Chapter 12
Mulder sat in the waiting room at the hospital with his elbows resting heavily on his knees. He held his head in his hands and stared blankly at the floor. It always ended like this … in a hospital waiting room. Mulder mentally counted the number of times a case ended with Scully or him lying in a hospital bed. Too many, Mulder mused. He ran his fingers over the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath trying to clear his head. His thoughts lingered over Scully's admission at the house just minutes ago. More like my reading between the lines, he thought. She'll never tell me how she really feels…she doesn't even know herself.
"Agent Mulder."
Mulder turned his head at the sound of the voice and looked up at Lieutenant Peters standing in the hallway. "Lieutenant," he acknowledged sitting back in the chair.
"Bates is being admitted for observation," Peters reported. "I don't have any word on Agent Scully yet."
"She went down for a Cat Scan," Mulder replied looking up at the ceiling.
"You've got that look on your face like you've been here before," Peters remarked.
Mulder shook his head and stood from the chair. "More times than I care to remember," he said ruefully.
"Agent, I don't think I need to remind you that incidents like these come with the territory," Peters replied calmly. "We didn't choose careers in law enforcement because it's easy."
"Yeah, well, I don't remember hospital stays as part of the recruitment brochure," Mulder replied sarcastically.
Peters rolled his eyes and shrugged his shoulders. "Gervase and Jobgen are going back to the house to photograph the crime scene and clean the place up," Peter replied changing the subject. "Undercover," he added not that it was necessary.
"Agent Mulder," a female voice called to him from down the hallway to Mulder's left. He turned to see Scully's doctor approaching.
"I'll meet up with you later," the lieutenant commented nodding his head to the right. He shook Mulder's hand and walked in the opposite direction.
"Agent Mulder," the ER doctor repeated. "Your partner is back in her room. I'm going to hold her for observation for a couple of hours," she said. "Everything came back okay on the scan. She'll probably have a headache and some dizziness later."
Mulder nodded numbly and made his way down the hall. He formulated his words in his head while trying to control the gamut of emotions he was feeling. He was relieved that she was okay. She had seemed out of it at the house in typical Scully style – trying to act like she wasn't hurt. Mulder chuckled at the irony of it. He could see right through her sometimes, just like how she could see through him. He hesitated outside her door.
"Hey," he said smiling as he pushed opened the door. "I just talked to your doctor. She said you're alright." He walked to her bed and sat down on the edge. He watched her as she picked up his hand and laced her fingers around his.
"She's holding me for observation," Scully said with a pouty expression on her face.
Mulder chuckled at her expression. "Did you think you were going to get out of that?"
"There's nothing wrong with me," she replied flatly.
"Okay Dr. Scully," Mulder remarked quietly, not in the mood to argue with her. He bit his lip and planned his next move. "Bates was admitted."
"Is he okay?"
"I talked to him earlier," Mulder replied. "He's pretty banged up, his arm is broken in two places, bunch of cuts, and he has a big gash on his head." Mulder described pointing at his head. Scully chuckled at his descriptors. "What?" he asked.
"Banged up, big gash?" Scully commented with raised eyebrows. "Not very clinical."
"Well, I'm not the doctor," he replied. "Just the psychologist." Mulder lifted her hand in his and ran his thumb across her palm, massaging the heel of her hand. "So are you ready to tell me what happened?"
Scully growled seductively under his touch. "Oh, I get it," she replied with half a smile. "Tease me into submission."
Mulder was amused by her sudden playfulness. She must have hit her head harder than I thought; he mused still rubbing her hand. He grabbed at the IV line playfully and squinted up at the bag. "Whoa, what kind of drugs are you on?" He arched his eyebrows at her.
"It's a plain IV Mulder," Scully replied looked him.
"Humph, that's all? I was going to try to hook into it," Mulder said remorsefully. He sighed and looked up at her. "So?"
"There's not really much to tell," Scully started slowly. "When I got to the house, I found Bates in a scuffle with the guy. I directed him to stop and he turned on me."
"What do you mean, he turned on you?"
Scully closed her eyes as she tried to explain. "I yelled for him to stop. He turned and ran toward me. I yelled stop again and he shoved me to the floor."
"When he shoved you, did he push you with his arm or was he close enough to hit you with his body?"
"His arm I think," Scully said.
"When did you fired at him?"
"Right when he shoved me. I pulled the trigger as I was falling to the floor."
Mulder nodded his head and bit his lip. "Did you get a good look at him?" he asked carefully watching her facial expressions. This was the moment of truth. Bates had given a very specific description of the attacker. The description was nearly identical to Ben's recollection of the monster that had attacked his friend and of the creature Mulder had chased across Shroeder's front yard.
"He was large, both tall and built," Scully started without hesitation. "His face was dark like he had camouflage paint on it."
"That's it?" Mulder asked. "That sounds like half the guys in the neighborhood," he joked trying to see what else she would say. He sensed that she was hiding details from him.
"Mulder," she said with an annoyed tone. "It was dark in there and he came at me fast. I didn't have a lot of time to be checking out his vital statistics."
Mulder could see that she was getting frustrated. Her face was flushed and she had that "Mulder you're pissing me off" look in her eye. "Okay, uncle," Mulder conceded. He squeezed her hand and leaned in to brush his lips across hers. "Why don't you rest for now? I'll come back and check on you in a little while." He stood from her bed and put the side rail up and quietly left her room.
When he stepped into the hall, he ran straight into Agent Driscoll. "Hey Dris," Mulder said nearly bumping into him.
