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Hot Wax
Gina Rain/ginarain@aol.com

********************************** 
Part 9

Regency Hotel
March 23, 2000
12 Noon

Scully put down the telephone.

"Mulder. He called in sick today."

"Really? That's interesting."

"So your appointment tomorrow is being pushed back an 
hour to make room for someone he missed today. That's 
why they called."

There was a knock on their hotel room door. Scully got 
up, looked through the peep hole and saw Detective 
Johnston. She opened the door and let him in.

"Hi, Ed," she said to him as he handed Mulder a huge 
packet of files.

"This is everything I could find. I'm sorry for the 
delay but I needed to track down the Bakers in France 
and that was not easy, let me tell you. They must have 
thought Ryan would be running after them because they 
went deep into hiding. I needed their permission before 
I could access certain files."

"Well, as long as I can look at them before the actual 
murder attempt occurs on our lives, I'm a happy camper." 
Mulder smiled.

"You think there's anything in there?"

"Probably not, but leave no stone unturned and all 
that."

Scully watched the two men from an armchair she was 
resting against.

"This is a very odd case," she observed.

"Tell me about it," Ed said.

"No. I mean, sitting around and waiting for something to 
happen when you have absolutely no guarantee that it 
will. What happens if he doesn't do anything? Do we wait 
another year?"

"He has to do something. I mean, I absolutely think it's 
a pattern he cannot break at this point. I just don't 
see any other choice."

"He still might not choose us, though."

"There is no one else in his clientele that even 
remotely fits the bill. Frankly, it's you or no one and 
I think he sees that, too."

"That reminds me, we need to discuss a slight change of 
the scenario."

Ed looked a bit flustered that she was consulting with 
him. Obviously, Mulder had told her about his being 
upset over her change of "script" the previous evening.

Mulder took over the story. "Yes, we do. Originally, I 
thought that it was not a bad idea to come in close to 
the anniversary date and announce to Ryan that I slept 
with another woman. But, you heard him. He doesn't 
believe that I really have an issue in that department. 
So, I think we have to come up with some other slightly 
shocking scenario."

"Like what? We do have to push this guy in the direction 
he's already heading in, hopefully. He has to not like 
you and want to murder you, just as much as he wants to 
save Scully. I think Scully earned some brownie points 
in that direction. . .in a slightly different way than 
we had planned," he smiled at her. "What can you do, 
other than announce an infidelity, that would repulse 
him that much?"

"A child," Scully said.

"What?" Mulder looked at her.

"I think you should tell him that you want to have a 
child. There have been no children in any of these 
couples' lives. I don't think that's an accident. While 
he's "saving" the women, he's making sure there are no 
children left behind. If you tell him you are seriously 
thinking about having an heir to the business throne, 
without much love or desire for an actual baby, it might 
spark something from his own youth and push him into 
making the decision he is hopefully already leaning 
toward." 

Mulder cast a tentative look at her. She gave him a 
strong, steady one in response. Her infertility was not 
an issue at all. It was a case. This was a good move. He 
received the message and moved on.

"So, Ed--not a bad idea?"

"I could see it. He might not completely believe that 
you'd be ready to cheat--but the thought that one minute 
you could be considering it and the next, you're 
haphazardly reaching what should be the most carefully 
thought out decision of your life. . .that might not sit 
well. I think he'd be the type of person to take 
fatherhood very seriously. You being as flippant about 
it as you were with your marriage vows, yeah, that could 
seal the deal."
 
"Great. We'll do it then."

"Oh. . .Mulder. There is something else. I mean, it's 
nothing concrete but I got a phone call from the prison 
this morning. Had a long conversation with Louis Adler. 
He said he's been having some dreams about the night of 
the murder. Absolutely nothing new but he wanted to let 
you know that this is the first time he's been dreaming 
about it since it happened and he's trying to write 
things down in case he finds there is a small detail 
that he forgot to tell you about or that wasn't in the 
court records."

"Great. Do you think you could have them fax me those 
pages? "

"Don't see why not."

"Okay, then. I guess today we are pretty much stuck just 
going over some more paperwork."

