Plus Ça Change

by Fides

Summary:

Alex goes to Cardiff after the Brit's death to meet some of the Brit's contacts.

Notes:

• Translation into Русский available: Как ни крути by Kollega

Slight spoilers for first six series of X-Files.

The note was waiting for Mulder when he returned home. He had come from seeing Scully in the hospital and on top of his guilt each word hit him like a bullet to his skull: "The rat has found a hole in Cardiff". He could almost smell the cigarette smoke on the paper. Antarctica suddenly seemed like a paradise.

~~~~

"And this," Captain Jack Harkness completed the introductions, "is Alex Krycek."

Alex looked around the room assessing everyone in the light of the scant information he had managed to discover about them:

Owen Harper; London wide boy with a medical degree, a chip on his shoulder and his brain located south of his waistband. Probably did well enough for himself through sheer chutzpah and repetition, and when he didn't blamed the women for being frigid bitches. He would fight dirty, but Alex wasn't concerned about that; he could fight dirtier. Still, if anyone did, Owen knew all the low-life dealers and two-bit hoods in the area so he was worth cultivating, plus it always paid to be friendly with the docs, there was always the chance that they would hesitate to make you an experiment if they thought of you as human.

Toshiko, Tosh, Sato; attractive in a geeky kind of way, obviously intelligent. Alex could only imagine how much Mulder's Gunman buddies would cream themselves over her and it wasn't a pretty thought. She seemed to fade into the background in the wake of all the loud personalities around her. He could probably win her over just by listening to her about her work for a few hours and taking her seriously. But it wouldn't do to underestimate her; in Alex's experience it was the quiet ones that you took your eye off who slid the knife into your back

Gwen Cooper; so nice Alex wanted to shoot her. She didn't look at his fake arm with an empathy that made his teeth ache. She stared at him with such wide, innocent eyes that Alex knew she would be horrified if she knew what he had done. She was their Mulder, bleeding with every victim and dying with every loss. It was a weakness, but Alex couldn't bring himself to deny that it could also be a strength if used correctly. Gwen he could use, she would feel sorry for him, underestimate him and excuse him right up until a moment past too late. He looked up at her through carefully lowered lashes and caught her blush. Owen bristled and Krycek noted the reaction for future dealings.

Finally, the Captain himself. Captain of what, Alex wondered. One was obviously supposed to think Air Force due to the uniform but the RAF didn't have the rank of Captain. Even assuming it was just a shortening of Group Captain, Alex had checked and there hadn't been any Jack Harknesses in the Royal Air Force since the Second World War. Nor was there an unaccounted for 'Captain Harkness', named Jack or otherwise, in any recognised military that he could find records for. Which meant either the information had been hidden... or the Captain was just making it up. Whatever else he was, Alex had to admit the man was attractive and charismatic, despite the strange period military fetish. However, under the light flirtation Alex could see a hardness he recognised only too well. One player knew another no matter how sugar-coated. Alex had been dealing with both the KGB and Smokey and his old boys' club for years, he could handle a con man leading a two-bit outfit no one had heard of in a soggy wannabe country.

That was Torchwood Three. The world was doomed.

Four pairs of eyes, two male, two female regarded Alex with a mixture of interest, appreciation and hostility. Alex was used to that. He was slightly surprised by quite how blatantly the two men were checking him out, although with a fair measure of animosity in the case of the doctor. Wide boy obviously didn't like his girlfriend, ex, potential shag, whatever-she-was giving other guys the eye. Alex considered playing up to the interest versus playing the tough guy. Being underestimated was good, but so was being taken seriously. He let his body sag into a provocative slouch, right hand high on his thigh and fingers curling inwards, the dead weight of his left hanging back at his side, tightening the line of his body and pulling his leather jacket further open. His gun would be clearly visible and Alex amused himself watching the combined gaze of his audience flick between his crotch and his holster. Only Jack looked him in the eyes and smiled. It wasn't an unfriendly smile, but it was much too knowing for Alex's peace of mind.

He was almost relieved when the door to the meeting room opened in a waft of coffee. Almost. Alex tried not to squirm as it really didn't go with the image he was trying to project. He hadn't been able to face coffee since the silo. He always had this nagging worry that it would start crawling out of the cup towards him. He was probably the only person whose pulse got a jumpstart from an espresso before they started drinking it. At least the appearance of refreshments had taken the focus off him slightly.

The tray of drinks was brought in by the man who had let him into the compound earlier. The suit that had looked a trifle out of place in the dingy tourist office, now leant a little class to what was obviously a menial role. File the paperwork, get the coffee... Alex knew how that went. He wondered if the man was even allowed to stay for the meetings or if he had memos about stationary misuse he had to go type. Still he was young and probably ambitious, looked good in the suit he had chosen... Alex could work with that. Most people didn't realise how much information an efficient secretary could get access to if they had reason and Alex was very good at coming up with convincing reasons.

Owen looked down at his cup and then at the young man in confusion.

"Oi - what's this?"

Coffee-boy gave the dissenter a look which Alex thought eloquently conveyed the fact that the man knew much more about hot beverages that Owen did. Well, if you made the coffee in a place like this then, Alex supposed, you would get imperious over the little things.

"Coffee, Owen."

"It doesn't look like coffee," Owen complained.

Alex took his with slight trepidation and a smile of thanks. Owen was right, it didn't have that normal 'I want to take over the world but you first' look about it that had driven him from ever visiting Starbucks again.

"I thought I would try something a little different. It's an Arabian blonde roast. I can take it back if..."

"No." Owen clung to his cup as if it was going to be taken from him by force.

"So what did you do in America, Alex?" Gwen, and it would, Alex realised, always be her who asked those type of questions, enquired as she passed the cookies across. She had a latte and a line of foam on her top lip.

He prepared his 'FBI' undercover agent response, it always got the bleeding heart ones and it confused the issue nicely if anyone checked up on him. He leant forward to take the offered plate and tried to look his most sincere and believable. He smiled and was pleased to see her automatically mirror the gesture. Almost too easy. He'd be running the place in a month.

"Mr Krycek specialised in information, gathering and hiding." Everyone turned to look at the young man as he placed the penultimate cup in front of Tosh. "In this capacity he was also employed for what is euphemistically called 'wet work'." He caught Krycek's surprised look and addressed him directly "Your previous employer was kind enough to forward us your file." He put the final cup down and, tray by his side, inclined his head slightly in introduction. "Ianto Jones."

"Ianto keeps us fed, cleans up after us and gets us where we need to go." The Captain's smirk suggested coffee was not the only thing Ianto could serve steaming hot. As he moved to the head of the table to stand by Jack, Ianto bent down and whispered something in Gwen's ear. She quickly rubbed the froth from her expression which had all the shock, horror and fascination that Alex had expected.

Alex dismissed her and mentally translated the information he had just been given: logistics and security. And sleeping with the boss so not much chance of turning him without seducing him away from Captain America. Shit. As if he hadn't spent years with the mirror to remind him you couldn't trust the young, pretty ones. They had something to prove after all.

The coffee was good. Almost good enough to provide a distraction from the file that Ianto had slipped from under the tray to in front of the Captain. Was that his file, Alex wondered; it looked thick enough. Or was it just the blood-caffeine levels of the staff for the last quarter? From what Alex had seen so far, that document could easily be the size of the file in question. Jack nodded at whatever Ianto had pointed out to him. Alex assumed it was standard posturing so took the opportunity to enjoy his drink. As the final cup had been placed on the table in an empty place it didn't come as a surprise to Alex when Ianto took the seat by it.

"So," the Captain prompted, "why don't you tell us about what has been happening?" His eyes crinkled in amused challenge as he took a sip of his coffee.

Alex suddenly found himself the focus of everyone's expectant attention. He could do this. He smiled at the waiting room and tried to decide where to begin.

~~~

"That," Alex concluded, "is the situation." Or at least as much of it as he was prepared to share. He had laid out most of what he knew, about the plans for colonisation, the alien groups, the conspiracies and experiments. It felt strange talking about it out loud without any euphamisms and double-talk, but the Brit had left him with a set of very unequivocal instructions, along with enough funds to buy a small island until the world ended. Unfortunately that event was not particularly far away unless someone did something about it, and the fact that he couldn't hope to stop it on his own was a much more convincing argument than any the old man had mustered. Somehow he had expected more than attentive interest from his audience. Everyone was nodding at the right time and no one had that 'are you insane' look that Mulder seemed to specialise in bringing out in people, especially when he insisted on telling them worryingly similar information to that which Alex had just laid out.

Owen looked bored. Gwen looked surprised but Alex was beginning to suspect that was a semi-permanent state. It was mildly reassuring that Tosh and Ianto seemed to be taking notes. Not that Alex was totally convinced that Tosh wasn't working on some other pet project on her handheld computer under guise of paying attention. The Captain, at least, had gone from suspicious to concerned. It had probably helped that, while Alex had missed a few details out, he hadn't actually outright lied.

"What was UNIT's take on the matter?" the Captain asked into the silence.

"UNIT?" Alex wracked his brains but he couldn't think of any Consortium project or source with those initials.

"United Nations Intelligence Task force," the Captain elaborated. "A bit stuffy but investigating, monitoring and fighting extra-terrestrial threats is their excuse for trying to head-hunt my people. And they do look good in uniform."

Alex stared at him, lost. Owen didn't bother to hide his smirk.

Ianto coughed discreetly, drawing everyone's attention to him. "The American authorities refused to acknowledge the existence or the jurisdiction of any UN mandated force or their precedence in first contact situations."

