9:55 P.M.
"Where are you, Scully?"
"Heading east on Route 7."
Scully carefully cradled the phone
between her ear and the nook of her
neck as her right hand joined the left
already on the steering wheel. She had
been checking out all of Phoenix's old
haunts ever since she left Mulder's
hospital room earlier that night.
"I've checked everywhere, Mulder," she told
him with much frustration, "I've tried old
classmates, bars, strip clubs. I even
rechecked the Juvenile Detention Facility,
but he's nowhere to be found."
She could almost hear Mulder smiling through
the connection as he said, "You went to a strip
club, Scully? Just for investigative purposes,
I'm sure."
Scully scowled.
"Actually, Mulder," she replied haughtily, "I
was looking for information to add to the case
file that I've been collecting since our first
assignment together. You know, the one that
hopes to discover if there is at least one
triple-x facility in these contiguous
forty-eight states that you have not yet visited."
Mulder was, indeed, half-grinning through the
side of his face that he could move without fear
of painful repercussions.
"So what are the results?"
Scully was now smiling as well.
"Currently, the file still remains open."
He shook his head slightly as he saw a nurse
enter the room out of the corner of his eye,
her face hidden behind a stack of fresh, white
linens. He was too busy chatting to notice her
close the door and lock it behind her.
"Not those results," he explained, "Phoenix.
What are the results with Phoenix?"
"Well, other than learning some interesting facts
regarding his alcoholic and sexual habits, there's
nothing new to report. I've put out an A.P.B. on
both Henry and Esperanza. I've got the Marfa
police scouring the countryside, as well as
cooperation from our local Bureau friends in Austin.
Hopefully, they will be in custody by daybreak."
"Agent Mulder, I need to change your sheets."
He didn't look up as he told his partner, "I've got
to go, Scully. Keep me posted." He closed his cell
and placed it on the movable table over his bed.
He grinned as he looked up at the woman with the
painfully white uniform.
"Okay nurse, I'm ready for my sponge-bath…"
The words weren't out of his mouth before he
recognized the dark, luxurious hair and the warm,
chocolate eyes. It was Esperanza.
"Agent Mulder," she pleaded, "I need your help."
"Esperanza," he said, visibly startled, his mouth
slightly agape, "what are you doing here? Where's
Henry?"
"I don't know," she answered hastily. Her chin
was quivering, and her eyes were red and puffy.
"I'm so sorry. I just didn't know where else to go."
"It's okay," he told her, steadying his voice into
a soothing tone, "Please sit down and tell me what
happened."
She pulled up a chair and sat by his bed. She was
wringing her hands as she began her story.
"When you left my home this morning, I was very upset.
I began to think about the past, about certain things
that had always seemed odd at the time, but looking
back seem to make a lot of sense. I had always felt
a connection to Henry, a sort of bond that seemed much
closer than any friendship. I couldn't figure out why
my parents so opposed our being friends. I mean, I
knew that he had been in some trouble, but my mother
always trusted me to make the correct decisions in life.
After thinking about it for some time, I remembered an
event that happened when I was about twelve years old.
During one of Henry's visits, my mother and Abuelita
got in a very heated argument. This wasn't uncommon.
They often fought with one another, but this disagreement
seemed particularly bad. I remembered that I had heard my
mother say something about Henry, something about his
mother, and then glass breaking. After that, it seemed
like whenever Henry came over, there were arguments just
like that. I began to think that maybe what you said was
true, that maybe my mother had had an affair with Henry's
father, and that he was my half-brother."
She took a deep breath as Mulder offered her a glass of
water left over from the inedible hospital "dinner" that
he had hardly touched. She stifled a sob, took a few
sips, thanked him, and continued.
"I called my mother and confronted her. She lied to me
at first, but I pressed her. She finally told me the
truth, that Henry was my brother, and that's why she had
attempted to keep me away from him, to keep my from
finding out the truth. We spoke for about an hour. I
hung up and put myself to bed. I finally fell asleep but
was awakened by a noise in my room. I woke up and found
Henry watching over me. He asked me to come with him,
and we got into an argument."
