Subject: "Relation" (1/3) by Danielle Culverson 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 - 12. Classification - X, A. Summary - Mulder joins a murder hunt after receiving a letter from the murderer left at a crime scene. No spoilers. Danielle Culverson. Relation. 1/3. A man in a long grey overcoat walked briskly across an open space in the centre of an abandoned warehouse. His coat blew out a little behind him as he walked, and his dark coat and hair made him appear to be just another shadow in the desolate place. His breath made clouds in front of his face in the cold evening air. He slowed as he reached the centre of the space, and his hazel eyes scanned the shadows around him, searching. A shadow separated itself from the rest. "Agent Mulder." The man in the grey overcoat gave a slight nod, but made no attempt to move towards the vague figure who had appeared from behind a stack of crates. "I have some information for you." the new arrival continued, not stepping forward either, "Something about your sister." Now Fox Mulder took a step, and then forced himself to stop. The shadow man simultaneously took a step back, and glanced around himself. "I don't want to be here, Agent Mulder." he said pointedly. "Then why are you helping me?" Mulder asked. "I have my orders." the man answered, "I have to choose whether or not I follow them, as do you, Agent Mulder. - My advice to you is to either follow this quickly, or not at all. It won't be there long." The man faded back into the shadows again, and a moment later Mulder heard quick footsteps moving away. They echoed all around him, and he couldn't tell which way they were going. Even if he had been able to tell, he wouldn't have followed them. He moved quickly to the crate the man had been standing near, and looked inside. There was a manilla folder. Mulder picked it up, and opened it. Inside was a photograph, and a field report. Mulder's eyes widened as he took in the information in front of him, and committed it to his photographic memory. * * * Special Agent Dana Scully stepped out of the elevator into the basement of the J. Edgar Hoover Building. She hurried quickly along the corridor to the only regularly used room in the basement, - the office she shared with her partner. Opening the office door, Scully stepped inside and smiled to see her partner already sitting at his desk. He looked up from the report he was working on as she closed the door, and smiled at her. "Morning, Mulder." she greeted him. "Morning, Scully." he responded, before returning to his work. Scully slipped off her brown overcoat, and hung it on the coat-stand at the side of the door next to her partner's longer grey one. Then she moved over to her desk, and put her briefcase down at the side of it. She sat down gratefully in the fake leather swivel chair behind the desk, and took a deep breath. Mulder glanced over at his partner. "You okay, Scully?" he asked her in mild concern. "Fine." she replied. Standard Scully-answer. Mulder nodded, and returned to his work. - For once, she was probably being truthful. Scully raised one slender hand to tuck a stray lock of auburn hair behind her left ear, before turning her attention to the work which lay on her desk. Unlike her partner's desk adjacent to it, her desk was fairly neat and clean. Mulder's desk looked like a disorganised war zone. Scraps of paper and old files were strewn across it. Two empty polystyrene coffee cups were stacked one in the other, and stood on top of the pile of work waiting to be done. The phone was lost beneath some of the more recent documents, and surrounded by loose sunflower seeds, the husks of which littered the floor around the male agent's feet. Scully shook her head slightly, constantly amazed that her partner could function at all in such a mess. - But she knew from experience that if she moved anything he would know, and wonder where it was. - It was best to leave things as they were, however unpleasant that prospect. Scully lifted one hand to take the top piece of work from her "In" tray, and found a couple of internal and external letters had been left for her. Rifling through them, she discovered one of them was directed to her partner. "Mulder, letter here for you." she announced, and tossed it towards him. He caught it, hardly needing to look up from what he was doing. He finished the piece of the report he was working on, signed it, tossed it into his "Out" tray, and then leaned back in his chair to open the letter. It contained a piece of paper, and two photographs. Mulder looked at the upper photograph, and saw the image of a dark haired young girl. She was about eight or nine years old, and had her hair in pigtails. She was smiling happily as she played on a swing, and something about the picture made Mulder glance towards the image of his sister which stood in a frame on his desk. His sister too wore pigtails in her picture, and was on a climbing frame. Mulder shook his head to clear the association, and unfolded the paper before he looked at the second photograph. "Agent Mulder, I have the little girl with me. If you don't stop looking for your sister, I'm going to kill her." Mulder frowned. - Was this some sort of sick joke? - He had no idea where the note had come from. It seemed very blunt in its declaration, and there was nothing to authenticate its suggestion. He lifted the first photograph from the surface of the second, and sucked his breath in sharply, - the second image, when associated with the first, held an unnamed and unpleasant threat. Mulder quickly put the two photographs and the note in his desk drawer. He returned to his report, but could no longer concentrate on his work. A few minutes later Scully got to her feet. She said something about having to go to do an autopsy, but Mulder hardly heard her. As soon as she was out of the