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members only. Any further distribution of this work without the author's 
consent is in violation of federal law.
Please contact the EMXC host, Karen Enriquez (XFC SciNut@aol.com), 
if you have recieved this work from anywhere other than the above group 
without the author's permission.

Legal thingies:  All characters etc, etc belong to Chris Carter, etc. etc.
and no copyright infringement is intended, etc, etc but is happening
because I can't exactly contact him to ask if it's okay to use his
characters in my story.  There I have said my piece.

Author's note:  This is for Gillian W. (XGillian@aol.com) who dared to ask
the question "Who would give his or her life for Samantha's return?" in her
wonderful work called "The Trade".


Crossroads  
By Amber Kelsall (EnglishYew@aol.com)


     Special Agent Scully turned on her computer screen and preceeded to
check her email for the day.  She had done it many times before, but there
seemed to be something different.  She knew exactly what it was as soon as
she read the first lines of her only message.
     TO:  Dana Scully
     FROM:
     ATTACHED FILE:  OPB.TXT      

     Download the file attached.  Trying to save it will only trigger a
virus to erase this
     information.
     
     Scully moved the mouse and downloaded the file as she had been
instructed.  When the computer had finished, she printed out a copy.  
     It said simply:  Watergate Hotel Parking Lot   9:24 pm
     The message immediately reminded her of her partner, Agent Fox
Mulder.  She had called a meeting like this before, she figured that he
had some information that was a bit more sensitive than most of the
information they usually aquired.  
     She checked her watch, it read 8 o'clock.  She had just enough time
to make sure that no one would follow her.  Scully grabbed her coat and
headed out the door.

XXX

     Scully turned as she heard the echoes of footsteps in the garage.  To
her surprise, it was not Mulder's face that she turned to.
     "What the hell are you trying to pull?"  Scully reached for her gun.
     "I suggest that you don't do that, Agent Scully."  The mysterious man
that she knew only as 'X' stepped from the shadows.
     "Why not?"  Her hands were on the gun, her fingers ready to free it
from the belt holster.
     "We have important matters to discuss and guns are not part of it." 
He glanced nervously around the parking structure.  
     "And what might that be?"  Scully moved her hand from the holster,
but left the gun ready if she needed it.
     "I know that your partner is not in the city right now, but I also
know that this information cannot wait."  He moved his left hand to show
Scully he was carrying documents.
     "What does this have to do with Mulder?"  Scully asked intrigued, yet
scared that she had been set up.  What kind of set up this man had devised
was something she could not fathom at the moment, but she knew that
something didn't feel right.  It was the same feeling that she had when
she had read the message on her computer earlier.
     He handed her the papers in his hands, and turned from her.  "Do with
this information what you will.  I will have no futher contact with you or
Agent Mulder from now on.  You two are on your own."
     She brought her blue eyes up from her hands and caught a glimpse of X
as he disappeared into the depths from which he had emerged.
     Scully took in a deep breath and let it out in a huff.  She flipped
the papers over in her hand and silently cursed the amount of reading he
had given her.  Realizing that the information she held may lead to
something important, she fished her keys from her coat pocket and headed
to her car.

XXX

     "Mulder."  Special Agent Fox Mulder answered his cellular phone.  
     "Mulder, it's me."  Scully's voice was a bit shaky.  "You need to
come home right away.  I recieved some information tonight that you need
to know about."
     "Well what is it, Scully?"  He asked, slightly annoyed.  Her call was
the last thing that he needed after his hard day.  It was 11:21 pm and he
needed to sleep.
     "I can't say over the phone, Mulder."  She knew he must be annoyed
with her.  She was calling fairly late.  "Just...come home."
     Scully hung up without another word.  Usually it was he that hung up
before she had the chance.  He felt that something was wrong.
     Mulder picked up the reciever to his hotel phone and dailed the
operator.
     "Operator."  Came the nasal response at the other end.
     "Yeah, This is Fox Mulder in room 212.  I need a ticket on the first
flight to Washington, D.C. in the morning."  He informed her.
     "Yes sir, we will be able to make a reservation for you."  The woman
answered.  "Have a good evening."
     Mulder hung up, and tossed over in his bed.  He just wasn't tired
anymore.  Scully never got shaky unless something was really wrong.  He
worried about her endlessly that night,  just as she was doing for him.  

