From: Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2000 16:22:51 -0400 Subject: Time X by Garth Cameron Graham Source: direct Title: Time X Author: Garth Cameron Graham Rating: PG Category: XR (X-File/Romance) Feedback: Indeed, yes! Feedback is the lifeblood of us unpaid writers. I can be reached at Spoilers: "Triangle" and "Monday" Keywords: Scully/other romance, Mulder/Scully UST Archive: Where ever, just let me know. Disclaimer: Agents Scully and Mulder, as well as AD Skinner the Smoking Man, Pam, Bernard, and any other character seen on The X-Files are not mine. They belong to Fox, 1013 Productions, and above all Chris Carter and his crew. I have borrowed them for the purpose to telling this story, no infringement is intended. "Never do yesterday what should be done tomorrow; If at last you do succeed, never try again; A stitch in time saves nine billion; A paradox may be paradoctored; It is earlier when you think; Ancestors are just people; Even Jove nods," the preceding are not mine either. These lines belong to the legendary master of science fiction Robert A. Heinlein. No infringement intended there either. The character of Alex Cameron and the remaining lines of the time travelers rules to remember are of my own creation, however. If there is anything else in this story that appears to be stolen from any other copyrighted material: I didn't mean to! Summary: Mulder and Scully encounter a time traveler from the future, and Mulder is in trouble again. Can Mulder survive being chewed out by a man who hasn't even been born yet? Time X * * * J. Edgar Hoover Building, Washington D.C. 10:03 EST Nov 10, 2000 A.D. Temporal Coordinates: 217.5/2349.3/23994/8.09 It was just one of those days. The kind of day where nothing usual happened; not that anything was unusual, it was just that nothing that normally happened did. For example, instead of being late or incredibly early, one Special Agent Fox Mulder was on time. However, he was in a meeting with Assistant Director Walter Skinner at the moment, so he was as good as late. Or, instead of chasing after little grey men from Venus, Agent Dana Scully was having an abnormally normal morning. she thought sadly. And she was right. There was a quick rap on her office door. "Yes?" she called out. The head of another human being poked his way into the office, after the door opened. The head was quickly followed by the rest of the FBI agent; the head was indeed attached to the body unlike some of Scully's previous encounters. He was relatively tall, though not as much so as Mulder, he was also much more gangly, soft metallic brown glasses perched on the bridge of his nose, and his pale complexion set off his dark, almost black, hair. He looked to be in his mid to late thirties. After peering about the room for a moment his vision came to rest on Scully. "Pardon me, Dana, but is Fox around?" "Um, er, he's in a meeting at the moment. . . . I'm sorry, do I know you?" "Oh, sorry. I'm Alex Cameron, I work upstairs," he walked up to Scully's desk and promptly shook her hand. A gentle handshake she noticed, long delicate fingers, the fingers of a creator or an artist. He let go of her hand, and reached into his suit coat pulling out a folded sheet of paper. "Since Fox isn't here, could you give him this message." Suddenly a beeper went off, Alex reached for his and frowned. "Damn. I have a case I need to take care of," he scratched something out on the message and scrawled something in its place, "but he can talk to this man and all will work out. Thanks." And with that he left. Scully was rather shaken by all of this; her perfectly normal day had skipped becoming abnormal and jumped right into being bizarre in just a few minutes. This agent she had never met was talking to her and about Mulder as if they were best friends. Hell, even she didn't call Mulder "Fox." Turning to the paper he had left with her, she hoped to find some clue as to this strange man's origin. She read the message. A lone eyebrow lifted, and a thoughtful look passed over her face. She read it again, and became even more intrigued. * * * J. Edgar Hoover Building, Washington D.C. 11:43 EST Nov 10, 2000 A.D. Temporal Coordinates: 2345.2/9845.23/1034.2/6.34 "Damn, Scully, I never thought I would get -" Mulder paused in mid sentence as he caught the look on his partner's face when he walked into their office, "- I'm sorry, did I step on your toes earlier today." His redheaded partner was sitting on the edge of Mulder's desk, with a blended look of annoyance and curiosity. "This was delivered for you today," she said simply, handing him a piece of folded paper. Mulder closed the door, and took the paper. It read: Hey Fox, the Agency is very pissed at you right now. You've really been causing a lot of trouble for them, and they want to talk to you. Contact me at There were several lines hastily scratched out, and a new address written in. It was signed Alex Cameron. He looked up at Scully, "Is this a joke of some kind?" "No joke Mulder, Agent Alex Cameron delivered that to me earlier today. He said it was for you." "So, who's Alex Cameron." "I thought you might know, Mulder." "Never heard of the