Title: Devil in Distress Author: Scifinerdgrl Rating: PG-13 (here) Category: Casefile, DRR, Follmer/other Spoilers: "Release" Summary: Following my boyfriend Brad Follmer's instructions, I ask for Doggett and Reyes' assistance to find him when he goes missing. Written in response to NeoXPhile's casefile fan fiction challenge: "Write Yourself into a Casefile" *************************************** I pound the elevator button over and over as I ride down to the basement, but of course it doesn't make the elevator go faster. Yet oddly, it seems to help, and by the time I've arrived at the X-Files office, I feel less helpless, less out of control. ...until I see *her.* Monica Reyes. I'd know her anywhere, but of course I hadn't met her yet. She was the one that got away, and every time Brad mentioned her I felt that I was the consolation prize. I tried to repress the urge to compare her appearance to mine. There was no comparison, of course. I am tall, blond, full-lipped and buxom. She's tall, as all of Brad's girlfriends have been, but she wouldn't stand up to a point-by-point comparison... But there's no time for cattiness. Brad told me she was a helluva G-woman, and that if anything happened to him I should go to her for help. She knew things he couldn't tell me, and she sensed things I'd never be able to feel, and there was that shared history... It was all very mysterious to me, and I tried never to think about it, but when I went to his office to pick him up for our date, and he wasn't there... "Why Della," he secretary, Janet, said in surprise. "I thought he was with you. He didn't meet you at the gym?" "No," I said, my hands starting to shake. "I waited for almost an hour. It's not like him..." I felt a wave of nausea wash through me. No, it wasn't like him at all. He never kept me waiting, always stayed in touch, and often called me from his cell phone just to say "I love you." "Have you tried his cell phone?" she asked pleasantly. How could she be so unconcerned? I wondered. And of course, I had tried several times to call his cell phone. He was never without it. I tried again, and as I held my cell phone to my ear, I pushed open the door to the inner office. At first everything seemed normal. I could hear the ring of his phone... but I heard two rings. One from my phone and one from the his. It was in his jacket pocket. Janet and I riffled through the office and found everything that he should have taken with him: badge, gun, car keys, and wallet. That's when I ran for the elevator and hit "B." I burst into the basement office despite my momentary hesitation. "Are you Agents Doggett and Reyes?" I ask breathlessly. "Yes," Reyes answered, glancing from me to her partner then back again. "Is there something we can help you with?" "I need your help! My boyfriend is missing and..." I burst into tears, which makes Doggett race to my side to help me to the visitor's chair. Reyes hands me a kleenex and I accept it gratefully. "He told me to come to you if anything happened, and well... He's not in his office, so I came right here." "His office?" Reyes asked warily. "How long has he been missing?" "At least an hour," I sniffled, then blew my nose. "It's not like him to disappear like this." "An hour?" Doggett snorted. "That's not enough..." "You don't understand! My boyfriend is Brad Follmer, and he told me..." "Brad? Assistant Director Brad Follmer?" Monica asked, her eyes wide as saucers. I nodded. "He told me to ask you for help if he went missing. His secretary can't find him, and his cell phone is in his office. So are his badge, his gun... everything!" I burst into tears again, and as I buried my face in my hands I could hear the two agents letting out loud sighs. Hers sounded worried. His sounded disgusted. "Please!" I raised my eyes to hers. "He was supposed to pick me up at the gym, and he never made it. I'm afraid something terrible's happened to him." "He's probably just in a meeting," Doggett said. "He *is* an assistant director. He's very important." I bristled at the sneer in his voice. How dare he sneer at my beloved!?!?! "John..." Reyes voice sounded very calm but very take-charge. I was starting to like her. "We could at least make a few phone calls." I gave him my patented pouty-lipped make-me-happy girly-girl look, and he rolled his eyes. Well, at least he might cooperate to get rid of me. Ten minutes later they'd called all the other assistant directors, the deputy director, and the top agents under Brad. Nobody had heard from him or seen him. We decided to check his apartment. Well, I insisted and they went along with it. Doggett promised to circle the block, which would be easier than trying to find a parking place near Kalorama Circle, and Reyes came with me. The doorman nodded to me, which gave Reyes the idea to nudge my ribcage, urging me to ask him about Brad. "Josiah," I said timidly. "Have you seen Mister Follmer in the past hour?" "No ma'am," Josiah answered. "Want me to call his cell phone?" "Thanks anyway." I'm sure I sounded as dejected as I was. Brad wouldn't be in his apartment, and then what? I took out my key, which dangled from a heart- shaped keyring given to me by my beloved. "You have a key?" Reyes asked, incredulous. I couldn't help feeling a little victorious at her reaction but I played it down as best I could. "Of course. For several months now." We rode the elevator in silence, all the way to the second-to-the-highest floor. When