TITLE: Internal Feast AUTHOR: Amber Pyle AUTHOR E-MAIL: Hfordlovur@aol.com RATING: PG-13 CLASSIFICATION: MT, A SPOILERS: None DISCLAIMERS: Mulder, Scully, and Skinner belong to Chris Carter and 1013 Productions. They do not belong to me. All other characters I made up. None of them are real in any way SUMMARY: Mulder is kidnapped and tested on with an unknown drug. Can Scully get to him in time? FBI Basement September 23 8:00 AM A dim light shone through the cracks under the door of the basement. Inside a man was sitting in a very cluttered desk looking at some papers. He had been up all night looking over these papers and the fatigue was starting to get to him. From the look of him his age was unable to be determined. At the time he looked like he could be 50. There were circles under his eyes from lack of sleep. His sleeves from his white dress shirt were rolled up and a dress jacket laid over the back of a chair next to him. As he looked through the stack of papers once more he started to doze. He jerked awake as the door to this small office opened. He didn't have to look up to see who it was. Her scent penetrated the room. "Hi Mulder," Scully said as she entered the room and hung up her coat on the coat rack next to the door. "Hi Scully," Mulder replied wearily. Scully looked up and could instantly see how exhausted he looked. "Have you been up all night?" Scully asked even though she had already known the answer. "Been looking over a case that came in yesterday from Skinner." He handed her the papers he had been looking at and she took them with curiosity. She looked over the papers and replied just the way Mulder figured she would. "Mulder, please tell me you aren't making us go to Kansas to look into another UFO sighting." "Plane leaves at 5:00 this evening," was all he said. She rolled her eyes but knew better than to argue with him. It wouldn't make any difference. She could tell that he was set on going. "Fine," she said, "but if you want me to go then you have to go home and get some rest." He started to protest but the look in her eyes told him that she was serious. "Fine," he muttered. Then he picked up his jacket and left. ****************************************************** As he started walking outside he noticed a man following behind him. At first he thought he was just being his paranoid self, but then the man started following closer. Mulder glanced back and automatically had his features memorized. He was a tall man, a little taller than Mulder's 6' frame, he had brown, slightly balding hair, he wore a black suit with a large trenchcoat which could easily disguise any weapons he might have, and Mulder even noticed a small scar on his chin. As they both turned a corner Mulder was going through his mind about what he should do. He thought of pulling out his gun but he knew that if it actually was him being paranoid then he could be accused for assaulting someone with a deadly weapon. He thought about breaking into a run but he decided that if this man was after him then he would be dead before he could go far. Finally he slowed down enough to get into step with the man. "What do you want?" Mulder said in his most intimidating voice. "Let's go somewhere more private" the man replied. They turned a corner and stepped into an alley. "All right. Spill it." "I'm here to warn you not to pursue the case in Kansas" At first Mulder was shocked that the man knew. The only people that Mulder thought knew were Scully and Skinner. Then he thought better of himself. These people always found a way to find what they needed to know. "And why is that?" Mulder asked. "Because this case is none of your concern and is a waste of yours and Agent Scullys time," the man said simply. "The hell it is. How many times have I heard that?" "This time it is true." "I think I will decide that for myself," Mulder said and walked away. "It won't get you any closer to what your looking for!" the man yelled out as Mulder walked. Even though Mulder knew that it was very unprofessional he simply flicked the guy off. ****************************************************** As Mulder walked into his small apartment his mind was still on the mystery man. /Who was he? Why was he telling me this?/ These questions kept racing through his mind. /Probably just another way for Cigarette Smoking Man to keep me from knowing the truth./ Mulder finally convinced himself. He didn't realize just how tired he was until his eyes saw the couch in his living room. He decided to take a quick shower and then try and get some sleep before the flight. He turned on the shower and slowly undressed. He was just about to step into what looked like a very comforting wave of water when he heard a noise coming through the living room. He grabbed his boxers and quickly put them on. Then he grabbed his gun. He was preparing to jump out and take the person by surprise. He was just reaching for the door handle when the door suddenly burst open, nailing him right in the forehead. The blow knocked him to the ground. He could feel the blood going down his forehead as he tried to get his bearings. He looked up at two men that had gathered around him. One he recognized as the man from earlier. "I tried to warn you, Agent Mulder, but you just don't listen," and at that the butt of his own gun rushed at him, striking him in the back of the head. The man smiled in satisfaction as Mulder's body slowly slumped to the ground. ****************************************************** Washington DC airport 4:45 PM Scully looked worriedly around for her partner. He was late, which wasn't all that unusual, but Scully felt that something was terribly wrong. She tried Mulder's cellular phone for what seemed like the millionth time, once again getting no answer. She tried his house but no answer came from here