Tales from the Basement

By Starbuck_Jayne
Starbuck_Jayne@mulderandscully.co.uk
www.geocities.com/Starbuck_Jayne

Rating: PG 

Spoilers: None that I can think of, well, 
the whole Mulder disappearing thing but 
nothing major.  

Keywords:  MSR, 3rd person POV

Disclaimer:  I am just playing with the 
characters in this story, most of whom 
belong to Chris Carter, 1013 Productions and 
Fox.
 
Archive:  Anywhere at all just please keep 
my name and e-mail attached, but no flames 
please I'm way too delicate!

Summary:  The Mulder/Scully phenomenon lives 
on within the FBI fifty years later.

Feedback:  Please!

Author's Notes: This is just something a 
little different.  Interpret it how you 
will!  

Tales from the Basement

Starbuck_Jayne


"You know, I really don't get these things!" 
She picked a splinter of sunflower seed 
shell from between her teeth.

"That's because you're eating them like a 
priss," was the reply as he took a seed from 
the bag and held it up.  "Observe," he 
grinned before inserting the seed between 
his back teeth and biting down.  In one 
swift move the shell cracked, and he sucked 
out the contents, depositing the shell in 
the waste paper basket.  "Ta da!"

"Very impressive," she smiled and ran her 
hands across tired eyes.

"Now you try it," he offered her a seed.

"Oh come on, I'm too tired!"  She whined 
playfully.

"To eat a sunflower seed?  Tired of being 
shown up by me, more like it!"

She met his gaze with a submissive smile and 
took the object from him resolutely.   

"Ok..." she began, positioning the seed in 
the same place she'd seen demonstrated, but 
as she bit down the shell was smashed into a 
hundred pieces, leaving her coughing and 
complaining.  

"Oh come on!"  He took another seed and re-
did the display, all to no avail.  "Fine, 
you know what?" he said, shifting his 
position so that they were facing each other 
across the desk, "I'll bite and you suck, 
ok?"

"What?!"

"Oh what, you never played 'Suck and Blow'? 

"If that's how you think you play 'Suck and 
Blow', then seemingly neither have you!"  
She remained unsure at first, but finally 
leant forward obediently.

"Right, here we go," he spoke through 
clenched teeth, the sunflower seed already 
clamped in his mouth.  "One...two..." on 
"three" Agent Kendal spat the seed out of 
the side of his mouth and instead began 
kissing the woman in front of him.  There 
was no doubt that the pair would have got 
decidedly further if it hadn't been for a 
short cough from the office doorway.  Kendal 
spun around, tie out of place and lipstick 
smeared across his cheek, to see a janitor 
leaning against the doorframe, a voyeuristic 
grin on his face.  The elderly man stood up 
straight, and the smile faded from his lips 
as he began to speak passionately.

"Jesus Christ!  What is it with this office?  
Geez!  You take two agents and lock them 
away down in this basement, cut off from the 
rest of society, and suddenly it's as if 
they're forced to start breeding!  It's like 
"Survivor" for the Playboy Channel!  I mean, 
it's what happens with rabbits, isn't it?  
You lock them up in a cage together and bam!  
There they are going at it like there's no 
tomorrow!  I don't know why the FBI keeps 
putting people down here!"

"Excuse me?"  The bemused agent was altering 
his tie, and making his way around the desk 
to help himself feel more empowered in the 
situation.  

"Oh come on!  How long have you two been 
partners?  What?  One year, max?  At least 
most of them pace themselves!"

"Erm, we're not partners..." the woman spoke 
up, "I'm his secretary..."

The janitor turned to the male agent, "What?  
You got a secretary down here, now?  Fox 
Mulder'd be spinning in his grave!"  He 
leaned against his broom, clearly not about 
to leave the pair at it and start minding 
his own business.

"Who?"

"Don't tell me you've never heard of Fox 
Mulder?"  The blank stares that greeted him 
were a good indication that they hadn't.  
"Tall guy?  Worked on the X-Files?  Sister 
abducted by aliens?  Oh come on!  Spooky 
Mulder?"

"Wasn't he the guy that ran away with his 
partner?" the woman put forward tentatively.

"There you go!"  He pointed at her 
triumphantly.  "He worked down here too.  
Now at first, he was alone.  And that worked 
out fine for the FBI, just shut him down 
here so he could spend all day with his 
precious X-Files.  It was a case of the 
bureau feeling that they had to keep him on, 
rather than believing he was actually a 
contribution to the "Team"."  The air quotes 
showed quite clearly the janitor's own 
feelings towards this idea.  "But then, they 
sent him a partner.  Check up on him, you 
know?  Anyways, she's this smart, single, 
beautiful woman around about his own age.  
What do *you* think happened?  Ok, so it 
took them like seven years, but still..."

He was broken off by an interruption from 
Agent Kendal.  "Why...why are you telling us 
this?"

"Let's just say you might learn something," 
was the response.  "Ok, so these two finally 
get together and then he disappears.  Twice.  
Now, believe me I liked Mulder.  He was a 
decent guy.  Trust me, you don't get much 
company when you're just over nineteen years 
old and working the graveyard shift.  But 
Mulder, he was here most nights and always 
had time for a quick "hello" and bitch about 
the bureau.  Anyway, few nights before he 
left, the second time, he was down here 'til 
four in the morning, turned the office 
upside down looking for it."

"For what?"  Kendal wasn't interested.  He 
was agitated.

"That's just it.  He wouldn't tell me.  
Something to do with Agent Scully, that was 
his partner, but I don't know what.  You ask 
me, he'd dug something up on her that he 
didn't want people finding out.  Anyway, 
after he returned they didn't have time for 
anything 'cept running away.  Whatever it 
was, it's never been found.  They say he's 
still looking for it too."

"I thought you said he was dead."

"I did."  He stared ominously at the couple. 
"I've worked here fifty years.  Whatever it 
was he was looking for, I've never found it.  
And, off the subject, every male and female 
agent that they put down here end up doing 
it.  It never works out, of course, but then 
he wouldn't let it, would he?  Name's Rob by 
the way, no doubt I'll see you around 
sometime."  He touched his baseball cap, and 
as he left they heard his mop and bucket 
trundling away down the corridor.  

"Riiight," Kendal collected some random 
sheets of paper together and tapped them 
into a neat pile.  

"You think this office is haunted?"

"No, Louisa, I don't."

"You know, John, for someone who's in charge 
of The X-Files you're surprisingly narrow 
minded."

"Yeah?  Maybe that's why I'm so good at my 
job."

"Well, shouldn't we at least be curious 
about whatever it is that he hid down here."

"Louisa, if this thing hasn't been found in, 
what?  Fifty odd years?  What makes you 
think we'll manage to uncover it?"

"Well, maybe no one else knew to look for 
it," she said.
"Well, I'm already ten minutes late for my 
meeting," Kendal pulled on his jacket, and 
took a swig from a mug of cold coffee on his 
desk, "but if you want to waste your time 
then knock yourself out."  With that, he was 
gone.  

Louisa groaned.  Despite Kendal's opinions 
of her, she was a smart woman.  She'd 
graduated from Princeton with a degree in 
literature, but had since made some very 
unwise career choices.  Her grandmother had 
been an agent, and Rob's story had triggered 
a vague memory of a tale she'd told her many 
years ago.  Therefore, she decided to 
unearth Mulder's secret, but it would take 
some research along the way.   

XXXXXXX

The rest home always made Louisa smile.  The 
big vases of flowers that stood on little 
tables that served no other purpose; the 
doilies; the lace, the tablecloths.  It was 
as if, no matter what year it was, rest 
homes assumed that the elderly appreciated 
such things.  The truth was that ninety-nine 
percent of them had indeed been conditioned 
into believing this.  Not Louisa's 
grandmother, though.  The place drove her 
crazy, and there had been many an occasion 
where she'd threaten one of the slightly 
less mentally sound residents.  

"Hey Granny," Louisa placed a kiss on her 
cheek, and went on to make limited small 
talk with her elderly relative.  Asking her 
how she was, how she was liking, if she'd 
been speaking to any of the others.

"Honey, today that guy over there," she 
gestured to a frail looking man who gazed 
listlessly out of the window, "came up and 
asked me, not once, but four times if I'd 
enjoyed being in concert with Britney 
Spears.  I may be eighty-seven, but I swear 
if I still had my gun..." she smiled up at 
her granddaughter, obviously just kidding.  
Louisa smiled.

"Gran, you remember when I was a little 
girl, you told me that story, about a guy 
called Fox?"

"Ahh, Fox Mulder.  Now there's a name I 
haven't heard in a while," she smiled.  "It 
wasn't him that I knew that well, though.  I 
was better friends with his partner, Dana 
Scully.  We'd worked together on the X-Files 
whilst he was missing.  

"Do you remember what happened to them?"

"I'm old, Louisa, not stupid.  I know that 
they fled the country, but that's about it.  
They had a son, William, who they put up for 
adoption when he was just a baby.  There was 
something strange about that child, but 
Scully refused to see it," she shook her 
head, not really considering things from a 
sceptic's point of view.  

"Was there anything odd about this woman, 
Dana?  It's just, we spoke to the janitor, 
Rob, and he said Mulder hid something in 
that office."

"That's very likely, Mulder always was a 
very secretive guy.  One of the best agents 
I've ever met, mind you, but couldn't trust 
anyone.  I don't know, though.  I only 
worked there a couple of years or so, I 
wasn't very well informed with regards to 
any of his secrets."  

"One more thing...you had a partner, right?"  
A smile crept across Louisa's face.

"John Doggett," her grandmother nodded.

"Were you two ever, more than just good 
friends?"

The only response she got was the reserved 
smile of a wistful old lady.

XXXXXXX

 The only person Louisa found in the 
basement office was Rob.  He was sitting, 
with surprising audacity, in Agent Kendal's 
chair.

"Just resting my legs," he explained with a 
grin, "don't want me collapsing down here, 
do you?"  

Louisa said that she did not, but remained 
taken aback by the janitor's attitude 
towards authority.  Still, she supposed that 
she was but a humble secretary herself.  

"I was thinking we could check the desk 
drawers," he said, not moving from his 
position.

"Won't this desk have been changed like a 
hundred times since then?"  Louisa said, 
rationally enough.

"Hell no!  Do you know how much effort it 
would take to get another desk down here?  
Do you think the FBI really cares that much 
about this "department"?"  Rob laughed 
mirthlessly, casting a longing glance 
towards Agent Kendal's coffee.

"Well, ok, but I don't really know what 
you're hoping to find," Louisa rolled up her 
sleeves and bent down to open the first 
drawer.

"You can't just look inside the drawer," 
offered her companion, "you're gonna have to 
take the whole thing out."

"Well, why don't you do it?"

"Can't," Rob raised his hands, 
"fingerprints."

Louisa thought this a very peculiar excuse, 
but said nothing, putting the janitor's 
laziness down to, well, laziness.  She went 
through each of the drawers in turn, 
unearthing paper clips, drawing pins, 
leaking pens, computer disks, sheet after 
sheet of fax paper containing nothing but 
junk messages...she even managed to find, 
wedged right at the back of the drawer, the 
nameplate from a time when the desk had 
belonged to Fox Mulder.  

"Do you think this is what he was looking 
for?"  Her comment was met only by a dour 
stare.  

"Try the filing cabinets," Rob gestured in 
their general direction with a nod of his 
head.

"Hey!"  Louisa was unimpressed by his tone 
and lack of assistance.  Rob merely held up 
his hands in defence.  She began leafing 
through the files with a sigh, before 
uttering a short cry.  "There's a file on 
Dana Scully in here!"  She said, turning 
around to face the janitor. 

"There are several, actually, I forget how 
many now.  Is there anything inside?"

Louisa tipped the folder's none-paper based 
contents onto the desk.  Amongst the objects 
was a small gold band, adorned with a single 
diamond.

"That's it!"  Rob exclaimed, "That's what 
he's been searching for!"

"How do you know?"  Louisa turned the object 
over in her hand, totally unconvinced of its 
value.  

"Don't you see what it is?"  Rob had moved 
closer to gain a better view, a large grin 
spreading across his face.  "It's an 
engagement ring."

XXXXXXX

By the time Agent Kendal had returned to his 
office, Louisa was almost ready to leave.  
She decided not to mention her little 
treasure hunt, nor the fact that she had 
found what may well be a priceless antique 
and simply placed it back in the file where 
she had found it, on the orders of a mere 
janitor.  She just nodded to the agent, and 
he returned the gesture, putting his files 
on the desk and removing his jacket.

"You off then, Lou?"  He said, still more 
pre-occupied with his work than focussed on 
the conversation.  She nodded, and pulled on 
her coat.

"Oh!  Just one thing!"  John spun around to 
face her.  "You didn't see that guy, erm, 
Rob, again did you?"

"Why?"  Seemed the safest response.

"It's just, well, Stone says that there 
isn't a janitor working here named Rob...in 
fact he doesn't think he can ever remember 
there being one whilst he's been here.  And 
we all know what a long time that is," he 
chuckled to himself.  "Anyway, thinks he 
must have been some guy who wandered away 
from his tour group or something.  Good to 
know that the security here's so tight, eh, 
Lou?"

Kendal didn't see the look on his 
secretary's face as she mumbled her goodbyes 
and stepped out into the corridor.  So, if 
Rob didn't work here...then how did he know 
so much about Mulder and Scully?    


The End

 
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