"The Russians?" Krycek croaked.

"Ianto?" Jack prompted.

"Cold war mentality. They and the Americans got into something before UNIT was officially formed and they both dug in. Torchwood had a guy on the inside of the Americans." Ianto nodded towards Alex and Alex realised he meant his erstwhile employer. "I assume UNIT have as well. I can't comment on UNIT but we were hardly going to feed them information if they weren't going to play ball with us. Torchwood kept an eye on any information and technology they retrieved but they were so far behind our own research that official Torchwood policy was just to let both them and the Russian get on with their little intrigue and not interfere."

Alex looked back and forth between them trying to work out if this was an elaborate con and what they could hope to gain by it.

"Tosh," the Captain requested, "can you bring up the details on the Thosove of Quitelis 3?"

A few flicks of her stylus and the main screen flicked to life, an all too familiar profile laid out on it. Alex swallowed. The pictures moved and flowed in a way that made his skin crawl. No one needed to ask if he recognised anything on the screen. Another gesture and the screen reverted to its former state. Forcing his eyes away from the swirling logo, Alex saw Tosh looking at him. She gave him a little nod which he returned. There was no pity in her gaze and he appreciated that almost more than what she had done.

"They had a civil war a century or so ago," the Captain said quietly. "They spent a few decades changing governments and executing the old regimes as enemies of the people before things settled. Some of the more enlightened governments sentenced those who had fallen from favour to exile rather than death."

"They came here?" Alex deduced.

"Bringing their allies and politics with them. That would be my guess. We can check their current status but I'm thinking the group that your Consortium are dealing with are an ousted faction acting independently, possibly trying to create a power base to stage a revolution back home. But, whoever they are, they are in breach of a couple of fairly important intergalactic treaties. We can pass the details on to UNIT, let them earn their wages for once." The Captain looked around the table. "Anyone else have any comments?"

Tosh waved a pointer and a bewildering array of biological data appeared on the screen. "If we can get an analysis of the vaccine that the Russians were developing then we can run it against the information we have on their genetics and physiology. We have information on effective weaponry but it might be interesting to compare..."

Alex felt adrift. The voices around him kept going but the words faded from his understanding, as if they weren't real. It was all for nothing. He had sacrificed everything: his arm, his morality, any hope of a normal life and considered it worth the price because he was fighting for a cause he believed in. So, that cause had, at its heart, been about his own survival and his survival as an independent entity. However, not having, Oilians, or whatever they were called, oozing around and taking over people or using them as incubators was in the best interest of the rest of the world as well as his own. It was all a lie. It wasn't as if he hadn't known the old men with their cover-ups and denials were less than the epitome of truth, he had done his share of obfuscating and misdirecting at their request, but even they had been a fallacy. All those years with the threat of extra-terrestrial invasion hanging over them. All that pain. All that death. All the sacrifices for the greater good. And all along they had just needed to get their collective heads out of their butts and stop thinking they knew better than the rest of the damn world.

A triple whisky appeared in his good hand and he drank it without thought or feeling. The burn of the alcohol was nothing compared to the acid corroding his throat or nausea in his stomach. The glass was refilled and the contents followed the first just as swiftly. He had just enough time to think 'something is wrong' when the dizzy feeling hit. He thought he heard a London accent ask, "Was that really necessary?" and a Welsh one reply, "In my opinion," before darkness claimed him. He hoped they stopped discussing the details long enough to put him to bed as the warm American voice rumbled that they should, but he couldn't really find it in himself to care.

~~~

Alex woke up to hissed voices arguing.

"We shouldn't have just done it." Welsh, female... Gwen, he thought woozily. A few more details came back but they didn't bring the expected hangover with them. It hadn't been just alcohol in his glass he realised. He wondered if he just kept his eyes shut whether he could avoid having to deal with this new reality that had been forced on him.

"What?" Owen, voice as soft and smooth as a concrete pillow. "You think he wouldn't want it done?"

Alex wondered vaguely what they had done and to whom.

"We still should have asked," Gwen insisted. "You just wanted to test that machine."

Tests. Alex knew about those. Apparently Torchwood wasn't so different from the Consortium after all. Maybe Torchwood was the lie. Maybe the Smoker had caught up with him and with was all a hallucination designed to break him. Somehow that was actually a comforting thought. He knew how to deal with that.

"I get to give it its first field trial," Owen agreed. "He gets to jerk off and channel surf at the same time. It's what is known as a win-win situation."

It slowly dawned on Alex that Gwen had been holding his hand while he had been sleeping off whatever drug they had slipped him. She was holding his left hand. They were talking about him. Alex decided unconscious was a good state to be.

~~~

The drug-induced hallucination scenario was either a lot more sophisticated than Alex expected, not to mention weirder, or everything they had told him was true. Ianto had set him up with a computer account but Alex knew better than to trust files he was being given access to. His attempts at hacking the computers had just resulted in a memo that could he please not do that. He had done better in his private investigations, carried out in the small hours from his hotel room. He hadn't been able to find much but what he had been able to track down confirmed everything that the Captain had said. But it would. The weevils had been fairly conclusive, Alex had to admit, or would have been if Alex hadn't seen pictures of the types of deformities that had resulted from some of the Consortiums experiments. The arm, that was just wish-fulfillment, an incentive to believe what he was being fed. It was the pteranodon that finally convinced him. There was no logical reason for the beast. You screw with someone's head you don't put in things that made no sense.

Of course, even without any ulterior motivation the arm was, Alex found, a bit of a mind-fuck. For the most part it just worked, although he had a tendency to forget it was there and then be surprised when it suddenly joined in proceedings. He had mentioned this to Owen when the doctor had checked him out but the response had been a set of physio exercises to do and a suggestion that he make the most of having a 'stranger' hand while the feeling lasted. Alex concluded from that, that Owen might have received a medical degree but it definitely hadn't been in psychology. He'd also discovered that Jack responded to his making his opinion known to Owen by calling out that throttling the staff was his job. Alex had been pleased to find that his new arm could do some things just as well as the original. The money changing hands as soon as Jack had wandered off had been a little weird but for some reason after that morning everyone had just accepted him as part of the team.

Alex had been sitting around the hub staring at his hand and counting off the days he had had it on its, his, fingers when the Captain had suggested a trip to the firing range. He'd been shown it in passing but when he had asked to use it he'd been told that the Captain would have to certify him first. Apparently FBI accreditation, lapsed admittedly, and his years as a Consortium operative didn't count for very much. Still, he could understand a leader wanting to know about the capability of his troops.

The Captain didn't say much when they arrived. Just waved to the tables that had arrays of hand guns and watched carefully as Alex examined each and every one. He had his own preferences, but it was always worth checking out the alternatives and the Torchwood Three armoury, or what he was being shown of it, certainly had an impressive range of options.

Initially they shot side by side. Alex was pleased to see he had the edge with his own piece, but then he had practically, and occasionally literally, slept with it for the last year. When he tried a few of the other makes, Jack, and somehow over the bonding stimulation of hot metal and gunpowder the Captain had become Jack, had beaten him two times out of three. It was worse when, at Jack's suggestion, they switched to their off hands.

"Damn!" Alex muttered as he once again failed to so much as clip the black let alone the bull.

"Would you mind a little advice?" Jack asked. His grouping Alex had noticed was only a hair worse than it had been with his preferred hand.

There was only one answer to that. "Less than I would mind getting shot."

"I think your problem," Jack put the gun he been using down and slid behind him, copying his stance, "is that you are over-thinking it."

Alex tightened his grip on his own gun, concentrating on the feel of the moulded handle under his palm and the reassurance of the safety as he checked it. Anything to distract from the warm presence so close behind him. Jack's hands slipped over his hips, pulling him gently into position. Concentrate on the target Alex told himself. Don't push back. And, for the sake of what little dignity you have, don't rub yourself against him. Jack's hands ran over his arms, guiding his gun hand into position.

"Just relax," Jack told him, his breath tickling Alex's ear. "You're fighting your own instincts"

At that moment, Alex's instinct was to push Jack against the wall and see if all the stories he had heard since he had arrived were true, so he couldn't argue with that assessment.

"Shut your eyes," Jack whispered. "Just be in the moment. Breathe..."

Alex did his beast to visualise the concentric rings of the mark but the only thing he was interested in hitting was standing behind him giving him instructions. Breathing was a good idea. That at least he could do. Echoing Jack's long slow breaths until their chests rose and fell in sync. It was that or letting his breath speed up with his heartbeat until he was panting.

"And sight the target..."

Alex opened his eyes slowly, glaring at the outline of the weevil that was charging unmoving at him. He sought the bull's eye and drew a bead on it. The gun bobbed slightly with their slow, shared breath.

"When you are ready," Jack's voice spun out the moment, "pause..." he held the breath for a second longer than normal and Alex found himself copying the gesture without thought, "and then increase the pressure on the trigger slowly."

Alex forced his attention to narrow on the target. There was nothing in the world except him and the bull and the air being drawn in and out of his lungs by the man pressed hard behind him. His thumb caressed the safety, sliding it across the stock to the point of danger. He was primed, ready...

He had to stop himself jumping as the sound of the shot reverberated around the range. He hadn't flinched from a shot since he had taken Duane Barry down and he wasn't about to start again. It was easy to relax again, use Jack's body as a mould which he could use to return to his prior state. He squeezed off the remaining shots, braced against his own reactions. When the last round buried itself in the wall intended to receive the load Jack, to Alex's disappointment, released him.

With a touch of a button the target trundled closer.

"Not a bad grouping," Jack congratulated.

