p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"stronguspan lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Chapter 5/span/u/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"strongspan lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Crater Lake Lodge 8/13/1999/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"strongspan lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"5.30pm/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"On their way to the lodge to meet with Mulder's friend they discussed possibilities. When in profiler mode, Mulder normally doesn't share his thoughts that openly and Scully tried to ask him about it very carefully. "Mulder, can I ask you something?" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""Of course. Anything." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Scully glanced at him and took a cleansing breath to find the right tone for this. "I really appreciate your openness on that case, but this is normally the time that you ditch me and approach the case on your own, without sharing your thoughts and theories. Then I am very concerned about you because you also forget to take care of yourself, like not sleeping, not eating, surrounding yourself in crime scene images and definitely snapping at me or anyone crossing your thoughts. What's different this time?" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Mulder smiled at her and answered "You. You became my conscience in so many ways. You help me think straight and not losing my focus. With the new developments in our relationship, I have a feeling that I can even trust you to no end and so I am trying not closing up on this. Apparently, I would also let you take care of me if I might get carried away. You must know what I think to get the case cracked, but I won't go let you in this far as to make you go into a monster's head. This is too cruel to you. But I love you and trust so much that I want to let you in this time and hope that you keep me sane." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Scully rested her hand on Mulder's thigh and a tear fell from her eye. "I never had anyone trust me that much. I love you and of course I will take care of you. I am always there for you." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"They reached the parking lot and before they left the car, they kissed deeply, making their stomachs stir up the heat they felt in the morning. Feeling the anticipation of the inevitable, they parted with protesting groans and stepped out of the vehicle./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"In the foyer of the lodge, Mulder recognized his Oxford friend and greeted him. "Hey Marcus. So nice to see you after such a long time. This is my partner Dana Scully. How are you doing, body?" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Shaking hands with Marcus Fields, they settled on two opposite couches near the fireplace. They ordered coffee and started talking. Marcus started "Fox Mulder. How long haven't we seen each other? You seem to be up well with such a nice partner. Still in the FBI as I see. You know, after heading back to the States, I didn't think that you would last long with the FBI. I thought of you more as a psychologist as of a federal agent. But it suits you well after all." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Mulder chuckled, glancing at Scully and replied "Yeah, I am a lucky son of bitch." Scully blushed next to him, letting her head fall to her chest, so that the others won't notice. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Mulder looked at Marcus first and then at the women sitting next to him. Gesturing at her, Marcus introduced her to Mulder and Scully. "This is Darlene Smith. She is our paleo-biologist and a very talented one." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"She smiled and said "Thanks, Marcus. I have been working with him for 3 years now, so I am used to his nonsense. But yes, I am a paleo-biologist and I am very interested in your fungus. I am studying the microbiology of the stone age eras and Marcus helps me to find the right places to look for stone age strata. As a geologist, he has been studying that lake for 5 years. We know a lot about the volcanic geology of it by now, but are still struggling with the origin of a volcanic lake in that area in the first place. It is a very special structure we are talking about." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Mulder frowned and asked "How so?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Marcus continued with the scientific facts. "This lake is the deepest lake in the US with 1943 feet of depth. 7700 years ago Mount Mazama, which is part of the Cascade Range, erupted and this caldera, that looked like a blown-up balloon, was left behind when the magma stilled, collapsed and pyroclastic streams deepened it. Then rainwater filled it up together with water of the mountain's glaciers. The lake has no streams running in or out of it and the water level is controlled by precipitation, evaporation and seepage through the rocks. What makes it that unique, are the amazing shades of blue changing with the seasons that you cannot find anywhere else in the world. Even if it is a much smaller lake compared to the Great Lakes, it is special in its formation. There are those 2 little islands within the lake, the Phantom Ship and Wizard Island. Phantom Ship has already existed after the eruption and was a little cliff before the area was filled up with water. It can be back-dated to an era 400.000 years ago when Mazama came to be. It is a very old lava formation cooled out and stood like that for that long period. Whereas Wizard Island came to be with the water. So we are talking about a very old part of the Cascades. Furthermore, because of the rear sources of the water in the lake, it is also one of the clearest sweet water sources of the planet. It also has a larger range of minerals then other sweet water lakes, which makes it also very healthy. Some people say that it makes you more vital when you drink it, but there are no scientific data confirming that." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Marcus closed and looked at the reaction of Mulder and Scully. Both having a very interested and slightly excited look on their faces. Scully then started to describe their findings on the corpses, especially about the fungus spores, being rewarded with equal looks on the faces of their counterparts. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Darlene Smith then said: "You know, maybe I can help you with that. This biosphere is also unique and has been studied by geologists and biologist for over 120 years by now. What we already know is that there are living both zoo- and phytoplankton in various forms in the lake which build the living base for the other creatures. There is also a special type of newt living here, the so called Mazama Newt, named after this mountain. It is so special, because it is the only terrestrial animal to contain TTX, that's a toxin on the skin, like the one in blow fish. It is highly toxic to other animals but not so much to humans, because it is weaker than the one in blow fish. This newt also differs from other newts living in the other regions in the Cascades which makes it endemic to Crater Lake. It lives on driftwood or under the rocks and is semiaquatic. Over the time people tried to establish different kind of fish in the lake, due to the fact that the lack doesn't have direct streams into it which would bring other species here. Only two breeds were successful, so we have rainbow trout and salmon here, as well as crayfish. The rest of the zoological breeds are worms and larvae as well as insects. From 1987 to 1989 a research team tried to discover the depths of the lake by submarine and found black smokers deep down at the bottom of the lake. These small volcanic hydrothermal smokers bring warm fluids into the lake and produce salica and so you can find some crustaceans adapting to that environment and grow there, endangering other species. Moreover, yellow-gold bacteria are growing and oxidize iron for energy that influence those typical Crater Lake shades of blue. So you see, everything is unique here. Maybe there is also a growth of that fungus and spores you found on the bodies. Can you please send me the analysis data, so I can check if I have this fungus registered somewhere and connected to the Crater Lake?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""Sure." Scully replied. Her mind was working overdrive, because she sensed that they might have hit a mark there. Darlene also agreed seeing the corpses herself. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"After exchanging all sufficient data, all four of them chatted on for half an hour about Mulder's and Marcus' Oxford times, laughing about a great collection of anecdotes on pubs, darts, adventures and cheating tries by Marcus. Scully really enjoyed seeing Mulder like that in the middle of a profiling case. He was in a very good mood and he seemed not being able to draw his eyes from her. He looked her up and down from time to time, always keeping eye contact, searching her face for reactions on his stories. She was the same. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Watching him intensely, mapping every movement of his. That wasn't lost on the other two. Marcus and Darlene highly enjoyed the company but also sensing that there is something going on between those two. They exchanged looks shortly and excused themselves to give the other two a reason to call it a night. Then the agents went back to their room while Marcus and Darlene found their car, heading back to their lab 45 minutes away from Crater Lake. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Mulder and Scully sat down on their bed and explained their theories to each other. Mulder was very interested in Scully's ideas. After listening to everything she came up with, he suddenly fell silent, being in profiler mode again. He sat on the desk and said he needed some time to collect his thoughts. Not wanting to interrupt him, she went in to the bathroom to get ready for bed. As she came out, Mulder wasn't there anymore. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"She only found a short note on the bed saying: "Had to check something in the office. Don't wait up for me. Can be late. Have sweet dreams, my love. M." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Smiling at the piece of paper, she settled into bed and tried to sleep. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Mulder was the last one in the office of the sheriff's department and went straight to work. He tried to structure his thoughts by using his journal, that he always used for profiling. He looked at the map and started scribbling: /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Man in his late 30s or early 40s, very strong, carries body around in basically one hand, heavy, big height, maybe lumberjack or tourist, knows how to use an axe precisely, looks for equal strong males as victims, no sexual drive, driven by something specific on the victims (maybe their strong physique) and kills if he doesn't find what he is looking for, WHAT IS THAT?, kills in thickets for not being seen, circles the lake around the shore, counter-clockwise, ending at northern shore all the time, WHAT IS THERE exactly?, connection to Old man in the Lake?, possible causes of killing drive: fungus, bitten by animals (newt?), something from lake triggers him because always comes back to the water, water itself?