Title: A Mother's Secrets 
Author: Chrissie 
E-mail: chrissie_ireland@hotmail.com 
Rating: PG 
Category: A, UST 
Spoilers: none 
Keywords: Mulder/Scully friendship. Mulder/Scully UST.

Disclaimer: I don't own them, I just borrowed them for a second.
Please don't sue.

Timeline: It's supposed to take place around the middle of season
seven. Maybe a little alternative universe. Just ignore "Requiem" and
season eight;)

Feedback: Please please please, I live for it!!!

Summary: Scully's cousin goes missing and Mulder witnesses what a
mother's secrets can lead to.

Author's note: Thanks to Missy for all your help. I wouldn't have
posted a single story if it hadn't been for you:) To all you people
out there. If you don't mind Spooky places, go stay at "The old
Rectory."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

FBI Headquarters 
October 2000

Agent Fox Mulder was sitting at his desk, trying to find something in
the pile of papers that covered it, when his partner Dana Scully
walked in.

He looked up and offered her a bright smile "'Morning Scully," his
smile faded when he saw her face.

She was pale and her eyes were sad, he could easily tell, she hadn't
slept much that night.

"Hi Mulder," was her only response as she sat at her desk, ran a
hand through her hair, and turned on her computer.

Mulder was worried. ::What's troubling her? Is it her mother? Her
brothers? Me?:: He hated guessing, so he decided to find out.

Scully had stopped working and was just starring out in the air. Her
thoughts were racing around in her head ::How could I not pay
attention? How could I let her go? How...:: She was overwhelmed by
the tears and buried her face in her hands.

She didn't resist when she felt Mulder pull her off the chair and
into his lap, as they sat on the floor.

He hugged her tight and stroked her hair in an attempt to comfort
her.

"It's ok Scully. Whatever happened we'll get through it, just tell me
what's wrong."

She was silent for a little while, then she looked up and wiped the
tears off her cheeks and offered him a weak smile. "My aunt Eileen
was killed in a car crash last night."

" Oh Scully, I'm so sorry. Were you close?"

"No, not really. She was married to my fathers older brother, but we
didn't get along very well. The reason I'm so sad is that their
daughter - my cousin Katherine has disappeared."

"Disappeared?"

"Yeah, you see, Katherine's father died when she was twelve, so it
was Eileen's best friend who called my Mom last night. Mom asked to
speak to Katherine, but was told she'd been missing since May this
year. No one has heard from her in almost six months?"

Scully started crying again, and it was easy for Mulder to realize
she'd had a special relationship with her cousin. "Don't worry
Scully. I'm sure she's fine somewhere."

Mulder felt her arms tighten around his waist. "Oh Mulder, I can't
bear it if she's hurt or even dead. She means so much to me. She's
almost like a sister and...."

Mulder cut her off and looked in her tear-filled eyes. "Scully, go
home and get some rest. I'll order tickets and we'll go find your
cousin."

"Mulder, you don't have to do this, I can go by myself."

"I know you can, but I won't let you. Now tell me where we're going
and I'll take care of things with Skinner."

Scully surprised Mulder by throwing her arms around his neck and
hugging him tight.

"Thanks Mulder, it means a lot to me. I think we should go to
Ireland, that's where they lived. Eileen's friend might know
something."

They got off the floor and Scully started gathering her things, and
grabbed her coat. As she opened the door, she looked back at Mulder
and smiled before she left.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Dublin, Ireland 
Two days later

A short woman with grayish hair answered the door Scully had just
knocked on.

"Yes, can I help you?" she asked when she saw the couple outside her
door.

"Alice Ryan, I'm Dana Scully - Eileen Scully's niece. We spoke on the
phone a few days ago. This is my friend Fox Mulder," Scully said as
she shook the woman's hand.

"Oh, now I remember. Please come in, I just made tea," the woman
stepped out of the doorway and invited the agents inside.

Mulder and Scully was seated on the couch with their tea, when Scully
decided to break the silence.

"Alice, do you know why Katherine left so sudden?"

"Dana, your cousin was a very complicated girl. Eileen had a hard
time controlling her after her father died. She was always out
getting herself into trouble. She left only a week after she turned
eighteen. Eileen said they had had an argument. I don't know what it
was about, but Katherine was so upset that she just left. Eileen was
out of her mind with worry, and she did everything she could to find
her, but she was nowhere to be found."

Scully felt awful. She thought Katherine and Eileen had a perfect
relationship, something terrible must had been said to drive
Katherine away from her mother. "So no one has heard a word from her
since May?" she asked Alice.

