• Starkweather: Rex Tremandae
  • Genre: MOTW/Crossover
  • Rating: PG-13 for language, violence and sexual situations
  • Spoilers: "En Emi", "John Doe" and the Jurassic Park franchise
  • Summary: Teamed up with Dr. Alan Grant and Ian Malcolm, Mulder, Scully, Doggett, Starkweather and Langly travel to a remote tropical island where dinosaurs run amuck.
  • Legal Disclaimers: Stuff from the X-Files belongs to Chris Carter and 1013 Productions
  • Stuff from Jurassic Park belongs to Michael Critchon (original author of novel) and Steven Spielberg (director who made a movie and a lot of money from Michael Critchon's novel) Hey guys? We're just borrowing your stuff, but you can have it back when we're done. Please don’t sue
  • Stuff that belongs to Scully3776: Special Agent Jerilyn Starkweather, Benjamin Starkweather, Admiral Jeremy Bailey, Quinto Ibarra, Rafael Ibarra
  • Stuff that belongs to SpookyKat: Justin Leo, Lilly Stratford, Isobel Ibarra and Manny Ibarra.
  • Timeline: We're taking creative licensing here. Instead of 48 hours, there's a year in between the events in "Existence" and "NIHT." The only thing that's going to be off continuity-wise is William's age. This particular fic takes place five and a half months after "Existence"






August 10, 2001
La Isla Luna Blanca
Sixty miles south of Cozumel, Mexico


When she agreed to join the National Organization for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Nicholetta Bocelli-Jones (Nicky to her friends) never dreamed she would be sent on an undercover mission. Nicky was not an adventurous soul. She avoided the more controversial organizations, not because she didn't believe in their tenets, but because, to be honest, their tactics scared her. She didn't think she had the guts to bomb a mink farm. And to be even more honest, she secretly enjoyed a rare steak time to time and she owned a pair of leather shoes. But she believed that puppy mills were evil and the whales should be freed from Sea World.

She just wanted her planet to be a nice place. She just envisioned herself doing her part more along the lines of creating public announcements and boycotting mohair sweaters and veal.

But here she was, sweltering in the suffocating humidity of Mexico, listening to an opera sung in Italian while she sat in the vet's truck, waiting to the same vet to come back from tending an ill animal.

She had been told that "rare and exotic" animals were being exploited on an isolated island south of the tourist trap island of Mexico. That the animals were being mishandled and abused for the sole reason of the almighty buck. That the animals were only being used as props in a wildly fantastic theme park... built and designed by selfish, meat-eating, fur-wearing Americans, of course.

Nicky had been singled out for a mission to La Isla Luna Blanca that involved snapping pictures and then exposing the animal abuse to the press. Let the greedy sons-of-bitches be hung by the media.

So far, four days into her trip, posing as an intern majoring in biology and pre-vet (well, she really wasn't posing, she really was still an university student studying Biology and Veterinarian science) Nicky really hadn't seen much of any thing. Lots of animals indigenous to the island. Nothing "strange" or "exotic."

It was raining, again. Nicky, bored, sat in the passenger side of the truck, playing with the digital camera the NOPCA armed her with. Her heart had leapt when the vet asked her to join him. They had driven through the giant, ominous gates and through the jungle. Nicky felt like she was breathing through a wet blanket. Nervous because of the weather, nervous because of the coup she was going to cause.

The truck had stopped in front of another heavy gate. To her surprise and dismay, the vet had reached in the back and taken out a very large, military looking weapon. It was, in fact, an M-60, but she didn't know that.

"Don't worry," he said, noting her concern. "It's just an elephant tranquilization gun."

Nicky froze in her seat as the vet left the van, the opera music still playing. She watched the vet converse with the armed guard at the gate to the giant cage, the bars and thick cables poorly camouflaged with jungle vines. He disappeared into the smaller, man-sized gate.

Now Nicky berated herself for not being brave enough to follow the vet inside. She put the camera down. <<I'm really not right for this>> she mourned as she poured Evian water out of the bottle into a Dixie cup. <<They should have sent someone else... a cop. or a FBI agent...>> she took a sip of water and set the cup on the dash of the truck.

THUMP

THUMP

THUMP

The water shook in her glass.

Nicky felt the truck vibrating. <<Maybe it's thunder>> she tried to console herself.

Then an ear-splitting roar that could only come from the bowels of Hell itself swelled from inside the giant cage.

Nicky screamed herself, jumping in fear. She looked towards the gate, towards the cage, towards the sound.

Then she looked up.

"Oh my God..." she gasped, reaching for the little digital camera. She snapped shot after shot at the giant leathery face glaring at her from the confines of its monstrous cell. It roars again, placing a giant clawed hand? Paw? On the cables. The cables hissed and sparked and the creature recoiled in pain and disappeared behind the foliage.

Nicky shook from head to toe. She had presence of mind to hide the camera in her knapsack. She waited for the vet to return. And waited. And waited. He never came. The security guard came out, wearing a petrified and yet at the same time, a sorrowful expression on his face. He spoke very little English and Nicky spoke no Spanish and yet they looked at each and knew.

The Italian opera played on.

Nicky grabbed her bag and bolted from the truck and ran down the long gravel road in great fear. She didn't stop running until she made it to the main gate. Banging on it, she pleaded "Please, please, please let me out!"

A different security guard opened the door for her and pulled her inside. "Please get me off this island," she wept to him, not sure if he understood English or not.

He nodded and patted her back awkwardly. Just then, a helicopter, a medical helicopter touched down on the helicopter pad just a few yards away from the main gate. The truck, the same truck Nicky had fled was barreling up the path. The guard let the truck through. He then turned to Nicky, pointing to the chopper and in a mix of Spanish and broken English. He said "Vaya... go... you go... vaya a Estadios Undios," pointing to the chopper again as the truck parked near the chopper and two more security guards got out. The security guards flung the back doors open wide and carried out a body on a makeshift stretcher. The sheet covering the victim was soaked through with blood.

Nicky turned white.

"GO," the guard pushed Nicky towards the chopper, shoving her backpack in her gut. "Last chance."

Nicky ran for her life and clamored on board.

The security guard, Quinto Ibarra, watched the chopper fly away. That will be the fifth unexplained injury spirited away to the mainland. And, if he expires, the fourth death. The only one to survive was a quadriplegic who could now only blink his eyes.

Quinto, who knew a lot more English and a lot smarter than he gave away, while Nicky had been paralyzed with fear, had seized the little digital camera from her backpack when she wasn't looking. La Americana estupida wouldn't know where to go with the information she had capture, but he and his brother Rafael, the security guard she ran from knew what to do. It was the right thing to do. The money they were making was phenomenal, but both had been raised by a pious Catholic woman who taught them to favor morality over money. This park, they knew, could not open.

Their older brother, Manuel, who was still skulking around in the United States somewhere, had raved about this man he met while he was in jail. He was the very stuff mythologies revolved around. His first name was even the same name of a Hispanic hero dumbed down by countless television heroes and insipid Disney movies... El Zorro... The Fox...

Quinto took the diskette out of the digital camera. After smashing the camera itself to bits, he put the disk in an envelope and wrote his beloved, if not slightly absent-minded brother Manny a letter to please send this diskette to The Fox he met in prison...

In the distance was a symphony of scaly demons demanding their pound of flesh. Quinto shivered as he slipped his letter in a FedEx envelope to be overnighted to Washington DC, Manny's last known address.

Could a fox outwit a creature from beyond the mists of time? Quinto took a gulp of coffee and looked at Rafael, who was thinking the same thing he was.

In Spanish, Rafael said, "Well, if HE can't help, maybe his little bitch of a sister can...."



 

August 10, 2001
Deputy Mayor F. William Mulder's office
City Hall
Washington DC

6:45 PM Eastern Standard Time

Deputy Mayor Mulder exhaled a long breath he didn't realize he was holding. "So, everything's okay then?" he said into the phone.

Special Agent Scully had called the Deputy Mayor to update him on the X-File he had been assisting on. "Yes, Mulder," Scully said. "Agent Reyes is working on filing the case report right now and Doggett and Starkweather are running to catch a flight home as we speak."

"And no one got hurt?"

"Well... Starkweather got a little dirty... but other than the standard bumps, bruises and contusions that go hand and hand with any average X-File case, they're fine."

"Okay," Mulder said. "Well, I'm about finished here. I'm going to go to my apartment to check on my fish, then I'll come over for a while."

Scully asked him "Do you want to pick something up from the deli for a late supper or should I order a pizza?"

"Whose turn is it to pay?"

"Yours."

"I'll stop at the deli. Later," Mulder hung up on Scully, finished up the last bit of boring, insignificant piece of paperwork for the City. Boring and insignificant compared to his work for the X-Files. Now THAT was work... interesting, fascinating, never knowing what's going to happen.

Mulder sighed as he tossed a pencil up into the ceiling. This pencil actually stayed up there, making the count up to fifty-three. He got up and stretched, put his things into his briefcase <<Briefcase... I'm carrying a briefcase... and it doesn't even have anything interesting in it, like codes to nuclear warheads>> and walked out of his office, locking the door behind him.

He had to admit he loved his new office. Large, spacious and very tastefully, politically decadent.

But that was about it. Truth to be told, Mulder was bored silly. Although he was making a whole lot more money as the Deputy Mayor for Washington DC plus receiving the occasional hefty check from the Federal Bureau of Investigation when he consulted on an X-File case, in an official capacity, plus he got to enjoy a family life with Scully and the baby, he hated the unexpected turn his life took.

It all boiled down to the fact that he was bored. When Scully told him about the undercover case Doggett and Starkweather were working on, he left like the kid nobody invited to the birthday party that the popular kid was having. He felt left out. He wanted to play.

Mulder got into his car and drove to his sadly neglected apartment. He hadn't seen the inside of it in days. It was dirtier than usual. Mulder, oblivious to filth, made a beeline to his fish tank.

Two mollies and the Beta fish were floating belly up.

"Aw, damn." Mulder got the little green fish net and scooped up the victims. "I'm sorry, guys," he said as he bore them away to his miniscule bathroom. He flipped the net over and watched the three dead fish plop into the toilet.

After he flushed the throne, he paused over the bowl, reflecting on the good times and fond memories he had of his fish. Then he retreated to his barely used bedroom, changed out of his suit and into a pair of jeans and a well-loved gray T-shirt. He bent down to retrieve his sneakers, but decided that tying the laces would take too much effort, so he went into his closet and slipped on the pair of Birkenstock sandals one of his far and few in between ex-girlfriends had bought for him. He thought it might have been Phoebe, but he wasn't sure. He hoped Scully wouldn't notice and comment. The death of his beloved fish had soured his mood already. He didn't really feel like dealing with Scully's green-eyed monster.

He fed his remaining fish, stuffed his wallet in his pocket and headed out. Halfway down the stairs, he decided that he would make a stop at the pet store near the little deli Scully liked.




Noah's Bark Pet Boutique
Georgetown
7:16 PM Eastern Standard Time

The little doorbells chimed cutely as Mulder walked in, which woke up all the dogs, two of the kittens and a very large, very loud parrot named "Baby."

Mulder wandered around through the aisles and accidentally bumped into a waifish sales clerk who was stocking up the shelves. "Sorry," he mumbled. "I'm trying to find the fish section."

"Oh, like... do you need some help?" the girl with the purple hair and several facial piercing asked him.

"Not as much help as you need," Mulder mumbled rudely as he brushed past him. As he wandered deeper into the store, he couldn't help but feel like he was being watched. He tried to shake it off. <<Paranoia>> he told himself, but he still felt like someone was eyeballing at him.

He turned around and noticed a pair of chocolate brown eyes, filled with love, staring up at him.

Mulder felt his normal arrogant reserve dissolve at the sight of those beautiful eyes. He went up and introduced himself... "Well... hello there..."




 

Scully's apartment
Georgetown
8:21 PM Eastern Time

Scully closed the door to her bedroom. William had finally fallen asleep. She peeped out of her living room windows. No Mulder yet. She picked up a paperback book she bought in a fit of good intention, thinking she would have time to read it. That was four months ago.

Scully curled up in her armchair and soon lost herself so deeply into the novel, she didn't even hear Mulder's key in the door.

But she did hear the unmistakable sound of little feet scampering across a linoleum floor. Scully got up warily, "Mulder? That you?"

"Scully, where do you keep your bowls?"

"Bowls?" Scully walked towards her kitchen. "Mulder, why do we need bowls if you got sandwiches."

"I didn't get sandwiches."

"What did you get?" Scully walked through her kitchen door and looked down. The most adorable little mutt looked back up at her and thumped her tail on the floor excitedly. Mulder was sitting beside on the floor, scratching her ears. Next to Mulder was a grocery sack filled with Purina Puppy Chow and dog toys. Scully's eyebrows rose so high, they almost disappeared into her hairline. "Mulder..."

"Isn't she great?" Mulder hugged the dog.

Scully, as usual, was flabbergasted at Mulder's spontaneity. "Who's dog is that Mulder?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

"I got her tonight. Three of my fish died and I stopped at the pet store on my way to the deli and we met and I just fell in love." Mulder did look oddly besotted with the dog.

Which, Scully hated to admit, was cuter than hell. The dog had one of those faces where it seemed that she was *smiling* at you. And she had the biggest, brownest eyes... Scully tried to steel herself against them... but then again, puppy-dog eyes were always one of her weaknesses.

Still...

"Mulder... if you can't keep your fish alive, what makes you think you can handle a dog?"

Mulder wasn't listening. "She's been spayed, groomed, trimmed, housebroken and all of her shots updated. She was a stray the owner of the pet store found four months ago wandering the back alley. The sales associate working there said that this puppy must have belonged to somebody because it's very friendly. The owner tried to find who this young lady belonged to, but no luck. So now he was just trying to find a good home for her because he didn't want to take her to the pound. And Scully... watch this...." Mulder stood up and dug a sunflower seed out of his pocket. He cracked the shell with his teeth and instead of eating the seed as usual, he spit the seed out and held out his hand.

The dog, with one giant slurp, licked the seed off of his hand. Mulder wiped dog drool onto his jeans and looked up at Scully, beaming.

Scully hated to rain on Mulder's parade, but she had to know. "Mulder, does your apartment allow dogs?"

"Oh sure, but I have to put down a five hundred dollar deposit, which I should have by the end of this month," now

Mulder gave Scully the puppy-dog eyes.

"NO."

"Scully, come on... it'd only be for two weeks..."

"Absolutely not. Mulder... I don't want a dog around here."

"Why not? You had that little dust mop of mutt here for a while and you loved her."

"Queequeg? She was a pain in the ass, Mulder. She chewed up my furniture and one time she escaped from her bath and ran all over my apartment, getting soap everywhere."

"You cried when she got eaten by that alligator."

"That was traumatic."

"You just don't want to get attached to another pet only to lose her again. That's not healthy Scully."

"Mulder. I don't need a pet. I have YOU to keep me busy."

"And I see you're trying to shorten my leash. Scully, I promise. It's only for two weeks. The Bureau owes me a check for consulting on this undercover case that Puppy-Man and the Hurricane went on. That'll more than cover the deposit. I just can't swing that much money right now."

"Well... maybe you should have thought of that before you picked up the dog, Mulder."

"She might have been given away to some one else."

Scully was hit by a brainstorm. "Ask Starkweather when she gets back if she can take care of the dog. Her apartment allows pets."

"Scully, we know that Starkweather's place allows pets because she already has one. A great big mean tabby cat named Caesar, which is extremely appropriate seeing how Caesar sees their apartment as his empire and he allows Ben and Jerilyn as his minions to exist there. And besides Scully, just because she doesn't hate me anymore, doesn't mean we're the best of friends. It's one thing to help her out on a case. It's another to ask her to take care of my dog. Besides," Mulder added. "She let Doggett's houseplants die when he went out of town last month. And Doggett's her partner and her friend. If she can't even keep her partner and her friend's plants alive, what is she going to do to my dog?"

"Mulder," Scully made one last stand, even though what she really wanted to do was sit on the floor and snuggle with the puppy. But she wanted to snuggle with the puppy and then send it away. Not have it potentially become a permanent fixture to her home. "I don't know if I can devote the attention it needs, what with William and all."

"This dog is going to be great company for Boo when he gets bigger," Mulder said, winning the fight in one swift move. "I would have loved to have a pet, growing up." He picked the puppy up and cuddled her in his arms. "Don't worry Scully, I promise this one won't be eaten by any reptiles."

Scully gave up. "What should we call her?" she asked as she sat down beside Mulder. The puppy wriggled out of Mulder's arms and moseyed over to sniff the kneecaps of the new person.

"Well, the girl that was helping me said that the manager already named her, but we could change it if we liked."

"What did they name her?"

Mulder hunted for the license. "Tummy."

"What?"

"Tummy."

"Tummy? Why?"

Just then, the little dog flopped on her back and exposed her belly. Scully reached over and scratched. The dog's smile actually seemed to get bigger and her body became limp in contentment.

"I think Tummy fits," Mulder said.




 

August 11, 2001
Ronald Reagan National Airport
Washington DC
5:14 AM Eastern Standard Time

Doggett and Starkweather trudged through the terminal like sleepwalkers. "I can't believe," Starkweather said haggardly, "that our flight was held over in Chicago for three and a half hours."

"I hate O'Hare," Doggett said, eyes bloodshot.

Both agents were suffering from major sleep deprivation. As they more or less dragged themselves to the baggage claim, Starkweather said "I don't know about you, but I'm calling in dead to work tomorrow and I'm taking three funeral days."

"Sounds good to me," Doggett yawned and rubbed his eyes. "Need a ride home?" he asked as he snagged their luggage off the conveyor belt.

"Please," Starkweather took her backpack and her suitcase from him. "Ben was going to pick me up, but when they made the delay announcement, I called him on my cell and told him," she yawned "not to worry about it, that I'd either get a cab or a ride from you."

"Bet he liked that," Doggett grumbled. Ben's transparent jealous of his relationship with Jerilyn was a source of profound irritation to Doggett. He would have loved to give Mr. Starkweather a swift kick in the ass, but he wasn't sure how Mrs. Starkweather would take that, so he held his piece.

But Starkweather wasn't blind to her husband's immaturity. "Oh, he loved it," she said bitterly. Then she recovered and said "Don't mind me, Papa John, I'm tired, I'm cranky and all I want to do is to curl up in my nice warm bed with my cat.




 

In front of Ben and Jerilyn's apartment building
Washington DC
6:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

Doggett stopped the car. He nudged Starkweather. "Hey... Doc..."

Starkweather's eyes fluttered but she didn't move. "Five more minutes," she grumbled.

"Starkweather, you're home."

Now she lifted her head. "Joy." She turned to her partner. "Doggett, I'm serious about not coming into the office today. So don't you go making me look bad by coming in."

"Doc, all I wanna do is collapse in my bed. And if AD Skinner has a problem with it, I'll deal with him. He can't possibly expect us to be functioning after what we just went through." Doggett needed a shave and he had been living in the same suit for the past two days now. The pretty green dress suit Starkweather had changed into before leaving for her flight was completely crumpled and her French braid was coming undone.

Both looked like hell.

Starkweather put her hand on the door handle. "Well, then I'll talk to you later, Papa John."

Doggett grabbed her wrist. "Wait."

"Doggett, please, can't it wait until tomorrow? I'm dying here."

"Starkweather, I just need to know something."

"What?"

"Are you gonna tell him about what happened at the dance club?"

Starkweather froze.




 

August 9, 2001
Deuces Are Wild Nightclub
Sioux City, Iowa

While investigating a series of murders at a popular radio station, Starkweather--posing as a young college student--met up with Doggett at a popular local dance club. They had danced together so Doggett could fill her in about what he had learned about the main suspect, Reese Jackson. Doggett was recovering from a car accident he didn't quite think was an accident per se. But the net around Jackson was tightening:

"Oh my God... Doggett...please tell me that this whole mess didn't start because someone thought it would be fun to tip over a COW?!" Starkweather had moaned very Scully like while ‘the Mulder-side’ as she was beginning to begrudgingly call that part of herself, could absolutely see the hilarity in this entire situation.

"Anyway, Alice and Elizabeth kept their peace and Reese got away with murder."

"Literally. So you think someone was tailing you?"

"Positive. I don't know how much they told you about the wreck I had, but a lady ran a stop light. I slammed on the brakes. Not only did the lady ram right into to me, but whoever was following me, slammed right into the rear of my car."

"Was it Reese?"

"I don't know, but he took off awful fast."

"So now we've got leaving the scene of an accident as well as all the other shit." Starkweather murmured. "He's gonna fry for this. But where else have you been? I left like three messages on your cell..."

"...I was making sure I wasn't being following while trying to wake up any judge in Woodbury County."

"A judge?!"

"I think I know where to look to find Elizabeth's locket and Melinda's ring."

"And we've got him on theft and major dealin'."

"And Reyes teamed up with the IRS. They've got a warrant for the station. He's gonna get nailed for tax evasion on top of that."

"Let me know the way
before there's hell to pay


Give me room to lay down the law and let me go..."

"Can you get away from your buddies and do a little search and destroy mission with me Doc?" Doggett asked her.

"I've got to make a play

To make my lover stay
so what would an angel say
the devil wants to know..."

Starkweather saw him before he saw her or Doggett.

"Doggett," she whispered "Kiss me, now."

"WHAT?!"

"Dammit, Reese Jackson is HERE. We've got to get out here, follow my lead," she grabbed his tie and brought him closer, "I don't like this anymore than you do," she said before kissing him on the corner of the mouth....

"What I need is a good defense

'Cause I'm feeling like a criminal
And I need to be redeemed
To the one I sinned against
Because he's all I ever knew of love..."

(From Starkweather: Frequency Modulation)




 

August 11, 2001
In front of Ben and Jerilyn's apartment building
Arlington VA
6:03 AM Eastern Standard Time

"Are you gonna tell him about what happened at the dance club?"

Starkweather froze. "Um... let me sleep on it," she mumbled.

"Starkweather," Doggett said, exasperated. "It’s not like we did anything wrong. You know that."

"I know," she snapped, delivering those two words wrapped up in irritation and exhaustion.

"Starkweather, he hates me anyway. That's not a secret."

"Doggett, he's gonna freak if I tell him."

"What?" Doggett leaned his head against his car seat. "Dishonesty's a better path to take?"

Starkweather was wound up tighter than a two-dollar watch.

"Doggett, please," she begged as she rubbed her temples. "I can't handle this right now, okay? I've got a headache the size of a dinosaur right now and I just..."

"Just what? Starkweather, you can't let your personal life interfere with your work."

"That's funny," Starkweather lashed back. "I've got a husband telling me that I can't let my work interfere with my personal life. It's nice to have all these big strapping men around to dictate to me how to run my life."

"Now," Doggett was seeing red, "that's not what I meant and you know it. You told me on the flight that he's having trouble trusting you."

"And you think me telling him we locked lips for the sake of a mission is seriously going to help him trust me? Are you fucking insane?? What color is the sky in your world?"

"Jesus," Doggett said, now covering his eyes with his hand. She had a point. "I don't know Starkweather... but I do know that if you don't tell him, it could come back to bite you in the ass." Doggett looked at her sorrowfully. "And I'm not gonna lie to save your ass either."

"I don't expect you to." Starkweather got out of the car. Doggett popped the trunk and got out to help her get her luggage. "I got it," Starkweather said when she saw Doggett walking towards her.

Doggett ignored her and got her suitcase out while Starkweather pulled her backpack out. "Starkweather-"

"Papa John, please, don't push this. Not right now. My head hurts. My back hurts. I'm so damn tired right now, I don't think I'm capable of making a rational decision."

"Starkweather, I'd hate to lose you as a partner. Agents have been reassigned for less than this."

"I know," Starkweather looked away. "I'm tired, not stupid."

"Starkweather, you can't hide this from Ben," Doggett counseled her. "What's going to happen if we go on another mission together, and you know we will. The X-Files' not a desk job."

"DOGGETT. Enough. Okay? I KNOW. I will tell him. But not this morning. Not when I'm this brain dead. Okay?"

Doggett finally let off. "Okay. I'm sorry."

Starkweather shook her head. "Not as sorry as I'm gonna be when I tell him."

"Starkweather, you didn't DO anything wrong. WE didn't do anything wrong. It was part of the job. My case report will reflect that." Starkweather held out her hand for her suitcase. Doggett handed it to her. "We are NOT the next Mulder and Scully, Starkweather."

Starkweather looked up at Doggett and made an attempt at a smile, failing miserable. "You tell Ben that." She turned her back and walked towards her apartment.

Doggett opened his mouth to say something, but closed it. What else could he do? It was out of his hands now.

He just resented like hell that he was going to be painted as the bad guy... again. It just wasn't fair. He had never chased after another man's wife and he sure as hell wasn't going to start now. Doggett turned and got into his car. He watched Mrs. Starkweather go inside her building and then he drove himself home.

Neither Starkweather nor Doggett saw the outline of Ben Starkweather in the window of their apartment, watching everything.




 

Ben and Jeri's apartment
6:15 AM

Jerilyn Starkweather let herself into the apartment. She set her bags down by the door, not having the energy to carry them all the way to the bedroom. She leaned against the door and undid her unraveling French braid. She padded through the kitchen and through the living room. Ben just came out of the bathroom, tying his necktie when Jerilyn flopped on the couch.

"Hi," he said. "You're home early."

"Try and control your excitement."

Ben sat beside her. "How was your trip?"

"Crappy." Her cat, Caesar, leapt on upon her and settled on her belly, purring happily and shedding all over her good suit jacket.

"Did you catch the bad guys?"

"For once, actually, we did. Kind of exciting."

"Anything else exciting happen?" Ben asked innocently.

"Yeah..." Starkweather said, rubbing her eyes like a weary toddler. "Lots of excitement."

"Like?"

"I got slimed."

"WHAT?"

"I'll tell you about it later," Starkweather muttered. "I'll tell you about the entire trip later. I'm too tired right now." Her eyelids fluttered shut again.

Ben hovered over her, clenching and unclenching his fists.

**Something** happened on her mission, that was for damn sure. It looked like Jerilyn and Doggett were arguing about something out there. Ben had the sinking sensation that he wasn't going to like what they were arguing about.

<<What is the point?>> he wearily asked himself as he crouched down beside her to take off her shoes. He brushed an errant lock of hair off her face and brushed his thumb against her lips.

Starkweather opened her eyes and Ben lost himself into those strange irises, golden brown surrounded by a ring of green fire. "Tell me everything's okay," she pleaded in her haze of exhaustion.

Ben smiled sadly and fed her a pretty lie. "Everything's fine, Jeri." He bent over to give her a hug and a kiss. Starkweather hugged him around his neck. Even though she was half-asleep, she observed "You smell like sandalwood."

Ben didn't hear her. "I gotta go to work." He kissed her lips. "Bye FBI broad," he whispered. "Sleep well."

"Bye Counselor," Starkweather murmured as she fell completely asleep.

Ben left for the office with an overwhelming sadness in his heart and the kindling of a great hatred in his soul.

He wasn't stupid. Something happened between Jerilyn and the good Agent Doggett while they were in Sioux City... and he didn't want to know. <<Ignorance is bliss>> he decided as he drove towards the law firm and what was left of his life.




 

Later on that day...
City Hall
Deputy Mayor F. William Mulder's office
10:05 AM

Mulder was pounding away at his computer. Tummy was asleep at his feet, under his desk. Mulder looked down at the puppy, grinned and got back to his reports. When he hit a mental block, he stopped, gnawed on a pencil and tossed it in the air. Unfortunately, this one didn't stick, but sent all fifty-three crashing down. Mulder covered his head with his hands as pencils bounced off of him. "Damn," he said with a sigh as he looked at all the pencils scattered around him. He looked down at the puppy. Tummy hadn't moved an inch during the entire pencil hailstorm. "Nothing fazes you, huh girl?" he asked.

His ditzy receptionist, Bunny flung open the door. She clasped her tiny hands between her bosom. Mulder idly wondered if her massive chest was a miracle from God or a miracle from Victoria's Secret. However, Mulder was more interested in physics than in biology. She DID seem to defy gravity. "Oh my goodness gracious, Foxy," she gasped in that irritating feathery voice of hers, "what happened?"

She looked at the floor confused. "And what is with all these pencils?" She got down on her hands and knees and collected pencils. "And what is this?" She grabbed Tummy's tail that was protruding from underneath the desk.

"Don't!" Mulder got up, but Bunny already gave the tail a hard yank. Tummy squealed pathetically and ran to Mulder's feet. Mulder scooped the puppy up. "That's my dog," Mulder informed her.

"OOOOOOOO!!!! A widdle puppy-dawg!" she cooed, standing up.

"What's his name?"

"HER name is Tummy."

"AWWWWW!! That's SOOOOOO adorable!!!"

<<Oh my God>> Mulder thought in pain. He had met some strange rangers in his lifetime, but he didn't know that someone this abysmally idiotic truly existed. <<She's proof that Darwin is wrong>> Mulder held his little dog closer to him, afraid she'd snatch her out of his arms. "Thanks," he said. "Bunny, was there a reason why you're here?"

"Oh... yes, Foxy-"

"Don't call me that."

"Sorry," she said, not sounding the slightest bit sorry,

"But there's someone here to see you. He's not on your list, but he said you two were old friends and your day is pretty clear, so I thought it'd be okay." She stuck her head outside the door. "Mr. Eeee - bear - rah? Mr. Mold - dar will see you now," she looked at Mulder. "Did I say your last name right?"

"Close enough," Mulder said as Bunny pranced out and Manny

‘The Illegal Alien’ Ibarra bounced in. "Oh God..." Mulder fell into his chair, still holding his new puppy.

"Hey, Mulder, what's up?" Manny said cheerfully as he took a seat. "See that your little stint in jail didn't hurt your career at all. Hey," he examined the chair he was sitting in. "Is this real leather? Cool."

"Didn't they send you back to your country?" Mulder asked wearily, feeling the singing fingers of the Mighty Migraine touching his brain.

"Nah, your friends? The computer guys? They helped me get a green card." Manny beamed.

"Congratulations." Mulder made a mental note to kill the Lone Gunmen.

"And I got a job, a great job.

"Manny," Mulder said wearily as Tummy sympathetically nuzzled him. "What fresh hell did you bring me?"

Manny became very quiet, very serious. He got up, shut the door, and returned to the desk. Mulder put Tummy on the floor so she could run around. "Mulder, are you still into that paranormal thing that you told me about when we were in lock-up together?"

"Define 'into'," Mulder said cautiously although his mind was bounding ahead like the eager puppy Tummy was, excited at the possibilities that lay ahead.

"Mulder," Manny slipped out a diskette from a digital camera from his pocket. "I left behind the majority of my family to come to this country. Most of my younger siblings have also left. My two youngest brothers, Rafael and Quinto told me that they got jobs at a fancy American resort being built on an island south of Cozumel."

"Cozu - what?"

"Cozumel. Beautiful island. Overrun with rich American tourists and poor Mexicans," Manny said bitterly. "Anyway, my brothers told me that it was some kind of theme park being built, like a Disneyland or Universal Studios and it was very secretive." Manny bit his lip. "My brothers overnighted this," he held up the disk, "and a letter to me. They've asked me to contact you."

"Me??" Mulder asked. "Why me?"

"Because," Manny was surprised at Mulder's surprise. "of the X-Files. We need you to open an X-File."

"I don't have that power anymore," Mulder reminded Manny and himself.

"Your..." Manny searched for the right word in English. Not coming up with any, he lapsed into his native tongue,

"Novia? Your novia, Agent Scully? Can you convince Scully to open an X-File?"

"Convince Scully?" Mulder fought the urge to laugh. "Convince Scully of a paranormal event. A paranormal event that you haven't even told me about yet? A paranormal event that happened in within the boundaries of Mexico, not the United States?"

"But the company that owns the park and is building the park," Manny said, crossing over to Mulder's computer, "is American." He slid the disk in. "My brothers said that several people have been killed already." He seized the mouse and clicked open PhotoShop.

"Killed by what?" Mulder asked.

Then his eyes widened at the picture on his computer screen.

"Oh my God..."




 

Later on that day
J. Edgar Hoover
Assistant Director Walter Skinner's Office
12:45 PM Eastern Standard Time

Kimberly introduced the sleekly dressed man and let him into AD Skinner's domain. Skinner got up and shook his hand. He took one whiff of his expensive cologne and thought <<Lawyer>> "Mr. Schabasser, how can we assist you?" he asked formally, sitting down again.

Roald Schabasser got straight to business. "Assistant Director Skinner, I represent Unigen International." He handed Skinner his business card. "We have several interests in the fields of science, but we are branching out into new horizons. However, we need help making these horizons less of a dream but more of a reality. Unfortunately we've hit some roadblocks on our journey to the horizons and we need some help." He held up a hand as if Skinner was about to protest. "Now, I'm not asking for any rule bending. Nothing of the sort. I'm not even asking for a favor."

"What are you asking for?" Skinner growled.

"A loan."

"A loan?"

"Sir, if I am to understand correctly, there is a little known division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation which investigates strange and unusual occurrences often labeled 'paranormal' or 'supernatural', correct?"

"Yes..." Skinner fiddled with a pen. "It's called the X-Files Division."

"Yes," Schabasser pretended to have faulty memory. "And you have two scientists assigned to that division... ah... two women.... a Doctor Dana Scully and a Doctor Jerilyn Starkweather, correct?"

"Yes..." Skinner liked this less and less.

"That's my loan."

"Excuse me?"

"Sir," Schabasser said patronizingly, as if an Assistant Director for the FBI had no knowledge of the law whatsoever, "I can't get into many details due to client confidentiality, however I can tell you that Unigen has plans for a wonderful botanical park, project, a park, a major nature center with an amusement park twist. Marketed towards families. The prototypes being built on a small island near the Mexican resort of Cozumel. The issues that we are having is, even though the Mexican government has no objections to our project, we are having trouble gaining authorization the United States to bring our project to the mainland."

"I don't understand."

"Well... although the island is an ideal spot for seclusion, once we go public, the location, to put it bluntly, is going to kill us. For one thing, it's too close to Cozumel, a resort more geared towards the moneyed and childless. Plus parents aren't going to be willing to spend the time and money to travel to Mexico, only to hop on another flight to come to our park. We'd keep the research facility on the island, but we want to build a major attraction in the States, on the mainland. More affordable to the families we're trying to attract."

"How do Agent Scully and Agent Starkweather factor into this?"

Schabasser folded his hands together. "In order to please the various federal committees that are stalling the permits needed to bring our project to the mainland... actually.... Orlando, Florida to be exact... roaring distance from Disney World and Universal Studios," he chuckled at his little joke that Skinner found no humor in whatsoever. "We are creating a little panel to critique the project from every angle. So far, we've satisfied the zoology criteria with Dr. Alan Grant-"

Skinner frowned. The name was familiar to him, but he said nothing as Schabasser rattled on.

"Architecture with Andrea Nowark, horticulture with Dr. Geoff Wick, computer science with Ringo Langly-"

Skinner closed his eyes in pain.

"- And mathematics and logic with Ian Malcolm." Schabasser took a breath and looked directly at Skinner. "What we need are two impartial minds, trained in science and the law to round off our panel. Dr. Scully and Dr. Starkweather are perfect. Both have medical training and are specialists in forensics I understand. Plus Dr. Scully has several years of practical experience under her belt while Dr. Starkweather is a new mind and a new pair of eyes to the FBI. I promise you," Schabasser held up his hand. "I promise you that I would not need them for long. We would leave Wednesday night, be back Sunday evening. Everything is all expenses paid for the agents and a guest. If I had been informed correctly, Dr. Starkweather is actually a Mrs. Starkweather as well and she is more than welcome to bring her husband. As for Dr. Scully, I am afraid I do not know very much about her, except that she has a bouncing baby boy," he smiled.

Skinner gritted his teeth. <<This slime ball knows a lot more about Scully and Starkweather than he was letting on.>> he thought. Was it sheer coincidence that he picked two of the X-Files die-hard skeptics for this little "trip." Well, if it was a coincidence, it was one that would work against him for if Scully or Starkweather found one thing wrong with that park, she'd make sure it got shut down, come hell or high water. Especially Scully, being a parent now.

But he was definitely opening an X-File on this. That was no question. "I'll have to consult the agents," Skinner told Schabasser solemnly. "To be honest, I don't know if they are available. Agent Scully is still not working the X-Files on a full-time status as of yet and Agent Starkweather just returned today from a very intensive undercover mission."

"Of course, of course." Schabasser still smiled. "Why don't we just call them quick and get this settled. The flight leaves next weekend."

Skinner glared at the lawyer over his glassed and dialed Scully's extension to the basement office.

"Scully."

"Agent Scully, I need to see you in my office in five minutes. Is Agent Starkweather in."

"No sir, but I didn't think we were expecting her or Agent Doggett to be in."

"No matter, I'll call her," Skinner hung up on Scully and dialed Agent Starkweather's home number.




 

Meanwhile…

John Doggett’s house

Falls Church, Virginia…

"I can't say that I know what to tell ya ma'am," Doggett was saying. He had raced to the phone to answer it, and it had turned out to be his insurance company. Before he could deal with the insurance company concerning his F150, the case in Iowa occupied his time and energy. "That's one of the drawbacks of my job."

"You're an agent for the FBI according to our files. Last I heard on the news, you're busy figurin' out Timothy MacVeigh and all those Arabs. That involves totaling vehicles?"

"My part of the bureau deals with different kinds of cases Mrs. Turner. If there are any questions, you can get in touch with my superior, and he will clarify matters."

"Two vehicles damaged in three months, Mr. Doggett?" The woman countered. "Real life isn't some kinda cheesy action movie, sir. When most people damage cars at that rate, our company consider them a risk to insure."

"Ma'am, I assure you, I honestly can't tell you how my truck got damaged. There are a few days this past summer that I honestly can't remember where I was."

"Bwahahahahaha!" The woman laughed into the receiver. "Sir,

before last year, you were Mr. Normal. We had no reports from you that weren't work-related. But this year, I think you've got a screw loose. With all due respect, mister, that explanation sounds like something offa some dumb sci-fi TV. show. Now when you find out what happened, gimme a call, cuz the five o’clock whistle just blew, and I'm outta here."

"Fuck!" Doggett grumbled into the receiver as he slammed the phone down. Yes, before he was assigned to help find a missing FBI agent, his life was quite normal. And normal seemed to go down the drain altogether when Jerilyn Starkweather was assigned to his department.

She certainly wasn't the easiest person to get along with, and she certainly would never qualify for employee of the month. She could not be described as a team player, but her addition to the X-Files office with Reyes gave a scientific edge that the office was lacking before. But ever since she and Doggett first met before the case in Scotland got underway, there had been a connection there that hadn't existed with anyone.

And the most recent case in Iowa didn't exactly draw them apart. If she wasn't still married and still in love with her husband, Doggett didn't know what could have developed.

But what could have been is just as much of a mystery as Agent Dana Scully, her son, and the motives of the late Alex Krycek. He called for a pizza to be delivered, fished around in the fridge for a Southpaw beer, and channel-surfed, willing to let the mysteries remain for the night.

While Doggett was arguing with the endearing Ms. Turner from his auto insurance company, Starkweather was still dead asleep. Caesar had curled up on the hollow of her stomach and was purring merrily as he shed golden orange all over her nice suit. She was so still, she looked like a corpse.

When the phone rang the first time, she didn't even move. The second ring scared her awake. Her arm shot out before the rest of her was awake and reached for the cordless phone that Ben never failed to put back on the hook. It was to her ear and her mouth was moving to say "Hello" before her brain even comprehended what was going on.

"Agent Starkweather, this is AD Skinner."

"I just got back, how can I be in trouble?"

"Agent Starkweather, other than the debt you and Agent Scully racked up on a Bureau card, you're far from being in trouble, Agent Doggett just faxed me his first draft of his report. It's a miracle you two are in one piece. I hate to disturb you on your day off, but I need to see you."

Starkweather sat up, rubbing her eyes. Her head still hurt.

She looked down at herself. Her suit was completely crumpled and covered with cat hair. Plus it smelled bad. She ran her fingers through her hair. Tangled. She pushed Caesar off of her and asked Skinner "Do I have time to get cleaned up a little sir?"

"It is rather urgent," Skinner said, mostly because he wanted to rid his office of this obnoxious lawyer.

"I can be there in an hour," Starkweather said, already up and moving towards the bathroom.

"Good." Skinner hung up.

Starkweather went into the bathroom and stepped into her shower, still fully clothed, turning water on. Everything about this day was feeling surreal.

The feeling would last all day...

 

An hour and fifteen minutes later
Skinner's office

Scully was riding up on the elevator when it stopped on Floor Three, the floor to the parking garage. The doors opened, revealing a very pale Agent Starkweather. Starkweather took her dark sunglasses off, revealing dark rings under her eyes. "Hey, Scully, what's up?"

"Starkweather, you look awful."

"Love you too." Starkweather stepped inside and stood next to Scully.

Neither woman realized how well they complimented each other. Scully was, far and away, the prettier of the two, with her fiery hair, ivory skin and piercing blue eyes. She always chose clothes that complimented her luminous complexion and tiny frame. Today she wore a beige dress suit with her trademark almost platform high heels and her tiny gold cross. Motherhood had been kind to her and she shed her pregnancy weight fairly quickly. She just had ten more pounds to go to be back to her pre-pregnancy weight, although truth to be known, Mulder preferred her with a little more weight on her, more because it made him nervous to see her too thin. "Whenever something's "fine" in your corner of the world," he said heavy sarcasm on the word ‘fine’, you drop about five pounds in twenty minutes."

However, other male agents had said she was as "hot" as a movie star. Too bad she was stuck on that weirdo, Mulder.

However, where Scully was more "What you see is what you get", Starkweather exuded an aura of mystery. Her eyes, too much like Mulder's, could narrow to catlike slits in a heartbeat when she was pissed and at times it was anyone's guess what her big brain was cooking on when she camouflaged her thoughts behind her baby girl face.

Although she only had an inch or two up on Scully, Starkweather's build was leaner and more athletic that Scully's. Starkweather also paid no heed to fashion. As usual, she wore a black suit with a vibrantly colored blouse (Today, orange) The only deviation from her normal attire is her tawny blond hair was simply pulled back in a ponytail. Normally, she liked to keep her long hair bundled up in some sort of braid or bun. Her shoes, compared to Scully, were boring but her jewelry, like Scully's was minimal. Just her wedding band and a necklace Scully had never seen her wear before.

Add Reyes to the mix with her dancing eyes, thick black hair, quick smile and her tendency to dress a little more flamboyant and sexy that the Bureau preferred, no one could deny that three of the more attractive women in the FBI worked for the X-Files. Unfortunately, most of the women who worked for the Bureau looked like trolls.

So it was no wonder when Schabasser looked up when Scully and Starkweather as they entered Skinner's office, his jaw dropped open. "Dr. Scully, Dr. Starkweather," he gushed as he walked towards them. "I've heard much of your career, but everyone failed to tell me how lovely you both were."

Scully and Starkweather looked at each other, then impaled him with their own signature glare: Scully's frosty cerulean blue "Don't waste my time" glower and Starkweather's Mulderish arrogant stare tinged with feline impatience.

Scully let Starkweather handle the situation, which she did in her own special way. "Who the hell are you?"

Skinner groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Schabasser, surprisingly, laughed. "And I heard you were bit of a spitfire, Dr. Starkweather. Must run in the family," he dropped a wink. "I hear your brother, Fox Mulder is doing VERY well for himself these days," he said, voice oily.

Starkweather bridled. "He's my half-brother," she grumbled. "And as far as I can tell, he's doing fine." Scully glared at Starkweather, assuming Starkweather was taking another potshot at Mulder. She was as startled as Skinner and Schabasser when Starkweather made her next comment, "Assuming that you truly did your homework as thoroughly as you would like us to assume you did, then you know what a joy it was for me, as an abandoned child, to find living blood relatives."

Schabasser assumed she was being serious. Skinner or Scully couldn't tell as Starkweather's face was a bland and innocent as an antique porcelain doll.

"Shall we get to business?" Skinner interrupted the awkward silence.

Schabasser invited the ladies to sit and he ran through the same spiel he went through with Skinner earlier.

Scully and Starkweather sat through his speech silently, their dueling eyes, holier-than-thou blue and hellcat hazels, staring him down the entire time. Schabasser had to take out his monogrammed handkerchief. To be honest, he didn't know which one turned him on (and intimidated the hell out of him) more. He wondered how committed they were to their significant others. Oh well, he'd find out during the trip. "Any questions?"

Scully and Starkweather looked at each other. Starkweather made a motion with her hand as if to say to Scully "You first."

Scully asked, "What KIND of project, are we talking about?"

Schabasser smiled, shaking his head. "I can't release that information until you and your guest sign the confidentiality waiver."

Scully instantly replied, "I'm not signing anything unless I know what I'm getting myself into."

"I assure you," Schabasser said "everything is within the strict boundaries of the law."

"Besides Scully," Starkweather pointed out. "We can have Ben check out the waivers to make sure everything is on the up and up... and also for legal loopholes that we'll conveniently forget to point out to you in case we need to escape from a legally binding contract."

Schabasser smiled weakly and instantly decided he liked Scully better.

"Can you tell us ANYTHING?" Scully said. "I mean, if we are invited to this island, I'd like to be better informed so I can make an intelligent judgement on the scientific and the legal validity of the project."

"What I can tell you," Schabasser said slowly. "Is that it deals with genetics."

Scully arched an eyebrow. "Genetics... I am to assume that we are dealing with genetically altered animals?"

"You would be safe to assume that." Schabasser turned to Starkweather. "Dr. Starkweather, how about you? Questions?"

"I noticed a few very prominent names dropped on this forum we've been invited to partake with." Starkweather ticked the names off on her fingers, "Andrea Nowark is a fairly famous architect who, although designed some very prominent business building in Los Angeles, however her claim to famous is her work with the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas, particularly with the design of the homes of Siegfrey and Roy's white tigers when they are not performing. Geoff Wick is a noted profession from Iowa State University. He has written several college textbooks. He gave a lecture at the University of Iowa while I was a med. student there about the differences between plant life during each major development age the earth went through. I personally thought it was boring, but then again, plants are not my specialty. Anyway.... Ringo Langly," Starkweather cringed visibly, "is rumored-" she stifled laughter, "to be one of the best computer hackers in the world. Only problem is, there is no shred of evidence that he's broken any laws-" <<because WE cover up for him and his other two nimrod friends>> Starkweather couldn't help thinking "However, despite his retirement to work on "The Lone Gunmen Online Newsletter" which explores conspiracy theories, Langly is considered one of the top notch experts in security systems. But the other two names...." Starkweather mused. "I'm sorry... Alan Grant and Ian Malcolm... aren't those characters from the movie and the book of the same name.... Jurassic Park?" Trust Starkweather the movie buff to pick up on that.

"Alan Grant and Ian Malcolm are real life people, Dr. Starkweather."

"So it's just a BIG coincidence that two people with the same odd names and have almost similar professions... unless Dr. Grant really is a fossil-hunter... are going with on a trip, to an ISLAND, to critique a zoological project... with you already let Scully assume that we're dealing with genetically altered animals..." Starkweather trailed off. "Interesting...."

Scully stood up. "If I could consult with Agent

Starkweather in private for one minute," she said to

Skinner. Skinner waved them out.

In the hallway, Starkweather hissed, "Something stinks in Denmark... and it stinks like an X-File."

"Starkweather, do you really believe that this company has the capability to clone...." Scully forced herself to say the word: "Dinosaurs?"

Starkweather scrunched her eyebrows. "I honestly don't know... but in the normal world, science has already found the way to clone a sheep, a cow and a monkey," she lowered her voice "and in the X-Files world, we know we've got human clones and alien replicants wandering around, we've got files and files on that crap. Why not a dinosaur? If they've got the DNA, a good genetic scientist can clone anything, Scully, you know that."

Scully challenged her, "But dinosaurs? Starkweather... where could have viable dinosaur DNA survived?"

"In the movie, they got it out of mosquitoes preserved in amber."

"That was a MOVIE."

"I know, I know, that's what's so fucked up about this," Starkweather groaned. "Scully, come on, this is ME, okay? I'm not gonna believe shit unless I see it but being married to Ben has taught me how to sniff out the breeds of lawyers and this lawyer is a snake. No morals, he goes for the kill so he can rake in the bucks."

"He knows a lot about us," Scully mused. "Which makes me question, why us? You, Doggett, and me are the Doubting Thomases of the team. If they wanted support, why didn't they ask Reyes? Or even contact Mulder? Even though he's not an agent, he's still a consultant."

"I don't get that either."

"But we are in agreement that there's something fishy about this entire deal?"

"Absolutely," Starkweather said feveredly. "I'm in if you and Mulder are in."

"Mulder?" Scully guffawed. Starkweather and Mulder's feud was legendary. If she hadn't heard it from Starkweather's own lips, Scully wouldn't have believed it that Starkweather made the suggestion.

"Oh, stop it. We're not exactly the nuclear family, but face it Scully," Starkweather sighed. "We need him. Plus I didn't particularly care how Schabasser was ripping on him." She gave Scully a naughty grin. "'Cuz nobody picks on my brudda 'cept fo' me."

"You're impossible."

"One of my many charms," Starkweather smiled. "Mulder will jump at the chance to ride along on an X-File again. If you're in, then I'm in. No questions asked."

"Then as soon as that Snake-man leaves Skinner's office,

I'm notifying him that I'm opening an X-File on this."

Starkweather chuckled. "Snake-man, huh? I think Mulder and I are rubbing off of you...."

Starkweather and Scully went back inside of Skinner's office. "Mr. Schabasser," Scully said as graciously as she could. "We would be honored to be part of your panel."

"Wonderful!" Schabasser bounded up and first shook

Starkweather's hand, then Scully's, lingering on Scully's. Starkweather turned her back to hide a snort of laughter. Scully fumed. "Now, how many plane tickets will we be needing? Four? Three? Two?" He smiled at Scully in a way he thought was suave, but made Scully want to erupt in laughter.

"Four, I think," Scully said, working very hard to keep her lips straight. "Agent Starkweather, will Ben be joining us?"

"Yes," Starkweather said, turning to face Scully again.

"I'll tell him tonight."

"Wonderful," Schabasser finally let go of Scully's hand and went to retrieve his briefcase. "Assistant Director, I appreciate you for allowing this," he thanked Skinner profusely. Skinner just grunted and started to read a case report.

"Dr. Starkweather, Dr. Scully," Schabasser said as he departed.

The minute Skinner's door was closed, Starkweather said

"What a greaseball."

"Sir," Scully said, "with your permission-"

"Go ahead and open an X-File. I don't like the sound of this either."

"Thank you sir," Scully said.

As she and Starkweather turned to leave, Skinner said,

"Agent Starkweather, could I see you alone for a minute."

"Sure," Starkweather said coolly while thinking <<NOW WHAT?? >>

"I'll meet you downstairs," Scully said as she took her leave.

Skinner invited Starkweather to sit, which she did. Skinner said, "Like I told you over the phone, I read Doggett's preliminary report. You did a good job, Agent Starkweather."

"Thank you, sir."

"I'm still pissed about the credit card bill you and Agent Scully ran up."

"I'm sorry, sir."

"And there is one section of this report that pertaining to a situation in a dance club called "Deuces Are Wild" that concerns me."

"Yes sir?" Starkweather asked with a sinking heart, knowing exactly WHAT situation he was referring to.

"This is just an off-the-records heads-up," Skinner said.

"Okay...."

"Be careful Jerilyn," he said. "The X-Files is not a popular division and there are several factions who would love to shoot us down and will use any ammunition they can get their hands on to do it."

"Okay...."

"And also... I've seen many good agents careers hampered by the rumor mill so bear that in mind."

"Okay...." Starkweather's heart sank lower.

"That's all," Skinner dismissed her.

Starkweather passed Deputy Director Kersh in the hall. He nodded his head towards her, "Agent Starkweather," he said smugly as he walked by.

"Sir," she responded as she walked towards the elevators. <<I hate him.>> she thought as she pressed the down button.




 

Still later on that day....

Scully's apartment
Georgetown
6:14 PM Eastern Standard Time

Scully, holding Will, fished for her keys in her pocket.

"Sorry," Scully apologized to Starkweather, who was holding both of their briefcases and Will's diaper bag.

"No big deal," Starkweather said as Scully finally found her door keys and let them all in.

"Where should I put these?" she asked, indicating her burden.

"Just put it on the kitchen table," Scully said as she went to check her voice messages:

"Dana? It's Mom. I'm just returning your call. I'll talk to you later. Love you, bye."

"Scully, it's me. I'll stop by later."

Scully turned around to see Starkweather walking up behind her. "Can you take Will while I go change?"

"Sure... come here Prince William," Starkweather held her arms out for the baby. "Jeez, kid, you're getting heavy," Starkweather groaned under the weight of the boy while Scully went into her bedroom so she could get out of her suit. Starkweather held her finger out for Will to grab, but he was more entertained by the shiny silver pendant around Starkweather's neck. With a yank, he pulled at it.

Starkweather gagged. "Easy, kid," she said as she gently took it away from him. "Liked that huh? A new friend in Sioux City gave that to me. It's a holy medal of St. Christopher, The Patron Saint of Travel. Too bad it's not of St. Jude, Patron Saint of Hopeless Causes." She tucked the medal underneath her shirt just as Scully came back out, barefoot and wearing a blue cotton T-shirt and khakis slacks. Starkweather noted with amusement that she had red nail polish on her toenails.

"I can take him," Scully said. "I need to give him his supper now but we can talk while I feed him."

"Alright," Starkweather said. "I can make iced tea or something while you're feeding him."

"If you want to," Scully said, knowing Starkweather well enough now to know that she was just one of those people who had to be perpetually busy. She set William in the high chair, showed Starkweather where her tea-things were and got out the baby food for William. As she started to feed William strained carrots, she said "So you believe that this company has the capability to clone dinosaurs."

"Like I said earlier, any geneticist worth his salt can clone anything as long as they have DNA. The real mystery is where in the hell could dino DNA could have survived, unless the skeeter-in-the-amber part of the "Jurassic Park" movie is true... I mean, it makes sense... but... I don't know." Starkweather busied herself with iced tea preparations. "Do you want raspberry tea or orange tea?"

"Raspberry."

"What do you think is going on?"

"I think... I think it's more than likely that this company has found a way to genetically alter already existing animals to resemble prehistoric animals. No, Will, don't-"

The bowl of orange goo ended up on the floor strained carrots everywhere. "Dammit," Scully muttered under her breath as Will giggled. "William, you are being naughty," she told the boy sternly. "Toss me a washcloth, Starkweather, please."

Starkweather did so and asked, "Need some help mopping that stuff up?"

"No," Scully sighed. "This is what I do instead of aerobics."

"Anyway..."

"Anyway," Scully resumed the feeding of Will, which was more of Will pushing the spoon away from her. "Come on Boo," Scully pleaded. "Give your mother a break, please???? Anyway, I think that's more likely what's going on than the cloning of actual dinosaurs. All it would really take is the manipulation of the chromosomes of the fetus once it started to grow."

"Is that legal?"

"The laws of genetics right now are very vague. It grew too fast, too soon and the law-makers are still debating what's constitutional and what's not with genetic research, which means we as the law-enforcement don't have many weapons to fight with when we run into situations when there is a potential hazard to the public."

"Such as a park of genetically engineered animals."

"Precisely. And...Will... don't do that... and we haven't even touched on the ethics of it yet."

"Geez.... you know... that makes more sense than actual dinosaurs. I just want to know what that slimy lawyer is up to. I thought I recognized his name, so while I was on my way here, I called Ben and told him a little bit what's up since I'm dragging him with. The guy we talked to today is Roald Schabasser of Schabasser, Gillian and Sita. They're one of the rivals of Carter, Spangle and Adams-" the lawfirm Ben worked for. "Ben said everyone at CS and A hates Schabasser. In fact, Cello, one of Ben's friends from work, is going to be going up against Schabasser in about two weeks. It sounds like it's going to be nasty but he didn't go into details."

"Did he say what kind of trial?"

"Copyright infringement, slander, libel and fraud. Very ugly. One those cases that will drag on for literally months."

"Ugh." Scully crinkled her nose. Will laughed, so Scully did it again. While Will's mouth was open, she pushed in a spoonful of food, which Will spit out gleefully.

"Which, again, makes me wonder why the hell US? I mean, you said it Scully, you, me and Doggett are the die-hard skeptics, well, except for you 'cause you believe in aliens now, but everything else you question." Scully glared at her, but Starkweather went on. "Anyway, it just doesn't make sense."

"I'm just wondering if they're only going to show us what they want us to see, get our stamp of approval and then go about their way," Scully said slowly as she wiped Will's face.

"Well, then we better make sure we see what they don't WANT us to see, huh?" Starkweather smirked just as the front door opened and Mulder called out:

"Scully, it's me..."




 

Meanwhile

Roald Schabasser's Office
Schabasser, Gillian and Sita
Washington DC

Schabasser loved working late. It delayed the inevitable returning home to his corpulent wife and three screaming hellions the wife claimed were their children. No matter, she came from an old political family, which was all that really mattered. And he supposed he still loved her... well... he still liked her. Kind of.

Anyway, he was not thinking about his family life, he was thinking of the conference call he was waiting for. He had to secure this case, this account, his position with the firm. His two partners, Elena Gillian and Veronica Sita had made it clear that they were tired of his shady reputations marring the image of their law firm. And God bless his faithful little receptionist for giving him the heads up that Elena and Veronica were conspiring to getting him kicked out of the firm. Kicked out! Fired. The senior partner of the law firm THAT HE STARTED. The bitches.

He couldn't afford to boot Veronica or Elena out. Veronica was vicious enough to press charges against him for sexual harassment and discrimination whereas Elena would return to her friends at Carter, Spangle and Adams and spill the beans about his strategic plans for the big copyright infringement case he was working on.

 

So, secure this case, secure this company and secure his own investment, save his ass and without warning, tell Veronica and Elena that he was leaving the firm on his own accord. It wasn't as much fun running a lawfirm as he thought it would be, although the money was fabulous. He nibbled on a pen and thought of the lovely doctors he met today in the Assistant Directors' office. Dr. Scully was captivating, he would certainly wouldn't object to getting to know her better. Dr. Starkweather, also attractive, but what a snotty bitch she was. And she was married to the newest weasel at Carter, Spangle and Adams. Great. Schabasser frowned. The phone rang. "Roald Schabasser."

"It's me," a deep vague voice responded. "Is everything in place?"

"Yes sir."

"The agents agreed?"

"Yes sir, our Forum is complete."

"I am still apprehensive about the FBI agents. I still believe we picked the wrong two. We should have invited Agents Doggett and Reyes."

"Sir, with all due respect, Agent Doggett is a strict by-the-books man. Nothing gets by him. Agent Reyes is getting a reputation as a flake. Higher-ups are always second-guessing her. We need agents who no one will question, which are Agents Scully and Starkweather. Agent Scully is a new mother and Agent Starkweather is going through some... marital discord? Granted, they are the more skeptical and scientific, but they are also the one with the most distractions. They're perfect."

"Are they bringing guests?"

"Mrs. Starkweather is bringing Mr. Starkweather as expected. I don't know whom Agent Scully will bring. Possibly her friend and ex-partner, Fox Mulder, but you can never be too sure."

There was the slightest hesitation. Then, "Very well. I leave this in your hand, Roald." The phone went dead.




 

Meanwhile....

Back at Scully's

Mulder tossed his keys on the table and walked into the kitchen. When he saw Starkweather making iced tea, he asked "Hey Snookums," he said to her, "after you get done with that, can you rub my feet?"

"Ew." Starkweather's face crumpled up in disgust, "I'd rather lie down on a bed of cockroaches."

"Can't you two just say 'hello' like normal people?" Scully groaned.

Two pair of hazel eyes regarded Scully, then each other.

"Hello," Mulder's voice dripped with sarcasm.

"Hello," Starkweather flung the sarcasm right back at him.

Scully resisted the urge to beat her head into the wall, "Mulder, while Agent Starkweather is here, I need to talk to you about the latest case Skinner assigned to us."

"'Agent' Starkweather," Mulder said, leaning over to kiss Will's dirty face. "You must mean business if you're attaching 'Agent' onto a friend's name."

"It is," Starkweather said. "An X-File just dropped in our lap today and you're going with." She did a double take at the puppy in Mulder's arm. "Since when have you been capable of keeping another creature alive?"

Mulder opened his mouth then shut it very rapidly, remembering the two dead mollies and one dead Beta fish.

"Speaking of creatures," Mulder said, taking out a diskette. "Remind me I have something to show you two when you get done briefing me. I'm going to change," and with that he disappeared into Scully's room, still carrying Tummy.

Starkweather looked at Scully. "Why don't you two just get married and get it over with?"

Scully blushed and said. "I'm happy with the way things are right now." <<At least he's here and alive>> she said to herself privately.

"Can't you at least live in sin?" Starkweather asked.

Before Scully could answer, Mulder came back out in a pair of faded jeans and a black T-shirt. Tummy the puppy followed him slavishly.

Starkweather, a die-hard cat-person, looked down at the little dog, cringed but said nothing. She sat down at the kitchen table next to Scully. Mulder leaned against the counter. "Tell me yours and I'll tell you mine."

Scully filled Mulder in on the events in Skinner's office. Starkweather said nothing. She seemed to be a thousand miles away, but both Mulder and Scully knew her well enough that every word was sinking into that massive brain of hers. She missed nothing.

Mulder, as well, listened to Scully without moving a muscle in his face, his eyes never wavering from Scully's face.

"So," Scully said. "What do you think?"

"I think..." Mulder said slowly. "You two better see this."

He disappeared into the living room.

Starkweather snapped back to life, gave Scully a "What-the-hell?" look and darted after Mulder. Scully hastily cleaned William up and balancing Will on her hip, joined the brother and sister in the living room. Tummy, not liking being all alone, bounded after Scully.

Mulder was at Scully's computer. Starkweather had pulled a chair out and was sitting next to him. Scully and William hovered right behind Mulder. "What are you doing?" she asked as he put the diskette into Scully's computer drive.

"Remember Manny Ibarra?" he asked.

"Oh God..." both women groaned.

"NOW what did he do?" Starkweather asked.

"It's not what he did, it's what was sent to him and what he wants me to forward to YOU, Scully, being that you're the head of the X-Files now," Mulder droned. "However, it sounds like you've got the heads-up about this place sooner than I did, but I don't believe your theory about already existing creatures being manipulated to resemble prehistoric creatures is accurate, Scully."

"You think that they really made...." Scully forced the words out. "Dinosaurs? You really believe that they someone found dinosaur DNA that survived, after all this time... over several millennia, dinosaur DNA exists and they have built dinosaurs from this DNA and plan on building an AMUSEMENT park to profit from it?"

"Mulder, buying into the extreme possibilities... shock. Surprise. Dismay," Starkweather deadpanned, leaning her chin in her hand, watching Mulder click on icons on the computer screen. "Come on, Mulder, Scully's right. Where in the hell could they have gotten the dinosaur DNA fro-" Starkweather's eyes, along with Scully's bugged out when Mulder opened a jpeg file. "Holy shit..." Starkweather said.

"Mulder..." Scully took a step closer. "What is that?"

"That, Scully, is, to me, although I've never seen one living, a Tyrannosaurus Rex. This was taken by a college student, one Nicholetta Bocelli-Jones, a pre-vet and biology major at UCLA. She had apparently taken an internship at this park, but roughly a night or so ago, had a bad fright and demanded to be removed from the island. Currently, she's in a padded cell at secluded private hospital for the mentally disturbed in Beverly Hills. She's not taking visitors at this time. Our buddy, Manny has two brothers working as guards at the island. They removed this digital camera from the girl's backpack figuring the girl would be too... disturbed to go to the proper authorities. Apparently, Manny has been telling tales to the folks back home and so, the brothers sent the disk to him via FedEx, who paid me a visit today at City Hall.

"I thought Manny got sent back to Mexico?" Starkweather asked.

"The Lone Gunmen helped him get his green card," Mulder said flatly.

"Oh." Starkweather made a mental note to kill the Lone Gunmen.

Scully meanwhile, was examining the picture. "This..." she said, "Could be a hoax, Mulder." With her free hand, she pointed at the giant lizardlike monster. "Mulder, you and I and Starkweather know that there is a popular series of movies out there called Jurassic Park out there-"

Mulder lit up. "I know, Tea Leoni is in the third one," he beamed. Ever since Mulder and Scully visited the set of "The Lazarus Cup," the pathetically awful movie about their work, Mulder has held a very pathetic crush for the leggy blond actress. Starkweather and Scully rolled their eyes.

"The point I'm trying to make, Mulder," Scully said patiently. "Is that someone could have easily downloaded from a DVD disk, a frame from the movie and converted it into a jpeg file."

"She's right Mulder... but..." Starkweather scooted closer to look at the frame. "I've seen all three Jurassic Park... and by the way Mulder... Tea Leoni sucks... anyway... I don't remember this," she traced the outline of the roaring T-Rex with her pointer finger, "being a part of the movie. But then again, it is fairly easy to manipulate a photograph with the right computer software. Then again... it's a little too MUCH of a coincidence that Mulder received this disk from this island right after Scully and I receive an invitation to be part of a "Forum" for the same said island... dammit," Starkweather sighed. "I'm questioning myself," she grumbled.

Mulder, for once, seemed to be questioning himself as well. "Maybe I should have the Stooges look into this to see if it's authentic or not..." he murmured although he seemed to be contemplating something.

"Maybe," Scully said delicately, "you won't have to. Langly has been invited to be part of the panel to critique the island."

"LANGLY??" Mulder looked over at Starkweather. "Lucky you," he purred.

Starkweather responded by rolling her eyes and putting her head to the table and thumping it several times. "Yeah," she muttered after banging her head, "lucky me." She sat up. "Fortunately Ben will be coming with me to scare Langly off...."




 

Twenty-four hours before Ben,
Jerilyn, Mulder and Scully
are supposed to leave for the island

Ben and Jeri's Apartment
Arlington VA

"I'm not going."

In frustration, Jerilyn ceased to pack, angrily flung one of Ben's t-shirts to the floor like a spoiled child and put her fingers to the bridge of her nose. "Why?" she asked, quietly simmering.

Ben sat on the couch, sullenly chain smoking. "Steve Cello at the law firm just approached me today about assisting him with the copyright infringement case he's working on. I told him I'd help him."

"This happened just today??" Starkweather said. "You could have told me sooner."

"Well, how many times have plans of ours been shot down when you had to go to work?" Ben asked.

"Ben, that's different."

"How?"

"You're behaving like a child."

"I'm not the one throwing clothes around," Ben said icily.

"Ben," Starkweather said patiently. "You and Cello are going up against Schabasser for the same case and Schabasser is going WITH us. We really need you there. **I** need you there."

"Jeri," Ben said patiently. "We need to take advantage of the fact that Schabasser is taking a little vacation. He is gift-wrapping time for us to work on this case. We can't let this opportunity slide. Besides," he reminded her. "I got involved in an X-Files once before and I nearly got killed. I told you I would leave the X-Files up to the professionals. I don't belong with you, Mulder and the rest of the basement crew."

"This is different," Jerilyn said tiredly. "We aren't going up against the Syndicate. This is something entirely... different," she finished lamely as Caesar leapt on on the coffee table and curled up on the clean clothes inside the unzipped bag. "Caesar, get out," Jerilyn tried to shoo him off, but Caesar ignored her. "Damn cat."

"Jeri," Ben said. "I can't go. I'm sorry."

Jerilyn picked Caesar up and put him on the floor. Caesar twitched his tail and leapt back up into the duffel bag.

"Ben," Jerilyn put her hands on her hips and looked up at the ceiling, trying to come up with the right words. "If you can't go, that's one thing.... if you don't WANT to go.... that's different and you need to tell me."

"Okay, fine," Ben said raggedly. "If that's what you want to hear."

"NO. It's NOT what I want to hear, but I'd like to get some straight answers from yo-"

Ben interrupted her with a snort. "Straight answers," he laughed bitterly. "You, of all people, should talk."

"I don't understand," Jerilyn tried to feign innocent.

"You never did tell me about your... excitement... in Sioux City," Ben remarked all-too-casually.

Jerilyn opened her mouth, shut it again. She bit her lip. "Um..." She dithered a bit more. "Well... you're not going to like it very much," she said meekly.

Ben sat on the couch and lit another cigarette. The flame from his Zippo illuminated his face in such an eerie fashion Jerilyn wondered briefly who she had married...





Meanwhile....
Scully's apartment.....

Scully put a sleeping William in his bassinet. She paused over the crib, looking at the constellation mobile that hung over the baby. She gave it a gentle push. It squeaked. She frowned. She'd have to find some oil or something to grease it up. "Good night sweet William," she whispered as she tiptoed out of her bedroom.

She found Mulder laying on the couch, dead asleep with the puppy snoozing on his chest, the television set blaring. She couldn't help think back to Starkweather's words

<<Can't you at least live in sin?>> Scully held back a sigh. She doesn't understand. She doesn't understand that this... having Mulder here.... isn't going to last forever.

A wedding band was not strong enough to keep him physically with her. Scully knew with an ache in her heart that the day was coming when she'd have to decide between Mulder and William. What she was learning however, was to enjoy each moment with them while she had them both.

She removed Tummy from Mulder's chest and turned off the TV. Mulder opened his eyes. "Boo asleep?"

Scully placed her head on his chest and closed her own eyes when she felt Mulder playing with her hair. "Mmm - hmmm..."

She could feel his heart beat. She felt herself being lulled to sleep by its gentle rhythm.

"I'm glad you're bringing me with, Scully," Mulder told her. "This will be like old times. You with your damn scientific rationale... me always being right."

"You," Scully said dreamily, "are NOT always right."

"Name a time where I was wrong," he challenged her as he stopped playing with her hair and wrapped his arms around her frame. "Well?"

"Diana Fowley."

"Oh, that is just not fair," Mulder groaned. "Scully, that's hitting below the belt."

Scully smiled serenely and slid off of him, "You asked," she reminded him. "I'm going to finish packing for tomorrow."

She slipped back into her bedroom, illuminated only by the porcelain teddy bear nightlight Frohike had bought for William. In the soft half-light, she opened her closet as quietly as possible. She could hear William's soft breath going in and out as he slept. She could hear Mulder's footsteps padding towards her bedroom. She felt his arms go around her waist and his breath on her neck. "At least," Mulder whispered to her, careful not to wake the baby "at least I've never been wrong about you... even though you shot me." He nuzzled his chin in-between her neck and shoulder.

"Mulder," Scully turned around in his arms and wrapped her arms around his neck "that was six years ago. I think that's a grudge against me you can let go of now." She ran her fingers through his tousled hair.

Mulder kissed her forehead thoughtfully. "Nah," he finally decided.

"Mulder, I shot you to protect yourself. You were about t-"

Mulder shut her up with a gentle kiss to the mouth.

"Don't talk," he admonished her as his hands slid under her T-shirt to delve into the age-old mystery of the brassiere snap. "You'll wake the baby." Before Scully could protest, he was sliding her shirt off and guiding her towards the bed.

Too busy with silky hands and frenzied kisses, neither one heard the squeak of William's mobile, moving by itself while the baby slept.




 

Meanwhile...
Ben and Jeri's apartment

Ben stared her down like a lying witness. "Whether I like it or not, Jerilyn," Ben said frostily, "I would be VERY interested in what happened between you and the good Agent Doggett on your little trip."

That comment only served to fuel her fiery temper and scare timidity away. "It's not what you think!" she lashed at him.

"Enlighten me," Ben snarled.

Jerilyn glared at him. "I was in a situation where my cover could have been blo-" The phone rang shrilly. "Let it ring," Jerilyn commanded him, but Ben ignored her.

"Hello? Yeah.... yeah... yeah... alright," he looked at

Jerilyn, fire in his eyes. Jerilyn crossed her arms and scowled right back at him. "I'll be there in an half-hour."

He hung up the phone. "Cello's holding a meeting. I have to be there."

"Sure. Fine. Whatever," Jerilyn unwittingly mimicked Scully.

Ben stuffed some files into his briefcase angrily. He paused in front of Jerilyn and took a deep breath. "Does it matter to you at all..." Ben asked. "That I love you?"

Jerilyn took a step back. "What happened between me and Agent Doggett," she told him, shaking in anger that her fidelity to him was once again being questioned "is not what you believe it to be."

Ben looked into her eyes and down into her soul. "Whatever happened between you and Agent Doggett," he said, his voice trembling, whether from anger or sorrow or both, Jerilyn couldn't tell. "Is not what YOU believe it to be."

"I don't under- what the hell are you getting at?" Jerilyn asked.

But Ben just turned his back on her and walked out.

Starkweather was left alone in her apartment to fume. <<God damn him>> she raged. "Well, now what?" she asked the cat still snoozing in her duffel bag. Caesar looked up as if to say "I give a rat's ass??"

Starkweather promptly went into the kitchen and fetched herself a beer. She pulled her date book out of her briefcase and flipped it open to the address/phone number section. If Ben was going to be an asshole, fine, fuck him. She'd find someone else to take with her. There was no way in hell she was going to be the third wheel, what with Mulder going along. Besides, she still needed someone to scare Langly off. She got out a giant bag of Tostitos Lime flavored chips and a jar of salsa and plunked down at her kitchen table with her cell phone.

