TITLE: Standin' at the Crossroads
NAME: frogdoggie
E-MAIL: frogdoggie@hotmail.com
CATEGORY: XRA
RATING: NC-17, and I mean it. This story contains graphic 
language, sexual situations and violence. It also contains 
references to the occult, the Devil, and conversely, God and 
faith. IF ANY OF THESE SUBJECTS DISTURB YOU, DO 
NOT READ THIS STORY. Lastly, there are some magical 
rituals mentioned which are a combination of different arcane 
ceremonies. None of them are completely authentic or 
accurate. So, please folks, as the saying goes, do not try this at 
home! Once again, this is a very adult horror story. Forewarned 
is forearmed. If you don't care for really graphic stuff, STOP 
HERE!
SUMMARY: Mulder, Scully and Skinner travel to Maine on a 
case that proves to be a very dangerous and then deadly, X-
File. FEEDBACK PLEASE, IF AT ALL POSSIBLE. I AM 
DOWN ON BENDED KNEES! Comments, suggestions and 
healthy debate are always welcome. Flames? Flames are for 
roasting 'weenies'.
TIMESPAN/SPOILER WARNING.: No spoilers, except maybe 
for the quote at the end. Timespan? I hate to pigeon hole this 
story. I think maybe it happens in some alternate universe - ha! 
- the universe of my imagination, I guess. It would be, however 
after Scully's cancer is in remission as that does effect the plot. 
Please note also: Stephen King decided to write an episode set 
in Maine called Chinga. I began work on this story before that 
episode was a gleam in his eye, or at least before I heard about 
it. So, the setting of this story is Maine and I didn't want to 
change it. I guess this is my version of a Maine X-File. Sorry, 
Mr. King.
KEYWORDS: x-file romance angst Scully Mulder Skinner NC-
17
DISCLAIMER: Fox Mulder, and Dana Scully and A. D. Skinner 
belong to Chris Carter, Ten-Thirteen Productions and 20th 
Century FOX Broadcasting. No copyright infringement is 
intended and no profit is being made from their use. The lyrics 
to Cross Road Blues are by Robert Johnson and belong to CBS 
Records. Inc. The song is on the Robert Johnson, The 
Complete Recordings, 2 CD set.
 Standin' at the Crossroads
by frogdoggie
 Webster's defines "at the crossroads" as "at the point where 
one must choose between different courses of action." 
It was a hot mid-July day and Special Agents Dana Scully and 
Fox Mulder were, for once, enjoying the air conditioned 
basement office in the J. Edgar Hoover building. Each sat 
absorbed in their separate tasks, and the refreshingly cool air 
circulated around them.
"Mulder, what are you reading?" Scully asked her partner as he 
looked up from the open book on his desk. Mulder stared over 
his glasses at her and then pushed them back up his nose 
before he replied.
"What?" he asked, somewhat tight lipped.
"I just wondered what you were so engrossed in," Scully asked 
as she sat across the room, typing into her laptop computer. 
Mulder seemed tense and an alarm bell went off in Scully's 
head - the bell that warned of an impending X-File and a 
possibly unpleasant one at that.
"Oh, this, it's just a little light reading," he answered lifting the 
book up so that she could see the title.
"The Encyclopedia of Horror and The Supernatural?" Scully 
observed eyebrow raised. "Your idea of light reading Mulder? I'd 
call it a little dark if you ask me."
Mulder half smiled but it didn't reach his eyes as he replied, "it 
may be dark, but it is shedding some light on this letter I 
received yesterday." "Want to take a look?" he added.
"Why do I think I'll regret it if I do?" Scully inquired as she got up 
and crossed over to stand by his chair. 
"Ouch! You wound me to the quick," Mulder retorted half-
heartedly as he handed her the neatly folded piece of paper. 
Scully unfolded it and began to read. 
I went to the crossroad 
fell down on my knees 
I went to the crossroad 
fell down on my knees 
Asked the Lord above "Have mercy 
save me, if you please." 
Mmmmmm, standin' at the crossroad 
I tried to flag a ride 
Standin' at the crossroad 
I tried to flag a ride 
Didn't nobody seem to know me 
everybody pass me by
Mmm, the sun goin' down boy 
dark gon' catch me here 
oooo ooee eee 
boy, dark gon' catch me here 
I haven't got no lovin' sweet woman that 
love and feel my care 
You can run, you can run 
tell your friend Walter Skinner 
You can run 
tell your friend Walter Skinner 
Lord, that I'm standin' at the crossroad, babe 
I believe I'm sinkin' down 
Come to the Crossroads, Fox, before it's too late. 
The letter was hand written in pencil and printed, not written in 
script. The writing was in a child's neat but stilted style. Scully 
looked up from reading and said, "I didn't know your fans were 
into sending you the lyrics to blues songs." 
"Ha, very good, Scully, you never cease to amaze me," Mulder 
replied a weak, half smile still on his face. "An old blues tune as 
a matter of fact, Robert Johnson, circa 1936 or 1937, I believe. 
I looked it up - the words are pretty much the same except for 
the obvious additions..." Mulder added, his voice trailing off.  
"All right, what does this have to do with the X-Files?" Scully 
asked.
'And what in heaven's name does it have to do with Skinner?' 
she thought. 
Mulder looked at her 'she always asks that,' he thought 
distantly. 'it's like some kind of catch phrase for her, like magic 
words,' and Scully continued when he didn't immediately 
answer. 
"I mean, Mulder, it's obviously a crank letter, someone is just 
trying to push your buttons, that's all. It's some kind of sick 
prank," she finished placing the letter back down on his desk.  
"Yeah, I thought so too, until I got this second letter this 
morning," he answered with real tension in his voice. He pulled 
a second folded piece of paper from beneath another book, 
'The Handbook of Voodoo Ritual' which also sat on his desk. He 
handed it to Scully without preamble and then sat back rubbing 
the bridge of his nose beneath his glasses. 
Scully unfolded the second letter and read it too, and it chilled 
her.
There was only one line on the page and a signature. 
"Please come, Fox, before it's too late."
Love, Samantha 
"Oh, Mulder...." Scully began, her whole face pulling down in an 
anxious frown. 
"Hey, it's all right," Mulder hastened to reply. 
"No, it's not all right, this is absolutely sadistic," she fumed, 
angrily tossing the letter onto his desk for emphasis. 
Mulder just stared at her, and then he turned to his suit coat 
hanging on the back of his chair, and took out an envelope from 
inside the inner pocket. He opened the envelope and pulled out 
a third letter. Mulder carefully unfolded the paper and smoothed 
the page flat next to the first and second letters on his desk.  
"If it's a sick joke it's a pretty elaborate and convincing one..." he 
replied quietly, gesturing for Scully to compare all three pieces 
of paper spread out on the desktop. 
"Uh, I brought this in this morning," Mulder stated quietly, 
indicating the third piece of paper. 
Scully drew closer and bent over to look at the letters. The last 
letter was dated from the year before Samantha's 
disappearance and it was obviously a letter from Mulder's sister 
to her big brother. The little girl had been writing from a summer 
camp somewhere and Scully was touched by the love for her 
big brother that shown through her childish scrawl. A childish 
scrawl that was absolutely identical to the handwriting in the 
other two letters - letters that were not dated but must have 
been written...? Scully wondered just when the other letters had 
been written. 
"What was the postmark on the other two letters?" she asked 
Mulder. 
Mulder pulled the envelopes from under 'The Handbook of 
Voodoo Ritual' and showed them both to Scully. The postmarks 
were only three days old and from Crossroads, Maine. Scully 
raised an eyebrow at the city's name. Mulder remained mute. 
Scully turned them over in her hands and examined the 
envelopes. They were fresh, like they'd just come out of a 
newly opened box of business sized envelopes. She touched 
the first two letters again and the paper was crisp and new as 
well. 
"Mulder, this doesn't make any sense. I mean, these last two 
letters - if they were written by your sister, her writing would 
have changed by now. She's a woman, not a little girl 
anymore," Scully said gently. 
Mulder reached over and carefully picked up Samantha's 
summer camp letter. Scully couldn't help but notice the letter's 
fragility. It was obviously old, and she was touched as Mulder 
cautiously and tenderly folded it up and placed it back in it's 
accompanying envelope. 'God, he must have kept that letter all 
these years,' Scully thought and she suddenly had a very tight 
feeling in her chest, as Mulder slipped the envelope back inside 
his jacket pocket. 
"Mulder, I..." she began, but he interrupted her. 
"I know what you're going to say, but, look, I have to find out 
about these letters. Christ, if there's any possibility, no matter 
how remote that Samantha sent them - I have to know," he 
stated. 
Scully sighed. She saw the single mindedness in his face. She 
knew what it meant. The logical, eidetic brain that Mulder had 
was shutting down and the irrational, emotional Mulder brain 
was taking over as it always did in matters involving his sister. 
She also knew she was going to go along for the roller coaster 
ride that was most likely coming and she said, "All right, 
Mulder...but what do all these books have to do with the 
letters?" she finally asked.  
Mulder squared his shoulders and grinned slightly, and Scully 
knew that her tacit approval had buoyed his spirits, and she felt 
good about it. He took his glasses off and put them on his desk.  
"Well, I've been doing a little research on the symbology of 'The 
Crossroads,' he began in way of explanation, "The crossroads 
or more specifically, a crossroad, is very significant. There are 
references to crossroads in just about every magical belief 
system across numerous cultures. The meaning varies all the 
way from a spot that's magically dangerous and should be 
avoided at all costs, especially after dark, as in the Robert 
Johnson song, to a place where it's perfectly acceptable to 
practice ritual magic. For instance in the voudon religion..." 
"Voudon, like Voodoo? As in little dolls with pins?" Scully 
interrupted skeptically. "And what does this have to do with 
Skinner?" she belatedly asked. 
"Hey, I would have thought you'd be a bit less skeptical where 
voodoo is concerned, especially after...." Mulder's comment 
was interrupted by the ringing of the telephone on his desk. He 
focused on it and then picking up the receiver, placed it to his 
ear.  
"Mulder," he growled into the phone obviously annoyed at the 
interruption, but his tone quickly became much more formal, 
"Yes, yes Sir, all right, we're on our way," he said and then he 
placed the receiver slowly back in it's cradle. He looked at the 
phone for a second with furrowed brow, and then turned to 
Scully, a confused look on his face, "That was Skinner, he 
wants to see us immediately," he told her, "and he sounds 
pissed," he finished, reaching for his suit coat. 
Both Agents gave each other a look that said 'What the hell?' 
But, they knew better than to keep Assistant Director Walter 
Skinner waiting, and they both exited the basement office, 
thoughts of voodoo and the enigmatic letters from Samantha 
rattling around in their heads. 
A.D. Walter Skinner's secretary ushered Mulder and Scully into 
Skinner's office so quickly that they barely had time to prepare 
themselves for what was likely to be a chewing out session.
 Scully looked at the harried woman and thought, 'Lord, he must 
really be on the warpath this afternoon!' 
Mulder took one look at the woman and thought, 'It looks like it's 
bend over and assume the position time again,' and he took in a 
deep breath to prepare himself for Skinner's wrath. 
Skinner had his back to them when they entered, and as the 
secretary announced them, and then beat a hasty retreat, 
shutting the door behind her, he turned around. His face was 
tight and his eyes were narrowed to two flinty lines behind his 
glasses. The Assistant Director was indeed royally pissed, and 
he was working to control the emotion before it broke free and 
scorched them all with it's heat. 
"Sit down," he hissed indicating the two chairs in front of his 
desk and both Agents played musical chairs to see which one 
of them could take a seat faster. 
Skinner had a piece of paper in his hand and as soon as they 
were seated he brandished it at Fox Mulder and spat out 
between clenched teeth, "Do you have any explanation for this 
Agent Mulder?"  
Mulder gazed back at Skinner, a blank look on his face. 
Scully thought, 'Well, it looks like I'm off the hook this 
afternoon," as Mulder replied in his best conciliatory tone.  
"An explanation for what, Sir?" 
"For this letter!" Skinner almost shouted at the bewildered 
Agent. 
Scully suddenly had a sinking feeling in her stomach, and from 
the look on Mulder's face something similar must have been 
going on in his guts as well. 
"Letter?" Mulder asked slowly and then he extended his hand 
towards the fuming Assistant Director. Skinner thrust the letter 
into Mulder's waiting fingers, and then he stood over the 
younger man, his hands on his hips. 
Mulder read the letter over carefully and then he looked up at 
Skinner and kept eye contact with him as he slowly passed the 
letter over to Scully. 
Skinner's head swiveled from Mulder to Scully as she plucked 
the paper from Mulder's hand and read. 
It was essentially the same letter Mulder had shown her, but 
with the Robert Johnson blues song written in an elegant script, 
a woman's hand. 'In fact, the letter even smells faintly of a 
woman's perfume,' Scully thought. The only difference in this 
letter and the one they had left behind on Mulder's desk was 
that instead of 'tell your friend Walter Skinner' it said, 'tell your 
friend Fox Mulder.' Scully handed the letter to Skinner and 
looked at Mulder with a raised eyebrow. 
"What the hell is going on?" Skinner demanded angrily looking 
from one to the other as he took the letter and put it back on his 
desk. 
"Sir," Scully began, "I'm sure Agent Mulder doesn't know 
anything more than you do about that letter. As a matter of fact, 
he has a very similar letter on his desk right now." 
"Yeah, except instead of Fox Mulder it says 'tell Walter Skinner 
on mine," Mulder added, rubbing his hand through his hair. 
"All right, then can I assume you don't know anything about this 
letter either?" Skinner asked walking to his desk and grabbing a 
different piece of paper from it. 
Mulder took the second sheet and this time he read it aloud.  
"Come to the Crossroads, Walter, for old times sake.
Please, before it's too late"
Love, Maggie 
Skinner snatched it back from Mulder, embarrassment 
suddenly joining the consternation that was all ready on his 
face. He threw the paper down next to it's mate and glared at 
Mulder. 
"When did you receive these letters?" Scully asked in an 
attempt to salvage a potentially explosive situation. 
"I've been out of the office for a couple of days, I got them both 
this morning," Skinner replied tersely. 
"Sir, I don't know anything about these letters," Mulder broke in 
quickly "And if it's any consolation, my second letter said, 'Love, 
Samantha,' he added looking down at his hands. 
Skinner blinked at Mulder for a moment and then the anger 
seemed to drain out of him all at once. He walked back over to 
his desk and sat down, heavily, behind it. 
"You're telling me you got two nearly identical letters?' he 
asked. 
"Yes," Mulder replied flatly. 
"And the letters were seemingly written in Agent Mulder's 
sister's handwriting," Scully explained, "of course further 
analysis might prove that assumption untrue, but from just 
cursory examination, they were either identical or very expert 
forgeries," she added.  
"How did you know that?" Skinner asked quietly. 
"We knew it because, uh, I brought in a letter my sister had 
written to me years ago, and Scully and I compared all three 
letters. They're identical, Sir," Mulder stated with conviction. 
Scully glanced at Mulder and breathed deeply. Before she 
could say anything else Skinner was opening the center drawer 
in his desk and pulling out an old envelope. He placed it 
carefully on his blotter and opened it up. 
"Yeah, well, I had a similar feeling about the handwriting in the 
letters I received so I sent them over to Bill Burke, for a 
handwriting analysis," Skinner began, fingering the folded paper 
he had taken from the envelope. 
"Burke really knows his stuff," Mulder interrupted. 
"Burke says the first two were written by the same person," 
Skinner stated. 
The two Agents looked at him as he continued, "which means I 
guess that they are identical to this letter," he sighed, unfolding 
the paper and facing it towards the two Agents. 
Mulder and Scully both got up and stepped over to peer down at 
the letter. 
Scully scanned the contents and as she did her face flushed 
red, "Oh my God,' she thought, 'it's a *Dear John* letter,' and 
'what must it be costing him to show this to us?' followed the 
first thought, and then, 'why did he keep it?' but she kept 
reading. 
'Shit,' was all Mulder could think. 
Dearest Walter, 
I hope you'll understand. I know it's going to be hard, but I don't 
know any other way to tell you - I've met someone else. I'm so 
sorry I had to let you know this way, because I really do care for 
you. I know I said I would wait, but it's just that, well, I've fallen 
in love with someone else. 
Please forgive me, and don't think it's anything you said or did. 
It's just me. You're a good man, Walter and I know you'll find 
someone else to share your life with when you come back. God 
Bless, and keep you, and bring you back safe. 
Love,
Maggie 
Scully finished reading and she couldn't look up at Skinner, 'no 
way,' she thought, so she glanced over at Mulder but he 
seemed to be reading the letter again. She looked over at the 
empty envelope on Skinner's desk and she could just make out, 
reading upside down, the return address - 'Maggie Flynn, 
Crossroads, Maine.' 
Skinner was saying something however, and then Scully had to 
look up at him. There was a very far away look in his eyes. 
"She sent me that letter six months after I'd been *In Country*, 
Vietnam, I mean," he cleared his throat. "After I was wounded 
and got my discharge, I half thought about looking her up, but 
couldn't bring myself to do it." "I moved on, I didn't even go 
back there," he said. 
"Back to where, Sir?" Mulder asked quietly having finally 
finished reading the letter. 
"To Crossroads, Maine" Skinner replied, the far away look still 
on his face, "I'd been working up there on a summer job, on a 
fishing boat, just before I enlisted. I was only 18 years old - still 
wet behind the ears - hell, you can guess the rest," he 
blustered.  
"Yes, Sir," Mulder commented neutrally. Scully remained silent. 
In truth she was slightly awed by the fact that Skinner was 
telling them any of this, and she was acutely uncomfortable 
over the fact.  
"I heard from her a couple of more times over the years though. 
She'd tracked me down somehow, and wrote to congratulate 
me when I graduated from the Academy, and then when I got 
married. I heard from her for the last time about 7 years ago. 
She and her husband were running a little bed and breakfast 
just outside of Crossroads, I guess. She had sounded happy in 
the letter...." he let his voice trail off as he took off his glasses 
and checked them for lint.
"Sir, Flynn was her maiden name?" Scully asked gently 
indicating the envelope on Skinner's desk. Mulder examined it 
then too as Skinner placed his glasses back on. 
"Yes, she married Kevin Boyce, a local guy and settled down in 
Crossroads, they owned Boyce's Bed and Breakfast. Her 
maiden name was Flynn. Margaret Flynn." 
"And the writing is identical," Mulder agreed as he turned his 
attention to all three letters laying on top of Skinner's blotter. 
"Yes," Skinner retorted sharply, still embarrassed at revealing 
such a personal memory to them. "Hell, that first letter even 
smells like.." 
"Her perfume?" Scully asked. 
"Yes," he sighed the memory of Margaret Flynn obviously still 
painful to him.
"So..." Skinner had started to talk again, but suddenly Scully's 
cell phone beeped. 
A mystified look on her face, Scully pulled phone out of her 
jacket pocket and pressed a button on it's face, "excuse me" 
she whispered politely, and then "Scully," she said into the 
receiver end. 
Mulder and Skinner watched her as she took the call. 
"Who is this?" she gasped slightly into the phone, "How did you 
get my number?" and then all the color drained from her face 
and her blue eyes got very wide. 
Mulder glanced in alarm at Skinner, and going to her side 
pressed his ear against the outside part of the cell phone. He 
could just make out a male voice singing something into 
Scully's ear. 'It sounds like, it sounds like that Robert Johnson 
blues tune,' Mulder thought, 'Hell, it's definitely the tune, and it's 
saying *tell your friends, Dana,* and he looked at Skinner and 
whispered, "Can we trace this?" 
Skinner shook his head - "not with any accuracy on a cell 
phone," he advised in a low voice as Scully's face began to 
register more and more horror. 
Mulder pressed his ear to the phone once more and he noticed 
that the cellular was shaking because Skully's hand was 
trembling. He could just make out the voice and it was saying, 
"Come to the Crossroads, Starbuck, before it's too late," and 
there was a click as the line went dead, and Scully dropped the 
cellular to the office floor. 
Scully stood momentarily paralyzed and then her face 
contorted with a mixture of anger and fear and her knees 
seemed to suddenly weaken. Mulder grasped her arm as she 
rocked back and fell into the chair she had been sitting in. 
"Scully, are you all right?" Mulder asked touching her hair, her 
shoulder and her back in quick succession. He was seething 
with anger and worry, and his hand shook slightly. 
"Of course, she's not all right," Skinner blurted as he made a 
hasty exit towards his executive bathroom. He returned quickly, 
and carried a glass of water. Scully took the glass from him and 
drained it in one long, steady gulp. Skinner walked over and 
gingerly picked up the cell phone as if it was hot, setting it on the 
corner of his desk. 
"Agent Scully, who was that on the phone?" he asked his face 
tight with tension. 
Scully couldn't find her voice so Mulder answered for her, "I 
think it was her father, Sir, Bill Scully. He's the only one I know 
of that called her Starbuck," he finished. Mulder was surprised 
at how uneven his voice had become as Skinner blinked back 
at him in temporary confusion. 
"My father's dead, Mulder," Scully stated flatly, finding her voice 
at last, "that must have been some sick ba...umm, some 
misguided person imitating my father's voice," she insisted.  
Scully looked Mulder in the face then and he thought, 'she 
doesn't believe what she just said at all, she thinks it was her 
father,' and he forced his face into a blandly neutral expression. 
Scully caught the look though and flared up at him. 
"Damn it Mulder, it wasn't my father, my father is dead!" and 
the last four words were shouted into his face with such 
vehemence that Mulder took a step back. Scully continued to 
glare at him, her blue eyes like two argon lasers. 
"Agent Scully!" Walter Skinner barked and Scully jumped. He 
had certainly gotten her attention. 
"Can you really deny it was your father?" Skinner probed 
watching her face carefully. 
Scully stared down at the water glass she was still holding and 
replied almost in a whisper, "My father used to sing me to sleep 
sometimes when I was very small," she said, "the voice, that 
voice, it, it sounded so much like him...but I just can't believe it 
was him, I mean, my father, my father's dead," she finished 
miserably and then she handed the water glass to Skinner 
because he was now standing the closest to her. 
Mulder frowned deeply and Skinner was doing the same, and 
both of them stared at the small, still figure of Dana Scully as 
she sat trembling in the chair. 
At last Skinner moved and he seemed to have come to a 
decision. He strode over to his phone and rang his secretary. 
"Sharon, I want you to book a flight for me. Yes, three tickets, 
for me and Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. Right. From 
Dulles to Bangor, Maine. The first available flight in the morning. 
Yes, we'll pick the tickets up at the airport. Yes, no, wait, yes, 
that might be a good idea. Try to get a four wheel drive vehicle, 
all right. Thank you," and he hung up the phone. 
Mulder had resumed his position next to Scully and had placed 
his hand on her shoulder again. Skinner glanced from Scully to 
Mulder's hand to Mulder's face. Mulder looked a bit stunned. 
"Well, don't you want to investigate this thing?" Skinner asked 
his voice barely under control. "This is your specialty, isn't it?" 
"Yes sir but I didn't think.." Mulder began. 
"Look, Fox," Skinner said using the Agents Christian name to 
add emphasis to his words. "Ever since I got those letters I've 
felt like I had to check out what was going on. I don't want to 
say I feel compelled, but, hell, I don't know any other way to 
describe it. I feel drawn back to Crossroads. Like I have to go 
there, and it's, well, it's scaring the shit out of me," he finished 
bitterly.  
Mulder considered Skinners words. Skinner watched him 
closely and then Mulder came to a decision also. 
"Sir, I think you're right, and I think I'm feeling the same way - 
we feel like we have to go, so...." Mulder began, giving voice to 
his opinion. 
"We should go," Scully finished for Mulder, looking up at the two 
men with determination on her face. "I felt exactly the same 
way the minute I answered that phone call," she added. "Now, 
wild horses couldn't keep me from going to Maine." 
Skinner's phone beeped. He turned and picked it up. "Yes, 
excellent. Thank you Sharon, and Sharon, uh, I don't know 
what I'd do without you. No, that's all right, my fault, yes, 
thanks, ok," and he hung up. 