either. She decided to go ahead and leave a message. "Mulder, this is Scully. It is 4:45 and the plane to Kansas has already boarded. Please call my phone as soon as you get this." Scully hung up, even more worried. She look at her watch, realizing it was now nearly 5. A flight attendant approached her. "Ma'am, the plane is ready to leave. If you want to come you better get on now," she said as politely as she could, though the annoyance was still there. "Go ahead. We can get another flight later," Scully replied. "Do you want me to book you for our 7:00 flight" "No, that's all right." Scully decided to wait 15 more minutes for Mulder then leave. ****************************************************** Mulder slowly started waking. He didn't want to open his eyes, for fear that he wouldn't know where he was at. He opened his eyes anyway revealing that his fear was true. He was in some kind of cement room. The only pathway out of the room was a single cement door which he knew from looking at it was locked. He was on the floor, only in his boxers, and was freezing. /These people sure don't believe in heaters/ Mulder thought as he tried to lift his head up. The pain in brought it right back down. He laid there with his eyes closed for a moment, letting the dizziness pass. He tried to rub his eyes, only to realize that they were restrained. He opened his eyes and looked at himself. His legs and arms were tied up with rope that was looped around hooks on the ground. Sighing, he realized that there was no way he was going to escape. He was tied up, possibly had a concussion, and the room was sealed tight. He felt helpless. /I guess I will have to let Scully get me out of this one/ he thought. Just then a man in a lab coat entered. He was carrying a syringe with some sort of liquid. It was light pink and almost looked like it were bubbling. Realizing what was about to happen he started yelling, ignoring the pain it caused in his head. The yells were ignored and the man just kept coming towards him. Mulder jerked his body, as if attempting to break free, but that was useless and the man just kept bringing the needle closer and closer to his wrist. Realizing there was absolutely nothing that he could do, Mulder stopped yelling and moving and just stared coldly at the man as the needle was slowly injected. Mulder started getting tired and just before black swept over him he wondered what he had just been injected with. ****************************************************** September 24 10:00 AM Scully rushed into AD Skinners office. The secretary obviously knew not to mess with her and told her to go right in. Skinner looked up, surprised, as Scully walked into his office. "What can I do for you Agent Scully?" Skinner asked in a cold, professional tone. "Sir, I am worried about Agent Mulder. We were supposed to meet at the airport to go to Kansas yesterday and he never showed up. He hasn't come in today either." Scully said with obvious worry in her voice. "When was the last time you saw him?" Skinner asked, also starting to get worried. "About 8:30 yesterday morning. He showed me the case you gave him, told me that we were leaving for 5 to go to Kansas, and I ordered him to go home and get some rest." "Have you been to his home?" "No sir. I tried calling but got the answering machine. I left a message which he hasn't returned yet." "Let me get some things and I will go with you to Agent Mulder's house in, say, one hour?" "Thank you sir." She sighed with relief. She was afraid to go to Mulder's house herself, afraid at what she would find. At least now someone will be with her. ****************************************************** As the two of them reached Mulder's door, Scully realized that it was open a crack. Skinner and Scully looked at each other and pulled out their guns. They opened the door, pointing their guns in front of them to be ready if anyone were to be there. They searched the apartment and found no one. Scully reached the bathroom and gasped. There was blood on the floor and the door. She figured that someone had been hit with the door, but there was too much blood just for that. /The person was probably hit a second time with something else/ she thought as she gathered some of the blood for testing, even though she knew who's it was. "Oh god Mulder, please be all right," she whispered to herself. Just then Skinner came up behind her. When he saw what happened he looked at Scully half sympathetically, half seriously. "Let's get this blood tested. I will get my best agents on this case. That means you Scully," he smiled at her and she smiled back. "Thank you sir." ****************************************************** Unknown address September 25 8:32 AM Mulder felt like he had been beaten as he slowly arose from sleep. His muscles were stiff from staying in the same position for so long. They had come in two more times and injected him with the same substance. Each time he passed out seconds after it had entered his body. He had asked repeatedly what was going on, but it was like no one had even heard him. He had a headache and he felt like he were coming down with something serious. /Probably has something to do with the stuff they keep giving me./ he thought coldly. He had no idea of how long he had been there. He was starving and even if they had given him something to eat he felt like there was no way it would stay down. They had been giving him plenty of water though. When he was awake he thought of Samantha and Scully a lot. Surely Scully would have known something was wrong when he didn't show at the airport. But how would they find him? He was sure that these people wouldn't have left anything behind. Suddenly Mulder started coughing. Then it went into a coughing fit. It took several minutes for it to subside. By the time it had he felt exhausted from all the energy it took from him. Now he became slightly worried about pneumonia. He knew that it was very possible with the condition he was in. Hell, who knows. The stuff that these people kept giving him could carry something that causes pneumonia. There was no way of telling for sure. He suddenly felt very sleepy. /Where are you Scully?