TITLE: The Color of Midnight - Chapter Five
AUTHOR: K.Daniels	
FEEDBACK TO:krdaniels@earthlink.net (public discussion okay)
ARCHIVING: Fine, please tell me where
SPOILERS: None
KEYWORDS: Scully/Other; ScullySlash
RATING: PG
SUMMARY: Scully's past catches up to her, and turns out to be
dangerously tangled with an X File.
DISCLAIMER: Scully, Mulder, Skinner, etc. etc. all belong to Chris
Carter and 1013, except for Jane, she belongs to me. Please do not sue
me, I am making no financial profit from the unauthorized use of these
characters.

SPECIAL THANKS: To Shadow for her interest, encouragment and feedback. 

The Color of Midnight

CHAPTER FIVE

*Saturday, 2:37 a.m., Scully's bedroom*

Scully tossed and turned in bed, trying to figure out the events of that
evening. She was so embarrassed. Not because she'd almost made love to
Jane, but because she was unable to do so.  Her entire body had been
begging to be pleasured, her soul had once again found the mate for
which it had never stopped longing, yet her mind wouldn't allow the
other two to find their gratification. In her dreams images came to her,
images of Jane making love to her. Images of a happier time. But also
images full of fear, of shame, of guilt. 

The phone rang and startled Scully out of her fitful sleep. She glanced
at the clock and groaned.

"Scully!"

"Scully, it's me." 

"What is it Mulder?" Scully asked as she pulled herself up to a sitting
position and turned on the bedside lamp.

"Get dressed and meet me at the office." 

"What?" Scully asked, annoyed 

"I'll explain when you get here, I don't want to say too much over the
phone."

"Do you mean to tell me that you've been there all night?" Scully
implored, rubbing her eyes with the heels of her hands, the phone
resting in the crook of her neck.

"Scully, will you just get here? I promise, this is worth it."

"Fine Mulder, I'm on my way," Scully said and immediately wondered why
she always consented to his crazy demands. 'At least it's a diversion
from my dreams' Scully thought as she hung up the phone and headed for
the bathroom.

*Saturday, 3:30 a.m., FBI Hoover building*

Scully walked through the doors to their office and found Mulder hunched
over his computer.

"What was so urgent that it couldn't wait at least until morning?" She
asked.

Mulder pointed to a file on his desk. "This."

Scully stepped behind her partner and glanced at a photograph resting on
top of the file. "What am I looking at Mulder?" 

He pointed to a picture of two men standing outside of a cheap motel,
"That·" he tapped one of the figures in the photo, "·is Krycek. This
other man is a John Doe."

Scully stared at the photograph, she could just make out Krycek's
profile but she still wasn't sure why she was looking at it.

"Now can you tell me *why* I am looking at this, Mulder?"

He looked back at Scully. "Because now John Doe is dead."

Scully pulled up a chair next to her partner while he sifted through the
photographs. He found the one he was looking for and placed it on top of
the pile. It was a picture of the dead man. 

"Jesus Christ, Mulder·His skin." Scully gasped as she picked up the
picture for a better look. The man's skin appeared to be shedding off of
him like a snake.

"Yeah. It's not pretty."

"What the hell happened to him, Mulder?"

"That's what you're gonna find out. I had the body sent over for an
autopsy." 

"How did you find out about this?" she inquired, holding up the
photograph, "And what does it have to do with Krycek? Or us?"

"I'm pretty sure that Krycek murdered him. For what reason I don't know.
How, I don't know. But I do know that he lured that man into that motel
room·" nodding at the photo,  "·and then four hours later the body was
found in the bathroom."

"Is this Frohike's work?" Scully asked as she returned the photograph to
the file.

