X walked towards him, reached past him and flipped on the lamp before settling himself on the couch.
"You know what happened to her?"
"Of course. She was killed as a teenager in her home in Portland, Maine. A month before her sixteenth birthday. Such a shame." This angered Mulder.
"That's not what I meant and you know it now cut the crap. I've had a seriously bad day so I'm warning you, don't piss me off." Mulder paused for a second, reality hitting him. "How the hell are you even here?"
"By the same means that Agent Scully isn't," X replied. "Someone has been having a little fun with the past at your expense, and it's affected the present. In other words, somebody rigged it so that your partner's killer was in the neighborhood when she was home alone. Which in turn, meant that her sister was never shot." Mulder lunged toward X and grabbed him by the throat, lifting him up from his sitting position.
"If you've got something to do with this so help me God I'll kill you. And this time you'll stay dead do you understand?" X didn't so much as flinch at Mulder's actions.
"Believe me Agent Mulder killing me would not be in your best interest right now, if you ever want to get things back to how they were and see your partner again. I assure you, while I do know myself who is responsible for this I play no part in it." After a moment's pause X continued. "Besides, once you've fixed the past and the present is back how it should be, I will go back to being very much dead. Now if you'll let go of me, we need to get started. We don't have much time to save your partner." Slowly, still not sure of him, Mulder released his grip around X's throat before sinking down onto the couch, placing his head in his hands.
"Self pity is a luxury that we don't have time for Agent Mulder. And neither does your partner." Mulder looked up at X.
"She's still alive?"
"In 1980s Portland, Maine she's still alive. But only for another day. Tomorrow is January 23rd, the nineteenth anniversary of your partner's death. That is the deadline for you to fix things. If she is in that house alone at 4:33 pm tomorrow she will die and you won't have another chance. She will be dead and will stay dead and there will be nothing more you can do. Do you understand me?"
"Not really, but I'll just smile and nod anyway."
"I'm glad you find this funny Agent Mulder, because I doubt Agent Scully will be doing much laughing tomorrow."
"I'm sorry I'm just finding all this a little hard to process. And also I'm finding it hard to figure out how the hell I'm supposed to get to 1980 and prevent this. I don't suppose you've got Doc Brown's telephone number handy do you?" He laughed ruefully.
"I suggest you stop cracking unhelpful jokes and come with me." X walked over to the door and exited the apartment. Mulder grabbed his coat and ran out of the apartment after the other man, shoving his arms into his coat as he ran along the hallway to catch up with X.
"Where are we going?"
"I'll tell you when we get there."