She took another breath and her eyes darted anxiously
about the room.
"That's when he did…that thing, you know, the thing
with the colors? My room caught on fire, and he
grabbed me. On the way out, we went past your partner.
I guess Henry had knocked her out."
She interrupted her own soliloquy to ask if his partner
was okay. After Mulder nodded his head, she continued.
"He threw me in the truck and took me to that filthy
place. We argued some more, then you walked in. He
knocked you out, and I begged him to stop. He wanted
to kill you, Agent Mulder. He said he wanted you to
burn for all your sins. He had this terrible look in
his eyes, a look I had never seen before, an
indescribable rage. I knew then that he was no longer
the man that I had known as a girl. I kept begging him,
'Please, please stop,' and he finally turned, looked at
me, and stopped hurting you. After you blacked out, he
told me that we needed to get away, that the cops would
be coming right after us. He drove us as far as he
could get, but we needed to stop at a gas station
because there wasn't much gas left in his car. When he
went inside to pay, I ran as far as I could and hid in
the bushes. Once, he almost found me, but then he began
looking in the opposite direction. A tractor trailer
came up the road and picked me up. I hitchhiked here.
I figured they would have found you by then and would
have taken you to the hospital."
"You did very well, Esperanza," Mulder told her, "You
were very resourceful, quick on your feet." He lifted
his hand and patted hers. "It'll be alright," he said,
"You're safe now."
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, darkness
flooded the room. The electricity had gone out in
the entire hospital. Mulder pushed the call button
to send for a nurse, but there was no response. The
lights flickered on as the backup generator sent
electricity coursing through the building.
"I wonder what that was all about?" he pondered aloud.
It was then that he heard the rumblings of thunder
outside his window. Soon, rain was beating down
upon the roof, sounding like waves crashing
against a stony jetty.
Esperanza stood up and looked out the window.
When she turned around to face him, her eyes
met his. They were filled with fear.
"I have a very bad feeling about this," Mulder
told himself, then attempting to comfort
Esperanza, he smiled and said, "Don't worry.
That lock is secure. There's no way he's
getting through it, especially with a hospital
full of doctors and nurses, not to mention the
entire police force who's looking for him.
He's probably already been picked up. Don't
worry, you're safe."
As he spoke, the keylock turned upright. The
door opened slowly and a man wearing hospital
scrubs stepped in, locking the door behind him.
He turned around, his hair dripping wet, and
faced the two of them, holding up a set of
what looked like janitor's keys on a ring.
"You're right," Henry said, a terrible gleam
in his eye, "she's safe, but who's going to
save you?"
"Henry," Mulder said, "I want you to let
Esperanza go. I know you don't want to hurt
her. Just let her walk out the door and
everything will be okay."
Phoenix's lips curved into a snake-like
smile. His yellow teeth glistened in the
light as he threw his head back and let
out a blood-curdling cackle, one reserved
for the deepest of the maniacal or the
clinically insane.
"I don't think you understand, Agent Mulder,"
Henry said, laughing intermittently through
the words, "I'm not here for her, I'm here
for you."
"Well you can have me," he answered, "Just
don't hurt her."
"I wasn't planning on it," Henry continued,
"You see, everything was fine before you came
along. Esperanza and I were friends. We
loved each other, before we even knew that we
were brother and sister. But then you come
along and fill her head with lies about me,
tell her terrible, terrible things about me
that I didn't really do."
As his words progressed, his voice took on a
more menacing tone, sneering and angry.
Mulder looked over at the table where his
phone was still laying. He could pick it up,
but who would he call? He wouldn't even be
able to dial before Henry got to him. He
wished he could feel his gun securely in his
hand, but he was sure that Scully had kept a
hold of it for safekeeping. There was
nothing in the room that could be used as a
weapon. Just some chairs and the telephone
in the corner. He reached his thumb down
and cautiously pressed the call button, hoping
that the generator had kicked the power back
into the device. The action was not cautious
enough. When Henry saw what Mulder was doing,
he once again began his streak of laughing.