XXX

     Mulder stepped off of the plane and was greeted by an agent he had
met once at an FBI debriefing.  Though he couldn't recall his name, he
knew the face.
     "Agent Mulder."  The man flashed his badge.  "Special Agent Paul
Johnson; Agent Scully sent me."
     Mulder's face tensed.  "Why didn't she come herself?"  
`     Paul set his hand on Mulder's shoulder and proceeded to lead him to
the baggage claim.  "She's had everyone on the run since 5 o'clock this
morning.  Skinner almost blew his top until he found out why."
     "And why is this happening?"  Mulder raised an eyebrow.  It had been
a long time since he had seen Scully take initiative.
     "Agent Scully wanted to tell you herself."  Johnson moved down the
stairs, attempting to keep pace with his companion.
     "So let's get my luggage and get out of here." 

XXX

     Mulder nearly took the door off of it's hinges as he entered the
office of the X-Files.  The office that he and Scully shared.
     He scanned the office to find his partner looking worn out and
dishevelled.  She was surrounded by several people, including Assistant
Director Walter Skinner, and they were all listening intensely.
     "What the hell is going on here. Scully?"  Mulder asked.  The stress
of not knowing this huge secret was finally taking its toll on him.
     "Mulder."  She turned to him, and those who had been gathered around
her headed for the door.  "I'm glad you're here.  We need to talk about
something very important."
     "So you've been saying."  Mulder headed for his desk.  "What is it?"
     Scully sat on the edge of his desk, as she often did as they
discussed cases.  But this was different.  She set the file of papers she
had recived from X on her lap.  "Mulder, before we get into this--"
     "Scully!"  Mulder interrupted her.  "Just tell me what's going on!"
     She sighed and opened the file.  "Mulder I recieved this file from
our favorite friend last night."
     She paused for a moment, only adding to Mulder's frustration. 
"Mulder, all the evidence checks out, he didn't hand me a lie..."
     Mulder took the file from her, and scanned over the pictures and
pages of information.
     "Mulder,"  he looked up at her, "we found your sister."
     His eyes grew wide.  "You know where she is?"
     "We think that we might have located her, but Mulder--"  Scully stood
up.
     "Well, where is she?"  Mulder sprung fom his chair and headed for the
door.  
     Scully blocked his path.  "Mulder you can't go there."
     "What do you mean I can't go there, Scully?"  Mulder stared her
down.  
     "I can't give you the address, it's part of the deal."  Scully told
him.
     "Oh, that's bullshit, Scully!"  Mulder fumed.
     "You son of a bitch!"  Scully yelled at him with an intenisity of
fire.  "I have worked so hard to help you find her and now you're yelling
at me because you want to ruin everything I have set up and risk her life
ending?!?"
     "What are you talking about?"  Mulder asked, voice still raised.
     The air was tense, but Scully was determined to calm down before she
answered him.  She had yelled out some harsh words that she was not
prepared to say again.  
     "Mulder."  She kept her voice steady.  "I've set up a trade.  If
anything breaks it, your sister will die."
     "What on earth are you taking about, Scully?"  Mulder lowered his
voice.  "Why would anyone want to hold my sister hostage?"
     "They claim that it's because she's an alien abductee."  Scully moved
from Mulder, wanting to keep her distance.  
     "And just who are 'they'?"  He asked, moving towards her, wanting
more information.
     "Mulder, all I can tell you is that we may know where she is." 
Scully guarded herself.  "I know that after all this time it's hard to be
kept out of the loop, but we don't even know if it's the same woman who
was profiled in those papers."
     He saw that she was pulling away from his advance and he stopped dead
in his tracks.  There was so much that she was keeping from him.  It hurt
that she was keeping secrets.
     Scully backed toward the opposite wall to her partner and settled
there. 
     "What else is there, Scully?"  He asked.  "What else aren't you
telling me?"
     "They refuse to speak with anyone else but me."  She told him.  
     He flinched at how coldly she uttered those words.  "What if it's a
setup?"
     "Then we have back up."  Scully told him.  "That's why Skinner and
some of our fellow agents were in here."
     "Why are you doing this, Scully?"  Mulder looked at her.
     She shifted under his gaze. She didn't like the way that he looked at
her now.  It was a look of loss and confusion.  They had worked together
for three years now; she thought that he would've known her better.
     "Because whoever this woman is, Mulder..."  She walked to the coat
rack and grabbed her overcoat.  "She doesn't deserve to die."
     Mulder watched as his partner turned to leave.  He wanted to stop her
from walking out the dorr, but couldn't bring himself to do it.  He felt as
if he were a coward.
     He was restless with anticipation of finding his sister.  He was
worried about his partner.  He hadn't realized until now exactly what she
had been doing for him.  He metally slapped himself for having yelled at
her, but there was so much emotion going through him that he couldn't hold
anything back.  He knew that she had been right.  He was acting like a jerk
and she had been planning everything for top safety.  
     She just wanted everyone to come out of this alive.

