Hello there,

Well, I finally finished it, so I figured why not repost it and bother
everyone again.  There aren't any revisions to the main body (my English
teacher always told me to go with my first instinct.  Actually that was my
math teacher, but who's counting?), but there's a little note about time
at the beginning of part one.  So now, on with the show (again)

----

Title: A Scully Gets Her Wings, Chapter 1 (1/?)

Category: S, with a heap of MSR

Rating: PG, this is Heaven after all.

Disclaimer: Don't own them, don't claim to.  Chris Carter and the "unique"
folks at 1013 productions have them under contract, and he ain't gonna
release them to me.  I'm just borrowing them, and he can fix them when I
give them back.  No harm, no foul.  Don't sue me.

Summary: This is the first story in a series.  It's just kind of an intro
to the situation and the characters.  Scully makes it through the pearly
gates, but she has to earn the right to stay there.

Note: I don't claim to know a whole lot about religion.  I just thought
that my depiction of this place sounded kind of cool.  If I offend anyone,
I'm sorry.  Also, about the timeframe, it was a little confusing even to
me exactly what was happening when, so here goes: Chapter 1 begins on June
24.  Our heroes arrive on earth July 2.  Chapter 2 takes place on July 2.
Chapter 3 on July 2 and 3, Chapter 4 on July 3 and 4, and Chapter 5 on
July 4.  There you go.  Hope that clears (something) up.  Or did it just
confuse you even more... Oh well...

******
A Scully Gets Her Wings
by Susan Hamm
------
Chapter 1
It's a Wonderful... What??
******

June 24, 20--

"Well.  This isn't quite how I imagined it."

"Never is."

Dana Scully turned around, frowning at the sound of the voice, "Pendrell?"
she squinted at the figure behind her.  "Is that you?"

"Hello there, Dana."  he smiled at her.  He looked incredibly serene.  The
Pendrell she'd known was fidgity, his mind constantly working, and he
would never have called her by her first name without blushing.  "How's it
going?"

"Well... Besides the fact that I think someone just shot me in the head, I
guess I'm okay." she looked around again, "What is this,  Pendrell?"  They
were standing on top of what appeared to be a bluff.  The
grass and wildflowers at their feet were almost unrealistically vivid.  A
valley stretched out beneath them, with trees visible as far as the eye
could see.  A lake was visible in the middle distance, shimmering in the
afternoon sun.

Pendrell gestured to the area below them, "You're looking at Death Valley,
Dana."

She swivelled her head back towards him, her eyes fairly leaking
incredulity, "Excuse me?"

He shrugged, "You're dead, aren't you?"

Scully's brow furrowed as she tried to remember.  Was she?  The last thing
she recalled was a gun pointed at her forehead and a loud blast.  She
winced involuntarily at the memory, "I-- I guess I am..."

The boyish scientist dipped his head slightly towards the valley, "You are
dead..  I am dead.  Hence, Death Valley."

"Pretty nice for a Death Valley."

His smile widened, "Well, He isn't all fire and brimstone, you know.  He's
got a sense of humor."  he laughed, a hearty healthy laugh, when he saw
that stereotypically "Scully" look cross her face again, "Always the
disbeliever.  Hey, if it wasn't Heaven, would I have these?"  Pendrell did
a three-quarters turn, allowing Scully to see a pair of folded wings
sticking out from the back of his white suit.

Her eyebrows raised, "I--"  she paused, "It's--"  she shook her head in
disbelief, "They're incredible."

Pendrell turned towards her fully again, "Well, I try to be modest, but
they aren't bad."

She frowned as she looked over her own shoulder, "Why don't..."

"You've got to earn yours, Dana."  He let that sink in before pointing out
towards the Valley, "There are people out there who probably wouldn't mind
seeing you, Dana."

Carefully, she examined the valley below her again.  "This is for real,
isn't it?"

"As far as I know," another smile, "Then again, I've only been here for
thirty years..."

"All right, all right..."  she shook her head, "I guess, I'll have to just
take it on faith..."  she looked down at her hands, and her eyes widened,
"Look at my hands!  I can't be more than thirty!"

"More like 25.  We're all at our ideal age around here."  Pendrell pointed
up, "He gives you some perks for making it here."

"I suppose you'd have to have lived your life in virtue."

"That's usually a basic requirement."

"Then what am I doing here, Pendrell?  The last twenty years of my life
haven't exactly been spent repenting in leisure.  More like wallowing in
sin."

"It wasn't your sin, Dana,"  he put a gentle hand on her shoulder, "You
never became what they were.  All you ever did was help a couple of very
worthy FBI agents.  They won't be here for a while, but when they get
here, I'm sure they'll thank you."

"I've dragged them into it..."

"No.  They came of their own free will.  They wanted to fight the good
fight, and you helped them."  Pendrell gave her shoulder a squeeze, "You
never did anything in your life that you should regret, Dana."

Scully looked back out at the Valley, "So everyone who lived well is out
there, hmmm?"

Pendrell nodded.

"I guess that rules out finding Mulder."

The winged man gave out another hearty laugh, "I was wondering when you
were going to get around to him!"

Scully raised an eyebrow.  She supposed death had done wonders for his
crush on her.  He didn't seem in the least bit upset about her asking for
Mulder.  Of course, here they didn't look kindly upon jealousy.  "He's
here?"

Taking her hand, he led her to the edge of the cliff and pointed twoards
the Lake, "He's been hanging out at the Lake for the last twenty years,
waiting for you.  Walter Skinner's down there too, he plays a pretty mean
guitar."

She shook her head in wonder, "So basically, he has what he's always
wanted.  To have time to relax.  To stop chasing after..."  she stopped
abruptly and looked at Pendrell questioningly.

"She's here too.  She's quite an artist.  She's looking forward to seeing
you.  Mulder and your family have told her a lot about you."

"Ahab is here?  And Missy?  And my mother?"

"Careful there Agent Scully," he said with a gently chiding tone, "You
almost sound like you're accepting that you are where you seem to be."

She gave him a sour smile, "I guess I'm just going to have to, aren't I?
I suppose living in Paradise won't be so bad."

"It isn't all wine and roses, Dana." a cloud seemed to pass over him, but
it was gone as quickly as it had appeared, "But we'll get to that part
later.  For now... Fox has been waiting a long time to see you again."

"Um, how exactly are we going to..."  before she could finish her
sentance, Pendrell was stepping off the cliff, pulling her along.  The
wings unfurled, and he began *flying* towards the lake in the distance,
pulling an awestruck Dana Scully along with him.

****

The flight was short, and before she had even really gotten used to the
idea that she was being pulled through the air by a man with wings, they
were on the ground again, on the shore of the lake she had seen from the
cliff.  It was a large lake, there were a couple settlements on the other
side that she could see in the distance.

Behind her, there were three large cabins, set back about 200 yards from
the shore.  A diving platform was anchored around 50 feet out in the lake.
A pier jutted from the section of shore just to their right, with two
boats moored to it.

She surveyed the lake, and noted that there was a figure swimming there.
There was no one else visible.  Pendrell stepped forward to the shore of
the lake, and called out in a clear, resonating voice, "Hey!  Mulder!"

The familiar head bobbed up out the of the water, and looked back towards
the shore.  The minute he saw the familiar figure on the shore, he began
swimming back as fast as he could.  Pendrell returned to Scully's side,
"I'll go get the others."  he turned and walked up towards the middle
cabin.

Scully watched Mulder approach the shore.  He was ankle deep when she just
couldn't wait anymore.  She charged forward and he folded her into a huge
hug.  "Mulder!  Oh, God!  It's so good to see you again!"

For once, Mulder said nothing, just held her tightly, letting her know
exactly just how much he had mised her.  When they finally parted, she
looked him up and down.  He looked younger than when they'd first met, and
much of the stress was gone from his face.  What lines existed around his
eyes were most likely laugh lines.

"Scully, you look incredible."

"so do you, Mulder."  she raised an appreciateve eyebrow, as she suddenly
rememberd that he'd just been swimming, "The first time I see you in
thirty years, and you're wearing those."

Mulder grinned, "I had a feeling you might be coming soon, Scully."  he
hugged her again, "I'm lookin' pretty good, hmmm?  A lot better than the
last time you saw me."  he shivered slightly at that memory, but passed
over it quickly, "This is my Oxford look.  What do you think?"

She smiled, "I love it, Mulder."  Taking a deep breath, she touched the
side of his face.  That face.  It was what had kept her going for the last
twenty years, through all the awful times in her life, when they'd been
pursuing her, when she'd lost all her friends.  The image of Mulder's
face is what had kept her going.  And she'd wanted to say this for the
last twenty years... "And I love you."

His eyes lit up, "I've been waiting for years to hear you say that."

"And I've been waiting years to say it."

HE leaned down and kissed her.  She wasn't sure if it was the place, or
the circumstance, but the kiss was the sweetest thing she'd ever
experienced in her entire existence.  It felt so perfect, standing here in
the middle of what she supposed was literally paradise, kissing this man.
When they finally parted, he grinned down at her, "Of course I wanted to
do that before I died."

She was about to respond when she noticed him looking over her shoulder,
towards the cabins.  Scully turned around, and saw a group of people
heading towards her, led by Pendrell.  They stopped about a foot away from
the two partners.  All of them were here.  Her mother, her father, her
sister, Skinner, his wife... and someone else.

Pendrell gestured, "Well, I brought her to you folks.  I'd better be
going."

Scully squeezed Mulder's hand, and then went over to where Pendrell was
standing, "Wait.  Where..."

"Don't worry, Dana, I'll see you again."  he smiled enigmatically, "You're
not quite done with your initiation yet..."

She hugged him, which seemed to surprise him a little.  "Brendan, I never
got a chance to apologize for not doing more that night..."

"Bullets are bullets, Dana.  There was nothing you could have done."  he
smiled down at her, "I'll be back to talk to you later."  with that, he
spread his wings, and took off.

Dana Scully watched him ascend for a moment, and then turned around and
got ready to heartily embrace all those people she had been missing so
badly for years.

****

The moon was full.  The sky was full of bright, twinkling stars.  Scully
stood on the porch of her family's cabin, which was, apparently, the
middle one.  The night was perfect.  She felt a presence behind her, and
arms wrapping around her waist.  She placed her hands over his, and leaned
back into the comforting warmth of Fox Mulder.  It hadn't taken her any
time at all to adjust to being with him this way.  It just seemed so
right.  Her eternal reward...

"Is it like this every night?"

"Hopefully it will be.  But preferably without all these clothes."

She elbowed him gently, "You know what I mean, Agent Mulder."

In his voice, she could hear that boyish grin that defined him, "Yeah,
it's like this every night.  And it's like that day was every day.  And
the stars, they're exactly the same as they are on earth.  I guess when He
created Heaven, he decided not to change the stars."

"Are we really here?"

"Oooo.  Scully, you're so sexy when you get metaphysical."

Another elbow.  It felt so good to be able to talk to someone like this
again, especially Mulder.  "Mulder..." she said, warningly.

"I've been waiting for years to hear someone say 'Mulder' that way,
Scully."  he kissed the top of her head, "It's so good to have you hear."

"It's good to be here." she twisted around to look up at him, "Now answer
my question!  Are we really here?"

He shrugged, "It's complicated.  Our spirits actually exist here, but in a
kind of non-corporeal form.  We're given physical forms by Him, probably
to make us feel a little more comfortable in our little paradise.  We
really don't have true physical forms, but we can still do all the things
we did on earth."

"ah... hah..." she replied, more than a little perplexed.

"Like I said, complicated.  But just because we're non-corporeal doesn't
mean we can't..."

She elbowed him a third time, "I didn't think God allowed dirty minds into
Heaven, Mulder."

He leaned down and kissed her neck, "Who do you think created dirty minds,
Scully?"

She smiled, "Not God."  they were silent for a moment, just enjoying each
other's presence.  "What did Pendrell mean?"

"hmmm?"  he asked, "No, wait, I know what you mean.  YOu want to know what
he meant about you earning your stay here."

"Death has made you a mind reader."

"Well, he explains it a lot better, but apparently, in order to get a
permanent pass to stay here, we're required to help the people down on
Earth.  When we're successful, we get wings."  he grinned, "Just keeps us
honest."

"Have you gone on one yet."

"I got an exemption," Mulder turned her around, smiling at her, "I was
waiting for you."

"I'm sorry I kept you."

"Some things are worth waiting for."  he said, "Pendrell will probably
give you about a week to get used to the whole 'being dead' thing, and
then he'll give you your first mission.  They're letting me go along with
you."

"Now, that doesn't seem kosher."

