CHAPTER THREE

Having had the run around at the lab and getting caught in the traffic on the highway, Scully was making her way to the hotel a late. She climbed the steps, an effort to lift her foot from one to the other until she came to room five and knocked softly on the door, when there was no answer she knocked again louder this time, still no luck. She tried next door… nothing. She exhaled slowly she had become very used to her partner doing this. Hesitantly she made her way back down the stairs to the front office. "Hi" she said to the elderly gentlemen behind the desk "my name is Agent Scully…" before she could finish he interrupted.

"Ah yes Agent Scully your partner wanted me to give you this" he handed her the key to her room and a folded piece of paper. She recognized her partners scrawl instantly:

'Scully went to Dallas PD. I'll bring back dinner'

M.'

She tucked the note into her pocket and made her way back up the stairs to her room. She put the key into the door and turned the handle. These rooms always looked the same - bed, table, chair, TV, bathroom - sure some were cleaner, some more modern this one wasn't too bad she supposed as far as hotel rooms go, they had stayed here during their last case in Dallas so at least it held some familiarity to her. She threw the file and key on the table and made her way to the bathroom. Her clothes still carried the stench of the morgue so she removed them and stepped into the shower.

Mulder carefully balancing the takeaway boxes and his own case files in his arms made his way gingerly up the stairs to the hotel room, the hotel key dangling in his mouth. He got to the door and stood in front of it contemplating how he was going to open it with the keys in his mouth and sweet and sour sauce dripping down his full hands. He leaned his elbow over the door knob, it slipped over it, he tried tapping the door with his hip 'click' the door pushed open 'ah' he thought to himself Scully's back and made a mental note to scald her for leaving the door unlocked. "Scully?" He called his voice muffled by the keys, he spat them down on the bed and placed the hot boxes of food down on the table "Scully?" he tried again

"Mulder, Is that you?"

He held his sauce covered hands out in from of him as he waded through to the bathroom. Scully's face peered out from behind the shower curtain her hair covered in thick lathery bubbles. "Hey - who were you expecting?" he questioned suspiciously leaning down to kiss her firmly on the lips "mmm you smell good" He kissed her again.

She crinkled her nose "hmmm you don't" and flicked the curtain closed. He walked over to the basin and washed the sauce off his hands.

"What were you doing at the Police Department Mulder?"

"I'll tell you over dinner Scully, come on its getting cold". He left the bathroom and started to open the boxes carefully trying not to burn his fingers. He heard the shower turn off and turned to see Scully in her white hotel bathrobe her hair slicked back still wet.

"That smells good, god I'm starving" she sat down at the table. Mulder loosened then undid the knot in his tie, he pulled it through the collar and threw it on the bed, and then un-buttoned the first four buttons of his shirt while grabbing plates and forks from the cupboard and set them down on the table. They hungrily started to dish the food onto their plates.

"So what happened at the PD?" Scully asked stuffing a mouthful of rice into her mouth.

"Well after you called from the morgue Detective Smith called me, he was the first on the scene in the Anderson case, he was on the late shift again so asked if I wanted to come down and look at some new evidence he had found."

"New evidence?"

"Yeah he hadn't given the case another thought being that the guys was a 65year old who had a young girlfriend and a medical condition in other words he thought it was an open and shut case. But when he found out the FBI were being brought in he went back for a closer look, make sure nothing had been missed."

"He found something?"

"Yeah - blood"

"What?"

"Well evidence of blood. It showed up under his florescent torch."

"So someone cleaned up after themselves then."

"I don't know Scully he said there didn't appear to be any evidence of cleaning solution but the blood splatter was definitely consistent with a gunshot wound and in comparison to the position of the 'vic' boom" he pointed a finger sternly into his chest for emphasis "straight through the left lung."

Scully realized she had stopped chewing her mouthful and began slowly chewing it again "what's your theory Mulder?"

"Well we have a blood spatter pattern, but no actual blood, a bullet wound with no actual bullet and the only witness was a woman sleeping across town who saw her dead husband pull the trigger". He paused to take in a mouthful. "I don't know Scully it's like on one hand" he dropped his fork and held out his right hand "you have Joanne's dream her husband shooting her step father in cold blood in some fiery revenge scene on the other hand" he held up his left hand "at the exact same moment her stepfather got out of bed to take a wiz and dropped dead when a blood clot punctured his lung and somehow" he entwined his fingers "the two realities merged leaving bits of physical evidence from each scenario". Scully had stopped chewing again; she chewed three times slowly then swallowed her mouth full giving him that all too familiar 'you're crazy' look. "Well ok Scully what happened at the morgue?" He stuffed a spring roll into his mouth.