Problem was, she didn't know very many people in DC yet. Munching on chips, she scanned through her planner, looking morosely at all the phone numbers of all of her friends and family that lived hundreds, even thousands of miles away. She paused at Monica Reyes' number. She dialed her cell phone and dialed.

"Hello, you have reached Monica Reyes. I'm sorry I missed your call, but please leave your name, number and a detailed message and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks." Beep.

Starkweather hung up. "If you're a psychic, why do you need an answering machine?" she wondered aloud.

She stalled, trying to delay the inevitable. She even toyed with calling AD Skinner, asking if HE wanted to go with, then shuddered in horror at the idea of spending a long weekend with her boss.

So, she did what she knew she would end up doing anyway.

What Ben essentially drove her to.




 

Meanwhile....
John Doggett's house

If Starkweather was having a crappy day, Doggett's was going absolutely gruesome. He had been sent out to investigate a one-room school room for purported haunting, which turned out to be a big false alarm, as he had suspected, which was why he told Starkweather to stay behind. He didn't expect the falling apart building to be a lurve shack for two horny high school students. Doggett chased them off with a furious warning. Then, on his journey back to DC, the transmission dropped out of his rental car, which meant he walked for two and a half-hours in the blistering summer sun to the nearest town. The Kum and Go gas station he waited for Reyes to pick him up at had no air-conditioning and their refrigerator was broken, meaning no cold drinks. Once he got back to Washington, Kersh called him up to his office to "discuss" his case report but in reality to grill him about his "relationship" with Agent Starkweather. Doggett left Kersh's office in a foul mood, tired of people assuming the worse between him and Starkweather. When he got home, he had a nasty call from his auto insurance agent, informing him smugly that the claim on his truck was being denied. Domino's messed up his pizza order (they gave him a sausage pizza instead of a beef and mushroom pizza) and to top it all off, his cable went out halfway through the Braves game.

"Oh for Christ's sake!!!" Doggett exploded.

At that point, he gave up and decided just to shower and go to bed. As he finishing rinsing shampoo out of his eyes when he heard the phone ring. He decided to let the machine get it. He then heard a familiar, snotty feminine voice on the other end:

"Pick up the phone Papa John. I know you're home and I know this because you have no life. And I really need to talk to you so I'm going to sit here and talk to your answering machine until you pick up. Soooooooo pick up. Pickuppickuppickuppickuppickuppicku-"

Doggett bolted from the shower, wrapped a towel about his waist and lunged for the phone. "What?!?!"

"Will you marry me?"

"WHAT????????"

"You know that little expedition me, Mulder and Scully and Ben were all supposed to go on?" Starkweather said to Doggett, "Well, Ben bailed at the last minute, so I need to find a new Mr. Starkweather to replace him. Interested? Free trip to Mexico. Chase monsters AND get a tan. What took you so long to answer the phone, by the way?"

"This is really short notice, Doc. I thought y'all gonna leave tomorrow."

"We are."

Doggett sighed. The woman was impossible. "Starkweather, I don't know, I don't think that's fair to leave Reyes alone in the office..."

"Aw come on Doggett, the case load is at an all time low right now, we're only going to be gone for a few days. Besides, whilst you were walking down the Highway to Hell after trashing another car on the Bureau's dime-"

"That was NOT my fault."

"-me and Scully were pulling research on this genetics company that's running the show and I don't know Doggett but man... the more and more I learn about this, the less and less I like it. This company is in arrears big time. I mean, if it's mortgagable, they've got it mortgaged. The IRS is sniffing after it, but now here's the interesting thing, okay? According to stock reports Scully pulled, their stock, as of six months ago, was worth crap. Crap meaning, five, six bucks a share. That's pathetic. Here's the scoop. A lot of this cheapy stock was bought up by our dearly, departed friend, Justin Leo."

"Leo?" Doggett shook his head. "That name sounds familiar."

"Oh I forgot," Starkweather sighed. "You bonked your head royally when we all saved Ben from the Syndicate and you don't remember a whole lot." Actually, Doggett was in the body of Dr. Samuel Beckett at the Quantum Leap Headquarters fifteen years in the future and it was actually Sam in Doggett's body at that time. However, neither Doggett nor Starkweather would realize that for years to come. "Leo was a darling of a lawyer who used to be with Carter, Spangle and Adams. He conveniently rigged it so Ben got a case pertaining to the oil rig fiasco you and Mulder worked on. Ben got too close to the truth and like a dumb ass, didn't listen to me as usual and got himself kidnapped by Leo-"

"Did you and Ben have another fight?"

"-and another old friend of Mulder and Scully's, although I have yet the pleasure to make his acquaintance, the Cancer Man. Leo then faked Ben's death and tried to frame Mulder for it. Leo WAS a brilliant attorney, but along the way, his little lawyer mind snapped. He believes that aliens kidnapped his high school sweetheart. Basically, he's what Mulder could have become if Scully hadn't been around to slap some sense into him."

"You know, Starkweather, I think you can tell me that story over again and again and I don't think I'll ever remember it on my own."

"That's okay. That's beside the point. The point is that Justin Leo's a rat who was conveniently buying up all this worthless stock. Pity he didn't survive the fall from the warehouse into the Potomac River."

"Why is that?"

"That stock is selling now... are you sitting down? When the NASDAQ closed today, it was at seventy-one dollars and thirteen cents."

"Holy shit." Doggett did the math. "That is huge money. Insider trading, I presume?"

"You presume correctly. Leo HAD to of known something was going down and he was gonna get in on it. Plus, get this. Mulder, I don't know how and I don't want to know how, got in touch with a medic who works at a hospital on an American military base in Puerto Rico. Several workers from this La Isla Luna Blanca, the Island of the White Moon, where the park is? Several workers have been bivouacked from Luna Blanca to Puerto Rico to this hospital. All of them have suffered severe trauma which according to the medical reports, look like animal attacks."

"Animal attacks?"

"That's right. Maulings. The last guy, was a freaking vet. Animal doc, not war hero. Anyway, he didn't have a face left. He died two days ago. There's only one survivor but all he can do is blink. His spinal cord was gnawed through."

"Jesus."

"Doggett, we could really use another agent on this."

"Can I bring my gun?"

"Are you kidding me? I'm bringing BOTH of mine and I'm toying with the idea of buying a bazooka. Mulder, Scully and I aren't in agreement of what the fuck is going down there. Mulder is convinced it's dinosaur cloning. Scully still believes it already existing animals being genetically manipulated to look like prehistoric animals. As for me, well, to be honest, I'm riding the fence on this one. But I do believe that whatever the hell is going down, it's probably immoral and potentially dangerous. Are you in?"

"Yeah," Doggett gave in. "I'm in. I'll call Skinner right now and tell him of the change of plans."

"Tell him I begged you to come along so we could keep a reign on Mulder," Starkweather suggested. "He'll buy that. Hey you never did answer my question. What took you so long to answer the phone? I thought you'd be glued to the TV, watching the ball game."

"My cable went out," Doggett grumbled. "And I was in the shower when you called."

"Oops." Starkweather didn't sound the least bit apologetic.

"Want me to pick you up tomorrow?"

"Sure... hey, Doc?"

"Yeah?"

"Talk to Ben yet?"

"Um..."

"JERILYN."

"Ooh... first name... ouch."

"Well, goddammit, you can't put this off. ESPECIALLY since we're leaving for another mission."

"Well, he's not speaking to me at the moment. So I'll have to wait until he decides to get off his fucking pedestal and speak to my lowly ass again, alright?"

"Don't wait too long."

"Doggett... it's getting to the point where's there's almost nothing to wait for anymore."

"Then WHY stay?"

"I don't know... I gotta go, I wanna call Scully and tell

her of the change in plans. Don't forget to call Skinner."

"I'll call him as soon as I get off with you. See you tomorrow."

"Bye," Starkweather hung up her cell. Took a deep breath. <<Then WHY stay?>> "He doesn't get it," she muttered to herself. "He just doesn't get it..." she dialed Scully's number...




 

Meanwhile
Scully's apartment

The phone rang. A naked arm shot out from underneath the comforter, searching for the phone. Once found, Scully sat up, clutching the sheets to her body. "Hello??" she blurted out. Lazily, Mulder's hand reached up to trace a design on her bare back.

"Scully, it's me." Starkweather never introduced herself either. "I just needed to let you know that there's a change of plans."

"Plans? Change?" Scully's brain was still hovering in the clouds created by great sex. It would take her a bit to come down.

"Ben's being a buttmunch and he bailed on me, so Doggett's taking his place tomorrow."

"Um... 'kay..." Scully was extremely distracted by Mulder's fingertip traveling slowly up and down her spine. "Stop that," she whispered only to have Mulder grin naughtily at her instead as he continued to play.

Meanwhile, Starkweather had the sinking feeling that her phone call may have been completely unwanted at that point in time. "Um... Scully... I'm not interrupting anything... am I?????" She started to take a drink from her beer.

"No, Starkweather, you're not interrupting anythi-"

Mulder, upon hearing his little half-sister's last name, butted in: "Hey Scully, when you come back to bed," he called out, "Can you bring me some coffee?"

Scully turned crimson. Mulder could clearly hear Starkweather spewing her drink on the other end, "Oh God...." she gagged and coughed "I'm sorry. I'm really really sorry... I'm gonna go now. Sorry. I'm so sorry. Bye." And, feeling like an ass, Starkweather hung up her cell and buried her head in her hands. "I hate my life!!!" she whined.

Meanwhile, Scully turned to Mulder, furious. "Mulder, what the hell??? That was rude and inappropriate and crass and embarrassing and immature and idiotic and- and- and-" Scully ran out of insults.

Mulder, wearing a big old shit-eating grin on his face, said in a singsong voice "But you love me." He reached for her hand and kissed his, his hazel eyes twinkling at her.

"Mulder..." Scully steeled herself. "I'm still really angry at you."

"But you love me." He sat up in bed now, giving her the puppy-dog eyes while kissing up her arm.

"You're such an ass sometimes, Fox Mulder!" Scully burst out.

Mulder was now kissing her shoulder, her collarbone, her throat, her chin. His lips barely grazed hers as he murmured "But you love me."

With a groan, Scully gave in and shifted the sheets off of her so she could wrap her legs around his waist. "You're lucky I do," she whispered in his ear before nibbling it. "Otherwise I would’ve shot something a lot more…vital."




 

Meanwhile…

Tacoma Falls
The Lone Gunmen's Lair

"Mail call!" Byers hollered as he came into their lair. Frohike had taken the van to be serviced.

"Langly," he scolded, "it's really bad business for the newsletter if you keep getting paranoid about every time someone visits the door. That wasn't a platinum blonde bitch packing a gun, that was the UPS."

"Yeah, well...you can't be too careful..." Langly pouted.

"Anthrax has been around since WWII...you know that as well as I do. This letter for you looks official."

"Has the new scanning equipment arrived yet?" Langly wondered, disregarding Byers completely, and studying the letter with the scrutiny of an archaeologist. "Who KNOWS how many fingerprints and DNA traces are already on this baby."

"Hey Langly," Byers called out after he logged on, "did you get something from Mulder? He said he rewrote a disk he got from old pal Manny and is fedexing it to us to check it out. He says Manny couldn't send it to us direct for fear of being traced."

"I'm a foremost expert in hacking." Langly read allowed.

"And I'm being asked to join a panel with Ian Malcolm, Alan Grant, Scully, and Starkweather. I'm gonna go take a look at genetic developments on that island in that Jurassic Park movie. Byers, think you've got a suit I can borrow?"

"Langly," Byers scoffed, "you were selected because I bet there's no way to log on to a tropical island and none of the other hackers wanted to go because they'd have to miss out on Dungeons &Dragons."

"You're an expert only because certain friends of ours in the FBI save our asses." Frohike said as he came in. "Damn wrench-snakes charged us almost a grand for a size no bigger than Langly's balls. Hey boys, wanna see if we can hack into the clearing house sweepstakes and be this year's winner?"

Langly gulped. "I'd hafta open the door. And THEY'd know where the lair is."

"Langly...you need to log off more..." Byers sighed.





The next day

Scully's apartment
before leaving the Airport

Margaret Scully was convinced that she was going to have to wrench William out of her daughter's arm. "Everything will be fine, Dana," Maggie cooed as she held her arms out for William. "You and Fox will have a nice time, I'm sure."

"It's not really a vacation, Mom," Scully said, finally handing Will over to his grandmother.

Mulder came out of the bedroom, carrying one large suitcase in one hand and a large duffel bag slung over his back. Scully's eyes, however, were drawn to the small pet carrier in his other hands. "Ready?" Mulder asked innocently.

"Mulder... what's in that carrier?" Scully drew herself up tall. Tummy yipped happily. "Mulder, we are NOT taking the dog with."

"Why not?" Mulder said as he approached Maggie and the baby. Kissing him on the forehead, he said "Bye Boo," and then he surprised Maggie by kissing her on the cheek. "We'll be back before you know it," he promised Maggie.

"It sounds like fun," Maggie said as she walked them to the door. "I wish I had a job where I could have an all expense paid vacation to the tropics." Mulder and Scully smiled wanly.

Last minute kisses for William and then finally Mulder and Scully made it to Scully's car. "Mulder, if that dog gets devoured by something," Scully said, turning the ignition on.

"You worry too much," Mulder said blithely. He was in rapture. He was in paradise. He was included in an X-File.

Life was good.




Meanwhile...

"Thank you for watching Caesar for me," Starkweather told her next door neighbor, Beth Johnson, who just happened to be a cop.

"Oh it's no problem. God, I envy you, Jeri," Beth sighed, taking Caesar in her arms. "Going off to a tropical paradise with your man."

"It's not what you think," Starkweather said, slinging her duffel bag on her back. "It’s for work. And Ben's staying home. He's just not going to be around to watch the cat." <<I'm assuming since he didn't come home last night>> she thought dismally.

"Oh... well, Caesar and I will have a good time, won't we kitty?" Beth said to the cat. The cat gave her a dirty look.

Starkweather stroked the cat's head affectionately. "Bye you brat," she told Caesar. "I'll come get him Sunday," she told Beth and left to go pick up Doggett.




 

A little bit later
The Marriott Hotel
Washington DC

"I thought we were flyin' out?" Doggett said, confused.

"Well, me too," Starkweather said as she maneuvered her car into a parking garage. "But I think we're all supposed to meet here and then we're all going to caravan together to the airport." She popped the trunk and as she was getting out, a sleek, classy car pulled up and parked right next to them. Scully and Mulder got out.

"Hey, Hurricane," Mulder said broadly.

Starkweather scowled at him. "How was your coffee?" she asked tartly.

Scully turned pink and hurried to get her luggage out of the backseat. Doggett had his usual "What-the-fuck" look on his face and said "Huh?"

"Never mind," Scully said sharply. "Mulder come get your dog."

"Dog? What dog?" Doggett asked as Starkweather groaned.

Mulder took the carrier and a suitcase from Scully. When everyone was burdened down with luggage and started walking towards the hotel, Mulder introduced Doggett to the newest love in his life "This is Tummy," he said proudly, holding the carrier up so Doggett could peer through the wire mesh door.

"Tummy, huh?" Doggett was fast learning there are just some aspects to Mulder's personality, you just don't want to ask about.

"If he gets to bring his dog," Starkweather crabbed as they crossed the busy street, "then I want to go home and get my cat."

"Why don't you do that?" Mulder said coolly. "I forget to bring Tummy's chew toys along. Caesar will do nicely."

"Caesar would slice, dice and julienne your little mutt before you could say 'Extra-terrestrial'."

Doggett looked at Scully. "Anyway we can leave those two at home?"

Scully sighed. "Don't tempt me, Agent Doggett."

They all entered the hotel lobby.

The agents and the Deputy Mayor, with their ragtag luggage and Tummy yipping gleefully in his carrier, looked around the opulent lobby. "Does anyone else feel totally out of place?" Mulder muttered as the wealthy milled about the lobby, staring at the quartet with wide, horrified eyes.

"Jesus, if it rains, all of these people are going to drown," Starkweather muttered, glaring at a tall, haughty blond woman, dressed to the nines in a Christian Dior business suit. Starkweather, in a blue T-shirt and a pair of Calvin Klein jeans she rescued from a GoodWill, glared at her from over the pair of sunglasses she bought for seven bucks at a truck stop. The woman paused to regard Starkweather's attire, from the white handkerchief Starkweather had folded into a triangle and tied over her head to the sandals Starkweather bought at Target and sniffed disapprovingly. Starkweather glowered at her but said nothing.

The snob then turned to regard Mulder. He was clad in a pair of well-worn dark blue jeans that had been blessed with a sprinkling of white splotches down the leg where he had accidentally spilled bleach. The light gray T-shirt he was wearing had a dark stain on the shoulder where William had tossed a spoonful of plums. Mulder didn't notice until they had become pressed for time and there was no time to change his shirt so he had tried to rub the stain out the best of his ability. When the rich bitch looked down at Mulder's beloved Nike running shoes and made another audible sniff of distaste, Mulder asked her, "What? I showered today. What's the problem?"

The woman gasped, put a bony hand to her nonexistent breast and walked away very quickly.

"Very diplomatic, Deputy Mayor," Scully groaned. She as well, was dressed for comfort, in a pair of well-loved khaki slacks and a white form-fitting tanktop, with an unbuttoned short sleeved hunter green blouse over it. Her hair was actually long enough to put in a ponytail again; something Mulder hadn't seen her do since the very first case they worked together.

Mulder shrugged. "I can wield diplomacy like a rapier, Scully. It's just easier to use a sledgehammer."

Doggett's arms hurt from being a gentleman and carrying his and Starkweather's luggage. "Look... I'm tired of the upper crust lookin' at us like we're the crumbs of society," Doggett complained. He was feeling very uncomfortable in his white T-shirt, his blue jeans with the one small hole in the knee and his cherished black cowboy boots while those around them were draped in Armani and Versace. Like any good country boy, he despised people who felt the need to validate themselves through clothing. He, himself, could live without suits, but he wore them because the FBI made him. "Let's go find everyone else who don't fit in and join 'em."

Just then, Langly approached them, "Hey, guys what's up?" he beamed, wearing a borrowed, boring suit of Byers that was much too large for him. His greasy blond hair was tied back in a ponytail with a piece of shoestring and his huge black eyeglasses were sliding down his nose.

"Well," Starkweather announced, "here's one."

Langly, horrendously overexcited because, one, he was working an X-File in an official capacity and two, the lovely, if not slightly... okay majorly bitchy Starkweather was coming along for the ride, talked a mile a minute.

"Mulder, isn't this great? They asked for ME to come with," he crowed. "Not Byers or Frohike. Just goes to show whose kung fu's the best, huh? And I can't wait to check out the security systems at this place. And hey, Frohike's running the diagnostics on the jpeg pic you sent us. He'll call me whether or not it's real..." he ran out of steam when he finally noticed Doggett's looming presence. "Hey, Dogbert, I didn't know you were coming," he muttered darkly. He looked around, tried to act causal. "Sooo... um... where's Mr. Starkweather?"

"Working," Starkweather said. "Agent Doggett was good enough to take his place." She looped her arm through Doggett's; not an easy feat since he was still carrying their suitcases and Starkweather had a heavy backpack on her. "Agent Doggett, it's noon somewhere on this planet, can I tempt you in an adult beverage?" and the two started walking off.

Behind them, they could hear Langly grilling Mulder and Scully: "So... is she like REALLY in love with her husband? I mean, seriously, how committed is she? Are you sure she doesn't have one of those 'open marriage' type of things?"

Starkweather groaned as she and Doggett entered the bar.

"Dear God, Papa John, save me from that man." She groaned.

"He keeps it up, I'm gonna hang him from his borrowed necktie, that's for damn sure," Doggett grumbled.

"Excuse me," a pleasant male voice interrupted. Doggett and Starkweather both looked up.

"Yes?" Starkweather looked up at the voice's source.

"Judging from your clothes... I take it you two part of Unigen International's panel?"

"Um... yes?" Starkweather's eyes shifted to Doggett, then back at the stranger. Doggett shook his head barely. Starkweather asked "Are you as well, sir?"

"Yes," he smiled. "I am. Are you the Agent Scully or Agent Starkweather?"

"I'm the Agent Starkweather."

"Ah... you must be Mr. Starkweather then," the man held out his hand to Doggett.

Doggett torturedly hung his head and Starkweather bit her lip, trying hard not to laugh.

"Someone forgot to do their homework." Starkweather grumbled.

"Sorry?" the man eyed them quizzically.

"I'm not her husband," Doggett volunteered. The man

immediately grinned sheepishly. "I'm her partner in the FBI." He said, then flashing his badge. "Special Agent John Doggett."

"Oh...I apologize for the mistake," The man fumbled immediately, "I was informed that Mrs. Starkweather was bringing her husband with her...so I just assumed..."

"Well, you know what they say about those of us who assume..." Starkweather grumbled, to which Doggett flashed her a warning glare. "And who exactly are you?"

"I'm Dr. Alan Grant, Agent Starkweather." He said, smiling broadly and extending a hand in greeting. "Please, Agent Doggett let me buy you and your partner a drink to make up for my mistake."

"So, Dr. Grant, tell me..." Starkweather purred, "are brontoburgers gamey?"

"You'll have to forgive her, Dr. Grant." Doggett growled, "She hasn't had her nap yet."

"JD and Coke please." She told the bartender, completely ignoring Doggett's comment.

"Agents..." Dr. Grant began cautiously, "exactly what have they told you about the island?"

"That depends..." Starkweather answered, grinning sardonically, "how much of the movie is fiction?"




 

Meanwhile....

Back in the lobby…

"Langly," Scully said sternly. "What goes on with the Starkweathers' private life is exactly that, private. You can not hack into their personal affairs as if it is a computer file."

"In other words, Langly," Mulder told him. "Butt out."

Langly frowned. Already he wasn't having as much fun on this trip as he thought he would. With a sigh, he hefted his own heavy duffel bag onto his back. Turning around to join Mulder and Scully, who were already lugging their heavy baggage toward the hotel bag, Langly unintentionally whapped someone with the duffel bag. The man grunted and fell flat on his ass on the shiny marble floor.

"Oh shit!" Langly exclaimed.

Mulder and Scully paused when they heard Langly swear.

"Maybe," Mulder said thoughtfully, "if we ignore it, it'll go away."

"Fat chance," Scully scoffed.

"Hey, Mulder? Scully? Can ya c'mere and help me for a sec?" Langly was crouched by a man dressed from head to toe in black. His face was hidden by his big hand, which was trying to pinch off the blood flow from his nostrils, but Mulder and Scully could clearly see the shock of wild black hair sticking up everywhere. "God, I'm sorry, dude, I didn't see you there."

"Obviously," the man said, very irritatedly.

Mulder and Scully returned to "the scene of the crime", so to speak. Scully slung off her luggage and crouched down by the bleeding man. "Sir, are you alright?"

"Other than being hit in the face by a large laundry bag and bleeding to death through my nose, not to mention falling on my rear in front of several moneyed individuals who will be tittle-tattling it over to their other immensely wealthy friends during tea and crumpets, I am perfectly fine." He took his hand down and Scully found herself to be looking into very intelligent, very fey and very brown eyes.

Mulder put the luggage and Tummy's carrier down as well so he could pick up the man's glasses. Langly just hovered over them and felt terrible. Scully said to him, "Sit still, I'm a doctor," as she started to examine his face

"How comforting."

"I AM really, really sorry," Langly said again.

The man sighed mightily again as Scully took a tissue out of her pocket and gently, carefully tore it into two strips. "I know you are and trust me, sir, if this is the worst that happens to me on this god-forsaken trip I'm on, I will thank every known Deity in the universe for sparing my skinny ass just one more time."

A bell went off in Mulder's head. "Just... where are you going?"

The strange man took on of the Kleenex strips Scully handed him, balled it up and shoved it up one bleeding nostril. "I really can't say... besides you probably wouldn't believe me. **I** wouldn't believe me."

"Oh, I'll believe just about anything," Mulder told him.

"The point that... my partner," Scully's mouth twitched "is trying to make sir, is that we might be all heading towards the same destination. Does the name, La Isla Luna Blanca, mean anything to you?"

The man pushed the other Kleenex wad up his nose. "Well, well, well," he said. "Judging by your attire and the fact that you told me you were a doctor, is it safe for me to assume that I have just been administered to by either Agent Dana Scully or Agent Jerilyn Starkweather?"

"You would be safe to assume that," Scully said as she helped the man up. "I'm Agent Scully."

"Ah... well...." the man brushed himself off. "Then one of you gentlemen must be the much vaulted current Deputy Mayor of our treasured capital city..." He took one look at

Langly and turned to Mulder. "Mr. Mulder, it is a pleasure to meet you. I've heard of your work back in your days at the FBI. Interesting...."

"This is our friend and computer specialist, Ringo Langly," Scully continued with the introductions.

"I've logged onto your site, "The Lone Gunmen." It's good.

It's really good. I liked it."

Langly beamed with pride.

"I'm sorry," Mulder said. "We didn't catch your name."

"Sorry," the funny little man smiled broadly. "I'm Ian Malcolm. I do math."

"Ian Malcolm," Scully said. "Like the movie?"

"And the novel," Malcolm seem to have recovered his good

spirits. "Shame that I haven't seen any royalties from either, but, oh well. It seems destined that I'm not meant to live long anyway, not if I keep getting invited and keep accepting these kind of party invitations."

"Look, Scully, an optimist," Mulder deadpanned.

"Excuse me," a huffy, feminine voice piped up behind them.

"Oh dear God," Malcolm muttered as Mulder and Scully turned around to see the haughty woman in the Christian Dior suit that Mulder insulted standing behind them. Mulder felt his stomach plummet straight down into the floor.

"I couldn't help overhearing your names... Deputy Mayor," she said icily. "I'm Andrea Nowark." She stood there as if she was expecting applause.

The agent, the deputy mayor, the mathematician and the hacker all exchanged blank looks. "Good for you?" Mulder finally said, at a loss.

"I'm the ARCHITECT," she fumed. "I was one of the main designers of the white tigers exhibit at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas? I was invited to be a part of a critique panel traveling to a tropical island to study and review a new zoologically-themed resort?"

"Ah," Scully said. "Ms. Nowark. Hello, nice to meet you." She held out her small hand. Andrea took it with a grim smile, gripped it weakly, as if Scully was holding out a rattlesnake or a slimy leech and let go rapidly. Scully wanted to slug her. "I'm Agent Scully. This is-"

"I heard you all introducing yourself earlier," she snapped. "Where is the rest of the party meeting?"

"In the bar." Scully REALLY wanted to slug her now.

"Thank you, dearie," Andrea said patronizingly as she stalked off.

"Nice to meet you," Mulder's voice dripped with sarcasm.

"So glad you showered," she hissed back at him as she rudely brushed by him.

Together, Mulder and Scully looked at each other, eyebrows raised. Without realizing it, they both turned around, crossed their arms and glared at Andrea Nowark's back.

"Bitch," they both said under their breath at the same time.

"Wow, you two really are melding into one person," Langly said.

Malcolm smiled. "Come come," he said. "There's a fully stocked bar waiting and if I am to believe what I was told about the dear Agent Starkweather... I want front row seats for the catfight's that's going to erupt when those two go head-to-head."

Mulder and Scully looked at each other in horror. "Oh shit!" Mulder groaned, picking up the luggage, leaving

Scully to carry Tummy's carrier, crying out "Mulder! Wait!!"

Malcolm and Langly stood there silently watching "Moose and Squirrel" run off after Andrea. Langly finally said "You get used to 'em after a while. Weirdness runs in the family. Can I buy ya a drink seeing that I smashed your schnozz and all?"

"That, my friend, has been the best suggestion anyone has made all morning..."




 

Meanwhile…

Back at the bar..

"How much of that TV series of *your* job is fiction?" Dr. Grant countered with an evil grin of his own.

"You watch that crap?" Starkweather blurted out. "Don't you have...bones to look at?"

"It's not a bad show." Grant defended.

"Oh puhleease..." Starkweather scoffed after gulping down her second J.D. and Coke, "Cigarette Smoking Pope?! Where the fuck do they get ideas like that? And Nanobots...come ON! And Agent Reyes really isn't as flaky as they make her out to be."

"It's escapism." Grant answered bashfully.

"Great..." Doggett grumbled, taking a long gulp of his Coors, "My job is someone else's escape..."

Grant said, fiddling with his Martini. "If it makes you feel any better...so is mine."

"No, of course not." Doggett glowered, finishing off the long-necked glass of beer.




 

Meanwhile…

Ana and Peter Sedai’s apartment

Falls Church, Virginia

The fall had been good to Ana Sedai and her son, Peter.

She had found damning evidence that Mr. Sedai was being less than faithful, and promptly persuaded associates from her half-brother's old lawfirm to hand him a divorce agreement. He pleaded no contest, and she was currently having a new house built to replace the home that was blown up that past summer. For the time being, she and her son were getting along as well as possible in a small two-bedroom apartment in a D.C. Suburb. She was going to night school and working a diner in the evenings as a waitress eventually planning to get into law school.

Life was busy, but that was how she liked it. But as content as she was, something couldn't let her relax. They never *had* found Justin...

She shook her head at the thought, and unlocked her apartment. "Peter!" she called out, "You ready to go to your Dad's?"

"Do I have to Mom?" Peter whined, coming out of the room.

"Yeah, you've got to, hon. Mom’s gotta study tonight and your dad promised to make sure you were taken care of while I make sure I passed my first exam."


Meanwhile, Harry Sedai climbed into his car, and felt a sharp needle injected into his neck, and collapsed on the horn. As quickly as he could manage, his attacker shifted him over to the passenger side and took over.

The driver made his way to his half-sister's apartment. He honked the horn, and waited for his nephew to get out. Sure enough, the boy emerged from the apartment. Peter's gray eyes opened wide when he saw who was driving the car.

"Uncle Justin?"




 

Meanwhile....

Monica Reyes' Apartment
Falls Church, VA

Special Agent Monica Reyes sat on her couch, chin on knees, arms wrapped around her legs. A wet Kleenex was clutched in her hands. Her cheeks were mottled pink from excessive crying and her dark, doe-eyes still produced more tears. She sniffled. Then coughed.

The phone rang. She blew her nose quickly, dried her eyes, paused the VCR right at the part where the Prince of the Forest tells young Bambi that his mother bit the big one and grabbed the phone by the fourth ring. "Hello?" She coughed.

"Agent Reyes," a surly voice said. "It's AD Skinner."

"Hello sir," Reyes said, feeling like the schoolgirl caught playing hooky when in all reality, she did have a valid excuse. She had caught a hellish cold and had already called Skinner to let him know that she would not be in the office today.

"Sorry to bother you when you're not feeling well, but I forgot to ask you if you had a chance to look through the information about Unigen International."

"Um... yes I did," she said, leaning over to grab the thick file off the coffee table. "Unigen International. Started life as International Genetics in 1985, but was bought out by Universal Genetics in 1990, which is how it became Unigen. Unfortunately, the merger didn't solve the financial troubles International Genetics had when Universal bought them out. In fact, the financial woes increased."

"Why?" The man of few words asked.

"Well... I'll be emailing you a more detailed report, but in a nutshell sir, according to the reports that are public domain, they threw a lot of money, and when I say a lot, I'm talking millions, down the drain for frivolous genetic projects. While other geneticists were researching ways to mutate the genes believed to cause birth defects or bioengineer organs for transplants instead of having to wait for someone else to die.... this people... this company, like so many others, unfortunately, was in it for the buck. The failed projects sound like an X-File on acid. They tried to create cats without claws. Cactuses without thorns. Honeybees without stingers. A hybrid cocoa-phen-fen plant."

"A WHAT???"

"They tried to make an hybrid of a cocoa plant, which is used to make chocolate, with a now proven deadly dieting drug."

"Oh my God."

Reyes could envision him taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes, his favorite "I-can-not-believe-this-shit-is-real" mannerism. "This company was the joke of the scientific world. Even other genetic engineering companies thought they were a disgrace to their fields. Which was why no one held any faith in their company, which is why their stock was dirt cheap."

"Was," Skinner said. "I tuned into CNN last night. The NASDAQ closed with Unigen now at seventy-something-odd dollars. What gives, Agent Reyes? How could this company, which seemed to be losing its ass, now be the darling of the stock market? And this same said company, who was in danger of losing the same said ass, now has this technology to create animals that our beyond our imagination-"

"Dinosaurs sir?"

"You don't believe that do you?"

"Well..." Reyes hesitated. "Well... sir, if they have dinosaur DNA, anything's possible."

"Agent Scully believes that what was done instead was to manipulate the genes of already existing animals to resemble prehistoric ones."

"Which is also possible. Unfortunately, we're not going to know until Agents Scully and Starkweather come back."

"And Doggett and Mulder."

"What?"

"Mr. Starkweather was supposed to go along as legal aid and as a guest but for whatever reason, he bowed out at the last minute. Doggett was asked to go in his place. You didn't know?"

Reyes was silent for a minute. "No," she said finally, trying hard not to feel hurt that she was left out of the loop. "I didn't."

"It was REALLY last minute, Reyes."

"I know, I understand," Reyes tried to force joviality into her voice. "It's just a shock that I'm going to be handling the X-Files office by myself for a few days, that's all." She coughed.

"Get some rest, Agent Reyes," Skinner said gently as he could. "I'll handle the X-Files for this weekend."

"I'll fax you my preliminary report."

"I'll watch for it."

Reyes hung up the phone and tried not to feel unwanted, left out. She switched the movie back on and snuggled under a blanket.




 

Meanwhile...

Back at the bar

Doggett, Grant and Starkweather were getting along famously when Andrea Nowark breezed into the bar. The bartender said to her politely, "What would you like, ma'am?"

Eyeing Starkweather, she snapped "Cosmopolitan." Arching her perfectly waxed eyebrow, she asked Starkweather, "Are you even old enough to be in this establishment?"

Her own eyebrows rising, Starkweather whipped out her FBI badge and held it up to her. "What is your goddamned problem, lady?" Starkweather snapped.

"Starkweather," Doggett murmured, putting his hand on her shoulder. "Cool it."

"That's right, little girl," Andrea purred. "Listen to your father."

Doggett bolted out of his seat, "Now, listen here, you snot-nosed, uptight, pretentious little bitch!" he snapped, walking toward her.

Starkweather threw herself at Doggett, trying to hold him back, "Come on Doggett, she's not worth it!" Starkweather said vainly to him. "She's got more lawyers than good looks."

Grant only stared wide-eyed as Doggett and Andrea continued to trade very loud insults, with Starkweather trying to push Doggett back with her tiny frame, tiny compared to his six-foot-two body.

Mulder and Scully burst onto the scene. "Well, this is unexpected," Mulder deadpanned.

"You're nothing more than an ignorant, redneck scraped up from the very bowels of deep-fat fried Southern hell. What IDIOT allowed you to crawl up from the swamps and let you into Quantico!!"

"I am NOT gonna sit here and listen to you insult me or my partner just because you think you're hot shit because you took a coupla of ex-husbands to the cleaners!"

Starkweather turned her head just enough to see Mulder and Scully staring open-mouthed at a rabid John Doggett. "You guys... feel free to step in any time now!" Starkweather yelled at them.

Mulder and Scully snapped out their torpid shock and sprang into action. Mulder locked Doggett's arms behind his back and helped Starkweather pull him away from Andrea. Scully meanwhile, got in Andrea's face. "Don't make me arrest you for disorderly conduct before we even leave for the trip."

"LEAVE???" Starkweather said. "Whattya mean LEAVE? That bitch is not going with us??"

"Unfortunately, she is," Scully said tiredly. "This is Andrea Nowark."

"That's right," Andrea straightened her hair. "So you little inbred feds better play nice," she breathed into Scully's ear. "I don't care WHO you're fucking, don't you think you can threaten me, you slutty little tramp." She gave Scully a little, petty, mean push.

Scully slapped her across the face. Starkweather leapt away from Doggett to pull Scully off of Andrea. "Jesus Christ, Scully!!!" Starkweather said as she dragged her off.

Malcolm and Langly just entered the bar. "Oh, hello, Grant, nice to see you again," he said affably as he surveyed the bar, looking first at Mulder, restraining Doggett and then at Starkweather pulling Scully off of Nowark. "Did I miss much?" Langly just stood there with his mouth hanging open in disbelief.

"Oh no, not really," Grant said faintly. "This is just the warm-up. We haven't even gotten to the scary parts yet."

"Goody," Malcolm said calmly. To the bartender he asked "Could I have a scotch on the rocks? Thanks... thank you."

"JUST WAIT UNTIL MY LAWYERS GET THROUGH WITH YOU MISSY!!" Nowark was still screaming at Scully.

"My husband IS a lawyer, you fucking bitch," Starkweather screamed back at her. "Just wait to see what he does to YOUR ass when we send you up on charges for assaulting a federal agent!!!"

"I DIDN'T ASSAULT HER!!!" Nowark screamed.

"Prove it," Mulder shouted back to her. "You're in a room full of a lot of people who really don't like you right now."

Just then, a roly-poly man with auburn hair and a beard to match walked into the bar. "Hello!" he said cheerfully. "I'm Dr. Geoff Wick, I'm looking for a group of people who are heading off to a place called La Isla Luna Blanca...." his happy voice trailed off when the goings-on in the room finally sunk into him. "Oh dear..."

Grant and Malcolm looked at each other. They raised their glasses.

"Cheers," Grant said.

Right behind Dr. Wick came Schabasser. "Well, is everyone getting to know each other?" he boomed jovially.

"Naw, I think we need name tags," Starkweather snapped as she let Scully go. Under her breath to Nowark she hissed "Watch your step sister otherwise Dino's gonna have good eats when we get to the island." Andrea Nowark's tongue, for the moment anyway, had been stilled and she suddenly became very interested in digging into her purse for her makeup compact. She examined the red handprint on her cheek and frowned.

"Well, we've got a long trip ahead of us, so let's get going!" Schabasser just sounded way too happy. He patted a very shaken Dr. Wick on the back and said, "Come on everybody, a great adventure awaits us all!" Grant and Malcolm looked at each other and rolled their eyes and belted what was left of their drinks.

Mulder eased his grip on Doggett as Scully and Starkweather came peaceably back to them. "I wonder," Mulder said, "if he put himself through law school by being the tour-guide at Disneyland's "It's a Small World After All" ride?"

Starkweather shook her head. "Doubtful. The employee suicide rate for that job is way too high. Schabasser enjoys life."

Andrea Nowark picked up her bags and stalked past them. Everyone on the X-Files team glared at her. "If we focus all of our collective energy," Starkweather snarled. "Maybe she'll spontaneously combust."

"You've been talkin' to Reyes too much," Doggett grumbled.

Scully, naturally, was mortified at her own conduct. "I can't believe I acted so disgracefully." She truly looked like she was ready to melt into the carpet.

"What’d she say that pissed you off so bad?" Langly finally found his voice. "I mean, we've all seen you mad before, but... this looked personal."

"Yeah, Scully, what happened?" Mulder said. "And you too, Doggett. We were more worried about the Hurricane exploding. It's out of character for you guys."

"I am perfectly capable of controlling my temper," Starkweather said primly to which Mulder snorted, Doggett rolled his eyes and Langly coughed out the word "Bullshit."

"Well," Doggett felt himself getting het up again. "She prances in like she owes the damn place and starts running her mouth on Stawk -weddah and me... uh-uh, I wasn't gonna stand for that BS."

"I'm so happy," Starkweather proclaimed. "That chivalry isn't dead."

"So what gives Scully?" Langly said.

Scully only folded her lips. "She just said something that wasn't very nice," she answered in that freezing tone of voice that broadcasted that she wasn't going to go into further detail. Mulder had the sinking feeling somehow it had to do with him but wisely didn't press her for the truth right then and there.

"Well..." Alan Grant stood up and grabbed his bag. "I don't think the lady won any points with anyone today, so she'll probably keep to herself. Shall we?" he tilted his head towards the door.

"Can I have one more drink?" Malcolm begged.

"Let's go," Grant told Malcolm while Langly, as promised, paid for Malcolm's Scotch. Grant, as promised, settled up for Starkweather, Doggett and himself. Mulder, Scully, Starkweather and Doggett, all feeling like complete horse's asses by their actions in the bar, each gave the petrified bartender ten dollars.

"Sorry," mumbled Mulder.

"Sorry," blushed Scully.

"Sorry," muttered Doggett.

"We will never come back here," promised Starkweather.

When the bar was empty again, the bartender poured a shot of Sambucca straight up and slammed it. With the liquid courage going through his veins, he shrugged. Not everyday he got to see a three-way cat fight and still get a forty-dollar tip out of it.




 

Five hours later...

Flight 12701
En Route from Washington DC to Mexico City, Mexico

The agents (and Mulder), used to third class travel, were surprised at the luxury of the private jet Unigen provided for the panel. "Whoa," Starkweather had said when she was inside as her eyes bugged out at the sight of the plush carpeting and cherry wood paneling. Doggett, remembering his conversation with Starkweather the night before about how the company went from almost bankrupt to blue chip practically overnight, had frowned. He looked at Mulder and Scully and could tell they were having the same thoughts he was. So was Starkweather.

Schabasser had laughed heartily at Starkweather. "Enjoy it while we have it, Dr. Starkweather. Once we get to Mexico City, we'll have to jump into a very squashed puddle-jumper to head to the island of Cozumel, then helicopter it over to Luna Blanca."

Andrea Nowark looked like she was going to faint when she heard the words "puddle-jumper."

Fortunately, Grant's prediction came true, well almost. She sat away from the rest of the panel but Schabasser sat by her and had her giggling coyly during most of the flight.

Predictably, Grant and Malcolm sat by each other, while Mulder and Scully bickered over who got the window seat, Starkweather and Doggett paired off and Langly was stuck with Dr. Wicks. However, for Langly, it wasn't as bad as he feared for the good doctor was an avid "Lords Of the Ring" fan, so they discussed Tolkien at great lengths. But no one, except Schabasser and Andrea, really stayed in their seats very much. Dr. Wicks eventually fell asleep so Langly joined Doggett, who was deserted by Starkweather to go talk to Grant. Malcolm had gone over to chat with Scully when Mulder left to have a word with Grant and Starkweather.

"So, tell us about Isla Nublar," Starkweather said seriously to Grant. "In all honesty, how close to the truth did the novel and the movies get?"

Grant sighed, "It's hard to say. The book got some things accurate, such as the island being destroyed by military at the end. But the movie got some things right too. But both had some things that were terribly inaccurate."

"Such as," Starkweather pushed on.

"Such as," Grant smiled wryly. "In the novel, it implies that Malcolm died from his injuries. As we can see, that is obviously not the case. In the movie... it did not do justice to the speed and ferocity of the raptors."

"Raptors," Mulder felt his mouth go dry.

"Dr. Grant," Starkweather said. "What about the theory of getting the dinosaur DNA from prehistoric insects trapped in amber? Is that true?"

"Yes, it's quite true, however to be honest," Grant said.

"I have no idea where Unigen could have gotten their dinosaur DNA. The government confiscated all the amber from the first Jurassic Park experiments and amber, from my understanding, is terribly difficult to acquire now, because of the first Jurassic Park experiments."

Mulder seemed to be mulling something over in his brain but was keeping it to himself for the moment. He did ask a question though, a question that seemed non-related to Starkweather: "What is your theory on why the original dinosaurs became extinct?"

Grant drummed his fingers against his chin. "There are several. Mostly I believe a cataclysmic event occurred to the planet that altered the habitat of the dinosaurs so greatly that it was impossible for them to continue to survive. There are other theories out there that undermined this theory, but I adhere to one that makes the most sense and that makes the most sense to me."

"Cataclysmic how?" Mulder asked. "A large meteor maybe?"

Starkweather frowned. "Like the movies? "Deep Impact" or "Armageddon"?

"Perhaps, but until we can invent a time machine and go back to witness the event ourselves," Grant shook his head.

"All we can do is speculate."

"Mulder, I don't get what you're trying to get at," Starkweather told him bluntly.

"I'll tell you later," Mulder promised. "Dr. Grant, you realize the danger of what may be occurring on that island. You've lived through it twice already. Why go back?"

Grant smiled. "Why do you still chase after extraterrestrials, Mr. Mulder?"

Mulder smiled. "Touché," he acknowledged him and got up to return to Scully.

Grant asked Starkweather, "Is he always this spooky?"

"Yep, pretty much."

"And he's your half-brother, correct?"

"Uh-huh."

Grant teased her, "Lucky you."

"Don't I know it."




 

Later on that night....

La Isla Luna Blanca
8:15 PM

The winds had picked up, making the helicopter trip from Cozumel to Luna Blanca dubious at first. After an hour's wait, it looked like the weather would cooperate, "But it looks like we've got some bad weather in the horizon," the air traffic controller warned them. "If you're going to go, you better go now."

At first, the original plan was to split the Forum into two parties and shuttle the parties back and forth, but with the ominous warning of foul tropical weather, Schabasser damned the cost and rented a second chopper, at Unigen's expense, of course. The agents (and Mulder) tried to stay together so they could perhaps talk privately about their personal opinions and findings thus far. However, Schabasser, still playing Too-Happy-Tour-Guide thwarted their plans by splitting them up alphabetically, so it ended up that Doggett, Grant, Langly, Malcolm and Mulder (and Tummy) were placed in the first helicopter while Andrea Nowark, Schabasser, Scully, Starkweather and Wick in the other.

However, it became apparent that there wouldn't have been much talking during the trip anyway, the ride was a nightmare, extremely nerve-wrecking. You could hear the great propellers of the giant machine fighting against the winds that promised more storms to come. Doggett was quietly fighting memories from his time in Lebanon, Grant had turned a pale shade of green, Langly gripped the armrests the entire time, Mulder was trying to sleep through it and failed miserably, Schabasser tried to flirt with Scully, who ignored him while fiddling with her gold cross, Starkweather crossed her arms and closed her eyes, Nowark threw up in an airsickness bag and Wick sweated.

Finally, land appeared and the sight was wonderful. It was a forgotten leafy oasis in a desert of ocean. The helicopters flew fearlessly through the mountains yawning gorges and the first helicopter touched down in a perfect, if slightly on the way-too-thrilling side, landing. The pilot told them. "Hurry and get out so the other chopper could land!" The men gathered their things and rushed out of the helicopter as fast as they could. As soon as they were out of the way, it rose back up in the air at an angle as the other helicopter landed.

Schabasser crowed to everyone. "Well, we're here!"

Malcolm muttered "Goody, joy."

Despite the crude lampposts along the path from the helicopter pad to the lodge, it was fairly dark as the weary group trudged toward a looming building so no one could see what Schabasser was making apologies for. "We're still under construction so it looks rather shoddy right now, but you'll have to come back once we're fully up and operational! It will be magnificent!"

"Does the lodging provide hot running water?" Scully asked.

"Erm... yes."

"Then that's magnificent enough to me right now."

"What are we waiting for?" Grant said nervously. The darkness was giving him the heebie-jeebies, as was Malcolm.

"Yes... um... I'd feel better if we were inside... a bomb shelter.... in Connecticut," Malcolm told Schabasser.

Just then, three SUVs zoomed up. A leapt out, "Hi!" she said. "I'm Christie Carter, I'm one of the genetics researchers out here. I'm also the Unofficial Master of Ceremonies until they finish up the hotel and hire a proper Promotions Director. Welcome to Jurassic Park!" If she was expecting cheers and applause, she was sorely disappointed. "We have one SUVs for your luggage and another for you to ride in, it's a bit of a trek from here to the hotel." As the exhausted people piled into the vehicles, this time sitting with whom THEY wanted to sit with as opposed to which Schabasser saw fit, Christie droned on merrily. "It's a pretty spectacular sight, the drive from here to the hotel, but unfortunately, it's late so we'll just speed you all off to the hotel..."

"Blah, blah, blah," Starkweather mumbled as she was squished in between Doggett and Dr. Grant. Malcolm was sitting up in the passenger seat, Doggett, Starkweather and Grant took up the middle seats and Mulder, Scully and Langly (and Tummy) were in the back.

Long ride translated into a thirty-minute trip. No one really said much, since Christie was their driver and she prattled on about how excited she was to have people here, and of tomorrow’s plans. Malcolm nibbled on his nails the entire time. Grant looked out the window, as if expecting to see something horrific pounce upon the SUV out of the pitch-blackness. Starkweather fell asleep on Doggett's shoulder. Mulder and Scully discreetly held hands and Langly was fussing with something or other on his Palm Pilot.

The SUV lurched to a halt. Porters out of nowhere magically materialized and started to unload the luggage vehicle. Doggett nudged Starkweather "We're here."

"Doggett, I was having this lovely dream. And you were in it, and Mulder and Scully, and Toto too, but then I realized that there's no place like home." She opened an eyelid. "Oh damn."

"Sorry to disappoint you Doc," Doggett said as a porter slid open the side-door. As everyone was getting out, Doggett looked at Grant and said "You okay, Grant? You look kinda peaked."

Grant smiled thinly. "Just experiencing deja vu."

Doggett muttered to Grant "Trust me sir, if we find anything wrong with this island, we're gonna burn it to the ground, that's for damn sure." He looked over at Mulder and Scully. Mulder had taken Tummy out of her carrier, put her on a leash and was letting her "take care of business. He was talking insistently to Scully about something. Whatever it was, Scully wasn't agreeing with him. Typical.

Starkweather took Malcolm aside and said to him, "I want to know everything about Isla Nublar. Tonight."

Malcolm sighed. "It's a nightmare beyond describing, young agent. I doubt very much you'd believe me."

"Sir, it's my job to explore the unbelievable."

Like exhausted cattle, the Forum was herded into the hotel.

The building was obviously, like Schabasser had warned them, under construction, but it seemed like all it needed now was the cosmetic touches. Paintings, tapestries, chandlers, the little niceties that converted a nice hotel into a sinfully luxurious one. There were thick carpets, beautiful blooming plants everywhere and everything seemed to be made out of either marble or mahogany. Andrea Nowark, looking around, seemed to be approving everything thus far.

"And there's an indoor swimming pool, a work-out room, a laundry room and a bar that's fully operational," Christie went on. "Unfortunately, many of the hotel's other amenities are not completed yet and normally..." she eyed Mulder's puppy warily, as if she expected her to pee on the carpet, "we don't allow pets, but in this case, we can make an exception." She then took a manila envelope out of her giant haversack and shook it. "I'll be passing out the keys to your rooms right now. I hope everything is to your liking. Again, many of the rooms are still under construction and what's not is being used as dormitory space for the many people we have on staff here year round, so this is all we have available. I hope that's okay. We've already put your bags in your rooms" she pulled out a key and said "Andrea Nowark," she handed to her. "I know you requested a private, spacious room, but the only private room we have to offer is not very big," Christie said apologetically.

"As long as I don't have to share," Andrea sniffed, glowering at the agents (and Mulder and Langly) Tummy growled for the very first time in her life. She glared at the puppy. Tummy whimpered.

"Dr. Wick and Mr. Langly and Mr. Schabasser, we put you in the master suite, it's big enough to fit three people, I hope that's okay." She held out three keys.

"Par - tay," Langly grumbled, looking Schabasser over. He didn't like him very much either.

"Mr. Grant and Mr. Malcolm?" Christie held out two keys.

"These are just standard hotel rooms. Two-queen size beds. Chest of drawers. Closet, bathroom, TV. Nothing special, really."

Grant retrieved the keys from her with a "Thank you, that'll be just fine," and returned to stand by Malcolm.

"Mr. and Mrs. Mulder?" Christie held out more two keys.

Doggett, Starkweather and Langly snorted. "Since when???" Starkweather purred as a blushing Scully came to get their keys. Mulder suddenly became very preoccupied with Tummy.

"It's just easier," Scully whispered.

"And that leaves Mr. and Mrs. Starkweather," Christie looked straight at Doggett and Starkweather.

Now it was Mulder and Scully's turn to snicker as Doggett turned to glare at Starkweather who moaned "Oh crap, I forgot to change the reservations." She tried to change her feline eyes into puppy-dog eyes, but failed utterly. Doggett looked murderous.

"Is there a problem?" Christie asked.

"I'm not Mr. Starkweather," Doggett said bluntly. "He was unable to come so I took his place. I'm Special Agent John Doggett, Agent Starkweather's partner."

"Oh dear..." Christie looked distressed. "We really don't have any spare rooms... I suppose we COULD move you in with Miss Nowar-"

"NO," Starkweather and Andrea said at the same time.

"We're adults," Starkweather said quickly. "We'll handle it."

"Well, okay then!" Christie said, sounding very much like the Spartan cheerleader from Saturday Night Live. "The bar is open, if you are interested in a cocktail. Other than that, enjoy your stay and if you need anything, don't hesitate to ring the front desk! To get to your rooms, just hop into the elevator and hit "One", I believe everyone is one the first floor. Or I suppose you could take the stairs. Up to you. Good night!" She pranced off.

"Please," Starkweather begged. "Can I use her as target practice?"

Malcolm saddled up to Starkweather, "Don't forget about our date tonight," he said to her with a wink.

Starkweather's lip lifted in half-a-smile. "Mr. Malcolm, are you flirting with me?"

"Are you really married?"

"Yes."

"Then indeed not," with that, he walked towards the elevator.

Doggett said to Grant "Why don'cha meet me in the bar? I wanna hear more 'bout what happened the first time around. Without little ears listenin'," meaning Schabasser.

"Delighted to."

Meanwhile, Scully scooped up the puppy and said "Mulder, I'm not going to wait for the elevator, I'm just going to take the stairs."

"Okay," Mulder walked besides her. "Sounds like everyone's going to the bar after they get settled. Looks like Starkweather and Doggett are getting ready to interrogate Malcolm and Grant. Now if I could be a fly on the wal- argghh, what the hell?"

Scully was halfway up the curling master staircase. "What is it Mulder?"

Mulder was wiping strange purplish pollen off his arm. "I brushed against this plant and I got crap all over me," he brushed again at the dust. "It'll just pollen, Scully, it'll come off when I shower."

Scully shrugged and said "Okay then. I'm just going to wash my face and change my clothes. I'll meet you down at the bar then." She started back up the stairs again.

Mulder was two steps behind her, still trying to wipe off the strange residue from the plant off his arm.

Later on that night...

Starkweather, changed into a black tank top and a short khaki skirt, padded down the stairs. When she reached the bottom stairs, she noted the unusual leafy greenery blooming from the flowerpots built into the banisters. As she stepped closer, she noted a filmy, purplish residue, similar to the body-glitter young girls have taken to wearing lately. Curiously, Starkweather reached out a finger to touch the plant, but before she could, the elevator doors opened. Ian Malcolm, dressed in black, as usual, stepped out. Upon seeing Starkweather, with her long hair hanging down her back like a heavy veil, he did a very stagy double take, clasping his heart as he staggered towards her. Starkweather rolled her eyes, stepped away from the plant without touching it and stepped to meet Malcolm.

"Mrs. Starkweather," Malcolm said, taking her hand and kissing it like a gentleman. "It is a sin for women like you to keep such gorgeous hair up in a bun the way you do."

Actually, she was already regretting her decision to take her hair down. Despite the air conditioners working overtime, the humidity of the island still managed to sneak into the hotel. Starkweather felt her hair sticking to the back of her neck.

Malcolm offered his arm. Starkweather, with an arched eyebrow, accepted it gingerly and together they disappeared into the bar just as Scully was coming down the stairs. She too, changed out of her travel-stained clothes into a thin blue T-shirt and khakis slacks. As she entered the bar, she noted Starkweather and Malcolm, sitting alone at a table in a darkened corner. All she could see was the back of Malcolm's neck. But Starkweather had her face arranged in a very studious manner. She was also, Scully perceived, taking notes on a cocktail napkin. Scully frowned as she sat down at the bar. When the bartender asked her what the lady would preferred, she said "White wine," without really paying attention to him.

"Agent Scully?" A gravelly Southern born, New York burned voice rumbled behind her. Scully turned and smiled at Doggett in greeting. "This seat taken?"

"No, John, please, sit down. I'm still waiting for Mulder."

"And wonderin' what ace our little dynamo's got up her sleeve," Doggett grinned. "Don't worry Scully, she's a big girl. I'm meetin' with Grant tonight. He should be down her in a little bit."

"I wonder if Starkweather figured out what Mulder's theory is..." Scully muttered.

"Oh no," Doggett couldn't help saying. "What'd Mul-dah cook up now... wait a minute... do I want to know???"

"It is pretty far-fetched."

"Dana, we're sitting on an island were there may or may not be real dinosaurs runnin' 'round. Define YOUR version of what 'far-fetched' may or may not be."

While Doggett and Scully were talking, the bartender took this chance to sprinkle a whitish powder that dissolved immediately upon contact with the alcohol. He placed the wineglass in front of Scully who took a ladylike sip. The same bartender then took two more drugged drinks, a Scotch on the rocks and a Jack and Coke over to Malcolm and Starkweather. So intent was there conversation, they never noticed the drinks. "So..." Starkweather looked at the scribbling on her napkin. "That's the chaos theory."

"In a nutshell, yes."

"And you based the thesis of your consultation analysis with the original Jurassic Park creators on this theory," Starkweather scratched her head. "Fascinating. I'll have to read up on it some more Dr. Malcolm. We could apply this theory to just about every damn X-File we come across."

Malcolm beamed in pleasure at Starkweather's off-handed compliment. "Yes... well... it's a very USEFULL theory... but not very USER-friendly. You grasped the concept right away," Malcolm folded his slender hands together and asked her "Where does your... um... IQ fall by chance??"

"Afraid I'd outshine you at the Mensa meetings?"

"I knew it! I thought I saw you somewhere before this!"

"'Fraid not. I don't have the time," Starkweather purred. She so rarely came across anyone that was her intellectual equal. It was refreshing to her to be able to use big words and not get blank looks. Not to say that her friends and partners were idiots it just that...

Unless she could show it off in a work-related situation--or the sadly more common occurrence: employed to royally piss someone off whom she didn’t like—Jerilyn Michelle Bailey Starkweather usually found herself concealing her natural talents. Things like massive intellect, her phenomenal musical abilities (she could play over seven instruments not to mention listening to a song once then being able to play it or sing it flawlessly) and her preternaturally good memory usually intimidated people, and never made it easy to find friends. In her field of work, she had to be smart. And she just couldn't tolerate common-sense impaired people. But still, she always felt like an outsider. There really wasn't anyone in her world she could talk to as an intellectual equal, except for Mulder.

Unfortunately whenever she and Mulder spoke, it deteriorated into childish bickering. Starkweather never really said anything about her awkward feelings with her husband or her friends because she didn't want to sound like a snob.

She got so sick of being so smart sometimes. Especially when Mulder hinted that it may be due to alien testing and not good genetics. That pissed Starkweather off. There WAS no alien experimentation... she was just.... lucky.

Speaking of Mulder...

"Have you run this chaos theory past Mulder yet?"

"Unfortunately no, I was hoping too... what's wrong??"

"Scully," Starkweather said and was out of her chair like a shot...




 

Meanwhile...

Mulder still stood in the shower, the water coming out still freezing cold. He couldn't understand it; he felt fine before coming on the trip. Now, he felt very shaky, and slightly nauseous. His tongue felt much too big for his mouth.

With trembling hands, he reached for his towel and wrapped it around his waist. Turning off the water, he stumbled into the bedroom.

"Scully?" He said, voice shaking. He dressed slowly, feeling the way during his very first drunken binge. He was fourteen; he was hanging out with some high schools that were all downing Pabst Blue Ribbons...

"Scully?" He tried to drink some more water, but waves of paranoia washed over him, remembering how someone sinister being drugged his water supply, causing him to go out of his mind and slug Skinner. The glass slipped from his hands, spilling on the carpet.

Tummy scampered and hid under the bed.

He started to ache all over. He knew he was being watched.

<I have to find her> he thought desperately as he slid shoes on and left his room, calling out: "Scully??

Scully..."

"Scully!!" Starkweather ran to Dogggett, who was cradling Scully in his arms. "Oh my God, Doggett, what happened??"

"Happened??" Doggett looked perturbed. "She's DRUNK, that's what happened."

Scully lifted her head up. Starkweather noticed she was wearing a shit-eating grin, very... well, UN-Scully-like. Her eyes, pupils huge, overcrowding the blue, lazily caressed first Doggett, then Malcolm as if they were old lovers. "Well boys..." she slurred her words very very badly. "Which one of ya's gonna light my fire?"

"Simmer down, Dr. Malcolm," Starkweather warned Malcolm, who's normally morose face lit up in joy at the offer. "How much did she have???" Starkweather asked Doggett.

"That's just it, she only had ONE."

"ONE???" Starkweather shrieked, and looked down at Scully, who was now starting to coil around Doggett. Doggett definitely looked like he didn't know whether to be repulsed by her actions or to enjoy them. "Damn, girl, you ARE a lightwei-" She stopped and looked at the wineglass. "Ian, be a peach and get my drink," she mumbled to Malcolm.

Malcolm, looking confused, retrieved both drinks. Doggett, as usual, decided to be a gentleman and was trying to gently rebuff Scully's very overt come-ons. "Now... Dana.... um..." Doggett was bright pink. Starkweather quietly stole Scully's wine glass. "Um... Dana... now... Mul-dah's not going to like this... so... um... Starkweather, help!!!" Starkweather was ignoring Doggett's problem as she crossed over to get the glasses from Malcolm.

"Don't drink that!" she hissed at him just as Malcolm was raising his drink to his lips. Malcolm, noting that the lady meant business, put his glass down. He handed Starkweather her glass. She dumped the liquor out of her glass and handed the wineglass and the pint glass to him. "I don't have pockets, smuggle these to your room."

Just as Malcolm successfully shoplifted the glasses out of the bar, Mulder staggered in.

"Oh crap," Starkweather moaned.

Mulder took one look at Scully curled up in Doggett's lap and went ballistic.

"Mulder... it ain't what you thi-" Doggett tried to defend himself, but Mulder had already ripped Scully out of his arms and grabbed Doggett by the throat.

"JESUS CHRIST MULDER!!" Starkweather screamed, running towards them, not sure who she needed to help first, Scully, lying giggling in a slovenly heap, or Doggett, whose eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head.




 

American Airways
Flight 459
En Route to Mexico City

"What happened to Dad?" Peter finally managed to ask once they had boarded their connector flight to Mexico City.

"Peter, I didn't hurt him, ok." Leo was almost shouting.

Keeping his volume in check when the stewardess eyed him nervously, he whispered hoarsely, "I'd never hurt anybody on purpose. I just had to make sure you came with me."

"Where are we going Uncle Justin?" Peter asked wide-eyed.

"Mexico City." Leo said closing his eyes. From his nervousness, Peter knew they were going somewhere else.

"You don't have to go to school," Leo kept coaxing, "you don't have to go to your Dad's. We're going to this really cool park and all you've gotta do is keep quiet, ok?"

"Won't Mom know I'm gone after the weekend's over?" Peter whispered back.

"We'll be back before then, Pete. I promise. I just gotta take care of a few things. You're coming along for the ride...and for insurance. Just do as I tell ya, stay low, try not to look like you're not supposed to be with me, and

I promise you'll be back before she'll notice. Just get some sleep ok, we've got a long flight. I'm not gonna letchya get in trouble or get caught, ok?"

Peter just nodded and closed his eyes. He hoped real Mexican food wouldn't be as weird as he heard that it was.




 

Meanwhile…back at the bar…

"The chaos theory at its finest." Malcolm mumbled, and gladly escaped the rumble. The bartender and the waitstaff weren’t even paying attention to the nerdy man with the bulging pockets. One particular entrepenureal busboy was taking bets.

Meanwhile Doggett was successfully dodging careless, but swift and mean punches while Mulder was slurring barely comprehensible accusations.

"Mul-" Doggett protested futilely, ducking his head to dodge each punch. "Muld--" he sighed heavily. "For Christ sake, listen to yourself for one goddamn minute. Do you even know what you're sayin'?

Scully, meanwhile, had managed pick herself up and had flung her arms around Mulder's neck, who was still throwing inaccurate punches. All the while grinning stupidly.

"Muldah, I hate to do this to ya, butchya askin' for it this time." Doggett grumbled, and accurately contacted his fist with Mulder's gut, knocking Scully off of Mulder and Mulder onto a chair.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw!" Scully gushed, with her arms flung over him. "I never had anybody fight over me before. It's justh like in Titanic." She stayed, lying sprawled out on the floor wither her arms pillowed under her head. She kicked off her shoes as Starkweather nodded to Malcom for help. Then, they pulled her up, still lying flat on her back on a booth.

Mulder, meanwhile, was still blindly throwing punches while scrambling to his feet. "Iths ALL YOUR FAULT! Iths your faw *punch* I gaw Fiahed. *punch* Itsth your faw Thcullah gah a bun in the oven. It's your faw *punch* we're on the i-i-i-land. Iths ya faw *punch* I gaw awwesthted. Iths ya fawt *punch* we pwowy not gonna get back.

Quite suddenly, and thankfully, Mulder stopped throwing his punches and at the top of his lungs in no recognizable key, broke into song.

"Juuuuuuuuuuuust sit right back and you'll hear a tale." He squawked, Scully stumbled up and over in his general direction and soon joined in with him, curling herself sloppily around him. The two together weren't even trying to carry a tune. They were shouting now, not even in unison. Scully was about a half a beat behind him. "A TALE OF A FATEFULL TIP. THAT THTARDED FROM THITH TRAFFIC PORT ABOARD THITH TINY SHIP."

Andrea Nowark chose this moment to grace the bar with her presence. If she was going to spend quality time with a panel of riff-raff she needed to be wasted up to her knees while she still could.

"Martini, extra dry. No olive." She commanded the bartender, rolling her eyes at the couple's drunken display. Starkweather watched with her mouth curled up like a practical joker and her eyes slit in anticipation as she watched the bartender powder the glass discreetly. The woman, too busy watching the ruckus, didn't even notice what was being put into her glass. She laughed unattractively like a hyena.

"Too bad we can't vote her off the island." She mumbled inaudibly. Doggett was the only one who heard her, and would have chuckled at the comment if he wasn't too busy trying to avoid contact again.

Malcom, having stowed the glasses in his suitcase for later testing, saw what was going on and only raised a questioning eyebrow in Starkweather's direction.

Starkweather, content that Andrea would start to feel the effects of the adult beverage momentarily, started to coax Scully off of Mulder.

"SCULLY!" She shouted above Mulder's accusations

Scully finally stumbled over to Starkweather and looped her arms around her. With Malcom's help, she led Scully to a couch just outside the bar.

"But I wanna staaaaaay!" Scully protested at the top of her lungs.

"Scully," Starkweather began, sighing torturedly, closing her eyes as if the world would be normal again when she opened them, "You're drunk." She said simply.

Scully slurped her bottom lip under her top one. "I'm not that *hic* drunk! Did you have a twin you didn't know about Jeri? 'Cause they're two of you. But they're fighting over me! How many times do I get to see two guys fighting over me. I bet I can get them to oil wrestle in boxer shorts!" She said giggling uncontrollably. "Don'tchya wanna see that? Ooooooh...make the room spin again, that was cool."

"Quite frankly," Starkweather groaned, "the thought of seeing any relation of mine oil-wrestling in boxers repulses me." She hated nursing drunks.

"Aaaaaaaw you're no fun."

"Scully, you think you can go upstairs now?"

Scully opened her mouth to protest, but all that came out was brown-colored vomit with chunks of the burger she ordered for room service.

"I think the chaos theory can be applied to drunken stupors, too, wouldn't you agree, Jerilyn." Malcom mumbled

Starkweather glared at Malcolm as she tried to ignore the warm, wet, chunky vomit trickling down the top of her feet and in between her toes. <<I am never wearing sandals again>> she told herself.

However, the vomiting proved to be a good thing after all, for Scully had thrown up most of her drink, which meant whatever that drug was the bartender had slipped her (and Andrea Nowark, who was putting a fluttering hand to her head, as if she felt dizzy)that hadn't been digested yet, also came out of her. Scully took several gulping breaths. She was still out of the loop, but at least, (<<Thank God>> Starkweather thought) she stopped singing.

Scully put her hands to her mouth, "Starkweather," Scully said "There's something wrong..."

"Yeah, you just blew chunks," Malcolm said.

"Malcolm," Starkweather said through clenched teeth, "stop trying to help."

"There's a funny metallic taste..." Scully was desperately trying to sober up but unfortunately, she did ingest enough of the strange white powder to knock her body chemistry off kilter. "And I'm still seeing double."

Starkweather sprung into doctor-mode, "We need to get her to her room," she said to Malcolm, kicking off her vomit covered sandals as she stood up. "Will you help me??"

Malcolm leapt up and ever the gentleman, carefully scooped Scully up in his arms. "There, there, Dr. Scully," Malcolm tut-tutted to her, "everything will be alright..." They started walking towards the stairs. Scully rolled her head to the side, looked towards the huge bay windows. Her eyes widened and she let loose a high pitched, very un-Scully-like shriek of pure shock and terror.




 

Meanwhile.....

Mulder stopped singing. Doggett stared at him, slack-jawed in total amazement. Andrea Nowark, now feeling the effects of the mickey, was trying to steady herself on her barstool. She had turned a nasty shade of green.

"Mul - dah," Doggett finally spluttered out. "What the hel-

"He didn't get to finish his thought for Mulder's eyes rolled up in the back of his head and he collapsed just as Andrea Nowark slid off her barstool, landing on her bony butt and giggling uncontrollably.

"Stop starin'" Doggett barked at the grinning busboys who were jabbering in their native language and pointing at the drunk white woman laying sprawling on the plushy carpet.

"And git her to her room." The busboys stared at him blankly. Doggett crouched down by Mulder and shook him.

"Mulder? Mulder, c'mon, talk to m-"

Just then, Scully's ear-piercing shriek echoed through the corridors. The busboys turned white and fled. Doggett bolted up and his hand automatically went for where he kept his gun, which, of course wasn't there because technically, he was off-duty. He heard panicked voices and footsteps running, mostly away, but one was towards the bar.

Dr. Grant, ashen faced and panting stopped at the door,

"Agent Doggett, you must come, quickl- oh my God, what happened to him???" Grant looked down at Mulder's prostrate body in horror.

"Dunno, Grant, but there's something damn weird about this island."

"Not weird, Agent Doggett, lethal."

"What?"

"Dr. Starkweather said Dr. Scully saw a raptor outside the main window."

"A what???" Doggett stared at him then said "Help me with him," and together Doggett and Grant hoisted Mulder up and dragged him out of the bar.

They left Andrea lying on the floor.

A terrific brouhaha had built up by the time Doggett, Grant and the unconscious Mulder arrived on the scene. Starkweather was yelling in Spanish at three security guards. One of them was speaking rapidly in a walkie-talkie while Starkweather screamed at him, "Hey!! YOU, DAMMIT, I'M TALKING TO YOU, BUDDY!" in English before reverting back to Spanish, pointed at the window angrily. Scully was chalk-white and babbling incoherently, still feeling the effects of the drug as she clung fearfully to Malcolm's shirt.

The elevator opened and Christie Carter, in a long black silky robe marched out. "What is going on??" she asked, cranky because she had been called out of bed, marched out.

Starkweather wheeled on her. "She thinks she saw a dinosaur running loose outside."

"Nonsense," Christie snapped. "All of the animals are monitored on a twenty-four hour basis. We are several miles away from the actual park. There is no way a dinosaur could be loose. Now," she reverted back to her "happy-camp-counselor" mode "it's very late and we have a big day tomorrow, so let's go off to bed, shall we? Please??"

"Starkweather, don't punch her," Doggett said under his breath when he saw his partner clench her fist.

Instead Starkweather said sweetly "Well, if there's no dinos running loose, then it'll be okay if I go out for a walk around the hotel."

"Absolutely not!" Christie snapped.

Starkweather smiled, glided past Christie and whispered to her "Busted..." in a singsong voice then beckoned to Malcolm to follow her with Scully.




 

Scully and Mulder's room

Fishing the key out of Scully's pocket, Starkweather opened the door. Tummy came out from under the bed, whimpering.

"Awww..." Malcolm said. "Cute little guy. Hope he doesn't become someone's snack," he said blithely as he laid Scully down on the bed after Starkweather pulled the comforter and the sheets away. As Starkweather was covering her up, Scully's arm snaked out from under the blankets.

"Wha'cha looking for Scully?" Starkweather kept her tone deliberately light.

"My gun..." Scully said, trying to sit up. "Those dinosaurs..."

"No no no no..." Starkweather pushed her down again. "Fire arms right now are bad. Just get some sleep, okay? I'm gonna to stay here tonight, so everything's all good."

"But-"

"Lay down!" Starkweather barked at her.

Both Scully and Tummy lay down.

"You certainly have a way with people," Malcolm chuckled.

"And animals."

"Good night, Malcolm and thank you for your help," Starkweather said pleasantly.

Not deterred in the least, he grinned. "And I have always been a man able to take a hint. Sweet dreams, good Doctor Starkweather," and he crept out of the room.

Starkweather first did a through search of Mulder and Scully's room for Scully service weapon and the little Beretta that somehow Mulder got a special permit to still carry (actually, her adoptive father, the Admiral Jeremy Bailey had secured the permit for Mulder but Starkweather didn't know that). She really didn't want to take the chance of Scully getting up in the middle of the night and decide to go Dinosaur-Hunting. A sick and twisted image popped into her sleep-deprived brain:

"'ere we are on bee - yoo - ful La Eesla Loona Blan-kah,

'ome to some of the most INCREDIBLE creature eva'! We're gonna have a look-see at this gorgeous little baby T-Rex. Now... this sweet'art, 'ere, is only six foot tall and eats three goats a day... but when she's full grown, she'll be as tall as a 'ouse and will eat-"

"Steve! Steve! Look out! The mama T-Rex is coming!!!"