"It won't work," he said, "I disconnected the
wire."
"Henry," Esperanza pleaded, "please don't.
I'll go away with you. We can start a new
life, just like you wanted. It'll be you and
me against the world. Just please, please do
not hurt anybody else."
"You will go with me," Henry told her, as he
began walking towards Mulder, "as soon as I
take care of a little problem."
Mulder watched helplessly as Henry's face
twisted from hideous to calm, as he shut his
eyes, and raised his hands to his chest.
"How far do you think you're going to get,
Henry?" Mulder asked, "We've got every cop in
Texas looking for you, plus the F.B.I., not to
mention the fact that you're standing in a
hospital. How long do you think it'll be
before a doctor or nurse comes back to check
on me?"
"Don't you worry about a thing, Agent Mulder,"
he said, "They're all taking a much needed nap,
and by the time they all wake up, we'll already
be out of the country."
"You crazy fuck!" Mulder screamed, "You'll never
get away with this! If it's the last thing I do,
I will hunt you down and personally throw your
ass in prison!"
Henry's skin reddened, and his body was wracked
with spasms. When the spasms ceased, he pulled
his hands shoulder-length apart.
"Henry," Esperanza yelled, "please don't do this."
Henry continued as though he hadn't heard a word
she said. He clapped his hands together, and the
colored lights exploded from his hands.
"This will be the last thing you ever do, Agent
Mulder," he said, raising his towards his victim,
"Goodbye."
"No!" Esperanza screamed, "I won't let this
happen!" Before even she realized what she
was doing, Esperanza held her arms straight
out towards her brother. Balls of light went
hurtling out of her hands. Henry didn't scream
as the lights hit him, nor as the force of their
impact sent his body careening ten feet towards
the window. There was the breaking of glass, and
then nothing. Just the steady rhythm of the rain
beating sadly against the building, and the sound
of police sirens in the distance.
Two Weeks Later
J. Edgar Hoover Building
10:13 A.M.
"The blood tests on Esperanza Cortes revealed
that she possessed the same copper abnormalities
as her brother. It was likely a heritable trait,
a mutation created within their father's gene
sequence, which was then passed down to his
children."
Assistant Director Kersh looked up from the
report he was thumbing through and
stared straight into Scully's eyes. His
circular glasses gave him an air of constipated
importance, fiendishly intelligent and
dangerously cold-hearted.
"And?"
Scully shifted uncomfortably in her seat. His
stare penetrated every core of her being. It
was like he could see inside her very thoughts.
"And we believe that it was the copper that
caused the emergence of their…unique abilities."
"Ah, yes," Kersh said, putting his eyes back to
the documents at his fingers, "The ability to
survive a raging fire without incurring a single
burn, the ability to produce elevated oxygen
levels within their own bodies, the ability to
produce 'lightning balls' which have the capacity
to burn victims till all that's left is ashes and
bone?" Kersh looked up again and closed the
report with visible disgust. "Agents, do you
really expect me to believe this…this…paranormal
nonsense?"
"With all due respect, sir," Mulder interrupted,
"this 'paranormal nonsense' as you refer to it has
been substantiated with Agent Scully's medical
findings. In addition to determining its cause,
we also brought a serial killer to justice, and
still managed to find time to investigate Mrs.
Horst, the supposed fertilizer bomber."
Kersh turned and looked at Mulder. His face was
still badly scarred from where it had been burned,
and his Oxford shirt concealed the bandages covering
his chest and arms.
"Yes you did, Agent Mulder," Kersh responded,
nodding his head in affirmation, "at the expense
of the tax payers of America. The next time I send
you on assignment, I expect that you will follow my
orders to the letter, or I will have you kicked out
of here so fast that your ass won't know which way
is up. Am I making myself clear?"
"Yes, sir," Scully interjected before Mulder had the
chance to say something that they would both regret.
