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 3
Toronto Homicide Investigation Innovations Seminar
5:30 p.m. Monday December 11th
Nick and Natalie met with Mulder and Scully in the lobby of the Plaza and checked out their schedule of events. All four had the seminar on Interdisciplinary Communication and Cooperation. Essentially it dealt with the importance of the homicide investigator working closely with the medical examiner in order for both parties to understand the needs of the other in order to facilitate rapid and accurate case solutions. Mulder made a comment on already realizing the importance of close contact with his medical examiner, and Natalie blushed furiously, Scully only slightly less so.
Scully noticed throughout the conference that Knight and Lambert seemed to touch quite a bit. She hadn’t noticed that when they had picked Mulder and her up at the airport. “Hmm, I wonder what happened after we left the Club?” she thought to herself. “Last night she was jealous of Mulder and I, thinking that we were together, and now she and Knight are sure acting like a couple.
During the break between seminars they decided to eat at the hotel’s restaurant. Knight declined, mentioning that he had some intense food allergies and was on a special Diet. He did have a glass of the wine they had ordered, although he only poured about a quarter of a glass. At some point during the conversation, while Natalie was recounting one of their cases and asking Nick’s clarification on a particular point, Mulder noticed Scully frowning ever so slightly at Knight’s glass. Mulder glanced over and noticed that Knight’s glass was nearly full, and it seemed to be very slightly darker than everyone else’s wine. The bottle was across the table by Scully. Surely he would have noticed if Knight had reached all of the way across the table and retrieved the bottle. When he looked back to Scully, she was focused on Natalie who was continuing with the anecdote. He merely filed the discrepancy away for future reference and continued in the conversation.
The second half of the day found them scheduled apart, Natalie and Scully were slated for a seminar on advances in forensic technology, “New product sales pitch session” as Scully called it. Nick and Mulder were headed for a presentation on computerized criminal demographics profiling.
As Nick and Mulder stood outside the entrance to the auditorium their presentation was to be held in, Mulder was surreptitiously observing his companion. The paleness, the refusal to eat, the ‘mystery’ of the wine, the way he moves, the sheer presence of him. He knew Scully would never believe him, but he was pretty sure that Detective Nick Knight was a vampire. “Now, what the hell do I do about it?” he asked himself. So far as he could tell, this vampire was unlike what he expected a vampire to act like. He was catching killers, not killing. He’d had the gunmen hack the Toronto PD and pull his jacket. Not only was he clean, he seemed to be a star detective. He and his partner, Detective Vetter- who was, coincidentally, the daughter of one of the police commissioners- had the highest solve rate of any of the homicide detectives in any precinct in Toronto. Not what you would expect from someone who lived off of human blood. As he was pondering this he noticed something through the glass doors that led outside of the hotel. A face that looked familiar. It looked like the face he had seen through the shower of sparks behind that office building Saturday night. He interrupted Nick, who was recounting the steps taken so far in the investigation of the decapitation, “Uh, Detective Knight, I think the perp. is walking toward the door right behind you.”
Nick whirled around and looked out the door. He saw a medium height man with short black hair and a beard, wearing a brown trench coat. His skin was suntan brown, and looked well weathered. It was definitely the same man he saw taking the head of their unidentified victim.
“I think we should follow him,” Mulder said.
“We’ll find out where he is going and then call in for backup” Nick said as they went out the door once the perp had passed.
They split apart immediately, Nick trailing about fifty meters behind, while Mulder crossed the street and paralleled Nick. After trailing him for about 20 minutes, he crossed over to Mulder’s side of the street and ducked down an alley between two smaller apartment buildings in a rather disreputable neighborhood. As Mulder came to the corner and looked down the alley, he noticed the perp. disappearing over top of a fire escape onto the top of one of the buildings, 4 stories high. After whispering a couple of harsh expletives, he took off down the alley and quickly climbed the fire escape. As he neared the top, he looked down and saw Knight just entering the alley. He didn’t feel that he could afford to wait for the Detective to catch up, so he jumped over the top and raced across the roof after the perp.
As Mulder ran past one of the large HVAC units on the roof, he was grabbed and thrown back into the side of the unit, striking his head and tearing the skin at his temple. He fell to his knees, momentarily stunned. “What the hell are you, man?” the perp asked him. “I can barely feel you!” he said.
Mulder said, “What?” as he tried to make sense of what the guy was saying, but his thought processes were a bit sluggish.
The perp opened his trench coat and withdrew a short, broad-bladed sword with a plain cross hilt. He said, “It might be weak, but I’ll take it.” He raised his sword and said, “There can be only one!”
