Hi People! Another from me. It's not as good as most, but you'll live after you read it, atleast I hope you will. Well, a small warning, there are bad words near the end. Completed 4/10/96. The X-Files and it's characters are the property of Chris Carter, 1013 Productions and FOX. Have fun. :) ********** Sins of the Father by Mystic Nalvarez@delphi.com ********** Baltimore Women's Penitentiary December 8 9:16 PM Lori Walker stepped into the shower stalls with all the other women feeling alone and afraid. She'd only been in the facility three weeks and the other women had made it clear that they didn't like her there. She had been committed to twenty-five years because she killed a man. It wasn't really her fault though, it was self defense. Two men had kidnapped her from a shopping mall as she was opening her car door two months ago, took her to a motel room and took turns repeatedly raping her. Small technicalities landed her in jail and the second man was never found. She showered in silence as the rest of the women shouted profanity and threw towels and soap. A guard yelled at them and they stopped. A hand reached out and grabbed her leg. She fell hard onto the tiled floor. The other women laughed at her squirming on the slippery floor. The second guard helped her up as the other guard ordered them all out. "Walker, remain in the stalls for three more minutes. Finish your shower and I'll be back to get you." The first guard yelled. Lori stood and felt weak. She was naked and dripping with water. She grabbed soap and began to bathe again. The lights flickered. Lori was reminded of the lightning that had struck constantly as they raped her. She could still, after two months, remember the pain that she had felt that weekend. She was supposed to visit her best friend who lived only three miles from the mall. But she stopped to buy a present. Lori shivered under the cool water. She heard footsteps grow faint and then stop. 'Was the guard back to get me so soon? It hasn't been three minutes.' She thought to herself. She looked around for the guard, but failed to see one. She could hear the person's breath and she could feel her heart pounding in her chest. The lights turned off and she gasped loudly. Suddenly she felt a sharp pang of pain in her belly. She felt warm fluid, not water, flow down from the wound and screamed once before she felt the cold steel slice her throat. ********** December 14 8:25 AM Mulder lifted the bright yellow police line for Scully and then himself passed under it. They walked, together, to the body in the shower of the facility. Scully picked up the black sheet that had been placed over the body. She looked at the dead woman. Scully easily concluded cause of death to be blood loss from a slit jugular. Mulder was handed the personal file on Lori J. Walker. He skimmed the file as Scully stood up next to him. "So Mulder, why are we here. She was obviously murdered." "But by whom?" "Fellow inmate." "Why?" "Jealous." "Of what?" "Anything." "But why?" "Mulder." She crossed her arms over her chest and gave him the Look. There wasn't anything paranormal about this case. But then again, if Fox Mulder took it there would have to be. "The guard says she cleared this stall of all inmates except for Lori, who had been tripped. She heard a scream, entered and found Lori bleeding on the floor." "Paramedics?" "Were called, but she'd already died. No specific point of entry, but there was a smear of blood near the back door." "And?" "Doors have locks that need keys." "So?" "Whoever it was works here, had access to the keys." "A disgruntled janitor?" "Highly unlikely." "A guard?" "A possibility." "But..." She trailed, letting him finish. "I don't think so." "You think..." She trailed again. "Yes, I do, a lot." She smirked, "*What* do you think?" "About this?" "*Yes*!" "I don't know." "Mulder!" She was getting angry. "I have a profile on a serial killer and Lori here fits the credentials for him." "Naked in the shower?" She asked raising both eyebrows. "Raped and pregnant." "What?" Her eyes widened. He handed her the profile and she confirmed what he had found. "She was kidnapped and raped by two men, but she killed one of them and ended up in jail." "Our legal system..." "Sucks." "...messed up." She gave him another Look. "So Mulder, care to explain to me why I wasn't told about your *profile* on the killer and how this fits an X-File?" He winced and then sheepishly smiled at her. ********** FBI building December 14 11:13 AM Scully took her seat in the office, which at the moment did have a working AC, like an obedient child. She waited for Mulder to turn off the lights. When he did she waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. Slides. She sometimes hated it when he brought out that machine because she always knew that what she was