X-Files: Mulder's gone.
(Takes place during the first scenes of Nothing Important Happened Today).
Agent Reyes stopped by the X-Files office. "Mulder's gone," Doggett told her as soon as she entered. "What?" Reyes asked in surprise.
"He left. Scully might know where he is but she ain't tellin," Doggett explained. "Why would he go?" Reyes asked, sitting down at her desk. Doggett shrugged. "I don't know. I went down to his apartment and there was nothing. Mulder packed and left, leaving Scully alone. That's not like Mulder is it?" Doggett asked.
"Have you told Scully?" Reyes asked as she locked onto her PC. "Yeah, but she won't say. All she tells me is that he's gone. What do you think? I think someone got to him," Doggett said. Reyes sighed. "I'll go look for him online," she said. "Car line rentals, plane tickets... there's gotta be something on there about Mulder," she said.
Doggett squeezed her shoulder in thanks. "Thanks, Monica," he said. "I'm going to chat to Scully again about it. Will you be okay?" he asked her. Reyes nodded. "Don't worry about me. Just go find Scully. I'll let you know when I've found something," she said. Doggett nodded and quickly grabbed his jacket before leaving the office.
After Doggett left, Reyes checked the airline databases. She checked everyone she could think of. She also checked car line rentals in the local areas. Still nothing. What if, she thought, What if I called them...," she wondered.
She tried once more to search Mulder in a hotel booking database, but found nothing. That was the last straw. She sighed and picked up the phone.
It was 10am in the Lone Gunmen office in Maryland. Each Gunmen had stayed up late the previous night before, as Langly had tried to teach them all how to play Dungeons and Dragons, but to no success. Frohike couldn't understand which characters were his, and Byers couldn't gamble. He kept losing. They each bet a little money on it, and the game went on till after midnight. Byers was VERY cautious with his money, which Langly mocked him for being a stick in the mud. Finally, Langly was declared winner, and he won ten dollars of each of them, which he gleefully took in his room.
That was how the trio were spending their time these days. Jimmy had left looking for Yves, and work was quiet. Nothing to investigate for a while. So that was what they did with their time off, until now.
Langly was the first to wake as he heard the phone ring. It was like an alarm, and, wearing long shorts and a faded ragged white t-shirt, he sat up in bed and rubbed the sleep from his eyes before answering the phone.
Everyone else was still asleep, so he spoke quietly. "Lone Gunmen office," he said sleepily into the phone. "Langly? You guys there?" Agent Reyes asked on the phone. Langly sat up bolt right as he recognised her voice.
"Uh, yeah, we're here," he managed to say hastily, before searching around for a pair of pants. "What's up?" he asked. As he pulled on a pair of worn out black jeans, Reyes explained the situation to him.
"So, basically, Doggett's asked me to help him find Mulder, and I'm not getting anything. Would you guys be able to help?" she asked.
Langly nodded. "Uh, yeah. OK, sorry to hear Mulder's gone. We know he wouldn't leave without a good reason," he said. Reyes nodded. "OK. Thanks, Langly. Can you call me on this extension if you find anything please?" she asked.
"Sure. We'll do what we can," Langly said, before hanging up. He then got out of bed and stretched, before walking out and knocking on each of the other Gunmen's doors. "Guys, we got work!" he yelled. Slowly, Frohike opened his door, and then Byers. Both were wearing their dressing gowns. "Wait a minute," Frohike said sleepily as he put on his glasses, "Did you just say the 'w' word?" he asked.
Langly grinned. "Yup. Doggett and Reyes need our help to find Mulder. He's gone, and Scully won't tell Doggett where he went," he told them. "Where has she looked?" Byers asked. "Everywhere. Car rentals, plane tickets, no Mulder. That's why she called us," Langly told them. "So my hacking skills are required," he said smugly, before making his way over to the PC. "I'll make some phone calls," Byers volunteered, whilst Frohike offered to look around the local areas and other missing persons database.
While they did that, Langly searched and searched. But no matter what database he searched of travel companies, hotels, and motels, he still couldn't find Mulder. Mulder's name never cropped up. Mulder had well and truly dissapeared. Langly felt some respect for Mulder for that. The man knew how to escape Langly's hacking skills.
Half an hour later, the Gunmen assembled in the lounge area. "Right, I've found nothing," Byers declared, and Langly rolled his eyes. "Great. How about you, Frohike. I mean, come on, Mulder's a sly one, but he's no Invisible Man," he said. Frohike shrugged. "I guess he is, Langly. Unless you found something, my long haired friend?" he asked. Langly finally managed to shake his head no. He hated admitting defeat, as far as hacking was concerned. The other Gunmen knew this and started to joke about him. "Wow, even you don't know where to find someone," Byers remarked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah. I've run plates on local cars, gone through phone directories, still no Mulder. Mr Hacking Genius here didn't find anything either, right?" Frohike asked with a grin.
Langly folded his arms haughtily across his chest. "Hey, I'm the number one hacker here. If I can't find something, then it's definitely not there," he said. "So what will we tell Agent Reyes?" Byers asked.
"That we can't find him. Simple. We've looked everywhere and the man's disappeared. To be honest, I'm a little miffed at him for doing so," Frohike asked.
"Why?" Langly wanted to know. "It's rude, isn't it? Disappearing and leaving your friends behind, and not caring about anyone except himself?" Frohike asked. Langly shrugged. "Hey, the dude's in danger. Probably left in a hurry," he said. "Well I don't think we should help Agent Reyes any more," Frohike said.
"It's clear Mulder doesn't want to be found. So just tell her we tried, and we couldn't find him. Which is the truth, anyway," Frohike said to Byers.
Byers nodded and sighed. "OK, but I think we should help them as much as we can. Mulder's an old friend - we owe it to him, don't we? To see if he's all right?" Byers prodded.
Frohike shook his head. "Oh, all right. We'll tell Reyes that we've found nothing so far. If she looks and then finds nothing, we'll help her a bit more," he said, grudgingly.
Byers smiled. "OK. I'll make that phone call," he said, before Langly and Frohike went back to their computers.