Categories > TV > X-Files > Incarnations of Immortality
Title: Incarnations of Immortality
Author: TheBear!
Crossover: XF/HL/FK
Pairings: M/S N/N T/V
161,428 words
15-Apr-02
Disclaimer—I don’t own any of it.
=====
Chapter 1
Toronto Homicide, 96th Precinct
11:10 p.m. Friday December 8th
"So let me get this straight," Nick said, his voice raising slightly and taking on a tone best described as exasperated, "You want us to baby-sit a pair of United States federal agents. For a week!" Nick practically shouted at the captain.
"Nick, you two were going to have to attend the conference anyway…"
"What about the cases we are working on?" Nick asked almost resignedly.
"Nick, you and Vetter just completed the Shultz homicide, Klock is in custody and the case is airtight. Vetter can finish up the paperwork on anything else you guys have left to wrap up…"
"She's going to love that," Nat murmured.
"As I was saying, you have nothing else outstanding right now," continued the captain with a narrow-eyed glance at Nat. "Look guys, I don't particularly care for this either, but the commissioner was adamant that the two of you were to be put on this. These two agents are something different- they generally work cases involving 'unexplained phenomenon.' was how he described it to me."
"Captain, I wonder why he wanted me on this as well as Nick," Nat said- looking bemused.
The captain leaned back and laced his fingers behind his head as he regarded her. "I don't know, Natalie. One of them,” he paused to flip through the file, “Agent Scully, is a forensic pathologist in addition to being a field agent. Maybe that’s why." he sat up, leaning forward to thump his open palm on the desktop, "In any case, I don't like it either. I want you two to let me know if you find out anything that may explain this. If they let on that they may have a hidden agenda, or that sort of thing- I want to know about it."
"Right Captain." Nick and Nat said almost simultaneously.
"Come on Nick, I want to hear you give Tracey the good news" said Nat with a smirk on her face.
===== X-FILES ===== FOREVER KNIGHT ===== HIGHLANDER =====
Flight 3251 to Toronto
4:57 p.m. Saturday December 9th.
"I don't know, Mulder. When's the last time you ever heard of a conference being held at night?" Scully asked with a sigh. "Look at this schedule…"
"I know, I read it already," Mulder exhaled sharply. "I think its official now."
Scully’s eyes widened slightly. "Punishment detail?" she asked.
Mulder raised his eyebrows as if to ask what else it could be. "That or an elaborate trap of some kind."
"Great. Just great," she clipped out between clenched teeth.
They sat in companionable silence for a moment, each seemingly lost in thought.
Scully started slightly when Mulder loudly cracked a sunflower seed between his teeth. Her eyes darted immediately to his mouth and she stared in wonder as his lips twitched while his tongue and teeth worked the meat free from the shell. She felt a shudder run slowly through her, beginning at her center, and flowing from there down to her toes and up to her scalp. All of the tiny little hairs on her arms lifted straight up from her skin and her nipples became painfully erect as she imagined those lips moving over them.
"God, how pathetic is this?" she thought to herself. "He chomps a seed and I'm creaming my panties." Her mind began playing scenes from selected fantasies- the ones involving his lips on selected portions of her anatomy. She ruefully gave herself a little shake, "Stop it! This is your partner. Your friend. Its against the rules!!" she almost chuckled out loud at that. If she believed that he felt for her even half of what she felt for him, she would have stripped him naked and devoured him whole, long ago. The truth was that she didn’t think he had any desire for her at all. "I know he loves me- as a friend, a sister even, but not a lover." Deep down inside she fantasized that that might change someday, but the rational Scully didn't believe it.
Mulder was trying not to look at her. "Please, think of some thing else, anything else…" ran over and over like a mantra in his head. "Get a grip, Fox! She is your partner- she doesn't think of you like that!" He tried to think of baseball, but all he could picture was her; wrapped in his arms, gamely trying to learn how to hit a baseball. He tried to think of basketball but the picture of her lying up against him, asleep, on his couch while watching college hoops filled his thoughts. "At least when we have a case I can concentrate on that," he complained to himself, "How the hell am I going to survive being around her for the next 10 days with nothing but some boring conference I don't care about anyway to fill my thoughts. Images of her sleeping in the hotel room next to him, mere feet away from him began to fill his head and he started to feel stirrings in his groin. He almost moaned out loud. Turned toward Scully slightly to see if she might have noticed anything and was shocked to see her staring at him. "Busted again," he thought as he saw her blush slightly, "I'm surprised she hasn't kicked my ass before for this."
She was slightly startled herself when he turned toward her. "Great, Busted again," she thought, "I'm surprised he is even willing to sit next to me anymore, as much as I stare at him."
"What?" Mulder blurted out.
Scully felt her face grow hot and tried to think of something to say. Finally she recalled what she thought she had seen in his eyes during the elevator trip down from Skinner's office. "Why were you so interested in Toronto, Mulder?"
"Reprieved!" Mulder shouted in his mind. "Remember when you called me before the meeting?" At her nod he continued, "The gunmen just got back from Toronto a couple of days ago and wanted to show me a nifty little device they got from one of their contacts there. A Body Scanner."
