Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2000 21:50:10 -0400
Subject: Story submission
Source: direct

----------------------------------------
12:14 AM - SUNDAY
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA MEDICAL CENTER
CAFETERIA
----------------------------------------

"Hey, Scully, check this out." Mulder spoke with exuberance, 
slapping down a tray full of food on the table.  "Two-for-one 
special on the cinnamon buns, so I picked up one for you too."

Scully, sitting at a tiny, round table that wobbled every time she 
rested her elbow on the edge, tapped the top of the cinnamon bun 
with her index finger, creating a dull thumping sound.  "I don't 
remember seeing a sign advertising that...and what are these made 
out of, anyway? Lead?"

Mulder beamed inwardly.  Scully cracking a few sarcastic remarks 
felt like a million symphonies to his ears.  "Well, if that's not to 
your liking, they also had a two-for-one on the chicken salad 
sandwiches."

"And I suppose they had a two-for-one on those slices of sweet 
potato pie as well?"  Scully continued with a mocking eyebrow toward 
two dark orange slices, deciding to reach for one of the sandwiches.

"Nah, they overcharged me on those to make up for the other two-for-
ones."

Scully's teeth sunk into the sandwich, hiding a tiny, hard-won smile 
elicited by her partner.  She knew exactly what he was doing, 
although she didn't let on that she did for the simple reason that 
she appreciated his concern.  And for the fact that the minute her 
taste buds came in contact with the sandwich, she realized how 
hungry she actually was.  The earlier events had showed her a bitter 
reality she couldn't hide from any longer, leaving her feeling 
conquered, worn down.  She couldn't believe she had taken so much 
time playing a game with chance, selfishly taking time for granted.  
She and her partner had squeezed through countless dangers by the 
skin of their teeth--what if one of those times one of them didn't 
make it?  Just like Beth?  How would she have felt then, she asked 
herself.  But she already knew.  There was nothing she would have 
regretted more than not telling him how much she cared for Mulder, 
loved him.  Of course, if telling him was such an easy task, she 
would have told him years ago.

She looked up to observe her partner wolfing down the other 
sandwich, the muscles working in his jaw, face heavily lined with 
tired shadows.  Behind him she looked at the dimly lit cafeteria, 
yellow, rounded lights barely illuminating the tables, red and blue 
neon signs hanging above the foods advertising 'salads' or 'hot 
soup.'  A lone man in teal green scrubs was eating hungrily in the 
corner, a woman and child sipping on bottles of juice near the back.  
It was quiet, peaceful, Scully turning her attention back to the 
open folder on the table, the last bite of sandwich disappearing 
into her mouth.

"So, what do we have?" Mulder questioned, pleased to see Scully's 
sandwich had vanished without a trace.

"Well, so far everything's in order--bloodwork, tox screen--they 
gave her a full work-up."  Scully answered as she flipped through 
the pages.  "Her white blood count was way down, but under the 
circumstances and her condition, it's understandable."

Mulder nodded, diving into a slice of pie.

"Here we go," Scully continued, pausing as a page toward the end 
caught her eye. "'Foreign material swabbed from lower right leg 
wound, results clarifying a scaly substance, more than likely 
animal.'"

"The mutant bear with wings?" Mulder scoffed.  "With scales?"

Scully purposely ignored the comment as she read on, paraphrasing as 
her eyes skimmed across the document.  "The examiner concludes that 
the cause of her initial injuries are unknown, but it's very 
possible that after she was wounded, an animal may have picked up 
her scent and tried attacking her."

"Doesn't that seem a little vague to you, Scully?" 

"Well, he also states that the cause her wounds are unidentifiable 
and too large to be from any animal living in the Virginia forest."

"So he concludes it was an animal but not an animal?" 
Mulder scoffed.

"His credentials state he's a specialist in wildlife accidents."

"So he's one of the few people that watch 'When Animals Attack' on 
the Fox Network."  Mulder went on.  "Why not put two and two 
together?"

Scully flopped the folder against the table.  "What--you're changing 
your theory now?  No space aliens and flying saucers?"

They received estranged looks across the cafeteria at Scully's last 
words, quickly lowering their voices.

"I didn't say that." Mulder whispered, his mouth still full of pie.  
"You're saying this guy thinks it wasn't an animal from around here, 
so maybe it's not something around here, but that doesn't mean it 
doesn't exist, or that it's not out there right now."

"Mulder, we've established that there's at least *something* out of 
the ordinary out there in the woods, but I'd like to know what it 
is.  We still have one lost person out there, you know."

Mulder nodded, turning to a cinnamon bun as his phone started to 
ring.  He scrambled in his pocket, moving it up to his ear.  "Yeah?"

"It must be your birthday, Mulder." Frohike chuckled, two more 
voices tittering in the background behind him.  "Either that or 
you're just one lucky bastard."

Mulder snorted.  "Are you going to tell me why I'm so lucky or do I 
have to change who gets my collection in my will?"  He could see 
Scully give him a dirty look out of the corner of his eye.

"Lets not do anything rash." Frohike jumped in at lightning speed.  
"We ran that number of yours through some databases for about ten 
minutes before some matches popped up.  Total luck I might add.  It's 
pretty strange, big guy, we can't make heads or tails out of it."

"Well, lets hear it."  Mulder prodded, hearing a loud crash and a 
simultaneous 'oops' during Frohike's pause.

"Oh no, there goes the laxative."

"Frohike?"

"Hey, come on, you know the rules about using my name on the line." 
Frohike continued, irritated, the tapping of a keyboard coming 
through the phone.  "Are you ready?"

"I've been ready."  Mulder sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose 
with his thumb and forefinger.

"Looks like you're in the right neck of the woods.  One piece of 
data has a location here--Strughold Mining Company, West Virginia."

Mulder perked up at the name.  "We went there years ago.  It's been 
abandoned."

"Well not according to this."  Frohike continued, "We looked up some 
extra info on it.  Just a year ago they bought almost 200,000 acres 
of forest around the perimeter, fenced it off, and now it's private 
property and off limits to the public.  A no-fly zone to boot.  It 
gets better...oh wait, Byers found this part so he wants to tell 
you."

"Why can't you guys just use the speaker phone?"

"Uh...that didn't make the laxative technological history...here's 
Byers!"

The phone crackled and shuffled as Byers' smooth, higher voice 
filtered through the phone.  "Okay, get this, Mulder, this piece of 
land is owned by none other than the government itself."

"Why am I not surprised?"  Mulder mused, watching the plate with his 
cinnamon bun slipping from his side of the table over to his 
partner.  He tried to hide a smile as Byers continued.

"At first it looked like they purchased the land, but we can't find 
any evidence of money changing hands."

Mulder opened his mouth to speak, but Langly's raspy voice cut Byers 
off, "Hey, I get to tell him the last part."

"Langly!" Frohike was yelling, "You're tracking laxative across the 
floor!"

"I am not." Came Langly's response as the phone clucked and shook.

"Well, I'm not cleaning that up." Frohike was going on.

"Whatever." Langly responded, his voice closing in to the 
mouthpiece.  "Alright, Mulder, here's the weirdest part of all.  
I've got a file here, most of it blacked out, but it's on CPH-
941006577-T, or as this calls it, 'Charlie-T.'"

"Charlie-T?"

"Yes, we've got some sort of document here on the number.  While it 
is totally blacked out, they obviously forgot to do it to this last 
line at the bottom.  The document was modified recently, so we just 
got lucky before they came back to erase it.  It says 'status: 
missing.'  Is my kung-fu the best or what?" Langley seemed very smug 
as he finished.

"So Charlie-T from the Strughold Mining Company is missing?" Mulder 
spoke out loud, seeing Scully's eyebrows furrow at the mention.  
"What?  He didn't like the company's HMO plan?"

"We just relay the info." Langley stated casually.  "Looks like 
you're on to something big--we can interview you on it for the paper 
when you get back.  Are you down with that?"

"Uh, yeah, sure...okay, thanks guys." Mulder answered absentmindedly 
as he hung up the phone.

"Well?" Scully asked with intense curiosity.

Mulder was quiet as the wheels turned in his head, finally mumbling 
to himself,  "Why would they need all of that land?"

Scully knew her partner only too well to know his sharp mind was 
churning information, formulating and rationalizing ideas.  She 
watched him with wonder as he suddenly jumped up from the table.

"Come on, Scully, we're going to go find Charlie-T!"

"Charlie what?" She asked as she was practically dragged to her 
feet, her cinnamon bun ripped from her hand. 

"There's no time to waste--I'll fill you in in the car."  Mulder 
spoke excitedly, practically running out of the cafeteria, Scully at 
his heels.

-------------------------
1:50 AM - SUNDAY
SKYLAND MOUNTAIN
SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK
-------------------------

"Mulder, where are the night vision goggles?"

"I, ah, must have left them in the cabin."

"But I told you specifically to bring them."

"I didn't see them.  Maybe we never brought them in the first place, 
Scully."

"That's impossible--I packed them myself." 

Mulder made a guilty face, thankful for the thick darkness that hid 
his face from view.  They had driven back from the Charlottesville 
hospital to Skyhigh, picking up their hiker's packs before heading 
out to Skyland.  He had filled Scully in on the Lone Gunmen's 
information, explaining how he wanted to take a look at the area 
Beth had been found at, not trusting Sheriff Logan and the gang more 
than he could throw them.  The Sheriff's "no funny business" hadn't 
sounded very concrete.  And of course, now Dorothy, George, and Gil 
were out there with the hunters, not to mention 'Charlie-T.'

"Do you have the map?" Scully questioned, locking the car door as 
she swung her backpack around her shoulders, the folds of her coat 
bunching around the straps.

"Sure do--we head straight from here onto Limberlost Trail."

"I don't like any trail in the woods with the word 'lost' in it's 
name." Scully commented, clicking on her flashlight, the shaft of 
light penetrating through the black spaces of the night.  Raindrops 
glittered like shooting stars, the clouds overhead cocooning them 
into their own mountainous world, the sounds of pattering against 
leaves all around them.  Scully breathed the smell of wet earth into 
her lungs, feeling the misting waters from the heavens tickling her 
forehead with tiny, cold touches.

"Indian Guide says an umbrella is just going to slow us down."  
Mulder attempted to make light of the situation, giving a black 
umbrella a toss into the driver's seat, the door making a clatter as 
it was shut and locked.  "It's just a drizzle anyway; it'll probably 
stop soon."

For some reason, Scully felt less than convinced.

She refrained from emitting a sigh, following close behind her 
partner as he headed north down a muddy, slick trail.  Lower limbs 
of pine brushed against her shoulders in the darkness, feeling the 
tiny needles breaching through the cloth of her coat, giving her 
skin a sting as if it had just received a series of tiny shots.  The 
moonless forest was darker than she had been expecting, unable to 
see a foot in front of her face, the flashlight in her hand the only 
item allowing her to keep moving.  

Rain or shine, night or day, Scully mused, made no difference to her 
partner once an idea clicked in his mind.  The facts Mulder had 
filled her in with in the truck were intriguing, but at the same 
time, she could feel the wear and tear of being awake for nearly 
twenty hours lingering in her muscles, a pain gnawing at her right 
behind her eyes.

"We'll go to the Strughold Company first thing in the morning." 
Mulder was chatting as his dim flashlight beam landed on a huge 
boulder sitting in the middle of the trail.  He continued as he 
moved around it, making a quick glance back at his partner.  "See 
what they're hiding over there."

"I thought it was fenced off."

"That's a problem?"

Scully remained silent, her thoughts much more interested in getting 
some rest than scaling fences with her partner.  She decided she 
would try talking him out of it later, at the moment her thoughts 
concentrating on the mud leaking into the tops of her hiking 
boots, the ice-cold thickness working their way through her socks.  
Her ears were attuned to Mulder's footfalls stomping through the 
steep and tangled forest floor, occasionally flipping her flashlight 
beam toward his frame to make sure she wasn't lagging behind.  

She noticed they weren't moving through the wet darkness very 
quickly, the trail turning thicker and deeper with sludge the more 
they traveled.  At the bottoms of steep slopes, it was even worse, 
the runoff of water and mud gathering into tiny pools, some nearly 
knee-deep.  Thick raindrops that had pooled on the sagging leaves 
above them landed squarely on their heads, saturated branches 
clawing at their sides no matter which way they turned. 

"Uh-oh, look at this, Scully."  Mulder finally spoke after almost 
ten minutes of hiking.

Scully moved up next to Mulder's form, looking up to see beads of 
water cascading down the folds of his coat, his hair plastered flat 
against his scalp.  Their flashlights illuminated a fork in the 
trail, one path leading to the left, one to the right.

"What now?" Scully asked, not even attempting to keep her irritation 
from accompanying her voice.

Mulder was fiddling with the map, huge drops of rain spattering 
across it as he exposed it from his pocket.  "Well, er...this map 
doesn't show any fork in the trail."

"What do you mean there's no fork?  We're standing right in front of 
it!"  Scully replied testily, whipping the map from his hands, her 
eyes searching frantically over the curvy green lines.

"It's so dark we must have unknowingly left Limberlost onto another 
trail."  Mulder calmly equated, whipping his flashlight in a circle 
around them, inspecting the area.  "All we have to do is backtrack 
and look carefully for another intersecting trail--I'm sure that 
will be Limberlost."

"You're 'sure' that will be Limberlost?" Scully ranted.  "Mulder, 
it's two in the morning, it's raining, and you're lucky that it's so 
dark you have half a chance of escaping from here before I can catch 
you."

Mulder made a grim face in the darkness at his partner's wrath.

"And of all the things you had to leave behind, even though we're 
carrying a good twenty pounds of equipment on our backs, is the one 
thing we need the most.  Dammit, Mulder, why couldn't you remember 
the night vision goggles?!  You're this *Indian Guide* who has now 
gotten us lost out in the middle of nowhere with some kind of 
Charlie-alien creature nonsense with..."

A loud crack broke the night stillness.  

"Scully, get down!" Mulder immediately hissed, grabbing Scully's 
shoulders and pushing her down toward the muddy ground, interrupting 
her speech.  

It was unmistakably the sound of a rifle, the crackle of the sound 
slowly rolling across the woods until it faded away.  The rain 
continued its pattering against the leaves, the forest still.

"The hunters?" Scully breathed, Mulder's arms still protectively 
around her shoulders, the warmth of his face only a breath away from 
her own.  

"I don't know about you, but I don't feel like being mistaken for a 
deer tonight."

"I should have kept my vow to myself to never go out in the woods at 
night again."  Scully mumbled to herself as one more shot rocketed 
through the forest.  

Both of them waited for several minutes, their hearts pounding as 
they stayed in a crouched position near the forest floor.  

"What do you think they were shooting at?" Scully asked.

"I don't know, but whatever it was, it can't be good." Mulder 
answered grimly.  "It sounded like it was about a mile or so away, 
maybe closer, but it's really hard to tell."

Scully's eyes glanced down at the large, warm hand on her shoulder, 
the strong grip sending a message of concern and protection through 
her tired bones.  She felt the impulse to lay her own hand of top of 
his, to communicate back her thanks, her own feelings of caring, and 
yet, she stopped herself.  He had moved back to his feet, giving her 
a helping lift under her armpit, switching his flashlight back on.  
She could see the shadow of his face in the dull, yellow light, 
their bodies becoming separate once again from the liquefying black 
of the night.

