled at each 
other and we all relaxed.   I didn't think now would be the time to tell the 
guy I'm a pathologist.  Knowing I cut up dead people was not going to 
instill a lot a confidence in my abilities as a doctor at this point.

I looked at him.  "I'm going to have to clean this out, Carl, and that's going 
to hurt.  Then I'm going to have to sew that up.  That's going to hurt even 
more.  But I do have some  Zylocaine in my other bag.  Mulder, would you 
get it for me?"

He nodded and disappeared into the tent.  Carl looked at me.  "What's 
Zylocaine?"

"It's like novocaine for muscle tissue.  I can give you a shot and that 
should help some, but it's not meant to be an anesthesia.  It's not that 
strong.  It will still hurt."

"That's O.K., whatever you can do, I'd appreciate it.  I've been terrified it 
was going to get infected.  I've lost a lot of blood.  Even though it's slowed 
down now, I feel weak."

I nodded.  "I'll do the best I can and then I'm gonna call the police to send 
an ambulance out here to the entrance to Dark Entry Road where we 
came in.  We'll figure out how to get you down there."  He nodded.

Mulder came out handing me the case with the bottle of Zylocaine and 
several packaged syringes.  I gave the guy as much as I dared, poking 
the novocaine in and around the wound.  I threaded a needle with suture 
string.  I always carried it with me on trips like this.  You never knew when 
you could get cut and it would come in handy.  I was saying a silent thank 
you to God as I threaded the needle.


"Mulder, I need you to hold the lantern over here above his leg.  I need to 
see better."

He nodded and did as I asked, but then turned his head away.  I nodded 
at Carl.  "O.K., here goes, buddy, try to stay as relaxed as you can.  I 
straddled his calf to hold his leg as still as possible and made my first stab 
for the first stitch.  He winced but stayed surprisingly still although he 
began to pant.  "Keep breathing, deep and slow, that's it."

I worked as fast as I could and Mulder began asking questions, to distract 
him.  "I hate to ask this Carl, but can you tell us what happened?"

"Some."

"Tell us what you know."

"My wife and I came out here to camp.  We were just going to spend the 
night.  We're on our honeymoon."  He got tears in his eyes and Mulder 
patted his shoulder gently with his free hand. 

Carl sniffled and continued.  "One night we were going to stay out here, 
that's all.  We'd heard about the legends and we often check out sites like 
these just for the adventure.  We're pretty active in sports and camping 
and skiing and such.  We didn't believe most of the legends but we find 
this sort of thing fun."

"Go on," Mulder continued.  

"So we set up camp.  It was creepy here and we noticed the lack of 
sound."

"Yeah, we did too."


"At first I figured there was a predator nearby, but then it continued for too 
long.  I speculated that it was some sort of electromagnetic field or 
something, some kind of atmospheric anomaly."

I looked up from my stitching and smirked at Mulder.  They guy sounded 
just like me.  Mulder acknowledged it with a tilt of his head, but said 
nothing.  He sucked breath through his teeth in a hiss as I began suturing 
the widest part of the wound together.  But then he continued.

"So anyway, we went to bed and figured we'd just do a little hiking 
tomorrow and then split."

"Then what happened?"

"This is where it gets fuzzy for a while. I was jolted awake by a hand over 
my mouth.  I gasped and realized someone was holding a rag over my 
mouth and nose.  I got dizzy and passed out."

Mulder nodded.  "Probably chloroform, or ether."

"I never even got to look at Patsy.  When I woke up, we were laid out side 
by side in twin beds in a log cabin someplace and no one was to be seen.  
No matter how I tried, I couldn't get myself untied.  Patsy was still out cold 
on the bed beside me.  I started to panic when the guy finally returned."  
He shuddered and closed his eyes.

"The guy is enormous!  He's got to be six foot, six, and he's got shoulders 
like a bear.  He has a full beard and mustache and a hair lip.  He has dark 

brown hair down his shoulders that hasn't seen a comb since the late 
sixties."

Mulder and I chuckled at that.  Mulder prompted him.  "Go on.  Is this the 
hard part?"

Carl nodded and swallowed noisily and then yelped a bit as I made 
another suture, breathing heavily afterwards.  I said quietly,  "Almost 
there, Carl, hang in there, just three more to go."

He nodded and panted.  He was silent until I finished and then I placed 
gauze over the wound and taped it securely after smearing the whole 
thing with a generous amount of antibiotic cream.  He sighed when I told 
him I was finished, seeming relieved.  "Thanks, lady, huh, Dr. ..."

"Oh! Sorry.  We're Special Agents, Dana Scully and Fox Mulder."

"Oh, O.K.  You call him Mulder?  I figured that was his first name."

I looked at Mulder and dared him to explain it with a look.  He looked at 
Carl.  "Yeah, it's an old habit we developed a long time ago.  We use 
each other's sir names.  It keeps other people from thinking we're too 
cozy."

O.K., I thought, that's a good answer for the outside world.  I knew he'd 
asked me to call him Mulder for two reasons.  One, because he hated his 
name.  And two, because he wanted to put distance between us.  
Needless to say, it hadn't worked.  And although it was strange and I had 
gotten miffed over the fact that other women like Diana and even my 
mother could call him Fox, it seemed natural now.  We were Mulder and 
Scully and that was that.  Our given names sounded false somehow 
when we used them now.  Both of us only used them when we were 
desperate to get the other's undivided attention.

Carl smiled.  "And are you?  Cozy that is?"

Mulder coughed and looked away.  Then he looked at me and dared me 

with a look to explain this one.  Not that it was any of this guys business.  
I stuttered a bit.  "Well, uh, we weren't ... uh, for a long time, but ... is this 
pertinent to this discussion?"

Carl chuckled.  "Hey, your secret's safe with me!"  

Mulder looked at him and smiled.  "It's a new thing.  We haven't quite 
worked out the logistics of answering questions about it yet."

"Oh, I get it," he said.

Mulder cleared his throat.  "So, what else can you tell us?"

I strayed away to the tent, grabbed my cell phone and dialed 911.   I 
couldn't get a signal.  Damn!  I reemerged.  Mulder asked me.  "Hey, 
Scully, do you have any paper and a pen?"

"Yeah."  I returned and retrieved the pad and pen from my back pack that 
I also didn't go anywhere without and went back to hand it to him.  "I can't 
get a signal on my cell phone."

"I'll hike down the trail a bit after this and see if I can find one."

"You are not leaving us alone here."

He looked at me quizzically and tilted his head.  I rarely made any 
admission that I wasn't perfectly capable of being by myself.  In the past, 
regardless of how scared I was, I would have stayed behind and sucked 

up the fear that he was wandering off without me.  But this relationship 
had gone into a new zone, one where I couldn't keep sucking it up, so to 
speak.  I didn't want to anymore and I realized that I didn't have to.  I was 
losing nothing; no respect and no dignity by admitting my fears to Mulder.  
He would truly think no less of me.  And I sensed that my ability to admit 
these things to him was like a balm to his soul.  He needed to know that I 
was capable of being as vulnerable as he was sometimes.  He needed to 
know that I needed him as much as he needed me or he would always 
feel inadequate in this relationship.  

You would think, as a smart woman, I would have figured this all out a 
long time ago.  But old habits die hard, and even with Mulder, my female 
survival instincts had kicked in.  Those instincts that said not to show any 
type of weakness.  Those survival instincts that told every professional 
woman that they had to be twice as good at what they did to be 
considered half as good as their male counterparts.

"O.K., we'll figure something else out.  We have to get him out of here 
though."

"O.K., let me think while you finish getting this story."  I wandered away 
from them, but just to the other side of the fire and contemplated this 
situation.  This was the very reason that I really disliked being in the 
wilderness.  And although we weren't really in the 'wilderness' per se, it 
felt like it when all you could see as far as you looked was trees.  We 
could have been hundreds of miles from anything remotely civilized.  

From here, there was no way to tell.  I knew that we were just about a 
mile from a main road, if you could call Route 7 in Cornwall a Main road, 
but that was no comfort at this point.  I began looking around for two long 
branches with which to make a stretcher with.  I found two that were a 
little shorter than I wanted but they would have to do and dragged them 
back into the clearing.  I put the blanket between them but quickly 
realized that any thread I sewed it to the log with would probably rip right 
through it.  I could hear Carl murmuring to Mulder on the other side of the 
fire and looked up to see him furiously scribbling notes on the pad.  