"Ok Mulder, I'll bite, what's a body scanner? Some twisted new device to capture porn for the Internet?" Scully smirked.
"No, although that's not a bad idea," Mulder smiled, "It's a device that detects body heat and heartbeat signature. They took an IR detector and a hypersensitive microphone and slaved them to a microprocessor that can filter out extraneous noise and heat source to discriminate a human body from its surroundings. It would be good for search-and-rescue operations and they think they can further tweak the software to not only differentiate humans from their surroundings, but even from one another. A unique 'fingerprint' so to speak"
"What about that makes Toronto particularly interesting?" Scully asked.
"Isn't that enough?" Mulder said with that classic half-grin on his face.
"For others, surely, but for you?" Scully grinned herself.
"Are you sure you're not psychic Scully?" Mulder was smiling now.
"I assure you Mulder- I am not psychic- though I must be psychotic to hang around you this long," she teased back.
His breath caught slightly and his smile faltered, but he swiftly recovered and continued, "Well, they were telling me about how they were driving around testing it when they came upon someone who didn't seem to register on it." Scully's eyebrow arched as he continued, "They watched her walk into a club in the warehouse district. They figured that the thing must be malfunctioning, so they tried it out on some of the people in line for the club, and it worked fine. They ended up parking across the street from the club and trying it out on everyone in line, you know, just to see if it was an isolated anomaly, and found some disturbing results." He paused for a moment to gauge her reaction, "They said that it worked on everyone in line, but that the bouncer and several patrons leaving the establishment did not register at all. Furthermore, patrons entering that were allowed to bypass the line didn't register either."
Scully tried not to let her eyes roll, "And they concluded from this…"
"Well, that's where they seem to disagree," Mulder said. "Byers thinks they had some sort of shielding or something, Langley thinks they must be some kind of alien hybrids, and Frohike…"
"I can hardly wait to hear what Frohike thinks," Scully muttered.
"Well, Frohike thinks they must be vampires or something."
"Vampires," Scully said flatly.
"Well they said the club was pretty gothic, and Byers thought that was affecting Frohike's judgment. Frohike said that Byers was just jealous because he didn't figure it out first." Mulder said somewhat sheepishly.
"And you think we should check this club out." Scully said somewhere between exasperation and resignation.
"Well, can you think of any reason not to?"
"Sure Mulder. A night at a classy Gothic bar in the Warehouse District. You sure know how to show a girl a good time." she said, her expression indecipherable, as a sudden mental picture of him showing her a very good time crossed her mind.
Mulder's eyes glazed over a bit at Scully’s words as he suddenly had mental image of himself showing her an extremely good time. Had they not simultaneously averted their gaze from one another, each would have seen the other blushing furiously.
===== X-FILES ===== FOREVER KNIGHT ===== HIGHLANDER =====
Terminal 3
Lester B Pearson International Airport
6:02 p.m. Saturday December 9th.
“They are FBI Agents, Nick. How hard could it be to recognize them?” Natalie asked.
“Nick looked puzzled, his brows drawing together, “How do you mean, Nat?” he asked at they waited for the passengers to begin departing from the plane.
“Well, they will probably both be tall, conservative looking, and dressed in Brooks Brothers Navy blue suits, carrying briefcases,” Nat said with a giggle.
“I think you’ve been watching too many Cop movies, Nat.” Nick said with a sardonic grin. “It’s a good thing I brought a sign,” he said, waving the hand-printed Mulder & Scully sign in her face.
Passengers were starting to come out of the jet-way at this point and the two noticed two figures clad in black suits and trench coats exiting and looking about them. “God, Nick,” Nat whispered. “Look at those two, they dress like you do.”
“Must be a cop thing,” Nick said with a grin.
She playfully punched him on the shoulder and said, “That’s not what I meant and you know it!”
“Well, they are walking this way, maybe they'll let you check their teeth,” Nick whispered in her ear, feeling unusually playful.
Natalie felt her heart beat faster and shivered a little at the feeling of Nick's cool breath on her ear. She suddenly felt flushed and overheated. "Get a Grip Nat!" she thought furiously at herself. "He's just being friendly. Emphasis on friend. Even If he wanted more than that he would just go see Janet, not seduce you in an airport." she thought, getting angry with herself.
Nick heard the increased heartbeat, smelled and saw the flush of arousal that Natalie was giving off and jerked back as though he had been bitten. His control was becoming more and more tenuous lately- especially around her. An idea was hovering around the edge of his consciousness, getting closer and closer every day, but nonetheless eluding him when he focused his attention toward it. He could feel that it was about Nat, and that it was of extreme importance, and he thought it might have something to do with his quest for mortality as well, but he wasn't sure. "No time for such musings now," he chastised himself as the two objects of their conversation reached them.