"I was looking for you," Dris mumbled as he ducked. "Scully okay?"
"Yeah, she's going to have a headache though," Mulder muttered. "If she doesn't have one already. She'll be released in a couple of hours."
"What about Bates?"
"Let's find a room where we can talk," Mulder said inclining his head to the right. The two men walked down the hallway and found the lounge empty. They both walked inside the small room. Mulder walked to the mirror and looked blankly into the parking lot as Driscoll made himself a cup of coffee behind him.
"So, Bates?" Driscoll prompted Mulder to bring him back to the conversation.
"He's been admitted. He got the crap kicked out of him," Mulder said turning from the window.
"Did he get a look at the guy?" Driscoll asked leaning back against the counter.
"More or less," Mulder replied shrugging his shoulders.
"Mulder," Dris started shaking his head. "Cut the crap. It's me. Was it a man or the creature from the black lagoon?"
"The creature from the black lagoon lived in Pennsylvania. But based on his description? I'd put it in the "or" category," Mulder replied dryly.
"Did Scully see anything?" Dris asked taking a drink from his cup. "And more to the point does her description match?"
"More or less," Mulder said. "Big, dark, and fast seems to be the consensus. Matches the description Ben gave in his statement and the thing I chased across the yard."
Driscoll nodded and took another drink of his coffee. "Anyone else see it?"
"Maybe. Jobgen thinks he saw something and he may have gotten a photo of it," Mulder replied walking over to the coffee pot. He poured a cup of the black liquid and dumped some powdered creamer into in. "He and Gervase went back to the house to photograph the crime scene."
"Let me get this straight," Driscoll said looking over at Mulder. "Bates is in the house and this thing just appears out of nowhere, kicks the snot out of him and then attacks Scully?"
"Well, it didn't exactly appear out of nowhere," Mulder remarked. "From the looks of the house, it entered and exited through the front door."
"Well, at least he's polite," Dris replied shaking his head at the absurdity of it. "What about that guy that's missing …. What's his name? Mike? What're the chances this "thing" is him?"
Mulder bit his lip and paced across the room. "I'm not ruling him out just yet," he said. He turned to face Driscoll. "There's just some evidence that is a little…suspicious," he remarked giving Driscoll that all-knowing look.
"What?"
"Bates said when he was wrestling it, he was trying to grab onto it. The arm, shoulder or chest … and was just coming up with handfuls of mud and ….gunk," Mulder replied flatly. "That stuff was all over the floor in the house. Bates was covered with it and it was on Scully's shirt."
"Okay, so the guy's a little muddy," Driscoll shrugged trying to make sense of it all. "He's living in your basement for crist-sake!"
"Bates unloaded his firearm at point blank range without even stopping it," Mulder added. "If that thing was a man, he'd be dead."
Driscoll set his coffee cup down and was about to launch another objection when Mulder's phone rang. He stood there watching the man answer the call while he mulled the information on the case around in his head. He respected Mulder and his cause. Sometimes he just didn't understand the X-file weirdness of his cases. It didn't seem logical to him. No wonder why Scully has a hard time wrapping her brain around it, he thought to himself. Monsters killing people and disposing of the bodies? Hell no! He focused back in on Mulder, just as his partner snapped his cell phone shut.
"That was Jobgen," Mulder said tossing his cup in the trash. "They're on their way to the station with the film. Let's go over there."
"What about Scully?" Driscoll asked mindlessly.
"I'll come back and get her later," Mulder said as he walked to the door. "She needs her rest."
"And you don't?"
"I'll nap in the car," Mulder said holding the door open for his friend.
"Well, just don't drool on my shoulder," Driscoll smarted back at him. "I get enough of that from Nester."
The air in Lieutenant Peter's office was thick with tension. Four men stood in a semi-circle around the lieutenant's desk staring at a series of 8x10 photographs. The room was silent except for the ruffling of photo paper being passed wordlessly between them. No one dare make any comment as they tried to make some sense of the images on the paper.
"What the crap is that?" Driscoll said as he squinted at the photo. He turned his wrist putting the paper at various angles to see the image in a different perspective.
"Looks like dirt to me," Gervase said leaning over to gape at the photo. "Yeah, see right there? It's dirt from the wall."
Driscoll rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I see that," he muttered with an annoyed tone. "I meant that!" he pointed at a different image on the paper. "What the frick is that?"
Jobgen looked up for the desktop. "Let me see it." Driscoll turned the photo around and Jobgen looked at it. "Oh, that," he said arching his eyebrows. He moved the photos around on the desk. "That would be the same as this," he remarked digging another image out from the bottom of the pile on the desk and handing it to Driscoll.
"And this," Mulder added handing him another.
"Which brings me back to my original question … what the crap is that?" Driscoll repeated more loudly this time.
"Well, I'm no expert," Gervase started with a shrug. "But it appears to be a man walking through the wall."
"Or more precisely, becoming part of the wall," Mulder said handing Driscoll another photo with a different angle.
"Excuse me?" Driscoll replied with perplexed expression on his face. He scanned the faces of Gervase, Jobgen and Mulder. Geezus they aren't kidding, Dris thought as he looked back at the photos. The still images captured a figure that appeared to be a large man. In two of the photos the man was walking down the tunnel, but several others captured images of him walking into the wall. There is no fricken way this guy walked into the wall, Driscoll thought as he pointed at the photo. "Are you sure that there wasn't some type of passage at this point?"
