Title: Bare Bones (4/?) Category: MSR, Angst, Case-file (sort of) Rating: PG for adult situations and general nastiness, some bad language too kiddies. Archive: Anywhere, just let me know so I can visit Disclaimer: Not mine. If they were I'd be wearing better shoes. Spoilers: Its been ended for years – hasn't everyone seen them all? "Agent Scully, you need to explain to SAC Davies what you told me over the phone." In the fluorescent light of the police station, Walter Skinner's face was almost skeletal. Scully watched him from behind a stack of papers that was heaped on the desk. She nodded and blinked slowly, not quite believing that Mulder had managed to get into so much trouble. Again. And it had taken her at least fifteen hours to discover that he was even gone. "Agent Scully, can you tell us again the last time you were in contact with Agent Mulder?" Scully sighed and raised her eyes to SAC Mitchell Davies. A mild distaste towards the man rose in her chest the longer she looked at him. "With all due respect, can't you consult the record? I feel like I'm wasting valuable time sitting here, reiterating myself." She had to quash the smile that threatened to break as she watched Davies's eyes widen. He glanced to Skinner to see his reaction to Scully's disregard of the proper address. She watched his mouth open as he floundered for something authoritarian to say to reassert his position, but found no words. Scully swung her eyes to Skinner, whose expression was mildly admonishing. She could see that he agreed with her. But protocol demanded her respect for her superiors – whether they had earned it or not – and Scully would need the cooperation of her fellow agents. "For the record, Scully?" "I...assisted...Agent Mulder with his profile last night. He became distressed...as he sometimes does when profiling. I spent the night in his room..." Scully paused, waiting for the disapproving glances from the ring of agents around the desk and felt her pulse speed up as the half-truth formed on her lips. Let them think what they wanted. They would never hear it from her mouth. Half the Bureau already thought they were sleeping together anyway. Davies smirked at the sexual implications of her admission and his eyes flicked over her chest. Scully met his gaze coolly. "I believe that he left the room at around five a.m. I must have dozed off because I recall looking at the clock at four-thirty a.m. and he was there. When I woke at five-ten he was gone. His running gear was gone, as was his suit. At the time, I simply thought it was his intention to run before work, then to go straight to the scene, as he had done the previous three days." Conceding nothing beyond what was vital, Scully folded her arms and sat back in the chair. "Isn't it true that you had run with Agent Mulder every morning since you arrived in town? Why not this morning?" "No, not every morning. Not today, nor yesterday." "Any particular reason?" "Am I a suspect here, SAC Davies? Is this an interrogation?" Blood rushed inside her skull and she hoped that her skin wasn't flushed. She didn't want the horrible little man to see the effect he had on her. "Not at all Agent, I'm just trying to establish the chain of events leading up to Agent Mulder's disappearance. Did you argue at all that night? Anything we should know about, Agent Scully?" "No, sir. There was no argument." Davies was trying in vain to intimidate her. Scully met his eyes with a cold gaze and he was the first to look away. His collar was darkened where it touched his neck and he slipped a finger beneath. Scully found herself momentarily disgusted and couldn't quite keep the sneer from her face. She narrowed her eyes and stood. "If we are quite finished here..." Davies had nothing to say. He remained in his chair, watching her and smoothing his curly black hair flat against his scalp. "I want the area outside the motel room searched." Skinner launched into instructions without hesitation. "We're looking for evidence of a vehicle in the lot that shouldn't have been, hair, fibres, anything outside that room. The window should be swabbed for saliva. Anything. Remember, Agent Mulder is one of our own." He paused, disliking the cliché on which he had ended. He looked around at the collection of agents before him. There was utter silence for a long moment, then the room broke into a scurry of motion as agents divided and began rifling through paperwork. Skinner turned to Scully and placed a hand on her shoulder. He turned her away from the room and guided her behind a partition wall. "You want to tell me why you were in Mulder's room last night, Scully?" Scully sighed and took her time to raise her eyes. "Sir?" "Don't play coy, Agent. I've know the two of you long enough to see that there's something up here. I know the two of you run together every morning. I know it all. Now what aren't you telling me? What happened in that room last night? Why weren't you with him this morning?" Scully shook her head, feeling slightly dizzy and breathless. She prayed inside her head that Skinner wouldn't see through her deceit. "Sir, the curtains were open both in front and at the back of the room. If there was anything going on, don't you think we would have at least shut the curtains?" Confrontation proved to be the best defence. Skinner visibly relaxed and he smiled apologetically. She barely had to lie. Scully let out her breath in a slow stream. "I don't know where to start on this one, Scully. Not a clue." "Mulder was working on a profile. He was getting pretty close. I think that we're looking for one guy here, sir. Whoever is responsible for those bodies out along the highway...I think he has Mulder." Skinner nodded, expecting as much. It wouldn't be the first time Mulder had gotten too close to his subject. Skinner thought back to the disaster with {insert name – Paper Hearts}. "And how do we find him? We haven't had a lead so far." "We established this afternoon that at least one of the victims was into prostitution. Mulder had guessed as much last night. I suppose that the next logical step – besides searching the parking lot – would be to continue with identifying the bodies, find