Solo By: afg Rating: NC17 for graphic violence, sex and expletives. Category: Casefile, Scully/other, MSR Disclaimer: Not mine and no money is being made. Summary: While Mulder is suspended and on medical leave, Scully gets assigned to Violent Crimes. Thanks: To audu2, for giving her time and much needed skill, also to Xangel for help and encouragement For: The delightful AnubisKV5. See what your simple request has unleashed! Bet you're sorry now. Feedback: Would be lovely. siggy.63@btinternet.com Website: www.ofnoconsequence.com Note: This story is set season 5 before 'Travellers' but it doesn't follow canon. ~oOo~ Chapter Two FBI Headquarters Washington DC 08:15 As Scully opened the door to AD Skinner's outer office, his secretary Kim looked up and gave a little smile. "Take a seat Agent Scully, he's on a call, he'll just be a minute." Kim gestured at the sofa against the far wall. "Thanks," Scully smiled and sat down. She felt rather apathetic about this meeting. No doubt she'd be packed off to Quantico to teach or be loaned out to the pathology labs as an extra pair of hands. That would be fine with her; it might give her some time to think, to actually make some decisions about her life. "Agent Scully, the Assistant Director will see you now." Kim's quiet voice invaded her thoughts and she nodded in acknowledgement. Getting up from her seat, she walked to the frosted glass door, knocked once and walked into the office. Skinner's office reflected his status as an Assistant Director. Big desk, big windows and lots of light; the man was sitting behind his desk looking through a file. He was immaculate as always, his shirt snowy white and beautifully pressed. He must spend a fortune on his laundry service, unless he did them himself; Scully almost smiled at the thought of him carefully ironing his shirts with knife sharp creases. "Did you bring them, Agent Scully?" Skinner's brusque voice cut into Scully's reverie, "Yes, sir." She reached into her briefcase and pulled out the requested items. Walking forward she placed Mulder's ID and weapon on the desk. Skinner took them and placed them in his drawer. "How is Agent Mulder?" He asked, looking at her for the first time. "He's still in some pain, sir, but he's going to be fine, as long as he does as he's told." "Hmm, good," He said, heavy disapproval evident in his tone. "Agent Scully, I've had a request for your services by SAC Prebetich over at VC. I just got off the phone with him in fact. It seems that you're needed right away." Scully was a little surprised; she hadn't expected to be assigned to a field position. "What case is this?" "The 'Artist'. Apparently a man walking his dog came across a body an hour ago in Baltimore. It has all the trademarks of his other victims." "I'm aware of the case but I'm not completely familiar with details, sir." "I know, Agent Scully, you'll have to get up to speed with this one as quickly as you can. SAC Prebetich wants you over at the scene ASAP; I've assigned you a car and driver to get you there. You can read the file on the way." He leaned forward and handed her a manila folder. "Yes, sir." She took the folder and slipped it into her briefcase. "There's one more thing, Agent Scully." "Sir?" "I don't want you to involve Mulder in this. I do not want to find out that he's unofficially consulting on this case. Do I make myself clear?" "Crystal, sir. May I ask why?" "It's quite simple, agent. The Powers That Be do not want this case to become a media circus. Mulder is a journalist's dream. They do not want stories of maverick agents riding roughshod over Bureau policy. They want this case solved, they want an arrest and they want it to stick. What they don't want is for some lawyer to throw evidence out of court because it was garnered by an agent under suspension." Scully's hackles rose at his words. "I'll admit that Mulder may be a little rash at times, but he gets results. This case has been on the books for how long? Four years if I remember correctly." "Agent Scully, Mulder may get results, but they come at a high price. He's messy and undisciplined and so far he's been protected by his connections, but I suspect even they cannot carry on covering for his recklessness; the Doran case being a prime example." Skinner took a folder from the pile on his desk and opened it. He pointed to a typewritten page. "He muscled his way into this investigation without being invited; he insulted the agent in charge. I believe he called him, and please, correct me if I'm wrong, 'a natural born paper pusher, with all the deductive reasoning of pond scum,' and he does this in front a room full of agents and local law enforcement. He then acts like the lone ranger, even going so far as to ditch his partner so that he could go off with guns blazing and he killed the suspect." "He saved that little girl's life and the lives of Doran's future victims." Skinner leaned forward in his chair, his finger prodding the file in front of him for emphasis. "He nearly got himself killed in the process, had he bothered to bring backup he might have endangered them as well. He was damned lucky that Doran just smashed his leg and not his thick skull." "Sir, Mulder is a damn good agent, probably the best the Bureau has. His main concern is for the victims of crime, not the reputation of the FBI and its endless internal politicking. There are enough people concerned with that; too many to be quite frank. Perhaps if there was less concern with covering our collective rear ends, then we might actually save more lives. That's what we're here to do isn't it?" "Agent Scully, you'd better curb that attitude unless you're gunning to join Mulder in his suspension. I don't know if you two have grasped this, but the FBI has rules, it has protocol and procedures that have to be followed. If Mulder doesn't like that, then he is free to seek employment elsewhere. He's very lucky that he got away with a suspension this time. He was very nearly called before the review board, had things turned out less favorably with the Doran case, he might well have found himself out of a job." Scully took a deep, calming breath. From Skinner's words she gathered that he'd once again put in a good word for Mulder. She lowered her eyes and nodded her head in acknowledgement. Skinner got up from his chair and walked to the front of his desk. "Agent, you need to get over to Baltimore. I expect you to give your