"Crikey! Lookit the size of her? Isn't she just gorgeous??"

"STEVE YOU IDIOT!!! RUN!!"

"YEOUWWWWWW!!!"

Starkweather blinked the image of the friendly Crocodile Hunter being munched on by a T-Rex out of her head as she resumed searching for Mulder and Scully's guns. "Ben's right," she muttered. "I have a warped imagination." She found Mulder and Scully's guns, along with their extra clips. She went over to the other bed, unloaded Mulder's Beretta and put the clip and the extras under her pillow. She was about to unload Scully's gun, but, eyebrows scrunched, she tiptoed over to the window and peered out behind the heavy draperies. She saw nothing but glass, thick metal bars and a whole lot of darkness.

Starkweather frowned. Metal bars??? "Curiouser," she quoted 'Alice in Wonderland' "and curiouser." She checked to see if Scully fell asleep which, mercifully, she had.

Starkweather double-checked the door to make sure it was looked. She went into the bathroom to wash the puke off her feet. As she sat on the edge of the tub, hosing her feet down, she looked idly down and saw the shirt Mulder was wearing on the floor. "What the hell??" she said aloud to no one in particular. "What is that purple shit all...." her eyebrows raised high. Her first instinct was to run back downstairs, but her body was informing her brain that it was very tired and would like to shut down for the evening.

So Starkweather, careful to avoid contact with the shirt, left the bathroom and shut the door so Tummy wouldn't get in. She paused over Scully, listened to her soft breathing and then crossed over to the other bed, laying her head on the pillow that hid the extra clips. She safetied Scully's weapon and cradled it in her hand as she lay down on the soft bed on her side, facing Scully.

"Insanity," she quoted her partner before falling into the sweet oblivion of sleep.




 

Meanwhile the party continues....
Doggett and Starkweather's room

Dr. Grant fumbled with the key as Doggett held Mulder up.

"C'mon, Dr. Grant," Doggett grumbled. "He ain't as light as he looks."

Grant threw the door open wide and stepped aside as Doggett drug Mulder into the room and unceremonially threw Mulder onto the bed. Doggett sat down on the other bed.

"So.... is your line of work always this... exciting?" Dr.

Grant asked as he shut the door behind him quietly.

Doggett wearily looked at Grant, trying to determine if the man was making a joke or being serious. Or possibly both. "My job's definitely.... interestin'. Seriously, Dr. Grant-"

"Call me Alan." Grant leaned against the chest of drawers.

"Okay... Alan... do you think Scully saw what she thought she saw?"

Grant mulled this over, "We won't know until the morning, when the lurve birds sober up."

That comment got a dry chuckle out of Doggett. "I wonder what the hell got into those two?? I've seen Scully drink before... she's not a total lightweight... but Mul-dah?? I thought he was gonna kill me."

Grant frowned. "I wish I could tell you. I'm a paleontologist, not a medical doctor, I'm afraid." He heaved a big sigh. "I wish I could allow myself the luxury of thinking that perhaps Agent Scully was hallucinating... but..." Grant closed his eyes. "The velicoraptors are vicious, intelligent animals. Very very intelligent. I do not doubt that if any dinosaur had escaped, it would be those hideous bastards," Grant's body involuntarily shuddered - Doggett did not miss that. "If and when I get back to the United States, I plan on spending some extensive time with my Congressmen to start work on drafting a bill that prohibits the.... resurrection... for lack of a better term.... of lethal and extinct animals."

"You'll have a uphill battle on Capitol Hill," Doggett said all too knowingly. "Trust me, right now, we're fightin' 'bout the morality of clonin' human tissue. It's just... insanity."

"That's what happens when men play God."

"You a religious man?"

Grant smiled. "Are there atheists in a foxhole, Agent Doggett?"

Doggett smiled back, very tiredly. "If you want me to call you Alan, then you gotta call me John."

Grant nodded and tried to fight off a yawn. "You going to be alright with Mr. Mulder?"

"I think he's out for the count," Doggett said, half-disgusted. Sure, they had their problems in the past and Mulder like to make little digs at him at his expense... but then, Mulder did that to everyone, so Doggett didn't feel signaled out. "I'd just like to know what the fuck got into him tonight."

"On the bright side," Grant couldn't resist, "it solved your sleeping arrangement issues... for one night at least... Mr. Starkweather."

"Ha."

"Interesting lady... Mrs. Starkweather," Grant took his leave. "Good night, John."

"Yeah, you too," Doggett answered. When the door shut, Doggett threw a blanket over Mulder who was shivering like a junkie after a real bad acid trip.... Acid.... Doggett frowned. His hand automatically reached for the phone but he stopped himself. Starkweather would kill him if he called her this late. Doggett sighed, rolled over and went to sleep.

Unbeknownst to anyone, a pack of small, chicken-sized lizards, scuttled across the front yard of the hotel on their hind-legs... chattering softly.

 

Meanwhile...somewhere else on the island...

"Uncle Justin, I'm gonna puke."

"You just don't have your sea legs yet."

"Like daddy says he has a third leg sometimes to girls he meets?"

"Not quite like that" Leo said with a small smile. "Wait'll you see this place, kiddo! You'll be able to say you were one of the first ones on the island. You wanna meet a real-live dinosaur, dontchya?"

"Not if I'm gonna hafta get there in one of those helicopters. I don't like being that high without a door. Besides, I thought dinosaurs were uh...stinky except in that movie where they ate everybody that mom wouldn't let me watch."

"They may be stinky...but the word you're looking for I think is extinct."

"That's what I said." Peter argued indignantly. Then after a few minutes of silence, "Am I green?"

"You'll feel better once you throw up, ok Pete?"

The boy rolled his eyes up at his uncle unbelievingly and prattled on the rest of the way in silence. "When we get to our room, I should call my mom, let her know we're here alright."

"I don't have a way for you to call long distance, and you can't call her, ok? This must be it." Leo said as he approached a 4-Runner. "Good ol' Schabasser...leaving the key in the door." When in actuality, it was not-so-bright Christie Carter, but it was better Leo didn't know that.

"Wow...lots of other cars here," Peter said, driving along the path. "I wonder if there'll be any other kids my age to play with."

"We'll see." Leo mumbled. Then he felt a breeze and a shrill crowing. "Was that a bat?" Peter, meanwhile, ran around the car, scrunched himself underneath the wheel.

"Peter!" Leo called out.

"Dad let me watch the movie." Peter hissed from his hiding place. Another Unseen Something swooped over head, only this time with two cries. Leo gulped.

"Schabasser you fucking son of a bitch, what the hell did you not tell me?" He whispered.

Just then white, thin substance landed on the shield of the 4X4, as if it were a target. Then a winged giant pterodactyl swooped down and picked up Leo, throwing him onto a patch of tall grasses.

"Tha...tha...tha...tha...tha...tha..tha..." a chalk-white Leo mumbled, like anyone intelligently dangerous facing something out of a B-Grade movie, and ran like hell under the car.

Judging from the wet blotch in an embarrassing area, Peter was going to need a new pair of pants.




Meanwhile, back D.C.
9:34 PM EST.

Ana had pulled out of her driveway on her way to class that evening and spotted something out of the corner of her eye.

Something covered in blood. It was a wallet, containing all cash and credit cards, a picture of what was once her family.

"Oh dear God..." She whispered, and whipped out her cell phone.

"Hello, Mr. Cello, sir..." she pleaded softly, not quite sure of what to do next, "I'm sorry to bother you so late, but I need your help..."




 

Later on that night..

Margaret Scully’s house
10:45pm, EST

Maggie Scully loved spending the quality time that her daughter's work often afforded her with William. But when she tried to place the call to that number Dana had left the operator on the other end of the line had informed her crisply that there was no dial tone. She tried again, an hour later unable to sleep, and tried again.

Again no dial tone.

The silence that thrived in the throws of the night bred panic like a cancer.

This was a new hotel, and trucks and lawnworkers...or anything could have cut phone-lines...anything. That awful movie about the dinosaurs on that island was science fiction. No idiot in their right minds would believe that was scientific proof.

Just then, as if on cue, the infant in the next room began to wail.

"Shhhhhhhh" She soothed, and pulled him to her, combing her newly arthritic fingers through his fine hair. To her dismay, it was showing signs of darkening. She pulled the rocking chair that she kept in that room to the window that looked down onto the street. "There's nothing there sweetiepie...nothing to cry about...shhhhh." Somehow, she felt like one of those doctors that told her children all those years the sugarcoated lie 'This won't hurt a bit.'

But the street was deserted. All was right with the world. And Will wouldn't stop crying. "Hush now...for such a little one you have huge lungs...there's nothing to be upset about. Grandma's not gonna let anything happen to you."

For just a second, the infant seemed to quiet down. Then, Maggie noticed that he was staring wide-eyed at one of the toys on the shelf. Eyes that seemed to be the color of a clear, cold winter day were zooming in on a singular object on the shelf.

Maggie quickly realized he was starring down a toy that had been given to him by his Uncle Bill. Bouncing and swaying with Will on her hip she walked over with him to the shelf, and picked up the T-Rex.

As if Maggie had touched some kind of button, it started whirring and growling. Startled, Maggie dropped it almost reflexively, where its arms and legs began flailing and jaws began opening and closing like someone trying to claw its way out of something.

"I TOLD Bill that thing wasn't good for babies!" She mumbled, starring at it wide-eyed, and then starring at her grandson...whose volume had only increased.

Maggie clutched the baby closer to her in an attempt to quiet him.

"You know William, your grandfather would have been so MAD if you were this loud while he was trying to sleep." She said softly as if he could understand her. Funny thing was, on some level she thought she saw something in his eyes...some intuitive twinkle that told her he *did* know. His wailing was still loud, but now they were staggering.

"If you keep getting any louder like that, I think you still might be able to wake him up from Arlington after all."

She wondered if she would be getting any sleep that night, and hoped her soft voice would quiet him down. She tried to dismiss what had just happened in that room.

He was after all, just a little boy.

Maggie sauntered and bounced across the window toting William on her hip, trying to quiet her grandson, who was probably shattering several dreams of her neighbors.

Out of the corner of her eye parked underneath a streetlamp, she noticed a dark blue van that had been parked their since the early morning. It was the kind of van the bad guys drove in all those movies, but she remembered seeing it around her daughter's apartment before.

"You know, I remember when your mother was about your age. Your grandfather was home for his first night from leave in San Diego. She must have given you fussy-lessons, sweetie-pie. William's crying was still just as loud, but it was now staggering. She walked back towards the dresser. "I don’t' remember your mommy's crying waking me up. I must have been really sleepy...but I remember hearing something though, and walking down the hall, and he was SINGING. I hadn't heard him sing before, and we had known each other for a really long time...he was singing a song the kids were listening to in their rooms the other night. Quiet down now, or you may be subjected to my singing voice."

If William could have understood what his Grandma was saying, he made no indication, and kept wailing as if vocal chords were indestructible.

Dana had apparently inherited her mother's tone-deafness, and Maggie looked around as if anyone else would be listening in the empty apartment. Then softly, flatly, and sweetly, she timidly started what she could remember of that song...

…and the weird thing was, William quieted down, so it was completely appropriate...

"This magic moment, so different and so new
Just like any other, until I met you
And then it happened, you took me by surprise
I knew that you felt it too, by the look in your eyes"

Then, surer of herself, louder and even flatter if possible, she got louder as William calmed down.

"Sweeter than wine...sweeeter than wihihihine...
softer than a summer nighighight...sooooooofter than a summer nighgihgight..."

Then, like someone caught with their hand in the till, she jumped at the rude buzzing of the doorbell, and put the now quiet Will in his playpen. "Now who would be here at this hour?" She mused to her grandson.

She heard all kinds of scuffling outside of her door, and hesitated first, and the people who had in fact been occupying the van a block and a half down the street were arguing. "Frohike, stay out of sight for a minute! Someone was whispering, "She'll think you're a thug!"

"Oh, I'm dressed aptly for that part, aren't I?" A scratchier voice was saying, "Black is a fashion standard!"

"Black is also the color most people dress in when we don't want them to DETECT US IN THE SHADOWS!" Byers accented his aggravation by pressing the doorbell.

"Byers...you're prejudiced!" Mr. Gravelly voice objected.

"I'm not prejudiced, Frohike, I'm DISTINGUISHED!"

"Like helllllo, Mrs. Scully." Frohike said affably, and then amiably held out his hand. Just then, Maggie opened the door, glaring at the two men in front of her door fiercely, and hesitantly shook the strange looking man's hand.

"Who are you?" She demanded angrily, "What ARE you doing here at this hour?"

Frohike wasn't paying attention to her demand, he was peering in, waving at Will as though he was a new relative seeing his baby in a hospital.

"Ma'am..." Byers began bashfully... "we're colleagues of your daughter's and Mulder's. Mulder asked us to keep an eye on," Byers jerked his head over Maggie's shoulder in the direction of the playpen "things during the investigation."

Seeing that Will seemed to know them, she let them in, rather horrified that Dana allowed such people around her grandson.

"That still doesn't explain why..." she glanced cautiously over at Frohike, who had already picked Will up and was sauntering over to the couch..."strange people are barging into my apartment, making funny faces at my grandson..."

They seemed harmless enough.

"Look, I'm really sorry we barged in at this hour..." Frohike was working on the latest funny face he had practiced.

"He actually looks more normal." Byers mumbled, and then cleared his throat and turned to Maggie. "We were wondering if you had any luck getting in touch with your Daughter's room." Byers offered. "Another colleague of ours is on the panel your daughter and Mulder as technology specialist. Apparently we're scheduled to work on their website, but we can't seem to get a ta...a connection."

"So that explains it..." Maggie said softly. "Can you shed any light as to why?"

"We know people who do..." Frohike cooed in Will's direction, "yes we do, don't we!"




Meanwhile…

La Isla Luna Blanca..

Peter hid underneath the car with his uncle. The winged, big-beaked monstrosities that resembled something out of the Tim Burton movie "Beetlejuice" had stayed there for what seemed like hours. They tossed the car around a bit, almost as though they were playing soccer with the car. But as soon as they realized there was nothing to scavenge, they abandoned the car about fifty feet from the road. Peter thought the idea of spending the night at his Dad's was bad enough. It was ages before he dared to talk.

"Peter..." Leo whispered through his teeth.

"Uncle Justin, I just wanna go home. I thought they were gonna eat me."

"The Pterodactyls weren't predators by nature, kiddo. There's only one way those guys would hurt us."

"Why are we here?" Peter persisted, "When am I gonna get to go *home* Uncle Justin?"

"As soon as I take care of some business here." He didn't even attempt sincerity. "Then you'll be back."

"I haven't eaten since the plane." Peter reminded him.

"I just hafta lay low for a little while till I can get to the hotel, and we'll get the whole nine-yards there. Just wait."

"Uncle Justin..." Peter hesitated nervously. "I saw something in the paper about you last summer. They said you hurt a lot of men. They said you hurt a lady."

"You want some free advice, Pete?" Leo threatened, "Don't be stupid. Watch every breath that comes out of your mouth. I only hurt those people to get what I want. I'm not afraid to hurt somebody else. Just try and see what I'll do if you slip your lip. Just try it once."

Peter sat stock-still in the 4-Runner till he heard his uncle snoring loudly.

He made sure that he didn't make a sound or shook the car, and was thankful that his Uncle was a very sound sleeper.

By the moonlight, he found the road, and then hoisted himself up the first tree fit for climbing and made a bed the best he could with the closest thick branch.

Before he finally managed to drift off to sleep, he tried to figure out what that cackling noise was. He hadn't heard a sound like that sense he visited a farm on a field trip in second grade where they had chickens.




 

The next morning
August 18, 2001
4:37 AM Central Standard Time

Starkweather's treacherous eyes popped open. "Dammit," she muttered, already knowing why she was awake. Her body, after years of early risings because of either for the military or for school, normally automatically woke itself up at 5:30 whether or not Starkweather's brain wanted to join it. La Isla Luna Blanca was just barely in the Central Standard Time zone, so Starkweather's jet-lagged body was still an hour ahead of the game. Starkweather closed her eyes again and after laying there for ten minutes, knew it was going to be useless to sleep. She sat up and yawned.

"Starkweather?" A weak voice from across the room beckoned her.

Starkweather slid off the bed and crossed over to Scully, who had just sat up. "Well, welcome back from your trip to La La Land."

"What happened to me?" Scully asked her. "How did I get here?"

Starkweather knelt down by Scully, took her by the wrist to check her pulse. As Starkweather watched the minute hand tick by on her watch, she murmured to Scully, "You honestly don't remember."

"No," Scully shook her head. "The last thing I remember was having a conversation with John. Then I blacked out... what did you mean by trip to La La Land."

"Let's just say that you and Mulder certainly have a way with livening up a dull party," Starkweather sidestepped Scully's question after finishing taking her pulse. She then felt Scully's hands. She stood up and took out a tiny little Mag-Lite flashlight she kept on her keychain out of her pocket. "Look into the light Scully," Starkweather said, biting her lip, watching the reaction of Scully's pupils to the light. "How do you feel? Headachy? Clammy? Queasy?"

"A little... I'm more concerned with the memory loss."

"Me too," Starkweather said, switching off her flashlight.

"Agent Scully, my friend, someone on this island is trying to either discredit us or kill us or both and I can't figure out which option they're going for. You have a sluggish pulse and your pupils didn't dilate as fast as they should have to the light, you're definitely had some sort of depressant in your system, it's wearing off, you're much more coherent and alert but you're still suffering from some of it's effects. As for what the hell's in you...."

"Like a date-rape drug?" Scully said warily.

"Maybe..." Starkweather said. "Jesus."

"You said something about Mulder..."

"He was... acting... not like his usual charming self, but I think... I think he was reacting to something else... Scully, I think you're okay now, but I don't want to leave you alone, do you think you're up to walking with me to Doggett's room?"

"Sure."

And Scully and Starkweather locked the door behind them.

Both women were barefooted and they padded down the hallway to Starkweather and Doggett's room. Starkweather knocked on the door.

Doggett bolted away at the knock. He reached for his gun and walked to the door. "Yeah??" he said.

"Papa John, it's me and Scully. Put the gun down and let us in."

Doggett opened the door. "How'd you know I had my gun?"

"X-ray vision," Starkweather quipped as she and Scully walked in.

"Dana, you feelin'... better?" Doggett asked carefully.

Scully meanwhile had made a beeline over to Mulder's sleeping form and started to examine him so Starkweather filled Doggett in. "She has no memory of what happened. Plus, whilst you were dealing with Moose and Squirrel over there, I saw the bartender drop a mickey in Andrea Nowark's drink. I didn't have time to prevent it."

"Where is she now?" Doggett was instantly concerned. "I mean, yeah, nobody likes her, but still we can't just-"

Starkweather interrupted, "Don't worry, I saw a security guard carrying her out of the bar when Dr. Malcolm and I were taking Scully upstairs. So she's fine."

"Did anyone else see this guy spiking drinks?"

Starkweather shook her head, "No, but I had Malcolm cob Scully's glass and my glass out of the bar. All I need is a microscope."

"I've gotta theory 'bout Mulder."

"So do I, you first."

"It's from an older X-File from way back, early nineties? This was prior to Mulder's first disappearance, when a hacker called "the Thinker" gave him an encrypted diskette."

"Sure, I read that case. The text of the diskette was written in Navajo. It pertained to alien experimentation and the development of a vaccine. This is my favorite X-File," Starkweather said dreamily, "Scully shot Mulder...."

"To prevent him from killin' a witness, Alex Krycek if memory serves," Doggett said severely. "He was actin' under the influence because someone was druggin' him through his water."

"With LSD. I read that. That crap gets into your spinal cord and stays there forever. You know, I always wondered why Kersh waited until the oil rig fiasco to can him when all he had to do was demand Mulder take a drug test. He would have been busted."

"Maybe, but that's neither here or there. What I'm getting at is, if someone who had LSD in there system prior, somehow ingests another drug with similar properties as LSD.... what are the possibilities of them havin' what's commonly called a 'bad trip'?"

"Pretty damn good," Starkweather said. "In fact, Doggett, I think for once you and I are on the same wavelength. In fact... I'm going to go prove your theory right as soon as I get out of this damn skirt."

"And I," Doggett said. "Am going to wake up Langly's ass. I wanna know what dirty little secrets are hidin' in there computers."

"Good idea," Starkweather agreed. She turned to Scully and asked "How is he?"

Scully pulled away from Mulder, who was still snoring softly. "He's sleeping like a passed out addict," she said soberly. "I'm going to stay here and take care of him," She rubbed her eyes.

"I'm going to change my clothes," Starkweather mumbled as she started to rummage through her duffel bag.

Doggett got on the phone. He frowned. "No dial tone," he grumbled. "I'm gonna go down there, what room is he in?"

"1223," Starkweather said as she pulled out a pair of denim shorts and a blue tank top. Doggett left the room after stuffing his gun down the back of his pants and pulling his shirt over his weapon. Starkweather said to Scully before disappearing into the bathroom, "Go ahead and lay down Scully, you still need rest too."




 

Fifteen minutes later...

Starkweather, in her favorite pair of denim shorts and an ugly blue tank top padded down the majestic stairwell, carrying a heavy FBI field kit. For a moment, she admired the architectural design of the hotel. "Swanky," she muttered, touching the marble banister of the stairwell just for the childish pleasure of feeling the hard coolness on her skin.

"Truly ooh la la."

The massive marble banister followed the curves of the stairs and ended in a massive marble flowerpot were giant spiky plants resided. Starkweather’s first thought was they resembled spider plants. Only spider plants did not bloom and this had huge violently violet flowers. Looked very tropical. Starkweather bit her lip. She crouched down on the stairs a few feet away from the plants, looking at them warily, as if she was expecting them to jump out and bite her. She opened the kit and pulled out a pair of latex gloves. After putting them on with a snap, she took out a second pair and put them over top. She then reached into her back pocket and pulled out a pair of black leather gloves she usually wore when she was out on the firing range and practicing with firearms bigger than FBI standard issue.

"Taking no chances I see."

Starkweather jumped about a foot in the air. She turned round and smiled. "Oh...it's only you..."




 

Meanwhile...

Doggett pounded on Langly and Wick's door. "Alright, alright, alright," Langly grumbled from the other side.

"Hold your horses." Langly swung the door open. "Oh, it's you." He muttered.

"Always a joy to see you too Langly."

"Yeah. Sure."

"Listen," Doggett said with a sigh, "I ain't got time to get into a pissin' contest with you, Langly. I need your imput and I need it now. Weird shit has been goin' on with the island-"

"Yeah, like there's no freakin' dial tone," Langly bitched.

"Yeah, I noticed that too."

"You better come in," Langly said bitterly. "You're right, we better talk. 'Cause I don't know what good I'm gonna be if I can't get a phone line out of here...."

"Listen," Doggett said with a sigh, "I ain't got time to get into a pissin' contest with you, Langly. I need your imput and I need it now. Weird shit has been goin' on with the island-"

"You’re right, Dogbert. We gotta talk."

"Quit callin’ me Dogbert."

Doggett followed Langly inside. Langly shut the door and locked it.

"Man, I don't know what the hell they're doin' but security is real uptight. There is no dial tone, can't even call room service. There's some sort of scrambler, because I tried to call Frohike and Byers on my cell and I got a no-service signal, which is a buncha crap." Langly lead Doggett to his bed and waved his hands over his computer notebook, what looked to be bits and pieces of metallic junk and piles of papers, mostly chickenscratch notes on a yellow legal pad. "If I can reach the guys, they can hook me up via satellite, but if I can't communicate with them... there is one other way through, but it's prehistoric. No pun intended."

"What's that?"

"Radio airwaves. See, they can disable phones and scramble digital service, but you can't do nothing about the sound barrier. I'm trying to put together a ham radio. It'll be absolutely primitive, but I'll be able to reach the other guys. Plus... well, Dogbert, maybe I'm a pussy compared to you, but I don't like it that we're stuck in the middle of freakin' nowhere and we've got no communication. What if someone gets hurt? What if someone back home has an emergency... like if Scully's kid gets sick and they need her to come home ASAP. How are we supposed to get through??"

"Langly..." Doggett said slowly, feeling sick to his stomach. "I don't think we're supposed...."




 

Meanwhile...

"Doctor Wick," Starkweather said cordially. "I didn't know you were an early riser?"

"Did I scare you Agent Starkweather?"

"No. Just surprised me."

"Intrigued by this plant?"

"Yes. Very."

"So am I. And very concerned. If I am not mistaken, this species from the Kingdom Planta, was supposed to be extinct. I am presuming that this was resurrected along with the dinosaurs."

"Why the concern, Dr. Wick?"

The roly-poly man frowned mightily. "Eventually, this plant, if theory is to be believed, evolved into the cactus plant that provides peyote. You are familiar with peyote, Agent Starkweather?"

"It's a type of hallucinogenic drug certain Native American tribes use during ritual ceremonies."

"Very good, Agent Starkweather. Observe the small spikes on the leaves of the plant," he pointed to the plant, but did not touch. "And also, the fine powdery film on the leaves. Appears to be pollen, but is not. I have a theory about this film that I'd love to test..." He scratched his chin.

"Well, doctor," Starkweather held up her hands, clad in its triple layers of gloves. "I'm already gloved up. Just let me put on goggles and a surgical mask and I'll be ready to rock and roll."

"Perfect!" Wicks exclaimed. "The staff was ever so kind as to let us use one of their laboratory facilities downstairs."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Starkweather was in the process of puttin the goggles over her eyes. "The cloning labs are... in the basement of the hotel????"

"Yes."

"THAT DOESN'T BOTHER YOU???????" Starkweather shrieked.

"That we could be sitting on a living time bomb?? No pun intended???"

Dr. Wicks was slightly flustered. "I- I- I- really d- didn't think about that, Agent St- starkweather. I just thought it was fortunate that we had a full lab at our disposal so we could exami-"

Starkweather held up her hand. "It's okay, really," she lied so he would stop his blubbering. "Let's just do this." She tied the mask to her face and got out a tiny pair of scissors, Ziploc baggies, cotton swabs and microscopic slides. "Let's get to work, Doctor," she said as carefully, she stepped closer to the plant she strongly believed poisoned Mulder. With shaking hands, she collected samples, hardly daring to breathe. After twenty minutes of pain-staking, tedious labor, she was completed. "Dr. Wick, in my field kit," Starkweather instructed him "there is a plastic box labeled 'Hazardous Waste.' Please get it out. I have to put the scissors and my gloves in there," she said calmly as she tried to ignore the iridescent powder shining vindictively on her black gloves. "Also, there's a bottle of anti-bacteria cleaning solution and alcohol pads. Get those out." Wick did as she said. Starkweather quickly peeled off, one layer at a time, the gloves after stuffing the scissors in the Hazardous Waste box. She scrubbed her hands with the alcohol pads, wincing at the sting. She then doused her hands with the anti-bacteria cleansing solution.

With a sigh, she stood up and cracked her neck...

And saw something small and green scuttle across the floor around the corner.

Instantly, Starkweather reached for her gun. "Stay here," she hissed. "Unless you see a monster coming, then run like hell." She ran down the stairs, gun out, safety off. She ran down the corridor. She peeked around the corner, and saw nothing. Nothing but rows and rows of plants. These plants, Starkweather could clearly see, were harmless. Just your standard decorative palm trees, circa 2001 AD. "Good God," she muttered, feeling like a fool. She turned her back and returned to Wicks. "False alarm, I'm sorry," she said. "Let's go to the lab," she picked up the samples, safely enconsed in Ziploc baggies and the FBI field kit.

Together they walked to the elevator.

Meanwhile, from the leaves of the harmless palm trees, a pair of black reptilian eyes peered out.




 

Thirty minutes later
Laboratory A1, Sub-Level One

"Look at that..." Dr. Wick moved aside so Starkweather could peep into the microscope.

"Oh my God..." Starkweather said. "There's enough shit in that plant's secretion to kill a small child." She looked up at Dr. Wick. "What irresponsible idiot put a plant like that right in the lobby??"

Dr. Wick shook his head. "Probably the same idiot that thought cloning dinosaurs was a good idea."

"You are against this project, Dr. Wick?"

Dr. Wick paused, debated internally and then asked timidly. "Do you know who Dr. Ellie Sattler is?"

"No."

"She was with Grant and Malcolm on the first Jurassic Park venture. The stories she told me after our government convinced Costa Rica to let her and Grant leave... did you know that that Costa Rica held them for several months because of the InGen Incident?" Starkweather shook her head. "Well... anyway... after she told me what happened... and when I got this offer to view the new and improved Jurassic Park... for Ellie, I had to... you know... do something."

"How did you know Dr. Sattler?"

Wick was silent for a moment. "I almost married her."

"Oh." Starkweather felt like an asshole.

"Don't feel bad, that was many years ago. Many years and many pounds ago." He laughed and his belly shook like Santa Claus's. Starkweather smiled weakly. "Anyway... I'm here for Ellie," he said firmly.

Starkweather picked up the legal pad she had been taking notes on. "Dr. Wick, I need to meet with my partner." She reached for one of the microscope slides.

"What are you doing?"

Starkweather stared at him. He looked annoyed that she was trying to take one of the samples. "Evidence has a nasty habit of disappearing on an X-File. I just want to take a slide up to my room for safe-keeping," she said pleasantly enough, but the back of her neck prickled. Suddenly she really didn't like this jolly fat man.

"Of course, of course," Wick said half-a-second too late. "See you at the luncheon then," he said brightly.

"Right," Starkweather took the slide and popped it in the baggie. "Dr. Wick, you realize everything we spoke of this morning is strictly confidential."

"Oh of course," Wick waved her off as he peeped in the microscope again. "And if I find anything else interesting, I'll find you."

"Great," Starkweather said with a fake smile. While Wick's back was to her, she snatched a very small microscope and held it behind her back. "See you later." She practically ran out of the lab.

She avoided the lobby all together and took the elevator straight up to her floor. She nearly ran into Doggett and Langly when the doors slid open.

"Hello!" She exclaimed.

"Doc, where've you been?" Doggett asked her irately as Starkweather got out of the elevator. "We've got major problems."

"No shit," Starkweather said as the trio started walking down the hall towards Doggett and Starkweather's room.

"And we haven't even seen the stinkin' dinos yet," Langly said.

"That's what scares me," Doggett muttered darkly.

"Think we better wake up Grant and Malcolm?" Langly asked.

"Yes," Starkweather and Doggett said at the same time.




 

Meanwhile...

Mulder woke up with a start. Scully rushed to him.

"Mulder?"

Mulder put his hand to his head. "Jesus, Scully... what happened?"

"You don't know?"

"No."

"Shit."

Mulder, startled because it was so rare for Scully to swear, said "What? Why?"

"Because, Mulder, I don't remember either. Starkweather and Doggett think someone tried to drug us last night."

"Drug us? What for?"

"I don't know."

"Unless they don't want us to leave the island knowing the Truth."

"Truth???" Scully said with a tinge of irritation in her voice. "What Truth. We haven't even been on the tour yet."

Starkweather, Doggett and Langly entered the room just then. "Well... Starkweather grinned at her older brother. "Welcome back Sleeping Beauty."

"Ok, what the hell happened last night?" Mulder said, sinking back onto the pillows. "I have the nagging suspicion that I may have made a horse's ass of myself last night and wouldn't mind being clued in what the hell I did."

"Let's just say," Doggett said angelically, "that you have a beautiful singin' voice."

"Oh God," Mulder moaned.

"And you hit like a girl," Starkweather added.

Mulder gave Starkweather the bird.

"As fascinating as this is," Scully snapped. "Could somebody please tell us what's going on?"

"We're waiting for Grant and Malcolm," Doggett told her gravely.

"They were still in their jammies," Starkweather said.

A few minutes later

La Luna Blanca

Grant knocked on Doggett and Starkweather's door.

"I wonder what fresh hell they've discovered for us," Malcolm quipped dryly before Starkweather opened the door.

"Ah, good morning Dr. Starkweather."

"Sorry for waking you up, but we need to have a little pow wow with you two," Starkweather escorted them in.

"I hate to sound like an idiot-" Mulder started.

"That's never stopped you before," Starkweather interrupted sweetly.

"Wow, you're just on a roll today, aren't you baby sister?" Mulder drawled.

"Don't call me that."

"But could someone fill us in what happened last night?? And where's my dog???" Mulder sat up and looked down at the floor. "Tummy?? Tuuummmy... where are you girl??" Tummy squeezed out of her hiding plan from under the bed and bounded towards Mulder. Mulder scooped her up and scratched her ears. "Hi pretty girl." Without even looking up he said "The first one in this room that makes fun of my dog's name will get a boot up their ass."

"I think he's referring to you," Malcolm said to Starkweather.

"Shock, surprise, dismay," she replied with a shrug.

"Can we PLEASE get on with this meeting?" Scully snapped.

Starkweather turned to Doggett and Langly. "Well, should we give them the bad news or the shitty news first?"

"The bad news," Doggett said, "is that according to Starkweather's research, it's pretty much confirmed that the people planning this island are complete morons."

"Well, that's heart-warming," Malcolm said.

Starkweather, in all seriousness now, asked Mulder.

"Mulder, before you deprived us of your company for your trip to La-La Land, do you remember brushing up against a plant anytime on the island?"

Mulder thought. "That plant in the big pot at the bottom of the stairs. It left some purple gunk on my hand..."

She held up a Ziploc baggie. "Doctor Wick and I took some samples... he determined that this plant is another resurrection of an extinct biological entity from the Jurassic era. There are enough poisons in that plant to kill a kid and enough to make a grown man go absolutely loopy and start signing the theme song to 'Gilligan's Island.'"

Mulder turned white. "I did not."

"Did too. Anyway... to add to the fun," Starkweather continued. "While we were at the bar, I have reason to believe, someone was slipping mickeys into our drinks, which is why Scully... uh... well..." Somehow, Starkweather couldn't think of a way to describe Scully's actions. Mainly because she was afraid if she was too sarcastic about it, she would get mad and kick her ass.

Scully solved the problem for her. "Don't tell me, I don't want to know," she said stoutly.

"I took the drink glasses Malcolm and I were about to drink from when Scully started to... act under the influence-"

"Hey, how come you use euphemisms with Scully, but with me, you just blurt out 'oh he was singing Gilligan's Island'?" Mulder exclaimed indignantly.

"Because I like her better than you."

"Guys," Doggett growled.

"I took our glasses and Scully's so I could test them and compare... but it wasn't necessary because I witnessed the bartender putting powder into Andrea Nowark's drink."

Everyone grinned wickedly. "I wish I could remember that part," Mulder said dreamily.

"Oh, I assure you," Malcolm said. "It was lovely."

"And that, ladies and gents, is just the BAD news..." Starkweather turned to her partner. "Doggett?"

"What do you MEAN that's JUST the bad news?" Scully said.

"Well, Scully," Mulder said mildly, "the Hurricane did say that there was bad news and then there was shitty news. So, Doggett, what's the shitty news?"

"We have no means of communicating to anyone off of this island."

There was a startled silence.

Then Scully said, "How am I supposed to call home to check on my kid?"

Malcolm, as gently as possible, pointed out "I think your priorities are switched, Agent Scully. If there's no communication, and there's a pressing reason where we need to, oh I don't know, get the hell off of this fifth ring of hell... how are we supposed let anyone know we're in trouble?"

Another silence, broken by Starkweather. "Oh man, what a clusterfuck."

"Ian..." Dr. Grant cautioned, "If we can't communicate, we're pretty much STUCK on this island. Getting OFF is a moot point."

"Thank you, Optimist of the Year." Malcom snorted.

"The only way we're getting out of this," Scully concluded, "is by either outrunning the dinosaurs or finding another way off this island."

"Langly, Doggett," Starkweather began, "you two are the wirewizards. Any bright ideas for communications systems?"

"If we were planning on camping out," Doggett began thoughtfully, "I could fan distress signals in the campfire...but since we're planning on coming back here every night...I think that's about as useful as our cell phones with no signal.

"Somebody was paying attention in Boy Scouts that day." Langly quipped.

"And" Mulder said, completely ignoring Langly's comment, "a lot of people with a lot of power who would rather us be dead than expose what all the Dr. Frankensteins are doing here."

"Byers, Frohike and me did research before I left on this three hour tour," Langly began, "and it turns out that this place is worth some major Benjamins. Looks like there's a lotta people who have a lotta stake in this place."

"You mean you guys don't spend all your time on those databases hunting down conspiracies and looking up nudy pictures?" Starkweather quipped.

"Exactly how much are we talking about here, Mr. Langly?"

"Major Benjamins, Dr. Grant. There was only about twenty investors altogether, fifteen of them made the fortune500 list." Langly triumphantly nasalled.

"Dr. Grant..." Starkweather groaned, "Garth Algar over here forgot to mention...in the X-Files office, we have a code to live and die by. That code is...never use titles...EVER, except when we have to suck up to the Rat-Bastard Deputy Director of the FBI. No Misters, Misses, or Doctors..."

"So with Gilligan and Ginger over there, its Mulder and Scully--" Malcom muttered, "even in the throes of the naked pretzel. Weird." Starkweather, who was in close proximation, promptly elbowed him in the ribs.

"Just Langly." Dr. Grant finished with a note of exasperation in his voice. "Look, Starkweather...I appreciate the notification, but I still don't understand why I got up before the sun did."

"Dr. Grant, I appreciate the frustration, but it's only fair to warn you. The reason we all called you here," Doggett answered, "is because we felt it's in your best interest that they don't find out we know about our isolation. They think they have one up on us, and I'd like to keep it that way."

"What if we ditch the tour." Scully said thoughtfully.

"If we're separated, that means even LESS panel members get off the island." Starkweather reminded her.

"If we're separated into two groups," Mulder thought aloud, "the chance that the other panelists will find all of us is lessened immediately."

"Some of us can find the evidence to put these guys in jail where they belong..." Scully finished, glancing nervously at Mulder, "and the rest of us can go back to the mainland and get transportation off the island for those of us looking for evidence."

"And leave all the other panel members to be dinodinner?" Starkweather countered. "Ok...the megabitch we can ditch...and I don't think the world's gonna miss another snakey lawyer...and I doubt seriously Christie Carter's gonna be missed..."

"It's a good plan," Dr. Grant countered, "but you people don't know these monsters like I do...they're smart...they can strategize...we're on they're turf. Strength in numbers seems to be our only advantage here. Exactly how long do you think you can outrun a velociraptor with speeds at up to Tropical Storm force winds?"

"What good is strength in numbers," Scully argued, "if the numbers are ripped to shreds? I think you and Dr. Malcolm should be in separate groups since you two know the island the best."

"Look," Doggett addressed Grant and Malcolm, "If there was a better way off this island, we'd take it in a heartbeat. I don’t' like the idea of everybody separating either, but I think that's the only way the people who don't want us off won't find us. Seems to me we're off this island one way or the other, and I'd prefer it not to be through a prehistoric shit."

"Look, Doggett" Grant answered, "I realize that we're in a dangerous position here, but I've been on these grounds. Bulldozers, cars...anything could cut the lines..."

"Barney?" Mulder said with a smug grin plastered across his plate. Scully and Starkweather both flashed him warning glares.

"If they don't want me to say dinosaurs are on the island, why would I be invited out here if they know that I've seen creatures thrive first hand on this island that are supposed to be extinct?"

"Because," Starkweather said pointedly, "they want to make sure that people still think that a Spielberg flick is just a Spielberg flick."

"I assure you, Starkweather," Dr. Grant fumed, "these dinosaurs *ARE* real. They *WILL* attack. There's nothing soft and cuddly about these monsters, and I do not wish to be second on the food chain."

"Speaking of which," Langly interrupted, "once we get away from the tour, assuming we *can*, what the hell ARE we going to do for food? If the plants around here that these labs developed have enough LSD for Woodstock 3, how can we be so sure that the flora around here aren't going to have the same...um...kick?"

"I bet we can make a pretty good meal outta Tummy." Starkweather grumbled, grinning evilly at Mulder. "Tastes just like chicken."

Mulder covered the dog's ears. "One little phone call to the ASPCA...that's all it takes..." Mulder threatened.

"Oh, I'm sure the ASPCA would LOOOOVE to hear how you've subjected a domestic pet to a lot of predators."

"Bite me." Mulder growled.

"I thought that was her job." Starkweather mumbled, jerking her thumb in Scully's direction.

"According to the tour schedule," Doggett said, taking over the basic plans, "we don't start on the tour of the grounds till about twelve. The only way we're gonna get off this goddamn island if we split up into camps and take stock. Last night's not gettin' any longer, and the day's not going any faster if we don't use the time we've got left till the luncheon to find out what we can about the communications systems, number of planes, anything we need to know. Langly, you and me can scout out the communications, Dr. Malcolm, Dr. Wick, and Muldah, you scout out our transportation. Scully, Starkweather, and Dr. Grant, since you three are the medical opinions 'round here, we will be scoutin' the labs for evidence to put these people behind bars. Any questions?"

Starkweather said tentatively, "I don't think we want to

involve Dr. Wick. I think it's in our best interest to keep him in the dark."

"Why?" Langly asked. "He's seems harmless enough."

Starkweather paused, glancing at Dr. Grant before continuing on, "I have my reasons, Langly, and that should be enough for all of you."

"Heil, Fraulien," Mulder muttered, swinging himself out of bed. "Let me change clothes quick and let's get this party started."

Doggett pulled Starkweather over and whispered, "What the hell was that all about."

"Dr. Wick weirded out on me in the lab and I am really questioning his motives, Doggett. I don't think he's in cahoots with the trained seals running this place, I think he has an agenda of his own."

"Like what?"

But before Starkweather could clue him in, Mulder burst out of the bathroom in clean clothes and said in his curiously flat monotone "Let's get ready to rumble."

Starkweather, with a resigned sigh, shrugged and said "Bring it on."

"Look, Peter, Jan," Malcolm interrupted, "as much as it thrills me to listen to you squabble, I have lots of other things I'd much rather be doing...like...oh...sleeping comes to mind. Mr. Mulder, I'm too goddamn old to be risking my ass because somebody gets their shits and giggles from playing Fred Flintstone for a weekend."

"According to my schedule," Doggett offered, "we're not touring the island itself until after brunch at ten."

"How long do you think it would take us to get off this island, Dr. Grant?" Scully asked.

"Judging from the length of the drive from the pad, I'd say it would take us a day. But that won't do any good whatsoever if we can't even get OFF the launching pad."

"You think this island's old enough to have oil on it yet?" Mulder mused.

"There is uh...something..." Langly offered timidly. "While you guys were taking your three hour tour, I was playing D&D with Dr. Wick. He reached into his laptop carrying case he brought with him and produced a very faded hardback copy of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.

"Yippee...we've got fire paper." Malcolm sneered. "Insert Castaway joke here."

"Look, I can make a deal with Wick for this, guys." Langly

said with a heavy sigh. "I can use this as leverage to get us some fuel for the plane back."




 

Meanwhile....

Monica Reyes' Apartment
Falls Church, VA

The doorbell rang once. Then twice. Then it kept ringing incessantly.

Reyes was jolted awake by the annoying sound. Her cold hadn't gotten any better, in fact, she was wondering if it was a sinus infection. She was actually to the point where she was seriously wondering if she would feel better if her face just exploded, therefore relieving the pressure. "I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm coming," she yelled as loud as her scratchy voice and stuffed up nose would allow. She threw on her robe and crawled out of her nice, warm, soft bed and stumbled towards the door.

She peered through the peephole. A funny little man was waiting for her outside, still ringing the doorbell. "Who is it?" she said but the little man couldn't hear her over the doorbell ringing. "Who is it?" she demanded, opening the drawer in the cute little in-table next to the door and pulling out her gun. The doorbell kept ringing. "QUIT RINGING MY GODDAMNED DOORBELL OR ELSE I'M GONNA PULL YOUR LIVER OUT THROUGH YOUR NOSE!!!" Reyes finally hollered. Of all three female agents, Reyes was normally the more personable (she actually smiled from time to time, spontaneously) but when she was sick, her bitchness made Starkweather look like a princess.

The funny little man stopped ringing. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he apologized in heavily accented English. "My name is Manny Ibarra. Can I come in?"

"WHO?"

"Manny Ibarra. I'm friends with the Deputy Mayor. We did jail time together." Manny paused and then saddled up to the door. "I was the one that gave him the pictures from the park off of the shores of Mexico."

Reyes thought for a minute, then rolled her eyes, remembering now Mulder, Scully and Starkweather's description of "The Illegal Alien." Reyes unlocked the door. "Come in, come in," she ushered him inside.

"So, you're Agent Reyes huh?" Manny said cheerfully. "Wow, you look like hell."

Reyes, with her runny nose, chapped lips, ringed eyes and hair sticking up wildly every which way, glowered at him.

"Can I help you Mr. Ibarra? I am not feeling very well." Even though she was miffed that Doggett just scooted off with Mulder, Scully and Starkweather for a weekend jaunt in the tropics, she really wasn't jealous anymore. She just wanted to stay home, in her nice warm bed and sleep.

"Um... have you heard from Mulder and the rest yet?" Ibarra asked her nervously.

"No, why? Should I have?" Reyes put her hand to her head. The pounding was increasing.

"Agent Reyes, I'm sorry to bug you when you feel so bad, but something's not right. My brothers, Quinto and Rafael, they work on island. As guards. And normally, they email me and our Mother everyday and they call Mom every week. Anyway... Mom calls, furious 'cause Quinto and Raf never called her this week. Didn't get in touch with her at all. So I emailed them... nothing."

"So?"

"Agent Reyes, you don't understand. My brothers are as faithful as the sun when it comes to family. They ALWAYS email. They ALWAYS call. Especially Mom, because she'll throw a hissy fit if they don't. The very day before I get the FedEx package with the diskette from the digital camera, Raf sends me a forward full of dirty Spanish jokes. The very next day, I get nothing. No forwards, no replies, no "I'm away from my computer" message. Nothing. No reason given why they would just abruptly stop communicating. So I got in touch with the Lone Gunmen, as they call themselves and told them what was going on. They were concerned because one of their members, um... I don't remember his name, but he was the tall, skinny one with the nerdy glasses and hair that needed to be cut?? He never called or emailed them either."

That caught Reyes' attention. "Are you serious?"

"As heart attack, Agent Reyes. They went over to Agent Scully's home to talk to her mother to see if either Scully or Mulder called in to check on the baby."

Reyes stared at him. "There's something you're not telling me."

"Yes, well... maybe I'm over-reacting, but... well... I wasn't going to come over here and bother you, but... as I was talking to the Gunmen about my brothers, the short one, he was monitoring the weather down in that area. He pulled up," Manny took a computer print out of his pocket. "this on the computer screen."

Reyes took it from him. "It's a weather map."

"Yes... now, the Gunmen said they were going over to see Scully's mom and Scully's baby and to ask if Scully or Mulder called but they weren't gonna tell her this because they didn't want to scare her... but they told me to come here and tell you." He took a breath. "There's a tropical storms being forecasted for Cozumel, La Playa del Carmen and La Isla Luna Blanca are all in its path." Manny looked nervous. "It's not a hurricane, but it could be bad enough. And if it's bad enough that they need to evacuate the island but they have no communications..." he trailed off.

Reyes' mouth went dry. "Mr. Ibarra, I need to you leave," she said before he could protest. "I need to get cleaned up and need to see a doctor so that maybe he can give me some antibiotics so I can shake this thing I have." She showed him the door. "Let us know if you hear anything," she said as she shut the door.

Before she got into the shower, she called Skinner.

But Skinner was dealing with a separate problem.... a kidnapping.




 

Meanwhile...

The Lawfirm of Carter, Adams and Spangle

"Mr. Cello, thank you. Before we get started, just let me say this. I'm in debt up to my ears. But I'll meet you halfway. I'll represent myself. Bottom-line here is we've gotta find Peter. He's all I've got left."

"Ms. Sedai..."

"Ana. My name is Ana." she immediately unpacked her backpack and got out hundreds and hundreds of printed pages. "Sorry it took so long, but I had to make a few phone calls."

"Alright, Ana...what makes you think your son was kidnapped? I ran away when I was a little boy. And even if he WAS kidnapped...what makes you think your half-brother was involved? Your ex-husband could easily have been responsible."

"I know my son, Mr. Cello. I know he has been kidnapped because I swung by my ex's place before I came here, they weren't there. All Peter's clothes for the weekend were there, his favorite toys. I know my ex wouldn't do this because he doesn't have the SPINE for it."

"Ms. Sedai...I'll do what I can, but as an attorney, I have to tell you, we can't do much without any proof. I don't care whatchya see on the movies and TV, detectives can't just go after guys without evidence."

"You saw what Justin's capable of last summer...he's a wanted man, and if he's behind this, then the police can be looking for HIM for prosecution. He's my half-brother and I love him...but I can't let my kid be somebody's leverage for negotiation while I'm sitting here twiddling my thumbs."

"A guy in my firm is married to a Fed who specializes in these kind of cases. But they still can't open up an investigation if they don't have any proof of who they’re dealing with."

"You want proof?" Ana demanded. "I also called one of Pete's friends who's a wiz on those computers. Got him to hack into the airport systems around here. Justin apparently bought two tickets to Mexico and brought a little boy Peter's age. How does a dead man get a fake passport for someone he's not related to?"

Stephen bit his bottom lip, and whipped out his cell phone.

"Ben...hey buddy...you with somebody there? Listen...sorry about the late hour, but I gotta case for your wife here...ok...thanks." Then he dialed another number. "AD Skinner...sorry to bother you so late, but I think I've got a case for your agents. I'll fax you the evidence in the morning."

"Tell him I'm on my way downtown and I can meet him there in an hour." Ana instructed. Cello relayed the message, then turned to her.

"Hell be waiting for you down there.




Later…

Downtown D.C. Precinct

"Ms. Sedai," Lt. Carillo said, hanging his head in frustration. "I'd love to help you. I really would. But my hands are tied. I can't conduct any kind of search on somebody missing until they've been gone for 24 hours. It's not my rule, ma'am...but I've gotta follow it." He really hated this part of his job. Ana turned to leave his office, but then going out the door thought of one last argument.

"Lieutenant...do you have any kids?" Ana asked quietly.

"Ms. Sedai, I've got two girls. They're a big reason why I'm in this desk. If they were missing I'd be wringin' my hands just like you're doin', but I STILL couldn't start looking for him for another day."

"You were working last summer on a case involving my half-brother..."

"Who's your half brother?" Skinner demanded.

"Justin Leo, sir." Ana answered. "He got messed up in some really crazy shit and his...colleagues burned my house down. He's a wanted man, isn't he?"

"Ma'am, your half-brother was associated with what happened," Skinner insisted, "but his body was never recovered. With no proof, I can't send my men out there to chase dead guys."

"I see...and you CAN let a criminal escape our national borders with a little boy..."

"Miss Sedai...the agents I can send are out of the country on another investigation. I'm afraid our hands our tied."

"There's a lot of that going around, Mr. Skinner." she said and stormed out.




 

Meanwhile...

Reyes was trying to get hold of Skinner...

...for the fifth time...

...when her main line rang.

"Monica Reyes." She said wearily.

"Agent Reyes, this is Ben Starkweather." He said tiredly. "I hate to call you so late, but this couldn't wait till morning. A coworker of mine from the firm just gave me a heads up on this case involving a guy your Fellowship of the Weird investigated last summer involving a psycho who used to work for us named Justin Leo."

"What about it?"

"This woman whose house was burnt down courtesy of the same bad guys who kidnapped me. Leo's her step-brother."

"So what does this have to do with our office?"

"Leo apparently bought a coach ticket for one adult passenger and one child passenger for Mexico yesterday. Her ex had a clean sheet as far as my colleague can tell, and none of the little boy's friends had seen Peter since school that Friday. He had a game this weekend."

Reyes' cell phone suddenly vibrated on her kitchen table. She recognized the caller-ID as Skinner’s.

"Mr. Starkweather, I appreciate the information, and I hate to cut you off, but I just got a call that I really need to take. I'll get in touch with you in the morning."

"Reyes, sorry about the hour." Skinner grumbled. "I just got a newsflash from this woman claiming to be Leo's half-sister. She will be pressing kidnapping charges as soon as she's able to."

"Well," Reyes hesitated, "What do you know about a Latino man who was locked up with Mulder last summer?"

"Manny Ibarra...Mexican immigrant working as a county clerk."

"He gave me a weather map that shows a TD headed right in the path of several islands. Including La Isla Luna Blanca."

"What a clusterfuck." Skinner mumbled. "Agent Reyes, I really hate to abuse your talents, especially on a sick day, but I've just had a very interesting conversation with Ms. Sedai I think you need to be in on. We're getting on top of a search warrant for Leo and putting up an APB at the Miami airport. But I think I need to see you in my office first thing in the morning, and be prepared to fly out to Mexico ASAP."

"See you first thing, sir." Reyes said with a sigh, took some cough syrup and gratefully collapsed in her bed.




 

Later on that morning at
La Isla Luna Blanca...

Mulder and Malcolm were trying to look like they were casually strolling around on the massive grounds around the hotel. In reality, they were trying to locate where vehicles -- any vehicles -- might be located. "Look at that," Mulder nodded towards the trees. "How much you want to bet those trees are camouflaging giant fences."

"That, my friend," Malcolm said, "is a sucker's bet. I dread to think what those fences are meant to keep out."

A security guard passed them, eyeballed them, nodded curtly and continued to walk pass. Mulder and Malcolm did hear him say something into his walkie-talkie in Spanish, however.

"God, I wish Starkweather was here," Mulder muttered.

"That's the third guard we've past in twenty minutes. I want to know what the hell they're saying."

"Is she bilingual?"

"Try quadlingual."

"What?"

"Spanish, French, Italian and Russian."

"Good Lord." Malcolm sighed, "Yes, it would be nice, but she along with Scully and Dr. Grant are on their own mission. God, I hope they're having better luck than we are."

"I hope so too..." Mulder muttered darkly, "otherwise we're going to be swimming home."




 

Meanwhile... the fun continues...

On top of the roof a door opened tentatively and Doggett and Langly stepped out into the bright sunshine. As Doggett wandered around on the rooftop, hands on hips, face screwed up in a mighty frown, Langly leaned against the wall and said "I give up, where is the control room?"

"Search me," Doggett grumbled. "I thought you were the expert about all this computer and communications stuff."

"This ain't a very big hotel," Langly pointed out. "It's only four stories tall and most of these are gonna be mondo-luxurious rooms once they get the dorms built for the on-site park workers."

"Mondo?"

Langly gave Doggett a dirty look. "ANYWAY," Langly said huffily. "Like I tried to tell ya before we started this stupid search... the main communications ain't gonna be up here cuz one - they need massive amounts of room. I mean, the computers that are running the show? They ain't your standard laptops. These comps are big mo-fos. And two - why in the hell would they want to risk having the guest come dinkin' 'round and possibly screwin' with the system?"

"So what's the logic of having laboratories downstairs? Clonin' monsters right below where guests possibly could come 'dinkin' 'round and possibly screwin' with the system?"

Langly opened his mouth and closed it again very quickly. "I dunno man," he finally said stubbornly. "I just don't think the actual equipment running communications and security is based in the hotel. I wouldn't be a surprise if it's on another part of the island. I mean, this ain't a little island. There could be crap all over here that we don't know about."

Doggett surveyed the horizon. He saw a whole lot of trees, most of them leafy, but one or two that didn't have any branches or leaves.

Doggett blinked. Rubbed his eyes. "Hey Langly..." he said. "C'mere."

"What?"

Doggett pointed at the leafless branchless trees in the far distance. "Are those... what I THINK those are?"

Langly looked, did a double take. Took off his glasses and cleaned them. "Holy schnikes. Those things look like the dinosaurs Fred Flintstone uses as a crane in the Rock Quarry."

Doggett stared at Langly. "You gotta get out more often."

 

Scully, Starkweather and Grant had spent the early morning trying to find the lab.

"I don't get it..." Starkweather mumbled, eyebrows furrowed in puzzlement as she studied the grounds map. "I just don't get it..."

"I know he's a jack-ass sometimes," was Scully's hurried answer. Starkweather only sighed incredulously. "Ok...most of the time, but he's a good man and a good friend to have when it counts..." Starkweather put her hand up in surrender, and Scully opened her mouth to protest, but then closed it again.

"Scully, I was talking about the lab..." Starkweather moaned. "I don't get if they want us investigating the science of this whole thing, then why aren't we granted access to the lab, if it is at all on this whole complex. In the movie and the books it was in the basement..."

"Starkweather, tell me you're not suggesting that movie was factual..." Scully protested flatly. It was like a well-rehearsed line at this point in the game.

"Dr. Scully..." Grant spoke for the first time, "I should remind you that I've seen these things up close. There are real dinosaurs. Ian Malcolm saw exactly what you saw last night. The sooner you face the fact that they're here, the sooner we can figure a way off this island."

"I don't doubt that the science isn't there to do it. I don't think for one minute it's not possible. I just know that such technology has constitutional sanctions which, if they do exist, are being violated."

"The Constitution is our code." Grant insisted, "The Geneva Convention, the United Nations, all of it...might as well be static. Our code is bogus on this island. The only code that works on this island is the survival of the fittest."

"If that's so, then why are we here to protect that code?" Scully demanded, wide-eyed.

"Well...so far...let's see what we've got that was in the movie, shall we? The swank hotel...check! We're here investigating a park whose purpose is a zoo of genetically enhanced prehistoric cold-blooded lizards...check! And didn't you see a dinosaur?"

"I was under the influence of a hallucinogen!" She hissed as they walked into the elevators.

"Pretty much the only thing we're missing from this island that DOESN'T match up is the John Williams score serenading us and the Lion roaring at the beginning."

"If it is dinosaurs that they have created here, then we need to talk to the ME on the scene."

"Who says you can't go home again?" Grant quipped as they stepped onto the basement floor.




 

Meanwhile....

Peter Sedai was hot, dirty and thirsty. And lost. Completely and totally lost. He had been wandering through the park all night and for most of the morning. He was too afraid to stop, not so much because of whatever animals may be lurking around, but more because of his uncle. Mom had been right... Uncle Justin was a rat-bastard... whatever rat-bastard meant... it just sounded bad though.

Finally he saw gates up ahead and he about danced for joy. Gates meant civilization, people, telephones. He started running for the gates. When he reached his destination, he realized his situation had taken a turn for the worse again. The gates were massive, nearly 12 feet tall and looked hopelessly locked. He peered into the guard shack, his dirty nose pressed against the glass and all he saw was a sleeping security guard. With his little fist (Peter was small for his age) he rapped on the glass. "Hey!!! Hey Mister!!! Dude, man wake up!!" He pleaded.

Just then, the phone rang shrilly, startling the guard awake. He grabbed the phone. "?Hola, que pasa?.... ?que? ?QUE? Dios Mios... si, si..." were the only words Peter could understand. The rest of the man's speech was spoken much too rapidly for Peter to understand. Wide-eyed, he watched the guard unlock a metal closet and take out several weapons and started loading them again.

Peter thought he was going to wet his pants again.

He could hear the rumbling of a truck pulling up to the gate. Peter dove into a bush that was growing next to the shack. The guard must have had some control over the gate because it swung open with a groan. The truck drove through... but it really didn't look like a truck... more like a mini-van or an ambulance. The driver got out of the van and ran over to the guard shack. The guard stepped out of his shack and both began speaking to each other in rapid-fire Spanish.

Peter took his chance, pushed his way out of the bush, skulked around the guards and through the gate at a dead run.

To his immense relief, he saw a building that looked like a hotel. He hoped they had telephones there. He wanted to hear his mom or his dad's voice so badly.




 

Meanwhile

Ronald Reagan International Airport

Monica Reyes, in a somber gray suit and black silk blouse, wandered around the airport, looking for Skinner. She was wiping her nose with a Kleenex and carrying a small suitcase. "Good morning sir," she said, when she found him.

"Our flight's been delayed," Skinner said tersely.

"What??? Oh no," Reyes moaned. "There aren't any other flights? Could we get a military hop?"

Skinner shook his head. "Tried. This case isn't considered high on the threat list, so the military isn't cooperating with us. We're just going to have to wait for another flight."

"Great..." Reyes said, blowing her nose. "Just great."




 

Meanwhile...

"Hello?" Peter's small voice echoed through the massive halls of the hotel. "Hello??" he said nervously as he walked up the stairs. Fortunately, he didn't brush against the deadly prehistoric plants, although he did notice them and crinkled his nose. He thought they were ugly. Probably something his mom would like though. She was a manic gardener. She was so proud of the landscaping and the rose bushes. 'Was' being the operative word, since last summer, somebody put a bomb in their basement and blew their house up to kingdom come. He wasn't as upset over the house and the yard as his mother was. He knew everything in that house was replaceable, including most of his clothes, toys and books, which his father had been replenishing. They were getting a brand new house with a bigger yard, so his mom was happy. After the shock of it all, Peter realized that all of his homework for that week had been inside, so he was not heartbroken about that at all.

What DID break his heart was that his beloved dog, Smokey, a grayish-white Heinz-57 mix, old and arthritic but still his best friend, didn't make it out of the house in time.

Uncle Justin had promised him to buy him a new dog -- although, in his innocence, Peter didn't realize that Leo made that promise out of guilt because it was of his foul-up that prompted the Syndicate to blow Ana Sedai's modest home to smithereens. Because of that broken promise and being dragged out to this humid, beautiful hellhole in the middle of an unrelenting ocean, the seeds of first hatred began to bloom in the fertile ground of a little boy's heart.

Peter wandering around until he reached a floor where a maid's cart was propping open a door. <<Maybe there's some grown-ups there who can help me>> he thought hopefully. He walked into the room to see a maid finish up freshing the room. "Can you help me?" Peter asked in the best, politest voice he could create with his parched throat.

"Lo siento, no habla ingles," the maid said apologetically.

"Huh?" Peter said.

The maid patted him on the head, dug in her apron pocket, gave him some Mexican candies and went on to clean the next room, closing the door behind her. She was not concerned about the little boy she left behind in the room because she thought he belonged to the visiting redheaded Americana. According to the gossip from the other employees of the resort, the redhead was with the very tall and very good-looking (ay carumba, VERY good-looking, she had gotten a peep at him earlier this morning) were together and shared a son, but were not properly married. Disgusting how immoral Americans could be at times. The maid simply assumed Peter was Mulder and Scully's child.

The candies reminded Peter that he was also extremely hungry so he wolfed the sweets down. The chocolates tasted funny to him, they weren't as sweet as American chocolate was, but at this point in time, he was not picky. He went into the bathroom to get a glass of water to wash away the sticky sweetness. When he came out, he saw, in his opinion, the best thing in the whole wide world.

"Cool!!" He said, totally forgetting that he was dirty and tired and miles away from home. "A puppy!!"

Tummy thumped her tail on the carpet and smiled hello at the visitor.




 

Meanwhile…

Scully, Starkweather and Dr. Grant wound their way through the pipes and pumps of the basement until they found a door with restricted black and yellow tape across it with a multilingual Keep Out sign.

"Wonder why they've got all these restricted areas if we're gonna get the tour in a couple of hours?" Starkweather mused allowed, tugging on the ribbon.

"I really don't like this..." Dr. Grant warned.

"Probably don't want anybody asking any obnoxious questions...like where the Creation theory fits in this whole thing." Scully said, getting out a Swiss Army knife her father had gotten her as a little kid.

"Scully, you really think it's a great idea to go in there uninvited?"

"We were assigned to this panel to give our professional opinion of the medical facilities, weren't we? How are we expected to do that if we don't even see anything they're doing?"

Whatever Dr. Grant had to say next was a moot point, because by now, Starkweather had already jimmied the lock and entered.

They walked in on a sterile research center in a giant complex. There was a comprehensive DNA research library, controlled ecosystems set up in aquariums being observed.

"Damn...I forgot to tell the boys to feed Mulder's fish before we left..." Scully mumbled when she saw the aquarium.

"Probably would have forgotten about it, anyway, Scully." Starkweather reminded him.

Then they saw test tubes and test tubes of specimens at different stages of cellular development.

"Instant dino...just add water..." Starkweather mumbled as she leafed through some of the latest genetic research publications.

"Wonder where all the lab techs are?" Scully asked, booting up one of the state-of-the-art Macs.

"Probably having a hard time getting even interns to work at this place." Starkweather answered, looking for any kind of research log she could find, but otherwise standing around in awe like a little kid at a zoo.

"Without any government funding, they're going to be hard-pressed to get internship programs to send their students here. I think that's why they want you and Agent Scully here. So they can ask for Government funding." Dr. Grant said with a twinge of unease in his voice. He really didn't like the idea of being down here.

"Sooner we find what we looking for, we can get the hell outta here." Starkweather answered, sensing Dr. Grant’s unease.

"Exactly what are we looking for, Starkweather?"

"I think I found it." Scully said from behind one of the Macs.

"Whatever you found," Christie Carter growled. No one had heard anyone coming in. She was looming at the doorway, wielding a .38 caliber pistol. "I suggest you put it back and forget about whatever it was you saw."

Scully, Starkweather, and Dr. Grant both froze, feeling a little like kids caught with their hands in the cookiejar.

With a click, Christie Carter cocked her weapon.




Meanwhile...

Malcolm and Mulder, dejected, walked out of the elevator. "We've seen them driving them around all over the park," Mulder bitched. "Where in the hell could all the vehicles be stored?"

"Obviously somewhere where we are not welcomed," Malcolm sighed. "Couldn't you have used some of your FBI persuasion to get past the guards?" They had wandered all the way down to the guard shack, only to be escorted back to the hotel by two angry guards.

"I'm not a federal agent anymore," Mulder said with his own sigh. "I'm a persona non grata... a politician."

"I'm sorry."

"S'ok, I like my new office. I can see daylight." Mulder unlocked the door to his room. "Well, want to break into the honor bar with me?"

"Gladly," Malcolm said and was about to follow Mulder in but he had stopped stock-still in the doorway. "What is it?"

"Not what... who," Mulder pointed to a very dirty Peter Sedai, asleep on his bed with Tummy curled up next to him.




Meanwhile...

Ronald Reagan National Airport
Washington DC

"Final boarding for Dallas... final boarding for Dallas, Texas," the flight attendant announced.

Reyes and Skinner made their way through the line and into the plane. "I can't believe this garbage," Skinner snarled.

"So much for our direct flight," Reyes mumbled through a wad of Kleenex. The best that they could do was catch a flight to Dallas, then catch a flight to Denver, CO, then catch another flight to Phoenix, Arizona, and THEN catch another flight, the final flight to Mexico City, Mexico to meet with the Mexican feds on how to deal with this fiasco.

"All flights to Mexico are being re-routed Reyes," Skinner said as he settled into his seat. "Because of that storm that's coming. The forecasters say it's going to hit Cozumel at about 4PM, our time."

"Which means it'll hit La Luna Blanca roughly at 4:30," Reyes sneezed. "Have Frohike and Byers found anything yet?"

"Nothing," Skinner said, fastening his seat belt. "Get comfortable Reyes, and try to sleep."

Reyes rested her head against the seat and longed for the days when it was perfectly acceptable to drink until you stink while on an airplane.




 

Meanwhile...

Mulder hovered over the sleeping boy. Tummy lifted her head, grinned at Mulder and barked once, waking Peter.

"Hi," Mulder said cheerfully.

Peter, bewildered, stared at Mulder. "I've seen you on TV," he said, scootching away from him on the bed. "The news said that you were arrested for killing someone," Peter began to shake.

Mulder looked at Malcolm, who shrugged as if to say "This problem is all yours, buddy."

"What's your name kiddo?"

Peter bristled at being called 'kiddo' "Peter Malcolm Sedai."

"Peter, how old are you?"

"I'll be nine on October 13."

"Wow, when I was nine, I didn't watch the news. I was out playing baseball and climbing trees."

"We've only got one TV right now," Peter said. "When Mom's watchin' the news, I don't have a choice."

"Ah... then did you watch the news when they said they made a mistake and that I didn't kill anyone?" Mulder gently asked him. Peter shook his head. "And do you know how they figured it out that I didn't kill anybody?" Peter shook his head again. "Because the man they said I killed is married to my sister. And that man is still alive."

"Oh," Peter said.

"And my sister came with me to this island. I don't think she'd be hanging out with anyone who would have killed her husband, would you?"

"But you don't have any proof," Peter said stubbornly. "I don't see any sister here," he challenged him.

Mulder grinned. <<A nine year old skeptic>> he thought wryly <<Scully'll love this kid.>> "Peter, do you know what Honor is?"

"It's what you call the judge when you go into his courtroom," Peter said confidentially. "My mom is going to law school right now."

"Well, that's right, but there's more to it than that." Mulder controlled his face, not wanting to hurt the boy's feelings by laughing out loud.

Mulder chose his next words very carefully. "I judge people by how truthful they are. Since I decide whether or not I like someone because if they are honest or not, I must live my life as an honest man. I try very very hard Peter to do the right thing. I try especially hard to be truthful. I spent most of my grown up life trying to catch bad people who tell lies that hurt others. If I were to lie, Peter, that would take away some of my Honor, the stuff that helps me be a good person. And I want to be a good person, I HAVE to be a good person, especially now, because I have a little boy of my own. And the only way that I can be a good dad to my little boy is if I'm a good person. But I can't be a good person if I don't have any Honor. So, Peter, what I guess I'm saying is, you're just going to have to trust me that I'm a good person and that I'm not lying to you. Because I honestly don't have any other proof that I'm telling the truth except for my Honor."

Mulder watched Peter absorb his words. "Well... if you're really a good person... can you help me get home?"

"How DID you get here anyway?" Malcolm asked, then quickly added "And I'm a good guy too. So, don't freak out on me, okay?"

"'Kay," Peter said. "Well... I was supposed to go to my dad's house 'cause Dad and Mom don't live together anymore," he said sullenly. "But then my uncle Justin got into the car instead of my dad and he took me to the airport, saying that he was going to take me to an amusement park... but I don't know what this place is. There's no roller coasters, no Scramblers, no nuthin'," Peter started to sound angry. "Some weird animals went past our truck and then I asked him if it was true that he hurt a lady like the TV news said an' he told me to shut up and in his line of work, sometimes people got hurt and then I ran away."

"Nice guy," Malcolm said under his breath.

But Mulder felt a lurch in his stomach. "Peter," he said carefully. "What's your uncle's last name?"

"Leo," the boy said innocently. "Why?"

Mulder put his hand over his mouth.

"This is a bad thing, I take it?" Malcolm asked.

"This is a VERY bad thing," Mulder said, getting up. "I have to step out for a little bit. Can you watch him?"

"No problem, I like kids. I've got one back home. Little girl, great kid. Gymnastics nut. But where are you going?"

"I need to find Starkweather," Mulder said. "And let her know that the moose is loose."




 

Meanwhile...


"Ms. Carter, is this really necessary?" Dr. Grant implored. "Bullets are VERY expensive."

"Oh absolutely. This is a restricted area. You're not supposed to be here. If anyone is where they're not supposed to be, I get fired."

"We're already here." Starkweather reminded her sardonically. "You might loose your job whether we put away this evidence or not. I think I'd rather expose this place, wouldn't you Scully?"

"Oh God! I'm gonna get fired! I'm gonna work in a place where I hafta where a paper ha-ha-ha-hat! I can NOT where a paper hat...I'm allergic! I'm too CUTE to be fired!"

Scully reached behind her to whip out her own firearm. She didn't aim it, nor did she take the safety off.

"Oh God...I'm gonna die." Christie panicked. She shakily pointed a gun at Scully "Somebody gotta paper bag? I'm hyperventilating. I'm too DAMN CUTE TO DIE!"

"You don't think we're actually gonna use this old thing, are ya, Ms. Carter?" Scully teased.

"No...she's not worth the hassle to clean-up." Starkweather answered.

"Well, if we don't kill her, I'm sure the dinosaurs will have her for a snack later on in the tour." Grant added, playing along.

"Dinosaurs...no, there aren't any dinosaurs on this island!" She protested back shakily, putting her finger on the trigger.

"Bet she tastes just like chicken." Starkweather quipped with an evil grin. "Maybe all that hairspray she's wearing will act as some kind of...repellant."

"Of course," Scully reminded, "If we can gather evidence against this lab, then you can get off the island with your employment record intact. Then maybe you can live out your tenure as tour guide of Disneyland or something."

"I am NOT going to be intimidated by you-you-you people!" Ms. Carter exploded. "I think it's best for everyone's interests if you just drop whatever it is you're holding and forget what you found here. If I see you people in restricted areas again, I will not have any hesitation to take you off the tour and send you on the next plane back to the States. IS THAT CLEAR?"

"Don't come crying to us if we have no way of defending you against the dinosaurs." Grant warned.

"Good. We have an understanding again." Ms. Carter transformed into her overly perky original self. "I'll see everyone at the brunch in an hour."

Starkweather, Grant, and Scully marched out of the lab.

Starkweather, being in the back, heard her on her walkie-talkie with the head guard. "What the hell do you clowns think you're doing, giving me a water pistol?!" She hissed as she was sure they were out of the basement level.




 

Meanwhile...

Doggett and Langly stared, slack jawed in the distance at what appeared to be fully alive and functioning creatures from an era bygone. "Let's get out of here before someone notices," Doggett finally said. "And act surprised on the tour." He started to walk away. Langly was too stupefied to move so with a sigh, Doggett returned, grabbed Langly by the shirt collar and literally dragged him back inside.

