Message-ID: Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1998 14:45:08 +0100 From: Heather Markham Subject: alternus-tempus.p07 CHAPTER TWELVE Dana and Sam cuddled up sleepily beneath bathrobes on one of the recliners. Weird dreams invaded the scientist's light slumber, dreams of a fantastic huge, green eyed cat from another realm. Then the dream took on a nightmare quality as Joe and himself entered the scenario and became trapped and endangered by the crazed beast. Sam's heart rate increased, in the dream the animal was attacking his friend, clawing at him, trying to kill him. His muscles twitched in reflex defence and he awoke with a start and sat forward, rousing Dana from her drowsiness. "What's wrong?" she asked. He drew his arm out from beneath the fluffy robes and looked at his watch, "Oh, nothing just a weird dream....hey, it's getting late. I think we'd better make a move soon, unless you'd prefer to stay here and drive back tomorrow." She sat up, grasped his wrist and checked the time. "It's almost ten, yeah, you're right, I hadn't realized it was getting late......I didn't bring a change of clothes with me, so it's best we go back tonight, we do have to be up early tomorrow." She wrapped herself in one of the robes and padded of towards the changing cubicle, turning to add, "Perhaps we can come back here another time, I'd really like to get to know your family." He smiled as he watched her disappear behind the huge potted palm and into the tiny changing room. He wondered over to the pile of clothes, dried himself off and pulled them on. He was deep in thought, wondering how much longer he would have with her, whether this would be their last night together. He couldn't deny the rising envy he felt for Daniel Pendrell and the future he was going to have with Dana, the woman he loved, the woman he would always love. He sighed heavily, if only Ziggy could give him some idea of how much time he had, he could prepare for it.....then again, maybe it was best he didn't know. Dana dressed and came out to join him, carrying the damp robe, costume and t-shirt. He took them from her, and along with his, dumped them into a linen box by the pool door. He picked up the tray, turned off the lights and together they left the room and went back to the kitchen. The evening had turned chilly. Outside, the wind had got up and thick clouds had rolled into blanket the sky, covering the full moon and turning the sky from navy blue to deepest velvet black. Away from the warmth of the heated pool they began to notice the cold of the night creeping in. Sam made huge cups of hot chocolate to warm them before the long drive back to Washington. Chatting as they drank, Sam wondered if Joe had had any luck in sighting the wild cat and considered what would happen to the creature if they ever caught it. The discussion petered out and turned to other subjects as they locked up, settled themselves into the car and left the ranch to head back through the lonely tree lined, windswept roads towards the city. As they drove along, Dana was idly looking out of the windows, watching the weird dancing shadows made by the windblown trees caught in the yellow glare of the headlights. The passing trees and hedges looked flat, almost one dimensional in the gloom of the night. She considered how easy it would be for anyone to imagine all sorts of weird and strange creatures out here in the inkiness of night. As they approached a sharp bend in the road she noticed a patch of dim yellow light reflected through the trees coming from around the next stretch of the curving road. She leaned forward in her seat and pointed towards the light source, "Dan, there's something up ahead, I think I can see car lights, slow down a little." Sam decellerated and took the corner slowly, he leaned forward over the steering wheel and peered intently into the gloomy road ahead. "Yeah, I see what you mean, looks like someone might need our help, could be they've broken down or something." As the car drew nearer, they could make out the shape of a large vehicle slewed sideways into the bush lined verge, both doors were open. Sam drew up close behind it, "Hey, that looks like Joe's jeep. Come on let's go and see what's happened." He grabbed a torch from the glove compartment and together they hurried across to the vehicle, slamming their own car doors shut behind them. The engine of the jeep was still running and since both doors were wide open, they presumed Joe must have had a passenger, but there was no sign of either of them. Dana wrapped her long coat around her and took her gun from her bag. "Looks like they left in a hurry! Look down there, two sets