Mulder nodded, "They'd been following him all night. He stopped at a
McDonalds in Adams Morgan and came out with this John Doe. Frohike and
Langley followed them to the motel in Richmond. Krycek presumably paid
for the room in the lobby and then took the guy inside. Krycek came out
about an hour later. Langely followed him to his apartment, and then
went to develop the pictures he'd taken up to that point.  Frohike
stayed at the motel and when he got tired of waiting, decided to go in
and take a peek. That's when he found the body. He called me and I went
in with the forensics team. I kept it kind of low key.  I didn't want
Hersh to find out I was involved. Especially if this leads back to us
and Krycek somehow."

"Why didn't you call me, Mulder?"

"I did."

"No, sooner. Why didn't you call me sooner? I could have gone out to
Richmond with you."

Mulder didn't want to tell Scully his suspicions. He didn't want to show
her the other photograph's Langley had given him. So he just shrugged
his shoulders.

"I didn't think it was necessary. Until I saw the body."

Scully looked at Mulder through the corner of her eye. 'What isn't he
telling me?' she thought.

"Okay, well, I'll do the autopsy now since I'm up. I'd like to get a
good look at this guy." She stood up and headed for the door. "Oh" she
turned back to Mulder, "What did forensics find, anything?"

Mulder shook his head. "Zip." 

Scully nodded. "I'll let you know what I find."

*Saturday, 7:22 a.m. - Terry's Diner, Dupont Circle*

Scully was sitting in the far booth with a file folder in front of her
when Mulder entered and glanced around the greasy diner. She raised her
hand and he swiftly walked towards the booth and slid into the opposite
seat.

"Well?" He asked, his eyebrows raised.

She leaned forward and whispered. "Mulder, whatever toxin entered that
man, it ate through his body incredibly fast." She glanced around to be
sure no one was listening to them.  "The shedding we saw in his skin was
due to the almost complete extraction of natural oils found in human
skin and hair."  

The waitress came over and set a steaming mug of coffee in front of the
redheaded FBI agent and then looked to Mulder for his order.

"I'll have the same," he stated, jerking his head towards Scully. 

When the waitress was out of earshot Mulder leaned forward and placed
his elbows on top of the table.

"Extraction?" he whispered.

Scully nodded as she blew on her coffee, which made the steam rising
from the mug move sideways. She took a sip, grimacing as it burned her
tongue.

"How?"

Setting the mug down, "I couldn't even begin to guess. Not without
further tests."

They both leaned back in their seats as the waitress brought Mulder's
coffee to the table.

"Anything else?" the bored waitress asked, already totaling up their
check with an obviously chewed on pencil.

"No." Scully replied.

The waitress set the check face down on the table and ambled away
towards her next customer.

"I'm waiting for the tox screen, but I doubt I'll find anything
identifiable. Mulder, I've never seen anything like this before," she
pushed the folder towards him, "and I doubt anyone else has either."

"Well someone's seen it Scully. Just not anyone who wants us to know
what it is." He flipped through the medical file and skimmed through
Scully's notes while sipping his coffee. 

He closed the file and pushed it across the table back towards Scully.
Then he sat silently for awhile, lost in thought.

"What else is going on Mulder? Why do I get the feeling that I'm not
being told everything?" Scully asked, looking narrowly at him and
slightly annoyed.

Mulder thought about it and then decided not to say anything. He had to
be sure before he confronted Scully with the pictures. Besides, it could
be nothing. 

"There's nothing else, Scully, I'm just wondering how Skinner knew all
of this, and what it has to do with us." Mulder stated, convincing
himself it was the truth.

"Fine. " Scully said, grabbing the folder and gulping the rest of her
coffee, "don't tell me." She got up, reached into her jeans pocket, and
tossed two dollars on the table. "I'm going to check on ordering some
more tests." 

When Scully was gone Mulder pulled out the photo from his inside coat
pocket. He stared at the image of Jane handing Krycek a package in the
basement of the parking garage next to the FBI building. It was taken
around 7:30 p.m., just before Krycek picked up John Doe at McDonalds.
Mulder wanted to know what was in that package·and exactly why Jane
Whitlaw had suddenly shown up in his partner's life at the exact time
that Krycek dared make his rat bastard appearance.

End Chapter Five