ONE

"What the hell was that?"

Both Alex and Mulder heard the piercing yowl and the muffled curse coming from the kitchen. In one swift motion, Alex was up on his feet and and straight over to the desk were Mulder kept a couple of guns.

Grabbing the heavy Glock, he headed towards the door that led to the kitchen...then stopped.

Two large men, both dressed in heavy outdoor gear, and both holding guns, stepped into the room. Their weapons pointed straight at Alex and Mulder.

"Put the fucking gun down Krycek." The bigger of the two men snarled.
Alex's lips quirked up in a ice cold smile. "Well if it isn't Heckle and Jeckle." He sneered, still holding the gun.

The other man stepped forward, his face reddening with anger. "Shut your fucking mouth and drop the fucking gun or I'll blow a hole right through your little fuck buddy over here." He waved the gun towards Mulder, who had now gotten to his feet.

"Yeah." The bigger man said with an ugly grin, taking in the naked state of both men. "What have you two little queer boys been up to in here. Christ but this place smells like a fucking whorehouse." He sniffed a couple of times as if to emphasis his point.

Alex shrugged, his shoulders moving easily. "Not much else to do up here in the middle of nowhere, now is there."

The second assassin barked a harsh laugh. "I always suspected that you were a fag Krycek."

"Who are you, who sent you here?" Mulder asked, breaking into the pleasant little tete-a-tete.

"Their names are Franklin and Largisson, they work for the Smoking Man." Alex replied. Then he turned back to the two men. "Isn't that right boys."

The bigger one, Largisson raised his gun higher, aiming it directly at Alex's chest.

"Tell me Krycek, do you want to die naked, or dressed, hmmm?"

Alex shrugged again. "I don't really care, but it might look better for Mulder here if we both had some clothes on. You know how those guys at the Bureau like to ask awkward questions."

"Yeah." Franklin said, his grin widening. "It's just too bad that both you guys won't be alive to answer 'em."

"Get your clothes on then, and hurry the fuck up." Largisson growled, he turned his head slightly and Alex saw the scratch marks on the bigger man's cheek.

Lips pressed tightly together, Alex walked over to the couch to get his clothes. He watched as Mulder bent down to pick up his own things off the floor.

Alex pulled his own clothes on, his mind racing, then he noticed that Largisson had turned his head to say something to his buddy.

Grabbing the moment, Alex snatched the bowl of popcorn up. "Hey fellas!"

Both of them turned towards him, to be hit full in the face with the popcorn. Seeing his chance, Mulder dived for the nearest man and tackled him to the hard wooden floor. A couple of well placed punches and Franklin was out for the count.

"Fucking asshole!" Largisson roared, he lifted his gun to shoot, only to have a half full bottle of sparkling cranberry juice heaved straight at his head.

He ducked and Alex dived across the table, grabbed the assassin, spun him around and in one swift motion, broke his neck. Mulder heard the sickening crack from where he was across the room.

Largisson's lifeless corpse hit the floor with a boneless thud. Then stepping over the top of him, Alex grabbed Franklin's unconscious form and with another quick movement, broke his neck as well.

Wiping the sweat off his forehead, Alex straightened up, Mulder noticed that a red stain had appeared on the side of his sweater. The dive acros the table had torn several stitches in the wound in his side.

"Alex, you're bleeding."

Alex glanced down at the bright blossom of blood. "It's nothing, don't worry about it." He told Mulder. "I have to find Natty."

"You do that while I call Skinner and tell him what's happened here." Mulder replied. Needing no further encouragement, Alex headed straight to the kitchen.

He spotted the small body lying on the floor and a chill swept through him, she looked so...still.

He moved forward to kneel beside the cat, stretching his hand out to touch her fur. "Oh Natty girl, what did those bastards do to you?"

He could hear Mulder's voice dimly somewhere in the background as he spoke to Skinner on the phone, other than that, there was no other sound. Natty was dead.

Suddenly Alex threw his head back, a scream of pure rage and grief ripping from his throat, from the very depths of his soul.

The sound faded echoing around the large dimly lit kitchen and Alex tenderly gathered the heavy black body into him arms and clutching her to him, he rocked back and forth, tears of pure grief.

"Oh Natty." He whimpered, holding the still form to him. "Please don't leave me, I can't be alone again...I can't. Please don't... don't go away from me, I need you."

Suddenly a soft sound emanated from the furry body, a raspy cough. Alex stopped instantly.

