From: "=?iso-2022-jp?B?GyRCJF8kPyRLGyhC?=" Date: Fri, 2 Jul 1999 20:12:59 +0900 Subject: Guardians Chapter 1 Disclaimers Source: direct part 2 *Disclaimers - Please read from part one. Thank you. En Route Los Angels, CA Next Day, 11AM "Listen to this, Mulder." She reached out her hand and shook her sleeping partner's shoulder. "Hmm?" He answered groggily, his mind wanting to dive back into his rare opportunity to sleep. "The police indicated very little evidence of anyone being at the top of that subjected building. There are no eyewitnesses, no fingerprints, nothing too promising. All traces of evidence was washed away by the storm." "What exactly are you saying?" He didn't like her beating around the bushes. "I'm saying there's no proof that anyone was even up there on top of the building at the estimated time this reported event took place. It is bizarre enough that anyone chooses to stay so late at night all by oneself, especially for anyone to go back to the construction site fully aware of the danger. "Besides, it's highly improbable that any little girl would go wandering around in a stormy night, and climb on an unfinished eighty-story building on her own. Look at the height of the metal railing alone. It's five foot two, and the entire top section of the building is surrounded by it. How could a seven-year old girl climb over it without any person or object to assist her, then be crazy enough to walk over to the very edge of a metal poll?" "The railing is your height, but that doesn't mean that the girl can't be there." He stopped once he saw her menacing stare aimed at him. She let him pass with his apologetic grin. "How did she end up there? None of this makes sense, Mulder. This man Jake Kathler could be orchestrating this fiasco in order to get a little publicity. I checked the local news, and it seems Kathler was made into some sort of a local hero." "That's a no, Scully. When I spoke to his colleagues, they told me that this incident brought them so much negative attention, they almost lost the job to someone else. From what I heard, some big private construction company in Nice hired them two and a half years ago via recommendation of a top Asian enterprise." "Maybe he's trying to destroy his own firm, to cash out the firm; get the firm's market stock; net share, the profit..." Even as she spoke, Scully knew her argument was weak. She just couldn't help putting up a fight against Mulder. "So, why would the girl trust Kathler in the first place? From the police and hospital reports that I gathered, it seems as if this guy's the only connection with the real world for her. Kids sense these things, Scully. They see you right through." Mulder's tone grew stronger, accentuated by the single slash of his hand in the air. However, his face still looked ready to slip back into sleep. "This Kathler guy could be threatening the girl so badly, that she has to show her trust in him if she wants to live." "The state social worker said Kathler gave her his permission to visit them any time of any day, Scully." "I noticed. But she doesn't stay there every hour of every day." "Kathler wanted her to. She even stayed over for a couple of days." "So what?! The woman isn't there every day! In fact when I checked, she was in the middle of a nasty child abuse trial. She's only checking the girl at Kathler's place once a day right now. Who knows what goes on after that?" "What about the dog?" "What?" Her facial expression blanked. Mulder tilted his head a little and leaned closer into her. "Kathler's dog, Stella. The girl seems to be so fond of the new four-legged friend of hers, our LA guys even let her take Stella to their later sessions." "She probably feels secure when she's with the dog. I don't know. Maybe the dog's trained to attack her if she disobeyed Kathler. Maybe Kathler threatened the girl to take Stella with her for safe-keeping." Even as Scully grimaced at how little chance she had of winning this round with Mulder, he threw his arms in the air in the 'I had enough of this bullshit' gesture. Scully sighed, knowing he was right. "What do you want to do? Stay with them during the entire course of our investigation? I still need to analyze the drawings. I haven't seen any of them yet, and you know how ugly profiling work can get. Do you think I really want the poor girl and Kathler see me doing that?" "Well, no." Scully was forced to agree with Mulder on this one. "According to this case file, Kathler told the local agents about a particularly bright lightening; and really unique sounds of thunder that followed. He said that the lightening was like a beam of direct light, that it was too bright to bear even after closing his eyes. He'd had to shield his eyes with his hands because of its brightness. As for the thunder, he reported that it had a strange rhythm, like a bunch of waves washing over him." Mulder tried not to be too obvious of what he was trying to get at, but of course, Scully saw right through his tactics. "Don't." A flicker of something close to anger or challenge crossed Mulder's features at her quick response. He always hated being figured out so quickly, but he'd always loved a challenge, especially ones brought on by Dana Katherine Scully. "Don't what? Kathler also said that the lightning he was indicating lasted much longer than any he'd ever experienced. He also indicated that when the next one came just seconds later, it was at a very far distance." He saw her take a quick breath. "Let's just save the fun until we know more. Okay?" She practically pleaded for him to stay quiet on his reliable-yet-unconventional theories. Mulder stared at her for a moment before looking down at his hands. After a long moment of silence, Mulder released a deep breath and caught her attention. "Scully, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have dragged you away from your family. I'll have to visit your mother again and apologize to her in person. I haven't seen her for a long time, and to be quite honest, I miss her. I've also known for a while that you've been under significant pressure from both of your brothers to get out of the bureau; if not out of the X-Files and my life." Mulder paused there to see her rigid expression fixed on her computer screen. He saw her gaze wobble a bit without leaving the computer. He reached over and abruptly closed the laptop. The movement startled her enough to make her face his determined expression. "Mulder..." She was about to protest, but she stopped in mid-sentence and let her eyes close just to have some semblance of privacy from his eyes. "Please, just hear me out." Mulder smoothed out his voice to a mere whisper. 'The tone of a confider', Scully thought. She waited for him to speak. "For this investigation only, I'm willing to back out things get too dangerous for us. Now, I've never done that for anybody, but this case isn't our original file. Plus, I don't want this case to drag on for too long." "Afraid I might miss my next appointment?" She asked, her eyes snapping open. Mulder saw her anger hiding behind the blue eyes. He knew he screwed up and ran for cover. "No. I mean, I don't..." "We're not going back, Mulder. Until I have my answers." Her head span back to face him, and what he saw in that steel-cold gaze spoke her determination more than anything else did. He nodded before he reached over to her again and flipped her computer top back open. Then he moved the computer in between them, so that he could study the screen with her. A small smile floated on her face just for a brief second, gone undetected. Canoga Park, CA Same Day Noon Linda stared at her note pad and wondered why Jake wanted to have the D.C. FBI agents to stay at his house. Los Angels Bureau office told her that they'd agreed with Jake because he wanted their new team to get used to the little silent girl. "And", the agents added later, "it would save the tax payers some money". Linda had no personal objection to this devising of their plans since the girl would be with Jake and Stella. Plus, Linda was allowed free access to the Kathler property; to go in there any day at any time she wanted an inspection. Linda listened as the agent on the phone informed her of all details of the 'big league' FBI's arrival. The local sheriff was to greet the agents at the LAX and inform them of Jake's request. "Wait 'till you meet this guy. Should make things interesting." The agent on the phone said before hanging up. 'Whatever', she thought. Despite the easy stance she kept toward Kathler case, she wasn't as uninterested to its outcome to completely abandon it. Not even after the FBI involvement became undeniable. She would have clear answers on her own once the extensive background check on Jake arrives at her desk. She wrote the information down, and went back into the courtroom for yet another long day. She was done as an expert witness, but she still needed to keep an eye on the prosecution team's progress. Jake's Loft Same Time Jake looked around the house and wondered just how to keep everything in order. There was practically no privacy for anyone, but that was exactly why he chose for the agents to stay at his house. He wanted to create a non-threatening environment in which the girl could decide whether or not she wanted to learn to trust them; that the agents weren't coming there to harm her, him, nor Stella. Jake still wondered how the agents would react to this living arrangement, but they could have enough time to themselves outside the house. Essentially, the agents could speak with whomever they wanted to in and out of the loft. The local Sheriff was supposed to bring the agents to his house, but other than that, Jake had no idea as to what to expect; much less how they were planning to handle this case. Elly was already in for the day, trying everything she could think that could make the agents feel welcomed in this house. His gratitude toward her was received as always. However, she refused to take the rest of the day off as he suggested, claiming that she'd had enough time-off and she didn't mind staying late if it was for the lovely girl. The girl was now drawing again. The first thing Jake noticed upon coming home from Nice was a pile of her drawings lying about on the kitchen counter. Although Elly had somewhat straightened them up in a corner and pinned them down with the coloring pencil box, some of the newer ones had been left scattering. Jake was never happier to have followed his foresight when he bought another large three-ring binder and another two boxes of the plastic sheets. Now he sat beside her, taking each artwork and slipping through the rings. It had been a near disaster when Jake told everyone in the office that he would be at his house for practically 24 hours a day until the FBI investigations are to be completed. Seeing the havoc his statement was creating, Jake promised his colleagues he would sneak in a few on-site work hours here and there. He told them he still planned to attend every important conference or meeting that the firm would hold via his screen phone. When they still protested, he asked them if they would want the FBI coming in and out of their offices every time the agents needed something he already had at home. Everyone shut up at once. Los Angels International Airport Los Angels, CA 3 PM "I'm sorry about the delay." The Sheriff apologized as he placed the agents' luggage into the police cruiser. They shook hands then, and Mulder insisted it was no problem. "We've been through much worse." Scully added for the older man's comfort. The warm weather was a nice change from the chill of D.C., and Scully congratulated herself for packing light clothes instead of her wool business suits. It wasn't until the car started that Mulder asked the sheriff where he was taking them. "We were told that our lodging accommodations had already been made. We weren't informed of the location." Scully spoke as she turned her attention away from the scenery to the officer. "Well, when your agency called me to pick you up, they were short on details. They said you'd know why when you get there. Believe me, I've been to the place once myself, and that's a hell of a lot nicer place than some of the business hotels around here." This got Scully's hopes up, getting more than tired of seedy motels that Mulder had a knack for booking them into. "Why were you there?" Mulder asked, thinking it odd. "Was it job related?" He added. The sheriff's slight nod was accompanied by a long sigh. "Yeah. There was a suicide there a while back, and I was one of the first on the scene." The older man spared the agents a swift glance via rear-view mirror before concentrating on driving again. "How comforting." Scully mumbled, her spirit sinking fast. She looked at Mulder, but she saw that his mind was hard at work. "What is it, Mulder?" She asked, but he shook his head and stayed silent. Narrowing her eyes, she turned her focus back to the scenery. It was very uncharacteristic of them, but the warmth and humidity in the LA air, coupled with their jet lag caught up with them, lulling them into sleep. When the Sheriff woke them up, Mulder found his head buried quite deeply in Scully's strawberry-scented hair. He hastily straightened himself before smoothing out the few tangles formed in her hair where his face had been. She narrowed her eyes while scrutinizing the motive of his actions until she saw his apologetic grin, which was when she decided to let him off the hook. When Mulder stepped outside, he faced a gust of ocean air and a decidedly deserted industrial section of the city. Traffic was low, and there was a metal fence and a railroad just a few yards ahead. Mulder had to admit he hadn't stayed in any place like this, mostly out of the fear for his life. He couldn't count the number of times he examined corpses in places like these. "Oh, my God!" Scully exclaimed, and Mulder could only imagine what was running through her head at this very moment. "At least we're armed." Mulder offered, but this only earned him a glare. "This way, agents." Sheriff herded the agents and led them to a loft that stood directly in front of them. The brick building had a few steps leading to a darkened corner of the building. Here and there, they saw exposed steel pipes, iron pipes, and metal round polls that were supporting the loft's outer structure. The entryway to the front gate was set passed the dark, poorly lit steps. When they reached the black entrance gate, a computer-operated security system appeared in front of them. The concrete driveway and the black fence that stood at the side of the building seemed to be the only indication of anyone living there. The Sheriff pressed the doorbell before seeing the fence was unlocked and began leading the band up the stairs. Mulder followed close behind Scully, being extremely careful not to bump into her for the fear of retaliation. The marble door opened before they reached for it, and a middle-aged Hispanic lady with one of the warmest smiles they'd ever seen on a human being greeted them. The Sheriff, along with the agents, shook hands with her. The woman named Elly took their luggage inside one by one before letting them through. Scully was the first to enter the loft, and the sight that greeted her was nothing she'd ever expected. Mulder heard her gasp and almost expected her to run out of the door. However, he soon learned why. "Oh, Scully! This is definitely the best motel I've ever been." Mulder exclaimed, taking in the high ceiling, tall windows reaching the floor to the ceiling, the immaculately polished hard wood floor, and the white washed surface of the gourmet kitchen counter matching the color of walls. All windows and the bathroom doors had slightly tinted glass. There were spaces for small windows and shelves that looked like they'd been curved out of its concrete walls. Numerous fluorescent lights were placed vertically on the sidewalls for illumination, and there were very few lamps around. Mulder stopped dead when his eyes located the collection of miniature city buildings glistening in the sun light. Scully came to notice them and turned back to Mulder, obviously stunned. There was a large light fixture that one would normally see in a photo or film studio; complete with a controller to set its height and the canisters at the bottom for mobility. It was set directly against the wall, obviously to light the miniature buildings. Mulder turned to see Elly staring at him intently. "Where's Mr. Kathler?" Immediately sensing something wrong, Mulder asked her and produced his badge. Elly's eyes never left Mulder as she gaped at him. Mulder narrowed his eyebrows. Scully looked back as the Sheriff told them he'd like to get back to his office if they were all right. The man's hand was already grasping at the front door's stainless-steel handle, indicating he was done with his chauffeur duty. Both agents relieved the man from his escort duty with their thanks. The Sheriff said his good-bye and closed the door. Because their heads were turned, they didn't notice Jake approaching them from behind with the girl by his side, holding his left hand. "Right here, Special Agents Mulder and Scully." Jake saw the agents turn around to face him. Then, all was still. "Uhh... Right this way, Agent Mulder and Agent Scully." Elly recovered first and motioned them toward the kitchen. Still, nobody moved. "...Oh. My. God. I knew there was something real funky going on in here, but I never expected see my ...clone." Mulder's voice was mere whisper, but it was audible in the deathly quiet of the loft. "Clone?" Jake recovered next, narrowing his eyes. "Do you mean like 'Dolly the sheep?' I'm a half-Scottish human male, but I was never involved in any of their genetic experiments, and I'm not a card-carrying member of the Church of Scotland." Jake failed to suppress his laughter toward the end. Scully snapped out of her shock and produced him her official badge. "Dana Scully, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Special Agent." Not really noticing as she read her credentials backwards, she carefully moved to shake Jake's hand. Jake appreciated her concern for his healing right shoulder. "The forensic pathologist / medical doctor / physics expert? It's nice to meet you, finally. I've heard a little about you from the local agents. I hear you two are one of the kind; to say the least." Jake smiled to her before offering his hand to Mulder. "Special Agent Fox Mulder, I hear you're a psychologist / one of the top criminal psychological profile experts. Nice meeting you, especially. I'm Jake Kathler, the architect." Mulder was still staring at every inch of Jake, but he came to his senses quickly enough and awkwardly shook Jake's offered hand. "This must be the little girl you've rescued." Scully said, turning to the girl at his side and kneeling in front of the girl to level their eyes. "Oh, yes. She's been the light of my life for the last two weeks." Jake replied and watched as the girl warily shook Scully's hand. "Ah... Uh... Please. Call me Mulder." Finally recovering, Mulder held up his badge to Jake. "I hope you weren't raised in Chilmark, Massachusetts; that you never visited a small town called Quanocautaug; that you never known a William Mulder and a Tina Mulder. I also sure as hell hope that you'd never met a girl named Samantha Ann Mulder, nor heard about a lost twin." Mulder felt Scully's elbow jabbing him into his side and winced. Jake understood exactly what Mulder was getting at, and shook his head 'no' to all questions. "Both of my parents are deceased. Their names were Samuel and Cindy Kathler, and I don't have a sibling. I grew up in Quantico, Virginia; Annapolis, Maryland; and spent some years in Chicago. ...I eventually ended up out here to start my own life." Finally noticing that they were still crowded behind the loft's front door, Jake motioned for them all to take a breather in the kitchen where Elly was waiting for them with the same warm smile she had when she answered the door before. "What can I get for you?" Elly asked as she saw them settle down on the kitchen stools, the little girl included. "Coffee would be very nice. Thank you." Scully spoke first, smiling at the pleasant woman. "Cream or sugar?" Elly asked as she filled up a large mug. "Just cream, please." Scully answered and gratefully took the steaming mug Elly handed to her. There was absolutely no dishonesty in this woman's expression, and Scully hoped her instinct was right. "Me, too. Black." Mulder followed, noting that it had already been freshly made. For Jake, handed a mug and an Earl Gray tea bag. Jake smiled and thanked her. Mulder turned around to examine the rest of the house, and almost laughed aloud upon seeing an indoor basketball court. Large metal-framed lights that reminded him of typical indoor sports facilities illuminated part of the ceiling over the basketball court. The panel of the basket goal was made of a clear fiberglass, the metal hoop matching with the net made of chains. On the polished hardwood floor were all the necessary lines for a game; drawn in yellow, black, and white paint. Against the wall directly below the basket goal was a narrow tree planter lined with a layer of smooth gravel. He saw small trees plated in it, but they were very likely fake. 