room, he pushed aside the papers on his desk, and picked up the phone. "Alan? Can you run a check for me?... Yes, I need to know if a girl's been reported missing recently, approximate age eight, long dark hair, large dark eyes, oval face, height... about four foot two, slender... Yes, can you get back to me?... Sure." Mulder hung up, and stared vacantly at the phone for several minutes without seeing it. He looked around his desk for something to do, but couldn't concentrate even on his search. After a few minutes the phone rang. He snatched it up eagerly. "Mulder... Hi, Alan... You haven't? Okay, thanks... No, it was nothing important. Thanks." Mulder hung up, and sat thinking for several minutes. His information was vague, but had come to nothing even so, and he was fairly confident to dismiss it. Finally he made up his mind, shook his head to clear the unpleasant thoughts, and opened the second desk drawer to take out the manilla folder his contact had given him. - He had other work to do. * * * Mulder jogged up the metal steps to the upper level of the warehouse. He paused when he reached the level, and looked around him as he stepped off the stairs which continued on up towards the ceiling of the derelict building. Glancing along the wall, he could see what looked like a row of wardrobes lined up. They weren't wardrobes, however. Each had a combination magnetic lock on the door. He knew the code to only one of them. Mulder moved quickly along the line of doors to the third one, murmuring under his breath as he had done the last time he had visited this desolate and morbid place, "I'll take door number one please, Monty." Mulder tapped the number into the door's combination lock, and was surprised to see it light up with the correct entry. - He had suspected that the combination would have been changed after his last visit. - He stepped inside, and moved along the dark corridor within to the light switch on the wall part way down. He switched it on, and illuminated the whole corridor. "Lots and lots of files, Scully." he murmured, again to himself. He stared down the seemingly never-ending filing-cabinet filled corridor which ran back into the mountain behind the mining company headquarters. He had been here once with his partner looking for information about alien experimentation by the government. Now he had returned without his partner's knowledge, looking for something which was much closer to home. Mulder hurried along the corridor, past the newer files, and going towards the older ones. Reaching the area he wanted, he started pulling drawers open, looking for the right year. "Sixty-five." he murmured, and moved a couple of cabinets down. "Mulberry, Muldan, Mulddan, Muldder, Mulden, Muldew...?" Mulder frowned, and went through the files again. But he wasn't mistaken. The file was gone. - His sister's file was gone. Mulder's cell phone rang, sounding terribly loud in the silence and stillness of the mountain vault. He pulled it from his suit pocket as he continued to stare in disbelief at the open drawer of the filing cabinet. Belatedly he realised as he put the phone to his ear, that the mountain surrounding him would effectively cut off his reception. All he could hear in the phone was hiss. There was obviously nothing for him in the vault, so he turned and walked back the way he had come, emerging again from the door at the end of the corridor. His cell phone sprang back into life. "... hear me? Agent Mulder? This is Deputy Calvin McAllister, can you hear me?" "I hear you." Mulder answered, his tone giving away the discouragement he was feeling, "Who are you?" "My name is Deputy Calvin McAllister. I'm with the Virginia State Police. - We've had a murder here, and it appears that you're connected to it. - I, um, got your number from FBI headquarters..." "Yes, okay. - So what do I have to do with this murder you've got?" Mulder asked testily, irritated by the sound of the man's excited agitation. "Um... I think you'd better come over here and take a look for yourself. The Chief doesn't want this discussed over the phone." Mulder sighed, and McAllister must have heard it because he quickly went on to apologise, "I don't want to drag you all the way over here from Washington, Agent Mulder, but the Chief really thinks you should take a look at this." Mulder sighed softly again, and shook his head, although the young-sounding McAllister obviously couldn't see his gesture. "Actually I'm in West Virginia already. - Where abouts are you?" "Edgington, just outside of Richwood." McAllister replied. Mulder nodded. "Okay, I'll be there as soon as I can." He disconnected, and returned his phone to his suit pocket. Sighing heavily once again with discouragement, he turned towards the stairs to head back to his car, and set off for Edgington. * * * Mulder switched off the engine of his car, and got out. The warehouse he had been directed to was fairly unmissable when he had arrived. Police cars and four wheel drives surrounded it. Police officers stood around comparing notes and watching what was going on. A police line had been set up around the front of the warehouse, and a couple of officers stood on duty behind it. Mulder approached one of these, and showed his FBI ID, whereupon he was allowed to pass, and directed into the warehouse. Inside Mulder paused for a moment to let his eyes readjust to the light. It had been bright outside, and the interior of the warehouse was dim. As his eyes refocused, he took in a group of men working in an area on the far side of the building. - That seemed to be where all the activity was concentrated. - The rest of the warehouse was empty. A man approached Mulder, and a glance at the badge he wore told the agent he was the chief of police. "Agent Mulder?" the man asked. Mulder nodded, his eyes moving from the huddle at the far side of the