“A Respectable Institution”
“J’accuse”

“She asked me, that I should make This adventure of Reynaerd”
“Soe bat mi, dat ic soude maken, Dese avontuere van Reynaerde”	

 taken from “Van den vos Reynaerde” by ‘Willem die Madoc maecte’ 
(composed between 800 and  1200 A.D.)

Part A
“King Noble’s Court”

	Resolutely Assistant-director Skinner walked through the 
corridors of the FBI-head-quarters. He was late, and that hardly ever 
happened. When he had left his office he had told his secretary that he 
was not to be called from the meeting he had to attend. Under no 
conditions could he be disturbed. She had known enough. She hadn’t 
been his secretary for very long, but she already knew more of what 
went on in the other side of A.D. Walter S. Skinner’s world, than 
most of his Agents would ever know. And he complimented himself 
on having such a trustworthy secretary.
	Without bothering to knock -- he didn’t have to, he knew the 
kind of people awaiting him at this moment -- he opened the door of a 
large nondescript office.
	“Sorry I’m late,” he mumbled by way of excuse and took his 
seat. His arrival had caused some agitation, but everybody in the room 
fell completely silent when the Bald Man at the head of the table 
looked up from the files in front of him.
	Skinner stiffened unnoticeably. This was it, there was no way 
out anymore apart from the exit at the very end of the hearing. He had 
to go through it and hope for the best.
	He wasn’t afraid for himself or for his own position, because 
this wasn’t because of him. The hearing wasn’t here to discuss his 
case, these men were here for someone else’s case. Someone who was 
very close to him, even though he had always done his very best not to 
let that person get so very close. But this man was, and so was his 
partner. Their entire future, in fact their entire life, depended on the 
outcome of this meeting and how he, Walter Skinner, would be able to 
turn it all in favour of this man and his partner.
	‘Keep your fingers crossed, Agent Mulder,’ he thought at the 
same moment that the Bald Man started to speak in an untouched, 
monotone voice.
	“Gentlemen, you all know why you were called here today,” he 
said. It was a statement, not a question.
	Nods. Yes, they all knew very well why they were here.
	The Bald Man continued. His eyes were chips of ice, his face 
expressionless. Here was a man accustomed to deciding about the 
lives of others with the flick of his fingers. “As you all know there 
have been some complicating situations arisen concerning Special 
Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. These Agents have been 
working on a project outside the Bureau’s mainstream for well over 
six years now, a project called The X-Files. The nature of these cases 
made Agents Mulder and Scully use what could be called unorthodox 
methods while investigating cases, succeeding in convincing their 
superiors of the necessity of these methods. It is no secret that the only 
reason for Agents Mulder and Scully’s permission to continue on The 
X-Files is their phenomenal solving-rate, currently at 85%. They both 
know very well that this is the only ground on which they can 
continue their potentially dangerous and useless project.
	“However, recently some disturbing matters have reached my 
desk concerning the years of their combined work on The X-Files and 
that is the reason for this meeting: to distinguish facts from fiction 
and to decide about the potential future for The X-Files project and 
the partnership of Agents Mulder and Scully. Because of the delicate 
nature of this investigation assistance of other Agents who used to 
work with these Agents or are still doing so has been called upon as 
an aid to decide on what can be done.”
	He sat down. Silence. Utter silence.
	Skinner cast a quick look around the dimly lit room and 
frowned. The Bald Man hadn’t said much that involved any real 
threat to The X-Files and to Mulder and Scully, but Skinner knew 
better than to trust words. Words could be manipulated and these 
people were masters at manipulating evidence. It was better to look at 
expressions, to listen to intonations in voices. Problem was that these 
people were master poker-players ... But still he didn’t like what he 
had heard one bit.
	A man rose. He had been sitting about four or five places to 
Skinner’s left and Skinner hadn’t noticed him until this moment.
	“Mr Krycek,” the Bald Man said with a nod. Obviously Krycek 
was to be the first person to have the doubtful honour of either 
defending or accusing Mulder and/or Scully. Skinner had a pretty 
good idea about what it was going to be.
	“Thank you, Sir,” Krycek said to the man who had introduced 
him. Then he turned to the men in the room and addressed them in a 
more general manner.
	“Four years ago I was teamed up with Agent Mulder after a 
temporary closure of The X-Files. Agent Scully had been transferred 
back to Quantico and Agent Mulder was back in the Violent Crimes 
Section.
	“I am here to shed some light on aspects which I think have 
been hidden from everybody’s attention for too long. First of all, I 
would like to pinpoint facts which I noticed in Agent Mulder’s 
professional intercourse with female officers of the law. Or rather, the 
lack of this professionalism. It is clear that Agent Mulder is not able 
to maintain strictly professional standards when he has to deal with 
female law officers. This is something he is perfectly well aware of but 
obviously doesn’t bother to change, even though it goes against one of 
the most basic rules there are. Which is just another point that needs 
extra stress: his wilful choice to ignore the rules by which every Agent 
has to work. I can’t help but thinking that he obviously regards 
himself too important or too smart to have to work by the book.”
	Some of the attendants started to laugh at these sneering words 
and Krycek continued. The odds were clearly in his favour at this 
moment.
	“I was his partner for only a relatively short period of time, but 
have been in a position to watch -- closely watch -- their movements 
for a considerably longer time. And it’s especially then that I noted 
Agent Mulder’s lack of professionalism in the dealing with female 
colleagues at other departments of Government, both American and 
foreign. I have countless accounts, but I will report here for you the 
case I think demonstrates this shameful behaviour best, a case where 
an officer from Scotland Yard, one Phoebe Green, was called to assist 
Agents Mulder and Scully on the case they were investigating, a case 
concerning apparent Spontaneous Human Combustion with a strong 
likening for British Members of Parliament.
	“Officer Green is a beautiful woman and it’s my opinion that 
the change in behaviour between Officer Green and Agent Mulder can 
be blamed entirely on Agent Mulder’s lack of willingness to leave the 
past the past and to ignore that, even though Officer Green and Agent 
Mulder were involved in a sexual relationship whilst studying at 
Oxford University, they had never met after those years and that 
Officer Green was in no mood to drag up the past.
	“Had this been the only time that Agent Mulder had crossed 
the line between professional and personal interest in law officers he 
had to work with I would recommend forgetting about this temporary 
lapse of his attention, but I’m afraid that is impossible considering the 
fact that it happened more after this time and this brings me to 
conclude that Agent Mulder is clearly not able to work professionally 
with female officers of the law while investigating cases.”
	Krycek had said what he wanted to say and whispers of 
agreement went around the room.
	“What about Agent Scully?” one of the men asked. “How is his 
attitude towards Agent Scully?”
	Another man started to laugh. “The Ice Queen? You’ve got to 
be kidding, not even Spooky Mulder could be seriously interested in 
her!” The remark was rewarded with rounds of applause and laughter 
from most of the men attending the meeting.
	“Well, somehow his attitude towards Agent Scully does appear 
to remain completely professional ...,” Krycek answered, his voice not 
as steady as it was during his statement. This was a matter that clearly 
didn’t quite fit his plans.
	“Is that all, Mr Krycek?” the man asked sharply, the tone of his 
voice rendering the entire room silent again.
	“No, Sir,” Krycek said.
	“Then please continue, Mr Krycek. Our time is limited and 
there are more people who want to testify.”
	“Of course, Sir,” Krycek said and cleared his throat. Then he 
looked at the people in the room. “Something else I’d like to bring to 
attention is Agent Mulder’s disrespect for the life and sanity of those 
Agents assigned to working with him and ...”
	“That’s a very serious allegation, Mr Krycek,” the Bald Man 
interrupted him sternly. “Can you supply us with factual proof 
supporting these claims?”
	“I can, Sir, namely in the form of myself and Agent Scully as 
the most important witnesses to these tendencies. Agent Scully 
sometimes complains to other Agents that Agent Mulder has this 
inclination to run off on his own, leaving her in the dark about his 
where-abouts. When she does join him on cases she quite often gets 
seriously injured and it’s my opinion that the cancer she suffered from 
...”
	Skinner saw people frown.
	“ ... is something Agent Mulder can and should be blamed for. 
As for myself, even after the discontinuation of our partnership he 
forced me to go to Russia with him, leaving me no choice but to say 
‘yes’. I never received any benefit from that adventure apart from 
getting contaminated with the ‘black cancer’ and ...” He showed the 
others his artificial arm “ ... the loss of my arm, to which I might add 
that the surgery took place outside in a forest with a blunt and dirty 
knife and without ...”
	“Excuse me, Mr Krycek, but please stick to the facts. We have 
no interest in personal problems that add nothing to this 
investigation!” the Bald Man warned.
	“I apologise, Sir,” Krycek said. “To conclude this statement I’d 
like to say that even though in my eyes Agent Mulder is by far the 
worst, Agent Scully’s part should not be forgotten in the process. She 
has become decidedly distrustful to other Agents and extremely hard 
to work with, while in my opinion a basic skill all Agents should 
possess is the ability to work outside their own speciality and without 
their usual partners.”
	Skinner saw several people nod and he frowned. This was 
going in entirely the wrong direction and he couldn’t help but wonder 
what would be next.
	“Assistant-director Skinner,” he heard the Bald Man say, “is 
there anything you would like to add right now?”
	He shook his head. “No, Sir, I would prefer to hear more before 
I will give my opinion.”
	“Very well. Agent Colton, please.”
	Skinner looked to his right and saw Tom Colton rise from his 
chair. He was surprised that this man had been called upon to testify 
as it had been so long since he had been involved in the X-Files, but 
he did not show this emotion.
	“Thank you, Sir,” Colton said, looking suspiciously smug. “I 
am here to give you my account of events that I have witnessed. Early 
in the history of Agents Mulder and Scully working together on The 
X-Files I was assigned to investigate a case concerning the deaths of 
five people, all murdered by someone or something able to enter their 
environments through apparently impossible means. The man who 
was eventually arrested, Eugene Victor Tooms, turned out to be the 
murderer. Because of the nature of this case and my former friendship 
with Agent Scully I asked her to come and assist me on this case 
because I knew she had some experience with unexplainable 
phenomena. She then asked me if she should bring Agent Mulder in 
on the case and I told her that, if she’d feel better that way, she could. 
From the moment Agent Mulder and I met, however, things started to 
go wrong. Even though I had warned him that this case was in effect 
my case, he soon started to lead the investigation and willingly 
withhold information from me and my officers. Agent Scully, whom I 
had asked to assist me, soon after turned her back on me, blocking my 
access to vital information concerning the case and effectively making 
it impossible for me to continue the investigation. I would therefore 
like to add to Mr Krycek’s accusations that Agents Mulder and Scully 
not only cause people to suffer physically but also indirectly cause 
other Agents’ inability to do their jobs and in this way corrupting the 
effectiveness of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I think this is a 
matter that should not be overlooked.”
	Tom Colton sat down, obviously very satisfied with his 
statement. The impression he had left behind, coupled with the one by 
Alex Krycek, now made the chances for Mulder and Scully very grim 
indeed.
	“Sir, if I may have your permission to speak,” Skinner heard 
suddenly from the direction of Agent Pendrell.
	“Agent Pendrell, go ahead,” the Bald Man said.
	Pendrell looked nervous. It was very obvious for everyone 
present in the room that he was not used to speak at meetings like 
these, and especially not without thorough preparation.
	“Gentlemen, I would like to make a statement in defence of 
Agents Mulder and Scully.” He looked at the men in the room and 
their expressions didn’t exactly help to ease his nerves, but he knew 
he had to do this. He took a deep breath and began.
	“I have worked as a forensic scientist at the FBI for several 
years now and I have often supplied Agent Scully with data she 
required for the continuation of their work.”
	“I bet you’re not doing that just because of her scientific 
background, are you, Pendrell?” one of the Agents sneered and a few 
men laughed. But Pendrell merely looked at the men.
	“I don’t think personal backgrounds really matter at this stage, 
nor does it in any way make a significant difference in how this 
particular case should be handled.”
	Skinner nodded with satisfaction. ‘Well done, Pendrell,’ he 
thought.
	“Anyway, if I may continue I will. It is my experience that the 
work done by Agents Mulder and Scully is of the highest quality. 
These Agents are highly dedicated to their jobs, with a passion for 
finding conclusive answers to cases which other Agents would deem 
too difficult or even downright impossible to solve. Cases involving 
murders, capital crimes against the American people that need to be 
solved if we want to prevent innocent people to fall victim to 
psychopathic killers! And yes, in the heat of the action people 
sometimes do get hurt, but, even though I am not a field Agent 
myself, I know that the X-Files department is not in any way the only 
department where people sometimes end up in hospital. If you are not 
prepared to risk your life for the benefit of this country then I should 
say you’ve chosen the wrong profession.
	“To end my contribution to this hearing I will not say much to 
Mr Krycek as I have no information of the time you and Agent 
Mulder worked together and it should be unwise to give my opinion if 
I cannot base that opinion on facts. However, I will testify against 
Agent Colton as it was him who withheld information during the 
investigation performed by Agents Mulder, Scully, and himself. To 
add to this it was agreed by the people involved in this case that 
Agents Mulder and Scully were to investigate separately from Agent 
Colton and at the end of the case combine the facts and data to form a 
coherent statement. After a short while Mulder and Scully discovered, 
however, that Agent Colton used information gathered by them to 
impress the others with your investigatory skills!”
	“What do you know about investigation anyway, lab rat?” 
Colton said furiously.
	“Enough to know that it is not done to steal information from 
others to blow your own trumpet!” Pendrell answered calmly.
	“I think we heard enough,” the Bald Man said sternly. “Agent 
Colton, please sit down. Agent Pendrell, thank you for your 
contribution. We shall now hear another statement from someone who 
has worked with Agents Mulder and Scully for as long as they have 
been assigned to the X-Files together. Sir, please.”
	Skinner momentarily closed his eyes as he saw the CSM rise to 
his feet, calmly extinguishing his cigarette and smiling coldly.
	“I will not make this statement a very long one as we have 
heard enough chattering already and it’s time to come to the point. I 
have been in a position where I was able to observe the work done by 
Agents Mulder and Scully from a close distance. Their work is 
undeniably of the highest quality, their combined skills resulting in 
what could well be the highest solving rate in the Bureau’s history.
	“But Agent Mulder could not do this on his own. He needed 
sources, people who could provide him with information he so 
desperately needed, but could not reach by himself. And I made sure 
he came into contact with these people. You are all familiar with the 
fates of the two first informants I sent him and I will not dwell on the 
details here.
	“What I will tell is about his third source of information, an 
excellent source from NATO, Ms Covarrubias, who is currently so 
tragically ill. She is highly trustworthy, even though Mulder never 
thought she was, which led to his working against her. He then 
needed another source, which he has, but the relationship between 
them is not to be discussed here. I am not here to make negative 
claims like the ones by Mr Krycek and Agent Colton, nor to make 
positive claims like Agent Pendrell’s. I am merely here to point out 
Agent Mulder’s phenomenal capability to get himself in trouble by 
trusting the wrong people. Or by not trusting the people who can help 
him.” His words left no doubts as to whom he was referring to.
	Skinner was slightly amazed by the man’s words. He sounded 
like he was both accusing and defending Mulder and Scully. And he 
did not like the feeling at all. He looked at the other people in the 
room and his fears were confirmed: Mulder and Scully were lost, 
doomed. Unless he could turn the tide. And that’s when he knew it 
was time for himself to do what he had to do.
	“Excuse me, Sir,” he said, rising from his chair and making 
sure he got the other men’s attention.
	“Yes, Assistant-director Skinner?” the Bald Man said.
	“I think it would be no more than reasonable that I would be 
making a contribution to this hearing in defence of Agents Mulder 
and Scully and of the X-Files project.”
	“You may do so when ready,” the Bald Man said.
	Skinner cleared his throat and straightened his back. ‘All 
right, Mulder, if this goes well, you’d better be grateful!’