"Nope!" Jobgen replied handing Driscoll another photo. "Here's the wall after he disappeared."
Driscoll peered at the photo and found nothing remarkable about it. It looked like a normal wall, except that the dirt appeared moist, like water had been dripping on in. The photo also showed a pile of loose dirt at the base of the wall.
"What's this pile of dirt from?" Driscoll asked as he stared at the photo.
"Oh, that? That was what was left over when he …. bonded with the dirt," Jobgen responded matter-of-factly.
"Geezus crist!" Driscoll mumbled as he stared at the photo. Mulder was right, this whole case is ridiculous, he thought to himself as he tried to make sense of what they were saying. He set the photos down on the desk and picked up a copy of the case file. "Hey, the guy who's missing … Mike," Driscoll mumbled as he dug around in the case file. "What's his height and weight?"
"6'3, 240," Gervase replied putting photos on the desk.
"This … thing looks about that," Dris said pointing at the pictures.
"That and then some," Gervase said shaking his head. "But the missing guy, Mike, was my vet and I don't remember him being able to walk through walls before he disappeared."
"Well, maybe he was a warlock?" Jobgen joked shrugging his shoulders.
"What?" Dris questioned with a confused expression on his face. Did he say warlock? Shit, Mulder is wearing off on these people! he thought as he leveled his gaze on Officer Jobgen.
"Look, I know what you're thinking," Jobgen said walking around the desk. "But I was down in those tunnels with that … thing. I can assure you … that was no man."
"How do you know?" Mulder asked him quietly.
"It just wasn't. It didn't move like a man," Jobgen stammered. "It came out of nowhere. One minute the tunnel was empty and then next it was just standing there. The movement was weird. Like slow motion, but not," he paused a moment searching for the right words. "Like fast and clumsy."
Mulder nodding as Jobgen vocalized his observations. Bates had told a similar version of events, so despite what anyone wanted to believe, something besides Big Mike was living in the tunnels. Mulder picked up the photo showing the "man" walking into the wall and stared at it for a moment.
"Where exactly were you when took this?" Mulder asked mindlessly. He was slightly envious at Jobgen for witnessing the "man's" transformation.
"Right under your house," Jobgen replied flatly.
Mulder looked up at Jobgen without saying a word. It's not just the monsters under the bed we should be afraid of, he thought as he scanned the expressions of the men in the room.
"Whew," Gervase remarked. His shoulders shuttered and he shook his head. "That sends chills up your spine."
Jobgen and Driscoll glanced at each other. "You scared of the dark or something?" Jobgen asked his partner.
"No!" Gervase said defensively. "I just get creeped out about things lurking where they don't belong. When I was little our cat used to hang out under my bed and attack my ankles when I least expected it." He shuddered again at the memory of it and then scanned the faces of the men in the room. "It scarred me for life," he mumbled sheepishly.
Driscoll chuckled and shook his head. "I can't talk … the house I grew up in was haunted," he remarked at he patted Gervase on the shoulder.
"Me either," Jobgen chimed in. "My older brother terrorized me with sandpaper. Now I can't stand the stuff. Just thinking about that gritty, sandy paper touching something makes me … ugh!" he replied making a face and shaking his shoulders.
"What about you Mulder?" Gervase asked looking over at the agent. "Anything scare you to the core?"
Mulder scanned the faces of the men before him. "Only two things…. one being when Scully is ticked off at me," Mulder replied flatly sticking his nose in the file he was holding. The second was fire and only his closest friends knew that, Driscoll included.
"And the second?" Gervase prompted.
Mulder was quiet for a moment and then looked at Driscoll over the edge of the file. "Ah… the second?" he stammered trying to think of something else to say. "British women," he finally coughed out.
"What?" Jobgen guffawed. "You're scared of British women?"
"Yeah, I … ah graduated from Oxford," Mulder shrugged nonchalantly. "I got in way over my head with a woman over there." He eyed Jobgen and Gervase as they stared at him. "I learned my lesson."
Gervase rolled his eyes and laughed. "Yeah, well, we've all learned our lesson with women. The British part is irrelevant."
Mulder sighed and shut the file. He sat down in the chair behind him and ran his hand across the bridge of his nose. "That's an understatement," he mumbled. He glanced at his watch and read the time as 7:15 a.m. He'd been awake for twenty four hours and it was starting to wear on him. There was no time for sleep now, he needed to come up with a plan to lure this thing back out from under the bed.
"Okay, where do we go from here?" Mulder asked the group trying to recalculate their options.
The three men took his lead and sat down. Jobgen in the lieutenant's chair, Gervase on the corner of the desk and Driscoll across from him in the opposite chair.
"That's easy," Jobgen began. "We need to draw this thing out again."
"But how?" Gervase asked. "Mulder wasn't the target last night."
"Whadya mean?" Driscoll asked not understanding the question.
"It materialized under Mulder's house, but attacked Bates next door. So obviously the neighbors were the target," Gervase explained.
"But they weren't home!" Driscoll spouted off.
"Yeah, but no one knew that," Gervase replied defensively. "Like Mulder said a couple of days ago, it's a pattern. One by one the association board is being picked off."
"Gervase is right," Mulder butted in. "We need to figure out a way to …"
"Make it come after you?" Driscoll blurted out. "I don't like the sound of that…especially knowing that a bullet doesn't stop it."
"You got a better idea?" Mulder asked him tilting his head to the side. "Look I don't exactly like the idea of being hunted by this thing … but it's the only way."