The firelight danced shadows off his high cheekbones and his exposed 
forearms where he'd rolled up his sleeves of his checked flannel shirt.  
Christ, he was a beautiful man.  And he was mine.  I felt a sense of 
warmth and peace flow through me.  Yes, Mulder was MINE now, all 
mine.  I smiled to myself.  Look out  all you shameless hussies out there.  
Because I knew already, whether I wanted to admit it or not, I was not 
going to be able to ever let him go.  And if some woman ever captured his 
attention and drew it away from me, I would fight like a crazed woman to 
keep him.  Somehow, knowing that our relationship had gone physical, I 
thought that it would be a lot harder for him to be taken away from me. 

I know that sex and intimacy were an important and integral part of any 
worthwhile relationship.  I also knew that it should never be the reason for 
it.  But it wasn't in this case.  We had seven years of history, trust and 
friendship as the foundation for this relationship.  It was a strong 
foundation that was not easily shaken apart.  The sex was merely an 
extension of the love that we had already been feeling for each other for 
many years.  However, without it, it was need that went unfulfilled for both 
of us for way too long.  Let's face it.  People need intimacy and they need 
human contact, and yes, in many cases, eventually, they need sex to feel 
like a whole person, and see that love expressed.  It was the ultimate 
expression of love or in an ideal situation, that's what it should be, and 
without it, there was always something missing. 

The quest for that missing part of the intimacy is the thing that splits 
people apart if they denied it.  I realized that now.  Lord knows I'm the first 
one to spit on the double standard, but in matters of sex, it was a fact.  
Men were more physical than women.  Sex for men was a more tactile, 
physical experience.  And although I enjoyed that too, if my brain wasn't 
involved, it wasn't enjoyable.  I had to feel emotionally attached to the 
person in order to enjoy the physical aspects of intimacy.  That wasn't 
necessarily true for men.  But I knew Mulder was attached to me.  He was 
in love with me.  I shivered.

Eventually, the pressure would have been too much and he would have 
sought out that intimate contact with someone.  And if he had, it would 
have shattered me had I found out about it.  I could admit that now.  Well, 
C'est la vie.  That wasn't going to happen now.  I determined that I would 
always be available to him that way.  I was not going to give him a reason 
to go anywhere else ... ever.  I sighed and walked over to them to hear 
the end of the story.

Carl was tired, I could see the exhaustion in every line of his body but he 
was gallantly trying to finish the story.  "So I think Caroline Putnam is 
dead.  I don't know for sure, but she hadn't stirred in hours.  When I 
escaped, Keith was still alive, but barely conscious.  He'd beaten us both 
badly.  But I'm younger and in better shape.  I think I took it a little better 
than he did."  The tears were flowing freely down his face now.  "He 
raped Caroline and Patsy repeatedly.  Three times a day he'd have a go 
at one or the other of them.  Oh Christ, he made us watch!  The fucking 
bastard ... made us... watch!"  He dissolved into wrenching sobs.

I saw the horror on Mulder's face.  He looked up to acknowledge my 
presence.  He closed his eyes to prevent his own tears.  I could tell he 
was putting himself in Carl's place and the horror of it was crushing him.  
He was thinking about what he would do were he in the same situation.  
He looked back at Carl.  Carl looked at him with a pleading expression on 
his face.  He sucked in his sobs and continued.  

"Leaving her behind was the hardest thing I've ever had to do, but I knew 
that I couldn't overpower him or surprise him and I had to take my chance 
to escape when I could.  I had to try and get help.  Patsy was alive when I 
left, but she was staring vacantly into space.  I think her mind just 
snapped and she removed herself from the situation mentally.  She 
couldn't take it anymore.  OH GOD, WHY US?!" He was nearly screaming 
now. 

"You did the right thing, Carl.  And we will help you.  Mulder, he's getting 
too agitated.  That's enough for now."  Mulder nodded.  I knelt down next 
to him and gripped his shoulders gently.

"We will find them Carl and we will do our utmost best to bring them out 
alive, you have to believe that.  God didn't bring you two this far to drop 
you on your ass.  We'll find her and we'll bring her out.  I can't make you 
promises, but I promise we won't quit until we find them, O.K.?"

He nodded and hugged me to his chest, despite the cuts and bruises.  I 

felt him wince but he held me closely for a second and whispered in my 
ear.  "Thank you.  You don't know how relieved I was to find you.  Then I 
saw the guns and I nearly had a heart attack!"

"Sorry about that," I replied.  I gently extricated myself from his arms and 
looked up at Mulder.   His eyes darted away from me and then back.  I 
know it probably bothered him a little that they guy had hugged me that 
close, but he realized it was a comfort thing and he had nothing to be 
jealous over.  I could see it in his face, he was forcibly repressing a 
childish reaction that had wanted to spew out for a second.  Good God, 
would we ever trust each other enough not to react  to such things around 
each other.  Yes, I think that time would help.  The security in each other's 
love would grow with time and these touches with others would cease to 
faze us.

Carl sat up and looked from one of us to the other.  "New relationship, 
huh?"

Mulder looked away sheepishly, knowing the guy had caught the look on 
his face.  "We've been friends for years, but ... being involved ... as a 
couple is new."

"Don't worry man, I'm just more grateful than you could imagine."  He sat 
up gingerly.

Mulder replied, "I know, I'm just not used to others touching her yet."

"No problem man, I understand.  I was the same way with Patsy at first, 
but then I realized she really did love me and she wasn't going anywhere.  
Once I trusted her totally, and I mean completely, the fear went away.  I 
knew that if she touched someone, there was nothing romantic about it 
and she was going home at night with me, no matter what."

Mulder nodded to him.  "Thanks, no offense taken. I know I'm being a 
caveman, even as I have those reactions."

Carl chuckled.  "It'll fade, trust me."

"Thanks."  Mulder stuck out his hand and Carl shook it.

"Excuse me guys, please don't talk like I'm not here."


They both looked at me and grinned.   Carl replied, "It's a guy thing."

I rolled my eyes and they both chuckled.  Then Carl said, "Look, if you 
guys help me, I think I can walk and I'm anxious to get out of here and get 
some help.  Do you think you can help me up and then maybe I can use a 
stick for a cane or something to keep the weight off this leg.  I was so 
panicked and pumped on adrenaline before I didn't feel it, but now it's 
starting to really hurt."

I pulled one of my stretcher limbs over and stood it up.  Mulder helped 
him to his feet.    Carl grabbed it firmly and Mulder threw his free arm over 
his shoulders and wrapped the other arm around Carl's waist.  I ran back 
into the tent, grabbed a flashlight, Mulder's cell phone and his knife.  I 
dumped out the cooler with the sandwiches and put all this stuff in the 
cooler along with the antibiotic ointment and some gauze pads and tape.  
I didn't know what we might need, but I didn't want to go totally 
unprepared.  I grabbed a canteen last minute and threw the strap over my 
shoulder.  I came back out and blew out the Coleman lantern, putting it 
back in the tent.  

They had started hobbling down the path and I turned to start walking 
behind them.  It was easy to catch up, they weren't moving very quickly.  
It had taken a half hour to hike in here, but at this rate it was going to take 
a lot longer to hike out.    Mulder took one of the flashlights from me to 
illuminate the path in front of them and I held the other one up and 
followed slightly behind them.  

"Mulder, maybe I should go ahead.  That way if there's stuff on the path, I 
can get it out of the way first."

"Good thinking," he replied and stopped while I scooted around them to 
the front and began carefully picking my way down the path.  The path 
had been wide enough for us on the hike in, but I was quite a bit smaller 
than this guy, although he wasn't as big as Mulder.  There gait was 
understandably a little clumsy and the path was barely wide enough for 
the two of them.  I began snapping branches off that stuck out into the 
path in order to try and reduce the chances that one of them would get 
snagged in the face by one of them.  It was a long hike, and we had to 
stop several times to let Carl rest.   I kept trying the cell phone periodically 
but wasn't having any more luck.

