From: shawntaw@hotmail.com Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2001 05:15:35 -0000 Subject: xfc: Safe Harbor V by shawntaw Source: xfc Title: Safe Harbor V Author: shawntaw Category: MSR, Mulder/Scully/Skinner friendship, X-file Rating: PG Disclaimer: If I think one of my multiple personalities is Chris Carter, does that mean I own them? No? Oh, well, I guess they're not mine then. *L* (Just kidding. Not about not owning them - about the multiple personality thing.) Ahem. ANYway... Summary: Has Mulder become the killer's next victim? ****************************************************** Scully practically ran down the hallway to her hotel room, Skinner hot on her heels. *I'm sure he just went for something to eat. That's why he didn't answer his room phone. And he probably turned off his cellphone.* She listed reasons in her head for Mulder's silence. But she couldn't shake the picture of him collapsed on the floor having some sort of 'episode' triggered by this case. *Its never happened when he's not sleeping. Its never happened during the day. But what if it has and I'm not there?* She keyed into her room as Skinner practically breathed down her neck. The two of them plummeted into the hotel room and ran for the connecting door. Scully flung it open so hard that it bounced off of the wall. "MULDER!" Mulder stood in absolute stunned silence, obviously fresh from the shower, nude, and drying his hair with a towel. His eyes were round, hazel discs. "Scully?!" She spun around immediately, colliding with Skinner's chest. Mulder wrapped the towel around his waist that he'd been using to dry his hair. "Would somebody tell me what the hell is going on?" ******************************************************** Things were calming down. Skinner regarded the two embarassed agents and tried not to smile with amusement. Mulder sat in sweatpants with his damp hair combed straight back. His arms were crossed across his chest as he listened to Scully tell him of she and Skinner's finding this afternoon. He didn't meet her eyes. No one brought up the episode that had just occured. *Modus operandi with these two; selective memory* Skinner shook his head and sighed. Scully was looking at a point somewhere over Mulder's left shoulder and blushing slightly as she spoke. When she came to the part about Skinner's revelation, Mulder's eyebrow rose and he gave Skinner a congratulatory look. "Good catch, sir." "Thank you, Agent Mulder," Skinner smiled slightly. Mulder stretched and stood. He paced. "Ok, so we begin by finding out who the delivery people were for the three victims. And I say we let the locals assign someone to watch the recent customers of the vitamin company." Scully was tucking her notebook back in her coat pocket. "Well, gentlemen, I think I've had enough excitement for one evening. If you two don't mind, I'm going to return to my room and put my feet up." Skinner stood and he and Mulder bid her goodnight. Skinner wondered if Mulder also noticed the small tremor in her voice as she said goodnight and left the room. ***************************************************** He rolled his shoulders as he shut the door behind him and entered his room. It had been another long day. He half-jokingly wondered if his heart could take the amount of adrenaline that had rushed through his bloodstream today. Skinner paused and placed a hand over his heart. Thumpthump...thumpthump...thumpthump..seemed o.k... *Now that I'm fifty, I'm getting paranoid* He knew there wasn't a thing wrong with his heart. *You just had a physical. Stop being stupid, Walter.* Skinner tossed his jacket and gun on the chair and reached up to loosen his tye. He leaned over to click on the television. *I need something to take my mind off the case for a while* A football game caught his eye and, kicking off his shoes, he sat on the bed and leaned up against the headboard to watch. ****************************************************** Someone was trying to sell him a waffle iron. They were not going to leave him alone until he bought a waffle iron. "No thank you," he muttered, opening his eyes. Skinner realized that he had fallen asleep and that an infomercial was playing on the T.V. He used the remote to turn it off, took off his glasses and put them on the nightstand, and rolled over, drifting back to sleep. ***************************************************** Sharon lay next to him in the darkness. He could feel her warmth from where he slumbered. He breathed deeply in contentment. *I haven't had this dream in ages* He seemed to be floating, half-asleep. Skinner opened one eye and then both when he realized that a blurry form was sitting on the edge of his bed, watching him sleep. *I didn't lock the door?!