TV Tussle #7: Scully Superior (the Krycek Conclusion)
by BeegBoy
Dana settles an account and wraps up a loose end. 

** George Washington University Hospital - 11:45pm

The sound of screeching brakes screamed and echoed in the
corridor of high-rise office buildings as a car halted abruptly
in front of the emergency room entrance and the driver, a petite
redhead, leapt from the car and headed inside.
"Hey, you can't leave your car there.....!" the security guard
announced as he emerged from the building and approached,
blocking the driver's path.
"FBI!" Scully snapped curtly as she shoved her ID badge in the
guard's face and cut off both his physically movement and his
verbal instructions.  She strode defiantly past the startled man,
paying him no further attention, and entered the hospital. 
Scully glanced down the corridor and quickly recognized Assistant
Director Skinner.  He was pacing back and forth nervously outside
one of the treatment rooms but halted in place when he spied her
approaching.
"What the hell happened!?" she demanded angrily as she stared her
"superior" down, despite the fact that she was looking up at him.
"I don't know," Skinner stammered, "Mulder's still unconscious so
we haven't been able to question him about the stake out yet."
"Stake out!!" Scully seethed, "why wasn't I told about this, why
wasn't I with him, covering his back!?"
"You don't demand reports from me, Agent Scully!" he shot back as
his own anger rose in response to Dana's tone and attitude. "All
I know is that he called me earlier tonight with a lead that Alex
Krycek had been sighted in DC and that he was following up on
it." 
"Krycek?....." Scully whispered as she pondered the implications.
"Anyway," Skinner continued, his voice lowered but still
exasperated, "I just assumed he'd contact you as part of standard
procedure.  In fact, I thought you were with him.  Until I
reached you at home I was concerned you'd both been ambushed and
you were missing."
Scully stepped over to the glass partition and looked quietly at
her partner laying prone on the hospital bed.  Mulder was alive,
but just barely.  Both his eyes were blackened and one was
swollen fully shut.  Bulky gauze and bandages covered a large
gash on his forehead and his nose looked about as bad as a nose
could look without actually being broken.  One side of his mouth
was a mass of bloody pulp.
"How bad?" she asked Skinner in a low moan, wondering about the
parts of her partner that were under his blanket and out of view.
"Aside from what you see," Skinner replied, "five broken ribs,
one punctured lung, a fractured knee-cap and numerous cuts and
bruises.  All his vitals seem OK, but he'll probably be out for
at least another twenty-four hours."
"Where was he found?"
"In an alley about six miles from here, a police patrol spotted
him.  The alley's clean.  He was beaten somewhere else and
dumped.  We still haven't found his car.
"What's the location?" Dana asked as she turned away from the
glass.  "I already told you the alley's clean, there's
nothing......"
"Where, sir!" Scully insisted firmly.  Skinner sighed and gave
her the information.  She turned without further conversation and
started back to her car.
"Keep me posted, Agent Scully!" Skinner called out loudly in a
commanding voice.  Scully froze in response to his words, spun in
place, and rapidly walked back towards Skinner.  She kept walking
right into him and, his huge size advantage notwithstanding,
forced him back against the wall of the hallway.  Standing body
to body, the small woman pinned him there in place as she looked
up at him for a second time that night and spat out, "Oh yes sir,
I'll keep you posted, sir!  Unlike you and my half-dead partner
in there I follow procedures!"  He tried to push himself off from
the wall but Scully held her stance and remained as firm and
unmovable as a boulder set in concrete.  There was an extended,
tense silence as the captor and her captive glared into each
others' eyes.  Finally she backed off, turned and strode away
again.  Skinner, slightly shaken by her aggressive behavior and
surprising display of physical strength, scowled as he watched
her depart.  As she settled back into her car and started the
engine Scully momentarily dropped her steely facade.  Her eyes
moistened and small tears streamed down her cheeks.
"Oh Mulder, you stupid bastard!" she wept, "why didn't you call
me!"  She pulled away from the curb and headed for the alley
where he'd been found.     


