An Educated Change of Opinion

Sara B. 06/07

The incessant pounding woke him from his alcohol induced slumber.  It took a few minutes for him to orient himself before he gracelessly got off the couch and stumbled to the door.  God, he was still drunk and it took the short time it took to reach the door for him to remember why he’d tied one on the night before.  Oh, yeah, he remembered; if only he ‘could’ forget.

In his less than sober condition it took him five tries to manage to unlock the deadbolt and he didn’t even want to think how long it took to master the doorknob.  All the time the pounding continued and he wasn’t sure if it was the intruder or his hangover.

When the doorknob gave way the door was shoved and he nearly was flung across the room.

A man entered with two policemen following.  He pulled out a detective’s badge. 

“Commander William Scully Jr.?”  The man shouted at him, Bill nodded but remained mute.  “You are being taken in under suspicion of the murder of Jane McElroy.”

Bill’s Whiskey addled brain couldn’t seem to function.  From somewhere he heard a voice reading him his rights.  The first handcuff attached to his wrist and that seemed to awaken him.  “Can I make a call?”  He asked pitifully and the man handed him the phone from the table.  “Mom…”

~

Mulder and Scully were stuck doing paperwork, or more correctly, Scully was doing paperwork while Mulder was researching the finer points of several resorts and trying to decide which to book.  This was a very important decision since you only got one first honeymoon.  “Scully, what do you think of bungalows with private pools?”  

The phone pre-empted her answer.  “Mulder, - oh, hi, Mrs. Scully,” Mulder waived frantically at Scully, “yeah she’s right here, I’ll – sure, I’ll put it on speaker phone,” Mulder’s face reflected his concern.

“Mom, what’s wrong?”  Scully’s face darkened with her apprehension and unconsciously she moved closer to Mulder.

“Dana, it’s horrible,” she stopped and Scully was about to say something when Mrs. Scully started to explain.  “Bill has been arrested.  They went to your apartment and, Dana they’re saying he killed someone.”

“Oh, God!”  Mulder looked at his partner and knew she could not cope with what needed to happen immediately so he took over.

“Don’t worry, Mrs. Scully, we’ll arrange everything and pull some strings if we have to.  Does he have an attorney?”

“I’ll call my lawyer and…”

“Don’t bother, I’ll get him someone.  We’ll call you as soon as we know anything.”

“I’m going to go down to the police station so call me on my cel.”  She told them.

Mulder was like a whirlwind, calling Skinner then the Gunmen and he arranged for the attorney.  “Scully, Skinner’s going to push some weight around and arrange for you to observe the autopsy.  Do you think you can handle that?”

“Mulder,” she wrapped her arms around him, “thank you.  I couldn’t handle this without you.”

“Hey, he’s your brother, what else would I do.  Now, I’m going with Skinner to the crime scene and have a look-see.  The Guys are hacking into the police records to see what’s what.  And you are going to make sure the M.E. does their job.  I’ll meet you at the police station later; call me when you find out anything.”  Mulder started toward the door then turned around and walked back to Scully.  He placed his hands on her shoulder and leaned down and kissed her.  “Don’t worry, Scully, the Spookys are on the case, we’ll figure it out.  No future brother-in-law of mine will rot in jail for the rest of his life; as much as I might him want to.”

“I love you too, Mulder.”  They parted with a soothing kiss.

~

Mulder and Skinner arrived at the crime scene while CSU was doing their thing.  They talked with a couple of the cops after identifying themselves.  The lead cop, Officer Stone, looked at them questionably.  “What interest does the bureau have in the mutilation murder of a prostitute?”

Both Skinner and Mulder took a quick glance around; the apartment was not just any ordinary prostitutes place.  She had to be a high priced call girl.  The cop noticed their perusal, “okay, so she wasn’t a street whore she was still a wh…”

Skinner interrupted him, “a victim.  And to answer your question, the bureau isn’t involved officially.  The accused is a relative of one of ours…”

“Got-ya.”  He waived off any further explanation from Skinner or Mulder.  “She was cut up into six pieces, head, both arms, both legs and torso.  Is your guy named Scully?”

Mulder answered, “Yes, Special Agent Dana Scully, they took her brother in this morning.”

“I figured, they found a name tag and a cap from a,” he checked his notepad, “a Commander William Scully.  If you want to take a look around I’ll have Officer Sanger go with you.”