guy, however he seems to know me." "Make that 'us.' And I was afraid of that, so I looked him up," she slung herself into her chair at the other end of the room, and pulled up Alex Cameron's file. "Or I should say, I looked them up." "Them?" "Yeah, the Bureau has eight Alex Cameron's on file. All of them bear a striking resemblance to each other don't you think?" Mulder looked at the eight different pictures displayed on the screen. All eight were pictures of dark-haired males, all of them wore glasses, all of them were lean, had the same shade of green eyes, but their ages varied anywhere from twelve to fifty-six. They claimed residency in eight different states; everywhere from Virginia, to New York, to Nevada, to Oregon. "Are you sure they're not the same person?" "That was my first thought, Mulder, but each is still alive and reported still living at the addresses listed. And what's better is that this is the Alex Cameron that left the message," she enlarged one of the photos, "his address corresponds to the one scratched out there," she pointed to the paper. "And guess who lives at that address," she pointed out the new string of numbers. "Alex Cameron," Mulder muttered to Scully. She pulled up the file and sure enough, Mulder was right, but this Alex Cameron was a mere eighteen years old. Scully looked up at Mulder, who was still studying the photographs before him. The younger Alex could have been what the Agent Cameron had looked like at eighteen. "I don't get it Mulder. This isn't possible, this many people, same name, same features, such different ages, it can't happen." Mulder got a faraway look in his eyes, " Have you ever wanted to be immortal Scully?" "What?" He looked down at her, "Have you ever wanted to be immortal Scully?" "I don't know, I suppose . . ." she looked up at Mulder, "Oh no, Mulder it doesn't work, it doesn't fit." "Oh come on Scully, yes it does." "Are you suggesting that this guy Alex Cameron has somehow discovered the key to eternal youth?" "Something like that, Scully." ". . . What do you mean 'something like that.'" "In 1996 scientists cloned a sheep for the first time, the same could be done with human beings. It is thought among medical scientists that limbs and organs could be cloned from the DNA of patients, thus eliminating the possibility of rejection, and the search for donors with similar chemistries. I think this Alex Cameron guy has cloned himself so that he could have spare bodies when his own began to wear out. He could have his brain transplanted into the body of one of his clones, thus achieving immortality." "As a doctor I must say that you theory is medically unsound, and as a human being I must say that the idea disgusts me. However, even if it were so, what does this meeting between one of his 'clones' and you have to do with anything. I would think that he would like to keep a project like that under wraps. Why would he be drawing attention to himself, and one of his younger selves at that?" "I don't know Scully, I don't know." * * * Somewhere outside of Quantico, VA 15:52 EST Nov 10, 2000 A.D. Temporal Coordinates: 23934.2/607596.1/.7503/6345.7 "Well, Mulder, this is the address," Scully commented as their grey car pulled up to the curb. It was a homely house a short distance from Quantico Marine Base. The wooden shingles of the side of the house was shaded by the abundant micro-forest just outside. The pair of agents stepped out of the car, and walked up to the front door. "Do you think his parents are home?" Mulder asked wryly as he knocked. The young man that answered the door was the medium height, dark-haired, green eyed, lanky, pale, glasses-wearing kind of teenager. Scully felt an uncanny familiarity looking at him. "Excuse me," Mulder began, flashing his badge at the kid, "we're Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully with the Federal Bureau of Investigations. Are you Alex Cameron?" "One and the same. Come in, come in, I have some questions to ask you. I just got my instructions a few minutes ago." As they stepped into the foyer, Scully tried to contain herself. The kid sounded exactly like the Agent she had spoken to earlier. "Actually, we were hoping to ask you some questions," she commented. Alex smiled over his shoulder as he led the two agents over to a couch in the living room, "I'm sure you were. Please, have a seat." As they sat, Alex pulled up a chair, "So, I'll let you go first. What's on your minds?" He leaned forward in expectation, as he did so the small intricate pendant he wore around his neck shimmered in the light. Mulder, of course, started off, "Are you aware of the potential of cloning, Mr. Cameron?" "Yeah, it extended the average life span to about a two hundred fifty years. But genetics, has never really been my thing." "Extended?" Scully asked. "Oops, my fault. This is what, 2000 AD? I meant it will extend the average life span." Scully gaze was becoming transfixed on the graceful curves of Alex's pendant, Mulder noticed it as well. "Are you a practitioner of magic, Mr. Cameron." "Arthur C. Clark once said that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, Fox. And keeping that in mind, I can safely