100: Somewhere A Clock Is Ticking (Part 1)
Title: Somewhere A Clock Is Ticking
Spoilers: "This Is Not Happening"
Words: 8149
Rating: PG-13
Summary: The agents find themselves on the edge of their ultimate goal - finding Fox Mulder - but when they do, is it the end or the beginning?
"Oh, my fucking God."
His partner's use of the expletive caused John Doggett to arch an eyebrow, but he turned and looked at her. It wasn't as if he couldn't understand why; she only swore when she was upset or truly surprised, and what they were looking at was certainly both upsetting and shocking.
"This can't be what I think it is," Stark Patrick muttered, looking over his shoulder at the report in his hands. "Are we...could we have finally..."
"I don't know. And I don't wanna jump to conclusions." He stood from his desk and circled around it, grabbing his jacket. "Let's take this upstairs, see what the Assistant Director has to say."
She threw her jacket on and followed him, the two of them taking the elevator upstairs to Assistant Director Skinner's office. Stark let out a slow breath as she approached Skinner's secretary. "Kim, does he have a minute?" she asked. "It's kind of important." Understatement of the year.
The other woman nodded. "Go on in," she said.
Skinner was at his desk checking his phone messages when they walked in, and glanced up, arching an eyebrow at the worry on her face. "Agent Patrick," he said, then he looked past her at her partner. "Agent Doggett. Is there something I should know about?"
"We think so, sir." Her partner handed over the report. "This just crossed our desks this morning. There are some prominent parallels with Agent Mulder's disappearance."
The Assistant Director's entire gaze perked. It was the first break they'd had on Mulder in a long while. He glanced over the paperwork, and they could see the wheels turning in his brain as he made the same leaps of intelligence that they had just minutes earlier. He stopped and glanced at them. "Have you told Agent Scully about this?" he asked.
"Not yet. We thought we'd consult with you first."
Stark exhaled. "See if there was anything viable before we start raising her hopes. I think we can agree she's been through enough recently."
Her partner nodded, running a hand through his hair and rubbing the back of his neck. "If I remember the files correctly, this kid met Mulder and Scully years ago out in Oregon. They also know the young woman that he found in that field. Now I find that a little too close to home."
Skinner looked over the paperwork, perusing what they had brought him, before he looked at them both. "Tell me what you're thinking."
"I don't know yet, sir," Stark admitted, settling her hands on her hips as she tried to think. "Obviously we're going to have to go out there and see what's happening. I have a feeling that the person who's going to know what to do best is Agent Scully, to be honest." She bit her lip. "But if this woman can be returned? Then maybe there's some hope for Agent Mulder. And that's what this has all been for, hasn't it?"
Her sentiment hung in the air. Her partner had lost his career over the search for Fox Mulder. She had lost hers following him. Scully's life had been thrown into upheaval after Mulder's disappearance. Everyone had been spun out of control by Mulder's abduction, and now they had a chance to not only solve it but get him back. They had to take it, as much for themselves as for him.
They all exchanged a long look. This was the moment they had been waiting for, and yet, they were almost afraid to seize it.
"Call Agent Scully," Skinner advised. "But let me tell her."
****
All they could do was call Agent Scully and wait for her to arrive. Even between the two of them, the tension was thick. This was the case that had cost them everything. All Stark could think of was that moment when the thing they'd thought was Mulder went over that cliff in Arizona, and she knew in her gut that a world of confusion was about to be opened up for the both of them.
She watched her partner, sitting at Mulder's old desk, take out his nameplate and stare at it. He couldn't help but compare himself to the man he'd been chasing all this time. She put her hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently, having that same feeling that they were about to leap headfirst into something unpredictable.
And then Agent Scully walked in. "Hi," she said, a little breathless.
"Hi," he said, having quickly put the nameplate back at the sound of her approach.
"You said on the phone you'd received something urgent."
"You're right, we did. And I think it's really important you got right down here, Agent Scully. Thanks."
Scully looked nervous. "You going to tell me what it is?" she said promptingly.
"We passed it on to A.D. Skinner. We'd like for him to tell you."
"Then let's go."
The three of them walked in silence to the elevator, that took them back upstairs to the Assistant Director's office. Skinner had time to figure out how to broach this subject with Scully and met them in the outer office, obviously looking like he was not going to enjoy this conversation whatsoever. None of them could, because while they were offering hope, they were also allowing for utter failure.
"What? What is it?" Scully said promptingly.
"Let's go into my office," Skinner replied, and led them all inside. He waited for Scully to sit, Doggett leaving the other chair for his partner.
"All right, what's going on here?" Scully said flatly.
"A report came in last night from Montana. About a UFO encounter," Skinner replied, starting slowly.
"What kind of encounter?"
"A young man chased a bright object flying low across the sky. Tracked it all the way to a big field where the UFO disappeared...but where he claimed he saw an alien."
Doggett glanced off, knowing what was coming. Stark wondered why Skinner didn't just spare the woman and spit it out already. But then again, he knew Scully far better than she did. Scully, however, did not look impressed. "Assistant Director, I've got drawers full of reports that begin just like that. Are you going to tell me what's so important about this case?" she asked pointedly.
"Young man's named Richie Szalay. UFO nut from Bellefleur, Oregon. You and Agent Mulder met him out there last spring."
And then Scully turned on both of them, her glance as if to wonder why these two colleagues she was coming to trust hadn't told her something so important. Her voice broke as she said, "Are you trying to tell me this has something to do with Mulder?"
Doggett exhaled. "He's trying to tell you that it might."
"Richie Szalay didn't find an alien last night," Skinner explained. "He found a woman. A woman whose name you will remember. Teresa Hoese."
Now Scully was beginning to put it all together. "Teresa Hoese was the young mother who was abducted the night before Agent Mulder was."
"And who was returned last night."
"Returned?"
Everyone in the room except her shared a glance. This was the most painful part, but also the most important. Planting the hope that might be all too fleeting. Skinner swallowed and told her.
"Hanging on to life by a thread."
She stared at him, and then it hit her: what he was saying, what it meant. The likelihood that Mulder could, in fact, be alive, and just as soon be dead.
****
St. Jean Hospital
Helena, Montana
As the daughter of a doctor, Stark should have been more comfortable in the hospital than she was. Yet as she walked with her partner, Scully, and Skinner, she was decidedly uncomfortable, perhaps because she knew what they were about to see was someone in a horrible state. Being related to an expert medical researcher didn't give her an iron stomach.
The fact that the doctor had just been alerted to their arrival didn't exactly inspire confidence either. He looked pained. "I just wish someone would tell me these things because this woman is in no condition..."
"What is her condition?" Scully asked.
"She's circling the drain. Twelve years, I have never seen anything near this level of mistreatment."
Doggett spoke up then, asserting his natural instinct to take control of a situation. "Doctor, it's important we see the victim and talk to her if we can about what happened."
The doctor nodded his assent. "Just promise me, whoever did this, you guys will do everything in your power to catch them," he said, leading them into a room in the ICU. "By rights, this young woman shouldn't even be alive."
He was not exaggerating in the slightest. Stark saw Scully go white at the sight of Teresa Hoese hooked up to more tubes and wires than one could fathom possible with extensive bruising on her face. She wasn't exactly comfortable either, and tried to subtly grab for her partner's hand. He held gently onto her as she felt her stomach lurch. She had to look away as the doctor continued to explain.
"The medics said she asked for her baby last night but she hasn't said a word otherwise. I suspect it's all she's holding on to. What's upsetting is...it's almost like someone was experimenting on her."
"What exactly did they do to her?" Skinner asked.
"Inside her cheeks, there's tissue damage in a linear pattern. Her chest was cut into and organ tissue in her abdomen's scooped away. In the X-rays I see damage to the soft palate."
Even Scully was losing her nerve now, avoiding his eyes as she put a hand to her mouth, horrified. "In the X-rays," she started slowly, "did you see anything else? Foreign objects?"
"I'm not sure what you mean."
"Little pieces of metal. Implants."
"No, I didn't."
Maybe Teresa Hoese wasn't exactly like Mulder after all. Before they could debate the differences and similarities, the door opened and two cops were there, handing a police report to John. Stark leaned over to see what he was reading, and he glanced up after a moment. "You're welcome to stay here and discuss foreign objects but...looks like we got a suspect." He snapped the file shut. "I wanna go talk to this witness myself."
****
Richie Szalay was pretty much the kid they'd expected him to be. Kids who spent their time watching UFO documentaries obviously hadn't yet found their place in the world. He was intimidated enough by the sheer size of Doggett and Skinner when the four FBI agents turned up on his doorstep.
"Richie?" Doggett asked.
"Yeah."
The FBI agent flashed his badge. "John Doggett. I'm an FBI agent," he explained. "This is Agent Patrick, Agent Scully, Assistant Director Skinner, our boss. You mind if we come in?" he asked, already moving his way inside the house.
"Dude, you're already in," Richie protested, but his attention was drawn to Scully as she passed him. "But I know you," he said to her. "Do I know you?"
"You do, Richie. From Oregon. We met late last spring, you remember?"
"Richie, if you live in Oregon," Skinner added, "What are you doing in Montana?"
"My buddy, Gary, right? He was abducted," the kid explained. He looked to Scully again. "Right before your partner. I came looking for him."
Stark was moving with her partner, finding herself drawn to the various photos and articles about UFO's taped to the walls. It reminded her of how she'd used to do the same thing with Orioles clippings when she was a kid, until she'd had a whole wall in her room pasted with the stuff. Obviously, Richie was as devoted to aliens as she was to her hometown baseball team.
