CHAPTER 8: THEY SAY WOMEN, THEY WILL COME AND THEY WILL GO.

The cold water streamed over his face as he pulled his head from underneath the faucet in the men's bathroom in the basement of the J. Edgar Hoover Building. Surely, he did not see what he though he had seen. His thoughts turned to his wife, Kristin, and he wondered if he should tell her what he had seen. He knew that she would not believe him, and he didn't want Nathan to think his daddy was crazy.

Agent Carson peered in the mirror and in a masochistic attempt to wake himself up, pinched his arm.

"Ow!" Dudley muttered with contempt that he was in fact very awake. What would he tell Skinner? Skinner would think he was crazy too, and his entire reputation with the bureau would be ruined, not only because his story would sound crazy, but since Agent Scully's death was such a touchy subject in the halls, he did not wish to be called insensitive. He could hear them now asking if it was some sort of sick joke or prank that he was pulling. Sounds like something "Spooky" Mulder would rant about. Shit. He just remember that Agent Mulder was supposed to come in today and he certainly did not wish to scare him as well.

He wiped off his face and walked slowly out of the restroom towards the basement office, turning his head left and right as he went. His eyes twitched at the flickering fluorescent over his head. Surely there was an explanation, for Dudley was not prone to hallucinations. He had always been a straight-laced guy; he didn't smoke, rarely drank, and had never taken an illegal drug in his life. Not even once. He arrived at the office door and knocked first, fearing that he might find another person that he had once done an autopsy on standing in the room. What he feared the most was that if he saw was in fact real, he let her go. What would they say to that? So you saw Agent Scully, a woman that has been missing and then we found dead, and you let her leave without even a word? He decided that the best approach was none at all.

After seeing that no one was in the office he sat down at the desk of Fox Mulder and tried not to look at the open filing cabinet. This brought up another point, one which could not be denied, which was the fact that Dana Scully's file was in fact missing. They would notice it eventually. They would probably notice it today, and what would he say to that. Dudley put his hands on his face on the verge of tears imagining himself locked away in a federal prison for the rest of his life. He sighed with reluctance and waited for the phone to ring.