They were led to the bedroom which greeted them with blood spattered walls, bed and carpet.  Mixed in with the splatter on one wall was the bloody outline of the lower half of a person.  Mulder looked at the outline then at the ‘kill zone’, “there were two of them.  Look, there is no way that the murderer could have been over there and killed her three feet away.”

“Maybe he moved her,” offered Officer Sanger.

“No, look at the blood pattern, she was killed there, that is where the largest blood letting occurred.”  He moved around to the various taped outlines of the body parts.  They were scattered around as if the unsub just tossed them around.

Mulder silently moved around the room then pulled out a glove and picked up something.  He showed it to Skinner and then handed it off to a CSU member.  It was a fragment of brown heavy paper.

~

Scully entered the autopsy bay.  The body was on the table but covered while they waited for Dr. Mike Spence.  She’d worked with him before and she trusted that he was good at his job.  A few minutes later he walked in and they greeted each other.

“I understand you have a personal interest in this one, Dana.”  She explained and he nodded, “well, then let’s see what we can find out.”

He removed the cloth covering the body and she grabbed his arm.  “Mike, look!” 

Dr. Spence looked, “jeeze, Dana…”

“Yeah, we need to get a magnifier.”

Four hours later they replaced the cloth over the body parts.  “Mike, I’m going to go to the station, do you want to come with me?”

“Yeah, I can’t just call this one in and, to be honest, I wanna see their faces when they find out.  DC is freak city and this case is the freakiest.”

~

Mulder and Skinner sat down at the table across from Bill Scully.  Bill’s attorney, David McCallum, greeted Mulder warmly.  “Mulder,” Mulder nodded and they smiled at each other.  “He’s been good, didn’t open his mouth for them before I got here and he’s been very cooperative with me.  I’m pretty sure the hangover helped.”  He got serious, “the cops don’t have much but what they do have is damning.”

“We heard, name tag and hat.  By the way, Dave, this is Walter Skinner, Sir, this is David McCallum.”  Skinner shook the man’s hand but gave Mulder a sideways glance; David McCallum was one of the best, and priciest, defense attorneys around.  “We shoot hoops together.”  Mulder offered as a less than complete answer to Skinner’s unspoken question and they both knew it; Skinner left it alone for the time being.  “Dave, we checked the crime scene, I think there were two killers there.” 

The door opened and Mrs. Scully walked in followed by Scully.  Scully went to her brother and they hugged, “hey, big brother.”

“Dana, I don’t know – I can’t remember much from last night, but I – I just can’t believe I’d…”

“Neither can I and we’re working on proving that you didn’t.  I called Tara and she’s arranging for her parents to look after Mathew and I have her booked on a flight this evening.  She told me to tell you she loves you and she believes in you.”  She leaned down and kissed his cheek.  “Now, watch and learn, Bill, you have three of the best investigators looking into this.”  She turned to the others.  “We have a problem, there isn’t just one murder there were five more.”

“Dear God,” Maggie exclaimed.

“Scully, what are you talking about?”  Mulder was trying to be calm.

“The body parts the police recovered were from six victims, only the head belonged to Ms. McElroy.  From what we can tell so far is that all of the victims were killed within hours of each other and all were in the window of opportunity.  We send tissue samples out for further testing and possible victim identification.  Mulder, I think there are five more crime scenes out there.”  She glanced at her stunned brother and Mulder saw the tears forming in her eyes so he pulled her into a hug.

“I assume the police know about this development?”

“Mike Spence is telling them now.”

Skinner pulled out his phone, “Kim, sign Agents Mulder, Scully and me out for at least two weeks.  Call it family time.”

Scully and Mulder just looked at their boss and Scully smiled, “thank you, Sir.”

“No need.  Now, Mr. McCallum, for the duration we are working for you and that means that anything Bill says to any of us is covered by privilege.”  He turned to Maggie, “Mrs. Scully, I’m sorry but we’re pushing the envelope as it is.  If we included you it might all fall apart like a house of cards and, should this go to trial, they could call you.”

“Mr. Skinner, I understand.  I’ll go,” tears were forming in her eyes.  She hugged and kissed her children and Mulder then shook the other’s hands.  Bill watched her leave with longing eyes then hung his head.