Suddenly two gunshots rang out and Mulder saw what looked like two puffs of dust bloom from the chest of the perp. He staggered back several steps and fell by the roof’s parapet. Mulder looked over his shoulder and saw Detective Knight standing at the other side of the roof, about 30 meters away. A small part of his brain whispered to him, wondering how he had managed to come up there, when the front of the building didn’t have a fire escape.
Nick quickly ran over to where Mulder was and helped him up. “Are you alright, Agent Mulder?”
“Yeah, just a little stunned.” Mulder said, wincing only slightly at the pain in his head. “Nice shot, by the way,” he said to Knight’s back as he approached the downed perp. Mulder drew his own weapon to cover Knight, just in case. The guy definitely looked dead, he wasn’t breathing anyway, and there were a couple of bloody holes in his shirt right in the middle of his chest.
Nick approached the man without fear. He couldn’t hear a heartbeat or respiration at all. Suddenly the perp’s eyes shot open and he gasped in a lung-full of air. He immediately thrust his sword into Nick’s chest and stood up. Mulder immediately began firing, emptying his entire clip into the perp’s chest. Each impact caused him to stagger back until he fell over the parapet and down to the ground 4 stories below. Mulder ran over to Nick, who was sitting with his back against the parapet and the sword sticking out of the right side of his chest.
“Would you like me to call 911?” Mulder asked, making no move to grab his phone.
“No, just pull it out please,” Nick answered.
“Will you need blood?” Mulder asked.
“You mean, will I need your blood, Agent Mulder?” Nick said.
Mulder just nodded his head.
“No. I have a flask in my coat.”
“Ok.” Mulder said, and then he grasped the sword hilt in both hands and yanked on it, jerking Knight forward but not making much progress on freeing the sword. “Sorry” he said. He then put one foot on Knight’s shoulder to brace him and pulled it free with a sickening wet sound.
Nick said, “thanks” and grabbed his flask from its pocket and drained it in one long swallow. “You aren’t surprised,” he said, more a statement than a question.
“I have had dealings with vampires before.” Mulder said.
Just then they heard a clattering from below and watched, dumbfounded as their perp stood up and ran away.
“Was he…” Mulder began.
“One of my kind?” Knight completed the question. “No. Frankly I haven’t seen anything like him before.”
“What are you going to do with that, Detective?” Mulder asked, as Knight picked up the sword from where Mulder had dropped it.
“Nick locked his gaze on Mulder’s. He listened for his heartbeat, and asked, “Are you a hunter, Agent Mulder?”
Mulder felt his consciousness falling into the bottomless wells of Knight’s eyes. “What’s a hunter?” he heard himself say as if from a distance.
“Agent Mulder, there are no such thing as vampires.”
Mulder felt his awareness snap back into his body. “Oh, that’s funny. There sure are a lot of people running around with prop fangs and green contact lenses then.”
Dammit! Either Nick was loosing his touch, or there were a hell of a lot more resistors than there used to be! “You said you had dealings with us before. What did you mean?”
“I worked two cases involving vampires in the states. One involved three of them that were stalking the gothic club scene and killing wannabes. The other involved a small, rural community that turned out to be entirely populated with them.” Mulder answered.
“And what did you do with these ‘vampires’ you were dealing with, Agent Mulder” Nick asked.
“Is that what you mean by Hunter? Are you asking if I Hunted these creatures down and killed them?” Mulder asked.
“Did you?”
“No. I am not a Hunter, Detective Knight. In the first case, one of the three torched the house they were in, killing them all. In the second case, the entire population disappeared once we uncovered their secret.”
“We? Am I to take it that Agent Scully knows about us as well?” Nick asked. He was beginning to worry about the danger these two could represent to The Community.
Mulder chuckled. “Scully is a skeptic, Detective Knight. She wasn’t there for the first case, and didn’t see everything I saw in the second. She remains unconvinced that vampires exist. However, she is an extremely sharp observer and medical doctor. She has already noticed some of your, idiosyncrasies, shall we say? She won’t automatically reach the conclusion that I did, but she will be suspicious.”
They walked over to the fire escape and began to descend. Mulder asked, “Why don’t you go down the way you came up?”
Damn the man! “You didn’t see me come up, Agent. What makes you think this isn’t the route I took?”
“That’s just it, Detective. If you came up this way, I would have seen you. And so would have our perp.”
They reached the alley and Knight stepped in front of Mulder and said, “Please listen to me very carefully, Agent. The community takes a very dim view of mortals even knowing about us. It is forbidden. Our law demands that those who find out be dealt with in one of three ways: They either have that knowledge removed, they join our ranks, or they die. There are those among us who would kill not only you, but me as well if they found out that you knew about us. I cannot urge you strongly enough to keep quiet about this. Don’t even tell your partner! If the enforcers were to get wind of this, I couldn’t protect you.