Her partner wasn't quite so impressed. "So," he said, "you just came out here on a lark?"
"No. I was following the news."
"The news?"
"What we're looking at, John," Stark said helpfully.
Richie nodded, pointing at the wall in front of them. "All, all that's in the last two weeks. Yeah, I go on these Internet chat rooms to talk about sightings and junk. After Oregon there wasn't a whole lot but then all of a sudden in Montana..." He hesitated, a strangled sound coming from his throat. "I...I never...I...I never thought I'd find Mrs. Hoese like that. Not in a million years."
"No, I'm sure you didn't," Stark replied.
Her partner turned away from the wall and eyed the kid skeptically. "Richie, when you found that woman's body you said you saw somebody with her. You told the police it was an alien." He fixed a tough look on the young man. "You know what a moulage casting is, Richie?" he inquired, and when the kid shook his head, her partner's voice took on a harsh tone. "It's what the cops take when they find shoe prints. They do these plaster castings and the ones they got from the field that night were from nine and a half Nikes. You ever hear of an alien in Nikes?"
"Doesn't mean it wasn't," Richie replied defensively.
"Did it ever occur to you it wasn't an alien, but a man?"
"Then what about his spaceship?"
John opened his mouth to respond to that, but he could feel Scully's eyes boring into the side of his head. He turned to look at her and saw the disagreement in her eyes. He turned and walked out of the room, the senior agent on his heels. Stark knew she didn't have anything to add to that disagreement, and her partner didn't need her to stand up for him. Instead she just glanced at the article wall again.
"What about you, Agent Patrick?" She turned at the sound of Richie's voice, saw the imploring look in his eyes. "You believe me, don't you?"
She thought for a few moments about everything that she'd seen so far on the X-Files. The man who wasn't Mulder, the organism they'd encountered in the subway, the thing that had eaten her partner's death. Her perceptions of what was possible were changing every day.
She paused. "Let's just say I'm listening."
****
It had been an emotionally draining day for everyone involved, so she was more than relieved to see a hotel bed at the end of it. Closing the door to the room behind herself, she glanced at her partner with a chuckle. "You know, I'm surprised the Assistant Director hasn't said anything yet."
He glanced up at her, loosening his tie. "Said anything about what?"
"Well first he finds me in your living room at two in the morning and now we're sharing a hotel room again," she said with a laugh as she hung her jacket up in the closet and loosened her collar, thinking back to the conversation she'd had with Skinner on the Tipet case. He'd seemed to understand her bond with her partner.
He snorted softly. "I don't think the Assistant Director's the kinda guy who'd waste his time."
"I doubt it," she agreed, settling on one of the two beds in the room and stretching her legs out. She watched him for a moment before she finally voiced the question on her mind. "You don't think it's true, do you?"
"I'm not seeing any evidence yet for me to believe. Just a kid who saw something and he's jumping to conclusions." He looked at her, reading her eyes before he came to sit beside her. "What do you think?"
"I don't know," she admitted, running a hand through her hair. "On one hand I want it to be true because I want us to have a chance at finding Agent Mulder. On the other, I don't want to, not if he's going to come back like that." She paused uncomfortably, before she held his gaze. "If I haven't told you recently, John, I'm very lucky to have you in my life."
She didn't need to say it, he already knew how much she cared about him and appreciated him. But he knew why she was saying it. "I'm glad to have you too," he told her, taking her hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze. They both knew they had to follow this case to its end, and more than likely, wouldn't like what they found when they got there.
But as long as they had each other, they'd make it through. Not unlike, no doubt, how Mulder and Scully had thought not so long ago.
****
The idea had come to him that night as they'd sat up discussing the case, or what little of it there was. He'd known Agent Monica Reyes for years, since she'd worked his son's disappearance in New York, and wondered if her specialization in ritualistic crimes, to say nothing of her different views on the paranormal, might help them at least figure out if this was a serial killer or something seriously abnormal. Stark couldn't argue with him there, and he'd called her first thing in the morning. Reyes had agreed to meet them at the site where Teresa Hoese had been recovered, and they'd spent their morning walking her through what they presumed had happened. Now they were waiting for Scully and Skinner to join them.
Stark scrubbed a hand over her face, pacing a little. The entire morning had unsettled her. She'd heard that the woman had gone missing from the hospital and didn't have the first clue where to start. The presence of Reyes wasn't encouraging either. Stark didn't really have anything against the woman, but the two almost always disagreed, with Reyes being a free spirit and Stark thinking along the same logical, hard-bitten lines as her partner. Not to mention that she was incapable from feeling at least a little like the alpha female whenever another woman was around her partner, a strange nervous habit she hadn't been able to break herself of. Add that to her already being on edge and she was feeling more than a little moody.
"You having a bad morning, Stark?" her partner asked her, eyeing her suspiciously.
She nodded a little. "I didn't sleep too well last night, and this is not news I want to wake up to," she admitted. "But I'll work through it. We all have bad days."
"And none of it has to do with Agent Reyes being here," he deadpanned.
Stark fixed her partner with a look. "She and I tend to disagree far more than we agree," she said. "It happens. It's not like we hate each other."
"She likes you well enough." He eyed her right back. "If it was gonna make you uncomfortable, you shoulda said something and I wouldn't have called her."
"No. I'm not going to let my personal feelings keep us from getting help that might recover Agent Mulder." She shook her head. "It's just me being my usual neurotic self, John, that's all."
He gave her a knowing smile, one that said he wasn't going to push her about it but he could guess how she was feeling well enough. "I've only got one partner," he reminded her seriously, as they saw a sedan pulling up to meet them, with Assistant Director Skinner at the wheel.
Scully seemed to get out of the passenger side before the car had even come to a complete stop. "Did you find her?" she asked as she met them.
He shook his head. "No."
"No? I don't understand. You called us all the way out here."
"We thought it best to call in some help," Stark explained, using the 'we' even though it had been her partner's idea. In her eyes they stood together in everything.
To get another point of view," he added.
Scully was only further confused. "Another point of view? We have a patient missing, Agent Doggett."
"You should just hear her out."
"Hear who out?"
He began to lead them up the hill to where Reyes was waiting. "Her name's Monica Reyes," he explained. "I worked a case with her once." Stark noted he obviously didn't say which case; she couldn't recall him ever mentioning Luke to Scully or Skinner, which meant he, too, was having trust issues of his own. Though not as if she could fault him, not with something that intimate.
"She's FBI?" Skinner said skeptically.
"Yeah," he explained. "She's got some expertise I thought we might take advantage of."
"Expertise in what?" Scully asked.
"She's got her Masters in religious studies. Her specialization is ritualistic crime."
The senior agent didn't look impressed. "Ritualistic crime?" she echoed. "Are we working the same case here?"
Obviously this new idea of theirs wasn't going over very well, and he knew it. He gave her a grim half-smile and a dry chuckle as they made it to the top of the hill, where Reyes was finishing a cigarette. Stark couldn't stand the habit, but she didn't say anything. She'd let her partner make the introductions.
"Agent Reyes," he said, getting the other woman's attention. He nodded toward their colleagues. "Agent Scully, Assistant Director Skinner...Monica Reyes."
"Hi," she said, in a tone far too cheerful given the time of day and situation, with a grin and a small wave more appropriate to a Miss America pageant. They both just looked impassively back at her. Stark bit her tongue, knowing it was just her old-fashioned ways that made her want to laugh. Reyes was undeterred. "Beautiful country out here," she said, stubbing out her cigarette. "I know it's not very FBI of me, but I'm really trying to quit."
"Agent Reyes." Stark did speak up then, seeing the irritation on the faces of her colleagues. "It might be best to get to the point."
Monica glanced at her, seeming chastized with a small nod, and then turned her attention back to Scully and Skinner. "So," she said, "Agent Doggett's been walking me through the case. Interesting."
"Interesting?" Scully echoed skeptically.
"What do you think happened?"
Stark saw the 'you can't be serious' look between Scully and Skinner, and chewed on her lower lip, looking at her partner as if to say 'well?' Scully's tone continued to drip with disbelief as she said, "Isn't that what you're here to tell us?"
"Oh, I have my own thoughts," Reyes replied. "It's just what we think happened and what actually happened aren't always the same thing, but not altogether insignificant, either."
"I'm sorry, this feels like therapy."
"What happened being different from what we want to have happened," Reyes clarified.
"What who wants to have happened?"
"Well, I'm told this case involves you."
Smooth, Agent Reyes, Stark thought sarcastically. Even after months of working on the X-Files, she and her partner were still trying to earn Scully's trust, and she'd watched the new agent walk right into it. Just as she'd treated them before, Scully regarded Reyes warily, instantly on the defensive. "It may involve someone close to me," she retorted. "Can we stick to the facts, please?"
Reyes wisely backed off and did as she was asked. "Well, it's pretty clear that the woman who was found out here did not inflict her own injuries. That she was dropped here by someone and whoever it was cared about her enough not to kill her."
"Did you happen to know the peculiar nature of her injuries?"
"Yes. They were peculiar, but not altogether different from your typical cult ritualistic abuse."
"Agent Reyes, we're dealing with abductions here," Skinner corrected. "Not by any cult.
"Okay. Good. I mean, if it's not."
"But you think that it is," Scully replied.