"Everything here is kosher, Scully."  he said, a wry tone to his voice,
"Pendrell appealed to Him.  Told Him that you and I worked best as
partners, and always would.  He likes Pendrell, so I guess He gave it the
proverbial thumbs up."

"So..."  there was a gleam in her eye, "What do we do until then?"

"You can get reacquainted with your family and your friends and..."

"Your red Speedo?"

Mulder grinned, "Now, Agent Scully, what did you just say about dirty
minds?"

She kissed him, "Do you think God will forgive me?"

He laughed, a deep hearty laugh, "We'll have to ask Him when He comes by
later..."

****

ONE WEEK LATER
July 2
New York City

"I much preferred the Valley."

"What? The stinking cesspool that is the East River doesn't just make you
forget all about Lake Starbuck?"

"I can't believe it's named after me."

"Your father was there first.  He got to pick the name."

Scully looked around, frowning, "What was that Pendrell said about being
careful?"

"Scully, you weren't listening?"

"This is all pretty new to me, Mulder.  I'm still busy being awestruck."

"Sometimes," he said, repeating practically verbatim what Pendrell had
said to them earlier, "if the subject is on the very edge, the bad guys
will send a couple of his boys up to try to get him first."  Mulder's
sleepy eyes turned towards her, brows raised, "Sometimes life just isn't
cut and dried as it should be."

"Tell me about it."  Scully examined her surroundings.  They were in a
fairly dingy part of New York.  There didn't seem to be anyone around. "He
said we'd be dropped off where we needed to be.  So where is our subject?"

"Patience is a virtue, Scully," Mulder walked over to where she was, "Fun
thinga bout this is that no one can see us or hear us except for the guy
we're helping, and that's only if we want him to.  But we can still move
stuff around when we feel like it."

"That's just way too Patrick Swayze for my taste, Mulder."  she grimaced,
"I hate metaphysical stuff like this.  It's so nebulous and... well,
unscientific."

A Mulder-grin told her that he had expected that, "You're dead, Dana.
Things tend to get a little more unscientific when you become a messenger
of God."

She smiled at him, amused.  "How are we supposed to know this guy?"

"Intuition."  he gestured, "You're a woman.  You know all about that sort
of thing.  It's the sort of thing where you just know, y'know?"

"Not really," she muttered.

He was about to expound on the subject when there was a crash from an
alley nearby.  The two of them spun around, her hand unconciously reaching
into her jacket for the gun that was no longer there.  She chastised
herself for that, but she didn't have much time to think about it.  All of
a sudden, a feeling of certainty washed over her.  It was stronger than
anything she'd ever felt before, and as she looked towards the alley, she
knew that whoever emerged from it would be the person they were supposed
to help.  A glance over at Mulder told  her that he was thinking exactly
the sam ething.  "Here we go." he said, moving towards the alleyway
quickly.

As they got closer to the entrance of the alley, they heard the
all-too-familiar sounds of someone getting beaten up.  The two of them
quickened their already brisk pace.  By the time they arrived at the
alley, the fight was over.

A single man stood over the unconcious (or dead) forms of two others.  He
was breathing hard, leaning against the side of the alley.  Scully sensed
with that same degree of certainty that the man standing was their man,
and that he had just taken some pretty vicious hits from the men at his
feet.  Someone was after this guy.  She glanced at Mulder again.  He
sensed the question, "I'm not sure.  Pendrell said we're supposed to help
this guy gain redemption.  I guess he's done some pretty bad things in the
past, but now he wants to make amends.  I guess he's been trying to walk
the straight and narrow for about ten years now."

"Looks like someone doesn't want the man to be good.  Are we supposed to
save him from them, or just stick with redemption?"

"I'm thinking the two purposes aren't that far removed from each other,
Scully."

She nodded, and looked back towards the man in the alley.  He'd pushed
himself away from the wall, and turned towards them.  He took a deep
breath, and winced.  They could see that he'd been beaten up pretty badly
around the face, and he was half-doubled over as he bounded towards the
end of the alley, meaning to hightail it to a place where he could attend
to the damage undisturbed.

He ran out of the alley, and for a moment, Scully and Mulder didn't know
what to do.  They looked at each other with matching expressions of
complete shock, then looked after the retreating form of the man they were
supposed to help.  The face had been older and more bruised than either of
them remembered it, the clothes had been in disarray, and the posture
bent, but the man was one that neither one of them would ever forget.  One
that they would both be able to identify under any circumstances.

Their first mission for God was apparently to show Alex Krycek towards the
light...

END 1/?

*********

Well what do you think?  Should I never have even bothered to show my face
here?  Good?  Bad?  Stupid?  Would you like me to slog on, or should I
just forget the whole thing?  Feedback!

I crave feedback.  I'll even take negetive reactions if they're
constructive.

You can email me at slhamm@u.washington.edu.

I must hear!  I'm going to fail my physiology exam and get an F on a
report because I was doing this all night, so I may as well get some
feedback!  :-)

Susan Hamm


Title: A Scully Gets Her Wings, Chapter 2: Trouble in Paradise

Category: T S, watch out for the MSR...

Rating: PG-13, someone needs his mouth washed out with soap...

Disclaimer: You know the drill.  It's in part 1, too.  (Y'know: M&S,
Krycek, Pendrell and our surprise guest character down at the end don't
belong to me, they belong to the illustrious Chris Carter and his pals at
1013.  And they all make more money than me, so they'd better not sue).

Summary: Scully has to earn her wings (with a little help from Mulder),
by... helping someone redeem themselves.

Note: Again, no offense intended to those who are religious.  I'm a
God-fearing individual.  I already apologized to Him personally for any
inconsistencies...

Oh yeah: Go ahead, archive me...  And now, on with the show...

*******
A Scully Gets Her Wings
by Susan Hamm
-------
Chapter 2: Trouble in Paradise
*******

New York City
July 2

"Krycek??  Alex Krycek is who we're supposed to be helping??"

Pendrell's voice rang in their ears, they were following after Krycek at a
brisk pace as he ran towards wherever he was staying.  "They can't all be
'It's a Wonderful Life', Mulder."

"I've spent the better part of the last forty years wishing that he would
go to Hell!"  growled Mulder, who had not taken his eyes off of Krycek
since they spotted him.  The look in his eyes was intense and not at all
angelic.  "How are we supposed to help a man who's never done anything
remotely good??"

"You don't know as much as you may think about Krycek." Pendrell's voice
sounded as if he'd been expecting this, "This is part of your test,
Mulder, and yours also, Dana.  He's taken a lot from both of you.  To be
able to put that aside and try to help him redeem himself will help you
prove that you deserve wings."

Mulder's eyes darkened another shade, "He can keep His wings.  I..."

Scully put a hand on his arm, and addressed Pendrell, "We can handle this,
Brendan.  I think what Mulder is just wondering if Krycek has ever done
anything that might remotely qualify him for a trip to Paradise."

"Talk to him.  Find out yourselves."  Pendrell's voice was so serene it
was nearly maddening, "That's part of the job.  You have to wonder exactly
what sucked him into the service of those men to begin with."  There was a
pause, "I'll be here if you need me again.  One last piece of advice, try
to see past your pre-conceptions.  That's one of those virtues that He
really likes..." Pendrell's voice faded away.

Mulder frowned, "Krycek.  Krycek is a..."

"Mulder, we have to try to help him.  Maybe there is more to him than
meets the eye."

Never taking his eyes off Krycek, who had entered a dingy hotel, Mulder
growled, "He killed my father.  He killed your sister.  He tried to kill
Skinner.  For God's sake, from what you told me, he tried to kill you
several times."

"He disappeared about five years ago, Mulder." she said, "I always
wondered what happened to him."

"You seem awfully serene about this." he frowned at her, "Don't you
realize what he is?"

She stopped him and turned him, so that he was looking straight into her
eyes, "Maybe what he is isn't as important as what he's trying to be."

A long pause.  Mulder seemed to mull that over.  He took a deep breath,
"Fine.  If God thinks Krycek is redeemable, then I guess I can't argue
with that.  The minute he does anything remotely evil, I will..."

"I know." said Scully, patting him gently on the hand.  She took the hand
she'd been patting, and then began to lead him towards the hotel Krycek
had run into.  "Right now we've got to go introduce ourselves to him.  And
I can't imagine that he'll be any happier to see us than we were to see
him."

****

Krycek desparately stuffed his clothes into the overnight bag he'd been
living in for the last five years.  He didn't have much, just two changes
and a toothbrush.  There was only so fast he could pack with just one arm
to work with.  They'd found him again, damn them but they'd found him
again.  How he didn't know.  Why couldn't they just leave him alone?

Because, Alex, he said to himself, zipping the bag quickly, you're trying
to make amends for what you did and that's not what they want.

All those years.  All those years he'd caused so much pain to so many
people, for a cause that he'd thought was right.  For a goal that he
thought was worth it.  But nothing was worth that much.  He'd known that
the moment they'd had Marita killed.  She'd given them nothing but loyalty
for years, and they'd shot her down in cold blood.  At that moment, he'd
known that the cause was far from worth.

He pulled his leather jacket over his false arm and paused for a moment.
This was becoming way too common.  Run, and hide, then they find you, so
you run and hide again.  But he couldn't stop running, he couldn't relax
until he'd found something.  Something that would help those two X-Files
agents to bring Them down.  He'd come to New York, thinking he'd find it
here, but he hadn't even gotten a chance to settle in before they'd found
him again.  Cursing, he pulled the strap of his bag over his head with his
good arm.

As he headed for the door, he went through that list of regrets that he
always carried with him in his head.  The list that he used to remind him
that what he was doing was the right thing, for once.  The list that
included all those things that he'd done wrong, all the ways he'd hurt
people.

The item at the end of the list stung particularly badly.  That he hadn't
been able to apologize to Scully before they'd killed her.  They'd finally
caught up to her too.  And that meant that they could concentrate all
their resources on him.  And there was only so far a man with one arm
could go.  Only so many ways he could disguise himself.  He wouldn't
always be able to take care of the Consortium's bag boys the way he'd been
able to do tonight.  Those two were idiots, and they'd underestimated him.

At first he thought he was finally becoming senile.  Fifty years of
running around and constant stress probably hadn't helped his mind any.
He turned slowly, expecting either to see his executioner or absolutely
nothing, which would indicate...

Mulder...  Mulder was standing there.  He was practically see-through, but
he was standing there, plain as day.  And next to him... Scully??  This
was impossible.  , and his jaw fell to the floor.  "What the hell???"

"Wrong." Scully said, "We're down here from the other place, Alex."

"You-You're dead... Both of you are dead!"  he took a step towards them,
"This is impossible!  I've got to be delusional..."

"Delusional is about the last thing I'd call you, Krycek."  Mulder said, a
familiar undertone of pent up hostility in his voice.

The ghostly Scully put a hand on the ghostly Mulder's arm that seemed to
quiet him down.  "Alex, we're here to help you."

"This is insane...  This is absoutely insane!"  Krycek shook his head,
"I'm finally losing it!"  he pointed a finger at them, "This is absolutely
the wrong time for me to be losing it!"

Scully came towards him.  He backed away from her until he was up against
the wall.  "Alex.  We are what we seem to be.  And we're here to help you
redeem yourself?"

That gave him pause, "You two?  You two are here to help me find
salvation???"  he laughed nervously, "Okay, now I know I'm going crazy."

Mulder shook his head, he'd come up behind Scully, "You think we like
this, Krycek?  If we were anything other than genuine, do you think we'd
even be here trying to help a piece of..." Scully knocked him in the ribs,
"... you??"  he finished, significantly revising what he'd been about to
say.

That gave Krycek pause.  This was insane.  This was impossible.  Two
people were standing before him that he absolutely knew to be dead.  Hell,
he'd seen Scully with a gun to her head.  He'd seen Mulder at the morgue.
More than that, they were telling him that they were here to help him
redeem himself?  To help him do what he needed to do to gan salvation?
And yet... there was something in the back of his head that told him that
this was right.  Something in Mulder's words rang true.  Why, indeed,
would they even be here if they weren't genuine.

God certainly had a strange sense of humor.

****

Krycek had been so silent for so long that Scully was a little worried
that he'd gone into shock over seeing them.  Mulder's attitude probably
wasn't helping, but she could definitely understand where it came from.
In fact, she felt almost exactly the same way, she was just able to
suppress her anger much better.  And she knew in her good Catholic mind
that if God had sent them here to save Krycek, then there must be
something to save.

Besides, she knew a lot more about the Consortium than Mulder had ever
found out.  She'd had to deal with them for twenty years after he'd
disappeared, and she'd found out more than she'd ever wanted to know.
When Krycek had disappered five years ago, she'd had a feeling they'd
forced him out, or he'd found something he didn't like and run.  Any man
who didn't like what the Consortium was must have had some conscience in
him.

