Rainbow Continuum 6/10 Emily Miller JANUARY 1, 1999 8:30 A.M. Rammin, as good as he was at tracking, was growing tired when his backup finally showed. He had been watching Fox Mulder and the 3 Scullys- Dana, Melissa, and the girl, who Melissa Scully had called Daina Kathryn for years now- sit, backs against a large tree that was just big enough for them all to sit side-by-side, and talk, laugh, and just have a good time. If he hadn't been told that he would be killed for injuring any of them in the least, he would have shot them long enough and buried the bodies. "Hey," a voice said behind him, startling him from his dreams of their bloody bodies, of running his hands over the wounds and feeling the stickiness on his fingers. He turned to find the man, formally known as Alex Krycek and Jonathan Johnson, and currently Adam Jonnes; crouched beside him on the damp leaves that covered the ground and allowed them to walk silently. Those leaves were the only reason Rammin hadn't heard Jonnes, he assured himself. Any other time, he would have known he was coming when he was a hundred feet away. "Ready for me to take over?" Jonnes asked. Rammin didn't reply immediately. He didn't like Jonnes, even if Jonnes had been working with the Consortium for almost a year longer than he had. Jonnes was a double-crosser, first turning on them, then rushing back and wanting to be allowed back in after losing his arm. But he had to admit, it had been Jonnes that had helped make their little problem possible to fix- and it HAD been fixed, of course with Rammin's help, until 2 days ago. When the FBI agents had found Melissa Scully and the girl. "Yeah," Rammin said, just as Jonnes was about to ask again. "But I'm stayin'." Jonnes blinked, surprised at that- after more than 24 hours without rest, he would have been exhausted, and if he had the chance to go home, he would take it. "Uh, okay, I-" "Shut up, they can hear you if you talk too loud," said Rammin. Jonnes looked a little galled, as though he had known that and Rammin had only said it to rile him, but didn't provoke things further. He simply settled a little more comfortably onto the leaves to wait. "So what're they doing? What're WE doing?" "They're just... talkin'. We're supposed to wait for the right time to get Melissa and that girl and get 'em back." "You mean to the Consortium." "Yeah, who else?" "So when're we gonna do it?" "When the time's right." "When's that?" Rammin forced himself not to start a fight- Jonnes was obviously trying to annoy him on purpose with senseless questions. "Later. When they don't expect it." >>>>>>>> JANUARY 1, 1999 8:35 A.M. Daina Kathryn was still giggling from one of Mulder's jokes, Melissa was smiling, and Scully looked happier than she had in a long time- a year, in fact- when Mulder heard it. Someone was talking. Close to them. He could barely make it out. "...Melissa and that girl...back..." "You... the Consorti-..." "...Who else?" "...When're... gonna do it?" "When... don't expect..." Then there was silence. Scully, Melissa, and Daina Kathryn didn't seem to have heard. They were still talking and giggling like they had been before, even Scully relaxed. "And you should've seen me jump away from him!" she was saying, and Melissa was laughing while Daina Kathryn looked a little confused. "Why?" she asked. "Because he wasn't Fox- he was Eddie van Blundht!" And Daina Kathryn figured it out and laughed too, though not as loudly as Melissa had. She still wasn't completely sure what was so funny about the whole thing. She thought it was kind of sad that her mother had been so close to admitting to Fox so long ago that she loved him, only to find out it WASN'T him. "Scully!" Mulder whispered, urgently beckoning Scully over to him. She left Melissa at the beginning of an embarrassing first-date-for-Dana story and Daina Kathryn hanging onto every word. "What?" she asked Mulder, joining him a few feet from where she'd stood before. "Shh. I heard people talking. Somebody's following us." "But... how... how could they without us knowing?" "I don't know. I think one of them just got here. I think they're after Melissa and Daina Kathryn." Scully sucked in her breath quickly and a little too loudly for Mulder to feel comfortable with. "Shh," he said again. "I knew it couldn't be that easy..." she said softly, seeming not to have heard his warning. She was leaning as far over as she dared, trying to see what he was hearing. But there was nothing but the trees, brown and leafless in the cold of winter. She shivered involuntarily, knowing that just a few feet away were at least 2 people who wanted her sister and daughter- and possibly herself. "It's going to be okay, Scully. We can split up, and run. You go with Daina Kathryn, I'll go with Melissa," Mulder said. "I don't even know where we're going!" she said. "Just stop at the first clearing you come to. We'll find you." "Mulder-" "Scully, we do it or they'll catch us." "All right. But if we're not to a clearing by tonight, I'm coming back." >>>>>>>> JANUARY 1, 1999 8:40 A.M. Jonnes looked at Rammin, who was glaring at their targets. "They're splitting up," Jonnes said, stating the obvious. That annoyed Rammin. "I see that," he said, only just managing to keep his voice- and fists- under control. "We could split up, too," Jonnes said. "No. You're expected back by tonight, and I'm supposed to have both Melissa Scully and the girl by tomorrow morning. If somethin' happens to one of us, we'll both have trouble." "Well then... uh, they have to meet some place. We can follow... which one's more important?" "The girl. She's proof of what's been going on." Jonnes, with the usual na‹ve-ness that many men who only wished they were members of the project showed, appeared to think about this statement for a moment. "But I thought she was a regular kid, she didn't need the treatments." "She still has the blood. Most of it will be gone by the time she's old enough to be released, but for now..." "Let's follow the girl and Scully." >>>>>>>> JANUARY 1, 1999 8:50 P.M. "What's going on?" Melissa finally demanded to know as Mulder released her arm and slowed down. She and Daina Kathryn had still been talking about absolutely nothing when Mulder and Scully had suddenly forced them quiet, explaining only that they had to split up. And then Melissa had found herself being dragged away from her sister and niece with Mulder. "Someone was following us," was all Mulder said. He was still looking around nervously, but didn't see or hear anything and eventually relaxed- mostly- and slowed to a normal walk. "Who? And how?" "I don't know. We're trying to get away from them and meet back with Scully and Daina Kathryn later." He whirled when he heard a crack behind them. A squirrel, just a squirrel. He allowed himself to breathe again. Melissa was shaking her head. "No." "No, what?" he asked, truly confused. She was giving him the same look Scully did when she wasn't about to back down and let him have his way. The one with the narrowed eyes and the set of the mouth and the jut of the chin. He had a feeling Daina Kathryn would have the same one, one day. "I'm not going anywhere without my sister and her daughter. For 4 years, I've taken care of that child for her, with the hope that one day they would meet, and they're not going to die now." He wasn't going to yell at her, which would give their location away to the men who were, for all he knew, following him and her. He hoped they were, and not Scully and Daina Kathryn. "If we go back and try to find them, we'll ALL die. There's a 50/50 chance now that these men are after US, not them, so if we keep going, we can lead them away. Do you understand what I'm saying, or do I have to force you to come?" "Fox Mulder, you watch it," she hissed, stepping towards him. "I'll go with you... but only because what you're saying is true." He wanted to say "good" but managed to stop himself. She was already obviously pissed with him, and it wouldn't help matters for them to spend the whole time fighting. They had to get through this, find Scully and Daina Kathryn, and get to Canada. There they could hide out for as long as they needed to. >>>>>>>> JANUARY 1, 1999 8:55 A.M. "What're we doing? Where're Missy and Fox?" Daina Kathryn asked, struggling to catch her breath when Scully finally stopped and let her stop, too. Scully leaned against a tree as she, too, tried to get air back into her burning lungs. She dropped her backpack and slid to the ground, putting a hand to her chest and closing her eyes. Daina Kathryn joined her, leaning into her side and holding her hand. "Somebody was following us," Scully said. "We had to split up so they couldn't catch us." She deliberately left out the fact that the people who'd been after them would more than likely choose either them or Melissa and Mulder to go after, not just give up. Daina Kathryn figured this out on her own, but didn't bring it up. Instead, she reached up her free hand and rubbed her mother's face as Melissa had rubbed hers when she'd cried about various things that seemed unimportant now. "It's gonna be okay," she said, then, after a pause, "It's gonna be okay, Mom." "Oh, D.," Scully whispered, tears coming to her eyes. She put her arms around Daina Kathryn and pulled her closer, into her lap. "I love you so much." It was the truth. Although she'd known the child almost no time at all, she'd fallen in love with her in the same way she'd fallen in love with Emily. This was her daughter, a little person that with her help had been created. So maybe she had never held her as a baby, heard her first words or seen her take her first steps. There had been no laughs or tears or moments like this one until just these last couple of days. But what she had now was enough. She had a child. And now a man to be the father to the child. And all the more reason to get out of this situation alive. She wasn't doing it just for her. She was doing it for her daughter. Holding each other in a cold, evil world neither looked up even as the men crept closer to them and got near enough that their careful, near-silent footsteps could be heard. Jonnes raised his gun and Rammin reached for them... >>>>>>>> JANUARY 1, 1999 5:30 P.M. The day had been warmer than most; warm enough that Mulder and Melissa could put their jackets into the backpack Mulder carried as they traveled. They reached the first clearing at around 4:30 and waited, silently, for Scully and Daina Kathryn to find and join them. But an hour later, Mulder was getting worried and Melissa was to the point of hysteria. "I told you it wouldn't work!" she said when he calmly told her to wait just a little longer, still suppressing his anger at the way she was treating him and the fact that she blamed him for their having to split up. He'd saved their lives. "They'll get here, they may have just taken a longer route to make sure nobody could follow them," he said. "I'm going to look for them." She stood up, pulled her jacket from the open backpack, and started walking off. He quickly got to his feet and took a step forward, grabbed her arm. "You're not going anywhere," he said in the same voice he used with the killers he'd seen while working in violent crimes at the FBI. She tried to jerk away, but he tightened his grip. "Melissa, stop. If we go back there, we could be doing just what they want us to do. They might have Scully and Daina Kathryn, yeah, but we'll have a much better chance of saving them IF someone has gotten them if we're still free." Melissa looked back in the direction they'd come, clearly still aching to find her sister and niece. But she relaxed and allowed Mulder to lead her back to where they'd set up camp for the night. OCTOBER 6, 1970 5:00 P.M. "There's no places left!" Dana whispered, looking around her. Behind her, Bill was still counting, faster than they'd told him to. Just like Bill. "11...12...13...14." He was supposed to count to 50, but would probably come after them before he got to 40, since he still thought that they would never know the difference. Dana was 6 years old, Melissa, hiding with her, was 7: they knew how to count. They'd been playing, until just this time with the next-door neighbors, for over an hour. And, like Dana said, all the good hiding places were gone, used long before. "We could go in the woods," Melissa suggested. Dana looked at her with wide eyes. Did she realize what she was suggesting? The woods behind their home and most of the others around were known to be dangerous. A 10-year-old boy had gotten lost in them the year before and died before anyone found him. The one major rule that the Scully parents had was, NOBODY goes into the woods. "Mom 'n' Dad will kill us!" Dana said, her voice rising dangerously close to a level that Bill could hear. "20... 21...22..." "Oh, come on, Day!" "Dad told us about that kid that went in there and died. He got lost PLAYING WITH HIS FRIENDS." She made sure to emphasize the last words, hoping Melissa, hardheaded as she was, would get the idea and they could go hide in the bushes around the house or something. But she only rolled her eyes. "That's just a story, Dana. Nobody ever died in the woods. They're not THAT big." "How do you know?" "I just do. I'm older. Now come ON, before he catches us." She was right, he would be coming soon: "30... 31... 