Original story by CSM'sWife, adapted by ToonedInUK

Disclaimer: Neither myself or CSM'sWife own "The X-Files" or any of the characters (Fox Mulder, A.D.
Skinner, Dana Scully A.D. Skinner's secretary, Samantha Mulder, Duane Barry
etc.) - they are the property of CC and 1013 Productions. I do not own
"Profiler" or any of the characters (Bailey Malone, Samantha Waters, John
Grant, Grace, George Fraele etc.), they are the property of the NBC network and the creators.

Any other characters are the property of either myself or Michelle.

No real life people have been written into this story, any likeness to a

person (by name or otherwise) or event is completely unintended.

Samantha Waters's residence

Atlanta

Georgia

March 29th

00:05 am.

From the looks of things, it was obvious that Joseph Maly hadn't returned to his hotel room, which meant they had a killer in the wind again. Thankfully the press hadn't cottoned on to the fact that 'the Carver' now had a name. It was suspected that he'd try to leave the country. They had put out an All-Points Bulletin on him. Mulder doubted the APB would be much use, but it was all they could do until a sighting of him was reported. When that happened, they would do a proper manhunt.

Arriving home, although ordinarily she would be tired, she found herself more awake than she had been in the previous month at least. Knowing a case was near its end was something that often kept Waters awake at night. As she lay in bed, she could hear the soft hum of the canned laughter coming from the living-room. Mulder was awake again, lying on the sofa. Or at least she thought he was until she saw steady rise and fall of his chest and closed eyes. She covered him with a blanket and crept back to bed.

Maly had been crouching in the small closet-space in Fox's room for hours. His legs and feet ached for keeping himself propped up, ready to pounce as soon as Fox feel asleep. His prediction about Fox's next sleep was correct. Of course, Sod's law made it so that he had fallen asleep in the wrong place, so now Maly had to get downstairs without disturbing either the kid or the woman. Not easy. He opened the closet door and made his way to the bedroom door, opened it and began navigating his way through the maze of creaky floorboards. He got almost to the end of the hall and trod on a loud squeaky one. He stopped and listened but heard nothing. He exhaled the breath he didn't realise he had been holding and carried on down the stairs. He could see movement coming from the sofa and immediately dropped back into the shadows. He soon realised that Fox's jerking movements were a result of a nightmare he was seeing, not because he was awake.

Maly emerged from the shadows and crept closer to the sleeping, writing man. He crouched behind the sofa where Fox was lying. He was about to cock his gun when he heard a gasp and more violent movement from the couch. Fox had awoken from his nightmare. Shit. Maly thought. Oh, fuck it. He cocked his gun anyway and stood up. He raised his Smith & Wesson and aimed it at Fox's head. He almost laughed at the shock registering on his victim's face. The hilarious absurdity of the situation was almost intoxicating. Here was the hot-shot FBI 'golden boy' and he was on the other side of Maly's gun. Fox's face became expressionless and the intoxicating hilarity had been neutralised.

"Hello Joseph. Is it alright to call you Joseph?"

"Whatever." He paused for a moment. "I was going to save you. Then you went and nearly killed my brother."

"Joseph, put the gun down."

"Why? I know you'll just get out your own gun and hold it at me. You won't put yours down."

"Murdering an Agent is a federal offence. You shoot me and you'll get death."

"Oh come off it. I'll get the fucking death sentence anyway. I'm not stupid. I can't believe I was going to save you." Maly was disgusted and showed this blatantly by spitting in Fox's direction.

"What do you mean, you were going to save me?"

"What do you think? Seriously, I though you were cleverer than that. By the way, your diary was an interesting read - you could turn it into a tv series or something if you weren't going to die tonight."

Maly tensed his finger to squeeze the trigger but something stopped him. It wasn't the pathetic look on Fox's face, and it certainly wasn't his conscience.

There was a noise made by a creaky floorboard behind him, the same floorboard he had mistakenly stepped on. He saw Fox's gaze flicker to a point behind him unknown. It was enough to distract Maly enough that he turned around to see what it was. The kid was staring back at him at the foot of the stairs, not daring to move a muscle for fear the man would turn his gun on her. Within a second, his world turned black.

Apartment #42

Washington DC

March 30th

02:00 am.

Back in Washington DC, Mulder lay down on his sofa with his eyes closed. He didn't sleep the night before when he had shot him. "I can't believe I was going to save you." He had dozed off once, but the nightmares still dogged him. It was then that he realised just what Maly had meant. Dana Scully. There was that name again.

He went to the window and looked up at the stars, wondering if she was out there. He knew that was where the truth was - out there. Not in his apartment. So he vowed that the next day and every day until he dies he would go back to the basement and keep searching. He'd search for all his worth.

FIN