Ghost in the machine

I do not own anything recognisable.

Stretching her neck Scully tried to get comfortable, she was sitting in Sam's chair typing and was almost relieved when there was a heavy knock at the door. It was flung open before she could respond and to her surprise Fox marched in looking thunderous, it was a surprising change in a man who she'd only ever seen to be easy going.

He stopped probably nonplussed by the sight of her instead of who he expected "Is Sam here?" Scully wondered briefly what her partner could have done to bring about this sort of ire but soon dismissed the thought. However much the Mulder siblings fought they never got to this level of anger.

"She went out to get lunch, she should be back in a few minutes" he nodded and paced the room looking angry and a little lost "Are you OK?"

"Fine" he ground out and she raised an eyebrow, he saw it and stopped with a grudging smile "Something happened and I'm trying to handle it without kicking someone's ass."

"As in a terrible crime, an X-file or someone actually being an ass?"

As she hoped he smiled properly at this and Dana saw some of his tension dissolving "A bit of both"

"Well the X-file can wait for Sam but if you need to vent some of the steam I can see coming out of your ears" she was relieved to see him chuckle at this "you can talk to me I promise to be completely impartial. Or completely on your side whatever you want"

"Impartial is different, Sam's always immediately on my side." He sat on the opposite side of the desk in what was generally her chair "an old friend asked for a favour, he has a high profile case and his job is already on shaky ground so I said yes like a schmuck! I should have known better because at the meeting today I realised he stole the profile notes I'd written and passed them off as his own."

"What did you say to him?"

"Nothing yet, I was too mad and was worried I'd punch him." Scully could see the tension in his jaw building up again "I don't mind helping him and if he needed the kudos I'd have given it to him."

"Sounds like a rubbish situation"

"Sounds like he's a scumbag" another voice cut in and they turned to see Sam in the doorway "it was Lamana right? I never liked him."

"It was" Mulder threw himself back in the chair I can't believe I let him get to me like this, it's no wonder his career is hanging on by a thread if this is how he treats his co-workers."

"I imagine it has more to do with losing that evidence in Atlanta."

"What" Scully looked at them in surprised

"He had a little bad luck and misplaced a piece of evidence, he'd bagged it and everything. Sent it to the cleaners."

"And the rest" Sam urged him to finish the story

"The case was rather violent" he admitted looking embarrassed "By the time he got it back, a federal judge had lost both his hands and an eye.

"Oh My God" Scully was stunned "that's what you call a little bad luck?"

"Jerry is a good guy, a good agent"

"Oh he rode your coat tails while you did all the work"

Fox shook his head "He did all of the grunt work with me, it was only right we shared the credit."

Sam made a noise of disgust and Scully could see that the two of them were not going to agree anytime soon, she had brothers herself and could recognise a stand off when she saw it. "Sam he said the case could possibly fall under the x-files purview"

"Maybe. At the moment it looks like some kind of elaborate booby trap, cause of death was electrocution but the whole thing was a mess. The whole building is automated like living in a bad sci-fi, somehow someone had tampered with the server. They switched the ground to the negative so that when he put a key in the lock it completed the circuit. Melting the key and throwing him about 10 feet."

"What's your profile?" Sam asked putting the emphasis on 'your' probably to drive home her point about Mulder's old partner

"It was a crime that would have been very difficult to set up, it speaks of devious premeditation this would have been weeks maybe months in the planning and set up. The killer is obviously highly intelligent, the systems in that building are so complex almost no one could reconfigure it that way it needed to be. Also I'd say he was some kind of sociopathic game player probably a recluse since he designed a trap that avoided contact with the victim but he was smart enough to make sure it put him a safe distance from the crime."

"So who could have known the system well enough to make those changes?"

"According to the systems engineer? One person. Brad Wilczek and it's headline news how much those two hated each other."

"Seems like you don't think it was him" Scully said seeing Fox's expression

"It just seems too obvious him killing Drake would be brazenly egomaniacal."

"Isn't that what Jerry's profile suggested?" Sam teased tossing Dana her lunch "Lets go interview him. Dana can you get hold of the autopsy results and look them over make sure nothing's weird?"

"Any idea what I'm looking for?"

