Scully stared at the white ceiling, her head bedded on her arms. She had kicked off her shoes and felt her toes going numb with coldness. She didn't care. She was busy staring holes into the wall. So it seemed. Her body was stiff from laying in the same position for two hours now and so tired it almost hurt. Her eyes burned, her nerves prickled, but she willed herself to keep on staring. Thinking, feeling the dog's soft fur caress the bare skin of her left arm and fighting a useless battle with herself.

The Gunmen were sleeping next door. It had taken her more than an hour to convince them to take their long needed rest. Though they had looked like they would fall asleep while standing and talking to her, they had insisted on keeping her company.

" You've got to help Mulder make things right." she had said. " There's no need to entertain me. There's nothing we can do right now. I'll take care of myself. I've got my gun. And the dog."

Now she could hear one of them snore, it sounded like Byers. It made her smile despite herself. All she really wanted to do was to scream and throw stuff against the wall. She felt helpless and Scully hated feeling out of control. Things that defied her control scared her though she would have never admitted it. And now staying awake was the only thing she was in power of.

The dog shifted his position, scratching himself and then looked at her with Mulder's hazel eyes. Scully sighed. She missed him terribly. He was there, somewhere. She wondered if he had felt the same way during the day. Terribly frustrated by the fact that his partner was so close but so unreachably far away.

She turned to her side until her cheek rested on his back. Her hand dug through the black and white furr and she felt tears well up in her eyes. Why had they gone to that military complex anyway? Now when looking back at that evening she could just shake her head in frustration. They should have known, should have learned from the past - abandoned complexes were rarely ever really abandoned. Sometimes she wondered if Mulder and her had the word 'Trouble' tatooed on their foreheads.

Her lids grew heavy and she shuddered as she pulled herself out of thoughts that were already across the borderline of sleep.

Somebody had called Mulder, somebody who must have known about their little trip - she remembered and never realized that that was the last coherent sentence her brain formed before she lost the battle and fell asleep.

* * *

The sun tickled his nose as Mulder stirred awake. He rubbed his itching face and turned around. Something shrieked and he jumped up, his sleep befuddled brain not immediately registering what was wrong. An orange furrball lept from the bed and it took him a few seconds to order his thoughts.

He heard noises from the other room and before he had a chance to react, the connection door flew open and the three Gunmen entered the room.
" What's wrong?"
" Is anybody hurt?"
" Are you alright?"

They all screamed at once. Mulder grimaced and lifted one hand to silence them and the other to hold his aching head.
" I'm fine. I think I just accidentally laid on the cat."

His eyes widened as he realized what he had just said and he immediately hunched down next to the bed under which the cat had vanished. It sat there in the corner, eyes sparkeling in the dark.

" I'm sorry..." he whispered but the cat just glared at him.
" C'mon, don't be sulky, I didn't do it on purpose."

The cat didn't move, so he just shrugged his shoulders and sat up.

" Dude, go and take a shower, you look like you could need one..." Langley said pointing at Mulder's messy hair, his stubble and his worn out face.

The agent just nodded.
" I need to call Skinner."

His friends nooded and handed him his bag.
They tried to look as enthusiastic as possible, but that look vanished as soon as Mulder had closed the door to the bathroom.
The Gunmen had NO idea about how to get their friends out of this mess.

A minute after Mulder had entered the bathroom his cellphone rang. The agent immediately jumped out of the shower, his body dripping water over the tiles. He didn't even care for a towel, just grabbed the phone, hit the button and answered out of breath:

" Mulder."

A now familiar voice responded.
"Agent Mulder. Up and about?"

-TBC-

Feedback pleeeeease, I'm begging you!!!

Dana42: Yeah, wouldn't that be awesome. In the office....Mulder talking about a weird case...Scully being annoyed....Mulder continuing....Scully getting all hysterical...SIT AND SHUT UP....lol. If I ever had a male dog I would definitely call it Spooky :D Mulder is such a dog person, lol!

There'll be more action in the next chapters, I promise!!!