Liz walked out into the blinding lights of the car. If she didn't know what had been chasing her she might have thought she was being abducted. In a way, she supposed she was. Only she was going to be abducted from the aliens.
It was funny how her life worked.
"I'm Liz Parker!" She had been shielding her eyes from the glare but she put both hands down at her side so they could see. "I know you know who I am. I'll go with you."
Slowly the two men from the Special Unit came out from behind their car and approached her, guns drawn. One had their gun aimed at Liz while the other was looking around for Mulder. He seemed to be in charge and he moved strangely but she couldn't put her finger on why.
"Let's just go," she begged.
"Where's your friend?"
"He's not my friend," she said. "I just met him. He has nothing to do with this. Let's just go. You don't want him. You want me."
"You're right, you were the one we were after but Agent Mulder will be a nice bonus," said the agent who was still carefully maneuvering toward the boulder Liz had stepped out from behind. "He's been a thorn in the side of our superiors for a number of years now." He smirked. "Who am I kidding? My superiors will only get the pieces of what's left of him."
Liz followed the agent with her eyes, afraid to move. The headlights of the car were still blinding her and it made the surrounding area seem that much blacker.
"I don't know who you're talking about," she pleaded and her voice cracked. The Special Unit agent ignored her and went around the rock. Liz stiffened and then the agent swore and stomped out from behind the rock.
"He's not there," he told his partner. Liz let out a loud sigh. "Come on, let's get her out of here."
He walked over to Liz and was about to grab her arm when the car's engine suddenly roared to life. Liz, still facing the car, saw it first and she dived out of the way. The two agents weren't so lucky. One flew over the hood and bounced off the windshield and the other got his leg clipped and went spiraling into the dark.
Liz picked herself up out of the dirt and to her horror found an arm lying in front of her. She skittered away from it as fast as she could and backed into someone. She screamed when they reached down and yanked her to her feet. It was Mulder. The car was a few feet away, the engine still running. She turned and looked back at the arm. Mulder walked over to it and kicked it. It gave a metallic thunk. Liz creeped closer and saw that it was a prosthesis.
"Krycek," Mulder muttered, staring out into the darkness.
"Who?" Liz whispered.
Mulder turned to her and grabbed her hand.
"Come on," and he led her back to the car.
* * * *
Max knocked on Valenti's door and was startled by how quickly it popped open. It was Michael and he looked grim.
"It's worse then we thought," he said and let Max in.
"Why? Did you find Liz?" He turned to Maria who shook her head. "Then what is it?"
Michael gestured to Kyle who was sitting at his computer. The sheriff was standing next to him. Max walked over to it.
"I have a friend in the defense department," Sheriff Valenti said, "I asked him to send me whatever he had on Fox Mulder."
Max looked at the profile on the computer screen. There was a more recent photo of agent Mulder--dark hair, dark eyes, just as Liz described him in her journal. Next to the photo was a description of the agent. The more Max read, the more his gag reflex began to itch in his throat. Fox Mulder's sister had been abducted by aliens, he was in charge of a division of the FBI called the X-Files, a division devoted to investigating supernatural phenomenon, his psychological profile claimed he was obsessed with finding alien life at any cost.
At any cost.
* * * *
Liz watched Agent Mulder try and dial his phone while he drove.
"Who are you calling," she asked.
"Local law enforcement. I'm going to send them out there to collect those agents. I'm afraid they'll be gone by the time I get back there. Krycek has a tendency to disappear when you take your eyes off of him."
"Ask for Sheriff Valenti," Liz said.
"Sheriff Valenti? Not Jim Valenti."
Liz nodded.
"That guy's got to be a fossil by now."
"Oh, no, his dad use to be sheriff, now it's his son. You know him?"
"Jimmy Valenti? Yeah, I did a long time ago, weird kid."
Liz was thinking fervently while Agent Mulder was on the phone with the sheriff's office. Wherever he was taking her was going to lead to her downfall. A simple blood test was going to prove that she wasn't an alien and then what? She had to devise a defense quickly. She could claim insanity or she could deny ever having said anything. He hung up before she could come up with an excuse.
