No Infrigment bla bla bla bla ...

Chapter 6

Monday morning

"Ouch" Scully moaned as she rolled over on her side. The skin on her back and legs was on fire from the sunburn she had suffered on Sunday. Nester had invited the two of them for a day on his sister's boat. Clear blue skies and temperatures in the low eighties made it a hard offer to pass up, so she and Mulder had packed up the Jeep and headed to the bay.

Scully had slathered on the sun block multiple times, but her fair skin, red hair and blue eyes made her a magnet for the rays. Between swimming, sweating and just lounging around, she still managed to earn herself a pretty raw burn. She kept denying the severity of it, telling herself it didn't hurt, but after suffering all night, she was now paying the price.

Not only were her legs and back on fire, but the skin felt taut and her muscles ached. Despite that, she felt like she was burning up and could feel the heat radiating from her skin. She was feverish and chilled. It was obviously heat exhaustion. She was also beginning to wonder if she had an intestinal virus as well. She had all the classic symptoms: nausea, aches, and a searing headache.

"Mulder," she moaned as she pushed herself into a sitting position on the bed. She wrapped the sheet around her limbs for warmth and moments later pushed it off. She was restless and uncomfortable. "Mul…" she started to whine when she saw him breeze through the door with a large glass of water.

"Relax, Scully," he said calmly seeing the distressed expression on her face. "I was gone less than five minutes." He set the water on the nightstand and held the thermometer in his hand. "Are you going to be cooperative or am I going to have to manhandle you to use this?"

Scully rolled her eyes and looked at him in disgust. "Like you would even try to stick that digital thermometer up my butt," she scowled. "God... just shove it in my mouth and get it over with!" She opened her mouth and waited in anticipation of the medical instrument.

"Scully! Dear Diary, today Scully talked dirty to me," Mulder chuckled as he put the thermometer in her mouth and watched her close her lips around it. He plumped up the pillows behind her and walked into the bathroom to get a bottle of Tylenol.

Scully smiled weakly as she realized the innuendo and slumped on her side against the pillows staring blankly at the nightstand. She caught sight of Mulder as he walked back toward the bed with the Tylenol in his hand. The device beeped after a minute and he reached over to pull it out of her mouth.

Mulder stared at the small digital display and furrowed his eyebrows.

"What's the verdict?" Scully mumbled as she pulled the sheet around her chest.

He looked down at her and noticed she was trembling. "100.1," he said as he sat down on the bed. He flipped the lid of the Tylenol and dumped two pills into his hand. He reached over for the water and handed her the pills. "Here, take these. They'll help with your fever."

"Okay, Dr. Mulder," Scully chuckled as she leaned taking the pills and water from him. She swallowed half the glass and then handed it back to Mulder. "I feel like crap," she mumbled lying back against the pillow.

"Really?" Mulder replied. "I wonder what the real culprit is … the sunburn or …"

Scully held her hand up to silence him. "Stop." She felt the tell-tale lurch in her stomach and knew the water was on its way out. She put a hand over her stomach and started breathing like she was in labor to try to settle the cramping. It didn't work.

Mulder chuckled aloud and then noticed her face had lost its color and she was taking short shallow breaths. "Scully?" She's going to barf, he thought as he got out of her way. Not a moment too soon as Scully rolled off the side and made a bee line for the bathroom. Mulder winced as he heard the gagging coming from the other side of the wall. After a few minutes he heard the toilet flush and all was quiet in the bathroom.

He walked to the doorway and peered in. Scully was lying on the floor curled in the fetal position. He stepped over her and helped her to her feet and then walked her back to the bed.

"Mulder, I feel like crap," Scully whined as she settled down on her side.

"I get that," he replied. "You'll feel better later, I promise."

"Why is it that when I'm taking care of you, you are critically injured, but when you are taking care of me its for something dumb … like a sunburn or…"

"A hangover?"

