The following hours were a blur of activity. Mulder had immediately requested permission to accompany the team on the mission to retrieve the Wellspring, something Fury was less than happy about given that Mulder's medical test results were still not back from the lab. Grudgingly, Fury granted him temporary clearance because he recognised that Mulder's skills might be vital. As he was getting kitted up into his brand new S.H.I.E.L.D uniform, Mulder heard that the Avengers team had returned from the Sokovian border and rushed to meet Scully as soon as she exited the Quinjet.
"They found it?" she asked as soon as her feet were back on the helicarrier's relatively solid ground, not even bothering with a greeting.
"Yes." He immediately fell into step beside her.
"Did Coulson say where?"
"No, hopefully we'll find that out now."
They walked in relative silence to Fury's office where Bruce, Coulson, and the Gunmen were already waiting.
"Mr. Skinner has been unavoidably detained so he'll meet us on the ground," Fury began, not waiting for Mulder and the Avengers to take seats. He turned to Mulder and Scully. "Your report led us to this."
He pressed a button and an image of a house appeared on a screen in the middle of the table. Scully leant forward and stared at it.
"I know that house. I've been there before." She looked around the table, her eyes meeting Coulson's. "Where is it?"
"A little way outside Milford, Pennsylvania. It used to belong to a woman named Marjorie Butters."
Scully inhaled quickly and turned to Mulder.
"That was the woman I met when I.."
"I remember." Mulder's voice was curt, almost cold, and Scully couldn't help but recoil slightly. It occurred to her suddenly that while her meeting with Marjorie was well over a decade ago, filed away deeply into a part of her brain that she rarely dared to visit, for Mulder that hurt was still only a few weeks old. Not an old wound but a fresh and raw one that was currently being poked at once again. Making eye contact with the Gunmen across the table she saw sympathy reflected in their eyes.
Fury seemed to have noticed the awkward silence that had descended around the table but, as was his style, he chose to ignore it and pressed on.
"An intelligence team that was working through your report location by location looking for anything out of the ordinary noted some discrepancies among the deeds and sent a couple of agents to investigate. They found the property deserted but drawing a large amount of power from the grid, a rudimentary scan indicated the presence of a large freezer in what appears to be a hidden basement, so they called it in."
"How far are we from Pennsylvania?" Steve interjected.
"By Quinjet, less than 45 minutes," Coulson answered.
"Then let's get down there before anyone else gets there."
"You're thinking Hydra?" Clint asked.
"Yes. That box they stole from the bridge contained a large quantity of the same data used to form this report of yours, if we've figured this out, they won't be far behind."
"Agreed," Fury said, swiping the picture of the house away with one hand. "Avengers, bring me this Wellspring. Take Mulder with you, he could be valuable. Skinner is awaiting your arrival in Milford and keeping an eye on things until you get there. Gunmen, you're with me."
The table emptied and Scully and Mulder fell in behind Steve as they marched back toward the flight deck.
"I'm sorry," Scully began, "I forgot about the time difference and.."
"Don't. I don't want to talk about this, certainly not now."
She fell silent, feeling uncomfortably chastised and said nothing more until they reached the jet where she busied herself with routine checks.
"Dana, Tony, Nat, Clint - I want you to buckle in and try to get some sleep on the way," Steve told them, dropping into the pilot seat. "Thor and I can handle her for the journey, with Bruce's support if necessary."
"What about you?" Tony asked as the doors began to close and lights switched on all over the cockpit.
"We don't need as much sleep," Steve reminded him, "I need all of you as well rested as possible after everything we just went through."
Mulder looked at Scully and noticed that her suit still had dust on it from Sokovia, the team hadn't even had a moment to change. To his surprise, Scully went straight to a bunk booth without arguing against Steve's order, strapping herself in to avoid being thrown out by any unforeseen turbulence. She caught Mulder's gaze across the ship and he felt a wave of guilt for acting so harshly toward her. He had come to accept why Scully had done what she did that week with Spender, but he wasn't ready to forgive it, he wasn't sure he ever would be. Before he could respond, she shifted to turn her back to him and settled down in the hopes of getting a few minutes sleep before being thrown headfirst, possibly literally, into another potentially lethal situation. In an effort to make amends, he scooped up a blanket from a nearby storage container, took it across and laid it over her.
"Thanks," she whispered.
"You're welcome," he replied, squeezing her shoulder.
"Hey, where's my blanket?" Tony's voice asked from somewhere behind him, laced with mock hurt.
"There's a lot of chatter back there from people who are supposed to be sleeping," Steve admonished.
"Spoilsport," Tony retorted, clipping his own straps into place.
Mulder thought he heard Scully laugh quietly from inside her booth.
The journey to Pennsylvania passed quickly and without fuss. Mulder had dozed in one of the flight seats and after what felt like just a few minutes, Steve was calling to awaken his teammates who rolled out of their bunk booths looking surprisingly refreshed considering they had only had about 30 minutes sleep if they were lucky. Steve landed the Quinjet on a field that had been marked for their arrival and everyone kitted up, strapping on extra weapons and giving their equipment a final test.
Stepping outside, Mulder realised this was the first time he'd stood on proper ground since their night at Lux East and he relished the feel of solid Earth beneath his feet, at least for the few seconds until he realised he was feeling oddly seasick.
"Land sickness," Clint said from beside him, clearly noticing the new green tinge to Mulder's face, "same thing that can happen after you've been on a cruise. Your body has grown accustomed to the slight sway from the helicarrier engines so now you're on still ground, it's trying to compensate."
"I've grown accustomed to her faaace," Tony crooned as he walked by in a not-too-terrible impersonation of Dean Martin.
"Not helpful," Steve added, although Mulder could see a small smirk on his lips. "Look, there's Mr. Skinner."
