10. Do I Know You?

"...and it's raining to boot," finished the girl, concluding a rant of which Scully heard only the first and last sentences. "Honestly, Dana, are you trying to make my hair frizz?"

"Uh," was Scully's brilliant response. She was shocked by this girl's apparent familiarity with her name. As far as she knew, she was known to the people of Forks as Agent Scully, or Dr. Scully, not Dana.

"Oh, well, I guess I'm forgetting the usual formalities, aren't I?" Sighing in a long-suffering way, the girl danced over to where Scully stood and held out one of her tiny hands. Scully took it, noticing vaguely the same iciness of the doctor in the hallway in its smooth feel. "You're Dana Scully, of course," said the girl, "and I'm Alice. Alice Cullen, but you've figured that out all by yourself."

"Well...nice to meet you," said Scully, unsure of how to answer, since Alice had already introduced her. "but it seems like you know me from somewhere else."

Alice's response to this was a blindingly white smile. "Naturally. But come on-" she raced off to the red covertible and opened its front door, "it's raining cats and dogs out here! Let's get inside and go back to town, so we can find a guy to tow your car. Jasper-" she looked over the top of car, "you won't mind being demoted to the backseat, will you?"

Scully's eyes jumped to the passenger of the red convertible. She received something of an electric spasm as she realized this man was nearly as handsome as the doctor had been. Alice had called him Jasper, but surely she wasn't supposed to believe this fully mature man was in high school? With one hand resting on the top of the car and one on its door, Jasper looked akin to a model for those posh fashion magazines filled with predatory women and ultra-refined men, his blonde hair made damp by the rain and his thin face as angular as a statue's. He, too, had strange amber eyes; but his were haunted, Scully thought, and much too old for a senior in high school.

"Oh, silly me," said Alice, turning back to Scully, "Dana, this is Jasper Hale, my boyfriend and the absolute most wonderful boy in existence! Jasper, this is Dana Scully, like I told you! Isn't she beautiful?" In spite of herself, Scully found it rather flattering to be referred to as 'beautiful' by such an inhumanly lovely girl. "I think she'd make the most stunning actress," continued Alice, as she ducked itno the car and started the engine. "But maybe she prefers the quiet life, like us."

"It's nice to meet you, Jasper," Scully finally said, hoping to get more out of Jasper than a deep stare. If she could get the two of them talking, she might find out more about the Cullen case without either of them knowing.

"Thank you, ma'am," said Jasper, shaken a little out of the stare he'd been divvying up between Scully and Alice. "It's nice to meet you, as well." With some chagrin, Scully realized she'd been staring at Jasper while he had been staring at her. They had been locked in some kind of unconscious fascination with each other, one that left Scully with the impression that they had gotten to know each other better without saying anything.

Alice made an impatient noise in the back of her throat and gestured to the convertible. "The car's running, people! Let's go!"

"Actually, Alice, I think I'll stay with Miss Scully's car," said Jasper, his body rigid and his face suddenly panicked.

"If it's going to be any trouble for you," Scully began, but Alice cut her off.

"No, Jasper, I can't let you stay out here in the rain!" said Alice, looking appalled by the very thought.

"I'll be fine."

"Come on, there's more than enough room for all of us."

"Alice, someone's got to stay with the car to make it sure it can't be fixed," said Jasper, his eyes gaining a bit of desperation in them. He seemed to be communicating something to Alice without words, but what it was proved impossible to tell.

Scully stood mutely by, wondering what on earth she was missing.

"The car will be fine," Alice insisted, and she ran around the car and took Jasper by the hand, pulling him toward the seats. "Just have a little faith, Jasper."

"Really," Scully said, "if it's going to be any trouble for you, I can just call my-"

"It's no trouble!" sang Alice. "Now into the car with both of you and no more complaining! You'd think I was herding around a couple of mules!"

With identical looks of discomfort, Scully and Jasper did as they were told, Scully running back to her car, pulling out her tote bag, and moving hurriedly to the convertible. Scully obeyed Alice because she was somewhat harassed by the girl's hyper-active hospitality and because she really had few options, but Jasper seemed to obey Alice out of pure instinct. He folded himself into the back seat of the convertible with no further protest, and Alice rewarded him with another shining smile before climbing into the driver's seat.

All the way to Forks, Alice kept up a stream of conversation, drawing Scully into her topic of interest easily. The girl was definitely a talker, a striking contrast to her entirely silent boyfriend. Their relationship intrigued Scully, even from the little she had seen of it. From what she could tell, Jasper and Alice were opposites: one was withdrawn, one was blatantly extroverted; one appeared inclined to brood, one displayed enough enthusiasm for three people. Scully found it sweet that they were a couple, although the fact that they lived in the same house as foster children was odd.

