Tales from the Basement
By Starbuck_Jayne
Starbuck_Jayne@mulderandscully.co.uk
www.geocities.com/Starbuck_Jayne
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None that I can think of, well,
the whole Mulder disappearing thing but
nothing major.
Keywords: MSR, 3rd person POV
Disclaimer: I am just playing with the
characters in this story, most of whom
belong to Chris Carter, 1013 Productions and
Fox.
Archive: Anywhere at all just please keep
my name and e-mail attached, but no flames
please I'm way too delicate!
Summary: The Mulder/Scully phenomenon lives
on within the FBI fifty years later.
Feedback: Please please please! Don't make
me beg!
Author's Notes: This is just something a
little different. Interpret it how you
will!
Tales from the Basement
Starbuck_Jayne
"You know, I really don't get these things!"
She picked a splinter of sunflower seed
shell from between her teeth.
"That's because you're eating them like a
priss," was the reply as he took a seed from
the bag and held it up. "Observe," he
grinned before inserting the seed between
his back teeth and biting down. In one
swift move the shell cracked, and he sucked
out the contents, depositing the shell in
the waste paper basket. "Ta da!"
"Very impressive," she smiled and ran her
hands across tired eyes.
"Now you try it," he offered her a seed.
"Oh come on, I'm too tired!" She whined
playfully.
"To eat a sunflower seed? Tired of being
shown up by me, more like it!"
She met his gaze with a submissive smile and
took the object from him resolutely.
"Ok..." she began, positioning the seed in
the same place she'd seen demonstrated, but
as she bit down the shell was smashed into a
hundred pieces, leaving her coughing and
complaining.
"Oh come on!" He took another seed and re-
did the display, all to no avail. "Fine,
you know what?" he said, shifting his
position so that they were facing each other
across the desk, "I'll bite and you suck,
ok?"
"What?!"
"Oh what, you never played 'Suck and Blow'?
"If that's how you think you play 'Suck and
Blow', then seemingly neither have you!"
She remained unsure at first, but finally
leant forward obediently.
"Right, here we go," he spoke through
clenched teeth, the sunflower seed already
clamped in his mouth. "One...two..." on
"three" Agent Kendal spat the seed out of
the side of his mouth and instead began
kissing the woman in front of him. There
was no doubt that the pair would have got
decidedly further if it hadn't been for a
short cough from the office doorway. Kendal
spun around, tie out of place and lipstick
smeared across his cheek, to see a janitor
leaning against the doorframe, a voyeuristic
grin on his face. The elderly man stood up
straight, and the smile faded from his lips
as he began to speak passionately.
"Jesus Christ! What is it with this office?
Geez! You take two agents and lock them
away down in this basement, cut off from the
rest of society, and suddenly it's as if
they're forced to start breeding! It's like
"Survivor" for the Playboy Channel! I mean,
it's what happens with rabbits, isn't it?
You lock them up in a cage together and bam!
There they are going at it like there's no
tomorrow! I don't know why the FBI keeps
putting people down here!"
"Excuse me?" The bemused agent was altering
his tie, and making his way around the desk
to help himself feel more empowered in the
situation.
"Oh come on! How long have you two been
partners? What? One year, max? At least
most of them pace themselves!"
"Erm, we're not partners..." the woman spoke
up, "I'm his secretary..."
The janitor turned to the male agent, "What?
You got a secretary down here, now? Fox
Mulder'd be spinning in his grave!" He
leaned against his broom, clearly not about
to leave the pair at it and start minding
his own business.
"Who?"
"Don't tell me you've never heard of Fox
Mulder?" The blank stares that greeted him
were a good indication that they hadn't.
"Tall guy? Worked on the X-Files? Sister
abducted by aliens? Oh come on! Spooky
Mulder?"
"Wasn't he the guy that ran away with his
partner?" the woman put forward tentatively.
"There you go!" He pointed at her
triumphantly. "He worked down here too.
Now at first, he was alone. And that worked
out fine for the FBI, just shut him down
here so he could spend all day with his
precious X-Files. It was a case of the
bureau feeling that they had to keep him on,
rather than believing he was actually a
contribution to the "Team"." The air quotes
showed quite clearly the janitor's own
feelings towards this idea. "But then, they
sent him a partner. Check up on him, you
know? Anyways, she's this smart, single,
beautiful woman around about his own age.