'Boy', Mulder thought, 'I wouldn't mind living here myself'. "So, I guess you've heard my request for your staying here during the investigation." Jake began. Mulder turned around and nodded. "I know this must be very unusual, but it's for the best. This girl still refuses to talk to anyone; myself included, although I don't really feel the need for it. ...I must warn you that I'm being a little paranoid here. I, as much as the girl here, need to learn to trust you and your organization. The last time the police came to see me was three years ago, when I first met the Sheriff." Mulder nodded an understanding. "The suicide of your fiancee." Mulder finished for him, knowing it must be painful for the man to be talking about it. Scully turned to Mulder, obviously surprised by the revelation. Jake nodded, silently wishing the subject never came up, but appreciating Mulder's obvious knowledge of the incident. "Yes. That was an unpleasant experience." "Mr. Kathler." Scully began, needing to change the subject. "Please, call me Jake. You were saying?" "Jake. I've noticed a near complete absence of walls here. I mean, how do we...?" She paused, turning around and raising her arm to indicate the rest of the spacious house. Scully belatedly took notice of the basketball court, then and a large hand-curved wood bench that was placed against the wall, set next to a drum-shaped basket full of basketballs. 'I can get used to this', she thought. She smiled at the obvious delight in her partner's eyes. Jake threw an arm in the air in an expression of helplessness before settling it back on the kitchen counter and exhaling. "I'm sorry if privacy is what you are asking for. I live alone, which says a lot about my little need for walls. Also, I need to keep this place as spacious and comfortable as possible for my work. Right now, we need to keep absolutely everything in the open. I know that you'll need to talk amongst yourselves, but you can do all that out of this house. All I'm asking is for you to stay here, so that you can learn about this girl and me. I can only ask you to bear with me on this. To tell you the truth, I'm afraid for her safety. I have never left her alone, and I've spent minimum time out of this house. "If you're also worried about the basic living arrangements here, I've taken liberty of calling the furniture rental company and get you your own beds. Where you want to have them arranged is entirely your choice." Jake added, knowing the question was coming up sooner or later, very likely from Scully. "I'm sure it'll be fine, Mr. Kathler." Mulder was about to continue, but Jake held up his hand to halt him. "Not you, too. Please call me Jake." Mulder resisted the urge to answer 'Whatever' before it was out, and decided to get right down to business to get themselves out of their increasingly uncomfortable conversation. "All right. ...I believe your requests shouldn't be a problem, but I'd like to have the girl's drawing as soon as possible, so that I can get started." Mulder knew he would have to confine himself to somewhere he wouldn't be disturbed in order to create a profile. However, that method was usually reserved for cases involving violent criminals. This time, the subject of his profile was sitting right before his eyes. He decided to take a look at the drawings first and see just what was so intriguing about them before deciding on his course of action. When Jake went to his work desk and got the two binders for the agent, Jake pondered whether or not to hide his virtual reality machine that still lay untouched on the computer desk ever since he'd isolated these horrible images. Deciding to postpone the task, Jake moved back into the kitchen. "Thank you." Mulder took the binders carefully as if they held answers to every secret of the universe. Scully observed the girl who was watching Jake as she played with the tiny wood blocks. Her large green eyes didn't look as though they were looking at a vicious criminal. As far as Scully observed, the girl never acted in fear, nor had she ever eyed Jake as if she was afraid of him. Then, Scully reminded herself that she'd spent less than half an hour with the girl in this house, therefore she couldn't afford to make any assumptions, yet. Sensing Scully's intense eyes, the girl turned around to look at her observer. Scully smiled, but she was met with the girl's wary, searching gaze. Scully sensed a whole lot more work and trouble waiting ahead for them than she'd first expected. She turned to Mulder, who kept flipping through the pages of drawings with an utter astonishment. "You're right, Kathler. She's a real find." Mulder said as he slid one of the binders toward Scully's direction. Jake nodded his appreciation, but decided not to insist Mulder to call him by his first name. Jake was afraid that if he stuck around the subject too much, Mulder would sense that something was wrong. Considering the agent's expertise in psychology, the man might force Jake into opening up a can of worms that Jake wasn't ready to open, much less to liberate it from deep inside his past. Scully took the binder from Mulder and began flipping through the pages. Scully's eyes widened a moment later, then wandered toward the girl who still kept staring at her. Mulder took one of them out of the plastic cover and studied it even closer. "I'd like to make color copy of everything in here. I need to examine them. And I mean, examine them. I need to form a profile on this girl, and..." "That'll be fine with me. I've already saved all her drawings in the computer with my scanner, and..." He nearly told Mulder about the three dimensional versions, but kept his mouth shut. "If you need the original to mull over, just ask the artist for her consent." Jake motioned for the girl and Mulder nodded toward her. Scully sighed and finished her second cup of coffee. "I'll unpack and settle down first. I'll need to change out of this suit, and..." Scully craned her neck toward the double smoke glass doors. "I assume that's your bathroom?" She asked, seeing Jake nod. It was obviously going to be a long day. "Help yourself for anything you need. I've had Elly here to get you your own bathrobes, and there's more than enough supply of towels. There's a bathtub and shower set up separately." "Thank you." Scully nodded gratefully and left the counter. Although Jake's hospitality was flattering, Mulder couldn't help wondering whether Jake was being himself or trying to patronize them. Jake watched Scully go, then turned back to face Mulder. "One of the agents who came to pick this girl up everyday..." Jake began as he patted the girl on her back. She cut Jake off, and gestured him to help her off of the tall kitchen stool. Jake wrapped his left arm around her and let her off. That was the first time Mulder ever noticed the black-and-white spotted large dog waiting at Jake's feet. The girl patted Stella, and the dog led the girl to the general direction of the television. Mulder heard Jake laugh. "She brushes Stella everyday in front of that television. Thanks to her, Stella's never been more beautiful in her life." He said as he sipped his tea before continuing on with their previous conversation. "Anyway. There were two agents, and when they came to pick up the girl each morning, she refused to leave the house. I had to tell her every time that she needed to do this to find her way home. I told her what she was doing was important, and that helping the agents would help her, too. I told her we all loved her; reassured her that even Stella loves and feels the need to protect her, which is true. Stella's very protective, and she follows the girl everywhere. The girl even got me to let Stella sleep with her in her bed." Jake flashed an indulgent smile that spoke the depth of his love for the girl, and Mulder silently appreciated Jake for giving the little girl what support she felt she needed. "All this time, she's never tried to go out on her own, or...?" "No. She knows she's in trouble, and I feel safe to say that myself." Jake paused and sipped his tea. "I guess now they sent you here to find answers. You know, when I first heard about you, they told me you and I have a lot in common. I never knew what kind of 'common' points they were talking about." Jake laughed again, and Mulder joined in the laughter. Mulder quickly noticed that Jake expressed himself fairly freely, and Mulder thought the girl was helping the situation. When being face to face with Jake Kathler during his private hours, one could feel his emotion and read his gestures easily. "You know what they say about every person having five identical-looking people in the world. ...What did they tell you, exactly?" Mulder couldn't help feeling wary, already anticipating typical responses he received in the past to this line of questioning. "They told me that you're the best that the Violent Crimes Unit has ever had, but you broke away from them to start your own department; under a direct supervision of one of the FBI's Assistant Directors. The agents also mentioned that you two investigate cases that were either labeled unexplainable, or just too messy and complex. You two also prefer to work by yourselves, but you have connections all over the country; many of who work for governments, both domestic and foreign. Oh, and that the local police forces tend to grow fond of you." "...Oh." Obviously surprised, Mulder pondered how to explain his current work. "But, do you know what's really weird about them? Just a couple of days ago, when they decided to hand over this case in your hands, I wanted to get some revenge on their previous attitudes and I made them stay here for a chat. I told them that I wasn't going to let them go until they told me enough about you. They got real nervous and shrunk in their seats." Jake was sure that the agent shouldn't miss the joke. "Yeah, I bet they did." Mulder gave him a resigned grin, then buried his head in his hands. Jake kept on, not understanding why Mulder should feel anything less than utmost pride for all his accomplishment. Jake detailed the stories, which were told by the two FBI agents, including the details about Scully's abductions and the nature of Mulder's work. "Elly usually goes home at night, so I ordered our dinners on the phone. They ordered Chinese food, and we ordered Italian. They told me to check out one of your cases in public record. Something about a serial killer named Monte Props in 1987?" "1988. Yeah, that case got me some attention from the higher-ups, but... Sorry, please go on." Not wanting to interrupt, he motioned for Jake to continue. Jake nodded before getting to the part about the coffee stains, and how they fled from his house the moment their dinner arrived. Jake stopped to ask if Mulder wanted another cup of coffee when he thought he saw Mulder wincing. Then Jake noticed that the poor man was trying to laugh his head off, but laughter just couldn't find its way out of him. "Jake? ...Tell that to Scully when she comes out of there. She needs to hear this." Nearly choking, Mulder struggled to keep his breath under control. Scully showed up shortly, frowning at her partner's beet-red face. She'd changed into her ivory summer suit, with matching high-heels. Her gaze was aimed straight ahead as she seated herself back into the kitchen stool, missing the sight of Jake admiring her. Her hair was still slightly wet, leaving the strands slightly curled with the moisture. "Tell me what?" She asked Jake, who'd grinned at her and told her to give Mulder some time to recover. When Mulder eventually recovered, he disappeared into the bathroom to change his clothes. Scully knew Mulder could hear her own laughter as Jake told her the story. Jake had deliberately spared Scully the part about her being kidnapped. Scully answered some of Jake's questions by telling him that they've investigated several alleged alien abduction and serial murder cases in the past. She also told him about Mulder's nickname, and how everybody claimed that the X-Files give them the creeps. She also let on about the fact that it was the departmental policy to trust no one until they were proven trustworthy. Jake nodded now that some of the puzzle pieces were falling into place, amazed by the heart of the matters concerning the X-Files. When Mulder came out dressed in his gray summer suit, Scully noted improvement in his hairstyle, now that they were going to start work. His earlier laughter was gone, and she now realized the familiar hungry grimmer in his eyes, hunting for answers. He nodded to Scully, motioning for her to be ready. "Jake? I know our arrival in this case wasn't at your request. But it is our job to provide you with necessary protection just as much as to solve the case. Here's our cellular numbers in case of emergencies, and don't answer the door unless it's Elly, Linda, or law enforcement officers. We should be back around sometime in the evening." Mulder instructed as he handed Jake one of his business cards. Jake nodded and watched as Scully took one of hers out of her thin wallet made especially for housing her badge. She walked over to join her partner, both picking their briefcases up off of the floor beside the door. "We will be at the construction site. It would help us if you accompanied us, but..." Jake cut Scully off, already shaking his head 'no'. "I told them I wouldn't be at the office unless it's absolutely necessary. Besides, I don't think you have any problem entering the building; even without your badge." Mulder grinned in response and held the front door open for Scully. "Something tells me we should skip the construction site, and head straight for the hospital to check out the doctors who treated the girl." Mulder said warily, but Scully stayed silent while buckling her seat belt. Scully had talked Jake into letting them use his car, since they didn't get a rental at the airport. Jake was reluctant with the idea at first, but he'd waited no more than two seconds before answering 'yes'. "Scully, I'll drive to the hospital first, then you drive to the construction site and see what you can find in there. I'll call you once I'm done. ...If you're still stalled in there, I'll haul a cab and join you. If you get done earlier, call me and pick me up. I don't want to have to explain who I am to everybody I meet at the construction site." "Okay, that saves us some time." Scully agreed, straightening her skirt. "I just can't get over the feeling that time is running out on me." Mulder muttered and turned on the ignition. It didn't take Scully much effort to find the fastest route to the construction site and to the hospital on the city map. Mulder followed her directions to the letter as nearly always, trusting her navigation skills. Upon arriving at the hospital entrance, Mulder couldn't help grinning at the amount of attention which Jake's white BMW caught from the onlookers; not to mention the cat-calls thrown at the beautiful red-headed woman who slipped into the driver's seat and adjusted the seat before she glared at them. Henry Barrington Hospital Los Angels, CA An hour later Mulder read through the girl's medical record once more from page one. He hadn't heard from Scully yet, no doubt looking for everything there is to look for. 'Well, well...' he thought, 'Wait 'till Scully gets this one'. He imagined every possible angle of her pending attack against his theories; save one. There was a time when even she couldn't argue with him. He stopped again at a report of the girl's blood work. The girl's white blood cell count was sky-high, and release of certain type of glucose had been recognized, indicating the symptoms of a prolonged weightlessness. His attention also focused on the physician's note about her blood-chemical abnormalities. Mulder called Jake at his house and requested him to bring the girl into the hospital immediately. Jake demanded his reasons and Mulder insisted that time was critical. They couldn't possibly discuss this matter over the phone. Jake was still reluctant, but Mulder let on that it was indeed a medical emergency. Jake finally agreed to wait for Scully to come pick them up. Mulder hastily hanged up and pressed on the first speed-dial button. "It's me. Come down to the hospital right now." "Why? What happened?!" Her voice had to be raised over the noise in the background. "Right now. Bring Jake and the girl in here. They're already waiting for you to pick them up at the house." He hanged up the phone without waiting for her response, not caring about manners at this point. Next, Mulder stalled the attending doctor who conducted initial exams on the girl. "Is this going to affect my career?" The veteran doctor asked nervously. "No, but you might become famous later. Some members of the media might find this case interesting." Mulder decided that this doctor didn't need to know the term "the media" indicated here were the tabloids, UFO fanatics, and various cult groups. Jake arrived in less than half an hour with the girl, led by Scully, both looking ready to deck him. "Okay, Mulder. What the hell's going on?" Scully barked the moment she caught up with him. "This is the doctor..." Mulder gestured toward the ill-at-ease physician who obviously wanted to be anywhere but where he was right then. "I know who he is. Come on, spill." Jake was insistent. The doctor had already recognized the physical resemblance of the agent and the architect, began calmly explaining the girl's test results. Scully snatched the folder of the medical test results out of Mulder's hands and carefully read every page. There was a remarkable similarity to the case they pursued five years ago. She looked up from the report and met Mulder's intense gaze. She rolled her eyes as her fears were confirmed. "Mulder, you're not suggesting..." Mulder jerked his head to cut her off. "I'm not, Scully. I'm only telling you the truth. Right there." He pointed at the blood work section. Jake craned his neck above Scully's head to read the file. The girl kept holing onto Jake's left hand while silently watching the adults arguing about her health as if she wasn't even there. "Are you absolutely sure that everything indicated in the physical was done correctly?" Scully interrogated the poor doctor who nodded at her repeatedly, offering to do the tests again if they desired. Scully went for the idea without waiting for a second to answer. Not liking the exclusion treatment brought upon him and the girl, Jake pursed his lips and lightly patted the girl's small head with his right palm. His eyes narrowed when the agents began talking about doing the full genetic work-up to see if there was any genetic abnormalities or diseases that predisposed the girl into her current condition. 