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"After writing down his notes and looking for proof for them in the files, it was nearly 4 a.m. Totally exhausted, he head back to the lodge to get some rest. Nearly falling asleep behind the weal, he suddenly had to hit the brakes as something appeared in front of the car. It disappeared as fast as it appeared. Mulder could only guess what he was seeing, but he thought of a huge man with something red and metallic in his hand, vanishing into the bushes and treed near the road. Finding his breathing ability again and with his heartrate slowly normalizing, he drove on to the lodge. Soothed by the beautiful sight of his slumbering partner in bed, he got rid of his clothes till his boxers and the t-shirt, he snuggled behind her and fell asleep right away./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"strongspan lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"…next to the spot of Mulder's near-accident/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"The hiker was as surprised by the car as its driver. Reacting as fast as he could, he jumped into the thicket of the woods and watched the driver. He seems to be shocked and didn't react for some minutes. Regarding him with more detail, he recognized the driver as a possible new host. He smiled to himself, looking himself up and down, comparing himself to the driver and thought: \Like me, strong, lenient and lanky. Strong and intelligent eyes. Perfect.\ Energy boiling in him for his next pray. He then stood up and ran in the thicket alongside the car, guessing it stops at the Crater Lake Lodge. He decided to wait here, till his new host reappears in the morning. So he fell asleep at a huge tree a view feet afar from the lodge./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"strongspan lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"The next morning. The Crater Lake Lodge. Mulder and Scully's room. 5.30 a.m./span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Waking up next to the love of your life has something soothing and exciting at the same time, even if you only had two hours of sleep. Fox looked down at Dana and caressed her back with his fingertips. During the night she didn't move away from him, but instead huddling herself closer into his embrace. She shifted a little by his caress and smiled with eyes still closed. "Good Morning. When did you come back last night?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Mulder kissed her hair at the crown of her head. "Around 4. So I am still tired, but as I opened my eyes seeing you nestling so close to me, I couldn't help but stay awake just to watch you." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"With that she turned in his embrace to face him and kissed him tenderly. "Fox, you should get some more rest till 9. I head back to the ME's office together with Darlene and have another look at the bodies. I'll meet you back here at 9.30, so we can meet with the rangers at ten." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"He draw lazy circles on her back as she spoke and had a hard time concentrating by the beauty in front of him and her soft, comforting voice. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""Sounds like a plan to me, but before you go I have to do something that I wanted to do for a very long time." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Puzzled, she looked into his eyes, seeing his passion there, she realized what he wanted to do and rewarded him with another deep passionate kiss, leaving his lips only for raining kisses along his jawline. Moaning into her kisses, he moved himself up on top of her. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"She reacted by pushing on his chest, saying "As much as I want this, you know what we agreed…- Ah…"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Before she even could finish the sentence, he had his hands under her shirt and rubbing his palms over her nipples. Falling into the sensation, losing the ability of coherent thought, she wasn't able to protest anymore and kissed him fiercely. Smoothing her hands down his torso to his rear cheeks, sending shivers down his spine. Groaning escaped them both as his hips fell into her lap, so she could feel what she was doing to him. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Their already ragged breathing escalated into short gasps, hands moving everywhere, removing their shirts, awing at every revealed part of skin. Never stopping frantic kissing, he yanked down her pants. She tugged at his boxers at his back, impatiently moving them down as well. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Breaking the kiss only to get some air, his hazel-green passion driven eyes locked with her navy-blue darkened ones, she husked "Now Fox,…please now." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"On that he entered her in one smooth thrust. Finally united in passion, both moaned and groaned deeply as he started to move within her. "Oh god, Dana. You feel amazing. I love you so much." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Dana then felt tears swelling in her eyes. Tears of pure joy and love for him. She let them fall, looking at him, caressing his back and whispered into his ear "You are the love of my life. Never leave me. God, I never want this to end." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"By those words he lifted his head a little to look into her eyes. "I will never leave you. No matter what the future brings, I will always be by your side."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"They kissed and got more frantic by the minute. She encircled her legs around his hips up high, so that he could go even deeper. Soon he felt her trembling beneath him making her moan "God, I am so close. Don't stop, Fox." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Feeling his control slipping away completely, he let himself turn into a creature of sensation, only having the goal to worship her. With three more strong thrusts both felt the tension rise and with a last deep look into their eyes, they reached the edge simultaneously. Collapsing on her, he whispered silly words of love into her ears, getting drowsier by the minute./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"She stroked his back as he moved onto his side, taking her with him, so that she lay half on him. "Only you...forever." were the last words he heard before he drifted into a calming sleep. Scully cuddled with him for a short while until she left the bed to get ready for the day. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"strongspan lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Crater Lake Lodge 8/13/1999/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"strongspan lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"5.30pm/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"On their way to the lodge to meet with Mulder's friend they discussed possibilities. When in profiler mode, Mulder normally doesn't share his thoughts that openly and Scully tried to ask him about it very carefully. "Mulder, can I ask you something?" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""Of course. Anything." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Scully glanced at him and took a cleansing breath to find the right tone for this. "I really appreciate your openness on that case, but this is normally the time that you ditch me and approach the case on your own, without sharing your thoughts and theories. Then I am very concerned about you because you also forget to take care of yourself, like not sleeping, not eating, surrounding yourself in crime scene images and definitely snapping at me or anyone crossing your thoughts. What's different this time?" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Mulder smiled at her and answered "You. You became my conscience in so many ways. You help me think straight and not losing my focus. With the new developments in our relationship, I have a feeling that I can even trust you to no end and so I am trying not closing up on this. Apparently, I would also let you take care of me if I might get carried away. You must know what I think to get the case cracked, but I won't go let you in this far as to make you go into a monster's head. This is too cruel to you. But I love you and trust so much that I want to let you in this time and hope that you keep me sane." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Scully rested her hand on Mulder's thigh and a tear fell from her eye. "I never had anyone trust me that much. I love you and of course I will take care of you. I am always there for you." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"They reached the parking lot and before they left the car, they kissed deeply, making their stomachs stir up the heat they felt in the morning. Feeling the anticipation of the inevitable, they parted with protesting groans and stepped out of the vehicle./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"In the foyer of the lodge, Mulder recognized his Oxford friend and greeted him. "Hey Marcus. So nice to see you after such a long time. This is my partner Dana Scully. How are you doing, body?" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Shaking hands with Marcus Fields, they settled on two opposite couches near the fireplace. They ordered coffee and started talking. Marcus started "Fox Mulder. How long haven't we seen each other? You seem to be up well with such a nice partner. Still in the FBI as I see. You know, after heading back to the States, I didn't think that you would last long with the FBI. I thought of you more as a psychologist as of a federal agent. But it suits you well after all." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Mulder chuckled, glancing at Scully and replied "Yeah, I am a lucky son of bitch." Scully blushed next to him, letting her head fall to her chest, so that the others won't notice. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Mulder looked at Marcus first and then at the women sitting next to him. Gesturing at her, Marcus introduced her to Mulder and Scully. "This is Darlene Smith. She is our paleo-biologist and a very talented one." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"She smiled and said "Thanks, Marcus. I have been working with him for 3 years now, so I am used to his nonsense. But yes, I am a paleo-biologist and I am very interested in your fungus. I am studying the microbiology of the stone age eras and Marcus helps me to find the right places to look for stone age strata. As a geologist, he has been studying that lake for 5 years. We know a lot about the volcanic geology of it by now, but are still struggling with the origin of a volcanic lake in that area in the first place. It is a very special structure we are talking about." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Mulder frowned and asked "How so?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Marcus continued with the scientific facts. "This lake is the deepest lake in the US with 1943 feet of depth. 7700 years ago Mount Mazama, which is part of the Cascade Range, erupted and this caldera, that looked like a blown-up balloon, was left behind when the magma stilled, collapsed and pyroclastic streams deepened it. Then rainwater filled it up together with water of the mountain's glaciers. The lake has no streams running in or out of it and the water level is controlled by precipitation, evaporation and seepage through the rocks. What makes it that unique, are the amazing shades of blue changing with the seasons that you cannot find anywhere else in the world. Even if it is a much smaller lake compared to the Great Lakes, it is special in its formation. There are those 2 little islands within the lake, the Phantom Ship and Wizard Island. Phantom Ship has already existed after the eruption and was a little cliff before the area was filled up with water. It can be back-dated to an era 400.000 years ago when Mazama came to be. It is a very old lava formation cooled out and stood like that for that long period. Whereas Wizard Island came to be with the water. So we are talking about a very old part of the Cascades. Furthermore, because of the rear sources of the water in the lake, it is also one of the clearest sweet water sources of the planet. It also has a larger range of minerals then other sweet water lakes, which makes it also very healthy. Some people say that it makes you more vital when you drink it, but there are no scientific data confirming that." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Marcus closed and looked at the reaction of Mulder and Scully. Both having a very interested and slightly excited look on their faces. Scully then started to describe their findings on the corpses, especially about the fungus spores, being rewarded with equal looks on the faces of their counterparts. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Darlene Smith then said: "You know, maybe I can help you with that. This biosphere is also unique and has been studied by geologists and biologist for over 120 years by now. What we already know is that there are living both zoo- and phytoplankton in various forms in the lake which build the living base for the other creatures. There is also a special type of newt living here, the so called Mazama Newt, named after this mountain. It is so special, because it is the only terrestrial animal to contain TTX, that's a toxin on the skin, like the one in blow fish. It is highly toxic to other animals but not so much to humans, because it is weaker than the one in blow fish. This newt also differs from other newts living in the other regions in the Cascades which makes it endemic to Crater Lake. It lives on driftwood or under the rocks and is semiaquatic. Over the time people tried to establish different kind of fish in the lake, due to the fact that the lack doesn't have direct streams into it which would bring other species here. Only two breeds were successful, so we have rainbow trout and salmon here, as well as crayfish. The rest of the zoological breeds are worms and larvae as well as insects. From 1987 to 1989 a research team tried to discover the depths of the lake by submarine and found black smokers deep down at the bottom of the lake. These small volcanic hydrothermal smokers bring warm fluids into the lake and produce salica and so you can find some crustaceans adapting to that environment and grow there, endangering other species. Moreover, yellow-gold bacteria are growing and oxidize iron for energy that influence those typical Crater Lake shades of blue. So you see, everything is unique here. Maybe there is also a growth of that fungus and spores you found on the bodies. Can you please send me the analysis data, so I can check if I have this fungus registered somewhere and connected to the Crater Lake?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""Sure." Scully replied. Her mind was working overdrive, because she sensed that they might have hit a mark there. Darlene also agreed seeing the corpses herself. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"After exchanging all sufficient data, all four of them chatted on for half an hour about Mulder's and Marcus' Oxford times, laughing about a great collection of anecdotes on pubs, darts, adventures and cheating tries by Marcus. Scully really enjoyed seeing Mulder like that in the middle of a profiling case. He was in a very good mood and he seemed not being able to draw his eyes from her. He looked her up and down from time to time, always keeping eye contact, searching her face for reactions on his stories. She was the same. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Watching him intensely, mapping every movement of his. That wasn't lost on the other two. Marcus and Darlene highly enjoyed the company but also sensing that there is something going on between those two. They exchanged looks shortly and excused themselves to give the other two a reason to call it a night. Then the agents went back to their room while Marcus and Darlene found their car, heading back to their lab 45 minutes away from Crater Lake. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Mulder and Scully sat down on their bed and explained their theories to each other. Mulder was very interested in Scully's ideas. After listening to everything she came up with, he suddenly fell silent, being in profiler mode again. He sat on the desk and said he needed some time to collect his thoughts. Not wanting to interrupt him, she went in to the bathroom to get ready for bed. As she came out, Mulder wasn't there anymore. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"She only found a short note on the bed saying: "Had to check something in the office. Don't wait up for me. Can be late. Have sweet dreams, my love. M." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Smiling at the piece of paper, she settled into bed and tried to sleep. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Mulder was the last one in the office of the sheriff's department and went straight to work. He tried to structure his thoughts by using his journal, that he always used for profiling. He looked at the map and started scribbling: /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Man in his late 30s or early 40s, very strong, carries body around in basically one hand, heavy, big height, maybe lumberjack or tourist, knows how to use an axe precisely, looks for equal strong males as victims, no sexual drive, driven by something specific on the victims (maybe their strong physique) and kills if he doesn't find what he is looking for, WHAT IS THAT?, kills in thickets for not being seen, circles the lake around the shore, counter-clockwise, ending at northern shore all the time, WHAT IS THERE exactly?, connection to Old man in the Lake?, possible causes of killing drive: fungus, bitten by animals (newt?), something from lake triggers him because always comes back to the water, water itself?