say the answer is 'yes.'" "So what is that," Mulder pointed at the pendant. "It looks like it was pulled out of a copy of Necromancer's Weekly." "That," Alex said holding it up, "is a 'Gothic Cross.' Supposedly because it's modeled after Gothic architecture. That's some really beautiful stuff, have you two ever gotten a chance to visit any of that style? It's even more stunning when it is - sorry - was new." "No," Scully replied. She drew out of her coat a print out of Agent Alex Cameron, "Do you know this man, Mr. Cameron?" Alex stiffened slightly, smiled just so, and said, "Not yet, enlighten me." "How about this man," She said showing him a print out of another Alex Cameron, "or this one, or maybe him, or could you have run into this man?" She continued to flip through photographs. Alex just smiled slightly. There was a moment of silence. Then: "Please answer the questions, Mr. Cameron," Mulder leaned forward. Alex leaned back and closed his eyes, "Fox, something tells me you have a theory. Why don't you share it with me." "Please stop calling me 'Fox.'" Alex remained motionless, "It is your proper name, Fox. There is no use standing behind a false identity if you don't have to. If you really hate 'Fox' that much, they go get it legally changed, or grow up. Take your pick, until your name changes, I shall call you Fox. But I digress, please you have a theory to share." "Hmph. I originally thought that you were part of a cloning operation, or then possibly that you were involved in a magic ritual involving the creation of duplicates, but I have a different theory now. Your tense has been slipping, and that leads me to believe that you're a time traveler. These men are you from other times, aren't they?" Scully just sat there not saying anything. After a moment, the room was filled with the sound of a single person clapping, very slowly. The applause was coming from Alex Cameron; he opened his eyes and sat forward again. "Congratulations Fox, you've got me. And now we come to my questions," Alex pulled out a pen and a small notepad from his pocket. Scully promptly rose, "Excuse me for a moment." She walked out of the room down the hallway and pulled out her cell phone. "I'll be right back, Mr. Cameron," Mulder said, following his partner. Scully was dialing a number when Mulder caught up with her. "Scully, what are you doing?" "I'm calling a psychiatric ward, Mulder. That poor kid is delusional, and he's playing you for a fool." "Wait, wait, wait!" Mulder grabbed her phone, "Just suppose for a moment that he is who I think he is." "What if he is, Mulder?" "Scully, we'd be talking freely with a man from the future! You can't tell me that the possibilities don't intrigue you at all. Think of what we could learn, think of it! There would be undeniable proof of what we look for in our cases." "What proof Mulder?" Scully asked in a pained voice, "We have his word alone; he could be making all this up and we'd never be able to prove any of it." "Oh, come on Scully, he has at least got to have a time machine, some evidence of where he's been." "Sorry, Fox. There is no machine. Dana's right, all the proof I have to give is my word, and your belief." Two heads turned toward the new voice. The pair found Alex leaning against the hallway wall, not to far from them. "What?" "I said there is no machine; time travel doesn't work like that. No positron accelerators, no quantum reactors, no subspace harmonic transitioners, no mechanics whatsoever. Just me in a chair." Mulder stared at him rather dumbfounded. "However, I'm not psychotic. Dana if you really want to complete that phone call, you may, but please let me ask my questions first. If I don't I could get fired, and I'm not ready for retirement," Alex smirked. Scully reached for her phone one more time, giving Mulder that look of "give me a break." She felt a hand rest gently on her shoulder; turning around she found it to belong to Alex. "Please," he said, "indulge me. If not me, then at least for Fox," he nodded in Mulder's direction. she thought, "Fine. But you better have one damn good story to tell, Mr. Cameron." "Call me Alex, both of you." They resumed their seats as well as their conversation. "Now where were we? Ah, yes time travel. As you are no doubt aware, Fox, that The Agency has/will become very annoyed with your little excursions. Now -" "Sorry. What agency?" a confused Mulder asked. "Hmm, Oh, the Temporal Investigation Agency, and as I've said, you've made work for them - and me - very difficult. Now for the first offense, I turn to a date in 1998, or was it 1938, Fox?" A sly grin was shot out at Mulder while the grinner peered over the edge of his glasses. "What are you talking about?" "Oh, come on Fox, don't you remember? Here let me paint the picture; the year is 1938 and a British luxury liner picks up a man lost at sea. In a moment of apparent insanity, the half drowned American tells the crew that they've been caught in a time loop for decades, that the war is over, and that the year is really 1998. Does any of this sound familiar?" "The Queen Anne," Mulder whispered. "Wait a minute," Scully chimed in, "that was a dream, a, a hallucination caused