Time Is Running Out Part Five
By Katie Phillips
Disclaimer Info located in part one
Scully was sitting on her sofa wrapped in an afghan looking off into space when the sound of knocking on her door startled her out of her stupor. She tried not to feel too disappointed when it was Skinner not Mulder she saw when she looked through the peephole.
"Walter." She said opening the door and accepting his kiss on the cheek as he entered. "Is there something wrong?"
Skinner looked at her and felt his heart tighten as he saw her tear stained face and swollen eyes. "No Dana, nothing is wrong. I just thought you deserved to hear an explanation about what has been going on before the meeting tomorrow morning."
Scully nodded slightly. "I will put the coffee on why don't you make yourself comfortable." She walked into the kitchen and filled the coffee pot turning to find Skinner standing in the door watching her.
She raised an eyebrow in question at him but got no response. He was too busy trying to memorize everything about her for he knew that after tonight things between them would never be the same.
Scully left the coffee to brew and slowly caressed his face as she walked by. She smiled up at him when he took her in his arms and kissed her soundly. She smiled again when they parted before taking him by the hand and leading him to the couch.
"Tell me Walter." She said sitting down next to him.
And he did. He told her everything that he, Mulder and Alicia had discussed in his office. How Mulder had been told that she would be informed of his absence and how he had no idea that she thought he was dead. He told of Alicia's admissions of inadvertently letting General Elliott know that Mulder was still pining for Scully and that how she had been told to seduce him to give him less reason to return.
Skinner paused then when he saw Scully's eyes narrow in anger at this particular revelation. "Elliott knew that Mulder's loyalty to you ran very deep so he created a mock newspaper filled with information about DC including a small part in the gossip section about the upcoming marriage between one AD Skinner and one Special Agent Dana Scully." Scully's mouth dropped open at this.
"That would have released Mulder from me" Scully began thinking out loud "just as his death released me from him."
She turned to Skinner her face etched in pain. "I am so sorry Dana." He said taking her into his arms and holding her both of them knowing that he was speaking about more than what had happened to Mulder.
Scully pushed away from him and bit and took his head in her hands. "Don't be Walter. Don't ever be. My only regret when it comes to you is that I hurt so badly." She pulled him close and kissed him then. A kiss that spoke of all that lay between them. A kiss that said goodbye.
April 9th 9:00 AM General Elliott's Office
Mulder could barely contain himself when he reached General Elliott's office for their morning meeting. He had been up most of the night thinking about the ramifications of Elliott's actions, especially as they concerned Scully, and he was furious. He was beyond furious.
The only thing that kept him from putting his fist through Elliott's smug face was the reminder by Skinner that such an action would give Elliott the power to separate him and Scully. Permanently.
So he sat there slowly fuming as Elliott went through the motions of apologizing to Scully for any emotional trauma his actions had caused her and Scully went through the motions of accepting his apologies.
He looked at Scully throughout the meeting and saw that she had her walls, the ones he had painstakingly lowered over the last few years, up and in place. Absolutely no emotion showed on her face as Elliott outlined his plan of action.
"Agent Scully, you and Ms. Duran can prepare our version of the vaccine for human testing." He began.
"That won't be necessary Sir." Alicia interrupted him. "Agent Mulder has already received the vaccine."
This statement did get a response out of Scully. She looked over at Mulder her face full of concern. "Mulder you can't just give yourself a shot outside of a controlled environment."
Mulder smiled at her concern. "Oh yes I can and I did, just last week. Ms. Duran was present, of course, and monitored me closely for signs of reaction."
"I bet she did." Muttered Scully under her breath so softly that everyone but Mulder, who was watching her reaction intently, missed it. He smiled glad to see what he hoped were signs of jealousy.
"Did Agent Mulder have any adverse reactions?" Elliott said his interest and respect in Mulder growing by the minute. He may be a bit too emotional for his liking, but Elliott had to admit that the man had balls.
"None that we could see but it wouldn't hurt to have some more tests done here as well." Alicia replied looking quite pleased with herself.
"You and Agent Scully can work on that. As soon as you have verified that Agent Mulder is indeed in good health I want you to do a control study on at least a dozen other test subjects. Do you have enough serum available to do that?"