"That woman has the patience of Job - working for me she has 
too," Skinner sighed, a tiny grin just lifting the corner of his 
mouth as he tried to break the tension in the room. Mulder 
smirked slightly and Scully just stared for a moment, not sure 
he was serious, and then she smiled at his unexpected self-
depreciation. 
Skinner rubbed his jaw and shifted his tense shoulders, "Go 
home and pack your bags," he said, we're flying out tomorrow 
morning at 7 AM." 
Scully left the basement office early, but Mulder had lingered 
there to pour over his occult books and study the two letters. He 
wracked his brain over the significance of the song's words. 
Finally he had underlined Skinner's name and penciled in a 
question mark next to it. Then he had drawn an arrow down to 
the lines that said, 'I haven't got no lovin' sweet woman that love 
and feel my care' and penciled in Maggie Flynn next to them. 
Somehow, after Skinner had shown them his *Dear John* 
letter, Mulder had thought those lyrics were too much of a 
coincidence to ignore. He still tried to determine, though, how 
any of the lyrics could possibly relate to his sister. About the 
only lines that applied at all were "Have mercy save me, if you 
please," and the thought sickened him. There just weren't any 
easy answers to be discovered in any of the letters. Mulder 
looked forward to the trip to Crossroads, Maine with a mixture 
of dread and anticipation. 'At least I'll have some explanation 
then,' he thought, 'I hope,' he sighed. 
Mulder put the letters into his inside suit coat pocket, slammed 
the last book he had been reading, *The Book of Ceremonial 
Magic*, shut and tucking it under his arm, left the building. 
Skinner had gone home, packed and then downed a couple of 
shots of scotch to steady his nerves. Even with the scotch, 
sleep had come with difficulty but finally at midnight he was 
able to close his eyes. 
Scully had gone home immediately, packed and then tried to go 
to sleep. Sleep was a long time coming and only after a warm 
shower and cup of *Celestial Seasonings Sleepy Time Tea* 
was she finally able to close her eyes. 
Mulder tossed and turned on the couch in his apartment. He 
dreamed his sister was calling his name, "Fox help me, please, 
help me," and he woke shouting "Samantha!?" 'God, what had I 
been dreaming,' he thought, suddenly unable to remember. 
Scully tossed in her bed. She dreamed that her father was 
calling her name, "Starbuck, help me, please, help me," and she 
woke screaming, "Daddy!?" 'Oh my God, what was I dreaming 
about?' she thought, suddenly unable to remember.
Skinner tossed in his bed. He dreamed of Maggie Flynn but she 
wasn't calling for help. Instead she was screaming in ecstasy as 
he thrust into her and he woke, sweating in the dark. "What the 
hell?" he thought, suddenly unable to remember. 
In Crossroads, Maine, a dark haired woman woke screaming, 
"Walter, no!" 
Dulles airport was busy as usual even for the early morning 
hour. A taciturn Skinner had picked both Mulder and then Scully 
up at their apartments and then driven them to the airport. It had 
been hard to find a spot in long term parking, but Skinner had 
finally managed to locate one fairly close to the terminal. The 
trio walked the rest of the way to the departure gate and as 
Mulder and Skinner strode ahead, Scully struggled to keep up. 
'God, why is it that every man I know forgets to take into 
account the difference in my height,' Scully thought tiredly, just 
as Skinner glanced back and then slowed down to allow her to 
catch up. Mulder, in his usual single minded way, strode ahead. 
Scully just watched his receding back and sighed. Mulder 
reminded her of a blood hound hot on the scent whenever he 
got like this, and Scully was usually left in the dust. 
"Agent Mulder, where's the fire?" Skinner called after Mulder, 
and the other man stopped and turned around, squinting into the 
sun at them. He waited for them to catch up, garment bag slung 
over one shoulder, and when Scully and Skinner reached him, 
he walked on into the terminal in silence. 
The flight to Bangor was uneventful, Scully sat next to Mulder 
and Skinner was seated directly across from them in an aisle 
seat. Skinner had been squirming in his seat for the last 15 
minutes or so because next to a him was a very garrulous little 
old lady. The grandmotherly woman was regaling Skinner with 
stories of her many grand children and soon, she was calling 
him Walter, and talking about her latest surgery. Scully almost 
laughed at the look on the Assistant Director's face. 
Mulder was reading a thick volume, *The Book of Ceremonial 
Magic*, which he had brought along on the trip. Scully got a 
look at some of it, when Mulder held the book flat and it was so 
bizarre that she really didn't want to read any more, so she 
looked out the window, read the boring in-flight magazine, and 
then finally dozed off, sagging against Mulder's shoulder. 
The gentle pressure of Scully's head and the exhalation of her 
sleeping breath against his neck, finally caused Mulder to 
quietly close his book and glance over to study his partner. Her 
face was unlined and devoid of worry. He was glad that she 
was getting some rest. She had looked very tired this morning 
and Mulder had been concerned that she hadn't slept well the 
night before either. He was sure that all of them were going to 
need every once of strength they had once they reached 
Crossroads, Maine. He was worried for Scully's safety. 'OK, 
shoot me for being overprotective,' he thought. Sometimes he 
just couldn't help wanting to protect her even though he knew 
Scully hated it when he did. 
Scully shifted slightly and snuggled even closer to him. One of 
her hands came up to rest lightly on his arm and her hair spilled 
down over the side of her face. Mulder allowed himself a half 
smile as he reached over and gently pushed her hair back 
behind her ear. Impulsively he let his fingers just brush her 
cheek. Mulder didn't know why he had wanted to touch Scully 
at precisely that moment. 'Well, that isn't quite true,' he mused 
ruefully, and then he pushed the feeling into the back of his 
mind where other similar moments were kept well hidden. 
The rest of the flight seemed to pass quickly and the plane 
landed at Bangor International Airport pretty much on schedule. 
Skinner's secretary had made arrangements for them to rent a 
four wheel drive vehicle. The black Ford Explorer was waiting 
for them when the shuttle dropped them off at the rental car 
agency. 
There was a brief awkward moment as Skinner and Mulder 
tried to decide who was going to drive. Finally, incredibly, 
Skinner took Mulder's suggestion and they flipped for it. Skinner 
won. Mulder offered to let Scully ride shotgun but she told him 
"no, that's fine, I'll be happy to sit in the back." Somehow the 
thought of sitting next to Skinner until they reached their 
destination made her slightly car sick. 
So, their seating arrangements decided, Skinner guided the 
Ford out onto state highway 9 northeast and towards the Maine 
coast. Mulder soon fell asleep in the front passenger seat and 
Scully passed the time by looking out the window. 
At about the halfway point between Bangor and Crossroads, 
Skinner pulled off the highway at a service area. 'Thank God,' 
Scully thought, her legs had fallen asleep at least five miles 
back. Mulder made a beeline for the restroom. Scully had 
begun to think that this road trip was turning into one of her 
childhood family vacations when her father was trying to make 
time, and pit stops were few and far between. She decided to 
avail herself of the ladies room as well as long as she had the 
opportunity. It was anybody's guess when they'd stop again. 
Scully walked into the service area building and then her 
shoulders sagged as she spotted the women's restroom. 'It 
figures,' she sighed, taking a spot at the end of the long line. 
Mulder returned from the restroom to see Skinner, foot propped 
up on the Ford's bumper sipping a soda and holding a half eaten 
hot dog. There were two more sodas and hot dogs sitting on top 
of the vehicle's roof. 
"I drove off and left something up there once," Mulder 
commented as he walked up to the Assistant Director, "I take it 
this is lunch?" he added with amusement. 
Skinner indicated the sodas and replied, "Diet Cokes," and 
"what's the matter, don't you like hot dogs?" as he continued to 
drink his Coke while scanning the crowd in the parking lot. 
Mulder thought Skinner looked like he was on duty, and he 
guessed in a strange way, he was, but he didn't say anything 
about it, and picked up one of the Cokes, "Hot dogs are fine, 
Sir," was all he said instead. 
"Straw?" Skinner asked, pulling one from his suit coat pocket. 
Mulder took it from him and said, "Thanks." He tapped the end 
of the straw against the Ford's side, it burst through the paper 
wrapper and he popped the straw into the cup. He almost threw 
the wrapper on the ground, looked at Skinner, thought better of 
it, and walked over and put it in a trash can. 
When he returned to the side of the Explorer, Skinner was 
almost through with his soda and the hot dog was gone. He was 
staring at Mulder as if he had something to say. Mulder stood 
waiting and sipping, waiting and sipping, and finally Skinner 
spoke up.  
"Look, Mulder, does this trip make as little sense to you as it 
does to me?" 
"Sir?" Mulder asked puzzled, as he reached for one of the hot 
dogs. 
"It's just that, well, I've never been very good with this type of 
thing - running off on a whim I mean. I'm not used to following 
an impulse, acting irrationally, going on intuition, or compulsion 
or well...Crap. What I'm trying to say is, this isn't my usual way 
of operating." 
"You mean it's more like my way of operating?" Mulder asked 
sardonically. 
Skinner gave him a scathing look, but Mulder figured he had hit 
the nail on the head. 
"Whatever," Skinner continued, "But, look - Margaret Flynn 
meant a lot to me Mulder, and if there's even one chance in a 
million that she wrote those letters, then maybe she does need 
my help and I can't overlook that possibility. And if she didn't 
write those letters then whoever did is going to have hell to pay," 
he added angrily.  
"I think I know what you mean," Mulder replied quietly, thinking 
of his sister. 
Skinner glanced at him and replied, "Yes, I suppose you do."  
"But it bothers you to feel out of control?" Mulder asked 
carefully. 
"Yes, exactly, out of control," Skinner agreed, "and I don't think I 
like the feeling," he added, dropping his empty soda cup to the 
ground and crushing it under his heel. 
Mulder sighed. He had lived most of his life since his 
involvement with the X-Files in a state somewhere between 
rationality and irrationality and now it seemed fairly normal to 
him. But, he could understand that this same concept would 
probably turn Skinner's world upside down. He had no idea 
what they were going to face in Crossroads, but he did have the 
idea that all of them would have to deal with the irrational before 
very much longer. 
"Sir, the only advice I can give you is, go with the flow, because 
if you try to paddle upstream against the current you're going to 
end up.." 
"going crazy," Skinner asked. 
Mulder just looked at him, raised an eyebrow and took another 
sip of his Coke. 
"All right," Skinner replied. "I'll consider your advice, Agent 
Mulder," he added as he took his crushed Coke cup to the trash 
can. 
"I wonder what happened to Scully?" Mulder asked peering off 
in the general direction of the service building and taking a bite 
of his hot dog. 
"Long line," Skinner replied, "my wife used to complain like hell 
at rest stops because there was always a long line for the 
women's restroom," Skinner added. 
Mulder nodded and then Skinner said, "you'd better take her 
soda into the shade or it'll be nothing but brown water by the 
time she comes back." 
Mulder wolfed down the rest of his hot dog and then picked up 
Scully's cup and hot dog and walked over under one of the 
trees that bordered the parking lot. He wondered briefly how 
Skinner could stand out in the sun like that and not burn the hell 
out of his head. Just as he thought it, Skinner walked over and 
joined him in the shade. 
Presently Scully returned and Mulder handed her the Diet Coke 
and hot dog. 
"Oh, thank-you," she said somewhat surprised and looking at 
Mulder. 
"You're welcome," Skinner replied. 
Scully looked from Mulder to Skinner and then thought 'oops, I 
should have known better,' "Oh, thank you, Sir," she 
stammered hastily.
Before she could embarrass herself any further Mulder said, 
"Shall we hit the road, then?" 
"Fine." Scully stated quickly, heading towards the Ford. She 
tried to juggle the Coke and the hot dog to open the door, but 
found it impossible. Skinner reached over and opened it for her. 
"Thanks," she said as she sought refuge in the back seat.
Skinner continued to drive and they spent the remainder of the 
trip in relative silence. 
By late afternoon they had reached the outskirts of Crossroads, 
right on the Maine coast and were greeted with a typically 
quaint New England town. There were quiet shady streets, little 
interesting shops, and art galleries, antique dealers, old houses 
lovingly restored, and well maintained newer structures that 
were built to blend in with the existing architecture. Everything 
looked completely like small town *historic landmark* 
Americana, and Scully, Mulder, and Skinner seemed to relax a 
bit with the normalcy of it. 
Scully spotted the tasteful sign that advertised the location of 
Boyce's Bed and Breakfast, and they followed the directions to 
it's location on the opposite side of Crossroads proper. Skinner 
had thought it might be a good idea to call ahead but Mulder 
suggested they just show up and see what kind of reaction they 
got from Margaret Flynn and her husband. Skinner finally 
agreed that perhaps that was the best course of action and they 
had driven out unannounced. 
Scully was instantly impressed with the classic Victorian 
architecture of the Bed and Breakfast and the fact that it was 
actually farther from town than she expected, as well as being 
perched right on lands end, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The 
view was breathtaking and as the car pulled up out front she 
watched the gulls wheel and swoop around the widow's walk on 
top of the house. 
As they exited the Ford, Scully also noticed some scaffolding 
surrounding one end of the house and several bundles of 
shingles waiting on the roof. 
Skinner walked straight up the walkway towards the front door 
but Mulder lingered a moment, reading the little sign out front. 
Scully drew up beside him and read it too. The sign said, 
Welcome to Boyce's Bed and Breakfast. Your hostess: 
Margaret Flynn-Boyce. Mulder's brow was furrowed and Scully 
said, "Why not Kevin and Margaret Boyce?" 
"I was just thinking the same thing," Mulder replied but then they 
both realized that Skinner hadn't looked at the sign, and he was 
all ready on the porch, and pressing the door bell. Both Mulder 
and Scully hastened to catch up with him. 
He rang the buzzer several times and finally a shadow 
appeared on the other side of the glass door and the inside door 
swung open. Mulder and Scully stepped up onto the porch just 
in time to see a striking woman standing behind the outer 
screen door. 
Skinner was suddenly speechless and he just stood staring as 
the woman said, "May I help..." and then stopped dead in mid 
sentence to say, "Walter? Walter Skinner?" with tremendous 
emotion in her voice. 
"Hello, Maggie," was all Skinner could manage to get out.  
"My God, Walter, I...My God!" and she opened the screen door 
and came out onto the porch to get a better look at Skinner. 
Mulder took in the scene and had to admit that Skinner had 
good taste. Maggie Flynn was beautiful, a classic face and 
figure that had aged well, with long black (slightly gray in 
places) hair, tied up behind her head, and arresting blue eyes. 
She was almost as tall as Skinner and she carried herself , in 
her light summer dress, with a dancer's grace and poise. 
Mulder looked over at Scully to get her reaction and she 
glanced at him, raising an eyebrow. Scully was thinking, 'either 
Margaret Flynn is a consummate actress, or she had no idea 
Skinner was going to show up on her doorstep,' as the woman 
took Skinner's hand.  
"Walter, after all these years. Good lord, I thought I was 
dreaming, what, what are you doing here?" Maggie asked 
bewildered but obviously glad to see him nonetheless.
Skinner took the hand that was grasping his between both his 
hands, and gently squeezed it. "Maggie, it's, it's great to see 
you," he stammered, "Uh, could we come in, my reason for 
coming here is a little complicated," he added. 
Maggie Flynn looked from Skinner to Mulder, and then Scully, 
and replied, "Oh, I'm sorry, now rude of me, of course, come in, 
come in." 
Skinner released her hand and introduced the two Agents, 
"Maggie, this is Fox Mulder and Dana Scully," 
Scully thought it significant that he didn't say Agents Mulder and 
Scully. 
"Oh, well, come in, all of you, please, I just put some fresh 
lemonade in the fridge, I'll go get it," she replied, opening the 
screen and ushering them inside, "That's the parlor, go on in and 
sit down and I'll be right back," and she headed off towards the 
back of the house after shutting the front door. 
Mulder was conscious of the fact that the house looked like an 
authentic Victorian in both decor and the fact that it lacked 
central air. However, there were ceiling fans and with the 
windows open, the proximity of the sea made for excellent 
cross ventilation. It was really quite breezy and pleasant inside. 
As Skinner prowled the parlor he leaned over and whispered 
into Scully's ear, "Would you call this decor, early *Martha 
Stewart's Living* or *The Best of Bob Villa's This Old House*," 
he quipped. Scully narrowed her eyes at him just as Maggie 
Flynn returned carrying a tray with the lemonade and four 
glasses heaped with ice on it. She put the tray down on the 
coffee table and sat down on the couch. She began to pour the 
lemonade and each of them took a glass and sat down. Skinner 
moved to sit next to Maggie on the couch. She looked at him 
then and from the look in her eyes it was evident to both Mulder 
and Scully, that Walter Skinner had also meant a lot to Maggie 
Flynn. 
"Walter, what are you doing up here in Maine?" she asked. 
"You're still with the bureau, aren't you? Is this a business trip?" 
she asked real curiosity in her every question, "My Lord, it's so 
good to see you, It's been, how many years since I last wrote 
you?" she added breathlessly. 
"Seven years," Skinner replied, taking a drink of the lemonade 
to wet his dry throat. 
"That long, my God..." she replied. 
"Yes, and Maggie, I am still with the Bureau and this is sort of 
official business," he added reluctantly. 
"Oh?" she replied expectantly, "Official? How can I help?" she 
added. 
"Well, first of all, this is Agent Fox Mulder, and Agent Dana 
Scully," he amended their previous introductions, and then he 
took out his ID with some chagrin and Mulder and Scully did the 
same. 
Maggie waved them aside with a smile and said, "Walter, 
please, I'll take your word for it as to who you all are." 
Skinner smiled then for the first time, and Scully thought she 
could see what Maggie Flynn saw in him all those years ago. 
'He should smile more often,' she thought as Skinner replied. 
"Uh, Maggie, I think it would be a good idea if we could talk to 
Kevin as well," he began, "is he here?" 
Scully winced. From the moment they had come in she had 
noticed that there was no evidence of a male presence in the 
house, but the sign out front had been a bigger clue to the fact 
that Kevin Boyce may not have been in residence any longer. 
Maggie Flynn's next statement only served to verify Scully's 
suspicions. 
"Oh, Walter, Kevin, Kevin's dead," she began. Skinner put down 
his lemonade glass with a click, "he died two years ago. It was 
an accident, Kevin drowned," she finished quietly. 
Skinner stared at her for a split second and then replied, "God, 
Maggie, I'm sorry, I had no idea." 
"Well, Walter, how could you have known? It's not like I kept in 
touch is it?" she sighed. "I'm sorry about that too, I should have 
stayed in touch, I should have let you know," she added. 
Mulder cleared his throat and then with his usual single minded 
intensity asked, "So you haven't written to Assistant Director 
Skinner in over seven years?" 
Maggie Flynn looked from Mulder to Skinner and replied 
impressed, "Assistant Director?" and then she added, "No, I 
haven't, not since, when was it again, Walter?" 
"Right after you opened the Bed and Breakfast," Skinner replied 
never taking his eyes off Maggie Flynn. 
"That's right, that would have been 7 years ago," Maggie shook 
her head in the affirmative. 
Skinner blinked, having suddenly gotten Mulder's hint and he 
reached inside his jacket and pulled out the two letters he had 
received from Crossroads, Maine. 
"Maggie, can I ask you to take a look at these two letters and 
tell me what you think?" Skinner asked opening both envelopes, 
removing the letters, and holding them up into the light for her to 
see. 
The raven haired woman bent over, concentration furrowing her 
brow as she read first one letter, and then the other. Color 
drained from her face as she finished, and then she looked up 
into Skinner's face. 
"Walter, I, what is this all about?" she asked, concerned.  
"Did you write those letters, Maggie?" he asked, falling back into 
G-Man mode as he watched her face. 
"Did I write them? My God, no, Walter, I didn't write them!" she 
replied. 
"But it is your handwriting," Skinner pressed. 
She scrutinized the letters again, deep confusion on her face. 
"Yes, it looks like my handwriting, but I swear to you, I didn't 
write those letters. It must be some kind of sick joke," she 
added looking up at both Mulder and Scully. 
"You're saying the letters are forgeries?" Scully asked.  
"Yes, they have to be!" Maggie insisted her voice rising slightly. 
"By whom?" Mulder asked from his chair near the fire place. He 
was looking, not at Maggie, but at the letters, his eyes squinted 
as if he was trying to see something that was unclear to him. 
"I have absolutely no idea," she replied, rubbing her arms 
together as if she were suddenly cold. "God, this is so strange," 
she said in way of explanation. 
"I'd have to agree with you there," Skinner replied taking the 
letters and folding them back up. He put them back in the 
envelopes and tucked them into his suit coat pocket. 
"So, there's nothing wrong up here then, no trouble, no one's 
been bothering you, no strange letters or threatening phone 
calls?" Skinner asked carefully, "You, uh, you didn't write these 
letters to ask for my help?" he added and the last part was very 
hard for him to say. 
"No!" Maggie answered shock and puzzlement still in her voice. 
Skinner cleared his throat then and it was evident from the 
expression on his face and his posture that he believed her, and 
his words backed up his thoughts, "All right. Well, listen, Maggie, 
we have to find out who sent these letters. Agent Mulder 
received some very similar correspondence and Agent Scully, 
well, she's received uh, a rather threatening phone call. We are 
here to investigate who may have written the letters, and sent 
them," Skinner explained. 
Scully glanced at Mulder and he shook his head back and forth, 
in the negative. 'He doesn't believe her?' Scully mused. 
"My God, Walter!" Maggie was exclaiming. "How awful," she 
added looking at both Mulder and zeroing in on Scully. "How 
terrible." 
"Yes, well, we will get to the bottom of it," Skinner interrupted 
her. 
"Is there any way I can help?" Maggie hastened to ask. "You're 
all welcome to stay here while you continue your investigation, 
if you'd like. I didn't take any bookings for a couple of weeks, 
because the roof's being repaired and re-shingled. If you don't 
mind a little hammering in the morning, you're welcome to stay 
here, as my guest." 
"That might be a good idea, Sir," Mulder interjected. 
Skinner agreed immediately but added, "But not as your guest, 
Maggie, this one's on the FBI." Maggie smiled radiantly at him 
then, and Skinner actually smiled broadly back. 
Mulder watched Skinner and Maggie Flynn interacting and felt a 
bit uncomfortable, because it really was becoming evident that 
Skinner had never gotten over Maggie Flynn. Mulder was 
worried that perhaps he was losing his impartiality in the 
investigation. He thought that Skinner had jumped to his 
conclusion about his old flame a little too quickly. Mulder kept 
his own console for the moment, however, because he figured 
that if they were going to stay at the Bed and Breakfast all of 
them would have ample opportunity to find out if Maggie Flynn 
was telling the truth. 
Skinner and Maggie continued to stare, slightly awestruck to be 
seeing each other after all these years, and Scully looked over 
at Mulder and said, "Uh, Sir, Agent Mulder and I will go out and 
get the luggage if you'd like." 
"Fine," Skinner replied without looking at them. 
Mulder looked at her with a wide eyed stare, and Scully 
tightened her lips and gestured with her head for him to follow 
her out the door. 
As soon as they were out on the porch Mulder asked, "What 
was that all about?" 
"Oh, come on, Mulder don't be so dense." 
"Dense?" he asked affronted slightly as he walked down the 
steps towards the car. 
"Well, couldn't you see they wanted to be left alone?" she asked 
following him. 
Mulder just shrugged. Scully pressed the issue. 
"Well, what did you think was going on in there?" she asked.  
"I think we were seeing Skinner losing his objectivity because of 
her." Mulder stated flatly. 
"Skinner, lose his objectivity?" Scully replied stopping to look 
into his eyes with an expression that said, 'You've got to be 
kidding,' and then she added, "I don't think that's a danger."  
"Well, I just don't think it's a good idea to encourage them, we 
don't know for sure that Maggie Flynn is telling the truth."  
"Oh, come on, Mulder, she was either telling the truth in there, 
or she's the world's greatest actress."
"So, she convinced you, did she?" Mulder asked. 
"Yes." 
Mulder gave her a sour look as he took out the car keys and 
unlocked the trunk. He handed Scully her garment bag and 
then picked up both his own and Skinner's, shutting the hood. 
