Title: Tickled pink – Part Two Fox sensed rather than saw the movement. By the time he went back into the house, bringing Walter and John out with him, whatever had been skulking by their trash can was gone. The following evening… Walter knew the summer months were hard for the local wildlife with families to raise and insufficient food. So any leftovers which weren’t fried or spiced ended up on a board a couple of feet off the ground and positioned so they could watch the birds and other animals feed from their kitchen window. Their meal – steak, baked potatoes and corn cobs had proved too much for Walter and John who had both eaten at lunchtime. So Walter piled the roughly-chopped pieces of meat and half-eaten corn cobs onto a plate and took them out to the garden. He watched for a while, then, disappointed that no animals came, went into the living room. ‘Remind me to make less steak next time.’ John looked up, smiling ruefully. ‘Yeah. Still, it won’t be wasted, right?’ Walter nodded. ‘No. I’m sure the scavengers will have it all by morning.’ Picking up their three mugs, Walter went back into the kitchen to pour them all some more coffee. Glancing out of the window, he saw the wooden table all but empty. He frowned and, after filling the cups, went back into the other room. ‘Weird thing.’ ‘What?’ Fox asked eagerly. ‘Food’s gone.’ ‘Can’t be.’ John said disbelievingly. ‘Pretty much.’ Walter nodded. ‘You reckon we got a Bigfoot in our back yard?’ John asked in a tone intended to indicate his belief in his own theory. ‘Something ate around a half pound of steak and a corn cob in two minutes.’ Fox’s eyes widened. ‘Put something else out and we’ll watch.’ ‘Tomorrow Fox. There are no more leftovers and I’m not wasting good food.’ Pouting, Fox settled back down leafing through the TV guide. John shook his head a couple of times, then returned to his book. The following night… Using the darkness as cover, the hand reached up to the wooden platform and grabbed at the slices of bread hoping they weren’t moldy. Stale was okay, but having to pick off the green patches was just unpleasant. Too swift to identify or avoid, a swishing sound overhead was followed by the sensation of being touched all over at once. Struggling to get free only increased the degree to which the net tangled round the snarling body. Surrounded by three men with torches, the thing caught in the net stopped struggling and lay still, his panting breaths loud in the quiet night. ‘Well it isn’t Bigfoot.’ John said with a hint of amusement. Fox stood a couple of steps behind Walter. ‘What is it?’ Walter pushed at the rope-enclosed captive. ‘It’s not a what, it’s a who.’ Carefully he pushed the bundle away from him until the diminutive figure in the net was illuminated, squinting in the bright light from his torch. ‘Do you have a death wish?’ Walter asked rhetorically. Fox lost all fear of the captive and leaned down. ‘Alex, what are you doing here?’ ‘You must be losing your touch Alex. If we’d been bad guys you’d be hanging from a tree right now. And not by your neck.’ John said, slightly disappointed in the identity of their captive. Sensibly, Krycek decided to say nothing. Spitting breadcrumbs over his captors didn’t seem like a good move. ************ ‘Look, just hit me, or whatever, then I’ll be on my way.’ Alex looked from Walter, who seemed angriest, to John, who seemed almost disinterested, to Fox, who was the only one who appeared to be listening. He adjusted his prosthesis slightly inside his sleeve, then stared at the far corner of the room while he waited for the expected fist. ‘You were stealing from us Alex.’ ‘It was leftovers!’ Alex said, not quiet believing Walter could really be that angry about food he’d thrown out. ‘You couldn’t have knocked and asked us to share our dinner with you?’ John asked. Alex almost laughed. ‘Right, I just turn up and you open the door and let me in.’ Fox shrugged slightly. ‘Stranger things have happened.’ Alex sensed the level of tension in the room had dropped by several notches. ‘I know Fox. I’ve seen most of ‘em.’ John smiled and Fox would have laughed if he hadn’t caught Walter’s tight expression. ‘It doesn’t seem to work Alex.’ Walter said in a disappointed tone. ‘We beat the crap out of you but you just keep turning up like a particularly stupid bad penny.’ ‘You could always try not hitting me.’ Alex said, not sure if that was the right response. ‘Or we could try a different deterrent.’ Walter said almost casually. John and Fox looked at each other. Then at Walter. From what Alex could work out, they had no idea what Walter was talking about. Alex swallowed hard but couldn’t, despite trying really hard, seem to look anywhere other than straight at Walter. ‘What?’ Walter smiled enigmatically. ‘Sit down.’ Obediently, although not sure why he was submitting, Alex dropped onto the couch. Walter turned, taking his eyes from Alex for the first time in several minutes. ‘John, in the closet behind the bedroom door is a box. Take it down to the basement please, put the lights and the heating on down there, then come back up here. Fox, go heat up some soup and cut some bread.’ John and Fox left the room to attend to their allotted tasks. Despite being dressed in outdoor clothes in a warm room Alex shivered slightly and wrapped his arms around his torso. Walter’s considerable bulk, towering over him, definitely invading his personal space, was threatening enough. But the words ‘box’ and ‘basement’ stuck in his mind, conjuring up all sorts of images, none of them remotely good. In the silence of the following minutes, he began to wonder if he wouldn’t have been better to have made them so angry they just hit him a few times then tossed him out. ‘It’s ready.’ Fox called from the kitchen a few minutes later. ‘Come and eat.’ Walter nodded towards the kitchen and Alex followed him. ‘Fox, go and run a bath for Alex please. Then find John and wait in the bedroom. I’ll be in when I’ve found Alex a towel and a robe.’ Sitting down, Walter took a deep breath, then moved a few inches away from Alex who was hungrily attacking the hot soup and fresh bread. ‘You will be our guest this weekend. You will stay, voluntarily, until Monday morning. At which time you may leave. If you decide to run before that, be advised that we will take it personally. Reject our hospitality and you will regret it. Not immediately, maybe, but eventually, definitely. So?’ Alex stopped eating long enough to ask: ‘Gonna hit me?’ Walter shook his head. ‘No.’ Chewing thoughtfully on his bread, Alex tried again: ‘Gonna hurt me?’ Tired of the questions, Walter snapped: ‘No! Well?’ Alex shrugged. ‘Okay. I was s’posed to watch you until the end of the week anyway.’ ‘Why?’ Alex wasn’t sure how little he could get away with. ‘Nothing special.’ ‘We’ll see.’ Walter said quietly. ‘Let’s go.’ Alex waited outside what he guessed was the bathroom door while Walter rummaged in the linen closet for a towel and slightly faded and threadbare robe. ‘Here. Need anything else?’ Alex shook his head. ‘No. Thanks.’ Walter acknowledged the attempt at pleasantness with a curt nod. ‘When you’re done, come back downstairs. Keep the robe on. It’s clean. Those clothes look like they could do with a turn in the washer. I’ll find you a t-shirt and some boxers. John’s might just do, if I can find a pair have shrunk enough.’ A while later… Cleaner and warmer, Alex emerged from the bathroom, looked quickly in the rooms whose doors were open for Fox or John and saw neither of them. He walked slowly down the stairs and saw Walter in the living room, a book open in his hands. Walter looked up as Alex’s soft footsteps disturbed the silence of the room. ‘Feeling better?’ ‘Yeah. Thanks.’ ‘Okay, let’s go.’ The basement. Alex had managed to forget Walter’s earlier words and Walter’s stern instruction brought them flooding back. Alex squirmed as Walter’s strong fingers dug into his shoulder, guiding him out of the room and into the kitchen. The trapdoor in the floor was already up, and Walter pushed an increasingly reluctant Alex ahead of him as they descended. ‘Watch your step.’ Walter warned. Looking around properly after concentrating on negotiating the steep wooden stairs safely, Alex took in the scene before him and Walter’s fingers snapped together emptily as Alex fell unconscious to the floor. Click here to go to Part Three/P> Home Send me feedback on this fic Return to the X-Files Fic Index Return to the West Wing Fic Index Return to the BDSM Fic Index