Alex Krycek watched from the shadows of the parking garage as Fox Mulder and Walter Skinner faced down a clone that had been designed to look like Alex. He watched Mulder face the clone with a stone face. Alex wondered if it was due to lack of emotion on Mulder’s part, or if Mulder was feeling too much and couldn’t let it show.
Alex winced when Skinner shot the clone in the forehead. A part of him wasn’t surprised. He knew that Skinner had wanted to do that to him for quite some time. While the clone had been created just for this reason it was still difficult to see is own form laying on the ground with blood seeping from a hole in the middle of his forehead.
He watched as Mulder calmly spoke with Skinner and headed for his car. Mulder drove off and he watched as Skinner stared at the body and gave it a hard kick. Alex pulled out his gun and aimed it at Skinner in the exact place that Skinner had shot the clone at. His finger squeezed the trigger and then relaxed. He lowered his gun. He was free now. He was now essentially dead. He didn’t want to make people think that he might still be alive. He wanted to live his life quietly and with out looking over his shoulder.
He turned away and left. As he walked away he stopped by Skinner’s car and popped open the passenger’s side door. He left his gun laying on the passenger’s seat. He wouldn’t need that anymore. He was leaving Alex Krycek in the past. Alex Krycek was dead after all.
*****
Three Years Later
Fox Mulder drove into the town of Eagle Creek, Montana. It was a small town of mostly ranchers and mountain climbing guides. Nestled at the bottom of the Grand Teton Mountains it was quiet and peaceful.
He pulled his car into the parking lot of the General Store. His breath misted in the cold air and he pulled his jacket closer around him. He hurried up the stairs and into the warm store. The bell over the door clanged as he opened and shut the door.
“Lex? That you?” a voice called from the back of the store.
“I’m afraid not,” Mulder responded.
A middle aged man with graying hair came out of the back room. “Ah, sorry ‘bout that. I’m expecting a regular customer and I was hoping it wasn’t him. His order isn’t quite ready.”
“Good thing I’m not him, then.”
The man grinned at him. “Thomas Kirk. What can I do ya for?”
“Fox Mulder, please call me Mulder, I’d hate to have to kill you if you called me Fox.”
Thomas grinned at him. “I could see that. Call me Tom.”
“Got ya. I rented a cabin for the rest of the fall and winter, I’m not sure what I’m gonna need.”
“First thing you’re gonna need is a heavier jacket. Where you from?”
“Washington D.C.”
“Don’t get that cold back there does it?”
“It can get cold, but not this early in the season. Had any snow yet?”
“Yup. Got two inches last week. It was all melted three days later though, so it doesn’t really count. I can get you fixed up for a week and then order the rest of what ya need. Did you rent the Derr’s place?” Mulder nodded. “Okay then, you aren’t far enough away that you need to worry about having more than about a month stocked in at a time. You know how to use a snowmobile?”
“I’m afraid not.”
“Hmm. My advice is to find someone in town to teach you to use one. I know the Derr’s have one. Come winter you’re gonna need to know. We are a bit rural for the snowplows.” Tom looked out the window. “You got another vehicle other then that car?”
“No.”
“Okay, then you definitely need to learn to drive a snowmobile. That car will never get you down the road in the drifts that we get around here.”
The bell over the door clanged and they both looked up to see a well built blond man enter the store.
“Lex, you’re early. I don’t have your order complete yet,” Tom said to the man.
“That’s okay, Tom. I’m early. I have to go over to the sewing shop for Mary. She says she needs some needles. Why she needs more needles I’ll never know,” Lex grumbled.
“And you don’t wanna piss that woman off. They warned you before you married her, about what a temper she has,” Tom laughed.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just wanted to let you know I was in town. I’ll wanna get out of here and quick as possible once I’m done with that store.”
“My son’s working on the order now. It should be done by the time you get back.”
“Great. See you in a few.” Lex gave a nod to Mulder as he left the store.
“That was Alexander Vensek. He’ll be one of your closer neighbors. Dimitri Babin is your closest neighbor. A nice guy, but quiet. We hardly see him in town. Many of the girls in the town have taken a fancy to him. I think it’s mainly the mystery about him. He just showed up one fall. He doesn’t talk about where he’s from or what he did before he moved here. He’s independently wealthy or he’s got something he can do from his house.”
Mulder fought back a grin as he listened to Tom ramble on about the mystery man. This was one thing he had forgotten about small towns. The need for gossip. He followed Tom as he walked the aisles.
“I helped them stock the cabin for the winter for anyone that might be lost and might stumble upon the place. I went there two weeks ago to see if anything needs restocking so you shouldn’t need to take much with you this time.”
They were in the back of the store when the bell clanged again. “Your order should be out in just a few minutes, Lex,” Tom called out.
“It’s not Lex, Tom,” a low raspy voice called out. Mulder stiffened when he recognized the voice. He shook himself out of his shock. There was no way the person that, that voice belonged to, was Alex Krycek. He had seen Alex shot in the head three years ago, and saw it every night since then in his nightmares.
“Dimitri, you are a few days early. I’ll take me a few minutes to pull everything together,” Tom said heading towards the front of the store.
“That’s fine, Tom. I have an appointment with Dr. Parshall. I just wanted to give you a heads up that I was in town.”
“I’ll have your order ready for you then, Dimitri. You finally going to go see him about that arm?”
“Yeah, don’t know what he’s gonna tell me that the big city docs haven’t, but I might as well give him a try. At the very least he can give me something for the pain. I’m having trouble sleeping at night.”
“You know, you never had told us how you lost that arm,” Tom’s voice trailed off in invitation.
“And I’m never going to tell you.”
TBC
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