Title: There's Something…Different About This Case…

Chapter Three

Author: Insomnia, a very bored shipper!

Disclamer: I don't own any characters. If I did I would be really rich.

Genre: MSR…the only kind there should be

The man sat with his newly acquired photographs. Taking out an X-acto knife he slowly and deliberately traced it's razor edge around the despised man in one of the pictures. As he traced around the form he felt his bitterness and hatred escalate into a familiar feeling of madness. He knew what he was doing what crazy. He also knew that he himself must be crazy. But he was a man so full of desire for her, and hatred of him, that his actions seemed almost sane in his eyes.

He removed the man's figure from the photograph and set it aside, his face set in a grimace. He knew quite a bit about this man. Taking out his lighter he flicked it on, staring at the flame for almost a full minute before he took the paper figure up again in his hand. He carefully moved the edge of the figure to meet the flame, and felt a kind of release when the fire took. He watched as the figure he had so precisely removed from the photo started to curl up at it's edge, blackening, the chemicals discoloring, spotting, running down the image. He wished that somehow, he could make the same happen to the actual man himself. But this was the next best thing he knew to do. So far. He didn't want it to have to come to that. If it did, she might not have him. He knew quite a bit about the woman too.

Next came the best part. He smiled and dropped the now burnt piece of photographic paper on the floor. Repeating his earlier movements, he soon held up the figure of a woman in his hand. Someday she would be there with him forever, in the flesh. This was just temporary. Kissing the paper, he carefully lifted the plastic cover of one of the pages in a photo album full of similar images and pressed it to the sticky paper. Smoothing the plastic down over it again, he smiled. He felt so much better. Things might actually go as he planned. He had been waiting so long for his chance. And he knew his dreams would come true soon.

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Having remained at the French restaurant, Mulder stood watching the local CSI dust for prints. He was bored. They would find no prints belonging to whomever had taken those men, he felt. No, whoever had taken the two men from their campsite so far away knew what they were doing. They had acted so quickly that neither of the men had been awoken by the sound of the vehicle they had used to get there. He sorted out the details in his head. A bright light, then next a trip to a freezer room in a French restaurant. It didn't add up. There was no connection to the restaurant. This job had definitely been planned in advance. And the culprits, or even just one culprit, had certainly had the finesse to break into a restaurant in a busy city and place two men in a freezer room.

Taking his cell phone out he pressed speed dial and was met with Scully's voice.

"Mulder, I told you I would call you when I found a place. I haven't had any luck yet." He responded.

"That's not what I'm calling about…Scully, how long would those men have had to be in that freezer room, so they came out with their condition of hypothermia?" There was a slight pause. He could almost hear her thinking. When she gave him the response of one hour to two hours, he hung up. He found himself reflecting on the fact that they never said goodbye. He liked it that way. He hoped that he would never have to say goodbye to her. His thoughts returned to the case, a much safer area of thought.

So not only did his culprit take the men to a freezer room for a few hours, but he or she then removed them, and drove them 15 miles outside of the city limits, in the general direction of the campsite. But why? This really made no sense. Mulder found himself growing more and more intrigued by this case. Before he had found it mundane, even boring in it's predictability. But now…it was starting to feel like a challenge. He loved these types of cases. But only as long as nobody got hurt in the end. Especially his partner. He would kill anyone who so much as touched her.

An hour later Scully walked into the police station to meet her fellow agent. She had had no luck finding a couple of hotel rooms, and not even any luck finding just one. She didn't want to search the whole city for a room , it was just too tiring. So she had called Mulder and asked him to meet her at the PD, as it was much closer to her location at the time then the restaurant was. So he had came back with the investigation team and was patiently sitting, waiting for her when she arrived. He looked happy to see her, an observation that lightened her mood by a few notches. She was just so tired. As she reached him, he put his arm on her shoulder and turned her towards him closer. He spoke in a low voice,

"Scully…I've been doing some thinking. I've came to the conclusion that this abduction wasn't done by any alien, or thief. It's just too intricate, too many unnecessary moves. Now those men must have been drugged somehow. So I called the hospital, both Harry Bellows and Stan Holmes were discharged from the hospital last night. And what's more is that both their charts are missing. I checked with the doctor but he claims that he has no memory of the results of their blood work…"

"Mulder, if there were any results at all. I think you're going too far with this theory. It could be a case of simple revenge on the men, or one of the men…It could have been some kind of…I admit, it's confusing. It's frustrating, having a case in which you cannot figure out the motive for. But what I find more frustrating at the moment is the fact that I cannot for my life find a couple of decent hotel rooms!" Mulder gave her a look that she couldn't decipher. As she raised an eyebrow at him and was about to ask what he was thinking, she spotted Officer Nick Marsh over his shoulder. Breaking herself from Mulder's gaze she gave the policeman a big smile and a greeting. His face lit up as he strode towards the agent. Barely acknowledging Mulder, he exclaimed, "Dana! What are you doing here again so soon? You haven't broken your case yet?"

Interrupting the officer's laugh Mulder answered the question that he had not been asked. "Actually no. And we're here waiting for any matches made with some fingerprints that we found today." The officer murmured a polite "Good luck" and turned to Agent Scully once again. Before he could speak she broke in.

