"What does the M.E. have to say about it?" he asked Alex.
The younger man, still looking at the case file, raised
his
eyebrows in faux surprise.
"If he didn't know otherwise, he'd swear they were
gunshot
wounds."
"Alex." The voice from the other side of the busy
office pulled
all the notes from the short name. The call carried a
mixture of
annoyance and welcome.
Alex looked sideways at Mulder and gave him a knowing
grin. The
eyebrows shot up again as he spoke.
"Jennifer O'Brien. Yum!" He said in a sultry whisper
as he
watched Mulder's cheeks color at the unexpected
frankness of the
remark.
"You know her?" Mulder asked.
"I did my internship for her." Alex's tongue darted out
to wet
his lips and he smiled a greeting as he turned.
"Jenny," he called as he walked towards her, both hands
extended.
It was a year and a half since he'd seen her last at a
conference
in Philadelphia. She looked the same, still the
contrast of dark
hair and ivory skin that always reminded him of Pre-
Raphaelite
paintings.
Five years ago, next month, he had been assigned to
seduce her.
She was his first big assignment. She never realized how
close
she'd come to being blackmailed into consortium
slavery. There
was something about the way she'd treated him as an
equal that
had shifted his loyalty away from the group's initial
plan. He
convinced them he could obtain more information from her
if she
were ignorant of the circumstances. They never
understood how
stubborn she cold be, how she would have refused to play
their
game and resign before she would have given in to their
demands.
So, Alex took her trust and played it for all it was
worth and
saved her freedom in the process.
"I wondered if you were ever going to come by and see
me," he
chastised as he took her long fingered hands in his.
"Why didn't you tell me you were coming down to DC?" she
countered.
"I did." He leaned towards her. "I left four
messages. You're
not picking up your voice mail again." He cleared his
throat and
scowled. "Jennifer, we give you this technology for a
reason,"
he said in a passable imitation of a judgmental A.D.
Skinner.
"What good does it do any of us if you don't use it?"
Her serious expression broke into a smile as she pressed
one hand
against his chest.
"Stop that. You could have come to my office. Five
floors
wouldn't kill you, and I think you're qualified to run
an
elevator."
"We haven't seen each other in over a year and this is
the abuse
I get? I was going to come up, but we've been neck deep
in this
case."
"We." Jennifer said the one word like it left a bad
taste in her
mouth.
The smile vanished. He watched her straighten. She was
of
average height, but he remembered the first time that
he'd seen
her pause outside a door, before entering a meeting, and
grow
inches. As her posture stiffened, she turned into what
he always
thought of as Jennifer "I'm in charge here" O'Brien.
She was
doing it now and it wasn't hard for Alex to figure out
who was on
the receiving end.
"Hello, Jennifer," Mulder drawled the greeting into a
challenge.
"What are you doing down here, slumming?"
She gave Mulder a cursory once over.
"Apparently."
"You know each other?" Alex interrupted. It would have
been fun
to watch the two bitchiest people he knew trade insults
but this
wasn't the place to let them go at each other.
"Jennifer is my District Supervisor," Mulder offered.
"Oh," she gave a surprised laugh. "I never thought you
'understood' there was such a thing as chain of command."
Mulder beamed out a blatantly false smile.
"I like to think of it more as a suggestion of command."
"You don't have to tell me that." Her smile was gone.
Mulder folded his arms across his chest and dropped all
pretense
of politeness.
"Did you come here to gloat about the demise of the X-
Files and
my demotion?"
"No. Can you even imagine that, Mulder? It must be a
devastating blow to learn that not everything is about
you."
"Then we share the same worldview." He smiled without a
trace of
humor.
"I didn't come here to talk to you," she snapped.
Mulder glanced at her hand, still held in Alex's.
"That's obvious!"
"Ding, ding, ding!" Alex held up one hand in a gesture
of
surrender. "I'm ringing the bell, okay? Round over. I
have to
live here. Besides, you keep fighting like this in
front of me
and I'll be scared for life, Mom and Dad."
They turned towards him. After a momentary glance at
each other,
Mulder said what was on both their minds.
"We agree on 'one' thing. Fuck you."
Jennifer took her hand out of Alex's grasp and touched
his arm.
"May I talk to you for a minute?" She moved him away
from
Mulder, who watched for a moment but then turned and
went back to
the desk where they had been working.
Alex let her lead him to a quiet area, near the
elevators, that
afforded a little privacy. She was in serious mode
thanks to
Mulder. He should have never let it get out of hand
like that,
but he always enjoyed a little cabaret. He wanted to
ask her a
few things. He'd heard she'd met someone. He needed to
know how
significant it was. She was lonely and had been married
to her
job up till now. That gave Alex the advantage. Whenever
he came
around, whenever he needed something, there was the
element of
excitement he brought to her otherwise boring
bureaucratic life.
If she were serious about anyone he'd have to find some
way to
dissuade her. He was never going to find himself in the
position
of asking her for a favor and hearing she couldn't do it
because
her family came first.
"What's going on?" he asked.
She frowned up at him. "I shouldn't tell you anything
after that
last crack."
"Tell me. Come on, tell me." He used his best
wheedling voice
as he gave her arm a shake. She was smiling by the time
he took
his hand away.
"You won't have to put up with Mulder much longer.
Stewart has
an opening in his department. It's not a great
position, but
some very important people have started in that
department. I'm
recommending you for the job when it opens. In the
meantime
Kadesham has a spot for you and.."
"Hey, take a breath," Alex held his hands up to stop
her. His
mind raced to find a way to tell her no without
jeopardizing
their relationship. He should have seen this coming.
It was
like her to "help" him. Now, she was about to help him
fail with
Mulder.
"This is my case, Jennifer. I opened it. Mulder is
working
'with' me. I'm not working for him."
"It doesn't matter. Being associated with him is going
to kill
your career."
"I don't want to be transferred."
"Don't be stupid, Alex," she snapped.
He took a step towards her.
"Don't talk down to me, Jennifer. I've earned better
treatment
than this from you. I'm not some ... child," he
sputtered, "who
is going to walk into traffic. I know what I'm doing.
And I'm
keeping this assignment. I never thought you, of all
people,
would disrespect me."
She turned from him and took an angry, jerky step away.
After a
moment she turned back and slumped against the wall with
a
resigned sigh. It always amazed him, despite her
strength, how
quickly she responded to guilt.
"It's a waste," she said quietly. "I just don't want
you to
become another Dana Scully."
"I won't. There is no way I can wear those high
heels." He
smiled at her as she gave him a frustrated frown.
"You're not going to take this seriously, are you?"
He reached out, took her hand, and fixed her with a look
that
carried all the sincerity he could muster.
"This is where I want to be. I can learn a lot from
Mulder."
Jennifer looked away from him, and her lips pursed into
an
aggravated pout.
"Sure, you can learn how to become a pariah."
"Come on." He squeezed her hand. "He's not so bad.
He's a
brilliant profiler. You have to admit that." He laced
his
fingers in hers when she wouldn't respond. "You can
admit that,"
he urged. "It's not going to kill you to say it. The
guy is a
genius. He's solved more lost cause cases than anyone
else has."
"He's really maximized his potential." She gave a
derisive
laugh. "That's why his office is in the basement."
"Do you really think I'm going to do anything that will
harm my
career?"
Jennifer straightened and narrowed her eyes. He knew
the look.
This was the pure force of will face. She hadn't given
up the
fight yet.
"You're not going to know when it happens. He has
this..." she
struggled for the word. "way of being. He's like a
black hole
that sucks all the promise out of the people close to
him. Then
all you have left in life is Mulder."
"And the X-Files."
"What?"
Alex smiled. He hadn't intended it but Jennifer was
going to be
a perfect asset to his plan.
"I want the X-Files," he told her in a conspiratorial
whisper.
"Why?" She grimaced in disbelief.
"It's a place I can make my reputation without giving up
half the
credit to some supervisor who sits on his fat
bureaucratic ass
and steals my ideas. This will be important work when
it's in
the hands of the right person. And I'm that person."
She started to protest but he took her by the shoulders.
"If you really..." he let the "L" form, his tongue
pressed to the
back of his teeth. He noted her eyes widen with
recognition of
what she thought he was going to say. Then within the
millisecond this all took he continued..."want to help
me, you'll
get the X-Files for me."
She looked away, what he was certain was disappointment
clouding
her face.
"I don't know," she mumbled.
"I can make this work, Jennifer, if I just have the
opportunity.
If only you can give me that opportunity."
"There are so many other things you could do, Alex."
Her voice
was soft and the words held little dissent.
"This is what I want to do. This is my place. I want
the X-
Files."
"I can't make any promises."
He'd won. He tried to contain the smile but couldn't.
She
didn't have to make promises. He knew that once she
started, her
connections would have him in charge within the year.
This was
so much better than the clumsy plan of seducing Mulder
the old
fools had saddled him with. They couldn't seem to get
past sex
with him and realize he knew better than anyone else did
how to
work the system.
"I'll make you proud of me." He wanted to hug her, kiss
her, and
give her some tactile reward for the loyalty she showed
him.
"I'm always proud of you, Alex." She reached out to
straighten
his tie but her hand lingered on his chest in a caress.
"I owe you lunch," he said as he covered her hand with
his.
She gave a tired laugh. "You're going to owe me a damn
sight
more than lunch before this is over."
"You could have had dinner with me last night if you'd
picked up your voice mail messages," he teased.
"Don't start with the phones again. Last night wouldn't
have worked anyway, smarty."
Interesting, he thought. She wasn't going to mention
the
new man. That was good. He was still too important to
her
to talk about someone else. But he had to know how deep
she
was in.
"Have a date? I heard you're seeing some guy from
justice."
Pink misted across her cheeks. She looked genuinely
surprised.
"How the hell did you know that?"
"Oh, just a friend of a friend of a friend of yours. I
hear
he's a lawyer. I thought you hated those politicos at
justice? He must be great in bed. I remember that
night we
went out for Barnett's birthday. You got wasted and
proclaimed to everyone that you'd give anything for
really
great sex."
"What a convenient memory you have." She jerked on his
tie.
"I wasn't drunk and you were the one saying the only
really
important thing in life is great sex and plenty of it."
"So what's this guy like? Am I going to approve?" He
probably knew more about this man than Jennifer did. As
soon as he'd heard she was involved with someone, Alex
had
requested information on him. The Lawyer, as he thought
of
him, had the trappings that would attract her. He was
well
educated and from a rich cultured family. Jennifer, for
all
her compassion and generosity, could be a total snob.
He
also had a reputation for doing important pro-bono work
and
supported some of the same causes Jennifer championed.
But there had been several guys like this and they had
never
lasted. Jennifer had a flaw that kept her lonely. She
was
more attracted to the thrill of falling in love than the
work of being in love. Alex knew this and used it to
great
advantage. His encounters with her were purposefully
infrequent, as he was certain familiarity breeds
contempt
was her personal motto. But each time they were
together he
focused on her and flirted just enough to make her feel
like
she was falling in love again.
"He's really terrific. His name is Bobby. Actually
Robert,
ah... Bob McLeash but I started calling him Bobby. It's
silly, I know. He's intelligent and kind and just very
easy
to be with."
He'd lost eye contact with her all together. She was
staring off into space as if she could see this Bobby of
hers.
"We just spend a lot of time together. It's very
satisfying. He's not 'work' like other men I've known."
"Really?" He couldn't hide the slight note of distaste
in
his voice. This was bad, very bad. She had slipped
right
past infatuation and was actually in love. She wasn't
bored, she wasn't frustrated or dissatisfied, she was in
love. Soon, she wouldn't want Alex Krycek waltzing into
her
life and that would mean she'd have no reason to grant
him
favors.
"I want you to meet him, Alex. I know you'll really
like
each other. In a lot of ways he reminds me of you."
"Accept no substitutes," he said quickly under his
breath.
"What?"
"Expect we should be thinking about when we could have
lunch. Just you and me. I want a chance to catch up
before
you throw Mr. Right at me."
She was giving him an odd look. She'd done it for a
fleeting second several times as they talked.
It was his turn to ask, "What?"
She was hesitant to speak but after a second gestured
towards his head. "Alex, what the hell did you do to
your
hair?" Her hand swept across the space between them.
"And
these clothes? You look like the last orphan off the
work
train."
"Jeez, Jennifer! I wish you weren't so shy and actually
said what you felt."
"I'm sorry Alex but this isn't like you." She waved her
hand dismissively at his clothes.
That was true to an extent. This wasn't the Alex she
knew.
He was in seduction mode around her, wearing clothes
that
fit like a second skin and a movie star haircut. That
look
wouldn't have worked with Mulder. It was clear the guy
had
a chip on his shoulder when it came to other men. Bland
and
unobtrusive was the personae he'd adopted in order to be
accepted by Mulder. He just hadn't thought about how
odd he
would appear to Jennifer.
"New York is an expensive place to live. I've had to
give
up a few things."
"Like what, your sense of style?" She wrinkled her nose
and
looked down at his legs. "These pants must have been
hemmed
by a myopic tailor."
"Some of us have to buy off the rack, Ms. Gottrocks.
And I
get haircuts now instead of going to a stylist."
Jennifer clapped her hands in a gesture of finality.
"Well, that's it. What time are you getting out of here
tonight?"
"Why?" He raised an eyebrow, suspicion coloring his tone.
"I'm going to call Armand and see if he can get you in
tonight, do a little triage on that hair."
"I can't afford to go to that salon."
"My treat. A head of hair like yours is a terrible
thing to
waste. Then I'll take you out to dinner. What time?"
"You bringing Bobby?"
"He's out of town."
He could manage to leave Mulder unattended for one
night.
Especially a night that could lead to the ultimate
success
of his assignment.
"I could probably get away by six."
"I'll come by just to make sure."
He looked at her and smiled. She smiled back and put
her
hand on his arm.
"It's really good to see you, Alex."
"Yeah, me too." He let the smile linger till they both
laughed at the implication. "You can see me as much as
you
like once I have the X-Files."
Her smile faded and she looked past him to Mulder
hunched
over the desk they were sharing.
"Maybe it 'will' be important work with the right person
in
charge."
He didn't care how she rationalized it as long as she
helped
him succeed.
"You won't be sorry." He whispered.
She looked up at him, her gaze intense.
"You've never disappointed me, Alex."
"And there won't be a first time."
She gave him a pleased smile then looked at her watch.
"I have to go. I have a meeting."
As she turned he reached out and took her hand.
"I missed you."
Her fingers circled his. Her eyes flickered closed for
a
moment.
"I'm so glad you're back, Alex." She smiled and stepped
toward the elevator that had just opened. She raised
her
hand in a good-bye gesture.
Alex's smile broadened. 'Whoosh! Nothin' but net,' he
thought as the elevator door hissed shut.
As soon and he returned Mulder reached out and took his
hand.
"What are you doing?"
Mulder turned his hand over examining the fingers.
"Checking for frostbite," he answered.
Alex pulled his hand away. Could Mulder possibly be
jealous? That wasn't such a bad thing. He could
probably
use this. If he played Mulder in the right way he would
look like a hero when the time came. He'd take over the
X-
Files rather than let them fall into unsympathetic
hands.
When he was through Mulder would be thanking him for
ruining
his life.
"She's not that bad," he said as he picked up the case
file
Mulder had laid on the table.
"So, when are you leaving?"
"What?"
"Kadesham told me this morning that you were
transferring to
her unit."
Alex dropped the file and grimaced.
"God, I wish she'd talk to me before she does crap like
this! I'm not going anywhere, Mulder. I told Jennifer I
had
too much to learn from you." He glanced at Mulder.
There
was a hint of a blush blooming on his cheeks.
"I'm sure she agreed with that."
Alex smiled the same smile that worked so well with
Jennifer. "I made her admit that you are a brilliant
profiler."
Mulder gave an embarrassed laugh. "If you managed that,
then you're the one who's brilliant."
Alex looked at him and for a moment he held Mulder's
gaze.
This was going to be fun. Mulder was just as lonely as
Jennifer and just as vulnerable. All Alex had to do was
leave a trail of attention and Mulder would walk into
any
trap.
Mulder's lips parted into a shy smile.
"Maybe we should knock off a little early tonight. Want
to
get something to eat?"
Alex ran his hand over the back of his head.
"Well, while I'd like to, Jennifer asked me to go to
dinner.
Her boy friend is out of town and.."
"Are you sure he's out of town? I hear she bites the
heads
off the male as soon as the sex act is completed."
Alex laughed and shook his head. "Come on Mulder.
She's
always been good to me. She meant well about the
transfer.
She's just a little over zealous at times."
Mulder rolled his eyes in response.
"Really," Alex decided to try a little harder to
convince
him. He needed to play the sincerity card to score the
big
points on Mulder. "She thinks she knows what's best for
me.
And she was just...well... trying to... ah... protect
me."
"Protect you!" It was Mulder's turn to laugh. "First
time
I ever heard it called that!"
Alex frowned, but then laughed softly. He looked at
Mulder,
who was still smiling. The guy was practically bending
over
and grabbing his ankles. He might just seduce him after
all. That would satisfy the old bastards in the
consortium.
And Alex was pretty sure Mulder's mouth would satisfy
him.
He suspected there was a creatively perverse streak in
Mulder. It would be a good way to pass the time till
the X-
Files were secured. He could spend days basking in
Jennifer's adoration, and nights engaged in hot, dirty
sex
with Mulder.
"I was going to ask you this anyway, even before the
dinner
thing came up." Alex reached into his back pants
pocket,
and pulled out his wallet. "Want to see the Wizards on
Friday?" He held up two tickets. "I know they suck,
but
they're playing Indiana, and watching Larry Bird coach
is
worth the price of admission."
"That would be great." Mulder said the words with a shy
hesitation. He was awkward about accepting but the
underlying eagerness was easy to read. "I play pickup
with
a bunch of guys when I get the chance. You play?"
"Hell yeah!" He gave Mulder a warm appreciative smile.
"But are you any good?" Mulder teased.
"I got game, man."
'And I sure as hell got you, Mulder.'
end...
Top of His Game
by LeFey
"Mulder leaned back against the edge of the desk and
folded his
arms across his chest.