It was Mulder who tried to comfort him.  He sat next to Bill and put a hand to his shoulder.  “Bill, she’s strong, she’s a Scully woman and they don’t make them stronger or more loyal than that.”

Bill rewarded Mulder’s effort with a sad smile, “you are so right about that.”  Both men looked toward Scully.

It was Dave who broke the silence, “first off, I need to get the three of you on record as working as investigators on my behalf so that no one can question it later.”  He knocked on the glass and a few minutes later Detective Williams, who was leading the case, and Assistant District Attorney Wilkins walked in.

Dave explained that Skinner, Scully and Mulder were working for him and that they would be covered by privilege.  Wilkins began to argue but it was more posturing than real objection.  Everyone could tell they thought the case was strong enough to get a conviction.  Dave pulled out documents and hand wrote something then had the detective and the ADA sign it before he left.  Dave showed the document to the rest, it identified them as his agents and that they are recognized by the police as such.   “Just so the honorable detective and attorney don’t conveniently forget this conversation when the ADA’s boss presses him.”  This wasn’t Dave’s first trip to the rodeo.  “Listen, believe it or not, it’s a good thing they think they have a strong case against us.  When they do they tend to give into things like this that are a little left of the straight and narrow.  And I’m sure you’d all agree that assigning three FBI personnel to my team is more than a little strange.”

~

Dave was able to secure bail for Bill sighting his distinguished career and that his sister and her fiancé were FBI agents and that his brother worked for the State Department.  The bail was set at two million.  Bill figured they might as well have made it fifty million, there was no way he could afford it and no one in his family had assets to cover it.  Mulder walked over to the clerk’s table just as the guard was walking Bill by.  Bill’s eyes went wide when he heard Mulder tell the clerk, “it’ll be here in two hours.”  Mulder saw Bill stammer and told him, “I’ve got it covered.”

Bill was released and they headed toward Dave’s office.  Neither Mulder nor Scully thought it would be prudent for them to talk about the case at either of their apartments, at least until the Guys could check them for listening devices, which Langly was working on right then.  Skinner stayed with the police to monitor progress with the location of the other victims and crime scenes.

Scully had run home and got Bill a change of clothes, and when she returned Mulder saw she was visibly shaken.  When he asked her about it, she told him they’d searched her apartment and it was quite the mess.  He just hugged her and gave her a look, she instantly calmed.  Bill watched the exchange; as close as his parents had been and as close as he and Tara were he’d never seen an exchange like he witnessed then.  It seemed so intimate he felt embarrassed for having been witness.

They sat down and Dave let Mulder ask the questions.  “Bill, I need you to think about yesterday.  Don’t force it, just let it come to you.  Why don’t you start with when you left your mom’s house?”  Mulder’s tone was melodic and Bill physically relaxed.

“I was so mad at your announcement that I just had to get out of there or I was going to say something we’d all regret.  I needed to get away from the three of you.  Mom was so damned happy about your engagement and I just couldn’t take it.”  He looked from Mulder to Scully, “Dana, I’m sorry but that was how I felt.  After today, I’m seeing things in a different light.”

“Damn, Bill, if all it took was framing you for murder to have you tolerate me then I should have tried it years ago.”  Mulder joked in an attempt to lighten the mood.

“Okay, okay, I jumped into Dana’s car and tore off.  I drove around aimlessly for about an hour, maybe an hour and a half.  I ended up in one of those sports bars.”

Mulder stopped him to ask, “do you recall the name?”  Bill shook his head and looked down.  “No problem,” he pulled out his cel.  “Frohike, trace Scully’s car and see if you can find a cab run from a bar to Scully’s address last night.  Thanks – yeah, I’ll tell her but I have to point out that as her intended I’d find that highly offensive if it wasn’t so damned true.  Scully ‘is’ the most luscious thing on two legs.”  He looked at her warmly and caused the blush on her cheek.  Mulder hung up then prodded Bill to continue.

“I started drinking and the next thing I really remember was the police taking me into custody.”

Dave handed Bill a legal pad.  “Bill, I want you to go home and relax and let your mind wander.  Write down anything that comes to you no matter how small or unusual.  Do you understand?”

“Yeah, I’ll do what I can.”

~

Mulder went out to get them something for a late lunch and Scully was puttering around in the kitchen.  Bill startled her, “Dana, Mulder really loves you doesn’t he?”  She heard the awe in his voice.

