Return to Me 17

Scully's POV:

I was shocked by what I was seeing, though not entirely. The Wade's had been our number one suspects. We didn't really have anything on them other than their eagerness to know everything about our lives. And the fact Reyes tells me that they were married on the 31st of October as well.

But there is one thing that puzzles me. Why would you live in the same neighborhood as your two ex-husbands? Furthermore, why kill them? Wouldn't it be obvious?

"Im going to check the husband out further." Reyes says taking me out of my thoughts.

I call Mulder and Dogett into the kitchen where Reyes and I were working. Dogett comes in first Mulder walking slowly behind him.

"Come on Mulder, walk a little faster would ya? I have some interesting breaks in the case."

"Such as?" He says groggily.

"Well, the fact that...Fox William Mulder! Have you been sleeping?" I turn to Dogett, "has he been sleeping?"

"Im not sayin' nothin'."

"It's im not `saying anything' John."

"What are you my mother?"

Reyes looks at him shocked. Then she narrows her eyes and puts her hands on her hips, "since I can't yet threaten you with the couch. I hope you know how to cook."

"Excuse me! Does anybody in here care about our case? You know the reason we are here in the first place."

"Yeah, Scully. I do." Mulder says rubbing his eyes.

"You. Mister, are sleeping are the couch. Since you've already become accustomed to it."

"Aw, come on Scully. I was out for like...15 minutes."

"Whatever Mulder. Does anybody want to know what I found? Or should I just inform Kersh that this case is a dead end and we should all go back to Washington? Im sure there is some kind of paper work that he would have us do."

"No...that's ok. Just tell them what you've found."

"Ok. Well. It looks like Mrs. Nicole has been a very busy woman. She's been married twice before. And the lucky grooms were Phillip Moore and Joe Jackson."

"Wait, aren't those two of the missing men?" Dogett inquires.

"Glad you picked up on that one. Yes, they were two of our victims."

"What have you found on the husband?"

"Nothing. The guy doesn't even a speeding ticket. But I just found something interesting. Jamie Smith, one of the first victims, use to be Jamie Wade."

"Married to George?"

"No. Jamie was his sister."

"His sister? You think this guy offed his sister?" Mulder asks, eyebrows raised in a questioning manner.

"No. I don't." Reyes says as-a-matter-of-fact. "I think its all Nicole. Scully when's her birthday."

I bring the file on her back up, "looks like...October 31st."

"Does she have any arrest?"

"Two, one for drunk in public, the other for aggravated assault." I look over the aggravated assault file. "Listen to this. The person who pressed charges against her for the assault was Holly Cheetum...the 3rd victim."

"This could be enough for a search warrant." Reyes breaths.

"I say we just go now." Mulder says, thinking of the many times we've done that in the past.

"Ever hear of `fruit of the poison tree' Mulder? If we don't have a warrant the evidence won't be immiscible in court. You know that. It's basic training." Monic says.

"I have to agree with her Mulder. We need a search warrant."

"How far away is the nearest judge?" Dogett asks.

"Im not sure. Mulder and I will go and find one. You guys keep an eye on George and Nicole. Although its highly unlikely they know we can't assume anything. If they go anywhere you follow."

"Yeah. You guys hurry."

All four of us exit the house and Mulder and I head for the Tampa field office to find where we can go for a warrant. And which judge would give it to us for such circumstantial evidence.

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Mulder's POV:

We got to the Tampa field office rather quickly, partly because she had me speed. She said if anybody pulled us over all I'd have to do would be flash my badge and say it was official FBI business and that by holding us up he could indirectly cause a crime. I never got pulled over, but I would have loved to see the poor souls face if I had.

When we got there Agent Curtis informed us that Judge Willows would grant us a search warrant depending on what we wanted to search. Scully told him that we wanted to search the whole house, evidence could be anywhere, and he wasn't as sure then.

When we got to the car a thought struck me. How could we be so stupid? "Scully. What happens if we go to the house and find nothing? Our cover would be blown."