They had made it to their floor just in time to see Mulder rush out of his hotel room and march straight for the elevators. "Hey, Mul-duh," Doggett called out. "Where's the fire?"

Mulder turned around and walked quickly towards them.

"Things just went from shitty to really shitty," Mulder said crisply. "Someone just crashed our party."

"Who?"

"Justin Leo."

"That rat-bastard?" Langly cried out. "Man, he made Krycek look like a Boy Scout."

"God damn it, I wish I hadna hit my head when we all jumped into the river," Doggett said, referring to when the escape from the burning warehouse where Ben Starkweather had been held captive. "I can not for the life of me remember anything from when Ben Stawk - weddah was kidnapped." Of course, Doggett didn't realize that he had inadvertently been part of the top secret 'Quantum Leap' time travel project at that time. Mulder opened his mouth to tell him and then shut it just as quick. He'd explain some other time.

"Justin Leo is delusional and a liar. He's a pawn for the Syndicate. His one true love-"

"Gag," Langly interjected.

"- Lilly Stratford was allegedly abducted by extraterristials-"

"Ah Gawd, not that extraterrestrial-abduction bullshit theory again," Doggett interrupted, groaning.

"- and, for whatever reasons, he is obsessed with Agent Starkweather."

"Why?" Langly said, bristling at the fact that there was ANOTHER person obsessing over the object of his affection.

"He believes that Starkweather is Lilly Stratford."

"Oh Christ's sake," Doggett groaned again.

"Well... I hate to ask, but, could it possible?" Langly ventured. "I mean... Starkweather's adopted and all. She don't know her real family... well... I mean... she knows YOU... but..."

"Not possible Langly," Mulder said. "Two reasons. One, Lilly Stratford was abducted in Virginia on the same day Starkweather started Day One, Phase One of her Basic Training for the United States Air Force at Lackland AFB. Two, Lilly Stratford is a natural blond. Starkweather," here Mulder smirked, "is not."

"As interesting as Agent Starkweather's hair is," Doggett rumbled, "I say we go find her. And everyone else... Langly and I didn't find any computers... but we saw something pretty damn unbelievable."

"Do I want to know?" Mulder asked.

Before Doggett could answer, the elevator doors slid open and out walked Scully, Starkweather and Grant. "We've got problems," Starkweather said.

"You don't say," Mulder said sarcastically.

"Starkweather," Doggett said "Justin Leo's on the island."

"WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!" She shrieked. "Are you sure?"

"I thought he was dead?" Scully asked.

"Who's Justin Leo?" Grant asked.

"How do you know?" Starkweather demanded.

"Well, I was hopin' Mul-duh here'd explain that," Doggett turned to him. "You never got 'round to that part."

"Let me show you," Mulder said, "this way," and he escorted everyone to his hotel room. He unlocked the door and let everyone else go inside. Mulder shut the door behind him and locked it.

Malcolm was trying to teach Peter how to play chess. "No no no no Peter. You CAN'T move that piece yet."

"Why not? It's cool. I like horses," Peter was more interested in playing with the game pieces from Malcolm's traveling chess set rather than learning the game. Peter then noticed Mulder and grinned broadly. "Hi!"

"THIS," Mulder nodded at the dirty little boy, "is how I know."

"So... what does that mean?" Starkweather looked at Mulder, arching her eyebrows. "Leo shrunk?"

"Hey, Pete, c'mere for a second," Mulder waved the boy over. Peter slid off the chair and trotted over to him. "Hey, remember how I was telling you my sister came with me?"

"Yeah, uh huh."

"Well," Mulder reached for Starkweather's hand and pulled her from the group. "This is my sister. Jerilyn Starkweather."

"Hi," Starkweather crouched down to the boy, still not sure what was going on but she went with Mulder's lead. "And what's your name?"

"Peter. Peter Sedai."

"Peter, why don't you ask Mrs. Starkweather what you asked me," Mulder prodded him gently.

But Peter was studying Starkweather's face intently. "I 'member your name," he whispered. "I heard it on the TV. The news guy said that my uncle hurt a lady... a lady cop when she caught him breaking into an apartment of a f-f-f" Peter struggled with the word, "Fem- mer- all agent." He looked at Starkweather. "Was that you???"

Starkweather felt the blood draining from her face and into her feet. "Is your uncle Justin Leo?"

"Yeah... he brought me here. A surprise or something. But I wanna go home. Mr. Malcolm said all the phones are broken or something. So, when you guys go home, can I go with or do I have to wait for the next ride?" he asked.

"You can come with us," Scully said, joining Starkweather. "I'm a federal agent too. We'll make sure you'll get home safely. But first what we need to do," Scully switched into "Mama" mode. "Is get you cleaned up. Come on, let's get you in the bath tub."

"Awww," Peter said with true little boy aplomb. "I'm not THAT dirty." His face was almost black with grime except where sweat had streaked down it. His clothes were filthy and smelled of dirt, humidity and fear. He looked at his hands. "Well, maybe I better wash my hands before lunch. When IS lunch????? I missed breakfast. Do they have pizza here?" He asked hopefully.

Starkweather tried not to laugh. "I don't know. We'll find out for you," she promised him as Scully led him off into the bathroom.

"I don't want a GIRL helpin' me," he protested, stopping short of the door, folding his arms.

"Here," Doggett said. "I can do it. My name is John Doggett," he introduced himself solemnly.

"Are you a fem- mer- all agent too?"

"Yes sir, I am."

"And you get to travel and carry a gun and stuff?"

"Sometimes."

"Wow!!!" Peter said. "I wanted to be an astronaut but a fem- mer- all agent sounds way cooler!" he ran into the bathroom with Tummy on his heels. "Do fem- mer- all agents all wear the same suits?"

While Doggett disappeared into bathroom to run a bath for the boy (who was now sitting on the toilet, chattering merrily to Doggett a mile a minute) Scully opened Mulder's suitcase and pulled out a T-shirt. "There's a laundry room down the hall," she said. "I'm going to wash the boy's clothes quick..." As if on cue, Peter's clothes flew out the door and there was an enormous splash.

Doggett came out, soapy and wet. "Well..." he said, "now what?"




 

Meanwhile...

Andrea Nowark sat in front of the mirror, meticulously applying the last of her makeup. She was, despite her unpleasant demeanor, an extremely beautiful woman, with the help of fine cosmetics, designer clothes and one or two "minor" surgeries. She was touching up her lipstick when she heard the click of the door unlocking but she did not turn around. "You're late," she purred, closing her lipstick tube.

"You're absolutely gorgeous," a man's voice said silkily as he shut and locked the door behind him.

"You're forgiven," finally Andrea stood up to face Justin Leo. As she was a fairly tall woman, they could almost see eye-to-eye. Like a cobra, she wound herself around him, slowly, seductively, smiling like a snake before the kill. Leo did nothing to dissuade her. In fact, her body, nice and lean in the right places, nice and soft in the other right places, reminded in little painfully that it had been awhile since he knew the Biblical pleasures of a woman.

But business first... although, even before he became an outlaw, Leo had been notorious for mixing pleasure with business.

After a nice, deep kiss that promised more, Andrea, sounding like the spoiled child that she was, pouted "What took you so long?" She traced her finger down his hard chest and flat belly, fiddled a bit with his belt buckle and then stepped away from you. "I had a horrible night."

"I ran into a problem."

"What kind of problem," Andrea sat on the bed and crossed her legs a la Sharon Stone of "Basic Instinct" fame.

"My nephew. He's lost."

Any desire Andrea may had been building up for Leo dissipated instantly. "WHAT??"

"He's lost," he said, forgetting that Andrea could go from sex kitten to stone cold bitch in zero-point-two seconds.

"You mean you lost him."

"I MEAN," Leo snapped, towering over her, fists clenching,"we were attacked by some god-awful thing in that park, Schabasser never showed up and we got fucked over, plain and simple."

"I knew we should have never trusted Schabasser," she hissed. "The man is an idiot."

"Well, he's our fall guy," Leo said. "If this park, this plan goes to shit, he's going to be the pansy that the FBI's gonna pin it on. You're just a victim, like the others and me?? Me, I'm dead."

"You don't seem overly concerned about the boy."

Leo sighed. "The boy is in safe keeping. He found the federal agents."

"WHAT????" Now Andrea stood up, furious. "Dammit, he's going to tell the feds that YOU brought him here."

"That doesn't matter!" Leo whispered angrily. "They're all going to be dead soon anyway. They aren't leaving this island. Just remember Andrea," Leo said seriously, touching her face sensuously, "do NOT go on that tour. Cook up a headache, menstrual cramps, something... stay in the hotel. Stay in your room until I come and get you."

"What about the boy?"

"I'll take him during the walking tour, when they're in the petting zoo," Leo said. "Easy. Then the group gets distracted, starts looking for him and then," he clapped his hands. "Munch."

"No one told me what we needed this damn kid for anyway," Andrea said sullenly. "Schabasser's being a pompous ass."

"That's because Schabasser thinks he's going to walk away clean," Leo said grimly. "Andrea, have you ever seen the Disney movie "The Rescuers"?"

"I don't watch cartoons," she sneered.

"You've heard of the Syndicate, right?" He asked. When she shook her head he said "The Syndicate is an organization more powerful than the Mafia. They have... or HAD their finger in every government pie, until that rogue agent Fox Mulder AKA the benevolent Deputy Mayor F. William Mulder took over the X-Files. The Syndicate once held a prize, a treasure, worth more than dollars, more than diamonds, more that the dinosaurs."

"What could be worth more than that?"

"Life," Leo said. "The key to life itself."

"I don't understand."

"It can't be explained Andrea. It's not to be explained. The best I can say is it's like a Rosetta Stone... for DNA. For ALL living creatures, past, present... and possibly future. ALL living, Andrea. Plant, Animal, Viruses, Cancers, Diseases... and the cures... A Unigen scientist who was working for the Syndicate discovered this treasure. He made two copies, on diskettes. Gave one to a close friend who attempted to give it to Agent Scully, and failed. The second copy... he put in a fireproof briefcase and threw it down on of the caves on this island. On the other side of the island, near the Control Bunker, are a group of caves. We've pinpointed the exact cave that this treasure had been deposited."

"I still," Andrea said huffily, "don't understand where the boy comes in... or the reference to a freakin' Disney movie."

"In 'The Rescuers'" Leo said patiently, "the villains kidnapped a little girl because she was small enough to squeeze down a hole in the ground to a massive cave where a pirate's treasure was hidden. Peter..." he took a breath, "Peter is small enough to squeeze down a hole in the ground to the cave where the briefcase is."

"Is it safe? For the kid?"

"Hey, that kid is my nephew. My half-sister would track me down and kill me like a dog if I let anything happen to Peter."

"The FBI and CIA can't find you but your sister could?" she purred.

"You don't know Ana," Leo muttered.

This satisfied Andrea. "And, I listened to you and told my broker sell most of my Unigen stock today," she smiled.

Leo smiled and wrapped his arms around her waist, "Good girl," he purred back at her. "Very good girl. Sell enough to make a killing, but not enough to alert the feds."

"And this 'treasure'...?"

"Will change the world," Leo kissed her suggestively. "I'd hate to mess up your makeup job but..."

Andrea shrugged and began working on Leo's shirt buttons.

"We have an hour before the luncheon... brunch... whatever... there's time," she fiddled with his belt buckle again, only this time undoing it.

Leo felt a pang of guilt, thinking of Lilly... but then remembered that she had given up on him and married another. With that thought firing his madness, he gave in to Andrea's courtesan's tricks.




 

Meanwhile...

United Flight 0121
En route to Denver, CO....

Reyes normally liked kids. But the combination of fretting about her friends possibly trapped on an island in the path of a tropical storm plus her plugged up sinuses made her want to leap over her seat, grab the kid who was kicking her chair by his throat and throttle him.

"Timmy..." his mother said for the fifth time in her syrupy singsong voice, "Mommy wants you to stop kicking that nice lady's chair."

"Bored, bored, bored, bored, bored, bored, bored!!!" the kid yelled.

Reyes gritted her teeth.

Skinner was working on his sleek Hewlett-Packard notebook computer, "Reyes, look at this..."

"Hm..."

"Frohike and Byers just emailed me. They hacked into the New York Stock Exchange... three major stockholders just unloaded some of their Unigen stock. Not enough to alert the regulators to inside trading but enough to raise my suspicions."

"What do you mean?"

"How does a dead man sell stock?"

"Leo," Reyes said instantly. "He isn't dead."

"We never had confirmation of his death," Skinner corrected her.

Reyes closed her eyes, trying to get in tune with herself so she could intercept the celestial vibrations of others' lives. The only vibrations she got were the shaking of her chair from the chubby little brat sitting behind her.

"BORED BORED BORED BORED BORED BORED BORED BORED!!!" the kid sang loudly, off key.

"Timmy, read your books, snookums."

"Excuse me sir," Reyes said through gritted teeth. She turned around and looked down at the seven-year-old pork chop with the bucktooth. "Little boy, please stop kicking my chair," she asked as politely as she could.

"See Timmy," his mother in her cloying sweet sugary voice, "You've upset the lady and she's got a bad cold so be nice, poopsie."

Reyes was pretty sure her gag reflex wasn't being triggered by her illness or airsickness.

"Sir, I would not," she said when she turned around, "doubt in the slightest bit that Justin Leo is alive. The drop from the roof of the warehouse to the river was not that high. Starkweather, Mulder and Doggett survived the jump. Why not Leo?"

"Well, there's more," Skinner pushed his computer over so Reyes could see. "Looks like some of the panel members have a conflict of interest."

"Roald Schabasser, that's not a surprise," she mumbled, reading on. "Andrea Nowark... well, she unloaded quite a bit."

"And they'll both say it was because they had no confidence in the park rather than to make a killing before the park folds."

"I sense a scam," Reyes said. "Sir, you may think I'm crazy-"

"Agent Reyes, I've worked with Fox Mulder for nearly eight years. Trust me, no matter what comes out of your mouth will sound sane compared to what he'd have to say."

"I think-" thud thud thud thud thud. The horrible monster of a child had begun to kick her chair again. "I think-" thud thud thud thud thud. "I think I'm going to commit child abuse," she turned around. "PLEASE STOP," she said firmly to the boy.

"Oh, for heaven's sake," his mother tsked. "There's no need to get NASTY. Timmy, change seats with me, NOW."

After mother and son exchanged seats, Reyes continued with her very Muldereque leap. "I think the amusement park is just a cover-up for a larger conspiracy. I think Unigen got its mitts on a very powerful technology. I think the dinosaurs, be they cloned or genetically altered already existing animals, I think they're covering something else up. Plus this cover-up is making them a lot of money, so either why, for them, it's a win-win situation."

Skinner started to ask, "But-" however, the little brat started kicking his chair. "But-" thud thud thud thud thud thud. "But-" thud thud thud thud thud. Skinner turned around and glowered at the boy "THAT'S ENOUGH!!!" he barked. Several passengers turned their heads toward him in surprise.

The boy turned white and started to cry noisily.

The mother squawked at him "You have no right to speak to my little boy like that mister!"

Skinner turned his flinty glare from the boy to her and scowled, holding up his FBI badge. By this time, Reyes had also turned around and followed suit, holding her badge up with murder flashing in her normally friendly coffee-brown eyes.

"Timmy," she said in a normal voice, "shut up."

Timmy instantly stopped bawling.




 

Later on...

Hotel De La Luna Blanca
The banquet room
11:00 Central Time

Grant and Malcolm were the first to come down. Grant, as usual, defied convention by wearing a denim shirt (albeit it was pressed neatly, a pair of well-loved khakis and sneakers. Malcolm was dressed in everlasting black shirt, black slacks, black socks, black shoes, black glasses.

"Nice..." Malcolm said, admiring the mahogany woodwork and marble floors. "Very very nice. Too bad the dinosaurs are going to re-take the island and destroy this. I'm sure Unigen spent quite a bit of the coin to make this place tres elegante."

"But where did Unigen get the money for this?" Grant asked.

"The same place where they got the technology to clone the monsters, I am assuming, although when you 'assume' you make an "ass" out of "u" and "me" - so let me say I am reckoning. I hope the usage of the word "reckon" does not sound rednecked."

"But the technology was destroy when InGen went under," Grant muttered.

"You're 'assuming'," Malcolm said with an impish grin. "Ah!" he said, turning around. "Miss Nowark, lovely to see you."

Andrea Nowark inclined her head towards them, eyeballing Grant's disgraceful outfit. "Dr. Malcolm, Dr. Grant," she said formally, as she walked briskly by in a whoosh of silk stockings and Chanel No 5 perfume. She sat down at the baby grand piano in the corner and started to play "Fur Elise" flawlessly and yet oddly passionately.

"She's got a nice ass," Malcolm muttered to Grant.

"Pretty face." Grant spoke without moving his lips, pretending to admire a painting.

"Nice perfume."

"Not bad."

"No, really not bad at all."

"Pity she's a bitch."

"Yes, it's a shame. Although if she were to sit naked on my lap-"

The entrance of Mulder, Scully and Peter, who was talking a mile a minute, interrupted Malcolm’s lewd fantasy. "... and then like Anakin speeds up his pod-racer you know and the crowd is like, uh, you know and then VROOM, he goes REAL fast and beats the Dug and everyone's happy and cool and stuff and Padme, who's really Queen Amidala, but nobody knows that yet is like all excited. And the Jedi Master gets to free Anakin but not his mom and then-"

"Help," Mulder said jokingly to Grant and Malcolm.

"Ready for our Last Meal," Malcolm asked him.

"Always an optimist."

"Where is everyone else?" Grant asked.

"Starkweather and Doggett were talking," Scully said. Suddenly she felt a small body press closer to her. She crouched down, "What's the matter Peter?"

Peter whispered in her ear. "I don't think that lady playing the piano likes kids very much. She's starin' at me funny..."

Scully looked up at Andrea and glared at her in disgust.

<<The bitch>> Scully fumed.

Andrea folded her lips tightly together and continued to butcher one of Beethoven's masterpieces.




 

Meanwhile -

Doggett and Starkweather's room

"Promise me, Starkweather," Doggett yelled from inside the bathroom, over the roar of the shower streaming down.

"Dammit Doggett," Starkweather said as she changed her clothes for the second time that day, a simple sky blue sundress that was more fitting for a semi-formal brunch than her usual casual gear. "I'm an FBI agent just like you, urg, fucking pantyhose." She cursed as she said performed several unladylike adjustments to make sure her hosiery would not creep into unwelcoming crevices. "I am NOT a baby. Or a fool. Or a wimp."

The shower turned off. "I don't think you're a baby, a fool or a wimp." Doggett's voice was muffled as he toweled himself off.

"Then stop treating me that way!"

"Starkweather, Justin Leo on this damn island changes everything!" The door creaked open just enough for Doggett's arm to stick out. "Can you hand me my clothes?"

Starkweather handed him the neatly pressed black Dockers and white T-shirt. "My boxers too, please?"

"I REALLY don't want to touch your skivvies, Doggett."

"They're clean, they ain't gonna bite you," Doggett shook his hand urgently. "Come on Doc, we're already late."

"Well, take your time, I still have to do my hair."

"Jesus, woman!! Just run a comb through it. It'll look fine."

"Excuse me, but I have about twelve more inches of hair to deal with than you. You don't JUST run a comb through long hair."

"Oh for the love of.... gimme my damn shorts!!!"

Using the nails of her forefinger and thumb, she gingerly picked up the boxers and handed them to Doggett, who snatched them from her.

"Doggett, quit being such a damn worrywart. I can handle myself."

"I KNOW you can handle yourself. Can you handle Leo?"

"Doggett!! You don't even REMEMBER what happened that week Ben vanished. I **DO**. The fucking psycho broke into my apartment. He shot my neighbor Beth the cop when she caught him IN MY HOME red-handed! Plus I MET Leo, up close and personal, on the rooftop of the warehouse. I thought he was going to kill me. He was definitely going to kill you or Mulder. Should I wear my hair up or down or in a braid or what?"

"Wear it down. Look," Doggett walked out of the bathroom, fully dressed. "Starkweather, I just want you to be extra careful. That's all... what are you staring at?" He had noticed that Starkweather was studying him thoroughly while brushing her hair.

"I didn't know you were good looking."

"Oh thanks a lot."

"Fine then! Last time I give YOU a compliment, Puppy-Man."

"God, Hurricane you're a pain in the ass."

"Don't call me a Hurricane..."

"You promise me you'll stick to me like glue? No wandering' off? No looking' for trouble? And don't bitch to me like treatin' you like an idiot, I'm not tryin' to, but sometimes the Mulder in ya just takes control of your common sense and you get into trouble."

"Oh that was a low blow."

"Agent Starkweather..."

"Oh, here we go..."

"...as your partner, plus your superior..."

"Gag."

"... I order you to stay with me at all times. Is that clear Agent?"

"All times? I don't want to have to watch you pee and I don't think Ben will understand if I shower with you."

"I'm gonna hit you."

"Relax Doggett," Starkweather's eyes twinkled micheviously. "I promise to be very very good."

"You're full of shit."

"Let's go," Starkweather said. "I wanna see Schabasser sweat. I think that weasel's up to something, we haven't seen hide nor hair of him all day..."




 

The Banquet Hall...

Doggett and Starkweather was the last to arrive, mostly because Starkweather decided at the very last possible minute to put her hair up. But she didn't put it up in her normal military-tight bun at the nape of her neck; she pulled up in a soft chignon with little wispies framing her face.

Mulder, Grant and Malcolm, with pained smiled on their faces were politely listening to Andrea pound out Pachabel's "Canon" on the baby grand. Langly and Peter were huddled in the corner, playing some hand-held game Langly brought along. Scully, with a face as bored as Mulder, Grant and Malcolm's, was politely listening to Dr. Wick describe the intricate process of the fertilization of dandelions.

"Hey, look who showed up!" Mulder said, grateful for a distraction. "We were just listening to Andrea play." All three men turned to her with a "Help Us" look on their faces.

"I noticed," Starkweather drawled, giving Andrea a look of pure loathing. Andrea returned the glare times two.

"Hey, my sister plays the piano," Mulder said, as if he just thought of it. Actually, she played several instruments, all by ear. "Jerilyn, why don't you play something... PLEASE."

"Um..."

"You play?" Andrea purred. "Who taught you? How long have you taken lessons? **I** was trained by a classic pianist, works now as an instructor for the Havard Music Department. And you were taught by...???"

"Nobody. I was a Naval brat. We moved too much. I kind of just picked up on it. Fumbled through songs by ear..."

"Starkweather," Doggett mumbled a warning.

"Oh really," Andrea rose. "How fascinating. Well, **I** would love to hear something," she graciously rose. "I thought about pursuing a music career, but I succumbed to my first love of architecture plus, well, I'm not a very good singer..."

Starkweather smirked, "Oh, you're not???" She sat down. "Gosh... Andrea, could you point out Middle C for me? I ALWAYS forget."

Doggett groaned. Mulder smirked.




 

Meanwhile...
La Villa Guidonia
30 minutes outside of Mexico City

Roald Schabasser was not worried that his associate wouldn't safely find his way to his destination. Justin Leo was a very driven man. He had a nasty reputation for being careless, but he was driven...and that made him an important asset.

He stressed the consequences of failure to Leo before the team headed out of the country. The man he was relaying information to was a very powerful Lord. A man who held more power than money. He had the ability to take away memory.

Like you never existed.

Leo had turned white when Schabasser had told wild tales of how men disappeared without a trace, only to come up dead months later or crazy...wandering aimlessly. Schabasser knew that Leo would not fail at any costs.

All Schabasser had to do was assure the old man who took memories that the briefcase was coming and show him the stock portfolios.

It would be easy to get away. He knew that he wouldn't be missed till after the brunch. Till then, he would explain that he was engaged elsewhere by investors.

That was a half-truth.

The man he was waiting for was a very important figure who had a very large stake in the quality of life his family had. Well--at least his capabilities in making alimony payments when the divorce papers were drawn up.

"Senor, se credo?"

"Yes...it is true. I swear to you the briefcase will be here manana."

"And the money?" The man asked slowly.

"See for yourself the size of this portfolio, sir."

Schabasser said with a grand gesture in the general direction of the documents spread across the desk.

"Y los federales?

"There are monsters sir. Monsters who will make sure they will not get off the island. And if they don't, the storm will."

"Good." The man said, lighting up his cigar. "And the progress. Do not forget. Bring me the DNA."

Roald Schabasser left without a nod, without looking back, and made his way towards the helicopter pad.

He glanced at his watch. He would make it back just in time for brunch.

 

Back at La Luna Blanca…

Andrea, very patronizingly, reached over and hit Middle C. The lone note resonated throughout the hall.

"Thanks!" Starkweather chirped and her fingers attacked the keys with precision and passion. Her voice, clear as a bell, rose above piano chords:

"Excuse me but can I be you for a while
my DOG won't bite if sit real still I got
the anti-Christ in the kitchen yellin'
at me again yeah I can hear
been saved again by the garbage truck
I got something to say but NOTHING comes
yeah I know what you think of me,
you never shut up..." (this line was directed at Andrea with a smirk)

"...yeah I can hear that but what if
I'm a mermaid in these jeans of his
with her name still on it hey but I don't care
cause sometimes I said sometimes I hear my voice and it's
been HERE silent all these years...

"So you found a girl with really deep thoughts
what's so amazing about really deep thoughts
boy you best pray I bleed real soon
how's that thought for you
my scream got lost in a paper cup
you think there's a heaven where some screams have gone
I got 25 bucks and a cracker do you think that's enough
to get us there

cause what if I was a
mermaid in these jeans of his
with her name still on it hey but I don't care
cause sometimes I said sometimes I hear my voice and it's
been HERE silent all these...

"Years go by
will I still be waiting for
somebody else to understand
years go by if I'm stripped of my beauty
and the orange clouds raining on my head
years go by will I choke on my tears until
finally there's nothing left
one more casualty you we're too easy easy easy

"Well I love the way we communicate
your eyes focus on my funny lip shape
lets hear what you think of me now but don't
look up the sky is falling
your mother shows up in a nasty dress
it's your turn to stand now where I stand
everyone lookin' at you
here take a hold of my hand
yeah I can hear them

cause what if I was a
mermaid in these jeans of his
with her name still on it hey but I don't care
cause sometimes I said sometimes I hear my voice and it's
been HERE silent all these...
I've been here silent all these years
silent all these....
silent all these years
silent all these years."

Starkweather turned to Andrea. "Not bad for by ear, huh?"

Langly exclaimed "Tori rocks!"

"Someone got a karaoke machine for Christmas last year." Andrea smirked to Wick. It was a natural reaction for anyone who is thoroughly devoid of personality

"Now she's done it." Mulder groaned. "Prepare to be put to sleep by the great composers..."

"Don't tell me you don't love Classical music, Mulder." Scully snorted in mock surprise.

"My background in classical music extends only to Warner Brothers cartoons."

"Figures." Scully snorted.

A low bass chord began to thunder from the grand piano.

"Mulder, you aren't going to go join her in Heart and Soul?" Andrea chided.

"Hey, Pete" Mulder said to the little boy, "Why don't you go with Doggett to see if you can scout out what we're gonna have for brunch?"

At a questioning look from both Scully and Andrea, Mulder waited for the shrill ring of the high octaves from Starkweather. "I got him to leave so I could do this" He said, emphasizing the end of his conversation with Andrea with an obscene gesture.

Scully was only mildly successful in hiding her reaction to the whole scene. Wick laughed at first, and then remembering his place, sobered up when Andrea flashed him an evil glare. Langly, Malcolm, and Grant were all doubling over laughing.

Starkweather, meanwhile, imagined the whole scene behind her playing out, and barely managed to keep her composure well enough to get through the first movement of Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata.

By the time she got to the second movement Langly had fished his lighter from his pocket, and waved it high, only slightly aware of the odd looks he was receiving from the rest of the crowd.

"What?" he exclaimed, "That's a Phish song! They rock!"




 

Meanwhile...

Denver International Airport...

Skinner remembered why he hated the airport in Denver. It was one giant maze. And full of people. "Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me... MOVE IT!!" he yelled as he pushed past people, inadvertently hitting them with his carry-on duffel bag and his briefcase.

"Sorry!! AH-CHOO!" Sorry!!" Reyes apologized as she tried to keep up with her boss, the heels of her boots clicking like tap dancer's shoes as she ran.

"Watch where you're going!!" A shrill voice hollered after them.

"Where's the AH-CHOO!!! terminal!" Reyes yelled.

"This way," Skinner said, charging full steam ahead.

This was not Reyes' idea of fun. Her head ached, her body ached, she wanted a shot of Nyquil and her bed. But her concern for her friends pushed her on, even as she made a mental note to herself that once she and Skinner got their asses off that rock in the middle of the ocean, they were SO going to owe her big time. The way she looked at it, she wasn't going to have to buy herself a beer until April of 2002 at least.

"Reyes!" Skinner shouted, "over here!"

They ran to the gate just as the attendant was shutting the door to the terminal. "Oh no...." Reyes whined.

"Ma'am, you've got to let us on that plane," Skinner said, pulling rank and pulling out his FBI badge. "It's official FBI business."

"I- I- I'm sorry sir," she stammered, for she truly was a nice lady. "I would, but I can't, the plane's already pulling away from the terminal." She pointed her finger as sure enough, the plane that Reyes and Skinner needed to be on started cruising down the runaway.

As Skinner cursed a blue streak, Reyes slumped into a seat and wiped her red nose with a crumpled ball of Kleenex.

"When's the next flight?" she snuffled.

"For the same destination?" the attendant asked. Reyes nodded. "We have a flight leaving in three hours that's not very full... we can probably get you on that flight."

"Three hours!!" Skinner barked. Then he sighed. "Not like we have much of a choice. Go ahead, please put us on that flight."

The attendant typed away nervously on her keyboard. "Done. Be back in at least two and a half hours... so you don't miss the flight... again?" she asked nervously.

Her ears pounding, throat on fire, Reyes rasped out, "Where's the nearest bar?" not giving a damn what Skinner thought of her. She needed a pick-me-up. Or a sedative. Since neither was available to her right now, a stiff drink would do.





Meanwhile...

El Ranchero Resturante Mexicana
Arlington, Virginia

"I really wish you wouldn't order that," Byers pleaded with Frohike.

"Why? Oh, and a side of refried beans," Frohike finished his order. "What's your damn problem, Byers?"

Byers sighed. "I'll have a taco salad... uh, but no tomatoes, no onions, no beans, no guacamole, no sour cream, no olives, no meat and no salsa. Please."

"In otherwords," Frohike grumbled, "you want lettuce and cheese in a deep-fat fried tortilla bowl."

"With a side of French dressing."

"Oh Good God."

"Frohike, what could be blocking ALL communication from that island? I mean, even the military bases don't even have the capabilities to block out all communications. I mean, they have scramblers, sure, but cell phone calls can be made from base, you just have to pay the roaming charges."

"Honestly, I think it's a combination of whatever scramblers they got and the weather front that's moving their way. Lots of electricity in the air. I mean, come on Byers, remember that thunderstorm we drove through when we went to the Star Trek convention in Omaha? We might as well been travelling by horse and buggy."

"**I** didn't go along to Omaha," Byers said in a huffy voice. "**I** wasn't invited."

"Oh yeah... well anyway, it sucked. Scared the piss out of us too. Lost all connections to towers, to satellites. Tell you what, no matter how smart us humans may get, Mother Nature is always waiting to bitch slap us to remind us of our place."

"Oh yeah... well anyway, it sucked. Scared the piss out of us too. Lost all connections to towers, to satellites. Tell you what, no matter how smart us humans may get, Mother Nature is always waiting to bitch slap us to remind us of our place." Frohike began to devour the complimentary tortilla chips, still warm and salty.

Byers tried very hard not to appear revolted by his friend's eating habits. "So, what should we do?"

"Well, we really can't do anything until Langly emails us... but there IS someone we can talk to."

"Who?"

Frohike took a gulp of water (the salsa was very spicy) before telling him, "Manny Ibarra."

"Oh, do we have to??" Byers whined. "He's so annoying. Besides, he's the one that alerted us that there's no communication to that island."

"So he thinks," Frohike garbled through a mouthful of chips. "Where there's a hacker, there's a way."




 

Meanwhile,
back at La Luna Blanca

"Who IS that lady?" Peter asked Doggett irritably as they wandered a bit outside. "She's not very nice. She's MEAN to Mr. Mulder's sister. I thought her piano stuff was okay, I mean... I didn't get the words or nothin' but it sounded neat."

Doggett smiled. He was just grateful Starkweather didn't perform Tori Amos' "Icicle." THAT one might be a **little** difficult to explain the subject matter to a nine year old boy.

"Some ladies just aren't very nice," Doggett told Peter solemnly. "You'll learn that when you're older."

"My mom's nice," Peter said confidently. "Agent Scully is nice. And Mr. Mulder's Sister is nice. Are there any kids to hang out with here though?" he asked hopefully, "Grown-ups get boring, no offense, sir."

"None taken," Doggett fought to keep a straight face. "And no, Peter, I don't think there's any other kids here. Sorry buddy."

"Oh." Nonplussed, Peter went on. "Does Agent Scully have kids? She acts like a mom."

"She has a little boy, but he's still a baby. He stayed home."

"What about Mr. Mulder?"

"He's the daddy of Scully's son," Doggett already saw the direction the conversation was going and he tried to detour it, but Peter was bound and determined to stay on his path, innocent of the bad memories he was inviting along for the ride.

"What about Mr. Mulder's Sister? Does she have kids? Mr. Mulder said she was married. Married people usually have kids, don't they?"

"She is, but she and Ben aren't ready for kids yet," Doggett fibbed a little bit. Ben was ready for kids, Jerilyn was not. "Why do you call her 'Mr. Mulder's Sister'?"

Peter looked ashamed. "I can't say her name. It's funny. S-s-s.. stork... Webber," he said, looking down. "I can't say big words so good," he whispered, confiding his big secret to Doggett.

"Well, I couldn't say big words so good when I was your age either. It comes with practice."

Peter beamed, "That's what my dad said too... do YOU have kids?"

"Um..." Doggett never knew how to answer this question. He could be eighty years old and he'd still wouldn't know how to answer this question. "Yeah... but, he's not with me anymore."

"Ohhhhhhh," Peter said knowingly. "You and his mom got a 'vorce and now he lives with her."

"Not quite," Doggett said. "He died, when he was a little boy. Younger than you."

Peter looked up and saw that this tall man who got to travel the world and carry a gun had tears in his steely blue eyes. "Was he sick?" Peter asked in a small voice. "My friend Teddy, his sister had cancer and she died."

"No, he wasn't sick," Doggett struggled with himself. He had shoved Mulder up against a wall to let him know that he did not wish to discuss his son. All he had to do was give Starkweather an icy look and she shut up, instantly. He even snapped at Reyes once and she was one of his oldest friends in the world. He couldn't do any of those things to an inquisitive little boy who had no idea that Doggett had no desire to discuss the matters closest to his heart.

"What happened?" Peter asked.

Doggett crouched down so he could be eye-to-eye with him. "A very bad person took him away," he told him. "And," Doggett blinked his eyes rapidly, "and he hurt him and he murdered him."

Peter turned white. "Why?"

Doggett felt his chest constrict. That was the question he had spent what was left of his life asking. "I don't know," he said, standing up. "I don't know."

"I'm sorry," Peter said, scared now that he made Doggett not like him anymore. "I hope you're not mad."

Doggett smiled and put his hand on his shoulder, "I'm not mad."

"For real?"

"For real."

"Um... Mr. Doggett?"

"You can call me John if you want too. It's easy than Doggett."

"Um... 'kay... Mr. John, my uncle took me away from my mom and dad," he was shaking. "Is he a bad person like the one who hurt your kid? Was my uncle going to hurt me?"

That was the question Doggett, along with the rest of the team was asking themselves. "I don't know," he said honestly to him. "But we're going to make sure that nothing happens to you. Just stay close to either me or Agent Scully or Mulder or Agent Starkweather. We'll keep you safe. We're not going to let your uncle take you again. Okay?"

"'Kay," Peter said.

"Why don't you head back inside and ask Agent Starkweather if you can call her "Jeri"?" he asked the boy. "It's easier than her last name."

"Jeri?" Peter scrunched up his face in confusion. "That's a BOY'S name, isn't it?"

"It's short for "Jerilyn", most of her friends call her "Jeri"," <<except for me>> he thought. "I'm sure she won't mind."

"'Kay," and Peter ran inside.

Doggett stayed outside a bit longer to compose himself.

Many months later, when his life seemed to be at its darkest, darker than when even Luke was found dead and his wife left him, Doggett would remember piano chords floating on a tropical breeze. And a voice fairer than an angel's singing lyrics that a child couldn't understand, but by God, he did:

"Years go by
will I still be waiting
for somebody else to understand
years go by
if I'm stripped of my beauty
and the orange clouds
raining in my head
years go by
will I choke on my tears till
finally there is nothing left
one more casualty
you know we're too easy, easy, easy..."

Doggett went back inside to rejoin the party.




 

Meanwhile

Denver International Airport...

"Agent Reyes," Skinner said, following her to the bar, "normally, on the job I wouldn't condone alcohol consumption...but in this case, can I buy you a drink?"

"You'd break just about any rule for them, wouldn't you, sir?" Reyes said with slight jealousy lacing her tones.

"I break rules if it saves either life or sanity, Agent Reyes. Yours included." He answered completely straight-faced. "What do you drink?"

"I'll have a Corona, thanks."

"Corona and double scotch on the rocks, please" He told the bartender. Reyes raised her eyebrows at the double. She squeezed the lime in, and swirled the bottle around lightly.

"You don't expect me to handle this delay completely sober, do you?"

"How the hell are we gonna get them off that island?" Reyes sighed, taking a long gulp of her Corona.

"Listen, Agent Reyes," Skinner grumbled, "those are very capable agents out there. Most of them have beaten death itself. Between you, me, and The Gunmen working around the clock to get them out, they'll be coming home with us." He finished his double scotch in one long swallow.

"Assuming Mulder and Starkweather don't kill each other first." Reyes scoffed and finished the rest of her corona. Reyes' cell phone rang.

Skinner took the opportunity to order them more drinks.

"Reyes...Mr. Ibarra?"

"Ms. Reyes, look, I'm sorry to bother you..."

"How did you get this number? Look..."

"Fortune cookie, senorita," Manny chided, "That doesn't really matter. Your computer friends...the short little guy with the bad breath and the one who sleeps in his suit...told me something you might wanna know..."

"What?"

"They think they can get a radio rigged up to contact my brothers."

"Playing all your favorites, all the time..." Reyes murmured, then hissed to Skinner, "The gunmen are rigging up some kinda radio." then into the phone, "Do you have any idea when they'll be able to rig it up?"

"Within several hours, ma'am."

"Gracias, Senor Ibarra."




 

Back at La Luna Blanca…

"Dr. Wick" Andrea purred, pulling him aside, "can you be a dear and tell me where the little boy went? I think our tour manager would love to know that we've got a little stow-away on our hands."

"He went with one of the Feds somewhere, Ms. Nowark. I didn't see where they went."

Scully was in earshot and marched up to them. Dr. Wick pretended to need to be elsewhere.

"I hope you love soup," Scully spat, "because if you lay one hand on that little boy lady, you have my personal guarantee that you will be drinking through a straw for the rest of your natural life. Is that perfectly clear?"

"What IS perfectly clear," she hissed back, "Is that a Federal agent is threatening me without cause or provocation. I think that's twice now since we've been on this island. I was merely expressing concern for a minor who seems to have wandered onto our tour. I can't wait to take you for all your worth when we get back. Judging from that outfit," she scowled, eyeing her up and down, "it's not much."

"Scully," Mulder urged, tugging on her arm, "come on, it's not worth Boo's college fund, is it?"

"I must say Agent Scully" Andrea purred with a wicked grin, scanning Mulder up and down, "if you're gonna fuck around to keep your job, you little whore, couldn't you do the naked pretzel with someone actually in the FBI? And I'd think a bastard kid at home would be enough for you two, but you go around nurturing urchins as well?"

"You were the one who was concerned about the little boy!" Scully hissed. She had to physical steel herself from hitting her.

"What the fuck is your problem?" Mulder barked, "The only reason you're not reduced to a bloody pulp right now is because I don't hit women. Look lady," he growled, "you come near her or Starkweather, or Peter again, and I'll make damn sure you will be bagging the groceries for your next paycheck if you're lucky."

"How simply valiant..." Andrea purred coolly, "the Neanderthal defending the cavewomen."

Starkweather, who had seen both Scully and Mulder's fury in their expressions, had a pretty good idea of what was going on. "Look bitch, I'm the newest employee here, I've got nothing to lose." She balled her fist, and sent a left hook to Andrea's jaw, knocking her to the ground.

Andrea got up, with the rest of the X-File crew standing around, and excused herself to the washroom.

That was the final straw.

All that money wasn't going to be the only thing that she'd get away with when the trip was over.


Starkweather, meanwhile, flexed her hand. "That was therapeutic," she muttered, walking over to Mulder and Scully. "I think I'm done playing the piano for a while," she said with a sheepish grin.

"That was less than professional," Scully scolded her.

"Uh-huh, I know, but WHO slapped her senseless in the hotel bar?"

Scully flushed crimson but held her tongue while Mulder pondered, "How can someone slap one senseless if that one has no sense to begin with?"

Mulder's question was never answered for Peter Sedai came running back into the banquet hall. "Hi!" he said cheerfully. "I didn't miss anything cool, did I?"

"Well-"

"Shut up Mulder," Scully said instantly.

"Where's Agent Doggett?" Starkweather asked Peter.

"He's outside," the boy announced.

"Oh, thanks, that clears that up."

"What's the matter with your hand?"

Starkweather was still cradling it. "I hurt it."

"How?"

<<Jiminy Christmas!!!>> She thought with a groan. <<Kids!!>> "I was being less than professional," Starkweather elegantly sidestepped the boy's question. "Now what's Agent Doggett doing outside?"

"I don't know. He told me to run inside and ask you if it's okay to call you 'Jeri' 'cause I can't say your last name so good. Is it okay to call you by a boy's name?"

"Absolutely, and you can call Mr. Mulder 'Fox' if you want to," Starkweather told him graciously.

Mulder fumed.

Doggett with all traces of grief quietly tucked away, had returned to the banquet hall just as Roald Schabasser breezed in, with Christie Carter on his arm.

"Hello everybody," he boomed, with an extra special leer directed at Scully. Scully rolled her eyes. "Glad to see everyone so bright eyed and bushy-tailed."

"I must have that extra special hang over glow in my eyes," Malcolm said to Grant. Grant stifled a chuckle.

Christie, in a too-cute-for-words form fitting T-shirt with a "Jurassic Park" logo over the breast pocket and short khakis shorts, shot murderous glances at Scully, Starkweather and Grant, before chirping out, "Are we missing anybody... oh...." her big vacant eyes rested on Peter who instinctively hid behind Mulder's towering frame. "Who's the wubby? Who's the sweet widdle wubby?"

 

"What's wrong with her?" Peter whispered to Mulder.

"She's very special," Mulder deadpanned.

"Ooh, what's your name, widdle wubby?"

"What's a wubby?" Grant asked Malcolm.

"Hell if I know."

"Do I have to answer her?" Peter begged Mulder.

"No," Mulder said firmly. "His name, Miss Carter, is Peter Sedai, he was brought by not exactly by his will and shall remain in the custody of the federal agents until we all return to Washington DC were we can return him to his parents."

"Just my mom," Peter corrected him. "My mom and dad are 'vorced."

"AWWWWWWWWWWWW," Christie said patronizingly, "poor widdly wubby boy!"

"Ruh-oh, Raggy," Starkweather said to Doggett, doing a poor Scooby-Doo impersonation.

"Stop that."

"You are no fun."

Peter looked very worried at Mulder's outburst.

"I'll uh...tell the waitstaff we'll be having one more for brunch then." Christie said curtly, and scurried off.

"Everything's ok Pete," Mulder assured the boy.

"You said I was in custard. That's what they say on TV when somebody does som'em bad."

"No, Peter." Mulder said, crouching down to make eye contact with the boy. "You didn't do anything wrong. Custody is just a grown-up way of saying that we're in charge of you till you get back home."

"So how come you didn't just say all you femer-al guys are in charge of me?"

Mulder shrugged. "Just the way grown-ups like to do things, kiddo. Kind of like a game."

"And who wins?"

"That depends on what you want the most."

"What do you want the most?"

"I want the truth." He answered frankly. "How 'bout you, Pete. What do you want the most?"

"Lunch. Last thing I hadda eat was that icky stuff they fed us on the plane. Oh yeah, and that candy."

"We'll see what we can do about that in just a minute. Hey, did your uncle say anything about what he wanted you here for? Did he say anything that might help us find out why he's here? Or why he took you with him?"

Peter shook his head.

"Agents," Schabasser said with an all-too-sugary smile, "I trust everyone slept well."

Andrea returned at that moment with her jaw taped up in a huge bandage.

"Thank GOD I brought my own pain pills with me." She hissed at Starkweather. Then updating Schabasser, "She hit me."

"What's the matter, did I ruin your facelift?" Starkweather hissed back.

Doggett tugged on her arm and flashed her an icy warning glare.

"Stawk-weddah..." he warned quietly.

"Shutting up, Papa John..." she said timidly.

"Hey, we've got the same problem." Peter piped up with a very relieved expression on his face.

"What's that?"

"We both have the same trouble saying her last name. How come you don't just call her Jeri?"

"Just the way adults do things, Pete."

"Same reason Fox said I was in custard to that lady?"

Doggett had to put his hand over his mouth to hide the fact that a big shit-eating grin plastering itself across his face.

Starkweather, really wanting to get away from the charming Ms. Nowark, led Peter to the Piano. "Come on, while we're waiting for lunch, I'll show ya how to play a song till they feed us."





Meanwhile...

Denver International Airport
At one of it's many bars

Skinner and Reyes were matching each other shot for shot of Jose Cuervo. Reyes was finally feeling no pain. She also couldn't feel her teeth or feet anymore, but that was beside the point.

"I think I'm going to sleep the rest of the way to Mexico," Reyes said, her words beginning to slur just a bit. Reyes could hold her liquor very well, but it was beginning to look like Skinner was going to drink her under the table.

"Just as long as we're both sober when we get to Mexico City, I don't care if you go into an alcoholic coma for the rest of the trip," Skinner said. He waved the bartender over to him. "Two more," he said, pushing a twenty towards him.

"Comin' up," the bartender said cheerfully. He liked these two. They were tipping very very VERY well.

Each shot, at Reyes' suggestion, they toasted on something. The first toast was to the X-Files for always keeping their lives interesting. The second toast was to Scully and Doggett for always keeping them grounded in reality. The third was to Mulder for showing them how to believe. The fourth was to Starkweather teaching them patience. The fifth was the Lone Gunmen for reminding them the mischevious pleasure of breaking rules. The sixth had been to Skinner, "for being such an understanding boss."

Slightly flustered, Skinner had said, "Well... I try. Believe me, having Mulder under me... you learn flexibility, quick."

"How long have you known Mulder?" Reyes had asked him after they downed the shots.

"About nine years now. Nine... long... years..."

Reyes laughed, a pleasant, almost alien-sound. Skinner, for the life of him, could not think of a time when he heard Scully laugh out loud, she was more prone to secretive smiles and Starkweather usually just snorted in disbelief or cackled like a witch. He realized he missed the sound of feminine laughter.

Two more shots materialized. Reyes picked hers up. "Well, sir, what are we drinking to now?"

Skinner thought for a moment. "To Mulder for getting up into this damn fix."

"We don't know if this mess is technically Mulder's fault or not."

"In the X-Files... it usually is," Skinner raised his glass. "To Mulder?" his face lit up by a rare smile.

"To Fox Mulder," Reyes said, a twinkle in her lovely cinnamon brown eyes, "Long live the X-Files."




 

Meanwhile...

The Lone Gunmen's Lair
Tacoma Falls

"Stupid!!!" Frohike spit out.

"No, Langly's not here," Byers said patiently.

"No you bureaucratic twit. US. We're stupid."

"Speak for yourself," Byers told him.

"No, you ninny, listen to me. Why are we bothering to hack into their system on La Luna Blanca? That's just ONE lab. Look at the name of the damn company. Unigen INTERNATIONAL. Why are we wasting time with La Luna Blanca-"

It dawned on Byers and he finished Frohike's sentence for him. "When we could be trying to get into the mainframe through Unigen's mainland headquarters? Frohike, you're a genius."

"Damn straight," Frohike said modestly. "Pull up the Yellow Pages. Lets find out where this bad boy calls home."

It only took about ten minutes. "San Diego, California is the head of operations."

"You try and get in the backdoor," Frohike said. "I'm gonna keep working on this ham radio. 'Course," he said with a sigh, "it's not gonna do us a damn bit of good if Langly doesn't think of the same thing."

"If he doesn't," Byers told him, "he's got plenty of people there to suggest it to him. Mulder, Scully, Starkweather, Doggett."

"Good point." The man of few words nodded. "Let's get to work Byers."




 

Meanwhile…

La Luna Blanca

The dining room had the banquet tables all spread out nicely. There were about a hundred other people joining them, mostly prospective investors. The panel (and Peter) all sat at a front table. Grant, Malcolm mostly kept to themselves. Langly sat between Mulder and Wick. Mulder and Scully were on either side of Peter. Then Starkweather, Doggett, and Andrea. Andrea prayed that she didn't have to go to the restroom in the middle of the meal. She was terrified that they might put pepper or something worse in my drink in her drink. <Like little kids at a camp!> She snorted to herself.

There was a presentation screen and the bread and drinks were served. At every chair, there was a bound notebook filled with pie charts and tables of expenses. Mulder had given Peter a pen, which put the book in his lap and doodled on the backs of the printouts while Christie Carter rose from her seat and played the presentation video as salad and rolls were being served.

"Save the rolls for later." Langly said after biting into one. "We can play softball with them."

"And use Andrea as a bat." Starkweather snorted, earning an icy warning glare from Doggett.

While the presentation was getting under way, the waitstaff in the kitchen was a madhouse.




Meanwhile

In the Kitchen…

"Pedro," Pasqual, the assistant chef whined in Spanish, "how the hell am I supposed to know how long to cook the meat?"

"Thermometer." Pedro replied flatly.

"Never cooked something with this much MUSCLE..."

While things were heating up in the kitchen, Christie Carter was continuing on with her slide show.

"Welcome to Unigen's Jurassic Park!" After golf claps receded, the presentation droned on about the species that were bred on the premises and the safety precautions and the number of staff and the research that was being done.

"We are proud to be hosting foremost experts in the FBI, technology, paleontology, and architecture, who we trust will make the best recommendation to the authorities from their findings this weekend. I trust you'll find all the information that you'll need, but should you have any questions at all, don't hesitate to ask. Now, allow me to introduce Unigen's founder and Jurassic Park's creator, John Hammond."

After a thunderous round of applause, a very old man with an oxygen pouch over his shoulder carrying a cane with amber on the end arose. Peter applauded with them because it was something else to do. The old man cleared his throat nervously.

The wait staff set the meat in front of everybody. Scully had a salad specially ordered before, and Christie Carter had instructed the waitstaff to make a Peanut Butter and Jelly for Peter, who was very thankful. He didn't like dark meat.

While everyone was so occupied at finding a way off the island, they forgot how hungry they were till they smelled the food being cooked in the kitchen.

"Dr. Grant, Ian Malcolm, good to see you again." The man nodded. "And thank you all for coming. We regret that only our panel will be allowed on the grounds, however, due to federal regulations, but I trust that the rest of the complex will be open for inspection. I cannot understand for the life of me why everyone is so scared of biogenetics. It's a fact of science that has already given so much to so many people. One of the goals of this park is to pioneer such research to revolutionize this field of study, if it does, of course, meet approval in the eyes of our panelists." He nodded in their direction. "This park has currently generated about 500 jobs, from cleaning crew to waitstaff, all the way to lab techs and researchers. If anyone has any questions at all, I will answer them to the best of my ability."

Grant was the first to speak. "Mr. Hammond, I have no doubt that your intentions are benevolent, but given the nature of evolution, and given the size of the island, I must wonder about what is being done to keep these creatures isolated on this island."

"We have electrically charged fences that are equivalent to the height of a T-Rex, Dr. Grant."

"I have seen them break through those fences, Mr. Hammond. If these grounds are going to meet my approval, I think I need better protection."

"Dr. Grant, we are doing all we possibly can to prevent hazards." Grant was visibly unsatisfied by the response, but kept it to himself.

Peter tugged on Mulder's arm. "Teradaddles fly...what about them?" He whispered.

"Good question, Peter. Why don't you ask him and see what he says?"

"But what if he gets mad? Sometimes grown-ups get mad at me when I ask dumb questions."

"Sometimes grown-ups get mad at him when he asks dumb questions, too, Peter." Scully smirked.

"Don't be afraid to ask the good questions, Peter." Mulder said, smothering his steak in A-1 sauce.

"Is that what the femer-al people do?"

"That's a big part of it."

"What pterodactyls?" Starkweather whispered to Doggett. "Where?"

"Beats the hell outta me," Doggett said. "I'm in the dark about this one."

"So what else is new?"

"Zip it," Doggett shushed her.

"Mr. Hammond," Scully said. "What I don't understand is how these creatures were created. Are they genetically manipulated creatures to resemble dinosaurs? Or are they the real deal?"

"They are the real deal, Agent Scully," Hammond boasted. "Real live dinosaurs, bred from dino DNA."

The following heavy silence was broken by Starkweather.

"Holy shit."

"She said a bad word," Peter informed Mulder.

"We'll wash her mouth out with soap later," Mulder promised him.

"**Real** dinosaurs??" Scully spluttered. "How... when?" She had so many questions, her analytical scientist's mind was reeling with the possibilities. "Where did you get the DNA? How long did it take you to figure out the coding sequence? How long did it take to raise the juveniles to adulthood? What breeds do you have? How many do you have? How do you-"

"She asks a lot of questions," Peter whispered to his new friend.

"You get used it," Mulder whispered back.

"Dr. Scully," Hammond responded, "I am sure that you are quite aware that species have already been cloned successfully on this planet. As long as the building blocks of DNA are present, then genetic engineers can resurrect Lazarus, am I correct?"

"Whether or not we can doesn't necessarily mean we should go through with it." Starkweather pointed out.

"I found that out the hard way," Peter whispered to Mulder knowingly while Hammond droned on. "This past summer, I wanted to see what the inside of the phone looked like. So I took it apart. Just because I knew I could. Mom made me do chores to pay for another one."

"The research benefits that this species can generate is astronomical." Hammond continued proudly.

"According to the ASPCA, there is no current regulations regarding new species." Schabasser piped up. "It is completely within legal bounds to use these species as test subjects.

"The beef and farming industry will be changed forever with this new research. There will be advancements beyond your wildest dreams with growth hormones. Growth hormones that are safe, and can be applied to human children for those who want their kids to be safe on the playground or to become great athletes. Virtually every field of science can benefit from the research done here. The advancements can even reach to oncology and orthopedics."

"Cancer research?" Doggett interrupted. "Forgive me if I don't follow."

"Two years ago," Hammond answered sadly, "I was diagnosed with adult-onset lymphocarsoma. I owe my life to the research done in these labs. I want to be able to give the same gift to the millions who die each year from cancerous tumors."

Ian Malcolm, who had been thankfully silent the entire meal, finally spoke up.

"Statically speaking," he began, "given the grossly misproportioned ratio between humans and other...species...equipped with massively sharper cutlery than this," he waved a fork in the air here for emphasis, "I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say this is a really bad idea. With the rate of evolution heightened to the thousands, given the current population, this island will be completely overrun by species yet identified by the Audubon society. A species, I might add that we have no means to protect ourselves from."

"So glad you brought up the subject of protection, Dr. Malcolm. That was my next point. Miss Nowark I'm sure will be happy to explain the architectural developments on this complex that promote the survival of both species. My dear!" Hammond exclaimed when he saw Andrea's face. "What happened?"

"We have electric fences guarding the park that are the height of the Brontosaurus. We will be staffed to have armed guards waiting at all six gates."

"What about the terradaddles?" Peter asked again, this time for everyone to here. "Those ones fly."

"Pete, there aren't any pterodactyls on this island. You probably just saw some mean looking birds." Starkweather shushed him. Andrea shot a dagger-filled glare in her direction.

"I saw 'em Mrs. Jeri!" Peter blurted out. "I saw 'em! They were gonna eat me!"

"I can assure you," Hammond said with his best politicianesque smile, "that our researchers did not create pterodactyls, and so there can be no Pterodactyls on this island."

"What about communications systems?" Langly asked, taking his opportunity. "If Barney gets loose, how are we able to communicate to get everybody safely evacuated off the island."

"That is just a disruption we experienced thanks to construction. We have a sophisticated onsite communication network, as well as easily accessible long distance phone access that will be available in the morning, Mr. Langly."

"Good...so I don't have to know smoke signals then," Langly snorted.

"Beyond cancer research, this species could open up entirely new possibilities. We could have a Jurassic Park cable network, movie studio and merchandising industry. And a marketable good in grocery stores that could not only reduce the population size but give a much needed boost that competition would no doubt give to the beef industry."

"Competition?" Mulder sputtered. His, and every other knife and fork clanked against the china.

"It hasn't been approved by the FDA yet, but consider the possibilities an extinct species can offer to the gourmet meat industry."

"You're not saying..." Scully said, suddenly very thankful that she got salad.

Hammond nodded proudly. "You are eating the food our ancestors never dreamed of. The food on your plate is the dark meat of a brontosaur."

"Whatdya know..." Starkweather smirked, suddenly turning green, "not everything tastes like chicken.

A long line to the restroom quickly formed.




 

A few minutes later...

Scully, carrying a glass of ice water let herself into the ladies' room. "Agent Starkweather?" she called out.

"In here," a miserable voice said at the end of the stalls.

Scully, ignoring Andrea who was throwing up silently and easily in one of the sinks ( <<Must be one of the perks of the Two-Fingers-Down-The-Throat Diet>> she thought cruelly) and walked swiftly to the toilet stall where Starkweather was hugging the porcelain goddess.

"Are you alright?" Scully asked.

Starkweather looked up at her, face still pea-green. "I haven't puked this much since I turned twenty-one," she exaggerated.

Scully crouched down and handed her the glass. "Here."

"There's nothing weird in here, is there?"

"As far as I know, Jerilyn, it's just water."

Starkweather took the glass and sipped. The water stayed down in her jumpy stomach. She drank more. "I wish I would have ordered a salad," she said mournfully.

"Do you feel well enough to go on the tour?" Scully asked.

Andrea overheard and got an evil glint in her eyes.

"I think so. I think the vomiting was more of a mass psychological effect rather than physical. Honestly, I thought it was pretty tasty until Hammond announced that we were eating Dino." Starkweather got up, smoothing her dress.

Just then, very theatrically, Andrea began to moan, "Oh, my stomach. Oh God... I am in so much pain......" she whined.

"Poor baby," Starkweather said, devoid of sympathy.

"It just hurts ssssssssooooooooooo much. I can't possibly go on the tour. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh," she put her hand to her head and flounced out the door.

"Well, somebody call the Academy Awards, I think we just found our Oscar winner for this year," Starkweather quipped.

"I wonder why she doesn't want to go on the tour?" Scully mused.

"Who cares. At least this way, we don't have to talk to her."

But Scully wasn't sure, "I don't know... I don't trust her."

"Scully, you don't trust anyone, you've been with Mulder too long. And speaking of Mulder, we better go check on the boys."

"After we check on 'the boys'," Scully said firmly, "we go talk to Andrea. I'm sorry Agent Starkweather," she said when Starkweather began to pout. "But I have my doubts. She ate the same thing you did, why was she so VIOLENTLY ill, whereas you recovered quickly?"

"Maybe she's allergic to dinosaurs?" Starkweather said hopefully. When Scully responded to her theory with a withering glare, Starkweather gave up. "Alright, alright, we'll go see what bug crawled up and died inside of Her Royal Worshipfullness. Happy?"

"Ecstatic," Scully said flatly.




 

Meanwhile...

Carter, Spangle and Adams Lawfirm
Washington DC

Benjamin Starkweather was busy at his computer when Noelle the paralegal and receptionist tapped at his door. "Here is the file you wanted Mr. Starkweather."

"Thanks Noelle, just put it on my desk," he told her.

When she left him alone again, Ben, with a sigh, seized the file and started reading up on Unigen. He knew they were in a massive lawsuit right now. He knew that Schabasser was one of the reasons why so many people believed in the unflattering lawyer stereotype.

He knew that his wife was stuck on a tropical island with this SOB (<<and John Doggett... don't go there Ben>> he admonished himself) and he wanted to know exactly what that jerk (Schabasser, not Doggett) was up to.

Ben silently read the file for a good fifteen minutes. Then exhaled. "Holy shit." He looked up at the ceiling. "Jerilyn, what the hell have you gotten yourself into now????" He hit in intercom button on his phone.

"Yes Mr. Starkweather?"

"Call Assistant Director Skinner now. I need to talk to him."




 

Two hours later
La Isla Luna Blanca

Two Jeeps pulled up in front of the hotel. The Forum, all members except for Scully and Peter, still looked rather peaked from their experience with their rack of brontosaur.

"I haven't puked like that since the settlement after my second divorce," Malcolm said, rubbing his stomach.

Andrea peered through the drapes of her hotel room at the party assembling below. "I see the boy," she said through her teeth to Justin Leo, who was lying on the bed. Leo had been making fun of her shiner from Starkweather ever since she returned to her room. She was livid at him, for getting her involved with this damn park. Plus, he seemed to be fascinated by that bitch Starkweather. "Mulder and Scully are on him like flies on shit."

"Such language from such a lady," he drawled.

"How are we going to get that kid away from them?" she hissed.

"Schabasser's got a Jeep waiting for us," he said lazily. "There's going to be an accident during the tour. In the chaos, we get Peter, we get away, they get eaten."

"How do we make sure WE don't get eaten?"

"Because WE aren't going to spend the night lost in the park. We get in the Jeep, lie to Peter, tell him we're going to get help and then get the hell out of there."

The plan was beautiful as it was simple. However, there were two slight problems.

One, Leo still hadn't figure out how he was going to leave Andrea to fend for herself in the park and to make sure that Starkweather would be safe.

Two, he had forgotten to check the forecast.

"Should we be concerned about those clouds?" Mulder asked as the Jeeps came to a stop.

"Oh, we checked the forecast, it's going to miss us. Might see some rain," Hammond said amiably, leaning on his beautiful amber cane. "Well, everybody? Hop in!"

Scully looked up at the hotel just in time to see the drape snap shut in Andrea's window. "Let me go see her one more time," she argued with her fellow X-Filers.

"Scully, so help me God, if she rides along, I'm gonna hit her again," Starkweather vowed.

"Didn't you think she was acting strange when we went to see her? Like she was hiding something?" Scully insisted.

Doggett looked up at Andrea's window. "I dunno... I think I'm with Scully on this one. She's up to something. I say we go find out what."

"What proof do either one of you have," Starkweather demanded, ignorant of Andrea's massive profit off of her insider trading of Unigen Stock. "So far, she can't stick us with anything, but if we start to go after her, unless we have something to go on, she is going to make a big stink, sue the shit out of us and Kersh will have all of our asses, INCLUDING yours Deputy Mayor Mulder," she added. "If she's doing something wrong, we'll catch her doing it. This island is not that big."

"Hell must be freezing over because I agree with Starkweather," Mulder said. "Let her hang herself."

"Come on!" Hammond beckoned the X-Files crew as everyone else was getting settled into the Jeeps. "You don't want to be late."

"I think we're making a big mistake," Scully said as they walked towards the Jeeps.

"I think the mistake was made when we got on the plane," Doggett said, remembering the brontosauruses he saw from the roof. He was thinking about the predators and getting very nervous.

"What's the matter Doggett?" Starkweather asked him.

"I don't like bein' at the bottom of the food chain," he grumbled just as one of the hotel employees came darting out of the building.

"Senor Mulder! Senor Mulder!" he was carrying Tummy.

"OH GOD NO! MULDER!!!!!!!!!" Starkweather yelled. "WE ARE NOT TAKING THAT DAMN DOG!!!"

"Easy Doc," Doggett said. "We may need a distraction. A dino treat."

"Hi Tummy!!!" Starkweather said enthusiastically as Mulder glared at her and Doggett.

"Nothing is going to happen to this dog," Mulder said confidently, scratching her ears.

"That's what you said about Queequeg," Scully pouted as she got in the Jeep.

"Come sit with me!" Peter shouted to Mulder. Mulder grinned and hurried over to the excited boy.

Mulder, Scully, Peter and the puppy where in Jeep A with Malcolm and to their dismay, Schabasser was driving.

Meanwhile, Doggett and Starkweather got in with Malcolm, Grant and Langly, with the bubbly Christie Carter at the wheel.

"Hi ya everybody!" she squealed as she started the Jeep SUV up. "Welcome to Jurassic Park!!"

"Starkweather, don't," Doggett slapped down her hands which were reaching up to strangle Christie from behind.

The Jeeps trundled down the paved road. Despite the dense tropical foliage and the huge palm trees, everyone noticed the giant fences here and there. Well, everyone except Dr. Wick who was busy jabbering on about that plant over there and the particular fungus on that rock that they had just passed, what the pollen ratio to dust in the air on this island must be. Scully would have been bored to sleep if she had not been riding shotgun with Schabasser who kept making overt innuendoes to her. She could hear Mulder, sitting behind her seat, positively *giggling* at his lame come-ons. Next to Mulder was Peter, who was in charge of taking care of Tummy. "But I can't see anything!" Peter had whined when Wick insisted on a window seat.

"Trust me Peter, there's nothing to see but mold and fun- GUY," Mulder said as he looked straight at Schabasser while he was leering at Scully, trying desperately to impress her by rolling up his shirt sleeves to reveal bulging manly muscles. Scully pressed her lips firmly together to keep from laughing out loud.

Meanwhile, it wasn't quite all fun and games in the other Jeep either. Christie wouldn't shut up. "And oh, I can't wait for you ... well, we'll just have to wait. But you guys are going to be so amazed, I just, oh my God, it has been a true privilege working on this project.." Langly, stuck in way back where all the equipment was stored, disgruntled, had slipped a pair of headphones on, turned on his sleek little Hewlett-Packard computer and started working away at something or other. Grant was up front with Christie, mainly because he was the only one who had self-control enough not to choke her. Doggett felt his resolve slipping. It'd be one thing if she was just a ditz like Agent Leyla Harrison was. However, Agent Harrison was a nice person with her heart in the right place. Christie was just plain dumb.

Anyway, he resigned himself to babysitting Starkweather and Malcolm because he had a sinking feeling that those two geniuses were rather prejudiced against the intelligence impaired.

"Anyway, we won't have to wait much longer!" Christie chirped. "Cuz here's the gates," she flipped on a switch,

"Mr. Schabasser?"

"Yes?"

"Can you hear me?"

Starkweather clapped her hand to her forehead. She turned to Doggett, "Come on man, one snide comment, that's all I ask for. Just one!!!!"

"Either she says it," Malcolm said dryly. "Or else I will."

Doggett grumbled, "I give up."

Starkweather leaned forward, "Hey, Helen Keller, I think he can hear you just fine."

"Good one," Malcolm said.

"My name's not Helen," Christie said, confused. "It's Christie."

Over the speakers Mulder was heard moaning "Oh for the love of God."

"Ladies and gentlemen," Schabasser took over the role as tour guide, "Welcome to Jurassic Park."

Everyone looked out their windows to see massive gates, at least twelve feet high looming in front of them. Everyone lapsed into silence. Everyone except Peter who burst out "Wow, it looks just like the movie!!" as the gates slid open. After the Jeeps trundled through, the gates banged shut loudly.

Grant and Malcolm were unimpressed by the gate. "A T-Rex could rip through that like tissue paper." Grant muttered.

"And those damn raptors would figure out how to open it," Malcolm added resentfully. "I hate those raptors. More than Ex-Wife Number Four and that's saying a lot."

"But surely the park's creators would have learned from prior mistakes and not have bred such dangerous animals again, right?" Starkweather asked. When there was dead silence, she said "RIGHT?" a little more insistently.

Scully turned to give Schabasser one of her famous stare-downs. "Well, Mr. Schabasser?" she asked coolly, "are you going to answer Agent Starkweather? Or is Ms. Carter?"

"Oh, we're completely safe from the T-Rex and the raptors!" Christie chirped. "Just let us show you around the park and we'll show you how safe you are, okay??" she whined.

Starkweather opened her mouth, but Doggett said "You said only one snide comment." Starkweather clamped her mouth shut, crossed her arms and pouted.

"ANYWAY," Schabasser said, irritated, "we will be approaching the first exhibit on the tour, soon and I'd hate for anyone to miss anything because we are so busy-"

"Running for our lives?" Malcolm said laconically.

"Mr. Fox," Peter whimpered, "is this place okay?"

"We won't let anything happen to you," Mulder promised him. "And certain adults need to remember to watch their mouths as there is an impressible small person riding with us."

"Pot meet kettle," Starkweather said, yawning. She turned her head sharply to crack her neck, a habit that irritated her partner and her husband. As she was turning her head, she happened to open her eyes. "OH MY GAWD!!!!!!!!" she shrieked out at the highest decibel possible, practically jumping onto Doggett's lap. "DO YOU ALL SEE THAT!!!!!"

Doggett's jaw dropped. Malcolm turned very very white. Langly, so immersed into his computer was completely oblivious. Christie giggled nervously and Grant only stared out the window in dread.

Over the speakers, the passengers in Jeep A could be heard overlapping each other. "Mulder, what is it, I can't see."

"Oh my God, Scully, you aren't going to believe this."

"OW!!! Dr. Wick!! Get off me!!"

"Sorry Peter."

A stegosaurus had trundled from out the foliage and was just strolling along side by side with the Jeep. It was roughly the same size at the Jeep and was an algae greenish color, like an alligator. A twin row of bony looking plates jutted out from it's thickly muscles back and it's tail, armed with three vicious looking spikes, swung back and forth like a happy dog's.

Starkweather, still leaned into Doggett, stared at the stego's tiny little head and it's cow-like eyes. "Are you a Good Dino or a Bad Dino?" she asked him.

The stego turned, licked the window with a funny looking pink tongue, snorted, blowing snot all over the glass and sauntered off.

"They look mean, but they're really sweet," Christie gushed.

"I hope that's not going to be their marketing slogan," Malcolm said.

"It's better than 'Look, it followed me home, can I keep him?'" Starkweather scooted off of Doggett. Doggett spit out the mouthful of her hair he had inadvertently gotten when she had leapt away from the car window and on his lap.

"Urrghh," he gagged, pulling a long strand of blond hair out. "Warn me next time you're gonna do that," he bitched.

"I didn't get to see it," Peter pouted.

Mulder pulled Peter up onto his lap. "Better?" he asked.

"Yeah! Oh cool!! Mr. Fox, lookit! Lookit lookit!!" He pointed out the window.

About three more stegosauruses materialized out of the jungle brush. All just putzed along with the Jeeps, oblivious to the vehicles, stopping once in a while to chew on some grass.

"You see," Schabasser said proudly, "the first section of the park is set up much like the African safaris. Of course there are no predators in this section, much too risky, for us and the peaceful herbivores."

"Peaceful my ass," Starkweather was heard to grumble over the speakers.

"She keeps saying bad words," Peter tattled on her to Mulder again.

"Agent Starkweather," Scully said in her best "Mom" voice, "Little ears."

"Peaceful my butt," she promptly amended her statement.

"I hope you never have kids," Doggett told her.

"I hope I never have kids," she responded.

"I thought Jeri liked kids," Peter asked Mulder.

"She does," Mulder said. "OTHER people's kids."

Scully muttered under her breath, "I'm still going to get her for buying William that drum."

"But isn't this great?" Schabasser said. "To be able to view the dinosaurs up close and personal?"

In all honesty, it was pretty awe-inspiring. Especially when they finally got out of the jungle and out into a wide open clearing, where every type of "peaceful" Jurassic herbivore imaginable were mingling. Floating like solemn galleons were enormous brontosaurs and brachosaurs. The brontos were a slate grey color, much like elephants while the brachosaurs' skin was an odd dusty rose hue. All in all it was a stunning portrait.

"Whoa," Peter finally said. "An' these dinosaurs are really REAL, Mr. Schabasser? These aren't like movie special effects or like Abe Lincoln in Disneyland or anything?"

"No, son," Schabasser said patronizingly. "These are not fakes. You are looking at the real deal."

"COOL!!!" Peter said joyously as a hadrosaur hopped by.

"Um... I hate to be the wet blanket, Mr. Schabasser," Grant said quietly, "but what would happen if the animals show stampede?"

"There's no reason for them to," Schabasser said. "One, the predators are all away from here on another part of the island. Two, the herbivores are very much used to the human presence. Three, these vehicles are all terrain SUVs with enough horsepower to get the heck outta there. Plus all the drivers are highly trained, competent professionals. If a situation with the animals arose, they would be able to handle it."

Everyone in Jeep B looked at Christie nervously. Christie beamed at them, showing off her very white teeth.

"We're gonna die," Starkweather announced ominously.

"Why did I come on this trip again?" Malcolm asked.

"Free booze?" Grant reminded him.

"Oh yes."

