Title: Duplicity
email: YappiChick@yahoo.com 
Summary: What happens if two world collide? 
Website: http://www.geocities.com/yappichick
Feedback: Welcome with open arms! 
Rating: PG 
Archive: Surely!  It would be great to let me know!
Spoilers: Redux 2, Detour
Category: MSR 
Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be. 
Author's note: This has nothing to do with either my TOW or
ABC universes.  It's just a little tale that's been in my
head for a while.  And a HUGE thanks goes to my beta, MF
Luder for an awesome job betaing!  Thank you!  Thank you!  :)

Duplicity
by YappiChick

University of Maryland
November 4, 1997

Professor Steve Wagner finished typing his notes.  He was extremely
pleased with the experiment's progress.  It was, he noted, truly 
amazing how one little change of events could alter everything.

He eyed the machine that consumed most of his life with a smile.
Playing God was not only incredibly easy, but extraordinarily fun.
No wonder He had been so fascinated with the human race for so many
millennia, Wagner thought.

The professor knew soon the people funding his project were going 
to start seeking answers, wanting to know what progress he had made
with their money.  He wasn't ready to divulge that information yet.
He knew that would bring more questions and requests, more demands.

His assistants, two young men who were his former students, 
understood his drive and the importance for the success of this 
experiment.  They were literally his eyes and ears.  They were 
everything to making sure this project would work.

The security door opened with a faint beep.  "Professor?  Are we 
done for the day?"

Mike Stewart, one of the pair, came in wearing a lab coat.  His 
blonde hair was slightly out of place, having his hands run through 
it too many times throughout the day He looked around the room 
cautiously as he had for the past two weeks.

"Almost, Mike. Joseph is still in there.  He should be done in a 
couple of minutes," Wagner answered.  He had been wondering about 
his assistant's strange behavior.

"Tomorrow the calculations should be done to proceed with the next
phase," Mike said.

The professor's eyebrows rose.  "That's three days earlier than I 
expected.  Are you eager to continue?"

Color flooded the younger man's cheeks.  "It's just, something 
doesn't feel right about this.  I would feel better if we completed 
this part of the experiment."

Before the professor could lecture his student about the 
unimportance of personal feelings, the machine let out three long 
beeps.  "That's Joey," Mike said unnecessarily.

Wagner looked up suddenly.  "Do you smell that?"

Mike frowned.  "It smells like gas--"

The explosion rocked the laboratory.  Both men ducked under the 
desks, shielding themselves from the debris.  The power went out 
and they were submerged in darkness for a couple of minutes before 
the backup generators came on.

"Are you ok, Professor?" Mike asked, coming up to Wagner.

The older man stood up, nodding his head.  "I'm fine.  Just a little
dazed.  What in the world was that?"

"I don't know.  I smelled gas before the explosion.  Perhaps there 
was a leak in the line and something caused it to ignite."  Mike ran
up to the computer, which had automatically rebooted when the power 
returned.  

He looked at the readout with a grave expression.  "We have a serious
problem, sir."

Wagner ran up behind him, scanning the screen.  "God help us all."


X-Files Office
November 10, 1997

"Mulder, did you actually finish the report for the moth man 
incident?"

His mouth quirked up.  "Scully, did you just say moth man without
a level of skepticism?  I just got turned on."

Her eyebrow rose, but she said nothing.

"Yeah, I finished it and even sent it up to Skinner's office.  I
figured it was my fault that we were on the case, so I should 
write the report.  I know how upset you were missing that cheese 
and wine reception."  He looked away from her quickly, hoping she
would accept his reason.

She walked over to him and stood there until he looked her in the
eye.  "Mulder, just about every X-file is your 'fault' and you 
rarely write the report."  

She bit her lip, a nervous habit she had when she was going to 
bring up something uncomfortable.  "This isn't because it was our
first case since my cancer went into remission and you don't think
I was ready for it, right?"

Busted, he thought.  But he would never admit that to her.  It wasn't
that he thought it was too much for her, he just wanted her to take
things easy.  The image of her in the hospital bed barely clinging to
life was still too fresh in his mind.  Anything he could do to make 
her life less complicated, he would do.  Though he knew she would 
kick his butt every way until Tuesday if she found out what he was 
thinking.  

Out loud he said, "Scully, I wanted to write the report because it 
reminded me of your singing in the forest.  That was something 
truly memorable."  He paused for a second.  "Or worthy of 
an X-File itself."

She cringed.  "I tried to warn you."

"Yeah, that definitely wasn't a nice trip to the forest."  He held
up his hands at her glare.  "Kidding.  I'm kidding."

"You forget, Mulder, how good I am with a scalpel."

Before he could reply, the phone on the desk rang.  "Agent Mulder."

After a few seconds, he gestured to Scully for a pen.  She rolled 
her eyes as she handed him a pen that was a few feet away.  He 
grabbed it impatiently and started scribbling words down on a stray
paper on his desk.

She looked over his shoulder.  She could make out the words 
"security breach" and "parallel universe."  Great, she thought, 
another fun X-File.

A few more, "uh-huh"s were said and he hung up the phone with a 
smile.  "Oh man, Scully, you are not going to believe this."

Scully put on her best skeptical face before waving for him to 
continue.

"That was a professor up at the University of Maryland," he began.

"His name wasn't Doc Brown was it?" she asked, knowing he would
appreciate her joke.

He grinned.  "I knew that you had a soft spot for sci-fi movies, 
Scully.  But no, and I'm not Marty McFly either.  Anyway, that was 
Professor Steve Wagner.  He has been conducting a rather elaborate
experiment involving parallel universes, as you obviously read.  
It seems that a few days ago there was a explosion and the 
experiment was compromised.  The professor has called up the
good ol' X-File team to assist him." 

She frowned.  "What are we going to do?  Go back before the explosion
and stop it from happening?" she asked sarcastically.

He clucked his tongue.  "Scully, that's time traveling.  We're 
talking multiple universes.  There's a difference."

"Oh, I'm so sorry."

"I don't know why we're going up there.  He said he has already 
spoken to Skinner and the investigation has been approved.  I'm
going to run up there and grab the 302," he said gleefully.

"Should I bring up the fact that parallel universes don't exist?"
she called after him.

"Nah," he said, sticking his head back in the doorframe, "it will
give us something to talk about on the way up to the university."

"And I thought moth men were my welcome back present," she muttered.


University of Maryland
10:30 a.m.

An hour later, Mulder and Scully were admitted into the inner 
research facility.  There they met a very tired looking Professor
Wagner.

He was in his late fifties with thinning gray-brown hair.  He was
average size, average build.  Even his glasses looked like a pair 
that were standard issue for college professors.  Overall, there 
was nothing particularly memorable about him.  Mulder was expecting
him to look more like the mad professor type.

"Agents Scully and Mulder.  Welcome to my home away from home.  
Please, come with me."  The two followed him back to his part of the
lab.  "You'll have to excuse the mess," he said, punching in a 
security code.  "Mike and I are doing what we can to get everything
back on track.  That unfortunately means that there isn't much time
for cleaning."

He opened the door where his team was working.  "Mike, these are the 
agents from the FBI.  This is Mike Steward, one of my assistants in 
this project.  Joseph Gomez, my other assistant isn't here right 
now."

The room obviously was not where the impact of the blast had hit, but
it had suffered some damage.  The wall on the north side had cracks 
running down for several feet.  The debris that had been created by 
the blast was swept aside in a pile in corner of the room.  There 
were several computers on, each showing a different readout.  In the 
middle of the room was a metal doorframe bolted to the ground.

"Professor Wagner," Scully said, "Agent Mulder and I looked over the 
file while we were driving here and we aren't quite sure in what 
capacity you are wanting our assistance."

"That was my doing, Agent Scully.  You see, this is a highly 
classified experiment we are conducting.  I would hate for any 
negative news to come out about it," Wagner explained.

"What exactly is 'it'?" Mulder asked, looking at the strange door-
like contraption in the middle of the room.

"Agent Mulder, please step away from that.  If you and your partner 
could come to my office, I'll explain everything that I can in 
there."  He looked over his shoulder.  "Mike, if there are any 
further developments please let me know."

The younger man nodded.  "Sure thing, Professor."  Mulder noticed 
how nervous he was.  The lab assistant had dark circles under his 
eyes and his lab coat was wrinkled.  He had barely acknowledged 
their presence, almost as if he looked away from the screen, he 
would miss something.

Scully walked ahead of Mulder.  They had already discussed on the 
way over that, with her background in physics, she would take the 
lead in asking Wagner the questions.

"Even after all these years, I am still impressed that you had 
enough guts to challenge Einstein in your thesis paper.  Isn't 
that some kind of sin in the world of scientists?" he remembered
saying.  He chuckled softly as the image of her shooting him an
icy glare filled his head.

They entered his office, which was completely undamaged by the 
blast.  There was a small conference table with three chairs around
it.  Mulder and Scully sat on one side of the desk while Wagner 
went to the other side.

"Professor Wagner, if I understand my partner correctly, you and 
your associates have been conducting an experiment dealing with 
parallel universes."  Her disbelief was evident in her voice.

Wagner pushed his glasses up his nose.  "I sense you don't 
believe in my work, Agent Scully.  But I can guarantee that this 
is 100 percent real."

He continued without waiting for her reply.  "To put things simply,
about a year ago I had a breakthrough in developing a technology 
that can create various universes.  Each universe has its own unique
'equation', for lack of a better word.  And depending on the equation
we put in, different aspects of the newly created universe will vary 
from ours."

Scully's eyebrows rose.  "How many universes have you created?"

"So far, three. In each one, we have changed the outcome of an 
important event.  The first world we created had no Gulf War.
The second one, we never had the Berlin Wall coming down.  And
in this final one, there was no Watergate scandal."

"Something from each decade," Mulder said under his breath.

The professor nodded.  "Exactly.  Each universe is created for three
months.  We go in there, collect various types of data, process it 
and leave."

He glanced over to Scully, who had a perplexed look on her face.  
"What happens to the universe you created when you are through?"

"We take the equation and delete it from the system.  In essence, it 
ceases to exist," Wagner explained.

"Talk about your God complex," Mulder mumbled.

The two scientists ignored him.  "How do you collect your data?" she
asked.

Wagner looked uncomfortable talking about the subject, almost as if
he was giving too much information away.  "I send one of my 
assistants into that world.  They use the portal that Agent Mulder 
was standing next to.  They go in each day and get newspapers and the
like.  They go to various places and make notes on noticeable changes
in the world.  They collect encyclopedias, almanacs, those types of 
things.  Then they come back here and we transfer that information 
into our system."

She glanced over to Mulder, who was listening intently on every 
word.  She knew this was fascinating him.  "How are they able to 
return from over there?"

The professor looked like he wouldn't answer the question before 
finally sighing.  "When we enter in the equation, we always include 
the module on the other side.  They are able to come back to here 
with relative ease."

With his curiously piqued, Mulder asked, "What's stopping the people
from the other side from coming over here?"

Wagner looked annoyed at the agents' constant questions.  "The system
in the other world is locked.  Only Mike, Joseph and I know to way to
override the system."

"Anyway, you're not here to discuss my project.  We need your help 
because on Tuesday, we were finishing the day's work when one of the 
gas mains in the building exploded due to a leak.  My assistant,
Joseph Gomez, was in the middle of coming over when the blast 
occurred.  The result was an opening."

"An opening?" the two agents asked simultaneously.

"Yes, well, it seems that the override is not shutting down.  It is 
repeating in a continuous loop.  It appears as if the two universes 
are slowly merging.  From the information we have gathered, people 
from the other reality are appearing over here."

"What?!"

Wagner cleared his throat.  "Yes, this is *our* problem.  From what
we can guess, people are arriving from the other side at a rate of
one per minute, which brings the total to somewhere close to nine
thousand.  Not bad for a world with a population of over six 
billion."

Mulder rolled his eyes.  Not bad?  "Why don't you just delete the 
equation like you did with the other worlds you created?" he wondered
out loud.

Wagner sighed and spoke slowly to him as if he were a little child.
"Because, Agent Mulder, with the opening still intact there is a 
possibility that our world would disappear with its counterpart 
world."

Undeterred by the professor's arrogant attitude, Mulder asked, "What 
happens to the people who have come here?  Will they disappear when 
your guys resolve your problem?"

Wagner frowned.  "We're not sure.  Hypothetically, we believe that 
is what will happen.  But we also have to be ready in case they 
remain here. That's why I have requested your presence."

Scully looked at the professor.  "I'm not sure, sir, why you asked 
for our help.  We are not physicists."

Wagner laughed, sounding loudly throughout the room.  "Agent Scully,
I am not requesting your help to repair the rift.  The reason why 
the two of you are here is this."

He put a copy of the previous Saturday's newspaper on the table.  
The story about a recent murder and abduction in the Boston area
was highlighted.

Mulder scooted his chair forward.  "We're here because of a murder?"

"Alone this doesn't amount to much, but when you compare it to 
this," he said pulling another newspaper out, "it makes a lot more 
sense."

An unfamiliar newspaper sat on the table, also from the Boston 
area.  The front page headline told about a serial killer's latest 
victims.  The two crimes were eerie in similarity.

"Don't tell me that your transporter brought over a serial killer,"
Mulder said.

Wagner sighed.  "It would appear so.  That's why I contacted the 
FBI.  One of my colleagues worked with you on a case several years 
ago, Agent Mulder.  He was quite impressed with your ability to get
a handle of the minds of killers.  I called to the FBI to see if you
were still working there and your boss thinks that you would be able 
to lend your assistance to me."

His jaw tightened.  "Remind me when we get back to kick Skinner's--"

"Mulder, not here."  She looked at Wagner.  "If what you're saying 
is true, we're going to need more than a couple of newspaper articles
to help you get this killer off the street."

"I understand completely, Agent Scully.  That's why Joseph has 
brought over the police notes from the other world.  He brought 
everything he could find over here."

"You mean, he can still come back and forth?  He has access to all
that information?"  Scully was surprised.  She would have thought 
with the problems they were having that the other world had become
inaccessible.

"Yes, he can.  The portal itself has not suffered any damage," Wagner
explained, "And since we control the universe, anything is available 
to us.  If there is any further information you need from the other 
side, let me know and he will be able to retrieve it for you.  Mike 
has the files for you waiting outside."

"Wait a minute, Professor," Mulder said.  "We need to know what 
differences there are between us and them.  I'm not going to be able
to write an accurate profile unless we know the differences between
here and there."

Wagner nodded his understanding.  "Some things are incredibly similar
to the way things are here, technology for one thing.  The biggest 
difference is the social views on things.  They are very conservative
on the other side.  Families rarely get divorced, there is no such 
thing as an openly gay lifestyle, teenage pregnancies are few and 
disguised as much as possible.  Abortions are still illegal.  Think 
of things back in our 1950s."

"How did Nixon not resigning cause all that?" Mulder asked 
incredulously.

"That is classified information, Agent Mulder.  I refuse to tell 
you before I tell the people who have graciously given me their 
money to further my cause."  Wagner scooted his chair back and stood
up.  "If you would excuse me, I have this pressing problem to deal 
with."