about to see was gruesome. And even though she wasn't actually at the crime scene, it still hit her the same, only it was easier to compose herself without the smell. The first slide showed a woman behind a dumpster. A hole in her stomach, presumable done with a kitchen knife, and her throat slit. Mulder clicked the projector a couple of times, one slide every ten seconds or so, letting Scully take in everything she needed to see. "Twenty five murders, all over the country in the past two years. All of them women between the ages of nineteen and forty eight." "Anything to tie them together?" "Different racial, ethnical and religious backgrounds, living in different classes of society. The only thing that ties them together is the fact that they had all been raped and impregnated by the raper within two months prior to their death." "How do you think the killer finds out?" "My best guess right now is he hears about them on the radio, or sees in on the local news station." "So, we have no idea who the killer might be, or who the next victim might be." "Well, we know the next victim has been raped and is pregnant." He paused. "I believe the killer to be a male, between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five, extremely angry over something. Maybe sexually assaulted as a child by his mother?" "This is your wonderful profile?" "Well, at least I made the connection." "Why are we going to investigate this anyway? What does it have that turned on the 'X-File' light in your head, I mean it hasn't anything to do with paranormal phenomena." "It's this guys motive that set off that light, Scully. I don't know what it is. I can't figure out why he would want to go out and kill people who are innocent." "Mulder, for the same reason anyone kills anyone that's innocent, they're crazy." "Yeah, but this guy takes his time, he has to. He finds out that they've been raped, then he waits to see if they're pregnant. After he finds that out he has to find a way to kill them." "Mulder, a lot of killers stake out their prey in the weeks before they actually murder them." "Yeah, but this guy stabs the women in the belly, to kill the child, and he's good at it, always breaking the uterus. Then, as if to make sure that the baby doesn't have a chance in hell, he kills the mother." "So is it safe to assume he has some medical experience? Maybe he used to be a med student, or he's worked in OBGYN?" "Maybe, or maybe he got good mileage on his library card." Mulder looked back up at the slides. "We just have to find the names of women who have been raped in the last two months." Scully looked at the floor, downhearted. "That may be a long list, Mulder." "Thank God he has a pattern?" "Pattern?" "Yes." "What is it?" "I'll show you." "Why *didn't* you show me." "You didn't ask." "What is it?" "A cross." "A cross?" "Yes, he started in Sacramento, California. He went across the U.S. and stopped in Huntsville, Missouri. Then he went down to Houma, Louisiana, back all the way up to Crane Lake, Minnesota and for the last month or so he's been making his way to his final destination, Baltimore, Maryland." "So it has religious significance?" "Yes." "How?" "If I knew, I'd have told you." "Now that we've narrowed down the field, let's get working on that list." ********** December 15 1:52 PM The classroom was abuzz with noise, only a few more months and graduation was finally here. It was a Monday, a typical Monday, no one wanted to work and none of the teachers wanted to give out work. Everyone played card games, talked and wrote the weeks homework on the board, which was partially covered with 'So and So wuz here'. Everyone except Megan Carter. Alone in the back of the room in a ball in the chair she watched the crowd gather around an intense round of poker. She watched them in silence. A hand touched her shoulder and she jumped. Wide-eyed with hands gripping into the chair so tightly her knuckled were white she turned to look at her teacher, Mrs. Roden. "Megan, can I have a word with you?" There was a moment's pause and then only a nod. Mrs. Roden led her to the hallway and closed the door to the classroom. Megan looked nervously around for any signs of anyone in the hall. She knew what the woman was going to tell her and she knew how to answer, what she didn't know was why she had to lie. She had been lying to everyone, including herself, these last two and a half months. "Megan, since the, uh, incident, you've seemed detached. I was wondering, are you alright?" "Mrs. Roden, I'm fine, I just, I'm tired that's all." The teacher looked down at her student. The once happy and alive teenager was gone, replaced by a shell of what once was. Big blue sweater over loose fitting blue jeans. Her face had lost all color, as her eyes lost all excitement. "Megan, would you run an errand