"Ha, ha... not! I hardly had anything to drink. …I think it was the potato salad," she countered as he pulled the blanket over her chest.

Mulder laughed. "I ate the potato salad and I didn't get sick. Besides it doesn't take much in the hot sun.… you know that," he replied putting his hand on her forehead. Her skin was hot to his touch. "You're nauseous because you're dehydrated. You need to get some fluids in you." He walked into the bathroom and checked the medicine cabinet for something to calm her stomach. He spotted a box of Pepto Bismo tablets, pulled two packets out of it and the headed back to the bed with the packets and a towel. He sat down on the bed, ripped the packet open and handed it to her with the glass of water.

Scully stared at the glass and the pink tablets sitting in his hand. Just the thought of chewing the wintergreen flavored chalk tabs caused her to gag and she turned her head as her stomach lurched again.

"Ugh, Mulder," Scully protested putting her hand up to block him. "I can't, just thinking about chewing them is going to make me barf."

"Do you want me to go to the store and get the liquid instead?"

Scully gagged involuntarily at the thought of the thick pink liquid in her mouth. Mulder handed her the towel as she coughed and sat upright on the bed. She held her hand up, swallowed and took a couple of shallow breaths before she responded to him again. "No, then I will barf," she replied closing her eyes and willing her stomach to settle on it's own.

Mulder moved around on the bed so he was sitting behind her and handed her the pink tablets. "Come on," he said with a comforting tone to his voice. "You'll feel much better if you take these."

"Liar," Scully retorted. She relented only because she knew he was right. She took the tablets out of his hand and put them in her mouth, quickly breaking them up until she could swallow them. She drained the remaining water out of the glass and then leaned back into Mulder's embrace. Scully pulled the blanket around her shoulders for warmth and took shallow breaths as her stomach reacted to the medicine. She could feel Mulder stroking her hair comfortingly and relaxed as his heartbeat lulled her quietly to sleep.

Monday afternoon

The outdoor temperature was in the mid seventies, the sky was clear and the sun warmed the patio as Mulder stood just outside the sliding glass door soaking in the rays. He stood on the decorative cement slabs barefoot and looked at his backyard. What kind of freakin' system prohibits the use of lawn furniture? he thought as he stood there. You might as well live in a high rise apartment with no balcony in that case. He walked back into the house, grabbed the newspaper and dragged a bar stool out to the patio to sit on. Far be it for me to follow the rules, he thought defiantly as he settled onto the seat.

He was thoroughly engrossed in his reading and didn't hear the approach of the neighbor kid through the grass.

"Hey, Rob!"

The voice startled him and he jumped in his seat.

"Sorry, dude, I didn't mean to scare you," the kid said laughing at Mulder's reaction.

"Hey Ben, didn't anyone ever tell you not to sneak up on old people?" Mulder quipped folding up the paper. The thirteen year old brown haired boy was dressed in shorts, gym shoes and a t-shirt and was carrying a basketball. "Aren't you supposed to be in school?"

"No," Ben replied with a 'know it all' sarcastic tone. "I'm home schooled and I'm done. I'm going to the park to shoot hoops. Do you want to go?"

Mulder glanced back at the house and hesitated for a moment. Scully was sleeping and hadn't thrown up for over an hour. Every window on the lower level was open, letting the fresh air in, but what the heck. He mentally shrugged his shoulders. She's an adult, he thought as he stood up. "Yeah, sure. Just let me get some different shoes on," Mulder said slipping back into the house.

He emerged a few minutes later dressed in Knicks shorts, a Nike t-shirt and gym shoes. Together he and Ben made their way up the park. They played a few games of horse and one-on-one and then relaxed on the side of the court.

"So, you're home schooled, huh?" Mulder said breaking the ice to start the conversation. "That must be kinda lonely for ya around here during the day."

Ben shrugged his shoulders and rolled his head. "Kinda, I ride my bike a lot and go exploring. The rest of the kids get home around 3 and then I hang out with them up here."

