X-Files Fanfiction "TrustNo1" - Part 1

“Find anything yet?” Dana Scully asked as she stood from the stack of papers she had been looking through. 

Similar stacks were piled in various places on the floor and desk of Mulder's office, where he stored all of the information he had ever collected about things that could possibly be related to the X-Files. After many years of researching and collecting – possibly even obsessing – it had become a sort of information disaster area.

“No,” Mulder replied passively, waving his hand in the air and tossing some papers aside, too caught up in trying to find the documentation they were looking for to really pay attention to what his FBI partner was saying.

“Mulder, this place is like the Bermuda Triangle for paperwork. How are we supposed to find anything on a certain topic when there's no filing system or method of organization?” The woman's red hair was slightly frazzled, and she ran a hand through it before sitting in the desk chair. She tilted her head upward in exasperation, only to notice the collection of pencils sticking graphite-first into the ceiling. Unbelievable.

“Mm?” Mulder looked up from skimming through a notebook he had kept. “Oh, the Bermuda Triangle? There's some files on it over... there.” He gestured vaguely toward where a particularly messy stack of papers lay on the floor.

Sighing heavily, Scully pressed her cool fingertips to her temples and massaged, finding some comfort in the fact that they had more time than usual to determine the cause of death for this particular victim. The homicide unit already had a few suspects in custody and ready for questioning, and hopefully they would draw conclusions from that before any further action on the part of “Spooky” Fox Mulder and herself was needed.

They were looking for information pertaining to cases of blunt-force trauma without any found weapon – apparently, at some point, Mulder had worked on a case with similar specifics, and was convinced that the victim they had been presented with this morning was somehow connected. To say that Scully was unconvinced would be an understatement.

“How do you know this man's killer didn't just walk off with the weapon?” The redheaded woman folded her arms across her chest and looked at her partner, one brow raised. He had all the time in the world to search for information, but if the homicide unit didn't come across any leads in the next few minutes, they would be looking for authorization for her to do an autopsy. Maybe then they'd actually get somewhere.

“If the killer walked off with the weapon there would be fragments of it in the wounds on the victim's body,” Mulder reasoned, standing up and waving apparently significant papers in Dana's face. “I'll bet that when you autopsy that body you won't find a trace of any sort of weapon. Whoever killed this man did it with his bare hands.”

Having already taken a few quick glances at the body as it was being brought in, Scully knew instantly that causing that much damage to someone's skull was impossible without some sort of weapon.

“Nobody can cause those kinds of injuries with brute force and ignorance, Mulder, that man's skull was practically obliterated.”

Mulder, with his mousy brown hair and ever-searching hazel eyes, looked like he might have something witty in reply, but the chance to speak was cut short by Assistant Director Skinner knocking on the office door and entering.

“Agent Mulder,” Skinner acknowledged before turning and giving a nod to the agent at the desk. “Agent Scully.”

“Mister Skinner,” Mulder said, more mocking than office politics might have allowed. “How lovely of you to join us.”

The tone in his voice had Scully glaring daggers at him. It never ceased to amaze her how much the infamous Fox Mulder got away with at the Bureau.

Skinner's eyes rolled skyward for a moment and paused as he spotted the pencils that had been lodged in the ceiling. A heavy, defeated sigh bellowed from his lungs and he shook his head before continuing to speak: “I'd like to see you upstairs, if I could, Agent Scully? There has been a request to have the body autopsied for further evidence, and given your medical expertise and the... nature of the crime, I'd rather you handled the examination.”

With a nod, Scully followed Skinner out of the room.