Krycek looked a lot older and a lot more distressed than they'd seen him
before.  The men in the alley had given him a pretty good working over.
That he had even been able to beat them had been quite a feat, especially
with only the one arm.  True, modern technology had provided him with a
realistic-looking substitute, but it wasn't completely functional by
anyone's estimation.

She was about to say something else to Krycek when he finally spoke, "Even
if you guys are a delusion, I don't suppose there's any harm in letting
you help me."  an almost wry smile lit on the face that they were both so
used to seeing look grim and cruel, "I'm going to die soon anyway, might
as well at least attempt to make it upstairs."  he gestured to them, "That
it's you two is kind of interesting."

"Oh yeah," growled Mulder, "It's real interesting."

Krycek frowned at the hostility, "Hey, it's not like I ever actually liked
you very much, Mulder, I-"

"Really?"  Mulder leaned towards him, "You didn't like me??  Well, listen
to me, Johnny One-Arm, I didn't exactly think that you were..."

Scully stepped between them.  The minute she'd seen Krycek, she'd known
that this was going to happen.  Just had to make this a little more
complicated, didn't you, Lord?  she thought, rolling her eyes up towards
the heavens and then back at Mulder.  "Enough!  Mulder.  If we're going to
do our jobs, you have to at least learn to deal with Alex."  then she
turned to Krycek, "And if you're going to get redeemed, I suggest you
don't let Mulder provoke you."

For once, Krycek didn't come back with some insolent comment.  He just
nodded.  "Fine." he said.

Scully looked at Mulder again, "Mulder?"

Another long pause.  Scully honestly wasn't sure what he was going to say,
"All right.  You won't have to say it again."

She nodded shortly, then turned back to Krycek.  "Now, before we go any
further, you'd better clean yourself up.  Those guys gave you quite a
beating."

"I've had worse."  he muttered, seeming to settle down a little, and
walking over towards the small hotel bathroom, "They nearly killed me once
in D.C.  I had to live in a basement for a month in order to survive that
one."  there was Mulder joke there, but to his credit, he didn't expand on
it.  He looked in the mirror and touched his cheek, where a huge bruise
was appearing.  There was blood from his nose and the side of his mouth.
He winced.  "Damn. They didn't do too bad a job."

Scully joined him in the bathroom.  Mulder hung back, just watching from
the doorway, not trusting himself to speak.  "You need to wash that off.
Do they have clean towels here?"

Krycek almost smiled, "Probably not." he looked around and grabbed a towel
with his hand, putting it down so he could turn the water on, then picking
it up again to wet it down and wash off his face.  "I wasn't going to take
the time to do this.  They probably know where I am."

"Who are 'they' exactly?" asked Scully, frowning, "It would help if we
knew."  she noted for future reference that she couldn't see her face in
the mirror.

"You know who they are.  If what I read in the paper is accurate, they
finally caught up with you and shot you not more than a week ago."

"They had a reason to want to kill me."  she said, her voice becoming dark
for just a moment, "Why would they want to kill you?"

"I tried to quit," he said, taking another towel from the rack and
gingerly drying his face off, "They don't appreciate it when you try to
leave.  They don't like that at all.  Especially when you leave because
you've developed a conscience."

Scully frowned, "What do you mean?"

"For years, I thought that what I was doing was right.  That what I was
doing was for a greater good.  I thought I was helping my country.  I was
a double double agent for a long time there.  I guess it just got so I
wasn't sure which way was up."

There was a derisive snort from Mulder.  To his credit, Krycek ignored it,
but it took him some effort.  He shut off the water and turned to face
Scully's effervscent form before him, "Then they did something that showed
me for sure that they weren't what I thought they were.  They killed
Marita.  They killed a woman who had been fighting their fight for them
for the last twenty years."  he shook his head, "I couldn't stay after
that.  Not only did I want to leave, I wanted to bring them down.  I
wanted to find something that would help those two new X-Files agents of
yours to expose them."

"Why couldn't you do it on your own?"

"Who would have believed me?"  he asked, frowning, "If I said anything or
did anything to expose them, they would discredit me without hesitation,
and they'd probably kill me.  I need proof.  Real proof.  And it's not
like I have my security clerance."

"So why are you in New York?"

He walked past her and past Mulder, back into the main room.  He sat down
on the bed, "Trying to find evidence."  he looked up at his personal
representatives from God, "There's a database at the UN, and a lot of hard
files, too.  There's documentation of a whole lot of things there.
Deception, espionage, globe-spanning stuff."

Mulder frowned, "If there's so much evidence here, then why didn't you
come here before?"

Krycek didn't turn towards him, "I've spent the last five years trying to
find something in Washington.  I finally gave it up down there.  The
security clearances were just too much, and everyone down there knows who
I am.  The security isn't quite as tight at the UN. Hell, they run tours
through the place daily."

"Not through the parts you want to get to."

"No."  Krycek said, "But close enough that I could get to them if I wanted
to.  I wasn't at all sure whether I could do it on my own."

Scully looked at Mulder.  Mulder frowned.  Scully replied, "That's what
we're here for."

"How are we supposed to help you break in to the UN building, Krycek?"
asked Mulder, "It's not like we can squeeze through keyholes or anything."

"Can you touch things here?"

"With effort."

Krycek gestured with his hand, "You can help me distract people.  And you
can act as lookouts."

"Oh, kind of like in bank robbery."  Mulder frowned, "What's He going to
think when we break and enter?  Or use our powers to help someone break
and enter??"

"We're supposed to help him."

"But does that mean we can do whatever we want to?"  Mulder frowned, "That
doesn't sound right to me."

Scully looked up, "Pendrell?  You there?"

Krycek frowned.  "Uhm... this..."  A look from Mulder silenced him.
Krycek, obviously acknowledging that He worked in mysterious ways, shut
up, looking at his watch briefly.  They'd have to get out of here and soon
if they were going to make it.

A third voice entered the room.  Apparently only Mulder and Scully could
hear it because Krycek continued to look slightly worried at the amount of
time this was taking.

"Yes?"  he asked, "For two people so smart, you certainly need my help a lot."

There was humor in his voice.  Scully smiled, "What about that whole
breaking in thing, Pendrell?"

"Is the cause worthy?  Will doing so help Alex find his redemption?"

"So he claims."

"Then, if you believe him, and you think his redemption will come out of
this, you must help him."

Mulder frowned, "That doesn't seem right!"

"As I said, Mulder, this isn't 'It's a Wonderful Life.'"  they could hear
him sigh, "You've got to do what you must.  We all do.  I have to leave
you now.  Remember to keep an eye on the time."

The voice faded out again.  Mulder still didn't like it.  There was
something about breaking the law while doing divine work that bothered
him.  There had to be a better way.  But now wasn't the time to bring it
up...

 Scully looked towards Krycek, "All right,
Alex.  It looks like we can do this.  But you're going to have to give us
a little more detail."

"Can we maybe do this some place else?"  Krycek was getting nervous, "They
know where I am.  I'm surprised they haven't..."  there was a loud knock
on the door.  Krycek lept off the bed and up to his feet, allowing his
instincts to take over.

He ran to the window, grunted as he opened it with his one hand, and
crawled out into the cool night air.  "God Bless New York, land of the
fire escape..."  he muttered as he crawled expertly down the fire escape,
leaping down the last floor as he heard the door to his room crash inward.

He turned back as he ran down the street, and saw Mulder and Scully
keeping pace with him.  "Well," he said to them, "where the hell am I
supposed to go now?"

Scully snapped her head around, warning Mulder not to go say what she knew
he wanted to.  She turned back to Krycek, "How much money do you have?"

"Not too damn much." he growled, "I think I've got about enough cash to
get a night at hotel about as nice as that one."

"It's better than nothing." Scully said, "Let's get as far as we can from
here, preferably close to the UN Building.  Do you have money for a cab?"

"I think I can manage it."

"Then get one."  Scully pointed behind her, "They're not just going to
give up on you."

Krycek nodded, he was out of breath.  Damn him for getting older.  He
hoofed it out the next major street, and practically jumped out in front
of a cab.  The guy slammed on his breaks.  Krycek got into the back, and
was joined by Mulder and Scully, who faded right through the door as he
closed it.

Relatively sure that his companions couldn't be seen (he'd seen enough
movies to know that...), he told the cabbie to drive them to the UN
building.  Once they were there they could figure out someplace to stay.

The cab moved forward and Krycek took a deep breath.  What a night.  He'd
been nearly beaten to death, and then given the means for his salvation,
and the sun wasn't even going to come up for another three hours.

****

The cab let them off in front of the UN building.  Krycek paid the cabbie
off, and looked around.  "Well, here we are.  Looks like we're not going
to find much in my price range around here."

Scully nodded, "You're right.  But at least we're someplace a little more
public."

Krycek looked around.  There were quite a few people out, most of them
looking more than a little threatening.  He got a couple of strange looks,
but that didn't surprise him.  He was a one-armed man who looked as though
his face had just been through a piece of farm equipment.  He didn't
suppose he looked pretty at all.

"Let's go."  he turned to walk down the street, and nearly ran into a
figure that was standing straight in his path.

Mulder and Scully saw the figure, and Scully immidiately interposed
herself between the figure and Krycek.  Mulder hung back, looking alert.
So, someone was throwing obstacles in their path.  He should have known
the Devil would want Alex Krycek for his own.

Scully's eyes narrowed as she took in the figure before her.  It was a
woman, a woman that she knew well.  A woman who had tried to kill her more
times than Alex had.  Krycek had mentioned that this woman was dead, and
Scully had assumed she'd gone to exactly the place where she belonged, but
she hadn't thought that this would be the person the forces of Evil would
throw in their path.

Marita Covarrubias took in the sight before her and smiled broadly, a
smile that made Mulder shiver involuntarily, "This shouldn't be too hard
at all."  she looked down at Scully imperiously, her voice cold as ice,
"Get out of the way, Agent Scully.  You and Agent Mulder are trying to
help someone who doesn't need any helping.  Mr. Krycek belongs to us..."

Scully's eyes flashed.  So the devil was throwing bleach blonds at
her now.  Nothing was ever easy, even after you died...

END PART 2/?

*****

More feedback!!! Must have more!!!  Any comments heartily welcome.
slhamm@u.washington.edu is the address...

Tell me what you think...


Title: A Scully Gets Her Wings, Chapter 3: A Little Downtime

Category: T S, Watch out for Falling MSR

Rating: PG-13, those forces of darkness sure do use some unpleasant
language.

Archive: Oh, please do.

Spoilers: Teeny weeny spoiler for "One Breath"

Disclaimer: Mulder, Scully, Pendrell, Krycek, Marita, none of them are
mine (yet, heh heh).  They belong to that Carter guy and his little
production company (1013).  I'll give them back when I'm through, so he
doesn't have to sue me...

Summary: Mulder and Scully try to save Krycek's soul.

Notes: Once again, the theological disclaimer: No disrespect intended
towards God or any of his servants on earth.

***********
A Scully Gets Her Wings
By Susan Hamm
-----------
Chapter 3
A Little Downtime
***********

New York City
July 3

Krycek was more astonished than anyone else.  Even after all the things
he'd seen in (and done) in his life, this was literally blowing his mind.
Mulder and Scully had been unlikely, but somehow that speech they'd given
him about being there to help him out had made sense.  But here was Marita
appearing out of thin air and looking like she care about his health and
welfar eat all.

Looking past Scully, who had taken a defensive stance in front of him,
Marita examined Alex.  "Alex, you look like shit."

He was speechless. He was convinced that, despite Mulder's attitude,
Mulder and Scully were here to help him.  Even Krycek had some faith
buried deep down within him.  But Marita.  What was Marita doing here?

He noted with some fascination that, while Mulder and Scully looked like
they were in their mid-twenties, Marita looked exactly as she had the last
time Krycek had seen her, around fifty, and not a very healthy fifty at
that.

"So do your roots, Marita," Mulder said, replying to Marita for Krycek,
who was looking as if he'd seen, well, a ghost...

"Ah, the razor sharp wit of Agent Fox Mulder," Marita's eyes drifted over
to Mulder, "Sooo good to see you again, Fox." she purred, her lids
lowering seductively, "Looking as fit as ever..."

"You look old enough to be my mother,"  he growled, "What the hell do you
want?"

Her eyes flashed at his obvious contempt for her, "I think you know
exactly what I want."

"Krycek." Muttered Scully, just loud enough for all of them to hear.

"He's got one foot in Hell already," her eyes fastened on the one-armed
man again, "I'm just here to help him along." she pointed at Scully, "And
you're getting in my way.  Didn't anyone ever tell you not to waste energy
on a lost cause.  Let him go.  You know you've always wanted to see him
burn."