by a near death experience. I know, I found Mulder face down in the middle of the ocean." Alex smiled apologetically, "I'm sorry, Dana, but Fox was there, everything he told you that night in the hospital was true. Everything, the boat, the Nazis, the nuclear physicist who was almost a decade before his time, all of it." Scully reflected on what exactly Mulder had said to her that evening, and three little words kept running through her mind. she wondered. "And the Agency wants to know, what the HELL you were doing there Fox! The Queen Anne Situation is touchy enough as it is, we really didn't need that many late twentieth century people mucking about with a boatload of people that weren't even supposed to exist anymore. Do you have anything to say in your defense." Mulder was quite speechless, but Scully wasn't. "There's no possible way that Mulder could have been on that ship, which I still contend was a dream. Even supposing that time travel is possible, Mulder couldn't have done what you say. He is not a time traveler, he doesn't even have one of your little time machines." Alex smiled again, "As I said earlier, Dana, there are no time machines. The entire process is mental, you don't even take your body with you, just your mind travels across the eons. And he could be a time traveler, anyone can, it's just most people don't know how." "Are you saying that I could go back in time and prevent this meeting?" "No, this meeting is being had, and there is no paradox to resolve, so you couldn't change this meeting. However, you could go back in time, or forward for that matter. I'm willing to bet that you - as well as Fox - have traveled through time before." She just looked at him with that skeptical look of hers. "That is aside from the normal passage of seconds. Have you ever had a perfect moment in your life, Dana? A moment where no one in the world exists except you, and possibly another?" his eyes flicked to Mulder for a moment. "A single instant where everything around you stops and your experience for that one instant plays itself out in extra slow motion? Have you ever felt a moment like that Dana?" Scully's breath caught in her throat as she thought back over the last several years. There had been many moments like that, mostly when she was standing half a centimeter away from Mulder. "Yes," she finally managed, "Mr. Cameron-" "Alex." "-Alex, yes I have." "I suspect that you too, Fox, have also had similar moments." Mulder glanced a Scully for a moment, "Indeed." "Well, my friends that is the most basic form of time travel in the world. You don't really go anywhere, but your mind perceives a different speed of events. But anyway, where was I? Oh yes, Queen Anne. Now Mulder, while your travel to the Anne makes a kind of backwater sense, how Dana and the guy you call Cancerman, got there is a real mystery. Would you care to explain that?" "I wasn't there!" "Actually Scully, you were," Mulder backed Alex up. "I wasn't!" "OK, OK. It appears that the only way I'm going to get through this debriefing is by taking you all there. Hold on, let me see if I can find some hosts," Alex leaned back and shut his eyes. "Hosts?" Scully asked. "I told you only the mind goes," Alex replied not moving at all, "You need to 'inhabit' another neural matrix that is local to the time period to be able to interact with the environment. Don't worry it's painless, and we only select willing hosts. Ah, here we are. Hold on . . ." * * * British Luxury Liner Queen Anne, Atlantic Ocean 23:41 EST Nov 22, 1938 A.D. Temporal Coordinates: 26945.2/60953.1/6925.1/782.003 Suddenly the three were no longer sitting in Alex's living room, but were standing in a ball room, behind a large crowd of people. Glowing chandeliers lit the vast room. Mulder and Scully could only gap in astonishment at their surroundings, one not believing he was back, the other not believing they were there at all. No longer were they dressed in their usual business suits, but in clothes becoming of the elite at the middle of the twentieth century. "There we all are, welcome to the Queen Anne," Alex smiled broadly. Scully gaped at him only a little more than Mulder did; Alex wasn't the eighteen year-old kid they had been speaking with a moment ago, he looked very similar to Agent Cameron - whom Scully had spoken to earlier that day. Same features, same glasses, same complicated, curving cross, but he now looked to be about thirty. The two agents examined each other, they still looked like themselves. "Wait a minute," Mulder said, "I thought you said that we would be inhabiting other people's bodies?" "But, you are." "We still look the same," added Scully. "Ah, that is what we like to call 'Residual Self Image,' or RSI for short. You are so used to looking like you, that bodies you inhabit mold themselves to look like you. Unless, of course, you want to look like somebody else." "And is this what you look like, Mr. Cameron?" Scully said with a downward wave of the hand. "Alex. Indeed Milady," he swept her a deep bow, "My body which lies on an Agency table right now looks just as you see me here." "So what's with the glasses, and the cross," Mulder questioned. "Why, they