"Looks like it's time for plan B."  Mulder sighed, scratching with 
frustration through his wet hair, creating a standing row of wet 
spikes on his scalp.  "You're right, Scully, it was wrong of me to 
ever bring you out here and endanger you like this.  I've taken you 
on so many of my goose chases just like this one that I'm surprised 
you've been able to stay with me and the X-Files for six years.  You 
should have left me a long time ago--you could have been the head of 
the Bureau by now."

Scully's jaw dropped in the darkness, mud smearing on her coat as 
she wiped her hands across the folds.  "No, Mulder, I'm here because 
I choose to be." She spoke up with a flare of anger and hurt.  
"That's how it's always been.  It's what I've told you before, if I 
quit now, how many lives would be lost?  Who would be out in these 
woods at two in the morning trying to save Lou if you or I weren't 
here?  Gil maybe, but he more than likely needs rescuing himself.  
There would be no one, Mulder, and that's why I'm out here.  They 
won't win, Mulder, not if I can help it."

Mulder was silent, a strong gust of wind rippling through the wet 
trees, encircling them.  He moved his flashlight closer to his face, 
the beam making an illuminating arc along his chin, finally 
speaking.  "I traded them for information."

"Traded what?" Scully asked in confused tone.

"The night-vision goggles.  I, ah, had to make a trade for some 
sensitive information."

"What sensitive information?"

Mulder could hear the irritation rising in his partner's voice.  He 
moved his flashlight over to her, making sure if she decided to make 
an attack, he would be ready.  She was standing ankle-deep in the 
mud, strands of auburn hair darkened by rain, matted together behind 
her ears.  Her ice-blue eyes could have been flashlights by 
themselves, blazing with curiosity as well as a knowing, skeptical 
look Mulder knew only too well.

"Ah, you remember that listening device that Andrew found...well, 
turns out..."

The hint of a smile broke across Scully's pale-pink lips, stopping 
Mulder's words.  Seconds later a contained note of laughter escaped 
from her throat, "You gave a twelve-year old boy an $1000 piece of 
equipment?  Oh, that's priceless, Mulder!" She hooted.

"Well, I didn't think it was that funny..." Mulder tried to answer 
over Scully's amusement, his ears instantly memorizing every sweet 
note.  He hadn't heard her laugh like that since...since...well, he 
wasn't quite sure.  It had been a while, that he knew, but whatever 
had tickled her funny bone, it was better than being clobbered.

"That's coming out of your check," Scully was going on, taking the 
soggy map from his hands. "But for now, the Indian Guide in our 
group has just been impeached.  Follow me."

"See, I told you I was always right when I'm driving."  Mulder 
commented, turning to follow Scully's lead down the path they had 
just traveled.  "And see, I'm not..."

"Shut-up, Mulder."

--------------------------------------
2:36 AM - SUNDAY
SOMEWHERE IN SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK
--------------------------------------

"Scully, I swear we've passed this tree once before."

"We have not, Mulder.  This has got to be Limberlost--we've been 
going straight for the last twenty minutes."

"You think we've been going straight, but as an Indian Guide, we 
learned that the woods can be deceiving--especially at night."

"Oh, cut the Indian Guide crap."

Mulder shut his mouth.  While he may have had the privilege of a 
laughing Scully earlier, twenty minutes had done wonders for 
transforming his partner into a hideous beast.  Of course, he 
admitted, he wasn't much better off.  "The way I see it, at least I 
only got us a little lost.  Now that you've been leading we've 
branched off onto so many different trails we're probably in Maine 
by now!"

"Oh good, maybe Jack will be in town." Came the cool response ahead 
of him, not missing a beat.

Bull's-eye, Mulder thought as he gritted his teeth, remembering the 
picture of Sheriff Bonsant he had pulled up on his computer.

"There's this great place up there that serve the biggest lobsters 
I've ever seen.  We couldn't even finish it all."  Scully rambled on 
purposely.

"Maybe if he tried eating more, he'd have more hair on his head." 
Mulder fumed, knowing Scully's abrupt halt would not have a good 
outcome.  He could see Scully debating whether or not to pursue his 
last statement, but Mulder knew her sharp mind was already figuring 
out that he had taken the time to go investigate this "Jack" after 
their conversation in the office.  Instead, she triumphantly began 
walking again, her coattail continuing to collect muddy clumps of 
earth from the trail, being led by the dim glow of her flashlight.

Mulder knew walking endlessly in a wet, vast forest in the wee hours 
of the morning was obviously not a pleasant experience, and even 
more obviously, their nerves and patience were on edge.  They had 
come out to Skyland to investigate the area where Beth had 
been found, which was simple in theory, but going on forty minutes 
of being wet, cold and tired, with no one else around, frustrations 
were coming out on each other.  Of course, he would be lying if he 
had left out their sort-of kiss on the dock--it was definitely a 
playing factor in their irritation.  At least if there was one 
positive about their banter, it was keeping them awake.

"Scully, I swear that tree..."

"Mulder," Scully cut off partner as she swiveled around to face him, 
"Here's an idea--you stay here with the tree and I'll keep going--
then we'll find out soon enough if we're going in the same 
direction."

Suddenly the darkness engulfed them, their faces hidden from each 
other. 

"Aw, great, my batteries are dead."  Mulder sighed, thankful for a 
distraction away from their throat-cutting.

"You didn't replace the batteries before coming out here?"

Or not, Mulder thought.  "Here's an idea, Scully, why don't we turn 
on a video camera and shake it like crazy while we pay someone to 
hang sticks in the trees.  Someone made millions on it last time."

Disregarding the question, Scully turned away, her voice suddenly 
lowering a notch, offering a white flag of peace.  "Come on, we've 
got to keep moving.  This flashlight will hopefully last a while, 
lets just make sure we stay close together."  

Mulder nodded, shifting the straps of his pack to a different 
location on his shoulders.  "You want me to go first for a while?"

"It's okay." Scully replied with a touch of gratefulness.  "Maybe I 
can get us lost a little more."

Mulder chuckled, his hand landing on her backpack in front of him as 
she led the way.

The slick ground of rock and mud made a suctioning noise beneath 
their feet for every careful step that they took, the rain 
thickening as the occasional gust of wind whipped the drops through 
the trees in dizzying patterns.  Besides the pitter-patter of the 
rain, the surrounding forest and stationary clouds in the sky worked 
together to wrap them in an eerie silence.  Just like the early 
morning of the nature hike, the presence of forest life was non-
existent.  Not another sound could be heard.

As they approached a turn, Scully withdrew the map from her pocket, 
holding the wet paper delicately so it wouldn't tear.  

Mulder leaned over her shoulder, taking a deep breath as Scully's 
wet hair entered his nostrils, the weak beam of light barely 
illuminating the pages in her hands.

"According to my calculations," Scully spoke thoughtfully, her head 
bent over the map as she continued walking, "I believe we're on Mill 
Prong Trail.  So if that's true, we should be intersecting 
Limberlost right up ahead.  And see this, Mulder?"

Mulder's eyes moved from the soft curve of Scully's face down to 
where her finger was pointing.

"We'll be coming out almost exactly where Beth was found."

"Well, whadda' ya' know." Mulder commented.  

"So when we hit a wide trail, it's just got to be..."

"Scully!" Mulder yelled as his partner's tiny body flashed away from 
him, his hands grappling at Scully's backpack a second too late as 
it disappeared into the black night.  The sound of Scully's startled 
voice, a wordless shriek, alarmed his ears as he was cast into the 
thick black of the forest.  

His hands flailed into the black air, his senses confused and 
disoriented by his surroundings.  He couldn't see anything around 
him, as if his eyelids were closed over his eyes.  His heart was 
beating wildly in his chest, a fear more gripping than any 
physical pain contracting in his stomach, his mouth instantly dry.

"Scully!" He called again into the night, his voice cracking into a 
restrained sob, falling to his knees into the sloshing mud on the 
trail.  He jammed his hand down into a sharp piece of rock, feeling 
the warm trickle of blood on his palm, but not caring as his hands 
vehemently searched for clues.  

His urgency mounted as his hand slid along the seething ground, 
feeling the rain pelting on his head, running in a steady stream 
across his forehead and trickling from the end of his nose.  His 
hands discovered a sudden end to the path, only around two feet in 
front of him, where the muddy stream took a dive down a sharp 
embankment.  

"Scully!  Can you hear me?" Mulder screamed at the top of lungs down 
into the dark pit below.  His voice sounded so foreign, so 
terrified, so alone in the wilderness.  "Scully, answer me!"

Mulder ears strained to pick up a sound, any sound besides the 
tittering rain and the slopping of the mud as it rushed down the 
embankment.  He tried to calculate how far down the drop went, but 
he discouragingly had no clear answers.  He felt so useless, 
helpless, trapped in this black world.  He listened intently once 
again, also debating whether or not he should take a leap of faith 
and send himself down the embankment as well.

His ears picked up a sound.

"Mulder!"  

It was feint, but it was the most beautiful sound in the world as 
Mulder excitedly called back.  "Scully!  Are you alright?!"

"I think so...I landed on soft dirt...well, sort-of.  I've got mud 
from head to toe, but it cushioned my fall.  That was a wild ride, 
though!"

Mulder smiled at her attempt to make a joke despite the 
circumstances.  "How far down do you think you are?"

"I don't know--it was all so fast.  Oh dammit, the flashlight is 
gone.  I can't see a thing!"

"I can't either."  Mulder sighed discouragingly, speaking louder to 
reply,  "Try to find that flashlight, Scully, we're blind without 
it."

"Why not," Scully was grumbling more to herself than at Mulder, "I 
can't get any muddier."

Mulder waited patiently on his knees, the mud swirling and trickling 
around him, the thick waves disappearing down the drop-off his hands 
had found.  He could barely hear Scully's sloshing from down below 
as she searched for the flashlight, keeping his fingers crossed that 
the waterproof flashlights also included being mudproof...if Scully 
could find it at all, of course.

Another minute passed, his brows suddenly furrowing as he cocked his 
head to the side, listening behind him.  Rain.  Mud.  Scully.  
Thrashing leaves?

It had to be the wind, Mulder decided, feeling the cool air whipping 
around him, looking forward, waiting for Scully to give him an 
update on the flashlight search.

"This mud is about three feet deep," Scully called, breathing hard 
from her search, "Combined with this lovely night, you could lose 
the state of New York in here."

Mulder started to smile when he heard the noises again.  It was now 
closer, uneven from the wind patterns sweeping across the mountain, 
out of sync with the forest, sloppy.  He turned his head in the 
direction, pinpointing that it was coming from behind, his thoughts 
rapidly trying to discern between the forest attempting to play 
tricks on his imagination or if this wasn't the forest at all.

The sounds were light and dark, smooth and rough, wet leaves 
swishing and swirling together.  The sounds grew louder, the 
slashing and pounding of branches being added into the intensity.  
Mulder's ears were picking up the breaking, snapping, and crushing 
from within the forest, knowing without a doubt there was something 
out there causing the noises, a presence that his instincts could 
feel had sensed him, targeted him, and was now coming for him! 

He stood to his feet, instinctively throwing off his pack, his legs 
as weak as straw while blood hammered in his wrists and temples.  He 
was standing utterly still, not even allowing his breath to escape 
his lips in fear that he would be heard.  He wanted to believe it 
was just the group of hunters, or maybe Dorothy and George hiking 
through the woods, but he knew there was no point in deceiving 
himself, his senses letting him know without a shadow of a doubt 
that the source of the noise was too large and too fast to be human.

"What's that noise, Mulder?  What on earth are you doing up there?" 

Scully's voice was far away to him, his body thunderstruck as a cold 
shiver ran across his spine.  He felt the danger like a dead weight 
on his back, facing an enemy he was blind to, the noise representing 
the naked shadow of fear itself.

The noise was barreling down upon him, tree branches crashing, a 
low-bass rumbling beneath his frozen feet.  "The ride is about to 
get wilder!"  Mulder called in a frenzied tone, turning to the 
unknown waiting below him and back to unknown behind him.  Either 
way, the options were grim, but he had the choice of either facing 
the evil forces charging down the trail, or throw himself over the 
ledge and hope for the same muddy ride Scully had received.

"I don't believe it--I found the flashlight!" Scully called, the dim 
light suddenly shining up at him from below.  

Mulder gritted his teeth nervously.  The slide down was farther than 
the thought--a good 50 feet or more.  He noticed Scully had been 
lucky, inspecting the shadowed jettisons of sharp rock protruding 
from the bank, a narrow, curving stream of mud rushing around and 
over them.

"Scully!" Mulder yelled in a warning tone, his seriousness alerting 
her attention, "Get rid of that thing...and watch out!"

His head whipped back into the darkness behind him, hearing the 
thundering closing in, the danger right upon him.  Without another 
moment of hesitance, his legs pushed his body off the slick ground 
and into the air.  He was soaring, weightless, Scully's tiny beacon 
disappearing below as she turned off the light.  His legs were 
braced and waiting for impact, the wind whipping up through his 
coat, past his face.  It was almost surreal, like a bad dream, when 
he heard it--the noise.

A ferocious scream pierced his eardrums, so loud his hands 
automatically covered his ears, his body landing roughly on the hard 
embankment at the same time.  The mud was slick and fast, his body 
zigzagging out of control at breakneck speed, his hands moving away 
from his ears in an attempt to slow himself down, catching and 
slapping against rock.  The noise continued to ring in his ears, it 
was a sound unlike any he had ever heard before.  It was wild, 
terrifying, and right behind him.  

His body came to an abrupt halt when he hit the thick pool of mud at 
the bottom, pitching him face-first into the slimy goop.  He coughed 
and sputtered, pulling his face free while bending his knees and 
immersing his body into the mud, instinctually hiding himself.  

"Scully!" He whispered frantically, his hands and arms slicing and 
feeling through the mud, a torrential gust of wind whipping at his 
face for a few seconds before it suddenly stopped as quickly as it 
had started.

He felt something grab onto his leg, immediately using every 
resource of strength in his body to shake it loose, panic rising in 
his throat.

"Whoa, whoa--it's me, Mulder, it's me." Came the soft whisper of his 
partner, calming his struggling.  

He turned toward Scully's voice, reaching up with is muddy hands to 
make contact with the soft nape of her neck, feeling her mud-caked 
hair.  "Oh thank goodness." He breathed, "You're safe."

"Whatever made that noise is coming back.  Hear it?" Scully 
questioned, already pulling him to the right.

Mulder's ears perked up, hearing the thrashing once again, the wind 
picking up around them.  "Oh, damn."

"When I had the light on, I noticed some shelter over by the rocks.  
It's not much, but better than nothing--at least it worked a moment 
ago--come on."  Scully spoke in a professional, but urgent, tone, 
not having to ask her partner twice as they sliced through the mud, 
their feet moving thick and slow.

They had just made contact with the rock, huddling down in the 
swirling mud as the wind grappled at their skin in the darkness.  
Mulder strained his eyes into the black night, hoping to catch a 
glimpse, just a millisecond of a peek at what was soaring above, 
threatening them, preying on them.  

The wind grew rough, the rain whipping in wild angles as Mulder 
sensed the large enemy looming very close to them.  The hairs on the 
back of his neck stood on end, his body feeling naked against the 
enormous power their predator possessed.  He could feel eyes upon 
him, calculating, cold, studying him while he gripped his partner's 
arm tightly, pushing himself against the rock with brute force, 
pressing in every inch he could to keep his body from being exposed.  
The wind was so rough he clenched his teeth together, squeezing his 
eyes shut while hearing his partner make a tiny moan of discomfort 
as she pressed tightly against the rock with him.  