“I will try to keep that in mind, Detective.” Mulder said tightly. “What about the sword, we can’t really log it in as evidence, and no one is going to want to hear how we came across it.”
Nick thought about it for a moment and said, “Look, we’ll just keep it to ourselves for now. We should be able to perform a more detailed investigation anyway. As you said, the powers that be aren’t going to be able to accept the more unusual aspects of this case anyway.”
“I can accept that,” Mulder said, “but we are going to have to bring Scully into this. Even if I wanted to keep her out of it, she would figure it out on her own pretty quickly. Skeptic or no,” Mulder said.
“Look Agent, I can understand that you want to share this with her. But do you really want to endanger the life of the woman you love like this?”
Mulder stopped short like he had run into a wall, “What!? What do you mean?”
“As I explained, Agent, knowledge of my kind is dangerous…” Knight started to say.
“No! the other part!” Mulder choked out.
“Agent Mulder, you and your partner do not hold a monopoly on observational ability. That’s why they call it Detective. We detect.” Knight said.
“We are just partners, Detective.” Mulder said tonelessly.
“I can understand that the FBI probably has some kind of rule about fraternization between partners. You two do a good job of hiding it, really. However, you have to realize that I can hear your heartbeats speed up when you look at each other, I can see your pupils dilate and your skin flush. You couldn’t hide your feelings for each other from any one of us.” Knight said with a grin. “Don’t worry, Agent. Your secret is as safe with me as mine is with you.”
“Look, Detective, you have made a mistake here. We care about each other, yes. We are partners and have been for nearly seven years. But that is all.” Mulder said.
Nick listened to Mulder’s heartbeat and watched his eyes as he spoke. He realized that Mulder was being honest; at least in-so-far-as the fact that they weren’t together. “You poor, stupid man,” he thought, comparing Mulder to himself.
“As someone who has only recently done so himself; I advise you to pull your head out of the sand, Agent Mulder.” Nick said softly. “I’ll leave it to you to decide whether or not to bring your partner in on this, but please take me seriously when I say that you will be putting her life on the line if you do. I also think it would be a good idea if you didn’t discuss any aspect of this unless you are absolutely certain that you cannot be overheard by anyone.” Knight thought for a moment and said, “Why don’t I bring you to my loft tomorrow evening and we will discuss it. You can take today to decide whether to invite your partner along for the ride.”
Mulder was lost in thought and responded, “yeah, sure.”
They continued walking in silence for a bit when some of the puzzle came together for Mulder and he said, “I’ve been thinking about the fight we saw the other night, Detective. What if, whatever these guys are, the only thing that can kill them is decapitation? I mean, being shot several times, and then falling four stories didn’t seem to kill him. And they both had swords, right? Maybe that’s the only way they can be killed.”
“He was dead after I shot him the first time.” Knight said. “I heard his heart stop and he wasn’t breathing. I wouldn’t have been so careless about approaching him otherwise. He was dead, and came back to life.”
“There was a pause between when he hit the ground and when we heard him get up and run away as well. So they can be killed conventionally, but don’t stay dead unless they lose their head?” Mulder theorized.
“Well, the guy whose head he severed definitely stayed dead. Of course, I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t stay dead if they lost their head.” Nick added.
“That sword didn’t seem to affect you too much.” Mulder ventured.
“No, steel isn’t really a problem for me. Wood is a very different story. But even we can’t come back from decapitation.” Knight answered reluctantly. Eager to change the subject he asked Mulder a question, “I heard what he said to you just before I shot him. What do you think he meant by, ‘It might be weak, but I’ll take it,’ and, ‘There can be only one?’ Only one what?”
“I honestly have no idea, detective.” Mulder answered. “Believe me, I have been shot on occasion in the past, and never once did I get up and try to run someone through with a sword immediately afterward.”
“Really. What did you do?” Knight asked.
“Mostly I lay on the ground bleeding until someone took me to the hospital.” Mulder replied, chuckling.
“Hmm, get shot a lot do you, Agent Mulder?” Nick asked jokingly.
“Look, just call me Mulder, ok? Nobody calls me by my first name, and I’m not sure I can listen to ‘Agent Mulder’ over and over again. It reminds me of my Boss.”
“Ok Mulder. I’m Nick.”
“Oh, by the way, Nick. Thanks for saving my ass up there tonight.”
“Well, I didn’t feel up to explaining to your partner that I had let you get killed.”
“Right.”
They continued back to the hotel in silence, each lost in their own thoughts about the events of the evening.