are a part of my RSI; I am no more me without them than you are without dark hair. They exist for the same reason that Dana's cross is still around her neck. Such items are a part of a personality. We find that crosses are especially representative of people." "Really?" Scully asked her fingers tracing the fine gold chain that was looped around her neck. "Yes, ask me about it another time. We're a little busy right now, or at least we should be very soon. Ah yes, here we go. Now if you'll just look over there-" There was a gun shot, and screams. The agents could see a man in a Nazi uniform standing over a group of people. One of them was Mulder. They couldn't hear what was being said, but Mulder knew well enough. The Nazi turned around and took a long drag on his cigarette. Scully gasped. "Yes, you see? We were wondering how he got here. And if you look closely Dana, you can see the woman in the red dress just across from the time tripping Fox." Dana did so, and found herself staring at herself. "Tha-tha-that-" [That] "-is m-m-m-" [You my dear, and I must say that both of you look quite lovely this evening.] Scully finally snapped out the trance one gets when you see yourself without the aid of a full-length trick mirror, "Thank you Mulder." "I didn't say anything Scully." "Then, Mr. Cameron-" "Alex." "-Alex, that was you right?" "Sorry, I didn't say anything either." "Then who . . ." Scully glanced around. [That was me deary. Mrs. Teressa Alexander Jones. I'll be your hostess for the evening.] Scully fainted. Mulder caught her as she slumped to the ground, "Hey, Scully come on, wake up." "Fox, I suggest we vacate the premise, everyone else is." "Sure, help me get her out of here Alex." Together they easily carried Scully out of the ballroom to a more private location, a small card room it appeared. They sat Scully down in one of the chairs and shortly she came back to reality. What was reality for the moment, anyway. "Mulder, I heard voices, or at least a voice," she said groggily. "Don't worry about it. It's just your host speaking. You're not insane, you're not phasing, and you're not going to blackout on us like that again. Right?" "Alex, give her a rest, would you?" Mulder took another chair nearby Scully, and Alex took a seat atop one of the card table. "I hate to press, but Fox, I really need to know how you, Dana, and the smoking man got here," Alex pointed at the floor. "Sorry to disappoint you, but I have no idea how I got here, and even less of a clue as to how anybody else arrived." "So you found yourself thrown into a temporal paradox and decided to play the hero and go with the flow?" "Pretty much." A couple of armed Nazi guards ran by the open door. "Fox, do you enjoy playing around with the fabric of reality?" an exasperated Alex asked. "I always thought that reality is what you make of it." Alex sighed and put he head in his hands, "Dana, would you let a child play neurosurgeon on a live patient?" "What? No." "So, why do you let your partner get away with it? Could you please chain him down to something heavy? Put him on a leash? Do something, please?" Mulder got a very interesting image of him being chained down by Scully. There was a moment of silence as he thought that image over. "OK, we'll end our little tour of this paradox, and be on our way. There wasn't any real harm done, so we'll just leave this mess alone." "If it's not broke, don't fix it?" Scully asked. Alex smiled at her, "Come on then." He led the two agents out of the cabin toward the outer deck. "You know, Scully, we should look into an ocean cruise," Mulder smirked. "I think you're still water bogged from your first trip here. Where ever this is," Scully retorted. They trio had just made their way to the ship's deck when Alex stopped, "Whoa." A little ways off to their left stood the other set of Mulder and Scully. The pair were within ear shot. Mulder could be heard saying, "So in case we never meet again. . . ." He then put his hand behind the lady-in-red-Scully's head, brought her forward and gave her a deep passionate kiss. Alex folded his arms and let out a low whistle, "It appears that space-time is not all you like to play around with." He tilted his head to one side and said more quietly, "I can't blame you either." "Mulder!" "Hey, hey, hey, not so loud, huh? You two can fight it out later, but lets get back to your present first? Ah, here we go . . ." * * * Somewhere outside of Quantico, VA 16:03 EST Nov 10, 2000 A.D. Temporal Coordinates: 26934.2/607106.1/.7513/6375.7 The scene of Mulder jumping overboard was quickly replaced by the surroundings of Alex's living room. Both agents were back in their own bodies, Alex was back in his old host, and all was normal again . . . sort of. Scully was flushing profusely; she just sat there staring out at nothing for a moment. "Mulder," she said quietly, "do you care to explain yourself?" she turned her head toward her partner and smiled slightly. When he didn't answer, she turned to Alex, "Mr. Cameron-" "Alex." "-Alex, why are you smiling like a Cheshire Cat?" "Because Dana," Alex said through a wide grin, "you're the only woman I know who can be jealous of