room to the man in front of him. "I'm Chief Bekkins. - Thank you for coming." Mulder nodded, and started to move across the warehouse towards the group. "I'm still not sure *why* I've been requested?" he said. "Well, we discovered something rather strange when we found the body." Chief Bekkins replied. They arrived at the group as he spoke, and two of the forensics team moved away just as they did. Through the gap Mulder clearly saw the figure lying on the floor. - It was the young girl from the photograph he had been sent two days earlier. - His eyes widened, and he sucked his breath in sharply when he made the connection. Vaguely, he was aware of Chief Bekkins continuing. "We found this note, addressed to you, at the side of the body." Mulder stood staring down at the young girl for a long time before shaking himself from his stupor and turning towards the police chief, "Sorry, what did you say?" "I said we found this note by her body." Bekkins held out an envelope, and Mulder took it slowly. It looked exactly the same as the one he had received two days earlier. Turning away a little, he opened it up. Again the envelope contained two photographs and a short note. The first photograph showed a pretty blond-haired ten year-old, and note again held a threat. "Agent Mulder, I have this little girl now, and if you try to follow me I can guarantee she'll end up like the first." Mulder unwillingly turned to the second photograph, a terrible knowledge in his gut. One glance at the photograph confirmed his fears, and he shoved all three items back into the envelope. He turned back to Chief Bekkins. "How did she die?" he asked shortly. "Strangled." "What's her name?" "Kay Philston." the chief answered. He frowned in mind concern. "What's all this about, Agent Mulder? What does it mean?" He waved his hand towards the note. "It means I shall be staying around to investigate this case." Mulder said determinedly, a hint of anger in his voice. Then he turned, and walked quickly out of the warehouse again. * * * Mulder stepped out of his car and looked up at the Philston house. The image of nine-year old Kay was circling around and around in his head, along with that of the unidentified girl in the new photograph he had just received. It looked as though his decision to dismiss the letters as hoaxes had been a mistake, but why the person who had killed Kay Philston should have any connection to him or his sister, Mulder didn't know. He did know that he wasn't going to stop either of his investigations because of an anonymous threat. - He had every intention of finding whoever had killed Kay Philston, and bringing that person to justice. Besides, they may well have information on his sister. Pushing his personal motives aside, Mulder concentrated on the current case as he approached the front door of the house. His left hand stole down to the pocket of his suit where a polaroid photograph of the dead girl was lying. Reaching the door, he rang the bell, and took a deep breath. It wasn't often he had to give bad news, as usually by the time he arrived at a case scene the crime was already hours if not days after discovery. He hoped that he would never have to do it again. The door opened, and a woman in her mid thirties opened it. She was maybe a year or so older than Mulder, but her expression hardly showed it. He, however, was looking older than his years after what he had just found out. "Mrs Philston?" he asked, and held up his ID, "I'm Special Agent Fox Mulder with the FBI. Can I come in?" "It is about Kay?" the woman asked hopefully, "Have the police asked the FBI to help with the search?" She stepped aside as she spoke, allowing Mulder to enter the house. He moved through into what appeared to be the main room, and she followed him in, her expression now turning to one of concern. "What is it?" she pleaded, "Have they found something?" "I'm afraid so, Mrs Philston." Mulder said slowly. The woman watched his face for a long moment, trying in vain to read his expression. Then he met her eyes, and the expression in their orbs was transparent to her. One hand flew to her mouth. "Oh God, she's not..." She couldn't finish. "I'm afraid the police have found the body of a young girl in a warehouse five miles from here." Mulder said gently in a low voice, "They think it might be your daughter." Reaching into his pocket, he took out the polaroid photograph, and handed it to the woman. She took it with a shaking hand while the other continued to hover uncertainly near her mouth. Her eyes widened in horror when she saw the picture, and she gave a short gasp, before sitting suddenly on the sofa behind her. She continued to stare at the picture. Mulder didn't need to ask her if she recognised the dead girl. * * * Mulder pushed open one of the double doors which led into the Richwood Hospital Morgue. The door swished closed behind him, and he glanced around the apparently empty room before crossing to the autopsy bay in the centre of the room. Only the figure's feet protruded from the sheet which covered the body lying there, but Mulder didn't even have to look at the toe tag to know it was Kay Philston. The sight of such a small body in the autopsy bay was unnerving. Mechanically, Mulder checked the tag anyway, and then turned around sharply when he had footsteps behind him. "Dr. Harper?" he asked, spying a man in his early fifties in a green overall. The man nodded. "I'm Special Agent Fox Mulder, with the FBI. I'm investigating the case surrounding Kay Philston's death. - Could you tell me anything of your findings?" The doctor blinked, and stepped forward towards the agent. "Um, sure. - I just finished working on her. - I'd say she was killed about five or six hours before she was found, - sometime mid-morning." "Was strangulation the cause of death?" Mulder asked. The doctor nodded. "Yes." "No