Scully silently appraised the two as Mulder took out his identification and introduced the two of them as Agents Mulder and Scully with the FBI to the pale blond man holding the sign with their names on it and the curvy brunette standing next to him. She noticed that the woman was blushing and the man seemed slightly lost in thought. Half a beat later the man spoke up and introduced himself as Detective Nick Knight with Toronto metro homicide, and the woman as Doctor Natalie Lambert of the Toronto Coroner's office. They each smiled and shook hands with Mulder and herself. She noticed that Lambert's hand seemed very warm, while Knight's felt quite cool. Mulder made some inane pleasantries while she quietly studied the two people who were here to shepherd them during this conference. She couldn't shake the feeling that there was a great deal more to them than there seemed on the surface. She wondered if they knew why She and Mulder were really here. Finally she broke her silence, "Well detective, please lead on, we'd like to get checked in and I could really go for something to eat right about now."
Natalie broke in with, "Actually that sounds pretty good. Why don't you let Nick and I take you out for a meal? There's a decent café on the way to the Plaza." She turned to Nick with a smirk and said, "When's the last time you ate, Nick?"
Deciding he wasn't going to win this one, Nick capitulated without a fight, "Fine," he said turning to Mulder and Scully and continuing, "Lets go to the luggage retrieval and get on our way."
===== X-FILES ===== FOREVER KNIGHT ===== HIGHLANDER =====
Outside Victoria Café
6:58 p.m. Saturday December 9th.
The conversation has somehow lapsed into docspeak during the ride, with Mulder and Nick listening, bemused, to Scully and Natalie as though they were speaking Yiddish.
They pulled into a parking slot in the mall lot about halfway between the restaurant and office building beside it along the highway. As they exited the caddie, Detective Knight suddenly struck a pose, as though he was listening to something far away.
Mulder noticed and began to ask what was going on when he heard Knight mutter under his breath, "Swords?" He stood there, dumfounded for a moment as Knight took off toward the back of the office building at a dead run, then collected his wits and ran after him. He could hear Scully and Doctor Lambert running behind him, each calling out their respective partner's name. As he got closer to where he had seen Knight disappear around the corner of the building, he heard the crash of metal on metal and a shout of 'There can be only one!' followed by a moment of silence.
Nick had come around the edge of the building in time to see a man kneeling before another who was swinging a sword toward his neck. Before Nick could even ponder the question of whether or not to use his Vampiric speed, the blade hurtled through neck of the kneeling man and his head practically leapt from his shoulders.
He heard Agent Mulder coming around the corner behind him and drew his weapon and pointed it at the battle's victor. He shouted, "Metro Homicide, drop the sword and put your hands on your head!"
Agent Mulder stopped next to him, his weapon drawn, a question on his breath when his attention was suddenly refocused on the headless corpse, which began to raise off of the ground while lightning began to arc from the neck and into the man standing with his sword raised above his head.
Nat and Agent Scully came around the corner in time to see arcs of electricity blowing sparks off of the transformers on the wall of the building and a headless corpse hitting the ground as though it had been dropped from a height. A man with a sword in his hand was standing up from the ground and running away on the other side of the showers of sparks coming off of the transformer. "Nick, what's going on?" Natalie breathed, hearing similar sentiments echoed by Agent Scully toward her partner. Both of the men had their guns drawn, but they were pointed to the ground and they each had their mouths hanging open in surprise. She heard Agent Mulder recover first and say 'Wow!" in a loud exhale. Nick seemed entirely at a loss for words.
Scully took a moment to try and reconcile what she thought she had seen with anything she might have ever seen before but gave up after a moment. She would have to think about it later. Right now there was a headless corpse to look at, and she wanted to be sure she had a chance to make some close up observations before anything could happen to sweep this under the carpet. She heard Detective Knight tell Doctor Lambert to take a look at the body while he went to go call it in. Mulder caught up to her as she approached to the body.
"How much did you see, Scully?" he whispered to her.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
Mulder explained to her what he thought he had seen. "Oh, Mulder. That’s not possible- lightning doesn't come out of people's bodies- you must have seen the arcs coming off of that transformer." she said.
"Scully- I saw the lightening for almost 2 seconds before the transformer blew!" Mulder whispered loudly. "I'm telling you, Scully- I saw it come out of him," indicating the corpse, "and into the other guy- repeatedly."
Natalie overheard most of the conversation and wondered what Nick would have to say about it, as he had apparently arrived on the scene first. She examined the corpse and noticed the sword still clutched in the out-flung hand. She also noticed that the area where the neck had been appeared to be seared and charred as if by high heat. She would have to check the feet when she did the autopsy to see if there were corresponding burns where the electrical current should have gone out to ground.
Scully walked over and squatted down next to the severed head, examining it for anything unusual, beyond the fact that it was no longer attached to the body. She wondered about the sword "were they really having some sort of duel to the death?" she asked herself, "what century did they think they were in?" She noticed Doctor Lambert joining her and asked, "anything interesting on the body?"
Natalie noticed the lack of any burns on the neck of the head and said, "Other than its unnatural lack of height?" she continued, "The burns were obviously made after the decapitation. We'll have to take a look once we get him out of here to determine cause."
"I'd like to observe the autopsy if you don't mind, Doctor Lambert" Scully said.