'More tests?' Jake inwardly winced at the thought. But then, they were the authorities and he was merely a guardian; officially or not, Jake was a guardian none the less. He wanted to call Linda, but realized there was nothing she could do against the FBI. Hearing Jake's sigh, Mulder turned and found Jake on his knees, explaining their new situations to the little girl. Mulder kept watching for the girl's reaction, and noticed her gaze drop from Jake's eyes to her tiny feet. Mulder knew full well how tough things had been for her, and he wanted to complete their investigation as soon as possible. Scully was still inclined to drop the case, but Mulder sensed she was still daring him to change her mind. "Nothing's wrong on the X-rays, Scully. But what if we ordered the CAT Scan, PET and the MRIs? I bet those would clear up more questions for us." "Or they'll produce more questions." Scully got in her last punch. "Can't hurt. Is there any reason why we shouldn't?" Mulder shrugged. "As a precaution, they maybe worth it." Scully agreed and looked at the veteran doctor who added the tests to his growing list. "Could someone explain to me what exactly PETs are? I know what MRI is, because I've been through it whenever I got head-injuries, but I've only heard of PET." Jake asked from behind them, not liking to be left in the dark. "PET stands for Positron Emission Topography, and it shows brain activities. It tells us which areas of the brain are active and which aren't. The subjects receive an injection of radioactive glucose which produces a reaction in the body that produces gamma rays." Scully read out of her memory. Jake nodded, understanding what he needed. "Okay. How long do these procedures take?" Jake asked Scully, who mentally calculated the hours. "I'd say come back tomorrow morning and do the rest. It takes about half a day, including the genetic tests and the second exam... I don't know. Might take an entire day." "Can't we do some of those right now?" Mulder asked Scully, not wanting to delay anything. Scully glanced toward the doctor still standing behind her. "Whichever is available. Right, doctor?" She asked the man, who nodded and told them to give him about half an hour to find out just what is open. She thanked him, then suggested the rest of them to go down to the cafeteria in search for something edible. Mulder knew her suggestion was more out of the need for changing their pace than satisfying her appetite. When they returned, the doctor told them he had scheduled the girl for the PET. Everything else would take more than two hours of wait. Mulder thanked the man, and the veteran doctor was finally liberated. "What is the problem with the MRI?" Mulder muttered. "They are just a snapshot of the brain. They don't even take a full second to shoot. I expected that to be the first." "Mulder, you've been through them many times before. They take a while to prepare, and then another long while before they come out in print. Not to mention the fact that the injected radioactive glucose needs to be absorbed into the system." "Can I go in with you guys? I mean, to inside?" Jake asked Scully with a hopeful look. Mulder followed Jake's eyes. "Might be possible with our credentials. I'm a medical doctor, Mulder's a doctor in psychology, and you're the patient's temporary guardian. I don't see too many problems." Scully said as she pressed the 'UP' button on the elevator. One arrived just a few seconds later, inviting them into the car. "Psychology isn't a hard-core medicine, and my specialty areas are still regarded as magic tricks. Scully, even you know why John Douglas changed BSU to VCU: gotta get the 'Bull Shit Unit' joke out. ...I've been thrown out of these hospital exams before, and that was after I showed them my badge." Mulder said as he gazed at the ascending floor numbers. Next to them, Scully furrowed her eyebrows. "They don't have to know that, Mulder. Don't look at me weirdly if I address you as a doctor up there." Scully stepped out of the elevator first, letting Mulder and Jake go ahead of her, followed closely by the girl. 'Well,' Mulder thought, 'every bit helps'. Jake's House Canoga Park, CA 7 PM Elly's hand-cooked dinner and an excited Stella greeted them when Jake opened the door. The girl practically dove herself toward the loyal canine, rolling around on the floor together until Jake made her a proposal. If the girl went to wash up for the supper and was done eating, she could play with Stella as much as she wanted for the rest of the night. Mulder inhaled the appetizing aroma that filled the air, and asked Elly what smelled so heavenly. Mulder's stomach growled at the sight of chicken kachetoria and a large bowl of Caesar salad. His eyes popped open at Elly's mention of their dessert. "She baked a sweet potato pie!" He whispered excitedly to Scully, who let out a soft laughter in response. "What?" Jake asked Scully as he sat down at his seat. The ever-present little girl had taken her seat, saying no to the spicy Mexican dish and going directly for the salad. Her eyes stayed on the dessert as she attacked the salad. "Oh, it's nothing. Mulder has a thing about sweet potato pies. He's nuts about them, and they're hard to find. Especially the good ones." Elly laughed at the comment, and promised to bake a couple more tomorrow. Mulder smiled sheepishly before digging into his dinner. Scully took her share of the food, but decided to get changed first. Jake watched as Mulder craned his neck until she was out of sight, then added a few more chicken pieces and another scoopful of salad onto her plate. "She needs to eat more." Mulder commented before asking Jake to keep quiet. Jake nodded, watching the girl wipe her mouth clear of the dressing before she went after the pie. "You know, you're doing a great job of taking care of her." Mulder commented honestly, knowing the man must be walking through his personal uncharted territories. "Thanks. I would like to think so. I have an excellent advisor here." Jake's reply was just as honest, his adoration toward the girl, as well as his respect for the experienced woman standing in front of him shown clear in his eyes. Scully returned in a black tank top and a pair of dark blue jeans. As she took her seat, Mulder watched her until he was convinced she didn't notice his tricks. Scully rolled her eyes when Mulder took two large pieces of the pie for himself. He said no to the offered whip cream heaping over everyone else's plate for the fear of ruining the taste. Elly placed the dishes into the dishwasher and turned it on before leaving for the night. Jake watched as the girl came out of the bathroom in her white cotton pajamas and motioned for Stella to come with her to her bed. "She's really exhausted." Jake said out of concern, seeing the two agents nod in unison. "Has she been like this a lot?" Scully asked. Jake nodded, dropping his gaze. "Ever since those Los Angels agents came to take her for tests. They completely worn her out, and I have no clue as to what they did with her." A clear expression of helplessness washed over Jake's hazel eyes, the sight driving an ache through Scully's chest and stomach. She sensed this man needed solid answers much more than he needed encouragement. "All we know is that they were trying to bring her out of her current mental state in order to enable her to communicate with us. I say we'll go check it out as soon as possible." Scully said, looking at Mulder for confirmation and getting a nod. "Why don't I go by myself, Scully? I'm the psychologist here, and you as the medical doctor, should stay with Jake and the girl to oversee the tests." "What about the construction site? I doubt anything helpful will come from it, but..." "That can wait. They're construction workers employed under contracts. They're not going anywhere for another five months." "All right, then. You go to the testing center, and I'll go dig out some background info on the doctors." "Deal." Mulder nodded and went into the bathroom to get changed. Scully watched Jake as he headed for his work desk. "Working late?" She asked. Jake turned his chair around to face her. "Yeah. I hope you don't mind. I tend to do this often, and occasionally into early morning hours. I promise to keep my working hours to minimum while you're here." "No, you go ahead. Believe it or not, Mulder never gets a decent night's sleep since he's an insomniac. I've been working beside him for nearly five years, so I'm quite used to it." This was something Jake would have to know sooner or later. "Jesus. Just how much more do we have in common?" Jake asked, smiling as he turned to face his blueprints only to turn back a few seconds later. "Agent Scully?" "Dana." "Dana, don't tell me Mulder's good at basketball." "Actually, yes. He's very good." Scully grasped her hands behind her back, her expression beaming with pride without her realizing it. Jake stared up at the ceiling, shaking his head in awe. But of course, Jake hadn't had the chance to see the videotaped spectacular performance of Mulder at the last year's annual FBI Basketball tournament. "Thank you, Scully. Wanna play one-on-one sometime?" Mulder suddenly invited himself into the conversation, making Scully jump. When she tried to reply, she saw that Mulder was addressing Jake directly. "Sure, but not now. I'm full, and she's sleepy." Jake pointed at the girl already curled up in bed with Stella. Mulder smiled at the sight, then abruptly swallowed hard. Scully immediately noticed his mood change by the way Mulder looked longingly at the sleeping girl. Scully knew exactly what he was thinking at that moment, and she needed to pull him out of his reverie before it caused damages Mulder couldn't afford. "How about you let me in, and one of us keeps the score?" Scully joined in, trying to reel Mulder back into the present. True to her guess, Mulder turned to look at her, a little startled. But before he opened his mouth, she declared, "Don't you give me crap about my height, either." Mulder chuckled in response, but he quickly devised a retaliation plan. Scully cried out in surprise as Mulder quickly reached for her head, messing with her neatly styled hair. She tried to slap his hands off, but Mulder's height enabled his hands to wade off the moves. Soon, Mulder successfully raked his long fingers through Scully's silky red strands, tossing them around in his hands like he would do with a salad. She decided her defense was useless, especially after he crushed her frame against his with one arm; placing her hands over her waist as she bore the embarrassment in favor of hearing his rare laughter. Jake laughed at their exchange and shook his head. Sleeping arrangements were fairly hard to make for the agents who were used to the confined space of apartments and motel rooms. Scully secretly hoped Mulder would sleep though the night without having his usual nightmares; especially the ones about Samantha or herself being abducted. Scully eventually settled at the coffee table and turned on her laptop to make her field journal entry. She knew Skinner wasn't too happy about them pursuing this case, because he'd already had another case pending their investigation. However, Mulder again managed to convince Skinner that this Kathler case was worth their time and the manpower it demanded. Looking at what this case is already becoming, she began to agree with Mulder. When she returned to her bed wearing the same tank top and a fresh pair of cotton shorts, she found Jake still hard at work. She noticed he was wearing large headphones as he moved in between his computer screen and the blueprints. Next, she looked for Mulder and found him seated at the kitchen counter as he had been for the last three hours. Mulder was still reviewing the girl's drawings and making notes on his legal pad. Knowing better than to distract him while he did profile work, she walked over to Jake and muttered a soft goodnight. Jake returned it with a smile and put his headphones back on. It took no longer than fifteen minutes for Scully to join the girl and Stella into the world of sleepers. Jake's House Canoga Park, CA Next Day 8 AM Jake came to the state of wakefulness by the feel of Stella's full weight on his back. When he turned, he was greeted by Stella's morning ritual of mopping up his face until he was fully back in the real world. Jake groaned and begged Stella to give him a few more hours of sleep. Getting the hint, she climbed off of the bed and walked off. Up until four o'clock this morning, Jake had been immersed in his work, oblivious to time flying past him. However, Jake was more than a little shocked to find Fox Mulder still awake at that Godless hour, seated at the coffee table where he was the furthest from the beds lining next to each other at one corner. By that time, Mulder had shunned his tie, shoes, socks, and rolled up both sleeves of his open shirt. Jake's eyebrows shot up at the sight before him, but his entire body froze when he'd noticed the agent's eyes. In Jake's eyes, Mulder seemed 'a zillion miles away'. The intensity of Mulder's gaze would have been enough to terrify anyone who made the mistake of approaching too close to him at that moment. Focusing back on the here and now, Jake hoped Mulder was asleep by now. When Jake felt a small hand touch his hair, he smiled knowing who it was. "Hey, you." Jake mumbled. "Up already?" When he finally opened his eyes, she was sitting up on his bed, her legs dangling off of the edge. "Come here, my sunshine." Reaching with his left hand, he drew her close enough for her a hug. "I'd love to get up, but please give me a little more time. I'm very, very tired right now." Jake kept his volume to whispers, so as not to disturb the agents. The girl somehow understood his desperation and climbed off of the bed. "Thank you." He said as he gave her a small wave and curled back up under the covers. About ninety minutes later, he heard the distinct sounds of feet shuffling on the hardwood floor and opened his eyes. He saw the petite form of Scully making coffee in the kitchen, still in her sleeping attire. Jake stretched his body, finding himself ready to finally get up and about. He quickly threw on his bathrobe that had been left hanging from the edge of his bed and walked to the bathroom for a shower. "Morning." Scully's voice greeted him, stopping him in his tracks. "A beautiful morning. There's a bag of granola in the refrigerator next to the milk. You should eat something." Jake said before closing the bathroom door. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Mulder stretched out on the couch, his feet up on the coffee table and was apparently asleep. The coffee table was now covered with the girl's drawings and a stack of wood blocks that Mulder must've used while brainstorming. Jake noted an open legal pad resting on Mulder's lap, half filled with notes. The sight hadn't changed when Jake came out of the shower, now freshly dressed in one of his dark summer suits. Jake was happy to note that Scully took his suggestion, and was now munching on the granola, perched on one of the kitchen stools. "This is delicious. Where did you get this?" She asked pointing at the bag of remaining granola, and Jake told her about the diner and the mailbox. Scully smiled, saying she should get a bag or two for herself before heading back to D.C. Jake suggested they all go there every morning, because that's when Stella gets her morning walks. Scully offered to walk Stella for exercise in mornings or at evenings after getting back. "Are you sure?" Jake was surprised, to say the least, at the idea. "Uh-huh. I don't mind. I don't know if you do this, but Mulder runs anywhere between five to ten miles daily if he has the chance. I also do this, but not much outside my apartment." "Treadmills?" Jake got the idea and was answered with her nod. "I'll just follow Stella. She should know your usual route." She finished the cereal and looked at her wristwatch. "Tell me when you're ready, and we'll leave. The first test starts at ten." Jake nodded at her, then turned to nod at Mulder. "What about him?" Jake sure hoped the guy wouldn't need to be slapped awake this minute. To his relief, Scully shook her head 'no'. "Leave Mulder alone. I booked his flight, and it doesn't leave until noon. I set a travel-size alarm clock next to him. He doesn't sleep enough as it is." Jake agreed before taking his share of the cereal into a bowl and poured milk. 'Funny', Jake thought. 