"First of all there was no blood clot. I took a swab off the wound down to the lab and had it tested"

"Tested for what?" It was his turn to talk through a mouthful.

"Gunshot residue."

"And?"

"And it was positive."

"Huh."

"While I was at the morgue I bumped into Dr. Taylor, you know he accused me of castrating him Mulder" her voice had raised an octave.

"Well you are handy with that scalpel Scully" He said waggling his eyebrows. She picked up a fortune cookie and threw it at him.

"Anyway when I got the result from the lab I called and asked him to take a casting of the wound, see if we could match the striation pattern to a bullet, we should have the results tomorrow" she scraped the last morsel of food off her plate at put it into her mouth.

"I better call Skinner" Mulder reached for his phone

"No" Scully extended her hand to him "I'll call Skinner you go shower Mulder you smell like a homeless person" He handed her the phone and headed for the bathroom. Scully walked over to the bed and lay down suddenly feeling very tired. She dialed Skinners number and listened to it ring, the answering service clicked on, she listened to the message and waited for the beep. "Yes hi Sir its Scully, just calling to fill you in on the case. We have pulled together a few pieces of new evidence ah, I won't go into it over the phone but we should know more tomorrow, we'll give you a call back then". She pressed the end button and threw it on the bed side table grabbing the TV remote at the same time. She lay her head down and turned the TV on. Flicking through the channels she settled on a nature show about wild cats, the drone of David Attenborough's voice lulling her to sleep.

Mulder stepped out of the bathroom just a towel around his waist "Hey Scully I left my clothes in my room can you go grab my bag?….. Scully?" He tip toed over to the bed she was fast asleep. He grabbed the blanket that was folded down at the end of the bed and draped it over her then pushed a strand of hair that had fallen over her eyes and tucked it behind her ear.

"Hmmm" she stirred slightly but didn't wake. He reached for his clothes and his keys and pulled the door open scanning the hall, making sure no-one was lingering and then tip toed over to his room.

Mulder looked at his watch it was 7.30am if they didn't get moving they were going to be late for their interview with Skinners sister. He stood outside Scully's hotel room door checking his pockets and belt – 'badge, keys, wallet, gun check,check,check' He said in his mind and then knocked on the door. Scully pulled it open.

"Good morning" she was dressed and had her glasses on she moved aside letting him walk into the room.

"Morning" he replied brushing passed her. "We better get moving or we are going to be late."

"Yeah I've just been preparing for our interviews" she removed her glasses putting them in their case then gathered up her badge, file and gun clipping it into her belt holster. "I missed you last night" she said not looking up at him.

He shrugged innocently "you looked so peacefully Scully I didn't want to disturb you." He smiled at her softly. She picked up the coffee she had made but not gotten around to starting and took a few sips "eew cold."

"Here" he grabbed it from her and finished it in four large gulps.

"Hey" Scully said indignantly.

"You ready to go then?" He put the cup down.

"Yeah but you owe me a coffee on the way now" He smiled at her again and snaked his arm around behind her placing his hand on her back and pushed her gently out the door.

Mulder banged firmly on the large oak door.

"Are you sure this is the right place Mulder?" They stood outside the residence of Joanne Harrison.

"Yeah Skinner gave me the address, she confirmed it last night" he replied and knocked again this time more loudly. "Mrs. Harrison?" He called. They heard slippers dragging along the floor and then the door opened. "Joanne Harrison?" Mulder enquired pulling out his badge "I'm Fox Mulder this is Dana Scully we spoke on the phone last night."

Joanne stood in front of the agents in her night gown and slippers her hair un-brushed and nose red from being blown too often. "Hi yes come in" she said through a blocked nose they moved through the house to the dining room. "Please excuse my appearance I have a nasty flu I can't seem to shake."

"Have you seen a Dr. Mrs. Harrison?" Scully asked as they sat at the table.

"Yeah it's just a flu not much they can do really." Her slippers flipped against her heels as she walked into the kitchen and started to fill the jug. "Can I offer you a drink?"

Scully jumped up from the table "here how about I do that you sit down."

'ACHOO!' Joanne sneezed in reply and Scully moved her face away quickly in an attempt to protect her airway from the residual spray. "Sorry excuse me."

"Gazuntite" Mulder called from the table. Joanne flipped her slippers back across the kitchen and sat opposite Mulder at the table while Scully hunted through the cupboards to find what she needed for the drinks.