for me?" "Sure." She shoved a hand through her disheveled hair. Mrs. Roden handed her a small stack of papers and a yellow hall pass. "Room 273, just give it to Mr. Amage, he'll know what it is." "Ok." She took the papers and began to walk to the classroom. It was across the school. As every doorway and hallway passed she edged away from it humming songs she had heard on the radio. It was the only thing she could do to keep her mind away from the dangers. Her heart jumped into her throat as a student ran out of a bathroom. She had the odd feeling she was being watched. Turning she saw no one then she banged right into someone and jumped. It was a janitor. "Sorry kid, you ok?" It was a middle aged man wearing the blue outfit all janitors wore. He was dirty from cleaning and Megan moved away from the hand that was helping her up. "Yeah, fine, I'm sorry." Megan left him standing there and practically ran to room 273. She gave the papers to Mr. Amage and then ran back to class. As soon as she stepped in the door the room spun around her. She began to make her way to the front of the class and passed out in the aisle. ********** She hadn't seen him, or she hadn't recognized him, either way his cover wasn't blown. She hadn't changed much since that night, still scared and wandering. Shaving his beard and mustache served it's purpose, she had bumped right into him. He closed the door to the psychologists file room. Every interview with every student was at his fingertips, but all he wanted was Megan Carter's. He needed it because of Him. He needed to see if he needed to correct any problems He made. He walked away. ********** Baltimore High School December 15 3:17 PM Mulder walked into the school tired. Scully had been right, the list of raped women in the last two months hit the floor and ran fifteen feet away from the printer. The list had been shortened by reducing it to only women in Baltimore. From there it couldn't be made any shorter because it was almost impossible to know which ones were pregnant. They called as many of the women on the list as they could that morning and the night before. One of the women on that list was a seventeen year old who's phone number and address were unlisted. The only thing he was able to get was the address for the school she attended. It was a clean school, which seemed abnormal to Mulder, an X-file in itself, he thought as he entered the office. He flashed his badge to the woman at the front desk. "Is there something wrong, officer?" She asked staring at the badge in shock. "I'm not a cop, call me Mulder." He smiled briefly. "I need to speak with a student, Megan Carter." Her eyes opened wide and her chin dropped, "Megan? Has she done something wrong?" "No, I just have to ask her a few questions. Can you pull her out of class right now, it's imperative that I speak with her." "I don't have to, she's in the clinic right now." "Clinic?" "Yeah, she passed out in her class." "What happened?" "Fatigue." "Because of..." "Nightmares." "Of what?" "I shouldn't tell you." "I'll find out anyway." "It's a private matter." "She was raped." "How'd you know?" "I'm FBI." "Well she has nightmares." "Of the rape?" "I guess so." "So, no sleep." "And she passed out." "Do you think I could go in and talk to her now? If not, I'll need an address where she lives so I can contact her, it's important." "She lives in an orphanage, both her parents died last year. I'll go check and see if she's awake." She went to the back room and another woman walked in. She was a tall, pale woman, wearing a light brown pant suit and an odd perfume. She looked mad. "Are you ok?" Mulder asked her. She looked up at him with wide brown eyes. "I'm fine, somebody just went through my files." "And you are?" "Mrs. Elizabeth Groo, school psychiatrist, and you are?" "Special Agent Fox Mulder, FBI" "Well, agent Mulder, I have to file a report and then go back upstairs and re-file a students reports." "Megan Carter?" "How'd you know?" She looked up quickly and then mumbled something about the FBI that Mulder took to be a bad thing and she left. The front desk lady popped out and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned. "You can go in and see Megan now, but she's not feeling too well so can you make it quick?" "Sure." He walked with her to the back room where the girl was sitting, drinking water. Her face was pale and she kept brushing strands of golden brown hair behind her ears. She looked up at Mulder, who sat on the bed across from hers. Her brown eyes looked tired and scared and he wondered if he frightened her. The woman left them alone and he just looked at her until he knew she was out of earshot. "Megan?" He asked. "Yeah." She answered. "I need to ask you a few questions." "Fine." "The more truthful you answer, the better it is for you." "I wouldn't