We finally reached the end of the forest an hour and half after beginning.  
I glanced at my watch.  It was 2:00 AM, and the moon hung low in the 
sky, casting an ethereal glow on the clearing where our car sat.  I opened 
the door and Mulder carefully lowered Carl into the back seat.  I tried his 
cell phone this time and got a signal.  Apparently, the trees must have 
been an obstacle.  The land maps we'd looked at when we were at the 
police station had shown that the place was surrounded by mountains so 
it was little wonder that the radio frequencies were blocked.  I didn't dare 
move a foot to either side in fear of losing the precious signal.  I dialed 
911 and waited impatiently for the dispatcher to pick up.

<911 operator, what's your emergency?>

"Hello, this is Special Agent, Dana Scully, with the FBI."  I need an 
ambulance in Cornwall at the entrance to Dark Entry Road off Route 7 as 
soon as possible."

<Dudleytown?>  The astonished dispatcher asked.

Did everyone in Connecticut know about this place?  "Yes."

<Cornwall has a volunteer ambulance but they are BLS, do you need 
ALS?>

"No, send whoever is closest.  We have a 25 year old male with multiple 
cuts and abrasions and a serious muscle tear in the left anterior 
quadricep.  Possible dehydration, possible broken ribs."

<Please stay on the line, Agent.>

Beep. Boop.  Cling, Chime. Murmur, murmur, murmur.

<O.K., Cornwall ambulance is on the way.  The closest hospital is Sharon 
Hospital in Sharon, or you can have them take him to New Milford, but 
that will add 20 minutes to your trip.>

"Thank you, and I need one more thing."

"Yes, Agent?  You're a real FBI agent?"

Oh brother!  "Yes, I am and I need for you to call the New Milford Police 
Department and have them send Chief Wasley and Captain Seavers out 
here, along with at least four other cops.  I'm on a cell phone and I had to 
go an hour and half to get this signal.  I'm not confident that I can make 
another call to them.  Can you do that for me?"

<I certainly can, glad to help.  What shall I tell them, anything?>

"As a matter of fact, tell them we found Carl Lehigh and we have a good 
idea where the others are and we need man power out here."

<Yes, ma'am!  Uh, Agent ...>

"Scully, Agent Scully, they'll know who I am."

<Yes, Agent Scully, consider it done.  You can count on me!>

"Thank you, I appreciate it.  Bye now."  And I hung up.  For God sakes, 
you'd think these people had never heard of the FBI before.  But I 
suppose there lives were pretty dull most of the time.  I doubted high 
crime was a common occurrence around here.

We waited for nearly 20 minutes for an ambulance to show up from 
Cornwall.  It was frustrating.  In the city, we were used to ambulances 
being on the road at all times and there was rarely more than a 10 
minutes wait.  Out here, volunteers had to travel from their homes to the 
ambulance 'barn' before heading out to the scene.  In the midst of my 
frustration over the wait, I took a moment to realize the dedication and 
total selflessness that must come with being a volunteer EMT.  

You had to really WANT to help people in order to do this for nothing.  No 
pay, no perks, only the occasional gratitude of a patient who might have 
died without your willingness to rouse from your bed at 2:00 AM, stumble 
into clothes and drive into the middle of nowhere to transport you to the 
nearest hospital.  Out here, that was a big deal.  There were no hospitals 
closer than 20, 25 minutes away.  Christ, we were spoiled in the city.  My 
aggravation faded as I saw the ambulance pull into the entrance, 
bouncing over the uneven ground.  

It barely came to a stop when two females disembarked from the rear.  
One was yanking a stretcher from the back of the rig and the other was 
trotting to the car, carrying a portable oxygen tank and portable suction, 
an oxygen mask and stethoscope hanging loosely around her neck.  A 
Philly collar was wrapped around her bicep.  Her hair was jammed into an 
uneven ponytail.  Her face was all business as she nodded to me and 
Mulder with a curt, "Howdy, I'm Pauline, that's Carrie."  

I introduced us.  "Agents Mulder and Scully, thanks for coming out."

"No biggy, that's what we do, no?"

Then she turned to the car and leaned in over Carl.  I marveled at her 
calm, knowing that less than a half hour ago, this woman was sound 
asleep.  I'd seen the Morpheus fog in her eyes that hadn't quite cleared.  
She was tired and ignoring it like a professional.  It reminded of my days 
in residency, where you had to suddenly wake and become alert having 
only had three or four hours sleep.  But I had a goal then, to become a 
doctor and make decent money doing it.  These women did what they did 
for FREE.  All that training and testing and re-certifying and not planning 
on getting a dime for it.  It was altruism in its purist form.  The concept 
was totally foreign to me and I realized that there was lot more goodness 
in the world than I cared to notice sometimes.  

She was cooing to Carl.  "There now, buddy, we're going to put you on 
that stretcher first, O.K.?"

Both women helped him out of the car and strapped him onto the 
stretcher.  The driver, bearing an armband over his denim jacket declared 
him as an MRT, 'Medical Response Technician'.  Basically, they were 
trained in advanced first aid.  He stood patiently and waited as the two 
women, placed the oxygen mask on Carl and tested his straps and collar 
and took vitals.  

She called to the MRT.  "Coty, help us out here."  He jogged to the 
stretcher and helped the women maneuver the stretcher to back of the rig 
and load it in, deftly releasing the retractable legs as it slid home and 
locked into place against the wall.  He retreated to front and jumped into 
the driver seat.

Carrie turned to us, watching us through the back of the open door.  "Are 
you coming?"

"Uh no, but we don't know which hospital he wants to go to."

She looked at Carl.  "Any preferences?"

"I'm not from around here."

Carrie nodded.  "There's Sharon, about 25 minutes away and there's New 
Milford, which is about forty minutes away, or thirty depending on how 
Coty up there drives."

Her little attempt at levity was not lost on everyone and we all smiled.  
Carl asked, "Agent Mulder, where are the police coming from?"

Mulder answered, "New Milford."

"Take me there then, it will make it easier.  I'm sure they want to talk to 

me."

Mulder looked concerned.  "Are you sure you're up for the ride?  Don't  
worry about us, we'll come to you.  We're mobile."

"No, I'm O.K.  Take me to New Milford."

They nodded.

"Could we borrow some supplies?" I asked tentatively.

"What do you need?" Pauline asked.

"Well, we suspect we may find three more people in need of medical 
attention in there and I only have that measly first aid kit.  I used up most 
of my gauze and sutures on him."

Carrie tilted her head.  "You sutured him?"

"Yeah, left leg.  I'm a doctor.  You can bill us for it.  We'll gladly replace it."

"Oh, yeah, that doesn't matter.  What do you need."  Carrie asked.

"Could I borrow a box of gauze, some latex gloves and some more 
antibiotic ointment."

"Yeah, we don't have sutures here, but we have the big butterfly band 
aids and some clamps," she responded.

"Yeah, those too.  It wouldn't hurt  if I stole a compression bandage or 
two, just in case."

She nodded as she gathered up the materials and put them in a huge zip 
lock bag and handed them out the back door.  "Good luck."

"Yeah, thanks for your help.  You guys are great!"

She beamed under the compliment.  "Thanks, we do our best."

They waved farewell, closing the back door and pulling out onto the 
darkened street that held no street lamps to illuminate their way.  The 
ambulance almost looked suspended in air as it pulled out into the 
blackness of the night, its headlights the only light showing on the road.  
The backdrop was totally black.  We stood there and watched until we 
could no longer see the light.

Mulder turned to me.  "Well, do we wait for the police or go ahead?"

"Go ahead where?  We may need a chopper to search the woods."

"I don't think so.  He gave me a rough idea of the path he took and I drew 
a map.  He says the cabin isn't that far away and he was surprised no one 
knew it was there."

"Well, we should leave the cops a note if we go in now."

"Yeah, where though?"

"How about the windshield?" I volunteered. 

He nodded and slid into the car, opening the glove box and pulling the 
notepad and pen out that we always kept in there.  He scribbled a note as 
I watched over his shoulder.  -C. Lehigh taken to NM Hospital by Cornwall 
Amb.  We have returned to our camp.  We will wait there.  Have a 
description of a trail leading to cabin.  Expect to find perp and other three 
victims.  Agents Mulder and Scully.-

He put it under the windshield and then scribbled on another note, -Check 
out the windshield of the car.-

He tossed the pad and pen on the seat and strode over the wooden sign 
marking Dark Entry Road.  He peeled a sliver of wood away and jammed 
the note behind it.  Hopefully if they didn't see the note on the windshield, 
they would see that.  We flicked on our flashlights and began hiking back.  
I was cold from standing in the breeze for such a long time, but walking 
got me warmed up again.  Mulder had taken my hand as before.  

