CHAPTER ONE
1 week earlier.
FBI Headquarters
Washington DC
10:00 am
Hannah Scout walked down the hall, towards the elevator when she saw that the doors were about to close. She jogged towards it while shouting, " Hold the elevator!" A pelite woman with red-hair pressed a button that held the doors open and she stepped inside.
" Which floor?" the woman asked her. Hannah told her and the elevator started to ascend.
They didn't get very far when the lights started to flicker madly. Hannah glanced up at the ceiling, " What's going on?" she asked her elevator companion. The woman opened her mouth to reply when the elevator was plunged into darkness. Then a couple of seconds later, the elevator jerked to a violent stop, almost sending the two passengers to the floor.
Oh no, this can't be happening. Hannah thought as her eyes slowly got used to the darkness. She could see the dim silhouette of the other woman.
" Are you okay?" the other woman asked her, " I've just tried the emergency phone but its dead too."
Someone was breathing very loud and Hannah realised it was her own. She felt light-headed and her hands started to tremble.
She heard the other woman talk into her cell phone. After a couple of minutes, she hung up, " Help is on the way," she told Hannah, " Are you all right?"
" No…I don't do too well in closed spaces," Hannah tried to control her breathing and felt dizzy…then everything went black.
Hannah opened her eyes and found herself lying on a stretcher.
" What happened?" she asked no one in particular.
The petite red-head was walking beside the stretcher. Hannah sat up a little bit and saw two paramedics carrying her outside to the waiting ambulance.
" Do you know who you are?" the petite red-head asked her. It was a routine question.
" Hannah Scout," Hannah's memory of fainting was fuzzy-not that she wanted to remember it. She felt embarrassed about it.
" I'm Dana Scully. I was with you in the elevator. We're taking you to hospital."
" I feel fine," Hannah protested.
" No you're not. You had a severe panic attack." Scully said as Hannah was loaded into the ambulance. Scully climbed in and sat beside her, " You said you don't do well in closed spaces. Are you claustrophobic?"
" Yes," Hannah admitted, " I've been claustrophobic since I was seven years old."
" Something awful must have happened to you to be this claustrophobic." Scully remarked.
Hannah's hazel eyes clouded over, " I've been locked in a broom closet underneath the stairs in the house I grew up in. It was half an hour before anyone rescued me. To this day I can still remember the cramped, dark space."
" Who locked you in?"
" Does it matter?"
" Probably not." They arrived at the ambulance and Scully used her phone to contact Mulder.
" Where are you?" Mulder asked when he answered his cell.
Scully told him what happened then realised she wouldn't be able to get back to the FBI HQ because she didn't have her car.
She asked him if he didn't mind picking her up later. He agreed and she told them they were going to DC General.
Hannah was checked over and given the all clear. She didn't have to stay overnight, her blood pressure was back to normal. Half an hour later, she was released. She was about to ring for a cab but Dana stopped her, " My partner is picking us up. He's taking us back to the FBI HQ. Why were you at the HQ in the first place?"
" I was on my way to see a friend-he's an FBI Agent." Hannah explained, " Now he's probably wondering what happened to me. I should call him."
" I don't mean to be nosy, but who is it? I might know him."
" Walter Skinner."
" It really is a small world-he just happens to be my boss. I can take you to him personally."
While they waited, conversation flowed smoothly between them and Hannah felt she had made a new friend but it's too early to tell….