'They care about each other in such similar manner'. The night before, Mulder tricked Scully into eating more. In the following morning, she made him sleep in. "Does he always work like this?" Jake asked, looking at a sleeping Mulder. Scully nodded. "Not every day, as in 'every day'. But yes, he does. He often cares too much." Jake nodded to this, turning to head for the coffee machine to make himself a fresh cup. When he took his mug off of its rack, he took notice of the local morning newspaper for the first time. It sat innocently at the corner of the kitchen counter, daring him to pick it up. Jake flipped through them, relieved to note that the publisher had taken out the girl's missing-person article. But his pleasant expression turned into a deep wince as he read a headline in a small corner space: "FBI involvement in Kathler case". Scully pursed her lips upon seeing Jake's reaction, obviously have read the same page earlier on. Jake told her he and the girl was ready to leave as soon as he was done eating, obviously regretting that extra hour of sleep he'd given himself before ever checking out the newspaper. Imagining what the little article was costing Jake, Scully deliberately acted as if their latest bad news in their growing list of bad news had done them little or no damage. She rinsed her bowl in the sink, knowing the dishwasher was still full of clean dishes from the night before. She then went off to change into her usual business attire. Henry Barrington Hospital Los Angels, CA Noon Same Day Scully watched as the girl's body was placed under a CAT scan machine. Jake stood next to her behind the glass wall that separated them from the girl. Scully was still in the middle of reviewing the PET results from the day before. It didn't surprise her very much to have found unusually high active areas of the brain, which were indicated by the glowing dark red color on the monitor screen. When the subject is tested for processing of Language and Music at the same time, the red areas would normally be concentrated on those areas, greatly reducing the other areas in turn. In the resting state, it wouldn't normally show any red glow except on the very back areas of the brain. However, in the case of this girl, even the very center areas of the brain came up bright yellow instead of the bluish green that's commonly seen in normal person. When the MRIs came back, Scully's trained eyes detected an unusual fluid flow around the areas between the cerebrum and the sinus cavity. Feeling a pang of nausea, she quickly folded them away and focused on the girl inside the machine. The filming process was done in less than a second, but the wait was long before and after. Jake sighed next to her, relieved that the test was over. "Two down, three more to go?" Jake asked her without looking away from the girl who got dressed again until she was to change into another hospital gown. Scully nodded and exited the room to wait for them in the hallway. At three o'clock, the three of them ate late lunches in the cafeteria. Scully's cellular summoned her attention. Mulder spoke rapidly, clearly in some state of confusion. "It's me. ...I've got some of the testing results here, but they did nothing more than regular standard tests on her. On the first day, they made the girl take neurological and psychological evaluations, which took a total of twelve hours, because the girl wouldn't corporate. But she got through them anyway and went home. On the second and the third day, they began doing the interview sessions. I'm waiting for the tapes to see just what they were doing with her, but I'm guessing they were just standard one-to-one therapy sessions done to get her to respond." "So, what is bothering you so much?" Scully wanted to get to the point. "Well, on the fourth and the fifth day, the girl's charts indicate that they did what some psychiatrists would call a 'play therapy'. It's where they bring in a child into a room that was specifically designed to be comfortable for the child. A room such as this has lots of toys, dolls, and coloring tools just like a kid's room. "Experts who are often accompanied by officials from the Social Services or law enforcement agencies, watch what their subject do with the objects around them from behind a two-way mirror. It's mostly to analyze what triggered their subject's maladaptive behaviors like they did in the famous McMartin case and in our own Horvey case. "It's nothing too different from the regular therapy sessions they've already done, and they've done these only a half of each day. The rest of the hours are simply blank, which doesn't make sense, because according to Kathler, the girl didn't return until five or six o'clock every day." Mulder paused for Scully to digest the information, then asked for her findings. Scully carefully selected her words, trying not to get her partner too excited in his current situation. "I haven't much. Not yet, anyway. The PET results came back and I looked at them, but nothing seemed to be really wrong. You're right, Mulder. This girl's brains are far more active than any normal human being, especially in the area of art and language. We finished the MRI, and just by looking at the images on the computer screen, I couldn't see anything major to worry about. "We just came out of the CAT scan, too. I didn't see anything seriously wrong in there, either. Nothing noteworthy other than an unusual fluid flow that's located around the front section of the cerebrum. I'll know more when they give me a copy of the results for the two tests." Mulder's obvious relief at hearing the news was heard through his deep sigh. Scully instantly realized how exhausted her partner might be at that very moment, and opted for cutting their conversation short. "Well, that's good. Look, I'll check over all the records they have in here. But, I want to return with the copy of each taped session, so I may not make it by the time my plane leaves. In that case, I'll catch another flight. If you need me sooner, I'll drive." "It's okay, Mulder. Take your time. We're all fine in here." Scully tried to sound convincing. "I think I will. While they're making the copies, I'm gonna catch medical staff and official who came in direct contact with the girl." "Do whatever is necessary, Mulder. Just try not to get thrown out again, all right?" Scully joked and heard his answering chuckle. Jake eyed her intently as he cut the grilled chicken breast in small pieces for the girl, and waited as she gazed at him. "Well, I think he's going to get stuck in Costa Mesa for now. He's getting the copies of the girl's therapy sessions, and that's what's taking him so long. He's going after everybody who had direct connection with each procedure to interrogate them. Well, technically I should say that he's questioning them, but in this case, they're one and the same." Scully said as she stashed the phone back into her jacket pocket and returned to finishing her turkey sandwich. Jake nodded and helped the girl finish with hers. The rest of the tests went smoothly, but they were told that the results wouldn't be in until later in the evening. Scully suggested Jake to leave her to wait for the results, so he could return home with the girl and go walk Stella. He nodded her his gratitude, and then told her he'll ask Elly to wrap up Scully's dinner on a plate ready to be reheated once she got home. She nodded back and watched as the genetic test - the final test of all - progressed. The procedure itself didn't take long, because all they had to do was take three samples of blood: one for Scully to take to the Lone Gunmen for their own testing, and the other two for the hospital labs. She noted the girl's fear of needles from early on, but the girl knew Jake and Scully were there to watch over the routine; only slightly wincing as the needle went in and out of her arm. Jake kissed her forehead when all was done, then he told her how strong she had been. Scully watched as the two exited the room before ever pulling her phone out of her pocket. Finding the line to be busy, she waited for several minutes and called back. This time, he answered on the second ring. "It's me. The tests are all done, including genetic testing. All I have to do is wait for the results to come back. I sent Jake and the girl home, so I'm free to move about for awhile. I'll go down to the records' office and get started on the background check. How about you? Anything?" Scully was put on hold for a few moments until he spoke again. A puff of air he exhaled before speaking signaled troubles. "Scully, listen to me. I've checked all the people who were directly connected to the testing, but nobody's talking. They sounded as if they were cooperating, but there were at least five hours of sessions that I can't find on tape, and I doubt they'll ever be found. The therapist who conducted the recorded sessions on the fourth day suddenly went out of the country for an unspecified period of time, and I can't get hold of him. The initial psychological evaluations I told you about indicates nothing too out of ordinary. But you said the girl's got an abnormally high active brain, so it doesn't make sense that her IQ is slightly above average and her language scores are just below average. Scully, I think the test scores here were switched with someone else's." "Put her through them again, but do so only under our strict surveillance. We'll see what we come up with, then." This time, Scully hated herself for being right. "You're right. I hate to do this to her, though... See if you can get that done, and I'll dig around here for some more. ...At this point, we have to assume that every single test result they've given us was falsified. I think they're just buying themselves more time right now. You do that background check, and I'll do the ones for staff here. I definitely won't be back tonight." She could picture him wincing, and sent him her sympathies. "What's the matter? Afraid of missing a pie or two?" "Oooh. Scully, don't remind me! That pie was the best I've ever tasted." His tortured tone made her laugh. She promised him they would save some for him, in exchange for a backrub later. "Just your back?" Mulder's whine was a bit short of conviction for Scully. "Don't push your luck, Mulder." But of course, Fox Mulder was nothing if he wasn't persistent. Right now, he was trying to make Dana Scully blush, and to have a bit of fun before plunging into troubles ahead. He was very sure she understood this. "Oh, I don't mind doing a pushing or two for you. It just depends on what I can push..." "Don't even go there, Mulder." His attempts falling face-flat, Mulder put a bit more effort into his whining technique. "Come on, Scully!" "Going where?" Scully hoped he wouldn't go as far as making another joke out of that one. "Ha-ha. At least let me massage your feet. You're my Goddess, so I'll get down on my knees, then kiss and nibble on your right toes until you're out of breath..." "Mulder!!" "...All right. I'll do your back, and then I'll leave you alone. I'll be good." "Deal." Scully silently congratulated herself for keeping her flush out of her voice as she hanged up. Next, she called Jake and reported him of Mulder's situation. Jake told her to take as much time as she needed, because it looked like his workload was going to get him another twenty-one-hour day. He laughed when she told him about the pies, and he told her not to worry, because Elly had just baked two fresh ones. Thinking it better to give him all the news at once, Scully told Jake about needing to put the girl into the evaluations again, all the eight hours of them. Jake sighed and demanded the reasons, but she could only tell him that the hospital employees had tampered with the test results. Scully decided Jake didn't need to know about the possibility of shadow government sneaking around and switching files. Scully headed down to the records' office, but found it locked up. Frustrated, she got the custodian to open the door for her. She walked straight to the computer, but no one was inside to give her the passwords. She found the keys to the filing cabinets inside the secretary's desk drawer and began opening file drawer after another. She couldn't help wondering if this was a part of 'the conspiracy' that her partner claimed to have found himself in. This idea grew more plausible for her once she found the keys to the personnel filing cabinets to be missing. To make matters worse, the files in personnel files cabinets are the only ones that she couldn't access in the entire office. She could find everything else; from the records of all their patients, including the results for all tests performed on them. Not wanting to wait until tomorrow, she finally called Mulder. He didn't answer until the sixth ring, and when he did, she could hear the sound of water running in the background. She figured he'd checked into a hotel, and was in the middle of taking a shower. She was put on hold, and soon the sound of running water stopped. "Scully? What's up?" Mulder sounded tired, but fully alert. "As much as I hate to admit, Mulder, I think you were right." "What? Which part?" His voice rose a few notches, and finding absolutely no trace of his usual sardonic humor in his voice, Scully sensed trouble on his side. "I'm in the Records office now, and it's completely empty. I mean, they usually keep a few night persons roaming around. The door was locked, so after I got the custodian to open the door, I went to the computer and found it password-protected. I rummaged through the secretary's desk and found the keys, but only the ones to the personnel records are missing. Mulder, I tried every single cabinet, so I'm sure. There's a key for everything but the personnel records." "Fuck!" She heard him sit down heavily as he released a frustrated groan. "Yeah, I know. ...I forgot to tell you something. When they took the blood samples out of the girl today, I took an extra vial for our own use. So, the genetic tests are safe even if they try to tamper with them." "Good call. ...Scully, my own search's ending up in flames, too. I can't get my requests through, because they won't let it. I don't want to waste any more time here, and especially the hours I'm gonna waste bothering with getting court orders on them. I'm even thinking about calling Skinner to have him make them talk." "That desperate, huh? Why don't you see if you can get them by tomorrow? I assume you packed your overnight bag before you left, so don't worry about rushing everything through. I'll go back up right now and see if the rest of the test results are in. I'll call you for any emergency." "Okay, Scully. Be careful." Mulder barely finished before ending their connection. Scully locked up and left as quickly as she came. Jake's House Canoga Park, CA Same Time The computer screen illuminated Jake's face with various colors and faces. Jake sat in front of it, scanning-in the new drawings one after another. Now the girl was lying on her stomach over the polished hardwood floor at his feet. Stella claimed her own spot, curled up beside the girl. Jake was done with the drawings in no time, placing all the pages back into the plastic covers before handing them back to her. "Here we go. Thank you very much, again." Jake said, standing from his seat. The girl eyed the computer, then the virtual reality machine and back to the computer again. Jake went into the bathroom to check on the bath that he drew for her earlier, calling her over when it was ready. She came in and Jake left the room as usual. Jake knew it was a bad idea to go under it again. The first time had proved how emotionally trying it would be for any sane person. But when he saw Mulder's intensity at analyzing the drawing, he knew there had to be a reason. Mulder took all binder samples with him, but neither him nor Scully knew about the ones he had in the virtual reality machine. He began analyzing those left undone. First, Jake took out all the two-dimensional, flat surfaced images, then started connecting one to the other as if making a box out of four separate papers. Of course, even if he was right, he had no way of knowing which page connected with which. He had to have the computer try all the combinations, but he'd never had such high-level of computer skills. He'd just have to do what he could and leave the rest for later. Jake had been so engrossed in the task at hand, he never noticed the girl coming out of the bathroom. She took one look at Jake, knowing he would be there for a long time. She approached him, and even stood a few feet away from him, but he never noticed her. She began watching him as his hand slightly tilted in various angles. His eyes were covered with a large eye-mask, and his hand was in a strange black grove that had wires going through the surface of each finger. She watched and saw that those thin wires on the grove were connected to the back of a white square box sitting on the desk in front of Jake where all other wires joined. She walked over to the other side, and saw that each wire had a different shape and a matching hole to be connected to. Next, she focused on the flat square shaped box where she had seen Jake place her drawings and press the glowing green button. She also remembered that each time he pressed that button, whatever she drew on papers came up on the black box with a white frame. She already knew that the framed box was called a 'computer', and that it was useful to everyone. But even with all this knowledge, she still didn't know what Jake was watching behind the masks. She knew that it was very interesting and extremely frightening to him. She left him alone and went to her bed to keep drawing, silently promising herself that some day soon, she was going to find out what mysteries were held behind those black eye-masks. She stared back at Jake, still wearing the weird toy, still engrossed in whatever scary images he was seeing. In fact, Jake had been intrigued enough to not notice Scully's presence in the house until she called his name. Jake jumped up from his seat, sending him and the VR machine tumbling down to the floor. Jake squealed as fear, shock, and pain hammered him all at once. Scully took a step back, immediately crouching down to help him. "Dana?! Oh, God!" Jake took a series of deep breaths, stretching out on the floor. He pressed his hand against his chest to calm his pounding heart, while trying to come up with a suitable explanation for this embarrassing predicament. When he opened his eyes to face Scully, his eyes narrowed upon taking a notice of the dark circles under her eyes and the way she walked as if each of her body parts weighed a ton. "...How're you? You look exhausted." He asked her, seeing her nod in response. "I am, but I'm fine." She answered and dropped into the chair next to the coffee table, where Mulder had been mulling over the girl's drawings earlier. Jake took out the wrapped plate of dinner for her and put it into the microwave. He saw her take off her jacket and high-heels, heading for the bed to retrieve her nightwear to change. When Scully came out, she wore a long white nightshirt that had red printed letters that said "I love you" in French over many scattered little red hearts. When he pointed this out, she told him that it was a gift from her elder sister. Scully seemed to be grateful when he set the plate in front of her at the kitchen counter, but he knew she had no appetite. Remembering the way Mulder said she needed to eat more, he decided to persist. "You need to eat, Dana. You're exhausted tonight more than yesterday, and if you don't eat, you'll exhaust even faster tomorrow." Jake handed her the silverware and watched as she began to eat Elly's famous rolled cabbages. "You sound just like Mulder." Scully said as she took the last bite of the first, and immediately began working on the second. Jake was shocked to see that he had been right. She was exhausting faster every day. He decided not to ask her about their investigation. He must have looked as grim as he felt when she added, "and you look just like him, too. Right down to the mole on your right cheek" just to loosen the tension permeating in the air around them. "Yeah, well. At least I don't have all the memorabilia that Mulder seems to have engraved in his flesh." Jake saw Scully flinch, obviously shocked that he'd noticed. "Come on, Dana! The guy walked around in his boxer shorts while trying to find his razor. I've seen bullet scars; one in his thigh, and another one in his shoulder. I'm pretty much scar-free." He said as he sipped his tea and handed Dana a mug of steaming hot chocolate. She only nodded him a thank-you and finished it in a matter of minutes. Looking at her from across the counter in her nightshirt and no make-up, she looked like a very tired seventeen year-old girl instead of an FBI special agent. He served her dessert and saw her expression that said she couldn't possibly finish it. He made her try it anyway, and tried to cheer her up by talking about whatever good memories he had of his old days. He started up by talking to her about the time when he had been a troublemaker, who never listened to the teachers and drew weird shapes in his notebooks. Next, he told