"Not me. I've got the ultimate in exciting challenges. 
Sitting outside Ryan's apartment building waiting to see 
if he leaves at any time. Which he won't. Which means, I 
basically watch a door for hours. Hopefully, I'll get to 
see an occasional dog peeing on a doorman--or something 
to break the monotony."


Ryan Wilkins' apartment
March 24, 2000
Midnight

Ryan looked over at the chamber. All the wax was melted. 
It looked a little polluted. Not the clear wax that he 
used on the customers in the spa. But this held a 
multitude of sins and should be murky, he thought.

His eyes hurt. The throbbing in his head had subsided 
but he was a little dazed from the day's over use of 
medication. And, he was tired. So very, very  tired.

Two more days. 

He still had a few arrangements to make. 

Two more days.

And it would be over.

Regency Hotel
1 AM

Mulder was in the shower.  They had worked hard all day 
and took turns napping for an hour or two while the 
other stayed awake. It was more or less a mutual 
decision to go to bed for a few hours.

To bed, or to sleep?

He had no idea.

He knew how tired Scully was and there were signs that 
she was feeling a bit sore from their activities the 
previous night. It had been a really long day. He didn't 
know if he should approach the subject of sleeping 
together this evening. . .thus being somewhat 
presumptuous, or if he should go in the other room and 
let her sleep--risking her feeling unwanted again. He 
smiled. They were totally fucked up.

He threw on a pair of sweatpants and walked out of the 
bathroom. Scully was leaning on her side, patting the 
mattress to the left of her.

"You coming, Mulder? After all. . .we are married now." 
She said with a raised eyebrow and great amusement in 
her eyes.

Her eyes. Beautiful, clear blue eyes he had looked into 
a million times. He didn't know where they would go from 
here. He did know that if they never talked about it, 
never had a ceremony, never even moved in with each 
other full-time, he could not feel more "married" to her 
than he did now. There was a spiritual connection 
between them that could never be broken. That seemed to 
be enough to define the word for him.  He walked over to 
the bed, never taking his eyes from hers. He climbed in 
next to her and sealed his mouth over hers, still not 
looking away. She closed her eyes and he lifted his 
hands to the side of her face.

"Look at me, Scully. For as long as you can stand it, 
look at me."

They kissed again, this time with her eyes open as well. 
She found it strangely off-putting to be that close to 
someone's eyes, especially Mulder's. His eyes conveyed 
everything his words often held back. Sometimes, it was 
a bit too much.  She pulled away from his kiss and put 
her fingers gently on his upper cheekbones.

"This is what scared me."

"My face?" He smiled warmly, the golden-green of his 
eyes still not changing.

"This intensity. Your intensity. I thought it would 
swallow me whole."

"And has it?"

"No. I'm still here. I'm just surrounded by you."

He looked at her. 

"I always had the feeling you would be this way," she 
told him.

"You still haven't told me if that's a good thing or 
not," he said softly, running his fingers down her back.

"It's an overwhelming thing but yes, it's good. Very 
good." She took one hand and brushed her fingers through 
his hair. "I'm not the best at saying things you might 
need to hear, Mulder. I'm sorry."

His eyes never left hers. 

"You say everything I need to hear. . .I don't need   
words."

He lowered her to the bed. It was all right. They were 
married now.

Invigoria spa
2 P.M.

Mulder was laying back on the table with a deep blue 
mask on his face. Ryan had been a bit on the quiet side 
and didn't look well. Perhaps he had really been sick 
when he took the day off yesterday.

In any case, he would have to be the one to bring the 
subject up.

"I have to thank you, Ryan."

"You're welcome. What did I do?" Ryan smiled. It was a 
genuine, if tired, smile.

"I thought about what you said. . .you know, the fish 
and cut bait stuff. And, you were right. Katherine does 
mean a lot to me. So the fizz is gone a little. I know 
she's been making plans to try and spice up our lives. 
She thinks it's some big secret but I know she's going 
in soon and getting a few nips and tucks. . .and a 
little padding where nature was stingy. So, maybe we'll 
get back some of what we had at the beginning. But, I 
was also thinking about the future. We've both been so 
busy with our business lives that we are forgetting 
something very important."