"Thanks for coming out here on this Agent Mulder I'm sure my story must sound a little crazy to you." She grabbed a tissue from the box on the table and brought it her sore nose.

"Don't worry we specialize in the weird and wonderful Mrs. Anderson" Mulder said - an attempt to make her more comfortable.

"Speak for yourself Mulder" Scully flashed a cheeky smile at her partner and brought the drinks to the table taking her seat. Joanne laughed quietly and nodded her head thanking Scully for the drink.

"Yes Walter has told me a bit about you too" Mulder and Scully shot each other a glance. Joanne noting a certain amount of discomfort from her revelation added "all good things, I can tell he trusts you otherwise he wouldn't have sent you out here."

"Tell us about your stepfather Mrs. Harrison" Scully started.

"Please call me Joanne" she blew her nose again and began her story.

"My parents divorced when I was very young; around nine or ten, Walter would have been around thirteen. We all took it pretty hard although all of us saw it coming. My father left and got himself a new life, he didn't leave much room for Walter and I so it was just us and mum for a long time. Jake didn't come onto the scene until Walter was about seventeen, just as he left home for college, I was fourteen and like most fourteen year old girls showed my rebellious resistance into this new intruder in our lives. I guess my attitude finally got the better of him and one day after an argument about…. Gosh I don't even remember now the car I think; he slapped me fair across the face." Her eyes dropped and she paused and sniffed, not sure if it was the flu anymore or just dragging up these old memories. "After that he thought that was the only way to get his message across" she met their eyes again.

"Did he ever hit your mum?" Mulder asked sympathy in his tone.

"Not that I ever saw I think he used other ways to control her, anyway I left home, him and mum were together for a few years after that, then one day he just left. When I moved up to Dallas I found out he had moved in with a younger model although I never saw or spoke to him. I got to know Sharee when Doug got sick, she was his nurse - Sharee - and Jakes partner."

"Doug was your husband?" Scully asked.

"Yes" Joanne replied dropping her gaze to her fidgeting hands on the table now unable to deny the tears as they started to swell in her eyes.

"I'm sorry Joanne" Scully grabbed a tissue from the box and handed it to her "I know this is difficult but can you tell us a bit about your husband's condition."

"Yeah, thanks, its ok" she wiped the tears from her eyes quickly an attempt to conceal their existence and kept them firmly at her hands now tearing the tissue into little pieces. Mulder and Scully kept their eyes on her. "It all happened so fast, he was complaining of headaches for maybe three weeks, his mood changed so quickly, he would get so angry! Which was completely not like him, Doug was the sweetest, kindest man you would ever have known. I watched him slowly turn into, into, a monster! One day he came home from work and tripped over a shoe I hadn't put away properly, he just lost it, he was screaming at me calling me things I thought I would never hear pass his lips." She looked up at the agents with the same fear her eyes held that day. "He was so angry! He charged towards me and grabbed my wrist squeezing it so hard I thought it would snap. I was begging him to let me go. Then his eyes grew cold, they glassed over and it was like I saw the exact moment that tumor overtook his beautiful mind completely. He fell to his knees then, clutching his head. I called an ambulance, we went to the hospital and he." She paused drawing a short breath "he never came out." She looked down at the tiny pieces of tissue she had been tearing. "The Drs. said the tumor was in the part of his brain that controlled his emotions and personality that's why his mood was so altered. He deteriorated so quickly, there was really nothing they could do besides pain control and sedation to try and control his violent outbursts. He just changed so much." She couldn't stop the tears falling now; they rolled freely down her face. "He threatened everyone, he yelled, he threw things, in a week he didn't even know who I was. None of the staff wanted to look after him; he threw a full bed pan at one of the nurses' once." She laughed nervously through her tears. "Sharee was great, very kind; she put up with so much and always offered a shoulder for me to cry on."

"Did she know about your connection to Jake?" Scully asked.

"No, well if she did she didn't let on. I knew of course but I never brought it up. I didn't want Jake in my life again."

"Skinner indicated you thought Jake had been violent towards Sharee?" Mulder questioned rather than stated.

"Yeah she always wore a long top under her scrubs, it was so hot in there I wondered if it was to cover something. One shift she rolled her sleeves up during Doug's bed sponge and I thought I saw finger marks bruised onto her forearm. When she saw me looking she covered them up."

"Did you confront her about this?"

"No Agent Mulder I wanted to keep our private lives quite separate."

Mulder nodded in response "tell us about your dream."

