"Leave a message after the beep," her soft voice chimed into his ear and he angrily thumbed the phone off.  With one hand on the wheel Mulder haphazardly watched the road as he speed dialled her number again.

"If she's in the air her mobile will be switched off," Frohike said keeping his eyes on the laptop and avoiding the near missed Mulder was spinning them through.

"Can you find anything from the passenger manifesto?"

"Mulder it's one of the hardest systems to hack into…"

"Langly would have it printed and bound by now," Mulder taunted as he took a hard left, narrowly missing a double trailer truck, getting rewarded with a long sharp blare from it's horn.

"Okay…Scully, Dana…" he said as his eyes scanned the list of passengers booked on the 5.30 flight from Washington. "There she is, she's booked a ticket."

"It leaves in two hours, she should have her bloody phone on," he shouted angrily.

"Maybe she caught an earlier flight.  I'll check" Frohike said trying to calm Mulder down before they were killed.

"I'll try Skinner," he said looking through his list of numbers for Skinners office.

"Mulder!" Frohike shouted grabbing the dashboard and Mulder looked up just in time to swerve away from hitting the back of a bus.

            Veering sharply into another lane he accelerated again into the clear road and continued his search for Skinners number.  Holding the phone between his ear and shoulder he reached behind himself and grabbed the seatbelt fastening it tightly.  With a rueful smile at Frohike he waited for Skinner to pick up.

"AD Skinners office," Kimberly's sweet voice said clearly.

"This is Agent Mulder I need to speak to Skinner immediately," Mulder said glad to be speaking into the phone instead of listening to Scully's message.

"Okay, hold on and I'll put you through…."

            Mulder took the break in conversation to change lanes and speed up further.

"Skinner," the clipped voice said.

"It's Mulder, has Scully been in there already?"

"Yes, she left almost two hours ago.  She was going to try and get an earlier flight. Why what's happened?" He asked hearing the tense tone in Mulders voice.

"The boy…Billy, he's been kidnapped."

"Yes Scully told me."

"Well it seems that he had a fit last night and the flight number he wrote beforehand matched the one that Scully was…is booked on this evening."

"Where is she?"

"I can't get in touch with her.  Her mobile is turned off."

"She probably caught another flight."

"I'm just getting to the airport now sir."

"Call me when you hear from her."

"I will."

"I can't see her on any other flight," Frohike said as Mulder threw his mobile down to the cubby shelf beside the gear stick.  "But if she paid cash and got in on a late seat she wouldn't be named on the system."

"Let's just get in here and find her."

            He pulled the car half across the lane and up on the curb outside the arrivals door and they both abandoned it racing in and standing at the schedule boards.

"Go over to information and see if they'll announce her.  I'll run over to the arrivals gate for Washington and try her on the mobile again," Mulder said running away, already dialling.

He watched the crowd stream out of the gate carrying bags and meeting family and he scanned them for her red hair. 

"Come on Scully," he muttered to himself, "pick up, pick up, pick up."

***

            Standing at the carousel Scully watched it display everyone's bags one by one being claimed but her own.  Holding Mulder's things that she had packed for him she watched the now empty carousel spin endlessly without releasing her things.  She shifted Mulder's hold all from one shoulder to the other and approached the security desk.

"Excuse me," she said making the young guard look up from his PC.  "I just landed with a flight from Washington but my bag doesn't seem to have made the journey with me."

"What was the flight number?" the guard asked tiredly.

"Eh…3214, from Washington."

"Name?"

"Dana Scully."

"How many bags did you check on?"

"Two, one of them made it," she said holding up Mulders bag.

            The guard took the bag from her and scanned the barcode off its tag.

"I see it now, it's been put on a flight this evening.   3554 from Washington."

"How did that happen?" she asked a little angry now at the hold up.  So much for getting the early flight, she thought.

"We have you booked on that flight ma'am," the guard said.

"Yes but I managed to get an earlier flight."

"It seems your name was left on the system and when the baggage handlers scanned your bag they must have seen you on the later flight."

"I have to get into the city and I wont be able to hang around here all day."

"That's okay ma'am," he said as he tapped on the keyboard obviously going through a spiel he'd been used to before.  "If you leave a contact address with us we will deliver your bag to you this evening."

"That would be appreciated.  I'm staying at the Holiday Inn on Foremount Ave. New York."

