Title: Safe Harbor Part III
Author: shawntaw
Category: MSR, Mulder/Scully/Skinner friendship, x-file
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, but I can dream...

Summary: Skinner has some startling realizations about his favorite 
agents and the case begins to heat up.. 

NOTES: Thank you, thank you, thank you for the feedback!!:)
******************************************************

There was a fly buzzing around her face. 

Scully swatted at it and rubbed the tickled skin on her temple.

"Hmmph," she muttered and nuzzled into her warm pillow.

She heard a very soft chuckle and began to slowly drift toward 
wakefulness.

The fly tickled her chin and then her left cheek.

"..hmmphk..fly swatter.." she tried to say and cracked open her eyes.

The chuckle was louder this time and accompanied by a puff of warm 
air across her face.

She wrinkled her nose and squinted.

"You've got morning breath, Mulder."

His bleary face came into focus over her's. He had stubble over his 
cheeks and chin and dark circles under his eyes. He looked 
exhausted, but pleased.

"So do you, Scully," he grinned and brushed his lips across her 
forehead one last time, "Good morning."

She yawned, rubbed the new tickly spot Mulder had left on her face, 
and started to sit up, but couldn't.

Her legs and Mulder's were wrapped around one another, her arm was 
underneath him and his arm around her.

Scully carefully disentangled herself.

"Sorry," she muttered, embarrassed as she got out of the bed.

Mulder simply watched her with soft eyes as she padded across the 
room in her baggy pajamas to his bathroom.

"I'm not," he said softly as she closed the door.

***************************************************** 

*Mulder seems much more subdued this morning. I wonder if he had 
another one of his nightmares?*

Skinner watched Mulder slowly eat his toast. This morning Mulder had 
just ordered toast and chocolate milk.

*He looks pale. I think this case is getting to him.*

Scully didn't look too much better. She was quiet and kept glancing 
at Mulder and then quickly looking away.

She picked at her muffin, disinterested.

"Well," Skinner said so suddenly that the other two jumped, "I know 
you probably sat up looking over the files after I left, Mulder, so 
what did you find?"

Mulder shrugged and looked up at his boss.

"I worked up a tenative profile-"

"Tenative is better than nothing, Mulder. What is your theory?"

"Well, female serial killer, age 25-35, comes in contact with all 
three men who are all three ex-jocks and athletic. So, I'm thinking 
she works at a sporting goods store or batting cage or somewhere were 
all three men worked out or hung out. Something to do with their 
involvement in athletics, working out."

Mulder began to liven up as he delved into the killer's mind.

"She's punishing them. Punishing their strength. Has to be. Why else 
would she drain them of their strength before killing them?"

He frustratedly took a large bite of toast.

"Motive. That's what's killing me - motive. Could it be a 
simple "Female wants to punish dominant Male Society' thing? It 
doesn't FEEL that simple..."

Mulder was muttering and drifting off again. Scully reached over and 
put her hand on his arm. He came back to himself and looked up at 
her.

"Anyway, I'd like to look through receipts and bank records for the 
three victims - look for a connection. And I'd like to speak to 
friends, co-workers," Mulder said looking at Skinner.

"A lot of that was done by the officers originally, Mulder. No 
connection was found." 

"Yeah, well, I'm doing it again."

Skinner regarded the man with sympathetic eyes.

"Mulder, did you get any sleep last night?"

The younger man blinked at him defiantly. "Enough."

"Well, you look like hell," Skinner said, not pulling any punches.

"Thanks," Mulder responded, sarcastically.

"Mulder," Skinner continued, "all I'm saying is that you are going to 
collapse if you don't get enough rest. Don't let this case get to 
you, o.k.?"

Mulder nodded curtly, not meeting Skinner's eyes. Scully gave her 
boss a brief, grateful look and then studiously looked away.

*She's worried about him*

Skinner frowned. He was too.

**************************************************

But Mulder was right. After re-searching each victim's residence, 
the connection was found.

Vitamins.

Each victim took vitamins and diet supplements in order to "bulk up."

Receipts revealed that the victims bought their vitamins from two 
different mail-order companies.

On the surface, this wasn't a lead. But further digging, at Mulder's 
insistance, revealed that the companies were one and the same. 

The vitamin company that the first two victims had made their 
purchases from had gone through a name change four months before the 
last victim's death.

Mulder spread out the crinkled receipts in front of him on the table 
in his room.

He steepled his fingers and stared at them.

He waited. 

Waited for that flash of insight. For that inspiration. 

The clock ticked.

He sat in the quiet room, hardly breathing, every fact he'd read 
running through his mind.

Every face of each interviewee. Every nuance of their body language.

*Lying? Telling the truth? Hiding something?*

Mulder mentally judged each one.

The clock ticked.

He sat with fingers steepled and stared at nothing. 

******************************************************

Scully and Skinner rode in the car in silence, each lost in their own 
thoughts.