"Exploring, huh?" Mulder questioned trying carefully not to be too obvious. "I go exploring a lot. Up in the mountains and in caves and stuff. Where do you go around here?"

Ben pointed to the far end of the subdivision that was still under construction. "Down there mostly, I used to go up here with my friend Zack, but …" he stopped abruptly and then bit his lip and then nervously looked away.

"But what?"

"He moved away," Ben looked at the ground and changed the subject. "Why don't you have a job?"

Mulder laughed and lay back on the grass. "Because I'm a big kid and I don't feel like working."

His answer made Ben laugh. "Well, what do you do all day?"

"Oh, I'm like you. I research stuff and explore," Mulder replied nonchalantly. "And hang out at the park with cool people." With a little coaxing, Mulder was able to get Ben to relax again, and after a few moments brought the conversation back around to the exploring topic again. He nonchalantly brought up the crawl space to see if Ben would say anything about it or Big Mike.

"You have a crawl space in your house?" Ben asked, zoning in on the bait like Mulder wanted.

"Yeah, don't all the houses?" Mulder replied casually..

"No, just a couple," Ben replied. "The lucky ones."

"What do you mean by that?"

"The houses with the crawl spaces are linked to the circle by tunnels," Ben blurted out. "There's cool stuff down there …like cars and…" Ben abruptly stopped talking and his eyes bugged out. He looked around nervously, pursing his lips.

"What's wrong?" Mulder asked, very aware that Ben had just told him a secret that he was not supposed to reveal. A secret that probably got his friend whacked, Mulder thought, remembering that the first missing person report was on a single mother and her ten year old son.

"Ahhh, nothing…. I gotta go." Ben swallowed hard and started to get up.

"Hey, why … did I say something wrong?" Mulder asked in a calming tone. "I won't tell anybody if it's supposed to be a secret," he said reassuringly.

Ben looked around nervously and then locked eyes with Mulder/Rob. There was something about this man that inspired his trust. The look in his eyes was that of a protector. Ben shrugged his shoulders and relaxed. "Please, don't say anything Rob. Please? It's supposed to be a secret," he whispered quickly. "I'm not supposed to know about it."

"Hey, it's okay," Mulder said softly watching Ben's face flush and his hands begin to shake. "I'm the new guy around here … nobody talks to me. I promise I won't say anything."

"I could get in big trouble, because that's where the monster lives," Ben whispered. "When they find out you know, the monster gets you," he added, his voice barely audible.

The screeching sound of the brakes on the school bus caught Ben's attention, and he turned his head to watch the neighborhood kids exiting the bus. The quiet park setting was overtaken by children laughing and yelling playfully in the background. Ben looked back at Mulder and stood up quickly. "I gotta go. You promise not to tell?"

Mulder sat up and gave him the Boy Scout sign across his chest. "Scouts honor. It'll be our secret, Ben." Mulder watched the boy run across the playground to meet up with his friends as they got off the school bus. He pushed himself up from the grass and headed back to his house via his neighbors' backyards. He walked slowly, like a man with no cares in the world, but he was far from that. Based on Ben's revelation, Mulder had a little exploring of his own to do.

Mulder dropped into the crawl space and scanned his surroundings with his flashlight. The area was bare, except for the blanket and pillow, just as it had been the last time he was down there. I wonder where Big Mike goes during the day? Mulder thought to himself as he crawled along the wall, inspecting each concrete slab carefully. It's not like he has a job. When he got to the corner of the wall, directly under the kitchen, he stopped and looked around the small room. He stared at the blanket lying on the floor and crawled over to examine it more closely. When he picked it up, he noticed it was covering a separate cement panel. He also found a very large footprint near the panel.

"Hmm, what do we have here?" Mulder muttered as he waved the flashlight beam over the panel.