"Nick, would you know any available hotel rooms in the area? My partner and I need a few rooms for tonight…we..we weren't satisfied with the room we had last night." She blushed, wishing she had not just admitted to this man whom she barely knew that she and Mulder had shared a room. That was something she would not have admitted to her own mother. She quickly added, "The hotel we stayed at only had one room available for us two agents. There must be quite a few conventions going on, because I'm having a hell of a time finding some rooms. " The officer glanced at Mulder and replied encouragingly,

"Yes, it's convention time here in Vegas, all right. It's our busiest time of the year here at the station. Well that, and New Years. But don't worry. I have a cousin who owns a hotel around here, I'm sure I can pull a few favors and get some available for you."

Officer Marsh winked at her as she handed him her card with her cell phone number on it. "We'd be so grateful if you could find us some rooms, thanks." She said, relief in her voice.

As the officer left to go about his business, Mulder was just turning towards Scully to remark on how that was some interesting way to get her number when the police Chief bustled towards the two agents.

"Sorry agents, the only fingerprints found belonged to the restaurant owner and two of the chefs who work there. You need me to run any checks on those guys?" Mulder shook his head no, telling him it wouldn't be necessary. They were at a dead end. He had no suspect, motive, or evidence beyond the tire tread. But he had the method. That was something. But Skinner would be expecting a full report soon on their progress. This was personal to Skinner, he wouldn't be satisfied with leaving the ends untied. Fortunately that was something Mulder really hated to do. He thought Scully felt the same way. He turned towards her.

"Hey Scully, wanna go eat?"

"As long as the restaurant doesn't have a theme, I do." Mulder grinned and placed his hand on the back of her arm, leading her out of the noisy station.

"I think everything in this city has a theme of some kind, Scully. So you're out of luck." She smiled back at him. "If I'm so out of luck I guess I should put off that gambling I've been meaning to do."

When the two agents had finished their lunch in the jungle-themed restaurant Mulder had chosen, there was an uncomfortable lull in the conversation. Neither knew what to do next. They had nowhere to go until they found a hotel room. So to prolong their stay at the restaurant, they requested dessert when the waiter came, and sat in silence once again when he left.

Mulder found himself thinking of how much he would like to be sitting there at a restaurant in Las Vegas with her if they weren't on a case. Even during the few occasions that they had went out to dinner together, back in D.C., they talked about current or past assignments. He looked at his partner and tried to pretend that they were on a date.

"Mulder, whoever took…" He interrupted her with a shake of his head and a sigh.

"Let's save the case talk for later, huh Scully? I just want to pretend I'm happily waiting for dessert right now." He gave her a smile and looked at her. He recalled a time when someone he had encountered on a case had told him that he "gazed" at Scully. He had retorted with a long stare and told the man, "I do not gaze at Agent Scully". He now realized that he did indeed to some serious gazing. Most of it when she wasn't looking. He wondered what was the significance of the fact that he gazed and did not stare, or even just regard her.

"What is it, Mulder?" Scully asked him, with a little laugh. He made a mental note to stick with the gazing when she wasn't looking back at him. "Nothing, I…" thankfully her cell phone interrupted him. He wasn't quite sure of what he would say. Oddly enough he continued to keep his eyes fixed on her as she spoke into the phone.

"Oh, thank you so much Nick. We really appreciate it…What's that? Dinner tonight? Well, I…." She stammered and looked at Mulder, unsure if she should accept the officer's invitation. When she glanced over at him he had torn his eyes away and looked down at the table, poking his fork into the piece of pie that the waiter had just brought over. Annoyed at his lack of reaction to the obvious invitation to dinner taking place right in front of him, she accepted. She would be meeting the Officer at the hotel where he had found them a couple of rooms, at about 7 pm. Didn't Mulder care at all? She wondered what he would do when she was gone. He was just as frustrating as this case had become.

Mulder stuck his fork into his pie, putting all his effort into not looking at Scully right now. He didn't want to see any happy expression on her face. Happy that she was actually going out on a date with someone else. Not that they themselves had ever gone a date with each other. But didn't she know that he had wanted to eat dinner with her tonight? He supposed they did every night they had a case together. Just another dinner with good ol' Mulder, she must think. At least this jerk she was going to dinner with lived so far away. He would probably never hear about him again when they left. He suddenly wished that this case was solved, or somehow resolved. He wanted nothing more than to see Scully in their office once again, where she was all his. At least for the hours of 8 to 5, she was. He finished his pie and finally looked up at her. Scully was staring at him. It was certainly no gaze. She had a half-annoyed expression on her face. He wondered vaguely what he had done wrong when she told him that she was ready to go and check into the hotel. Nodding his head he laid some bills on the table and they left.

Well that's chapter 3. Hoped you liked it, and found the case and the romance interesting. Very cool I got some more reviews. Keep em coming, it's 5 seconds out of your life go towards encouraging me to write some more on this first story of mine. Anyway, the case is gettin' more interesting in this chapter. And I can't wait to turn up the heat a little on our two favorite agents…

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