Chapter 9

It was late in the evening by the time Mulder had made it back to the FBI field office. Having parked his rental car in the underground parking garage, he was standing in the lobby waiting to take the elevator up to the Violent Crimes unit, when he heard someone calling his name. He turned to see Carroway walking towards him carrying her jacket and briefcase.

"Hey Mulder, I've been waiting for you all afternoon. Where've you been?"

"Sorry, I had a few leads to check out" he apologized as he watched Carroway slip on the grey suit jacket she had been carrying under her arm. "Are you going home now?" he asked.

"Yeah, I think so; it's been a long day"

"Definitely" he agreed. "I'll run these things past you in the morning," he said as he held up the case file for the Christian Swift murder.

"Well, it's not that late." She said looking at her slim, and no doubt expensive gold wristwatch. "Why don't you come over to my place? I'll make us some dinner, and we can go over the case."

"I don't know…I don't want you to go to any trouble on my…." He answered, being cut off mid-sentence as she grabbed his arm, linking it with her own. "Nonsense, Mulder. I can't have you going back to that crap shack hotel, without any food inside you." He was just about to protest again, when she began to pull him towards the entrance to the parking garage.

"Come on. You can drive, and I'll direct you to my place."

With his free hand, he fumbled in his trouser pocket in an attempt to find his car keys. He couldn't help but think that this wasn't a going to be such a good idea…

Carroway's apartment was located on a quiet, tree-lined street in the West Village. The neighbourhood was full of quaint brownstone houses, with swing sets in the yard and expensive cars parked in the driveway. Carroway's own apartment was halfway along the row of brownstones, with a small set of stones steps leading up to an Art Deco style door, which was painted a calming shade of powder blue.

Once inside, he noticed the interior was just as quaint with chintzy patterns, and cosy looking soft furnishings. While it was nice enough, this cottagey over-elaborate style didn't seem to match somehow with her modern edge and city girl attitude. He took a seat on the sofa, and began to flip through a copy of Cosmopolitan as he waited for Carroway, who had gone off into the kitchen to prepare dinner. He was halfway through reading an article entitled "10 steps to a better orgasm" when Carroway entered carrying a bottle of red wine and two glasses. As she walked by, she cast a suspicious glance over at Mulder, who looked rather guilty as he attempted to push the magazine under a cushion.

As she placed the glasses down on the small table in front of him, he leant forward to place a hand over the glass as she was about to pour. "Not for me thanks, I'm driving remember."

"Aww come on, not even a small one?" she returned with her best persuasive smile. "No, thank you all the same." He replied, tugging at the collar of his shirt.

"Is it warm in here or what?" he mumbled.

"Yeah sorry, the air conditioning is broken" Carroway said as she poured a glass of wine for herself. "Why don't you take your suit jacket off, I'm sure you'll feel more comfortable".

Mulder didn't want to make himself too at home, but the overwhelming heat in the apartment meant he had no choice. He reluctantly shrugged off his jacket and loosened the top button on his shirt, feeling slightly better. As Carroway left the room to go into the kitchen, Mulder caught a whiff of something she was cooking. "What are we having? It smells great," he shouted to her.

"Spaghetti bolognaise" she called back. "Why don't you come on through, it's just about ready."

When Mulder entered the kitchen, Carroway hurried over to the dining table and pulled out one of the black leather chairs. "Have a seat Mulder. Can I get you something else to drink?"

"Thanks" he replied edging towards the table, which he noticed was set out with two place settings, and a vase full of red roses in the middle surrounded by little tea light candles in glass jars, which flickered and glowed casting dancing shadows on the wall behind.

"I'll just have ice tea thanks…or water. Water would be good" he added, surprised to hear his voice had suddenly gone a few octaves higher all of a sudden.

"What's wrong Mulder?" Carroway said with a slight chuckle, suddenly appearing at his side holding a plate of steaming bolognaise. "You sound a little nervous"

"No, I'm not nervous" he coughed in an attempt to dislodge the frog in his throat "I'm just not used to any fancy cooking that's all"

"Fancy cooking?" she laughed, placing a tall glass of water next to Mulders plate, before sitting down at the table in the seat opposite to him. "It's only spaghetti. What you need is a woman in your life, Mulder. Home cooked meals instead of take- out pizza every night."

"How do you know I don't have a woman in my life?" he asked, swirling a fork around the spaghetti, before shovelling it into his mouth.

"Well when you said that you live alone, I just presumed you were…unattached" Carroway replied.

"I suppose I am, technically," he answered taking a sip of ice water.

"What do you mean…technically?" she asked, putting down her fork to reach for her glass of wine.

As Mulder closed his eyes for a second, to think about his response he wasn't surprised to see the image of Scully's face suddenly appearing in his mind's eye as it so often did. She was smiling that special secret smile that was reserved for one of his lame jokes. She wanted to laugh, but was trying so hard not to. He loved that smile.

"Earth to Mulder"

He opened his eyes to see Carroway leaning across the table, staring at him with a puzzled frown on her face. "Sorry" he mumbled, reaching back down for his fork.

"You didn't answer my question."

Mulder took another bite of food, trying to conceal the sudden feelings of annoyance. What business of hers was it anyway?

"I suppose there's no technically about it. I'm a single, unattached thirty-something man who has a closet full of porn because the most meaningful relationship he has going right now, is with the pizza delivery guy."

Carroway snorted out a laugh, and covered her mouth to stop food from spraying across the table. "Maybe that came out wrong." Mulder smiled.

Carroway just laughed and took a sip of wine. "I was right Mulder. You definitely need a woman!"

After they had finished dinner, Mulder went to pick up the file that he'd left on a small side table in the hallway, when he heard his cell phone ringing. Returning to the sofa, he fished the phone out of his jacket pocket and answered on the third ring.

