Mulder knocked for several minutes on Dr. Rickman's door, but there was no reply.
"Can I help you?" A nurse from an adjoining room poked her head inside the doorway.
"We need to speak to Dr. Alan Rickman...is he in some other part of the building?"
The nurses face changed, showing a more genuine interest. " I'm sorry sir. The doctor passed away this weekend."
"He's dead?" Mulder cried, "How?"
" I'm afraid he suffered a heart attack." The nurse answered in a low, soothing voice. "He died peacefully, in his sleep."
" Heart attack?" Mulder said, his voice was thick with suspicion.
Scully placed a soothing hand on his shoulder. " Ms...?"
"Cranson."
"Ms. Cranson," Scully decided to try a calmer, more professional approach," I'm FBI Agent Dana Scully and this is Fox Mulder. We're
investigating a case which concerns Dr. Rickman. I know that this is inconvenient for you, but its very important that we be allowed to examine his body and personal effects."
"Oh dear...I'm afraid that won't be possible." Nurse Cranson looked away ," His daughter came in Sunday morning and collected his things. Men came for his body from the crematorium today."
"Do you have any way we can reach his daughter?" Scully pressed. "Or information on the funeral home that was handling arrangements?"
Ms. Cranson looked helpless."I don't know. He wasn't close with his family...we didn't know he had any until today- no pictures or anything...I can check, though."
"Please do."
The nurse skittered away and Scully turned toward Mulder. His face was stormy." As if she's going to find anything. They killed him Scully."
" It could just be a coincidence."
" A coincidence? A coincidence that he mailed the disk to me hours before he died. He told us Friday that our visit had sealed his fate. Somebody followed us here Scully. He knew it. He-"
The trill of Mulder's cell phone cut off his final sentence.
" Hello?" he snapped into the phone.
"Agent Mulder?" a feminine voice inquired.
"Who is this?" he demanded.
" I'm sorry," the voice hesitated, "This is Katy Krycek...is this a bad time?"
"Oh...no..." the hostility in his voice disappeared. " I'm sorry. I was...in the middle of something...I can talk though" he added quickly, " Did you have something you wanted to tell me?"
Katy Krycek he mouthed to Scully by way of explanation.
"Yes...but..." she hesitated again." I'd rather not discuss it over the phone. Perhaps we could meet somewhere?"
"I'll pick you up at seven." Mulder said quickly as he noticed Nurse Cranson returning." We can go someplace...safe to talk."
"Will Agent Scully be there too?" Say no, her voice seemed to beg.
Mulder was surprised by the question. "She doesn't have to be."
Scully and the nurse were talking now, but he couldn't make out what they were saying and pay attention to Katy at the same time." Seven o'clock then?"
"Seven o'clock."
Mulder turned off his cell phone just as Ms. Cranson was walking away.
"I'm afraid your gut feeling was right. She couldn't find any record of Dr. Rickman's family. I got a description of the daughter, but without any leads I don't think its going to help much."
Mulder nodded, as if it were no more than he suspected.
"What was that phone call about?"
"Well, we're making progress in one area at least. Katy Krycek has decided to talk. I meeting her tonight."
"You are meeting her…?" Scully spoke the first word with emphasis. "I'm not invited?"
" C'mon Scully, you were pretty short with her Friday. I just think she'd be more comfortable talking to me alone."
" Oh, I don't think you'd mind making her a little more than just comfortable." Scully grumbled." Just remember if you're tempted- you're taking seconds off your sworn enemy."
Mulder was met at Katy's door by a chubby bleach-blonde teenager who eyed him with appreciation.
"Mrs. Krycek, he's here!" the girl bellowed up the stairs.
"I'll be down in a minute," Katya's voice called back.
The teen stepped aside from the doorway and Mulder stepped into the front hall. Aimlessly, he wandered to a nearby table and began to examine a group of photographs that were on display. One was a copy of the family photo he had found among Alex's belongings. There was a wedding picture, Nick as a baby, vacation snapshots...Mulder's eyes seized on a picture in the back of the grouping and he gasped aloud. In a small, shell rimmed framed was a photo of the entire family on the beach. It was the same sky...the same water...for an instant the faces blurred.
"Sorry you had to wait."
Katy's voice took Mulder by surprise. He spun around. A guilty expression was splashed across his features.
"Oh...no problem, I was just...uh..." he reached for words.
"Looking at the pictures?" Katy finished for him.
"Yeah." He grabbed the one closest at hand, a black-and-white photograph from the Krycek's wedding." I was just thinking that flower wreaths are a good look for Alex."