Mulder had been quite for a while, concentrating on surveying the ground 
ahead of us.  "Those women are pretty amazing, aren't they?"

"Yeah, I never really thought about it much.  But it's pretty inspiring that 
there are people willing to go through all that training and do that stuff for 
free, don't you think?"

"Yeah, almost makes me feel guilty for getting paid."  He chuckled.  "But 
not that guilty."

I smiled.  "It kind of restores your faith in the basic human goodness of 
people, ya know?"

"Yeah, I commend them, really I do, but you couldn't pay me enough to 
do it."

"Well, you're not a medical person."

"I know, but would you do it for free?"

"I would like to think if I lived someplace like this, I would, but I honestly 
can't answer that for you."

"I bet you would.  You have such a kind heart, I bet you wouldn't be able 
to resist."

I squeezed his hand.  "You think way too much of me sometimes."

"No, I don't."  Silence lapsed then again and we walked companionably 
back to camp.  We weren't in a rush.  We had no desire to go searching 
for this guy alone in the dark.  Time was of the essence if one of the 
victims was dead already.  Every minute we waited, one of those women 
could be raped again.  On the other hand, we weren't doing them any 
favors by rushing in unprepared and possibly being caught up ourselves.  
In the past, we would have rushed in.  But getting into a romantic 
relationship had other perks.  It made you a bit more cautious.  It made 
taking unnecessary risks, no longer seem worthwhile.  I for one, thought 
that was a good thing.  I didn't know what I would do if I lost Mulder, but if 
I ever did, I didn't want it to be because of something stupid.

Freaking out over your partner being in danger was one of the very 
reason the Bureau frowned on romantic relationships between partners.  
But we freaked out anyway, sex or no sex.  That wasn't going to change.  
I loved him, we loved each other and we were going to go nuts whenever 
one of us was at risk.  That wouldn't be less of a factor just because we 
abstained from sex.  We'd already proven that.

I remembered my father's old, crude, military saying.  Whenever we kids 
and did something stupid, he would say, 'Remember the six P's.'  They 

stood for, 'Prior planning prevents piss-poor performance.'

Mulder asked what I was smirking about and I told him.  He chuckled.  
"Your dad was a great guy."

"You think so?"

"Yeah, don't you?"

"Yes, but I never considered what you thought of him."

"If he were alive, he'd probably have a fit if he knew his little girl was 

screwing an alien chaser!"

I chortled.  "No, I think he would have liked you.  You never really got to 
know him.  He was rigid in a lot of ways but he was not quick to judge 
people like my brother, Bill.  He tended to give people the benefit of the 
doubt.  And he had a lot more faith in me and my choices than Bill, Jr. 
does as well.  He would have trusted my judgment.  He would have 

respected your dedication.  If I loved you, he would have too."

He smiled at me and pulled me into a spontaneous hug as we entered the 
clearing of the old abandoned town.  He ruffled my hair with his chin.  "I 
love you so much, Scully.  Promise me you won't do anything stupid out 
there."

I heaved a sigh.  "I know, I'm being protective, but I want to have a lot 
more days and nights with you in my arms.  I don't want it to end before it 
really begins."

"That door swings both ways, Mulder.  And let's face it, you are much 
more prone to diving in with both feet and your eyes closed."

"Yeah, I guess I am.  But I'm thinking for two now, is that what you're 
trying to tell me?"

"Yes, promise me you'll be careful too."

He squeezed me tight and then let go.  "I promise.  That's why I'm waiting 
for back up, although my first instinct is to dive into those woods and hunt 
this bastard down."

"Me too."  We walked to the tent.  "Let's get on some warm clothes."

We had made it back to our camp sight in about a forty minutes.  Going 
was a little tougher in the dark.  Neither of us needed to sprain an ankle at 
this point so we had been careful.  I changed into a warmer shirt and my 
socks and hiking boots.  Then I pulled a windbreaker on over my long 
sleeved shirt.  Mulder pulled on a sweater over his flannel shirt.  We were 
cozy now and stirred up the fire again.  He totally unloaded one of the 
back packs and began rearranging things.  He stuffed the first aid 
supplies, his knife and the spare flashlight into the pack, along with three 
long sleeved flannel shirts that he had bought.  He handed me a pen light.

"Why did you buy so many?" I asked, nodding toward the shirts he was 
rolling up and stuffing into the bag.

"I tried one on and loved the way it felt.  They are really soft and warm.  
Even though we only planned on being up here for a night, I decided I 
wouldn't mind owning a few of them."

"I like them on you."

He looked up at me then, smiling.  "Do you now?"

"I never thought I'd hear myself say that I love a guy in flannel, but you 
look so sexy in your outdoor get up."

"Outdoor get up?"

"You know what I mean."


"Well, if flannel turns you on, I'll see if I can find any dress shirts made of 
flannel!" he teased.

We both laughed then.  We finished up our preparation and sat on the log 
outside the tent, holding hands and staring into the fire.  Our silence was 
companionable and I leaned into his shoulder as he brushed my arm up 
and down with his hand.  It was a wonderful feeling to be able to do this 
with him.  Just to enjoy touching.  Mulder was such a tactile person, much 
more so than me.  Or so I thought.  But maybe I just had never allowed 
myself to enjoy it.  I was finding this cuddling up stuff extremely enjoyable.  
Almost as enjoyable as knowing I might get to have sex on a regular 
basis for the first time in years.  Well ... almost as enjoyable!

We heard the cops talking as they approached about a half hour later.  I 
went to pull away and Mulder kept me locked to his side, not allowing me 
to pull away.  Apparently, he was not concerned with letting them see that 
we were a couple.  I knew I should be upset by that and that it was totally 
unprofessional to flaunt our new relationship in front of them.  But we 
were hardly in a professional situation out here.  I also knew that Mulder 
had been jealous of Officer Seaver flirting with me.  He was trying to 
pretend it wasn't a big deal any more, but I knew that he wasn't going to 
become totally secure overnight.  I had to cut him some slack in this area.  
I'd hardly been the icon of security and trust in the last twenty-four hours 
myself.

I snuggled back into the crook of his arm and placed my hand on the 
inside of my thigh.  He gasped a little and whispered in my ear.  "Careful, 
Agent Scully, I don't want to go hiking with a hard on," he joked.  

I chuckled low and rolled my head on his shoulder to watch the cops, six 
in all enter the clearing.  They all stopped chattering as they stepped into 
the clearing and saw us.  I was experiencing a surprising lack of 

discomfort at this public display.  It wasn't blatant but the message was 
clear.  Sure enough, Mulder's eyes went directly to Officer Seaver and he 
stared at him with a slightly challenging look on his face for a few seconds 
until Seaver broke eye contact.  Alpha Male was staking his territory.  The 
thought made me smile.  It was almost a good feeling that he was so 
possessive ... almost.  

We stood casually and approached the cops.  Mulder didn't let go of my 
hand until I tugged gently as we approached them.  No need to make a 
show of it.  He let my hand drop and held his right hand out to Chief 
Wasley who was leading the group.  "You got here quick," Mulder 
observed.

"Not much traffic this time of night, we were able to fly out here."

Mulder and I both weren't quite quick enough to suppress the laugh the 
bubbled up at that comment.  We both squashed it quickly, not wanting 
them to take offense.  The Chief merely grinned.  Mulder apologized.  
"Sorry, no disrespect, but your idea of traffic and ours are two totally 
different things."

Everyone chuckled at that and we sat down around the fire to work out a 
plan of attack.  Mulder suggested that we all stay together and not 
separate until we found the cabin.  Then we could surround it and send 
one of us in to peek in the windows and try to scope out the situation.  He 
related Carl's description of the layout of the cabin and the four twin beds 
against one wall in the large front room of the cabin.  Apparently the guy 

had a wooden table and chair in there also and no other furniture.  A 
separate room held a kitchen and a port-o-potty.  A third room held a 
bedroom with a giant King size bed in it that the man slept in.  