Mulder sighed. 
"OK, look. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt, for now, at least 
until I have more information," Mulder said, lowering his voice, 
"I'm not blind you know, Scully, I saw what was going on in 
there. I'll cut Skinner some slack. I guess the guy deserves to 
have a little happiness come his way for a change." 
Scully looked down at her shoes and replied, "Mulder I didn't 
mean to imply that you were dense, or blind...I'm sorry." 
Mulder looked at her and then waved the garment bag in a 
dismissive gesture smiling slightly, "Oh, forget it, Scully, I'm just 
tired I guess, we've all been under a lot of strain, it's ok, let's go 
back inside." 
Both Agents headed back towards the house. As they 
approached the porch Mulder gazed off into the distance, into 
the large and very over grown field that bordered the neatly 
landscaped area of the Bed and Breakfast. His attention had 
been caught by something and he dropped the two garment 
bags he was carrying onto the sidewalk.  
"Mulder, what is it?" Scully asked as he started to walk away. 
"Scully, come here, will you?" Mulder asked, and she followed 
him as he trotted over to the lawn's border. 
"What does that look like over there," he asked her pointing out 
into the field at some far off point. 
"A large maple tree?" she guessed. 
"No, off to the right," Mulder insisted. 
"A bunch of rocks," she replied. 
"Rocks, yeah, but not just a bunch of rocks," and he took off 
across the field, at a dead run. Scully dropped her bag and took 
off in pursuit. Some of the weeds were nearly up to Scully's 
shoulders but she ran after him and finally caught up to him just 
as he was reaching the first of a series of upright stones. 
Mulder walked around the stone grouping and then turning to 
Scully said, "Do they still look like just a bunch of rocks?" 
"No, of course not," she started to say. 
"These are standing stones, Scully," Mulder interrupted, his 
excitement barely contained.
"Standing stones as in Stonehedge?" Scully asked retracing the 
path Mulder had taken around the circle. "God, I think you're 
right, Mulder," she added as the scaled-down lay-out became 
clear to her through the weeds. 
"But standing stones, on the coast of Maine?" she asked. Even 
now she could hear the crashing of the surf. The ocean was 
very close she thought, possibly right over the rise. 
Mulder walked off, his head bent in thought and he disappeared 
from view over the small rise in the hill. Scully followed him 
once again. The ocean stretched out immediately in front of 
them and Mulder stood on the edge of a shear cliff overlooking 
it. 
"Oh, Mulder, it's beautiful," Scully breathed before she could 
even stop herself. As the wind off the ocean whipped her hair 
around her head she watched Mulder look down at the abrupt 
drop off. She walked forward to find out what had captured his 
attention. Mulder turned towards her then, and his hair was 
blowing across his forehead, and his eyes were reflecting back 
the dark blue of the water, and she thought, 'God, he's 
beautiful,' and then she almost slipped, and he reached out and 
caught her awkwardly in his arms pulling her back from the 
edge. 
"Watch out there, Scully," he whispered holding her close for a 
moment. Scully's heart raced, and she wasn't at all sure it was 
only from the near fall. Mulder released her, and they silently 
walked back from the cliff's edge to stand amongst the stones. 
"Standing stones have great magical significance, Scully," 
Mulder said turning around in a circle. 
"I know that Mulder," Scully replied, "But what bearing do they 
have on this, this trip or quest, or whatever it is, we're on," she 
added. 
"I'm not sure yet, Scully, but I think I'd like to ask Maggie Flynn 
what she knows about this stone circle," Mulder replied heading 
back off across the field. 
Once they were back on the walkway leading up to the house, 
Mulder picked up the garment bags he had been carrying and 
walked up onto the porch. Both of them could hear Skinner and 
Maggie talking inside as they opened the screen door and 
walked in. Maggie was laughing and smiling at something 
Skinner had said and Mulder and Scully both felt like intruders 
as they stood in the parlor's door. 
Maggie was getting up then and so did Skinner. "Let me show 
you all to your rooms," she was saying. "I hate to put you under 
the roof repairs, so if you don't mind being split up, I can put two 
of you upstairs and one of you down here. There's a nice room 
at the back of the house and the two upstairs rooms are right 
across from each other and away from the scaffolding." 
"Well, we can take the upstairs rooms, If that's all right with you, 
Sir," Mulder suggested looking at Skinner. 
"Sure, that would be fine," Skinner answered taking his garment 
bag from Mulder. 
"All right, I can take you two upstairs then, and Walter, I'll be 
right back to show you your room." 
"Thanks, Maggie," Skinner replied, and she turned and smiled at 
him again as she headed up the stairs. 
Mulder and Scully followed her up one flight of stairs, and then 
up another to their rooms on the top floor. "To tell you the truth, 
besides not wanting to subject you all to the noise from the 
repairs, these are the only two rooms I've had time to make up. 
I'm just letting everything air out so that when the guests start 
showing up the rooms will be nice and fresh." Maggie explained 
as he unlocked the door to the first room. 
"We appreciate your hospitality, Maggie," Scully answered.  
"Well, Boyce's Bed and Breakfast has always prided itself on 
hospitality," she smiled opening the door wide. Both Agents 
followed her in. The windows on the wall opposite the door 
showed a spectacular view of the ocean and Scully stood 
transfixed again at the scene. 
"I guess this will be her room," Mulder smiled gently, and turned 
around to go across the hall. Mulder's view was less 
spectacular, but infinitely more interesting, because from a side 
window he could clearly see the standing stones in the 
distance. 
"Uh, Mrs. Boyce?" Mulder began. 
"Please call me, Maggie, Fox," she smiled at him. 
"Maggie," he continued without missing a beat, 'aren't standing 
stones rather unusual on the coast of Maine?" he asked. 
"Oh, so you've seen the stones?" Maggie asked brightly. "Yes, 
they are very rare. Kevin did some research on them before we 
bought the house. He had the idea that they would make a nice 
attraction for the B&B, and they did. He kept that whole area 
cleared out. It wasn't like it is now, all choked up with weeds. I, I 
haven't been able to bring myself to go out there and weed, not 
since, well, not since Kevin died," she finished quietly. 
"I'm sorry, Maggie, I didn't mean to bring up a painful memory," 
Mulder said. 
"Oh, it's all right," Maggie answered. 
"Just out of curiosity, what did Kevin find out about the stones?" 
Mulder pressed her. 
"Well, not anything earth shattering really, just that they are very 
old, dating back God knows how long. But they're mentioned in 
the earliest records of the area. They're supposed to be in some 
kind of arrangement for gauging the seasons or significant 
astronomical events, like the full moon or an eclipse." 
"Interesting," Mulder commented. Scully came in the door just 
as Maggie was finishing up her explanation. 
"I'll just let you two freshen up then. Both rooms have a private 
bath, as you can see, and if you'd like any more towels, help 
yourself, the linen closet is down the hall." 
"Thank you," Scully replied. 
Just as Maggie exited the room however, she turned back and 
looked at Mulder, "if you're really interested in the standing 
stones, there's a whole exhibit on them in the little museum 
downtown next to the town hall. It's quite comprehensive. Kevin 
helped create it," she added as she walked towards the stairs. 
Scully came into the room and shut the door behind her. 
"I think we'd better check out that museum, Scully," Mulder said 
looking out the window towards the standing stones. He ran his 
hand across his mouth, pulling at his lower lip, and Scully said, 
"All right, Mulder what are you thinking?" 
"Look, Scully I need to tell you something, and I know what 
you're going to say, but just let me get it out before you jump all 
over the idea, all right." 
Scully sat down on the edge of the bed and spread her hands 
out, palms up, "Fine, I'm all ears." 
Mulder sighed and began, "When I first got those letters, I was 
willing to believe they might have been from my sister. I knew 
her writing should have changed, but the feeling was so strong 
that I was willing to overlook that fact. I almost took off for 
Crossroads without even telling you I was going." 
"Mulder, I hate when you ditch me, you know that..." Scully 
interrupted. 
"Yes, I know, so I didn't do it this time. But the compulsion was 
so strong I almost did. Skinner said the same thing in his office - 
I feel like I have to go to Crossroads. And then you..." 
"Said the same thing after the phone call," Scully looked at him. 
"Right," Mulder replied. 
"And?" she prompted. 
"And what if those letters were actually causing us to come 
here, compelling us through..." 
"Through magic?" Scully asked quietly, "Oh, Mulder, I don't 
know, I have real trouble believing in that possibility. And 
besides, I didn't get any letters." 
"You didn't get one, but you had your hands all over mine and 
Skinner's copies. Maybe the phone call was just a 
reinforcement for you. Maybe whatever is summoning us 
knows you're really the most logical of the three of us, and that 
you'd need a little extra push to bring you up here." 
Scully just stared at him, "Mulder there are other explanations." 
"Like what?" he asked. 
"Well, certain types of psychoactive drugs can induce that type 
of compulsive behavior. Maybe someone coated the paper with 
a drug that we absorbed through our skin when we touched 
them. Maybe the phone call was just a form of subliminal 
suggestion or...." 
"That sounds more far-fetched than my idea, Scully." 
"All right, Mulder, what is your idea," Scully finally said, giving 
in. 
Mulder continued, "All right, listen to this. According to *The 
Book of Ceremonial Magic*, a practitioner of the black arts, can 
harm a person by passing him magical runes written on a piece 
of paper. Sometimes these runes are used to kill an enemy, 
because once they've been passed to the intended victim, a 
demon appears and kills the person. Sort of like a demonic hit 
man. But in another instance, and this is more rare, the runes 
can be used to summon a person to be used in a magical rite, 
as a sacrifice to a bring a demon into this plane and then bind it 
to..." 
"Mulder!" Scully stopped him, "Do you know how that sounds? I 
didn't see any runes on those letters, no magical symbols of any 
kind," she added, impatience in her voice. 
"All right then, how do you explain the compulsion to come up 
here? And how do you explain away the fact that the thought of 
your dead father calling you on the phone upset you so much 
you could barely stop shaking?" Mulder asked angrily. 
Scully's mouth closed and she looked down at her hands. "I 
guess I don't have a good explanation for that, Mulder," she 
replied in a near whisper. "But I don't want to rule out some type 
of drug. We should have had the paper analyzed before we left 
DC, God, Skinner should have had the paper analyzed." 
"But he didn't, did he?" Mulder replied suggestively. 
Scully looked at him without comment, and Mulder continued, 
"Scully, after I found those standing stones, it only reinforced 
my idea. Maggie was right when she said that stones like those 
were used to plan the planting season, and harvests, as well as 
to chart other significant astronomical events. But there's also 
some research out there that supports the idea that stone circles 
can be used by practitioners of black magic for any number of 
magical rituals.  
Scully began to rub her temples, fatigue showing in her entire 
body's posture. "And you're going to tell me that Maggie Flynn is 
some type of witch, or sorceress and she's luring Skinner here 
for some kind of sacrifice?" 
Mulder crossed over and sat next to her on the bed, "All I'm 
trying to say, Scully, is I'm not sure our coming here has a 
rational explanation. Maybe my idea is cracked and I'm just 
guilty of seeing too many B-horror movies, but I want to show 
you something else now, and then I want you to tell me what 
you think," he finished, and he reached into his suit coat pocket 
and drew out the two letters he had received. 
He held them up into a shaft of bright light that was coming 
through the window, "Scully, look up trough both pages, ok?" he 
asked her and she tilted her head up to look. She could just 
make out the outline of Celtic style runes running diagonally 
across each of the sheets of paper. 
"Mulder.." she whispered. 
"Yeah," he nodded at her. 
"My God, when did you notice those?" she asked. 
"Actually I didn't notice the runes on these two sheets at all. I 
noticed them on Skinner's when he held them up downstairs for 
Maggie. I just took a chance that mine might have the same 
symbols on them." Mulder explained, "The letters seem to be 
woven directly into the paper," he added tucking the pages back 
into his pocket. 
Scully looked at him and shook her head, "Mulder this is almost 
too incredible to believe..." 
"Well, we'd better start believing it, because I don't have a better 
explanation right now and I'm afraid that if we don't believe it 
we're going to be in deep shit," Mulder answered matter-of-
factly. 
Scully struggled to comprehend Mulder's idea. 'This is always 
the sticking point between us,' she thought. He believes almost 
blindly and I just can't seem to agree.' She had seen the 
notations he had made next to the song's lyrics. He had really 
been trying to piece the puzzle together. She looked into his 
face, and besides the will to convince her he was right, she also 
thought she saw concern for her there as well, so she finally 
said, "All right, Mulder, I'll try to agree with you, now where do 
we go from here?" 
Mulder straightened a bit and replied, "Well, I think the first thing 
we should do is go downstairs and tell Skinner what we've 
found. That line in the song, where it says, *I haven't got no 
lovin' sweet woman that love and feel my care* strikes me as 
too much of a coincidence for Skinner to ignore." 
"Are you serious about suspecting Maggie?" Scully asked.  
"Well, I don't want to think of her as a suspect," Mulder sighed, 
"but..." he let his voice trail off. 
"I still can't think she wrote those letters. She seems so sincere," 
Scully replied. 
"I still think we should at least mention what we just found to 
Skinner, don't you?" Mulder asked. 
"OK, you're right, but I'd tread lightly there if I were you," Scully 
advised. 
"Fine," Mulder replied, "but if Maggie Flynn doesn't have 
anything to do with the letters or those stones then we'd better 
formulate a plan to find out just who is *Casting the Runes,*" he 
added.  
Mulder and Scully left his room and headed downstairs, Mulder 
went off into the parlor thinking Skinner and Maggie may have 
been in there. Scully walked down a side hallway towards the 
back of the house in the general direction she thought Maggie 
had indicated Skinner's room was going to be. As she turned 
the corner at the end of the hallway she could see the Assistant 
Director standing in the doorway to one of the rooms, his 
garment bag in one hand and his other hand touching Maggie 
Flynn's cheek, and she stopped dead in her tracks. She backed 
up as quietly as possible and bumped right into Mulder who had 
been coming up from behind her. 
"What's up?" he asked and she shushed him, and pushed him, 
farther back up the hall. "Don't go down there," she whispered, 
go back to the parlor, I'll explain there." Mulder turned around 
and headed back up the hall as quietly as he could. Once in the 
parlor Scully said, "He was down there at the end of the hallway 
with her," and she started to blush slightly, "and, well.." 
"Well, what?" Mulder asked. 
"Well, it looked like he'd probably like another second alone with 
her," she finished looking down at the floor." 
"What?," Mulder shot back causing Scully to jerk her head up in 
astonishment. She gazed in amazement at him as he bulled his 
way past her, and headed towards Skinner's room. 
"Mulder!?" she called after him in surprise. But it was too late, 
he was all ready at the end of the hallway and going around the 
corner out of sight. 
Scully dashed after him and as she rounded the bend she 
sighed with relief, because Maggie Flynn was nowhere to be 
seen, and Skinner was talking to Mulder in the door way to his 
room. 
"Agent Mulder, that's none of your business," Skinner was 
hissing angrily at him. 
"It is my business, Sir, if it jeopardizes our lives," Mulder was 
arguing heatedly. 
Skinner looked up at Scully as she approached "Mulder, would 
you please keep your voice down?" he asked the younger man 
and then he said to Scully, "do you know what the hell he 
means by *I should think about staying away from that 
woman?* 
"Uh, Sir...," Scully hesitated. 
"Oh come on Scully, who do you think is the most likely 
candidate for having cast those runes?" Mulder glared at her. 
"What *runes* Mulder, what in the devil are you talking about?" 
Skinner asked color rising into his face. 
"What the *DEVIL* am I talking about..." Mulder began to 
bluster. 
"Maybe we'd better go inside your room and let him explain," 
Scully interrupted and all three of them stepped out of the hall 
and Skinner shut the door. 
"All right, Mulder, you have about one minute to explain yourself 
before I punch your lights out," Skinner spat out viciously. 
Scully stared at him in shock, and watched as Mulder struggled 
to control himself. He took a deep breath and began to tell 
Skinner what he had just got done telling Scully about the runes, 
and the standing stones, and his suspicions regarding Maggie 
Flynn. He finished by making Skinner take out his letters and 
look at them through the sun streaming in his window. 
When he was done looking at the letters, Skinner turned and 
asked reluctantly, "And you seriously think Maggie had 
something to do with these letters, and the runes?" 
"Yes sir, I think she's the most likely candidate to have passed 
them to us, and if not the one who did it, she may know who 
did," he finished as reasonably as he could. 
Skinner gazed at him and for a moment, Scully thought he was 
going to hit Mulder, but then he sat down on the bed slowly and 
rubbed the back of his neck with one large hand. 
"All right, listen, Mulder. Your idea sounds, God, it sounds 
insane. I can hardly believe that, that woman, that Maggie..., I 
mean sacrifices, come on Mulder? For Christ's sake!" Skinner 
replied desperately. There was a look very close to anguish on 
his face. 
Mulder just stared at him, his eyes boring a hole right through 
Skinner's skepticism. Scully shook her head sadly. It was 
obvious that Skinner was having his feelings for Maggie Flynn 
rekindled and the idea that she was hiding something from him 
was extremely upsetting. 
Finally he ran a hand over his mouth, and still looking at Mulder 
said, "All right, look. I'm going to take a piece of your advice 
here, Mulder, against my better judgment. I'm going to try to go 
with the flow for a change. I'll consider your hypothesis to be a 
possible theory, all right. But, look, let me talk to Maggie, please. 
She may tell me things she would never reveal to either of you, 
and if she isn't involved I'd like to find that out for myself. 
"And if she is involved?" Mulder asked. 
"Well, then I guess I'd like to be the first to know about that too." 
Skinner replied. 
Mulder exhaled slowly. Obviously he had thought that Skinner 
might have belted him as well. "Ok, I can respect that," he 
replied.  
"Fine, now why don't the two of you go into town before it gets 
too late and see what else you can dig up regarding your 
*theory*. And see if you can check into the records at city hall 
regarding Kevin Boyce's death. I'd just like to make sure about 
the cause as well." Skinner advised, taking the keys to the Ford 
out of his pocket and handing them to Mulder. 
"All right, sir," Scully replied. 
As the two left Skinner's room and were near the front door, 
Maggie Flynn came out from the direction of the kitchen, "Are 
you two going back out?" she asked. 
"Yes, we just thought we'd take a look around town," Scully 
replied, trying her best to smile. 
"Oh, well, I'm going to serve dinner at around 7 PM, so I hope 
you can make it back by then.." she let her voice trail off. 
"Wouldn't miss it," Mulder replied, a smile struggling to appear 
on his face, as well. 
"Wonderful," she answered, "I'll see you both then," and she 
walked away into the parlor. 
Unfortunately, by the time Mulder and Scully had driven into 
town and found a parking place it was after 5 PM and 
Crossroads was rolling up the sidewalks. Everything was shut 
down, despite the fact that there was plenty of summer light 
left. 
"What do we do now?" Scully asked as they walked up to the 
town hall and saw the *CLOSED* sign posted on the door. The 
little museum next door was shut up tighter than a drum as 
well. 
"Well, we could go back to the B&B," Mulder replied.  
"No, Mulder, let's give Skinner a little time with Maggie. He 
might be able to get some information out of her. And if there's 
still a possibility that she isn't involved with those runes, then 
maybe Skinner might just want to spend a little time with her," 
Scully added quietly. 
Mulder looked at her out of the corner of his eye and then he 
began to whistle the tune *Matchmaker, Matchmaker,* from 
*Fiddler on the Roof*. 
"Oh, shut up," she laughed unable to stop herself. 
Mulder laughed a bit too then and said, "He really has it bad for 
her doesn't he?" 
"Do you even have to ask?" Scully replied. 
"Yeah, I guess you're right. I thought he was going to hit me 
back there." Mulder replied shaking his head. 
"So did I," Scully agreed. 
"Uh, look, Scully, we have almost two hours to kill, would you, I 
mean, would you like to take a walk down on the beach? It's 
probably cooler down there. I could use the sea air to clear my 
head." Mulder suggested. 
"All right, that sounds like a good idea," Scully answered and the 
two of them walked the two blocks it took them to reach a 
stairway that lead down to the shore. The air was indeed cooler 
there and the sand was white and looked like it stretched for 
miles. Mulder rolled up his slacks and took off his shoes and 
socks. Scully did the same, tucking her knee hi panty hose into 
her tailored suit coat pocket. Then both of them, carrying their 
shoes in one hand, stepped out onto the sand, and began to 
walk, side by side along the water's edge. 
Scully glanced over at Mulder and allowed herself to admire his 
profile as he looked out over the water. She sighed and thought 
to herself that at times she was attracted to Mulder with an 
intensity that she found almost unbearable. In peaceful, quiet 
moments like these, when she was alone with him, she let 
herself imagine what it might be like to have him be more than 
just a friend and partner. She'd sometimes fantasized about 
how it would feel to have him kiss her and tell her he loved her. 
But, the whole idea was just that, a fantasy and after logical 
consideration she would dismiss her thoughts for what they 
were - the musings of a workaholic who barely had time to eat 
regular meals much less maintain any type of relationship or 
social life. Still, at times she thought, just maybe...." 
"Scully?" Mulder interrupted her train of thought. 
"Yes?" she replied. 
"You dropped one of your shoes," Mulder replied indicating the 
beach in back of them. 
"Oh, hell," she frowned. 
"Don't worry, I'll get it," he replied gallantly, and then ran back 
up the beach to fetch the shoe. 
"Thank you kind sir," she smiled putting the shoe back with it's 
mate in her right hand. 
Impulsively, Mulder reached out and took her left hand in his. 
Scully looked down at their intertwined fingers and then up into 
his face. Mulder didn't say anything, he just started walking 
again, holding her hand comfortably in his and she decided it 
felt very nice, and she walked on beside him. 
After a time they reached a little stairway that led back up to the 
houses above, and Mulder asked her if she'd like to sit a while, 
and she said that would be just fine. They sat down next to each 
other and looked out over the waves, in companionable silence, 
and the gulls were flying, and the sand pipers scuttled along the 
waterline. 
After a time, Mulder looked at his watch, "Hey, we'd better get 
back, it's 6:30," and they headed up the stairway and over to the 
parked Ford Explorer. 
They were able to return to the B&B shortly after 7 PM and 
once inside the front door they were met by the sight of 
Assistant Director Walter Skinner wearing a chefs apron, and 
helping to set the large table in the dining room. Mulder almost 
burst out laughing but luckily he was able to hold in most of it. 
"What's so funny, Agent Mulder?" Skinner asked dangerously.  
"Not a thing, Sir, if you'll excuse me, I'd like to go, uh, wash my 
feet," he winced. Neither he nor Scully had been able to get all 
the beach grit off their feet so they had come back barefoot.  
"Me too, Sir," Scully hastened to add, making a quick exit.  
"All right, but make it fast, dinner's about to be served," he 
called after them. 
When the two Agents came back down, the table was 
completely set, the lights had been turned down low, and 
candles illuminated the room.
The scene was almost idyllic. Scully hoped that the room 
looked like that because Skinner had found out that Maggie 
Flynn had nothing whatsoever to do with runes or standing 
stones. 
Skinner came out of the kitchen, sans apron, but wearing khaki 
dockers and a fresh white polo shirt. Mulder and Scully were 
glad they had both taken the time to change into jeans, t-shirts 
and sneakers. Mulder made his way directly over to Skinner 
and without preamble asked, "What did you find out, Sir?" 
"I might ask you the same thing, Agent Mulder," he whispered. 
Mulder shook his head in the negative, "We got into town too 
late, Sir, everything was closed till morning." 
"I was afraid of that," Skinner said. "This town hasn't changed 
much since I was here last in that respect," he added. "You'll 
just have to try again tomorrow. We'll get an early start in the 
morning." 
"And you, Sir, what did you find out from Maggie?" Mulder 
pressed. 
"I'm sure she didn't write the letters, Mulder. I'm almost sure she 
doesn't know who did either, but I'm still working on that end of 
the problem," he whispered and then he stopped talking 
because Maggie was coming out of the kitchen. She was 
carrying a large platter with steamed crabs piled high on it. 