	“Gentlemen,” he began, “I think it is a reasonable fact that in a 
situation as serious as this one there should be people who are 
prepared to defend the accused.” He gave a short nod in Pendrell’s 
direction before continuing. “As their immediate superior I have been 
in the position to watch their work in quite a detailed manner. And 
before anyone is going to draw any premeditated conclusions I would 
like to point out that there have been good reasons for Agents Mulder 
and Scully to have acted the way they have.
	“Mr Krycek, I would like to address your allegation first.” He 
looked at the man who looked back at him, not showing a sign of 
surprise or fear. Not surprised by this reaction, Skinner turned his 
attention back to the group. “Mr Krycek became Agent Mulder’s 
partner immediately following the closure of the X-Files project in 
1993. As an Agent his task was to assist Agent Mulder on whatever 
cases they were asked to investigate for the Violent Crimes Section. 
That Agent Mulder’s work consisted mostly of desk-work was 
something I could not help, but Agent Mulder and Agent Krycek, he 
was an Agent for the FBI then, did get involved in many field 
investigations.
	“Soon, however, Agent Mulder discovered some very troubling 
facts concerning his new partner. It appeared to everyone closely 
connected to their cases that Agent Krycek was working for the man 
who just a minute ago claimed to be Agent Mulder’s supplier of 
contacts, a man Agent Mulder did not and still does not trust at all. 
This is why Agent Mulder decided, whether this decision be rightly 
must be left for discussion, that Agent Krycek was working with the 
same people he considered his enemies.”
	“Who told you these lies?” Krycek shouted furiously.
	Skinner remained icily calm. “I do not think these so-called 
lies are actually lies, Mr Krycek. It is a well-documented fact that you 
more than once obstructed Agents Mulder and Scully in doing their 
work, even when the X-Files were re-opened, and even when you were 
no longer working for the FBI.” He turned back to the other men, 
ignoring Krycek. “After the X-Files had been re-opened there have 
been innumerable instances when this former Agent showed no mercy 
in his attempts to stop Agents Mulder and Scully in their search for 
the Truth. Not in the least, to name but two such occasions, the cold-
blooded murder of Agent Mulder’s father and Agent Scully’s sister, 
Melissa Scully. It is a well-documented fact that Mr Krycek was 
present at the latter shooting, possibly even the one firing the fatal 
shot, originally intended for Special Agent Dana Scully.”
	Even though this event was indeed well-known to the men in 
the room, they all turned to Krycek who didn’t seem very impressed 
by the attention, in fact even defying the Assistant-director, or the 
other people in the room for that matter, to accuse him of even worse 
crimes.
	“But,” Skinner continued, “I’m not here to discuss the nature 
of Mr Krycek’s crimes as I have no doubt they are well-known to 
everyone here. What I would like to point out though is that in my 
opinion Agent Mulder had every reason not to trust his new partner.”
	“But he continued working with Agent Scully during the time 
the X-Files were closed down, didn’t he?” one of the men asked.
	Skinner nodded. “Yes, he did. He continued to ask her to assist 
him on cases or to analyse the forensic data he had gathered during 
the field investigations.”
	He saw a few looks being exchanged and continued.
	“Also the second charge by Mr Krycek against Agent Mulder 
must be considered highly disputable. Agent Mulder and Officer 
Green were indeed involved in a long-time romantic relationship 
when they attended Oxford University. The fact that Officer Green 
came to Washington DC ten years later to request Agent Mulder’s 
assistance on a case concerning the apparent spontaneous combustion 
of high-ranking members of parliament in Great Britain, was a matter 
of not only professional but also personal nature on her side. Officer 
Green knew her power over Agent Mulder, even after ten years of 
separation, and she put that power to good use, intentionally leading 
him and Agent Scully to confront possibly lethal situations and to 
make Agent Mulder face one of his greatest fear, pyrophobia. But, in 
addition to that, which can be deemed at least partially a professional 
hazard, she also knew how to refuel to kindling fire of passion which 
she thought was still present between them. For, contrary to what Mr 
Krycek claims, it was not Agent Mulder but Officer Green who 
crossed the line between professional and personal interest, and who, 
through her actions, put the lives of Agents Mulder and Scully in 
acute danger, knowing only too well what she could make Agent 
Mulder do. Agent Scully, and later Agent Mulder, reported 
extensively about this case and about the role of Officer Green in this 
matter.
	“My conclusion therefore would have to be that it was not 
Agent Mulder who forgot his duties as a Special Agent but Officer 
Green, risking everyone’s life for the sake of a long-forgotten fling in 
Oxford.”
	A faint chuckling could be heard in the room and Skinner 
grabbed these tiny bits of encouragement which flitted through the air. 
If he could keep this up there might still be a chance he realised.
	“Is that all, Assistant-director Skinner?” the Bald Man asked. 
Skinner had seen him write down some notes but had been unable to 
figure out what they were.
	“No, Sir, there is more,” Skinner said.
	“Then, please,” the man said and Skinner nodded.
	“About this third informant as mentioned, Ms Marita 
Covarrubias. Agents Mulder and Scully received the help of this 
source soon after the untimely demise of their second source. Ms 
Covarrubias’ agenda was a double one. She worked for NATO and 
her task was to provide Agents Mulder and Scully with vital, but off-
the-record information which they needed in their investigations. At 
first this seemed to work, but Agent Scully and later also Agent 
Mulder found out that there was more about her agenda than met the 
eye, being an agenda that worked in two directions, directing 
information gathered by Agents Mulder and Scully to the man who 
had originally assigned her as their source. Upon learning this Agents 
Mulder and Scully decided to stop contacting her as much as possible 
without causing too much attention. It was, in my opinion, a wise 
decision, a decision which unfortunately did not do Ms Covarrubias 
much good as she is presently missing and probably dead.”
	He was silent for a moment to let the information sink in, then 
continued while he still had all the attention he needed. He knew that 
this last lie was one no one believed in, but it would be unwise to let 
these people know just how deeply he was involved in a matter he had 
no business with.
	“Thirdly I would like to address Agent Colton, though I am 
pretty sure this will not be as long a contribution as the previous ones. 
In addition to Agent Pendrell’s statement I can only say that it has 
never been a secret that Agent Colton used Agents Mulder and Scully 
in an attempt to climb the ladder, even if that involved using and mis-
using information and profiles constructed by Agent Mulder and 
using them to his own advantage without their permission or even 
their knowledge. And with this I think this subject is handled to 
satisfaction.”
	He shot at look at Colton who looked furious and barely able to 
contain it.
	‘Serves you right, ass-hole,’ Skinner thought, clearing his 
throat to continue and finish his statement.
	“To conclude my contribution to this hearing I will refrain 
from addressing any of you gentlemen in particular, but rather give 
my own personal impression these two excellent Agents have left on 
me and with me on many others.
	“The very nature of the cases Agents Mulder and Scully 
investigate often calls for methods that do not go with the 
mainstream, nor are they always able to handle the situations by the 
book. This is also due to their personal differences, the different points 
of view which in effect make them into such a successful team. Their 
opinions complement each other perfectly and it is my opinion that 
where they sometimes do deserve a warning, for it is well-known that, 
contrary to Agent Scully who is obedient and very by-the-book in her 
approach whenever possible, Agent Mulder has some problems with 
that. He knows this and it is a matter which I have repeatedly 
discussed with him when handling cases.
	“These two Agents are by no means faultless, but I suspect 
there are very few Agents in the FBI who are and who are able to 
combine field-investigation, professionalism, and sheer dedication to 
the United States of America, to its people, to the FBI and to their 
work for these institutions as well as they do.”
	Skinner paused for a moment, seeing a few Agents nod in 
agreement. Much as Mulder preferred to forget it, Skinner knew that 
many Agents actually admired his maverick streak of independence, 
though they often kept it hidden for fear of repercussions.
	And to his relief and amazement it almost seemed like the 
atmosphere in the room turned slightly in favour of his two most 
troublesome Agents. But Skinner knew the power of these men, the 
men who were in charge here, and he knew that, with a mere snap of 
their fingers, Mulder and Scully would be lost.
	He needed more proof. And that’s when he decided to play his 
last, his ultimate card:
	“And, as an illustration of my opinion, I would like to call 
upon the presence of Captain Rick Kodanski, of the US Navy.”
	The room was silent when a balding man entered, his proud 
posture and immaculate clothes breathing an aura of pride and 
dignity. In his hand he had an envelope.
	“Captain Kodanski, welcome,” Skinner greeted the man. Then 
Skinner sat down and everyone turned their attention to Captain 
Kodanski.
	“Thank you, Assistant-director Skinner,” he said with a small 
but polite nod. He opened the envelope and withdrew a few sheets of 
paper. He glanced at their contents, then looked at the men and 
pinned them to their seats with his look.
	“Gentlemen, here I have information that may prove vital to 
the outcome of this hearing. With your permission I will read it to you 
so you will be able to formulate a suitable decision concerning Agents 
Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.”
	“Who wrote that letter that it is so important?” Colton 
interrupted, his anger but barely subsided.
	“This letter was written by Captain William Scully, gentlemen, 
and addressed to you personally.”
	“Captain Scully? Agent Scully’s father?” one of the men asked 
with a frown and a nervous whisper went around the room.
	“Yes, Sir, Agent Scully’s father,” Captain Kodanski answered 
calmly.
	“But, that is not possible! The man is dead!”
	“He is, Sir,” Captain Kodanski said. “But, please, if I may?”
	The Bald Man nodded and gestured Captain Kodanski to 
proceed. “Certainly.”
	Captain Kodanski nodded in appreciation and cleared his 
throat. Then, in a clear dark voice he read the letter to the people in 
the room.

	‘Gentlemen:
	For over thirty-five years I, Captain William Scully, have 
served in the US Navy, thus being in a position to contribute actively 
to the defence of the United States of America, and to serve its 
government and its people, a duty I knew I would never take lightly. 
My two sons have followed in my footsteps, joining the US Navy of 
free will and with a strong conviction that in this manner they would 
be able to do their part in serving the nation.
	But I do not write this letter to defend myself or my two sons, 
but to defend my beloved daughter, Dana Katherine Scully, and her 
partner in the FBI, Fox William Mulder.
	Dana joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1990 
against my will, but convinced that her future was there. She taught at 
the FBI Academy in Quantico for two years after which she was 
transferred to FBI Headquarters in Washington DC as partner of 
Special Agent Fox Mulder, who had a special interest in paranormal 
and unexplained phenomena. Dana’s first impressions of her new 
partner were all but favourable, but over the course of the past years 
she has learnt that if no one else she can trust her partner 
unreservedly, and she has joined him in his search for answers, a 
quest which has not been greeted warmly by various people around 
them.
	However, this letter is not meant to be an official report on the 
developments of my daughter’s career as I know you are all closely 
acquainted with it. Instead, this letter is an accusation. Moi, j’accuse!
	Whilst this letter is being read by the man I appointed to do so, 
Captain Rick Charles Kodanski, there are men present in this room 
whom I accuse of putting the lives of my daughter and her partner in 
serious danger on multiple occasions. I am well aware of the 
professional dangers involved in being a Special Agent for the Federal 
Bureau of Investigation and so is my daughter. But not everything she 
encountered during the past years can be considered as professional 
danger. And therefore I accuse.
	I accuse you gentlemen of wilfully submitting my daughter, 
Dana Scully, and several hundreds of American citizens to tests run 
against their will and with extensive effects on their lives.
	I accuse you of giving her cancer, a non-operable disease 
brought about by the tests performed on her. She was gone for three 
months, returned in a deep coma and left with a micro-chip 
subcutaneously in her neck. Soon after she had the chip removed she 
discovered a cancerous mass in her brain, the treatments she 
underwent to treat this disease leaving her immune system weakened. 
Agent Mulder, meanwhile, also discovered that during her 
disappearance her ova were submitted to superovulation, thus 
rendering her infertile, her genes, together with the genes of 
thousands of others, used for unofficial, black agenda tests centred 
around the creation of human-alien hybrids. Speaking now as a father 
rather than a US Navy officer, I can feel nothing but sadness and 
anger for the way my daughter’s future has been altered without her 
consent or knowledge.
	The cancer she suffered from was potentially fatal, being 
inoperable and with the tumour growing very rapidly. The fact that in 
the end she did not die, but instead recovered from the disease, is 
something which can only be attributed to the tireless and admirable 
efforts by her partner, Fox Mulder, a man you now accuse of betraying 
the FBI’s standards.
	Therefore, as a contribution to what has already been said at 
this hearing, and of which I am not in the position to have actual 
knowledge, I would like to make the following statement:
	It is my opinion that Agent Mulder is a respectable, dedicated 
Agent, with high moral standards and great dedication to his job and 
to the people he works with and for. He cares deeply for my daughter, 
a feeling which is mutual, and even though I am unable to contribute 
actively to this hearing I will plead in his favour on this occasion. And 
I request that you will reconsider many of the issues mentioned 
against him.
	God bless America.

	Yours faithfully,

	Captain William Scully of the US Navy

XxXxX

	The room remained silent after Captain Kodanski folded the 
letter and put it back in the envelope. Then one man cleared his 
throat.
	“When exactly was this letter written?” he asked. ‘We all know 
Captain Scully died several years ago, yet the information he gives is 
recent.”
	Other men nodded in agreement.
	“This letter,” Captain Kodanski said, “is dated 21st of 
December 1993.”
	Once again there was silence. Then one of the Agents got to 
his feet.
	“He’s lying,” he said in a loud voice. “Give me that letter and 
I’ll prove to you that he’s been making up this bull-shit!”
	Captain Kodanski looked at him coldly and answered in an 
icily calm voice. “I would have appreciated a little more respect, Sir, 
but you are indeed welcome to verify the letter’s authenticity 
yourself.”
	The Agent walked up to Captain Kodanski and was handed the 
letter.
	“And?” the Bald Man asked, his tone betraying that he valued 
Captain Kodanski’s opinion higher than the Agent who challenged 
him.
	“It’s true,” the man answered, “providing that this is a genuine 
document, the letter was indeed written in 1993.” He sounded uneasy.
	Skinner had listened to it all apparently unmoved, but he knew 
only too well that he was still on dangerous territory. Then he felt 
someone looking at him and saw that the Bald Man shot him an 
unreadable look before addressing the people in the room.
	“Well,” he said, his face blank, “one could say we’ve got quite 
a situation here.”
	No comments. Skinner didn’t expect any either. He saw how 
the man to the Bald Man’s right said something upon which the Bald 
Man nodded.
	“Yes, that would certainly be the wisest cause of action.” He 
rose from his chair. “Gentlemen, it is the opinion of this board of 
inquiry that Agent Mulder will be summoned to appear in front of an 
FBI committee in order to speak in his own defence. Agent Scully will 
be excused from this for the present, but she will have to hold herself 
available to additional hearings if required or requested.” A note was 
passed to him and he read it. “All right, Agent Brown will hand 
Agent Mulder the message. We will reconvene soon.”
	Skinner saw a handsome young Agent get to his feet and 
approach the Bald Man who gave him the note.
	“That will be all, gentlemen,” the Bald Man said. “Thank you 
for your contributions. Thank you, Captain Kodanski, for your time.” 
He got up from his chair and left the office, followed by the other men 
who had attended the meeting. It wasn’t long before Skinner was the 
only one still in the room.
	He looked around the room which bore absolutely no signs of 
the things that were being discussed here on a daily basis, things that 
often could not bear the light of day and involuntarily he repeated his 
thoughts from the beginning of this meeting: ‘Keep your fingers 
crossed, Agent Mulder.’
	There wasn’t much he could do to help them. From here on 
they were basically on their own, his only comfort being that after 
dealing with aliens, mutants and downright cold-blooded murder he 
had some confidence in his Agents. He got up from his chair and left 
the office.

*~*~*~



Part B
“Reynaert’s Subpoena”

	“Door’s open!”
	Agent Brown carefully pushed the door to the mysterious 
basement office open and shot a wary look inside. He had heard a lot 
about the people who had made this office their home base and his 
first impression of the office confirmed his thoughts about the owner 
of this room, the poster on the wall leaving little doubt on what the 
occupants’ main interest was about.
	Right now, however, the person he was looking for wasn’t 
here, he noticed. Someone else was though, a woman was sitting at 
the desk, working on her computer and seemingly oblivious to the 
man who currently invaded the office. Agent Brown, on the other 
hand, did notice the woman. In fact, it hit him in the face with all the 
force unpleasant memories could bring. And then he grinned 
maliciously. Now here was an ideal opportunity to set a couple of 
matters straight ...
	“Dana Scully?”
	The woman looked up, apparently thunder-struck at hearing 
the man’s voice.
	Agent Brown walked up to her and stood before her, his arms 
crossed, his expression full of hatred.
	“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Dana Scully,” he said.
	Scully sighed and returned to her work. “What is it, Tony?”
	“Actually, I came down here looking for that spooky partner of 
yours.”
	“I would appreciate you not using that nickname, Tony. And I 
can’t help you as Mulder isn’t here right now,” she answered, arching 
an eye-brow seeing Tony uninvitedly sit down in Mulder’s chair.
	“I gathered as much,” he said with a slight sneer. “I’m actually 
surprised he trusts you with his office, Dana.”
	“And why wouldn’t he trust me with our office?” Scully 
replied, stressing the word ‘our’.
	Tony grinned. “I presume the only anecdote about your 
college-years you ever told him was the thesis you wrote?” He bent 
closer to her. “I bet he knows absolutely nothing about your wild years 
at college.”
	“So what if I never told him,” Scully answered, no longer 
bothering to contain her anger. “That happened in the past and I 
would like to keep it there, thank you very much!” She got up from 
her chair and walked to one of the filing cabinets. “So, if you think 
I’m actually worthy of knowing, what is the reason for your coming 
down to the basement?”
	“Actually, your pretty partner is in deep shit and I was sent 
down here to give him this message.”
	“I don’t think it’s necessary for you to stay here until her 
returns, Tony. I have no idea where he is or when he comes back,” 
Scully answered, quickly going through the files and taking one out.
	“Leaving you in the dark, Dana?” Tony said.
	“Yeah, one of his less attractive sides, I’m afraid,” Scully 
answered, stifling a sigh. She was determined not to show Tony 
Brown that she sometimes felt left out by Mulder. Tony didn’t deserve 
seeing that.
	“Gee, guess that mystery is solved then as well,” Tony sneered.
	“What mystery?”
	“Why you two fit together so well.” He got to his feet and 
towered over her.
	“I have no idea what you are talking about, Agent Brown,” 
Scully answered calmly.
	“Oh, you haven’t, have you?” he said, his eyes on fire. “Well, 
let me illuminate then!”
	“Tony, please,” Scully said exasperated. “If this is going where 
I think it is, then I hardly think the office is the right place to sort it 
all out. There are better places to solve personal disagreements than at 
work.”
	“Yeah? Like where? We never see one another, in fact I 
haven’t seen or heard from you since the day you ditched me for 
Ethan Minette! And I want answers!!”
	“Tony, that was eight or nine years ago! I ...” She sighed. “I 
had forgotten about it ...”
	“Well, I haven’t!” he spat. “So why did you leave me in the 
cold, Dana? For some other guy who could give you more than I 
could? Who was better in bed?”
	“Tony, I don’t want to talk about it. Just leave your message 
and go, okay?” Scully said, opening the file with the intention to study 
its contents. But Agent Brown wasn’t about to let go so easily.
	“Oh no, Dana, you escaped me then, but this time we are going 
to the bottom of this!” He was furious, but then he grinned. “Still no 
ring. I see ... Guess leaving me wasn’t what it took to get hitched, 
huh?”
	Scully didn’t answer. There was no answer to give, no answer 
he would consider an answer. But his next remark was like a 
thunderbolt on a clear day.
	“Just admit it, you’re still single ‘cause you still love me.”
	“Wha--what?” she stammered, looking up at him, bewildered.
	“You’re still in love with me,” Tony said, looking extremely 
smug. “Just say yes, Dana, you never stopped loving me!”
	“Oh, cut the crap, Tony,” she said, closing the folder and 
walking back to the filing cabinet where she put it in its rightful place. 
“You know as well as everyone else that I never loved you.”
	As soon as these words had slipped from her lips she regretted 
them tremendously. Oh shit, she was in such huge trouble now. Oh 
shit shit shit ... She knew how Anthony Bernard Brown was when it 
came to insults ...
	“Tony, no!” she screamed, whirling around to face him. “Oh, 
Tony, I’m sorry for saying that, I didn’t mean it, I ...”
	He was insane with fury, his face red and his eyes shooting 
fire. He reached her in three long strides. Scully was mortified. Even 
though there hadn’t been love between them, she had lived with him 
for a while and this total loss of control was one of the reasons she 
had fled from his apartment one rainy night, dressed only in her 
night-gown and coat, and if it hadn’t been for the determined actions 
of her father and mother he would certainly have killed her for what 
she’d done. 
	“Tony, please, I’m sorry!! I really am! Please, don’t hurt me, 
Tony, please ... please, don’t hurt me ...”
	Tony pinned her shoulders to the cabinet with his hands, 
trapping her. “So you didn’t love me, did you, Red!”
	Oh God, he called her Red. He had never called her that except 
for when he was once again about to beat her senseless.
	“Tony, please ...” she sobbed, instinctively turning her face 
away from him. He was going to beat her unconscious, she knew it 
with utmost certainty. But not here, please, not here in the office ...
	“Well, if you care to remember ... we were just about ... here, 
when you got it into your stupid little empty head to run away from 
me, weren’t we?” he hissed and tore the front of her shirt open, 
sending the buttons flying across the office.
	Scully couldn’t move, but tears streamed over her face. She 
didn’t protest actively, she knew what was coming and how she could 
turn events so that she’d survive ...
	“So you didn’t love me, did you?” Tony hissed as he roughly 
covered her breasts with his hands and pressed his lower body against 
her. She could feel his erection and a fresh bout of fear shot through 
her.
	Oh God, he was going to rape her!
	“Well,” he continued, “I don’t like being fooled. And certainly 
not by some stupid little bitch like you ... I’ll make you pay for doing 
this, Red, I’ll make you pay for lying to me!”
	Scully felt his hand tearing her skirt as he pulled the hem up 
and she seriously considered holding her breath until she’d faint. At 
least then she wouldn’t be conscious while he raped her ... But then 
she heard the most glorious sound she’d ever heard: Mulder’s 
footsteps sounding hollowly in the empty corridor leading to the 
office.
	“Mulder!!” she screamed. “Mulder, I need your help!!!”
	In no time at all the door flew open and Mulder stormed in. In 
a few strides he’d reached them and he pulled Tony away from her. 
With one furious, powerful blow he knocked Tony unconscious, but 
even then he couldn’t stop beating him, only stopping eventually at 
the sound of Scully’s sobs.
	While Mulder had been beating up Tony Brown, Scully had let 
herself sag onto the floor, holding her ruined blouse to her chest the 
best she could, her legs giving way under her. And with her back 
against the filing cabinet she cried.
	Mulder let the man fall down on the floor and hurried to get to 
his partner.
	“My God, Scully, what happened? Who is this man?” he asked, 
but received no answer. He grabbed a few tissues from the box on the 
cabinet and gave them to her, then went in search of the old 
sweatshirt he knew had to be in his desk somewhere. It was old and 
torn and stained with paint, but it would help her stay warm.
	“He was going to rape me, Mulder, he was going to rape me! 
... he was going to rape me ...” Scully sobbed, keeping her eyes tightly 
shut. She gratefully accepted the sweatshirt he offered her, even when 
she wasn’t up to actually showing it
	It took more than fifteen minutes for her to calm down enough 
to answer his questions.
	“Scully, who is this man?” Mulder asked, looking at the man 
who was still lying on the floor.
	Scully swallowed and blew her nose for what seemed the 
hundredth time. “Agent Brown,” she answered. “Tony Brown.”
	“Why did he come here? What was his business?”
	“He had a message for you,” she said.
	Mulder frowned. “A message? And that was enough of a 
reason to attempt raping you?” he asked bewildered, but regretted his 
question right away as he saw her stiffen visibly and fresh tears started 
to flow. “Shh, Scully, I’m sorry ... shh ...” he said, taking her hand to 
show her his good intentions. She bent closer to him and he let her 
lean into him, rubbing her arms to comfort her. “Shh, I’m sorry, Dana 
...”
	They sat like that for a little while and then he continued.
	“Who is he, Dana?” he asked gently.
	“He was my boyfriend during my first year teaching at 
Quantico,” Scully answered. “In 1990. He often beat me up, but he 
never did ... this ...”
	She fell silent. Her sobs had dissipated almost entirely now and 
silence feel in the small cramped office. Mulder looked at her and was 
struck by the vulnerability he saw in her appearance, a vulnerability 
she most of the time kept well-hidden behind a mask of cool, 
dedicated professionalism, but which had been laid bare by this man’s 
crime. A vulnerability which didn’t suit her at all.
	“Would you like to go home, Scully?” he asked softly, holding 
her close to him as they sat on the floor.
	She nodded.
	“Would you like me to take you home?”
	She nodded again.
	With a sigh he got up and helped her to her feet. She stood 
unsteadily, still keeping her shirt closed the best way she could, her 
skirt in shreds around her thighs. Mulder cuffed Tony Brown to the 
desk after which he and Scully left the office. He could always have 
Agent Brown arrested for his crime, first he had someone who needed 
his help and he wasn’t going to let her down.
	And about that dreadful message, well, that could wait, too ...

