Chapter 2 - Lighting Candles

February 2016

"Hi, Mr Mulder. The day has been fine?" Cathy casually said to the man entering the lobby, as she was bent over the plant she was watering.

"Hi, Mrs Gold. It can be plain winter yet be warm days, and I'm like those green creatures of you, needing to be watered. Showered, actually," Mulder replied.

"Isn't that global warming?"

"Speaking of warming… Mrs Gold, I'm just stopping by to change clothes. I indeed have to drive back to Washington DC ASAP. My partner, Dana… She has… She has a very serious family emergency, and she's waiting for my warm comfort... Well… er… what I want to say is that we won't use both our rooms, and I'm not sure even to need mine. So, maybe I should just cancel our reservations. Still, I need a shower first thing."

"Why don't you keep one of the two rooms? We're not full at this time of the year. Maybe you'll soon be back to your investigation."

"Yeah, right. But you'd have to give me another room. I'd be embarrassed to prevent guests from having our two connecting rooms."

"Don't bother, I have another pair of them."

"Ah."

"And you're now used to these rooms. They're yours, when you're in Philly. Besides, you have to remain grounded in such difficult times."

"Many thanks, Mrs Gold, you're so kind. You've just warmed me up and, would you believe, I really needed it."

"Go shower fresh now, someone is waiting for you," Cathy said, shooing Mulder away.

As Mulder was hurrying toward his usual room number 13 at the Adams Inn, Cathy laid down her watering can and breathed out deeply, expelling all the mixed feelings that had invaded her.

She had read Mulder's concerns in his eyes and through the tremor in his voice. Something sad and bad was happening to Scully, affecting both of them.

Nevertheless, Mulder's reaction was showing off his deep love for his partner -funny how he would never use the simple word wife, even in such emotional times- and Cathy was relieved to deduce that the tension she had earlier witnessed between the two was, finally, only superficial.

No need to pray and light a candle in Old Swedes to save the handsome FBI Agents couple, this time.

January 1997

Cathy was wiping the leaves of the huge ficus located in the far corner of the lobby when the phone rang. She hurried to the counter desk, and picked up the handset.

"Adams Inn," Cathy said too fast.

"Dana Scully, please," said a male voice.

"Thank you. I'll ring."

Cathy switched the button to room 12 and waited. Nobody answered.

"I'm sorry, sir, there's no answer in that room," Cathy informed the man.

"Thank you." And the voice hung up, abruptly.

Cathy, her hand still on the handset, was puzzled.

That was Agent Mulder calling and he didn't even tell his name, unlike the day before, when he had checked the presence of Dana Scully at the inn and asked for a connection. That wasn't his usual manners. At all.

Since their first visit in 1993, the two FBI Agents had been going to Philadelphia occasionally, always staying at the Adams Inn. Both knew Cathy's last name and they were always very polite and affable, especially Agent Mulder. Sometimes, only one of them made the trip or stayed for the night in Philly, and, if available, they had their usual rooms -number 12 for Scully, 13 for Mulder.

The weirdness of this short phone call was confirming what Cathy had been suspecting since Agent Scully had checked in, alone, a few days ago. From her first step in the lobby, Scully's behavior had been strangely odd and slightly out. More rigid, more distant, and colder than her true self. Cathy had intuited it wasn't just due to a professional matter, even if some of Scully's scarce words about the reason for her presence had seemed to reflect such a possibility.

Something sad and bad was currently happening to Agent Scully. Something affecting the handsome/FBI Agents couple.

And, as if it wasn't enough, Agent Scully wasn't to be found in her room, a fact her partner wasn't expecting at all and that was worrying him -if not, he wouldn't have hung up so abruptly.

Cathy had to take action and do something in the realm of her competences.

She quickly entered her home and shouted to Bill, while putting a coat on:

"Bill! Bill! You have to replace me in the lobby. I'm leaving! Do you hear me?"

"Wait, what?"

"I'm going to pray and light a candle at Old Swedes' Church!"

"What?"

"Never mind, I won't be long! It's an emergency! A handsome couple needs to be saved!"