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Title: From Their Point of View: A Child's X-Files Summary: A story that features most of the main characters (or mythology-episode regulars) from the X-Files, only younger. Note: I know the ages are screwed up and events are out of order, or sometimes don't happen. I had to do that for it to work. Also, it only goes through the events of 'One Breath'. Seven-year-old Fox Mulder was awakened by the screams of his younger sister. He'd left his window open the night before, because he had been looking for UFOs from his bed. "Leave me alone! My brother's gonna come save me from you guys and you'll all be real sorry!" Samantha was yelling. He heard loud, stupid-teen-age laughing after this. "You mean Fox? He wouldn't care if you were abducted by aliens!" a boy said, and there was more laughter. I would too, Fox thought, but knew he would never say it out loud. "He is gonna save me!" Samantha insisted, and Fox just couldn't let anything happen to her. He got out of bed, dressed in jeans and an ancient T-shirt, the blue one his mother kept saying she was going to throw away one day, and jerked on his shoes. Then he ran down the hall, opened the door and walked out, then slammed it behind him. The faces of five teenagers and his sister turned to look at him. He recognized the older kids- they were members of The Club, a group of a bunch of kids ranging from age 8 to age 19. He'd been asked to be in it, but had refused because he didn't like the way they treated everybody who wasn't part of their group. And now they hated him, and were always trying to get back at him for being the first person in history, or so they claimed, to refuse to become a part of their club. And now they were bothering Samantha. That wasn't fair. "Leave her alone," he said, standing as tall as he could. Suddenly seven seemed a lot younger than it had ever seemed before. "Yeah, leave me alone," Samantha said, showing unusual boldness. "Let her go, C.," one of the boys said, smirking as he said it. "The great Fox says so." And of course the others had to join in. "Hail to the great Fox!" A girl cried, and the others joined her in yelling, "Hail to the great Fox! Hail to the great Fox!" "Shut up," Fox said. He wanted to go forward and jerk Samantha away from the boy who was holding her, but knew that would only get them both captured. And he didn't want that. "Ooh, listen to the way he talks," the same girl who'd started the 'hail's said, and there was more laughter. Fox didn't even think they really thought it was funny, they just laughed because everybody else did. He didn't think any one of them was funny. "Just let my sister go," he said. "Why should we?" the boy holding her asked, and squeezed her arm so that her eyes filled with tears. "Stop it," she said, much more softly now that she realized that Fox truly couldn't take the people who had her. "Come on, guys," the boy said, and pulled Samantha's arm so she had to go with him. As they all left, they didn't even bother to run. They knew Fox couldn't do anything. Just before they disappeared around the house, Samantha turned back to look at Fox one more time. The expression on her face was one of anguish. She looked so let down that Fox couldn't help turning away. But even as he did that, he saw her look of surprise that he still didn't do anything to help her. Dana Scully was five years, four months old, and she thought that should mean she was allowed to go outside. Especially if the town of Chilmark was as small as Bill claimed it was. But her mother wasn't so sure. "Dana, we've only been here 3 days. If you had a friend from school or something that could help you find your way around, that would be different," she said. "But Mom, its July! How could I have a friend from school? And how am I supposed to MAKE friends if you won't let me go outside and play?" "You can go outside, I just don't want you to leave Vine Street." "Okay..." "Promise you won't leave the street?" Dana rolled her eyes, but knew that it was a good question. She'd wandered off once in San Diego and had been lost for almost a whole day. She'd been three then, though, so it had been a long time ago. She was much bigger now- she wouldn't get lost. "I promise." Her mother smiled, a cue for her to go, so she turned and ran to the door. She couldn't get out fast enough. The door seemed to stick, then wouldn't close, and then Melissa wanted to know where she was going. "To play," she said, and was off again before her sister could ask any more questions. She watched the sky as she ran, watched the clouds change shape. She liked to watch for cats and dogs