Those ten seconds felt like hours, the rain stinging their skin, the 
unknown lurking right overhead, but just as suddenly as the whole 
incident had started, the wind ceased, the black shadow was gone.

Mulder and Scully both stayed frozen in their positions, ears on 
high-alert in case the unknown flying object returned.  Their lungs 
burned as they gasped for air, allowing their panic to wash away, 
holding onto each other's arms like anchors on a ship.

"Alright, Mulder, what the hell was that?  This is the exact same 
thing that happened to me on the hike, except I never heard any 
noise like that...that...scream."

Mulder could tell Scully was hoping he had an explanation, any 
explanation including one of his infamous wild ones, because she 
clearly was at a loss of words.  The only problem was, Mulder knew, 
so was he.

"I'm thinking we just had our first run-in with the mining company's 
Charlie-T."  Mulder supplied as Scully finally released her hands 
from his forearms.  "Whatever that is."

"You didn't get a look at it?" 

"It was too dark--but it was definitely huge, and that sound we 
heard must have been the same sound Gil was talking about on the 
night when he went out looking for Beth and Lou."

"I've never heard anything like it."

"Which means we've probably never seen anything like it."  Mulder 
finished, sloshing away from the rock into the muddy waters.  Scully 
paused behind him, a weak beam of light suddenly illuminating a 
path, his body almost waist-deep in the slimy, brown liquid.

"Is your pack somewhere around?" Scully asked as she hoisted a brown 
lump onto her back.

Mulder snorted.  "I threw it off before I took a nose dive down the 
mud slide.  At that moment, Skinner's face seemed so harmless 
compared to what was coming through the woods."

Scully sighed.  "There goes my next month's pay."

"Hey, it's better to be breathing than eating." Mulder quipped, 
making his way toward the edge of the muddy pool.

"Wait, Mulder!" Scully hissed, halting his motions immediately.  
"Did you hear that?"

Mulder stood statue still, his ears listening to each separate 
patter of rain, hearing a feint guttural groan over to his right.  
"It's coming back?" He questioned with a hiss.

Scully was intently listening behind him, finally speaking in a 
relieved tone, "Not this time, Mulder, that's definitely human."

--------------------------------------
3:10 AM - SUNDAY
SOMEWHERE IN SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK
--------------------------------------

"It's coming from over here!" Scully called over her shoulder, the 
weak flashlight beam bobbing frantically across the wet earth as she 
ran toward the feint cries from within the woods.  She had diverted 
from the narrow, slick trail that led away from the muddy pool, now 
dodging gnarled tree trunks darkened from the rain, appearing 
suddenly as if they were scary monsters in a horror movie.  Ferns 
and underbrush swished at her feet, her clothes feeling ten pounds 
heavier with layers of mud caked inside and out. 

Mulder was close behind Scully, her ears picking up his rhythmic 
footfalls as he thrashed through the moldy, wet leaves.  The sounds 
in the distance were growing near, louder, as Scully determinedly 
stayed at a jogging pace.  She easily identified it as a person 
groaning in pain, although weak, but steady.  She could only wonder 
who her partner and herself were about to find--the possibilities 
were endless.

Scully suddenly made an abrupt halt, Mulder bumping into her from 
behind.

"What is it?" Mulder breathed heavily from the run.

"It's a huge pile of brush..." Scully answered as she swung her 
flashlight across a tightly woven mass of branches, the top reaching 
as high as Scully's chin.  "...and it looks like it runs way on down 
the forest--there's no way around it."

"Ah, time for some of my boyish agility." Mulder spoke, the teasing 
note in his voice noticed by Scully.  He had moved in front of her 
in one quick motion, using the flashlight beam as his guide, 
grabbing a firm hold in the branches.  He began moving up the side, 
Scully still pointing the flashlight upwards, listening to the slap 
of Mulder's wet, heavy coat against his legs.  After a minute he 
reached the top, hesitating with one leg over each side, turning to 
Scully.  "The weather's great up here--it really is possible to 
catch some more rain."

Scully felt the impulse to smile, even after the huge 'War and 
Peace' circumstances that had piled up over the last twenty-four 
hours.  She passed up her hiker's pack and flashlight, Mulder 
extending a helping hand down to her.

She slid her hand into his larger one, feeling the muddy grit 
against her palm like sandpaper, his strong pull assisting her 
ascension.  The warmth that flooded through her hand and down her 
arm seemed to melt the dirt away, bringing a sense of comfort 
washing inside her, reinforcing the wall around her to keep out the 
wet, lifelessly cold night.

"This is pretty sturdy." Mulder chattered as Scully joined him at 
the top, trying to glimpse at what was below.  She cursed to herself 
at the darkness, not being able to see farther than a foot away, the 
one flashlight beam their only savior, keeping their existence alive 
in the forest.  

"Hello!  Is anyone out there?"  Scully called into the moist air 
around her, hesitantly removing her hand from her partner's as she 
heard a feint "It's real, it's gotta' be...yeah, yeah, over here!"

Scully's heart jumped as she swiftly reached the ground on the other 
side, whipping the flashlight from Mulder, and taking off toward the 
source at a fast run.  "Okay, we're coming, just keep talking!"

"Oh please let it be real..." the voice continued to waft across the 
black stillness, "...I'm here, I'm here!"

Just then the light picked up a mussed, ripped t-shirt, stained 
with dark red spots as well as smears of brown dirt, a few feet 
further, its owner was waiting.  

The very first thing that startled her eyes was the oozing, sticky 
red running and staining a pair of torn jeans, the earth underneath 
a hard, cold, red blanket.  Her light flew up into a pair of blue 
eyes sunken back in a pale, white face, silver blonde streaks of 
hair shining through large clumps of mud.  It was Lou.  He was 
alive.  

"Lou? Lou Farrand?" Scully questioned, dropping to her knees next to 
the still form.

"Oh, thank God." Was Lou's only response, a long sigh escaping his 
chest as his eyes closed in reverence. "The woods play strange 
tricks to the imagination--I wasn't sure if you were truly here, or 
if I was actually on my way out.  Thank goodness it was the first 
one."

"I'm Agent Dana Scully with the FBI," Scully continued, reaching 
back to Mulder for her backpack, "and this is my partner, Agent 
Mulder.  We've been looking for you for the last two days, although 
this is a bit of a lucky discovery.  I'm a doctor, so I'm going to 
take a look at your injuries."

"I think they're both broken." Lou moaned disdainfully.  "There was 
a rupture in the femeral artery on my left leg--you can see I had to 
use my belt as a tourniquet."

"It's a good thing you did or you would never have made it this 
far."  Scully spoke as she moved the flashlight along Lou's legs, 
inspecting the damage with a sharp eye before leaning back to pull 
antiseptic and bandages from her first aid kit.  "Sure enough, Lou, 
you've got a compound fracture of the femur in your left leg, and a 
disattached patella on the right."  She finished, staring at the 
jutting white bone on his kneecap, assessing the best way to treat 
it without doing any more damage.  She turned toward her partner, 
"Mulder, he's dehydrated and needs water right away."

Mulder nodded seriously as he pulled Scully's canteen from her 
backpack, moving it toward Lou's cracked, dry lips.

"Beth?  Beth?  What about Beth?  Did she make it out safely?"  Lou 
began asking frantically, ignoring the canteen being offered to him, 
a wild spark of light suddenly igniting in his eyes.

Scully exchanged a warning glance with Mulder as her fingers 
continued to work in the warm, sticky blood, carefully dressing the 
running wounds.  Mulder immediately stiffened to attention, 
returning her glance with questions of his own.  Scully knew it was 
going to be hard to break the news, and it didn't help matters when 
the news had to be broken to a severely injured victim that had been 
lying alone in the woods for two days.

"What happened out here, Lou?  How did you and Beth get separated?" 
Mulder asked, trying to divert the young man's attention.  

They waited while Lou swallowed the water hungrily, tiny beads of 
water running away from the sides of his mouth and down his dirty 
cheeks, making light trails in the shape of a spider web as they 
washed dirt away with them.  "I just have to know--just tell me if 
she's alright--that's all I need.  Please, please, if you know 
something, I have to know too."

Scully glanced out of the corner of her eye from Lou's urgent face 
into her partner's, letting out a slow breath as she stopped working 
on Lou's legs and moving up closer to his face.

"Oh...no, no, tell me what I see in your eyes isn't true...tell me!" 
Lou cried suddenly with evident pain in his voice, grabbing tightly 
onto one of Scully's arms as if she were the only person that could 
save him from his misery. 

"Lou, while your worst injuries are on your legs, you've got to stay 
calm for your own sake." Scully spoke rationally, only slightly 
calming Lou's burst of emotion.  "Beth was found earlier this 
evening, a quarter-mile from Skyland on Limberlost Trail.  We got 
the call and headed up there, but they had already air-lifted her 
down to Charlottesville, so we arrived there not long after."  
Scully spoke in a soothing, soft tone, her eyes staring straight 
into Lou's terrified ones.

"She was very badly hurt, Lou..."

"No, no..." Lou was mumbling through Scully's words.

"...her body had endured too much, and..." Scully's voice cracked 
slightly, her eyes growing hot underneath her eyelids while her 
professional side fought to hold onto her calm demeanor.  It was 
hard not to notice the tears now cascading silently down Lou's 
cheeks and around to his ears, keeping her voice as even as 
possible, "...she slipped away."

Lou let out a loud wail, heart-rendering and solitary, its roots 
stemming from pain deep inside him, taking over his body as he 
turned away from Scully, turning away from the world.  He let out 
another long, gasping scream, a mixture of anguish and rage, calling 
out a series of garbled statements.  "I shouldn't have let her 
go...it's too late...too late...forever too late."

Scully placed a hand on Lou's shoulder, making contact with ripped, 
grubby cloth from an undershirt that had managed to stay on him, 
attempting to offer him her condolences and understanding.

Lou jerked away as if a hot coal had brushed his skin, cocooning 
himself away from them, his misery too overwhelming to register 
anything else happening around him.  

"I spoke with her, Lou."  Scully spoke quietly, gaining the young 
man's full attention.  "Her last thoughts were for you."

Lou rolled back, his face streaked, eyes puffy, the skin still ghastly 
white and pulled thin across his cheekbones.  

"While she was afraid to tell you, she loved you very much.  You 
saved her in so many ways, Lou, and filled her with a love for life, 
for living each day to its fullest.  You awakened something inside 
her that had been dead for almost twenty years.  You were her 
friend, her mentor when it came to eagles, her protector, and most 
of all her love.  The one thing she wanted you to know more than 
anything else in her whole life was that you were loved by her."

Scully could feel Mulder's eyes staring across Lou at her in the 
darkness, all three of them now very still and deep in thought.  
Usually, her radar was on target as to what her partner was 
thinking, but this time, the signal was confusing, curious, even 
somewhat awkward.  Whatever buttons had been set off inside him, she 
was sure they had never been pressed before.

"She gave us a number."  Mulder spoke, his voice heavy with sympathy 
for the torn body lying next to him.  "Which traced back to a 
company in West Virginia.  The best lead we have is that this object 
is called 'Charlie-T.'  Beth wanted us to know, Lou, she didn't 
trust us at first until she found out we were on the right side--on 
Dorothy and Gil's side.  We need your help in finding who or what 
did this to Beth, to make sure that it doesn't fall into the wrong 
hands."

Lou was silent, his upper body curled inward, his motionless legs 
sticking out below him.  It was several minutes before he let out a 
pained whimper, saying, "I loved her too--I wish I had told her.  I 
want her to know, but my chance has been given away, wasted so 
foolishly.  But one of her last wishes was to protect what is out 
here, even after it did all of this to us, so I've got to honor it--
for her.  You'll think I've gone crazy from exposure these last two 
days...hey, I probably have...but you'll never believe what we were 
up against...what we're up against now."

Mulder settled close to Lou's face while Scully pulled a syringe out 
of the first aid kit.  "Try me."

"First of all, we've got to get out here before it comes back, or 
we'll all be midnight snacks."  Lou spoke seriously.  "You must have 
had to climb something to get in here," he paused while Mulder and 
Scully shook their heads yes, "Because this is a nest."

------------------------------------------
3:42 AM
SOMEWHERE IN SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK...
...OUT OF THE NEST
------------------------------------------

"Okay, Lou, there's three trails here...and oh, how nice, a picnic 
table." Mulder called behind him, not able to filter out a twinge of 
sarcasm.

Lou snorted.  "There's a lot of picnic tables around here, Mr. 
Mulder, but if I'm guessing correctly, take the left trail."

Mulder moved ahead, the front end of a makeshift gurney in his 
hands, Scully bringing up the rear.  Before they had been able to 
move Lou from his location, Scully had quickly splinted both of 
Lou's legs while Mulder had roped together a backboard made out of 
branches.  Lou was now strapped in securely, moaning the occasional 
objection as Mulder and Scully juggled him and the backboard through 
the woods. 

Lou was attempting to get them back to Skyland, Mulder calling back 
descriptions of the surroundings while Lou gave them directions from 
memory.  The quickly dimming flashlight was tucked securely in one 
of Mulder's armpits, his hands busy hoisting Lou's heavy body across 
the rocky terrain, keeping the beam straight and forward into the 
black ahead of them.  

Lou was motionless and silent on the backboard, staring with 
inexpressive eyes into the thick black above him.  He continued to 
answer to Mulder's questions mechanically, his thoughts far away 
from the mountains, but deep-rooted inside his pain.

Mulder's ears picked up the faint rumble of rushing water as he 
curved around a downhill slope, the low bass wafting eerily through 
the darkness.

"Water." Lou spoke up, wincing as his leg jerked slightly under the 
straps, "Go to it--I'll know where we are for sure then."

"Good, I hope it's close." Scully spoke up from behind, "I don't 
know how much longer my arms are going to hold up."

"It doesn't sound too far off." Mulder answered, adding with 
concern, "You sure you don't want to rest now?"

"No, no, just keep going." 

Mulder immediately picked up Scully's hint of stoicism, her familiar 
front he had seen on far too many occasions.  He knew when he heard 
that tone in his partner's voice it clearly meant she was 
struggling, but didn't want anyone to know.  Contrary to what Scully 
thought she was projecting, he knew immediately what she was hiding.  
Instead of trying to argue, he quickened his pace, listening 
carefully to the direction the rush of water was coming from.

It was only a few minutes before the trail curved by a dark, 
swirling river bed, the loud roar coming from a steep waterfall, 
crashing and misting into the waters below.

"Oh no." Lou sighed with disdain, closing his eyes, "It's Dark 
Hollow Falls--a seventy foot waterfall located a good two miles from 
Skyland. We're farther out than I thought--the elevation gain out 
here is about 440 feet, making the difficulty level moderate--you 
two will never be able to carry me that far." 

Mulder attempted to hide his disappointment, cursing under his 
breath as he inspected the area with the flashlight.  He didn't 
realize they had traveled that far from Skyland, their hopes on 
getting Lou medical attention fading rapidly.  

"Maybe it was meant for us to get lost," Scully spoke up 
thoughtfully, weariness in her voice, "otherwise we wouldn't have 
found Lou."

Mulder gave a nod, wanting to cast his eyes across his partner's 
face, thankful for her mediating statement in their grim 
predicament.

"This trail is well-traveled though--a lot of folks come down here 
to see it, so if we can hang on until morning, I'm sure someone will 
find us." Lou spoke rationally.  "At least we're out of 
danger...well, immediate danger anyway."

