RESIDENCE OF MONICA REYES, APARTMENT 42 - SEPTEMBER 4, 2002 - 7:44 A.M.
Beams of light shown through the lightly clothed curtains hanging from the windows. Reyes entered the living room via her bedroom while looking for her gun when she glanced at her front door to see a manila envelope being slid under her doorway from the hallway outside.
She went over to the door, and grabbed a hold of it. She squeezed together the binding and opened the flap, sliding out the papers that were stuffed into the pouch.
Her eyebrows slanted inward as she looked through the papers, getting a stare at the photograph that was included. It was of a teenage girl, the same one from the psychiatric institution. She stared at the photograph for a good thirty seconds, and then moved onto the other papers.
F.B.I. HEADQUARTERS, WASHINGTON D.C. - SEPTEMBER 4 - 8:02 A.M.
The reflection of a man bounced off the fine polished floor as he walked down the hallway of the F.B.I. Headquarter building. The man was in an unwrinkled black suit and a mahogany tie that bounced off his chest as he walked.
He slipped his hand into his pocket as he walked and pulled out a brand new laminated badge, and clipped it onto his breast pocket. The badge seemed like the real McCoy, stampings and all. The photo was a glory, no one would have guessed that it was actually from a dollar photo booth from a carnival.
The man stopped at the elevator, and pressed the button. He flipped his badge face up as he waited for the elevator. As the door opened, the tall looking man, put his hand in his pocket when he entered the elevator. He pushed the most bottom button, the one that would take him to the basement.
He looked up and smiled to the woman who was standing next to him, and he quipped; "Looks like we're going to hell." He said as the elevator traveled down and stopped in the basement. The woman frowned, and backed away.
Into the basement the man traveled, and he stopped at one of the brown wooden doors with a plaque on the door that read 'Special Agent John Doggett'. The man laughed, and flicked the plaque as he entered the dimly lit room.
He turned on the light and went over to the desk, and sat down putting his feet onto the desk. He reached into his pocket when Scully entered the office, and gasped.
"Mulder?" She asked.
"Home sweet home!" He smiled.
"You're back?" She asked.
"What? Oh no, still waiting on the papers to go through."
"Then what's with the badge?" Scully asked.
"Oh, just a memento the good ole' Lone Gunmen were able to cook up! They did it last night."
"Last night? That's not possible."
"Yeah, sure it is. They just got back into town Monday night. Strange thing, about a year ago, they got a tip that the Mafia were going to kill them, so they left town."
"But I saw them, they were dead."
"…Oh, well. I don't know about that."
Scully nodded.
"If you want, I can call them."
"That's not necessary, Mulder."
Mulder took his feet off the desk.
"Well, it's good to be back."
"Your career could be at jeopardy if Kersh knows you're down here. You could blow everything."
"That's why Mum's the Word."
Scully slightly scoffed while turning away to one of the cabinets behind her. She pulled out something, and turned back to Mulder.
"What if Kersh finds out about the papers?" She asked.
"He won't. As long as he doesn't find out what's on them."
"You haven't even told me what's on those papers."
"Well… that's because there aren't any papers." Mulder grimaced.
"What do you mean? Aren't any papers?"
"Well, I don't know anything about Kersh, or his record. I just made it up."
"No papers?"
"Zip."
"Great, so now our careers and our lives are based on a bluff? And if he finds out that there aren't any papers, then he'll have us for good."
"But he won't. You see, he thinks that we know about his record and have paperwork on him. He won't question that because he knows that if we do catch him he'll know that we'll use the papers. Plus, now that we do know that there is something on him, all we have to do is get time to find documentation of these records and we'll be home free."
Doggett entered the room, and stopped after he saw the presence of Mulder.
"Agent Mulder, welcome back." Doggett greeted.
"Not yet, Agent Doggett. Papers still going through."
"The badge?" Doggett asked.
"Haven't you ever made fake I.D.'s when you were a teen, Agent Doggett?"
"No, I was too busy studying my ass off to make my father happy." Doggett joked.
Agent Reyes entered the office, with a wondrous look on her face; the manila folder under her arm.
"Agent Reyes." Doggett greeted.
"Morning." She looked up to find Mulder. "Agent Mulder…" She started.
"Not yet. Papers still going through."
"The badge?"
"Fake." Scully and Doggett replied at the same time.
"Well, it's still good to have you back." Reyes replied.
"What's that?" Scully asked to the manila folder stashed under Reyes' arm.
"This was slipped under my door this morning." She handed it to Scully.
"What's in it?" Doggett asked.
"It's a file on a young girl. Lauren Spencer. She's sixteen, and been in a psychiatric institute most of her life. Diagnosed with a rare case of severe mental retardation, but it's more than severe, she can hardly function."
"You know who slipped it?" Mulder asked.
"I opened the door, no one was there."
"They may have mistaken it for Mulder's apartment when he lived there." Scully responded, handing the file to Mulder.
"You know her?" Reyes asked Mulder.
"No, never seen her in my life." Mulder stared down at the photo while biting his thumb.
"Anything else in it?" Doggett asked.
"Just her case file, medical records. She's in the Shiban Psychiatric Hospital in Albany. Says here she was involved in an incident in August. Two orderlies were killed by unknown reasons in her room, but that's all…" Mulder found another photo that was stashed away in the file.
"What is it?" Reyes asked.
"Scully…" Mulder showed the photo.
Scully took a closer look.
"Oh my god." Scully replied.
The photograph was from an evidence file on the case. It was of the two orderlies imprinted on the wall with burning around them.
"We've seen this before." Scully said.
"Yep. The Terakan, back in '96." Mulder replied.
"Wasn't that with that mysterious alien lead, and that Wilmore agent?" Doggett asked.
"I'm glad to see that you've been doing your homework, Agent Doggett." Mulder replied.
"That could mean anything. That happened in Hiroshima when we dropped the nuclear bomb, people's shadows were still left in the ground when they were blown away." Reyes argued.
"In a small room? Only on that wall?" Mulder asked.
"Fire can't do that." Doggett replied.
"The whole place would've burned to the ground." Scully added.
"Well, it looks like you've got yourself an X-File, Agent Doggett." Mulder got up from the desk.
"What about you?" Doggett asked.
"I don't work here, Agent Doggett. Well, at least not yet."
"Mulder, where are you going?" Scully asked.
"I've got some new places to check out today. A wonder what's in the classifieds!" Mulder exited the office.
Scully ran after him.
"Mulder!"
He turned around and went back over to Scully.
"You know, you can stay at my place if you want to." She offered.
"It would be unprofessional." Mulder smiled.
"Well… the door's always open." Scully smiled back.
"I'll see you later, and check out the bodies. If they're anything like the sailors, then…"
Scully knew where he was going. She nodded, and went back into the office.
"Everything all right, Agent Scully?" Doggett asked.
"Yep. How about a trip?" Scully asked.
"Where?"
"Albany, New York." Scully replied.