Author's Note: Yes! Finally, my friends! I have updated! And finally, a Mulder POV!
So sorry for the delay, but...you know how it goes. As Mulder might say, "I had places to run to, people to pull a gun on, and problems to cause." :)
By the Way; on a side note, I just watched the X-Files episode "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'", and it was pure genius. I pretty much died laughing. Serious hyperventilation.
Song...: .com/watch?v=1MoTv7mIp8M Get On Your Boots by U2 (weird for the chapter, but applicable to Mulder. That's all that matters.)
Enjoy!
25. Mulder
What.
The.
Devil?
Mulder stared at the wideo feeds, running the tape backwards to glower yet again at the hulking form of Sam Uley as he slouched around Scully's room. If Sam was any indication, every kid on LaPush reservation had abnormal amounts of growth hormone coursing through their bodies. Seeing that giant form standing over Scully, who looked even more tiny in her sleep, was enough to start up a tick in Mulder's eye.
What he couldn't figure out was how the kid had gotten in. Well, no, that wasn't all he didn't know; why he was in Scully's room was another fact he had yet to decode. He rewound the tape again, slowing down at the point where Sam first appeared in the feeds. Once he had slowed it down to five frames per second, Mulder could finally see where Uley had entered the room.
Mulder blinked and replayed the section again. Surely no one could move that fast. No one human, at least. From the looks of the tape-and as far as Mulder knew, it had been in its camera, untouched-Sam walked to the window, forced it open, and swung in all in a matter of seconds. And he hadn't generated enough noise to wake Mulder or Scully.
Either the kid was a skilled cat burglar, or something else was going on that Mulder didn't know about.
But unnatural breaking and entering aside...why was Uley in Scully's room? And why was he always facing the same window through which he came? It was like he couldn't let himself relax enough to search the apartment, steal Scully's wallet, hurt Scully herself...so why was he there?
Maybe it was a game the LaPush kids played, Mulder thought wryly. A let's-break-into-a-federal-agent's-hotel-room game. Like cops and robbers, only weirder with a lot more danger and a sense of adventure thrown in. He hit the replay button, feeling like he was stuck in an old movie theatre whose projector had broken.
Wait. Sitting up straighter, Mulder's index finger stabbed the button with gusto this time, his eyes glued to the small security tv screen. There was a spot of some kind visible through the window in the tape; even as he watched, it got larger on the screen as it got closer to the window. And as it got closer, Sam Uley leaned further over Scully, his face clearly trained on whatever was coming toward him and Mulder's partner.
Mulder squinted, straining his eyes to make out the shape of the spot. It was definitely a person-a man, from the look of the outline. Maybe six feet tall, from its height in the window frame. The man's face was hard to make out out from the bad quality of the video feed, but he was distinctly caucasian. From the way his hair seemed to fade into his skin color, Mulder guessed the man was blonde, too.
It wasn't inherently apparent to Mulder what the man was doing at the hotel room window other than staring back at Sam Uley. Sam looked as if he was hunched over Scully's bed almost like he was-
Protecting her, Mulder thought, as a quote from one of the chapters from The Ancient Legends of Olympic Indians popped magically into his brain: "Select men of the Quileute tribe have believed it their duty for many generations to protect their people against supernatural forces by assuming spiritual shapes themselves, the most common 'spirit form' being a wolf."
He just had to know who that man was in front of the window. Scully had her own ideas, judging by that text, and Mulder had his. He rewound the tape and put his face as close to the screen as he could with his eyes still focused.
It was like Scully had said about Edward Cullen-there was no mistaking that eerily pale skin. And the man was blonde, too, only it wasn't a man at all. It was most definitely a woman, her body and face now strikingly feminine in detail. Mulder noticed she was just wearing a man's coat, and her hair was pulled back behind her head. It was hard to tell how old she might be because of the grainy quality, but Mulder was sure she had to be another Cullen.
As the seconds scrolled by on the screen, Uley and the woman faced off, their postures defensive. The woman looked like a cat with its fur on end, her shoulders hitched up higher than normal. Uley was staring without moving at her. Finally, with a strange, jerky movement, the woman wrenched away from the window and disappeared in a heartbeat.
The Cullens outside the window, Sam Uley inside. Mulder knew this wasn't a coincidence. The words mortal enemies accompanied by some old drawings from his airport book swam around his mind. The Cullens and the Quileutes weren't happy with each other, Mulder could tell that much. And apparently, the quarrel involved Scully.
He was getting to the bottom of this today, if he had to sit outside every house in the reservation until someone let him in. Or he could just break down the door. But that seemed a little rude. Maybe he would dress up as an encyclopeida salesman; he was bound to receive more hospitality in that disguise than announcing himself as an FBI agent.
He sent a quick message to Scully:
No one else on feeds but
Uley and a Cullen.
I'm going 2 the
reservation ASAP.
Tell me if you have
any other updates.
It was less than a minute before Scully's reply vibrated through his phone:
Hey stay at hotel
I am coming over to
see feeds myself the
autopsy is almost done.
Right. He'd heard that one before. Mulder sighed and texted back an impatient emoticon. Scully's idea of 'almost done' translated into 'two hours' in Mulder Time. He couldn't wait for Uley to realize he'd been seen and leave town. Of course, since Mulder had no clue why the kid had broken into and remained in Scully's room, Sam was pretty safe for the moment.
Surely he could nail the kid just on breaking and entering alone. That would give Mulder time to break him down and get more information out of him, maybe find out what was going on between him and the Cullens. It was clear to Mulder now that the grudge was one that stretched to every member of the Cullen family; how far it extended into Quileute territory was another question.
"I am missing something," muttered Mulder, rewinding the tape again. "It's probably right here, in this little roll of polarized film..."
Vrrrrrup! The vibration made Mulder jump and land painfully back onto the chair. Gritting his teeth, he read Scully's next message:
We are nearly done.
Change of plans, Mulder:
I am going to Chief
Swan's house to look
4 more evidence.
Will review feeds
later
Oh, that was nice of Scully, really nice. Here Mulder waited as patiently as possible for his lovely partner, obeying her every whim, and then she changed her plans. Mulder's righteous indignation quickly faded into chagrin and finally into amusement when he realized that this was a bit of a role reversal for their team: Scully was usually the one who had to put up with inconsistent time-tables and a flurry of plan changes.
He supposed he deserved to get a taste of his own medicine once in a while. But while he waited, he figured he might as well do something useful.
With another sigh, Mulder hit the rewind button...yet again.