Opening scene-

Mulder looks a second time to make sure that their parents are not in earshot before he drags his sister up stairs, shuts the door firmly and begins to talk to her in hushed tones in his room.

" How could you not let me know you could talk?" He hisses at her.

" You kept telling me not to let myself be pressured into speaking." Sam says defensively.

" I meant Mom and Dad!" He exclaims.

" Oh, I see how it is, it was good policy as long as I didn’t apply it to you too. You’re going to narc on me now, aren’t you?" She demands to know.

Mulder stares at her, wondering how someone who had never seen fireworks would have knowledge of that sort of slang. " No. No I’m not going to ‘narc’ on you, thank you very much. What sort of person do you take me for?"

" I don’t know, Mulder. I like you, but I haven’t known about any longer than Price has…I trust you though, which is why I decided to talk to you tonight." Sam says evenly, not realizing how much it hurts him to realize that she didn’t spend her whole life waiting to meet him as he had her.

Mulder tries to keep the pain off his face so he can talk to her about what really matters. " Yeah, ok. How’s it going to be now? Are you just going to start talking to everyone now?"

" I don’t think so. I agree with one thing you’ve said, Mom and Dad are going to have a hell of a lot of questions if they know I can answer them. Playing dumb, no pun intended, is working pretty well for me." Sam tells him.

" If you want to play it this way, that’s your choice. But I do have a new piece of advice for you."

" What’s that?" Sam asks.

" Cooperate with Zane a little more. You know, add a word or two this week to what you’re willing to try to say. Otherwise, things might backfire on you, and you’ll end up in special ed classes."

" Ok."

Mulder pretends to punch her in the shoulder. "You’re going to have to be talking for real before school starts, you know."

" I know…" Sam sighs. " I’m just not ready yet."

" You and me, kid, have a lot of talking to do in the near future." Mulder tells her, wondering how they’ll do that and still keep their parents in the dark about it.

**

Theme song- "Stranded" by Plumb

**

Friday morning, Potter home-

Scully walks into the living room and is surprised to see her nephew, who has apparently dressed himself, huddled up on the couch. Scully looks at him in concern, because, in addition to his morose expression, he also has his thumb in his mouth. Since he has long since given up sucking his thumb while awake, she worries.

" What’s wrong, Alex?" She asks gently. Unshed tears shine in his eyes as he mumbles something she can’t understand. " Sweetie, I’ve told you before that I can’t hear you if you talk with your thumb in your mouth." She reminds him.

His thumb comes out of his mouth with an audible pop. " I wanna take Fox for a walk, but mommy said I’m too little. And she won’t go wit’ me, neither."

Scully admires his tan for a moment, and shakes her head slightly. It’s been a long time since she was too little to do something she wanted to do, rather than merely be too young by law. " So how’s about I take Fox for a walk, and you come with us?"

" Yes!" He shouts, scrambling off the couch in search of the puppy’s leash. As soon as he’s got it in his hand, a small hyperactive ball of reddish fur trails behind him giving excited yips. Scully resists the urge to roll her eyes as the preschooler and the puppy get each other even more wound up. In the end she’s not sure which is harder: getting Alexander into his shoes, or Fox into his harness.

"Come on, you two." Scully says, herding them both towards the door. " We need to get back before eleven so you can go to preschool."

" We’ve making paper match A today!" Alex exclaims, bounding out the door while Fox struggles on the end of his leash to keep up with him. " Aunt Scully, what’s paper match A?" He asks her. Scully can’t contain her giggles, and has to give herself a minute before she can explain what paper mache is.

**

Afternoon, Lindley home-

Grams kisses Fowley’s cheek and reminds both girls that there is stuff to make sandwiches in the fridge.

" Grams, we can handle lunch. Go on and enjoy yourself." Fowley tells her, trying to get her grandmother to go out on her date without wringing her hands in guilt.

" I know you’re capable girls, but I still think I ought to have made lunch for you…" Grams trails off doubtfully.

" We’ll be fine, Mrs. Lindley. You don’t want to make Mr. Brooks worry about where you are, do you?" Reyes asks with a winsome smile, knowing that she’d just given the older woman something else to worry about instead.

" You’re right. I mustn’t be rude to him…" Grams said, finally going out the door.

" Bye Grams!" Fowley called cheerfully after her.

" Wow, I never realized that you were this spoiled." Reyes comments.

" What do you mean?"

" I bet you have never made a meal since you’ve lived with Grams. Skinner and I do all of the cooking in our house, even for our dad." Reyes explains.