A look of annoyance flashed across Katya's features, but it was quickly suppressed. She plucked the photo from Mulder's hand and replaced it on the table.
"Those are laurel leaves" she said in a tone that he couldn't read. Was she amused? Exasperated?," We're Eastern Orthodox," she offered by way of explanation. She fussed with the arrangement on the table a moment before turning back around.
For the first time, Mulder noticed how good she looked. She was wearing a sleek sleeveless black dress. The length was conservative, but the neckline was daringly low. Her breasts were cradled in triangles of sheer black netting lined with a champagne-colored silk that tapered into a haltertop around her neck.
"I've overdressed." She said, noticing that he was staring at her,"I'll change."
"No!" Mulder said quickly, embarrassed that she had caught him staring."It's fine."
Katy nodded and picked up her purse. "Amy, I'm leaving." She called into the TV room."My cell phone and the pediatrician's number are by the phone."
"Mom!I don't need a baby-sitter!" Nick's angry but sleepy voice chimed in.
"Goodnight Nick." She said, ignoring his protests. She turned toward Mulder, " Shall we?"
Mulder took Katya to a noisy restaurant in Chinatown. It was busy and dark- the perfect place to go unnoticed. They chitchatted for a while. Katy seemed to be settling into a level of comfort before sharing with Mulder the reason she called. He patiently answered her questions about work, and artfully dodged those about his family.
"That's about all of me there is to know." He said, cutting of another polite but somehow unsettling question about his past. "What about you?"
"Not much to tell." She seemed uncomfortable talking about herself. "I work at Georgetown University-I teach Russian classes right now while I finish up a Ph.D. in linguistics."
"A Ph.D., huh?" Mulder asked, impressed," How'd a smart girl like you end up with a rat like Alex Krycek?"
He regretted the words as soon as they were uttered. In a heartbeat, Katy's face clouded over, he bright smile replaced with a scowl.
"Alex isn't the kind of person the FBI says he is." She said defensively.
Yeah, right. Mulder thought.
"He's...brave and honest...and loyal..."
Not the three adjectives I would have picked, Mulder thought to himself, but said instead:" Yeah, so loyal he dumped you and your kid for a quick buck."
Katy didn't answer in words. She rose out of her chair and grabbed her coat." I'm sorry, Agent Mulder." She said after taking a moment to regain her calm. "I was mistaken. I don't think I have anything to say to you after all."
"Katy!" Mulder threw some money on the table and followed her into the D.C. night. He caught her wrist just as a cab she had hailed pulled up.
"Jefferson Memorial." He told the driver before she had a chance to protest. "Katy, I'm sorry."
She ignored him. The drive was one of stony silence, but by the time they arrived he could tell by her expression that her anger was beginning to cool.
"You just don't know Alex like I do." She said, as they began a walk around the Tidal Basin." No one does..." her voice trailed off.
"Tell me." he said, more interested in soothing her than hearing about Alex.
"I..."she stopped, as if thinking better of it, but finally gave in: " I knew Alex all my life. We lived in the same neighborhood near M Street in D.C.-same church, same school- our fathers worked together. We weren't really friends. Alex was in…well kind of a different crowd, I guess. We never really talked until that day..."
Katy turned toward Mulder." I guess you know about Alex's parents?"
"He said they were Cold War immigrants from Russia."
"Well, that's part of it." She lost herself in the memory once more."My father was too. They were scientist- otherwise they never would have been allowed to come. They defected in the early sixties. The Kryceks came together, but my married an American woman- my mother- and settled here in D.C…Everything was fine for a while. Alex and I were born. Our parents got their citizenship. But...well, my mother and father...they never really had a happy marriage. I think it was the culture difference. Mom was always so impatient with him. She didn't like his work...she didn't like living in Little Russia...anyway, she began to...well...think up stories. Somehow…she started a story that he was spying for the Soviets."
Was it really just a story? Mulder thought instantly, but had learned better than to ask the question out loud. "And?" he said instead.
"Well, you know how it was. People started asking questions..they didn't really need a lot of evidence, only a strong suspicion. ...I remember the night they came to arrest them..."
"Arrest them?"
"Well..." She reconsidered, "To collect them for deportation…it seemed like they were being arrested- only it was worse. If they were sent back to Russia… The punishment for defecting was...a quick death if you were lucky. They came to our house first. Mama must have known they were coming because she locked me upstairs in my room. I was maybe...fifteen."
Mulder could tell by her look that she knew exactly how old she had been- that no detail of that night would ever be erased.