"I wouldn't count on it." Mulder sighed as he carefully placed Lou 
down on a grassy area near the river, Scully gladly taking a seat 
near them, "I didn't mention this yet, but they sent out some 
hunters earlier this evening."

"What?  Poachers?" Lou asked, alarmed.  

"Not exactly--they have permission to be here--they took one look at 
Beth and called them in.  Gil got upset and went in after them, and 
now Dorothy and George are out here looking for him."

"Oh, man, what a huge mess!"  Lou exclaimed, his face twisting in 
pain.  "They're defenseless to what's out here--they shouldn't be in 
here."

"You've got to tell us what happened, Lou." Scully spoke as calmly 
as she could, "We've got to help them in any way we can."

Lou nodded.  "I know, I know...it's just...hard."

"We understand," Mulder spoke with empathy, "Just take your time."

Lou let out a long sigh, a multitude of images flashing through his 
mind, tears brimming in his eyelids.  He looked between Mulder and 
Scully, then out toward the river, finally speaking.  "It all happened
so 
fast.  Beth and I were out in the woods around ten o'clock, we were 
heading far down North Ridge because...we...ah..."

"Were looking for alien activity?" Mulder supplied, receiving a 
shocked stare from Lou.  "It's okay, that's what we investigate, 
among other things."  He could feel Scully's mocking stare directed 
toward him as Lou continued.

"Well, yeah, I'm afraid that's what we were doing."  He made a 
nervous glance between the two agents before continuing.  "Then we 
heard something coming toward us through the woods.  We had good 
visibility that night--full moon--but we were stuck right on the edge 
of the ridge, there was no place to hide.  I remember I grabbed 
Beth's hand and we were running...the wind had picked up suddenly 
when I glanced over my shoulder...I-I couldn't believe my eyes.  I 
had never felt to utterly terrified as I did right then."

Scully nodded encouragingly as Lou paused, a wild light suddenly 
flickering in his eyes.

"It was flying, and so unbelievably huge, and staring right at us 
with its hideous face.  It was some sort of...of...bird..."

Mulder's eyes darted over to Scully's skeptical face before 
returning to Lou's.

"...it was prehistoric."

Mulder could see the shock on Scully's face, her jaw frozen in place 
as Lou's words heated up as he talked faster, reliving the night in 
his mind.

"I swear it's the truth--it's so clear I could never forget it.  It 
was precise, relentless, coming at us with its feet extended like we 
were two rats waiting to be eaten.  It was all so fast...it 
just...grabbed us with its claws, and we were in the air...Beth was 
screaming but I couldn't see her--the creature had grabbed my legs, 
I was swinging upside down, its grip so tight I was in agony, then I 
don't remember anything else."

Mulder's mouth had run suddenly dry, only able to imagine what Beth 
and Lou head endured.  It was terrifying just to think about it.

"Beth was trying to wake me up..." Lou went on, his voice cracking 
as he looked back into the black sky, "She was so hurt...but I 
couldn't move my legs...I was so helpless...I couldn't help her."
Lou let out a solitary sob before continuing, "It was nearby--she 
had waited hours for it to leave, but it had finally gone to sleep.  
It was so huge, like a mountain against the sky, its wingspan had to 
be more than 30 feet across.  We were in a huge nest it had built, 
it instinctually was preparing to for offspring, and there we were--
its stash of food, just waiting to die."

Lou paused once more, his face contorting with pain, forcing himself 
to continue.  "Beth found the number--she said it was on a metal 
band around the leg that had grabbed her.  She never lost 
consciousness...she experienced it all...oh, why couldn't it have 
been me?!"

Scully reached toward Lou, "It's okay, take a break if you need to."

Lou shook his head stubbornly, "No, I've got to tell her story...our 
story.  She was so brave--so very brave.  She was extremely shy, and 
you would think something like this would just...just...but she 
didn't.  There was no way she could lift me, but she kept insisting 
that she would go try to get help, even though I told her adamantly 
not to go.  She said she knew her way around the woods well enough--
it had been something that I had taught her over the last four 
years.  She was hurting so much, I wasn't blind, but she kept 
putting on a brave face and telling me that she would be alright.  I 
knew she was lying to me, but I couldn't move...I couldn't stop her 
from leaving...leaving me for good."

Beth's actions suddenly reminded Mulder of his own partner.  He knew 
if they were in that situation, Scully would have been done the exact 
same thing.  It was an unsettling thought, especially the image of 
Scully leaving him behind, driven by her heart to save them both 
instead of allowing them both to die.

"I know what the tag is." Lou continued, angrily wiping at his eyes 
with the back of his hand.  "I've seen it before--when I was working 
with the eagle research team we visited a science facility just 
outside of Washington.  Their research involved cloning eagles--the 
same technique used to created Dolly the sheep.  Except these 
scientists were doing this to help increase the population of bald 
eagles--an alternative method to a not-so-productive method of 
breeding in captivity.  This way the eagles would never go extinct, 
which, is of course, the main concern of all conservationists, 
including myself.  Excellent project.  They had about ten cloned 
eagles, and each of them had a separate identification band on their 
legs.  The numbers are according to birth-"A" being for the first, 
which would be "Alpha", "B" for "Bravo", and..."C" for "Charlie" and 
so on.  The letter at the end represented which egg cell they were 
duplicated from...and it's uncanny that this creature's band is just 
like theirs--that's where it doesn't make sense."

"So you're saying this prehistoric dinosaur was created from 
cloning?" Scully asked incredulously, "There are obviously no living 
dinosaur cells to use.  If what you're saying is true, that would 
mean this creature was formed by cloning dead cells."   She turned 
to Mulder.  "That's scientifically impossible--there must be some 
mistake."

"Yeah, but it's here, Scully."  Mulder spoke up.  "Dinosaurs haven't 
walked the planet in billions of years and one suddenly pops up out 
of nowhere...a creature that *somebody* knows about because that 
band didn't get there on it's own."

"Well, dinosaurs of this size anyway."  Lou interjected.  "Few 
creatures could seem more different than birds and dinosaurs, 
however, as far back as the 1860s, scientists began to notice many 
similarities in the skeletons of birds and even the largest of 
dinosaurs.  The debate between paleontologists has been going on for 
decades--it centers of the claim that birds did not merely evolve 
from dinosaurs, they *are* dinosaurs."

"I've heard that theory before."  Scully spoke up quickly, "I roomed 
with a paleontology major for a year during college before she 
transferred to a college down in New Mexico.  I remember she said 
that the birds and dinosaurs most likely evolved separately from a 
common ancestor, descendants of previously-flying protobirds, 
however no such forms have yet to be discovered."

"Until now?"  Mulder asked.  "You're saying this is what Strughold 
Mining Company is up to?"

"You said it yourself, Mulder, why would they suddenly need all of 
that land?  And just as Lou is saying, it's highly likely there's an 
"A" and "B" of this creature as well."

"Is still doesn't explain how this creature got here."  Mulder 
continued, "You're saying they took DNA from a little robin and 
created this?"

"No, no, not at all." Lou spoke up, "I think Agent Scully may be 
right.  Birds are thought to be coelurosaurs, members of the same 
group as the Velociraptor and Tyrannosaurus.  This creature I saw 
fits the description:  it had a long, narrow skull with scissor-like 
jaws, whereas the T. rex had nutcracker jaws, so it probably attacks 
and dismembers its prey with a surgical precision, in which I truly 
thought I was going to get and up close and personal look. 
Otherwise, there are a lot of similar traits between them.  If 
somehow they found a perfect, undamaged DNA, maybe they did find a 
way to clone it--but this did not come from anything living today."

"Like the perfectly preserved Wooly Mammoth they found frozen in the 
ice at the Polar Cap?  Completely intact down to its hair after 
25,000 years--its DNA frozen in time, unscathed?"  Scully 
questioned.

"Exactly."  Lou agreed.  "I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm certainly 
not a scientist, but I'm very knowledgeable on bird history and what 
goes on in that community.  While a lot of folks do share their 
discoveries with the media and museums, there are a lot of 
scientists who keep new discoveries hidden from the public, working 
on experiments, racing against one another to see who will make the 
breakthrough first.  I've had two days to think of all the how's and 
why's, and this is my best guess.  The "T" at the end of the 
identification could very well mean the Tyrannosaurus line, that 
maybe a specimen, still frozen in ice at one of the caps, was found 
and taken for experimentation.  Maybe they did find a way."

The three of them were silent, trying their best to swallow the 
information.  Scully finally broke the silence.

"Okay, for argument's sake, lets say these scientists at Strughold 
Mining Company are secretly perfecting the cloning of dead cells--
for what purpose?  Why are they going to all of this trouble?"

The wheels were turning inside Mulder's head, Scully's question 
sparking facts and theories to mesh together.  "Oh damn, Scully, I 
think I've got it."

Scully lifted an inquisitive eyebrow toward her partner.

"Remember when we were there years ago--when we found the tunnels of 
records of every person who had ever had a smallpox vaccination?"

Lou's eyes grew wide at Mulder's statement.

"I can't forget." Scully answered quickly.

"Well each one had a tissue sample as well."

Scully's eyes suddenly lit up as she caught on to what Mulder was 
about to tell her.  "Oh my, Mulder, do you think?"

"What else could it be?" Mulder continued. "Now the aliens know 
about the vaccine and they know about the creation of a perfect 
human-hybrid.  They know their deal with the syndicate has been 
betrayed, and they will stop at nothing to colonize the planet."

"Holy cow--what in the world are you talking about?" Lou asked in a 
terrified voice, trying to lift his head higher to see Mulder's 
face.

"So maybe they are trying to save the scientists--that's one of the 
reasons you were taken.  The scientists, with this technology, can 
literally bring back the entire human race--the entire generation 
that has had the smallpox vaccine--millions of people after we have 
won the colonization.  They can bring back our animals, us, 
literally anything that was alive."

"That's what the FBI believes?" Lou was rambling on, "You can't be 
serious!"

"Good God, Mulder."  Scully breathed, "Then they've done it--this 
dinosaur is living proof."

"We can't let these men hunt it down and kill it."  Mulder spoke 
vehemently.  "We've got to save it."

"And how do you propose we save a three-ton dinosaur that's above us 
on the food chain, Mulder?"

"We'll worry about the details later, Scully."

-----------------------------
4:19 AM - SUNDAY
DARK HOLLOW FALLS
SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK
-----------------------------

"How's he doing?"

Scully slowly made her way to the water's edge, observing her 
partner shedding his soiled coat, smelling the damp earth emanating 
from her chest and shoulders from her own soiled clothes.  "He's in 
a lot of pain, so I gave him another dose of morphine.  It only took 
him a few minutes to fall asleep, but it's better that he rests 
anyway.  His injuries are serious, but it looks like he's going to 
make it."

Mulder nodded, brushing at his coat mirthlessly.  "Brown's Dry 
Cleaners are gonna' love this."

Scully snorted, "I'm sure you've kept them in business these last 
six years anyway."

Mulder smiled in the shadows as he switched off the flashlight, 
immediately enveloping them in the black veil of night.

"Why did you do that?" Scully's voice traveled through the moist 
air.

"We've got two hours until daybreak--I'm thinking we'd better save 
the battery in case we really do..."

"Run into a dinosaur?"

"Yeah, that pretty much covers it."

Silence hung between them for a moment, a barely perceptible drizzle 
misting from the clouds above, the roar of cascading water hissing 
next to them.  Finally, a chuckle broke the silence.  It was the 
soft throaty notes of Scully's voice, dancing through the black 
night lighter than air, music to the dead forest around them.

"I'm glad you find me so amusing." Mulder retorted in a teasing 
tone.

"No, no, it's not that." Scully spoke thoughtfully, listening to the 
rustle of her partner's clothes, a smile playing on her lips.  "It's 
the irony of it all, Mulder.  This case lands at our doorstep, we 
have to go undercover as bird-lovers of all things, listening about 
cardinals and chickadees, meeting these people who have birds on the 
brain..."

"In the case of my cabin buddies, they are bird brains."

"...and what seems like a routine case of finding two missing hikers 
turns into Jurassic Park gone wrong."

"Oh, Scully, and don't forget about Swamp Thing." Mulder 
interjected, his mud-covered coat slapping down against the ground.

"So why is it that no matter where we go, something absolutely 
bizarre is always waiting for us.  It's uncanny, Mulder."

"Well I'm just glad it isn't inspecting manure."

Scully sighed, leaning her hands back against the cool, wet earth, 
blades of grass crushing into the dirt under the heavy weight.  
"Seriously, Mulder, I think..."

A loud splash reverberated from the river, beads of water plopping 
and smacking against the waters.

"Mulder?" Scully called, her shoulders squaring as she sat taller, 
"Mulder!"

Another trickle of water, out of sync with the river, reached her 
ears as her partner's voice called from a farther distance, "What?  
I'm taking advantage of nature's shower, Scully, and you know, you 
should really try this--the water's warm--must be coming from a warm 
spring somewhere."

"We should really stay close together." Scully went on in a 
professional tone, although her mind was already savoring the idea 
of getting rid of the clumps of mud clinging to her hair and skin.

"Have it your way." Mulder taunted, "You must be used to it from 
that lovely mask you decided to share with me during our short-lived 
moments of marital bliss."  He deliberately egged her on as the 
sound of his body slicing underneath the water echoed against the 
rocks.

Scully sighed with irritation, her fingers crawling back to the 
sleeping form behind her, finding a strong pulse beating in Lou's 
neck.  Satisfied, she scooted toward the river, removing her shoe as 
a stream of gooey mud slid down the back of her hand.  Scully tested 
her foot in the water, the warmth instantly numbing her muscles, her 
exhausted ligaments desperately yearning for more.  She could hear 
her partner resurface, the sounds of him attempting to scrub his 
hair clean followed.  She thought about her own hair, feeling the 
dry, caked mud covering her arms like a protective shell.  

"Just for a minute." Scully mumbled to herself, quickly standing and 
discarding her coat, feeling ten pounds lighter already.  She paused 
as she reached for her shirt, wondering how much her partner had 
discarded.  She looked down, unable to see even and inch from her 
nose, feeling the saturated cloth clinging tightly around her.  Her 
hand slid across the slimy residue, the brown liquid squeezing 
between her fingers.  The idea that she didn't want to give a wrong 
impression entered her mind, and almost as quickly she reprimanded 
herself.  She acknowledged that she had been keeping the events 
after the dance tucked away in the back of her mind, that solving 
the case and their safety had to be the only thing she thought about 
to keep her judgment and actions clear.  Yet it had been gnawing on 
her, and again, she was confused at what her relationship was with 
Mulder--was it just partners, friends, or did both of them have a 
consensus agreement that they should move farther?  What if this 
dinosaur swooped down and carried Mulder away like Lou and Beth, she 
asked herself, wouldn't she feel exactly the way Lou or Beth did?  
That she would give anything in the world if she just tell him one 
thing, to tell him how she truly felt inside?  Would she want to be 
in agony the rest of her years on earth just because she let fear 
win inside her?  She shook her head angrily, swinging the shirt over 
her head, throwing her pants to the side.  "Just for a minute." She 
repeated, wading into the warm ribbon of water, carefully stepping 
across smooth-topped rocks.

"Decided to join in for a little water polo?"  Mulder called from 
the other side of the river, hearing the splash of his partner.

"Long enough to get this mud off of me." Scully replied, busy 
scraping the mud off her arms with her fingernails, feeling the 
strange, intimate swirls in places no one had touched in a long 
time.  "If at all possible, I don't want to be having a face-off 
with Charlie-T in here."

