"Down on the ground, NOW," Detective Miles shouted at Mulder who backed up a little at the sight of the shotgun in his hands.
"You know its Billy, you've known all along."
"I said down on the ground," the detective said this time cocking his shotgun to show Mulder he was serious. Mulder slowly knelt into the ground feeling the wet surface soak through his trousers immediately.
"How long are you gonna let it happen?" he shouted up trying not to look at the large barrel of the large gun but suddenly a woman's scream curled around them both making them look into the forest from where it came.
"He's gonna kill her," Mulder yelled.
Detective miles looked down at Mulder for a second before bolting away running in the direction of the scream with Mulder scrambling to his feet and following closely. All Mulder could see was the bouncing light of the other mans torch until he ran into the clearing in tie to see Billy Miles lifting Theresa Newman's still body off the ground. A thick and fast wind swirled around them carrying leaves into the air around them and Mulder saw the detective pull the shotgun on his own son. He shouted something but Mulder couldn't make it out so he lunged forward tackling him to the ground, making sure the gun was aimed at the forest floor.
Looking up he saw Billy hold Theresa close to his body as he stared up to a light that engulfed them both. Mulder noticed the two red marks on Billy's lower back and struggled to keep Detective Miles still beneath him as the light intensified so much he had to look away, shutting his eyes tight and burying his face into the crook of his arm. When he could feel the wind die down he risked opening his eyes only to see Billy standing in the clearing, confused and disorientated, with Theresa by his feet.
Detective Miles pushed Mulder off him and rushed over to his son embracing him into a tight hug twisting him round and Mulder saw that the marks had disappeared. Theresa groaned and grabbed her head as she struggled to sit up and it was just then that Mulder realised Scully wasn't by his side.
"Scully!" he breathed as he grabbed his torch from the ground and ran back into the direction he came. He caught sight of her torch and called out her name again, running up to her breathless from excitement rather than the run.
"Mulder!" she said as she approached him. "What happened? There was a light?"
"It was incredible," he said his voice thick with emotion as he grasped her elbow and felt her fingers close around his arm too. He needed to touch her, to know she was real to know what happened was real
She watched his face display a full array of emotions clearly before he focused on her and noticed the small cut on her forehead where the butt of the gun had connected.
"You okay?" he asked reaching up to touch it but she ducked away from his fingers.
"I'm fine, what happened out there?"
"It was Billy!" he said gripping her arm and pulling her back towards the clearing where they found father and son helping Theresa to stand. Scully rushed over as her medical training kicked in and performed a cursory exam as Detective Miles approached Mulder.
"I know you have questions but I need to get these kids to a hospital and then…home," he said almost daring Mulder to challenge him.
"I understand. We'll be in touch."
They all walked back to the cars and Mulder helped Theresa into the back seat and returned to Scully, who was leaning on the bonnet of their rental as they watched the other car pull away.
"So what did happen out there Mulder?" she asked again realising that he still hadn't given her a straight answer.
"It was amazing Scully," he began as they both climbed into the car. He didn't fasten his belt and instead turned to face her fully using his hands animatedly as he told he all that he saw and felt in the clearing. Her head began to shake slowly in amazement as she listened to him hearing the delight and passion in his voice that she knew was clouding his judgement, making him highlight different parts of his experience.
When he finished talking she sighed and leaned back into the chair with her eyes closed. He looked at her for a moment wondering if she believed him, needing to hear her say it but knowing she wouldn't, or couldn't. So instead he pulled the car away from the forest road and drove back to the motel.
"You should have let me take you to the emergency room," he said as they stepped into the motel forecourt. He took her arm and guided her into a well-lit area and with a hand either side of her face he tilted her head back and to the side to get a better look at the cut on her forehead.
"I'm fine Mulder, I'll clean it up in my room."
"Thumping head I'd bet," he said smiling a little.
"Like you wouldn't believe," she muttered as her eyes fluttered closed.
"I've been hit with more than a few gun handles," he said as he released her head and stepped away from her returning her personal space and backing up to his motel door.
"Goodnight Scully."