herself." "That wasn't me! I don't remember any of that!" "I could help you remember if you ask, Scully," Mulder leered. Alex just smiled all the more. "Fox, as tempting as the situation was, if you're going to play around with your partner, please do it on your own time and especially in your own time." This time around, both agents flushed violent shades of red. "Damn it, I haven't been a proper host," Alex said as he stood, "Could I get you something to drink, coffee perhaps? You guys look as if you could use the caffeine." "Coffee, please," both agents answered in unison. "I'll be back shortly," Alex called out as he disappeared out of the room. As soon as Alex was out of ear shot, "Are you a believer yet, Scully?" "No, this is insane. I don't know how he did that, but he is not a time traveler. It can't happen, there would be too many paradoxes involved. What if he were to go back and kill his grandfather, then what would happen?" "The Universe would become a little more demented," Mulder said." Scully was puzzled for a moment, "What was that again?" Mulder simply pointed behind her. Turning around, she found a framed list of what one might call rules. Remember . . . Never Do Yesterday What Should Be Done Tomorrow. If At Last You Do Succeed, Never Try Again. A Stitch In Time Saves Nine Billion. A Paradox May be Paradoctored. It Is Earlier When You Think. Ancestors Are Just People. Even Jove Nods. Don't Panic. Those Who Don't Remember The Future Are Condemned To Live It. I Don't Need To Here You Thinking That. "Paradox" Is Simply Another Word For The Universe's Mental Instability. Are You Or Have You Ever Been? The Agency Has Been Watching You. Don't Panic, Ever. "'"Paradox" Is Simply Another Word For The Universe's Mental Instability?'" she asked, raising a single eyebrow. "It makes as much sense as any other theory for dealing with the Grandfather Paradox," he said. "Mulder! Your buying into this is just feeding that poor kids dementia." "Actually, Dana, it's just making my job easier," Alex came back with two cups of coffee and handed one to each of the agents. "That's right, Scully, and he has to do his job. He's too young to retire," Mulder smirked. Alex sat down and began to chuckle softly. "What's so funny Alex?" Mulder asked. "Age has such a different meaning for me, Fox. 'Too young to retire' hits the situation on such a slant that I find it funny." "Would you mind explaining that, Mr. - I mean - Alex?" Scully asked, taking a sip of her coffee. "We no longer use the term 'age' in the same sense anymore. While my body has aged thirty Terran Cycles, or years, I have experienced over seventy two years of life. Saying I'm 'too young to retire' depends on how you look at it," he smiled slightly. Both agents looked at him oddly. "You're immortal?" Mulder asked. "For all intent purposes, as long as I'm with the Agency I can keep going back and experiencing years of life while I'm on a mission, and come back never aging a second. But nobody really want's to live forever, we all retire at some point." "Years?" "Yeah, some of the missions require deep cover, where we stick with a host for years or decades even. We do try to infringe as little as possible. If the assignment requires a deep dive where we're not helping an important person along we borrow some poor soul whom nobody is ever going to miss or believe. . . . But I digress. Now then, Fox there is one other incident I'm supposed to talk to you about." Mulder looked a little startled, "I'm sorry, was there another incident?" Alex appeared to loose some of his good humor, "How quickly you forget, and with that photographic memory of yours," he almost sneered. "This date I think you would remember, but I shall try and jog your memory. It's a Monday morning, and while most Mondays are bad this one is down right terrible: your water bed springs a leak, your clock shorts out, you're late for an important meeting, your cell phone fails to operate, and you owe a check - which is going to bounce - for water damage to your neighbor. So you get down to the bank in a mad dash to deposit your pay check, and guess what?" "Bernard," Mulder said quietly. "Yes, Bernard. You get in trouble again, making your day just worse. So there's a hostage situation, Dana manages to join you, you're shot, and the bank explodes-" "Wait, wait a minute," Scully interrupted, "Mulder didn't get shot, he was shot at, but that one lady-" "Pam," Alex said shortly. "-Pam took the bullet. And the bank certainly didn't explode." "Oh, but it did. Then Fox wakes up and it's Monday. The same Monday, and a Monday that keeps repeating, over and over and over and over again." "I'm sorry Alex, you describe the first half perfectly, but the ending is all wrong," Mulder said sadly. "I know, that's what supposedly caused the temporal loop; 'something went wrong on this day the first time around,'" he said sadly, "and nothing gets fixed on its own behalf. That's why we sent a team in. I suppose expecting you to remember the loop as anything but deja vu is too much, but it happened trust me." Scully gave him a look of utter disbelief over the edge of her coffee cup. "I'm sorry, Dana, this is one trip