"Well, one advantage to his size is that he's not very quiet--we'd 
hear him coming." 

"Not as easily with this waterfall though." Scully added 
absentmindedly, her back arching backward as she dipped her hair 
into the waters, scrubbing roughly with her fingers.  She could hear 
Mulder disappear once more underwater while her muscles screamed at 
her with pain, letting her know they had been working hard for the 
last 24 hours straight.  The swirling warm water acted as a balm 
against her skin, assisting to ease the lingering soreness.  Scully 
couldn't wait for morning to arrive, although she knew Charlie-T was 
still out there with the hunters, Gil, Dorothy, and the many hikers 
who would be making their way down the trails at first light.  They 
wouldn't be able to stop until they found him, although Mulder had 
yet to inform her as to what exactly they would do.  She did know 
that their guns would be useless against a creature that size, and 
that was all they had.  Lou had mentioned using tranquilizer to calm 
it enough to be able to transport it out the park, and so far, that 
was the best plan, except, of course, they didn't have any.  And 
where would it go then?

"Boo!"

Scully let out a scream, jumping back in a wild panic as Mulder let 
out a laugh, now only a foot in front of her.

"Mulder!" Scully reprimanded, "That wasn't funny!"

"Early morning tension breaker." He quipped playfully, his hands 
breaking the surface of the water as he moved them in wide circles.
"This water will put you right to sleep if you're not careful."

"I'll take my chances." Scully fumed, her heart drumming in her 
chest.

"Okay, fine, I see I'm not appreciated here." Mulder spoke, the 
amusement evident in his voice.  He moved forward, colliding right 
into Scully.

Scully wasn't expecting the hard bump from her partner, feeling the 
brush of wet cloth and silky smooth skin against her stomach and 
chest, her toes grappling along the rocky bottom of the river to 
stay upright.

"Oh...ah, sorry, Scully.  When you stand still I can't hear where 
you are." Mulder made a quick excuse, dodging to the side away from 
the close contact of his partner.  

"You're wearing your clothes?" 

"And you aren't?"  

Scully felt the impulse to make a run for the river bank, her eyes 
growing wide at Mulder's last question, suddenly very conscious of 
her underwear.  "No, there's some."

Mulder let out a chuckle.  "Well don't mind me while you bond with 
nature, Scully."

Scully could feel a frown form at the corners of her mouth.  

Mulder picked up on Scully's awkward silence, quickly adding, "I 
just wanted the mud off my shirt too.  See..." the water rippled and 
gurgled, the wet slap of his shirt against the rocks reaching her 
ears, "...now we're even.  It's four something in the morning, 
Scully, and we're stuck in the middle of the woods with a 
dinosaur--who cares."

Scully could feel a smile trying to break free.

"And see, you can rest easy that it's all by the book.  While 
there's a rule about agents consorting in the same hotel room, I 
certainly don't remember anything about agents consorting in the 
same river."

Scully smiled in the darkness, holding back a round a laughter with 
the last bit of strength she could muster.

"Oh, now, don't laugh, Scully.  That would violate rule 9, section 
3:  No agent is allowed to laugh while on the job."

"That's not a rule, Mulder." Scully couldn't help but chuckle, her 
smile widening in the dark night.  

Mulder joined in the laughter.  "No way, Scully, we've spent years 
perfecting that one--it has to be in there."

Scully listened to the deep, beautiful notes of her partner's 
infectious laugh, her own softer, higher voice intermingling with 
his.  He was actually laughing out loud.  She loved that laugh.  She 
loved him.  The next thing she knew, Mulder had suddenly turned, 
their faces close.  His hand was gentle and strong as it made 
contact with her neck directly under her earlobe.  Before she even 
had time to halt her laughter to ask what he was doing, his lips had 
descended onto hers, the touch asking, warm, soft, moist. 

She wanted to move, but her body was frozen--a deep freeze born from 
an overwhelmed sense of surprise and shock, of senses 
malfunctioning, of brainpower completely utilized.  The touch was 
feather-light, never demanding, but a brush of askance and respect, 
of feelings waiting to escape like electromagnetically charged 
particles of light hiding just beneath the surface of her partner's 
lips.  She picked up on Mulder's uncertainty, no doubt wondering if 
she would push him away and deck him for this brazen move.  Of 
course, she had no such intention--it was a move she had been 
waiting for...hoping for.

Mulder only lingered for a few seconds, his lips silently retracting 
from hers as he whispered in a breathless voice, "Taking care of 
some unfinished business." 

The entire moment had been completely unexpected.  Mulder was known 
for diving headfirst into a case, for beating the odds and taking 
risks, and yet, never in a million years did she truly believe he 
would ever finally reach over and kiss her, especially after six 
years of dancing around the issue.  

Scully's silence obviously made Mulder even more self-conscious.

"Oh...ah, Scully, it's late...I'm sorry." Mulder fumbled, his smile 
fading as he made a terrified, awkward retreat.

"Mulder?" Scully finally managed in a voice lowered to a sibylline 
whisper, feeling the warm tingle alive at her lips, running through 
her entire body.  As Mulder paused in the waters, she added, "It's 
about time" then moved toward him, her heart pounding wildly.

Her outstretched hands made contact with Mulder's chest, her 
fingertips gliding through the water along the silky smooth skin.  
The river was turning, curving, spinning around them as she reached 
for his hands, entwining their fingers in a delicate tangle of 
tenderness.  

"Mulder, there's something I need to tell you...that I should have 
told you a long time ago." Scully spoke in a whisper so tiny Mulder 
had to lean closer.  "I don't want us to end up like Beth and Lou, 
Mulder.  Maybe it's selfish in it's own right, but that's how we 
learn--from mistakes that can't be undone.  That whole concept alone 
is what the past is based on, and I know now we have to embrace the 
future and make what we want to happen, not just wish for it."

Mulder nodded, his hands responding to his partner's tightening 
grip, hearing the wind sizzling through the treetops behind him.

"I've been not only holding back my silence from you, but from 
myself.  I have denied myself the only thing that is true to me, 
which is my wants, my desires, and my love.  I've been a coward, 
Mulder, fear standing in my way because I allow it to be there.  
Loneliness was my choice, Mulder, because it was the easy choice, a 
protective way to live through life.  I thought I was doing myself a 
favor, making life uncomplicated, hiding from heartbreak, keeping it 
at arm's length.  But it's impossible to hide the truth, to not feel 
the misery, the sadness that grows forever inside because of this 
mistake, this choice of cowardice.  The only way to win, to break 
free from its grip, is to expel the growing monster inside, to make 
it clean once again.  I don't want to live with these feelings the 
rest of my life, death being the only thing to rescue me from this 
pain.  And I don't want death to play a cruel joke either, just as 
in the case of poor Beth and Lou, so I won't let it, Mulder.  I 
can't.  I won't."

Mulder was unable to swallow the dry lump in his throat as he 
managed to say, "Scully, I'm just as much of a coward, if not more."

"No, Mulder." Scully breathed, staring up into the darkness towards 
her partner's face, not needing her eyes in any way to have a clear 
picture of his face in her mind.  "My care, my respect, my love for 
you surpasses our partnership and our friendship--it's a feeling 
that could have jeopardized our work years ago, but I now feel it's 
more important to know, to be shed out into the open.  I remember 
what almost happened in your hallway..."

Mulder's body instantly stiffened with surprise.

"...and I wanted it to happen, more than anything.  But time allowed 
me an easy escape route, and before long a year had passed and it 
had been buried deep inside, just like the rest."

Mulder moved his hands from his partner's, lavishing themselves 
slowly along Scully's ribs and up her back, resting comfortably 
around her.  "I wanted it to happen too, Scully, more than I could 
ever say with words.  I was living on the chance that maybe you 
truly didn't remember, otherwise it would have been unbearable."

Hot tears jolted into Scully's eyelids at Mulder's last words, 
hearing the pain wafting through his voice as he spoke.  She 
realized how much pain her partner had been enduring alongside her.  
What a waste, she thought, wasted time they could never get back, 
wasted because of fear's ugly rearing head between them.

"I'm so sorry, Mulder." Scully let out a sob, Mulder's encircled 
hands drawing her body up against him in a heartfelt embrace.  Their 
arms, the curves of their bodies synchronizing together.

"There's nothing to be sorry for, Scully.  We're both guilty on the 
same counts, and you should be proud, Scully, proud.  You spoke your 
mind, your heart, you tossed fear right out the window and right 
into Charlie-T's dinner plate."

Scully allowed a smile to cross her lips, her blurry eyes moving 
toward the source of Mulder's words while her head stayed pressed in 
the crook of her partner's warm, safe neck.  "You spoke your mind 
too, Mulder, just not in so many words."

A deep chuckle vibrated in Mulder's throat.  "I guess I did, didn't 
I?  It was a now or never moment.  How many chances am I going to 
get when Agent Scully is swimming in a river in her underwear?"

Scully's head bounced away from Mulder's chest while her smile 
widened.  She reached up with one hand, finding the moisture of her 
partner's lips, replacing her fingertips with her own lips.  The 
meeting of their lips was not hungry or searching, but generous and 
giving, passing on the fullness of their feelings, their sweetness 
to each other.  The doors to their hearts were swinging wide, the 
universe rushing in.

They both simultaneously withdrew, Scully feeling stars shooting 
beneath her eyelids, the years of a burdening weight being lifted 
from her shoulders. 

"You still have mud in you hair." Mulder whispered, "Let me help."

Scully nodded as Mulder glided through the water silently, the 
warmth of his large frame protecting, hovering, closing in behind 
her.  His large palms circled across her forehead and back through 
her hair, caressing and understanding.  She closed her eyes as she 
leaned her scalp behind her, feeling the warm trickle of water 
cascading between locks of hair, dancing lightly around Mulder's 
swirling fingers.  

She could feel him move closer, the sweet, tickling hairs on his 
chest rubbing against the smoothness of her back.  The soft skin of 
his cheek, mixed with the light scratch of a 5 o'clock shadow, 
slipped along the side of her neck, his hot breath scorching her 
skin, setting her on fire.  His hands smoothed down her throat and 
shoulders, finally slipping down to each side of her waist, resting 
contentedly while the warmness of his slick lips and tongue tasted 
her the salty dampness of her neck, savoring each touch.

She could feel the pounding of his heart, as well as her own, 
beating to the rhythm of the waters.  Mulder had moved upwards, his 
tongue skittering across her ears, her eyes, her lips.  She easily 
whirled around into his embrace, their warmth radiating as though 
they were replacing the missing sun.  She felt a patient, tender 
exploring as he pressed against her, searching her mouth, holding 
her close.  

Her hands flamed across his back, feeling the spikes of wet hair at 
the nape of his neck, moving back across his back, the muscles 
quivering just under his skin, her fingers feeling the raw power 
beneath them.  She was very conscious of Mulder's fingers creeping 
upwards along her bare sides, the touch slick and soft underneath 
the water.  Her chest heaved with quick breaths, her lips crushing 
into Mulder's mouth as he returned her intensity.  Love burst like a 
river inside, slashing, flowing, blasting until they became a part 
of the same roll of thunder cascading from the waterfall. 

He managed to move away from her lips on a trek down her neck and 
shoulders, his hands hesitating as they collided with saturated, 
thin cloth.  "Wait, Scully."

Scully curled her arm behind Mulder's head, pulling his check 
against hers.  "I know, Mulder.  It's still a hard road ahead, but 
at least we'll be living it and not simply existing our way 
through."

Mulder grinned broadly, catching his breath.  "Now it really does 
feel like we have all the time in the world."

Scully grinned, latching firmly onto Mulder's hand and leading him 
toward the riverbank.  "Well, for now, lets hope daybreak speeds 
up."

"See, good things do come out of nice trips to the forest." Mulder 
added, leaning forward to leave one last kiss across Scully's lips, 
his arms around her forever.

The wind howled through the chilly, cruel night, the rustling trees 
applauding in a standing ovation.  

--------------------------
6:27 AM - SUNDAY
DARK HOLLOW FALLS
SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK
--------------------------

The black sky had begun to turn a pearly light gray, the long-
awaited golden light of dawn minutes from breaking above the horizon 
and into the sky.  A mist hovered in the low parts of the woods, a 
ghostly veil blanketing the silent, damp earth.  The relentless 
clouds had finally stopped, their wrung-out remains dotting the sky 
with tiny white wisps.  

Mulder tiredly glanced to the two sleeping forms near him.  The 
first sleeping form had her ear resting peacefully against his heart 
while her smooth legs tangled alongside his sandy, salty, hairy 
ones.  Her last words had been that she wouldn't fall asleep, and a 
few minutes later her eyes had closed and she had slipped away into 
the unconscious world. 

Only an arm's length away, Lou continued to sleep, resting his 
battered, bleeding body, his face peaceful in the gray light.  He 
had only woken up once, a little over an hour ago, when Scully had 
administered another dose of morphine. Within a minute, he had 
fallen back to sleep.

Mulder could feel his eyelids drooping heavily, the image of 
Charlie-T pouncing on them like sitting ducks being the only thing 
keeping him awake.  The warmth from his partner and the silence of 
the Shenandoah morning were two difficult adversaries working 
against him.  He was thankful that light was returning across the 
mountain--they had endured a very long, dark night.

He watched a frog leap along the bank, searching for breakfast with 
its large, yellow eyes.  As it jumped down into the river, it 
reminded Mulder of what had happened between him and his partner 
when they had been in the waters.  In the early morning, his brain 
now hazy with tiredness, it felt like a dream, one of the best he 
ever had, of course.  The sleeping, soft body next to him also told 
him that it wasn't a dream, that sharing the truth with each other 
had been real, had started something beautiful.  He couldn't 
classify where they stood, although he knew they still had a long 
journey to continue together.  The road ahead was still not written, 
undefined, and while he wouldn't exactly consider his partner "his 
Scully" because she was still headstrong, stoic, and her own person, 
he did have something extremely valuable that made him the richest 
man in the world.  He had her trust, her companionship, her heart.

The shot of a rifle pounded through the forest silence, the pop 
slicing crisply through air as Mulder lunged downward across Scully, 
the shot very close to where they were.

"Mul...what is..." Scully was sleepily mumbling, trying to break 
free from Mulder's protective arm.  

Two more shots fired, one right after the other, two gunmen 
obviously engaging in the firing.  The loud rings reverberated 
across the mountains, the echoes slowly disappearing into the vast 
growth of trees.

"It must be the hunters." Scully groggily added, Mulder allowing her 
to sit up once the firing ceased.  "They're close, Mulder, we can 
catch them to radio for help for Lou.  It's his best chance."

Mulder nodded.  "We risk getting caught in the line of fire 
ourselves."

"Do you think they already know what they're looking for?"

"Well, if they were sent out from Strughold Mining Company, I'm sure 
they do."  Mulder replied grimly, standing to hastily grab his coat, 
now hardened with mud.  Scully did the same.

"It's like wearing a brick wall." Scully commented disdainfully, 
pulling her arms through the sleeves, her eyes red and bloodshot 
from her short sleep, her auburn hair tangled and disheveled.

"I guess it's better than nothing.  It's chilly out this morning." 
Mulder added, taking hold of Scully's hiking pack before she could 
reach it, securing it on his back.

Scully stopped to stare into his dark brown eyes, a hand swinging 
upward to rest on his shoulder.  "Just promise to be careful out 
there.  That goes for the both of us."