"Well, I go on what I know, of course but I try to stay, you know, open."
"So, what do you think happened?"
"Well, I'm told that Agent Mulder and the other people who were taken were true believers. People one hundred percent convinced in the abduction phenomenon."
"If this is about these people staging their own abductions..." Skinner started warily, guessing where the conversation might be headed.
"No, it's about people coming together," Reyes corrected. "Like minds as a group."
Scully arched an eyebrow. "So you're basically saying Agent Mulder has joined some sort of UFO cult."
"Call it a group."
"For what?"
"Well, we've all heard the news stories about transport to a mothership, the idea of a giant motherwheel. The whole Heaven's Gate thing."
"I see."
But Scully was clearly unconvinced, unconvinced and agitated. The tension was thick between the five of them, and Reyes hadn't exactly impressed anyone with her casual ramblings on the subject at hand. Stark shot another look at her partner, imploring him to restore some sense of order to the discussion. She wouldn't speak for him; she hadn't called the other agent in, and if she opened her mouth, she might say something she'd regret. She fixed John with a glance and he stepped in instead.
"It'd make sense," he protested. "The leader of the cult leaves this woman out here to die. Learning she's still alive he comes back to kidnap her again for fear of exposure. It'd make sense, too that if we find this guy, maybe we find Mulder."
Scully stared at him. "Are you asking me to believe this?" she said incredulously, as if she couldn't believe he was going to go out on that limb.
"No," Reyes interrupted, correcting them both. "That's not what I said. I don't think he left her to die. I don't think she's dead."
"Based on what?" Scully retorted.
"Nothing, really. It's just a feeling."
That was all that they had dragged Scully and Skinner out there for, it seemed. Nothing in particular. The senior agent had heard enough, and turned and walked away. Maybe feeling responsible, Doggett followed after her, and Stark, in her usual way, followed after her partner, as much to avoid Agent Reyes as because she always followed her partner. She knew there was about to be an argument and it wasn't exactly unfounded.
"What are you walking away for?" he asked Scully. "It makes some kind of sense."
Scully turned on him. "I'm glad you agree with her, Agent Doggett, because I'm not even sure that she agrees with you. Your partner certainly doesn't agree with her. Nor has she made any sense for me of how the doctor who removed Teresa Hoese from the hospital last night seems, by all accounts to have been in two places at once."
He arched an eyebrow. "I know where you're going with this, Agent Scully, but if you're going to tell me this is another alien bounty hunter, this is where we part company."
Her expression was cold. "Enjoy your new company." She turned and walked away, and frustrated, he turned and looked at his partner. Stark knew that he was looking for some reassurance that he hadn't just complicated things further. But they also prided themselves on their honesty, and she wouldn't lie to him. "I'm here for you," she reminded him gently. "But nobody said anything about having to believe this."
She thought back on her words to Richie. Maybe she was starting to believe more than she thought.
****
Hours later, after everyone else had left, the two of them were still standing in that field. Their relationship had been uneasy all day, with Stark still smarting over the arrival of Agent Reyes, and John looking for anything at all that they could hold onto. Finally, she sighed and sat down where she stood, rubbing at the back of her neck.
"I don't know what to do, John." She exhaled. "We're not going to find anything else out here."
"There has to be something. Anything that's going to point us in the right direction." He came to stand beside her.
"We've been out here for a day and a half and at some point the crime scene becomes just a crime scene," she replied. She glanced up at him. "I think you're pushing a little hard."
"Of course I'm pushing hard. This is what we came down here for." He eyed her. "You're still annoyed with me."
"I'm not annoyed with you." She sighed and patted the space beside her, waiting for him to sit down next to her so she could look him in the eye. "I'm not annoyed with you, John. I'm just not thrilled about how everything is going today. We've got our only live victim missing, and then I have to sit through a completely pointless spiel about nothing. Do you know, if she acted that way where I'd come from, no one would ever take her seriously. And it just wears on my nerves. We brought Agent Scully out here and got her upset for nothing. And that's exactly what we've got, not a damn thing." She bit her lip. "Maybe we screwed up, coming out here."
"You think so?" he asked, placing his hand on her back and rubbing gently. He could feel the tension in her muscles.
She looked out into the distance. "I don't know," she said. "But I don't know what else to do."
"I don't either," he admitted. "But as long as we're together, at least we've got something." He took her hand and squeezed gently. "I never meant to make you upset, Stark. Last thing I wanna do. But you know there's no one I need other than you."
She smiled grimly. "I meant what I said," she said softly. "I'm here for you. And I'm gonna help you find him."
****
It was going to get worse before it got better. No sooner had they finished dinner and she was sitting down to take another look at her notes than Reyes called, this time with something substantive: a body she'd recovered in the field, which happened to be Richie's missing friend Gary, looking just as worse for wear as the young woman they'd recovered earlier. It was all starting to add up.
Stark had an aversion to autopsies, something she'd been working to overcome as soon as she set her sights on being a homicide detective, but since she hadn't gotten that far, it was still something that bothered her. That meant while everyone else was at the hospital, she got the unlucky task of fetching Richie to ID his friend. As they sat in the police car on the way to the hospital, she tried to think of what to say to him that wasn't a line.
"He's dead?" Richie said. "How could he be dead? That's not...that's not what happened."
Stark bit her lip. "Agent Reyes saw two men nearby. It's possible they could have had something to do with it," she said, thinking back to the casting they'd found the first time and wondering. "Whatever's going on, Richie, we'll figure it out. I promise you, we don't give up easily."
He glanced at her. "This is all new to you, isn't it?" he asked. "I saw it on your face when we met. You think we're making all this up. Your partner does."
"No," she replied. "I...I'm a cop, Richie. I deal with the evidence in front of my face. And there are some things I haven't seen enough to prove. And there are some things I've seen that I can't explain, but that doesn't make it any less real." She bit her lip. "My partner's the same way. We think pretty much alike."
"You two are buddies, aren't you."
"Yeah, we are," she said with the barest hint of a smile. "We go back a long time."
"I noticed, the way you look at him..." The kid shook his head, figuring it was wise to drop the subject. As they neared the hospital it began to dawn on him, and he began to sober. Looking at his hands, he said, "Gary was my best friend."
Stark nodded, swallowing as she reached over and took his hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. It was all she could do.
She let the policeman walk him into the autopsy room, and instead perched herself on one of the chairs in the waiting room, where she'd sit until someone came to get her and explain to her what they'd found out. It was a routine she had perfected with her partner years ago. A minute or two later she saw Richie, white as a sheet, stumble out and had to look away. Human or alien, something had taken the kid's friend from him, and she couldn't begin to imagine that kind of pain.
She was still sitting like that when John came to fetch her a few minutes later. "Stark, you okay?" he asked her, looking down at her.
"Yeah, John." She straightened in her seat and met his eyes. "Just thinking. What've we got?"
"So far, it looks like he suffered the same injuries as Mrs. Hoese," he explained, sitting down beside her. "And what Agent Reyes saw might explain that casting we picked up when we found her. These two guys left her for dead and they did the same to this kid."
"That's what I was wondering," she admitted. "Or at least they were there both times."
"We won't know for sure until Agent Scully finishes the autopsy." He bit his lip and looked at her. "She's in tears in there but she's insisting on doing it."
"She has her reasons. And better her than some doctor here we don't trust," she figured. "Everybody's got a cross to bear, right?"
"Yeah, I know. I just worry about her."
She saw the worry in his eyes. "So then we can just sit here and be mutually uncomfortable?" she said, trying as usual to smooth things over with her not-really-great sense of humor.
He laughed softly at that, and they sat there in silence for a moment more before Agent Reyes joined them. She looked at the both of them for a long moment, before she said, "You're hurting for her. Agent Scully."
"Yeah, well, if you'd been through what we've seen her go through," Stark replied, thinking back to just their last case, and how she'd seen the senior agent break down over fears about her pregnancy.
Her partner nodded slowly. "I don't know how she's doing it in there. With everything she's feeling. What she's afraid of."
"You know all too well."
Stark knew exactly what she was getting at and gave her a sharp look. "Agent Reyes..." she warned.
"Let's leave the past in the past," John replied.
But the other woman kept pushing, yet again. "It was your fear, too. Those three days we looked for your son. The fear of finding what we did," she said.
Stark finally turned on her. "What is the goddamn point in bringing this up, exactly?" she snapped slightly.
Reyes met her eyes. "I understand. That's why you're so determined to find Mulder alive." She didn't have to qualify; Stark had her own cross to bear about what had happened to Luke. Namely, that she hadn't been there at all. Just like with everyone else she had lost.
But John just shifted his jaw, clearly uncomfortable with the whole situation. "It's why I can't stand here and listen to all this mumbo jumbo about spaceships," he replied.
"I saw what I saw, John. I'm not going to lie to you. But whatever it was, it led to this. It's the man I saw in the field." Reyes handed him a photo and a piece of paper, Stark leaning in to get a closer look as she explained what they were looking at. "He goes by the name Absalom. A religious zealot who escaped a shootout in Idaho, where he was the nominal leader of a doomsday cult who believed aliens would take over the world at the millennium. Disgraced when they didn't, he fled and tried a more ecumenical scam: credit card fraud. I ran the plate on the pickup truck. It's registered to a farm about an hour from here."
Doggett's whole body straightened. There was determination in his eyes. "Then what are we waiting for?"