her about when he had been a college student who sneaked into girls' dorms in the middle of the night to watch movies in their rooms. Scully laughed at his stories and gave him a few of hers in return. At the mention of her elder sister in these childhood stories, Jake couldn't help himself from asking after her sister and dearly wished he hadn't when he heard of the woman's ill-fated end. When he asked about her 'Captain Ahab', it also turned out to be a sore spot for her. But in turn, she talked about how brave, how noble, and how caring the man had been to his 'Starbuck' as well as to the rest of the Scully family. Hearing how wonderful the man must have been, Jake wished Bill Scully had also been his father. When Jake said so, she told him that it was exactly what Mulder had said. When Jake asked why, she grew uncomfortable and withdrawn, so he quickly told her to forget he'd ever asked. After placing the dishes into the dishwashers, Jake saw her turn on her laptop to write in her findings for the day just as she had done the day before. He shook his head, thinking he could never take her job even if he had the skill for it. Yet, this young woman whose height barely reached his chest was doing it like it was the most natural thing to do in her life. Having spent nearly an entire day with the little girl, though most of it was tough on her part, Jake eased down next to her as she watched television and brushed Stella clean. As much as he hated to break the moment, he decided to tell her about the tests that she unfortunately would have to go through again. He reached over to her with his left hand and gently took her right hand. She watched his move, her eyes searching. He forced himself to smile. "Hey, there. I hope you were okay today. I know that you hate the machines, and I'm sorry if I ignored you, because I was working. It was something I needed to do to help finding you your way home, because I met those nice agents only yesterday. It's not that I believe they are trying to hurt you in any way. I just had to do whatever I could do on my own to help you, because I don't know if I can believe that they are really, truly good people. You are better at judging people than I am, because you are very strong person and your heart is still pure. ...I do think they are good people, though. What do you think?" Jake kept his voice low as he spoke, and his smile grew warmer when she touched his face. "I really like that woman with the red hair, and I also like that man who looks like me. What about you?" Jake asked as he let go of her little hand, and moved it to stroke her long chestnut brown hair. He saw that she was deep in her thoughts, and all he got for an answer was when she wrapped her tiny arms around his left arm. Her head came to rest on his shoulder as she buried her face in the fabric of his shirtsleeve. "Wanna fall asleep on the floor again, baby girl?" He asked, remembering at least two mornings when he woke up on the floor wrapped by the blanket Elly had thrown over them. He also remembered a hell of a backache he got each time he put his body through the discomfort. He sighed. "I'll make a deal with you. You can fall asleep with me right here; then I'll carry you to your bed after you do, so you can wake up in your own bed in the morning. I promise to bring Stella to you, too." Jake spoke as softly as he could, his recovering right hand still caressing her tiny head. He felt her nod, and he gently patted her back for an answer. He was fairly sure that his right shoulder was well enough already to steady the girl's body long enough to transport her into her bed. Then after tucking her in safely, he could go back under the VR to finish analyzing the rest of her drawings. All this while, Scully wondered if Mulder was all right. She knew he would be, but he wouldn't be if she had to tell him about the fate of all the test results from the day. It was highly unlikely that the test results were 'accidentally misplaced', according to the hospital's explanation, and even more doubtful when they told her the test results had been sent to the Records office in another Henry Barrington's hospital located in New York City. When Scully barked at them for these mishaps, they assured her that everything was going to be fine, and that all will be set straight by tomorrow. 'Come get them after the girl's psychological evaluation', they said. 'Like hell I will', she said. So, Scully had no more to go on for now other than the PET and the MRI results. The last vial of the girl's blood sample was still in her briefcase. She really hoped Mulder would call for an update, but figured he was probably treading his own path. Scully really wanted the CAT scan. It would have been enough to either confirm or disconfirm her suspicion about the girl's health. All the initial X-rays showed nothing threatening, but now, she didn't even know if they were really the girl's films. When she finally called it quit and placed her laptop back into her briefcase, she spotted Jake stretched out on the floor in front of the TV. Stella was curled up beside him, limiting Scully's view of the other two sleepers. The corners of her mouth curled up into a smile at this rare sight of peace. Just when she thought he was asleep, she saw his right hand moving up and down the small form of the girl. After several more minutes of observation, Scully saw Jake bend his knees, feet flat on the floor, and sit up with the girl still held securely in his left arm. She saw that his right shoulder was recovering as it was estimated, but he was careful enough to avoid putting too much of the girl's weight on it. Instead, he had the right arm wrapped around the girl as an extra hold. Scully watched as Jake slowly got to his knees, then up to his feet, all in an effort not to wake the girl in his arms. He then took one careful step after another until he came to the girl's bed and lay her down just as slowly as when he lifted her off the floor. She heard the bed being turned, then heard a low whistling sound as Jake called Stella toward the bed to join the girl. She had been deep in thoughts, childhood images of her father carrying her to bed flashing in her mind, that she nearly jumped when Jake poked his head from behind the screen. Seeing her response, he came around the screen to her bedside. "Did I startle you? I'm sorry. I didn't mean to." A genuine concern filled his unlined face, and she could only shake her head 'no'. As Jake spoke, his voice was kept delivery soft; not like the seductive velvety tone that her partner seemed to have perfected, but in a tone that felt like a gentle spring breeze. "It's okay, Jake. I was just remembering the time when I was her age. My father used to carry me to bed and tuck me in, too. I can't say that I don't miss it." Scully looked down at her feet and wiggled her toes. Jake squatted down beside her and brought his hand to her cheek. She looked up surprised, but she didn't pull away from his touch, nor removed his hand from her face. "I can't say that I don't miss the same, either. But, don't you think that because you miss it, you can give it to others?" Looking straight into the man's honest affectionate eyes had nearly shuttered Scully's composure, but she had managed to respond with a nod and a smile, anyway. 'This man', she thought, 'still has a lot of innocence preserved in his heart'. Although his heart had suffered a major setback of his fiancee's suicide, unlike her or her partner, he hasn't yet seen all the horrors that they had seen. 'God, how would I love to go back in time and live a normal life?' She thought. However, living a life without knowing what she and Mulder had come to know meant living a life in lies, and she never wanted that. She wanted a life in which none of her questions was left unanswered. Scully returned to reality when she saw Jake stand up. He was smiling down at her, his hand still warm on her cheek. Soon, it moved to touch her hair before it left her. He placed a caste kiss on her cheek before leaving her bedside. "You should go to sleep, Dana. I'll be working again, but I promise to keep quiet." He whispered before walking away. Then she was left alone, and all she could think about was her Ahab. FBI Regional Office Los Angels, CA 1:30 AM Fox Mulder stared at the computer screen in disbelief. Of all the Jane Doe files created in the last two weeks, there was only five possible cases matching the girl's description. "I'm just not seeing anything here, Agent Mulder." The computer tech mumbled as he punched in some more numbers. "Out of all the test results you've asked for, there's nothing that showed today's... I mean, yesterday's date. These cases are pretty much scattered all over the country. Miami, Houston, Chicago, Phoenix, and the last one's in New York. You said that the girl was at Henry Barrington's in LA?" "Yeah. Attending physician is... Crokkets." "That's what I've been trying to process this with, Agent Mulder. It's just that... nothing's coming up." Bewildered, the technician threw his hands in the air. " Fine. Check out each Jane Doe. I don't care whose tests those turn out to be. I know the girl well enough to know which ones are hers." "That'll take us hours, Agent Mulder." The tech, being an FBI agent himself, released a breath that was a combination of frustration, exhaustion, and some hope for gaining more sympathy out of the older agent. Mulder nodded an acknowledgement. "I trust you. Do the best you can." "It's gonna cost you, sir." The tech tried his best to keep the smirk off his face. Mulder released an exasperated sigh. The kid knew how the 'favor game' was played in the backyard. Mulder had no doubt that this young agent was going to be on a fast track to stardom if he kept up his skills as a good bureaucratic dancer. "I already gave you two seats at the Knicks game, Hall." "Yes, sir. But you're putting me in a pretty tight spot here. I respect your superb investigative skills, and I'm not going to insult your intelligence by assuming that you don't have the means of attaining the answers you seek from me. Besides..." "Stop it, Hall. Just stop it." Mulder shook his head resignedly. Seeing the older agent's reaction, Hall's large eyes lit up. "If you don't mine my asking, sir, do you like hockey?" "...You a fan of Minnesota State team?" Mulder knew that the man was a die-hard hockey fan. He almost laughed at the answering delight in the younger man's face. "Deal." Mulder sighed and checked his watch. Then he cursed. He'd wanted to call Scully before she went to sleep. Calling her now was completely out of the line. He mentally went over all the news he had to tell Scully: 'Hey, Scully! Guess what?! The tapes had been sent to the disposal allegedly by a clerk's mistake. I could only get the ones I already have, and I don't even think they're originals!' He scratched this one out as quickly as it came to him. 'Hey, you ready for this?! The Jane Doe's test results I tried to check out as soon as they were in the computers? They're gone! Bum! Just like that!' He shook his head 'no' to this one, and wrapped is head in his arms. "...Tomorrow." Mulder said to himself. 'First thing tomorrow morning, we'll find that the records had been eliminated, which means that all the hours of work on those test results were wasted, thus the case would almost certainly be thrown out of court for lack of evidence.' Mulder looked at his watch again, then to his cellular phone. He eventually decided on letting Scully find out for herself and call him. He copied all the records that the cleaver kid retrieved for him into two zip-up floppy disks before hastily leaving the building. He didn't have the time or the right training to review and check everything in the disks unless he got to the hospital himself and questioned everyone who Scully tried to check out. Next, Mulder called the FBI's Los Angels office and had them head out to the courthouse to get the warrant. Since most of the doctors who were working at the testing center in Costa Mesa had some type of residence in close vicinity of LA, Mulder assumed it best to have both cities covered. Mulder still had the girl's drawings, consisting of myriad complex images, symbols, and letters he'd never seen; being displayed in vivid colors used and spread all over each picture as if they had lives of their own. He remembered the Cryptology reports, but they still had no clue as to which language, much less the definition, these characters belonged to. As was usually the case, Mulder already had a theory. He just wasn't dumb enough to raise them in front of the local agents. He would only give them another chance to make a whole new series of 'Spooky jokes'. Mulder returned to his hotel room, making sure no one followed after him. It took him only ten minutes to decide on his plan, get checked out of the hotel, then get into his rented car to the airport. Once there, he returned the rental car and hauled a cab. Jake's House 8 AM Same Day Just when Jake was ready to go to the diner with the girl and Stella, the sight of one of his business associates stepping out of a car greeted him. Jake rolled his eyes in bewilderment and asked them what they wanted. Much to his shock, the man informed Jake of an accident one of their firm's associates got involved in. The guy, whose name was Nicholas Chunovic, had been placed in charge of conducting the hiring. Jake instantly realized what this meant for the rest of the team. Further more, the accident also involved Chunovic's wife and their two kids. The three had all been taken into the ICU; with Mrs. Chunovic in a coma, the two kids in 'touch and go' condition, and Chunovic himself sustained a severe concussion, coupled by a compound fracture on his leg. As devastated as Jake felt at this point, he knew what he had to do for the rest of the day. Jake looked back at Scully who winced at the announcement. Elly was getting another day off that day, because one of her kids got a nasty food poisoning at school. Jake had to choose quickly. He thought about the previous night's conversations in between himself and Scully, then recalled the little girl's hunch that it was safe to trust Dana Katherine Scully. Sensing what he needed to say, Scully held up her hand to get the three men's attention. "I'm Special Agent Dana Scully with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and I believe we've met before. I can watch the girl for Mr. Kathler. I am armed and fully capable of securing this witness." She felt strange saying the words while dressed in her leggings and sweatshirt, but no one cared about that at this point. Jake nodded gratefully and rushed inside the loft to get what he needed at work. Scully looked down at the girl who now held Stella's leash in her tiny hand. "I know I don't really know you, yet. I also realize you want to be with Jake, and I'm sorry that this had to happen to him and his friends. But we have to help him right now, and the best thing for us to do right now is wait here for Mulder." Scully hoped the girl wouldn't ignore her, but the girl stared at her directly in the eyes and slowly headed back to the house. Relieved, she followed the girl and almost bumped right into Jake at the front stairs. "Thank you, Dana. I appreciate it." Jake said and turned to the girl. "You, my sunshine, are going to be here with Dana. She's a really nice woman. You also know that I like her and trust her. She'll keep you safe while I'm gone, so go on to the diner with her and Stella, instead. She'll take you for the very last test you have to do for today, and all will be done. I will be back as soon as I can, I promise." Jake was practically begging her for understanding. The girl nodded slightly and kissed on his cheek. Surprised at the move, Jake released a chuckle and returned a kiss on her forehead. Next, Jake reached into his jacket pocket and handed Scully his keys, telling her what each key belonged to. She tried to take out the key to his BMW, but he flatly refused. Jake convinced Scully that he'd already had a ride to the office in front of him. He also stressed the point that in case of any emergency where the local police wouldn't be of any help, she would need the car. Admitting her loss in this argument, she reluctantly accepted Jake's generous offer. She promised to get her own rental car once Mulder returned. After seeing the car drive off, Dana turned back to the girl who stood just a few feet away from her. "So, do you want to stay here and eat your breakfast? Or, would you rather go to this diner of Jake's taste and get your breakfast?" She trusted the dog and the girl to lead their way. She wasn't too surprised to see Stella whimpering at them both, begging her to let her take a walk. Scully complied after locking up the house; taking her badge, an extra gun clip, cellular phone, wallet, and the two key rings inside a small waist pouch. She securely clipped her hip holster, her service weapon securely encased inside. She thought twice about that extra clip before deciding to leave it in the pouch, thinking 'you never know'. Although Scully had never been to the much-talked-about diner, she began smelling the unmistakable aroma of freshly brewed coffee, sweet pastries; mixed with the greasy scent of fried eggs and bacon, all wafting out of a simple flat building with double glass doors. They went inside and Scully let Stella in, not knowing the house rules. The girl stood in front of Scully and pointed a finger outside. Realization dawned on Scully, but she smiled and suggested that maybe they'll allow Stella inside just this once, because she was a law enforcement official. Remembering what Jake had said to her about service dogs before, the girl nodded and quickly chose a table for them. Just as Scully thought, her FBI badge and a glimpse of her gun under the sweatshirt shut up the waitress. When Scully noticed that the woman seemed to recognize the little girl, she introduced herself and stressed the point that Jake was her personal friend. To reassured the young woman, Scully told her that Jake was in no way having trouble with the law, and that he was also a personal friend of her partner. The waitress laughed before turning to face the girl and asked her what she wanted this time. Stella whimpered beside the girl, and she stood up with Stella at her heels. Scully watched as they both walked up to the display case. The girl soon pointed to one of the cream Danishes and held up two fingers. Scully laughed and looked at the waitress who wrote down the order with a knowing grin. The woman eventually added the blueberry muffins to the girl's order. Scully ordered two bags of granola to go, a fruit salad, and a tall glass of orange juice as her meal to stay. Scully looked around in the diner slowly, most of the seats now filled with customers in a relative, but not too much hurry. An occasional soft laughter from all around the diner comforted her. She relaxed in her seat, listening to the sound of feet shuffling, to the sound of morning papers rustling here and there. She also liked the chime that greeted each customer with a clink as they walked through the glass doors. A pure delightful smile slowly broke over Scully's face as she enjoyed the orchestra of all these little morning noises as they pleasantly stirred the moist air in the building. Seated in this place, especially in the company of an adorable little girl and an equally adorable dog, Scully could almost forget who she was, and what business brought her into this city of Canoga Park. 