/ He thought as he let darkness fall over him. ****************************************************** FBI Headquarters Washington DC *Briiiinng, Briiiinng* "Scully," she answered as she put her cellular phone to her ear. "Agent Scully, the blood tests are back from the lab. The blood is in fact Agent Mulder's" Skinner said as professional as he could. Scully let out a small gasp and tears started to well up in her eyes. " Thank you sir," was all she was able to say. "That's not all. I went ahead and had Mulder's apartment dusted for fingerprints and we found a set that aren't his. They belong to a Harold Foreson. I got an address if you would like to accompany me there." "I would like that very much sir. Thank you." "Meet me in my office in a half an hour," he replied and hung up. ****************************************************** House of Harold Foreson 10:00 AM Scully tried not to get her hopes up as she and Skinner walked up the steps of what appeared to be a perfectly nice little house. It was one story, white with a forest green trim. There was a little garden and there were even some toys out in the yard. Skinner knocked rapidly on the door. There was no answer so Skinner tried the doorbell. Still no answer. Scully and Skinner looked at each other as they both drew there weapons in front of them. Skinner kicked down the door and they both put there weapons in front of them preparing to use them if needed. It appeared to be empty. As they searched the house Scully came upon what appeared to be a clearance badge. It read 'Paint Community College'. As far as Scully knew, there was no such college. She brought it to Skinner and asked if he had ever heard of it. He shook his head as he looked at her questionably. She examined it more carefully and as she turned it over she noticed an address. She looked at Skinner and he nodded as agreement that she wanted to check it out. ****************************************************** As Skinner and Scully came up at the address they both realized that it didn't look like a college at all. In fact it looked more like an abandoned warehouse. This time Skinner only had to knock once to see that no one was going to answer. Since this door had a dead bolt on it, they had to shoot the lock before it opened. At first it looked empty but then Scully caught a glimpse of a man hiding behind some crates. "FBI. Freeze!" she yelled out to him, "Put your hands in the air where I can see them and come out." The man did as instructed and Scully had him down on the floor with his hands behind his back before he even knew what was going on. "Where's Agent Mulder," she asked. "I don't know what your talking about," he replied in a shaky voice. "Damnit! Tell me!" she yelled back as she took the safety off her gun, making sure he heard it. "He's in the back," he was almost sobbing now. Scully went and joined Skinner who had found three more men. "This man tells me that Mulder is in the back of this building," she told him. "Well then lets go find our boy," he replied. Keeping their guns in front of them they began a search of the entire building. They hadn't found anything until they reached the last door. "Oh god. Mulder" Scully half sobbed. ****************************************************** Mulder woke up to the sound of gunfire. He tried to sit up before realizing that he was still in restraints. Even if he was able to get up he didn't think he would be able to stay up anyway. Nausea kept creeping up on him, threatening to make him throw up. Then he heard a voice. It was yelling at someone. It was a woman's voice. It was Scully's voice! *Scully* he tried to say, but the words wouldn't come out. His mouth was too dry. So he just lay there, waiting for her to find him. Suddenly the door to his room opened. He looked up and saw the beautiful face of his partner. It was the last thing he saw before he blacked out. ****************************************************** "Get an ambulance!" Scully yelled to Skinner. Skinner was a little taken aback that she would talk to him in that manner, but he knew this was serious so he simply let it pass and nodded. Scully went over to Mulder and checked his vitals. He had a fairly strong pulse, but not as strong as it should be. His breathing was somewhat shallow, like he had a cold. Now, as she looked him over, she realized that he only wore his boxers and now she was worried about pneumonia. "Hang on Mulder, we're going to get you out of here." Within minutes the sounds of a siren could be heard throughout the building. Skinner was outside to meet them and instructed them where to go. They did as they were told and found a mans body lying on the floor. Over the body was a woman trying to undo what appeared to be some sort of restraints on the man. Scully looked up at the people and told them Mulder's vitals as far as she could tell. They simply nodded and began to prepare the Mulder to be lifted up onto the gurney. Scully felt helpless until one of the meds. walked up to her. "What exactly happened to this man?" the meds. asked "Dr. Weldon," she said as she read the identification tag on the med.'s clothing, "Agent Mulder was kidnapped from his home about 2 days ago. We just found him here about an hour ago. I think he may have a concussion and pneumonia," she replied in her doctor tone. "Could I ride in the ambulance with him?" Scully asked suddenly "Of course you can," Dr. Weldon smiled at her. ****************************************************** DC Hospital 1:30 PM Scully had been by Mulder's side the entire time to the hospital. He had actually woken up once but was too disoriented from various drugs to know what was going on. He did know, however, that Scully was with him so he felt safe and knew not to worry. By the time they had reached the hospital he was asleep, which was good since Scully wasn't so sure how he would react to being moved around so much after being in the same place for so long. He, in fact, did have pneumonia but there was something else that seemed to be wrong with him. Scully wasn't sure what it was but she knew it was serious. Scully was at Mulder's bedside when the doctor came in. "Dr. Scully?" the medical doctor asked. "Yes. What have you found?" she responded in a worried tone. "My name is Dr. Melissa Cotton. Though I can't explain it, we have discovered that almost all of Mr. Mulder's organs are being eaten away by some toxin." "What?! How is that possible?" "It seems that some sort of toxin was injected into Mr. Mulder and is slowly eating away at his organs," she repeated herself. "I understand that but what does this mean? Can it be stopped?" "I believe that if we give a simple blood transfusion and wait it out Mr. Mulder will be fine. However, we must monitor him closely until his organs repair themselves. It is possible for Mr. Mulder's heart to stop or he even may stop breathing. We doubt that this will happen, but we need to be sure of this before he can be released." "OK. I understand." Skinner had entered in the middle of the conversation unnoticed and listened intensely until the conversation was over. He then walked up to Scully and put his hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "He will be fine," he told her, trying to release her worries. "Thank you sir. What did you find at the warehouse Mulder was found at?" "We found five crates of the same material that was found in Mulder's bloodstream. It is being identified at the labs as we speak," Skinner looked at her cautiously before continuing, " We also found three more victims. They were found dead in rooms similar to Mulder's. We found the same stuff in their bloodstream as we did in Mulder's. It almost appears like their insides were eaten up." "The Dr. said that the toxin in Mulder's body was eating at his organs," Scully replied teary eyed. Skinner had missed this part of the conversation. "What? How?" "She isn't sure, but she says that he will be fine after a blood transfusion." "And he will. He has never given up and we have no reason to believe he will now," Skinner said trying to comfort her. ****************************************************** DC Hospital September 26 8:00 AM Mulder slowly started to stir. His eyes fluttered open and he saw the familiarity of a hospital. /Good/ he thought to himself /It wasn't a dream/. He looked over to the right of him and saw Scully asleep in what looked like an uncomfortable plastic chair. He had never been so happy to see her face. He smiled to himself but the smile faded as he started coughing. Scully woke up startled. She looked over at Mulder and noticed he was awake but in a full force coughing fit. She pressed the call button and held Mulder's hand and rubbed his back until the coughing passed. He settled down on the pillow and looked up at Scully. "Hey," Scully said, "How ya feeling?" He tried to speak but his mouth was still too dry. A glass of water with a straw seemed to appear in Scully's hand and he drank gratefully. He then licked his lips and turned back to Scully. "I feel like shit," he said in a raspy voice. She smiled at him and replied, "Well maybe that is because you have a mild case of pneumonia and before we found you, your organs were slowly being eaten up." He looked at her with confusion. "What is that supposed to mean?" "The people that took you were using you as a guinea pig for some sort of toxin. You were lucky that we found you. We found three more people with the same toxin in their body dead. Mulder, their organs were eaten by this toxin. When we found them there was practically nothing left of their insides." "Ouch. Guess I am glad you found me. I was starting to get lonely anyway," Mulder teased. "Well the Dr. wants to keep you until she is sure that your organs are healing the way they should. That will probably be a couple of days and after that I was put responsible for making sure you stay in bed until the pneumonia is gone." "Lucky you." "I want you to stay at my place until I think you are capable of being on your own. And you better be good," she said half seriously. "Yes ma'am." ****************************************************** Dana Scully residence One week later "But Scully, I'm sick of salads and nutrition bars. I need real food," Mulder wined. "I hardly call a hamburger from McDonalds real food. Besides the food that I've been giving you will help you get better quickly. The greasy food you want will do nothing but clog your arteries," Scully replied sternly. "I know but I don't think I can go another day without some of that greasy food." "Well that's just tough. As long as your under my roof you will eat what I give you," Scully smiled to herself as she realized that she sounded just like her own mother. "Fine," he mumbled. "You know that I'm not doing this to torture you. I just want you to get better," Scully tried to reason with him. "Yeah. You want me to get better so I can get the hell out of your house," Mulder joked. "Well that too," she joked back. Then she more seriously said, "I'm just glad to have you back in one piece." "I'm glad you have me back in one piece too. By the way, what the hell took you so long to find me?" At that Scully threw the nearest pillow at her partner and they both started laughing as a pillow fight went underway.