Driscoll shook his head and stood from the chair. He paced across the room to the wall. "Where exactly did this thing materialize?"
"In the tunnel section that runs between Shroeder's and Mulder's," Jobgen replied flatly.
Dris ran his hand over his face trying to visualize the scene in his head. "And you were in the tunnel that runs under the street?" He watched Jobgen nod wordlessly. "What's the trigger?"
"Gogolak" all three men answered in unison.
"Why do you think that?" Driscoll asked. He walked back to the desk to be part of their discussion. He knew exactly why they all thought that, but he was playing devil's advocate.
"It's a little ironic that he was in the neighbor's driveway and suddenly this thing appears out of nowhere in the tunnels," Gervase commented picking up a photo off the desk.
"That doesn't exactly finger him as the trigger," Driscoll argued.
"Not exactly," Mulder replied. "But he was in the tunnel yesterday when he made his get-away."
"Maybe we need to rig the tunnels with cameras tonight," Jobgen remarked.
"That's a great idea," Gervase said. "Too bad that going down there with a bunch of equipment would be really obvious."
"Not necessarily," Driscoll said slowly. "Remember, the Petries' are putting a reflecting pool in their front yard."
"And?" Gervase asked with a perplexed expression on his face.
"And I'm sure the city sewer department would want to make sure the drainage was okay before the contractor finished," Mulder replied looking from Driscoll to Gervase.
"Which opens our window to get into the sewer and the tunnel," Gervase finished off nodding his head. "I'll go talk to special teams and see what I can work up." He pushed off the desk and started for the door.
"I'll help," Jobgen replied standing up.
"No Jobgen," Mulder butted in. "You need to get some rest. I'll need you back in the tunnel tonight."
"Okay," Jobgen said as he passed by Mulder's chair. "But the same goes for you."
"He's right Mulder," Driscoll said. "Go get Scully and get some rest. I'll go with Nester to pick up Sams. It's better that Scully is out of it, that way she isn't linked to her brother and your cover is protected."
Mulder stood up and walked to the door. He was beat and now that the plan was laid out, he wasn't in the mood to argue.
Mulder stretched like a cat and curled around Scully's warm body. He nuzzled his nose into the crook of her neck and laid carefully placed kisses around her ear. His plan to wake her quietly worked its charm and he smiled as he watched her eyelids flutter open.
"Hmmm, Mulder," she purred as she stretched and rolled over to faced him. "What time is it?"
"Five," he whispered in her ear.
"Five in the what?" Scully said tracing her finger down his chest.
"In the afternoon," he replied, his voice husky and low. He pulled her chin up to meet his gaze and brushed his lips against hers.
It didn't take long for her to react to his touch. He found himself melting into her heat. Their tongues probed each other beyond their lips. He hadn't intended for this to happen when he chose the method to wake her, but he was happy to indulge her mood at this moment. It didn't take much convincing really as his organ was already demanding release from its prison.
He could sense Scully's arousal in her slow and deliberate actions. Her hand lingered on his chest and then made its way carefully down to his waist line. She fumbled with the button for less than a second and worked the zipper of his jeans down before he could stop her. He wanted so much to roll her over and take control of the motions, but he forced himself to hold back. He wanted this to be all Scully's doing. He was the aggressor in their love life far too often and tonight he wanted to Scully to play her cards.
It was all he could do to hold back however. She snaked her hand beneath his boxers and laced her fingers around his organ massaging gently. Mulder felt the pressure against their lips loosen and he rolled his eyes upward as his body was riddled with sensations. He fought to focus on her lips and tried to distract himself by running his hand across her chest to find her breast. He heard a soft gasp escape from her lips as he increased the pressure against her nipple.
The distraction lasted only a minute. As he felt Scully take a more firm hold of him, he moaned and rolled to lay flat on his back. He reached down and hooked the waist of his pants with his thumbs and then shimmied the stiff jean fabric down to his knees. Scully released him just long enough to push the trousers past his feet and off the bed to the floor. He struggled to sit up to remove his shirt and felt her gently tease the inside of his leg. The sensation rolled over him like a steam engine.
The hot moist environment of her mouth enveloped him into a misty haze of euphoria. The steady pressure of her tongue and her gentle teasing flicks tested his ability to maintain his control. He reached up and braced his arms against the headboard forcing himself to take slow breaths to contain his reaction to Scully's movement on him.
God she is beautiful, he thought when he finally opened his eyes and focused on her. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter if she understands her feelings or even expresses them fully to me; the bottom line is I love this woman. He ran his hand roughly through her red hair and down to the nap of her neck to pull her attention in a different way.
"Hey," he croaked out and swallowed hard, his voice sounding rough and hollow in his ear.
"Hey," Scully purred back at him. She adjusted her position and placed kisses across his stomach as she made her way to his face.
"Why am I the only one that is naked?" he asked her lazily.
"Because you haven't undressed me yet," she replied plainly brushing her lips against his cheek.
"Oh, that's how you want to play it?" he mumbled. He watched her arch her eyebrows and stare seductively at him. "Why don't you do it?" He tilted his head and looked up at her. "It'll be a turn on for me." She's not going to go for that, he thought to himself as he watched her carefully.
She surprised him. He watched in awe as she pushed herself up and knelt at his side. Her legs were spread apart in an inviting manner and he reached up to stroke the fabric near her mound. The area was hot and he could tell she was already wet. Mulder smiled as he watched her expression, her eyes rolling upward and a sigh escaping from her lips as he put pressure on her bud.