Alicia looked down at the paper she had brought with her. "We have twenty samples ready for testing and it will take us approximately ten days to make up additional doses."
"And the instructions on making this are located where?" Elliott asked.
"Well all my notes are located on my laptop but I am in the process of backing that up and distributing copies throughout the country. That should all be done by the end of today."
"Good work Ms. Duran. You have served your country and your family well." Elliott smiled at her making a mental note to have Jenkins arrange a private celebration between himself and Alicia.
"Agent Mulder," Elliott turned and looked at Mulder "when you are done being a human guinea pig, I would like to hear your ideas on distribution of the vaccine."
"From what I can tell from going over the records you obtained for me, the Syndicate is planning to only target certain segments of the population during the initial wave of colonization."
"What segment is that Agent Mulder?" Skinner asked.
"Woman of child bearing age and females under the age of 13." Mulder said "The virus will not kill everyone in those particular groups but will leave the human population with very little means of reproducing."
General Elliott nodded. "Simple and effective. And your plan Agent Mulder?"
"My plan, General, is to start with the children since they receive inoculations on a regular basis and then include woman who have conceived or are about to conceive. They too receive more inoculations than the average person. After that, I would just make it part of something we all receive from time to time."
"Like the shot to prevent lockjaw?" Alicia blurted out.
"Exactly." Mulder said giving her a quick smile.
"I want a specific plan on my desk within the week Agent. The President wants to begin implementation no later than June first. That doesn't give us a lot of time."
He stood then indicating that the meeting was done.
April 9th 1:30 PM Syndicate Boardroom New York City
"What?" the dark hair man choked out as he took another long drag on his cigarette "You told me that Fox Mulder was dead Alex, now you are telling me that he is alive."
Krycek swallowed hard but stood his ground. "That is exactly what I am telling you."
"And how did you come to this realization Mr. Krycek?" Another dark-suited man asked from his easy chair.
"As you requested, I have been keeping an eye on Dana Scully. She received a phone call from AD Skinner yesterday requesting that she meet him at the Bureau Headquarters downtown. Since their romantic relationship seems to have cooled off, I assumed that this call was based more on business then pleasure so I followed her to the Bureau."
Krycek paused a moment to take a long drink of water before continuing. "I planted myself outside so I could see if she and Skinner left together and about ten minutes after she arrived, I see her storming out of the building. You could tell she was very upset about something."
He paused again trying to recollect everything perfectly. "I was about to get out of my car and follow her into the park where she had gone, when the door opens and out comes Fox Mulder."
"Are you sure it was him Alex?" The dark-suited man asked gently.
"Believe me, I would know Fox Mulder any where. He comes out of the building and stops obviously looking for someone."
"Agent Scully I assume" the Cigarette Smoking Man interrupts.
"Exactly. He seems to gather himself and then heads off towards the park too. Of course, by now I am out of my car and tailing him. He finds her and judging by her reaction to him, she was as surprised as you are now to have him back and alive."
"Did they leave together then?" The dark-suited man asked his curiosity growing.
"No, they had words and then she left him standing there. He returned to the building and she headed for home." Krycek ended taking another drink of water.
"This presents a very interesting problem for us gentlemen." The Cigarette Smoking Man began as he lit up another cigarette. "I assume Mulder's homecoming corresponds with an increased amount of activity on their part concerning our little vaccine."
He turned to Krycek then and blew a long stream of smoke in his face. "Alex, I assume you will find a way to hinder their progress? Just don't destroy our two favorite Agents. They still may come in handy in the future."
Krycek smiled a plan already forming in his mind.
April 9th 8:00 PM The Ambassador Hotel
Mulder leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. He had been on his computer practically all day and his eyes were beginning to complain.
At first he had stuck to the assigned task of setting up some sort of distribution schedule for the vaccine on which they were working but after an hour or so he began to get bored wishing that Scully, who had a knack for such things, was still his partner.
His thoughts having turned to Scully, he quickly logged onto the FBI databank and looked up everything he could find on her over the past 18 months.
He didn't find a whole lot. There was the request by Skinner for Scully to take a leave, on full pay, of undetermined length due to the death of her partner in the line of duty. Mulder noted that in typical Scully fashion, she had ignored this and had only missed a few days of work.
