The Whole Catastrophe
By Diehard and Dryad
Ambulance Chasers

Chapter 9

Calm-eyed, Kris took in the scene before her without 
saying a word.  Cardenas' formerly pristine apartment 
was wrecked. Furniture had been had been knocked 
over, magazines lay on the floor in heaps, several throw 
rugs had been shoved against the walls, all bearing some 
signs of scorch march.  Zigzag burn marks raced across  
the walls, all the windows were shattered, and though 
she stepped carefully, glass crunched underfoot. 

She grimaced at the sound.  

Cardenas herself was on her back, arms still above her 
head. Fresh blood trailed from her mouth and her left hand,
and it looked liked and there were old blood stains on her 
chest where Mulder and Scully desperately worked to revive 
her.  Both of them looked tired, the bone-deep exhaustion 
Kris had seen time and time again on the faces of firemen 
and beat cops.  A certain kind of shell shock that came only 
from living through trauma,  knowledge of certain failure 
to save a life despite doing everything you could.

"Excuse me - "

Kris moved out of the way as the evidence tech behind 
her tapped her arm.  The other tech followed the first, setting 
up the print kit and collection bags. The coroner had came 
and went, pronounced Alex dead, and the wagon had already
taken her to the morgue. Mulder stood up and watched Scully 
confer with the two men, unintentionally smearing blood across 
his forehead as he brushed the hair out of his eyes.

Christ, what a mess.  At least they wouldn't have to write up 
the reports for Lazarov.  Time to tackle what had happened. 
"Agent Mulder," she called.  "Could I speak to you for a 
moment?"

He nodded, circled the trio surrounding Cardenas. 
"Yeah, sure. Ask away..." His voice trailed off.

 She shrugged apologetically. "You two okay?"

"Cuts and scratches I think."

"What happened here?" Kris hoped she sounded calm and 
collected, like she was trying to help, instead of how she felt, 
like a sneak thief trying not to get caught. Fuck, she thought,
I better tell him now, better get it over with.

"Agent Mulder,"

"Yes, Detective."  He had a feeling where this was going
after this morning.

"Sgt. Lazarov' s instructed me to make the official report
in this matter."

"On our consult, our case."

"He was crystal clear, and uh...he's calling his case as 
far as the CPD, the Superintendent and the mayor 
are concerned."

Mulder  mumbled something she couldn't make out 
and ground some of the glass on the floor with his heel.  
"Right.  Fine, then."

"I'm sorry, Agent Mulder, but I've got to get your statement.
Lazarov did say you're free to write up your own report 
for the Bureau when you get back to D.C."  Kris had
to throw in her own assessment,  "Listen, it's screwed up
and we both know my boss is a tool. But this thing is
over, and I have to do..."

He managed a rueful smile, "...your duty. Then let's get
this over with, Detective."

"So, what happened?"

"I..." Mulder shook his head. "Cardenas was performing 
a ritual that involved cutting herself.  When we tried to stop 
her, she went after Scully. Someone else was here with her, 
because I was hauled off, ostensibly to have the shit beat 
out of me."

"Someone else?" she asked quietly, wanting to know who 
whatever the answer. 

He licked his lips, staring her directly in the eye. Apparently,
like he liked what he saw, because he didn't hesitate,  
"Gonzales, Detective.  Cardenas raised Gonzales from 
the dead."

"From the dead."

"Cardenas practiced a bastardized form of Santeria, an arcane
ritual that gives the undead the means to essentially become 
instrument of revenge.  All of the victims, Breen, Michaels, 
Roberts, Coluko and Weinhoft, were in turn killed by the same 
methods with which they had killed their own victims. 
Gonzales had a history with all the deceased. One in which he 
had to witness the guilty go scot free...My guess is that all Alex 
wanted was Naftali back whatever that meant. "

Kris resisted the urge to step back. "You can't be serious" 
she hissed, mindful of the evidence techs overhearing and 
running their mouths. "What you want me to believe is 
impossible...someone read the casefiles...someone..." 

Mulder smirked and leaned closer, voice equally soft as 
her own.  "Casefiles?  The information about this case had been 
leaked to every major news source. That narrowed the field 
down to just about anyone who read a paper or watched 
the news. Your boss didn't like those numbers, that's where 
we came in.  Your version puts you back at square one. 
Is that what you really want to tell Lazarov?"

Shit, he had her there.

"Scully tells me you smelled the rum in the bodies yourself, 
saw the evidence of people doing impossible things to one 
another, to themselves. How else do you explain it?"

She couldn't.  She took a deep breath, let it out slowly. 
"I can't.  You're saying Gonzales was here, and attacked you.  
So where is he now?"

He hesitated briefly. "A Santeria priestess who knew Cardenas 
well. . .took her power away.  Once she lost power, Gonzales 
had no choice but to return to the spirit world... She was bound 
to him," he glanced at Scully, now sitting back on her heels, 
and then at the techs, starting to collect additional samples, 
comparing notes, "and couldn't stay here.  For what it's worth, 
Detective, I don't think she could've lived without him."

"And now they're together for eternity?" Kris said. "Not exactly
happily ever after, is it?"

"I can see how it would appeal to a person, especially if they 
lost someone they loved greatly."