XxX

	“Scully, are you okay?”
	Mulder hovered restlessly around her, desperate to do 
something to help her but not sure what it could be that she wanted. 
She was sitting on her couch, dressed in his sweatshirt and an old pair 
of sweatpants and bulky white socks. She smiled weakly.
	“Mulder, you’ve asked me that exactly 34 times today now. I’m 
fine, really.”
	He ran his hand through his hair and sat down beside her. He 
looked at her. “I know, Scully, I just wish I could do something for 
you.”
	She reached out and laid her hand on his arm. “Just stay here 
with me, that’s all I ask of you.”
	He smiled a one-sided smile. Then he sighed. “I’m sorry, 
Scully.”
	“What for?” she asked gently.
	He shrugged, studying his hands. “I ... It’s like every time I 
leave you, something bad happens to you ...”
	She shook her head. “You’re wrong, Mulder, you know you 
are. And I can look after myself. Don’t volunteer to take up the 
burden of the world, it weighs too much. And as for what happened in 
the office, that was not in any way your fault. It was Tony’s fault 
mostly, then maybe mine, but never yours.”
	He chuckled watery. “That’s a very kind thing to say, Scully.”
	“It’s the truth,” she smiled. Then she sighed. “I thought I’d 
gotten rid of him, Mulder. For more than nine years I hadn’t heard a 
word from him and then ...”
	He looked at her and opened his mouth to say something but 
didn’t know what he could say that would make sense now. So he kept 
quiet.
	Then she looked at him, her eyes brimming with unshed tears. 
“I know I don’t ask very often for you to comfort me, Mulder, but 
could you just hold me for a while? As my friend?”
	She looked at him and saw the welcoming look in his eyes and 
as fresh tears spilled over her cheeks she allowed herself to be 
comforted by her best friend.
	She felt really good, Mulder noticed, really really good. Her 
petite body fitted so perfectly against his that he knew that had to be 
fate. Which made it even more painful that they could never become 
more than what they had now, partners and best of friends. But the 
tension, the energy, the magic ... And it were these rare lapses in their 
firm grip on themselves that he relished. They made that tension 
which just kept on sizzling between them at least a little more 
bearable.
	He found himself whispering to her, soothing nonsense-words 
that accompanied the gentle caressing of her arms.
	“Mmm, I think I could spend a long time like this, Mulder ...” 
she murmured, not aware of the feelings these words caused deep 
within him.
	“That’s good, Scully ...”
	The silence in the room was warm and comfortable. 
Sometimes one of them sighed softly, but that was the only sound 
audible. Then the silence was rudely interrupted by a cell-phone 
ringing.
	“Is yours ...” Scully murmured. Mulder loosened himself from 
their embrace and reached into the left pocket of his coat which was 
draped over a chair.
	“Mulder”
	He walked back to the couch and Scully curled back into his 
arms.
	“Yeah”
	“No, I’m at Scully’s place.”
	He smiled. “Yes, she’s here, too.”
	“No, you can just come over. You know where she lives?”
	Scully frowned. Who could it be that Mulder invited that 
person over to her apartment?
	‘Who is it?’ she mouthed, but she received no answer.
	“Sure. Yeah, see you in a minute then.” He tossed his phone to 
the chair.
	“Who was that?”
	“Pendrell,” Mulder answered.
	“Pendrell? What’s wrong?”	
	“It’s the message Agent Brown so clearly failed to deliver to 
us. Pendrell couldn’t say much over the phone, he was worried about 
this not being a secure line, but he’s coming over now to discuss it.”
	Scully stretched, accompanying it with a few satisfied groans. 
“Mmm, I’d better get changed then, I suppose.” She got up, but 
hesitated. Slowly she turned around and found Mulder looking at her 
intensely, his gaze causing a welcome but untimely wave of desire run 
through her veins.
	‘Please, Mulder,’ she thought, finding her gaze captured by his 
own. ‘Don’t do this. You’re taking my control away and I have none 
left anyway ...’
	“Change, Scully?”
	‘No, I don’t have to change at all. All we need to do ... do you 
love me, Mulder? I know I do ... can we risk this, all this?’ She 
sighed. “Yes, I’d better,” she answered, escaping into her bedroom, 
the lack of his presence like a cold cloak wrapping around her.
	When she returned into her livingroom, dressed in a navy blue 
suit, Pendrell was already there, sitting with his back to her and 
talking to Mulder.
	“Hello, Alan,” she said and Pendrell turned around, a smile 
lighting up his boyish features.
	“Oh, hi, Da --... Agent Scully.” He blushed as he heard the 
slip.
	Scully smiled and shook her head. “Just call me Dana.” She sat 
down beside Mulder on the couch, fighting the urge to slip her arm 
around him. “So I understood you had a message for us, Alan?”
	Pendrell nodded. “Actually, it’s primarily addressed to Agent 
Mulder, but I guessed it would be important to you as well.”
	She looked at Mulder who looked back, giving her hand a light 
imperceptible squeeze. Damn right it would be important to her!
	Pendrell took the manila folder from the coffee table, opened it, 
and began to tell them about the meeting which had taken place three 
days earlier and the consequences it held for both of them. It was 
more than 30 minutes later when he was finished.
	“And that is the reason why I’ve been asked to tell you that you 
are expected to appear before a committee of supervising Special 
Agents who will go over the cases in the X-Files in your presence, 
Agent Mulder. In that manner you will have the opportunity to speak 
in your own defence in person rather than having to rely on other 
people doing so for you,” Pendrell ended his narrative.
	Mulder looked at the young Agent for a brief moment. “Were 
you present at the meeting, Agent Pendrell?”
	Pendrell nodded. “Yes, I was.”
	“And what part did you play in it?” Mulder continued. Scully 
recognised the tone of his voice: her partner was interrogating 
someone -- and it always worked.
	“I defended your cause, Agent Mulder, as did Assistant-
director Skinner.” Pendrell’s voice was clear and sure.
	“Did you do that of your own accord or because someone asked 
you to do so?”
	Pendrell looked Mulder straight in the eyes. “Contrary to many 
other Agents I have respect for and confidence in the validity of your 
work, Agent Mulder. I believe your search for the Truth is worthy of 
more appreciation, and I regret that those people in power do not 
share my opinions. I do not say this aloud, I do not have it in me to do 
so. Yet, when at the hearing, facts were turned upside in order to 
make them act against you I decided that I should use the opportunity 
to defend you.”
	Mulder looked at Scully. “The kid grew up,” he whispered 
softly enough so that Pendrell wouldn’t hear it and Scully nodded, 
inwardly feeling rather proud of him. She’d always had a weak spot 
for the shy young scientist, a feeling she hadn’t realised she had until 
the moment she’d heard he’d been killed. Luckily that information 
proved unreliable, but she had realised the strength of her affection for 
him.
	“Well done, Agent Pendrell,” Mulder said with a smile and 
saw Pendrell blush a bit, much to Scully’s delight. “But what do you 
think we ought to do now?
	Pendrell took a deep breath. “I don’t know.”
	“What do you think of it yourself, Alan?” Scully asked, 
“because you have to do what you think it right.”
	Pendrell didn’t answer for a moment. Then he looked at them. 
“Personally I don’t believe the course of action they have in mind for 
you is appropriate,” he answered and Mulder nodded.
	“Then that is what you should tell them.”

XxXxX

	Mulder sat in his office meaning to be studying a case file 
lying open on his desk, but Scully could see he was only pretending as 
he’d be staring at the very same page for over three hours now. And 
although she knew he was slow even Mulder could work faster than 
that.
	“They’ve got you worried, Mulder?” she said and he flashed 
her a lop-sided smile.
	“You could say that,” he replied. “And so much depends on 
how Pendrell handles the whole case.”
	“You realise that this was the second summons you’ve been 
ignoring?” Scully asked, her voice and expression betraying her 
concern. “You’re not exactly helping him or yourself.”
	“Second summons?”
	“Tony Brown, Alan Pendrell,” Scully summed up. “We may 
not regard them as official summons, but I have a dawning impression 
that the men behind all this most certainly do. You cannot ignore it 
for much longer.”
	Mulder sighed. “What do you think they really want from me?”
	“Your head or your ass. Preferably both,” Scully answered 
wryly.
	“So you think I shouldn’t have put that Rolex on the expense 
form?” he quipped but he couldn’t draw a smile from his partner. She 
got up and sat down on his desk, taking his hand in her own and 
looking at him with a look of deep concern. She softly rubbed her 
thumb over his fingers.
	“Mulder, this could mean the end of us,” she said softly. “Not 
just of you, but also of me. If we don’t do this right we’re out. The X-
Files will be closed and we’ll be out of the Bureau.” She sighed and 
looked at their hands. “And then what do we do?”
	She looked at him and saw his eyes. They were completely 
serious. “I don’t know, Scully,” he said. “I just don’t understand why 
this is suddenly so important to them. Or why they’ve decided to play 
it so high.”
	“It’s a culmination of all we’ve done over the course of the past 
five, six years which they believe is wrong. They want explanations.”
	Mulder looked at her, but didn’t say anything. Silence fell in 
the office. Then, after a few minutes, Scully spoke again.
	“You’ll have to go, Mulder, you’ll have to talk to them and 
defend yourself. The longer you ignore the summons and fail to turn 
up, the more convinced they’ll be that they are right. You cannot let 
that happen, you cannot stay away anymore.”
	As if on cue Pendrell returned to them. He looked pale and 
tired.
	“For the moment you are reasonably safe, Agent Mulder,” he 
said, but his eyes didn’t quite confirm his words. “I told them what I 
thought was the right thing.”
	Scully smiled at the young Agent. “Thanks, Alan,” she said, 
but Pendrell didn’t return the smile.
	“A.D. Skinner apparently appreciated my efforts to clear your 
name from the accusations made, but I seriously doubt you’ll be in the 
clear now.”
	“Indeed you are not,” a voice came from the direction of the 
door and they all looked around. It was Skinner, his expression tired 
as well. “Where were you, Agent Mulder?”
	“I’ve been taking care of Agent Scully,” Mulder replied, 
continuing when he saw her about to protest. “Agent Brown left me 
no choice.”
	Skinner frowned. “Please explain yourself, Agent Mulder.”
	Mulder looked at Scully who gave him a slight nod. He saw 
how she gripped the edge of his desk until her knuckles turned white. 
Then he told Skinner about Agent Brown’s blatant misconduct.
	Skinner’s face became very grim. “Is this true, Agent Scully?”
	Scully nodded. “Yes, it is true, Sir,” she answered. “If it hadn’t 
been for Agent Mulder’s return and quick actions I am very certain he 
would have raped me. It was only for Mulder’s timing and reaction 
that Agent Brown was stopped before he could have ... gone that far 
...”
	Mulder looked at Pendrell who had an expression of horror 
and disgust on his face, and he felt sorry for the man. He knew of 
Pendrell’s innocent crush on Scully and this was a shock for him. 
Then he caught Skinner’s look.
	“Agent Mulder,” the Assistant-director said, “I’d start from the 
beginning if I were you.”
	“Why?” Mulder asked. Scully shot him a look but he ignored 
it.
	Skinner took a deep breath. “As you probably already know 
you are in quite a situation here, Agent Mulder. You cannot hide 
behind your ignorance any longer, you will have to appear before the 
committee. And if I were you I’d try and remember who’s there to 
help you fight those who serve to have you butt kicked out of the 
Bureau. I need to know facts.”
	“It could only help you, Mulder,” Scully said softly and 
Skinner nodded.