32..." Dana looked one more time back at the house, then at the woods, and finally at her sister. She sighed. "Oh, okay. But not very far." "Of course not," Melissa grabbed her arm and dragged her into the trees. It was dark inside, cooler than outside in the setting sun. Dana tried to hold back a shiver, but didn't quite manage to stop her body from shuddering once. Melissa turned and gave her a look. "Don't be such a baby. Nothing's going to happen. It's just a bunch of trees." "Mel..." Dana said, using the nickname Melissa had decided just recently was her favorite of all the ones she could make from her name. Using it would usually get Dana on her good side, at least for a few minutes. Long enough to talk her out of this. "I don't know about-" she was going to say 'going any farther,' but didn't get the chance. "Here I come!" Bill yelled. The changed her mind. Bill always found her hiding spot and she never found his. It was time for revenge, even if that meant breaking a couple of rules, major rules, but nothing anyone but Melissa would ever know about. Bill would give up eventually, and they could come out and refuse to tell him where they'd been hiding. He would never know. Hopefully. "He'll find us if we stay here," Melissa said, reading Dana's mind, apparently. Dana glanced, again, worriedly around her. It was like something out of a movie or TV show. The dark woods, the children all alone, lost, ready to take the help of anyone willing. The man who took them back to a deserted shack deep in the trees and... and... she forced herself to erase that image completely from her memory. "Just a little farther." Dana closed her mind and her eyes at the same time, allowing Melissa to lead her deeper into the unknown, away from the safe and customary simple game with their older brother and anyone else who wanted to join them. But she quickly opened her eyes again when she stumbled on a tree root and almost cried out. Melissa turned and glared at her. "Shh," she hissed. Fighting her fear, Dana only nodded. She went quietly along, making sure to watch where she was going, until Melissa felt they were far enough in the woods the Bill would more likely than not miss them even if he DID come in and sat down, leaning against a tree. They could still faintly hear Bill shouting, "Hey, Melissa! Dana! I'm gonna find you! I know you're in there!" Melissa giggled; seeming not at all affected by their surroundings. "Idiot," she muttered. Dana forced a smile, but still didn't speak. She pulled her legs to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, put her chin on her knees. Even the cool breeze that had seemed so nice earlier was now ominous, dangerous. A strand of hair had escaped from under Bill's old baseball cap that she never left the house without wearing; it whipped her cheek and made her shiver. She reached up and brushed it away, but it just came right back. Bill was quiet now, and she didn't like that. Bill was NEVER quiet, not even when he was asleep: he talked, laughed, and had even cried once or twice, all without ever gaining consciousness. Melissa, it seemed, noticed that something was up, too. "Huh, Bill shut up. Must be judgement day," she said, still trying to make jokes. But Dana could tell she was getting nervous now, too- her voice shook just enough that someone who'd known her for the better part of her life, 6 years, could tell it. Silence fell over them, broken by not even the wind through the trees. When Dana shivered this time, it was easily noticeable, but Melissa didn't say anything about it and Dana didn't care. She wanted to go home. "Mel, let's just-" A hand reached around the tree and grabbed her shoulder. She screamed and tried to jerk away, fighting whoever- or WHATEVER- it was that had her. Melissa tried to scramble to her feet, but only skidded across the leaves, crying out softly as her knee scraped against a tree root and her hands slid against the tree itself as she tried to stop herself from hitting her head. "Gotcha!" Bill cried, laughing maniacally at them. He let go of Dana's arm, and she promptly turned and slapped the only part of him she could reach, his lower leg. "Oh, that hurt," he said, kicking her. Her heart was still beating so fast she was afraid it would burst right out of her chest. "Bill, you jerk," Melissa said, examining her injured knee and hands. Dana started to tremble, unable to control it. Her whole body shook as she realized what could have just happened, who it could have been. Melissa was ALWAYS getting her into trouble... "Dana?" Melissa asked. "Are you okay?" She took a deep, shaky breath and got to her feet. "I'm fine," she lied. >>>>>>>> JANUARY 1, 1999 5:45 P.M. "Mom! Mom, wake up!" Scully moaned as someone jerked her shoulder, a scared voice penetrated the deep, drug-induced sleep. Her head ached from something... she reached out to stop whoever it was. Bill? Melissa, or Charles? Mulder? "Mom, please!" the voice was pleading now, tear-filled. She forced herself awake and picked her head up to look into the small, worried face of Daina Kathryn. "D....?" she muttered, groggily. Her voice sounded weird, so she cleared her throat. "I want Missy," Daina Kathryn said, a tear slipping down her cheek. Even if she trusted and loved Scully enough now to call her 'mom', Melissa was the still her 'mother'- the one who'd done anything for her for all of her short life. Scully knew what it was like to be without a parent for the first time. When she'd been 8, a friend had talked her into going to camp for a month during the summer. The first week, after she and her friend were separated and the friend made what looked to the little Dana like hundreds of new friends, had been the most miserable time of her life. She and Daina Kathryn were in the back of a truck, she noticed immediately as she managed to get into a sitting position, the world around her still spinning. It was a pickup, but wire had been put over the back so they couldn't get out without alerting the driver. Mud covered most of her left side, which meant they had probably been dragged to the vehicle. Although her first thoughts were of escape, she glanced again at the silent, scared child in front of her; doing her very best to be brave but not quite achieving it, and knew it wasn't the time. She held her arms out for Daina Kathryn, who fell into them gratefully, sighing quietly as they wrapped around her and rocked her gently, soothing her. "Gonna be okay, D. Gonna be just fine," Scully whispered, the same words her father had said to her when she was frightened of the dark or a thunderstorm. "Nothing's gonna happen that won't end. Just think to yourself: it's gotta end sometime." "Umm," Daina Kathryn mumbled, already half-asleep from the motion of the truck. Sleeping in the arms of a loved one was millions of times better than the cold floor of her former home. Scully ignored her pounding headache and told herself that her daughter came first, before her own needs, every moment of the rest of her life. This wasn't going to turn into another situation like the one with Emily. She would never let that happen again. >>>>>>>> JANUARY 1, 1999 6:00 P.M. "What the hell is going on?" Bill Scully, Jr. demanded of Walter Skinner as he stomped over to the Assistant Director of the FBI, ignoring the yellow tape that had stopped his wife Tara and their year-old son, who she held carefully, unsure of what she was doing there. Bill hadn't wanted her to come, but she'd insisted because he was only going to be home a few more days and she and Matt wanted to spend as much time with him as they could. Skinner looked at him and knew immediately he was a Scully. "I'm Walter Skinner," he said. "Assistant Director of the FBI." The usage of a title was usually enough to calm people down and let them at least think he was in control, even when he wasn't. "Bill Scully. Where's my sister?" He didn't slow down a bit, just walked right into the now-empty prison, again right under the tape that kept curious people who'd gotten under the first strip from going on inside. Skinner reached out a hand and grabbed his arm. "I'm sorry, you can't go in there," he said. "I want to know where the hell my sister is!" "Which sister do you mean?" Skinner said, deciding the truth couldn't be kept back any longer. Mulder had left him a message at his apartment on his answering machine, something that was dangerous to do, but he realized once he heard it why Mulder probably hadn't been thinking as he usually did when he recorded it. "Sir, this is Agent Mulder. Agent Scully and I went to look at the old prison yesterday, as we were instructed to, and found some rather... unexpected 'prisoners.' Agent Scully's sister, Melissa, thought to have been killed about 3 years ago when mistaken for Agent Scully, and a girl who it seems is Scully's daughter- I'll explain this later- were hidden in a room on the last floor. When we went to question Mark Biars- the man in charge- we found him dead with a bullet in his head. We're going into hiding. Don't send anyone out looking for us, I'll find a way to contact you as soon as I can. Erase this." "What're you talking about?" Bill asked, jerking away from Skinner and heading back for the building. This time, Skinner tightened the grip on his arm. "You can't go in there. If you try, I'll have to arrest you. Your sister has gone into hiding with Agent Mulder, a woman that is possibly your sister, and a child that may be your niece." Hearing 'niece', Bill quit fighting and glared at him. "I want to know where. Right now." "I wish I could tell you, Mr. Scully." >>>>>>>> JANUARY 2, 1999 3:30 A.M. Rammin was asleep beside him and Scully and the little girl slept in the back of the truck. Adam Jonnes felt alone for one of the first times in years. He'd always been the insecure type who needed to be part of something to feel okay with himself and not contemplate suicide. As a child, the times he'd been left out of games because his parents were the town nuts, he'd often been sent to a counselor for climbing trees and jumping from as high as he could. As he'd gotten older, he had once tried to hang himself from a basketball goal, but had been discovered before succeeding and been sent, again, to counseling- this time in the form of a special school. It was after that that he dropped out. The Consortium had wanted him from the first time they laid eyes on him, begging for a job at a McDonald's. He had the looks that were thought of as 'all-American' at that time, hair short and clean, face not the handsomest in the world, but not ugly either. They had a job for him, a man he still didn't know the name of, had said to him. They needed someone to spy on a man named 'Fox Mulder', an agent at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Getting into the FBI, with their help, hadn't been too hard. What had been hard was trying to gain Mulder's trust. It had been only weeks since those damn X-Files, so beloved to him, had been shut down and he'd been assigned to a new section. He wasn't ready for a new partner, not with Scully seeming both right next door and worlds away at Quantico. Although he'd trailed along, Jonnes knew even then that he was NOT going to turn into the next Scully. She had been a fluke, somehow able to get behind the warning signs he seemed to put up that said not-so-subtly: "keep out." Jonnes had been instructed only to stay long enough to make sure that Mulder didn't get to Scully in time. And that's what he'd done, still the good little boy, slightly na‹ve, but good at his job anyway. But when he'd watched Luis Cardinal kill Bill Mulder when they'd been instructed only to talk him into coming with them, using force if necessary... and Mulder blamed him. He guessed it could have looked like that. Since that time, when he'd betrayed the same ones who'd taken him in after his short experience on his own, he'd gone from one agency to another, when not trying to stay away from Mulder, still hell-bent on killing him. After the incident with Russia, he'd had to go into hiding yet again, the last of many times over the past 4 years. And the Consortium had found him again. He'd thought they would kill him, but instead, they'd offered him another job. He'd taken it eagerly, never stopping to think that it could be a trap. He needed to be with these people again, the ones that made him a part of something important. And that was how he'd found himself in the woods with a man named Rammin who hated him, the woman he'd almost gotten killed, and a little girl who might have been created during that time. He wondered what was so important about getting the girl back, anyway. Scully called her "Dana Katherine," which, according to the files he'd read on her and Mulder before going to the FBI, was also her name. That seemed to prove that it was either her daughter or someone closely related to her in another way. They'd been instructed to get Melissa Scully, too, maybe it was her daughter. The girl, of course, had never done anything to hurt him or affect him in any way, except get him his job back. When he thought about it, Scully hadn't either: she'd saved his life. But his job was to keep them in captivity, not kill them. It didn't seem to bother Rammin, so why should it bother him? It didn't, he tried to convince himself. He had no reason to feel guilty. But he did anyway. >>>>>>>> JANUARY 2, 1999 7:00 A.M. Melissa was still asleep, but Mulder had been up for almost half an hour. He'd eaten most of the rest of the fruit they had, leaving just enough for Melissa, then went into the woods to do what he had to do four or five times a day. Now, with nothing to do, he explored the edges of the clearing, searching for any sign of life. Maybe Scully and Daina Kathryn had stopped when it got dark, but only a few feet away from him and Melissa, not knowing how close they were to their current destination. He'd gotten worried the night before when they never showed up, but he'd managed to hide it from Melissa and convinced her that her sister and niece MUST have stopped somewhere for the night. They hadn't been that far away: they would have heard the fight if anyone tried to capture Scully. Maybe she didn't have her gun, but she was strong even without it and a better fist-fighter than most men he knew. Not only for herself, but for her daughter, she would fight to the death. There was nothing anywhere that he could see. Rainbow Continuum 7/10 Emily Miller MAY 29, 1971 2:45 P.M. The last day of fourth grade was finally over, and Samantha wouldn't hurry up. She'd only just finished kindergarten, so school hadn't lost its appeal, and she always, every single stupid day, made him wait for practically years while she talked to her stupid little friends. They were all the dumb girls that Fox hated and had hated even when her age and most of the boys loved to tease them in ways that he knew would get to mean something one day. They all had really long hair and bit bows in it and stupid frilly little dresses or pink T-shirts with pictures of unicorns or puppies or whatever on the front. "Samantha!" he finally called. "Will you move your butt just a LITTLE faster, please?" She stuck her tongue out at him. "Why don't you make me? And don't call me Samantha." She and her friends, as though all the ribbons and bright colors and cute little animals actually meant nothing to them, all considered themselves `tomboys' and tried to act tough all the time, when it only took a simple slap on the arm to start them wailing and tattling to whatever adults happened to be nearby. She made him call her `Sam', yet still insisted on calling him `Fox' or `Foxy' no matter how many times he tried to beat `Mulder' into her dumb little skull. She'd told him to make her, so he dropped his backpack and leaned his bike against the fence around the playground and walked back, around the few kids still milling around, to the school. "I'd love to," he said, grabbing her arm and jerking her towards her bike, a very pink, too-small one that she loved and refused to get rid of, but she jerked right back. "Leave me alone," she said, stalking back to her friends, who giggled at him as he stood with arms crossed and eyes narrowed, imagining himself hitting Samantha like most of his friends hit their siblings. Hard enough to hurt- and get him in real trouble when she had a bruise. "Mom said be home on time, Dad's gonna try to get home early," he replied, to which she rolled her eyes. "So what? He'll just get mad at you `cause you didn't clean your room like he said to." It was the truth, but