" Oh…since you’re right about that, I guess I am a bit spoiled." Fowley admits. " Anyway, ready to call Spender?"

" Since talking to him might be cathartic I guess so." Reyes replies doubtfully.

" All right then. I’m going to put him on speaker phone so we can both hear him, ok?"

" Sure."

Fowley picks up the phone and dials. " Hi, could I speak to Spender please? Thanks." She reaches down and switches to speaker phone as she waits for him to come on the line.

" Spender." He answers.

" Hi Spender. This is Fowley. I’ve got Reyes here with me." She says, wondering if he’ll immediately hang up when he finds out who it is.

" What do you want?" His voice comes back, sounding less than friendly.

" We wanted to talk to you about a few things." Fowley tells him.

" Like what?"

" Like the e-mails you sent me." Reyes says.

" Oh."

" Oh?" Fowley says loudly, trying to keep her temper. " You’re not going to deny you sent them?"

" You wouldn’t believe me if I did deny it, so why bother?" He asks.

" Why did you send them?" Fowley demands.

" I can’t tell you that." He replies.

" Why not?" Reyes asks.

" It’s not the right time to."

" When’s the right time?" Fowley asks icily.

" Look, this isn’t the sort of thing that I want to talk to about on the phone, ok? If you meet me on Wednesday, I’ll tell you every thing." Spender says calmly.

" Meet you where?" Reyes asks.

" Call me Monday, and I’ll tell you then." Spender says, then hangs up on them.

" I can’t believe him!" Fowley exclaims.

" Guess we’ll have to call him Monday." Reyes says with a sigh.

**

That night, Capeside Pizzeria-

Mulder tries to see how far he can get his slice of pizza away from the rest of the pie before the cheese reaches the limits of its elasticity and breaks. "Eight inches!" He crows, apropos of nothing.

" What??" Scully asks sharply, turning to look at him.

" I got the slice of pizza eight inches away from the rest of the pizza before the cheese broke." Mulder tells her, wondering why she has a strange look on her face. " What did you think I was talking about?"

Scully deftly changes the subject. " You said you had some incredible news about something that happened last night?"

Mulder still wants her to admit what she’d thought he’d meant, but decided to let it pass. " You’ve got to keep this to yourself but…"

" But what?" Scully asks.

" Sam talks." Mulder tells her quietly.

" You mean Zane has got her to say something?" Scully asks, thinking of how the other girls had been so smitten by the handsome young man.

" No, I mean she talks as well as you and I do." Mulder says.

" Mulder…"

" Honest to God, Scully. I nearly crapped myself when she started talking to me during the fireworks last night."

" Are you sure it was her you heard?" Scully asks doubtfully. " The fireworks are really loud, so maybe you just thought it was her talking."

" If she hadn’t talked to me again when we got home, I’d probably doubt my own sanity as much as the look on your face suggests you do."

Scully has the grace to look embarrassed. " Mulder, I don’t think you’re crazy, but…"

" Whatever. She talks. But, she says she’s only going to talk to me. Which sort of reminds me of that Porky Pig cartoon with the ‘dead’ frog that sings ‘hello my baby’ only to Porky. Everyone he tries to tell thinks he’s insane because all they see is a dead frog." Mulder says.

" Do you think it’s healthy to identify with cartoon characters?" Scully teases him.

" Silly me to think you’d take me seriously and be supportive…" Mulder grouses.

" That was pretty silly of you-" Scully says, then shrieks as Mulder threatens her with a slice of pizza.

**

Monday afternoon, McPhee home-

Since Mr. McPhee is at work, and Skinner is as well, Reyes and Fowley decide to call Spender from the McPhee house where no one would be around to overhear the conversation. Reyes picks up the phone and dials the number that Fowley supplies them.

" Spender." He answers, obviously having anticipated their phone call.

" It’s Fowley and Reyes." They tell him.

" Obviously. Meet me in the cave on Three-Tree island, and I’ll answer any questions you two care to put to me." He says.

The girls look at each other in dismay, they hadn’t expected him to want to meet in a cave. Why a cave?" Fowley demands.

" It’s private." He says flatly. " You should be able to see it along the shoreline. You’ll need a rowboat to get there, though, unless you can swim as well as I can. Be there at two pm on Wednesday."

" Before you hang up on us, won’t you at least tell us what you had hoped to gain from the façade?" Reyes asks.

" Ask me on Wednesday." He says, then hangs up on them, leaving the two of them to listen to the dial tone in disgust.

