-------- This is a fiction story based on the characters created by Chris Carter. No infringement of copyrights held by 10/13 Productions, Twentieth Century Productions, or Fox Broadcasting is intended. All unrecognised characters and plot-lines belong to me. Names, characters, and places exist solely within my imagination, or are used fictitiously. No connection to any person, living or dead, is intended, and any resemblance is entirely coincidental. Feel free to distribute, but please keep me as the author. Rating - 15. Classification - X. Summary - Mulder and Scully are called in to help catch an escaped serial killer that Mulder helped to put away. The killer has a grudge against Mulder, and after an FBI raid on a warehouse, the agent goes missing. Danielle Culverson. "Captive." A dark-haired man sat at a desk in the basement office of the J. Edgar Hoover building, leaning forward over the report he was writing. He scribbled quickly, all his concentration on his work. The desk was a mess. - Organised chaos was how it had been described in the past, and it had got worse since then. - Crumpled documents and memos were strewn across it. The phone was buried under a pile of printouts and faxes, the only evidence of it's presence being the dirt-streaked white cord that snaked out from under the jumble and down to the floor, where it wound it's way over to the wall, and disappeared into a hole, the plaster around which was in need of repair. Sunflower seeds in a bag balanced on top of the pile of printouts, and the whole desk was covered with the discarded shells. Pencil shavings and coffee rings decorated the white papers, and on one a splotch of tomato ketchup was visible. The appearance of the man himself matched the desk. He wore a light grey suit, the jacket of which hung on the back of a wooden chair against the wall behind him. His suit was neatly pressed, as was his shirt, but the way he wore it seemed haphazard, as though he hadn't really been thinking about what he was doing when he got dressed that morning. His tie was pulled loose around his neck, and the top button of his shirt was undone. His hair was tousled, and his eyes were shadowed with lack of sleep. - Although anyone who knew him knew that this was perfectly normal. - His age could be estimated at being anywhere between his late twenties, and mid thirties, depending on the mood he was caught in. However his eyes seemed much older than his face ever did. They were intense, green orbs, with a depth that suggested they had seen many things, and many of those had been painful. The basement room was crowded, to say the least. Three desks, - the one the man sat at, one alongside it which was considerably neater, and one in front of it which supported a computer, - three filing cabinets, a photocopier, various book-shelves and small cupboards, a waste paper basket, a coat-tree supporting two overcoats (one large black, and one smaller brown) and a baseball cap bearing the letters N.I.C.A.P., and a slide projector filled the small area. The fall-out zone around the man's desk, and the pile of waste paper around the basket didn't improve the situation. The door opened, and an auburn-haired woman carrying a manilla folder in her left hand entered the room. The man glanced up at her, and smiled faintly. "Hi, Scully." he greeted her. "Busy?" Special Agent Dana Scully asked her partner. Fox Mulder shook his head. "Not really." "No? - You looked pretty engrossed there." Mulder shrugged, "It's an interesting case, but I'm not really supposed to be working on it." "Ah." Scully sat down in the imitation leather swivel chair behind the desk alongside Mulder's, and put down the folder she held. Looking over at her partner again, she saw that his concentration had already returned to his work. A vague smile came to her lips. - So he wasn't that busy..? The phone on Mulder's desk rang, and he barely paused in his writing as he moved the papers covering it, and lifted the receiver. "Mulder." he said flatly, "Oh, hi Stanton. - What's the problem?" What came next apparently caught Mulder's attention, as he put down his pen, and lent his entire concentration to the phone call. Scully noticed, and looked up from the case she had started to read through. "Yes, of course I remember the Coxley case... Well, yes, having a photographic memory does help. - So what about it?... He escaped? - And where are they now?... Yes, of course. - But I'm not in VCU now..." Mulder paused as Agent Stanton interrupted him, and then nodded, "Yes, of course. - I did help last time. Okay, Scully and I'll be there in fifteen minutes." He hung up. Scully raised an enquiring eyebrow, "What was all that about?" "Agent Stanton." Mulder replied, "When I was working in VCU, I was involved in a case tracking down Tony Coxley. - Did you hear about the case?" "Err... Coxley, - didn't he kidnap