He left the agents in the room.  "Mulder?  You ok?"

He clinched his fist.  "Not now, Scully.  Let's go get this 
information the good professor left for us."

She lead them out of the room to find Mike waiting for them 
expectantly.  "I feel like I should apologize for the professor's
rude behavior," he said. "Things are extremely hectic as you could
imagine," he smiled sadly at Scully.

She looked at him sympathetically.  Maybe it was the little boy 
face or the look of "I'm just trying to do what I can to make 
everyone's life a little easier", but she found herself comparing 
him to Pendrell.  Though several months had passed since his 
untimely death, she still felt a wave of sadness washed over her.

Scully forced herself to focus on the situation in front of her.  "I 
still find this whole thing rather..."

"Impossible?" Mike offered.

She nodded.  "We get that quite often," he said.  "It is rather 
amazing when you think about it."

"I have my undergrad degree in physics.  I know that there is lot 
of places in the study of time to theorize--" she began.

"Yeah," Mulder chimed in, "she even rewrote Einstein for her thesis."

"Really?" Mike looked interested.  "I'd like to read that some time."

Scully grimaced.  She had written that so long ago.  It embarrassed
her to read how arrogant she sounded in the paper.  "I'm sure you 
have better things to read.  But, I am interested in this whole 
equation system the professor was talking about."

Mike frowned.  "I can't talk about that, Agent Scully.  I'm sorry.  
That's part of the confidentially agreement I signed when I came on 
the project."  He lowered his voice.  "Let's just say, everything has
a numerical breakdown."

"Everything?" she asked incredulously.

"Yes.  Some things are more complex than others, obviously."  The 
professor walked in and Mike changed the subject.  "This is all the 
data we have collected about the murders.  If you need background on 
anything else, I have included a contact number in the folder."

"Thank you," Scully said, taking the papers from him.

He nodded and walked back to the computers.  Mulder and Scully took 
that  as their cue to leave.  "Let's get out of here.  I'm sure 
Skinner, being the efficient guy he is, has already made our travel 
arrangements," Mulder said.


State Route 193
11:25 a.m.

After a quick call to Skinner's office, they found out they did, in 
fact, have a fight scheduled to Boston for later in the afternoon.

It was after they were on the road to pick up their luggage from 
their apartments that Mulder exploded.  "I can't believe this load of
crap, Scully.  This wasn't an X-File and Skinner knew it."

She had been prepared for his outburst since she hung up her cell 
phone.  She knew he felt he was being used and had to try to focus
his attention elsewhere. 

"You have to admit though this is a unique profile you are being 
asked to write.  Think about what everyone will say at the Bureau.  
Spooky and the Misses catches a serial killer from another universe.
We'll definitely meet our expectations for being..." Her voice faded,
not sure what word would fit.

"Weird?" he offered.  "I can see us in the courtroom now.  No, Your 
Honor, he didn't commit all the other murders here.  You see, he's 
actually from another plane of existence."

Scully laughed softly.  She knew Mulder needed to use his humor to 
deflect the turmoil in his mind.  "This could only happen to us."

He couldn't help but to smile back.  "You would think after fluke 
men, liver eating mutants and people who can control lightening that
nothing would phase us.  I guess the Big Guy likes to keep us on our
toes.  Remind me not to tick Him off anymore."

The traffic slowed down as he bit his lip.  He needed to change the 
subject before he took his anger out on Scully.  "You seemed awfully
agreeable with the whole parallel universe theory the professor and 
his assistant were talking about.  Don't tell me my favorite skeptic 
is getting less cynical."

"No, I haven't," she said.  The truth was she was fascinated with 
the possibility of what Wagner had been talking about.  It was 
incredible to consider really.  It was the most elaborate "what if"
scenario that could ever be tested and her scientific mind was eager
to learn the outcome of the experiment.

She looked at Mulder, who was waiting for her to continue.  "I think 
they are up to something and I believe they believe in what they are 
doing.  I would be interested in seeing these 'equations' Professor 
Wagner was referring to.  But, unfortunately, that's not our job."

"No, instead you get to chase a killer with me."

"Mulder," she said, starting to get annoyed at his sulking. "I know 
you're disappointed you don't get to live out an episode of Star 
Trek, but we still have a job to do."

He shook his head, brushing off her attempt to lighten the 
situation.  "It's not that.  You know how I get profiling.  Skinner
does too, that's why I'm surprised he put me on the case."

"I'm not scared of you," she assured him.

He let out a bitter laugh.  "That's reassuring, because I scare the 
hell out of myself when I'm like that."

She frowned thinking about his behavior during the Patterson case.  
Images of his apartment walls covered with papers filled her mind 
and she let out a small shudder.  "I know things can get intense 
for you."

He pulled back his hand and gripped the steering wheel.  "You don't
get it.  I.  Become.  The.  Killer.  I see what he sees, I feel 
what he feels.  Soon, I forget what it's like to think like a normal
person."

She looked at his profile.  She watched his cheek move as he 
clinched his jaw.  "That's why I'm your partner.  I'm going to 
watch your back and protect you.  Even from yourself."

He stole a glance at her.  "It's a tough job."

She smiled softly.  "But somebody has to do it."


Medford Police Department
4:50 p.m.

They had decided they would stop by the police department and 
collect their notes to compare with the ones Wagner provided 
before heading to the hotel.

After their conversation in the car, Mulder seemed only slightly 
more at ease.  He sat silently the entire flight while Scully 
read the article that was written on Saturday.  Mulder had 
steadfastly refused to look at any evidence from the other crimes 
until he was able to look at the data from this crime scene.

Someone had broken into the Jacobson home on Thursday evening.  The
father, John Jacobson, had been murdered; his heart had been cut out 
of his chest.  His nine-year-old daughter, Mallory, had been 
kidnapped.  The young girl's face covered half the page with a 
phone number to call if anyone saw her.  The mother wasn't at the
house during that time.

She managed to give Mulder the basic information without him snapping
at her.  She knew he wanted as little knowledge as possible until he
could submerge himself in the dark world of profiling.

She offered a quick prayer for Mulder's sanity as they pulled into
the parking lot.  Scully approached the front desk.  "Hi, I'm Agent 
Scully and this is my partner Agent Mulder.  We spoke to a Detective
Mason on the phone concerning a recent homicide and child abduction."

The sectary nodded with a smile.  "Right, the Feds.  Paul said you
would be coming.  Go down the hall, second door on the left."

The directions she gave them led them to an interrogation room.
On one side of the table was a young man who Scully assumed was the
detective and on the other was a middle aged woman who had obviously
been crying.

"Sorry to interrupt," Mulder said, "we were told Detective Mason
was here."

The man stood up and walked to them.  "That would be me.  You 
must be the FBI agents."  He nodded to the woman still sitting.  
"This is Amber Jacobson.  It was her husband that was murdered 
and her daughter that was kidnapped."

Scully leaned in.  "Is she a suspect?"

Mason shook his head.  "No, not at all.  We released her earlier 
this weekend when her alibi checked out.  She heard through the 
grapevine the two of you were coming and doesn't want to leave until
she gets a chance to talk with you."  

He shrugged.  "I can't really blame her.  I would do the same thing
if my little girl was missing."

"You have a little girl?" Scully asked.

His face filled with pride.  "Sure do.  Her name is Kes.  I don't 
know what I would do if some sicko took her away from my wife and
me."

Mulder was starting to get annoyed at the chit chat.  "May I?" he
asked.

Mason shrugged.  "Be my guest."

Mulder sat in front of the woman.  Her eyes were red and puffy, but
her face was determined.  She reminded him of Scully.  "Mrs. 
Jacobson, I am so sorry for your loss.  My name is Fox Mulder, I am
an agent from the FBI.  That is my partner Agent Dana Scully," he 
nodded in her direction.  "We're going to do what we can to help 
you."

The woman sat up right.  "All I want is my little girl back and my 
husband's killer to be found."

"That's all we want too," he assured her.  "But that's going to take 
time.  I know you have probably been asked a lot of questions, but 
I'm going to ask them again.  Ok?"

"I will do anything to get my baby back home," she said.

"Tell us about your husband.  What kind of person was he?  What 
things did he like to do?" Mulder started.

Mrs. Jacobson took a deep breath.  "He is, I mean, was a hard worker.
Work was his life.  He was a prescription drug sale representative 
and he was good at what he did.  His job was the way he was able to 
prove to himself that he could take care of me and Mallory.  He grew
up very poor and was determined not to give that life to our little 
girl."

"How was their relationship?" Scully asked softly, not wanting to 
upset the woman.

She shrugged.  "Typical, I guess.  Sometimes they fought, mainly over
how much he worked.  But most of the time, they got along really 
well.  John made it a priority that when it was home time to give 
100 percent to Mallory and me.  We'd go camping or on a trip to New 
York for the weekend.  You know, family time."

"Did he have any enemies?  People at work who maybe envied him?" 
Mulder asked.

Mrs. Jacobson shook her head.  "Not that I know of.  John mainly
kept to himself.  He went to the clients and tried to sell them his
product.  John is really easy going.  He would go out of his way to
make sure there was peace between him and another."

Mulder bit his lip.  He didn't see a clear direction of how the 
killer was operating.  They sounded like most other families in the
United States.  Overworked father trying to make a living.

"Mrs. Jacobson, thank you for answering our questions.  Agent Scully
and I are going to have to go through all the information the police
collected.  That's going to take time.  My suggestion to you is to go
home, grieve for your husband and hold hope for your daughter.  
That's all you can do for now," he said sadly.

She looked into his eyes and saw the pain there.  "Have you lost 
somebody too?"

He felt the wave of loss hit him.  Samantha.  His father.  Almost 
Scully.  "Yeah, I have," he answered.  "That's why I know what you're
feeling.  It will be tough but I'll find whoever is responsible, I 
promise."

She scooted her chair back.  "Thank you, Agent Mulder.  I hope you
know what you're doing.  Mallory is depending on it."  She turned 
around and left the three alone.

"Well, that was easier than I thought it would be," Mason commented.
"She would not budge from this room.  I thought she would stay here
until we had a suspect in custody."  Mason looked at Mulder with awe.

Mulder stood up, shrugging.  "Sometimes all it takes is for you to 
feel as though another person understands what you're going through."

"Speaking of understanding, I'm afraid I still don't know why you 
guys are involved with this investigation," the detective said.

Scully spoke up before Mulder could relay anything about parallel 
universes and ruin their chances of working successfully with the 
local law enforcement.  "There are some similarities between this 
case and others.  We just want to make sure this isn't the work of 
a serial killer."

Mason's eyes widened.  "I haven't heard of anything like this going
on.  Where did you say the other murders took place?"

"She didn't," Mulder answered shortly.  "If you wouldn't mind, 
Detective, I need all the notes and photos pertaining to this case.
The faster the better."  He walked out of the room, leaving Scully 
to deal with Mason.

"I apologize, Detective-" she started.

"Paul," he corrected.  "Detective always makes me feel like I'm in
a courtroom."

She smiled briefly.  "Paul," she began, "Agent Mulder has a tendency
to want to complete his profile as quickly as possible.  If he comes
off short to you, please don't take it personally."

He waved her words off.  "Agent Scully, I have worked with my fair 
share of Feds.  I know that we are working towards the same goal.  
Tensions run high and I can understand that.  If he wants copies of 
all the data we have, fine.  If he can help get a killer off the 
streets, then the city of Medford would be willing to do anything 
for him."

This time her smile was sincere.  "Thank you, Paul.  We'll do our
best."

"I had Amy clear out conference room two for you both to use as a 
command center.  All the information Agent Mulder asked for is 
already in there.  I figured it would be easier than you trying 
to go to Boston's FBI headquarters.  And you can assure Agent Mulder
that he'll be left alone," he said knowingly.

"We really appreciate that, thank you," she said, exiting the room.

When she saw Mulder standing against the wall in the hallway, her 
anger flared.  "You know, you could have at least tried to be cordial
to the people here."  When he didn't say anything, she continued, 
"Paul said he has a conference room set up for us to work in."

"Paul?  Getting friendly with the locals?" he said sarcastically.

"Grow up, Mulder."  She walked to the front desk, leaving him to 
brood.

A few minutes later, Paul came out of the room.  "Agent Mulder?  
Is there something wrong?"

Yeah, he thought, but nothing I'm going to share with you.  "No, just
collecting my thoughts, Detective."

"I told your partner, I hate the title Detective.  Call me Paul,"
he said with a smile on his face.

"I hate my first name, so call me Mulder," he said back.  He 
swallowed.  He hated what he was about to do, but knew Scully 
wouldn't leave him alone until he did it.  "I'm sorry if I seemed 
short in there."

Paul grinned.  "No problem, Mulder.  Like I told your partner, we're 
both on the same team.  No need in getting upset over small things.  
Anyway, I think we have got you all set up back there.  Let Amy know 
if you need anything else."  He smiled sheepishly.  "This whole case 
makes me want to go home and be near my wife and daughter.  I'm going
home for the day.  I'll see you in the morning."

Mulder looked at his watch.  5:00 p.m.  Sometimes he envied the idea
of a normal life.


Conference Room 2
Medford Police Department

When Mulder entered the room, he saw that the detective was true to 
his word.  There was one large table with various folder and crime 
scene photos on them.  Against the far wall was a whiteboard that 
already had the victims' names and photos on it.  By the door was a 
desk where Scully had set up her laptop.

She didn't even look up to greet him.  Damn, he thought.  This was 
not what he needed, but he couldn't blame Scully.  He knew when he 
was being a jerk.

Maybe she would let his comment from earlier slide, knowing that he 
needed her support.  "Nice digs, do you think Paul would let us move 
in?" hoping she would ignore his earlier behavior.

"Paul?" her eyebrow rose, "Did you guys share some male bonding?"

He turned away from her glare.  Ok, she wasn't going to let him 
off that easy.  When she didn't want to just brush things aside, 
groveling always seemed to work.  "I'm sorry, Scully.  What I said 
was inappropriate.  If it makes you feel better I have already 
extended my apologies to the detective."

If she was surprised by his friendly gesture, she didn't share that 
with him.  "It's fine, Mulder.  Come on, we've got a job to do."

Great, he thought sarcastically, as if things couldn't get any 
better. 

*       *       *       *

After a few hours, they had come up with a system for the information
they had.  The crimes that had been committed in Wagner's world would
be treated as if they were done by the same suspect until it was 
proven that they weren't.

There had been five murders, including the one which had been 
committed in their world.  Each homicide occurred on a Thursday 
for the past five weeks and the scenario was the same: the father 
was murdered, his heart removed, and the young girl was abducted.  
The mother was always out of the house.  All the crimes had been 
committed within a 40 mile radius.  So far none of the girls had 
been found.

Working had helped lower the tension between the partners.  "What do 
you think, Mulder?" Scully asked.  "Are we dealing with a pedophile?
He just killed the father to get access to the girl?"