** Good Hope Road and 24th Street, Southeast DC - 1:22am

Scully had her emotions back under control by the time she
arrived at the location where the police had found her badly
beaten partner.  She parked her car at the curb and proceeded on
foot down the alley with her flashlight looking for any clues the
FBI sweep team may have (and probably had) missed.  Her nose
crinkled in disgust at the foul miasma that assaulted her senses,
a combination of sewer gas, rotting garbage and urine.  
"Place smells like a cesspool!" she whispered to herself, adding
in her mind, "but then, so does most of Anacostia."  She spotted
the fresh tire treads of a vehicle, the one that had most likely
brought Mulder here, but the remainder of the area didn't seem to
offer much in the way of evidence or answers, just as Skinner had
said.  Suddenly a squeal of tires broke the silence as a
dilapidated old van turned into the alley, fast and hard, and
came barreling down on her.  Without a moment's hesitation Scully
drew her weapon and aimed it at the approaching van as it
screeched to a halt next to her and the side panel door slide
open.
"FBI!!  Put your hands where I can see them and.....", she began
to order in a loud voice that turned into a low, angry growl as
she recognized the new arrivals, ".....Oh shit!  Just what I need
right now, the Nairobi Trio!" 
Scully sighed and lowered her gun as the Lone Gunman piled, or
more accurately stumbled, out of the van.
"Back off G-girl, we're friends!" Frohike smirked, "...and how
does a 'kid' like you know anything about Ernie Kovacs!?"
"It's called PBS, something you turkeys should watch more of",
Scully responded sarcastically, "and what the hell are you three
doing here anyway?"
"We're worried about Mulder", Langly explained, "he was wearing a
tracking device so we could locate him if anything happened, and
the signal hasn't moved from this location for nearly an hour."
"You guys were in on this!!?" Scully screamed, "You were tracking
him and didn't contact me when you thought something went
wrong?!!"  She stomped forward, grabbed Byers by the neck with
her right hand and slammed him hard against the van, causing it
to shake visibly on the chassis.  
"You're the leader of this idiot's club!" she hissed, "How could
you let Mulder try this alone....alone!!"
"Easy Scully, easy, calm down!" Byers pleaded, his unease
compounded by the sensation that his feet weren't touching the
ground.  How could that possibly be though?  Surely Scully wasn't
holding him aloft with one arm, was she?  "Anyway", Byers
continued in a shaken voice, "Mulder was worried that including
you might upset you too much because there's a strong chance
Krycek was involved in your sister's murder, so he asked us to
watch his back."
"Well you three did a piss-poor job!" Scully spat with contempt
as she eased her grip and allowed him to slide down the side of
the van so his feet again made contact with the ground as she
released him.  It had all taken place so fast in the dark alley
that Frohike and Langly hadn't seen, Byers thought, so he wasn't
sure what had caused his airborne sensation, but the thought
nagged at his brain; "Did she actually lift me?"
"What do you mean?" Frohike asked defensively, "and where is
Mulder, anyway?"
"Mulder is lying half-dead in the GWU Emergency Room", Scully
snarled, "courtesy of you heroes watching his back!"  The three
men exchanged crestfallen glances as the source of Scully's anger
settled in on them.
"Scully......we're....we're sorry..", Langly croaked, "but....." 
"And", Scully interrupted, "if the tracking device is in this
alley it hasn't moved for over two hours, not less than one
hour!" "Well....yeah...yeah", Frohike conceded in embarrassment,
"we did sort of lose the signal for a while." 
"Jesus!" Scully seethed, "Mulder puts his life in jeopardy and
you three electronics wizards are tracking him with the best
equipment from the Radio Shack discount rack!" 
"Is Mulder OK?" Byers asked meekly.
"He'll live", she replied sourly, "but he's far from OK."  She
watched quietly as Langly slowly walked over the damp
cobblestones moving the tracking device back and forth.  He soon
located the small emitter in the sewer drain a few feet away,
where it rested out of reach under the large, heavy, cast-iron
grate.   
"Dead end!" Langly sighed, "just like we thought." 
"We still have the back-up emitter in Mulder's car!" Frohike
spoke up hopefully.  His statement brought immediate reaction
from Scully.
"There's a back-up emitter in Mulder's car??!" she cried, "I
don't know whether to kiss you or wring your neck - or what order
to do it in!" 
"Ah, one problem I'm afraid.....", Byers started. 
"WHAT??!" Scully growled as she turned towards him. 
"Both emitters are on the same signal...", Frohike explained, "so
the emitter here in the drain is blocking the one in Mulder's
car.  We have to deactivate this one to track the other." 
"Ahhhh, Radio Shack quality, no expense spared!" she sighed as
she massaged her forehead.  
"Lots of luck!" Langly moaned, "That grate's at least three
hundred pounds and it's imbedded in the cobblestones with cement
and asphalt." 
"Stay here!" Scully ordered as she reached into the van and took
the lug wrench, "maybe I can jam this through the grate and smash
the damned thing!"    
"It's not long enough.....", Langly began. 
"Just stay there, all three of you!" she cut him off, "and let me
know if the signal stops." 
In the dark, beyond the three mens' vision, Scully knelt down by
the grate.  Holding the lug wrench on her left hand she gripped
the grate with her right and started to pull on it with a steady,
persistent force.  The asphalt buckled and tore quietly as she
pulled the heavy grate up and clear of the drain.  She could have
lifted faster, but didn't want the loud snap of cracking concrete
to attract her trio of "assistants".  Holding the grate easily at
shoulder height, Scully swiftly brought the wrench down with her
other hand and crushed the emitter. 
"Hey, she did it!  The signal died!" she heard Frohike announce
as she replaced the grate and stood up.  Walking back towards
them she tossed the wrench to Byers and looked to Frohike. 
"New signal?" she queried.  
"Hold on, just a minute......", Frohike muttered as he fiddled
the dials, ".......Yes!  Got it!" 
"Let's ride!" Scully commanded as she headed for her car, "I'll
follow you!" she added as she looked back at them over her
shoulder.  Byers jumped into the driver's seat as Langly and
Frohike entered the van from the far side of the rear.
"Hey Langly", Frohike muttered, "was it a trick of the light of
did it look as if Scully lifted Byers before?" 
"Whatever you're smoking, gimme some!" Langly snorted, but as
they pulled away the van's headlight briefly illuminated the
grate, and Langly could have sworn it looked slightly askew, as
if it had been yanked out and replaced.  "What have I been
smoking?" he wondered to himself.  The van roared out of the
alley and Scully pulled out and fell in place behind it.