"I just said..." Sam held up her arms in a questioning gesture and Dana shook her head. "something weird."

"I'm driving" Scully heard Fox announce as Sam followed him out of the office.

"Of course you are, I need to eat my lunch!"

(-)

"You know I almost bought a place just like this" Sam joked as they walked up to the sleek expensive house set in more land than anyone without many at least three horses could need. "but I figured it was a little much for one person alone."

"Well this is what a 220 IQ and a $400 million severance settlement buys you. Maybe we should have gone into the private sector" the two of them had looked the place over with awe as they drove up and it hadn't faded with scrutiny, Fox knocked on the door and it was opened almost immediately

"Yes?"

"Brad Wilczek?" Both Mulders held up their badges "We're with the FBI."

"What took you guys so long?" he asked gesturing them to enter "Oh, do you mind taking off your shoes?"

"It's a good thing Dana isn't with us" Sam said in a low voice as they pulled off their shoes and left them on the stand by the door.

"What do you mean?"

"You must have noticed that she's tiny? It's why she wears those heels all the time they're incredibly unpractical for running but she needs them or I just look over her head." they shared a smile before getting back to business. Wilczek was surprisingly open about his hatred of the deceased and the other people in charge of his company but he claimed innocence and neither Mulder felt any deception from him.

"You can divide the computer science industry into two types of people neat and scruffy."

"I take it Benjamin Drake fit into the first category."

"Neat people they like things neat. They wear nicely pressed suits, shiny shoes and work on surface phenomena. Things they can understand. Market shares, and profits."

"And you had a different vision for the company?"

"I started Eurisko out of my parents' garage. I was 22 years old. I'd just spent a year following around the Grateful Dead. You know what Eurisko means?"

"That's from the Greek, isn't it?" Mulder frowned in concentration "I think it means, I learn things."

"I discover things." Sam corrected and Brad nodded to her "But I don't know what this has to do with his murder"

"Ben Drake wasn't interested in discovery. He was a short-sighted, power-hungry opportunist. This here that you're standing in is a Smart Home. From this prototype, I have access to every square foot of my house. This place is as safe as Fort Knox and as energy efficient as your average igloo. We were two years ahead of Microsoft and Cebus then Drake, in his infinite wisdom, killed the program."

"Is this whole thing like the one at the corporate building?"

"A similar design and set up yes."

"Mr Wilczek?" Sam spoke to the man seriously "Pop Quiz In your opinion, how many people know the system well enough to override it?"

"One or two not including myself come to mind."

"Could someone have hacked into the system?" Fox questioned

"Well, not your average phone freak, that's for sure. But there's plenty of kooks out there. Data travellers, Electro wizards, techno anarchists. Anything's possible."

"And of course it would be easiest for you to have done it" he wanted to make sure the man realised where this was headed.

"Of course. I designed the system. That's why you guys are here, isn't it?

"You are our most logical suspect." Fox agreed

"You don't seem too worried." Sam stated looking the man over

"It's a puzzle, Miss Mulder, and scruffy minds like mine we like puzzles. We enjoy walking down unpredictable avenues of thought, turning new corners but as a general rule, scruffy minds don't commit murder."

"As a general rule in my line of work we can't rule anyone out based on something like that." Sam countered frowning at the man "We'll be back with more questions"

–

The next day Fox picked up Sam to drive her into work, he woke her earlier than she usually would and carted her off before she's had a proper coffee. She guessed it was so he could let off a little more steam about the situation and she was proven right when he spent most of the drive complaining about Jerry who had so far avoided him incredibly well considering they were working the same case. They headed straight for the X-Files office where they found Scully was already in and had set up several computers. "What are you up to?" Sam asked throwing herself into a chair and rummaging through her drawer for snacks.

"There was a phone call just before the murder, all the calls in the building are recorded and I asked if I could get this one to be analysed."

"Where did you get all this stuff?" Mulder asked taking in the different pieces of equipment.

"I borrowed it from the voice biometrics lab at Georgetown, I know someone there. It's a computer spectrogram capable of identifying individual speech patterns. Now this is the recording the Central Operating System made of the phone call Drake received just before he died."