He frowned.  "I don't think so.  I think there's more to it than 
just that.  The date for one thing.  It seems too planned.  And the 
fact the heart was removed from the father's chest makes it very 
personal.  I have a feeling it has something to do with the fathers
as much as it does the girls."

She stood up, cracking her back.  "I think we've got everything set 
up for a good start tomorrow."

He glanced up from the crime scene photos.  "You go on ahead, I'm 
going to stay here for a while."

"You're not going to the hotel?"  She was surprised.  She would have 
thought he would want to put off the profile as long as possible.

Mulder waggled his eyebrows at her.  "You should know, Scully, I do 
all of my best work at night."

A small smile passed over her face.  "Don't stay too late, Mulder."

He waved her off.  "I just want to get a timeline going.  Nothing 
too intense.  I'll get one of the officers here to give me a lift 
back to the hotel."

"Ok," she said, grabbing her briefcase from under the desk.  "Call
me if you need anything."

"I promise to be a good boy.  Unless you want me to be bad," he said 
suggestively.

"Good night, Mulder."

Holiday Inn
November 8, 1997
6:30 a.m.

Scully finished putting on her lipstick.  She didn't know how early 
Mulder wanted to head over to the police department,  but knowing him
he was probably up and ready to go, eager to eat a fattening 
breakfast and start the day.  She unlocked her side of the connecting
door and opened it.  She tried Mulder's side.  Locked.

Scully put her ear up against the door.  She couldn't hear any sounds
of him getting ready.  She knocked and said, "Mulder?  Are you in 
there?"

Nothing.

"Mulder?" she called louder.  Still no response.

Frowning, she returned back to her room and grabbed her cell phone.  
Maybe he was in the lobby, she thought.  She pushed the number one 
and waited for the call to be connected.

"What?" came the demand after four rings.

"Mulder?"

A couple of seconds passed before his confused answer came.  
"Scully?"

"Yeah, it's me.  Where are you?  I tried knocking on your door but 
you never answered.  Don't tell me you slept in."

He sighed guiltily.  "Um, I never left the station.  Pretty soon 
after you went to the hotel, I had a theory that I needed to write
down.  That led to reading the police notes and autopsy reports and
you know how those things take time."

She felt her anger flare.  It hadn't even been twenty-four hours and
he was already letting himself go.  "You promised me, Mulder.  You 
have to take care of yourself," she said with a touch of frustration.
"I'm going to go down there and pick you up."

"No!  I can't leave right now.  I'm on to something.  If I stop I 
could lose my momentum."

"You have to sleep sometime.  You'll get sloppy," she warned.

"Just a few more hours, Scully.  You can drag me out here if I 
haven't come up with something by lunch time," he pleaded.

"Fine," she agreed.  "I'll use my handcuffs if I have to."

"Scully, not over an open line.  You never know who might be 
listening."  She could hear his leer over the phone.

She felt relieved at his playful banter.  He wasn't too involved 
with his profile if he could still joke around.  "I'll be down 
there a little later to see how you're doing.  Unlike you, I like
to eat."

"Ok."

"And Mulder, take care of yourself."

She heard his smile.  "I am."

The phone clicked off.


Conference Room 2
6:35 a.m.

Mulder turned the power off his phone.  He knew Scully was concerned 
over him but he couldn't afford to have any more interruptions.

He studied the autopsy notes for the third murder victim.  All of the
men had be murdered exactly in the same manner; their hearts had been
cut out.  They each had extensive bruising on their wrists and 
ankles which the coroner believed was due to restraints.  Based on 
that and the tox report, it was believed that each man was conscious
when the removal of their heart began.

The lack of blood at the location of where the bodies were found made
investigators believe the crime had been committed elsewhere, but had
yet come up with any leads of where the extraction of the hearts took
place.

Every house had been thoroughly checked by each of the CSI teams and 
no forensic evidence was found.  There was no sign of a struggle; 
none of the neighbors saw or heard anything.  It was as if the man 
and girl went with the subject willingly.

Mulder's stomach turned.  This wasn't done by some guy who was angry
at the world and took it out on everything around him.  This kind of
suspect was much more dangerous.

This killer was exceptionally smart.  

And hopefully, Mulder thought, arrogant.

Killing one person and abducting another at the rate of once a week 
took an incredible amount of planning and luck.  And yet, he hadn't 
left anything behind that could lead the authorities to him.  The 
suspect was in total control of the situation and he knew it.  Mulder
could only hope that at some point the suspect's hubris would cause 
him to stumble.

With having so little to work with, Mulder tried to focus on what 
they did know about the murders.  The hearts had been removed and 
not placed with the body.  The father's body had been returned to 
the house, each one placed on the living room floor.

"Heartless?" he wrote.  "Unable to love?  The killer sees the heart 
as some kind of trophy.  Victims conscious during time of killing
...payback?  Feeling the killer's pain? A way for the suspect to 
make them suffer.  Possibly abused as child."

Each man had been rather successful in business, often traveling and 
leaving his family behind.  From the information he had, none of the 
men were particularly close to their families.  Work was their number
one priority.

Coming to a dead end, he shifted his focus on the little girls.  The 
only personal item from the girls' belongings that was missing were a
pair of their pajamas.  Again, there was no sign of forced entry into
their rooms and nothing forensically was left behind.

"Thinks he's their savior," he had written earlier in the morning.  
"Wants to rescue the girls from the father.  Become surrogate?"

He looked at the white board where the five girls were staring back
at him.  He was still looking for a pattern between the girls.  Their
ages ranged from 7-11.  There were three white, one Asian and one 
Mexican girl. They all went to different schools and none of them 
knew each other.  He knew there had to be a method to the killer's 
pattern, but he had yet to discover it.  

His head jerked up when he heard the door open.  It was Scully.  

And a cup of coffee.  

He took the cup greedily.  "I love you, Scully."

"Be honest with me."

"Ok, I love your coffee."

She lips turned upward.  "That's what I thought."  She nodded to his 
notes.  "Come up with anything yet?"

"Not yet," he frowned.  "This guy is really smart, Scully.  I mean, 
we're talking genius IQ.  He's committed the perfect crime five 
times in a row."

"No crime is perfect.  We'll find something," she assured him.  
"I'll start looking over the police reports and try to get a fresh 
perspective on things."

"Sure, I'm going to go through the information on the fathers.  I 
know I'm missing something," he said with frustration.

"Do you need me to call the professor and have him get us some more 
background on the men?"

The experiment.  Somehow during the course of trying to develop his 
profile, Mulder had forgotten the real reason he was here.  "No," 
he said quickly, not wanting Scully to pick up his faux pas.  
"Wagner's supplied us with enough information for now."

*       *       *       *

Scully scooted her chair back from the table.  Mulder was right, this
killer was extremely intelligent.  She couldn't believe his 
thoroughness.  There wasn't one fiber in any of the homes that were 
out of place.  Not a stray hair, not a fingerprint.

She pushed her chair back from the table.  "Well, Mulder, the only 
thing I can see in common with most of the girls is they had older 
brothers.  All except the Jacobson family."

He ran his hand through his hair, frustrated.  "I know, I read that
too.  But, why would he change his pattern now?  He was very 
successful at all his previous attempts."

Scully's eyes widened. "What if he didn't change patterns, but the 
world around him did?"

He smacked the table.  "Damn, I should have picked up on that sooner.
I've been so wrapped up in getting this profile done that I keep on 
forgetting this guy isn't from around here."

She looked at the dark circles around his eyes.  His suit was 
terribly wrinkled and his hair was in a million directions from him 
running his hands through it.  She knew he needed rest before he got 
more sloppy.  

"Go to the hotel, Mulder," she insisted.  "You've been up for over 
twenty-four hours.  I'll have the professor to get information on 
the Jacobson family from over there while you sleep.  When we get 
that information then you can come back and work on your profile.  
Until then, get some rest.  You should have picked up on that 
information a lot sooner.  It won't help if you get start slipping 
up."

"Yes, Mother," he sighed.  He hated when she was right.  Maybe a few
hours of sleep would help get him refocused. 

"I'll call you when I hear back from him."

When he closed the door, she pulled out the card with Wagner's number
on it.  She dialed it and waited for the answer.

"Professor Wagner's phone.  This is Mike Steward speaking."

She cleared her throat.  "This is Agent Dana Scully.  We're going to
need some information about the victim's family."

"I can help you with that, Agent Scully.  Just tell me what you need
and I can get the message over to Joseph."

"We need information on the Jacobson family.  Everything you can 
access.  We think there might be a discrepancy to this latest crime 
because of the killer being over here."  She gave him each of the 
victim's full names.

"Sure thing."

She looked at her watch.  It wasn't even halfway to lunchtime yet.
"About how long will it take for you to get that?"

"Joey should be able to get that to you in about four hours.  He 
should be coming through anytime now.  I'll let him know what you 
need and when he goes over there, he'll get it for you."

Four hours, she thought, should be enough time for Mulder to rest.  
"Thank you, Mr. Steward."

"You're welcome.  I'll call you later to get your contact 
information."

She hung up the phone and started looking through the autopsy 
reports, making sure Mulder didn't miss anything else.


Holiday Inn
9:45 a.m.

Mulder had to admit as he pulled off his shirt and collapsed on his 
bed, he was exhausted.  And frustrated.  So many hours wasted without
any kind of breakthrough, he thought.

Within minutes, he was asleep.

As he opened his eyes, he noticed he was in a living room of a well 
furnished house.  <I'm dreaming>, his subconscious thought.  
There were no lights on in the house, but the moonlight shining 
through the window was bright enough for him to make out objects in
the room.

He walked around the couch and saw a middle aged man, lying face down
on the rug.  He slowly approached the body and rolled it over.

It was his father.

Startled, he pushed back away from the body.  He looked at his hands,
which were covered in blood.  His father's blood.

All of the sudden, his father started to sit up.  With a hole in his 
chest and his eyes blankly staring at him, he began to ask, "Why, 
Fox?  How could you do this to me?"

He turned around and ran to the front door.  He tried to open it but
the blood on his hands made the knob too slippery.  He banged on the
door.  "Help!  Somebody help!"

He woke up with a gasp, sweat covering his body.  There was no way 
in the world he would sleep now.  Subconsciously, he looked down at 
his hands.  Clean.

He pushed himself out of bed, and walked into the bathroom.  He 
needed to take a shower, to try to clear his mind of the darkness
that lay ahead.


Conference Room 2
3:30 p.m.

It had actually taken Joseph closer to five hours to retrieve the 
information, Scully noted.  When the last email attachment had 
downloaded on her computer, she called Mulder who demanded that she 
wait for him before she looked at anything.

She stretched her back.  She knew that soon Mulder would start 
blaming himself if he wasn't able to make some headway on this 
profile.  He always took it upon himself to be the hero for those who
ask for his help, no matter the cost.  It was one the best, and 
worst, things about him.

He opened the door with a sandwich in one hand.  "Gotta love the 
locals.  Paul bought this for me earlier, thinking that I wouldn't 
remember to eat.  It's like having room service I tell you."  Despite
his playful remark, Mulder sat down with a frown in front of Scully's
laptop.

She pointed to a folder on her laptop.  "That's everything they sent
me."

"Ok, Scully, I can take it from here," he shooed her away.

"Mulder?"  She could feel her temper rise.  He felt like he could 
simply dismiss her, did he?

He looked at her apologetically.  "I need space.  Now that we have 
the full picture in front of us, I feel like I can see the killer 
clearly.  I need the freedom to do what I need to do.  I can't do 
that in front of anyone, Scully.  Not even you."

She understood his reasons, but she still stung.  "Fine, I'll go to
the morgue and talk to the medical examiner.  I'll see if there's any
more information on Mr. Jacobson," she said, making it seem like she 
had something to do.

He didn't even lift up his head as she closed the door.

*       *       *       *

After reading over what the lab had sent, Mulder did find a 
connection with the original girls: each of them had a brother
who was three years older than them.

Scully had come in earlier to tell him she discovered no vital 
information from the coroner and she was getting a ride back to 
the hotel for the night.  Mulder couldn't remember if he said 
anything in return to her.

Knowing that he would have about eight hours before she came 
back, he began writing his profile.  He had figured that the 
suspect was replaying a scene from his past because of the
consistency of each crime.  Since the only common factor was 
the older brother, he assumed that was the role the killer had.

The fact that the crime scenes were so meticulous, led Mulder to 
know that the suspect was a well educated man.  Based on the way 
the heart was removed, he was leaning towards a doctor, possibly 
a surgeon.  He was probably between 30-40 years old, based on the
time necessary to go through medical school and the strength he
would need to take out men that were at least his size.

He believed the killer was trying to save the girls, because their
brother's weren't able to protect them from their fathers.  The 
suspect probably was unable to help protect his sister, Mulder 
assumed, and was trying to amend that with the girls.

The fathers were murdered because they didn't focus their attention
on their families, particularly their daughters.  The suspect cast
the blame of not being able to save the girls on the fathers, giving
them the judgment of death.

Mulder saw five little girls with their pajamas on, looking at him,
calling for help.  To save them from an evil man.  The call to save
these girls was a familiar feeling.  

Too familiar.

He had lived with that feeling all of his life.  To try to save his
own sister from the evil powers that be.

Suddenly, everything started to make sense.  He scrambled to his cell
phone, which was next to Scully's computer.  After a couple of rings,
he heard Scully answer.

"Scully, I know who the killer is."

"What?" he could hear her pushing herself to sit up on the bed.

"I know who our suspect is," he repeated.

"Who, Mulder?"

"It's me."


Holiday Inn
November 12, 1997
3:33 a.m.

Scully was already opening the door as Mulder walked up to it.  
There were no signs of the sleepy woman who had answered her phone
minutes prior.  She gestured at the round table in the corner of 
the room for Mulder to sit, but he shook his head and paced around 
the room instead.

"I know that you think I'm crazy, Scully, but I'm not.  For the first
time since I started this profile, things are finally making sense,"
he said defensively.

"All I want to know is why you think that it's you, or rather, the
you from Wagner's universe that is committing these murders," she 
replied softly.

"Look at all of the connections.  A little girl is taken from her 
home with a pair of pajamas, like Samantha.  Each one of the girls 
has a brother who was three years older than them, like I was," he
started.  "Each of the fathers was dedicated with their work.  They
were...heartless, like mine was."

"He's trying to save the girl's from a fate different than 
Samantha's.  Maybe he thinks it was my dad's fault for her abduction.
That's why he is killing the fathers," he explained.

He sat down in a chair for a few seconds before getting up and 
started walking around the room again.

"There's something else, Scully.  If the suspect continues his 
pattern, the eighth girl will be taken on November 27."

Realization dawned in her eyes.  "The day Samantha was taken."

"Right, and the number of girls will end of totaling Samantha's age 
when she disappeared.  Don't tell me that is a coincidence."

She frowned.  Mulder was very serious about this.  She knew that at
this point it was pointless to argue with him.  "Mulder, if, and 
that's a big if we're talking about, there are people we have to 
tell.  If he is as smart as you then he's already got a significant 
head start on us," she said.  "We're in a lot of trouble if he finds
out you're an FBI agent."