other wounds or injuries?" "No." "Sexual assault?" "No." Mulder nodded, his eyes drifting again towards the young girl. "Did she have any metal objects in her body? Small cylindrical devices, or computer chips, particularly in the gums and sinus cavities?" "No." the doctor sounded puzzled at Mulder's questions, but that didn't deter the agent. "I'd like a full toxicological and biochemical assay, and a complete genetic work-up." he said brusquely, one hand resting on the side of the autopsy bay as he spoke. "I've already done the standard toxicological screening." the doctor replied, "The results will be back tomorrow. - I hardly think it's necessary to carry out biochemical or genetic tests in a situation like this." "It might be relevant to the case." Mulder said shortly. "What good is it going to do?" the doctor persisted. "It'll put my mind at rest over whether this is likely to happen to anybody else." Mulder snapped, "Besides, she's dead. - What harm can it do to find out everything we can about what happened to her? Run the tests." With that Mulder turned away from the bay, and crossed the morgue in long strides. The door swished closed behind him, leaving the doctor standing looking rather bemused and a little surprised by the agent's requests. * * * Mulder shivered as he walked along a woodland track between lines of police tape. He had received a call mid-morning to tell him that another young girl had been found in the woods, apparently the victim of the same killer as Kay Philston had been. He didn't like to think what else might have been found with her. Emerging into a clearing created by the number of police officers who had been moving around the body since its discovery, Mulder moved quickly over to the centre of everyone's attention, and saw that the pretty blond-haired ten year old was indeed the girl from the photograph he had received at the last crime scene. "Her name's Jilly Thomas." a voice spoke behind Mulder, and he turned to see Chief Bekkins standing behind him. "She went missing just before we found Kay Philston." He reached into his pocket, and pulled out what Mulder had been dreading ever since he had been given the news that a second body had been found, - another letter. "This was waiting for you." Mulder took the letter, and opened it. Inside he saw the usual two photos, different again from the ones he had seen in the previous letters, and a note. The first photo was of another dark-haired girl. The note made what was becoming a familiar threat. "I've got her now. It's time you learned that I'm telling you the truth, because if you don't leave this alone, there'll be another death on your conscience." Mulder slowly let out a breath he hadn't realised he had been holding. Chief Bekkins was looking at him curiously. "Would you like to tell me what connection you have to all of this?" he asked. "I don't know." Mulder replied, his thoughts still on the note as he pushed it into his jacket pocket. "Well whoever is killing these girls seems to know." Bekkins persisted. "Well I don't!" Mulder snapped, and turned to walk quickly away from the body. As he walked back down the track towards the lay-by where he had left his car, tortured thoughts ran through his head. - The note said the deaths were his fault, and although he knew that wasn't true, he couldn't help but wonder if his continuing investigations into his sister's disappearance and the murder of Kay Philston had somehow precipitated the murders. Ancient guilt pressed heavily on his shoulders, making him weary. He reached his car and got in, slumping down heavily on the seat, and sitting for a long time just staring unseeingly in front of him. He wanted to pursue the case. He wanted to know what connection the killer had to his sister. But he didn't want any more guilt for the deaths that were occurring. Could he reasonably sit by and let the killer continue, then claim that further deaths weren't his fault? It was just as much his responsibility if he did nothing as if he did something. Mulder dragged himself from his stasis, and switched on the car engine. He wanted to head back to his motel before getting on with the investigation. * * * Scully pulled up outside Edgington police station, and switched off her car engine. Getting out of the car, she ran one hand over her hair to make sure she looked presentable, before turning to go into the building. Scully was tired after driving the 250 miles out to Edgington, but she was also eager to help Mulder finish up whatever had detained him in West Virginia so that they could both get back to Washington. Pushing the door open, Scully approached the main desk in the police station. A young female officer was working there, and she looked up when Scully came up to her. "Hi, I'm Special Agent Dana Scully with the FBI. - My partner is down here working on a case, and I thought I'd come down and help him clear it up." The young woman nodded, and picked up a phone on her desk. Dialing internally, she spoke quickly into the phone. "Chief, there's an Agent Scully here to see you." She looked up at Scully. "He'll be right with you." "Thank you." Scully nodded. A moment later the police chief appeared from an office further back in the station. He approached her quickly. "Agent Scully?" She nodded. "What can I do for you?" "I believe my partner is working on a murder case here." Scully replied, "I've come to help him clear things up." "Oh, right." Bekkins sounded a little uncertain, but Scully paid no attention. "Can you tell me how Agent Mulder got involved with this case?" she asked, "I've only received basic information about the case itself." "Well, er, you see we found a note with the first girl's body addressed to Agent Mulder. - My deputy called FBI headquarters to get his number, and then we called him." "What was in the note?" Scully asked. "I