"You would have to get permission from my Captain, but I certainly don't mind." Natalie replied.
Just then Nick returned to the scene and told them that more officers should be arriving in a couple of minutes. He paused for a moment as he looked at the body, at the burns on the neck and remembered the scene as it had unfolded.
Natalie noticed his reverie and asked him what had happened. He began to describe what he had seen but left out the part about the floating body and the lightening pouring out of the neck and into the other man. Mulder of course brought it up and asked Nick to confirm what he had seen.
"But that isn't possible, is it Agent Mulder?" Nick asked, somewhat bewildered. He had never seen anything like that before in his 800 years of life/unlife.
"Impossible or not, it is what happened" Mulder countered.
"Frankly, agent Mulder, I can't be sure what I saw. I remember it as you said, but I'm not sure I believe it myself,” Nick said softly as the patrol cars and coroner's van arrived on scene.
===== X-FILES ===== FOREVER KNIGHT ===== HIGHLANDER =====
International Plaza Hotel and Conference Center
2:28am Sunday December 10th.
It had been after midnight before they were done at the precinct, and Scully had wanted to observe the autopsy. Mulder had told her he would meet her at the hotel. Scully was focused on the task at hand and had barely acknowledged him with a glance and a non-committal grunt as she followed Doctor Lambert off to the morgue. Detective Knight dropped him at the hotel and assured him that 'Nat' would see to it that agent Scully made it to the hotel when the autopsy was completed, and that they would see them at the conference Monday evening.
Mulder's mind was awhirl with what had happened that night. He was also hungry. He knew his partner, and the fact that while focused on the autopsy, she would undoubtedly forget her own hunger until she got back to the hotel and then she would immediately be ravenous. He also knew that he had better be ready to assuage that hunger or she would be extremely unpleasant to be around. He called the desk and got a number for an all-night Chinese place that would deliver.
He had eaten his fill, and even taken a brief, and cold, shower before he heard her entering the adjoining room. He immediately knocked on the door and entered bearing gifts to satisfy the hungry Scully, hopefully before she became the crabby Scully.
Scully dragged herself in the door, dropping her bags on the floor immediately in front of the door and wearily walked over to the chair and flopped down- too worn out to even make it all of the way to the bed. She heard Mulder's knock on the door and turned her head in time to see him enter with so much as a 'by your leave.'
"Oh no! He’s wearing that tight gray T-shirt and jeans," she thought to herself. The material of the T-shirt was stretched tightly over the frame of his chest and shoulders, causing her mouth to water slightly and she felt herself getting slightly damp between her thighs. "Oh Mulder, why tonight?" she thought as she silently condemned her traitorous body for reacting so palpably to his mere presence. "Dammit Mulder, what now?" she said out loud, sublimating her desire into annoyance, hoping that he would misread the tension she was clearly displaying.
"Too late" he muttered under his breath. "Food, Scully. I thought you might not have eaten yet and I knew you would be tired and you probably wouldn't want to have to get up and get anything or wait for delivery so…" He was clearly babbling and desperately wanted to shut up but couldn't seem to get his brain on the same wavelength as his mouth. Finally he noticed that he seemed to have drifted to a stop in the middle of a sentence so he finished with "…so I got you some… It’s General Tso's Chicken, Scully. I know you really like General Tso's Chicken…" Damn. He was babbling again. This time he just kept his mouth shut.
"God I can be a bitch sometimes," she thought as she saw the wounded puppy look on Mulder's face and listened to him babble. "Why does he have to be so sweet and understanding, and so damn sexy!" she practically shouted at herself. She quickly stood up and took the box from him and set it down on the hotel-room table- turning her back on him as she did so before he could see the welling of tears in her eyes. "Thanks, Mulder." she murmured as she grabbed the box from him.
She looked so small and fragile sometimes. He had to restrain himself from swiftly closing the distance between them and wrapping his arms around her and burying his face in her hair as he held her tight. "So much for the effectiveness of cold showers" he thought as he felt himself tighten in his jeans.
"I'm beat Mulder. Could we discuss the case in the morning? I really need to get some sleep," she said; even though what she really wanted was for him to sweep her up and throw her on the bed. She imagined him pounding into her with an animalistic ferocity, while she was shouting his name as he made her cum over an over again. She was afraid if he didn't leave now she wouldn't be able to keep the feelings that were choking her from spilling out and revealing everything to him. He didn't feel that way about her and she was afraid that it would destroy their partnership if she told him how she felt.
"She knows. She knows and it repulses her." Mulder felt his heart crack a little. "How can I be such a beast? She is tired and worn out and hungry and I'm standing here with a hard-on like a geeky high school kid." Mulder berated himself and wondered even more how she could stand to stay partnered with such totally screwed-up freak like him. "Sure Scully. Hey, don't worry about getting up early- we need to acclimate ourselves to the nights anyway while we’re here." he said, his voice only wavering a little.
"Ok Mulder. Good Night," she said as he closed the door behind him.
Neither of them was able to fall asleep for several hours that night. Each tossed and turned and wished they were in bed with the other.