"I know, Scully," he agreed.  "That's all I've been thinking about.
We need to get back to D.C.  Tell Skinner what's going on."

She nodded.  "I'll book the flights.  We'll contact the professor in
the morning to get all the information about him."

"I never thought I would have an evil twin," he joked half-heartedly.
"We are going to have to be on our toes," he warned.  "This guy will 
be a handful.  You should know, you've been chasing me for years."


I-95 south
November 12, 1997
6:30 a.m.

Six days ago, William was walking to his classroom, everything like
it normally was.  He bent down to tie his shoe.  When he looked up 
again he was in a place that looked completely different.

The college students were wearing clothes that made him blush; their
behavior was that of a couple behind closed doors.  People were 
starting to stare at his open-mouthed look.  He mumbled an apology
to the students around him and turned around.

He walked away quickly to his car, which wasn't there.  He rubbed
his temples.  What in the world he going on?  Was this God's way
of punishing him for what he was doing?

He took a deep breath and calmed himself.  He could handle this.
He was Fox William Mulder.  The world could throw what it could
at him and he would survive, just like he always did.

He looked at his watch.  He could still keep everything on 
schedule if he kept his cool.  He had to for her sake.  

First things first, he thought, I need money.

He made his way to the facility parking lot and saw a younger woman 
approaching her car.  Bingo.  She was his ticket out of here.  He 
put on his best puppy dog look and walked to her.

"Hi there," he said, flashing a small smile.

She looked at him.  "Um, hi."

"Oh, that's right you don't know me.  I just started teaching a 
late session class.  Over in the bio wing," William lied.

She smiled, more at ease.  "Actually, I teach British Literature.  I 
doubt I would have ever gotten a chance to meet you..."

He grinned.  This was almost too easy.  "William.  William Mulder.
And you are?"

"Denise Young."

"Well, I know this probably won't make this greatest first 
impression, but do you think you could do me a favor?"  Her 
uneasiness was back.  "Nothing big, I promise.  I just need a ride
to the bank."

She let out a breath.  "I can do that.  Come on."

At the bank, he had similarly charmed the clerk into telling him 
that he only had one open account: his trust fund his parents set
up for him when he was a child.  He pulled out $25,000 and set out
to getting everything ready.  

He realized too late that the Jacobson family wasn't what he thought,
but he still needed the girl.  He killed the father like he had the
others to save her.  For Samantha's sake.

After he had taken care of the girl, he planned out his next day. 
He would need to figure out what he had happened to him.  It was
as if the entire world had changed without him.  But, his social
security number was good, as he discovered at the bank, which made
him think that there could possibly be another Fox William Mulder
out there.  

He spent the weekend scouring the internet for information on
"him".  He soon discovered that his counterpart was a FBI agent and
had many connections with groups dealing with alien abduction.  Some
people even alluded to the fact he thought his sister was abducted
by aliens.

"And people think I'm crazy," he muttered.

Once he collected all the information he could on Mulder, he spent
the next two days were spent monitoring his next victims: the 
McCords.  Fortunately for him, there were no unexpected changes in
this family's routine, unlike the Jacobsons. They behaved very 
similarly to the family he was stalking before everything changed.

Now, he was on his way to meeting his "twin."  He planned on 
surprising him at the Hoover Building since he was unable to access 
his home address.  The two of them could work together and make 
Samantha proud.  


Flight 393
6:30 a.m.

"Mulder, if you don't stop bouncing your leg, I won't be held
responsible for my actions."

He stuck out his lower lip.  "Sorry, Scully.  This whole thing has
got me wound up.  I just want to get on the ground and find him."

"What are we going to do, call him?  We can't go around saying 'the 
twin of Mulder'," she said, grateful he stopped moving.  The
constant motion was making her nauseous.

He smiled grimly.  "I think we should call him Fox.  I mean it's the
least we can do to make him suffer for all the crimes he's 
committed."

She put her hand on his arm.  "We've been so busy trying to get back
to D.C. this morning, I haven't had a chance to ask you if you're 
ok."

He shrugged.  "I can't really think about it right now.  That would 
require a whole lot of soul searching that I'm not ready to do.  
Would I have become a serial killer if a few things in my life were 
different?"  He blew out a long breath.  "I hope not."

"You wouldn't be," she reassured him.  "I know you Mulder, you are a 
man of integrity.  You would never want anyone to hurt the way he 
has.  You have dedicated your life to helping people, not destroying
them."

Scully leaned over and kissed him on his cheek softly.  "No matter 
what happens, don't ever question yourself, Mulder.  You are not 
him."

He smiled.  "Thanks, Scully."


University of Maryland
8:00 a.m.

Scully and Mulder were greeted by an unfamiliar face when they
arrived at the lab. "You must be the FBI agents. I'm Joseph
Gomez," the man greeted.

Mulder looked around. "Where's your boss?"

Joseph frowned. "A couple of the investors heard about
the explosion and came down here to check things out. He's
in a meeting with them, explaining how the project is going."

Scully's eyebrow rose. "Is he telling them about the people 
appearing from over there?" she asked, gesturing to the portal.

He shook his head. "No, no. That is to be kept away from
them at all costs."

"Figures," Scully heard Mulder mumbled under his breath.

She rolled her eyes. Anything to keep the cash flow going, she 
assumed. "Have you been able to make any progress in closing the 
rift?"

Joseph shrugged. "Some, but not as much as Wagner wants. We're 
doing the best we can. We did mange to stop people appearing from 
over there. We're hoping we can have the rift closed in about a 
day or so."

"How many people do you figure came over?"

"Rough estimate, ten thousand."

The number was larger than she expected. Sooner or later people 
were going to figure out something was really wrong. "Is it going
to take another five hours to get the information we need?"

Joseph blushed. "I apologize for the delay yesterday. There 
were some samples I needed to collect and thought I could 
retrieve both at the same time. As for the data you need now, 
Mike wanted to propose an idea to you."

As if on cue, Mike walked out of the professor's office. "Good 
morning, Agent Mulder. Agent Scully."

Mulder leaned back on a desk. "Your friend here was just 
saying that you have something you want to tell us."

"Yes, I do," Mike nodded. "I was wondering if Agent Scully 
would like to accompany me through the portal to get the data
the two of you need."

The partners looked at each other; one with a look of jealousy
and the other with panic. Scully turned slowly to Mike. "Why
do you want me over there?"

"I think that being the trained investigator you are, you are 
going to know exactly what you are looking for. I'm just a 
scientist. The most I know about fighting crime is what I see 
on NYPD Blue," he explained. "With you there, you will know 
what is important and what's not."

"But how? A private citizen can't just stroll in and collect 
background information on a person," she said.

Joseph cut in. "I can explain that, Agent Scully. When we 
access the other world, we can put different parameters of how
they see us. If we wanted to, we could be anything from a 
policeman to the President of the United States."

"We've already set it up so that we'd be FBI agents. That will
allow us access to everything. And because the murders have been
committed in the Boston area, we have the drop off location there,"
Mike further explained. He turned to Mulder. "I would invite 
you, Agent Mulder. However, if your belief that the other Mulder 
did murder those people is correct, I'd rather not complicate 
things by having you over there."

When it seemed like he would argue, Mike pressed forward. "All it
would take it someone identifying you at the crime scene or a piece
of forensic evidence tied to you to there and you would be stuck. 
They have no idea they aren't real and they would lock you away if
you tried to explain otherwise." He turned to Scully. "It's up to
you, Agent Scully."

"I don't know," she said slowly. "I still find myself having trouble
believing this whole idea of parallel universes really exist."

"Well, this would be aside any doubts you may have."

She looked at Mulder. He seemed relatively content with
the idea of him staying behind. "What about her safety?"
he asked.

Joseph shrugged. "The body sustains no physical damage when 
traveling through the portal. The only possible complication would
be coming back here. As long as she stays with Mike, she'll be 
fine."

The partners exchanged an entire conversation with one glance.
It was an opportunity she didn't want to miss. "Yes, I'll go 
with you," she finally answered.

"Great, we'll set up the final configuration. It should take about 
five minutes." Mike walked to the nearest computer station and began
typing.

Scully pulled Mulder to the side of the room. "You really ok 
with this?"

"I would be lying if I told you I wasn't jealous, but if it's
not me, I wouldn't want it to be anyone other than you." He smiled
wickedly. "Hey, if you're gone, does that mean I get to update 
Skinner with my theory?"

She groaned slightly. Skinner only could tolerate Mulder's ideas in
small doses. "Yes, but promise you'll be on your best behavior."

"'Scout's honor," he said, raising his right hand.

"Agent Scully," Mike called, "we're ready."

She nodded in his direction and walked towards the door frame. 
Suddenly, the computer beeped three times. Then the door frame began
to glow. The three lights at the top of the frame flashed blue. 
Inside the frame, the image became murky, as if there was a heavy 
fog. Then, it became clear. An empty room with a desk appeared on 
the other side.

"Wow," Scully said under her breath.

Mike walked up to the portal. "If you're ready, Agent Scully."

She followed the assistant, then turned back to Mulder. She was 
suddenly very nervous. Mulder held up his hand in a Vulcan pose. 
"Live long and prosper." Scully rolled her eyes and walked through 
the portal.

As soon as they had gone through the door frame, the lights on the 
door turned red. The once clear image of the room was starting to 
fade.  Mulder looked through the portal until he could no longer see
anything.  

"They should be back within three hours. Do you want to wait here?" 
asked Joseph.

Mulder shook his head, "No, I've got some other leads to follow. Just
do me a favor and have Agent Scully call me when she returns."

Joseph nodded. "Will do."


Boston FBI Field Office

Scully didn't know quite what to expect when she took her final step 
through the portal. But an empty room that looked like any other 
office in the country wasn't it.

Mike handed her a small pager-type device. "Here, Agent Scully. 
This is a tracking device. If we get separated at all, activate the
call button. It will send out a signal to Joseph and me."

He walked to the desk and pulled out some items. "This is your new 
FBI badge. Your other one is useless here. Now, there are a few 
things you should know. Women are not treated equally here, so don't
be offended if the officers or anyone else addresses me rather than 
you."

She had met her fair share of chauvinistic cops in the past. "Ok, I 
can handle that."

"Also, the technology here is incredibly similar to ours, yet 
different. There is no compatibility for their data to ours. 
Everything you need to bring back has to be on paper or the like." 
He sighed. "What I wouldn't do for a chance to load everything onto 
a zip drive." Mike looked at her. "Are you ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," she said truthfully.

Mike lead her out of the door which dumped them in the heart of 
the Boston Division of the FBI. Scully surveyed her surroundings.  
Everything seemed rather familiar from what she remembered from her
past experience in the Boston Field Office.  Except for the fact 
she appeared to be the only woman who was an FBI agent.

No one in the room seemed to pay any attention to the empty room the 
two had just come out from.  "They can't see the door we just came 
from," he explained.  "It's one of the safety measures we have to
prevent cross contamination."

At Scully's puzzled look, he explained, "That's what we call it when
someone from here goes into our world."

She nodded as she walked to a computer.  "How can I access the 
records?"

He leaned over her to reach the keyboard.  "We have a universal user
ID and password; it allows us access into everything."  Mike quickly 
typed a series of letters; once the command was entered, the computer
was unlocked.  "Also, you can scan your badge.  See that?"  He 
pointed at a holographic insignia in the corner.  "Each computer has
an interface that interacts with that."

"Great," she said.  Scully typed in a search for Fox William Mulder.
Up came a very familiar looking face.  Most of the information there
was identical to Mulder's: same date of birth and same social 
security number.  Only his home address was different.  She scanned 
the page and found something surprising.

"Look," she pointed at the screen, "it says that his mother reported
him missing on Friday."

"That would be more evidence that Agent Mulder is correct in his 
assumption." He nodded to the other computer. "I'll print off the 
notes on the missing case so far. Do you want me to get his work
information?"

She shook her head as one of the agents walked by. "No, not yet.
I would--"

"Ooh, do you hear that, boys? It seems as though Fireball here has 
forgotten her place," taunted the man. He turned to Mike. 
"Don't let her talk to you like that!" 

Mike stayed calm. "Agent O'Connor," he began, looking at the man's 
badge. "Agent Scully was simply giving me her insight. I'm sure she
could teach you and your partner quite a few things when it comes 
to conducting an investigation." 

Scully stayed silent. She had underestimated Mike's warning of 
sexism.  It seemed as though women were only allowed to be seen, 
not heard. 

"Seems as though somebody's whipped," Agent O'Connor shouted. 

Mike leaned next to the man's ear. "Seems like someone is getting 
transferred to the Juneau field office." 

The man's smirk faded. "I was just joking, sir. Agent Scully surely
knows that." When neither of them spoke, he turned away muttering 
under his breath. 

Mike turned back to Scully with a triumphant smile. "Did I tell you
I made myself Special Agent in Charge?"
 
She softly smiled. It must be nice to be able to have total control 
of your environment, she thought.

She pushed her chair back. "What I was going to say was, we need to 
talk to his mother also. Maybe get a better idea of who this guy 
really is." She looked at the contact number. "I'm calling her."

Mike nodded as she picked up the desk phone.

After the phone rang a vaguely familiar voice answered. "Hello?"

"Mrs. Mulder, this is Dana Scully from the FBI. I was wondering 
if it would be possible to meet with you. I have some questions 
regarding your son's disappearance."

Mrs. Mulder sniffled. "That would be fine. I would do anything to 
get him back. I need him so much."

Scully's eyebrow rose. Well, this was a completely different mother
than the one Mulder had. "When and where would be a good time to 
meet you?"

"I'm at my son's house right now. I just...just needed to be near
him!" She began to sob.

"Ok, Mrs. Mulder, my...partner and I will be right there." She hung
up the phone. "Ready for a trip?"


William Mulder's Residence

Neither Scully nor Mike had to knock on the door, Mrs. Mulder had 
already been waiting for them.  Scully studied the woman for a few 
seconds.  She looked almost exactly the same as Mulder's mother.  
Her hair was a little longer, her face was a bit thinner, but 
Scully had no problems identifying this woman.  She tried not to 
stare, but it was difficult seeing someone who looked familiar, 
yet wasn't.  She wondered how she would handle seeing Mulder's 
counterpart.

"Has there been any news on finding him?" Mrs. Mulder demanded.

Mike shook his head. "No, I'm sorry."

Scully took in the appearance of William's apartment. If possible, 
it looked even more lonely than Mulder's apartment. It was sparsely 
furnished and there were no personal effects anywhere.

Mrs. Mulder lead them to the couch. "What are you doing to find 
William?"

"William?" Scully asked, surprised. "I thought your son's name 
was Fox."

"He hasn't gone by Fox in years," she explained. "Now again, I 
ask you, what have you done to find my boy?"

Scully sat next to the woman. "Mrs. Mulder, I promise you we have
done everything we can to help find William, but we need some more
information. Did William have any enemies? Maybe a co-worker?"