"What happens now?" She asked.
"Valenti's office said they'd have him meet me at the spot where we left Krycek. I'll get back there as soon as I drop you off."
"Drop me off?" She didn't know what he had planned for her but she trusted Agent Mulder. He had saved her life repeatedly. She didn't want him passing her off to someone else who she didn't know.
"Yeah, this is the place isn't it?"
She turned and looked out the window as they pulled in front of the Crashdown. She couldn't ever remember being so relieved to see that glowing spaceship in her life. She turned back to Mulder.
"You're letting me go?"
"You said you didn't know anything about where you came from or why. Quite frankly you're pretty useless to me."
Liz let out a squeal and threw her arms around his neck and hugged him.
"Thank you," she whispered.
When she pulled away from him he handed her one of his cards.
"If you ever need anything--or want to talk to me about what you do know, you can trust me."
Liz looked down at the card and nodded. She climbed out of his car but before closing the door she leaned back in and smiled at him.
"And if you're ever back in town come by," she gestured with her head to the cafe. "We have great burgers."
He smiled at her.
"I will."
He pulled away and she felt a little sad as she watched him go. She walked around back and climbed up to her room. She wanted to call Maria and tell her all about her adventure but as soon as she sat down on her bed she realized how tired she was. Light was just starting to filter into her room as dawn broke and she curled up with her pillow.
"Everybody's still asleep anyway," she mumbled to herself. And as she drifted off to sleep she imagined that she could smell Max's cologne on her pillow. For some reason it didn't make her sad.
* * * *
"At some point I'm going to need some sleep," Maria declared. She walked over to the couch in Michael's apartment and collapsed. Michael went over to his refrigerator and rummaged through it.
"Go ahead and crash there if you want."
With her face mashed into the upholstery she moaned.
"I can't," she said, her voice muffled by the cushion. "I have to go home and see if Liz called. Not to mention I have to get back home before my mom realizes that I haven't been there all night. I'll have a hard time finding Liz if I'm chained up in the basement. Not to mention--" She shot up suddenly. "The dance."
Michael went over to her, holding a soda.
"What dance?"
"The school dance. Alex and I and the band are supposed to perform at the stupid dance. We're going to have to cancel."
"No," Michael said firmly.
"No? You want me to perform showtunes for the sweater set while my best friend is missing?"
"Yeah, I think it's a good idea. We can't start disrupting our routine and acting all suspicious if some FBI agent is lurking around." Maria started to shake her head so Michael added: "Besides, I haven't seen you perform in a while."
"You were planning on coming?"
He shrugged.
"I'll stop in. I'll probably spend most of the night looking for Liz if she hasn't turned up but yeah, I'll be there."
He took a swig of his soda so he didn't see the smile that broke out on her face.
* * * *
Isabel was never going to sleep again. Every time she tried to close her eyes she would hear the voices. She put her pillow over her head but nothing worked. Finally, in a fit of rage, she heaved the pillow across the room and got up. She went to Max's room and tapped on his door. When he didn't answer she opened it up and peeked inside. His bed was made and unslept in. She didn't know why she expected him to be there. He hadn't come home for dinner and he'd called her and asked her to cover with their parents but hung up before she could ask why. She could tell he was worried. He probably didn't tell her what he was doing because he didn't want to worry her too. He had been overly protective of her lately. And it was irritating the hell out of her.
She went to the kitchen and pulled out the milk from the refrigerator. Warm milk had never worked for her before but she was desperate. She wasn't going to that dance with bags under her eyes. She padded into the living room and sat down on the couch. She put her hand over the milk and used her powers to warm it up.
In hopes of getting some sleep, Isabel tried to think about pleasant things instead of the looming threat of alien invaders. She thought about what she'd wear to the dance. She had a red dress that she'd bought ages ago--before the whole Vilandra stuff started--that she'd never worn. She had bought it specifically because she knew Alex would like it. She set the milk down on the table and curled up on the couch. Thinking of Alex gave her a warm, comforting feeling. She closed her eyes and dreamed of him.