Skinner hurried to help her, "Here, let me take that, Maggie," 
Skinner said, and he took the platter from her and placed it on 
the table with the other dishes. 
"Oh, you shouldn't have gone to all this trouble, Maggie," Scully 
said.
"I didn't go to much trouble at all, Walter fixed the crabs, he 
certainly hasn't lost his touch in that department," she laughed. 
Skinner actually reddened at her comment, and then he said, 
"Well, sit down... they aren't going to stay hot forever.." and all 
four of them took their places at the table. 
The meal was delightful, Scully had to admit. Even Mulder 
seemed to relax. All of them enjoyed cracking the crabs after 
Maggie and Skinner had given a hilarious demonstration on how 
not to do it, and then exactly how it was done. There was ice 
cold beer to wash the meal down with, and hot towels to clean 
up with afterwards.  
They all sat around the table after the meal and talked, and 
Scully found herself believing again that in no way could 
Maggie Flynn have written the letters and if she did know 
anything about them, the runes, or sacrifices, or demons at all, it 
would have been a big surprise to her. 
Mulder seemed to be looking at her with less suspicion and his 
mood was upbeat. 
During the meal it became obvious that the Assistant Director 
was indeed, as the old saying went, smitten, with Maggie Flynn. 
It was as if the intervening years had simply slipped away, and 
he was 18 years old again, and in love. For her part, Maggie 
was equally as interested in him, but there was a hint of 
wistfullness about her. Scully thought that she was probably 
thinking of her late husband, and her sudden resurgence of 
feelings for Skinner might have been making her feel guilty 
under the circumstances. 
Finally when it became obvious that Skinner and Maggie Flynn 
would probably like to be alone together again, Scully looked 
over at Mulder and tried to get his attention. He was a bit more 
quick on the uptake this time and said, "Maggie, that was one of 
the finest meals, I've ever had, but I'm so full I think I'd better go 
out and stretch my legs before I burst." 
"Does that mean I can't interest you in coffee and desert, Fox?" 
she asked laughter in her voice. 
"Not unless you want to have to call 911," Mulder quipped.  
"All right, I'll excuse you this time," Maggie smiled, but tomorrow 
night you'll have to have a piece of my apple pie."  
"That's a deal," Mulder replied. "Hey, Scully, would you like to 
join me?" Mulder asked. 
"All right," Scully replied quickly and both of them exited the 
dining room and headed out onto the front porch. 
"Now what?" Mulder asked. 
"Well, let's take a walk, I am nearly ready to burst," Scully 
groaned a bit, "God, I haven't eaten that much in eons." 
"It was good though, wasn't it?" Mulder grinned. 
"No, I hated it all, especially that fourth crab I gagged down," 
Scully joked back giving him a little poke in the ribs. 
"Hey, watch it, I just might explode on you," Mulder smirked, 
and then he walked down off the porch and onto the lawn. 
They walked down the road that lead up to the B&B and then 
turned back towards the house. The only sounds were the 
crickets, and the gravel crunching beneath their feet. They 
walked into the back yard and there was a little screened in 
gazebo at the edge of the lawn. 
"Mulder, let's go sit in there, the bugs will stay off us that way," 
Scully suggested as she swatted at the first of the mosquitoes 
that found her arm. 
"Yeah, I don't feel like donating any blood right now myself," 
Mulder agreed and they both entered the little structure and 
closed the door behind them. 
Mulder looked back towards the house as Scully sat down on 
one of the wooden benches. 
"Mulder, relax, you don't have to chaperone them, they're big 
people." Scully told his back. 
He turned around and walked over to her, "Yeah, I guess you're 
right," and he sat down next to her. 
"Do you really still think she had anything to do with those 
letters?" Scully asked. 
"God, I hope not," Mulder breathed, "for Skinners sake," he 
added and Scully looked at him, a very soft expression on her 
face.  
"Scully," Mulder continued, "I don't think I want to believe that 
Maggie Flynn had anything to do with any of those letters, or the 
runes or well, any part of my theory about her." 
"I hope she doesn't. I'm starting to like her too much," Scully 
replied. 
"Yeah, me too," Mulder sighed, interrupting her, and then he 
turned and looked at Scully. There was a strand of hair falling 
across her eyes and he gently reached over and moved it back 
behind her ear. His hand lingered at her cheek and Scully sat 
very still. Mulder searched her face, looking for something, and 
Scully instantly wished, 'Please, let him do it..' but the kiss didn't 
come. Instead he lowered his hand. 
"Look, Scully let's go into town early tomorrow like Skinner 
suggested and really pound the pavement. Let's try to clear 
Maggie once and for all, and then take this case from there, 
what do you say?" Mulder suggested. 
"I think that's an excellent idea," Scully agreed, letting her breath 
out very slowly. 
They both left the gazebo and headed back around the side of 
the house. Both of them tried to make as much noise as 
possible as they walked up onto the porch and through the front 
door. 
Once inside they saw Skinner and Maggie clearing up the last 
of the plates from the dining room table. 
"We're going to turn in, Sir, I think we should get an early start in 
the morning," Mulder said. 
"All right, Mulder, Scully, that's a good idea. I'll see you in the 
morning then," and he turned around and followed Maggie into 
the kitchen. Both Agents went upstairs then, and to their 
separate rooms. 
Scully took a shower and putting on her pajamas, walked over 
and sat in a chair facing the ocean to admire the view. 
Mulder took a shower as well, and hung his suit pants over the 
shower bar afterwards so the cuffs that had gotten wet at the 
beach could dry. He but a clean pair of boxers on and stretched 
out on the bed to read *The Book of Ceremonial Magic*. The 
breeze from the open window in his room felt very refreshing on 
his naked legs. 
Downstairs, Skinner was helping Maggie to load the last of the 
dishes into the dishwasher, and laughing with her over the fact 
that there were some things that you didn't want to do without 
even for the sake of Victorian authenticity, and a dishwasher 
was one of them. Skinner was vaguely aware that he was 
falling head over heels in love with Maggie Flynn again. He 
didn't want to question the feeling, even though a nagging voice 
told him he should, and that things were moving way to fast. He 
tried to ignore the voice, because he felt like he had so many 
years ago, like he was 18 again, and it was summer, and he'd 
never been to Vietnam, and Maggie was his first love. 
They were standing very close in front of the dishwasher and 
Maggie looked into his eyes. The room spun a bit, and Skinner 
thought, 'God, she's so beautiful,' and he wanted to kiss her, but 
instead he turned away and clearing his throat, said, "Uh, 
Maggie, I'd better turn in too, we have a lot of ground to cover 
tomorrow, I'd like to get an early start." 
"All right, Walter," she replied quietly. "I'll just finish up here." and 
she started to wipe the counter top with some wet paper towels.
Skinner walked away but before he left the kitchen he turned 
and said, "Maggie, Thanks, it was, it was a great meal, and I 
really liked talking over old times." 
"It was my pleasure too, Walter," she smiled as he went out the 
kitchen door. As soon as Skinner was gone, Maggie Flynn 
clutched at her head and moaned, "No, please, no," and sagged 
against the dishwasher, utter despair written on her face. 
The next morning Skinner and Maggie were all ready up when 
Mulder and Scully came downstairs. Both Agents had taken 
extra time to don their official FBI attire of tailored business suits 
in preparation for a day of investigation in town. 
Skinner was seated, his suit coat thrown over the back of his 
chair, and a plate full of bacon and eggs with toast and coffee in 
front of him. Maggie was seated across from him pouring 
another cup of coffee from the pot that sat between them. They 
were joking about something again, and she was laughing her 
musical laugh. There were two other table settings laid out, but 
Mulder and Scully both hesitated almost simultaneously to enter 
the room. Finally, Mulder waved Scully past him and she went 
to sit down next to Maggie Flynn at the table. Mulder went over 
and took the chair next to Skinner. 
"Oh, let me get you two some breakfast, Maggie said brightly, 
rising to go back into the kitchen. 
"Maggie, let me help you, Scully said and the two women exited 
the dining room. 
Skinner looked over at Mulder and Mulder noticed that the usual 
stern and taciturn expression that Skinner wore was absent 
from his face. In it's place was a serenity that Mulder had never 
seen before. Mulder became suddenly envious of him because 
he recognized what that expression on his face meant, and 
Mulder wished that he could feel what Skinner was feeling just 
once in his miserable life. 
"So, are you two going into town this morning?" Skinner asked. 
"Uh, yes, sir," Mulder replied looking away from him. He 
devoutly hoped that whatever they found out in town about the 
runes, the stones and Maggie Flynn wouldn't be something that 
would wipe that expression of perfect peace from Walter 
Skinner's face. 
"Good, well, I think I'll stay here and see what else I can find out 
from Maggie," he stated taking a sip of his coffee. 
"That would be a good idea," Mulder agreed. "We'll do our best, 
Sir, to get to the bottom of this," he added hopefully. 
"I appreciate that, Agent Mulder," Skinner replied sincerely. 
They stopped their conversation because they could hear 
Maggie Flynn laughing again in the kitchen and saying, "He 
didn't do that did he, really?" and Scully said something that 
Mulder couldn't quite hear, and then they both were laughing. 
For some reason Mulder felt like his ears were burning as 
Scully and Maggie came back out.  
Scully was carrying two plates with bacon and eggs on them 
and she somewhat shyly placed one in front of Mulder, and 
then resumed her seat across from him. Mulder looked over at 
her, slightly stunned as Maggie put a coffee cup in front of him, 
and then walked over to put the other cup near Scully's hand. 
"So, are you two going into town to investigate things this 
morning?" Maggie asked, interested. 
"Well, yes, partly," Mulder replied, "I'd like to stop by that 
museum though, you're description of the standing stones 
exhibit sort of interested me," Mulder answered. 
"Oh, I think the museum is closed on Wednesdays, she said, 
"The caretaker, Henry Merritt, teaches a class over at Little 
Hook community college on Wednesday's I think," Maggie 
said. 
"Oh, well, I can always check that out tomorrow," Mulder 
replied, disappointment in his voice. 
"Yes, Henry will be down there tomorrow," Maggie answered.  
"Well, I'm sure we can take a look around town anyway," Scully 
replied. And suddenly it occurred to her that there wasn't any 
hammering and she thought of the scaffolding and shingles on 
the roof. 
"Maggie, aren't the roofers working today?" Scully asked really 
curious. 
"Oh, you're in luck there, Dana, no noise for a while. They had 
an emergency job, and when they called to ask if I'd mind 
waiting for mine to be finished I said no. All that's left to be done 
is that shingling, anyway." 
"Well, we certainly won't miss the hammering!" Scully laughed. 
"I didn't think so," Maggie replied. 
Mulder and Scully drove the Ford Explorer into Crossroads at 
8:30 AM. They found practically the last parking spot right in 
front of the Town Hall. They intended to start there by taking a 
look at Kevin Boyce's death certificate. The sign on the door of 
the Town Hall said it would be open at 9 AM, so Mulder and 
Scully went back to the Ford to wait. 
Mulder looked at his watch and said, "It's almost 9 AM and just 
as he said it a woman in a business suit opened the Town Hall 
door from the inside, flipped the sign around to read OPEN, and 
shut the door again. 
"We're on, Scully," Mulder said and they left the car and headed 
up the walk way to the Town Hall door. 
In the Town Hall, Mulder and Scully had flashed their FBI 
identification and gotten instant cooperation. Now they were 
studying the death certificate for Kevin Boyce, identical frowns 
pulling down their mouths. 
The certificate said death by misadventure, an accident, but 
nothing about drowning. Kevin had died two years ago though 
and had been 42 years old at the time. There wasn't much else 
to be gleaned from the bare bones certificate, and Scully 
decided that it might be a good idea to visit the local police 
station to see if they had kept any records regarding Boyce's 
accidental death. They returned the certificate to the clerk at the 
front desk, got directions from him to the police station, and 
exited the building. 
At the police station a very grumpy desk sergeant looked at 
their ID twice, and told them that he'd have to have someone 
hunt the file down. After all, it was a two year old case, and the 
file was buried somewhere in the basement file room. If they 
could come back tomorrow, however, he was sure he could 
have it ready for them. But, he added if he located it sooner 
he'd call them. Mulder gave him the number of the bed and 
breakfast so that he could reach them.  
Back at the bed and breakfast, Walter Skinner had gone to his 
room to change out of his business suit and into something 
more casual since he had decided to stay with Maggie this 
morning. He sat down on the bed to take off his shoes, and 
suddenly he became inexplicably tired, so he curled up on the 
bed and fell fast asleep. 
In the bedroom next door to Skinner's, Maggie Flynn sat in a 
chair. She faced the direction of the standing stones and behind 
her a desk top stereo system was playing music. The volume 
was down low but a black man was singing along to a plaintive 
blues guitar riff and the thing that rode in Maggie Flynn's body 
stroked her mind and said, "Ah, Maggie, that music is just 
wonderful. I imagine Robert Johnson had no idea he was writing 
it for me, did he?" it asked, and Maggie groaned through her 
moist lips. The thing inside her made her move her hands to 
touch and rub her breasts until her nipples were hard and erect, 
and then it forced her hands down further until they went 
between her thighs and began to stroke her there, "I imagine he 
had no idea until I made my presence known that is," the thing 
hissed and then, "until I rode him Maggie, just like I'm riding 
you," and tears fell down Maggie's cheeks as she rocked 
against her hands. "Now Maggie, I want you to concentrate real 
hard, I have something else I want you to do..." the voice 
droned on, and on, and Maggie Flynn did exactly as she was 
told. 
Dana Scully stood on the sidewalk outside the police station and 
shook her head. 
"Well, that certainly was a dead end," she fumed. 
"No kidding," Mulder complained as well, "I really wanted to find 
something out today. I don't relish telling Skinner we came up 
empty again. Maybe I should just go back in there and make 
that cop show us to the file room. We could dig through the 
records ourselves for the rest of the afternoon," he added, 
squinting to look back towards the police station. 
Scully looked at her partner, and she was suddenly overcome 
with the most overwhelming rush of lust that she had ever had 
in her life. 'God,' she thought desperately, 'What, what brought 
this on,' she gasped, as she became instantly wet. Her mind 
fought to hold the sensations at bay, but it was pretty much a 
hopeless battle, and she turned away from Mulder, because she 
knew what her face must look like, and she didn't want him to 
see the look of naked desire on it. 
The heat in her built and built, rising to her face and she was 
burning hot. 'Oh my God,' she thought, 'I can't, how can I be 
feeling this way,' she thought with shame and guilt, this was 
Mulder, her friend, her trusted partner her, her..lover, the word 
sprung into her mind unbidden and then the images started to 
come, and Scully shut her eyes tight as if that would make 
them stop. Mulder naked, his hands and mouth roving over her 
naked body, their coupling in every conceivable position 
imaginable, and then some that she could never imagine would 
be possible, howling in animal pleasure, writhing...and she 
gasped involuntarily and clutched her stomach. 
"Scully, are you all right?" Mulder was asking, concern in his 
voice, and she fought to clear her head and steady her voice to 
answer him. 
"Mulder, I, I don't think so. My stomach, uh, I think the rich 
meals over the last couple of days are getting to me. I feel sick," 
she gasped out. She doubled over, not in pain however, but in 
almost unbearable pleasure, as her whole body shook with an 
earth shattering orgasm. 
"Oh, God," she cried out, gritting her teeth to keep quiet.  
"Jesus, Scully, it might be food poisoning," Mulder said as he 
caught her arm. 
"Mulder, please, don't touch me," she hissed, panicked. 
"But I want to help you," Mulder said, tight-lipped. "I want to get 
you back to the car, you should see a doctor." 
"Mulder, I am a doctor, I'll be fine, all right, help me back to the 
car, but just drive me back to the Bed and Breakfast, please." 
Scully gasped her eyes shut tight. 
"Ok, all right," Mulder dithered slightly, as he grasped her arm 
carefully and lead her over to the passenger side of the Ford. 
He got her in somehow and buckled her seat belt. 
'God, she looks really white,' Mulder thought dismally as he 
started the engine and pulled out into the town's traffic. 
Scully sat in the seat next to him, her head leaning back against 
the backrest, eyes closed, breathing heavily. She was beyond 
pleasure now, the sensations wracking her body were painful, 
and in silent desperation she grabbed the crucifix that hung 
around her neck, and began to pray for the feelings and images 
to stop. 
In her room in the Bed and Breakfast, Maggie Flynn cried with a 
mixture of pleasure and pain as she came again, and again, and 
the parasitic thing that held her in it's thrall howled in an ecstasy 
of growing power. Suddenly however, all feelings coming 
through Maggie to it were shut off like someone turned off a 
faucet, and the thing reared up inside her mind and wailed in 
rage. 
Mulder and Scully had only driven to just beyond the outskirts of 
Crossroads before Scully begged Mulder to pull the car over to 
the side of the road. As soon as they came to a stop she flung 
the passenger side door open and vomited copiously onto the 
ground. She heaved up everything she had eaten that morning. 
Suddenly she was aware of Mulder, holding her shoulders and 
supporting her head as she retched and she was mortally 
embarrassed again, as some of her vomit hit his shoe. 
Once the spasms in her stomach calmed down she was able to 
straighten up and Mulder gently held her head against his side. 
Thankfully she noticed that with the vomiting, all traces of her 
sexual heat had dissipated and she leaned weakly against 
Mulder. 
"Oh, Mulder, I'm so sorry," she whispered. 
"What's to be sorry about, you obviously ate something that 
disagreed with you," Mulder replied quietly, stroking her hair, 
"Are you feeling better now?" he asked. 
She wanted to shrink away from his touch, afraid that the 
overwhelming sensations would return, but they didn't. The only 
sensations she felt were ones of warmth, and caring, and 
comfort and she sighed with relief. 
"Yes, I feel a lot better," she replied straightening up. She 
reached forward and pulled open the glove compartment and 
taking out some napkins Skinner had put there at the rest stop, 
handed them to Mulder. 
"You, you'd better wipe off your shoe," she smiled at him 
weakly, as she used some of the napkins to wipe her mouth. 
Mulder released her shoulders and walked back behind the rear 
bumper to clean himself up. He tossed the napkins onto the 
ground and came back over to squat in front of Scully. Scully 
didn't want to look at him because he was straddling what was 
left of her breakfast on the gravel of the roads shoulder. 
"Are you really ok, Scully?" he asked looking up under the shaft 
of golden-red hair that fell obscuring her face. 
"Yes, I'm fine, let's go back," she lied. She may have been 
better physically but mentally she was anything but. She 
couldn't think what had gotten into her, and she certainly 
couldn't explain to Mulder what had happened to her, at least 
not here at the side of the road. 'Maybe after we get back to the 
B&B I can try to tell him,' she thought. 
Mulder smiled at her and said, "Good, ok, get in and buckle 
your seat belt." 
They drove the rest of the way back to the Bed and Breakfast 
in silence. 
Walter Skinner woke, totally refreshed. He hadn't recalled 
wanting to take a nap, but it had certainly felt good to do so. He 
got up and changed his clothes and then he went to find Maggie 
Flynn. Maggie was in the kitchen and she had a picnic basket 
on the counter. Skinner thought she looked a little tired, but still 
exquisite. 
"Oh, there you are, sleepy head," she smiled. "I thought you'd 
like some lunch," she added. 
"Yeah, I can't believe I'm hungry again," he said, "you're going 
to cause me to blow my whole diet regimen, Maggie," he 
teased.  
"Oh, you can make up for it later," she laughed, "when you get 
back to DC." 
"A picnic?" he asked taking the blanket that was lying next to 
the basket on the counter. 
"Yes, I thought it might be nice to just, you know, go out in the 
back yard for lunch," she answered, "It's a gorgeous day out."  
"That would be great, Maggie," Skinner answered smiling 
tenderly at her. He knew there was something he was supposed 
to be talking to her about, but for the life of him he couldn't 
remember the questions. 
"All right," she was saying, "Can you just get a couple of beers 
out of the fridge?" 
Mulder and Scully pulled up in front of the B&B at around 1 PM. 
Scully got out of the passenger side of the car very gingerly. 
Her stomach was sore from heaving earlier. Mulder stood and 
waited for her, and they both went up to the front door and 
walked inside. No one was in the parlor, or dining room. Mulder 
walked down the hallway and looked around the corner towards 
Skinner's room. His door was open but there was no noise 
coming from that direction. Scully was heading into the dining 
room and then straight through into the kitchen, so he followed 
her. 
Scully continued to walk through the kitchen and out onto the 
screened in porch that surrounded the back of the house. 
Mulder bumped into her as she stopped dead. He looked 
directly over her head to see what had made her stop, and he 
saw Skinner and Maggie out on the lawn. A picnic lunch was 
spread out on a blanket on the grass, but they weren't eating. 
Skinner held Maggie close, in his arms, and he was gently 
kissing her as Maggie's hands were entwined behind his neck. 
"Oh shit," Mulder whispered and he turned on his heel and 
walked back into the kitchen. 
Scully stood and watched. She couldn't help herself. After what 
had just happened to her, it was very easy for her to imagine 
that the couple on the lawn were her and Mulder. She touched 
her own lips as Skinner continued to explore Maggie Flynn's 
mouth. Then she shook herself violently and turned to follow 
Mulder back into the kitchen. 
Mulder was still walking, and as he passed the fridge he opened 
it, took out a beer and twisted off the cap, taking a pull from the 
bottle before he even reached the dining room. He sat down 
heavily at the table and Scully came in and sat across from 
him. 
"Now what?" he said to her, his eyes downcast. 
"Well, I think we have to assume that, well, that he talked to her 
and he's obviously sure she's innocent of any wrong-doing," 
Scully replied quietly. 
"Christ, I hope so," Mulder replied sadly. 
"Well, we have to try to trust Skinner's judgment I guess," Scully 
added hopefully. 
"All right, but that still doesn't help tell us who wrote these," 
Mulder answered, taking his letters from his inner suitcoat 
pocket. 
Scully stared at the letters as if they were a huge snake that 
Mulder had just thrown down in front of her, "Have you had 
those with you all this time?" she asked, eyes wide. 
"Yes, why?" Mulder replied. 
Scully just shook her head, and said, "Nothing, I just, look, 
Mulder, I want to go lie down, I still feel a little sick." She also 
wanted to rinse the taste of vomit from her mouth. 
Mulder's face took on such a sympathetic expression that 
Scully's insides started to melt. She had to get some rest but 
while she recuperated she would definitely have to think about 
how she was going to tell her partner what had happened to her 
outside the Crossroad's cop shop. 
"Hey, that's all right Scully, go lie down, I'll talk to Skinner when, 
when he gets done with lunch," he grinned sheepishly and 
Scully smiled at him as she got up and walked towards the 
stairs. 
Mulder had almost finished his beer by the time he heard 
Skinner and Maggie coming back into the kitchen. He heard 
them distantly and he could tell they were making lover's talk, 
and he sighed over the beer bottle. He thought of Scully and his 
barely concealed secret feelings for her, and this time instead of 
envy for Skinner, he felt happiness for him. 'Well, someone 
deserves to be happy around here,' he thought as Skinner 
walked out of the kitchen into the dining room. 
 "Mulder, I didn't expect to see you back this early," he said 
blandly. 
"Well, we didn't intend to return this early either, but, Scully got 
kind of sick in town so I brought her back here," Mulder replied, 
"She's upstairs resting," he added. 
"Sick, is it anything serious?" Maggie Flynn asked as she 
followed Skinner from the kitchen. 
"No, I don't think so, she threw up on the way back here. She 
said her stomach was upset. I thought it might have been the 
heat." Mulder replied, worry changing his voice slightly. 
"Oh, that's awful, I have some Pepto Bismol, maybe I should go 
up and see if she wants some," Maggie replied kindly. 
"Well, that might be a good idea, Maggie, thanks," Mulder told 
her as she hurried off towards the stairs. 
Skinner came and sat down at the head of the table and looked 
at Mulder closely. "If you're hungry, Mulder, there's a couple of 
sandwiches left in the kitchen." 
"No, sir, I'm not very hungry," he replied.
"Suit yourself," Skinner replied. Mulder was waiting for him to 
ask if they had found anything out in town, and when he didn't, 
Mulder spoke up. 