lie." "Were you raped about two months ago?" She looked at the floor before nodding her head. "Are you pregnant?" "What?!" Her head snapped up. "You heard the question Megan, now I need the answer." "Why?" She looked up at him, testing him. "There's a man who's been killing girls like yourself, who have been raped and are pregnant. If you don't give me an answer then I'll have to go away and then he'll probably kill you like he killed everyone else." "Did I tell you I wasn't?" "Aren't you?" She looked at the floor and she let her shoulders fall. "If I told you I was?" "I'd have to take you into protective custody." "You'd put me in jail?" Her eyebrows creased in confusion. "Maybe. If that's where I thought you were safest." "What if I'm not safe in jail?" "First you tell me if you're pregnant and if you are was it by the rapist and if it was, have you seen anything suspicious around here?" "I am, yes, and it depends on what you define as suspicious." "Anything new, anyone new?" "I don't really pay attention to those kinds of things." "Well, I'll take you home." ********** End Part One Mail all comments to me! considering this is a little different than my usual stuff, please send comments. Mystic Nalvarez@delphi.com Disclaimed in part one. ********** Sins of the Father [2/2] by Mystic Nalvarez@delphi.com ********** Mulder called Scully and told her to meet her at the orphanage Megan directed him to. He had never seen a seventeen year old this quiet, other than himself. She didn't speak, only coughed once, on the way. They went straight to her room and she looked around curiously. Scully stepped into the room and stood behind Mulder." "What's wrong?" She asked. Megan jumped, a little shocked at her presence, but then answered, "Something's wrong here. Things aren't where I left them, someone was here." Megan ran past them to the front desk and looked at the secretary. "Lydia, has anyone been here to see me?" "Yeah, about two hours ago, said he was your uncle Roger." "Do you have an uncle Roger?" Mulder asked. "No, I don't have any family. My parents were only children and my grandparents died a long time ago." She creased her brow, "Do you think this guy came here to kill me?" She asked Mulder. "Maybe." He pulled Scully away from Megan's earshot. "Has protective custody been set up?" "They say there's no room anywhere. Until we find this guy, or they make room, she has to stay with us, Mulder." "Do we have a motel?" "We have two rooms at a hotel. I reserved them when we got into town." "Good, you take first watch." He turned to Megan, "Agent Scully's gonna take you to a motel and she's going to watch you while I try to find this guy, ok?" "Can I pack some stuff?" She was sad that Mulder had to leave. "Sure." They waited while she packed a few small things and an extra shirt into her backpack and then she left with Scully. Mulder got a squad of local cops to check the room for any prints or evidence, but nothing was found. ********** On the way to the motel Scully could see the look of discomfort on Megan's face. She asked, "You ok?" "Yeah." She answered biting her cheek. "What's wrong?" "Nothing." "Don't lie." "I'm not." "Hungry?" "Yeah." "Is that the problem?" "Yeah." "Why didn't you just tell me, I don't bite. She paused, looking around them, "McDonalds?" "No, just stop at the diner up there." Scully pulled into a parking space and they both got out of the car. Scully found a small booth and they both ordered sandwiches and tea, and Megan had fries. Scully couldn't help but smile when she saw Megan shove a handful of fries into her mouth. "Is this for the baby, or you?" Megan smiled, for the first time in a long time, "A little of both I think." ********** Mulder walked into the room at the motel and saw Scully sitting at a table reading the profile that he had made on the killer. He looked over at the bed and saw Megan lying there asleep, under the covers, like a round little ball. She reminded him of a kitten. "Find anything?" Scully asked him. "Nothing. There was nothing in that room, except Megan's stuff. We even checked under the bed for hair and fibers and found nothing. Whoever we're looking for has done stuff like this before, he knows what he's doing." "So, I take it he didn't try to return there." "If he did, we didn't see him." He looked back at Megan. "So, was she a problem?" "No." Scully said, sounding relieved. "I took her to eat, there's a hamburger in a bag near your suitcase in the other room, we came here and she watched some TV and then she took a bath and went to bed about twenty minutes ago. Which reminds me, where have you been? It only takes an hour or two to check a room for evidence." "I went to the school again. I asked if anyone had been newly employed, they said no. I asked if they had any camera's in the school that might