The panel appeared to be like all the others in the basement, with one small difference. When Mulder tapped on it and the one next to it, the sounds were different. This one echoed a little, like nothing was behind it. Mulder put a little pressure on the panel and was intrigued to find that it moved slightly. He pushed the panel down a little harder this time and was surprised when the panel popped up. Like a jack in the box, he thought as he pulled the panel to the side.

He peered into the hole and moved the flashlight beam around to illuminate the sides. It appeared to be a tunnel, just as Ben said. Mulder put the flashlight in his mouth, braced his arms against the side of the opening and leaned into the hole, surveying the tunnel below. He could see sewer and water lines running along the top of the tunnel. Looks like someone took the liberty of expanding on what the city started, he thought as he prepared to drop himself through the opening. The opening was as big around as the standard manhole, allowing Mulder to drop through easily. He hit the ground on his feet and looked back up at the opening, calculating his exit later. The opening was just out of his reach, so he guessed he had dropped about eight feet to the ground. How the frick does Big Mike fit through that? I barely fit through it … and he's friggen' huge, Mulder thought as he scanned the opening, wall and floor with his light. When he had figured out his exit he turned to his left and followed the tunnel in the direction of Shroeder's house.

As the tunnel neared Shroeder's house it veered off and branched out to smaller tunnels. Mulder tried to follow one, but found that it narrowed to the point of being impassable. Mulder doubled back to the opening to try the tunnel the other way. When he neared the hole, the flashlight beam caught the edge of something which from a distance appeared to be a person.

Mulder did a double take. What the frick? he thought as he swept the light across the tunnel in front of him again. He stopped moving and stood still for a second, listening for movement. The silence of the tunnel was deafening, but Mulder's heartbeat pounded in his ear, amplified by his fear of what might be sharing the small space with him. He instinctively reached for his gun, only to discover that he hadn't brought it with him.

Mulder called 'uncle' first and crept quietly to the opening, still sweeping the tunnel for any movement in front and behind him. The feeling of a million eyes fell upon him and he jerked his head nervously. Why didn't I bring my gun with me? he wondered as he hastily stepped over to the opening. He made one final sweep of the tunnel before he made a leap, grabbed the edge of the hole he'd arrived through, found a foothold on the wall, and half-pulled, half-pushed himself back into the safety of his basement.

"Ouch!" Scully moaned as she rolled onto her back and looked up at the ceiling. She felt an odd sensation of déjà vu and turned her head to look at the alarm clock. The display read 5:30. Scully rubbed her eyes in disbelief. It's not really 5:30, I'm dreaming, she thought as she closed her eyes. There's no way I slept all day.

Scully had begun to doze off again when she heard the floor creak just outside her room. She looked over at the door just as it moved, as if someone had pulled it closed from the outside. She felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end and somehow just knew that something wasn't right.

"Rob?" she called as she sat up from the bed. There was no answer from the hallway, but as she sat quietly she was sure she heard a footfall on the stairs. Scully slowly crawled out of the bed and stepped over to the dresser. She pulled her gun from its holster and pulled the safety off. She crossed the room to the door and stood to the side as she inched it open.

The hallway was empty as she tilted her head and peered out from the doorway. She held her weapon in front of her body like a security blanket as she walked down the hallway to the spare bedroom and checked the second bathroom. The rooms were empty. She made her way back to the top of the stairs and stood quietly, listening for any noise.

"Rob?" she called again, looking over the railing. There was no answer. She swallowed hard and began her descent. She felt more confident than she had the other day. The cool black steel of her gun resting comfortably in her grip was reassuring to her, an extension of her ability to defend herself. At the landing Scully paused a moment and heard a loud thump. She felt her heart beating in her throat as she flattened herself against the wall, temporarily forgetting about her sunburn. The friction of the wall against her burn caused her to flinch and she leaned forward in pain and dropped her gun down to her waist.

"Ouch," she cursed under her breath. "Frick!"

"What are you doing out of bed, G-woman?"