She laughed, “I hope so.”

“No, he really does, I never let myself see it before but it’s written all over him and furthermore you love him just as much.”

“That I do.  Bill, I can tell you are getting at something, just come out and say it.”

He sat at the table and looked at her leaning against the counter.  “Today, I think I saw Mulder for the first time, I mean I saw what you and mom see in him.  He’d doing everything he can to help me, a man who despised him.”  He looked at his hands, “and the thing is, the thing that I can’t understand is, he would do it whether or not I was your brother, wouldn’t he?”

“I believe he would.  He’d do it because it is right.  That’s how Mulder is.”  She told him matter of factly.

“I’m ashamed to say, I don’t think I could do it if it was the other way around.”  Bill told her honestly. 

She moved to him and gave him a hug, “me either.”

“Dana, in court, when they set my bail, Mulder didn’t flinch.  He just told them he’d have it in two hours and he did.  Dana, does he have that kind of money?”

“Yes,” she offered simply.

“Wow,” Bill said shaking his head.

“Yeah, wow.  I don’t like to think about it.”  She sat next to him.  “When we met I didn’t have a clue, to look at him and if you ever saw his apartment you would never know.  A while later, after I knew I was sticking around, I started to notice things.  Small stuff really.  The first thing I noticed was his leather couch and chair.  One day I was packing for him when he’d been hurt on a case.  I saw the tags on his clothes, Armani, Calvin Klein; the man didn’t own anything that wasn’t designer right down to his socks, except his ties, the man is queer for gross ties.”  Bill nodded and they both laughed.  “I also looked at his suitcases for the first time, Hartmann; I’ll never understand why I’d never noticed before.”

Bill gave her a look that telegraphed he was going to zing her.  “So, if the guy has all this money where’s your engagement ring?”

“In this bag,” they hadn’t heard Mulder come in.  “I had to have it sized, I just picked it up.”  Scully wondered how much he’d heard but neither said anything.

He put the food down and pulled a ring box from a jeweler’s bag.  “This has been in my family for a long time.  My grandmother on my mother’s side bequeathed it to me and it’s a little old fashioned but…”  He was stumbling over his words.

Scully saw the intensity in Mulder’s eyes; this ring meant a lot to him and he feared she wouldn’t like it.  She touched his cheek to get his attention, “Mulder, it’s part of your heritage…” she didn’t need to continue.

Mulder opened the box to reveal a rose-gold ring with four emeralds surrounding a diamond.  The band had floral scrolling engraved on either side of the stones.  It was old fashioned and perfect. 

Bill watched the exchange between his sister and this man she’d chosen.  Once again he had the feeling that a conversation was taking place but no words were spoken.  He watched as Mulder took his sister’s hand and placed the ring on her finger.  Scully lifted up and kissed Mulder with reverence and again he felt like an interloper. 

They broke apart and smiled at each other.  “Hey, let’s break out the plates, I’m starved,” Scully said suddenly.

~

Mike Spence called and asked for Scully’s help, she knew it was him that was really doing her a favor.  Once she was gone Mulder suggested Bill get some rest before they headed out to pick up Tara from the airport.

“Mulder, I never thought I’d say this but you’re good for Dana and I think she’s good for you.”

“I know she’s good for me and I hope it goes both ways.  Bill, she hasn’t told you but I almost lost her last year.  I – I – I did something stupid and I shut her out and treated her pretty shabbily.  I have no clue as to why she didn’t just slam the door in my face, lock the door and destroy the key, but she didn’t and there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t say a thank you.”  Bill saw immense sorrow cross over the man’s face.

“Don’t think you have to answer but what did you do?”

“I let my memories cloud my judgment.  Bill, I was married before, it ended before I even met Scully.  She came back into my life and somehow I let myself forget all the pain we’d caused each other and I guess you could say I let things get out of hand.  I kind of knew what I was doing but I didn’t seem to know how to stop things.  I was ashamed of myself and I knew I was going to end up hurt and I also knew I was hurting Scully.  I began to shut her out, putting distance between us.  I think I was trying to justify my behavior because if she got so fed up and she left I could blame her.”

Mulder saw Bill’s hand fist up, “I know, pretty low.  I think she came really close to leaving but she didn’t.  I’m pretty sure it had nothing to do with me and everything to do with the work.  My plan of forcing her to leave worked quite well on the personal level.  When I finally got my head out of my ass and I saw what I’d done and realized how much I really love her I pretty much blown it.”

