When a knock came at their door, the Lone Gunmen expected a debt collector or Repo Man, and were relieved to see Scully instead.
After unlocking all nine locks on the door Frohike opened anxiously. "My, what brings Ms. Scully here tonight without her partner?"
Scully gave Frohike a quick glare as Langley and Byers joined them at the doorway, "Mulder's missing."
The Lone Gunmen's faces dropped and they went from happy to see Scully to concerned.
"Again?" Langley said. It wasn't the first time their friend had disappeared and it probably wouldn't be the last. Only this time the Gunmen sensed that this time was different.
Scully went to a computer bank and dropped two Ziploc bags from her purse next to the keyboard. In them were the letters that were supposedly from Mulder.
"These are letters for me supposedly written by Mulder. I need you to read them and tell me if you believe these are his words."
The Gunmen nodded and gathered around the computer bank and read the two letters over each other's shoulders as Scully sat at a computer chair waiting patiently.
After only five or six minutes they turned their attention back on Scully. Byers was the first to speak. "I'm afraid that these letters do share the same word choice, phrasing and structure that would be found to be written by Mulder."
"But that doesn't mean it was," Frohike added.
Craigwood, to Mulder's eyes, was a building that was in the perfect shape of a cube. All sides were perfectly symmetrical and all four floors seemed to have the exact same window and door set up.
The hospital must have been built like that to ease the Obsessive Compulsive's, the Sheriff thought, as he pulled the County's Prisoner transport van into the parking lot that was neatly paved right in front of the hospitals doors.
"Here son," The sheriff said as he slid the vans door open and helped Mulder step out, with his hands shackled to a belt around his waist.
Mulder's feet were free and he had no problem keeping pace with the Sheriff.
Inside the front entrance was a waiting room of sorts with a long desk with computers and three women and a man. Mulder quickly noticed that that desk had a glass wall separating the admitting personnel from the people being admitted. The Sheriff had his hand on Mulder's shoulder and walked him to the desk.
"I'm here to admit this man, Joseph McKinney, for evaluation under Judge Tomsen's orders."
The lady who had the Sheriff's attention looked Mulder up and down. Mulder smiled, trying to look normal. The lady smiled back and then called to a big Native American man dressed in an orderly's attire. "Nate. We got an O and R here, who's going to ward 5."
The orderly came to Mulder and the Sheriff and the lady handed a paper to the Sheriff for him to sign.
"If you'll follow me please." Nate said, escorting both Mulder and the Sheriff down a hallway.
They were led into a room with another desk that sat behind a mountain of cubbies and shelves that held clothes and other personal items. It looked exactly like something that Mulder saw at various prisons that he had been to whether it was for an interview for an investigation or because he was a guest there.
The Sheriff took the keys out of his pocket and undid Mulder's handcuffs and then took the belt off too. The guy behind the desk asked Mulder for his sizes and soon Mulder was being escorted down another hallway as Nate carried a small crate filled with three pairs of pants, six T shirts, five pairs of boxer shorts and two pair of shoes, none had or needed laces and they were all white. Inside the box besides clothes were a tube of toothpaste, a new toothbrush still in the package, stick deodorant and a comb.
Nate was joined by another orderly and all three took a ride into an interview. Mulder decided to say something to just to get a feel for his situation. "Why can't we use the stairs?"
The other orderly answered politely, "No one uses the stairs unless there's a fire."
Mulder nodded and the elevator stopped. When the doors opened they revealed a large hallway with eight doors. Like the outside, the inside of the building was symmetrical too.
Mulder was led to the last door on the right. Before they could go in, Nate, pushed a button. Two people inside a room closed off by glass took a paper from Nate's hand and then flagged the three in.
Ward 5 was what Mulder expected to a certain point. There was a ping pong table and old tore up couches and wooden tables that you'd find in a school cafeteria. Lining the walls were shelves with board games and puzzles.
What Mulder honestly didn't expect was the women. This was a Co Ed ward, and Mulder didn't think it would be.
As soon as they came in, Mulder was noticed by a tall skinny man in his mid-fifties whose hair only had a tint of grey. He came over and introduced himself.
"My name is Dr. Stone. I assume you are Mr. McKinney?" He said taking Mulder's arm in a friendly way.
Mulder shook his head even though he knew he would be considered crazy for saying what he did next, "No actually there seems to be a lack communication here. See, my name is Fox Mulder and I'm an agent with Federal Bureau of Investigation."
Dr. Stone listened to Mulder and shook his head to show that he understood. "Okay we can talk about that later. Right now let's get you settled in."
As Dr. Stone walked Mulder into another door that read 'MENS DORMATORY'. Several patients sat a table watching. They had snickers on their faces and cards in their hands.
One of the women, Margie the Gypsy they called her, leaned forward to talk secretively. "Here that? The new fish says he's an FBI Agent."
One of the other patients, a man in his late thirties with red hair, looked at Margie. "I couldn't hear him say anything. How do you know he said that?"
Margie looked at him. "Because, Red, I can read lips."
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