Autopsies Don't Lie
by Skept (xphiler1121@yahoo.com)

Spoilers: Yes, Biogenesis, *season 7s* 6th
Extinction and Amor Fati...maybe some others.
Rating: PG, light angst

Disclaimer: Scully, Mulder, and GLADLY Fowley do
not belong to me. They belong to Chris Carter,
1013 Productions and 20th Century Fox.

Notes: Took me about a week and a few stuck areas
to finally finish this. I have a basic intent
between the lines I hope readers will catch. If
not, the dialogue might not seem the same and
your outtake might not be as deep. So you can
look out for it now. I hope everyone enjoys it,
and good night..Marry Christmas!!!!
SkepticalScully       at xphiler1121@yahoo.com


Scully and Mulder walked into the lab to find
everything in disaray. Test tubes and chemicals
were spilled all over the place. Mulder went
around the side of the counter and stopped
suddenly, "o-oh," he said.

Scully and Mulder bent down next to the body. It
was completely torn to shreds. "What could have
done this, Mulder?" Scully asked. Then she looked
up at the opened cages where monkeys used to be
caged for experiments.  

Mulder followed Scully's gaze. "But who would
have let them out of their cages?" 

"I think I can answer that, Fox." Diana Fowley
came walking in. "Donald Plastert had an appoint
ment with Dr. Hardlet but he never showed up." 

She walked over and stood very close to Mulder.
Scully took a few steps back. "And how do you
know?" she asked Fowley.

"I know." Fowley replied sternly, "because I have
the tape from his answering machine when he
called Mr. Fastert, but there was never a reply."

"Do you have the tape, can i hear it?" Fowley
took a glance at Scully, then took the tape out
of her pocket for Mulder. 

Mulder took it and picked up the phone from the
floor.

A man's voice. No doubt Mr. Hardlet's, came on.
It sounded strained and nervous. "Mr. Fastert, I
have been waiting for you. When you get this
call, erase it."

"That's your conclusion to this?" Scully asked
Fowley. "But that doesn't explain what happened
in here."

"I know. But Donald Fastert can't be found. And
the message sounds suspecious. I believe Mr.
Fastert came in here, let the monkey's out and
destroyed the office. And somehow the scientist.
You agree with me, Fox, don't you?"

Mulder looked at Fowley, then at Scully, then at
Fowley again. "Your theory sounds creditable
enough, but I'd like to take a thorough look
around here before." 

"Of course, Fox." she said then nodded at Scully.
"Agent Scully."

Agent Fowley left the room after taking the tape
back. "For evidence." 

Day 3

Mulder came into the office. "Found it, Scully."

"Found what?" she looked up from the computer.

"What we've been looking for. Who we've been
looking for-"

"Dr. Hardlet. He was killed by his monkey's. They
were definitely left out of the cage and they
attacked him."

"But why would they attack him?" Mulder asked.
"Mr. Fastert, he's in Africa. On the Ivory
Coast."

"The Ivory Coast?" Scully exclaimed. "What's he
doing there?"

"Let's find out." Mulder said. "Come on, I got
the tickets already. Plane leaves in four hours."

Africa, Ivory Coast
28 hours later

They took their shoes off so that they wouldn't
get filled with sand and followed a darkly tanned
african man over to the tent where Mr. Fastert
was working on something. 

Mulder and Scully walked over. "Mr. Fastert?" 

The man stood up quickly, startled, and knocked
over the chair he was sitting on. He wiped his
brow and stared at them, waiting for them to
identify themselves and what they were doing
here.

"Mr. Fastert, do you know that Dr. Hardlet was
murdered in his office just shortly after
recieving a message from you?" 

"It has come here."

"What has come here?" Scully asked.

"It has killed here already. You should go back
to the States before you're contaminated."

"What has killed? Are you saying it killed Dr.
Harlet?"

"It's already here. You should leave now."

Scully asked again, in a stricter tone. "What's
already come?" 

"He believes the alien virus was infected into
the monkey's and they attacked Dr. Hardlet."

Scully and Mulder both turned to see Diana Fowley
in the doorway of the tent. "What are you doing
here, Diana?"

"She's been helping me." Fastert said, cleaning
up his supplies and packing them into a bag. 

"What? Diana, what is going on?" Mulder stepped
forward to confront her.

"Fox, it's not what you think. I'm trying to help
you."

Fowley turned away and followed Fastert out to
the jeep. Scully and Mulder stood in the tent
still, staring at eachother, sorting out the last
few minutes into a clear and logically series of
events before going after them. 

**

In the jeep, Fastert set the case down with his
supplies and stared at the woman as she stared at
the couple in the tent. "What are you waiting
for? We are in danger if we delay any longer."

Fowley broke out of her reverie and started the
jeep. They drove down the road, when suddenly,
something stood in their way. Fowley slammed on
the brakes, stopping it just in time. 

Then, things went dark and the couple in the jeep
screamed and gasped in horror as it happened. 

**

"Mulder, you're not thinking what I think you're
thinking." 

Mulder nodded his head. Suddenly, a tremendous
sound of thunder clapped above them and they
jumped. The sky turned dark and rain started to
pour. "Scully...?"

"Yeah?" she looked over at him.

"I think we're stuck here."

"Really? What gave you that idea?" she asked, but
it was not out of sarcasm. She stood rigid,
waiting for another clap to sound. They peered
out the tent flap as the water started to crash
and break against the rocks. Rain poured down,
washing away sand with it's impending fury. 