****
Stark couldn't remember the last time she'd been involved in a raid. Those didn't happen every day. But there they were, discussing how to take the compound that Reyes had led them to. This was something she knew a little more about, working with her partner and Assistant Director Skinner to devise the best possible entry strategy.
But when it came to the actual execution, she did what she was always inclined to do: stick by her partner. That paid off as everything degenerated into panic. Trying to sequester almost fifty people was difficult, but she managed, with the help of her partner and the Assistant Director. Then, just as she was catching her breath, she turned and almost walked into Monica Reyes.
"Agent Scully needs to see you," she said. "All of you. Right away."
No one needed to tell them twice. Stark bolted across the compound in search of the senior agent. What she saw when she ran into the room made her skid to a halt, mouth hanging open slightly: Teresa Hoese, last seen in critical condition in the hospital, now completely healed.
Needless to say, they needed answers. And knew just who to get them from.
It didn't surprise Stark in the slightest that Agent Scully wanted to be in on the interrogation alongside them; she had a stake in the case and she was also the most knowledgeable about the subject matter. Once they had gotten Absalom situated in the interrogation room, Stark just took up her usual place against the wall, arms folded, eyes and ears alert as she listened to her colleagues do what they did best.
"I said I can't explain why it happens," the man protested. "Or how. Only where."
Doggett was unamused. "I got forty-six of your followers rounded up out there at your compound. You make me go to them for a straight answer, it's only going to make it worse for you."
"How many times can I tell you?"
He snorted. "Night's early. Coffee's hot."
"The ships come in, drop the abductees all messed up. I go and get them so I can help them."
"Just like you helped Teresa Hoese when you left her for dead?"
"Agent Doggett," Scully interrupted then, her tone gentle. It was the classic good cop-bad cop routine, the same dance every team of partners learned to do. Stark's lips quirked as Scully crossed to Absalom looking every bit imploring. "You, uh... you say that these abductees are returned with severe injuries. But that doesn't fit the pattern of any alien abduction model."
"That's what I'm trying to explain. I predicted there would be an alien invasion at the Millennium. I was right, it turns out. 'Cause that's when this all started."
Scully let out a slow breath. "Sir...given the criminal charges against you, you couldn't be a less credible witness. So stop trying to validate your theories and just give us the truth."
"I'm telling you the truth. I only want to help these people."
"So these video cameras that you have around your compound," she retorted, gesturing to a stack of videotapes, "how do they help?"
"Abductees live in fear of being taken again. The cameras give them a sense of security."
"Or makes them afraid to leave," Doggett pointed out, causing Absalom to look away from him, obviously intimidated. Stark noted that, keeping it to herself, wondering what the man had to hide.
But Scully pushed on. "Do you have videotape of how you happened to heal Teresa Hoese?" she asked.
"No."
Her voice was soft then, almost a whisper. "I asked you to give me the truth." Moving toward the table, she produced another photo from her pocket. Mulder's ID photo. Asking the question they all wanted the answer to but were all afraid to ask. "Do you have videotape of this man?" she asked him. He studied it for a long moment, but then shook his head, and Stark swore she could see Scully's heart breaking in her eyes.
Was it another dead end? Or was there something left to salvage?
She and her partner exchanged a look, and she nodded her head toward the door to indicate she wanted a word. Once they stepped outside, she looked at him. "He's intimidated as hell by you," she said. "You're pushing him and he's backing off. He obviously knows more than he's saying."
"Alright, then how do you prove it?"
"We'd better see what really is on all those tapes."
****
Any good detective had spent more than their fair share of time looking at videotape, be it news footage, surveillance cameras, or any other source. Finally, this was something Stark could do and feel like she was actually good at it. She had picked up another cup of coffee and her notepad, and had settled in the police station's video room to go over tapes from the compound.
She had no idea she'd been there for over three hours until Reyes put a hand on her shoulder and she startled. "I'm sorry," the other agent said. "I didn't mean to scare you. I thought you might like a break."
Stark blinked and eyed her watch. "How long has it been?"
"About three hours. Why don't you call it a night, I'll look at the rest of these." The other woman took the remote from her as Stark stood and stretched. "I'll call you if I find anything."
"Thanks. I didn't notice it'd been so long," she replied, gathering her things and making to leave when Monica called her back. "What?" she said, looking at Reyes.
"I didn't mean to impose." The other agent seemed genuinely recalcitrant. "By coming here. I know how close you and Agent Doggett are. I'd never get in the way of that, or your case."
"I know." Stark exhaled. "It's just been a long couple of days."
Or weeks. Or months.
She slipped out of the room and made the short drive back to the hotel, sneaking in quietly. John was already out cold. She smiled to herself, undressing and more than grateful to collapse in a warm bed and catch a few hours of sleep.
She stirred two hours later when her partner's phone went off. Somehow, in the middle of the night, they'd ended up in the same bed, not all that uncommon for the two of them. It was in fact possible to be sleeping together and not be sleeping together, and sometimes she needed not to be alone. He always understood, and he'd kept her close, holding her tight. He reached over her to get the phone, and blearily answered. It was Reyes. She'd found something on the tapes.
The five of them gathered back in the small video room, wondering what could be worth waking them all up in the middle of the night. "There are some things here I want you all to see," Reyes explained, showing them footage of Absalom and another man loading a body into a truck.
"They've got a body in there," Skinner said needlessly.
"Who is it?" Scully asked.
Reyes bit her lip. "You can't tell from this angle."
"Well, then where's another angle?"
"This is the only angle I could find."
"Wait a minute. Stop it." Scully waited for her to pause the tape and leaned in a little closer to the monitor. "That man," she said, pointing to the unknown male. "I know that man."
"Good, because here he is again," Reyes said, and advanced the film to show the man entering one of the buildings in the compound.
"Who is he?" Skinner asked.
Scully turned to them. "His name is Jeremiah Smith. Agent Mulder knew him. He believed that he had the ability to heal people."
"What do you mean, heal people?" Doggett asked skeptically.
And then it all snapped into place in Scully's head. She knew how she'd seen what she'd seen. "Like he did Teresa Hoese," she said by way of explanation, as it all began to make sense.
"Well, whoever he is," Reyes said, "Take a look at this."
They all watched as Jeremiah Smith entered a building. To everyone's surprise, he passed through a shadow, and re-emerged as someone else. Stark just stared as she looked at a spitting image of the man standing by her side: her partner. Her very stunned partner, who said a little defensively, "What the hell just happened?"
"Wow," Scully said. "That's still Jeremiah Smith."
"The hell it was," John retorted. "That's me, and I never even went in that building."
"Exactly. We have to get back out there," she replied, and quickly left he room, leaving them all no choice but to follow. Rattled, the rest of them took after her, knowing the end of their search was just within reach. Everything they had worked for, everything they'd sacrificed, was leading up to this.
****
It was impossible for them not to have anticipation crackling in the air. As they arrived at the compound, Stark thought her heart was going a mile a minute. She followed dutifully alongside her partner, using every ounce of speed God had given her and instincts she had trained as a fugitive expert to find where or if Fox Mulder was in those woods.
Everything that had happened over the last few months -- the subway, the soul eater, the third eye -- was somewhere in the back of her mind. Everything that they had lost -- her partner's chance at the Director's chair, the corner office, the respectability, the being able to sleep at night -- was there too. This was the case on which everything had changed and she was going to finish it. To maybe save something for herself, for her partner, and for Agent Scully and Assistant Director Skinner and everyone who had ever cared about Mulder.
"You see anything?" she asked her partner, every muscle in her body tense.
"Not yet," he replied, then as they stepped into a clearing, she heard him speak again: "Son of a..."
She turned her flashlight in the direction he was looking, and then she saw the body. With another burst of speed she moved with him. It was definitely Fox Mulder. "It's him," she said needlessly, looking at the damage as she leaned down to check a pulse. Every second seemed to drag on as she waited. But finally, she looked up at her partner's questioning eyes and shook her head. Her throat closed up and she had to look away, climbing to her feet and closing her eyes. "Wasn't supposed to happen like this."
He put a tentative hand on her shoulder, though his face showed he felt the same pain that she did. "We knew this could be a possibility comin' in here," he reminded her quietly. "Somebody'd better get Agent Scully."
"I'll do it," the Assistant Director said softly, and turned and walked away, leaving them and a few agents standing there.
Despite the fact that they weren't exactly alone, Stark turned sadly to her partner, eyes wide with unshed tears. Sometimes this happened on fugitive cases, and it was always hard. But those were criminals for the most part. Not a fellow agent. Not a man who obviously had meant so much to many people. She was grateful when he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight.
They separated as they began to hear Scully's approach, and Stark did her best to wipe her eyes and put on a brave face. She didn't know how to break it to the woman.
"Where is he?" Scully asked, breathless. Before she could move, Doggett grabbed her and physically restrained her from approaching the body. He knew what she wanted to do.
"Agent Scully," he explained. "He's over there."
"How bad is he?" she demanded, struggling. "How bad is he? How bad is he hurt?" And before anyone could tell her, could find the words to say it, she broke free of his hold and ran the distance to Mulder's prone form. It was a heartwrenching thing to see, how such a proud and collected woman could be so hysterical.
"It's too late," he insisted, pulling her back from the body. But she broke loose again, and they both knew where she was headed. She was looking for Jeremiah Smith. Looking for him to heal Mulder. They didn't stop her. Maybe they couldn't bring themselves to take that hope away from her.
As they stood across from each other, over the body of the man they'd fought to find, it seemed neither of them knew what to say. There was nothing left. It had all been for nothing.