men and beat them to death?" Scully frowned as she tried to remember the details. "Yes. - He was eventually charged with kidnap, assault with a deadly weapon, murder, - practically anything they could get on him. - His crimes were so appalling, they just wanted to throw the book at him, and then lock him up and never let him out. He got nine consecutive life sentences. While he was on the run, he kidnapped seven men between the ages of nineteen and forty four, and tortured them to death. - He beat them, whipped them, slashed them, kicked them, and eventually slit their throats or their wrists, and let them bleed to death." "Pleasant man." Scully commented. Mulder nodded. "Early this morning he managed to escape from jail, holding one of the guards hostage with a knife. He didn't get very far, and has now been cornered in a warehouse on the edge of Washington. - Stanton wants me to go and help in the hostage negotiations." "Because you did the original profile on Coxley?" "Yes." Mulder nodded. He went over to the coat-tree, and lifted down his overcoat. "Although even I never managed to work out *why* he liked caravans." "Caravans?" Scully raised an eyebrow. "I noticed he always kept his victims in caravans. - No-one else made the connection." Mulder lifted his partner's brown overcoat from the coat-tree, "Are you coming?" Scully nodded, and got to her feet, "Yes, I'm coming." * * * Mulder parked his car at the side of the road, and turned off the engine. Scully was already getting out as he removed the keys from the ignition. He followed her across to the small unused building that had recently become the centre of operations for the hostage negotiation process. They were met at the door by Agent Stanton's partner, Agent Nancy Kirren. "I'm glad you came so quickly," she greeted them, "they're making absolutely no progress with it at the moment. The SWAT boys are getting edgy, - they want to go in." "We can't go in yet." Mulder said immediately, "Not until we know more about the situation inside." Kirren nodded in agreement. "What *do* we know?" Scully asked. Kirren shrugged. "Very little. - We know he's got Ceen in there, and Ceen's still alive..." "Ceen?" Scully enquired. "Robert Ceen, the prison guard." Mulder answered. "We also know he's armed, - somehow he got a knife into the jail." Kirren continued, "Contact has been made through Ceen's walkie talkie, and visual contact of Ceen has been made through one of the windows on the first floor. - Beyond that, we know nothing." "Except that Coxley is psychotic, and extremely violent." Mulder added flatly. He followed Kirren into the building, and Scully went in after them. The main negotiation room was small, with a table set up in the centre, and chairs around the outside, all but one occupied. - The one had apparently been saved for Mulder. A plan of the building was laid out on the table, and the estimated position of the suspect marked on it. Scully also spotted a copy of Mulder's original profile on Coxley, and she picked it up as Mulder was given the walkie talkie through which he could talk to the killer. Recording devices and amplifiers were attached to it, so that the room could hear both sides of the conversation. A board at the side of the room listed the main points of the situation. "Have you been involved in a hostage negotiation before?" the chief negotiator asked Mulder. He nodded, and glanced towards Scully. She caught his look, and knew what it meant. She sent him a reassuring smile. "Once." "So you know the four imperatives..." "Honesty, conciliation, containment, resolution." Mulder reeled off. The negotiator looked suitably impressed. "Okay, let's see how he responds to you." Mulder pressed the call button, and a moment later the device activated. "What?" came the impatient voice of Tony Coxley. "Tony, this is Special Agent Fox Mulder, with the FBI..." "Fox Mulder..." There was a hint of anger in the response, "I remember you. - You testified against me at the trial." "I gave evidence, yes." Mulder agreed. "So what do you want now, Agent Mulder? - To get me another nine life sentences?" "We just want to see that Robert isn't harmed." Mulder told him, "The question is, what do *you* want, Tony?" "I want my freedom, what do you think? - I'm not an animal, meant to be kept caged. - I want out." The disembodied voice in the small room rose slightly, and the negotiators around the table waved their hands in the air, mouthing to Mulder to calm Coxley down, and quickly. "Okay," Mulder agreed carefully, "I can understand that." he took a deep breath. - It was going to be a tough one, if they were going to negotiate this out, - Mulder knew Coxley wouldn't back down from what he wanted. * * * Twenty men in leather jackets with FBI written on the back in white letters lined up in a triple row along one side of the small negotiations room. Opposite