of footprints leading off into forest. Joe must have had someone with him." Sam shone the powerful beam of the torch into the bushes and trees and together they followed the footprints along a narrow dirt track into the depths of the woods. An owl, disturbed by their presence, screeched and swooped out of one of the trees above and in front of them, making them jump as it flew away into the darkness. An unearthly lupine howl filled the cold, windy night air with terror. It sent shivers of trepidation through both Special Agents. Dana drew closer to Sam, catching hold of his sleeve, "What the hell was that?" The awful sound stopped Sam in his tracks, he glanced around them, shining the torch beam from tree to tree, "I don't know, but it sure as hell didn't sound anything like a cat, big or otherwise, that was a definite canine sound, keep your gun handy, we may need it! Come on, this way!" Dana clung to his arm as they turned off the track, stumbling on through the thicket further into the forest. Sam swept the beam of light across the forest floor in front of them as they walked, even the trees looked menacing in the eerie darkness. The usual insect and small animal noises of the woods were silent, all that could be heard were the tiny movements of small scuttling animals as they fled in terror from the bright torch light, and the sound of the wind bending the trees and rustling thrugh the bushes and thickets. As they neared a small clearing, Sam could make out the shape of a figure slumped against a gnarled, twisted tree trunk. "Look...over there, I can see somethin'." Dana stared at the place he was pointing to. "Where? I can't see a thing," Just then the wind whipped through the boughs of the trees, adding to the cold sensation which had crept up both their spines. The clouds scuttled across the heavens, clearing a starlit patch of sky for the moon to shine down and bathe the woods in an eerie pale blue twilight glow. Sam raced towards the figure, tearing his jacket on brambles and catching his hand on the sharp thorns, "Arrghh! Damn". Dana stumbled her way along behind him, skirting the patch of brambles and picking her way across the root strewn forest floor, "Daniel, Dan? Are you okay?" He carefully pulled the spiked branch back, extricating himself from the sharp thorny bush. He wiped a trickle of blood from the back of his hand. Something caught his eye, a clump of sticky black fur pelt had been caught on the same branch. "Yeah, I'm okay, brambles scratched me, that's all." He tugged the lump of fur from the thorns, wrapped it in his handkerchief and stuffed it into his coat pocket. Quickly disentangling himself from the thicket he loped across to join Dana who had overtaken him and was now kneeling beside the figure. "Is it Joe?" he called breathlessly. "It's hard to tell....whoever it is....was, half his face has been shot away. I don't think it's Joe, the clothes are different from when we last saw him." Sam reached the body and dropped down beside Dana, "Oh my God! How could that have happened?" Standing up and taking the torch from him, she looked around at the muddy ground, "The grounds pretty churned up, looks like he put up a struggle with something." she bent to inspect some of the scrabbled prints, "Scratch marks, pretty big ones too, but no other shoe prints." She paused to look closer at a set of deep prints, "These paw marks are odd they're like a cats but they also show large, long claw marks which are untypical of any feline I know of." Shining the torch around the base of the tree she spotted a rifle which lay half hidden by the tree roots. She picked it up, inspected it and handed it to Sam, "This must have been his. It's recently been fired. My guess is he tried to shoot whatever attacked him and missed." She looked at Sam with raised eyebrows, "or it shot him first, which I doubt. Animals, however strange, aren't usually capable of shooting back!" Sam stared at the rifle and back down at the man, "Yeah, I agree. But there's got to be an explanation. The creature, whatever it is, was here. If he was surprised, he might have dropped the rifle, it could have gone off by accident?" Taking out the handkerchief, he showed her the clump of blood soaked fur, "This was stuck on the same bush I got caught up on." Dana poked at the animal sample and sniffed at it tentatively, she drew back, making a face and covering her nose, "God, Pendrell, that smells awful! I've smelled some pretty strong animal scents before but that beats all. It's even worse than lion scent! When we get back to headquarters I'd like you to run some tests on that. Oh, and you'd better get those scratches looked at too, you