Scully snapped upright bringing her gun to shoulder height and stared straight ahead at the voice. "Mulder! Geezus!" She put the gun down and relocked the safety. "You scared the crap out of me," she muttered.

He stood with his hands in the surrender pose in front of his face laughing at her reaction. When she put the gun down, he relaxed his hands.

"I don't know Laura. Saturday you tried to bat me in the head and today you want to shoot me … I'm going to start taking it personally," Mulder said, watching her carefully.

"Funny," she replied sarcastically. She looked up the stairs and shook her head. "I thought I heard someone in the hallway." She shuddered. "This place is giving me the creeps." She walked down the rest of the stairs and climbed into a bar stool, setting her gun on the breakfast bar.

"You're letting your imagination get the best of ya," Mulder asked her as he took a seat on the stool next to hers. "Feeling any better?"

"A little," she mumbled and looked over at him. "What did I miss today?"

"Nothing much," Mulder remarked. "I cut the grass and blew all the clippings onto the street. While I was trimming around the bushes in the backyard, I ran into Sissy Vesch. She gave me some aloe-vera to put on your burn."

"Hmm. Did she ask us to dinner again?" Scully asked.

"Yeah, tomorrow night if you're feeling up to it," Mulder replied, running his hand down her arm. He could still feel the heat radiating from her skin and leaned over to pick up a thermometer lying on the counter.

"That's fine. They seem like a nice normal couple," Scully replied as Mulder stuck the thermometer in her mouth.

"Oh, and the welcome wagon lady. Pat Berlander, stopped me on the way back from the park to see how things were going," Mulder arched his eyebrows.

"Nozee," Scully mumbled through her lips.

"Yeah, everybody is watching us," Mulder replied. In more ways than one, he thought to himself. He reflected on his visit to the "underground" and Ben's comments about cars and the "monster" being down there. He decided not to tell Scully about his discovery just yet. No reason to get her any more on edge. The next thing I know I'll wake up with a bullet in my chest, he thought as the thermometer beeped. He pulled it from her mouth, squinted at the display and then handed it to her.

"100.1." He bit his lip and ran his hand through her hair. "Are you hungry?" he asked trying to distract her from her temperature.

"Not really," Scully mumbled setting the thermometer on the counter. She leaned over to rest her arms and head on the cool granite.

"I have dinner in the oven," Mulder said not taking "no" for an answer. "How 'bout you take a cool shower, while I finish cooking and then I'll rub this cream all over your back?" He arched his eyebrows at her and gave her a sly smile.

"That's an offer I almost can't refuse," Scully replied looking up at him out of the corner of her eye.

Scully reluctantly went along with Mulder's proposal and staggered up the stairs to take his recommended cool shower. She reappeared in the kitchen 20 minutes later dressed in clean pajamas and looking slightly more refreshed.

"Madam? Your dinner is served," Mulder said, pretending to be the butler.

"You're a butler now?" she questioned as he walked her to the dinning table. After he settled her into a chair, he brought her a plate of baked chicken, mashed potatoes and carrots with a large glass of ice water.

"You made this?" Scully said as he set the plate in front of her.

"My mother's sure fire cure for the flu," he said proudly as he stood next to her.

Scully moved the food around on the plate with her fork and made a face. "I don't know if I can eat it. My stomach is still queasy," she said looking up at him.

"Just try," he said. "You need to eat something."

Scully looked over at him quizzically. "You are starting to sound like a parent, Rob," she said. "It's scaring me."

He leaned over and kissed her on the top of her head. "I'm just trying to be a good husband."

While Scully picked at her dinner, Mulder changed the sheets on their bed, ran the washer and cleaned up the bathroom. When he finished, he went downstairs to check on her progress with dinner and found her lying on the couch. Mulder ran his hand gently down her back to wake her.

"Hey," he said sitting down on the couch as she looked up at him. "The bedroom is cleaned up."