have caught the person going into the psychiatrists office, but because there isn't a crime problem in that school they haven't even thought of camera's." "So, we're going to have to wait until this guy just jumps through our window here?" "Maybe, but let's hope not. Skinner might wonder about getting a bill for a broken motel window." He smiled and she smiled back, quickly. ********** Baltimore High School December 16 5:12 AM Marty Scholer had been a gardener with the school since it's opening in 1978. Never had he and his beagle, Sammy, seen anything suspicious, anything out of the ordinary. The death of the woman in the penitentiary had come as a shock to him as he picked up the seven day old newspaper from the fence surrounding the newly planted trees. He read the story and the history behind it. A killer was making his way across the country, just like that rapist had a while back. Only two months and he was back in Baltimore. Sammy began to bark behind the trees. Marty pulled out his flashlight to better see, for the sun hadn't risen yet. He expected to see another dog, maybe a squirrel, or maybe even a drunken teenager with his drunken girlfriend having a good time. But he never expected what he saw. From the dirt protruded a finger. Ants crawled on and around it, biting away at the decomposing flesh exposing reddish tissues underneath. Flies buzzed around the hand in a frenzy to lay eggs. Sammy grabbed the hand into his mouth and tugged at it exposing Marty's nose to a powerful aroma that made him swagger on his feet and vomit on the floor in front of him. ********** 6:23 AM Mulder was awakened by the shrill ringing of the phone. He slapped at it before finally picking up. He suddenly wondered if Megan was alright. "Mulder." He answered into the phone looking at the clock. His face contorted and he shouted, "What?!" He waited. "Ok, we'll be there in an hour." He hung up the phone and stood. He pulled on a shirt and knocked softly on the connecting door. It took her a full four minutes and five round of knocks, but Scully came to the door. "What?" She asked wiping her tired eyes. "There's been another murder." "What!" She was awake now. "A body's been found at the school. I want to go check it out now. Stay with Megan." "Uh-Uh, no Mulder, I want to see the body. You stay with Megan." She looked in the room, hearing a door close. Megan had gone to the bathroom. "Look, get her dressed and we'll all go out to the school, but I don't want her to see the body." Scully nodded and closed the door. ********** 7:21 AM School children surrounded the site. To them this was something so out of the ordinary that they *had* to see it. Megan walked behind Mulder and Scully looking at her fellow classmates. Some of the made, 'What's going on?' gestures, to which she made a, 'How the hell should I know' gesture back. A cop held her away from the scene, royally pissing her off, but figured they thought it was for her own good, so she remained behind the cop while Mulder and Scully worked. They walked up to the body and Scully lifted the yellow sheet. Mulder shielded his nose and she did the same. He touched her shoulder and she looked up at his face, knowing that he was expecting a report. "The body's been dead a while Mulder, probably a week. But because the bugs got to it first it might be a bit hard pin- pointing an exact date." "Is he naked?" Mulder asked. Scully quickly shot a glance up at him, "What kind of a question is that?" "Is he naked?" "Well, he's in his underwear." "Do we have a positive ID on the guy." "Marty Scholer, the guy who found him, says this is Herbert Sherman, a janitor. He also says that he hasn't seen the guy in a while." "Nobody get's seen very much when they're dead, unless they're Elvis." He paused, looking around at the kids watching them. "Think we can question the guy?" "We could find out." They walked over to a cop who directed them to another cop who had Marty in his car. Marty looked at them and Scully immediately asked, "When was the last time you saw Herbert, Mr. Scholer?" "It was the ninth. He was removing litter from the fences. He always removes litter from the fences, he knows it makes my job a little easier." "Have you noticed anyone new? A new janitor specifically." Mulder asked. "Well, yeah, there was this new guy who came on. The tenth of the month. I never talked to him, but I was going to report him, he never seemed to be doing his job, always looking at the girls." "The girls?" Scully quickly interceded. "The girls in the halls. Every time I came in to get water and I saw him, he was looking at the girls, like he was trying hard to remember something, but he couldn't." "Would you say he might be trying to remember one of their faces, specifically?" Mulder asked. "You could say that." "But would you?" "Yeah." "Thank