Machiavelli (1515) wrote that to motivate citizens to withstand a long siege one should encourage "fear of the cruelty of the enemy."

"What have you done with Mulder?" The desperation in her voice betrayed her body language, as she stood, stoic and rigid.

"He's out there," Briggly nodded sideways. "But he won't be Mulder anymore."

DAY ONE

"You said the Bahamas Scully." As the words came out, he inwardly berated himself for his whiney tone, akin to a child that didn't get the candy.Mulder removed his shades and rubbed fiercely at the bridge of his nose. If he closed his eyes real tight, then maybe when he opened them again the sight before him would have disappeared. To his disappointment, the devastation of a tiny island remained. 'Apaleento' had been brought to its knees by the latest hurricane that had swept in, and swept out, taking the lives of a significant number of inhabitants with it. Scully dropped her rucksack, putting a hand to her face, attempting to take in the severity of the situation without the suns glare impairing her vision.

"It is the Bahamas Mulder, more or less anyway."

Scully had been correct. As they had moved from the outskirts of the island into the centre the feel of the island had become increasingly commercial. The helicopter flight still made his stomach lurch. This had been the necessary evil, due to the high cliffs, which made the island inaccessible save for the tiny dock declared out of bounds since the disaster hit. He had more than once made an analogy to the Château d'If, Horse and Cart replaced by a run down open top jeep.

"Come on." She called to him as she climbed into the tinny jeep. "I told Dr Swanson we'd meet him before noon." With that he picked up his holdall and jogged up behind her, the notion of this trip being anything but hardwork fading away.

After an hours travel they had managed to outrun the nativety and arrive in a town that had surely thrived before the hurricane. The truck came to a halt outside the sturdy grey hospital building. Most of the building had remained unscathed, save a superficial crack that ran across the left corner of the front wall.

"Dr Scully," they hardly had chance to climb from the truck when a friendly voice called out. It belonged to a white male, older than Mulder by a few years. He extended a hand to Scully, "I'm Dr Swanson and im grateful for your help out here. The hospital were gracious in sending you."

Scully took his hand. "Its just you out here?"

"And you." He laughed nervously, coughing the remark away when neither Mulder nor Scully reacted to it. "Your Collegues should arrive in a few days; I just wanted a bit of extra time with you, being the most senior member of the relief team. I'm also leaving tomorrow as I have a family emergency at home. I am hoping you will be able to take charge at this time Theres so much to do here." Scully hardly had time to voice any concerns as Dr Swanson started back toward the hospital entrance.

"Dr Swanson," She called, but he didn't turn back.

"It's ok." Mulder caught her arm. "You go, I'll take our things back to where ever we're staying and unpack. I'll collect you later, I assume we have some kind of transport?" He turned to face the driver of the truck, who rumaged for a second, as if reminded of a task he had mean't to do before. He tossed Mulder a set of keys.

"Over there," He pointed to a battered four wheel drive. "You use that."

"You need that?," Mulder pulled at her rucksack.

"Yeah, medical bag in there, I should be back for six."

He nodded and started to unload their cases from the truck, his heart a little heavy knowing that she would be out doing a normal working day for the whole week. For an instant he had feared boredom, before reminding himself that boredom had never figured for very long in their lives.

Relief flooded Dana Scully as they pulled up outside the hotel. Although Mulder had reassured her that it was fine, she couldn't help but think they might be spending the night sleeping amongst the rubble of a former hotel. It was another buidling that had been fortunate enough to hide from the hurricane. It stood four storeys high, a few little balconys remaining outside smashed windows.

Inside was even better. A huge bedroom with windows intact, ajoined to it were a decent sized kitchen and bathroom. Mulder flopped down on the bed, patting the space next to him. "Lie down, everythings done."

"Everything?" She questioned.

"I unpacked my things, I tried to write a little, I scavenged food for later from downstairs, I unpacked your things…" he nodded over to the wardrobe in the corner.

" and I picked out what you should wear to bed tonight." He nodded towards the pillow on her side of the bed.

"Mulder I'm afraid to look." She lifted the pillow. "Theres nothing there." A look of confusion, maybe even suspicion, crossed her face.

"Exactly." He smiled at her. She relented, getting onto the bed and lying down facing him. She appreciated his sense of humour, understanding its deep undercurrents. She couldn't ever imagine them turning into one of THOSE couples. The couples that remained friends but had grown out of love, and out of lust, with one another. She had never had that problem with Mulder, emotionally or physically. It wasn't just about sex, it was about not taking each other for granted and about one making the other feel valued, loved. He loved her, she knew that. It was a fierce love, that he punctuated often with his gentle sexual innuendo that reaffirmed how much he still loved her, wanted her after all these years. His voice woke her from her thoughts.

"What was it like in there?"

"Not like I thought," She answered, "Lots of injured, some serious. A few dead but they've been stored downstairs in a temporary morgue. They're not cut out to deal with this Mulder, it's a small hospital that only operates to serve the holiday makers. The most they're used to is food poisoning and motion sickness." She through her arm across him, lifting herself up onto his chest. "They want me there for most of the day until the rest of the crew arrives. At the moment they're operating on skeletal staff. Will you be bored?"

