Monday morning, Mulder lamented watching his wife sleep. I love you, he added silently, still too insecure to say the words aloud, even after the weekend they'd spent in Quonochontaug. Leaning over to her side of the bed, he gently laid a kiss on her cheek before heading for the shower and the start of yet another week.

While the hot spray hit him in all the right places, Mulder's mind returned to the wonderful surprise Scully managed to pull off. True, they hadn't left the cabin for any great length of time or any of the furniture untouched in their need to be constantly joined. Smiling he remembered taking her to dinner at a small family run Italian restaurant. Dana's socked foot played with his calf during the salad course, moving higher as the meal progressed. By desert, Mulder couldn't stand her teasing anymore and ordered it to go. They enjoyed it much better in the privacy of the cottage using each other instead of plates.

Sunday they'd walked along the shore, Dana demanding he tell her about his childhood. The one in which Samantha existed. Apparently they hadn't discussed such personal topics in their other life. Mulder didn't realise how therapeutic recalling those happy events could be, especially when shared with someone who cared as much as his Dana. The evening arrived and they'd been forced back to reality.

Returning to the bedroom for his clothes, Scully stirred. Smiling, Mulder stilled, taking the time to watch as she repositioned her body. A sigh accompanied a hand seeking him. Still the loss didn't wake her. Nor should it, considering the amount of energy they expanded over the three day birthday weekend. Dr Scully now had seven night shifts in a row to make up for playing hooky with her husband.

I don't see enough of you now, Mulder's smile turned into a frown. Leaving their room and his sleeping partner, a shiver ran the length of his spine. Thinking about his teaching timetable, he mentally moved it around to encompass this new phase of their life.

I'll come home after my three O'clock lecture. I can walk with Dana to the hospital, before going back for my adult evening class, Mulder set his face in grim determination, at least I'll get to spend a couple of hours with my wife. Bowl of cereal in his hand, he headed to the freezer, removing the left-overs from Thursday's evening meal. We can even share a dinner before I have to say goodbye, he planned, I just can't imagine sleeping in that bed alone. Somehow this place seems empty without Dana in it. Or maybe it's just my life that's empty without her in it. Scribbling a note for his wife when she finally awoke, Mulder rinsed his dishes and left the apartment.

Pounding at the door woke Scully before midday. 'All right all ready,' she shouted, still rubbing the sleep from her eyes. As the noise increased in volume and intensity, Dana tied a robe around her waist. 'I'm coming,' she called somewhat angry to be rudely awoken when she knew it couldn't be Mulder racing home to wish her good morning.

Peering through the peak hole, Dr Dana Scully knew the moment she'd feared, the reason for this assignment as Mulder's wife had occurred. Sharon stood outside the apartment door. Malevolence shrouded the woman with a sickly sweet smile covering her features. Scully knew her husband would be in the middle of a tutorial and no help.

Calling out again, Scully started to call Reggie's number. The lock mechanism began to move, opening at the same time Dana's fingers hit the last number. Placing the receiver behind the body of the phone, she would never know if her distress call reached its target. Turning to face her nemesis, Scully could only hope Reggie understood her cry for help.

'Sharon,' Scully managed to sound surprised at the sudden intrusion into her home. While fear threatened, Dana's usual stoic personality took charge. Her weapon remained in a locked box under the bed. She didn't have time to retrieve it. Yet Scully didn't allow emotion to flicker across her face.

The evil grin on the woman's face told a story. Psychotic, Scully realised, Sharon's in the middle of a psychotic episode. Dana managed in an angry voice, 'what's the meaning of breaking into my home. Please leave,' she stated, trying to make it to the door and away from the open phone line.

The laugh, unhinged and vindictive became accompanied by words Dana would never forget. 'You think you have it all, don't you,' Sharon's eyes focused on her target as Scully attempted to brush by. 'The husband, a kid on the way, the perfect little family,' she taunted, reaching out to grab hold of Dana's upper arm, 'but you don't. You have nothing.'