we got to Brad's apartment, Reyes seemed awed by its stylish beauty. She'd obviously never been there before, which gave me some small comfort in this trying hour. "Can you stay with me while I check the answering machine?" I pleaded. She nodded with a kind of peaceful understanding that made me want to beg her to stay with me until we found Brad. She just made everything seem better. I hit the "play" button and listened. A few bill collectors. A sales pitch for a new housing development. His mother calling to say "hi." But then there was one that gave me chills. At first I couldn't hear anything but static, but after rewinding and turning up the volume, I could make out most of the words: "Meester Follmare. So sorreee I could not keep our appointment. But you know me. So imperfect..." The speaker had a low, growling voice, and he laughed about being imperfect. His laugh was unlike anything I'd heard before. Self- congratulatory yet at the same time self-deprecating and even a little dangerous. I figured it must have been an informant, but before I could turn the volume back down I heard him continue: "So your leetle nerd-girl is perfect, n'est pas? I am so happeee for you I do not know how you expect me to make your life *more* perfect, but I weeel try. I weeeel be at your office theess afternoon. Have a nice day!" The caller broke off into another sinister laugh, making me jab at the "stop" button just to shut him up. I turned around and saw Reyes staring blankly at the answering machine, as if in a trance. "Monica?" I asked, shaking her shoulder. "Agent Reyes?" She came to with a start then said, "We have to go back to his office. There's something we missed." Reyes waved down Doggett, who was *not* pleased to see me. I was tempted to hail a cab, but she pulled me into Doggett's truck. I sat by the window, straining to see any sign of Brad's car in traffic, as Reyes and Doggett argued about going back to the Hoover Building. He wasn't annoyed with me, it turned out, but with her. He was jealous. By the time we got back to the Hoover Building, it was nearly vacant. We walked down the hall to Brad's office, alert to every sound or shadow. The door to the outer office was ajar, as if Janet had just stepped out. I pushed it open the rest of the way and said, "Janet? Are you here?" All I heard was a faint rustling sound from the kneehole under her desk. I stepped inside, and went to the wastebasket under the desk. I expected to see a mouse, or even a rat, but what I found was more shocking and dismaying than anything I could imagine. Not being of sturdy constitution like Agent Reyes, I collapsed into a dead faint and came to on the couch in Brad's office. Doggett and Reyes were sitting on the chairs opposite me, and the thing that had caused me to faint was resting on the coffee table between us. "What does this all mean?" I asked, though I was hoping this was all a bad dream and I would wake up. But it was no dream. "I don't know," Reyes said. "But we're determined to find out." After I came to it took me awhile to get my bearings, and when I did I nearly fainted again from what I'd seen. In the wastebasket, papers were rustling just slightly, and when the culprit surfaced, it wasn't a mouse or a rat, but Brad himself. He'd somehow shrunk to about a foot tall. And now here he was, in all his miniature glory, sitting on the coffee table waiting for me to come to. For his sake I did my best to be cheerful. And after all, it might not really be him, right? It could be an apparition or a voodoo doll or something. He'd instructed me to call Reyes, and she'd lived in New Orleans... "Hi honey," his teensy voice called out. "I see you followed my instructions." It was barely audible but it was Brad alright. Nobody else knew about my secret promise to him. "Brad, sweetie," I sniffled. "What happened? Is this some kind of dream?" "I wish it were," he sighed. I knelt on the floor so he wouldn't have to shout. He looked away, but stroked his hair with one finger and gently urged him to look into my face. "Whatever happened, I'm here for you." That seemed to cheer him up a bit. "I did it for you, honey. I hope we can still be together." Reyes choose that moment to stick her nose in it. Hmph! And after I'd started liking her. "What did you do, Brad?" she asked. My lover pulled a piece of kleenex over his naked body then sat on the box. "My life lately has been perfect. Well, approaching perfection. First, I met you..." He paused to look up into my eyes. I smiled down on him and stroked his back with one fingertip. Encouraged, he continued: "But I was afraid it wouldn't last. You see, I rose to my position with the help of a friend, and this same friend helped me meet you, love... and then he found my apartment for me. Well, I just wanted to be sure it would last, that my life would stay perfect forever." "This is perfect?" I cried. "How?" He shrugged. "I just said that I was so happy I wanted to make it last forever." "You should have been more specific," Reyes scolded. I was about to jump in and defend him, when he hung his head and said, "I know." "It was that man on your answering machine? The one with the accent?" I asked, though of course I knew the answer. He nodded. "Every other time I asked for his help what I got was better than I could have dreamed." Shivers went up my spine when I realized he'd wished for me, and that I was better than he imagined. He was more than I'd