	Mulder got up from his chair and walked across the office to 
the filing cabinet. It struck Scully as though he tried to gather strength 
from the files inside the cabinet, from the work he was prepared to 
defend with his life.
	“Sir,” he began, “I don’t think there is really all that much to 
tell, much which you do not already know about.”
	“You could start by telling me what happened concerning 
Agent Brown and why you failed to turn up that time,” Skinner said. 
Mulder quickly glanced at Scully, who looked back, her eyes 
encouraging him to tell their boss. He couldn’t help the feeling of 
tender pride which flowed through him.
	“All right,” he said, crossing his arms in front of him. “We 
failed to turn up because Agent Brown in turn entirely failed to deliver 
the message he’d been given. As you are already aware I was not 
present when he came down to the office, only Agent Scully was 
there. This was also the reason he sensed the opportunity to harass 
Agent Scully.”
	“That’s true, Sir,” Scully said softly. The men in the room 
turned their attention to her. “Agent Brown came down to the office 
looking for Agent Mulder because he had a message for him. I can 
only suppose that was the summons you referred to. Agent Mulder 
was not here so I asked him to give me the message which I would 
then pass on to Agent Mulder when I’d see him.”
	“But how and why did he ...” Skinner said and Scully sighed.
	“It started pretty much right after he noticed me,” she said 
softly. “Agent Brown and I were involved in a brief relationship 
during my first year as a teacher at Quantico and he frequently abused 
me. He is a violent unstable man. I ran away after a few months and 
to be honest I thought he’d have forgotten about me, I certainly had 
forgotten much about him, but apparently I was wrong. And he was 
bent on taking revenge while I was alone ...”
	“Agent Brown is a very violent man and I find it hard to 
understand how he could ever have made it to Special Agent,” Mulder 
said, looking with compassion at his partner. “I struck him to the 
ground when I heard Scully’s cry for help. I must admit I have not 
quite evaluated the situation very well, so perhaps my actions were 
slightly rash, but at the time I seriously doubted there was much time 
to lose.”
	Scully looked at Pendrell whose horrified expression had not 
faded at all and she felt sorry for him. The young man was obviously 
aghast by what had almost happened and she decided that she ought 
to let him know how much his concern for her meant to her, even 
when she could not return the feelings he had for her.
	“So Agent Brown never delivered the message to you at all?” 
Skinner asked and they shook their heads.
	“No Sir, “Mulder replied. “It wasn’t until Agent Pendrell 
approached us that we knew of the case set up against us.”
	“Agent Brown told me he had a message for Mulder, but he 
never got round to the point of actually telling me what that message 
was all about. And when Mulder arrived and we had disposed of 
Agent Brown I must admit that the notion of a message had rather 
obviously slipped my mind,” Scully said, casting Mulder a wry smile. 
He returned it warmly, the moral support in that smile a comfortable 
balm to the memories that were still so clear and near the surface.
	“And what about Agent Pendrell?” Skinner asked. All eyes 
turned to Pendrell who seemed rather surprised by the sudden 
attention. But he mustered the strength to look the Assistant-director 
straight in the eye.
	“I went to Agent Scully’s apartment after Agent Mulder’s 
invitation to do so,” he said and Skinner frowned. He noticed it, but 
ignored it, causing a barely-concealed chuckle from Mulder. “There I 
explained what had been discussed at the official meeting and what 
the situation was.”
	“What did you decide?”
	Pendrell looked at Mulder and Scully who gave him 
encouraging nods. Then he looked calmly back at Skinner. “After 
careful deliberation from Agent Mulder, Agent Scully, and myself and 
after a precise review of the facts I decided for what I told the 
committee concerning Agent Mulder’s absence.”
	Skinner nodded. “That was your own decision?”
	“Yes, Sir,” Pendrell answered in a steady voice.
	“Backed up by Agent Scully and Agent Mulder?”
	“Yes, Sir.”
	Skinner nodded again. “Very well,” he said, “even though that 
still doesn’t do your absence much good, Agent Mulder. You’ll still be 
expected to explain yourself. No one can do that for you, not even I 
can.”
	Mulder looked at the floor, his arms still crossed before him. 
He did not reply.
	Then Skinner cleared his throat. “Are you aware of the fact 
that Agent Scully’s father, Captain William Scully, was also 
mentioned and quoted during the official meeting?”
	“Sir?”
	Mulder looked at Scully who looked totally dumbfounded by 
the news she’d just received.
	“In what capacity was he mentioned, Sir?” she asked.
	“He left a letter to the board which was read to all people 
present at the meeting in which he accused the government in general 
and the Consortium in particular of everything that has happened to 
you, from your abduction to the cancer, and of putting your life and 
Agent Mulder’s in constant peril.”
	Scully was bewildered and speechless. “But ... how? How did 
he ...” Mulder walked over to her side and she gladly took his hand, 
ignoring Skinner’s slightly surprised reaction. She needed his touch, 
his presence too much to care.
	“That we do not know, Agent Scully,” Skinner answered. 
“Nobody knows. The letter is currently being tested to prove its 
authenticity, but I myself have little doubt that they will find that the 
document is genuine. It did, however, cause a great deal of confusion 
among those attending.” He looked at Scully who seemed completely 
awed by the news. “The accusations he made were impressive, 
blaming them for everything that had happened to you.”
	Scully looked at Mulder who was staring at the floor. 
Somehow he sensed her looking at him and he smiled a one-sided 
smile at her, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes.
	“God knows I know how he feels,” he said very softly and 
Scully sighed.
	“Mulder ...”
	“But it’s still true, isn’t it? No matter how much you try to 
defend me, it’s still true. Your abduction, your cancer. I could have 
been there to save you, Scully, I should have been there. When Duane 
Barry kidnapped you, where was I? I should’ve been there. And your 
cancer ...”
	“You found that which ultimately saved her, Mulder,” Skinner 
said and Scully smiled a thank-you at him. Mulder, on the other hand, 
didn’t seem very impressed.
	“Yes, I did, but how? I didn’t find it until the very last 
moment, when she was at death’s door. God, we’d even said our 
good-byes! And I was handed the cure, I couldn’t even find it myself. 
If it hadn’t been for that chain-smoking friend of ours she’d never 
have been ...” He couldn’t finish. “And Emily ...”
	Scully couldn’t help the coldness invading her body.
	“Everything,” Mulder continued in a broken voice. “They’ve 
taken everything that mattered to her, her father, her sister, her 
daughter ...”
	“Mulder, please stop,” Scully whispered with a pained voice, 
but it didn’t seem like he was finished yet.
	“And where was I when all this happened?” he said. “I 
should’ve been there, by her side.” He tried to chuckle but it sounded 
awful. “Oh sure, so I saved her a couple of times from your run-of-the-
mill serial killer, but what does that mean when I’m not there when it 
is truly necessary?”
	“Mulder, that’s enough!” Skinner said sternly. “It’s not going 
to help anyone if you continue your self-chastising instead of finding 
ways to get your own ass out of the trouble you’re in. And apart from 
that, I don’t think Agent Scully would still be here with you if she 
truly felt the way you think she does. To me she never seemed the type 
who’d stay with someone to do him a favour or out of pity.”
	Scully gently squeezed his hand and he looked at her. “He’s 
right, Mulder,” she whispered. “I only wish you’d start believing it. 
When people say good things about you, it doesn’t hurt you to believe 
them. You can believe those people, Mulder, just like you believe 
those who intend to hurt you.” She smiled weakly, caressing her 
thumb across his hand. She wanted nothing more than to wrap her 
arms around him and show him the truth of her words, the depth of 
her affection, but with Skinner and Pendrell present she dared not. “If 
I really did feel that you’d let me down, do you think I’d still be 
here?”
	Mulder looked at the others and then at his partner. Scully 
continued while she had his attention. 
	“Besides, you almost sound like you’re defending those who 
did all this to me, as if you’re defending the Syndicate and the men 
behind their dirty tricks. They are the ones to blame, Mulder, they 
took my daughter away from me, they shot my sister and gave me 
cancer. And they ...” She took a deep breath. “... they ruined my 
chances at a normal life.” She sighed and smiled ruefully. “Not that I 
can imagine such a life ...”
	“When I heard that the Cancerman could be my father, I felt 
sorry for what I’d said and done,” Mulder whispered. “For not being 
the son he might have wanted ...”
	“Mulder ...” Scully began, but he cut her off.
	“I know, I know, it’s insane and I ought not feel that way and 
everything, but I did. I did feel I’d let him down, disappointed him. 
And it hasn’t helped a great deal now that we know he probably 
isn’t.”
	“Mulder, you have to stop feeling that way,” Scully said softly. 
She gently brushed a lock of hair from his brow and looked him in the 
eyes, smiling. “You are protecting a man who is behind virtually 
everything that has happened to us. It’s no use defending him when 
he’s among the ones to blame.”
	He looked at her and smiled. God, he really could never do this 
without her ...
	“Former Agent Alex Krycek was also mentioned,” Pendrell 
said and they looked at him. Skinner nodded.
	“That’s true. He gave a whole list of accusations against you, 
Mulder,” the Assistant-director said.
	“That doesn’t exactly surprise me,” Mulder answered. “We’ve 
hardly ever been on one track ...”
	“You could say that,” Scully deadpanned and Mulder smiled. 
Then he grew serious again.
	“All right,” he said, taking Scully’s hand in both his own, “so 
this is confession time.
	“It has never been a secret that Krycek wasn’t among those 
whom I confided in. I have told him that on various occasions so he 
must be aware of that. When he became my partner after the X-Files 
had been closed I never even bothered to let him into the cases the 
way Scully had become my partner. Actually, even though it could be 
considered a doubtful decision at the time, I’m very glad I did make 
that decision, even when it was done on nothing more than a hunch. I 
would not trust him, could not trust him. And I knew that the only 
person I did and wanted to trust had been taken from me, at first only 
through reassignment, later in a very real sense because of her 
abduction. By that time I knew Krycek was a double-agent, working 
both for the FBI and for the secret government. Later I learned that 
his work at the FBI was nothing but a flimsy cover, receiving his main 
pay-check from the secret government. Those same people who have 
led us to the very brink of destruction more times than I dare to 
remember.
	“Krycek pretended to be an FBI-Agent but he didn’t pull it off, 
which in retrospect is surprising as he is a smart man. It was too clear. 
But he was very very dangerous.
	“It is true that I sometimes used his eagerness for information 
to sneak his way into the favour of the Syndicate for my own 
purposes.”
	“He accused you of being the cause he lost his arm,” Skinner 
said and Mulder shrugged.
	“It is quite possible that I am, though not directly,” he 
answered, looking his superior straight in the eye. “We were both 
after the Black Cancer, but even though I got infected by it and 
Krycek apparently did not, I got to keep my arms.”
	“You were infected?” Scully sounded shocked. “But ...”
	“I don’t know,” he answered softly, looking at her. He realised 
all of a sudden how intimately their hands were interlocked and he 
felt a wave of warmth -- which might be described as love -- start as a 
little ball in his chest and then slowly spreading its gentle heat in 
delicate gulfs through his body. “I don’t think I’ll ever understand. 
Maybe the antivirus they injected me with really did work, but I 
seriously doubt whether the Russian government would ever reveal 
such a thing.”
	“Was Krycek infected?”
	He nodded. “Yes, he was, although not at that moment. He got 
locked up with that UFO in Tunguska and from what I’ve heard he 
spilled the virus back into the spaceship where it wanted to go.”
	“But Krycek showed the signs, not in the least the black oily 
eyes,” Scully said. “You never have.”
	Mulder shook his head. “I haven’t. And I don’t understand 
why not either. Maybe the virus never was in me at all, or maybe it is 
and my immune system has managed to suppress it until now, perhaps 
aided by the antivirus manufactured by the Russians in search of a 
means to combat the alien virus. Anything could be possible, I don’t 
think anyone knows. I don’t think even the Russians know.”
	“Did the fact that Krycek lost his arm help him?”
	“No, I don’t think it did,” Mulder answered. “The fact that 
some men didn’t have one of their arms was merely to prevent them 
from being used as test animals. People who had one arm missing 
were excluded from the tests with the Black Cancer, the farmer who 
eventually helped me to get back to DC told me so.”
	“Did he have proof for that?” Skinner asked.
	“I don’t think he had any scientific proof, Sir,” Mulder said, 
“but he and his wife had cut off their son’s arm to make sure he 
wouldn’t be tested. One has to be fairly sure before one would do such 
a thing to one’s child, I’m sure you’ll agree.”
	Skinner nodded and silence fell in the small office, more 
cramped than ever now that Skinner and Pendrell were added to the 
equation.
	“Mr Krycek also mentioned one Officer Green, Phoebe Green, 
from Scotland Yard,” Pendrell said and Mulder’s head snapped up.
	“He did what?”
	“It’s true,” Skinner said grimly. “He accused you of wilfully 
sacrificing your professional attitude towards her when dealing with 
that particular investigation.”
	Mulder closed his eyes and groaned. “The rat bastard!” He 
took a deep breath. “I hope you realise he couldn’t be telling the 
whole truth?”
	Skinner nodded. “But that still doesn’t explain --...”
	“I know,” Mulder interrupted him. “That still doesn’t explain 
why I couldn’t maintain a fully professional attitude.” He felt Scully 
take his hand a bit firmer in her own and when he looked at her she 
smiled warmly. He chuckled. God, the woman must have an 
unbelievable faith in him to support him even now that Phoebe was 
mentioned, the only woman who could ever have posed a serious 
threat to their relationship. Diana didn’t count, she’d come into the 
picture too late, but Phoebe had been dangerous in the fresh and 
unexperienced partnership he and Scully were in at the time. Of 
course there had never been a real question as to who would finally 
win him. “Phoebe Green knows her power over me and also knows 
how to use that power against me. We were involved in a brief but 
rather passionate fling in Oxford, just one of the many stupid things I 
did while I was there. At the time I thought I loved her, that I was in 
love with her, and the realisation that what we had back then wasn’t 
love, only lust, didn’t come until much much later. There was a 
certain attraction, though, and when we met again in 1993, she was 
all too aware of the fact that she could use that attraction against me. 
Which she did.”
	He looked at Scully whose smile had disappeared, and 
searched her eyes. What he found took his breath away for a second. 
There was no anger there, or jealousy or revulsion, only respect and 
admiration. How could that be?
	“Were you jealous, Dana?” Pendrell asked and he was 
confused to see both Mulder and Scully laugh out loud.
	“You bet I was,” Scully answered and Mulder snickered. They 
looked back at each other and smiled warmly.
	Skinner briefly frowned, but could not help a tiny smile break 
through his stern expression. These two were most definitely in love, 
all the signs were there. Not that he was going to do anything against 
it. No matter what would happen, these two would never be better off 
than together.
	“Did you deny this during the meeting?” Mulder asked 
Skinner. The latter shook his head.
	“What was to deny?” Skinner answered. “It was a well-
documented fact, backed up by the reports you yourself handed in. I 
did, however, contradict Krycek’s choice of words as he was lying 
blatantly.”
	Mulder nodded. Once again it was silent in the tiny office.
	“What are you going to do now, Sir?” Scully asked.
	Skinner folded his arms in front of him and looked at the floor. 
No one spoke, awaiting the Assistant-director’s reply. It didn’t come 
for quite a long time. Then the man looked up and at Mulder.
	“Agent Mulder, if I did what they would like me to do at this 
stage you’d be out of the Bureau by now. They prefer seeing the back 
of you.”
	“But?” Mulder said.
	Skinner took a deep breath. “I’m probably going to regret this, 
but ... I’m not the one who’d throw you out. I admit that on various 
occasions I have wanted to do just that, but ...” He let his eyes wander 
from Mulder to Scully to Pendrell. They were all silent, Pendrell 
standing by the file cabinet, alone, Mulder and Scully close together, 
hands interlocked, sitting on the edge of the desk. Then he saw Scully 
smile.
	“We mean too much to you, don’t we? You care too much 
about us.”
	Mulder looked at her in amazement. He admitted agreeing 
with her words, but to tell their boss that like that? The woman had 
guts! Skinner meanwhile seemed flustered.
	“Anyway,” the Assistant-director said, composing himself, “I 
know I won’t have much  of a choice but to agree with their final 
decision, but I will protect your work.”
	“We know that, Sir,” Scully said, “and we are very grateful to 
you for that.”
	Skinner regarded them seriously. Then he turned to Mulder. 
“Agent Mulder, I will do my best to protect you and your work, but 
maybe it would be a wise decision if you’d leave the X-Files for a 
while.”
	Mulder frowned. “Sir?”
	“You are tempting them, Agent Mulder, show them reason. 
They need but one mistake from you and they’ll have your ass before 
you can say ‘FBI’. And there would be nothing I could do about it. Is 
that what you want?”
	Mulder looked at Scully and then at their hands. Then he 
shook his head. “No Sir.”
	The man nodded grimly. “I’m glad to hear good sense prevail, 
Agent Mulder. I assure you that you’ll be back on the X-Files the 
moment it is safe to do so, but for now you’ll have to do other work, 
perhaps spend some time working for the BSU. Regard it as a way to 
show them your good intentions.”
	“Do you think they’ll fall for it, Sir?” Pendrell asked. He 
hadn’t said much during the past hour or so and all were surprised to 
hear him. Skinner looked at him.
	“I wish I knew, Agent Pendrell.”
	“What about Scully, Sir?” Mulder asked.
	Skinner didn’t answer for a long moment. Then he took a deep 
breath. “She can stay on the X-Files if she’d like to,” he answered. 
“Someone will have to, to prevent them from shutting the project 
down permanently.”
	Scully looked at Mulder. “You have no choice, Mulder, he is 
right,” she said softly. She felt really sorry for him, but at the same 
time knew only too well that their choices were limited. If they’d want 
to stand any chance at all at keeping the X-Files they’d have to play 
by their rules. It was inevitable, no matter how much they disliked the 
idea.
	“All right,” Mulder said, “so I suppose I’m back at background 
checks then?” He’d meant it to sound like a joke, but it refused to 
come out that way. Instead it sounded devoid of all hope. Skinner 
knew, however, how it was intended and he took no notice of the tone.
	“There are divisions where your qualities would be better 
suited, Agent Mulder, so I wouldn’t worry too much about that. Scully 
stays on the X-Files, although she’ll need a partner for that ...” He 
looked at Scully and then at Pendrell. “ ... maybe Agent Pendrell 
would like to become Agent Scully’s temporary partner on the X-
Files?”
	Pendrell turned all shades of red at the notion. “Oh no, Sir,” he 
stammered, “I mean, thank you very much, Sir, but ... I ... I can’t ... 
I’m not a Field Agent and ... the X-Files, Sir?”
	Scully smiled at the young man. “You’d do fine, Alan.”
	Mulder looked at them and sighed softly. He hated giving the 
X-Files away, but he realised Pendrell would probably do a good job 
in the time between his leaving the project and returning to it again. 
“I think Agent Pendrell would do well in this assignment, especially 
under Agent Scully’s supervision.”
	Pendrell seemed confused. “But don’t you think ... I have no 
Field Agent experience, I don’t want to mess this up, Agent Mulder,” 
he said.
	Mulder got to his feet and walked over to the young Agent.
	“Somehow, Agent Pendrell, I have a gut feeling that the idea of 
you messing up the work is among the least of my worries. Agent 
Scully won’t let you,” he smiled and Pendrell smiled weakly back.
	“All right,” he said timidly, “if you think so.”
	Skinner nodded. “Wise decision.” He turned to Scully. “Agent 
Scully, I probably won’t have to remind you of the necessity to act 
with utmost caution until you are all in the clear.” Scully nodded. 
She’d figured that out. Then Skinner turned to Mulder. “Well, Agent 
Mulder, I suppose that has been dealt with then. You’ll pass on your 
duties as supervising Agent of the X-Files project to Agent Scully who 
will in turn be assisted by Agent Pendrell. You yourself will report to 
my office first thing tomorrow morning for temporary reassignment.”
	Mulder nodded. He hated this, but knew he had no choice. 
“Yes, Sir.”
	Skinner gave a brief nod. “All right then,” he said. He took his 
coat and headed for the door when the phone rang. Mulder answered 
it.
	“Mulder”
	“Yes”
	“Yes, I’ll be over right away.”
	“Who was it?” Scully asked when he disconnected.
	“It was Byers,” Mulder answered. “Frohike got some great info 
off the Web, off the record stuff. There’s been a UFO-sighting in --...”
	“Agent Mulder!!!” Skinner barked furiously. A dead silence 
fell in the room, shot twice in the head and trampled on for good 
measure. Everyone looked at Mulder who felt like killing himself. 
Well, he was fairly certain that if he wasn’t going to do it himself, 
Scully or Skinner would be all too happy to do him the favour.
	“That’s it, Agent Mulder, you are on report!” Skinner said.
	“Way to go, Mulder,” Scully whispered. She meant it to sound 
like an accusation, but it didn’t come out that way. Mulder didn’t 
care, he knew he was toast.
	“I’ll arrange for the committee to assemble tomorrow,” 
Skinner said. “You’ve got an explanation to give, Agent Mulder!”

*~*~*~*


Part C
“Reynaert’s trial”

	“Agent Mulder, please be seated.”
	The office he entered was quite dark and the grim  importance 
of these men was hanging looming in the air. He sat down in the chair 
appointed to him and waited for the inevitable.
	"Agent Mulder, we understand you have been with the Bureau 
since 1988," the Bald Man said grimly.
	"That's correct, Sir," he answered.
	"And you have been assigned to the X-Files Project since 
1991?"
	"Yes, Sir."
	He cast a look around the room, the faces of the men assembled 
here reminding him of statues.
	"Agent Mulder, do you realise what you have been called here 
for?"
	Mulder nodded. "I do, Sir."
	The Bald Man gave him a brief nod. "Then please."
	Mulder looked at him. "Thank you, Sir."
	He rose from his chair and addressed the poker faces around 
him.

XxX

	Scully walked through the corridors and down to the basement. 
She was holding her breath for Mulder, silently hoping he'd go 
through the meeting well. She could not be entirely sure he'd succeed 
though and that was why she had contacted the Lone Gunmen: they 
would have copies of the X-Files Mulder and she had stored in their 
office in safe-keeping in case they would not be given enough time to 
rescue their work when the worst would come to the worst.
	The office was dark and silent but she hardly noticed it. She sat 
down at Mulder's desk and switched on the computer. He had changed 
his pass-word, but it took her no time at all to find out what the new 
one was. Then she opened her brief-case and took out the first few 
disks. Frohike had provided her with what must be at least a 10-year 
supply of computer disks and it was on occasions like these that she 
was most grateful for them. And storing X-Files on them at least put 
them to the better use. Maybe all these years with Mulder had made 
her overly paranoid, but she simply refused to take any chances.
	When the computer was all set and ready she took the first file 
from the cabinet and switched the scanner on. A few clicks later the 
scanner jumped into action.

XxX

	"Agent Scully and I have repeatedly gone beyond FBI-
mainstream business, a fact of which she and I are perfectly well 
aware. I do believe, however, that the very nature of the cases we 
investigate often demand methods and measures which I realise would 
be described as slightly unorthodox.”
	Mulder was silent for a moment, letting the words sink in in 
the hope they would have the effect he hoped for.
	“One of the main points in your defence is the solve-rate 
currently reached within your department, Agent Mulder,” the Bald 
Man said and Mulder nodded.
	“That is correct, Sir,” he answered. “From the moment Agent 
Scully was assigned to me as my partner on the X-Files, our rates 
have reached unprecedented heights.”
	“When Agent Scully joined you?”
	“Yes, Sir, I owe a great deal to her contributions to the 
investigations,” he answered in a steady voice. Credit given where 
credit was due.
	“Have you realised what consequences your actions, your 
deliberate steps out of line have had?” a grey-haired man asked.
	Mulder looked at him for a brief moment. “I do not think our 
actions have ever truly and significantly endangered situations we 
encountered, Sir.”
	“Are you sure?”
	“Could I ever be, Sir?”

XxX

	Scully was making good progress when she heard a person 
timidly knocking. She got up to open the door.
	“Alan?” She was surprised to see Pendrell stand in the 
doorway, his whole posture shy and uncertain as usual. “Is there 
anything I can help you with?”
	He shook his head. “I suppose not ...”
	“But what?”
	He smiled a little embarrassed. “Well, I know I was ordered to 
accompany Agent Brown and Mr Krycek, but ...”
	Scully smiled. “I understand completely,” she replied and let 
him in. “I’m saving the X-Files on disk.”
	Pendrell frowned. “Dana?”
	She sighed, walking over to the computer to check on the 
progress made. “Call me paranoid, but I don’t trust the Bureau to take 
adequate care of this once we lose the X-Files,” she said softly.
	Pendrell looked at her and then at the computer screen. “Are 
you serious?”
	“I’ve never been more serious in my life,” she answered.

XxX

	“Your actions frequently do not back up, or even so much as 
respect the FBI’s chain of command, Agent Mulder,” the Bald Man 
said.
	“No, Sir. It is my opinion, however, that on more than one 
occasion we have been thwarted or even betrayed by those people who 
claimed to act in our benefit. I am not in any position to give names 
right now, but among the men present here at this very moment are 
people whom I accuse of having put Agent Scully’s life and my own 
in immediate danger,” he answered, his voice calm and clear. The 
memories of the times when he had first-handedly experienced the 
heart-rending pain of finding his partner injured were gnawing, but 
he couldn’t show these emotions here. “Repeatedly,” he added and 
saw that his words had the desired effect.
	“You do realise, of course, what such words imply, Agent 
Mulder?” the Bald Man said grimly.
	Mulder nodded. “I do, Sir.”
	The man looked aside at his comrades in conspiracy and said a 
few words to the man beside him. Mulder couldn’t understand what it 
was he said, but he did have a fair idea what it was about. Then the 
Bald Man turned back to Mulder.
	“I see,” he said slowly. “Well, if no one has a contribution to 
make to this review I would like to end the meeting so that we can 
convene and decide on the appropriate actions which need to be 
undertaken.”
	“I do have one more thing I would like to address, Sir,” Mulder 
said and the men looked at him. “If you don’t mind.”