"You got a lot done this morning" now chewing on gummi bears Sam made her way to the coffee pot happy to find it ready with rich dark liquid "I can't even function yet" she rifled through the filing cabinet and pulled out a couple of hostess treats "Pay dirt" she opened one up and sank her teeth into it. At that moment there was a knock and Jerry Lamana poked his head around the door "Oh God this I really cannot deal with, take him out before I throw something at him!"

To her relief Fox took the man out of the room to talk, she wasn't sure what the two said to each other but when they came back in they looked less confrontational and she was about to vent her spleen with a comment about testosterone when Dana interrupted them with her weird experiment.

"Listen to this!"

'At the tone, Eastern Standard Time will be 7:35 p.m.'

"That was the call that Drake received just before his death, now this was spliced together from a series of lectures Brad Wilczek gave at the Smithsonian last year."

"At the tone, Eastern Standard Time will be 7:35 p.m." the recording was was less tidy "Now we'll stack them." as they played the two of them again they certainly seemed similar.

"Your saying this is the same person? The caller was Wilczek?"

"Yes both voices are Brad Wilczek's. He may have disguised his voice electronically, but he couldn't alter the form that is unique to his own speech patterns." Scully sounded triumphant as she grinned at them

"Which could mean that he was the one that killed Drake." Mulder agreed pointing at the areas that showed the similarities "He had the motive and the means."

"And now we some physical evidence he was involved." Scully and Fox shared a smile and Sam continued to moodily sip at her very black coffee,

Fox pulled on his coat again "Judge Benson lives in Washington Heights. I can get a warrant in less than an hour."

"Someone has to make sure Wilczek stays put."

"I'll go with you." Mulder turned back to Sam and Scully "You two could get the warrant."

"No. Let me bring him in alone. I need this one, Mulder." they shared a look and finally Mulder assented.

"I knew it" Sam muttered under her breath but from the looks Scully and Fox gave her it hadn't been too quiet "And I don't think it's him."

Sam stood outside her brothers office for a good ten minuted before knocking on the door. It wasn't that she didn't want to talk to him it was more that the Mulders didn't do well with this sort of situation. It had started when their grandfather died and their mother had told them to restrain themselves at his graveside. In hind site asking two children of five and eight not to cry a their grandfather's coffin was lowered into the grave had definitely damaged them but it was more telling of their parents was of dealing with grief. When she went in Fox was looking at a screen with the video of Wilczek at Eurisko.

"I heard about Jerry. I'm sorry."

"I think you were right before, I don't think Wilczek did it."

"I'm so relieved you said that" Sam breathed out "It doesn't make sense. Why would he go back to Eurisko?"

"That first kill was well thought out, methodical I know he didn't have a lot of time for this one but he wouldn't just react in such a way."

"Scully thinks it could be to destroy evidence, cover his tracks."

"If you were going to destroy evidence, would you pose for the cameras?" He pointed to the security tape he'd been watching for the last half hour. I think Wilczek is smarter than this."

"Problem is he just signed a confession and the people upstairs are too happy and satisfied with the result to care either way."

"No we need to talk to him"

"I tried, apparently you need a code five clearance to even talk to him."

"Code five?"

"Yeah I was surprised too, I spoke to a contact higher up who thinks they have plans for him a guy like that"

"Who do you know upstairs?" he asked a stern look on his face

"Doesn't matter, look his mind would has often been wanted by people in the military and for years, Wilczek has turned down any contract involving weapons applications. A little time in prison might change his mind."

"I might be able to get in" Fox said, "My clearance is higher than yours and I have a better relationship with some of the people on his detail"

"We need to know why he confessed" she agreed "And to find out if he can kill his thing."

"He's protecting the machine, you said it yourself he cares, the possibilities with this kind of thing is terrifying, drones that make decisions based off orders. If a soldier is a decent man and sees... say a school next to munitions place he'll think of a way to destroy it without too much loss of life. Send a machine out there with the same instructions it'll obliterate everything innocents be damned. And if it's like this machine..."

"I would think for itself, eventually it might see humanity as the real problem, very Isaac Asimov"

"I was thinking it might rise up Skynet style."