"He's still got a chance to save his own soul," Mulder advanced a step,
eyes fixed on Marita, "And as much as I may hate to say it, I've got an
obligation to see that he at least tries to take that chance. So, I think
maybe you're the one who doesn't belong here, Marita.  You lost your
chance to save yourself.  Don't ruin it for Krycek too."

Marita sneered at him, "What an un-professional lack of cynism, Agent
Mulder," she said softly, a dangerous undertone to her voice that hadn't
been there before, "You don't seem to understand.  Krycek belongs to us.
There's not a thing you can do to change that."

"Miracles happen every day, Marita."

Mulder and Scully turned around, astonished.  Alex Krycek had just spoken.
Frowning, they watched him stand up a little straighter and look Marita
directly in the eye.  "My redemption would be a miracle, everyone here
knows that.  It may be unlikely, but miracles do happen every day."  there
was clairty and conviction to his voice that none of them had ever heard
before, "And if there's even the slightest chance that I can be what they
are, rather than what you've become, I'll take it."

Marita's expression hardened.  If she'd looked unfriendly before, she
looked downright evil now, "I came here to give you the option, Alex.  If
you come now, it'll be a lot easier on you." her voice was cold.

"I've made too many bad choices in my life to want to make this one,
Marita." he stepped forward, literally walking through Scully to face
Marita directly, "I know what I was.  I want to be more."

"You're being a fool, Alex." she said, utter contempt in her voice, "A
naieve, idiotic fool. You think that by can break into that building and
steal a single file that would bring down the men who killed us all?"  she
gestured at the two agents as well as herself.  She laughed roughly, "It
won't happen."

"I'll take that chance."

Her blue eyes flashed angrily, "I gave you fair warning. Your time is
almost up.  You've just guaranteed yourself a painful afterlife."  with
that, she disappeared.

Krycek stared at the place where she'd been for a long moment, and then
addressed the two apparitions standing behind him, "They're going to try
to stop you, aren't they?"

Scully frowned, "Most likely."

He turned towards him, all trace of insolence gone from his eyes, "I have
to gain salvation, Scully.  I have to."

She nodded, "We'll do our best to help you get it, Krycek."  she looked at
Mulder, "Won't we, Mulder?"

"Yeah." he looked around, "For now, we'd better get someplace safe.  I
have the distinct feeling that the forces of Hell being after us isn't
going to help our situation much."

Krycek didn't say another word as he turned around and began walking.

The two agents followed him, Scully slipping her arm easily through
Mulder's, "You seem to have gotten over your little attitude problem."

He looked down at her, his eyes dark, "I've been waiting to get my hands
on her for a long time."

Scully looked at him questioningly.  As far as she knew, Marita had never
done anything to him directly.  Scully hadn't even found out about the
blond "informant" herself until after Mulder had died.

"She's the one who killed me." he said, a shadow settling over his
features, "Broke my neck with her own two hands, and smiled the whole
time."

Angry as she was at that revelation, she calmly said, "Careful, Mulder.
Revenge..."

"I know, Scully."  He said, "I'm simply saying that if we help Krycek,
Marita probably won't be having any fun."

Scully nodded, and squeezed his arm.  No matter what he said, she'd have
to keep an eye on him.

****

"It looks like they've encountered a little resistence."

"A little??  Sir, he's sent his front line after them!"

"I expected no less, Brendan.  Krycek is greatly coveted by those below."

"Maybe this was too much for their first mission."

"I chose them because I knew they were the best for the job." there was a
pause, and what almost felt like a chuckle, "You're not doubting me, are
you, Brendan?"

"No.  No, I've never doubted you.  I just wonder if even they are going to
be able to do what they need to with that kind of power aimed at them."

"That is part of the test."

"What if Mulder flies off the handle?  You're setting him up against
everyone he's ever hated.  The man you've sent him to save killed his
father, the woman who they've sent to counter him killed him."

"Another test.  It takes an extraordinary man to resist that."

"But... what if he-what if he fails, Sir?"

"You know what happens when people fail, Brendan."

Pendrell's eyes closed.  He sighed deeply, hoping with all his might that
Mulder would be able to resist his anger.  Pendrell had seen Mulder's
temper, and it wasn't pretty.

"Don't worry, Brendan."  the commanding voice was serene, "Whatever
happens happens because it was mean to be."

Pendrell nodded.  If he'd learned anything in his years here, it was to
have faith.

*****

July 3

"She's going to come back, and when she does, she's going to bring a few
friends."  Mulder and Scully were standing in a hotel room that was only
marginally better than the last one.  Krycek was taking a shower.

"I know that, Scully."  Mulder frowned, "Who do you suppose is going to be
thrown at us?"

She shrugged.  "I'm not sure.  I guess this is what Pendrell meant when he
said it wasn't going to be all 'wine and roses'"

"Nothing comes easy with us, does it?"  Mulder said, smiling ruefully,
"Always the hard way."

"Probably has something to do with our choice of earthly occupation."  she
grinned, "Guess it carries over."

Mulder sat down on the edge of the bed.  "They've got some pretty heavy
firepower on their side."  Scully joined him and he put his arm around her
shoulders, "And not only are we going to have to deal with Marita and her
friends, we're going to have to find a way to get our former blood enemy
deep enough into the UN building to get his files."

"Pendrell said it would be a challenge."  she looked up at him, "Are you
going to be all right."

He sighed, "What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean."  she said, "Krycek, Marita, everyone else they're
likely set up against us.  They're all people we would have practically
shot on sight when we were alive. We've got to contain ourselves.  We
can't just give in to every earthly impulse that strikes our fancy,
anymore, Mulder.  You looked like you wanted to smash Marita's head into a
wall back there.  I won't even try to describe the look on your face when
you saw it was Krycek we had to help."

Mulder looked over at where Krycek's false arm lay on the small hotel room
desk.  His eyes remained on Krycek's arm, and his voice was far away when
he spoke, "A long time ago, someone gave me the means to get revenge on
the men who had abducted you.  They set up an ambush, and told me how to
kill them."  he paused slightly, "And he made it clear that if I did do
these things, I would know what it took to find the truth."  he looked
down into her eyes now, "I chose to be with you instead.  I chose to go to
the hospital that night, to watch over you."  he took her hand, "I made my
choice that night.  I won't ever be like them.  And that means keeping my
temper."

Scully moved closer to him, putting both arms around him, "Just be
careful, Mulder.  I've waited this long to see you.  I don't want to loose
you again."

"You won't, Scully.  I swear."

****

Krycek emerged from the bathroom cautiously, wishing he hadn't lost his
gun months ago.  One of the first things he'd ever learned in his
professional life was to be very careful when coming in and going out of
rooms.

He had pulled on a pair of pants.  He'd left his arm in the main room, and
he'd have to strap it on before he put on his shirt.  After ascertaining
there was no one else there, he walked to the table, and picked the arm
up, strapping it on in one quick, precise movement.

As he pulled his shirt on, he frowned.  No one was out here.  Where had
his 'guardian angels' gone? "Mulder?  Scully?"

Slowly, the air in front of him coalesced into the iridescent forms of Fox
Mulder and Dana Scully.  "Don't worry, Alex.  We're still here.  We just
needed a moment to ourselves."

Krycek nodded, frowning at how nervous he'd been.  He'd gone to suspcious
of them to dependant on them in a matter of hours.  It didn't bother him
as much as he thought it should have.  And, somehow, that was very
comforting.

He glanced at his watch.  It was 7 in the morning.  He'd checked into the
hotel about an hour and half ago.  As he buttoned the last button on his
shirt, he yawned.

"You should get some sleep."  said Scully, managing to sound concerned.

Krycek shook his head, "We've got to scout the building today."

"Krycek, you've had an extremely stressful night.  If you're going to be
any good to yourself or to us, you'd better get a little sleep."  Mulder
gestured to the bed, "We'll keep an eye on you.  If you go to sleep now,
we'll have the whole afternoon to look around."

Alex thought about that for a moment.  He hadn't gotten a good long
stretch of sleep for what seemed like years.  He'd always had to be
constantly on guard.  As absurd as it was, the presence of Mulder and
Scully made him feel more secure.

He seemed to be getting more and more sleepy by the second.  "I suppose
that's not a bad idea."  He yawned again, going to the bed, and getting
into it fully clothed.  He was asleep before his head hit the pillow.  And
for once, he was able to sleep well, knowing he had a divine warning
system to tell him if anyone was coming for him.  It was a good feeling.

****

"One of us should go check out the building, before Krycek wakes up."
Mulder said, as soon as Krycek was out completely, "We can go places he
can't, and I'd rather we stay all together when he's physically looking
the place over.  It'll be good if we can direct him a little once we get
there."

Scully nodded, "I'll go."

That made him frown, "Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of me."

A huge grin spread across her face, "No, I think I'll go.  It'll feel
awfully nice to be ditching you for once."

With that, she turned and walked through the wall.  He heard her voice as
she went down the hall, "I'll be back in two hours..."

Mulder smiled, bemused.  So that's what it felt like.

****

The sun was shining brightly when she left the hotel.  It was an
absolutely beautiful day.  Like heaven.  That made her laugh a little.

It was kind of strange, walking down the street, not being seen, people
walking through you, as if you didn't exist.  Well, she thought, I guess I
don't actually exist on this plane...

Not two weeks ago, she would have thought that the whole concept of
anything beyond the earthly reality was completely absurd.  Amazing what
being dead could do to you, she thought for at least the four hundreth
time since she'd re-appeared on earth.

She was still earthbound, which meant she had to find earthly
transportation to wherever she wanted to go.  No magical portals, or
anything like that.  I guess that's why wings were such a great advantage,
she thought.

The UN Building was several blocks away, and she walked at a leisurely
pace, taking everything around her in.  The novelty of it was still
amazing to her.  It was like learning how to live again.  Another irony...

Crossing the street was even a novel experience.  She could jaywalk to her
hearts' content, cars swept right through her. In a way, she guessed this
was exactly what she'd been expecting would happen when she died.  But she
didn't think that she'd ever be someone's guardian angel, especially not
Alex Krycek's.

She was two streets away from the UN Building when another figure
materialized next to her, startling her.  She whipped towards the figure,
taking up a defensive stance.  She wasn't quite sure how fighting with
another spirit would work. Scully wasn't even sure if hitting another
ghost would do any harm.

But it turned out she wouldn't have to find out just yet.  She watched as
Pendrell soldified in front of her.  There was a serious look on his face,
"Hello, Dana."

"Brendan."  she frowned somewhat confused, "What are you doing here?"

"Just came to see how you were doing."

"Can't you see us from..." she pointed up.  She began moving towards the
UN building again, Pendrell falling into step beside her.

"Yes, I can.  And I saw your exchange with Marita.  I just wanted to make
sure you were all right.  I wanted to hear it directly from you."

She looked over at him, "I think we'll be okay, Brendan."

"You know I can't help you.  I'm just observing."  he frowned at her, "I
couldn't stand seeing anything happen to you two, especially if I couldn't
do anything about it."

She stopped.  They were in front of the building now.  Scully faced him,
looking into his eyes, "You won't have to see anything happen to us,
Brendan.  We're going to do this.  Remember, the good guys always win."

Pendrell smiled, "I had a feeling you'd say something like that." He put a
hand on her shoulder, "Do me a favor, Dana, prove yourself right."

"I will.  Scully gave him a reassuring smile.  Slowly, he faded out of view.

Scully sighed, looking towards the UN building.  Oh yeah, we just have to
sneak a one-armed man with a busted up face and dirty clothes into one of
the most heavily secured buildings in the United States.  We'll be fine...

****

She returned to the hotel two hours later, not feeling any more secure
than she had when she'd walked into the UN Building.  It was more secure
than she'd though initially.  And there were armed guards who looked like
they'd have no problem shooting anyone who they thought was doing anything
harmful.  Scully had the distnict feeling that if Krycek died now, he
wouldn't quite make it to Heaven.

The minute she walked through the door of the hotel room (literally.  She
was still amazed by that), someone grabbed her by the shoulders and
started shaking her.  She was about to try to hit them, when she realized
that it could only be... "Mulder!  What are you..."  he never got this
enthusiastic enough to shake her when he was alive.

"Scully!  I just thought of it!"

"What??"

He stopped shaking her.  The look on his face was so enthusiastic she
nearly asked him if he'd taken something while she was gone.  The only
thing she could think of was that looking younger somehow made him act a
little like he had when he was younger.

"I've figured out how we can get what we need without having to commit a
crime!"

Scully glanced over at the bed to make sure Krycek was still there. He was
sleeping soundly. "What? How?"

