Title: Stroked (Chapter 1) by Mulderache

Disclaimer: They do not belong to me but I wish they did! 
They do however belong to Chris Carter and 1013 Productions.

Note: It was started five years ago when I was too afraid to 
write or post to anything and then two years ago I started 
writing this story from that rough draft. I lost it on my 
hard drive and I could not find it anywhere. Then thanks to 
Banlu and Xphylia it was found and is now in the process of 
getting finished. Sorry it took so long.I will post a chapter 
each day.Chapter nine will be new so in nine days you should 
see a new chapter. Thanks.



AN ABANDONED WAREHOUSE

The tall slender figure dashed into the dark abandoned 
warehouse with Scully and Mulder close behind. " Barter!" 
Mulder shouted into the emptiness of the warehouse. " Put 
down you weapon and place you hands on you head!" Barter 
refused to stop and only silence followed the command.

Mulder nodded his head towards Scully to head to the left 
and he went right. It was their usual and familiar dance, no 
words were necessary, when chasing a perp. Within minutes 
Scully could hear Mulder's voice shouting through the 
warehouse, " I repeat, put your gun down! I will shoot if 
necessary!" Again only silence followed the command.

A loud crashing sound echoed through the darkness and all 
Scully wanted to do was to call out to Mulder. She thought 
better of it though, it could endanger Mulder's life and she did 
not know where the man was hidden. A rapid series of shots rang 
through the building and Scully jerked her gun to bare down on 
the directions of the shots. She was now very anxious to 
find her partner.Her gut feeling was telling her that something 
bad had happened.

Another quick series of crashes followed the shots and 
Scully heard a loud cry of pain coming from the direction of 
the back of the warehouse. The cry was like the sound of a 
wounded animal. Now there was an urgency to find Mulder and 
to see if he was safe.

Scully knew that she had to find her partner .She pulled out 
her flashlight and thought, to Hell with the protocols. She flashed 
the light towards the sounds of the moans. She remained silent, 
moving cautiously around the boxes, barrels and crates that 
clogged the aisles of the warehouse. "Mulder." She called in 
a soft and low voice. " Mulder where are you?" her impatience 
showing with her harsher tone of voice.

"Hmmmmmmmmm." A low moan echoed through the old warehouse 
from the loading dock area. Scully followed the noise and 
wanted to cry out for Mulder but she continued to stay quiet 
and placed the flashlight back into her coat pocket. She did 
not want to give away her location if the perp was nearby. 
As Scully approached the low moan another gunshot rang 
through the warehouse followed by a loud thud. "Mulder!" She 
shouted,feeling panicked with the overwhelming need to 
find out where her partner was located. She needed to know 
that he was all right.

" Scully. I'm over here." His voice was low and closeby.

She pulled out her flashlight again and aimed it towards the 
sound of Mulder's voice. The beam hit his back and she made 
her way over to his position. He was sitting on the cold 
concrete floor. Moving cautiosly next to Mulder she 
noticed that the man that they had followed into the 
warehouse was now lying face down a few feet away.

She looked down at her partner and felt a sense of relief,
" Are you okay Mulder?" She was concerned for her partner but 
also knew that she had to make sure that the man on the 
floor was unable to cause any more problems.

" Yeah." He answered weakly.

She was moving slowly towards the man on the floor. She 
kicked away the gun, then knelt down to check for a pulse, 
keeping her gun aimed at him the whole time. " He's dead 
Mulder." She announced before getting back up and moving 
back towards her partner.

She could barely detect the nod of his head in the darkness. 
He remained on the floor, no movement towards getting up 
"Mulder are you hurt?" She waited for an answer but no 
response was made. She turned back to stare at what had 
Mulder's attention, a killer of small children. Exactly 
eight known murders but there were probably more. He had 
killed both boys and girls and there was no pattern for the 
killer's victims. They were of different racial backgrounds. 
Hair and skin color played no part. He was just doing the 
grab and go method. He had tortured them and left their 
small corpses to rot in the woods, food for the rodents and 
wild animals. Again location did not seem to matter. It was 
definitely convenience.

" Mulder are you hurt?" She asked again in a firmer tone of 
voice.