and other animals in the clouds. She didn't see any clouds at all today, though. Because she was looking up, she didn't see the boy trudging along the sidewalk. And he didn't see her because he was looking at the ground. They collided, and both were knocked to the ground. The boy got up first. "Hey!" he said, like it had been all her fault that they'd run into each other. "Wasn't my fault," she said. "You're right, it wasn't. But I need to get mad at somebody." He smiled a half-smile at her in apology for blaming her. She didn't smile back. She had no reason to. "Why?" she asked. "My sister was just abducted." She knew her eyes widened. She knew what 'abducted' meant, because Bill had told her about a book he'd read about serial killers. It had scared her so much that she'd slept with her parents for a week. They hadn't been happy with either her or Bill for a long time after that. "Abducted? By who? A murderer?" He shook his head. "No. By these big kids in The Club." "What club?" "You've never heard of The Club?" "What Club!? I've only lived here for 3 days!" "Oh... The Club is a group of a bunch of kids that just like to hurt everybody else, but especially me, because I wouldn't be in their stupid club." "Why not?" "I don't want to hurt people." "You sound like a policeman that came to talk to us at school last year. He said 'I never hurt people unless I have to.'" "Maybe. But now I've got to get her back. And they're all older than me." He looked at the ground again, then stood up and brushed off his jeans. "I could help you." She, too stood up, but didn't bother brushing off her shorts. She didn't care. "You're not even as old as I am. You're about Samantha's age, and she couldn't keep them away, could she?" "I'm tougher than she is, then. And I can help you." "You might even be one of them. I don't know if I can trust you at all." "I'm not one of them. Really." He still looked unconvinced. "I can only prove to you that I'm not one of them if you let me help you." Reluctantly, he nodded. "Okay, you can help. But if you are one of them and Samantha gets hurt..." "She won't, I'll let 'em get me first!" And she put a hand over her heart to prove it. "Come on," he said, pulling her hand off her chest. "We've got to go ahead and see what's going on, so we can help her sooner. Who knows what they'll do. And she has to be home before 9 o'clock tonight, because after that I'll get in trouble." "Why you? It'd be her fault for letting them get her." "That's just my parents." "My parents are like that, too, sometimes. They let Charles do things I can't." "Who are you, anyway?" "Dana Scully. Who're you?" "Fox Mulder. You call me Mulder... Scully." Even though she was now a little confused, she didn't ask about his name- or hers- as he started to run. She ran too, because she wanted to keep up, and because he was still holding her hand. Fox let Dana go into the bushes beside the creek first, so that he was on the outside. Then, if anyone saw them, they would get him and she might have time to escape. She might be a spy, but if she wasn't, he could protect her where he hadn't protected Samantha. "Is that it?" she asked as they crouched in the bushes, pointing as best she could at a beginning-to-fall-in-the-water shed across the creek from them. They could hear voices and laughing from inside. "Yeah," he replied, then, "Shhhh," as the door opened. A boy and the girl who'd laughed at him at least twice earlier came out, dragging Samantha, who looked like she'd given up on being saved, between them. "Is that your sister?" Dana whispered. "Yes," he said, his eyes never leaving the teenagers. "It's almost nap time for the baby," the girl said, and once again there was laughter from the boys, and the ones who'd come out to watch. "So she has to take a bath." "Don't make me go in the water. There's snakes in there," Samantha whimpered. Fox could barely understand what she was saying. "Do what we tell you, baby girl," a boy said. "Yeah!" put in another. Fox stiffened and wondered why he couldn't have been born 10 years before he had been. If he was 17, he could be big enough to get Samantha out of there and to make them all wish they'd never been born, besides. "Go on," the girl said to Samantha, and gave her a push towards the shallow water. "Please don't make me go in the water!" Samantha begged, beginning to cry. She, usually the cleaner child of the family, with her neat braids and stain-free jeans and T-shirts and dresses, was almost covered in the mud from around the shed and one of the bows had come out of her hair, so half of it fell around her shoulders and the other half still hung by her neck. "Go