"Langly."

A raised eyebrow.  The Scully-look he'd come to love crossed her face, and
she shook her head, "CIA Headquarters?  Have you lost your..."

"No, no.  Not Langley, Virgina; Langly the Lone Gunman!"

END PART 3

*******

Feedback feedback feedback.  If you've made it this far and haven't lost
any small admiration you had for my writing skills, I'd love to hear from
you.  I can be reached at slhamm@u.washington.edu.

Be nice.  I'm failing tests for this...

Oh yeah, and a P.S. to those of you who don't like Red Herrings...
Until last night at midnight, I thought I was going to have to get the
Good Guys into the UN building...

                "In the Afterlife,
                 You could be headed for the serious strife"
                        -Hell
                         The Squirrel Nut Zippers
                                  [Image]



Title: A Scully Gets Her Wings, Chapter 4: The Grassy Knoll

Category: T S, and... Oh, no!  Here comes the MSR!

Rating: PG-13 for bad words.

Archive: Whyn't ya hold on for a chapter or two...

Disclaimer: Characters, not mine.  Created by Chris Carter.  Owned by 1013
Productions.  No suing will be necessary.  I'm just showing how much I
love them (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and all that
junk).

Summary: Mulder and Scully try to save Krycek's soul, with a little help
from an old friend.

Notes: And again, apologies for any religious incongruities.  I'd also
like to apologize for any problems with distances/travel times, etc. on
the East Coast, or locations in Washington D.C.  I've never been further
east than Minneapolis, so I had to look at my handy dandy road Atlas for
all that stuff.  Oh, and belated thanks to Dawson Rambo and Deborah Wells
for writing the first two stories I read on the archive and really
enjoyed, and for inspiring me.  And now, Live from Seattle it's...

***********
A Scully Gets Her Wings
By Susan Hamm
-----------
Chapter 4
The Grassy Knoll
************

New York City
July 3

"No, no.  Not Langley, Virgina; Langly the Lone Gunman!"

She narrowed her eyes at him, "Aren't the Lone Gunmen dead?"  Frohike had
paid them a visit the day after she'd arrived.  Death hadn't given him any
more tact.

"That's why I didn't think of it before!" Mulder was smiling like an
idiot, "I'm so used to thinking of the three of them as one person!  But
only two of them are dead!"

That made her pause.  She knew what he was saying now. She remembered
she'd read about Frohike and Byers' deaths, and had assumed they'd gotten
Langly as well.  "But Mulder, we can't talk to him.  Only Krycek can speak
to people on the other side.  Do you think Langly's not going to shoot him
on sight, knowing what he's done to us?"

Mulder frowned, settling down now that they were discussing it seriously,
"Langly's not a violent guy, none of them are.  If Krycek could just talk
to him..."

She thought about it for a moment.  Then she sighed, "As crazy as it
sounds, Mulder, I think you might be right." Scully perched on the edge of
the hotel end table, her mind working the problem over.  It would be a
whole lot easier than breaking into the UN building.  The more she thought
about that particular venture, the more she was sure they'd get Krycek
shot before they'd get him saved.

The challenge now would be finding a way to get Langly to help the man who
he knew (or thought he knew) was completely corrupt.

"You're still not making it easy on us."

He smiled, "I didn't think that was the point..."

"Maybe not.  But there are 350 million people in this country.  Even if
Langly is still alive and in full possession of his mental faculties, how
do you expect we're going to find him?  This is a man who's spent his
whole life attempting not to be found.  Who's to say he's still living in
the same place he was before?"  Mulder opened his mouth to speak, but
Scully put her hand up to stop him, "And, even if we do find him, how
exactly do you think that he," she gestured to the sleeping Krycek, "is
going to convince him to get the information we need?"

Mulder was still smiling.  He touched her cheek, "How should I know,
Scully, you're the smart one."

Scully gave him a crack in the ribs for that.  "Thank you so much..."

*****

Krycek woke up nearly eight hours later, after one of the deepest sleeps
he'd had in years.  Glancing at the clock on the small table next to the
bed, he frowned.  It was nearly 5 in the evening.  He frowned.  They were
supposed to have gotten him up in the afternoon so they could check the
building out.  He sat up in bed, frowning.  If they were trying to jerk
him around...

"No, we're not trying to ditch you, Krycek."  Mulder's voice came to him
from the far side of the room.  Krycek looked around and finally saw him
coalescing at the small desk in the corner.  "But there's been a change of
plans."

Krycek narrowed his eyes, getting out of the bed and approching Mulder,
"What is this, Mulder?" there was that old tone in his voice, the one of
suspcion and indignation, "I thought you guys were here to help me, not
take over the whole operation."

Mulder allowed about one second to pass before he sprang up out of the
chair and placed his face two inches from Krycek's, his voice was low,
dangerous, "You listen to me, Krycek!  This isn't some assassination
gambit we're talking about here! You are BLESSED to have us here, you
understand?  For some reason, God apparently thought your slimy soul was
redeemable, and there's not much I can do to argue with Him.  He's got a
real feel for these things."  Concentrating for just a moment, Mulder
brought his finger up and poked it into Krycek's chest, knocking him back
a step, "We are trying to help you, to guide you.  You can do whatever you
damn well please.  All we're trying to do is give you a safer alternative
to your plan. Take it or leave it, but don't get angry at us for trying to
do you a favor!"

Mulder backed up a step, and went over to where he'd been before.  He
turned around, facing the wall, trying to calm himself down a little.
He'd nearly felt himself lose it that time.  He had to keep his temper in
check.

After three deep breaths, he faced Krycek again.  The one-armed man was
looking at him, frowning thoughtfully, still slightly.  Alex Krycek did
not appreciate being pushed around, even if the man who pushed him was on
a mission from God.  "All right, Mulder." He said, some of the indignation
still in his voice, "Why don't you tell me what your plan is."

At that moment, Scully emerged from the wall behind Krycek.  Immidiately
she sensed the mood in the room.  Leave it to Krycek to provoke Mulder
just when she'd gone out to scout possible methods of transportation.

Scully frowned, "Mulder..."

"Nothing happened Scully." He said, his voice still somewhat ragged,
"Nothing at all."

She walked forward until she was standing next to him, and then turned
towards Krycek.  "Krycek?" she asked.

"I just want to know what you two have in mind." Krycek said, the
indignant tone was still there, but significantly repressed.  Scully
sensed it but said nothing.

Immidiately, Scully knew what they'd been arguing about.  She knew Mulder
just well enough to know that any insolence on Krycek's part would be met
with immidiate anger.  She chose to forget about it, at least for the
moment.  They had a job to do, and since opposing forces had been set into
motion already, they had a limited time to do it.  She'd lecture them
later.  For now, she had to bring Alex up to speed.

Knowing that Mulder wasn't going to respond, she sighed, "Take a seat,
Alex, and allow me to explain."

*****

"So you're saying that my savior is going to be some guy that thinks I'm
the personification of evil."

"Don't worry, Krycek, we all thought that."

Krycek, to his great credit, didn't respond.  And to Mulder's credit, he
looked like he was slapping himself for having said it.  Alex turned to
Scully, "And you don't even know where he is?"

"We're pretty sure he's on the East coast, probably someplace in or around
Washington D.C." Scully frowned.  Something occured to her, and she nearly
slapped herself on the forehead for not having realized it before.
"Krycek, in your time with Them, did you ever find out where the Lone
Gunmen were headquartered?"

Krycek grimaced at the thought, "No." he said, sounding almost ashamed,
"Of all the things we tried to do, we could never find them.  We knew they
were supplying Mulder with all sorts of information that they most
definitely should not have had access to.  Hunt, that was the guy you
called the Cancer Man, he found their first hideout.  Then they moved, and
we tried for years to find them.  Finally we just gave up.  Mulder was
dead, and the information you" he gestured to Scully, "were getting wasn't
harmful enough to be a threat yet. We didn't even think you were getting
your information from them in the first place. We left them alone."

"Is there any chance that the search was taken up again after you left?"

"Not much.  Our searches for your whereabouts never had anything to do
with them.  And after I left, even your case was shifted to the
backburner.  They had more pressing concerns."

"Obviously not far enough back on the backburner."  Scully muttered, hand
unconciously going to her forehead, where the bullet that ended her life
had entered.  She shivered slightly before continuing, "So that means that
it's possible that Langly is still exactly where he was before."

Mulder frowned, "That's too easy.  Nothing is that easy!"

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, Mulder."  Scully frowned, "We're
going to have to get to the D.C. area eventually anyway, we may as well at
least try looking into their old hideout."

"I find it very hard to believe that Comrade Krycek and his little buddies
didn't find the Gunmen." Mulder's eyes were fixed on Krycek.

"Why would he lie, Mulder?  He hasn't got that much to lose.  It's in his
best interest to help us."  Scully raised an eyebrow at Krycek
speculatively, "And as we know, his own best interest has always been at
the front of his mind."  Krycek said nothing to that.

"If you never found them, how did you kill Byers and Frohike?"

"We didn't."

Mulder frowned, "What?  They told me they were shot, by your men."

"They may have thought the men were under my orders, but they weren't."
Seeing Mulder's wildly disbelieving expression, Krycek practically threw
up his arm in disgust, "Mulder, look at the situation I'm in!  Do you
think it would serve me in any way to lie to you?  I haven't lied to you
once since you appeared!"

Mulder paused, staring at Krycek for just one moment before asking, "So
who did kill them, Krycek?"

"It was just what it looked like." Krycek said, "A gangland drive-by.
They were in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Our only concern with
their deaths at the time was that they weren't anywhere near their
headquarters."

His nonchalant tone made Mulder's frown deepen, but Scully put a hand on
his arm and said, "Well, Krycek, since you're so sure that They haven't
discovered where the Lone Gunmen dwell, I think it's time to take a little
trip to Washington."

"How exactly are we supposed to do that?  They're practically breathing
down my neck as it is.  The minute I buy any sort of ticket they'll know
where I am.  They've probably got men at all the airports."

Scully smiled, "You're not buying a ticket to anything.  How much money do
you have left?"

Krycek pulled out six twenty dollar bills.  "This is all I have left from
my last 'withdrawl'."

Mulder frowned, "That's quite a bit of money for a man with no bank account."

"I do what I have to do to obtain funds," Krycek said, glaring at Mulder.
Tactfully, he chose not to bring up the subject of how Scully had obtained
money between the time she went on the run and the time she died.

Scully gave Mulder a warning look, and gestured to the money, "That ought
to be enough."

"Enough for what?"

"What's the last thing they'd expect a One-Armed Man to try to do?"

Krycek thought for a moment, "Are you saying..."

"Mr. Krycek, you're going to rent a car."

Krycek frowned, pointing to his arm, "I can't drive!"

"Why not?  You can kill indiscirminatly with one arm.  Might as well learn
the fine art of driving with just one arm."

His eyes clouded over, "For two dead people, you sure have a hard time
letting things go."

****

"Won't they be able to trace that paperwork as well?" asked Krycek as he
got into his brand new Ford Taurus, and prepared to start it up for the
long trip to Washington D.C.  He'd used his "Erik Smith" ID card, one he'd
had made just three days before, to get through the paperwork.  He assumed
that they'd know his cover identities by now, though.

"Probably not."  Scully gave a mysterious smile.  "It's hard to trace
something that I just wiped out of their system."

Krycek frowned, "I thought you weren't able to do stuff like that."

"I can solidify myself for short periods of time, Alex." She smiled,
"Three keystrokes was all it took.  Of course, it's a lot easier to do
that sort of thing when they can't see you."

Unseen by Scully or Mulder, a smile touched Alex Krycek's lips.  He
silently thanked the Man Upstairs for the help He had provided him with.
As he started the car, he also thanked the Ford Company for designing
their cars with right handed people in mind.

The car lurched.  Krycek slammed his foot on the break.  Scully looked at
him, more than a little alarmed, "Careful there, Alex.  We're already
dead, but it's still just a little too early for you."

"I'm fine." Said Alex, frowning, as he collected himself, "I just need to
get the hang of this.  I haven't driven in decades.  And it's looking to
be a lot harder than it was before." He turned around to look at Scully,
who sat with Mulder in the back seat, "You're sure about this?"

"I'd better be."

Carefully, Krycek shifted the car into reverse again, and, with the
precision and concentration that had always served him so well in earlier
in his life, he guided the car out of the parking space, and out towards
the street.

Mulder glanced at Scully, "I hope our Comrade there gets the hang of
driving with one arm real fast, or he's going to be Hell-bound street
pizza."

