The sun had just risen over the Atlantic as Jack Winters left the Federal Triangle subway stop, intending to be in the FBI Building before the working day began. The deputy director had texted him that morning telling him to get in first thing, and Jack knew what it had to mean. He was going to get to investigate the weird stuff.

When he had first joined the bureau, he had picked up the nickname "Mulder" when he let slip that he had seen an unidentified object once, and no matter how he clarified that he thought it was probably a military drone, the name (or the occasionally mistaken "Scully") had stuck. Realizing that embracing it would ultimately result in less teasing, he did so and now got looped in on anything weird that cropped up, people labeling it the X Files. If someone claimed that an alien was responsible for an abduction, or that Bigfoot was the mastermind in a series of bank robberies in the Pacific Northwest, he had the file.

So when the Anomaly happened last night and the deputy told him to come to the main office, they must have decided to make it a reality. After 20 years of these stories, each successive one making it that much harder to claim nothing was going on, he was ready for it. Anastasia rang true to him—even with how little he actually remembered, he was sure that She was something.

He tapped his badge and nodded at the guard as he placed his thumb on the scanner. The elevator doors were open and he walked straight on. He rode alone up to 11, taking the time to collect himself. The elevator chimed, the door opened, and he nodded confidently to the woman at the desk as he walked to Director Awbrey's office.

Awbrey was leaning back in his chair, drinking coffee and reading the morning paper. When Jack walked in he straightened and set the paper down as he took a quick sip. "Jack," he said with a smile, "thanks for coming in so early."

"No problem, sir."

"Well, no point beating around the bush - you know Ryan Sheffield, right?"

"Sure. SAC somewhere out west - Sacramento?"

"San Francisco. Well, he was sitting in traffic yesterday and had a massive coronary. He'd been dead for at least 20 minutes before anyone could get to him."

"Jesus," Jack said, shocked by the sudden news. He didn't know Sheffield beyond having met him at a conference or two, but he never would have guessed this. He was only a few years older than Winters and he remembered him as being fairly fit.

"Yeah, that's what I said. Well, we need someone out there, and you're next on the list. There's a flight headed that way in two hours and I want you on it. We'll get some people to pack up your apartment here, and get everything moved out. Until then, we've got a room for you at the Regency."

Jack's head jerked back a little at the unexpected news. "What about the task force?"

"Task force?" Awbrey said, puzzled. "Was there one you wanted to join?"

Jack stopped himself from blurting out anything. He took a quick breath and said, "Sorry, sir, I was just surprised. Seems like I'm always going from one task force to the next, and assumed this was another one."

Awbrey nodded. "It's time you settled down, and I think this is the place for you to do it. We've been looking for a place to put you in command for a while now, it's just unfortunate the way an opening came up." He stood up and reached his hand out. Jack rose in response and grasped his hand. "You'll be great, Jack. They've got a good core group there who will get you up to speed."

"Thank you, sir," Jack said as he straightened fully. "I'll certainly do my best." Jack glanced at his watch as he left the room, realizing how little time it took for his assumptions to be shattered.

"But that's a good thing, right?" the avatar of a kindly woman with a grey bun said from the table.

"Yeah, Mom, I guess it is," Jack's avatar responded. Jack was sitting in the lounge at the airport with a headset on, the avatar was in a rec room where the family was gathered around playing cards.

"Sure it is," his Dad said as he fumbled at picking up the virtual cards. "How do I do this again?"

"It follows your hands, Dad, just pinch your fingers," his sister, Lydia, felt guilty for moving to London and bought headsets for the entire family. This left her stuck with tech support duties for which she was not temperamentally fit. "Jack, what's the problem?"

"How do I pinch with the thing?" Dad asked.

"Are we playing or not?" Tom said, annoyed with everyone else as usual.

"Tom, give Dad a minute. Dad, why are you using the controller? It tracks your hands!"

Ethan and Diana were both laughing, and Jack assumed they were high since they were always high. He tuned everyone but Lydia out and answered, "I guess I just thought there would have to be something new after last night, and I could be part of it. Something, I don't know... important."

"We have to have the controllers to turn the thing on, dear," Mom said on behalf of Dad.

"What about last night?" Dad said, forgetting the attempt to play the game.

"Oh, for fuck's sake, I'm playing darts," Tom said as his avatar disappeared from the table and flashed over to the dart board.

"Mom, Dad, you don't need the controllers to turn it on. It tracks your hands! Just use your hands! Tom, get back over here and play! And kids, I swear to God if you can't hold it together for two hours I'm going to fly back to Colorado and slap you straight."

"It's OK, honey," Lydia's husband, Jeff said with his deep, calming voice. "Mom and Dad, you can use the controllers. You grip a card with the grip button, then put it in your hand and it will stay there."

"They'll never learn if you keep telling them other ways to do it, Jeff. But, fine, let's just play. Jack, are you playing?"