===== X-FILES ===== FOREVER KNIGHT ===== HIGHLANDER =====
LaRouge Lounge
After listening to blatant sales pitches for questionable products Scully and Natalie decided to skip out at the first break and hang out in the lounge until the guys got out of their presentation. They talked about some of the challenging cases they had worked on and their medical backgrounds. They each found the other surprisingly easy to talk to, probably because of their similar situations- a woman in a ‘man’s job’ as it were- both excelling, and working the kinds of cases that most coroners never even heard about. Helping to catch madmen and serial killers was a normal part of their lives. Several glasses of burgundy helped the conversation flow as well. They eventually fell into girl talk.
It felt so nice to sit and chat with another woman, especially one who had such a similar job, and could understand what it felt like to dig through dead bodies looking for clues and solving crimes for a living. “So, Natalie, what has you so giddy today?” Scully asked. “You seem positively giggly.”
Natalie blushed furiously, and looked away. “Uh, lets just say that Nick and I finally came to an understanding last night.”
“Ahh, I see.” said Scully.
Natalie was still blushing and explained, “We have had a long and often frustrating ‘friendship’ and finally realized that it is time to take it to a new level. I was so afraid that he didn’t feel the way I felt it was tearing me apart.”
“I know how that feels,” Scully thought to herself.
“I’ll bet you do, Dana. Was it harder because you are partners?” Natalie asked.
“Oh, no! Did I say that out loud?” Scully thought in horror. “What do you mean?” she said to Natalie.
“I mean, did it create problems at work? Does the FBI have any rules against that sort of thing?”
“Uh, Natalie? I think you might have made a mistake here, Mulder and I are just partners.”
Natalie just stared at Scully for several moments. “Your aren’t together?” she asked.
Scully slowly shook her head side to side.
Natalie felt extremely embarrassed and could feel her face getting hot, but the words slipped out before she could stop them, “Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure, Natalie” Scully said wryly.
Natalie’s hands flew to her mouth as if to stop her from opening it again. “Ohmygosh. I’m sorry. You guys just seem… that is, I thought… Uh, sorry.” She realized that Dana and Mulder were in the same place she and Nick had been until last night. “Oh no! It’s got to be eating them up! You poor, stupid woman,” she thought to herself.
“Look Natalie, It’s complicated. We have a very unusual partnership because of the kinds of cases we work, and the experiences we have had. We care about each other a great deal and trust each other absolutely, but those kind of feelings just aren’t there.”
‘It’s complicated.’ How many times had she uttered those very words to describe her relationship with Nick? “Look Dana, it’s none of my business, but take it from someone who has, up till very recently, been exactly where you are, If you feel that way, you should tell him. You deserve to know, and so does he.” She stood up at that point and added, “I’m going to take a cab home and clean up a bit. I’ll leave word at the desk, but if you see Nick, tell him I’ll see him at his place, Ok? I’ll see you tomorrow night, Dana.”
Scully was too stunned to think of anything beyond an automatic, “Ok, goodnight Natalie.”
===== X-FILES ===== FOREVER KNIGHT ===== HIGHLANDER =====
Plaza Hotel
“Uh, Mulder?” Nick asked as they entered the hotel lobby.
“Yeah, Nick?”
“You might want to head back to your room and clean up a bit before we meet the ladies.” he said as tactfully as he could.
Mulder looked down at himself and said, “I guess that rooftop was a little dirty.”
“A little, yes.” Knight said. Look, I’m going to go put this in the caddie and change my shirt. I’ll let your partner know where you are. You two may have some talking to do.”
“Yeah. That’s probably a good idea,” Mulder replied.
“I’ll call you tomorrow afternoon when I get up.” and you can let me know what you have decided.”
“Ok,” he said and then headed off toward the elevators.
Scully was still sitting in the lounge, Natalie’s admonition tumbling around in her mind, when Detective Knight walked up to her.
“Agent Scully?” he asked, hesitantly.
Scully slowly regained focus and looked up to see Detective Knight staring down at her. “Detective?” she asked.
“Your partner went up to his room. He wanted you to join him when you had a moment.” he said.
Scully was so wrapped in her thoughts that it didn’t even occur to her to ask why he didn’t just come in with the detective. She just stood up and grabbed her coat and seminar materials. “Thank you, Detective,” she said.
“Not a problem, Agent Scully. Uh, where is Doctor Lambert?” he asked.
“Oh, she said to tell you she would see you at your place. She wanted to go home and clean up,” she answered.
“Oh, Ok. Well, goodnight Agent Scully.”
“Goodnight Detective” she said and walked away to the elevators.
Nick shook his head and wondered if Mulder and Scully would ever get a clue. He could sympathize. Even with his supposedly enhanced senses, it took him six years to see it himself.