****

Washington D.C.
July 4

Five hours later, Krycek was still driving.  They had watched him with
some concern for the first three hours, but he hadn't shown any signs of
tiring.  He'd also adapted quite quickly to driving with just one hand.
Precision control probably wouldn't be possible, but they were mainly on
nice, straight freeways.

After all those years of doing dirty work, and then years of running from
his employers, he'd probably perfected working with very little rest.  The
fact that he'd just gotten ten hours of sleep, and that he was on his way
to what may have been his last chance at salvation probably helped.

They arrived in Washington a little after two in the morning.  Once inside
the city limits, Krycek found himself a relatively deserted corner and
stopped the car.  It was the first time he'd turned it off since they'd
stopped for gas in Philadelphia.  There'd been a tesne moment or two as
the tank had filled up.  Stopping for any amount of time obviously made
Krycek viciously nervous.

The attendant had looked at him strangely, but that was probably because
he only had one arm, and he looked like he'd just walked into a wall.

"So," he said, speaking for the first time since Wilmington, Delaware,
"Where to now, Mulder?"  he sounded slightly edgy.

"What's wrong, Krycek?"

"Something about the fact that we haven't had anyone try to stop us yet."
His eyes darted around the dark street he'd chosen to stop on, "I don't
like it.  Erasing the records would stall them for a while, but they'll
figure out I'm not in New York soon, and then they'll start looking
around.  Eventually they're going to figure out where I am."

"Are they really that powerful, Krycek?" asked Mulder, frowning, "Can they
really find you that easily?"

"When they want to find you, there's very little you can do about it.  The
only reason they didn't find your little pals the Gunmen is because they
stopped looking after you died." He glanced around again, "Now, where to?"

Mulder looked towards the street sign lit just ahead.  "Turn right up at
that corner.  It's not far from here."

Krycek nodded and started the car up again.

As they began moving, Mulder looked at Scully. "It's bothering me, too,
Scully."

"I know."  Scully was looking intently out the side window, "Marita didn't
seem like she was going to let it go that easily.  It's taking way too
long for her to get to us."

"Do you think she's just building up her forces?"

Scully turned to look in his eyes, "When she was talking to us outside the
UN building, it was almost like she wasn't just after Krycek.  Something
about the way she was acting..." she frowned, "Something tells me they
want to beat us, Mulder.  And winning Krycek's soul isn't going to be
enough.  They may be dead, but They're still out there, and they want us."

"They?"

"Marita's not the only one of our enemies who died, Mulder.  There were
others, and I can't imagine any of them are too happy."

"Oh, I think I can guarantee you they want revenge on you." Krycek's voice
floated up from the front seat.

"What makes you think that, Krycek?" asked Mulder.

"Because if I were in their position, that's exactly what I'd want too."
There was a dark tone to his voice, then he glanced back at them, flashing
them what almost looked like a genuine smile, "If I were in their
position..." the smile widened, "But I'm not..."

****

By the time they pulled up in front of the nondescript brick building four
blocks away from the Vietnam Memorial, all three of the car's occupants
were thorougly on edge.

"Put your game face on, Krycek." Mulder said, looking around nervously as
they got out of the car, "If Langly's here, you're gonna need to convince
him real quick about your situation."

"Don't you worry Mulder." Krycek looked at the two of them, a tiny grin
crossing his face, "I can convince a fat man to eat a bag of fudge in any
one of three different languages."

Scully glanced at Mulder as they walked over to the barely lit alley
behind the building "That kind of 'modesty' is going to get him killed,"
she whispered. Mulder said nothing.

The doorway was near the end of the alley.  Seculded, quiet, perfect for
the Gunmen.  The door looked completely normal except for a sliding panel
located at about eye level.

Krycek looked around, frowning, "This?  This is what we couldn't find in
five years??"  he shook his head, "Damn."

Mulder rolled his eyes, "Don't dwell, Krycek.  You're trying to get beyond
that part of your life, remember?"

Without answering, Krycek rapped on the door loudly.  There was a long
pause, so long that Scully was getting ready to walk through the wall and
check it out.  Krycek was beginning to get agitated when the panel in the
door slid open, and a shotgun barrel was slammed out, nearly hitting
Krycek in his already tender face.

"Jesus!"  he exclaimed, jumping back.

"Whadda you want, Krycek??" growled a gravelly voice from the other side
of the door.  Mulder immidiately recognized it as Langly's, but it was
definitely quite a bit older.

"It's a long story, Langly." Krycek said, attempting to calm Langly by
using his name, "I need to talk to you!"

"How the hell did you find me?" the voice asked, "And why shouldn't I just
blow your God damn head off?"

"Don't!" Krycek moved a bit to the right.  The gun followed him.  Langly
was looking at him on a monitor inside or something.  He took a deep
breath, getting ready to leap out of the way if Langly decided he didn't
want to listen, "Mulder told me where you were, Langly."

There was a long pause.  Then, "What?"

"Mulder! Look, for once in my life I'm going to tell the absolute truth.
I left the Consortium five years ago, they've been pursuing me ever
since..."

"I knew that," Langly growled, "How do I know you're not here to kill me
and try to get into their good graces again?"

"Will you just listen??" Krycek said, his voice urgent but not too loud,
"I've been trying for all those years to get evidence on them to give to
those two new X-Files agents, evidence that'll set the Consortium back
decades! And I need your help to get it."

"Bull!" the shotgun was steady as it pointed straight at his head, "You're
responsible for the deaths of everyone I cared about.  Why should I
believe a word you say??"

"Because Mulder is the one who told me you were here!  He was sent here
with Scully in order to help me!"

Now he heard the shotgun being primed, "God wouldn't waste his energy on a
rat like you, Krycek." Langly spat, "And he sure wouldn't send two people
like Mulder and Scully down to help you!"

Krycek looked around furitively.  He had to get out of this blind alley.
Closing his eyes for just one moment he steeled himself.  He had to be
sincere now.  Honest.  He'd proved himself capable of it before, and now
he had to do it again, this time with a gun trained on his head.

"I want to be redeemed, Langly.  All my life I've been trying to destroy
others because I thought it was the right thing to do.  I fought for
decades for something that I thought was worthy, only to find out five
years ago that not only was what I was fighting for not right, it was so
evil it can barely be comprehended."  He stared straight into the doorway,
"Mulder and Scully are here with me now.  They believe that I am worthy of
redemption.  And if they can believe it, I think you should too."  He
stood in front of the door, his arm at his side, "Do what you will, but
just think about it: If I had intended to kill you, you would've been
dead."

A tense moment passed as Langly was apparently considering what Krycek had
just said.  Finally, the shotgun withdrew from the panel, and it was
slammed shut.  The door locks were released, and the door opened just
enough for Krycek to enter.  He did so, Mulder and Scully floating through
as Langly shut the door again.

They watched as he locked up the door again.  Langly was at least 60 years
old.  His blond hair was completely gray, and still shoulder-length.  He
still wore a t-shirt, but it was so faded that they couldn't tell what had
originally been written on it.  He pushed his glasses up his nose, and
looked at Krycek critically, shotgun still in hand.

"So, Comrade Krycek," he said, contempt in his voice, "You wanna tell me
exactly what you think I'm going to help you with?"

"I told you.  Mulder told me to come here." He pointed to where he could
see Mulder and Scully standing, just over Langly's shoulder, "Look, I know
you can't see them, but they're there.  They said you could hack the files
I want."

"I've been looking for evidence against you bastards for twenty-five
years, what makes you think I can find it now?"

"Because I can tell you where to look."  Krycek's eyes were locked on
Langly, trying to keep him from using the shotgun.

Langly's eyes clouded, "I still don't..."

All of a sudden, he heard someone typing on his keyboard.  He spun around,
shotgun raised.  There was no one there.  But words were appearing on his
computer screen.

Eyes wide, he walked over to the computer as if in a trance, seeming to
forget Krycek completely.

Krycek could see Mulder, with an intense look of concentration, hitting
the keys.  He looked at Scully, gesturing to Langly, "Paranoid guy."

Scully almost smiled, "He has to be."  Krycek walked over to join them,
reading what Mulder was typing.

"Langly: The One-Armed Wonder is telling the truth, for once.  We are
here, and he is looking for salvation.  Help him out, for our sakes.
Mulder.  P.S. It's nice to see you again."  Langly stared at the messege
for a full minute after Mulder was through typing.  He had seen his keys
being pressed, seen the messege appear.  Even Krycek didn't have that
capability.

Langly addressed Mulder, "Well, Mulder, we never could refuse a request
from you."  He turned to Krycek, his eyes darkening again, "You owe Mulder
big time.  I would've had your brains spread all over here if it wasn't
for him."

A shadow passed over Krycek's face at the implied threat, the look in his
eyes plainly indicating whose brains would have been spread if Langly had
tried to shoot him.  Scully tensed for a moment.  She wasn't sure how God
would react if Krycek tried to harm Langly.  The shadow left his eyes
quickly, though.  "I owe him more than one."  He said simply, with a
sincerity they'd rarely heard in his voice before.

Langly turned towards his computer and started typing rapidly.  "Where do
I start?"

Scully looked over at Mulder.  Mulder took her hand, and squeezed it,
"Well, dodged a bullet there."

She nodded, "Yeah.  But I'm still wondering just exactly why we haven't
been challenged yet.  It's like an earthquake, Mulder," she said, watching
as Krycek told Langly where to hack, "the more time between blood-curdling
threats, the more I start thinking that something huge is building up."

He put his arm around her shoulders, "I know.  But for right now, all we
can do is wait.  At least they're letting us get this far..."

****

"Damn it, I don't think we should've let them get this far!"  Marita
watched the last Lone Gunman hack into a vital UN computer system as
Krycek looked on, "We should've crushed them back in New York!"

"Patience, Marita," said a commanding voice behind her, "It was obvious
Krycek would not come with us willingly, but we'll get him soon enough."
the owner of the voice stepped out of the shadows. "The more we wait, the
more nervous they get.  Hopefully, they'll be so agitated by the time we
attack that they won't be sharp enough to defeat us.  And if they can't
deal with us, there's nothing they can do when the earthly agents catch up
with Krycek."

"I hope you're right, Mr. Williams." The voice that joined them now was
quieter, far more threatening that Williams' voice.

Williams turned on him, eyes flashing, "I've planted the information that
those on earth need to find them.  It's only a matter of time before they
catch up to Krycek, and then, we can catch Mulder and Scully completely
off-guard."

A cloud of cigarette enveloped Williams' head, "I don't think your little
stint as 'X' told you as much about Mulder as you think it did, Williams.
He is far better at adjusting to stress than you think.  And Scully is
even better at it than Mulder, because she does not allow her emotions to
cloud her better judgement."  The smoker's shadowed head turned towards
Marita, "Unlike some people."

Marita frowned, "What do you mean by that?"

"You know what I mean, Marita."  Said Hunt, taking another puff on his
cigarette, "You warned them of our presence by appearing to them like that
in front of the UN building.  A foolish move designed only to allow you to
confront Mulder again."

"I was told to do that..."

"You could have done it before Mulder and Scully arrived.  He sent you
there a full twelve hours before those two arrived.  Confronting Krycek
wasn't your goal.  You wanted to see Mulder again."

The blond woman straightened up, her eyes becoming cold, "I am never
anything but completely professional."

"You'd like to think so." Hunt said, equally cold.  He went on before she
could respond, "Williams, are you sure you're ready?"

"Yes." Williams replied.  Something that might have been a smile twisted
across his face, "We'll get Krycek for you, and, if what we have in mind
works, we'll get Mulder and Scully as well."

Hunt leaned back in his chair and blew some more smoke, "Very good, Mr.
Williams, proceed with your plan as soon as you receive word that the men
on earth have caught up with Krycek."

Williams nodded shortly.  He and Marita left Hunt's 'office'.

Hunt allowed a chilling smile to cross his lips. Soon... They'd all be
together again very soon...

END PART 4

*****

Okay.  This is for those of you intrepid souls who've managed to make it
this far: Do you like it, do you think it stinks?  I've never subjected my
ramblings to a large audience before.  Tell me what you think.  If I
haven't mentioned my email address before (and I know I have), it's
slhamm@u.washington.edu, or just hit the reply button.

Oh yeah, and for those of you wondering about my academic fortunes: I took
a test today, and I don't think it went well, unless forty of the fifty
answers were supposed to be "c".

        "Beauty, talent, fame, money, refinement
         Top skill, and brains!
         But all the things you try to hide
         Will be revealed on the other side!"
                        -Hell
                         The Squirrel Nut Zippers


Title: A Scully Gets Her Wings, Chapter 5: Fireworks

Category: T S, y'know, I think there's a little MSR in here too...

