AUTHOR: Susan E Swogger, alias egret or GreenEgret ARCHIVE: If you ask me, sure. ScullySlash and ladyslash, fine. E-MAIL: Greenegret@xoommail.com RATING: R/MA TITLE: Search CATAGORY: Scully/Other DISCLAIMERS: Scully, Mulder, and their assorted family and cohorts do not belong to me. They belong to Fox, Chris Carter, and whatever his production company is. I am not making any money off of this. Liliana Ramos and her cohorts DO belong to me, and are not available for anyone else's use. WARNING: This is a slash story, containing f/f sexuality. If this bothers you, go elsewhere and do not complain to me. I will not be sympathetic. SPOILERS: Season Six, primarily Tithonus and Field Trip SEARCH: PART ONE OF SEVERAL Splurt! Scully's calm face spasmed with disgust for a second before resuming its more customary position as she pulled her foot up from the mud, almost losing her boot, and continued on through the rain away from the tented incident center. What a lovely birthday this is going to be, she thought moodily, refusing to feel ashamed of such a frivolous thought - after all, it was only fairly recently that she had begun to take it for granted that she would have one again at all. She sighed and splooshed and splurted after the rain jacketed Search and Rescue woman - pushed off to the side again as the ever-unwelcome FBI liaison. Damn Kersh, anyway. This barely qualified for a junior agent yet - a father had taken off with his four year-old daughter to hide out in the State Park out of an irrational fear born of schizophrenia. Everyone in the small Maryland town knew that he and the child would be found safe but soaked in the forest; it had happened before. The only urgency involved was a fear that the child's cold would worsen in the cold and damp, or that the father would grow so irrational he would leave her, or lose them both without food. Anyway, however sure they were of the cause of the disappearance and its results, the search was necessary, and it was a kidnapping, so the FBI was necessary. Hence the disgraced sometime member of the X-Files got to spend her birthday stomping around in the wet and muck of a Maryland forest with a bunch of dogs. Scully waited grimly with the other police to be boosted into the big jeep with the S & R team she was to join, masochistically resisting wiping away the rain dripping down her nose. The other three were also silent, except for a little minor grousing about "that damn crazy Eisner" -- they were well familiar with this particular suspect. "Okay, up you come," spoke an incongruously cheerful voice, startling Scully out of her resentful funk. She started forward hastily, slipping in the mud just as she reached the van, feeling herself fall and catch just as quickly. She registered the tired chuckles from the others and the surprising warmth of her rescuer's hands just as quickly as she was steadied to climb into the van, blushing slightly. "Thanks." "You're welcome, it's a morass out there," said her rescuer, a woman about Scully's own age or a little older, with braided black hair and bright brown eyes. A shadow at her side woofled softly, adding in her own commentary. Scully, wondering a little at a person who actually used the word morass in a sentence, seated herself next to the dog as the door slammed shut, the others apparently going in the other vans. She looked with interest at the dog next to her, just visible in the dim light from the window and one of the other Searcher's lamps. Big, with longish rich dark fur shading from a warm earthy brown to almost black and a German Shepherd like body, eagerly friendly and intelligent in her gaze. "Beautiful dog," she yelled over the road noise and the pounding rain. "Thanks, she's a Belgian Terveren, " her erudite seatmate replied, with obvious pleasure, "her name's Chaser." This comment had apparently been the right one to make, the dog now shoving her nose curiously into Scully's hands, the other two humans in the van adding their smiles to Chaser's partner's. A slight tension Scully had been unaware of vanished. "I'm Liliana Ramos, that's Serenity Alic and Arthur, and Elspeth Tregallis and Medea. Arthur's another Terveren dog, and Medea's a most unusual Kuvasz." Liliana smiled, holding out her hand, much as her dog had thrust out her nose. Scully took it, naming herself in turn. "Glad you like dogs. The last FBI agent didn't," said Elspeth, thinly muscular with humidly curling brown hair, with a contemptuous look. "Stepped on Art's tale. Among other things." Scully was later to find out that one of those 'other things' had been to shoot at one of the other S&R dogs. The agent had been sent on a short medical leave shortly thereafter. "Call me Wren," said Serenity, rounder, blonder, and shorter than her seatmate, as she looked with amusement at Elspeth. "Else thinks anyone who doesn't like dogs is an automatic defective human being. In this case she was right, but still!" "Well, it's a telling sign," said Elspeth defensively, adding "and you know that one was a cretin. 