on," the girl repeated. "Or we'll have to make you go." "Please don't make me!" Samantha was pulling on the girl's leg as though that would help her any. Fox could see that it was just making things worse for his sister. "Go now!" the girl finally lost any patience she'd had and grabbed Samantha by her remaining braid and threw her onto the rocks that poked out of the muddy water. Samantha wailed as she hit the rocks, then lay in the cold water with tears streaming down her face and dropping into the water. Fox felt his heart breaking for the second time that day. "Now, get up and put lots of water in your hair," the girl commanded. Samantha did as told, still crying. When she sat up on the rocks, Fox could see the scratches and even what looked like a deep cut from hitting sharp edges of stone. "We've got to save her, Scully!" he whispered. Dana blinked in surprise, like she'd forgotten he was there, when he spoke. "Yeah," she agreed. "But we can't right now. We don't have the right stuff to do it. Let's go, try to make up a plan for how we're going to save her." "Okay..." he said, and crawled out of the bushes. She crawled out after him and as quietly as possible they walked through the trees back to Vine Street. He couldn't help glancing at Samantha once more before, for all he knew, she was gone forever. She was still in the water, now wailing again as they threw smaller stones at her. "She'll be okay, Mulder," Dana said, taking his hand and looking up at him with ever-solemn blue eyes. "I hope so," he replied, and squeezed her hand. Her expression relaxed for a moment as she smiled. Dana held Fox's hand all the way back to his house. She thought it would probably be better if they stopped there, at his house, to make plans, because he didn't have 3 loud, annoying, nosy brothers and sister running around. Right now, he didn't have ANY siblings. "We can't go to my house," he said as they got close to it. "Why not?" she asked. "My dad's home. There's his car, see? He'll want to know why Samantha's not with me if she's not at home." "Oh... we can go to my house, then." They continued on, to her home 5 houses down. "Are your parents home?" he asked as they walked. "My mom is. And my brothers and sister." He didn't reply to that, so she started telling him about her family without him asking. It would be better if she warned him first, anyway. "I have 2 brothers, William and Charles, and my sister's Melissa. Bill n' Melissa are older than me- he's 8 and she's 6- and Charles is younger, he's 2." "You have a lot of family," Fox said. "I only have Samantha, and she's almost 4." "I'm glad I you told me about The Club. It would've been bad if they'd gotten me or Charles." "They wouldn't get you unless your older brother or sister told them they didn't want to be a part of their stupid club." "Oh, yeah, that's why they got Samantha." "Yeah. They thought I would think it was such an honor to be the youngest ever to join. I told them no, though, and they got really mad. They only bothered me until now, today." Dana stopped, and pulled on his hand so he would stop, too. "This is my house. Come on, let's go inside and see if my room's empty." They dropped hands, just in case, as she reached up to open the door, which she was barely able to reach. She could tell he wanted to help her, but knew better already. That was good. She hated people who tried to help her every time she had a problem. She could do things on her own. "Mom! I'm back!" she yelled when she finally got the door open and they went in and closed it behind them. "Hey! Dana, Got a boyfriend!" Bill said, watching them from where he and Charles were watching TV on the couch. "Shut up, Billy," she said. "Sure, Dane," he replied. She just glared at him until he shook his head and turned back to the television. "Hi, Daya," Charles called, waving. "Hi, Charlie!" She called, and waved back. "Who've that?" he asked, pointing a short finger at Fox. "That's Mulder," she said. "Mudder!" Charles said, loving it. Fox rolled his eyes. "Let's go before Bill starts again," Dana said, and pulled his arm again. They left Bill laughing at what Charles had said and ran upstairs to Dana's room. And, with the same luck they had seemed to have all day, Melissa was in there, making a bracelet out of string. "Hi, Dana," she said, looking up when she heard them come in. "Who's that?" "Fox Mulder," Fox introduced himself this time before Dana could open her mouth. "Fox? Cute." Melissa went back to her bracelet. "Mulder," Fox corrected. "Cuter," she replied. "Can you go downstairs, Missy?" Dana asked. This time it was her turn to speak before Fox could. "I was here