From: RhiaRamsay@aol.com
Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2000 18:15:06 EDT
Subject: The Triple Death (1 of 6)
Source: direct

Title: The Triple Death
Author: Elizabeth L. Iacono
Rating: R (gore factor mostly)
Category: X-File (I think), Romance
Keywords: Mulder/Scully Romance
Spoilers: all things
Summary: A twenty-eight year old body found in the 
         Massachusetts woods stirs up unpleasant 
         memories for Mulder.

To all those wondering, this is not a Requiem fic!  
So it's pretty safe for overseas readers looking 
for things to read.  The only thing about it is 
that it takes place somewhere in between all things 
and Requiem, and all that is really drawn from that 
time period is my assumption that M&S are a couple.

My immense thanks to Lucy for betaing this.

Feedback: Please?  RhiaRamsay@aol.com
And visit my site: 
www.geocities.com/Area51/Meteor/7124/index.html

Archive: wherever you want to, Gossamer, Spookys, 
and Xemplary especially.

Disclaimer: Mulder, Scully, Skinner, and anyone 
else XF related belong to CC.  I own Sarah Cooper 
and her family.


The Triple Death
Elizabeth L. Iacono


June 21, 1972
Norfolk, Massachusetts


     The cavernous room was lit by the flickering 
golden flames of the bonfire, throwing light on 
the rocky walls.  The room was filled with people, 
each one clothed in a long robe of a midnight 
color.  They stood in a perfect circle, surrounding 
the bonfire and the large, hewn stone slab that was 
next to it.  An even odder sight was that inside the 
circle of people, was a large pool of water next to 
the stone slab, its slick surface reflecting the 
glow of firelight.

     Suddenly a gap appeared in the circle and a 
man walked through, carrying the nude body of an 
unconscious girl in his arms.  The girl looked to 
be no older than ten.  Her face was covered up by 
a piece of black cloth wrapped around her head, 
and a long wave of her dark brown hair had slipped 
out of it.  Aside from the black cloth there was 
only one other thing on her body, a delicate silver 
bracelet on her right wrist.  The man carried her 
across the space and carefully laid her out on the 
slab.

     Two more black-cloaked figured walked up to 
the slab, a man and a woman.  In the man's hand 
was a double-edged dagger, the hilt made of a 
grey metal inlaid with polished black stones.  
The woman was carrying an inch-thick, brown 
leather strap.  The woman raised her arm in the 
air, and the whispers of the surrounding crowd 
immediately ceased.  The woman nodded, pleased 
at the silence.  And then she began her ceremony.

     She moved around to the girl's head and 
tilted her chin back until the neck was exposed 
and vulnerable.  Then she wrapped the leather 
strap around the neck and pulled it tight, 
choking the young girl.  The strap was pulled 
tighter and tighter until a sharp crack was 
heard, the sound of bones breaking.  After the 
crack the woman carefully removed the strap and 
motioned to the man.

     The man moved forward and held up the arm 
that held the dagger.  Lowering his arm, he 
shoved the blade of the dagger into the bonfire, 
holding it there until the inlaid stones were 
nearly burned into his hand.  When it was heated 
sufficiently he pulled it from the flames and 
walked quickly over to the girl.  Then he 
plunged it deep into her breast, directly 
over her heart.  Blood bubbled and sizzled 
around the heated blade, and dripped down the 
girl's eerily pale skin.  When the dagger was 
pulled out he nodded to the woman and moved to 
stand by the girl's feet.

    Then, in synchronized movements, the man 
lifted the girl's feet and the woman lifted 
her shoulders, being careful of her head lolling 
on her broken neck.  They carried her to the pool 
of water and laid her down in it, making sure 
her head was submerged.  The blood from the 
wound in her chest flowed even faster, suffusing 
the water with liquid scarlet ribbons, swirling 
around the silver chain on her wrist.  With 
that, the ceremony was over.

     A woman, who stood at the edge of the 
group, sighed with relief at the end of the 
ceremony.  She looked over at her husband next 
to her, who shot her a grim look and nodded.  
Together they walked out of the large room.  
They hung their robes up in another room, 
knowing that when they walked out of the house 
they had to look normal.  They had to hurry 
though, for they had to catch the last ferry home.

     On the ferry ride she thought about the 
little girl in that night's ceremony.  As much 
as she didn't condone the killing of children, 
she knew that it was for the good of everybody 
that the ceremony be performed.  She couldn't 
dwell on it too long, she had her own family to 
get back to.

     Soon, the ferry ride ended and before she 
knew it they were pulling into their driveway.  
Once inside, she paid the baby-sitter and sent 
her home.  Now would be the truly tough part, 
she thought as she walked up the stairs to her 
son's room.

     The light under the door told her that he 
was still awake, so she knocked on the door and 
pushed it open when he said "Yeah?"  He was 
sitting on the bed reading a copy of 'The 
Exorcist'.  "What is it, Mom?"  he began to 
ask, but then saw the fallen look on her face,  
and his words trailed off.

     "She didn't make it.  I'm sorry, Fox," she 
sighed.

     Fox Mulder scrambled back on the bed, 
pressing his back against the headboard.  "You 
killed her," he gasped.

     Tena Mulder shook her head.  "No, Fox, Skye 
was very sick, the doctors said it was only a 
matter of time," she said trying to drill it into 
his head, even though she knew that he was more 
correct than she'd have liked him to be.

     "She wasn't sick, you used Skye for your 
stupid ceremony!" Fox yelled, throwing his book 
at her.  Tena deftly ducked it.

     "Look, believe what you want, but the truth 
of the matter is that Skye was sick and passed 
away.  I'll take you up to visit her gravestone 
soon," Tena said sternly, and walked out of the 
room.

     Fox collapsed on the bed, feeling hot tears 
trickle out of his eyes.  He strained his mind, 
trying to see if he could still sense Skye's 
presence, but it was a futile effort.  Feeling 
a sudden wave of chills in the warm summer night 
he reached down and pulled the blanket up over 
his shoulders.  His eyes looked at the picture 
on his night table of him, Skye, and Samantha, 
huddled together and smiling for the camera, 
the two girls' dark hair getting tangled up.  
For the first time in his life, Fox felt truly 
alone.


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End Part One

Part Two

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April 29, 2000
Scully's apartment
7 a.m.


     Dana Scully had planned that morning to have 
the sun wake her up.  Instead, the insistent 
ringing of the phone on her nightstand was 
what pulled her out of sleep.  Her hand blindly 
reached out and grabbed the phone, fumbling for 
the talk button.  "H'lo?" she mumbled sleepily.

     "Agent Scully, this is Skinner," his gruff 
voice echoed through the earpiece.  Scully 
groaned softly into the pillow, it was not who 
she wanted to hear from this early on a day she 
wasn't planning to do much.

     "Is something wrong, Sir?" she asked, her 
words half blurred by the pillow.

     "No, but you are being requested for an 
autopsy."  'Oh, joy,' Scully thought as Skinner 
continued speaking.  "Early this morning a body 
was found in the Massachusetts woods, right 
outside the town of Norfolk.  The placement of 
the body suggested it was a ritualistic killing, 
so the local cops called the Boston field office, 
who, in turn, called me."

     Scully shut her eyes in resignation.  "I'll 
be up there as soon as possible," she said.

     "Good.  You have a ten-thirty flight to 
Boston, you can pick up your ticket at the 
Continental check in desk.  By the way, how is 
Agent Mulder?"

     Three days ago Mulder came down with a 
really bad case of the flu.  The doctors said 
that it would be best if he stayed with someone 
while he recovered.  The FBI knew this.  The FBI 
knew that Mulder was staying with Scully, and 
that she was taking half days at work in order 
to take care of him.  What the FBI didn't know 
was that Mulder was spending most of his sick 
time in Scully's bed, with her right beside him.

     Scully glanced at the man sleeping next to 
her, bundled up to his nose in blankets.  "He's 
still sick.  He has a fever and he's achy.  He's 
complaining though, so that's a good sign."

     She could practically hear Skinner's grin 
through the phone wires.  "Hopefully he'll be 
back to normal soon.  Either way, you should 
be back there tonight, they just want you for 
the autopsy."

     "That's good," Scully said.  "He's still 
pretty sick."

     "Okay, that's all, Agent.  Just turn in 
a report when you're finished."  She heard 
him click the phone off on the other end and 
she tossed the phone back on the night table.

     "Who was that?" Mulder mumbled, his messy 
hair and still closed eyes poking above the 
blankets.

     "Skinner.  He wants me to do an autopsy.  
Are you going to be okay for a day without me?" 
she asked, rolling her head to face him.

     "I think I'm going to be spending most of 
it sleeping," he said.  Scully reached out and 
brushed the back of her hand over his forehead.

     "You're still warm, but it's cooler than 
yesterday," Scully said.  "I'll give you some 
Tylenol before I go, that should keep the fever 
in check."

     "Mmmm, okay," Mulder mumbled, already on 
his way back to sleep.

     Scully smiled down at him fondly.  He was 
truly like a little boy when he was sick.  The 
only good thing about it was that it gave her 
a chance to take care of him and mother him, 
something she knew he didn't get enough of as 
a child.