'S good thing he didn't step on Medea's tail, she'd of made sure he didn't forget it." Scully smiled, feeling the easy commentary about the dogs ease her into a more pleasant frame of mind - not more professional, she was always professional, but more comfortable. Cases involving children always bothered her, even ones as apparently hopeful as this. She could feel herself being accepted by these three and their dogs in a way she seldom was by law enforcement suspicious of her as being over-educated, FBI, and female to boot. Chaser licked her, allowing herself to be nudged aside by Arthur and Medea as they inspected her hands and boots as well. Elspeth had fallen silent, hand on Medea's white back, but Liliana and Wren continued to discuss various exploits of all three dogs. Finally, Liliana asked her, "What about you, Agent Scully, do you have a dog? You obviously like them…" indicating Chaser's head resting on Scully's knee with a smile, the other dogs back at their partner's sides. "Please call me Scully. I did have a Pomeranian that I… inherited, but I lost him a couple of years ago and haven't had the time to give a dog since," she said, remembering with regret the strange and sad circumstances of both Queequeg's arrival and departure from her life. He'd been her only pet, her parents' military lifestyle and neatness being singularly incompatible with animals other than fish. As an adult she had never thought about a pet until she'd been given custody of Queek. "Oh, I'm sorry," said Liliana with obvious sympathy, echoed by Wren and Elspeth. She changed the subject, asking the others to go over the search plan. Elspeth quickly took over, going over each quadrant, the search pattern, the geography of the area, details about the subject, how to act if he was found, etc. Scully suspected that both she and Liliana were adding in details they would have left out for her benefit, finding this both clever and tactful. The others left her room to maintain her dignity as the representative of the great and terrible FBI, but also made sure she knew exactly how their Search and Rescue Dog group worked. Scully knew the basics, had often seen the teams on crime scenes, but was only roughly familiar with the actual mechanism. Elspeth and Liliana's little performance was reassuring, considering that she was supposed to know enough to appear confident with the Park Service and police. The van jerked to a halt, on a rise at the end of a very bumpy track, Liliana jumping up to grab the door open. With a soft humph of disgust she bounced out into the rain, Chaser on her heels, orange harness bright through the deluge. Scully and the other Searchers and dogs followed, pleased to find themselves on grass rather than mud. Once all fourteen of the ground searchers had settled patiently in the clearing, Elspeth and the Park Service Law Enforcement leader took deft control of the group, quickly pairing off Park Ranger or Dog S&R with police and volunteer, as well as one token FBI agent. Scully trotted off into the woods with Liliana and Chaser towards their assigned quadrant, again glad that she was wearing her new Timberlands, some sturdy blue jeans and a gray sweatshirt under her short dark raincoat. Her usual attire, though more dignified, would not have been appropriate, although she'd worn it in worse places when necessary. She let her mind skitter away from those worse places towards the present situation and her two companions. Liliana wore the same heavy orange rain gear that all of the volunteer Search & Rescue team wore that day, as well as a waist pack holding a flashlight, water bottle, and spare leash; otherwise, the two women were dressed almost identically down to the Timberlands. Chaser's orange coat matched her friend's as she scouted purposely down the trail sniffing energetically, though she knew she didn't have to start yet. Scully refused to entertain the possibility that she (small, red-haired, fine-boned) had resembled her own (small, red-furred, fine-boned) Pomeranian. "So, do you really think this guy isn't dangerous, Scully?" queried Liliana as they clambered over a downed tree, Scully noticing as they did so that the break was recent. "I don't know. He seems less likely to be than with most kidnappings, but what with the weather and his lack of medication, it's anyone's guess." She frowned, thinking of the damage done already to the child's lungs. "Have you dealt with many kidnappings? I mean, you don't specialize in this, do you?" Inwardly, Scully groaned, Outwardly, she said "I've dealt with a few, from several angles. However, I specialize in forensic pathology and am a medical doctor. I'm currently assigned to general detail, which is how I pulled this case." "A doctor! Well, you're just a useful person in general, eh?" "Hmm," replied Scully, knowing that this woman was probably wondering what such a "useful person" was doing on rookie detail, far from any lab. This case didn't even technically come under FBI jurisdiction except by a stretch; the child had been taken by a parent with shared custody and was presumably still within State lines. The Park's involvement was the only thing that justified the FBI's presence, at least until the father was known to have moved states or lost custody. "Forensics, huh? Do you know Adam Coultrain, of South Virginia Medical Examiner's? He got us the samples we needed to train the dogs, before we got "Dead Fred."" "Dead Fred? And no, although I've read some of his articles." "Fred's another useful person. He's a synthetic material that smells like a corpse. He comes in many flavors, old corpse, new corpse, not yet a corpse but close, etc. Before we had to use actual samples, and couldn't do wounded search practices at all." "I love being compared to a fake corpse. Very flattering," Scully spoke dryly. Liliana gave her a startled glance, and then laughed ruefully. "Sorry about that." "No, it's okay. I've heard of this before. I'd like to see a sample of it sometime." "For your birthday. You can come out and help us train, a rare treat, I assure you, especially