Chapter Text
A knock on the door let Mulder stop his work immediately. “Come in”, he said, looking at the door wondering who would walk through it. Two men stepped into the cluttered space soon after, one of them wearing some kind of earplugs. “So you are Agent Fox Mulder!” the man loudly spoke. “Yes, and if I'm correct you must be Gordon Cole. I've heard about you.”, Mulder said. “What?!”, Gordon replied, looking at him confused. His companion sighed deeply, “He has heard about you, Gordon!”, he yelled. “Oh! Have you? I hope only good things! Doesn't matter now! We're here to ask you for your help!”, Gordon yelled. “My help? Help with what?”, Mulder asked, obviously intrigued. He had heard stories about Cole's so-called Blue Rose Task Force. Gordon looked at the other man, “Albert, would you tell agent Mulder?”
The other man, Albert, threw a file on the table. “We're here because the Bureau decided to turn one of our cases into an X-File. We were hoping you could have a look at this.”, he said, nodding at the file. Mulder rolled his chair over to the table and grabbed the file, opening it.
The first thing that sprung to his eyes was a clear photograph of Special Agent Dale Batholomew Cooper, the second thing was the words “missing in action since march 1989”
“Coop has been missing?”, Mulder asked surprised, looking at both men. “You know each other?”, Albert replied, squinting at Mulder. He nodded, “Cooper and I met at the academy”, Mulder briefly stated, obviously not telling everything there was to know about their past. “What happened to him?”, the agent then added to switch the topic. “We aren't sure about that. Agent Cooper was working on a case in Twin Peaks, Washington when he disappeared. The local law enforcement claims he went into the woods one night and never returned.”, Albert told him. Mulder quickly skimmed the file, “Why does the Bureau want to make his disappearance into an X-File?”, he asked the two. Gordon and Albert shared a silent glance before the forensic expert answered: “There are.. things in these woods that aren't particularly human. We don't think that Coop's disappearance is of a human nature. Unfortunately we never found anything in all these years since he vanished. We only have the eye witness report of the local sheriff.”, Albert told him. Gordon crossed his arms in front of his chest, “We'd like him back, agent Mulder. You're our last hope in this!”, he said loudly. Mulder looked up at Gordon, then nodded, “Yeah, of course I'll help. I'll try my best, Sir.”, he nodded. Gordon looked a little confused for a moment before he replied “There's no need to cry, son!”
Albert rolled his eyes, muttering something under his breath before he loudly exclaimed “TRY! Gordon! he's going to TRY his best.” To that Gordon smiled and gave him a thumbs up, “That is the spirit! Best of luck to you. I hope you will find our Coop.” he then turned to Albert, “I'm gonna go get some coffee and a smoke. The Washington headquarters always makes me feel dizzy somehow.”, with that Gordon was gone and the other two were left alone in the messy office.
Albert looked him up and down, “I have to say, that it is a little frustrating that you're our last hope but I heard you're good at what you do so I believe that you may be able to find him.”, he grumbled. Mulder raised an eyebrow but did not say anything. Instead he took another peak into the file. Dale Cooper, Twin Peaks - Washington, Missing, highly classified. Black Lodge.
“What's the Black Lodge?”, Mulder asked. Albert scratched the back of his head, “That's hard to tell really. If you want more information about it I'd recommend asking the people of Twin Peaks. It's an old native american myth apparently. Go ask deputy Hawk when you are in Twin Peaks, he can tell you more about it.”, the forensic expert said. Mulder nodded, “Fine. I'll have to read the file first, see if I can find an X-File that might help with what happened to Dale.”, the older replied. Albert looked at his watch, then nodded, “yeah, I'll let you get to it.” when he was about to walk out of the door he stopped, turning around again to say: “Finding Cooper is important to me. I wish you best of luck.”
An hour later when Scully walked into their office, Mulder looked up again. “Scully you won't believe this”, he said, no smile on his face though. “You always say that, Mulder. What's it this time? Also, I do not like this face you're making. What's wrong?”, she wanted to know. “We're investigating the disappearance of a fellow agent and friend of mine. Dale Cooper disappeared 4 years ago in the woods of Twin Peaks, Washington. His superior - Gordon Cole - has asked me earlier if we could take the case.”, he explained. Scully looked at him in shock. “Dale is missing? I didn't know.”, she said. “You know each other?”, Mulder asked the same question as agent Rosenfield did before. The redhead nodded, “yes, he's also a friend of mine since we worked on a case years ago. There's no one better to share a bottle of wine with and vent about problems. What happened in Twin Peaks and why are they asking us?” Mulder smiled at her curiosity, “They asked us because the Bureau decided to make Dale Cooper's disappearance into the black Lodge a X-File.”, he explained. He gave her the file Albert had brought along earlier. Scully opened it and quickly skimmed the pages. “So he just vanished into some red curtains in the woods?”, Scully asked sceptically. “Acording to the local sheriff Harry S. Truman.”, Mulder nodded. “And never came back?”, she added. “Nope”, the older shook his head. “Well then, when are we leaving?”, Scully wanted to know, to which her partner smiled brightly.