What do *you* think happened? Ok, so it
took them like seven years, but still..."
He was broken off by an interruption from
Agent Kendal. "Why...why are you telling us
this?"
"Let's just say you might learn something,"
was the response. "Ok, so these two finally
get together and then he disappears. Twice.
Now, believe me I liked Mulder. He was a
decent guy. Trust me, you don't get much
company when you're just over nineteen years
old and working the graveyard shift. But
Mulder, he was here most nights and always
had time for a quick "hello" and bitch about
the bureau. Anyway, few nights before he
left, the second time, he was down here 'til
four in the morning, turned the office
upside down looking for it."
"For what?" Kendal wasn't interested. He
was agitated.
"That's just it. He wouldn't tell me.
Something to do with Agent Scully, that was
his partner, but I don't know what. You ask
me, he'd dug something up on her that he
didn't want people finding out. Anyway,
after he returned they didn't have time for
anything 'cept running away. Whatever it
was, it's never been found. They say he's
still looking for it too."
"I thought you said he was dead."
"I did." He stared ominously at the couple.
"I've worked here fifty years. Whatever it
was he was looking for, I've never found it.
And, off the subject, every male and female
agent that they put down here end up doing
it. It never works out, of course, but then
he wouldn't let it, would he? Name's Rob by
the way, no doubt I'll see you around
sometime." He touched his baseball cap, and
as he left they heard his mop and bucket
trundling away down the corridor.
"Riiight," Kendal collected some random
sheets of paper together and tapped them
into a neat pile.
"You think this office is haunted?"
"No, Louisa, I don't."
"You know, John, for someone who's in charge
of The X-Files you're surprisingly narrow
minded."
"Yeah? Maybe that's why I'm so good at my
job."
"Well, shouldn't we at least be curious
about whatever it is that he hid down here."
"Louisa, if this thing hasn't been found in,
what? Fifty odd years? What makes you
think we'll manage to uncover it?"
"Well, maybe no one else knew to look for
it," she said.
"Well, I'm already ten minutes late for my
meeting," Kendal pulled on his jacket, and
took a swig from a mug of cold coffee on his
desk, "but if you want to waste your time
then knock yourself out." With that, he was
gone.
Louisa groaned. Despite Kendal's opinions
of her, she was a smart woman. She'd
graduated from Princeton with a degree in
literature, but had since made some very
unwise career choices. Her grandmother had
been an agent, and Rob's story had triggered
a vague memory of a tale she'd told her many
years ago. Therefore, she decided to
unearth Mulder's secret, but it would take
some research along the way.
XXXXXXX
The rest home always made Louisa smile. The
big vases of flowers that stood on little
tables that served no other purpose; the
doilies; the lace, the tablecloths. It was
as if, no matter what year it was, rest
homes assumed that the elderly appreciated
such things. The truth was that ninety-nine
percent of them had indeed been conditioned
into believing this. Not Louisa's
grandmother, though. The place drove her
crazy, and there had been many an occasion
where she'd threaten one of the slightly
less mentally sound residents.
"Hey Granny," Louisa placed a kiss on her
cheek, and went on to make limited small
talk with her elderly relative. Asking her
how she was, how she was liking, if she'd
been speaking to any of the others.
"Honey, today that guy over there," she
gestured to a frail looking man who gazed
listlessly out of the window, "came up and
asked me, not once, but four times if I'd
enjoyed being in concert with Britney
Spears. I may be eighty-seven, but I swear
if I still had my gun..." she smiled up at
her granddaughter, obviously just kidding.
Louisa smiled.
"Gran, you remember when I was a little
girl, you told me that story, about a guy
called Fox?"
"Ahh, Fox Mulder. Now there's a name I
haven't heard in a while," she smiled. "It
wasn't him that I knew that well, though. I
was better friends with his partner, Dana
Scully. We'd worked together on the X-Files
whilst he was missing.
"Do you remember what happened to them?"
"I'm old, Louisa, not stupid. I know that
they fled the country, but that's about it.
They had a son, William, who they put up for
adoption when he was just a baby. There was
something strange about that child, but
Scully refused to see it," she shook her
head, not really considering things from a
sceptic's point of view.