His actions halted her movement for a second, but Mulder didn't stop. He could see the conflicted expression on her face and watched as she bit her lip to focus. She moved her hands to her shirt and slowly began to unbutton her blouse. Her movement was calculated. Her eyes were locked with his in a hypnotic trace. Her breathing was shallow and her lips… her lips were full and inviting. He closed his eyes and imagined kissing those full lips, probing her hot mouth with his tongue, being drawn fully into her goodness with his body.
Mulder felt his resolve slipping away. When he couldn't stand it anymore, he broke the trace she held on him. He sat up and unhooked her bra in one swift movement. Once her breasts hung free against her skin, he pushed her down against the bed and untied her warm ups. He slid the cotton fabric down her legs and inched his way back to her waist covering her legs with gentle nibbles.
Mulder pushed one leg to her chest and opened the area by her mound fully. He teased her by rubbing the tip of his organ against her bud and chuckled mischievously when she wriggled below him to draw him in. But now was not the time for that, as he pulled back and nestled his head between her legs. He placed kisses over the delicate skin of her mound and put pressure on her bud with his tongue. He tasted her essence on his lips and licked at the entrance to her core to devour all of her goodness.
After a moment, Mulder couldn't stand it anymore. He needed to be inside of her, become one with her, and expose his inner emotion to her. He leaned back and drove himself into her core watching her expression as her body adjusted to his girth. The sensation of the tight muscles adapting to him and the molten lava of her core flooding over him just heightened his need to be deeper inside.
Their faces collided in a fury of hot wet kisses as the two partners became one. Mulder felt Scully wrap her arms around his torso and rake her fingernails down his back. He pressed his chest against hers and felt the sweat puddle and run between them. I love this woman, he thought as he felt her muscles spasm beneath him. He thrust against her as she shuddered from her organism.
"Mulder," Scully gasped as her body trembled with emotions. "I luaewe," she whispered breathlessly. A low moan escaped her lips as she ran her fingers through his hair.
Mulder nuzzled his head in to the side of her neck and wrapped his arms around her waist and upper back. He stretched out the length of the bed and rolled over onto his back pulling Scully along with him. When he was settled with Scully above him, he ran his hands down the side of her back and rested them at her hips and the small of her back. He pushed her down on him, thrusting himself deeper into her core. Mulder smiled as she moaned at the friction. He held one hand at the small of her back and moved the other to cup her breast. As he orchestrated their union he squeezed her nipple with varying degrees of pressure, which elicited squeals from Scully's mouth. He felt Scully reach her apex and open herself to him again. She's come at least four times and I haven't come once, Mulder marveled at his stamina. Either I'm a superhero... or I'm just getting old.
Mulder didn't have to think about the answer for long. The pressure from the position teased Mulder gently and slowly overwhelmed him. He reached his apex just as Scully leaned over and pushed her breast into his mouth. He turned his head as he felt his release and gritted his teeth. The explosion wracked his whole being and he grabbed onto her torso to stop any movement. A moan escaped his lips and he closed his eyes as he put everything out there for her to take.
"I love this woman," Mulder mumbled aloud as exhaustion overcame him.
Scully lifted her head and took a second to allow her eyes to adjust to the darkness. Why did I wake up? she thought as she scanned the room. Where's Mulder? She looked over at the clock and stared at it in disbelief. It's 9:30? I've slept all day. Scully crawled out of the bed and headed in the bathroom to freshen up and get dressed.
Scully wandered around the house looking for Mulder with no luck. She checked in the garage and found his Jeep parked next to her van. Where the heck is he? she thought as she wandered mindlessly out the front door. She found Mulder crouched down in the hole in the front yard. What the hell is he doing out there? she thought as she stared at him from the front stoop. Finally the suspense got to her. She walked over to the hole and peered down at him.
"Mulder, the Klines' aren't down there," she called to him. She watched him stand upright and growl.
"Ugh," Mulder moaned as he leaned back to stretch out his aching muscles. He had been squatting the in the same position for over an hour. "Yeah," he gasped grimacing in pain. "I'm not finding any bone fragments down here."
Scully noticed he was holding some type of tool in his hand. "What's that?" she asked motioning at the item in his hand.
"This?" Mulder replied holding it up. It was a small gardening tool. "I found it in the garage."
"Our garage?" Scully asked him. There isn't any gardening tools in our garage, not that I wouldn't like to plant some flowers around this cookie cutter landscape, she thought as she arched her eyebrows at him.
Mulder smiled sheepishly. "No, the Vesch's garage," he replied with a shrug.
"Hmm hmmm," Scully said crossing her arms at her chest. "I think it's time you called it a night." She waiting a second for his reaction and then baiting his response. "I could rub the kinks out of your back, maybe take a whirlpool together."
He took the bait on her final offer. The prospect of spending more quality time with her was much for enticing than standing in that empty hole. "Hmmm, maybe pick up from where we left off earlier?" He looked up at her with a sly grin on his face.
"I think I could be persuaded," Scully replied with a smirk. She waited for him as he crawled out of the hole. While she was standing there, she noticed something sticking out from the bucket of the backhoe. Scully stepped around the hole to get a better look at it.
"What's wrong?" Mulder asked when he noticed the expression on her face.
"There's something sticking out of the bucket," she mumbled pointing above his head.