He explained that there was only one window on each wall that he 
covered with blankets to keep the cold out.  There was a fireplace 
opposite the beds and table on the same wall as the front door.  There 
was a small porch in front, and no second story.   There was apparently 
no running water.  Carl had said you could smell the guy coming and he 
looked like a nightmare version of Jeremiah Johnson or Davey Crocket.  
He wore overalls with all sorts of weapons in the many pockets, including 
knifes.  Carl said he never saw a gun but that didn't mean he didn't have 
one.  He did see a bow and arrow though.

The cops surmised that he probably didn't have a gun or he would have 
to leave the cabin to get ammunition.  If that happened, someone would 
probably know this guy.  As far as they knew, no one had ever heard of 
anyone living up here.  Someone that large and unkempt would surely 
attract attention if he were to venture into town.  He probably didn't have 
money anyway.  

So, our plans were made and Mulder copied a crude drawing of the map 
on the pad of paper and handed one to each cop to carry.  They all had 
flashlights and billy clubs.  Mulder and I holstered our weapons on our 
jeans.  Mulder strapped a small derringer to his ankle.  It had a small 
holster with a clip that clung nicely to the top of his boot.  He pulled his 
jean leg down over it with some difficulty and then stood up.  He asked 
me if I had my badge and I realized I didn't.  "I know it seems stupid, but 
these guys are in uniform, we're not and we should probably identify 
ourselves.  I'd hate for the guy to get off on a technicality if we are able to 
take him into custody."

"You're right.  I grabbed both our I.D.s out of the tent and we stuffed them 
into our back pockets.  All was ready and we began the slow, arduous 
hike up one of the narrow hiking trails that led away from the Dudleytown 
village and up the mountain into the denser forest.  The feeling was 

oppressive.  I was wondering if we shouldn't wait for daylight, but then 
firmly quashed that idea.  Time was off the essence.  No telling what this 
misfit had done to those people.  I just hoped that no one was dead.


PART 4 ( R )
SOMEWHERE IN THE WOODS
OVERLOOKING CORNWALL BRIDGE
3:30 AM

I was tired.  We were all tired.  I watched Scully carefully to make sure 
she was holding up.  She always did but I couldn't help but be concerned.  
I saw the expression on her face when she heard about those women 
being raped.  I had felt rage and horror, but Scully could empathize with 
that situation, being a woman, much more than I could.  I knew things that 
this disturbed her the way other things rarely could.  None of us was used 
to this hiking in the dark business.  And we were all tense besides, trying 
to be quiet, not knowing when we might come upon the cabin.  

Obviously the guy had made many trips between his cabin and 
Dudleytown.  The path was well worn and the branches were cleared 
away from the path the further we hiked.  I wondered what would possess 
a man to live out here by himself.  He was obviously a misfit, probably 
lacked human contact for years and was probably paranoid about 
protecting his little sanctuary.  I had a sudden memory of Mr. Petie, the 
mountain man.  Curiosity seekers in Dudleytown were probably viewed as  
a threat to his secret and solitary existence.  I wondered how many others 
he'd nearly snatched that had never been reported.  Out here, who knew?  
The population was so spread out.  Someone might be able to be missing 
for days and no one would notice.  I realized that the reason these 
couples were missed was because they were out of towners who had set 
schedules and careers where people looked for them when they didn't 
show.  

We came upon the cabin suddenly.  It was as though someone drew a 
line.  The trees and foliage ended as the path abruptly emptied into a 
clearing.  It was perhaps a half an acre, cleared quite nicely of all trees 
and brush.  There were grass and tiger lilies dotting the lawn, visible 
under the moonlight.  They swayed like tiny sentinels before the cabin 
and gave the place a creepy look.  I doused my flashlight and the cops 
followed suit.  I pointed at two cops and whispered, "You guys go around 
back, stay inside the tree line and check out the back of the cabin.  They 
nodded.  I pointed at the other two.  I couldn't remember any of their 
names and indicated the left side of the cabin.  The other two I directed to 
the right side.  The Chief and Seavers, I told to wait there and watch the 
door of the cabin in case anyone came out.  They didn't seem to have a 
problem with me taking over and I was relieved we weren't dealing with a 
bunch of inflated yahoo egos here.  

Scully whispered, "Guys, leave your walkie talkies here on the path."

They looked down and nodded, realizing an untimely squawk from one of 
them could blow the whole deal.  They carefully removed them, turning 
them off and laid them in a pile just to the side of the path.  We were all in 
dark clothing so that wasn't a particular concern of mine.  But the moon 
was bright and unlike in Dudleytown where it didn't seem to pierce the 
gloom and foliage, it did here, lighting up the clearing enough to see the 
cabin rather clearly.  Scully looked at me again.  "I want to do the snoop, 
Mulder."

I shook my head in the negative and saw her eyes flare, even in this low 

light.  "Don't start, Mulder.  I'll be careful, I promise.  But I'm small and I 
can crouch low.  I'm the least likely to be seen and you know it." Her voice 
was a hiss.  

I didn't like it but I realized she was right.  I was to be the one to lure him 
out of the cabin when the time was right.  Scully had a pen light on her 
that the 'snooper' was going to flash at us when it was time to execute the 
plan.  The idea was to lure him out of the cabin and away from the victims 
so Scully and a couple of the cops could make there way in and protect 
them and check out their wounds.  I wanted cops on all sides in case the 
guy made a break for it, there would be at least two of us that he didn't 
have a head start on, no matter which direction he might choose.  "O.K., 
but please Scully, be careful.  She nodded.  The cops began to slowly 
make their way around the edge of the woods to get into position.  We 
waited while Wasley and Seavers looked on.  

I really wasn't trying to show off my hold on Scully.  I really was just 
terribly concerned about this situation.  Hearing what this guy had done to 
those women, I shuddered to think of the consequences were he to get a 
hold on Scully.  But as she had pointed out yesterday, we were armed 
and the victims weren't.  We were ready for trouble and they weren't.  But 
I couldn't help it.  In case something happened, I had to say it one more 
time before I let her walk away.  I stepped into her carefully, close enough 
that she had to tip her head back to look up at me.  I quickly put my hand 
on the back of her neck and pulled her up to my lips, giving her a quick 
but crushing kiss on the lips.   Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the cops 
shuffle a bit and look away.  "I love you, Scully.  Be careful."

She was shocked by my move and possibly even angry, but then she 
must have seen the fear in my eyes and she reached up to smooth her 
palm over my cheek, surprising me with this break from her usual 
professional demeanor.  "Always," she whispered.

Then she made my heart and my ego swell about two sizes when she 
quickly kissed me again and whispered, loud enough so Wasley and 
Seavers could hear her, "I love you, too, Mulder.  I'll be back before you 
know it."  She winked at me with mischievous smile on her face as she 
saw the surprise and shock etched on my face.  She was used to me 
doing inappropriate things, but I was totally unprepared for her to do 
something like that in front of others.  She winked again.  

She turned on her heel and crouched down and slinked away from me 
until she was near the cops on the right side of the cabin.  The largest 
window in the cabin was to the side of the front door.  There was a tiny 
sliver of light coming from inside the cabin, but the light source was small 

and not in direct line with the window.  I suspected a candle. I didn't care 
if the cops heard me as I whispered out loud, "God, Scully, be careful."

I swallowed hard and felt a hand on my forearm.  I jerked around to look 
at Wasley, holding my arm.  He dropped his arm but looked me in the 
eye.  He whispered, "She'll be fine.  We won't let anything happen to her.  
We outnumber him eight to one."  

I nodded and whispered back, "I know, but that's ..." He probably didn't 
care but I said it anyway.  "That's my life sneaking up to that cabin and I 
can't help but worry."  He nodded. 

"I'd feel the same way about my Jeanne."  We stood in silent communion 
after drawing our weapons and watching Scully like a hawk.  After a 
minute, she darted across the lawn in a sprint.  She crouched low beside 
the three porch steps and peered carefully over the edge.  She waited.  
We didn't sense any movement or sound.  She stood, still crouching and 
carefully placed one foot on the first step.  It made no sound.  I was 
acutely aware of every sound. I was afraid the stairs would creek and give 
her away.  I was afraid she would have to cough or sneeze.  My paranoia 
was at full alert.  I watched her like a hawk.  She carefully placed one foot 
in front of the other, staying low, her weapon drawn and slowly made her 
way across the porch.

