| Title: First Names Rating: PG Copyright: The X-Files and its affiliated characters belong to Chris Carter, 1013 Productions, and the Fox Network. Summary: After Scully goes missing, Mulder must learn to deal with life without her, and then again, maybe not. The presence of the man standing next to her sent chills down here spine. She tried to look at him. She tried to catch a glimpse of his face, anything to help her identify him but there was nothing. Could he be a man she had dealt with earlier or a complete stranger? The basement was dark, pitch black. She could smell his scent though she could not see him. He stunk like garbage mixed with blood. She tried to move her hands around but they were bound together by wire. She winced as she felt the wire dig into her skin. Her ankles, bound by the same material, were cut and bloody. She felt alone. No one was there to help her. No one could save her from her inevitable future. He had taken her for one reason – Mulder. He was her partner, her best friend. She trusted him with her life but now she was going to give her life for him. She seemed to have been thinking about him a lot since she had been there. She thought about all the things she wouldn’t be able to tell him before she died. She thought about what he would think. Would he be able to forgive her for what she was doing? Would he blame himself for her demise? She may have trusted him with her life but she had never trusted him with her heart. She wondered if he would ever know exactly how much she cared about him. As a child, and even now, she had dreamed of having a normal life. She dreamed of having a husband, children, and a house with a white picket fence. She tried blaming Mulder for the absence of all these things but then decided that in reality he gave her more joy than any of those things ever could. But now she had no way of letting him know. She wanted to speak to him more than anything. To just say those final words to him and then she would be content to die. But even if she had the chance, would she really have the courage to tell him? “I’ll ask you again, are you going to call him and tell him to come here?” The man asked. He stood only inches from Scully but she still couldn’t see him. “No.” She answered quickly. Her throat was course, her voice off key. She hadn’t had anything to drink in two days and hadn’t had something to eat in almost a week and a half. She tried to ignore her hungry stomach but the harder she tried, the more it hurt. Even in the short time span she could tell she had lost weight. Her clothes felt bigger, her Jeans almost falling down every time she tried to move around. “You know that I have the power to kill you.” The man said. His voice was solid and yet unlike his character. He sounded like a gentleman, someone kind and yet there he was, killing her slowly. Scully felt something cool press against her forehead. “I could kill you in an instant.” A slight clicking sound filled the silent, echoing room. She realized that the cool feeling on her head was the barrel of a gun. “Or I could wait until you starve to death.” She swallowed. She knew he could see her fear. “Tell me where he is.” He sighed and lowered the gun. “I know you better than you think. I watched you and Mulder. You can see it in the way that you look at him. The way you talk to him.” “You don’t know me!” She shouted. He reached over and slapped her hard across the face with the back of his hand. She winced but quickly regained her composure. “But now you must be asking yourself if he loves you back. And you’ll never know if you don’t ask him, now will you?” A silent tear rolled down her cheek. It burned her face but it didn’t stop her from crying more. She wanted to wipe it from her face but with hands tied it made it impossible. She had never cried much in her life but realizing she would never see him again gave her a feeling she had never known before. * * * * Meanwhile, Mulder looked at the file for the hundredth time. Each time he hoped he would see something he had missed before but he never found it. It was always the same file with the same information. She was gone and someone unknown to him had taken her. It had been three weeks and she couldn’t be found. He had tried every avenue of investigations. He had contacted all of his contacts but no one knew anything. All the leads he thought might lead to her had really led to dead ends. He felt lost without her. His mind was occupied by her 24/7. He never slept. He hardly ate. He needed to find her, to hold her in his embrace. Everyone had told him to forget about her. They said it would be easier for him if he took her for dead. But he couldn’t believe that. She was stronger than anyone he had ever known and she could survive. He began to imagine her face, to smell her femenine scent when someone knocked at the door. “Come in.” He said looking up. The