Continuation of Te Duem
Mulder pov
May 29th, 1998, Lansing Beaumont, Michigan, 6:34 p.m.
Mulder opened his eyes to a bright, blinding light. As his eyes adjusted to the light he moved his hands beside him, resting them on something cool and hard.
As he recollected what had happened earlier that day in the abandoned house, he decided he must be in a hospital. And the cool, hard thing beneath his fingertips must be a bed rail.
He could just make out his surroundings. His room was that sterile hospital white that seemed to litter every hospital everywhere in the world. He had an IV hooked up to his wrist, and he was wearing a hideously ugly sky blue hospital gown. He pulled the gown up to look at the side of his leg that had been mysteriously sliced, noticing it had been promptly stitched up. He even counted each stitch.
The next thing Mulder noticed was how weak he felt. He knew it was normal to feel weak after something such as this, but he didn't just feel weak. He felt physically exhausted. As though he had just swam the length of three Olympic swimming pools, then hopped out and ran the ten miles.
Next thing Mulder knew the familiar click-clack of Scully's heels sounded as she entered the room, taking his mind off of his own exhaustion for a moment. He glanced up, meeting Scully's gaze as she waltzed in.
Scully stood by his bedside, clutching a few papers. "You suffered minor cuts and abrasions, a third degree burn on your back, and a moderate concussion," she said monotonously, sounding just like the doctor she was. "How're you feeling?" Scully had dark purple circles under her blue eyes, with her short titian hair pulled back messily into a ponytail sporting loose strands flying this way and that. She wasn't even wearing a spot of makeup - she was obviously tired.
"About like I just completed a triathlon," Mulder quipped. "Although you don't look too spry yourself," he added, nodding towards her. "What's with the papers?"
Scully dropped the papers on Mulder’s torso. He picked the batch up and looked through them briefly. As he did so, Scully said, "Another murder. The victim, Jayce Dost, was discovered in an alley beside a dance studio she went to in downtown Lansing. Not three miles from where the last victim supposedly was." Mulder handed Scully back the papers, which she filed neatly back in order. "Jayce Dost was found missing her arms and legs as well, just like the last victim."
Mulder thought for a moment, and attempted to sit upright a little. It wasn't until he tried this that he realized he had a pounding headache, and he lowered himself back down. "And this - Jayce - was she the same age as the last victim?"
Scully nodded. "Just turned sixteen a few weeks ago. Then killed just a week after her birthday." She shifted her weight back and forth. "You're due to get out of here tomorrow morning. So after you get discharged, we need to check it out."
~~~
May 30th, 1998, Lansing Michigan, 4:32 p.m.
"This is it? This is the murder sight? Seems a little 'out in the open' to me, especially for a seemingly 'disappearing' murderer," Mulder said, glancing down the alley. The alley was, in fact, part of a photography studio connected to the building the dance studio was in. It wasn't even an alley at all, it was a photographer's prop.
Scully sighed. "I guess the owner of Harrell Photography exaggerated some. Or I suppose a lot." She snapped off her latex glove after an unsuccessful search of the alley prop.
"We should check with the dance studio owner. You said Jayce Dost was a student at that studio," Mulder suggested, scratching the irritating burn on his back. "Besides, maybe the owner saw something Mr. Harrell didn't."
And so, Mulder and Scully entered the dance studio, Harriet's School of Dance, just a few moments later. Small children ran to and fro in pink tutus and ballet slippers, and Mulder couldn't help but chuckle.
"What do you say to a ballet lesson or two, Scully?" he joked as he knudged her side.
Scully rolled her eyes. "I tried ballet once when I was seven, Mulder. I hated it. Besides, these three year olds would probably be far better than you or I."
As the suited pair approached the front desk, they received a multitude of strange stares from young children and parents alike. One little blonde girl tripped over Mulder’s shoe, quickly standing back up and running off to be scolded by her mother to be more careful.
The woman behind the desk, blonde and middle aged, was on the phone when Mulder and Scully had approached. She held up one finger to tell the pair it would be a minute, and they waited patiently. When she placed the phone down, she smiled and said, "And what can I do for you? Are you the couple here to sign your daughter up for pre-tap? Here's a class schedule for you." She handed a piece of paper to Mulder.
Caught off guard for being an assumed couple, Mulder stuttered, "Oh, um, we're not a couple, no. I'm Age-"
The woman seemed horrified with herself. She clasped a hand over her mouth and said, "You're not the Lachers. . . Oh my God, I'm so sorry."
Mulder, simply out of curiousity, placed his glasses on and read over the schedule. Scully calmed the owner down, saying, "Really, it's all right," with a smile.