"Nat?" A tiny ray of hope as slender as a thread grew. "Nat, Natty....?"

One golden eye opened and incredibly Natty began to purr.

"Alex?" Mulder was standing in the doorway, the grieving man's scream had summoned him instantly. "Alex, are you okay?" He took an uncertain step further into the room.

"She's still alive Fox." He said, looking up at the other man with red rimmed eyes. "She's still alive but we have to get her to a vet...now."

"And you to a doctor." Mulder replied. "Get some clean towels and lets get the fuck out here."

After Alex had wrapped Natty up in the towels to try and keep her warm, they pulled on their heavy overcoats and boots and left the cabin, heading to the car. Alex carried Natty, half crouching over her to try and protect her from the falling snow. They climbed into car and headed towards the small town below.

TWO

The vet, Dr Owens was an elderly and rather stout man who did not take kindly to being woken up in the middle of the night. He grumped and complained as he unlocked the surgery that was actually in the front part of the old house he lived in.

Alex pushed past the vet and carried Natty into the surgery, laying her carefully down onto the operating table.

Mulder stood by watching, his teeth worrying at his bottom lip. The vet began to examine Natty, stopping now and again to make a clucking noise, or give a sorrowful shake of his nearly bald head.

"Well Dr Owens?" Alex asked, trying to keep the impatience out of his voice. "Is she going to be all right?"

"Hard to say." Dr Owens replied. "She's taken a pretty nasty blow by the look of it. How hard did you hit the poor little thing anyway?"

"Hit her!" Alex roared. "I never hit her you fucking stupid son of a..."

"Alex!" Mulder stepped forward, grasping the enraged man by the arm. "Alex, calm down, okay." He glanced over at the vet apologetically "Sorry about that, it's just that we are both worried about Natasha."

"Not a problem." Dr Owens replied mildly. "Well, why don't both you young fellas go on out and let me see what I can do for this little lady then?" He glanced over at the bloodstain on the thick material of Alex's coat. "It looks as though you could use a little medical attention yourself."

Alex looked down at the stain, the elderly vet was right, the bleeding was definitely getting worse, it had seeped right through his shirt and sweater to the overcoat. It had actually stopped while he had been in the car but the warmth of the surgery had started the bleeding once more

"Where's the nearest hospital around here?" Mulder asked. Dr Owens glanced up from his small patient lying on the table.

"There's a clinic down the road from here, they'll be able to take of your young friend here."

After thanking him, Mulder took Alex by the arm and led him gently from the room.

"I don't want to go Fox." He protested as the door swung shut behind them. "I need to stay here with Natty..."

"No Alex." Mulder cut him off firmly. "What you need to do is have a doctor look at your side and right now, before you end up bleeding to death." With that, he helped Alex out of the surgery and out to the car, Alex still protesting, even as Mulder opened the car door and pushed him gently into the passenger seat.

They drove to the clinic in silence, Alex worried sick about Natasha, and Mulder worried sick about Alex.

There was one doctor on duty, a young woman, her soft brown hair tied up in a tight bun at the nape of her neck. She ushered them both into the modern and rather sterile looking surgery, helping Alex up onto the padded examination table in order to take a look at the freshly opened wound.

She turned, noticing that Mulder was still in the room. "I'm afraid you will have to leave Sir." She said in a brisk no nonsense tone. "You can wait outside."

Mulder glanced at Alex, concerned. "Will you be okay?" He asked. Alex nodded. "Yeah, I'll be fine Fox." He replied, his voice sounded forced and Mulder realized that younger man was in real pain, and yet he had put his own health second to that of his cat.

"Okay then, I'll be right outside." Mulder assured him and left the room, allowing the doctor to patch his young lover up again.

He was just about to sit down in one of the hard comfortable looking chairs in the waiting room, when his cell phone rang. Mulder grabbed it out of his coat pocket and held it up to his ear.

"Mulder speaking."

"Mulder, it's me Skinner, Agent Scully and I are traveling up to the cabin right now, where are you?"

"At the clinic here in the the town, by the look of it, I think Alex tore his wound open again. The doctor's taking a look at him now as a matter of fact."

"Okay then." Skinner replied. "I'll handle things at the cabin. After Krycek is patched up I want both you and him to take rooms at the local motel, use your badge if you have to but whatever you do, don't come back to the cabin. Scully and I will bring you clean clothes and whatever else it is you need. Have you got that?"