"What's goin' on," Langly finally slipped off his headsets and lifted his head from his notebook computer. He looked out the window. "Holy Moses Roses... whoa. If one of those things stepped on this SUV, we'd be squished like a freakin' grape."

Starkweather turned to Doggett and made a whimpering sound.

"You know," Malcolm said silkily, "if you two were about to profess your undying lurve for each other, now's the time to do it before all the running and screaming starts."

Doggett and Starkweather leaned over to glare at Malcolm viciously.

"Ian," Starkweather said shortly. "that was uncalled for."

"'Sides," Doggett said lightly, "even if there was reason to make asses outta ourselves like that before bitin' the big one, her husband would find a way to make our afterlives miserable."

"Husband??" Christie said confused. "But I thought you WERE her husband, Mr. Starkweather? Why does everyone keep calling Mr. Starkweather Agent Doggett? Is he a secret agent man?"

"BUHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA!!!" Mulder and Scully could be heard guffawing from the other Jeep as both Doggett and Starkweather slid down their seats in abject humiliation as Mulder began singing "Secret AGENT MAN!!!" very loudly and off-key.

The hilarity caused by Malcolm's incredibly inappropriate remark concerning the relationship between Agent Doggett and Mrs. Starkweather was halted by Schabasser's next remark: "Alright, everybody, next stop, the petting zoo."

"WHAT??!?!?!?!???!?!?!?!??!" Both Malcolm and Grant burst out.

"We really ARE gonna die," Starkweather said.

"Here's to you, Mrs. Starkweather," Doggett muttered, raising his water bottle.

"Jesus loves me more than I will know," she sang sarcastically. "Whoa whoa whoa..."




 

Meanwhile -

Back in Tacoma Falls
The Lone Gunmen's Lair

Benjamin Starkweather knocked nervously on the warehouse door, sweating in his three-piece suit while standing in the August heat.

Frohike, standing on a stool, peered out the peephole. "How the hell did you find this place?" he berated Ben.

"Jerilyn left me instructions."

"Typical woman, blabbing secrets," Frohike grumbled.

"Can I come in?" Ben asked. "It's hotter than hell out here."

"It's gonna be hotter where your ass is going after this life, Lawyer-Boy, so you better get used it." Frohike slammed the peephole shut. He hated lawyers. All lawyers.

"I have information on Schabasser," Ben yelled. He pounded on the door. "Goddamn it, my wife and your friends are stuck on that island. So let me in you hacker piece of shit."

Frohike swung the door open. "You, the lawyer, is callin' ME a piece of shit?" He scowled at him as he let him in. "Pot? Kettle? Black?"

"Hey, it's not my fault you guys almost got killed by the Syndicate last summer, okay?" Ben said as he shrugged off his suit jacket and unloosened his tie. "My legal aide Noelle helped me find this." He handed Frohike a legal file. "If anyone finds out we have a copy of this, our ass is grass."

"What is it?" Byers asked.

"Schabasser's criminal record."

"We could have gotten that anywhere," Frohike scoffed.

"His criminal record in Mexico?" Ben challenged him.

"Say what?"




Meanwhile....

En route to Phoenix, Arizona
Delta Airlines 12178

Skinner handed Reyes another airsickness bag. "Maybe you shouldn't have had that last shot," he said as he took away the baggie Reyes filled up, wrinkling up his face in disgust.

Reyes was a most unattractive shade of green right now. "I am so humiliated," she moaned before another wave of nausea overtook her.

Skinner flagged down a passing flight attendant, "Could we get another one?" he asked as he handed her the full bag.

The flight attendant took on look at Reyes. "It's gonna be one of those flights," she groaned to herself as she took the bag and walked swiftly off, holding the bag as far away from her as possible.

"Sir," Reyes said, "I am so sorry..." she moaned as she pictured her FBI career going down the toilet because she hadn't been able to keep up with her boss at the bar.

"Like I said Reyes," Skinner said gruffly, "just as long as you're sober by the time we get to Mexico City."

"Does 'dead' count for 'sober'," Reyes asked. "I think I'd feel better if I was dead."

Skinner fought to keep a smile off his face. "You'll survive," he said dryly. "Anyway... I shouldn't have made the last shot Sambucca."

Reyes looked up at Skinner, who didn't even seem slightly buzzed. <<It's not fair>> she thought as she stuck her face in the bag again and let loose what was left in her stomach.

The flight attendant came back with a trashcan. "This might work better," she said.

Reyes smiled weakly at her. <<I KNEW I should have just called in sick>> she thought bitterly as she clutched the trashcan like it was her new best friend. <<Doggett and the others are SO going to owe me...>>




 

Meanwhile...

Andrea Nowark's Room
La Isla Luna Blanca

Justin Leo finished tying up his hiking boots. "Andrea," he looked at her impatiently. She had taken forever changing out of her suit and into an almost practical hiking outfit. "Are you ready?"

"Are you sure I have to leave all my luggage?" she whined as she zipped up her backpack. "I have three suits from Versace along."

"I told you to pack light," he said unsympathetically. "Come on, let's go. We still need to go down and get supplies. Food, water."

"How long are we going to be out there?" she griped as she slung on the heavy bag on her back when it became glaringly obvious that Justin was not going to carry it for her.

"Well, it'll take most of the night to get through the park to get to where the caves are. After that, we're home free. We get the safe. We go over to the main bunker, we snag a boat, we go to Cozumel. We're home free."

"What about the boy?" Andrea demanded as Leo shut the door.

"What about him?"

"Can he be trusted?"

"Trusted?" Leo looked at her, disgusted. "He's a little kid. Nobody is going to believe that a dead man took him to a dinosaur island. And I'll pay a visit to my sister and scare her straight. Peter and Ana won't say a word."

"Maybe we should leave him-" Andrea started to say but wished she hadn't for Leo's big hand suddenly wrapped around her throat.

"I've done a lot of things in my life that I'm not proud of," he said silkily. "Hurting a child is not one of them. And I'm sure as hell not going to start, especially with my own blood. But..." he squeezed just a little tighter. "You on the other hand... I don't think anyone on this trip would cry for you, Argentina." He let go, chuckling at the look of horror on Andrea's face.

Andrea rubbed her neck, her face flushed an unattractive red. So far on this trip, she had been slapped, drugged, punched and now nearly choked. <<You better not sleep tonight, pretty boy>> she thought vindictively as she followed Leo into the stairwell.




 

Meanwhile...

The Lone Gunmen's Lair:

Ben folded his arms as if he was addressing a grand jury instead of short squat Frohike and long lanky Byers. "Schabasser spent a little time in a Mexican prison that was conveniently erased from his records."

"So how did you get it?" Frohike said suspiciously.

"**I** didn't. I told the receptionist to look up any dirt on Schabasser, which there was plenty of. She went to Schabasser, Gillian and Sita Partners In Law. And, according to Noelle, Veronica Sita and Elena Gillian, the other senior partners, had nothing good to say about him. And Veronica dug up that little tidbit on Schabasser."

"What'd he do?" Byers asked.

"Schabasser, apparently, got caught up in a drug ring. He's never been caught in the United States because he does all his dirty work in Mexico. According to Ms. Sita, he offers legal counsel to the drug runners, advises them of all the legal loopholes they can jump through if they ever get busted in the States. He also has a list of dirty cops in here in DC if any of cartel members get busted here. These cops, for a nominal fee, are more than willing to help them out of a jam. And Schabasser gets paid handsomely for his legal aid."

"Whatta guy," Frohike mumbled, his hatred for lawyers increasing.

"What did he do in Mexico?" Byers asked.

"Classic case of wrong place, wrong time. He was "on vacation" so to speak, in lovely Cancun, Mexico, visiting on of the captains of the drug cartels that he assists. The Mexican feds busted the captain and busted Schabasser along with him."

"So how did he get out of that?"

"Schabasser cut a deal. He transferred a pile of American money to someone's bank account in Mexico and he walks free and the captain walks free."

"So how did this Veronica Sita find out?"

"Veronica has always been suspicious of Schabasser ever since she started working for him. When Mrs. Schabasser came into the office, screaming bloody murder because Mr. Schabasser pulled out $75,000 out of their joint savings account for 'legal resources'

"HOW much????" Frohike nearly choked on the YooHoo! he was drinking.

"$75G," Ben said modestly. "So when that money disappeared and Mr. Schabasser is notorious for being less than faithful to Mrs. Schabasser and is also notorious for spending lavish funds on the current objects of his affection, the missus thought he was just running around on her again. Veronica, not appreciating being screamed at by an irate wife first thing in the morning, thought otherwise and so, figuratively speaking unfortunately, beat it out of Schabasser what happened. He swore to her up and down that his days in the drug world are done and that he never used the law firm as a front. Blah blah blah."

"So what does Schabasser have to do with the island?" Byers asked

"Schabasser represents Unigen International. A friend of mine from Carter, Spangle and Adams, Stephen Cello, has been working on a case against Unigen for several months now and just recently, it escalated, mainly because of their inflated stockprice. Cello called me last night asking me to help him prosecute Unigen. So now I'm part of the legal team comprised of lawyers from around the nation, representing a starving author named Michael Critchton and a struggling director named Steven Spielberg. Heard of them?"

"You must be joking," Byers said, wide-eyed.

"Holy balls," Frohike said.

"Spielberg and Critchton are suing Unigen for copyright infringement," Ben said. "Spielberg, somehow, caught wind of Unigen's Jurassic Park project, contacted Critchton and they started rounding up the legal team. And of course, when Universal Studios found out, they filed their own separate lawsuit. It's ugly. "

"Does Mrs. Starkweather know?" Byers asked.

Ben hesitated slightly. "I was supposed to go with Jerilyn to La Luna Blanca. I cancelled at the last minute when Cello called. I had no idea what he was calling me into. We ended up doing an all-nighter working on this. And the kicker? This Jurassic Park thing? It's for real. They have dinosaurs on that island. Cello's got the surveillance shots. Which is how I got dragged into it, since I'm an environmental lawyer. The case is going beyond just the copyright. They want me to help them figure out the environmental impact of creatures from the Fred-and-Barney Era roaming around."

"And you didn't call Starkweather?" Frohike asked him suspiciously.

Ben glowered at the little man. "We had a fight," he said succinctly. "And I've been trying to call her cell, but I'm getting a 'No Service Available' message. I went to see Skinner, but it appears that he and Agent Reyes are on their way to Mexico. So I came here. Veronica Sita believes that Schabasser is still heavily into the drug ring and is probably using La Luna Blanca as a front to launder the dirty money because she fired the accountant who had been working for Schabasser ever since the firm opened and hired her cousin Bob Sita who just recently graduated from Georgetown with a business/accounting double major. Bob will report any discrepancies directly to Veronica so now Schabasser needs a new place to wash his thirty pieces of silver."

"Whatta dick," Frohike grumbled.

"If we can bust Schabasser, we'll kill three birds with one stone. The park gets shut down, so no dinos will have a chance to visit Suburban American. Unigen gets shut down, thus creating, finally, a precedent on cloning and we'll finally have legal guidelines to operate by when another cloning issue arises. And Schabasser goes away and a major rival for MY lawfirm is eliminated. Problem is, there is no physical proof of Schabasser's dirty work. That paperwork I gave you is just Noelle's notes from her meeting with Veronica and Elena. The paper trail had been shredded. He bought off somebody in the Mexican government to get him off the hook. Whatever proof there is, has been long buried."

Byers said determinedly, "We will find the evidence necessary to bring Schabasser down. Rest assured, Mr. Starkweather, nothing stays buried forever."

"Look at Mulder," Frohike said.

"Exactly," Byers nodded in agreement.




 

Back at La Luna Blanca…

"But...lizards feel weird...you can't pet them." Peter whined. "I bet dinosaurs feel weird too."

"You don't have to pet them if you don't want to." Mulder answered.

"WOAH!" Peter yelped, his eyes widening in awe, a stiffened finger just almost catatonically pointing at the massive light-brown beasts that seem to scatter as soon as the vehicles approached. "Lookathat!"

In the other car, Malcolm unfastened his safety belt. "I suggest you do the same," he turned back around to Doggett and Starkweather, "stampedes, you know."

"Gyposaurus...Anchisaurus...Caulodon..." Grant croaked, listing the species that meandered past them.

A few dinosaurs about the size of large dogs, but the length of a rhinosaurus scampered away from the vehicles.

"We have fifteen herbivorous species that were native to this latitude during the Jurassic era," Christie was reciting like the tour-guide she was, as though seeing this creatures was just like any other tourist attraction, like going to Disney World.

A couple of curious gentle giants wandered up to the new visitors. Their legs were low to the ground, but they were massive...easily weighing 70 pounds with gray skin.

"Like I said, they're used to people, so most of them aren't shy." They parked the cars and everyone except Langly got out to explore.

"The wind's picking up, Ms. Carter," Doggett said. "Shouldn't we think about headin' back before it gets too bad?"

"We don’t' need to worry about that, Agent Doggett, there's plenty of time to get back to the hotel before the heavy rain arrives."

Langly, who still hadn't glanced up from what he was tinkering with let out a disgusted yelp. "Aiiiiiiieee!"

"Aw fuck me! Barney just slobbered all over my equipment." He groaned, shaking as much slobber out of his hair as he could. "I haven't had this much goo on me since some dude threw up on me at an ACDC concert."

The wind picked up and the sky darkened. Rain pelted down in bullets, and everyone scattered back into the car. Christie led them out.

Schabasser, trying to make sure his end of the deal was secure, accelerated on the gas when Christie's car in front of him slowed down to miss a tree.

"Mr. Schabasser? You alright back there?" Christie hollered, then, after seeing that everyone was alright, and remembering her training, "Alright everyone, no need to panic, we're about fifteen miles from the hotel. I'll get..."

Lighteningless thunder pounded and got louder with each quake.

"…some help on the way..."

THUD!

"Oh this is just fricken terrific," Starkweather bitched as she pushed her wet hair out of her face. She was devoutly glad she had changed out of the blue sundress she wore to the luncheon, but now the T-shirt and shorts she had on where sticking uncomfortable to her skin. All the friendly dinosaurs were scampering off to there respective shelters.

Meanwhile, in the other Jeep, Scully, now sitting in the backseat, as Wick claimed shotgun, whispered over Peter's head to Mulder, "I don't like this."

"Think I'm thrilled?" Mulder asked her. -

"When are we gonna get back to the hotel?" Peter asked in a quavering voice. He hated storms.

Schabasser heard them. "We're goin' back right now," he said as he took a completely wrong turn, with Christie following....

**THUD**

**THUD**




Forty-five minutes later...

"Are we there yet?" Peter whined.

"Hang in there buddy, we'll get there soon," Mulder re-assured the boy.

Tummy the puppy whined in the back.

Over the speaker, the passengers in Jeep A could very clearly hear Starkweather ragging on Christie in Jeep B.

"Where the hell ARE we??"

"We're gettin' closer..."

"You said that twenty minutes ago!!"

"Are we lost?" Peter quavered.

Scully put her arms around the boy. "I'm not sure, sweetie. But we'll be okay," she tried to reassure him as Mulder reached in back and lifted Tummy out of the backseat. He put her in Peter's lap as a distraction. As Peter wrapped his arms around her, the little puppy snuggled into Peter and whined.

Nerves on edge, he snapped, "Can't you shut that damn dog up?"

"Can't you drive any faster?" Mulder retorted blandly.

"Look, I can't see worth a shit," Schabasser finally admitted. "Maybe it would be better to pull over."

"NO!!!" Everyone in both Jeeps yelled at him. But

Schabasser ignored the cries and defiantly parked the vehicle. Since he was blocking the path, Christie had no choice but to stop as well.

"Look, we don't have a choice," Schabasser snapped, furious at himself for getting into such a mess. "We're only going five miles per hour anyway. Let's just sit it out."

"How about we radio in to the hotel and find out what the weather conditions are," Starkweather snapped. "Maybe it would behoove us to find more sturdy shelter than a deformed minivan."

"You know, Agent Starkweather," Schabasser yelled, "I'm getting tired of your mouth."

"You know, Mr. Schabasser," Doggett piped up, "I'm gettin' tired of your incompetence. Face it, you dropped the ball. You don't know what the weather's doin and you don't know where you are on this damn island. I strongly suggest you figure out-"

**THUD**

Everyone was deadly quiet. For a minute, there was nothing but the howl of the wind and the drumming of the rain pelting the roof of the SUV Jeeps. Everyone was holding their breath though. Even Tummy was quiet.

**THUD**

Shoulders hunched up, cringing in her seat, Starkweather finally managed to squeak out, "What... was that?" Nervously she began to fidget with her wedding band. "Schabasser," she said, using authorative tones to cover up her terror, "Where. Are. We."

Scully leaned forward, "Mr. Schabasser," she noted how green he suddenly looked. "Where are we?"

Schabasser licked his lips. "I took a wrong turn."

"WHERE ARE WE???" Scully shouted. Peter clutched at Tummy tighter. Mulder now lifted the boy onto his lap and rubbed his back, "It's okay buddy, we're getting out of this... we'll be fine."

Over the speaker, Doggett was growling "Whaddya MEAN you took a wrong turn??"

"What is going on????" Starkweather shrilled out.

"Chaos theory," Malcolm said thinly.

Grant peered out the window, desperately trying to find a clue to where in the park they were. He could barely make out a sign, but it was blurry in the downpour. Behind the sign, it looked to be a fence, a very high fence...

"Oh my God," Grant said. "We're at the fenceline at the T-Rex paddock, aren't we Mr. Schabasser?"

**THUD**

**THUD**

**THUD**

Almost hyperventilating, Starkweather gasped out, "Well... he... he he can't get out though... right???"

**ROAWWWWWWWWRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR**

The tyrannosaurus rex reared his ugly head above the treeline.

"It's perfectly safe," Schabasser retorted, trying to hide the fact that he wet himself when the T-Rex roared. "Those are high-voltage fences. He can't get out."

"We've seen T-Rex's break down high voltage fences," Grant said, angry now. "All it takes is for the power to get shut down."

"The last Jurassic Park failed because a disgruntled employee was lured by the rival company to steal dino embryos and in doing so, he shut down the power," Schabasser's voice was becoming more staticky. The storm was interfering now.

"Holy moo cow," Langly said. "That's why you guys haven't been able to catch a signal for the cell phones. The damn storm's been interfering with the electrical fields."

"And you cut off internet access so there's no way for us to get any help whatsoever," Scully yelled at Schabasser after catching the gist of what Langly said over the speaker.

The T-Rex, bored, disappeared below the foliage. But everyone could sense his hot, carnivorous presence lurking behind the fence line.

Doggett turned to his partner. "You okay, Doc?"

"'Who's the more foolish, the fool, or the fool that follows him,'" she quoted Star Wars, referring to Schabasser.

"Thank you Obi-Wan."

"Here's another one... I've got a bad feeling about this."

The lightening finally caught up with the thunder and everyone was blinded by its brilliance as it crackled above them.

"You know..." Malcolm tried his best to use black humor to liven up a bleak situation, "almost every bad sci-fi movie starts off this way. Bad storm. Scaly creatures with voracious appetites wandering around. The idiot tourists milling about. Hey, have you guys seen "Evolution" yet?"

"That one with David Duchovny?" Starkweather asked.

"Yes."

"Yeah I did," she said. "It sucked."

"Hey," Mulder's voice came through the speaker. "I liked it."

"You would."

"It was better than the new "Godzilla"."

"Good point."

"Hey Scully," Mulder turned to his partner. "How many X-Files we've been on started like this?"

"The grand majority of them."

"So what's going on?" Starkweather demanded. "Schabasser, are you going to move or what?"

"We're staying here," he snapped, still pouting. <<Leo is going to be pissed>> he fretted...

 

The entrance of the Hotel Parking Garage

"Where the hell is he?" snapped Andrea, furious that she was wet, cold and muddy. "Isn't he and the kid supposed to be here now???"

Leo glared at her and fantasized pushing her into the velicioraptor pen. "Listen, you plastic bimbo-"

Suddenly the lights went out.

"Oh shit."

It wasn't a disgruntled employee or even a bolt of lightening that knocked out the park's main generators. The storm had made the sea very precarious and wave after wave of salt-water buffeted the island. A giant wave had crashed down and essentially short-circuited the main generator, causing the outage.

Not that it mattered to a living human (and canine) soul on that island how it happened.

Just that it happened.

The lamppost that Schabasser parked under went out but no one really noticed. Because Schabasser refused to move, and the members of Jeep B wouldn't let Christie backtrack and leave the passengers of Jeep A, they just sat there, killing time in their own way.

Mulder and Scully, predictably, snuggled up in the backseat of the car, like an old married couple, with Peter and Tummy laying on their laps, napping. Wick was reading a dog-eared paperback of "The Return of the King" by JRR Tolkien that he had stuffed into the back pocket of his very baggy pants before joining the afternoon's tour. Schabasser was playing with his Palm Pilot.

In the other car, Christie had taken out her massive pink makeup bag and started to reapply the makeup that had melted off during her run in the rainstorm. Grant watched her in morbid fascination. <<She's going to need a trowel to scrape that all off again>> the man of nature thought. He never understood cosmetics.

Malcolm had pulled out a little pocket notebook and a silver pen. He began to compose algebraic equations and then preceded to solve them, for fun. Langly, meanwhile, started tinkering in the backseat again, working feverishly now. The small ham radio he was putting together was almost done, just a few more parts... then he could call the calvary... and if the calvary wasn't around, he could call Frohike and Byers.

Starkweather had nodded off, her head against the windowpane. Feeling sorry for her, Doggett, carefully, pulled her away from the door and leaned her against him. <<Hey, the rain's lettin' up>> he thought in relief as he looked out the window. Thunder and lightening were still banging and crashing in the background <<or is it that damned dino? Never mind, I don't wanna know>> he thought.

<<Hey, why is that light burnt out?>> he thought, looking at the lamppost. He then felt his gut drop to his sneakers. <<Oh shit>>

From the corner of his eye, he noticed the trees moving, in the opposite direction the wind was blowing. He turned his head. He sucked in his breath as he saw a giant clawed talon resting on the thick cable on top of the fenceline.

"Doc wake up," he whispered urgently.

She fluttered her eyes. "What? Huh?"

"Christie," Doggett said, all business now, "get on the horn and tell Schabasser we gotta move, now."

"Why??" She said.

"Malcolm's chaos plan has been put into practice."

Christie, Grant, Malcolm and Starkweather all looked out the window.

"Oh shit," Grant said.

"This is bad," Starkweather instinctually groped at her side for her gun. "This is really bad."

**ROWWWWWWWWWWWWRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR**

Everyone in both vehicles jumped. Mulder was the first one in Jeep A to notice, "Oh my God, the power's out."

"Schabasser," Scully said as calmly as she could as so not to frighten the boy. "You need to get us out of here, now."

"NO!" Grant said when he heard Scully's voice over the speaker. "We must stay perfectly still."

"You mean stay here like a sittin' duck!!!!!" Doggett spluttered. "Have you lost your mind?!?!?!?"

"Remember your high school biology," Grant pleaded with them. "For the most part, reptiles only see motion. If we stay perfectly still until that thing leaves, we'll be okay. Trust me, I've seen this before. We just need to stay-"

The Tyrannosaurus Rex charged through the fence...




Meanwhile...

"Justin," Andrea hissed as Leo ran to a parked Jeep. "What in the hell are you doing?"

"We gotta go, Andrea," he said. When she just stood there, he yelled. "Move your ass, come on!"

"I thought we were supposed to wait for Schabasser!"

"Andrea, the power's gone, don't you get it?? The park is not operational. Those damn things can get free now and my kid nephew is out there."

"Are you seriously thinking about going out there?" she shrieked at him. "You must be joking."

"You selfish bitch," Leo fumed at her, shining his flashlight at her. "I am not leaving Peter out there. I don't give a rat's ass. You can either stay here and be dino meat or come with me and help me find that boy. You have three seconds."

In a huff, Andrea stomped over and climbed into the passenger seat. "Fuck you, Justin," she snapped as he started the Jeep.




 

Meanwhile…

"Peter," Mulder whispered as the prehistoric nightmare had its back to them, sniffing at the burnt out lamppost, "get down on the floor, hang on to Tummy and don't move."

Peter quickly obeyed him, dragging Tummy down with him. Tummy howled but Peter petted him, telling him "'S'okay, Tummy, we're gonna be fine," in a whisper. "You gotta shut up now." Tummy whined but stayed still. Mulder put one hand on the boy's head and slowly with the other, reached for Scully's hand. He could feel her trembling. "Oh, Mulder, oh my God...."

"We'll be fine," Mulder told her lowly. "As long as we do as Grant says. We just stay still. We'll going to make it out fine. Mainly because I don't want Maggie having to tell our son Barney the Dinosaur ate us. Our life insurance combined won't cover all the therapy he would need after that kind of news."

"Mulder," Scully hissed. "shut up!"

The tyrannosaur wheeled around, it's massive tail barely missing the Jeep. Wick yelped. Scully kicked his seat.

"Quiet!" she snarled.

Cocking his head like an inquisitive dog, the dinosaur, snuffling, stomped its way towards Jeep A.

"Oh God...." Schabasser moaned, peeing himself again. This was not what he had in mind. And he knew that a dinosaur was not going to be as easily bought off as a Mexican fed is...

With every step, the passengers of Jeep B could feel the tyrannosaur moving towards Jeep A. "Oh my God," Starkweather moaned. "There's got to be a way... we got to help them..."

"How?" Malcolm whispered. "Last time I tried to draw off a dino attack, I was used as a chew toy. I still have the scars."

**THUD**

**THUD**

**THUD**


**CRASH**

"What the hell???" Doggett said, heart pounding. He had been in tight situations before, but never against anything like this. Before, he could predict what the enemy was going to do.

But who could predict nature? Especially when man tampers with nature.

Starkweather slowly turned her head around, as so not to attract the monster advancing on them ahead of them. Langly was already looking out the rear window. His long face was slick with sweat. Starkweather looked to see what Langly was looking at. Her eyes widen in horror.

"Oh crap!!!"

"What??" Grant asked, not turning around. "What is it?"

She slowly turned around, now understanding how mice must feel just before her cat drops his heavy paw on their poor little heads. "There's two of them," she announced as she reached for Doggett's hand beside her.

"Say what??"

"Dos dinos," Langly said, still staring slack jawed at the lizard that was staring at the Jeeps with great interest. He looked up, saw the other T-Rex and roared so loudly everyone had to cover their ears.

The other dinosaur, the one standing in front of Jeep A only snarled at him, like a tiger only amplified ten times.

"Oh God," Scully whispered. "They're going to fight for territory."

"Didn't somebody tell them that this island IS big enough for the both of them?"

"Stay still," Grant ordered them in a whisper. "Just don't bloody move an inch."

Malcolm licked his lips, "Say Grant, I heard there's new research out there where paleontologists now think that the tyrannosaurs could be scavengers instead of predators."

"I think somebody forgot to tell these guys," Doggett said.

"That or they're just going to circle around us until we starve to death," Starkweather added.

"Mr. Fox," Peter said, clinging to Tummy, "what if they start fightin' here? Won't they stomp on the cars?"

"Maybe we could distract them with something?" Wick suggested.

Schabasser suddenly reached behind the seat and snatched Tummy out of Peter's hands. "I'll distract 'em," he snarled while he thought <<Because I am sure as hell not dying out here!>>

"What are you doing??" Scully screamed as the puppy yelped while Schabasser got out of the Jeep.

"My dog!!" Mulder wailed as Peter started to cry.

Meanwhile the passengers in the other SUV Jeep were watching in total shock as they watched Schabasser step out of his vehicle and face the T-Rex standing in front of him.

"What in the hell is he doin'????" Doggett said.

"Oh my Gawd!!" Christie shrieked, "he's got Mr. Mulder's dog!!"

"WHAT?!?!?!" Doggett's jaw dropped.

"Oh my God, I was only kidding when I said to use the puppy as bait!!" Starkweather moaned. "That sick bastard!!!!"

As defiant as General Custer facing down the Indian nation, Schabasser held Tummy up by the scruff of her neck. "HEY! YOU! WANNA SNACK!!"

"THAT SON OF A BITCH!" Mulder howled and had put his hand on the door handle but Scully grabbed his shirtsleeve.

"Stay here Mulder," she ordered him.

"HERE! GO GET IT!" and Schabasser flung Tummy into the dense jungle.

The tyrannosaur didn't move, just stared at the lawyer intensely.

"I think his bright idea backfired," Malcolm muttered.

"Run," Starkweather hissed. "You fucking moron, run..."




 

Ciudad del Mexico Aeroport Internationale

Mexico City, Mexico

"The baggage claim attendant said they'll forward our luggage on to D.C., but since our stay is so short, it'd never get out to the island in time."

"Great..." She said, blowing whatever was lodged in her nostrils out with almost a honk. "Just friggin' great."

"It's not that bad...we'll probably only be there for a night."

"Probably." She coughed out.

Thankfully, the flight attendant in the Mexico City International Airport spoke very good English.

Which was very helpful when the only person fluent in Spanish was fighting a cold and a hangover at the same time.

A tall, heavy-set man with an Australian accent bulldozed passed them through the Rental desk. Reyes and Skinner knew the man had an Australian accent because at a very loud volume, he was asking every possible airport attendee,

"Pardon, where's the rental desk?"

"Sir, we need to see some ID first before we can accommodate you with a pilot and a plane." The stewardess said flatly.

"Miss, would it be terribly hard for you just to overlook that fact. I seem to have forgotten my passport. It's in my car, I can go get it if you can wait."

She smiled flatly. "Sir, it's a bank holiday here in Mexico, and the pilots will be off as per union policy in ten minutes, when the last plane leaves."

"The only way he's going to get through the airport in that amount of time is if he uses the teleporter." Reyes croaked. Then sneezed.

"Now see here!" he persisted, "I don't look like some bloody terrorist, do I? Just please for God's sake let me get a goddamn chopper!"

Skinner couldn't stand it anymore. He cleared his throat and flashed his badge.

"I need to get to La Isla Luna Blanca, as soon as possible." Skinner said to the flustered attendant. "Could you please tell me the best way to do that?"

"The only way to do that is to rent a puddle-jumper. It's a...how do you say...bank holiday, and the only planes available to fly have already left for the day."

Reyes and Skinner exchanged pained looks. "Senora..." Reyes began hoarsely, "We're on official business from the FBI."

"La Isla Luna Blanca is a tourist trap...what's the FBI doing on business there?" The Australian wondered aloud.

Reyes just glowered at the man, handed the stewardess her credit card, passport, and FBI badge. "Look, I don't care. I've lost my voice, I've lost my stomach, I've lost my luggage, and I'm going to lose my friends if I don't get to La Isla Luna Blanca soon and if you don't want to loose your blood and freedom, I suggest you get your plane as fast as damn possible." She screamed... well... actually...she squeaked thanks to her cold.

"Senorita, just charge his reservation to my credit card."

The man glowed with accomplishment. "I won't forget this Madame"

"You can send the check to the FBI."

"I don't have a checking account." The man said.

"Then what's you're address, I'll send you an IOU." Reyes growled.

"A plane and a pilot please to fly to La Isla Luna Blanca."

"I'm sorry, sir," the flight attendant said all-too-

cheerfully. "But the last flight just left for the day with that gentleman. You'll have to wait till Monday until the next one out."

"Oh crap." Reyes squeaked.




 

Meanwhile... back at the party **grins**

Schabasser felt his bowels liquefy again as the giant lizard stared at him. The damn thing didn't go after the dog and was staring at him as if he was a tasty hors d'ouevers.

"Oh my God, Mulder, we can't just let him-" Scully started to say just as Starkweather was pleading "Dr. Grant, he's an ass, but we can't just let-"

The T-Rex sprung and snatched up Schabasser in one bite.

The man didn't even have time to scream. There was the sickening crunch of bones as the dinosaur shook him, once, twice. Then he lifted his head up and swallowed, a man-shaped bulge rippling down his throat.

"OH GOD!" Starkweather cried as she covered her face. "I didn't that! I didn't see that!" Doggett put his arm around her and tried to fight the wave of nausea that crashed over him. He had seen a lot of awful things in his life, but never a man eaten. Whole.

Langly fainted. Grant closed his eyes and Malcolm began to shake.

Wide eyed and feeling a horror he hadn't experienced since he came up close and personal with Bill Patterson AKA "The Gargoyle Man", Mulder froze as the creature, after it finished swallowing the lawyer, turned his head to peer into their Jeep. The T-Rex sniffed the sunroof, it's hot, foul breath fogging up the glass.

"Oh my God..." Scully breathed, not moving. Peter, still crouched down by Mulder's legs, hugged himself and sobbed silently.

"Peter," Mulder said quietly, putting his hand on the child's head. "Hush. Stay quiet." Peter swallowed his tears but he was still shaking terribly. Wick was nearly hyperventilating, but he was staying still.

The T-Rex behind Jeep B roared angrily. He stomped his foot as in challenge. The other T-Rex snorted at him and turned his attention back to Jeep A.

Mulder remembered going to see the movie 'Jurassic Park' with a blind date and not really paying attention to the movie because his date was pretty and he had high hopes of getting to know her better. But he remembered the scene from the movie where the Tyrannosaur peered into the Jeep where the children where hiding, how it's eye dilated when the girl's flashlight shined into it. He remembered how his date screamed and he made some remark that he thought was a brilliant witticism but she took offense to it and pouted throughout the rest of the movie, therefore killing any chance of getting to know her better.

There was no light except for the lightening, which just flashed as the dinosaur dipped his head down and peaked through Mulder's window. Mulder watched, while holding his breath, the giant eye set in the leathery alligator green skin. The eye was not just yellow, but rich amber with a ring of orange around the iris. The pupil, thick and midnight black, turned into a slit, just like a cat's eye when the lightening flashed.

Then the dinosaur backed away...

And returned to headbutt the vehicle.

"We can't just SIT here and do nothing!!" Starkweather wailed when she saw the dinosaur slam its snout into the SUV, raising half of it off the ground.

"What about our buddy, back there?" Malcolm said, referring to T-Rex Number Two. "What he is gets a bright idea to-"

"Charge!" Grant said as he watched in the rear view mirror the second predator coming towards them. "Everyone! Brace yourself!"

The second tyrannosaur ran right past the second Jeep and flung itself onto the first tyrannosaur, clawing and biting. The second's tail swung around, hitting the second jeep, sending it spinning into the first Jeep. There was a sickening crush of metal on metal. The Jeeps bounced off each other. Jeep A flipped to one side. Jeep B slammed into a giant palm tree on the side of the road.

Mulder dangled from his seatbelt above Scully who was lying motionless against the car door. Peter had landed right next to her. He was also not moving. "Scully!" he gasped out, the seatbelt cutting into his waist. "Scully! Peter!" he fumbled for the seatbelt buckle.

Peter raised his head. "Mr. Fox, what happened!" he whimpered. There was a big cut on his forehead.

"Peter," Mulder reached for the boy. "We have to get out of here. I need your help. I can't get this buckle undone."

Peter stood on his tiptoes, straining for the buckle. "I can't reach!!"

Meanwhile, in the other van, Grant asked "Everyone okay?" he shook Christie. "Ms. Carter? Ms. Carter??" her head was lolling as if the neck was broken. Blood dripped from her nose and mouth. "Oh God, I think she's dead..."

Langly sat up. "What the hell happened?"

Doggett was pressing his hand to his cheek, blood oozing from between his fingers, "Langly, you slept through the good parts," he muttered not realizing that it was going to get even better.

"Let's get out of here while the boys are busy," Starkweather suggested while watching the Clash of the Titans duke it out.

Both tyrannosaurs were screaming at each other. They snapped their giant jaws at each other. Stealthily, Starkweather opened her door and slid out, crouching down behind the Jeep. Doggett and Malcolm quickly followed.

Langly bailed over the backseat, snatched his backpack and his beloved notebook computer and hustled out. Grant, after checking Christie's pulse one more time to see if she was truly dead, crawled over the front seat and out the back door.

"Well..." Malcolm whispered. "Now what?"

"What about them?" Starkweather said, gesturing her head towards the other Jeep. "We can't leave them," she said in a trembling voice as the tyrannosaurs began to move their battle for supremacy closer and closer to the toppled vehicle.

"We ain't gonna leave 'em," the retired Marine proclaimed. Doggett then turned to Langly. "Slid back into the back seat and see if there's any flares..."

Malcolm turned even paler, "I wouldn't recommend flares..."

Back in the Jeep, Mulder pleaded with Peter, "Come on buddy, jump just a little higher."

Peter kept trying but it was obvious the child was petrified, although truth be told, Mulder wasn't exactly acting his normal cool and collected either. "I can't reach," Peter whimpered.

"Grab my hand," Mulder said as the Jeep shuddered with every stomp of the dinosaurs' feet. "And I'll pull you up."

Peter clasped Mulder's arm and with a groan, Mulder pulled 85 pounds of boy in a straight arm-curl. "I really need to start working out again," Mulder grunted as he felt his arm shaking. "Okay, Pete, I don't know how long I can hold you," he said as he reached down with his other hand and grabbed the back of his shirt. "Try and see why the seat belt won't unfasten." The Jeep was vibrating terribly now. The dinosaurs were fighting uncomfortably close.

"It's stuck!" Peter announced. "It's broken."

"Mulder...?" Dazed Scully sat up. "Mulder, what happened?" There was a giant red mark on her forehead, which promised to turn into a really pretty bruise in the morning. Provided they survived to see morning, of course.

"Scully, there's no time," Mulder said, letting the boy down. "You need to find a knife or scissors or something and cut me out of this. We got to-"

Mulder was interrupted by the shrill shriek of death's final agony as the larger of the tyrannosaurs finally sunk its teeth in its challenger's neck. The loser of the fight crumpled as its hot blood oozed down the scales of its neck. The victor ripped a chunk of flesh out of its opponent's throat and swallowed. The loser collapsed onto the dirt road. Everything shook.

Starkweather stumbled when the dead dinosaur fell. Malcolm caught her.

"Everyone get down," Grant hissed as Langly slid out of the Jeep. He peered around the edge of the vehicle. "Oh no..."

The remaining T-Rex again took an interest to the Jeep Mulder, Scully, Dr. Wick and the boy were in.

"Mulder..." Scully said as she felt the ground shaking as the tyrannosaur coming closer. Then the shaking stopped abruptly.

Mulder, Scully and Peter looked up and saw, silhouetted in the glare of the lightening; a figure previously regulated to museums and science fiction films.

Mulder, eyes wide open as he dangled precariously from his seatbelt, the crocodile-style head with its beady yellow eyes and large nostrils. It's breath fogged up the passenger window. Mulder also couldn't help but notice the giant teeth as the creature lifted its lips to growl. They didn't look as sharp as one would think but Mulder thought <<They're still big and they're still pointy and Rexy still looks hungry>> "Scully, Pete, still absolutely still," Mulder managed to whisper out.

Scully felt her mouth go dry. "Peter, don't move," she whispered to the shaking boy standing next to her.

The tyrannosaur lowered its head just a bit to snuffle the Jeep. Mulder felt his gut contort into knots as he watched the enormous reptilian face come closer and closer to his.

Meanwhile, his half-sister whispered to her FBI partner, "What is it doing?" as they, along with Grant, Malcolm and Langly huddled by their Jeep, preparing their foolhardy plan to distract the dinosaur.

"Alan?" Doggett said to the expert. "What's it doin'?"

Before Grant could answer, the T-Rex chomped down on the back tire, ripping it off, lifting the SUV off the ground just a bit, a couple of feet at most.

Mulder groaned in pain as the seat belt cut deeper into his chest and stomach. Peter and Scully cried out in pure fear. Scully clasped the boy to her as the T-Rex shook the vehicle as it ripped off the tire.

When the T-Rex ripped the tire off, the vehicle fell back to the earth with a thud. It tottered, then fell over onto the roof.

Supplies once again scattered everywhere. Scully, Peter and Wick's prostrated body once again tumbled around like socks in a spin dryer.

Mulder nearly threw up as he felt himself being flipped upside down. When the Jeep SUV landed on roof, he said groggily, "Scully I don't like this ride anymore, I wanna get off."

"You guysssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss," Langly said urgently as he witnessed Mulder and Scully's SUV tip over on its back. "Whatever you guys are gonna do, you better hurry!!"

Starkweather was holding the flares, peeping around the corner of the vehicle with Grant.

Doggett fumed, "Are you guys sure that this is a good idea?"

As she asked as she wiped her wet hair out of her eyes, Starkweather asked "Yeah, guys... I mean... in the movie, Malcolm almost got eaten... but that was just an adaptation, right? Spielberg and Crighton made that up for effect... right???"

Malcolm said, "I'll show you the scars later. I didn't nearly die from the bites though, but from the infection. My legs became full of gangrene. They nearly had to amputate because of it."

Starkweather's eyes widened. "You do it," she said holding the flares to Doggett.

"Oh thanks a lot."

Just then the dinosaur roared and headbutted Mulder and Scully's SUV again, screaming at the topsy- vehicle.

"Never mind," Starkweather said, darting around Doggett who tried grabbing her.

"STARKWEATHER!!!" he yelled at her. "GOD DAMN IT."

When Doggett stood up to run after her, Grant grabbed him and pulled him back down, "She's the smallest and the fastest of all of us. She's the only who can pull this off."

Starkweather, half-blinded by the falling rain and the ponderous thunder stood in the middle of the road. She pulled her gun out of the holster she had concealed, clipped to the back of her shorts, covered by her shirtsleeves. She pointed the gun up in the air and fired three shots, "HEY UGLY!!! OVER HERE!!!" She quickly stuffed her handgun in the front of her shorts and sparked the flares, waving it wildly to attract its attention all the while thinking:

<<I'mgonnadieI'mgonnadieI'mgonnadieI'mgonnadie>>

The tyrannosaurus turned around, snarling. Moving like a chicken, head bobbing forward, it stomped towards Starkweather.

"Throw it! THROW IT NOW!!!!!!!" Grant yelled.

Back in their SUV, Mulder realized: "Scully, it's going away. Get me out of here while we have a chance!"

"Miss Scully!" Peter held up a Swiss Army knife that had to of fallen out of the First Aid Kit, "Lookit what I found!"

"Good boy Peter!" Scully crowed, snatching the knife away. "Good job!" To Mulder she cried, "Hang in there Mulder," as she opened the knife and began cutting into the seat belt itself.

"Do I have a choice?" Mulder asked as he felt the blood rushing to his head.

Meanwhile Starkweather pitched the bright green flare as hard and high as she could. Going against all natural instinct and running like hell, she forced herself to stand her ground.

Behind the Jeep, Doggett made a move, as if he was going to run and grab Starkweather but both Malcolm and Grant held him back, "As long as she doesn't move, he can't see her," Grant said in a hiss. "Reptiles only see movement."

Everything was shaking again as the tyrannosaur chased after the glowing flare, much like a dog after a stick. Starkweather would have found the vision hilarious, if she wasn't standing right in its path.

<<Don'trundon'trundon'trundon'trun>> she told herself sternly as she stood as straight and tall as possible.

Everything happened so fast, she saw the giant pad of a huge reptilian foot hovering above her, then coming down, hard, missing her by mere inches. She felt the whoosh of wind as the foot rose again while its owner continues to run after the flare. The underbelly of it's tail, lifted off the ground as it ran, grazed the top of Starkweather's head.

As soon as the dinosaur ran past the SUV, Grant and Malcolm let Doggett go and he bolted from his hiding spot and grabbed Starkweather by the waist and essentially dragged her over to Mulder and Scully's SUV, with Grant, Malcolm and Langly following.

"You EVER do anything that damn heroic and stupid again, I'm gonna kill you!" Doggett snapped, blinking rainwater of his eyes as he dragged her along.

"Wouldn't that defeat the purpose?" Starkweather mumbled, wrestling out of his hold and running beside him.

Scully just happened to peer out the window as she continued to cut Mulder from his seat belt. "Mulder! The others! They're okay!" she said as she tried to cut through the tough material of the seat belt. "John, Jerilyn... Malcolm, Langly, Grant, they're coming!" Just then the knife finally sliced through the belt.

"ARGGHHH!!" Mulder yelped as he fell on his face. Clumsily, he rolled over and said, hair sticking up all over the place, "Help me, Scully, help me get the door open!" Both of them pushed hard on the door.

Doggett saw movement. "They're tryin' to get out!" he yelled at the others, nearly slipping in the oily mud. "Come on! Help me!" He fumbled for the door handle.

"Puppy Man! That you??" Mulder yelled.

"Yeah," Doggett said, still fighting the door handle. "Damn handle's stuck!"

Scully struggled with the other door. "They're stuck back here too!"

Just then, a weary voice up front groaned "What happened?"

"Dr. Wick!" Mulder said. "We need to get out of here, can you open any of the doors up there??"

Wick tried. "Something's wrong!"

Then, an eerie roar from behind them rose from the bowels of the jungle.

"It's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy-ccckkkkkkk," Starkweather impersonated the little girl from "The Poltergeist" movies.

Doggett pulled out his service weapon. "We don't gotta choice," he said, moving around to the front of the SUV Jeep. "I'm gonna crack the windshield, get out of the way," he yelled as he pointed the gun at the windshield. Scully pushed Peter as close to the door of the SUV as she could and shielded him with her body. Wick inched away as far as she could as well and began to sweat as he saw Doggett aiming. Mulder scootched up again his door as well.

"Doggett, before you shoot, I just want to take this time to apologize for all the shit I've given you in the past-"

"Not now, Mul-duh!" he snapped as he squeezed off two rounds, putting two bullet holes through the windshield. The bullets lodged themselves into the middle of the seat cushions. Doggett safetied his gun and flipped it around in his hand, using the butt to pound away at the windshield. Starkweather, still holding her revolver, did the same, beating at the glass.

"Come on!" she yelled and soon, Grant, Malcolm and Langly were kicking the glass. The windshield shattered. Doggett and Malcolm helped pull Wick out of the vehicle.

"Go, Peter, hurry," Scully sent Peter through first.

"Scully, move," Mulder said to Scully, pulling her arm and then pushing her through, following closely behind her.

Just as Mulder climbed out, the tyrannosaur's battle cry thundered through the tropical island again. "Rex... rex... rex" Starkweather sang under her breath, "Rex tremandae maistais..." the first soprano's part of "Rex tremandae" of Mozart's "Requiem."

"Very funny," Mulder for once had no sense of humor, "let's get out of here."

"Where the hell are we going to go?" Scully demanded. "Mulder we are in the middle of a jungle, in an electric storm, we don't know what kind of animals are out there, that could be loose..." The tyrannosaurus shrieked again.

"Let's go," Scully said, taking Peter's hand and starting down the road.

"But where are you going??" Starkweather yelled as what was left of their Forum started running down the road.

"Away from THAT thing!" Doggett yelled as he felt the ground shaking again.

"We got to find a place to hide!" Grant said. "We're vulnerable in the open like this!"

"No shit!" Langly snapped, wiping the rain off his glasses.

Suddenly, headlights appeared ahead of them.

"What the hell are you doing??" Andrea Nowark shrieked at

Justin Leo as he drove towards the sound of the tyrannosaurus roaring.

"This is the way that they went!" Leo said. "I can tell by the tire tracks."

"How can you see in this rain?" she whined.

As Leo went over a hill, he saw a posse of very frightened people running towards their vehicle. As he drove closer, he couldn't believe his eyes.

Lily.

His lost love.

Hanging off the arm of that redneck fibbie they paired her up with.

No matter what people told him, no matter how many people could swear on whatever holy book they chose that Jerilyn Starkweather nee Bailey was in Basic Training at Lackland AFB, Texas, the same day that the lights in the sky took Lily Stratford away, Leo, from the moment he laid eyes on Starkweather was convinced she was Lily.

Behind them, Leo also saw the burly paleontologist and the slim mathematician, the chunky horticulture professor running behind them.

Next to the fat plant guy, were Mulder and Scully and Mulder was carrying-

"Peter," he whispered.

"What are you going to do?" Andrea asked as Leo continued to drive closer to them.

"Take over for the wheel, drive straight then one-eighty and come back for me," Leo said as he leapt out of the Jeep, pulling out his gun and barreled towards John Doggett as at dead run. Andrea screamed as she slid over to grab the steering wheel.

"Who the hell?" Starkweather said, raising her hands to block her eyes from the glare of the headlights.

The Jeep, sped hari-kari towards the group. Langly, Malcolm and Grant dove into the ditch to avoid getting run over.

As the Jeep drove straight past, Leo raised his weapon, firing.

Wick, terrified, fell flat onto his face. Mulder handed Peter to Scully and yelled, "Go, Scully, go!" and Scully, carrying the boy, ducked into the thick underbrush of the jungle.

Starkweather screamed as Doggett doubled-over, blood pumping out of a nasty bullet hole in his shoulder. She tried to support him but he was too heavy for her to hold up. "Oh God!" she cried out, putting her hand to the wound. "Doggett..." she whimpered.

The tyrannosaur’s roars were getting closer.

"I'm okay," he lied.

Mulder, meanwhile, was reaching down for the little Beretta he kept on an ankle holster, the little gun technically he wasn't supposed to have, but Leo yelled at him, "Do it, Deputy Mayor," he pointed the gun at Starkweather's head, "and you can kiss your baby sister goodbye!" In his twisted heart, he was convinced Starkweather really wasn't Mulder's half-sister, but he knew that would get Mulder to do anything he wanted to. "Drop your gun, Lily."

"My name is Jerilyn you sick twist!" but she dropped her weapon.

"Leo, you cowardly son-of-a-bitch!" Mulder shouted at him as he ripped Starkweather away from Doggett by her hair.

Doggett, light-headed from the blood loss, fell to his knees, but he was able pull his gun.

"SHOOT HIM!!!" Starkweather shrieked as she kept kicking Leo's shins. Leo winced but did nothing except tighten his grip on her hair and holding her far away enough so her little fists couldn't take a strategic shot at the family jewels. "SHOOT HIM **NOW**!!"

"I don't have a clear shot, Doc," Doggett said helplessly as Leo used her as a human shield.

Before Starkweather could even react, he knocked unconscious with the butt of his gun as the Jeep trundled back towards them. Keeping his gun pointed at Mulder, he slung a limp Starkweather over his shoulder and leapt back into the Jeep as it sped past.

"Son of a bitch," Mulder cursed as he ran to help Doggett.

Both men watched in dread as the tyrannosaurus burst out from the brush, ran down the road, after Leo's speeding Jeep.

"What the hell are you doing?" Andrea shrieked as Leo tossed the unconscious Starkweather into the backseat of the Jeep.

"Drive," he said, buckling his seatbelt.

Andrea looked into the rearview mirror, eyes widening in horror when she saw the T-Rex running after her. She pushed down even harder on the accelerator but the monster kept up, roaring and snapping it's massive jaws.

Leo climbed into the backseat, pushing Starkweather's limp body to the side as he pulled out an M16 rifle and some rope. "Drive faster!" he yelled at Andrea as he tied Starkweather's hands behind her back.

"I'm doin' 95!" she screamed at him.

"GO FASTER!" Leo yelled again as he looked out the back window and saw the dinosaur gaining speed on their vehicle.

"Why did you grab HER???" Andrea snapped. "I thought you were going to get the boy!"

"Just get us the hell out of here," Leo said, loading the M16. With a hard thrust of his palm, he popped the moonroof out and stood up on the backseat, taking aim. But the rain hindered his sight badly. In fact, it had been a lucky shot that got Doggett. Still he fired at the T-Rex, which unfortunately only made the monster more irritable.

"Justin, get down!" Andrea ordered him. "You're only pissing him off!"

Leo got down, but to reload his weapon. Just as he did, Andrea, not used to driving high speeds on a wet gravel road, lost control of the vehicle and slid off the road, rolling it down the hill.

The tyrannosaur stopped and watched it roll down.

Uninterested, it began to walk back from where it came from.




 

As Mulder was running to Doggett's aid, Doggett was struggling to his feet. "I'm gonna kill 'im," Doggett proclaimed, swaying on his feet as he put his hand on his wounded shoulder.

"Get in line," Mulder said, supporting Doggett.

Meanwhile, Langly, Grant and Malcolm had just climbed out of the ditch. All three were coated in mud, however the hard rain pelting them was washing most of it off. "What the hell happened?" Langly said. "Where's Starkweather?"

"Leo's got her!" Doggett shouted at him. "Sonuvabitch shot me and took her!"

"What happened to Scully and the boy?" Grant said.

"I sent them into the woods," Mulder said. "We have to find them."

"We gotta find Starkweather too!" Langly reminded.

"I know!" Mulder yelled at him. "But Scully and the kid are out in those woods where lions, tigers and bears, oh my, are the nice animals and Doggett's gonna bleed to death if we don't get him so help-"

"I'm FINE!" Doggett insisted as his knees buckled.

"Yeah, and I'm Marilyn Manson," Mulder deadpanned.

Just then the cry of the dinosaur rose ahead of them.

"It's coming back, we have to go!" Grant said.

"What about him?" Langly pointed at Wick, still flat on his face on the road.

Malcolm crouched down besides the corpulent professor. "Dr. Wick, you need to get up now."

Wick, still whimpering in fear, sat up. "This is not what I had in mind," he whined, "when I signed up for this."

"Next time try for the aromatherapy program," Mulder said as he started to drag Doggett into the jungle Scully and Peter disappeared into. "I hear it's to die for." Mulder and Doggett disappeared into the brush. Just as the others were about to follow, a low grumble was heard...

... and Mulder and Doggett came flying out of there. "Run! Run!" Mulder said, still half-supporting Doggett, although Doggett's adrenaline kicked back in and he was running just fine.

Malcolm, Grant, Wick and Langly looked at each other, then bolted down the road after Doggett and Mulder.

A very angry dinosaur with beady red eyes burst from the foliage, snarling and snapping its jaws.




 

Meanwhile...

Still carrying Peter, Scully pushed her way through the brush of the jungle, running as fast as she could. When she had heard the gunshots, she stopped and looked behind her as Peter clung to her.

"What was that??" he sobbed.

Which was all the motivation she needed to keep running. But in the jungle, it was pitch-black except when the lightening flashed. Scully tripped over a thick tree root and fell hard. Peter tumbled out of her arms. "Peter!" she yelled out. "Peter, where are you?"

"Over here," a small voice said.

"Keep talking Peter," Scully said, picking herself up and stumbled towards the sound of the boy's voice. "I can't see you."

"What should I say?"

"I don't know... tell me about your school. What are you favorite classes?"

"Well, um... I like PE, except when we play flag football because Artie Carsen? He's big and he flunked and was held back. Well, he's mean and he likes to push the littler kids 'round and he tackles 'stead of pullin' the flags off and he always tackles me. But I like dodge ball and T-ball, but now I'm big nuff to take baseball next year. I like baseball. My favorite team is the 'Lanta Braves."

"Did you know that's Agent Doggett's favorite team?" Scully said, fumbling in the darkness, getting closer to the boy. "He lived near Atlanta at one time."

"Really!!!" Peter said. "Wow! Did he get to see them play lots!"

"I don't know," Scully said, slipping again on the slick ground. "We'll have to ask him when we find him," she muttered as she stood back up.

"We're gonna find him, aren't we Miss Scully?" Peter's voice was quavering, but it was closer now. "We're all gonna go home, right?"

"I'll get you off this island Peter," Scully skirted his question. Then she heard a jingling, like... dog tags. "Tummy?" she said in disbelief.

"You found the dog!!!!" Peter cried in relief.

"Tummy... here, girl," Scully said, whistling. She then heard a happy yipping and the jingling of dog tags. She crouched down and felt the little mutt run into her arms. Tummy immediately started to lick Scully to death, wagging her little tail so hard, it was in danger of flying off.

Peter had groped his way to them and put his arms around Scully. "You found Tummy!" he crowed. "If you found Tummy," he said confidently, "you'll find everybody else!"

Scully picked Tummy up and took Peter's hand. "Let's find a place to spend the night," she said to the boy. "I don't like walking around in the dark, do you?" <<Especially with God-knows-what roaming out there, trying to eat us>> she thought with a shudder




 

Meanwhile...

As they ran, Doggett yelled out, "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING!!" He was still bleeding profusely and was feeling lightheaded again. But he forced himself to keep up with Mulder.

Gasping as he ran, Grant replied "A 'Staurikosaurus', two meters in length, can be anywhere from 10 to 40 KG in weight, remains found generally in Brazil, hails from the Triassic Period."

"Well, somebody needs to tell him he's in the wrong damn park!" Malcolm shouted back at Grant.

The staurikosaurus nipped at Wick's heels, causing the horticulturist to run faster than he ever thought possible.

Doggett, wincing in pain, held his gun out to Mulder as they ran, "Take the shot, Mul-duh," he told him. "I don't think my aim's true right now."

"Hey Grant!" Langly said, peering through his rain-spattered glasses, "Can that thing climb trees?"

"I don't think so," Grant said. "But then who knows what these Unigen idiots altered genetically. For all we know, the damn things can fly."

Just then a pterodactyl swooped down and carried Langly off.

"AIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!" Langly squealed, kicking his legs as the pterodactyl beat his heavy leathery wings.

"Holy shit!!" Malcolm cried out as he watched the pterodactyl sail away with Langly. Grant made a flying leap for Langly's legs, but missed by inches, falling to ground as the pterodactyl rose higher in the sky. Malcolm helped Grant back up just before the staurikosaurus tried to attack him.

"HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLP!!" Langly cried, but since the staurikosaurus was still hot on the others' heels, there wasn't much anyone could really do for him.

"Hey, Puppy Man," Mulder huffed and puffed as he ran side

by side with Doggett.

"Yeah?" Doggett didn't look so good, and blood was still flowing from his arm, leaving a telltale trail behind him.

"Remind me *WHY* I want to be reinstated into the X-Files again."

"Remind me *WHY* I'm not transferrin' out."

"Think we're going to outrun that damn thing??"

"I don't gotta outrun that thing," Doggett wheezed, "Just gotta outrun you," but he was starting to stumble, his face gray.

Mulder knew they couldn't do this forever. As they ran, he unsafetied Doggett's weapon and made sure it was fully loaded.

Still running, he scooped up some rocks on the road. "Go on ahead of me," Mulder yelled as he dropped behind Malcolm and Grant. "Get him out of here," he ordered them, referring to Doggett.

"Mulder, what the hell are you doing????" Malcolm demanded.

"Being heroic and stupid," Mulder said.

"It runs in the family," Doggett muttered and tried desperately to keep going but felt like he was going to pass out any time now.

As Grant ran to assist Doggett, who's face had turned from gray to white, with Malcolm following, Mulder started throwing rocks at the staurikosaurus. "Hey ugly!" he yelled. "Over here!"

The staurikosaurus wheeled around, ignoring the other four men and snarled at Mulder, lowering itself to the ground like a bull does before an attack. It even pawed its terrible taloned foot on the ground like an enraged bull.

Even after becoming the Honorable Deputy Mayor of the District of Columbia, Mulder still went out faithfully to the firing ranges. Mulder started to backpedal away from the staurikosaurus, aiming Doggett's handgun at its beady little eye, growling.

Mulder fired and his shot was true, the bullet zipped through the air, cruising through the right eye and slicing its walnut sized brain in half. It was dead before it even realized it was. It threw it's head back in pain and in it's blind, dying rage, charged Mulder, but stopped a foot away from him, trembled, tottered and fell over dead.

At the same time, Doggett, losing more and more blood with every beat of his heart, finally fainted.

"'I'm fine' my ass," Grant said as he untied the red handkerchief that was around his neck and pressed it to the bullethole in Doggett's shoulder.

When Mulder jogged back towards them, Malcolm said "I do not know who is more insane, you or your sister."

In the distance, the tyrannosaur roared...

 

"What was that??" Peter quavered as he, Scully and Tummy were still maneuvering through the jungle forest. Tummy whimpered.

 

"Let's keep going..." Scully said, licking her lips. Her mouth had gone dry at the sound of the dinosaur's cry.

"But where are we going??"

"We're going to find a place to sleep tonight," Scully told him. "And then we're going to go back to the hotel during the day."

"I'm tired NOW."

"Do you want a piggyback ride?"

"Really?"

"Hop on."

And so Scully continued her journey with a little boy on her back and a puppy in her arms and absolutely ignorant of Starkweather's kidnapping, Mulder's stupid heroism or Doggett's profuse bleeding.

All she was really aware of was that Peter was a lot heavier than he looked, Tummy drooled a lot and her feet hurt.

As Scully struggled through the dense jungle with a boy on her back and a puppy in her arms, Mulder was crouching over Doggett, who was still out cold.

"He's still bleeding, only not so bad," Grant informed him, still pressing the handkerchief to the wound.

"Let's find a place to get out of the rain," Mulder suggested. "And lacking maybe in critters."

"Sounds good to me," Malcolm said as he went to help Mulder lift Doggett up. "But where can we go?"

Suddenly the ground started shaking again. The tyrannosaur’s roar was closer.

"How about anywhere but here?" Mulder suggested. To Malcolm he ordered, "Help me with him," and together they picked up Doggett's limp form and started dragging him away, with Grant and Wicks running behind them.

"Look!" Grant cried out in relief, pointing ahead.

Mulder looked up and grinned. "If only Jerilyn was here..." he sighed.

Only a few feet ahead was a giant wooden sign with the words "Hurricane Shelter" written on it in Spanish and English. An arrow was pointing to a small concrete building a few feet off the road.

As the men ran for the bunker, Mulder's guts twisted as he thought of his stormy little sister trapped with that bastard Leo. Sure Scully, Peter and Langly were lost too, but Scully was very self-sufficient so Peter was in good hands and Langly... well, Langly has weaseled out of tighter situations, so although he was worried sick about them, it did not even come close to the fear he felt for Starkweather.

He hoped she was alright.

Grant ran ahead of the others and threw open the heavy steel door. "Hurry!" he called out as the shaking from the tyrannosaur’s footsteps worsened.

The others hustled in and Grant swung the door shut, plunging them all into pitch-blackness. Fumbling blindly with the bolts, he managed to not only turn the deadbolts, but also find the barricade and pull that down as well. It was literally, so dark no one could see their hand in front of their faces.

"Does anyone have a flashlight? Matches?" Mulder asked.

"YOWCH!" Malcolm yelled. "That was my foot!"

"Sorry." Wick said.

"A lighter!" Mulder asked. "Does anyone have a- OOMMFFF!!!" There was then a *thud* followed by a pathetic "Ow."

"Mulder!" Malcolm said. "What happened?"

"I tripped over something."

"You tripped over ME," came a weak voice colored with a heavy Southern accent.

"Doggett, welcome back."

A mighty roar silenced everyone. The tyrannosaur was right outside the door.

The tyrannosaur sniffed the bunker, then roared at it. After roaring at it a few more times, it sauntered off, bored.

Everyone inside breathed a large sigh of relief when they heard the ponderous footsteps growing fainter and fainter.

"Hey," Malcolm said. "I think I may have found an emergency kit."

"How can you see anything in this?" Mulder asked.

"I sat on it," Malcolm said, fumbling around in the dark, looking for the latches to the trunk he had been sitting on. "Hallelujah!" he proclaimed when the trunk top opened. Blindly he thrust his hand in and found "A flashlight, there is a God and He is great and glorious," he said as he turned it on. "Looks like we've got some bottles of water, some ready-to-eat meals and Mr. Doggett you're in luck, a first aid kit.

"What are you plannin' on doin'?" Doggett snapped. "Put a Band Aid on this????"

"Better than nothing," Mulder informed him, seeing a cot set up in the corner of the small bunker. "Since you have the dubious honor of being shot, you get the bed."

"Lucky me," Doggett drawled as Mulder helped him up and supported him over to the rickety cot.

"Oooo..." Mulder said upon closer examination of Doggett's wound when Malcolm brought the first aid kit over so they could at least clean and dress the injury better. The bullet was still solidly lodged in Doggett's shoulder. The bleeding hadn't stopped but at least slowed to a trickle.

Mulder took out an alcohol pad and as gently as possible started cleaning the bullethole. Doggett flinched and Mulder said "I hope you don't think I'm deriving any pleasure from seeing you flinch, Puppy-Man."

 

"Fuck you."

"Not tonight, I have a headache," Mulder said as he took a giant cotton pad from Malcolm and applied it to the wound.

The white gauze turned red instantly. "Jesus fucking Christ," Mulder swore as he bound the makeshift bandage to the best of his ability. "Just take it easy, Doggett," Mulder told him. Not a problem for Doggett, who felt lightheaded and nauseous again. Sitting up, so to keep the wound elevated, he leaned against the wall and tried to sleep. His face shone with a high temperature that had insidiously risen in the past hour or so.

Mulder gathered the others when it appeared Doggett was asleep. "We need to get the hell off this island," he informed everyone.

"Oh darn, I was thinking we could build a peachy summer home and come vacation here with our families every summer," Malcolm said blandly.

Mulder glowered at him. "Before we can leave, we have to find everyone else. I am sure as hell not leaving them behind."

"That," Grant said quietly, reminding Mulder why this man was so respected, "has never been a question. How do you recommend we go about finding them? And also, we have the issue of Agent Doggett. He is in no condition to go gallivanting out there, no matter how bad he may want to find his partner."

Mulder grinned. **Gallivanting** The man had a gift for words. "I hate to suggest this because in bad sci-fi movies, when this decision is made, is usually when everyone gets eaten by whatever is highest on the food chain. We need to split up. We're never going to find the others if we stay together. Plus, we need to get Doggett to a doctor. I don't know how long he's going to be good for. Tomorrow, we go back to the Jeeps... or what's left of them, I guess. And we take all the supplies we can carry. And start the search."

"Where should we rendezvous?" Grant asked.

A dry Southern drawl droned out "When me an' Langly were on the roof, looking' at the brontosaurs, I thought I saw buildings on the other side of the island but wasn't sure. 'Cause I was too damn busy starin' at the brontosauruses. When Langly and I couldn't find the main control room in the hotel, Langly theorized that all communications were located in another buildin'."

"Which way were you looking?" Mulder asked.

"North," Doggett said wearily. "And don't worry 'bout me I'm-"

"Fine," Grant finished for him. "Yes, people who are fine generally faint."

"I didn't **faint**," Doggett grumbled.

"We'll meet there." Mulder said. "Due North." He crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. "We'll start in the morning," he said reluctantly, wanted to charge out the door right now.

Grant clamped a companionable hand Mulder's shoulder.

"Don't worry, we'll find her," he reassured her.

Mulder smiled weakly and looked at the floor, stomach in knots.

Doggett, out of respect, looked away from Mulder, feeling nothing but sympathy for the man. He had been just dealt a double blow, Scully and Starkweather...

Doggett looked up at the ceiling and put his hand on his injury, flinching at his own touch. <<Hang in there Doc>> Doggett pleaded with his partner silently. <<I'm coming...>>

There was no way in hell he was going to be shunted to the side like a cripple. He was her partner and he promised he would watch her back.




 

Meanwhile…

Reyes tugged futilely at the giant brass handles on the huge oak door to the American Embassy.

She wanted to curse.

Everything.

Loudly.

"What the hell are we going to do now?" She turned to Skinner, throwing her arms up in frustration, and dealing the huge ornately carved doors a swift kick with her big toe, which, she forgot was not indestructible at the moment, and winced in pain.

"I guess we'll have to take the car to south of the Texas border and get to the San Antonio base and go from there." Skinner offered, starting towards he car.

Reyes glared at him. "That was rhetorical."

Just then a short coffee-skinned girl with red hair dressed in over-alls and a white tank top that was mostly tucked in a baseball cap approached.

"This the American Embassy?" the woman asked Skinner with a Spanish accent that made it almost hard to understand. He nodded.

"La embajada esta carrada, senorita." Reyes told her it was closed in her native language.

"Mierda! Los Americanas estupidos!" She cursed, and then looking apologetically at the man in front of her.

"Lo siento, Senor." She said, messaging her temples in obvious frustration, "fue un dia muy largo."

Skinner flashed his badge. "My Spanish isn't as good as hers. Can we help you?"

"Tu agentes federales?" the woman eyed Reyes quizzically. Reyes nodded. "In D.C.?" Reyes nodded again. Her eyes opened wide in recognition. "When my brother wrote Mama last month, he said he got to know some FBI agents last summer. Some friends of theirs even got him a job and helped him get a green card..."

"Your brother is Manuel Ibarra?" Reyes sputtered in disbelief. "Tierra Pequena." she muttered, shaking her head. "Small world." she said for Skinner's benefit.

The girl nodded excitedly. "Isobel Magdelena Rosita Ibarra. Mis Amigas call me Izzy." She quickly extended a hand in greeting to the two. "So what brings you to Mexico? Isn't this a little out of the FBI territory? Did my brother get into trouble again? Quinto and Raf were right...he's gonna send Mama to an early grave..." she clicked her tongue

"No, nothing like that..." Skinner answered her, "we're here trying to help some Agents of mine and the Deputy Mayor..."

"El Zorro?" She asked. Now it was her turn for her eyes to widen in disbelief. Skinner nodded. "You mean my brother wasn't telling crazy stories?! Ay carumba...I thought he had seen one too many Spielberg movies..."

"Jerilyn's never gonna let him live "El Zorro" down." Reyes mumbled. Then she asked, "What are you doing here Izzy?"

"Well, see, I have a license to crop-dust for bugs, and this one farmer had weed on his farm--only I didn't know it was weed, I swear to you on my Papa's grave, and they took my license from me yesterday, and I promised my uncle I'd dust his field tomorrow, so I thought I'd go to the Embassy and see if they could help. I couldn't leave from my family's farm till after lunch, and so I couldn't get here in time before it closed..."

"Is your plane anywhere close by?" Skinner asked.

"Think maybe you can lift the fine if I take you to El Zorro?" She offered.

Skinner and Reyes both exchanged looks of disbelief at their sudden good fortune.

"What," Izzy said, "you were expecting that chick from Northern Exposure?"

While Reyes and Skinner were figuring out their travel plans, Scully struggled on through the jungle, severely regretting to play the role of the pack mule. However, the rain had finally stopped, which was a very very good thing. Unfortunately, they were all still sopping wet, which was a very very bad thing especially since nothing smells worse than a wet, dirty dog.

"Miss Scully, we there yet?" Peter asked sleepily.

"Just about," she said automatically as Tummy snored in her arms. <<Damn dog>> she thought. She wondered about the others she left behind. She felt bile rise in her throat when she remembered the gunshots they heard earlier. She hoped nobody was hurt.

In the distance, she heard a roaring, which made her hasten her pace.

Finally she pushed through the brush and stepped into a clearing.

"Oh..." she breathed, in awe of the splendor in front of her.

The rain clouds were scudding past, allowing for the brilliant stars to shine down. A half-moon, mysteriously silver appeared, sending it's dim light down, coloring all things into pale ghost of the hues they normally were. There was a lagoon in the distance, as still and heavy as mercury. The high grass waved in the wind. The leaves in the trees here and there in the field rustled, beckoning.

To make the surreal scene complete, a small herd of dinosaurs were milling about, the nightlight making their normal green scales look as shiny as a suit of armor. The massive hadrosaurs, or "duckbills" hopped about, nuzzling each other, nibbling a bit of grass, then hopping off, making a strange hooting sound, similar to Monica Reyes's pitiful attempt at a whale song, Scully thought with a rare smile.

"Wow..." Peter said, fully awake. "I can't wait to tell my friends 'bout this... they aren't gonna believe me."

"Don't worry Peter," Scully said. "Most of my friends aren't going to believe me either... *I* don't even believe me."

"Can we stay in that tree?" Peter pointed to one of the huge trees bordering the lagoon.

"I don't see why not," Scully said as she started to walk through the field slowly. "But we have to stay quiet, we don't want to disturb the-"

An infant hadrosaur hopped right up to them, staring with big doe eyes.

"Shit." Scully said.

The baby hadrosaur stood a foot taller than Scully. With it's duckbilled snout, it sniffed at Scully's grimy hair. Scully stood stock-still. She felt Peter trembling.

Tummy barked.

The hadrosaur looked at the puppy and snatched it out of Scully's arms with its mouth.

"NO!!!!!!" Peter wailed.

The hadrosaur instantly spat Tummy out. Unhurt, but covered with dino saliva, cowered behind Scully.

"It's okay Peter," Scully said. "He's a herbivore."

"A what?"

"He eats plants. He's just an infant," she whispered as the "infant" towered over her. "Human infants put things in their mouths to explore them, I bet dinosaur infants do the sam-"

Scully's lecture was interrupted as the baby hadrosaur licked her across the face. Satisfied, the infant hopped off.

"Gross," Peter said, giggling, "he slobbered on you."

"I hate my job," Scully mumbled, wiping dinosaur drool off of her face. "Come on," she sighed.

After taking the absolutely scenic route to the trees (Scully had no desire for another close encounter with the prehistoric), they made it to the tall tree Peter had pointed out. "Okay, buddy, I need you to get off," she said, crouching down. "I can't climb with you on my back."

"Okay," Peter slid off. "I love to climb trees." In fact, he darted up the tree, fast as lightening. "Miss Scully, you gonna bring Tummy up here?"

Scully, looked down at the little dog. Tummy smiled at her. "But of course," she mumbled, tucking her under her arm and awkwardly climbing up the tree to the large branch Peter was sitting on. He was busy watching the hadrosaurs.

Scully leaned against the trunk. "Come here and tried to get some sleep," Scully said wearily. "We have a long walk tomorrow."

"'Kay," Peter said, pouting as he scooted back to Scully. He curled up in her lap, cuddling Tummy, "but where are we going?"