Mulder checked over his shoulder to make sure they were not holding up a line before fumbling in his breast pocket for his badge. He flipped it open as Scully did the same and said quietly, "I'm Special Agent Fox Mulder and this is my partner Special Agent Dana Scully. We're with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and we were wondering if we could ask you a few questions about a murder that occured near here."
The woman's eyes widened with horror. "Am I under suspicion?" she inquired in a half whisper, her voice quavering.
"No M'am, not at all," Scully said as she and Mulder closed their badges and placed them away. "We just nee-"
"Miss Harriet!" a small voice squealed from behind Mulder. "Are you coming?"
"Miss" Harriet leaned over the front desk. "Yes, Byralise. Just a moment." She glanced back to Mulder and Scully.
"M'am, we can wait," Mulder insisted. "I think your class is looking for you, after all," he continued with a laugh.
Harriet sighed in relief. "Thank you, I'm so sorry," she said, rushing off after the twinkle toes.
"Besides, I think it's time we talk to a few of Jayce's friends," Mulder whispered to Scully, nodding towards the back of the studio where teenage voices could be heard.
The sign on the door said "Girl's Dressing Room." Mulder glanced at Scully warily before he raised a fist and knocked twice.
A teenage girl's voice called out, "Come in!" after a fit of giggles. Scully twisted the door handle and pushed the door open just a crack, checking to see that no girls were changing before opening the door any further.
No girls appeared to be changing, apparently. Scully stepped through the door, closing it behind her. Mulder heard her muffled voice through the door say, "My partner is waiting outside, and I was hoping to have a word with him away from all of the parents. Do you mind if I bring him in?" None of the girls questioned Scully's motives. However, Mulder also heard one of the girls inquire, "Is he hot?" before being shushed by her friends.
The door swung inward and Mulder stepped into the room cautiously. It was, after all, a girl's dressing room. He smiled politely as he entered the room, shutting the door behind him.
It was a fairly small room. The walls were a dark, yet bright purple and a large cubby system rested just to the left of the door. Benches rested against each wall, and a large table with four chairs stood beside the cubbies.
The girls whispered amongst themselves, sneaking glances at Mulder every once in a while. He pretended not to notice, but couldn't help but wonder if his presence was making them uncomfortable or intriguing them.
As Mulder was inspecting the cubbies, Scully turned asked the girls, "Do any of you girls know a student here named Jayce Dost?"
The four girls immediately hushed and a grave air flitted about the room. "Yeah, why?" one of the girls inquired. "And why do you care anyway? If it's about that, her story was all over the news already."
"Carol, be nice!" one of the other, seemingly mild-mannered girls, said.
"What?" the other girl shrugged. "They're probably just being nosy."
Mulder, having had enough, pulled his badge out once more and flipped it open. "Special Agent Fox Mulder and Special Agent Dana Scully, FBI. We're investigating your friend's murder, or more specifically trying to find her murderer," he said, flipping his badge shut and placing it away. He pushed his glasses back up onto the bridge of his nose and continued, "We were hoping you might have heard something."
"Holy hot glasses," one of the girls mumbled.
The girls seemed stunned. The mild-mannered brunette spoke up, saying. "Oh, well I'm Makayla. This is Daniella, Nikki, and this is Caroline. We'd, uh, we'd be happy to help you guys," she said, gesturing to her friends.
"I mean, we didn't talk to Jayce a whole lot," Daniella said. "So I don't know how much of a help we'll be."
Scully grinned. "Any help is useful," she said. "Do you know of any enemies Jayce may have had, anyone who didn't like her?"
The girls exchanged looks, shaking their heads. "No, pretty much everybody liked Jayce. She was one of those people you couldn't not like," Makayla said.
Mulder smirked. Double negative, he thought. "The other victim was a young girl named Lauren Sormsby. Did she have any kind of relation with Jayce that you know of?" he inquired. The now healing burn on his back began to burn once more, and he scratched at his back awkwardly.
"Yeah, Lauren was one of her close friends," Nikki said, eyeing Mulder questioningly as he scratched his back.
Scully raised an eyebrow. "Did Jayce have any other close friends?" she inquired.
"No, not really," Daniella said, twirling a piece of her blonde hair. "I mean, we're all her friends but, like, we're not her close friends."
Mulder nodded, satisfied with his answers. He slipped his fingers around his wallet, pulling it from its place in his back pocket. He pulled out one of his business cards, issued to him to administer to people who may have further information. He handed the small, white card to Makayla, being that she seemed the most level-headed.