Moving with lighting speed, Sharon mothered Scully's mouth and nose with an ether soaked rag she held behind her back. Scully fought, valiantly, but to no avail, her skills no match for Sharon's. Dana's profile proved correct. While this woman might look small and fragile, in fact, she'd honed her body with a gruelling schedule of martial arts and body building. As the gas entered her lungs, burning its way into her system, Scully struggled to stay conscious.

Joanne entered the apartment for the first time. 'I'll administer the sedative,' she told her conspirator, 'then we can move her. I have it all set up.'

'Let's go,' Sharon looked around, wondering what they'd missed. 'I get the feeling were being watched and I don't like it.'

Laughing, a high pitched manic sound, Joanne responded, 'I checked the husband's teaching schedule. It's full after taking the weekend off. He won't even notice she's missing until tomorrow morning at the earliest.'

'How like a man,' Sharon shared her lover's humour as they removed Scully's robe. Wrapping her into a blanket, they lifted her limp body into a trolley.

At first Reggie thought the call a prank. Something in the silence, no not silence, the quality of the breathing caught his attention. Signalling to one of his agents to get a trace on the line, he listened intently. Then he heard Dana's angry voice telling Sharon to leave her apartment. Placing his hand over the receiver, he began barking orders while keeping most of his attention on the words being spoken.

'Where's the detail on Mulder's wife,' he all but growled as he heard Scully struggling to breath. 'Get the University task force together, they're about to take the bait. I want Mulder released from his responsibilities at the university. Keep him out of the way. I don't want him involved in this.'

'Why,' rooky agent, Brendon Stevenson, asked his partner, surprised at Reggie's orders. He'd already placed the trace and stood awaiting an answer.

'He'd emotionally invested,' Trevor answered quietly. He'd only met Dana Scully on Wednesday but the smouldering intensity of the relationship had been obvious. They were besotted with each other. It appeared Mulder had finally met his match. The guys had teased him unmercifully. Mulder had taken the good natured bantering on the chin, even joining in occasionally. They'd never seen him his happy and the other guys hadn't suspected the marriage to be an undercover assignment.

'But,' the younger man stuttered, 'she's an agent.'

Shaking his head, Trevor explained, 'Dr Scully's a civilian consultant. Fraternisation rules don't apply. They could really be married for all the Bureau can do about it.'

'Oh,' Agent Stevenson began to understand the implications. If the press got a hold of this, the FBI would be blamed for placing an innocent in danger. The coverage and political fallout wouldn't be good. 'The call came from Mulder's apartment at the university,' Brendon called to Reggie, who nodded. He knew making Stevenson feel somewhat useless.

'Reggie,' Trevor's brow furrowed, 'neither agents assigned to Dana are answering their cells. I'll call campus security and see if they can be found.'

'What other assets do we have on the ground,' Reggie asked. Blank stares greeted his questions, because they knew only one agent at the University, Mulder. 'God help us all if he gets to those women before we do. Trevor, call his cell.'

'He's not carrying it,' Trevor replied, 'a junior lecture wouldn't have the salary to cover the cost so he handed it in after a student called him out on it.'

Swearing under his breath, Reggie considered his options. They were diminishing by the moment. 'Has anyone got anything?' he asked sarcastically, 'It'll be at least an hour and a half before we can get on location.'

'Local PD,' Agent De Caglie shouted across the room, 'they've sent a car to pick up the suspects. Anne's faxing a copy of the warrant to them now.'

'Let's go,' Reggie ordered, understanding they'd need to get the originals to the Baltimore PD if they wanted to hold Sharon Phillips and Joanne Withers for questioning. 'I just hope we get there in time. God only knows where they're going to stash Dr Scully for the next few days.'

Something niggled at the back of Mulder's mind. He couldn't remove the picture of Dana reaching out to him in her sleep this morning. It seemed like an omen telling him not to leave her. All his attempts to force the image from his thoughts didn't work.