The older woman shook her head. "No. William didn't talk to anyone
at work."

"Ok, how about an ex-girlfriend?"

Scully could swear she actually saw the look of envy pass over Mrs.
Mulder's face. "No, Miss...what did you say your name was?"

"Scully. Dana Scully."

"Miss Scully, William doesn't have any ex-girlfriends. The only
woman in his life is me. And that's enough for him."  Scully tried to
keep the look of disgust off her face. On her notepad she wrote
"possible incest." She looked at Mike and signaled to him to ask the
questions they had come up with in the car.

"Ok, Mrs. Mulder, let's run through the timeline again. You said on
Thursday afternoon William was suppose to meet you for a late lunch, 
when he didn't show you left the restaurant. But you didn't call 
until Friday, why?" he asked.

"Because sometimes he gets called in to do emergency surgeries. He 
has no choice but to go in. William is the best cardiologist in the 
Boston area," she bragged. 

Images of the murdered men filled Scully's mind. Mulder had been 
right in his profile; William was a surgeon.

"Anyway," Mrs. Mulder continued, "when I tried calling him the next 
day and he didn't answer, I knew something was wrong."

"How would you categorize your relationship with your son?" Mike 
questioned.

"Why?" Mrs. Mulder asked defensively. 

"All I'm asking is, would he leave somewhere, let's say on a trip,
and not tell you?" Mike quickly assured her. 

She seemed to calm down. "No. My William tells me everything that is
going on in his life. The two of us are all we have left. We need 
each other."

"Thank you, Mrs. Mulder," said Mike. "Now, I need you to step 
outside for a few minutes while Agent Scully and I have a look around
here." 

"No, I'm not leaving here," she argued adamantly. 

"You don't have a choice," came Scully's response. 

The two women stared at each other until William's mother finally 
backed down. "Fine, you," she said to Mike, "do what you need to 
do to find my son." She looked distastefully at Scully.  "I'm
giving you five minutes to look around and then I'm coming back
in.  If you want me to leave again, you'll need a warrant."  She
closed the front door loudly. 

"Yikes," he muttered. 

"She's nothing compared to some people Mulder and I have met 
over the years," Scully said. 

He shook his head in disbelief. "I'm going to have a look at the
computer.  I'll see what files I find." 

"All right, I'll look through the kitchen before going to the 
bedroom." She walked the short distance to the kitchen. She saw the
answering machine, one saved message. She pressed the play button. 

"William, it's Mom. I just wanted to make sure your plans for this
evening were still a go. I don't want you to get off schedule. 
Remember who you are doing this for.  I'll call you in the morning
to check on your progress," Mrs. Mulder said.

The machine beeped. "November 3. 2:35 p.m.," the automated date 
stamp said.

Scully frowned. If Mrs. Mulder was calling to make sure William was
still keeping his plans, then that meant she knew about his murders.
Suddenly, his mother's panic seemed more understandable. She was 
afraid William and his crimes had been discovered. Nothing like a 
little cover up to bring the family closer together, she thought 
sarcastically.

Scully walked to Mike. "Find anything?"

He pointed to the screen. "These appear to be his personal 
journals. They start back in August of 1994. Want me to print them
off?"

"Yes, and any emails that you can find. Anything that helps us to 
get a better picture of who this man is," she instructed. She left
Mike and walked into the bedroom. She noted it was also rather bare:
a bed, a dresser and one small table next to the bed.

She looked inside the drawers in the table. The top one contained 
nothing of real interest: pens, paper clips and a box of unused 
envelopes. She moved on to the middle drawer. Inside there was a 
receipt for a storage unit. She didn't know why, but she felt like it
was important. She took it out and set it aside. She would take it 
with her.  Finally in the bottom drawer, she found his date book. 

She flipped to the current month. She looked on the days of the 
murders; all she saw written in the square was the word Sam. 
Samantha? she wondered. Had he found his sister in this world? Most 
of the other events penciled in were plans with his mother. She felt
her stomach turn at his plans for a "getaway with Mom." She didn't 
want to think about that.

Scully crossed the room to a closet door. When she tried to open it, 
it wouldn't budge. When Mike heard the struggle, he walked into the 
room.

"Maybe it's one of those faux doors. You know, where it only seems 
like there's a closet there," he offered.

"Maybe, but I want to be sure. Could you take Mrs. Mulder away from 
the apartment? Have her show you William's car. Stall as long as 
possible.  I don't want her knowing what I'm going to do," she said.

"Sure thing, Agent Scully," he nodded, leaving her alone.

Once she heard the front door close, she approached the closet 
door. She waited until she saw the two of them pass by the bedroom 
window.  One, two, three, she mentally counted. She kicked the door 
down with a loud crash. "Oh my..." she whispered.

Inside the walk-in closet was a shrine dedicated to Samantha. 
William had set up pictures of his sister all over the wall. The 
shelves were covered in little girl toys and clothes. She saw old 
childish writings taped on one shelf. In the middle, she saw a small
jewelry box. She opened it carefully.  Inside were several strands of
long, brown hair, four baby teeth and a note which read: In case 
cloning does become a reality. On the bottom shelf, she found the 
jackpot: the rest of his personal journals. The earliest one she 
could find was started when he was 16. His first entry simply read 
"Samantha, Fox is dead. I am William now."

She debated with herself for a moment. She knew she should bring 
them with her, but found herself struggling with that decision. 
Scully wasn't sure if Mulder could really handle this. She was barely
able to wrap her mind around William's obsession of Samantha.

She stopped herself short. She hated when Mulder tried to protect 
her.  Her decision was made. Scully stacked the journals and carried
them out of the closet. She walked to the window and saw Mike 
standing with Mrs. Mulder at a car. Fortunately for Scully, they were
facing the opposite direction from where they parked.

She quickly exited the apartment and loaded the car with all of the
information they had collected.  "Agent Steward, I'm ready to leave 
when you are," she called. She saw him exchange a few words with Mrs.
Mulder. She leaned her head back against the seat. 

Dorothy was right, she thought, there's no place like home.

FBI Headquarters
12:15 p.m.

Mulder walked into Skinner's office. It was odd to not to see Kim
at her desk, but remembered even Skinner's secretary needed time to
eat lunch.

He sat in the chair in front of Skinner's desk.  "Sir, thank you for
seeing me on your lunch hour."  Nothing like buttering up the boss 
before he dropped the bombshell that was coming. 

"Cut the crap, Mulder. Why did you need to see me?" 

He sighed, he wasn't as good at kissing up as Scully was.  Why had
he agreed to talking to Skinner again?  "It's this case you assigned
us to." 

Skinner waved his hand for Mulder to continue. "Based on the evidence
we have, I think I know who the killer is." He took a breath, and 
steadied himself for the onslaught of questions and the fury that 
would no doubt come from Skinner.  "I think we are dealing with the 
Fox Mulder from the other universe Professor Wagner created." 

"What?" Skinner exploded. He looked like he would burst out of his 
chair.  The veins on his temple were throbbing so hard, it looked
like his brain was playing jump rope. That, Mulder thought, was so 
worth it.

"I thought that mumbo jumbo the professor was spouting out when he 
called me was just to get me to send you over there," he said through
a clinched jaw.

"No, sir," Mulder said. "In fact, I spoke to the Gunmen this morning
and there have been reports of people spontaneously appearing from 
nowhere all over the world.  Though, we spoke to a couple of the 
lab assistants this morning and they seemed to have stopped that 
problem." 

Skinner sighed.  Only Mulder could get himself into this kind of 
mess, he thought.  "Fine, let's say this is true.  What do we know 
about this other you?"

"Not too much," he admitted.  "I'm assuming with the facts that we 
do know about the murders and abductions that the same thing 
happened to Samantha when she was eight."

"And he just happened to turn to the dark side?"  This was 
ridiculous, even for Mulder.

He blew out a puff of air.  "Apparently so, *sir.*"  He applauded 
himself for keeping his cool.  Scully would be so proud.  "Scully is 
over at the lab picking up information on our suspect.  We're going 
to try to find this guy as soon as we can."

"Does Agent Scully believe all of this about parallel universe and 
your alter ego being a murderer?"

Tough question, he thought.  She hadn't argued much about his theory
but she hadn't said she believed him either.  "She believes that I 
believe I am right."

Skinner planned on talking to his other agent to get her perspective
on this whole thing, but for now he would work with Mulder.  God knew
how many times he ended up being right on one of his crazy theories.
"Fine, Mulder.  What do you need me to do?"

Mulder looked surprised.  "Nothing, sir.  Agent Scully and I thought
it would be in your best interest to be given an update of the
situation personally."

"Very well, Mulder.  I want you in my office tomorrow morning giving
me an update on what you and Scully discovered."  He picked up a 
stack of papers and starting reading them.

"If I may ask, sir, why are you here instead of eating lunch?" he 
asked, as he approached the door.

He looked at him for a few seconds before answering, "Usually it's 
the only time I can get work done without you coming in with one of 
your theories."

Mulder smiled.  "I won't make it a habit, sir."


State Route 295
12:45 p.m.

Scully had finally calmed down enough to talk to Mulder.  The entire
trip to William's apartment left her feeling unnerved.  Once Mike
and she returned back to the field office, they quickly came back
through the portal.  If Mike noticed her discomfort, he didn't
comment on it.

She pulled out her cell phone and dialed.  "Mulder."

She smiled at the familiar voice.  "How did your meeting with Skinner
go?"

"Now I know how Daniel felt when he was thrown into the lion's den."

She laughed softly.  "First of all, Mulder, there were more than
one lion and Daniel didn't go there on his own accord.  I take it
Skinner was less than thrilled with what you had to say?"

"You should have seen it, Scully.  I could see steam coming out
of his ears."

"And yet you managed to survive."

"That's me, your brave, good looking partner."

She didn't say anything.  She didn't want to encourage his ego too
much.

After a couple of seconds, he said, "Scully?"

"I'm sorry, Mulder.  My phone must have been acting up.  I could 
have sworn you said good looking."

"You wound me."  She could hear him shift around.  "Did you get the 
information?"

"Yes, I did.  We found out there was a missing person's case open 
for...Fox."  She made a face.  That just didn't sound right.

She could almost hear him shudder.  "Forget my suggestion, Scully.  
We'll just call him Thing.  Hearing you say Fox makes me feel dirty.
And not in the good way."

"Well, you're in luck because apparently he goes by his middle name."

"Seems like you've got some stories to tell."

"You have no idea."


FBI Headquarters 
Parking Lot 3
7:00 p.m.

William got out of his car and looked at the structure.  He hadn't
expected the lot to be so large.  It was a good thing he decided 
to check it out before the next morning.

Because it was after office hours, there were very few cars in the 
lot.  He walked to the other side and saw a flight of stairs leading 
down.  After he turned the next corner, he saw an elevator.

He bit his lip, trying to decide what to do.  He could ride the 
elevator down to the lobby and wait for Mulder.  But then again, 
someone may recognize him and the surprise would be spoiled.  The 
stairs were too secluded for him to be able to see Mulder.  This 
would be trickier than he thought.

The elevator doors slid open, leaving William no time to hide.  
Skinner walked out and saw him.  "Mulder?" he said surprised.  "What
are you still doing here?"

"I," William started, "was just about to leave for the night when I 
remembered I forgot something in the office."  He hoped that sounded
believable.

"Where's Scully?" Skinner asked, looking around.

Scully...must be his partner, William thought.  "He already went 
home for the night."

"*He*?"

Damn, of all the chances, his partner had to be a woman.  "Sorry, my
mind must be somewhere else.  She already left for the day."

Skinner studied him for a second.  "Don't let her hear you call her
a man."

He laughed, hoping that would be his counterpart's normal response.
"No, I know what's good for me."

Skinner shook his head.  He knew Mulder could get out there when
he spent the day working on a profile.  "Good night, Mulder."

William, never one to pass up an opportunity, walked closer to him.
"Actually, I was hoping for a favor.  I ran out of gas in my car
and I was hoping for a ride back to my place.  I would call Scully
but I didn't want to bother her tonight."

"Can't you just wait for Triple A to come?" Skinner asked
hopefully.

"You know how that works.  I'd be here all night.  I'll just
hitch a ride to work from Scully and bring a gallon of gas tomorrow
morning," he lied smoothly.

"Fine," Skinner agreed.  "But on the ride to your place, you're
going to fill me in on what you and Scully found out about this
serial killer 'twin' of yours."

This, William thought, was perfect.


Dana Scully's Residence
7:30 p.m.

Mulder and Scully spent the day going over the information Scully
had aquired.  She shared her experience with as much clinical 
detatchment as she could.  While she showed Mulder the journals, she
couldn't bring herself to tell him what else she found in William's
closet.

To keep her from focusing on her feelings, she studied the 
information they had received from their trip.  In the "Wagner's 
World" as Mulder dubbed it, his parents did not get a divorce 
because of the way it was looked down upon by society.  His father 
was murdered by an unknown suspect when he was 16.  Because of this,
William did not go to Oxford like Mulder, but attended Boston 
University to remain close to his mother.

William originally majored in Criminal Justice, and then went back 
for his biology degree, eventually attending medical school.  He 
worked as a cardiologist at the Brockton Hospital and was a part time
professor at Boston University.  He never married and had no children.

Physically, there were no differences between the two.  It was as if
Mulder was looking at a picture of himself.  It was downright spooky,
he thought.

Mulder rubbed his eyes.  "Thanks for inviting me over for dinner, 
Scully.  I've got to take a break.  This is too weird, even for me."

And you don't even know the beginning of it, she thought. "I know.  
That's why work talk is off limits."

He seemed surprised.  "What in the world do you want to talk about?  
Work is our lives."

She shrugged, anything was better than thinking about this case.
Her mind was on overload.  "I don't know.  What did you and the 
guys do the last time you went over there?"

She squinted her eyes.  Was Mulder blushing?  "Never mind," she said
quickly, "I probably don't even want to know."

"Um," he stammered.  "No, you don't.  About your family?  What's
going on with them?"

"Well, Tara's getting anxious.  You know, it's only six weeks until
her due date," she started.  She saw Mulder fidget.  She knew there
was no lost love between Bill and Mulder.

"Well, that's good.  Maybe having a kid will soften Bill a bit," he
said finally.  He looked at her apologetically.  "I'm sorry, Scully,
I shouldn't have said that."

She shook her head.  "Mulder, don't apologize.  Believe me, I know
what a jerk Bill can be at times.  He never did learn how to keep
his mouth shut."

He shrugged.  "He was just trying to protect his little sister."

"He may have tried to, but you actually did save me."  Scully took
his hand.  "I never told you, but thank you."

He looked bewildered.  "For what?"

"For finding the chip.  For dealing with Bill's bullying.  For never
giving up on me."  Her hand went up to caress his cheek.  He closed
his eyes and leaned into her.  "I don't know what Bill said, but I
couldn't ask for a better partner or best friend."

He opened his eyes and looked at her.  "Thanks," he murmured.

Her cell phone rang and the moment was over.  She smiled
apologetically.  "Scully."

