UNTITLED, PART VII

When they arrived at the bureau offices, Scully got out of the car and silently waited for Jared. She was still very white, but she seemed to have calmed down a bit.

They entered Skinner’s office and found that he was, indeed, waiting on their arrival. The evidence that they had gathered at the house had already been sent to him and he had already finished going over it. All that was left was for them to give him their official reports on the case. The case was just about done, and a new one wasn’t far behind.

“Agents, I have to say that you did an excellent job. Congratulations again.”

Both agents smiled briefly, and Skinner continued. “I hope that you can have your full report ready by tomorrow, because this case is just about finished as far as the bureau is concerned. There is enough evidence to hold your two suspects in custody without bail until a trial date is set.”

Jared spoke up. “I’m sure our report will be done by tomorrow.”

Scully agreed, and Skinner released them. It was late, and all three were exhausted. Scully lingered and asked both men if she could speak to Skinner privately. Jared conceded and left immediately, saying he would meet Scully back at their office. She smiled her thanks and sat down again in front of Skinner’s desk.

“Scully, are you alright? I noticed you seemed like you were feeling ill...”

“Sir, today at the search, I was told by Chief Johnson that there has been a murder. One of the White House employees, Rita Antone, was found in much the same way that Mulder had been...”

“I know...I just received word not more than a few minutes before you walked in the door. One of our contacts let me know what had happened, and there is reason to believe that you may be in danger.”

“They know where I am.” She spoke the words quietly, not really asking.

“They know where you are. We knew that it was just a matter of time, but I had no idea that it would happen so soon.”

“What about William? Do they know where he is yet?”

“No, and they won’t find him. Your mother moved to a low profile town specifically for this purpose. They’re safe.”

She breathed a sigh of relief. “Skinner, is there any way for the bureau to get involved with this latest murder? I want to do an analysis of that chemical...”

“We can get involved, but you won’t be able to work on the case from Espionage. It’ll be going straight to VCS. It’s being treated strictly as a homicide.”

“I can imagine that it would be. But what about calling me in as a medical technician, or even working ‘off the record’? Can’t I work on it that way?”

“Scully, I’d rather you didn’t.” She was about to protest, but he continued, cutting her off. “I’m not saying no because I’m your direct superior, I’m saying no because according to the contact, this woman went to meet someone to tell him or her that she had spotted you and spoken with you, and to give what information she knew about you. You are in danger, and I don’t want you out in the field like that if this person is targeting you.”

“Why are they looking for me? Do they know that I’m in Mulder’s place now? Or do they just want to get rid of the next person who knows too much?”

“Scully, they’ve been looking for you since you went into hiding...they were making plans even before that. Why do you think Mulder sent you there? He was so afraid for your life and for William’s.”

“What do I do now, then?”

“I’m going to send Frohike to your apartment. He’ll check the whole thing over again. If you don’t mind, I’d really like for the Lone Gunmen to stay there, at least overnight, for surveillance.”

Scully sighed. The boys meant well, but to have all three overnight? And she hated being taken care of like this when she knew that she could watch out for herself. Then again, she was a little nervous. Their presence in her house would make her feel better. “Okay,” she agreed.

“Good. I’ll send them over immediately.” He picked up the phone, made the call, hung up, and smiled.

“There now. All set.”

“Thanks, Skinner.”

“It makes me feel better knowing that they’ll be there if anything should happen.”

“Well, I guess I shouldn’t keep Jared waiting too much longer. I’m sure he’s just as tired as I am.”

“Of course. One more thing, Scully...Mulder knew Jared fairly well once. Before he died, he had intended to make Jared his protégé, but wanted to take more time to get to know him.”

“In the bureau’s work or his own?”

“Both. He recognized Jared as someone who might eventually help him.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this before? I thought you were against Jared being included in this.”

“I wanted to give you time to make that decision for yourself, without the bias of my opinion. And now, I realize that you may need to rely on someone sooner than I thought. Your partner is the most likely person. It’ll be too hard for you to hide things from him, as he already is concerned for your safety and well-being...”

Scully took a few minutes to mull this over.

“Of course, Scully, you’ll have to make the decision yourself as to when you feel he can be included. Do you trust him?”

“I really think that I can, but I’m not sure yet. I think I need a few more weeks with him to be really positive.”

Skinner nodded, Scully said goodnight, and started down to her office.

The hallway seemed ominously darker than it had been when she first went into Skinner’s office. She figured it was because the last of the daylight had left and Skinner had also had bright lights on in his office, so she kept walking.

As she arrived at the elevator, she was about to press the button when she suddenly was overcome with a chill and an intense sense of impending danger. Hand shaking, she drew her weapon, checked around her carefully, and made her way slowly back to Skinner’s office, walking backwards so that she faced the elevator.

She stopped outside the AD’s door and hissed “Skinner!” He looked up, saw that she had her weapon drawn, and hurried from his desk, drawing his own gun as he did so.

In a low voice he asked her what was wrong.

“I don’t know...I was just about to press the elevator button and something made me stop. I got this awful chill and then just a...a hunch that I really shouldn’t call down that elevator...”

“Did you see anything unusual, hear anything, even?”