Spoilers: "This Is Not Happening"
Words: 8149
Rating: PG-13
Summary: The agents find themselves on the edge of their ultimate goal - finding Fox Mulder - but when they do, is it the end or the beginning?
"Oh, my fucking God."
His partner's use of the expletive caused John Doggett to arch an eyebrow, but he turned and looked at her. It wasn't as if he couldn't understand why; she only swore when she was upset or truly surprised, and what they were looking at was certainly both upsetting and shocking.
"This can't be what I think it is," Stark Patrick muttered, looking over his shoulder at the report in his hands. "Are we...could we have finally..."
"I don't know. And I don't wanna jump to conclusions." He stood from his desk and circled around it, grabbing his jacket. "Let's take this upstairs, see what the Assistant Director has to say."
She threw her jacket on and followed him, the two of them taking the elevator upstairs to Assistant Director Skinner's office. Stark let out a slow breath as she approached Skinner's secretary. "Kim, does he have a minute?" she asked. "It's kind of important." Understatement of the year.
The other woman nodded. "Go on in," she said.
Skinner was at his desk checking his phone messages when they walked in, and glanced up, arching an eyebrow at the worry on her face. "Agent Patrick," he said, then he looked past her at her partner. "Agent Doggett. Is there something I should know about?"
"We think so, sir." Her partner handed over the report. "This just crossed our desks this morning. There are some prominent parallels with Agent Mulder's disappearance."
The Assistant Director's entire gaze perked. It was the first break they'd had on Mulder in a long while. He glanced over the paperwork, and they could see the wheels turning in his brain as he made the same leaps of intelligence that they had just minutes earlier. He stopped and glanced at them. "Have you told Agent Scully about this?" he asked.
"Not yet. We thought we'd consult with you first."
Stark exhaled. "See if there was anything viable before we start raising her hopes. I think we can agree she's been through enough recently."
Her partner nodded, running a hand through his hair and rubbing the back of his neck. "If I remember the files correctly, this kid met Mulder and Scully years ago out in Oregon. They also know the young woman that he found in that field. Now I find that a little too close to home."
Skinner looked over the paperwork, perusing what they had brought him, before he looked at them both. "Tell me what you're thinking."
"I don't know yet, sir," Stark admitted, settling her hands on her hips as she tried to think. "Obviously we're going to have to go out there and see what's happening. I have a feeling that the person who's going to know what to do best is Agent Scully, to be honest." She bit her lip. "But if this woman can be returned? Then maybe there's some hope for Agent Mulder. And that's what this has all been for, hasn't it?"
Her sentiment hung in the air. Her partner had lost his career over the search for Fox Mulder. She had lost hers following him. Scully's life had been thrown into upheaval after Mulder's disappearance. Everyone had been spun out of control by Mulder's abduction, and now they had a chance to not only solve it but get him back. They had to take it, as much for themselves as for him.
They all exchanged a long look. This was the moment they had been waiting for, and yet, they were almost afraid to seize it.
"Call Agent Scully," Skinner advised. "But let me tell her."
****
All they could do was call Agent Scully and wait for her to arrive. Even between the two of them, the tension was thick. This was the case that had cost them everything. All Stark could think of was that moment when the thing they'd thought was Mulder went over that cliff in Arizona, and she knew in her gut that a world of confusion was about to be opened up for the both of them.
She watched her partner, sitting at Mulder's old desk, take out his nameplate and stare at it. He couldn't help but compare himself to the man he'd been chasing all this time. She put her hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently, having that same feeling that they were about to leap headfirst into something unpredictable.
And then Agent Scully walked in. "Hi," she said, a little breathless.
"Hi," he said, having quickly put the nameplate back at the sound of her approach.
"You said on the phone you'd received something urgent."
"You're right, we did. And I think it's really important you got right down here, Agent Scully. Thanks."
Scully looked nervous. "You going to tell me what it is?" she said promptingly.
"We passed it on to A.D. Skinner. We'd like for him to tell you."
"Then let's go."
The three of them walked in silence to the elevator, that took them back upstairs to the Assistant Director's office. Skinner had time to figure out how to broach this subject with Scully and met them in the outer office, obviously looking like he was not going to enjoy this conversation whatsoever. None of them could, because while they were offering hope, they were also allowing for utter failure.
"What? What is it?" Scully said promptingly.
"Let's go into my office," Skinner replied, and led them all inside. He waited for Scully to sit, Doggett leaving the other chair for his partner.
"All right, what's going on here?" Scully said flatly.
"A report came in last night from Montana. About a UFO encounter," Skinner replied, starting slowly.
"What kind of encounter?"
"A young man chased a bright object flying low across the sky. Tracked it all the way to a big field where the UFO disappeared...but where he claimed he saw an alien."
Doggett glanced off, knowing what was coming. Stark wondered why Skinner didn't just spare the woman and spit it out already. But then again, he knew Scully far better than she did. Scully, however, did not look impressed. "Assistant Director, I've got drawers full of reports that begin just like that. Are you going to tell me what's so important about this case?" she asked pointedly.
"Young man's named Richie Szalay. UFO nut from Bellefleur, Oregon. You and Agent Mulder met him out there last spring."
And then Scully turned on both of them, her glance as if to wonder why these two colleagues she was coming to trust hadn't told her something so important. Her voice broke as she said, "Are you trying to tell me this has something to do with Mulder?"
Doggett exhaled. "He's trying to tell you that it might."
"Richie Szalay didn't find an alien last night," Skinner explained. "He found a woman. A woman whose name you will remember. Teresa Hoese."
Now Scully was beginning to put it all together. "Teresa Hoese was the young mother who was abducted the night before Agent Mulder was."
"And who was returned last night."
"Returned?"
Everyone in the room except her shared a glance. This was the most painful part, but also the most important. Planting the hope that might be all too fleeting. Skinner swallowed and told her.
"Hanging on to life by a thread."
She stared at him, and then it hit her: what he was saying, what it meant. The likelihood that Mulder could, in fact, be alive, and just as soon be dead.
****
St. Jean Hospital
Helena, Montana
As the daughter of a doctor, Stark should have been more comfortable in the hospital than she was. Yet as she walked with her partner, Scully, and Skinner, she was decidedly uncomfortable, perhaps because she knew what they were about to see was someone in a horrible state. Being related to an expert medical researcher didn't give her an iron stomach.
The fact that the doctor had just been alerted to their arrival didn't exactly inspire confidence either. He looked pained. "I just wish someone would tell me these things because this woman is in no condition..."
"What is her condition?" Scully asked.
"She's circling the drain. Twelve years, I have never seen anything near this level of mistreatment."
Doggett spoke up then, asserting his natural instinct to take control of a situation. "Doctor, it's important we see the victim and talk to her if we can about what happened."
The doctor nodded his assent. "Just promise me, whoever did this, you guys will do everything in your power to catch them," he said, leading them into a room in the ICU. "By rights, this young woman shouldn't even be alive."
He was not exaggerating in the slightest. Stark saw Scully go white at the sight of Teresa Hoese hooked up to more tubes and wires than one could fathom possible with extensive bruising on her face. She wasn't exactly comfortable either, and tried to subtly grab for her partner's hand. He held gently onto her as she felt her stomach lurch. She had to look away as the doctor continued to explain.
"The medics said she asked for her baby last night but she hasn't said a word otherwise. I suspect it's all she's holding on to. What's upsetting is...it's almost like someone was experimenting on her."
"What exactly did they do to her?" Skinner asked.
"Inside her cheeks, there's tissue damage in a linear pattern. Her chest was cut into and organ tissue in her abdomen's scooped away. In the X-rays I see damage to the soft palate."
Even Scully was losing her nerve now, avoiding his eyes as she put a hand to her mouth, horrified. "In the X-rays," she started slowly, "did you see anything else? Foreign objects?"
"I'm not sure what you mean."
"Little pieces of metal. Implants."
"No, I didn't."
Maybe Teresa Hoese wasn't exactly like Mulder after all. Before they could debate the differences and similarities, the door opened and two cops were there, handing a police report to John. Stark leaned over to see what he was reading, and he glanced up after a moment. "You're welcome to stay here and discuss foreign objects but...looks like we got a suspect." He snapped the file shut. "I wanna go talk to this witness myself."
****
Richie Szalay was pretty much the kid they'd expected him to be. Kids who spent their time watching UFO documentaries obviously hadn't yet found their place in the world. He was intimidated enough by the sheer size of Doggett and Skinner when the four FBI agents turned up on his doorstep.
"Richie?" Doggett asked.
"Yeah."
The FBI agent flashed his badge. "John Doggett. I'm an FBI agent," he explained. "This is Agent Patrick, Agent Scully, Assistant Director Skinner, our boss. You mind if we come in?" he asked, already moving his way inside the house.
"Dude, you're already in," Richie protested, but his attention was drawn to Scully as she passed him. "But I know you," he said to her. "Do I know you?"
"You do, Richie. From Oregon. We met late last spring, you remember?"
"Richie, if you live in Oregon," Skinner added, "What are you doing in Montana?"
"My buddy, Gary, right? He was abducted," the kid explained. He looked to Scully again. "Right before your partner. I came looking for him."
Stark was moving with her partner, finding herself drawn to the various photos and articles about UFO's taped to the walls. It reminded her of how she'd used to do the same thing with Orioles clippings when she was a kid, until she'd had a whole wall in her room pasted with the stuff. Obviously, Richie was as devoted to aliens as she was to her hometown baseball team.
