Disclaimer: I do not own the X Files

Note: It feels like forever since my last update. I have been super sick and so my mind is a bit loopy so excuse any errors or weird stuff you read. I do still need a beta so if you want to PM me! Enjoy! And thank you so much for the reviews, they mean so much and keep me going.

P.S. Science stuff is not my thing. As much as I wish I was Scully I am totally lost when it comes to science so just pretend I know what I am talking about.

Rule Breaker

They got to D.C. very late and both knew they would only have a few hours of sleep ahead before they would need to be back to the investigation. Mulder's apartment was closer to the airport and he was able to convince a not fully conscious Scully to just stay the night. She protested lightly and even tried to say she would sleep on the couch to which Mulder just laughed.

It was around three by the time they found themselves under his covers. Mulder wrapped his body around Scully's and in that warmth they both quickly fell asleep.

They only got three hours of sleep before they were awakened by Mulder's ringing phone. Scully moaned and Mulder rolled over and grabbed the headset,

"Mulder." His voice was raspy with a hint of irritation.

While Mulder listened to the other end of the phone Scully was at war with herself. She knew the call was probably from the lab saying the results were in and that she should start getting ready to go but she did not want to move from the warmth of the bed. As it was his comforter surrounded her and the only cold part of her was her back, which, until a few moments ago, had been covered by Mulder.

She tried to pretend she was asleep as he hung up the phone. She knew he didn't care but she thought maybe if she pretended she would actually fall back asleep. She, of course, knew it was too late for that because she could practically feel Mulder's brain moving on from sleep to the current case.

She felt him uncover his legs and then lean over to kiss her on the cheek softly saying, "I'm grabbing a shower if you want to you can join or you can get more sleep." He nuzzled her neck for a second and then was off to the bathroom.

Another war began this time between the warm bed and the appealing man undressing in the bathroom.

She sighed to herself and removed the covers. She knew by going to him she was breaking her own rules but if she was going to have to get up she might as well enjoy it.

The test results were just as confusing as the autopsy. Scully looked at the papers in front of her and read them over for what felt like the millionth time.

Meanwhile Mulder sat across from her at his desk looking over Agent Wells' case files.

"Mulder I understand the words on the paper but I cannot figure out how it all goes together. The mixture of chemicals just doesn't make sense. There is no way that this combination could possibly do the damage that was done to her face let alone somehow kill her." Scully finished her sentence off by throwing the files she was looking at down on the desk. "On top of that some of the findings indicate that the damage to her face and body may have been done to her post-mortem."

Mulder sat up straighter as he grew more interested, "What would the cause of death be then?"

"Well I am not totally sure yet. I need to do more in depth testing of her tissue, the cosmetics you gave me, and her clothing, among other samples collected in the bathroom and her hotel room."

"Ok but if you were to make a guess about cause of death…."

"There are a couple of ways it could have happened: Either she was poisoned by something that was ingested and/or applied to her skin, or she was hit with a blunt object and then disfigured."

"Wait? Blunt object? Where did this come from?"

"Well it turns out that whatever did this was able to make it all the way to the bone around her eyes. There appears to be fracturing around her left eye that could have come from a blow to the head but it also could have been caused by her bones weakening by the corrosive element and getting fractured when she hit the floor."

"Wow. This stuff made it all the way to the bone?!"

Scully just nodded looking somewhat sad, "I hope she was dead before it happened. I cannot imagine that kind of pain."

"There were no other wounds that could indicate cause of death?"

"Nope. I am at a standstill till I get more tests and I can't just sit around so I am going to go assist in the lab."

"Sounds good. I'm going to narrow down these cases to people who could hate her enough to do this, then I think we should go pay some of them visits."

"Call me when your ready." She flashed a smile at him before she exited the room.

He paused for one moment and was taken in by her rare smile. She had been smiling a lot more lately and Mulder liked to give himself credit for that. He loved her smile. For a few seconds he let his mind drift to thoughts of Scully and he knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life trying to make her smile.

His mind started to move on to places below her face and he shook his head to rid himself of the images that came to mind would distract him from the case.

Scully made her way to the lab and found that they were just as confused as her. It had been determined, however, that Mulder had been at least part right about the cosmetics.

They found many traces of corrosive acids in the make up. Immediately they called the FDA and informed they to pull all Bombe products from the shelves. They sent an assistant out to get any thing left of each type they had to test the make up and lotion Agent Wells had to what was in stores.

The results told them that while Bombe was not the best substance to be applying to your skin it could not have caused this sort of damage alone. Someone had tampered with Wells products specifically which signaled an attack of some kind.

