Disclaimer: I do not own the X Files

Normal

When they entered the Agent Wells' hotel room they were not surprised to find that it was clean and everything was made up. Mulder spotted her small suitcase open on a small table in the corner of the room. Skinner went into the bathroom while Mulder made his way to the suitcase. The counter of the bathroom was covered in beauty products. It looked so natural and normal. To any unseasoned investigator the sight of the woman's room would have been upsetting. All of the signs of her normal morning routine were there waiting for her to return. It was something both of the agents did not dwell on.

Mulder was standing at the open suitcase when Skinner left the bathroom. Next to her suitcase sat three different bottles of lotion and a couple different body sprays. He began to pull out the contents with his gloved hands.

The entire first layer was all sorts of lingerie; "Well she obviously had big plans for the weekend." Mulder said as he continued on. The rest of the suitcase contained nothing of any interest.

"This woman seems about as normal as they come. I mean besides the whole sleeping with her boss part." Mulder muttered as he looked around the room a little more to see if they had missed anything. "Was there anything interesting in the bathroom?" He asked his own boss.

"No just make up, tooth brush, tooth paste. Regular stuff." He shrugged.

Mulder suddenly turned around. He had the look on his face he got when he had an idea. He picked up the bottles of lotion and body spray. All of them were from the same company, 'Bombe' which was written across the bottles in fancy scroll.

"Have them bag these." Mulder said and quickly made his way to the bathroom.

As he expected all of the beauty products in the bathroom where from the same company that made the lotions. "These too."

"What are you thinking Mulder?" Skinner asked.

"I'm not sure yet. But considering the condition of her skin it might be significant that all of the stuff she puts on her skin is made by the same company."

"I guess. Check out the rest of the rooms and read over the statements taken. If you have more questions that were not asked now would be the time to ask while everyone is gathered. I'm going to go oversee the gathering of the body. When you're done go to the morgue and see what Scully finds." Skinner walked out as he gave the team the go ahead to start work on the room.

Scully slapped on her latex gloves in her usual fashion. She was not looking forward to this. Not that she ever really looked forward to any autopsy but in most X Files she at least was interested in what she would find.

With this case, however, came a lot of pressure. This was not a random victim of some paranormal event she was an FBI agent. An FBI agent who was sleeping with her superior. After looking more into her caseload Scully had also discovered that Agent Wells had been involved in some high profile cases against some powerful people. All of this caused her some nervousness despite all of her experience.

The body was rolled in and moved to the table in front of her. Scully removed the sheet to look at Agent Wells face, or at least what was left of it.

Scully turned on her tape recorder and started with the date and details of the crime.

She then focused her attention on the woman's face, "Face appears to be corroded by some sort of acid in different places. Further tests are needed to show what substance it was that caused such damage." She began at the woman's eyes, "Eyes are burned past recognition and the eyeballs themselves are heavily damaged. Nose seems to be untouched… which is odd. Cheeks are only affected on the top of the cheekbone… Lips are almost completely gone… chin still in tact as well as ears and neck." Scully paused and looked at the body in confusion. It was almost as if there was some sort of pattern to where the damage was done but she could not figure out why in was only in these certain spots: The eyes, lips, and upper cheek.

She continued to pull down the sheet and exposed the rest of the woman's body. Everything looked normal from her elbows up. Her torso was completely untouched, as were her thighs. The damage started again at her knees and seemed the worst at her feet where there was very little skin left.

Scully picked up the woman's hand to examine it, "Victims hands appear to be even more heavily damaged than face… as if more of whatever substance that did this was applied to her hands… Finger nails are completely dissolved…" She finished the last part as if just suggesting an idea to herself and then continued, "Much of the flesh has been corroded and what remains seems to have damage consistent with a bad chemical burn… the skin from her wrist to her elbow is affected but it appears that whatever caused this was applied less as it moved up her arms."

Scully moved down to the victim's legs, "As stated earlier thighs appear mostly unaffected. Damage begins on the kneecap where a lot of the flesh was burned away. As I go down the calf it becomes less damaged until I reach the ankle where damage becomes worse than anywhere else on the body… the victim's feet appear almost skeletal as if dipped in some sort of acid or corrosive chemical…" Scully stared at the feet for a moment, "Note: check for any damage done to the shoes the victim was wearing at the time of the murder." Scully sighed and went to retrieve her tools to begin her internal investigation. It was going to be a long day.

Mulder made his way to the room next door that belonged to Agent Thornton, the victim's partner. The door was open and a couple of other agents were sitting with her taking her statement.