"Was there anything odd about this woman,
Dana? It's just, we spoke to the janitor,
Rob, and he said Mulder hid something in
that office."
"That's very likely, Mulder always was a
very secretive guy. One of the best agents
I've ever met, mind you, but couldn't trust
anyone. I don't know, though. I only
worked there a couple of years or so, I
wasn't very well informed with regards to
any of his secrets."
"One more thing...you had a partner, right?"
A smile crept across Louisa's face.
"John Doggett," her grandmother nodded.
"Were you two ever, more than just good
friends?"
The only response she got was the reserved
smile of a wistful old lady.
XXXXXXX
The only person Louisa found in the
basement office was Rob. He was sitting,
with surprising audacity, in Agent Kendal's
chair.
"Just resting my legs," he explained with a
grin, "don't want me collapsing down here,
do you?"
Louisa said that she did not, but remained
taken aback by the janitor's attitude
towards authority. Still, she supposed that
she was but a humble secretary herself.
"I was thinking we could check the desk
drawers," he said, not moving from his
position.
"Won't this desk have been changed like a
hundred times since then?" Louisa said,
rationally enough.
"Hell no! Do you know how much effort it
would take to get another desk down here?
Do you think the FBI really cares that much
about this "department"?" Rob laughed
mirthlessly, casting a longing glance
towards Agent Kendal's coffee.
"Well, ok, but I don't really know what
you're hoping to find," Louisa rolled up her
sleeves and bent down to open the first
drawer.
"You can't just look inside the drawer,"
offered her companion, "you're gonna have to
take the whole thing out."
"Well, why don't you do it?"
"Can't," Rob raised his hands,
"fingerprints."
Louisa thought this a very peculiar excuse,
but said nothing, putting the janitor's
laziness down to, well, laziness. She went
through each of the drawers in turn,
unearthing paper clips, drawing pins,
leaking pens, computer disks, sheet after
sheet of fax paper containing nothing but
junk messages...she even managed to find,
wedged right at the back of the drawer, the
nameplate from a time when the desk had
belonged to Fox Mulder.
"Do you think this is what he was looking
for?" Her comment was met only by a dour
stare.
"Try the filing cabinets," Rob gestured in
their general direction with a nod of his
head.
"Hey!" Louisa was unimpressed by his tone
and lack of assistance. Rob merely held up
his hands in defence. She began leafing
through the files with a sigh, before
uttering a short cry. "There's a file on
Dana Scully in here!" She said, turning
around to face the janitor.
"There are several, actually, I forget how
many now. Is there anything inside?"
Louisa tipped the folder's none-paper based
contents onto the desk. Amongst the objects
was a small gold band, adorned with a single
diamond.
"That's it!" Rob exclaimed, "That's what
he's been searching for!"
"How do you know?" Louisa turned the object
over in her hand, totally unconvinced of its
value.
"Don't you see what it is?" Rob had moved
closer to gain a better view, a large grin
spreading across his face. "It's an
engagement ring."
XXXXXXX
By the time Agent Kendal had returned to his
office, Louisa was almost ready to leave.
She decided not to mention her little
treasure hunt, nor the fact that she had
found what may well be a priceless antique
and simply placed it back in the file where
she had found it, on the orders of a mere
janitor. She just nodded to the agent, and
he returned the gesture, putting his files
on the desk and removing his jacket.
"You off then, Lou?" He said, still more
pre-occupied with his work than focussed on
the conversation. She nodded, and pulled on
her coat.
"Oh! Just one thing!" John spun around to
face her. "You didn't see that guy, erm,
Rob, again did you?"
"Why?" Seemed the safest response.
"It's just, well, Stone says that there
isn't a janitor working here named Rob...in
fact he doesn't think he can ever remember
there being one whilst he's been here. And
we all know what a long time that is," he
chuckled to himself. "Anyway, thinks he
must have been some guy who wandered away
from his tour group or something. Good to
know that the security here's so tight, eh,
Lou?"
Kendal didn't see the look on his
secretary's face as she mumbled her goodbyes
and stepped out into the corridor. So, if
Rob didn't work here...then how did he know
so much about Mulder and Scully?
