Part one:
"The moment you realize you are in danger is not a function of logic or a detailed analysis of environmental factors. It's a feeling more often than not that comes from intuition" Fox Mulder stands in a front of a small Oregon college classroom of potential FBI recruits during the first day of a two day seminar. Annoyed at the Skinner imposed punishment assignment for a minor protocol violation and on a Friday and Saturday of the Thanksgiving weekend to boot, he has done little prep. His partner now interrupts him.
"Of course there are some circumstances that makes you aware that it is a dangerous situation such as someone holding a gun at you. Those things are obvious. I think what my partner is trying to say is that our brain's neurochemistry is designed with transmitters to register things that are out of the ordinary or dangerous. Things happen quickly in the field so you may not be aware of why you suddenly feel a heightened alert, but, any physical response you have to danger is based on a Neurochemical response to something in the situation-even though you might not realize there is an environmental factor -your subconscious brain is recognizing it as dangerous. So, what may seem like intuition or predilection that something dangerous is about to happen can easily be explained by science."
Multiple neurochemical responses run through Mulder's mind simultaneously as he looks at Scully. That is not at all what he intended to say and she has derailed his great closing story about intuiting danger. He is hesitant to correct her because of the guilt he has been feeling all day. The minor protocol violation was a crime committed by him alone, but Skinner extended the punishment to Scully. Mulder might have some additional neurochemical responses throughout his transmitters as he observes Scully moving an errant hair curl out of her face with her beautifully manicured nails. With no great closing story, Mulder simply says, “That wraps it up for today. See you tomorrow and, hey be safe out there."
Scully looks at the clock and then at Mulder. There is a good twenty minutes left of class, but the students are up and out quickly before she can stop them. When the room empties, there is palpable tension in the air. Scully looks at Mulder only out of the corner of her eye as she straightens the classroom in prep for tomorrow. Mulder leans against the wall, pointedly not helping.
"Mulder, these students are giving up two days to learn about the FBI and decide if this is a career path..."
"What's wrong, Scully? Are you going to miss out on an opportunity to contradict me in the last fifteen minutes?"
"Did you even look at the curriculum we are supposed to be teaching?"
"Hell, no". Mulder pulls a bag of sunflower seeds from his pocket.
Scully now turns and looks at him fully. " I know you don't like this assignment, Mulder, but it's punishment. We can’t shirk our duties."
"Duties?" Mulder shakes his head. "Why should they be punished because I'm being punished. I let them out 20 minutes early because in ten minutes the local college team is playing in a bowl game. Come on. Loosen up. It's a Holiday week-end. I have turkey deli meat and bread from the store. We can have turkey sandwiches for dinner.”
"Yes, Mulder, it's a holiday weekend and instead of having my mothers left overs and being with my family I am here because of you." Scully angrily picks up a tote bag with all the materials for the class. "Let's get out of here."
Scully walks out the door and down the hall. Mulder wonders how she manages to make the sound of her footsteps in high heels sound angry before he turns off the lights and follows her out.
Part two:
They drive in silence for twenty minutes. Mulder steals side glances at Scully while he drives. She stares pointedly out the window until...
"You missed the turn off to the hotel." Her tone is icy and annoyed.
"There's enough daylight left for a walk by the beach. I grabbed your tennis shoes this morning when we left the hotel.”
Scully looks at Mulder with a tight jawed, icy eyed expression.
"It's suppose to be an amazing location. Hidden beach surrounded by woods." Only someone who knew Scully as well as Mulder would have been able to tell she is softening. It is a slight relaxing in the shoulder and a tilt of the head. "Close by is a restaurant. it's called Pacific Beach seasons or seaside."
Scully smiles slightly.
"Pacific First Seafood?”
"Oh, You've heard of it?" Mulder asks nonchalantly.
"Mulder,” Scully voice now has feigned annoyance with a tinge of delight "it's the restaurant the motel clerk said was the best seafood in town. You don't remember? He seemed to think we were dating."
"Well, we have to eat somewhere. It's casual dress. I made reservations. Did you really think I was going to feed you Turkey deli meat? I'm sorry about Thanksgiving and taking you away from your family. "
Scully looks at Mulder in a way that says she has forgiven him. "You're buying."
Part three:
"All I'm saying, Scully, is over time agents develop a sixth sense so even if there is nothing about the environment or situation that tells you to be afraid, you still know.”
"Something alerts you self consciously and experienced agents simply learn the skills..."
"To improve their sub conscious recognition of danger?" Mulder asks incredulously.
The conversation started while changing shoes and has continued on the path, surrounded by woods, that leads to the ocean.
"There have been studies where subjects are shown pictures with very subtle signs of danger and in a split second can tell..."
"Picture experiments don't count, Scully. You know there's been situations we have been in when you suddenly just know, it's like the air changes and.."
"We're saying the same thing, Mulder, we're just describing it different. If the air has changed something has made it change, a movement can change the air, a smell of a person within the air. You might not know why but there is a science behind it, not a sixth sense."
The combination of intellectual debate and physical exertion relieves the earlier tension. Then the woods suddenly open to a clearing of a beach.
