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