The End
Feedback please!! What are your thoughts
and theories? ;-)
www.geocities.com/Starbuck_Jayne
By Starbuck_Jayne
Starbuck_Jayne@mulderandscully.co.uk
www.geocities.com/Starbuck_Jayne
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None that I can think of, well,
the whole Mulder disappearing thing but
nothing major.
Keywords: MSR, 3rd person POV
Disclaimer: I am just playing with the
characters in this story, most of whom
belong to Chris Carter, 1013 Productions and
Fox.
Archive: Anywhere at all just please keep
my name and e-mail attached, but no flames
please I'm way too delicate!
Summary: The Mulder/Scully phenomenon lives
on within the FBI fifty years later.
Feedback: Please please please! Don't make
me beg!
Author's Notes: This is just something a
little different. Interpret it how you
will!
Tales from the Basement
Starbuck_Jayne
"You know, I really don't get these things!"
She picked a splinter of sunflower seed
shell from between her teeth.
"That's because you're eating them like a
priss," was the reply as he took a seed from
the bag and held it up. "Observe," he
grinned before inserting the seed between
his back teeth and biting down. In one
swift move the shell cracked, and he sucked
out the contents, depositing the shell in
the waste paper basket. "Ta da!"
"Very impressive," she smiled and ran her
hands across tired eyes.
"Now you try it," he offered her a seed.
"Oh come on, I'm too tired!" She whined
playfully.
"To eat a sunflower seed? Tired of being
shown up by me, more like it!"
She met his gaze with a submissive smile and
took the object from him resolutely.
"Ok..." she began, positioning the seed in
the same place she'd seen demonstrated, but
as she bit down the shell was smashed into a
hundred pieces, leaving her coughing and
complaining.
"Oh come on!" He took another seed and re-
did the display, all to no avail. "Fine,
you know what?" he said, shifting his
position so that they were facing each other
across the desk, "I'll bite and you suck,
ok?"
"What?!"
"Oh what, you never played 'Suck and Blow'?
"If that's how you think you play 'Suck and
Blow', then seemingly neither have you!"
She remained unsure at first, but finally
leant forward obediently.
"Right, here we go," he spoke through
clenched teeth, the sunflower seed already
clamped in his mouth. "One...two..." on
"three" Agent Kendal spat the seed out of
the side of his mouth and instead began
kissing the woman in front of him. There
was no doubt that the pair would have got
decidedly further if it hadn't been for a
short cough from the office doorway. Kendal
spun around, tie out of place and lipstick
smeared across his cheek, to see a janitor
leaning against the doorframe, a voyeuristic
grin on his face. The elderly man stood up
straight, and the smile faded from his lips
as he began to speak passionately.
"Jesus Christ! What is it with this office?
Geez! You take two agents and lock them
away down in this basement, cut off from the
rest of society, and suddenly it's as if
they're forced to start breeding! It's like
"Survivor" for the Playboy Channel! I mean,
it's what happens with rabbits, isn't it?
You lock them up in a cage together and bam!
There they are going at it like there's no
tomorrow! I don't know why the FBI keeps
putting people down here!"
"Excuse me?" The bemused agent was altering
his tie, and making his way around the desk
to help himself feel more empowered in the
situation.
"Oh come on! How long have you two been
partners? What? One year, max? At least
most of them pace themselves!"
"Erm, we're not partners..." the woman spoke
up, "I'm his secretary..."
The janitor turned to the male agent, "What?
You got a secretary down here, now? Fox
Mulder'd be spinning in his grave!" He
leaned against his broom, clearly not about
to leave the pair at it and start minding
his own business.
"Who?"
"Don't tell me you've never heard of Fox
Mulder?" The blank stares that greeted him
were a good indication that they hadn't.
"Tall guy? Worked on the X-Files? Sister
abducted by aliens? Oh come on! Spooky
Mulder?"
"Wasn't he the guy that ran away with his
partner?" the woman put forward tentatively.
"There you go!" He pointed at her
triumphantly. "He worked down here too.
Now at first, he was alone. And that worked
out fine for the FBI, just shut him down
here so he could spend all day with his
precious X-Files. It was a case of the
bureau feeling that they had to keep him on,
rather than believing he was actually a
contribution to the "Team"." The air quotes
showed quite clearly the janitor's own
feelings towards this idea. "But then, they
sent him a partner. Check up on him, you
know? Anyways, she's this smart, single,
beautiful woman around about his own age.