"Mulder"

"Mulder it's me".

"Hey, how's it hanging G-woman?" he said sitting down on the sofa.

"I've been doing some research on that chat room like you asked. Or should I say the guys have."

"Uh-huh" he nodded, knowing that she meant the lone gunmen. Whenever they needed something off the net, those three nerds were always their first port of call. "What did they find?"

"Christian Swift was a regular visitor in the chat room under the username CuriousCee. He mainly used the forums about sleep disorders and nightmares. And you were right Mulder…"

"About what?" he asked sitting up.

"Macey Egbert, she also visited Night Chatter almost on a daily basis. Her user name was Sleepycat39. But get this, we also found that Heather Thomas and Billy Rose were also regular users."

"The third and fourth victims" said Mulder. "But what about Albert Fineman, the first victim? Is he mentioned anywhere?"

"No, that's the only sticking point," said Scully as she looked through the list of users that Frohike had given her. His name definitely wasn't one there.

"Maybe he didn't have a computer; the guy was in his 80's after all" she offered.

"Yeah maybe…" he answered before adding, "Scully I think you should get down here. I need your help on this."

"What? Mulder, I can't just drop everything and leave… What about Kersh?"

"What about Kersh?" Mulder said, picking up his suit jacket from the back of the sofa and began an attempt at putting it on while balancing the phone in his other hand.

"Are you kidding? The guy would be royally pissed" She could almost see the expression on the Assistant Directors face if he knew either of them had gone behind his back. It would not be a pretty sight. "And what about Special Agent Carroway?" she said, not bothering to conceal the scathing tone in her voice. "I think she'd have something to say about me suddenly turning up in New York. It is her case after all."

"Scully, you are my partner, and if I say that I need you on this case then it's not up for discussion. I'll deal with the others later." He turned at that moment to see Carroway walking out of the kitchen, holding two dishes containing what appeared to be lemon meringue pie. He smiled and pointed to his cell to let her know he was talking on the phone, and when she nodded in acknowledgement, he stepped back out into the hall.

"Please Scully" he said in a lowered tone, "I could really use your expertise".

"Fine" she replied sounding mildly irritated. "But just remember if Kersh finds out about this, which no doubt he will…It's my ass on the line too."

"And what a lovely ass it is too" Mulder quipped, with a smile on his face.

"Mulder…" she warned.

He laughed to let her know he was joking. Well sort of joking…"Just get down here, Okay? I'm staying at the Imperial Hotel."

"Okay, I'll be there as soon as I can" she replied before ending the call. He placed his cell phone back in his coat pocket and walked back into the living room where Carroway was sitting, waiting for him on the sofa.

"Was that Agent Scully?" she asked as soon as he entered the room.

"Yeah it was" he sat down, and pointed to the pie which Carroway had placed on the table in front of the sofa "Is that for me?"

"Yes, if you want it" she said.

"Of course, it looks delicious" Mulder replied, picking up the dish and taking a big spoonful of the pie "This is good" he mumbled with his mouth full.

"Glad you like it" she answered curtly. Mulder looked over at her as he spooned the last of the pie into his mouth. She was sitting as far away from him as possible, and he noticed she'd put a cardigan over the low cut dress she was wearing, which he was sure earlier on was for his benefit. He began to wonder if her change in demeanour was due to his phone call with Scully.

"River, I'm sure you heard most of the conversation anyway, but I've asked Scully to come and join me on the investigation."

Carroway huffed and stood up quickly from the sofa "No I didn't hear that part, just the part with all the flirting"

"What?" he coughed, nearly choking on a bit of piecrust. "I asked her down here because she's a first rate investigator, and I'm sure her insight into this case would help us catch whoever's behind these murders".

"Her insight…right is that what you call it?" Carroway retorted angrily. "This is my case Agent Mulder. You have no right to bring other people onto this investigation without my say so."

"Carroway, Agent Scully is my partner," Mulder said, standing up from the sofa to face her "We have an excellent solve rate for these kind of cases, because we work so well together. She's also a trained forensic pathologist. I would have thought you'd jump at the chance of having her join us".

Carroway simply stood and stared at Mulder for a long while. Her arms crossed over her body in a defensive stance, and the anger still written all over her face.

"Okay, fine Mulder. Do whatever you want. I just thought that you and I were getting on well together that's all".

"We are River," he said gently, not wanting to aggravate the situation. "I think with all three of us on this case, we'll stand a better chance of catching this guy before he kills again". He picked up the file and looked at his watch. "It's late, I should get going." He leant forward to place a hand on Carroway's shoulder, "Thank you for dinner, it was very kind of you."

"You're welcome" she finally smiled "I'll see you tomorrow then"

"You will, bright and early" said Mulder as he turned towards the door, and held up the file "I'll let you bring Scully up to speed with the case when she gets here OK?"

"Yeah, no problem" she replied sounding somewhat resigned.

She watched as Mulder climbed into his car, and then waved as he set off down the street. After closing and locking the front door, she grabbed her glass of wine and threw herself onto the sofa, sinking in to its plump cushions. Taking a sip of the wine, she found herself lost in thought. While the case of course took precedence over anything else, she hadn't relied on the presence of Agent Scully being suddenly thrown into the equation.

Getting Mulder to notice her wouldn't be the problem, she was pretty sure she'd seen his eyes light up when she'd sat opposite him at the table, revealing the plunging neckline of her favourite little black dress. No, the problem would be getting Scully off this case, leaving her free to work her magic on Mulder.

Putting down the wine glass, she stood up from the sofa and walked over to admire her reflection in the large silver mirror hanging above her mantelpiece. Flicking back her long dark hair, and pursing her full lips, she smiled to herself "How could he possibly resist?"