first," Melissa replied, picking up her last-years-school-scissors from the floor and cutting off an end of the bracelet. She tied a careful knot in that end, then pulled it around her wrist. "But I might leave if you'll tie this for me." "I don't know how," Dana protested, knowing that Melissa knew that. "I can," Fox said, and crouched on the floor so he could reach forward and knotted the ends of the bracelet together so that it stayed on Melissa's wrist just right. "Pretty good," she complimented, looking at it when he was through. "I tie my little sister's shoes," he explained. Melissa nodded, then stood up and left, waving one hand behind her in goodbye as she closed the door. "Finally," Dana said, falling back on one of the twin beds. Fox guessed it was her side of the room, because there were stacks of comic books on the floor- Superman, Batman, Spiderman, The Fantastic Four, The X-Men. She seemed like the type of girl who wouldn't like the ribbons and things Samantha liked. "How can we rescue Samantha without them catching us?" he wondered aloud, sitting on the other bed. She sat up to look at him. "I don't know yet. We need to find somebody who can help us, an older person. But not a parent- they'd just break up The Club and then we'd really be in trouble." "Yeah... but we still have to get her by 9. Do you think we'll be able to find somebody by 9?" "We can always start now." "Sounds good. Let's go outside and just see who we see." Fox explored the front yards and street while Dana got the backs of one side of the street and the creek where The Club met- although not that far down. As he looked, Fox wondered if Samantha really would be okay. They had really seemed to be hurting her, throwing her on the rocks and then not letting her get up. He wondered how he'd explain her cuts and scratches to his parents. With these thoughts on his mind, he almost ran into somebody for the second time that day. But this person reached out a hand and stopped him. He looked up to see who had him by the shoulder. "Fox Mulder?" It was a much older boy, probably 10 years older than Fox at least. He was looking down at Fox, face expressionless, baseball cap pulled low on his head so that his eyes were almost completely black. "What?" Fox asked. "You can't help your sister right now. You're only going to get hurt." "How do you know that?" He felt like acting like Samantha, stomping his foot as he said it, crossing his arms, and cocking his head to the side while he waited for an answer. "I used to be a part of their club. I know how they work." "I have to save her. And I'm gonna." "You can't say I didn't warn you." The boy said, but Fox was already turning to leave. This was a teenager, and one that was old enough to help, but he seemed to think he was too good to be wrong about thinking Fox would get hurt. Dana came running out from behind her own house, met him in her yard. "I didn't see anybody. Did you?" she asked. He turned to see where the boy had gone- he couldn't have disappeared that fast- but he was nowhere to be found. "No," he lied. "Well, I better go home for lunch. See ya, Mulder." She waved as she again started to run, back across the grass to her house. He watched her until she went in and the door closed. Then he just stood, thinking. Samantha would have to come home eventually. All the kids in The Club had to go home at some point, too, and they couldn't lock her up in the shed, could they? Would They? He knew they were mean and hated younger kids that weren't in The Club, but he couldn't believe that they would really just leave a 3 year old locked up all night long. "What are you doing here?" The voice of someone who'd just come up behind him made him jump. He whirled to see William Scully standing behind him, glaring. "Thinking," he said, not able to come up with a good lie fast enough. "You leave Dana alone, I mean it," Bill warned. "I'm not hurting her." "You're gonna get her hurt. I've heard about this club. They don't like other kids. If you're taking her around them, and they catch you, what'll happen then?" "They're not gonna catch us, though." "But what if they did?" "But they aren't." Fox would have hit Bill already, if he hadn't been just big enough that he looked like he could really fight back if he wanted to. And he sounded like he would want to. He sounded angry and maybe even scared and a little worried about his younger sister. Fox would have been able to sympathize, if Bill hadn't acted like such a jerk about it being all Fox's fault if Dana got hurt, which she hadn't. "Just be real careful. I'm gonna blame you if something happens to her," Bill said, then practically