"I've done better," Alex grumbled, but he had to admit it was better than his other attempts with his new hand.

"A bit more practice," Jack assured him, "and you'll do better again. You just need..." He moved close again and Alex wondered if Jack did, in fact, know exactly what he needed, "...to go with the flow rather than try and force it. Try with two weapons."

Alex weighed up his options and bent forward to pick up the gun that matched the one in his left hand. Jack passed him forward two new clips. Neither moved away from the other.

"You'll need a squarer stance," Jack reminded Alex unnecessarily.

This time when Jack's hands helped him find his position, Alex gave in to the desire to press back against him. Just a little. The recoil of the guns vibrated through them both. Twin holes drilling through the invading paper monsters with each double explosion. The adrenaline buzzed through his body, the seductive joy of controlling deadly weapons unadulterated by anyone actually trying to kill him. The blood raced in his veins in an exuberant dance as he lost himself in the staccato beat of firearm discharge.

"Feel good?" Jack asked when Alex had finished. Alex suspected the manic gleam in his eyes probably answered that question well enough. He didn't need to look at the targets, each shot had felt right as his body responded. Left, right, together. It hadn't mattered. He felt whole again for the first time since Russia.

"Feels great," Alex agreed, turning his head to face Jack. Jack's eyes were dark even in the bright lights of the range. Nice to see he wasn't the only one enjoying the experience. Instinctively he licked his lips and watched Jack's gaze drop as he caught and followed the motion. They stood, motionless, faces so close that their breath kissed. Alex wanted to lean into that invitation, ground himself in this new existence that Jack had laid out for him. Normally he wouldn't care, seeing the path forward he would take it and deal with the consequences when they arose, but this wasn't normally. If he hadn't thought about how best to seduce his way into favour, hadn't made plans, even the hypothetical ones that always skittered around his head, and backup plans about how to worm his way between Jack and Ianto and use their relationship against them, then he wouldn't have cared. But for once he needed to make clear, even if it was only to himself, that that wasn't why anything that happened, happened.

"I thought you and the coffee wizard had something going on," he forced out and, oh, those words hurt. "Won't he have something to say about this?"

Jack laughed, his breath tickling Alex's face. "We could ask him. Ianto?"

Krycek swore at his own stupidity and stepped away from the other man. Jack hadn't even raised his voice. A distinctly Welsh voice sounded in the room confirming Alex's suspicions.

"Owen is up to his armpits in an autopsy and the girls have headed out for lunch. I believe they were planning a quick trip to a new shop Gwen has discovered so I don't expect them to hurry back. You probably have a hour and a half before anyone notices your absence."

"Thanks, Could you cut the audio and video feeds from the range for the next hour."

"Certainly, Sir." Ianto agreed as if there was nothing abnormal about the request.

"Ianto." Jack eyed Alex as he spoke and Alex wondered why until he saw the smile. From nowhere, Alex found he still had the ability to blush. Annoyed at his own response he stalked over to the far table of guns and checked and replaced the weapons he had been holding with more thoroughness than he needed. It had been a while but it hadn't been that long, damn it.

"Sir?" Ianto's voice hovered somewhere between deference and cheek.

"*All* the cameras," Jack instructed carefully. "Do you want the authorisation code?"

"That won't be necessary, Sir." That had definitely shaded more toward cheek than deference, Alex thought. "I should inform you that you have been on limited surveillance for the last forty-five minutes. I thought Mr Krycek might prefer a bit of privacy for this initial session. The remaining cameras and the audio will develop a temporary system failure in approximately two minutes. I'll let you know if any of the others start looking for you." There was a slight crackle as the intercom clicked off.

Jack looked across at Alex and smiled. "I don't think he minds."

Alex growled low in his throat; shoving the gun he was still holding onto the table he stalked forwards. Jack backed away slowly, playing the game.

"We have two minutes until the cameras go off," Jack reminded him.

Alex didn't slow. "Do you care?"

Jack's wide grin answered that question. They hit the wall hard but neither of them noticed. Jack's mouth was hot and welcoming under his as Alex ground them together. All Alex's confusion and frustration of the last few days fuelled the kiss and were burned off in its heat. Alex groaned in relief as the world dissolved away except for the two of them. Jack was a solid mass against him, unyielding to anything except Alex's demands to touch and be touched. Against his assault Jack met him, kiss for kiss, shove for shove and need for need. Challenging Alex and pushing them both to greater exertion.

Alex's erection fought his jeans for space, reminding him when he had forgotten that there could be more than mutual dry humping. Pressed against his hip, he could feel a hardness that mirrored his own, less constrained but, Alex suspected, no less desirous of freedom. He reached for it, squeezing through the material of Jack's trousers with the roughness of intent. As if that was the signal they had both been waiting for, four hands scrabbled at clothing, zips and buttons giving finally under the uncoordinated attack. Alex hissed as Jack nipped at his neck but tilted his head back for more.

He was crushing Jack against the brickwork, both their pants shoved down to their thighs, but Jack was pulling him closer still, his hand wrapping around both their cocks stroking them with a teasing slowness that counterpointed their frenzy. Alex whined, torn between shock at himself for making the noise and desperation for more. He pumped his hips forward into the tight grip, finding the rhythm that would drive him insane faster than Mulder with an idea between his teeth. Teeth... Jack's teeth scraped against the soft skin of Alex's neck but the kiss he placed on the spot was gentle. Alex caught Jack's head and pulled him back into a deep kiss, thrusting his tongue into Jack's mouth in time with the hard, uncompromising stroke of their cocks. Jack sucked at his tongue and Alex froze as his control hovered on a knife edge.

"Yes," he hissed into Jack's mouth. "Yes."

They paused for a moment, bodies stilled as they found some restraint in a shared, panting kiss. Jack slid to his knees, forcing Alex half a step back to allow space for him between Alex and the wall. Alex followed the movements with his hands, still resting on Jack's head from the kiss. Some of the urgency had ebbed with the shift from quick and rough to something more. Alex's breath caught in his throat, not wanting to leave the paradise that Alex's body became as Jack took Alex deep into his mouth.

"Yes," Alex breathed. There were no other words in his vocabulary, no other thoughts beyond 'yes', echoing into the forever of the moment.

Alex was more than happy to let Jack set the pace. Hot, wet suction teased his existence down to his cock. The flutter of Jack's tongue tingling along nerves sensitised by their rough treatment earlier. He tangled his fingers in the thick hair. Too dark for Mulder but the strands felt so similar as they twined around his hands. Short back and sides but longer on top, and Mulder said he had a stupid-ass haircut. But, God, he didn't care. Didn't care about anything except how damn good it felt with Jack's lips wrapped around his dick. Colonisation could start, the world could drown in an ocean of black oil... just as long as that wonderful sensation didn't end.

There is a God Alex thought vaguely and he is right here in front of me. All he needs to do is come back from the dead; I'll start the damn church.

Alex wasn't totally convinced that he didn't start praying when Jack's hands slid up past the bunched material of his jeans to his bared thighs and then up, further, to cup his balls. The warm fingers gently lifted and rolled the heavy sacs, clasping them with a pressure that made him gasp and want to beg for more. Long fingers explored further, stroking over his perineum in time with the movement of Jack's mouth along his erection. The slight tug on his balls with each stroke encouraged him to thrust forwards even as he wanted to move away to feel the pull harder. Alex whimpered as Jack began to speed up.

Alex needed to come. He could feel the need building in the pit of his stomach, a coil of heat that wrapped itself around his spine and climbed every nerve until it reached the basest part of his brain and started giving orders. Unable to stop himself and reacting to Jack's urgings he thrust forwards, again and again. For a moment Jack's finger's slipped even further back, rubbing over the entrance to Alex's body. The commanding voice was silenced as a new desire crystallised in Alex's mind.

"Wait," Alex rasped. He was insane to want this to stop but sometimes you had to make sacrifices for a greater goal. He looked down into the face of his madness. Jack's lips were full and damp from the blow-job. He wanted to kiss them, to feel their softness against his own mouth, to fuck them and take up the invitation they seemed to make. But while it was enough, it wasn't. He wanted to let go. To give up control and responsibility and himself. It had been so long. Too long. When was the last time... Mulder, two, no, three mind-wipes ago. They'd only had time to exchange blows and blow-jobs the last time and only a brief kiss the time before that.

"Fuck me." He meant it as a demand but it slipped from his mouth as a plea. "But first kiss me." That was a plea and he didn't care. He couldn't look at those slick lips without feeling them somehow. Jack took pity on him, rising to his feet with a grace Alex could only envy in his own clumsy state. The kiss was too short but it was what Jack chose to give him and that was enough.

"Hands on the table," Jack ordered.

Alex moved to obey instantly, or as instantly as he could manage hobbled by his jeans.

Jack's hands ran over Alex's body in a slow parody of patting him down.

"Well now *Mister* Krycek." Jack's hand curved around Alex's erection and stroked once. "Do you have a licence for that?"

Alex shook his head numbly. Lines from half of Mulder's bad porn movies ran through his mind but talking seemed too much effort. He pushed into Jack's hand instead. Jack chuckled but smothered the sound against Alex's skin, kissing and licking where his T-shirt could be pushed aside to reveal the point where neck and shoulder joined. Slick fingers pushed gently into his body and he arched into the invasion. He really hoped that whatever Jack was using was sanitary but as long as it worked he was willing to worry about it later. Something that might have been 'yes' or might have been 'please' but was both encompassed in a meaningless sound fell from his lips. Alex could hear the traditional rustle of a condom being opened and applied and nearly cheered. He started in surprise when he heard Jack open a second and reach around to roll it, one-handed, over Alex's cock.