the way she said it made him even angrier. This time, as he grabbed her arm, he held on tightly enough that her lip trembled and tears came to her eyes as he shoved her along in front of him, not giving her the chance to fight back, even though she probably wouldn't have anyway. She ripped her bike from the rack, one of the few left, and climbed on, wobbling off on the recent-two-wheeler towards home. He went back to the fence, got on his own bike, and took off after her, reaching her easily. "Sam, calm down," he said. She peddled harder, trying to get ahead of him, long brown hair flying out behind her, the blue ribbon she'd so carefully tied herself that morning and showed off to him loose and flapping in the wind, tears streaking her face. "No!" she yelled at him around choked gasps for air. She was panting for breath and still struggling to keep the bike up. Her backpack, light blue with a picture of a GREEN, of all colors, pony on it, was only half-on, sliding down her arm. She didn't seem to notice any of it, too intent on getting away from him. She managed to stay on her bike most of the way home, against all odds, and he let her stay ahead so she could just a little more easily. She had to slow down a little at the turn onto Vine Street, but not much. That was when he finally realized the real reason she was wobbling so much: one of the wheels of the bike was loose. He caught up with her again; meaning to tell her what was wrong and get her to stop before anybody got hurt. But she was still in competition with him, wanting to win the race at all costs. "Samantha!" he called. "There's something wrong with your bike!" She went even faster, ignoring him, faster than she'd ever gone on this bike. She could barely breathe at all now and her legs ached. But she still wouldn't even slow down. Fox was trying to trick her, and this time it wouldn't work. Still, he managed to get next to her. They were almost to the house now. if she could just go a little bit faster.The handlebars of the bike twisted away from her as the front wheel came off. Fox grabbed for her, throwing himself off his bike and holding tight to her arm, but it was too late. They both wound up on the sidewalk in front of the house. Samantha immediately started howling, though she had no injuries that Fox could see. When Mrs. Mulder came out, pulled the bike off her daughter, and ignored her son completely as she comforted her, he knew that once again this was a no-win situation for him. He HAD made Samantha leave school before she wanted to, HAD let her ride as fast as she had, and HAD tried to grab her. The fact that her bike was falling apart beneath her and she wouldn't ever listen to him wouldn't matter. "It's okay, Sammi," Mrs. Mulder said, using the nickname they'd called her until she was about 5. Fox had come up with it when he couldn't get the `th' part of her name out when he was little. She'd spent a few months of her life as `Samanta', until his father suggested they just call her `Sammi'. "Tell Mommy what happened. Did you fall?" "He broke my bike!" Samantha wailed, pointing a finger accusingly at Fox. "He pushed me and broke my bike so the wheel came off!" Mrs. Mulder looked at Fox angrily. "I just don't understand you sometimes, Fox," she said, looking again at Samantha, crying and hugging her mother as though Fox was going to come get her. "Samantha never does anything to you. Why can't you just be nice to her?" She walked away, holding Samantha and talking softly to her. Fox watched them go, stunned, although he shouldn't have been. Nothing ever went right for him. >>>>>>>> JANUARY 2, 1999 5:05 A.M. Scully woke when the truck started moving. Daina Kathryn was still curled up against her, breathing through her mouth and making small noises as she slept, as though in the midst of a dream. There was something different about the way they were moving now. It seemed faster, more reckless, than it had the day before. Almost as though they were trying to get somewhere or away from something. They hit a rock or tree root or something and the truck bounced, waking Daina Kathryn. "Huh.?" she asked sleepily as she looked up at Scully. Then she seemed to remember what was happening and, in her usual way, smiled as though looking at it in the best light she could. "Hi, Mom." Scully still felt a strange feeling go through her at the sound of those words. Mom. she'd been told that no one would ever call her that, would ever need to be held and calmed down after a skinned knee, she would be as alone as she had been until less than a week ago forever. But suddenly she had the best sister in the whole world back, her best friend had asked her to marry him. and she had a daughter. A 4-year-old one, but a daughter just the same. Even their current situation wasn't so bad when she thought about it. Her whole life, it seemed, had become an adventure. They should make us into a TV show, Mulder had remarked once. It was true. She had no idea who she was with, where Mulder and Melissa were. none of it mattered. Either she had gone crazy or she was finally seeing things the way Melissa had always tried to get her to: optimistically, the way Daina Kathryn also seemed to. She threw back her head and laughed in a way she hadn't in months. no, years. When she was finally able to calm down and catch her breath, Daina Kathryn was looking at her like she was crazy, but was smiling. "You okay?" she asked. "Sure am," Scully said, pulling Daina Kathryn to her and tickling her like her mom always had when she'd been in an especially good mod. "Better than I 've been in a long, long time." Daina Kathryn giggled and tried half-heartedly to escape. When Scully quit, she snuggled against her with a small, contented sound. Soon she was asleep again. Scully watched her sleep, arms around Scully, legs curled up so they were almost behind her back, as comfortable and secure as she'd ever been. It was as she was really drifting into deep sleep that the truck jerked to a stop. Scully didn't move, not wanting to wake Daina Kathryn again. She watched warily as the door opened and a man stepped out. She couldn't see his face, but there was something about him that she knew. and then she realized what it was. The hand he was using to close the door was a prosthetic. It was Alex Krycek who walked to the edge of the wire and pulled it off the back. "Go. Before he wakes up." But Scully didn't move, just clutched Daina Kathryn more tightly to her. "Who?" She wasn't about to trust this man, Alex Krycek, of all people. He'd killed her sister and Mulder's father and almost gotten her killed: according to Mulder, he might have been able to save her from her abduction had Krycek not tried to kill him. She couldn't stop herself from looking down at the child held tightly in her arms. Without that horrible time she'd been missing, this little girl would not exist. But then, the thing with Emily never would have happened. And any children she had she would give birth to, watch them grow from infancy, know who their father was. "Thomas Rammin. He's the one being paid for this. Go, before I change my mind about it and tell him you're trying to escape. He'll kill you without a second thought." Scully, stunned by the change she was suddenly seeing in Krycek- he actually sounded compassionate and caring, instead of as cold and uncaring as most people thought her to be-, found herself, without her conscious consent, gently shaking Daina Kathryn to wake her. "Come on, D. We're going to find Fox and Missy," she said softly. Daina Kathryn sat up, saw Krycek holding up the wire to let them out, and asked, "Who's that?" "His name is." Scully's voice trailed off, unsure of whether or not he was still using `Alex Krycek', since the chances were pretty good that wasn't his real name. Mulder said he'd used a different one while they'd been in Russia, possibly to fool the men who might have been working for the same Consortium he was running from. "Alex," he said. His voice was as gentle as Mulder's had been. Scully wondered about this: Daina Kathryn seemed to have an effect on people. Maybe this `aura' thing Melissa had been so big on for a while wasn't really all that crazy. She herself never thought of herself as as apathetic as others thought she was, Mulder thought he was a failure because he hadn't been able to save his sister from things beyond a child's understanding, when in reality he was THE smartest, bravest, strongest man she knew. And Daina Kathryn, without trying to, seemed to make people love her. She looked like Scully, talked like Scully, and had a mind like Scully. But her `soul', if that was the appropriate word, was different. "What's yours?" "Daina Kathryn. That's my mom's name, too," Daina Kathryn said, pointing back at Scully. "She's the best mom in the whole world," she added with a grin, as though proud that she could finally say something to somebody about her mother that didn't already KNOW her mother. The only people she'd been around in days that she had talked to had been her aunt and her mother's partner. They already knew how great her mother was. Krycek gave Scully an amused smile, confusing her even more. What was going on? Why was the man who'd tried to have them killed every few months for years suddenly doing this? "Well, Daina Kathryn," he said. "If you and your mom want to go now, you can." "Why do we have to go?" Although she'd been scared at first, now that she knew the nice man who drove the truck, Daina Kathryn didn't mind staying. "It's not safe here, D.," Scully said. Daina Kathryn frowned. "But I'm tired of walking." "I'll carry you. Come on, D. We have to find Missy and Fox, right?" "Yeah, okay." Daina Kathryn, followed by Scully, climbed under the wire and jumped from the truck. She turned to Krycek. "Thanks a lot, Alex. You're a real nice person for letting us leave." "Well, you're a real nice kid," Krycek said, holding out a hand for her to shake. At Scully's quit explanation of how to do it, she took his hand and shook it vigorously, smiling widely. Then she took Scully's hand and allowed herself to be lead away, turning back only once to wave. It wasn't until they were far beyond the truck that Scully, having been hopelessly bewildered with the situation in the truck, realized that she had no idea where they were. >>>>>>>> JANUARY 2, 1999 6:00 A.M. "Bill-" Tara reached out to try and grab her husband's arm. He was pacing the room, cursing Fox Mulder and Melissa and even his beloved youngest sister, Dana. He shook away from her. "It's got to be that bastard's fault. He got. almost got Melissa killed, took 3 months from Dana, gave her cancer. and all this crap about children. Dana's never had ANY children, they checked last year. They're probably his, he just wants her to have to take the blame for all of his damned emotional problems.his sister being abducted, yeah, right, goddamned lunatic she's stuck with. Melissa died; I was stuck at her funeral. Whoever this is, it's an imposter. Probably needs money. And I'm stuck in some stupid hotel while the incompetent assistant director of the FBI claims he's getting information that will help us find Dana!" His voice had grown louder and louder, from a mutter to almost shouting. As he yelled `Dana' the last time, Matt woke up where Tara had carefully put him on the bed, surrounded by pillows so he couldn't fall, and started to wail. "Bill, calm down," Tara said. "They're going to find Dana." Bill shook his head angrily. "And this woman who claims to be my dead sister, the nutcase Dana works with, and another child like the one that ruined our whole Christmas last year!" Tara, remembering against her will the way Scully had looked when talking about Emily, couldn't help defending her. "Bill. that wasn't anybody's fault." "It was that damned partner of hers!" Louder still. Matt cried harder, reaching out for his mother when she picked him up and held him against her, afraid of her husband for the first time since they'd married years before- almost 7. She knew he had a temper like this, but he'd always managed to just keep it under control when she was around. But now, with Dana missing. "Please. calm down." "Stay here. I'm going to find them myself!" He headed for the door. She got up, Matt still in her arms, calmer now but still crying, and walked as quickly as she could to stop him. "Don't. they'll find them." "Who? The FBI?" He laughed and shook his head. "No they won't." He stepped around her, opened the door, and was gone. She didn't bother following. >>>>>>>> JANUARY 2, 1999 6:15 A.M. Mulder sat on the grass at the edge of the clearing, staring sadly into the trees. He had a horrible feeling that Scully and Daina Kathryn had been killed. They hadn't been THAT far apart when they'd split up: if someone had captured them, wouldn't he and Melissa have heard something? But they also would have heard gunshots if that had been the means of killing. "They aren't back yet, are they?" Melissa asked, joining him on the ground. She yawned as she did so, having just gotten up. He'd been sitting there for over an hour, waiting for her to wake up so they could keep going. There was always the chance that Scully and Daina Kathryn had found a different clearing and stayed there and were just as worried about Mulder and Melissa as they were about them. Mulder shook his head. "We need to keep going. They might have stopped somewhere else and we'll meet eventually." She obviously didn't think so, but knew they couldn't stay in one place indefinitely: someone would either find them or they'd run out of supplies. Already their food was running low. "Let's go, then." They got up and she walked across the small area they'd camped in while he hid the remains of their small fire as best he could and picked up the backpack they'd brought- Scully had the other one- before setting off. It was a quiet journey now, both of their minds on her missing family. "She was so happy just to sleep on a bed." Melissa remarked suddenly, breaking the silence. Mulder glanced at her quizzically, then realized she meant Daina Kathryn. The bravery she had shown the day before, the way she looked on everything with an almost adult perspective. it was hard to believe she'd spent 99% of her life in captivity, never running or playing outside, never meeting anyone new, alone with her imagination and Melissa's stories. "She's not dead," Mulder said, feeling a strange sense of d‚j? vu. It was almost like when Scully had first been returned. They didn't know if she would live or die, now they didn't know if Daina Kathryn was alive or dead. But they couldn't help beginning to reminisce as though she was. He remembered the story Mrs. Scully had told him. but that had been even before Scully came back. They'd gotten to the point of believing her dead by then, too. It was a human instinct thing, maybe. Scully would have known. But she wasn't there. "I hope not," Melissa said. Back at the