Author: TheBear!
Crossover: XF/HL/FK
Pairings: M/S N/N T/V
161,428 words
15-Apr-02
Disclaimer—I don’t own any of it.
=====
Chapter 1
Toronto Homicide, 96th Precinct
11:10 p.m. Friday December 8th
"So let me get this straight," Nick said, his voice raising slightly and taking on a tone best described as exasperated, "You want us to baby-sit a pair of United States federal agents. For a week!" Nick practically shouted at the captain.
"Nick, you two were going to have to attend the conference anyway…"
"What about the cases we are working on?" Nick asked almost resignedly.
"Nick, you and Vetter just completed the Shultz homicide, Klock is in custody and the case is airtight. Vetter can finish up the paperwork on anything else you guys have left to wrap up…"
"She's going to love that," Nat murmured.
"As I was saying, you have nothing else outstanding right now," continued the captain with a narrow-eyed glance at Nat. "Look guys, I don't particularly care for this either, but the commissioner was adamant that the two of you were to be put on this. These two agents are something different- they generally work cases involving 'unexplained phenomenon.' was how he described it to me."
"Captain, I wonder why he wanted me on this as well as Nick," Nat said- looking bemused.
The captain leaned back and laced his fingers behind his head as he regarded her. "I don't know, Natalie. One of them,” he paused to flip through the file, “Agent Scully, is a forensic pathologist in addition to being a field agent. Maybe that’s why." he sat up, leaning forward to thump his open palm on the desktop, "In any case, I don't like it either. I want you two to let me know if you find out anything that may explain this. If they let on that they may have a hidden agenda, or that sort of thing- I want to know about it."
"Right Captain." Nick and Nat said almost simultaneously.
"Come on Nick, I want to hear you give Tracey the good news" said Nat with a smirk on her face.
===== X-FILES ===== FOREVER KNIGHT ===== HIGHLANDER =====
Flight 3251 to Toronto
4:57 p.m. Saturday December 9th.
"I don't know, Mulder. When's the last time you ever heard of a conference being held at night?" Scully asked with a sigh. "Look at this schedule…"
"I know, I read it already," Mulder exhaled sharply. "I think its official now."
Scully’s eyes widened slightly. "Punishment detail?" she asked.
Mulder raised his eyebrows as if to ask what else it could be. "That or an elaborate trap of some kind."
"Great. Just great," she clipped out between clenched teeth.
They sat in companionable silence for a moment, each seemingly lost in thought.
Scully started slightly when Mulder loudly cracked a sunflower seed between his teeth. Her eyes darted immediately to his mouth and she stared in wonder as his lips twitched while his tongue and teeth worked the meat free from the shell. She felt a shudder run slowly through her, beginning at her center, and flowing from there down to her toes and up to her scalp. All of the tiny little hairs on her arms lifted straight up from her skin and her nipples became painfully erect as she imagined those lips moving over them.
"God, how pathetic is this?" she thought to herself. "He chomps a seed and I'm creaming my panties." Her mind began playing scenes from selected fantasies- the ones involving his lips on selected portions of her anatomy. She ruefully gave herself a little shake, "Stop it! This is your partner. Your friend. Its against the rules!!" she almost chuckled out loud at that. If she believed that he felt for her even half of what she felt for him, she would have stripped him naked and devoured him whole, long ago. The truth was that she didn’t think he had any desire for her at all. "I know he loves me- as a friend, a sister even, but not a lover." Deep down inside she fantasized that that might change someday, but the rational Scully didn't believe it.
Mulder was trying not to look at her. "Please, think of some thing else, anything else…" ran over and over like a mantra in his head. "Get a grip, Fox! She is your partner- she doesn't think of you like that!" He tried to think of baseball, but all he could picture was her; wrapped in his arms, gamely trying to learn how to hit a baseball. He tried to think of basketball but the picture of her lying up against him, asleep, on his couch while watching college hoops filled his thoughts. "At least when we have a case I can concentrate on that," he complained to himself, "How the hell am I going to survive being around her for the next 10 days with nothing but some boring conference I don't care about anyway to fill my thoughts. Images of her sleeping in the hotel room next to him, mere feet away from him began to fill his head and he started to feel stirrings in his groin. He almost moaned out loud. Turned toward Scully slightly to see if she might have noticed anything and was shocked to see her staring at him. "Busted again," he thought as he saw her blush slightly, "I'm surprised she hasn't kicked my ass before for this."
She was slightly startled herself when he turned toward her. "Great, Busted again," she thought, "I'm surprised he is even willing to sit next to me anymore, as much as I stare at him."
"What?" Mulder blurted out.
Scully felt her face grow hot and tried to think of something to say. Finally she recalled what she thought she had seen in his eyes during the elevator trip down from Skinner's office. "Why were you so interested in Toronto, Mulder?"
"Reprieved!" Mulder shouted in his mind. "Remember when you called me before the meeting?" At her nod he continued, "The gunmen just got back from Toronto a couple of days ago and wanted to show me a nifty little device they got from one of their contacts there. A Body Scanner."
