Title: Crop circles
Chapter 2: Investigation and Abduction
Summary: Mulder investigates a case alone, while a healthy Scully is in a coma. Unfortunately for him, Fox Mulder isn't alone for long... MSR in later chapters, set sometime after Amor Fati.
Archive – Really? You like it that much? *eyes shine* Yeah, just ask and be sure to link back to my site.
Contact – Yfandes10@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: They're not mine. They belong to 1013 productions, Chris Carter, Fox, and probably some other people I forgot to mention. But my birthday IS coming up soon, and I have no objections to owning Mulder…
Notes: This has been rewritten, with a little more detail and hopefully it merges better with the rest of the story. The former chapter three has been combined with this, seeing as the cliffhanger wasn't that great and I couldn't drag out chapter three for over 500 words. There's a bit of digression in this, too.
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She lay sprawled on the bed, the phone on the floor, still on. Sweat beaded her face, blazing hair fire on the ocean of sheets. Her breathing was shallow enough that at first Mulder expected the worst. He rested his hand on her forehead – cold.
"Scully, can you hear me?" He could hear the blood pounding in his ears, feel his heart clench, willing her to be all right, for Scully to stir, slowly at first, then rise from the bed as if nothing had happened. Please…please…
Several minutes passed, with no response. But there was one from outside. One with flashing lights and sirens and horns. One which saved lives.
Minutes stretched into an eternity as his emotional turmoil grew by the second. But what could he do? He was a far cry from a doctor, he could barely keep his own health up. He considered himself a klutz, though Scully was nice enough to refer to him as "accident prone". He gave a slight smile.
The first paramedic walked in.
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"I've never seen anything like it." the fair haired doctor stood, in awe. from his expression you might think he'd just discovered a new bacteria that could cure AIDS.
The heart monitor provided a comforting rhythm to the room. Scully's heart monitor. She was still unconscious.
"What? What's wrong with her?"
Beep. Beep.
"Nothing."
Mulder blinked.
"What?"
Beep. Beep.
"There appears to be absolutely nothing wrong with her…her vitals are healthy, her blood seems fine, the X-Ray shows nothing abnormal. We even ran a CT scan on her. Albeit a slight calcium deficit she's in perfect health."
"So…you're saying there's no evidence to suggest that her condition should even exist? That there's no reason for her comatose state, no reason for the sweat, the breathing?"
"Well…yes."
Mulder sighed, spinning around to face the wall. His mobile rang. He ignored it.
Beep. Beep.
"So there's nothing you can do?"
"Until we know what's causing this, no. One of my nurses suggested we monitor the activity in the brain, and I know it's a long shot, but we're going to give it a try."
Mulder was silent for a moment. His phone rang again. He picked it up with irritation.
"Mulder."
"Agent Mulder, it's Skinner… there's something I think you should know."
"What, what is it?"
"We need to talk. In person."
"I'll be there as soon as I can."
He hung up, facing the doctor.
"I have to go – can you call me if her condition changes at all?"
"Of course, Mr. Mulder."
"Thank you."
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"Shut the door, Agent Mulder."
After doing so, said agent took a seat in front of the A.D.'s desk. Oh, if he had a dollar for every time he'd been in here…
"Agent Mulder, I'm going to get straight to the point. There's been a report of crop circles, just outside D.C. A Daniel Hughes was reported missing at the site, while going to investigate the strange phenomena. He is said to have vanished right in front of his wife's eyes. His children were inside at the time and report seeing nothing unusual at the time of his disappearance."
"That's very interesting, sir, but why are you telling me this?"
"He disappeared at 8:32 – the same time that Agent Scully contracted this mysterious illness."
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The car door shut with a prominent slam. Mulder ignored it and walked to the farm house, the home of Mr. Hughes and his family – wife, son, and daughter. He knocked twice before he was answered. Mrs. Hughes greeted him, a sodden blue handkerchief which matched her jeans and shirt in hand.
"I'm Agent Mulder, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I'm here to ask you some questions about the disappearance of your husband."
The woman nodded without even glancing at the badge and directed him to a worn couch, sniffling.
"Mrs. Hughes, I know what you're going through, but we're going to do the best we can to find your husband."
She nodded, still sniffing.
"Now, can you describe to me how he disappeared?"
Mrs. Hughes erupted into sobs for several seconds before regaining control – Mulder removed his fingers from her arm as she began to speak.
"We, we were out there to t-try and see what the circles were, w-who made them." She paused to blow her nose. "D-Daniel was b-bending down to look at o-one of them, when suddenly t-t-this bright light came out of nowhere a-and I couldn't s-see. And when it faded e-enough, he w-was gone. J-just like that."
Mulder nodded, piecing together information in his mind.
"And you're not feeling ill at all, physically?"
She shook her head.
"What about your children, are they all right?"
She nodded again. "Why wouldn't they be?"
Mulder shrugged it off as unimportant.
"Do you mind if I go take a look at the crop circles you mentioned?"
"N-no, I wouldn't do that…what if you get taken?" Her eyes were wide with horror. Mulder shrugged indifferently.
"What if I do?"
* * *
He trudged through the field, corn crunching under his shoes, battling his way through the stalks. Mrs. Hughes had absolutely refused to go anywhere near the crop circles, and given Mulder a vague idea of where they were. Not like he could miss them.
He was rather distracted as he forged his way through the forest. He found it difficult to keep his mind from drifting back to Scully, and her health, and a way to save her…but this was probably the only way. He hardly expected his cell to ring with a sudden call from the doctor saying she'd recovered…no. This was the work of extraterrestrials.
And you wonder why they call you spooky.
He stumbled and nearly fell flat on his face when he reached part of the circle. One second he'd been roaming blindly, the next he'd encountered a long, curving path which extended as far as he could see in both directions. A path with fences of corn.
Freeing himself from the stalks, he examined the path. The floor was solid dirt, hard packed – no stems…nothing. No evidence that corn had ever actually grown there – in fact, it looked more like an old dirt road than anything else.
Mulder turned his attention to the walls, searching for any evidence of a cut. He might have saved his time. This appeared to be seamless, no evidence of cutting, shearing, or other means of extracting the corn.
Pulling the rough sketch of the crop circles - as seen from an aerial view - from his pocket, he reexamined it for the umpteenth time. It looked familiar, tickled his senses, tantalized his mind. He cocked his head to the side, rotating the diagram. If you turned it like this it almost looked like…His eyes widened. No…no…
He backed away, returning to the false pretense of safety of the stalks, his eyes transfixed on the paper. It can't be…
Voices filled his head, voices he hadn't heard in years but had never forgotten. He sensed what was coming a moment before it came. Was it intuition? Or was it his heightened senses, brought on by the voices?
The voices…they rose in pitch, screaming, shouting, wailing. He clasped his head in his hands, fingers in his ears, knowing it would do no good. Whatever this was came from within.
He raised his head just as the ship appeared, the patterns from the sketch the same as the ones on the belly of the immense craft, out of nowhere. And then, in a blinding flash of bright light, it was gone. And so was Mulder.
------------------------------End Ch.2---------------------------------
Words: 1,265