"Sir, we didn't have time to find out much in town. Boyce's 
death certificate says accidental death or rather, death by 
misadventure. The police file on the case won't be available 
until tomorrow, and the museum was closed, just like Maggie 
said. I'm sorry we don't have more answers for you," and he sat 
back and waited for Skinner to blow up at him. 
"Oh, well, that's all right, Fox," he said smiling at him, "You can 
try again tomorrow. I've talked to Maggie and, well, she didn't 
have anything to do with the letters, and she doesn't know who 
could have sent them either. So, I think whatever you find out 
isn't going to amount to much anyway. It was probably 
someone's idea of a sick joke after all," he said, "Want another 
beer?" 
Mulder looked at him, his mouth hanging open in shock. A little 
voice told him that Skinner's words were not a good sign, but 
instead of saying that to the Assistant Director he replied, "Sure, 
I'd love another beer." Skinner got up immediately and walked 
back into the kitchen. 
All sorts of things raced through Mulder's mind as he heard 
someone coming down the stairs. It was Maggie. 
"She's fine, Fox, don't worry, I gave her some Pepto Bismol she 
should be feeling a lot better by dinner," she smiled. 
Skinner came back in with another beer and handed it to 
Mulder. "Here you go, Mulder." His face looked a bit more 
normal because there was now a slight frown creasing his 
forehead, "What were we talking about?" he asked. 
"Oh, nothing important, Sir," Mulder replied, taking a swig of the 
second beer, "Uh, if you two will excuse me, I'd like to check on 
Scully," he said. He went to take the empty beer bottle, into the 
kitchen, the mostly full bottle left forgotten on the table.  
Maggie said, "that's ok, Fox, I'll take care of the bottles, go on 
up to her." 
"And Mulder, if you're looking for us, Maggie and I are going to 
drive into town for more groceries. We should be back in an 
hour or so." Skinner said as Maggie went to get her purse. 
"Yes, Sir," Mulder said as he went to the stairs. As soon as he 
was out of their site he took the stairs two at a time up to the 
third floor. 
Upstairs, Scully was lying on her bed trying to come up with a 
plan to tell Mulder about the incident in Crossroads. She had just 
about decided to go back downstairs and explain, when there 
was a tentative knock at the door. 
"Scully, are you awake?" Mulder called softly through the door. 
"Yes, come on in," she called and he opened the door. "Come 
in, Mulder, it's all right, I'm feeling a lot better." 
Mulder walked over to the chair by the window and, straddling 
it, took a seat. 
"So, did the Pepto Bismol help?" he asked. 
"Yes, that was so considerate of Maggie. I wouldn't have 
thought to ask for anything," Scully answered. 
"Oh, ok, well, you are feeling better, right?" 
"Yes, Mulder I'm fine," she answered, "Is that all you came in 
here for, to ask if I was all right?" 
"No, not exactly," I wanted to tell you that I talked to Skinner 
and he said we should try to check the files and the museum 
tomorrow." 
"Fine," Scully said. 
"But, he also said that he didn't think we were going to find 
anything important because he had talked to Maggie, and she 
was completely innocent of either sending the letters or knowing 
who did. He's come to the conclusion that the whole thing was 
some kind of sick joke and now we should just have a beer, sit 
back and relax, and watch while he humps the hostess." 
"Mulder!" Scully exclaimed, real shock in her voice. 
Mulder rubbed his hand over his mouth and looked down at the 
floor, "Shit, I'm sorry Scully, that was out of line. I guess I 
shouldn't be drinking a beer in this heat on an empty stomach, 
maybe it went to my head. But you should have seen him down 
there, he was, well he wasn't himself." 
"Of course, he wasn't himself, Mulder, he's in love." Scully said 
quietly. 
"Oh, shit, maybe you're right," he groaned, rubbing his temples. 
"I guess I just find it kind of hard to imagine Skinner running 
around behind her like some overgrown.." 
"Puppy?" Scully asked smiling.
"No I was thinking more like gorilla." 
"Mulder!" 
"All right, all right, sorry," he sighed. 
"But look, I think we should still go back into town tomorrow and 
check out those files, and the museum. We still have to get to 
the bottom of those letters." 
"Yes, I agree," Scully replied, "I still have to admit that the 
compulsion to come up here was so strong - it just didn't seem 
natural. Whether it was chemically or, uh, magically induced - I 
still don't know, but we should continue to try and find out. I'm 
beginning to think I'd like to try to have the paper the letters 
were written on analyzed too. Maybe there's someone locally 
who could handle the job." 
"Good idea, Scully," Mulder agreed shaking his head in the 
affirmative. 
"Umm, and Mulder, uh, I think I have something else odd to tell 
you about what happened in town today," she ventured 
suddenly.  
"What?" he asked, concern on his face at her abrupt change of 
topic, "don't tell me you think you were poisoned..." 
"No, no, nothing like that," she hedged. 
"So, what is it?" Mulder asked, all ears. 
"Well.." and she just couldn't do it. She couldn't look Mulder in 
the face and tell him she had wanted to strip naked on the 
sidewalk in front of the Crossroads, Maine Police Station and 
ball his brains out. Strange compulsion or not, she would rather 
die than tell him what had gone through her mind. 
The silence was heavy between them. 
"Well, what?" Mulder prompted again. Scully absent-mindedly 
fingered the crucifix on it's chain around her neck. A small 
voice inside her said, 'Dana, you'd better tell him, it's important. 
Don't be embarrassed, he'll understand, he trusts you and 
besides the knowledge might save your lives," so she let the 
whole thing come out in a rush. 
"Mulder, I wasn't sick to my stomach outside the police station 
today. I was, something was making me sexually aroused and, 
God, the images were so, so intense and real, and I, I started to 
orgasm. And, then I couldn't stop and pretty soon it didn't feel 
good anymore, it hurt like hell, and finally I held onto my cross 
and prayed that it would stop, and then I threw up, and it was all 
right again," she finally stopped in her recitation to look over at 
him, mortification and humiliation on her face. 
Mulder was looking at her and his face was so blandly neutral 
that she wanted to rush over and slap the look off it. 
"You're telling me that something forced you to orgasm in front 
of the police station?" Mulder asked carefully. 
"Well, I didn't think the location mattered much, Mulder.." she 
replied miserably. 
"No, I suppose not," he answered musing. 
"Well, don't you think that sounds a little strange!?" she asked 
shrilly. 
"Wait here a second, Scully, ok, I have to get something I want 
to show you," he said abruptly getting up and walking to the 
door, "just hold that thought, all right, I'll be right back," and he 
opened the door and walked out. She could hear him cross the 
hall to his room and then he returned carrying *The Book of 
Ceremonial Magic*.  
"Scully look at this all right? I've marked the pertinent 
passages."Scully started to read the text. The first part 
described something called *The Mysteries of the Goetic 
Theurgy*, and there was page after page of arcane names, all 
of which were supposed to be names of demons, and what they 
looked like, and what they did. There was one that Mulder had 
underlined, Saleos, and he was some kind of great demon duke 
that promoted lust between the sexes and gained strength and 
power from a couples union. 
"Mulder, this is really strange stuff," Scully said quietly, looking 
up from the book. 
"I know, but keep reading, please," Mulder asked. 
Scully read on. The text mentioned the rituals for summoning 
the demons, and the special symbols that signified each demon, 
and how to bind the demons to your will. There were even 
copies of grotesque medieval woodcuts depicting each demon. 
The text also mentioned circles of standing stones being used 
as a setting for conjuration, and runic symbols used to attract 
worthy human sacrifices. 
"God, Mulder," Scully whispered. 
"Listen, Scully , I read in another book before we came up here, 
that some of these demons inspire such lust in people that they 
can't help but..well, they fuck themselves to hell, so to speak," 
he breathed out raggedly. "I mean once they're summoned by 
the runes the sacrifice is easy because they're so besotted with 
lust that they don't know what's about to happen." 
"Good Lord," Scully whispered. 
"So, let's suppose I'm right and someone used the runes to 
summon Skinner, and then me, and then you too. Sort of a buy 
one, get two for free, sale," Mulder stated, "God, I wish I had 
more to go on though, I'm basing a lot of my ideas on just gut 
hunches here, I really need to go back to town and try to find 
some concrete answers." 
"And you think whoever is doing this magic...that they forced 
me to have those, those carnal thoughts about you..." she said it 
before she even realized she had, and her face felt hot under 
Mulder's gaze. 
"About me?" he whispered gently, "Oh, Scully, I, I don't, oh..." 
he whispered. 
"You mean you had no idea?" she asked looking up into his 
face. 
"Well, I..I.." he stammered and then he sat down heavily on the 
bed next to her. 
"Yeah, I had more than an idea, I guess," he confessed looking 
at his hands. 
"Oh, Mulder," she whispered, putting the book down and 
touching his arm. "When I was forced to have those thoughts it 
was so horrible partly because, well, partly because I have 
imagined what it might be like for us to make love. And what 
those images were showing me, it wasn't making love, it was 
like two beasts, animals, fucking. It was nothing like what I'd, 
what I'd like us to experience together. It made me sick," she 
said in a very small voice. 
"Scully..." Mulder replied his voice sad. 
"And, Mulder, that's why I prayed, I prayed to make it stop 
because I didn't want to have to think of us..." 
Mulder put his arm around her shoulders, "Scully, it's ok, I 
understand, I know, don't worry," he said as he rubbed her arm, 
"I've imagined what it would be like to make love to you too, and 
more times then I can count. Scully, I've wanted you for so 
long, but I want it to be the right time, a special moment 
between us, not under some kind of threat of losing our souls, or 
under some kind of chemically induced compulsive 
hallucination. I want it to be us, and I want it to be real, 
because...well, because I love you." 
She was shaking slightly and he put his hand under her chin and 
pulled her face up to his. He bent forward and gently pressed a 
kiss to her lips. It was so light, and tender that Scully hardly 
realized he was kissing her. Mulder left her lips and pulled her 
close. Her head rested easily under his chin and they sat 
together like that for quite some time. 
"Mulder?" Scully asked. 
"Hmmm," he answered breathing against her hair. 
"I love you too," she said, barely audibly, and if, if you'd ever 
want to make love to me, I wouldn't dream of saying no." Scully 
whispered.
Mulder pulled her a bit closer, but he didn't move, and he didn't 
say another word. 
Presently Scully sighed and said, "I still hope Maggie isn't 
involved in any of this." 
"Me too. I really do want Skinner to be happy, Scully, he may 
be a royal pain in the ass, but the guy has guts, and I think he 
goes to bat for us more than we might realize," Mulder replied. "I 
hope when we go into town tomorrow we find out she's the last 
person in the world that could be conjuring demons or sending 
chemically treated letters for that matter." 
"Mulder?" Scully asked. 
"Yes?" 
"I think I hear a car," and they went downstairs to meet Skinner 
and Maggie Flynn. 
Dinner that night was even more wonderful than the night 
before if that was possible. All traces of Scully's upset stomach 
seemed to have disappeared and she was very grateful 
because now she was hungry and the food looked delicious. 
The table was set again, the lights were out, and candles were 
burning everywhere. Maggie had steamed oysters for them all, 
and Skinner had made the salad. It was excellent, and Skinner 
finally admitted to a hidden talent that neither Mulder nor Scully 
knew he possessed - he loved to cook, and he was really quite 
good in the kitchen. There was fresh French bread, and a 
fragrant and fruity local wine that Maggie thought they'd all like 
to try. 
Throughout the meal Maggie and Skinner were so caught up in 
each other that it was almost painful to watch. But gradually, 
maybe due to the wine, or the pleasant sea breeze that 
circulated about, or the candles or maybe what they had said to 
each other that afternoon, Mulder and Scully began to feel 
some of the joy that Skinner and Maggie were experiencing. 
Scully watched Mulder almost continuously, and when he 
looked her way she was usually smiling. Mulder came out of 
himself more than she had ever seen him do, and he was really 
very funny, so she couldn't help but laugh at his jokes. 
By the end of the meal all of them were tired from laughing and 
almost full to the brim. 
"Why don't you all go out on the front porch and I'll bring out 
some coffee," Maggie said as they sat back in their chairs.  
"I should help, Maggie," Scully said as Maggie got up to go into 
the kitchen. "Thanks, Dana, we can carry everything out a lot 
faster that way," and as the two women made their exit, Mulder 
and Skinner walked out of the dining room and through the 
house to the front porch. 
It was a crystal clear night and Skinner leaned up against the 
porch railing and looked up at the stars. Mulder stood by the 
railing, a little farther down than Skinner, and leaned over to 
look up under the over hang at the sky as well. 
"Mulder?" Skinner said. 
"Yes, Sir?" Mulder replied. 
"Have you ever thought about what it would be like to live your 
life over again?" Skinner asked. 
Mulder decided to be honest, "Uh, Yes Sir, probably at least 
once a day." 
Skinner looked over at him but in the shadows it was hard to 
read the expression on his face.
 "Well, Mulder, I think I might be getting a chance to do that 
now," Skinner replied quietly. 
"Now, here?" Mulder asked. 
"Yes, here with Maggie," Skinner replied turning to look at 
Mulder. 
"Mulder, listen, when you and Scully get done with the 
investigation here, I want the two of you to go back to DC 
without me, all right. I'm, uh, I'm going to stay here for a while." 
Skinner replied. 
Mulder could tell he was completely serious, and even though 
part of his mind told him something might have been wrong with 
Skinner's decision he couldn't bring himself to criticize him. 
"All right, Sir, and for what it's worth, I wish the two of you the 
best, I really mean it," Mulder replied. 
Skinner cleared his throat and looking at Mulder replied, 
"Thanks, Fox." 
"Coffee anyone?" Maggie was saying as she and Scully came 
out onto the porch. She put the tray with the pot and cups down 
on one of the small tables that lined the porch. Scully was right 
behind her carrying the cream and sugar bowls as well as a fist 
full of spoons. 
"Here, let me take those," Mulder offered as Scully tried to 
juggle the spoons onto the tray. As he took the spoons their 
hands touched and Mulder maintained the contact for a 
moment longer than was necessary. 
Scully actually flushed and they did an awkward little dance as 
Mulder finally got the spoons away from her and onto the tray.  
Out of the corner of his eye, Mulder thought he saw Skinner 
staring at them with more than average interest. 
"All right, you guys, pour some coffee, we're making another 
trip for pie," Maggie laughed as both Skinner and Mulder 
groaned loudly. 
"Now, no complaints, especially from you, Fox, you agreed to 
try my apple pie, after all," Maggie teased. 
"I surrender, you've convinced me," Mulder answered, hands 
raised in mock surrender. 
As soon as the women had left the porch again, Skinner 
crossed his arms and smiled at Mulder. 
"What?" Mulder asked, noticing Skinner's *cat that ate the 
canary look*. 
"Agent Mulder, I'm going to give you a piece of your own 
advice, all right?" Skinner began. 
"Sir?" Mulder asked confused. 
"Go with the flow, Mulder," he finished. 
Mulder repeated the phrase in his mind as if Skinner had 
spoken in a foreign language. Then it dawned on Mulder what 
he meant, and Mulder felt his ears get hot. 
"Ah, Sir, it's not what you think..." Mulder started, and then he 
told himself, 'Of course it's what he thinks you nitwit." 
"Oh, come on Mulder, I saw the way you looked at her, not to 
mention the way she looked at you..." Skinner let his voice trail 
off. 
Mulder was suddenly in the unique position of feeling like 
Assistant Director Walter Skinner was the older brother he had 
never had, and he was advising him on how to handle his first 
girlfriend. It was an awkward and uncomfortable feeling. 
"Well, uh," he stammered. This was getting worse by the 
minute. Now he sounded like his voice was changing, "Sir, we 
both know it's against FBI policy for two agents, partners I 
mean, to fraternize because..." 
Skinner burst out laughing. "Jesus, Mulder, you poor son of a 
bitch, you sound just like me." 
Mulder looked over at him and just stared as he continued, "or 
at least just like I used to sound," he finished more subdued.  
"Thank you," Mulder replied grimly. 
"Listen, Mulder, and don't take offense all right, but if I were 
you, I'd take Scully out for a walk tonight, just get her alone 
somehow, and tell her how you feel about her. It'll do you a both 
a world of good. And as for the regulations, fuck 'em. We're not 
in DC now, and I don't give a shit about the rules, understand?" 
Mulder understood. But what he understood was that something 
was fundamentally wrong with this entire conversation and 
yeah, he sure as hell wanted to get Scully alone, because they 
needed to discuss this little turn of events right away. 
Maggie and Scully came back out onto the porch at that point, 
so Skinner was forced to stop giving Mulder his brotherly 
advice. Mulder sat bewildered, and bemused, as Scully placed 
a huge piece of pie in front of him. 
"God, I can't eat all that!" Mulder exclaimed, and everyone burst 
out laughing, and then he did too, as he saw that Maggie had 
cut the large piece as a joke. She was holding his much smaller 
piece on a plate behind her back. 
The pie was delicious and Mulder did manage to eat his entire 
slice. After his cup of coffee, he put down the cup, and looked 
over at Skinner. Skinner gestured towards Scully with his head, 
and Mulder turned away and sighed. It was obvious Skinner 
expected him to take the bull by the horns, so he decided now 
was as good a time as any to talk to Scully anyway. 
"Say, uh, Scully, I think I'm going to stretch my legs a little 
before I go to bed, would you like to come along?" 
"All right, Mulder," Scully replied and the two of them left the 
porch and walked off across the lawn. 
"Mulder, where are we going to walk too?" Scully asked, 
"There's really no place to go, except down the road again." 
"Well, it'll have to do, I need to talk to you about Skinner, so 
come on and walk close to me, all right," Mulder replied. 
Scully drew up beside him and said, "What's going on?" 
"Scully, Skinner isn't going back with us after we're through 
here, he's going to stay here with Maggie," Mulder said. 
"Oh, I sort of expected something like that after what Maggie 
said in the kitchen," Scully answered. 
"What did she say?" Mulder asked. 
"She told me she thought she was falling in love with Skinner, 
and she asked me if I thought it was wrong," Scully answered 
quietly. 
"Wrong?" Mulder asked, confused. 
"Well, she's only been widowed for 2 years. She just thought it 
was disloyal to her late husband mostly. Especially since she 
knew Skinner before and he was her first..." 
"He was her first love?" Mulder asked.
"So I gathered," Scully replied, "And I don't know if it's important 
but she told me she was the first for him too." 
"God," Mulder said. 
"Listen, Scully, I'm beginning to get a little worried. I mean, this 
thing with Maggie and Skinner, it's really nice and all, and I want 
to be happy for Skinner, like I said before, but, well he said 
something to me while you were getting the pie, that was so 
atypical it really spooked me." Mulder stated, "oh, sorry, no pun 
intended," he added seriously. 
"What did he say?" Scully asked stopping to stare up at Mulder. 
"He told me that I should go with the flow, stop denying my 
feelings for you, get you alone and then...well, he didn't say I 
should jump your bones, he just implied that we'd both be a lot 
better off if we admitted how we felt." 
"Skinner said that?" she asked amazed.
"Yeah, and not only that, when I quoted the regulations on 
fraternization he told me "fuck 'em, we're not in DC anymore, 
and he didn't give a shit about the rules." Mulder finished. 
"That is a little *un-Skinner-like*, I have to admit," Scully replied 
glancing back up to the porch. She could just make out Skinner 
and Maggie sitting together on the porch swing and although 
they were talking, she thought she saw them looking their way 
briefly several times. 
"Mulder, I think they're watching us," Scully whispered moving 
close to Mulder. 
"You're kidding?" Mulder raised an eyebrow. 
"No, I'm sure they're watching," Scully replied and then she 
squeaked, "Mulder what are you doing?" as he took her into his 
arms. 
"I'm giving them a good show," Mulder smiled down at her and 
then he kissed her with his warm, full, pouting lips. Scully 
instantly molded herself against him and opened her mouth to 
admit his questing tongue.
'Oh my God,' she thought, he feels so warm,' and she ran her 
hands up the front of his body and then around his neck. This 
kiss wasn't like the first, it was much longer, hot and eager, and 
finally Scully had to pull back because the heat was getting to 
be too much. She staggered against him and said, "Mulder, I 
have to stop," she gasped, "I..." 
Mulder's breath was coming in ragged puffs, "Whoa, I'm sorry, I 
know, that got away from me a little bit too. Are they still 
watching?" he asked. 
"No, they're going inside," Scully replied. 
Despite the fact that the show was over, Mulder didn't let Scully 
go. She was trembling with the intensity of her passion, and he 
just wanted to feel her body against his for a few moments 
longer.  
"Scully, I meant the kiss," he said, "I wasn't just acting for them," 
he said quietly. 
"Neither was I, Mulder," she answered. "But look, we both know 
this isn't the right time for this. We have to get some rest, and 
then we have to go into town tomorrow and settle this case, one 
way or the other." 
"Yeah, I know, you're right, we'd better get some sleep, come 
on, let's go back." Mulder agreed and they both walked back up 
towards the porch. 
Inside the house Scully went upstairs immediately, telling 
Mulder to give her respects to both Maggie and Skinner. Mulder 
went into the dining room to find Skinner clearing away the 
dishes from the dinner table. Skinner put down a plate he was 
holding, and actually came over and slapped Mulder on the 
back. 'Jesus, this is just too much,' Mulder thought. But he did 
his best to smile, and he was grateful when Skinner didn't say 
anything to him. 
"Uh, Scully told me to say goodnight to you and Maggie, and 
thanks for the great meal. She went up to bed. I'm going to turn 
in now too, I guess. We're going to try to go into town as early 
as possible in the morning." Mulder stated. 
"Fine, Mulder, enjoy yourself," Skinner said, and he turned 
around and went into the kitchen. 
Mulder shrugged, 'Ok, so now he thinks I'm going to go upstairs 
and really show Scully how I feel about her, I guess,' he 
thought. And God, he really wanted to. But the phrase "they 
fucked themselves to hell," flew instantly into his mind and he 
shuddered and turned to go up the stairs. 
The clock on the mantle in the parlor chimed 2 AM. Mulder 
slept and he dreamed, and the dreams were sweet. He was 
with Scully, and they were walking happily, hand in hand on the 
beach as the sun set, and the gulls flew over the surf. 
Dana Scully slept and she dreamed, and the dreams were 
sweet. She was with Mulder and they were walking happily, 
hand in hand on the beach as the sun set, and the gulls flew 
over the surf. 
Two stories below in her room, in her bed, Maggie Flynn writhed 
and moaned, "Please, don't, no, I really am trying, please" she 
pleaded. A guttural, liguid-evil voice resounded loudly in her 
head, "You'd better try harder, bitch, or there's going to be hell 
to pay," and it laughed and laughed. Tonight it felt stronger, 
better than it had before when that red headed bitch had cut off 
it's pleasure. The beast had decided to leave the red head and 
her tall, lanky man alone. He'd have them both soon enough. 
They could dream their own dreams for a change. No, tonight it 
had decided to gather real power, to take the next step with this 
woman, his host, and the man she desired, the one tossing and 
turning in the next room, *The Skinner*, the sacrifice. Now!, 
Maggie, it said, NOW! and Maggie cried out as the thing inside 
her head reached to touch Skinner's mind. 
Walter Skinner was in the jungle. He was walking through the 
Vietnam jungle. He was walking point, and suddenly the air was 
rent with tracer fire and there were VC everywhere. He was 
firing his rifle and yelling for everyone to take cover but there 
were too many Viet Cong - it was an ambush. 
He saw his best friend, John Rand go down next to him, the 
bullet going in between his eyes and then out the back of his 
head, taking most of his skull and brains along with it as it 
exited. He screamed again and again, firing everywhere, and 
his helmet was knocked off by another of his platoon, as the 
man died grabbing for Skinner's shoulders. Then hot shrapnel 
splattered, and hit his head, and blood poured from multiple tiny 
wounds, and the blood blinded him, and he couldn't see to use 
his weapon. Skinner wailed incoherently as the rounds tore into 
his groin and he fell to his knees and Walter Skinner woke and 
he was screaming. 