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 3
Toronto Homicide Investigation Innovations Seminar
5:30 p.m. Monday December 11th
Nick and Natalie met with Mulder and Scully in the lobby of the Plaza and checked out their schedule of events. All four had the seminar on Interdisciplinary Communication and Cooperation. Essentially it dealt with the importance of the homicide investigator working closely with the medical examiner in order for both parties to understand the needs of the other in order to facilitate rapid and accurate case solutions. Mulder made a comment on already realizing the importance of close contact with his medical examiner, and Natalie blushed furiously, Scully only slightly less so.
Scully noticed throughout the conference that Knight and Lambert seemed to touch quite a bit. She hadn’t noticed that when they had picked Mulder and her up at the airport. “Hmm, I wonder what happened after we left the Club?” she thought to herself. “Last night she was jealous of Mulder and I, thinking that we were together, and now she and Knight are sure acting like a couple.
During the break between seminars they decided to eat at the hotel’s restaurant. Knight declined, mentioning that he had some intense food allergies and was on a special Diet. He did have a glass of the wine they had ordered, although he only poured about a quarter of a glass. At some point during the conversation, while Natalie was recounting one of their cases and asking Nick’s clarification on a particular point, Mulder noticed Scully frowning ever so slightly at Knight’s glass. Mulder glanced over and noticed that Knight’s glass was nearly full, and it seemed to be very slightly darker than everyone else’s wine. The bottle was across the table by Scully. Surely he would have noticed if Knight had reached all of the way across the table and retrieved the bottle. When he looked back to Scully, she was focused on Natalie who was continuing with the anecdote. He merely filed the discrepancy away for future reference and continued in the conversation.
The second half of the day found them scheduled apart, Natalie and Scully were slated for a seminar on advances in forensic technology, “New product sales pitch session” as Scully called it. Nick and Mulder were headed for a presentation on computerized criminal demographics profiling.
As Nick and Mulder stood outside the entrance to the auditorium their presentation was to be held in, Mulder was surreptitiously observing his companion. The paleness, the refusal to eat, the ‘mystery’ of the wine, the way he moves, the sheer presence of him. He knew Scully would never believe him, but he was pretty sure that Detective Nick Knight was a vampire. “Now, what the hell do I do about it?” he asked himself. So far as he could tell, this vampire was unlike what he expected a vampire to act like. He was catching killers, not killing. He’d had the gunmen hack the Toronto PD and pull his jacket. Not only was he clean, he seemed to be a star detective. He and his partner, Detective Vetter- who was, coincidentally, the daughter of one of the police commissioners- had the highest solve rate of any of the homicide detectives in any precinct in Toronto. Not what you would expect from someone who lived off of human blood. As he was pondering this he noticed something through the glass doors that led outside of the hotel. A face that looked familiar. It looked like the face he had seen through the shower of sparks behind that office building Saturday night. He interrupted Nick, who was recounting the steps taken so far in the investigation of the decapitation, “Uh, Detective Knight, I think the perp. is walking toward the door right behind you.”
Nick whirled around and looked out the door. He saw a medium height man with short black hair and a beard, wearing a brown trench coat. His skin was suntan brown, and looked well weathered. It was definitely the same man he saw taking the head of their unidentified victim.
“I think we should follow him,” Mulder said.
“We’ll find out where he is going and then call in for backup” Nick said as they went out the door once the perp had passed.
They split apart immediately, Nick trailing about fifty meters behind, while Mulder crossed the street and paralleled Nick. After trailing him for about 20 minutes, he crossed over to Mulder’s side of the street and ducked down an alley between two smaller apartment buildings in a rather disreputable neighborhood. As Mulder came to the corner and looked down the alley, he noticed the perp. disappearing over top of a fire escape onto the top of one of the buildings, 4 stories high. After whispering a couple of harsh expletives, he took off down the alley and quickly climbed the fire escape. As he neared the top, he looked down and saw Knight just entering the alley. He didn’t feel that he could afford to wait for the Detective to catch up, so he jumped over the top and raced across the roof after the perp.
As Mulder ran past one of the large HVAC units on the roof, he was grabbed and thrown back into the side of the unit, striking his head and tearing the skin at his temple. He fell to his knees, momentarily stunned. “What the hell are you, man?” the perp asked him. “I can barely feel you!” he said.
Mulder said, “What?” as he tried to make sense of what the guy was saying, but his thought processes were a bit sluggish.
The perp opened his trench coat and withdrew a short, broad-bladed sword with a plain cross hilt. He said, “It might be weak, but I’ll take it.” He raised his sword and said, “There can be only one!”