them stood the four FBI agents, Mulder, Scully, Kirren, and Stanton. Mulder, Kirren, and Stanton also wore the jackets. Scully did not, having agreed to oversee the operation when the SWAT team went inside the warehouse Seven hours of negotiation had made no progress at all, so the tactics had been changed. Scully addressed the twenty men, explaining what the plan was. "We suspect Tony Coxley will be here." Scully announced, pointing to a circled area on the plan of the building, "He's almost certainly left Robert Ceen here." She pointed to another area on the map. "He is a very violent, dangerous man, so no heroics. - We don't think he has a firearm, but he does have a knife, and won't hesitate to use it." Scully glanced at the three agents standing alongside her, and they nodded their readiness. "Okay, let's go." she said. The team moved out quickly, spreading out to surround the building. Scully watched from inside the negotiation room, and saw Mulder, Kirren, and Stanton approach the main entrance to the warehouse. Grouping themselves around it, Stanton kicked the door open, and then dropped back against the wall opposite his partner as Mulder went inside, his weapon drawn. Scully saw them wave in the nearby members of the SWAT team, and disappear into the building. Inside the building, Mulder's photographic memory came in useful as he tried to place his position. Silently waving the other agents on and away, he moved deeper into the building, his eyes flicking about quickly as he searched for any clue to Coxley's position. Entering a room alone, he thought he heard something above him. He started to lift his head, but too late. A hard object hit Mulder on the back of the head, and he fell to the ground, semi-consciouss. He heard someone jump down from the beam above where they had been sitting, and land alongside him. Then a voice spoke, and he would have recognised it even if he hadn't spent the last seven hours negotiating with the man. "Well, look what I caught. - Hello, Agent Mulder. How pleasant to see you again." Mulder felt Coxley pulling off his FBI coat, and then his suit jacket, and removing the gun from his hip holster. Then the man turned the agent over onto his back, and pulled a ball of twine from his pocket. He tied Mulder's hands tightly in front of him with the twine, and then wrapped a heavy duty bag around them, and tied that on as well. Mulder was just returning to full consciousness when Coxley next spoke. "Come on, Agent Mulder. - It's time we were going." Coxley placed the muzzle of Mulder's gun against the side of the agent's forehead, and used his other hand to help Mulder to his feet. Then he pushed him towards a door at the back of the room. The door led to a set of steps, which went to the cellar. Five minutes and a short walk later, they were emerging from a trapdoor in the ground outside the building, unseen by the agents inside, and hidden from the view of Scully and the negotiators on the other side of the building. Coxley pushed Mulder along roughly, and Mulder complied with the man's wishes as he tried to think of a plan. * * * Scully waited at the negotiation room for the last few agents to return from the warehouse. Agent Kirren had come out with Robert Ceen, who looked a little the worse for wear, but physically unhurt. So far there had been no sign of Coxley. Agent Stanton came out with the last two men from the SWAT team, and they came into the building. Scully frowned slightly. "Where's Agent Mulder?" There were shrugs all round. No-one had seen Mulder for at least ten minutes. Scully's frown deepened. "Go back inside," she ordered, "and search the building for any trace of him." The men nodded, and returned to the building. Scully went with them this time, and she searched too. Finally there was a shout, - although not one of success. "Agent Scully, over here." Scully went in the direction of the voice, and found two of the SWAT team crouched on the floor in one of the rooms near the back of the warehouse. She went over to see what they were looking at. It was a grey suit jacket, lying on top of a leather FBI jacket. Scully recognised it instantly, and what it meant. Her throat went dry. Agent Stanton ran in behind her. "What is it?" he asked, and then spied the jackets on the floor. "It's Agent Mulder's jacket." Scully replied flatly, staring at the garments, "Coxley's got him." * * * Coxley pushed his captive down in a corner of the derelict caravan, and stood over him. Then he produced the ball of twine from his pocket again, and crouched down at Mulder's side. He tied the agent's ankles together firmly, before standing up again, and moving over to the bench on the other side of the room. He sat, regarding Mulder in silence. Mulder regarded Coxley in return. "I think my luck has definitely changed." Coxley said finally, nodding to himself, "Of all the