DISCLAIMER: None of the characters are mine, and all of that good stuff. There are spoilers from Stargate episodes: Chimera, Affinity, and Threads.
SUMMARY: Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter has a suspicious F.B.I. File, and Agent Mulder is determined to find out why.
A/N: While this is a cross-over fic, the focus is mostly on SG-1, specifically Carter. There are no real ships in the story. A little Jack/Sam, I guess. In addition, I would like to squash this idea (although I think that it's a good one) before it starts: Carter will not turn out to be Mulder's sister. I hadn't actually noticed that their names were the same until I was actually writing this story down.
On that note, please read and review. I would really, really appreciate any constructive criticism. Thanks! And I hope you enjoy!
Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter unlocked her front door and entered the house. She glanced around to make sure that everything appeared to be in order; it had been almost a week since she had come home last. She had been staying in her quarters at the base every night, so that she would be able to monitor a project that she was working on. Not that she had minded; this house had had a feeling of emptiness about it for the past year that far surpassed anything that she had felt while in it in the past. Perhaps it had been the loss of her father, or her failed engagement; she did not know, but in any case, the sense of pain that she felt whenever she entered the house was enough to keep her at the base for long periods of time.
Carter put down her bag and took off her coat and left them in the entrance of the house. She walked in and paused, unsure of what she could do now that she was at home. Her ever-lasting presence on the base had not gone unnoticed. General Landry had finally ordered her to go home, and so she had reluctantly made her way here. She entered the kitchen but then immediately exited, realizing that she was not hungry and that she did not have the patience to try and make something that tasted decent. She entered the living room and sat down on the couch with a sigh. She glanced around her and found the TV remote sitting on the coffee table. It had been quite some time since she had watched television, since she would usually work in her lab until she was too exhausted and then she would immediately go to her quarters and turn in. She picked up the remote and turned the TV on. As she absent-mindedly flipped through the channels, she contemplated her misery. What do I even want? she asked herself, certain that she would not be able to answer. Carter didn't know exactly what she wanted out of life. Although she was perfectly happy working at the SGC, she had always wanted a family. She knew that that was the reason she had accepted Pete's proposal in the first place. But with everything that had happened in the few months, she was not sure that a family would be enough for her. She wanted more than that, but either she could not or would not tell herself what that "more" was. She sighed again as she turned the TV off. She picked a pillow off the couch and sat holding it as she tried to convince herself that what she thought she wanted wasn't really what she wanted, and that it was time to stop living in the past and move on with her life. Unfortunately, her ever-logical brain was no match for her heart.
------------------------------
Special Agent Fox Mulder was rarely a patient man, but today, he was especially restless. Agent Dana Scully looked over at her partner and asked, "Mulder, what's with you today? I've never seen you like this."
Mulder glanced at his partner before looking back at the house that they were watching. "I don't know, Scully. I just feel like this could be the one," he answered, barely blinking as he watched the house. He watched a car pulled up in front of the house and the driver got out and went inside. He sat still and waited for something to happen, though he didn't know what exactly he expected to occur.
Whatever his expectations were, Mulder was disappointed. He could see no activity in the house at all as he sat there. He thought he saw the shadow of a figure sitting in one of the rooms near the front of the house, but he could not be sure. He shifted in position and again caught Scully's attention. "Mulder, what are we doing here?" she asked, unsure of why her partner had dragged her half-way across the country to a small city in Colorado just to sit in a car.
"This is big, Scully," he said in his mystic tone.
Scully was in no mood for this attitude. "Mulder, either you tell me what you're thinking or we're going. I have work that I need to get done at headquarters," she said, frustrated.
Mulder chuckled softly to himself. He didn't believe that Scully would actually make him abandon this surveillance, but he also did not want to deal with a partner who was annoyed with him for the rest of the evening. He unbuckled his seat belt and opened the door.
Scully grabbed Mulder's arm. "Mulder, where are you going?" she asked.
"Come on, Scully," he said.
Scully sighed and got out the car. She walked around to the other side as Mulder began to make his way across the street. Scully caught up with him and stopped him. "Mulder, tell me what's going on first," she said.
"Mulder stopped and turned to look at Scully. He considered her for a moment and then pulled her back to the side of the street where their car was parked. He glanced around to make sure that no one was within earshot and then explained quietly, "About a year ago, an agent got a call from a Denver police officer about an officer in the United States Air Force."
"And?" Scully encouraged.
"Well, personally, I think that the police officer was just looking into this person for personal reasons, but I was looking at the file, Scully," he said.
Scully sighed again. She hated it when Mulder decided to be vague about details. "What did you find?" she asked.
"That's just it, Scully. Nothing. There's nothing there after 1993," he explained.
"So, what? You automatically jump to the conclusion that this is some kind of government cover-up?" she asked. Admittedly, the fact that there was nothing in the file of a United States Air Force officer was suspicious, but she did not see why it would warrant Mulder's interest.
"Well, the one thing that I did find about her is that she works at the Cheyenne Mountain Complex here in Colorado Springs in deep space radar telemetry," he told Scully.
"And what's so suspicious about that?" Scully asked.
"Why would a Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Air Force have a file with nothing else in it, if she was working on something so basic?" he asked. "There has to be more to this, Scully." Mulder's eyes implored Scully to believe and to follow Mulder on this one.
Scully motioned in the direction of the house they had been watching, as if to say lead the way. She sighed again, thinking about all of the work that she had to do, and realizing that she would never get it done at this rate.
Mulder turned back to the house and headed for it again. Upon reaching the front door, he rang the bell and waited patiently, his hand on his badge so that he would be able to flash it quickly.