* * * *
Tess was sitting up in bed, her arms curled around her legs, staring straight ahead.
"Are you OK," Kyle asked. She looked up and he was standing in her doorway. Or, technically, his doorway since it was his room.
She didn't respond. She knew he didn't really care. None of them did and none of them ever would. She and Max were supposed to go to the movies that night. They hadn't called it a date but she had planned on convincing him that's what it was later. When he didn't show, she told herself that he was late and she'd gone in by herself, expecting him to turn up eventually. She was still telling herself that by the end of the second feature. When she had arrived at the sheriff's house she was in a foul mood. When she walked in and saw all the grim faces she knew her night wasn't going to get any better.
Max had apologized profusely and she knew that he felt bad but it hadn't changed his reasons for forgetting. He explained everything that happened and she was spectacularly unsurprised when the whole story revolved around Liz. She had acted nonchalant but she was biting her bottom lip so hard that it had begun to bleed. She had wanted it to bleed.
Then the sheriff got a call about some accident on the interstate and Michael, Maria, and Max decided to go back out in search of Liz and they left in a flurry of activity that hadn't included her.
"You didn't sleep with Liz?" She finally asked Kyle.
"No, I didn't."
"So that's it then." She didn't have to clarify to him what she meant.
Kyle didn't say anything for a long time.
"Yeah."
She nodded and didn't even realize that tears were pouring down her cheeks. Kyle sat down next to her and approached her awkwardly--not knowing quite what to do. She didn't wait for him to figure it out, she put her head down on his shoulder and started crying.
* * * *
When Liz woke up and glanced at the clock it was almost noon.
"I'm glad it's Saturday," she mumbled as she stretched. She immediately reached for her phone even though her head was still a bit foggy. She hesitated a moment, deciding who to call first. She called Max. She was disappointed to find that no one was home. The machine picked up and she decided to leave a vague message in case his parents retrieved it.
"Hi, Max, this is Liz. I need to talk to you and Isabel and Michael and everybody. We need to meet as soon as possible. Call me."
She tried Maria next and found that she was gone too. Then she remembered that tonight was the school dance and Liz figured Maria and Alex were rehearsing so she didn't even bother with trying Alex.
Frustrated without anyone to talk to she went into the bathroom. She took a long shower and felt almost normal again by the time she'd dried her hair and got dressed. She thought about calling Max again but decided, torturous as it may be, she wanted to see him in person. She had had the most fabulous dreams about him the night before. So she climbed out her window to go in search of Max Evans.
* * * *
Max hadn't slept all night. He couldn't stop thinking of what was happening to Liz. As he grew more tired, he couldn't stop thinking of what she was doing with Fox Mulder. He had checked every place that he could think of twice but he couldn't stop. He knew he needed sleep and food but he couldn't think of either when he knew she was in so much danger. He glanced at his watch and saw that it 1:30. It had been about twenty-four hours since he'd eaten. He didn't feel hungry but he decided he should grab something to keep himself from passing out.
The Chinese restaurant that he and Liz had their first date was down the street so he headed toward it. When he was across the street from it he saw Liz bounding down the sidewalk toward the same restaurant. He had to blink to confirm the sighting. She was rushing along, her cheeks flushed, her hair streaming behind her, and her purse bobbing on her arm. She caught the door to the restaurant as someone was exiting and she hurried inside. Max shook off his astonishment and ran across the street and followed her inside.
When he got inside he was about to call her name when, with her back to him, she waved to someone in a booth near the back. For some reason, that stopped him cold. She slid into the booth and he walked slowly toward it, dread inexplicably filling him. She had sat with her back to him and across from a man in a suit. A man that, as he got closer, Max recognized as Agent Fox Mulder. Numbly, he sat down with a thump in the booth behind them.
"You want some aliens?" He heard Liz say with barely contained enthusiasm. "How about four?"