'Yes.' Scully thought as she took a deep breath of relief. 'Just my kind of place'. Scully's eyes eventually drifted to a wall that was occupied by the rows of mailing boxes, making her realize that Jake's mail might be threatening to burst through the box's metal walls by now. She fished for the small mailbox key from the key ring and walked over in search for Jake's box. When she found it and opened the door, she saw that it had a lot of personal mail, all of which were addressed to 'Red Shoes'. This puzzled her. For a moment, she even suspected they might be for someone else. But then, she wasn't the one to make the decisions on who wrote to Jake, or what alias he used for personal correspondence. 'Does Jake have a side-business of selling shoes?' Scully wondered as she returned to their table, seeing that her fruit salad had arrived. The girl was tearing small pieces of the cream Danish and throwing them in the air for Stella to catch in her mouth. Needless to say, Stella was doing an excellent job of it. Scully couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry as these scarce ordinary picture of peace and joy were displayed before her. Henry Barrington Hospital Same Time Records Department "What can I do for you, sir?" The secretary asked politely to the human definition of chaos standing in front of her. "I need access to the personnel record files." "Are you with the department, sir?" The woman's gaze was innocent. The man reached inside his jacket pocket and pulled out a thin leather wallet. Woman's eyes widened at the sight of the opened badge, especially at the three blue and bold capital letters in the center. "No, I certainly am not. I'm Special Agent Fox Mulder with the Federal Bureau of Investigation." The angry man read each word as if they weighed a ton. The woman scurried away, but soon an older gray haired man appeared from the back. "What can I do for you, Sir?" The man asked while the scared secretary stood behind the man as if to hide from Mulder. "Like I was saying to that capable secretary of yours, I need certain personal record files for our investigation. I've spent the last two days being constantly bounced around like a ping pong ball. Please excuse my temper, but my sympathy's worn thin these days, and my patience's gone to the Sahara Desert. "Go get the records. I have jurisdiction over you people, and your crap about confidentiality won't mean a squat to me. Move, now!" Mulder exclaimed as he wedged himself in between them and the row of desks behind. "If I refuse?" The older man asked without the same smoothness. Mulder fumed, but he wasn't about to walk away. "If you refuse, sir, you'll get a court order stating exactly what I'm telling you now. If you would be stupid enough refuse to cooperate with us even with that court order, you'll find your asses landing in the federal court, if not in one of our roach-filled prisons. You don't have a choice!" "...Dolly, please open the cabinets." All the fight seemed to have left the older man in an instant, and he moved aside as the woman opened the black filing cabinets. Mulder gave out the names of all hospital staff in question, but the files for the doctor who handled the girl's CAT scan, and the doctor who was put in charge of the girl's genetic testing both turned out to be missing. "Get some patient records for those physicians. They're the only items I have to prove that these doctors actually existed in order to continue investigating them. Now, go get them." Mulder never backed down. The gray haired man pulled out one patient file for the missing doctors, and reluctantly handed them over to Mulder. "If you're looking for the full names and the signatures of these doctors, one folder for each doctor should be enough." Mulder nodded an agreement to this one. "Let's hope so. Next, I need you to pull up the daily schedule for all the staff that needs to be interviewed. Go back about two weeks, and up to the ones for tomorrow. I'll also need a hard copy of everything you find on this subject." "Sir..." The older man seemed to have had enough of the difficult federal agent. However, when Mulder glared at the man, he went straight to work. While the older man was working his ass out of his job for the good of his country, Mulder looked at his watch and wondered just when Scully was coming over. Mulder didn't call her when he got to Los Angels, and he still didn't call her when he reached the hospital. He knew a lot of what had happened in the course of her day. He was very sure that she was as devastated as he was with the recent turn of events, and was undoubtedly wearing herself out with work. Maybe not eating at all. Mulder didn't have the heart to drag her out of her bed and very possibly make her sick. 'When was her appointment again?' He wondered even though he tried not to remember, much less try to find out the details. Eventually, Mulder called the FBI Los Angels office to speak with the kid agent who had become an ally for Mulder and asked him to check out everybody in the printout he just got from the hospital. Mulder told Agent Hall that he was going to return to the FBI's LA office soon as things became a bit more stable. To compensate Agent Hall, Mulder offered the young agent to officially include his name in their investigation team. Jumping at his chance to work with 'The Bureau's Top Guns', Hall had practically agreed to become the team's slave. Mulder had to smile before hanging up. When the printouts were done, Mulder carefully reviewed them until he found them to be complete. He faxed them all to Agent Thomas Hall. Next, Mulder called the Records Office at Henry Barrington Hospital in New York City to request the official copy of the little girl's misplaced testing results. Mulder deliberately stressed the word 'official', because he'd already had the 'unofficial and correct' copy for himself and Agent Hall. If a word of each version mismatched, Mulder was going to nail the hospital with lawsuits. The same gray haired man in the Records Room stared at him open-mouthed as Mulder made the call to New York. When Mulder thanked the older man, he made Mulder exit the room as quickly as possible without being overly rude. Mulder's next stop was the Neurology Department. He ascended the tiled stairs two at a time to cancel the girl's psychological evaluation that had been scheduled for the day. Mulder had only half an hour before Jake was due for arrival with the girl. Mulder knew he probably looked like he'd been in a solitary confinement cell of Alkatraz, but he was only going to see Jake and the little girl who didn't seem to like him a whole lot. 'After all I've been through,' he thought, 'who the hell cares? For as long as Scully doesn't fume at me for not calling her yesterday, I'll be fine.' So, it was much more than a surprise to Mulder when the familiar white BMW pulled up to the hospital's general entrance, and Scully stepped out the vehicle with the little girl. It took only a fraction of a second for Scully to spot him, and her disheveled 'Oh, not again.' stare made him a very sorry man. He surrendered his case and trotted over to the car, wondering if Scully was going to bother lecturing him about taking better care of himself while on-duty this time. When Mulder climbed into the car, he was even more surprised to find Stella sitting in the passenger seat, undoubtedly with the girl. Mulder dropped his briefcase and overnight bag next to him in the backseat. "I need to return to the Kathler's, and so do you." Scully furrowed her eyebrows at his words, as well as at his expression. She shook her head in protest. "But, Mulder..." Mulder cut her off with a dismissive shake of his head. "Forget the tests. I've canceled it." The adults missed the girl sighing. "But, why?" Scully turned her body as much as she could to face him better. "We've got to do this somewhere else, Scully. I'd like to take her back to DC with us, and get her tested by our own experts." At times like these, Mulder hated himself for being right. He saw Scully look back at the girl, whose gaze locked with hers. Scully took a full minute of arguing the pros and the cons of their situations; speculating all that she would have to hear from Mulder before she nodded and turned on the ignition. As soon as Mulder saw Scully's response, he released a relieved sigh. Feeling that everything would be all right at least until they returned to the loft, Mulder stretched out in the comfortable backseat and closed his eyes. Scully silently wondered if he was sick, but as if reading her mind, his words followed after her thoughts. "I'm all right, Scully. I admit I'm tired, but I'm not sick. I'll be fine as soon as I settle down and rest a bit." Scully looked back at him through the rear-view mirror for a short while before turning her full attention back to the road. Stella climbed into the backseat through the space in between the front seats, and much to Mulder's surprise, began mopping his face clean. Mulder moaned first to protest, but then seemed to find the struggle useless. He soon began returning the gesture by wrapping his large hands around Stella's head to stroke her fine fur. Stella soon found that the backseat floor was comfortable enough, and stretched herself out beside Mulder. Soon, she had her paws alongside Mulder's right arm that had been hanging down from the edge of the seat, and rested her head right underneath his chin. Mulder found her presence strangely comforting, and let himself enjoy it the entire trip home. Scully remained silent. Jake's House Same Day "What are these, Mulder?" Scully asked the moment Mulder handed her the ZIP disks. He was setting the Zip-Open special drive, which he spotted on Jake's computer desk before the last time he left this house. "I'd love to say that it's the Holy Grail, but not quite. In these disks, I've got the whole Jane Doe testing results. There are five subjects, all of whom undergone exactly the same tests as this little girl here had yesterday, and within the period of last two weeks. You're the medical expert here, but I'm sure even I can spot which one's our Jane Doe..." "New York." Scully cut him off. "So, you found out?" Mulder was relieved and disappointed at the same time. "Yeah. They told me that all our girl's records had been mistakenly sent up to their Records Office in New York." "Let's hope they're right. Did they tell you to come back and get the girl's results from them?" "Yeah. They said it should be ready by sometime today." "Good. Match them up with what we have here. If even one word differs from the original, the bastards are caught red-handed." "Sure. You said you wanted to take her to DC with us, but I don't think Jake's going for it." "Well, I'm sorry but he'll have to. Remember, we have a job to do, and an awfully big one by the looks of it. I hate to tell you this, Scully, but I don't think they'll give you the right files when you go there. I made Agent Thomas Hall ...he's the new member in our investigation team, by the way. ...Scully, hold your claws until I'm done. ...I made Hall check out the files from this particular Henry Barrington's, and he found absolutely nothing on the girl. It's as if the girl hadn't arrived at the hospital in the first place. "In the testing center in Costa Mesa, I found that they'd already destroyed the remaining session tapes, thus forcing me to leave there only with what I already had. The tapes had been allegedly sent to the Disposals Department by another clerical error. ...They're cleaning house, Scully. Any additional testing anyone does on this girl at that hospital, or at the testing center, is worthless." Mulder's voice rose with tension, and Scully swallowed hard at these revelations. "Mulder, how do you know that this Agent What's-His-Name can be trusted?" "Agent Thomas Hall reminds me of Pendrell. He practically volunteered to be our slave for a chance to work in a real case." "Mulder..." Her voice showed both tension and her rising temper. Mulder mentally smacked himself in the face. "I'm very sorry about that. I never meant any disrespect for Pendrell. He was a very valuable ally to us, and he cared for you in many ways. I'm also truly sorry we never really got to catch the shooter." The last statement delivered another mental slap to Mulder's already damaged psyche. Scully sighed her resignation. "Mulder, Pendrell was a good man who he never deserved to die so young; especially not for me. I'll never give up searching for the shooter, with or without your help. ...Anyway, about Agent Hall?" Not wanting to elaborate on the subject, Scully pushed Mulder to go on. He waited a long moment to make sure it was all right to continue. She waved her hand. "I checked this guy out, and he couldn't be cleaner. I mean, he's twenty-five, graduated out of Duke University when he was twenty-one. He's a computer expert as well as a playboy. He uses his charms well to get connections all over the office. Don't look so disappointed, Scully. He's not bad. He's just like a high school kid who loves to sneak a peek in girls' locker rooms from the corner windows. He's got no criminal record other than two parking violations. Oh, he's also a huge fan of New York Knicks, and the Minnesota State Hockey team." "And you know those specific pieces of information, because...?" Scully was now standing with her hands on her hips. Seeing her in her casual wear and a ponytail, she looked like a demanding high schooler than his FBI partner. "Well, that's how I bribed him to get me the data on these ZIP disks in the first place. He got real excited, because this is a real case that's got a lot of computer work in it. He's like a hound. He can smell any misplaced documents from practically everywhere in the world, and knows exactly where to look for them. The problem here is that in this case, most of them had already been taken or deleted." Mulder sighed at the mention of the lost records. Scully stared up at him as if to protest, but she soon dropped her arms at her side and took the gray disks out of Mulder's offering hands. "Let's see." She said, walking over to Jake's computer. She had never even touched the computer until now, and she was impressed with the level of all the installed software. Lucky for them, the machine was made by the same brand as the one Scully had in her own apartment. To Mulder's credit, Scully soon noticed the downloaded plug-ins and the document translators. Mulder undoubtedly remembered to download into the ZIP disks, knowing what kind of computers Jake owned. Mulder picked up the virtual reality machine that had been lying next to the laser printer. He toyed with it, looking as if it would jump up and chew his nose off at any given moment. Scully restarted the computer and began opening the files. Her eyes narrowed at the amount of information it gave her. "Jesus, Mulder. This is incredible! It's got all the graphics and films, too. Not to mention the meticulous notes of updates." Scully didn't spare him a glance, her eyes seemingly glued to the computer screen. "Yep. Just like viewing the scanning screens at the hospital. I was lucky to have Agent Hall. He's very cleaver." Mulder said as he returned the VR machine to the desk, then walked to the refrigerator. Delighted that the sweet potato pie was still there, he helped himself two pieces from the dish, then he got a glass and filled it with milk. He brought them over to Jake's computer desk and placed them over a round side table that had been set nearby for just such occasions. Scully gave him a sigh, as well as a brief smile at his choice of the meal. "It'll take me hours to get through all this data, Mulder. Why don't you get some rest? I'm guessing that you haven't slept in more than 48 hours, and I know that you brought the girl's artwork with you." Scully kept her eyes on the computer screen, though her voice spoke enough of her concerns. Mulder took a large slug of milk and nodded. "Wake me up when you're done, and if you have to go somewhere for whatever the reason, either wake me up or leave me a note. You should leave the girl in here, though. ...Where's Kathler today, by the way? And what about Elly?" Finally noticing their absence, he asked, and stuck his loaded fork close to Scully's mouth, gesturing her to take a bite. She looked at Mulder with a questioning gaze but went for it, eliciting a small smile from Mulder. "Jake gave Elly another day off, because one of her kids got a nasty stomach flu from the school lunch. As for Jake, he's gone to the office. His business associates pulled up in their Lincoln and got Jake. He gave me all his keys, and told me to take the car." "Why? When staff like that happens to me, I usually end up half-dead." Mulder's trademark grin appeared. "Well, one of his office partners, a Mr. Nicholas Chunovic, got into a real serious car accident. The entire family's currently in the ICU. Mrs. Chunovic is in a coma with a 'touch-and-go' condition, while Mr. Chunovic sustained a compound fracture and a massive concussion. I don't have details on their two kids, but they are both currently listed under critical conditions. "The rest of Jake's firm associates are in a long meeting, trying to come up with a way to cover this man's shift. Also, don't you forget that this happened after that famous incident with their employers in Nice." Scully arched her eyebrow as she crossed her arms in front of her chest for emphasis. Mulder nodded thoughtfully and finished the milk. "But he's in his office, right? I mean, if we need to contact him." "Sure. But I suggest we only call on emergencies." Scully said as she took another bite of the pie delivered to her mouth. Mulder nodded at the comment, but felt it would happen soon enough. When he finished the pie, he took the dishes to the dishwasher and went straight to his assigned bed, which he hadn't used until now. Scully heard him getting changed, surprised that he actually followed her suggestion. She really hoped he wouldn't have his nightmares while their stay in this house. Scully felt a slight tug at her leg, and turned to face the little girl holding another one of her drawing. Although Scully hadn't seen much of them, she knew they held clues to just where this girl had been, as well as the clues to learn what had happened to her. She gazed at the drawing for a while, but had no idea what to say to her. She handed it back to the girl, then asked her what it meant just to see her reaction. She gave none. Next, Scully asked the girl if she wanted something from the kitchen. The girl shook her head 'no', then pointed to the white square-shaped devise lying beneath the VR machine that Mulder was playing with earlier. Scully looked at the devise closely, instantly realizing that it was a scanner. 'That makes sense', she thought. The guy was a successful architect. Therefore, using the devise to scan-in his designs and viewing them with the VR machine must help him. 