From: kobiashimarux@gmail.com   
      
   TITLE: Fuoco Per Vita   
   AUTHOR: XSketch   
   RATING: PG   
   CLASSIFICATION: S, UST, (come on! when wasn't the show about UST?!),   
   MT, SC, mini-casefile, and a tiny smidgen of myth-arc and angst.   
   SPOILERS: Set early season 2 - pre-Sleepless - so anything up to   
   then is game for a passing reference.   
   SUMMARY: Not all freaks are bad, but they can still be very   
   dangerous - a lesson Mulder doesn't learn soon enough.   
   FEEDBACK: Adored and savored like a fine Chianti   
   DISCLAIMER: The X-Files and all characters associated with it remain   
   property of Chris Carter, Fox, 1013 etc.  ...In my dreams they're   
   all mine, mine, mine though - Bwahahahah!!!!!!!!! :)   
   ARCHIVE: Let me know where, and I'll let you know if.   
      
      
      
   "Scully, save me."   
      
   Three words that form a desperate plea and yet are oddly comedic   
   due to their rarity when it comes to passing his lips whine down the   
   phone line and make her already-heavy eyelids slip shut.   
      
   Two-thirty in the morning was really not the time for this!   
      
   "Scully?"   
      
   Her head shakes and free hand rises to wipe over her face, but   
   despite the sudden concern he's injected into his tone she doesn't   
   reply until another minute of silence has passed.  Technically,   
   they're no longer partners so his desperation to fill her in on   
   everything - especially at this time in the morning - is a complete   
   mystery ...Then again, *technically* the X-Files were shut down, but   
   she'd always known that that would never stop him, and when he'd   
   told her yesterday about his newest unofficial 'mutant hunt' she'd   
   been a long way from either surprised or prepared to try stop him.   
      
   "*Scully*? You there?"   
      
   "Yes, I'm here, Mulder - *wide* awake at half-two in the morning!"   
   She'd meant to make a joke of it, but it had come out as an   
   aggressive bark and she could almost see him in his car at the other   
   end of the line wincing.  "As for saving you, I'm sorry but you put   
   yourself there and it's no longer my job to watch your back."   
      
   Mulder shifted uncomfortably in his car seat.  She was right, of   
   course, but in the year and a half they'd been partners he'd felt a   
   closeness beyond explanation grow between them - a trust and   
   friendship he'd never imagined possible, especially with somebody   
   that had been sent to spy on him - and he didn't want to lose that   
   just because of the FBI's plan to break him.  He'd only mentioned   
   the lead he'd gotten on a report of Spontaneous Human Combustion   
   because of the hope she'd come with him to check it out...Do a stake-   
   out just like on their second encounter with Eugene Tooms.   
      
   He'd only phoned her now, despite knowing she'd be asleep, to hear   
   her voice and relieve his loneliness.   
      
   ...And, God, that sounded really pathetic!   
      
   "I'm sorry I woke you," he apologized sincerely - only briefly   
   turning his glance away from the house he'd been watching for the   
   past three hours to comb a hand through his thick, dark hair.  "I   
   just--"  'Just' what?  "Actually, don't worry about it...Go back to   
   sleep, Scully.  I'll see you in the offi--...I mean..."  Oh, crap.   
   She probably really did think he was a jackass now!  A crazy,   
   selfish jackass.  "I'm really sorry.  I'll catch you later."   
      
   His thumb was just reaching to disconnect the call, when she   
   suddenly started, "How's the stake-out?"  Sleepy and clearly still a   
   little frustrated, but at the same time, God bless her, she   
   actually, genuinely sounded interested!   
      
   "Cold, wet, uneventful and I could really do with a root beer."   
      
   Shifting to sit up against the headboard, Dana smiled and brushed   
   several errant strands of hair away from her face.  Their   
   unauthorized session of surveillance was still fairly fresh in her   
   memory, so the root beer joke was well understood, welcomed and   
   appreciated.  "Sorry, but I can't jump on the next plane to Georgia   
   - some of us have work we *are* supposed to be doing in a few hours   
   - so the root beer will have to wait," she chuckled.  "Seriously,   
   though, Mulder, what are you hoping to achieve by doing this?"   
      
   "What do you mean?"   
      
   "You know they won't re-open the X-Files even if you solve this.   
   A.D Skinner made no mention of the possibility after you solved the   
   Flukeman case, th--"   
      
   "*We* solved it."   
      
   "Whatever.  The fact is, if they didn't open them then they're   
   certainly not going to when they find out you've left your current   
   assignment in favor of a more personally enriching mutant hunt!"   
      
   Mulder nodded his head in acknowledgement to himself that what she'd   
   said was true.  Then again, if he were honest, he'd known that all   
   along, as well as the fact that there was likely nothing about the   
   fires and their victims construable as paranormal.   
      
   But that was far from being the point.   
      
   Whether the suspect was nothing more than a lowly pyromaniac   
   successfully leaving behind no trace evidence of his guilt or not,   
   Mulder knew he had a higher chance of wrapping up the case local law   
   enforcement had failed to all while breaking protocol and literally   
   demonstrating to the Powers That Be where to stick their stupid phone   
   -tap detail.   
      
   "You really don't know?" he eventually asked with a slight chuckle.   
   "Scully, you should know by now that I'm never gonna be ready to   
   roll over and do what they tell me to.  I'm never gonna fit in with   
   what they expect me to be, and anything they send my way to reel me   
   back in is only ever gonna make me rebel against it twice as much...   
   or embrace it and use it to my advantage..."  He was keeping fingers   
   crossed that she didn't misinterpret that addendum and think he was   
   only using her as an ally to spite their superiors.  "I can't just   
   sit back listening to wire taps all day - it'll drive me crazy, and   
   that won't get the X-Files back either."   
      
   "I know."  As her shoulders slumped in unavoidable defeat, Dana   
   shook her head and quietly repeated "I know" almost to herself.   
   "But you couldn't have dug up a more convincing X-File?  Besides   
   your fear of fire, we dealt with an arsonist before and it turned   
   out to be far from relating to spontaneous combustion...You couldn't   
   have found something a little more 'out there' or--"   
      
   "Spooky?"   
      
   Scully nodded, momentarily forgetting that he wasn't there to see   
   the gesture, and quickly replied, "Something like that, yeah."   
      
   "Wow: I've turned Special Agent Dana Katherine Scully to the dark   
   side!"   
      
   "Mul-der."   
      
   The cautionary tone already so indelibly etched in his brain made   
   any further quips quickly die in his throat.  "It was the only thing   
   I could find to follow," he finally conceded.  "All the mutants must   
   have gone on vacation.  Anyway, who said anything about spontaneous   
   human combustion?"   
      
   "Uh, that would have been you, Mulder."   
      
   "Me?  Oh, okay...Well, I may have been a bit off the mark on that   
   theory, but I'm not prepared to rule out all possibilities of   
   supernatural activity."   
      
   "Meaning?"   
      
   It was almost 2:45 in the morning, and he knew she had to be at   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)