This is going to be pretty long, and wordy. Spoilers for 7x15 "En Ami". We're so close to "All Things" guys!
Enjoy!
Entering his apartment after a day of mind numbing paperwork, Mulder goes to his living room and checks his messages. His ears instantly perk when he hears Scully's voice on the machine.
"'Mulder, it's me. I wanted to let you know that I'll be out of town for a day or two. It's a family emergency. I'll... I'll call you when I can.'"
Concerned, Mulder instantly picks up his phone and call's Scully's apartment. Getting her voicemail, Mulder waits a moment before leaving a message.
"'Hey, Scully, it's me. Pick up if you're there. Scully? Are you there? All right, I just got, I got your message and I hope everything's okay. I'll try on your cell right now'," Mulder states before hanging up his phone. Staring at the receiver trying to figure out what could be wrong, Mulder picks the phone back up and calls his girlfriend's cell phone. Still not getting an answer, the agent shakes his head before picking up his keys. Sitting outside his girlfriend's apartment, he suddenly remembers he can call Maggie. Unfortunately, she knows nothing of a family emergency. Walking up to Scully's apartment building, he puts his hand in his pocket to check for his key. To his dismay, he leaves it at his house. Finding the landlord, Mulder is led up to the apartment.
"You're her boyfriend?" The landlord questions as they leave the office. Nodding, Mulder answers, "She left a message on my answering machine, but I just wanted to make sure she's okay."
Shrugging, the landlord explains as they walk up the stairs, "'Yeah, she said it was a family matter. Dropped off the key... asked me to water the plants- no biggie. Hey, great girl- independent as they come, you know but a great girl.'"
Focused on her disappearance, Mulder gives a noncommital response while the landlord explains how secure the other tenants feel with an FBI agent living in the building. Questioning how secure anyone should feel, Mulder questions, "'Do you know how many people have died in there?'"
"'Oh, we don't really talk about that'," The landlord explains as they reach the landing of Scully's floor. Going back to his original mission, Mulder asks, "'You said she was, uh, carrying a suitcase. Did you notice anything else, anything abnormal?'"
"'No. No, actually it wasn't her carrying the suitcase. It was her driver.'"
Officially concerned, Mulder questions, "'Her driver?'"
"'Yeah, older guy... tall. I've seen him here before. Smokes like a chimney'," The landlord replies. Simply staring at the man in front of him, Mulder tries to comprehend what his girlfriend is doing. Leaving the building, the agent gets in his car to pick up his daughter from Kyle's house. Trying to be as cordial as he can, he stays oblivious to Kyle and Chloe practically jumping away from each other on the couch.
"Are you okay, Dad?" Chloe asks when her father is abnormally quiet on the ride home. He nods his head giving an excuse about how tired he is. However, as the watch a movie that night, Chloe notices her father constantly glancing back at the phone.
"Waiting for a call?" The teen teases thinking her parents have something they are doing the next day. Shaking his head, Mulder answers, "No."
"Is it work related?" Chloe continues. Staring his daughter in the eyes, the father replies, "No."
Realizing she needs to pick a new topic, the teen thinks back to her conversation with Kyle about their biological moms. Finally, she asks, "Spring Break is coming up, and I was wondering if I could go see my real mom? That, and we could see Oxford?"
"We'll talk about it," Mulder answers shocked at his daughter's sudden need to see Pheobe. A few minutes later, Mulder pauses the movie and asks, "Why do you want to see your mom?"
Chloe shrugs. "I guess, just to see what she's actually like? Kyle doesn't really want to see his mom, and it made me realize that I do. I love Scully, and she is my mom, but I want to know my real mom a little. Then, when you two were going to have a baby, I felt a little abandoned."
Nodding, Mulder replies, "Let me see about flights, but if we can't do it now, we can always do it in the summer, okay?"
A smile spreads across his daughter's face before she kisses him on the cheek and abruptly heads to bed.
Sleeping on the couch, Mulder only wakes up when his daughter tells him she is heading to school. Confused by the time, and remembering Scully's message on the answering machine, Mulder quickly calls Skinner's office to get any information on his girlfriend before getting dressed and heading to work. Waved into Skinner's office an hour and a half later, Mulder waits for an answer.
"'She requisitioned a fleet sedan when she left the bureau yesterday. I don't know why and there have been no fuel charges'," Skinner tells the agent. Mulder sighs and adds, "'Her mother doesn't know anything about a family emergency.'"
