By Morning's Light - chapter nine
Everyone was relieved to see the morning light stream through the windows of the lounge. Ray was just finishing up his shift and looked out the window moaning to himself at what he saw.
Snow and lots of it.
"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it is still snowing like crazy out there."
A collective groan went up from the room as everyone start to stand up and stretch the kinks out of themselves.
Only Colleen seemed to be her cheerful self. "Not to worry everyone. At least we have plenty of firewood and plenty of food. I think I can even scrounge up a cast iron kettle to make coffee."
This statement brought cheers from the group who were happy to have made it through the night alive and ecstatic and that thought of having caffeine too.
Mulder and Scully excused themselves from the group and went back to the storage room to check it out. Scully seemed a bit uncomfortable and finally broke the silence.
"I am sorry about last night."
"Last night?"
"Yeah falling asleep on you - literally - when I was supposed to be helping you keep watch."
Mulder stopped and waited for Scully to stop too. He couldn't help but smile at her. "Don't worry about it. You are actually very cute when you are sleeping - except for when you drool."
Scully looked a bit embarrassed and then realized he was only joking and attempted to glare at him.
"Very funny. But seriously, I will try to do better tonight if we end up having to stay up all night again."
Mulder tried to push the image of keeping Scully up all night out of his mind and starting walking again. "Hopefully we won't have to do that."
"You have a plan?"
"Sort of, I think that someone should try to make their way down to Chip's cabin to either get use of his phone or his car. "
Scully nodded and stopped to open the door to the storage room. As she had suspected, Jake's body was gone and there were definite signs of it being dragged along the floor out the door on the other side of the room.
Mulder and Scully followed the trail and found that it eventually led to a back door near the garage.
"I wonder" Mulder muttered to himself more than to Scully
"Wonder what?"
"Just what the story behind Chip really is."
"You think he is a suspect?"
"Right now I think anyone who seems to be strong enough to drag a 6 foot man out of the house is a suspect. I just want to find out some more information from him. In the meantime, I think we should try to keep everyone out of this section of the house. Sooner or later we should be able to get a forensic team in here to dust for fingerprints. Unless, of course, you brought your evidence kit with you."
Scully smiled at him. "Latex gloves yes, evidence kit no. Guess we will have to wait for reinforcements."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Mulder and Scully headed back towards the kitchen to grab a bowl of cereal and were happy to find Colleen in there alone.
"Colleen, can we ask you a couple of questions about Chip?" Scully asked
"Sure" she mumbled between bites of Frosted Flakes.
"What's his story?" Mulder continued
"I really don't know much about him except that his mother has worked for me for many years - she lives about 10 miles from here - and that she asked me to give him a job when he got out of prison."
Mulder interest was now piqued. "When was that?"
"I don't know. Not that long ago I guess."
"What was he in for?"
"Not sure. But his mother ensured me that it was basically a case of 'boys will be boys' gone bad - figured he probably got caught smoking dope or shop lifting or something like that."
Both Mulder and Scully were silent and she continued. "You don't think Chip had anything to do with what is going on do you? He is nothing but a sweet boy."
"A sweet boy" she thought to herself "that gave her some of the best sex she had ever had." There were definite advantages to sleeping with a man who had just gotten out of prison. Just the thoughts of what he would do to her with his mouth almost made her blush.
Mulder sensed she was hiding something but said nothing more than "Colleen right now everyone is a suspect. I just wanted to get my facts straight. Come on, let's join the others. I want to figure out our battle plan for the day."
When everyone was comfortably settled in the lounge, Mulder told him that he thought that they should send a party out to find Chip's cabin to call for help while the people back at the house worked on getting the emergency radio fixed and making their surroundings more secure.
Everyone agreed that it sounded like a good plan until it came time to choose who would go. Mulder wanted to head out alone stating that it was too dangerous to let anyone else go.
Scully totally disagreed stating that was an incredibly bad idea for someone to head out in a blizzard alone. The rest of the group agreed with her and Ray suggested that both Mulder and Scully go.
"I know Fox you would rather Dana stay back here but as a field agent you know that you never go out on an assignment without someone covering your back. You both are active field agents who are trained in survival tactics. You two are the only ones who can get the job done."
Mulder thought a moment and reluctantly nodded his head. "You're right. Ray, why don't you and Charlie work on securing this house? Colleen do you know how to fix the radio?"
"I do, if she doesn't" Amanda said. "My father has a ham radio and we grew up tinkering on it."
"Great, then everything's settled" Scully said.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Mulder and Scully took about 15 minutes to load their gear into a couple of backpacks and dress themselves as warmly as possible. Colleen provided them with a map of how to get to Chip's cabin. On a sunny day it would take a good hiker about an hour or so to get there. Who knew how long it would take them today.
If they could get there at all.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Author's note: Keep the feedback coming!!