clearing, her forgotten copy of Moby Dick, which she'd been reading the night before before falling asleep, waited patiently for discovery, its torn pages gently moving in the morning breeze. >>>>>>>> JANUARY 2, 1999 6:30 A.M. Matt was asleep again, Tara looking at a paperback she'd brought but not reading. She'd opened it to a page and stared at it, looking the same words over and over again. She jumped when the phone rang, then grabbed it quickly to keep from waking Matt. "Hello?" "Mrs. Scully?" It was the man from the night before, Skinner. The assistant director of the FBI. "Is your husband there?" "No, he-" Should she tell him where Bill was? He WAS the assistant director and anything she said was probably mostly confidential. But there was always that chance. "He went to look for Dana." He covered the phone for a minute, and she thought she could hear swearing. He spoke to her again: "Mrs. Scully, we found Agent Mulder's car." Her eyes widened, even though he couldn't see them. "Where?" "Near Canada. If they were on their way there, like he told me, they'll be over the border by now. We've got people over there looking, but I'm still going over later today. I thought your husband would want to go." "If he comes back, I'll tell him." "Thanks, Mrs. Scully. I'll be leaving around 10:00." He hung up, and she did the same. She turned and spoke softly to her still-sleeping son. "When are things going to be normal again, Matt?" >>>>>>>> JANUARY 2, 1999 7:00 A.M. Daina Kathryn had run ahead of Scully a few minutes before: though truly tired of walking, new experiences still called her. She'd never really gotten to RUN before, and there was something about it that was just wonderful. The cold wind hit her face, stinging her eyes and nose, but it also whipped through her hair, which was nice. She was breathing hard, her side hurt, and her nose was running: great, great, great! "Hey, Mom, hurry up!" she called once, slowing for a minute to wipe her nose with her sleeve and get her breath back. Then she was off again, dodging trees and obstacles on the ground that did their best to trip her. Scully watched her run out of sight, not worried. They'd gotten far into the woods, farther than they'd been the day before. There was no way Krycek and whoever he was with would be able to catch, or even find, them now. Their truck, she was pretty sure, wouldn't go very far in the dense trees and it could take days to find 2 small people in the miles and miles of forest. She took her time walking, feeling pretty confident that they would find Mulder and Melissa soon. They'd probably stopped at a clearing, like they said, and were still waiting. Melissa was probably trying to feel their spirits, make sure they weren't dead, while Mulder searched for them around the area, for once the sensible one. Melissa liked him and he thought Melissa was okay, she knew, but that didn't mean they always got along. Scully herself liked both of them and spent 90% of her time fighting or arguing with one or the other. "Mom!" Daina Kathryn no longer had any laughter in her voice. She sounded more scared than anything; maybe worried. "Mom, they were here!" Scully started to jog, building speed as she got closer to the sound of Daina Kathryn's voice, still urging her to hurry up. She was panting by the time she reached the girl, who was crouched in a clearing. Probably the very one Mulder and Melissa had stopped at. But there was no sign of either of them. How did Daina Kathryn know? "Look!" Daina Kathryn said, waving her arm at Scully so she would come over. Scully did, leaning over to see what Daina Kathryn had found. An ancient, torn, well-read copy of Moby Dick. "Let me see," Scully said, holding out a hand. Daina Kathryn put the book in it, and Scully stood and opened it. Inside were the words, written in a child's handwriting: TO MY SISTER MELISSA MERRY CHRISTMAS 12/25/72 She'd been 8 years old. She remembered that Christmas. Her father had given her a puppy. A car had hit it months later. Melissa's reaction to the book had been less than expected. "Yeah, thanks, Dana," she'd said, going on in typical 9-year-old fashion to the hair ribbons their mother had given her. "This is Missy's book. She was always reading it whenever she got sad," Daina Kathryn said, but didn't see the look of sorrow and surprise on Scully 's face. "She loved it as much as she loved me. She said one of the most special people in her life gave it to her. Do you know who? She'd never let me look at it, I don't know why she'd leave it." Scully put a hand on Daina Kathryn's shoulder and handed her back the book. "Do you know who gave it to her?" Daina Kathryn asked again. "I did," Scully said. >>>>>>>> Rainbow Continuum 8/10 Emily Miller JANUARY 2, 1999 7:15 A.M. Jonnes watched silently as Rammin cursed Scully, the little girl, and Jonnes for letting them get away. "You should have been watching them. I give you less than a day of watch and you lose them! You know what's gonna happen to us now?" Still, Jonnes refused to speak, feigning anger. In reality, he was relieved that his story about Scully having hid something to cut the wire somewhere on her had worked. Rammin had never questioned Jonnes' loyalty, although both knew Jonnes wasn't really one to trust. Rammin just didn't believe that Jonnes, who always did what HE wanted to, would let them go and risk his life for the ones who'd gotten him in the middle of nowhere in the first place. "Once they go over the border, we'll never get them." Rammin continued, barely noticing that Jonnes hadn't answered his question. "They'll stay even farther off-road now that they know we're looking for them. If you hadn't gone and fallen asleep we'd still have them!" "You don't know that." Jonnes finally spoke. "If they had something strong enough to cut wire, they could have just as easily attacked us." Rammin grabbed the gun he'd brought from the floor and waved it in Jonnes' face. "That's why I brought THIS, you idiot!" "It's a little late to tell me about that now. Look, the sooner we get going, the sooner we find them again. Maybe all of them," Jonnes said, remaining calm. Rammin, on the other hand, was seething. But he knew what Jonnes said was right. "Yeah, whatever." With a jerk and a couple of noises neither man was sure of, the truck groaned and started. "We'll go as far as we can in the truck. From there, we'll just have to hike and hope for the best." >>>>>>>> JANUARY 2, 1999 7:30 A.M. "I think we're in Canada. I remember this road," Mulder said, stopping for a moment and looking around him. Melissa came to a stop slightly ahead and turned. "When were you here?" "I guess I might as well tell you," he said. "Come on, let's go." He continued walking, as did she, the morning cool but they warm enough from over an hour of walking to be content with just sweaters and jeans on. "A few years ago. about 2 and a half, actually. Scully and I came across a man- or men- named Jeremiah Smith who could apparently heal people with his touch. We investigated and, to make that part of the story short, discovered that he was possibly either part of the human/alien hybrid project that may have also created Emily and Daina Kathryn or a creation of the government conspiracy that now even your sister believes in. Well, he told me he could show me my sister, Samantha, who disappeared when I was 12 years old." Melissa looked surprised at this, and he realized that Scully had probably never said anything about it and he CERTAINLY hadn't- he'd only really seen Melissa once before these last few days. "I was 12 and she was 8. I'm really not sure what happened anymore, my memories change, but whatever it was, I did my best to save her and failed. That was my real motive for originally trying to get the X-Files open- to look for Samantha." "I knew there had to be more reason than just curiosity," Melissa said with a small smile. "It definitely matured," he said, smiling back, then continuing. "Anyway, this Jeremiah Smith claimed he could show me my sister, so I went with him. Oh. and there was also what I suspect to be an alien bounty hunter after us- he could change his shape and had green blood. The only way to kill him was to pierce his neck at the base of his skull. "Smith took me to a farm in Canada, where I was later told they were growing Ginseng. But according to him, it was something else, something you'd never find in books. And my sister WAS there- only she was still 8 years old, the same way she'd been that night back in 1973, couldn't talk, and wasn't the only one of her there. Smith told me she was a drone, a worker, and not my real sister at all- none of them were. But I insisted on taking one of them with me, anyway. Just in case there was some way to find the truth through her. "We were on our way back to Washington, thinking it was safe, when the bounty hunter showed up. We managed to hide for a short while with a bunch of bees- don't ask- but as I was calling Scully to tell her what was going on, he showed up and got Smith. He almost killed me and I never did find out what happened to Saman- the girl who looked like Samantha." "Wow," Melissa said, then laughed at herself. "I'm sorry, Mulder." "Fox," he said. He looked at the ground. "You can call me Fox, since I guess your sister and Daina Kathryn are both going to." "Well, when are you going to quit calling her `my sister' and start calling her `Dana'?" He smiled. "Fine, Dana. but you're still Melissa. Missy's always reminded me of a name of a poodle." "You know what, Fox? It always reminded me of one, too." >>>>>>>> JANUARY 2, 1999 8:05 A.M. "I see them! I see them!" Daina Kathryn yelled suddenly, the fatigue that she'd complained about only seconds before disappearing as she went from a jog to a run to catch the figures in the distance. Behind her, Scully too sped up towards Mulder and Melissa, if that's who they were- and she hoped it was-, but Daina Kathryn was too far ahead for her to catch up with. Daina Kathryn went as fast as her short legs would carry her, remembering her fear that she would never see Mulder and Melissa again. "Fox! Missy!" she called. Mulder turned and, seeing her, stopped Melissa. Daina Kathryn reached them soon enough and launched herself into Mulder's arms. "Fox!" she cried, throwing her arms around his neck as though he really were her father and she'd known him for years. He lifted her up and hugged her back as Scully caught up, panting. She watched Mulder holding Daina Kathryn against him, loving her in the way she knew he would love a child that was truly his, and felt like the luckiest person in the whole world. Maybe they WERE on the run, but she was with what would eventually become her family: Mulder, Daina Kathryn, herself, and maybe Melissa if she didn't choose to live by herself again. Daina Kathryn was already half-asleep in Mulder's arms, exhausted from refusing to let herself stop even as she had complained to Scully about it, and Scully suddenly remembered that night from over a year before: her phone ringing, their tracing it and finding it came from the same place that was caring for Emily, going and finding her already in the process of dying, even if they hadn't known it at the time. Mulder had picked her up then as he did Daina Kathryn now. But Daina Kathryn wasn't going to die. If she had to sacrifice herself to prevent it, Dana Katherine Scully was going to make sure her only daughter lived to adulthood. >>>>>>>> DECEMBER 25, 1997 5:00 P.M. Bill and Tara and her mother had gone on to yet ANOTHER party, but Scully had once again declined going. She sat on the couch in the living room, stunned into an almost stupor. She was a mother. Emily Sim's mother. it was too much to handle on her own after a week of trying to convince everyone she knew that it was MELISSA'S child. Mulder. She could call Mulder. No one else understood what this had done to her, least of all her brother and sister-in-law, who were too excited over the upcoming birth of their own child to care a bit about Emily, or so it seemed to Scully. Her mother had been almost as stunned as she, but she, too, was more interested in a child who she was sure of the parents and way of coming into the world. She'd thought about calling Mulder earlier, as soon as she found out, but hadn't been sure she would be able to make sense to him. All that had happened since that day last week she'd told him that she was going to spend a week with her brother. that had been the last time she'd talked to him. Getting up from the couch and gripping the back for a moment to get her balance, she half-walked, half-staggered over to the phone. This was the same phone, she realized as she picked it up to dial, that she'd gotten to the original call. from whoever it was. Melissa. Or not Melissa, because Melissa was dead and had been for years now. Mulder's number was memorized, but she had to think a minute before it came to mind. She was used to having it on her speed dial. The phone rang in his apartment once, twice. she was about to hang up after the fourth time, but just as she was taking it from her ear he said, "Hello?" He sounded tired and was breathing heavily, as though he'd been out running. Did he not invite his mother or ANYBODY over for Christmas? "Mulder, it's me," she said. Her voice shook as though she was going to cry, although she didn't think she was going to. Her eyes didn't have that normal ache, her lip didn't tremble in the slightest. She cleared her throat. "What's wrong?" he asked immediately. Another clearing of the throat and she could answer. "Something really strange happened this week. I just need to talk to somebody." "I'm here, Scully." "I know. That's why I called." "So what happened?" "I-" Deep breath, Dana, she thought. Deep breath. "I. Mulder, I have a daughter." He didn't answer for so long that she was worried for a moment he'd had a heart attack or something equally horrible. "Scully." he finally said. "How.?" "Something they did to me while I was missing. Her name is Emily Sim, she's living right here in San Diego, near Bill." "Do you want me to come?" Did she? Would it help to have him here? Did she even need to ask herself that? "Yes, Mulder, I do. I want you to meet her." "I'll be right there. Gimme a couple of hours, okay?" "Yeah, sure." He hung up and she was holding a phone with only a dial tone to her ear. She pulled it away and looked at it as though it was something to be afraid of. Then, with a shaky sigh, she hung up and went back to the couch to wait for Bill and Tara and her mother to return. >>>>>>>> JANUARY 2, 1999 8:30 A.M. Mulder was trying to keep Daina Kathryn entertained with stories of himself and Samantha while they walked, searching for the fields that he remembered leading to the farm where he and Jeremiah Smith had gone before. "She was a really sweet little sister. I hope you'll remember just how wonderful younger siblings can be if you ever have any," he said, smiling over