Somewhere in North America…
The woods are very dense and overgrown. The smell of blooming foliage is everywhere. On this morning the dew lay on the grass in the open valleys glistening in the sunlight. The wild life scatters in what seems to be random directions. The only sounds are the trees and bushes rustling in the breeze and the quiet voices and steps of two people wending their way through this wonderland. She looks extremely competent in the woods, and he just slightly less so. They stop to take in the beauty of the scene in front of them, a lovely little pond with ducks swimming on it. He puts his arm over her shoulders; she lifts one hand to gasp his draped hand.
After a few moments, he speaks quietly to her, and they move on. The contented smiles leave their faces to be replaced with tight lipped determination. The language of the body seems to be the only way they need to speak since they hardly use words. They are coming down a slight hill going towards something smoking in the near distance.
When they get close enough, he signals her to stop and ducks behind a boulder. On anther signal she moves forward to join him. They both pull their weapons, he looking exceedingly competent, while she fumbles a mere moment.
"You ready Amanda?” Lee asks.
"Uh huh," she replies with a slight nod to her head.
Just then a branch snaps behind them making them both quickly turn, guns raised.
"Damn!" is heard quietly muttered by a male voice.
"They heard us, John," a female voice whispers back.
Out of the woods step another duo, a man with short-cropped blonde hair and a woman with medium length black hair. Both are dressed as Lee and Amanda, for the elements. Both of them also have their weapons drawn and only slightly raised. This tableau only lasts for a few seconds as Lee and Amanda note that the jackets of the two newcomers have the letters FBI on them. They lower their weapons slowly.
"Who the hell are you two?" asks Lee while slowly standing up and moving towards John.
"Dogget and Reyes, FBI.” John answers.
"What are you two doing here?” Lee asks testily.
"We're looking for some people. Now who the hell are you two?” John asks, annoyed.
"Lee and Amanda Stedman, and you don't need to know who we work for.” Lee answers in the same tone.
"You better believe we need to know. No one is going to go anywhere until we know.” John says with some force.
During the testosterone laden confrontation, both women roll their eyes, notice, and smile. With the two men looking as if they are going to come to blows, the women move off and talk.
"Do you think we should stop this before it gets ugly?” Amanda asks.
"I think we should. What do you suggest?” Monica says.
"Well, we could figure this out between ourselves and fill them in, or we could go in and drag them apart. Who are you looking for?"
"Well, Amanda, we are looking for some old friends. There are some weird things going on, and we need to get a warning to them. These friends are former FBI agents who have disappeared. We are hoping to find them before it is too late."
"Who are these agents, Reyes, we might be looking for the same people?"
"Call me Monica, and I can't say, it could put them into greater danger if I do."
"Well, it looks like we are at as much of an impasse as those two. Shall we drag them away from each other's throats?"
"Let's."
Amanda and Monica walk back over to the guys, and Amanda whispers to Lee "We need to talk."
Lee guides Amanda a short distance away.
"What?” Lee asks, dragging his fingers through his hair.
"I read in the files that we got that a John Dogget and a Monica Reyes worked with Fox Mulder and Dana Scully while they were at the FBI. They might be looking for them too. It may be a good idea to work with them.” Amanda whispers.
"It might, but can we trust them? Hell, Amanda, we have been shot at a few too many times on this mission already, and if I am not mistaken, some of those shooting at us were FBI."
"Lee, I don't think that these two are a threat to us. Monica said that they are looking for them to give them a warning of some sort."
"Warn them about what?"
"I didn't get that far with her, but I think we can trust them. Think for a minute, we have come across some weird stuff, and since Dogget and Reyes are X-Files agents, they would understand it more than we do."
"All right Amanda, we'll go with it for now.” Lee said with a heavy sigh.
While Amanda talked with Lee, Monica was talking fast with Dogget.
"John, let them go. They aren't after us. Amanda is an agent of something. I don't think we’ll get an agency out of either of them, but I think they are on our side."
"Yeah, she didn't look all that comfortable with her gun either. Okay Monica, but let's stay with them for a while, just to make sure."
"Sounds good to me.” Monica flashed a quick smile.
They continued their trek slowly. None of them spoke, though both duos watched each other speculatively. Lee and Amanda looked less concerned about Dogget and Reyes than they were of Lee and Amanda.
About two or three hours later shots rang out through the woods. All of them slithered to the ground. John and Lee worked out a rough system of hand signals. Monica and Amanda watched, and also understood the directions. They found cover in the woods, but it wasn’t enough. More than one bullet almost got too close.