door opened and Skinner walked in. Mulder pulled off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Skinner took a seat in front of Mulder’s desk. He took in Mulder’s messed up hair, his wrinkled suit, and the dark circles under his eyes. “You can’t do this to yourself, Agent Mulder.” Skinner said. “No. I can’t do this to Scully.” Mulder responded. “Do what? What is it that you think you’re doing to her?” “I won’t give up on her. She’s out there and I know it. I can feel it.” “And what if she’s not out there? What if this feeling of yours is wrong? What if you search and search and never find her? What if she turns up dead…like your sister?” Mulder looked at him sharply. He blinked, trying to keep his tears from falling. “She knows I couldn’t go through that kind of pain again. She wouldn’t leave me. She can’t.” “I know you don’t want to believe it but you can’t go on like this. Have you looked at yourself in the mirror recently, Mulder? You’re a mess. She wouldn’t want you to live like this. What if…” “Stop! Stop it!” Mulder shouted. “I’m not giving up. I’ll keep searching for her even if it takes a lifetime.” Skinner stood and put a hand on Mulder’s shoulder. “Off the record, Agent Mulder, I believe in you and Scully. I'm not saying that I think she's alive but I think it's a possibilty but there are limits on how far you can go. As your superior director I have to order you to stop your investigation. “What?!” Mulder stood up sharply brushing the older man’s hand off his shoulder. “You know the deal, Agent Mulder. It’s been three weeks of no leads and little evidence. Officially, this case is closed.” Skinner walked to the door and stood in the open doorway. “However, I assume you’ll want to take a few weeks of personal leave to unofficially continue this case.” “Thank you, sir.” “And Agent Mulder. This may not be a bureau matter anymore but if you need anything, let me know.” Mulder nodded as Skinner walked out of the office. Mulder waited until he heard the elevator doors open and then close before allowing his tears to flow. * * * * Scully heard the footsteps grow quiter until the noise finally disappeared. She relieved the breath she had been holding. Her entire body hurt. He had told her that each week she refused to call him that he would hurt her. The first week he had begun to verbally and physically abuse her. He had cut her with a knife – carving her body like a Jack-o-lantern. During the second week he had chose to starve her. Each day he slowly took away more food until there was none left. The third week he had turned to rape. She wanted to die – to kill herself but she couldn’t. She couldn’t do it until she knew Mulder was going to be safe, to be able to live without her. She lay her head down in exhaustion and closed her eyes. “Scully! Scully!” He called through the darkness. Her heart called his name though her lips couldn’t form the words. She felt his warm hand on her cheek. “Oh Scully, what did he do?” She felt the beam of his flashlight as it traced the outline of her thin body. She felt naked from the light of the beam but at the same time she felt safer than she ever had. Mulder held her close, squeezing her tighter though sure not to hurt her. He stroked her scraggly hair while whispering soothing words to comfort her. She never wanted to let him go. She awoke in a pool of her own blood. She looked around searching for Mulder be he wasn’t there. It was all a dream. She was still sitting in the cool basement. She screamed his name out of longing for him. She was so sick of being in the lonely basement without her in his embrace. She would rather have walked through hell as long as he was with her than sit alone in the darkness. “You called out his name while you were sleeping.” The man said. Scully looked around but he remained encased in the shadows. “His names sounds so perfect coming from your lips. You must really want to see him. You said his name and his address. Guess you’ll get to have that final wish of yours.” He began to walk away. “Bastard!” She screamed as she cried. “You’ll pay for that, bitch.” He retorted as he retreated back up the stairs. * * * * Mulder started blankly at the television. An old black and white movie played on the screen. He was lying down on his couch, his head propped up on his arm. He tried to get his mind off of her but he couldn’t. Every waking moment he saw her face, heard her words, smelt her feminine scent. He was trying to return to a normal life – at least as normal as he had ever lived – but he found it to be impossible. He had taken Skinner’s advice and had taken a two-week absence, something he had never done before. He continued to search for her but he had run out of places to look. The sharp ring of the telephone shattered the silence of the room. He leaned over and picked up the phone. |
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