don't know what diseases the thing might have. Could even be rabid." Sam nodded and placed the rifle on the ground next to the body. "You'd better call the sheriff and the coroner and get an ambulance out here. We may need back-up if we're to find Joe. I'll see if there are any identity papers on this poor guy." Scully took out her phone and made the call while he checked the unfortunate man's pockets. He found a wallet in a pocket of the bloodsoaked jacket. The name inside was Jamaes Hutten. Joe must have been bringing the man back from the hunt meeting. An unexpected flat light filled the space between the dead man and the time traveller, Al appeared. He looked down at the bloodsoaked body of the dead man and turned away, his face turning a shade paler. "My God, Sam, what happened here?" Sam glanced up at him and whispered, "Where were you? We could have done with your help when we first got here." Al looked around, ignoring the remark, "Where is here and who is....was that? Why is it, I always seem to turn up at the most gruesome of times?" Sam stood up and ushered him out of ear shot of Dana. He ignored the first question and answered the second, "That was James Hutton. We don't know what happened to him....we just got here, but it looks like he was attacked by that wild animal. Al...was I too late? Should I have been here to stop this from happening. I kinda feel like this is my fault." "No, kid, it ain't your fault, there was no way ya could have forseen this....not even Ziggy saw this coming." Al turned back to look down at the man, clutched at his stomach and asked, "Did the wild cat do that to him?...Ohhh, Saaam, I don't like this! I think you should get outa here!" Sam whispered back, "No, we think it was his own rifle that did that, but we don't know for sure....we haven't found Joe yet!" Al stared at his friend, indicating the forest with the glowing tip of a freshly lit cigar, "You mean he's still out there?" Suddenly, a blood curdling howl followed by a throaty scream filled the forest, sending birds flapping wildly into the air from their high roosting perches. Sam and Al froze, it was a man's scream, it was Joe! Sam grabbed the rifle and the torch, and took off into the depths of the forest following the sounds of a distant commotion. Al was close at his heels. Dana swung round, called after him, "Pendrell...Daniel, wait! Wait! I'm coming with you." She dropped the phone back into her bag and with her gun drawn, dashed after him. Sam broke through more tangled bushes and out into a dirt clearing just in front of a rocky escarpment, Al stood silently behind him. The sight before Sam halted him and rooted him to the spot. A large black creature the size of a fully grown lion but with the head of a large dog was standing on back legs, grappling with the indian man. Sam aimed his rifle up in the air and pulled the trigger, the noise reverberated around the forest, the creature stopped momentarily, swung its massive head round to regard Sam, stared at him with burning green eyes, whining and mewling oddly, like some weird injured cat. Then it snarled, a long low growl rumbled from its throat, its eyes flashing brilliantly, it turned back to Joe. Catching at him with huge paws, knocking him backwards heavily with its weight, it went down with Joe. The Indian fell awkwardly, cracked his skull on a large stone, groaned once and lay silent. The creature stood over him, lips curled back from its long dog like muzzle, saliva dripping from its barred yellow fangs, it licked the blood from Joe's wound. Sam gathered his courage and slowly moved towards the creature. With the rifle held at his side, he whispered quiet words to sooth the creature. Al, stayed at his side, "Sam, be careful, I don't think you should be doing this...I do not like this at all! It could kill you!" Sam shushed at him and took a step closer. The creature's ears twitched and pricked up, it raised itself back up onto its hind legs and turned to contemplated him, an odd expression in its strange fluorescent shining eyes. He could see the animal was wounded at the shoulder, thick dark blood had soaked and matted its black fur. It stayed motionless except for a gentle swaying of its head and tail. Sam inched his way forward, this creature hadn't killed anyone yet and he hope to God he wouldn't be its first victim. He sensed something about the beast but couldn't quite figure out what it was. Could it be the animal was intelligent and was asking for help. It looked him straight in the eyes, then cast it's gaze at Al. It could see him! Dana called to him from somewhere behind him. Disturbed by the sudden noise, the creature tilted back