"Well, that's the saddest thing. She called her Mom three day before
the horrible accident, to say she was sorry and she wanted to work
things out between them. At least Eileen died, knowing her daughter
wasn't mad at her anymore." Alice was close to tears, and Scully
decided to end the conversation soon.

"Alice, do you know where Katherine was when she called?" 

"No, I didn't get to ask Eileen, but you could go and talk to Aisling
O'Brien, she is Katherine's best friend. I think she might know. I'll
get the address for you."

When they left Alice Ryan's house, it was almost six o'clock, so they
decided to have dinner and go talk to Aisling the next day.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


 Dublin, Ireland 
The next day

The blue door was opened with such power, that Mulder and Scully took
a step back. "I'll kill you bastards....," the tall man silenced when
he saw the frightened look on the face of the man and woman standing
on his doorstep. Then he laughed. "I'm sorry, I thought it was those
damned kids again, can I help you?" he asked.

Mulder was first to regain the ability to speak. "You must be Tom
O'Brien, we spoke last night about your daughter Aisling."

"Yes, come in, I'll let her know you're here." He let them in and
closed the door, then he went to the stairs and called for his
daughter. "Ash, there's someone here to see you." He had seated them
in the living room, when a girl appeared in the doorway.

She went over to Scully and put her hand out to her. "Hi I'm Aisling.
You wanted to see me?" Scully nodded and after shaking Mulder's hand,
Aisling sat down in a chair.

"Aisling, Alice Ryan told me, you have had contact with Katherine
while she's been gone. Do you know where she is now?" Scully knew she
sounded almost begging, but she really wanted to know if her cousin
was ok.

"Katherine is in England, in Cambridge. I'll go get the adress for
you." When Aisling returned,

Scully had just one more question she needed to ask. She looked the
girl in the eyes and asked. "Do you know what happened between
Katherine and her mother?"

Aisling hesitated, but decided to tell her. "Shortly after Kat turned
eighteen, her mother told her she was adopted. It was very hard on
her and she felt betrayed, that's why she left." As soon as the words
had left Aisling's mouth, Mulder noticed the surprised look on
Scully's face.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

When they were out in the street again, he turned to her. "Scully,
you looked shocked when Aisling told you about the adoption. Didn't
you know?"

She looked up at him. "No, I didn't. God it must have hurt her so
much. She really loved her family, even though she and Eileen had
their disagreements."

"Of course it hurt her, Scully, but she did call her mother, so she
must have accepted it. I'm sure she's fine. Let's go find her so she
can tell you herself." He took her hand and squeezed it gently, and
she managed a little smile as they went to the car.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Cambridge, England 
The next evening

The short woman who looked after the students, living in the big
house kindly showed them the way to Katherine's room. Scully had
knocked twice, but no one answered the door. They were about to
leave, when a door on the other side of the hall opened and a blonde
girl peeked out. "Hey, are you two looking for Kat?"

Scully turned and faced the girl. "Yeah, do you know where she is?" 

"She left about half an hour ago, she has a job in a theater in
London. She's usually not back 'till after midnight. Should I take a
message for her?"

Scully found a piece of paper and a pen in her pocket. She wrote her
cell phone-number on it and handed it to the girl. "Please tell her,
that her cousin Dana was here, and make her call me at this number as
soon as she gets in."

"'kay," the girl took the paper and went back into her room. Mulder
turned to Scully and took her hand. "Well, there's nothing more we
can do today, what do say we find a place to stay for the night, and
then go to dinner?" She smiled at him and squeezed his hand.

"I'd love that."

They had been driving around in Cambridge for over an hour without
finding any available rooms. In the latest hotel, Mulder had been
told, that it was graduation week for the summer course-students, so
almost everything was booked. The helpful girl in the hotel, had told
them to got to "The old Rectory" in a small town called Landbeach,
not far from Cambridge.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Scully looked at the church beside the big house. It looked very
abandoned. The headstones were leaning to different sides, and were
overgrown with moss. Even though she was a good Catholic, churches
always made her feel a little humble, but this church was downright
scary. She didn't like the thought of sleeping in the house right
next to it.

When the old man opened the red door they had knocked on, Scully
could immediately tell he was blind. Mulder was the first to speak.
"Sir, do you have two available rooms for the night?" The man cleared
his throat. "Of course, just follow me."

The big hall was filled with pianos, the man explained he tried to
repair them in his spare time. As they walked up the stairs, Scully
noticed the huge paintings on the walls. "City of the dead"- "City of
the living." They reminded her of the murals in churches and she felt
a chill run down her spine.