"Good day, Agents."
Mulder gave Kersh a final glare of incomprehensibility,
then stood up and followed Scully out of his office.
When they were out of earshot, Mulder leaned over to
her and whispered, "That guy really puts the ass in
Assistant Director, doesn't he, Scully?"
Scully chuckled as they boarded the elevator and
punched in the basement button.
"So, you never did tell me how you arrived at the
hospital so quickly," Mulder said as the doors closed
in front of them, "What happened? How did you know
that he would show up?"
"After I hung up with you, I kept thinking about our
conversation. I replayed it over and over in my
mind. I just had this nagging feeling. Then I
remembered what the nurse said, 'I need to change
your sheets.' I realized that it would be impossible
for one nurse to change the sheets of a patient
bedridden with burns over more than half of his body.
I had the police dispatched right away. I arrived
soon after."
Mulder smiled, impressed at her prowess.
"Well," he said, "I guess I must be the luckiest
guy in the Bureau."
"Why's that?" Scully asked as the doors opened,
leading to their familiar bargain-basement office.
"Because I have you as a partner, Scully."
Scully returned the smile as he pulled out his
keys and unlocked the door.
"Mulder," she said, "was that I compliment?"
"Yeah," he continued, "there's nothing better than
having a female partner who can't stop thinking
about you in bed."
The smile fell from Scully's face.
"And thus is destroyed yet another touching moment."
Mulder grinned as he opened the door, seated
himself on his chair, and crossed his legs over
his desk. He pulled out a package of sunflower
seeds from his pocket and popped a few in his
mouth.
"Mulder," Scully said, seating herself in her
chair opposite his desk and putting her briefcase
on the floor, "did you know that sunflower seeds
contain unusually high levels of copper?"
"Really?" he asked, taking the bag once again
from his pocket. He looked it over closely,
squinching his face as he read the ingredients.
Glancing at Scully, he tossed the bag directly
into the trashcan.
"Don't want to take any chances."
*THE END*
"Where are you, Scully?"
"Heading east on Route 7."
Scully carefully cradled the phone
between her ear and the nook of her
neck as her right hand joined the left
already on the steering wheel. She had
been checking out all of Phoenix's old
haunts ever since she left Mulder's
hospital room earlier that night.
"I've checked everywhere, Mulder," she told
him with much frustration, "I've tried old
classmates, bars, strip clubs. I even
rechecked the Juvenile Detention Facility,
but he's nowhere to be found."
She could almost hear Mulder smiling through
the connection as he said, "You went to a strip
club, Scully? Just for investigative purposes,
I'm sure."
Scully scowled.
"Actually, Mulder," she replied haughtily, "I
was looking for information to add to the case
file that I've been collecting since our first
assignment together. You know, the one that
hopes to discover if there is at least one
triple-x facility in these contiguous
forty-eight states that you have not yet visited."
Mulder was, indeed, half-grinning through the
side of his face that he could move without fear
of painful repercussions.
"So what are the results?"
Scully was now smiling as well.
"Currently, the file still remains open."
He shook his head slightly as he saw a nurse
enter the room out of the corner of his eye,
her face hidden behind a stack of fresh, white
linens. He was too busy chatting to notice her
close the door and lock it behind her.
"Not those results," he explained, "Phoenix.
What are the results with Phoenix?"
"Well, other than learning some interesting facts
regarding his alcoholic and sexual habits, there's
nothing new to report. I've put out an A.P.B. on
both Henry and Esperanza. I've got the Marfa
police scouring the countryside, as well as
cooperation from our local Bureau friends in Austin.
Hopefully, they will be in custody by daybreak."
"Agent Mulder, I need to change your sheets."
He didn't look up as he told his partner, "I've got
to go, Scully. Keep me posted." He closed his cell
and placed it on the movable table over his bed.
He grinned as he looked up at the woman with the
painfully white uniform.