marched to his house. Mulder watched him, shaking his head and beginning to grin. What could happen? It was Chilmark- and nothing ever happened there. Dana ate as fast as she could and got herself back out of the house. Even though Fox probably wasn't out again yet, he'd most likely gone home for lunch, too, she could just look around the neighborhood and make sure that no teenagers had showed up that could help them in their rescue of Samantha. It still felt good to be outside, maybe even better than it had that morning since the day had warmed up, but she didn't notice. She had a job to do now and she was going to do it. No matter what else she felt like doing, she had promised Fox that she would help him any way she could to get his little sister back and she, Dana Scully, promised herself that she would never break a promise. She jogged down the street, past Fox's house this time, stopping for just a second to make sure that he wasn't there. It was that second that they struck. Three of the older teenagers from The Club came up from behind and grabbed her. She screamed, mostly in surprise, and tried to fight them off. But she was only 5 years old, and they were all 15 at least, so there was no way she could get away from 3 of them. Fox appeared at the door, and ran over to try and help her. But she was already being dragged off- but not towards the creek. The opposite way. She struggled harder, scared now. She'd seen what they did to Samantha on their own grounds, what if they were taking her some place even worse? "Mulder!" she shouted behind her, seeing him still running to catch up with them. "Mulder, I need your help!" He ran faster, but still couldn't keep up. In the same way she couldn't get away, he couldn't catch them- they were so much bigger than him. "Mulder!" she shouted one more time, just in case. He finally gave up and fell back. And then, she gave up, too. Fox couldn't believe he'd let them get her. He should have stayed in her yard until she came back out, should have been waiting for her in his yard... it was all his fault. Just like what had happened to Samantha had been all his fault. He sat on the grass and put his hands over his face. "What's wrong?" a voice asked. He looked up into one of the preppy-suck-up-boys he had to go to school with. This guy looked a little younger, though. Maybe 6. "Nothing," Fox said, scooting down the yard. The boy followed. "I could help you," he said. "My name is Alex Krycek." "What kind of name is Krycek?" "I don't know. Most people call me Alex." "I'll call you Krycek. You won't call me anything, because I've got things to do and I don't need little kids tagging along." "I can help you with whatever you're doing," Alex insisted. Yeah, Fox said to himself, you can help me just like Scully did and get yourself kidnapped by members of The Club. Not that I would really care about you. "I don't need your help. I've gotta go." He got up and walked away as quickly as possible without running. He didn't want Alex chasing after him. He didn't hear anybody, so assumed it was safe and slowed down. He continued for what seemed like days, out of the neighborhood, in the direction he thought the members of The Club had gone with Dana. But he saw no sign of them, didn't hear them. Maybe they'd turned around somewhere. They could've just gone that way to get him confused, then turned and gone the long way back to their shed on the creek. For all he knew, Dana was sitting in the creek with Samantha. "Scully!" he called once, just in case. There was no answer. She was too far away to hear. Or maybe they'd killed her. He didn't think they really would, but if she fought hard enough, and they felt mean enough... they wouldn't really, really hurt somebody who was only 5, would they? They'd really hurt Samantha. Who knew what they would do to Dana? Alex watched Fox go, biting his lip. He was going to be in trouble now. He hadn't gotten Fox to trust him, like C. had told him to. And C. would probably hurt him like he'd hurt that little girl without thinking twice about it. He went back to the shed more slowly than he'd left. He was the youngest in The Club, and scared of even the second-youngest. They could all hurt him, if they wanted to. "Did you take him away, so he wouldn't find her?" C. asked him the second he got back into the shed. C. was the second-oldest, at 17, in The Club, but was definitely the scariest. He smoked a lot, cigarettes he stole from his father. The C. stood for Cancer, which everybody agreed he would get one day, smoking all the time. "I tried. He wouldn't listen to me. He didn't trust me," Alex replied, trying to sound tough and unafraid. But he could hear his voice shaking just a little. "How long did you manage to stall him?" "Long enough that I think they got away." "Good. We've taken care of her." "But why don't we just take care of him, too?" "Because if both he and his sister disappeared, his parents might get involved." Alex swallowed hard, hoping he hadn't really screwed up as much as it sounded, as C. took a cigarette out of his jeans' pocket and lit it. He coughed at the smoke at first, but soon got used to it. Alex swallowed again.