out whether prostitution could be a link between the victims." Scully frowned. Identifying the bodies was going to be a laborious task. It would confine her to the lab and she would have to leave the fact-finding investigation to Davies and his crew. Her eyes dropped closed and her head tipped to the side at the thought. Her stomach sank slowly like sand through water. Heaviness settled over her. "Agent..?" Skinner had been talking to her. Scully looked up, shaking her head slightly, her eyes wide. "Are you alright? Scully?" He looked down with such concern in his eyes that Scully felt her guard slip. After the initial panic, she had tried so hard to stay detached. She sifted through the details, keeping her mind from focussing on the fact that it was Mulder who was missing. Now, standing in a cubicle with her direct superior, his hand warm on her arm, Scully felt the tears sting along her sinuses and her mouth pressed into a line. She looked away, trying to blink away the emotion. But the tears were already wet on her cheeks and Skinner was drawing her into his broad chest. Scully felt the strength seep out of her and she leant into the big man, feeling the solidity of his chest beneath her cheek and hearing the rhythmic beat of his heart. It was fast and unfamiliar and Scully felt a pain in her own chest as she thought of Mulder's steady heartbeat as she had heard it while he slept the night before. Skinner stayed silent, simply holding her upright and letting her cry. His shirt was damp with her tears but she didn't make a sound and he was glad for the partition wall that screened them from the rest of the squad-room. After the performance she had maintained all evening, no one should see her cry. He felt her body expand with a shuddering breath and she drew back, sniffing and running an expert finger under each eye. Skinner looked away, glancing furtively around the tiny cubicle, looking everywhere but at her. Scully sniffed and blinked away the last trace of her tears. She cleared her throat. "I'll go back to the Office of the County Medical Examiner then. I think that's where I'll be of most use." Scully said the words with a certainty that she didn't feel. She knew that she would be a spare wheel wherever she went. Skinner nodded, glad that he didn't have to assign her a task. Instinct told him to send her back to the motel to sleep, but he knew from experience that Dana Scully would not be sleeping until her partner was safe and well. xxx The phone-call came at around one a.m. "Scully?" "Agent Scully, this is Garth Rogers, I'm with the field office here in..." "Is there any news on Mulder?" the words took over before she cold stop them. The young agent stuttered at her brusqueness. She didn't apologise. "I was told to contact you if there was any news..." "And?" Scully felt the adrenalin kick in at his seeming reluctance to divulge the information. "Agent Rogers?" "There were stains on the bedclothes in Agent Mulder's room. They have been identified as semen, Agent Scully." Scully's heart sank. Of course they would search the rooms. Of course they would find evidence of the previous night's ‘activities'. If anyone looked close enough they would also find evidence painted on her fine white skin in varying shades and hues. A hand went over her eyes. "And...?" Rogers seemed reluctant to be discussing semen with a female agent. He'd probably pulled the short straw over having to call her. "The sample has been sent to the FBI crime labs. Hopefully we'll get an I.D..." "Yeah. Within three weeks, Agent Rogers. Do you have any idea how congested the labs are? Do you really think we have time to wait for results on semen stains you found on some dirty motel blanket? Are you telling me that if we checked your bedding, Agent Rogers, that we mightn't find similar stains? When they come back in three weeks and Mulder is dead because you wasted time on a stain that was either already there when we arrived, or worse still, belonged to Agent Mulder...You better have something better for me before you bother me again, Rogers." Scully pulled herself up, hearing his breath wheezing over the line. She took a deep breath of her own. "I'm sorry, Agent Rogers, you're just trying to do your job." "Agent Scully, we are working as fast as we can on this..." "Were there any signs of break-in?" "No, none that I saw." "Then your search should be concentrated on the outside of the rooms, not the inside. I don't believe that the UNSUB was ever inside those rooms. He had no need to be." Her voice was gentler as she forced herself to be calm. Rogers was still panting over the line, terrified. Scully heard someone in the background and the sound of the phone being passed. The heavy voice of SAC Davies came onto the phone its Southern accent slow like sticky honey. "Agent Scully." The voice was smug, and Scully found her heart turning over. She may have scared Rogers into submission, but Davies may be a little harder to distract from the fact that she had spent the night comforting her partner in a way that the FBI would not condone. "Sir." "Any particular reason why your panties were in Agent Mulder's room?" "Sir?" "Just beneath the bed, actually." "How do you know they were mine, sir?" Scully's mind was racing, her pulse thudding and a deep blush spread horribly across her chest. Her stomach lunged and she tasted coffee, still warm. "They matched the brassiere that was with your clothes on your own bed." "I showered in Agent Mulder's room this morning sir. I must have dropped them." Davies was talking loudly, obviously to an audience. He repeated her words and she imagined a room full of cops and FBI agents snickering and imagining her and Mulder screwing with the curtains and some perp watching from outside the window. She choked slightly, as her stomach threatened to void. "I know what this looks like sir, but I assure you, the evidence is circumstantial and extraneous to the case." "Uh huh. Extraneous is it?" "Yes, sir. And I resent the implication." It was weak and she knew it. "Well, resentment or not, I'm sure the squirrel just loved the show Agent Scully." Davies hung up, but not before she heard the laughter.