"Don't screw this up Agent. I'm handing you this assignment because the agents assigned to this investigation specifically asked for your expertise."
Kersh had sounded put out, which was not unusual for him, when dealing with the either one of the Agents formerly in charge of the X-Files division.
"I won't, sir."
"Personally I'm not very impressed with those credentials, but there's no one else available. That's the only reason I'm going to approve their request."
"I understand."
"I expect you back the day after tomorrow. Keep it by the book or you'll be out of a job, do I make myself clear!"
"Yes, sir."
And just like that he'd handed over a case which screamed bizarre and unexplained phenomena, to the trained eye and ear that is.
The thought of going out and investigating an actual, honest to goodness, real life case, was tantalizing, invigorating, and Dana Scully felt a surge of adrenaline that had been too long absent. Even so, she made her way to her partner's desk in the bullpen with a heavy heart. Kersh had expressly forbidden her to take Mulder along on this assignment and, even though she'd be gone only a couple of days, and the assignment amounted to nothing more than a forensic consult, she knew he would take being left behind badly.
On her way to the bullpen, Scully was stopped half a dozen times by colleagues wanting to consult her or just chat but she just threw a perfunctory greeting their way and steamrolled on to Mulder's desk. Ever since they'd been taken off the X-Files her FBI colleagues had taken to talking to her again. Perhaps it had been her refusal to quit after the fiasco in the Antarctic; perhaps it had to do with her insistence on getting back to the job at hand as soon as she'd recovered, even if it was background checks and investigating big piles of manure. Whatever it was, Ms. Spooky had suddenly been accepted back into the FBI fold.
As or Spooky himself, that was another matter. He was far too out there and had been for far too long to ever be recognized for the brilliant agent he was. The multitudes at the Hoover building were never going to give him the credit he deserved, let alone accept him back into their midst. But he'd at least gained a measure of respect for going to the ends of the earth to find her; such dedication to one's partner was applauded, even if it was between the kooks in the basement.
Scully shook her head and quickened her steps, hopping onto the elevator just as the doors started to close. She was impatient to show the file to Mulder and at the same time unsure how to tell him she was going it alone on this one. He was either going to blow up or take the news with a noncommittal frown, she wasn't sure which, and that vexed her more than she was willing to admit. They had been so at odds lately that she felt more than a little out of tune with him. Maybe some time apart would do them both good.
She still hadn't made up her mind how to best break the news to him when the elevator dinged and she stepped onto their floor. As she passed her desk, she grabbed a printout from her in tray and shoved it in the file she was holding then plopped into the chair opposite Mulder, slapped the file down on his desk and leaned back in her chair, crossing her legs.
"What's this?" He propped his feet on his desk and cocked an inquisitive eyebrow.
She didn't reply and instead shoved his feet off the desk, telling him with an impatient lift of her eyebrow that they were no longer in the basement and some pretence at decorum would have to be maintained. He grinned and picked up a yellow pencil, started twiddling with it, but he kept his feet firmly planted on the ground.
Satisfied, Scully leaned over, opened the file and showed him a picture of a man and a woman, both deceased, both already half decomposed. They were lying in a clearing, clutching each other as though they'd just lain down for a nap.
"They're dead," he said.
"I noticed that, what else?"
"They have been for some time, apparently." He closed the file and looked up at her. "Why are we investigating this?"
"You don't think this is worth investigating?" She skirted around the obvious question, trying to decide how best to break the news that she was being sent without him.
Mulder leaned back, regarding her through narrowed
eyes. Something wasn't right, she was hiding something from him and not doing a very good job of it. She was the worst liar he knew, one of the many things that endeared her to him. He decided to play along, taking her usual stance since she'd obviously usurped his.
"Well it's pretty clear what happened. She used pills, the bottle is beside her. There's no sign of a struggle. He has the razor still in his hand. It looks like a simple murder suicide that wasn't discovered until some time after the fact, sad but hardly a job for the FBI."
"You would think that, wouldn't you? That's what the local Sheriff concluded as well."
"And?" He tapped the pencil against his knee, waited her out.
"There's something odd here though," she said, leaning back again, folding her arms, her eyebrow cocked, a perfect question mark.
He was becoming impatient but managed to hide it with a grin and a raised eyebrow. "Do tell."
"Well, as you observed so accurately, these people appear to have been dead for quite some time." She leaned back and laced her fingers together, her posture utterly relaxed.
"Would 'appear to have been' be the operative phrase here Scully?" The yellow pencil drummed out a tattoo against his knee.
"I think so, yes." She leaned forward and opened the file again, handed him more crime scene photo's.
His chair made a small groaning noise as he set it back down on all fours and studied them.
"Hmmm. Strange." He looked up at her in surprise. "My guess would be they've been dead for weeks, possibly months, yet their clothing is good as new, that's weird, though I suppose if it'd been a murder, their killer could have dressed them up."