"Who are you? What did you do with my partner?" Scully questioned him. "You look like him, but you don't act like him. You're too domestic."

"Geezus, Nester was right," Mulder mumbled under his breath

"What's that supposed to mean?" Scully snapped at him.

Oh, the real Scully is inside there, whew, I was starting to get worried the heat had gone to her head, he thought as he laughed aloud. "Nothing, he just told me that you had a tendency to get delusional when you weren't feeling well."

"Delusional? You think I'm delusional?"

"Uh huh. And cranky," Mulder answered. He wagged a bottle of Tylenol in front of her face. "Take two of these and then I'll rub the lotion on your back."

"Ugh, I don't want anymore medicine."

"You need to take this. You still have a temperature."

"Mulder, no. I'm fine. I'm just sleepy," she argued.

"Scully, you're not fine," he replied firmly. "If your fever doesn't break in a couple of hours I'm going to take you to the doctor."

"You can't Mulder, you'll blow our cover," Scully countered.

"Not if I take you to the base."

"Mulder, I'll be fine," she said flatly pushing herself into a sitting position on the couch.

"You keep arguing with me like that, I'll call your brother over," Mulder retorted as he handed her the Tylenol and a glass of water.

Scully mulled over the comment and bit her lip. Call my brother? Was that a threat? She didn't want to find out. The thought of Bill, in his big brother mode, ganging up with Mulder against her wasn't a very pleasant thought. She reluctantly took the water from him and tossed the pills in her mouth.

Monday night

10:30 p.m.

Scully shuffled out of the bathroom after brushing her teeth and found Mulder lying on the bed.

"Scully, did you pick this mattress out?" he asked as he rolled around trying to get comfortable.

"Personally pick it out? I think I pointed to a mattress," she answered, crawling in next to him and pulling up her top so he could rub more aloe vera on her back. "Why?"

"Cuz it's as hard as rock," Mulder replied, squirting the lotion onto his hand. He rubbed his hands together to warm the liquid and then ran them the length of her back.

"You don't seem to have a problem sleeping on it," Scully mumbled as she relaxed under his gentle pressure. "A firm mattress is good for your back."

Mulder was silent as he massaged the cream into the red skin on her back. The heat was dissipating and her fever had finally broken. The last reading had been just 99 degrees. Despite the fact that she would never admit it, the dinner had done her good and her color was finally coming back. His mind raced back to the tunnels and Ben's comment about cars down there. He had more investigating to do, but it was all coming full circle, literally. He sighed and stopped rubbing Scully's back.

"Scully, remember what you said the other day about this place being built on a garage dump?"

"Yeah."

"Well, what if the Klines are still here," Mulder ventured, leading her to his new revelation.

"What do you mean … like buried in the yard?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I guess it's a possibility, but how are you going to investigate it?"

"Dig a hole."

Scully rolled her eyes at his sarcastic comments. "Well, duh! You think I'm stupid or something?"

"What?" he answered innocently.

"Mulder, the minute you bring in a forensic team, our cover is blown," she replied rolling over to face him.

"I'm sure there's a way around that," he replied flatly.

"How? It's not like you're going to find a secret passage to the underground in our basement," Scully scowled at him.

Mulder chuckled at the irony of her comment. Oh yeah? "Well, I wouldn't rule it out. How do you think Big Mike gets in and out of our basement?"

Scully shook her head. Men! "Mulder, Big Mike obviously gets in and out of our house via the garage door. He eats all the leftovers in the fridge… shhh. He probably eavesdrops on all our conversations and knows that we aren't who we say we are."

Mulder thought about it for a moment. That's how he knew the keypad code … he heard Scully and I talking about it. So our cover is probably already blown with him …. which is probably why he keeps protecting us and giving those hints about the rules … leading me to the truth. The truth is out there, just waiting for me to find it.

"Well, he better not eat the leftover chicken or I'll be really mad," Mulder said flatly.

TBC