"Ok Mulder, I'll bite, what's a body scanner? Some twisted new device to capture porn for the Internet?" Scully smirked.
"No, although that's not a bad idea," Mulder smiled, "It's a device that detects body heat and heartbeat signature. They took an IR detector and a hypersensitive microphone and slaved them to a microprocessor that can filter out extraneous noise and heat source to discriminate a human body from its surroundings. It would be good for search-and-rescue operations and they think they can further tweak the software to not only differentiate humans from their surroundings, but even from one another. A unique 'fingerprint' so to speak"
"What about that makes Toronto particularly interesting?" Scully asked.
"Isn't that enough?" Mulder said with that classic half-grin on his face.
"For others, surely, but for you?" Scully grinned herself.
"Are you sure you're not psychic Scully?" Mulder was smiling now.
"I assure you Mulder- I am not psychic- though I must be psychotic to hang around you this long," she teased back.
His breath caught slightly and his smile faltered, but he swiftly recovered and continued, "Well, they were telling me about how they were driving around testing it when they came upon someone who didn't seem to register on it." Scully's eyebrow arched as he continued, "They watched her walk into a club in the warehouse district. They figured that the thing must be malfunctioning, so they tried it out on some of the people in line for the club, and it worked fine. They ended up parking across the street from the club and trying it out on everyone in line, you know, just to see if it was an isolated anomaly, and found some disturbing results." He paused for a moment to gauge her reaction, "They said that it worked on everyone in line, but that the bouncer and several patrons leaving the establishment did not register at all. Furthermore, patrons entering that were allowed to bypass the line didn't register either."
Scully tried not to let her eyes roll, "And they concluded from this…"
"Well, that's where they seem to disagree," Mulder said. "Byers thinks they had some sort of shielding or something, Langley thinks they must be some kind of alien hybrids, and Frohike…"
"I can hardly wait to hear what Frohike thinks," Scully muttered.
"Well, Frohike thinks they must be vampires or something."
"Vampires," Scully said flatly.
"Well they said the club was pretty gothic, and Byers thought that was affecting Frohike's judgment. Frohike said that Byers was just jealous because he didn't figure it out first." Mulder said somewhat sheepishly.
"And you think we should check this club out." Scully said somewhere between exasperation and resignation.
"Well, can you think of any reason not to?"
"Sure Mulder. A night at a classy Gothic bar in the Warehouse District. You sure know how to show a girl a good time." she said, her expression indecipherable, as a sudden mental picture of him showing her a very good time crossed her mind.
Mulder's eyes glazed over a bit at Scully’s words as he suddenly had mental image of himself showing her an extremely good time. Had they not simultaneously averted their gaze from one another, each would have seen the other blushing furiously.
===== X-FILES ===== FOREVER KNIGHT ===== HIGHLANDER =====
Terminal 3
Lester B Pearson International Airport
6:02 p.m. Saturday December 9th.
“They are FBI Agents, Nick. How hard could it be to recognize them?” Natalie asked.
“Nick looked puzzled, his brows drawing together, “How do you mean, Nat?” he asked at they waited for the passengers to begin departing from the plane.
“Well, they will probably both be tall, conservative looking, and dressed in Brooks Brothers Navy blue suits, carrying briefcases,” Nat said with a giggle.
“I think you’ve been watching too many Cop movies, Nat.” Nick said with a sardonic grin. “It’s a good thing I brought a sign,” he said, waving the hand-printed Mulder & Scully sign in her face.
Passengers were starting to come out of the jet-way at this point and the two noticed two figures clad in black suits and trench coats exiting and looking about them. “God, Nick,” Nat whispered. “Look at those two, they dress like you do.”
“Must be a cop thing,” Nick said with a grin.
She playfully punched him on the shoulder and said, “That’s not what I meant and you know it!”
“Well, they are walking this way, maybe they'll let you check their teeth,” Nick whispered in her ear, feeling unusually playful.
Natalie felt her heart beat faster and shivered a little at the feeling of Nick's cool breath on her ear. She suddenly felt flushed and overheated. "Get a Grip Nat!" she thought furiously at herself. "He's just being friendly. Emphasis on friend. Even If he wanted more than that he would just go see Janet, not seduce you in an airport." she thought, getting angry with herself.
Nick heard the increased heartbeat, smelled and saw the flush of arousal that Natalie was giving off and jerked back as though he had been bitten. His control was becoming more and more tenuous lately- especially around her. An idea was hovering around the edge of his consciousness, getting closer and closer every day, but nonetheless eluding him when he focused his attention toward it. He could feel that it was about Nat, and that it was of extreme importance, and he thought it might have something to do with his quest for mortality as well, but he wasn't sure. "No time for such musings now," he chastised himself as the two objects of their conversation reached them.