This led Scully to call Skinner and tell him to officially rule the death a murder despite not fully understanding cause of death. She made a call to Mulder knowing he would be interested in the newest development.

"So it turns out you were partly right about the cosmetics." She said into the phone.

"The make up is the cause of her injuries or her death?" Scully heard him ask.

"Well the cause of death is still uncertain but we know that all of the lotion and make up that Wells used was tampered with. We bought all of the same kinds from the store she bought them at and all of the rest are fine. The FDA is still trying to decide if they want to go through with a recall of all products but I doubt they will."

"But still no cause of death?" Mulder asked already moving on.

"Not currently."

"Maybe she is not dead Scully. I mean in some stories it can take a living dead person at most a week to wake."

Scully sighed, "Wait, seriously? Mulder I did the autopsy she is dead."

"Scully the rules of reanimation remain true no matter how damaged the body is."

"Well she seems pretty dead to me. I highly doubt that she is going to wake up any time soon and find herself craving brains."

As she said this she noticed the odd looks the people around her gave and she turned her back to face the wall and lowered her voice, "Mulder tell me you don't believe in zombies. I just need to hear you say it."

"I don't believe in zombies… in the traditional sense at least."

Scully covered her forehead with her palm. She needed a drink.

"Well keep any zombie, back from the dead, reanimation theories just between us for now." She whispered.

"Yeah yeah yeah." Mulder said in an unconvincing tone.

Before Scully could respond a harsh voice behind her said, "Agent Scully."

She turned around to find herself face to face with Deputy Director Kersh.

Great this is exactly what we need right now. She thought wondering how much of that conversation he'd heard and wishing she could turn invisible.

"Hello Sir what can I help you with?" She said politely trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice.

He said nothing but just glanced at her phone from which Mulder's muffled voice could be heard. She looked at it and said, "I'll call you back." Into the phone before hanging up.

"Agent Scully I was wondering if I could get an update on the case so far? I heard that you ruled it a murder." His face was unreadable.

"Yes sir the evidence is seeming to point that way."

"Seeming to point that way? Have you found cause of death?"

"Not quite yet. We are close thought we only need to break down and test the components of the-"

"So you are not actually sure that it was a murder?"

"Well sir from the beginning it seemed pretty obvious that we were dealing with a murder. Our tests of her own cosmetics against-"

"Yes I heard about all of the tests that are being preformed." He interrupted and Scully sent up a silent prayer thanking God that Mulder was not here to inflame the situation. "It seems to me agent that you have very little to go on right now. I have contacted the FDA and told them that their products are tainted. I hear that after testing a load of make up from stores in the area you informed them that recall was unnecessary?"

It felt like a trap but Scully responded, "The evidence is pointing toward someone tampering with her skin products and all of the others that were tested came up normal. It seems more like a personal attack rather than a contamination of all goods. There have been no more reports of anything like this."

"Many others are saying that it is the exact opposite Agent Scully, I am being told that this may be a simple case of product contamination. The brand is being recalled. You and Agent Mulder seem to be the only ones who want to continue to peruse this."

"Sir I was informed that it was you who wanted us on the case in the first place! And who are all these people that believe this to be an accident? These injuries may even be post-mortem."

"First of all it was only at the insistence of A.D. Skinner that I allowed you and Mulder on the case." He sighed a long suffering sigh as if he was trying to explain something to a child, "Agent Scully this is delicate case and it is obvious that you and Agent Mulder are incapable of subtlety and tact. It was a mistake to put you on this. It will now be handed over to violent crimes. I expect the two of you to go back to your normal caseload."

"Why? So they can bury it? This woman was killed and no one cares! Is it because she was killed to keep her quiet? Is that it sir?" Scully knew exactly what was going on. It was all set up this way. She recalled Mulder telling her the reactions of other agents when hearing they were on the case. It was high profile in the Bureau and if they screwed the case up everyone would have even more reason to dismiss the X files. Kersh wanted them to take this case just so he could have others sabotage it and discredit them. It shouldn't have been such a surprise to her. She knew she should calm down but couldn't, "And what is our 'normal caseload' exactly? I am not sure since it seems like most cases we bring forth these days are buried."

"That is enough Agent! You have been in that basement for far too long. There is no conspiracy. A fellow agent is dead, that is the focus, and we will do everything in our power to ensure that the investigation is clean and thorough."

Scully nodded without making eye contact deciding to stop speaking before she got in more trouble. He gave one swift nod and walked away.

She knew that she and Mulder were not done with this case. There was a reason they were on this case. The fact that the FBI was attempting to cover up the case made it feel more important to her to find out the truth of what happened to Agent Wells.