"We're always careful, Scully." Mulder teased with a glint flashing 
across his irises. "We've made it this far, haven't we?"

Scully didn't comment as she worked on holding back a smile.

Mulder grinned inwardly, thinking that sometimes that reaction was 
even better than an outright laugh.  It took her so much energy to 
make that face, and he knew he loved it.

More shots rang out into the forest, Mulder and Scully on each end 
of the gurney, Lou letting out incoherent groans as he bounced on 
the backboard as they jogged down the trail.  The gray sky had 
turned salmon, yellow and pink tendrils of light bursting into the 
sky as the mountains welcomed the sun, animal calls coming to life 
somewhere hidden deep in the surrounding fog.  The grays and blacks 
were banished from the sky, earth's shadow being swept away by the 
overwhelming power of the sun.

"What in the world are they shooting at?" Scully grimaced, looking 
ahead toward Mulder's broad, swaying shoulders, his tendons cording 
in his arms with every quick motion.  

"Lets hope it's the air." Came Mulder's sarcastic reply, sweat 
already beading on his brow from the strenuous run to find the 
hunters.  The heavy weight of Lou had already begun burning in his 
biceps, his determination pushing him forward to complete the task 
at hand.

His nostrils picked up a sweet, pulpy smell of an apple orchard, 
spotting splashes of bright red in the trees and on the ground.  He 
heard Lou mumble behind him, words crumbling from his mouth in dry, 
barren chunks.  "Limberlost...we're there."

"Lou says we're on Limberlost." Scully called from the rear.  "I 
remember reading something about an apple orchard being near the end 
of it."

"That's good to know." Mulder sighed, practically ecstatic knowing 
they were at least heading in the right direction.  He had to slow 
for a steep slope, hearing Scully straining behind him as they 
carried Lou upwards, his calves grinding into the ground for a firm 
hold to prevent him tumbling backwards.  

As Mulder's eyes reached the top of the slope, his feet stopped 
suddenly, frozen against the ground.

"What is it, Mulder?"  Scully called from below.

"We've found them, alright, Scully." Came Mulder's chilly response, 
"And they're not alone."

Scully gave a serious nod, climbing to the top of the incline, 
holding firmly onto Lou's backboard.

Mulder inspected the timber line surrounding a flat, grassy field, 
assessing that their whereabouts were safely hidden as long as they 
stayed near the line.  Out in the field the group of hunters were 
positioned into an array, some crouching amongst tall stalks of 
grass, some standing farther back.  All of their rifles were 
positioned and aimed in front of them, their barrels staring down a 
shady section of the woods, a high cliff of rock rising above it.  
Behind the hunters stood a lone figure, as still and hard as the 
mountain behind him, quiet, thoughtful, sharp eyes overseeing the 
work of the hunters, a thick swirl of gray smoke spiraling into the 
air from his cigarette.

"The Smoking Man?!" Scully hissed, keeping low behind a leafy bush.  
"What's he doing out here?"

"I have a feeling he's making sure Strughold's job gets done 
right...one way or the other."  Mulder muttered through gritted 
teeth.  "I know what's trapped in those trees over there, Scully, 
and he's not going to get away with it."

"Wait a minute, Mulder.  I don't like that sound in your voice--what 
are you planning to do?"  Scully asked with concern, catching the 
familiar wild gleam in her partner's eyes.

"I'm going to save Charlie-T." Came the response, Mulder's hand 
reaching under to coat to touch the butt of his weapon, testing the 
straps on his backpack.

"Oh no you don't." Scully resisted in vain, Mulder hardly listening.  
"This is what gets us into trouble every time.  You'd better 
start..."

"Somebody has to keep Lou safe--I'll be back." Mulder added, moving 
silently along the brush.  "Cover me."

Scully bit her lower lip as she drew her gun, letting out a long 
sigh as her partner disappeared into the brush.

Mulder moved in stealth mode, edging the shadowed tree line, 
grateful for the wet leaves underneath his feet which emitted no 
sound as he moved.  He kept checking the gray silhouette in the 
field, smoke lazily ascending into the sky, the figure simply 
standing, watching, unmoving.  He strained to catch a glimpse at 
what the hunters were aiming toward, but his instinct already told 
him what it was--he knew.  Charlie-T was genetic proof that dead 
cell cloning was possible, of a technology that played God, that 
created or destroyed any form of life, whether animal or human, at 
the whim of a flawed human judgment.

Suddenly as Mulder made a move to the next tree, he was assaulted 
from behind, two pairs of hands restraining him and throwing him to 
the ground.  His weapon was quickly unholstered along with his pack, 
the men pushing him back to his feet and forward into the clearing, 
each keeping an arm pinned snugly behind his back.

"We found him in the trees." The first man called as he pushed 
Mulder forward against his will, heading straight toward CSM.  

"Leave him." Came the command as the red glow on his cigarette 
flickered, being tossed to the ground next to him, taking his time 
to flatten the 
butt with the bottom of his shoe.  He casually reached into his 
coat, pulling out a long, unlit Morley, sucking deeply as he 
produced a orange-red flame from his lighter, gray smoke billowing 
from the sides of his mouth as well as his nostrils.  The two men 
nodded reluctantly as they left Mulder to move back into position.

"Why, Agent Mulder, this certainly is a surprise.  Enjoying your 
trip out to one of the government's finest parks?"

"Look, you black-lunged bastard, cut the crap." Mulder angrily 
spoke, jamming his livid face only inches away from the older man's. 
"You're not going to get away with this--I'm going to see to it that 
you don't!" 

CSM gave a treacherous, conciliatory smile, exhaling a long trail of 
smoke while observing Mulder closely, his eyes a colder blue than 
the Arctic Ocean.  He paused for several minutes as he dragged a few 
more times on his cigarette, watching Mulder's anger surge and 
withdraw like waves crashing against the shore.  "Frankly, I'd 
advise you not to complicate matters."

"It's too late for that." Mulder continued, venom evident in his 
voice.  "Call off your firing squad--leave it alone!  Just because 
it was created by you doesn't mean it has to die."

CSM blew a smoke ring into the early morning sky, calmly watching it 
dissolve from sight.  He looked back at Mulder, the hard creases 
around his jowls expressionless as he continued in his neutral tone, 
"On the contrary, Agent Mulder.  This female is a risk to the 
project.  This is the second time she has escaped, and if she falls 
into the wrong hands, we're defenseless against our own mass 
extinction.  You're jeopardizing the human race, Agent Mulder, how 
would you like that blame sitting on your shoulders?"

Mulder's jaw tightened, turning to look across the field before 
whipping back around to answer.  "Why create three of them?"

CSM's lips curled into an amused grimace.  "Who says there are only 
three?"  He allowed Mulder to glare at him a moment longer before 
continuing. "Contrary to what you may believe, Charlie-T is simply a 
perfection of the technique.  It began with a 6-month-old thylacine 
pup that has been preserved in alcohol since 1866.  Three years ago 
when Dolly the sheep made a breakthrough in science, our scientists 
were already secretly ahead of the game.  Bringing the dead back to 
life was a matter of when, not if."

CSM paused while he inhaled deeply, glancing over to the hunters.  
He began talking again, smoke rolling on his breath simultaneously. 
"It was a delicate process, small samples of heart, liver, muscle 
and bone marrow tissue being extracted from the preserved pup, a 
team of evolutionary biologists working to unravel the tiger's 
genetic code, assessing and repairing its DNA.  Once the mystery was 
unlocked, we once again have a powerful tool against colonization.  
The T-line was simply a creation from a well preserved specimen 
brought in from an excavation, among others."
  
"You've brought this creature into our time.  What gives you and 
your scientists the right to give it life, to decide when it dies?"  
Mulder countered, his hazel eyes dark with disgust.


"Sacrifice, Agent Mulder."  He replied casually, taking another long 
drag of his cigarette, holding the butt between his index and thumb 
while contemplating the smoke as it spiraled into the air, "You 
speak before you understand--eager to jump in and save the world, 
but with a blindfold over your eyes.  Your father used to do the 
same thing--yyou think that's the best way to go about conquering 
your enemies?  You find the tip of the iceberg and think it's the 
whole mountain."

Mulder opened his mouth to protest as CSM cut in to continue.

"This is Charlie-T's second escape.  She got the taste of freedom 
the first time, wanted nothing else afterwards, becoming smarter 
this second time.  It took us four days to find her this time, a 
serious risk, a risk we cannot take.  Each time she adapts more to 
the terrain, and since we've never had a live dinosaur to study we 
never realized how smart they truly were--a lot smarter than 
scientists originally thought.  So you see, Agent Mulder, one 
creature cannot be accountable for the world, whether you like it or 
not."  CSM seemed content with his answer, taking the last, red-hot 
drag of his Morley before carelessly adding it next to the butt 
already pulverized into the ground.  

Mulder heard the metallic flick of a lighter behind him, the stench 
of smoke invading his nostrils once again.  "You're a heartless 
monster."

CSM let out a smoky chuckle.  "That's right, Agent Mulder, that's 
why I have access to any information recorded in the last one 
thousand years and you're putting silly putty on leaks in the 
basement."

"Lies--it's all lies.  All you do is trade in lies."  Mulder spat 
toward the older man, "Once the American public finds out this has 
been going on behind their backs for fifty years, they'll never 
trust you.  Never!"

"But you forget, Agent Mulder, when it comes down to living or 
dying, where will the people turn?  To save themselves is the only 
thing they will want--no matter the means.  The project is larger 
than you'll ever realize, far larger than one man can ever 
comprehend.  Your attempt to uncover the project has the same value 
as picking one grain of sand from the beach.  It is unstoppable."  

Mulder's eyes darted over to the woods in the distance, knowing 
Scully had to have seen him standing there with CSM, wondering what 
thoughts were going through her mind.  

"And don't get any funny ideas." CSM added, smiling with evident 
malice, as if he had read Mulder's mind, "I know your red-headed 
partner is never far from your side.  It's only a matter of time 
until she's found.  You always put in a good effort, Mr. Mulder, I 
grant you that, but life...is like an expensive restaurant.  Sure, 
you may indulge yourself with a seven course meal of steak, salad, 
breads, and wine, but there's always that parsley, a perfunctory 
topping that nobody ever asks for, or a pickle that runs into the 
other food, souring everything it touches.  But...after the 
delicacies have been tasted and devoured, sooner or later someone 
always hands you the bill."

Mulder's brows furrowed together sharply, shaking his head as a 
white glimmer against the blue-gray sky caught his eye.  It soared 
like a shooting star above the field, pure, innocent, a master of 
the air, of weightlessness.  The object curved toward him, gliding 
on the wind with ease, in harmony with the sky itself.  Mulder stood 
still, recognition igniting in his dark eyes at the sight of bright 
yellow plumage, of Mac's delicate body heading straight toward him.

Mac's wings thumped against the air as he made a skilled landing on 
Mulder's shoulder, his neck stretching his tiny head toward Mulder's 
coat pocket as a high-pitched call for a "Seed," clucking his beak 
as if he was getting ready for his morning snack.

"Friend of yours?" Came the sarcastic, gravel voice of CSM, blowing 
a cloud of smoke around his face.

Mulder ignored the man's mockery, his eyes darting to the tree line, 
wishing he could get a glimpse of his partner, but hoping Gil, 
Dorothy, and George had found her before CSM's hired goons did.  He 
knew they were there, hiding, watching, and had more than likely 
followed the sound of gunshots just as he and Scully had done 
earlier.  Mac was proof of that.  

Just then Mac let out a squawk, his plumage standing straight up on 
his head as his powerful wings allowed his body to make a fast 
getaway.  Mulder turned toward Mac's direction, his eyes catching 
sight of motion in the woods on the far side of the field.  The 
treetops swayed violently, although the winds were quiet, as 
something large moved them from the inside.  Mulder knew immediately 
that the only thing large enough to be making such movements could 
only be one creature.  

Charlie-T was coming out.

------------------------------
7:02 AM - SUNDAY
BEHIND THE TREELINE
SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK
------------------------------

Scully's palms were sweating, the grip on her gun so tight her 
fingernails were white under the pressure.  Her aim was straight on 
the smoking figure in the distance, her partner only a few feet 
away.  Her ice-blue eyes were sharp and calculating, her finger 
ready to pull the trigger at any second, her eyes never blinking as 
she studied the two bodies standing in the field.  

She had hidden herself and Lou deeper into the underbrush after 
watching two men drag Mulder out into the open.  Not for a second 
did she underestimate the smoking figure overseeing the entire 
operation, knowing that it was only common sense that if Mulder was 
around, she wasn't far behind.  It was only a matter of time before 
they found her.

Lou was now awake, staring at the scene silently, staying quiet at 
Scully's orders.  His last dose of morphine was wearing off, but 
Scully had nothing to offer him since Mulder had taken the hiking 
pack.  When his eyes had caught sight of a flying object drifting 
through the air, he strained to whisper "Gil" which Scully 
acknowledged with a nod of her tired face.

She attempted to make a visual sweep around the arc of trees, but 
was unable to see the familiar forms of either Gil, Dorothy, or 
George.  For all she knew, maybe it was just Dorothy and George, 
still searching for Gil.  Yet, deep inside her stomach, she also 
believed Gil would never be very far from where the hunters were.

Her auburn brows knitted together across her forehead as Mac 
suddenly took flight from Mulder's shoulder, the thrashing of trees 
from across the field catching her attention, her eyes widening from 
behind the barrel of her weapon.  She felt fear gently creeping into 
her body as she realized Mulder had been right, Charlie-T was 
cornered at the end of the field and was about to leash its fury 
onto them!

"Stay down, Lou." Came the automatic response to Scully's lips, her 
body frozen in position in front of the backboard Lou was laying on.

"I'll try not to go anywhere." Came the dry response, but Scully 
didn't even hear the words, leaning farther through the trees with 
curiosity, fear lingering under her skin, rushing frantically 
through her beating heart.  

The tip of a wing poked through the branches, the skin looking brown 
and leathery, the size of it alone making Scully's breath catch in 
her throat.  She was amazed by the power, the smooth gracefulness as 
it sliced through the branches with ease as if it were simply 
slicing through the air.  Her eyes couldn't fathom that they were 
truly watching a dinosaur, an animal that had never been seen in 
motion by man, an animal that didn't understand man's intention to 
use its own life as an experiment, it's only reason for the life it 
breathed into its body.  

Scully's hands were furiously shaking, the gun wobbling in her hand, 
blurring before her eyes.  Charlie-T was attempting an escape, the 
visible wing flapping furiously through the trees.  It only took her 
a moment to realize the other wing was not synchronizing with the 
one they all could see, in fact, it wasn't working at all.  Charlie-
T's wing had been injured, and now she was trapped by the men who 
had created her, who were trying to conceal freedom from her.  
Scully knew this was a time on earth that Charlie-T was not meant to 
walk on, to exist in, and she was wild, alone, terrified.

"Finish the job!" Echoed CSM's heartless voice across the dew 
covered field, hunters jumping to attention at the command.  

Scully let out a gasp, feeling as if CSM's words had suddenly jumped 
down her throat and grabbed her heart with a tight fist.  The events 
were happening too fast, her thoughts racing to catch up as if the 
finish line was in sight, with only one faster sprinter dashing in 
front.  Always one step ahead--impossible to catch even in giving 
her heart over to the race.  It was then that she saw Charlie-T's 
elongated face break through the leafy green foliage, its jaws raw 
power in itself, eyes blacker than night staring them down, daring 
its foes to fight.