"That will be fine ma'am, we'll have your bag out to you as soon as we can."

"Thank you."

            She hoisted Mulder bag up onto her shoulder again and walked away somewhat dejected at the thought of being without her belongings again.  As she walked through the blue gates at arrivals she heard her name being called out over the information system, asking her to pick up a white courtesy phone or to approach the information desk.  Frowning she examined the area in search of the information desk when she saw Mulder standing with his back to her his phone planted between his shoulder and ear and he combed both hands through his hair, a gesture she knew he saved for when he was worried.  She walked towards him but before she got any closer she saw Frohike step out from in front of him a similar expression of tension on his face and he said something and pointed at her.  Mulder whipped around to where Frohike was pointing and Scully could almost see the worry melt from his face, replaced by a smile when he watched her draw near.  Both of his cheeks puffed out as he blew a short sharp gasp of air from his mouth and reached a hand out to rest on her shoulder.

"Scully," he said wanting to say more, needing to touch her more but with Frohike by his side he restrained himself.  "You got an earlier flight."

"Yeah, I managed to get on the 2.30 flight. Why? What are you doing here?"

"It's Billy, he had a fit last night and his drawings…it was your flight," he said quickly, watching the blood drain from her face as the realisation dawned on her.

"My flight?"

"New York, 3554, 17:30," Mulder said.

"So someone is planting thoughts and messages in his head on purpose," she said angrily.

            He frowned amazed at her recovery and leap in logic. 

"You think-," he began but she cut him off, dropping the bag so she could use both hands to gesture with.

"Listen to me for a minute, what if someone…I don't know who, is sending him the information," she said her eyes glazing over as she tried desperately to hold on to the train of thought.

"On a frequency only he can pick up through a device attached to his bed," Frohike offered.

"And mixing that with the tumour in his brain…" she struggled for the thoughts to connect.  Beside her Mulder stood silent and still letting her join them herself.  "Tests were done with frequency waves on brain tumours for a better safer way of curing them rather than radiotherapy but they proved inconsistent and set off temporal lobe fits in many patients."

"Accounting for Billy's health," he murmured.

"But who? Why?"

"Think about it Scully, a soldier who can be given information and orders practically over brainwaves…that would be a invaluable resource to any army."

"But why kill all those people for testing?"

"A few bodies here and there mean nothing to an army. Casualties of war," Frohike said cynically.

"Over 800 people isn't just a few," Scully said as she bent to pick up the bag but Mulder stopped her and picked it up himself.

            He touched a hand to the small of her back and gently usher her to the car they had deserted earlier.  Frohike climbed in to the back and she sat into the front as Mulder argued with the parking attendant about the emergency he was in.  Before the attendant could get another word in Mulder pulled out his badge and walked away holding it up to the guards face.

            They bantered through their loose theory on the drive back and Scully rang Skinner to apprise him of the situation.  Mulder told her about the meeting in the field office and how the reports from the fire mentioned no explosion but did list possible accelerants that could have been used.  Frohike went into great detail of the kind of device that might transmit selected frequencies and run silently off a hospital bed.  Before he went into the working electronics of the machine Mulder cut him off, with a wave of his hand.

"We need to find that device Frohike," he said and then added, "without loosing power through out the whole block."

            He pulled the car into a parking space outside the hospital and Frohike went into talk to Langly and Byers who had called and said they were rescanning the room.  Going round to the boot Mulder pulled at the bag she had brought.

"Stuff in here for me?" he asked before he unzipped it.

"It's all for you, my stuff went astray," she said leaning against he open boot

"Well I need to get out of these jeans," he said pulling at them.

"I noticed they looked a little snug."

"I was in a bit of a rush," he said as he rummaged through the bag, sifting through all the clothes she'd folded neatly into it and tossing them carelessly into the boot.  He pulled out a pair of charcoal grey slacks and a light blue shirt. 

"Hey Scully which tie?" he asked her nudging her to get her attention and then holding up two ties.

"The one on the left," she said pointing to the plain black tie.

"I'm glad you're back," he said suddenly, making her look up into his eyes and see the struggle he was going through keeping her out of his arms, and his lips away from hers.

"Me too."