"Bored? Not me. I can work on Carter's next idea. He wants a rough outline by the end of next week. Anyway they have TV. I can't understand a word of it, I'll just tune in to the more visual programmes."

He waggled his eyebrows at her, hoping to get a smile. She hadn't seemed overly impressed with the request to come out there. She told him how Father Abara had said it was a good will gesture, although she was sure he just wanted her out of his hair.

"What are the other staff like?" He asked her, trying to break the intense concentration she had seemed to be under since he first picked her up.

"They're alright, there are a handful of doctors, more nurses and some relief from another US hospital. I feel bad for you being cooped up in here though."

"I wasn't cooped up Scully, I went out. After dinner I'll show you round."

They had walked for an hour and hardly seen a soul. Mulder put it down to people either trying to rebuild their livelihoods or fleeing the island after the hurricane. He couldn't see how that was possible though – the dock that would have taken them had been destroyed in the chaos. They walked through the suburban streets, past houses, churches and stores, most of which had suffered in some way from the recent plight. As he walked , he could feel her tiring a little. "Do you want to get a cab back?" He asked her, looking at her face to gauage whether her response would be an honest one or not.

"No its ok Mulder, to be honest I doubt you'd find one, its pretty quiet out."

"Maybe everyones at the hospital?" He smiled at her, getting the response he wanted as she smiled back at him. "You're quiet tonight, whats on your mind?" He asked, hoping she would open up a little.

" I'm fine Mulder," she looked up to him knowing the facial expression he would make when he heard those words. "Really," she tried to justify herself, "I just had a strange day and I guess I'm trying to process everything."

"Strange how?" He pushed further.

" A woman died today, from injuries incurred from the hurricane. Her internal organs were damaged by debris and we lost her. Its so busy there right now that I got one of the staff to help me take her down into their tiny morgue. When I got there, there were these two bodies. At first I thought they were more from the wreckage, until I got closer."

"What was the matter?" He asked, interested because it wasn't often his ex-partner found anything shocking on a dead body anymore. Not shocking enough to keep her this subdued anyway.

"These bodies didn't come from any wreckage Mulder, they look victims of some kind of plague. The skin looked greyed as if the bodies had been dead months and their skin was blistered beyond belief."

"You'd say that was cause of death?"

"That's the thing Mulder, they looked as if they'd been blugeoned to death. I couldn't get a better look because they'd already been sealed in the clear plastic body bags."

"I thought body bags were black?"

"They are usually. The CDC uses the clear plastic sometimes. That's what had got me thinking."

"Getting yearnings to return to pathology Agent Scully?"

She laughed then. Sometimes he still called her that, usually when he asked her an oppinion about a profile he'd been asked to work on. Often she'd comment that he didn't need her help, but the truth was it excited him to hear her talking about a case. Talking like she was now about those bodies. Those years he'd spent working for the VCU he would lose himself in a case. Some people thought it was the only way to truly put yourself in the shoes of a killer. Whilst he still agreed with this to an extent, it made all the difference to him to have someone to come home to; to have a warm body to wrap himself around at night. In truth, the world could be a cold and horrible place, full of the darkness that had enveloped him for years and years. He wasn't misled though, he knew the world hadn't changed. But everything had changed for them at least, when they had taken the final step toward a physically loving relationship, after denying themselves of such intimacy for over six years. He looked at her now, this woman whom he had fallen in love with all those years ago. Even after all this time, he'd still feel that same surge of feelings; that rush of falling in love again. she'd catch him staring at her for no other reason than because there was a part of him that couldn't get over the fact that she loved him back. He was staring at her now.

"Mulder? You ok?"

He didn't have time to answer, the shrieking noise coming from behind them ripped him from his day dream. They both spun, a young woman came running into view, the sound of her precarious stilletto's breaking the silence of the night. It wasn't until she arrived up close that Scully noticed the lacerations around her neck. Scully moved to examine her closer. "Get the hell away from me." She batted Scully's hand away, clucthing at her purse with her other hand, she carefully looked Mulder up and down.

"I'm sorry," Scully backed up a little. " I'm a Doctor, you look hurt. Who did this to you?"

"You wanna do me a favour?" She pulled away, pulling the tiny jacket she wore so that it covered more of her body. "Go call the police on that creep back there. Asshole tried to mug me." With that she shoved herself between them, the clatter of her feet fading away in the distance.

"Maybe we should check it out." Mulder said, starting back down the street.

"Mulder, you don't have your gun," she caught hold of him, "please lets just call the police. He could have a knife…anything." He relented then. He could see the hotel from where they now stood and it made sense to call the authorities instead of blasting straight in.

" Yeah, you're right Scully. I guess I still think I'm some kind of G-man huh?" His smile seemed a little sad for her liking. She knew he wasn't the sort of man to get his kicks from carrying a gun. She knew he didn't need it as part of his identity. It was something deeper then that, something she might need to extract a little at a time. She grabbed his arm with both her hands, hoping to pull him out of the moment.

" C'mon G-man," she said as they walked up the steps leading to the hotel door, "you can take me to bed, prove your worth."