don't know. - He didn't show me. - But we found a similar one with the second body as well." Scully frowned. - This suggested that Mulder was somehow intricately involved with what was going on. Why would the murderer link his crimes to Mulder? She couldn't come up with a satisfactory response, but she knew her partner, and knew that he was probably in the middle of a huge guilt trip if he thought he had anything to do with the deaths. Nodding to Chief Bekkins, she glanced at her watch. "I'm going to go to Mulder's motel and meet up with him, find out what's going on." she said. Bekkins nodded as she turned away, and watched her walk quickly out of the building. In a moment she was gone. * * * Scully got up from the chair she was sitting in, and walked over to the window of Mulder's motel room. It must have been the twentieth time since her arrival that she had done it. She had persuaded the motel manager to let her into Mulder's room so that she could wait for him there, as well as booking herself a room. - She would have preferred to wait in her own rather than Mulder's, as her partner's usual messy habits had prevailed over the small room, but her room was on the other side of the lot, and she didn't have a good enough view from there to see when her partner got back. Turning away from the window again, Scully moved to sit down on Mulder's unmade bed. It was starting to grow dark outside, and she couldn't understand why her partner was so late in returning. She didn't even know where he had gone. After waiting for a couple of hours she had called the police station to ask if anyone there had seen her partner, but Mulder hadn't been seen since he left the scene of the second murder the previous day. Scully's right hand edged towards her gun as car headlights washed across the front of the room. The car pulled in, stopped, and a couple got out and headed for another room. Scully forced herself to relax, recognising her underlying nervousness in her unconsciouss reflex of reaching for her gun. So she reached instead for her phone. - It was time that she gave up waiting and started more properly searching for her partner. The worst thing that could happen was that he would walk in half way through and she would be left feeling foolish. She turned the phone on, and quickly dialed the number of the police station again. * * * An hour later saw Scully with a search party of police officers slowly searching the woods outside Edgington. By common agreement it seemed to be the most likely place Mulder could have gone and for some reason not been able to return. - Possibly he had fallen and hurt himself. Scully kept telling herself that, but knew that her partner had a penchant for getting into much more serious trouble than a twisted ankle. The party used flashlights as darkness was now almost complete, and anyway it was dark under the trees. The wood was filled with people calling to each other. Scully rested her hand on her gun as she moved through the underbrush, barely aware of her action. Suddenly there was a shout from her right, "Agent Scully! Over here!" Scully turned from her planned course and hurried over to the young policeman who was squatting on the ground. By the light of his flashlight, she saw her partner lying face down on the ground. Dropping to her knees, Scully checked his pulse and breathing before looking around to see what could have caused his apparent unconsciousness. She quickly spied a root which broke the surface of the ground just beyond Mulder's right foot. - He had obviously tripped over it. After quickly checking Mulder over for other injuries, she nodded to another two police officers who had brought a stretcher to carry him away on. As she helped them to lift Mulder's inert body onto the stretcher, another voice called for her attention. This one did sound so jubilant. "Agent Scully." Scully moved away from the stretcher as the two police officers bore their burden back to the waiting vehicles by the road. She pushed through the brush to where the officer who had called her was standing, about fifty metres from where Mulder had been lying. His flashlight illuminated the body of a young girl, about ten years old, with dark hair. As Scully knelt down beside the small figure she saw swollen marks on the girls neck. Her eyes were fixed open, bloodshot, and staring. When Scully touched her skin, the girl was almost cold. The agent shivered, looked up at the police officer, and shook her head. Bekkins arrived to join them. "That's three." he said glumly, then turned to Scully and added, "and every one connected to your partner." Scully looked up at him sharply, before realising he was right. * * * Scully sat down on a wooden chair at her partner's bedside in Richwood Hospital. This was another hospital to add to the list of those that Mulder had been admitted to, she reflected glumly, as she watched her partner's face for any sign of him regaining consciousness. He looked almost peaceful in the white hospital bed. She had cleaned him up herself after the nurses had removed his clothes, as his face and hands had been dirty from falling to the ground. As she studied his almost serene composure on the pillows, she realised that her partner was a truly handsome man. - It was just unfortunate that when he was awake the pain in his eyes detracted from the beauty of his face. But Scully couldn't hold her thoughts on minor topics for long. They kept wandering back to the image of that dark-haired girl lying in the woods, only a short way from her unconsciouss partner. What had happened there? Had Mulder been chasing the killer when he fell down? Was he running to fetch help after finding the girl? Why had he been there anyway? And what connection did he have to these killings? Scully sighed and tried to stretch the creases from her face with her hands. When