After a several seconds, Mulder saw her eyebrows shoot up.
"Sir, that's impossible.  Agent Mulder has been with me the
entire evening."

Her lips pressed together in annoyance at what Skinner said.
"Yes, sir.  I'm sure."

Mulder quickly figured that his doppelganger had finally made his
appearance.

"You drove him to Mulder's apartment?" she asked incredulously.

When she next spoke, she was much more calm.  "I understand that
you had no way of knowing that it was him, sir."

She started stacking the papers on the table, listening.  "You're
going to go back over there?"

Mulder jumped up and waved his hands back and forth.  When he
got her attention, he started shaking his head.

"No, sir.  I don't think it would be wise to do that.  I think
Mulder wants to go over there and greet him himself."

She nodded at what Skinner had to say.  "We will, sir.  Thank you."

Mulder was already waiting for her at the door.  "Let's go catch a
bad guy."


Apartment 42
8:10 p.m.

Mulder opened the car door before Scully had even put it in park.
"Move those little legs, Scully."

Her eyebrow rose.  "I'm going to forget you even said that.  Chalk
it up to temporary insanity."

He ran into the building, adrenaline pumping.  Mulder knew William
was still in there, he could feel it.  When he got into the building,
he ran up the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator.  He could
hear Scully's heels clicking behind him.

When he got to his apartment, he saw the door was open.  He pulled
out his gun and yelled, "Don't move!"  He walked into the foyer
and saw himself sitting on his leather couch.

"Wow, that was rather dramatic, Fox.  Just like the movies," William
said calmly.

Scully ran in and saw the intruder.  She couldn't help but to gasp.
It was like she was really looking at Mulder's twin.

"And who is this, Fox?  Your girlfriend?"

Mulder clinched his jaw.  "It's Mulder and no, she's my partner."

William laughed.  "You go by your last name?  And people think *I*
have issues.  At least I go by William.  You know, it's pretty
common for people to use their middle names.  You should try it
sometime."

Mulder took a deep breath.  William was getting under his skin.  He
was too arrogant, too cocky.  It reminded him of himself.

"Why did you come here?" asked Scully, sensing Mulder's discomfort.

"Well, I had every intention on trying to convince...Mulder," he
snickered, "to become *my* partner.  We could have really thrown
the idiot cops threw a loop.  Committing the same crime at the 
same time, serving justice.  But then I got a ride here from someone
who I assume is your boss and discovered that he," he jerked his
head at Mulder, "really wants to stop me.  And I can't have that."

"Why?" Mulder demanded.

"Because of Samantha.  I owe it to her to save these girls.  You do
too, you know."

"He save lives.  He doesn't destroy them," Scully said.

He brushed off Scully's comment with a shrug.  "The fathers had to 
pay.  Daughters are a gift and they just treat them as if they 
weren't there.  They didn't deserve the right to be their 
fathers," he said loudly.  "The girls' brothers didn't need the
responsibility of watching their sisters.  That's what fathers
should do."

When he saw the disbelief on Scully's face, William stood up 
abruptly.  "You have no idea what we feel.  Isn't that right?" he 
asked, hoping to pull Mulder into his train of thinking.

"If you think for one second I am going to take your side over
Scully's, you're not as smart as obviously think you are," Mulder 
warned.

He held up his hands.  "Fine, I see now you are of no use to me.
You think you have more morals than I do?  You who spends his time
in a dark apartment with porn, a basketball and no life.  You who 
parades around town making a mockery of the FBI by looking into 
crime committed by Big Foot.

"What about things that really matter like family?  Do you 
even talk to Mom on a regular basis?  I'm more of a son to her 
than you have ever been," he said.

Mulder clicked the safety of his gun.  He would have pulled the
trigger, if it wasn't for the sound of Scully's voice talking to
him.  "Don't, Mulder.  He's just pushing your buttons.  We still
need to find out where he took Mallory."

He lowered his gun.  "Where is the girl?"

"Come now, Fox, I mean, Mulder.  You know me better than anyone.
Where do you think I would take her?"

"I don't know you."

"I *am* you," he taunted.

He refused to rise to the bait.  "No.  You are part of an experiment
gone wrong.  I don't know you," he repeated.  "Now, tell me where
Mallory is!"

William looked disappointed.  "I saved her.  She's in a place where
her father can't ignore her now.  Now the angels can protect her."

"You killed her?" Mulder asked incredulously.

William nodded.  "It's want Samantha would have wanted.  I protected
those girls from living with their fathers.  Samantha would be proud.
She's watching over them now."

Mulder couldn't believe what he was hearing.  William's obsession 
with pleasing Samantha was disturbing him.  Could he really believe
that an eight year old girl would want him to kill so many people?

"You really are crazy," Mulder said.  "Samantha isn't dead.  I saw
her a month ago.  She wants nothing to do with me or you for that 
matter."

"You're a liar!" William shouted.  "Samantha loves me!  She needs
me!  You're just jealous of me!"  He ran forward and pushed Mulder 
down.  Before Scully had a chance to react, he grabbed her.  He put
his arm under her neck and pulled a knife out with his other hand.

Mulder pointed his gun at him.  "Let her go now!"

"No, I don't think so.  Put the gun down.  You know that it will
take me less than a second to slice an artery and then what will
you do?  She would be dead in minutes," he taunted.

Mulder looked at Scully's eyes.  Her could see the fear running
through them.  "Fine, you win."  He set the gun on the ground.

William snickered.  "You sure she isn't your girlfriend?  You
seem awfully eager to save her life.  Well, as much fun as this has
been, I wouldn't want to overstay my welcome."  He smiled grimly.

He lowered his mouth to Scully's ear.  "Sorry about this," he
whispered.  He took the knife and sliced the top of Scully's
arm long and hard.  Then he threw her at Mulder and ran out of the
door.

"Ahhhh!" Scully cried.  She pushed herself away from Mulder.  
"You've got to follow him, Mulder."

He shook his head.  The blood was soaking through her shirt.
"Scully, I can't leave you like this."

"Mulder," she gasped, "go.  We don't know what he's planning
on doing.  We have to get him.  If we lose him, we may never
find him again."

"I'm not going anywhere, Scully."  He wasn't going to let her sit
and suffer while he chased after William.  His need to protect
Scully was his number one priority.

"I'm fine, Mulder," she insisted.  "I'll call for an ambulance.
Just don't let him get away."

He hesitated for another few seconds.  He handed Scully his phone.
"I'll be back."

He ran out the door, going down the stairs.  He hoped William was
out of shape.  It was the only chance he had to catching up with 
him.

He ran out into the lobby and saw his landlord looking at him 
strangely.  "Weren't you just here, Mr. Mulder?" she asked.

"That was my, um, twin brother.  Did you see which way he went?"

"You have a twin?  I hope he's not half the trouble you are."

He looked out the door anxiously.  "Actually, he's more.  Miss Hines,
did he go to the right or left?"

She shrugged.  "I didn't pay any attention.  I thought he was you.
I stopped trying to keep up with your chases years ago."

"Thanks, Miss Hines," he said shortly as he ran out of the door.
He scanned the street, knowing William didn't have a car.  Nothing
looked out of place.

He ran down one side of the block and the other.  No signs of 
William.  He cursed to himself.  Mulder was going to kill William 
himself.  No one hurt Scully.  No one.

The thought of her bleeding filled his mind and he began running 
back to his apartment building.  Miss Hines was looking at him 
curiously.  He didn't stop to explain and went up the stairs again.

He quickly walked into his apartment and saw Scully where he left 
her.  "I couldn't find him, Scully."  He walked up to her and saw 
she was shivering.  A small pool of blood was beside her.

"I'm dizzy."

He berated himself.  He should have tried to stop the bleeding 
instead of chasing after William.  He knew finding him was a long 
shot.  Instead he was foolish enough to buy Scully's "I'm fine."

"You're in shock.  Did you call 911?"

She looked at him blankly.  "What?"

"Did you call for an ambulance?" he asked more firmly, looking 
around for something to stop the bleeding.  Unfortunately, he didn't
keep his apartment stocked with medical supplies like Scully.

She nodded slowly.  "They said to stay on the line, but I didn't.  
I felt like I was going to faint."

Could he tie his sock around her arm?  Make some kind of make shift
bandage?  His brain was racing, but outside he remained calm.  "What
about now?"

It took a couple of seconds.  Sweat covered her forehead, dripping 
down her temple.  "It feels even worse."

Mulder ran to the bathroom and wet a washcloth.  He rubbed it over 
her face. Soon, he heard the sirens coming down the street.  "Looks
like you're in luck, Scully."

She smiled faintly.  "Told you I'm fine."

*       *       *       *       

William peered out of his hiding place as he heard the ambulance 
drive away.  He had seen Mulder running up and down the block, 
looking for him in vain.  Little did Mulder know all he had to do
was look on the side of his building, behind the dumpster and he 
would have found William.

He began walking down the street to the corner, where he had seen a 
liquor store.  He needed to call a cab to take him to his car back 
in D.C.

William knew he had been lucky in escaping Mulder.  If it wasn't 
for the injury that his partner had, William had no doubt that 
Mulder would have found him.  It was the closest he had ever been to
being caught.  He knew not to underestimate Mulder any more.

After he called the cab service, he allowed himself to think over the
event of the past two hours.  He had two major problems at hand: one,
Mulder now knew he was committing these crimes and would have no 
problem in turning him in and two, apparently he was a product of a
science experiment gone awry.

He frowned.  He didn't know what to think of the last problem.  But,
the stern looking man in the car didn't seem like the kind of person 
to make up things like that.  Plus, it would explain why everything 
in the world around him was different.  He would have to deal with 
the issue later.

First, he needed to get himself back on schedule.  He had less than 
twenty-four hours to get back up to Boston and confront the McCord 
family.  He didn't think Mulder would assume he was still going to
go through with his plans.  William would use that to his advantage.

Besides, his mind would be focused on his partner.  He didn't care 
what Mulder had said, there was something stronger than a work 
relationship between the two of them.  He had seen the absolute panic
in Mulder's face when he had Scully trapped.

William snorted.  That was Mulder's problem.  He had his attention 
set on some other woman.  Scully was only a distraction to Mulder's 
true quest, he thought.

His mother had warned him.  Never let another woman in your life. You
owe it to Samantha and me.

William never planned on forsaking his mother or sister.  Ever.


Georgetown Medical Center
11:30 p.m.

Mulder walked into Scully's hospital room and winced at the bandage
on her arm.  "I missed the memo saying gauze was the new fashion 
statement."

"Oh yeah," she deadpanned.  "It's the hottest thing in G-Woman 
attire."

He walked over and took her hand.  "How are you doing?"

"All in all, very well.  I've got quite a few stitches in me, and 
a pint of somebody's blood in me.  But really, I feel fine," she 
assured him.  She studied his face.  "How are you doing?"

He rubbed his hand over his face.  "I really hate seeing you in a 
hospital bed.  It's too soon."

Images of her dying filled his head.  The dark circles under her 
eyes.  The fragile frame of her body hidden under the sheets.  Her
pale skin dulled by the intruder in her body.

"Mulder," she said, pulling him out of his thoughts, "I'm ok.  It's
not the cancer."  She squeezed his hand.  "I'm not going anywhere,
remember?"

He surprised her by leaning over and giving her a hug.  She held him
with her good arm and dropped a kiss on the top of his head.  She 
knew he needed her support and love.

He lifted his head up with a sparkle in his eye.  "Are you coming on
to me?"

She felt a wave a relief.  A playful Mulder was a happy Mulder.  She
had managed to pull him away from the thoughts of her cancer.  "I 
always knew you were adventurous, Mulder, but in a hospital room? I 
have some decency, even if you don't."

He blushed slightly.  "I didn't mean-"  He saw the small smile.  
"You got me."

"Big time," she agreed.

She hated to move away from the playful banter, but it was time to
move towards the pressing matter at hand.  "When are you going to 
call Medford PD and tell them about Mallory?"

He hesitated.  "I'm not going to."  He saw her open her mouth and 
began speaking again.  "I don't know where she is and the detective 
will be asking me questions that I don't have answers for," he said.
"Once this whole ordeal is over, I'll call the detective I promise."

She decided to let the subject drop for now.  "Where do you think 
William is?"

He shrugged.  "I'm not sure.  If I had to take a guess, I would say 
that he is either doing one of two things; trying to find a way back
to his place of existence or trying to reestablish his pattern of 
murders.  I'd put my money on the second one."

Scully scooted up on her bed.  "But, Mulder, that means he will kill
someone tomorrow."

He ran his hands through his hair angrily.  "I know, Scully, but what
should I do?  Send out an APB for Fox Mulder?"

She paused; he had a very good point.  She was sure William had 
already figured he was relatively safe from being caught without 
Mulder being accused of his crimes.

"Maybe he won't do it," she offered weakly.

He smiled sadly back.  "Maybe."


Dana Scully's Residence
November 13, 1997
2:30 p.m.

Mulder opened the door for Scully.  "This is really unnecessary,"
she complained playfully.

"I'm not leaving until I know your place is secure.  Then you can do 
all of the things that women of the 90s do," he said with a smile
on his face.

Her eyebrow rose.  "What would those things be?"

"Oh you know, balance your checkbook, start a load of laundry, 
daydream about your incredibly handsome partner, and sort your mail 
all within the time it takes for your gourmet meal to finish 
cooking."

She smiled.  "And you thought I could multitask at work."

"I'm imagining the other places you can multitask," he said, 
waggling his eyebrows.

"Watch it, Mulder," she warned.  "I may be injured but I can still 
kick your butt."  

She walked inside her apartment, everything still in place.  The
Chinese food containers sat on the table where Mulder and she had
left them.  The case notes were on the coffee table, untouched.  
She looked back at Mulder, who had a disappointed look on his face.

"Something wrong?"

He grimaced.  "Would it bother you if I said I was disappointed 
that he didn't come and take all of our notes?"

Her eyebrows went down.  He wanted another mad man in her house?  
Before she could let him know what she thought about that, he cut
in, "I mean, because it would mean he probably wasn't going go 
slicing and dicing tonight.  It would have meant he was focused
on getting back to where he belonged."

She deflated.  "Oh, yeah.  I understand."

"Well, I should let you get on with your evening," he started to
move to the front door.

She didn't want him to go.  As long as she kept him in sight, she
knew he was really Mulder and not William.  "Why don't you stay 
here?  I'm sure you haven't called your landlord yet to change your
locks.  And I know you wouldn't want a surprise visit from William 
while you're sleeping."

He looked perplexed.  In all likelihood, William was in the Boston 
area committing another heinous act.  He glanced at Scully's face
and saw something there that surprised him: fear.

She started talking again, another sign of her nervousness.  "I 
just want you to be close...in case he decides to come back."  He 
could tell by the way her voice faded at the end, she didn't want
to be alone.

Ok, he thought, she's spooked about something.  The least he could 
do, would be to make her to at ease as possible.  Mulder nodded.  
"OK, I'll grab my bag out of my car.  But, Scully, no leftovers, 
ok?" he joked, pointing to the spoiled food on the table.