"'Look, I know you're worried about the company that she's in but from what you've told me it's not like she's sneaking out. The truth is, she's gone to a lot of trouble to allay your fears'," The A.D. reassures.
"'I know she can take care of herself. It's just not like her to lie to me'," Mulder explains hoping to sound more like a worried work partner than boyfriend. Thankfully any explaination he may have to give is cut off by Skinner's phone ringing. Skinner explains that the line is private before answering the call. Hearing Scully on the other end, the A.D. asks how she is which prompts Mulder to look at him.
"'I'm on the road. Um, I'm sorry to call you on this line'," Scully apologizes as Skinner answers, "'No, it's all right. It's just we've been worried about you.'"
"'Everything's okay. I just wanted you to express that to Mulder'," The red head explains before being asked if she wants to talk to Mulder. Her boyfriend reaches out to take the phone, but can see by the look on Skinner's face, that she refuses. Hanging up the phone, Skinner states, "'She says she's fine.'"
Knowing Scully better than Skinner does, Mulder states, "'She's in trouble.'"
Leaving the office, Mulder drives around the city until he gets to the reflection pool to think. After about an hour, he calls The Gunmen and asks them to meet him at his house. Heading home, Mulder changes his clothes and waits for his friends to give him any inforamtion they have on his girlfriend. Feeling like a stalker, Mulder mentally reassures himself that it is for Scully's best interest. Hearing a knock on the door, Mulder checks who it is before opening his apartment up to his terribly disguised friends.
"'It's the masters of disguise'," Mulder jokes as his friends enter the apartment.
"'Did what you asked. We pulled up what we could on Scully'," Byers informs his friend before his friends explain how they checked Scully's credit cards and hacked into the Defense Department.
"'Where they demanded we immediately identify ourselves or face prosecution for espionage or crimes against the government'," Langly adds. Confused, Mulder questions, "'Well, what does this have to do with finding Scully?'"
"'When we went into her computer we found a series of deleted transmissions'," Byers replies while Frohike adds, "'E-mail that had been erased from her subdirectories but not her hard drive. A series of communications.'"
"'From someone named Cobra'," Langly continues as Mulder questions who Cobra is and why Scully never tells him.
"'Well, it looks like she's gone to great lengths to keep this from you'," Langly replies. Choosing to discredit his friends, Mulder states, "'I don't believe that. She knows that I'd find her, no matter what.'"
Trying to make his friend see reason, Byers explains, "'Mulder, we can't find her. There's nowhere to start looking.'"
"'I don't believe that, either. Give me that'," Mulder demands taking the laptop from his friends. Dismayed by the information, Mulder shuts the laptop and drags his friends to The Bureau. Entering Skinner's office Mulder declares, "'Sir, I need your attention.'"
Confused by the agent's abrupt entrance, Skinner asks, "'Is my assistant...?'"
'''No. She's away from her desk. I wouldn't just bust in here but, as I said, it's a breaking situation'," Mulder explains as his friends come in the office and set up their laptop. Annoyed with his sudden office takeover, Skinner asks what is happening.
"'That's my question exactly. I believe you've all met'," Mulder announces. When Langly asks if the room is secure, Skinner is rather confused considering they are in an FBI building. Parroting Langly's quetsion, Skinner is a little upset when Frohike replies, "'Don't get testy, G-man.'"
Getting back on topic, Mulder asks, "'Are you aware of a federal fugitive, code name Cobra? For the past six months Cobra's been e-mailing Scully from the Department of Defense where he works on a shadow project for advanced research.'"
Dismissing the Gunmen's quips, Skinner questions, "'Is that what I'm looking at here?'"
"'No. What they're pulling up is Scully's correspondence back to Cobra'," Mulder answers. After hearing Skinner question if Scully has a relationships with Cobra, Mulder explains that someone posing as Scully is sending out the e-mails.
"'The last five exchanges hint at a meeting where they're going to exchange information on the project Cobra's working on'," Mulder ends.
"'A meeting where?'" Skinner asks. Finding out the e-mails end abruptly, Skinner asks who hacks her computer. Worried for his girlfriend's saftey, Mulder announces that The Smoking Man is the hacker and needs to be found.
"'You of all people should know that you just don't get to him'," The A.D. states. Upset, Mulder answers,
"'Well, if you don't get to him it may be the last time we see Scully alive'," Mulder declares before leaving a concerned Skinner in his office. Heading back to his apartment, Mulder gets a phone call from his daughter.