Daina Kathryn's shoulder at Scully, who smiled back. She knew it wasn't going to happen, but Daina Kathryn might as well have something else to dream about now that she was out of captivity. "What happened to her?" Daina Kathryn asked, tightening her grip on Mulder's neck a little as she shifted in his arms. "When I was 12 years old and she was 8, we were home alone. My mom and dad were next door at a party. Something happened and she just disappeared." "Didn't you ever find her?" "Nope. but I'm still looking." Scully, listening with a small smile to them, was suddenly reminded of a song that had made her think of Mulder all the time she'd known him and the story of his sister. "Long ago a young man sits and plays his waiting game. But things are not the same it seems as in such tender dreams. Slowly passing sailing ships and Sunday afternoon. Like people on the moon I see. Are things not meant to be. Where do those golden rainbows end?. Why is this song so sad?. Dreaming the dreams I've dreamed my friend. Loving the love I love to love is just a word I've heard. When things are being said. Stories my poor head has told me cannot stand the cold. And in between what might have been and what has come to pass. A misbegotten guess alas and bits of broken glass. Where do your golden rainbows end?. Why is the song I sing so sad?. Dreaming the dreams I dream my friend. Loving the love I love to love." She could very easily imagine a 12-year-old Mulder, or Fox as he would have been then, sitting and staring out the very window that Samantha might have disappeared out of. Hoping that, if he just stared long enough, then she would be with him again, none of it would have ever happened. Or Fox, like he'd told her about, shutting his eyes tightly and walking into his room, praying that she would be there, sitting on her bed or his, grinning. Maybe it had all been a joke, it wouldn't matter. While she could imagine these things, Scully couldn't imagine losing a sibling in that way. It had been hard enough accepting the fact that Melissa had "died". but to have a sister or brother just disappear and not see them for almost 30 years except once, then to have that turn out not to be them. she knew she wouldn't make it. Her family was closer than most, though she and Bill lived on opposite sides of the country and Charles was usually too busy with his own kids to show up at the few family reunions they had, they talked on the phone at least once every couple of weeks. She couldn't imagine it any other way. Soon after Melissa had died, or disappeared as the case was, she'd found herself sometimes picking up the phone to call her only to remember at the last moment that if she called the number, she would get nobody or a perfect stranger. "Dana?" Melissa reached out and touched her shoulder, pulling her from her thoughts. "Look who's miles away now," Mulder said, using the phrase she'd used at Watergate during those months they'd been separated. She realized that they had stopped at the edge of a fence- all but her. Had Melissa not stopped her, she would have kept going for hours, lost in her mind and the image she'd suddenly gotten. Of herself and remaining family sitting silently watching TV or eating dinner or going someplace while all the while one who was missing refused to leave their thoughts completely and seemed to hang in the air around them. "Where are we?" she asked, reaching out a hand that Daina Kathryn, who'd just slid from Mulder's arms and come to her, took and used to pull herself closer to her mother. "This is where we can either keep going on the road or take the 10-mile, more dangerous shortcut," Mulder said, gesturing towards the grass on the other side of the fence. It was mostly brown and dead, and clouds had turned the sky a grayish color, lessening the cheerful mood all had felt at first meeting that day. Daina Kathryn wrinkled her nose at Mulder's suggestions. "I'm too tired to go anymore," she said. "You haven't walked for a while, D. You'll make it," Melissa said. Scully cut off Daina Kathryn before she could protest. "I'll carry you," she said, handing her backpack to Melissa, who took it reluctantly. Daina Kathryn let Scully lift her up and laid her head on her shoulder, closing her eyes and sighing her contentment. "I love you, Mom," she whispered, and Scully's arms around her tightened for a moment- she wasn't used to this feeling of a child, a human, loving her with all their heart though she'd done nothing for them. But it was a nice feeling. "Why is that way more dangerous?" she asked as Daina Kathryn again slipped into half-sleep, looking out at the field. "Somebody owns that land. I don't know if it's the government or if it's privately owned, but we could get in trouble either way. I don't think our credentials count for much out here," Mulder said. "How did you and Jeremiah Smith do it?" "I didn't even think to ask. Nobody stopped us, though." "Let's try it. I'm almost too tired to walk any farther. She's right," Scully said, shifting her gaze to her sleepy daughter. Mulder looked at Melissa, who nodded agreement. "Okay," he said. "Let's go." >>>>>>>> JANUARY 2, 1999 9:45 A.M. "That's it," Mulder said, shifting the backpack on his shoulders. Scully stepped to the side of him to see and found herself looking at exactly the kind of place she would have denied the existence of if she wasn't seeing it for herself: a farm of some kind, or a large garden, being tended by children. And, though it was hard to tell from the distance at which they stood, it seemed like the girls looked a lot like Samantha Mulder. Melissa, of course, didn't recognize it as Samantha. "This is where we're going to hide?" she asked. "Yep," Mulder said, resuming the fast-paced walk they'd set off in soon after deciding the route they would take. Daina Kathryn had fallen asleep again, so they didn't have to worry about her trying to keep up. She was resting against Scully's shoulder, beginning to mumble now in the way that Scully guessed meant she would wake up soon. "This is where you came with Jeremiah Smith." Scully said, realization coming over her for the first time. "The person you said you were going to take back with you was Samantha." Mulder nodded. "Only the bounty hunter caught up with us. He killed both of them, I guess." Although he tried to sound nonchalant, Scully caught the slight sound of an old wound not quite healed in his voice. Every time he found something like this, somebody like those girls, he got his hopes up, only to have them torn away, leaving injuries to his soul. She handed Daina Kathryn, who was mostly awake now, to Melissa, and went to him. "Mulder." she started to say, putting a hand on his shoulder and forcing him to stop. "Mulder, it's okay. Just because I've found my daughter and my own sister doesn't mean we're going to stop looking for yours." "Thanks, Scully," he said, taking her hand from his shoulder and holding it tightly in his own. "Come on, let's get going again." Slower now, since Daina Kathryn was awake and wanted to walk, they continued. >>>>>>>> JANUARY 2, 1999 9:50 A.M. Rammin and Jones watched as the very four they were after drew closer. It had been Rammin's idea to try hiding out at the farm where the special bees were being bred for the time being: neither had ever even thought that either Mulder or Scully would know of this place to use it for their own purposes, a hideout. Now, Rammin smiled while Jonnes' mind raced. He'd thought he'd saved Scully and the little girl, but they'd come right back to where Rammin needed them without any struggle at all. Without even realizing it; it was like something from a movie. "We'll give `em time to settle in one of the houses, wait until they think they're safe. Then we can get the ones we need easier. Maybe even at night, so we don't have to bother with Mulder and Scully at all," Rammin was saying, but Jonnes was only half-listening. "Yeah, okay," he said, switching his thoughts to Russian so he didn't have to hear Rammin at all. His mind did that: if he switched languages, only that language meant anything to him unless he really thought about it. For now, he wanted to be lost in his own mind. Rammin's way of things suddenly disgusted him. >>>>>>>> Rainbow Continuum 9/10 Emily Miller JANUARY 2, 1999 9:55 A.M. Mulder watched with Scully and Melissa from a few feet away as Daina Kathryn stopped near one of the many pairs of children- drones; he'd been told- and stared at them curiously. It came to him that this was very possibly the first time she'd ever seen any other children. Little people, almost on the same height as she was who existed as much as all the adults did. "Hi," she said to the Samantha one, who had looked at her when she approached in the same way one had looked at Mulder. At the sound of Daina Kathryn's voice, the boy looked up also. She waited for a minute, then looked confused. "Hello?" She cocked her head in a way that might have made Mulder laugh at any other time, but he knew this wasn't funny. Between having no idea who to trust, being faced with things she'd never dreamed existed, and having to walk miles and miles in just 2 days, to have first contact with other kids like these was not what a 4-year-old needed. While Scully and Melissa, as confused as Daina Kathryn was, watched, he stepped towards her and crouched so he was at eye-level with her. "D.?" he said to get her attention. She looked at him with an expression that looked so much like Scully's when in her compassionate mood, like she felt hopelessly sorry for these people who wouldn't talk to her, but also wanted to do anything in her power to help them. "Why can't they talk?" she asked. "They could," he said, keeping his voice gentle. Daina Kathryn, locked up in one tiny room with only one person for years and years, felt sorry for these children, who had all the freedom they could want, if they got their jobs done? Without a doubt, she was far wise beyond her years. "If they had a language. They're. workers. They don't need to talk." "How come they have to work?" "That's what they were made to do." "I bet I could teach them to talk." He didn't know how long they were going to be there, that actually might be a good thing for her to try. "Why don't you do that, D.?" >>>>>>>> JANUARY 2, 1999 10:00 A.M. Bill Scully showed up just as the helicopter holding Skinner and a younger agent sent along to help prepared to leave. "Turn it off!" Skinner shouted at the pilot as he got up from his seat and exited. Scully's brother was running for them, yelling something that Skinner knew couldn't be good. "What do you think you're doing?" he said, coming to a panting stop in front of the FBI's Assistant Director. Only a Scully or a Mulder would confront him that way. Maybe, he thought without the slightest hint of humor, it was good that Samantha Mulder had disappeared. If the Scullys he knew were this bad, more Mulder's would without a doubt be torture. "Going to get your sisters," he said. "My sister Melissa is dead. And Dana is NOT in Canada." "How do you know that, Mr. Mulder?" Bill rolled his eyes and half-turned as though he was going to give someone behind him an exasperated look. "I think I know her a little better than you do. She knows better than to listen to that nut you force her to work with." "She is there, and we know the direction she's traveling in, approximately. We got a phone call less than an hour ago from one of our agents who's exploring the area, they were seen traveling over farmland. Four people: Mulder, your sisters, and an unidentified child." >>>>>>>> JANUARY 2, 1999 10:15 A.M. Daina Kathryn went to one of the girls who wasn't working at the time. The girl was sitting cross-legged on the porch of what Daina Kathryn guessed was her house, staring at nothing while she waited for her time to come. Daina Kathryn sat across from her after getting the stuff she needed from Mulder and Scully and Melissa. "Hi," she said to get the girl's attention. Mulder had told her that her name was Samantha, and she hadn't questioned him, although she did wonder how he knew. "Hi, Samantha," she said. Samantha looked at her, eyes solemn, face expressionless. She didn't even attempt to speak. Mulder had told Daina Kathryn that they could make sound, though, which meant it was possible for them to talk if they were taught. And Daina Kathryn had all the time in the world to teach her. She picked up one of the items she'd gotten from the adults, an extra shirt of hers. "This is a shirt," she said, pointing to it. Then she realized that `this is a' meant no more than `shirt' did to Samantha. "Shirt," she said, pointing again. Then she handed it to Samantha. Samantha took it carefully, feeling it for a moment, then handed it back. She still didn't attempt speech, but did seem intrigued by this girl who was sitting across from her, making strange sounds with her mouth that seemed to mean this thing you wore. Daina Kathryn tried again, this time with the only apple they had left, which Mulder had finally decided they shouldn't eat because it had gotten so bruised while in the bag. "Apple," she said. Taking it from her, Samantha actually opened her mouth as though she were going to try and say it, then thought better of it and closed it again. She smiled shyly at Daina Kathryn. It was a little progress, in Daina Kathryn's opinion. She had 2 more things, then she would have to start over. She gave Samantha the book that belonged to Melissa. "Book," she said. "Moby Dick." She pointed to the front cover. "Whale." Slowly, a strange look came over Samantha's face. She too pointed at the picture, rubbed a finger over it. "Whale," she said. >>>>>>>> JANUARY 2, 1999 10:20 A.M. Mulder just happened to be walking by the house when he heard a voice he hadn't heard in almost 30 years, but missed even more than he had his grandmother's when she'd died when he was 10. Samantha. "Whale," she said. He dropped the backpack he'd taken from Melissa while she and Scully looked for an empty house and flew up the steps to find Daina Kathryn and Samantha grinning at each other as though sharing the worlds best secret. "She did it, Fox!" Daina Kathryn cried, leaping up and hugging his leg. "She said `whale'! You were right, they CAN talk!" She let go and went back to Samantha, pulling her to her feet and pointing at Mulder. "Fox," she said. Samantha, still 8 years old after so long, looked up into his eyes. "Fox," she said, the same word he'd last heard her speak that night so many years ago. "Oh, god," he leaned over and hugged her and Daina Kathryn to him, tightly. "Oh, god, D., thank you so much." When he let go, she looked confused. "Why?" she asked. "What'd I do?" "Daina Kathryn. this is my sister Samantha." >>>>>>>> NOVEMBER 27, 1973 7:30 P.M. "Bye, Mom, bye, Daddy," Samantha said, hugging both her parents as they left. Both gave her radiant smiles that made Fox's stomach hurt. He was slouching against the wall a