Several months later there was another request from Skinner officially asking for her removal from his division and her placement as a consultant based out of Quantico. Mulder saw that Skinner had added a prevision that allowed Scully to return to the X-files at any time.
Shortly after Scully's transfer, the X-files division had been officially closed although Scully had been consulted on several of the more bizarre cases that had crossed Skinner's desk.
Mulder browsed through the case files that Scully had submitted during his absence and found them all to be precise and to the point and totally boring compared to the work they had done together. He wondered, then, if Scully had also found these cases boring or more to her liking.
After he was convinced that he had read all he could on Scully, he looked up his own records. Not to his surprise, the entry posted on his death was vague. Basically all it said was that Mulder had been killed in the line of duty and his heirs would be eligible to collect all the appropriate benefits.
Mulder snorted at this wondering if Scully had ever realized that she had been his sole heir.
Feeling a bit morbid, Mulder turned to the newspaper listings and promptly looked up his obituary. Reading it he felt strangely touched. He had often regarded himself as a man who had wasted his life chasing phantoms. It was apparent that whoever had written his obituary had not thought the same of him.
Mulder rose from his chair with a better sense of what had happened in his absence although one small detail still nagged at him. He knew he could ask Scully about it, but didn't want wait until she was ready to talk about having to bury him.
He could think of only one person who could possibly help him.
It was getting close to 9 o'clock when he pulled into Maggie Scully's driveway. Of all the people he knew in Washington, Maggie Scully was the only one who came close to Scully in her devotion towards him.
Ever since he had refused to believe that Scully had been killed during her abduction all those years ago, Maggie had made a special place for Fox Mulder in her heart.
She opened the door at his knock smiling when she recognized him. "Fox" she said hugging him close. "Dana told me that your so-called death was just a misunderstanding." She looked up at him with tears running down her face. "I can't tell you how happy I am to see you."
She hugged him again and then pulled back to study his face. "What's wrong Fox?" Scully had obviously gotten her talent for observation from her mother.
"Mrs. Scully, I have been trying to put together exactly what happened here after they told you I was dead. I found the obituary and what was on file with the Bureau, but I need to see it."
Maggie frowned for a second and then comprehension filled her eyes. "Of course Fox, I'll take you there myself. Just let me grab a sweater."
They spoke very little as they drove to the cemetery. It wasn't until Mulder had parked the car that Maggie turned to speak to him. "I am glad you are coming here for the first time at night. Dana picked the spot especially and at night you can see why."
Mulder, now more curious than ever, followed Maggie down the cemetery road as it began to climb slightly. She stopped and pointed to a lone gravestone that stood on the edge of the hill placed so it looked like it touched the star-filled sky that surrounded it.
Maggie turned and even in the dark could see the look of awe on Mulder's face. "It's perfect for me." He said going past her and walking up to the stone.
Maggie came up beside him and took his arm gently when she saw the tears start to fall. The stone was a simple one made of black granite. On it were the words "Fox Mulder, The Truth Was In Him."
Mulder touched the stone gently imagining how difficult it must of have been for Scully to pick out a stone, not just any stone but the perfect stone. And to find the perfect spot to place it.
In front of the stone there stood several rows of blue and white flowers. Yankee colors he noted to himself. Scully had thought of everything.
"These roses" Maggie said touching the small pink flowers that were just beginning to appear "are from your family's house on the Vineyard. Dana and I went up there one weekend and brought them here. She wanted something of your family to be with you always."
Mulder looked at Maggie in total awe. "She didn't miss a thing, did she?" He said smiling through his tears at Maggie. "Although I don't know if my neighbor here will be too thrilled about my roses infringing on his space."
Maggie took Mulder's hand and squeeze it tightly. "Dana bought two plots here Fox." Her raised eyebrows giving Mulder little doubt as who was to be buried next to him.
Maggie couldn't help but smile when she saw the light of comprehension go across Mulder's face. "You two have gotten a second chance. I am counting on you not to blow it Fox."
Mulder looked down at her and smiled. "You are preaching to the choir Mrs. Scully. I think you need to say that to Dana not me."
Maggie laughed out loud at his comment. "Don't worry Fox, I will."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++ End of part five. remember the more reviews I get the quicker I write.