"Oh, Mulder." Scully sighs contentedly. There is a large rock a short way off shore which causes the waves to break in an unusual pattern. The white sand appears almost translucent with the sun low in the sky. The rock itself seems to be changing colors as the sun lowers. There is no one else on the beach.
"We won't have much time. Scullv. We will want to be on the path before it gets too dark.”
“If we had left twenty minutes earlier, we would have missed it.” Scully now realizes the reason Mulder ended the class early.
They stand for fifteen minutes alone on a wide stretch of beach, side, by side, their shoulders occasionally touching.
They are reluctant to leave, but aware of the time it will take to walk back through the woods, they say goodbye to this serene scene
Part four:
On the beach, the sun still had minutes to set, but on the path surrounded by woods the light does not always reach the ground. Mulder pulls out his flashlight. Their pace quickens.
After a bit Mulder's stops, “Scully?"
“I feel it too." The hair on the back of her neck is rising and her breath is rapid, " it could be because we were just talking...". "Listen, Scully." She reaches instinctively for the gun she does not have on her because she left it in the car. Mulder runs into the woods. Before Scully can follow or yell out she feels a hand over her mouth while her arms and her body feel immobilized by another broad arm. She cannot see or hear Mulder. She tries to struggle but quickly realizes it is futile. She feels herself lifted by the man as if her weight was nothing. He carries her through the woods to a clearing near the parking lot. The light from the parking lot casts a pale yellowish light. Scully can see the car. She calculates distance and possibility of escape.
"I will kill you if you scream or run." The man still has his hand over her mouth. He manages, without loosening his grip, to manauver a gun out of his pocket and under her chin. " I'm a good shot and killing doesn't bother me. So it's your decision, yell or run, and you're dead." He lets her go. She turns around to face him. He is a tall man, taller than Mulder and with at least a hundred extra pounds.
His clothes are old, dirty, stained, and Scully realizes she has been smelling a foul smell of sweat and urine and unbathed skin. His face has a dark full face mask on it with just his eyes, nose and mouth showing through. His eyes are blue, cold. She believes he is willing to kill her. She wonders where Mulder is. Is he coming to save her? Does this man have an accomplice? She thinks of this in a matter of seconds while wondering about his motives. What is it he wants?
He switches the gun to his left hand. He grabs her hand with his right hand. His nails are long, sharpened, painted black, large. He rubs his fingers along her nails. "pretty." He grunts. Thoughts of another man obsessed with nails and hair enters her mind but she pushes them out. She has to deal now with this situation. His hand moves up her arm slowly. He licks his lips. She shuts her eyes.
BOOM. Before she opens her eyes she feel his grip tighten and then drop away. She hears him fall. She opens her eyes and sees Mulder standing with a gun. She bends down to the man to check his vitals. "Mulder, he is dead." She feels Mulder's hand under her elbow in a gentle pressure to stand. She stands and looks at Mulder and down at the dead man. Mulder gently moves her out of the clearing and into the parking lot.
Part five:
An hour later, statements have been given. The police shared details of a string of rapes, abductions and killing of male companions along the coastline. The police continue to collect evidence. Mulder and Scully are free to go.
"I'm sorry I took off, Scully, but something said I didn't have a lot of time and needed a gun."
“If you had stayed, Mulder, he would have shot you first the way he did all the other males -without warning and without a gun -I couldn't have fought him off." A slight shudder goes through Scully's body recognizing how close it had been. "But how did you know? Mulder, did you see him? We both picked up on some subconscious clues of danger, but how did you see him, did you know he had a gun?"
"No, and I did everything wrong..against protocol- running away, leaving an agent alone without an assessment of what exactly the danger was. It was foolish and stupid but I felt like I had to get a gun- that whatever the danger was I needed a gun more than following any protocol. Anything could have happened because I left you.." Mulder voice is rising as he realises how lucky he is that Scully is ok. "There could have been two men or an animal and I left you."
"Mulder, if you had not done exactly what you did in that exact moment you would be dead and I would still be....” They stare into each other's eye before sharing an embrace beside the car. After a few moments, Mulder opens the passenger door and Scully sits. He bends down. He wants to take his time and give her time to process.
"Mulder, I still don't understand how you reacted so perfectly." “It must be what you said earlier. My subconscious saw something that made me respond in just that way. It was a neurochemical response to a situation where my subconscious was aware of details my conscious mind can't remember.”
“When you say it, it sounds ridiculous and far fetch."
Mulder laughs. "It’s a gift."
Scully looks down and then looks up at him and whispers "it's possible you have a sixth sense about when I am in danger and how to keep me safe, maybe, after all we've been through."
Mulder whispers back, "maybe we both have that sense about each other because of what we've been through and because of how we feel about each other." He moves kisses her on the forehead.
He walks around to the drivers side of the car. Waving at the remaining police officers, he gets in. "Scully, are you okay?” “I'm fine" He sighs " No, Mulder, l'm fine l've been through worse.”
Mulder looks at his watch “We missed our reservation.” Scully grabs his hand briefly “How about that turkey sandwich.” Mulder says “you got it.” He starts the car and they drive away from yet another crime scene.