"Hey, Dad? What are we having for dinner?" She asks.
"Not sure, Chloe. Do you mind going to Anna's or Kyle's for the afternoon? I have stuff to work on," Mulder replies as Langly asks, "Is that Chloe?"
Hearing echos of hello from the school payphone, Chloe asks, "Are those the boys?"
"Yeah, but we really need to get some work done, okay?" Mulder asks. Hearing a dial tone instead of his daughter, Mulder ends the call and throws his phone on the dash. Entering his apartment, Mulder and The Gunmen set up again. Trying to read between messages for any sort of clue, they all jump a little when there is a knock on the door. Drawing his gun, Mulder heads to the door and checks who is on the other side. Putting his gun back, the agent opens the door for his girlfriend.
"Mulder," Scully begins. Not wanting to speak to his girlfriend, Mulder simply opens the door wider to let her in. He stands out of the way as Scully gives a disk to The Lone Gunmen to check. After asking permission from Mulder to use his computer, the four adults wait for the information to come up. Scully looks back at Mulder once, but to her dismay, he avoids looking at her. Turning back to the computer, Scully is shocked when Frohike announces there is nothing on the disk. When Langly and Byers back him up, Scully insists there must be something on there. They check again, but still they find nothing. Looking at Mulder, Scully hopes that he will believe her. Instead, he sympathetically meets her gaze. Knowing what it is like to not be believed, Mulder wonders how Scully really feels in this situation. Finally, Byers breaks the silence by stating that he, Langley, and Frohike need to leave. Mulder and Scully watch the men figure out what to have for dinner while they leave.
Left alone, Scully announces, "I want to show you his office."
Mulder almost objects, but seeing the look of determination on the red head's face, he concedes. Led to the third floor of an abandoned building, Mulder follows Scully to an equally abandoned office. Noting her dismay, Mulder listens to Scully's indignant cries of the room being The Smoking Man's office. Gently, Mulder explains, "'He used you.'"
"'Mulder, he laid it all out for me. I recorded it. I mailed you the tape'," Scully states. Knowing how she feels, Mulder simply nods as the red head continues to justify everything.
"'You saw what you needed to see in order to make you believe'," Mulder explains.
"'Well, then what about this boy? This boy with cancer? You can't deny that. That's undeniable proof'," The red head asserts.
"'Even if we could convince his parents to let us march him out how long before that chip in his neck mysteriously disappears? This was the perfectly executed con, Scully. The only thing I can't figure out is why you're still alive'," The male agent explains. Still upset to be wrong and duped, Scully states, "'Mulder, I looked into his eyes. I swear what he told me was true.'"
Wishing to be in Scully's place, Mulder continues to be the voice of reason.
"'He did it all for himself- to get the science on that disk. His sincerity was a mask, Scully. The man's motives never changed'," Mulder begins as Scully questions, "'You think he used me to save himself- at the expense of the human race.'"
Carefully, Mulder answers, "'No, he knows what that science is worth, how powerful it is. He'd let nothing stand in his way.'"
Resigned to being a pawn, Scully answers, "'You may be right... but for a moment, I saw something else in him. A longing for something more than power. Maybe for something he could never have.'"
Holding out his arms, he watches Scully accept the embrace. For a moment they stand in the abandoned office happy to be together again. The couple only breaks apart when his phone rings. Stepping away from Scully, Mulder answers his phone. With a sigh, Mulder ends the call and turns back to Scully.
"Chloe's at home. I never left a note," Mulder states. Scully nods as the pair heads back to Scully's car. At Mulder's apartment, he asks Scully if she wants to come inside. Shaking her head, Scully lets out a yawn before answering, "I think I'll just go home. Tell Chloe hello for me?"
Mulder nods before getting out of the car. Entering the apartment, Mulder sees his daughter watching TV. Quickly turning off the television, Chloe jumps up and greets her father.
"Hey, Chlo," Mulder greets back before going to the computer and taking out the disk he leaves in his computer. Curious, Chloe asks where he has. Shaking his head, Mulder answers, "It's nothing."
"Dad, I'm old enough to know what you do and who you work with," Chloe argues lightly. Shaking his head, Mulder answers, "There are some things you don't need to know."
In no way is he going to explain the intricacies of The Cancer Man to his daughter. Instead, he replies, "I just need you to go to school tomorrow and treat this like a normal day."
"Whatever," Chloe answers before she leaves the room.
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