“What happened?  You two are really tight now.”

“Now, yes, then, it was terrible.  Did Scully or your mom tell you about my illness?”  Bill shook his head.  “I was really ill, damned near dead.  I won’t go into details but it was bad.  Scully was running all over trying to get me help and my ex took over administering my affairs, including my health care.  She had no legal right but no one seemed to care about that.  She even had Scully barred from seeing me.  While all this was going on I found out the true nature of the two women I’ve loved.  Where Scully was all about me, my ex was all about her and what she could get.  She came into my room and told me how much she loved me and how we could be together and all I felt was disgusted and personal loathing.”  Mulder took a moment to regain some control.

“I survived because Scully believed in me but I’d pretty much ended any notion she might have had about a relationship with me.  Once I was recovered she closed off from me.  It started out subtly.  Almost from the beginning of our partnership I’ve called her in the middle of the night.  Sometimes it was just some matter about a case and other times it was after I’d had a nightmare and I’d need to have her cool alto flow over me so I’d know things were alright.  After my illness and I was back to work, I called her one night and where before she would always accommodate me that time she cut the call short.  The next day she looked exhausted and I questioned her about it.  Her answer floored me,” Mulder huffed and shook his head.  “She told me she was out of practice and hadn’t been able to get back to sleep after my call.  Then she said, ‘it’s been a while.’  That got me thinking and I realized I hadn’t called her at night in over six months.  There were other things we hadn’t done in months too.  Lunches, dinners, movie nights and all the little things that friends do together.”

Mulder stood up, “I’m getting some water, and do you want anything?”

“No, just hurry back, I want to hear how the story ends.”

“You know how the story ends; Scully saved me once again and agreed to marry me.”

“Mulder,” Bill let out with exasperation.

Mulder returned with his water and continued the story.  “That day I asked Scully to lunch.”

“So you patched things up?”

“Not a chance, she already had a lunch date, and I do mean date.  While Fox Mulder was being a total and complete ass, Dana Scully was subtly rebuilding the social life she’d turned her back on years earlier.  His name was Paul DuPont, an attorney, well off, good background and going places.  He was good looking, clever, Catholic and dating my girl.”

“You went on the offensive,” Bill suggested.

“With every piece of knowledge I’d accumulated on Scully from our partnership and every available resource at my disposal.  We were out in the field all the time so they couldn’t see each other.  When they did, I’d show up innocently and intrude.  I even went so far as to steal her cel so they couldn’t call each other while we were on a case.”

“So how long did it take?”

“Months, the first crack in Scully’s ‘operation freeze out’ happened on New Year Eve.  A case came up that, man I do not want to tell you about this, you just started to tolerate me.”

“Come on, I’m not hating you anymore.”

“It was zombies, okay, zombies just like in the movies.”

“Believe it or not, Dana told me about that case; sounded really gruesome.”

“Good, I didn’t want to get into it.  As I’m sure she told you, I ended up in the emergency room.  When I was released the ball was dropping in New York and we watched on the small TV in the waiting room.  I kissed her, it was gentle and not particularly romantic but I kissed her and she kissed me and then she smiled.  It was a little awkward after but we had our arms around each other as we walked out.  That started it but it was months later before anything else happened.  I don’t know why or when she stopped dating DuPont but she did. 

“One night, after a case that started with a man without a mouth, I invited her over for a movie.”  Bill’s eyes got big and Mulder smiled, “ask your sister about that story.  Before all this happened we used to have movie nights a couple times a month but it had been so long she asked me what the occasion was.  That hurt and I knew I never wanted to ever be that distant from her again.  Things progressed from there and last month I decided to get off my duff and I asked her to marry me.”

“Mulder, today I saw what you two are to each other.  Mom and dad had a great marriage and Tara and I are as close as I thought two people could be but you two, you are like two sides of a coin, one doesn’t exist without the other.  It’s powerful to see.”

~

Scully could not believe what they’d found.  The body parts were not all recent kills.  There was evidence that the parts had been kept in freezers.  She called Mulder with the information and he took one of his famous leaps and found the other crime scenes. 