     Now that they were officially a couple, 
ever since that weekend her former lover passed 
in and out of her life, it was easier for them 
to openly care about each other.  They didn't 
have to hide their feelings under the guise of 
other things.

     Work though, was still calling her, and 
Scully sighed and hauled herself out of bed.


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


Norfolk, Mass.
12:30 p.m.


     Scully drove her rental car up to the 
edge of the forest.  The few police cars and 
the yellow crime scene tape told her she was 
in the right place.  She stopped the car and 
got out, holding up her badge when the local 
police approached her.

     "Sorry about that," one of the officers 
said.  "We've been trying to keep reporters 
out all day."

     "It's understandable,"  Scully said.  "I 
just want to see the crime scene before I take 
a look at the body."

     "Right this way then, ma'am," the officer 
said, moving towards the yellow tape and politely 
holding it up for her.  He led her a short way 
into the woods, and stopped when they hit a small 
clearing that was filled with crime scene 
specialists going over the place inch by inch.  
The whole place was oddly lit by sunlight 
filtering in through the leaves overhead.

     A man in a suit walked over to them, his 
coat flapping around his hips.  "Who's this?" 
he asked, motioning with his head towards Scully.

     "This is Agent Scully with the FBI," the 
officer said.

     "I decided to come here first, before I 
examined the body," Scully pointed out.

     "That's fine," the man said.  He nodded 
at the officer, who immediately turned and 
began walking back to his post.  The man then 
turned to Scully.  "Sorry about that.  I'm 
Detective Rajtmajer, I'm in charge out here."

     "Can you tell me how the body was found?" 
Scully asked.

     "Guy walking his dog.  Dog runs off, he 
chases after it.  When he finds the dog it's 
digging up the body.  Sounds very cliche," 
Rajtmajer said, shrugging, "but we've no 
reason not to believe the guy."

     Scully stepped around some technicians to 
stare down at the grave the body was pulled from.  
All it was was a hole in the ground, about four 
feet deep.  "What was it that suggested it was 
a ritualistic killing?" she asked.

     "The way the body was laid out and certain 
accouterments on it," the detective said, 
walking to the other side of the grave.  "The 
arms were crossed over the chest, with the 
wrists and forearms bound together by a piece 
of fabric.  The ankles were also tied together 
with the same stuff."

     "And there was nothing else at the scene?" 
Scully asked, straightening up from the crouched 
position she adopted to examine the grave.  
Rajtmajer nodded.

     Scully sighed to herself.  She was beginning 
to doubt that the body was a victim of anything 
ritualistic, but rather a murder victim.  But 
she was requested and she would help out to the 
best of her abilities.


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


1:30 p.m.
Cartias Norwood Hospital

     The town of Norfolk was so small there 
wasn't a separate building for the morgue.  
Luckily the hospital basement sufficed, and 
that was where Scully found herself heading 
towards to examine the body.  She stopped in 
front of a door with a frosted glass pane and 
the words 'Medical Examiner' imprinted on it.  
She knocked on the door, and opened it when a 
voice called out "Come in."

     The room she walked into wasn't actually 
a room, but a small alcove.  She could see 
the autopsy bay off to her right.  Directly 
in front of her was a desk with a computer 
on it, and behind that was a woman, slightly 
older than she, was dressed in a set of 
hospital scrubs.  "Can I help you?" she asked, 
brushing a piece of dark hair back that had 
slipped out of her clip.

     "I'm Special Agent Dana Scully.  I'm here 
to examine the body that was brought in 
earlier," Scully said, approaching the desk.

     "Oh!" the woman gasped, and stood up.  
Scully was surprised at how tall she was, it 
had to be near six feet, if not six.  And that 
was while in sneakers, she noted later on.  
"I'm Dr. Sarah Cooper, Chief Medical Examiner.  
I'll show you where the body is," she said, 
motioning for Scully to follow her into the 
autopsy bay.

     "I already performed a preliminary exam 
of the body," Dr. Cooper said, walking to 
where the sheet-covered body was laid out 
on the table.  "I have to say though, there 
wasn't much I could do."

     Scully shot her a puzzled look that changed 
to one of horror when the sheet was pulled back.  
Skinner did not give her all the details of the 
body, or rather, the skeleton.  The bleached 
white bones were faded and dirtied with age, 
even though it was obvious Dr. Cooper had tried 
to clean it up.  It was also a female child, the 
size of the body was unmistakable.  "I thought I 
was supposed to do an autopsy."

     Cooper looked over at Scully.  "You mean no 
one told you the details?"  She sighed and 
slouched against the table.  "Gotta love the 
federal government," she muttered sarcastically.

     "I had assumed there would be an actual body 
to autopsy, at least going by what my superior 
told me," Scully said, stripping off her jacket 
and resting it on a chair.  "But I guess they 
weren't that specific.  Would you mind if I 
started my examination?"

     "Not at all," Cooper said, reaching up to 
turn on the tape recorder hanging down from the 
ceiling.

     Scully noticed something about the body.  
"What happened to the fabric the detective said 
the wrists and ankles were bound with?"

     Cooper picked up an evidence bag from a 
nearby counter.  It was filled with a mass of 
dirtied fabric that Scully could see was falling 
apart.  "You mean this?" she said.  "By the time 
the body made it in here it had practically 
fallen off, so I bagged it."

     Scully nodded as she snapped on a pair 
of latex gloves.  The skeleton looked relatively 
normal until she reached the neck.  The neck 
bones were fractured into pieces and carefully 
arranged where they would have been if it was 
whole.  "It looks like the neck was snapped," 
she said.

     "Yeah," Cooper agreed.  "It's hard to tell 
exactly what was used to break it though, given 
the advanced age of the body."

     "It has to be at least twenty years old," 
Scully said, taking in the skeleton's appearance.  
She continued to examine the body, reciting her 
observations into the tape recorder.  Out of the 
corner of her eye she spotted something on a 
couple of the ribs.  "Pass me that magnifying 
glass, please?" she said.  Cooper quickly 
handed it to her.

     Scully leaned over to stare at the ribs.  
Running down the side of two of them, right 
over where the heart would be, were two long 
slash marks cut deep into the bone.  "What are 
these?"

     Cooper leaned over from the other side to 
get a better look.  "I didn't notice those 
before," she said.  "Looks like...possibly 
from an animal.  The body was out there a long 
time, it's definitely possible."

     "Yeah, but look at those lines.  They're 
too neat and clean to have been made by an animal 
gnawing at it," Scully said, scrutinizing it.  
"Could possibly be a knife, maybe a double-edged 
one."

     "If that's true, do you think that's what 
killed her?" Cooper asked, leaning back against 
the counter.

     Scully straightened up, placing the glass 
down next to the body.  "Between that and the 
broken neck, I'd say it was either one or both 
of them."  She sighed heavily, there was 
something about having to examine a child's 
body that was truly frightening to her.  "Was 
there anything else found on the body?" she asked 
tiredly.

     "Just this," Cooper said, handing her another, 
smaller, evidence bag.

     Scully took it from her and held the bag up 
to the light.  Inside it was a thin, silver, 
chain-link bracelet, tarnished with age and 
exposure.  There was a single charm on there in 
the shape of a star, and inside the star, under 
all the layers of dirt and grime, was a single, 
deep blue crystal.  "Nice," she murmured.

     "Doesn't give us any clues though," Cooper 
sighed.

     The door to the autopsy bay opened, and 
Detective Rajtmajer walked in.  "Any luck finding 
information about the body?"

     "Well we know it's a female child by the 
shape of the pelvis, she has been dead for at 
least twenty years, and was killed in one of 
two ways," Scully rattled off.

     "What are the two ways?" Rajtmajer asked, 
moving over to lean against another autopsy 
table.

     "She died from either a broken neck, 
which could have been purely accidental," 
Cooper responded, crossing her arms over her 
chest, "or she was stabbed in the heart."

     Rajtmajer got a thoughtful look on his 
face and braced his hands on the table.  After 
a few seconds he said, "Did you find any evidence 
of drowning also?"

     Scully and Cooper traded puzzled looks.  
"No...why?" Scully said, turning to face him.

     "It has to do with local rumor,"  he said.

     "What is it?" Scully asked.  "Even if it 
is just a rumor it could still help us."

     "Okay," he said, beginning his story.  "Back 
in the mid 70's, when I was in High School, there 
was a rumor going around town about a group called 
The Society of Three.  According to the rumor, 
they were a religion who worshipped three elements: 
air, fire, and water.  The rumor also said that 
once a year they sacrificed a child that hadn't 
hit puberty yet in order to keep the balance 
between the three elements."

     "I've done my reading on earth based 
religions, like Wiccan, Paganism, Druidry.  In 
modern times none of them believes or practices 
human sacrifice," Cooper rebutted.

     "You're not from around here originally, 
are you?" Rajtmajer asked her.

     "No, I'm not," she said with a more bitter 
than expected look on her face.

     "Well if you were, you'd have known that the 
rumor described it more as a cult than anything 
else.  Now note, this is just according to rumor, 
none of it has ever been proven to actually exist," 
he told her, not hearing the bitterness.

     "How does that relate to this body?" Scully 
butted in.

     "Because it's the way they did the sacrificial 
ceremony," Rajtmajer said, getting the urgent tone 
in his voice that one gets when sharing gossip.  
"In order for the sacrifice to be relevant and 
effective it had to go through the Triple Death 
ceremony, where the victim was killed in three 
different ways, each corresponding to the three 
elements.