with the new ones and the puppies," Liliana smiled at her as she spoke, offering her an unusual gift. Training wasn't open to the public. "Today's my birthday, and I just hope I don't get to see a sample of the real corpse along with my real search." "Hmm, well, Happy Birthday! And here we are, ready to go. Ready to go, Chaser!" She then released Chaser's leash and followed the dog, who was sniffing the air, heading towards the north, away from the path. Scully followed Liliana, startled by the dog's behavior and amused by Liliana's sudden shift of focus, or maybe revelation of focus. Scully's own attention had been primarily centered on what was waiting for them in the trees during the entire conversation. "What's she doing? Most of the dogs I've seen put their noses to the ground." "Air scenting. Dogs can pick up traces of a person miles away and hours ago, if they've got a good nose. And Chaser's the best." She followed after the dog, slipping down a wet-leafed slope into a stream, pausing to help Scully up the side again, hands warm on the Special Agent's. Some time later, Scully leaned against a muddy rock face, looking out down the hill through the trees. She could see Chaser's orange Search coat and Liliana's, behind the dog, and hear another dog barking sharply a ways off. She started to follow down the hill, but paused as she noticed non-orange-jacketed movement along the side below her. A man in a camouflage jacket was sneaking stealthily towards her partners - it was clear from his movements that he was trying not to be seen. She gnawed her lip anxiously - if she shouted, they would all be warned, but she couldn't let him hurt Liliana. Scully took a firm grip on the Ruger she still wore under her coat and slipped as quietly as she could down the damp hill, using the thin ash and oak trees as cover. Meanwhile, the man crept closer and closer to Liliana and the two dogs now at the bottom of the hill. Suddenly, one of the dogs woo-wooed and raced up the hill, stick in her mouth. Liliana started to bend down to her dog, innocent of the action going on behind her, but jumped up in surprise, turning to see Chaser drop the stick and race up to jump on the man behind her. The man shouted, slipping in the wet leaves to fall on his back. Chaser grabbed his arm growling, just as Scully reached them, shouting "Freeze, FBI!" The man, disheveled and unshaven, but recognizably the suspect, groaned and groped for his gun, dropped when Chaser grabbed his arm. Finally he stopped and croaked, "my daughter, my baby. It's got her! It's growing in her lungs, the kudzu!" Liliana, her arms around the proud and still-agitated Chaser, said, "We've got her. We'll get her out. You can handle him, right Scully?" "Yeah, you go look at the child. That was the signaling stick you told me about, right?" Scully looked back and forth between her catch and Liliana, trying to reassure herself that the other woman was alright, that she hadn't had another partner injured. "Yes. Oh, great, here come Else and Jamal - they can handle this guy while you doctor the kid." The tall black Sheriff's deputy that next appeared said, "I've got his scrawny butt, you two go look to see what those noses of yours found this time. You alright, Lil, Agent Scully?" "Yeah, thanks to Chaser and Scully, here. We're off!" The two women slid down the slope towards Elspeth and Medea, who were busily wrapping a little girl with frizzily curling red hair in Elspeth's rain coat, Medea trying to lick her hands all the while. The child paused to cough raspingly, leaning against Elspeth but still trying to pet Medea and now Chaser, who was eyeing her anxiously. Scully swallowed - that was a horrible cough - and reached for her own waist pack. "Hi, sweetie. I'm Dana, and you know Elspeth, and this is Liliana and Chaser. We're going to get you back warm and safe to your mama very soon, okay?" Scully was checking the child over for visible damage all the while, also giving her the juice pack and wrapped cookies she'd secreted in her pack. Anything more would have to wait for a hospital. It sounded like the poor child had pneumonia, though not the kudzu the father'd been rambling about. He'd been right that something was wrong with her lungs, at any rate. Several hours later, parent and child were both safely on their way to different floors of the same hospital, and Scully was dragging back home, exhausted but not in lack of a birthday party. Liliana had not forgotten Scully's remark about her birthday, and she and the other Search and Rescue people had ceremoniously presented her with a Search and Rescue hat, a signed publicity photo of the dogs, several Park Service souvenirs of the type given free to children, and from Elspeth and Serenity, an offer to help her find a dog - general duty certainly left enough time for it, so maybe she'd take them up on it. There'd even been a cake - Hostess cup-cakes from the little Park store with leftover sparklers stuck in them for candles. Everyone had been a little punch happy from the successful rescue, and Sully had truly enjoyed the friendliness of the way she'd been treated. Maybe Mulder's absence wasn't all bad, disloyal though the thought felt. Still, if she got more assignments like this at least she'd get to see these people more often. She'd liked them, those dog people, and especially Liliana. Liliana's friendliness and thoughtful actions warmed her - she'd been more thoughtful about her new acquaintance's birthday than most of her friends and family, including her brothers and Mulder.