"I climbed out of my window. For some reason crises always make you want to act so noble." she laughed sadly, "Anyway, I decided if I couldn't save Papa, I would save the Kryceks. I ran to their house... but it was too late. I found Alex in the kitchen- they were holding him until child services could come and get him."
"For a fifteen year old?"
"He was sixteen then- but they didn't have any other place to put him. His parents were the only family he had...So...we decided to run away."
She paused and managed a brave smile," The good thing about old world parents-good for us on that night, anyway- was that the Kryceks didn't trust banks very much. They had maybe two thousand dollars in a popsicle box in their freezer. We took it and started off…It seemed like an adventure at first. We weren't very careful with the money. We were concentrating on outsmarting the police- we were so sure every cop in the country was looking for us, " she paused for a moment and grinned at the memory. "We figured they'd look for us in D.C. and New York, so we went West. We went to zoos, theme parks...it was like vacation. I seemed like years, but I guess I was only about a week before our money ran out somewhere in Indianapolis."
"Then what did you do?"
Katy stopped by a park bench and stared out over the calm, black water. "We had just read Crime and Punishment in school- Have you ever read it?-and I have a very active imagination. Do you remember the older sister...the one who has to become a prostitute to feed her starving family?"
"I only read the Cliff Notes." Mulder apologized, momentarily distracted as he pondered the likelihood of anyone's imagination being piqued by that horrible plodding book.
" Anyhow, It was me in a crisis again. I decided it would be noble to sell my body on the street to save Alex and I from starvation." She caught Mulder's amused smile,"You laugh now, but it made perfect sense at the time. The big problem was - I was a virgin." A smile had now begun to show on her lips as well. The absurdity of teenage logic too amusing to deny- even in such desperate circumstances.
"I can see where this is going."
"I thought prostitutes were supposed to...well...know how to do things. So, I convinced Alex to...uh...practice..."
"I'm sure you had to twist his arm." Mulder couldn't resist saying outloud. "Adolescent boys being, after all, so disinterested in sex."
"Not really." she admitted with a grin.
"So, how'd the life of crime go?"
"It didn't. They caught us when we checked out of the hotel. We put the room on my mother's credit card."
"Smart."
Katy shrugged,"My mom came and got me. They sent Alex away somewhere in Texas...I didn't see him for years. He wrote me, but mom intercepted all the letters."
"How long ago was this?"
"Ten, maybe eleven years ago."
"So Nick isn't Alex's son?"
She smiled again." Oh, yes -the legacy of our flight from justice...So...I'm making this story too long. Succinctly, Alex and I met up again four years later. He had been in the Army, and they sent him to D.C. to take some classes. He didn't even know that he had a son. He wanted to spend time with Nick, which meant he spent time with me, and so...we fell in love. I guess it was inevitable after what we went through together. No one else could ever understand what that does to a person."
Mulder nodded eager to get on with it. The story had been enlightening, but it was getting late.
"Why did you call me, Katy? What did you want to tell me?" he asked at last.
She bowed her head. "In the Army...Alex was selected for...special duties. I don't know the man's name, but he came to the house to talk to Alex a lot...Alex was planted in the FBI. He went through the same channels as everybody else, but he was working for those men."
"What was he doing for them?"
"I don't know. He couldn't tell me... he seemed...well, afraid." She bit her lip. "I saw him after he left."
"Who?"
"Alex…After he quit the FBI...he was living out west somewhere. He didn't want me to think that he had...he said they were trying to kill him. That if they came to talk to me...to ask me question...the only person I could trust was you."
Mulder was dumbstruck. "He said that you could trust me?"
She nodded, and then wrapped her arms around her own shoulders as if trying to curl into a tiny ball. "I'm afraid" she said in a thin, pained voice that made Mulder want to pull her into his arms.
After debating with himself for a moment he decided to level with
her, "Maybe you should be. That man I asked you about, ? He's dead. We went to talk to him after we left your house - someone must have followed us."
The fear in Katy's eyes grew. "You think Nick and I are in danger?"
"I depends on how much they think you know...You don't know anything else do you ,Katy? Keeping Alex's secrets...they aren't worth dying for."
She shook her head vigorously." No! Nothing else."She looked as if she were about to cry, "Please! Take me home!"
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay, sorry- I suck for not posting updates. I got distracted and…forgot. As I said, I wrote this story ages ago (literally half a lifetime- when I was EIGHTEEN, and I'm about to turn 36!), so it is finished…just prod me if I fall off the wagon again!