     "The first is death according to air, where 
a piece of cloth or something was wrapped around 
the neck and choked until they stopped breathing.  
The second death is according to fire, where a knife 
was heated up in a fire and then driven through the 
victim's heart.  The third, and final death, is 
death according to water, where they would submerge 
the body in water for a while."

     "And you got all this from a rumor?" Cooper 
asked with a skeptical look on her face that would 
do even Scully proud.

     "Like I said, you weren't here back then," 
Rajtmajer soothed her.  "There were lots of rumors 
about the Society floating around that no one 
could verify.  Those were the most coherent ones 
that stayed around the longest."

     "The rumor does fit with the injuries on the 
body though," Scully said.  "The broken neck could 
have easily been caused by someone using a piece 
of fabric to choke her."

     "And the two marks on the ribs," Cooper 
continued, "the heart would have been placed 
right under where we found them.  Figure a 
child's ribs would be smaller, closer together, 
a large enough knife driven through them to the 
heart would leave some marks behind."

     "But what about the fabric around the wrists 
and ankles?" Scully asked, beginning to pace 
around the room.  "Does that have anything to 
do with this Society of Three, or is it something 
totally unrelated?"

     "Well none of the other supposed victims of 
the ceremony have been found before," Rajtmajer 
said, biting his lip, "so we can't say that that 
part is related.  Injury-wise though it fits in 
with the old rumors spread about the ceremony."

     "This is too fucking nuts," Cooper muttered, 
running a hand over her face.

     "Agreed," Rajtmajer chimed in.  Scully was 
the only one who didn't say anything, this was 
relatively mild compared to things she'd seen 
in the past.

     At that moment there was a knock on the 
door and Cooper practically jumped a few feet 
in the air.  "Come in," she gasped when she got 
her breath back.

     A youngish woman holding a fussing baby 
appeared when the door opened.  "I think he's 
hungry," she said, walking over to Cooper and 
handing her the baby.

     "Ahh, okay," Cooper said, holding the baby 
close.

     "I think that's my cue to go," Rajtmajer 
said, straightening up from his leaning position.  
"Later on, catch me down at the station house and 
we'll see if we can find out whose body this is."

     "Will do," she called after him as he walked 
out the door.  She looked down at the baby boy 
who was tugging at her shirtfront, and half 
smiled.  "Would you mind holding him for just 
a second?" she asked Scully with a sheepish 
look on her face.

     "Sure," Scully said.

     "Thank you so much," Cooper said, placing 
the baby in Scully's arms.  "I hope you don't 
mind, it'll be easier to feed him if I just 
change my shirt."

     "It's no problem," Scully assured Cooper, 
who then smiled gratefully and dashed into the 
alcove office.

     Scully looked down at the baby in her arms.  
She had to admit it, he was one of the cuter 
babies she had seen, with wispy brown hair 
and blue-green eyes.  Holding the baby like 
this made her think of her infertility, but 
her thinking was more along the lines of that 
she had been accepting it more.  It was much 
easier now than when she first found out.  
She still would have liked to have a child 
of her own (with Mulder, naturally), but she 
had accepted the idea that it wasn't going 
to happen.

     Cooper walked back into the room, her 
scrub top replaced by a button-down sweater.  
"I hope you don't mind this," she said as she 
took the baby back from Scully, "but he's 
allergic to the formula they have at the day 
care center here, and I didn't have time to 
pump this morning."

     "It's all right," Scully said as Cooper 
turned slightly for a little bit of modesty as 
she began to breast-feed her son.  "What's his 
name?" she asked.

     Cooper grinned, looking down at her son.  
"Duncan Samuel Cooper.  My husband's family 
says it's too strange, so I just told them I 
read a lot of Shakespeare," she smirked, and 
then shrugged.  "They didn't like my other 
kids names' either: Gillon Todd and Willow 
Marguerite."  She quieted for a second and 
then said, "I'm sorry, I must be boring you."

     Scully shook her head.  "You must be 
very proud of them," she said.

     Cooper nodded, and glanced at the skeleton 
still laid out on the table.  "I am.  I also 
don't want any of them to end up like this poor 
girl," she said somberly, stroking her son's head.

     "I know exactly what you mean," Scully said, 
understanding the fierce protectiveness that a 
mother had for her children.


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End Part Two

Part Three 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


3:30 p.m.


     Cooper sighed as she packed up Duncan's 
diaper bag.  One of the advantages of being 
M.E. in a small town was that the hours were 
pretty good.  She could leave early and only 
had to come in when there was a body that 
needed slicing and dicing.  That was especially 
good with three kids.

     As she drove home she couldn't help thinking 
about the skeleton that they brought in, as much 
as she tried not to.  It always terrified her 
to see a child laid out on the table, she kept 
imagining her own children, laying cold and 
dead right before her eyes.  This skeleton 
was different though.

     Even without Rajtmajer's rumor, she 
immediately knew that the girl was killed 
by the Society.  The injuries and especially 
that bracelet.  She wasn't going to voice her 
knowledge though, that would raise too many 
questions about her own past she wasn't 
prepared to go into.

     Suddenly she jerked the car wheel around, 
sending it into a U-turn.  She didn't know why 
she was going to do what she was about to do: 
visit the old Society house, buried even deeper 
than that skeleton in the Norfolk woods.  Cooper 
didn't know the exact way, it had literally 
been decades since she had last been there.

     A half an hour later she found it, and 
pulled her car into the wooded lot surrounding 
it.  She stepped out of the car and stared at 
the old house, made of a greyish stone that 
was common to the area.  It wasn't a place 
that she wanted to see again, ever.  But if 
she wanted to give that girl some peace she 
had to face her past's demons.

     Duncan's cry from the back seat got her 
attention, and she quickly picked him up and 
rocked him in her arms.  She glanced at the 
building again, a worried look on her face.  
She didn't want to bring him inside that 
place, but she wasn't leaving him out here 
alone and she was most definitely going in 
there.  She sighed with resignation, knowing 
that she would have to take him with her.

     Cooper walked up to the main door of the 
building.  It was a simple wooden door, and she 
could see that it was warped with age.  'One 
solid kick should get me inside,' she thought.  
The rusted lock did crumple with her first kick 
(which was certainly not a strong one), and she 
stepped into the darkened recesses of the 
building.

     It was obvious no one had been there in 
years.  Most of the windows were broken in, 
and the floor was covered in dirt and leaves.  
In one room she even saw a family of raccoons 
making themselves at home.  Aside from that 
the rooms were bare, there was nothing she 
could root through to find information.

     There was one room though that she hadn't 
gone into yet, the one she was consciously 
avoiding.  Cooper looked at the stairwell 
that led to the ceremony room, and a chill 
ran down her spine.  She hugged Duncan to her 
tighter, trying to get a handle on her fears.

     The ceremony room was the most important 
room in the Society house, she couldn't possibly 
ignore it in her search, as much as she wanted 
to.  Taking a deep breath she stepped into the 
stairwell.  Feeling her heart pound, she 
continued down the stone steps, clutching 
Duncan tight to her chest.

     Soon she was in the ceremony room and 
staring up at the high ceiling.  This room 
was also empty, although the room was always 
like that to her recollection.  She walked out 
to the middle of the room, hearing her footsteps 
echo off the stone walls.  In the center of the 
room were three things that she recognized, even 
after all those years.  The blackened circle on 
the ground where the bonfire burned was visible 
in the very dim light.  Next to that was the 
stone slab, now covered in various species of 
moss and lichen.  Last was the shallow hole in 
the ground that used to be filled with water.

     "I thought you were told never to come back 
here again," a female voice with an ominous tone 
in it spoke from somewhere behind her.

     Cooper jumped in the air and spun around, 
her eyes wildly searching.  She couldn't make 
out the face of the figure standing a few feet 
away, but she knew that voice and her memory 
was stellar.  "You son of a bitch," she growled 
at her.

     "You were distinctly told never to set foot 
in this place again, Sarah.  Why are you here?" 
the voice asked her.

     "You read the papers," Cooper sneered, 
"I'm sure you heard about the body that was 
found, the one that's got many of the police 
whispering about an old cult in the area."

     "An unfortunate discovery," the woman 
said coolly.  "But that doesn't explain why 
you're here."

     "I'm trying to find out who she is."

     "I think you know," the woman said in a 
condescending tone that made Cooper see red.

     "I know damn well who she's supposed to 
be," Cooper said through gritted teeth.  "What 
I want to know is who she really is."

     The woman was unfazed.  "Sarah, you've got 
a new life, a husband, children.  You don't want 
to lose all of that now, do you?"

     "Don't you dare threaten me," Cooper growled.

     "I'm just saying that it would not be wise 
for you to do anymore searching as to that girl's 
identity."

     "What are you so afraid of me finding?" 
Cooper questioned.  "I already know about the 
plan you had for the kids, you'd be deluding 
yourself if you think I don't remember.  All 
I'm trying to do is find out who the girl in 
that grave really was."

     "Don't do it," the woman advised her.