XxX

	“Dana?”
	Scully looked up from her work. She and Pendrell had already 
saved over half of the files of which Mulder or she didn’t keep back-
up copies at home and unless something happened which would 
interrupt them, she expected to have the job done with by tomorrow 
night.
	“Yes, Alan?”
	“This may come as a silly question, but considering the fact 
that you and I are to keep supervision over the X-Files for the time 
being, why the urge to store all this? I mean, it is always a wise idea to 
keep back-ups, but ... why the rush? Are the X-Files in danger?”
	Scully looked at the latest file -- the untimely demise of Clyde 
Bruckman -- and sighed involuntarily. “I don’t know, Alan, I truly 
don’t know. It’s just that I have this hunch and ...”
	Pendrell nodded. “I understand.”

XxX

	“Agent Brown? Are you sure?”
	Mulder nodded. “Absolutely, Sir, because even though I must 
admit I was not present when he first approached her, I was there 
when he was about to -- ...” He took a deep breath. The idea of 
someone doing this to her was still an insult to his soul. “... when he 
was about to rape her. I was on my way down to the office when she 
must have heard me coming upon which she called out for me.”
	A younger man on his left chuckled. “Don’t you think she 
could’ve faked it, Mulder? That she was overreacting?”
	Mulder shot the man a look of hell and death. “Special Agent 
Dana Scully does not call for help unless she is absolutely certain she 
can no longer handle the situation herself,” he said with a steady 
voice, but he was fairly sure the men could hear the trembling 
undertones.
	The man looked at his comrades, but they granted him nothing 
but disapproving looks and Mulder could have sworn he saw the man 
lose inches in height in an instant.
	The Bald Man cleared his throat and all turned their attention 
to him. “Well, if this is true, then you can expect Agent Brown to be 
duly reprimanded for these highly inappropriate actions. Personal 
issues cannot be tolerated when on duty.”
	Mulder nodded, even though he realised that their weak 
position within the FBI was certainly going to reflect in Tony Brown’s 
reprimand. He’d probably even avoid a censure ... Well, whatever the 
official ‘punishment’, he’d better not run into either himself or Scully 
or he’d personally take the honour to wring the life from the man’s 
body.
	Silence fell in the office and Mulder began to experience a 
highly unfamiliar feeling: he was getting nervous. And he never ever 
got nervous, it simply shouldn’t be happening to him. But it was and 
he didn’t like it.
	“Agent Mulder,” the Bald Man said and Mulder snapped back 
to reality. “We understand why you failed to appear now that you have 
explained the gross misconduct of Agent Brown, but that was by no 
means the last or only warning you received. Agent Pendrell was also 
requested to summon you to appear in front of this committee. You 
have, however, failed to do so. Care to shed some light as to the 
reasons for that?”
	“Agent Pendrell talked to Agent Scully and myself regarding 
this matter and -- ...
	“Excuse me,” a man interrupted him. “What does Agent Scully 
have to do with this?”
	Mulder looked at him. “Excuse me, Sir, but anything that 
comes to me, applies to Agent Scully and vice versa.” The man looked 
away and Mulder continued. “All right, Agent Pendrell talked about 
the summons with Agent Scully and myself and about the case we are 
involved in. And I was under the impression that he reported back to 
you with his findings and opinions.”

XxX

	“Agent Scully?”
	Scully and Pendrell looked up from one of the case-files. 
Skinner was standing in the doorway.
	“Yes, Sir?” Scully said, getting up from her chair.
	“We are to go to the hearing, Agent Scully. Our presence is 
requested.”
	She nodded and took her jacket from the back of Mulder’s 
chair.
	“Good luck, Dana,” Pendrell said and she smiled. Skinner 
merely raised his eyebrows.

XxX

	“Agent Mulder, we think the case is clear now,” the Bald Man 
said.
	Mulder looked at him. He knew he’d lost this time. Even 
though the odds had been slightly in his favour up to the point where 
Pendrell’s contribution had been discussed, from then on it had gone 
strictly and steeply down-hill. The people behind his downfall had 
constructed a case more watertight than a mermaid brassiere and he’d 
been alerted soon enough that he was fighting a lost case.
	“After reviewing the proceedings of today’s meeting and 
taking into consideration the results of the meeting we had three days 
ago, it is the opinion of this committee that you will be placed on 
immediate suspension of duties without pay until the matter 
concerning the X-Files project has been investigated to everyone’s 
satisfaction. Due to the nature of the investigation you will be 
requested to remain available to the investigating bodies and assist 
them whenever they require your assistance. Do you have anything to 
say?”
	Mulder shook his head, his jaws set in anger. He was appalled 
by the way the hearing had proceeded, but had had no means of doing 
anything about it. For now he would have to endure it and hope for 
the best. But at least Scully was still on the X-Files, that was just 
about the only speck of light in this utterly dark situation. But what 
did they mean by investigating the X-Files? Hadn’t they agreed that 
Scully and Pendrell would remain on the X-Files, keeping them open 
and running?
	The door was opened and Scully and Skinner entered the 
room.
	“Assistant-Director Skinner, Agent Scully, please have a seat,” 
the Bald Man said.
	Scully sat down next to Mulder. ‘Lost case?’ her eyes asked 
and he nodded. He knew she knew.
	“Agent Scully, you have been asked to come to this meeting as 
the following matter applies to you as well and we cannot risk a 
misunderstanding.”
	Scully nodded. “I understand, Sir.”
	“All right,” the Bald Man said. “It is the decision of this 
committee, due to the nature of Agent Mulder’s handling of the cases 
as dealt with in the X-Files and considering the testimonies given by 
people at earlier hearings, that you, Agent Mulder, will be sent on 
leave without pay, the duration of which will be determined by the 
people we have selected to investigate the validity of the X-files 
project and by the extent of your co-operation in this investigation. 
During this investigation the X-Files project will be closed until the 
investigating body deems it wise to re-open them. Agent Scully will be 
assigned to other divisions where her qualities and skills will be much 
welcomed and appreciated. Do you have any questions?”
	“I do, Sir,” Scully said, who had been highly surprised to hear 
that the X-Files were to be closed. “Only yesterday we were told that 
Agent Mulder was to be reassigned, not sent on leave, and that I 
would stay on the X-Files.”
	“That is true. However, it is the committee’s decision that any 
investigation into your work would be hindered if the project was 
active.”
	“Excuse me, Sir,” Scully said, angered by his words. “I do not 
think that it would be a wise decision to close the X-Files in a 
situation like this one and would very much like to remain.”
	“That will not be tolerated,” the Bald Man said severely. “And 
if we should receive any indication that you are indeed continuing on 
any of the cases currently included in the X-Files, you will be severely 
reprimanded. Is that clear?”
	Scully took a deep breath. “Perfectly clear, Sir,” she answered 
icily. She felt Mulder’s hand creep in hers and she looked at him. 
‘We’ll beat this’, his eyes told her and she nodded slightly.
	“Agent Mulder, you will be expected to appear before an 
official FBI committee tomorrow afternoon for your defence. You will 
be escorted down to your office by Agents Pendrell and Brown and by 
Mr Krycek and you are to remain there until further notice. Agent 
Scully, you will join the Assistant-Directors to discuss the 
investigation into the X-Files and your temporary re-assignment.”
	Scully looked at her hands and sighed imperceptibly. Mulder 
looked at her and then at the Bald Man.
	“With all due respect, Sir, but ... why are you alive?”

XxXxX

	It was just a bit too hard that Mulder hit the button for the 
elevator. From the corner of his eye he saw Pendrell start and Brown 
grin. Krycek never moved a muscle.
	“Do we really -- ...” Pendrell began, but Krycek cut him off.
	“Shut up, mouse,” he spat and Pendrell cowered. Brown 
grinned even more and Mulder felt like slapping it off of him. He 
hated Tony Brown with every fibre of his being, had done so since the 
moment he’d found him about to molest Scully.
	“The bowels of the Hoover Building,” Brown sneered when 
they arrived in the basement. “Sure suits ya, Agent Mulder!”
	Mulder swallowed his reply, the man wasn’t worth spending 
any energy on. Right now he was more concerned with saving his own 
ass and no matter what Brown said or did, the man couldn’t 
effectively endanger his position. Brown wasn’t influential enough, 
merely wished he were.
	Mulder led the way, followed by the three men. Brown and 
Krycek were talking, but Pendrell was silent and Mulder felt mildly 
sorry for him, knowing that Krycek’s biting remark had seriously 
dented the man’s fragile confidence.
	“Do you think it up to your dignity to actually inform me of 
what you are supposed to do here?” Mulder asked as he unlocked the 
notorious basement office. Nothing appeared to have changed, but he 
knew all too well that if two of these three men had their way this 
would be the last time he was to set foot in it ever again.
	“Sit down, Agent Mulder,” Brown said, “and don’t expect to 
leave this place within the next few hours.”

XxX

	“Sir, can I have a moment of your time?”
	Skinner looked up from his work to see Scully stand in the 
doorway. She looked pale and tired. He closed the file he’d been 
studying and placed it on a small pile to his right.
	“What is it, Agent Scully?”
	She came into the office, but when he offered her a seat she 
declined.
	“What is going to happen to the X-Files, Sir?”
	He didn’t answer right away, but got up from his chair and 
approached her.
	“I wish I knew, Scully,” he answered. “Mulder and you may 
very well lose the X-Files if the final hearing tomorrow turns out 
bad.”
	Scully looked at him and it struck him how devastated her 
expression was. But it hadn’t been brought on by his words, he 
realised, it had been there ever since she came into his office.
	She sighed. “What will happen to Mulder and myself if we 
lose?”
	Skinner turned away and gazed outside at the busy streets 
around the building. “I’d tell you if I knew, Scully. A reassignment 
would be the obvious conclusion, but as far as the X-Files are 
concerned I do not know. And that’s all I can say about it,” he added, 
turning towards her.
	Scully opened her mouth to reply, but changed her mind. The 
man didn’t know any more than she or Mulder did -- something 
which shouldn’t have been a surprise as his position regarding this 
matter was currently probably nearly as precarious as their own.
	“Do you know where Mulder is, Sir?” she asked tiredly.
	“He was to be taken down to your office.”
	She smiled a tired little smile. “Thank you, Sir.”
	“Scully,” Skinner said when she’d reached the door. She 
turned around to look at him.
	“Sir?”
	“Take care of yourself, Scully. Don’t let them get to you.”
	She nodded. “Thank you, Sir.”

XxX

	Mulder was sitting alone in his office. Pendrell had been first 
to leave, he’d probably got sick of the other two men who’d kept 
shoving him under the carpet verbally for as long as they’d been in 
the office. Mulder couldn’t blame him. Brown had left soon 
afterwards when Krycek had gotten bored with the man and Brown 
himself had little to contribute.
	Krycek had been hardest to get rid of. Not that there was much 
to discuss between them, but Mulder suspected the man wasn’t very 
keen on leaving him to his own devises.
	In the end, though, Krycek had left, assuring him that he’d 
make sure Mulder wouldn’t get it into his head to leave the office.
	That was about twenty minutes ago.
	Mulder sighed. The office was silent and he had nothing to do. 
No use starting on a new X-File when there was so little chance he’d 
actually be here anytime soon. Or even at all.
	He got to his feet and sauntered around the dark office, 
studying the crime pictures on the notice board, the folders stuffed this 
way and that in the cabinets, the yellowed newspaper clippings which 
had become crispy and fragile over time.
	His whole life was here and he feared the moment he’d have to 
close the door to his office for the last time. Because he knew that if 
he lost the X-Files tomorrow he’d never get them back again. Not now 
when the decision to shut them down was coming from so high down.
	He looked up when he heard the delicate knocks on the door. It 
was clearly a woman knocking, even though he couldn’t imagine who 
it could be. Scully didn’t knock and very few others ever ventured 
here.
	He went to open the door -- and got the shock of his life.
	“Good afternoon, Agent Mulder. What a pleasant surprise,” 
the woman smiled, but he couldn’t bring out a word in reply. The 
woman raised a finely sculptured eyebrow and cast him a fine smile 
and a look full of confidence. When she didn’t get a reaction, her 
smile faded slightly.
	“Why, Agent Mulder,” she commented, “have you lost your 
tongue?”
	Mulder cleared his throat and walked up to her. “Actually, no,” 
he answered, looking the woman straight in the eye. By now he’d 
gotten over the initial shock and was back to his composed self. “Even 
though it but rarely happens that history takes revenge upon a person 
more than once per lifetime.”
	The woman smiled and gave him a searing once-over. She 
reached out for him, but he backed away. A pout was his reward.
	“Why, Agent Mulder, you wouldn’t greet an old acquaintance 
with so much coldness, now would you?” She smiled seductively. 
“And there used to be so much warmth between us ...”
	Mulder sighed and closed his eyes briefly. With all the trouble 
he was in already, this woman just had to come barging in to add her 
part of hell. Just his luck.
	“Please, Inspector Green,” he sighed, purposely avoiding her 
first name to create the necessary distance. Unfortunately she wasn’t 
buying any of it. “What are you doing here?”
	She walked up to him again and stood before him, too close for 
friendship, too close for him anyway. She touched her right forefinger 
to his jaw and let it whisper over it. He noticed the blood red 
fingernail which had been manicured to perfection. He felt his body 
jump in reaction to her touch and cursed himself. For Pete’s sake, he 
needed control!
	He angrily snatched her hand away from his face.
	“Fox?” the woman said and she sounded hurt. He knew from 
experience that tears weren’t far away now and he hated her for her 
easy tears. Every single woman he’d ever been involved with had 
realised the power of their tears on him and had used that power 
profusely. Every single woman except Scully. Scully had never used 
her tears -- and had gotten under his skin quicker than any other 
woman. She had never needed such drastic and dramatic measures to 
win him.
	He stalked away to the other side of the office, away from her 
and her seductive moves.
	“Jesus, Phoebe,” he groaned, “I’m in the middle of the biggest 
shit of my life and you come bouncing in like old times! What on 
earth are you doing here?”
	“I was requested to come down here,” she answered and for a 
fleeting moment the sexual tension was gone. “A Mr Alex Krycek had 
told me to come to Washington.”
	“Krycek?” Mulder said, looking at her in disbelief. Then he 
starting laughing. “Alex Krycek asked you to come over? No 
wonder!”
	Phoebe frowned and Mulder walked up to her, purposely 
invading her personal space. She did the expected step back. He 
grabbed her wrists. “My dear Inspector Green,” he sneered, “do I 
really need to teach you a lesson on personality? Your precious Mr 
Alex Krycek has a conscience that comes straight from the deepest 
parts of hell and his promises or words have as much significance as a 
fart from the devil. They mean in fact precisely shit!” And with these 
words he pushed her away.
	Phoebe had recovered from her confusion by this time.
	“Too bad,” she said in a sultry voice, “because he sure was 
gorgeous.” She shot Mulder a look of smouldering desire. “Not that 
he’s the only one around here ...”
	She walked up to him, invading his personal space. The 
pheromones were crashing through the air, suffocating him. She let 
her body touch his from knee to waist and placed her hands on his 
chest. They burnt like fire, hot and uncomfortable. One of them then 
crept up to cup the back of his neck and her fingernails briefly 
threatened to puncture his skin there.
	Seeing her so close he noticed she had dyed her hair to blue-
black, making her skin even paler than before. The perfect snow-
white type of woman. Her lipstick was the same blood red as her 
fingernails and involuntarily she reminded him of a vampire. Cold, 
lifeless but passionate. Merciless.
	Her eyes were like molten lava, threatening to consume him. 
They frightened him, she frightened him. He’d never known she could 
be like this, couldn’t remember she’d ever been this dangerous back in 
Oxford, but since then he’d grown and matured. Experienced things 
that had taught him well.
	He’d learned about love. True love.
	She looked at him with half-mast eyes, her body still rubbing 
against his.
	“Fox ...” she whispered.
	He looked at her coldly.
	“Mulder,” he corrected her, but she just smiled, bringing her 
lips closer to his. He found his body betraying him and he sighed in 
frustration.
	“Whatever you like, honey ...” she breathed and he frowned. 
Shit shit shit ... Here he was, desperately needing to keep a clear head 
and his hormones had decided that he did fine with that at other 
times.
	He was so focused on trying to keep Phoebe away from him 
that he entirely failed to notice the door to the office opening.
	“Mulder, I -- ...”
	His head snapped up to see Dana Scully in the doorway, her 
expression changing from shocked to deeply-hurt to white-hot furious 
in a matter of moments.
	“I’m sorry, Agent Mulder,” she said coldly, seeing her partner 
apparently about to go horizontal with another woman. “I can see 
you’re busy.” And with that she closed the door and disappeared into 
the corridor.
	Suddenly blazingly furious Mulder shoved Phoebe away and 
she fell backwards into one of the chairs. She looked at him, baffled.
	His anger prevented him from speaking for a moment, but 
when he found he could speak he forced one word out. “Bitch!” he 
spat and he had to forcibly keep himself from showing her every 
corner of the office head-first. Instead he left her to herself, ran out of 
the office and went to look for Scully.

XxX

	“Agent Scully, what’s going on?”
	Scully literally ran into A.D. Skinner, oblivious to everybody 
else in her haste to leave the building.
	“Oh!” She backed away and quickly composed herself “I 
apologise, Sir, I hadn’t noticed you.”
	Skinner smiled. “So I gathered. What’s wrong?”
	“Nothing,” Scully said, taking a deep breath and pushing past 
the Assistant-Director. “Nothing at all.”
	The man watched her walk quickly down the corridor and 
shook his head in confusion as she went through the double doors at 
the end and disappeared. He hadn’t moved more than three steps 
when he was stopped by Mulder.
	“Excuse me, Sir?”
	“What is it, Agent Mulder?”
	“Have you seen Agent Scully?”
	Skinner nodded. “She just went down this corridor.”
	“Good,” Mulder answered, in turn walking past Skinner.
	“Mulder!” Skinner said and Mulder turned to look at him. 
“Care to explain what’s going on here?”
	“Later, Sir,” he answered, making his way through the crowd 
that had filled the corridor. “Much later.”

XxX

	Mulder reached the parking lot just in time to see his partner 
drive off. He ran to his own car, letting loose a string of curses that 
would make a sailor green with envy.
	His anger at Phoebe didn’t make him the most cautious of 
drivers, but he couldn’t be bothered.
	“One day I’m going to kill her,” he said through clenched 
teeth, flooring the car. The engine roared and the car raced through 
the dense late afternoon traffic. He couldn’t spot his partner’s car, but 
he didn’t need to, knowing instinctively she was heading for home.
	In his head he was thinking up scenarios that would explain to 
Scully what had happened and by the time he’d reached her street he 
was confident he could do it -- only to lose all courage when he 
parked his car in front of her apartment building. He noticed her car 
two spaces to the left, indicating she was indeed home.
	This was it. There was no turning back now. He was going to 
have to face her and explain. One way or another. He had to, if he 
ever wanted them to be able to work together again.

