Title: Safe Harbor Part XIV Author: shawntaw Category: MSR, Mulder/Scully/Skinner friendship, ProfilingMulder Rating: PG Disclaimer: I don't own the x-files characters. I think we may have established that by now, don't you? The fact that I don't have any money and am making no money from this has, unfortunately, been established as well. *L* Feedback makes me very happy at shawntaw@hotmail.com :) DEDICATION: To Becky, whom I have dubbed "The Detail Queen" - I love it when folks read my stories the way she does! Because I try to write them to be read that way!:) Especially this one!:) And to Mimic's college kid who thinks bad puns are clever!:) AND, OF COURSE, TO DANI WHO HAS MADE A WEBSITE OF MY STORIES: www.geocities.com/corran_14776/shawntaw.html Thank you.:) ******************************************************* Mulder drifted in and out of reality. His mouth felt sticky. His stomach had settled into a constant, hollow ache. Mulder was having a little trouble distinguishing reality from hallucination. He had conversations with his sister. She appeared beside him on the floor, forever eight years old, and he took the opportunity to apologize for failing her all those years ago. Samantha sat listening as he rambled, nightgown stretched over her folded knees as she hugged them to her chest. When he ran out of things to say, she merely shook her head as though he were being silly. Samantha smiled at him affectionately. Mulder reached out to her, but she vanished like smoke. His father appeared abruptly next to him in her place, causing Mulder to jump. Mulder's father began to berate him. He accused him of wrongdoing in Samantha's disappearance. He ranted about Mulder's choice to attend Oxford, so far away from home. He blamed Mulder for Mulder's mother's breakdown. He belittled Mulder's choice of career and his profiling ability. Mulder sat, head down, trying to remind himself that he was suffering from delusions caused by dehydration, starvation, and isolation. When he couldn't take it anymore, he began to fight back. The anger burst like a dam and words began to pour from him. Words he had always wanted to say to his father. He told his father he loved him. He told his father he hated him. He screamed at him for abandoning him after Sam's abduction. He begged to know the reason for his father's abuse. Mulder finally told him his reason for fleeing to Oxford. Escape. He admitted his uncanny ability to crawl inside criminal's minds even disturbed him sometimes. He wondered why his father hated him. "WHY?!" Mulder screamed at the apparation of his father. The ghost from his past disappeared like a popped soap bubble. Mulder began to weep. The killer watched from the doorway, stunned. ******************************************************** Scully stood on the porch of a small farmhouse, flanked by Skinner. They were on their own. Skinner had been right. No judge would issue such a broad search warrant. The local PD thought the agents were out-of-bounds and leaving themselves open to lawsuits. Violation of civil rights. They wanted nothing to do with it. Scully knocked firmly. After a few seconds, the suspect from the post office opened the door. He looked surprised. And a little scared. "Yes?" "Sir, Do you remember us? Agent Scully and A.D. Skinner from the F.B.I.?" "Yes, and I thought I told you I didn't do it. I was out with my friends." "Yes sir, and we checked on that. Your friends do indeed claim that you were with them on the night in question." Skinner stood, silent and strong, behind her. The guy swallowed nervously as looked at him. "So, what's this all about then?" he said to the two of them. "Do you have a basement or cellar?" Scully asked. "Yes, why?" "May we see it, please?" Scully hoped she didn't sound as desperate as she felt. "Why?" The man was getting angry, "Why do you need to see my basement?" "If you will just show us your basement, we will gladly answer your questions, sir." The man considered them with narrow, suspicious eyes. "Alright. Come on," he pushed the door open and began to walk away, trusting the agents to follow. Scully and Skinner followed cautiously. The man led them to the corner of his kitchen. He opened a heavy wooden door. Narrow stairs led into the darkness. The man flicked on a light switch and started down the stairs and Scully and Skinner stepped carefully after him. Scully reached behind her to place a hand on her gun and watched the man's every movement. The stairs ended in a sharp turn. Scully and Skinner stood, defeated. The man stood in the middle of his basement. It was filled with dusty boxes, old equipment, and assorted junk. "Now will you tell me what this is all about?" The man said, hands on hips. Scully closed her eyes and shook her head. "Let's just say that you have...narrowed things down a bit." She felt Skinner put a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. ****************************************************** The killer looked down at Mulder from the doorway to the basement. She felt chest flutter with anxiety. Had she done it again? Chosen poorly? It sounded as though his father was no prize either. The fantasies she had in her mind of this man before her and his father playing catch and spending afternoons absorbed in football games began to dissolve. The visions she had of Mulder's father patting him on the back with pride when he joined the F.B.I.....melted. Had this man been hurt just as she had? *What have I done?