"Of course you were" Sam rolled her eyes but nodded at him "Ok you get in to see him and talk to him I'll go over the records and see if we missed anything that could help."

Mulder held up his fist "Wonder twin power..." she stared at him in disbelief but he repeated the phrase and action making her laugh and hit his fist with her own.

"Activate. You're such a dummy"

(-)

With very little difficulty Mulder managed to talk his way through to visit Brad under the guise of needing paperwork signed. The agents guarding him had read through the most innocuous documents Fox could throw together, he wasn't quite level five but he was a lot closer than Sam and a lot more respected by the other agents in the FBI.

"How are you doing in here?"

"They make me wear shoes all the time."

"Given that you're not in your systematically clean home any more, I'd wear the shoes if I were you."

"What do you want from me?"

"I want you to tell me why you're willing to spend the rest of your life in prison for a crime you didn't commit." the question surprised Wilczek and his expression went from petulant to calculating.

"What are you talking about? I'm guilty."

"I know you're innocent. You're protecting a machine the Central Operating System at the Eurisko building."

"If I'm protecting anything, it's not the machine."

"Do you really believe allowing that machine to be investigated or studied will be that detrimental?"

"After the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Robert Oppenheimer spent the rest of his life regretting he'd ever glimpsed an atom."

It was a reasonable comparison but Fox wasn't going to let him bury himself in self pity like this "Oppenheimer regretted his actions but he never denied responsibility for them."

"He loved the work Mr. Mulder. His mistake was in sharing it with an immoral government. I won't make the same mistake."

"But your machine killed Drake and it killed my friend."

"I'm sorry about what happened. But there's nothing I can do."

Mulder stood feeling furious "You talk about morality? You're afraid of the government but you're willing to accept the risk that your machine will kill again."

"The lesser of two evils."

"What about a third option? You created that machine, now you tell me how to destroy it."

Wilczek stared up at him obviously weighing up whether he was trustworthy or not. "That agent was a friend of yours?"

"Used to be my partner, he can... could be" he corrected the tense feeling a pang of grief "an ass sometimes but he didn't deserve what he got"

(-)

Standing outside the Eurisko building Fox didn't recognise the car that drove up and he was surprised when Dana exited "What are you doing here?" he asked "I called Sam and left a message did she contact you?"

"What? No, someone is accessing my home computer, I write up everything from the x-files on my computer at home so no one can stumble across it at work. Somehow someone has hacked me and I traced it they're inside here now."

"It's the machine" she looked confused and he realised that Sam probably hadn't told her about his theory "Shall we wait for Sam?"

"We don't know when she'll get that message." Dana shook her head "If she doesn't pick it up right away we could be waiting hours. You can if you want. I need to find out who's doing this now, there's so much sensitive information at risk."

"It's the machine." he repeated and he wondered how Sam could cope with her rolling her eyes like that all the time.

"Of course it it. Look do you have a way I can get in?"

Smiling in what he knew was a slightly smug fashion he held walked back to his own car "You ever hear of the Trojan Horse?" Reaching into trunk he pulled out the license plate Wilczek had told him to pick up, it read EURISKO. She was amused at his antics as he fixed the plate onto his own car and they drove down to the parking garage but he could tell she was nervous as they sat in the car waiting to see if the trick would work. After stressful few moments there was a green light and the gate rose up "Open, Sesame!"

"First Greek possible myths now Arabian Nights?" he was about to respond as they drove forward but a noise above interrupted. The gate came crashing through the roof narrowly missing them as Fox instinctively ducked and moved to bring Dana down as well but she was already down. Once they realised it wasn't coming down any further he asked if she was alright.

"I'm alright Mulder, you?" she spoke loudly so she could be heard over the blaring car horn

"Yeah, does your door open?"

She turned to try it "Uh, yeah, come on" they climbed out of the wreck. Annoyed by the noise but also not wanting to attract attention from anyone outside Mulder opened the hood and yanked out the relevant wires.

"So much for the element of surprise." he looked her over she was mussed but he couldn't see any injuries "What do you say we take the stairs?"