Mulder looked up and focused on the white whirligig hanging from the tooth of the bucket and pulled it down in his hand. He spun the broken fan blade and watched the man move up and down on the toy. "Tasteful isn't it?" he asked rhetorically. "Want me to fix it up and hang it from the porch?"
Scully made a face and arched her eyebrows. "Hardly," she remarked as she looked at the toy in his hand. "It's hideous. Not something I'd expect to see in this neighborhood."
"What're saying Scully? Are you insinuating that is item could be considered trailer park decor"
"Something like that," she sighed rubbing her upper arms slightly. There was a chill in the air and she felt her teeth begin to chatter.
Mulder turned the whirligig over in his hand and spotted the Pier 9 Imports sticker on the underside. "Gogolak," he mumbled aloud.
"Excuse me?"
Mulder stared at the whirligig and then looked up at Scully. "It's from Pier 9 Imports," he remarked. He handed the toy to Scully and climbed out of the hole.
"Well, that's convenient," Scully remarked as she looked at the sticker. "Guess that blows the landfill theory." She looked at Mulder for some confirmation and noticed he had that "look" in his eye … the look that told her he was way ahead of her in his thinking. "What?"
"Remember my theory that the Klines' were buried in the yard?"
"Yeah," Scully replied hesitantly.
Mulder took the whirligig from her hands. "What if this was the catalyst?"
Scully tilted her head in thought. "Are you saying that this hideous little …thing caused them to disappear?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying," Mulder confirmed.
"That's ridiculous Mulder," Scully argued for no other reason than the pure fact that she didn't want to believe it. "We don't know that much about the Klines. Maybe they had horrible taste in home décor."
Mulder laughed at Scully's argument. "Scully, if the Klines had poor taste, I think we would have seen it long before tonight. I think that Mr. Association president planted this thing here," he said holding the item up in his hand. "And it marked them for death."
Scully held his gaze for a moment trying to understand his hidden meaning. If he starts up about that monster crap, I'm going to deck him, she thought as she looked from him, to the whirligig to the hole in their front yard. Before she could answer he called to her from her thoughts.
"Hey, can you get a forensics team out here?"
"I guess," she mumbled. "It's going to blow our cover though."
"Well, I think its about time," Mulder said as he walked toward the garage and punched the keyless entry code into the pin pad. "We need to dig deeper."
"Okay," she replied as she followed him into the garage. "What're you going to do?"
"Price some rattan furniture."
Scully watched the yellow Jeep back out of the driveway and drive down the street. She closed the garage door and headed down the hallway toward the stairs. Mulder's decision to request the forensics team in the middle of the night and blow their covered troubled her. They barely had a lead in this case. Well, except his loch nest monster theory, she thought as she neared the top of the stairs. He had shown her the photos Jobgen had taken when they had gotten home from the hospital. It just seemed a little too out there for her to grasp. A monster attacked Bates and me? she mused walking into the bedroom. She walked over to the makeshift desk they had set up near the bathroom and shuffled through the case file to find the local bureau's phone number. Driscoll's theory that Big Mike was responsible for the neighborhood shenanigans was a lot more plausible.
As she looked for the phone number, she picked up the photos and stared at them blankly. The images of a man walking into the wall loomed in front of her as she paged through the multiple copies. She held them at different angles to see if there was a clue in the photo to what the figure was or who it resembled. Scully tilted her head in thought trying to picture Big Mike. He was about that tall, she thought turning the photo at an angle again. Whatever, she sighed and tossed the photos down on the desk. She picked up her cell phone and dialed the number of the local bureau office.
"This is special agent Dana Scully," she said into the phone as soon as the senior agent answered. "I need full forensic team to 450 Autumn Terrace."
"I don't have one on site tonight Agent Scully, I can notify them to head out there first thing in the morning."
"No, that's not going to work," she said flatly. "There have been some developments in our case. I need the team tonight."
"Well, I'll have to call the supervisor to approve the overtime," the senior agent droned on in the background. "Just a second."
Scully could hear the senior agent talking to someone in the background on the line. She paced nervously around the bedroom while she waited for him to come back to the phone. Second thoughts lingered in the back of her mind. Mulder is wrong, she thought as she pushed the door to the hallway closed. I think its too early to blow our cover. Scully walked to the doorway of the bathroom and stared into the mirror. She sighed heavily and thought back to their first day together in the house. Mulder had accused her of wanted to play house. Maybe he was right. Maybe I'm not ready to go home. Going home would mean going back to her apartment alone and not being able to sleep next to Mulder's warm body every night.
A loud bang from downstairs drew her from her thoughts. Just as she turned toward the sound, the senior agent began chatting to her in her ear.
"Agent, are you sure that you need the team tonight?" The agent asked in the background.
His voice was distant in her ear as she was focused on the sound of foot steps from the first level. The sound was … strange to her. It was a heavier than Mulder's or Driscoll's or even Nester's. Didn't I lock the front door when I came in? she thought frantically as she stared at the bedroom door.
"Agent?"
"Yeah, sorry. Yes, I need the team tonight," she mumbled into the phone.
"Alright then," the senior agent sighed into the phone. "Four Fifty Autumn Terrace? Okay, I'll need to get some additional information from you."
Another crash from downstairs startled Scully. She backed away from the door until she ran into the side of the desk. "I'm sorry," she said absent-mindedly into the phone. "Can I call you back?"
"Yeah, but do you want me to page forensics or wait?"