Jack shook his head. Lydia to it as 'no' in the virtual world, when it was a real-world expression of annoyance. Chaos reigns as always. "My plane will be taking off soon, I just wanted to check in before heading out. I'll make sure to make the next one - any idea when that will be?"

"It took me three weeks to get this one arranged, I have no idea. I'll send you an email."

"Love you all," Jack said. "I'll call when I get in, Mom and Dad."

"Before you go, which one's the grip button?" Dad said, and Jack heard the laugh in his voice that time, giving away the game. Jack heard Tom start to sputter as he signed off, laughing. His flight was just starting to board as he put the headset away. It was going to be a long flight to SFO, but at least he'd start it with a smile.

Jack walked down the terminal towards baggage claim, looking forward to getting to the hotel and getting some sleep. Delays at the beginning of the flight led to them being displaced from their gate when they landed and sitting on the tarmac for nearly two hours before deplaning. All told, he'd spent over 10 hours on the plane since boarding in DC.

As he left the secured area, he saw a stereotype in a dark blue suit with a muted red tie, white shirt, and black lace-up shoes. He held a sign that read SAC Winter and locked in on Jack immediately.

Jack mentally looked himself over. Black suit, black satin tie, white shirt, black brogues - Wait, am I the stereotype? He cut smoothly through the crowd to the man who reached to take his bag as soon as he came in range.

"Special agent Winter, I'm agent Ryerson."

"It's Winters, Ryerson, but good to meet you. No need for you to waste your night, though - it's been a long day and I'm going to head to the hotel."

"Sorry about the delays, and I get just wanting to hit the hotel, but ASAC Davies told me to tell you that she would appreciate you coming in."

Jack stifled a sigh. His body was screaming for a bed, but it would damage his ability to run the office if he rejected the request. He nodded and said, "Lead the way, and call me Jack."

"I'm Tom," Ryerson said as he turned and led the way out of the terminal. Jack shook his head as he followed.

"Agent Davies, call me Jack," he said as stuck his hand out. He had just walked into the office and she had been waiting, which he took as a bad sign. She took his hand and shook, her grip firm and her palm dry. A good FBI handshake.

"Good to meet you, Jack. Laura." She led him back to the SAC office which had been cleaned of the effects of Sheffield with FBI efficiency. He had left his bag with Tom, who turned out to be a lot nicer guy than his brother, to drop off at the hotel, so all he had with him was his computer bag. He set it down on the desk, the small bag doing nothing to fill the large, empty room.

He took a seat behind the desk, double-taking at the chair. The chair was a broken-down conference room chair, which indicated that the chair shuffle was working with FBI efficiency as well. He was sure the old SAC's chair was currently in Ms. Davies's office, and he could trace the hierarchy of the office by seeing where each other chair had gone since the news of Sheffield's untimely passing. 

"OK, Laura, why am I in the office tonight?"

"I've heard of you, Jack. 'Mulder', right? Saw UFOs back in Quantico?"

Jack chuckled at how serious she looked. "I did see what could be classified as an unidentified flying object, yes, although I think the terminology now is UAP. But I said at the time that it was almost certainly a military drone - the whole Mulder bit is a joke that has gotten way out of hand."

Laura looked pensive, trying to gauge what she could freely say to him. After a moment, she decided something. "I don't know what I was hoping for." She breathed in deeply and then exhaled slowly. "Something is going on in Redwood City."

Jack opened his bag and took his computer out as he thought about what he knew about the area. Redwood City was a port south of the city, but that's all he had off the top of his head. He booted the computer and took the time to plug it in. As it finished booting he said, "I'm new to town, so fill me in on Redwood City."

"Short answer? It's a port city on the bay, about a third Hispanic, about average income for the bay area. Mostly Democratic, maybe a little less so than most of the area."

"And what do you think is going on?"

"Well, there was a fire at a power plant that took power out for most of the city all night. There have been a large number of accidents there since the power outage, enough to swamp their 911 system. The local PD asked us for help earlier today, and I told one of the agents who lives down there to stop in and see what was going on. I haven't heard from him since, and I haven't been able to get through to anyone there in a couple of hours.

"To make it worse, there was something on TV last night about it. No one is really clear on what it was, but the crazies are coming out of the woodwork on this one. Claims of alien invasions, vampires, communist submarines, black helicopters, whatever the person's obsession is, we've heard it.

"If it were my call, I'd be looking at getting the Critical Incidence Response Group involved, but that's just my gut instinct and I can't really justify it. Luckily, they appointed a new Special Agent in Charge and this is no longer my call."

Jack shook his head ruefully. "Well played, Agent Davies. Fine. I can't order that now, but I guess I'd better get up to speed so I can see if it's the right thing to do. Round up everyone in the office who should be here to discuss this and get someone to provide a lot of coffee. I assume there's a shower in the gym, right?" Laura nodded, and Jack said, "I'm going to get cleaned up. Let me know when you can get everyone together."