"Home," Scully said firmly, stroking the boy's hair until he fell asleep. Soon, Scully fell asleep herself as the herd moved on.

Later that night, a different herd moved through. Silent and deadly. The leader sniffed the air but fortunately Scully, Peter and Tummy were upwind so he did not discover the potential prey in the branches above.

He sharpened his claws on the tree and then led his band of velicoraptors on and away.




 

Meanwhile…

"Mulder," Malcolm said, "as willing as I am to play Dr. Livingstone and guide some of us to the port, there's a little problem with your plan."

"What's that?" Mulder was afraid to ask.

"I've been on La Isla Nublar and the "Lost World". Not this one. I don't know how to get off this ride."

"But you've been around these Barneys before..." Mulder countered in his annoying low monotone. "You know how they act, you know how they react."

"The scavengers are nocturnal." Grant spoke up. "We better draw straws and have somebody scout."

"You mean be the bait." Malcolm offered cheerfully.

"Well, I was going for more delicate terminology. But yeah...we need ...bait as you so aptly put it."

"I do the math." Malcolm chided. "We don't need sugar-coated terminology. Just the numbers."

"Any volunteers?" Grant asked.

"I'll go first." Wick piped up to everyone's surprise.

"There's a lot more to you than a lot of people think, Dr. Wick." Mulder said, apropos of nothing.

"I don't know whether to be flattered or insulted, Mr. Mulder." Wick replied with a wry grin, and waddled off to the door. Then he turned around. "Shouldn't I have a weapon?"

"Oh yeah...I guess you need to defend yourself." Malcolm stated the obvious. "Agent Doggett?"

Doggett groaned faintly from the cot at the sound of his name. "Mind if we use your gun?" He groaned again.

"You know how to use one of these?" Mulder asked.

"Point and shoot, right?" Wick sucked in a breath. He smiled up at Mulder apprehensively and shakily took the safety off. He checked to see how many rounds it had.

There were only two bullets.

If a dinosaur happened to approach, he'd need more. Dr. Wick had another use in mind for the gun before they all left the island.

"Well," Malcolm had said, plopping down on the ground, shaping his windbreaker into a makeshift pillow, "goodnight."

"How the hell can you sleep?" Mulder had asked. Of course, it was hard for the chronic insomniac to even attempt to sleep when he didn't know for certain if his family was alright.

"My first apartment after college was smaller." Malcolm had said. "I slept on the floor there too. My pillow then wasn't as good as this is. Like I said...goodnight."

Then thanks to his deviated septum, Malcolm snored...like something from a cartoon sound effect.

"Jesus Christ..." Grant had complained. "I wonder if there's any way to keep him alive without breathing."

"Hey Puppy Man..." Mulder said, "How's the shoulder?"

"Hurts like hell. We still splittin' up tomorrow?"

"You are staying here. Grant, Wick and me are splitting up."

"Like hell I'm staying here." Doggett growled. "Starkweather's..."

Mulder interrupted him. "Doggett...I'm not gonna let anything happen to Starkweather. Besides...in a fight between her and the dinosaurs, my money's on her any day of the week...she's too mean to let them do anything."

"Malcolm?" Doggett wondered, realization that he was just left out of the list. Mulder's reassurance was a strange comfort.

"He's staying here with you till I can bring back a medic chopper."

"Not if we smother him first." Grant mumbled.

"Guess I should go relieve Wick." Mulder sighed.

"No...you stay here with Doggett..." Grant offered,"besides...going out there means I don't have to put up with that damn trainwreck inside Malcom's nostrils."

"Hey Wick," Grant said, tapping him on the shoulder. "I'm taking over watch. Go and get some..."

He heard a click and felt the cold barrel of the gun on his chest.

"sleep..."

"Not before I make sure you're sleeping for good, Grant." Wick hissed. Then he added, "I always wanted to say something like that!"

"Wick, don't we have enough damned crazed lunatics on this trip as it is?"

"Don't make a sound and come with me..."

"Dr. Wick...you don't wanna do this." He had said that too damn many times this trip.

"Yes...yes I do. I really do." He cocked his gun.

"Look, I personally know the jungle can make you crazy sometimes...look...just go inside and get some sleep..."

"I've been wanting to do this for a long time." He took a sure aim. "Walk."

"Don't you at least owe me an explanation for my life?" Grant rambled. They walked a couple of miles away from the shelter in some thick jungle brambles. "Look, maybe we should talk about what I did to you inside, close to the others, because there are nocturnal dinosaurs that would think we were nice midnight snacks."

"Nice try, Dr. Grant, but I'd rather not have any witnesses around."

"Dr. Wick, I think you've seen too many movies."

"And I think you've stolen too many girlfriends." Grant snapped back at him viscously.

"What the hell?!"

"Ellie and I were...close."

"According to her you were a possessive jealous prick, Wick. Say that three times fast."

"She would have come back if you hadn't come along."

"So you let Chinese take-out, delivered pizza and Ben and Jerry's ice-cream fill the void? Look, Dr. Wick...she wouldn't have come back to you whether I came along or not. I just nudged her out."

There was a rustling in the brush.

"Wick...put your gun down and follow me back to that tree." he hissed.

"You're stalling."

"I think there's something in the brush."

A small chirping, something like a cricket signaled a presence.

"I think you're full of shit."

A high-pitched screech resounded from under the brush as a brightly-winged lizard leapt out of the thicket. Grant ducked and missed and headed for the tree as the lizard aimed straight for Wick. Wick aimed at the dinosaur, and shot and killed it.

Within seconds, two more leapt from their hiding places.

Wick tried to hold his own with the weapon, but there were only three shots left, and Wick lost his grip.

One creature flew for his hand and bit it off, tossing the limb with the gun in it aside as Wick screamed. Wick's screams were loud enough to be heard in the Shelter.

"What the hell?" Mulder had said, bolting up right, making a beeline for the door.

"Turn the TV down, lovemuffin." Malcolm mumbled, and rolled over.

Then the screams stopped.

Mulder paled. If Doggett wasn't already gray, he would've paled along with him.

"Oh my God." Mulder murmured and raced out the door.

"Mul-dah, you don't know what the hell's out there!" Doggett hollered futilely after him. "Damn arrogant shit." he mumbled.

Meanwhile, from his perch on the low branch of a nearby birch tree, Grant watched helplessly from his hiding place as the creatures bit Wick's jugular and scavenged the rest of the carcass as a midnight snack.

At the sound of Wick's screaming, Mulder ran out into the blackness, the thick jungle lit only by a Gibbous moon with feathery clouds filtering its light. His stomach lurched into his throat as he crunched something under the weight of his foot.

<Wick> Mulder fired three shots into the air, and all the scavengers that were foraging the remains of the carcass on the ground scampered into the brush.

"GRANT?!" Mulder hollered. "You OK?!"

"Mulder what the hell are you doing?" Grant hissed above from the tree branch he had managed to climb on. "Some are nocturnal...they'll attack."

"I've seen all the Jurassic Park movies enough times I think I can figure out how to get around them."

Mulder surveyed the tree to find the best way to climb up it. Grant just glared at him, shaking his head.

"Mulder...sanity isn't exactly a realm you visit often, is it?"

"Is my boyish agility turning you on?" Mulder said as he made his way up to a branch just below the one Grant perched on. Grant would have loved to shoot him a murderous glare.

"Mr. Mulder," Grant said, "I think we're too far from the shelter to try and make it back before morning. We can start at first light tomorrow to look for the others."

"Now I know how Tarzan feels." Mulder said.

"Call me Jane, and you're a dead man." Grant threatened amiably. "Good night."




 

Meanwhile…

Mexico City, Mexico

"So how did you learn to speak English?" Skinner asked her.

"Forget how she learned how to speak English..." Reyes butted in, "Where'd you learn how to fly?"

"My cousin Marco flew the crop-duster and he was big into baseball. Wanted to go to the states and start in the minors even, except my uncle wanted him to work on the farm all the time. So I told him, if he teaches me to fly, when he gets into the minors in the states, if he sends me all the good American music and movies, then I'd take over the crop-dusting for him. He taught me English after he came back on the off-season from the Minor Leagues." They approached her jeep. "You guys like alternative?"

Reyes brightened. Skinner just shook his head.

Incubus screeched over the loud speakers.

Sometimes I feel the fear of uncertainty stinging clear
And I cant help but ask myself how much I'll let the fear take the wheel and steer
It's driven me before, it seems to have a vague
Haunting mass appeal
Lately I'm beginning to find that I should be the one behind the wheel
Whatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there
With open arms and open eyes yeah
Whatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there, I'll be there
So if I decide to waiver my chance to be one of the hive
Will I choose water over wine and hold my own and drive, oh oh
It's driven me before, it seems to be the way
That everyone else get around
Lately, I'm beginning to find that when I drive myself, my light is found
Whatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there
With open arms and open eyes yeah
Whatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there, I'll be there
Would you choose water over wine
Hold the wheel and drive
Whatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there
With open arms and open eyes yeah
Whatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there, I'll be there

Skinner was very relieved when Isobel's cell phone whirred and she had to crank the radio down.

"Javier," Isobel said to her cell phone in Spanish. "No...I can't get out there tomorrow. I need to get out there NOW. What do you mean there's a storm? Uno momento, por favor..." she turned to Reyes now... "you got that." Reyes nodded, and turned to Skinner.

"The storm headed for the island won't pass for another 8 hours." Reyes. She took one look at Skinner's expression and nodded. "I know...what a clusterfuck."




 

The next morning...

Justin Leo lifted his head. Every muscle in his body ached. He opened his eyes. He was still in the Jeep but the Jeep was upside down.

<<Oh yeah, it rolled when that T-Rex was after us...>> he sat up.

"Lily??" he called out. "Lily!!" he crawled on the cluttered roof of the topsy-turvy Jeep. He sighed in relief when he saw her limp form, partially buried by supplies and debris. He scooted towards her and checked her pulse. Strong, but she was still out for the count. "Oh Lily," he breathed, holding her in his arms. "I'll make up for this, I promise."

Laying Starkweather aside, he kicked out the glass of the side window. He slid out and gently pulled Starkweather out.

"Well, what took you so long?" A bitchy voice behind him demanded.

Standing up, holding Starkweather in his arms still, he said with a groan. "You're still alive?"

Fuming, Andrea snapped. "*I* wore my seatbelt."

"How long have you been out? Why didn't you help me?"

"I might have broken a nail," she responded icily. "I just crawled out a few minutes ago. I wasn't sure if you were alive or not. You weren't moving much."

"Your concern touches my heart," Leo said dryly.

"So what are you going to do with the dead chick?"

"She's not dead, just unconscious," Leo snapped back at her.

"Why did you grab her instead of the boy?" Andrea demanded. "She's still too big to go down into the cave to retrieve the lockbox."

"Andrea," Leo said, "this isn't Agent Starkweather."

"What?"

"This is Lily Stratford, the woman I've told you about. They've brainwashed her, they've made her believe she's a person named Jerilyn Starkweather. She's been their slave all these years and now I've saved her."

"Are you on drugs?" Andrea asked.

"Don't question me about Lily," Leo said as he gently laid Starkweather down. "And don't worry about our mission. We'll find Peter. We'll get the lockbox. We'll get off this damn island and you can go back to your penthouse life, designing nifty little hotels for all the rich people to enjoy." Leo crawled back into the Jeep. He came out carrying a supply kit, a Glock handgun, the M-16 rifle and two canteens. "I'm going to go look for fresh water. There should be some food in those boxes. I want to you to rest up and watch Lily. We've got a long ways to go. I want to get to the master control building before sundown. We need to get this damn park online again. Then we can go find Peter."

"If Peter's still alive."

"Peter's fine. He's with Agent Scully," he said confidentially. "Too bad I have to kill her. I think I would have liked her if she hadn't gotten in my way."

"Why do *I* have to stay behind and watch the bitch?" Andrea whined. "If she's your long-lost love, wouldn't she understand?"

Leo pointed the handgun at Andrea. "She's still under their control. She still thinks she's a federal agent. And don't call her a bitch."

Leo walked off.

Andrea crossed her arms and scowled before she hunkered down to crawl back into the Jeep SUV to find her own weapons.

Starkweather opened her eyes.

<<Suckers>> she thought.

Once Andrea was back inside the Jeep, Starkweather rolled away from it and into the thick jungle underbrush. She scootched further into the foliage until she felt hidden enough to stand up. With her hands still tied behind her back, she struggled to get to her feet but as soon as she was, she crept back towards the wreck site, crouching behind trees and shrubs, watching...

Andrea slid out of the Jeep, holding a handgun she did not know how to use. Standing up, brushing the dust off of her, she looked down where the limp form of Starkweather had been. "Great, where did she go?" Andrea muttered.

"Right behind you, pumpkin," a catty female voice said behind her.

Andrea wheeled around and Starkweather head-butted her, her forehead connecting with Andrea's face. Andrea crumpled to the ground, lights out.

"Inelegant, yet effective," Starkweather muttered, trying to blink away the stars she was seeing. She looked down and saw the survival kit, lid yawning wide open. "Hot damn," she said, peering inside.

Backwards, she crouched down, awkwardly searching for her prize. "Yes!" she whispered as her hand clasped upon the Swiss Army Knife she found. Standing up, she clumsily opened it up, slicing her thumb in the process. "Ow," she complained as she began to cut through the ropes that bound her. She nicked herself a few more times but eventually the ropes fell free. She rotated her wrists, heard the joints pop. She folded the knife back up and shoved it in her back pocket.

"Awww, Andrea," she said, scooping up the gun, "you shouldn't have," she purred as she checked to see if it was loaded, which, it was. She shoved the gun down the back of her shorts and bent down to examine the contents of the survival kit again when she heard Leo calling from the foliage. "Andrea! Andrea, come here and help me!"

Starkweather debated for just a second whether or not she should pop a cap in his ass, but then decided she'd rather get the hell out of there.

She ran away, disappearing into the thick jungle underbrush.




 

Meanwhile...

Langly's arms hurt. The pterodactyl that carried him off had flown all night and hadn't put him down once.

"So this is how Dorothy feels," Langly muttered as he had twisted and jerked to get out of its grasp. The pterodactyl only tightened its hold on him and continued its flight.

All through the night, Langly worried about the bolts of lightening that kept lighting up the sky. Plus the falling rain hurt like hell. He was very happy when the rain stopped and the sun began to rise.

Finally, the pterodactyl made a dive, as if it was about to land. Langly saw what looked to be a giant nest, built into the side of a rocky bluff. He saw a road along the side of the bluff. He saw skidmarks veering off of the road and going down the drop-off along the other side of the mountainroad. He saw the wreckage off what looked to be a Jeep.

<<Maybe that's the Jeep Leo took Starkweather in>> he thought in dread <<God, I hope she's okay...>>

The pterodactyl swooped up again, carrying him to the nest.

The pterodactyl hovered above the nest.

Langly looked down and saw four little infant pterodactyls. They were kind of cute. They were cheeping loudly, jumping up and down.

Then Langly remembered a scene from one of his favorite movies that he had pirated off of the Internet- "A Bug's Life", the part where the mother bird was lowering the evil grasshopper Hopper into the nest to feed the baby birds...

Suddenly the baby pterodactyls weren't so cute anymore.

"YEAWWWWWWWHHHHHRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!" Langly screamed, kicking his legs...

As Starkweather was climbing up the giant hill to get back to the road again, she heard a scream. "No freakin' way," she said in disbelief. "Langly???"

She hustled up the side of the hill and pulled herself up onto the road. She looked up and her jaw dropped as she saw the pterodactyl, beating it's giant batlike wings with Langly in it's grip.

"LANGLY!!!" she yelled, cupping her hands around her mouth. "I'M COMING!" She found a foothold and a handhold and started to scale up the rocky incline.

<<Well, here I go being stupid and heroic again>> she thought with an inward groan.

"Starkweather???" Langly yelled. "That you?? OUCH!!! HEY GET OFF OF ME!!!" he shouted at a little pterodactyl that had leapt up and chomped down on his sneaker.

"STARKWEATHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" he screamed, shaking off the little nipper.

Langly could have sworn he heard the mother pterodactyl *laughing.*

Starkweather climbed as fast as she could, the rocks cutting her hands. She climbed up beyond the ledge the nest sat on. She climbed until she was on top of the little ridge that sheltered the nest. Shuddering she looked down at the back of the hovering pterodactyl. <<God that thing is creepy looking>> she thought before pushing herself off the ridge and landing solidly on the pterodactyl's back, grabbing it's wings.

The pterodactyl squawked wildly and let Langly go. Langly missed the nest, landing just outside of it. Unable to fly, the pterodactyl fell into the nest, on top of the babies, who squealed. The pterodactyl tried to roll over so Starkweather would be under her, but Starkweather stubbornly hung on as the giant wings tried to open and shut. Her arms ached with the effort of holding the wings.

Langly found a big rock and picked it up. "You stupid bird," he yelled as he boinked the pterodactyl solidly on the head. The pterodactyl suddenly went limp. "Cripes, did I kill it??"

"Do you care?!?!?!?" Starkweather snapped as she slid off the giant winged lizard.

"Well... it's not like she was trying to do anything wrong," Langly defended the creature. "It was just doing what it was suppose to do, find food for it's young."

Starkweather looked at Langly like he had gone stark raving mad. "Are you on drugs???????"

"Not anymore."

"Let's get out here before Mama Bird wakes up and decides to proceed as nature dictates," Starkweather said, starting to climb down the other side of the bluff, going back into the jungle instead of taking the road.

"Shouldn't we go that way?" Langly pointed towards the way Starkweather came. "It looks easier."

"And it probably is," Starkweather grunted as she struggled down the decline. "But I ran away from Leo and Nowark and I'd like to avoid them at all costs."

"Gotcha," Langly said and he started to shimmey down the slope as well.

Once they got to the relative safety of the jungle floor, Starkweather asked, "You okay?"

"Me?" Langly checked himself over. "I think so. My arms hurt like hell from hangin' from that thing's claws, but I'm okay. What about you?" Langly asked, looking at the rope burns on her wrists. "You okay Starkweather?"

She put her hand on the base of her skull where Leo had hit her with his gun. When she touched the tender lump, she winced. "I have a hell of a headache but other than that, I'm fine." Suddenly sickened with worry, she said, "Omigod, Doggett," remembering he had been shot. "Langly, did you see if he was okay or not??"

"Sorry, but when the pterodactyl carried me off, I was more worried about my own ass than Dogbreath's. I hope you don't mind," he said irately. But after receiving one of Starkweather's patented deadly glares, he backpedaled. "He looked okay, he was running alright when that other dinosaur Mulder scared started chasin' us."

"WHAT other dinosaur???"

Just then, in the distance, a cry was heard:

"LIIIIIIIILLLLLLLY!!"

"Come on," Starkweather tugged at his T-shirt sleeve. "We got to go."

 

 

Meanwhile…
At the Lagoon...

Scully woke up, blinking her eyes. The sun shone brightly down upon them. "Peter," she said, shaking the boy. "Wake up."

Peter yawned, his hair sticking up like duckling's fluff.

"Hi!" he said brightly. "Hiya girl!" he said, petting Tummy. "How are you?"

Tummy grinned.

"How did you sleep?" Scully asked the boy, trying to flatten his hair. She realized with a searing ache that she missed William badly.

"Okay, I guess... Miss Scully, can we go home now?"

"That's the plan," Scully said. "Scooth ahead Peter and let me climb down first."

Scully, a tomboy at heart, dropped down from the tree easily. "Okay, Peter, hand me the puppy," she said. Peter leaned down and put Tummy in Scully's proffered hands.

Peter scurried down from the tree.

Scully was looking at the lagoon, watching the brontosauruses floating lazily by in the distance. She crouched down and tasted the water, thankful that it's fresh. She splashed cold water on her dirty face and said,

"Peter, you better come here and get a drink. I don't know when we're going to get fresh water until we get back to the hotel."

But Peter wasn't paying attention. "Wow..." he said. "Lookit at the scratch marks on this. Think the duckbills did that?"

Scully stood up and walked back over to the tree. Her eyes widened in horror when she examined the depth of the slashmarks in the tree trunks. "Come on Peter," she said, trying to remain calm. "Let's get your drink and go."

She thought back to her drug-induced haze. Back at the hotel when someone had dropped a mickey in her drink. She could barely remember what happened, although for some odd reason, the theme from "Gilligan's Island" kept running though her head. She tried to remember when Starkweather and Malcolm were helping her back to her room after she had thrown up.

<<I thought I had seen a dinosaur>> she realized. <<I thought I saw a veliciorapter.>>

The park's control had been broken long before the storm blew through. <<But who? Why???>>

"Leo..." she said.

"What?" Peter said, looking up at her.

"Nothing," she told him while thinking, <<Leo. That sneaking son-of-a-bitch. He set us up. We were SUPPOSED to attacked. Only NOT by a T-Rex and Schabasser was supposed to survive... but Dana, that doesn't make sense. WHY would he set us up. What is his motive??? Starkweather? Or is it something else?>>

She looked down at Peter again. <<And why would he kidnap a child to bring him here?>> she ruffled his hair. "Come on Peter," she said to him. "Make sure Tummy gets a drink too."

"Okay!" he grinned. He had an adorable gap-toothed smile.

Smiling back at the boy as he and the puppy scampered to the lagoon, Scully wracked her brain, trying to figure out Leo's motivation. <<This is why I leave the profiling to Mulder and Starkweather>> she thought with a sigh. She hoped they were okay. That everyone was okay.

"Ready?" she said when Peter ran back to her.

"Ready!" Peter said, without guile, taking her hand.

And they began walking due south, back towards the hotel.




 

Meanwhile...

"LIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLY!" Leo screamed again as

Andrea staggered to her feet, rubbing her head where Starkweather had hit her. "I thought I told you to watch her!!!" he shrieked at her, waving his gun at her.

"She attacked me!"

"Her hands were tied!"

"She headbutted me!!"

"WHAT?!?!?!" Leo, stared at her in utter amazement. Then, he began to giggle, then laugh right out aloud. "That is hysterical," he guffawed.

"Fuck you," Andrea snapped at him. "Fuck you and this stupid trip! Forget about Starkweather, Lily, whatever the hell she is. We need to find the boy."

"You're right," Leo lied to her with a sigh. "I was being stupid about Lily. Let's go find Peter and get this done with, shall we?"

"Fine," Andrea snapped, stalking off, leaving him to carry all the supplies.

Leo couldn't wait to use this uber-bitch as dino-bait.

Meanwhile...

"OW!" Langly said, slapping another mosquito dead.

"Jesus, dude, you are like a bug magnet," Starkweather said as she pushed through the dense foliage.

"Tell me 'bout it," Langly grumbled.

"Did you ever get that ham radio finished?" Starkweather asked him as they trudged on. "'Cause if you did, maybe we should head back to the Jeeps see if we can use it to get help."

"I almost had it done, but when that dinosaur hit our Jeep, makin' us do doughnuts all across the road, hittin' Mulder and Scully's Jeep, I'm not sure if it got trashed or not."

"Damn."

"But when me and Doggie were on the roof of the hotel, I saw a building in the distance. I was tryin' to tell Dogbert that the central control system's probably not in the hotel but in a different building on the island."

"Did he see the building you saw?"

"Dunno..." Langly said. "Didn't get a chance to ask, we went lookin' for Mulder, then the kid showed up, then the dinner party and..."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. I bet you twenty bucks he saw it though," Starkweather said. "The man misses nothin- ooooh....." Starkweather stopped stock still.

"What?" Langly asked.

"Big kitty," she whispered pointed to the sleeping saber-toothed tiger surrounded by her dozing young.

"Eeep," Langly squeaked.

"Let's go back the way we came," Starkweather suggested in a whisper.

"But isn't Psychoboy and that Eurotrashwannabe hag back the way we came?" Langly whispered back.

"Shit. You're right. I don't know which one's worse."

"I'm betting on the kitty."

"I'm thinking you're right... um..." Starkweather looked around frantically, then she looked up. "Hey, Ringo."

"Yeah?"

"Ever want to be Tarzan?" she whispered and she shimmied up a tree.

"She called me Ringo," Langly beamed as he followed her up.

Sitting on a thick sturdy branch, Starkweather waited for him impatiently. "Most of the tree branches," she said, still in a whisper, "are growing intertwined with each other. We can probably scoot across the trees like monkeys and get safely out of here."

"Can't big cats climb though?" Langly asked nervously, looking down at the slumbering pride.

"Yes, but the trick is," Starkweather said, starting to scoot across, "is not to wake them up."

"Oh," Langly said sarcastically. "Is THAT all?" He also began to scoot across the branch, careful not to rustle any leaves or branches. Suddenly he froze. "Starkweather," he whispered insistently. "Starkweather..."

"What?"

Langly was frozen, clasping the branch for dear life, camouflaged by the hundreds of leaves sprouting from it. "Two o'clock, below us... can THAT thing climb trees?"

Starkweather peered down. Her eyes widened. "Fuck me!" she breathed.

A velicioraptor was staring up right at them.

"This just keeps getting better and better." Starkweather said, reaching for the pistol she stole from Andrea.

"What are you doing?" Langly asked her nervously.

"Something stupid and heroic... again." She fired the gun twice, waking up all the birds, all the bugs and all the saber tooth tigers, especially the mother tiger that had been asleep underneath the trees. She bolted up, smelled the raptor and growled.

Two more raptors, as they travel and hunt in herds, attacked her. The one that had been eyeing Starkweather and Langly up above decided to make a try for one of the helpless cubs that were fleeing to the safety of a hollowed out log but out of nowhere, the male saber tooth tiger sprang out of the foliage and caught the raptor by the throat and shook it to death. Meanwhile, the female cat was holding her own quite nicely against the raptors although she was getting cut up bad. However, unlike humans and lizards, she had a thick fur coat that was hard to slice into. Plus, she was mad.

As soon as the raptor he bit into was dead, the male leapt into action, attacking the other raptors.

Not wanting to watch the carnage anymore, Starkweather yelled out, "Langly, come on, let's GO!"

Langly hurried across. Together, they maneuvered through the various tree limbs, trying to ignore the ominous creaking noises of the branches as they scuttled across.

When they felt they were far enough away from the Animal Classification Clash, they dropped down from the trees and ran like hell.




 

Meanwhile…

The birds and sunlight eliminated the need for an alarm to wake Mulder and Grant.

"They made sleeping in trees a helluva lot easier on Swiss Family Robinson. My ass is asleep." Mulder quipped as he stiffly, awkwardly climbed down from the limb he slept on.

"So what do we do now?"

"Well," Grant said, as he shook his ankle awake. "After that enlightening information regarding your ass, I think we can die happy."

"Oh Good. I was worried you weren't a morning person. I didn't hog the covers, did I?"

"Shut up and start walking."

"Back to the shelter?"

"We're about a mile and a half from the shelter. I think it would lose daylight trying to go back to Malcolm and Doggett. The best thing we can do is try and find a radio on this island and wire help off here and get an EMT for Agent Doggett."

"So what happened to Dr. Wick."

"I got Ellie. He got fat. Then he got eaten."

"I think, though, all respect for the dead aside, we should get my gun back from Dr. Wick. It might come in handy."

"Your gun didn't help Dr. Wick much." Grant reminded him grimly.

"Oh yeah...never mind...forget the gun...let's try and find some water first."

Grant made a quick survey of the horizon and started off towards a grassy, looming mountain-range. "That highest mountain is a volcano over there. Around it should be some streams and waterfalls."

After about an hour hike towards the mountain range in the west, they came across a herd of bracheosaurs and traecheosaurs.

"Thank you Jane Goodall."

"Deputy Mayor...I sincerely hope you get eaten..."

"You watched a lot of the Discovery Channel while you were waiting on grant money, didn't you?"

"It was between that and Oprah."

Pretty soon, they came on the opposite side of the lagoon where Triceratops were wallowing in, with the boathouse on one side.

"It's not the Hilton..." Grant said,

"...but I think after tonight it is the fucking Waldorf Astoria." Mulder finished.

Just then, a gunshot rang out.

Mulder's heart plummeted to his feet.

<Starkweather!> He panicked. "She's in that houseboat, I'm going around!"

And the birds started flying away from the mountains. The creatures wallowing in the lagoon were scurrying out of the pool.

And a low consistent rumble resonated everywhere.

"That volcano isn't erupting any time soon, is it, Dr. Grant?"

"Volcanoes usually give warning spurts before they blow the lid off completely..."

The trumpets of screeching extinct creatures echoed through the island.

"What the hell?" Mulder puzzled, frozen in his tracks.

"The herds..." Grant murmured... "They're stampeding..."

"From now on fast food has an ENTIRELY new meaning."

 

Meanwhile, whilst Mulder and Grant were looking for water:

Malcolm, who had always been nocturnal by nature, woke up at 9am, several hours after the first light had hit the sky and the birds started singing.

Doggett, who had lost a lot of blood was drifting in and out of consciousness the whole morning, barely aware of where he was.

"Agent Doggett," Malcolm said, "I'm going to go search for water. I'll be back in half an hour."

"Where's Dr. Wick...Dr. Grant, Mul-dah?" Doggett rasped out. "Oh God...Scully and Doc are both gonna put my ass on a platter."

For the first time, it occurred to Malcolm that they weren't around. Their knapsacks were all still there.

Malcolm paled...if that were possible. "I think something happened last night."

"Lovemuffin didn't turn the TV down?" Doggett grumbled.

Malcom's ears suddenly turned bright pink. "Yeah well...just hope I find fresh water."

Doggett closed his eyes and hoped the blackness would overtake him again.

Malcolm, riding completely on pure dumb luck, walked in the direction of the mountain.

Then he heard the gunshot, far in the distance

And then the animals screeched

The dust began to fly.

He ran back for the hurricane shelter, hoping to God Doggett was lighter than he looked.




 

Midmorning...

Scully felt the sweat pouring off of her. Peter was trying so hard not to complain, but every now and again, he would make a comment about being hot and thirsty. The humidity pushed down on them. Mulder's little puppy kept lagging behind. Peter scooped it up and carried her for a little while. "Miss Scully, how much longer is it going to be?" he asked.

"I don't know," she said, stopping, legs aching. "But we got to keep going, okay?" She wished she could give him a piggy back ride again but she was too tired too. <<And it's only morning>> she worried. <<What are we going to do to do when we start walking through the afternoon heat? We have no food, no water... and I'm sure as hell NOT spending another night out here if I don't have to.>> She put her hands on her hips, looking around. <<There's got to be a better way...>> and it struck her.

"Come on Peter," she said briskly, "this way."

"But we're going backwards," he whined.

"Only for a little ways," Scully said. "We're going back to find the river flowing out from the lagoon and we're going to walk beside it. It will take up straight back to the hotel... and if we can find a raft, maybe we can float back. At any rate, if we get thirsty, we can drink from the river, the water seemed pretty clean."

"But I'm hungry," Peter reminded her. "Can we eat some of the berries?"

Scully thought about it, then remembered Mulder's reaction to the strange plant at the bottom of the hotel stairs. "Better not, Pete. We don't know if they could be poisonous or not. But tell you what, once we get back to the hotel, I'll have them make you what ever you want to eat. How's that?"

"They won't serve me dinosaur?"

"They won't serve you dinosaur."

"Will they make me pizza?"

"With extra cheese." <<Actually, pizza sounds kind of good right now>> Scully's treacherous mind thought as her stomach growled. "Come on, Pete, let's hustle."

While Scully and Peter ran through the fields back towards the waters, Justin Leo and Andrea hacked and slashed their way through the thick jungle underbrush. Leo was having way too much fun with the machete and Andrea was complaining about being the pack mule.

"Where are we going???" she bitched. "I thought we were going to take the road???"

"This will be faster," Leo told her. "As soon as we get out of this jungle, we'll get to the river. There's a boathouse somewhere nearby. We'll get the boat and head up to the Main Control Bunker."

"But we have to find the boy first," she reminded him acidly.

"At the bunker there's other vehicles," Leo said. "It would be much easier to find him using a Jeep than traveling on foot so kindly do me a favor Andrea and shut your yap. You're scaring the animals."

"Fuck you," Andrea mumbled but remained silent until they finally worked their way out of the jungle.

"Well..." Leo said. "I'll be damned," he took Andrea's hand and pulled her towards him, pointing. "Look."

Andrea's eyes widened at the sight of Scully's red head, bobbing in the distance. "I saw her take the boy into the jungle last night."

"Let's go," Leo said, taking out his gun.

 

Peter ran ahead when he saw the dazzling blue river up ahead. "Peter slow down!" Scully cried as she grabbed the puppy and ran after him. <<Where do these kids get their energy?>> she wondered.

"Miss Scully!!!" Peter yelled out suddenly. "Look! A house!!"

Scully caught up with him. "Yea God," she exhaled to herself. "Not just a house, Pete," she said to him. "A boat house. There's probably a boat in there we can use!"

"A boat! You mean we don't hafta walk no more?"

"Any more and yes, that's EXACTLY what it means." She grabbed Peter's hand. "Come on, let's go." <<Maybe if we're lucky, there might be some food and water in there>> she hoped as they sprinted towards the boat house Peter spied.

However they ran into a slight difficulty when they reached the boat house. "Oh no," Peter whimpered when he saw the big padlock on the door. "How're we s'ppose get the boat?"

Scully pulled on the lock uselessly. "I'll think of something..." Scully reassured him, turning around to see a team of brachiosauruses gliding by on the huge river that split the island in two. They looked like giant, stone gray swans. They made waves like Shamu the Killer Whale in his lonely pool at Sea World. Scully, Peter and Tummy got drenched.

"Whee!!" Peter cheered after the brachiosauruses went past.

"Whee," Scully sighed, wringing out her shirt, again.

Meanwhile Leo and Andrea crept closer to them.

"Well," Scully said, running her fingers through her wet hair. "As neat as that was... let's figure out how to open this door."

"We can get that open for you, Agent Scully," Justin Leo said calmly, rising from out of the weeds, pointing his gun at Scully.

"Peter, run, get help!" Scully shouted at the little boy.

"Peter, stay," Leo ordered him. "You know I won't hurt you."

Peter ran, but not away, but to Scully, wrapping his arms around her waist. "But you're gonna hurt her," Peter tried to sound brave, "and I won't let you."

"Peter, RUN," Scully said, trying to pull the boy off of her.

"No!" Peter said, clutching her tighter. "I can't. It wouldn't be..." he tried to say the big word properly. "Honorabbell," was the best he could do.

Meanwhile Leo's twisted mind began to work. Maybe he wouldn't have to kill Agent Scully... right away. "Peter... there's something I need you to do for me," he said just as Andrea Nowark joined him, huffing and puffing under the weight of the heavy knapsack. "If you do this one thing for me, I promise I won't hurt Agent Scully."

"Promise???" Peter demanded.

"Scout's honor, buddy," Leo gave Peter a "who luvs ya" smile.

"Then put the gun down," Peter ordered him.

"I can't buddy, see... this," he gestured at the gun. "Is called insurance. I gotta make sure YOU hold up your end of the deal. And pointing this gun at Agent Scully makes sure that you do." He grinned at Agent Scully. "Isn't that right, Agent Scully?"

"You son-of-a-bitch," Scully seethed at him. "What do you need a little boy for? Use me instead."

"I would," he said laviaciously, looking her up and down. "But ironically," he chuckled, checking out her petite figure again. "You're too big. Now, move, so we can get into the boathouse."

Andrea stormed up and ripped Peter away from Scully. Peter wailed but Andrea told him roughly. "Shut up, you little brat. You," she snapped at Scully, "Move over there."

Fuming, Scully complied, picking up Tummy. Leo then aimed at the boat house lock and fired. The padlock fell apart. He handed the gun to Andrea while commenting "And this time, don't let her headbutt you and run away," before disappearing into the boathouse to get the boat.

Scully's eyes narrowed. Who could have "headbutted" Andrea and got away. Then her eyes widened just a bit when she realized the one person who could... would pull something like that. And the one person out of the entire Forum Leo would be obsessed over.

<<Starkweather>> she thought frantically.

But where could she be now?

"Ugh," Starkweather said, slapping dead another giant mosquito. "Fricken bugs. My luck, I'm gonna get malaria or some damn thing," she complained.

"I rather have malaria than get eaten," Langly said.

"Good point." Starkweather paused, leaning against a tree, scratching her bug bites. "Jesus, it's hot out here. Hey, Ringo?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I use you as a sounding board?"

"Sure!" he said, excited. Maybe she was going complain about her husband, maybe she was going to tell him she was getting divorced.

"Here's what I don't get," she said. "Schabasser, may he be digested in peace, made it a point to go the Bureau, meet with Skinner to get his permission to formally invite me and Scully out here. To observe the park. We had a loverly lunch," Starkweather stomach leapt as she thought about the prime rib of Dino that she along with the others had ingested. "with all the stockholders... THEY got to go home. WE were sent out to experience the Jungle Cruise from Hell. Okay, I understand the confidentially that had to be maintained because of the cute little critters that they made to roam this damn island. Fine. Whatever. However, once the park opened to the public, their little dinosaurs weren't going to be a secret anymore. But... I don't know... my gut instinct is telling me that this was a setup. ESPECIALLY after that little incident the night before when the hombre behind the bar was slipping mickeys into everybody's drinks. Somebody wanted us, us meaning me, Scully and Mulder on this island to get rid of us. Ben too, I guess, since he was supposed to go along and he bailed, which is why Doggett came in his place. Which leads me to believe there is something, believe it or not, more valuable than the genetically cloned dinosaurs that someone is going out of their way to make sure we don't get to. My only question is, what would that be and am I crazy for thinking this way? What do you think?"

"Huh?" Langly had tuned her out when he realized she wanted to talk shop.

Starkweather's shoulders slumped. "I miss Doggett," she whined as she started walking again, Langly following.




 

Meanwhile...
back at the river

"Everybody ready?" Leo asked after he finished throwing the extra supplies and weapons he found inside the boathouse into the sleek little speedboat.

Peter was sitting next to Scully, holding Tummy. "I guess," he muttered, standing up, walking towards his uncle.

Roughly Andrea pulled Scully up. For additional "insurance", Leo bound Scully's hands together with a piece of very itchy twine he found inside the boathouse. Scully wished she would have decked Andrea instead of just slapping her when she had the chance. And she wished she would have gone with her instinct instead of listening to Mulder and Starkweather when she wanted to go up to Andrea's room to find out the real reason why she did not go on the tour.

Leo, trying to be uncle-pally-wally with his sullen nephew, lifted Peter high and swung him into the boat. Peter just glared at him, clutching Tummy as Leo strapped a small lifevest to him. Even Tummy bared her sharp little white teeth at Leo. Leo ignored her growling as he, ever the gentleman, helped Scully get into the boat. Andrea, he turned his back on and she, grumbling, had to climb into the boat by herself.

Leo started up the outboard motor and soon, they were cruising upstream. "Hey Andrea," he said, finally acknowledging her presence. "Search those bags and see if we can't rustle up some food and water for our guests."

"We're going to waste OUR food, feeding THEM??" Andrea said, horrified.

<<God, what a bitch>> Scully thought, wishing she had her gun.

Leo glared at Andrea. "We have plenty to spare," he told her in an icy voice. "There was more than enough in the boathouse."

Still grumbling, Andrea dug through the bags and produced two bottles of water, some sticks of beef jerky, two packages of trail mix and four packages of cheese-n-crackers. "Here," she snapped, handing the food and water to Scully to deal with, as Leo was so kind to tie her hands in front of her instead of behind her back.

"I don't LIKE any of this stuff," Peter complained.

"I don't either, sweetie, but it's all we have, so eat up," Scully told him. "It's going to be a long time before we get back to the hotel," she bit into the beef jerky and about gagged but forced herself to swallow. <<It's probably dried bronto tail or something>> she thought, feeling queasy.

Peter fed his jerky to Tummy, ate his cheese-n-crackers as well as Scully's and stuffed the bag of trail mix in his back jean pocket. After drinking some water, he curled up next to Scully, laying his head in her lap. Tummy curled up right next to him. Soon, they were both asleep. Andrea stretched out on the other bench and was soon asleep as well. Scully wished she could have gotten up and thrown Andrea overboard.

Once she was sure Peter was sleeping solidly, Scully, yelling over the sound of the waves buffeting the boat and the whir of the motor asked Leo, "Where are we going?" When he didn't answer her, she demanded "What do you need Peter to do?" He still ignored her. Finally, she got his attention by asking "Where is Agent Starkweather?"

"I'm hoping you can help me find her, Agent Scully," Leo said, grinning as he fought the river's current. "Otherwise this is going to be a relatively short trip for you."

No one in the boat noticed a pair of giant crocodile eyes pop up through the water surface and hungrily watch their watercraft skim by.

Suddenly Leo, with no reason, pulled out his gun and started firing at the sky, waking up Peter and Andrea.

Scully screamed at him "What the hell are you shooting at?"

"Jesus, Justin," Andrea fumed as Peter wrapped his arms around Scully. "Are you trying to start a damn stampede?"

"Actually," Leo said, squeezing off a few more shots. "I am."

Tummy growled at him, baring her little puppy teeth.

"What about the other people still in the park?" Scully reminded him.

Leo shrugged. "The only people I'm concerned about are the ones in this boat and Agent Starkweather, who, judging from past experience, is rather adapt at getting out of tight situations so I have great faith she'll avoid any... accidents." He reloaded.

"You're a bad man," Peter said in the righteous rage of a child.

For some reason, Leo appeared hurt. "Buddy, you're going to learn that when you become a grown-up, sometimes you have to do bad things to make things right."

"That's not true," Peter said. "Mr. Fox and Miss Scully don't do bad things. Ever."

"Mr. Fox and Miss Scully have killed people in the line of duty, isn't that right, *Miss* Scully?" Leo asked smoothly. "You've shot quite a few people in your career, haven't you? In fact... wasn't there a man named Donnie Pfaster that you didn't necessarily cry over when he died in your home after you shot him... in self-defense? And let's see... you took electronically charged paddles and pressed them to the head of a Leonard Betts. And, hey! You even shot *Mr. Fox* once, in the shoulder, didn't you?"

Before Scully had a chance to answer, the boat was buffeted by a gigantic wave. "What the hell was that?" Andrea demanded.

Another wave rocked the boat. Leo fell on his ass. Scully would have laughed if she hadn't turned around just then.

The tyrannosaurus rex rose out of the water, screamed once, ducked back down and started swimming towards them.

"SHIT!" Leo scrambled up, kicked the engine up into a higher gear and started to speed away from the pursuing dinosaur.

Scully looked at her bound hands, looked at the gun that Leo left lying on the floor, looked back at the dinosaur. **Dammit** she thought, stomach in knots. She couldn't run the risk of a fight on board, no matter how badly she wanted to grab that gun. Their lives depended on the performance and concentration of that crazy man.

Or so she thought.

"Mulder, wait!" Grant called after him, running to catch Mulder up at the boathouse. Mulder was already there, crouching down, examining the shattered boathouse lock.

Just then, they heard the roar of the T-Rex. "I'm beginning to hate that sound," Mulder said, dropping the lock, bolting to his feet.

"Mulder," Grant was now looking at the ground. "Did you look at the footprints around the boathouse?"

"I started too, but then I kind of lost concentration when I heard the dinosaur's love song."

"Well, regain concentration, Mr. Mulder," Grant said pointing down. "See these prints?"

Mulder crouched down. "Those are a child's prints... Peter... Scully."

"And over here, look, more prints, but not Peter or Scully..."

"Leo... that son-of-a-bitc-"

The dinosaur roared again. This time, screaming was faintly heard up the river.

Mulder threw open the doors to the boathouse.

"Mr. Mulder... what do you have in mind?" Grant asked. "More stupid heroism?"

"Looks that way."

"Lovely," Grant sighed. "I need to learn to stay in Montana and just be content digging up dinosaurs that don't want to eat me."

"Grant, c'mere!" Mulder called from the boathouse. "I need some help bringing out these jet ski's."

"Jet ski's?"

"Hurry!"

Grant did the sign of the cross and then rushed inside the boathouse to help Mulder.

While Grant and Mulder struggled with the jet skis, Leo had opened the engine out to its maximum speed. The speedboat struggled against the current. "Can't you make this thing go any faster?" Andrea screamed at Leo, picking up the gun.

**Damn!** Scully thought.

"This is as fast as it goes!" Leo screamed back at Andrea as he maneuvered in and out of the boulders that started to dot the river the further north the boat crept.

The T-Rex stood up again and flopped back into the river, causing a huge wave, almost tidal, to rise up and flip the speedboat. Scully didn't even have time to call out a warning to Peter, suddenly she was airborne, feeling the wind against her face for the briefest of moments. Then gasped as her entire body plunged into the icy chill of the river. With a kick of her short but powerful legs, she forced herself up out of the depths of the river, upwards towards air, towards light.

"PETER!!!" she cried out, treading water, holding her bound hands above her head, fighting the current. "PETER!!!"

She turned her head and saw a small figure in a life jacket with a puppy holding onto the jacket with her teeth. Tummy was inefficiently pulling on Peter's life jacket, trying to swim against the current. "Oh God," she gasped and started to scissorkick her way towards Peter and Tummy.

Peter and Tummy were heading straight towards the T-Rex, who hovered in the river, waiting, his beady eyes watching her prey float towards him and his waiting jaws.

Spitting water as she swam, Scully hurried towards Peter and Tummy as fast as her legs could kick. Her bound hands and a nagging cramp in her abdomen hindered her progress. Still, she pressed forward, going as fast as she could, muttered "Hang on, Peter, hang on!" When she noticed that the huge dinosaur seemed to be distracted, she felt her heart leap in joy. Her heart leapt again when the beast turned around and started heading towards the source of the distraction.

Strong hands then reached from behind her and pulled her under. Scully struggled, swallowed bitter tasting water, felt the pain of the cramp increase. Still, she managed to deliver an elbow-strike to the gut and rise back up, gulp down a blessed draft of air.

But Andrea recovered quickly, reached forward and grabbed a fistful of Scully's hair and forced her face down in the water again. "Slap me, will you, damned bitch," she seethed as she set to work on drowning Agent Scully.

Scully, eyes wide open underwater, counted backwards from a thousand, kept her mouth shut. Held her breath and concentrated hard on not graying out. Betting on Andrea's ignorance on how long a human could go without breathing.

Scully had been a good swimmer when she was much younger, had participated in school swim teams. She had even placed second in an All State High School swim meet. Still, her lungs burned, ached for air.

<<Nine-hundred ninety-four, nine-hundred ninety-three, nine-hundred ninety-two, nine-hundred ninety-one, nine-hundred ninety, nine-hundred eighty-nine...>>

While Scully counted, Mulder and Grant were skimming the surface of the river on the sleek little jet skis Mulder had found, full speed ahead. It was already tough going, since they were fighting the current, but when the waves turned into whitecaps, both Grant and Mulder knew that the T-Rex had turned around and started towards them. Giving them hope while scaring them to death at the same time.

Unexpectedly, the tyrannosaur rose out of the water, roaring. Mulder and Grant didn't even see him coming towards them. They didn't even see him coming because the waves produced by his rising out of the water was enough to knock them off of the jet skis and into the river. Mulder's head spun as he went head over heels, experiencing the very uncomfortable sensation of water entering his nose, mouth and ears. Grant, meanwhile, felt his face and stomach burn as he flew into the air and belly-flopped back into the river. Fighting instinct to swim up for air, Grant dove deeper into the water and found a rather large rock to cling to, hoping he could hold on until the monster moved on. He hoped the others were okay.

Meanwhile, the wave pushed Peter and Tummy away from the T-Rex and back towards Scully and Andrea.

<<Nine-hundred eighty-one, nine-hundred eighty, nine-hundred seventy-nine, nine-hundred seventy-eight, nine-hundred seventy-seven...>>

During this time, Leo had been clinging to one of the large boulders in the middle of the river. He had no idea that Andrea was trying to drown Scully and if he had known, he probably wouldn't have cared. All he cared about was finding Peter and when he saw Peter's limp form being washed back his way, he let go of the rock and swam towards Peter. He grabbed Peter's hand when he reached him and pulled him to shore. He wasn't breathing. Tummy let go of the life jacket and barked at Leo insistently.

"Buddy, come on," Leo moaned as he gave Peter CPR. "Oh Jesus, kid. Don't die on me, come on, come on..."

The massive wave that flipped Mulder and Grant off their jet skis and pushed Peter into the waiting arms of Justin Leo also caused Andrea to lose her footing and her grip on Scully. When Scully felt Andrea let go, she heaved one mighty kick and pushed away from Andrea, allowing herself to be taken away by the current again.

Another powerful kick and her head was above water. She sucked in a great draft of beautiful, wonderful fresh air... and nearly doubled over from the gnawing cramp in her gut.

<<Wonderful>> Scully moaned to herself as she futilely tried to keep her head above water. <<I'm going to drown after all>> She tried to tread water but now her calf muscles were cramping. She concentrated on just floating, staying above water, breathing...

A few feet away from her, Mulder's head popped up. Like Grant, he had sought the security of underwater when he was flipped off his jetski. Also a powerful swimmer, he used to swim 30 laps a day at the Bureau pool, until word leaked out that he wore a red Speedo and all of a sudden, the entire secretarial pool had showed up one morning to gawk at him. It had been easy to dive deep and get away. Granted his arms were sore from fighting the current, but he had escaped the monster, bobbing up for air only twice until now.

"Oh my God," he gasped when he saw a familiar mop of red hair floating towards him. With a kick, he hurried towards her, just as Scully started to sink.

Scully, obsessed with the fiery muscle cramps wreaking havoc on her muscles, became dimly aware of strong arms cradling her and pulling her out of the water, pulling her towards the shore.

In the shelter of the boulders on the side of the river, a good place to duck down by if the T-Rex decided to saunter back this-a-aways, Mulder laid Scully on the sandy shore.

"Son-of-a-bitch!" he cursed as he undid Scully's bounds. "No wonder she was flailing in the water."

"Mulder?" Scully asked, blinking. Then releasing "Oh God, Peter," she struggled to get up, but then doubled over.

"Easy, easy," he admonished her. "Tell me what happened."

Scully gave Mulder the Reader's Digest version of what happened to her and Peter when they last parted company. "We have to find him Mulder! Are you by your self?"

"Grant was with me, I don't know where the others are. And we have to find them too. If Starkweather wasn't with Leo and Andrea, I'm presuming she escaped somehow and is fine. Langly was taken by a pterodactyl, have no clue what happened to him."

"A WHAT??"

"Wick's dead, he was trying to kill Grant. And we left Malcolm behind to babysit Doggett at a Hurricane Shelter we found."

"Why?"

"Leo shot him."

"Oh my God. Where? How bad?"

"In the shoulder. Same place were you shot me, now that I think about it."

"The shot itself isn't fatal but without treatment, antibiotics, the wound could turn septic."

"Not could, did. He was already spiking a fever when I left him to go after Grant."

"Where is Grant?"

***

Malcolm ran back to the hurricane shelter as fast as he could.

"Doggett," he mumbled as soon as he came in, "please for the love of GOD be conscious"

"Malcolm?" Doggett grumbled.

"Think you can get up?"

"Dunno..." Doggett croaked.

"Let me rephrase, you've GOT to get up, Agent Doggett."

"Why?"

"Don't have time for a great big philosophical debate right now." Malcolm mumbled, "Just gotta get our asses outta here cause there's a great big stampede headed for us."

"How do you know they were heading for us?"

"Dust was flying...here that thunder?"

"Yeah..it's getting louder..."

"That's not thunder."

"We gotta find a somewhere to hide in before we're crushed."

"I thought we were in a sturdy place."

"Yeah, it's sturdy, but the stampede's sturdier."

"Shitshitshitshitshitshitshit" Doggett muttered as he sat up.

"Great! You're sitting up!"

"Why? So I can be squished in an upright position instead of horizontal?"

"I saw a cave on my way back fifteen feet from here. Think you can walk fifteen feet?"

"Can barely sit up." Doggett assessed dismally.

"Come on, gotta move...no wheelchair, that's gonna be a little tricky, I know...but we gotta move..." Malcolm reminded him. "That's it..." Malcolm coached as soon as Doggett was shifting his weight on his feet.

"Fif..." Doggett started to say, then he fell flat on his face.

"Ohshitohshitohshitohshitohshit" Malcolm mumbled as the rumbling and trumpeting of animals grew louder outside.

 

The metal from the bed was shaking by the time he got out of the Hurricane Shelter.

The first surge of adrenaline he had since...well...the last time he had been around extinct species<extinct> he thought with a smirk, <I'll show you who's extinct> was probably the biggest factor in lifting Doggett up and managing to get him into a cave.

It was a pure miracle, because he couldn't see anything with dust flying. He just saw a rock raised above a hole in the ground.

He heard the trumpetting, and managed to pull Doggett into the hole with him just in time for the stampede to come tearing down anything that stood in its way.

He heard the roar of the Rex-T in the same direction he remembered hearing the gunshot.

"Malcolm?" Doggett grumbled weakly.

"Yeah?" Malcolm answered, grateful that he was conscious again. "Why couldn't you have been conscious five minutes ago?"

"Am I delirious?"

"Quite possibly."

"Good."

"Why do you ask?"

"Because right now, Godzilla is lookin' at me funny."

"God I hope so."

"Me too..."

"Well...it's not like we can get help...we don't know where the hell anyone is."

"Try climbin' out, Malcolm"

"This cave is about five feet deep..."

Then both Malcolm and Doggett were afraid for their friends lives as they heard another roar...much closer to them this time.

<<God, I hope they're alright>> Doggett prayed.




 

Meanwhile...

"Hey, look, I think we found the road!" Langly announced, peering through the foliage. "Should we take it?"

Starkweather debated. "I think it should be okay. We're far away enough from Psycho Boy and Ubur-bee-yatch I think. But what is that buzzing noise?" She wondered aloud as she pushed her way through the greenery. "Jiminy Christmas..."

"What... hoo daddy..." Langly took off his glasses, cleaned them and put them back on. "Damn, still looks the same."

They had returned to the site of they had left the Jeeps in the storm. But the Jeep SUV that Mulder, Scully, Peter and Wick had been trapped in had even more damage than what the battling tyrannosaurus rexes had rendered upon it the night before.

It had been flattened, like a pancake.

"Jay-sus..." Starkweather said, examining the crushed vehicle.

"Eww, Starkweather, look!" Langly pointed to the enormous lump sprawled out in the middle of the road.

It was the body of the fallen challenger in the Clash of the Titans last night, or what was left of it. In the giant eyes and huge wounds of the beast, flies swarmed. And little chicken sized green lizards, procompsignids the tiny little prehistoric scavengers were feasting, didn't even notice the two humans standing in the road. But the most revolting thing was that parts of the deceased animal looked like it had been stomped upon. Dinosaur parts were everywhere, mostly flattened. "What the hell did THAT???" Langly goggled.

"I really don't want to find out," Starkweather replied. "This trip has been full of enough of fun surprises as is. And speaking of fun surprises, that thing is going to reek to high heaven once it gets really hot," Starkweather muttered. "We might as well put a bull's eye on our butts for the critters that will come a-sniffin' if we stay here to see. And I'm tired of critters thinking I'm a snack."

"Maybe we should go see if the other Jeep is still in one piece," Langly said. "If the engine's sound, it might be driveable."

"Blondie, I like how your mind works," Starkweather said as they descended into the ditch again to get around the dead dinosaur. "Ugh, this thing stinks already," she gagged.

Climbed out of the storm ditch again, they ran to the other Jeep.

"Well, so much for your idea," Starkweather sighed. The other Jeep was squished flat as well.

"DAMMIT!" Langly howled. "My radio! The ham radio I was building was in there! I was hopin' to use the juice from the Jeep to power up the radio to be able to signal for help."

"Fuuuuuccccck," Starkweather swore. "This junket becomes less and less fun... hey Langly..." Starkweather eyeballed his backpack.

"Yeah?"

"What about your notebook computer? Is THAT working? Could we maybe email the other Gunmen?? Or Skinner at the Bureau?"

"I dunno," Langly slung off the pack and pulled out the computer and switched it on. "Hot damn!" he crowed. "All we gotta do," he said excitedly, putting the computer back in the pack. "Is get to a place where I can hook it up to a phone line."

"Well, that leaves out the hotel, so let's keep going to that Main Control Building you saw and hope to God that the others are heading that way too, especially Doggett." When she noticed Langly beginning to pout, she icily reminded him, "Langly he was shot and with all the weird insects in this environment, not to mention just the ordinary germs and bacteria that float in the air, I'm worried about infection and gangrene. We need to get him to a hospital ASAP. He's no good to me as a partner if his arm falls off."

When Langly opened his mouth to make a rude comment, Starkweather nipped it in the bud: "And if you were about to make a snide remark, rethink it unless you want to type with your toes for the rest of your natural life."

Langly shut his mouth and kept it shut until a few miles up the road a hour later. "What the hell is THAT bloody mess?" he pointed to another dead lump surrounded by compys in the road, only this lump was considerably smaller than the T-Rex.

"It's a man..." Starkweather said in dread, noticing the shoes. She picked up some rocks and chunked them at the compys. "Shoo! Get the hell away!" she yelled at them as the compys scattered, clicking and chirping. "Oh Jesus, it's Wick."

"Or what's left of 'em," Langly turned green. "Wonder what happened?"

"Probably tried to outrun a predator and didn't make it," Starkweather guessed, partially correct. "Come on... let's keep going... there's nothing we can do now."

"He seemed like a nice guy, I mean... he liked 'Lord of the Rings', how bad could he be?" Langly said, completely oblivious of the dead man's murder attempt on Dr. Grant.

"I can't answer that," Starkweather sighed as the compys came back to feast as they walked on. She shuddered and tried to not to vomit.

The further down the road they got, more and more trees appeared to be trampled, along with signs and fences. "What the hell?" she said, bewildered. "What happened here?" she asked looking at flat pile of wood and concrete.

Langly picked up the remains of a sign. "I think this was a building," he said, holding up the "Hurricane Shelter" sign.

 

"Oh God, I hope they weren't in there," she paled. She looked at the crushed building and then at the ground. She crouched down, examining the gravel road.

"Maybe..." Langly theorized. "Maybe everyone heard whatever it was that did this... and ran... but Wick, being... uh..."

"Porky?" Starkweather supplied.

"I was tryin' to respectful of the dead, but yeah, a lardass, couldn't keep up and... well... squish."

"But Wick wasn't squished, he was mauled. So maybe he got separated from the others and a different critter got 'em." Starkweather said. "In fact, I think everyone is separated, because look... footprints. Human footprints. And if I'm not mistaken, this prints belong to Malcolm, he was the only one wearing dress shoes instead of hiking boots... and look!" she pointed to another set of prints. "Those have to be Doggett's, the prints are uneven, as if he was limping..." She stood up.

"They must have fled this place after the rain... I wish I had a clue **ha ha** no pun intended, where Moose and Squirrel and Peter and Grant went, but if we follow the trail, we'll find Doggett and Malcolm." She checked the weapon she stole from Andrea, frowning. Not very many shots left. "Let's go."

"I just wonder," Langly said slowly. "What the hell HAPPENED last night??"

Outside, meanwhile, Starkweather and Langly, coming from the opposite direction of the stampede's path. A few lone scampering dinosaurs skitted across the now barren ground.

Another Rex-T scavenging for decaying carcasses for nourishment bellowed to a mate. It's mate across the island, bellowed from across the lake.

"SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!" Starkweather and Langly both screamed at once.

"Tree, cave, tree, cave, tree, cave..." Langly kept muttering frantically, as if willing for one or the other to pop up.

"HALLELUJAH, A CAVE!!!" Starkweather shouted when she spotted a break in the ground. She yanked on Langly's arm.

"C'mon, Ringo."

"She doesn't want me to die!" Langly whispered dreamily as he was being pulled down into a cave.

"Holy Shit...another beast..." Malcolm murmured.

Starkweather fell feet first on the dirt floor.

"I was right..." Malcolm murmured, but nonetheless relieved to see her ok. And very surprised to see Langly follow her. Nevertheless, the beast in the back of the cave growled low as she approached her pray.

"You're ok?"

"Peachy."

"Glad you could drop in."

"Bad joke."

"Hope you got a gun...coz we got problems..."

"We're stuck in a cave which is on an island we can't get off...I don't think guns can solve that problem."

"Alcohol maybe, but we don't have that either." Langly said, brushing himself off.

"Not that problem...him..." Doggett said, with a huge grin spread across his face at the sight of his partner.




 

Meanwhile...

The Lawfirm of Carter, Spangle and Adams
The relative safety of Washington DC
Benjamin Starkweather's office

"Yeah Noelle?" Ben picked up the phone as he was skimming through his emails.

"Mr. Cello to see you sir," said the receptionist/paralegal aide.

"Great, thanks, send 'em in."

"Yes sir."

Three seconds later, the dazzlingly handsome and brilliantly competent (as how most woman thought of him as) J. Stephen Cello III breezed into Ben's office, carrying a six pack of Smirnoff Ices and a box of Cuban cigars.

"Benjamin, my friend, I don't know how you do it, but you did it! You fucking did it!"

"Holy shit," Ben stood up and went around his desk. "Unigen folded."

"Like a house of cards on the set of 'Wizard of Oz'," Steve crowed. "That dirt those contacts of your wife dug up for us, scared them shitless."

At three-thirty AM Eastern Standard time, Byers hacked his way into the private computer of one of the scientists would had been involved in Unigen's cloning projects after pulling his name from the Unigen's massive database.

Apparently they forget to delete his name. It didn't matter, Byers, recalling the name dimly, cross-checked (hacked) into not just the FBI's Criminal Profile Database, but also Mulder's home computer (which in that case, he figured it was going to easier in this case to ask for forgiveness than permission)and saw why he remembered the name. He had been indicted but exonerated in one of the many big Mafia trials years and years ago. Mulder had always suspected him with ties to the Syndicate, but had no proof. Byers, going into the scientist's personal email, found some very interesting correspondence which indicated that a lot of the project's funding came from drug deals. A few threatening phone calls later and the scientist crept his way to the nearest federal field office, confessing all he knew about the shady dealing Unigen did to pull itself out of bankruptcy.

Steve knew none of this however. He just knew that Ben made a few phone calls, one visit to one of his FBI wife's contacts and poof! magic was made, and more importantly, money was made.

"And they're gonna ante up, my friend. Thanks to you and your hellcat wife." He handed Ben an Ice and a cigar. "And your weird ass brother-in-law and the rest of the fibbie basement posse."

"Are you serious?" Ben said, leaning down so Steve could light up his cigar. "They are meeting all of Spielberg and Crighton's demands?"

"All. They're paying the fees for copyright infringement, they're paying for character damage, they're paying court and lawyer fees..."

"Cha-ching!" Ben crowed before puffing on his cigar. "Mm, that's good."

"And they're gonna shut down that damn park."

"Thank God."

"Ben, we did it." Steve took a big, haughty drag of his cigar. "We keep this up, we could be looking at partner very very soon."

"The Lawfirm of Carter, Spangle, Adams, Starkweather and

Cello," Ben dreamed aloud. "Sounds good to me."

"The Lawfirm of Carter, Spangle, Adams, Cello and Starkweather sounds better to me, asshole."

Just then, the phone rang. "Excuse me," Ben put his drink down. "Yeah Noelle, what's up?"

"Um..." Noelle sounded rattled. "Well... there's a man on the phone and he told me to be a cupcake and get you... sir."

Ben sighed. "Frohike. It's okay, Noelle, just put him through."

"Hey, Bob, Frohike."

"My name's Ben."

"Whatever, we've got a major situation."

"I thought we brought Unigen down."

"We did, that's done, that ain't the prob, Bob."

"My name is Ben."

"There is massive seismological activity goin' on at that damn island YOUR wife and MY friends-"

"You're claiming Langly as a friend?"

"Eat me. Anyway, that entire chunk of rock in the middle of the ocean is unstable. And we can't get a hold of anyone there. No radio contact. No phone. No email. Nada."

"What..." Ben said warily. "Are you saying?"

"I forgot, you're a lawyer. I'll use smaller words. Island go boom soon. Go get wifey off."

"Define boom..."

"What the hell?" Steve asked him, chewing on his cigar.

"Boom as in volcanic eruption. There's a volcano on that fucking island, they thought it was dormant, ha ha, joke's on us. I tried to get ahold of AD Skinner and Agent Reyes and I was told they're already in El Mexico but I can't get through to them. You... God help us... are our only hope."

"Okay, okay... shit, okay," Ben tried to marshall his flying thoughts. "I gotta run home and pack and figure out who's watching the damn cat-"

"We're at your house now, Byers, because he's a chicken-shit, is gonna stay at your place to watch that damn cat, which by the way, has already bitten him."

"He's had his shots. And what the hell do you mean, you're already in my apartment??? How did you get in?"

"And we've packed for you and you and me are going to Mexico, amigo."

"You and me?" Ben felt his stomach drop. "And you packed for me?"

"Nice pink boxers with the purple hearts," and Frohike hung up.

"Those were a gag gift!!" Ben yelled into the phone. "FUCCCK."

"What? What the hell is wrong?" Steve asked him as he watched Ben storm through his office, putting his coat on and packing up his briefcase. "What happened to the party?"

"It'll have to be postponed buddy," Ben thumped Steve companionably on the shoulder. "I gotta go. I gotta go get Jerilyn."

"Where is she?"

"Mexico." And with that, Ben left.




 

Little later…

American Airlines 962
Preparing for take-off...

"So," Ben asked the squat little man with the big glasses, "how do you propose we get the basement crew off that rock before it goes boom? And," he added peevishly, "you never did tell me how you guys got into my apartment."

"Well," Frohike ignored Ben's question about breaking and entering. "I figure we'll have to catch a flight to Cozumel, since that's the closest thing to La Luna Blanca, then... hire a boat to get us to Disneyland-on-LSD and hopefully find everyone."

"That's it?" Ben said incredulously. "THAT'S the master plan?"

"YOU got a better idea, Bob?"

"My name is BEN."

"Think I care? Listen," Frohike snapped. "We don't got to like each other 'cause I sure as hell don't like YOU."

"My heart bleeds," Ben droned.

"But MY friends are out on that island. And I include YOUR wife as one of my friends... mostly because she scares me shitless and I prefer to stay on her good side."

"You're doing better than I am," Ben said pathetically.

"Maybe if you weren't such a self-defensive asshole, you wouldn't be on the girl's shitlist so often."

"I can not believe this," Ben leaned his head against his seat, laughing. "I'm getting marital advice from the Lurve Child of Brainy Smurf and Danny DeVito."

"Hardy-har. Listen, pissant. It's NOT marital advice, it's common sense. That whole "do-unto-others" kind of thing. But if Jerilyn gets eaten or ends up going skinny-dipping in hot molten lava, well, this whole conversation about your incredible idiocy is moot, so "Mr-My-Name-Is-Ben", if YOU have any better ideas as to finding the delightful Mrs. Starkweather along with the rest of the Scooby Doo Gang -- INCLUDING the Dog himself," Frohike glared at Ben pointedly. "I am all ears."

"Oh damn, we can't leave Doggett as a Scooby Snack for Rexy?"

"Right now, her current partner looks like a Keebler Elf on steroids. Her next partner could be a Russell Crow or Brad Pitt look alike, how would you like THAT??"

"Good point," Ben mumbled. "And no," he admitted. "I don't have any better ideas, but we've got a long flight ahead, so I'm sure we can think of something."

"That's better. Oh and by the way," Frohike said, buckling himself in as the flight attendant walked down the aisle, making last minute seat belt checks. "Your cat is Satan Incarnate."

"Oh, he's not that bad..."




Meanwhile...
Ben and Jerilyn's apartment

"N-n-nice kitty..." Byers stammered, standing on the kitchen chair, looking down at the tabby cat, puffed out let a blowfish, hissing and growling. "N-n-nice Caesar... I'm just gonna get down..." Byers gingerly lowered one foot onto the kitchen floor. "And get you a kitty treat... you like kitty treats... don't you Caesar?"

Caesar pounced on Byers' foot and bit his ankle.

"OW! OW! OW! OW! OW!" Byers shrieked as he hopped around the Starkweathers' kitchen, Caesar attached to his ankle.

"I'm gonna kill Frohike," he muttered as he hobbled his way to the fridge to see if a saucer of milk would be a bribe enough for Caesar to detach from his leg.




 

Meanwhile...

"Breath! Dammit, Pete, c'mon!!" Leo pleaded to the boy as Tummy barked at him. "Shut up!" he snarled at the tiny dog as he pumped Peter's chest again. "One one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand, four one-thousand... BREATH!" He clamped his mouth over Peter's button nose and small lips. "Jesus kid, come on!"

Peter was turning a dangerous shade of blue.

"Pete, come on, buddy, come on, I promise, I'll take you home, I'll get you the hell out of this, I should have never... come on Peter!!" Leo begged, pumping his chest again.

Finally, a gush of water spurted from Peter's mouth. Then he began to weakly cough. Leo frantically helped the boy sit up. "Pete, Pete, talk to me buddy."

"What happened?" the boy asked, confused. "Where'm I? Where's my mom... where's Miss Scully?" Peter tried not to cry but couldn't help it. His head hurt, his chest hurt and his stomach kept clenching and unclenching. "I wanna go home..."

"We're going home Peter," Leo said, swinging the boy up into his arms. Under his breath, he muttered. "It's not worth it."

"What's not worth it?" Peter asked.

"The favor I needed you to do. It's not... I was stupid Peter," Leo said as he started to walk away from the river, back towards the trail. "I... Miss Scully is right, buddy. I'm not a very good person. I've done some stuff that... well... for once, I'm going to do something right. I'm getting you out of here."

"And will you get everyone else off too?"

"I'll come back," he said aloud while silently amending his statement <<for Lily.>>

After all, a dinosaur is not cloned in a day, so how could full redemption come to a crazy man within an hour?

As Leo bore Peter away and Mulder and Scully got caught up on the day's events, Grant meanwhile was still trying to elude the tyrannosaur. The river was a treacherous piece of nature, a string of mountains and valleys under water. One minute, Grant was literally walking underwater with his head sticking out, the next minute, his next step would plunge him under with his feet kicking frantically, looking for solid ground to stand on. Currently, he was clinging to one of the many boulders that dotted the River Wild. The T-Rex was still swimming in the deep end of the pool, but then he took a step up and was standing tall in the shallow part of the river bed.

Grant felt his mouth dry completely, staying completely still as the T-Rex howled. A mate answered him <<or her... who the hell knows for sure>> Grant thought feverishly as the T-Rex's shadow fell on him.

But a clinically detached part of his brain, Grant couldn't help admire the beast in front of him. He could see the sinewy muscles rippling under the emerald green scales, the talons flexing, the sunlight glistening off of the long ivory claws. He could hear the hiss of the dinosaur's breath.

Grant held his own breath, trying to ignore the fish that were nibbling on his ankles.

The T-Rex dipped his head down to noisily inhale some water and whatever poor marine life that inhabited that cubic foot of water at that time. The monster raised his head, looked around, spying something interesting in the distance. Then he stomped off.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Grant kicked the fish off of him and swam to shore. Grimacing at the squishy feeling of wet socks trapped inside of soaked leather hiking boots, he made his way down the shoreline. "Mulder!" he called out

"Over here!" he then heard Mulder call out and Grant, forgetting about wet socks, ran towards the sound of his voice. "Agent Scully," he said, smiling with relief, clasping her hands. "You are a sight for sore eyes."

"Peter's not with you?" was the first thing out of her mouth. "He was floating downstream."

"I didn't see him... oh no..." Grant looked up at Mulder, who had stood up to scan the scene. "You don't think..."

"I don't think," Mulder said, dropping down behind the boulders quick again, as if he was hiding from someone's sight. "I KNOW."

"What? How?" Grant asked, confused.

"Leo. I saw him disappearing into the woods with Peter... and my dog," he added darkly. "And just now, I saw Nowark crawling out of the river and going down the trail, northbound. Looked like she was following them."

"Mulder," Scully said, remembering. "Leo said he wanted Peter to do something for him. He was using me as insurance, to use his sick word. He told the boy that as long as he would do what he was told, he would let me go. I told him to let Peter go and I would go in his place, but he said I was "too big." What could he mean?"

"When that volcano," Grant pointed northwest to the mountain with a reedy stream of smoke leaking from out top. "First was created by plate tectonics years and years ago, all kinds of caverns were created. Pirates loved the Caribbean and Mexico because of all the wonderful hiding places Nature created for their booty."

"Pirates still exist," Mulder said darkly. "Leo's deep into the Syndicate-"

"The what?" Grant queried.

"Let's just say it's an organization that makes the Mafia look like an Amish Quilting Bee," Mulder summarized.

"What could be on this island that Leo could possibly want though?"

"Other than Starkweather? I have no idea."

"What do we do Mulder?" Scully said, in a quandary. "We have to get Peter away from that man, but Doggett's out there with a bad injury, plus we have no idea where Starkweather or Langly could be and there's only three of us, we have no food, no weapons..."

Slowly, Grant said, "I think... they would understand... if they knew we went after the boy."

"Especially Doggett," Mulder said when he saw Scully's stricken face.

"Why Doggett?" Grant asked.

"He doesn't exactly advertise it," Mulder said as he started walking north, along the river. Grant and Scully followed behind him. "So don't offer your condolences... not unless you feel like getting slammed up against a wall. He's kind of touchy about the subject."

"What subject? He seemed to like kids alright."

"He does," Scully said. "What Mulder is trying to say, Dr. Grant, is that years ago, Agent Doggett's seven year old son was kidnapped, murdered and dumped in a field in South Carolina."