"You guys really believe in safe sex, huh?" Alex panted, bemused, as those wonderful fingers of Jack's other hand twisted inside him promising more.

"You want to wait while we clear the guns off the table?" Jack inquired, voice tight with impatience. "Ianto might not mind me fucking other people but if I make that mistake again then I might as well move to an ice planet."

The fingers were removed and Alex couldn't help the chuff of laughter that slipped out. "You are so whipped."

"Only," Jack whispered in his ear, "if I ask nicely."

Alex's only audible response was something along the lines of 'Gnnnggg'. Everything else was lost when Jack's cock, finally, breached his body. Alex was sure he wouldn't be able to remember what the sex was like afterwards. Jack had started slow enough, letting him adjust and find his level of comfort. As Alex could have told him if he had thought of it, his level of comfort right at that moment was 'fucked blind' and soon all restraint gave way to hard and fast. Alex gripped the table, convinced it was the only thing keeping him semi-upright and half-terrified it would collapse and Jack would stop. He had ceased being grateful for having both arms to support him somewhere around the tenth devastating thrust, reserving all his gratitude for more important things like the fact Jack seemed to be able to read his mind when it came to things like increasing tempo and force. He didn't know how long it took before the sheer power and exuberance whited out every nerve in his body in the EMP explosion which had apparently replaced his orgasm, but that wasn't a problem because time had long ceased to have meaning.

As he came back to himself, Alex was slightly relieved to find that even blissed out his body had enough instinct to keep pushing into Jack's thrusts rather than leaving the poor bastard hanging for the third time. Alex liked to think he wasn't a particularly selfish lover but since they kept mind-wiping his most regular shag it was a bit hard to tell. Mulder always thought he was wonderful because he couldn't recall all the times they had done it before. Still, even when he wasn't playing a game it was a bad plan to alienate your boss by being a lousy lay. With that and a fair helping of good will to all men, especially those who gave him earth-shattering orgasms, Alex set about trying to make sure Jack's ending was just as happy.

When it was over they leaned together, Alex supporting them both in a sweaty heap, and just let the moment last. Finally, with one last kiss at the available skin of his neck, Jack disengaged. Without speaking, both men removed their condoms and rearranged their clothing. But for a few telltale hints, that could be easily disposed off, no one would be able to tell what they had been doing. Still, Alex found that the situation bothered him. It wasn't the sex, he'd never made any promises to Mulder, there was no point when the man wouldn't remember them anyway, and he certainly had no complaints as to performance. It just disturbed him that these people, who incidentally he was beginning to like despite himself, had all this amazing technology and if he had been trying to pull a job he had just been handed the perfect opportunity for mayhem. The array of guns, including his own loaded piece, lay on the table in front of him like a double-cross waiting to happen.

"Jack," Alex warned, "you shouldn't let your guard down like that. Not that I didn't have a good time but with all these weapons around..." Alex scooped his gun up as he spoke, letting the familiar feeling of the weight in his hand give him the distance he needed. This was for their own benefit after all. The next person might not be as well intentioned as he was. "All I'd need to do..."

Alex let his thumb brush the safety as he brought the barrel around and sighted between the blue of Jack's eyes.

*BANG*

Alex jumped and whirled, aiming even as he turned to face the threat. Ianto was calmly watching him, gun trained directly at him. Forcing himself to calm down, Alex looked down the range to where Ianto's shot had gone. A dark hole disfigured the target, kissing the left side of the bulls eye. He looked back as Ianto tutted.

"I'm still pulling the shot slightly."

Jack grinned at him. "You obviously need to get in a bit more practice. You might hit Owen somewhere vital next time."

Alex lowered his gun and looked between them. They were both clearly insane.

"That was stupid." He hissed as he took an angry step towards Ianto. "I could have shot him by accident!"

Ianto's grip firmed on the gun, a worried but determined look on his face. "It was an acceptable risk."

The snick of Jack's gun behind him stopped Alex in his tracks and he let himself be disarmed. He didn't think Jack would kill him but he also knew that a hot and dirty fuck amounted to nothing when it came to Jack's team.

"Ianto knew I wasn't in any danger," Jack told him. He could hear Jack's gun being un-cocked and put away. Instead of the muzzle at his head, Alex felt Jack's hands on his shoulders, calming him. "He could see the safety was on and your finger wasn't on the trigger."

Alex could almost see the look that passed between the two men over his shoulder. Ianto nodded, confirming what Jack was saying. Alex wasn't sure he believed it, but there was something about Torchwood Three and the crazy people who worked there that reassured him even as it scared the crap out of him.

"You were there the entire time?" Alex asked Ianto. He wanted to be angry but the lethargy of a good fuck was leaching it from him. He'd used up all his energy and objectivity when he pulled the gun on Jack.

"Standard protocol for when there's no digital surveillance. As you pointed out, this is a room where you don't want to lose track of things or people." Ianto holstered the gun he had been holding and looked between Alex and Jack "If there is nothing else I'll restore the systems; I have something that needs my attention in the archives."

"I swear you keep a stack of dirty magazines down there." Although Alex couldn't see it, the leer was clear in Jack's voice.

"Now you know that isn't true, Sir. You and Owen have searched so hard one might get the impression you were searching for something that didn't exist."

"Ianto?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Leave the cameras on."