Scully silently appraised the two as Mulder took out his identification and introduced the two of them as Agents Mulder and Scully with the FBI to the pale blond man holding the sign with their names on it and the curvy brunette standing next to him. She noticed that the woman was blushing and the man seemed slightly lost in thought. Half a beat later the man spoke up and introduced himself as Detective Nick Knight with Toronto metro homicide, and the woman as Doctor Natalie Lambert of the Toronto Coroner's office. They each smiled and shook hands with Mulder and herself. She noticed that Lambert's hand seemed very warm, while Knight's felt quite cool. Mulder made some inane pleasantries while she quietly studied the two people who were here to shepherd them during this conference. She couldn't shake the feeling that there was a great deal more to them than there seemed on the surface. She wondered if they knew why She and Mulder were really here. Finally she broke her silence, "Well detective, please lead on, we'd like to get checked in and I could really go for something to eat right about now."
Natalie broke in with, "Actually that sounds pretty good. Why don't you let Nick and I take you out for a meal? There's a decent café on the way to the Plaza." She turned to Nick with a smirk and said, "When's the last time you ate, Nick?"
Deciding he wasn't going to win this one, Nick capitulated without a fight, "Fine," he said turning to Mulder and Scully and continuing, "Lets go to the luggage retrieval and get on our way."
===== X-FILES ===== FOREVER KNIGHT ===== HIGHLANDER =====
Outside Victoria Café
6:58 p.m. Saturday December 9th.
The conversation has somehow lapsed into docspeak during the ride, with Mulder and Nick listening, bemused, to Scully and Natalie as though they were speaking Yiddish.
They pulled into a parking slot in the mall lot about halfway between the restaurant and office building beside it along the highway. As they exited the caddie, Detective Knight suddenly struck a pose, as though he was listening to something far away.
Mulder noticed and began to ask what was going on when he heard Knight mutter under his breath, "Swords?" He stood there, dumfounded for a moment as Knight took off toward the back of the office building at a dead run, then collected his wits and ran after him. He could hear Scully and Doctor Lambert running behind him, each calling out their respective partner's name. As he got closer to where he had seen Knight disappear around the corner of the building, he heard the crash of metal on metal and a shout of 'There can be only one!' followed by a moment of silence.
Nick had come around the edge of the building in time to see a man kneeling before another who was swinging a sword toward his neck. Before Nick could even ponder the question of whether or not to use his Vampiric speed, the blade hurtled through neck of the kneeling man and his head practically leapt from his shoulders.
He heard Agent Mulder coming around the corner behind him and drew his weapon and pointed it at the battle's victor. He shouted, "Metro Homicide, drop the sword and put your hands on your head!"
Agent Mulder stopped next to him, his weapon drawn, a question on his breath when his attention was suddenly refocused on the headless corpse, which began to raise off of the ground while lightning began to arc from the neck and into the man standing with his sword raised above his head.
Nat and Agent Scully came around the corner in time to see arcs of electricity blowing sparks off of the transformers on the wall of the building and a headless corpse hitting the ground as though it had been dropped from a height. A man with a sword in his hand was standing up from the ground and running away on the other side of the showers of sparks coming off of the transformer. "Nick, what's going on?" Natalie breathed, hearing similar sentiments echoed by Agent Scully toward her partner. Both of the men had their guns drawn, but they were pointed to the ground and they each had their mouths hanging open in surprise. She heard Agent Mulder recover first and say 'Wow!" in a loud exhale. Nick seemed entirely at a loss for words.
Scully took a moment to try and reconcile what she thought she had seen with anything she might have ever seen before but gave up after a moment. She would have to think about it later. Right now there was a headless corpse to look at, and she wanted to be sure she had a chance to make some close up observations before anything could happen to sweep this under the carpet. She heard Detective Knight tell Doctor Lambert to take a look at the body while he went to go call it in. Mulder caught up to her as she approached to the body.
"How much did you see, Scully?" he whispered to her.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
Mulder explained to her what he thought he had seen. "Oh, Mulder. That’s not possible- lightning doesn't come out of people's bodies- you must have seen the arcs coming off of that transformer." she said.
"Scully- I saw the lightening for almost 2 seconds before the transformer blew!" Mulder whispered loudly. "I'm telling you, Scully- I saw it come out of him," indicating the corpse, "and into the other guy- repeatedly."
Natalie overheard most of the conversation and wondered what Nick would have to say about it, as he had apparently arrived on the scene first. She examined the corpse and noticed the sword still clutched in the out-flung hand. She also noticed that the area where the neck had been appeared to be seared and charred as if by high heat. She would have to check the feet when she did the autopsy to see if there were corresponding burns where the electrical current should have gone out to ground.
Scully walked over and squatted down next to the severed head, examining it for anything unusual, beyond the fact that it was no longer attached to the body. She wondered about the sword "were they really having some sort of duel to the death?" she asked herself, "what century did they think they were in?" She noticed Doctor Lambert joining her and asked, "anything interesting on the body?"
Natalie noticed the lack of any burns on the neck of the head and said, "Other than its unnatural lack of height?" she continued, "The burns were obviously made after the decapitation. We'll have to take a look once we get him out of here to determine cause."
"I'd like to observe the autopsy if you don't mind, Doctor Lambert" Scully said.