Disclaimer Info located in part one
Scully was sitting on her sofa wrapped in an afghan looking off into space when the sound of knocking on her door startled her out of her stupor. She tried not to feel too disappointed when it was Skinner not Mulder she saw when she looked through the peephole.
"Walter." She said opening the door and accepting his kiss on the cheek as he entered. "Is there something wrong?"
Skinner looked at her and felt his heart tighten as he saw her tear stained face and swollen eyes. "No Dana, nothing is wrong. I just thought you deserved to hear an explanation about what has been going on before the meeting tomorrow morning."
Scully nodded slightly. "I will put the coffee on why don't you make yourself comfortable." She walked into the kitchen and filled the coffee pot turning to find Skinner standing in the door watching her.
She raised an eyebrow in question at him but got no response. He was too busy trying to memorize everything about her for he knew that after tonight things between them would never be the same.
Scully left the coffee to brew and slowly caressed his face as she walked by. She smiled up at him when he took her in his arms and kissed her soundly. She smiled again when they parted before taking him by the hand and leading him to the couch.
"Tell me Walter." She said sitting down next to him.
And he did. He told her everything that he, Mulder and Alicia had discussed in his office. How Mulder had been told that she would be informed of his absence and how he had no idea that she thought he was dead. He told of Alicia's admissions of inadvertently letting General Elliott know that Mulder was still pining for Scully and that how she had been told to seduce him to give him less reason to return.
Skinner paused then when he saw Scully's eyes narrow in anger at this particular revelation. "Elliott knew that Mulder's loyalty to you ran very deep so he created a mock newspaper filled with information about DC including a small part in the gossip section about the upcoming marriage between one AD Skinner and one Special Agent Dana Scully." Scully's mouth dropped open at this.
"That would have released Mulder from me" Scully began thinking out loud "just as his death released me from him."
She turned to Skinner her face etched in pain. "I am so sorry Dana." He said taking her into his arms and holding her both of them knowing that he was speaking about more than what had happened to Mulder.
Scully pushed away from him and bit and took his head in her hands. "Don't be Walter. Don't ever be. My only regret when it comes to you is that I hurt so badly." She pulled him close and kissed him then. A kiss that spoke of all that lay between them. A kiss that said goodbye.
April 9th 9:00 AM General Elliott's Office
Mulder could barely contain himself when he reached General Elliott's office for their morning meeting. He had been up most of the night thinking about the ramifications of Elliott's actions, especially as they concerned Scully, and he was furious. He was beyond furious.
The only thing that kept him from putting his fist through Elliott's smug face was the reminder by Skinner that such an action would give Elliott the power to separate him and Scully. Permanently.
So he sat there slowly fuming as Elliott went through the motions of apologizing to Scully for any emotional trauma his actions had caused her and Scully went through the motions of accepting his apologies.
He looked at Scully throughout the meeting and saw that she had her walls, the ones he had painstakingly lowered over the last few years, up and in place. Absolutely no emotion showed on her face as Elliott outlined his plan of action.
"Agent Scully, you and Ms. Duran can prepare our version of the vaccine for human testing." He began.
"That won't be necessary Sir." Alicia interrupted him. "Agent Mulder has already received the vaccine."
This statement did get a response out of Scully. She looked over at Mulder her face full of concern. "Mulder you can't just give yourself a shot outside of a controlled environment."
Mulder smiled at her concern. "Oh yes I can and I did, just last week. Ms. Duran was present, of course, and monitored me closely for signs of reaction."
"I bet she did." Muttered Scully under her breath so softly that everyone but Mulder, who was watching her reaction intently, missed it. He smiled glad to see what he hoped were signs of jealousy.
"Did Agent Mulder have any adverse reactions?" Elliott said his interest and respect in Mulder growing by the minute. He may be a bit too emotional for his liking, but Elliott had to admit that the man had balls.
"None that we could see but it wouldn't hurt to have some more tests done here as well." Alicia replied looking quite pleased with herself.
"You and Agent Scully can work on that. As soon as you have verified that Agent Mulder is indeed in good health I want you to do a control study on at least a dozen other test subjects. Do you have enough serum available to do that?"