Ianto's almost convincingly innocent, "I didn't know you found filing so interesting, Sir," drifted back to them. Alex gave in to the madness and laughed along with Jack even as he made a mental note to try and hack into the security system. He had always worked on the principle that if you couldn't beat them, join them, at least until you could beat them, and he couldn't think of a better exception to prove the rule.

~~~~

"We've had a report of Weevils," Jack announced as he strode into the main area of the hub. Alex was reluctantly impressed by the way that everyone immediately dropped what they were doing and shifted into alert mode.

"Here--" Jack threw a canister at him and Alex caught it in surprise. "Or didn't you want to come?"

Alex grabbed his leather jacket from the back of the chair and followed the others to the SUV.

"Headset," Tosh called, shoving one at him as she hustled him into the vehicle. He stuck it in his ear and was immediately inundated with a list of directions from Ianto which he assumed were for Jack who was driving. Tosh had a computer booted before they had finished pulling out of the car park and was co-ordinating with both Ianto and Jack.

"What's this?" Alex waved the canister at Gwen who was the closest person to him not otherwise occupied.

"Weevil spray," she told him.

"Doesn't effect humans," Owen interrupted from the front passenger seat, "but will cause most weevils a few moments of intense pain and while they are distracted you cuff them with this..." Owen passed him some metal tape. "Weevil-clamps - slap it around a limb and you have insta-cuffs. The spray doesn't work with all of them. We aren't sure why. If it doesn't work don't go hand to hand with it. I have enough to do without adding your postmortem to the list. If you can, hit it with something heavy; failing that shoot it."

"What happens then?" Alex asked breathlessly, the excitement of the chase already beginning to get to him. He wasn't the only one, he noticed. All around him eyes were bright with adrenaline and tension thrummed through the car.

"Then we call for a pick up and take everything back to base. The live ones we add to the zoo. The dead ones I get, to see if we can figure out why they are becoming immune to what used to be a perfectly good spray."

Alex loosened his gun in its holster and pocketed the clamps and spray, checking they were both easily accessible but unlikely to fall out if he had to move suddenly. Owen and Gwen were doing the same, twitching in readiness as they waited impatiently to arrive at their destination.

"There!" Gwen, the first one out of the van, yelled as they skidded to a halt.

"Bloody Splott," Owen commented but took off at a run in the direction that Gwen had pointed. The rest of them ran in pursuit.

"Tosh, Owen, go left," Jack ordered. "Cut them off at the crossroads; we don't want them getting into the park. Gwen, Alex with me. Ianto did you get that?"

Alex saw Owen peel off, and assumed Tosh, who was behind him, had done the same, but his attention was focused on the ground ahead of him and ignoring the hot burn in his lungs as they pounded around another corner.

"Tracking your movements." Ianto's voice sounded clearly over the headset. "Owen - take the second left then they can't double back."

"Got it," Owen huffed in Alex's ear.

"Do we have confirmation?" Jack asked. Alex wondered how he could still talk normally given they were sprinting down half-lit alleys. At least Gwen was looking as red-faced as he felt.

"Have a visual," Tosh chimed in. "Two weevils heading east."

"Jack," Ianto instructed, "you are approaching their position from the north-east."

Their feet thumped unevenly on the pavement finding every invisible puddle and pothole as they tried to disentangle themselves from the maze of back streets. Alex was just glad that Jack and Gwen seemed to know where they were going.

"We have a sighting of a civilian in the danger zone." Ianto's calm voice cut across the collective rasping breathing.

"Where?" Jack demanded.

"Immediate right, 200 meters," Ianto directed. "A weevil is bearing down on their position."

"I've got it," Alex told them. "You keep on those two."

His headset went silent for a second as Jack evaluated the offer.

"Okay. Be careful. Use the spray if you can."

Alex took off down the next right turning.

"Follow the curve of the road," Ianto sounded in his ear. "You should see the civilian on your left. The weevil is hiding in the alley just in front of him."

"Got it," Alex panted.

He was just close enough to see the pedestrian pause and then head towards the alley calling 'hello'.

"Damn!" he yelled, not caring if the mike would pick that up. "The civ is investigating. Hey!"

"We have a name for civilians that do that." Owen's sarcastic tones filled the airway. "Late... as in the late... Owww!"

"We have these two restrained." Jack's voice overrode Owen's complaints. "Tosh and I are on our way to you. Get the civilian out of there but try not to engage unless you have to."

So it was Gwen that had hit Owen then, Alex realised as he bowled into the shadowy alley just in time to push the idiot, who looked surprisingly like Mulder in the dark, to the ground and out of the way of the weevil's claws as they swept over both of them. Fuck, they were scarier when not locked up and looming over you. Alex scrambled to his feet and aimed the spray directly at the snarling face. It reared back in shock but didn't seem to be suffering the type of intense pain Owen had mentioned. It was also now blocking the entrance of the alley having circled past them to trap them as they fell. His dumb luck to get an immune one. It was probably Mulder's fault somehow, and it was Mulder because he knew that dazed body under his anywhere. He pushed a wheely-bin at the weevil to distract it and went for his gun as it shoved the plastic container aside.

Who the hell went hand-to-hand with those things he wondered as he drew. There was no need to aim with the weevil bearing down on him and Mulder like a very ugly, barbed freight train. He just needed to get his gun around in time and squeeze...

The shot went wild as Mulder slammed into him fist first. He landed half across the overturned bin and before he could get up Mulder was on top of him, dragging him up and around. Where the fuck was the weevil? He finally caught a glimpse of it running away in the direction he had come, obviously scared off by someone crazier than it was.

"You fucking Rat Bastard!" Hi Mulder, missed you too.

Another punch rocked him back and split his lip. Mulder's arm caught him under the chin and pinned him to the wall but Alex was too busy to pay attention.

"Weevil incoming on your position," he gasped, hoping the headset had survived Mulder's intervention and would pick it up and give the others some warning. "It's immune."

Then it was just him and Mulder and trying to remember how to breathe. His gun was lost in the darkness somewhere, not that it would do him much good with Mulder in his face. As much as he might fantasise about pistol-whipping the bastard he really never had got in to the habit of fighting back when Mulder got his licks in. Why the Consortium always scrambled his brains to take the good stuff out and leave the bad stuff in Alex was never sure. He had decided some years ago it was because they were a bunch of evil fucks and it was their idea of humour.

Mulder was yelling something at him about shooting innocent people and Alex tried to work out if this was part of the standard list of accusations or whether Mulder was being more clueless than normal and had really missed how close he had come to being a weevil-snack. He knew he should be caring but he was feeling a little dizzy and that seemed much more interesting. He closed his eyes against the bitterness glaring at him and because he really didn't want to get Mulder's spit in his eye, a possibility that was looking increasingly likely as Mulder got even more wound up at his lack of response.

"Get off him now!"

Alex forced his eyes back open. The muzzle of Jack's gun was pressed into the soft skin below Mulder's ear.

"Don't," Alex rasped but he wasn't sure the sound had actually made it out. He wondered if Jack considered strangling him, as well as Owen, his personal prerogative. Mulder might argue he had a prior claim on that one.

Mulder reluctantly backed away from him and Alex sagged. Mulder had been supporting him after all, who knew.

"Alex?" Jack asked.

Alex coughed a few times to clear his throat. He wasn't feeling any less dizzy and his back and shoulder were aching where Mulder had thrown him against the wall.

"I'm fine," he assured Jack and sat down.

Jack snarled and cuffed Mulder roughly. Alex was pleased to note that Mulder was glaring at them both with his normal stubborn resentment. He felt a warm rush of affection; that was his Mulder, in over his head and keeping on regardless.

"Owen, get your arse over here as soon as Ianto is there," Jack snapped into his mike, "I think the weevil clipped Alex."

The weevil, not Mulder. That did make a bit more sense. It must have got him when he was pushing Mulder out of the way. That would also explain why it was really beginning to fucking hurt.

Owen ambled up at a fast saunter a few minutes later.

"Left Bessy with the ladies," he explained at Jack's questioning look. "Ianto's dropping off the first two and then coming back. What?" he appealed when the silent demand for an explanation didn't stop. "You didn't think it looked like a Bessy?"

Alex thought about the creature of tooth and fang that had been trying to take his head off and wondered how Owen got from there to 'Bessy'. And how he even knew it was female.

"Looked more like a Marita to me," Alex told him. He ignored Mulder's squawk of complaint.

"Well you," Owen squatted down next to him, "probably got hit on the head so what do you know?"

As he was talking Owen ran through a brisk but thorough examination. "You'll live," he announced finally. "That hurt?"

Alex glared at him.

"Being nasty to the doctor doesn't get you the happy pills," Owen warned. "Someone give us both a hand up. I've got supplies in the van and he can make it that far with a bit of help."

"Get yourself up, Owen, and grab Alex's gun." Jack pushed Mulder forwards. "Alex, do you think you can lean on your friend here?"

Alex bit back a grin at the disgruntled expression that Mulder was sporting and resolved to try and bleed on his suit.

"Who's that?" Owen nodded to the cuffed Mulder.

"The civilian," Jack began but Alex cut him off.

"That's Mulder."

"Aww," Owen cooed "Your boyfriend followed you all the way from the States. That is so cute."

"Owen," Jack warned, as Mulder took very loud umbrage. Alex rolled his eyes. This was not his idea of a fun night out, loosing a fight with an alien, Owen with his brick-like subtlety and Mulder in the denial stage. All it needed was someone to light up for that perfect nicotine-scented atmosphere. Still, it had been fun before Mulder complicated things, and wasn't that just the story of his life?

Owen muttered something under his breath that Alex didn't quite catch but helped him up anyway. Alex took great delight in throwing his arm around Mulder's shoulders and snuggling up as close as possible while hanging on so tightly he almost put Mulder in a neck lock. There was something eminently satisfying about Mulder in a pair of weevil cuffs, especially when Alex had been handed the opportunity to plaster himself against the restrained agent. It was almost enough to ignore the pain in his back and shoulder and the other sundry aches he had picked up under Mulder's gentle handling.

"Right, let's go." Jack hustled them forwards, Owen taking point while Jack brought up the rear. Behind him, Alex could hear Jack checking in with Ianto in the van and co-ordinating the pick up. It seemed a lot further to the road the others was standing on than Alex remembered, but then all the roads looked the damned same so they could have been anywhere. Gwen, Tosh and the weevil were fairly easy to spot when they got close and Alex was heartened by the cheery greeting they received even if the weevil just curled its lip at him in a snarl. Feeling his honour was at stake because the weevil got the best of him in their first encounter he snarled right back. Mulder jolted to a halt almost causing Alex to fall as he kept on going for half a step before he realised.

"What's that?" Mulder demanded.

They all turned to look at the weevil to check it hadn't suddenly turned into something else. Owen rolled his eyes. "That would be what Alex pushed you out of the way of."

Mulder went white and his grip on Alex became less reluctant and more soothing.

"Enough," Jack cut in. "Someone needs to take the SUV back to the hub. Any volunteers to drive?" Gwen had the keys out of Jack's hand before he had finished speaking. "Tosh, you go with her, we'll need the extra room and Owen has to stay with Alex. It's going to be a long night so Ianto will probably make you the extra special birthday coffee if you can pick up some food on the way."

Owen perked up immediately. "If you are getting Chinese..." he began.

"We know," Gwen stopped him.

"Extra ribs," Tosh continued for her, "and not from the place on the high street."

The two women headed off, Gwen bouncing the keys in her palm and both discussing what they felt like eating.

"We won't see them for another hour," Owen groused. "We might as well phone for takeout when we get back. It will arrive quicker. And all the mirrors are going to be in the wrong position even if she remembers not everyone drives with the chair so far forward that their knees are around their ears."

"I'm sure if you tell them you don't want anything they would be happy not to order anything for you," Jack pointed out sweetly.

They were saved from Owen's reply by the arrival of Ianto in the van and the need to get Bessy/Marita into the specially reinforced holding area. Alex noticed with amusement that the weevils seemed to take one look at Ianto and suddenly decide to cooperate. Maybe it was the suits. Some of his amusement was probably due to whatever was in the syringe the Owen had grabbed from the van and stuck in his arm. Even Owen had seemed faintly fuzzy in a soft, friendly Kermit the Frog kind of way. Apparently everyone else didn't agree with his assessments although he was sure he caught a few hidden smiles. Mulder seemed a bit disconcerted when he apologised for drooling down his neck, because it was a very nice neck, and tried to pick some of the dried blood and mud out of his hair. He was just explaining his thoughts about the handcuffs when Jack separated them and loaded him into the van. The trip to the hub was something of a blur but Alex thought that was probably due to Jack's driving, that and the fireflies that seemed to be buzzing around the road with them. All red and bright with pretty tails. Mulder wanted to talk about aliens until the others shushed him forcibly, and who wanted to talk about that with Marita growling in the back. The way the fireflies turned orange when they hovered higher was much more interesting.