* She clasped her hand over her mouth and fled from the dank basement, slamming the door behind her. ********************************************************************* Scully sat with her arms crossed, staring - as had become her habit - out the passenger-side window. "There's no point in checking that man's relatives," she said, suddenly. "Its obviously not him. It has to be the other guy." She reached for her pocket notebook and glanced at it. "Earl Green." Skinner simply nodded and stared straight ahead, driving. But one thought kept going around and around in his head. *Tomorrow is October 20th; what if we're wrong?* *********************************************************************** Skinner took the lead at the remaining suspect's residence. Scully's determined expression changed to a frown as the drive they walked up expanded into a parking lot. It was an apartment building. "Wait, this can't be right," Scully started. Skinner took out his notes and looked at them. "This is the correct address for Earl Green." He looked back at Scully. "Apartment buildings have basements, too." But she was shaking her head, "An apartment building's basement would be too busy, too high-profile," she sighed, "Let's go check it out anyway. Maybe there's something we're missing, not thinking of." *This has to be it* Scully ground her teeth. *If not, we've lost Mulder. How can we redo the profile and find him by tomorrow?* The two continued stalking toward the run-down apartment building in silence. Earl Green's apartment was on the corner of the first floor. Skinner knocked while Scully stood behind him to one side. No answer. He knocked again. Nothing. "He's probably at work. Didn't we find out he got a new job at-" Skinner once again consulted his notes, "-a gas station?" Scully nodded. "Let's check out the basement." Scully and Skinner entered the building in search of the superintendent. ************************************************************************ Arlene paced in her bedroom. *wrong...wrong...wrong...this is going so wrong...* Being eventually caught she had expected. Looked forward to it, almost. But being wrong, AGAIN, about the sacrifice.... She felt like she was going to fly apart. *I have morals. I only kill those that deserve it. How could I have been wrong twice?* She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Arlene flew at it, enraged, and smashed the glass with her fist. ************************************************************************* As the darkness began to descend again in the basement, Mulder lay very still. Flat on his back now, he stared unseeing at the ceiling, no longer able to distinguish between what was real and what was in his mind. His perception changed from darkness to surreal visions of his past and back again. Mulder's lips curled in a small smile. Scully knelt beside him. She wasn't wearing one of her severe F.B.I. suits, but what he knew was her favorite 'bumming around the house' outfit. He loved it when she wore that. It made her look so...unaffected. She smiled gently at him and reached out to stroke his hair. *sleep now; its alright* his Scully seemed to say. Mulder closed his eyes with a sigh. ************************************************************************ Scully stomped back outside the apartment building while Skinner stayed behind and made their farewells to the kind superintendent. The apartment basement was full of old air conditioners, cleaning supplies, assorted parts and junk. The building also had a separate laundry room which the two agents had checked out. Nothing. Scully strode back to stand in front of Earl Green's door. *One of these men has to be it! The profile couldn't have been that far off. We can't start over! We can't...* She felt hot tears form in the corners of her eyes and took a deep breath to ward them off. Scully glanced over at Skinner. He and the superintendent were still talking. She pressed her face to the window by the door and cupped her hands around her face to block the sunlight. She could see nothing around the venetian blinds. Scully stepped from the small landing and walked around the corner of the building, the perimeter of Earl Green's apartment. As she stepped down to the grass and around the side of the building, a curtain fluttering out an open window caught her eye. *Bingo* Scully quickly jogged to it. The ground sloped downward as she approached the window. She was unable to see into it, and cursed her height. She turned to get Skinner when a particularly strong gust of wind blew her hair in her face. She reached up to push it back and stopped. The curtains above her fluttered again in the breeze. *I know that smell. Cologne. Women's cologne.* Scully felt her face pale. She looked up at the open window and dashed back toward the front of the building. "Skinner!" ***************************************************************************** I'm still typing frantically as you read this and will probably post again before the day is through! I'm on a roll and this may be done by tomorrow!