"Oh, yeah? What's that?"

"An heir."

"An heir." He repeated flatly.

"Yes. We have this massive business that I inherited and 
made, really. I need to leave this to someone 
eventually. So. . .I think I'm going to talk to 
Katherine about a baby. A young man. . .or woman, if 
she's got as good a head for business as her mother--who 
can take this business on for the next half century or 
so."

Mulder watched as Ryan took a small step back and looked 
Mulder right in the eyes. He hated that. He internally 
steeled himself against Ryan's form of "soul searching" 
and faced his gaze head-on.

Ryan's expression did not change.

Finally, he dropped his gaze.

"The birth of an empire. . .right here in the salon. I 
think that's a first."

Mulder smiled at him for lack of a better thing to do or 
say. 

He had no idea what impression he left on Ryan this 
time.


Regency Hotel
9 P.M.

Scully was on the bed, reading the old files while 
Mulder spread out the files Ed had given him from the 
intended fifth victims. They hadn't been focused on 
much, aside from Ed's original profiling, because no 
actual attempt had been made on their lives.  Mulder 
wanted to make sure there wasn't something they should 
be taking note of. He had read the files the day before 
and found nothing but he was re-reading them again 
today. There was nothing more for them to do at this 
point except hope that some tiny piece of evidence would 
leap out at them.

They worked in silence for quite some time.

"Scully?"

"Hmmm?"

"Did you listen to the tapes from my session with Ryan 
today?"

"Yes, I did." 

"Any impressions?"

She looked up from what she was doing. 

"None at all. I think you sold it well, for what it's 
worth. You had that "I've got a brilliant plan I just 
thought of, even if it makes no sense" excitement in 
your voice."

"And you've heard this tone before?

"Dozens of times. Usually before you tell me about some 
mutant we'll have to chase somewhere."

He laughed.

"So, you think I sold it?"

"I'm not sure. You said he looked at you strangely. But 
he gave no indication of disapproval or anger or 
anything?"

"Nope. Not a clue. Not a flicker of an eyelid or 
anything."

She pursed her lips as she thought.

"That's what the most frustrating thing is, Mulder. In 
most of our cases, we've always got someone to chase. . 
.we've always got things to run down. In this one, we're 
stuck just reading files a hundred times over and 
waiting for. . .well, we don't know exactly what we're 
waiting for. We know what we're hoping for, but there is 
no guarantee that it will happen. It's frustrating."

"It is." He looked down at the paper. "You know, I am 
reading something here and while nothing is striking me 
at all. . .I just have this feeling that there is 
something I'm seeing and not seeing at the same time."

"Okay. Let's review it together. The Bakers--how old?"

"She is 35, he's 37."

"Correct age range. Good. Move on to the next thing. How 
long have they been married?"

"Twelve years."

"Also pretty much the same as the others. Although I 
think that's rather coincidental since Ryan has never 
asked either of us how long we've been married."

"No. That's true."

"How long did they know Ryan?"

"Four months."

"And she was planning on having plastic surgery?" 

Mulder rummaged through his papers. 

"Well, according to Ed's notes. . .yes. She had told 
them that she was seriously considering rhinoplasty and 
had told Ryan about this."

"Rhinoplasty? Well, Mulder. . .are there any medical 
records there?"

"No. None. "

"I think we should get them or have someone get in touch 
with Mrs. Baker."

"Why?"

"Because rhinoplasty is not just done for cosmetic 
reasons. There are many reasons for it. Significant 
medical reasons."

"But Ryan might have thought she was just having a nose 
job for cosmetic reasons."

"Let me see her picture again."

They had both looked before but didn't pay all that much 
attention. He handed her the photograph.

"Mulder. . .this woman does not need a nose job in order 
to look better. She's got a beautiful nose."

"Yes, but she might have told Ryan. . ."

"I think we have to know exactly what she told Ryan."

"Why?"

"Because he might never have planned to kill the Bakers 
at all."

End of Part 9