Joanne had stopped crying and regained her focus. "Have you ever had a dream that is so real, so vivid that when you wake up you feel disorientated like you weren't supposed to be in your bed, you were there, right in your dream?" Mulder and Scully nodded together both too familiar with images from their pasts haunting their dreams. "It was like that although at first I didn't recognize Jake, just Doug, well Doug's face his body but it was the Doug from that hospital bed not my husband. He was in a room I didn't know but the room was so clear in my mind I could tell you the color of the sheets, the pattern on the wallpaper. I saw the gun and the look in Doug's eyes, he raised it up, pointed it at the man who was begging for his life."

"Were you there in your dream? Were you there in the room?" Mulder asked eagerly.

"No. Yes, kind of, it was like watching a movie screen, a horror film; you know when you scream at the girl in the movie 'don't go up the stairs the killer is up there' - like that I was there but no-one was aware I was there and I was frozen. Anyway Doug pulled the trigger and then everything went into slow mo. I saw the bullet as it flew across the air and into his chest, my god there was so much blood, it was then that I realized it was Jake although he had aged I knew it was him." Joanne's tone dropped down low she was still, her eyes held a spot on the wall in front of her like she was picturing his face, remembering the horror scene that played out in front of her that night. She shook her head shaking the images out of her mind's eye and looked back at the agents. "Anyway that's when I woke up, I was drenched in sweat, I had a fever of 104." She stood then pushing her chair away "excuse me a second I need some more aspirin." She shuffled her feet out of the room.

Scully looked over at her partner meeting his eyes she raised her eyebrows then stood gathering up the empty cups and taking them into the kitchen.

"What are you thinking Scully?"

"What do you want me to say Mulder?" she turned to face him one hand on the bench and one on her hip. "The dream could still be a complete coincidence I mean she said she got really close to Andersons partner maybe during their conversations she was able to gain some insight into their relationship, even talked about that room and then at an unconscious level the image of the room was imprinted in her mind then came out in her dream, where in some subconscious desire to seek revenge on her abusive step father her husband, who had recently become capable of open violence stepped into her dream and shot him." She waited tentatively for Mulders response his expression wrecked of sarcasm.

"You think they talked about wallpaper patterns?"

Joanne walked back into the room then. "You do think I'm crazy don't you?" Her eyes shifted between the pair.

"No" Scully said placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "We are just trying to establish the facts."

Joanne looked deep into Scully's eyes "I know what I saw Agent Scully."

Mulder broke their cold stare. "Joanne in your dream Doug had a gun?"

"Yes Agent Mulder how many times do we have to…"

He cut her sentence short "no, I know, I just mean have you ever seen Doug with a gun? I mean if the dream were real, where would he get a gun from?"

"It was his gun, he had his gun" Mulder stood now and walked towards the two women standing in the kitchen.

"Where's the gun now?"

"It's here, in the safe in our room."

"Can we see it?"

"Sure" she headed down the hallway indicating for them to follow her. Once in the master bedroom she removed a wedding portrait from the wall revealing a small safe. She turned the dial forward, then back, then forward again, the clogs of the lock clicking into place then snapping open. She pulled out a black gun box and handed it to Mulder. He flicked open the silver catch and lifted the lid revealing the gun. It was a 9mm hand gun one commonly used in home defense.

"When was the gun fired last?" he asked.

"Ah it hasn't, well it probably was at some point before we brought it but we never fired it. I don't think we even loaded it. Doug brought it one day after we had a break in he thought it would make us feel safer, but we never actually fired it."

"And you are sure this was the gun you saw in your dream?" Scully asked pointing to the gun.

"Yes Agent Scully it definitely was I recognized the pattern on the handle."

Mulder snapped the box shut "would you mind if we took this Joanne?"

"No of course not take it I never liked that thing anyway." Mulder started to leave the room Scully placed a hand on Joanne's shoulder.

"Thank you Joanne how about you go back to bed, get some rest and be sure to keep your fluids up."

"Sounds good thank you Agent Scully."

Scully followed her partner out of the door. She could see him sitting in the car waiting for her as she briskly walked down the path that lead to the car. She opened the car door and sat into the passenger seat. "Where to now Mulder?" She pulled her seatbelt and fastened it across her chest.

"I thought I could drop you at the hospital, you go and find out what you can about Doug Harrison, we'll drop the gun at the lab on the way, see if we can match it to the bullet hole you found in Andersons chest." She looked at him perplexed at her own admission that it was in fact a bullet hole. "You know your cute when you're confused Scully."

"Mulder" she cocked an eyebrow at him "so where are you going to go then?"

"I'm going to talk to Sharee, re-visit the crime scene" he turned his eyes to the road and put his foot down.