1993
Tuesday 9 am
14 th September
Washington D.C

Dana Scully took in the sight of the office with another sigh wondering whether she could ever get Mulder to clean it. Shelves full of heavy books and files were under a constant struggle to remain attached to the walls. What didn't fit on them was thrown in untidy piles on the floor. Behind the desk (if there was one under all the paper piled on top) were filing cabinets filled with yet more unsolved case's.

It was mornings like these that she wondered what she was doing stuck here. The rain poured continuously outside, making the whole city seem gray and black. With another huff she sat down and began to rummage through the papers. Looking for the report they'd finished last night, within minutes she'd given up and ended up starring at some blurred photograph wondering what it was doing there among the others. Maybe he'd already taken the report and handed it in, she thought hopefully that would explain why he wasn't here. Normally she'd bother to find him but today . . .

She heard the all to familiar thud of foot steps coming down the corridor and replaced the photo amongst the others turning to see her partner in the doorway. He smiled, her stomach lurched knowing something new had come up and all she really wanted was a quite week. One of her best friends at Uni had died over the weekend and although she had coped well with it she didn't really feel like chasing after UFO's for the next few days.

You're late

No I'm on time, you are early . . . did you ? Scully didn't bother to turn round,

Paper's are in and I've found a new case

She waited as he handed her the brown envelope and shifted her gaze down, over the papers.

4 deaths in the same town, no connection apart from them being within a mile of each other and in the last week. The 4th was discover this morning

Cause of death?

No immediate cause except possibly poison a white powder was found at the scene

Doesn't look like much of an X-file Scully studied the photo carefully Thought . . .

True . . . unless you include the 10 year old girl who claims she knows who the next victim is going to be

She couldn't be bothered to argue besides it didn't look like to much trouble, she noticed he was giving her a strange look and skimmed over the case again.

he sounded concerned



You ok?

I've had a hard weekend . . . family friend finally died . . .

Catherine right?



I'm sorry

The conversation ended both of them not wanting to delve any deeper.

When do we leave?

Tomorrow morning He said If that's ok?

Great . . . she said sarcastically Guess I'll go home and pack

the flight leaves at 7, pick you up around 6

Scully sighed picked up the folder and marched neatly down the corridor. Mulder was left to worry whether his timing had been a bit off, picking up a fallen photo he wondered how it had gotten on the floor. He could easily make out the gray blurred shape and after several more minutes pondering he followed. Shutting the office behind him, leaving the photo to float back down among the many others.

He too had had a troubled mind although it was far from the worries of his partners. What concerned him was that he hadn't been feeling 100 percent lately. The case looked like a fairly strait forward one and Skinner had been only to willing to get the killer caught. However he could be wrong, he just hoped for both of their sakes that this time he was right .