"I guess," she murmured.  The only person she loved that much 
was Hannah, but she wasn't going to dwell on the rest of it.
 
"Well, I think the report will say something to the effect that 
as you attempted to apprehend the suspect, a struggle ensued,
inadvertently Dr. Ruis-Cardenas to experience fatal respiratory 
distress."  She called over to Joe Pettibone, one of the techs.

"Doc Garrity said it was respiratory failure, right?"

Pettibone laid aside the kit and pivoted toward her, 
"Yeah, Kris. He said to tell you the autopsy on this 
one'll be done my mid morning."

Looking to Mulder again,  "I think you two should head on 
over to the ER, just to be on the safe side. Mulder grinned, 
white teeth a shocking contrast to the dark red streak of
Cardenas' blood above his eyebrows. "I'll get Scully to check 
me out.  She's a doctor, y'know."  He said it a little louder 
than he needed to.

Scully turned to them and gave him a look that told Kris
she wasn't all that bothered.  She liked Mulder, she liked 
them both.  And clearly, the two of them really liked 
each other.  

Like wasn't quite the right word, Jorgensen amended, 
something a little more...intense. Kris shook off that 
train of thought. She needed to get the hell out of here 
and start filling out paperwork before Lazarov had another 
meltdown.

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Mulder folded his arms and sat back in the hard plastic 
chair, letting his head rest on the wall.  He yawned.   
A moment later he cracked another one. Jesus Christ, 
it had to be 5 am.  He just wanted to go back to the 
Burnham, wash off the spectres of the dead detective, 
his dead lover, crawl into bed with his own lover and
sleep for a couple of hours. Tomorrow they could fly 
back home, write their reports, and maybe have time 
enough to look for rings.

A ring.  He was honest enough with himself to realize he 
wanted to show he was claimed, and for her to be
claimed, too.

"C'mon, partner - "

Something gently nudged his knee and he moaned a half-protest.

"Let's get the hell out of Dodge before Dr. Singh finds some 
other way to poke or prod us. We've been good little patients,
had our exams, our X-rays, our CAT scans. Don't get me 
wrong, I'm grateful for the VIP-head-of-line treatment, but 
now it's time to go."

He opened one eye, taking in the dried blood on her jacket. 
She looked rumpled, exhausted, but she didn't have a scratch
on her. Just like him.

She nodded. "I'm fine.  You?"

"Yup.  Just tapped out," Mulder hauled himself to his feet, 
aware of just how much he wanted to stretch out right here
and close his eyes. "How come the undead never have to 
worry about getting their beauty sleep?  It just doesn't seem 
fair, Scully."

The few other people in the waiting room eyed Mulder, 
surreptitiously leaned to one side, clutched handbags 
and magazines, and in one case, a child, as he and Scully 
left the area.

"Well, Mulder, I guess you could chalk it up to their not 
needing food or water.  Their bodies don't need to process 
products into energy, which of course takes energy."

He looked down at her in amazement as she mumbled on.

"If you're right, Gonzales was getting his strength from 
Cardenas, through her blood scarifice. Once that was 
interrupted,  Gonzales no longer had a link to the living.
So, in the end, it's the cycle of life and death and
rebirth.  Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Ah, you, uh, aren't usually so enthusiastic about my theories."

"Don't get used to it," she said. "I'm too tired to come up 
with anything better.  Besides, it was hard enough trying to 
explain why nothing was wrong with me to Dr. Singh.  
I think he was personally affronted he couldn't find anything,"

Mulder chuckled mid-yawn, nearly walking into an empty 
gurney as they headed towards the ER walk-in exit. 
"I think Dr. Burrows was in the same frame of mind."

"So you think the talisman protected us."

"Got a better explanation? "  His breath hung frostily in the 
cold air as they stepped outside the sliding doors. "We've 
seen stranger things, Scully.   Maybe there's someone 
out there... something else besides random events emerging 
from chaos, maybe this time someone was watching out for us."

Scully smiled up at him,  "That almost sounds like faith."

"Maybe I'm ready to believe..."  Mulder's cel trilled in 
his pocket. He let it ring several times before he answered.

"Yeah."

"It's Kris Jorgensen. I just thought you and Agent Scully
should know that a member of a Santeria house just 
confessed as the perp in the Gonzales case.

"What?" He knew he was out of it, but he thought
he heard correctly.   

"He walked into 11th and State with his written statement
swearing he killed Coluko, Wienhoft, all of them as a favor
to Alex Cardenas..."

"Did you interview him? What did he say?"

"He can't speak...He was brought to the station by
a woman who said her name was Iya...she said to tell
you the circle's complete now. I don't suppose
you're going to explain what that means."

"I don't think you really want me to."

"No, I don't think I do."

On the drive back to the Burham, as daylight began 
to emerge,  Mulder told Scully about Kris' call and
Iyalosha's message. She didn't say anything for a long
time, then reached for his hand.

"I think you're right about what's been at work 
here..." she whispered.  "...and about what's kept us 
safe." 

"Are you serious, Scully?" 

"Maybe we're starting to believe the same things," 
sliding closer to him.

He thought he what he said in the ER, about a force
greater than themselves, "Maybe we are."

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