Everyone was relieved to see the morning light stream through the windows of the lounge. Ray was just finishing up his shift and looked out the window moaning to himself at what he saw.
Snow and lots of it.
"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it is still snowing like crazy out there."
A collective groan went up from the room as everyone start to stand up and stretch the kinks out of themselves.
Only Colleen seemed to be her cheerful self. "Not to worry everyone. At least we have plenty of firewood and plenty of food. I think I can even scrounge up a cast iron kettle to make coffee."
This statement brought cheers from the group who were happy to have made it through the night alive and ecstatic and that thought of having caffeine too.
Mulder and Scully excused themselves from the group and went back to the storage room to check it out. Scully seemed a bit uncomfortable and finally broke the silence.
"I am sorry about last night."
"Last night?"
"Yeah falling asleep on you - literally - when I was supposed to be helping you keep watch."
Mulder stopped and waited for Scully to stop too. He couldn't help but smile at her. "Don't worry about it. You are actually very cute when you are sleeping - except for when you drool."
Scully looked a bit embarrassed and then realized he was only joking and attempted to glare at him.
"Very funny. But seriously, I will try to do better tonight if we end up having to stay up all night again."
Mulder tried to push the image of keeping Scully up all night out of his mind and starting walking again. "Hopefully we won't have to do that."
"You have a plan?"
"Sort of, I think that someone should try to make their way down to Chip's cabin to either get use of his phone or his car. "
Scully nodded and stopped to open the door to the storage room. As she had suspected, Jake's body was gone and there were definite signs of it being dragged along the floor out the door on the other side of the room.
Mulder and Scully followed the trail and found that it eventually led to a back door near the garage.
"I wonder" Mulder muttered to himself more than to Scully
"Wonder what?"
"Just what the story behind Chip really is."
"You think he is a suspect?"
"Right now I think anyone who seems to be strong enough to drag a 6 foot man out of the house is a suspect. I just want to find out some more information from him. In the meantime, I think we should try to keep everyone out of this section of the house. Sooner or later we should be able to get a forensic team in here to dust for fingerprints. Unless, of course, you brought your evidence kit with you."
Scully smiled at him. "Latex gloves yes, evidence kit no. Guess we will have to wait for reinforcements."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Mulder and Scully headed back towards the kitchen to grab a bowl of cereal and were happy to find Colleen in there alone.
"Colleen, can we ask you a couple of questions about Chip?" Scully asked
"Sure" she mumbled between bites of Frosted Flakes.
"What's his story?" Mulder continued
"I really don't know much about him except that his mother has worked for me for many years - she lives about 10 miles from here - and that she asked me to give him a job when he got out of prison."
Mulder interest was now piqued. "When was that?"
"I don't know. Not that long ago I guess."
"What was he in for?"
"Not sure. But his mother ensured me that it was basically a case of 'boys will be boys' gone bad - figured he probably got caught smoking dope or shop lifting or something like that."
Both Mulder and Scully were silent and she continued. "You don't think Chip had anything to do with what is going on do you? He is nothing but a sweet boy."
"A sweet boy" she thought to herself "that gave her some of the best sex she had ever had." There were definite advantages to sleeping with a man who had just gotten out of prison. Just the thoughts of what he would do to her with his mouth almost made her blush.
Mulder sensed she was hiding something but said nothing more than "Colleen right now everyone is a suspect. I just wanted to get my facts straight. Come on, let's join the others. I want to figure out our battle plan for the day."
When everyone was comfortably settled in the lounge, Mulder told him that he thought that they should send a party out to find Chip's cabin to call for help while the people back at the house worked on getting the emergency radio fixed and making their surroundings more secure.
Everyone agreed that it sounded like a good plan until it came time to choose who would go. Mulder wanted to head out alone stating that it was too dangerous to let anyone else go.
Scully totally disagreed stating that was an incredibly bad idea for someone to head out in a blizzard alone. The rest of the group agreed with her and Ray suggested that both Mulder and Scully go.
"I know Fox you would rather Dana stay back here but as a field agent you know that you never go out on an assignment without someone covering your back. You both are active field agents who are trained in survival tactics. You two are the only ones who can get the job done."
Mulder thought a moment and reluctantly nodded his head. "You're right. Ray, why don't you and Charlie work on securing this house? Colleen do you know how to fix the radio?"
"I do, if she doesn't" Amanda said. "My father has a ham radio and we grew up tinkering on it."
"Great, then everything's settled" Scully said.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Mulder and Scully took about 15 minutes to load their gear into a couple of backpacks and dress themselves as warmly as possible. Colleen provided them with a map of how to get to Chip's cabin. On a sunny day it would take a good hiker about an hour or so to get there. Who knew how long it would take them today.
If they could get there at all.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Author's note: Keep the feedback coming!!