Socks

by Abree, CiCi Lean, Trillian, Odie and Shan Krug

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Chapter Five: Clover
by Abree
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"BRIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAANN!"

Alex Krycek stormed out of the kiev angrily. He felt tears start to well up in his eyes and he clutched the pair of scissors in his hands tightly.

"You!" he screamed in Russian, grabbing the nearest guard by the shirt. "What happened to Brian?"

The man looked down nervously at the scissors in Alex's hands. "You should be holding those by the blade," he whispered.

"I'll do no such thing!" Alex roared, raising the gleaming blades above his head. "Now where did he go???"

Guards and prisoners alike stood silently, staring at the crazy man with scissors. Another man approached lightly, fearful. "Please. He escaped in a mad rage, brandishing a pencil and endangering the lives of all of us. Please - "

Alex jabbed down once with the scissors, causing both men to duck and wince. "Which way did he go?" he asked, his voice deadly.

Both men pointed to the north, where a path had obviously been trampled and the trees were riddled with bullet holes. Alex glanced towards the path, back at the men, and began to run.

"WAIT!" shrieked the man he had released. "Don't run with scissors! You'll kill yourself!"

"That's a chance I have to take!" Alex screamed, sprinting into the forest madly.

"BRIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAANN!"

*****

"Alex..."

Brian Pendrell whimpered as the beavers formed a circle around his shivering body. The leader of the pack, a large beaver the size of Brian's torso, walked forward brazenly and prodded Brian's belly with his nose.

Brian shrieked and tried to back away. He looked around for his pencil, but it was too late. Three beavers were hissing at each other, each trying to lay claim on the bright yellow wood. The lead beaver made a hissing noise and the entire pack began to move closer.

Brian howled and jumped to his feet. "You - you - you're nothing but a pack of cards - er, beavers!" he screamed. "I'm not afraid of you! I faced down killers, whips, and a man-devouring clone! A bunch of beavers aren't going to - "

The lead beaver ambled forward and gave Brian's exposed calf a lick. Brian shrieked and took off into the heart of the forest like a rocket.

He ran aimlessly, stumbling but never quite falling. Finally, after ten minutes, his foot caught a tree root and he fell face first to the ground.

Brian flipped onto his back and looked around in a panic. He could hear the faint howls of the beavers in the distance, but they hadn't pursued. He breathed heavily, laying back in the cool soil. As soon as he had calmed down, he noticed something laying by his head.

Brian reached over and picked a small four-leaf clover. "That's odd," he murmured to himself. "I didn't know clover grew in Russia." Then again, he added, he hadn't known that wild beavers roamed the countryside in Russia either.

He glanced at the clover and carefully enclosed it in his palm. Four-leaf clovers meant good luck, right? He glanced around the dark and dismal forest and suddenly wished he were with Alex.

"No," he muttered violently. Alex had betrayed him. The mysterious man whom he had never met before had told him that. But why shouldn't he believe the man? It all sounded so plausible...that dumb "goober" nickname...the nonstop flight...Alex's complaints about stopovers...talking "socks" with their guard...

Socks? Brian jumped. That was it! Alex had told him that he purposely scheduled flights with longish stopovers since it gave him time to check out the sock selections in the airport gift shop. "The sock selections in the D.C. area have gotten so drab," Alex had confided.

Then - the mysterious man whom he had never met before was a liar! Brian's heart jumped into his throat and he stood up within an instant.

"ALEXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX!"

*****

"Nice beaver," Alex whispered. "Nice beaver."

He stood stock still in the area where Brian had lain only minutes ago. His new workboots were muddied and his scissors were rusting in the cool drizzle of the forest. The beavers had scurried around him immediately, the lead beaver running the show.

Alex held the scissors by the handle, considering. He watched suspiciously as the lead beaver walked up and gave his skin a slow, lingering lick.

"Ick," Alex muttered, taking a step away. The beaver considered, hissed once more at his group, and they began to move away.

Alex breathed a sigh of relief and began to walk to the east. The hiss of the beaver caused him to turn and stare in surprise.

The group of beavers had formed a small path, perfectly outlining a haphazard broken path made by a running man. "Brian," he breathed. He tossed the scissors down and began to run.