Rating: PG-13, dirty words and all that

Disclaimer: Okay, tell me you don't already know this one by heart: I
didn't create the characters, I don't own the characters, Chris Carter and
his band of merry men (and women) at 1013 Productions do.  Don't kill
me... or sue me.

Summary: Mulder and Scully help Krycek find redemption.

Notes: No disrespect intended towards God or anyone else involved ('cept
maybe Marita Covarrubias... what kinda name is that anyway!!??).  Again,
apologies for any problems with locations either within or around
Washington D.C.  I've been a West Coaster all my life.  Well, enough of
that, on now to...

******
A Scully Gets Her Wings
By Susan Hamm
------
Chapter 5
Fireworks
******

Washington D.C.
July 4

"This is unbelievable."  Langly's eyes were wide as he watched the
information scroll down the screen, "Not only does this group of files
expose the Consortium... There's enough information here to bring down at
least four senior senators."  He looked over his shoulder at Krycek.  "How
is it that you still have access to this kind of information?  Didn't they
clear the codes after you ran?"

Krycek shrugged, "I left them in a state of considerable disarray." An
enigmatic smile swept across his face before he continued, "They were
probably so busy trying to get themselves together that they forgot about
that.  They probably thought I wouldn't be able to get access to the
mainframe."

Langly raised an eyebrow, disbelieving.

"And I put a program into their system that would give me access with my
old passwords."  Krycek glanced over at Mulder and Scully, who had heard
this and were looking at him, eyebrows raised, "You didn't think you guys
were the only ones with a resident computer genius, did you?"

Scully shook her head.  "You're just full of surprises, Krycek."

That same smile appeared, but he looked back at Langly before they could
register it fully.  "Can you get all of this stuff onto a single disk?"

The hacker rolled his eyes, as if exasperated by Krycek's inexperience.
He pulled open the drawer next to his right hand and pulled out something
that looked exactly like a credit card.  "This thing's mag strip has can
hold the entire FBI database and still have room enough for half the CIA
database."

"I take it that this is from experience?"

Langly shrugged, "Could be."  He popped the card into the disk drive of
his computer, "It fits into a standard computer disk drive."  He sighed as
he pushed the download button, "Got a lot easier to design these things
after Apple crashed all those years ago."

"I liked Macs!" Krycek said, frowning.

"That explains a few things."  Before Krycek could say anything else, the
computer beeped, and the 'credit card' popped out again.  Langly held it
up, "Tell whoever you're giving this to not to get it mixed up with their
MasterCard."  He slipped it into a protective sleeve.

Krycek took it and examined it.  It looked like a credit card right down
to the fine print on the back.  He glanced at Langly, who was looking very
tired, "Can I put this anywhere?"

"Probably.  It's not made out of actual plastic, it's an amalgamation that
stood up to some pretty serious trauma in a lab. That sleeve will protect
the mag strip from moisture and scratching."  Langly smiled, "Why, where
were you planning to put it?"

Krycek sat down, untied his boot, and pulled it off.  Setting it down on a
desk, he pushed the card into it with his hand.  "How's this?"

Langly nodded, "It might have a unique odor when you take it out, but as
long as those FBI agents aren't too squeamish, it'll probably work."

As Krycek expertly pulled his boot on and laced it one-handed, Langly
frowned, "Are Mulder and Scully still here?"

Krycek looked up.  They were standing exactly where they had been before.
"Yeah.  They're over there." He gestured with his eyes.

Langly looked in that direction, addressing the two 'ghosts', "Hey, when
you get back up there, tell Frohike and Byers that I can't wait to see
them again."  There was loneliness in his voice that gave even Krycek
pause.

Scully walked over to where Langly was and concentrated until her hand was
solid.  She put it on his shoulder briefly.  "Alex, tell him that they
miss him too."

Krycek relayed this information as he pulled the knot on his boot tight
and stood.  Langly nodded.  "Thanks, guys."

The man with one arm looked towards Langly, "Thank you, Langly." He said
with genuine sincerity.

Langly smiled at him, "You're welcome, Krycek.  I just hope you live up to
it."

"I'll definitely try..."

****

They were in the car again within minutes.

It was nearly three in the morning.  Krycek drove slowly through the
nearly empty streets of Washington D.C., looking for a pay phone.  "You
know this Agent Allard's phone number, Scully?" Krycek asked, spotting a
phone in the parking lot of a closed gas station and heading towards it.

"Yes." Scully said, who was feeling more than a little nervous about the
lack of resistance so far.  Mulder sat next to her alertly, so nervous
that he hadn't spoken in nearly a half an hour.

They pulled into the gas station.  Krycek got out of the car, followed
quickly by Scully.  Mulder stayed by the car, looking out for any signs of
demonic interference.

Krycek dug a seventy-five cent credit out of his leather jacket's inside
pocket and put it into his mouth as he picked up the receiver.  As soon as
the receiver was firmly planted between his shoulder and his ear, he
inserted the credit into the phone.  He glanced at Scully.  She recited
the number to him, and he dialed it.

There were five tense rings before a deep, sleepy voice answered, "Allard."

"Agent Allard?" Krycek said in his best mysterious voice. "I have
something for you."

The sleep seemed to disappear completely from Allard's voice, "What are
you..."

"Listen to me, Allard," Krycek muttered, "I don't have much time.  They're
looking for me.  Now, do you want the evidence you need to bring Them down
or not?"

"How do I know this isn't..."

"You'll just have to trust me," Krycek interrupted, "Either you come and
get it from me, or they'll come and take it from me."  When Allard didn't
answer immediately, Krycek decided to use a different tactic, "Look, I
know you have no reason to trust me, but what I have *will* bring them
down.  Maybe if you can bring them down, Scully's death won't have been
for nothing."

Scully raised an eyebrow.  That wasn't bad.  What was even better was that
Krycek sounded like he actually meant it.

There was a short pause.  Krycek could practically hear Allard trying to
make a decision.  And then, "Where are you?"

"The Delta Co. Gas station on the corner of 20th and K street."

"I'll be there in fifteen minutes."  Allard hung up before Krycek could
say anything else.

"Well," Krycek said, hanging up the phone, "It's almost time.  Just
fifteen more minutes and I'll be..."

A shot rang out.  The bullet missed Krycek's head by 1/4 of an inch, and
hit the phone unit, shattering the front of it.  Credits rained out as
Krycek, leapt out of the booth, rolling to his feet behind the Taurus.  He
reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small throwing knife that he
kept for real emergecies.

He looked up over the car, and saw five men advancing towards him, with
guns in hand.  "Oh, this is not good." He muttered.  He looked towards
Mulder and Scully, who were moving to help him.  "Is there any way you
could assist me here??"

"I'm afraid not!" said a voice from behind them.

Krycek looked over behind them, "Oh shit."  he muttered.

"They can't help you, Alex." Said the man known as X, as he, Marita and
four of their closest friends materialized, "I'm afraid they're going to
be having a few problems of their own."

Scully frowned, "Alex..."

"I'll be fine, Scully," Krycek said, voice tense, "At least for another
fifteen minutes.  You go ahead and take care of them." With that, he slid
over the hood of the car, and tossed the knife into the knee of the man
nearest to him.

Throwing a out a brief prayer for Krycek's health and safety, Scully
advanced to join Mulder in facing X.

****

"Once again, we'll offer you the option of giving up now and keeping your
eternal souls where He apparently thinks they belong." X said, his voice
commanding.  Marita Covarrubias appeared over his shoulder, grinning like
a nasty grin.

"We're the good guys, X." growled Mulder, "We don't do that."

"I told you what it would take to do defeat Them, Mulder, and you didn't
listen." X said, glaring into Mulder's eyes intensely, "Why risk your
soul?  Save yourself, retreat and fight another day." He pointed towards
Krycek, who had pulled off his own false arm, and was using it as a
weapon, "He's not worth it!"

"If I've learned anything in the last few days, X," Mulder said, matching
the intensity of X's stare, "It's that everyone is worth it.  Everyone
deserves a shot at salvation, especially men like Krycek."

X shook his head almost sadly.  "You've made your decision.  I hope you're
still as intense in five minutes when Krycek is dead and you've failed."
He raised a hand, and made a gesture.

The four men he'd brought with him, who Mulder and Scully recognized as
old Consortium assassins, charged forward.

Mulder met Scully's eyes.  They communicated silently how much they cared
about each other, and then turned to face their assailants.

****

Marita stood with X and watched as Scully and Mulder fight fourof their
best men.  She grinned, "This is going to be exceedingly simple.  They
can't fight to kill.  It's only going to be a matter of time."

X didn't reply.  He watched as Scully knocked one of the men in the chest
with her foot, and turned immediately to crush another one in the head
with her fist.  Mulder was busy dodging a knife thrust and knocking the
man in the gut as his momentum carried him past.

"This would be much faster if we had guns." Marita said.

"I'm sorry you don't like the little quirks of the afterlife, Marita," X
said, his voice short.  He was far more worried about the fact that his
men weren't even effectively using the weapons they were allowed to use.

His eyes drifted over to the fight that was going on on the other side of
the car.  This.  This was much better.  Although Krycek was putting up an
incredible fight, he was beginning to wear down. For all his skills, he
was still a fifty-five year old man, and his endurance wasn't what it had
been when he was younger.  The men they'd sent after him were all the
best, and they were also thirty years younger.  The fact that he was still
moving at all was astonishing, and a credit to Krycek's force of will and
previous training.

X looked at his watch, frowning.  Those men hadn't gotten to Krycek in
time.  He'd been able to contact Allard.  They had to kill Krycek quickly.
If they didn't, and Allard showed up, then they'd have to resort to plan
B.  A significantly messier, but equally effective way to achieve their
goal.

Some would have called it cheating, but none of them had any real vision...

****

As she dodged a knife thrust from one of her assailants, Scully realized
that she had no idea how long they'd been fighting.  She grabbed the man
who'd just tried to stab her by the back of his shirt, and used his
momentum to propel his head into the back of a man who was charging
Mulder.

Death seemed to have strengthened their already strong mental bond. Each
could sense what the other was thinking at any given time.  Not
mind-reading to be sure, but certainly useful in a fight.

Mulder pointed over her shoulder.  She thrust her elbow backwards and
connceted with someone's torso.  Unfortunately, he didn't feel like
yielding.  Instead of falling backwards, he wrapped his arm around her
throat and lifted her straight off her feet, applying immense pressure to
her throat.

Scully reached back and managed to give him a vicious set of fingernail
marks on the side of the face, but without leverage there wasn't much else
she could do.  Lack of breath wasn't getting to her, as she didn't need to
breathe, but there was extreme pain as he squeezed her throat tighter.

Seeing Scully in the man's grip, Mulder's eyes flashed.  Turning he faced
the man who'd been coming up behind him.  The man had a very unfriendly
looking bowie knife in his hand.  Mulder stood his ground until the man
was just about to hit him, then sidestepped and tripped him.  The man
fell, releasing his knife as he hit the ground.  Mulder picked up the
man's knife.

He charged towards the man holding Scully, who was concentrating on
causing her pain rather than Mulder's approach.  Mulder slashed the man
across the front of the arm.  He yelled loudly and dropped Scully, who
went to her knees, holding her neck.

She looked up.  Mulder had death in his eyes as he circled the man he'd
just slashed.  The thug was grinning.  "C'mon! Come n' get me..."

It hurt for her to talk, but through sheer force of will Scully forced
herself to yell, "Mulder!  Don't do it!  That's what they want you to do."

Mulder's eyes stayed fastened to the sneering man.  He didn't respond to
her.  Instead, he lunged.  The larger man whacked him on the side of the
head.  Mulder fell down, the knife slipping from his grip.  He was up
quickly, facing the big man, looking only slightly less hostile.  Scully
was almost thankful about the knife.  If he'd done what he'd wanted to,
who knew what would have happened to his soul.  Even death couldn't
eliminate Fox Mulder's temper.

Just as she was feeling relief for Mulder, she noticed movement out of the
corner of her eye.  Apparently the men she'd knocked out before had
recovered themselves, and they weren't any happier than they had been
before.  She got to her feet and turned to face them.

****

Alex Krycek had long ago learned how to roll with the punches.  He knew
that if he did, then the individual impacts wouldn't hurt as much.
Unfortunately, if they hit you as many times as he'd been hit in the last
ten minutes, no amount of rolling was going to help.

Another fist connected with his midsection.  Gasping, he doubled over, but
still managed to slam his own fist into the other man's head.  Even he was
amazed by the amount of ferocity he was fighting with.  By all rights, he
should've been dead by now.  It was just that he was so close.  He wasn't
going to let them take this away from him when salvation was only minutes
away.

Krycek counted three of his opponents down.  Two to go, he thought as he
grimaced.  His midsection didn't want to let him stand upright.