Fox needed help. Dana was gone, and he couldn't find her on his own. But he knew some people that probably said. He went to the place he knew they would be- at the home of the oldest of them, because he had a computer. They all loved computers. Fox had known them for almost a year, but he still didn't know their first names anymore than they knew his. He knew them as Frohike, who was 16, Byers, 8, and Langly, 5. All, even Langly, were already big on technology and getting into trouble. Fox thought they were great, and they had been his best friends until that very day. Now he thought Dana probably was. "It's Mulder. He's decided to leave his little girlfriend long enough to visit us," Langly said, grinning in the annoying way he had already perfected. "If only she were older..." Frohike said to himself, leaning back in his chair and staring at the ceiling. Fox rolled his eyes, used to the behavior of both of them. "How did you know about Dana?" he asked. "You don't think we keep track of you when you're not with us?" Byers asked. He gestured to the computer. "Me an' Frohike an' Langly have practically perfected this thing. The adults won't have stuff like this so you can by it out for 20 years." "If you're watching us, can you tell me why I'm here?" Fox asked, hoping to catch them. They could brag all they wanted to. And he could try to prove that they were bragging. "Dana Katherine Scully, age 5, was kidnapped by members of this club that wanted you to become a member and also got your younger sister, Samantha Ann Mulder, this morning," Byers said. Langly was still grinning at him, Frohike still watching the ceiling dreamily- dreaming about Dana, maybe. "Uh, right... do you know where they took her?" "We can't be sure. But we think they may have taken her to a new hideout. We don't know where yet." "Okay. Thanks, I guess. I've gotta go." Frohike finally came back to Earth. "Already?" "Yeah. The longer she's gone, the more her parents are gonna worry. And if anything happens to her, her brother's threatened to kill me." "Oh, big brothers. You're right, you better go," Byers said. "You got a big brother?" Fox couldn't help asking. He knew almost nothing about the lives of these three who called themselves the Avengers, for some reason. "Nope," Byers said. Fox felt a little confused, and shook his head as he was leaving. Back outside, he took his time walking back to Vine Street. He didn't have any idea where a new hideout for The Club might be, so he couldn't go looking for Dana. For all he knew, she was back. Deciding to check and see if she was, he stopped by her house. He knocked on the door after pausing to decide he really didn't care about facing William Scully, and fortunately, it was Melissa who finally opened it. "Oh, hi, Fox... I mean, Mulder, right?" she asked, holding open the door so he could go in, then closing it behind him. "Right," he said. "Dana's been bothering Mom to let her go out again for over an hour now to see you. Mom's mad at her because she promised not to leave the street and not get dirty, and she came back all muddy and wet and claims that she was thrown in the creek that separates Vine street from the next one over." "Oh," Fox said, because it was the only thing he could think of to say. "You can go see her. She's watching TV with Bill and Charlie and trying to get Bill to take her out looking for you, because he's older and can go, she says, anyway, anywhere he wants to. She says I can, too." "Okay," he said, trying to get away from her without doing what his mother had always told him not to- leave when somebody was talking to you. She told him never to leave in the middle of a conversation, no matter how boring you thought it was. She let him, leaving herself, going in the direction of her bedroom that he'd seen earlier. He went into the room where he'd seen Dana's brothers before. "This is a borin' show. Let's go outside and do something," she was saying as he stood in the doorway and watched. "Dana, shut up before I tell Mom to make you leave," William, or Bill as they seemed to call him, said. "But this is boring!" she insisted. "Dana, I'm-" he