"I sure as hell wasn't going near that elevator"

(–)

Sam pulled up to the Eurisko building and instantly recognised Dana's own car, she didn't remember her brother saying anything in his message about calling Dana but perhaps he had. She'd been in such a rush to leave once she heard the start of the message she hadn't given it much attention. Walking around the building she soon saw the open garage door and keeping a wary eyes on the gate above crawled under it. To her relief the car was empty and there was no blood that she could see but it was pretty dark and she pulled out her flash light to double check. Finding nothing she put her hand on the engine and it was still warm, they hadn't been here long.

(–)

"28 down, one to go." Mulder announced as they reached another floor, Scully was trying not to let it show how tired she was and really regretting her decision to throw on her heels rather than her sneakers when the lights went out.

"Oh, great. Mulder?" there was a circle of white light and Fox shone his flashlight on her.

"Trick or treat." she shook her head reminded once again of how similar Sam and Fox were. They carried on up the last set of stairs but as Scully reached for the door handle he jumped forward "No!"

"What are you doing?"

"I don't want us to make the same mistake as Drake, don't worry I'm like a boy scout" the took an insulated screwdriver out of his bag and touched it to the lock and sparks flew making them both jump back

"Do you hear that?" she asked listening to a beeping sound

"Let's try again" Once again Mulder reached forward and this time he tries door. "Locked. What are you looking at?" At first Scully wonders what he's talking about until she realises he's looking up a the camera's.

"Big brother is watching" she watched him reach up to cover the lens "That still doesn't get us in" Mulder was shining his torch around and then it hit a vent and she saw him smile "What?" he looked at her and then up at a ceiling vent and she groans making a token protest "No" with another roll of her eyes she let a hand rest on the bannister and leaned down to remove her shoes.

"I gotta ask how do you run in those?" he was amused to see that Sam was right Dana was tiny without the heels.

"Carefully and damn fast" she told him with a smirk, he bent down holding his hands into a step for her and she put her hand on his shoulder as he lifted her up to the vent, as he pushed her up his hand ran the length of her body cupping her ass as it did "Watch it!"

"My hand slipped" he defended and she frowned down at his cheeky smile

"Sure it did" she used her elbows to gain some leverage and purposefully she gave a little kick in his direction.

"You OK?"

"Mm-hm" she lifted herself up and in with as much grace as she could possibly manage.

"There should be a way for you to drop down on the other side and open the door."

"That's what I'm looking for!" she scrabbled along, it was incredibly difficult to manoeuvre and the wind seemed to be picking up, in face it was picking up a lot "well I have no desire to do this ever again" the wind was getting more forceful and forcing her to slide away from her destination "MULDER!" it was harder now sending her slipping further from where she'd left her fellow agent.

(–)

As she reached the level 29 the door was open Sam paused, the vent above her was making a weird noise and the grill was off, guessing that they'd used it to gain access but instead of going to the control room she followed the line of the vent. As she got closer she heard yelling.

"DANA?"

"Sam" The voice was muffled but she heard it "Sam help" there was a vent close by .

"I'm coming" running to a nearby office she gabbed a chair and climbed up, pulling out a screw driver she made quick work of the grill which came off far too easily for such an expensive building. Hefting herself up a little she was stunned by the wind blowing around, it could not be normal.

"Dana" she could see her friend just hanging on and she reached out, with a bit of contorting she managed to get her arms around Dana's shoulder and heaved her towards the exit, Dana screamed in pain but they were fighting the wind and gravity at this point "I've got you" she declared, it was a rather pointless thing to say but she wanted to reassure her friend "I've got you" with a sharp tug the two women started to fall back into the open. Being the right way up and half landing on the chair Sam' fall was a little more graceful. Dana being the wrong way round had come crashing through and though she tried to catch herself she ended up falling in a heap.

"Dana are you alright?" took her partner's arm intending to help "let me help you" the red head cried out and scrambled away. She was exhausted and in a lot of pain but when she fell awkwardly on her arm there had been a pop and it looked as though she was fighting the urge to constantly scream in pain.

"Was that your arm?"

"My shoulder" she hissed holding it in place "Oh God I think it's dislocated"

"Let me help"

"No! You should... your brother, he's trying to kill the system with a virus you need to go find him make sure he's OK. I'll be fine here."