you for your time Mr. Scholer. We'll be contacting you if we need any more information." Scully told him and then handed him her card and they walked away from him. Mulder went to another cop and told him to get a portrait done of the new janitor Scholer had described. They met back up five minutes later and stood a good distance from Megan, who was already bored out of her mind sitting on the hood of a cop car. She didn't even make an attempt to see what they were doing and why they were there and Mulder was glad, this kid has had enough to worry about. "What are you thinking, Mulder?" Scully asked. "The new janitor that he was talking about, he isn't new. He probably killed Mr. Sherman and took his janitor outfit so he could find Megan in the school. I think we need to get her out of here." "Why? This guy's not gonna try anything funny with all the cops around. That would be stupid, and we know this guy isn't stupid." "Because he might just be that stupid." He gave her a 'you never know' look and shrugged. "Either way, I want the other murder sites to be searched for bodies buried in the immediate vicinity. Maybe that's this guys cover." ********** 5:58 PM Mulder sat on the phone listening to Scully give him the results of the search. It had been faxed to local authorities and Scully was there waiting for it. "Mulder, you were right. They've found sixteen bodies near sixteen different murder sites, janitors, delivery men, guards. This guy is sick. He killed all of them similar to the women, slashed their throats." "Is the portrait of the guy done?" "Yeah, I have it here. I'll bring it to you later." "Scully, could you do me a favor." "What?" "Can you search through police computers and see if there was a rapist who toured the country in about the same fashion as this killer?" "Yeah," She paused as she sat down. "You think this is the same person?" "It might be. And if it is, we might have more insight as to how this guy operates." "I'll get on it." She hung up the phone and Mulder turned to Megan who was playing solitaire on the bed next to him. She was a pretty good player. "Do you play anything else?" He asked her. "Poker. War." "Want to play? Poker." She shrugged. She picked up the cards, shuffled and dealt them. As they played in silence she grew nervous. She didn't like this much quiet. "This must have been a hell of a year for you." "It was." "How do you cope with all the stress?" "I don't." "That's going to backfire on you." "Backfire?" "You're going to end up lashing out at someone you love." "There's no one left for me to love, so I can't lash out at them. Besides, I've never been given much of a reason to lash out, no one really talks to me." "Why not? You seem like a nice girl." "I am, I just don't talk to anyone at school, why waste my time forming friendships that won't last." "How do you know they won't last?" "I just know." "But how?" "I just do." He stayed silent, he knew how she felt, he felt that way in high school. He never wanted to talk to anyone after Samantha's disappearance. It took him a while to get over it, and he knew that Megan would too. "Do you have any idea when I might be able to go back to school?" She asked. "Well, as long as this guy is out there there's a large chance he might go and get you in school. The only way I could let you go to school is if..." He trailed and looked at his cards in full thought. "What?" "I just got an idea." ********** 7:31 PM Mulder stood with Scully in the opposite room as Megan. She was glaring at him, her lips pursed, her hands on her waist. He was beginning to wonder if this was such a good idea. "You can't let her do that." Scully told him. She was trying not to yell because neither wanted Megan to hear them. "Scully, it might be the only way to catch this guy." "But we can't endanger her life like that." "We'll watch her like hawks." "Mulder..." "Scully." "No." "Have a better idea?" "Wait for him." "He's got no one else to go for. He's going to wait Megan out, he's going to somehow get to her while we're not looking. Hell, he might be in there now." Scully made a move to check the other room and stopped herself. She stared at Mulder. "If he's in there, we're going to hear her scream, the lights are on and she would see him trying to get in." "Scully, we can't watch her forever." "Fine, but if anything happens..." "Nothing will happen." ********** Baltimore High School December 17 7:15 AM Megan opened the car door and looked back at Mulder as if to ask permission. She was worried about this. They were going to use her as bait and wait for the killer to strike and then, if they were lucky, they would catch him. "If you have any trouble, just run into a classroom and use the cell phone in your backpack, which should be *on* at all times, to call us. Our numbers are on the speed-dial. We'll be watching throughout the day. Eat lunch in school today and we'll pick you up after school." He paused. "If you get too nervous, go to the principal's office, I'll be in there. Scully will be around the building, dressed as a security guard." She smiled at him and stepped out of the car. She took a deep breathe and walked to the school, to her first class. She walked into the classroom and handed her absentee pass to the teacher so she could be marked as such, and not skipping. She sat down and a few students asked her about the FBI agents she'd been hanging out with. They thought she had committed a felony or something. 