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"After writing down his notes and looking for proof for them in the files, it was nearly 4 a.m. Totally exhausted, he head back to the lodge to get some rest. Nearly falling asleep behind the weal, he suddenly had to hit the brakes as something appeared in front of the car. It disappeared as fast as it appeared. Mulder could only guess what he was seeing, but he thought of a huge man with something red and metallic in his hand, vanishing into the bushes and treed near the road. Finding his breathing ability again and with his heartrate slowly normalizing, he drove on to the lodge. Soothed by the beautiful sight of his slumbering partner in bed, he got rid of his clothes till his boxers and the t-shirt, he snuggled behind her and fell asleep right away./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"strongspan lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"…next to the spot of Mulder's near-accident/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"The hiker was as surprised by the car as its driver. Reacting as fast as he could, he jumped into the thicket of the woods and watched the driver. He seems to be shocked and didn't react for some minutes. Regarding him with more detail, he recognized the driver as a possible new host. He smiled to himself, looking himself up and down, comparing himself to the driver and thought: \Like me, strong, lenient and lanky. Strong and intelligent eyes. Perfect.\ Energy boiling in him for his next pray. He then stood up and ran in the thicket alongside the car, guessing it stops at the Crater Lake Lodge. He decided to wait here, till his new host reappears in the morning. So he fell asleep at a huge tree a view feet afar from the lodge./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"strongspan lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"The next morning. The Crater Lake Lodge. Mulder and Scully's room. 5.30 a.m./span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Waking up next to the love of your life has something soothing and exciting at the same time, even if you only had two hours of sleep. Fox looked down at Dana and caressed her back with his fingertips. During the night she didn't move away from him, but instead huddling herself closer into his embrace. She shifted a little by his caress and smiled with eyes still closed. "Good Morning. When did you come back last night?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Mulder kissed her hair at the crown of her head. "Around 4. So I am still tired, but as I opened my eyes seeing you nestling so close to me, I couldn't help but stay awake just to watch you." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"With that she turned in his embrace to face him and kissed him tenderly. "Fox, you should get some more rest till 9. I head back to the ME's office together with Darlene and have another look at the bodies. I'll meet you back here at 9.30, so we can meet with the rangers at ten." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"He draw lazy circles on her back as she spoke and had a hard time concentrating by the beauty in front of him and her soft, comforting voice. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""Sounds like a plan to me, but before you go I have to do something that I wanted to do for a very long time." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Puzzled, she looked into his eyes, seeing his passion there, she realized what he wanted to do and rewarded him with another deep passionate kiss, leaving his lips only for raining kisses along his jawline. Moaning into her kisses, he moved himself up on top of her. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"She reacted by pushing on his chest, saying "As much as I want this, you know what we agreed…- Ah…"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Before she even could finish the sentence, he had his hands under her shirt and rubbing his palms over her nipples. Falling into the sensation, losing the ability of coherent thought, she wasn't able to protest anymore and kissed him fiercely. Smoothing her hands down his torso to his rear cheeks, sending shivers down his spine. Groaning escaped them both as his hips fell into her lap, so she could feel what she was doing to him. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Their already ragged breathing escalated into short gasps, hands moving everywhere, removing their shirts, awing at every revealed part of skin. Never stopping frantic kissing, he yanked down her pants. She tugged at his boxers at his back, impatiently moving them down as well. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Breaking the kiss only to get some air, his hazel-green passion driven eyes locked with her navy-blue darkened ones, she husked "Now Fox,…please now." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"On that he entered her in one smooth thrust. Finally united in passion, both moaned and groaned deeply as he started to move within her. "Oh god, Dana. You feel amazing. I love you so much." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Dana then felt tears swelling in her eyes. Tears of pure joy and love for him. She let them fall, looking at him, caressing his back and whispered into his ear "You are the love of my life. Never leave me. God, I never want this to end." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"By those words he lifted his head a little to look into her eyes. "I will never leave you. No matter what the future brings, I will always be by your side."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"They kissed and got more frantic by the minute. She encircled her legs around his hips up high, so that he could go even deeper. Soon he felt her trembling beneath him making her moan "God, I am so close. Don't stop, Fox." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Feeling his control slipping away completely, he let himself turn into a creature of sensation, only having the goal to worship her. With three more strong thrusts both felt the tension rise and with a last deep look into their eyes, they reached the edge simultaneously. Collapsing on her, he whispered silly words of love into her ears, getting drowsier by the minute./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"She stroked his back as he moved onto his side, taking her with him, so that she lay half on him. "Only you...forever." were the last words he heard before he drifted into a calming sleep. Scully cuddled with him for a short while until she left the bed to get ready for the day. /span/p