A/N: Thanks for the reviews. I love reading what people think of my fics :)

September 30, 2014

7:57am

Mulder was once again sitting out the front of his house spying on Botch. The school bus had been and gone when Scully flew out of the house, her school bag swinging along behind her.

"You've missed it," he called out stopping her in tracks.

"Shit!" Scully mumbled.

No one else was home. Her mother had left really early that morning to visit her father who only had a day's leave out of town, Charlie had been staying at a friend's house and Melissa was on an overnight field trip. If she called Bill to come and get her and drive her to school she'd still be late plus she'd never hear the end of it from him.

Mulder was still watching her, amusement evident in his expression.

"Need a ride?" he asked, taking pity.

"Yes please," replied Scully not really seeing any other option. "But I don't want to put you out."

"Na, it's not a problem," said Mulder shrugging, there was nothing happening across the road, just like there hadn't been since he'd gotten there. He could afford to get Scully to school on time.

"Buckle up," he said as he started the engine and started reversing out of the driveway.

He looked out the rear window to see Botch reversing out of his own driveway at the same time.

"Son of a..." Mulder murmured watching in disbelief. How could this be happening? He couldn't blow his cover but he couldn't miss this opportunity to tail Botch either. It'd been weeks and this was the first sign of activity so far. God knows when the next time would be.

"Is everything okay?" asked Scully looking at him expectantly.

"Yeah, it's fine," Mulder replied absentmindedly as he put his foot down and reversed out onto the street swinging the car around and taking off after Botch. He couldn't let him get away.

"Whoa," said Scully nervously. "I won't be that late."

Mulder wasn't really listening. He was concentrating on catching up with Botch.

Mulder took a turn and tried to gain on Botch, he seemed to be in a hurry. He sped along, changing lanes to get closer.

"Ah, this isn't the way to school," said Scully even more nervously. For the first time she wondered if her sister was right about their neighbor.

Mulder was still looking intently ahead of them, his eyes narrowed, as they came to a stop at some lights.

"You should be in the other lane," Scully pointed out.

Finally Mulder snapped back to the reality that he had a sixteen year school girl riding shotgun while he tailed the suspected serial killer that happened to live across the road from her, he looked over at her and was a little shocked to see her startling blue eyes wide with fear.

The lights changed and the car in front of Mulder was slow to take off, in the meanwhile he lost sight of Botch.

"Dammit!" he said hitting the steering wheel with the palm of his hand.

Scully edged away from him in her seat. This had gone far enough. He'd lost Botch and in the process scared the shit out of Scully, ultimately achieving nothing.

"Sorry," he said softly. "Which way is the school again?"

"Left at the next lights," Scully squeaked.

Mulder threw her a smile and she seemed to relax a bit.

"Sorry," he repeated before inventing; "I just remember there's somewhere I've got to be."

"Sorry," said Scully looking down.

"It not important," Mulder said. "Not as important as getting you to school on time."

Scully looked up and smiled.

Mulder returned it as he took a left.

"Six blocks up on the right," said Scully, making sure he knew exactly where he was going.

"Hey how's that rat of yours?" asked Mulder, trying the ease the tension although it was pretty much non-existent now.

"He's fine, thanks!" said Scully grinning. "You know I always thought he looked a bit like a fox," she lied, teasing him.

"Hey! You can walk the rest of the way, you know!" he responded.

"It'd probably be safer," said Scully throwing a sidelong glance at him and smirking.

"You're probably right," he laughed pulling over behind the school bus that had just arrived itself.

"Thanks Fox," said Scully once they'd come to a complete stop.

"Later Scully," he said as she got out and closed the door behind her.

She waved at him through the window giving him one of her infectious smiles that he couldn't help but return.

"Who was that Dana? Your boyfriend?" teased one of the other kids as they ran past.

I wish, thought Scully before she could stop herself. Wait! What?

Yeah, sure, maybe she had a bit of a crush on him because he was hot but did she really wish he was her boyfriend? The idea wasn't altogether bad.

The bell sounded indicating the start of the school day and Scully was forced to forget about Fox and get on with her day.

XXX

Mulder pulled back into his driveway and flew out of the car. He ran inside to grab some stuff before running across the road. If he couldn't follow Botch he'd at least see if he could poke around the house while it was empty. He knew he wasn't technically supposed to trespass but he just needed to see if he could find something that might point him in the right direction.

When he got to the front gate he noticed that the garden was ridiculously well kept. He went around the side and found a side door into the garage; locked of course but that wouldn't stop Mulder. He picked the lock with ease and pushed the door. It was hard to push as if something was blocking the way. Mulder put his shoulder against the door and gave it a good hard push; it opened enough to allow him to slip in. It was dark and musty. Mulder pulled out a torch and turned it on. It looked like a scene out of one of those shows about hoarders. It was messy and haphazard and certainly didn't match the meticulously kept garden out front. There was a weird smell. As Mulder shone the torch around he stopped and rested the beam of light on a chilling sight; a meat band saw stood in the middle of the garage, its blade glinted under the torchlight in a disturbing way. Mulder didn't want to think about what that was for but he had a pretty good idea. He shuddered as he approached. He leaned in close and could see meat still clung to part of the blade. Pulling an evidence bag from his pocket Mulder scraped some of the dried meat into it. Despite having worked in the Violent Crime Section for a while now and having written numerous profiles of the same kind of sicko that Botch was it was still a bit confronting to be facing it head on. Mulder took a few photos for later scrutiny and then got the hell out of there. The last thing he needed was to be charged with break and enter.

Once back in the supposed safety of his own house Mulder let out a sigh of relief. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed the Bureau's forensics department. He had something that required urgent analysis.

A/N: Thanks for reading. Please review.