'I'll go home during my lunch hour,' he made the decision, looking down at his watch. This morning's internal mussing made him late for his eleven O'clock tutorial. Rushing through the material, he'd been about to leave ten minutes early when he'd been accosted by two freshmen.

Calley O'Hare, an eminently sensible young woman looked particularly upset. Her body language had Mulder's instincts on edge. Somehow he knew this tied into his case. Taking the young women back to his office, he quickly apologised, placing a call to Scully, only to find the line engaged.

His mind struggled to be in two places at once. Mulder didn't really take in his student's plight at first. It took several attempts, but finally the story of an attempted sexual assault by another woman emerged. As the details of the attack materialized, Mulder knew Joanne Withers had become sloppy. She'd attempted to take Calley without her partner for a little fun but had been interrupted. Breaking cover, Mulder finally convinced the girls to open up the FBI's female sexual assault officer by reporting the incident.

Quickly attempting to contact Scully before calling the FBI, he found the line still engaged. A week ago they'd sat comfortably on the couch, Dana on the phone to her sister for over an hour. He didn't know what they found to talk about, but wondered if his wife now told her sister about the weekend they'd spent together. Mulder hoped rather than believed. Instinctively he knew something to be wrong.

Redialling, he smiled warmly at Calley in the hope of keeping the teenager calm. After all she'd trusted Mulder enough to come to him with her assault, he couldn't betray her faith. It took several minutes to get through to Reggie. The moment he connected, Mulder heard the tension in his boss's voice and the crackle of the cell phone.

'Mulder, where the hell are you?' Reggie demanded.

'In my office,' he answered, confused, 'I have a connection to the case we're working on. I need a female agent from the SAU out here as soon as you can arrange it. A woman attacked one of my students and attempted to physically assault her.'

'Mulder,' Reggie warned.

'Joanne's attempted an assault on her own,' Mulder cut him off before he could say more. Quickly giving the most pertinent details, aware Calley and her friend listened into the conversation, he asked, 'do you think we have enough for an arrest.'

'When did you last see Dana?' Reggie asked carefully. Two attacks on the same day meant a major up scaling of aggression. God only knew what they'd done to Dr Scully in time she'd been gone. They'd have to be more careful when moving in on Phillips and Withers.

'This morning,' he replied. Suddenly he knew why Reggie answered his cell and why traffic noise could he heard in the background. 'They took her, didn't they? They broke into our apartment and abducted my wife.'

'Yes,' Reggie sighed, 'she had the intelligence to leave the line open while it happened.'

'I tried calling at just before midday,' Mulder now understood why the line had been engaged. Half an hour, his mind catalogued the exact amount of time. She'd been gone for at least thirty minutes. Playing with the wedding band on his finger, he couldn't believe the maelstrom of emotions the thought generated.

'That's about the time I received her call,' Reggie confirmed, 'we'll be at least another half hour before we can get to your location. The Baltimore PD has an APB out for our prime suspects.'

'I'm going to the apartment now,' Mulder spoke hurriedly into the phone, 'make sure you have a female agent come to my office for Calley and Becca. I've recorded their statments with permission. I'll make sure they stay here until someone comes to collect them.'

Dropping the phone on its receiver, Mulder turned to the frightened young women. 'You heard me,' he pleaded, 'stay here. I don't want either of you involved in this more than you already are. Someone should be here soon. Just make sure they have identification before letting them into my office, OK.'

'She's,' swallowing convulsively, Calley couldn't look at him, 'she's got your wife.'

'So it would appear,' Mulder took the time to settle the terrified teens, 'but we're going to catch them and make sure they can't hurt anyone ever again.'

Nodding sadly, Calley kept her head down, shamed this had occurred. Becca watched Mulder leave with sorrowful eyes, hoping his wife hadn't been hurt the way the woman had terrorised her friend. After the teacher, who'd turned into an FBI agent left, she locked to door behind him but it still didn't make either girl feel safe.