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“Mulder, has it occurred to you that kelpie mythology originates almost exclusively from Scotland and we’re in College Park? College Park, Mulder.”
The star of the University of Maryland men’s division I swim team was in serious condition after being found nearly drowned on the pool deck after an anonymous call to EMS in the wee hours of the morning. His grandfather, a senator, swore on his dear old mother’s grave that the mythical water horse of the lochs had finally come for his legacy, as family legend foretold. Senator McNamara may be ninety-two and known for falling asleep during committee hearings, but he could still pull the strings of power. And so it was that faster than an elderly politician could say “aquatic death omen” on live cable news, Skinner dispatched the FBI’s resident monster squad out to her old alma mater to investigate - discreetly if possible.
They'd been in bed - hers, this time - with nothing but plans to spend this fine summer Saturday exactly where they were when Mulder got the call. When her own phone went off with the same request, she'd been burrowed under the covers bargaining with him for fifteen more minutes. After bribing her with a stop at her favorite cafe on the way, Mulder cheerfully regaled her with tales of the kelpie and the selkie and the each-uisge and the nuggle on the drive up, and she dutifully rolled her eyes. There were worse ways to spend a Saturday morning.
“We’re a nation of immigrants, Scully, who’s to say the spirits our ancestors believed in didn’t hitch a ride? The esteemed senator seems to think so.”
She scoffed, “The esteemed senator still thinks RFK was a Communist.”
He grinned as they strode past the campus center, somehow both familiar and foreign with thirteen years of updates under its belt. She flashed on herself as a younger woman, bright and coltish and eager to impress. She looked over at him and imagined him loping casually through the Gothic halls of Oxford to the annoyance of the moneyed and ennobled.
He picked up on her contemplation. “Bringing back memories?” he asked as they approached the aquatic complex.
Scully nodded “A bit.” She gestured behind them, “I think I held my roommate’s hair while she vomited behind that tree once.”
His lips twitched in surprise, “Ooh, wild girl. Who knew physics geeks could party so hard.”
She smirked, “I didn’t say I vomited behind the tree.”
The center director met them at the door and anxiously answered their questions, showed them what little security footage he had of the entrances, and walked them out to the pool itself. The scent of chlorine was overpowering, and they had to strain to speak over the echoes of shouting and whistles as the team practiced, bodies cutting through the water like post-adolescent dolphins.
“Who was the last person to see Todd before he was found?” Scully asked.
The director gestured at the lanes, “As far as I know, rest of the team. They had practice that night. Let me get the head coach.”
She watched Mulder watch him as he ambled off toward one of the lanes. “I don’t see any hoof prints on the deck, do you?”
He gestured over to where the director was talking to a swimmer at the end of his lane as he hauled himself out of the water. “No, but you can’t tell me that guy is totally human.”
The man’s taut back rippled as he removed his goggles and pulled a towel around his shoulders, drying his face as he trailed the director back to where they stood. His broad torso tapered into a narrow waist, ridges of his iliac crest prominent as they dove into a skin-tight Speedo. Rivulets of water ran down his chiseled abdomen, pooling in his navel. She could use him to teach anatomy lessons. She knew Mulder swam on occasion but had never had the pleasure of watching him, and her mind conjured an image of him climbing out of the pool like this. Her cheeks flushed, but her thoughts were interrupted by the director’s return.
“Agents, this is the coach of the men’s swim team.” He stepped aside as the towel fell from the man’s face. “Marcus, these are agents Mulder and -”
“Dana? Dana Scully?” Marcus exclaimed.
Scully’s jaw dropped, and Mulder’s eyebrows furrowed. The barely-clothed man standing before her was Marcus Sanders. More specifically, her former high school boyfriend Marcus Sanders, twelfth grade love of her life. She hadn't seen or heard from him since graduation. Marcus had been on the swim team in high school, and he’d gone to college on a swim scholarship. Hadn’t he gone somewhere in California? And now here he was, dripping wet, nearly naked, and absolutely all grown up. The last time she'd even thought about Marcus wasn't something she liked to remember, the burning embarrassment of sharing her memories, and nearly more, with a predator wearing her partner's face. How badly she'd wanted it to be him. How scared and furious she was that she'd never get the chance. Things were so different now, so overwhelmingly, dizzyingly good.
She looked between Mulder and Marcus, but couldn’t read Mulder other than the barely perceptible twitch of his jaw. He was the picture of nonchalance when he asked, "You two know each other?"
She shook off her surprise. “Marcus and I went to high school together." She reached for her badge automatically. "Marcus, this is Agent Fox Mulder, we're investigating Todd McNamara's incident."
Mulder took Marcus' hand, shaking it enthusiastically with a tight smile as the director wandered back to his office. Marcus obliviously chattered on, flashing his perfect pearly whites in a jawline that had clearly long since healed its acne scars and dropped its baby fat. "'Went to high school together', come on, Dana, we dated! I had no idea you were in the area! It's great to see you, you look amazing! FBI, wow, I thought you were going to go to medical school?"
Mulder's eyes widened and his smile stretched into a terrifying rictus. She silently begged Marcus not to go in for a hug.
"I did. It's a long story," she demurred. "It's nice to see you, too. Can you tell us if there was anything unusual about the night Todd was found?"