its head, howled into the night once more, dropped to its paws and loped off into a partially hidden cave in the craggy rock wall behind it. Sam watched it bound away into the sanctuary of the rocky opening, waited a few seconds then raced across to the injured man and wedged the torch in the crook of a branch above him. The beam cast a pool of light on the ground around Joe. He crouched beside him, lifted the man's head gently and cradled it on his arm, blood trickled from a deep gash on the side of his head and soaked the time travellers sleeve. Dana was now calling to him from just beyond the stand of trees behind him, "Pendrell, where the hell are you, what's happening?" Sam noticed that the situation had caused her to revert to calling him by his surname, she was ever the FBI lady and this now seemed to be an FBI case. He called back to her, letting her know where he was and that he was okay, "Over here." He quickly asked his friend, "Could you centre in on that animal...would that be possible?" The Project observer raised his eyebrows, "Yeah, I suppose so, but why would you want me to do that, you know I don't like this sort of stuff, it gives me goose-bumps. That thing is definitely not from this world!" "Somehow I'm beginning to think you're right there, but I don't think the creature is as dangerous as the stories make out. I think it's intelligent and somehow it needs our help. Please Al, it's somewhere in that cave. Go, see what's happened to it?" His friend shook his head, "Ya gotta be kiddin'! You want me to go in there with that thing.....noooo...waaaay!" Sam gave his friend a look of exasperation. "It's okay, you're a hologram, remember. It can't harm you even if it wanted to." Al stared across at the blackness of the cave mouth and very reluctantly agreed, tapped into the hand-link and muttered, "Centre me on that greeneyed monster, Sam here wants to play good samaritan, again!" he shot a passing glance over his shoulder to Sam, "God knows what you expect me to see in there, I don't have a torch and if I had one it wouldn't do me much good, holographic light is non-illuminating, remember." With that he disappeared, just in the same way the animal was reputed to do. Scully followed Sam's calls and found him trying to bring round the unconscious man. "Is he okay? What happened, did you see it?" Sam, dabbed at Joe's wound, "He had a run-in with the creature, I came along and disturbed it, it sorta pushed him away....he fell and cracked his skull on a rock. I think he'll be okay. Is the ambulance on its way?" Scully knelt beside Sam and looked at the wound, "Yeah, I called the sheriff, he and the paramedics are on their way. What happened to the wild cat, where did it go?" He pointed over to the cave, "It slunk away in there. But it wasn't like any cat I'd ever seen. Dana, it had the head of a dog and a body not dissimilar to a lion. It was massive but when it saw me it just stopped, it could have attacked me but it didn't. It's wounded and I think it wanted my help." Dana looked at him, her eyebrows raised with surprise at his suggestion. At that precise moment Al reappeared. "The things gone...vanished. I heard it whining then, nothing...vanito! Sam, that cave is not as big as it looks, there's nowhere in there for anything to hide let alone an animal that size. You go take a look yourself!" Sam listened to what his friend had to say without looking up. He shifted his weight and sat back against his heels. Joe groaned, his eye lids slowly crept open. "What happened?" then he suddenly remembered, "My God, that thing almost killed me...I've never seen anything like it. Did you see it, did you kill it?" Dana, leaned closer to him, "No, Daniel scared it off. We think it's holed up in that cave. The sheriff's on his way, he and his men will deal with it. Can you tell us what happened out here?" Clutching at his head and grimacing, Joe sat up supported by Sam. "We were on our way back to the ranch, suddenly this...this huge black shape sprang out from nowhere, right in front of the jeep and bounded off into the bushes, we almost hit the thing. We grabbed our rifles and torches and followed it into a clearing but then it disappeared into the woods, we lost sight of it. We found several sets of tracks, I thought Jim was behind me, then I heard a God-awful scream," He swallowed hard, his voice trembling with the sudden flood of memory and shock, "Oh God..Jim, he....the thing must have surprised him, I heard a shot, so I went back to look for him. It was too late, it looked as if he'd tried to shoot it but somehow, it must've knocked the rifle from him, I think it went off and shot him by accident. There