she raised her head again she saw her partner struggle to open his eyes. "Mulder? Are you okay?" she asked in concern. "Scully?" His voice was hoarse, having been outside in the cold for quite some time, but the sound of her voice seemed to reassure him, and he forced his eyes open to look up at her. "What happened?" "That's what we were wondering, Mulder." Scully replied, "You didn't come back to your motel last night." "I..." Mulder searched for something to say, and then shook his head, "What day was last night?" "Mulder?" "What day is it?" he repeated. "Thursday. You don't remember?" Mulder shook his head, "I don't remember anything since... since meeting one of my contacts in Washington." "Mulder that was over two weeks ago!" Scully exclaimed, "You don't remember anything after that?" "I don't think so." Mulder said carefully. Scully sighed. "Then I guess you've no idea why you were in the woods last night, or why we found you unconsciouss only a short way from the third victim of a serial killer who seems to know you." Mulder shook his head. "Seems to know me?" "You've apparently been getting notes, which is how you were originally brought into the case, from someone who's going around kidnapping and killing young girls." Mulder frowned, and tried to suppress a small shudder. "Have you *any* idea at all why you might be getting notes from this person?" Scully asked. Mulder shook his head. "I really don't have a clue about anything you're talking about, Scully." he replied. She sighed, and nodded wearily. "We never get breaks, do we?" she muttered, and then got to her feet. "I've got to go and get some sleep before trying to solve this case you've dragged us into. - The doctors want you to stay here under observation until they're sure you haven't got a concussion. I'll have a police officer posted by your door just in case." Mulder nodded, to weary to protest, and watched as Scully got up from her chair, touched his hand briefly with her own, and then moved to the door and went out. Closing his eyes again, he let sleep come. * * * Mulder glanced behind him as he paused for a moment, and then forged on through the undergrowth in the woods just outside Edgington. Behind him he dragged a young girl, who was struggling to keep up with his long strides, and occasionally crying out tearfully as he pulled on her arm. The wood was dark around them, closing off everything except them and the trees immediately about them. They stumbled into a clearing, and Mulder pushed the girl to the ground where she sat there for a moment, crying. He looked down on her, taking in her dark hair, her diminutive features, and the tears streaming down her face. She looked up at him suddenly, and her eyes were wide and filled with unknown terror. Scrambling quickly to one side she made a run for an animal path leading away from the clearing. Mulder sprinted after her, bearing her to the ground before she reached the trees. He turned her over so that she was looking up at him, anger building inside. - Where was she going? Why didn't she want to stay? Why was she so afraid of him? She wouldn't run away from him again. Mulder put his hands around her throat, silently amazed that he could almost reach right around her throat with one hand. She tried to scream. He could feel her vocal cords working under his fingers, see the scream in her eyes and her parted lips. But no sound came out, and he smiled faintly as her eyes started to lose focus. She convulsed briefly, but he held her down with one knee as the spasms came and went. Then her eyes went glassy, and he released her. She made no movement. She didn't try to get away. Mulder cried out, and awoke on the hospital bed, his hands reaching up to clutch something in front of him, and the concerned and somewhat horrified face of a police officer looking down on him. "Agent Mulder?" the officer asked. Mulder blinked, and shook his head, trying to clear the dream from it. "Bad dream." he muttered, "I was in the woods with a young girl, and I..." his hands raised slightly from the bedclothes where they had fallen as he woke up, making strangling motions. Suddenly he realised what he was doing, and what it looked like, and dropped his hands. Too late, it seemed. The officer had seen quite enough and was backing towards the door with an expression of distrust and disgust on his face. Mulder parted his lips to call after him, but thought better of it, and lay back again. Half an hour later Scully arrived at his room again. Her expression gave away her agitation, and she spoke quickly as she reached his bedside. "What's been going on, Mulder? Half the police officers seem to think you're involved with the murders a little deeper than you should be." Mulder looked guiltily up at her, "I had a bad dream, Scully. - About killing the third girl." Scully sucked her breath in sharply, and then frowned. - Mulder had never seen the third victim, although he knew there had been one. "What did she look like, Mulder?" she asked. "Umm... dark hair, small features, about nine or ten..." Scully nodded, her eyes widening. "Mulder, you never saw her. - The police didn't even realise she was missing. - How could you possibly know what she looked like?" "Maybe I'm wrong." he suggested. Scully shook her head. "No, Mulder, you just described the dead girl to a tee." Mulder met her eyes as he realised what she meant, and swallowed. "Maybe I saw her in the wood." he put forward, his voice suddenly weak and quiet. Scully shook her head slowly, and sat down on the wooden chair at his bedside. "Mulder, I think you were out here chasing up something about your sister, - that was the information that your contact gave you two weeks ago. - Then for some reason you got pulled into this case. Perhaps it has something to do with your sister as well." Mulder looked up at his partner, frowning