"Oh Jesus. How awful."

"Anyway..." Mulder said. "He'd understand..." but Mulder didn't feel any better about abandoning his friends and his little sister anymore than Scully and Grant did.

The further and further north Mulder, Scully and Grant walked, the wider and wider the river became and the denser and denser , which made no sense. "Mulder, how are we going to get around?" Scully asked.

"Should we go back and try to find a crossing?" Grant asked.

"We can't afford to lose the time backtracking," Mulder insisted.

"We can't afford to lost the time going forwards and finding out that we're stuck and can't get across," Grant pointed out to Mulder.

Scully looked ahead. "Maybe we should keep going. I hear water rushing, like a waterfall. Maybe the start of the river is close up here, maybe there's a shallow lagoon we can cross."

"And look," Mulder pointed down at the water. "The water itself gets clearer and clearer the further we go. If you're right Grant, and Leo is taking the boy to the volcano to search for treasure... this is the best way to go."

So, hot, weary and jumping at every strange noise they heard, the trio trudged on. Mulder and Scully had their stomachs in knots, worrying about strange animals, especially the legendary velicoraptors. Only Grant was unconcerned. Morning was melting into afternoon. It was too hot for the animals to be out. Only the stupid humans were the ones moving around in the blistering sun. Scully's fair skin was already a soft shade of pink accentuated with freckles. Mulder's nose and cheeks had turned Santa Claus rosy. Grant could only imagine what his sunburn looked like.

Finally, they made it to the lagoon Scully predicted would be there. If they weren't so hot and miserable, they would have been awe-stricken by the massive beauty of the ancient stream pouring out of the mouth of a mountain's cave, high, high above them. Icy cool waters crashing down in the otherwise tranquil blue pool below. Moss older than time and flowers brighter than oil paints decorated the base of the solemn slate gray mountain. Tropical birds, toucans and parrots and cocktiels fluttered about here and there. The scene would have stirred up images of Eden... if either of them cared about visually aesthetic pleasure at the moment, which none of them did.

Scully slipped off her socks and boots, which was pointless because they were still wet from her impromptu swim. She just wanted an excuse to get her feet wet. She sighed in relief as the chilly water bathed her aching toes. "Look, it's shallow here, we can cross-" she started to say over the roar of the waterfall.

But neither man was listening. "Do you hear that?" Mulder asked, cocking his head.

"Yeah... it sounds like..." Grant strained his ears. "It sounds lik-"

"ARRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!" Out of the mouth of the mountain, the force of the free-falling water expelled two figures out. One of the figures was dressed head to two in black and the other had on jeans, a Ramones T-shirt and Converse sneakers.

Mulder, Scully and Grant watched Malcolm and Langly tumble helplessly out of the cave and down the waterfall. Their bodies disappeared into the drowning pool of the lagoon and the threesome wasted no time rushing to their aid.

Malcolm and Langly popped up from underneath. "Well THAT sucked," Langly bitched, spitting out water. He squinted through his thick black glasses. "Oh," he took them off and handed them to Malcolm. "These are yours."

"Oh... thanks, thank you, thanks. Well!" he beamed at Mulder, Scully and Grant. "It's great to see you all... uneaten," then he noticed the smallest member of the party was missing. "Where... where's the boy?" he asked.

"Leo has him, he took him, we have to find him, but where is Agent Dogg-" Scully started to ask when two more shouts of surprise were heard above them.

Looking up, everyone watched a man tumbling down the waterfall, falling head over heels. Closely behind him, squealing all the way down, was a woman with lots of blond hair...

"Starkweather!!!!" Mulder cried out as she splashed down right after Doggett. He waded further into the lagoon, with Scully following, remembering that Doggett had been shot and could be a very sick man.

Both Starkweather and Doggett surfaced at the same time. "Can we do that again??" she asked like an eager little girl who had ridden her first big water slide.

Doggett glowered at her. "All this time in the FBI," he grumbled, clutching his injured shoulder, "and nobody's used you for target practice yet."

"Hey there, nice of you to join us," Mulder droned as he swam out to help Doggett and Starkweather get to dry land.

"You know, after this trip," Starkweather said, dog-paddling after Mulder who was assisting the hurt Doggett towards the waiting Dr. Scully, "I would win 'Survivor' hands down."

"With your mouth, you'd get voted off first," Mulder said dryly as he helped Doggett lay down on the beach. "Or killed for food. Hey, Puppy Man, you don't look your usual sexy right now," he quipped but his eyes belied his worry. Doggett really did look worse than he did last night. The man was very pale, even his eyes looked less blue.

"I'm still prettier than you," Doggett responded wearily as Scully pulled off Doggett's grimy shirt and sucked in her breath when she saw the wound. In the thick, choking humidity, he was shivering.

"The bullet's lodged solid in the upper shoulder," Dr. Starkweather told Scully. "There doesn't seem to be any serious muscle or nerve damage that can be determined, but the wound's infected. And I'm terrified it's a staph infection. He's burning up to the touch. We gotta get him off this damn island and get him to a hospital." She looked around. "Where's Peter?" she asked as Scully sacrificed the thin blouse she had on top of her tank top and shredded it into bandages.

After Scully filled her in on the situation (and after Starkweather cursed a blue streak) she asked her "So, how in the hell, did the four of you wind up here??"

Langly, Malcolm and Starkweather looked at each other.

"Well..." Starkweather said...





Earlier in the day...

"Malcolm?" Doggett grumbled weakly.

"Yeah?" Malcolm answered, grateful that he was conscious again. "Why couldn't you have been conscious five minutes ago?"

"Am I delirious?"

"Quite possibly."

"Good."

"Why do you ask?"

"Because right now, Godzilla is lookin' at me funny."

"God I hope so."

"Me too..."

"Well...it's not like we can get help...we don't know where the hell anyone is."

"Try climbin' out, Malcolm"

"This cave is about five feet deep..."

Then both Malcolm and Doggett were afraid for their friends lives as they heard another roar...much closer to them this time.

<<God, I hope they're alright>> Doggett prayed.

Outside, meanwhile, Starkweather and Langly, coming from the opposite direction of the stampede's path. A few lone scampering dinosaurs skitted across the now barren ground.

Another Rex-T scavenging for decaying carcasses for nourishment bellowed to a mate. It's mate across the island, bellowed from across the lake.

"SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!" Starkweather and Langly both screamed at once.

"Tree, cave, tree, cave, tree, cave..." Langly kept muttering frantically, as if willing for one or the other to pop up.

"HALLELUJAH, A CAVE!!!" Starkweather shouted when she spotted a break in the ground. She yanked on Langly's arm. "C'mon, Ringo."

"She doesn't want me to die!" Langly whispered dreamily as he was being pulled down into a cave.

"Holy Shit...another beast..." Malcolm murmured.

Starkweather fell feet first on the dirt floor. "I was right..." Malcolm murmured, but nonetheless relieved to see her ok. And very surprised to see Langly follow her.

Nevertheless, the beast in the back of the cave growled low as she approached her pray.

"You're ok?"

"Peachy."

"Glad you could drop in."

"Bad joke."

"Hope you got a gun...coz we got problems..."

"We're stuck in a cave which is on an island we can't get off...I don't think guns can solve that problem."

"Alcohol maybe, but we don't have that either." Langly said, brushing himself off.

"Not that problem...him..." Doggett said, with a huge grin spread across his face at the sight of his partner.

Starkweather turned around and her eyes widened. "Oh Jesus fucking Christ..." she moaned. "What the hell is that???"

"I dunno, but I'm sick of surprises," Langly whined. "I have no clean underwear left."

"Overshare," Starkweather informed him, running to help Doggett back up. "Come on you guys, we gotta move, before THAT thing does! Papa John..." Starkweather said as she was lifting him up. "You're going on a diet when we get home."

"Just cook for me and I'm pretty sure I'll be safe from eating for a while."

"HA!"

"Starkweather...lemme have your gun." Langly said suddenly.

"Ringo..." Starkweather said, shaking her head, "you sit in front of a computer all day. You don't need to be carrying fire arms that actually shoot bullets that cause people to die."

"Yeah...but if I do something heroic and stupid, then mebbe Godzilla won't eat us."

"Langly...I think you need to log off more." Doggett said.

"I get told that a lot." Langly said dismally.

"Malcolm...how's he been doing?" Starkweather asked, trying to get an idea of Doggett's medical state.

"I think that is a moot point if he gets eaten, Dr. Starkweather." Malcolm pointed out grimly.

"Starkweather...gimme the gun," he said defiantly like a little kid "I wanna shoot Godzilla."

Starkweather didn't listen to him, she tried to hoist Doggett's upperbody around her, but they fell backwards, with the impact knocking the gun out of her belt-loop.

Langly picked it up.

"Langly, you stupid fuck, put it down!"

Langly, trying desperately to keep his hands from shaking like a leaf, aimed squarely for the spot right between the creature's eyes.

Then he pulled the trigger, amazingly hitting the creature and wounding it fatally. "All those hours spent playing Doom finally paid off!" Langly crowed.

But unfortunately the gunshot, was sending all the bats that inhabited the cave flying out.

Along with all the other prehistoric creatures that inhabited the cave.

"RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!" Malcolm hollered needlessly.

"Come on Doggett, you gotta try and walk with me." Starkweather was coaching. A black swarm was coming closer and closer to them from the deep within the cave.

"I think he oughtta crawl with you, Starkweather." Malcolm said, getting down on all fours. Langly, finally realizing what was happening, did the same.

"Guns in low places with things that fly inhabiting them very bad." Starkweather said.

A knot was stuck in Langly's throat tied with the guilt Starkweather slung at him.

"I only packed for the dino-island. I didn't pack enough for a guilt trip," Langly pouted, but she didn't hear him. She was already fifteen feet down the cave, crawling on her belly every few inches, and then pulling up Doggett behind her.

Malcolm and Langly were following her. Luckily the ground was mossy, or they would be cut from head to toe.

"Doggett!" She screamed, as he blacked out again. "Come on Doggett, stay with me! We just gotta get outta this cave."

"Oh God...he doesn't look good...at all" Malcolm said unhelpfully.

"Langly," She said, "I want you and Malcolm to go ahead of us. Try and find that control room we talked about, and get help off this island."

Langly just nodded and squirmed past them. Malcolm looked back at the two FBI agents nervously before moving along.

"Oh. He's up. Good." Malcolm said, and then crawled back.

"What's that sound?" Langly asked, as he tried the best he could to get out of there as fast he could.

"We'll find out..."

Then Langly found himself being shot like a human cannon ball out of the cave down a waterfall.




 

Mexico City International Airport
Mexico City, Mexico

"Agente Reyes," a gentle voice crooned. "Agente Reyes, despierta."

"żMama?" Reyes raised her head, disoriented. She felt even worse this morning that she did the day before, if that was possible. She could feel the blood pounding in her skull, as if she she was nursing the world's worst hangover. Her throat and her eyes felt like they were on fire. But she shivered in the Mexican heat. "Mama soy enfermo," Reyes whined.

Then she heard the trilling laughter of a girl. Reyes groaned. "Isobel."

"żBuenas díaz? żCómo es usted?" Isobel chirped, a morning person.

"Shitty," Reyes told her bluntly.

When the storm had hit, Skinner, Reyes and Isobel had fled to the relative shelter of the airport. Isobel had mentioned maybe heading towards the bar, getting some drinks and Reyes had fled to the nearest restroom. Afterwards, she had curled up in one of the uncomfortable airport chairs and crashed. But her sleep had not been refreshing or resting in the least. Now her entire body ached. She wondered if she had more than just a cold.

"That sucks," Isobel said brightly in English. "Well, get your stuff, we're on our way to La Luna Blanca!" She walked away, whistling.

Reyes wanted to hurt her.

She reached down for her luggage and had to pause because the room started to spin. She sat back down, touching her face. It was covered with sweat.

"Agent Reyes?"

Reyes looked up. "Yes sir?" she said pathetically to Skinner who seemed to have materialized in front of her.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Reyes stood up and weaved. "I'm fantastic."

"Reyes, I'm going to get you a ticket to DC. You're no good to us here. You're sick. You should have told me how sick you really were," he chastised her.

"Sir, those are my friends and co-workers on that island. We need to get them out of there. And you don't speak a word of Spanish."

"I'll get a Spanish-to-English dictionary."

"Sir-"

"Agent Reyes, I want you to go home, that's an ord-"

Reyes fainted. Skinner barely had time to catch her.

"Crap," he muttered.

Isobel bopped her way back to the Assistant Director and the agent. "Hey, are we ready to roll or not?"

Skinner glared at the way-to-happy-for-her-good pilot, then back at the unconscious agent in his arms. "Dammit," he gripped. "Get the luggage," Skinner barked at Isobel as he gathered Reyes up in his arms. "My hands are full."

"Como usted desea, mi rey," (As you wish, my king) Isobel muttered sarcastically as she gathered the suitcases. She dragged them as she followed Skinner who carried Reyes to the airplane.

"This is such a mistake," Skinner groaned as he placed Reyes in one of the small seats in the tiny plane.

"Convengo totalmente," griped Isobel as she fired up the plane while Skinner sat down and buckled himself in. "Covengo totalmente." (I totally agree.)

 

Meanwhile...

En route to Mexico...

Ben looked down at Frohike who was typing away frantically at his Toshiba notebook computer. "What are you doing?"

"Working. A difficult concept for a lawyer to grasp, I know..."

Ben scowled at the little man with the big glasses. <<Jeri, you need to make new friends>> he thought beligerently while asking patiently asking "Working on what?"

Frohike sighed. "I'm talking to Byers online. He's trying to hack into Unigen again."

"Why?"

"Am I on trial?"

"No."

"Then quit interrupting."

"Sorry," he snapped, indicating clearly that he wasn't sorry.

"He's trying to get information about that damn island. Location, maps, climates, so on and so forth. Hold on..." Frohike squinted at the tiny AOL IM message flashing in the corner of his computer screen. "Byers wants to know what Caesar's favorite treat is."

"Favorite treat?" Ben sounded bewildered. "Isn't he supposed to be looking for a map of La Luna Blanca like you just said?"

"Yeah, but it's hard for him to concentrate when the cat is biting his ankles."

"I knew I should had left him with Beth," he sighed. Caesar had been acting like a holy terror ever since he picked him up from his neighbor after Jerilyn dropped him off there before she left for this "fun" trip.

Meanwhile, poor Byers was trying to salvage what was left of his suit pants... and his ankle. "Come on kitty... please..." he begged as Caesar continued hang on him, teeth in his pants, claws in his flesh. "Please????" he tried to dislodge the animal from his leg but with no luck. He hobbled back to Ben and Jeri's computer, dragging Caesar along with him, sat down and typed back to Frohike:

"Hurry."

Ben thought for a moment. "Um... he likes the Pounce! kitty treats, I give him one every night when I come home... or a can of tuna fish. Jeri gives him leftovers whenever she makes tuna salad."

"Starkweather cooks?"

"He doesn't get leftovers from tuna salad very often."

"I take that as a 'no, she doesn't,'" Frohike grumbled as he typed back to his friend: "Tuna"

Byers got up again, hobbled into the kitchen and began ransacking the kitchen as Caesar's claws sank deeper into his skin. He found bread, Macaroni and Cheese, Hamburger Helper, Ramon noodles, Cap't Crunch cereal, Rice-A-Roni, Campbell's Chicken and Stars soups, a dusty bread maker, an even dustier waffle maker, Bisquick, Purinea Cat Chow, but no tuna.

"Dammit," Byers said, a major expletive for him.

Just then the door flew open. "FREEZE!!!" A cop with her gun out stormed inside the apartment.

"ARRGGHH!!!" Byers jumped, putting hands over head. "Ma'am, wait you don't understand..."

"I understand plenty," Officer Beth Johnson, Ben and Jerilyn's next door and occasional cat sitter snarled at him while pointing her gun at him. "I understand that Special Agent Starkweather is out of town and Mr. Starkweather is at work and you are breaking and entering..." she looked down. Saw the cat attached to his ankle. "... the premises..." A ghost of a smile materialized on her stern cop's face.

Just then. "Hey what's up- holy cow, don't shoot!" Manny Ibarra's arms sprang over his head when Beth turned around to point her gun at him. "I give up, I give up!"

"What are you giving up for?" Byers sighed. "We didn't do anything wrong."

"Oh yeah," with a dorky grin, Manny dropped his hands. Beth glared at him and Manny, sighing, put them up again.

During this exciting moment in Byers and Manny's life,

Frohike grumbled while fidgeting in his uncomfortable airplane seat "Dammit, what's taking him so long?"

Ben stared out the window, shaking his head. <<The hell with Jerilyn... **I** need to make new friends...>>

Meanwhile


"I thought we were going home!" Peter protested.

"We are after you do just one thing for me, buddy." Leo had changed his mind the closer they came to the caves near the volcano.

"What is it? Somfin' bad?"

"It's a game."

"Oh, it was the key to life, now it's a game," Andrea snorted as she came running up after them.

"Just play along." Justin mouthed. It was obvious he was hoping to lose her.

"Key to life? You mean like the birds 'n beats?"

"Kinda..." Leo hesitated. "I'm taking you to a place in the mountain so we can find it."

"Eddie Myers told me where babies come from. His mom told his brother Kenny and Kenny tol' Eddie 'n' Eddie tol' my whole fourth grade class. They don't come from somf'n' you can fit inside a cave."

"Well...it's a lot more complicated than that, Pete." Leo answered.

"When grown-ups say it's comp'cated it means they know the answer but they don't wanna answer." Peter grumbled.

"Pete...just do this one thing for me and I promise, we'll go straight home, ok? You like playing hide-and-seek, right buddy?"

"Not when I don't know who's it." Peter grumbled, and looked up. "I don't wanna go into the mountain, Uncle Justin."

"We're not actually going INTO the mountain, Peter," Leo said, taking out a map from his back pocket. "We're going to go to a little cave right by it."

"Good. Coz I don't like lotsa smoke. It's bad."

"Smoke?" Andrea queried.

"The mountain's smoking." Peter said.

"It's just clouds." Leo said. There was a picture of Janis Joplin who had just finished a concert with her hands outstretched in a spot on the map. And at that moment when Peter looked up at the clouds, he saw a tree that looked like a woman praying.

"Hey buddy," Leo said, pointing to it to make sure he wasn't seeing things, "What does that tree look like, Peter."

"It looks like somebody praying."

"Good," He looked over across from it and saw a group of rocks and on the other side of it was a bunch of moss. "I'm not crazy."

"I won't tell anybody if you won't." Andrea mumbled.

Leo was so busy at his work of pushing the moss aside and getting a space wide enough for his nephew to climb down that he ignored her comment.




 

Meanwhile,
en route to La Luna Blanca

Isobel Ibarra was merrily chattering a mile a minute. Skinner didn't even pretend to listen to her, he kept turning around to check on Reyes. She had snapped out of her faint and was bundled up in a smelly quilt Izzy had found in the back of her plane. Reyes' nose was so clogged up however, she didn't notice that the blanket reeked to high heaven. Her face shone with fever, her body trembled with illness. Skinner frowned with consternation and a little guilt. He had asked (ordered) Reyes to accompany him and he knew she wasn't feeling well. But he thought it was just the sniffles, something that you sucked up and just worked your way through. This looked and sounded serious for now a deep, thick hacking cough accompanied Reyes.

Then, his cell phone rang. "Skinner," he said, slightly surprised. He had been having problems with his cell service since they landed in Mexico.

"Skinner? As in Assistant Director Skinner?" a shrill female voice whined into his ear.

"Yes," he responded in his customary surly nature.

"My name is Officer Beth Johnson. I was instructed to call this number so you could identify two intruders I apprehended in the Starkweathers' apartment."

Skinner closed his eyes. "Is it Frohike and Byers?" he took his glasses off and started to rub his temple.

"Well, sir, one of the perps is named John Fitzgerald Byers, but the other one says his name is Manuel Ibarra."

"Oh Jesus, that's even better." Skinner groaned. "Put Byers on the phone, Officer Johnson. They are both fine, they are friends of Mr. and Mrs. Starkweather."

A silence as the phone was being handed off and then Byers said "AD Skinner, I'm so glad I got a hold of you."

"Byers, what in the hell are you guys DOING in the Starkweathers' apartment!" Skinner barked at the hapless Gunmen.

"He's where?" Reyes croaked out.

"Sir, we just learned of massive seismic activity on that island. There is an active volcano that's giving indications that it could erupt any time in the near future. Frohike and Mr. Starkweather on a flight to Mexico City right now to meet with you and assist."

"Well, they're going to have a hard time finding us. We're already en route to La Luna Blanca via aircraft," Skinner growled.

"Oh dear," Byers sighed. "I'll rely the message to Frohike, I'm communicating with him via online instant messaging."

"Have you heard anything from any of them? Mulder? Scully? Langly?"

"No sir, unfortunately not. Which is why Frohike and Mr. Starkweather are coming to Mexico. Right now I'm working on pulled a map from Unigen's database, which is proving a little difficult right now," he glared at Officer Johnson, Manny and Caesar, who was still attached to his ankle, "due to some distractions and the fact that Unigen folded and the firewalls are being put up like crazy in their sites."

"Unigen folded? How? When?"

"I'll explain later sir, there's precious little time. Sir, we believe that due to the tropical storm that swept through that area of the world last night, the power was knocked out. That island is offline. The animals are roaming free. And we have no way of knowing where on that island any of them could be."

"Another needle in a haystack," Skinner groaned.

"Sir," Reyes wheezed. "What's going on?"

"This party just keeps getting better and better," Skinner grumbled.

 

Meanwhile...back at the river...

"The boy..." Doggett grumbled, "What the hell happened to 'im?"

"Leo took off with him." Mulder said, "I think he's ok. I think Leo needs him, so he'll stay alive."

"For what?" Starkweather asked.

"Who the hell knows." Mulder shrugged.

"Look, if he came to this island just for me, then he would not have needed to bring the kid along. The guy's got something up his sleeve."

"You think he's mixed up with Unigen somehow?"

"Who the hell knows.

"We gotta get to 'im." Doggett demanded, "Who knows what the hell'll happen once the boy's done what he's supposed to." Doggett protested.

"No," Scully countered, "We've got to signal for help and get you off this island. "Langly, do you remember where that bunker was that you saw?"

"I remember it being kinda close to the shore." Langly said, looking nervously up at the smoking volcano. "You think maybe if we send a sacrificial virgin down into the mountain it wouldn't blow?"

"That would be you, wouldn't it?" Mulder said, glaring at Langly.

"I don't think the thicket on the bank is very thick, because ten to one, the control booth is on the other side." Doggett said.

"Agent Doggett, are you going to be ok to walk?" Grant asked, hating that he felt out of the loop.

"If it's not that far, I think it'll be ok." Doggett said.

"I don't like the idea of separating." Malcolm said.

"We'll go get Peter for sure," Dr. Grant promised, "but first, we need to get you to that bunker so we can call for help.

So they all took turns supporting Doggett as they made their way through the underbrush.

"I feel like I'm being passed around like a joint." Doggett whined.

"Mulder, what does that look like to you?" Scully asked, pointing at a chunk of metal.

"A downed plane?"

"Good, I'm not hallucinating." Malcolm said.

"Maybe the plane still has working control panels!"

"We wouldn't be that lucky, but it's worth a shot."

So they all scrambled towards a crumpled up aircraft that had "The Flying Barney" sketched on the side with a faded picture of Barney Rubble.

"Somebody likes the Flintstones." Langly chirped. "Cool!"




 

Meanwhile...

"Come on buddy," Leo held out his arms. Peter after scooping Tummy up in his arms, allowed himself be lifted into his uncle's arms. Complaining all the way up, Andrea struggled up the slope by herself.

"All you have to do now," Leo told his nephew, "is to go down that hole and there's a small suitcase that you need to find."

Peter looked down the hole Leo was asking him to go down. "NO," he said sullenly.

"Peter, come on..." Leo said.

"Nuh-uh, I'm not gonna," Peter crossed his arms. "It's dark."

"Quit being such a brat and get down there," Andrea snapped impatiently as she unwound the length of rope from her shoulder. She had salvaged it from the boat wreck along with a flashlight that miraculously still worked.

"NO." Peter yelled back at her.

"Peter, I promise I will take you home, but you got to do this."

"You aren't my dad. You aren't my mom," Peter countered with childish logic. "You can't make me do nothing."

"I can make you do whatever I want you to," Andrea seethed at him. "I've never had problems getting others to bend to my will," she snatched the puppy out of his arms.

"Hey!" Peter wailed.

"Andrea, Jesus, what the hell-"

"You said this cave's not that deep?" Andrea said, holding the puppy over the hole. "Just that the entrance is too small for an adult to fit into so we had to get a child?"

She let Tummy go.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Peter wailed as

Tummy howled all the way down. His little face screwed up with rage, he turned to Andrea, who stood beside the hole with a smug princess look on her surgically youthened face. "I hate you," he told her with a quivering lip. He kicked her shin.

"Ow!!!" she cried. "You little shit," she balled her fist and raised it to strike him.

But Leo sprang into action, grabbing her wrist with one hand and slapping her across the face with the other hand.

"You fucking bitch," he spat at her. "Jesus, why did we include you?"

"Because I get results," she sneered, rubbing her face. "Because now, little Peter's going to go down the hole and get that damn dog and our box, aren't you, Peter?"

Snuffling, he looked down at the dark hole. He could hear Tummy whimpering.

"I guess so," he tried to look brave but failed utterly.

"Trust me buddy," Leo said, after giving Andrea one more murderous glance, "this will be easy okay?"

"'Kay," Peter snuffled, wiping his runny nose on his shirt.

"Give me the rope and flashlight," Leo snapped at Andrea. Contemptuously she threw both at his feet. Leo secured the rope and handed Peter the flashlight. "Any problems, we're right up here, okay?" <<Although what the fuck we can do, we're too big to squeeze down that hole>> Leo groaned.

"'Kay," Peter snuffled again, looking nervously down the hole.

"Get on with it!" Andrea shouted.

Leo drew his gun. "Don't," he said softly. "I wouldn't cry if you died right now, even though you're the best lay I've ever had." He put the gun back in the waistband of his jeans and crouched down to Peter. "Buddy, you do this and I promise... I promise..."

"Don't bodder," Peter said, sad and hurt and afraid all at the same time. "You don't keep your promises anyway. You're a bad man. I don't like you anymore."

Those childish words cut Leo to the quick and he didn't understand why. <<Jesus, man, he's just a kid, don't let him get to you...>>

But the voice of reason, normally mute amongst the cacophony of insanity in-between Leo's ears finally rose above the roar and said <<Yeah, but he's Ana's kid and Ana always stuck by you, no matter what. You owe her to bring her son home and to get the hell out of her life so she can live in peace.>> "This promise I'll keep. I promise to bring you home and I'll never come around again. Okay? You and your mom will never see me again."

"Whatever," Peter muttered, looking at his dirty shoes, wishing he was a big grownup like Mr. Fox or Mr. John so he could beat up his very bad and mean uncle. He hated being little.

Being little meant he had to go down that dark hole.

But then he heard Tummy whining and he took a breath. He had to go get Mr. Fox's puppy. It was the honorable thing to do.

"Okay, I'm ready," Peter told his very bad and mean uncle and tried very hard not to cry.

He knew that Mr. Fox or Mr. John wouldn't have cried.

Grown ups don't cry.




 

Meanwhile...

Isobel's plane circled La Luna Blanca.

"Land this thing," Skinner ordered her after fifteen minutes of circling.

"I'm looking for a place to land?" Isobel lied.

"How about the landing strip RIGHT THERE!" Skinner pointed out the window.

"You wanna fly this thing?" Isobel retorted.

"What's the problem?" Reyes groggily asked, wiping her nose with a Kleenex. Her sinuses were throbbing.

"I... I think we better turn around," Isobel said nervously.

"TURN AROUND!?!?!?!" Skinner's face turned so purple it looked like a giant grape. "WHAT THE HELL FOR??"

"FOR THAT!!!" She pointed at the smoking mountain. "I am not getting NEAR that thing! No way!!!"

"Land this plane, NOW."

"Hell no!! ˇHombre estúpido! ˇHombre americano arrogante estúpido!!

Reyes leaned forward and croaked out "Escucha pequeño cobarde. A menos que usted desee a su tarjeta verde a los Estados Unidos y pase el resto de su vida natural en una cárcel mejicana para la obstrucción de la justicia, aterrizará este plano maldecido dios ahora."

Isobel turned white. "Beginning final landing sequence," she whispered. "Fasten your seatbelts, por favor."

Skinner turned around to stare at Reyes. "What did you say to her?"

Reyes just smiled smugly.




 

Meanwhile...

Back at the downed "The Flying Barney"...

"Let's check it out," Mulder said in a not very hopeful tone of voice. "C'mon," he nodded at Langly, Grant and Malcolm. "I need all the science nerds present and accounted for."

"Ah... Mulder, I don't do science, I do math," Malcolm corrected him.

"Nobody likes a math geek," Scully muttered as Mulder grinned at her plaguarized Mulderism.

"Starkweather?" Mulder called out.

"You guys go ahead," Starkweather said, feeling her knees buckling under Doggett's weight. He was leaning more and more upon her more. "I'm going to play doctor for a bit."

"Kinky," Mulder sallied back at her as the rest walked towards the plane.

Doggett and Starkweather followed them slowly until they came to a very large tree. Doggett leaned against it and with Starkweather's help, slid down it until he was sitting. "Got-damn it," he muttered, clenching his shoulder. Beads of sweat dotted his forehead.

Starkweather knelt down and pulled his hand away from the gunshot wound. "C'mon, Papa John," she whispered in her best bedside manner. "Let me look." Carefully she pushed up the sleeve of his filthy T-shirt and undid the strips of cloth from Scully's sacrificed blouse. She sucked in her breath between her teeth when she looked at the wound. "Oh man..."

"That didn't sound good," Doggett rolled his head over to look as Starkweather's fingertips gently applied pressure to the darkening skin around the ugly festering bullet wound. Doggett couldn't help but cry out in pain.

"Sorry..."

"Tell me the truth, Doc. How bad is it?"

"Let me put it to you this way, Confederate Son," Starkweather demurred. "Just be thankful it's the dawning of the New Millennium as opposed to the Fall of Antebellum, otherwise some Civil War sawbones would be prepping you for amputation right now."

"You've got to be kidding me??? Gangrene?" Doggett groaned.

"Gas gangrene to be exact.’Death of body tissue resulting from dirty lacerated wounds infected by anaerobic bacteria, especially species of Clostridium, which break down tissue by gas production and by toxins. It is an acute, severe, painful condition in which muscles and subcutaneous tissues become filled with gas and a serosanguineous exudate.’"

"Can you translate that to English?"

"The wound's infected with a bacterium that’s killing the healthy surrounding tissue through poisoning.

"Great...how bad is the poisoning?"

"You won't die."

"Yet."

"I'm glad you're an optimist."

"How do you get rid of it?" Doggett asked anxiously.

"Surgery. Antibiotics." Starkweather tied up the bandage again and got up. Started to look around, under rocks and on tree trunks.

 

"What are you doin'?" Doggett asked, watching her ferret around.

"I'm looking for fungus."

"Huh?"

"'The antibacterial antibiotic Penicillin is derived directly or indirectly from strains of fungi of the genus Penicillium and other soil-inhabiting fungi.'" Starkweather grunted as she tried to turn over a felled tree branch. "Indigenous peoples.... Indians, have been using roots, herbs and fungi for centuries to treat themselves. If I could just find what I'm looking for... well, it wouldn't be the cure-all, but once ingested it would at least slow the infection long enough to get you to a hospital so they can remove the bullet and start you on a course of antibiotics." She dropped the branch with a thud. "Dammit."

Doggett made a face. "So you want me eat fungus?"

"Unless you prefer to have your arm rot away and fall off!" she snapped, hot, tired, thirsty and scared for her partner and Peter. Therefore making her more irritable than normal. "But then again if you were to go that route, I'm sure you and Krycek would make a lovely couple."

"Ha." Doggett snorted in disgust.

"Of course hand-holding would be a challenge."

"Okay, Doc, there was a line there and you just crossed i-"

A low growl came from the jungle foliage behind Starkweather. She turned white.

"What the hell was that?" Doggett whispered.

She licked her lips. She recognized that growl. It was almost the same sound the raptors made right before they attacked the mother saber tooth tiger and her cubs.

"Can you get up, right now?" she whispered as she silently moved towards her partner.

"Yeah," Doggett hoisted himself up, face contorting in pain.

Starkweather rushed to his side and wrapped her arms around his waist as Doggett put his good arm over her tiny shoulders. "We got to get out of here, now," she whispered as they began to walk towards "The Flying Barney."

They didn't look back as they hurried to the plane where the others were. If they would have, they would have seen the little baby velciorapter, a soft Kermit-the-Frog green color hop out of the brush. Its big, innocent Bambi-the-deer eyes looked around, sad and scared. It whined again, loudly, mouth opening to show perfectly white, needle-like teeth.

About a mile away, the leader of the pack, a six foot tall villain, her scales the green of a forest after a day of hard rain, jerked her head up while tearing flesh off of a freshly killed hadrosaur at the same time. Blood oozed out from in-between her black lips and yellow teeth. Her eyes, brown like the pelt of a dead deer, narrowed.

She heard the lost infant's calls.

Weaving her head, she beckoned her followers, four other females, tending to their cute, almost cuddly young.

Nature shows again and again that it's usually the so-called nurturing females are the violent predators.




Meanwhile...
Back at the "Cave O' Fun"

Andrea hovered over the opening to the cave, tapping her foot anxiously as Leo lowered his nephew down. "Yell when you get to the bottom," Leo called down to him.

After an anxious wait, a small voice rose up. "Okay..."

As Andrea marched over and pulled the rope back up, Leo knelt down by the hole. "Okay, buddy, you're looking for a small metal suitcase," he said. "It's going to be heavy but you can lift it, okay?"

"'Kay," came the sullen response.

Peter flicked on the flashlight. His eyes widened and his body began to shake.

"Uncle Justin!!!!" his voice was high and frightened. "Lemme up, lemme up, there's bones down here!!!!" He trembled at the sight of all the skeletons that littered the cavern floor.

Tummy, unhurt, ran out from her hiding place, towards Peter's voice. Peter snatched her up and clutched her tightly. "Uncle Justin... pleeaaaaaaassssssssse..."

Tears of regret pricking his eyes, he turned to Andrea. "This is a mistake, give me the rope!"

Andrea glared at him. "It was your idea to bring the boy. Now finish what you started, you spineless coward."

Leo glared at her nastily. "I can't wait to kill you," he threatened.

"The feelings mutual, Mr. Leo," she snapped.

Leo lunged for her.

Meanwhile, Peter sat down on the cavern floor, clinging to the puppy and the flashlight, squeezing his eyes tight so he wouldn't have to look at all the skulls looking at him. He wanted a grown-up to come get him, preferably Miss Scully.

<<But if I find their stupid suitcase, Uncle Justin will lemme out>> he thought. He took a deep breath.

"C'mon, girl," he said to Tummy, putting her down. "If we find their stupid suitcase, Uncle Justin said he'd take us home."

He began to shine the flashlight all over the cave. <<Lemme find it, lemme find it!!!>> he still couldn't stop shaking at the sight of all the skeletons, dead pirates that had entered to find treasure and never saw the light of day again.

Tummy barked and ran a few feet away from Peter, tail wagging. Peter swung the flashlight around. "Good girl!" he cheered and he ran to the small lockbox. He lifted it with a grunt. Uncle Leo was right. It was heavy. But he could carry it.

"Uncle Leo, Uncle Leo!!" he yelled, dragging the lockbox back to the small circle of light. Standing in the light, he looked up to the opening of the cave and hollered again.

"I found it, I found it, now PLEASE let us up!!!!"




 

Meanwhile
La Hotel de la Luna Blanca....

The humidity actually felt good to Reyes, moisturizing her clogged lungs and plugged sinuses. It was like walking around in the world's biggest sauna.

Of course, it didn't help with the vertigo, nausea and pounding headache. But Reyes just dry-swallowed some Tylenol Isobel found and put on her game face.

"Where do we start?" Reyes asked her superior.

Skinner put his hands on his hips and looked around.

"Well... let's start by going over to th- HEY!" he burst out suddenly and sprinted away from Reyes. Minutes later, he returned with Isobel trying to twist out from his grip.

"She was making a run for the plane," Skinner said gruffly.

"You must want to go to jail REALLY badly," Reyes threatened her.

"No, I just don't want to die," she spat back.

"I can't believe you are cowardly enough," Reyes got into her face, "to just leave us her to save your own rear en-" her face suddenly crinkled up. "AH-CHOO!!!!" she brought her hands up to cover her mouth a split second too late.

"Ew," Isobel gagged.

"Lo siento," Reyes dug into her pockets for another Kleenex.

"Coma la mierda y muera," Isobel scowled.

"Let's start with the hotel," Skinner said, standing in between Reyes and Isobel. He didn't know what Isobel said to Reyes, but it didn't sound good. "Maybe we'll get lucky and everyone will be there..."

Of course, they weren't lucky.

In fact, the closer and closer they came to the hotel, the more and more despairing the scene became. The lovely decorative bushes had been completely trampled. The cobblestone walkways were spattered with ominous red stains. Giant footprints were everywhere and strange roaring sounds were in the far far distances.

Well, the trio hoped it was the far far distance...

"Maybe they're all already dead..." Isobel moaned.

"Shut up," Skinner had it with her whining. "We're not giving up hope until we see a body."

"What if we see body parts? Does that count?"




 

Back at the cave…

"I got it, Uncle Justin! I got it!" Peter shouted. He didn't like the way his voice echoed in the cave, and Tummy the Puppy barked in agreement.

Leo wanted to get the boy as he had promised, but he had bigger problems aboveground.

"Give me the gun, Leo." Andrea hissed.

"What the hell for? If you're gonna kill me...that would be great...I wouldn't have to spend anymore time with you anymore."

"No...I'm not going to kill you. Too much is riding on you."

"Then who..." suddenly a light went on, and he paled.

"Andrea...so help me if you do ANYTHING to that kid, I am personally going to thread your tonsils through your ass."

"So what, did you take instant moral pills or something?"

"Andrea...come on, don't do this..."

"Look, partner," she seethed, hands stretching out toward Leo in request for the gun in his waste, "you let him in on too many secrets. Guess who he's gonna tell as soon as we get off the island? His new personal heroes...Mr. John, Mr. Fox, and Miss Scully...the federal AGENTS. And all three of those agents are gonna be up your ass like AIDS on a hooker before you can say DNA. Unless you wanna be fucking Terry the Security Guard for the next ten years, I suggest you give me the damn gun."

"Uncle Justin!" Peter shouted again, thinking his Uncle didn't here him. Then to Tummy, he said "Hang in there girl...Mr. Fox and Mr. John and Miss Scully are gonna come any minute now..."

Meanwhile, above, Leo was trying to talk reason into Andrea. "Andrea...if you think I'm gonna let you have a loaded weapon, you're crazy."

"I make sense. The boy dies, we get our freedom. I'm not crazy. You're the psycho around here."

"I may be psycho...but you're just friggin' nuts."

"ALRIGHT!" Andrea bellowed, "THAT'S IT!!" She shrieked, lunging for the gun in belt. Lightening-quick, Leo turned the safety off and when Andrea lunged for it, she pulled the trigger.

The bullet was aimed for Andrea's thigh.

"LEO YOU STUPID FUCK!!!" she sucked in a gasp through clenched teeth, "SHIT that hurts!"

"Oh shit...I didn't kill her..." Leo mumbled.

"I heard that you fucking lunatic!" Andrea rasped.

So entranced in their argument were the two criminals that they didn't here the rustle in the brush behind them.

A pterodactyl swept over head just as they heard a loud rumble above them. The pterodactyl swooped down and lifted her off the ground. Leo aimed the gun, fired, but Andrea stopped screaming and fell limp.

"That's one way to get her to shut up."

"Uncle Justin! Uncle Justin!" Peter hollered again.

Then another pterodactyl swooped by and grabbed Leo by his arm...the one without the gun, and soared off.

"Uncle JUSTIN!!!!" Peter said again. He hated it in the cave. It was dark. It was cold. He tried very very hard not to cry. He hoped Mr. Fox or Mr. John or Miss Scully would get there soon.




 

Meanwhile...

"MULDER!!!" Starkweather hollered when she, practically dragging Doggett by this time, got closer to the downed airplane.

Mulder and the others didn't hear her at first. Scully, Grant and Malcolm were investigating the back of the plane for any type of weapons or supplies. Mulder was in the pilot's seat. "Come on, come on," Mulder was muttering, fiddling with the knobs of the radio as Langly was underneath the plane's console, fussing with the wiring.

There was bursts of static through the speakers but that was all.

Then Mulder heard a "ZAP" and then an "OW!"

"Langly, you okay?" Mulder asked.

Langly slid out from underneath the console. Every strand of his greasy blond hair stood on end. "That sucked."

Before he could make a snappy comeback, he heard Starkweather calling out his name. "Stay here," he said to Langly as he climbed out of the plane. "Starkweather!" he saw the sheer fear in her eyes and ran to her. "What is it?"

"We gotta scoot out of here, now," Starkweather hoisted Doggett off of her onto Mulder. "There's something out there... I think they're following the scent of him."

"You don't smell like a rose garden right now, either," Doggett grumbled as Mulder supported him.

"Your injury, you jerk. The predators can smell the pus and blood. I'm not shitting you Mulder," she said earnestly. "I heard a raptor back there."

"How do you know what a raptor sounds like?" Mulder challenged her although his throat and mouth suddenly went dry.

"Langly and I... we saw a pack of raptors attack a family of saber-tooth tigers."

"How in the hell did you and Langly... never mind, tell me later.... SCULLY!!!!" He started to drag Doggett with him as Starkweather followed, pulling out the gun she had to wrench out of Langly's hand after he killed Godzilla and awoke the bats.

"Mulder, what is it?" Scully asked, getting out of the airplane.

"We have to find shelter, cover, a castle with a moat of molten lava, somewhere safe," Mulder said.

"I heard a raptor back there," Starkweather said, gun still drawn.

Grant and Malcolm, upon hearing that scrambled out of the plane. "Are you sure?" Grant asked her. "Are you very sure?"

"No, I'm seeking attention right now and I figured a big whopper about Hungry Hungry Dinosaurs would serve that need for adoration. OF COURSE I'M SURE!!!!!"

"She always this... charming?" Malcolm asked.

"Yes," Mulder and Doggett said in unison.

"Eat shit and die," Starkweather snapped at them.

"Once, twice... three times the lady," Mulder droned.

"Enough!" Scully shouted. "Let's get the hell out of here. Langly!" she called out. "C'mon, we're going! Oh my..." she muttered when she saw Langly's hair.

"The Bride of Frankenstein look is definitely you," Starkweather informed him. "Can we go, please???"

"But where are we going?" Malcolm asked.

"Anywhere but here," Grant insisted, started to walk. "Come on..."

They only went a few feet before Scully exclaimed, "Mulder, look, tire tracks..."

"Maybe the security guards you and I saw the other day also drove out here to check on that bunker Doggett and Langly saw from the roof of the hotel," Mulder said, gaining hope.

"And if that bunker is where the energy generators and security systems are," Langly said, growing excited. "That means..."

"Technology," Malcolm's eyes brightened.

"Civilization," Grant added.

"Communication," Starkweather said, "Dear God, we can call for help. Get Doggett to a hospital and call in the Air National Guard in Puerto Rico to help us find Peter and Justin Leo, that rat-bastar-"

A shriek was heard in the distance. A shriek of a recently slaughtered creature, probably a peaceable herbivore that crossed paths with the raptors.

"Shit," Doggett muttered.

"Short, sweet and to the point, that's what I like about you, Puppy-Man," Mulder muttered as everyone started to run, following the car tracks Scully spotted.

"Come on, Papa John," Starkweather pleaded as Doggett began to lag. She ran up to him to support him. "Not much further now." She kept checking behind them, gun still out, still cocked and ready to go.

Doggett finally gave up his charade of "fine" and began to succumb to the dizzying pain. His face had changed from white to gray. His shirt was soaked with cold perspiration. "I think I'm going to be sick," he whispered as he wiped beads of sweat off his face.

"Please, Doggett," Starkweather was begging him now. "It's not much furth- holy fucking shit."

She, along with the rest of the X-Files Crew and the Jurassic Park crew halted dead in their tracks. A small red Jeep with the plagiarized Jurassic Park emblem on the trunk was blocking the path. The smell of rotting flesh was heavy on the humid air. Flies buzzed.

"Mulder?" Scully was irritated with herself that her voice quailed so. But she couldn't help it. It was not the smell and sounds of death that unnerved her, it was the possible perpetrators of the demise that terrified her. "What is it?"

Grant accompanied Mulder to the Jeep. Both men pulled their shirt collars up to their noses, trying not to gag. Malcolm cowered behind Scully. Langly cowered behind Malcolm. Doggett weaved and Starkweather wrapped her arms around his torso to steady him. He leaned against her and rested his cheek on the top of her head. Starkweather felt his chest rise and fall with every breath. Every gasping, laboring breath.

She was starting to become extremely afraid until she heard her partner mumble into her dirty hair, "You know, if I wasn't hurtin' like hell and if you weren't married, I'd be enjoying this right now."

"Ha," she said but she wrapped her arms tighter around him as he slumped more into her.

"Are we there yet?" he mumbled.

"Mulder!" Starkweather yelled. "What's the hold up??"

"Oh God..." Mulder said, peering into the Jeep. "NONE! Everyone, haul ass, NOW!!!" He ran back, grabbed Scully's hand and started to run like hell.

"Grant, what the hell??" Malcolm yelled as he and Langly started to run as well. He looked into the Jeep as they sprinted past. "Never mind!!!" he called back, turning green.

Two bodies, fermenting in the sun, lay prone in their seats.

A raptor's claw was stuck what was left of the shredded upholstery of the Jeep. The attacker must have gotten stuck and decided just to rip out it's own claw rather to be left behind.

"Come on Doggett," Starkweather urged her partner as they hurried past the Jeep. "Not much further, I promise..."

"Mulder!" Scully panted as she ran beside Mulder, "Who were those people?"

"I don't know. Probably guards, trying to outdrive the storm."

"MULDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Mulder turned his head and saw Starkweather buckling under the weight of her partner, then finally collapsing under his bulk. "Scully, go, keep going! Grant, help me," he said as he did a one-eighty and ran towards Starkweather. Grant followed.

"He fainted," Starkweather said as Mulder and Grant hurried to her. As Mulder and "He's burning up, he NEEDS to get to a hospital... oh crap," her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. She aimed her gun over Mulder's shoulder.

"I'm not going to like what I see when I turn around, am I?" he asked.

Starkweather lost all of her flippancy. "Mulder," she hissed. "Shut the fuck up."

Grant slowly turned his head. Stared into the beady eyes of the velicioraptor staring at them from the bushes.

"If there's one, there's more," Grant whispered. "They have us surrounded."

"We're trapped," Mulder muttered.

Starkweather added, "We're fucked."

"Checkmate," Grant closed his eyes, hoping the end would be quick.

Scully, Malcolm and Langly, oblivious to the drama unfolding behind them, continued to run.

Bursting out of the brush, a tan colored raptor with bright orange tiger-like strips blocked their escape route.

"Oh mommy!!!" Langly quailed.

Toying with them in a way more feline than reptilian, the tan raptor advanced on them slowly, snapping it's jaws and batting its huge, hooked talons at them as if they were rodents.

Malcolm stepped in front of Scully. Langly stooped down quickly, grabbed a stick he saw earlier and scooped it up. Standing behind Scully, he held the branch like a baseball bat. The trio kept falling back, falling back as the raptor kept advancing on them.

"I don't wanna die," Langly whined. "'The Lord of the Rings' is comin' out in December and the new Star Wars movie comes out this summer."

The raptor dropped to her haunches, as if she was going to spring and attack... when the earth literally began to move underneath their feet. The raptor lost it's balance and fell over.

"GO! NOW!" Scully cried out and the three bolted back towards the others, trying to stay upright as nature took it's vicious course.

As the trees and stones vibrated, the raptor that was eyeing Doggett, Grant, Mulder and Starkweather squawked loudly.

"What the hell now?" Starkweather demanded, falling into Mulder. He caught her and steadied her. "An earthquake??"

Grant looked up. "No... worse."

Starkweather and Mulder looked up. Saw hordes of pterodactyls flying towards them. "Oh God, not those things agai-"

An ear-splitting explosion, from the mountains cut her smart-assed remark off not that far away. All the animals panicked, carnivores and herbivores alike and started to run.

Trying to avoid being trampled in the hysterical melee, Scully, Malcolm and Langly sprinted toward them. "Mulder!!" Scully cried out. "Mulder c'mon!! We have to get out of here!"

"Thank you Captain Obvious!" Starkweather snapped out just before ducking over Doggett to avoid being clotheslined by a lost hadrosaur. Mulder and Grant also hit the deck.

Starkweather grabbed Doggett's shirt and shook him. "God damn it, Doggett, get your ass UP!!"

"Wonderful bedside manner," Mulder quipped as he pushed Starkweather aside. With a grunt, he lifted Doggett up.

Hurrying out of the way of the charging dinosaurs, they all got off the trail and disappeared into the brush. Walking proved even more difficult for the earth was shaking even more, with the stampeding dinosaurs and the planet's moving plates.

"Don't worry, Agent Starkweather" Scully said, pushing foliage out of her way, not realizing every branch she pushed was hitting Malcolm who walked behind her.

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" he complained.

"As soon as we get to that control building, we'll radio for help... Mulder??" Scully looked up through the leafy trees. "What is that?"

Mulder squinted, putting his hand to his eyes. "I dunno..."

"OH CRAP!!" Langly yelped. "It's one of those pterodactyl thingys."

"It's carrying something..." Mulder moved back towards the trail.

"Who gives a shit, LET'S GO," Starkweather demanded, reaching out to lean on a tree to stabilize herself. She felt she could barely walk, the earth was shaking so badly.

Over the din, Mulder yelled back at her, "What if it's Peter?" He shrugged Doggett's limp body onto Grant and sauntered back out to investigate.

The pterodactyl, disoriented, swooped lowly. It beat it's wings, once, twice. Mulder saw it was hurt. He watched the beast take a nosedive. Before it smashed into the unstable earth, it released it's cargo.

Justin Leo rolled away from the leathery precursor to a bird. He curled up in the fetal position, gripping his knee.

Mulder folded his lips tight and stalked towards him.

Leo looked up. "Mulder..." he gasped. "I'm so glad I found yo-"

Mulder balled his hand into a fist and smashed it into Leo's face.

"OW!" Mulder shook his hand, then blew on his knuckles. It had been a while since he punched somebody's lights out.

Roughly, he grabbed the unconscious Leo and drug him out of the path of the rampaging dinosaur, back to the relative safety of the foliage.

Starkweather's eyes widened when she saw whom Mulder was bringing to the party. She lunged for Leo's limp form. Malcolm managed to reach out just in time and grab the back of her shirt. Tethered, Starkweather stretched as far as she could, reaching for Leo's throat.

"You fuckin' loony son-of-a-bitch you are SO a dead man!!" she shrieked at Leo as Malcolm drew her into his long arms and tried to hold her still as she squirmed and kicked. "God DAMN it, Malcolm! Lemme go!"

"Agent Starkweather, stop it!" Scully ordered her. "He need him to find Peter."

"And my dog," Mulder start to bear Leo away as he lead everyone towards the safety of the control room.

"Spooky, nobody gives a shit about your dog!" she hollered, still struggling against Malcolm. "I mean it, Ian, lemme at him. Just let me shoot him once... I won't kill him, I'll just disfigure him..."

Malcolm sighed, "You remind me of Ex-Wife Number Two."




 

Meanwhile...

"What the hell was that?" Skinner turned to ask Reyes when the earth trembled from the first volcanic blast.

"The volcano!" Isobel shrieked, pointing to the ominous plumes of smoke puffing up from the mountain range in the not-so-distant distance.

Reyes closed her stinging eyes. "Oh great," she muttered. Her ears were pounding. She was shivering.

"Let's find some sort of transportation and start canvassing the island," Skinner said. "It doesn't look like we have a hell of a lot of time to find them all." He sighed as they went in search of a vehicle. "I just hope that Frohike and Ben are having better luck that we are..."




 

The United States Embassy
Mexico City, Mexico

"We wouldn't take up much of his time," Benjamin Starkweather was turning on all of his lawyerly charm unto the Assistant to the Ambassador. "Ten, fifteen minutes, tops."

"I'm sorry," Lydia Snaps folded her big hands on top of the desk, weirdly reminding Ben of the "Man Hands" episode of "Seinfeld." "The Ambassador is an EXTREMELY busy man."

"I understand," Ben upped the charm another notch, putting on what Jerilyn called "the lost little boy look" which not only got him out of many an arguments with his wife, but won over many a jury. "And believe me, I would have dared to impose on the Ambassador's time, if my wife's life wasn't on the line."

Next to him, Frohike groaned.

"Sir," Lydia "Man Hands" Snaps ran her big fingers through her almost-blue graying hair, making it stick straight up. Now Ben likened her to those plastic troll dolls that were so the rage years ago. "Although we sympathize with your situation, we can not just put you ahead of the queue.

There are other issues that came before you that must be dealt with."

<<You goddamn red-taped paperpushing bee-yatch>> Ben fumed behind his legal masquerade. "And I understand your position as well, but well... my wife isn't just an ordinary citizen."

Frohike stared at him.

The man-handed troll arched a painted on eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Yes sir, my wife," Ben pulled out the FBI ID that Jerilyn normally had pinned to her blazer lapel when she was working instead of J.Edgar and handed it to the Assistant. He could not find her "official" FBI badge and identification but then later realized she would have taken it with her since technically she was on official FBI business. Still, her "real" badge and ID would have made a better impression.

"Agent Jhur- ee- lyn Starkweather..."

"Actually, it's Jair- ah- lyn, but that's besides the point," Ben couldn't help but correct the mispronounction. "Her father and stepmother are worried sick about her."

Frohike slapped his hand to his forehead. He despised namedropping.

"And these people are...?"

"The Admiral Jeremy Bailey and the Honorable Jenneva Wesley-Bailey of the United States Senate," Ben said silkily. "Also, she is traveling with her half-brother, the Deputy Mayor F. William Mulder of Washington DC. Mayor Mulder is a new father who has entrusted the care of his son to the boy's grandmother since his child's mother, Special Agent Dana Scully has also accompanied them on this trip."

Frohike rolled his eyes.

The Assistant tapped Jerilyn's ID against her hairy chin. Debated. Sighed. "Mr. Starkweather, believe me, I have the utmost sympathy for you and your family, but I must advise you to go to the Mexican authorities with this matter."

"We've already been to the Mexican authorities," Ben was beginning to lose his cool. "We need this matter expedited."

"Sir, there is nothing more for me to do or say. I am sorry and hope that Agent Jair- ah- lyn Starkweather is found along with her half-brother," she stood up, crossing her arms, staring Ben down. "But I can not allow you to bother the Ambassador with this issu-"

"I'll go out on a date with you if you do," Frohike blurted out.

The Assistant paused. Shifted her little piggy eyes over to Frohike. Checked him out. Looked down at her planner. "The Ambassador has an unexpected cancellation," she said, fluttering her eyes at the squat little man with the big glasses and fingerless gloves. "I'll be right back." Snaps sashayed off.

Ben, mouth hanging open, gawped at Frohike. Frohike leaned back in his chair. "Go ahead, say it," Frohike ordered Ben.

"Your kung-fu is better than mine," Ben acknowledged Frohike's greatness




 

Meanwhile...
Jurassic Park Control Center...

As Mulder dragged Leo inside the square four-story building, Grant dragged Doggett and Malcolm dragged Starkweather. Starkweather was the only one conscious.

"Dammit!! Let me GO!!"

"Are you going to play nice with the other kids, Mrs. Starkweather?" Malcolm asked her tartly.

"God dammit, I'm not going to KILL him!!" she squealed, still fighting against him.

Standing in the lobby, Scully surveyed the scene. "Love what they've done with the place," she muttered to herself.

All the furniture was shredded, the windows broken out. There were holes in the walls. But the electric lights were still on. That in itself, was hope. "There might be dinosaurs still in here," she announced. "Everyone be on alert. Langly," she turned to face him. "Where do you think the main control room would be?"

"Probably upstairs," Langly said. "But I wou-"

The entire building shook, shook with such force that all seven of the conscious Forum members fell. Malcolm accidentally landed on top of Starkweather. "GET OFF!!" she shrieked.

"Is that a T-Rex or is that the volcano?" Scully asked, struggling to get to her feet.

Mulder looked up and saw that part of the ceiling was giving way. "Scully!" he cried out, "Look out!"

Scully looked up, gasped and rolled out of the way just as part of the ceiling collapsed.

"Jesus, God," Starkweather swore, pale-faced. "Are you okay?" She finally freed herself from Malcolm's grip and crawled over to where Scully now sat.

"Never better," Scully mumbled, trying to get up again. Starkweather helped her.

"This building is far from structurally sound," Starkweather proclaimed. "We can't stay in here for long."

Langly pulled himself to his feet. "Come on," he said. "Let's hurry up and find a radio."

Mulder, after ensuring himself that Scully was fine, hefted Leo back up and joined the others in search of a radio.

Out of the hole where ceiling once was, a raptor poked her head out. She growled once and pulled her head back inside.




 

Meanwhile...
back at La Hotel de la Luna Blanca...

Reyes cautiously opened the main door to the hotel. "Hello?" she called out. She took out her service weapon and flashlight. "Is anyone in here?" She pointed her gun, peering into the darkness. "żHola? żEstá cualquier persona aquí?" She coughed, then sneezed. "Hello? I'm a federal agent," she took a step inside. "Soy un agente federal de los Estados Unidos...Oh mi dios de mierda santo... I am not seeing this... no freaking way... SIR!!" she bolted out of the hotel. "SIR!" she hollered as loud as her sore throat would allow. "AD SKINNER!"

"What is it Agent Reyes?" Skinner asked her, jogging up to her, accompanied by Isobel.

"The hotel... it's... it's like a massacre in there," she gasped. Her legs trembled. She didn't give a damn if Skinner thought she was being weak for sitting down on the grass. She was already physically ill. The horrifying site inside the hotel lobby pushed her over the edge. "There's bodies everywhere. There's blood everywhere." She put her hand to her mouth. "I couldn't tell who they were, I don't know if they could be..." she couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence as Skinner and Isobel crouched down beside her.

"Give me your water bottle," Skinner said brusquely to Isobel. Isobel silently complied. "Drink this," Skinner ordered her.

As Reyes slurped down the lukewarm water, a humming sound was heard in the distance. "What is that?" Skinner asked, drawing his gun.

"It sounds like... a car..." Isobel said hopefully.

Ten minutes later, a red Jeep with the Jurassic Park logo airbrushed on to the doors pulled up next to the trio. The window rolled down. A sunbaked face peered out. "żIsobel? żIzzy, es que usted? żQué el infierno usted está haciendo aquí?"

"Rafael!!!" she squealed in joy.

"Hurry," he said in heavily-accented English. "All of you, get in. It's not safe here."

Isobel sprinted to the Jeep. Skinner, despite Reyes' protests, scooped her up and carried her to the Jeep. Once safely inside, Rafael put the Jeep in gear and gunned it.

"Who are you?" Skinner demanded, still holding Reyes. She looked like hell. He kicked himself again for ordering her to come with.

"My brother, Rafael Ibarra," Isobel said proudly. Then her face crumpled. "żRaf, donde es Quinto?"

"Hopefully he's not dead," Rafael said grimly as he sped through the park. "We separated when we saw your plane landing. Although I didn't know it was your plane. How in the hell can YOU afford a new plane?"

"It's used," Isobel got defensive. "But what are you doing here?"

"Money," he said bluntly. "Quinto and I got jobs here to save up enough money to move to the United States. My girlfriend, Atzi Cielo, is already up there. So is our other brother, Manual. Plus Quinto wants to go to college in the States. We were planning on just working our asses off here for a year, to save up a nest egg and then going back for Mama and you and moving to the United States. Then the killings started. As nice as the money was, we just couldn't allow for these scientists to continue to play God any longer."

"It was you," Reyes croaked out. "You tipped off the FBI."

Driving faster, Rafael nodded. "Sí sí," he affirmed. "There was this girl, from the United States. She was... um... żuna interna?"

"An intern," Reyes translated. "Nicholetta Bocelli-Jones."

"She took picture of the Tyrannosaurus Rex before it killed our veterinarian. Quinto and I helped her escape the island, we knew our benefactors would kill her if they ever found out she had proof that the animals were out of control."

"No one would believe her anyway," Skinner said. "She's in a padded cell in Beverly Hills."

"Can you blame her?" Rafael said bitterly. "Before we helped her escape, I stole her camera. I took out the diskette. I destroyed the camera. I mailed the disk to our brother Manual in Washington DC. After he was released from prison and received his green card, he emailed Quinto and me, raving about this man he met. Shared a cell with. He called him "El zorro de la oficina de la investigación federal."" he said with a flourish as he tried to control the vehicle. It was hard driving with the earth shaking so.

Reyes closed her eyes again. "El zorro... the fox... Mulder."

"I sent the disk to Manny with instructions to find this fox and have him help us shut the island down."

"Meanwhile," Skinner grumbled, "Roald Schabasser comes to me, greasing my palm, asking me to 'loan' him Doctors Scully and Starkweather. Little did Schabasser know that thanks to Manny and Mulder, Scully and Starkweather already had the heads up."

"I wonder if Schabasser is still alive?" Reyes murmured.

"I wonder if any of them are," Skinner muttered darkly.

"If they are," Rafael assured them. "Then they probably are heading towards the main bunker where all the main computers and generators are. Those were kept separate from the hotel. That's where Quinto was heading towa-" An inhuman howl cut through the air. The passengers heard the ominous sound of falling trees. Rafael glanced in the rear view mirror. "Oh mi dios," he swore under his breath as he pressed down harder on the gas pedal.

Isobel, Reyes and Skinner swiveled their heads. Isobel let loose a high ear-piercing shriek. Skinner's eyes widened and Reyes' mouth dropped open. "My God..." Skinner was bereft of words, a rarity.

But then, it's not everyday that a respected Assistant Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is being chased by a T-Rex.




 

Meanwhile...
The Main Control Room, Fourth Floor
La Luna Blanca Control Building...

"Of course," Mulder said, gasping under the dead weight of Leo, "it would have to be on the fourth floor."

Starkweather, the only one armed, cautiously peered through the door. "There's someone in there," she muttered. "Hang tight," she kicked in the door, "FEDERAL AGENT!" she pointed her gun at the man in the Jurassic Park security forces uniform.

He jumped about a foot, whirled around and put his hands in the air. "Please don't kill me!"

"Out of curiosity," Malcolm queried her. "Did you take etiquette classes at the Princess Leia School of Charm?"

Starkweather put her gun down, ignoring Malcolm's gibe. "Is this room raptor free?" she asked the guard

"Yes, yes, can either one of you fix a radio?" the man pleaded.

"I can," Langly said, putting on his game face now. He was all business now. He hurried over to the main console. "Whoa," was his prognosis before he got to work.

"What's your name?" Scully asked as Grant carefully put Doggett on a chewed up leather couch while Mulder unceremonially dumped Leo onto the floor.

"Quinto Ibarra."

A bell went off in Mulder's ear. "Any relation to a Manual Ibarra?"

"Am I going to get killed if I say yes?"

"In this case, no." Mulder approached him. "My name is Fox Mulder, this is my partner, Dana Scully. That," he pointed to the pair of legs sticking out from underneath the computer console, "is Ringo Langly. That's Dr. Alan Grant and Dr. Ian Malcolm. And this," he gestured to Starkweather, "is my sister, Jerilyn Starkweather and the lump on the couch is her partner, John Doggett."

"Ah," Quinto nodded. "El zorro y el huracán. Manny spoke of you both."

Starkweather rolled her eyes and glared at Mulder. "I am going to kill you for sticking me with that nickname."

"Who's the guy on the floor?" Quinto pointed at Leo.

"Dinosaur chow," Starkweather growled.

The "lump on the couch" suddenly groaned. "Where'm I?" Starkweather rushed over to him.

"Papa John, just lie still," she ordered him quietly. "We're safe... kind of," she amended her sentence as she heard the building groan and creak while Scully ran to shut the door and lock it. "There's a radio, Langly's fixing it."

Doggett blinked. "Who's the guy on the floor?"

"Justin Leo."

Doggett, suddenly experiencing a surge of adrenaline, lunged from out the couch, hands reaching for Leo while cursing a blue streak. Starkweather pushed him back down.

"Settle down, agent," she said forcibly.

"Sumbitch SHOT me!" Doggett protested.

"Son-of-a-bitch tried to kill my husband, frame my brother for it and THEN kidnap ME on top of it," Starkweather reminded him. "If *I'M* not allowed to hurt him, neither are you."

From underneath the console, Langly called out "Hey, can somebody do me a favor?"

"What?" Mulder asked.

"Get my notebook computer outta my backpack," Langly said. "See if there's a phoneline in here. I know they cut the phones in the hotel but we might luck out in here."

Mulder rummaged through Langly's backpack. "Got it." Mulder said.

"Mulder," Scully said, standing next to a desk, picking up a phone. "It has a dialtone."

"Why don't we just dial 911?" Malcolm asked as Mulder rushed over with Langly's computer and started to hook it up.

Scully tried. "Nothing."

"Probably," Langly theorized as he continued to frantically work, "'cuz there's no long distance. They probably just had the phonelines for communication between the control room and hotel. If they needed anything from the mainland, they probably just used the radio. But we don't need long distance to get online. Just a comp with a modem and a working phone line. Mulder, when you're booted up, log into my alternative AOL account."

"How many AOL accounts do you have?" Starkweather asked him, sitting down next to Doggett. Doggett lost his spurt of adrenaline and was lying quietly with his eyes closed. Worried, she pressed her hand against his forehead. She frowned. Burning hot to the touch. She smoothed his hair back. "And who should we email first? Doggett NEEDS to get to a hospital and we NEED to find that kid."

"Well, hopefully, Ratface down there can help us with finding Peter. Langly," Mulder said, frustrated, "there are five AOL logos on here... which one do you want me to use?"

"The top one," Langly said. "It's the only one where the password is saved on the computer. That's my "oh-shit!" account."

Malcolm and Grant glanced at each other. "And people think I'm weird," Malcolm deadpanned.

"Okay, I'm in. Now what?" Mulder asked as Scully and Quinto leaned over his shoulders to peer at the screen.

"Look at my AOL IM Buddy List.... look for JFKRulz or Danasluvslave. Hopefully one of 'em online..."

"Dana's WHAT????" Scully exploded.

"Hot damn!" Mulder cheered. "JFKRulz is in da house!" He began typing frantically: Byers, it's Mulder.... HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Meanwhile, a glint of silver from around Leo's neck caught Starkweather's eye. "I'll be right back," she said to Doggett as she slid off the couch and crossed over to Leo.

"Come on, come on already, ANSWER!!!" Mulder shouted at the computer. "Byers!!! Dammit!!!"

 

Meanwhile....
Ben and Jerilyn's apartment...

"Nice kitty, good kitty," Byers crooned, reaching for Caesar.

Caesar sat on the keyboard of the computer, blocking the computer screen. As Byers reached for him, Caesar hissed and swatted at him.

"Lemme try," Manny said. "Hi ya buddy! How'ya doin?" He reached to pet his head. "OW!!!!!"




 

Back on the island...

Starkweather lifted Leo's head. Sucking in a breath in-between her teeth, she pulled from out underneath his shirt, a lovely antique cameo locket. She jerked on the chain until the clasp came undone. She opened the locket to confirm what she already knew what was going to be inside.




 

From "Starkweather: Quanta...

June 17, 2001
Washington DC

...Scully shot him an imploring look.

"It's right." Sam said simply. Then ducked, because at just that moment, Scully did.

"BEN!" She screamed, crouching from view of the windshield.

"Heading for the White Dodge Dynasty! Don't duck, drive!" Scully hissed, forgetting that there was no possible way Ben could hear her from the confines of a truck.

Sam cranked the engine up as fast as his reflexes would allow, and made sure to wait just long enough so that Ben wouldn't suspect he was being followed.

Ben headed down East on Wilson. Sam was following him close enough to keep up, but far enough away not to be noticed. Ben turned a left on Kennedy. Sam got caught by a light, and lost him for a few beats until he saw the Dodge's blinker just a few steps ahead, about to turn down Reagan."

"Reagan!" Scully puzzled. "There's nothing on Reagan but a bunch of flea markets, grocery stores, a photocopy place, and antique shops!"

"Photocopies." Sam realized. "I bet he found something for show-and-tell for those jurors."

"You're right. There he is, pulling into it."

Sam parked the car a couple of blocks down the way, and motioned for Scully to go follow while he parked. Scully crouched down, and waited in the bushes.

"A squirrel just nibbled the heel of my favorite pumps." Scully groaned.

"Sorry" Sam said sheepishly.

"I don't know how much longer I can play Crouching Oaf, Hidden Idiot." Scully said finally after waiting in the bushes for an hour, kicking off her pumps. "I'm gonna see if I can get any closer."

"Thank you Mr. Martin." Ben was saying coming out of the store. "I owe you big time for this one. You just made my night's sleep a lot nicer."

<I wouldn't count on it> Sam thought.

"You in the doghouse with that spitfire Missus of yours?" Mr. Martin asked, handing a small bag to him.

"Yeah," Ben said with an idiot-grin on his face, taking out the contents of the bag for inspection. "I know when I'm licked."

"Smart man, Mr. Starkweather, smart man." Mr. Martin said, turning to go in.

"That's not what the evidence suggests." Scully grumbled on the other side of the building. She craned her neck as much as she dared, and could barely make out what the picture was. "Agent Starkweather's got a night of heavy breathing ahead of her." Scully said flatly.

"What makes you say that?" Sam asked, pulling away.

"That was her picture he had photocopied. It's probably a peace offering..."

…Ben tentatively opened the door to his apartment. He heard Kid Rock blaring out of the stereo: "Yeah, I'm a COW - Boy bay--bee..." He closed his eyes. Hard rock, bad sign. He sighed and went towards the bedroom.

His wife hadn't noticed him.

Ben leaned against the doorframe. "Hi."

He received a withering look and a curt "Hi," in return.

"Have you drawn up divorce papers yet?" he said jokingly.

"Don't tempt me Counselor," she replied...

"Jeri," he sighed, but stuck to his resolution to eat crow.

"Baby, can we... can we... could we start over?"

"Ben, we've started over so many times...."

"Well, three-thousand and one's the charm," he smiled and approached her, taking the hot iron out of her hands and took her in his arms. "Jeri, we don't have to agree, okay, I know you think I'm insane for what I'm doing... but on the flip side, I think you're insane for what you're doing too..."

"Is this your sad attempt at an apology?" but she was smiling when she said that.

Caesar the cat wound himself around their legs...

Ben cupped his wife's face in his hand and smiled into the dark pools of her eyes... strange hazel eyes, switching colors with her mood from green to gold to brown to all three colors swirled together and back again. Never the same color twice. "Jeri, even though I think you're wrong, I don't have the right to hurt your feelings." He watched her pretty eyes look away, then look down. "Hey," he said, using his other hand to stroke her cheek. "I know you hate sap and mush, but I mean it. I'm sorry Jeri. Maybe we'll be on the other side of the fence for right now, but I still need you. I don't have to be such a dick because you don't agree with me. We'll go our separate ways on this, but since we are fighting for the same thing, we'll meet in the middle eventually. We always do. Plus I'll work hard if you promise to do the same to keep our professional lives professional and not let it mess with our personal lives."

Jerilyn, still afraid for his safety, could not argue with his logic. He had a job to do. So did she. "Okay."

He took a deep breath. "And... about Doggett..."

Quicksilver, she back up from him, her face puckering up into the most disagreeable expression of anger he had seen in a while. "Oh, here we go..." she snapped.

"No, we don't," Ben took her hands. "I meant to say is... I'm..." <<really wanting to believe you don't have feelings for him>> he silently begged her while he said "I'm just jealous that he gets to see you more than I do, that's all."

Jerilyn sighed. "But Ben, that's how it was with my last partner too and you were never jealous of him."

"Honey, that's because he hated you. I had no worries about him moving in on my territory," Ben teased, stepping closer.

"Oh Gawd." Jeri began to let down her guard. "Thanks a lot. Should I go up to my boss tomorrow and say 'Assistant Director, my husband is bitter that me and my partner get along so could you rustle up a real low life, double-crossing bad-smelling male chauvinist pig partner like I had in Minneapolis and assign him to me instead. Thanks, Ben will appreciate it.'" Now she teased, stepping closer to him, fingers playing with the buttons of his perfectly starched white dress shirt.

"There you go," Ben began to pick hairpins out of Jeri's severe bun. "You're catching on to the whole subservient wife thing pretty quickl- oof!!" His "subservient wife" had just sucker punched him in the solar plexus. "Not fair."

"No, 'not fair' would be below the belt," Jerilyn said with a naughty smile as she fussed with his belt buckle. "And don't get your boxers in a truss about Doggett, ok? He's a good guy."

"Okay," Ben said, "but forgive me if I act like a preening male ass sometimes. Especially when it comes to Doggett."