I can't take you on. If a jump to the Queen Anne is risky, then a trip to the looping part of Mulder's Monday is suicide. I could take you to the final cycle of the Monday, but I won't mess around with such a delicate repair as going back to the loop." "That's because it never happened the way you tell it," she said flatly. Alex frowned deeply, and anger flashed across his eyes, "Watch!" * * * First Union Bank, Washington D.C. 09:57 EST February 18, 1999 A.D. Temporal Coordinates: 2845.1/463247.09/983421.15/1.6930 Suddenly they were in front of Bernard again, but this time they were off to one side; they were the other hostages. Before they truly had their bearings, they heard the unmistakable sound of a gun going off. They turned and saw Mulder lying on the floor in a pool of his own blood. "Walk where I have walked . . ." Alex said quietly. Scully was soon at the bleeding Mulder's side, and sirens could easily be heard outside. Both agents stood aghast. ". . . And see what I have seen . . ." Alex continued. "It doesn't have to end like this," Scully could be heard saying, her voice breaking a little bit. "Yes it does," Bernard and Alex said together. Alex bowed his head slightly as he said this, as if he was resigned to the course laid before him. "Noooo-" The bank exploded. They were back again, this time just outside the bank, across the street even. Scully could be seen walking into the bank, there was a gun shot. ". . . And know the terror that is Paradox." Alex finished in a low, sad voice. The bank exploded. The scene repeated itself before the agents terrified eyes again and again, time after time, each time from a different perspective. Each time the outcome the same: The bank exploded. It is hard to witness one's own death, but Mulder and Scully saw it more times than any mortal should have too. Alex remained surprisingly remorse the entire time. Mulder and Scully didn't notice Alex's quietness at the time, they were too overwhelmed by the experience that remembering all those Mondays did for them. It was Monday again, and this time Alex wasn't with them. They were back inside the bank and Scully had just walked through the door with another woman. Both agents recognized her as Pam, Bernard's girlfriend. Mulder turned to Scully and said, "Damn it Scully isn't there something we can do about this? If I remember correctly, she dies this time around, shouldn't we try and stop this?" He began to move forward. "Mulder!" Scully said in hushed tones, grabbing her partner's arm, "What would happen if we did interfere? Would there be another loop? Would the Universe go stark raving mad? Would we even exist anymore? I don't know, and I'm not certain I want to find out!" A gun shot went off. Both agents turned just in time to see Pam fall to the ground, a large entry wound in her chest. They could just barely hear her say, "This never happened before. . . ." At this point, the SWAT and medical teams rushed in. Scully made out the face of Alex among the paramedics. Suddenly a memory came flooding back to her. Being a doctor, she had rushed over to Pam's side. She got there just in time to see one of the paramedics shake his head sadly, Pam was dead. The paramedic looked up at Scully, it was Alex. She remembered him removing a cross that had been hidden below Pam's shirt. He had clutched it tightly and whispered, "Good bye Michelle." * * * Somewhere outside of Quantico, VA 16:17 EST Nov 10, 2000 A.D. Temporal Coordinates: 36934.02/657106.31/.7514/6395.1 They were back in Alex's living room. Mulder checked his watch, it was Friday. "Do you believe me now?" Alex said very quietly. "Yes," Scully nodded. "Fox, do you have an explanation for that episode at all?" "Monday is a bad day for me?" Mulder tried at a joke and failed miserably. "Please don't joke about this, Fox. I don't joke about your mishaps. Tell me, how do these things keep happening to you?" "I wish I knew, but between the three of us, I think I'm cursed." "Unlikely, but the Agency might buy a plea of uncontrollable circumstances. But, as your friend, I am obliged to warn you that too many excuses like that will get your license to time travel suspended; uncontrollable time travel is unbelievably dangerous to everybody." "But I don't time travel anyway, so what?" Alex shook his head slowly, "No, I mean all time travel, including the normal passing of seconds and minutes that everybody experiences." Scully gasped as the ramifications of what Alex just said hit her. "You won't be able to move, to think, or even to live, but you won't be dead either. You'll be in some indescribable place that is neither time, space, life, or death. People aren't put into Stasis lightly, but I thought I should tell you that too many more trips with no one to blame might just get you put there." "And how many offenses would that take?" Mulder asked. "Depends on the level of damage caused, possibly twenty or thirty, probably more. Most people aren't put into Stasis for being in the wrong place at the wrong time," Alex smirked, "Which is what my report is going to reflect, so don't worry about it. Well, I think that's everything. I hope we meet again under more pleasant