It stood at least two stories off the ground, a giant shadow 
spreading like molten lava across the rich green of the field.  It 
was a muddy brown color, its skin shiny, yet weathered looking in 
the early morning sun.  The earth rumbled a low frequency bass with 
every step it took, its eyes blazing with fearlessness, strength, 
courage.

Scully's jaw was hanging limply from her face, Lou absolutely in awe 
behind her.  Even the hunters had paused, unsure whether to stay or 
to run for their lives, literally trembling in their boots.  Scully 
could see her partner, standing stone-still against the backdrop of 
mountain peaks behind him.  The only one in the field not phased was 
the lone figure in the shadows, smoke trailing in swirls around him.

Charlie-T's head swiveled to the side, as if staring straight into 
Scully's eyes, daring her to move.  The gun dropped from her 
startled hands, the terror of coming face-to-face with such a 
ferocious creature stopping gestures only begun.  Her skin was 
pricked with a stab of blind terror as Charlie-T turned its body 
toward them, toward the tree line, it's legs moving furiously across 
the earth, each footfall shaking the very foundation of the 
mountain.  It was coming straight toward them! 

Scully automatically jumped backwards, falling right over Lou's now-
panicked body, landing flat on her back.  

"We gotta' move...we gotta' move..." Lou chanted again and again, 
his voice hoarse with fright, not caring that Scully had fallen 
across his injured body.  His fear had overpowered his senses, 
survival being the only thought in his mind as his own helplessness 
sent a jolt of terrorized panic through his body.  

Scully was already clumsily scrambling to her feet, her eyes never 
leaving the enormous creature barreling down upon them.  "Oh, 
shhh..." was all she could muster from her lips, grabbing an end of 
the backboard and started pulling with all of her strength.

"Faster...faster!" Lou hollered at the top of his lungs, his hands 
squeezing along the sides of the backboard in a death grip, his 
teeth grinding together painfully.

Scully let out a scream, the creature closing in on them fast--35 
yards...30 yards...25...20...

"You fools!" Came CSM's bark across the field, "Don't let it get 
away!"

It was then the hunters made a bold leap to their feet, rifles 
pointed and ready in shuddering hands.

"Noooooo!!!!" Came a scream from the edge of the tree line only 
twenty yards away from Scully and Lou, the tone of voice an almost 
wail, a sound only made from the deepest passages of emotion, a 
mixture of rage, of fear, of love, of devotion.  A sound made by the 
actual soul itself.

It was Gil.

His body made a gigantic leap from behind the trees and onto the 
field, his legs carrying him at superhuman speed, his arms waving 
frantically above his head.  He was heading straight toward Charlie-
T, sprinting like a weightless stalk in the wind in an attempt to 
save the beautiful bird before him.

Scully could hear Mulder screaming anything he could think of, a 
compilation of panicked yells to stop the hunters, mixed together 
with Scully's own yells as she dived forward out into the field, 
Dorothy and George jumping into view farther down.  Their calls to 
Gil were futile.

Their calls were too late.

The rifles had already crackled through the air, pounding one after 
the other in a symphony of death, destruction, and despair.  The 
sickening rolls of thunder rocked across the still earth, crashing 
into Scully's ears as her eyes silently watched Gil disappear 
amongst the shoots of grass, Charlie-T stopping to roll onto its 
side, emitting a deafening shriek that stilled the mountains, her 
wing thrashing furiously.
 
The shots finally stopped, the hunters rooted in place as smoke 
powdered and whirled above their heads.

Scully didn't waste a second to rush forward at lightning speed, 
heading straight for the area she had last seen Gil, her heart 
pounding with ferocity in her chest while her lungs burned with her 
rapid breath.  A glimpse of blue jeans only made her move faster, 
her legs blindly tearing through the tall stalks of grass, the 
tender blades squashing beneath her steps.  

Gil had landed very close to Charlie-T, the two only about twenty 
feet away from each other, the bird's head lying quietly on the 
earth, it's dark eyes watching with fear as Scully approached.  Her 
stomach contracted upon itself at the sight of bright red 
tributaries oozing across Gil's western shirt, diving to her knees 
next to him, her hands working quickly to rip the shirt open, 
fingertips immersing in the warm, sticky liquid.  

"Gil, can you hear me?" She called to him, her voice strained with 
concern, her fingers working fast, assessing at least two gunshot 
wounds in his abdomen, one in his leg.  The older man's face was the 
color of moon dust, sputtering and coughing to breathe as a 
sickening red trickle flowed from the corner of his mouth.  His gray 
eyes stared at her with terror as his shirt fell to each side of 
him, a red geyser flowing from his stomach.  

"Dammit!" Scully cursed heatedly, throwing her palm across the 
gushing wound.  She only knew too well where Gil had been hit, and 
as Gil's head fell back across the ground, he knew the inevitable 
truth as well.  "Someone call the paramedics immediately!"

The hunters had lowered their guns, forming a semi-circle near Gil 
and Scully, each of them frozen to their spots.

Scully looked up at them, irritated that no one had made a motion to 
her request, her blue eyes livid with fire.  "Now!"

One of them finally made a nervous fumble for his walkie-talkie, 
Scully turning her attention back to Gil, wiping the back of her 
hand across her forehead, leaving a horizontal streak of red across 
the white of her skin.  

"They're getting help, Gil, hang in there." Scully made a feeble 
attempt to reassure the injured birdlover, continuing to hold her 
hands firmly across his seared flesh, red pooling through her 
fingers, splattering droplets across her chest.  

Gil adamantly squeezed his eyes shut, a rumble of pain coursing 
through his chest as he tried to speak, his hand inching 
determinedly toward Scully's, grabbing her attention as his slick, 
wet hand fell upon her own.  His head turned to the side, his eyes 
staring almost directly into Charlie-T's left eye, continuing to 
cough as he managed to breath "...so beautiful...so..."

"I know, I know." Scully spoke with a shudder, reaching over to 
cradle behind Gil's head, leaning down toward him as hot lead 
squeezed between her eyelashes.  "She *is* beautiful."

Gil seemed content with Scully's statement, his lungs gurgling for 
breath as he attempted to speak again, his gray eyes wild with words 
trying to escape.  "T-Take care of...of..."

Scully waited patiently, feeling tears making hot tracks down her 
cheeks, never looking away.  

"...of...our feathered friends."

Scully nodded quickly, her words wobbling from her lips slowly,  
"There is a lot of love in your camp, Gil, you created something 
special, something real and beautiful that no one can ever 
duplicate.  No one will ever forget...ever."    

Gil squeezed his hand harder against hers, a smile in his eyes as he 
mouthed the words 'thank you,' his hand then releasing from Scully's 
grasp, stretching out toward Charlie-T, reaching, inviting, loving.  

As Scully observed Gil's joining act between himself and this wild 
prehistoric bird next to him, she realized the fear of fear, of 
something dark and undefined between man and beast, didn't come 
close to the concrete fear of dying by the choice of a human being, 
of the greediness for life that awaited in man's very hand.  The 
bridges between animal and man were soldered together in death, both 
moving to an unknown place together, their eyes locking as one into 
the long sleep of eternity.

Scully rose to her feet from the still form below, her arms damp to 
the elbow, clothes covered in random swirls of dark and bright reds.  
Tears she had saved to be cried alone fell across her cheeks, for 
Gil, for Beth, for a devotion and love that never failed them, even 
in death.  For a kindred spirit, a peace and harmony with the world 
only few ever possessed.  

Above, a lone white figure circled through the air.

"Imbeciles!  This wasn't supposed to happen!" CSM yelled in a rage, 
striding across the field and into the semi-circle of hunters, smoke 
whirling around him in dizzying patterns.

Scully turned to face the weather-worn, leathery face of the older 
man, staring coldly into his blue eyes.  She hated him, and the fear 
and hatred together dried her mouth, her chest, her throat.  It was 
as if the smoldering embers of his cigarette had passed through her 
and left her like a field of stubble, inside and out. 

"What do you want done with the witnesses?" Questioned on of the 
men.

CSM took a long drag as his steel-colored eyes looked at Scully, to 
Mulder who had just reached Scully's side, to Dorothy and George 
standing at the trees.  "Let them live.  No one will ever believe 
them."

"I swear to God you're going to fry in the electric chair you black-
lunged son of a bitch!" Mulder threatened angrily, making a lunge 
toward the older man, the hunters warding him away.  "You can't hide 
the truth forever!"

CSM's turned up in a sardonic smile.  "I already have, Agent 
Mulder."  That's life, he seemed to be saying.  "Burn everything!" 

Two men grabbed Scully's arms, hearing the muffled calls from her 
partner as she struggled, "What are you doing...get off..." and 
suddenly the world came crashing down into black.

-----------------------------------
10:12 AM -- 27 HOURS LATER - MONDAY
SKYHIGH BIRD CAMP
SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK
-----------------------------------

A squeaky screen door flung open, the wood making a sharp whack 
against the wall behind it.  

Mulder's eyes fluttered, his pupils focusing through the fuzzy bars 
of his eyelashes, feeling monumental pain radiating from the back of 
his skull.  A moving form from across the room grabbed his attention 
as his limbs stirred, hearing the thick southern drawl of Big John 
echo into his ears.

"Hell of'a night you done had.  You and that purty lady-friend of 
yours are the talk of the camp.  Sure is a terrible shame about 
Gil's accident.  Real sad."

"Wha...wait..." Mulder mumbled, his tongue thick, his mouth dry, 
realizing he was lying in his bed in his cabin.  "What...how did I 
get here?"

"Shoot, you was just suddenly here yesterday morning." Came the 
reply as the rotund man busied himself with packing his suitcase.

"But...yesterday?" Mulder started to speak, slowly sitting up as his 
hands automatically moved to each side of his head, "Ow!"

"Yep, you got a big'un on your 'ol ticker." Big John continued to 
chatter, "Andrew done said he ain't never seen a bump that big 
before."

Mulder looked down at his grimy clothes, the sight of flaking, dry 
mud instantly flashing his memory back to the long, dark night he 
and Scully had spent out in the woods.  Of finding another part of a 
government conspiracy, of saving Lou...of his partner and himself 
finding each other.  "What do you mean Gil's accident?"

"You were there--them hunters thought he was a deer and shot 'em in 
the stomach.  Such a shame."

"No, no, that's not how it happened." Mulder protested, throwing his 
legs over the side of the bed in a fury, jumping up.  Immediately 
they both heard a quick snap, Mulder letting out a yell as he 
grabbed his foot.

"Hey, looky there, haven't caught a single mouse with those things, 
but at least they work." Big John went on, a bundle of flannels in 
his hands as he carried them from the closet back to his suitcase.

"I've been sleeping for a day?" Mulder continued impatiently, 
inspecting his injured toe.

"Out cold.  Haven't seen a hide nor hair of your lady-friend 
neither."  Big John spoke, giving his red beard a scratch with his 
fingers as if in thought.  It looked like Big John was about to make 
a connection on how strange it was that they both had been sleeping 
for an entire day, but instead he just gave his head a shake, 
focusing on packing.

The sickened feeling growing exponentially in the pit of his stomach 
was something that Mulder had experienced many times before.  It was 
practically normal, he mused, that when he and his partner had hard 
evidence right in their hands, it never failed to vanish without a 
trace, get covered up, cleaned up, removed, evaporated into thin 
air.  He was slowly unraveling what had taken place since the moment 
in the field, when CSM's men had grabbed him and Scully, had given 
them a blow to the backs of their heads so they wouldn't be able to 
cause trouble.  They had been out of the picture, CSM and his men 
having plenty of time to erase the last four days from ever 
existing...that is, all except for witnesses.  Of course, for a case 
ending with the discovery of a living, breathing dinosaur, he knew 
it would be ridiculed without any sort of proof to back it up.  They 
had buried the truth, preserved the lies, and all at the cost of two 
innocent lives.

Mulder rushed to his feet, tossing off his mud-stained coat, not 
caring that he was equally coated in brown underneath.  "Thanks, Big 
John." His voice called behind him, already sprinting out the door 
and into the golden, warm sunlight.  

The camp was unusually quiet that morning, the lush, green grounds 
almost barren of people as Mulder moved in between the dark, oak 
cabins.  With a glance over his shoulder to the lodge, he could see 
fuzzy images of people out by the river and rocking in chairs out on 
the lodge porch.  He paid little heed to them as continued to sprint 
toward Scully's cabin, the stiff muscles in his legs letting him 
know their objections.  

"Oh thank my lucky stars...Henry!" Came the call of an elderly voice 
he recognized only too well, turning to see Dorothy's tiny frame 
running toward him from the edge of the lake, her bony hand waving 
in air like a delicate leaf.

"Dorothy!  What in the world is going on around here?" Mulder asked, 
his voice filled with concern as he stopped for her.  "What 
happened?"

"Oh, Henry...you don't mind if I call you that?  I know your partner 
told me your real name, but this old lady is used to calling you 
Henry now.  That was a dirty trick you pulled on us, being agents 
undercover, but you sure had me fooled!  No one else but George and 
Lou knows--we're trying to keep this as low profile as possible for 
the campers."

Mulder smiled wanly.  "No problem--I don't mind being Henry for 
another day."

Dorothy nodded, placing a tiny arm on Mulder's forearm as her voice 
lowered drastically.  "It was just awful--a horrible mess up there 
on the mountain.  George and I were so frightened when the men hit 
you with their guns, but they didn't do the same to us.  I guess a 
little old man and woman were harmless in their eyes.  But they took 
us out of there as fast as possible, putting us in the back of this 
jeep, sending Lou off to the hospital.  They brought us here like 
the whole last day had never happened at all.  Yet, we saw it, we 
saw it all, Henry, and it's something this old lady will never ever 
forget...nor George, nor Lou."

"They're pure evil." Mulder spoke gravely, "They think they know how 
to run the world, keep their secrets among themselves, the cost of 
lives nothing to them compared to their precious information.  But 
you're right, Dorothy, we know the truth, and one day it will 
finally be exposed for the whole world to see."

"I hope so too, Henry."  Dorothy nodded sadly, "We tried to follow 
their tracks, Lou telling us a pretty wild story, but he swore it 
was the truth--giving us the 'ol ranger's honor." She gave Mulder a 
quick wink.  "George, Nigel, and I drove across the border to West 
Virginia, looked for this mining company Lou had mentioned where 
this had all started.  But when we found it, there wasn't a trace of 
anything left.  We were afraid of that, the way that man acted up 
there was evil in a form I've never seen before and hope to never 
see again.  A beast hiding in the poet."

Mulder nodded his brown head, adding with urgency, "I've got to get 
to Scully...Kate...whatever."

A soft smile crossed Dorothy's lips.  "She's already awake, Henry, 
and she's been helping us all morning.  She's been such a comfort to 
the camp during these sad times--she's been eager for you to wake 
up."

Mulder smiled at the mere thought of his partner, his eyes making an 
automatic sweep across the camp in an attempt to find a glimpse of 
familiar auburn hair.  

"Come on, I'll take you to her." Dorothy added, holding out her 
elbow for Mulder to escort her down the path, his arm linking with 
hers as they walked. "Lou has made you and your partner real heroes 
around here-tellin' all sorts of stories. As for what really 
happened out there, we decided to keep it between us.  There will 
come a time when it'll be right to let it be known, but these 
campers don't need to hear tales about pre-historic birds--they're 
shaken up as it is."

"I totally agree." Mulder added.

"We're having Beth and Gil's memorial service today." Dorothy's 
wrinkled chin pointing up ahead at the edge of the lake.  "Those 
scoundrels returned Gil cremated..."