XxX

	Scully watched his car swerve around the corner just as she 
went to close the blinds. She didn’t know whether or not she was 
surprised to see him show up. She decided she probably wasn’t, even 
when it didn’t diminish her anger.
	She watched him sit in his car for a few minutes, obviously 
uncertain whether he’d have the guts to come up to see her. It made 
the anger she already felt mix with a feeling of affection. But then she 
decided that it was too confusing and she shut the blinds decidedly. If 
he was going to come up she might listen to him and if he was going 
away, well, it would be even better ...
	Or so she rationalised the myriad of feeling she felt inside of 
her. Part of her wanted to kick him out of her life forever for the way 
he had so blatantly cheated on her with that bitch from London, but 
another part of her, a softer and more forgiving part, was sad and 
wanted to know what had caused this and why. But for now anger was 
the easier option.
	She grabbed a book from the coffee table and opened it at a 
random page. She had no idea what it said, she didn’t even know 
which book it was, but it didn’t matter. Anything. Anything would do 
to distract her from the ruins of her personal life.
	Suddenly a drop of water trickled down the page and angrily 
she wiped it away. And she was just about to look up and check for a 
leak in the ceiling when she realised it was coming from her own 
eyes. And it was by no means the only tear.
	Giving in to the emotion she leaned back against the cushions 
of the sofa and, pulling her feet under her, she cried for the injustice 
of her life.
	She hadn’t cried over the loss of a lover in a long long time, 
she thought, and was stunned at the notion that Mulder could possibly 
be described as her lover. She could imagine that to many people they 
certainly appeared that way -- at least had done so until now. Right 
now, whatever it was there had ever been between them, it was all 
over now.
	Goddamn it, Mulder, how could you?!

XxX

	His watch told him it had been less than ten minutes but to 
Mulder it had felt more like ten hours before he had finally scraped 
enough courage from the drain it had gone down and was ready to 
face his partner. It was no use putting the conversation off, he’d have 
to face one time or another and he wanted it to have it over with. After 
all, what could she do? If she kicked him out of her home and her life 
then that was exactly what he deserved anyway. Of course she was 
armed. She might opt for shooting him ... Well, he probably deserved 
that, too. And it would definitely solve the issue of having to find a 
way to live without her. 
	Death somehow lost its sting in situations like these ...
	He got out of the car and slipped into his jacket to conceal his 
gun. Walking into the apartment building, he noticed that time 
seemed to stretch all movements into agonising slow-motion. He’d 
never felt this way before, never felt this strongly about putting things 
right with a woman. But then he’d never felt this strongly about a 
woman before. This was not just another nameless faceless 
meaningless date, this woman was the other half of his life.
	Without even noticing how he got there at all he suddenly 
found himself at her front door. Taking a deep breath he raised his 
hand and knocked. 
	God have mercy on this poor unfortunate sinner ...

XxX

	The knocks startled her briefly. Then she sighed and wiped the 
tears from her eyes. So what if he’d see she had cried, it would only 
serve to make him even more miserable than she knew he was already 
feeling and that thought didn’t scare her at all.
	She opened the door and looked at him. He looked back at her 
and for a long time neither of them spoke. She didn’t invite him in, he 
didn’t make a move to ask her to let him in.
	He was still dressed for work, she noticed, he’d come straight 
from work to her place.
	“I’d advise you to make your explanation phenomenally good,” 
she said coolly.
	He just looked at her, unable to answer her.
	“Not good enough,” she replied and closed the door, but he 
stopped her from closing it altogether.
	“Scully, stop!”
	She opened the door again. “Why?”
	He shook his head. “Scully, no explanation would do right 
now,” he said softly, “not to make you not slam the door in my face.” 
He looked at the floor, removing his hand from the door now that he 
felt she wasn’t going to shut him out. “Not that I would blame you 
though.”
	She watched him and sighed deeply, suddenly unable to 
continue the confrontation.
	“Come in, Mulder,” she sighed, walking away from the door 
and back to the couch. A few tissues were tellingly scattered across the 
coffee table but she took no action to remove them. She sank down 
onto the couch and momentarily closed her eyes. She was suddenly so 
tired. Just tired and sad. So so sad ...
	Mulder sat down in one of the chairs, a safe distance away 
from her. He knew she couldn’t strike him from where she was 
although that cup would probably still make for a mighty missile. So 
what? He deserved a firing squad, who cared about a tea cup?
	She sighed again and he felt his heart swell for her.
	“I feel like I’ve been dumped,” she said softly. “Cheated on by 
you.” She shook her head. “Has been a long time since I last felt that 
way. I thought I’d grown more mature, more capable of figuring out 
who to connect to ...”
	Silence fell thick and uncomfortable. Mulder didn’t dare to say 
anything at this stage, he still didn’t quite feel safe enough.
	Scully reached out and took the cup of tea. She made a face 
when she realised it had gone cold and tepid and with a sigh she 
placed it back onto its saucer. Then she looked at him and something 
inside her was touched by his remorseful appearance.
	“Mulder,” she only said, making him look up at her.
	She looked so fragile, he thought, so goddamn fragile. So 
intensely, utterly hurt and devastated.
	“I can explain,” he began, noticing that it hardly came out 
right, but continuing anyway in the hope it would get better.
	“Can you?” she replied. He bowed his head, shaking no.
	Silence fell again and she watched him through tear-filled eyes 
as he sat only a few feet away, his forearms leaning on his thighs, his 
eyes fixed on a certain spot about ten inches away from him.
	Another sigh later she decided that it would probably be best if 
she just let him tell his part of the story. She could always decide not 
to believe him.
	“What happened, Mulder?” she asked softly, closing her eyes. 
“Just tell me what happened.”
	Mulder looked up and at her, struck by how tiny she looked at 
this moment. He took at deep breath and began his narrative.
	“You remember that Krycek, Brown and Pendrell took me 
down to the office?” he began and saw her nod briefly. Taking 
courage from that he continued.
	He proceeded to tell her what had happened during that 
afternoon, the things that had been said and done while the men were 
still in the office, how Pendrell had been first to leave, soon followed 
by Brown and how Krycek, upon leaving as well, had assured him he 
wouldn’t get it into his head to leave the room. Then he told her about 
Phoebe and how she had tried to seduce him. He didn’t spare himself 
as he told her everything in as much detail as he would an 
investigation. There was no need to be merciful upon himself, he 
didn’t deserve mercy.
	“I felt like killing her,” he concluded. “I might have done so if 
I hadn’t been so shocked ...”
	Scully didn’t comment right away, but sighed as she looked at 
him. She saw tears. She could’ve sworn she’d heard them in his voice, 
but she hadn’t wanted to know.
	“I won’t blame you if you kick me out, Scully,” he said softly, 
bracing himself. “I understand if you decide you don’t want to work 
with me anymore, or even if you don’t want to see me again, but this 
is how it happened, I swear to God.”
	Scully sighed again. “I’m ... I’m not going to kick you out, 
Mulder,” she said softly, closing her eyes and frowning. “I can’t. I 
know I might regret this in the end, but I don’t want to lose you.”
	Mulder felt as though the Grim Reaper had suddenly decided 
to go on a last-minute trip to the Bahamas.
	“I need you and ...” She chuckled watery. “I believe you.” She 
shook her head in seeming disbelief at her own thoughts. “Can you 
understand it? I believe you and I could even forgive you.”
	He got up from the chair and crossed the small distance 
between them, kneeling before her and looking up at her. “You don’t 
have to forgive me, Scully, I’m not asking for your forgiveness. All I 
want from you is that you believe me and perhaps give me another 
chance.”
	She smiled at him. He still seemed so scared she was going to 
change her mind and still kick him out of her house and out of her 
life.
	“I do,” she smiled, taking his hand in hers. “I am going to give 
you another chance.”
	Suddenly feeling overwhelmed by these words Mulder closed 
his eyes, sending up a series of thanks to everyone up there for letting 
him meet this unbelievable woman. He opened his mouth but for a 
long time nothing came out.
	“I ...” he finally began, but couldn’t continue, instead taking in 
big gulps of air to keep from crying. “Goddammit, Scully ...”
	She changed her position so that she was lying on the couch, 
her face right next to his. She stroked her hand through his hair.
	“Mulder? Will you look at me?”
	It took a while but then he did look at her. He clasped her hand 
and kissed the palm, needing the touch and the connection in the hope 
it would somehow repair the too recently frayed edges of their 
relationship.
	“Is this the point where the conditions are stated?” he 
whispered, not nearly succeeding in making it sound like a joke. She 
shook her head.
	“There will be no conditions, Mulder, we’re both smart, 
sensible adults, we can discuss this without conditions.”
	“I won’t do this again, Scully, you have my word,” he said, 
looking at her and pleading with her to believe him. She nodded.
	“I know,” she whispered. “I believe you.” She moved a little 
closer to him.
	“What?”
	She threaded her fingers through his. “I think that seeing you 
in the office with Phoebe should not have hurt me as much as it 
actually did. It made me think. And I know that ... I believe you 
because ...” She took a deep breath, “although I know I never 
deliberately showed you, ... I love you, Mulder and I have done so for 
a long long time. That’s why I believe you and that’s why I can 
forgive you.”
	Scully could have sworn she saw something shatter inside him 
and she smiled.
	“Oh, Jesus, Scully ...” he stammered. His hand came up to cup 
her chin, his touch just whispering over her skin. “I love you, too,” 
Mulder whispered, and he sounded stunned, awed in fact. “God, I love 
you ...”
	Scully smiled widely and drew his head closer to hers, bridging 
the gap between his mouth and hers. It was by no means a passionate 
kiss, but it was tender, admiring, stunned and above all just down-
right perfect.
	“I’m dreaming, right?” he said when they looked at one 
another.
	She smiled. “If you are then I must be dreaming as well,” she 
answered, placing a cool light finger over his lips. “Don’t wake me 
up, I don’t think I could stand the disappointment.”
	Mulder smiled widely in return, weaving his fingers through 
hers. “Enlighten me, Scully, you’re obviously more experienced than I 
am: what’s a guy to do now that he has discovered that the woman of 
his dreams seems to be just as mad about him as he is about her?”
	To his utter delight Scully began to laugh, a sound which until 
mere seconds ago he hadn’t even thought of ever hearing again, let 
alone hope. “Do I buy you something, Scully? Do I have to do 
something? What would you like from me? Just tell me what you need 
and I’ll do it.”
	Her smile vanished as she looked at him. “I would like you to 
stay with me tonight,” she answered. “I need you close for now.”
	Mulder hesitated. “But I ... I can’t spend the night here, Scully, 
I ...”
	Scully smiled. “You don’t need to spend the night here if you 
don’t feel like it. But this is my wish.”
	“But I don’t want to take advantage of you. Not after all that’s 
happened ...”
	She shook her head. “We don’t have to rush things. We don’t 
have to do anything. Just stay with me and hold me for a few more 
hours.” She made him sit on the couch beside her with his arms 
around her. “I think we need some time to reconnect.”
	He nodded. She was right. After this highly emotional evening 
it was time for quietness, time to find one another again.
	She turned a bit, resting her hand on his chest and her head 
snuggled cosily under his chin. Then she sighed.
	“Do you think Phoebe knew what was going on?”
	Mulder thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. “I 
doubt it. She didn’t know who Krycek was and I think it hardly likely 
she knows the first thing about the situation we’re currently in. She 
was just hired as way to tempt me into giving up the fight.”
	Scully nodded. “Mm-mm, I think so, too.”
	They were silent again. For no reason at all Mulder caught 
sight of her feet, encased in shimmering sheer stockings and he 
marvelled at their small size. Everything about her seemed so tiny, her 
hands, her feet, but put these things together and she was a force to be 
reckoned with.
	“What are you smiling at, Mulder?”
	“Your feet.”
	She looked at her feet. “Okay, so you are ...” she said slowly. 
“Why on earth are you looking at my feet?”
	“Don’t know. They’re so small,” he answered.
	She sighed. “I know, I wish I was a bit taller though, 
everything about me is small.”
	“Except your heart,” he said softly.
	“Mul-der ...”
	“You have a big heart,” he continued, “a big, soft, loving heart. 
You’d need to in order to put up with my shit.”
	Scully didn’t really know what to answer to that. It wasn’t like 
him to go sappy like that. And yet it didn’t sound sappy at all ...
	“But your feet are tiny,” he smiled. “Not that there’s anything 
wrong with that.” And he ran his hand over her calf and down to her 
foot. He was mesmerised by the fact that her entire foot seemed to fit 
in his hand.
	He ran his hand over the finely-arched instep and let his 
forefinger trail over the sensitive flesh under her foot. She couldn’t 
help the little yipe that escaped her as she drew her foot from his 
hand. Mulder grinned and made a dive for her other foot, holding it 
more securely so she couldn’t escape him.
	Softly he began to massage the underside and the ball of her 
foot, then her toes, one by one, gently and earnestly, noticing how her 
breath became quicker and more superficial. It fascinated him. He 
continued his gentle war on her nerves and when he found a 
particularly sensitive spot Scully couldn’t help the soft satisfied moan 
that slipped over her lips.
	“Don’t tell me I’m turning you on,” Mulder said, seeing Scully 
bite her lip to keep from moaning any more, although she did nod, 
knowing that denying it was utterly useless. Mulder in turn merely 
swallowed, baffled by this discovery.
	She couldn’t believe it. Her feet, or rather the underside of her 
feet, had always been sensitive, a very real g-spot, but previous lovers 
had never bothered to find that out and she had never bothered to tell 
them. It hadn’t been important. But she should have known that 
Mulder would know such things by instinct -- and somehow she had 
known that he knew, too.
	She turned in his arms, wrapped her arms around his neck and 
kissed him hard. His hands landed on her sides, eager to wander but 
wisely staying there for now. Mulder knew his hormones would 
probably try to issue a veto, but he had to be sensibly careful. Not that 
he feared she’d throw him out after all, but he needed her to tell him 
she wanted this just as badly as he did.
	Scully meanwhile found that her head was quickly getting 
overtaken by her overly eager body. And she did want him to get on 
with it, to forget about his endearing but oh-so frustrating carefulness 
and just make work of it, but she knew she’d have to give him 
permission to do it. He’d never do it otherwise.
	But could she give him permission tonight? Was she really 
ready for this? Their lives were so intricately connected that 
everything they did had so many consequences and she couldn’t risk it 
all for a hot night, as much as she wanted it after six years with him.
	She looked at him and knew her answer. There was still 
uncertainty between them, the scene in the office was still too fresh in 
their memories, and even when she could accept his presence and his 
love, she couldn’t ...
	“Scully, I don’t want to rush this,” Mulder whispered and 
Scully smiled in agreement.
	“I know. It’ll have to wait ...”
	For minutes they were silent as they sat together and then 
Mulder looked at his watch.
	“What?”
	“I should be going,” he answered, kissing her briefly. “We’ve 
got a hearing to attend tomorrow.”
	She nodded. “You’re right.” But when he began to loosen the 
embrace she made up her mind. “Wait, don’t go.”
	He looked at her in confusion. “But I ... we just agreed ...”
	Scully smiled. “Mulder, I’ll let you go home if you’d rather do 
that, but you don’t have to go. I’d love you to stay here for the night. 
We don’t have to do anything we don’t feel like doing, but you don’t 
have to go home tonight.”

XxX

	Probably the first thing Mulder noticed the following morning 
was that this was most definitely not his couch he was sleeping on, 
nor was it Scully’s. And he did remember very well starting the night 
on her couch, not daring to tempt fate by spending the night in bed 
with his partner. But fate had proven to be very easily tempted on this 
occasion, and he’d soon found himself in an unfamiliar, but infinitely 
better resting place than the couch. And the sensation of holding Dana 
Scully cosily wrapped in his arms did add its own part to his feeling of 
contentedness.
	The fact that he was wearing a tee shirt and boxershorts to bed 
and that she was wearing her pyjamas and that nothing was likely to 
change about that, didn’t spoil much of the magic.
	He turned his head to look at her, still deep in sleep. Her left 
arm lay across his chest and her face was resting against his left 
shoulder. Smiling, he tentatively reached out to caress her face, 
catching himself at needing an excuse to touch her, that it was under 
the pretence of stroking her hair away from her face.
	He frowned briefly. Maybe they would always need a reason for 
being even the remotest bit intimate, a reason for having the right to 
touch each other. And maybe he’d just gotten sick of that. Maybe he 
just wanted to be able to touch her because he ... well, desired to do so, 
because his whole body and mind yearned to touch her. Because, if 
you looked beyond her professionalism she was actually very 
touchable and very invitingly so, too. If she let you, you’d find you 
couldn’t stop touching her at all.
	He couldn’t. He’d always felt the need to touch her, the hand 
resting on the small of her back the most innocent proof of his need 
for contact. She let him, amazingly enough. But then again 
‘Amazing’ was her middle name. She was amazing with a capital A. 
She was amazing at everything she was and did.
	But most amazing was she in her powers of forgiveness. For 
instance the fact that she had forgiven him yesterday’s catastrophe. 
For that’s what it had been. A total and utter disaster. Sure, he had 
never invited Phoebe’s seduction, nor had Scully given him any 
opportunity to explain what was going on, but ...
	Theirs wouldn’t have been the first relationship to end over a 
matter like this, and he couldn’t risk losing her. She was too much of 
a miracle.
	“Don’t cry,” she whispered and it was only at her words that 
he noticed she was awake and watching him. And it was only then 
that he noticed the tears on his face.
	“Sorry,” he answered with a smile, which she readily returned.
	“‘s Okay,” she murmured. “Just don’t cry. Everything is okay 
now ...”
	He nodded. “Yes, it is.”
	Mulder gently drew her closer, making her lie on top of him.
	“Mulder, what’s the time?”
	He looked at the alarm clock. “Quarter to seven.”
	“When’s the hearing?”
	“At eleven.”
	“Mmm.”
	They were silent for a bit.
	“Scully?”
	“Mm-mm?”
	“I’ve been thinking.”
	“Mmm.”
	“You’re amazing, you know that?”
	“I do actually.”
	Mulder grinned and Scully chuckled.
	“Sorry about that,” she replied. “Couldn’t resist.”
	“It’s true though,” he said, “I mean, after my blunder 
yesterday, why on earth did you forgive me?”
	With her fingers Scully traced slow patterns on his tee shirt. “I 
could forgive you that blunder because I believed your story. Because 
you had no reason to betray me with Phoebe. Had it been Diana or 
Marita or any other woman for that matter it would have been so 
different, but not with Phoebe. It was too far fetched an idea that you 
could be serious with her.” She paused for a moment. “Or maybe you 
are indeed secretly involved with her and I just don’t want to know 
you are,” she added in a much softer voice.
	Mulder shook his head. “I promise you I’m not. You have my 
word that I’m not in any kind of relationship with any woman.”
	“Liar.”
	He frowned. “What?”
	She turned and kissed him softly. “I said you’re a liar.”
	“Why?”
	She made him look at her. “Define ‘relationship’, Mulder.”
	He smiled a bit, taking her face gently in his hands. “We’ve 
always been in a relationship, Scully, from the very day we met. But 
I’d rather call it ‘life’ than a relationship, we’re way beyond that stage 
now. It’s our life, we belong together, we share a form of kinship that 
transcends all human terminology.”
	“But it’s not physical.”
	“Not yet, no.”
	“Will it ever be?”
	Mulder looked at his partner as she was so close to him, yet 
still not close enough. But the distance was getting smaller every day -
- he knew they were touching -- and it wouldn’t be long now.
	“Yes, it will be,” he answered, leaning in for a soft kiss. “I 
don’t know when, but it will be. And then it will be absolutely perfect, 
I just know it will be.” He gathered her to him. “Come, let’s get a few 
more hours of sleep. We’re going to need them dearly.”
	“Mulder,” Scully said after a few minutes.
	“Yes?”
	“We’re gonna win.”
	“How do you know?”
	“I don’t,” she shrugged. “I just know we can’t lose. If we lose, 
‘They’ will win and we can’t let that happen.”
	“Do you have faith in me?” he asked, knowing he was facing 
one of the hardest trials of his career.
	“Do you have faith in me?” she countered, making him realise 
the silliness of the question.
	“Yes,” he answered. “More than ever.”
	“Then I know we’ll win,” Scully answered. “See you in three 
hours, Mulder.”
	“Sleep well, Scully,” Mulder said softly, feeling how she fell 
asleep quickly. He sighed. If he lost the X-Files, would he lose her? 
She’d probably assure him he wouldn’t, but he was too afraid to hope. 
And with the trial only hours away, hope was the only thing he had 
left.