'Idiots, and Mulder wonders why I don't want to make friends with them.' At lunch she ate in the cafeteria, and watched Scully watching her from the Gym, which was across the hall. She looked silly in the bright red T-shirt and blue jeans. Her hair was pulled up into a ponytail and she gave Megan a look of disgust as two male students made rude noises at her. Megan laughed and forgot about everything for half an hour. She sat alone in the cafeteria humming 'Ironic' and eating food not fit for prisoners, but it was the school 'budget' food. ********** 2:28 PM Mulder sat in the principals office bored. He hadn't heard a word from Megan, he was glad about that. Scully had told him, over her walkie-talkie, that Megan was fine, a little scared, but fine. The phone rang in the office and the principal picked it up. "It's for you, agent Mulder." He handed the phone to him. "Mulder." He said into the phone. "Agent Mulder. I'm Officer Bradley Johnson. I've got the sketch of the guy your looking for." "My partner brought it to me yesterday." "Yeah, but I'm sending it with a sketch done of one of a set of rapists, Jack and Robert Moreley, that followed the same path as this killer. I think you'll find Jack's resemblance uncanny." "What happened to his partner, his brother, Robert?" "A woman, Lori Walker, killed him. Name sound familiar to you Mulder?" Johnson said ardently "What's your theory Johnson?" Mulder mocked. "This second guy is getting revenge on all the women he raped because of his partners death." "I think it may be a little more complicated than that." He paused. "Do you have any files on this guy, Jack?" "We have everything. The guy was arrested fifteen times for disturbing the peace. He has fits because of personality disorders." "Personality disorders?" "There are interview done with a psychologist and the guy has two personalities. One is very religious, very down to earth, the other is a devil in a buttoned down suit." "I can imagine how that is." Remembering that exact quote from his report on Donnie Pfaster. "I'm getting the fax's now, I'll call back if I need anything." He hung up the phone and looked at the picture of Jack Moreley for the first time. He was an attractive man, twenty seven, brown hair, brown eyes, no distinguishing marks. Mulder heard his cell phone go off and ran to it. ********** 1:35 PM Megan entered her sixth period class breathing a sigh of relief. It was a substitute so she wouldn't have to do work, she could sleep. The lights went out for a split second and she gasped. Apparently it was raining and thundering outside. The bell rang to go home and Megan stood. A hand landed on her shoulder. It was the sub. He looked at her and smiled, it was the most evil smile she had ever seen and she wanted to run. But it was just her imagination. "Megan Carter?" He asked. "Yeah?" He looked at a folder in his hand and then back at her. "It says here you've been absent for a few days and I'm supposed to sign some kind of pass. Do you have it with you?" She watched the class exit and became increasingly nervous. She reached into her book bag, "Yeah, I have it here, wait a sec." He watched her open her bag as he pulled the knife from behind his back. With her head lowered he slammed the end on the knife on the back of her head and she fell to the floor unconscious. ********** 2:32 PM She hit the floor with a thump and a beep. He looked at her. 'Why the hell is she beeping?' he asked himself. He pulled her bookbag away from her and she moaned. He opened it and heard a mans' voice, "Megan? Megan? Are you ok? Where are you?" He grabbed the cell phone and threw it against the wall, smashing it to pieces. She had landed on all the buttons and it set the phone off. "Dammit!" He screamed. He pulled her up and her eyes opened. He heard the evacuation warning on the PA and dragged her to the emergency stairway. He heard the footsteps behind him and turned to see the woman security guard. She was gaining on him. Megan opened her eyes and looked at the roof. It was raining and it was dark. Her wet bangs in her face made it difficult to see. She heard the door slam open behind them. The substitute whipped her around, placed a