     Cooper bit back her reply of 'try and 
stop me', and slowly backed out of the room, 
never taking her eyes off of the woman's 
outline.  When she'd lost sight of the woman 
she turned and ran, trying to put as much 
distance as she could between them.  She 
didn't stop to breathe until she and Duncan 
were safely in the car and speeding away from 
the house.

     Her mind was working in overdrive.  The 
way the woman had been talking before said 
that there was definitely something about the 
body.  Of course, she now wanted to know what 
it was.  She just wasn't sure where to start.  
A physical examination didn't show anything out 
of the ordinary, even after they went over it 
with a fine tooth comb.

     Cooper supposed the next thing to do would 
be to try and identify the body.  It was going 
to be hard to though, there was no chance of 
getting fingerprints.  Dental records would 
only work if the girl was a runaway and her 
records were out there in order to identify 
the body in case she was dead.  She knew that 
the Society wouldn't have just picked a girl up 
from the streets.  That left very few options.

     She was so absorbed in her thoughts that 
she almost missed the driveway to her home.  
Taking Duncan out of his car seat, she nearly 
ran inside and practically collided with her 
husband.

     "Hi," Neal Cooper said, taking Duncan 
from her arms.  "What's the big rush?" he 
asked her, trailing her into the kitchen.

     Her older son Gillon walked into the 
kitchen and pulled open the refrigerator 
door to peer inside it.  "They found a dead 
body in the woods today," he said nonchalantly.

     Cooper whipped around to look at him.  
"How did you know?"

     Gillon looked up at her.  "It's been all 
around school today."

     "It figures twelve-year-old boys would 
be talking about a dead body," she muttered, 
turning back to Neal.

     "I just get back from a business trip, 
and you're already planning to spend the night 
in the morgue," Neal said with a mock pout.

     "It's a child's body," Cooper said softly.  
"I have to find out who she is."

     Neal just nodded, knowing how she felt.  
"I'll call you later then, after the kids are 
asleep."

     "Good," Cooper sighed, "because I'm going 
to need help with this one."  A lot of help...


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


7 p.m.
Dana Scully's apartment


     Scully walked into her apartment and 
immediately kicked her heels off and put her 
briefcase down.  The living room was dark, but 
the muffled noise coming from the TV they had 
temporarily moved into her bedroom told her 
that Mulder was still there and not out doing 
something stupid.

     She strolled into the bedroom and saw that 
he was awake, sitting up in bed with a blanket 
wrapped around his shoulders.  He didn't look 
any better than he did that morning, but not 
any worse, so that was something good.  
"Hey,"  he said as she sat down next to him.  
"How was the autopsy?"

     Scully sighed and ran a hand over her 
face.  "Well to start, Skinner didn't give 
me all the details.  It wasn't a body that 
I was supposed to examine, it was an, at 
least, twenty-year-old skeleton that hasn't 
been identified yet.  And now we've got the 
local cops spreading rumors about how the girl 
was killed by a cult because of some injuries 
the local M.E. and I found."  She sighed again 
and rested her head against his blanket-covered 
shoulder.

     "Small town?" Mulder asked, looking down 
at her.

     "Yeah, Norfolk, Massachusetts."

     Mulder's face grew grim.  "I hate that 
place."  Scully looked up at him, hearing the 
sudden coldness in his voice.  She shot him a 
puzzled look, but he dismissed it by asking 
"What about this cult?"

     "Aside from the fact that no one is sure 
that it even existed, it's a group called the 
Society of Three," she looked up to see Mulder 
nodding with conviction as she spoke.  "What 
do you know about this?" she suddenly found 
herself asking him.

     "I can tell you that this Society 
definitely did exist," he said softly.  
"My mother was one of them."

     Scully straightened up with surprise, 
certainly not expecting to hear that.  Her 
face must have reflected that because Mulder 
nodded solemnly.  "You have to understand that 
my mother was a very fickle person," he said.  
"She liked the so-called leadership the Society 
provided."

     She turned in the bed to face him directly.  
"So you're saying that these rumors do have some 
basis in reality?"

     "Yeah."

     "What else do you know about it?" Scully 
asked.  "It might help us figure out who the 
girl is."

     Mulder let his eyes fall shut and rested 
his head against one of the pillows behind him, 
trying to remember things he had heard from his 
mother.  "It's called the Society of Three after 
what they believed were the most powerful 
elements: air, fire, and water.  It was founded 
in 1957 by Jack Montmorency, a student of theology 
at Boston University.  I'm not quite sure why he 
founded it though.  Anyway it basically worshipped 
those three elements, and had meetings on the 
full moon of every month.  I don't remember what 
happened during those, my mom only took me to a 
few of them and I spent those huddled in a corner 
scared shitless, and with damn good reason.

     "Once each year, on the summer solstice, 
the Society would do this thing they called 
the Triple Death ceremony.  See, they believed 
that children were pure and that they were the 
best ones to keep the elements under control.  
So, once a year, they would sacrifice a child 
of one of the members, who hadn't hit puberty 
yet, in this Triple Death ceremony.

     "They would kill the child in three ways, 
one for each element.  Choking for air, stabbing 
for fire, and drowning for water.  They believed 
that if they didn't do this the elements would 
wreak havoc on the planet.

     "The Society eventually disbanded in 1980, 
after some sort of schism between the members.  
By that time my mother wasn't really involved 
with it.  After Sam's disappearance and..." 
he trailed off for a minute, then spoke again, 
"she pretty much lost her zealousness for 
it."  Mulder slumped back tiredly, pulling 
the blanket tighter around himself.

     Scully shifted to sit behind him, pressing 
her body up against his.  "You know, if it was 
anyone else telling me this I'd swear it was a 
work of fiction," she said.

     "I'm not putting you on," Mulder said, 
looking over at her.

     "I know," Scully said, resting her head 
against his shoulder.  "You know, one of the 
detectives said that the body could be a victim 
of this Triple Death ceremony."

     "Broken neck, stab wound, and drowning, or 
at least what you could see on a skeleton?"

     "Yeah.  And given the look of the skeleton 
it would fit in that time frame you said," Scully 
mused, trying to connect all the pieces in her 
head.  "Do you think that we could find the parents 
of the children who were killed?"

     "No," Mulder said, shaking his head.  "The 
only records of who was in the Society, I think, 
were destroyed when the group split.  And even 
if you did manage to find them, they wouldn't 
tell you their child died in some religious 
rite, they would say that they died from a 
serious illness."  His face took on a sad look, 
recalling something that happened nearly thirty 
years ago.  Scully caught the look and wrapped 
her arms around his waist, trying to offer him 
comfort from the demons unknown to her.  "I 
only knew one of the victims anyway......" 
there was an almost interminable pause, 
"....she was my twin sister, Skye."

     Scully did a double take, not quite 
believing what she just heard.  "Bu-but I 
thought that Samantha--" she stammered out, 
having trouble with the words.

     Mulder seemed to get the idea of what she
 was trying to say and nodded.  "Skye's only 
mentioned in my official records one time, 
saying that I had another sister who died 
when I was ten.  My parents never really 
talked about her afterwards also.  I guess...you 
wouldn't really know about her, unless you did 
your searching."

     "How did she die?" Scully whispered, 
resting her chin on his shoulder.  Mulder 
leaned back in her arms and she pressed her 
temple against his.

     "My mom said it was because she got sick.  
About a week before my parents took her to the 
mainland, telling me and Sam that she had to go 
to the hospital.  One week later she says that 
Skye passed away and was buried.  I never even 
got to visit her gravestone."

     "Why did you suspect that the Society killed 
her for their ceremony?"

     "Because about a month before that I saw 
Jack over at the house.  He was arguing with 
my father, who was saying something about how 
he wouldn't let them have any of us for their 
ceremonies.  My mom was saying that it was a 
great honor for her to be chosen."  He shook 
his head abruptly.  "I don't know.  I know she 
wasn't sick when mom said she took her to the 
hospital.  I could just tell right before she 
died how scared she was.  She wouldn't have 
been like that if she was sick."

     Scully wrapped her arms around him tighter, 
knowing that he was reliving the pain.  "You 
didn't take it well, did you?"

     Mulder shook his head.  "No.  For a long 
time it felt like I had lost a part of myself.  
I had never been without her before because she 
was my twin sister, we had some sort of bond.  
After though when I tried to reach out for her 
all I could get was nothing.  But then Sam was 
abducted..."

     "It must have been hell," Scully sighed.  
She could feel her heart breaking for Mulder.  
His past was riddled with enough things already, 
this added another layer that impacted him just 
as deeply as the rest.

     She felt him yawn against her shoulder, 
and then heard him say, "I think I'm going to 
get some sleep now.  I still feel crappy."  
She helped him lay down, settling his head 
on the pillow by her hip.  As he drifted off 
to sleep Scully stroked his hair, wondering 
about Mulder's strange life.


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


7:30 a.m.


     For the second day in a row Scully was 
awoken by her phone ringing.  Now she was 
tempted to take out her gun and shoot it 
until blessed silence reigned and she and 
Mulder could keep on sleeping.  She tried to 
ignore it but the damned thing kept ringing.  
Finally she gave up on any notions of sleeping 
more and picked up the phone.  "Hello?"