Mulder stood at the door to listen, "… She was just lying there like that! I was not even sure that it was her at first but she was wearing the same clothes and everything! She was only gone a little while!"

Agent Thornton was crying heavily as the agent questioning her asked, "Were you aware of where your partner was going when she left her seat?"

Thornton nodded and seemed embarrassed by her next admission, "I knew she was sleeping with Jerry. I know that sounds just awful but I felt like it was none of my business! I told her to cut it out but she was convinced that he loved her. He would tell her he was going to leave his wife and marry her!"

The questioning agents did not react but continued with obvious caution in their next line of questioning, "Were you aware of any… problems between your partner and A.D. Cannon?"

"Well… Ok so a few months ago Trac came up to me and was really excited. She took me to a private place and told me that she had found out she was pregnant with Jerry's baby. She was really excited about it because she believed that it would finally make him make good on his promises to leave his family. She didn't say it like that of course. What she said was that now they could really be a family. I pretended to be happy for her but I knew he wasn't gonna leave his wife. I have no problems with A.D. Cannon but we all know Traci was not the only agent under him that he was sleeping with." Thornton took a long breath to calm herself and continued, "Turns out I was right. When she told him he got real angry and told her she needed to get an abortion. Now the rest of this is just what Traci told me later I wasn't there so I don't know… Just…. I don't want to get in trouble for this. She said she didn't want to and he threatened her position at the FBI."
Both interviewing agents looked up at her, "In what way did he threaten her position?"

"I don't really know. When she told me about it she was all frantic and upset and I could only understand that she was worried about her job."

"Did she go through with the abortion?"

"Yeah a few days later Jerry went to her all sweet with gifts and everything and told her it would all be fine and that he would go with her and hold her hand. He talked her into it. Traci had already been thinking up names and crap like that. She didn't tell me about it until after or I would have tried to get her to see what he was doing. After it happened she never wanted to talk about it and moved on like normal."

Mulder had heard enough. He knew that anything Thornton had to say about the affair was not going to have much to do with the way she died.

He cleared his throat and asked from the door, "Had Agent Wells made any small changes in her life lately?"

All three looked at him confused by the relevance of the question. It was obvious that the agents before him had already come to their own conclusions.

"Oh sorry! I'm Agent Fox Mulder I've been assigned to the case." He said introducing himself.

He could tell by their faces that they knew who he was.

Agent Thornton shrugged it off and answered his question, "Well I know she started at some new gym. She was on a new super diet thing and would skip lunch most days. Ummm…. I don't know I mean we were close but not like best friends or anything. We didn't really hang out on our time off."

"So you don't know if she made any changes in brands she was buying or anything?"

Thornton looked irritated at this question and Mulder could tell that she was already offended that her partner's murder had been assigned to the X Files,

"I don't know Agent Mulder not all partners are attached at the hip." She said making an obvious jab at the closeness that he and Scully shared. She then dissolved into tears.

Mulder rolled his eyes and moved on to down the hall where A.D. Cannon was being interviewed. It seemed they were wrapping up questioning when Mulder entered. He introduced himself and asked the same questions that he had to the agent down the hall.

A.D. Cannon stared at Mulder for a minute, "Excuse me? You want to know about small life style changes? I don't know. She was trying to lose weight I guess. She was wearing new stuff a lot. I think she was trying to impress me. I am not proud of what I did and I was trying to move on and she didn't like that so she was buying a bunch of new clothes, make up, underwear, all that crap to try to make me stay."

"Make up?" Mulder asked.

The A.D. just squinted his eyes at Mulder and replied, "You think this is some kind of joke? Ya know Agent Mulder your reputation proceeds you. You are a weirdo. And I don't know what kind of stuff she put on her face. Now can I please go?" He looked around the room knowing that none of the agents there would stop him if he chose to leave.

Mulder nodded and Cannon headed toward the door as he exited and began to move down the hall Mulder called after him, "Oh and sir! Please make yourself available for further questioning. Thank you. Sorry for your loss." Every word was dripping with sarcasm but the A.D. just shook his head and continued on.

Mulder turned back to the room and addressed the agents inside, "Bag up his clothes for me would ya? I want them sent to the lab to look and see if there are any traces of Wells' make up on there." He could tell the agents thought the request was stupid but they just nodded and began finishing up their exam of the room.

Mulder turned on his heel and made his way down the hall. He was done with the questioning for now and his mind had moved ahead to the autopsy and what Scully had found in her exam. On his way out many looked his way and would turn to whisper amongst themselves most likely commenting on the fact that he had been assigned the case. Mulder sighed to himself. This case might not be the most exciting but it would sure be interesting.