few feet away, having given his parents a half-hearted wave seconds before. "Will you grow up?" Fox asked once they were gone and Samantha was standing by the door looking like she was going to cry. "Huh?" she turned to him, obvious real confusion on her face. She knew Fox wasn't too happy with her right now because it was a Friday night and he was stuck at home with her, but he'd already hit her for that when he'd come home from school. What was wrong now? He nodded towards the door. "You still hug them and cry when they leave. Only babies do that." "I do not cry!" "But you almost did." "I did not! You don't know, you're not me." "Yeah, but I can see your face and you can't." "I can look in a mirror." He rolled his eyes. "Shut up, Sam, just shut up. And leave me alone." He turned away and left, walking slowly upstairs as though daring her to follow him. But she didn't. Finally, he had some privacy. He didn't care what she did, as long as she stayed away from him. It was one thing that she was practically like a queen when his parents were home- when they weren't, HE was older, so HE was in charge. And there was nothing she could do to change it. He knew she would never tell on him: if she did, they would just be stuck with a babysitter next time, and neither liked those. Unfortunately, he hadn't stopped to think about how boring it could be, sitting all alone in your bedroom. He'd read all his books, fiddled with all his stupid old toys until most broke and the others were useless, and looked at the same night sky through the telescope he'd gotten for his birthday so many times that if he had to see the same stars one more time, he had a feeling they would be permanently implanted into his eyes. Sitting on his bed, his mind wandered, eventually settling on something that occupied his thoughts a lot: Samantha. He thought he probably loved her, the way siblings were supposed to love each other. Or maybe in a different way. He hit her, sure, but she was okay. She was a lot tougher than the other little girls in her class at school. That said SOMETHING for her. If only she wasn't so darned ANNOYING. If only she didn't whine and cry and tattle and get all the attention all the time. THEN she might be a really cool younger sister. But maybe she only whined and cried and all that because he'd taught her to? She certainly spent more time with him than she did with their parents, who either were working, talking with a neighbor, or at one of their beloved parties. He didn't think that he was all that much like her, but weren't there some family traits or something that could make her like she was and make him the same way, only he didn't realize it. She probably thought HE whined and got her in trouble and got all the attention. It was harder than he would have thought to look at it from her angle, but once he did, he felt a sudden need to hear her voice. She was going to be around for practically forever; probably longer than he was, but it seemed like right now was the right time to spend time with her. Plus, `The Magician' was on in less than 2 hours, and he would have to go downstairs to watch that. He jumped up and left the room, closing the door so she wouldn't go in and mess with all his stuff, and stood at the top of the stairs. "Hey, Samantha!" She appeared below him, looking up suspiciously like he was going to bite her or something. He smiled to try and reassure her that he was in a good mood, at least for now, but it didn't seem to have much affect on her. "What?" "I was just wondering if you wanted to play a game or something." Her eyes narrowed. "A game?" "Yeah." he shrugged, climbed onto the banister like he knew he wasn't supposed to- their parents weren't home, so it didn't matter, unless she told-, and joined her downstairs. "What game?" she asked, finally deciding it was safe. "What about that new board game Mom got you for your birthday." "Stratego?" "Yeah, that. We could play it and watch TV." "Can I watch that movie?" "Sure, depends on what time it's on. Come on, let's go." >>>>>>>> JANUARY 2, 1999 10:35 A.M. The look on Daina Kathryn's face as Mulder finished explaining to her what had happened to Samantha was one of complete horror. "She just disappeared?" she asked, her voice shaky as though she were going to cry. "Just disappeared. I haven't seen her since, except here," Mulder said, looking over at the new Samantha, who was eagerly teaching the boy who shared the house with the few words she knew and what they meant. He caught on as fast as she had. She looked back, too. "And that's what she looked like?" "Yep," Mulder said, trying to sound carefree enough to raise her spirits, which were obviously sinking fast. "My sister died, you know," she said. "I never even knew her after we were born." She scooted towards Mulder and leaned into him, reaching backwards and pulling his arms around her, as comfortable around him as if he'd been her father. or her real father, since it seemed that now he was going to take the place of whoever that person was. "I knew her, a little," he said. "What was she like?" "I only got to talk to her once, right after your mom called me and asked me to come to San Diego." "What'd she say to you?" Daina Kathryn was gazing up at him as though he were a teacher, knower of all knowledge, who was finally giving her the answers she'd craved the better part of her short life. If only his and Scully's truths were as easy to find: just ask and have them. "Well, if you want to know the truth, she only told me what she was coloring." "I've never colored before, but I like to draw. Missy said I was a good drawer." "I bet you are." He tightened his arms around her for a minute, taking the role of father if that was what she wanted. All kids, he'd learned after his parents got divorced, needed 2 parents if at all possible. even if one was a step-parent, it was better than nothing. And he had to admit that it looked to him like Daina Kathryn truly liked, if not loved, him and Scully in almost the same way she loved Melissa, who'd taken the place of those 2 parents until now. Until almost 4 days ago. It seemed like a lot longer. "What was she coloring?" "A potato." For some reason, this made Daina Kathryn giggle, the first time he'd heard her. She sounded just like Scully, the few times he'd heard her laugh: clear, but kind of silly. It made him want to laugh, too. Instead, he just smiled. "I like potatoes," she said when she managed to turn her giggles into a slightly goofy, very un-Scully-like grin. "Sometimes Mr. Biars gave us potatoes to eat. They were okay for that, but sometimes Missy let me make the leftover parts into decorations on the floor, at least until Mr. Biars came back and made us give them to him. He didn't like it when I played, he said I made too much noise and it bothered the other people." "Tell you what, then," he said. "As soon as we get back to my apartment, or your mom's or Melissa's, I'll get you a potato to play with, okay?" Her grin grew wider, filled with love and sudden unbelieving awe that someone besides her own family could care so much for her, for her happiness. "Okay!" "Okay!" a voice echoed, and both Daina Kathryn and Mulder turned to look at the boy Samantha had been teaching what she'd already learned about speech to, looking very pleased with himself. He pointed at Mulder. "Fox." Daina Kathryn and Mulder laughed, and the boy turned back to Samantha, still pleased, and the two of them disappeared inside the house, to do who knew what. Daina Kathryn turned her eyes from the door they'd gone in back to Mulder. "Hey, Fox?" "Yeah?" his eyes never left the spot where Samantha had gone, even when she spoke again. "Am I gonna live with you and Mom when we go back? Or with Missy?" "Who would you rather live with?" "You guys." His head turned back then. "With us? With your mom and me?" "Uh-huh." "Why?" "Because I think I'll be just one of three." She nodded towards the house. "I think you're right," he said. "But the boy needs a name. Would you do the honors?" "Huh?" "Do you want to name him?" "I don't know any boys names except Fox and Mark. What do YOU want to name him? Whatever you want is okay with me." "Hmm. how about you and your mom and me all decide together?" "Okay! Let's go get her!" She jumped to her feet and was off and running before he had a chance to come up with a reply, using the sudden endless supply of energy she'd saved up sleeping most of the morning. He shook his head and got to his feet, following her more slowly. They had all the time in the world. Nobody, of course, had any idea where they were. >>>>>>>> JANUARY 2, 1999 10:40 A.M. Rammin watched as the girl flew by, followed closely by Mulder. He pulled his gun closer and considered going after them, but decided to wait until later, when Jonnes was awake. Jonnes had gone to sleep soon after they'd first seen the girl, Melissa and Dana Scully, and Mulder arrive. He hadn't slept in over 24 hours, and it was actually Rammin who'd forced him to do it, saying they never knew when it would be the perfect time to move in and get them. He knew that Jonnes didn't trust him, thought that he would sneak off and get them himself and leave Jonnes there asleep with Mulder and Scully, who would more than likely kill him. But he wouldn't do that, not yet. he would let Jonnes get to trust him. THEN, and only then, would the time be right for abandonment and grabbing praise for himself. >>>>>>>> JANUARY 2, 1999 10:40 A.M. Bill watched the helicopter travel across Canada, wondering what the hell he was doing here, with some man he barely knew, after his dead sister, a slightly nuts one, her daughter, and her more-nuts partner. With the anger that was building inside him now, he would kill Mulder the first chance he got, if not the others, too. He knew as well as anybody what kind of temper he had, but, in his mind, he used it for his own good and the good of his family. Heaven knew with what Mulder- and it was ALL Mulder's fault- had put them all through in these years, they needed his protection, if not the help of Charles, too. Charles rarely took any interest in his family, though. He spent more time with his mother and sister-in-law than with his true mother and brother and sisters. now sister. He hadn't showed up at Melissa's funeral, hadn't come when Dana' s cancer was discovered, had even stayed away for the worst Christmas any of them had ever had, a time when the whole family should have stuck together. "You do know I have a wife and son waiting back in D.C. to hear from me?" he asked, turning to Skinner now, who was reading over notes he'd brought. "I know," Skinner replied, not looking up. He didn't care for Bill any more than Bill cared for either him or Mulder. Scully was a wonderful agent, but what he knew of her family. her mother and brother he'd met when she was in the hospital, dying of cancer, had seemed to him to be more the type of family he would have suspected Mulder would have. Instead, the knot that he had thought was Mulder's family- father, mother, son, and a missing daughter- was quickly unraveling into the wind. The smoking man, Mulder's father. or Samantha's? Jeffrey Spender, a half-brother? To Mulder or to his sister? Bill sighed as Skinner gave him no clue of just WHAT he knew, besides that Tara and Matt were still in a crummy little hotel. "How long is this gonna take?" "Maybe 2 hours. Maybe days." Another sigh, but the questions were silenced. >>>>>>>> JANUARY 2, 1999 10:40 A.M. "Mom! Missy! Guess what?" Daina Kathryn leaped into her mother, arms going around Scully's waist as though they'd been separated for years instead of less than an hour. Melissa smiled at that, Scully almost clumsily trying to hug Daina Kathryn back as Daina Kathryn danced away from her; too excited to stay still for very long. The longer they stayed out in the real world, it seemed, the more. normal she became. "What?" Scully asked as Daina Kathryn skipped around her, hair bouncing on her shoulders as she waited for the okay to tell her wonderful news. She stopped and smiled proudly up at the adults. Mulder had just joined them, and looked just as happy and pleased as she did. "I got one of the Samanthas to talk, and then she taught one of those boys. And Fox says that they can come back with us and be my big brother and sister." Scully glanced over at Melissa. "Your brother and sister? Is that okay with Missy?" "I'm not living with Missy, she can live next door. I'm gonna live with my mom." And now Scully's eyes traveled to Mulder. "With your mom?" "Yeah, you," she said, hugging Scully again. This time, Scully managed to get her arms around her and lifted her up, holding her close. "Are you sure, D.?" "Uh-huh." "Melissa?" Scully looked over at her sister, who was watching and still smiling. "That's fine. It's her decision. She has a mind of her own," Melissa said. Daina Kathryn wiggled free from her mother. "Come on, you have to come see Samantha and that boy. We have to name him, and you have to help. come ON," she urged, tugging on Scully's arm. So Scully went with her, followed by Melissa and Mulder. It didn't take as long to get back to the house where Samantha and the boy were living, because this time Daina Kathryn, with the sense of direction she'd inherited from her mother, knew where to go. The children were back on the porch, repeating the few words they knew to each other. "Whale," Samantha said. "Whale," the boy repeated, and they grinned at each other as though they'd come up with a cure for every disease known to man. "We're back!" Daina Kathryn cried, causing them to whirl in the direction of her voice, as she hopped up the steps onto the porch. Samantha pointed at Mulder. "Fox," she said. "Hi," Mulder said, while Scully put an arm around his shoulder and gave him a quick hug, knowing how much this meant to him, having even a small part of his sister back. "Hi, Samantha." "Hi Samantha," she said, like a parrot repeating whatever it heard. Daina Kathryn quickly fixed the problem, pointing at Samantha. "Samantha," she said. Then she pointed at herself. "Daina Kathryn Scully." Then at the others. "Fox. Mo- Dana. Missy." Samantha pointed at the boy, and, though she didn't speak because she didn't know how to ask questions, obviously wanted to know who he was. Daina Kathryn looked at Mulder and Scully. "He needs a name, too," she whispered so Samantha couldn't hear. "Daina Kathryn and I couldn't come up with a good one, we thought we'd ask for your help," Mulder said. Scully appeared to think for a second, but, in reality, she'd had her mind made up about what she would name a son, if she ever had one, since she was in high school. "How about. Lucas?" "Lucas?" Mulder repeated it. "You sound like Samantha," Daina Kathryn said with a giggle. Then, more seriously, "Lucas, huh?" That seemed to confirm it: his name was Lucas. She turned back to Samantha. "Lucas," she said. It was the boy's turn, Lucas' turn, to point