slightly as he tried to remember what had happened. He shook his head, "I don't know, Scully." Scully lowered her head. "Mulder, we both know how worked up you can get over cases where your sister is involved. - Perhaps you've overworked yourself, and that's why you've lost your memory." "Or perhaps that's why I snapped and murdered those three girls." Mulder said abruptly. Scully looked up at him sharply. "Mulder, I didn't say that." "No, but it's what you were thinking. It's what everyone around here is thinking." Mulder cried angrily, and then suddenly closed his eyes in defeat, and let out a heavy sigh. When he opened his eyes again and looked up at his partner, she saw a plea in his hazel orbs. "Scully, I don't know what happened. After that dream, I'm horrible afraid that you're all right." Scully put one hand forward to rest on top of her partner's as she held his gaze with sympathy and understanding in hers. He seemed so helpless without his usually so reliable memory. "I'll find out what's going on, Mulder." she said softly, "I'll find your truth." * * * Scully opened the door of Mulder's motel room, a determined expression masking her uncertainty about her partner's recent history. She closed the door behind her, and stood for a moment looking around. - There had to be something in the room somewhere to tell her what her partner's connection to the case was. Perhaps something in Mulder's field journal... She crossed to the table by the window, and rifled through the papers she found there, but found nothing relating to either the case or his sister. She turned and glanced around again, before striding across the room to the bedside cabinet. She pulled open the top drawer, and saw the manilla folder which one of Mulder's contacts had recently given him inside. She opened it, wondering if some of the information it held might shed some light on the situation. The first things she found inside were three white envelopes, each addressed to "FBI Agent Mulder". She recognised them vaguely, before realising that one had arrived for Mulder at their office in Washington. - He hadn't told her what it contained. Scully opened the uppermost envelope, and two photographs and a note fell out. She surveyed the photographs quickly, and then read the note. "Agent Mulder, I have the little girl with me. If you don't stop looking for your sister, I'm going to kill her." Suddenly she understood why her partner was involved. She opened the second envelope, quickly scanned the pictures, and then read the note. "Agent Mulder, I have this little girl now, and if you try to follow me I can guarantee she'll end up like the first." Scully swallowed before opening the last letter. "I've got her now. It's time you learned that I'm telling you the truth, because if you don't leave this alone, there'll be another death on your conscience." Lowering the note onto her lap, she stared into nothingness for a moment, trying to collect her thoughts. Why her partner was involved was obvious now. - He had been called to the scene when one of the notes had been found, and feeling himself responsible somehow, had stayed to try and clear up the case. And she knew just why he had been so concerned, but hadn't bothered to call her and tell her what was going on. The first photograph in each letter showed the next victim. The second photograph in each was each a recent picture of her. * * * Mulder struggled with dreams, writhing and moaning on his hospital bed. From the door an anxious pair of police officers watched him. "Bekkins said his sister ran away when he was a kid, and he never got over it." the shorter officer said to his companion in a low voice, "He abducts the girls thinking they're his sister, and then kills them when he realises his mistake." "Then what the hell's he doing here?" the taller officer countered, "He should be on the psycho ward." "Probably they just haven't got around to sorting it out yet." the first officer replied. In his tortured dream world, Mulder strangled Jilly Thomas, and then walked into a motel room behind his partner. He looked around at the room, but nothing would come into focus properly. Turning back to look at his partner, he saw her turn towards him, a questioning smile on her face, her eyes dancing. He lunged forward, knocking her back onto the bed where he positioned himself over her, holding her down with the weight of his body as she struggled against him. His hands sought the delicate skin around her neck, and closed around it. Her eyes met his in an expression of disbelief and horror as he squeezed his hands around her throat. She didn't struggle, just lay there staring up at him with a mute plea in her eyes until her heart stopped, and he released her. He sat back, and looked down at her, admiring his work. Admiring? Mulder struggled, and managed to drag himself from the dream with an anguished cry. "No! Scully!" The police officers turned towards each other in alarm as Mulder bolted upright on the bed. The shorter officer reached for his weapon, but Mulder didn't try to get up. He sat there, the sheet having fallen around his waist, staring unseeingly at the mound of sheet over his feet. He was shaking with the after-effects of the dream, and shaking inside at the horror of what he had seen himself do. But Scully wasn't dead. He hadn't tried to kill her, he knew that. So where had his dream come from? Mulder suddenly suffered an insight into his own mind. - His dreams came from his guilt over his sister usually, and sometimes over other cases, but in the past his worst nightmares had come when he was trying to profile killers. Trying to get into their heads by day, he had accomplished it horrifically well at night, dreaming what the killer thought and felt as he or she carried out their crimes. This was just the same. - At some point during the case he