Then Scully's analytical mind took over, and she remembered she was riding with potential accessories to murder, or actual murderers. That goaded her into speaking to Alice, disrupting the girl's monologue on the latest shoe fashions. "I haven't thanked you yet for picking me up, Alice."

"Oh, it was no problem," said Alice cheerfully.

Scully wasn't finished yet. "It was very fortunate that you came along when you did, but I have to ask...Were you skipping school?"

"Yes," answered Alice. Scully heard a faint noise from Jasper that sounded like an annoyed sigh. "It's healthy to ditch now and then." She winked at Scully from the corner of her eye. "You'd better be glad we did, too, or you would still be stuck out on the higway."

"Well, as a matter of fact, I was going to call my partner just when you showed up, so I wouldn't have been stranded long." Casually mentioning her partner was a good way to work into the subject of the case.

"Partner? Like, a business partner?"

"Kind of like a business partner. We're from the FBI."

There was the tiniest pause as Alice disgested that information. "Oh?"

"Yes," Scully replied, "we're here to investigate the murder of Allison Pratchett, the college girl who was killed here about five days ago."

In the bare, two-second lull in the conversation, Scully knew Alice and Jasper were connecting some dots in their heads, but she didn't break the silence. Putting your suspects on edge could turn out productive results. At last, Alice picked up where she had left off. "Who's your partner?"

"His name is Fox Mulder."

"Is he tall, dark, and handsome? Is he like James Bond? Does he wear Armani suits?" Alice, Scully knew, was speeding through questions in order to cover up her moment of disconcertion. She wondered what so unnerved the two adopted Cullens, aside from the presence of an FBI agent in their car.

"He's pretty handsome," said Scully, smiling at the idea of Mulder running around in a designer suit, suave as James Bond. "As for the Armani suit, he's lucky if he buys a new pair of slacks from JC Penney's every few months."

Shuddering delicately, Alice let out a small groan. "So I guess they don't pay you much at the FBI. Or does he just have abominable fashion sense?"

"He does what he can, for a man. My advice to him is to buy navy or black, so everything will match."

"Sound advice, except putting navy and black together-"

Alice shuddered again, causing Scully to laugh. "You're right, Alice, our salaries could use some bolstering once in a while. But, of course, we didn't join the FBI for the profits."

"Oh, no. The kind of government workers who get the job done." Although Alice's voice was teasing, Scully sensed an underlying current in her words.

"That's right," Scully said, keeping her own voice light. "Mulder and I have our causes, and investigating murders happens to be one of them."

"That's good," said Alice, her eyes on the road. "Murders have to be investigated sometime, right?"

"Right."

"Only, Dana, I can't help but ask..." The girl's full mouth turned down, her petite face shadowed. "Do you ever get the feeling that, sometimes, there's people who don't want you to get your job done?"

"Alice," said Jasper, sharply.

"All the time," Scully told her, memories of all of her and Mulder's 'unsolved' cases on her mind. If it weren't for the powers that be, so many lives might have been saved.

"Well..." Alice chewed her lip pensively. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I think this is one of those times."

Like a frost descending on an unsuspecting morning, a chill fell over Scully, and she looked over at Alice, who still watched the road. "What do you mean?" she asked, slowly.

Alice shook her head. "Don't ask me that, okay?"

"Why not? Is there something you need to tell me?"

"No."

"Are you sure, Alice? If there's anything you can tell me that will help the case-"

"Yes, I'm sure. I can't tell you."

Scully opened her mouth, ready to mercilessly pound the both of them until they explained their cryptic behavior, but the buzz of her cell phone at her hip interrupted her. She hit 'answer'. "Hello?"

"Scully?"

"Yes, Mulder, what is it?"

"Where are you?"

"I'm on my way back to the police station. What's the matter?"

"Nothing," said Mulder, but his voice was too even for Scully's comfort. "I just need to talk to you."

"Okay, I'll be there soon."

"Good. Scully, you haven't talked to the Cullens yet, have you?" Mulder's distorted voice projected too loudly in the small car. Scully knew Alice and Jasper caught that last question. Ostentatiously, Alice kept her eyes facing forward without any sign that she'd heard.

"I'll let you know when I get there, Mulder," said Scully, wincing a little.

"Right."

"I presume you've found something out about this case?"

"I have," said Mulder. "But you're just not going to believe it."