Chapter One
Present day: Washington, DC - February, 1997...
"You have the right to remain silent..." Fox Mulder recited casually as he tightened handcuffs around the thick wrists of a tall, chubby man. His partner, Dana Scully, watched him from a distance, sipping from her cup of coffee while leaning against their police cruiser. She stifled a yawn, as Mulder shoved their suspect into a police car, and watched as the car drove away.
Scully turned in the direction of the run down house they had just arrested the guy from, and saw policemen lead three frightened women out of the house, all wrapped in police blankets. Scully felt a twinge of sympathy for those girls. She knew as an FBI agent, she was required to distance herself from any emotion, but still, after what that man had put those girls through...she didn't even want to think about it.
She noticed Mulder's presence immediately as he joined her, grabbing his own coffee from the inside of their car.
"It's stone cold." He pointed out, as he spilled the remaining contents in a nearby snowbank. He looked up at Scully, then toward the victims who were being offered hot coffee. "The guy'll probably get three consequetive life sentences for the three women he murdered, on top of the kidnaping charges he'll get for those three." He explained in a monotone voice. Scully only stared at him with one raised eyebrow. She didn't say a word. She didn't have to.
Mulder noticed her glare, and finally breathed out, spreading his arms wide.
"Okay, let's have it Scully." He said. Scully shook her head with a sigh.
"I simply want to point out that you were wrong, Mulder, again." She replied.
"Scully, you can't discount the fact that the evidence was leading toward-"
"Mulder, the evidence was not suggesting these women were being abducted by aliens." She pointed out flatly. Mulder just stared at her for a moment before his lips curled into a smile.
"With the evidence we had, it very well could have been." He said carefully. "Even you can't deny that." Scully gave a small nod.
"The evidence may not have had a scientific explanation for any of the events or situations that happened, but Mulder, that doesn't mean you can automatically assume supernatural abduction."
"Scully, I never assume anything. You should know that better than anyone else. Everything I theorize is based on cold, hard facts. The truth is out there, even if it does sound...weird." Mulder headed toward the passenger side of the car, rubbing his gloved hands for warmth. Scully sighed to herself, as she took one last look at the crime scene, distanced herself from it as she had been trained to do as an FBI agent, and lowered herself into the driver's side, getting a sideways smirk from her partner, Fox Mulder.
As they drove back to the office, Scully reflected on what Mulder had said back at the crime scene. You should know better than anyone else. Everything I theorize is based on cold, hard facts. Scully couldn't deny that. The past five years working with Mulder on X-File investigation had proven many times to threaten Scully's firm belief in scientific explanations and causes to everything. Every case Mulder and Scully had worked on together had caused arguments between the two partners. Mulder with his insistence in extra-terrestrial life, and Scully with her adament belief that everything required a logical explanation. Many cases remained unsolved, and Scully had to do her best to forget them, because thinking about them caused her to question science, and come close to believing Mulder's theory that there was more to this universe than what was tangible.
Despite the fact that the two partners disagreed on 90% of their cases, Scully admired Mulder a great deal, and respected him. She enjoyed working with him, and one day, she hoped, he would admit she had been right all along. There is always a scientific explanation.
Half an hour passed and they had arrived back at FBI headquarters. In the privacy of their dingy little basement office, Mulder seemed to become a whole new person. Stretching his arms over his head, Mulder let out a long yawn as he ripped his suit jacket off, revealing a white shirt and blue tie. It was Scully's favourite tie, in fact, she was pretty certain it was the tie she had gotten him for Christmas last year. She pretended not to notice.
Mulder lowered himself into his chair, as he grabbed a pencil and threw it at the roof. Scully rolled her eyes to herself as she sat down at her own desk, booting up her computer.
"What are you doing?" Mulder asked in a tired voice.
"Writing up the report for Skinner." Scully said as-a-matter-of-factly. Silence ensued, and soon all that could be heard was the tapping of Scully's fingers on her keyboard. Mulder wasn't talking, which was odd. It either meant he had fallen asleep, or he was staring at that poster again. Scully wondered to herself how many times he was going to stare at that poster. By now, he must have had it visually memorized.
Deceased victims: Jane Kresnon, 27; Trina Jones, 25; Leslie Monashin, 28. She typed.
"She's still out there, Scully." Mulder's voice pierced through the silence, and Scully nearly jumped out of her skin. She turned quickly in her chair to face him, and there he was, staring at his poster, and the school picture of a young girl that was beside it. His sister.
Scully didn't have to ask him who he was talking about. It plagued him every day of his life. The day his little sister mysteriously disappeared from her bedroom. Mulder claimed she was abducted by aliens, and that he had seen her floating from her bed, and the room was filled with lights before she was gone. Scully had never questioned him on it, but knew herself it made no logical sense, being that aliens didn't exist, but he had been obsessed about his sister's disappearance since the day she disappeared. Scully guessed that was how he got involved in the X-Files in the first place.
"They've still got her." Mulder said silently. Scully assumed he was talking about extra-terrestrials. Scully sighed to herself.
"Mulder, you don't know that." She said quietly. What else was she supposed to say? God, she felt for the guy. She understood perfectly what it was to have lost a sister. She quietly remembered Melissa, her older sister, unfairly taken from this world.
As though Mulder had read her mind, he turned in his own chair, and faced her.
"How's everyone been holding up?" He asked. Scully looked up.
"Sorry?" She asked.
"Your family. You know, since Melissa..." He didn't continue. He didn't have to. It was still fresh in everyone's mind. Melissa had been killed, the circumstances of her death were hardly easy to forget.
Scully shrugged as she looked back to her computer.
"Mom's been doing alright, keeping busy for the most part. I hardly talk to my brothers, but mom says they're doing fine, keeping up at work and with their families. Everyone's doing fine." She explained. Silence followed for only a moment before Mulder broke through a second time.
"But how have you been?" He asked.
Scully stopped. Mulder had never been one to hold back. He always asked Scully the difficult questions that often made her uncomfortable, but he never held back.
Scully turned and stared at him with a raised eyebrow and a sigh.
"Mulder, why are you asking me this? It's been two years since Melissa died. I'm fine." She turned back to her computer, and left Mulder to his own thoughts. But as she continued Skinner's report, she felt that familiar lump forming in her throat that threatened tears. God, she missed Melissa. Maybe she couldn't admit it to Mulder, but she couldn't deny herself the simple truth that she was not fine. Her sister was killed, she would never see her again.
Quickly pressing the memories to the back of her mind, she continued to type:
Victims found alive: Stacey Orissa, 24; Larissa Jasy, 29; Mona Furello, 26.