Marcus' shoulders sagged a bit but he shook his head and wrapped the towel around his waist. "No. Practice ended at eight. Todd's a hell of an athlete, he swam great that night, seemed excited for the meet coming up. The entire team is, I really think we have a shot at the D1 championship this year. They're freaked out but they insisted we practice today, to not let him down. They hit the showers after we finished, I left around eight-thirty, and Todd and few others were talking in the locker room when I left. Nothing unusual - TV, girls, sports, whatever. I was shocked to hear what happened the next morning. Todd's kind of a loudmouth but he's a good guy."
"Had he been mouthing off to anyone in particular?"
Marcus shook his head, "I don't want to give that kind of impression. He's competitive, but my guys all get along pretty well. I can't see him pissing anyone off so bad they'd hurt him."
Mulder interjected, "Todd's grandfather expressed some concerns that whatever happened to Todd may have been supernatural in nature. Have you ever seen anything strange around the pool?"
Marcus looked skeptically at Scully. "The…the water demon thing? From CNN? Seriously?"
She kept her face as neutral as possible, briefly meeting Mulder's gaze. Did she remotely believe that a Scottish spirit horse out for revenge for what she was sure were the many ancient crimes of the wealthy McNamara family followed them to suburban Maryland to drown a jock kid? No, not in the slightest. But you just don't cast aspersions on your partner when your ex is standing there looking like a GQ cover. "The senator's asked the Justice Department to look into it with an…open mind." She would never, ever hear the end of this.
Marcus' eyes shifted between the two of them. "O…kay. Well, I've never seen anything like that. Kind of surprised anyone takes that kind of thing seriously."
Before either of them could respond, Mulder's cell phone rang and he stepped to the side to answer. After an awkward silence, Marcus stepped closer, touching her elbow, and said in a low voice, "Hey Dana, I know this isn't the right time, but…I'm sorry I never called or wrote. I know we were going different directions in life, but I still could have done better."
It surprised her that he'd even thought about her since then, and she softened. "It's OK, Marcus. It was nearly twenty years ago, we were kids. People grow apart."
"Yeah, well, I've realized a lot of things about myself since then. I'm trying to live as authentically as I can, and part of that means owning up to your mistakes."
She stilled a bit, very much hoping this wasn't going where she thought it was. "That's admirable."
Marcus glanced over at Mulder, still on the phone, giving him a good once over. "I'd prefer to ask this under better circumstances, but I have to say…"
She braced herself to let him down gently.
"…your partner's pretty good looking, is he single? Think he'd be interested?"
You could have knocked her over with a feather - though, thinking back to prom night, it made a hell of a lot of sense. Well, it goes to show that you never really know who someone will turn out to be when you're young. She smiled, "He's taken, actually."
Marcus shrugged but smiled, "Shame, they don't make many like that anymore."
She looked over her shoulder fondly at Mulder as he ended his call. "No, they don't."
At that moment Mulder walked up and touched her back, leveling his cool gaze at Marcus. "That was Skinner, Todd's alert and able to talk. We should go."
"Is he going to be OK?" Marcus asked.
"I didn't get a lot of details about his condition, but I think so. Scully?"
Fishing her business card out of her coat pocket, "We'll be in touch if we have any other questions, thank you for your help. You're right, it would be great to catch up some time. I'm glad you're doing well."
Marcus shook hands with them both, "Tell him we're thinking about him. Take care, Dana."
They made their exit out into the late morning sunlight, putting some distance behind them before Mulder admitted, "I didn't want to say anything in front of Marcus, but Todd told the detectives at the hospital that he and some of the team hid at the pool after closing to 'initiate' some of the freshmen. Apparently hazing is alive and well. He says he hit his head on a dive and the next thing he knew he was in the hospital. The others must have dragged him out, called 911, and ran." They dropped into their seats and Mulder turned the engine over, drumming his thumbs on the wheel.
"Did he say who?"
"Not a word. You have to admire the solidarity."
"I take it we're being recalled and not, in fact, going to interview Todd McNamara?" she inquired.
"We are officially off the case." He sighed, "I guess we won't be lassoing a kelpie today."
She patted his thigh, only half-patronizing. "Sorry, I know you had your hopes up."
Mulder fidgeted and kept looking over at her as they pulled out and navigated their way through the campus. After a minute he piped up, his voice cautiously level. "So, Marcus seems nice."
She raised her eyebrows. "Yeah, that was a surprise. He seems well. Shame his team dynamic is about to implode. I guess he doesn't know them as well as he thought."
"Oh come on, Scully, you could grate cheese on his abs. He seemed pretty excited to reconnect with you," he said with knowing emphasis.
Leveling her gaze at him. "Mulder."
He shrugged non-nonchalantly. "All I'm saying is, you could do worse."
At that moment the pulled up to a stoplight. She leaned over the console, grabbed his face in both of her hands and pulled it to hers. His plush lips opened to hers, and she kissed him deeply, teasingly, determined to erase whatever thoughts of inadequacy his mind may have conjured. She pulled back, met his burning eyes, and sat back. "I think I'm doing just fine. Green light."
She swiped some lipstick off of his lower lip as he shook himself back to the present. A smile split his face like a sunrise as he accelerated.
Waggling her own eyebrows at him, "Besides, I'm pretty sure he'd rather have your card than mine. He thought you were pretty hot. I might have to start marking my territory."
A grin crept onto her face as she watched him realize her meaning. He laughed, and made a show of changing lanes.
"Where on Earth are you going?"
"Back to the pool," he exclaimed, "He looks like a fun date. Think he'll take me somewhere nice?"
She snorted and pulled one of his hands off of the wheel to lace his fingers with hers. They shared a tender look before he turned back to the road. With a squeeze, she said "Mulder, shut up and take us home. But maybe pick up your Speedo on the way."