The moment Scully saw Mulder reappear, the look on his face told her all she need to know. Somehow he'd discovered her duplicity. Taking the offensive, Dana marched over to him. Slipping her arm through his, Scully shook her head slightly in warning. The grim line of her lips told him not to say anything until they could find somewhere private. Looking over her shoulder, she noticed Mr Normal following them at a discrete distance. The better acquainted she became with their tail, the more convinced Scully became. Mr Normal worked for Cancer Man, but she couldn't place exactly where she'd see him before.
'Dana,' the name rolling off his lips said so much. A bond he didn't quite understand or grasp appeared between them. Mulder knew she made the mark and wondered how, given his new information.
'I'm a doctor, Mulder,' she looked up at him, a slight smile covering her lips, 'I'm trained to observe. When you're working in a busy ER, you have to keep your wits about you. It helps to know where everyone is at all times, especially when you're trying to save a patients life and some individuals going psychotic on speed in the next bay.'
'Sounds a lot like being an FBI agent,' he quipped.
'I guess that's why the FBI recruited me from Medical School,' Scully supplied, watching his eye's dilate with the information, 'although I don't actually start at Quantico until the end of next year. I'm more use with enough experience as a practicing doctor than a fresh recruit.'
Quickly reviewing his memories, Mulder found the surprised comment issuing from his mouth, 'you never actually told me you were with the Bureau, did you. You let me assume.'
'No, I just suggested I'd been with them eight years, the same length of time Dianna Fowley has been,' Scully watched his facial expressions closely.
'You know about Diana?' Mulder looked astounded. 'No wonder Reggie sounded confused at the late substitution of a civilian.'
'Reggie Purdue, head of the VSC,' Scully asked.
'You know Reggie,' Mulder's confusion increased.
'In passing,' she replied, happy in the knowledge she dogged that bullet for the time being, 'he's mentioned in your personnel file as the head of your section within the VSC.'
'You've read my file,' Mulder considered this, 'no wonder you know so much about me. I wish I'd been given the same opportunity.'
They walked around in silence for several minutes. Mulder popped a seed into his mouth, considering how to ask the next question. Reading his intention, Scully beat him to the punch line.
'Just ask, Mulder,' Scully lifted an eyebrow.
'You reached for your weapon like a seasoned professional, Dana, yet you haven't been through basic training,' he stated.
'My brothers and I have been reservist since we turned eighteen. My father and older brother are Captains in the Navy. My younger brother attended college on a Military scholarship. He finished special operations basic training last week,' Scully confided easily. 'Given my family history and the fact I grew up around service personal, I hope you understand my familiarity with weapons.'
'How'd you get roped into this assignment,' Mulder asked, intrigued.
'Modeski is an organic chemist at a weapons research facility for the military,' Scully stated easily, letting Mulder fill in the blanks. She saw the moment his adductive reasoning leapt to the conclusion she wanted.
'So you're not joining me on the University assignment?' Mulder didn't really need to ask but somehow he couldn't keep the disappointment out of his voice. The almost instant bond hinted at a partnership they might have shared.
'Tell me about it,' Scully offered, genuinely interested in the case.
'November 86, three college students were sexually assaulted in New York. No one took much notice when the case went cold or the attacks stoped,' Mulder's sarcasm covered his horror. 'When I interviewed the lead investigator, he sprouted statistics about violent crime in the big apple. He let the case slide Dana.'
'Lack of evidence,' she asked sympathetically.
'Actually, that turned out to be the perpetrators calling card,' Mulder continued his story, 'a lack of evidence. All the girls' medical examinations demonstrated vaginal bruising and tearing, confirming their stories. They didn't remember much about the actual attack. The perpetrator had to be big and rough to cause that kind of damage.'
'Drugged,' Scully assumed.
'Nothing in their toxicology screens,' Mulder spat, 'one of the doctors suggested chloroform.'
'A distinct possibly. Seamen?' Scully enquired evenly, although the pain and humiliation the victims suffered if they'd been unconscious made her swallow down her horror.
'Strangely,' Mulder looked perplexed, 'no.'
'Prophylactics?' Scully guessed.
'Maybe,' Mulder continued, 'especially with lubricant jelly discovered on examination. It doesn't fit the MO of rape unless it's very premeditated. He must have stalked these women for weeks before attacking.'
'What brought about the Bureaus involvement?' Scully understood a second incident must have occurred crossing state lines to interest the VSC.
'November 87, three more victims, this time in Philadelphia, with the same story. Same MO, same lack of evidence,' Mulder's eye's looked blank.