XXX

     Scully sat next to her sister's grave and watched the sunset.  
     "Missy, I admitted to myself that I was scared this afternoon."  She
talked into the air, hoping her sister would hear her.  "But I didn't
actually feel scared until now.  There's so much to tell everyone.  Mom,
our brothers...even Mulder.  God, especially Mulder.  I don't don't know
if you have felt it or not Missy, but lately Mulder's changed.  He's been
curt on the phone, hasn't been listening to anything that I try to tell
him...and then this last time, he went into the field without me.  Missy
I'm scared of that.  I'm scared that I've lost him."
     A lone tear made it's way down her cheek and onto the ground below. 
She sighed and continued.  "We have the chance to get his sister back.  I
mean, I hope that it's his sister.  I want him to be Mulder again and I
have the feeling that seeing his sister is the only thing that's going to
help him.  I know that I would do anything to have you back...I think that
he blames me for the death of that other woman.  He was so sure that she
was his sister; I wanted to believe that he had found what he was looking
for.  But I screwed up and end up in a hostage situation.  Missy how could
I screw up so badly?  Then when we went to New Mexico, and Mulder nearly
died.  All I did was sit at home and wait for something to happen, for
some sign that he was still alive.  I'm afraid that he's lost all respect
for me, and that's why I have to go through with this.  I have to get his
sister back for him, even if I die trying.
     "Missy, I love him.  He's my best friend, he's my partner...I need
his respect back."
     Scully moved to her feet, not realizing that the tears had begun to
flow unhindered.
     "I miss you, sis."  She reached to touch the headstone.  "And I love
you." 
     She turned to go, and ended up running into someone's chest
instead.  She stopped herself and looked up.  She immediately placed the
hazel eyes.
     "Mulder, go away."  She pulled away from him.
     "Scully, don't do this."  He grabbed her arm.
     She turned to face him, and ripped her arm from his grip.  "Don't do
what, Mulder?"
     "You know what I mean..."  He thrust his hand into his pockets.
     "I want you to say it, Mulder."  She wiped her gloved hands across
her face, finally realizing that she had been crying.  "I want you to stop
holding everything in...you're my best friend, Mulder.  You're supposed to
be able to say these things to me."
     Mulder stared at her.  He had heard everything she had been saying to
her sister's grave.  It made him realize exactly what he had been doing to
her in the past few months.  He had been treating her like dirt, and she
deserved so much better.  She was his best friend, his confidant.  He
wished that he could just explain that he hadn't been feeling like himself
since his father's death.  It had changed a lot between them.  He just kept
changing after she went back into the routine they had created before
people started dying.
     "Scully, I heard everything that you--"  He began.
     "Well?"  Scully interrupted.  "You heard what I said to my sister. 
What do you have to say to me?"
     "Scully...where do I start?"  Mulder began to pace a bit.
     "Do you blame me for losing that woman?"  Scully asked.  
     "No!  No, never!"  Mulder turned to her, taking her shoulders into
his hands.  "It was my fault...don't you understand?!?  It was ALL my
fault!"
     "Mulder, why have you been treating me so badly if you didn't blame
me for anything?"  Scully looked into his eyes, wanting to be sure of his
words.
     He did not disappoint her.  "Scully I have this fear...this fear that
you'll be taken from me too.  I came to the conclusion one night that I
couldn't get too close to you or they'd try to take you from me again.  I
hated it when you were gone.  I didn't sleep most nights...I had terrible
dreams about what they were doing to you.
     "I couldn't let that happen to you again, Scully.  You're my best
friend...you're my partner..."  His voice began to fail him.  There was so
much more that he wanted to say to her, but he couldn't form the words
together.
     Scully stared him down, waiting for answers.  She knew that her
partner wasn't a man who used a lot of words to express his emotions, but
somehow she was expecting more from him. 
     Mulder shifted from foot to foot trying to figure if he should dare
to spring into action. He finally rationalized that tomorrow she could be
dead.  Dead because she was going to risk herself for his sister.  
     "Um...Scully."  He wiped his palms on his pants.  They had begun to
sweat under the pressure he had put on himself.
     "What, Mulder?"  Scully became exasperated.  "I'm tired, I need to
get some sleep before tonight--"
     Mulder interrupted her with a kiss.  It was not something that she
had been expecting, but she welcomed it wholeheartedly.  She clutched to
him as her knees began to give out and Mulder wrapped his strong arms
around her waist to keep her standing.  
     They kissed with a passion that defied words.  So much tension had
built up as they worked together, so much had happened to the both of
them.  Scully trusted her partner with her life, and he trusted his with
her.  Scully needed to do this for her partner.
     The kiss broke, and Scully looked back into her partner's eyes.  "I
need to go home."
     "I took a cab.  Could I hitch a ride with you?"
     "Take me home, Mulder."  Scully let a small, faint smile cross her
lips.
     Fox simply nodded and led her toward the car.