He giggled when Jack, pretty Jack with the swirly coat, asked how much Kermit had given him. Maybe Jack was like Mulder and kept forgetting things, cos it had been Jack that had given it to Alex. That had been fun. He wanted to do it again. Not just then, as he was feeling a bit tired, but later. And maybe his Fox could play too and bring the handcuffs. Fox and a Frog and his Fox had called him a Rat... maybe they were all animals. That would make Ianto a... tall, thin thing with a suit... a suit snake. That didn't seem quite right... a trouser snake! Ianto was a trouser snake. Was the weevil laughing? Did weevils laugh? He felt a prick on his arm and was just trying to swat whatever had bitten him when the van lurched sideways and he just kept going.

When consciousness returned, Alex found he was in the medical bay and Mulder was staring at him as Owen tended the bump on the back of Mulder's head. He must have shoved Mulder over harder than he had realised at the time.

"You have two arms," Mulder accused. Not what Alex expected to hear when he woke up.

It was childish but Alex couldn't resist. "So do you."

Damn, he hurt. The drug Owen had given him earlier was wearing off and, while it was always a much better idea dealing with Mulder with a clear head, he was getting a headache to go with the lines of fire someone had painted on his back. He wondered if Owen was the person to ask for aspirin or whether he would just land himself another vacation on cloud nine.

"You're a clone!" Mulder realised, leaping up only to be pulled back down to his seat by Owen.

Actually cloud nine was sounding better and better. Triage obviously wasn't Owen's strong point either since Mulder was definitely queue jumping.

"Come on Mulder, pay attention." Shit, his head hurt. "The colour of my blood should tell you I am not a clone."

"Red-green colour blind." Mulder found the oddest thing to be smug about.

"We can fix that for you if you want," Owen offered, putting down the swab he had been using with a 'that's that' gesture.

Alex found himself forgotten as Mulder focused on Owen. "What?"

Owen was welcome to him. In fact Alex would give Mulder to Owen for two Advil and a glass of water. And he was willing to negotiate on the water. Owen unlocked a draw and pulled a blue and pink blob out of the depths.

"Won't take a second." Owen was showing off the device with so much pride you would think he had made it himself rather than picked it up as a piece of temporal jetsam. "Same gadget that sorted gimp-boy's arm."

"That's alien technology," Mulder breathed.

"Nah, I got it from the local Boots..." Owen seemed to realise that Mulder had no idea what he was talking about. "Of course it's alien technology. You think we're sat around in this miserable place for shits and giggles? Not bloody likely."

"But it really works?" Alex recognised the signs; Mulder was in love. Or at least in obsession, which with Mulder was nigh on identical.

"Like you wouldn't believe," Owen enthused. "You just point it, press the depressions..." Owen suited action to word and the egg-shaped blob made a chirrup and extended a number of slender protrusions which waved around and then all pointed towards Mulder and lit up. "And then you just press this," Owen finished.

Alex wondered if he should see if he could walk far enough to get Mulder a tissue or whether then man would just consummate his new found passion with the object then and there. Alex couldn't believe he was feeling jealous of a bit of alien rubbish. And the thing had apparently given him his arm back so really he should be taking notes rather than wanting to smash it to pieces. It made a few irritatingly happy beeply-booply noises and a beam of light spread out from the end Owen wasn't holding and shone in Mulder's eyes. Alex pushed down the urge to leap at Owen, knock the device away from Mulder and shoot the both of them. It was a good alien thing. Someone competent had checked it out before Owen had been allowed to use it on people. It hadn't hurt him. It wouldn't hurt Mulder even if it did sound like it was going to explode. The noise the thing was making was just beginning to set Alex's teeth on edge when, with a final bling, it shut off and the little tentacles retracted back into the smooth shell.

Mulder blinked. Then blinked again.

"Well?" Owen prompted. "If the blood isn't red enough then have a look at Alex. Although if I have to hear about the colour of his eyes one more time I am going to throw up."

"Huh?" Mulder looked at Alex, confused.

Alex closed the eyes in question. "Fuck off," he told Owen, "but give me some more pain killers first."

Owen humphed. "Stop whining. I was getting to you. First, let's get that coat off you."

Alex looked mournfully at the semi-shredded heap of leather as Owen cut away his T-shirt.

"I liked that jacket."

"First rule of alien chasing - don't do it in clothing you want to be able to wear again." Owen dabbed at the claw marks with the antiseptic cream. "This would have been a lot worse without it."

"So how come you aren't using the device on his cuts?" Mulder asked, curious.

"Only use it on big things we can't handle otherwise, "Owen explained. "This was just a love tap. A few days feeling a bit sore will help remind Alex to duck a bit quicker next time, won't it?"

Alex prayed for all his aches and pains to be immediately transferred onto Owen as an object lesson in not being Owen. He had been hurt worse, many times, but that didn't mean he enjoyed the experience.

"I'm giving you a local," Owen told him. "Most of these gashes aren't too deep, but there is one that needs stitches."

Alex nodded wearily. "Whatever."

The stitching didn't take long but it felt like it. Mulder kept giving him odd looks, which was fairly normal, but they pulled at him like the tugs on his skin as Owen sewed. Not quite painful but under his skin, ripping into him and pulling parts of him together that had been severed. And it would hurt later when the anaesthetic wore off; it always did.

"Right," Owen said when he finished. "Last bit. I won't give you anything too strong but this should help take the edge off everything. Lean on the table and drop trou."

Alex sighed but complied.

"Very nice." Owen assured him and injected the pain-killer into his arm.

"What the hell!" Alex whirled, but nearly toppled as his brain took an extra second to catch up with his feet.

Owen backed away out of immediate thumping range but Alex silently promised retribution just as soon as he was healed. Owen grinned and held out a tab of pills. "You want these for when the local wears off or not?"

"I can take them from your corpse," Alex pointed out.

"You can try," Owen bluffed, "but Jack gets a bit pissy about people killing his staff."

"I'll make an exception in your case," Jack's voice cut in. Everyone turned to the doorway within which Jack lounged. Alex was willing to bet money the pose and overall effect had been carefully considered and Jack had just been waiting for the most opportune moment to break in. "Owen, give him the pills. Are they both fit enough to come up to the conference room?"

Owen looked suspiciously between Alex and Jack.

"Alex," Jack coaxed, "stop terrorising Owen. You can beat him up later."

Alex gave Jack his most cherubic smile. It took more of his concentration than he would have liked but he bent down and scooped the remains of his jacket, tweaked the pills out of Owen's hand, and with his coat slung over his bare shoulder and his unbuttoned jeans half off his hips he sauntered up the steps, past Jack and out of the door. He was rather proud of the silence he left in his wake. Proud enough that he made it half way to the conference room before everything caught up with him and he had to pause for a moment. While he was very grateful that whatever Owen had shot him up with was not making him climb the walls, even with the local taking care of the cuts he still felt like he was a walking bruise. Despite the slow pace he still made it to the conference room before any of the others caught up with him.

"How are you?" Gwen greeted him "Help yourself to food." She trailed off as she took in what Alex was or wasn't wearing.

Alex slouched down in the nearest seat and tried to make it appear as if that had been a matter of choice. Tosh looked up and gave him a smile. He wondered if she would be interested in going out for lunch with him some time; the computer system really was fascinating and he was curious as to what she thought about the latest biocomputing advances.

Ianto drifted over and put a carafe down next to Alex.

"You need to drink lots of fluids to replace the blood loss," Ianto commented when Alex wondered what he had done to earn the honour, and from the looks of envy he was getting that was what it was.

Jack and Owen arrived with Mulder in tow, Mulder's free wrists providing the necessary explanation for their tardiness. Owen immediately snagged one of the boxes of spare ribs and grabbed a chair at the farthest end from Alex.

Mulder just stood for a minute staring at them as they squabbled over chopsticks and who was having what. Alex suspected he was having trouble believing it was actually true. Finally he sat down in the seat next to Alex. Solidarity in the face of the British or possibly Mulder had just spotted the coffee. Alex reached out and grabbed a couple of containers and put one in front of Mulder. When Mulder just looked at it, apparently waiting for the alien to pop out and eat him, Alex opened it for him and stuck utensils in his hand. If Mulder couldn't manage from there then Alex wasn't about to feed him.

"So, Agent Mulder." Jack broke the sound of eating. "Welcome to Torchwood."

Mulder swallowed quickly. "Torchwood?"

"This is Torchwood." Jack waved his chopsticks around to indicate the base and all within. "Strictly speaking this is Torchwood Three. Torchwood One was destroyed. Torchwood Two is in Glasgow. There is a Torchwood Four but we aren't sure where it is at the moment. We're sure it will turn up again soon."

"You've lost... Who are you? What are you?"

"Owen Harper you met," Jack introduced, "Toshiko Sato, Gwen Cooper, Ianto Jones and I am Captain Jack Harkness. Of course, you know Alex. As to what we are. We scavenge and investigate alien technology. This base is situated on a rift in time and space, throws all sorts of things through - including those weevils you met earlier. We are separate from the government, beyond the police, and outside the United Nations..."

It was the wrong thing to say. Alex could see Mulder flush red.

"You are just like the Consortium; you think you are above the law!"

Jack didn't even blink. "Some laws - yes. The twenty-first century is when it changes and we have to be ready."

Alex didn't think Mulder noticed Tosh and Gwen mouthing along with Jack. It was obviously a line they had heard many times before.

"You," Mulder emphasised. "What about all those other people out there. Don't they deserve to know what is going on?"

Jack put down his food and said seriously, "Unfortunately Vicky said otherwise and I never could say no to a Queen".

Tosh and Ianto studiously avoided looking at anything except their Chinese.

"Victoria?" Mulder's voice was close to a squeak. "Queen Victoria?"

"Our illustrious founder," Jack confirmed. "'The greatest gift you can give them is your silence' and all that. There was something about sheep. Ianto can probably recite it to you."

"But don't," Owen put in before Ianto could answer.

"It's hard," Gwen sympathised. "Not being able to talk to Rhys or anyone. Knowing that if something happens to you then they may never know the truth. But what we do is so important."

"It isn't like they'd believe us anyway," Owen added cynically. "Aliens attack and they all just chalk it up to terrorists or drugs."

"But you could show them proof," Mulder insisted. "That device that cures people. Do you know how many lives you could save?" Owen slid down in his chair as Mulder waved a hand at him. "And what about all the abductees? The ones like Scully who were experimented on? Or like my sister? How can you keep silent when innocent people are being taken from their lives every day?"

"Alex told us about the situation in America," Jack admitted. "UNIT is..."

Mulder didn't let him finish. "I'm sure he did," he sneered. "Did he tell you he was an assassin? That he killed my father? That he..."

"Yes." Jack's answer stopped Mulder mid-rant. "We all have to do things we don't like sometimes." Jack's gaze slid from Mulder's to Ianto's for a second and Alex thought he saw the hint of a nod from Ianto before Jack's attention flicked back to the man he was speaking to. "Sometimes we have to be monsters to save the world from worse ones. Do you want to know how many people at this table have lost love ones?"

"Because of the conspiracy," Mulder objected.

"Because they were too much of a threat," Jack corrected. "Because sometimes you have to sacrifice the few for the many. And everyone here understands - that is the chance you take when you get involved, even if it is by accident. That is why we keep it secret. Because once people become part of it they can't stop, and we know that it might be our fingers on the trigger when they get in too deep and become a danger to others."

Alex looked around the table and saw the bleak looks on so many nodding faces. Only Gwen looked defiantly compassionate rather than personally affected. This was why they snarked at each other and joked, why they took every opportunity that was offered to them. UNIT might have an army but Torchwood Three were the home guard, stealing their weapons from the enemy and hoping they didn't blow up in their faces. Alex wasn't sure if it was bravery or total and utter stupidly. But that wouldn't stop him turning up for work the next day. And maybe it was time to start looking for a flat. Mulder just stared at Jack in horror.

"What was your sister's name?" Jack asked gently.

Mulder looked like someone had cut the ground out from underneath him. "What?"

"Your sister's name," Jack said clearly. "You said she was abducted. We can get the word out, see if anything turns up. Can't guarantee anything of course; its like sticking her picture on an international milk carton but better than nothing. Tosh?"

"On it," Tosh confirmed, PDA out. "Getting the details now."

Mulder looked at him dumbly. Alex could appreciate the feeling. He had felt much the same way when he had discovered everything he believed had been a con. It was probably a good thing Mulder had got stuck on the secret organisation issue and his sacred search for the truth and not got as far as the aliens' plans for world domination, soon to be curtailed.

"...UNIT keeps fairly good records so if you give us any specifics not in the official report we might even be able to narrow down..." Jack continued oblivious to the fact that Mulder was no longer registering the words, just gaping at him as if he was the next coming.

"Uh, Jack?" Alex interrupted.

Jack looked at him and then back at Mulder. "We can do this another time," he conceded. The rest of the meal was conducted to tall tales of alien encounters and unlikely sexual shenanigans to which Mulder listened silently and said nothing.

 