She almost bumped into Mulder, when he stopped. The old man turned to
face them, and pointed at a door. "Sir, this is your room," he handed
Mulder the key. "Miss, if you follow me around the corner, I'll show
you yours." She shot Mulder a scared look, and followed the man.

Mulder's eyes widened as he opened the door. The room was huge with
six beds and a baby crib. He jumped when he felt something at his
leg. He looked down to find a black cat staring at him. ::This sure
is a nice place::, he thought.

It was past midnight, when he heard the knock on the door. "Come in,"
he shouted. Scully stepped into his room. "Mulder, where are you?"

" In here," she saw a door in the wall was open, and walked over to
it. He was looking at some old clothes hanging in there.

"What are you doing?" she asked. "Just checking if the Addams family
left anything that fits me," he smiled at her, and walked out of the
closet. "So did you come by to see if I was still alive, or do you
want to borrow a bed?"

She looked around in the room, and noticed the many beds. "Wow
Mulder, we should recommend this place to the Bureau if they ever get
a case in England. They can fit the entire VCU in here." They both
laughed of the absurdity of this place. "No, actually I just came by
to say goodnight, and thanks for doing this with me. I'm so glad we
found out Katherine is alive."

He walked over and wrapped his arms around her. "I could never let
you do this alone, you're my best friend and I'm here whenever you
need me." She hugged him tight, touched by his words. He released her
and kissed her cheek. "Sleep well." With that she left the room.

The thunder was very loud, but what woke him, was her knocking at the
door again. She didn't wait for his answer, before she opened it. He
turned around to look at her. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"My room has no curtains, and the sight of the church in this weather
is just too much - I can't sleep. Can I stay in here?"

He lifted the covers for her. "Of course, get in here before you get
cold." She snuggled close to him, and he put his arm around her.

"Mulder, do you think I could have prevented this from happening to
Katherine?"

He looked down at her. "No, it wasn't your responsibility. Eileen
should have seen how the news affected her daughter, and tried to
keep her from running." He didn't notice the tears running down her
cheeks.

"I just feel so guilty, I should never have allowed it to come this
far, if it wasn't for me, she wouldn't have been in so much pain."

Mulder sat strait up and looked into her tear-filled eyes. "Scully,
what the hell are you talking about? This is NOT your fault,
Katherine isn't your daughter, it wasn't your responsibility to
protect her. It was her mother's!"

"I AM her mother," she yelled, and buried her face in her hands. It
took a few seconds before he realized what she'd actually said. He
hugged her, and tried to comfort her.

"Scully, calm down. Tell what happened, how can this be true?" 

After a few minutes she finally stopped crying, but she didn't break
their embrace. "She's my daughter, Mulder...," the words came out as
a whisper. He didn't want to push her, so he kept stroking her hair,
and waited for her to continue. "I was eighteen when she was born. We
were visiting some family members in Ireland, just after I turned
seventeen. Missy and I went to the local pub every night, and I met a
guy there named Michael. I fell in love with him the moment I saw
him. We spent the entire month together, and the night before we
left, I decided to sleep with him.

I realized I was pregnant a month after we got home. I've never seen
my dad so angry and my mom so sad. Abortion wasn't an opportunity,
because we were Catholics, not that I would have ever considered that
anyway! I wrote to Michael, but he never replied to my letters, so I
thought I was going to be a single mom, but they wouldn't let me keep
the baby.

I could never give my baby up for adoption to strangers, so when
Eileen and Patrick said they would love to adopt her, I accepted
that, it was the only way I could keep seeing my child. They moved to
Ireland when she was eight, it was so hard, but we had agreed never
to tell her she was adopted, so I decided not to show her how sad I
was. Since then I've only seen her once or twice a year, but we've
always been very close, and now I feel like I've betrayed her by
letting her go through this alone."

Mulder had a hard time believing what he was told. The thing that
Scully had been a teenage mom wasn't so upsetting, but the fact that
her family hadn't been more supportive was shocking. He had never
known her father very well, but had always been under the impression,
that he was a very understanding and loving man, who would support
his family - especially his daughters. He would never have thought,
he would take Scully's child away from her. He realized she was
looking at him.

"Mulder, do you think I was a cheap girl, and a horrible person to
give up my child?"

He tightened his arms around her. "I've never seen you as a cheap
person, and this doesn't change that fact. And the way I see it, you
had no choice in the matter of keeping Katherine or not. You've cared
for her as only a mother can care for her child, so you're definitely
not a horrible person either."

"Thanks, Mulder, it means a lot to me, that you think so." 

He bent down and kissed her forehead and hugged her once more. "Try
to get some sleep now, we're going down to Cambridge early to find
your daughter."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Cambridge, England 
The next morning

There had been a message from Katherine on Scully's phone that
morning, saying that she should come to her place at about 10
o'clock.