"Okay nurse, I'm ready for my sponge-bath…"
The words weren't out of his mouth before he
recognized the dark, luxurious hair and the warm,
chocolate eyes. It was Esperanza.
"Agent Mulder," she pleaded, "I need your help."
"Esperanza," he said, visibly startled, his mouth
slightly agape, "what are you doing here? Where's
Henry?"
"I don't know," she answered hastily. Her chin
was quivering, and her eyes were red and puffy.
"I'm so sorry. I just didn't know where else to go."
"It's okay," he told her, steadying his voice into
a soothing tone, "Please sit down and tell me what
happened."
She pulled up a chair and sat by his bed. She was
wringing her hands as she began her story.
"When you left my home this morning, I was very upset.
I began to think about the past, about certain things
that had always seemed odd at the time, but looking
back seem to make a lot of sense. I had always felt
a connection to Henry, a sort of bond that seemed much
closer than any friendship. I couldn't figure out why
my parents so opposed our being friends. I mean, I
knew that he had been in some trouble, but my mother
always trusted me to make the correct decisions in life.
After thinking about it for some time, I remembered an
event that happened when I was about twelve years old.
During one of Henry's visits, my mother and Abuelita
got in a very heated argument. This wasn't uncommon.
They often fought with one another, but this disagreement
seemed particularly bad. I remembered that I had heard my
mother say something about Henry, something about his
mother, and then glass breaking. After that, it seemed
like whenever Henry came over, there were arguments just
like that. I began to think that maybe what you said was
true, that maybe my mother had had an affair with Henry's
father, and that he was my half-brother."
She took a deep breath as Mulder offered her a glass of
water left over from the inedible hospital "dinner" that
he had hardly touched. She stifled a sob, took a few
sips, thanked him, and continued.
"I called my mother and confronted her. She lied to me
at first, but I pressed her. She finally told me the
truth, that Henry was my brother, and that's why she had
attempted to keep me away from him, to keep my from
finding out the truth. We spoke for about an hour. I
hung up and put myself to bed. I finally fell asleep but
was awakened by a noise in my room. I woke up and found
Henry watching over me. He asked me to come with him,
and we got into an argument."
She took another breath and her eyes darted anxiously
about the room.
"That's when he did…that thing, you know, the thing
with the colors? My room caught on fire, and he
grabbed me. On the way out, we went past your partner.
I guess Henry had knocked her out."
She interrupted her own soliloquy to ask if his partner
was okay. After Mulder nodded his head, she continued.
"He threw me in the truck and took me to that filthy
place. We argued some more, then you walked in. He
knocked you out, and I begged him to stop. He wanted
to kill you, Agent Mulder. He said he wanted you to
burn for all your sins. He had this terrible look in
his eyes, a look I had never seen before, an
indescribable rage. I knew then that he was no longer
the man that I had known as a girl. I kept begging him,
'Please, please stop,' and he finally turned, looked at
me, and stopped hurting you. After you blacked out, he
told me that we needed to get away, that the cops would
be coming right after us. He drove us as far as he
could get, but we needed to stop at a gas station
because there wasn't much gas left in his car. When he
went inside to pay, I ran as far as I could and hid in
the bushes. Once, he almost found me, but then he began
looking in the opposite direction. A tractor trailer
came up the road and picked me up. I hitchhiked here.
I figured they would have found you by then and would
have taken you to the hospital."
"You did very well, Esperanza," Mulder told her, "You
were very resourceful, quick on your feet." He lifted
his hand and patted hers. "It'll be alright," he said,
"You're safe now."
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, darkness
flooded the room. The electricity had gone out in
the entire hospital. Mulder pushed the call button
to send for a nurse, but there was no response. The
lights flickered on as the backup generator sent
electricity coursing through the building.
"I wonder what that was all about?" he pondered aloud.
It was then that he heard the rumblings of thunder
outside his window. Soon, rain was beating down
upon the roof, sounding like waves crashing
against a stony jetty.
Esperanza stood up and looked out the window.
When she turned around to face him, her eyes
met his. They were filled with fear.