was nothing I could do for him....his face....his face was gone! It's my fault, we shoulda' gone and got more men." Joe's words were broken by harsh sobs. Sam tried to comfort him, "Joe, listen to me, it's not your fault, you hear me, you couldn't have known it would happen this way." Dana laid a hand on Joe's arm, she knew the man was in shock but she needed more answers, "How did you get out here, why didn't you go and get help when you found him?" Joe closed his eyes and leaned back against Sam's shoulders, "Jim was dead, there was nothing more I could do for him, I felt like it was my fault, I wanted to get that thing, stop it for good. I was angry....I just wanted to kill it. I followed it's tracks, they led me out here to that cave. The thing was suddenly there in front of me, it was so close, trying to use the rifle was useless. I thought the thing was gonna kill me. That's all I remember." Sam looked across to the cave and up at Al, who had been listening intently, "Dana, you look after Joe 'til the paramedics come. I want to take a look in that cave. You'd better call them back and let them know what's happened here." She stared at him, a look of fear on her face, "Are you mad? You know the thing's dangerous, leave it to the sheriff! You're not Mulder, you don't need to do this! Sam clasped Dana's hand reassuringly. He already knew the animal had gone, what did he really hope to find, resignedly he agreed, "Okay, We'll leave it to the sheriff. But if they don't find it, if it's gone, which I suspect it has. I want casts made of it's prints and I want them on my desk A.S.A.P! A burst of commotion and shouts emanated from the forest behind them. Lights flashed from beyond and between the tall trees and thickets. Shafts of light skittered backwards and forwards, illuminating the woods with a strange strobe-like effect. The sheriff, his team of men, followed by the paramedics, broke through the undergrowth and dashed across to join them. They loaded the still groggy Joe onto a gurney and quickly stretchered him away, leaving the two FBI Special Agents to recount the unusual and horrific events of the night, events which weren't going to be easy to explain in any terms. While Scully busied herself with discussions and the formalities and of the events, Sam took the opportunity to draw Al to one side. There were questions of his own which needed answers. "Al, can you get Ziggy to dig up everything she has on the mythology of this creature or creatures like it. I need to know exactly what we're dealing with here." Al cast his friend a hard stare, "Why? Do you really think this is linked to the other stories, the ones from the past?" Sam was pacing back and forth, gesturing with his hands, emphasizing his words, "I don't know but I think they could be. I think there's a very strong possibility that all the recent stories from around here are connected to the one beast." The observer drew him to a halt, "Sam, stop pacing will ya, you're gonna draw attention to yourself." He stepped back into the shadows of a close standing group of pine trees, not worried that he might be seen but anxious for his friend. He beckoned the quantum physicist to join him. Sam reluctantly shoved his hands into his pockets and stepped from obvious view. "Go on, see what Ziggy's got!" The observer tapped on the hand-link keys, it blinked into life as his fingers played the coloured buttons. A string of data came up, "Ah, yeah, hey, it seems there are quite a few stories. It seems there was a hot spot for sightings of a weird creature, thirty years ago, in 1977. Paranormal investigators labelled it the 'Phantom feline year'. Er...there are a couple of yukky stories. There was one set of absurd attacks, a pig farmer discovered half his stock had had their ears removed....chewed off or somethin'." He looked up and laughed hoarsely, "it must have had quite a liking to pigs ears, perhaps they were a delicacy where the thing comes from." Sam grimaced, "No, I don't think that has anything to do with what we have here!" "No, I guess not, it was way outside this area." He paused to play the handlink keyboard again, "I've gotten Ziggy to recorrelate the data to only relate information pertaining to within a hundred miles of this locality. Here comes some more stuff....Ten years ago, in February 1987, a strange big cat was reported as having caused havoc in the area of Tuxton, that's about twelve miles west of here. It killed a whole bunch of farm animals then moved on to the outskirts of the town. All in all, they reckoned it killed 47 chickens and two sheep, some appetite! The report also states that two boys, the Slant twins, encountered