**

Wednesday morning-

Mulder is sacked out on the couch, feigning interest in reading a book Scully insisted he read. He doesn’t really find "She’s come undone" by Wally Lamb to be that interesting, despite Scully and Reyes claiming that it’s " the best book ever," but it provides a reason for him to be within hearing range of the kitchen. This way he can spy on his sister’s speech secession without doing it overtly.

" Samantha, lots of kids find that ‘no’ is a pretty easy word to start with. In fact it’s often a toddler’s favorite word, as I’m sure your family is going to find out within the next year and a half." Zane says. As if on cue, Price, who Mulder is keeping an eye on, begins to fuss because his swing has wound down, so Mulder goes and winds it again, and misses part of what Zane is saying to Sam. " …so you give it a shot."

Mulder pretends to read his book, worrying about the long silence that follows the request. Finally he hears, " Nuh…nuhhhh….No."

" Great work! Try it again." Zane says encouragingly. Mulder is glad his back is turned to Zane so the man can’t see his smirk.

" No."

" Wonderful." Zane praises her, and talks to her at length about things that don’t interest Mulder.

Eventually Mrs. Leary comes into the living room and takes Price out of the baby swing. " Have you been a good boy for Mulder?" She asks the infant, who merely looks up at her with his midnight blue eyes.

" No!" Sam chirps, in reply to her question, from the next room. Mulder takes his brother before a startled Gale drops him.

" Mulder…am I imagining things, or did she just say no?" Mrs. Leary whispers.

" You’re not imagining it." Mulder says with a grin. " And don’t worry, the little guy here was pretty well behaved, despite Sam’s opinion on the matter." Mulder tells her as he settles back on the couch with his brother on his lap. Price kicks the book Mulder is still holding right out of Mulder’s hand, so he decides that the baby doesn’t hold the story in high regard either.

Mrs. Leary’s eagerness to interrupt the speech secession shows on her face, but she takes a deep breath and scurries back upstairs, claiming that she has something that needs to be done before she talks to Zane. " Yeah, right." Mulder whispers to Price as he reaches for the remote control.

**

2pm, in the water-

Fowley stops rowing for a moment and wipes the sweat from her forehead with the back of one hand. " I think I see it," she says, pointing at a dark spot along the shore.

Reyes peers in that direction for a moment. " That’s definitely what he was describing. ‘A shallow cave right off of the island’s shore.’"

She and Fowley pick up the pace of their rowing, and soon are looking for a place to dock along the shore. " There. We can rope the rowboat to that big rock." Fowley says as she and Reyes jump out into the shallow water and tie their knots. Once they’re satisfied that the boat is secure, they make their way to the shore.

" I wish I’d worn shorts." Reyes moans, as she looks down at her jeans, which are soaked nearly to the knees.

" You’ll probably be glad for the jeans, wet or not, once we get into that cave. Who knows what sort of things could be crawling around in there?" Fowley punctuates her statement with a shudder.

" Good call." Reyes agrees, thinking of spiders and bugs. " Any idea why he insisted that we meet him out here?"

" God only knows. I think he gets off on making this as difficult as possible." Fowley proclaims bitterly.

" At least he’s agreed to meet us and explain why he did it. That should be very interesting to hear." Reyes says, her cheeks becoming red at the memory of how long it took her to catch on to his lies.

" Yeah…" Fowley says with a sigh, as they reach the mouth of the cave. " Spender, we’re here." She calls in. Nothing greets them in return but the sound of the gentle waves lapping against the shore. " Spender?" After a moment she turns to Reyes. " Maybe he’s not here yet."

Reyes is about to nod in agreement when she suddenly gets the feeling that he’s already there. " I think he’s in the cave, Fowley." She tells her without explaining the feeling.

" You’re right. He could be hiding on us." Fowley says. " From everything you showed me, he might well be unhinged enough to try to scare us by jumping out at us or something."

" Or he could be hurt." Reyes suggests, shivering.

" I suppose." Fowley says, ducking into the cave. " He always was a klutz."

Something crunches underfoot, making Reyes jump. " What was that??"

Fowley steps into the shadows so more light can come in through the mouth of the cave. They both glance down where Reyes had stepped. " Just a mussel shell. This cave must fill up a bit during the tides." Fowley tells her.

Reyes peers into the milky darkness to either side of the cave’s mouth" Sure. It’s is a lot bigger than I thought it would be, we can even stand up without our heads touching the ceiling. This cave has got to be 20 feet wide. This is some hill it’s carved out of..." Reyes rambles nervously, looking at how the cave stretches away in both directions. " I hope we find him soon and get out of here, the cave being big doesn’t make me feel any better."