It was Amanda who found the ditch, a hole covered by brush and other forest debris. She quickly examined it and found that it was big enough for the four of them to hide in with just a little elbow room. She signaled to Monica and laid down cover fire as Monica came over to her. Amanda pointed to the ditch, and Monica nodded. They squirreled over to the guys to get them to the cover of the ditch.
They got to the ditch just in time. Men in black masks swarmed through the woods. The four of them had no where left to run. They were trapped. The sounds of the search for them came closer and closer. Lee, John, and Monica kept weapons ready, while Amanda got the extra ammunition close at hand. They were getting low on bullets. The only other weapons they had were two knives.
Lee had his and one of Amanda's guns. He handed Amanda's to John since it had a silencer on it. Amanda took out her spare gun from its ankle holster. She looked concerned, though not nervous.
Then the firefight was on them. The men and Monica defended while Amanda kept them supplied with loaded clips. It was when she loaded the last clip that they had when she could look up and see that John had been shot on the shoulder, and Lee had a bullet-burn on his scalp. Monica also was hurt. She got out a first aid kit she always carried and motioned John down first. She wrapped his shoulder as fast as possible, and turned to Lee. She padded his wound more quickly, and in the next breath had Monica's cut hand bandaged. She then got up to the rim and joined in the gun fight.
The attackers were nearly on them when gun shots rang out from behind them. Amanda felt relief only briefly.
Lee's eyes were filled with sweat and blood. Amanda's bandage only helped so much, and it was not enough. He felt he was close to passing out and fought it off as much as possible. He finally succumbed when he blearily saw that the attackers were fleeing. As blackness fell over his vision, he hoped that those coming to help were friends.
John was fighting as best he could. He didn't allow Amanda to look at him long enough to see that he was hit somewhere else. If Lee could fight with a head wound, he could fight with the little gash on his neck other than the deeper shoulder wound. He also heard the different shots and saw Lee collapse. John tried to hold on a little longer, but when Lee collapsed he gave in as well. He just hoped that the ladies could hold out while he and Lee were resting.
Monica and Amanda saw both men pass out. They shook their heads, took deep breaths, and got ready for another wave of attacks. Amanda's face was still composed except for her eyes. Tears rolled down the side of her face. She turned her head to face away from Monica.
"I hope that I can get home to see my kids." She breathed.
Monica squeezed her shoulder to help calm her. Amanda nodded and took another deep breath to steady herself. There was the sound of a branch cracking nearby, and both women turned in that direction. Out of the woods came a group of people led by a tall man with brown hair. He looked at them.
"Damn it," he swore softly and then said more forcibly "Reyes, how in the hell did you find me?"
"Mulder?” Monica said with relief.
"Answer the question, Reyes, what the hell are you doing here!"
"Looking for you to warn you that our enemies were getting close to finding you, but that seems moot now."
"You lead them right to us! Who is this?" He said pointing at Amanda who had yet to put down her weapon.
"Amanda Stedman, and I am looking for Dana Scully."
"Why?" Mulder asked tersely.
"We need information from her, and since you are here, you might be able to tell me where to find her. That will have to wait for a bit though. Lee, my husband, and John are both hurt and losing blood. I only have first aid training, this is out of my league."
Mulder motioned a few men forward to pick up and bring Lee and John with them. He said something quietly to one of them who ran off in another direction.
"Come on, we will get them patched up." Mulder said sounding resigned.
John woke with a start. It was dark in the room, and there was only a small light in the middle of it. He didn't know how long he had been out but looking across the room, he saw that Lee was still out. He tried to sit up, but his shoulder was stiff and painful as was his neck. He laid back when he heard Monica and Amanda talking. He also hear Scully's voice. They found them, and then he realized that he had been stitched. Add another scar to his collection, he thought and then smiled. He did not want to intrude on the conversation, so he laid back and listened.
"He's fighting it, but what can I do?" Monica said.
"You have to give him some more time. I know too well just how dangerous the work is. There were several times when I thought I had lost Lee. It was horrible. Maybe John doesn't want you to have to deal with that." Amanda said. She sounded as if she were giving motherly advice though the subject would never have come up in any normal conversation.
"But how long do I have to wait?" Monica said sadly. "I've given him enough hints."
"It isn't that simple for us, and you know it." Scully said. She sounded a little annoyed, but at the same time she tried to be comforting. "Amanda, you want some more coffee?"
"I should be asking you that question; you should get some sleep. I got a little sleep when you were stitching Lee and John."