She felt her body relax.  "I think I can handle that."

Yeah, he thought, but what aren't you handling?

Outside McCord Residence
5:50 p.m.

William watched as the woman drove away in an airport shuttle.  
One quick "courtesy" call at the beginning of the week confirmed 
William's assumption that this woman would still be attending her 
mother's 80th birthday celebration alone.

He pulled out his binoculars and waited.  He had to make sure 
Mrs. McCord's plane was up in the air before he proceeded with the
next step of his plan.

William closed his eyes and thought back to his first victim: his 
father.  It was the day that the weak Fox had died and the strong 
William had emerged.

His father and mother had been fighting, like normal.  William was 
sitting up in his room, trying to hide from his father's wrath.  He
felt like a coward, staying away while his father verbally abused 
his mother.  It was just one more place he failed to be the man he 
needed to be.

Suddenly, he heard his mother snap.  Normally, she sat spoke 
quietly, usually allowing Bill Mulder's rampages to go on until he 
was good and ready to finish them.  William wondered what his father
had said to make his mother react that way.

"If it wasn't for your work, your project, Samantha would still be 
here!  Don't blame me because you decided years ago that your work
was the most important thing in your life!" she yelled.

Samantha's abduction was his father's fault?  He had never heard 
his mother say that before.

All William remembered after that was feeling a rage so strong, he
knew he could sit idly by no longer.  How dare his father cast the
blame on him for Samantha's disappearance if it was a result of
his own actions?

He vaguely recalled going into his parents' bedroom and taking his
father's handgun out of the dresser drawer.  He walked into the
living room and shot him point blank in the chest.

The first thing that William did remember with clarity was his 
mother's soothing voice.  "You did the right thing.  You finally
are atoning for his sins.  I'm proud of you, William."

He looked at her questioningly.  "William?"

"Fox was a scared boy who hid in the shadows and didn't try to make
things right.  William is a man who will stand up for those who are
oppressed.  No matter the cost," she said.

He thought of his sister who had paid the ultimate price for his 
inaction.  "I will be the man you and Samantha need me to be, I
promise."

And so he began he conquest for the perfect crime.  Together, he
and his mother came up with a cover up story for his father's 
murder.  They were so convincing with their tale, no one ever 
doubted the sincerity of it.

He pulled himself out of his reverie.  He called the airport to
confirm the flight to LAX had taken off.  Once he was assured that
it had, he got out of his car.

He knocked on the door and the young girl answered, already in her 
pajamas for the night.  "Hi there," William said kindly.  "Is your 
Daddy home?"

She rolled her eyes.  "Yeah, but he's in his office working.  He
is always working."

"What about your brother?  Is he here?"

She shook her head.  "No, he's at Omar's.  They're having a slumber
party.  But no girls allowed."  She stuck her tongue out.

Good, he thought, the less complications, the better.  "Well, can
you please get your dad?"

She frowned.  "I can't.  He said that he can't be disturbed.  He's
working on a big project."

William leaned in.  "I know, I'm here to help.  I'm a friend of his.
Think you can get him now?"

The girl nodded.  "Sure."

A few moments later a rather bothered looking man came to the door.
"Who are you?  Why did you tell my daughter you knew me?"

William pushed the door open all the way and walked inside the house.
"Oh, but I do.  Now, I'm going to need all of your cooperation.
You two have a seat on the couch."  When neither of them moved, he
pulled out a gun.  "Now."

The father pushed his daughter on the couch.  "What do you want?
Money?" he asked.

William shook his head.  "No, Mr. McCord, I'm not here for that.
Think of me as an avenging angel.  I have come to send judgment
against you."


Dana Scully's Residence
November 14, 1997
10:34 a.m.

The sound of Mulder's cell phone ringing wasn't a surprise to either
agent.  He took a deep breath before answering the call.  After a few
minutes of listening to the person on the other line, he hung up the 
phone forcibly.

"Another murder and abduction.  This time it's the McCord family.  
The brother found his dad after coming home from spending the night 
at his friend's house.  The girl is still missing.  The mother 
apparently was across country, celebrating her mom's birthday.  She's
flying back right now," he said angrily.

Scully pursed her lips.  If only they hadn't let him escape.  If only
they had checked to see if he was armed.  If only--she stopped her 
thoughts.  That wouldn't help find William now.  She and Mulder 
needed to focus on the future, not the mistakes of the past.

"Where did this take place?"

"Medford again.  It seems as if he took advantage of your hospital 
stay to go on a road trip.  That was actually Paul you called.  As 
you can imagine, he wants us up there ASAP.  He's afraid the media 
is going to get a sniff of this and pounce on it," he explained.

Scully stood up, finishing the last of her coffee in a gulp.  "You 
book the flights, I'll pack."

He touched her uninjured arm.  "Scully, you can't go.  Paul had no 
idea you had been hurt."

She moved away from his arm.  "I have a job to do, Mulder, just 
like you.  This," she said, pointing at her bandage, "won't prevent 
me from doing that."

He saw the determination in her eyes and knew he had no chance of
convincing her to stay.  She and he were alike in that way: always
needing to put all of their efforts in their job.

He nodded to her.  "Ok, we'll do things your way."


Medford Police Department
2:35 p.m.

Scully walked into the autopsy bay alone.  Paul and Mulder had gone
together to the crime scene, leaving Scully to do the autopsy at
the police station.

She walked to the lockers and changed into her scrubs.  Walking to
the table, she forced herself not to think about William, running
around the streets looking for another family, but rather the victim
in front of her.

Scully began the autopsy as she had with countless others: the Y
incision.  It was odd to perform the procedure with the hole in the
man's chest.  As expected, the bones above the location of where his
heart should have been were broken, making the chest concave.

She heard herself speaking into the tape recorder.  She could only 
hope she was explaining her findings adequately; her mind wasn't even
fully processing what she was saying.  Most of her energy was focused
on Mulder.

*	*	*	*

She finished the autopsy and found it was the same M.O. as the other
murders.  It was definitely the work of William Mulder.  She labeled
the blood samples she had taken to send off to the lab and walked
back to the lockers.

She found herself feeling more pity than anger at William.  Yes, he
was no doubt insane, but in his own twisted way of thinking he was
only trying to live his life in a way to make up for allowing his 
sister to be taken.

Just like Mulder had dedicated the past 24 years of his life.

She sighed as she pulled the shirt over her head.  She carefully slid
her arm into the sleeve.  Mulder had been right, she shouldn't have
done the autopsy.  Her arm was throbbing.

A quiet knock interrupted her thoughts.  "Come in," she called.

Mulder stuck his head in the doorframe.  "Aw, did I miss the peep
show?"

She couldn't even bring herself to smile.  "Apparently so."  

He walked to her and studied her face.  Her eyes were sad; her body
was slightly slumped.  He could see the early signs of depression
creeping over her.

"You handling this alright?"

Se shook his head.  "Honestly, no.  There were things I saw over 
there that I can't get past, Mulder."

"Like what?"

A tear trailed down her face.  "Mulder, it was creepy.  His entire 
closet was a shrine to your sister.  He had pictures all over it,
all of her old clothes.  He even kept some of her hair so he could
clone her."

He hugged her softly.  "Why didn't you tell me, Scully?"

She shrugged under his arms.  "I don't know.  I could barely think
about it myself.  It was just too disturbing."

"This guy is a psycho, Scully.  His way of thinking is so warped,
I can't even get into his state off mind.  But, don't keep things
from me, Scully.  I can handle it, I promise."

Her cell phone started to ring and she pulled away reluctantly.
"Scully," she answered.

She pulled out her belongings from the locker.  "Ok, I understand.
But, I'm in Boston right now.  I could meet you later tonight."

Mulder's interest peeked.  A late night meeting with some mystery
person?  It sounded like something more along the lines of something
he did.

"Ok, the Denny's off W. Street at 10 o'clock.  Thank you."  She hung
up her phone.

"Who was that?"  He hoped he didn't sound as jealous as he felt.

If the amused look of Scully's face was any indication, he had 
failed.  "That was Mike Steward.  It seems as if he has some 
important information to tell me.  Off the record.  You want to come
along?"

Mulder shook his head.  He knew a trap when he saw one.  He wasn't 
going to be the jealous partner.  "Nope, actually the reason I came 
in here was to tell you we might have a lead.  One of the neighbors 
said she saw something strange.  Paul's got her in a room right now."

"Well, let's just hope she didn't actually see William's face.  That
would complicate things worse," she said, worry evident in her voice.

He shook his head.  "I don't think so.  She saw me already and didn't
act weird."

"Well, that's good.  What are you going to do if you find William 
though? It's going to be hard to explain this to anyone."

Mulder sighed.  "Let's hope your buddy from the university has got
some good news for us."

*       *       *       *

Mulder opened the door with an apologetic smile.  "Sorry about being
late," he murmured.

Paul looked behind him.  "Where's Agent Scully?"

"She had to go back to D.C.  She's investigating another angle on 
this case," Mulder said.

Paul shook his head.  "See?  That's why I could never be a Fed.  Too
much flying around.  Anyway, this is Margie Parker.  It seems as if
Miss Parker noticed something strange at the McCord house last 
night."

Mulder sat in the chair next to Paul.  "Any reason why you decided to
wait until now to come forward?"

The young woman put her hands up defensively.  "Hey, I just came home
this afternoon from work and saw you cops there.  I didn't know
that there was anything to report last night, I swear."

"Ok, let's start with what you did see last night?" Paul said calmly.

"All right, so Julie left around six last night to go to LA.  It was
her mom's birthday or something.  Anyway, like a couple of hours 
after she left, I saw Rob leave in his car," she stopped 
uncomfortably.

"Then what happened?" Mulder asked.

She looked around.  "Look, I'm not a snoop, right?  I just wanted to 
look out for Julie while she was away.  Rob's not the kindest guy, 
you know."

Paul and Mulder exchanged a glance.  When neither of them spoke, she
continued, "Anyway, I hopped in my car and followed him.  I didn't
want him fooling around while his wife was away."

Mulder leaned forward, interested.  "Where did he wind up going?"

"You know, it was really weird.  He ended up going to Store It
UR-Self.  I figured he and Julie had a storage unit there so I
turned around and went home.  That's why I didn't think to call the
cops.  It's not a crime to have those you know," she said 
defensively.  "I went home to get changed for work and left.  When 
I came home, you guys were all over Julie's place."

Paul stood up.  "Thank you, Miss Parker.  You have really helped our
investigation."

She folded her arms.  "That's it?  There's no reward?"

Paul shook his head.  "No, there isn't.  But at least you can go to
sleep knowing you did the right thing."

Margie snorted.  "Gee, that makes me feel better."  She got up from
her seat.  "Thanks a lot."

Paul shook his head.  "People these days.  Even doing the right thing
needs to be paid for."  He stood up.  "I'll contact the storage 
facility.  Hopefully, that will lead to something."


Store It UR-Self
Unit 1013
9:15 p.m.

Paul used the lock cutter with more pressure than needed.  The lock 
broke in half and dropped to the ground with a loud thud.  "Oops, I 
guess I'm still riled up over Mr. Brown's insistence on getting a 
warrant."

Mulder nodded.  "I totally understand.  I can't believe it took the
judge three hours to sign it."

"Don't remind me.  'Now Detective Mason, you understand the 
importance of protecting personal property'," he impersonated.  
"Never mind this was the only unit was pre-rented for 2 months and 
the owner already admitted to waving the security background check
on this guy because he paid him twice the normal rent."

He moved the latch over and rolled the door up.  The storage unit was
the largest one on the lot: 20x30 feet.  It had been rented by a 
Samuel Richardson, though there was no record of him existing.

The unit was empty.  Except for two wrapped boxes on the floor of the
room.  They were small square boxes, no bigger than a foot across.  
Each had a tag that read "To: Fox" on the top of them.

Paul put a pair of latex gloves on and looked at Mulder.  "Some kind 
of practical joke?  Should I let you open them?  They are addressed
to you after all."

Mulder's stomach tightened.  He had a feeling William was expecting 
them to find this place.  Now, he was taunting him.  Almost as if to 
say, I'm one step ahead of you so now what are you going to do?

He put on the pair of latex gloves from his pocket and carefully 
unwrapped the box.  He set down the tag, bow and paper on the ground 
carefully.  He slowly opened the box.

Inside, was a rotting heart.

"Oh my God," he heard Paul say from the side of him.

He put in on the ground.  "Ten to one says the other one has the same
thing."

"Get the forensic team in here!"  Paul yelled.  He looked down at 
Mulder.  "You doing ok?"

"I need to talk to Scully."

Denny's Restaurant
November 15, 1997
10:15 p.m.

Mike was in the waiting area when Scully arrived.  "Agent Scully, I'm
glad you were able to make it here."

The waitress at the front counter called to them.  "Two in the 
party?"

Mike nodded and followed the waitress to the booth.  After a quick
order of two coffees, Mike set his briefcase on the table.  "I'm 
assume you are probably wondering why I called you here."

She shrugged.  "In my line of work, nothing surprises me anymore."

"I'm sure," he said with a brief smile.  His expression suddenly 
turned very serious.  "I have some paperwork here that you and your
partner will find very interesting."

Her eyebrow rose.  "What about the confidentiality agreement?"

"As of 4:30 this afternoon, my services were no longer needed.  The
professor believes I lack proper judgment to be a part of such a 
project," he answered with a sigh.  "I can't say I wasn't expecting
this.  We have been at odds since this whole ordeal has occurred."

He leaned forward.  "I have been sneaking out copies of various 
stages of the equation since the explosion.  That is what I wanted
to share with you."

He opened his briefcase as the waitress came back with their coffees.
"This is the holy grail when it comes to parallel universe 
technology.  People would literally kill to get this in their hands."

She held the papers in her hand carefully.  How many times had she
or Mulder obtained knowledge from their sources that was worth
more than their lives?  "What does each mean?"

He separated them into three piles, each containing about 40 pages
each.  "This is the breakdown of our universe.  It is the code which
we use to base all other scenarios. This," he said, pointing to the
middle group, "is the current universe, before the explosion.  And 
the last one is the equation we are in right now.  At least, as of 
eight o'clock this morning."

"I have basically explained the majority of the data in there.  
That's why there are so many papers.  It's a lot to breakdown," Mike
explained quietly.

"But, why give me the information?  If what you're saying is true, 
you are putting yourself in danger," Scully said as she looked at 
the jumble of numbers on the pages in front of her.

"Agent Scully, if the past ten days have been any indication of what
catastrophe our work can cause, my life is a small sacrifice to make
if it means this project will end," Mike said.  "I trust you and 
Agent Mulder to do the right thing.  God knows the professor won't."


Dana Scully's Residence
1:17 a.m.

Scully walked into her apartment with her hands full.  She set the
pile of papers she had received on her coffee table, glancing
at her answering machine.  The number 1 blinked.  She walked over and
hit the play button.