started to say, then seemed to notice Fox out of the corner of his eye. "Oh, look who's here again. The one who I'm sure I told to make sure my little sister didn't get hurt, and then let her get muddy and got her a nice, black eye." "Mulder!" Dana cried happily, jumping up from the couch. He could see the black eye Bill was talking about then, on her left eye. It looked like it had hurt. But he bet she hadn't cried when she'd gotten it. "Hi," he said. "Wanna go outside and try to get your sister again?" "Are you allowed to?" "Oh, yeah..." she sighed, then called, "Mom! I have a friend who's lived here for a long time and knows Chilmark real good! Can I go outside with him?!" "Him?" He heard what he guessed was her mother call back. "His name's Fox Mulder! He lives down the street!" "Okay, I guess you can go- but don't get dirty again!" "I won't! I promise!" She grabbed his hand like she had earlier and dragged him out of the house. It was getting late by now, the sun beginning to set now, and their shadows were longer as they ran- he more slowly than usual, she as fast as she could- towards the shed and the creek. "We don't have much more time. It's almost 7 already," he said, managing to read his watch. "We'll save her," she assured him, and made herself run a little faster. He could tell she was struggling to keep up, even with him going slowly, but didn't want to slow down. She wouldn't like it if he did that, made her feel like she couldn't do something. Or like he thought she couldn't do something. At the creek, the only sound that could be heard was the water. There was no sign of any of the members of The Club, only the same teenager who'd told him earlier that he was going to get hurt if he tried to help Samantha. He was sitting silently by the water. "Hey!" Fox yelled, recognizing him. Dana didn't, and she gripped his hand harder like she thought he was crazy. "What're you doing?" she asked. "I know him," he replied, and she nodded. But she didn't stop clutching his hand. "Fox, you're back. It's safe now. Your sister is inside. She's asleep," the teenager said after they'd jumped the rocks that jutted out of the water to get across. "How do you know?" Fox asked. "Because I saw her. But I don't know that it will stay safe. So watch her. I'll try to warn you ahead of time before it happens again." "Who are you, anyway?" "You can call me, uh, the X. I'll keep in contact." With that, he got up and walked slowly away. Fox and Dana watched him go. "That was strange," she commented. "Yep," he agreed, then remembered Samantha. He turned to the shed, pulled open the door, and ran to her. She was lying on the dirt, scratched, cut, and bruised in more places than he could count. He felt another ache in his heart for all that she'd been through in just that one day. That one long day. He gently shook her, and gradually woke up, blinking in surprise at seeing her brother there. When she sat up, she looked ever worse than before. Her hair, both braids gone, was one giant knot. Her shorts were ripped and one shoe was only half on. But she was smiling at him. "I knew you'd come save me, Fox," she said, and hugged him. He turned to give Dana a helpless look, but she was just standing at the door, smiling at them. "Come on, Sam," he said, pulling away from Samantha. "Let's go home before Mom gets really mad." "Who's that?" she asked instead, pointing at Dana. "That's my friend Dana Scully, who I was thinking might like to stay and eat with us tonight..." "If my mom says its okay," Dana said, with another smile. She took the hand of Samantha that Fox wasn't holding, like another part of the family, and the three of them walked away on Vine Street, towards a peaceful evening. Dana went home around 8. She had fun for a few minutes telling Melissa and Bill and Charles about her adventures, but soon even Charles got tired of listening. Then she was bored. With nothing to do, she eventually went upstairs, before anyone else, then lay in her bed thinking until the rest of the house was asleep. But sleep wouldn't come to her. There was a knock at her window, and she jumped out of bed and ran over. Fox, hanging by his knees from a nearby tree, was throwing acorns at the glass. She hurried downstairs, unlocked the door, and closed it as she went out as quietly as she could. "What're you doing?" she called softly to Fox. He jumped out of the tree. "I got bored." "What time is it?" "Oh, around midnight... wanna go find another adventure? We could go to that old boxcar at the edge of town." Her blue eyes lit up, easily seen even in the dark. "Sure!" The End
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