people who could have walked through that door, the one I wanted most..." He nodded again, and then cocked his head on one side. "Are you afraid of me, Agent Mulder?" he asked, "Because you should be. - I'm not going to use you as any bargaining chip. I've got what I want now. - I'm going to kill you. But I'm going to make sure you hurt first. I'm going to make sure you regret ever having heard the name Tony Coxley." Mulder said nothing. He took in his surroundings. - The caravan was medium sized, probably a six person. There was a kitchen area near the "back" door they had entered through. Beyond that were three doors he assumed led to the bedrooms and bathroom. Opposite the "kitchen" was a dining area. Then there were the three benches lining the end of the caravan he sat in, with just one break for the "front" door. He sat in the corner between two of the bench seats. Coxley sat on the third seat. A phone rang. Mulder recognised the ring of his cellular, and realised Coxley had taken it from his jacket pocket earlier. Coxley took out the phone. "Hello?" he listened, and smiled. Then he turned to Mulder. "Know anyone by the name of Dana Scully?" he asked him. "My partner." Mulder replied dully. "Yes, Agent Scully, I do have your partner here." Coxley spoke into the phone, "Perhaps you'd like to hear him?" Coxley kicked Mulder in the side. "Say something." he hissed. "Hi, Scully." Mulder said, speaking loud enough for the phone at Coxley's ear to catch his voice. "No, I won't let you speak to him." Coxley told Scully, "I actually doubt you will ever speak to him again... No, I don't want anything. I know you can't bargain for him. - I already have what I want." Coxley disconnected, and his gaze returned to Mulder, "Oh yes, I already have what I want." he said, and the threat in his eyes spoke more than his words. * * * Scully approached Walter Skinner's secretary, a slight crease on her forehead the only indication that she was concerned about anything. She held the Coxley case-file in her left hand, and had her handbag over her right shoulder. "I need to speak to the Assistant Director." she told the secretary, "It's rather urgent." "I'll just see if he's free." the secretary smiled at Scully, and opened the intercom link to the inner office. "Sir, Agent Scully is requesting to see you. - She says it's urgent." "Send her in." came the voice of the Assistant Director. The secretary motioned Scully towards the door which led through to the inner office. The agent moved quickly towards it, and went inside. Walter Skinner was seated at his desk when Scully entered. He looked up immediately from his work, and gestured towards the two chairs in front of him. "Please have a seat, Agent Scully." he said. She sat on one of the chairs, feeling harassed and awkward. - It showed in her posture. "What is the problem, Agent Scully?" Skinner asked. Scully lifted the Coxley case-file from her lap, and placed it on the desk between them. "Sir, Tony Coxley escaped from jail last night, where he was serving nine consecutive life sentences for murder, kidnapping, assault, and other crimes. The Violent Crimes Unit dealt with his original case, and were called in to help with his recapture." Scully summarised, "Agent Mulder was working with VCU at that time, and was one of the primary agents on the case. Agents Kirren and Stanton asked him to go along and help out this morning, as a negotiation for the release of Coxley's hostage was in progress, and Agent Mulder had done the original psychological profile on Coxley. Agent Mulder and I went to help with the negotiations, but eventually a SWAT team was sent in. Agents Mulder, Kirren, and Stanton went in with them. Agent Mulder did not return, and Coxley got away. A later search of the warehouse where Coxley was hiding out revealed Agent Mulder's jacket, discarded near the entrance to a cellar, an unknown exit to which was later found outside. When I called Agent Mulder on his cellular phone, I got through to Coxley, who now has Agent Mulder hostage." Scully fell silent, and watched the Assistant Director for a reaction. The man frowned. "Mulder always seems to manage to get involved in these things." he muttered, "What is it you want to do, Agent Scully?" "Initiate a full search for Agent Mulder." she replied, "Coxley has a personal grudge against Mulder, because he testified at Coxley's trial, giving an account of the psychological profile he had prepared on Coxley." "And what do you think Coxley will do to Agent Mulder?" Skinner asked. Scully paled slightly. "I don't like to think, sir. - He's a very violent person. - Over the phone he told me that having Agent Mulder and his freedom was all he wanted, and that he didn't think I would ever talk to Mulder again." "You think he plans to kill him?" "Possibly so, sir." Scully nodded, and unconsciously glanced at her watch. "Okay, Agent