~~~

The meal and the team wound down, the adrenaline of the argument and night's chase being replaced by egg fried rice and caffeine. Food, Alex had to admit, had a restorative effect. Or maybe it had just been watching Mulder's eyes get larger as he ate and began to take everything in. Ianto had left the table first, claiming he had work to do. Jack had chivvied Gwen out with the threat of sending Owen to keep her boyfriend warm instead and an insulted Owen had declared it was a Friday night and he was going to get a drink if anyone wanted to join him. Tosh had.

"What about me?" Mulder demanded when it was just them and Jack left. "Are you going to keep me here?"

"Not unless you want to share with one of the weevils," Jack smiled. "Alex, can you take Mulder back to your place? I don't want to see either of you till Monday."

Habit was just about to make Alex object to that in the strongest terms when Mulder beat him to it.

"I have my own room," Mulder insisted stiffly.

Jack looked at him carefully. "Where?"

"The St David's Hotel."

"That's easy enough," Jack agreed, "but you still shouldn't be alone with a head wound. Alex, can you get him there? You'd better stay with him, make sure he is okay. Ianto can have some of your clothes sent over, but you shouldn't be alone either."

Why yes, Captain, Sir, I think I might be able to do that

Alex nodded and did his best to look like he was just following orders. Mulder was not raising any of the arguements that Alex had expected to that plan, which either meant he had been sent into a state of shock by everything or he wanted to get Alex alone. Alex didn't care which as he zipped up his ruined leather and prepared to leave.

They saw Ianto working at one of the computers as they crossed the hub. He looked up as he heard them and called across, "I'll let you out of the tourist office if you want. It's closer to St David's."

Given his state of dress, Alex could only be thankful. He could practically hear Mulder's brain race as Mulder thought up and discarded theories about Ianto, telepathy and alien origins. Alex wondered if he should point out the earpiece Ianto wore and the fact that Ianto had probably been monitoring the conference room after he left. Instead, Alex nodded his thanks and led Mulder through the tunnel that led to the back of the shop before Mulder could bother Ianto with questions. The door between the hub and the tourist office swung open as they arrived, making Mulder jump. Alex pushed him through and grabbed Mulder's arm to stop him going back to it as it swung closed behind them. The front door made an audible click as it unlocked and Alex called goodbye to whoever might be listening and dragged Mulder out. Mulder took the manhandling in ominous silence.

They hadn't gone more than three steps around the corner of the now closed and locked information bureau when Mulder shoved him against the wall, wild-eyed as everything caught up with him and, once again, Alex was the one person within reach. Alex was glad that the local anaesthetic was still working. He just hoped Mulder hadn't torn any of his stitches. Idiot couldn't do this inside where it was warm. Probably not; the others would have stopped him. Alex searched the darkness for the cameras he knew must be there. Someone would be watching. Probably Ianto. And Ianto would have called Jack... Alex bit back the grin.

"This is another Consortium trick." Mulder demanded his attention by shaking him by the lapels of his coat.

"No trick," Alex insisted, "they're just like that. And you saw the weevils."

"But that is what I'm saying." Mulder's fingers tightened in the leather. "The weevils; the danger. They were laughing about how many times they nearly destroyed Cardiff!"

Alex pried Mulder off and considered the wisdom of cold-cocking him and just carrying him back to his hotel. "They were talking about how many times they had saved Cardiff."

"No." Mulder shook his head and paced a few steps back and forth in front of Alex. "They were talking about how often they had been the ones causing the threat. They collect up all this technology and give no thought to the consequences. They have no accountability, no concern for the law or the people who get in their way."

"That isn't their job," Alex pointed out. "They have to get in there, work out if whatever has come through the rift is dangerous and if it is, contain it or deal with it. They're trying to keep the danger away from the civilians."

"People have a right to know."

One of Owen's favourite phrases sprang into Alex's mind: Oh bollocks. He wondered if there was audio as well as video in the surveillance or whether Ianto was just an expert at reading lips. It really had been too much to hope that Mulder would be sensible about the whole thing. It was too late to hit him now, and Mulder did look good when he got all fired up. Hitting him only just made it into the top ten list of things Alex wanted to do to him at that moment.

"They are trying to find out about Samantha for you." Alex tried one last appeal to Mulder's occasional sense of reason.

"And what about all the other children who have gone missing?" Mulder crowded him again. "The murders they have covered up in the name of security and secrecy? Don't their families deserve to know the truth?"

Well, it had been worth a try, Alex decided philosophically and Mulder wasn't actively strangling him. He was, however, reaching for his handcuffs and Alex wasn't about to let that happen. Mulder was saying something about taking him back to the States when Alex reversed their positions and slammed Mulder against the wall with a feeling very akin to satisfaction. The only downside was that now cold air was getting in through the new, weevil-chic, ventilation holes in the back of his coat. The wall had been, if not warmer, a lot less drafty.

Mulder stared at him with an angry, frightened expression. "You going to kill me, Krycek?"

Here we go again Alex thought, but only said, "Not unless you really piss me off."

Mulder opened his mouth to retort but Alex put his hand gently over it. "Don't," he warned. "Just don't."

Mulder glared at him.

"Now," Alex told him, "we can stay here and fight if you want but..." He shoved Mulder with his body, pinning him harder against the wall. "You are at something of a disadvantage even ignoring the fact that I am armed and you aren't. Or we can go back to your hotel room like we have been told and you can think up ways to try and turn the tables on me while I get some sleep."

He patted Mulder's cheek condescendingly as he removed his hand. It was either that or stroke his fingers over Mulder's lush lips. Alex thought of Jack and the way he had looked on his knees, lips wet and puffy from the blow job. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself and waited for Mulder to decide what to do. His mental bet was that Mulder would try to make one break for it and, having made the point he wasn't going along with Alex willingly, would grudgingly acquiesce to returning to the hotel and getting some sleep. If it made it easier for him, Alex was willing to hold a gun on him the entire way and handcuff him to the bed.

"Predictable, Mulder," Alex chided as Mulder tried to throw him off. He blocked the punch that was aimed at his left kidney and the knee which was probably meant for his groin. His baby was fighting dirty; Alex was so proud.

"Well?" he asked when he had Mulder securely restrained again. They were locked together, shoulder to shoulder and hip to hip. Alex was sending very firm instructions to his dick not to react to the closeness just because Mulder had. His dick did not seem inclined to listen. Mulder was hard; his body obviously remembered all those other times they had been like this even if they had been wiped from his conscious mind.

They existed in double-vision, one couple grappling in anger and one in lust. Alex wondered which they would be this time. Given a choice he would always go for the sex; it tended to hurt less on the law of averages, but he could never be entirely sure which way the scrambled mess that was Mulder's genius brain would jump. The kiss took Alex by surprise. One moment Mulder was looking at him as if he had handed Samantha over himself and the next Mulder's lips were on his. It might be a trick Alex warned himself but that did not stop him taking advantage of the opportunity offered; he just made sure he kept a firm grip on Mulder at the same time.