'But what does this have to do with the artwork?' Again, Scully took the drawing out of the girl's hand and pointed to the scanner. "Did Jake use this a lot?" She asked, being careful to keep her voice low, so as not to disturb her partner. The girl only nodded, followed by a small smile. That was when Scully figured out what the girl really wanted. "Do you want me to copy your drawing for you on the computer screen?" Another nod. She then felt a slight tingling on her skin as she realized what it must be about. "Did Jake use this machine to get all of your drawings into the computer?" This got Scully another big nod and a grin for confirmation from the girl. Scully suddenly felt like opening up someone else's personal diary. Why hadn't Jake said anything about using the VR machine to the authorities? But then, the answer was simple enough. They hadn't earned his trust, yet. She also understood why Jake hadn't yet trusted her or Mulder, but she didn't understand why this realization hurt her. Scully wiped her face with her free hand and stared down at the girl. True to her guess, the girl was now trying to put on the VR machine on herself, her tiny hands barely reaching the edge of the black headpiece. Scully still had the medical files to review, and quickly. She tapped on the girl's shoulder lightly to get attention. "I'm sorry, but I can't let you have this, yet. I still have work to do here, and I don't think Jake will be happy about your using this machine without my asking Jake for permission on your behalf. I'll let you play with it once I'm done here, but it will take quite a while. I hope you understand." Scully tried to get the girl to understand her reasons, because she was being honest here. So far, the girl had been more than cooperative toward them, despite the difficulties their investigation imposed on her. Suddenly, Scully remembered how Jake talked to this girl and used the same method. "Hey, I'll make you a deal. I'll have your drawing scanned right now, and it'll be saved up inside this box. When I'm done with my homework, you can have all the time you want with this, okay? It'll be all yours once I'm done, and you can have it until Jake comes back." Scully hoped this one would work better, and was relieved when it did. The girl watched as Scully closed the medical file and searched for the right files to get the computer connected with the scanner. She then placed the drawing carefully onto the glass panel and closed the rid. She clicked on the 'Ready' button on the computer screen, then pressed the 'Start' button on the scanner. Lastly, Scully handed the drawing back to the girl and thanked her. The girl nodded again and trotted her way back toward the bookshelves, where she had been looking through some professional photography books. Three hours later, Scully stood up from the chair to stretch her body, then she walked to the kitchen to make herself some coffee. While it was brewing, she settled herself on a kitchen stool and watched her partner, still soundly asleep. Mulder hasn't woken up anyone so far with his terrifying screams for his sister or for Scully herself. Scully hoped that the nightmares would leave her partner the hell alone. It made things much harder for him to live with than he deserved. He suffered enough already in the past. It was infuriating that this man had to suffer from their countless encounters with tragedy and betrayal, with the knowledge that his sister was still out there, waiting for him. To this day, Mulder had not even been able to escape from the memories and fears in his sleep. Scully's eyes eventually rested on Mulder's briefcase, where he undoubtedly kept the tapes of the girl's sessions, as well as the printouts from the hospital's Records Office. When she was only half way through the file, taking her time in thoroughly examining it so as not to miss anything, she began having a growing feeling that the girl's health was in jeopardy. She thought of the extra vial of the girl's blood in the freezer, secured in a small padded metal container. It gave her a chill. Scully remembered Mulder's earlier words about calling up Skinner to have the man get himself involved in this investigation. The idea became really attractive, especially now. 'How long?' Scully thought with a sick horror. 'How long before they start following us around? Or, attempt to snatch this girl away? Or, try to assassinate her, as well as Mulder and myself??' Scully recalled Mulder telling her during their flight down to LA, that he was willing to back off. For her. "Damnit!" Her voice was a tense whisper. Just then, the coffee machine behind her signaled it had done its job. She let her shoulders relax and chose not to move a muscle for several seconds. Mulder stirred, and Scully saw that he was muttering something in his sleep. She tensed immediately, ready to interrupt his sleep if necessary. She looked to the girl who sat by the television, watching some documentary about African wildlife. Scully couldn't dare let the girl hear Mulder scream. It could trigger a panic attack in the girl that initially resulted in her current state. When Scully was sure that her partner was fine, she retrieved his briefcase that still lay on top of the coffee table. She felt a little guilty for snooping, but then, her partner would understand. Bur first, she returned to Jake's computer desk to finish reading the medical files. Jake's House Same Day 4:30 PM Mulder awoke with a start at the sound of Scully's voice talking over the phone. He swallowed hard as his consciousness made a successful comeback to the real world. He slowly opened his eyes, instantly greeted by the faint hint of sunlight that had crawled through the screens, telling him that it was still day. He stirred under the covers, and saw Scully walking passed by his bed. Although Scully had her cellular phone pressed to her ear and was blocking his view of her face, her voice was another matter entirely. Mulder furrowed his eyebrows, noticing how distressed she sounded. When he focused closer on the background noise, he could hear the TV and the sound of someone moving around. He guessed it was most probably the little girl. The rhythmical clicking noise that followed the shuffling feet must belong to Stella. He smiled, then pulled himself up to work the kinks out of his tall frame. As soon as he stood up, Scully stopped her pacing and came directly over to him. "Mulder, we've got a problem." A thousand reasons for their having 'a problem' flew through his awaking mind. When he didn't speak, she answered for him. "Mrs. Chunovic was just pronounced dead at the hospital. Mr. Chunovic took a serious down turn because of it. The kids are also doing worse. Jake said either of the kids could go at any moment, and that the entire firm's gone to the hospital to watch things over. Jake's also staying there, but he's mostly at the office, finishing the rest of their work. He can't come back here for the night, and nobody has a clue just when he can. So..." Scully sighed and placed her hand over her hip. Mulder nodded. "We can't leave the house." "Yeah. Or one of us can stay here while the other gets to go out there to dig for some more clues, but..." Mulder firmly shook his head 'no', cutting her off. "Forget it, Scully. I'm not going. If you have to go somewhere, you go without me. I need to be around the girl and observe her. I didn't tell you before going to sleep, but I've got the tapes in my briefcase..." Scully nodded deeply. "I know. I have them." "Oh." Her statement alone was enough. "The medical files?" He asked as he walked over to the kitchen to get a cup of coffee for himself. "I'm done with those. I'll need to go over them again one by one with you." Mulder nodded his agreement with the plan. She nodded back and further lowered her voice. "I was kind of hoping that we could do it without having that girl around. She's smart, and she understands what we say. I don't think she's good at writing nor reading, but in conversations and observations, she's very good. I don't want her getting scared and delay her recovery." Mulder raised his eyebrows while taking a long sip of the bitter brown liquid, putting down the mug with a sour face. "Time's flying away, and Jake's gone. We have no choice. I still need to watch those videos, with or without her being in the house." Mulder was speaking the truth. Scully nodded before motioning him over to Jake's computer desk. He detected the 'There's more' look on her face and quietly followed her. "Bring it on, Scully." He said as he pulled over a chair that was set near a window, then set it next to her before sitting down in it. She pulled up the hospital record from New York's Jane Doe. He stared at the CAT scan image. "Tell me what I'm looking at, Scully." His eyes searched for any sign of abnormality that he could recognize. "Look at the cerebrum and the nasal cavity." Scully pointed to the area with a pen. "All right. What about them?" "There's a very small area where blood vessels from the sinus cavity are gathering. It's right there, at the blank dark space. It's showing up blank, because that area is filled with clear fluids. Now, on the very edge of the brain tissue at the cerebrum, there's some abnormality in the flow of the fluids. It seems as if some foreign body 's been abandoned there, or a blood clot is developing in there. It's barely recognizable at this point, and very easily missed by physicians. Even if they detected this, they might just treat it with blood thinning agent. If the clogging worsens, they may try to surgically remove it. It could be anything, Mulder. An impact resulting from an external injury, or a developmental abnormality, or a..." "An implant?" Paling fast, Mulder stared at the image he couldn't interpret. "No, it's organic." She saw Mulder's head turn sharply. "We didn't even find a scar on the back of her neck, Mulder. You already knew that." She dropped her gaze. "A growth? Like a tumor?" Mulder was hardly listening to her. "Mulder, I'm not sure. We need a biopsy to determine that. At this point, it's much too early for anything to really show up on ordinary tests." "If it is so damn small that it's virtually undetectable, how long could she have had this?" Scully should have known that Mulder would jump on a sinking ship. "It depends on the person. Maybe she was born with it. Maybe she acquired it. Don't rush into any conclusion here, Mulder. If it is in fact a blood clot, then she needs an in-vitro blood-thinning agent. We need to take her to a specialist, but we should take care of other issues first. The girl can wait, because it's not yet life threatening. Other things are." "Like?" His eyes never left the screen image. "Like, the gene test that we have to do on the girl. Like, tracking down the doctors before they end up dead. Who's behind all this? How many more subjects have found themselves in the middle of these situations as our girl has? For how much longer can we keep any of us safely involved in our investigation?" "Okay. Anything else?" Mulder tore his eyes off the screen and faced her. Sensing that she had something big under her sleeve, Mulder watched as she picked up the VR headpiece and handed it to him. "Here's Jake's pet project." Mulder narrowed his eyes at her words and took the devise from her offering hands. "When I was reviewing the files, the girl came up to me with another one of her drawing. She pointed out to the scanner, which is that white box right in front of you, and insisted that I take her drawing. Seems like Jake's been doing that with every single one of them." Mulder's eyebrows jumped an inch, followed by a moment of pause and a shrug. "Well, Kathler already told us about making the copies." "That's not all, Mulder." Scully kept staring at him. "Was he viewing them with this?" Mulder held up the machine. She didn't need to answer. "So, he was analyzing the pictures himself. Did you get a look at what he was doing?" Mulder's self-loathing was back in charge as he repeatedly cursed himself in his head for not noticing the damn equipment on their first day in this place. "I did. ...Sort of. I'm not a computer wiz, Mulder, and neither are you. But those pictures I had a chance to look through on the flat screen, not the VR screen, they looked as if they had been rearranged. They looked way too clean for them to be the originals." "The guy couldn't afford to trust us, yet. We can't blame him for being cautious. As for Kathler's method for analysis, I'd been doing the exact same thing myself. I've got a notebook full of the stuff I've isolated according to the images' pattern and the frequency of repetition." "Mulder, it's better to do it this way. It's more efficient and it's done by science. You don't have to wreck yourself by trying to analyze something that is impossible to analyze." "It's not really impossible, Scully. I mean, I've seen the girl and she hates hospitals flat-out, though she hides it really well. Her exhaustion comes more from the stress of being alone in a strange room with strangers who surround her with machines, than from the procedures themselves. I've recognized several shapes that could only be tables or beds. Aside from several images that looked like human bodies, but they were a little too out-of-shape for humans." Scully shot him a look of warning, with a touch of exasperation thrown in for free. Mulder resisted the urge to toss her an innuendo about this quickly becoming their pattern, and kept on. "I can't be definite, because all the colors get in the way. Mostly, she's used gray, green, yellow, blue, and red. There are some black and brown, but they're used mostly for the letters and symbols. Cryptology guys also thought the images were somehow connected with one another, and they've printed up a copy of all the strange symbols and letters they could isolate out of them. According to them, none of the letters or symbols has ever been used in this world." At Scully's look of skepticism, Mulder shook his head out of frustration. Mulder stared her down hard as he shifted his feet. "By the way, that list included all the known classical languages from Greek, Egyptian, Inca, Aborigine, Eskimo, Ainu, Mayan, Native American, Tibetan, Icelandic, plus all the known ancient African, Polynesian, and Micronesian tribal. All this research, and still they had no clue as to where the characters used in our girl's drawings came from. Yet, they came up in every drawing she's done since Kathler rescued her. So, they called it a dead-end." "I think that it's time you call Agent Hall. He's a computer expert. He may as well know enough about VR machines." Scully said, handing Mulder her cellular phone. Mulder knew this was as close to an admission of defeat from Scully as he was going to get this time around. "Why don't we just drag Kathler out here? It's his toy, after all." "I don't think he knows too much about the machine, Mulder. There were several drawings that seemed to have been abandoned half way through." "Fine. I left Hall with a homework of tracking the missing doctors for us, but I'll do it. I've told him some stuff about you, and he said he wanted to see you. The kid practically offered himself to us." Mulder said as he dialed the number out of his memory. Scully sighed and got off of the medical file. It took Mulder only a couple of sentences to get Hall to leave the office and rush to the airport. "Scully, could you see if Kathler at least saved the originals? You know, before dissecting them?" Mulder said as he looked at his watch, frowning at the time. "Yeah. It looks like he made two folders. One for the originals, and another exclusively for mutilation." She arched her eyebrow again for emphasis, meeting his own raised eyebrow. 'Cleaver man', they thought simultaneously. "Okay. Could we go over the tapes in the mean time?" Mulder said, already walking toward the TV set where the girl was. Scully watched as Mulder knelt down in front of her just the way Jake had done, and explained why the partners needed to have the TV set to themselves for just a while. The girl shrugged and called Stella over to play around Jake's model buildings. Scully inserted the first tape, a legal pad in her hand. Mulder made a quick trip to the kitchen and got himself another two slices of the remaining pie. Scully rolled her eyes at the sight, but then she remembered Elly wouldn't be in to cook for them. Realizing this, she told Mulder to pause the tape and got herself a bowl of granola with yogurt on top. When she returned, Mulder gave her an appreciative look. Scully knew she had to eat something, and it also kept him from hovering over her. Mulder's cellular phone rang before they could ever start on the first tape. He took it out of his abandoned jacket pocket, and listened in intently. Scully kept staring at the paused image of the girl and a middle-aged man that looked to be a therapist, but literally jumped a few inches as her partner cursed loudly and drove a vicious kick into a leg of his bed. "Call me as soon as you know more!!" Mulder yelled into the phone, marching his way back to his stunned partner. "Mul...?" Scully never got a chance to ask what was wrong. "All the hell's breaking loose, Scully. Before I came back, I told the guys in Los Angels to make house calls on these doctors. Now, their houses are going up in flames as we speak." "What!?" "The fire department's raising their arms up in the air. Nothing's salvageable, and if there were anybody in there, consider them gone." "Mulder, we should have the local police secure the families of these doctors..." "It's too late, Scully. They're already missing." His voice slightly shook at the end. "We can't leave this house. They've already alerted the police in this town, and they're all watching those houses round-the-clock until our guys in LA get there to collect any evidence. It's only a matter of time before someone tries to get to us. In this house." Mulder honestly looked desperate. Scully reached up and took Mulder's hand to lead him back to the television set. They needed to finish viewing the videos before something else happened to them. "Mulder, calm down and tell me what I'm looking at on this screen here. You're a psychologist, and I'm a medical doctor. We'll do what we can, one step at a time." Mulder's piercing gaze would have been enough to scare anybody away, except for Dana Scully. Mulder took several deep breaths before settling himself back in front of the television set. He took a moment before turning his attention back to his partner. "I'm sorry, Scully. I shouldn't have blasted off like that in front of her." He apologized, pointing to the little girl, now standing a little uneasily beside Stella at the computer desk. Mulder faced the girl and Stella, trying to amend the mishap. "I'm very sorry if I scared you just now. I won't let that happen again." With that, Mulder turned back to the screen. The girl kept her position, her eyes slowly moving toward Jake's computer desk. She hated machines, but she hated the thick fog in her brains even more. The fog appeared every time she tried to remember things too hard, or for too long at a time. She had fragments, but not the whole story. She was getting tired of being ignored even when she was the center of attention. She again asked herself if she could survive through the experimentation she had planned for herself. So far, none of the adults realized her motives. She hated herself for what she was about to do to herself, Jake, and their new friends. She felt the smooth cool surface of the desk, and slid her hands on it a couple of times before finding the switch she was looking for. It didn't take too much effort on her part to get the brand logo on the black screen, and within minutes, she was staring at a row of icons to choose from. She knew that it was the one at the very left