Suddenly two gunshots rang out and Mulder saw what looked like two puffs of dust bloom from the chest of the perp. He staggered back several steps and fell by the roof’s parapet. Mulder looked over his shoulder and saw Detective Knight standing at the other side of the roof, about 30 meters away. A small part of his brain whispered to him, wondering how he had managed to come up there, when the front of the building didn’t have a fire escape.
Nick quickly ran over to where Mulder was and helped him up. “Are you alright, Agent Mulder?”
“Yeah, just a little stunned.” Mulder said, wincing only slightly at the pain in his head. “Nice shot, by the way,” he said to Knight’s back as he approached the downed perp. Mulder drew his own weapon to cover Knight, just in case. The guy definitely looked dead, he wasn’t breathing anyway, and there were a couple of bloody holes in his shirt right in the middle of his chest.
Nick approached the man without fear. He couldn’t hear a heartbeat or respiration at all. Suddenly the perp’s eyes shot open and he gasped in a lung-full of air. He immediately thrust his sword into Nick’s chest and stood up. Mulder immediately began firing, emptying his entire clip into the perp’s chest. Each impact caused him to stagger back until he fell over the parapet and down to the ground 4 stories below. Mulder ran over to Nick, who was sitting with his back against the parapet and the sword sticking out of the right side of his chest.
“Would you like me to call 911?” Mulder asked, making no move to grab his phone.
“No, just pull it out please,” Nick answered.
“Will you need blood?” Mulder asked.
“You mean, will I need your blood, Agent Mulder?” Nick said.
Mulder just nodded his head.
“No. I have a flask in my coat.”
“Ok.” Mulder said, and then he grasped the sword hilt in both hands and yanked on it, jerking Knight forward but not making much progress on freeing the sword. “Sorry” he said. He then put one foot on Knight’s shoulder to brace him and pulled it free with a sickening wet sound.
Nick said, “thanks” and grabbed his flask from its pocket and drained it in one long swallow. “You aren’t surprised,” he said, more a statement than a question.
“I have had dealings with vampires before.” Mulder said.
Just then they heard a clattering from below and watched, dumbfounded as their perp stood up and ran away.
“Was he…” Mulder began.
“One of my kind?” Knight completed the question. “No. Frankly I haven’t seen anything like him before.”
“What are you going to do with that, Detective?” Mulder asked, as Knight picked up the sword from where Mulder had dropped it.
“Nick locked his gaze on Mulder’s. He listened for his heartbeat, and asked, “Are you a hunter, Agent Mulder?”
Mulder felt his consciousness falling into the bottomless wells of Knight’s eyes. “What’s a hunter?” he heard himself say as if from a distance.
“Agent Mulder, there are no such thing as vampires.”
Mulder felt his awareness snap back into his body. “Oh, that’s funny. There sure are a lot of people running around with prop fangs and green contact lenses then.”
Dammit! Either Nick was loosing his touch, or there were a hell of a lot more resistors than there used to be! “You said you had dealings with us before. What did you mean?”
“I worked two cases involving vampires in the states. One involved three of them that were stalking the gothic club scene and killing wannabes. The other involved a small, rural community that turned out to be entirely populated with them.” Mulder answered.
“And what did you do with these ‘vampires’ you were dealing with, Agent Mulder” Nick asked.
“Is that what you mean by Hunter? Are you asking if I Hunted these creatures down and killed them?” Mulder asked.
“Did you?”
“No. I am not a Hunter, Detective Knight. In the first case, one of the three torched the house they were in, killing them all. In the second case, the entire population disappeared once we uncovered their secret.”
“We? Am I to take it that Agent Scully knows about us as well?” Nick asked. He was beginning to worry about the danger these two could represent to The Community.
Mulder chuckled. “Scully is a skeptic, Detective Knight. She wasn’t there for the first case, and didn’t see everything I saw in the second. She remains unconvinced that vampires exist. However, she is an extremely sharp observer and medical doctor. She has already noticed some of your, idiosyncrasies, shall we say? She won’t automatically reach the conclusion that I did, but she will be suspicious.”
They walked over to the fire escape and began to descend. Mulder asked, “Why don’t you go down the way you came up?”
Damn the man! “You didn’t see me come up, Agent. What makes you think this isn’t the route I took?”
“That’s just it, Detective. If you came up this way, I would have seen you. And so would have our perp.”
They reached the alley and Knight stepped in front of Mulder and said, “Please listen to me very carefully, Agent. The community takes a very dim view of mortals even knowing about us. It is forbidden. Our law demands that those who find out be dealt with in one of three ways: They either have that knowledge removed, they join our ranks, or they die. There are those among us who would kill not only you, but me as well if they found out that you knew about us. I cannot urge you strongly enough to keep quiet about this. Don’t even tell your partner! If the enforcers were to get wind of this, I couldn’t protect you.
