Title: Disciple
Author: CeilidhO
Summary: What if Scully had accepted the transfer to Salt Lake City? Five years later, a horrifying murder case reunites her with Mulder, even as it threatens to rip apart her life.
Disclaimer: I own nothing and no one here that were not on the show. The rest are mine. I make no money from this. The X-Files and its world belong to the Man, Chris Carter.
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Scully stood on the hot front steps of the Salt Lake City field office. She was watching anxiously for the car that would bring Mulder, and take them to the crime scene. She couldn't think about what it would mean to see him again, to hear his voice again after five years of not speaking. Would he have forgiven her yet? Would she have forgiven him?
She could still remember with perfect clarity the fight in the hallway outside Mulder's apartment. The smell of the carpet cleaner, the peculiar musty smell of the walls, the gleaming brass number 42 on the door. She imagined she could smell the tang of the metal. Maybe she could. She remembered the feelings: her body, tired and drooping, his full of righteous anger and energy. He had urged her to stay, his words almost a physical force, driving her back down their road, down that dank hall to the stifling basement office, so full of the essence of him. She almost choked remembering.
She had resisted finally as his arms slipped around her, his face drawing nearer to hers. A mocking voice had called in her head. 'Kiss it and make it better…' That's when things had fallen apart. She had left the next day. She could still hear the drone of the plane's engines in her ears. She hated that sound.
Scully was interrupted in her reverie by Dan Morris brushing her elbow.
"Sorry," he said softly as she started, almost dropping the case file in her hands.
"That's all right." she whispered, eyes still far away. He stared at her for a second, his mouth beginning to ask a question, but she cut him off brusquely.
"Any word on how far away they are?"
"Just coming up State now. About five minutes or so." When she nodded, he glimpsed at the case file clenched in her fist.
"Had a chance to get much of a look at it?" he said, looking up and squinting into the sun. Scully frowned slightly.
"Yes. It's horrible."
Dan grimaced. "The pictures are worse."
"I saw the autopsy reports. They're well done. Was it Farmer who did them?"
"Yes."
"He's good." They were just keeping busy by talking, and they both knew it. Scully could barely make her mouth move. She felt like throwing cold water on herself. She scanned the shining tops of the cars creeping down State St., snaking through rush hour. She made herself think of something else. She thought about Rob.
He hadn't been her salvation, as most people had thought. The cliché left a bad taste in Scully's mouth. No, Robert Abrams had just come around at the right time for both of them. Scully had dated other men since arriving in Salt Lake City, using each to drive the basement office out of her heart and mind. She had made herself banish the impulse when she met Rob, knowing instinctively she didn't want to him to be someone who drove things away. She wanted him to be someone who helped things stay.
He had had issues of his own.
He was very close to his family, and they had all been devoted to his fiancé, who had died about a year and a half before he met Scully. What had been shaping up to be his perfect life had been shattered when she was killed, and he was still a broken man when she first encountered him. His hurt had been etched into his face like an engraving, and it had intrigued her, drawn her.
They had been friends first, each sensing the bruise on the heart of the other, not wanting to ruin the undeniable something they both felt. Their outings with their mutual group of friends slowly whittled down to only the closest to them, and to just them. Even after that, it had been weeks before he had softly asked Scully's permission to kiss her after walking her home in the rain.
He always called her Dana.
They had been seeing each other for two years, and Scully was now fully experiencing a life like the one she had left behind in Section Chief Blevins' office ten years ago. Ten years was an eternity gone. Now Mulder was going to come, and everything was going to change. Scully felt a flash of petty anger rise within her, enjoying the flare, feeling it warm her body. Then she let it go, but not without regret. Chilton trusted her to act professionally.
A change in the noise surrounding her awoke Scully's attention, and she took in the sight of the black car in front of her, its windows smoked and enigmatic. She steeled her mind, body, and heart.
And then Fox Mulder stepped out of the car.
Actually seeing him was unlike anything Scully had ever felt before. At first she could have sworn it was a physical blow, the next second she could only describe it as spirtual, the next, like a complete erasure of the mind.
As she cleared enough to properly look, she took in his appearance. He was thinner than when she had left, the almost gaunt look of neglect that used to come over him after a failure. His hair was different as well, fuller and younger than the mop look of before. Black sunglasses shrouded his eyes like a shrine, and his nose showed the evidence of at least one more break.
He wore a creased brown leather jacket over a slightly open blue suit shirt, and jeans with the wallet patches worn out and silver. He looked like a different person, and yet achingly the same.
Mulder lowered his sunglasses slightly, and gazed up the steps towards her. His eyes hit her, catching her breath in her throat. Disturbingly, she could read nothing in them, and the touching vulnerability that usually dwelled within them was gone.
He looked at her like a stranger.
"Well, well, well." He said. "If it isn't Dana Scully."
In the car, the air was chokingly thick. Mulder still had his sunglasses on, and no one would look at each other. Finally the young, dark haired man who was Mulder's partner spoke up.
"Hi," he said, leaning towards Scully slightly. "I'm Alex Paring. I'm so honored to meet you, Agent Scully. You're a legend at the academy."
"Yeah," Mulder said. "You're an advisory, a warning. A textbook case in utter failure by association." His words were like a viper, whiplash quick and poison. Scully felt a cold pit yawn in her stomach. Dan Morris rounded on Mulder and opened his mouth.
"Hold on just a goddamned sec-" he shot out, but Scully put her hand on his knee to stop him. Mulder gazed inscutiably at them. Scully didn't say a word. She couldn't.
The hour had grown late, and the boy had long ago subsided into unconciousness. The man watched the small rivulets of blood from his body slow down and eventually stop. He felt his heart begin to quicken, his mouth to water, and the man stepped towards the boy. He could feel his own blood rushing and pounding through his body.
He slowly, unbearably slowly, reached his hand toward the boy's back, bringing it back to his mouth with blood on the tips of his fingers. He slipped them into his mouth, feeling the warm metallic tang of the blood on his tongue.
The excitement was too much. The man was usually more controlled, but this one was so vulnerable and innocent. Just a little taste…
The man lowered his head, and kissed the boy full on his young, rose lips.
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A/N: Special thanks to all my reviewers, it's great to hear you like the story. Please forgive any mistakes, as I don't have a Beta reader. Feel free to e-mail or mention in your reviews any thoughts, suggestions, or mistakes. Thanks!