Although I knew stealth and caution were necessary, I was mentally biting 
my nails as she inched her way to the window.  It was taking so long and 
my nerves were on edge by the time she reached the window and sat in a 
full squat.  She grasped her weapon in both hands and lifted her head to 
peer into the window.  Unlike Carl's prediction, there was no blanket 
covering this window, but I suspected the others were covered.  She was 
unearthly still for a moment and then her head sank below the window.  I 
watched her for a signal but none came.

She eased herself onto her knees and raised herself up again, exposing 
more of her head into the window.  I was holding my breath, my ears 
tuned to the slightest sound.  My eyes riveted to the window waiting for 
any shadow to cross my line of vision.  There was nothing but the eerie 
silence.  A slight breeze swayed the tiger lilies and made shadows from 
the moon bounce across the clearing.  It was almost ethereal, the look of 
the place.  Finally, she  sank down again and I released the breath I was 
holding.

I heard Seavers clear his throat in amusement at my nervousness and I 
glared at him.  He retreated, looking at the ground almost immediately.  
He knew I was not amused in the least.  I didn't care.

I watched Scully holster her weapon and literally crawl on her hands and 
knees to the edge of the porch.  She skipped the stairs this time and 
hopped to the ground off to the side of the steps and darted back across 
the lawn.  I waited while she carefully made her way back to me through 
the trees.  When she emerged on the path, I caught her up in my arms 
without preamble.  I was slightly embarrassed by the fact that I was 
shaking.  My released tension was making my muscles quiver.  Even I 
hadn't realized how tense I was.  

She ran her hands up and down my back, comforting me and not saying 
anything for a few moments.  Then she gently disengaged from my arms 
and turned inside them to face the cops.  She didn't protest when I left my 
hands on her waist, so I left them there.  Touching her and feeling her 
whole and solid had always been a comfort to me, even before this new 
fear that came with being her lover.

She whispered.  "I can see the four beds.  There are people in three of 
them.  They are all tied to the bed posts with rope, hands and feet.  I 
couldn't assess any damage from there but they don't look good.  There 
is a fire going in the fireplace, but it's not blazing."  She pointed to the sky 
and I noticed the plume of smoke from the chimney for the first time.  

"He isn't in the room.  I suspect he's in his own bed.  There is one candle 
burning on the table in there, that's it.  I don't see any other furniture, just 
like Carl said, so it shouldn't be too hard to maneuver in there, but if we 
have to bust in, two of you should go straight for the table and push it to 
the side."

They nodded.  She flashed her pen light once at the cops on either side 
of the cabin, which was the signal to stay put for now.  Two flashes were 
the signal to storm the place or rush in as back up.  Three flashes meant 
to gather near the porch and wait to ambush the guy as he came out.  I 
took a few calming breaths.  I watched as the cops on the side flashed 
their flashlights once at the cops in the back that we couldn't see.

I think I'll go up and see if I can attract him by simply making noise 
opening the door and shoving it in.  When he emerges, I can try to push 
him towards the stairs and get him off balance.  Then you guys can 
surround him and bear down on him.  Be careful though, he may have a 
weapon.  According to Mr. Lehigh, he was real handy with a knife and 
he's apparently a giant.  He probably has several weapons hidden on his 
person if he's clothed so watch out.  Try to stay out of arms reach until we 
can get some cuffs on him."

They were all nodding.  I looked at Scully.  "Wait for me to get up there.  
I'll signal you when to get the guys up to the porch.  When they are in 
position, I'll wake this bastard up.  If we're lucky, he will be in nothing but 
his jammies."

They all smirked at that.  Picturing a six foot, six mountain man in 

jammies was an amusing picture.  She threw my words back at me.  "Be 
careful, Mulder."  Then she teased trying to lighten the mood.  "You're not 
as light on your feet as I am."

I smiled at her and nodded.  I kissed her forehead quickly and ruffled her 
hair.  Then I made my way through the trees to the side of the house, 
following the route that had worked for her.  From the side, I could see 
that the window on this side was indeed blacked out by some sort of 
window hanging.  That stunk for seeing inside but was good for hiding my 
approach.    I quickly sprinted across the lawn and slowed upon reaching 
the porch.  I took her lead and crawled up onto the porch, not really caring 
how ridiculous I might look with my ass in the air.

I stood and pressed my back to the wall between the door and the 
window.  I peered sideways into the window and saw everything Scully 
had described.  The problem was, I couldn't tell if the door was latched in 
any way.  Carl said he'd loosened his bindings over the coarse of his time 
there and had finally pulled a hand free when the guy left.  He assumed 
he had gone hunting because he left with his bow and arrow.  He had fed 
them nothing but water and some kind of watery gruel that he assumed 
used to be venison stew.   But they were all weak from the lack of food.  
He had said there was a type of hook and eye latch on the inside but he 
didn't latch it as he had gone outside and would need to get back in.  Carl 
said there was no lock, just that piece of wood that slid down behind a 
block of wood to latch the door shut.  

I flashed Scully and then put my flashlight on the ground and pulled out 
my weapon.  I watched as the cops slowly made their way up to surround 

the porch and peer at me over the top of the floor boards.  Scully scurried 
up onto the porch and I gave her a murderous look to stay put.  She 
carefully placed our backpack on the porch and looked at me with a look 
that said, 'Forget it, Mulder.'  She shook her head firmly and positioned 
herself on the other side of the door.  Stubborn woman!  Well, there was 
nothing for it now. I  waited while she drew her weapon again.  She 
nodded at me that she was ready.

I said a silent prayer to a God I don't really believe in and reached 
gingerly for the door handle which was an old cast iron, curved bar with a 
thumb plate on top.  I carefully pushed the thumb plate down and gripped 
the bar firmly.  Then I quickly leaned my shoulder into the door and 
shoved with all my strength.  I was almost surprised at how easily it 
opened and swung inward, almost taking my body with it.  I let go before 
it pulled m inside behind its weight and jerked my body back against the 
wall next to the now open door.  It had creaked rather loudly.

The stillness and silence that ensued was nerve racking in the extreme.  I 
heard a grunt and then a distinctly female whimper.  I looked over to see 
Scully cringe.  I saw her body leaning toward the doorway with the urge to 
peer inside at the victims and I grunted softly and frantically shook my 
head in the negative in warning.  I saw her chest expand on a deep 
breath and she retreated, letting her body sag to the wall.  I let go of the 
breath I had been holding once again.  We waited and the silence 
stretched.  I began to hear the cops shuffling their feet and moving 

around at the sides of the porch.  I tried to look at them fiercely but they 
couldn't see my face.  They knew I had turned to them though and the 
shuffling receded.  They weren't used to situations like this.  The waiting 

in any of these types of situations was undoubtedly the worst, but it didn't 
pay to rush in.  

I laughed inwardly at me thinking that statement.  I was the King of 

rushing in!  But not anymore.  There was too much at stake personally 
now.  It sounded stupid, even to me and I would never say it aloud.  But I 
had something to live for now and I wasn't going to needlessly throw my 
life away by being impetuous anymore.  I hoped I could stick to that 
resolve. 

Finally, I gestured to Scully that I was going in.  Her brow crinkled but she 
nodded firmly.  I picked up my flashlight, laying it on top of my weapon to 
light my way.  I ducked inside the door, weapon ready and scanned the 
room.  I could see the three people tied to the beds.  There was an open 
archway leading into a kitchen that was nothing but blackness beyond the 
doorway.  I could see the open door leading into a small vestibule.  There 
was a half opened door there that I could only assume led into the guys 
bedroom that Carl had described.  I heard another whimper and turned to 

see Patsy Lehigh.  Her head was lifted from her pillow, arms stretched 
above her head.  Tears were in her eyes and they were wide as saucers.  
I carefully placed my finger over my lips, indicating that she should keep 
quiet.  She whimpered louder.  I glanced between the bedroom door and 
her and saw her tongue pushing at her gag, trying to pull it down.  I crept 
over to her and pulled it down.  

A deep breath followed as she sucked fresh air into her lungs.  She 
panted.  "He isn't here.  He left a couple of hours ago when he found Carl 
missing."

I nodded in relief but then thought that he could sneak up on the guys 
outside unawares.  They thought he was in here.  I said, "Just a second.  
We're going to get you out of here."

"Carl?" she asked in a pleading voice.

"He's O.K., he's on his way the hospital.  Probably there by now.  That's 
how we found you."

She nodded and her head fell back on the pillow in relief.  I poked my 
head out of the cabin.  "Scully!"  

