"So, is speed dating after target practice or-" Dana joked.

Eric chuckled and said, "If only it was that easy. No. Monica and I met in college, Brown University. We had mutual friends and often found ourselves being the last ones to leave the party. We never officially dated but It wasn't until graduation that I realized how much I loved her and that I never wanted to be without her. I had graduated with a Masters Degree in Literature, but changed my whole life plan and followed her here to Quantico."

"Wow Eric, that's - that's almost a fairytale," Dana said as she readjusted the duffle bag on her shoulder.

"Well, I hope this fairytale has a happy ending." He reached into his back pocket and took out a pack of cigarettes.

He held the pack out to Dana, as he slipped on in between his lips.

Her heart pounded.

"Uh- no thank you. I recently quit." She stepped back an inch.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Eric smiled. "I know how hard quitting is. I've tried four times." He took the lit cigarette out of his mouth and tossed it on the ground.

"You didn't have to do that," Dana said shaking her head.

"It's no big deal. After all, the last thing I wanted to smell was the smoke when I tried quitting. Anyways, let's go get these things up to your room." He pulled the handle up on her suitcase and headed for building 3C.

The two new friends lugged her belongings up four flights of metal stairs. Dana's calf muscles began to burn but she had to keep going. She couldn't pause on the stairs to catch her breath. Especially on her first day at Quantico.

When they reached the top of the stairs, Eric didn't have a bead of sweat on his forehead, and Dana, quite the opposite of the huge mass of muscle that was Eric, wanted to collapse on the floor.

"Do you remember what room Monica assigned you?" He asked.

"Oh yes- it was 424." She exhaled.

She followed the tall blonde down the hall and around a corner. The building was old and worn, a new coat of white paint adorned the walls, trying to hide its dinginess.

"Well, this is it," he said as he pushed the handle back down on the suitcase. "I'll catch you around, Dana. It was great meeting you." He grabbed her hand, gave it a squeeze, and then jogged down the hall.

"Bye," Dana said quietly. She hoped she would see her new friend again soon, and if not, she hoped to one day meet another guy like him.

Eric's story about him and agent Reyes haunted her mind. That was honestly all she wanted in life. She often times wished that she had dropped out of medical school to marry and raise a family. Most of her friends were mothers by now and she envied them, to put it lightly. She was ready for the next chapter in her life to begin, but for some reason, the next chapter took place in Quantico, Virginia.

Dana opened the door to her new room. As it swung open she saw two girls, about her age, one sitting at a desk, blonde with blue eyes and the other reading on her bed, African American with tight curls atop her head.

"Hello." Dana meekly said.

The girls both looked up.

"Hi! You must be Dana!" The girl reading the book squealed. She leaped to the door, her brown curls bouncing up and down. "I'm Chanel Dawson."

"Nice to meet you, Chanel," Dana said warmly as she stepped inside the door.

The girl at the desk glanced up at Scully and back down at her writing.

"That's Bonnie Scottsdale. She's a little... Quiet." Chanel said softly as she voluntarily grabbed Dana's suitcase.

"You didn't have to drag that huge bag in here." Dana laughed.

"It's really no problem." Chanel insisted. She took a seat on her bed and patted an open space for Dana to take a seat.

"So, why are you here?" Chanel asked with a smile.

"Well, I was recruited by the FBI while I was in Med school at the beginning of the summer. I accepted, obviously, thinking that I could make a better name for myself here. I call it a 'necessary action to further my career' and my parents call it an 'act of rebellion'. I just hope to God I'm doing the right thing." Dana confided in Chanel. She felt safe expressing herself in the tiny 12x12 room.

"Wow Dana, that's quite the leap of faith."

"Well, thank you. I just hope it was the right leap," She shrugged. "What about yourself. You're awfully peppy for an agent in training."

"I'll take that as a compliment," she smiled."I'm here because I grew up in a place where I never felt safe. I watched my mom and my dad worry about my and my sibling's safety. I joined the force because I want to make places like where I grew up safer, catch the criminals that threaten peace. I know it sounds like a twelve-year-old boy's dream, but it really does mean something to me."