XxXxX

	“In review of what we have learned at previous hearings, 
Agent Mulder, we have decided that it would be a wiser course of 
action to call upon your presence so that you may be in a position to 
personally give an account on what has happened and perhaps shed 
some light on the situation,” the Bald Man said.
	Mulder looked at the man, his face emotionless. Scully had left 
for the Lone Gunmen after dropping him off at the Bureau so she 
could store the disks with the X-Files as a precaution in case he’d lose 
today. He knew all too well that he had very little influence over 
today’s proceedings but at least they could do their best to put their 
lives’ work in safe-keeping. And the Lone Gunmen were by far the 
most suitable people for a job like that.
	“Would you mind giving us your testimony, Agent Mulder?”
	“On what?” he replied.
	“Well,” another man said, “you could start by explaining about 
the reasons for your highly questionable methods of investigation.”
	Mulder took a deep breath. He’d been expecting that one.
	“I must admit that our methods are indeed slightly 
unorthodox,” he said, looking at the grim faces around him, “but the 
very nature of the cases we investigate often call for such methods. 
Had it been possible to solve them using current conventional police 
methods they would never have been classified as ‘unexplained 
phenomena’.”
	“But that does not justify the fact that you and Agent Scully 
have on more than one occasion refused to work by the book,” the 
Bald Man said.
	“I feel a correction is in order here as Agent Scully will always 
work by the book if possible. On occasions that she has not done so it 
was because I asked her to,” Mulder answered.
	“Do you have an explanation for that?”
	“Once again I think that many of the cases would not have 
been solved if we had done everything strictly by the book, Sir.”
	“Are you saying then that Agent Scully is wrong in her 
opinions most of the time because she does adhere to the regulations?”
	Mulder shook his head. “No, Sir, I am not. I am saying that 
because Agent Scully is more likely to work by the book she often 
actually provides a solid basis by means of which my ideas and 
theories can be tested and then scientifically proven to be either 
correct or false.”
	The Bald Man looked at him. “In how far has your sister’s 
disappearance had any bearing on your work on the X-Files project, 
Agent Mulder?”
	“It was the reason I started working on the X-Files, Sir. My 
sister disappeared in 1973, when I was 12 years old and she was eight. 
She vanished from our house one night while I was in the room with 
her, playing a board game. I was unable to stop whatever it was from 
taking her away from us. For years my parents searched for her, but 
we never found her, nor received any information or demand for a 
ransom. As a child I was unable to conduct any significant search for 
her but it never diminished the urge within me to find out what had 
happened to her.”
	“And that is why you took the X-files?”
	“Not immediately,” Mulder answered. “When I left the FBI 
Academy I was recruited into the Behavioural Science Unit as I 
seemed to possess an unprecedented ability to get into the criminal’s 
mind and predict what his next actions could be. In a way it was a 
very rewarding position and I was quickly making a name for myself. 
But at the same time it consumed me and I felt more and more acutely 
that I was losing myself to the crooks’ minds I was investigating. In 
other words, I felt I was becoming those crooks. That’s when I 
decided I should take a short break away from my work at the BSU. 
And that’s when I discovered the X-Files. At first it appeared to be 
just a junkheap of UFO-cases and mysterious disappearances, but they 
fascinated me. And that’s why I decided to request a transfer.”
	“To find out what happened to your sister?”
	“Among other things, yes.”
	“Do you know what happened to her, Agent Mulder?”
	Mulder shook his head. “No, Sir, I do not. I do, however, 
believe her to be dead, although I cannot be totally sure until I find 
her remains.”
	“What makes you so certain she is dead?”
	“I saw her in a vision, Sir, shortly after my mother died. She 
talked to me, telling me she was in a good place.”
	“A vision?’
	“Yes, Sir, she appeared to me, approximately eight years old, 
which is the age at which she disappeared. I think it more than likely 
that she was killed shortly after being taken from us.”
	“That means that your search has been in vain all those years?” 
one of the men said.
	“On the one hand it has although I think that on a more 
personal basis I have gained much from it as well.”
	“Such as?”
	Mulder looked at the man who spoke. “I’d prefer not to answer 
that question, Sir.”
	“Mmm, very well,” the Bald Man commented. “But you have 
not found her remains then?”
	Mulder shook his head. “No, Sir. So I will keep searching until 
I find any remains Agent Scully or myself can positively identify as 
being my sister’s.”	
	“Agent Scully?”
	He nodded. “Yes, Sir. I’d trust and respect her opinion wholly 
should she positively identify my sister.”
	The Bald Man looked at him. “The matter of Agent Scully is 
another issue we would like to discuss with you, Agent Mulder?”
	“How is that?”
	“To what extent do you trust Agent Scully?”
	“I trust her with my life, Sir,” Mulder answered with a steady 
voice. “She is the only one I trust.”
	“Presumably that has not always been the case.”
	“No, Sir, when I first met her I was under the impression that 
she was sent to spy on me. That she was assigned to me in order to 
debunk my work and shut down the X-Files.”
	“So when did you start to trust her?”
	Mulder thought for a moment. “ After a short while I realised 
that she was an ally rather than an enemy, someone who could and 
did share my ideas if not my opinions. Someone who could respect my 
motives even if she found it hard to believe what I believed.”
	“Her staying with you has directly or indirectly led to her 
disappearance in 1993, is that correct, Agent Mulder?”
	“I believe it has, Sir, much as I regret what happened to her 
during her disappearance and the consequences this has on her life.”
	The Bald Man looked at him. “During Agent Scully’s 
disappearance, following virtually directly on the closing down of the 
X-Files and the consequential reassignment of Agent Scully and 
yourself, you were assigned another Agent as your partner.”
	“Special Agent Alex Krycek,” Mulder said.
	“Agent Krycek,” the Bald Man confirmed, “whom we have 
heard testifying against you. He declared that you treated him unjustly 
and with the wilful intent to cause him injury on your trip into 
Russia.”
	Mulder looked coldly at the man. “I admit I have never trusted 
Agent Krycek and it soon proved I was justified in doing so. He was a 
double agent, working both for the FBI and for the Secret 
Government. I must, however, object to your allegation that I had him 
intentionally put into danger. He has only himself to blame for his 
injury.”
	“Did this happened during Agent Scully’s disappearance?”
	“No, Sir, this happened well after she’d been returned to me. 
Alex Krycek was by then no longer my partner or indeed an Agent 
working for the FBI. And it was only after he was dismissed from the 
Bureau that he became a real threat to us and our work.”
	“A threat in what way?”
	“He was dangerous to Agent Scully and myself. He is now a 
hired gun who will stop at nothing if the price is right. And the Truth 
is a very profitable matter which will bring him good money if he can 
lay his hands on it.”
	“The Truth, Agent Mulder?” one of the men said.
	“The truth about the existence of extraterrestrial life in the 
universe and their encounters with human beings on this planet,” 
Mulder stated.
	“Concluding that because of this he is a danger to you and 
Agent Scully, are we right in assuming that you have access to that 
information, Agent Mulder?” the Bald Man asked.
	“That is correct, Sir,” Mulder answered, seeing Skinner look at 
him in amazement, “I have had access to confidential files containing 
delicate information for quite a while now, my primary source of 
information having been my late father, who gave me those files on 
the day of his death.”
	“And what are your intentions, Agent Mulder?”
	Mulder looked at the men in the room. “I have the ability to 
make this information known to the general public, Sir. I feel they 
have the right to know the Truth.”
	“You do, of course, realise what the consequences of such an 
action would be, Agent Mulder?” the Bald Man asked grimly.
	Mulder nodded. “I do, Sir, which is why I have not undertaken 
such actions until now. The chaos created by this would be 
indescribable for I think it is well-understood that the general public is 
not yet ready for such a revelation. It would undermine virtually 
everything they believe in. It would render the Bible useless and a lie. 
I am, however, not indefinitely patient.”
	The men nodded.
	“And that’s why I am prepared to make a deal with you, 
gentlemen. A deal that would make me abandon my plans to reveal 
the Truth to the public, in exchange for my and Agent Scully’s 
exoneration.”
	“Agent	Mulder, that is a preposterous suggestion!” the Bald 
Man said strongly.
	Mulder looked at him defiantly. “That is just one way to look 
at the matter, Sir, but the choice is yours. I can tell you what I know 
and hand to you every proof I have, but I cannot do it here as I am 
sure there are people gathered here who have no need to know.”
	“So how can you deliver that information?”
	“I keep the files in my apartment, Sir, and I wouldn’t mind 
revealing them to you there.”
	“Your apartment?” one of the man asked. “But there is nothing 
there.”
	Mulder looked at him, a fine smile on his lips. “Thank you, 
Sir, for informing me that my apartment has been searched again 
without my knowledge or consent. Maybe that would explain the 
mysterious disappearance of some of my porn videos!”
	Disapproving looks at the man who’d brought the matter up 
and a faint chuckle arose from the group. Then silence feel again and 
the Bald Man addressed Mulder.
	“So what is it that you want exactly, Agent Mulder?”
	“It’s very simple, Sir. I want Agent Scully and myself to be 
exonerated and I want us to have the X-Files back. In exchange for 
that I will give you all the sources of information you might like to 
have and a promise that I will keep my lips sealed about that 
information.”
	“You are playing a very dangerous game, Agent Mulder!”
	“Am I really?” he countered. “I think it’s a very simple game 
I’m playing. Either way you are the winner. If you refuse to give us 
what we want, we will continue our search, but you will be unable to 
stop us as we are no longer acting within the boundaries of the 
Federal Bureau of Investigation. In short we will go underground. But 
if you give us what we want you have possession of the confidential 
files and we will be bound to our promise to remain silent about the 
content of those files.”
	The Bald Man looked at him. “All right, Agent Mulder, your 
dismissal will be postponed until a later moment and for now we will 
take no actions against you or Agent Scully. You are, of course, bound 
to your deal. We will reconvene tomorrow morning to discuss the 
conclusion of this unpleasant matter.”
	Mulder gave the man a curt nod as he rose from his chair. 
Then he left the room. Once outside he took his cell-phone and speed-
dialled Scully’s number as he walked down to their office.
	She picked up pretty much instantly.
	“Scully.”
	“Hey, Scully, it’s me.”
	“How did you do, Mulder?”
	He chuckled. “They’re in trouble and I’m toast,” he said.
	He heard her sigh. “What did you do?”
	“I offered them a deal. I bluffed.”
	“About what?”
	“I told them I had the Truth.”
	“But you don’t, Mulder.”
	“I know I don’t have it. That’s the whole problem!”
	She sighed again. “What are you going to do now?”
	“I don’t know. There’s very little I can do. I need you, Scully.”
	“How about your dismissal?”
	“Postponed. They took the deal. I think.”
	It was a little while before Scully spoke again. “Okay, Mulder, 
I’m on my way. Don’t do anything stupid, okay?”
	Mulder grinned, knowing she’d know he was grinning. “You 
know me, Dana.”
	He heard her smile as she spoke. “Yes, I do. I guess that’s why 
I’m so scared ...”

*~*~*~*


Part D
“Reynaert’s Revenge and subsequent Glory”

	“Agent Mulder?”
	“Yes, Sir?”
	“Where are you now?”
	“I’m at Agent Scully’s, Sir.”
	“So you are. Well, you are to report for the final review in 
ninety minutes, you understand?”
	“Absolutely, Sir.”
	The line went dead and Mulder pressed the disconnect button 
on the phone. Then he lay back down and sighed, closing his eyes. 
	‘Back to reality’, he thought. It wasn’t fair.
	“Mulder?”
	He opened his eyes and looked at his partner, lying next to 
him. “Yeah?”
	“Was that Skinner?”
	He nodded, moving closer to her, relaxing in her soft warmth. 
“It was. We’re supposed to be at work in an hour and a half.”
	Scully sighed as she nestled in his arms. “No rest for the 
wicked I suppose ...”
	He smiled wryly in return. “That’s a nice choice of words, 
Agent Scully.”
	She looked at him. “You bluffed, Mulder, I never said a thing,” 
she answered softly.
	“No, you didn’t.”
	They were silent. Scully idly plucked at his tee shirt, thinking.
	“Mulder?” she said eventually.
	“Mm-mm?”
	“Why did you do it?”
	“I don’t know,” he answered. “Must be my innate suicide-
desires or something.”
	“That is not funny, Mulder!” she said angrily and moved away 
from him. “You can be so destructive! What is it about you that you 
always seek to ruin the only good things you’ve got in your life? Do 
you feel better when your life is wrecked?”
	Mulder shook his head, caught off-guard by her sudden 
outburst.
	“Then why do you do it?” she continued softly.
	He looked at her with sad eyes. “I don’t know, Scully,” he said 
very softly. “I guess a wrecked life is all I’ve ever known.”
	“It doesn’t have to be that way any longer,” she whispered, 
taking his hands. “You deserve a good life. Just stop sabotaging 
whatever attempts at a better life come your way.”
	He nodded and she smiled.
	“Promise?”
	He grinned. “Promise.”
	She reached up to kiss him quickly on the lips. “All right. I’m 
gonna take a shower now, will you make us breakfast?”
	They got out of bed and Scully headed for the shower while 
Mulder walked into the kitchen. He watched the coffee maker bubble 
and gurgle, seeing his own contorted reflection in the glass of the 
coffee pot. It seemed this contortion was just what his life was, a joke 
of an imitation of real life. It was nothing like other people’s lives. 
Here he was, almost forty years old, and as embarrassingly far from a 
normal life as anyone could get. And yet, Scully had accepted him, 
warped as he was. Hell, she even loved him. Did that mean she was 
weird, too? If she was, she was certainly more normal than he was. 
Maybe she was the interpreter, the translator between his world of the 
fantastic and other people’s world of the normal. Well, whatever she 
was, she was totally indispensable. So, why did he just keep on trying 
to chase her away? He needed her so badly and all he did was attempt 
to make her leave him. Maybe he really did do his best to sabotage his 
life. He wrecked his future and he wasn’t even aware he was doing it. 
How sad and pathetic was that?
	“Breakfast ready, Mulder?” he heard Scully say behind him 
and he looked around at her.
	“Yeah, suppose so,” he answered, seeing her study him.
	“What have you been thinking, Mulder?” she asked softly.
	He shook his head, averting his eyes. He took the coffee and 
poured her a cup.
	Scully sighed. “Don’t look so sad. You’re breaking my heart 
...” She reached out for his arm, but knocked the coffee pot over as she 
reached for him. The glass broke and the coffee flooded the table.
	“Oh, shit, my pyjamas!” Scully said, looking at the coffee stain 
on her pyjama bottoms. Then she looked up, only to discover that 
Mulder was almost entirely drenched in coffee. “Oh, God, Mulder, are 
you okay?”
	He nodded. “I’m fine. Just ...”
	“Wet?” Scully supplied, walking over to his side. “You didn’t 
burn yourself, did you?”
	“No, I’m okay. Just gotta get changed. Do you still have that 
suit of mine in your closet?”
	Scully nodded. “I do. It’s not your best, but ...”
	“It’ll have to do,” he smiled. “I’ll change and then I’ll be right 
out so you can change and we’ll be on our way to the Bureau.”
	Scully looked at the clock. “We have no time to take turns. 
You’ll have to tolerate me in the same room, Mulder.”
	He looked at her. “I promise I’ll be a gentleman, Scully, don’t 
worry.”
	She rolled her eyes. “Mulder, you just got soaked with hot 
coffee. I don’t think I have much to worry about.”
	“Ooo, what are you implying, Agent Scully?”
	“I’m not implying anything, Mulder, now get into the shower 
and get rid of that coffee!”
	“You’re no fun anymore ...” he sulked and Scully had to 
suppress a chuckle.
	Ten minutes later they were ready to leave, with Mulder 
dressed in the spare suit he kept at her place. And they were just about 
to leave when he stopped her.
	“Scully?”
	“What is it, Mulder?”
	“Sorry I bluffed. I know I jeopardised your career by doing so.”
	She took his hands after she’d closed the front door of her 
apartment. “Mulder, I know I told you this before, but I suppose I 
have to tell you again:”
	“What?”
	“I wouldn’t put my career on the line for anybody but you.”
	He grinned, remembering those words very well. “Is that an 
iced tea in your bag, Agent Scully?”
	She smiled. “It is actually.”
	“Oh yes,” he grinned. “That’s gotta be love!”

XxXxX

	“Agent Mulder, Agent Scully, please take a seat,” the Bald 
Man addressed them when the entered the room. Mulder reckoned 
there were about twenty people in the office.
	“Agent Mulder, I will address you primarily as it was you who 
revealed to this committee that you had access to confidential 
information of a yet undetermined source or quantity. Information 
which you are prepared to hand over in exchange for your exoneration 
and Agent Scully’s and for the re-opening of the X-Files project and 
your re-assignment to that particular division within the Violent 
Crimes Section. Is that correct?”
	Mulder nodded once. “That is correct, Sir.”
	“But you are unable to disclose the information in your 
possession here at this very moment?”
	“That is true. I cannot risk the information falling into the 
wrong hands.”
	“You were originally among people who would classify as ‘the 
wrong hands’, Agent Mulder,” the Bald Man commented.
	Mulder shrugged slightly. “I suppose I was, Sir, but 
unfortunately I do have that information now and I will reveal it all to 
the public if we don’t get what we want.”
	“Do you have proof that you actually do have access to that 
information which you claim to posses, Agent Mulder?” one of the 
men asked. “Proof that you are indeed capable of carrying out your 
treats if your demands are not met?”
	Mulder shook his head. “You will have to trust me on that. Of 
course you don’t have to believe me, the choice is entirely your own.”
	The Bald Man turned to Scully. “Agent Scully, what do you 
know concerning this matter as presented here by your partner?”
	“I know he will carry out his threat if you don’t meet our 
demands, Sir,” she answered.
	“Does he have the information he claims to posses?” the Bald 
Man asked.
	“He says he does, Sir. Saying otherwise would betray his trust 
in me and it would hide the truth!”
	“Does he have that information, Agent Scully?”
	“I cannot tell you that, Sir!”
	“You can and you will tell us!”
	“I will do nothing of the kind, Sir! You can act according to 
our demands or risk exposure!” she replied.
	The Bald Man looked at them and then at some of the others in 
the room.
	“All right, Agent Mulder, you give us no choice but to co-
operate. Special Agent Brown and ASAC Blevins will accompany you 
to your apartment to retrieve the information.”
	“Objection, Sir,” Mulder said and the Bald Man looked at him. 
“Agent Brown will not come with us, Sir. I will not tolerate that.”
	The Bald Man gave a curt nod and made Brown sit down 
again. “Then it will be Ms Covarrubias and ASAC Blevins who will 
be going with you. We trust you take all necessary precautions in this 
very delicate matter?”
	“Of course, Sir,” Scully said. “The matter is too important.”
	“I’m glad to see good judgement prevail, Agent Scully.”
	“Thank you, Sir.”

