Scully entered the lair of The Lone Gunmen and felt like she walked into a rather large electrical closet. There were computers and gadgets strewn everywhere. She entered cautiously, following the short one named "Frohike" as they entered further into the building. It was in what she assumed to be the main room that she came to meet the blonde one named Langly. He seemed just as odd as the short one, and Scully immediately thought it was all some sick joke. She was put somewhat at ease when another man came from a back room, dressed in a casual suit, and introduced himself in a sincere, formal matter.
"Hi, I'm John Byers. I see you've already met Langly and Frohike. What is it that we can help you with?" he asked.
"Uh, I'm not really sure actually. I didn't mean to intrude, and I honestly don't know why I'm here. I got your address, from - from a friend." Scully stuttered out.
Byers looked at her quizzically, as the other two just stared at her. "You must excuse us for the confusion and the stares," Byers glanced towards the other two, "we don't get many visitors here. We stay pretty well hidden for obvious reasons, and are just wondering how you found us."
"Obvious reasons?" Now Scully returned the quizzical look.
"Well, we publish our magazine, which has a lot to do with...government conspiracies, events in the paranormal, things along those lines. So you can see why we like to stay masked behind the computer." He explained calmly.
Scully sat in their old building, her thoughts going a mile a minute. It would make sense, given the nature of the genre of M.F. Luder novels, but she couldn't imagine one of these three being the man himself. A slight frown of disappointment ran across her face, given that the man who sat in the shadows of her class wasn't one of these goons standing before her. She was almost sure he had something to do with this whole ordeal. Maybe her investigative skills were a little rustier than she thought.
"I can see you're disappointed. Were we not what you were looking for?" Byers asked, with a shy smile on his lips.
Scully jumped slightly, not realizing she was lost in her thoughts. "What? No, sorry. I - I honestly don't know what, or who I'm looking for. To be honest, I'm even more confused than I was before coming here." She let out a deep sigh.
"I recently read a teaser chapter for the newest M.F. Luder and the main character of the novel was eerily familiar to me. I felt like I was reading about some alternate version of myself, and I was instantly intrigued. I really just wanted answers to see if I was in fact going crazy like I'm beginning to think I am, or if it's just a huge coincidence. I - I'm a professor at Quantico, so I work for the FBI. Don't worry, I don't care about anything you're doing here, but it is what led me here. I was so curious, I put in an inquiry into Luder, any little grasp of something I could get. One of the searches led to a paycheck with this address on it. I figured this was my best place to start." Scully let out in one breath.
She didn't mean to just lose it, but her patience was running thin, and her thoughts were driving her insane. She finally looked up, slightly embarrassed by her outburst, and noticed the grins on the faces of all three of her hosts.
Their smiles hid the secrets that she could see in her eyes, and the uneasy feeling came creeping back to her.
"You're here about M.F. Luder? You're the first to get this close, I'm impressed and even slightly more turned on." Frohike grinned at her.
"Melvin, please don't creep out our guest. I apologize for him, really, he's mostly harmless." Byers assured her, still with the slight grin on his face.
"Are any of you going to tell me anything about M.F. Luder? You obviously know something." Scully's eyebrow began to arch.
"Well, I can assure you that we know who he is, and that none of us are him. Anything else, we would have to get permission from the man himself to tell you." Byers explained.
Scully was frustrated. She just wanted answers, and she knew she was so close to getting them. She just had to play her cards perfectly and very carefully to get the answers to hopefully put her mind at ease. "Okay, I understand. I will wait here while you get that permission." She challenged, with authority, as she sat on their couch.
The three men just looked at each other dumbfounded, unsure of what to do in that moment. They could tell, that if she was in fact Mulder's newest muse that he wouldn't stop talking about for the past 4 weeks, she wasn't going anywhere. They knew then and there that Dr. Dana Scully was going to put up a fight, and they weren't going to win this battle. Frohike extracted himself from the room to call Mulder.
FOX MULDER'S APARTMENT
Mulder was sitting alone in his apartment, completely disconnected from the world, lost in his own mind and writing up a storm. He would find these moments of inspiration, and once he began he could never stop. The story, the characters, they would come flooding out of him and were frantically typed up into his newest story.
Dana Scully had been the muse he always needed. This was his best novel yet. At least that's what everyone had been telling him.