"I have a very bad feeling about this," Mulder
told himself, then attempting to comfort
Esperanza, he smiled and said, "Don't worry.
That lock is secure. There's no way he's
getting through it, especially with a hospital
full of doctors and nurses, not to mention the
entire police force who's looking for him.
He's probably already been picked up. Don't
worry, you're safe."
As he spoke, the keylock turned upright. The
door opened slowly and a man wearing hospital
scrubs stepped in, locking the door behind him.
He turned around, his hair dripping wet, and
faced the two of them, holding up a set of
what looked like janitor's keys on a ring.
"You're right," Henry said, a terrible gleam
in his eye, "she's safe, but who's going to
save you?"
"Henry," Mulder said, "I want you to let
Esperanza go. I know you don't want to hurt
her. Just let her walk out the door and
everything will be okay."
Phoenix's lips curved into a snake-like
smile. His yellow teeth glistened in the
light as he threw his head back and let
out a blood-curdling cackle, one reserved
for the deepest of the maniacal or the
clinically insane.
"I don't think you understand, Agent Mulder,"
Henry said, laughing intermittently through
the words, "I'm not here for her, I'm here
for you."
"Well you can have me," he answered, "Just
don't hurt her."
"I wasn't planning on it," Henry continued,
"You see, everything was fine before you came
along. Esperanza and I were friends. We
loved each other, before we even knew that we
were brother and sister. But then you come
along and fill her head with lies about me,
tell her terrible, terrible things about me
that I didn't really do."
As his words progressed, his voice took on a
more menacing tone, sneering and angry.
Mulder looked over at the table where his
phone was still laying. He could pick it up,
but who would he call? He wouldn't even be
able to dial before Henry got to him. He
wished he could feel his gun securely in his
hand, but he was sure that Scully had kept a
hold of it for safekeeping. There was
nothing in the room that could be used as a
weapon. Just some chairs and the telephone
in the corner. He reached his thumb down
and cautiously pressed the call button, hoping
that the generator had kicked the power back
into the device. The action was not cautious
enough. When Henry saw what Mulder was doing,
he once again began his streak of laughing.
"It won't work," he said, "I disconnected the
wire."
"Henry," Esperanza pleaded, "please don't.
I'll go away with you. We can start a new
life, just like you wanted. It'll be you and
me against the world. Just please, please do
not hurt anybody else."
"You will go with me," Henry told her, as he
began walking towards Mulder, "as soon as I
take care of a little problem."
Mulder watched helplessly as Henry's face
twisted from hideous to calm, as he shut his
eyes, and raised his hands to his chest.
"How far do you think you're going to get,
Henry?" Mulder asked, "We've got every cop in
Texas looking for you, plus the F.B.I., not to
mention the fact that you're standing in a
hospital. How long do you think it'll be
before a doctor or nurse comes back to check
on me?"
"Don't you worry about a thing, Agent Mulder,"
he said, "They're all taking a much needed nap,
and by the time they all wake up, we'll already
be out of the country."
"You crazy fuck!" Mulder screamed, "You'll never
get away with this! If it's the last thing I do,
I will hunt you down and personally throw your
ass in prison!"
Henry's skin reddened, and his body was wracked
with spasms. When the spasms ceased, he pulled
his hands shoulder-length apart.
"Henry," Esperanza yelled, "please don't do this."
Henry continued as though he hadn't heard a word
she said. He clapped his hands together, and the
colored lights exploded from his hands.
"This will be the last thing you ever do, Agent
Mulder," he said, raising his towards his victim,
"Goodbye."
"No!" Esperanza screamed, "I won't let this
happen!" Before even she realized what she
was doing, Esperanza held her arms straight
out towards her brother. Balls of light went
hurtling out of her hands. Henry didn't scream
as the lights hit him, nor as the force of their
impact sent his body careening ten feet towards
the window. There was the breaking of glass, and
then nothing. Just the steady rhythm of the rain
beating sadly against the building, and the sound
of police sirens in the distance.