XXX

     Scully had tossed and turned during her nap, but she had managed to
rest in spite of it.  She stood in the darkness of the Old Memorial
Bridge, and let the rain fall onto her hair.  Mulder stood next to her,
wondering what there was left to say.  
     "I asked myself once, who would be willing to trade their life for
Samantha's."  Mulder confessed.  "I never dreamed that I might have to
give you up to get her back."
     "Look, Mulder."  She turned to him.  "I know what you're going to
say, and I just want you to know that you don't have to say it."
     "No, Scully, that's just it.  I do have to say it.  I have to ask you
why you're so willing to do this."
     Scully turned to him and looked at him with the eyes of an
innocent.  It was a look that told him she knew she was going to die. 
"Because I love you."
     Mulder had no time to answer as a non-descript white van pulled near
the other side of the bridge and Scully knew it was time to jump into
action.  
     She pulled the walkie talkie to her mouth and spoke.  "It's showtime,
boys."
     Mulder rushed to take his place next to Skinner on an embankment just
beneath the bridge.  He was brought back to the memories of losing the
alien clone that he had mistakenly thought was his sister.  Now he was so
close to getting Samantha back.  Even Scully thought it was Sam, and she
always had doubts about everything.
     A man jumped out of the back of the van and held his hand out to a
woman of about thirty.  She had dishwater blonde hair.  As the two figures
moved toward her, Scully pulled the walkie talkie to her mouth again.
     "Is everyone ready?"  
     They had planned it all down to the last detail.  She was to trade
herself for 'Samantha', then the FBI would close in, making sure that a
gun was tight on her captor if anything went wrong.
     "Scully, don't take any unnessecary chances out there."  Skinner
warned.
     "Yes, sir."  She answered.
     The two figures came to a halt, just a few steps away from her.
     "Where's Mulder?"  The man asked.
     "We agreed it was Samantha for me."  Scully answered.
     "Ah, yes."  He pushed the woman toward Scully.  "I remember now. 
Come here."
     Scully waited for Samantha to move toward her before she stepped into
action.  Her footsteps echoed on the pavement like a death march.  The
young woman ran past Scully and off of the bridge.  She ran straight into
an FBI agent, who ushered her to Mulder.
     The man grabbed Scully by the collar and attempted to drag her back
to the van.  She knew that this was not part of the plan, so she decided
to change it.
     Scully punched her would-be captor square in the face, and he almost
fell back.  "Why you little.."
     She quickly kicked the gun out of her aggressor's hand and kicked in
his knee.  She turned to flee, wanting anything but to be where she was.
     Two more men exited the van and ran toward the scene, guns pointed at
her head.  "Come with us."
     Scully moved toward them, not knowing what to expect.  They walked
her toward the van while she kept her view on the river that flowed
beneath them.