"Are you sure?"

"Contrary to every movie you've ever seen it is better to have a professional fix this, go help your brother."

(-)

Waiting had never been his strong point so Mulder was relieved when she door finally opened "Scully?" he was a little surprised when the building supervisor looked out into the stairwell "Oh It's you!" he looked up at the vent again "Scully!?" there was no answer only a strange clattering and whirring from above.

"Agent Mulder? What are you doing here?"

"Just a bit of extra investigating... loose ends."

"How did you get in?"

"Something's happened to the gate downstairs, looks like a break in attempt."

"Doesn't surprise me" the man said with a heavy sigh "The machine's been acting all crazy. Power surges, shut off. That's why I'm here so late."

"I need to get to the control room as soon as possible!" Mulder looked up, he could hear something going on in the vent "Scully I'm going after the machine" he was worried about her but anything that was happening was due to the machine and if he stopped it it would be the best way to help. Once inside he reached into his bag for what he needed "Where's the B port?"

"Oh, it's right back here." he opened the console but viewed Mulder askance "Look, are you sure you know what you're doing? Because if you don't it's my job on the line."

The device didn't work at first and Mulder swore, he pulled it out and tried again and this time it worked flashing a green light Mulder clapped his hands together then ran to keyboard

"Now I can put in the virus."

"Not bad, Agent Mulder. You know, I've been trying to access the CPU for the past two years. Now please, take out your gun and remove the clip." feeling like an idiot Mulder let his head hang forward "Careful."

"Defense Department?" he guessed miserably

"Lets just say our pay-cheques are signed by the same person. Now give me the diskette and step away from the console." he didn't move from the chair "You don't want to test my resolve Agent Mulder." he was about to hand over the disc when she door flew open and a very exhausted and a little windblown Sam entered the room "Put the disc in Fox. And you Mr Peterson, put down the gun"

"Look you may think you know what you're dealing with..."

"I don't care get that gun off my brother"

"You're making a mistake Agent Mulder the technology in this machine is of enormous scientific interest."

"The machine's a monster it's already killed two people" Sam exclaimed as Fox put the disc in

"Make no mistake you will both be held accountable."

There was voice from the computer "What are you doing, Brad? Don't do this, Brad." the computer screen was covered in words and finally the computerised voice stops and San and Fox exchange relieved looks

"Scully!" Mulder asked suddenly remembering the other agent "Where...?"

"She's alive but she's injured we need a paramedic" the lights flickered on and Mulder picked up his gun and reloaded the clip "I have to go back to her"

"Go, I've got this"

(–)

"Are you sure she'll want to see me? I feel like this was my fault" Mulder admitted "I just left her in the vent I'm the reason she's injured!"

"Oh shut up" Sam told him raising her hand to knock "Dana does not hold a grudge and if she did this would be a good way to apologise you two need to be friends. I need you two to get along."

The door opened and Dana stood in a loose button down and leggings her arm still in a sling "We brought dinner" she held up the pizza Dana shook her head at the Mulder siblings.

"You do realise that I can order food just as easily as you even with one arm?"

"Yeah but Fox feels guilty and this way we feel like we're helping you, plus we can wash up for you" there was a sound in the apartment and Dana shook her head.

"Come in, you're not the only ones with that idea."

"We're not?" the brother and sister entered and were surprised to find two women one a little like Dana with a more eclectic style young and very pretty and the other older very similar to both Dana and the new woman with an slightly more classic look to her. The smell of food filled the air and the whole ambiance of the room felt comforting and homey.

"This is my mother Maggie and my sister Missy. Mom, Missy this is my partner Sam and her brother Mulder"

"I thought your partner was Mulder" the older woman asked walking forward with a smile

"My first name is Fox, I prefer Mulder"

"Have you ever asked your parents why they called you Fox?" she persisted and he felt as though he was being told off

"No"

"Maybe you should, parents choose names for a reason. Dana for example is because of where her father and I were when we discovered I was pregnant. We were in Denmark visiting Bill's cousin and he suggested the name."