ever imagined too. "Well let's call him back!" I demanded. "Now wait a minute," Doggett interrupted. He'd been just sitting there all this time, and I'd almost forgotten he was there. "Who the hell is this guy? Why should we trust him again if he did this?" "You can trust me," a syrupy voice oozed out of Brad's intercom. The next thing we knew, smoke was rising from the speaker. The smoke wafted toward us then materialized into the form of tall, thin, suave European gentleman. "Meeester Doggett," he said. It sounded like a sneer, but he kept a straight face. None of us knew how to react. "So gooood to meet you. And Mizzz Reyezzz. I can't imagine you need my services." "We didn't summon you," Reyes said. "Nobody did." "Ahhhh but you are wrong," he said. "Someone wants me to perfect something for them." "It's me," I volunteered. Brad hissed my name, but I would not be dissuaded. He'd wanted a perfect mate? Well, a perfect mate wouldn't let her lover go through life as a lonely twelve-inch midget. "We were perfect for each other, and now look at him!" I started crying despite my determination to be with my paramour. "I want to be with this man forever. He's everything I've always wanted in a man. Or he was... " I began to wonder if this man really had the power to fix things. He just stood there watching my emotional display. "I just want to go back to the way things were, when we were perfect for each other!" "NO!" Reyes shouted. "Nobody wants anything from you! Go back where you came from!" "Monica!" Brad squeaked. "He's the only one who can fix this!" I rushed to the mysterious man and put my body between him and the agents. "This isn't up to you. It's our lives!" I yelled at Reyes and Doggett. Doggett just shook his head in disgust. "I can't believe this..." "John," Reyes scolded. "We have to help them." I put my hands on the man's chest and pushed him backward into the corner. Fortunately, Doggett and Reyes weren't paying attention. "You did this to my boyfriend? What did you do?" "Ahhhh meeez you reeeeeeeally love theees man, n'est pas?" his voice oozed. "Yes," I sniffled. "With all my heart." I looked over my shoulder at Brad, who was trying to find a safe way off of his perch. "All he wanted was to be with me forever, and that's all I want too. So you see, he never really needed your services." The man chuckled. "Nobody ever *really* needs my services." His eyes narrowed, training their gaze on my lover's ineffectual gestures. "Until now." A chill ran down my spine. I ran to the coffee table and snatched up my boyfriend, being careful not to hurt him. His limbs felt strange in my hand. They were stiff, and his skin felt rubbery. "Is it getting worse, honey?" I asked. Nestled in my upturned palms, Brad looked into my eyes and for the first time I could see fear written in his face. "Forget about me," he said. "And don't make any deals with that man. Please, honey. Get out while the getting's good. Clutching Brad's tiny body to my breast, I ran back to the mysterious stranger. "Please, sir. I'll do anything. I'll give you anything. The only thing I care about is spending the rest of my life with this man." "As you wish," the man cackled. "So you want what your Meeester Brad wants, eh?" the man asked. He raised his arms suddenly the whole room began to spin. I clutched Brad to me as I spun around and around with the room, and as we spun together I could feel him getting bigger in my arms. I laughed and cried with joy as I felt his body growing against mine. It would all be okay. We would be together forever. When the room stopped spinning we fell to the floor, happy in each other's arms. "I love you, Brad!" I squealed. "You didn't have to..." he started to say, then his eyes grew wide as saucers as he looked up, over my shoulder. I turned my head and looked up. It must have been some kind of optical illusion, I thought at first. Some kind of after-effect from all that spinning. But it was no illusion. Doggett and Reyes towered above us like redwoods towering over blades of grass. I jumped to my feet and found myself looking Reyes in the shin. "What?!" I cried out. When I turned around the mysterious stranger had vanished. Damn! I thought. He didn't restore Brad to normal size. He'd shrunk me to Brad's size. Brad got to his feet. "Honey, I tried to warn you..." I reached for his hand. His fingers were stuck together, and then I realized that mine were too. "What's happening to us?" Reyes got down on the floor to look into my eyes. "He's turned you into Ken and Barbie, the perfect couple who will never age and never have any problems." I sighed. "I should have been more specific." "He won't come back, honey," Brad said as he put a stiff arm around my shoulder. "I tried. He didn't appear just now for me, but for you. Once you say the word 'forever' he can't make any more changes." I looked into his eyes, which had become bluer and a little glassy. "As long as I'm with you, forever isn't long enough." ***EPILOGUE*** Reyes has been so good to us I regret ever being jealous of her. She's set us up in our own dream house, and when the weather is nice she takes us outside in our purple Mustang convertible. It took me awhile to get used to plastic limbs, and I'm still trying to adjust to a life of chastity. Sharing a bed with the world's most handsome man and not being able to show it is enough to drive a girl crazy, but we love each other and that's all that matters. THE END