** Washington Navy Yard, Pier 3 - 2:45am

"Yeah, there it is!" Frohike exclaimed when he spotted Mulder's
car parked facing the loading dock of one of the huge pier
warehouses.  Byers slowed to a stop but kept the headlights on as
Scully sped past the van and hit the brakes hard, coming to an
abrupt halt.  She quickly jumped out of the car and ran towards
the van, hissing, "Turn those lights off!  We're not exactly
dropping in for tea!" 
"Sorry!" Byers mumbled apologetically, "I thought it would help
us see." 
"It will also help them see us!" Scully retorted, adding, "If
they're still here, anyway!" The Lone Gunmen stepped out of the
van and with Scully approached Mulder's car.  She gave a careful
look over the interior with her flashlight but the car was
essentially clean and offered no more clues than the alley in
which her partner had been found.  Scully sighed and looked
around in search of an answer, trying to figure out what Krycek
and his cohorts (if any) were up to.  There was easily a dozen
large freighters docked at the piers, and more than double that
number of barges.  In addition to that, the piers contained
numerous, vast warehouses like the one they stood in front of;
and to top it off Bolling Air Force Base was less than half a
mile away across the water. 
"What brought you here, Krycek, what brought you here? Scully
mused to herself, "and just what were you up to?" 
"What if Krycek was just trying to lure Mulder here?" Byers
asked. 
"For what?" Frohike responded, "To capture him?  If so, why
didn't they hold him....and why didn't they kill him?" 
"To send a message or a warning?" Byers suggested. 
"Or to get me here....", Scully muttered, "to bait a trap...?" 
"Maybe we should check out the warehouse first", Langly suggested
as he and the other two men climbed the steps to the loading
dock. 
"Wait for me!" Scully commanded as she followed them quickly,
"the last thing I need is one of you jokers getting lost in there
and having me end up shooting you!  Accidentally, of course!" she
added wryly.  As Scully ascended the concrete steps her eyes
caught a subtle movement by the huge metal dumpster at the far
end of the loading dock.
"Time to rumble", she thought to herself, "and time to get the
civilians out of the way and out of the fray!" Scully quickly
examined the loading dock and formulated a plan to put Byers,
Frohike, and Langly out of harm's way.  She knew their hearts
were in the right place, but she also knew how in over their
heads and out of their leagues the three geeks were.  She spotted
a small, metal tool shed and nearby it was a "moveable" stop
sign, the type usually found in work areas like this.  It
consisted of a rusty stop sign bolted to a metal pipe that was
imbedded in a concrete-filled truck tire rim, and it probably
weighed more than Byers and Langly together. 
"I think I saw someone in that shed!" Scully whispered as she
shined her flashlight in the half open doorway.  The three men
boldly entered the shed as Scully took up the rear and looked
inside.  Just as she had hoped, the shed was a dead end, with no
entry to the larger warehouse. The doorway she now stood in was
the only way in - or out.  Deftly, Scully stepped back and
slammed the door shut, adding a cry of shock for dramatic effect. 
She placed her left hand flat against the closed door, easily
preventing the three of them from pushing it open.  Then she
reached over with her right hand, gripped the pipe of the stop
sign, and lifted it with her one powerful arm, placing it down
flush against the door.  She stepped away from the door as Byers,
Frohike, and Langly, convinced she was being assaulted and needed
their help, pounded and pushed against it, but the heavy sign
stayed firmly in place.  The Lone Gunmen were staying right where
they were until Scully (or a pair of burly longshoremen) moved
the sign. Scully immediately returned her attention to the
dumpster about fifty feet away from where she stood.  She aimed
her weapon with both hands and shouted, "FBI!  I am armed and
will fire!  Step out into the light with your hands up, Krycek!" 
After a few tense seconds a figure stepped from the shadows with
his hands aloft.  The man was still partly obscured by the
shadows so she couldn't quite make out his face, and the
continued yelling and pounding of the three others from inside
the shed interfered with her concentration. 
"Agent Scully, don't shoot!" an oddly familiar voice called out
from the darkness as the man stepped closer, "It's me!" 
"Who?...." Scully started to call out, but the question died in
her throat as the man's face came into the dim light of the
pier's weak, dirty lamps. 

The man approaching her with his arms raised wasn't Krycek - it
was Skinner.                 