            With a just a small smile to show how they were feeling Mulder slammed the boot shut and they went into the hospital.  As they entered the ward Mulder veered off to change in the toilets and Scully went to Billy's room where all three members of the lone gunmen lay beneath the bed only their legs visible.  Their voices were muffled as they spoke and she hunkered down by the end of the bed and bent her head as low as it would go.

"Guys? What are you doing?"

"Agent Scully?" Byers slid out from under the bed and stood up to greet her. 

"Hello Byers, what's going on?"

"We're trying to see if we can find this transmitter."

"And you think it's in the bed?"

"It's reading a lot of EST activity."

"Couldn't that be some of the hospital equipment?" she said gesturing around the room to the expanse of monitors and other machines.

"No, we've eliminated everything except the bed."

            Just then Mulder came in changed and holding the jeans in his hands.  He dropped his clothes onto the bed and bent to speak with the two gunmen still under the bed.

"Any luck?"

"Nada," Frohike said pulling himself out.

"We've got to be missing something," Byers said obviously frustrated.

"Skinner said he was sending a team out to the airport in Washington, maybe we'll learn more from that."

"Meanwhile Billy is missing and probably in danger," Scully argued not content to sit around waiting for stuff to happen.

"What about the hotel? Find anything at the Liberty Inn?" Mulder asked turning to Byers.

"No, nothing that the fire chief hadn't already logged."

"What about the security footage, could it be cleaned up?"

"No, no way, it's like the place was rigged with magnets," Langly said shaking his head but stopping suddenly as if something just dawned on him at the same time Frohike pulled himself out from the bed and Byers turned to them.

"Magnets!"

"They could have been polarised for connection and it would explain the static from the bed…the wiped Security tapes," Byers said eagerly.

"Magnets?"

"Listen, it's like a magnet has an attraction to metal and the waves of this attraction could have been used…"

"Piggy back on a magnet wave…clever," Frohike said nodding his head slowly.

"Some one is transmitting frequencies through magnets?" Mulder said unconvinced.

"Did you ever have two strong magnets in either hand," Byers began to explain, holding his hands out demonstrating what he was saying, "And hold them far enough apart that you can feel them pulling towards each other?"

"Yes," Scully said suddenly understanding.

"Well if those magnets were strong enough and fixed at certain points then it's conceivable that the waves travelling between them could have carried transmissions from a separate device."

"But wouldn't one of the magnets need to be attached to Billy…somewhere?" Mulder asked.

"Billy had surgery after the plane crash that killed his parents," Scully confirmed.

"Could something have been planted in him then?"

"Possibly, I'd need to check his medical history and find out where he had the surgery."

"I'll go and talk to Sally, maybe she'll know something," Mulder said.

            They both walked out into the hall and made their way to the elevator.  This time when the doors closed behind them they were alone and Mulder reached for her and pulled her into his arms.  He held her tightly, burying his face in her hair and breathed her in as deep as he could.

"Mulder…"

"Shhh Scully," he said softly against her neck.

            She let him hold her and ran her hands gently around his back.  Eventually he released her from his grasp but not fully.  Only enough to see her face as his hands trailed up her body and cupped her face.

"I was so worried," he said simply.

"I'm fine."

"I know." He gently pressed a kiss against her lips and smiled.  "I've wanted to do that for so long."

"Mulder…you kissed me last night," she said timidly.

"No, I mean take you in my arms and reassure myself that you are okay, kiss you and let any pain I imagined you were in seep away."
"Thank you Mulder, but I'm fine."

            He let her go sensing her unease at his kindly words and forced a smile.  Her bush off stung more than he thought it would but he didn't push it, knowing it would be worse if he did.  They stepped out of the elevator on the ground floor and with a wave he went out to drive to Sally's house while she went to the information desk to find out where she might find Billy's neurologist. 

            Standing at the reception desk waiting her turn her fingers drummed absent-mindedly on the table as she watched his lean figure step through the sliding door, his head bent slightly lower than usual.  She knew she had hurt him by not giving weight to his concerns but she wasn't about to swoon over for his needs and worries.  She was able to take care of herself before and the kiss…no matter how fantastic wasn't going to change that.  She released a lung full of air that she hadn't realised she was holding and turned to the receptionist.  Trying hard to dispel thoughts of Mulder she settled for calming them down and focused her attention more on the directions to the doctors office.

**Sorry for the shortness.  Next one will probably be the final…**