"They will really try and find information on Samantha?" Mulder asked when they broke.

Oh shit, Mulder's eyes were getting suspiciously bright, or given the lighting, suspiciously orange.

"If Jack says he will then he will." Alex was sure Jack would try but he didn't hold out any hope for them getting any results. About the only way Mulder was going to get Samantha back was if he jumped through the rift, went back in time and kidnapped her himself, and Alex knew enough about the rift to know that that wouldn't be allowed.

"I can't just let them sacrifice all those other people because of her." Mulder begged for understanding.

Alex understood, but he couldn't sacrifice the work that was being done for Mulder either so he kissed him again. What Mulder thought he meant by it Alex wasn't sure but it seemed to be the answer Mulder was looking for. Alex might have been holding Mulder down but it was Mulder that ravaged his mouth. Their struggle shifted slowly; no longer was Alex pushing Mulder back against the wall but Mulder was pulling Alex onto him and Alex went gladly. Abandoning Mulder's mouth Alex attacked his neck, kissing and biting, uncaring if he bruised the delicate flesh. Mulder let him, encouraging him with panting whines and stuttering flexes of his hips.

Alex had to let go of Mulder's shoulders to catch at his hips before they both went off like flash paper. As glorious as that would be for the whole ten seconds it lasted, Alex was hoping for a longer fuse and the respective bigger bang. Upper body freed from Alex's control, Mulder made the most of what was available to him. Unzipping Alex' coat he ran his hands over the bare flesh beneath. Alex stiffened unhappily when Mulder came close to his gun but otherwise let Mulder have free range.

It was Alex's turn to moan as Mulder bent down to lick at Alex's revealed chest. The wind from the bay chilled him, tightening his skin except where Mulder was pressed against him. The warm mouth was a distinct contrast to the chill wetness it left behind and the combination of the two seemed guaranteed to leave Alex a gibbering wreck. The cold had already peaked his nipples to almost painful hardness and Alex couldn't have said if pain or pleasure was uppermost when Mulder rubbed firm thumbs over the sensitive nubs. Alex growled in approval only to bite back a scream as Mulder's teeth caught the right one and it was thoroughly explored by Mulder's tongue.

Alex arched his body back to give Mulder better reach and thrust his hips against Mulder's. He no longer cared about time or place. Any worries about how the Cardiff constabulary would react to two men making out on a public walkway were happily drowned in the surge and tide of feeling. It was always good with Mulder. Raw and hot and so fucking primal as he danced to the war-drum beat his heart pounded in his chest. It was times like this that Alex was surprised Mulder couldn't actually hear the beat too and wasn't also responding to the call.

He knew Mulder's hot spots, knew how to make him moan and writhe and beg, and used that knowledge. He enjoyed the way Mulder would look at him in dazed amazement, not remembering the other times when things hadn't been as neat or slick. The time Alex had accidentally elbowed Mulder in the face and given him a nose-bleed, the panic the time the condom split because who knew the extent of Mulder's sex life when Mulder certainly didn't, the time they had both been so exhausted that they had both fallen asleep half-way through the sex... it was those that Alex hoarded to himself and let warm him when the world seemed dark and he and Mulder were once again on opposing sides. It seemed likely that this would be another one for the memory bank, Alex thought, as Mulder lifted his head for Alex to capture in a kiss and in return pinched Alex's spit-damp nipples between warm, strong fingers.

It was Mulder who broke first, fighting free of Alex's mouth in favour of the air he desperately needed. His rhythm shattering, his breath surged from him in a series of hash grunts as he spilt against Alex's hip. Sagging forwards onto Alex, Mulder buried his head in Alex's neck and tried to burrow his hands into the back of Alex's jeans as he urged Alex against him. As Alex started to come, Mulder pushed aside the leather jacket and bit down on his shoulder. Alex opened his mouth in a silent cry as all stimuli were registered as pleasure and Alex lost himself in that feeling.

The night seemed disappointingly dark after the light that had flared magnesium bright in Alex's mind. When everything was over they were just two men in disheveled clothing, huddled against a wall and each other and trying to keep the moment that had been so vital that they had not bothered to wait the ten minutes it would have taken them to walk back to Mulder's hotel.

"You do have amazing eyes, d'you know that?" Mulder whispered sleepily, head tucked against Alex's shoulder as Alex cradled him.

Alex smiled against Mulder's ear. "Wait till you see Scully's hair."

"No, I mean it."

He probably did, Alex reflected. That was their tragedy.

"Come on." Alex dragged them both to an unsupported upright. "Let's get to your hotel room and we can continue this discussion." Preferably before all the pain-killers wore off and with the endorphin rush of sex fading the tab of pills in his pocket were definitely calling his name. And, better than the pills, maybe he could get a few more love-bites to match the one he knew must be developing on his neck; the marks would probably be the longest lasting part of this detente.

Mulder looked at him with satisfaction-fogged confusion. Alex sighed. He was going to look like a bit of rough Mulder had picked up, him half-dressed and both of them semen-stained. He hoped the hotel was broadminded. Sometimes Mulder really was more trouble than... Alex shifted as a breeze licked at the clammy material at his groin and he forced himself to smile. No, moments like this were just about worth the trouble and heart-ache that would follow, for him anyway. Poor Mulder, to be both the reward and punishment for Alex's life. He wondered what Mulder had done to deserve him and the rest of the crap the man managed to bring down on himself.

Steering Mulder towards a hot shower, warm bed and a repeat performance, Alex remembered to turn back and gave where he thought the security camera was a wave.

~~~

"They look like they are getting on well," Ianto commented, slipping Jack's braces off his shoulders.

"Alex does know we're going to retcon his friend, doesn't he?" Jack tried to undo his shirt but Ianto slapped his hands away.

"He suspects." Ianto slid each button through its hole. "It makes you wonder how many first times those two have had." He pushed Jack's shirt down his arms, placing a kiss at the hollow of his throat.

"Looks like they are going to have one more." Ianto didn't raise an objection as Jack striped out of his undershirt, just went to work on the fly of Jack's trousers. "Let's see if they can actually make it to a second time this go around. If they don't start trying to kill each other again then hold off the retcon until Monday."

"Your romantic streak is showing." Ianto pushed Jack's boxers down until they fell to join his trousers around his ankles.

"As is everything else. How come I am the only one getting naked here? Can you do it?"

"Are you objecting? Across the desk." Jack did as Ianto instructed. Both men keeping an eye on the monitor in front of them. "I can do it," Ianto confirmed, placing light kisses down the ridge of Jack's spine between each word, "but I can't guarantee that sex with Alex in the future won't break the conditioning. Especially if they do spend all weekend shagging."

"Do what you can," Jack managed with effort. "On the subject of the weekend... will Adam be visiting Cardiff?"

Jack groaned as Ianto nipped the flesh of his right cheek hard. "You know," Ianto commented as he licked the bite better, "I think he's right; you 'forget' to call him Dan on purpose. And, no, they had some emergency at the hospital."

Jack helpfully shifted his feet slightly further apart. "It was so much easier when he was working for the Watchers," he complained. "The annual cricket match against them was always a blast. Now it's just bloody golf." His voice broke slightly as Ianto bent his head and began to lick a firm path between the mounds of his arse.

"You enjoyed it when we went the other week," Ianto pointed out a few minutes later.

"Huh?" Jack tried to gather up the forgotten thread of the conversation. "UMMmm," he agreed as memory returned, "especially when my ball got lost in the woods."

"Your ball got lost in your pocket." Ianto stood and gave Jack his most repressive look. "Common decency and good sense were what got lost in the woods. I doubt they will let us back in."

Jack turned his head and reached back to run his hand over the crotch of Ianto's suit.

"So does that mean you're not planning to get a little stroke practice in this weekend."

Ianto's eyes fluttered closed as Jack indulged in a few strokes of his own.

"I don't know," Ianto forced out, "although if you so much as think anything about nine irons, golf will be the only holes you will have any hope of sinking anything in for the foreseeable future."

Jack looked affronted, his hand ceasing its movement. "What happened to 'Sir'?"

Ianto grinned. "I don't like to speculate, but I believe the current explanation is that 'sir' was dropped on his head as a baby. Of course Owen is running a book on the matter and *mumlph*..."

"Ianto Daffyd Jones," Jack said when the kiss finally ended and he had returned to his previous position. "If you don't fuck me right now I swear I am going to hurt you."

Ianto's chuckle was dark with anticipation. "Promises, promises."

"Ianto... please..."

"Hush, Jack," Ianto whispered. "Just watch the screen."

By the time Alex waved goodbye, neither man was paying much attention.

~~~

Mulder sat in the airport lounge waiting for his 'plane to be called and thinking about the nice break he had had in England. It had been good to visit Oxford again, meet old friends, get laid. The old place was exactly like it he remembered it. It was a dream really, a world of ivory towers separated from reality; not that they didn't produce some amazing research. The work Dr... the work they were doing on the growth and simulation of retinal photoreceptors for example. The accident that had destroyed their prototype had been so unfortunate but he didn't mind the bump on the head given the backlash from the explosion seemed to have affected his own vision for the better. Scully would tease him about finding an X-File even when on holiday. He found himself unaccountably sad to be going back, but he had to. The truth was out there and he wasn't going to find it sitting around in Britain.

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 1 of Spyverse