"Page them," Scully said as she walked over to the dresser to retrieve her gun. "I'll call you back in a few minutes." She ended the call and set the phone down on the desk. A third crash from the first floor echoed through the house and she pulled open the drawer where Mulder had hid her gun. She shuffled through her T-shirts and socks as she searched for the holster. The gun was not in the drawer. Scully looked back over at the door pushing the drawer closed. She opened Mulder's sock drawer and rifled through the clothing. Her fingers touched the hard leather holsters and she pulled both toward the front of the drawer. They came easily and she discovered why quickly … they were both empty.
The revelation took Scully by surprise and her breath caught in her throat. Mulder must have it, she thought quickly trying to retrace her steps from earlier that day. A heavy footfall reverberated from the stairwell and pure fright shook Scully to her core. Maybe I looked in the wrong drawer, she mused as she pulled another drawer open and felt around inside for her holster. The drawer was empty.
Scully turned around and pushed the drawer closed with her weight. The hallway was still. The only sound she could hear was her heartbeat pounding in her ear. She was trembling and out of breath for no good reason other than she let her mind play tricks on her. Scully took a deep breath and tried to steady her nerves. There is nothing in the hallway, she said to herself. When she felt she was ready she took a few steps closer to the doorway to listen for any sounds from the other side.
Scully felt the arms encase her body and tasted the cooper and dirt on her lips before she could even react to what was happening to her. In one split second she went from thinking it was her partner was playing a trick on her to realizing an intruder had trapped her in the house.. The smell from the body pressed against her was of heavy and reminded her of blood and dirt. She tried to scream, but her voice was stifled by the thick hand that covered her mouth. She struggled to push herself away from the body that trapped her, but she remained pinned against him.
"Its come for you Laura," a thick voice said from behind her. "Shhh. You can't make a sound."
The voice was familiar to Scully right away and she had a flashback to the night they moved in, Big Mike standing at the doorway apologizing for breaking their dishes. Scully forced herself from his grip and turned to face the man. Mike was covered in dirt and blood. His face was torn open with huge lacerations and his left eye was swollen shut. Mike was holding her gun in one hand and had his finger at his lips in the universal shhh sign.
"Mike!" Scully whispered trying to catch her breath. His appearance was appalling. "What happened to you?"
Mike physically moved Scully to the side and walked quickly to the door. He opened it a sliver, peering into the hallway and then shut it quickly. He turned back to look at her, "Shh, you need to get out of here," he said to her. His eyes darted around the room and then he started moving items in front of the door to block it.
Scully watched in awe as Mike effortlessly moved the armoire to block the door. The thing weighed a ton, but his strength was incredible. It took three men to move the armoire into the room a week ago and Mike had just pushed it in front of the door like it was as light as a feather. The mere thought of it frightened Scully. Oh my god! He's the killer, Scully thought as she watched he scamper around the room. She needed to regain control of the situation and quick.
"Why Mike? Why do I need to leave?" Scully asked trying to step in front of him to get his attention. "Who did this to you?" He continued to scavenge around the room for door blockers. Scully followed close behind and continued to badger him with questions. "Who's downstairs?"
"The Ubermencher!" Mike roared. "It's our fault," he continued to explain when he had adequately blocked the door. He turned and looked at her. "The original homeowners…. we asked for it and now we can't stop it."
Scully stared at the man in front of her and saw a crazed look in his eye. Why is he blocking me in with him? Scully thought as she tried to buy time for Mulder to return. "Stop what Mike?" she asked trying to make conversation.
Mike wasn't listening. "I tried to give it Shroeder. Tit for tat like Shroeder did for me," he rambled mindlessly.
Scully realized quickly that conversation wasn't going to work in his case and decided that it was time to reveal her real self to him. "Mike just settle down," she said in as calm as voice that she could muster. "Just give me my gun. I'm a federal agent." The words meant nothing to him. He continued to ramble as if she hadn't said anything.
"The Ubermencher wants you Laura," Mike said turning toward Scully again. "Your husband has broken way too many rules." He grabbed her by the shoulders and shoved her into the walk in closet. "I've been hiding it the sewer trying to protect you," he mumbled.
Scully tried to wiggle free from his grasp. "Give me my gun. Mike, just give me the gun," she protested as he pulled the door shut in front of her. She rattled the door handle and then jumped back as Mike shoved the dresser in front of it. She was trapped in the closet with a mad man welding her service revolver in her bedroom. "Mike! Let me out of here!" Scully yelled at him when she realized the door wasn't going to budge.
"Shhh, Laura, it's coming," Mike continued to babble with no regard to her words. He positioned himself in front of the closet door and leveled the gun in front of him. "I'll protect you, Laura. I won't let it hurt you. "
In seconds Scully heard the doors burst opened as if they were propelled by a large explosion. Wood splinters and shards of dry wall flew across the room as a heavy presence filled it. Through the slats on the closet door, Scully could see Mike standing his ground and then heard the sounds of gunfire in front of her. She counted the bullets as he unloaded the clip at point blank range. Ten, eleven, twelve, she mentally counted as she flinched from recoil of the gun. The heavy footsteps marched through the room and stopped directly in front of the door.
Mike's screams of agony as the monster threw his body against the closet door shuddered through Scully like a wicked winter wind. She watched in horror as his skull was crushed against the side of the door and blood splattered everywhere. She ducked into the depths of the closet hiding in the far corner pulling whatever cover she could find around her. Where's Mulder! she silently cursed as the attack in the outside room reverberated in her ear. I lied to him again, she thought as she contemplated her situation. I saw this thing when it was attacking Bates and I told Mulder it was a man. She was terror-stricken her ears zeroed in on the assault occurring just feet from her. Tears burning in her eyes and swallowed hard against the lump in her throat in feeble attempt to calm her nerves.