     "No, Scully, don't even think it."  Mulder whispered beneath his
breath.
     She looked toward the van, assured that it meant certain death for
her.  She looked back at her fellow agents who were supposed to be
shooting these men.
     "Shoot when you're clear."  Skinner ordered.
     "We can't get a clean shot, sir."  One gunman spoke.  "If we fire,
we'll hit Agent Scully."
     "Fire when you get the chance."  Skinner repeated himself.  He hated
feeling this helpless.  Trades like these never had happy endings.  At
least, not in Skinner's experiences.
     Scully made the descision, and knew what the possible outcomes might
be.  She climbed onto the railing of the bridge and jumped.
     "SCULLY!!"   She heard her partner yell as he soared through the air.
 
XXX

     Mulder walked in to his partner's hospital room and stopped when he
caught a glimpse of her mother sitting next to her.  
     Margeret Scully turned to him and smiled.  "Come in, Fox.  Dana has
been asking for you."
     He walked toward the bed and took a look at Scully.  The bruises on
her face had still not disappeared, but she looked better than she had
when he pulled her from the river.  He had been relieved to find that she
had made it through.
     "You just don't give up, do you?"  Mulder tired to make her laugh.
     She snickered a bit.  "I never say die."
     There was a bit of a silence, almost uncomfortable.
     Margeret stood up and patted her daughter's hand.  "I need to get
something to eat, Dana.  I'll be back soon."
     Dana smiled as he mother left the room. 
     "How did everything turn out, Mulder?"  Dana asked.  "No one has told
me yet."
     "I know, I told them that I wanted to tell you myself."  Fox took a
seat at the edge of her bed.  "It's her, Scully.  It really her."
     "Are you sure?"  She asked.  He had been sure last time as well.
     "We ran tests, DNA tests, stuff like that."  Mulder assured her. 
"Samantha is finally home."
     "So where is she?"  Dana tried to look out the door, but saw only an
empty hallway.
     "She's at home with mom.  They both wanted to thank you, but they
want to wait until you're out of the hospital.  For now they send their
graditude."     
     Scully grimaced as she realized the inevitable was going to happen.  
     "What is it, Scully?"  
     "You're going to leave the X-Files now, aren't you?"  Her eyes began
to tear up.  "I mean, now that you found your sister, and those creeps
were apprehended, what else is there?"
     Mulder moved toward the head of the bed and grasped her hand in
his.  "There's still truths out there that we haven't begun to uncover,
Scully."
     "I'm glad to hear it..."  Scully stopped for a moment.  "Mulder, can
I call you Fox now?"
     He let out a breathy laugh and placed a kiss on her forehead.  "You
can call me anything you want."
     "So you wouldn't mind if I suddenly called you dearie?"  She mocked
him in her usual fashion.  "Or what about Pooky?...no, too close to
spooky....what about snookums?"
     "Scully..."  Mulder playfully warned.  
     "Just checking."  She smiled.
     

The End.