at something, himself. "Lucas," he said, and he said it proudly. >>>>>>>> DECEMBER, 1997 DATE AND TIME UNKNOWN Daina Kathryn had been restless all morning, pacing around the small room, never pausing on one of her favorite activities, drawing or watching the world out the window or practicing her numbers and letters in the dust, long enough to even really get started on any of them. "D., is something wrong?" Melissa finally asked her as she got up once again, this time from the process of slowly moving her hand into the square of light from the window so that it covered her hand, then jerking it back. Daina Kathryn shook her head hard, glancing out the window, crouching underneath it and examining the wall, then jerking back up and looking at the ceiling. Melissa watched, worried. It had only been a day since Daina Kathryn's unexpected cries for help for her sister and her adoptive parents. And Melissa still wasn't ready to give up the idea that Daina Kathryn might be sick. If she was, she didn't know what they could do. "Missy?" she finally asked, sitting on the floor with her legs crossed in front of Melissa. "Tell me a story about when you were little like me. About the time my mother told you she had a dead rabbit in a lunchbox." "Sure," Melissa said, hoping she would settle down. It was one of Daina Kathryn's favorite stories, although she liked the one about the time her mom had gotten braces and had screamed the whole time even more. "Your Uncle Bill, he was mad because the rabbit liked her better, or that's what he thought." >>>>>>>> DECEMBER 22, 1968 11:30 A.M. 5-year-old Melissa was listening to a BORROWED- not stolen, like he would claim- record of Bill's, while lying on her back in the room she and Dana shared. Dana had been in there a little over an hour ago, she had heard her yelling at Bill, then had run past Melissa downstairs and had gone down to the basement, so Melissa had the room to herself, for once. Or, she did for a few minutes. Then the door opened hard enough that it slammed against the wall. Melissa's eyes flew open and she sat up quickly and turned the record off. "Dana?" Dana was standing in the doorway, looking terrified and angry at the same time, probably both because of something Bill had done. Maybe threatened her for something. She looked on the verge of tears now as she locked eyes with Melissa. "Melissa?" she asked, in her pitiful voice that could get any family member at and on her side immediately. "I need your help." "With what?" Melissa asked, already getting to her feet. She had nothing better to do until the middle of the afternoon, when she was supposed to go to a friend's house for a few hours, but that wasn't until 3:00. A long time from now. Dana sniffled and her left eye threatened to release the tear it was holding. "You know that rabbit Mom and Dad got us?" At the word `rabbit', the tear DID escape, leaving a trail of red on her pale skin, and it was all she could take. She started to cry, fortunately silently, and all the while trying to stop it. She rubbed her eyes and knows with fists, but she was too far gone now to do anything. "I killed it. I didn't mean to, I was trying to keep it from Billy. I killed it, Melissa, I killed our rabbit." "Dana." Melissa strained her mind, trying to come up with something to make Dana feel better. "Maybe it's not really dead. Maybe it's just. you know, knocked out." But Dana was shaking her head, looking at the floor, tears still falling. "It IS. Come look. It'd DEAD." So Melissa walked with her as she led the way back into the basement. So that was where that rabbit had been for the past week. Every day that week, Bill had refused to leave any family member alone until SOMEBODY confessed to taking his stupid pet that wasn't really all his, anyway. Actually, Dana had admitted to her the night before that she had hidden the rabbit to her older sister, after making her swear never to tell. She said it was the perfect hiding place, nobody would ever find it, and she had left plenty of food. Maybe it hadn't been so perfect. "Stay here," she said to Melissa when they reached the bottom of the stairs, and went over to the worktable their father had put down there the year before but never got to use. Stacked on it were books, some ancient tools, and Bill's old lunchbox. It was that that Dana went to, opening it and jumping back off the box she was standing on quickly. "Look," she said. Melissa, cautiously, went over and climbed on the box herself. The rabbit was dead all right: it was stiff and cold, it's eyes open but seeing nothing, and, worst of all, around it's stomach, tiny white maggots crawled through it's small body, eating away at the skin so she could see inside it. She gasped and jumped off the box in the same way Dana had, but more for revulsion than the urge to have someone else see what she had. "See?" Dana asked, more worried about the fact that the rabbit was dead than that it had maggots crawling in it. It wasn't the rabbit being dead that scared her, it was death itself. "Yeah, I see," Melissa said, shutting her eyes but just seeing that image in her mind. She opened them again and looked at Dana. "What happened?" Dana looked on the verge of tears again, though her eyes had just dried. They were red around the edges and there were still the lines from tears running down her face. "Billy said it was supposed to be HIS rabbit, since he was older, and it wasn't supposed to like me best. He said he was going to kill it if I didn't let it be his. So I had to hide it. He said this morning that he was gonna make it into rabbit stew if he found it, so I came down to check on it. And it looked like. like that." "Did you leave it all alone all week?" She nodded. "But I gave it food." "Dana, it needs more than food. It probably couldn't breathe." Melissa glanced again at the lunchbox, still open on the table. Dana's lip trembled. She was going to start that again, her silent, heart-wrenching tears. She didn't understand what she'd done, she was only 4 years old. Melissa decided it was time for her to play big sister. "I have an idea," she said. "Let's close the lunchbox and we can take it to Bill's room. That way, he won't know who did it, and maybe Mom and Dad will blame him. He'll blame us, but maybe they won't believe him." "He can have his rabbit stew!" Dana said, beginning to giggle. "Yum yum, right?" "Right!" Melissa said. It didn't seem quite as bad looking at the rabbit this time, nor did walking with it thumping against the sides of the lunchbox scare them in the least, not even when Dana came up with some sick scenario about maggots crawling out and eating them alive. Bill had what he deserved coming to him. >>>>>>>> Rainbow Continuum 10/10 Emily Miller JANUARY 2, 1999 10:50 A.M. Daina Kathryn walked with Samantha and Lucas around the farm, pointing things out, giving their names, then patiently waiting as they tried out the new word. Very soon, she was quizzing them, pointing at one house and saying "House" and then pointing at a different one and asking "What's that?" Eventually, Lucas caught on that "What's that?" meant asking what something was, and he began asking "What's that?" as often as she did, wanting to know more. Samantha caught on soon after, and after that, Daina Kathryn could barely keep up with them. But she kept at it. "What's that?" Samantha asked, pointing at her feet. "Shoes," Daina Kathryn replied, then sat on the ground and took off her own shoe, ignoring the cold that had begun to creep up on them. "Foot," she said. Scully watched from where she sat on the porch with Mulder and Melissa. She felt, strangely enough since she still thought it was Melissa who should have been feeling this, a sudden pride and love for the little girl she hadn 't raised, but who was still her daughter. No matter what happened, Daina Kathryn Scully was still her daughter. Emily Sim was still her daughter. And who, according to Mulder, knew how many other children she had out there? She wasn't sure she liked that idea, that there could be lots of little 4-year-olds out there with her face or Melissa's or Bill's of Charles' or one of her parents or even grandparents, knowing they were adopted, but probably never questioning it. Unless they got Bill's personality along with his face. Although she'd known about heredity for years, how it worked and how she and all her siblings got their looks, it was still a strange idea that she or Melissa could have children that were just like, or looked just like, or both, the very same ones they'd grown up in the same house with. She'd actually been getting used to the idea of not having children, after all that had happened the year before and the end of the year before that. Accepting that Emily was all she was going to get and that she should be grateful that she'd gotten even that time with her only child. Thanks to Melissa, it seemed, who'd listened to her niece and tried to `channel' to Scully that Emily needed her help. But had Daina Kathryn not needed her help? Or had it been more than coincidence that she and Mulder had been in that prison, of all the ones in the world, that they'd chosen that one room that held one person she longed more than almost any to see and the other that she longed to have for her own than almost any other. People that she never should have seen, a dead sister and a daughter who shouldn't have been born. She'd gone over it hundreds of times now in her mind, and hated herself for it, but still sometimes thought it might have been better if Daina Kathryn hadn't been born, or if she'd been adopted like all the rest of her `children', if there were any more. If none of it had ever happened, she and Mulder could go home and get married and she could have children the. normal way. But then, if Daina Kathryn hadn't been around, they wouldn't be where they were, would they? They might never have gotten together, since she knew it was more for Daina Kathryn's good, not that they didn't love each other, more than anything else. She had a sudden urge to hold Mulder and be held, in a way she hadn't in years, not counting those wonderful, too-few hours 2 nights ago, when he'd kept her close in sleep, arms around her, chin resting on her hair. She would have loved to stay like that forever. Then the next morning, with Daina Kathryn beside them, seeming as excited as Scully at the prospect of Mulder becoming her `father.' Mulder seemed to read her mind. "Scully?" he said softly, coming up behind her and taking a seat beside her on the steps. Melissa wisely stayed where she was. "What?" She leaned into the arm he placed gently around her shoulder, put her own arm underneath it like she and her former best friend had done when they were trying to ignore either Bill or her the friend's older brother. This was a little different, though. Her best friend had never asked as they stood- not sat, they were always standing- like that, "Are you okay?" "I'm fine," she said, as usual not even thinking about it. It was a response she'd programmed herself to give. Someone asked if she was okay, she said she was fine. That was what you said to strangers, old friends, or relatives you hardly knew. `I'm fine', or, as she'd said as a kid, `I'm okay.' This one had almost driven Bill crazy, for some reason. But Melissa's had been even worse: "I'm real good.' He claimed it made her sound like some redneck from Mississippi. Which, of course, just made her do it every chance she got that he was around. She found herself smiling, confusing Mulder, at these thoughts. "I was just thinking about family," she said to his quizzical look. "The family you grew up with? Or the family we're going to make?" he asked. She looked at the ground. "Mulder, we've got Daina Kathryn, maybe Samantha and Lucas. but there's not going to be anymore children. You know that." Although she tried to hide it, the fact that he'd forgotten the thing in her life that was possibly even more important than finding out her own truths hurt her more than any of the times he'd run off and left her, refused to tell her what was going on, or did things only a complete idiot would. He seemed to know she was hurt, but she had misunderstood. He took her completely into his arms, cradling her like he'd done Daina Kathryn earlier, and said softly, "That's not what I meant, Scully. You and Daina Kathryn and Samantha and Lucas are everything I need. All I want." A tear escaped her eye, sliding down her dirty, tired face. She wasn't sure if it was from the feeling of utter helplessness she was suddenly feeling or from fatigue or from happiness. But she did know she wanted to be held in his arms forever, letting him talk like he'd been before, showing her he really did love her in his own special, Mulderistic way. "Why don't you call me Dana now? You asked me to marry you. it's going to be strange calling me Scully when that's not my name anymore," she said, to hide her tears before he could see them. Her head was resting on his shoulder, but the slightest twist of his head to look her in the eye would reveal them. She hated the feeling of vulnerability she had whenever he saw her like that, even when he didn't see her or it wasn't crying she was doing. When he saw into her soul. Right now, she was feeling that way because of, once again, what had been taken from her. Her children. Her unborn, unformed children. Found only in the form of little girls and maybe boys like Daina Kathryn. "When we get married, Scully. Until then, I don't deserve it. That's why I called you Scully in the first place. You scared me to death- I'd never had a partner like you-, but you also struck me immediately as the kind I watched in high school and longed to go up and just say hi to." "Don't tell me you were shy in high school," she said. The intrigue to know more of his past, which she knew so little of, overcame her wanting more of the contentment. He smiled sadly, but she, keeping her eyes closed, didn't see it. "I alienated myself after Samantha disappeared. I didn't know how to talk to people, I was always scared they'd ask me about her. What had happened, why I hadn't done anything." "But you did do something." There was a sigh and she opened her eyes to look at him. He was staring at the sky, now gray and looking ready to release snow- the temperature had really dropped to more normal January temperatures- at any second. "Not enough," he said. It was at that moment that Daina Kathryn screamed. >>>>>>>> JANUARY 2, 1999 10:55 A.M. Lucas and Samantha had grown tired to learning and had wandered off in the direction of the plants they took care of. But Daina Kathryn hadn't wanted to get too far away from her mother and Melissa and Mulder, so had taken her break from playing teaching to look around the outside of the house. The back had been the best, with a tree that she discovered she could climb into, just like Melissa had said her brothers and sister had done when they' d been