"Thank you, girls. If you think of anything else, give me a call." he said. Scully glanced at Mulder, confused. Mulder, picking up on her confusion, said in a low voice, "I need to use the restroom. You can stay here and keep talking to the girls." Scully simply nodded, and he could tell she was greatly restraining herself from asking why.
Nikki muttered jokingly, "Oh, I'll be calling all right," and her friends, giggling madly, hushed her. Mulder, having not heard her, made his way towards the door. His back was burning so badly that he was desperate to get some water on it.
He stepped out of the dressing room, so desperately in search of a bathroom he left the door open. There were so many closed doors, but he couldn't tell if any were bathrooms. There was no sign indicating a bathroom anywhere, so he trudged back up to the front desk.
A different woman sat behind the desk this time. When Mulder approached, she glanced up from a book she was writing in. "Can I help you, sir?" she said with a friendly smile.
Mulder, suddenly feeling overheated, wiped his forehead. He was sweating profusely, and his burning back wasn't helping. "Uh, yeah. Could you. . . Could you tell me where the restrooms are located?" His stomach began to churn and he felt extremely nauseous.
"First two doors down that hallway," she pointed, "and to the right. You're looking a little pale - would you like a bottle of water?" She immediately opened a small refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water.
"Oh, um, yes please." Mulder, having noticed a sign saying Bottled Water! One Dollar!, extracted a dollar from his wallet. He handed it to the woman in exchange for the water bottle.
He hurried off in direction of the restrooms, ignoring the strange looks from parents as he passed. The restrooms were located past the girl's dressing room; he only gave Scully a fleeting glance as he walked by, and he could hear her excuse herself from the dressing room.
Two young girls were waiting to go into one of the two occupied restroom with their mothers. Mulder, feeling incredibly sick to his stomach, lined up behind the girls and slowly sipped his water. He leaned against the wall and shut his eyes, taking deep breaths. Unbeknownst to him, both mothers continually glanced back at him with the concerned-mother look in their eyes.
One of the restroom doors clicked open and a girl stepped out, hurrying back to her class as her tap shoes thudded loudly against the carpeted floor. Mulder remained unmoving until he heard the mother at the front of the line say, "Hang on, Savannah. Let's let this man go ahead." Not wasting an opportunity, Mulder opened his eyes, thanked the woman, hurried into the bathroom, and removed his suit jacket.
Vomiting is not a pleasant experience, and Mulder was sure his repetitive gagging was startling the girl in the bathroom next door. He could have even swore he heard her wailing madly. The knock on his door shortly after, however, startled him himself.
"Occupied," he choked, flushing the toilet, closing the lid, and turning on the sink. He splashed his face with the cool water and carefully cleaned around his mouth.
"Mulder, it's me," Scully's voice rang out. Mulder unlocked the door and Scully walked in, shutting it behind her. Mulder collapsed back onto the toilet, leaning his head back against the wall. "Mulder, what's wrong? Are you all right?"
Mulder shook his head, swallowing once. "My back started to burn. Then I felt hot, then sick - really sick," he said bluntly.
"Mulder take off your shirt," Scully whispered, and Mulder was positive she only whispered because she knew anything they said could be heard on the other side of the door. Otherwise, she surely would have said it authoritatively.
"Scully, I'm-"
"Take off your shirt. Now. Before I raise my voice and that mom out there with her daughter starts to think we're doing something inappropriate in here," Scully said, gritting her teeth.
Mulder groaned and unbuttoned his light blue dress shirt, handing it to Scully. She hung it beside his blazer on the back of the door. "Now, let me see your back." Mulder obediently turned, and he felt Scully's cool fingertips graze across his back. "Your burn looks to be blistering - that's probably why it hurts so much. Although, I've never seen anything blister like this before. As for the nausea. . . Well, it's probably a side effect of your medication. It should wear off soon." Scully handed him his shirt which he slipped back on, buttoning quickly. The smooth linen of his shirt stung as it brushed against his blistering back, but he fought off the urge to wince. Instead, he placed his blazer back on. Mulder continued, per Scully's request, to sip his water slowly. He was finally starting to relax a little.
Then, it all happened so quickly. And so unexpectedly.
A fervent knock at the door. An anxious father's voice calling out, "My daughter is about to vomit! Please open the door!" Scully yanking open the door. The father holding his daughter over the toilet. Scully holding the child's hair back.
And Mulder noticing an identical burn mark to his own on the little girl's back.
×××
Of course, I of all people incorporated a dance studio into my story, right??
Anyway, what did you think
I'd like to wish a very happy birthday to my fellow X-Files lover, AmandaOdair14 !! This chapter and part of the miniseries are dedicated to you!! I hope your birthday is wonderful!!