"Why Melissa?" Missy asked apparently never having wondered

"Ah that was because of the scans, the nurses said you were hiccuping but to me you seemed to be humming and when I wrote to Bill about it he said you were a little honeybee"

"And the name is honeybee in Greek" Sam joined the conversation. "I think we need to ask mom and dad about our names Samantha is normal but Fox has to have a story behind it."

"Are you two joining us for dinner? I made plenty."

Sam and Fox exchanged awkward looks but Dana grinned and took the pizza box from them "I'll have this tomorrow. You two had better come in Mom's asking but she's really telling. She won't let you go without feeding you if she thinks take out pizza is your dinner plan."

Once their coats were off Maggie offered to make drinks, Missy took Sam's arm and walked her into the kitchen asking "So what's my little sister like to work with?"

"Oh dear" Dana muttered and Fox looked at her as she frowned after the two women.

"What's wrong, are you afraid my sister's going to corrupt yours?"

"Could go either way actually" Dana shook her head "I'm more worried she'll tell her about all the dangerous things we get up to."

"They know you're an FBI agent right?"

"Yeah but I've let them believe I do a little more lab work than field work, also since working with Sam I've really had to downplay things."

"Dana Scully!" his tone was admonishing and it was cute that she looked embarrassed.

"They worry about me and Dad was really disappointed when I went into the FBI"

This confused Fox, it was not really a bad thing to work for the FBI and Dana's medical qualifications could only mean swift upward advancement in the long run "It's a good career"

"But it's not medicine, it's not saving lives."

"What about the people you put away? You save lives of future victims"

"Thank you" she smiled at him and he realised he knew very little about the woman in some ways "But I think Dad had high hopes of me being some amazing brain surgeon"

"Dana where do you keep your wine glasses?" her mother's voice called and Dana excused herself leaving Fox alone in her sitting room, it had a dining table already laid for four and had a basket of fresh rolls and a fresh salad. He wandered around the room and took in the pictures on the mantelpiece, There was a young Dana probably at age ten posing with the rest of her siblings in summer shorts and t-shirts holding up ice creams and smiling, on the other end the entire family were all in their Sunday best with Dana in a white dress a Holy Communion he guessed.

Pride of place in the centre stood a picture of her mother and a bald man with a baby in their lap. "That's Charlie's little one" The voice surprised him not because he hadn't heard her coming bit because it was Missy talking "He had a baby young right out of High School"

"Is he the only grandchild?"

"No Charlie has a couple more but none of the rest of us have reproduced. How about you? Kids? Nieces Nephews?"

"It's just Sam and me and not yet, it's something my mom regularly brings up."

"Mine too but she doesn't understand I need to find someone with the right energy for me" the phrase surprised him but as he properly took in her appearance with the crystal at the neck and what looked like a Buddhist tattoo peeking out her neckline he understood that maybe Dana wasn't the only one to defy expectations.

"I know what you mean, energy is important"

"So Fox, you have great energy" she said the name purposefully "and Sam tells me you're single"

"Uh" his face went blank and she laughed

"Oh she was right that's funny."

Closing his eyes he realised that Sam had put Missy up to this "Remind me to forget to drive her home"

"Then I'll do it, Sam and I have very similar aura's I think we could be friends."

"Missy leave him alone" Dana commanded as she exited the kitchen with a water jug "Come sit down Mulder, just grab that chair for me please" she pointed to a chair in the corner and he brought it over.

Maggie entered carrying a large lasagne that smelled like heaven whilst Sam followed with place settings for herself and Mulder. They all sat down together and Sam and Fox exchanged awkward looks as the Scully Women said a grace, they murmured Amens at the end and allowed Maggie to serve them large slices of Lasagne. "So Fox" Maggie said with a smile "Dana tells me you're in the FBI too?" And Mulder realised that no matter what, to Missy and Maggie he was going to be Fox forever.

Authors note - Hi I had Dana get injured because I wanted there to be a reason for Fox and Sam to meet the family, I really liked the other Scully women and I was going to have her father in but I thought it would be a more relaxed setting without him. In my mind the injury happened because with Sam helping her Dana came out in a different place and as the fan was still running and she didn't shoot it she had less control and fell awkwardly, sometimes a helping hand can be more trouble than it should be.

Thanks for reading and let me know any criticism.