As quickly as the thunder had begun, silence fell over the room. Scully pulled her knees to her chest and flattened herself against the wall listening for any sound. The room was eerily quiet. The air was thick with the odor of gun powder, blood and rotten eggs. Is it gone? she wondered as she sat in the darkness. Is Mike okay? She strained her ears listening for any signs of life from the other room. Scully knew she should try to escape, but her fear paralyzed her. What if that thing is still out there? Lurking in the bedroom looking for me … waiting for Mulder? Her head was filled with irrational thoughts that she couldn't shake. "It's come for you Laura because your husband has broken too many rules," "I've tried to protect you," The words repeated in her head. Who told it to come? she wondered as she sat in the deafening silence. The only noise she could hear was her ragged breaths and her heartbeat pounding in her ear.
"Scully?"
Scully lifted her head from where she had rested it against her knees. Was that Mulder? she thought as slowed her breathing to quiet the static.
"Scully?"
The voice was louder now and she recognized it as her partner's. "Mulder?" she called back as she scrambled up to guide him to the closet door. "I'm in here!"
"Scully? Just a second," he gasped as he tried to pull the dresser from in front of the closet door. He grunted as he forced his weight against it, unable to budge it. "What happened here?"
"Mulder, it was here," she gasped as she tugged against the door knob. "Mike was here to protect me from it and it attacked him." She heard a popping noise and flinched against it. She looked at the door and realized that Mulder was breaking the slats off to get to her.
"Scully are you okay?" he muttered bewildered at her admission and the state of the room around him. He broke the final slat covering her face and reached in to touch her shoulder.
"Yeah," she whispered peering out into the room, seeing the ghastly site for herself. "Oh my god…. Mike? Is he okay?"
Mulder shook his head and looked around the room. "There's no one out here Scully," he replied.
"What?" she exclaimed. "Mulder he was here! He had my gun. He shot at that thing and then it attacked him."
Mulder surveyed the room again. The walls and the floor where covered with blood and muddy footprints. There were a dozen spent shell casings on the floor, but no sign of Mike or whatever it was that attacked him. He looked back at Scully and noted the expression on her face. "Here, let me help you out," he said extending his hand to her and half pulled half helped her out of the closet.
When Scully was safely on the other side of the door she looked around the room with a sudden expression on her face. "Mulder," she mumbled as she took it all in. "I wasn't truthful with you at the hospital about the attacker."
"No you didn't," he replied evenly.
Scully tilted her head. "How do you know?"
"Scully, you described exactly what you saw and whether you believed it was a man or not didn't matter," he assured her. "Bates described the same thing, as did Ben and Jobgen."
"Mulder, Mike said the original homeowners asked for that thing to come …" Scully began. She was interrupted by the distant sounds of screaming coming from the front yard.
"Gogolak," Mulder muttered as he ran to the top of the stairs. "He's outside."
Scully looked around the room for her service revolver before following her partner outside. She was less than a minute behind him, yet found him standing in the middle of a pile of dirt on the sidewalk. Gogolak was lying unconscious near the mail box. She ran past Mulder to Gogolak's side and felt for his pulse.
"He's dead," she called back to him.
"And so is the monster that rules this neighborhood," Mulder replied as he kicked the dirt off his shoes.
Assistant Director Skinner sighed and closed the case file on his desk. He leaned back in his chair and looked across the room at the two agents seated in front of him.
"Your report states the neighbors all implicated Gogolak as the person responsible for the disappearances and the deaths," Skinner began. "But there is no mention of the method in which he did it." Skinner paused for a moment waiting for either agent to answer. "Care to enlighten me Agents?"
Mulder and Scully shared a sideways glance at each other but neither spoke. Finally Scully coughed and looked back at AD Skinner. "We believe he had an accomplice sir," she answered.
"Is there some particular reason why that wasn't noted in your case notes?" Skinner asked with a perplexed expression on his face.
"Sir, Mr. Gogolak was killed before we had time to investigate that angle of the case," Mulder explained. "Our only suspect was also killed."
"By this Mr. Gogolak?"
"Not exactly," Scully replied. Mulder's voice rang loudly in her ear as he answered at the same time.
"More or less."
Skinner stared at the two of them. "Well which is it? Did or didn't Gogolak kill your suspect …. Mr. Mike…ah" Skinner fumbled with the case file looking for Big Mike's last name. "The veterinarian?"
"He died at the hands of Gogolak," Scully volunteered. "However, as the report states, we couldn't determine the exact method."
Skinner sighed again and stared down both agents over the top of his glasses. Why do I even bother? Scully obviously wrote the report and the case notes since there isn't any reference to the loch nest monster in it, he mused glancing down at the file in front of him. He picked the file up and stood from the desk.
"Well, I'm sure the two of you are glad to be home and back to living separately in your respective apartments," he said handing the file back to Mulder. "That will be all Agents. Dismissed."
Scully and Mulder stood and walked out of the room. They made their way to the elevator without muttering a word between them. Mulder pushed the call button and leaned up against the wall.
"So, is it true?" he asked her with a sly grin on his face.
"Is what true?"
"That you're happy to be home and back in your own apartment?" Mulder asked her quietly. The door of the elevator opened and both agents stepped in.
"Not exactly," Scully replied as the door slid shut and the car descended to the basement.
Then End.