     -Hi, Agent Scully?  This is Sarah Cooper 
with the Norfolk M.E.'s office.-

     "Hi," Scully said, readjusting the phone 
on her shoulder as she sat up straighter in 
bed.  Out of the corner of her eye she noticed 
that Mulder had woken up also and was now 
listening intently to the conversation.  "It's 
the Norfolk M.E.," she whispered to him as she 
covered the mouthpiece.  Turning back to the 
phone she said, "Is everything all right?"

     -Yeah.  I've been working through the night 
though, and I think I've found out who the 
skeleton was.-

     "Who?" Scully asked, her eyes widening.

     -Well, I'm pretty sure that she's Jacqueline 
Brabant, who died in 1972 at the age of 15 at the 
Westing Children's Hospital.-

     Scully was puzzled.  "How did you find 
this out?"

     -Dental records, believe it or not.  I 
took the chance of running the x-rays of her 
teeth through the system, and this match came up.-

     "I don't get it though.  If she died in a 
hospital, why are her dental records floating 
in the system?" Scully asked, mentally fitting 
these new pieces into the puzzle in her head.

     -Apparently she ran away when she was 
thirteen, and the dental records were used 
then to identify bodies that could have been 
hers.  She however showed up back home two 
months later and the records were listed as 
inactive.  In February of 1972 she was diagnosed 
with a brain tumor and died on June 20 of that 
year.-

     Scully bit her lip.  There was something 
there that didn't fit, but she couldn't 
pinpoint.  It was right on the tip of her 
tongue though.  "What about the bracelet?"  
She felt a tug on her sleeve, and looked down 
into Mulder's face.  "Hold on a sec," she said 
into the phone.  "What is it?" she asked him.

     "What bracelet?" he asked her.  She 
realized that he had fallen asleep before 
she could tell him about it last night.

     "We found a bracelet on the body.  Silver 
chain link, with a star charm hanging from it."  
She watched as Mulder's face went pale, even 
with the bad pallor already there from the flu.

     "Did it have a blue crystal on the star?" 
he asked quietly.

     "Yeah," Scully said incredulously, 
wondering how the hell he knew that.

     "Skye had a bracelet exactly like that," 
Mulder said, staring into her eyes.

     She almost dropped the phone.  "Are you sure?"

     "Positive.  Me, my dad, and Samantha all 
pitched in to have it custom made for her tenth 
birthday."

     This time the she did drop the phone, and 
felt it land against her shoulder.  "What the 
hell is going on?" 


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


End Part Three

Part Four

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


     "Mulder, there is no way you are coming 
with me," Scully said to a Mulder who was 
struggling to get into one of the suits he 
kept over at her place.

     Mulder stopped trying to get into his 
pants and looked up at her.  "Scully, this 
is my sister, I have to be there," he said 
pleadingly.

     "You're sick, Mulder.  You still have 
a temperature, I can't let you out in the 
field like that," Scully said, moving closer 
to him.  "Please.  I will do everything to 
find out what really happened to her, you know 
that."

     "I know," Mulder sighed, feeling defeated.  
Scully wrapped her arms around him, trying to 
comfort him as best as she could.

     "Now, come on, get back into bed," she 
said, kissing his forehead.

     "If only I was feeling better, I'd drag 
you there with me," he said with a weak leer 
as he made his way back to the bed.

     "I'll take a raincheck," she smiled, 
settling him back onto the pillows.  When she 
was sure Mulder was comfortable she grabbed her 
own jacket and pulled it on.  She got a sudden 
thought though, and turned back to Mulder.  "Do 
you have a picture of Skye anywhere?" she asked.

     Mulder nodded.  "Yeah, in my wallet.  Hand 
me my jacket, please, it's in there."  Scully 
handed it to him, and he rummaged around in the 
pockets until he pulled out what he was looking 
for.  He flipped open the wallet and pulled a 
folded up picture out from behind a piece of 
leather.  "Here."  He handed it to Scully.

     Scully took it and carefully unfolded it.  
It was a color picture, but faded with age.  
The three of them were there, she could 
recognize Mulder and Samantha, which meant 
the girl in between them was Skye.  She could 
see the resemblance to Mulder, they had the same 
eyes, same smile, same dark hair, although Skye's 
was down to her shoulders and on that day very 
windblown.  She noted that on the arm that Skye 
had draped around Mulder's shoulders there was a 
silver bracelet with a charm that twinkled hanging 
off of it.  "That was taken about a month before 
she died," Mulder said.

     "Thank you," Scully said, dragging her eyes 
away from the picture and back to him.  "This 
should help a lot."

     "Are you going to be back tonight?" 
Mulder asked.

     "Yeah, unless something drastic happens," 
Scully said.

     "Okay," Mulder said, relaxing into the 
pillows behind him.

     Scully leaned over to press her lips to 
his.  "I'll see you then," she whispered as she 
pulled back.

     "I'll be waiting," Mulder grinned at her.

     Scully looked at him over her shoulder as 
she walked out of the room.  "And get some rest," 
she shot back at him.  Mulder just laughed and 
reached for the remote.


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


11:30 a.m.
Norfolk Police Station


     Scully stormed through the doors of the 
police station, wishing that she could have 
been here sooner.  "Agent Scully!" she heard 
someone call and turned to see Rajtmajer waving 
her over to his desk.  "Did you Sarah speak to 
you this morning?" he asked her as she walked 
over to him.

     "Yeah, she told me she I.D.'d the body," 
Scully said, resting a hand on his desk.

     "Jacqueline Brabant, died at age 15 in the 
Westing Children's Hospital," Rajtmajer said, 
turning to pick up a piece of paper on his desk.

     "What's this Westing Children's Hospital?" 
Scully said.  "Dr. Cooper mentioned it this 
morning but she never explained what it was."

     "It's an old hospital that used to be 
in this area.  As the name says it specialized 
in children, but it shut down in 1980," Rajtmajer 
said.

     Scully shrugged, filing that information 
away for later.  "Where's Dr. Cooper now?" she 
asked.

     "Well she was here earlier but I think she 
went back to the morgue to check something with 
the body," he said.

     "I have to tell her that I found out who 
the bracelet that was on the skeleton belonged 
to," Scully said.

     Rajtmajer shot her an incredulous look.  
"You mean that the bracelet didn't belong to 
Jacqueline Brabant?" he asked.

     "No," Scully shook her head.

     "Are you sure?"

     "Positive," Scully said.  "The bracelet 
belonged to a Skye Mulder, a ten year old girl 
who died on June 21, 1972."

     "That's close to when Jacqueline Brabant 
died," Rajtmajer said.

     "Do you think the body was misidentified?" 
Scully asked.

     "Nope," Rajtmajer said, shaking his head.  
"I saw the dental records myself, they're a 
perfect match for Jacqueline Brabant.  It's 
more likely that she somehow got the bracelet 
before she died."

     Scully shook her head.  "Somehow I doubt 
that's the case," she said, remembering that 
Mulder said Skye never took the bracelet off.  
She also remembered the picture she borrowed 
from Mulder earlier that morning.  "Do you 
have a picture of Jacqueline Brabant?" she asked.

     "We might," Rajtmajer said, turning to his 
computer.  "Sarah said that she was a runaway 
for a few months, if we're lucky her picture 
could still be in the system."  He hit a few 
keys and worked his way through the system, 
searching through the older archives.  "Ahh, 
here we go," he finally said, clicking the 
mouse button.  "Presenting Jacqueline Brabant, 
age thirteen."

     A picture formed on the screen.  The 
picture was in black and white, and slightly 
grainy.  Scully pulled the picture of Mulder, 
Samantha, and Skye out from where she had stored 
it in her badge and held it next to the picture 
on the screen.  "Who's that?" Rajtmajer asked.

     "That one," Scully said, pointing to Skye.  
"Skye Mulder, she's the one who owned the 
bracelet.  You can see she's wearing it in 
this picture."

     Rajtmajer leaned closer, squinting.  
"You're right, I can see it around her right 
wrist."  He then leaned back and looked at 
both pictures.  "You know, they do kind of 
look alike."

     Scully's eyes darted back and forth 
between the two girls.  "The faces are 
different, but they have the same hair color 
and the same body type.  From a distance away 
no one could be able to tell the difference."  
She sighed and bit the inside of her cheek, 
resting her hand on her hip.  "It's got to mean 
something that they look that similar," she 
muttered.

     "But what?" Rajtmajer sighed, then shook 
his head.  "I'm going to print out a few copies 
of this just in case," he said, turning to the 
printer.

     At that moment Cooper breezed through the 
doors and walked over to Rajtmajer's desk.  "I 
got the dating back on the body.  It's somewhere 
between twenty-six and thirty years old," she 
said, tossing a file down.

     "There were definitely rumors of the 
Society going around at that time," Rajtmajer 
confirmed, looking up at the two women.

     "We also found an old picture of Jacqueline 
Brabant," Scully said, reaching for one of the 
printouts and handing it to her.  "And we also 
found out who the bracelet belonged to."

     Cooper's face took on a puzzled look, and 
she was about to ask a question when a cell 
phone rang.  Scully, Rajtmajer, and Cooper all 
checked their phones, but the only one who had 
any luck was Cooper.  "Hello?...Willow, what 
is it?...You what?  Forgot your picture for 
show and tell?"

     As Cooper dealt with her daughter Rajtmajer 
turned to Scully.  "Would you mind if I made a 
photocopy of this picture?" he asked, holding 
up the picture of Skye.