" What’s the matter, are you afraid of bears being in here?" Fowley teases.

" Not unless they swam over from the mainland, since this is an awfully small island." Reyes retorts. " I just…have a bad feeling about this place."

As she moves, Fowley feels something bump against her leg. " Oh! I completely forgot that we have a flashlight. I think we ought to turn it on now, you think?"

" Nah, I think we ought to walk around in here in the dark."

" Well if you want…" Fowley giggles as Reyes swats at her. She snaps it on, and its dim light gives them an idea of what the cave is like. " Wow, there are lots of shells in here. It must flood all the time."

Reyes nods in agreement. " Spender?" She shouts, listening to her voice echoing in the cave. "Come on out, we’re here to talk to you!"

" Do you suppose there are passages in here? We can’t even see the back of the cave from here." Fowley complains, taking a few steps forward.

" I guess so. Too bad we didn’t think to ask the Witters if we could borrow one of their police flashlights. Those things will light up an entire field. But then, we’d of had to explain why we’re in a cave, waiting to talk to your ex-boyfriend." Reyes says ruefully. " So I guess we’ll have to make due with an inferior, store-bought one."

They continue to make their way through the litter of debris, which in time contains pieces of driftwood and small rocks. After five minutes or so, glancing behind them, the mouth of the cave is only a dim pinprick of light behind them. Eventually the flashlight picks out the back wall of the cave. Fowley begins methodically sweeping the back wall with the light, looking for passages. " I don’t know, Reyes, maybe he’s really not in here." She says halfway through the sweep.

" He’s here." Reyes insists.

**

A few seconds later they do find an opening in the cave wall. " Do we really want to go in there?" Fowley asks doubtfully.

" Maybe we should make sure there aren’t any other passages first." Reyes suggests.

Fowley begins her sweep again, and Reyes sees a large pile of driftwood over towards the side-wall of the cave. For a moment it strikes her as strange that so much would be caught up into the corner of the cave like that, until Fowley screams.

Fowley rushes forward, and Reyes has to follow her least she be left alone in the dark. As Fowley begins to sob, the fact that she was mistaken about the stuff being driftwood finally penetrates her mind. Instead of wood and dead leaves, it becomes clear that the light is shining on the remains of a human being.

Reyes blinks as she looks down at the bones and dirty rags of clothing that haven’t entirely rotted away, though the flesh has. She looks over at Fowley in concern. " Fowley, we’ll just call Doggett’s dad and tell him that there’s a skeleton in here. Don’t cry, it’s not anyone we know."

Fowley’s shoulders shake as she cries. Finally in a strangled voice she says, " You don’t get it. Look at the ring, look at it!"

Reyes nearly tells her she’d rather not, but it seems important to Fowley, so she crouches down so she can look at the ring that by some chance still clings to the bony finger. It seems like an unremarkable class ring at first, but then she realizes that the year on the side of it is their class’s. For a moment her mind reels, because there have been no news reports of any of their classmates going missing this summer. She tilts her head so she can see the far side of the ring, where she knows the initials will be.

As soon as she reads it she stumbles back with her hand over her mouth, and trips over something on the cave floor and lands on her butt. The ring says "S.M." on it, and there is only one person in their class, besides Skinner, who has a different ring, with those initials- Spender. " How?" She wails, her mind in a fog of confusion. " We talked to him yesterday."

" No we didn’t." Fowley replies in an emotionless voice that worries Reyes more than her crying had. " We couldn’t have. This body has been here a long time."

" So maybe someone stole his ring, or someone has been impersonating him." Reyes suggests desperately.

" No one stole his ring, because I can tell this is the outfit he was wearing the day he fell off the dock." Fowley says, tears running down her cheeks again. " They never did find his body…"

" But we’ve seen him since then!" Reyes exclaims.

" Have we? Or have we only thought we have?"

Reyes stares at her. " What are you suggesting, that we’ve been spending time communicating with a ghost?"

Fowley nods slightly. " I think…maybe we have. Maybe he came back so we could find his body and he could finally get some rest. " She laughs hollowly. " After all he did promise that if we met him here, we’d find out why he did everything he has."

Reyes nearly tells her that that’s crazy, but she can’t think of a more plausible explanation herself. She follows Fowley silently, hoping that the authorities will provide a more logical answer once they retrieve the body.