'The Bureau got involved then,' Scully asked, knowing how this type of crime against innocent young women affected her partner, even if he chose not to show his emotions. This Mulder reacted in the way she expected, proving to Scully that some things remained the same.
'No,' the lack of tone in Mulder's voice demonstrated his helplessness, 'not until December, when another two woman were attacked. They weren't so lucky.'
'Up scaling of aggression,' Scully summarised.
'In some ways, yes,' Mulder agreed, 'the assault remained the same but the location changed. These women were abducted and kept for two or three days. They're bodies returned to the abduction point.'
'Brazen,' Scully commented trying to keep the bile in her stomach.
Mulder spared a glance at the woman by his side. So far she'd taken the case details like a consummate professional. It has to be her medical training, he realised.
'November last year, it started again,' Mulder condensed the case to its major points, 'the choice of large university campus in a major metropolitan area is significant. As is the time of year. Three women in November and two in December, it has to mean something to the killer.'
'Did the MO change again,' Scully asked.
'Slightly,' Mulder wondered why he'd told her this much about an ongoing investigation when there could be no chance of her future involvement. 'This time all five women began to physically bear a resemblance. They'd all been newly married, red or red/brown hair, Caucasian, post graduate students. In the two years before, we hadn't been able to narrow down the victims.'
'You profiled the killer?' Scully really didn't need to ask, Mulder's reaction to her question gave her the answer. Waiting for an affirmative nod, Scully enquired, 'you believe you know the location of the next victims?'
'Yes, I think the killer will chose the Baltimore area as he's moving in a southward direction and it's the next major population centre,' Mulder agreered, 'it fits the profile I've built. He'll strike in the first, third and final week of November, then again in the second and fourth week in December. He'll choose is targets early, maybe he already has.'
'What makes you think the killer's a male?' the question seemed obvious to Scully. She vaguely remembered hearing about the murders while working at Baltimore general. Attached to the university campus, young nurses and doctors feared for their lives. It had been so long ago, Scully couldn't recall the exact details. 'I mean, lack of physical evidence and the injury pattern could be explained by assault with an object rather than the more traditional rape.' Suddenly recalling her first brush with the spectre of Spooky Mulder, Scully had been at Quantico when he broke this case just before Christmas 1990. She couldn't recall the details, just the talk from the other recruits and his reputation. 'You've probably been through staff and students at all the colleges,' Scully saw dawn comprehension in the astounded look crossing Mulder's face.
'Scully, you're a genus,' Mulder wanted to grab her and kiss her. Instead he stoped dead, turned towards her and placed both hands on her shoulders. 'Only one name reoccurred at all the institutions, a young woman. We initially suspected her boyfriend but had to let him go when he had an air tight alibi for three of the murders last year.'
'I think you might have your university killer, Mulder,' Scully hoped her guess might prove fruitful. 'You know what they say, love has no fury like a woman scorned.'
'You think she's doing this because the boyfriend hasn't proposed?' Mulder asked, wanting her opinion. His mind worked furiously on this new idea, adding it to the known fact and changing his profile.
'No, I think she'd done it because he has,' Scully didn't need to elaborate.
Mulder knew they might be looking for more than one woman. A blossoming non-traditional relationship fitted the changing MO. A very dominate, intimate affair reminding the killer of the abuse she suffered at her mothers hands as a child, possibly before removal by social services. It explained so much about the case which had proven extremely unusual.
'If your right about this, Dana,' Mulder returned to his ironic best, 'there goes any chance of our staying married.'
Rolling her eyes, Scully couldn't let him have the last word, 'I prefer the more traditional way, Mulder. You know, dating, engagement, wedding. It'd be nice to actually know my husband.'
'Wow, you don't want much Dr Scully,' he returned.
'Right now,' Scully turned her mind back to the task at hand, 'we need to find Modeski.'
'Don't solve this case too quickly, Dana-honey,' Mulder gave her one of his very best puppy dog looks as he linked their hands, 'I've kinda grown fond of your stimulating company.'
Rolling her eyes at his innuendo, Scully realised how much this Mulder resembled her Mulder. They were, after all, the same person, separated by nine years. Scully began to wonder if she dared return his flirtatious banter, given they were both free and consenting adults with an unspoken attraction hovering in the air between them.
To hell with it, Scully decided to throw caution to the wind. After all look were it got me last time, six and a half years of waiting.
'Mulder, once this case is over,' Scully returned in her best neutral tone, hoping he'd take up her suggestion, 'you can enjoy my company all you like.'
'Wow, Dr Scully,' Mulder muttered under his breathe, 'there's nothing like being forward.'
'Believe me,' Scully decided she didn't feel like making the same mistake twice, 'I've done the waiting game and it got me no where.'