She snapped to attention.  "What?"  

"Put the cops on alert to watch for the guy and then get in here.  He isn't 
here.  Patsy says he went after Lehigh a couple of hours ago when he 
discovered him missing."

"Christ, he probably got to our campsite when we were down below with 
Carl."


"Yeah, but then what?  Where did he go?  He had to have seen our camp 
site.  He could be watching us right now!"

She nodded and trotted to the edge of the porch, hastily telling the guys 
to find some cover in the edge of the woods and hide and keep their eyes 
open.  If he appeared, she instructed them to shoot to disarm him only 

and shout for help.  They all nodded sagely and fanned out back into the 
tree line.  Scully practically ran into the cabin, dragging the knapsack 
behind her.  We both went to work untying them.  Caroline and Keith were 
both unconscious, but with relief I found a pulse on both of them.

"Scully, they're both alive!  They're out cold, but they're alive!"  I was 
panting with the adrenaline rush that was only now starting to wear off. 

She tended to Patsy first.  I rubbed her wrists and ankles to get the 
circulation going again as Scully pulled open her ripped shirt and went to 
work on her lacerations.  When she was through, she pulled out one of 
my shirts and helped Patsy button it up.  Patsy's hands were too shaky to 
deal with the buttons.  She sobbed in relief.  It was cold in here despite 
the fire, which was now sputtering with the last of the flames that would 
soon be nothing but embers.  Being tied down and laying still couldn't 
have helped either.  All they had were thread bare blankets over them, 
one each.  Patsy sat and watched with open curiosity as Scully went to 
work on the others.  I helped the best I could by handing her whatever 
she asked for.  I looked at Patsy and caught her serious glance.  I 
realized we hadn't even introduced ourselves.  We were so caught up in 
what we were doing.

"We're Agents Mulder and Scully with the FBI."  Her eyes got a little 
rounder at that statement.  "There are also six other local cops outside 
watching for this guy.  We will get you out of here as soon as possible but 
we need to patch you up first."

She nodded and then I barely heard her breathy, "Thank you.  Thank 
you."  I nodded.  I saw her shivering and made my way over to the 
fireplace and threw on a couple of logs, stirring up the flames.  I took the 
one chair in the place and put it in front of the fire.  I returned to her and 
gingerly helped her to her feet.  She swayed.  Scully turned just in time to 
see me sweep the woman up in my arms and cross the room to place her 
gently in the chair in front of fire.  It was then I saw the most curious thing.  
On the table was a dog eared copy of the bible.

I realized suddenly how carrying Patsy must have looked and my head 
shot up to find Scully gazing at me.  My fears were blasted away as I saw 
the tenderness and love shining in her eyes.  She was pleased with me 
and I felt a warmth spread through my chest just because of that 
knowledge.  Scully was pleased with me.  I think I was going to spend the 
rest of my days trying to please Scully.  The feeling it gave me compared 
to none other.  I retraced my steps to her, smiling a little coyly and took up 
helping her to patch the other two up.  I gently lifted them while she 
placed the extra shirts on them and then carefully laid them back down.  
Now, how the hell to get out of here?

The thought no sooner completed, when I heard a gun shot.  Scully and I 
were on our feet in seconds and headed for the door.  Patsy let out a wail 
of fright.  I turned to her quickly, nearly shouting.  "It's all right.  Just don't 
move."  Like she would, anyway! 

Then we exited the door, weapons drawn again.  The sight we beheld 
was like something out of a movie.  A giant of a man was in the center of 
the clearing surrounded by the cops, all bearing their weapons down on 
him.  He held a gigantic bow and arrow and circled cautiously pointing it 
at each of them in turn.  Every few seconds, he would let out a bellow of 
rage, but he said no words.  He was without a doubt, the biggest man I 
had ever seen.  I thought Carl's estimation of six foot six was probably 
conservative.  His shoulders were easily twice the width of my body.  He 
wore shapeless overalls so it was impossible to tell how muscular he was, 
but judging by his arms, he wasn't a bowl of Jell-O.  His hair was a mass 
of wild tangled curls that stuck out all over his head.  His beard was like a 
lawn on his face, reaching to the center of his cheekbones.  Beady little 
eyes were set way too close together.   

We made our way down the stairs.  I shouted, "We're FBI, you've got no 
chance!  Put down your weapon."  I had no doubt that we could kill him if 
we needed to.  I also had no doubt that he could easily take one of us 
with him if he fired that bow.  I suspected he was an expert with it.  Then 
Scully said, "Mulder, he may not know what the FBI is."

I shouted again.  "Look man, we are all police here and we are all armed, 
now put down your weapon down slowly and no one will hurt you."

I had a really bad feeling about this.  This man was like a wild animal and 
he was not going to give up without a fight.  He let out a bellow and 
charged toward Scully and I, pointing his arrow at me as he ran.  I dove to 
the side.  Scully jumped out of his path and then fired.  Being an 
incredible crack shot, she hit him directly in his rotator cuff even though 
she was in motion when she did it.  He dropped the bow and arrow and 
screamed in pain as he dropped to his knees, holding his shoulder.  I 
pulled my cuffs off my belt and advanced on him, circling to the back.  
Scully's voice was concerned but level and calm.  "Mulder, remember he 
may have knives."  

"O.K." I acknowledged her to let her know I heard her.  We were too far 
apart to read each other's faces at this point.  The man swiveled his head 
like a top trying to locate all of us.  I announced my approach.  "Now 
Mister, I'm going to put these hand cuffs on you and if you come with us 
nicely, nobody gets more hurt.  My partner over there is real good with 
that gun.  Now we don't want to hurt you any more, but you have to 
cooperate with us."  I paused.  "Do you understand me sir?"

He twisted around on his knees, still holding his shoulder, to face me.  His 
voice was gravely and uneven from little use.  "The Lord will make you 
pay for damaging one of his angels, mister."

"Yeah, well, where I come from, angels don't kidnap and rape women, 
buddy.  So forgive me if I'm not that concerned about God's judgment of 
me at the moment.  You might want to look to yourself."

"I was saving those women!  Teaching them the error of their ways.  
Wanton hussies the both of them.  Calling out shamelessly while those 
men took them in their tents!  Enjoying it!  Women was made to be silent!"

Scully apparently couldn't resist a comment at this point.  "Not in this 
century, buddy, and apparently, you've been out of touch for quite some 
time."

He swiveled his body around again to look at Scully.  With his back to me, 
I rushed him again, grabbing his elbows and yanking them backwards.  
He howled and swung his left arm back.  That swing was all it took to 
dislodge me and toss me backwards onto my ass.  He was unnaturally 
strong.  I was embarrassed but getting pissed off at this point too.

I looked at the cops.  "A little help here wouldn't be amiss, guys!  Two of 
the cops advanced, holstering their weapons.  They each grabbed an arm 
as he surged to his feet.  They both lost their balance but held on to each 
arm with both hands, floundering like rag dols.  Finally, the three of us 
wrestled him to the ground again and I finally got the cuffs on him.  
"Flashlight!" I shouted.  

Wasley came over with his flashlight.  I rolled the guy onto his back, not 
caring that his hands were crushed beneath his back and his shoulder 
was bleeding profusely.  I looked at him as he approached.  "Shine that 
on him so I can search him."

I glanced at Scully and the other cops who were still training their 
weapons on him.  Scully holstered her weapon and said, "I'm going to get 
a pressure bandage for that shoulder.  Let's not have him bleed out."  
Who cares? I thought.  But I kept it to myself.  The others put their 
weapons up and advanced, ready to hold him down if he struggled.  As I 
leaned in to start checking his pockets, his knee came up and caught me 
in the ribs, right on my bruise.  I let out a shout of pain and fell backwards.  
Scully ran across the lawn to me and dropped to her knees at my side.  I 
was holding my ribs again.  "Shit!" I shouted.

"What happened?"

"He kneed me in the ribs."

"Oh God, Mulder I'm sorry."

"Hit me right on my bruise," I panted.  "Shit, this hurts."

"Did they break?"

"My ribs?  No, I don't think so, it just hurts like hell."

Seavers looked at me.  "Your ribs are already bruised?"

"Yeah."  Scully looked so guilty at that moment.  They didn't need to know 
why.  "Occupational hazard."  He nodded and Scully smiled a sad smile in 
thanks to me.  