"Damn it! Well, we're going to have to wait until we're absolutely sure. Maybe Reyes and Dogett can casually stop by their house. Look around. Talk, ask some questions. You know, being friendly neighbors."

"Ok. But why not us?"

"Do you want to go?"

"No. But they're going to want to know why we're not going."

"We'll go back to the field office. Do a more extensive background check on the husband. See if we can rule him out as a suspect. Because, unlike Reyes, I think that he's got to at least know what his wife is doing. But there's one thing that I don't fully understand...what's the wife's motive?"

"She's eliminating threats. Maybe the sister didn't approve of her being with her brother. And face it, would you want to live in the same neighborhood as your ex-husbands? I know I wouldn't."

"I'd hope you wouldn't have any ex-husbands." She jokes.

"You know what I mean. Just call them will you? It's already starting to get late."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Be patient alright?" She takes out her cell and calls Reyes. From what I can tell Reyes isn't to ecstatic about going over to the Wade's. Not because we suspect them of foul play, but because they're obnoxious.

When we get to the field office we meet Agent Curtis once again. He allows us to use his office for our searching because he has to go home for his daughters. Soccer game. Makes me wonder what sports our two will play. Hopefully baseball and basketball. But football's always good, him-not her. Don't get me wrong, nothing's wrong with women playing sports. But I want my daughter to act like a girl...not a tomboy. She can play basketball, that's good. Just no cheerleading., God, please no cheerleading.

"Mulder. This guy is seemingly perfect. He doesn't even have a dropped charge. Nobody's that perfect Mulder. And think of it this way, your motive works for him. The ex's are a threat in his eyes. She loved them once-what's to stop her from loving them again? The sister could've been opposed to their relationship. And he could've got rid of the other couple for pressing charges against his wife. It all makes sense. He's got the profile for a sociopath. He's charming-in an annoying way but charming nevertheless-he not unlike his wife was very curious about our lives. As you know most sociopaths seem normal."

"You could be on to something."

Just then Scully's cell rings. She picks it up after the 3rd ring. "Scully."

Pause.

"We think it's George."

Pause.

"Mmm-hmm. I'll tell Mulder." She then hangs up and turns to me. "That was Dogett, they just got back from the Wade's house."

"What did they find?"

"When George was asked if he had siblings he said no."

"What did the wife say?"

"Well, when she and Reyes left the room she told a different story. She said that George never got along with his sister-Jamie-and she and her husband recently disappeared off the face of the earth."

"Is that all?"

"No. In the bathroom Dogett found chloroform. And in their backyard there is a coil of rope and handcuffs."

"Would he be so obvious?"

"Maybe, but we have to think of the possibility he knows who we are, and is toying with us. Leading us on for his own sick enjoyment."

"We've got a lot of work to do."

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Scully's POV:

Mulder and I stayed in Agent Curtis' office until 1:45 that night. The only reason we went home was because Reyes and Dogett had called asking where we were. Since we were sure that we wouldn't find anything else we decided to go home and get a few hours rest before waking up once again to work.

I was brushing my teeth getting ready for a bed when I heard something in the bedroom fall. Because Mulder's gotten me paranoid over the years and my gun was still on my person I took it out and walked to the bathroom.

Mulder was standing in the middle of the room looking towards the doorway. I slowly crept to where I could see what he was looking at and there in the doorway was George Wade, brandishing a .9mm semi-automatic. He had yet to notice me.

"George. Drop your weapon."

He adverted his gaze from Mulder and me, "Brianna? Get rid of your gun or I'll shoot him."

"You don't want to do that George. Drop your weapon. I won't say it again?"

"I'm not dropping anything, I'll shoot him I swear I will."

"George, im not going to get rid of my gun. Either you drop your weapon or I'll shoot you. You don't want to get shot do you?"

"You'll go to jail if you shoot me."

"No. I won't George. I'm fully in the right if I shoot you. You're threatening the life of my partner, it's justified. Now. Put down your gun or I'll shoot you. Trust me, im a good shot, I won't miss."