must have tried to profile the killer, using the earlier murders as a reference. And this had somehow translated into his dream. Mulder sank back gratefully onto his pillows, relieved in the reasonable explanation for his "flashbacks". From the door the officers, knowing nothing of Mulder's deliberations, continued to watch him warily. * * * Scully wandered through Edgington woods, seemingly unconcerned for her safety. Beneath her long overcoat, however, her hand held her gun ready for action. The woods around her were quiet and dark, and she hoped that she wasn't wasting her time wandering along the deserted paths when there was no-one around. Having seen the photographs of herself in the three letters in Mulder's room, Scully had come to the same conclusion as her partner, - that when accompanying those threatening notes, the letters also held an unnamed threat to her. - And so she hoped that seeing her alone in the woods, the killer might be drawn out. Scully circled around behind the clearing where Jilly Thomas had been found, and went on towards the area where the latest girl's body had been discovered. As she turned back to walk towards the road again, she decided that she was being foolish coming out alone. - She should at least tell someone where she was and what she was doing. - Otherwise she could end up a suspect in the case as well as her partner. Scully speeded her stride, and headed back towards her car. She would drive to Edgington police station and gather a few officers to back her up. Then if they didn't find anything, she would go on to the hospital at Richwood to see how Mulder was getting on. A movement to her left caught her attention, and she glanced that way, her hand tightening around her gun, one finger reaching to release the safety clip. But there was no further movement. - It had probably been her imagination. A rock scuttled behind her, knocking against a dry root with a hollow thud. Scully tensed, the hairs on the back of her neck rising with the anticipation of someone behind her. She waited for as long as she could bear before spinning around, drawing her gun from beneath her coat as she did so. There was nobody there. She sighed, and lowered her weapon. Just as she did so, there was a rustle behind her, and then a heavy weight hit her back, knocking her to the ground. She opened her mouth to cry out, but only succeeded in getting a mouthful of dry leaves. Strong hands clutched her shoulders, twisting her over. She saw a dark-haired man looming over her. He placed a knee on her chest, pushing most of the breath out of her. Then his hands closed around her throat, pressing against the front of it, and crushing around the sides. She gagged. Suddenly re-exerting control over her limbs, she realised she still had her gun in her right hand. She turned it as far as she could towards the man, and fired at point blank range. His eyes widened in surprise, and his hands first squeezed tighter around her throat, then relaxed. He slumped over her as she felt the warmness of his blood soaking through her clothes. Pushing his body off her, Scully shakily got to her feet, and reholstered her weapon. She then squatted beside the body to check for life signs, and found none. Rising again, she continued to walk back to her car. * * * Scully hurried down the hospital corridor towards the room her partner was in. She tried to brush past the police guards at the door, but one of them put an arm out to block her entry. "You don't want to go in there, Agent Scully." he said, before noticing the blood on her clothes, "What happened?" Scully waved a hand in dismissal, "Why can't I go in?" she asked sharply. "He's been dreaming of murdering you." the shorter guard replied. Scully glanced at him. "He's been *dreaming* of trying to find the killer." she said coldly, and then pushed through the doorway. As she reached her partner's bedside, he opened his eyes. "Scully..." he began, and then saw the state of her clothing. Sitting up, he reached towards her, "What happened? Are you alright?" Scully looked down at the drying blood, and nodded. Looking up at her partner again she answered, "Not my blood, Mulder. Someone else's." Mulder lifted his gaze to her face, and then spotted the swollen red marks at her neck. Reaching towards her, he gently touched the bruised flesh. "What happened?" he murmured again. From the doorway, the two officers couldn't hear the conversation between the two agents, but on seeing Mulder lift his hands to Scully's neck, they acted as one. Racing into the room, one pushed the two agents apart while the other leveled his gun at Mulder's head. "It's okay, Agent Scully." the shorter officer said as he stood between her and Mulder. Scully was livid. "Okay? - What the hell do you think you're doing?" "But he tried to attack you..." "No, he was just concerned that I already had been." Scully snapped, lifting her chin to give the officer a better view of the marks on her neck which Mulder had seen as his bed was at a lower level than her. "You'll find your killer in Edgington woods, not far from where the latest victim was found, dead." she added, indicating the blood on her clothes. The two officers stared at her, uncomprehendingly. Scully gave a sigh of frustration, before firmly taking hold of both of them and shoving them towards the door. "You're relieved." she called after them, "There's no longer any danger to Agent Mulder." "Or from me." Mulder added in an undertone. Scully glanced towards him where he was now lying across the bed, and nodded with a weary sigh. She sat down on the chair again, and met her partner's gaze. "Do you think you could come back to Washington now?" she asked tiredly. Mulder nodded in silent agreement. The End. I'd appreciate any comments or constructive criticism from fellow X-philes. Email me on . Danielle Culverson.