"You would have to get permission from my Captain, but I certainly don't mind." Natalie replied.
Just then Nick returned to the scene and told them that more officers should be arriving in a couple of minutes. He paused for a moment as he looked at the body, at the burns on the neck and remembered the scene as it had unfolded.
Natalie noticed his reverie and asked him what had happened. He began to describe what he had seen but left out the part about the floating body and the lightening pouring out of the neck and into the other man. Mulder of course brought it up and asked Nick to confirm what he had seen.
"But that isn't possible, is it Agent Mulder?" Nick asked, somewhat bewildered. He had never seen anything like that before in his 800 years of life/unlife.
"Impossible or not, it is what happened" Mulder countered.
"Frankly, agent Mulder, I can't be sure what I saw. I remember it as you said, but I'm not sure I believe it myself,” Nick said softly as the patrol cars and coroner's van arrived on scene.
===== X-FILES ===== FOREVER KNIGHT ===== HIGHLANDER =====
International Plaza Hotel and Conference Center
2:28am Sunday December 10th.
It had been after midnight before they were done at the precinct, and Scully had wanted to observe the autopsy. Mulder had told her he would meet her at the hotel. Scully was focused on the task at hand and had barely acknowledged him with a glance and a non-committal grunt as she followed Doctor Lambert off to the morgue. Detective Knight dropped him at the hotel and assured him that 'Nat' would see to it that agent Scully made it to the hotel when the autopsy was completed, and that they would see them at the conference Monday evening.
Mulder's mind was awhirl with what had happened that night. He was also hungry. He knew his partner, and the fact that while focused on the autopsy, she would undoubtedly forget her own hunger until she got back to the hotel and then she would immediately be ravenous. He also knew that he had better be ready to assuage that hunger or she would be extremely unpleasant to be around. He called the desk and got a number for an all-night Chinese place that would deliver.
He had eaten his fill, and even taken a brief, and cold, shower before he heard her entering the adjoining room. He immediately knocked on the door and entered bearing gifts to satisfy the hungry Scully, hopefully before she became the crabby Scully.
Scully dragged herself in the door, dropping her bags on the floor immediately in front of the door and wearily walked over to the chair and flopped down- too worn out to even make it all of the way to the bed. She heard Mulder's knock on the door and turned her head in time to see him enter with so much as a 'by your leave.'
"Oh no! He’s wearing that tight gray T-shirt and jeans," she thought to herself. The material of the T-shirt was stretched tightly over the frame of his chest and shoulders, causing her mouth to water slightly and she felt herself getting slightly damp between her thighs. "Oh Mulder, why tonight?" she thought as she silently condemned her traitorous body for reacting so palpably to his mere presence. "Dammit Mulder, what now?" she said out loud, sublimating her desire into annoyance, hoping that he would misread the tension she was clearly displaying.
"Too late" he muttered under his breath. "Food, Scully. I thought you might not have eaten yet and I knew you would be tired and you probably wouldn't want to have to get up and get anything or wait for delivery so…" He was clearly babbling and desperately wanted to shut up but couldn't seem to get his brain on the same wavelength as his mouth. Finally he noticed that he seemed to have drifted to a stop in the middle of a sentence so he finished with "…so I got you some… It’s General Tso's Chicken, Scully. I know you really like General Tso's Chicken…" Damn. He was babbling again. This time he just kept his mouth shut.
"God I can be a bitch sometimes," she thought as she saw the wounded puppy look on Mulder's face and listened to him babble. "Why does he have to be so sweet and understanding, and so damn sexy!" she practically shouted at herself. She quickly stood up and took the box from him and set it down on the hotel-room table- turning her back on him as she did so before he could see the welling of tears in her eyes. "Thanks, Mulder." she murmured as she grabbed the box from him.
She looked so small and fragile sometimes. He had to restrain himself from swiftly closing the distance between them and wrapping his arms around her and burying his face in her hair as he held her tight. "So much for the effectiveness of cold showers" he thought as he felt himself tighten in his jeans.
"I'm beat Mulder. Could we discuss the case in the morning? I really need to get some sleep," she said; even though what she really wanted was for him to sweep her up and throw her on the bed. She imagined him pounding into her with an animalistic ferocity, while she was shouting his name as he made her cum over an over again. She was afraid if he didn't leave now she wouldn't be able to keep the feelings that were choking her from spilling out and revealing everything to him. He didn't feel that way about her and she was afraid that it would destroy their partnership if she told him how she felt.
"She knows. She knows and it repulses her." Mulder felt his heart crack a little. "How can I be such a beast? She is tired and worn out and hungry and I'm standing here with a hard-on like a geeky high school kid." Mulder berated himself and wondered even more how she could stand to stay partnered with such totally screwed-up freak like him. "Sure Scully. Hey, don't worry about getting up early- we need to acclimate ourselves to the nights anyway while we’re here." he said, his voice only wavering a little.
"Ok Mulder. Good Night," she said as he closed the door behind him.
Neither of them was able to fall asleep for several hours that night. Each tossed and turned and wished they were in bed with the other.
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