     Scully shook her head.  "Go right ahead, 
just be careful with it, I'm only borrowing it."  
Rajtmajer nodded, and went off to make his copy.

     By the time he got back Cooper was done with 
her phone call Rajtmajer was done with the copy 
and handed the actual picture back to Scully.  
"So where do we go from here?" he asked.

     "Well, Dr. Cooper and I are going to go 
back to the morgue and re-examine the skeleton, 
see if there's any evidence of Jacqueline 
Brabant's brain tumor there," Scully said.

     "Okay.  I'm going to try and dig up some 
more background information on her, maybe 
there's something there that could help us," 
Rajtmajer said, sitting back down in his chair.

     "And I'm going to call my husband to tell 
him to bring Willow's picture up to school in 
time for show and tell," Cooper said with a tired 
look on her face.  She shook her head to clear 
it.  "I'll call him in the car."

     "I'll drive then," Scully said, and the 
two women walked out of the police station.

     Rajtmajer got up out of his chair and 
walked over to the window.  His eyes followed 
the two women until they were in the car and 
driving away.  When they were out of sight he 
walked back to his desk, picked up the two 
copied pictures, and headed for his own car.

     He gunned the engine, pushing the car 
faster and faster, knowing he had to get where 
he was going within a certain time frame.  
Luckily it wasn't a far ride, and soon he saw 
the house he was looking for.  Rajtmajer killed 
the engine and walked up the front path, his 
hand extended in front of him, ready to ring 
the doorbell.  Within a few seconds of ringing 
the bell the door opened.  "Hi, Neal."

     Neal Cooper opened the door wider, inviting 
him inside.  "Is everything okay?  Is Sarah...?"

     "Sarah's fine," Rajtmajer soothed him as he 
walked into the house.  "I was just wondering if 
you had a picture of her from around the time 
she was ten years old?"

     Neal shot him a funny look.  "Why?"

     "Just humor me on this, okay?" Rajtmajer 
pleaded.

     "Okay," Neal said, turning to walk into 
the living room.  "You do know though that she 
was adopted when she was ten though."

     "Yeah, I remember her mentioning that to 
my wife once."

     Neal walked over to the bookcase and scanned 
the racks.  "Here," he said, pulling down a photo 
album, and flipping through the pages.  "This 
is probably as close as you'll get.  It's from 
'73, she'd be twelve here."  He handed Rajtmajer 
the album.  "It's her first day of school that 
year."

     Rajtmajer took the album and carefully 
placed it on the coffee table.  At twelve 
years old Cooper was dark haired, hazel-eyed, 
and gangly.  Seeming satisfied with that, he 
pulled out of his pocket the picture of Jacqueline 
Brabant.  "Who's that?" Neal asked, looking over 
his shoulder.

     "That's a picture of the girl who's skeleton 
was found in the woods yesterday, Jacqueline 
Brabant," Rajtmajer answered, putting it down 
on one side of the picture of young Cooper.  
Then he pulled out the picture of Skye and 
placed it on the other side.

     "And who's that supposed to be?"

     "The girl I think we were supposed to 
think was buried in the woods," Rajtmajer 
said, looking down at the three pictures 
together.

     "And now tell me why this one," Neal said, 
pointing to the picture of Skye, "looks like she 
could be Sarah's twin at that age?"  His eyes 
were darting back and forth between the pictures 
of Cooper and Skye and noting how they were 
practically identical.

     "That's what I'm trying to figure out," 
Rajtmajer sighed.  "The only problem is this 
one," pointing to Skye, "has supposedly been 
dead since June 21, 1972, only one day after 
Jacqueline Brabant, the girl in the other 
picture, died."


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


End Part Four

Part Five

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


1 p.m.
Cartias Norwood Hospital


     "Well that was a utter and total waste of 
time," Cooper muttered, snapping off her latex 
gloves and tossing them into a garbage bin.

     "It was worth a shot," Scully said.  "If 
we found evidence of a tumor aside from the 
hospital records we wouldn't be able to arrest 
anyone for murder."

     Cooper slouched down into a chair that 
she dragged in from her office.  "This whole 
thing does not make any sense!" she said 
angrily.  "We've got a body who's identified 
as one person, but we're supposed to believe 
it's another person.  We know who killed her 
and why she was killed, yet we've got no specific 
suspects.  And now this!  There's a chance that 
those injuries that we found could have been 
post-mortem.  It's driving me fucking crazy!"

     Scully shot her a puzzled look that went 
unnoticed because Cooper's head was buried in 
her hands.  "How did you know the body was 
supposed to be someone else than who she was 
identified as?"

     "Rajtmajer told me," she muttered through 
her hands, although Scully wasn't quite sure 
if it was the truth.

     "Well let's start with what we know," 
Scully said, leaning against the counter.

     "That's just it, we don't know anything 
definitively!" Cooper exploded, but then 
slumped against the back of the chair.  "I'm 
sorry about that, this case is just getting 
to me."

     "It's okay," Scully said sympathetically.  
"The death of a child affects everyone."

     "It's just..." Cooper sighed, but then 
shook her head.  "What about this Society?  
Are they still the main suspects for having 
killed her?" she asked.

     "I think so," Scully said.  "Even if it 
turns out that the brain tumor really did kill 
her they're still the ones who broke the neck 
and stabbed her after she died."

     Cooper reached up to rub the back of her 
neck, trying to ease the tension there.  "God, 
I'm just about ready to say to hell with this 
whole thing and put her back in the ground."

     At that moment the door to the autopsy 
bay opened and one of the local police officers 
walked in.  "Uh, Dr. Cooper?" he said very 
nervously.

     Cooper looked up at him.  "What is it?" 
she asked, her stomach beginning to form knots.

     "It's your daughter.  She's been kidnapped."


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


6:00 p.m.
Norfolk Police Station


     "How the hell could she disappear from 
the middle of the playground without anyone 
seeing her!?!" Cooper yelled, her arms extended 
towards Rajtmajer as if she were about to strangle 
him.  He backed up and raised his arms in the air 
defensively.

     "I don't know," he said.  "We've talked to 
the one witness over and over and all he says 
was that someone grabbed Willow."

     "He's six years old, what did you expect?" 
Cooper shot back.

     "Look, I've got as many men as I can 
spare going over the school playground," 
Rajtmajer tried to soothe her.  "We will 
find her."

     "You'd better," Cooper said, and began 
pacing around the room once more.

     What had happened was Dr. Cooper's six 
year old daughter Willow had been kidnapped 
from the school playground during the afternoon 
recess.  The only witness was a classmate of 
hers who she was playing with at the time.  So 
far, they hadn't found any clues.

     "How are you holding up?" Scully asked, 
walking over to her.

     She sighed.  "Honestly?  I'm about to 
shoot these cops for their ineffectiveness."

     "I'm sure you've heard this before, but 
they are doing everything they can," Scully 
said in a weak attempt to comfort her.

     "Yeah."  Cooper looked over at Neal, 
who was walking back and forth, trying to 
calm down a fussing Duncan, and at Gillon 
sitting down on a chair trying to read a 
book and failing miserably.  "But I just 
want her back."

     Scully nodded and rubbed her arm for a 
second.  "Excuse me," she mumbled, and walked 
off to a quiet hallway.  Once there she pulled 
out her cell phone and dialed in her home 
number.

     Two rings later the phone was picked 
up and a mumbled -Hello?- was heard.

     "Did I wake you?" she asked, not 
wanting to disturb him.

     -Nah, it's okay,- Mulder said.  Scully 
heard some sheets rustling over the wires, 
and then he said -So what's up?-

     "Something came up," she sighed, rubbing 
her hand over her eyes.

     -What happened?-

     "The M.E.'s daughter was kidnapped.  I 
don't think it even has anything to do with 
the case but the town's in an uproar and I'm 
sticking around to help," Scully said, looking 
down the hallway towards the main room.

     -So you're not coming home tonight then,- 
she heard him sigh.

     "I'll try to be back tomorrow, after we 
kick off the kidnapping investigation," she 
said.  At the end of the hallways Cooper came 
into her line of sight and she bit her lip.  
"The M.E. herself though, there's something 
about her."

     -What?- Mulder prodded.

     "She's hiding something with the case.  
I don't know what it is, but there's something 
she knows that she's not telling us," Scully 
said, frustration coming through in her voice.

     -Maybe you should confront her about it 
after her daughter's found,- Mulder said.

     "If we're going to find out the truth 
about that body I'm going to have to," Scully 
said, beginning to pace the hallway.  "Other 
than that I don't know what else to do.  I know 
she didn't kill the girl, but she knows something 
about it and she's not talking."

     -Calm down, Scully,- Mulder said, a slight 
laugh in his voice.  -You're not going to find 
anything as a nervous wreck.-

     "I know," she said, and took a deep breath.  
"Okay.  I'll call you back in a little while.  
And make sure you rest!"

     -Yes, mom,- Mulder chuckled, and hung up 
the phone.  Scully clicked off her end and 
walked back down the hall.  She stopped though 
before she turned the corner when she overheard 
Rajtmajer and Neal Cooper talking and took a 
sudden interest in what they were saying.

     "Have you asked her about it yet?" 
Rajtmajer was saying.