** Washington Navy Yard, Pier 3 Loading Dock - 3:10am           

Scully lowered her gun slowly, her actions delayed by stunned
bewilderment at the sight of her supervisor standing before her
instead of the suspect she had expected.  Questions flooded her
mind even as she tried to assemble her thoughts and start
speaking.  How had Skinner tracked her here?  Did he assign
sufficient agents to protect Mulder before leaving the hospital? 
How long had he been by the dumpster?  Long enough to witness her
lift the heavy stop sign like it was made of styrofoam?  And
where was his car - why hadn't she heard his car?  She couldn't
put her finger on it yet, but something just wasn't right.  She
was also wondering, and worrying, about how much of her revealing
display of strength with the stop sign he had witnessed.  She
wasn't concerned when she'd assumed it was Krycek watching her
since she had no intention of bringing him in alive; but her
mistake had complicated matters greatly.   
"What's your status Agent Scully?" Skinner demanded as he
continued to approach her, abruptly yanking Dana out of her pool
of contemplation and snapping her to attention.  
"No....no sign of Krycek, sir", she stammered, "but...but we did
find Mulder's car.  Sir, how did you get here and....." 
"So you think Mulder was assaulted here?" he continued bruskly,
cutting off her query in mid-sentence, "Is there any chance
Krycek might be hiding in the warehouse?" 
"Yes sir, yes....." she began replying, her eyes narrowing with
suspicion, "In fact I was about to check the warehouse when you
arrived."  
"Fine!" Skinner snapped back, "Let's do it!"  Scully's mind raced
as she turned to fall in beside him.  Something was very wrong
with this situation.  Why had Skinner shown absolutely no
interest in the Lone Gunmen, or asked about them?  And how had he
gotten here? 
"Sir, wait!" she began in a firm, steady voice as she stepped in
front of Skinner again, blocking his path, "I don't understand
sir, how did you locate me here - and where's your car?" 
"I...uh...ah, I parked at the entrance and walked down the pier
so I wouldn't alert Krycek", Skinner explained, but he seemed to
be making it up even as he spoke the words.  
"That still doesn't explain how you found me, sir, and...." 
"Dammit Scully!" Skinner roared, "I don't appreciate you
interrogating me!  I don't answer to you!  The security guard
here found Mulder's car before you arrived and ran the plates
with the Virginia DMV, and the Alexandria Police contacted me
when they realized Mulder is an FBI agent and might be in
trouble!  They gave me his car's location and here I am! 
SATISFIED!?!!" 
"You came straight here from the hospital?" Scully challenged as
her eyes widened slightly, her brain finally putting the last
pieces of the puzzle in place as she thought back to their
confrontation earlier. "Yes Agent Scully!  Anything else!"
Skinner fumed, his temper clearly rising. 
"Just one thing!" Scully snarled as she stood her ground, "If you
came here directly from the hospital, when did you find time to
change your suit?"     
Skinner's mouth froze half-open; Scully's final question stopping
him cold.  His response wasn't verbal but physical, and it was
remarkably swift.  He swung his arm wide, gripped Scully's jacket
collar and, before she could react or defend herself, sent her
tumbling across the length of the pier loading dock.  By the time
she collapsed to the ground and stopped she had covered most the
distance between where Skinner now stood and the dumpster by
which she had first spotted him. She staggered to her feet as
Skinner stalked towards her at a rapid pace, his face set in a
grim scowl of determination.  Scully reached for her gun only to
discover that she had lost the weapon halfway through her
headlong "stroll" across the loading dock.  She spied the gun
lying on the concrete surface barely a second before Skinner
brought his foot done on top of it, eliminating any hopes she had
of retrieving it.  Skinner hesitated momentarily as Scully stood
fully erect; the two of them staring at each other across a
distance of twenty-five to thirty feet.  Her heart was beating so
hard it drummed in her ears, almost drowning out the cries and
pounding of Byers and the others still trapped in the shed. 
Skinner just stood there and glared at her in absolute silence. 
Then Skinner made two quick movements simultaneously.  He kicked
her gun off the loading dock with his foot as his right hand
reached into his suit pocket and produced a shiny, metal cylinder
about the size of a thick cigar.  A sliding, mechanical sound
emitted from the cylinder as a thin, knitting needle shaped spike
protruded from its body.  Scully stumbled back against the
dumpster, her eyes wide with terror.  She had seen this weapon
before and was all too aware of how it was used.  Skinner began
racing towards her again as he raised the weapon over his head in
his right hand.  Scully backed herself up firmly to the dumpster
and spread her arms, grabbing the top edge with her hands. 
Holding on, she curled her legs up to her chest just as he
pressed up against her, so that her feet were now planted firmly
on his chest.  She grunted and gave a mighty thrust, her powerful
legs straightening with the force of a piston in an engine, and
Skinner stumbled back a good seven or eight feet - but he
remained standing.  Scully gasped in astonishment at how little
effect her powerful thrust had on the man even as he rushed
towards her a second time.  She gripped the dumpster again and
quickly brought up one leg, ramming her pointed-toe shoe firmly
into Skinner's crotch.  He doubled over in pain but only backed
away two or three feet at best, and almost instantly he
straightened up, raised the deadly cylinder and came at her yet
again. 
"You're not Skinner!  You're not even human!" Scully screamed as
he thrust the weapon down on her.  She reached up with her left
arm and grasped his right wrist with all her strength.  The man's
physical strength was incredible but Scully managed to match it,
preventing him from burying the deadly spike into her brain stem. 
After a brief standoff she managed to force his hand back a bit,
her arm proving stronger than his, but she was losing the overall
battle.  Her other hand was gripping the dumpster for balance and
he was too close for her legs to get a reasonable degree of
leverage to push him off.  Skinner tried to wrench his arm free
of her but her steely grip held, keeping the weapon at bay. 
Suddenly he raised his left arm and back-handed her across the
face, hard.  Scully's head rocked as she momentarily faltered and
his right arm brought the metal spike down for the kill.  Acting
purely on survival instinct, she crouched low, lowered her head,
and rammed it into Skinner's stomach.  This only forced him back
a foot or two, and it barely bought her an extract two or three
seconds - but that was enough.  Scully spread her arms and
gripped the dumpster's edge again as Skinner came at her.  With a
gymnast's grace she bent at the waist, brought up her legs onto
his shoulders and bent her knees down so her calves were pressed
against his back.  Skinner, expected her to attempt pushing him
away again, was completely unprepared for her method of attack. 
As she again gripped his right wrist with her left hand, pushing
the deadly  weapon away from her, Scully bent her knees further,
forcing Skinner's head into her crotch.  As he was propelled into
her she clamped her rock-solid thighs against the sides of his
head with a strength that could only be compared to a hydraulic
vice, trapping him in a hold even his super-human alien strength
was no match for.  Scully panted heavily, taking in deep breaths
and watched with detached fascination as her captive struggled to
free himself.  Her right hand continued to grip the dumpster so
Skinner couldn't back away and take her with him, and her left
continued to hold his weapon carrying right arm at a safe
distance.  The man could only shake, squirm and pull at her legs
with his one free arm, but his strength wasn't sufficient to
overcome hers. "Scully...what..what are you doing?" a familiar
voice croaked out from her thigh's fleshy confines.  Intrigued,
but not really surprised, she watched as Skinner's face rippled
and morphed into Mulder's, with a voice change to match.  
"Scully...please....you're killing me...the..the pressure is
killing me...", the Mulder doppelganger pleaded in an
uncomfortably pleading and familiar voice. 
"No sale ass-hole!" she sneered with unwavering resolve as she
jerked and spasmed her body, tightening the strangle hold of her
thighs even further.  The creature continued fighting and
pounding at her legs with his one hand, but was like punching a
slab of granite and no more effective.  He still made a few
feeble, jerking attempts to stab the weapon into Scully's neck,
but his ebbing strength was becoming less and less of a challenge
to her powerful arm, which had overpowered his even when he was
at full strength.  She all but ignored his weakening arm and
concentrated on exerting pressure with her legs.  Finally sensing
that the battle was all but lost, her assailant made another
desperate metamorphosis.  
"Please...Starbuck...ple..ple..please!  What..are
you....doing..STOP!" the creature moaned as it shifted again and
called her by the nickname her father had given her.  Scully
gasped, her eyes widened and her chin trembled.  Tears welled in
her eyes and her guard dropped as the face trapped between her
legs morphed into his image. 
"Dad?" she whispered hoarsely, "Dad....daddy, daddy?" 
"Yes, it's me Starbuck, it's daddy!" the creature continued as it
felt her legs loosen ever so slightly and the hand holding the
spiked weapon slowly inched back towards her neck.  "That's it
honey, it's just me!" the soothing voice went on.  The creature,
sensing it had successfully turned the tables, began to smile. 
By sheer luck a gleam of light reflected off the surface of the
cylindrical weapon and hit Scully's eye, breaking her trance and
no doubt saving her life. 
"YOU BASTARD!" she screamed as she clamped down again with a
hateful vengeance, her tears now ones of humiliation and anger. 
She forced his arm back so powerfully that it shattered his
wrist.  The face of her father screamed in pain as her thighs
squeezed again and the sound of its jawbone snapping was clearly
audible.  "That should shut your lying mouth!" she hissed
triumphantly.  
Scully shoved herself off from the dumpster with her right hand,
allowing the creature to stagger backwards with her sitting atop
its shoulders, her legs maintaining their lethal hold around its
neck.  She easily out-muscled his fractured arm, forced it back,
bent it, and plunged the sharp, pointed spike deep into the base
of his skull.  The Skinner/Mulder/father creature stiffened in
pain as it abruptly stood straight and erect, its face finally
morphing into the familiar harsh, chiseled features of the alien
assassin she and Mulder had encountered numerous times before. 
Scully dismounted from his shoulders and dropped to the ground
before him.  She stepped into him and wrapped her arms around
him, securing a solid bearhug and pinning his arms to his sides. 
He fought violently to free his arms so he could reach up and
remove the weapon imbedded in his brain, but her arms were
stronger than his.  Scully knew the noxious, green fluid the
creature used for blood would render her senseless, and perhaps
kill her, if she inhaled the vapors it produced.  She also knew
the fluid was contained as long as the weapon remained in the
alien's neck, sealing the wound, so she had to keep his arms
pinned while she considered her next course of action.  She spun
the man around and around in her inescapable embrace, forcing him
closer and closer to the edge of the loading dock and finally
over its edge.  They fell to the pier, landing face-to-face on
their sides.  They wrestled on the ground as Scully maintained
her bearhug and reinforced her control by wrapping her legs
around his, rendering him all but helpless.  Spying a length of
heavy anchor chain by the edge of the pier, she rolled him over
and over, forcing him towards it.  When they reached the chain,
Scully moved her legs up to his waist and gave her prisoner a
devastating squeeze.  The pain momentarily disabled him enough to
allow her to remove her arms from around his body and grab the
chain.  Forcing the
creature up into a sitting position, she stood up and swiftly
began wrapping the chain around his upper body, pinning his arms
to his sides again.  The chain was cast iron, and each link in it
weighed over ten pounds, but the petite powerhouse handled it as
casually and easily as an infant girl could swing a jump rope. 
There was a sufficient length of chain to wrap around him several
times, and Scully used ever inch of it.  Then she shoved the
alien off the edge of the pier, pulling the weapon from his neck
as he went over the side.  The creature silently fell into the
water and sank like a stone with the heavy chain draped around
it.  Scully saw the viscous, green ooze bubble from its neck as
it broke the surface of the water.  As he sank the equally foul,
polluted waters of the Anacostia River provided a safe barrier to
prevent the poisonous vapors from spreading. She stood and watch
as the air bubbles coming to the surface gradually diminished and
finally ceased.  She doubted the creature was actually dead - she
wasn't even sure it could die, but at least it was out of the
current scenario.  Time to release her valiant protectors, the
Lone Gunmen, go home, shower, and get back to Mulder's bedside.  

As she took a deep breath and started to turn a sharp breeze
whipped past her ear; a sharp breeze that her FBI training told
her was a bullet that had just barely missed its target. 
Whirling around she looked up onto the loading dock and saw
Krycek, with gun in hand, taking aim for his second shot.  Scully
dropped to the ground and rolled as he fired.  To her good
fortune she rolled over to her own gun where it had come to rest
after the alien had kicked it off the loading dock earlier. 
Their weaponry was now equal, and Scully had the better cover
from which to fire.  Realizing this, Krycek withdrew into the
warehouse from which he had emerged just in time to see Scully
deep-six his alien associate.  Scully pounded up the steps to the
loading dock preparing to pursue him.  The Lone Gunmen, still
pushing and pounding on the tool shed door, would have to go
without their freedom a little longer.  She hesitated just before
entering the warehouse and a plan formed in her mind. 
"This is end-game Alex!" she said to herself aloud, "and I'm not
after a suspect, I'm after a dead man walking!"  Scully realized
she had to cover herself so her actions wouldn't be questioned. 
She took out her cell phone and called Skinner for backup.  With
the knowledge that he and several agents were on their way to her
location, Scully raised her gun and entered the warehouse.


** Washington Navy Yard, Pier 3 Warehouse - 3:30am          

She stood just inside the doorway for several minutes, allowing
her eyes to fully adjust to the dim illumination inside the
building.  She still had her flashlight but realized using it
would benefit Krycek more than she, a nice, bouncing ball of
light in the dark that called out, "Here I am - shoot me!"  She
proceeded in slow, cautious steps, hoping to draw Krycek to her
rather than she chasing him down.  Scully wanted to stay as close
to the exit as possible, but out of purpose, not fear.  It was
possible that Krycek had fled after witnessing the alien's failed
attempt to execute her, but she doubted that strongly.  She was
convinced that the assault on Mulder had been orchestrated to
draw her here, and that it now fell to Krycek to complete the
alien assassin's mission.  Krycek was still here, and he was hers
- all hers.  Her trained ears detected the low, scraping sound of
shoes moving deftly across the rough, concrete floor.  Scully was
grateful that she'd closed the warehouse door behind her when she
entered, otherwise the pounding of the Gunmen could have
interfered with her ability to hear the subtle noises Krycek was
making.  Again she her the distinct scraping noise, and it was
closer!  Krycek was stalking her, just as she had hoped he would. 
She stepped forward, intentionally using jerking, hesitant steps
to make her appear disoriented and her ears once more registered
the sound of shoes on concrete; the sound was off to her right
and in front of her.  Smiling to herself, Scully held her gun out
straight before her and swung to her left, turning her back on
the source of the noise and thereby putting the cheese in the
mouse trap.  
"Where are you Krycek!?" she screamed, a tremor in her voice with
just the right amount of feminine uncertainty to bolster his
confidence, "I have a gun and I'll use it!", she added for
dramatic effect, "I'm warning you!" She heard the sound of his
approach as he crept up behind her but she made no attempt to
turn or confront him.  Scully wasn't certain how much of her
battle on the loading dock Krycek had witnessed, but she hoped it
hadn't been enough for him to realize just how formidable an
opponent she truly was.  She'd have her answer within the next
few seconds.  She called out again in the same quavering tone,
this time allowing her arms to quiver slightly, reinforcing the
illusion that she was helpless and scared.  Suddenly Krycek was
upon her from out of the darkness.  He knocked the gun from her
hands (not realizing she had allowed him to do it) and wrapped
his right arm around her neck.  His left hand held a gun, which
he jammed into her left side.  Taking defensive action, Scully
gripped each of his wrists with each of her hands, attempting to
dislodge his arm from her neck and the gun from her side.  She
struggled but he held her fast.  What he didn't realize was that
her struggle was a mock one, and if he could see her face he'd
wonder what she was smiling about.  
"End of the line, little girl!" he teased cruelly, "But when you
play with the big boys you're bound to get hurt!"  Scully hadn't
seen his face, so she was pleased when the sound of his arrogant
voice confirmed that she had her man. 
"I'm not the one who's gonna get hurt, you cowardly piece of
shit!" she seethed, "In fact, I'm taking you out of the game and
finishing your season, permanently!" 
"You stupid little bitch!  I ought to.......", but Krycek's voice
faltered as he became aware that something wasn't quite what it
seemed. 

As he was speaking Krycek had tightened the arm he had around
Scully's small neck, intending to cut off her air and her ability
to speak.  But he quickly realized that his arm wasn't crushing
against her skin the way he intended.  It was still wrapped
around her neck, but not pressing against it, so he tightened his
arm again, but it still didn't make contact with the skin of her
throat.  He was aware that Scully's grip on each of his wrists
had tightened considerably, but merely considered it to be a
combination of her fear and adrenaline, nothing more.  He was
wrong. 
"My God, Krycek!" Scully teased, "You really are a weakling! 
Some hitman you are - you couldn't even murder a girl scout!" 
"What the fuck...?" the bewildered man exclaimed as he tried a
third time to cut off his captive's air supply and failed yet
again.  He finally began to realize that it was Scully's hold on
his own wrist that was preventing his arm from reaching her neck. 
His mind rejected the notion initially, but what other
explanation was there?  She was  holding his arm off by applying
her strength against his - and she was succeeding apparently
because she was the stronger of the two. 

Accepting the inevitable, humiliating truth, Krycek attempted to
change his mode of attack on the diminutive redhead only to
discover it was far too late for that.  She wasn't the captive in
this situation, she was the captor.  Scully wrenched his left arm
away from her side but oddly she didn't attempt to force his arm
away or wrest the pistol from his hand.  Instead, she actually
forced his arm up behind her back, so it was now between their
two bodies; her hand bending his hand, and the gun it held,
pointed away from her.  Krycek still had his gun, but firing it
now would only send a bullet into the air or into him, so it
offered the struggling man no advantage at all.  He tried to use
his right arm but discovered he couldn't remove it from around
Scully's neck.  Just as her remarkable strength had prevented him
from squeezing his arm closer to her throat, it now prevented him
from pulling his arm away, holding it firmly in its bent
position.  To a third observer, the scene would have been a
strange one to behold at the very least.  The image was that of a
large man standing closely behind a petite woman who had her back
to him.  His arm was wrapped firmly around her small neck,
holding her in a headlock and his left arm had hers twisted up
behind her back.  Her right hand was gripping his forearm in the
normal expectation that she was struggling to free herself from
him.  What would have confused the observer, however, was why the
woman was calm and relaxed, almost serene, while the man was the
one doing all the fidgeting and straining. 
"What the hell is this!" Krycek sputtered in a bewildered tone. 
"This is your final act, you son of a bitch!" Scully sneered,
"and I'm bringing down the curtain!"  

Turning where she stood, Scully started to calmly and steadily
walk back towards the door through which she had entered the
warehouse pulling Krycek along with her.  He resisted but
remained firmly imprisoned in her elaborate grip.  As she started
walking, Scully's eyes perceived a very slight movement off to
her right, about fifty feet away.  She wouldn't have seen it
earlier, but now her eyes had become totally adapted to the
darkness.  Krycek's grunting and cursing had prevented her from
hearing the other person's footsteps, but it was a moot point; a
long stare into the darkness where she'd seen the motion told her
all she needed to know.  Scully turned her head back in the
direction of the door and resumed walking. 
"Let me go you stupid bitch!" Krycek demanded, trying to hide the
rising fear in his voice, "Release me or else..." 
"Give it up, Alex!" Scully sneered, "You can't do anything.  And
you can forget about your accomplice coming to your rescue.  He's
already fled the scene because he's an even bigger coward than
you are!"  She reached the door and hesitated for a few seconds
until she heard the sound of screeching tires on the pier
outside.  Perfect timing; her backup had just arrived.  
"NO! NO!" Krycek stammered, "NO!!" 
"Not very impressive final words", Scully teased, "but then, it's
your choice - and your funeral!"  "And now", she thought to
herself, "It's show time!!"  

Scully took a deep breath, braced herself, and went into action. 
First she slid her left hand over Krycek's wrist to his hand and,
using a considerable degree of strength, squeezed his hand
tightly and crushed his fingers against the hard steel of the gun
he was holding.  His scream of pain was converted to a gasp of
silent agony when she bent her right leg back and rammed the
pointed toe of her shoe into his testicles.  Allowing the
helpless man no time to recover, Scully brought her leg down,
kicked open the doorway, and stepped out onto the loading dock,
dragging Krycek along with her.  As soon as they emerged from the
doorway she began to gyrate her body and shake wildly, which
produced exactly the effect she had hoped it would.  To Skinner
and the two FBI agents with him it looked like she was struggling
in Krycek's grasp and trying to escape. 

"Help me!" she screamed in feigned terror, "He has a gun!!"  As
she finished speaking Scully released Krycek and flung him away
from her.  He staggered a few feet, his crushed hand still
painfully unable to open and drop his gun, and the intense pain
in his groin made it impossible for his mouth to emit any noise
other than a growling moan. As his arms flailed it gave the
impression he was raising his gun, causing Skinner and both
agents to open fire with their weapons.  Krycek crumbled to the
ground in a hail of bullets, most of which found their target
with deadly accuracy.  Being only a few steps away, Scully was
the first one to reach the prone, dying man. 
"B..b..bitch!" he wheezed at her with his dying breath. 
"Good night, foul prince!" she whispered, not caring whether he
lived long enough to hear her or not. 
"Agent Scully, are you alright?" Skinner asked as he walked up
beside her, his voice was formal but reflected genuine concern. 
"Yes sir, I'm fine!" she replied, "Just a little shaken up." 
"We can finish up here", he said gently, "there's no need for you
to stay - what's that?"  His statement turned into a question as
he was distracted by the sound of someone pounding on a door. 
"That's the Gunmen, sir", Scully explained, "they followed me
here and", she added, lying skillfully, "Krycek trapped them in
that tool shed before he came after me." 
"Terrific!" Skinner fumed, "Three idiot civilians who are lucky
to be alive!  Are you sure you're alright Scully?  Do you need a
ride home or can you drive yourself?" 
"Thanks, but I'm really OK", she answered, "I just need to go
back into the warehouse and get my weapon - Krycek knocked it out
of my hand." 
"Of course." Skinner replied as he went over to help the two
agents free the Gunmen from the shed. 
"Christ!" muttered one agent as they both struggled with the
heavy stop sign, "How did Krycek even move this thing by
himself?" 
"Damned if I know!" the second one said as Skinner joined in to
help them and the three men slowly managed to wrestle the sign
clear of the door.   Skinner was also shocked by the weight of it
but remained silent.  A question rose in his mind as he watched
Scully re-enter the warehouse.  He scowled as he remembered how
she had pinned him to the wall in the hospital earlier.  He
dismissed the thought, deciding that perhaps some questions were
best left unanswered.  