Two Weeks Later
J. Edgar Hoover Building
10:13 A.M.
"The blood tests on Esperanza Cortes revealed
that she possessed the same copper abnormalities
as her brother. It was likely a heritable trait,
a mutation created within their father's gene
sequence, which was then passed down to his
children."
Assistant Director Kersh looked up from the
report he was thumbing through and
stared straight into Scully's eyes. His
circular glasses gave him an air of constipated
importance, fiendishly intelligent and
dangerously cold-hearted.
"And?"
Scully shifted uncomfortably in her seat. His
stare penetrated every core of her being. It
was like he could see inside her very thoughts.
"And we believe that it was the copper that
caused the emergence of their…unique abilities."
"Ah, yes," Kersh said, putting his eyes back to
the documents at his fingers, "The ability to
survive a raging fire without incurring a single
burn, the ability to produce elevated oxygen
levels within their own bodies, the ability to
produce 'lightning balls' which have the capacity
to burn victims till all that's left is ashes and
bone?" Kersh looked up again and closed the
report with visible disgust. "Agents, do you
really expect me to believe this…this…paranormal
nonsense?"
"With all due respect, sir," Mulder interrupted,
"this 'paranormal nonsense' as you refer to it has
been substantiated with Agent Scully's medical
findings. In addition to determining its cause,
we also brought a serial killer to justice, and
still managed to find time to investigate Mrs.
Horst, the supposed fertilizer bomber."
Kersh turned and looked at Mulder. His face was
still badly scarred from where it had been burned,
and his Oxford shirt concealed the bandages covering
his chest and arms.
"Yes you did, Agent Mulder," Kersh responded,
nodding his head in affirmation, "at the expense
of the tax payers of America. The next time I send
you on assignment, I expect that you will follow my
orders to the letter, or I will have you kicked out
of here so fast that your ass won't know which way
is up. Am I making myself clear?"
"Yes, sir," Scully interjected before Mulder had the
chance to say something that they would both regret.
"Good day, Agents."
Mulder gave Kersh a final glare of incomprehensibility,
then stood up and followed Scully out of his office.
When they were out of earshot, Mulder leaned over to
her and whispered, "That guy really puts the ass in
Assistant Director, doesn't he, Scully?"
Scully chuckled as they boarded the elevator and
punched in the basement button.
"So, you never did tell me how you arrived at the
hospital so quickly," Mulder said as the doors closed
in front of them, "What happened? How did you know
that he would show up?"
"After I hung up with you, I kept thinking about our
conversation. I replayed it over and over in my
mind. I just had this nagging feeling. Then I
remembered what the nurse said, 'I need to change
your sheets.' I realized that it would be impossible
for one nurse to change the sheets of a patient
bedridden with burns over more than half of his body.
I had the police dispatched right away. I arrived
soon after."
Mulder smiled, impressed at her prowess.
"Well," he said, "I guess I must be the luckiest
guy in the Bureau."
"Why's that?" Scully asked as the doors opened,
leading to their familiar bargain-basement office.
"Because I have you as a partner, Scully."
Scully returned the smile as he pulled out his
keys and unlocked the door.
"Mulder," she said, "was that I compliment?"
"Yeah," he continued, "there's nothing better than
having a female partner who can't stop thinking
about you in bed."
The smile fell from Scully's face.
"And thus is destroyed yet another touching moment."
Mulder grinned as he opened the door, seated
himself on his chair, and crossed his legs over
his desk. He pulled out a package of sunflower
seeds from his pocket and popped a few in his
mouth.
"Mulder," Scully said, seating herself in her
chair opposite his desk and putting her briefcase
on the floor, "did you know that sunflower seeds
contain unusually high levels of copper?"
"Really?" he asked, taking the bag once again
from his pocket. He looked it over closely,
squinching his face as he read the ingredients.
Glancing at Scully, he tossed the bag directly
into the trashcan.
"Don't want to take any chances."
*THE END*