circumstances," Alex stood. Mulder did as well, until Scully motioned them to sit back down. "There is one more thing, Alex: who is Michelle?" Upon returning to his seat, Alex gave her a weak smile. "Michelle was my partner." "So, Pam was Michelle?" she continued. "Yeah, deep insertion. Michelle borrowed Pam's body and appearance to try and correct the paradox. I went in with her, and tried other routes of correction. But she was always very direct, she went straight for the source of the problem: Fox. Michelle never failed a mission, boy did she fix the problem this time." "How long?" Mulder asked simply. "Seventy-six dives together. Since her death, I've been out of circulation. Eight months of therapy, and two and a half more mandatory leave. This was my first job back, then I got to talk to you about it while I was here." "Somebody screwed up in personnel, didn't they," Scully said. "Yeah," Alex gave her a weak smile, which she returned. "I remember you taking a cross from her," she continued. "Yes, all Temporal Agents wear one. They identify us as Agents and who we are when under cover. It lets the Agent's personality stand out through the hosts face." "Yeah? And what's mine say?" she said, making the small gold cross she wore clearly visible. Mulder sat back, "This I've got to hear," he said with a smirk. Alex leaned forward, "It says: petite, from its small size. The rather simplistic shape suggests a rational mind, one who is rather down-to-earth, a reasonable person. Its resemblance to other crosses used in religion suggests a deeply rooted faith in something, possibly in the rationality I mentioned earlier. Its construction and the gold used to create it suggest a simplistic beauty." He leaned back, "There, how did I do?" "Veerry nice," Mulder nodded. "Thank you very much Alex, it was a pleasure to meet you. Perhaps we'll meet again," Scully said, making to leave. "Any time," Alex grinned wolfishly. * * * Alex Cameron's apartment, Albany 22:49 EST March 14, 5043 A.D. Temporal Coordinates: 0.000/0.000/0.000/0.000 Alex had been thinking about those missions a lot lately. He and the Mulder-Scully duo had gotten along quite nicely after their first meeting. They had become good friends after a while. He looked across the room, from where he lay on his bed, at his desk. A book in a glass cabinet sat there. That book had been a gift, sent forward in a time capsule, from Dana. It was a 2000 Special Edition of Robert A. Heinlein's "Time Enough for Love," a true treasure for more reasons than its leather-bound paper pages. He had been thinking about those days a lot. His gaze drifted to Michelle's cross hanging right next to the book. It spun slowly in the dim moonlight that filtered through his window. It seemed to wink knowingly. Alex smiled at that thought, even she knows that people move on. Michelle and he had been close, but that was over . . . he had to think about that one . . . over a hundred and fifty dives ago. Six months after he got back into the solo missions, he was assigned another partner, another veteran time agent. They worked well together, the perfect team. What's more, they liked each other, a lot. They had been through exactly one hundred and fifty seven dives together, over seven years of work for the TIA, and decades of dive time. He thought of his partner. He had thought it strange at first, but he didn't ask, and he didn't want to know. Then three weeks ago he received a letter from himself telling him what had happened. The letter laid the entire plan in front of him. It also related that the doctors had said she was a perfect clone, even the personalities were identical to nine decimal places. They were surprised that a paradox hadn't surrounded her birth. "You're thinking about her again," a soft voice called quietly from beside him. Alex grinned. "Come on, admit!" she propped herself up on one elbow, and looked at Alex. He rolled over slightly to face her and gave her a wry smile. She returned a slightly more subdued one toward him. "You know, you're the only woman I know who can be jealous of herself. You should know by now that there's only one woman for me, in any era. And that's you," he smiled warmly, " Temporal Agent Dana Scully. My Dana Scully, for all eternity." She smiled back, and kissed him. As he lay back, she laid her head against his chest. He could feel the coolness of the plain gold cross she wore. He looked back at the book Dana had sent him from all those eons ago. He read the title again: "Time Enough for Love." He thought that one over a while. he thought. He ran his fingers through his partners lovely red hair. His final thoughts before he drifted off to sleep, in her arms, were: * * * I hoped you enjoyed it. I hope it was reminiscent of The X-Files we all know and love. I'm sorry if I screwed up any facts from the episodes. If you have any comments at all about this piece, please e-mail me. It was interesting to write, and I would love to hear what you thought. I must again stress the importance of feedback in the lives of unpaid writers, and I can guarantee you that I am not being paid for this. But, damn this is fun! Once again, I can be reached at