it one evening and chased it into a cornfield. There was another report in 1967 of an alienesque animal roving about right in this vicinity. Some people who saw it claimed it was a huge dog, others said it was a big black cat. Someone even claimed to have wounded it. Shortly after that it disappeared, folks thought it must have died of it's wounds, although the carcass was never found to support the theory. Ziggy says these stories or stories like them go way back. There have been sightings of similar creatures to this one right across America." Sam's hands escaped from their pocket imprisonment, he slapped the back of one hand into the palm of the other as he spoke, "Yeah, but I have to be specific here. I must know if the descriptions and accounts of the stories tally exactly. Does she have anything more on the phenomena of vanishing creatures?" Al drew in a deep breath and returned his attention to the hand-link, "Oh, yeah sure. One guy reckoned he was driving along the highway between Corrington and Washington D.C. and saw a huge black creature materialize directly along side him. The man said the creature or whatever it was, looked as surprised as he felt. It shot off at incredible speed into the surrounding countryside. Another story has it that a farmer tracked one such animal and cornered it in a barn. The thing sorta phased in front of him, he claimed to have thrown an axe at it but it passed straight through it and lodged into a hay bale behind it. He said, one second it was there, the next it was gone. Weird huh! There are a couple of other stories, where folks thought they'd trapped it, only to find it had disappeared. Ziggy says, three of those stories centre around here, around that cave." Sam's mind was working overtime, "Mmmm, I kinda thought there might be mention of the cave smewhere in the stories." Al stared searchingly at his frind, "What exactly do you suspect here? What's going on?" Lights shone in their direction, Dana was searching for him. "Al, stay with us, I want you with me when we get back to Headquarters. We'll have plenty of time to talk then and I think I'm gonna need your help." His conversation was stopped short by Dana catching sight of him, "What are you doing, I was looking for you." Sam pretended to be searching the ground. "I was just taking a final look around, looking for a good set of tracks." She casually shone her torch in the general direction he was indicating, "I don't see much here. The sheriff will get us all the prints we need. There's not much more we can do here tonight, I suggest we get going and come back tomorrow." He was glad of the suggestion, he wanted to get back to the lab as quickly as he could, the handkerchief containing the piece of animal pelt was, metaphorically speaking, burning a hole in his pocket. CHAPTER THIRTEEN Conversation on the way back to Washington had centred around the events of the night. Dana was still inclined to think that the creature was the result of either a natural or unnatural genetic mutation or experiment. As Sam already knew, the sheriff's men had found the cave empty. Dana couldn't argue a good case for that little beauty but still thought there must be a good, scientific explanation for it. He, on the other hand, couldn't help wondering what had really happened to the creature. It wasn't of this world, of that he was sure. But where had it come from? Was it alien or had it slipped from one dimension to another, ending up here in this world? Did it possess the ability to vanish at will or was it dragged from place to place by some weird ' quantum dimensional fluctuation in time and space. He couldn't restrain from discussing his hypothesis any longer, however far-fetched it sounded. "Dana, don't you think it's strange and very coincidental that in all the cases, the creature never once killed a human, it always seems to be injured and the thing has a regular time period of appearances." She regarded him with furrowed brow, "So, what exactly are you suggesting?" He took one hand from the driving wheel and brushed it back through his hair, "What if it's the same creature in all the stories," She turned to speak but he silenced her with his next words, "I know this sounds crazy but you remember what was said about the thing turning up and wrecking the chicken house....it was injured, there were fresh blood stains on the ground. When I saw that creature tonight, it had one wound, a fresh wound! There always seems to be mention of the thing leaving some kind of blood trail behind it but no one ever reckons to have actually wounded it in years. There's only one way that a wound would stay open for that long without eventually killing it.....it's not an old wound which keeps opening, it's a fresh wound. The blood is coming from the same wound. Dana, I think that creature comes from another dimension. I think it's caught in some kind of ten year cycle time warp, it's the same animal reoccuring in all the stories." Al was sitting in the back seat with them, he was beginning to agree with Sam's supposition but he knew getting Dana to accept the idea wasn't going to be easy. Her expression was a picture, she was literally gaping with astonishment and total disbelief. Sam glanced from Al in the rear view mirror across to Dana. Looking him up and down she exclaimed, "My God, you're another Mulder!......You really and honestly believe that could be true?" He glanced across to her, "I've seen some pretty weird things in my line of work, and this may be one of the weirdest, but yes, I consider it could be one explanation." She let out a slow whistle, "Boy, you do believe it, don't you! If what you say is true and I'm not saying I consider it to be a possibility, what do you propose to do, help it?" He nodded, he knew he would have his work cut out convincing her, he knew that as a trained scientist she'd want proven evidence. "I don't know, but if I can, I'll try. I have a few tests I'd like to do first. One thing I've learned in this job, never jump to conclusions, always look for hard evidence first." She tilted her head to one side and regarded him, "Yeah, well, you're going need it if you're going to convince me of the theory. However, I bet I know one person who'll jump at it." He grinned at her, "Mulder?" She smiled and nodded back, "Got him in one!" They were approaching Washington's city centre, Dana appeared to be lost in thought. He glance to her and back to the wide floodlit city road in front of him, "Do you want to go back to Headquarters or shall I drop you off at home?" His question brought her from her thoughts. Distractedly, she rubbed at her forehead, then checked her watch yawning as she did so, "It's pretty late. I think we should both get some rest. It's been some night!" She turned in her seat to face him, "And you should definitely get some rest, it's your first day back at work tomorrow, since the accident." Sam nodded slowly and headed in the direction of her apartment. He had no intention of sleeping yet, he couldn't now, tired or not, his mind was racing with possibilities. He had things to do, but he didn't want to worry her unduly. "Yeah, I guess you're right but I'm going to drop by headquarters first, just to get a couple of tests started. If we're going back out to those woods first thing tomorrow, then I'll have to get things started now." He turned the car into her road and slowed to a stop outside her apartment block. She was still curled comfortably in the passenger seat, facing him. "Do you want to come in for a quick cup of coffee before you go?" It was a tempting offer but he had to decline, "No, I'd best be going, let you get your beauty sleep." He leaned forward putting his arms around her shoulders and kissed her gently before apologizing for the strange turn of the evenings events, "I'm sorry today ended this way. It wasn't exactly the perfect end to a perfect day was it, quite dramatic in fact." She smiled at him and kissed him on the cheek, "It was a a great weekend and I enjoyed myself. As for the wild cat, well...when you work with Mulder on the sort of cases we investigate, it sorta, becomes normal. And anyway, that sort of thing, work, has a habit of following me around." Sam drew her to him once more and kissed her before letting her go home. "Yeah, well, I'm not Mulder and I hadn't planned on things working out quite like this." He looked a little sad and shy, "I...I er.. hope this won't affect our relationship...I mean, you will come out with me again?" She beamed at him and shook her head, "Of course it won't, don't worry, things happen, it was hardly your fault." She hugged him tightly then drew back and swivelled her position, "I'll see you tomorrow, we'll talk again then. Now, go do what you have to do at headquarters, then go get some rest, you're going to need it for tomorrow. If I know Mulder he'll have us racing about all over the place." Getting out of the car and closing the door behind her, she peered back at him through the side window, blew him a kiss and sprinted up the flight of stone steps leading to the glassfronted apartment doors. She turned at the top, waved once and disappeared into the block. He had waved back to her and as soon as the double doors had closed behind him, he had turned the car around and headed back to the FBI Headquarters. -- Heather Markham