**

5pm, Leary home-

Mrs. Leary is in the middle of making dinner, so when the phone rings, Mulder makes a grab for it. " Leary residence."

" Hey Mulder, it’s Aunt Gwen."

He covers the phone for a second before calling to his mom and letting her know who is on the phone." Hi, how have you been?" He asks, deciding to chat for a bit while his mother washes her hands.

" Not bad, you?"

" I’m good, just enjoying spending the summer getting to know my siblings."

" It’s nice how that worked out. How cute is that little brother of yours? I can’t believe I still haven’t seen him, and he’s nearly two months old." Gwen says sounding regretful.

" My girlfriend, and all the girls I’m friends with claim he’s ‘the cutest baby ever.’" Mulder says with a chuckle. " I thought you were going to come stay with us when he was born." Mulder says, remembering the discussions with his parents about the guest room.

" I would have liked to, maybe, but the idea never came up. Maybe I’ll get out to see you all in a couple of weekends." Gwen remarked.

" Oh, ok." Mulder says, feeling very confused. " Bye Aunt Gwen." He says before handing off the phone to his mother, who immediately starts chatting with her sister.

**

11pm, Lindley home-

Fowley lets the tears fall down her cheeks as she tries to make sense of everything that happened. She chocks back a laugh as she thinks about her first conversation with Spender after his seemingly miraculous return to her life. The conversation only took place after I regained consciousness, she thought, finally giving into the urge to giggle, thinking about how she had fainted at the first sight of him.

*

Fowley realized that she was being talked to. She opened her eyes and looked up at her grandmother.

" Ah, there’s my girl. I didn’t know how long you were going to be out, so we put you on the couch. You didn’t cut yourself when you fainted, but I think they’re going to need to replace your cast. The tea made quite a mess of it."

" That’s ok, I’m supposed to get a walking cast anyway." Fowley mumbled. Her eyes flickered from one corner of the room to the other, looking for Spender." Did I…? Is…was Spender here?" Fowley asked, hoping it too was a dream like the nightmare she had earlier.

" Oh yes. He went upstairs to get a pillow for you."

Ok, Fowley thought, this isn’t happening, but I’ve got to pretend that I don’t realize it. Any second now, a dead man is going to walk into the room and I’m supposed to not be shocked about it.

Spender walked into the room carrying a pillow, shield-like, wearing a tentative smile. Fowley watched him ease himself into a chair, and marveled at the thoroughness of her hallucination. His hair has grown a little since he died, and his tan is faded. He seemed to notice her acute examination of him, because he said, " I’m not dead."

" Ok." She agreed placidly.

" You don’t believe me."

" No, but I’m supposed to. How can it be my delusion if I don’t embrace the madness?"

" You’re not delusion because I’m really not dead."

Fowley smiled and said, " But you are. I was there when you died, remember? Oh, well, I guess not, but I do. You fell off the dock, and never came up. I cried at your funeral three days later. You drown, you’re dead, and this conversation can’t be happening because Grams doesn’t believe in ghosts and neither do I."

" Did you see my body?" Spender asked pointblank.

" They never found your body. Everyone supposes it washed out to sea." Fowley replied.

(excerpt from episode 2x04 " Mulder’s Creek: Dead Man Walking")

*

Oh Spender, she sniffs, swatting the tears off her cheeks, we’ve found it now. I hope this means you’ll be able to rest.

**

Thursday afternoon, Leary home-

" Mom, I’m taking Sam for ice cream." Mulder calls up the stairs. " I’ll need to borrow the car."

" Fine with me!" His mother calls. Price isn’t being very cooperative about his diaper change, so she’s so distracted that she’d probably had ok’d a trip to France.

" Ok, we’re going then!" Mulder says, rushing Sam out the door.

When they get into the car Sam gives him a skeptical look and says, " I bet we’re not really going for ice cream."

" Sure we are." Mulder tells her. " But we’re going to talk in the car since you probably won’t say a word in the ice cream place."

" Obviously. What are we supposed to talk about?" she asks.

Mulder glances at her for a second before returning his gaze to the road. " Since this is a short drive and we don’t have a lot of time, let’s get right to the important part. Where have you been for your whole life?"

Sam shrugs, then realizes that Mulder isn’t looking at her. " I’m not sure."

" You’re not sure?" He asks, a slight note of sarcasm creeping into his voice.

" I mean, a lot of the time I was too young to remember, you know?" Sam says. " But I was in the same place for about the past five or six years."

" Where was that?" Mulder asks as he pulls up in front of the ice cream place

" New Mexico." Sam tells him, reaching for the doorknob. " I want chocolate ice cream."