“No...call it intuition, call it instinct, whatever...but there’s something dangerous on that elevator...”

“Alright...let’s slowly go back into my office...alright, now lock the door. I’m going to call Jared and tell him to do the same up there, and then I’m going to call in security...”

He grabbed the phone as Scully bolted the door to the outer office as well as the doors in Skinner’s.

“Hello, Agent Crighton? It’s AD Skinner...listen to me carefully and go quickly...are you alone in your office? Good...lock all the locks on your door and stay put until Agent Scully or I contact you again... I’m not sure, exactly, but it looks like we may have a breach in security, and I want all agents in this building to be safe. Yes, I’m calling them now...yes, Scully is just fine. No need to worry...alright... I’ll speak with you soon.”

Scully smiled slightly at her partner’s concern, but worry creased her brow as Skinner called the security office and filled them in.

He hung up then, and turned around to face her. Just as he did, Scully’s cell phone rang.

“Scully.”

She waited a few seconds, hearing nothing except heavy breathing. “Hello?” She was about to hang up when the person on the other line spoke.

“Agent Scully. So good to hear from you. It’s been a long time...I'm sorry you didn't care to have a little face-to-face chat with me.”

“Who is this?” she demanded. She motioned to Skinner to call for a trace. He picked up his line and immediately placed the call.

“Scully, I’m hurt. How could you not remember your dear old pal Alex Krycek?”

She almost dropped her gun in shock. “What do you want?”

“We know where you are, Scully...if you really enjoy life and value your son’s, I think you’d better cooperate with what we have in mind. After all, wouldn’t want you ending up like at least two other people I can think of.”

His voice had a note of pure malice to it. He meant to do her harm, she knew that, but why did they want William so badly?

“Are you threatening me? You goddamn bastard, are you actually threatening me?” She spat it out with the same amount of malice in her voice.

Skinner held up two fingers to let her know that she had to stay on the line for at least two more minutes with Krycek.

“Oh, such harsh language. Threatening you? Why would I ever threaten you?”

“You tell me.”

“Well, in short, you have something we want. Several things, actually. And we’ll kill to get them. Do you understand me?”

“What do you want from me, Krycek?” She was feeling ill again, speaking to the very man who had killed people she cared about.

“We want the kid. And we want every piece of information Mulder gathered against us.”

Her stomach dropped. They don’t know where William is. It strengthened her. “You killed my sister, and you killed my husband. Why in hell do you think I’ll cooperate with you?” She was on the verge of yelling, but she still had a minute to go, so she tried to calm herself down.

“I really don’t have the time to argue with you, Scully. Just tell me where the kid is, or el...FUCK!”

Scully heard the gunshot, shouting, and then a clatter as the phone he had been holding dropped to the ground. There was the sound of a struggle in the background, and then a breathless man picked up the phone.

“Hello?”

“Hello? Who is this?”

“This is Agent Crighton...”

“Jared? It’s Dana.”

“Dana? Are you alright?”

“Yes...what are you doing there?”

By now Skinner had hung up the phone. When he heard Scully talking to Jared, his brow furrowed. He waited until she had hung up with him, and then spoke up.

“Agent Scully, what was that all about?”

“Do you want the whole thing, or just the last part?”

“The whole thing.”

She told him everything that Alex Krycek had said to her and then continued on to the part about Jared.

“Well, sir, it appears that he went off with security when they stopped at our office to check it over...he told me quite a story...they found Krycek, somehow, standing on top of the elevator car...I think that once he got me on the phone, he didn’t bother replacing the door in the ceiling, knowing that I wouldn’t be on the elevator...anyway, they managed to open the doors one floor up. Krycek heard the racket from the doors opening, jumped into the elevator car, and Jared saw him, took aim, and shot him in the arm. Krycek dropped the phone and was reaching for his own weapon when Jared jumped in, pinned him, and handcuffed him.”

“Not the best way to go about things, considering that Krycek hadn’t drawn his weapon yet, and I’m not happy that he violated orders, but still, I’m glad he did it. Do you think you can trust him now?”

Scully nodded. “I think it’s time we asked him to join us.”

Skinner nodded. They talked a bit more about the current situation. It set her at ease to know that Krycek was in custody, though they didn’t know for how long. But he had been caught breaking into a government building. Hands down, it was a federal offense.

While Scully and Skinner were discussing Jared’s inclusion, Jared himself had just finished up with Alex Krycek, and was heading down to the AD’s office, armed with an apology. He really shouldn’t have left the office against orders, but where he was needed, he would be to help. That started him thinking about Dana Scully. Why on earth would a man like Alex Krycek be on the phone threatening her of all people? Of course, there was always the possibility that he was just some random nut hunting down equally random FBI agents, but there had been something too familiar in the way he spoke to her, from the small bit he had caught. Pondering this, he knocked on Skinner’s door and walked in.

“Sir, I’d like to apologize for going directly against your orders...it was wrong of me, but I thought I might be of some help.”

“And you were, Agent. No need to apologize.”

Jared smiled and looked up to see Dana beaming up at him. He smiled back at her.

“Agent Crighton, would you mind closing the door and taking a seat? Scully and I would like to discuss something with you.”



End, Part VII