Chapter 4
Morning brought more of the same, and everyone was determined to make this the last day. It meant 12 or more straight hours for them all.
By 3:00 that afternoon, Scully was almost dead on her feet, exhaustion threatening to overwhelm her.
Rubbing her temples and squeezing her red and scratchy eyes after her third complete autopsy, she looked over to see Mulder heading her way, carrying a small brown bag, his face grim. Actually, striding was probably a more accurate term. She straightened up, preparing herself for the worst.
"Mulder, what is it?" she asked, thinking for one frantic moment that the bag he was holding contained a body part or something equally gruesome.
"This?" he asked, holding up the brown sack. "This is lunch. Which, by the way, I'm going to sit and supervise you eating, since you apparently can't be trusted to do so on your own."
Scully stood frozen - gaping at him in utter disbelief. "What!" she finally managed to gasp, completely unprepared for his statement.
Unperturbed, Mulder continued, "You didn't eat breakfast, you haven't eaten lunch, and it is now almost 3:30 in the afternoon. So, sit down and get comfortable before you collapse."
Scully's mouth worked in an effort to argue - to protest - to tell Mulder to go to - but he placed one finger on her lips effectively putting a halt to her protests.
"Please, Scully," he said softly, pleading. "Please. I'm too tired to argue. And I'm too concerned about you to worry about being politically correct as your partner. You're literally swaying with fatigue as we speak. Besides, you'd do the same to me. You know you would. So, sit down, eat up, and then you can go back to work. Deal?"
Scully caught the gleam of the impish Mulder behind his own fatigued and worried eyes. She relented, giving him a weary half-smile. Mulder was right. She would do the same to him. She sat down.
"Thanks," he said happily, taking a seat next to her and handing her the bag.
Shaking her head ruefully, she reached in to find a sandwich, pear, and a carton of milk. Suddenly famished, she dug in.
Mulder pulled a large red apple from his pocket. "So, anything new or unusual come up?"
In between bites of the thick turkey sandwich and sips of ice cold milk, Scully filled him in.
"No. Cyanide seems to be the drug of choice. The mutilations were all done post-mortem, thankfully." She admitted that if any of the victims had had implants in life, there was no evidence of it in death. "But we continue to go over each body with a fine-toothed comb. We know that the bodies were moved after death - we just don't know from where. On a more positive note, we only have 2 more bodies and then we're done."
At that moment, Agent Jamison ran in. "Hey, Mulder! We found a receipt from one of those U-haul places. It's from Billings, Montana dated 4 days before the bodies were found."
"Where the hell was it?" Mulder demanded.
"We were bringing in the last 2 victims and found it underneath the body. Probably fell out of the murderer's pocket. It didn't appear to be planted or hidden," he responded. "Also, none of the victims were from anywhere near Billings."
"Go get Skinner on the horn. I'll be right there," Mulder said tersely. He waited until the younger agent was out of sight before turning back to his partner. "You okay, Scully?" He asked softly, searching her face worriedly,
and resisting the urge to stroke her pale cheek.
"Much better. Thanks. Really. Now go on and let me finish up." She smiled warmly, clasping his hand reassuringly, and then watched him go. (Please,) she thought, (please let this be the end.)
Mulder filled Skinner in on their latest findings. Suddenly things began to move very quickly as a team was sent to the U-haul.
Meanwhile, Scully finished the 44th autopsy. The last one. The paperwork was complete. The body had been processed and packaged. Mulder's notification/ interview team had finished 2 hours earlier. As she walked out of the morgue, she was surprised to find that night had fallen. The full moon was rising over the trees. She glanced down at her watch. 9:15. She sighed heavily. She hadn't seen or heard from Mulder since he had left her to call Skinner and had lost all track of time. Looking around, she saw a large group milling about the mess tent and command center. She sighed again. So tired. So very, very tired. She knew she should eat but she just didn't have the energy. She had to literally force herself to go to the shower before climbing into bed, knowing that she'd feel better after rinsing off.
Twenty minutes later, she was tucked snugly in her cot and sound asleep.