"Goodnight Mulder," she replied stepping past the door and closing it firmly behind her.
***
She walked out of Section Chief Blevins office and tried to calm her beating heart when she noticed a tall man walking towards her. He avoided her gaze and continued straight ahead past her and she turned to see him enter the office she had just left. Her mind burst with duplicity and the ramifications her reports would have as she took the elevator to the basement office where she found Mulder with his head bent to a microscope.
"Mulder," she said as she walked into the room but he called her over and waved his arm motioning for her to join him, all the while his head didn't move from the scope.
"Look at this," he said obviously pleased with himself as he leaned back enough for her to look down into what he had been studying. She curled her hair behind her ears to keep it off her face and put her eyes next to the lens.
"What is it?"
"It's a piece of the implant."
"Did the lab come through with something?" she asked looking up with a glimmer of hope that her report mightn't be as inconclusive as she thought.
"No, but I wanted to send a piece out to…another lab."
"Another lab? A better lab than the FBI forensics lab?" she questioned, but the twinkle in his eye and the quirk in his eyebrow told her not to press the issue. "Don't ask, don't lie."
"Something like that."
She smiled with a little shake of her head as if she expected nothing less from him and turned to lean back on the counter.
"So how did your report go?"
"It sunk like a 1920's cruise ship."
He couldn't help but smile at her analogy and wondered not for the first time if they had sent him the right Agent.
"That good?"
"Mulder I think I just managed to destroy my whole scientific reputation in one sitting. They read my report but they didn't like it."
"They never do, you'll get used to that."
"Mulder, I didn't like it," she argued. "It was personal, subjective and had partial second hand accounts."
"Just like an X-File."
She pushed a rush of air past her lips and let him know exactly how she felt with one simple gesture.
"Well, it was only my first case…maybe we'll get the next one?"
"Maybe Scully, maybe," he said turning back to the scope.
"You're staying late?"
"Yeah, I have to contact the…technician and get this over to the lab. See you tomorrow."
He waited until she left the room and even held his breath to listen for the soft ding from the elevator before he wheeled his chair over to his desk and reached for his phone.
"Frohike, it's me, you taping?" he said when the ringing stopped.
"No, you?"
"No."
"How was Oregon?"
"Wet…but worth it."
"You got something?" Frohike asked a lilt turning his voice a bit more excited than when he answered.
"An implant. Labs here can't identify it."
"Well I'm not surprised. Those labs couldn't identify something if you labelled it with neon signs," Frohike said with a laugh and Mulder heard another voice laughing with Frohike.
"Will you take a look at it?"
"Sure, bring it over."
"I'll be there in an hour or so."
"How about your new partner? How's it working out?"
"She's fine," Mulder said neutrally, knowing that Frohike would cling to the mention of Scully's gender rather than probe him for credentials.
"She?"
"Yes. Special Agent Dana Scully."
"What's she like?"
"She's…puzzling…I'm not sure how to take her," he admitted frankly.
"What do you mean?"
"I dunno Frohike, one minute she's tearing my theory apart and the next she's agreeing with me and joining the pieces herself."
"Sound like she'll make a good investigator."
"No doubt about that."
"Is she tasty?"
"Eh…I…"
"Sounds like you got a hottie on your hands Mulder, Got any pictures?"
"No Frohike, just the implant."
"See you soon."
Mulder hung up and searched his case file for the District Attorney number in Oregon all the while smiling at Frohike's words and wondering how Scully would take to a meeting with the Lone Gunmen.
***
Scully welcomed the silence that met her when she closed and locked her apartment door for the night. The rain seemed to have followed them from Oregon and she quickly changed into her nightclothes while she waited for the kettle to boil. She sipped her sweet tea and watched the evening news without paying attention as her mind ran through the events of the past month.
Ever since she opened that basement office for the first time her life had been thrown upside down. Travelling to Oregon on a moments notice, working a case in the field, handing in a report with inconclusive and unsupportable aspects. It was all so unpredictable. So un-her. Her smile broadened as she thought of the hours of banter she shared with Mulder on the flight back and everyday in the office since; as she went through her report with him in the hope to explain some of her experience. But her lips met again at the uninvited knocking on her door. She walked over and spied Shane standing on the other side through the peephole, so with a sigh she fixed a smile on her face and opened the door for him.