"Maybe we shouldn't have left him alone," Scully suddenly said.

Skinner sighed.

"I was just thinking the same thing, but he's right. We can't 
babysit him when there's work that needs to be done. He's right. 
He's a grown man."

*Who am I trying to convince? Her or myself?*

"Well, I just want to get this over with and get back-" Scully 
stopped speaking, worried she'd revealed too much. She scrunched 
down into the passenger-side seat and stared out the window and the 
passing scenery.

*She loves him*

The thought struck Skinner from nowhere, but had the power to take 
his breath away.

*******************************************************

"I just need some time alone to review the facts, make some 
connections. Honest, I'll be fine. Go track down the owner of the 
mail-order company. Call me if you find anything. But, Scully," 
Mulder had looked at her with intensity in his hazel eyes, "our perp 
isn't a man."

Scully shook her head.

She wondered how he could be so sure.

*That's why they call him 'Spooky'*

Scully thought back to a case in their early years together.

"Spooky? Do ya think I'm spooky?" Mulder's voice echoed in her head.

Back then, she hadn't been sure what to think of him.

The car was coming to a stop. Scully pulled herself out of her 
reverie and prepared to meet the owner of the mail order company.

To her surprise, as she reached for her door handle it opened.

Skinner offered her a helping hand out of the car with a look on his 
face that Scully couldn't fathom.

*******************************************************

Of all the people they had interviewed today, only 4 had been women.

Mulder reviewed the list in his head.

2 co-workers. 1 girlfriend. 1 mother.

*It wasn't them..It wasn't them..the killer is angry..bitter..maybe 
abused..damaged goods..*

The wary faces of the co-workers floated behind his closed eyes. Sad 
and traumatized girlfriend. Mourning mother.

*It wasn't them...*

*****************************************************

Scully and Skinner sat across the table from the small, spare man who 
owned the mail order vitamin company.

Skinner found it laughable that such a puny, old man sold promises of 
strength to the young and vital.

He pushed his glasses up on his nose and pinned the man with his eyes.

"Why did you change the name of your company from-" Skinner looked 
down at the paper in front of him, "'Bulk Up Vitamins' to 'Smart Move 
Vitamins' four months ago, Mr. Bernard?"

The man swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing prominently on his thin 
neck.

"I was worried about legal concerns. A lawyer friend of mine said I 
could be sued if someone didn't get the bulk they wanted from 
vitamins called 'Bulk Up.' So, I changed it. Did I not file the 
proper paperwork or something?"

"No sir, that's not why we are here. Do you recognize any of these 
men?"

Skinner placed photographs of the victims on the table in front of 
the man. Scully simply stood to one side watching, arms crossed at 
her chest.

"Um, no. But all my business is through the mail. They could be 
customers."

"Do you recognize these names?"

The man read the list thrust in front of him.

"Yes! These guys are some of my biggest customers. Well, were. The 
first two stopped ordering a while ago and the third one hasn't 
ordered in about a year. But, yeah, I don't have a lot of customers 
that ordered as much as these guys. Couldn't forget those names." He 
attempted a smile at the two agents.

They didn't smile back.

This man wasn't their UNSUB and they both knew it.

****************************************************

*Damn! Why couldn't it be cut and dry?*

Skinner was nursing a pounding headache. He pushed his glasses up 
and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Scully was staring into the passing darkness as they drove back to 
their hotel in Burton, Iowa.

He knew she was thinking of Mulder.

"Why don't you call him on your cell?"

She seemed startled. "What?"

"Mulder. If you're that worried, just call him."

She shook her head stubbornly. "He wouldn't appreciate it."

He looked heavenward before returning his eyes to the road.

"Let's review the case," he suggested.

She nodded, staring again out her window.

"Mulder's pretty sure the perp is a woman. I agree that the mail 
order thing is the connection, but obviously not through the guy who 
runs it. So, how? This is the only connection that was found 
between the victims, but how is it significant? That is the problem.."

Scully was now frowning in thought.

"The guy runs the place by himself," she said, "No help, no delivery 
people, no telephone people, no secretaries.."

Skinner shook his head negative as she ticked off the facts they 
already knew.

The car swerved and screeched on the dark road.

Scully clutched her seat and gave out a small yelp.

"Delivery people!?" Skinner shouted as he gained control of the car.

"WHAT?!" Scully shouted back, looking at him as though he'd lost his 
mind.

Skinner pulled the car to the side of the road, put it in park and 
turned to face Scully with excitement evident on his face.

"In a place like Burton, Iowa isn't there a chance that the same 
delivery person was used to deliver the vitamins the victims 
ordered? I mean, it isn't that large of an area."

Scully was nodding with her mouth hanging open in realization.

"It could be a post office worker, UPS, Federal Express..we need to 
find out who the vitamin guy used!" she practically shouted.

Skinner pulled back onto the road and headed back to Burton, double-
time.

*******************************************************

And the beat goes on....