best on this case. SAC Prebetich asked for you specifically." "Yes, sir." She looked at him for a second "Thank you." Skinner wasn't the enemy, he'd probably been dragged over the coals for Mulder's behaviour. They both had a lot to thank him for over the years. "Get going Agent Scully, that body's not getting any fresher." Once out of the office she exhaled a long, deep breath. "Tough meeting, Agent Scully?" Kim asked, sympathetically. "I think I'm having one of those days." Scully sighed. "Then perhaps it can only get better. Your car and driver are waiting for you on level two, bay twelve. Good luck." "Thanks, Kim." Scully walked out of the office and into the corridor. Making her way to the elevator she thought about her meeting with Skinner. A serial case was probably the last thing she needed right now, she'd wanted some quiet, routine placement so she could untangle her thoughts. Now she was going to be spending her days with the end results of some psychopath's idea of recreation, and the evenings fending off Mulder's inquiries into the case. She thought briefly of lying to him about the assignment, but she was an awful liar and Mulder would figure out the truth in a second There was a small cluster of people waiting at the elevator. Looking around at their faces, she wondered when the FBI had started recruiting adolescents. They all looked so young and earnest. She found it difficult to remember a time when she'd felt that confident and sure of her purpose. She suddenly longed to be innocent of the machinations going on in the wings; she longed not to know so damn much. There was a soft 'ping' as the doors opened and the crowd moved into the elevator. She rode down to the basement garage and soon found the car and driver waiting for her. "Agent Scully?" The driver folded his newspaper and straightened up from his position against the driver's door. "Yes." "Okay, hop in. I take it you want the back seat if you're going to catch up on some reading." He opened the rear passenger door. "Thanks." She got in and he closed the door behind her. Scully settled back in her seat; the car made its way out of the garage and onto the street. She opened her briefcase and took out the folder that Skinner had given her. It was thick and well worn, not generally a good sign of progress in a case. She opened it and began to read. ~oOo~ Maggie Scully turned around at the sound of Mulder's crutches against the floor. "Fox, what are you doing up?" She asked, reaching for a dishtowel to wipe her hands and walked into the living room. "I'm just getting my laptop, I've reached my quota as far as Oprah and infomercials are concerned." "Fox, you should have called me, I would have brought it to you." She walked over to him and barred his way. "Now, go and get back into bed. I'm under strict instructions not to let you get up today. I'll bring your laptop in a moment." Mulder looked at her determined expression and realised where Scully got her stubborn streak. He knew that look too well and there was no arguing with it He turned around with some difficulty he started to clump his way back into the bedroom "Jawohl mein Fuhrer," he muttered under his breath. "I'm not deaf, Fox." "I didn't think you were, Mrs. Scully." He looked over his shoulder and grinned. "How about dropping the Mrs. Scully and just calling me Maggie, I think we've known each other for long enough, don't you?" "Okay, Maggie." "Good, now bed." She pointed to the bedroom. Wondering how much more of this mothering he could stand, he made his way back to his bed. He'd spent half the morning flicking through the channels on his TV trying to take his mind off the look on Scully's face as she'd walked out of his bedroom. She'd looked so tired and defeated. To be was honest he was frightened. He'd spent most of his life alone in one way or another. Scully had changed that; somehow she'd ingrained herself into his life and no matter how difficult he'd been (and Mulder was well aware of his faults), no matter how much he'd shut her out or how often he'd left her hanging on the sidelines because he thought it would be easier that way… through everything she stayed, she trusted him and even though she didn't always agree with him she always listened to his ideas, she tried to find solid evidence to back him up. She was his partner even when he hadn't wanted one. Now the word partner seemed wholly inadequate to describe what she was to him He'd been completely blindsided by her this morning. Oh, they'd argued before, but never had they been cruel. Mulder rubbed his cheek where she'd slapped him. He was deeply sorry for what he'd said but he'd just reacted out of instinct. He'd been hurt and he'd wanted to hurt back. The trouble was that they knew each other too well, they knew all the right buttons to press. "Shit." Mulder said aloud and reached over to the nightstand for his cell, he pressed the speed dial. "Scully." Her voice sounded slightly distracted, he could hear the rumble of a car. "Scully are you driving?" "Not exactly." He heard the rustle of papers. "Then what are you doing?" "I'm being driven." "Don't tell me, Skinner gave you a promotion." "No, he gave me to Violent Crimes. I'm on my way to Baltimore. I'm trying to get up to speed with the case." "What's the case?" "Look Mulder can we talk this evening, I've got to get a handle on this thing before I get there." "Okay, Scully I just wanted to apologise for this morning, I was an ass, I'm sorry." He heard another voice in the background talking to his partner, he heard her giving a muffled reply. "Mulder I've got to go, we'll talk tonight." The phone went dead. "Fuck!" "Fox?" Mulder looked up to see Mrs. Scully standing in the doorway holding his laptop. "Sorry Mrs. Scu…Maggie." "Good grief, don't look so embarrassed I do have two sailors for sons you know." She walked to the bed and handed him the computer. "Was that Dana on the phone?" "Yes." He watched Maggie's face he could tell that she was dying to ask him something. "Fox, please don't think I'm prying into your affairs, but are you two okay? When I came in this morning I got the feeling that I'd interrupted something." Mulder sighed, mothers, they must have some inbuilt radar for spotting trouble. "We had an argument, but it's nothing to worry about, we'll get over it, we always do." Despite his reassuring words to Maggie, in his own heart he wasn't at all sure that they would.