"Hey Dana," he said sheepishly.
"Come in. Do you want a drink?" she asked as she walked in after him and joined him on the couch, making sure to leave enough room between them.
"No thanks, I'm fine," he said not missing the distance she saved.
They hardly spoke when she was away on the case and she had been so busy working late most evenings with Mulder that she had only managed to see him once since she got back and something was missing. Only she knew where it was. It waited for her, lurking in the basement hall of the FBI building downtown. Waiting to give her the flutter of excitement that she was quickly becoming used to. The tremor of pleasure that greeted her every morning for the past two weeks as she walked into the office and was met with Mulder's sideways smile.
"What's wrong Dana?" Shane asked suddenly breaking into her reverie.
"Wrong? I guess it's us," she admitted putting her tea down and looking up to meet his eyes and frown.
"Us? Dana I haven't seen you in over a week. We hardly speak any more…I wasn't sure if there was an us anymore," he argued heatedly.
"I think that's what's wrong."
"So that's it?"
Her silence answered his questioning look without words and suddenly the anger that he had been keeping in check bubbled over, spilling out with his words as he stood up from the couch.
"Well that's just fine. I guess once your career developed it took over your life. No room for the expendable things now Dana."
"That's not fair Shane," she began but her heart wasn't in the argument and he knew it.
"Fair? Don't give me fair. Do you think it was fair that I haven't seen my girlfriend in so long? That while you were swanning off with that Fox in Oregon I was here worried about you?"
"Shane-," she began but he cut her off with a wave of his hand.
"No Dana, don't patronise me with platitudes of friendship and apologies. Lets just leave it." He walked over to the door and looked back to her for a moment. "Have a good one Dana, and I hope you get everything you need from this guy seeing as there is no room for anyone else in your life now."
He left her apartment with a slam of the door and she slumped back into the couch, her anger only diffused by the welcoming sense of relief that washed over her. She rinsed her cup and went to bed wanting nothing more than to wake up to a new day a clean slate and start again.
***
The Fox slammed his apartment door with more gusto than he hoped and glanced back to make sure it was still connected to its hinges. After all the times it had been kicked in he was surprised it was still there. He ripped off his coat and threw it to the floor as he loosened his tie and opened the top two buttons of his shirt. He grabbed the phone from the table and angrily punched in her number, before he realised how late it was. Her quick answer told him she wasn't sleeping either and he briefly wondered if her recent transfer to the X-Files division was tampering with her regular sleep patterns.
"Scully, it's me," he said as if he needed no further introduction. "I haven't been able to sleep," he offered feebly as an excuse for the late call. He could make out a soft rustling of her sheets as she moved on the bed. "I talked to the D.A's office in Raymond County Oregon. There's no case file on Billy Miles. The paperwork we filed is gone," he said and she could hear the desperation in his voice. "We need to talk Scully."
"Y…yes…tomorrow."
He clicked off the phone and threw it onto the chair across the room. His cheeks puffed out as he took a deep breath and pushed the air past his lips in a heavy sigh. Lying his head back onto the couch he let his eyes close and pressed the heal of the hands into his sockets to rub them vigorously.
Part of him relaxed. The part that urged him to call her again, to hear her voice. The part that counted the hours down until she'd grace his office with her curious smile and bid him good morning. The part that was so grateful for her honesty and respect and the part that was already starting to trust her.
He let his head fall onto the arm rest and lifted his legs to the other side as he leaned into the unfamiliar sensation of relief and waited for the night to pass, meeting it with a yawn.
**I know there wasn't huge amount of MSR in this but it's the first time they met so…give me a break! Anyway I've been saving it up for a different piece I started last week and I hope to start posting soon. Thanks for reading (she said shyly, scuffing her shoe on the wooden floor beneath her, not quite meeting them with her eyes) **