"Loud and clear Sir." Mulder replied. "I'll see you as soon as I can." With that he broke the connection and tucked the cell phone back into the pocket of his heavy overcoat, then he settled down to wait for the doctor to finish with Alex.

THREE

The motel room was clean and neat and just like every other motel room he had ever stayed in. Because of the holiday season, there had only been one room left, a double but neither Mulder nor Alex minded sharing.

As it had turned out, the wound on Alex's left side had not been too badly damaged, a few torn stitches, easily replaced. The doctor had scolded Alex for not taking better care of the wound, and had carefully cleaned and stitched it back up. After placing a thick padded bandage over the wound, she had ordered him to return in the next couple of days in order for her to check it.

The doctor had asked Alex how he had gotten the wound in the first place and he had fobbed her off with some story about an attempted mugging at knifepoint. She seemed to accept the explanation, well at least she did not ask any more questions about it.

Alex walked over to the bed and gingerly lowered himself down onto it, reaching over to the phone. He dialed the operator and after being put through, asked the number of the vet's surgery. He listened for a moment, then after hanging up, quickly dialed the number given.

Mulder could hear the distant, almost like insect buzz as the phone on the other end of the line rang. After a couple of minutes, it was picked up.

"Hello, Dr Owen, it's Alex Krycek, I brought my cat to you a couple of...yes, yes, that's right. Look I need to know, is she going to be all right I...." He stopped, listening as the other voice spoke. Alex nodded. "Yes, yes, that's great, thank you. Thank you." With that he hung up the phone and turned to Mulder, who had come over to sit on the bed beside him.

"It was touch and go, but he thinks that she's going to pull through." Alex said, his voice hoarse. "Oh god Fox, she's going to be okay." With that, the dam burst and all the pent up emotions that he had been holding back were released, and Alex leaned his head against Mulder's shoulder and wept.

Mulder smiled with gentle fondness as he wrapped his arms around the physically and emotionally exhausted young man, holding him close as he cried, murmuring soothing nonsense words while he stroked the silky dark hair away from Alex's face.

After a while, the weeping subsided into hitching sobs and Alex's eyes closed. Mulder listened as the younger man's breathing evened out. The pain and worry had taken their toll and exhausted, Alex finally drifted into a deep slumber, his head still resting against Mulder's shoulder.

As gently as he could, Mulder managed to get Alex undressed and under the blankets, making sure that he was as comfortable as possible. Alex mumbled drowsily but did not wake up.

Mulder then stripped his own clothes off, thought briefly about jumping under the shower, then dismissed the thought, he was too dammed tired himself. After making sure that his weapon was within easy reach in the drawer of the small night stand beside the bed, he settled down beside Alex, feeling the warmth coming from his young lover's body.

He closed his eyes but it was some time later that sleep finally overtook him.

FOUR

A sharp pounding invaded the vaguely troubled dreams and slowly brought Mulder out of of his sleep. Groggily, he sat up in bed, the blankets falling away from his chest.

"Agent Mulder? Are you in there?" It was AD Skinner.

"Yeah Sir, just a minute." Mulder called out. He climbed out of bed, aware that Alex was still asleep, snuggled under the covers.

Mulder pulled his jeans on and unlocked the door of the motel room. Both Skinner and Scully were standing outside, huddled against the cold. A fresh fall of snow covered the parking lot outside.

"Come on in Sir, Scully. Mulder said, stepping back to allow them entry into the room.

Skinner stepped inside, sharp brown eyes behind his wirerim glasses, taking everything in, including the lump under the blankets.

He turned to his agent, face neutral. "You couldn't get a room with two single beds?"

"This is the only room they had left Sir, this being the holiday season and all." Mulder replied, matching his boss's bland tone.

Skinner nodded and said nothing more on the subject, deciding it was better to leave the subject alone, for the moment at least.

"I will need your full report on this incident Agent Mulder." The AD told his agent gruffly. "And we are going to have to move Krycek to a different location now that the Consortium has discovered the cabin."

Mulder nodded, running his hand through his sleep mussed hair, Christ but he needed a long hot shower, and some coffee wouldn't exactly go astray either

A sound from the bed made them the three of them turn around. Alex was sitting up, blinking owlishly at them.

"When did you guys get here?" He mumbled, trying to suppress a yawn.

"Agent Scully and I arrived early this morning, we went straight to the cabin first." Skinner informed the ex assassin. "Tell me Krycek, can you identify those two men that you left up there?"

Alex nodded. "Yeah, they both work for Spender, those were the two of the guys that jumped me the first time. Spender must have known that Mulder and I were staying at the cabin."