Mulder remembered the paper from the crime scene and started calling shipping companies looking for packages shipped in dry ice and found six such shipments, five of the companies were shipments coming into DC and all were delivered to a cold storage unit in care of Mr. Charles M. Pursley.  The sixth company involved the shipping of five packaged to cold storage units in Philips Wisconsin, Eureka and Oceanside California, Plant City Florida and Kansas City.  If didn’t appear as if any of the cities had any commonality but, and only Mulder could figure this out, if you add DC to the mix and plot the points on a map you get a rough pentagram with Kansas City roughly at  the center.  Law enforcement agencies were notified and warrants were sent out all across the country for the addressees of the packages.  

Mulder walked in to the windowed room to watch the interrogation.  He moved to stand beside Scully and discreetly took her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.  She smiled at him and told him that they’d dropped all charges against Bill.  

The prisoner, Charles Pursley, looked all of nineteen; he was in fact twenty-two.  Pursley was tall and thin, to the point of being gaunt.  He had the straggly start of a beard and mustache, neither of which added to his appearance.  His clothes reflected his occupation, plumber’s assistant and his hands bore the scars of his job.  He appeared to be constantly in motion as his nerves got the better of him.  Mulder could tell this interrogation would not take long.  The man’s lawyer entered the room and he looked almost as young as his client.  He was an appointed public defender and not in the league of David McCallum but Mulder didn’t doubt he would do his best for his client, such as it was.  The detectives walked in and sat across from Pursley but didn’t say anything.  Instead they perused the file folders they’d brought with them.  Mulder saw the young prisoner’s demeanor crumble with each passing moment.  The lead detective, Buck Williams, finally looked at the man and the story started tumbling out of Pursley’s mouth.

His lawyer tried to get the man to shut up but he kept on babbling.  The story he told was tragic in its simplemindedness.  The six people involved had met when they were teenagers.  They’d all been in trouble early and their parents shipped them to an outward bound group near Kansas City.  The boys formed a pact and remained in touch throughout the years.  It was the only consistency in their lives.  Each year they managed to meet for a long weekend.  During the time together they’d commiserate their miserable lives.  The last meeting, Mike Mitchell convinced them that if they each performed a sacrifice they’d change their circumstances.  Mulder closed his eyes, took a deep breath then looked skyward and Scully placed her hand on his arm to stanch his annoyance.  She understood; it was fools like this that made investigations into the paranormal seem so ridiculous to most people.

The man laid out their plan.  Each of the men was to kill someone.  They decided the victims would all be women and they had to be prostitutes, low women.  The victims were to be dismembered and only the head of the victim was kept.  The rest of the parts were frozen and shipped to the others, Mitchell had given them each lists of what body parts were shipped to whom.  That way they could all share their kills and gain power from them.  Pursley pulled a piece of paper from his breast pocket that detailed his shipments. 

They had to plant evidence that would force the investigation to look else ware.  Mulder asked the technician to have the detective ask who the second person was.

“Tell us who the other person at the crime was?”

“Mitchell, he was at all the killings.  He watched while we did it but he did his own killing in Kansas City.  We flung the body parts around the rooms so it would take longer to realize they weren’t all from the same body.

“We picked our victim’s but he’d choose the guy we framed.  We saw the sailor guy at a bar and Mitchell couldn’t resist.  He tried to join up once and they said he didn’t pass the psych tests.

“The group was going to meet up before the bodies were found.  You shouldn’t have found the body for two more days.  How’d that happ’n?”

“One of her regulars got back to town earlier than expected and decided to keep their weekly appointment.”

“Damned!”  The man pounded his fist.  “See what I mean about our bad luck?”

Mulder turned to Scully, “come on, we don’t need to see anymore.”

~

Scully watched as Tara and Bill packed, getting ready to head back to California.  “Bill, could I have a moment with you?”

They moved to the living room.  “Bill, I know that you and Mulder have not seen eye to eye in the past but now that things are changed I’d like to, I mean I want you to walk me down the aisle.”

Bill sat back; he’d been waiting for this.  He pursed his lips and shook his head.  “Dana, I’d like to but I can’t, I just can’t walk you down the aisle to marry Mulder.”

Scully was hurt and angry, still, after all Mulder did for him, Bill was still holding a grudge.  She hung her head but didn’t argue, what was the point. 

“Dana, the reason I can’t walk you down the aisle is that Mulder asked me to be his best man so you’re gonna have to settle with Charles handing you off.”

End