Scully. - You know the Bureau protocol on hostage negotiation in cases like this. You have whatever resources you need at your disposal to help you find Agent Mulder." "Thank you, sir." Scully got to her feet, and left the office. Nodding to Skinner's secretary on the way out, she headed for the elevator that could take her back down to the basement. In the X-files office once again, Scully sat down at her desk, and was silent and still for a moment. She stared at the surface of her desk without seeing anything, as confused thoughts circled in her head. Then she took her cellular phone out of her handbag, and dialed the number of her partner's. "Tony? It's Dana Scully... Yes, is he alright?... What do you mean?" A frown creased Scully's brow as she heard words she wasn't keen on. "What are you going to do to him?" she asked. her eyes widened as she heard faint cries of pain through the phone. She recognised Mulder's voice in the background, cut off as he cried out again. "What are you doing?" she cried, "Leave him alone. - He was only doing his job when he testified at the trial." There was muffled talking at the other end of the line, and then another yelp from Mulder. Then the line went dead. Scully stared at the phone in her hand in silence. * * * Mulder watched as Coxley switched off the cellular phone, and put it down on the bench seat he had been sitting on. Coxley turned slowly back to Mulder, and glared at the agent hatefully. Mulder stared back coolly, his face impassive. "What you said at my trial sent me to jail for what would have been the rest of my life if I hadn't managed to escape." he said quietly. Mulder shook his head. "No, what you did to those seven men was what sent you to jail. - I only gave my account of what happened during the search for you." "And your "psychological profile" of me." Coxley added, "You told them that I would kill and kill again until I was stopped. You told them that I was the lowest form of criminal, acting without motive or need, and with no apparent environmental or physical cause for my behaviour. - Oh yes, I remember everything you told them about me. - You made me out to be some sort of subhuman monster, scaring them so much they felt they had to put me away to sleep well at night. "Have you any idea what jail is like, Agent Mulder?" Coxley leaned over Mulder as he spoke, "Do you know the sort of sick perverts you get in there? Have you any clue what happens to people when they first arrive in jail, - what the other inmates do to them? Oh, you're punished alright, when you're sent to jail, - and I'm going to make you go through twice as much hurt as I went through in there. Not the same way as they hurt me, of course. But I'll hurt you alright." Coxley squatted down beside Mulder, and said in a quiet voice, "When I'm close to finishing with you, you'll be begging me to kill you, and let you escape from me that way." Then he got up, and went over to the kitchen area. Opening one of the cupboards, he pulled out a short piece of rope. Winding one end around the palm of his right hand, he advanced on Mulder slowly. Mulder watched his approach in silence, his face emotionless as his eyes followed the movement of the rope between Coxley's hands. The man stood over the agent, and looked down at him. Mulder saw a fury raging in his eyes, - a fury only just kept in check as he raised the crude rope whip, and brought it down against the agent's side. Mulder flinched away as Coxley brought the whip down a second time, turning his face towards the bench he sat next to, and lifting his arms to protect his head. "I'll teach you to know better." Coxley declared, and brought the whip down against Mulder's stomach, making the agent draw his legs in hurriedly, curling himself into a ball to protect himself. The whip came down again and again, biting through the thin material of Mulder's shirt, and into his flesh. He bit down on his tongue to keep from crying out. "I'll make you sorry..." Coxley declared, his breathing coming faster from his exertions with the rope. Finally he stopped whipping Mulder, and gave the agent a few solid kicks in the side instead. Each kick was punctuated with a quiet grunt from Coxley, and a yelp of pain from Mulder. Coxley slumped back onto the third bench seat, and gazed at his captive, who was still curled up in the corner made by the other two seats, his hands raised over his head to ward off the blows. A faint smile came to Coxley's face. * * * Mulder watched Coxley warily when the man came out of the bathroom. Coxley smiled slightly when he saw the look of uncertainty in the agent's eyes. He pulled Mulder's cell phone from his pocket, and looked at it. Then he looked up at the agent. "What's your partner's number?" he asked. "Why do you want to know?" Mulder countered. Anger surfaced immediately in Coxley's face. He strode over to