* Shocked at his lapse in judgement, he moved quickly to reach for his glasses, but they were handed to him instead. The form was Scully. ***************************************************** "I didn't know whether to bother you or not, sir," she sat hesitantly in her robe on the edge of his bed. "Its Mulder. He-he's worrying me." Skinner reached over and turned on the lamp. He sat up. "How so?" She ran a hand through her already unruly hair. "He's pacing...mumbling. Keeps going on and on about the case. When I try to talk to him, he says the motive is driving him crazy, but that he's close. He tells me to leave him alone. He's acting...strange. Stranger than usual." She shook her head and sighed, "I know it doesn't sound like much, but-" Skinner was already out of bed and putting his shoes back on. "Not at all, Scully. Give me a minute and I'll go with you." She nodded, miserably, and waited. ****************************************************** Mulder was gone. Scully and Skinner had returned to find him gone. No note was apparent. He didn't take his shoes or running clothes. Half-eaten room service food lay still warm on his plate. Scully stood speechless. She pictured Mulder, in nothing but sweatpants, wandering the streets of Burton and mumbling to himself. *Was he sleep-walking? Did he finally go over the edge?* "No.." she heard herself say pleadingly. Skinner put an arm around her shoulder. "Let's not assume anything, Agent Scully. That's what got us worried last time. Could he have gone to the soda or ice machine?" Scully tried to think analytically. She looked around. "I don't think so. Here's tea here with his food and the ice bucket is still here." Skinner and Scully spent the next several minutes disproving the possibilities until there was only one conclusion left. Mulder was gone. ************************************************** The killer led Mulder's stumbling form to the pickup truck. "Get in." Mulder got in and sat in the back. "Lay down so no one can see you." Mulder obliged. The killer covered him entirely over with a blanket and got into the driver's seat. *Another sacrifice. One less. One more year over.* ******************************************************* The hotel room was declared a crime scene thanks to Skinner's intervention. The place swarmed with F.B.I agents. Taking samples. Taking fingerprints. Making notes. Interviewing Skinner and Scully. Skinner's face twitched slightly with guilt as he watched the fingerprinting crew. He hoped they hadn't destroyed any evidence before they realized that their current case was involved. He looked over at Scully where she was being interviewed. She was the consumate professional. Face calm. Voice even. But Skinner knew by the set of her lips and the clench of her fist that she was worried sick. ***************************************************** He and Scully had tried first to report Mulder missing to the local authorities. They were told that a grown man is not missing just because he can't be found for a couple of hours. The two were back at Mulder's hotel room, looking for clues to his whereabouts when Scully had a Mulder-like leap of inspiration. She was leaning over the chair where he had sat when she left him to get Skinner. Scully remembered Mulder dropping into the chair after pacing for five minutes straight. In her mind's eye, she saw him mumbling to himself. Taking a bite of his burger. Sipping his tea. She saw herself tell him that if he wouldn't listen to her and get some rest, she was going to get Skinner. She saw herself leave and tried to imagine what Mulder did next. Scully's eyes fell on the notebook of scribbles beside Mulder's plate. She tried to read his seemingly disconnected written ramblings and was about to give up when she drew a sharp breath. She could swear she she heard an audible click as part of the puzzle fell into place. "The killer," she had said, spinning to speak to Skinner across the room. He was looking through Mulder's suitcase again, making sure nothing was missing. "What?" He had stood up from where he stooped on the floor by the suitcase. "The killer has Mulder. The killer targets young, athletic males. October 20th is only a few days away. Mulder went out running tonight, somehow the killer saw him, he fits the profile, and now he's gone." Scully went pale as she felt the truth of her words. "The killer has Mulder, sir, I just know it." ******************************************************** MORE ON THE WAY.....