“I will try to keep that in mind, Detective.” Mulder said tightly. “What about the sword, we can’t really log it in as evidence, and no one is going to want to hear how we came across it.”
Nick thought about it for a moment and said, “Look, we’ll just keep it to ourselves for now. We should be able to perform a more detailed investigation anyway. As you said, the powers that be aren’t going to be able to accept the more unusual aspects of this case anyway.”
“I can accept that,” Mulder said, “but we are going to have to bring Scully into this. Even if I wanted to keep her out of it, she would figure it out on her own pretty quickly. Skeptic or no,” Mulder said.
“Look Agent, I can understand that you want to share this with her. But do you really want to endanger the life of the woman you love like this?”
Mulder stopped short like he had run into a wall, “What!? What do you mean?”
“As I explained, Agent, knowledge of my kind is dangerous…” Knight started to say.
“No! the other part!” Mulder choked out.
“Agent Mulder, you and your partner do not hold a monopoly on observational ability. That’s why they call it Detective. We detect.” Knight said.
“We are just partners, Detective.” Mulder said tonelessly.
“I can understand that the FBI probably has some kind of rule about fraternization between partners. You two do a good job of hiding it, really. However, you have to realize that I can hear your heartbeats speed up when you look at each other, I can see your pupils dilate and your skin flush. You couldn’t hide your feelings for each other from any one of us.” Knight said with a grin. “Don’t worry, Agent. Your secret is as safe with me as mine is with you.”
“Look, Detective, you have made a mistake here. We care about each other, yes. We are partners and have been for nearly seven years. But that is all.” Mulder said.
Nick listened to Mulder’s heartbeat and watched his eyes as he spoke. He realized that Mulder was being honest; at least in-so-far-as the fact that they weren’t together. “You poor, stupid man,” he thought, comparing Mulder to himself.
“As someone who has only recently done so himself; I advise you to pull your head out of the sand, Agent Mulder.” Nick said softly. “I’ll leave it to you to decide whether or not to bring your partner in on this, but please take me seriously when I say that you will be putting her life on the line if you do. I also think it would be a good idea if you didn’t discuss any aspect of this unless you are absolutely certain that you cannot be overheard by anyone.” Knight thought for a moment and said, “Why don’t I bring you to my loft tomorrow evening and we will discuss it. You can take today to decide whether to invite your partner along for the ride.”
Mulder was lost in thought and responded, “yeah, sure.”
They continued walking in silence for a bit when some of the puzzle came together for Mulder and he said, “I’ve been thinking about the fight we saw the other night, Detective. What if, whatever these guys are, the only thing that can kill them is decapitation? I mean, being shot several times, and then falling four stories didn’t seem to kill him. And they both had swords, right? Maybe that’s the only way they can be killed.”
“He was dead after I shot him the first time.” Knight said. “I heard his heart stop and he wasn’t breathing. I wouldn’t have been so careless about approaching him otherwise. He was dead, and came back to life.”
“There was a pause between when he hit the ground and when we heard him get up and run away as well. So they can be killed conventionally, but don’t stay dead unless they lose their head?” Mulder theorized.
“Well, the guy whose head he severed definitely stayed dead. Of course, I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t stay dead if they lost their head.” Nick added.
“That sword didn’t seem to affect you too much.” Mulder ventured.
“No, steel isn’t really a problem for me. Wood is a very different story. But even we can’t come back from decapitation.” Knight answered reluctantly. Eager to change the subject he asked Mulder a question, “I heard what he said to you just before I shot him. What do you think he meant by, ‘It might be weak, but I’ll take it,’ and, ‘There can be only one?’ Only one what?”
“I honestly have no idea, detective.” Mulder answered. “Believe me, I have been shot on occasion in the past, and never once did I get up and try to run someone through with a sword immediately afterward.”
“Really. What did you do?” Knight asked.
“Mostly I lay on the ground bleeding until someone took me to the hospital.” Mulder replied, chuckling.
“Hmm, get shot a lot do you, Agent Mulder?” Nick asked jokingly.
“Look, just call me Mulder, ok? Nobody calls me by my first name, and I’m not sure I can listen to ‘Agent Mulder’ over and over again. It reminds me of my Boss.”
“Ok Mulder. I’m Nick.”
“Oh, by the way, Nick. Thanks for saving my ass up there tonight.”
“Well, I didn’t feel up to explaining to your partner that I had let you get killed.”
“Right.”
They continued back to the hotel in silence, each lost in their own thoughts about the events of the evening.