Alicia looked down at the paper she had brought with her. "We have twenty samples ready for testing and it will take us approximately ten days to make up additional doses."
"And the instructions on making this are located where?" Elliott asked.
"Well all my notes are located on my laptop but I am in the process of backing that up and distributing copies throughout the country. That should all be done by the end of today."
"Good work Ms. Duran. You have served your country and your family well." Elliott smiled at her making a mental note to have Jenkins arrange a private celebration between himself and Alicia.
"Agent Mulder," Elliott turned and looked at Mulder "when you are done being a human guinea pig, I would like to hear your ideas on distribution of the vaccine."
"From what I can tell from going over the records you obtained for me, the Syndicate is planning to only target certain segments of the population during the initial wave of colonization."
"What segment is that Agent Mulder?" Skinner asked.
"Woman of child bearing age and females under the age of 13." Mulder said "The virus will not kill everyone in those particular groups but will leave the human population with very little means of reproducing."
General Elliott nodded. "Simple and effective. And your plan Agent Mulder?"
"My plan, General, is to start with the children since they receive inoculations on a regular basis and then include woman who have conceived or are about to conceive. They too receive more inoculations than the average person. After that, I would just make it part of something we all receive from time to time."
"Like the shot to prevent lockjaw?" Alicia blurted out.
"Exactly." Mulder said giving her a quick smile.
"I want a specific plan on my desk within the week Agent. The President wants to begin implementation no later than June first. That doesn't give us a lot of time."
He stood then indicating that the meeting was done.
April 9th 1:30 PM Syndicate Boardroom New York City
"What?" the dark hair man choked out as he took another long drag on his cigarette "You told me that Fox Mulder was dead Alex, now you are telling me that he is alive."
Krycek swallowed hard but stood his ground. "That is exactly what I am telling you."
"And how did you come to this realization Mr. Krycek?" Another dark-suited man asked from his easy chair.
"As you requested, I have been keeping an eye on Dana Scully. She received a phone call from AD Skinner yesterday requesting that she meet him at the Bureau Headquarters downtown. Since their romantic relationship seems to have cooled off, I assumed that this call was based more on business then pleasure so I followed her to the Bureau."
Krycek paused a moment to take a long drink of water before continuing. "I planted myself outside so I could see if she and Skinner left together and about ten minutes after she arrived, I see her storming out of the building. You could tell she was very upset about something."
He paused again trying to recollect everything perfectly. "I was about to get out of my car and follow her into the park where she had gone, when the door opens and out comes Fox Mulder."
"Are you sure it was him Alex?" The dark-suited man asked gently.
"Believe me, I would know Fox Mulder any where. He comes out of the building and stops obviously looking for someone."
"Agent Scully I assume" the Cigarette Smoking Man interrupts.
"Exactly. He seems to gather himself and then heads off towards the park too. Of course, by now I am out of my car and tailing him. He finds her and judging by her reaction to him, she was as surprised as you are now to have him back and alive."
"Did they leave together then?" The dark-suited man asked his curiosity growing.
"No, they had words and then she left him standing there. He returned to the building and she headed for home." Krycek ended taking another drink of water.
"This presents a very interesting problem for us gentlemen." The Cigarette Smoking Man began as he lit up another cigarette. "I assume Mulder's homecoming corresponds with an increased amount of activity on their part concerning our little vaccine."
He turned to Krycek then and blew a long stream of smoke in his face. "Alex, I assume you will find a way to hinder their progress? Just don't destroy our two favorite Agents. They still may come in handy in the future."
Krycek smiled a plan already forming in his mind.
April 9th 8:00 PM The Ambassador Hotel
Mulder leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. He had been on his computer practically all day and his eyes were beginning to complain.
At first he had stuck to the assigned task of setting up some sort of distribution schedule for the vaccine on which they were working but after an hour or so he began to get bored wishing that Scully, who had a knack for such things, was still his partner.
His thoughts having turned to Scully, he quickly logged onto the FBI databank and looked up everything he could find on her over the past 18 months.
He didn't find a whole lot. There was the request by Skinner for Scully to take a leave, on full pay, of undetermined length due to the death of her partner in the line of duty. Mulder noted that in typical Scully fashion, she had ignored this and had only missed a few days of work.
