FBI Headquarters, Washington DC

March 7, 1992

Mulder wasn't happy. He resented his new assignment, resented everything that had happened in the past month. What's more, his new partner was late. Cautiously, he tried the door to her basement office, finding it unlocked. Sitting in the chair in front of her desk, he allowed his mind to wander, replaying the events of that morning…

"Agent Mulder, thank you for coming on such short notice. Please…" Scott Blevins gestured for him to sit down. "Are you familiar with an Agent named Dana Scully."

Mulder glanced around uneasily before answering. Three other agents seemed excessive for this meeting. Blevins, the agent sitting next to him, and a man standing in the corner with a cigarette between his lips. "Yes Sir. By reputation."

The corner of the smoking man's mouth twitched.

"What reputation?" Blevins asked.

"From working in Violent Crimes. She was recruited out of medical school to the FBI. They had a nickname for her in the academy. The Ice Queen."

"Did the two of you ever work together when you were assigned to Violent Crimes?"

"No sir."

The smoking man crossed, then uncrossed his legs, all the while leaning against the filing cabinet.

"Lately Agent Scully has reopened another division: The X Files. Are you familiar with them as well?"

"I believe they have something to do with unexplained phenomena."

"More or less. The reason you are here, Agent Mulder, is we want you to assist Agent Scully in these investigations. You will be expected to write field reports to us concerning your opinions on the validity of the work as well as Agent Scully's investigation procedures and any psychological observations you may have."

"Am I correct in understanding that you want me to profile Agent Scully?"

The smoking man took another drag from his cigarette.

"Agent Mulder, while we trust your profiling abilities in light of recent events I'm sure you can understand our wish to keep you out of Bureau mainstream projects for a while.

They were burying him. They wanted to hide him away after what had happened.

"It's this assignment or an unpaid suspension." Scott Blevins said. "Take your pick, Agent."

Mulder was roused back to reality by the sound of footsteps. Ah well, he thought, might as well make an entrance.

"Sorry, nobody down here but the FBI's most unwanted."

"Well I guess that makes two of us." his new partner replied, stepping into the room and approaching him with an outstretched hand. "Dana Scully."

"Fox Mulder. I've been assigned to work with you."

"I can't imagine this was your first choice of division, Agent Mulder."

"To say I had a choice in the matter would be a gross exaggeration."

"Imagine that." She threw him a wry smile.

"That doesn't mean I'm not looking forward to working with you. Your reputation precedes you, Mrs. Spooky. What I am interested in is what your background check turned up on me."

"Who says I ran a background check?" she asked.

"Either you did or you're not half as paranoid as they say."

"I had my guys run a quick check." She had guys? "Oxford-educated psychologist, " She looked up at him. "What happened? Who'd you piss off?"

"I took a long vacation." he mumbled.

She's hit a nerve, and he'd brushed it off, hoping she didn't notice. The same thing happened a few minutes later, when she asked if he believed in aliens, but when he said no he honestly couldn't tell if she saw how much the question bothered him.

Thoughts were running through his head, analysing every word out of her mouth. He was good at this. Profiling. Smart, assertive, and a little too determined to prove her own beliefs. There was a small smile on Mulder's face as he left the room, with a trip to Oregon planned for the next day. He wasn't sure why.

Bellefleur, Oregon

"I want you to look at something."

"Come on in." Mulder ushered his partner through the doorway, waiting for a sarcastic comment, a joke, from her mouth, his, anything to break the tension thick in the air.

Scully pulled off her robe, craning her neck to look at the marks.

"What are they? Mulder, what are they?"

"Mosquito bites." he replied, standing up.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah." He was pulled into an unexpected hug. "You're shaking." He couldn't help but pity her, just a little. She wanted his respect as badly as he wanted hers, and after jumping to such a conclusion with no evidence, she felt that she'd lost it.

She hadn't.

"I was fifteen. My sister was sixteen. The two of us were home alone one night and she… just disappeared. There was never any indication of what happened. Nothing to give us any hope."

"You never found her."

"There was talk… there was always talk about my sister. You know, parties, boys, that kind of thing. She was a little wild. But after she disappeared… people would say terrible things about her, that run away and… worse things. But I was there. That's not what happened." She shook her head. "I don't even know why I'm telling you all this. You must know this already; you're a part of that agenda."

Mulder kneeled on the floor, eyes level with her on the bed. "Scully, I'm not a part of any agenda. You've got to trust me."

"Mulder, listen." she said with increasing urgency. "In the memories recovered by my hypnosis, I know that that night my sister was taken I witnessed a bright light, and sensed a presence in the room. Mulder-"

"Hang on." he picked up the ringing phone. "What? Who is this?That was some woman… She just said Peggy O'Dell died."

Mulder's Apartment

11:21 AM

The thoughts were racing through his head and he couldn't stop them.

Not real not real not real. You've fallen for this twice already. Aliens aren't real. Ghosts aren't real. This stuff isn't real. It's just your mind playing tricks on you.

Who could possibly be calling him at this hour?

He knew exactly who.

"Hello?"

"Mulder? It's me. I just got off the phone with the DA's office in Raymond County. There's no case file on Billy Miles. All of the records are gone. There's no evidence of anything."

"Scully, can we do this tomorrow?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry, I didn't think- I forgot you might be asleep. I just wanted to say…" she trailed off.

"Scully?"

"I'm always around, if you need me. Or if you want to talk. Okay?"

"Okay."

She smiled. Different apartments, across a city, he could sense a smile.

He was a genius profiler. His intuition about emotion was impeccable.

Or maybe she was just special.