"Walter, Walter, it's all right, please, it's me," Maggie Flynn cried 
as she sat on the edge of the bed and tried to stop his arms and 
legs from thrashing. 
"Maggie, Maggie, what the hell are you doing in here?" Skinner 
asked totally confused, and not sure if he was still dreaming or 
not. He stopped struggling, but he was shaking terribly, and 
Maggie held onto his shoulders. 
"Walter, my God, my rooms right next door. I heard you 
screaming at the top of your lungs in here. I didn't know what 
was wrong, so I got my pass key..." she let her voice trail off as 
Skinner buried his head in her breast and whispered, "God, 
Maggie, I haven't had a dream like that in years. I was back in 
Vietnam and oh, God..." and that was all he could say. 
"Oh, Walter, oh babe," Maggie Flynn replied, rubbing his 
shoulders, and back. 
"Maggie, I..." Skinner started to say, but she put her finger to his 
lips, and told him to be quiet, it was all right. He kissed her 
fingers and then he sat up and touched her hair, "Maggie, 
you've let your hair down," and he ran his hand through her 
raven tresses. Maggie brought her hand up and pressed his to 
her cheek, and then Skinner smiled and took her into his arms. 
A low snake-like voice hissed in Maggie Flynn's head, and it 
said, "Ahhhhh, Maggie, that's a good girl, that's so much better, 
yesssss, so much better," as Skinner's mouth began to explore 
her body.  
Dana Scully sat at the dining room table the next morning alone 
with her coffee cup. She had come downstairs as early as she 
could, and found the lower floor deserted so she had gone into 
the kitchen and started a pot in one of the automatic coffee 
makers. Now she sat at the dining room table with a mug of 
coffee just the way she liked it in front of her and content to wait 
for someone else to join her. 
Mulder came down the stairs, yawning and stretching his back, 
"Morning," he said cheerfully, walking up behind her and 
touching her hair gently. 
"Is that coffee?" he asked looking into her cup. 
"Yes it is," she smiled up at him. He was dressed in the same 
rumpled t-shirt he had worn the night before, and his pair of 
faded jeans, and his hair was tousled from sleep and Scully 
thought he looked incredibly handsome. 
"Ah, you're a saint, Scully," Mulder replied, and he went into the 
kitchen to help himself to a cup. 
The first question out of his mouth when he came back in was, 
"Where's Skinner?" 
Scully shrugged her shoulders. "I haven't seen anyone this 
morning, I guess Skinner and Maggie aren't up yet," she said 
stifling a yawn herself. 
Mulder put his coffee cup down and started to head towards the 
hallway that would take him to Skinner's room. 
"Mulder, where are you going?" Scully asked even though she 
knew the answer. 
"I'm going to play alarm clock," he answered, walking down the 
hall. 
Mulder strode up to Skinner's door and knocked once softly. 
There was no answer so he knocked a little more forcefully. 
The louder knock brought low sounds from inside. "Who is it?" 
Skinner's muffled voice came from the other side of the door. 
"Sir, it's 6 o'clock," Mulder called through the wood, "I thought 
you might like to know what Scully and I plan to do in town this 
morning." 
He heard Skinner fumbling around and then his heavy steps as 
he came to the door and unlocked it. He opened it just a crack 
to peer out at Mulder. 
"Agent Mulder, it's 6 o'clock," he whispered, bleary eyed behind 
his glasses. He was bare-chested and only had on his briefs.  
"Yes, sir, I just said that," Mulder replied quietly, "but I thought 
you might have some additional suggestions for our trip into...." 
Mulder was interrupted by a feminine voice coming from 
somewhere behind Skinner. 
"Walter, is everything all right?" the voice sighed, barely audible 
with sleep. 
Skinner turn his head around and said gently, "Yes, everything's 
fine, go back to sleep," and then he slipped outside the door, 
shutting it. He stood toe to toe with Mulder. 
Mulder was speechless as Skinner half smiled at him. 
"Well, Mulder," he said running a hand over his head, "I guess I 
don't have any special instructions. I'll stay here and talk to 
Maggie a bit more, but like I said, I don't think there's much 
more for her to tell," he added. 
"So, you'll be uh, you'll be interrogating Maggie then?" Mulder 
replied carefully. 
"That's right," Skinner replied, a dreamy smile playing on his 
lips. 
"Fine, Sir, Scully and I will let you know what we discover." 
"All right then, you're dismissed," Skinner finished. Mulder 
turned and went back up the hallway. He didn't look back as he 
heard the bedroom door click shut behind him. 
Scully was still sitting at the dining room table and about to pour 
herself another cup of coffee. 
"Well?" she asked as Mulder sat down and reached for the 
coffee pot. 
"Skinner's going to stay here and interrogate Maggie Flynn," he 
replied a distracted look on his face. 
"Interrogate her, were those his exact words?" Scully asked.  
"No, that's what I called it," Mulder replied, "I'm sure that's not 
what he'd call it..." he let the thought trail off. 
Scully looked at Mulder, and then what he was getting at sunk 
in. 
"Oh, Mulder," she replied. "I don't know if I should be happy or 
sad for him." 
"Well, I guess we should go into town and try to determine 
which is the correct way to feel," Mulder replied. 
Mulder and Scully pulled up in front of the little museum in 
downtown Crossroads and it was still too early for them to go in, 
so they waited in the Ford again. 
"Maybe we should have stopped for a donut," Mulder smiled 
slightly as Scully's stomach made a growling noise. 
"I cannot believe I am hungry again after the meal we had last 
night." Scully said shaking her head. "I'm going to have to go on 
a diet when we get back." 
"I know what you mean," Mulder said puffing his cheeks out like 
a chipmunk with a mouth full of seed. 
Scully smiled at him. 
"Scully, let's try to kill two birds with one stone here. Why don't 
you go over to the police station and take a look at that file and 
I'll wait here for Henry Merritt to show up." Mulder suggested. 
"That sounds like a good idea," Scully replied, "And I should ask 
at the police station about getting the paper analyzed as well. All 
right, if I get done before you, I'll meet you back here." 
"And if not, I'll meet you at the police station," Mulder replied. 
Scully, all business now, pulled open the passenger side door 
and left for the Crossroads cop shop. 
Presently, Mulder saw an elderly man walk up to the museum 
door, unlock it and go in. He gave himself 5 more minutes and 
then he left the car and headed over to the museum, a look of 
concentration on his face. 
The glass case with the standing stone exhibit was to the right of 
the museum door. Mulder stood in front of it, reading all the 
material that was posted on the wall plaques above the case. It 
seemed well researched, and told a concise history of the 
circle, and the fact that it had been there when the first settlers 
had colonized the area, and was thought to pre-date them by 
centuries. The information went on to describe the likely uses 
for the circle as being determination of the planting and 
harvesting schedules as well as pinpointing certain astronomical 
events which may have had religious or agricultural significance 
to early men in the area. 'That's all fairly run of the mill stuff,' 
Mulder thought. There was no mention of runes or demons or 
human sacrifice at all. 'Well, I guess there wouldn't be - it might 
hurt the tourist trade,' he mused wryly. 
The model of the stone circle was very detailed and showed a 
talent for modeling that impressed Mulder. The tiny sign on the 
outside of the case said *model by Kevin Boyce*. As he was 
kneeling down to get a ground level view of the model, he 
noticed a pair of khaki clad legs suddenly standing next to him. 
He stood up and looked into the face of the thin elderly man 
who had opened the door, and he was staring at Mulder through 
thick wire rimmed glasses. 
"So, I see you're interested in our local mystery," the man said 
smiling broadly, "Henry Merritt," he added extending his hand.  
"Fox Mulder," Mulder replied. This was the point where he 
usually pulled out his FBI identification but something caused 
him to hesitate to do so. 
"Nice to meet you, Fox, I'm the curator of this little tourist 
attraction," Merritt replied, sweeping the room with his hand, 
"Can I answer any questions you might have about the 
exhibit?" 
"Well, actually, uh, you could, Mr. Merritt," Mulder replied. 
"Hey, Henry will do, son, everyone calls me that around here." 
"Well, Henry, I do have some questions regarding the standing 
stones, do you have some time?" Mulder asked, smiling. 
Merritt looked around the room and said, "Well, I don't think 
there's much of a crowd in here to keep me busy," and then he 
laughed. 
Mulder chuckled along with him. 
"Listen, do you like jelly donuts?" Merritt asked. 
"Strawberry filled?" Mulder asked. 
"Yup," Merritt asked. 
"Love them," Mulder answered 
"Well, I was just about to have a jelly donut and some coffee in 
my office, if you'd care to join me I can probably answer just 
about any question you'd have regarding those stones," Merritt 
offered. 
Mulder munched on a fresh jelly donut as Merritt fished a clean 
cup out of his desk drawer, and poured coffee into it from the 
automatic coffee pot that sat on a small book case. 
"Henry, this donut is excellent," Mulder said, chewing. 
"Isn't it? The bakery in town makes them fresh every day. I 
can't resist them myself, I don't know what I'd do if I had a 
weight, problem," he replied patting his flat stomach. He handed 
Mulder the cup of coffee. 
"Now about those stones?" Mulder said. 
"Yes, I was wondering if they had ever been carbon dated?" 
Mulder asked. 
"Nope, the town wanted to do it, but Kevin Boyce wasn't 
interested in having it done. The stones are on his property after 
all, so the town had to respect his wishes." Merritt replied. 
"That's kind of strange, don't you think, for a man that seemed 
to take such an interest in them?" Mulder asked. 
"Well, yes, but I figured maybe he didn't want a lot of university 
types traipsing all over his land. Kevin liked his privacy. He had 
to give a lot of it up running that little B&B outside of town, so I 
guess he hoarded what little he had left." Merritt replied.  
"You're talking about him in the past tense, did he move away?" 
Mulder asked playing dumb. 
"No, unfortunately, Kevin died about two years ago, fell off that 
friggin' cliff in back of his house. God, I was so sorry for his 
poor wife," Henry answered quietly. 
Mulder hid his surprise rather well he thought, and he took a sip 
of his coffee and asked, "What about the use for the stones? 
Was there ever anything else that they may have been used for 
besides what's written on those plaques?" 
"You mean the info about the planting and harvesting?" Merritt 
asked. 
"Yes," Mulder answered. 
Henry Merritt sat back in his chair and it creaked under him. He 
looked at Mulder for a moment and then he said, "Are you a 
superstitious man, Fox?" 
"Superstitious, no, but I do have an open mind," he replied.  
"Well, an open mind will do nicely," Merritt replied, and then he 
reached around and pulled a very old book from the glass 
fronted case behind him. "I've been getting these books ready 
for display," he added, "But, you might want to take a look at 
this one." 
"What's written out there in the exhibit is the official politically 
correct information for the tourist trade," Merritt began, opening 
the thin, old volume and placing it on his desk, "ah, here's the 
passage I'm looking for," he said quietly and he slid the book 
over to Fox Mulder. 
Dana Scully was sitting at a desk in the police station pouring 
over the case file for Kevin Boyce's accidental death. Kevin 
may have drowned, would have probably drowned, if he had 
survived the fall from the cliff near the standing stones. 
The inquest had decided that he had slipped and fallen into the 
sea, and either died from the fall, or drowned afterwards. His 
body had washed up far down shore several days later. Scully 
sucked in her breath in dismay. Maggie Flynn had said he had 
drowned. She hadn't exactly lied outright, but she certainly had 
left out a lot of information regarding his death. 
There were photos of the body in the file and there were large 
diagonal tears across Kevin's chest. They could have been 
caused by the fall or the time the body had been under water. 
But Scully couldn't be sure because the marks looked almost 
like claw marks, and also there was such an expression of 
terror on the dead face of Kevin Boyce that Scully shut the file, 
forgot about analyzing any paper, and got up quickly to go meet 
Mulder. 
Mulder was reading the page in the book that Henry Merritt had 
given him. It was very old, in fact it was a diary of one of the 
first settler's from the area. The passage described the standing 
stones and how they were a place to avoid, 'let no man drive his 
cows over the spot, or they will cease to give milk, and whither 
and die,' the diary said, and later, 'if a man finds hisself near the 
spot and darkness falls, said man should fall upon his knees and 
beg the Lord, Our God for the salvation of his soul. Let all ye 
who settle here be warned, that the circle of stones is cursed 
and let all men know that it be called *The Devil's Crossroad.*
Mulder looked up at Henry Merritt and said, "Well, I can see 
why this wasn't put in the exhibit." 
Henry snorted loudly. 
"Do you believe this, Henry?" Mulder asked no trace of 
sarcasm in his voice. 
"Believe it?" Henry repeated, "Well, Fox, I've heard the stories 
about the stones for years. My Dad and my GrandDad used to 
tell them to me when I was young. They certainly believed 
them, and I know my father wouldn't pass by there at night for 
all the money in the world." 
"The Devil's Crossroad?" Mulder mused aloud. 
"Yup, that's what the old timers call it. Kevin Boyce was a local 
lad, I can't figure out to this day why he took such an interest in 
that spot. After he and his wife bought that house and made it 
into the B&B he was really hepped up to turn those stones into a 
tourist attraction." 
"Did he succeed?" 
"Oh yes, it worked at least until he died. His wife hasn't kept up 
the land around the stones at all though, so I expect she doesn't 
have as much interest in them, or she's taken the stories to 
heart and abandoned the damn place," Merritt replied. 
"Henry, you seem to have done a lot of research on the stones," 
Mulder stated. 
"Yes, well, maybe that's because I have a degree in philosophy 
and comparative religion. I teach a course on it over at the 
community college in Red Hook. Fox, I've been interested in 
the occult for years, black magic and demonology, and I've also 
always thought it's good to understand your enemy." Henry 
answered. 
"So, you believe in the devil then?" Mulder asked quietly.  
"Son, if you believe in God, then the devil is just a foregone 
conclusion," Merritt answered. 
And there may have been the crux of the problem for Mulder. 
He wasn't sure he believed in God, and therefore, even though 
he had managed to convince himself that something demonic 
was going on in Crossroads, he couldn't quite bring himself to 
believe it. In truth, despite his espousing of his theories to Scully, 
he was actually much closer to her usual reaction in this type of 
situation. He was skeptical. And the thought bothered him 
because he was beginning to think that a belief in God might be 
the thing that was necessary to get them out of this situation 
alive, sane, and with their souls still their own. 
"Henry," Mulder began, "Let's suppose those standing stones 
are some type of nexus for evil, *The Devils Crossroad* if you 
will. Would someone be able to conjure up the devil there 
somehow?"  
"They could probably try to conjure something up out there, if 
they knew the right rituals. But, well, the devil or as he's also 
known - Lucifer, the Prince of Darkness, or the Lord of the Flies 
- he isn't the one most practitioners of black magic would want 
to conjure up. The cost is too high to bring a big gun like him 
over to this plane. He'd be too hard to bind. No, if I was going to 
conjure something up, I'd probably try for some lesser demon. 
There are so many of them, and they can do so many things for 
the summoner. You'd have a veritable smorgasbord to choose 
from." 
"Would one of those lesser demons be Saleos?" Mulder asked 
carefully. 
"The duke of lust?" Merritt asked, "I see you've been doing a bit 
of research on the subject, Fox." 
"Yes, well, I'm sort of a student of the bizarre and unusual 
myself," Mulder nodded grinning slightly. 
Henry looked at him then and it was obvious the old fellow didn't 
get to talk about his favorite subject with too many people, and 
the fact that Mulder seemed to be a kindred spirit made the old 
man warm to him even more. 
"Well, Saleos is a particularly popular lesser demon. A sorcerer 
might conjure him up to inflame lust in his partner if he was 
worried the other person was straying away from him, or wasn't 
quite completely enamored of him. If the ritual were done 
correctly, the magician's partner would never want to leave, and 
their sex life would certainly be rather spectacular - at a price. 
"What price?" Mulder asked. 
"Well, Saleos demands human sacrifices, human souls, just like 
most of the other members of the infernal legions. The 
magician would have to supply them or else..." 
"Or else what?" Mulder asked. 
"Or else the demon would take the magician, and then because 
no one was binding him anymore, he could pretty much run 
rampant, gaining strength from the fornication of anyone he 
could influence," Henry replied. 
"Gaining in strength, for what?" Mulder asked, the hairs 
suddenly standing up on the back of his neck. 
"Until he was strong enough to use someone to open the gates 
of hell and let his infernal brothers loose to wreck havoc on 
earth," Merritt answered. 
"Whoa!" Mulder exclaimed softly. 
"Pretty gruesome hey?" Merritt replied, "Look, Fox, you don't 
think someone is using the stone circle to perform magical rites 
do you?" 
"Henry, I hope not," Mulder answered seriously. 
"Son, I've never seen any evidence of it, and I've been up there 
hundreds of times since I was a boy. Of course I always went 
with protection when I got older." 
"Protection?" Mulder asked. 
"Yes, with this," Merritt replied taking a crucifix and chain out 
from under his shirt. 
"Oh," Mulder replied, "Listen, Henry besides the cross, is there 
anything else that you can use to combat one of these 
demons."  
"Well, Fox the big thing that combats them is faith in God, and 
symbols, of that faith, like this cross. Also admitting they exists 
helps, because the devil operates best when people don't 
believe in him. Also, you can protect yourself by taking refuge 
in a protective magic circle, or by using a base metal such as 
iron to ground the demon and send him back to hell." 
"Iron?" Mulder asked. 
"Yes, but the iron works best when it's used by someone with 
faith." 
Henry's speech was interrupted by a bell tinkling at the front of 
the museum. 
"Oh, it looks like we have some tourist company coming in," 
Henry smiled as he got up. 
"Fox, it's been a real pleasure to talk to you. I guess you can tell 
I don't get much of a chance to discuss this type of thing around 
here. My students at the college aren't too interested in listening 
to an old man talk about God and the Devil." 
"It's been my pleasure too, Henry," Mulder said shaking his 
hand. 
"Oh, and Fox, if there is something strange going on up there at 
the standing stones, be careful all right? And if I can help, let me 
know." 
"All right, Henry, thanks," Mulder replied following him out into 
the museum proper. The bell at the door had been Scully 
coming in, and Mulder straightened instantly when he saw her, 
and smiled. Henry Merritt looked from Mulder to Scully and 
smiled too. 
"Your wife?" he asked. 
"No, uh, at least not yet," Mulder replied. He was surprised he 
had said it, but it wasn't something that sounded wrong to him at 
that moment. 
Merritt chuckled and replied, "Well, good luck, son, I hope she 
says yes," and he patted him on the shoulder and turned back 
towards his office. 
Mulder ran his hands through his hair and walked to meet 
Scully. "Scully, we have to talk," he said.
"You must have read my mind, Mulder," Scully replied grimly, 
as Mulder ushered her through the museum door. 
Back at the Bed and Breakfast, a black man's blues guitar was 
playing somewhere nearby, and the man was singing "Didn't 
nobody seem to know me everybody pass me by. Lord, I'm 
standing at the crossroads, babe, I believe I'm sinkin' down", as 
Skinner and Maggie Flynn were locked in each other's 
embrace. Skinner was thrusting into her again, and again, and 
she was telling him to do it harder, and to never stop. In the 
back of his mind, Skinner realized it was impossible for him to 
have become erect again this quickly, and to stay hard for so 
long. And he knew that after they had used the second of the 
two condoms Maggie had found in her medicine cabinet, it was 
probably a bad idea to have unprotected sex. But the part of his 
brain that formulated those thoughts was rapidly shutting down 
under the endorphin rush that flooded his cerebral cortex. All 
that mattered at the moment was the fact that he could keep it 
up, and that she was loving it, and he moaned with pleasure as 
Maggie writhed beneath him. The black man wailed, "Mmmm, 
the sun goin' down, boy, dark gon' catch me here." 
Mulder wanted to take Scully down to the beach and walk with 
her while he told her what Henry Merritt had told him, and what 
he feared was happening. But, he knew the beach would be 
crowded with tourists, so instead he walked with her back to the 
Explorer. 
"I can't think of anywhere else where we can talk privately, I'm 
sorry," he told her as they got in. His only concession was to 
leave the windows open a bit, so they could catch the breeze. 
"Mulder, you go first, all right," Scully said. "I just need to hear 
what you have to say first," she said. 
So, Mulder told her everything Henry Merritt had said, and 
Scully's eyes got larger as he told her. When he was finished 
she replied. 
"Mulder, the police report said Kevin Boyce fell from that cliff 
next to the standing stones, no one seemed to know if he was 
dead when he hit the water, so he may have drowned, but..." 
"But what?" Mulder asked. 
"But there were these huge slashes on his chest, Mulder. They 
could have been caused by the fall but, well, I wasn't so sure. 
Mulder they looked like claw marks." Scully said. 
"Claws..." Mulder let the words trail away. 
"And Mulder, his face! Normally in death people's faces are 
slack, expressionless, almost featureless..." Scully began. 
"Yeah, I know, so..." Mulder prompted. 
"Well, Kevin Boyce's face was frozen in some kind of rictus of 
horror, Mulder. He looked like he had been terrified by 
something and that look had never left his face." Scully finished 
quietly.  
Mulder looked at her and all his fears and suspicions coalesced 
at once into an ugly, black thought and he sighed deeply and 
looked out the windshield into space. 
"Mulder?" Scully asked tentatively. 
"Scully, I want to tell you what I think is going on now, and just 
let me ramble, all right? I'm half thinking it through as I tell you, 
and if you interrupt I might leave out something critical." Mulder 
said. 
"All right, go ahead," Scully replied and shifted to look at his 
profile. 
Mulder continued to stare through the front window, but he 
began to talk. 
"Scully, let's imagine that seven years ago, when Kevin and 
Maggie Boyce bought the B&B, that something was lurking in 
those standing stones. Maybe some formless evil, biding it's 
time, waiting for just the right person to come along and give it a 
leg up into this world. Let's suppose this evil was weak. But after 
this person, Kevin Boyce, came along and started to tend to the 
stones, and make them a tourist attraction, spending a lot of 
time, alone up there - the thing touched his mind somehow and 
started to influence him, to control him. 
Scully didn't interrupt and she stared fascinated despite her 
horror. 
"Ok, so let's say this evil being, a demon, influences Kevin to 
think that his loving wife, Maggie is seeing another man, or 
maybe that she still harbors love for a past old flame, and never 
really loved him in the first place, or who knows, maybe they'd 
been having marital problems anyway, and the thing just fed on 
that situation. I can't be sure. At any rate, the old flame was 
Walter Skinner." Mulder continued glancing at Scully. She 
remained mute so he plunged on. 
"So the thing makes Kevin get interested in black magic and 
shows him the way to summon it. Kevin succeeds in bringing it 
into this plane, but also in binding it, which didn't make it very 
happy. The thing grants his wish though, because by this time 
Kevin is desperate to have Maggie love him and stay with him, 
and this being the demon of lust, it was only too happy to have 
the two of them around for endless sexual amusement." 
"So, over the years the thing feasts on them and their emotions, 
it plays them like a piano, but one day it tells Kevin that he has 
to pay the price for his wish and the price is a human sacrifice. 
He says anyone will do, but Kevin can't bring himself to do it 
so..." 
"So, the demon killed him and threw him off the cliff to make it 
look like an accident?" Scully asked quietly. 
"Yeah, that's what I think," Mulder replied. 
"But what about Maggie?" Scully asked, so afraid to hear his 
answer. 
"Scully," Mulder said painfully, looking at her full on for the first 
time during his recitation, and taking one of her hands.  
"That's where the hard part comes in," he said. 
"Oh, no, Mulder," Scully whispered. 
"I think this demon, the demon Saleos, was set free after it killed 
Kevin. But, you saw the picture of it in the book, you know what 
it looks like. I think it knew it couldn't walk safely among us in 
it's real form, it's probably still weakened form, weak from 
escaping the binding, and killing Kevin. So, it took Maggie 
Flynn, possessed her, and used her to house it until it was 
strong enough..." 
"Oh my God, Mulder." Scully said, and at first Mulder thought 
she was going to disagree with him. But then she said, "Mulder, 
Maggie told me Kevin used to beat her, that they had been 
having marital trouble for quite some time because he had 
caught her sending letters to Skinner." 