Katherine's eyes lit up as Christmas candles when she opened her door
and saw her "cousin" standing there. She threw her arms around her
neck.

"Dana! God, it's been ages since I've heard a word from you." 

Scully hugged the girl tight, and tried to keep her happy tears from
falling. "I know Katherine, I'm so sorry."

"How come you show up here in Cambridge, how did you even know I was
here?"

"Your friend Aisling told me where you were - Katherine we have to
talk. Is there someplace we can go?"

"Sure, there's a park not far from here, let's go there." 

Then Scully remembered Mulder, who'd been standing behind her without
saying a word. "Katherine, this is Mulder, my work partner, and best
friend."

Mulder took the girl's hand. She was nearly the same height as
Scully, and her long curly hair was the same color. Except from her
dark brown eyes, she looked exactly like her mother.

Katherine smiled at him, and then turned to Scully again. "You said
you wanted to talk, let's go to that park."

As they walked down the hall, Mulder grabbed Scully's arm. "Scully,
I'll leave you two alone to talk. I'll meet you in the park in an
hour, ok?"

"Ok, thanks Mulder."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

A Park Bench 
An hour later

Mulder saw Scully alone on the bench and ran the rest of the way to
her. When he came close, he heard she was crying. He sat down and put
his arms around her.

"Scully, it's ok, what happened." 

" Katherine was devastated to hear Eileen was dead. When I had calmed
her down, I told her the truth about why she was adopted. She just
looked at me like I was a ghost or something, and then I saw the hate
in her eyes. She started yelling at me about how much she hated me,
and how I could just give her away to other people. She said, she
couldn't understand how a mother could keep such a secret from her
own child, and that I was the most horrible person for doing so. She
made it very clear, she never wants to see me again, and then she
left."

Scully was sobbing, and Mulder could do nothing but hold her, and try
to ease her pain. "Scully, we'll let her calm down, then we can go
see her tomorrow."

"No Mulder, I want to go home. I don't want to cause her any more
pain."

"Ok, if you think that's the best way to do it, we'll leave." He
pulled her up with him, and they walked to the car.

Katherine stood behind a tree and watched them. As the car drove
away, she closed her eyes to prevent the tears from falling, then she
started walking away.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Fbi Headquarters 
Two weeks later

Mulder stared at Scully for the third time that morning, but there
were still no change in her mood. She'd been quiet since they got
back from England, and of course hadn't mentioned Katherine once. She
was drawn from her thoughts by the ringing phone. Mulder answered.

"Yes Sir...really? She'll be right there." 

"Scully, Skinner wants to see you." She looked surprised at him.
"Now...alone?"

"Yes, you alone, now go." 

"Did he say what it was about?" 

Mulder shook his head, and looked at the desk. "No, he just needed to
talk to you."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Skinner's Office 

A pair of brown eyes met Scully's as she entered the office. She
immediately recognized them as Katherine's. She wasn't dreaming, her
daughter was really sitting there with a weak smile on her lips.
Skinner was the one to break the silence. "Agent Scully, I believe
you know this young lady, who asked to speak to you."

"Yes Sir, I do." Scully held her hand out to Katherine. "Come on Kat,
we need to talk."

They sat on a bench again, but this time Katherine was the first to
speak. "Dana...I'm really sorry for all the horrible things I said to
you. I just never expected you would keep such a secret from me, we
always told each other everything."

"I know Kat, but I had no choice." 

"I know that now, I talked to aunt Maggie a few days ago. She told me
all that happened when you got pregnant, and I realized it wasn't
your decision to let me grow up with Eileen and Patrick." Katherine
was crying now, and Scully hugged her. "The secret Eillen kept from
me brought me so much pain, Dana. But when you told me your secret, I
felt so unloved and betrayed. Maggie said the fact, that you wouldn't
give me up to strangers only showed how much you cared, and she was
right."

"I could never have lived not knowing you were all right, Kat, never.
I think there's a lot more we need to talk about, but I think we
should go to my place, ok?"

Katherine nodded, and together they started walking back to the
Hoover building. Just before they reached the entrance, Katherine
stopped and took her mother's hand.

"Mom, if this is going to work, you must promise never to keep a
secret from me again."

Scully put her arms around her daughter and kissed her cheek. "I'll
never keep a secret from you again, Katherine. The secrets a mother
keeps from daughter obviously only cause a lot of pain."

Katherine smiled and held on to Scully's hand as they walked in
together.

 THE END.

You really got this far? Then please tell me what you think at
chrissie_ireland@hotmail.com