where Mulder was sitting, and slammed one foot into the agent's side. Mulder cried out, and this brought a smile to Coxley's face. "What is the number?" he repeated the request. When Mulder hesitated, he started to draw his foot back for another kick. Mulder sighed. "555 6431" he replied. Coxley pressed the numbers into the phone, and listened to it dialing. The phone at the other end rang, and in a moment, Scully's voice answered. "Scully." "How's the search going, Agent Scully?" Coxley asked, his eyes fixed on Mulder. "Is Mulder alright?" Scully countered. "Sort of." Coxley replied, "He's alright at the moment, and he'll be alive for some time yet, - but I think he's going to be in quite some pain very soon." "Tony, you're only making things worse for yourself by doing this." "Worse? No, whatever happens to me after this, I'll have the knowledge that I've put him through hell for what he's done to me." "Mulder didn't do anything to you." Scully corrected, "You did it to yourself when you kidnapped and murdered those seven men. - Let me talk to Mulder." "No. - But I'll let you listen to him, if that will make you feel better." Coxley replied. Mulder saw the dangerous glint of anger in his eyes. Coxley drew his foot back, and slammed it hard into Mulder's ribs. The agent bit back his cry, only to have it jerked out of him by a second blow to the same spot. He turned, trying to protect himself, but unable to get away from the repeated blows Coxley was getting in. "Tony!" Scully was yelling at the other end of the phone line, "Leave him alone! - What is it you're trying to gain by this? - Mulder can't take back what has happened." "No, but I can feel better about it, having got what I've been promising myself through all the years I've been in jail so far." Coxley replied, and snatched up the rope whip again. Scully could hear it cracking in the air, and thudding into flesh, even from the other end of the phone. She could also hear Mulder groaning and crying out occasionally from the pain he was in, - and she knew it took a lot of physical pain to make her partner cry out. "Tony, please!" She was answered by a scream from her partner, and then a dead line. * * * Scully sat at her desk in the X-files office, staring at the dead phone in her hands. She placed it carefully on the desk in front of her, and gazed at it. She felt sure that she was missing something. There was something she had been told, or something she knew, that would help her to locate her partner, but she couldn't think what it was. Teams of agents were searching Washington for any clue to where Mulder and Coxley were, but they had nothing to go on in their hunt. - It was worse than looking for a needle in a haystack. Scully swiveled her chair to look at her partner's unoccupied desk. All his work was still strewn across it, left as it had been, without any time to tidy up. Her eyes traveled across his half of the office, taking in all the things she knew so well, and had begun to take for granted. A small part of her mind asked her what would happen if Coxley carried out his threat. - If Mulder was murdered, how would she feel about it? The very numbness of her mind's response to this question led her to think her reaction would not be good. The phone on Scully's desk rang, and she snatched it up before remembering that Coxley would call her mobile. "Scully." she answered, "Oh, hi Kirren. - What's the news?... No, I didn't hear that... Yes, it is, I guess... Yes, I am worried. I just got a call from Coxley. - I don't know what he was doing to Mulder, but I could hear him crying out in pain. - Coxley's insane. I'm afraid he'll kill him." Scully listened for a minute, and then nodded, "Let me know how it goes." she said, and hung up. Scully opened the case-file, and looked at the photograph of Coxley it contained. - She had never actually seen the man who had her partner in person. - As she looked at the image, the words Mulder had spoken to her when he told her they were going to the negotiations came back to her. "...He was eventually charged with kidnap, assault with a deadly weapon, murder, - practically anything they could get on him. - His crimes were so appalling, they just wanted to throw the book at him, and then lock him up and never let him out..." Scully winced at the thought that her partner was in the hands of this man, but something in her told her she was getting somewhere, and she allowed her memory to continue. "...He beat them, whipped them, slashed them, kicked them, and eventually slit their throats or their wrists, and let them bleed to death... even I never managed to work out *why* he liked caravans..." "Caravans!" Scully sat up suddenly, as the last of the memory came back in a rush. "...he always kept his victims in caravans..." Scully grabbed up the phone from her desk, and dialed quickly. * * * Coxley sat down