A voice from behind startled him, "Need a little help standin' up there,
buddy?"  One of the two men he hadn't knocked out restrained Krycek's arm
and forced him upright by sticking a knee in his back.  Krycek gritted his
teeth, a tear rolling involuntarily down his cheek.

The last man had drawn his gun and was advancing towards Krycek, "You just
couldn't die easy, could you Krycek?" he sneered, "Hadda go and put up a
fight."  Suddenly, he pistol-whipped Krycek across the face.  Krycek
struggled to stay conscious, "That was for makin' me four minutes late for
my dinner at Spinelli's."  He put the barrel of the gun to Krycek's head,
"And this.  This is somethin' I been waitin' to do for years."

****

A gunshot rang out.  Everyone on the other plane of existence turned to
look.  Mulder and Scully with apprehension, Marita and X with
anticipation.

What they saw surprised all of them.  A blond man was charging forward,
smoking gun in hand, having just shot one of the thugs who'd been sent to
kill Krycek.

"FEDERAL AGENT!" barked the blond man.

Mulder looked at Scully, "Is that...?"

"That's not Allard," she replied, "that's his partner, Joe Hesse."

"I thought we called Allard..."

"We did, but I'm not going to complain."  A knife went sailing past
Scully's head.  Their enemies were obviously not quite as fascinated with
the outcome of events in the real world as the they were.  She turned to
face their assailants, reluctantly leaving Hesse to try to save Krycek.

Hesse approached the man holding Krycek.  Krycek was trying to get some
leverage, not that there was much he could do, even if he got it.  The man
was holding Krycek's arm in place with one hand, and had wrapped his other
arm around Krycek's neck, keeping him immobile.

"Let him go!" yelled Hesse.  His voice was the type that would've sounded
belligerent if he was whispering.  Behind him, a large black man came
running around the corner, gun at the ready.

The man holding Krycek seemed to go through all his options.  Finally, he
came to a decision. His job was to execute Krycek, nothing more, nothing
less.  His own life meant little to him. With one swift movement, he let
go of Krycek's arm, pulled a knife from his belt, and jammed it into
Krycek's back.  Dropping the gasping one-armed man, the thug turned and
ran at top speed across the street.

Hesse took two shots at him standing up, and, not hitting him, began
running after him, yelling over his shoulder, "Yo! Allard!  Get us an
ambulance!"

The black man ran forward, shaking his head slightly as he watched his
partner disappear into the darkness down the street.  He knelt down next
to Krycek, who was curled up on the ground, teeth gritted.  Morris Allard
carefully examined Krycek's back.  Damn.  That guy had definitely known
where to stick a knife.  He pulled out his portable comm unit and dialed a
familiar number, "This is Allard, ambulance to this location, make it
quick!"

He frowned, putting the card back into his coat pocket, "Are you the one
who called me?"

Krycek talked around his teeth, "Yeah... Information..." he managed to
gesture to his boot, "Looks... like credit card..."  he sucked in a breath
as the pain hit him particularly hard.  Allard was amazed he was even
conscious.  Krycek paused for just a moment, collecting himself, "But...
it's a computer... disk..."

"What's it got on it?" Allard asked, trying to sound as comforting as
possible while still getting the information he needed.

"What you need... to beat them..." he said, exhaling shakily. Knowing
exactly how little time he might have left, he continued, "Get it out
now... please..."

With that, he proceeded to pass out.  Allard frowned.  He'd heard about
those credit-card-sized computer disks before, but he'd never actually
seen one.  It sounded far-fetched, but it wasn't going to hurt him to at
least try it.

Slowly, frowning at how absurd this must look, Allard leaned over to start
untying the unconscious man's boot.

****

X glared at the scene unfolding before him.  He had hoped this wouldn't
happen.  If there was one thing he hated, it was when things didn't go as
planned...  If Allard were to find the disk and survive to see what was on
it, he would most certainly know how to use it.  This would be the devil's
last chance to stop him, and to keep Krycek's soul where it belonged.

He looked over at Marita, whose eyes were flashing eagerly.  He met her
eyes and nodded.  A smile that scared even X crossed her face.  She could
only solidify for short periods of time, but she could kill a man with her
bare hands faster than he could blink.  The only reason she hadn't killed
Krycek before was because she was under orders to let him live.  She began
advancing towards Allard, who had Krycek's shoe half-way off.

****

Scully noticed with a clinical interest that they did not seem to be
tiring.  No one seemed to be getting any less alert as the fight dragged
on.  She and Mulder could probably keep on doing this all evening.  The
men seemed quite intent on harming them, but as long as they kept dodging
as skillfully as they were now, they had little to worry about.

And something about that bothered her.  Why were they continuing this?  It
was distracting all of them from...

She stopped suddenly, and spun around towards the scene behind her.
Krycek was on the ground, blood pooling beneath him.  The man holding him
must have stabbed him and run.  Knowing Hesse, he'd chased after the thug,
leaving Allard to take care of Krycek.  Allard had just started trying to
pull Krycek's boot off without causing him any more pain.

And behind Allard...  Scully's eyes widened: Marita was approaching
Allard, practically rubbing her hands together.  Scully wasn't sure how
Marita was going to manage to harm Allard, but she had absolutely no doubt
that the bitch would do it if she was unopposed.

Suddenly, she felt an arm coming around her neck again.  Damn!  Too
distracted...  She tried to pull forward but it was too late, she found
herself being pulled back by her neck once again.

The thug squeezed just hard enough to keep her restrained, and turned her
around.  Mulder had apparently spotted Marita as well, and had been just
distracted enough for someone to pin his arms behind his back.

Mulder was straining hard, but couldn't fight both the men who held him.
X looked at Scully, his eyes cold, "Now you'll see what you have to do to
succeed, Agent Scully..." The big man turned her back towards the fallen
body of Krycek.

Scully squirmed, trying to work her way out of the big man's arms, but to
no avail.  She was forced to watch as Marita took up a position behind
Allard, got a look of intense concentration on her face, and prepared to
move her hands towards his neck.

"Damn you!" Mulder yelled at X in frustration.

"Too late." X replied, eyes fixed on Marita as her hands moved down
towards Allard, who, with a slightly disgusted look on his face, was
sticking his hand into Krycek's boot, looking for the disk.

Scully closed her eyes, unable to watch.  But instead of hearing Allard
cry out, she heard Marita scream.  The man holding Scully, dropped her.
She fell to one knee, eyes springing open just in time to see Marita fall
to the ground, a knife in her back.  Her body disappeared in a cloud of
dust.

Just as Marita fell, Allard pulled the disk out of Krycek's boot, and
started to examine it.

A curse of frustration came from X.  Scully turned to look at him, as he
faded out of sight.  Looking around, she saw that all of Hell's minions
were disappearing. Finally, only Mulder and Scully remained on their own
plane of existence.

Mulder came forward and helped her to her feet.  "What was that?" she
asked, rubbing her neck.

When he didn't answer, she looked at him, frowning.  His eyes were fixed
on a spot over her shoulder.  Slowly, she turned around, not knowing what
to expect.

"Hello, Agent Scully."

Scully's eyes widened, "Deep Throat???"

The informant smiled gently, "Call me John." He said.

"How...  What..." she shook her head, "Aren't you... one of..."

He chuckled, "Yes, I am one of them."  He said, "And I'm doubtless going
to get punished for this."

"Why did you..."

"Don't take offense here, Agent Scully, but it wasn't for you." He
gestured to Krycek, who was now being attended to by two just-arrived
medics, "It was for Alex."

Mulder finally managed to pull himself out of his astonished trance, "For
Krycek?"

"I owed it to him to try to help him achieve salvation." His eyes fixed on
Krycek, "It was the least I could do for a man whose life was nearly
damned because of me."

"You?" this still hadn't quite registered with Mulder yet, "How..."

"Suffice it to say that if not for me, he would most certainly not have
joined the Consortium."  He paused, seeming to listen behind him... "I've
got to go.  They've just discovered my little betrayal." A resigned smile
rested on his lips as he began to fade away, "You've given me the chance
to save Alex.  Now we're even, Mulder..."  And with that he disappeared.

Mulder and Scully stared after him.  It was a long moment before either of
them spoke.  "That was a miracle." Said Scully finally.  Mulder just
nodded, hugging her to him.

They watched as Hesse walked back into the picture, he shook his head,
indicating he hadn't caught Krycek's assailant, and watched as the medics
loaded the unconcious man into the ambulance.

Hesse went to stand next to Allard, who was still examining the credit
card. "What's that, Al?" he asked, looking at the card, "You take the
guy's American Express before the ambulance got here?"

"Joe," said Allard, "I think that guy just gave us the what we need to
bring the big boys down."

Hesse watched as the ambulance disappeared. "Looks like he did it just in
time too..."

Just then, the scene in front of Mulder and Scully began to change.  The
grimy street in Washington D.C. was gradually replaced with the vividly
green grass of the bluff that overlooked Death Valley.

When the Valley had coalesced completely below them, they saw that
Pendrell was standing there waiting for them.

He was smiling, "You made it." He sounded more than a little relieved.

Mulder, despite the struggle they'd had to go through to achieve their
mission, grinned at Pendrell, "What? Did you doubt we would?"

Pendrell didn't answer, simply gave him a look that indicated that he knew
even Mulder wasn't sure at times.  "It's almost time for breakfast." He
said, pointing down at the Valley.  He spread out his wings and stepped
off the cliff, hovering there, looking back at them.

"Pendrell, we can't fly.  How..."  Scully was cut off as Pendrell snapped
his fingers.  She thought she heard a sound like a bell going off, and
then, suddenly, a feeling of absolute lightness overtook her.  She looked
over at Mulder, who was staring at her in wonder.

"Scully, they're beautiful!" he said, awestruck.

Scully looked over her shoulder, "Dear God..." she muttered as she saw the
two white feathered wings that were now attatched to her back.  She looked
back at Mulder and saw a pair appearing behind him as well.

They stood, staring at each other for a moment, before embracing, amazed
and happy.

Pendrell smiled, watching the two of them react to their gifts.  After a
moment, they parted, and Pendrell cocked his head towards the valley,
"They should be waking up pretty soon.  Let's go show them your wings."

Mulder took Scully's hand and they both stepped off the cliff at the same
time, unfurling their wings and experiencing the exhilaration of first
flight. Together.

****

EPILOGUE

The Valley
July 7

Alex Krycek frowned.  The last thing he remembered, he'd been telling
Allard where to find the card.  Where was he?

He was standing on the edge of a bluff above an incredibly lush valley.
The grass beneath his feet was incredibly green. In the distance he could
see a beautiful lake, and beyond that a gorgeous mountain range, sparkling
in the brilliant afternoon sun.

He still wasn't sure exactly where he was, remembering his long-ago Bible
lessons about the devil and his minions assuming a pleasing shape.  And
then, he felt a sensation that he hadn't felt for thirty years.  He had
two arms!

His eyes opened wide as he looked down at his left arm.  He flexed it,
moved his fingers one by one, squeezed them into a fist, opened them.
Tears began to form as he realized with un-bounded joy that he was exactly
where he'd wanted to be.  "Thank you, God..." he breathed as he moved his
arm some more.

"Well, if that isn't the most encouraging thing we've heard from you for a
while."

Krycek turned around, recognizing the voice, "Scully!  I'm here!" his
voice was full of an almost child-like wonder, "I'm finally here."

Scully nodded, "And now you've got to earn the right to stay here, and
prove to us that we didn't make a mistake by helping you."

"I will." Krycek looked up, half-smiling, "I swear to God I will."

Scully smiled a little, "So, did you want to visit your family?"

He looked out over the Valley, "I don't think I'd mind that at all."

"Then let's go."

Before he could react, she took his hand, and took a running start off the
cliff.  Krycek was about to ask her what she thought she was doing, when
he realized they were floating through the air.  He looked over at Scully
and noticed her wings for the first time.

"Those are beautiful," he said, transfixed, "Why don't I have a pair of those?"

"You have to earn them."

"How do I do that?"

A mysterious smile appeared on Scully's face, "You'll find out soon
enough."

THE END

****

Whew. I was so thrilled to be finishing my first atxc story, I even
spelled-checked this chapter!  Now I can get back to doing school work...

So, what do you think?  Sappy, crappy, just plain wonderful?  I'm looking
forward to hearing from all you people who had the fortitude to make it
through the whole thing. And I'd also like to know if any of you would
like to see more of Mulder and Scully: Angels on a Mission.

Apologies to Mac owners for the cheap shot (if you even noticed it).  I
just wasn't big enough to resist it...

That was actually pretty fun.  I may do it again...

"College would be pretty cool if it wasn't for all these damned classes"
                                -Every College Student... Ever