"It seems there's there's not a lot he doesn't know about." Scully remarked quietly. She turned to Skinner, looking up at the tall man standing beside her.

"I would like to examine Krycek Sir, Make sure that the wound isn't becoming infected or anything."

"Go ahead Agent, then after the both of them are dressed and ready, we head back to DC."

Alex looked up at the Assistant Director, his eyes widening. "We can't leave yet, Natty's still at the vet's."

"What?" Skinner turned to Mulder, obviously confused.

Mulder quickly filled his boss in on what happened the night before, and about Natasha's injury.

Skinner listened, then turned back to Alex, his face set in stern, no nonsense lines.

"I am sorry to hear about your cat Krycek, but you can't stay here. Spender knows your whereabouts now and I would say at a rough guess that he also knows that you killed two of his assassins. It's no longer safe for you , I am going to have to place you into a more secure facility."

"I'm not leaving Natty here, not by herself." Alex replied coldly. "And that's final."

"Well I am sorry about that Krycek, but you no longer have a choice in this." Skinner answered him. "Agent Scully here is going to check you over to make sure that you've been patched up properly, then you are going to get yourself dressed and we leave. I'll send someone up to the cabin later to collect your things for you both."

"No." Alex replied. "I'm not leaving Natty, I don't care what you say Skinner, I'm staying here until she's strong enough to travel and then she and I are disappearing...for good."

"No Alex." Skinner said, deliberately using the younger man's first name. "The deal has changed. There are two dead men that have to be accounted for, and there's still the agreement that we made, that in exchange for our protection, you would help us with information concerning the Consortium."

"Fuck the deal." Alex suddenly snarled. With a quick motion, he was out of the bed and standing in front of the three FBI agents, dressed only in his black boxer shorts. The white bandage standing out against his skin.

"Alex..." Mulder began, but Alex whirled on him, sharply cutting him off.

"I'm not leaving without Natty Fox.' He said, his eyes dark with steadily building anger. "If you want to go back with Skinner and Scully fine, but I am staying here and that's final. Now would you all mind, I would like to have a shower and get dressed, I have to be at the vet's to see how she's doing."

Skinner stared at Alex for a moment, his face speculative, then said. "I'm afraid in that case Alex, you leave me no choice."

Before anyone could react, Skinner stepped forward and with a speed that belied his size, he grabbed Alex, spun him around and slapped a pair of handcuffs around the younger man's wrists.

"You fucking prick!" Alex roared as he struggled futilely against the larger man's grip. "You can't do this Skinner! You fucking can't!"

"I can, and I have." Skinner replied, his voice implacable. "We are taking you back to DC Alex, that way we can put you somewhere that you will be safe, that's all there is too it."

Alex stopped struggling, then looked up at Mulder, his eyes pleading. "Fox, please don't let him do this...please."

Mulder shook his head helplessly. "Alex, you can't stay here, AD Skinner's right, it's not safe anymore. We have to get you away from here. Look, I'll call Doctor Owen, I'll tell him that you were called back to the city on an emergency, I'll ask him if he can keep Natty just until she's able to travel. I'm sure he'll agree."

Alex stared at Mulder for seconds that seemed to stretch on forever, his eyes filled with dark wounded hurt.

"It will be all right Alex, I swear it." Mulder told him, trying to reassure Alex, but knowing that it was doing no good.

"You bastard Mulder." Alex hissed. "I thought you were different, but you are just like the rest of them. Just another fucking goddammed government stuffed shirt, that's all you are... all you'll ever be."

Mulder closed his eyes for a moment, feeling the hurt rise up in his throat at Alex's words. He watched silently as both Skinner and Scully helped the incensed young man into some fresh jeans and some shoes. They had packed some clean clothes for them both from the cabin and brought them to the motel, then wrapping the heavy coat around Alex's naked shoulders, the AD steered the younger man to the front door.

"Come on Mulder." Scully said as she laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. "The sooner we get you both back to the city, the better." His partner and friend knew instinctively that there was a hell of a lot more going on here, but she said nothing, knowing that the best thing she could do right now was leave it be, let them work it out on their own later.

"I have to drop by the vet"." Mulder told her his voice hoarse.

Scully nodded. "Okay, just let me square it away with Skinner first, while you get dressed." She added pointedly.

Mulder nodded, then turned away, to get some clean clothes out of the bag, hoping that his partner could not see the tears in his eyes.