"When did she tell you that?" Mulder asked. 
"When we were in the kitchen alone together those few times. 
She told me about the beatings just before she told me she was 
falling in love with Skinner." 
"Shit," Mulder said. 
"And Mulder, that night we were getting the coffee and pie, the 
night you kissed me again, I told Maggie I thought it was 
beautiful that she was in love with Skinner, and I told her that I 
was, that I was in love with you," Scully whispered, turning 
white, "So now that thing knows about us," she added, afraid. 
"Well, Scully, I'm sure it would have found out eventually, 
because I think Skinner would have told Maggie anyway," 
Mulder comforted her. 
"God, Mulder this, this is so irrational." Scully said. 
"Scully, I know, but I think this demon lured Skinner here 
because Maggie knew him. And like I said before I think we 
were just the desert on the menu. I think it's going to sacrifice 
Skinner, and then us, so it's infernal buddies can take over 
mankind." Mulder stated. 
"Mulder, I can't imagine that woman, I mean Maggie is so, so 
sweet and considerate and.." 
"Scully, I think we've been allowed to see the real Maggie Flynn 
on occasion. I think the demon lets her out so that people won't 
catch on that it's inside her. Henry said that the devil operates 
best when people don't believe in him, or don't know he's there," 
Mulder explained. 
"Oh, God, how horrible," Scully put a hand over Mulder's hand, 
"What can we do?" Scully asked. 
"Well, I have a plan, but I have to ask you something first 
Scully," Mulder said. 
"What?" Scully asked. 
Mulder reached forward and took the crucifix that was hanging 
at Scully's neck into his fingers, "Scully, do you really believe?" 
he asked looking her in the eyes. 
Scully blinked at him and then she replied, "Mulder, until 
recently, no. But after my illness, after the cancer went into 
remission. Mulder, I, I believe now. I lacked faith before, but I've 
found it again," she said simply. 
Mulder sighed, "Scully I told you once that I thought you had the 
strength of your beliefs, and it's going to be very critical that you 
do now, because I don't think I have enough faith, or belief in a 
higher power to get us through this mess," Mulder stated matter-
of-factly. 
"Oh, Mulder," Scully whispered touching his cheek. 
"The only one I have faith in, the only one I'm certain I trust, is 
you, Scully," Mulder told her. 
Scully stroked his cheek with the back of her hand and then 
took the hand that was holding her cross and kissed it. 
"Mulder, what do you want me to do?" Scully asked. 
"All right," Mulder replied setting his jaw. "First I think we need to 
try to get Skinner away from Maggie somehow. Maybe if I can 
get him alone, I can influence him somehow to leave 
Crossroads or.. I don't know, something, I just hope he isn't too 
far gone by now to talk too." 
"I hope not too," Scully replied. 
"But before we can try to rescue him I think we need to 
construct a protective magic circle. *The Handbook of 
Ceremonial Magic* gives detailed instruction on how to do it. 
We can get supplies at the local sporting good, and grocery 
stores." 
"Some shopping list," Scully said, and Mulder smiled a bit.  
"And then we have to ground the demon, and send it back to 
hell," Mulder finished. 
"How do we do that?" Scully asked, fear tingeing her voice.  
"Well, Henry said that a person with faith using a holy symbol 
could ward off or fight the demon, and then they could use 
something iron to ground the demon, bind it to the earth, and 
send it back to hell. I guess that's where you come in, Scully." 
Mulder said. "Someone with true faith has to ground the demon, 
and that's got to be you, because I don't think it can be me." 
"And where do you come in, Mulder?" Scully asked. 
"I'm the bait," Mulder replied. 
Mulder and Scully went to a sporting goods store and Mulder 
bought a hunting knife. Then they went to the grocery store and 
bought 2 dozen containers of Morton's salt, and three boxes of 
Crayola crayons (the stores entire supply), and a box of large 
kitchen matches. Mulder tried to find some long, tapered dinner 
candles but he couldn't find any in the grocery store. 
"I guess we'll have to hope Maggie keeps a supply of candles at 
the house," Mulder said. But as they were returning to the car 
Mulder saw a little candle shop and went in to purchase eight tall 
white candles.
"We'll only need four, the others are for insurance," he told 
Scully. 
By this time it was late afternoon and Mulder and Scully were 
finally driving back to the B&B, determination in both their faces 
but fear in their hearts. 
When they reached the end of the long driveway that led up to 
the B&B, Mulder stopped the car and pulled it over to the side.  
"Scully, let's get out and walk the rest of the way, I don't want 
them to know we're coming," and they both exited the vehicle 
burdened with their supplies, and walked as quietly as they 
could up to the steps of the B&B. 
Inside, in his room, Skinner lay on his back in bed, Maggie 
Flynn above him, riding him, and he was dimly aware that he 
was in pain. They had been coupling for hours, and he had 
come over, and over, and ejaculated into her so many times, he 
didn't think there was anything left to shoot. His genitals were on 
fire, but he was still able to get it up, and just as he thought the 
pain would be too much, the pleasure would come again, and 
the images would enter his mind, and Maggie would be 
groaning how good he was, and he never wanted the ride to 
end. 
Mulder and Scully entered the house and placed the bags with 
the supplies just inside the front door. Mulder instantly had his 
weapon out of his holster. Scully drew hers as well and both 
held them in front with both hands and swept the hallway. No 
one was there. Mulder drew close to Scully and said, "Go 
upstairs to your room and wait, I'm going to use your room to 
construct the circle in - it's bigger than mine, and there's no view 
of the stones from there." 
"What are you going to do, Mulder, I don't want to leave you 
alone," Scully whispered back. 
"I'm just going to take a quick look around and try to find out 
where Skinner and Maggie are, all right, then I'm going to come 
up and draw the circle," Mulder answered. 
"All right, but, Mulder what about the iron?" Scully asked.  
"Shit," Mulder exclaimed, "how could I be so stupid," he hit 
himself in the head, because he had forgotten probably the 
most important tool they would need. 
Scully glanced around and off to the left into the parlor. "Mulder 
will that do?" she asked, pointing towards the fireplace. 
"Yeah, excellent," Mulder replied, touching her on the back, 
"See, I knew there was a reason I love you, you've got the 
brains, sweetheart," he added in his best Bogart imitation. 
Scully smiled weakly as Mulder snuck into the parlor and 
removed the sharp cast iron poker from it's hanger by the 
fireplace, handed it to Scully, and gave her a little nudge 
towards the stairs.  
"I'll bring the rest of the stuff with me," he whispered indicating 
the bags by the door. 
"All right, I'm going," she whispered, "But Mulder, be careful," 
she added as she turned and crept up to the third floor. 
Mulder checked the dining room, kitchen, and back porch, and 
then he walked down the hallway towards Skinner's room. 
Mulder had all ready had a pretty good idea where Skinner and 
Maggie were, and that's why he had sent Scully upstairs. 
He took off his shoes at the bend in the hallway, and then his 
socks as well so that he wouldn't slip on the wood floor, and he 
flattened himself against the wall on the same side as Skinner's 
door and slide down it, his weapon at the ready. 
As soon as he was just at the other side of Skinner's door he 
heard the sounds, and there was no doubt that they were in 
there, and what they were doing. 
'Oh, God,' Mulder thought, 'maybe we're too late all ready,' and 
he backed off down the hallway on his way to join Scully 
upstairs. 
He approached Scully's room, carrying the grocery bags, and 
since the door was open he walked in. Scully was seated 
straddling the chair as far back from the door as possible, her 
gun in her hands propped against the chair's back. 
Mulder tried to raise his arms and she lowered her weapon, and 
he turned and fumbled the door shut. 
"Did you find Skinner?" Scully asked in a more normal voice.  
"I found them both," Mulder answered, putting the grocery bags 
down on the bed. 
"Mulder?" Scully asked, pressing him. 
"They were in Skinner's room, Scully, he's in there banging her 
brains out," Mulder replied bluntly, "and from the sound of 
things, they've been at it a long time." 
"Oh, no," Scully replied. 
"Well, we'd better get going because I think we need this circle 
constructed and then we need to try to get him out of there," 
Mulder advised. 
They had to move some of the furniture around, but not much, 
luckily, because it was hard to do it quietly. Mulder began to 
pour the Morton's salt in a large circle on the wood floor of the 
room. He made a big outer circle and then a smaller inner 
circle, leaving a space between the outer and inner one. There 
were four squares attached around the circle corresponding to 
the points of the compass. Next, Mulder melted some wax from 
the candles into the squares and then he stuck a candle in each 
pool of wax so that they stood upright. He lit the candles. He 
took the boxes of Crayola crayons and took out all the red 
crayons, and started to write arcane symbols around the 
perimeter between the edges of the circle, and then in each of 
the four squares below each candle. 
During all these preparations Scully kept watch, standing, facing 
the door, her gun drawn. Finally Mulder stepped back and said, 
"Almost done, Scully." 
She turned and looked at him, "What's left?" she asked. 
"The blood," he replied. 
"Blood, what blood?" she asked in alarm. 
Mulder took the hunting knife out of this suit coat pocket and 
replied, "My blood," and he drew the blade across his left palm 
with one swift stroke. 
"Mulder!" Scully almost screamed in shock, only clamping her 
own hand over her mouth stopped her from giving them away. 
The blood gushed from Mulder's palm and he quickly swung his 
hand around the perimeter of the outer circle, so that blood 
dripped into the salt around it's entire circumference. 
"I'm sorry I had to do it that way, Scully, without warning you, 
because, well, I was afraid you'd try to stop me," he said, strain 
on his face as he squeezed his hand to keep the blood flowing.  
"And you would have been right, Mulder," Scully said angrily, 
but she softened quickly as she saw the pain on his face, "Here, 
let me rip off part of a pillow case so I can bind that up," she 
said.  
Once Mulder's hand was bandaged there was no more waiting. 
"Scully, I want you to give me your weapon," Mulder said. 
Scully complied without hesitation. He popped out the clip, and 
seated on the bed, removed the bullets from it. Then he took the 
hunting knife and marked the nose of each bullet with a tiny 
cross. He repeated the process with his ammo clip and then he 
loaded both weapons again, and handed them to Scully, "For 
insurance," he said looking her in the eyes. 
"But Mulder, you'll be unarmed," Scully said sitting down next to 
him on the bed. 
"Yeah, well, I don't want to take a chance that I might use the 
gun against you, and I plan to be running back up here 
anyway," he smiled at her gently, "Now Scully, I want you to 
take the guns and the poker and get into the middle of that 
circle. Don't step on the lines or knock any of the candles down, 
though. That's really important, don't even so much as smudge 
any of the lines, no matter what happens." 
"Got it," she replied, all business. 
"I'm going to go downstairs and try to lure Maggie up here and I 
hope I can. I'll be coming at a dead run, and hopefully ahead of 
her. When I get back up here I'm going to jump into the circle 
with you. And look, Scully, ah, you're going to have to shoot 
her," Mulder said quietly. 
"Oh, no, Mulder, I can't," Scully argued. 
"You'll have too, aim for some non-vital areas if you can, but 
shoot her, and incapacitate her. The bullets should have enough 
trace iron to start the binding process, and I'm hoping the little 
crosses will help. Once she looks subdued, and not until that 
point, I want you to come out of the circle and take the poker 
and.." 
"What?" Scully asked, beyond thinking. 
"You have to drive it through her somewhere and pin her to the 
floorboards. Do you think you're strong enough to do that 
Scully? You're a doctor, I figured you might be able to do it 
without actually killing her." 
Scully just looked at him blankly, as if she wasn't there 
anymore, and Mulder, in fear, shook her by the shoulders 
violently, "Scully are you strong enough to do that?" he hissed at 
her through clenched teeth. 
She came back to herself instantly, and a look of calm 
determination came into her face, "Yes, Mulder, I'm strong 
enough," she said with conviction. And Mulder let go of his 
breath. 
"All right," he replied, "Now look, if anyone comes up here 
besides me, or even if I come back up here alone and you're 
not sure, well, you're not sure I'm really me, shoot first and ask 
questions later, ok?" he told her. 
"Not yourself?" Scully asked. 
"Yeah, I'm thinking old Saleos may try to do some body hopping 
if he knows things are getting tough. So stay sharp," he 
finished.  
"Don't worry about that, Mulder," she replied, stiff lipped. "Just 
make sure you run like you're going for Olympic Gold - leave 
the rest up to me," Scully added. 
"Yes, ma'am Agent Scully," he replied with a smile. "Now, go 
get in the circle." 
Before Scully got up, she leaned over and kissed him on the 
lips. "For luck," she said and then she got up and gingerly 
stepping over the circle's blood and salt rim, sat down in the 
middle with her weapons and poker ready. 
Mulder moved to leave and Scully watched his back, straight 
and set with purpose. He turned just before he reached the door 
and said, "And Scully..." 
"Yes, Mulder?" 
"Pray," he advised her as opened the door and left the room.  
As Mulder stood in the hallway he crossed his fingers in front of 
him and thought, 'I hope that book was right and that all this 
stuff works. I don't much like thinking that I'll have to assume 
the position in hell instead of Skinner's office from now on," and 
he headed for the stairs. 
Downstairs, while Mulder was constructing the magic circle, 
Skinner was staring up at Maggie Flynn as he pumped into her, 
and he knew for sure that something was drastically wrong. 
"Maggie, please, babe, I, I can't keep this up any longer, Maggie 
it hurts," he cried dismally through his pain and exhaustion. 
Maggie opened her eyes and looking down at Skinner replied in 
a guttural, rasping, evil voice, "It hurts? Walter, you ain't seen 
nothing yet," and the Maggie-thing stopped meeting his thrusts, 
and Skinner looked up into her face, horror taking possession of 
him, as he looked into her eyes, her bile yellow and snake 
pupiled eyes, and as he opened his mouth to scream, her 
forked tongue flicked out and she said, "Rides over, Walter," 
And Skinner opened his mouth and wailed in mortal terror. 
Mulder was at the top of the landing to the bottom floor, when 
he heard Skinner scream. It was an animal sound of terror, and 
it chilled him to the bone. He yelled back up the stairs to Scully, 
"Scully, no matter what happens, stay in the circle!" and then he 
ran down the stairs and down the hall towards Skinner's room. 
He slowed as he reached the bend in the hallway and then he 
slid sideways along the wall again until he was near Skinner's 
door. 
A voice greeted him and the sound of it sent a cold pain right 
into his bowels. "So nice of you to join us, Foxxxx," it hissed and 
the door swung open on it's hinges. 
Mulder stepped around the open door and looked into the room. 
What he saw there was something he would have given his right 
arm never to have seen, and his other arm never to see again. 
Skinner was kneeling in front of his naked lover, back to the 
door, and he was also naked, and bleeding from scores of 
scratches on his back. The blood ran in rivulets and dripped 
onto the floor. Maggie had a livid bruise that ran from her left 
eye, a bile yellow eye with a snake pupil, down her cheek. 
Skinner was sobbing and he said, "Please, please don't make 
me do that to her again. I don't want to hurt her," and Mulder 
was enraged to see him begging like that, on his knees, after he 
had been made to hurt the woman he loved. 
"Maggie is in here, Fox..." the thing said as if it read his mind, 
and it flicked it's forked tongue, and suddenly it's eyes were 
blue and pain filled, and it was Maggie Flynn. 
"Oh God, help Walter, please, Fox..." was all she had time to 
say before the eyes changed again and the beast was back. 
"You bastard," Mulder spat out at the thing, and it laughed. 
Skinner was making a mewling noise in his throat, and the 
creature bent forward and slapped him hard in the forehead. 
Skinner's whole head rocked back. 
"Walter, shut the fuck up, you're distracting me," the creature 
said. Skinner was instantly silent and he bent over farther into a 
tight ball. 
"Now, Fox, I want you to see just what being a bastard really 
means," the thing said, and suddenly Mulder felt the tendrils of 
another's mind, another's will, touching his own and he gasped 
in pain, but then in pleasure. It was the most intense sexual 
pleasure he had ever felt and he knew he would become erect, 
and then the images started to come. A small portion of his 
mind had expected to see Scully then, but she wasn't there. 
Instead he was in his parent's house, in Chilmark, in the living 
room and his sister, his sister Samantha was there and she, and 
he was..." Mulder yelled with fear and revulsion at what the 
demon was making him see and feel and... 
Upstairs, Scully heard him scream, and she knew it was 
Mulder, and she clutched her cross, and she prayed... 
And the demon thing shrieked in fright, and released the 
cringing Mulder who did not hesitate to turn on his heels and 
run. 
He ran, and the Maggie thing recovered, and leaving Skinner to 
curl up into a fetal position on the wooden floor below, ran after 
Mulder up the flights of stairs as he sought Scully's room, and 
the safety of the circle. 
Mulder was far enough ahead that he reached the room first, 
ran through the door and vaulted into the circle in a perfect leap 
to land next to Scully. "Get ready," he had just enough time to 
say, before they heard Maggie's footsteps in the hall outside. 
As Scully raised the first gun, the steps stopped just outside the 
door. 
"Knock, knock.." the demon voice said. 
Mulder looked at Scully, and she shrugged her shoulders, and 
swung the gun up and aimed it at the center of the door. 
"Look, I have a proposition for both of you," the demon said, "I 
wouldn't shoot if I were you Dana, because if you do, I'm going 
to kill Walter Skinner faster than you can say, FB fucking I, all 
right?" 
Scully pulled her weapon up and Mulder said, "No, Scully!"  
Maggie poked just her head around the door's edge and said, 
"Mulder, your partner's a hell of a lot brighter than you, so why 
don't you listen up for a minute while I tell you my idea?"  
Maggie's eyes widened at seeing the circle, "Welly, welly, well," 
it said. "Maybe you're brighter than I thought, G-man. I know, 
you know, that I can't touch or influence either one of you while 
you're in there, so why don't you hear me out?" the Maggie 
thing asked. 
Mulder looked at her with his eyes narrowed. He was afraid to 
agree, but if it would save Skinner's life, he guessed he could 
take a chance at listening to the thing's proposition. 
"All right, come in, but not any farther than the bed. Sit down 
there and tell us what you have to say." Mulder sneered. 
"Fine," Maggie replied, and she came in, docile, and sat on the 
bed. The thing's tongue flicked in and out a couple of times, and 
it's snake eye's nicitating membranes blinked and Scully moved 
closer to Mulder as she got a first glimpse of what was riding 
shotgun in Maggie Flynn's body. 
"Here's the deal, Fox," she began, "I have to admit you two 
have been very good opponents. It's been a long time since I've 
had two such worthy adversaries. I really hate for the game to 
end - in a way," 
"Yeah, well, fuck you," Mulder spat out viciously. 
"All in good time, Fox," the thing giggled, "but in the meantime, 
I'd like to offer you a deal." 
"Go on," Mulder said. 
"I'd like to leave you and your lady friend alone in your safe little 
nest here for the couple of hours of light that are left outside. 
You'll be perfectly safe and you can rest and martial your 
strength." Maggie said. 
"And..." Mulder prompted. 
"And, because I'm not a complete asshole, I'm going to give you 
a sporting chance to get Walter back," it said. 
"How?" Scully asked. 
"Well, let's just say, Dana, that Fox knows there's something 
else that can be done with your little circle to make it, and you, 
even more powerful. And Dana, once it's done I want you both 
to come up to the standing stones and we'll all go at it, mano a 
mano so to speak." 
"Oh, sure.." Mulder started. 
"I'm serious," the demon said, affronted. "Look, we lie a lot of 
the time, Fox, but we also get really bored. The two of you are 
the most fun I've had in years, so I've decided to tell you the 
truth, and cut you a break, ok?" 
"Thanks a lot..." Scully said. 
"You should thank me, Dana, it's not everyone that gets this 
opportunity. Kevin didn't, and Maggie didn't, and neither did 
Walter. And, goodness, neither did old Robert Johnson, and the 
thing began to whistle the blues tune, the lyrics to which were all 
too familiar to them. 
"Nice touch, hey?," the demon said, "Personally, I thought it was 
rather poetic. Well, anyway, the lyrics and the runes, and oh 
my, that phone call, they all certainly worked to get you up here, 
didn't they?" the thing chuckled thickly. 
"So we're supposed to make the circle and ourselves more 
powerful, wait until dark and then go up to those standing stones 
and duke it out with you?" Mulder asked. 
"Right, Fox, that's about the long and the short of it. But, you 
know what, I'm betting that you won't be able to do it, and so I'll 
win anyway. I'll have Skinner, and you, and the lovely Ms. Dana 
Scully to do with as I please," the Maggie thing smiled, showing 
two rows of very sharp teeth. And with those parting words 
Maggie got up and walked towards the door. 
"Well, maybe Walter and I will see you two later," the thing said, 
"but right now I have to go down and play with him some more. 
I think we're going to *Play Doctor* next," it said, and then 
Maggie headed off down the hallway. 
Both Mulder and Scully slumped against each other. Scully put 
her gun down on the floor next to it's twin, and the poker. 
"Mulder, if we both hadn't seen that thing, I would think I was 
going insane," Scully whispered running a hand across her 
forehead. She had found a rubber band somewhere, Mulder 
noticed, and had tied her hair back in a pony tail. 
Mulder looked at her and reached his hand out to touch her 
face. It was the bandaged hand, and the sudden movement 
caused it to hurt, and he winced. 
"Mulder, let me see that," Scully said, all Doctor, as she took his 
hand and examined the dressing. 
"What did that thing mean when it said we could do something 
else to make the circle stronger? Why wouldn't you want to do 
it, Mulder? What's left to make us stronger so we can get that 
thing?" she asked as she re-wrapped his hand. 
"Scully, we have to consecrate the circle," he answered stiffly. 
"Consecrate, what do you mean?" she asked looking up at him.  
"We have to have sex in it," he said flatly.
"What?" she breathed out at him. 
"We have to..." 
"Ok, I heard you the first time," she said. 
"Scully, I...oh for crying out loud. I didn't even want to think 
about that. I wanted our first time together to be something 
special, not something like this," he replied miserably gesturing 
to encompass the room. "This is awful," he added not looking at 
her. 
"But is that thing right by saying that if we do have sex we'll be 
more powerful and maybe have a chance against it?" Scully 
asked. 
"Oh, yeah, it's not lying about that point, Scully. It's just playing 
the odds though. It must think it knows me fairly well by 
now," Mulder replied quietly. 
"Mulder, look at me," Scully said. He did. "I want you to make 
love to me," Scully stated flatly. 
"Scully," Mulder replied awkwardly, "please, I, I don't know if I 
can." 
"Oh..." Scully answered in a small voice. 
"Yeah, well, contrary to popular belief, a man isn't always ready 
to spring to attention at a moments notice, you know, and 
certainly not under less than ideal conditions," he sighed, 
embarrassed.  
Scully was sitting very close to him and she put her head on his 
shoulder. "Mulder, that's all right. I'm sorry. This is really terrible. 
I know what you mean. I had a totally different idea of what it 
would be like for us the first time too. Would you like me to tell 
you about it?" she asked, her blue eyes wide and guileless." 
"Oh, uh, sure," Mulder replied. Scully pulled even closer and 
she began to whisper in his ear, and the things she said were 
very romantic, and then they were extremely erotic and then... 
Mulder felt a familiar sensation flooding his genitals and he said, 
"Scully, I, I think I'm getting the idea." 
She stopped whispering and then she started to lick his ear and 
nibble at his ear lobe. Mulder smiled and turned to her, "Now I 
definitely have the idea," he said, and he met her mouth with 
his. 
They only stripped from the waist down, because they didn't 
want to waste any more time, and they didn't know where to 
pile all the clothing anyway. Mulder unbuttoned Scully's tailored 
suit coat and blouse because, well, he just had to see her, and 
touch her warm flesh, and Scully's hands shook as she 
loosened his tie, and unbuttoned his coat and shirt. There was 
some foreplay, not as much as they would have liked, but 
enough, and Scully was very wet and ready, and Mulder pulled 
her into his lap, his erection bobbing between them. 
"Scully, he breathed against her ear, I, we have to do it this way, 
because I'm afraid of smudging the circle, all right, is this ok?" 
he asked her. 