knife to her throat with his right hand and held her in place by sliding a hand across her chest and gripping her right shoulder. Mulder ran through the open door behind Scully and looked at the man. It was exactly like the picture. The picture of the janitor and the picture of the rapist. Jack Moreley. He could only hope the religious personality took over. "FBI, Drop Your Knife And Let Her Go!" Scully screamed. Rain spewed from her lips. They stared at him and he laughed wildly. "I'm going to just 'let her go'?! After the hell I've gone through to get to her." "What do you want with her Jack?" Mulder asked. Scully turned to him quickly with the mention of the name. "I have to kill the baby! It is the deed of the devil, the seed of sin and it must be eradicated!" Mulder looked at the man in shock, this was the religious personality. Before he could say another word the man began to shake. Megan whimpered as the knife scratched at her throat. There were unshed tears pooling in her brown eyes. "Hey babe." Jack whispered in her ear. Her eyes widened and she looked as if she were going to scream. This was the voice she remembered from that night, that deep, perverted throaty voice that made her skin crawl. "Jack, let her go!" Mulder yelled. "Jack? Who the fuck is Jack? You're talking to Jake now. Jack is resting, he couldn't handle the pressure, he never could, he such a fuckin' wimp. I've been kind to little ol' Jack, I helped him muster up the courage to kill these bitches, and their little babies." "Jake, she hasn't done anything to you, let her go." Mulder told him calmly. "Little Megan. My little bitch. She was so scared that night." He licked her face and she only held her breath. "I wished that I could have done more, but Robert decided that it was enough." He paused and traced the curve of her chin with the knife. "She was a little girl, so much younger than all the others." He bit her ear lightly and she grew stiff. "Are we going to play this again Meg? Stiffen up, get tight, I can break you easily." Scully looked to Mulder and saw worry in this normally calm man. He didn't even look at her. He kept his eyes on Megan's who were trained on his. She was asking for help with her innocent eyes. He was telling her he was sorry with his. "What's wrong you little shit?" Jake asked Megan. He shoved his body as close as he could to her. He reached for the zipper of her pants, kept the other hand with the knife at her throat and smiled at Mulder. He knew this man was hating this. "What's wrong man? Never seen a grown man have sex with a minor before?" He laughed and began pulling at her pants. Mulder's eyes narrowed and Scully took a step back, beside him. She knew he was pissed and she knew that he would now risk Megan's life to save it. Megan sobbed once, loudly and Jake whipped both arms in the air and screamed, "What's wrong bi.." and fell dead to the floor with a hole in his head from the two bullets that pierced the same spot. Megan shrieked at the sound of the gunfire. She saw him fall and ran into Mulder's chest. He hugged her tightly as she cried. Scully put a hand on her shoulder and told her that everything would be alright as the sound of sirens filled the air. ********** Journal 12/25/96 It's been a few days and Megan is doing a lot better. She's on vacation from school and has spent every day since the incident in a police station with me and Scully giving statements for the police. Today was her last day giving them and she was very happy as we left the station yesterday. We took her out to dinner today, a Christmas dinner. She said it was the first real great day she'd had in a year and I'm glad that I could help give her that. She joked about naming her baby after me. Got a good laugh out of Scully. But in all seriousness she says that she doesn't know what she's going to do with the baby. Scully's given her her options and she says that putting it up for adoption seems the most plausible for her situation since she doesn't have anyone to help her. Jack/Jake had been wanted for all the rapes and murders and his sentence would have been death. This is one of the few X-Files that went down solved. It wasn't really that much of an X-File in the end, but it was a case in which the intended victim did not die and justice was served, even if it wasn't the was a judge would like it. I'm starting to think that it would be ok to look into more cases that have almost nothing to do with the paranormal, if only to help people like Megan. Fox Mulder ********** End. I hate that journal entry, but it's his journal, it's not supposed to be too technical, right? Well, please tell me what you think, I love hearing what you think, even if it's pointing out bad things. (That actually helps if there are any holes and loose ends.) Well, I hope you liked it. Mystic