"What are you talking about your `partner'?"

So he doesn't know. "My partner George. Im not Brianna Sanders. Im Dana Scully. Special Agent Dana Scully. And the man you have a gun on is not my husband. He's Fox Mulder. Also an FBI agent. Shooting him would be a whole lot worse than just shooting a psychologist. You'll go to jail for a long time."

"F..FBI?"

"Put the gun down George."

"No. I won't."

"Put it down George, or I'll shoot you."

"No!" He tightens his finger around the trigger and gunshots fill the air. I fire my own gun and hit him in the shoulder; he falls to the floor screaming in pain. I quickly run to where Mulder lay on the floor.

"Mulder? Are you alright?"

"Yeah, im fine. He's not such a good shot. My arm hurts like hell though. Anything you can do about it doc? Kiss it and make it better?"

I smile halfheartedly, "I need to check on him. You'll be ok?" I grab a shirt and press it on his wound, grab his other hand and press it on the shirt. "Hold it there. You know the drill.

He nods, "all to well." I walk away to check on George. I pull out another shirt from the dresser and press it over his wound. A bit tougher than I had with Mulder's. "You are going to jail, you can count on that."

He says nothing to me only presses the shirt over his wound tightly. I get out my cell phone and call 911 and give them the address and situation, I make sure to stress the issue on of these men is a criminal. After hanging up I walk back to Mulder, "how you holding up? It doesn't hurt to bad does it?"

"I've been shot before Scully…by you once…remember?"

"Yes Mulder, I remember. But you gave me no choice then, like he did now. You would've shot Krycheck. Not that I would have particularly cared to see him die, but I would have cared if you went to jail. Which is what would have happened."

'Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. Are you going to kiss it and make it better or what?"

"Or what?"

"That's not fair Scully."

I smiled at him, "you would be worried about a kiss after you got shot." I leaned down--careful of his arm--and kissed him gently. "There." I said when I sat back up. "I need to call Reyes."

The sound of the ambulance came in the distance and I called Reyes and Dogett to let them know what had happened. They came over immediately and Reyes tended to George's wound while Dogett went over and talked with Nicole…who I found out later was asleep.

They wouldn't allow me to be with Mulder during surgery so I spent the lighter part of 3 hours--due to prep and surgery--waiting with Reyes and Dogett in the waiting room. They finally let me in to see him and after Reyes and Dogett said their hello's they went back to the house. Which left me alone to talk with Mulder. When I saw him lying in the bed his arm in a sling I couldn't help but smile at how cute he looked, "what the hell happened Mulder?"

"I don't know. One second I was changing and the second I had a gun in my face. Then you showed up. You--Scully--are my hero."

I smiled, "that I am. How is it that every time we go you get in some sort of life threatening situation. They seem to follow you everywhere don't they."

"It's a gift Scully."

"Well, it better stop by the time these two are here. I don't want for them to worry about you too, it's enough that I do."

"I know Scully, I'll try to keep danger away from now on."

"Good." I smile, "you should get some rest Mulder."

"You should too. Go on back to the house."

"I'm not leaving you Mulder. Never have before, why should I start now?"

"Fine. Then you should crawl into bed with me," he raises his eyebrows in a suggestive manner, "no seriously. Get up here, it's got to be more comfortable than that chair."

I carefully get into the bed with him and snuggle against his chest, being careful of his hurt arm. "Night Mulder." I sighed into his chest.

"Goodnight Scully, I love you."

"I love you too Mulder."

I fell asleep instantly.

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a/n: I wrote this on my way home from SC just so I could post it as soon as I had it typed out. I would've posted it last night but I got home late, and had some things to do, well. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, I would've made the case longer but im trying to figure out how to end this story…still not sure how many more chapters there will be, im really just going where my ideas take me. Anyway, thanks to everybody who has reviewed! I'll get the next chapter out soon, hopefully.

~Brittany~