Scully used her flashlight as she walked through the vast
warehouse and located her gun quickly.  She replaced it in the
holster, but before exiting the warehouse she walked over to the
area where she'd spotted the sudden movement earlier while
grappling with Krycek.  Her long gaze into the darkness earlier
had indicated wisps of smoke in the air, and as she reached the
spot she could still smell the lingering odor of tobacco. 
Looking down, the beam of her flashlight found what she was
looking for and expecting to find.  She knelt and retrieved a
cigarette butt from the concrete floor.  The brand, of course,
was Morley. "You're next, you black-lunged bastard!" she vowed in
the vast, dark chamber.  Then she rose and calmly walked back to
her car. 


** Epilogue:  Fox Mulder's Apartment, Alexandria Virginia         
                                          (Six Weeks Later)

"God, I'm going out of my mind here!" Mulder groaned from his
bed, "I just wanna get back to work, Scully, I'm bored as hell!" 
"You've got tons of sick leave, Mulder - just lay back, relax,
and try to enjoy it!" Scully laughed, "Here, drink this." 
Sitting on the edge of the bed, she offered him a cup of chicken
soup as he propped himself up on the pillows.  
"I don't have a cold mommy!" he mused sarcastically before taking
a sip, "uhmmmmm, this is actually good!" 
"Just like your mother used to make!" Scully teased, "Or should I
say mommy!" 
"Actually, mom was a lousy cook....", Mulder snickered.  
"Just call me the Queen of Campbells!" she giggled. 
"Couldn't you at least being me a few X-Files to work on here?"
the bedridden man pleaded, "Just paperwork, honest!" 
"Bed rest means bed rest, Mulder!" Scully commanded, "Listen to
your 'mommy' and your doctor and maybe you can return to duty
part time in another week or so."
"But I'm dying here!" he whined, "There's nothing on TV but soap
operas, Pokeman, Bush, and Gore!" 
"Hmmmm", Scully mused, "I better put you on a suicide watch!" 
"HA! - HA! - HA!" he replied, pronouncing each "ha" slowly and
deliberately.  He drained the cup and placed it on the
nightstand, then he started to sit up. 
"Oh no you don't!" she exclaimed as she placed her right hand on
his chest before he could swing his legs over the side of the
bed, stopping his ascent halfway. 
"Just a few hours, please!" he begged. 
"Back down on the backbone!" she ordered in an amused tone. 
"Nothing doing!!" Mulder declared. 

He attempted to continue rising and Scully offered resistance
with the hand she hand on his chest.  Her hand wasn't flat
against him, with the palm touching; only the tips of her fingers
and thumb actually pressing against his chest.  For the moment it
was a stand-off. 
"I am getting up and going out!!" he whispered in a determined
voice as he stared directly into her eyes. 
"You are staying in bed!" she returned, staring right back at
him.  Each of them was smiling at the other.  Mulder started
pushing harder to rise and Scully gently increased her level of
resistance.  He was using both arms to prop himself up and she
was only using her one arm (actually her fingertips) to push him
back down.  The stand-off was broken within a few seconds. 
Mulder's eyes widened in astonishment as his arms quivered and
wobbled under the pressure Scully was exerting against him. 
Abruptly, his elbows buckled and she pushed him back down onto
the bed with a light shove. 
"Round two!" he called out, and tried again to sit up.  This time
Scully said nothing and just kept her fingers pressed into his
chest.  She didn't need to force him down this time, the reason
being that his attempt to rise failed completely.  Mulder's arms
tensed and he clenched his teeth, but the five, slender fingers
on his chest held him flat on his back.  He looked at her
sheepishly was she grinned with an air of superiority and removed
her hand.  

"OK, OK....", he sighed as he stopped fighting and lay back, "I
don't get it, I really feel like I have all my strength back,
but......." "But you can't even out-wrestle little ol'me, who
weighs ninety-five pounds sopping wet!" she concluded with a
laugh, "If you really have all your strength back I'll have to
start opening jars for you!"  
"Maybe it's the pain killers?" he theorized.
"Must be", she answered matter-of-factly, "or.....maybe I'm just
stronger than you!" She smiled and flexed her right arm,
revealing a small, soft-looking biceps.  The funny thing, she
thought to herself, was that Mulder actually did have his full
strength back, he just didn't realize that it didn't matter.  She
could of held him pinned down even if she had a full-blown case
of the flu.  She picked up the cup on the nightstand and stood.  
"I'll get you some more if you promise to stay in bed!" she said
in an artificially stern tone.  
"I'll behave, mom, I promise!" he teased back in a little boy
voice, "but I want a rematch when I'm fully recovered!" 
"Anytime, anyplace, anything, fella - you're on!" Scully
tittered. 
"I know!  I know!" he laughed, "We'll arm-wrestle for lunch
again, and I can't wait to see the disappointed look on your face
when I don't let you win like I always have!" 
"Fine!" Scully laughed over her shoulder as she walked towards
the kitchen with her back to him.  Grinning broadly, she
whispered to herself, "...and I can't wait to see the look on
your face when I beat you anyway!"