What do *you* think happened? Ok, so it
took them like seven years, but still..."
He was broken off by an interruption from
Agent Kendal. "Why...why are you telling us
this?"
"Let's just say you might learn something,"
was the response. "Ok, so these two finally
get together and then he disappears. Twice.
Now, believe me I liked Mulder. He was a
decent guy. Trust me, you don't get much
company when you're just over nineteen years
old and working the graveyard shift. But
Mulder, he was here most nights and always
had time for a quick "hello" and bitch about
the bureau. Anyway, few nights before he
left, the second time, he was down here 'til
four in the morning, turned the office
upside down looking for it."
"For what?" Kendal wasn't interested. He
was agitated.
"That's just it. He wouldn't tell me.
Something to do with Agent Scully, that was
his partner, but I don't know what. You ask
me, he'd dug something up on her that he
didn't want people finding out. Anyway,
after he returned they didn't have time for
anything 'cept running away. Whatever it
was, it's never been found. They say he's
still looking for it too."
"I thought you said he was dead."
"I did." He stared ominously at the couple.
"I've worked here fifty years. Whatever it
was he was looking for, I've never found it.
And, off the subject, every male and female
agent that they put down here end up doing
it. It never works out, of course, but then
he wouldn't let it, would he? Name's Rob by
the way, no doubt I'll see you around
sometime." He touched his baseball cap, and
as he left they heard his mop and bucket
trundling away down the corridor.
"Riiight," Kendal collected some random
sheets of paper together and tapped them
into a neat pile.
"You think this office is haunted?"
"No, Louisa, I don't."
"You know, John, for someone who's in charge
of The X-Files you're surprisingly narrow
minded."
"Yeah? Maybe that's why I'm so good at my
job."
"Well, shouldn't we at least be curious
about whatever it is that he hid down here."
"Louisa, if this thing hasn't been found in,
what? Fifty odd years? What makes you
think we'll manage to uncover it?"
"Well, maybe no one else knew to look for
it," she said.
"Well, I'm already ten minutes late for my
meeting," Kendal pulled on his jacket, and
took a swig from a mug of cold coffee on his
desk, "but if you want to waste your time
then knock yourself out." With that, he was
gone.
Louisa groaned. Despite Kendal's opinions
of her, she was a smart woman. She'd
graduated from Princeton with a degree in
literature, but had since made some very
unwise career choices. Her grandmother had
been an agent, and Rob's story had triggered
a vague memory of a tale she'd told her many
years ago. Therefore, she decided to
unearth Mulder's secret, but it would take
some research along the way.
XXXXXXX
The rest home always made Louisa smile. The
big vases of flowers that stood on little
tables that served no other purpose; the
doilies; the lace, the tablecloths. It was
as if, no matter what year it was, rest
homes assumed that the elderly appreciated
such things. The truth was that ninety-nine
percent of them had indeed been conditioned
into believing this. Not Louisa's
grandmother, though. The place drove her
crazy, and there had been many an occasion
where she'd threaten one of the slightly
less mentally sound residents.
"Hey Granny," Louisa placed a kiss on her
cheek, and went on to make limited small
talk with her elderly relative. Asking her
how she was, how she was liking, if she'd
been speaking to any of the others.
"Honey, today that guy over there," she
gestured to a frail looking man who gazed
listlessly out of the window, "came up and
asked me, not once, but four times if I'd
enjoyed being in concert with Britney
Spears. I may be eighty-seven, but I swear
if I still had my gun..." she smiled up at
her granddaughter, obviously just kidding.
Louisa smiled.
"Gran, you remember when I was a little
girl, you told me that story, about a guy
called Fox?"
"Ahh, Fox Mulder. Now there's a name I
haven't heard in a while," she smiled. "It
wasn't him that I knew that well, though. I
was better friends with his partner, Dana
Scully. We'd worked together on the X-Files
whilst he was missing.
"Do you remember what happened to them?"
"I'm old, Louisa, not stupid. I know that
they fled the country, but that's about it.
They had a son, William, who they put up for
adoption when he was just a baby. There was
something strange about that child, but
Scully refused to see it," she shook her
head, not really considering things from a
sceptic's point of view.