===== X-FILES ===== FOREVER KNIGHT ===== HIGHLANDER =====
LaRouge Lounge
After listening to blatant sales pitches for questionable products Scully and Natalie decided to skip out at the first break and hang out in the lounge until the guys got out of their presentation. They talked about some of the challenging cases they had worked on and their medical backgrounds. They each found the other surprisingly easy to talk to, probably because of their similar situations- a woman in a ‘man’s job’ as it were- both excelling, and working the kinds of cases that most coroners never even heard about. Helping to catch madmen and serial killers was a normal part of their lives. Several glasses of burgundy helped the conversation flow as well. They eventually fell into girl talk.
It felt so nice to sit and chat with another woman, especially one who had such a similar job, and could understand what it felt like to dig through dead bodies looking for clues and solving crimes for a living. “So, Natalie, what has you so giddy today?” Scully asked. “You seem positively giggly.”
Natalie blushed furiously, and looked away. “Uh, lets just say that Nick and I finally came to an understanding last night.”
“Ahh, I see.” said Scully.
Natalie was still blushing and explained, “We have had a long and often frustrating ‘friendship’ and finally realized that it is time to take it to a new level. I was so afraid that he didn’t feel the way I felt it was tearing me apart.”
“I know how that feels,” Scully thought to herself.
“I’ll bet you do, Dana. Was it harder because you are partners?” Natalie asked.
“Oh, no! Did I say that out loud?” Scully thought in horror. “What do you mean?” she said to Natalie.
“I mean, did it create problems at work? Does the FBI have any rules against that sort of thing?”
“Uh, Natalie? I think you might have made a mistake here, Mulder and I are just partners.”
Natalie just stared at Scully for several moments. “Your aren’t together?” she asked.
Scully slowly shook her head side to side.
Natalie felt extremely embarrassed and could feel her face getting hot, but the words slipped out before she could stop them, “Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure, Natalie” Scully said wryly.
Natalie’s hands flew to her mouth as if to stop her from opening it again. “Ohmygosh. I’m sorry. You guys just seem… that is, I thought… Uh, sorry.” She realized that Dana and Mulder were in the same place she and Nick had been until last night. “Oh no! It’s got to be eating them up! You poor, stupid woman,” she thought to herself.
“Look Natalie, It’s complicated. We have a very unusual partnership because of the kinds of cases we work, and the experiences we have had. We care about each other a great deal and trust each other absolutely, but those kind of feelings just aren’t there.”
‘It’s complicated.’ How many times had she uttered those very words to describe her relationship with Nick? “Look Dana, it’s none of my business, but take it from someone who has, up till very recently, been exactly where you are, If you feel that way, you should tell him. You deserve to know, and so does he.” She stood up at that point and added, “I’m going to take a cab home and clean up a bit. I’ll leave word at the desk, but if you see Nick, tell him I’ll see him at his place, Ok? I’ll see you tomorrow night, Dana.”
Scully was too stunned to think of anything beyond an automatic, “Ok, goodnight Natalie.”
===== X-FILES ===== FOREVER KNIGHT ===== HIGHLANDER =====
Plaza Hotel
“Uh, Mulder?” Nick asked as they entered the hotel lobby.
“Yeah, Nick?”
“You might want to head back to your room and clean up a bit before we meet the ladies.” he said as tactfully as he could.
Mulder looked down at himself and said, “I guess that rooftop was a little dirty.”
“A little, yes.” Knight said. Look, I’m going to go put this in the caddie and change my shirt. I’ll let your partner know where you are. You two may have some talking to do.”
“Yeah. That’s probably a good idea,” Mulder replied.
“I’ll call you tomorrow afternoon when I get up.” and you can let me know what you have decided.”
“Ok,” he said and then headed off toward the elevators.
Scully was still sitting in the lounge, Natalie’s admonition tumbling around in her mind, when Detective Knight walked up to her.
“Agent Scully?” he asked, hesitantly.
Scully slowly regained focus and looked up to see Detective Knight staring down at her. “Detective?” she asked.
“Your partner went up to his room. He wanted you to join him when you had a moment.” he said.
Scully was so wrapped in her thoughts that it didn’t even occur to her to ask why he didn’t just come in with the detective. She just stood up and grabbed her coat and seminar materials. “Thank you, Detective,” she said.
“Not a problem, Agent Scully. Uh, where is Doctor Lambert?” he asked.
“Oh, she said to tell you she would see you at your place. She wanted to go home and clean up,” she answered.
“Oh, Ok. Well, goodnight Agent Scully.”
“Goodnight Detective” she said and walked away to the elevators.
Nick shook his head and wondered if Mulder and Scully would ever get a clue. He could sympathize. Even with his supposedly enhanced senses, it took him six years to see it himself.
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