little, to drop water balloons on the people that went by. Daina Kathryn had never expected to climb a tree, but it was something she'd dreamed about for at least a year now. She climbed as high as she dared, feeling dizzy as she looked down at the world far below. It was almost like looking out the window of the room she and Melissa had shared, except not quite as high. She felt powerful up here, like she could see everything but nobody could see her. She watched Scully and Mulder for a while: he was holding her like she was a baby, but she didn't look like it bothered her. Maybe by the time you got to be an adult, you missed being a little kid and liked people to hold you. Daina Kathryn thought she was almost too old to be held like that. But not quite. Maybe when she was 5. After a while, she got bored watching them, since she couldn't hear what they were saying. Melissa was right behind them, but she was watching the sky, lost in thought. Lucas and Samantha were nowhere that she could see them, but there was somebody. At first, she thought it was more of the Samantha and Lucas people, drones, Mulder had called them. But then she looked more closely. And she recognized one of them. Alex! It was that Alex Krycek guy who'd saved her and Scully from the back of the truck. She should go thank him and then tell her mom he was there. It was harder climbing DOWN from the tree than it was climbing up, and once she was sure she was going to fall, but she managed to catch herself. Once she jumped the last few branches, she took off running in the direction she' d seen Krycek and the other man. They were farther away than they'd looked, but she found them soon enough. Or, one of them. Krycek was gone. "Where'd Alex go?" she asked the other man, thinking if he was friend's with Krycek, he was a nice person. The only mean people she'd ever met were Biars and that guard at the prison when they'd been leaving. Everybody else had loved her, thinking she was the cutest thing in the world. Fortunately for her and most that knew her, it hadn't gone to her head. But it had made her have a view of the world that was far from true. "To the bathroom," the man said, smiling strangely at her. "What's your name?" he asked. She felt suddenly wary and took a step backwards. "I'm going to find my mom now," she said. The man got up and stepped towards her, and she started to backup, but tripped and fell. The man grabbed her arm and jerked her to her feet. "Finally gotcha, huh? And no mommy here this time to save your miserable little life, either," he said, smile widening. Her eyes widened and her lip trembled. She had never been as terrified in her whole life, not even when she'd first been introduced to Scully. She did the only thing she knew to do. She screamed, as loudly as she could. The man reached down and grabbed a stick he'd been carrying with him through the woods. He pulled it back, then brought it down on her head. Her scream ended abruptly as her world faded. >>>>>>>> JANUARY 2, 1999 11:00 A.M. The helicopter had landed close enough to the farm where Mulder, Scully, Melissa, and the child were supposed to be hiding that Skinner and Bill were able to reach the farm in 5 minutes. They found Mulder almost immediately, searching frantically in the houses that had supposedly been abandoned for years. Bill, being Bill, thought the worst. "What happened to Dana?" he asked, just as Scully and Melissa appeared. They didn't hear him or see him and Skinner at first. "No sign of her," Scully said to Mulder. "Agent Mulder, Agent Scully, what is going on?" Skinner asked. Melissa jumped and Scully whirled to look at him. Her eyes narrowed. "Bill," she said, her voice cold. "What are you doing here?" She knew exactly what he was going to do: try to convince her that it wasn't really Melissa and her daughter, if they ever found Daina Kathryn, and that Mulder was crazy and talking her into believing things he did. Then he would drag her home and put her in a hospital. Sure enough, he went forward to put a hand on her shoulder. She jerked away before he could speak, but the hand returned, gripping hard enough that she grimaced. Her arms were sore after hours of carrying Daina Kathryn, and he wasn't helped. Mulder took a warning step towards him, but he ignored him. "Taking you home," he said. "Leave me alone, Bill. My only daughter is here somewhere, and I'm going to find her." "Would you mind explaining, Agent Scully?" Skinner asked, as Mulder roughly shoved Bill's hand from Scully's shoulder and they glared at each other, neither making the first move towards a fight. Scully glanced at Melissa. "I'll explain it all later, sir. Right now, we have to find my daughter, Daina Kathryn. She disappeared a few minutes ago, we heard her scream. We have reason to believe it was Alex Krycek." "Krycek." Skinner almost spit out the word. "Mr. Scully?" he said to Bill, in his no-nonsense voice that very few dared to argue with. Mulder was the only one, actually. "Go back to the helicopter. You'll hurt more than help this search." Bill started to protest, but Skinner wasn't finished. "Melissa, go with him and explain what happened. We'll join you as soon as we can." Reluctantly, Bill and Melissa left, already starting to argue about whether or not Daina Kathryn was really Scully's daughter, though Bill had never even seen her. He didn't seem to question any longer if Melissa was really his sister, though, for which Scully would have been glad. But she was too worried at the moment to be worried about anything. If Daina Kathryn died now, she was sure she would, too. Or her heart would. Skinner saw the look on her face: she looked ready to cry and like she wanted to scream at the same time. There was only one thing he could do. "Agent Scully, let's go find your daughter," he said, and she surprised him by bursting into tears. "Agent Scully?" She quickly wiped her eyes. "Thank you, sir," she said. "Scully, you go back to where you saw Daina Kathryn go. Sir, you check that way. And I'll look over there," Mulder said, taking charge, pointing in the different directions. There was no argument. >>>>>>>> JANUARY 2, 1999 11:15 A.M. Daina Kathryn had never had such a bad headache in her whole life. In fact, she'd never had a headache at all that she could remember. When she reached up to put her fingers on her head, just to try to relieve the ache in her skull, her fingers came back with blood on them. She started to cry without even realizing it. "Hello. Daina Kathryn?" The man who'd hit her was in the same room. They were in the house she'd found him behind, she tied up in the corner, he sitting nearby in a chair, with something hanging out of his mouth. It smelled bad and there was smoke coming from it that hurt her eyes. She tried not to cough, which she knew would just make her head hurt worse. "I'm Rammin." "You hurt me," she said, sniffling. When she realized she was doing this, she tried to stop, but couldn't quite do it. She was too miserable and she wanted her mom more than ever. He smiled and she shivered. He had a mean smile. "You screamed," he said. "You were going to take me away from my mom!" she said, more loudly than she meant to, then cringed, waiting for him to come at her again with the stick. Instead, he sighed and looked the ceiling. "I wonder what's keeping Jonnes," he said, puffing smoke out of the thing in his mouth. She couldn't help coughing and the pain rose again so she could barely stand it. She was going to die now, she knew it. She was only 4 years old and she was going to die. >>>>>>>> JANUARY 2, 1999 11:15 A.M. Scully was searching the outside of every house, listening closely. She got lucky. As she was passing what was the last house on the part of the farm Mulder had instructed her to search, she heard, very faintly, "You were going to take me away from my mom!" It was both her own voice and Daina Kathryn's. Both strong and bold. Quietly, she went up to the house and tried the back door. It was open, so she crept inside, slipping off her shoes before she did and leaving them outside. She could hear them more loudly now. "I wonder what's keeping Jonnes," a man said, and she wondered who Jonnes was. Krycek, maybe? There was a moment of silence, which she used to creep closer to the door and put her head against it. Daina Kathryn was sniffling as though she'd been crying, which wasn't surprising. "When am I going to see my mom again?" she asked. "Oh, I don't know," the man said. "Maybe never." Her small cries rose to a wail, the first time Scully had heard it. "I want my MOM!" she cried. And Scully couldn't take it anymore. She hit the door with her shoulder and it came open easily. She almost stumbled, but managed to stop herself, and put her hand in her jacket pocket as though reaching for a gun. It was a gamble, but it might work. "Mom!" Daina Kathryn said, leaping to her feet, then wincing. Scully could see the blood drying on her forehead and in her hair. The man in the room with her pulled out a gun, ignoring completely the hand Scully had ready. and then Scully realized she'd taken her hand from her pocket to hold out arms for her daughter. "Stop right there," he said to Daina Kathryn, who saw what he had and remembered Mulder's use of it before. She stopped, eyes pleading for Scully to help her. "Please let her go," Scully begged the man. He just laughed. "Let her go? Why?" "Please. She's my only daughter." "See if I care. She moves, she dies." Scully's mind raced, as she tried to think of a way to save Daina Kathryn, who looked as though she were getting closer and closer to risking the gun if only to be with her mother. The world stopped, Scully with her arms still stretched forward, Daina Kathryn's eyes boring into her own, and the man pointing his gun at Daina Kathryn. The still image broke in a second. Daina Kathryn could no longer stand it and leaped for her mother. The man pulled the trigger on the gun. and Scully jumped just in time and intercepted it. The last thing she heard as she dropped to the floor was Daina Kathryn yelling, "Mom! MOMMY!" and the sound of another gunshot. Daina Kathryn. they'd gotten her, too. >>>>>>>> JANUARY 2, 1999 11:20 A.M. Mulder and Skinner burst into the house at the very moment of the second gunshot. Both had come running at the sound of the first. "Oh, God," were Mulder's first words when they reached the room where the shots had been fired. Scully was lying on the floor, bleeding from her right arm. Daina Kathryn was on the floor beside her, sobbing and holding her left hand and saying, "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy," over and over again. He went to her and pulled her into his arms, surprising Skinner, who'd expected him to go to Scully. "Shh, D. Shh. She's going to be okay. Shhhh," he whispered, rocking her in his arms. She wrapped her arms around him and put her face into his neck, sobbing. Skinner, leaving him to comfort this mystery child, surveyed the rest of the room- and saw the one thing he never would have expected. He knew immediately what happened, somehow. The man who'd shot Scully was slumped in a chair, blood spreading over his chest. And behind him stood, of all people, Alex Krycek, holding his own gun. He dropped it on the floor when he saw Skinner watching him. "I didn't shoot her," was all he said, then was disappearing out the open window before Skinner could say that he knew that. Daina Kathryn was mostly quiet now, still not looking anywhere but at Mulder. Scully was waking up a little, which meant the wound was probably not too bad, moaning softly. Skinner watched it all quietly, then took a deep breath. "Mulder, you take her," he said, meaning Daina Kathryn. "Let's get Scully to a hospital." >>>>>>>> JANUARY 2, 1999 11:25 A.M. Mulder and Skinner got back to the helicopter in record time since each was carrying another. Mulder put Daina Kathryn in Melissa's lap and said, "I'll be right back. Don't leave without me." Bill, who was still not too happy with having been left, started to say something about hurrying up and getting "Dana to a damned hospital," but didn't finish. Mulder was already gone. They waited in silence, Skinner doing his best to stop the blood flow in Scully's arm. It was slowing on its own anyway, so he wasn't too worried about her. He was pretty sure she'd make it, anyway. Mulder came back soon enough, talking loudly to someone over the helicopter. "It's okay. It won't hurt you. Come on, we have to hurry!" He finally got whoever or whatever it was to get on with him. The mouths of both Skinner and Bill dropped open. Clutching tightly to his hands were 2 more children. >>>>>>>> MAY 9, 1999 10:30 A.M. Daina Kathryn was still not used to waking up in a bed in a house, even after so many months of it. She was usually the first one up, but this morning she could hear the voices of her mom and Mulder downstairs, as well as. as Melissa! She leaped out of bed, not bothering to get dressed before racing downstairs to Melissa's open arms. "Aunt Missy!" she cried, hugging her tightly. "Hi, D.!" Melissa said, returning the greeting. "I brought you something." "What?" she asked eagerly, grinning from ear to ear. "It's out in my car." "Can I go with her to get it? Please?" Daina Kathryn begged Mulder and Scully. They already seemed to know what was going on. Scully smiled. "Sure, go." Daina Kathryn skipped along behind her aunt to the car, then waited impatiently for Melissa to get the door unlocked and to find whatever it was she had. She finally found the gift and handed it to Daina Kathryn. The girl looked at it curiously, a little confused. "What is it?" she asked. Now it was Melissa's turn to grin, as though she was with her sister instead of her niece. "It's a violet." A slow smile spread across Daina Kathryn's face. "A violet." she whispered, staring at it, unable to take her eyes from the beautiful flower. She was still gazing at it without speaking when Mulder and Scully, along with Lucas and Samantha who'd been awakened and were dressed, came outside. "I think she likes it," Mulder said. He put a gentle hand on Daina Kathryn's arm. "Come on, D. Leave it out here so it can get some sun. We can bring it in later, okay?" She nodded, putting it on the grass of the front lawn and taking his hand. The 6 of them walked back as a family. In the yard, the violet waved gently in the breeze. It was the end of the rainbow continuum, the everlasting band of beautiful lights that brightened the world like the smile of a child, the love of a mother and child, or the enduring strength of a family. >>>>>>>> Begun Sunday, January 4, 1998 Completed Friday, May 8, 1998 >>>>>>>> Hope you enjoyed it. I know I enjoyed working on it. The story actually started last year, with an idea about Scully having a child that lived with Samantha... after Christmas Carol, it evolved into a girl living with Melissa. So I had the idea before Chris Carter! :) Feedback is always appreciated! Emily