"No, Chanel that's incredible. I admire your courage," Dana smiled. "Where did you grow up, if you don't mind me asking."

"Atlanta, Georgia. Downtown. Right in the heart of it all," She said as she picked at her fingernails. "It's a crazy, crazy city, but I love-"

"Can you two take your confession session somewhere else? Some of us actually care about the work assigned to us." Bonnie sharply interjected.

Chanel motioned toward the door with her head. The two girls quietly walked out, making sure to not further anger Bonnie.

"This should be fun," Dana said sarcastically.

"On the bright side, we only have to deal with her for nine more weeks!" Chanel smiled.

"Oh, is she ahead of us in the course?" Dana asked.

"Yes. She and I are about half way through. If I can deal with her, I know you can."

"Oh, okay. I didn't know you both were advanced. Well, at least she's almost out of here." Dana replied.

"Hey, you wanna go grab some lunch?"

"I'm starved. But I have my first orientation at noon." Dana said as she motioned her hand down the hall.

"Well, find me after orientation and we'll grab a bite." Chanel smiled and walked back into their dorm.

Scully opened her packet of papers and flipped through to find her schedule. It said:

1200 Hours: Orientation in room 127

1300 Hours: Lunch in Mess Hall

1400 Hours: Psychology and Criminal Behavior in room 165

1600 Hours: Personal Defense in room 145

1800 Hours: Dinner in Mess Hall

1900 Hours: Cadaver Lab and Forensic Autopsy

2100 Hours: Lights out in Dorm

"Wow. I don't know what's better: Lights out at 9 o'clock or a cadaver lab after dinner." Dana said to herself.

~

"Hello, Agents and welcome to Quantico. I am Agent Williams, head of FBI training," a tall woman in her late forties said in a loud voice. "Your training will not be easy. It will be physically and emotionally strenuous, you will see things that you have never seen before. But I can tell you, that when you step out into the field and investigate your first case, you will never look back."

Dana's heart was pounding as Agent Williams continued her speech. She found herself questioning her strength, her mindset.

"You have all been accepted here at Quantico, but only time can tell if you can accept it." Agent Williams continued.

The room in which they sat in was large, harsh lighting beamed from the ceiling, and as far as Dana could tell there was no air conditioning. Sweat beads began to form at her hair line and it felt like someone was sitting on her chest. She fanned herself with her schedule and anxiously peered around the room. At least one hundred agents sat all around. They appeared to be her age. From what she gathered, they were all much taller than she, even the women, were muscular and cut, they seemed to be calm too.

As her eyes skimmed through the crowd she saw a group of three men standing in the corner of the room, in a direct shadow. They all were quite old, possibly in their sixties and stood in expensive suits. The man standing in the middle seemed to be staring right at her. Her kept his stare steady and raised a lit cigarette to his mouth. His eyes were locked with hers and he slowly nodded his head. Dana's heart stopped and the hairs stood up straight on her arm. She quickly turned back around in her seat and tried to catch her breath.

"Agents, your next eighteen weeks will bring a lot of challenges; be prepared. If you are not, the door is right there and believe me, we can replace you just as easily as we selected you."

~

"Chanel?" Scully knocked on the dorm room door. "Chanel it's Dana. I'm ready for lunch." She knocked one more time and turned the doorknob. It was unlocked and she pressed forward into the room.

Bonnie still sat at her desk. This time, she had headphones on, listening to a tape on her Walkman.

"Bonnie, do you know where Chanel is?" Dana politely asked as she placed a finger on her desk.

She lifted one side of her headphones up and said rudely, "She went to lunch five minutes ago. Now please, leave me alone!"

Dana backed out of the room and followed the smell of lunch to the mess hall. Upon her arrival, she spotted Chanel sitting at a table with both male and female agents. Dana cautiously approached the table. She noticed that the agents at this particular table could be models. The women were tall and gorgeous with flawless faces and the men were equally gorgeous. She sucked in her stomach and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"Uh... Hi, Chanel." She squeaked in an awkward manner.