"Was there anything odd about this woman,
Dana? It's just, we spoke to the janitor,
Rob, and he said Mulder hid something in
that office."
"That's very likely, Mulder always was a
very secretive guy. One of the best agents
I've ever met, mind you, but couldn't trust
anyone. I don't know, though. I only
worked there a couple of years or so, I
wasn't very well informed with regards to
any of his secrets."
"One more thing...you had a partner, right?"
A smile crept across Louisa's face.
"John Doggett," her grandmother nodded.
"Were you two ever, more than just good
friends?"
The only response she got was the reserved
smile of a wistful old lady.
XXXXXXX
The only person Louisa found in the
basement office was Rob. He was sitting,
with surprising audacity, in Agent Kendal's
chair.
"Just resting my legs," he explained with a
grin, "don't want me collapsing down here,
do you?"
Louisa said that she did not, but remained
taken aback by the janitor's attitude
towards authority. Still, she supposed that
she was but a humble secretary herself.
"I was thinking we could check the desk
drawers," he said, not moving from his
position.
"Won't this desk have been changed like a
hundred times since then?" Louisa said,
rationally enough.
"Hell no! Do you know how much effort it
would take to get another desk down here?
Do you think the FBI really cares that much
about this "department"?" Rob laughed
mirthlessly, casting a longing glance
towards Agent Kendal's coffee.
"Well, ok, but I don't really know what
you're hoping to find," Louisa rolled up her
sleeves and bent down to open the first
drawer.
"You can't just look inside the drawer,"
offered her companion, "you're gonna have to
take the whole thing out."
"Well, why don't you do it?"
"Can't," Rob raised his hands,
"fingerprints."
Louisa thought this a very peculiar excuse,
but said nothing, putting the janitor's
laziness down to, well, laziness. She went
through each of the drawers in turn,
unearthing paper clips, drawing pins,
leaking pens, computer disks, sheet after
sheet of fax paper containing nothing but
junk messages...she even managed to find,
wedged right at the back of the drawer, the
nameplate from a time when the desk had
belonged to Fox Mulder.
"Do you think this is what he was looking
for?" Her comment was met only by a dour
stare.
"Try the filing cabinets," Rob gestured in
their general direction with a nod of his
head.
"Hey!" Louisa was unimpressed by his tone
and lack of assistance. Rob merely held up
his hands in defence. She began leafing
through the files with a sigh, before
uttering a short cry. "There's a file on
Dana Scully in here!" She said, turning
around to face the janitor.
"There are several, actually, I forget how
many now. Is there anything inside?"
Louisa tipped the folder's none-paper based
contents onto the desk. Amongst the objects
was a small gold band, adorned with a single
diamond.
"That's it!" Rob exclaimed, "That's what
he's been searching for!"
"How do you know?" Louisa turned the object
over in her hand, totally unconvinced of its
value.
"Don't you see what it is?" Rob had moved
closer to gain a better view, a large grin
spreading across his face. "It's an
engagement ring."
XXXXXXX
By the time Agent Kendal had returned to his
office, Louisa was almost ready to leave.
She decided not to mention her little
treasure hunt, nor the fact that she had
found what may well be a priceless antique
and simply placed it back in the file where
she had found it, on the orders of a mere
janitor. She just nodded to the agent, and
he returned the gesture, putting his files
on the desk and removing his jacket.
"You off then, Lou?" He said, still more
pre-occupied with his work than focussed on
the conversation. She nodded, and pulled on
her coat.
"Oh! Just one thing!" John spun around to
face her. "You didn't see that guy, erm,
Rob, again did you?"
"Why?" Seemed the safest response.
"It's just, well, Stone says that there
isn't a janitor working here named Rob...in
fact he doesn't think he can ever remember
there being one whilst he's been here. And
we all know what a long time that is," he
chuckled to himself. "Anyway, thinks he
must have been some guy who wandered away
from his tour group or something. Good to
know that the security here's so tight, eh,
Lou?"
Kendal didn't see the look on his
secretary's face as she mumbled her goodbyes
and stepped out into the corridor. So, if
Rob didn't work here...then how did he know
so much about Mulder and Scully?
The End
Feedback please!! What are your thoughts
and theories? ;-)
www.geocities.com/Starbuck_Jayne