Several months later there was another request from Skinner officially asking for her removal from his division and her placement as a consultant based out of Quantico. Mulder saw that Skinner had added a prevision that allowed Scully to return to the X-files at any time.
Shortly after Scully's transfer, the X-files division had been officially closed although Scully had been consulted on several of the more bizarre cases that had crossed Skinner's desk.
Mulder browsed through the case files that Scully had submitted during his absence and found them all to be precise and to the point and totally boring compared to the work they had done together. He wondered, then, if Scully had also found these cases boring or more to her liking.
After he was convinced that he had read all he could on Scully, he looked up his own records. Not to his surprise, the entry posted on his death was vague. Basically all it said was that Mulder had been killed in the line of duty and his heirs would be eligible to collect all the appropriate benefits.
Mulder snorted at this wondering if Scully had ever realized that she had been his sole heir.
Feeling a bit morbid, Mulder turned to the newspaper listings and promptly looked up his obituary. Reading it he felt strangely touched. He had often regarded himself as a man who had wasted his life chasing phantoms. It was apparent that whoever had written his obituary had not thought the same of him.
Mulder rose from his chair with a better sense of what had happened in his absence although one small detail still nagged at him. He knew he could ask Scully about it, but didn't want wait until she was ready to talk about having to bury him.
He could think of only one person who could possibly help him.
It was getting close to 9 o'clock when he pulled into Maggie Scully's driveway. Of all the people he knew in Washington, Maggie Scully was the only one who came close to Scully in her devotion towards him.
Ever since he had refused to believe that Scully had been killed during her abduction all those years ago, Maggie had made a special place for Fox Mulder in her heart.
She opened the door at his knock smiling when she recognized him. "Fox" she said hugging him close. "Dana told me that your so-called death was just a misunderstanding." She looked up at him with tears running down her face. "I can't tell you how happy I am to see you."
She hugged him again and then pulled back to study his face. "What's wrong Fox?" Scully had obviously gotten her talent for observation from her mother.
"Mrs. Scully, I have been trying to put together exactly what happened here after they told you I was dead. I found the obituary and what was on file with the Bureau, but I need to see it."
Maggie frowned for a second and then comprehension filled her eyes. "Of course Fox, I'll take you there myself. Just let me grab a sweater."
They spoke very little as they drove to the cemetery. It wasn't until Mulder had parked the car that Maggie turned to speak to him. "I am glad you are coming here for the first time at night. Dana picked the spot especially and at night you can see why."
Mulder, now more curious than ever, followed Maggie down the cemetery road as it began to climb slightly. She stopped and pointed to a lone gravestone that stood on the edge of the hill placed so it looked like it touched the star-filled sky that surrounded it.
Maggie turned and even in the dark could see the look of awe on Mulder's face. "It's perfect for me." He said going past her and walking up to the stone.
Maggie came up beside him and took his arm gently when she saw the tears start to fall. The stone was a simple one made of black granite. On it were the words "Fox Mulder, The Truth Was In Him."
Mulder touched the stone gently imagining how difficult it must of have been for Scully to pick out a stone, not just any stone but the perfect stone. And to find the perfect spot to place it.
In front of the stone there stood several rows of blue and white flowers. Yankee colors he noted to himself. Scully had thought of everything.
"These roses" Maggie said touching the small pink flowers that were just beginning to appear "are from your family's house on the Vineyard. Dana and I went up there one weekend and brought them here. She wanted something of your family to be with you always."
Mulder looked at Maggie in total awe. "She didn't miss a thing, did she?" He said smiling through his tears at Maggie. "Although I don't know if my neighbor here will be too thrilled about my roses infringing on his space."
Maggie took Mulder's hand and squeeze it tightly. "Dana bought two plots here Fox." Her raised eyebrows giving Mulder little doubt as who was to be buried next to him.
Maggie couldn't help but smile when she saw the light of comprehension go across Mulder's face. "You two have gotten a second chance. I am counting on you not to blow it Fox."
Mulder looked down at her and smiled. "You are preaching to the choir Mrs. Scully. I think you need to say that to Dana not me."
Maggie laughed out loud at his comment. "Don't worry Fox, I will."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++ End of part five. remember the more reviews I get the quicker I write.