DISCLAIMER: Alex Krycek, Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, A.D. Skinner, the Cigarette Smoking Man, and just about every other thing in the Universe are the property of Chris Carter, 1013 Productions, and Fox Broadcasting. I am writing this story to exercise my sick little imagination- not to step on their turf. This is a rewrite of a story that I originally published in July 1997. The story begins just after Season 4 between "Terma" and "Patient X"
FAR FROM THE TREE
He had stared at the photograph for so long that the faces had blurred to unrecognizability. Like a word repeated too many times aloud, the image had been stripped of its meaning. The figures in the photograph were merely four, smiling blobs of color, floating midair in front of the sea.
Fox Mulder closed his eyes and tried to regain his focus. The phantom image of his family lingered in his mind, calling up the memories of that long lost day. He remembered sweet Samantha-only four years old- adorable in her sailor-collared swimsuit padding around the beach trying to keep up with her older brother. He thought of his mother, always so serene, sitting on a blanket just at the edge of the dunes, keeping a sharp eye on the siblings every move. He conjured the face of his father for an instant, and then opened his eyes as he forcefully pushed the creeping doubts from his mind and began to study the photograph once again. He poured over every grainy point of the surface, searching Bill Mulder's features desperately for the reassurance he so longed to find.
"You're in early."
Scully's voice jarred Mulder back into consciousness.
"What?" He asked, still disoriented, still fighting back his doubts.
"I said you're in awfully early for a Friday."
"Late, actually," Mulder said, after glancing sheepishly at the clock. He ran a hand through his rumpled hair, slowly emerging from his mental cocoon. "I came in to finish some paperwork and got...distracted I guess."
"Finishing up paperwork?" Scully arched an eyebrow. "Where is the real Fox Mulder and what have you done with him?"
Fox managed a slight grin before explaining. "Okay- so I'm not a pencil pusher. I admit it- and I almost ducked the call when Administration buzzed in last night to bitch about unsigned 302's…but when they told me which ones they were, my natural curiosity took hold." He paused for dramatic effect. "It seems that my beloved ex-partner left behind some unfinished business."
"Ex-partner?" Scully shook her head in confusion. Fox didn't answer. He watched her face and waited for realization to dawn. It only took a few seconds. Scully's eyes bulged. "Alex Krycek?" she gasped at last.
"The rat himself." Mulder acknowledged her guess with a nod and then gestured toward a teetering stack of manila folders. He selected one from the top and flipped it open to an unfinished report. "They did an audit upstairs and need someone to sign off on the reports to close the files…guess who got elected."
Mechanically, Mulder signed the document in front of him, flipped quickly through the pages, and then set it aside and selected another folder from the stack.
"You aren't bothering to read them?" Scully's voice was thick with disapproval.
Mulder shrugged. "I skimmed the first few...from what I can tell, our favorite G-man spent most of his time chasing down people who pull the tags off their mattresses."
Scully smiled and poured herself a cup of coffee before sitting down beside her partner. She reached toward the stack and picked up the folder on top. When she flipped it open, a yellow post-it note fluttered to the floor.
"Copy number from Rolodex" was scrawled across the paper in what she recognized as Alex Krycek's barely legible script. Scully bent down to retrieve it, but hesitated before replacing it into the file. She read the name on the tab of the folder and frowned.
"Something wrong, Scully?" Mulder asked. His pen hovered mid-air above another signature page.
"I don't know." A frown creased Scully's face as she scanned the documents inside the file. "This is a surveillance request for Dr. Harry Rickman."
"That name mean something to you?"
"The report cites suspicion of drug trafficking"
"You think it's something more?"
"Not necessarily...but...I don't know, Mulder. It just seems ...curious. I read about Rickman in Doctor Carne-Sayer's journals. She's the scientist who was going to examine the meteor fragment that we intercepted with Krycek's help. Doctor Rickman is a toxicologist who worked on smallpox vaccines."
Mulder's interest was piqued. "So Krycek may have had a less than noble interest in keeping tabs on the good doctor?"
"Otherwise it's one hell of a coincidence."
"Does the file say anything else about what Alex was looking for? Are there any clues?"
Scully hurriedly skimmed the remaining pages. "Maybe this," she said, detaching another post-it note from the final page, 'Call Casey Milk'" Scully turned the slip over in her hand and eyed it closely. "I have to admit that it doesn't look like Alex's handwriting though."