on the bench seat opposite Mulder, and gazed in satisfaction at his captive. A faint smile came to his face when he thought he caught a look of fear in the agent's eyes. He turned the knife he held over in his hands, admiring it's sharp edge, and letting Mulder take a good look at it too. "The waiting is almost as bad as the pain, isn't it, Agent Mulder?" he murmured, "Never knowing when the next strike will be..." Coxley stood up, and squatted down beside his captive. He held the knife up against Mulder's neck, and let the blade run lightly across the skin, without cutting at all. Then he lowered the blade again. "Do you still think I'm sub-human, Agent Mulder?" he asked, and then suddenly anger exploded out of him, and he rammed Mulder's head back against the bench, and pressed the knife to his throat. "Do you?" he demanded. Mulder didn't answer. Coxley lifted the knife away from the agent's neck, and stood up. "What you *think*," He accentuated the word with a kick into Mulder's side. "is that Tony Coxley is *crazy*," Another kick. "and should be locked *up*." Another kick. He squatted down by Mulder's head again, "Don't you?" When Mulder didn't answer, Coxley went into a frenzy, kicking and punching the agent, slashing at him wildly with the knife, making several nasty gashes on Mulder's arms and back. Mulder shrank away, groaning with the pain inflicted on him. Suddenly his head was wrenched back by a hand gripping his hair, and he felt the knife at his throat. He looked up into Coxley's crazy eyes, and forced a hoarse whisper to his lips. "Please..." Coxley paused, considering. He allowed the blade to puncture Mulder's skin just a little, then lowered it and slammed Mulder's head into the bench seat with his hand. Mulder groaned, and slumped to one side. Further kicks had little effect on him, and Coxley eventually left him, and returned to the third bench seat. There was a noise outside the caravan. - It sounded like there was someone near the "back" door. - Coxley heard it, and picked up the gun he had taken from Mulder's holster back at the warehouse. He aimed it at Mulder, and fixed his eyes on the door. After a moment, it flew open, and a woman with short blond hair burst in, her gun in hand. "Federal Agent!" she yelled at Coxley, "Drop your weapon!" "Agent Scully?" Coxley asked, and indicated the gun he had on Mulder when she nodded her head. She looked uncertain suddenly. "I suggest you drop *your* weapon, Agent Scully." Coxley said, "Unless you want me to shoot your partner." Mulder lifted his head as the woman placed her gun on the "dining room" table. A flicker of confusion passed over his face, and he quickly hid it. - The woman by the table was Agent Kirren, not Scully. - There was something going on here. "Scully," he said weakly, his voice hoarse, "please tell me you called for back-up before you came?" Kirren allowed a look of horror to cross her face, which she did a bad job of hiding. Coxley lowered his gun to his side, and a faint smile came to his face. "All alone, Agent Scully?" he asked, "What a shame. - But you wanted so much to know that your partner was alright, didn't you?" "Federal Agent. - Put your hands on your head." came a cool voice from the "front" door of the caravan. Mulder turned his head to see Scully standing there, her gun aimed at the back of Coxley's head. Coxley raised his hands slowly. Kirren moved forward from where she was standing, picking up and reholstering her gun as she did so, and handcuffed Coxley. Then she pushed him to the "back" door, where Agent Stanton met them, and helped them out. Scully came over to her partner, and knelt down at his side. "Mulder, are you alright?" she asked, as she set to work untying his hands and feet. He nodded. "Oh yes, Scully, I was having a great time. - Why did you stop the party?" His voice was scratchy and hoarse, and Scully smiled. "You had me worried." she told him, as she checked his wounds over. "I'm glad to hear it." Mulder smiled, and winced when he turned his head slightly. Scully noticed the cut on his neck. "We'll have to get you to hospital. - That will need stitches." she told him, and then sat back to look at his appearance. "It's a good thing Skinner can't see you now." she said. Mulder grinned. - His shirt was bloodstained and creased, with rips along the arms and back where the whip had cut through it. His suit trousers were similarly marked. "How did you find me?" he asked. "I remembered what you said about the caravan connection. - There aren't that many unaccounted for caravans in the Washington area." Scully smiled, and helped her partner to his feet. "Come on, let's get you to the hospital." Mulder leaned on her gratefully as she led him out of the caravan, and back to freedom. The End. I'd appreciate any comments or constructive criticism from fellow X-philes. Email me on . Danielle Culverson.