"Possibly," she said.
"But he would have smudged the fabric beyond repair, seeing as they're in such an advanced stage of decomposition." He leaned back again, taking the file with him. Balancing the chair on two legs, he regarded her with a twinkle in his eye.
"Yes?" She drew the syllable out; her eyebrow curved upward, a perfect question mark. "And?"
He peered down at the file again, what there was of it. An autopsy report, a couple of tickets, one from a gas station, another one from a convenience store where they'd apparently stocked up on provisions. No drivers licence, nothing that revealed their names or where they came from. They had had a scant fifty dollars between them, and both carried a picture of the same young girl with them. In one photograph, she was riding a bike, flashing a big, gap toothed smile at whoever had taken the picture, in another she was sitting on a swing, posing for the camera.
Mulder studied the photographs, glanced down to see what, in all probability, had been the couples last purchases. "Whoa!" His chair banged down on all four legs again. "That can't be correct. The date on this," he waved the piece of paper in her face, " it's only 4 days ago?"
"Yeah."
"So if they bought this stuff 4 days ago, how can they be that far gone?"
"Nobody knows, but that's why they put the I…"
"In the FBI, yeah, yeah." He smiled at the memory of their first meeting, a throwback to happier, more innocent times. He felt some of the tension that had existed between them these past weeks evaporate. "But why us? I thought we were on shit detail?" He was genuinely curious.
"Not us exactly, me." Scully said. Mulder surged out of his chair, indignation and something else – fear?- radiating off of him in waves. She put a steadying hand out, touched his arm. "Don't worry, it's only a consultation. They're not teaming me up with anyone else, I'm only going down there to have a look at the bodies, give a second opinion."
He sat down again with a disgruntled sigh. "Why you?"
She remained silent for a beat and looked at him askance. "Apparently I have a bit of a reputation."
"You have a reputation?"
"Yeah. Unexplained cause of death, weird bodies, I'm your girl."
He guffawed and just like that they were back again, though it was hard to say what exactly had brought about the change, they could both feel it. Like a radio crackling to life after a minute nudge against the antenna, a reboot, the code of what they were scrolling across once more, a feeling like coming home. "Ha!" Mulder's eyes twinkled with suppressed mirth. "Me, monster boy, you, bizarre autopsy girl. We're a matched pair."
Scully smiled, a full fledged smile, teeth and all."We have been for years, Mulder."
She turned around and headed for the door, leaving him flabbergasted. He caught op with her at the elevator.
"I still don't understand why they would let you near this. I mean, apart from your expertise, I don't see why they would let either one of us within a 100 mile radius of this case, it screams X-File."
"Well." She hesitated for a second and he could swear he saw her blushing a bit. "Maybe Kersh didn't have all the info we do."
"Scully?" He sounded delighted.
She shrugged, turned her back to him, pushed the elevator button. "Maybe I saw this case coming in and it intrigued me enough to do some digging." She looked back at him over her shoulder, eyebrow raised as if to challenge him. "Maybe I asked for those receipts to be faxed to me and nobody else has possession of them as yet."
"Thus nobody knows how long they've been out there, or rather, how not so very long."
"Hmm."
"But how did you intercept the case in the first place?" The elevator doors dinged open and he put his foot between the doors to stay them.
"Can't tell you that without having to shoot you, suffice to say it was courtesy of three gentlemen we both know."
"The guys provided you with access to Kersh's computer?"
"Of course not, that would be highly illegal," she said with a twinkle in her eyes.
He burst out laughing.
Scully smiled at his unaccustomed display of mirth. "I wanted to keep an eye out should anything pertinent come up."
He knew full well what she meant, pertinent to the conspiracy they had been working so hard to uncover, to Samantha. Mulder once again thanked whoever it had been that had sent Scully his way.
"Ooh, Scully. A walk on the wild side."
"Not wild, cautious."
"Good. That's a good thing to be while you're out there as well," he said. His face was set in a concerned frown. "I know it's just a consultation but that doesn't mean I have to like being left behind. Keep me in the loop. I'll do some digging of my own from down here."
"I will, and for the record, I don't like being sent out without my partner to watch my back anymore than he likes not being able to watch my back." She waved the file at him. "There's one other thing about this case that will probably intrigue nobody but us." She relished the last word and the way his frown relaxed when she uttered it.
"There's more?"
"Yeah." She stepped into the elevator, pushed the button for the basement. "The clearing the couple was found in?" His face was a question mark only she was able to read well enough to decipher. "Look up the location, I think it'll pique your interest."
He scrolled through the file in his mind, straining to put the pieces together, his face scrunched up like yesterday's newspaper. Then he had it. With a flash of insight he made the connection just as the doors closed.
"Scully?"