Again no answer and he didn't make any attempt at standing.  
His quiet demeanor bothered her and his unwillingness to move 
from the floor. She pulled out her cell phone, hoping that it 
would work inside of the warehouse. The signal was fine and she 
proceeded to dial the operator. She kept her flashlight on 
Mulder as she gave the operator the information and her 
badge number. She continued attempting to assess her partner 
as she spoke to the operator. Although he was not giving her 
any clues to his physical status,the darkness of the warehouse 
was preventing her from doing any kind of real assessment of any 
injuries and she knew that she would have to wait for backup 
and the ambulance.

Mulder slowly lifted himself off the floor and sat down on 
the crate. His body seemed exhausted by the effort. Scully 
noted a limp but did not say anything about it but continued 
talking,giving important information. She finally hung up 
the phone but kept silent. Mulder did not like a lot of 
attention and he especially did not appreciate it when he 
was near exhaustion and Scully knew he had been pushing his limits.

" Do you think she suffered?" His voice was low, almost a 
whisper but it was the first time since she had found him 
that he seemed interested in any conversation. His shoulders 
were slumped in defeat and he seemed so tired and worn. He 
had not eaten in days and barely had taken any fluids except 
the coffee and juice she would place in front of him. He had 
not shaven and his clothes looked as if he had slept 
in them.

She knew that he needed the truth and he would not accept 
anything less. " I don't know Mulder. It happened so quickly 
but hopefully she was spared any pain." Her voice was soft 
and gentle. She did not want to upset Mulder but the wound 
had been a traumatic head wound at close range, she probably 
never knew that it was coming.

They had taken the case a week ago as a favor for Skinner. 
The case had the VCS unit running into dead ends. The killer 
was not leaving any clues. But somehow Mulder saw things 
that nobody else could and they were given's Mulder's 
profile of the killer. The killer was profiled as a mid to 
late thirty year old male of average height and weight based 
on the wounds inflicted upon the children. This individual 
may have been in therapy at sometime, possibly a victim of 
child abuse. He would almost see himself as a father figure 
or a savior to the children. The killer was someone who came 
from a middle to upper class family based on the fibers 
found on the children's clothing. Whoever the killer might 
be he had a taste for fine linen shirts and tailored suits. 
He felt that the killer was someone that the children knew 
and that they may have even trusted this individual. He also 
felt that the killer was probably working alone. His weapon 
of choose was a knife.

Unfortunately Mulder had taken the case personally and he 
became obsessed, as he had done in the past. He had done 
this with several cases in the past and she knew that he 
felt that it was his job to catch the killer. He had done 
exactly what the bureau had asked him to do and soon they 
were following their primary suspect to an old abandoned 
house in a very run down neighborhood. He had taken a young 
eight year old female earlier that day and the hope was that 
she was still alive. When they entered the house Barter 
grabbed the child and placed her as a barrier between him 
and Mulder and Scully. Mulder had seemed a little bit 
confused, because Barter was holding a gun to the child's 
head. The previous murders had occurred with knife inflicted 
wounds and this did not match his profile of the killer. 
Barter had evidentally changed his method of killing his victims 
and in front of both agents he shot the young girl in the head and 
fled out the broken window, the gray mater and blood splattered on 
the wall and floor of the rotted boards of the old house. The 
child was lifeless and pulseless, no chance of survival, 
even with the best medical technology. They followed him to the 
warehouse, a place that seemed familiar to the killer.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a voice calling out in the 
dark. The voice was A.D.Skinner's. "Agent Mulder! Agent 
Scully!" The darkness was all too consuming and made it 
difficult for anyone to find them. She had called as they 
fled out the window and asked for backup but she had been 
unable to give them a location after the initial call.

" We're here sir, beside the loading dock." She yelled out 
to the echoing walls. She then turned to her silent partner, 
"Mulder, are you up to a few questions?" She asked in almost 
a whisper, not knowing where the other officers were in 
relation to their position.

He looked up and shrugged, "Better now than later." He 
answered as he stared back down at Barter's still form.