Her partner wasn't quite so impressed. "So," he said, "you just came out here on a lark?"
"No. I was following the news."
"The news?"
"What we're looking at, John," Stark said helpfully.
Richie nodded, pointing at the wall in front of them. "All, all that's in the last two weeks. Yeah, I go on these Internet chat rooms to talk about sightings and junk. After Oregon there wasn't a whole lot but then all of a sudden in Montana..." He hesitated, a strangled sound coming from his throat. "I...I never...I...I never thought I'd find Mrs. Hoese like that. Not in a million years."
"No, I'm sure you didn't," Stark replied.
Her partner turned away from the wall and eyed the kid skeptically. "Richie, when you found that woman's body you said you saw somebody with her. You told the police it was an alien." He fixed a tough look on the young man. "You know what a moulage casting is, Richie?" he inquired, and when the kid shook his head, her partner's voice took on a harsh tone. "It's what the cops take when they find shoe prints. They do these plaster castings and the ones they got from the field that night were from nine and a half Nikes. You ever hear of an alien in Nikes?"
"Doesn't mean it wasn't," Richie replied defensively.
"Did it ever occur to you it wasn't an alien, but a man?"
"Then what about his spaceship?"
John opened his mouth to respond to that, but he could feel Scully's eyes boring into the side of his head. He turned to look at her and saw the disagreement in her eyes. He turned and walked out of the room, the senior agent on his heels. Stark knew she didn't have anything to add to that disagreement, and her partner didn't need her to stand up for him. Instead she just glanced at the article wall again.
"What about you, Agent Patrick?" She turned at the sound of Richie's voice, saw the imploring look in his eyes. "You believe me, don't you?"
She thought for a few moments about everything that she'd seen so far on the X-Files. The man who wasn't Mulder, the organism they'd encountered in the subway, the thing that had eaten her partner's death. Her perceptions of what was possible were changing every day.
She paused. "Let's just say I'm listening."
****
It had been an emotionally draining day for everyone involved, so she was more than relieved to see a hotel bed at the end of it. Closing the door to the room behind herself, she glanced at her partner with a chuckle. "You know, I'm surprised the Assistant Director hasn't said anything yet."
He glanced up at her, loosening his tie. "Said anything about what?"
"Well first he finds me in your living room at two in the morning and now we're sharing a hotel room again," she said with a laugh as she hung her jacket up in the closet and loosened her collar, thinking back to the conversation she'd had with Skinner on the Tipet case. He'd seemed to understand her bond with her partner.
He snorted softly. "I don't think the Assistant Director's the kinda guy who'd waste his time."
"I doubt it," she agreed, settling on one of the two beds in the room and stretching her legs out. She watched him for a moment before she finally voiced the question on her mind. "You don't think it's true, do you?"
"I'm not seeing any evidence yet for me to believe. Just a kid who saw something and he's jumping to conclusions." He looked at her, reading her eyes before he came to sit beside her. "What do you think?"
"I don't know," she admitted, running a hand through her hair. "On one hand I want it to be true because I want us to have a chance at finding Agent Mulder. On the other, I don't want to, not if he's going to come back like that." She paused uncomfortably, before she held his gaze. "If I haven't told you recently, John, I'm very lucky to have you in my life."
She didn't need to say it, he already knew how much she cared about him and appreciated him. But he knew why she was saying it. "I'm glad to have you too," he told her, taking her hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze. They both knew they had to follow this case to its end, and more than likely, wouldn't like what they found when they got there.
But as long as they had each other, they'd make it through. Not unlike, no doubt, how Mulder and Scully had thought not so long ago.
****
The idea had come to him that night as they'd sat up discussing the case, or what little of it there was. He'd known Agent Monica Reyes for years, since she'd worked his son's disappearance in New York, and wondered if her specialization in ritualistic crimes, to say nothing of her different views on the paranormal, might help them at least figure out if this was a serial killer or something seriously abnormal. Stark couldn't argue with him there, and he'd called her first thing in the morning. Reyes had agreed to meet them at the site where Teresa Hoese had been recovered, and they'd spent their morning walking her through what they presumed had happened. Now they were waiting for Scully and Skinner to join them.
Stark scrubbed a hand over her face, pacing a little. The entire morning had unsettled her. She'd heard that the woman had gone missing from the hospital and didn't have the first clue where to start. The presence of Reyes wasn't encouraging either. Stark didn't really have anything against the woman, but the two almost always disagreed, with Reyes being a free spirit and Stark thinking along the same logical, hard-bitten lines as her partner. Not to mention that she was incapable from feeling at least a little like the alpha female whenever another woman was around her partner, a strange nervous habit she hadn't been able to break herself of. Add that to her already being on edge and she was feeling more than a little moody.
"You having a bad morning, Stark?" her partner asked her, eyeing her suspiciously.
She nodded a little. "I didn't sleep too well last night, and this is not news I want to wake up to," she admitted. "But I'll work through it. We all have bad days."
"And none of it has to do with Agent Reyes being here," he deadpanned.
Stark fixed her partner with a look. "She and I tend to disagree far more than we agree," she said. "It happens. It's not like we hate each other."
"She likes you well enough." He eyed her right back. "If it was gonna make you uncomfortable, you shoulda said something and I wouldn't have called her."
"No. I'm not going to let my personal feelings keep us from getting help that might recover Agent Mulder." She shook her head. "It's just me being my usual neurotic self, John, that's all."
He gave her a knowing smile, one that said he wasn't going to push her about it but he could guess how she was feeling well enough. "I've only got one partner," he reminded her seriously, as they saw a sedan pulling up to meet them, with Assistant Director Skinner at the wheel.
Scully seemed to get out of the passenger side before the car had even come to a complete stop. "Did you find her?" she asked as she met them.
He shook his head. "No."
"No? I don't understand. You called us all the way out here."
"We thought it best to call in some help," Stark explained, using the 'we' even though it had been her partner's idea. In her eyes they stood together in everything.
To get another point of view," he added.
Scully was only further confused. "Another point of view? We have a patient missing, Agent Doggett."
"You should just hear her out."
"Hear who out?"
He began to lead them up the hill to where Reyes was waiting. "Her name's Monica Reyes," he explained. "I worked a case with her once." Stark noted he obviously didn't say which case; she couldn't recall him ever mentioning Luke to Scully or Skinner, which meant he, too, was having trust issues of his own. Though not as if she could fault him, not with something that intimate.
"She's FBI?" Skinner said skeptically.
"Yeah," he explained. "She's got some expertise I thought we might take advantage of."
"Expertise in what?" Scully asked.
"She's got her Masters in religious studies. Her specialization is ritualistic crime."
The senior agent didn't look impressed. "Ritualistic crime?" she echoed. "Are we working the same case here?"
Obviously this new idea of theirs wasn't going over very well, and he knew it. He gave her a grim half-smile and a dry chuckle as they made it to the top of the hill, where Reyes was finishing a cigarette. Stark couldn't stand the habit, but she didn't say anything. She'd let her partner make the introductions.
"Agent Reyes," he said, getting the other woman's attention. He nodded toward their colleagues. "Agent Scully, Assistant Director Skinner...Monica Reyes."
"Hi," she said, in a tone far too cheerful given the time of day and situation, with a grin and a small wave more appropriate to a Miss America pageant. They both just looked impassively back at her. Stark bit her tongue, knowing it was just her old-fashioned ways that made her want to laugh. Reyes was undeterred. "Beautiful country out here," she said, stubbing out her cigarette. "I know it's not very FBI of me, but I'm really trying to quit."
"Agent Reyes." Stark did speak up then, seeing the irritation on the faces of her colleagues. "It might be best to get to the point."
Monica glanced at her, seeming chastized with a small nod, and then turned her attention back to Scully and Skinner. "So," she said, "Agent Doggett's been walking me through the case. Interesting."
"Interesting?" Scully echoed skeptically.
"What do you think happened?"
Stark saw the 'you can't be serious' look between Scully and Skinner, and chewed on her lower lip, looking at her partner as if to say 'well?' Scully's tone continued to drip with disbelief as she said, "Isn't that what you're here to tell us?"
"Oh, I have my own thoughts," Reyes replied. "It's just what we think happened and what actually happened aren't always the same thing, but not altogether insignificant, either."
"I'm sorry, this feels like therapy."
"What happened being different from what we want to have happened," Reyes clarified.
"What who wants to have happened?"
"Well, I'm told this case involves you."
Smooth, Agent Reyes, Stark thought sarcastically. Even after months of working on the X-Files, she and her partner were still trying to earn Scully's trust, and she'd watched the new agent walk right into it. Just as she'd treated them before, Scully regarded Reyes warily, instantly on the defensive. "It may involve someone close to me," she retorted. "Can we stick to the facts, please?"
Reyes wisely backed off and did as she was asked. "Well, it's pretty clear that the woman who was found out here did not inflict her own injuries. That she was dropped here by someone and whoever it was cared about her enough not to kill her."
"Did you happen to know the peculiar nature of her injuries?"
"Yes. They were peculiar, but not altogether different from your typical cult ritualistic abuse."
"Agent Reyes, we're dealing with abductions here," Skinner corrected. "Not by any cult.
"Okay. Good. I mean, if it's not."
"But you think that it is," Scully replied.
"Well, I go on what I know, of course but I try to stay, you know, open."