XxX

	“Mulder, are you sure you’re doing the right thing?” Scully 
asked as they walked to the company car that was issued to them for 
this occasion.
	“Sure about what?”
	“Please, Mulder, you haven’t got a fact to support your claims! 
You’ve been bluffing your head off ever since we were called upon for 
this matter. What are you planning on doing when they find out what 
is really going on? When they discover you don’t know the first thing 
about the Truth?”
	“I do know the first thing about the Truth, Scully,” Mulder 
muttered in protest, but Scully didn’t take the bait.
	“They’ve been waiting for you to do this, Mulder,” she sighed. 
“They’ve tried to get rid of you for years, and now you’re giving them 
the chance. Geez, you’re not just giving them that chance, you’re 
handing it to them on a silver platter! You made them believe you had 
nothing to lose, but in reality you have nothing to gain.”
	“What are you getting at, Scully?”
	She sighed and thought how to put this. Then she decided just 
to tell him what she was afraid of. “Mulder, I don’t want you to lose 
this. Or the X-Files. I don’t care what’s going to happen to me, but 
you’re gonna lose the X-Files. And your whole life is in there. You’re 
gambling and your life is at stake.”
	He looked at her. “You shouldn’t worry about me, Scully, 
when you ought to worry about your own career. I have only myself to 
blame.” They got into the car. “But you’re blacklisted as well, because 
of me,” he continued. “You had the chance to climb the ladder, you 
should’ve taken that chance. Made a name for yourself. Had a normal 
career. A normal life.”
	He looked aside and saw her look at him, her eyes sad. “I’m 
sorry.”
	“Why?”
	“Because I sabotage everything in my life. Because I’m so 
destructive and I don’t even know I’m doing it.”
	Scully smiled weakly. “You’re impossible, Mulder.”
	He chuckled incredulously. “That’s a very kind way to say I’m 
an asshole, Scully,” he corrected her.
	She took his hand and squeezed it gently, seeing Blevins and 
Marita approach. “Yeah. But you’re my asshole and I’m not sharing 
you with anyone.”

XxX

	“Agent Mulder,” Blevins said as they stood in Mulder’s 
apartment. “Are you actually going to hand us the information you 
promised us or what?”
	“Excuse me, Sir, but it’s not exactly a shoe-box labelled ‘The 
Truth’ you were expecting, was it?” he answered, walking over to his 
computer.
	“So what are you going to give us then?”
	Mulder took three computer disks and offered them to ASAC 
Blevins. “This, Sir.”
	Scully watched them and frowned inwardly, but betrayed 
nothing.
	“Do you know what’s on them, Agent Mulder?” Blevins asked. 
Mulder shook his head.
	“All I know is that it has the information the Syndicate asked 
for, Sir, but it’s in code and I have not been able to break that code. In 
short, I have not been able to read the files.”
	“So how were you going to disclose the information to the 
press if you had had the chance, Agent Mulder?” Marita asked.
	“We have access to people who we know are capable of 
breaking the code for us, Ms Covarrubias,” Scully answered. “Their 
assistance would have been beneficial to both parties and they would 
have helped us unreservedly no questions asked.”	
	“Who are those people?” Marita asked.
	“You don’t need to know,” Scully answered coolly.
	Blevins looked at the women. “All right, Agent Scully, Agent 
Mulder. We will hand this information to the right parties.”
	“We know you will do so, Sir,” Mulder answered. “It would be 
foolish to do otherwise.”
	“How’s that?”
	“The Syndicate knows about the existence of these disks. We 
informed them what to expect from you before you entered the car 
earlier today,” Scully answered. “Failure to deliver the disks would 
most certainly result in serious repercussions.”
	“And there’s no need to try and copy them, Sir,” Mulder 
added. “That is impossible.”
	Blevins frowned at him. “I would prefer a little more respect, 
Agents!”
	Mulder shrugged. “You know my motto, Sir. ‘Trust No One’.” 
He walked to the door and opened it. “Thank you for your time, Sir. 
We look forward to working with you in the future.”
	“Ms Covarrubias,” Scully said, ushering her to the door as 
well. And the two were barely outside when the door was shut firmly 
behind them.
	Scully walked back to the couch while Mulder walked to his 
computer and took three disks from the pile.
	“You never handed them the correct disks, did you, Mulder?”
	He shook his head. “No, I made copies. Contrary to what I told 
Blevins, you can copy them. Part of them anyway. I copied what I 
could, but it rendered the copied disks useless.”
	Scully looked at him. Then she laughed and shook her head. 
“God, we’re getting good at this bluffing-business! That was totally 
convincing!”
	Mulder grinned. “Yes. Wasn’t it?”
	She rose from the couch and approached him. “But what if 
they find out about the disks?”
	“They can’t do anything, Scully. I told them I didn’t know 
what was on the disks. That’s the truth. I don’t know, I can’t read it. 
They could torture me and still get nothing.”
	“Don’t talk like that ...”
	He kissed her atop her head. “I’m sorry. Let’s go to the 
Bureau. We need to talk to Skinner.”

XxXxX

	“Mr Skinner?”
	“Yes?”
	“We have a situation.”
	Skinner changed the receiver to his other ear and listened.
	“What do you propose?”
	“Where is Agent Mulder?”
	Skinner looked aside. “He is right here.”
	“There wasn’t anything on the disks. They are useless!”
	Skinner didn’t respond.
	“Did Agent Mulder know this?”
	Skinner looked at Mulder who nodded slowly. Then he turned 
his attention back to the person on the phone. “No, he did not, Sir. I 
think ASAC Blevins clearly stated that Agent Mulder had been unable 
to open the files. He merely knew that what was allegedly contained 
within those files was information that needed to remain top secret.”
	“The documents on the disks are frauds!”
	“I regret hearing that.”
	He hang up the phone before the man on the other side could 
continue. Then, for a long time, no one spoke. Mulder looked at 
Scully and took her hand.
	“Agent Mulder?” Skinner eventually broke the silence.
	“Yes, Sir?”
	“Why did you do this?”
	Mulder shrugged. “For kicks, I guess.”
	“Jesus, Mulder!!” Skinner got up from his chair and 
approached them. “Have you forgotten whom you’re dealing with 
here? What these men are capable of?”
	“No, Sir, I haven’t.”
	“Then what was your purpose?”
	Mulder looked at Scully who answered.
	“We had no chance of getting out this time, Sir. Not by doing 
everything by the book. That’s when we decided to play this game by 
the rules they are so intimately familiar with. Rules they invented 
themselves.”
	“What rules are those?”
	“Deceive, inveigle, obfuscate,” she stated calmly.
	“Did you create these disks, Mulder?”
	Mulder shook his head. “I haven’t been lying altogether, Sir. I 
knew they were useless as far as the information contained within the 
disks was concerned, but I have not been able to break the code. I did 
not know what the information was about that really was on those 
disks.”
	“How did you come by them?”
	“Krycek,” Scully and Mulder answered in unison.
	Skinner frowned. “Krycek gave them to you?”
	“Not really,” Scully said. “We said we got them from him but 
he wasn’t exactly parting with them of his free will. After all, he 
understood the possibilities for blackmail that these disks held far 
better than we ever could.”
	Skinner looked at them and then, surprising them both, burst 
out laughing. “Jesus, Mulder,” he said, “that has got to be the best and 
most daring case of bluffing I’ve come across in a long time!”
	Mulder smiled. “Thank you, Sir. Does that mean we’ve got the 
X-Files back?”
	Skinner grew serious again. “Not necessarily, Mulder. It 
depends on what the Syndicate thinks of your ‘kicks’.”

XxX

	“Taking into consideration that it was indeed impossible for 
Agents Mulder and Scully to know what was on the computer disks 
handed by them to ASAC Blevins, we cannot use the fraudulent disks 
against them. Moreover, the exposure we would risk by doing so 
would be far greater than the benefits we’d gain. We have, therefore, 
concluded that Agents Mulder and Scully will be exonerated and the 
X-Files project re-opened. However, it is with the condition that the 
next step out of line will lead to their immediate and irrevocable 
termination of their work for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Do I 
make myself clear on that?” the Well-Manicured Man said.
	Mulder and Scully nodded. “Yes, Sir, perfectly clear, Sir.”
	“Special Agent Anthony Brown will be requested to appear 
before an FBI committee to explain his highly shameful behaviour 
towards Agent Scully although he will be relieved of any actions 
regarding his failure in delivering the summons.”
	Mulder frowned as he heard this, but at least he knew that 
Brown was going to get away with his assault on Scully. And that was 
really all that mattered to him as far as that piece of shit was 
concerned.
	“All right,” the Well-Manicured Man said. “Are there any 
further questions?”
	“Are we done?” Brown replied impatiently.
	The Well-Manicured Man looked at him. “Yes, Agent Brown, 
we are done.”
	“Thanks,” Brown answered, storming out of the room.
	“Agent Scully, Agent Mulder, thank you for attending,” the 
Well-Manicured Man said and left the room, soon followed by the 
others who had been present.
	“Mulder, what did you say to Tony?” Scully asked when they, 
too, had left the room.
	“What makes you think I said anything to the jerk?”
	“Oh, come on, Mulder, he was shaking like a leaf and cowered 
every time you even remotely looked in his direction! Did you threaten 
him?”
	“Well ...” he began, stepping into the lift. “I didn’t exactly 
threaten him ...”
	“What did you do, Mulder?” Scully sighed, slipping her arms 
around his waist. Thank God for the empty car ...
	“Okay, I threatened him,” Mulder smiled, looking at his 
partner.
	“I thought you might have,” Scully smiled back.
	“Do you care?”
	“Do I look like I care?”

XxX

	“Hey, Mulder.”
	“What?”
	“I just thought of something.”
	“What?”
	“Let’s give the guys’ printer a work-out. We’ve got the X-Files 
back!”
	“Yes, we do.”
	They opened the door to their office and walked in. Mulder 
couldn’t help taking a deep breath, filling his lungs with the musty 
but familiar air of their shared kingdom. “Damn, it’s good to be 
back!” he grinned.
	“We’re back and we’re back to stay,” Scully smiled.
	He walked over to the desk and leaned against it. “Yes, we are. 
I won’t let them chase us away again.” Then he crooked his finger in 
her direction. “Come here.”
	Scully looked at him as she stood before him. “It was a 
dangerous game we played, Mulder.”
	He wrapped his arms around her waist to draw her nearer. “I 
know. We almost deserved to lose. We would have if they hadn’t been 
so paranoid.” Then he looked at her as she rested her arms around his 
neck. “You know what? I think I don’t want to talk about that 
anymore!”
	Scully giggled, much to Mulder’s delight. “You’re right,” she 
whispered. “What do you wanna talk about.”
	“I don’t know if I’d wanna talk ...” he said softly, kissing her 
briefly. “Thank you,” he said then. “Thank you for supporting me 
through all this.”
	“That’s what partners are for, Agent Mulder,” Scully 
answered.
	“Mmm, I have this dawning impression that you didn’t do all 
this just because we’re partners, Agent Scully.”
	“Oh no, not at all,” she replied with a grin.
	“All right, now that that’s settled, why don’t we shut up and 
...”
	“Make love?” she supplied, seeing his grin widen even more.
	“Right here?” he said in a low voice that made her shiver.
	“Well, maybe not here. FBI issued desks may not be built to 
stand such an action,” Scully smiled.
	“Damn, I can see your point in that ...”
	Scully chuckled softly. Then she looked at him. “Kiss me, 
Mulder”
	“Aye aye, madam,” he quipped, putting her request into action. 
And when they ended the kiss he kept their foreheads touching, thus 
creating their very own personal universe in which they were the only 
inhabitants.
	“Mulder, would you forgive me if I were very corny and sappy 
and told you that I love you?” Scully smiled, looking him in the eyes.
	“Yes, I would,” Mulder replied, “if you’d forgive me as well 
for telling you just the same thing.”
	“Mulder, I love you,” she said and smiled.
	“I love you, too,” he answered, giving her a toothy smile.
	“I love that smile on you, Mulder.”
	“Mmm, suppose I’ll have to show it to you more often then.”
	“Oh yeah ...”
	Scully raised her hand and slowly stroked his jaw.
	“We’ll have to be even more careful now than we were before, 
Mulder.”
	He nodded. “Yes, we will. They’re on our tails now. We can’t 
let them know we’re involved either. It would make us too 
vulnerable.”
	Scully frowned. “I guess you’re right, but it’s not ... it’s not 
right, having to hide this, Mulder! It makes me sick just to think we’ll 
have to double-check everything just for a kiss, let alone more.”
	“Maybe we don’t have to hide it, Scully,” Mulder said, kissing 
the side of her neck softly.
	“What do you mean?” she whispered, closing her eyes to 
savour the feeling.
	“They can’t harm us, Scully. They’ve had every opportunity to 
get rid of us during the past few days. You even told me so! But they 
can’t send us away. If they do they’ll lose all control over us, we’d be 
out of their reach and that would make us far too dangerous. If 
nothing else we showed them that during the last few days. We know 
too much. And we still have those disks, we still have the 
information.”
	“But the deal, Mulder? What about that? You can’t reveal what 
is on the disks, they gave us everything we asked for in exchange for 
our silence.”
	“Exactly. As long as we’re here and we’re not hindered in our 
work, we’re bound to our promise. But the moment they step out of 
line, we can do so, too. And we have all the strong cards.”
	Scully looked at him, apparently still not entirely convinced.
	“Come on, Scully, we’ve had feelings for each other for a long 
time now, but we were too fucking chicken to do anything about it. 
I’m tired of denying what I feel for you. Let’s allow our feelings to 
take the upper hand for a change, okay? Our love?”
	“It was the last warning they gave us, Mulder ...”
	Mulder chuckled. “Scully, that was the 34th last warning 
we’ve had so far! And they forget about it every single time. They 
have to. Come on, I’m tired of letting them rule our lives, Dana. I 
want to show the whole wide world what I feel for you, show them 
how much I love you. I want to wake up with you, go to work with 
you, walk around the building with your hand in mine and show the 
whole goddamned staff that some of the partner regulations they 
invented sometime during the bronze age when there were no female 
Special Agents, do no longer apply to a 21st century relationship! And 
afterwards I want to go home with you and fall asleep with you next to 
me.” He accentuated his words with short kisses on her lips, her eyes, 
her cheeks and her neck. Then he looked at her seriously. “I’m not 
kidding, Scully, I’m as serious about this as I ever was.”
	Scully looked at him. “I know that, Mulder. You’re right and I 
feel that way, too. I’m just more ... scared ... than you are.”
	He smiled. “I know you are. It’s harder for you to bend or 
break the rules than it is for me.”
	She nodded. “It is. You know, I sometimes envy the way you 
can ignore rules and regulations and not end up with a guilty 
conscience the way I do.”
	“Who says I don’t?” he quipped.
	“Yeah, but you bluff your way out of such moments,” Scully 
smiled.
	“Oh no, no more bluffing,” Mulder said, raising his hands. 
“I’ve learned my lesson. From now on I go strictly by the book.”
	“Liar.”
	He chuckled. “Yeah, that would be the surest way to get Them 
suspicious.”
	She nodded. Then she looked at him. “Mulder, why are we 
talking?”
	“When we could be kissing?” he added and she nodded. “Beats 
me.” And with that he kissed her.
	“Ahem,” they suddenly heard behind them and Scully shot out 
of Mulder’s arms and turned a becoming shade of red. It was Skinner 
at the door.
	“Haven’t you learned to knock, Sir?” Mulder asked.
	“I have actually,” Skinner said amused. “And I have also heard 
that Cloud Nine is pretty sound-proof. I’d been watching you two go 
about your business for about three minutes when I decided I wasn’t 
going to get much attention if I wasn’t giving fate a hand!”
	Mulder and Scully smiled a little sheepishly. “I’ll remember to 
lock the door next time,” Mulder whispered.
	“But my reason for coming down here was to congratulate the 
both of you on the successful outcome of the hearings,” the Assistant-
Director said.
	“Thank you very much, Sir,” Scully said. “Your help was 
invaluable.”
	Skinner smiled, obviously pleased with that as well. “Well, it 
being Friday, I suggest you two go home and spend a nice quiet 
weekend together. I expect you bright and early Monday morning for 
your next case assignment.”
	“Thank you, Sir, we’ll be there,” Mulder said as Skinner left 
the office, closing the door behind him.
	“Monday morning, Mulder?” Scully said, turning towards him.
	“Mm-mm. That’s well over 48 hours which need to be spent in 
a useful manner. A way which would befit two highly trained 
intelligent law-enforcement officers working for the FBI!” he said.
	“You’re right,” she answered, kissing him softly. “Or we could 
just go to my place and make love!”
	“Monty,” Mulder whispered, “I think I choose Door Number 
Two!”

XxXxX

	When we we wake up it’s Saturday morning and it’s ... let’s 
see now ... about 11 o’clock, which incidentally is some serious 
sleeping-in for Mulder and myself. I think I am first to escape from 
the contented slumber that had inevitably followed the previous hours’ 
activities.
	Yes, we’ve crossed the line. At long last, I might add. I must 
admit, the coffee on my pyjama bottoms and Mulder’s clothes turned 
out to be highly convenient. Not that I was planning on wearing 
anything to bed anyway, but now I simply had nothing to wear. 
Totally accidental and innocent. Which could not be said of what 
followed afterwards.
	Mulder’s still dead to the world. Well, he is almost forty years 
old and he amazed the hell out of me last night where stamina was 
concerned. Maybe putting that sexual matter off for so many years did 
have a positive side, to balance all the frustration and unresolved 
sexual tension we were convinced we couldn’t do anything about. We 
can be pretty dense for two people so allegedly intelligent as we are ...
	His warm body makes it very tempting to nestle into and go 
back to sleep, but first I want to do some serious looking at him. I 
mean, wouldn’t you? You’re finally in bed with the man you’ve loved 
so much for all those years and you’ve finally agreed to do something 
about it and then you wouldn’t indulge a little leisurely admiring? Of 
course you would. I knew you would. After all, we’re all only human.
	But he’s waking up. Maybe he’ll let me do my admiring 
anyway, it’s so much nicer if the admired is aware of the admirer, 
isn’t it?
	“What are you looking at?” he asks, his voice drowsy and low.
	Mmm, maybe the admiring will end up cut short. Very short 
actually, if he keeps talking to me that way. “I’m looking at you.”
	He smiles, that toothy smile I told him I loved so much. “See 
anything you like?”
	He must know what that chocolately velvety voice is doing to 
my insides, why would he do it otherwise? I nod as I lean on one 
elbow, letting the fingers of my other hand patter lightly across his 
chest. “Mm-mm ...”
	“Mulder?” I say then.
	“What?”
	“You realise that in actual fact we didn’t win, right?”
	“What do you mean?” he says softly.
	“We only got what we wanted because they couldn’t risk not 
giving it to us. We’re still black-listed, a danger to the Syndicate and 
a laugh to the Bureau.”
	He catches my hand in his, stopping it. His expression is a bit 
too serious to my liking now. “Scully, are you happy being with me?”
	I look at him. “Yes, I am, Mulder. Why are you asking?” Oh 
God, not his famous self-doubt again ... But it is, I know it in the 
expression on his face, that expression of insecurity. I want it to go. I 
free my hand from his grip and caress his face. “Mulder, I’m happier 
than ever before. I’m with you, the person I love most in the world.”
	“You’re not doing this out of pity, right? Because we’re the 
Bureau’s laughing-stock?”
	Oh, Mulder ... I shake my head, then rest it on his chest, 
listening to the steady beat of his heart, feeling his breath ruffle my 
hair. “I love you. That’s the only reason I’m here with you now in this 
bed. Not out of pity, not out of anything. Just for love.”
	His hands come over my back and one of them cradles my face. 
It’s so safe I can’t help but close my eyes and sigh. “I love you, 
Mulder. Let’s worry about the rest of the world on Monday when we 
need to ...” And then I sleep. We have our work back, in a way we 
also have our lives back. We survived to see another day. Black-listed 
and laughed at or not, I suppose we still really are the luckiest people 
in the world ...

**THE END!!**

Kirsten Kerkhof, The Netherlands Ó
12 November 2000