She nodded and her attention was drawn to the approaching 
footsteps. She hoped that her partner would be able to get 
through the questioning and be able to go to the motel to 
rest. He was exhausted and on the border of dehydration and 
malnutrition.

Skinner moved into viewing range, " What the Hell happened 
here?" He growled to nobody in particular.His towering military 
stance was intimidating to most of the other agents.

Scully jumped in and started giving details of what had 
happened while Mulder remained silent and still.

The AD looked down at the silent man sitting on the crate 
and the man a few feet away lying face down on the concrete 
floor. "Agent Mulder can you tell me what exactly went on 
here?" His voice less demanding. He waited for an answer but 
when no answer came he became concerned. " Can we get some 
light in here?" He shoutedto the law enforecement officers 
behind him. Within a few minutes lights flooded the warehouse 
and again Skinner was shouting orders, "Get the paramedics in 
here now! Officer down!"

Scully seemed perplexed at the urgency in Skinner's voice 
when she looked down and saw Mulder's bleeding leg. "Mulder 
you're hurt!" She almost yelled the words but quickly gained 
control and went to her partner's side. " Hey I need to get 
this bleeding stopped. I need your belt." She spoke softly, 
noting that she did not get any smart remark or sexual 
innuendo or even a grin. She took the belt from around his 
waist and pulled it around his leg. Before she tightened it 
she looked up at the sad face that was obviously in pain 
now." It's going to hurt Mulder but I need to stop the 
bleeding."

He nodded but remained silent but when the belt tightened 
his face grew pale and sweaty. She knew that he was going to 
go out on her if she didn't get him in a supine position. 
Both Skinner and Scully quickly lowered him to the floor. 
Skinner had already placed his thick wool coat on the floor 
to protect Mulder from the cold. Mulder's pant leg was torn 
and his leg was covered with bright red blood and a puddle 
lay on the floor where he was sitting. He was in shock and 
the loss of blood was only adding to his deteriorating 
condition. The grimace caused by the tightening of the belt 
remained but he remained quiet.

As Scully assessed Mulder's wound Skinner was talking to other 
fellow police officers. They were already taking pictures of 
the crime scene and gathering evidence. Within a few minutes 
the paramedics entered the secured building. They went 
straight to work as they took vital signs and cut away the 
pant leg and exposed an arm for an intravenous line. They 
were talking over their radio to the hospital and getting 
orders and one was for pain medicine for their patient. The 
placed a pressure dressing over the site and then placed the 
sandbag over the dressing. A low moan escaped as the 
pressure was applied to the very painful leg. When the sting 
of the needle aroused Mulder from his stupor Scully was at 
his side. He tried to pull back his hand but Scully held it 
tight.

Mulder looked up and found Scully's bright blue eyes, " I 
don't want to go to the hospital. I want to go home." His 
face was pleading like a small boy. He began to raise 
himself off the gurney.

Scully gently squeezed his hand, "Listen Mulder, you are 
bleeding. You need to let the paramedics do their job." Her 
voice was low and gentle. She gently pushed him back down on 
the gurney they had placed him on upon arrival. " You have a 
hurt leg and it is bleeding. You must go to the hospital."

Mulder grimaced as the paramedics applied more pressure to 
the leg and another groan escaped him. " It hurts Scully." 
His teeth were now clinched together and his focus was on 
trying to stay conscious through the pain.

" It will be fine Mulder. I will give my report and will be 
at the hospital soon. I will call my friend Dr. Andrea 
Meadows. She works in the ER. You know her Mulder, she 
thinks you're cute."She smiled and noticed that he just 
rolled his eyes. " I will be right there after I answer a 
few questions, I promise. Andrea can page Dr. Harriman."

He nodded and closed his eyes, " Hurry Scully." He whispered 
through dry lips." The paramedics silenced her partner by 
placing an oxygen mask on Mulder's face due to lower 
saturation levels noted on the pulse oximetry. They then 
moved past Scully and loaded Mulder into the ambulance to 
head to Alexandria Hospital.

As Scully watched the ambulance pull away she pulled out her 
cell phone to call Andrea. She told her about Mulder and 
that she needed to call Mulder's primary care physician, Dr. 
Harriman.

Chapter Two