"So, what do you think happened?"
"Well, I'm told that Agent Mulder and the other people who were taken were true believers. People one hundred percent convinced in the abduction phenomenon."
"If this is about these people staging their own abductions..." Skinner started warily, guessing where the conversation might be headed.
"No, it's about people coming together," Reyes corrected. "Like minds as a group."
Scully arched an eyebrow. "So you're basically saying Agent Mulder has joined some sort of UFO cult."
"Call it a group."
"For what?"
"Well, we've all heard the news stories about transport to a mothership, the idea of a giant motherwheel. The whole Heaven's Gate thing."
"I see."
But Scully was clearly unconvinced, unconvinced and agitated. The tension was thick between the five of them, and Reyes hadn't exactly impressed anyone with her casual ramblings on the subject at hand. Stark shot another look at her partner, imploring him to restore some sense of order to the discussion. She wouldn't speak for him; she hadn't called the other agent in, and if she opened her mouth, she might say something she'd regret. She fixed John with a glance and he stepped in instead.
"It'd make sense," he protested. "The leader of the cult leaves this woman out here to die. Learning she's still alive he comes back to kidnap her again for fear of exposure. It'd make sense, too that if we find this guy, maybe we find Mulder."
Scully stared at him. "Are you asking me to believe this?" she said incredulously, as if she couldn't believe he was going to go out on that limb.
"No," Reyes interrupted, correcting them both. "That's not what I said. I don't think he left her to die. I don't think she's dead."
"Based on what?" Scully retorted.
"Nothing, really. It's just a feeling."
That was all that they had dragged Scully and Skinner out there for, it seemed. Nothing in particular. The senior agent had heard enough, and turned and walked away. Maybe feeling responsible, Doggett followed after her, and Stark, in her usual way, followed after her partner, as much to avoid Agent Reyes as because she always followed her partner. She knew there was about to be an argument and it wasn't exactly unfounded.
"What are you walking away for?" he asked Scully. "It makes some kind of sense."
Scully turned on him. "I'm glad you agree with her, Agent Doggett, because I'm not even sure that she agrees with you. Your partner certainly doesn't agree with her. Nor has she made any sense for me of how the doctor who removed Teresa Hoese from the hospital last night seems, by all accounts to have been in two places at once."
He arched an eyebrow. "I know where you're going with this, Agent Scully, but if you're going to tell me this is another alien bounty hunter, this is where we part company."
Her expression was cold. "Enjoy your new company." She turned and walked away, and frustrated, he turned and looked at his partner. Stark knew that he was looking for some reassurance that he hadn't just complicated things further. But they also prided themselves on their honesty, and she wouldn't lie to him. "I'm here for you," she reminded him gently. "But nobody said anything about having to believe this."
She thought back on her words to Richie. Maybe she was starting to believe more than she thought.
****
Hours later, after everyone else had left, the two of them were still standing in that field. Their relationship had been uneasy all day, with Stark still smarting over the arrival of Agent Reyes, and John looking for anything at all that they could hold onto. Finally, she sighed and sat down where she stood, rubbing at the back of her neck.
"I don't know what to do, John." She exhaled. "We're not going to find anything else out here."
"There has to be something. Anything that's going to point us in the right direction." He came to stand beside her.
"We've been out here for a day and a half and at some point the crime scene becomes just a crime scene," she replied. She glanced up at him. "I think you're pushing a little hard."
"Of course I'm pushing hard. This is what we came down here for." He eyed her. "You're still annoyed with me."
"I'm not annoyed with you." She sighed and patted the space beside her, waiting for him to sit down next to her so she could look him in the eye. "I'm not annoyed with you, John. I'm just not thrilled about how everything is going today. We've got our only live victim missing, and then I have to sit through a completely pointless spiel about nothing. Do you know, if she acted that way where I'd come from, no one would ever take her seriously. And it just wears on my nerves. We brought Agent Scully out here and got her upset for nothing. And that's exactly what we've got, not a damn thing." She bit her lip. "Maybe we screwed up, coming out here."
"You think so?" he asked, placing his hand on her back and rubbing gently. He could feel the tension in her muscles.
She looked out into the distance. "I don't know," she said. "But I don't know what else to do."
"I don't either," he admitted. "But as long as we're together, at least we've got something." He took her hand and squeezed gently. "I never meant to make you upset, Stark. Last thing I wanna do. But you know there's no one I need other than you."
She smiled grimly. "I meant what I said," she said softly. "I'm here for you. And I'm gonna help you find him."
****
It was going to get worse before it got better. No sooner had they finished dinner and she was sitting down to take another look at her notes than Reyes called, this time with something substantive: a body she'd recovered in the field, which happened to be Richie's missing friend Gary, looking just as worse for wear as the young woman they'd recovered earlier. It was all starting to add up.
Stark had an aversion to autopsies, something she'd been working to overcome as soon as she set her sights on being a homicide detective, but since she hadn't gotten that far, it was still something that bothered her. That meant while everyone else was at the hospital, she got the unlucky task of fetching Richie to ID his friend. As they sat in the police car on the way to the hospital, she tried to think of what to say to him that wasn't a line.
"He's dead?" Richie said. "How could he be dead? That's not...that's not what happened."
Stark bit her lip. "Agent Reyes saw two men nearby. It's possible they could have had something to do with it," she said, thinking back to the casting they'd found the first time and wondering. "Whatever's going on, Richie, we'll figure it out. I promise you, we don't give up easily."
He glanced at her. "This is all new to you, isn't it?" he asked. "I saw it on your face when we met. You think we're making all this up. Your partner does."
"No," she replied. "I...I'm a cop, Richie. I deal with the evidence in front of my face. And there are some things I haven't seen enough to prove. And there are some things I've seen that I can't explain, but that doesn't make it any less real." She bit her lip. "My partner's the same way. We think pretty much alike."
"You two are buddies, aren't you."
"Yeah, we are," she said with the barest hint of a smile. "We go back a long time."
"I noticed, the way you look at him..." The kid shook his head, figuring it was wise to drop the subject. As they neared the hospital it began to dawn on him, and he began to sober. Looking at his hands, he said, "Gary was my best friend."
Stark nodded, swallowing as she reached over and took his hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. It was all she could do.
She let the policeman walk him into the autopsy room, and instead perched herself on one of the chairs in the waiting room, where she'd sit until someone came to get her and explain to her what they'd found out. It was a routine she had perfected with her partner years ago. A minute or two later she saw Richie, white as a sheet, stumble out and had to look away. Human or alien, something had taken the kid's friend from him, and she couldn't begin to imagine that kind of pain.
She was still sitting like that when John came to fetch her a few minutes later. "Stark, you okay?" he asked her, looking down at her.
"Yeah, John." She straightened in her seat and met his eyes. "Just thinking. What've we got?"
"So far, it looks like he suffered the same injuries as Mrs. Hoese," he explained, sitting down beside her. "And what Agent Reyes saw might explain that casting we picked up when we found her. These two guys left her for dead and they did the same to this kid."
"That's what I was wondering," she admitted. "Or at least they were there both times."
"We won't know for sure until Agent Scully finishes the autopsy." He bit his lip and looked at her. "She's in tears in there but she's insisting on doing it."
"She has her reasons. And better her than some doctor here we don't trust," she figured. "Everybody's got a cross to bear, right?"
"Yeah, I know. I just worry about her."
She saw the worry in his eyes. "So then we can just sit here and be mutually uncomfortable?" she said, trying as usual to smooth things over with her not-really-great sense of humor.
He laughed softly at that, and they sat there in silence for a moment more before Agent Reyes joined them. She looked at the both of them for a long moment, before she said, "You're hurting for her. Agent Scully."
"Yeah, well, if you'd been through what we've seen her go through," Stark replied, thinking back to just their last case, and how she'd seen the senior agent break down over fears about her pregnancy.
Her partner nodded slowly. "I don't know how she's doing it in there. With everything she's feeling. What she's afraid of."
"You know all too well."
Stark knew exactly what she was getting at and gave her a sharp look. "Agent Reyes..." she warned.
"Let's leave the past in the past," John replied.
But the other woman kept pushing, yet again. "It was your fear, too. Those three days we looked for your son. The fear of finding what we did," she said.
Stark finally turned on her. "What is the goddamn point in bringing this up, exactly?" she snapped slightly.
Reyes met her eyes. "I understand. That's why you're so determined to find Mulder alive." She didn't have to qualify; Stark had her own cross to bear about what had happened to Luke. Namely, that she hadn't been there at all. Just like with everyone else she had lost.
But John just shifted his jaw, clearly uncomfortable with the whole situation. "It's why I can't stand here and listen to all this mumbo jumbo about spaceships," he replied.
"I saw what I saw, John. I'm not going to lie to you. But whatever it was, it led to this. It's the man I saw in the field." Reyes handed him a photo and a piece of paper, Stark leaning in to get a closer look as she explained what they were looking at. "He goes by the name Absalom. A religious zealot who escaped a shootout in Idaho, where he was the nominal leader of a doomsday cult who believed aliens would take over the world at the millennium. Disgraced when they didn't, he fled and tried a more ecumenical scam: credit card fraud. I ran the plate on the pickup truck. It's registered to a farm about an hour from here."
Doggett's whole body straightened. There was determination in his eyes. "Then what are we waiting for?"
****
Stark couldn't remember the last time she'd been involved in a raid. Those didn't happen every day. But there they were, discussing how to take the compound that Reyes had led them to. This was something she knew a little more about, working with her partner and Assistant Director Skinner to devise the best possible entry strategy.