He didn't know what it was about her that was so captivating, but he couldn't stop. He was addicted. Mulder knew there was so much more to express about this exquisite woman than he could ever capture in a 3 part series. His mind was going into overdrive and he had completely blocked out the phone ringing in the background.
It wasn't until he heard Frohike's voice on his answering machine that he was broken from his trance.
"Mulder, answer the damn phone. We have a code red. A HOT code red, if I might say. If you don't answer this phone I'm going to have to tell your little redheaded muse all of your dirty little secrets. I might start with that video collec-"
"What the hell do you want, Frohike?" Mulder growled into the phone, completely annoyed to be broken from his writing.
"Well it's nice to talk to you, too, sunshine. Your newest interest is currently sitting on our couch, asking questions about you. I'm a little hurt you've been holding out, Mulder. She's hot." Frohike responded.
Mulder couldn't help but smile to himself. "I figured she'd be there eventually. I had a heads up she was looking into some things."
"Well a warning would have been nice. What do we tell her? I don't think she's leaving without some answers." Frohike glanced back towards the main room.
"But it's so much more fun to let you experience her first hand." Mulder chuckled, he guessed just what a spitfire Dana Scully could be, and he knew the boys were in for a long night. She would eat them alive.
If Mulder had gathered anything about Dana Scully in the past few weeks, it was that she loved a challenge. She rose to anything that she found herself faced with, and was even more fascinated if it was a puzzle. He could tell that she liked her control, but there was always a sense of intrigue in her eyes that made him believe she loved the thrill of a new adventure.
Mulder knew exactly how to handle this situation.
"Alright, you can tell her things, anything she wants to know. But, she can only ask yes or no questions." Mulder smiled to himself, he knew she would be satisfied with having some answers, but the one answer that couldn't be answered with a yes or no question would drive her absolutely crazy.
His name.
"Alright boss, whatever you say. But if she beats us up for your name, I'm going to kick your ass. I think she's got a gun, actually that's kinda hot." Frohike mumbled just before he disconnected the call.
Mulder chuckled to himself and quickly got dressed. He grabbed his keys and ran out the door.
THE LONE GUNMEN'S BUILDING
Frohike reentered the main room, and saw Byers and Langly sheepishly standing before a very skeptical Dana Scully. She was sitting on the couch, arms crossed and eyebrow raised. She was waiting for her answers.
"Alright, the boss man said you can have your answers. But, you can only ask yes or no questions. Anything you want to know m'lady." Frohike leered at Scully.
Scully felt like she was being challenged. The elusive M.F. Luder was going to give her answers, but only if she played by his rules. Well, Dana Scully was always one to follow the rules, but she also never backed down from a challenge.
She had to ask the right questions, to get exactly the answers she wanted.
She smiled to herself, she knew exactly what to do.
"Okay, so answer me this. Am I the muse of the newest M.F. Luder novel?" Scully asked in an innocent voice.
"Yes." Frohike answered quickly.
"Thank you, that's all I wanted to know." Scully began to stand and gather her purse. She began to move towards the exit as if she was leaving.
"What? That's the only question you had?" Byers asked incredulously.
"Mulder gave her free reign and that's all she asks? That's lame." Langly mumbled.
"Tell me about it, I was hoping to spill more of Mulder's secrets." Frohike mumbled in response.
Just before Scully reached the door, she turned slowly, with a sly smile on her face.
"Mulder, huh?"
She almost laughed at how quickly the color from all three of their faces drained at once. She stared back into three very guilty looking, wide-eyed faces and just smiled. "Again, thank you. It was nice meeting all of you." She said just before she made her exit.
As she walked out of the old building, she couldn't help but feel a sense of accomplishment. She rose to this challenge, and won. There was simply no other option. She was embracing the moment of self pride, and didn't notice the man standing directly outside of the door. She bumped right into his back, as he was facing away from her.
"Oh I'm so sorr-" She began to apologize, before the man turned around and she was at a loss for words by the warm, familiar eyes staring back at her.
"I guess I should be the one apologizing. It's nice to finally officially meet you, Dr. Dana Scully." He sheepishly held out his hand to her.
She just stared back at him, adrenaline surging inside of her. She was still on a high for outsmarting the three stooges, and now she was face to face with no other than "Mulder, I presume?"