Title: Nights of Shining Armor
Author: Gina Rain (ginarain@aol.com)
Rating: R
Category: Casefile, MSR
Spoiler: Nothing specific. Takes place season 7-ish.
Summary: A tale of shared dreams, fractured fairy tales and great
expectations gone awry. In short, Mulder and Scully investigate a
serial kidnapping case.
Disclaimer: These characters are not mine. They belong to CC and Co.
Special thanks to: Sybil. In addition to having endless patience with
my sentence fragments, dashes and ellipses, she also makes some damn
fine catches. She's a great beta, my biggest cheerleader and keeps me
excited about writing. That's a pretty big challenge she meets
beautifully and, for that, I thank her very, very much.
Part 1
XXXXX
Rescue me
Oh take me in your arms
Rescue me
I want your tender charms
'Coz I'm lonely and I'm blue
I need you and your love too
Come on and rescue me
(Rescue Me, Aretha Franklin)
XXXXX
August 19, 1999
Scarsdale, NY
To: Lawrence@tempetko.com
From: BronxBoy64@msq.com
Subject: Please say you will
Dear Jessie,
I hope I’m reaching the right person. Actually, I’m pretty sure I am.
Your aunt told me where you worked. In case you didn't notice, they sat
me right next to the charming lady at Mike and Wanda's wedding
reception. After that, it was a simple matter of bribing the right
people to get your email address . Actually, as you well know, you
are listed in your company's on-line directory.
It was so good to see you that day, even though I spent far more time
getting reacquainted with your aunt than you. But, that’s the way
weddings go. You bridesmaids have to spend time with that pesky woman
in white!
At the very least, I was happy I had the chance to say hello. And
flattered you remembered me after all these years. Time and tide waits
for no man and the years have not been especially kind to me, but I
found you just as lovely and fresh as the last time I had seen you even
though two decades (gulp) have passed.
So, does this mean that I am after your obvious discovery of the
Fountain of Youth? No. I'm afraid it's too late for me. I merely would
like to sincerely request the pleasure of your cyber-company. It’s been
so easy to lose touch with our childhood buddies and I would very much
like to catch up with someone from the “old neighborhood.” No one in my
current circle of friends/acquaintances understands what it was like in
the 60's when a neighborhood really was a collection of people who knew
and liked each other. It would be nice to reminisce.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Your friend,
Todd
After reading the strange email, Jessica closed her eyes and tried to
remember Todd as a child. He was five years younger than she was and a
cute, pudgy, shy kid. That was about all she could remember. The man
she briefly met again at her cousin's wedding was a really big guy she
never would have recognized if Wanda hadn't muttered his name to her as
he was walking in their direction.
She was probably 14 or 15 when his family moved. Her family stayed. Way
too long. Way past the point of good sense.
Jessica shuddered a bit. The neighborhood had gone down so quickly.
But, at one time, it had been wonderful. It truly had. And Todd had
been a part of it all.
What was the harm in reminiscing, anyway?
To:BronxBoy64@msq.com
From: Lawrence@tempetco.com
Re: Please say you will…
Dear Todd:
Sure. I’d love to catch up on old times...
XXXXX
November 17, 1999
Hoover Building
The day after the first time they made love, Scully found herself
staring at Mulder across the room. Those lips had been on her face, her
eyes, her mouth. She tried to remember their exact texture, recall the
exact pressure against her skin. She touched her own lips lightly. She
would never quite view her body in exactly the same way. It was now a
roadmap: this is where he kissed her first, this is where he touched
her and she gasped, this is where he laid his head after they were
done.
She hadn't realized she had closed her eyes until she opened them and
found him staring at her with the smallest, shyest of smiles. There
would be no smirking today. That much she knew. Loving Mulder, really
loving Mulder, was going to be even more of an adventure than the one
they had already been on. The man never did anything that meant
something to him without total commitment. She'd be in for the ride of
her life.
XXXXX
November 29, 1999
Hazelton, MO
Smoke.
The urge to laugh was almost overwhelming. It literally hurt when she
swallowed the sound as it tried to escape from her throat, but she knew
it was only a manifestation of the hysterical panic she felt. If she
gave in, she was finished.
Up until this moment, she would have sworn the worst thing that ever
happened to her was waking up in this strange room as an obvious victim
of kidnapping. Apparently, one should never make such definitive
assertions. Fate tends to take them as a challenge and set the bar
higher. She was now trapped in a fire with no means of escape.
Kidnapping *and* being trapped in her worst nightmare was definitely
worse than just a plain old abduction.
More and more smoke was coming in under the door, and she knew she had
to stop thinking and start acting. She looked around the windowless
room. The only furnishings were a single bed, and a night table
containing a couple of gallons of bottled water and bags of assorted
snack foods.
She knew she should touch the door. See how hot it felt. Maybe it had
miraculously been unlocked since the last time she checked. She should
check again. She should.
She should stop the rising panic and get up and do something but she
wasn't sure if, as in her dreams, her feet could move.
She took a deep breath of thick smoke. The door wasn’t hot but it was
still locked.
She returned to the other side of the room and took off the bedding.
She wadded up the sheets and stuffed it under the door, as far as the
tight space would allow. She pulled off the pillowcase and poured some
water on it. She couldn't remember the rationale behind it, but felt it
was the right thing to do. She put it up to her face and lay flat on
the floor in the furthest corner of the room.
Who was she kidding? At most, this would only buy her a few more
moments of life.
A few more minutes.
"Our Father,
Who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy Name . . . "
The door burst open. A large man stood in the doorway. For a moment, he
was a silhouette against the smoke-filled room. She didn't know whether
to laugh or cry. Perhaps Fate had turned nastier and he was actually
the kidnapper. Maybe he wanted the pleasure of killing her off himself.
He approached her and she brought her legs up in a fetal position.
He held out his hand. "Don't be scared. I'm going to get you out of
here."
Something about his face reassured her. She knew he could save her.
She took hold of the hand he offered, got to her feet and offered no
resistance when he scooped her up in his arms and carried her out of
her prison.
XXXXX
[continued in next message]
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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