But when it came to the actual execution, she did what she was always inclined to do: stick by her partner. That paid off as everything degenerated into panic. Trying to sequester almost fifty people was difficult, but she managed, with the help of her partner and the Assistant Director. Then, just as she was catching her breath, she turned and almost walked into Monica Reyes.
"Agent Scully needs to see you," she said. "All of you. Right away."
No one needed to tell them twice. Stark bolted across the compound in search of the senior agent. What she saw when she ran into the room made her skid to a halt, mouth hanging open slightly: Teresa Hoese, last seen in critical condition in the hospital, now completely healed.
Needless to say, they needed answers. And knew just who to get them from.
It didn't surprise Stark in the slightest that Agent Scully wanted to be in on the interrogation alongside them; she had a stake in the case and she was also the most knowledgeable about the subject matter. Once they had gotten Absalom situated in the interrogation room, Stark just took up her usual place against the wall, arms folded, eyes and ears alert as she listened to her colleagues do what they did best.
"I said I can't explain why it happens," the man protested. "Or how. Only where."
Doggett was unamused. "I got forty-six of your followers rounded up out there at your compound. You make me go to them for a straight answer, it's only going to make it worse for you."
"How many times can I tell you?"
He snorted. "Night's early. Coffee's hot."
"The ships come in, drop the abductees all messed up. I go and get them so I can help them."
"Just like you helped Teresa Hoese when you left her for dead?"
"Agent Doggett," Scully interrupted then, her tone gentle. It was the classic good cop-bad cop routine, the same dance every team of partners learned to do. Stark's lips quirked as Scully crossed to Absalom looking every bit imploring. "You, uh... you say that these abductees are returned with severe injuries. But that doesn't fit the pattern of any alien abduction model."
"That's what I'm trying to explain. I predicted there would be an alien invasion at the Millennium. I was right, it turns out. 'Cause that's when this all started."
Scully let out a slow breath. "Sir...given the criminal charges against you, you couldn't be a less credible witness. So stop trying to validate your theories and just give us the truth."
"I'm telling you the truth. I only want to help these people."
"So these video cameras that you have around your compound," she retorted, gesturing to a stack of videotapes, "how do they help?"
"Abductees live in fear of being taken again. The cameras give them a sense of security."
"Or makes them afraid to leave," Doggett pointed out, causing Absalom to look away from him, obviously intimidated. Stark noted that, keeping it to herself, wondering what the man had to hide.
But Scully pushed on. "Do you have videotape of how you happened to heal Teresa Hoese?" she asked.
"No."
Her voice was soft then, almost a whisper. "I asked you to give me the truth." Moving toward the table, she produced another photo from her pocket. Mulder's ID photo. Asking the question they all wanted the answer to but were all afraid to ask. "Do you have videotape of this man?" she asked him. He studied it for a long moment, but then shook his head, and Stark swore she could see Scully's heart breaking in her eyes.
Was it another dead end? Or was there something left to salvage?
She and her partner exchanged a look, and she nodded her head toward the door to indicate she wanted a word. Once they stepped outside, she looked at him. "He's intimidated as hell by you," she said. "You're pushing him and he's backing off. He obviously knows more than he's saying."
"Alright, then how do you prove it?"
"We'd better see what really is on all those tapes."
****
Any good detective had spent more than their fair share of time looking at videotape, be it news footage, surveillance cameras, or any other source. Finally, this was something Stark could do and feel like she was actually good at it. She had picked up another cup of coffee and her notepad, and had settled in the police station's video room to go over tapes from the compound.
She had no idea she'd been there for over three hours until Reyes put a hand on her shoulder and she startled. "I'm sorry," the other agent said. "I didn't mean to scare you. I thought you might like a break."
Stark blinked and eyed her watch. "How long has it been?"
"About three hours. Why don't you call it a night, I'll look at the rest of these." The other woman took the remote from her as Stark stood and stretched. "I'll call you if I find anything."
"Thanks. I didn't notice it'd been so long," she replied, gathering her things and making to leave when Monica called her back. "What?" she said, looking at Reyes.
"I didn't mean to impose." The other agent seemed genuinely recalcitrant. "By coming here. I know how close you and Agent Doggett are. I'd never get in the way of that, or your case."
"I know." Stark exhaled. "It's just been a long couple of days."
Or weeks. Or months.
She slipped out of the room and made the short drive back to the hotel, sneaking in quietly. John was already out cold. She smiled to herself, undressing and more than grateful to collapse in a warm bed and catch a few hours of sleep.
She stirred two hours later when her partner's phone went off. Somehow, in the middle of the night, they'd ended up in the same bed, not all that uncommon for the two of them. It was in fact possible to be sleeping together and not be sleeping together, and sometimes she needed not to be alone. He always understood, and he'd kept her close, holding her tight. He reached over her to get the phone, and blearily answered. It was Reyes. She'd found something on the tapes.
The five of them gathered back in the small video room, wondering what could be worth waking them all up in the middle of the night. "There are some things here I want you all to see," Reyes explained, showing them footage of Absalom and another man loading a body into a truck.
"They've got a body in there," Skinner said needlessly.
"Who is it?" Scully asked.
Reyes bit her lip. "You can't tell from this angle."
"Well, then where's another angle?"
"This is the only angle I could find."
"Wait a minute. Stop it." Scully waited for her to pause the tape and leaned in a little closer to the monitor. "That man," she said, pointing to the unknown male. "I know that man."
"Good, because here he is again," Reyes said, and advanced the film to show the man entering one of the buildings in the compound.
"Who is he?" Skinner asked.
Scully turned to them. "His name is Jeremiah Smith. Agent Mulder knew him. He believed that he had the ability to heal people."
"What do you mean, heal people?" Doggett asked skeptically.
And then it all snapped into place in Scully's head. She knew how she'd seen what she'd seen. "Like he did Teresa Hoese," she said by way of explanation, as it all began to make sense.
"Well, whoever he is," Reyes said, "Take a look at this."
They all watched as Jeremiah Smith entered a building. To everyone's surprise, he passed through a shadow, and re-emerged as someone else. Stark just stared as she looked at a spitting image of the man standing by her side: her partner. Her very stunned partner, who said a little defensively, "What the hell just happened?"
"Wow," Scully said. "That's still Jeremiah Smith."
"The hell it was," John retorted. "That's me, and I never even went in that building."
"Exactly. We have to get back out there," she replied, and quickly left he room, leaving them all no choice but to follow. Rattled, the rest of them took after her, knowing the end of their search was just within reach. Everything they had worked for, everything they'd sacrificed, was leading up to this.
****
It was impossible for them not to have anticipation crackling in the air. As they arrived at the compound, Stark thought her heart was going a mile a minute. She followed dutifully alongside her partner, using every ounce of speed God had given her and instincts she had trained as a fugitive expert to find where or if Fox Mulder was in those woods.
Everything that had happened over the last few months -- the subway, the soul eater, the third eye -- was somewhere in the back of her mind. Everything that they had lost -- her partner's chance at the Director's chair, the corner office, the respectability, the being able to sleep at night -- was there too. This was the case on which everything had changed and she was going to finish it. To maybe save something for herself, for her partner, and for Agent Scully and Assistant Director Skinner and everyone who had ever cared about Mulder.
"You see anything?" she asked her partner, every muscle in her body tense.
"Not yet," he replied, then as they stepped into a clearing, she heard him speak again: "Son of a..."
She turned her flashlight in the direction he was looking, and then she saw the body. With another burst of speed she moved with him. It was definitely Fox Mulder. "It's him," she said needlessly, looking at the damage as she leaned down to check a pulse. Every second seemed to drag on as she waited. But finally, she looked up at her partner's questioning eyes and shook her head. Her throat closed up and she had to look away, climbing to her feet and closing her eyes. "Wasn't supposed to happen like this."
He put a tentative hand on her shoulder, though his face showed he felt the same pain that she did. "We knew this could be a possibility comin' in here," he reminded her quietly. "Somebody'd better get Agent Scully."
"I'll do it," the Assistant Director said softly, and turned and walked away, leaving them and a few agents standing there.
Despite the fact that they weren't exactly alone, Stark turned sadly to her partner, eyes wide with unshed tears. Sometimes this happened on fugitive cases, and it was always hard. But those were criminals for the most part. Not a fellow agent. Not a man who obviously had meant so much to many people. She was grateful when he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight.
They separated as they began to hear Scully's approach, and Stark did her best to wipe her eyes and put on a brave face. She didn't know how to break it to the woman.
"Where is he?" Scully asked, breathless. Before she could move, Doggett grabbed her and physically restrained her from approaching the body. He knew what she wanted to do.
"Agent Scully," he explained. "He's over there."
"How bad is he?" she demanded, struggling. "How bad is he? How bad is he hurt?" And before anyone could tell her, could find the words to say it, she broke free of his hold and ran the distance to Mulder's prone form. It was a heartwrenching thing to see, how such a proud and collected woman could be so hysterical.
"It's too late," he insisted, pulling her back from the body. But she broke loose again, and they both knew where she was headed. She was looking for Jeremiah Smith. Looking for him to heal Mulder. They didn't stop her. Maybe they couldn't bring themselves to take that hope away from her.
As they stood across from each other, over the body of the man they'd fought to find, it seemed neither of them knew what to say. There was nothing left. It had all been for nothing.