"Hey, Scully.  It's me.  It's about 9:30.  I know you're heading over
to meet the guy from the lab, but I wanted to let you know that we
found the hearts.  The bastard left them for me inside a storage 
unit.  I swear, Scully, I'm going to find him and kill him.  Anyway, 
don't worry about calling me until the morning.  I know you're 
probably dead on your feet," she heard Mulder saying.  "I'll talk to
you tomorrow."

She pulled out her cell phone and dialed Mulder.  He answered on the
first ring.  "Hey Scully."

"Hey, find anything out?"

"You mean, other than this guy is a sick man and doesn't deserve
to be breathing the same air as us?"

She grimaced.  Mulder was beyond furious.  "Yeah, other than that."

He sighed, frustrated.  "Nothing.  They're pushing the DNA tests
on the hearts.  They hope to have the results by tomorrow afternoon.
But everyone knows who they belong to."

"Anything on the girls?"

"No.  Nothing," came the tried reply.

"Don't beat yourself up, Mulder.  We'll find him, I promise," she
assured him.

He grunted his disagreement.  "Anyway, what happened with you?"

"Apparently, Mike Steward is no longer part of the professor's 
project.  And being the disgruntled employee that he is, he just
handed me some classified information."

"How come when I go looking for classified stuff, I always end up
in the hospital?" he joked weakly.

"Ha ha, Mulder.  Now go get some sleep.  I'll make arrangements
to fly up in the morning.  I'll call you with the flight 
information," she said.

"All right."  He hung up the phone.

She was so tired, when she walked into the bedroom, she didn't
notice the figure following her.  Once she was inside her bedroom,
she heard the door close behind her.  She spun around quickly.

William.

"Well, *Scully* it's good to see you again.  I'm glad to see you're 
feeling ok.  Tell me, did Fox kiss your boo boo and make it better?"
he taunted.

She shot him at icy glare.  How in the world did he get into her
apartment?  Was there some unknown website that all psychopaths
had access to that revealed the location of her apartment?

"What do you want?" she demanded.

William laughed.  "You know, I think you have more balls than Mulder
does.  Nothing seems to phase you."

The truth was, she was petrified.  She needed to get control of the
situation somehow.  She looked at him again.  "Get out.  Now."

"Oh, I don't think so, Dana," he answered.  "Dana, what a pretty
name.  I wonder why your partner doesn't ever use it."  His face 
turned deadly.  "Now, Dana, you're going to do what I say."

She raised her eyebrow.  "Why should I do that?"

"Because all I have to do is kill you and place one fingerprint in 
your blood and Mulder would be spending the rest of his life in
prison," he said.

She froze.  He was right.  He had all the cards in his favor.

He saw her realization and nodded to the bed.  "Get up there."  When
he saw the panic in her eyes, he said, "Don't worry, I'm not going 
to hurt you.  I just need to make sure you're not going anywhere."
He handed her a pair of handcuffs.

She slowly put one cuff on her wrist and hooked the chain on her
bedpost and cuffed her other wrist.  "What do you want?" she asked
again.

"I want what everyone wants: to go home.  And I couldn't help but to
overhear you talking to Mulder that you received some valuable
information on the subject."  He flashed a shark's grin at her.  
"Isn't that convenient for me?"

She cursed herself.  Why had she spoken so openly about the data she
had received?  Why wasn't she fighting back with something?  
Because, she answered herself, she had nothing to argue with.  He 
was once again in control of the situation.

He walked away from her into the living room.  She tried to see an
escape route if she managed to get out of the handcuffs.  Before
she got too far, he came back in the room with the papers.

"Now, I can't have you going around spoiling my plans and I can
tell by the looks of this it's going to take me a while to get an
understanding of this."  He pulled out a syringe.  "I know I'm
not making the best impression, but I can't have you escaping."

He approached her as she tried unsuccessfully to pull away from
him.  "But, don't worry.  Since you were so cooperative, I won't
kill you."

That was the last thing Scully heard before her world turned black.

*       *       *       *

The next time she opened her eyes, he was leaning over her. "Get 
away from me!" she screamed.

"Scully, it's ok," he said.

"Back off!" she yelled.

"Scully, it's me.  It's Mulder."  His eyes pleaded with her to listen
to him.

She snorted.  "Yeah right.  How am I suppose to believe that?"

He looked around.  It was as he feared, William had come in and hurt
Scully again.  He couldn't wait to get his hands around William's
throat.  "Scully, you have to trust me."

"No, I don't," she said coldly.

He thought frantically.  He needed to get her out of those handcuffs
but she wouldn't let him anywhere near her.  Suddenly, a thought
entered his mind.  He started taking off his shirt.

"No!  Get away!  You said you weren't going to hurt me."  She was
nearly hysterical.

His hands stopped.  She thought he would rape her?  Bile filled the
back of his throat.  "No, Scully.  I would never do anything like
that.  I'm just proving that I am really me."

Her eyes were wide.  "How?"

Mulder slowly pulled his shirt off and showed off his scar from 
when she shot him.  Her whole body collapsed.  "It is you.  Help 
me, Mulder."

He quickly returned to her side and unlatched the cuffs.  She threw 
her tired arms around him.  "Careful, Scully.  I don't want you 
hurting yourself."

She pulled away from him slightly.  "Mulder, I don't care about my
arm right now."  She put her head on his bare chest.  Mulder wrapped
his arms around her.  "I didn't know what to do.  He said if I tried
anything he would frame you for my murder."  She looked at him as a
tear ran down her face.

He pulled her back against him.  "You did nothing wrong, Scully."

"I let my own personal feelings cloud my judgment."

Mulder felt his temper start to rise.  "You're human.  You're allowed
to have those."

She ignored his reaction and changed subjects; it was too difficult 
for her to acknowledge how much William's threat had scared her.  
Scully pulled back from Mulder, putting her walls back up.  "How did 
you know to find me?"

He opened his mouth to argue with her about changing the subject, but
let the issue go.  He could see her struggling to maintain the mask
of the professionalism, the only place she felt truly safe.  "When
you didn't answer your phone this morning, I just had a feeling 
something was wrong."

Her eyes went to her bedside clock--11:08.  "Mulder!  We've got to 
find William.  He took the notes!  He's had plenty of time to look 
them over and figure out the equations.  The notes I was given were 
very extensive and thorough."

Mulder ran his hand through his hair.  He was tired of William always
being three steps ahead of them.  "Ok, so let's assume he has them 
and knows everything in there.  I would assume that he would be at 
the university then."

Scully nodded.  "That's the only place that makes sense.  I'm going
to call the professor and warn him, if it's not too late."  She 
quickly dialed his number.  After a handful of seconds, she shook
her head.  "No answer."

"Come on, Scully," Mulder said, ushering her out her door.


University of Maryland
12:22 p.m.

When Mulder and Scully walked into the lab, they were surrounded by 
chaos.  The portal was active, humming loudly and casting a bright 
blue glow in the lab.  Professor Wagner and his assistant were tied
in office chairs, appearing to be unconscious.  Print outs were
thrown all over the room.  William was typing on one of the 
computers.

William looked unsurprised to see them.  "Well, well.  If it isn't 
the cavalry.  Seems you're a bit late to help these guys."

Wagner lifted up his head.  "Agent Scully, you have to get him 
through the portal.  We have to seal off the rift," he said softly.

"Shut up!" William yelled.  He faced Mulder.  "It seems I ruined 
their plans.  Apparently they were getting close to figuring out how 
to get rid of the 'other reality.'  And that includes me.  I couldn't
let that happen.  Survival instinct and all that," he said with a 
laugh.

He turned to Scully.  "My my, you are quite the resilient one.  Kind
of like a Timex."

She shot him an icy glare.  She pulled her gun out of her holster.  
"Don't tempt me," she said, pointing her gun at him.

"Oh, my dear *Scully*," he said sarcastically.  "You couldn't pull 
the trigger.  You would see the aguish on my face which would remind
you of him.  You would see the blood pouring out of me and couldn't 
help but to think that it was really Fox who was dying in front of 
you," he taunted.

He lowered his voice dramatically.  "Could you live with yourself 
seeing that image in your mind for the rest of your life?"

"Yeah, she could," Mulder answered, thinking of the scar on his 
shoulder.  

William laughed.  "You two are quite the pair, you know that?" He
began walking around the room.  "You guys come in like Shaggy and 
Scooby Doo trying to solve the mystery of the bad guy and everything
ends well.  But your problem is, I'm not your ordinary criminal."

He spun a desk chair around and leaned against it.  "I am so much 
smarter than the two of you.  You," he nodded at Mulder, "are 
pathetic."

He began pacing the floor again.  The partners exchanged a glance.  
Once he got close enough to the portal, Mulder would be able to push
him inside.  "You wasted most of your life chasing after *aliens* 
because you thought they took Samantha.  Come on, Fox!  Aliens?  You 
mock her!"

With each circle around the room, he became more agitated and less 
focused on where he was walking.  Mulder figured after a couple of
more rounds he would have his chance to push William inside.

"You were never the son Mom needed you to be.  Instead you spent your
life focused on other things," he snarled.  "Tell me, Fox, when did 
Scully become more important to you than Samantha?"

He was yelling over the hum of the machine.  "You spend your life 
chasing after bright lights in the sky.  You are a disgrace to the 
Mulder name!  You--"

"Now, Mulder!" Scully yelled.

Out of the corner of his eye, William saw Mulder coming towards him.
The impact of Mulder hitting him was so forceful, he had no chance 
to brace himself.

"Noooo!" he cried, going through the doorframe.

Mulder fell on the ground and rolled to the side, avoiding following 
William.

Scully ran over to Wagner and untied him.  Slowly, he walked over to
the computer and typed several commands.  He leaned back and waited 
for the computer to process them.

"That should do it.  It will take about ninety seconds," he 
explained.

"What about him?  Will he be able to come back?" Mulder asked, 
standing beside the professor.

Wagner shook his head.  "No, we have the lockout code working."  

A warning window popped on the computer screen.  "What?" Wagner asked
softly.  He quickly typed in a few more commands.  "I can't believe
it."

"What?" the partners said simultaneously.

"He reversed it!  He somehow altered the equation.  Now the system 
recognizes that," he pointed at the portal, "as the primary world 
and this as the secondary one."

"Which means?" Mulder asked.

"That unless I can undo what he has done, we are going to be the 
ones who will cease to exist," Wagner said grimly.  "I don't 
understand how he had access to that equation.  He would have had 
to have access to all--"

He cut himself off.  "Oh, let me guess, Mike."

Scully nodded guiltily.  "He gave me the data last night.  William
came into my apartment and stole the notes."

Wagner pushed up his glasses and began typing frantically.  "Well,
I hope Mike thought it was worth it.  His betrayal might cost us our
existence."

Visions filled Scully's mind.  She would never see her mom again.  
Or her brothers.  The answers that she and Mulder had been searching
for so long would be no more.  She looked at Mulder who looked as 
dumbfounded as she.

Images of the two of them together filled her mind.  They would never
be able to be anything more than just partners.  They would never 
share a romantic dinner or a cozy Saturday morning in bed together.  
There would be no dates, no wedding, no children.  Nothing.  

She needed to tell him the truth.  In case she never had the chance 
again.  She licked her lips.  "Mulder, there is a good chance that 
we're not going to get out of here," she started.

This was as good as any time to start living in denial, he thought.  
"Don't talk like that, Scully.  We've been in worse situations," he
said.

She couldn't think of one.  She knew they didn't have much time 
left.  If she was going to say it, she had to do it then.  "I just 
wanted to say that I love--"

"I got it!" shouted Wagner.  "The system is resetting itself."

The two agents walked over to the professor.  "You mean we're not
going to perform the ultimate disappearing act?" came Mulder's
flippant response.  "I always wanted to be Houdini."

Wagner shook his head, not amused by Mulder.  "No, I'm in the 
process of sealing off that universe right now.  We're in the 
clear."

Scully felt lightheaded.  Twenty seconds ago she was certain that she
would be blotted out of existence.  Now, everything was back to
normal.  

"Hey Scully," Mulder said softly, leaning towards her so Wagner
couldn't hear, "what were you saying before he started yelling?"

"I, um, can we just get out of here?" she replied.

He held her gaze for a few seconds before nodding.  "Professor, if
there is nothing else you need, Agent Scully and I need to file
our report."

Wagner pushed away from his computer and stuck out his hand.  "I
appreciate all that you two have done.  Thank you for your 
cooperation in this matter.  I would ask that you would please use
good judgment as to what to put in your report.  I would hate
for my work to be compromised because you cast a negative light
on it," he said, shaking each of their hands.

Mulder's jaw clinched.  "If it wasn't for your mistake, there would
have been no reason to call us in," he reminded him.

Wagner dismissed him with a wave of his hand.  "Mistakes are part
of any science experiment.  That's just the cost of new technology."
He turned to the computer.  "Now, I have a mess to clean up here. 
You two may find your way out."

Mulder looked like he was going to argue, but Scully put a hand on
his arm.  "Come on, Mulder.  You're not going to win this one."

The two agents were nearing the door when Wagner shouted out, "Oh
yes, and if I want to file charges against Mike Steward for stealing
classified material, who would I go to?"

Scully spun around and shot him a angry glare.  "You would need to
talk to your DA, sir.  Is there anything else?"

Wagner smiled condescendingly at her outburst.  "Thank you.  And you
can be sure that you will be called to testify at the trial."

She turned around quickly and walked out of the room.  


Epilogue
One Week Later

Skinner looked up from the report on his desk and studied the agents
in front of them. Mulder sat with his typical "I'm only tolerating 
this because I have to" look, while Scully was the epitome of the 
professional agent. 

"What is this load of crap?" he asked sternly. 
The two exchanged a glance. Skinner was once again witness to their 
remarkable ability to communicate without saying a word. "It's our 
report on our last case, sir," Scully answered. 

He tapped the front page of their report. "It's a lot of BS, Agent 
Scully. 'Suspect was apprehended and returned to his country of 
origin.'  Or about my personal favorite, 'Due to the threat of 
national security, Agent Mulder and I can not further elaborate on
the conditions of aforementioned experiment.'" 

Mulder cleared his throat. "With all due respect, sir, Agent Scully 
and I were approached last night by several NSA agents who explained
to us in no uncertain terms why it would beneficial to leave out 
particular aspects of the case. I believe the words 'highly 
classified' came up more than once." 

The government clean up crew at work again, Skinner thought. He 
nodded to them curtly. "I see. Very well, thank you for your 
report." 

The two nodded and left the AD at his desk. 

* * 

Mulder followed Scully to the elevator. "That went better than I 
thought," he commented. 

"Maybe the next time you have one of your theories you can call the
NSA to classify the information. It certainly makes writing the 
report easy," she said, pushing the button. 

"You know, I still have one question about the whole thing," he 
said. 

Scully raised her eyebrow. "What would that be?" 

The elevator doors slid open. "What were you going to say to me in
the lab right before the professor fixed everything?" 

"Oh, that," she said, walking onto the car, "I was just going to 
tell you that I love you." 

She smiled as the doors closed on Mulder's flabbergasted look.


-----------------------
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