Mulder took the note and examined it before nodding in agreement. Then he hurried to his computer and began a search for Casey Milk.
"Damn!" he exclaimed after fifteen minutes of fruitless searching,"No matches...But…wait- didn't the other note say something about a Rolodex? Maybe we could find it there?"
"A Rolodex?" Scully asked, her tone clearly implying that she didn't think for one second that it would be that easy. "Do you think Krycek would have left one?"
Mulder shrugged, "He did clear out of the Bureau in a hurry- I don't guess it would hurt anything to go up to the fourth floor and ask."
"I still can't believe that Krycek had an office on the fourth floor," Scully grumbled as she and her partner strolled through the bright, if featureless hallway of the Hoover Building.
"Well, you know what they say, " Mulder replied with a wry grin, "Evil is it's own reward."
"That's VIRTUE, Mulder." Scully corrected him with an exasperated sigh. "Virtue is its own reward."
Mulder grunted an acknowledgment, "That can't be right- virtue got me an office in the basement!"
They walked a few more minutes in silence until Mulder stopped in front a doorway and knocked.
"Come in!" A voice called to them from inside. Mulder opened the door and the two agents crossed the threshold into a small but sunny office. A fresh-faced young agent looked up from his computer, confusion on his face. " Uhh...can I help you?" he asked.
"I'm Agent Mulder" Fox said, without bothering to extend his hand, "This is Agent Scully. I called a few minutes ago about collecting my ex-partner's effects?"
"Oh, sure. " The younger man's face relaxed with recognition. "I was glad to get your call." The agent stood up and walked to the corner, where he retrieved a large cardboard box. "I was wondering when somebody would claim this junk- I trip over it all the time. When I first got this office my wife said-"
"Thanks. " Mulder said curtly, cutting him off, " We'll call if we need anything else." He turned on his heel and hurried back down the hallway with Scully following close behind him.
They waited until they were once again in the safety of their basement office before opening the carton, but they were barely across the threshold before Fox ripped off the lid and began rifling through the objects inside.
The top of the box was filled with knickknacks: there was a paperweight, Alex's Quantico Graduation certificate, an Army commendation and a few framed photographs...Mulder shoved them out of the way, uncovering the trove of paper buried underneath.
Scully paid more attention to the trinkets. "You never told me Krycek was married," she said, leafing through the photographs.
"He wasn't" Mulder made the pronouncement with certainty.
"Really?" Scully held out two more pictures for Mulder to examine.
The first was of Alex Krycek with his arm around a beautiful, dark-haired woman. The other was of Krycek, the same woman, and little boy that looked to be five or six years old.
Mulder dismissed the photo with contempt. "That has to be fake- slime like him would never be allowed to breed."
Scully shrugged and dropped the subject momentarily. A few seconds later she tapped Mulder on the shoulder.
"Happy Birthday Daddy" She read aloud from a handmade birthday card that had been illustrated with a childish drawing of father and son.
Mulder's confidence wavered. "Alex never mentioned anything about a family."
"Well, sit down so the shock doesn't kill you- but there are a lot of things Alex never told you."
Fox conceded the point. "Too bad that doesn't get us any closer to figuring out what he wanted with Doctor Rickman."
Scully nodded her head and returned to the task at hand. Both agents worked a few more minutes in silence. Then Mulder swore as he reached the bottom of the box.
"Nothing!" he exclaimed in frustration. "Now what are we going to do?"
Scully surveyed the contents of the box with a frown, but her expression changed when her sight rested on the stack of photographs once again. She picked it up a picture of Alex and the woman posing in front of a small blue house. "Maybe knowing Krycek had a family does get us closer to finding out what he was up to."
"How do you figure?" Mulder asked her, unconvinced.
Scully ran her finger over the image of the dark-haired woman. "I wonder if Mrs. Krycek knew what her husband was up to," she mused aloud.
Mulder finally managed a smile. "There's only one way to find out."
CONTINUED IN PART 2
NOTES: This is a revision of a previous work, so (if anyone in the world is still reading X-files fan fiction, much less Ratboy/OC fan fiction), updates should arrive fairly quick. If anyone out there would be my beta, I'd be grateful.