Mulder looked up from where he was trying very hard to focus on a specific blade of grass and spotted Skinner near the edge of the field, standing beside a very large pickup truck.
A few minutes later and the team were all piled inside the truck, heading down Highway 209 away from Milford toward the coordinates they had been sent for the house that once belonged to Marjorie Butters. Mulder was leaning over the edge of the truck just in case he was sick, although he was feeling much better already. He couldn't imagine the sight they must be presenting to the other drivers on the road. Skinner was driving with both Scully and Nat crammed into the cab alongside him giving directions from the information sent over by intelligence. Meanwhile, he, Coulson, Steve, Clint, Thor, and Bruce were piled into the bed of the truck. Tony had opted to fly along slightly overhead, partly to give them a little extra room and partly for tactical reasons. Every car they passed had faces inside pressed up against the glass staring at them.
A few miles down the highway, Skinner pulled off and they trundled slowly along a bumpy country road until they arrived at the house. Scully was first out of the truck and Mulder watched her take a few steps toward it.
"Careful," Steve called out, "let Tony run scans before you get too close."
Scully nodded and halted where she was as Tony flew in wide arcs around the house above them.
"Does it look different?" Mulder asked, stepping up beside her.
"It's clearly the same house but, I can't believe how dilapidated it looks," she told him. "When I came here with.." she halted.
"With Spender," Mulder filled in, prompting her to continue.
"Yeah. It was perfect that day. Honestly Mulder, it looked like a painting or one of those quaint little pictures on a jigsaw your grandma would put together. Pots of flowers everywhere, everything neat and tidy and so pretty. This… it looks as if no one has touched this place since the day I was last here."
"They probably haven't," Mulder said gently. Scully looked up at him and Mulder could see the memory of Spender's betrayal growing clearer in her eyes.
"All clear as far as JARVIS and I can see," Tony's voice broke in, "but take care anyway guys."
"Affirmative," Steve responded.
Scully moved forward toward the house, taking in its surroundings. Everything here was just as it had been the day she last visited. The hosepipe was still coiled limply on the wall by the porch steps, the plant pots were scattered around in clusters, now filled with dead remnants of what had once been plants and over by the tree, she could see the silver and red windmill, now frozen stiff with rust, that had caught her eye when she had first pulled up. Slowly walking along the side of the house, she picked up a smaller, silver windmill that had once sat on a garden table. This too was rusted and now bore a large crack, probably from the impact when it had fallen to the ground. She replaced it where it had once sat and marched back toward where Mulder stood watching her.
"Let's find this thing and get out of here," she barked to the others who were spreading out into the area. She looked up at Mulder and in one second, conveyed more with a look than she could have spoken in an hour. Turning away, she stomped up the porch steps toward the front door.
Inside, Mulder had to stifle a chill. The house had a Marie Celeste feel to it, everything seemingly abandoned on the very afternoon Scully had visited. On the table was a partially completed knitting project and on the counter, the decayed remains of what he assumed was the bread Marjorie had baked just prior to her arrival. The smell was overpowering.
"There are cables trailing across the floor," Tony noted, scanning the room, "and JARVIS is detecting a power surge from somewhere below us."
"Intelligence indicated there's probably a basement," Steve replied, "everyone fan out and find us a way in."
Mulder followed the cables and found that in one direction they led to a power generator, one running on standby mode.
"Probably a backup system should the main power go down," Tony suggested from across the room.
Following the cables the other way, Mulder found that they vanished into a hole cut into a wall. Scully, Clint and Nat were investigating it, looking for the hidden entrance.
"Let me scan for movement in the air molecules, hold still," Tony told them. They all stopped moving, holding their breath for a moment. "There, beside the bookcase, there's a vertical line where the air is swirling and cooler, probably the outline of the door. He projected the line onto the wall with his suit and Scully ran her fingers down it.
"I can feel a ridge but I can't get my fingers under it to pull it open. I don't think it's designed to open from this side without a key."
"Then let us use one," Thor said, beginning to spin his hammer. The rest of the team backed away except for Steve who stood in a braced position with his shield in front of him to deflect as much of the blast as possible away from the others. Thor's hammer hit the concealed door with an impact worthy of the God of Thunder and, once the dust had cleared, they saw that where once there had been a wall, now there was only a hole. Beyond it, a set of stairs led down into darkness.
"Well, that looks like fun," Clint piped up, peering down into the dark, "so, who's going first into the serial killer basement?"
Steve had already taken a few steps forward and Tony joined him, using his suit to illuminate the stairs.
"Looks safe enough. There's a blue glow from somewhere below and my suit's registering a notable drop in temperature too. I'll go ahead and try to light the way."
Tony's boosters fired slightly and he dropped down into the darkness, hovering above the steps rather than stepping onto them. Steve followed with Scully and Mulder behind him and Thor bringing up the rear. Coulson, Bruce and Skinner opted to stay above ground and continue examining the house for anything that might be of use, Clint also stayed above ground - announcing he was headed to the roof to keep watch although the others all suspected he simply didn't want to go into the dark, creepy room.
At the front of the pack, Tony led the team through a second, mercifully unlocked, door. Once open, the group found themselves bathed in blue light. The basement room was completely empty apart from one large, industrial sized freezer standing in the center with thick wires trailing from it to the wall nearby.
"Well," Tony said, "that seems a little out of place don't you think?"
Scully strode forward to the freezer and bent over to look inside.
"That's it," she said, standing back up and turning to face the others, "that's the Wellspring."
As soon as she had finished speaking, the ground rocked beneath them with a deafening groan and dust cascaded from the old floorboards above their heads.
"Hey guys," Clint's voice cut through on the comms, "we got company."