     "Her only daughter was kidnapped and 
you want me to ask her that?  Are you nuts?" 
Neal said.

     "It's only because of the fact that what 
she knows could help find out who killed that 
girl."

     "Look, I'll ask her when it's over.  Right 
now she's got more important things on her mind 
than why she looks like a girl who's been dead 
for twenty-eight years."  Scully was puzzled at 
that last bit of information and then decided 
that it was time to turn the corner and announce 
her presence before the two men came to blows.  
She walked out, ignored the stares the two men 
gave her, and continued on to the main room.

     Cooper was now slouched in a chair, nursing 
a cup of coffee and probably wishing it was 
something stronger.  Scully sat down on the 
chair next to her, stretching her legs out.  
Cooper shot her a weak grin, the corner of 
her mouth tilting up.  Scully mulled over 
Neal's statement in her head once more, trying 
to fit it in with all the other pieces she had 
been gathering.

     She was distracted though, when yet another 
cop came through the doors into the main room.  
The only difference than all the other times 
was that this one had something.  "I think we 
got something!" he called, sending Cooper and 
Scully shooting out of their chairs and starting 
a mad rush for him.

     "What is it?" Rajtmajer asked.

     "It's a piece of fabric, black silk.  Nothing 
someone would wear to a playground," the officer 
said, tossing Rajtmajer the evidence bag.

     "How do you know this isn't something worn 
to a playground?" he asked as he held the bag up 
to examine it.

     "I've got two kids of my own, Sir.  This is 
not the kind of stuff you wear when chasing after 
kids."

     "What about this design on it?" Rajtmajer 
said.  "It looks like embroidery or something."

     "Let me see," Cooper said, barging her way 
to the front of the crowd.  She snatched the 
evidence bag out of Rajtmajer's hand and stared 
at it, not quite believing what she was seeing.

     Embroidered in the center of the fabric was 
a circle of gold colored floss.  Extending from 
the circle were three gold colored rays.  "Son 
of a bitch!" she exploded and threw the bag back 
at Rajtmajer.  She snatched up her purse and ran 
full tilt out of there.

     The ones remaining in the room stood there 
stunned until something in Scully snapped and 
she ran out after her.  She dashed outside to 
see Cooper getting into her car, and she 
practically leapt down the stairs in order to 
get to her.  She reached Cooper just as she 
was starting up the car, and she banged on the 
window to get her attention.  Cooper rolled 
down the window and Scully asked "Where are 
you going?"

     "I know where she is," Cooper said 
breathlessly.

     Scully stared at her.  "You can't go by 
yourself, you need backup.  You're not even a 
police officer!"

     "But it's my daughter!"

     "And you still need help!"

     Cooper drummed her hands on the wheel for 
a second.   "Fine," she said.  "You've got the 
gun, you come with me," and she unlocked the 
passenger door.  Scully didn't think, just ran 
around the car and got into it.  When she was 
buckled in Cooper gunned the engine and the 
car sped out of the lot.

     Scully looked over at her.  "You know 
we should call them, at least tell them where 
we're headed."

     Cooper glanced in the rearview mirror and 
saw a few cars pull out of the police lot.  
"They're following us anyway, they'll find 
it that way."

     "Where are we headed anyway?" Scully 
asked, seeing some unfamiliar roads outside 
her window.

     "It's a ways outside of town, back in 
the woods," Cooper said tensely, her hands 
clenching on the wheel.

     "How are you sure Willow's even there?" 

     "Oh, trust me, she is."  Cooper jerked 
the wheel around swiftly, turning on to another 
road.

     There was a few minutes of silence, and 
when it got to be too much for Scully, she asked 
Cooper the question she'd been dying to ask.  
"What are you hiding?"  Cooper shot her a 
puzzled look out of the corner of her eye, 
and Scully continued.  "About Jacqueline 
Brabant's body, what do you know that you 
aren't telling us?"

     Cooper took a deep breath, but didn't 
say anything.  Just when Scully had decided 
that she wasn't going to talk she did.  "Did 
you know that the Society actually only killed 
two children?  Everyone thinks that they killed 
one a year, but in actuality only two kids were 
ever murdered for their sacrifice.

     "They had a sort of system, and a small 
group within the group formed.  Three group 
members worked at the Westing Children's 
hospital, which used to be in this area.  
The two other members of this little group 
were a social worker and a police officer.  
The ones who worked at the hospital scouted 
out the terminally ill children who would be 
passing on around the time the ceremony would 
be.  The social worker was Jack's (he was the 
one who founded the Society) advisor on what 
child should be selected for the ceremony, and 
she would make her decision out of the children 
of the members based on who was in the hospital.  

     A week before the ceremony the child to be 
sacrificed was brought to the house for 
preparations, and access to the child was 
very limited, so not many would see her.  A 
few hours before the ceremony the already dead 
child would replace the living child.  The 
social worker would then set the still living 
child up in a foster home with a new identity 
and the strict promise (if they were old enough 
to realize what was happening) never to look 
back or even think about their old life.

     "In 1980 the group disbanded.  That was 
because Jack found out that the bodies were 
being replaced, and basically all his ceremonies 
were for naught.  Because of that the doctors 
moved away and shut the hospital down."  
Cooper dared a sideways glance at Scully.  
"And that's pretty much the whole story."

     Scully sat back in the chair, half 
stunned.  More pieces clicked into place, 
and an actual picture was beginning to form.  
"So you're saying that girl, Jacqueline 
Brabant, was..."

     "Actually killed by a brain tumor, 
then used to replace the body of a girl 
about to be killed," Cooper confirmed.  
Scully floundered for words, not sure of 
what to say.  She looked over to Cooper 
once more, searching for support.

     And that's when she saw who she was 
really looking at.

     She almost kicked herself for not 
noticing it before, but it was there.  In 
the eyes that were squinted towards the road, 
the curved mouth and set chin, even in the 
nose that was less pronounced on her.  It 
also provided the answer as to why Willow 
Cooper was kidnapped.  It seemed strange to 
her that one of the answers she was searching 
for was right in front of her eyes, but then 
again, she was getting used to the strange 
and coincidental.

     Scully wasn't allowed any more time to 
ponder this new development because the car 
jerked to a stop.  The two woman scrambled 
out of the car.  Scully looked up at the 
old stone building, taking in its decrepit 
state.  It was the perfect place to hide a 
person, and judging by the dim light pouring 
out of a few broken windows someone was there.

     Cooper ran over to the door, still rotting 
and rusted.  She looked over at Scully who 
nodded, and the two women each aimed strong 
kicks at the door.  The door splintered under 
their feet and after they pushed the remnants 
out of the way they continued on.

     "Down there?" Scully whispered, motioning 
towards the basement stairwell that had light 
pouring out of it.  Cooper nodded and they crept 
slowly down it, trying to keep their footsteps 
quiet.  The farther down they went, the brighter 
the stairwell became.  They stopped at the 
entrance to the basement and huddled in the 
shadows the stairwell created.

     Peeking around the edge Scully saw the 
source of the light--a large bonfire lit in 
the center of the cavernous room, with five 
people huddled in a group a short distance 
away.  Beyond the bonfire she could she a 
shallow hole in the ground, and sitting in 
the hole bound and gagged was Willow Cooper.

     Cooper's stomach seized up, seeing her 
daughter there with that frightened look in 
her eyes.  Without really thinking she began 
running into the room to get her daughter, 
but Scully yanked her back by the waistband 
of her jeans.  Cooper shot her an angry glare, 
but Scully shook her head.  She pulled out her 
gun and whispered "Let's do this safely."

     Scully crept out of the stairwell and 
approached the bonfire, Cooper right on her 
heels.  "FBI, stay right where you are!" 
she shouted, her voice echoing off of the 
walls.

     The group spun around to face her and 
Scully saw that they were older, most of 
them somewhere in their sixties.  One of 
them she even recognized as a desk clerk 
from the police station, one of the ones 
who had been there for a long time but they 
couldn't bear to force to retire.  They 
weren't exactly what one would suspect as 
a kidnapper, but the look on Cooper's face 
as she walked up beside her told her these 
were the people they were looking for.

     An older woman stepped away from the 
group and looked at the two of them, her 
eyes settling on Cooper.  In a controlled 
voice she said "I warned you Sarah Cooper.  
You were told not to look into this any 
further, or else there would be consequences."

     "That's not my name," Cooper said in a 
voice filled with steel, standing up straighter.

     The woman arched an eyebrow.  "Would you 
rather be called by your true name and be nothing 
more than a body in the ground with a silver 
bracelet for identification?" she asked, using 
whatever she could to try and intimidate them.

    Scully's eyes darted back and forth, 
traveling in between Cooper and the woman, 
the small group, and Willow.  Willow in 
particular was looking more and more scared 
as the minutes went by that her mother verbally 
dueled with the woman.

     "I am who I am," Cooper said.  "A name 
doesn't determine that."  Cooper glanced over 
at Scully.  This wasn't going as she had 
planned, which was to burst in there, scare 
the crap out of them, and get Willow out of 
there.  They weren't budging though.  They 
could try making a break for it, knowing that 
they could probably take the small group on 
and win due to their ages.