"No no, I want to know why the hell you wanted to find me." She said while she stood up.
"Okay, about fifteen years ago you did a couple of autopsies. We just found them a few months ago and wanted to ask you a few more questions. We were hoping that you would remember them and be able to fill in some gaps."
Monica sank deeper in her chair and closed her eyes.
"That was before I joined the X-Files. I don't know how much help I can be." Scully said. "Why is it so important?"
"They were agents that had disappeared. When we found these files so deeply buried; we got suspicious. There seem to be pages missing. I’ll just give you the files, and you can fill in the gaps later."
Just then the door opened. The three women quickly raised their guns as Mulder and another man walked through the door.
"Whoa!" Mulder said as he put his hands up. The man with him looked just as surprised.
When the women lowered their guns, their breathing returned to normal. When they looked at the man behind Mulder, they all got really silly smiles on their faces. Mulder rolled his eyes and sat down next to Dana.
"Hartwell, can't you turn that off. Amanda's husband may not like it; though I don't know how Dogget will feel about it." He laughed a moment then got serious. "Hartwell and his people have agreed to help us get out of here. Scully and I will leave soon, though I won't tell you when."
At that moment John appeared in the inner doorway.
"Not the same Hartwell that you knew in Texas is it?" He said as he walked across the room. He was still a little stiff. "How long was I out?"
"About six hours, you needed it." Scully said. "You really should lay back down. You lost a lot of blood, though it could have been worse if you hadn't had Amanda with you."
John was looking at Hartwell suspiciously. Hartwell just looked back at him and smiled.
"Mulder are you sure we are safe with his kind around here?" John said.
"John, what are you talking about? They carried you and Lee back here." Monica said a little bit heatedly, though with John's shirt off, she could see how fine a chest he had. She had to shake herself a bit.
"Monica, do you know what they are? I have seen enough to believe some of Mulder and Scully's reports now."
Mulder and Scully looked surprised and pleased.
From behind John Lee asked "What are they, some weird cult?"
Amanda stood up and pointed to the chair she had been sitting in for Lee to sit down. He sat down gingerly and waited for the answer. Amanda sat on the arm of the chair and put her arm around Lee, giving him a quick kiss on his hair.
Hartwell sat on another chair at the table and motioned Mulder to answer with a smile.
"They are vampires." He said casually and sat back waiting for Lee and Amanda to say they didn't believe in vampires.
"That's a joke, right?" Lee said.
"Nope. Sorry, it isn't. They are very good at hiding, though we didn't hide well enough away if you could find us."
"I don't believe it." Lee was blunt.
"You should." Monica chimed in. She still couldn't get over seeing John in just his pants.
"Don't argue Lee, they saved our lives in the woods." Amanda said.
"Hartwell, would you be willing to show them your eyes so that they will believe." Mulder asked.
"Sure sure." His irises glowed green and were hypnotic.
Lee and Amanda jumped up quickly. "Oh my gosh!," was all that Amanda could sputter.
When she said that, the tension in the room lessened. Lee was the only person not looking at Amanda with perplexity.
"Oh my gosh?" Mulder laughingly asked.
Monica and Dana were giggling a bit.
"It's better than cursing. It's actually refreshing." Dana said.
"Okay, okay, I believe you now." Lee said as he sat back down, though his back was straight. He and Amanda both looked like they were ready to bolt.
"Well, everyone should go and try to get some more sleep. Everyone leaves tomorrow." Mulder said.
"Amanda, I will take a quick look over those files in the morning when I wake up." Dana said.
Mulder and Scully went up to the loft as Amanda, Monica, and John went to the room where Lee and John were supposed to be convalescing. Amanda and Monica rolled sleeping bags out on the floor, refusing John's offer of the bed to one of them. They slept well that night.
Before they left the small clearing, Mulder was talking quietly with John and Monica. Dana handed Amanda the files.
"I didn't remember much, but I notated then as best I could." Dana said.
Amanda thumbed through it. "Anything is better than nothing."
Mulder and Dana went off with Hartwell and a few of his people. A few stayed behind to make sure that both duos made it back to civilization safely. Before they got to their cars which were parked miles apart, Lee and Amanda turned and looked at John and Monica.
"Well, it was great knowing you, but from here on out we’re strangers. I think it will be safer for all of us that way." Lee said.
"We know how to play the game Lee, if that’s your name." John said with a smile.
Amanda and Monica exchanged a quick hug.
"Take care." They both said at the same time.
They went their separate ways and never saw each other again.
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