"Brian," he panted. "Brian! BRIAN!"

*****

Brian glanced up at the sound of his name. "Alex?"

"Brian!" came the exuberent shout.

"Alex!" he screamed. "Where are you?"

After a moment, Alex came plowing through the underbrush. He barreled straight into Brian, who fell over and knocked his forehead on a tree root. Brian moaned and laid back.

"Er, sorry," Alex apologized. He ruffled Brian's hair. "Want me to kiss it and make it all better?"

Brian's eyes went wide. "Would you?"

"If you tell me why you left me that note and ran."

Brian winced. "Well, there was this guy in the cell next to us - "

"The one who kept saying 'Americanski'?" Alex asked.

Brian's eyes lit up. "Yeah! Anyway, he told me you told the guard that you wanted to - ditch me."

Alex's eyes narrowed. "He told you that? And you believed him?"

"It was so convincing!" Brian protested. "He said you called me a goober and everything!"

Alex sighed. "But - ?"

"But he also said you thought stopovers were hell, and I remembered you telling me that you enjoyed them..." Brian trailed off as Alex pressed his lips against the bump on his forehead. After a few moments, Alex broke away and looked down at Brian.

"Okay, again, but lower," Brian whispered, his eyes closed.

Alex was happy to comply. He leaned down, an involuntary smile spreading across his face. He never expected to finish their "discussion" in a forest in Russia, but he wouldn't be picky.

"Ahem."

A burly hand on his shoulder lifted him straight off the ground - and Brian. Alex made a low keening sound of frustration and glanced over.

"Uh..." Brian had his eyes open and was slowly crawling away. "I'm probably just going crazy, but - "

"Jean-Claude Van Damme?" they both asked in unison.

Jean-Claude looked confused for a moment. "Oh!" His form quickly shimmered into the familiar blond form of Beverly Garland.

"Martine!" growled Alex. "How the hell did you - "

"Cool it," she snapped. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to walk through the forest in these damn things?" She gestured to her once-impressive moccasins, which were now badly stained with mud.

Brian glanced at the ruins and shivered. "Look, Martine," he said tiredly, "I really don't think any of this is going to work out."

"What? What?" She stormed up to him, placing one moccasin-clad foot on his chest. "Loverboy over here in his cheap Russian workboots is more of a turn-on than me?"

"Well..."

"WHAT?" Martine shrieked. "What are you SAYING? I can be whoever you want me to be! I can be Scully! I can be Demi Moore! For the love of God, I can be HIM if you want me to be!" She briefly shimmered and turned into a carbon copy of Alex, down to the muddy boots. After a moment, two arms popped through the jacket's sleeves. "Hell, I can be BETTER than what he is!"

"Bitch," spat Alex.

Martine shimmered back to her normal form. "And don't think I'm going to put up with much more of your crap, Krycek. I - "

She paused. For a moment, the only sound was a strangely familiar hissing.

A swarm of beavers stampeded by, directly where Martine was standing. There were hundreds of them, brushing against her legs and stepping on her toes. With a gutteral hiss, the lead beaver ran forward and smashed into her leg with all the force he could muster.

Martine shrieked and tripped. She fell onto the sea of beavers, which quickly stampeded off, carrying her screaming form away.

As the animals pattered into the distance, a calm silence fell over the forest. Brian slowly got to his feet, still clutching the clover protectively. Alex stared at the trampled pathway in amazement.

"FREEZE!"

The clover fluttered out of Brian's hand and sank into the mud. Automatically, both Alex and Brian froze and kept their hands in sight.

Out of the corner of his eye, Alex saw a brown-haired man advancing on them. He slowly turned his head.

"Mulder?"

"Funny running into you two here," Mulder spat. "Sorry, boys. Looks like your luck's run out."

Brian and Alex both sighed. Mulder trained the gun on him. "I'm sure Skinner and Scully will be thrilled to hear you're safe and sound in Russia."

Alex flushed. "What're the odds that the beavers will come back for a repeat performance?"

Brian looked down at the clover slowly being sucked into the mud.

"About the same odds that we'll get that motel room anytime soon," Brian whispered back.

He paused.

"By the way, nice boots."

****