She clung to him, and shifted closer, "It's wonderful, Mulder, 
you're wonderful, she said. 
"Scully, just...I'll hold you," Mulder was whispering, and she 
reached between them and guided his cock between her legs. 
Scully had to shift up slightly and then he was in her, and she 
pressed herself as close to him as she could, and her legs 
straddled his hips. He thrust into her slowly, and gently, and she 
rocked in his lap and the sensations were exquisite. Their bodies 
moved together, skin against skin. Scully's nipples rubbed 
against the buttons of her blouse, and the buttons of his dress 
shirt, and the gentle tickling made her moan. She held tightly to 
his waist, and then moved her hands up his back. Mulder 
reached around and supported her ass as he picked up the 
speed of his thrusts. She met his rhythm and she reached down 
with one hand to rub and stroke herself until emotion overtook 
her and she couldn't keep it up. She groaned, "God, Mulder, 
you feel so good," and she had to hold on to him again. Mulder 
moved a hand between their legs and took over stroking her, 
and Scully bit his lower lip lightly and moaned into his mouth.  
When she started to come it was long, and slow and it built and 
built, and Mulder thrust into her hard, and fast, and she 
exploded in ecstasy, calling his name, and her love for him 
over, and over. He felt her tighten around him and he almost 
lost all thought as he pumped into her, all his concentration 
focused on the last inches of his cock as he exploded into her, 
filling her, as well as spilling his seed onto the floor, in the circle, 
and the consecration was complete. 
Mulder sagged against her, 
"OhMyGodILoveYouOh,Scully..Dana...you're so beautiful," he 
gasped against her hair. "I swear, I'll make this up to you, I'm so 
sorry," he whispered, still inside her. Scully moved against him, 
and even though he wasn't hard anymore, the feeling was so 
sensual, and loving that he gasped again, and she smiled. 
"Mulder, you have nothing to apologize for," she said gently, 
"Making love with you was beautiful, and having you inside me, 
connected to me, it was, well, nothing else matters, all right," 
she sighed. 
Mulder looked into her face and touched her lips with a finger 
and then he bent forward and kissed her again. He didn't want 
to let her go, didn't want to separate from her, but he could look 
past her out the window, towards the sea, and he saw that the 
sun was setting. 
Scully looked into his eyes, and then she reached down and ran 
her hand between their thighs, and she brought her fingers up 
and tasted him, tasted his semen. Her eyes closed and Mulder 
felt tiny electric shocks move from inside her, up his penis and 
into his entire body. It was power, the raw power of their love, 
and the magic circle, and for the first time, Mulder believed, and 
he had hope that they would be able to stand against the 
darkness. 
Finally, it was Scully that reluctantly broke their connection. She 
pulled away from him and, picking up their guns, and the fire 
place poker, she stood up and moved towards the edge of the 
circle. 
"Scully, remember, don't break the line," Mulder said. 
"Right," she answered stepping gingerly over the salt and blood. 
She left her tailored pants, and underwear in the circle and 
instead walked over and pulled out her jeans, and a clean pair 
of underwear from her garment bag. She hesitated a moment, 
the underwear in her hands, looking down at her thighs at the 
remnants of Mulder that glistened there, and she smiled, and 
pulled the underwear on, and then her jeans. 
As Scully sat on the bed putting on her socks and sneakers, 
Mulder quietly stepped out of the circle and went across the 
hall. He still felt the snapping of electricity in his body, and he 
didn't feel tired from his union with Scully at all. In fact, he felt 
invigorated, and he quickly got his jeans and underwear, and 
pulled them on, and threw his suit coat onto the bed. 'Car keys', 
he thought and he grabbed them from his suit coat pocket. He 
stuffed them into his side jeans pocket and then got his ID and 
put that into his back pocket as well. He carried his socks and 
sneakers back into Scully's room and sat down on the bed to 
don them as well.
Scully was just throwing off her tailored jacket, placing her ID in 
her jeans and then jamming both guns into the jeans waistband 
behind her back.
"How fast can you draw those things, pardner?" Mulder asked.  
"Fast enough, slim," she said and then she picked up the poker, 
"Can you carry this for now, I want to keep my hands free."  
"Good idea," Mulder replied, "Are you ready?" he asked. 
"As ready as I'll ever be to go head to head with a soul sucking 
spawn from hell, I guess," Scully quipped. 
"My kind of woman," Mulder answered and they headed out the 
door to meet their fate. 
A quick check of Skinner's room told them both that no one 
was home. The room was a shambles, with blood spattered on 
the floor and bed sheets. 
"Good Lord," Scully said. 
"Does it look like he's lost too much blood?" Mulder asked.  
"Not if it's from two people," Scully whispered. 
"Come on, let's go," Mulder said, urgency in his voice. They left 
Skinner's room and went back up the hall through the dining 
room and into the kitchen. Scully looked sadly back at the 
dining room table, scene of two happy meals when they had all 
thought that Maggie Flynn was a charming hostess, and 
Skinner had been paying court to her. The thought steeled her 
nerve and she followed Mulder out onto the back porch and into 
the backyard. 
In the distance, in the dark, where they knew the stones lay, 
there was an eldritch glow. 
"Well, I guess we won't have trouble finding them in the dark," 
Mulder said. 
"Oh, Mulder, wait, Scully said, and she ran back inside, into the 
kitchen, and returned with a large industrial style flashlight.  
"We'd better take this, Mulder, there's a lot of ground to cover 
between here and those lights," Scully stated. 
"Are you sure you haven't seen a few B-Horror movies?" 
Mulder asked. 
"Not many, why?" Scully asked. 
"Because they always forget to bring a flashlight along in them," 
Mulder replied, walking into the weeds at the edge of the lawn.  
Scully gave Mulder the flashlight, and he lit the way as they 
walked through the waist high weeds not bothering to hide that 
they were coming. There was really no advantage to surprise. 
The demon probably sensed they were coming after they left 
the magic circle. 
When they reached the first of the standing stones Mulder 
realized they didn't need the flashlight any longer because the 
glow in the area illuminated everything. He put it down and 
walked forward. The ground had been cleaned flat and no 
weeds surrounded the immediate area of the stones. Mulder 
and Scully walked out of the grass and into the flat area and 
stood, waiting to see what would happen next. 
A low, hissing voice spoke, "By the pricking of my thumbs, 
something wicked this way comes," and then it laughed it's 
guttural, inhuman laugh and said, "Greetings!" and they saw 
Maggie then. She was sitting cross legged, and still naked, on 
the top of one of the smaller stones. Skinner was at her feet 
below, on the ground kneeling face forward this time and 
Scully's breath caught in her throat. He was covered with 
bruises and scratches, some of which were still bleeding. He 
was naked, and his eyes were blank and staring, and Scully 
thought absurdly of the old expression, *the light's on, but 
nobody's home.* 
She hung back, her hand behind her on the butt of one of her 
guns. Mulder walked forward. On the ground in front of him, 
between them and Skinner was a smaller magic circle. Mulder 
looked down at it and he knew immediately that it wasn't a 
circle of protection. It was a circle for summoning. Maggie had 
been busy while he and Scully had been up in Scully's room, 
and now the final act of her labors was about to begin. 
"So, I see you got it up for her," Maggie said, "Well, a minor 
problem really," she added, jumping down from the top of the 
stone and landing next to Skinner with a thump. It was obvious 
from her appearance that some of the blood in the room at the 
B&B belonged to Maggie Flynn as well. Skinner showed 
absolutely no awareness of her maneuver, or her presence, or 
even his own position. He just stared blankly and breathed in 
and out in ragged gasps, as Maggie touched his head and 
rubbed her hand across his scalp. Blood trickled down in the 
trail left by her fingers. 
"Stop that," Mulder shouted at her, swinging the fireplace poker 
back and forth, and the demon looked up through Maggie's 
eyes and said, "Make me, bone bag." 
"Mulder, no, she's just trying to goad you into making a 
mistake," Scully said, and Mulder listened, and stood his 
ground. 
"A point for Ms. Scully," the demon said, and then she turned 
quickly and bent down to look into Skinner's blank face. 
Suddenly, the thing was Maggie Flynn again and it said 
plaintively, "Walter, babe, please, help me, it was Mulder, Fox, 
did this to me. He beat me and then he raped me!" she cried 
real tears, "Walter, please, hurt him back," she pleaded and with 
those words, Skinner came instantly awake, and with an animal 
scream of rage and pain, launched himself across the smaller 
magic circle at Mulder, tackling the younger man to the ground. 
The fireplace poker flew through the air and landed a few feet 
away. 
"NO!" Scully had just enough time to yell, and then she grabbed 
the first gun, and planting her feet wide apart, she took aim to 
fire. But she didn't have a clear shot, because Mulder and 
Skinner were rolling around on the ground next to the magic 
circle in a crude parody of a lover's embrace. 
Mulder was yelling at Scully, "Shoot her, shoot Maggie," but 
Skinner had him around the neck, and he cut off Mulder's 
words. Skinner was going to strangle him, Scully knew it, and 
as Mulder started to turn blue and go limp, she fired, hitting 
Skinner in the shoulder and the Assistant Director bellowed like 
a wounded beast and fell forward on top of Mulder. 
The demon that was Maggie Flynn ran forward and jumped 
over the circle. She slapped Scully's gun hand so hard, that the 
weapon flew through the air and off into the weeds. Then she hit 
Scully in the jaw and she went down with an oomph of air 
rushing out of her lungs. 
Mulder was coming around then, and he crawled out from 
under the unconscious Skinner to crawl towards the fire poker. 
"Scully, shoot her, shoot her," he kept yelling. But the demon 
had Scully by the blouse front and was pulling her up from the 
ground. Scully's arms flailed about, and she managed to bring 
one around to her neck to grab the crucifix on it's chain. She 
dragged it sideways and brought it into contact with Maggie's 
wrist. The demon howled in pain, dropped Scully and fell to it's 
knees. Scully was by it's side, instantly, the second service 
automatic out and jammed against the side of Maggie's head. 
And then she hesitated. 
"Scully, pull the trigger," Mulder yelled as he reached, and 
grabbed the poker. But Scully couldn't do it. She looked down 
into Maggie's face and all of a sudden, it was Maggie, and her 
crystal clear blue eyes were looking up into Scully's. "Dana, I 
don't have much time," she said through cracked lips, "You 
have to believe - it, it will be all right for me, please, pull the 
trigger," she begged in a choked voice. 
"Maggie, I can't," Scully cried. 
"Dana, you have no choice, and besides, I'm dead all ready," 
Maggie replied and then she said, "Good bye, Walter, I love 
you," and she reached over, and grabbing Scully's hand, forced 
her to fire the gun. The shot was loud, and the bullet entered the 
left side of Maggie Flynn's head and blew her brains out in a 
shower of blood. She fell sideways, and Scully heard Mulder 
say, "Scully, catch!" and she turned just in time to catch the 
poker that he had thrown through the air." Incredibly, Maggie 
was still trying to move because even though her mind was 
gone, the demon was still trying to animate her body. 
Scully screamed incoherently, with grief, and disgust, and lifting 
the iron poker high over her head, plunged it downwards 
through Maggie Flynn's stomach, missing her backbone, as the 
poker drove into the ground beneath. 
The demon wailed, and his voice was many legions strong, and 
there was a huge rush of displaced air, and Scully fell 
backwards as arcs of electricity shot up out of Maggie's body, 
through the air everywhere. Mulder ran over and dragged 
Scully away from Maggie's prostrate form over to where 
Skinner was lying. The electric fire continued to rise and 
Maggie's body was completely incinerated in it's heat. Some of 
the arcing bolts traveled all the way across the field to land on 
the roof of the Bed and Breakfast, igniting the paper wrapped 
shingles that still remained there. The fire spread and soon the 
house was engulfed and Mulder and Scully knelt beside the 
wounded Walter Skinner as the house burned. 
"Scully, Scully," Mulder shouted into her face as he shook her. 
"Skinner needs our help, do you have your cell phone?" he 
asked. 
She looked at him bewildered, "No, Mulder I forgot mine."  
He felt his pockets desperately, no cell phone and then he 
thought, 'Shit the one thing we forgot' as he looked back 
towards the flaming house. 
"Dana, Skinner needs your help now, he's going to die if he 
doesn't get medical attention, Dana!" Mulder shouted and she 
came back to herself. 
"All right, move out of the way, Mulder," and she bent down and 
expertly began to examine the extent of his injuries. 
"Scully, I'm going to get the car," Mulder said and just as he was 
getting up, and preparing to run for the Ford, headlights 
appeared coming across the weed choked field, and he stood 
up to flag down the Land Rover that was approaching. The car 
braked to a halt and out jumped Henry Merritt, as spry as a 21 
year old, and he came running over. 
"Fox, God, what happened? I had this horrible dream, and 
someone told me to wake up and drive over to the B&B as fast 
as I could because his daughter was in danger," he said out of 
breath.  
"Who told you?" Mulder asked. 
"I don't know some Naval officer. At least he had on Navy dress 
whites," Henry said, his eyes bugging out at Scully, as she 
tended to the wounded Skinner. Mulder looked over at Scully to 
see if she had heard Henry's remark but she hadn't looked up 
from tending to Skinner. 
"Fox, what the devil happened out here?" Henry asked again.  
"The devil is probably the operable word, Henry," Mulder replied 
and Henry set his mouth in a determined line and said, "Say no 
more Fox, it can wait till later, let's get that man to the hospital," 
and once Scully had the bleeding from the bullet wound under 
control, the three of them managed to get Skinner into the Land 
Rover and transported to the Crossroads Municipal Hospital. 
In the hospital, Mulder, Scully and Henry Merritt sat in the 
waiting room while Skinner was in surgery. Mulder told Henry 
some of what had happened over the last few days, and he also 
told him that he and Scully, and Skinner worked for the FBI, 
and a little about the X-Files. But Mulder looked so exhausted, 
and shell shocked that Henry told him to explain the rest after 
he felt better. 
Scully curled up next to Mulder on the couch in the waiting 
room, with her head in his lap and fell asleep. Henry looked at 
them together and told Mulder to put his head back and go to 
sleep as well. Henry would keep an eye out for the doctor. 
Mulder did, and soon he was snoring as Henry poured another 
cup of coffee from the complimentary dispenser on one of the 
waiting room tables. 
The next thing Mulder knew, Henry was shaking him, and he 
and Scully both woke up. 
"The doctor's coming down the hall," Henry said, and then he 
sat back down a little bit away from them, so that they could 
have some privacy when the doctor came in. 
"Agent Mulder?" the doctor asked. 
"Yes" Mulder replied. 
"I'm Don Black, Agent Mulder, I'm the one that pulled the bullet 
out of Assistant Director Skinner,' he said extending his hand. 
"First of all, let me tell you right away that he's going to be all 
right, he's in recovery now and he's awake, and his vitals are 
good." 
Scully heaved a sigh of relief and Mulder took her hand and 
gave it a gentle squeeze. 
"And Agent Mulder, he's asking to see you," Dr. Black said.  
"See me?" Mulder asked. 
"Yes, he created a bit of fuss over the request as well, so I told 
him you could have a couple of minutes with him provided he 
calmed down and behaved himself," the doctor smiled slightly. 
"That sounds like the old Skinner," Scully remarked, hope in her 
voice. 
"Well, if you want to follow me, Agent Mulder, I'll show you to 
ICU. And Agent Scully, if you don't mind, I have some 
paperwork here that I would really appreciate having help in 
filling out."  
Scully sighed and said, "The story of my life," but she gave 
Mulder a little push and said, "Go on, go see Skinner," and 
Mulder headed off after the doctor towards ICU. 
Skinner was in a cubicle hooked up to a dozen machines with 
tubes running everywhere. Pretty much a familiar site as far as 
Mulder was concerned. Mulder walked over and pulled up a 
chair to sit close to the bed. "Sir, it's Mulder, I'm here," he said 
and then impulsively he took Skinner's hand in his and held it. 
Skinner opened his eyes groggily and saw Mulder. He didn't say 
anything put there was a slight pressure as he pressed Mulder's 
hand. Then he struggled to speak. 
"Mulder," he croaked out, I... Maggie?" he asked. 
"Sir, don't talk now, all right, try to conserve your strength, 
you're going to be ok, you just have to rest," Mulder said. He 
had hoped that Skinner wouldn't remember what had 
happened, but it was obvious he remembered something 
otherwise he wouldn't be trying to ask about Maggie. 
"Mulder, is she ok, did Maggie, did she come back?" he asked 
and Mulder's heart fell down to his shoes. Mulder knew then 
with horrible clarity that all the time he and Scully had thought 
Skinner was staring blankly, out of his head, that he had been 
aware of most of what was going on, but under the demon's 
control. The thought turned Mulder's stomach, and he looked 
down because he couldn't meet Skinner's face to answer his 
question. 
A low groan came from the bed and Mulder knew that looking 
down had been a mistake because it had only served to allow 
Skinner to guess correctly about the fate of Maggie Flynn. 
When Mulder looked up, Skinner was crying weakly and 
Mulder, sad beyond measure, took the older man into his 
embrace, and held him while he sobbed for his lost love. 
Later, Mulder went back out into the waiting room and told 
Scully that Skinner was going to be ok. He didn't want to tell her 
immediately about the scene with Skinner in the ICU. He 
figured that could wait until they were rested and less 
emotionally drained. It occurred to both of them simultaneously 
that neither of them had any fresh clothing or anywhere to go at 
that point, except for the Ford Explorer, and Mulder didn't relish 
the idea of sleeping in the car. They also had to figure out a way 
to deal with the local authorities, and call the bureau to report 
what had happened in Crossroads, Maine, or at least the PC 
version of events.
Henry Merritt came up with the perfect solution. They could all 
go to his place. Mulder and Scully were welcome to spend the 
rest of the night, and sleep late in the morning if they liked. 
Henry even promised to supply some of the delicious jelly 
donuts at breakfast in exchange for Mulder telling him more 
about the X-Files. The whole subject intrigued him immensely, 
and Mulder sensed that the X-Files may have found an ally 
there in Maine. 
So, the three of them drove over to Henry Merritt's quaint Cape 
Cod style house. There had been a Mrs. Merritt they 
discovered, and her photo was lovingly displayed on the mantle 
piece. Henry showed Mulder and Scully to the guest room with 
it's private bath, and then retired to his own bedroom upstairs. 
The house was cool and quiet, being installed with central air, 
and the first thing both Mulder and Scully did was take a long, 
hot shower. 
Afterwards they gratefully climbed into the bed and pulled the 
sheets up around themselves. Mulder lay on his back and 
Scully snuggled close and he wrapped an arm protectively 
around her shoulders. Then, even though they were extremely 
weary, they began to touch each other, seeking to gain that 
intimate connection once again.
They made love in a slow and languid fashion. There was time 
to enjoy each other, and Mulder wanted to give Scully all the 
pleasure he felt had been denied her in that other house in 
Crossroads. He lingered over her body using his mouth and 
hands to tell her that she was the most wonderful woman in this 
world and any other, a Goddess, and the only women he would 
ever love. He didn't care about his own wants or needs, all that 
mattered in that moment was Scully's desire and his ability to 
bring her ecstasy. His pleasure was in the exploration of her 
body, the texture of her skin, her scent and her heat as she 
moaned and writhed beneath him. He worked her up to a fever 
pitch, and she held back, letting him bring her to the brink, but 
not over the edge, until she was almost beyond thought and 
reason. At last she was crying, begging him to enter her, to fill 
her again, to complete her and it was something he wanted 
more then anything in the universe as well, and he thrust into 
her, finding the comfort and loving protection of her inner self 
around him. They climaxed together, and even though it wasn't 
for the first time, it was a special moment for them, in it's 
affirmation that they were safe, and alive, and in love.
The next morning, Henry Merritt came downstairs early so that 
he could rustle up a hearty breakfast for his two guests. He had 
even pulled some old jeans and shirts out of his closet thinking 
they might look funny but they'd do until the two young people 
could find something better. 
As he was passing the guest bedroom he noticed the door was 
open again, 'Darn that thing,' he thought, 'I really have to fix 
those hinges,' and he quietly approached and put his hand on 
the door handle to close the door. He couldn't help looking 
inside the room, and he saw Mulder and Scully, spooned 
together, side by side under the covers, and he could tell that 
Mulder's arm was wrapped protectively around Scully's middle, 
holding her close. Henry smiled and shut the door, 'What a nice 
couple they make,' he thought and then, 'now where did I put 
those jelly donuts?' 
EPILOGUE 
Skinner was released from the Crossroads hospital and 
transferred to DC to convalesce. The Bureau had him take a 
medical leave of absence through the rest of the summer and 
into early fall with mandatory counseling thrown in for good 
measure. He completed the counseling to his therapist's 
satisfaction despite the fact that Skinner avoided telling him 
anything about demons, or runes, or what had really happened 
in Crossroads, Maine. Eventually he was released to do 
whatever he wanted for the rest of his medical leave.  
Fox Mulder, basketball in hand, was getting ready to leave his 
apartment for one of his infrequent pick up games at a local 
gym with a bunch of the violent crimes section guys. He would 
have liked to have spent the Saturday with Scully, but she was 
off with her mother having a pleasant mother-daughter day of 
visiting some art galleries, and shopping. So Mulder had 
decided on the game as his second choice to occupy his time. 
Just as he was getting ready to leave there was a knock at the 
door. He walked over and looked through the peep hole to see 
who was outside. To his amazement, Skinner stood in the hall 
way, in sweatpants and a sweatshirt. He looked rested, tanned 
and healthy. Mulder opened the door. 
"Oh, Mulder, you are home," Skinner said, blinking at him 
through his new glasses. Where he had managed to get 
identical spectacles to the one's he'd lost in Maine, Mulder didn't 
know. 
"Yes, sir, come on in," Mulder said. 
Skinner entered the apartment, "Sorry to just drop in like this, 
but I wanted to talk to you. Do you have a couple of minutes?"  
"Sure, I was going to play basketball, but I have plenty of time 
before I have to be there, is something wrong?" he asked 
concern in his voice. 
"Oh, no, nothings wrong, Mulder," he said, "I just wanted to talk 
that's all." 
"Well, go on in and have a seat, would you like a soda?" Mulder 
had almost said beer, but that memory was a painful one even 
for him, so he decided it wouldn't be wise to ask Skinner if he 
wanted one. 
"No, that's ok, I'm not thirsty," he replied but he did walk into the 
other room and sat down on the couch. Mulder went over and 
sat down in the chair across from him, putting the basketball 
down on the floor between his feet. 
"Mulder, I just, I just came by to thank you," Skinner said 
clearing his throat. "I wanted to thank you for saving my life and 
for well, for trying to save Maggie's," he said quietly. 
"Sir, I..." Mulder started. 
"Mulder, I remember a lot of what happened, not all of it, there 
are still some gaps that the therapist said I have a 50-50 chance 
of filling in someday, probably with more therapy. But I just 
wanted you to know that I thought it took real guts to do what 
you did up there, and I am grateful." 
"Thank you Sir," Mulder said simply. 
"And, I'd like you to thank Agent Scully for me too," Skinner 
said looking at him closely for the first time. 
Mulder looked away and stared over at his fish tank. 
"Mulder, I remember what went on between you and Scully up 
there. I know you love her, and I know she loves you. Fox, don't 
ever stop loving her, all right. Take what you have and use it to 
it's best advantage. I think you'll find you'll be a hell of a lot more 
powerful together then you ever were apart. And as for 
regulations, like I said, fuck 'em," he coughed and said, "well, 
that's all I wanted to say," and he stood up to leave. 
"Sir?" Mulder asked as Skinner turned to go.
"Do you play basketball?" 
"Does a bear shit in the woods?" Skinner asked with a smile 
playing around his mouth, "Oh yeah, I play basketball." 
"All right, let's see if you can put your money where your mouth 
is," Mulder grinned, and the two of them walked out the door 
together into the bright fall sunshine. 
"Did you really think that 
you could call up the Devil and 
ask him to behave?" 
- Fox Mulder 
'Die Hand Die Verletzt'
THE END OF THE WHOLE STORY