"More evidence destroyed." Mulder gritted through his teeth.

"...quite true, but at least that was what Gil had wanted in his 
will.  As for Beth, the dear soul, her parents had a funeral in 
Virginia Beach, but she will still be remembered in today's vigil."

Mulder nodded quietly.  The river bank bristled with campers young 
and old, ducks scurrying amongst their feet searching for an 
accidentally dropped piece of food.  Rangers were dressed in 
starched uniforms while standing next to the lapping waters of the 
lake, helping the mourners set their candles adrift, a multitude of 
flickering, orange flames already bobbing on the water's surface.  

"George looks like he's having a little trouble with one of the 
flower arrangements," Dorothy spoke up, nodding her head toward the 
elderly man as he was slowly dragging an enormous vase filled with 
delicate white lily's across the grounds.  "I'm going to go help the 
old coot."

Mulder gave Dorothy a warm smile, watching her walk gracefully 
through the crowds, her gray hairs curling and fluttering along the 
side of her face.  He turned back toward the crowd, the sun elbowing 
its shafts of golden light between bodies, the sky clear and blue 
above them.  He noticed a lot of people had gathered for Gil and 
Beth's memorial, more than just the campers at Skyhigh.  He had no 
doubt Gil had befriended the locals from the neighboring mountains 
and towns, and they had come from all over Virginia to be there.  As 
he moved between the bodies, he finally saw a familiar red-head, 
although it was far from his partner.

Andrew was sitting cross-legged in the center of a circle, a group 
of boys pressed close around him while he talked.  His freckled 
cheeks were moving a mile a minute, the others intently listening as 
if they were hearing wise speaker who was telling them the secret of 
life.  

"...and he done jumped right on top of the grizzly bear and wrestled 
'em with his bare hands.  He done saved Lou's life, but the bear 
turned on him and done hit him on the back of his head wit' one of 
its gigantic claws.  That's how he got that bump--seen it with my 
own eyes in my cabin.  He was all muddy too, the 'ol bear really 
wallowed him in the dirt."  

"Whoa." Came the chorus of boys.

Mulder could hardly contain himself from smiling.  So maybe besides 
being a professional at torture, Mulder thought, Andrew now had a 
new niche.  

"What's it like sleepin' next to a hero?"  Another boy had asked as 
Mulder walked past, Andrew starting in on another story. 

Mulder moved to the lake's edge, the water trickling gently against 
the earthen bank as a brown-clad ranger handed him a plastic lily 
pad, giving him a respectful nod.  Mulder returned the gesture as he 
turned to light the candle on one of the torches, the wick coming to 
life with bright red and oranges.  He paused at the waters, candle 
cupped in his palms, looking back on the true hero he had met only 
days ago.  Gil had been a man utterly devoted to a cause, not afraid 
to show the world his love for animals, making them equals with 
human life in his eyes.  He had been willing to risk his life to 
save another, the cost not too high in his eyes, and had ultimately 
left a legacy with his camp, in his campers, to teach others how to 
love the tiny...and large-winged souls of the world.  Even in the 
three days Mulder had known him, he knew he had been touched as 
well, touched personally in the fact that Gil and he were very much 
alike in so many ways, and the important priorities had to come 
first.

As he released his candle across the waters, he felt a stiffening of 
attention race through his spine and down into his chest, the tingle 
of a sudden connection dancing underneath his skin.  Without even 
looking, he knew his partner was behind him, waiting for him.

He quickly turned, the dark depths of his eyes connecting with 
Scully's crystal blue ones, a hint of a smile forming at the corner 
of his mouth.  Although he was still smudged with mud, his clothes 
practically passing for a ranger's uniform, Scully's skin gleamed 
bright and soft in the warm tendrils of sun, her hair flowing from 
her scalp like a river of fire, eyes open wide and inviting.

Next to her sat Lou in a wheelchair, each leg in a concrete white 
cast, signatures of blue, black, and other bright colors already 
decorating them.  His top half was clad in his ranger's uniform, 
Mulder assuming the bottom half wouldn't fit for a while.  Behind 
him stood the blonde Adonis Mulder only knew too well, wheeling 
around his friend with two brawny arms, white teeth flashing every 
few seconds as if a camera were going off.

Mulder moved forward as if his body was being magnetized, powerless 
against a force he never intended to stop.  He took quick steps up 
the bank, watching Scully question, wonder, search for confirmation 
with her eyes, hoping their night out in the woods, their pivoting 
moment at Dark Hollow Falls had been real, the truth, and not 
forgotten between them as the moment in the hallway had been.  He 
didn't hesitate to step close to her, his hands arcing around her 
tiny form, feeling her immediate warm response in return.  

"I'm so glad you're okay." Scully spoke, her voice warm against his 
chest, ignoring the muddy shirt as if it didn't exist at all.

"I feel the same way." Mulder replied honestly, placing a feathery 
kiss on the top of Scully's sweet-smelling hair.

"Thank you so much...Mr...ah..." Lou began to speak gratefully.

"Henry is fine." Mulder smiled.

"...Henry.  If it wasn't for you and Kate, I would have 
still been out in those woods.  The doctors said my chances were 
slim on making it another day, so I really can't thank you enough.  
I owe you my life."

Mulder broke his hold around Scully, smiling down upon Lou's silver-
white hair and sky-blue eyes.  "There's no need to thank us--it's 
what we're supposed to do.  And besides..." he added, leaning 
closer, "...no matter what Scully says, we like it."

"'Like' is such a strong word though." Came Scully's amused reply.

Lou smiled.  "I just wish this had a happier ending, but I know Gil 
well enough to know he doesn't want us to be sad for him.  Whenever 
we had a bird die, Gil would always say that it wasn't his end, but 
simply a beginning for all of eternity.  A celebration of life in 
the sky forever."

Mulder noticed Scully make a reach for her cross she wore around her 
neck after Lou's statement, suddenly speaking up, "Oh!  I almost 
forgot something.  You stay right here--I'll be right back."

Mulder was disappointed as Scully left his arms, eager for her to 
return as he watched her tiny form weave through the crowd and make 
a bee-line for the cabins.  

"So what happens now?"

"Dorothy didn't tell you?" Lou asked, a smile twisting on his face, 
continuing as Mulder shook his head no.  "Well, turns out Gil had 
talked with Dorothy years ago about taking care of Mac if anything 
ever happened to him, to which she wholeheartedly agreed to.  
Although this camp is government property, Gil had created this 
place such a long time ago he also had a share in it, so in the will 
reading yesterday, he left this whole place to Mac."

"No, seriously." Mulder burst in with a chuckle.

"Seriously." Lou grinned.  "Gil always leaves his mark, even if he 
can't be here in person.  Basically, since Dorothy is the caretaker 
of Mac, she's now in charge of the place.  It's just a matter of 
getting everything squared away."

Mulder grinned ruefully.  "Well I can't think of a better person to 
take charge."

"Yeah, she's going to be great." Paul spoke up in his husky voice.

"And even though I have to wait a few months to recuperate, not to 
mention physical therapy, I'll be staying on staff as a ranger 
here." Lou added, "I love this place.  I couldn't leave if I wanted 
to."

Mulder looked up when he caught a glimpse of his partner in his 
peripheral vision, an object clutched in her hands as she made her 
way back into the crowd, her head disappearing for a moment before 
she appeared next to them, huffing to catch her breath.

"Lou," She spoke, "I have something that belongs to you."

Lou's light brows moved into a V across his forehead, curiously 
observing a bright, bird-covered book as Scully passed it into his 
hands.

"While Beth may not have had a chance to tell you in person, her 
words, her thoughts, her feelings still live in here.  She wrote of 
only her trips to the camp in here, you, this place, being what 
really made her feel alive, the other parts of her life simply blank 
pages in between.  I know she would have wanted this to go to you."

Lou swept his hand across the front of the journal as if it were a 
delicate treasure that would suddenly disappear if he made one wrong 
move.  His eyes twitched at the corners as he opened the cover, 
mumbling quietly to himself, "Tennyson."  He looked back to Scully 
and Mulder.  "I owe you both my life...twice."

Scully smiled warmly, Lou visibly touched by the gesture as he 
looked back to the pages, caressing the words with his eyes.  

"I see everyone has found each other." Dorothy's voice funneled into 
the group, the tiny woman appearing with George, Mac riding quietly 
on her shoulder.  The white bird eyed Mulder curiously, suddenly 
making a leap onto his shoulder.

Dorothy gave a chuckle.  "That's the most action I've seen him do in 
the last two days.  He needs a lot of attention right now...I think 
he's a little depressed.  The poor little guy has been through a 
lot."

Scully grinned. "I think he likes you, Henry."

Mulder stared into the tiny black eyes, Mac cocking his head to the 
side to return the look.  He reached into his shirt pocket, finding 
two seeds jammed down into the corner, offering them to the bird.  

Mac stared for a few minutes before finally clicking his beak, 
nimbly reaching down and grabbing a seed, Mulder popping the other 
one into his mouth.  "Okay, so maybe other animals besides fish are 
alright after all."

Everyone smiled as Dorothy turned, George letting out a "hmph" as 
they watched the elderly woman move to the front of the crowd, 
keeping his arm resting comfortably on Scully's shoulders.  Dorothy 
called for everyone's attention, the multitude of people quieting at 
her request.  She introduced herself and talked about her first 
meeting with Gil, moving into the long ten-year friendship they had 
had together, and about the friendship she had made with Beth.  "And 
today we remember their spirits and their love for the birds.  Gil 
put his heart and soul into this camp, something we will never 
forget.  As you know, he kept sick and injured birds in his aviary, 
healing them with his touch, teaching them to live again in the 
wilds.  He had a love for birds that ran far deeper into his soul 
than anyone I've ever met, so today, when we scatter his ashes 
across his beautiful camp, he will be joined once again with his 
birds."

On that note, Dorothy picked up an urn, covered in sculpted birds, 
giving her head a nod to an unknown recipient behind the crowd.  
There was a moment of silence before Mulder's ears picked up the 
harmonious symphony of birdcalls behind him.  He turned in the 
direction along with the crowd, noticing tiny, burning bright bodies 
of life transforming into a cloud in the sky, soaring through the 
opened hatches in the aviary.  They traveled all the way into the 
heavens, swirling, gliding, diving amongst the tiny brown snowflakes 
Dorothy had released into the wind.  Their calls were a heavenly 
chorus of pitches and patterns, a thankfulness for the one who had 
healed them, who had given them a second chance for life on earth.  
Bodies of brown, red, yellow, white, blue, and black danced across 
the wind, floating, flying higher into the sky, becoming one with 
the vast blue heavens.  Gil was floating with them, an eternal 
flight with the ones he loved, cherished.  His paradise in the sky.

Scully was cushioned against Mulder's side, her eyes traveling 
through the air with his, the touch of her reminding him that they 
were together, close, comforting, comforted.

---------------------
3:58 PM - SUNDAY
RT. 29
BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS
---------------------

"It sure was nice of Dorothy to offer us a free stay for whenever we 
wanted to come back."  Scully spoke casually as she studied a map in 
her lap, the engine of the Ford sedan humming loudly as its wheels 
hugged the tight mountain curves carefully.

Mulder nodded, one hand on the wheel while the other was hanging up 
his Tweety bird air freshener, a glint in his hazel eyes.  "We have 
to turn right or left up here, Scully, which way?"

Scully looked up from the map, a teasing gleam in her eyes, "You 
should know.  As I remember, you're always right when you're 
driving...and look, now you're driving."

She could see Mulder attempting to make a subtle glance at the map 
in her hands, her phone suddenly ringing, startling them both.

"Scully." Scully answered, putting the phone up to her ear, Mulder 
giving her sidelong glances, trying to figure out who she was 
talking to.

"Agent Scully," Came the masculine, sharp tone across the line, 
"This is Skinner.  I'm reviewing this report you faxed me about an 
hour ago...what is this, Agent?  Is this Mulder's idea of a sick 
joke?  Because if it is, I'm not laughing."

Scully's eyes darted over to her partner. "What exactly are you 
referring to?" 

"You put down that you lost almost $2000 dollars of equipment 
because...and I quote, 'a dinosaur swooped down and attacked us.'  
You expect me to turn this in to my bosses?!  Where's Mulder?  Get 
him on the line--I want to speak to him!"

"It's for you." Scully said coolly, the phone dangling in her hand.

"Who is it?" Mulder mouthed to her, "Skinner? I'm not here."

Scully nodded, returning the phone to her ear.  "He says he's not 
here, sir." 

Mulder made a grimace, shooting her partner a wounded look.

She could hear Skinner's blood boil.  "The *minute* you two get back 
to Washington I want you both in my office.  Understood?"

"Yes, sir." Scully answered, hanging up the phone.

"Well...what did he say?" Mulder asked curiously.

"He didn't like your wording on the expense report." Scully 
answered, a chuckle escaping from her throat. 

"Sure, laugh now, but wait until we get into his office." Mulder 
mused, a smile touching his lips.

Scully smiled out the passenger window of the car, trees whirling by 
in a green blur, her reflection simply a shadow on the glass.  "You 
know, it really is beautiful out here.  I'm going to miss it."

"Well, you know, Dark Hollow Falls has become that one special place 
we'll go to in thirty years and sit by to reminisce."

Scully snorted, "Thirty years, huh?  Mulder, I've never known you to 
plan a week ahead much less that long."

Mulder turned his head to the side as if in thought.  "Maybe, but I 
still plan to investigate that Jell-o."

Scully secretly smiled inwardly, excited by the prospects of what 
lay ahead for them.

"And since you brought it up," Mulder spoke with a twinkle in his 
eye, "I hear people have spotted Stonewall Jackson's ghost in the 
Buckhorn for the last fifty years.  Now that sounds like a great X-
File too."

"Don't even think about it." Scully immediately cut in, reaching 
down into the floor to her bag.  "I made sure I was prepared for the 
next time you mentioned taking me for a nice trip to the forest."

"Why, Scully, I...Scully!"

An evil grin twisted on Scully's lips as she pulled out a very 
familiar green and blue Tsunami Super-Soaker.  "It's amazing what 
you can trade for ah...what was it...'sensitive information'?"

Mulder looked very uncomfortable in his seat, his broad shoulders 
stiffening "Ah, you know, on second thought, this car rental will be 
due back in soon--we should just head straight on back."

Scully nodded, a satisfied grin on her face as she leaned back into 
her seat, turning on the radio.

<<...blueberry hill...it lingered until...my dream came true.>>

Scully let out a moan of protest, feeling Mulder's grin return.

"Alright, Mulder, now lets discuss the nature of where that 
'Virginia is for Lovers' shirt came from."

"Scully, I don't know what you're talking about..."

A loud whir sounded across the car, the car making a sudden jerk 
across the road, the radio continuing to blare...

<<...oh, you were my thrill...on blueberry hill.>> 

-------------------------------------
4:06 PM -- SUNDAY
SOMEWHERE IN SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK
...IN THE NEST
--------------------------------------

Deep inside the tangled web of trees and rock, amongst Shenandoah's 
island of solitude and beauty, a sound echoed in the mist, silencing 
the wildlife in the immediate area.  Birds squawked a call of 
danger, flapping through the trees, leaving only silence behind.  
The crackle of a breaking shell snapped across the wooded land, 
piece by piece of it breaking away, hatching from the shadows into 
the sunlight, a new life waiting to be heard.

END

------------------------------------------------------------
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