Mulder opens his mouth to ask her more questions, than realizes that it’s pointless since she’s already out of the car, and won’t say anything else while they’re around other people. He shakes his head and follows her into the building, at least they’ll be able to talk again on the way home.

After a two minute wait, he ordered two chocolate ice cream cones. " Hey Sam, this is something we have in common." He says, and she only nods in return and signs ‘I like chocolate’. They take a seat in the booth, since Mulder has already been lectured about the importance of not eating in his mother’s car if he values his driving privileges.

He’s about halfway through his cone when he feels someone tap his shoulder. Looking up, he sees Skinner standing behind him holding a vanilla cone. " Do you mind if I join you two?"

" No, go ahead." Mulder says, sliding over to make room.

" Have you heard the news yet?" Skinner asks.

" What news?" Mulder asks, giving him a puzzled look.

" Spender is de…I mean, my sister and Fowley found his body in a cave yesterday."

" His body??"

" Well, his bones, anyway. Everyone is freaking out because it looks like he’s been there for a long time. Since last year, maybe." Skinner says.

" But that doesn’t make any sense. We’ve seen him this year." Mulder says in a stunned tone.

" I know. I told you everyone was freaking out." Skinner says, sounding as puzzled. " Hey, could you give me a ride home? I’m supposed to be at the Ice House tonight, and if I walk back I’m going to be really pressed for time."

Mulder thought, oh no, then I won’t have any time to talk to Sam since we live so close, but found himself saying, " Sure, no problem."

**

11am Saturday, Capeside Cemetery-

Unlike the memorial service nearly a year before, it appears as though the whole town has come to pay their respects to Spender Morgan. Dental records revealed that body is indeed one Spender Morgan, age 16, who died the summer before. The official theory is that he had fallen into the water and drown as originally suspected, but his body had washed into the cave during an unusually high tide, and caught on a rock instead of washing back out. The fact that there was a drought kept the water levels low enough that there wasn’t another tide high enough to reach the back of the cave and wash the bones out again.

Which, Reyes thinks as she stands next to Fowley during the service, does nothing to explain why hundreds of people have seen him between November and July. Most people just shrug and won’t say anything more about it than it is "strange." A few people whisper amongst themselves about ghosts, but fewer believe it. Most people seem to be pretending that they never saw him.

Fowley kept expecting Spender to show up after they discovered the body, and tell her that it’s all a joke. But though she keeps looking for him, he hasn’t shown up again. She tried to talk to his parents about it before the service, but they’re more hysterical about it than she is, and keep telling people that he was fine until they went up stairs to get him the morning Fowley and Reyes went into the cave.

**

As they follow Grams back to the car, Reyes impulsively hugs Fowley. " I’m so sorry that we were the ones to find him, and that he’s gone."

Fowley smiles faintly. " It’s strange, and it’s painful, but it’s better in a way."

" What way is that?"

" Now I know he didn’t change. The boy I loved didn’t really do all those terrible things we can’t explain, because he was resting in a cave all that time. We may never have a good explanation for everything that happened, but at least I know now he didn’t become sort of terrible crazy person who set out to hurt us. But I’m still going to miss him forever." Fowley says, trying not to cry again. " At least there were a few nice things about him returning." She adds, thinking of Christmas Eve and the day she returned from Europe; moments in which this Spender was so like she remembered. " I guess Grams is right, fate works in mysterious ways." She says, consciously leaving the God she doesn't believe in out of the quote.

" Oh Fowley…" Reyes trails off, unable to think of a single thing that would offer any comfort or explanation.

**

2:30am, Lindley home-

Fowley wakes from a dream about the funeral because she swears she can feel someone’s arms wrapped around her. A moment before she opens her eyes, a soft kiss lands on her lips. She looks in time to see Spender walk away from her bed. "Spender!" she cries out softly, sitting up in her bed. He turns and looks at her. " I loved you." She tells him, her eyes filling with tears. " Good-bye."

He smiles at her, and waves before fading away, leaving only moonlight at the foot of her bed. Fowley gasps and lies back down. She decides then and there to never tell anyone about Spender’s good-bye, so she can never be convinced it might not have been real.

**

Credits

Produced by CC, KW and Neoxphile

**

< Voice Over>

This episode of Mulder’s Creek featured music from:

Boy Hits Car (" Man Without Skin")

Saves The Day (" At Your Funeral")

and

Poe ("Haunted")

Stay tuned for scenes from the next Mulder’s Creek