     But Cooper and Scully were able to do 
one thing well, which was distract the group 
enough to let the police that had followed 
them (the ones the two women had forgotten 
after everything that had happened) swarm the 
place.  "This is the Norfolk Police!  Everybody 
put their hands up!" Rajtmajer shouted out, 
and Cooper and Scully sighed with relief.

     Knowing that the police recognized them 
they ran over to Willow and leapt into the 
shallow pit.  Together they untied her bonds 
and when she was free she burrowed into her 
mother's arms.  The sound of a throat clearing 
above them got their attention, and they saw 
the woman standing up on the rim of the pit, 
flanked on either side by police officers.  
"Until we meet again," she said with a cool 
smirk as the police dragged her off.

     Cooper groaned softly and hugged Willow 
tighter.  "Why do I always seem to walk into 
trouble?" she said, not to anyone in particular.

     "It must run in the family," Scully 
muttered, the corner of her mouth quirking 
up.  Cooper shot her a puzzled look to which 
Scully said "I know your brother."

     Sarah Cooper, better known as Skye Mulder, 
just groaned once more and leaned back against 
the wall of the pit, feeling very exhausted.


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


End Part Five

Part Six


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


Two Weeks Later
The Cooper's Home


     There was one thing that seemed to draw 
all men together, the thing that tore down 
barriers while throwing new ones up, that 
could cause celebration and cause outbreaks 
of fights--sports.  Luckily for Mulder, his 
sister's husband and her son were both Knicks 
fans, and they spent most of the day that 
Cooper had invited them over for in front 
of the television, engrossed in the game.

     Cooper and Scully stood in the doorway 
to the family room, staring at the two men 
and one boy (although at the moment they 
were acting like three boys) yelling at the 
television.  "I guess it was a bad thing to 
invite you over on the day of the playoffs," 
Cooper said, crossing her arms over her chest.

     Scully smirked.  "At least it ensured 
they'd all get along," she said.  "They cheer 
for the same team, so I think it's some sort 
of male bonding thing."

     "Well they can bond over dinner," Cooper 
said, moving back into the kitchen.  She came 
back a second later with two pizza boxes, paper 
plates and napkins stacked on top.  They walked 
into the family room and stopped right by the 
coffee table so she could put the pizzas down.  
The coffee table was also right in front of the 
television.

     "Hey!"

     "Move out of the way!"

     "Mom, the game's on!"

     The women shot them withering looks.  "It's 
pizza, you can eat and watch at the same time," 
Cooper said.

     "But you're still in the way," Neal said, 
believing that what he was saying was the most 
reasonable thing in the world.  Cooper rolled 
her eyes and sat down, pulling a large cushion 
over to sit on.  Scully, not wanting an argument, 
moved around the table and sat down by Mulder's 
feet.

     Scully looked at the three guys sitting 
on the couch, four if you considered Duncan 
who was sitting on his father's lap, outfitted 
in his own baby-sized Knicks T-shirt and trying 
to gnaw on Neal's fingers.  They had gotten 
along immediately (thankfully).  Gillon thought 
it was extremely cool to have an uncle who worked 
for the FBI.  Neal thought it was interesting to 
meet a blood relative of Cooper's and then said 
he could see the strangeness was a family trait, 
earning an elbow in the gut from Cooper, a glare 
from Mulder, and a laugh from Scully.

     Willow walked over to the group and plopped 
down next to Scully.  She leaned over the table, 
sniffing at the pizza eagerly.  The pizza was 
dished out quickly, requiring only minimal 
attention from the men.

     "You know, I've never seen the point of 
this game," Cooper said, pulling a string of 
cheese off her slice and popping it into her 
mouth.  "I mean, all it is a bunch of sweaty 
guys chasing after a ball."

     Neal rolled his eyes.  "That could be 
almost any sport, so basically you're saying 
you don't see the point of any sport."

     "I don't know, I'm more of a baseball fan 
myself," Scully said with a grin on her face.  
Mulder looked down at her with a surprised grin 
and she winked back.  Cooper caught this look 
and said "Now that was a loaded look, wasn't 
it?"  Mulder stuck his tongue out at her 
impishly.  In retaliation Cooper balled up 
a napkin and heaved it at him.

     "Hey, you said no throwing things in the 
house, Mom," Gillon said mock-seriously.  "How 
are we supposed to learn from your example if 
you act like that?" he smirked.

     "Quiet, you," Cooper glared at him.

     There was a cheer from the TV and all 
eyes shot that way once more.


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


     Later that night after the kids were 
asleep the four of them sat around the family 
room, drinking wine and talking.  Cooper and 
Neal were on the couch and Mulder and Scully 
were on the smaller loveseat.  Mulder had his 
arms wrapped around Scully and she snuggled 
back against his chest.

     Cooper took a sip of her wine and asked 
"So what's happened with you and the family 
over the years?  I couldn't find much about 
what happened to you over the Net except for 
that Mom and Dad are both dead and Sam's 
missing."

     Mulder tightened his arms around Scully, 
using her as a sort of security blanket.  
Family was always a painful topic to breach, 
clinging to Scully would be the only way to 
keep his emotions under control.  "It's pretty 
messed up.  You were probably better off not 
being there."  Scully rubbed a hand over his 
comfortingly, silently saying that everything 
was all right.  He continued on.  "After you 
left things started to go downhill.  Mom and 
Dad were arguing a lot more.  And then Sam 
was abducted and everything went to hell.

     "Mom doped herself up on tranquilizers 
and Dad drank his way through life.  Soon after 
that they got divorced and the court decided 
Mom was the lesser of two evils and got 
custody.  We moved to Greenwich, Connecticut 
and stayed there until I left for Oxford.  I 
got my degree and joined the FBI.  Mom and 
Dad were still the same.

     "I worked as a profiler for a little 
while, but that was a job that really messed 
with my head, and eventually I transferred to 
the Violent Crimes Unit.  In there I discovered 
the X-Files and started working with them.  
When the brass started to get nervous they 
assigned Scully to work with me, and the 
rest is history," Mulder said.  "That's 
the condensed version, the detailed one 
would have us sitting here for weeks."

     "Wow," Cooper said softly.  "It must 
have been hard for you.  At least you have 
her though," she nodded towards Scully.  "I 
get the feeling that she's exactly what you 
needed."

     Mulder grinned and nuzzled the back of 
Scully's head.  "Yeah.  How about you though?  
What happened afterwards?"

     Cooper paused to take another sip of 
wine, fortifying herself.  "Well it's quite 
mundane actually.  I was adopted by a lovely 
couple, Maria and Greg Morneau.  They were 
really supportive, as supportive as they 
could be believing that my parents were 
killed in a car accident.  That was what 
they were told.  

     "Anyway, I guess I lived as normal a 
life as someone growing up in those times 
could have.  I went to college and med 
school at Columbia, which was where I met 
Neal.  After med school we got married and 
had Gillon shortly after that, and I got a 
job at the NYC morgue.

     "About two years ago I was offered the 
job here, and even though I was distinctly 
told never to set foot here again, the 
desire to get my kids out of the city 
overrode that and we moved.  That's basically 
it, really boring compared to what you did," 
Cooper said.

     "You don't want my life, trust me," Mulder 
said, but then amended his thoughts.  "At least 
not how it was back then."  He looked down at 
Scully, half-asleep in his arms.  "Right now 
it's pretty good."

     Cooper grinned at him, but then let out 
a yawn.  "I think it's time for us to be going 
to bed too.  It has been a long day, and I'm 
sure driving all the way up there this morning 
couldn't have been fun for you."

     "Nope," Mulder said, nudging Scully to 
her feet.  "I'll see you in the morning."  
They walked upstairs, Scully leaning heavily 
on Mulder.  She managed to wake up enough to 
get ready for bed, and soon they were snuggled 
up in the guest bed, drifting off to sleep.

     "Mulder?" Scully said into the darkened 
bedroom, her voice muffled by his chest.

     "What?"

     "Did you ever foresee any of this?  
Finding Skye, I mean?"

     "No," Mulder shook his head.  "I really 
thought she was dead, for once I didn't have 
any reason to believe she wasn't.  I'm glad 
I was wrong though."

     Scully gently stroked Mulder's side.  
"Me too," she said.  "It's good to know that 
you have a family again, one who really cares 
about you."

     Mulder tilted her chin up to look her in 
the eyes.  "I have you, that's all I need," 
he said, kissing her lightly, although filled 
with passion and love.

     "And you're not getting rid of me," she 
smirked, kissing the tip of his nose.  She 
settled back down and soon she was fast 
asleep.  Mulder tightened his arms around 
her and was soon asleep himself, feeling 
that, for once, things were going all right.


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


Whew!  It's all finished!  I'd like to thank 
my musical inspiration, ranging from the punk 
version of 'My Favorite Things' to Garbage 
and The Police.  All provided by lovely MP3's.


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

'True love, it's the greatest
thing in the world.'

Miracle Max
The Princess Bride

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

'Men will fight bravely and be
heroes, but for a last ditch 
defender against any odds, get a
mother.'

Defender
High Wizardry

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

'This is the Fish Patrol in 201.
Our flying fish has flown away.
In fact, things are so rotten
around here that even the pigs
won't stay!  But we'll fight to
the bitter end!  Beware 
The Fish!

Bruno Walton
Beware The Fish

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX