Author: Tesla

Address: gah1093@hiwaay.net

Rating: NC-17 (sexual situations, adult language & lawyers)

Category: Mulder/Other. You've been advised.

Spoilers: Assume that this alternate universe careens off track after "Field Trip,"

But spoilers for "Orison".

Archive: Sure, everyone, I would be in a tizzy of pleasure and tell everyone I knew.

Feedback: See above, only I'll write fulsome thanks.

Disclaimer: If Ten Thirteen is even reading this, settle with Duchovny!

Summary: Continuation of "Flying Under the Radar", "Gaining Altitude", "Some Turbulence Expected", "Visibility Zero" and "Flight Delayed".
 
 
 

The man came into the Alexandria law office at four o'clock Tuesday afternoon. He did not look any different from any other salesman or client, as he stood in front of Valerie, the secretary, with his zippered portfolio. He claimed he had some documents for his wife's lawyer. Ms. Durrell wasn't available, she told him.
 

So he pulled out his pistol and aimed through the glass partition and shot her.

She had just enough warning to dive for the kneehole in her desk, so the bullet missed her head and gouged her upper arm, but he ignored her as the glass exploded. She fell to the floor, pulling files and the telephone down with her.
 

Other people ran out of their offices at the noise, then backed up when they saw the gun. "Where is she?" he screamed. "Where is that bitch?"
 

He began shooting through the flimsy wood doors that were slammed against him. Others were piling office furniture against their doors; the college student who worked as a runner made it out the back door and ran to the next office to call for help.

On the Beltline, stuck in traffic, Dana Scully was arguing with her partner about God.
 

"I believe in randomness," Mulder said, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. "I believe in random numbers and spontaneous combustion." He wasn't focussing on the argument, but was half-listening to the local talk radio. Scully had promptly turned the volume down to the minimum. Like it was going to distract him from watching the line of stopped cars in front of them.
 

He leaned back in his seat. "Haven't we been having this conversation for several years now? Your beliefs were formed in a formal religious system. Great. You're satisfied with the answers that you find in that system. Great again."
 

"But?" Scully asked, examining her cuticles.
 

He sighed theatrically. "Haven't we done this a hundred times?"
 

The gunman was methodically shooting at door locks. The secretary pulled her office chair over her head, and hoped her would think she was dead. Her blood was streaming over the plastic chair mat.
 

Someone had called the police; sirens wailed outside.
 

No one came in. The air was cloudy.
 

"Where is she?" the gunman shouted, and tried to kick a door open. A woman screamed as he shot through the door.
 

Valerie could smell what she thought was her own blood, and gunpowder, as she tried to lie still. She counted the people in the building. Who was still at court?
 

She saw his shoes as he stood before her. She didn't blink.
 

He pulled the telephone up by the cord, and punched in a number.
 

"I'm at Alexandria Legal Services, and I'm going to shoot everyone here unless I can talk to my wife," he said in a perfectly conversational voice.
 

It was amazing how vicious some professed Christians could be, Mulder thought, not for the first time. Sheesh. He had met stone cold atheists who at least listened courteously to another point of view.
 

Of course, he had deliberately hit Scully's flash button. The "I don't need this shit" tone seemed to drive her to raging lunacy. It was always good for a fifteen-minute tirade, which always ended…
 

"Since you aren't listening to me, as usual, I'll stop," she concluded, delivered in her coldest forensic tone.
 

"Scully, I always listen to you," he said. He spoiled the effect by adding, "I've always liked that lecture. Your catechism teacher must be beaming--"
 

She held her palm out for silence and turned up the radio. This was an unusual day.
 

"--Shots fired. There are reports of a gunman holding hostages inside the offices of Alexandria Legal Services."
 

Mulder went cold.
 

"That's Janet's office, " Scully said, blankly.
 

"Get your gun and badge ready," he said, and bumped his car onto the median, driving up through the grassy strip to an exit. The other cars honked belligerently, and Scully wound down her window and held out her badge.
 
 

The police had the street cordoned off, and ambulances waiting. A negotiator was on his way.
 

Valerie didn't know that. She saw the gunman move the chair from her, and squeezed her eyes shut.
 

"You can go," he said. "You're just a secretary, aren't you?"
 

Valerie usually bristled at those words, but she nodded fervently, and he helped her up with one hand, the other hand still holding out the pistol. She clapped her hand to her shoulder, and he half-dragged her to the front door, and pushed her out in front.
 

She tripped and fell down the two steps to the street; a policeman in a Kevlar vest raced out and pulled her behind a car.
 

"Who is it? Do you know? Who's in there with him?"
 

"I don't remember, " Valerie said. "I don't remember who he is. He shot at someone else. He wanted his wife's lawyer."
 

Mulder parked at an angle, next to the police tape. But Scully got out of the car and raced up to the nearest officer, badge in hand.
 

"Agent Scully, FBI," she said. "I know one of the lawyers. What's going on?"
 

"Disgruntled divorce, " the policeman said. "He shot one girl, and let her go. She says there's more inside." He shrugged. "Suicide by cop, seems to me."
 

Scully looked around at the crowd. There was the ambulance. There was the hostage team. She caught sight of a blonde woman standing beside a police captain, and she ran through the crowd.
 

"I don't even file divorces," Janet was saying. "His wife could be someone I sent to someone else." Scully put her hand on her arm, and Janet looked down at Scully as she finished. "Oh, hi, Dana." Then she looked past Scully. Her hand patted Scully's for a second, and then she stepped away from her.
 

"Damn it, Janet--" Mulder said. He was shaking.
 

"Is this any time to quote Rocky Horror Show?" Janet asked, pokerfaced.
 

"Is this any time to be a snot?" he retorted, and crushed her in a bear hug. He let her go after a moment. "Jesus, there's a time and place for humor." He kissed the side of her face. "You idiot."
 

"I can't help it. It's a joke. This guy has the wrong law office."
 

Scully felt at sea. Neither one had ever told her--she had assumed--she clamped her mouth shut hard.
 

"I'm glad you're all right, Janet," she said formally. "Mulder, if we're not needed here--"
 

Infuriatingly, he held out the keys. He still had one arm around the other woman. "Here, I'll catch a ride home with Janet."
 

Numb, Scully took the keys and walked away. Behind her, she heard shouts and glanced back; she saw the door opening, and the gunman walking out with his hands on his head. As she walked to the car in the dusk, the camera crews were running up the street.
 
 
 

Later that evening, she was making a salad when the phone rang. She let the machine pick it up.
 

"Hey, Scully," Mulder's voice said. Scully came to the kitchen doorway to listen. "Just one person wounded." He paused. "Guy was at the wrong law office. Same last name, wrong lawyer. I told you, it's all random." And he hung up.
 

Scully stood there for a moment, looking at the knife in her hand.