CHAPTER ONE
The room was dark and cold; there was a steady hum coming from an air-conditioning unit running over time resonating through the room. A woman lay in her bed a fever ravishing her virus laden form, her sweat soaked the sheets and the clothing that clung to her as she thrashed around in the sheets like waves of an ocean trying to pull her under. A terrifying dream was playing out in her subconscious. Her darling husband a man she had loved and lost to a devastating disease. A cancer that had overtaken his brain and altered his beautiful mind, turning him into a monster, a man she no-longer recognized. In her dream he was very much alive and he had a gun pointed at another man, a man she knew but couldn't quite place. He was pleading for his life.
"No, no please, don't do this" he begged.
She started to scream "please, please stop." But her pleas went un-heard or un-noticed.
The gun went off with a piercing crack that echoed through her unconscious mind. The bullet hit the man in the chest and the blood, oh god the blood, it sprayed across his chest and spilled onto the floor. The man's face took on an expression of pure shock, the last expression it would ever make; it was then that she recognized the face. Even though it had been a few years since she had seen him, she was sure she was looking at the face of her stepfather. That's when she woke she sprung completely upright, her heart racing, her breathing rapid and her head pounding. She was alone and she felt so alone. She took control of her breathing slowing it down and her heart rate fell with it but her head seemed to pound harder. She rolled over to her side table where her aspirin and glass of water sat, she struggled with the childproof lid sending the pills across the mattress and onto the floor, with no energy to clean up the mess she took two pills into her mouth and swallowed the water hard hoping they stay down this time and calm the persistent thud.
"Dam flu" she said out loud. "It was just a dream" she repeated the sentence over and over in her worried mind then lay it to rest on her pillow, she closed her eyes and slowly, eventually, drifted back off to sleep.
'BRING BRING.' Her phone startled her awake again 'who could be ringing me at this hour?' She thought. "Hello" she answered sleepily into the receiver pinching the bridge of her nose with her finger and thumb.
"Joanne?"
"Yes."
"It's Walter Joanne."
"Oh hi big brother."
"Joanne what's wrong you sound terrible!"
"Yeah it's just the flu, what's up?"
"I'm sorry Joanne its Jake." Her heart sank into her stomach its pace quickening for the second time that night. Jake, her step-father the man she just saw fall in a pool of fiery red blood at the hand of her husband.
"Jake? What about him Walter?"
"I'm sorry Joanne he's dead."
In another part of the country in another bedroom dawn was breaking but the sun was struggling to pierce through the heavy storm clouds. The sound of heavy rain drops pelting on the window panes was being drowned out by the soft groans and heavy breathing of gentle lovemaking. A sound that had only recently filled this room but now filled it often as the sun was rising. The curtain open slightly cast shadows on the bed where the lovers lay, dancing along the blanket as it rose and fell in time with the bodies that lay entangled underneath it.
'BRING BRING.' The cell phone vibrated across the small bedside table, breaking the atmosphere like turning the lights on in a busy night club.
'BRINNG BRIING.' It rang too loudly to be ignored.
"Don't you dear answer that Mulder!"
Without removing himself from on top of her he reached over and grabbed the phone catching it before it vibrated its way onto the floor.
"Mulder!"
"It might be our source Scully."
"Mul…" She was cut off.
"Mulder" he shouted down the small device.
"Agent Mulder?"
"Yes." His eyes suddenly un-blinking and serious, he looked down at his partner telepathically trying to tell her to stay as still and quiet as a mouse.
"Where are you agent Mulder you sound out of breath?"
"Ah I'm um, I'm jogging sir."
Scully snapped her hand to her mouth in an attempt to cover the sound of her breath which was suddenly deafening in both of their ears.
"Jogging, in this weather?" She heard the voice on the other end of the phone say.
"Ah yes sir, the rain - it makes you run faster." Mulder shook his head unable to stop the words from falling out of his mouth instantly registering how silly that sounded. His partner pinched the tip of her nose to stifle the giggle trying desperately to escape her lips.
"Ok" a slight pause for a confused effect. "I have a case for you Agent Mulder, it has a personal connection. My stepfather was murdered tonight."
"Oh I'm sorry to hear that sir."
"There's something else Agent Mulder, something unusual about his cause of death."
"Ok"
"I'll brief you and Agent Scully in my office in an hour, you are both booked on an early flight to Dallas."
"Ok sir we will be there, I mean, ah, would you like me to call and let Agent Scully know?"
"No you finish your jog I'll call her." With a click the line went dead and he threw the phone on the bed and sunk his forehead into her shoulder.
"I told you not to answer it" Scully said smugly removing her hand from her mouth and placing it over his back. "A new case?"
"Yeah" he said his voice muffled by her hair and the pillow she lay on.
"Anything interesting?"
He pointed a finger indignantly at her home phone also sitting on the bedside table, knowing it was about to ring and then rolled off of her and onto the other side of the bed.
'BRING BRING'. Scully sat pulling the sheet to cover her bare chest and moved to sit on the edge of her bed. "Hello."
"Agent Scully?"
"Yes sir."
"I need you in my office in an hour to brief you on a new case."
"Yes sir."
"Pack a bag for Dallas Agent Scully your flight will leave at 11."
"Yes sir. Is everything alright sir?"
"No Agent Scully, I now have to ring my mother" with that the line went dead. She lowered the receiver onto the base. Mulder moved to rest behind her planting slow lingering kisses along her shoulder, up her neck and then down the other side. Her skin tingled pleasantly under his lips; she rolled her head side to side giving him the full length of her neck.
"What was that about?" She said her voice just above a whisper.
"Murder" he said in between kisses as he made his way back along her shoulder "Skinners stepfather" he brought his hands around under the sheet onto her stomach.
She let the sheet fall and turned into his arms. "Well you better make it quick Agent Mulder we have to pack for Dallas."