One cop took each leg and Scully knelt at his head and applied a 
bandage while I carefully searched his pockets.  He growled incessantly 
but was surprisingly still.  I turned up two switch blades, wondering where 
he got them and a rusty hunting knife and an ice pick, along with some 
fish hooks.   When I was sure he was divested of all his potential 
weapons, I backed away from him and stood holding my aching ribs 
again.  Scully hand landed on my arm and she whispered, "I'm so sorry, 
Mulder."  

I smiled down at her.  "Don't worry about it, it's over."  She nodded.  

I spoke up again.  "Now we need to get these folks out of here.  All of 
them are going to need a hospital, especially the Putnams, they are on 
borrowed time."

Wasley trotted away and retrieved his walkie talkie.  He tried to raise 
someone on the radio but didn't have any luck.  Scully retrieved the 
backpack and pulled out my cell phone.  I didn't even know that she had 
taken it.  Bless her, she thought of everything.  Must have stuck it in there 
when I wasn't looking.

She hit the talk button and smiled as she got a dial tone.  "We have 
signal!" she chortled gleefully.  Everyone chuckled at her enthusiasm.  
"There's something to be said for modern technology," she added as she 
dialed 911.

It was only thirty minutes later when a Life Star helicopter landed in the 
clearing in front of the cabin.  Two flight nurses hopped out and we 
helped them load all three patients into the chopper.  I was impressed by 
the pilot's fancy maneuvering in lowering this gigantic bird into this small 
clearing and told him so.  He smiled and nodded at me, acknowledging 
the compliment.  One of the cops tapped me on the shoulder and I turned 
to him.  He shouted, "Round here we try to hire all ex-Vietnam pilots for 
these things.  They are the best.  Can't nobody slide these birds into tight 
spots like those guys can."

I nodded.  It was hard to shout over the sound of the blades.  We all 
backed off as the chopper took off and headed for New Milford Hospital 
with its charges.  Minutes later, a police chopper out of Hartford landed 
and loaded up our suspect.  We still didn't know his name and he wasn't 
talking, despite our efforts to get a name and history out of him.  We 
combed the cabin and turned up a bunch of odd weapons that were all 
hand crafted.  Harpoons, spears, and hand made arrows.  We bagged it 
all up with the supplies the police chopper provided us and sent them on 
their way.  The cops all went with them to get a ride down the mountain.  

We declined, saying that all our camping gear had to be retrieved.  We 
decided to spend the remainder of the night in the cabin, rather than hike 
back down in the dark.  We found a couple of thin but clean blankets in a 
closet and crawled into the guys bed.  He actually had cotton sheets and 
clean bed pillow on it.  We were slightly amazed at that.  It was now six in 
the morning and the sky was beginning to lighten, but we needed some 
sleep.  We'd been up over 24 hours now and had hiked our asses off up 
and down this mountain.  We snuggled up and fell into a deep slumber.  

We woke up six hours later and packed up our supplies in the backpack 
and hiked back down to our campsite.  I was almost sad to pack it up.  
Being out here alone with Scully had been nice in some ways.  We finally 
finished stowing everything back in the backpacks.  We never did figure 
out the mystery of the sound barrier.  I tested it out again as she watched 
and it was still there.  "So what do you think, Scully?"

"I don't know Mulder, but I'd be curious to have some scientists come up 
here and check it out."

"Are you that interested?"

"No.  I'm intrigued but right now all I can think of is sleeping in my own 
bed.  I want to go home."

"We have to fill out reports for the cops before we leave."

"Yeah, I know.  They can handle the victims statements and the 
prosecution of the perp.  I'm not sad to hand this one over."

"Me neither.  But I will always remember this case."

"Why?"

"Because it's the first and second times I got to wake up next to you."


She smiled that sultry, predatory smile that I'd only seen once before and 
sidled up to me, wrapping her arms around me.  "I never took you for 
such a romantic, Mulder.  You say the sweetest things."

"Only the truth, Scully."

"Always looking for the truth, that's my man!"

I chuckled.  "I like the sound of that, Scully.  My man!"

She smiled and kissed me.  "Let's get out of here."

PART 5 (NC-17)
DANA SCULLY'S APARTMENT
LATER THAT SAME NIGHT

We were curled up on the couch, watching the flames dance in the 
fireplace.  Mulder had his feet up on my coffee table and I was trying to 
become part of his side.  We were finally home and I was still tired, but 
restless just the same.

I stood up and held out my hand to him.  He took it without question, 
standing and letting me lead him into the bedroom.  He'd only been in 
here a couple of times and then he'd been sick or injured.

We didn't speak.  We didn't need too.  I took one look at him and he knew 
what I wanted.  I wanted to make love again, but this time in my own bed.  
We shucked off our clothes and climbed into bed.  We spent long minutes 
caressing and exploring each other's bodies.  We were both sleepy but it 
just made our movements languid and slow.  His hands trailed over my 
body.  I felt like I was being worshipped.  My arousal climbed slowly but 
steadily until my sex was throbbing with the need to be filled again.  

I rolled him onto his back, careful not to hit his bruised ribs.  I had insisted 
he get an X-ray when we got back to New Milford and he had relented.  I 
know he just wanted to shut me up, but that was O.K.  I breathed a sigh 
of relief when there was nothing broken.  We'd packed up and caught the 
next flight out of Bradley Airport in Windsor, arriving back in D.C. in time 
for supper.  We'd order take out Tai and eaten from containers on the 
couch, content to be relaxing in each others company.  Neither of us had 
spoken much as though we didn't want to break the spell that had sprung 
up around us in the last forty-eight hours.

I raised myself up and grasped him in my hand.  He moaned lightly and 
met my eyes.  I murmured, "Do you have any idea how sexy you are?"

He smiled a lazy smile, full of teeth and I felt my heart flop over in my 
chest.  He murmured back, "I'm glad you think so, that's all that matters to 
me."

I asked my new favorite question.  "What do you want, Mulder?"

Without hesitation he said, "To be buried inside you, just like this so I can 
see your face."  I slowly lowered myself onto his shaft, savoring the 
feeling of him pressing me open slowly.  It was exquisite.  Mulder has a 
big dick, did I mention that before?.  That sounds crude but he does and 
it's beautiful and it felt so damn good sliding down on top of it.  On top like 
this, he could penetrate so deeply.  We both groaned when he was 
embedded fully inside me.  His hands raised from my hips to cause 
exquisite torture to my breasts, squeezing and pinching my nipples and 
kneading my flesh.  I began to ride him slowly, swiveling my hips as I 
landed.  

Again, we could have had a moaning contest.  I surprised myself with the 
sounds that were flowing so freely out of my mouth.  I'd always held it in 
but I couldn't with Mulder.   There was nothing more arousing to me than 
to watch his face and see what I was doing to him.  He was gasping and 
moaning his pleasure and it made me shiver and my arousal soar to an 
almost unbearable height.  I loved pleasing him, driving him crazy.  It was 
a powerful feeling.  I could do this to this incredibly sexual creature.  It 
amazed me.  I began to slide faster and harder on him, out of my mind 
with pleasure.

I stopped lifting and just started rocking on him, my hands braced on his 
shoulders, his hands on my chest.  We stared into each others eyes.  I 
was almost there.  I sat up and put my hands behind me, now bracing on 
myself on his legs.  He immediately began stroking my clitoris with his 
thumb, firmly and in time with my rocking.  I shouted as my orgasm 
overtook me, reaching down to fondle his sac.  He came with me this time 
and shouted my name as he came. I don't think there will ever be a sound 
as rapturous as Mulder calling my name as his hot seed pores into me.

I leaned over his chest and gently lowered myself, ever conscious of his 
battered ribs.  When our breathing returned to normal, I slid off and he 
spooned up behind me.  I sighed a heavy sigh, the kind of sigh that only 
comes from complete sexual satisfaction.  We still hadn't spoken a word.  
He placed little butterfly kisses on my neck and I shivered, feeling my 
eyelids droop towards much needed sleep.  The last thing I remember 
before dropping into dreamland was his low whispered voice in my ear.  "I 
love you so much, Scully."


I think I tried to mutter back, "Lufff ooo too, Mul..ler."  I heard him chuckle.  
I'm not completely sure but I think he muttered, "Sweet dreams, love." 
Then I knew nothing for the next eight hours.

THE END.

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