Mulder raced beside her. "C'mon Scully!" They ran to the car. Scully had not shut the door when Mulder started gunning the engine. She forced it shut.

"He's gone back to town," Mulder said. He slammed on the gas pedal.

They raced through the four-way stop into Athens. Mulder veered onto main street. Nothing. No one. Wang had disappeared, somewhere, in the tangle of suburban houses.

"We lost him. How did we lose him?" Mulder asked.

Scully shook her head. "Why don't we turn in there?" She pointed to a long, suburban street.

Mulder obeyed. He drove carefully now, his eyes glancing to the sides of the road, looking for Ruth's car. "Do you think he's got another hide-out place?"

"Maybe," Scully said. She couldn't think of anywhere else Wang could go. Still, she reminded herself, he knew this town. He had chosen Athens, Nebraska. "I don't know if we're going to find him." She found the words spilling from her mouth before she could stop them.

"We've got to," Mulder said. "He's getting more and more people under his control."

"We're wasting time doing this, Mulder."

"What else do you suggest we do?" Mulder kept his eyes on the road. He bit his cheek.

"Go back to the town hall and see if we can try to stop people from hurting themselves: break their hypnotism, get information from them and then come back out, better prepared."

"Scully, he could get away. He was only just ahead of us. We might need him to put this right. They're still all speaking Greek, remember."

"Well he's hidden himself well. We've got to lure him back."

"Lure him?" Mulder's voice was louder now, close to shouting. "How are we going to do that, Scully?" Mulder groaned. "He's gotten away since you started this conversation!"

"Calm down, Mulder." Her voice wavered as she struggled to keep it even pitched.

"We've got to find him. Why don't you want to try?"

"I'm being practical!" She shouted. "Like always. I'm saving your ass and I'm saving mine and I'm trying to salvage one train wreck of a situation after another!"

Mulder was nearly red faced now. He opened his mouth for a minute, closed it, and then scoffed. He began to drive down the street.

"Do you think I funny?" Scully wanted to hit him. She wanted to open the passenger door and roll away from him and let him patrol the stupid suburban block for hours.

"Maybe we don't work as well together as we thought. Maybe not anymore."

Scully felt her breath deflate, like someone had kicked it out of her. When she had first kissed him on New Years Eve, she had felt like someone had unified the sky and ocean on a perfect horizon line. She used to be afraid that she and Mulder would fall apart – that their connection would be severed.

She didn't feel severed. She felt hacked apart, as if little bits of him and her were interwoven together, but that they were ugly residuals. Pressure began to form in her face as she struggled to hold back tears.

"Scully?"

"It's alright, Mulder," she said. "You…just drive me back to town and keep looking for him. We can finish this case, at least."

"Scully, I…"

I love you. I won't stop loving you. I don't know how to… Scully stared out the windshield. "We're wasting time, Mulder," she whispered.

Mulder leaned back in his seat, brought his hands to his face, and held them there. Outside, on the empty street, a porch light blinked on and off.

Mulder brought his hands down again and started the engine. Scully chanced a glance at him. There were tears in his eyes.

XXX

Scully watched the light from the streetlights blur and bend past the car.

When Mulder pulled up to the front building, it looked deserted. "Motsouka got them all out," he said.

"Looks like it. I'm…impressed." She kept her eyes on the building.

"Me too." The urgent quest for Wang seemed to have drained out of him. He cleared his throat. "Should we check inside?"

Scully nodded and opened the door. They walked apart through the darkness to the entrance. She watched Mulder grasp the handle and jerk it, as if he were expecting to feel resistance. The door opened.

"Still got that flashlight?"

Scully pulled it from her pocket, turned it on, and angled the light inside on the cold, empty wood floor.

"Hello?" Mulder called. They walked inside. "Is anyone here?"

A furious knock and a growl rang out and echoed around them. Scully jumped. There were two voices – male voices – moaning.

Mulder took a step forward. "Hello?"

Suddenly, the door slammed shut behind them.