They sat down on the cot to wait it out. After a
while, Mulder quietly asked, "Scully...when you
were here...looking for answers...did you really
find them? Will it really help us?"

Scully looked over at him. "Mulder...I thought I
had found a key...I thought that you were lost,
but now you are here, where this whole thing
started...and I don't know what I found here
anymore. It's all been cleaned up. We'll never
really know what I found..." she trailed off.
"But I think...that you...are part of the key..."

Mulder looked at her, put his hand over hers,
"I'm not part of the key, Scully. Just used in
their ploys. Just like you. If we give
up...what's anything we've ever done going to
worth us? We've come so close so many times to
have it taken away from us...this is just one
more time...what's it worth to find the Truth if
we give up now and let them win?"

Suddenly, as quickly as it had come, the rain
stopped and the sky cleared. Scully and Mulder
stood up and walked to the tent opening. "Want to
get back and find Diana and Fastert? We need more
answers from him."

They started back. They found the jeep, and
Mulder climbed in behind the wheel. They were
driving down the road when a jeep coming towards
them stopped and pulled over, blocking their
route.

It was the same man who had led them to Mr.
Fastert. "Agent Scully, Mulder." he said through
his window in a think African accent, "there's
been some kind of...accident, I'm not sure. But I
think one of our friends and the man I took you
to meet, were in the jeep. I can take you to
them."

Mulder and Scully glanced at eachother. They
waited until the other jeep turned around and
passed them before following. 


"It's Diana." Mulder said. Scully looked up at
him, then clutched his arm and pulled him away. 

"I'm sorry, Mulder..."

Mulder looked away, but then composed himself and
looked at her squarely. "It's okay, Scully. I
once...thought I knew Diana....but she's
changed...she's not the same person I once knew
her to be....it's like she left a long time ago."

Scully nodded and looked down. "So what are we
going to do now, Mulder? All our sources keep
being...erased."

"We find out what killed Diana and Mr. Fastert,
use that information, then go back home and find
the answers like we've always done." Mulder said,
lifted Scully's chin so he could see her face,
then walked away. 

Scully watched after Mulder for al ong moment,
then followed him.


Mulder came in as Scully was finishing up on
Donald Fastert. She looked up stricken as Mulder
approached. "What, Scully?"

"I found...traces in both bodies...of the same
substance that was found...in the firemens bodies
in Dallas...what you were exposed to in the
Russian gulag.....what I was exposed to in the
Antarctica..." she was babbling on now.

Mulder reached for her, "Scully, it's okay."

She stopped, then turned from him. She took off
her goggles then hung up the white coat before
she could compose her self enough to face him.

Mulder sighed, then confronted her. "I know you
still have feelings, and questions, and...and I
don't know how to make it better for you, and I
know being back here doesn't make it any easier
for you. You don't have to hold it in all the
time, hide it and pretend you're okay. I know
you're not, and whether or not you think you are
cleverly concealing it, I can see it, Scully."

She didn't know what to say to that. "And what
about you, Mulder? I'm not the only one-"

"I know that, but I'm worried about you, not
myself. I can deal with myself. You don't have to
keep it in. I know what it's like to do
that...we'll find the answers, Scully. I won't
give up until I do. You deserve the answers you
need too, I...I can only go one day at a time and
hope they don't get too far ahead."

"Are you done with the body, Agent Scully?" the
medical examiner sauntered in.

In the jeep once again, Scully asked, "Mulder are
you sure you're okay with Fowley's death? You
once were friends."

Mulder looked over at her. "I think I'm okay with
it, Scully. I mean, I don't even feel anything.
I'm not happy about it, but I don't feel
exceptionally sad about it either. Is that wrong?
She's only human, she mad mistakes, but I feel a
sort of comfort I don't know how to explain."

"I-I don't know what to say, Mulder. I-"

"Don't say anything then, Scully. I know what you
mean." 

That put an end to the converstation. 

Washington, D.C.
25 hours later

"Where have you two been, I have been trying to
locate you for the past 5 days. I could be
repirmanded and you could pay serious
consequences for you actions." Skinner lectured
them. 

"We know, sir. But it was very important-" Scully
started.

"What happened to the case I sent you on? The
scientist, have you solved the case?" Skinner
interrupted.

"We haven't concluded na-nothing definite, no,
sir." Scully stuttered.

"I'll let this one slide agents, get this case
wrapped up." Skinner dropped the folder on his
desk, dismissing them.

Mulder and Scully went down to the office. "We're
pretty much left with nothing to go on. Dr.
Hardlet is dead, and our main source of
information is dead. Nothing was found in any of
Donald Fastert's belongings to conclude he had
anything to do with this...so what now, Scully?"

Scully shrugged, "I don't know, Mulder. Another
dead end. I'm sure it will pick up again
somewhere."

"That's what I'm afraid of, Scully. This thing
never ends." he sighed and rubbed his eyes. 

"There's always an end to every story, Mulder.
This isn't it, but it'll come." she tried to
reassure him.

He looked up, "Are you sure, Scully? Because for
it to end it has to go somewhere. And we're still
in the same spot we've been for the past seven
years. This is one story that's always to be
continued." he finished. 

"Just like always," Scully agreed. 

They sat in their chairs, thinking to themselves.
Thinking about how everything in the past had
outcomes on the future. 

To be continued.......

The End.