end of the third top row, because she saw Jake select it each time he wore the huge headpiece. She inserted her tiny hands into the groves with the myriad wires, tightening the elastic band around her tiny fingers. She hoped she was doing this right. Finally getting that done, she reached over to the VR machine and tried to pull it over her small head. Frustrated to find it too large for her frame, she began playing with it to see if she could adjust it the way her parents did for her every time they let her listen to a walk-man. She eventually found the adjusting button, and finally eased it over the top of her head. It was still a little unsteady, but the straps were tight enough to stabilize it. She didn't have to wait for too long for the first image to come up. Frustrated now to find them not in their original order, she moved her hand. Then, the picture moved to the same direction her hand did. She released a laugh, moving her hand around again, and watching the pictures move according to the movement of her wrist. When she tried to grab the edge of the desk to steady herself, she recognized the picture sort of wobbled around like there'd been an earthquake. She soon found out how the movements of her fingers made the pictures move. Excited now, she began moving around the three-dimensional space even faster, watching the little images scatter around. She released more laughter and began playing with them as if the whole thing was a big jigsaw puzzle to her. When she grew bored of that particular picture, she pulled the headpiece off of her head, and brought the arrow shaped cursor down one more row to see what that one had in store for her. She had seen Jake go into this one only once, and after that, he'd hugged her with tears in his eyes. She knew what he saw in there didn't make him happy. But they were her drawings, and she had no idea just which ones had been copied in there. She reluctantly clicked on the new image and put the headpiece back on. She frowned as she was met with yet another folder with another row of icons. She had no idea how to select the pictures out of the folder, but she knew that at least one of them was always selected for the users. The image came into view, and she felt the whole world crash down on top of her. A piercing scream of a child bounced off the loft's white walls, mixed with the sound of Stella barking. Immediately following was a loud thud, along with the noise of several objects crashing down on the floor. Both agents jumped at the loud noises, startled. Mulder immediately sprung to his feet, while Scully grabbed the remote to stop the tape. As Scully got to her feet, she heard a high choking sound, followed by Mulder crying out for her. Stella barked hysterically, running around the area in tight circles. Scully rushed over with her gun drawn, but the sight that greeted her was nothing she expected. "Call an ambulance! She's having a seizure!" Mulder yelled without taking his eyes off of the girl's convulsing body. He had his arm around the girl's tiny head, the other covering her torso to stop her from damaging herself any further. Stella was still jumping around them frantically, but Mulder finally wore out his patience and roughly shoved the dog away. Stella nearly lost her balance, but she recovered in an instant and stared at Mulder in surprise. "Scully, look through the medicine cabinet and see if there's any medication for this! Fucking son of a bitch! Kathler should've told us about this!" Scully was already on the phone, requesting medical assistance and reporting the girl's condition. When she was done, she looked around and realized what must have happened. "Mulder, I don't think this has anything to do with an existing medical condition nor the blood clot we found." She said, trying to assess the girl's condition as best she could under the circumstances. It gave her a shudder to look at the girl's eyes moving rapidly in their sockets. Her tiny body sprung up and smashed back down onto the floor with each attack. "What?" Still recovering from his own shock, his reply was barely audible. "I think she was in the virtual reality. The computer's on, and so as the VR headpiece." "But, she..." Mulder's voice tensed as he realized their mistake of leaving the girl unattended. "Mulder, this girl's mind is exceptional. I've seen the girl's IQ test from the file Agent Hall retrieved. Her score was far into a genius's level, and she's at an age where she takes everything in like a sponge. It might be easy enough for her to use anything in the house if she'd seen someone doing it." Her voice wobbled as she tried to steady the girl's body under her hands. "Damn it! I shouldn't have left her alone, Scully." She saw that his eyes had grown moist, and a slight shade of red was covering the whites. Stella once again tried to approach the girl, and Mulder immediately stuck his hand out to shove her away. This time, Stella retaliated with an unmistakable growl of rage. Mulder instantly drew his hand back and glared at her. It wasn't until the girl's seizures stopped and the paramedics took over the scene that Scully noticed a thin trace of drying tears on her cheek. "We're taking her to the Henry Barrington's. I don't know if..." The driver of the ambulance said as Mulder climbed into the passenger seat, but Mulder cut him off. "No, we don't!! We go anywhere but there!!" Mulder nearly screamed, and everyone who rode in the back heard it. "But, it's the closest..." Mulder's tension was contagious as the driver raised his voice. "I don't give a flying fuck!! That hospital is under FBI investigation for malpractice and record tampering. That girl is one of their victims. She won't be safe there. Go somewhere else." The driver threw his hands in the air and complied. Just then, he heard the door to the passenger door open and Scully appeared. She handed him his cellular phone, and pulled at his arm to take him out of the paramedics' earshot. "Mulder, one of us should stay here no matter what. I'll ride with them to the hospital and explain everything to Jake, including the test results. You should stay here and finish analyzing the pictures. Something in there scared the girl to half-death. You've been facing those drawings from the beginning, so you should finish them. Also, we can't forget about Agent Hall's pending arrival, can we? Someone's gotta open the door for him." Scully added the last statement as an attempt at half-job of a humor, then patted Mulder on his arm for reassurance. "But..." Mulder half raised his arm, stopping when he realized he had better go with it. He was too devastated to remain rational and coherent. He withdrew his hand and nodded. Seeing his response, Scully immediately hopped into the passenger seat. "It'll be okay, Mulder." He barely heard her voice as the ambulance came to life, and the siren ripped thorough the moist air. Resigning himself to the tasks at hand, Mulder made his way back into the loft. Conversation with Jake was difficult, as Jake demanded the hows and the whys of the situation. All Mulder could do was to tell the enraged man to get the explanations from Scully, and that he needed to stay at the house to await the arrival of an additional federal agent. Jake hanged up on him abruptly, and Mulder didn't even know it until the familiar 'Ready' tone came through the receiver. Mulder blankly stared at the VR headpiece, the empty coffee mug Scully had left, and a pile of papers lying scattered on the hardwood floor. His knees suddenly lost their bearings, his feet instantly turning into sponge beneath his limbs. Unable to sustain his balance, he dropped onto the floor on his rear with a thud. He didn't move for a long time before getting up and setting up the VR machine. Stella stayed at a safe distance away from him, but never left his side. He stared at her, and strangely thought he could read exactly what the dog was thinking. 'Yes', the eyes seemed to be saying. 'I never should have trusted you. All of this is your fault'. Mulder swallowed hard and forced himself to look away from those prying eyes. Scully was right, again. Mulder needed to know what frightened the girl into the seizure. He sighed once as he took the seat at Jake's computer desk, the mess on the floor completely ignored. The moment Mulder adjusted the headpiece and inserted his hands into the attached hand piece, he realized the machine hadn't been turned off nor damaged by the impact of the fall. Mulder was now staring directly into the image the girl had seen. His jaw dropped at the sight that hit his eyes. Mulder had been right all along. With the aid of the VR machine, Jake had figured out just as much or more than Mulder had without the machine. Jake had his own interpretations on the drawings, and had even tried to paste several pictures at each corner of the three-dimensional screen as if to form a cubicle. Mulder noted especially that several drawings were three-dimensional, which was the very reason why he couldn't quite place the colors and shapes of each image. He smacked himself on the head for not realizing the trick early on. Agent Hall called on his cellular just when Mulder began viewing the dissected version of the pictures. Hall told Mulder that he was in Canoga Park, and was now only minutes away from the house. Mulder told the man to make it under one minute, hanging up on the agent before hearing the poor man's reply. Prescott Hospital 7PM Same Day Jake looked far worse than Mulder did, and he didn't look any better after Scully explained all the information they've received during their investigation. He buried his head in his palms and deflated in the chair set by the girl's bed. He took the cup of coffee Scully handed to him and stared helplessly at the still form of the girl in front of him. He hadn't spoken in more than half an hour, and Scully had already told him all that she could. When he finally opened his mouth, his voice was barely audible. "I wondered why she didn't stop me or pull me out from under VR, even when it meant having to wait for me for hours at a time. I had no idea she was trying to learn how I used the computer and the VR machine. If I'd known that she was a true genius, I'd have hid the VR machine out of her sight." "It's not your fault, Jake. It never was. In fact, it was no body's fault. Don't ever forget that." Scully patted his back for emphasis, wondering just how many times she'd said the same phrase to Mulder. "But, I should have been more careful. I was responsible for her care and support..." Jake trailed off, his words only renewing his self-hatred. 'Yep.' Scully thought, 'Definitely have a lot in common with Mulder'. She sighed as she tried to search for the right words to speak. "We all should have been much more careful, Jake. Being too careful, though, as we had been at first, could also mean trouble. We didn't trust each other well enough to disclose all information. To be completely honest with you, even if I trusted you as much as I trust Mulder, I still wouldn't have divulged any unconfirmed information. I might present it as a theory, but never as a fact." Said Scully, as she watched Jake take another sip of his coffee. She then listened as he began telling her just what he had seen the first time when he went under the VR: When he saw the first drawing, his eyes popped wide open behind the black viewing devise. People. There were people in there. Jake was sure, because there were a couple of figures that had sets of long legs and arms. They even had heads, but their limbs looked so out of shape for any human body. This first drawing had a lot of red and pale bright greenish colors spread all over the scattered human forms. Jake had no clue as to what they were. But then, this was art. He found what looked like symbols and letters that had been drawn over the bright colors, so that he didn't recognize them at first glance. On the second drawing, there was what looked like a board that was almost large enough to be called a table. The object was drawn with a few large machines that had obviously been attached to it. There was a very thin red light coming from the center of the machine, and from the looks of it, it was directed straight down to the table. What shocked Jake the most was the parts of what looked to be human bodies, though he hoped they weren't. According to the drawing, these body parts had been broken, twisted in very unnatural positions. Jake also recognized what looked to be tongues hanging out of their opened mouths, forcing him to wrestle his nausea. Two small round holes drawn above the open mouths indicated their eyes, but they gave him no other clue than the fact that they were open. 'Murder?' Jake wondered as he felt bone-freezing chill crawling up and down his entire body. 'Jesus, this girl saw murders?' But, just as it was with the first drawing, he had no idea what other drawn bits and pieces indicated. Jake moved on quickly through the other drawings. The third drawing showed unmistakable image of a building. Its exterior was wrapped in gray and black, while its central parts mainly consisted of yellow and red. 'Fire.' he thought. 'Fire and smoke.' Then, there were images of what looked to be people running out of a black car. This image of a burning building was hard to detect on the computer screen, because it had been written in the folding corners of two walls. From the looks of it, it was no ordinary, clean shoot-to-kill murder. There was such a large quantity of red used in this drawing, so much that it almost covered an entire wall of the cubicle. If the red splatters used in this drawing were supposed to be human blood, Jake was looking at a possible eyewitness to multiple homicides. Scully listened silently as Jake finished giving her his witness accounts, nodding or frowning occasionally for response, but never actually speaking. She mentally took notes of Jake's story to later report to Mulder. The emergency physician who was assigned to care for the girl came to report the status of his patient. Scully shook hand with the doctor, who knew about Scully's knowledge in medicine. "Well, the good news is that she's calmed down now. However, I wouldn't risk moving her anywhere for the night. She's already tried and succeeded in attacking one of the orderlies by biting his hand. I should mention that he was bitten really hard. ...She's sedated now, and I hate to do this to such a little girl, but she's going to be in restraints for the rest of her stay in here." "Oh, my God!" Jake exclaimed, his hand covering his mouth and his chin. Scully bit her lower lip and nodded her acceptance. They were lucky enough that the girl wasn't sent to a psychiatric institution for children. "Thank you, doctor. I wouldn't want her to hurt herself, either." She said as she lightly patted Jake's arm. The doctor nodded and walked away. She pulled out her cellular phone and called Mulder. Since he'd answered on the first ring, there was no doubt he'd had the phone lying on a table or somewhere in front of him all along, waiting for this very call. "Mulder, she's okay for now." She didn't waste time with pleasantries. She could hear his sigh of relief over the line. She wouldn't be surprised if his eyes were swollen half-shut from crying. After all, she remembered the torture he'd put himself through after losing Melissa, not Scully's elder sister, but the woman he believed was his wife in one of his past lives. She also remembered him hit rock bottom after losing the battle with the alien bounty hunter in an effort to protect the clones of his sister. Then, there was what she'd heard from her mother during the time she was missing and he had Alex Krychek as his new partner. When Mulder wouldn't speak, she listened hard and heard a consistent hitching that was either sounds of someone heaving or choking. She stared up at the ceiling as she softly called his name. She got no response. She knew what she needed to do. "She's not out of the woods, yet. But she's going to be okay, and we're all here to watch over her." As she spoke, she walked into the room where Jake was holding the girl's tiny hand. Scully saw the hand sticking out of the white restraining band, suddenly feeling her heart muscles contract painfully at the sight. She lightly tapped on Jake's shoulder, eliciting a slight flinch from him. He looked into her eyes, his deep hazel eyes now glowing from moisture they held there. Feeling Jake's penetrating gaze, Scully's heart skipped a beat. She tightened the leash on her emotions and slowly handed Jake the phone. "He needs to hear you speak. He's in quite a shock himself, and he needs to know that she's okay. But most urgently, he needs to know that he isn't the only one to blame for this incident. Please, Jake. Talk to him." Scully kept her voice calm, hoping Jake wouldn't start throwing accusations at Mulder or herself. Jake looked at the phone, then to her, before finally taking it. She was relieved, but then she saw his thumb was moving toward the 'Talk' button to hang up. Scully gripped on his wrist before the finger got there. "Please, Jake. I'll explain why later. You're going to crush him with this if you won't at least talk to him." Her tone and her eyes were the testament to her sincerity. Jake narrowed his eyes at her words before swallowing hard and brought the phone to his ear. "Mulder? She's fine for now. She looks exhausted, in restraints, sleeping under the effects of some sedatives. I don't know just what your problem over this is, but I understand that not every thing was your fault. I wasn't there when this happened and you had work to do. Don't worry, because I'll stay here with her tonight. I'll have Dana come home and bring me a change of clothes or whatever else that I'm gonna need in here. If you want to help us, you keep on searching for your answers." Jake stopped abruptly, obviously wanting to add something else. Finally deciding against it, he handed the phone back to Scully. She took it from his slightly trembling hand and mouthed a 'thank you'. Jake nodded, then resumed holding the girl's hand. Scully understood why he was sending her home. It wasn't just to bring him his clothes, but also to go take care of Mulder. She brought the phone back to her face. "Mulder, I'm on my way. I'll bring Stella out of the house with me when I come back here." She waited for a long moment before he agreed with a barely audible 'All right'. "I'm hoping Stella would be able to help the girl pull herself together. After all, Stella has the girl's trust." Although Scully couldn't help wincing at some of Jake's earlier words, she knew he was trying to understand the new enemy he had come to face. It was hard enough just learning about the myriad conspiracies, kept and played by the shadowy figures within the US government. Then life becomes harder, knowing that these conspirators had support system all over the world like an endless web of secrets and lies. Life becomes almost unbearable the moment you gain the knowledge that these evil souls give no second thought about sacrificing hundreds of lives and destroying thousands more by decidedly inhumane methods. That his best friend in the world whom he discovered only two weeks ago, had fallen into these people's hands as one of their countless victims. Scully called a cab on her cellular, realizing that she didn't have a ride back since she'd come in an ambulance. Continuing on to Chapter 1, Part 3...