"Dana! Guys, this is that new agent I was telling you about," Chanel motioned Dana to step forward. "It's her first day, so make her feel welcome."

The table erupted into Hi Dana's and Nice to meet you's. She smiled and waved back at them all.

"I'll catch up with y'all later. I'm going to show Dana around." Chanel stood up and linked arms with her new friend.

"You don't have to leave them, Chanel. I'm fine on my own." Dana said.

"Don't worry about it. I need some fresh air anyways." She chuckled.

The mess hall was no different than any other school cafeteria. Even down to the cliques and where they sat. The brains, the brawns, the nerds, and even the glamorous girls all sat at their own tables. Except for one agent that sat all alone.

Chanel and Dana grabbed their lunch trays and headed out to find an empty table. The pair sat down and began to inhale their food.

"It's not the best food in the world, but it sure tastes amazing when you're starving," Chanel stated as she shoveled a spoon of mashed potatoes into her mouth. Dana nodded in agreement. She had a mouthful of food and didn't speak.

"How was orientation?" Chanel asked.

Dana sipped her water and cleared her throat.
"It was- it was just fine." Dana looked down at her plate.

"You know, it's totally normal to be nervous on your first day. A lot of us are still nervous and we've been here for 3 months. What's wrong?"

"It's just... At orientation I saw this man, he was old and dark and he was smoking right in the orientation room. No one said a word to him. It was like, I was the only person that could see him. He wouldn't stop staring at me. It was like a bad dream." Dana began to feel anxious again.

"Dana, sometimes your eyes play tricks on you when you're upset. I'm sure you just imagined it-"

"But Chanel, I didn't. I saw him."

"Don't worry about it, Dana. I'm sure it's nothing."

The two sat in silence for a moment. Dana's eyes focused on the lonely agent once more and she had to speak up.

"Who's the agent over there?" She asked as she discreetly pointed at the young male agent sitting alone, reading a book, and popping sunflower seeds into his mouth.

He had a very soft look; brown hair, fluffy and combed messily to the side. Big round glasses, and a nose that was a bit too large for his face but looked rather adorable, anyhow.

Chanel swallowed her food, nodding. "That's agent Fox Mulder. Most agents refer to him as 'Spooky Mulder', though."

"Spooky? What on earth? Why?" Dana chuckled.

"That's a story for another day." Chanel shook her head.

Dana, unamused, demanded an answer.

"Let's just say that he's probably the most talented agent here, but he's not here to learn how to gun down humans if you get what I'm saying." Chanel raised an eyebrow at her.

Dana shook her head in confusion.

"Does 'ET phone home' mean anything to you?" Chanel asked with a chuckle.

"You're not serious," Dana scoffed. "Aliens? He wants to hunt aliens?"

Chanel nodded as she took another bite.

"Is there even an FBI department for that?" Dana asked.

"I heard that there is. It could just be a rumor, though."

" Yeesh. I pity whoever the bureau hired to work there." Dana said.

Chanel nodded, took both her and Dana's trays and brought them to the trash cans.

Dana looked at the lonely agent once more. She felt sorry for him the more she began to watch him. Surely he was nothing more than misunderstood. Maybe the rumors about him and his obsession were false.

Upon Chanel's return to the table, Dana said,
"Maybe I should go introduce myself." She began to stand up.

"Oh no, no, no. Not on your first day. I'm not the kind of person to ever tell someone what to do, but I think it would be in your best interest to stay away from him." Chanel advised.

"What's the worst that could happen?" Dana asked, taking her seat again.

"Dana, just don't question it. Listen to me, okay? C'mon. Your first class is starting soon."

Dana looked one more time over at the "spooky" agent. She didn't feel scared or threatened by him. She felt drawn to him if anything.

Thank you for reading! Make sure to check out my newest  MSR stories Amorem Animalem and The Ending They Deserved.