He resumed picking hairpins out of her thick luxurious hair. When it tumbled down, he ran his fingers through, marveling how silky it felt in between his paper-cut fingers. "'Cause, like it or not, big bad FBI broad, he does get to see you more than I do," he admitted quietly.

Now Jerilyn was focusing on undoing his tie. Slowly she unknotted it and slid it off of him. "He doesn't get to see EVERYTHING, husband dear," she stood on tiptoes and nibbled provocatively on his neck.

With a groan, he ripped the covers of the unmade bed off and crossed over to shut the blinds. He then scooped Jerilyn up and tossed her on the bed. Laughing, Jerilyn sat up on her elbows. "Is this your idea of foreplay, Mr. Starkweather," she giggled as she threw her long thick hair over her shoulder over-dramatically.

Ben slid on top of her and kissed her into submission. "No, Mrs. Starkweather," he said throatily as he began to work on the buttons of her blouse, "this is..."

He figured he could give her the locket later... much much later...

…and with that decision made, he went to work on the very serious job of re-consummating their marriage…




June 18, 2001
Ben and Jeri's apartment
9:17 am

Starkweather let herself into the home she shared with Ben. Not even twelve hours ago, they had made up, made love, and made complete fools of each other with another fight. Now he was gone.

She had declined Sam-in-Doggett's offer to have him stay with her for a bit. She stood there, alone in her living room, looking at the photographs on the wall, their wedding pictures, her graduation pictures, his graduation pictures... happier times...

Caesar the cat meowed once, as if to ask where Ben was and leaped off the coffee table, knocking over a small box wrapped in soft pink tissue paper, bound by a silver ribbon.

"What did you find, kitty?" she asked as she sat on the couch, reaching for the package. She read on the tiny card attached:

"To my big bad FBI broad
Love, the Counselor."

Gulping back tears, she tore apart the fragile paper and opened the box. "Ohhhh..." she exclaimed, her shoulders slumping as she lifted out a beautiful antique silver locket. With trembling hands, she opened the locket. Her mouth began to work as she saw the tiny picture of her mother holding her when she was a baby. Her sweet adoptive mother who had loved her always and forever just as she was, never trying to make her something that she wasn't, who died when she was only sixteen. Battling a cancer that destroyed her mind, her memory, her soul.

She had told Ben the entire story, even how she overheard a young Fox Mulder badgering her about the possibility of her being a multiple alien abductee right before she descended into madness and death. Ben had only commented. "I wish I could meet her."

<<Well, now you get too, Ben...> Hot tears slid down her face uncontrollably now and in the still loneliness of her apartment, Jerilyn curled up into a ball on her sofa and sobbed like she only did when no one was watching.

Or so she thought…

After explaining the rules to Doggett: "No talking, no whispering, no nothing, ZIP," Al took Doggett by the hand and got ready to open the imaging door.

"Hey, Admiral, I know we're getting along better than before, but I think hand-holding is a little too soon in our relationship."

"Shut up," Al sighed. "I'm not exactly enjoying this either, but I've got to hold onto you somewhere or else you won't be able to see." The door opened. Al re-adjusted, grabbing Doggett by the shoulder instead of his hand.

"Let's go."

They walked in just as Jerilyn had opened the gift Ben meant to give her last night but never did. Doggett made a move towards her, but Al pulled him back, shaking his head 'no'.

They watched as she pulled out a beautiful sterling silver locket, cut and marked with intricate and antique carvings, hanging off of a heavy silver chain. Doggett watched

Jerilyn open the locket with shaking hands, watched her clench it tight with one hand while putting the other hand (the one the cast) to her eyes as a gut-wrenching sob escaped from her.

Al watched Doggett's own eyes tear up as Jerilyn curl up in the fetal position on her sofa, burying her face in the sofa cushions.

It hurt both of them to see the diminutive tough little lady weep so. Doggett reached out to touch her, to stroke her hair and saw in horror his own hand pass through her head as if it was smoke. "Doc, you listen to me now," he said, his gravelly voice shaking. "You hang in there, everything's gonna be fine, I'm still here, I'm still watching your back, Doc,-" Suddenly Starkweather and her apartment were gone and Doggett was in the imagining chamber again…




June 19, 2001
5:57 AM Eastern Standard Time
Ben and Jeri’s apartment…

Justin Leo walked down the hallway, comforted by the dimness before the sunrise. He quietly counted the number of doors before finding Ben and Jeri's apartment. He jimmied the lock quite easily and let himself in...

Leo cocked his weapon and stole through the living room and down the hallway. He poked his head into the bedroom, the office, the bathroom. No Jerilyn. "Dammit," he muttered. Well, he would just have to wait for her to come back, he supposed...

Leo watched the living room slowly brighten as he clasped the weapon in his hand, oblivious to the cat sneaking out the door. Leo was lost in his own thoughts for the photo album was open to the page Ben had shown Jerilyn when he had first suspected a connection between her and the Deputy Mayor.

Leo picked up the album for a better look. As he lifted the heavy book, he noticed a silver antique locket lying on the coffee table. He picked it up and opened it, looked at the picture of the woman and child together. After stuffing the locket in his pocket, he then took the picture out of the album. Looked at the long dark hair and the catty greeny-gold eyes and felt bile bubbling up his throat. He didn't understand. Lily was blonde with gray eyes. But this brunette with hazel eyes had her face and her smile and her body... Leo's eyes were drawn towards the mantle. At a tastefully framed five by seven photograph of someone's wedding. Leo got up to examine the two-dimension image of Benjamin Starkweather in a rented black tux, smiling broadly for all to see and of Lily, with her hair now blond like he remembered and softly curled, clinging to her groom in a simple white gown and in lieu of a veil, a halo of creamy pink roses and baby's breath sat onto of her head like a forest nymph's crown.

The sickness left Leo, replaced by a rage and a hurt that threatened to over take what was left of his control. Lily, alive after all these years. Lily, disappeared at the tender age of eighteen to reappear ten years later as this almost legendary bitter, bitchy fed. Lily, married to another man, loving another man, fucking another man.... Leo's lips pulled together in a thin tight line, clenching the gun in his hands. He looked too and hard for Lily,

Benjamin Starkweather was not going to corrupt her anymore. Leo already decided that Lily was not going to die. Not today. He'd wait for her to come and he'd warn her and take her away. But the minute that Mulder was at the mercy of the replicant-slave, Ben too, would breathe his last...

It never even crossed his mind once that Starkweather was not Lily, would never be Lily, but was the key to finding Lily. He was what Scully had always privately feared Mulder would become if she had not been there to keep him honest. Completely, totally, irrationally obsessed...




August 19, 2001

The Control Room
La Isla de la Luna Blanca

Teeth clenched together, Starkweather glared at Leo's prone form. "You're not only insane, but you're a thief too." She clutched her locket tighter in her small hand.

Leo's hand shot out and gripped Starkweather's wrist. His eyes opened, he sat up.

"LET GO!" Starkweather drew her gun with her free hand and shoved it in his face. "You know I have NO problems killing you, Leo."

"Let her go Leo," Mulder bolted out of his chair as Quinto drew his own gun. "You're outnumbered."

Leo smiled at Starkweather serenely. "You won't kill me, Lily," he said quite calmly. "Because you need me to find Peter." He let her go. Starkweather quickly stood up and stuffed her locket into her pocket. Mulder was the only one who saw her do so.

"Where is the boy?" Scully demanded, getting into Leo's face now. "What have you done with him, you sick bastard!"

Malcolm and Grant flanked Leo as Scully backed off, just a little. "I suggest," Grant said smoothly, "you start talking to the nice ladies."

"You imply that I would put my own nephew in harm's way," Leo snarled. "You make me sound like a monster." He glared at each and everyone, except for Langly, who was still busy at work under the main console. "I was trying to get the boy off the island."

"How big of you," Starkweather hissed at him. "Since YOU were the piece of shit who brought that poor kid onto this rock in the first fucking place, you pug-ugly son-of-a-bitch!"

Out of the corner of his mouth, Grant murmured to Malcolm "Pug-ugly?"

"I always thought pugs were kind of cute," Malcolm shrugged. "Each to his or her own... I suppose."

Leo went on as Grant and Malcolm debated Starkweather's ability to create new insults. "I had no choice. I was being blackmailed. By that bitch, Nowark. She was deep into the Syndicate."

"Liar," Scully said quietly, glaring at him. Starkweather saw her hands clench and unclench.

"Nowark's dead. In a dinosaur attack. During the attack, Peter fell, into a hole," He looked at Mulder, then Doggett. Staring long at Doggett, playing mercilessly on Doggett's well-known soft spot for children, he said pleadingly. "I tried to get him out, but I was too big to fit down the hole. So I ran, hoping to find somebody, anybody to help me get him out."

"Liar," Scully said a little louder. Starkweather sent Mulder a nervous look. Mulder just shook his head once.

"And I found you. And I need your help to get him out. I have no idea how he fell into that hole and I would have never left him there if I could have gotten him out but the opening was just too small-"

"LIAR!!" Scully finally exploded and got in his face again, nose to nose this time. "You fucking liar!"

"Ooh, Scully used the eff word, this can't be good," Starkweather sneered.

"I'm... uh... kind of scared, actually," Malcolm mumbled.

"You son-of-a-bitch, Peter didn't FALL, you PUT him in there! You PUT him down in a hole, a cave! You made a crude comment how you would use ME, but I was TOO BIG! This island is famous for it's caves, created by that fucking volcano-"

"Wow, I thought I had the potty mouth," Starkweather deadpanned.

"You should hear her when I leave the seat up," Mulder said calmly.

Scully raged on, oblivious to the asides, "- which is getting ready to erupt AGAIN. Pirates used to hide treasure in those caves. What's down there that's SO precious that you would risk the life of a little boy for?" When Leo didn't answer, just stared at her back dispassionately, she scowled at him. "You make me sick."

Still looking at Doggett, propped up on the sinking couch, Leo said calmly. "Believe what you like. This isn't about me anymore. This is about a little boy who needs help," Leo smiled cruelly at Doggett. "Sad what a time waster bickering and in-fighting is. All this time spent on Agent Scully reading me the riot act could have been better invested in me leading you to save Peter's life. A child's life. A child, with the future bright and shining in front of him."

"Stop it," Scully ordered him. "Stop the mind games, Leo."

But Leo was infected with the same deadly disease as Benjamin Starkweather: jealousy. "I wonder," he said serenely to Doggett, "how much time the FBI and NYPD wasted trying to figure out who's jurisdiction the Luke Doggett abduction case belonged to. Who knows? Maybe THAT boy would have been found aliv-"

Scully cut him off. "STOP IT," as Doggett struggled to his feet, violence electric and alive in his blue eyes.

"Mulder?" Starkweather turned to her half-brother for permission, twirling the gun in her hand, now holding it by the barrel. "May I?"

"Please," Mulder held his hand out.

Starkweather charged him. "When you wake up," she snarled at him. "You WILL lead us to that boy," and she pistol-whipped him across the face. Leo fell like a ton of bricks.

"You win," Malcolm said, ashen-faced, "Starkweather is scarier."

"Pay up," Grant said, holding out his hand. Malcolm slipped him a five.




 

Meanwhile...

Ben and Jerilyn's apartment...

"Okay," Byers muttered to Manny, looking at the vicious tabby cat sitting on top of the keyboard, tail twitching menacingly. "On three."

"'Kay..." Manny licked his lips nervously. "Three... two... one... NOW!" Both men lunged for the cat. Caesar leapt daintily from the keyboard, bit Manny's ankle, swiped Byers' other ankle and ran away in a blur of orange.

As Manny said some very explicit Spanish obscenities directed at the Starkweathers' cat, Byers said "Look! Look!! It's Mulder!" He sat down at the computer and typed back "Sorry, had trouble, what do you need?"

Mulder, logged in as Langly, typed in: "Napalm"

Back at the island, Starkweather, stuffing the gun back in the waistband of her shorts, read Mulder's smart ass IM to Byers, snapped at him. "Quit screwing around."

"'Charming, to the last,'" Mulder quoted Star Wars' Grand Moff Tarkin as he typed to Byers.

"Trapped on island. Dinosaurs running rampant. Doggett shot, needs medical attention. Peter lost, possibly trapped in a cave. Volcano active. Need help. Get Skinner."

Byers responded: "Skinner and Reyes are already on the island. Ben and Fro in Mexico City working with American Embassy"

"Holy shit," Starkweather gasped, reading over Mulder's shoulder, "BEN'S in Mexico????"




Meanwhile
The United States Embassy
Mexico City, Mexico

Ben's cell phone rang. "Benjamin Starkweather," he answered formally.

"We found them, Mr. Starkweather," Byers told him as he typed to Mulder. "I'm talking to them right now online. They're in the control bunker at the northern end of the island."

"Oh thank God, thank God," Ben closed his eyes in relief.

"Everyone alright?"

"Mrs. Starkweather, Miss Scully and Mulder are alright as well as Dr. Grant and Mr. Malcolm. Mr. Doggett, however, was shot and is in serious need of a hospital. Plus there's a little boy, a child named Peter Sedai in mortal danger. Plus we have no way of pinpointing the location of AD Skinner and Miss Reyes. We lost communications with them when they landed on the island. There's a satellite block on that island. Langly's working on getting radio communication up."

"What's going on?" Frohike demanded. When Ben relayed the information, Frohike groaned. "Idiot. Give me the phone," he snatched the phone out of Ben's hand. "Byers, it's me. Tell Langly to fuck the radio. Tell him to boot up the computers and see he can hack into the system and lift the satellite block so we can get cell phone communication so we can find the AD and Reyes."

Ben swiped the phone back. "Alright, we'll update the Embassy of the situation. They're talking to the Air Force Base on Puerto Rico to see if they can organize a rescue effort right now, but we're going to need to get all the kids in the same spot on the playground."

Byers had plugged in his earpiece into his cell phone so he could have his hands free to type all the information back to Mulder. "I'm telling them that right now..."

Mulder yelled back at Langly. "Frohike says to forget about the radio, but to get into the computer system to see if you can lift that damn block so we can use our cells. I left mine at the hotel, Scully?" Mulder turned to her as she bound Leo's hand behind his back.

"Sorry, Mulder, mine was lost when I fell into the river. Starkweather?" Scully asked her as she jerked hard on the rope.

"Mine got smashed in the initial attack," Starkweather was moping Doggett's feverish brow with a clean cloth she found in a first aid kit. "Doggett, what about you?"

Doggett groaned a little, lifted his hips, reached into his back jean pocket and pulled out his cell. "Don't know if it works," he murmured, settling back down.

Starkweather hit the "On" button. "Sweet, we've got a working cell phone," she proclaimed when it switched on with a beep to alert her that she was in an area of No Service.

"Langly, get to work," Mulder ordered him. "Okay," he said to the others. "We all know we don't have a hell of a lot of time. We've GOT to find Peter. We can't wait for the cavalry."

"What do you suggest, Mulder?" Grant asked him.

"Starkweather, give your pistol to me. I'm going to take Malcolm, Grant and Quinto to escort Leo outside and drag him along until he wakes up and can recollect where the caves are. I'm guessing if you keep going due north, about a quarter mile, then hang a left, eastbound, you'll stumble across the caves. As to the exact cave, that's up to Leo to tell us. As for the rest of us, we'll stay put until you come back. Starkweather, obviously we need you to take care of the Puppy Man. Scully, you can help her, plus we need a contact person. I want you to stay online and talk to Byers, keep him updated. And when Langly takes care of that block, call Skinner. That man always has his cell on him."

"Actually Mulder," Scully said. "Let me go in your place and you stay here and be the point of contact."

"She's right Mulder," Starkweather said. "If Peter is in a cave with a small entry, Scully is the only one of us tiny enough to fit down there. Plus, if we need to beat feet and get the hell out of here, I'll need help with Doggett. I can't carry him by myself and Langly needs to haul the electronics equipment."

"Scully," Mulder said seriously. "I don't want you to go."

"Mulder, Starkweather is right. I might be the only one small enough to squeeze down there and get Peter. Plus, if he's hurt, he will need a doctor," she looked over at Doggett and Starkweather. "Agent Starkweather is a competent doctor. She can tend to Agent Doggett by herself. But she would need help transporting him out of here if the building starts to collapse."

"I am not a cripple," Doggett protested.

"But you're sick," Starkweather pointed out to him. "You're crawling with infection. And you fainted not too long ago. Stop being all machismo and let us help you. And if I need Mulder to help me carry out your heavy ass, so be it."

"I..." Mulder folded his lips. He hated having to pour out his heart to Scully in front of an audience. "I am just afraid of something happening to you out there," he finally said lamely.

"Nice of him to care about us," Malcolm griped.

"Shut up," Starkweather told him. "Don't ruin this Kodak moment."

Scully frowned at him. "Mulder, I've been in worse situations during field assignments, you know that. Actually, usually it was YOUR fault that I was in those situations." As Mulder opened his mouth to protest, Scully held up her hand. "Mulder, just let me go. Let me find the boy." She addressed the entire room now. "If we are not back with Peter in two hours... leave without us. Enough people have died because of this travesty."

Mulder relented. As the rescue team hurried to be away, Mulder couldn't help but voice one more concern: "What do I tell William if you don't come home, Scully?"

Pausing by the door, Scully turned to him. "Tell the kid I went down slugging." She beckoned the others to follow her.

Starkweather locked the door behind them, checking her watch. She blew out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

The rescue team set out, with Scully in the lead, Malcolm and Grant right behind her, dragging the unconscious Leo and Quinto bringing up the rear. Both Scully and Quinto had their guns. Scully had a rope coiled under her arm. She felt like a Lara Croft rip-off.

The earthquake had subsided but Scully had the sinking feeling that the first tremor was only the harbinger of disaster.

When the rescue team was almost to the caverns, Leo finally came to. "Wha... wha... where'm I?" he spoke slowly. Starkweather had shattered his cheekbone and nose with her pistol-whipping.

"On our way to find your nephew, Mr. Leo," Scully said coolly, pushing a sweaty lock of hair that had fallen out of her ponytail. She wished her hair was short again, she was tired of feeling it cling to the back of her neck. "We made it to the caves without you. But you will tell us which cave the boy is in."

Leo struggled against his binds. "Ah ah ah, Mr. Leo," Malcolm admonished him as he and Grant continued to drag him along. "Now, I am a fairly peaceful individual, however, if Agent Scully or Mr. Ibarra back there felt the need to.. ah... fire? Fire their guns at you, well, I wouldn't ah... stop them."

"Stop dragging me, I can walk," Leo spat out.

Malcolm and Grant paused long enough to right Leo. Then Grant pushed him. "Walk," he snarled at him. "And talk. Where is the boy?" When Leo wouldn't answer, Grant snapped at him. "You are in checkmate, Mr. Leo. You lost. What ever sick game you've been using that child as a pawn for is over. Where is the boy?"

There's a tree that looks like Janis Joplin," he finally said as his cracked brain tried to think of a way to prove those these fools that he was merely in check, not checkmate.

"My patience grows thin," Grant informed him. "No more games."

"He's not playing games," Scully said, pointing. "Look." She started climbing the rocks, calling out "Peter! Peter! It's me! It's Agent Scully! Where are you buddy?"

"Miss Scully???" a small, hopeful voice rose from the bowels of hell.

"Peter!" Scully cried out in relief as she scrambled up the rocky bluff. "Come on!" she said to the men below her.

"How," Leo snarled at Grant and Malcolm, "am I supposed to climb with my hands tied behind my back?"

"Good point," Grant nodded. "Mr. Ibarra, would you be willing to stay down here with Mr. Leo?"

"Not a problem," Quinto pointed his gun at Leo as Grant and Malcolm followed Scully.

"Peter! Where are you?" Scully was shouting down every hole in the ground. The rocks were hot to her touch. She looked at the looming volcano, saw how the top was belching out black plumes of smoke. "Jesus," she muttered. "What else can go wrong on this damn trip, oh my God!" she gasped when she stumbled across the corpse of Andrea Nowark, being feasted upon by a group of happy compys. "Shoo! Get away!" she picked up some rocks and chunked them at the chicken like reptiles. They had all scattered by the time Grant and Malcolm joined her. "Well," she informed them. "Leo didn't lie about Andrea."

Grant shook his head. "Horrible way to die," he said sans sympathy.

"That..." Malcolm, meanwhile, squinted up at the volcano, "does not look like a happy mountain... where's the boy? Peter!! Peter, where are you?" The trio began their search, calling his name.

"I'm here!!"

Scully, Malcolm and Grant ran towards the sound of his voice. Kneeling down beside a very small hole in the ground, Scully peered down into it. She felt her eyes well up in welcomed relief at the sight of Peter, clutching Tummy, sitting on what looked like a briefcase like lockbox. "Miss Scully! You came!!"

"Hang on, okay?" she told him, unwinding the rope. "We're going to get you out of here and take you home." She checked her watch. Thirty-five minutes had passed. It was going to be cutting it close.

Grant secured the rope. He threw the rope down the hole. In a big cheerful voice, he called down. "Hello there, Peter!"

"Hi Dr. Grant!" Peter yelled back enthusiastically as Tummy barked. "You came for me too?"

"And Mr. Malcolm did and a nice security guard we met. Mr. Fox, Mr. John and Mrs. Jeri are waiting us so we can all go home together." He watched Scully sit down, dangling her legs into the hole. "Agent Scully, this is going to be a tight fit," he murmured, examining the hole. "Are you sure?"

"How else do you propose to get him out of there?" Scully asked him. "He's too little to climb out by himself. Chances are Leo and Andrea were going to just leave him there to die."

"We're wasting time, arguing," Malcolm said. "Let the lady do what she has to do," he looked nervously at the smoldering mountain.

"Just grab the boy and get out," Grant told her, handing her the rope. "Whatever treasure Leo forced him to find, let it rot down there." He went back to the jagged stone that he tied the rope to, leaned back against it to brace himself as he would lower Scully.

Scully grabbed the rope tight with her hands and legs, gritting her teeth. Malcolm came up from behind her and picked her up as she gripped the rope. "Okay, Scully, I'm going to let you go on the count of three. Let us know when you're ready for us to pull you up."

She nodded her head. "Hold on Peter," she called down before Malcolm let her go. "I'm on my way."

Scully felt her stomach drop before she actually did. Her arms and legs were scraped by the rock as she went down, but other than that she was able to shimmy down the rope easily enough.

When her feet touched the cavern floor, Peter fairly tackled her as Tummy yipped, wagging her tail. "I know you'd come!"

Scully crouched down for a quick hug, then told him. "Peter, we don't have a lot of time. We have to go now," she warily eyed the skulls and bones littering the floor.

"What 'bout that?" Peter shined his flashlight on the lockbox.

"We're going to leave it."

"What 'bout her?" Peter pointed at Tummy, his lip quivering.

Scully folded her lips, wracking her brain on to how to get Peter AND Tummy AND herself out of this literal hellhole.

Meanwhile, above her, Malcolm was grousing "What is taking them so long? We need to go, go now."

"Ian, calm dow-"

A gunshot went off.

"That didn't sound good..."




 

Meanwhile...
Back at the Control Bunker.

"OW!!!"

Starkweather looked up to see Langly sucking on the tender flesh in between the thumb and forefinger. "That didn't sound good. What happened?"

"Papercut," he admitted with a blush before turning back to work on hacking into Unigen's systems.

Mulder was sitting at Langly's notebook computer, occasionally replying to Byers' IMs, but mostly watching the clock on the wall. Forty five minutes had passed since Scully and the others left.

"We'll wait for her," Starkweather told him. "For as long as we can. Or if worse comes to worse, you make a run for it with Doggett and Ringo and I can stay behind and wait for them."

Mulder grinned. "If we can't communicate with the Air National Guard a safe location to come get us, that point might be moot." He sharpened another pencil, then tossed it up into the ceiling.

Starkweather turned her attention back to Doggett, taking the thermometer out of his mouth. She frowned. "Fuck," she whispered when she saw the number "102.1" on the tiny digital read-out screen. She lifted his shirt sleeve and frowned again when she saw that the pus started to weep through the bandage again. After taking a minute to run her fingers through her dirty, disheveled hair, she picked up the damp rag she had put on a the floor a minute ago and used it to gently mop the sweat off of his face.

Doggett opened his eyes. "You don't have to do that," he mumbled.

"Yes I do," she said, smiling while shaking her head. "I'm trying to bring your fever down. Trust me," she smirked. "This is not my idea of a good time."

"I think I figured out why you never went into private practice," Doggett said. "Your bedside manner sucks."

"Blow me."

Doggett opened his mouth to retort, but instead clamped his mouth shut, wincing in pain as his hand involuntarily went to grasp his wound. Starkweather dropped the towel and grabbed his hand before it reached it's intended destination.

"Don't!" Embarrassed to sound so panicky, she softened her voice. "Don't touch it. It'll only make it worse." As a physician, there was nothing more frustrating to her than to see suffering and knowing that she had the knowledge to cease the suffering but not the tools. Letting go of his hand, she picked up the rag again, folded it neatly into a compress and placed it on his forehead. "I'll be right back," she promised him.

Getting up, she stretched her back and rotated her head, sighing in relief when she heard her neck crack.

Mulder, on the other hand, winced when he heard the popping noise. "I wish you wouldn't do that," he whined, looking nervously at the clock again, drumming his fingers on the desk.

She ignored him. "I'm going to find some more water," she said, grabbing the coffee mug that was found when Langly had scavenged the room for any informational manuals.

Her hair had fallen out of it's neat ponytail long, long, long ago. Starkweather pushed her heavy bangs off her forehead and shuffled towards the door. When she looked up, she gasped, dropping the coffee mug, instinctively taking two steps back.

A raptor stared at her.

"Mulder..." she croaked out.

Mulder looked out. "Holy shi-"

The monster then rammed into the door.

Starkweather threw her slight weight against the door, trying to hold it shut. The raptor howled and thumped it against the door again. Although the door did not open, the force of the hit knocked Starkweather on her ass. Mulder bolted from his seat so fast the chair fell over. He slammed himself up against the door. He could barely hold himself upright as the raptor slammed against the door again. Starkweather scrambled to her feet and pushed her body against the door. The raptor slammed into the door again. With their combined weight, Mulder and Starkweather managed to hold the door shut.

"I thought you locked this!" Mulder yelled at her.

"It IS locked!" Starkweather screamed back as the raptor made another dent in the metal door.

Mulder and Starkweather peeped through the window.

And saw two snarling raptors, lowering themselves like battering rams. "Oh shit," Mulder mumbled. "Where's the gun?"

"With Scully and Quinto."

"Fuck."

The raptors charged. "ARGGGGGGHHH!!!" Starkweather and Mulder cried out as they dug their heels into the floor. They felt the door creak open, just a little bit.

"What's happening?" Doggett slowly sat up, body aching, head spinning.

"STAY THERE!" Starkweather ordered him as Langly told him. "Dino attack!!!"

"Son-of-a-bitch," Doggett groaned as he dragged himself up.

"Langly," he panted, stumbling towards the radio. "Find a way to bring this park online. The lock's probably not working 'cause it's electrified." If the park's not runnin' on full power, the locks and security stuff is probably workin'."

"See, I TOLD you I locked it!" Starkweather retorted. "And Doggett, what the HELL are you doing????" She felt the door move again.

"Doc, if we get eaten, it's not gonna matter much if I got an arm or not!" he spat at her. "I'm gonna try and fix the radio."

"I'm experiencing a strange sense of deja vu," Mulder mumbled as he braced himself up against the door, preparing for another battering ram attack. This time the door moved an entire inch. Mulder and Starkweather used all of their combined strength shove the door shut again. "LANGLY!! MOVE IT!!!"

Langly opened another window. "I think I can get the security system up and running," he muttered as beads of perspiration dotted his forehead. "Dogbert!" he yelled at Doggett. "In my backpack, there's a Palm Pilot. Get it and bring it to me."

"Why?" Starkweather yelled at him as Doggett did as he was told then started to work on the radio. "Langly, there is no time t-" she was interrupted by the raptors ramming the door again. "Jesus," she said, "This is not how I pictured myself dying."

 

"Funny," Mulder said. "And I was told that I would die in an accident related to auto-erotica-asphyxiation..." he peeped through the glass window. "Oh Jesus!" he gasped when the head of the raptor suddenly popped up. Mulder watched in dread as the golden yellow eye widened, then narrowed. Seeing him, sizing him up, imagining how he would taste.

Mulder felt his mouth go dry.

The raptor then headbutted the glass window. It did not break, but it cracked. "LANGLY!!!!!" Mulder hollered.

The raptor headbutted it again. The crack increased.

"I'm using my Palm Pilot to IM Byers," Langly explained as he feverishly worked. "He's already into the Unigen system. He's trying to find the backdoor into the program to bring the park online.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU USE THAT THING TO IM BYERS BEFORE!!!" Starkweather screamed at him.

Just then, the glass broke completely out of the window. Starkweather ducked just in time as the raptor reached in and swiped.

"Mul-duh!" Doggett cried out, grabbing the only weapon near him, a screwdriver. "Here!" he threw it at him.

Mulder caught it easily enough and plunged the screwdriver into the lizard's flesh.

The raptor shrieked and withdrew.

"I think you just pissed it off," Starkweather started to say just as the raptor stuck it's entire face through the broken window, snapping it's jaws. Mulder ducked just in time and sat on the ground next to Starkweather, still holding the door shut, the raptor's jaws only a foot above them. "LANGLY!!!" Starkweather screamed. "DO SOMETHING!!!"




 

Meanwhile...


"Dr Grant!?" Scully called from below where a little pocket of sunlight smeared its way down into the cavern, "I found them!"

"Well, finally! We're better off than the people on the earth during Armageddon." Malcolm could be heard from

"And this is different from the End Times how?" Dr. Grant snorted.

"Wait...Agent Scully," Malcolm hollered back down, "Unless I am quite mistaken, which I pray to GOD I am...you said *them.*"

"That damn dog my partner brought with him is down here too."

"You'd think a dog have better since than to go into a steam pocket that's probably going to be covered up with molten lava any minute now..."

"Malcolm!" Scully interrupted him, "Do you think if I tie the rope around the dog, you can pull her up, and then Peter...then me?" Scully said, trying to throw the rope up over the hole.

"Maybe if you pretend that you're fly fishing." Grant helped.

"Do I look like the out-doorsy type, Dr. Grant?" Scully hollered after her third toss.

"No...no you don't."

"Think one of you can pull us up while the other of you go check to see what happened with Leo?"

"I think that's possible,"

"Wanna flip for it?"

"I'd love to...but I don't have any coins. I think I lost them the last time I fell down the cave. Rock paper scissors then?"

"Can I play too?!" Peter piped up from beneath.

"Sure kid. As soon as we get you up here."

After Malcom's rock beat Grant's scissors, Malcolm smirked, "Never play a game of odds with a mathematician," and left in the direction of the gunshot.

Meanwhile, Grant crawled down on the ground and waited for Scully to toss him the rope.

Below, Scully got a great idea.

"Peter, you want a piggy-back ride?"

Peter thought that Miss Scully was as crazy as his Uncle who held them at gunpoint, but the thought of a piggy-back ride sounded a lot funner than just sitting around in this hot, stinky cave with nothing to do but pet Tummy.




 

Meanwhile...
Ben and Jerilyn's apartment...

"Something's wrong," Manny fretted as he paced back and forth. "Something's not right... ack!!! Get away from me you rotten little-" he swung his foot at Caesar. The fluffy tabby deftly avoided his booted foot and daintily leapt upon the spare dresser in the extra bedroom Ben and Jerilyn used as an office. Once Caesar was out of his way, Manny started pacing again. "Something wrong, Mulder should have IM'ed him back now."

Officer Beth Johnson clicked off her cell phone. "Bad news on the FBI front. No one has heard from AD Skinner or Agent Reyes either."

"Relax, please," Byers tried to calm them. "If something is going awry, I have the perfect confidence that it is being handled. Mulder," he informed them, "is very resilient."

Meanwhile, back at La Luna Blanca

"ARRRGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Mulder screamed along with Starkweather as they felt the door move again. Together, they pushed it shut, using the strength in their legs and back to hold it shut as they were still sitting side by side, on the floor against the door.

The raptor Mulder stabbed gave up trying to get at her prey through the little glass window she broke out. She teamed up with her buddy and together they started ramming the door again. Although Mulder and Starkweather's combined weight of 305 pounds did prove to be an obstacle, it was also proving to be not an impossible obstacle.

As Langly, forgetting about Byers on his IM, muttered

"C'mon, c'mon," as he surfed through Unigen's systems,

Doggett feverishly tried to repair the radio, one-handed, in hopes to send out a general distress call to somebody... ANYBODY at this point.

Starkweather shrieked again when she felt the raptors push against the door. They had figured out that if they just kept pushing and pushing instead of ramming it, stopping then ramming it again, they would have better results. Starkweather felt like her legs were rubber. She doubted she could hold the door much longer. "LANGLY!!" she wailed. "HURRY UP!!!"

"GOT IT!" Langly crowed. "Okay, on the count of three, you and Mulder got to get away from that door. There's a security device that in cases such as this, the door electrifies and the floors outside electrifies."

"What 'bout in here??" Doggett demanded. "I've already been shot, don't feel like getting cooked while we're at it."

"Dogbert, you dipshit, look at the floor, it's carpeted. Insulated. We'll be fine."

"What if it doesn't work!!!" shrilled Starkweather.

"Then we find out if we taste like chicken," Mulder snapped at her, then barked at Langly. "Go on a count of five."

"What?"

"Just do it!!!"

"Okay... five... four... three... two... one! NOW," Langly hit enter.

On "four", Mulder grabbed the collar of Starkweather's shirt. On "three" he yanked her over to him, bringing her close, as if he was going to kiss her. On "two", with all the strength he could muster, he heaved her away from him. Starkweather landed on her ass on "one." Mulder was still able to barely hold the door shut.

When Langly hit enter, there was a flickering of lights and a sickening sizzling sound, similar to the sound of bugs being electrocuted by a bug zapper. The raptors were screaming The sudden surge of electricity through the metal door actually propelled Mulder through the air.

Starkweather scrambled over to him, checking airways and heart rate. "Mulder," she yelled at him, shaking him. "MULDER!!!"

Dreamily, he murmured with a big silly grin on his face, "Aw, Scully, I don't wanna wrestle..."

"Ew," Starkweather gagged. "Didn't need that mental image."

"Well, great Langly," Doggett told him, looking over at the shut door, listening to the screams of the frying dinosaurs. "You saved our asses... and I don't want you to think that I ain't grateful... but... there's small problem."

"What?"

"How are we going to get out now?"

"Details," Langly groused. "Check this out," he then said triumphantly, pointing to the various monitors. "Now that the park's online, we've got the video cameras working again."

"Hot damn, maybe we can track people down," Doggett said, picking up the chair Mulder knocked over and sat weakly down. His head was spinning and his arm hurt like fury. His fingertips were even tingling in mild pain now.

Starkweather helped Mulder stand up. "That was damn stupid what you just did!" she snapped at him. Mulder's hair stood on end now too, only it didn't have the hilarious effect on people as Langly's newly acquired 'fro did. On a more serious note, the back of his neck and the palms of his hands were covered with mild electrical burns. "Jesus H Christ," Dr. Starkweather bitched as she went back to the first aid kit to look for burn ointment. "And you guys all say I'm reckless," she griped, pulling out more gauze and silverdine.

"You're welcome," Mulder muttered at her as he grabbed another chair and sat down by Doggett. Still, he was in a better mood than he had been in for weeks. "This is just like the old times, huh Puppy-Man?"

"Oh shut the hell up," Doggett groused as Starkweather came back and began to work on Mulder's injuries, rubbing ointment on the back of his neck and slapping a big Band-Aid over it. Mulder winced. Starkweather walked around him and started to put the cream on his hands.

"I've got visual on the Peter rescue," Langly said, pointing to Malcolm and Grant on top of a rocky bluff, crouching by a hole, pulling on a rope.

Starkweather, as she finished smearing ointment on Mulder's hands, craned her own neck to better see the screens.

"Where's Scully?" she asked as she started to wind gauze around Mulder's palms, leaving his fingers free. Mulder whipped his head around, wincing again as the burned flesh moved as the muscle moved to rotate his head.

"Where is Scully?" he asked darkly.

"Wait, lemme consult my Magical Scully Eight Ball and find out," Langly said grumpily. He pretended to shake one of those predication toys and to read the little screen. "It says... Scully's a big girl and can take care of herself so don't get your Speedos in a twist."

"You wear Speedos?" Starkweather made another face. "Ew!"

"I ain't worried 'bout Scully," Doggett growled, wiping cold sweat off his face. "I'm worried 'bout that Got-damned Leo and Mr. Ibarra. Where in the hell are they?"

Starkweather's quick eyes caught motion on one of the other screens. "What is THAT??" she squawked, pointing.

Langly peered at the screen. "Uh-oh."

"What's 'uh-oh'?" Mulder asked.

"I'm beginning to hate uh-oh's," Starkweather muttered.

"Not as much as I'm beginnin' to hate 'oh crap'." Doggett replied.

"It's a park Jeep," Langly cried out. There's people inside!"

"Skinner?" Mulder leapt from his chair and stood behind Langly's chair. "Reyes? You think?"

"I dunno, but look how fast they're cruisin'... oh," Langly said bleakly. "That's why."

"What's going on?" Starkweather asked warily.

"There's a park Jeep coming this way..." Mulder groaned.

"Uh-oh," Starkweather felt her guts drop into her shoes.

"It's being pursued by a T-Rex," Mulder finished.

"Oh crap." Doggett pulled himself up and started to work on the radio again. "Langly, try to bust through that satellite block, we gotta find Reyes and the AD. Doc, do you know anything 'bout electronics?"

"No, but I can take a crash course," Starkweather said grimly as she joined her partner.

Mulder sat back down at the computer and finally responded to Byers' question over the Instant Messager: "What's going on?"

Mulder typed back: SNAFU

Reading over Byers' shoulder, Manny asked "What does SNAFU mean?"

Byers blushed. "Uh..."

Johnson answered the question. "Situation Normal, All Fudged Up."

"Although I think Mulder is using a more... uh.. explicit obscenity in the place of 'Fudged'," Byers squirmed.




 

Meanwhile...

"AIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Isobel screamed as the T-Rex started to gain on them.

"Can't this thing go any faster!" Skinner yelled at Rafael.

"I'm going as fast as I can!" Rafael yelled back at him.

Reyes turned around and saw the dinosaur snapping his jaws at the speeding SUV. "We're not going to make it if we stay on the road," she darkly predicted, closing her eyes. Her head was pounding.

"Can you get off the road?" Skinner asked Rafael.

"Faster your seat belts," he replied grimly. The very second after everyone buckled up, Rafael took a sharp right and the vehicle hurtled down the side of the hill, just like in all the automotive commercials depicting someone merrily off-roading in there brand spanking new SUV.

Problem was, in most of the commercials, the drivers weren't being pursued by a ravenous T-Rex. She actually followed them down the hill roaring in a rage.

"Well, THAT was a brilliant idea!" Isobel snapped.

Just then, the Rex-T headbutted the SUV, causing it to flip over, tailpipe over headlights. It then began to roll down the hill.

And helplessly, Mulder, Doggett, Starkweather and Langly watched on the monitors. "Oh my God," Starkweather cried out. "We can't just leave them there!"

"Yes we can," Langly said, ashen faced. "Look," he pointed at a different monitor.

Mulder, Starkweather and Doggett swiveled their heads to look at the screen Langly pointed at us. The building that they had sought haven in was completely surrounded by a very large velicioraptor pack. And each raptor was sniffing and searching for a way inside.

Each human inside had a very unique yet appropriate reaction to their latest situation.

"Shit on a stick," Langly whimpered. "They're everywhere."

"Oh fuck me running," Starkweather moaned.

"We gotta think of a way outta this. I do not want Kersh goin' and tellin' my mama that "The FBI is truly sorry Mrs. Doggett but your son's dead because he was stupid," Doggett bitched.

"And you didn't think about that BEFORE joining the X-Files?" Mulder said blandly, despite the fact he had just broken out in a cold sweat.

"I thought you chased little green men, not big green lizards!"

"They're gray."

"Shut up! Both of you!" Starkweather snapped. "Now what in the hell do we do?"

Just then movement on another monitor caught Mulder's eye. "LEO!! THAT SON OF A BITCH!"

"Why?" Starkweather looked over his shoulder. "ARRGHH!! Fucker!! DIE ALREADY!!" she screamed at the monitor. "Jiminy fucking Christmas, what ELSE can go wrong!"

Just then the earth shuddered violently as the volcano erupted in the distance.

"You shouldn’t have said that," Doggett scolded her.

"I know," she whimpered. "I'm sorry."




 

Meanwhile...

Scully crouched down on the black ground.

"Peter, I want you to get Tummy and hold on to her tight, ok?" She had decided against piggybacking it. The entrance was too narrow.

"Wait till we get home and tell all th'other kids at school what happened!"

"Peter, let's let what happened on this trip be our little secret, ok?"

"That's what Uncle Justin said..." Peter said miserably.

"No...Peter, it's not like that..." Scully tried to explain, but it was too late, he was already up the hole.

"Agent Scully," Malcolm hollered from above, "everything ok?"

"I heard a gunshot." Scully reminded them, "did somebody go investigate?"

Just then, Grant came up, walking cautiously in front of Leo, who was holding a gun to his back.

"Yeah..." Malcolm hollered back.

"Drop the rope." Leo said.

And then they all looked up when there was a loud rumble from the mountain.

"MALCOM!" Scully shouted.

"Agent Scully, STAY DOWN THERE!"

"If she stays down there, she might have no way out later." Grant reminded her.

"YOU SHUT UP AND DROP THE ROPE!"

"Well, make this a red-letter day on your calendar. I agree with a deranged psycho."

"Well, Dr. Malcolm, I think your whole calendar would be about as red as Dr. Scully's hair." Dr. Grant said.

 

Meanwhile, back in the control bunker...

"I'm gonna to KILL that son-of-a-bitch!!!" Mulder raged.

"Get in line," Starkweather and Doggett said in unison.

"Forget Leo, we've got bigger problems," Langly said, pointing at one of the computer scenes.

Mulder, Starkweather and a shaky Doggett gathered around.

"I don't get it," Starkweather said. "What are we looking at?"

"Read outs from the power generators."

"Okay... and?" Doggett asked.

"Um... well, we've been running off of the auxiliary power," Langly said sheepishly.

"WHAT?!?!?!?" Mulder, Starkweather and Doggett barked at him.

"How much power do we have left?" Starkweather demanded.

"Why aren't we running off of the main generators?" Mulder shouted.

"I need a beer," Doggett muttered.

"Because the main generators are shot. Okay, look," he pointed to a different screen. "See that? See that blackened chunk of metal? That's our main power generator? Remember that storm, that hurricane from the other night? My guess is that building got hit by lightening and fried everything."

"You didn't answer MY question though," Starkweather snapped.

"We have maybe an hour, if we're lucky."

Mulder, Starkweather and Doggett at the same time, swiveled their heads to look at the surveillance screen that showed the velicoraptors prowling around their building.

"Ohhh..." Starkweather whined. "Not good."

Just then the building trembled as another eruption shook the island. "Maybe we won't have to wait for the raptors," Doggett said. "We might be cooked 'fore they get a chance to get in here."

"Hey, look!" Langly pointed excitedly to a different screen.

"What is it?" Mulder asked.

"AD Skinner and Reyes, they're okay!"

"Then fix that satellite link so we can call Skinner," Mulder barked.

"And what good is he going to do?" Starkweather bitched. "Blind the raptors with the sunlight glaring off of his head?"




 

Meanwhile...

The Jeep SUV had landed on the roof. The passengers hung upside down, strapped in by their seatbelts.

"Everyone alright?" Skinner asked groggily.

Everyone grunted and moaned the affirmative.

Suddenly the SUV started to shake as the Tyrannosaurus Rex made it's way down the hill, pounding the ground with it's massive feet.

"Don't move!" Rafael ordered them. "They can only see motion. If we are still, we are invisible."

"But the blood is rushing to my head!" Isobel whined.

"Isobel, para el motivo del dios, sea reservado usted tonto," he snapped at his sister, more out of fright then anger.

The T-Rex stopped to snuffle the SUV. Growling, it flopped down on its belly, like a cat and peered inside, yellow eye narrowing. Skinner had been in many a harrowing experiences, but even the nightmare of Viet Nam could not compare to this. That was war. That Skinner understood. He didn't understand this monstrosity sniffing around them.

Quietly, Isobel was praying, "Granizaron Maria, llena de tolerancia, dios está con usted. Bendicen le entre mujeres. Y bendecido la la fruta de usted matriz, Jesús..."

<<Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for our sins... dammit...>> Reyes thought as her heart pounded and her head throbbed. She, to the dismay of her parents, had left the Catholic Church years and years ago. <<Okay, God, I'm not very good with formal rote prayers, you know that... so I'm just going to be blunt... we need a miracle.>>

Just then, a flock of pterodactyls swooped down low, buzzing past the tyrannosaur, not really paying attention to him. The movement of their giant leathery wings caught the monster's eye and he ran after them, like a hunting dog chasing after the ducks he just rousted out for his master.

"Hell of a miracle," Reyes mumbled as she fought to undo her seatbelt.

Skinner and Rafael didn't even bother with the buckles, they both had knives on them: Rafael a wicked looking pearl handled switchblade and Skinner a pious little Swiss Army knife. They cut themselves out of the belts and tumbled onto the roof. They recovered quickly and crawled out to assist Reyes and Isobel.

"Let get the hell out of here," Skinner grunted once the women had been freed from the binding straps.

Rafael kicked out the window on the driver side and they climbed out. "The main bunker is that way, about a quarter mile," he pointed down a dusty path. "That is where I left Quinto."

"Let's go," Skinner said, taking Reyes' arm and draping it over his shoulders. As Reyes protested, he wrapped his arm around her long, narrow torso and said "No arguing, agent. You're ill. Let me help you. Plus, if you faint again, I don't want you left behind."

Meanwhile, after witnessing their drama play out on the computer screen, Starkweather exclaimed "Ohhhhhhhhh shit! They're heading this way!!" Her eyes flicked to another computer screen, which displayed the largest of the velicoraptors forcing her scrawnier followers to throw themselves against the electrified doors, looking for a weakness. The two raptors already on the roofs looked at them mockingly, snarling, looking like demons against a reddening sky. Starkweather wondered if this is how the fallen angels looked like as Saint Michael the Archangel cast them out of Heaven.

"They won't stand a chance," Doggett said grimly, "they would have had better luck against the raptors." He swayed, feeling sick and dizzy again. He leaned against Starkweather. She grunted under his weight and crinkled her nose. She could smell the septic order of the bacteria destroying his flesh around the bulletwound. Her eyes flicked over to the computer screen that showed Leo yelling and brandishing his gun at Malcolm, Grant and little Peter who clutched Mulder's puppy.

"Now what?" she wrapped her arms around Doggett's torso and used the strength in her legs instead of her back to support herself as she held him up.

"Langly, get that satellite link working, so we can at least warn Skinner" Mulder barked, pacing now. <<Come on, come on, Oxford-boy>> he chastised himself. <<Think of something... anything... brain... dammit, do something...>>

Ironically, it was his little sister that made the Mulder-leap. "Remember the final scene of Jurassic Park?" she suddenly burst out. "The first one? When you thought everyone was going to bite the big one when the T-Rex came and ate all the raptors?"

"Yeah and..." Mulder was set to make a smart assed comment at Starkweather's expense but then what she was saying sunk in before the retort even left his mouth. "Jerilyn, you are NOT suggesting..."

"What other weapons do we have left?" Starkweather snapped at him. "Yeah, those raptors are bigger than us. And highly intelligent. But they still don't have the intelligence capacity of a human being. They don't have imagination. And to quote my buddy Einstein: "Imagination is more important than knowledge." They would NEVER have the imagination to dream of the idea of attracting OUR natural predator and turning him onto us. In their little minds, THEY are our only concern."

"Jesus, aren't THEY enough?" Langly muttered as he worked.

Starkweather continued her lecture. "They can't think multidimensionally. Only laterally. We can't outrun them. We can only outthink them."

"What if the T-Rex ain't hungry?" Doggett asked.

"When HASN'T that fucker NOT been hungry????" Starkweather snapped.

Mulder pulled up a chair and plunked himself next to a keyboard and started opening files. "If I am thinking correctly, Unigen would have strove to have this park be as accurate to the Jurassic period as possible. Plus they would probably want to have the ability to "call" the more lethal and the more lucrative animals so the tourists get their money's worth after shelling out thousands of dollars to come to this scenic little get away." He started searching through the soundfiles. "A nice enticing and appealing sound... like a mating call."

"I wonder what a T-Rex mating call sounds like,"

Starkweather mused. "'For a good time, call 1-800-EAT-ME?"

Mulder didn't even look up. "Go help Doggett fix that radio so we can get the Air National Guard to torpedo this rock back to the Stone Age."

"You've been dying to use that line, haven't you?"

"I thought it up on our flight over here."




 

Meanwhile....

"Dr. Grant?" Scully yelled, peering up the hole. "Malcolm? What's going on?" She could hear yelling but couldn't exactly hear what was being said. <<Dana, you better be thinking of an alternative exit because I don't think you'll be getting out this way...> She looked up the slim tunnel that lead back up to the surface.

She could hear Leo screaming at them, threatening them.

Ordering them to lower Peter **back** down into the tunnel to get the box. Scully frowned at the lockbox at her feet.

Then she looked up again.

<<We're screwed...>>

<<Unless...>>

Memories of her older sister always came to her at the strangest times. Right at that moment, Scully remembered when she graduated from college, before going to medical school, Melissa had come back from one of her many spiritual searches and surprised her with a trip to the Rocky Mountains where she wanted to take Scully rock climbing. Scully had balked at first, trying to hide her fear of heights behind obstinacy. "Missy, I don't want to," she had said to her sister and the rock climbing instructor Melissa had dragged along.

"Dana, it's easy, watch," and it truly did seem like Melissa was scaling the face of the mountain with ease.

"Come on!" she called down to her.

"Now," the instructor said patronizingly, "the first good spot to grab for it right up there..."

"I'm too short to reach it," Five-foot-two Dana Scully snapped at him. Then she sighed, looking up. Melissa was looking down at her, grinning. Then she began to tease her like she used when they were much, much younger. "You're acting like a giiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrly girl...." Melissa taunted her good-naturedly. "Bill and Charlie won't let you play with them no mo'."

Fuming, Dana had backed up, took a running start to make a leap for the grip the instructor referred to. She, of course, didn't make it and fell flat on her face. Melissa had climbed back down and helped her to the nearest emergency room where Dana received six stitches in her chin that had split open when she fell.

<<But still...>> Scully thought as she looked up. "I *can* climb out of here... I am not dying in here..." she gritted her teeth.

She backed up, took a running start and leaped, her hand reaching up in hopes of touching stone. Her fingertips just grazed the lip of the slight ledge in the vertical tunnel leading up and out. Scully, who now knew how to fall without hurting herself, tumbled to the ground. She got back up, dusted herself off and tried again.

As Scully tried desperately to get out of the hole, Grant and Malcolm desperately tried to talk Leo out of the hole he kept digging himself into. "Leo," Grant shielded Peter with his body, "you can not have this child."

"He's MY nephew."

"Half-nephew," Peter corrected him petulantly, clutching Mulder's puppy.

"It...ah... what we're trying to say, we don't give a shit if this kid's your nephew, half-nephew, quarter-nephew twice removed," Malcolm crossed his arms and tried to look threatening. "He's not going back down that hole."

"There is very, VERY important information in that lockbox down there," Leo seethed. "I NEED it."

"Do you care?" Grant asked Malcolm.

"No... not really." Malcolm replied blandly.

"And there you have it," Grant told Leo cheerfully. "We don't care about your information, only about the boy."

"And Tummy," Peter reminded him. "And Miss Scully..."

"And Tummy and Miss Scully," Grant amended his statement.

"May I remind you of something, Mr. Grant?" Leo pointed the gun at his head. "I'm armed, you're not."

"But," Grant said pleasantly. "How many bullets do you have left?"

Grant and Malcolm hoped they could keep Leo talking so that Quinto, who was quietly sneaking up behind him, would have the advantage of surprise when he pounced on him. Judging by the shiner on his eyes and the swelling in his lower lip, Quinto was going to be more than happy to pound on the little weasel boy.

Quinto unfortunately, was not being as quiet as he should have been, so when Leo heard the branch snap underneath Quinto's foot, he whirled around, firing. One bullet caught Quinto in the shoulder and another in his knee. Quinto collapsed, groaning.

"I think," Leo said pleasantly. "I have two bullets left, Mr. Grant."

Since Grant and Malcolm were standing directly in front of the hole, Leo was unable to see Scully's head poking out like a groundhog. Scully, scuffed, scraped and scratched up, put her finger to her lips to tell Peter to be quiet.

Tummy, however, could not understand sign language and began to bark excitedly.

"What is that damned dog barking at?" Leo demanded as Peter wrapped his hand around Tummy's snout. Tummy whined. Scully ducked down again. The stone tunnel leading down into the cave had wonderful little jagged edges which although hurt like hell as Scully went down the hole, made it magnificently easy to climb back up... once she had finally made it back up of course. Scully finally had gotten a brainflash and tilted the heavy lockbox on it's side to use a footstool. The rest of the climb up was a cake walk.

Feet secure in a hole in the rock wall, Scully held onto a jutting out rock with one hand as she pulled out her gun with the other, face twisted in fury. <<Come on Leo...>> she thought, feeling her body tensing up. <<Come on...>>

She could hear Leo's voice getting closer and closer. "That damn dog had been a pain in the ass every since this trip bega- OOOOOOWWWWWW!!!!!! Get'im off! Get'im off!!!!" he began shrieking.

<What in the world?> Scully thought as she shoved the gun back into the waistband of her pants and hoisted herself forward to start climbing out again.

Tummy, when Leo had gotten close enough, had launched herself out of Peter's arms and gone for Leo's throat. Her sharp little puppy teeth dug into Leo's flesh. Dropping his gun, he tried to pull Tummy off.

"Should we help him?" Grant asked with a ghost of a smile as Leo ran flailing about, screaming his head off.

"Why?" Malcolm guffawed. "This has been the highlight of the trip."

"Hey," Scully poked her head up again. "What does a girl have to do to get some help around here?"

Still laughing at Leo, Grant and Malcolm crouched down to pull Scully up. "You've missed all the fun, Dr. Scully," Grant grinned.

"Yeah..." Scully watched Leo running around, squealing like a little girl, Tummy still attached to his face. "I heard. I also heard gunshots..."

All the humor drained from Grant's face. "He shot Mr. Ibarra. Twice."

"Let me see," Scully said grimly as Leo continued to scream shrilly, waving his arms in the air like a cartoon character. A small grin crossed Scully's filthy face as she took Peter's hand to go aid Quinto. "Good dog..." she muttered. "VERY good dog..."

As Scully crouched down to help Quinto, she was completely oblivious that she was directly below a video surveillance camera. "Hey, Mulder! Scully's okay!" Langly announced, glancing over at a screen.

Mulder looked up. "Hot damn," he replied.

"Fox Mulder, the epitome of chivalry," Starkweather rolled her eyes at Mulder's comment.

"That's a Yankee for ya," Doggett quipped. "Okay, take the pincher and squeeze those two wires together..."

There was a small "bizzz" sound followed quickly by a Starkweather yelp of pain. "OW!" she dropped the pinchers and stuck her fingers in her mouth.

"Um..." Doggett peered into the bowels of the transistor radio. "Sorry, it was the other two wires."

Starkweather shot him the bird with her other hand.

The lights flickered for a moment, then came back on.

"That's not a good thing," Starkweather said when she removed her fingers from her mouth. "Ringo... how much power do we have left?"

"Maybe a half hour?"

Mulder, meanwhile, was practically biting his fingernails at his computer terminal. "All of these soundfiles are not titled clearly. I've got file 1A, 1B, 1C... I don't know where to start..."

"Just start playing them!" Langly nasalled back at him.

Mulder moved the mouse and clicked on a random file.

"Okay... here it goes..." He opened the file and nearly deafened everyone in the room with John William's "The Imperial March" from "The Empire Strikes Back."

"Appropriate," Doggett muttered.

"Oops," Mulder shut the file. He opened another file.

"You're here... there's nothing I fear... and I know my heart will go on..."

"ARRRGGHHH!!!" Langly squealed in true pain. "Celine Dion! The Anti-Christ!!!"

Mulder quickly closed that file and tried another file.

"Everybody Walk the Dinosaur..."

"That's not even remotely funny," Starkweather fumed. "Quit screwing around Mulder!!!"

"I'm NOT screwing around!" Mulder shot back at her, opening another file.

"May I have your attention please? May I have your attention please? Will the real Slim Shady please stand up? I repeat, will the real Slim Shady please stand up? We're gonna have a problem here..."

"Oh Gawd," Doggett grimaced.

"What are they doing?" Langly pointed at a surveillance screen. The raptors surrounding their building were opening and closing their jaws over and over. They were also flexing their huge claws, as if they were pointing their fingers at the poor fools inside the building.

"I think they're laughing at us," Mulder said grimly.

"Can you blame them?" Doggett countered.

Mulder, until he came to the conclusion that the raptors were laughing at them, did not realize that the speakers across the park were still working.

"Am I hearing things now?" Reyes asked as Skinner half-carried her, "Did I just hear Eminem?"

"Dunno," Skinner grumbled. "I don't listen to her."

"Him, sir."

"Whatever."

"When was the last time you got out?" Reyes teased him before sneezing and gagging.

"What in the hell is Quinto doing in there?" Rafael wondered outloud, ignorant to the fact that Quinto was actually bleeding from a shoulder and knee wound on another part of the island.

"Peter, stay right there," Scully instructed the boy. "And holler if Leo comes near, okay buddy?"

"He's not gonna hurt Tummy, is he?" Peter said, worried.

Grant and Malcolm looked over their shoulders. Tummy was still attached firmly to Leo's throat. Leo was still screaming hysterically. "No worries about that Peter,"

Grant clamped a big hand on Peter's small shoulder. "Dogs are wonderfully resistant."

Scully crouched down by Quinto. "Oh man..." she muttered. Quinto's gun shot wounds were far worse than Doggett's.

Quinto was desperately trying to stop the bleeding with his bare hands. "ˇHuelen sangre! ˇLos compys huelen sangre!" he moaned.

"Mr. Ibarra... please... my Spanish is awful... Español... uh... bad żInglés por favor?" Scully struggled with the language as she evaluated the injuries. She looked up at

Grant and Malcolm. "Shirts. Now," she snapped.

"What?" Grant and Malcolm squawked.

"I need to make bandages, he's bleeding to death!" Scully snapped.

Grant unbuttoned his denim shirt as Malcolm pulled his black T-shirt over his head. They handed them to her.

"Thanks," she said as she instantly started to shred the shirts into strips of cloth.

Quinto continued to scream. "ˇDebemos irnos! ˇHuelen la sangre!"

"What is he saying?" Grant asked.

"I don't know," Scully muttered as she bound Quinto's wounds. "But it doesn't sound good, so let get the hell out of here. One of you," she ordered them, "help me carry Mr. Ibarra, the other, get Tummy."

"Delighted," Malcolm went to get the dog off of Leo as

Grant crouched down to help Quinto.

Leo had stopped running around like an idiot and had grabbed Tummy and was now trying to pull her off. Grinning at the sweet twist of justice, Malcolm approached him.

"Down girl," he commanded. Tummy let go of his neck, bit Leo's hand so he would drop her and she trotted over to Malcolm. "And now, Mr. Leo," Malcolm scooped up Tummy. "I bid you adieu." He turned his back on Leo and started to walk back to the others. "Here you go, Peter," Malcolm handed Tummy back to Peter. As Peter hugged her, Tummy enthusiastically licked his face.

Grant had gotten Quinto to his feet. "Okay, let's go," Grant announced. Scully reached for Peter's hands but he shied away. Then Scully realized her hands were covered with Quinto's blood.

Leo, holding his hands to his bleeding throat began to laugh, a sick, demented laugh. "You think you're going to leave this island alive?" he howled. "Think again! We're ALL dead!" He continued to laugh at the bitter irony. The key to life was still down in that cave and they were all going to die.

Malcolm put his hands on Peter's shoulders. "Wh- wh-what... ah... is he talking about?"

"Oh God," Grant looked at Quinto's injuries, the blood already seeping through the heavy cloth. "Sangre. Blood. They smell the blood. How could we have been so stupid?"

Scully looked down at her sanguine hands again. "The raptors..." she whispered. "Oh my God..."

Suddenly Peter giggled. "Look! No raptors!" he pointed at a lone, chicken-sized, lime green dinosaur, slipping out of the foliage. "Only little dinosaurs."

"Compys," Malcolm felt his throat go dry. "Ohhhhhhh.... shit..."

"What?" Scully looked confused. "He looks harmless." And kind of cute. About time, a cute dinosaur.

"Proscompidnids are scavengers. They eat the dead, the weak, the injured... there was an infestation in Costa Rica... they attacked a little girl... they secrete a serotonin... similar to cobra venom."

Scully looked down at her bloody hands again. She pulled out her gun again. So much for cute harmless dinosaurs.

"Well, still, it's just one..." she said, waiting for the catch.

And a hell of a catch it was. "They travel in packs," Grant muttered, looking up at the tree with the optical illusion of Janis Joplin's face in the trunk.

Scully looked up. "Great..." she sighed.

The tree was crawling with compys. Out of the foliage, more and more compys came out, bobbing their heads, snapping their little jaws, flexing their talons.

Leo just laughed again.

"The chaos factor," Malcolm muttered. "Times ten."

"Forget the chaos theory!" Scully yelled. "Start thinking up a miracle theory!"

"Um... already out there... it's called praying," Malcolm fired back at her. "And since you're the only one with religion, I highly suggest you test the hypothesis and start chatting with God."

As the compys approached, the video camera on a pole above them recorded every hair-raising moment. "Mulder, Scully's in trouble again!" Langly told him as he pounded away on the keys, sweating bullets now. He was so close... so close... "C'mon, c'mon..."

Mulder tore his eyes away from his computer console to check out the situation. "Oh damn," he groaned.

The lights flickered again. "FUCK!" Starkweather cursed. "MULDER! Dammit! Do your voodoo and get us out of here!!!!!!"

"Okay... cross your fingers kids..." Mulder crossed his arms, "Jeannie"-style and said "Booooinnnnnngggg," while bobbing his head as he opened the file.

"Sunny days, sweeping the clouds away, on my way to where the air is sweet... can you tell me how to get... how to get to Sesame Street?"

Starkweather and Doggett looked at each other. "We're fucked," Doggett announced.

"Is this where we confess our undying, star-crossed lurve for each other?" Starkweather said dryly

"Sure, why not."

"I love you more than my sweatsocks."

"Gee, thanks."

"Wrong file," Mulder droned.

"NO KIDDIN'!" Starkweather snapped at him.

"YES! I've got the satellite over-ridden!" Langly crowed.

"Starkweather, call Skinner!" Mulder barked.

As Starkweather pulled out Doggett's cell phone, Mulder whispered, positioning the mouse, "God, please make this work..."

He clicked opened the soundfile.

"What in the hell?" Skinner looked down at his cell phone. "I thought we didn't get any reception down here?" He unclicked his cell phone from his belt loop and answered. "Skinner?"

"Sir? It's me, listen, we are surrounded by those raptor things, do NOT go to the main bunker!"

"Agent Starkweather?"

"Is that Jerilyn?" Reyes asked. "Is she okay?"

"She's saying," Skinner told everyone. "To stay away from the main bunker. It's crawling with raptors."

"Where else are we supposed to go?" Rafael asked. "That's were most of the electronics equipment is! How are we supposed to get in touch with the authorities to get off this island?"

"What about my plane???" whined Isobel.

"The United States Government will compensate you for your loss," Skinner told Isobel gruffly. "What were you saying Agent Starkweather?"

Just then the entire island shook with the sound of the tyrannosaur’s roar. "Oh shit," Skinner said.

"No! Sir!" Starkweather paced back and forth in the control room as Langly was helping Doggett with the radio now and Mulder was back at the notebook computer, updating Byers, Officer Johnson and Manny. "It's okay... it's a recording."

"Are you trying to scare the raptors off with the sound of the T-Rex?" Skinner asked her.

"Um... no... we're trying to attract a T-Rex so he'll come and eat the raptors," she said lamely.

"And how," Skinner demanded, "are you going to get away from the T-Rex?"

"Details," mumbled Starkweather, watching the computer monitors. The raptors had paused in their activities, cocking their heads, listening, but not really running.

Scully and the others, on the other side, had much better luck. Upon the first roar through the speakers, all of the compys froze, then fled. "The roaring is coming from the speakers," Grant pointed up.

"Let's get out of here before the real thing shows up," Scully suggested.

"What about him?" Malcolm pointed at Leo.

Scully scowled at him. Leo just laughed again. "We're still all going to die," he told her pleasantly as he strolled towards her. He looked absolutely hideous, with his eyes blackened from Mulder punching him and his nose broken from Starkweather pistol-whipping him. Now his neck bled copiously. He looked like what he was. A monster.

"It's ironic," Scully said saccharine sweetly to him. "We've been calling the animals on this island the monsters. They are doing what nature dictates for them to do. To eat or be eaten. You, however, are the true monster, I think."

"Here, let me hand you your Nobel Peace Prize right now, Dr. Scully," Leo hissed at him. "Of course, you could secure that prestigious prize if you would be so willing to let my nephew go down that hold again and get-" he advanced on Peter.

Scully shot him in the shoulder. "BITCH!" he screamed. "You bitch!!"

"Sticks and stones, Mr. Leo," Scully said primly. "Sticks and stones."

"As much as we ALL enjoyed that," Grant said. "We can't have him bleeding all over the place. Mr. Ibarra here is right. The raptors will smell the blood."

Scully sighed. "I'm running out of clothes," she grumbled as she lifted her tank top off over her head and shredded it into bandages for the gun shot wound and for where Tummy had bit him. Grant, Malcolm and Leo all stared at her, jaws dropping open. "What???" she asked testily as she administered to Leo's wounds in just her boots, shorts and bra.

Leo, of course, had to try to save face. "I knew they weren't real," he scoffed, checking out Scully's push-up bra.

She tightened the bandages uncomfortably tight. "I'm sorry," she said angelically when he yelped. "Did that hurt?"

"Never insult a woman's ya-yas," Malcolm sagely advised Leo.

Scully pulled her gun out again. "Walk forward, eyes ahead, good hand on head, no looking back. Got it?"

"Got it," Leo sighed as he complied. He was just going along with things until they got back to the bunker where he could see Lilly one last time before they all died.

"Isn't Miss Scully gonna get sunburned without her shirt?" Peter asked innocently, walking beside Malcolm. Grant and the injured Quinto brought up the rear.

"Sunburn is the least of Miss Scully's worries," Malcolm said dryly.

"Mr. Malcolm... what's a ya-ya?"

"Never mind."

"But-"

"You'll find out when you're older."




 

Meanwhile

"Scully and the others are coming back this way!" Starkweather cried out. "Sir, we need you to head Scully and the others off so they don't come here with the raptors all over the place!"

"Head Scully off? She's not with you?"

"She... oh, long story, I'll tell you later, but she must NOT come here." The lights flickered again. "Shit."

"What is it Agent Starkweather?"

"We're losing power. Right now, all the doors and floors are electrified. That's the only thing keeping those fuckers, sorry sir, keeping those things out of here. But..."

All of a sudden there was a hiss of static. "Thank God! Radio's up!" Langly crowed. He started fiddling with the dial. "Come on, come on... we've got frequency... dammit..."

"Mul-duh!" Doggett called over to Mulder, sitting at Langly's notebook computer. "Ask Byers to get the damn Puerto Rican base coordinates!"

Mulder typed the message to Byers. Byers IM'ed him back: "Already ahead of you. Try 88.4" as he spoke to Frohike on the phone "They've got the radio up, they're going to try and radio in a mayday to the United States Air Force Base on Puerto Rico.

"SPEAK UP!" Frohike yelled as he sprinted after Benjamin Starkweather. They were on top of the roof of the American Embassy in Mexico, where a helicopter was waiting for them.

"THEY'RE TRYING TO GET A MAYDAY TO THE PUERTO RICAN USAFB! WHERE ARE YOU?"

"THE EMBASSY'S HELIOCOPTERING US TO THE PUERTO RICAN BASE!" Frohike yelled back into the phone, over the noise the chopper's spinning blades. "THEY'RE COORDINATING AN AIR-AND-SEA RESCUE WITH THE COAST GUARD!"

"THEY'RE HELIOCOPTERING YOU????" Byers asked. "HOW IN THE WORLD DID YOU PULL **THAT** OFF???"

"DON'T ASK!!" Frohike yelled back, looking over his shoulder.

The Man-Hands Troll simpered and waved at him, blowing him kisses.

Frohike shuddered. He hoped that the trip would end in Puerto Rico.




 

Meanwhile…

"Mayday, Mayday," Langly nasalled.

Starkweather, consulting the map and the computer monitors, directed Skinner where to go. "Make sure Scully and the rest DO NOT come here! I don't think my idea worked."

"Maybe I should have continued to play Celine Dion," Mulder deadpanned, looking up from the computer console. "And just scared them away."

"Yeah, and I would have had to commit suicide," Langly countered. "Mayday, mayday... anybody out there? Over..."

Skinner, with his cell phone still pressed to his ear, lead the others through the jungle foliage. Reyes informed him that she could run on her own, she wasn't THAT sick.

However, Skinner said he wasn't taking any chances and so ordered Rafael to carry her, piggy-back. "This is humiliating," Reyes grumbled.

The island shook with another volcanic blast. "Jesus, it's gonna get hotter here yet," Skinner muttered, pushing through vines and leaves.

Just ahead of them, he heard voices. "Did you hear something?"

"I thought I did..."

"AGENT SCULLY!!" Skinner yelled out, pushing through the greenery faster now. "AGENT SCULLY, STAY WHERE YOU ARE!!"

"That's my boss," Scully said, surprised. "SIR? WHERE ARE YOU?"

Skinner appeared in the trees, followed by a girl Scully didn't recognize, a man in a "Jurassic Park" security uniform with Agent Reyes on his back. "Reyes, are you alright?"

"She's sick, look," Skinner wasted no time on pleasantries.

"Starkweather called me, she said that the main console building is crawling with raptors."

"Oh my God, we just about strolled right into that," Grant groaned.

"They are working on figuring out where to go so that the boys from the Air Force can come get us off this rock."

"Where do we go from here then?" Malcolm asked. "I don't feel like standing her and being raptor-bait."

"I wanna go home," Peter whined.

Skinner looked down at the source of the piping voice. "You must be Peter Sedai," he said warmly to the lad. "Your mother and father will be very happy to see you when we get you home."

"Really!?!? They're not gonna be mad at me?"

Skinner glared at the mangled face of Justin Leo. "It was hardly your fault, Peter." Skinner inched in closer to Leo.

"You stupid son-of-a-bitch, what in the hell were you trying to pull off here?"

"Sir?" Starkweather's voice cut in. "As much fun as you're having with Psycho-Boy there, we've got the coordinates of where to wait for the calvary."

"You guys gonna get out of there in time?" The tinny voice of an Air Force pilot asked Langly and Doggett over the radio.

The lights flickered again. "God I hope so," Doggett said weakly as Starkweather gave directions over the phone to Skinner.

"Okay," Skinner said into the phone to Starkweather. "I've got the directions, follow me." He glanced down at Scully and finally noticed the obvious. "Dana... uh..." Skinner flushed a bright pink. "What in the hell happened to your shirt?"

"I'll explain later," Scully muttered darkly.

"They're heading towards the rendezvous," Langly reported with a sigh of relief, checking out the monitor. "Hey... Scully's just wearing her bra!"

"WHAT?" Mulder squawked as he and Doggett bolted up and rushed over to the computer consoles.

"Damn, Mulder's she's hot!" Langly drooled.

"I always said you were a lucky man," Doggett drawled.

"I know," Mulder preened.

"She's wearing a push-up bra," Starkweather told them.

"SO?" the men responded.

"Jesus, typical males," she grumbled.

"What're s'pposed to say?" Doggett asked. "What a great mind she has?"

Just then, all the monitors went completely blank.

"Aw, there went your Playboy Channel," Starkweather purred.

"Hey, what'n the hell is THIS?" Doggett snapped.

All the lights went out now. "Oh."

Then they looked at each other. "Oh shit," Langly gulped.

The quartet looked up. Saw the raptors smacking their jaws together before proceeding to chew on the bars of the skylight.

"Now what?" Starkweather asked.

"Lunch is served," Mulder said weakly.

Doggett felt a small hand slip into his. "That better not be you Langly," he tried to joke as he interlocked his fingers with hers.




 

Meanwhile
Ben and Jerilyn's apartment

"What happened?" Officer Beth Johnson asked as Byers tapped uselessly on the keyboard.

"I don't know," Byers said. "The connection was lost. Mulder was booted from the system."

"Or eaten," Manny turned pale.

"Let's not get negative," Byers said, picking up the phone.

"Frohike, you there?"

"Yeah," Frohike said, looking out the window, watching the earth and the ocean skim by him below as he and Ben were being transported to Puerto Rico. "Talk fast, my battery is dying."

"MY battery!" Ben corrected him. "MY phone. MY minutes."

"Blow me, Perry Mason," Frohike snapped at him. "What's going on?"

"We lost the connection to Mulder in the bunker. I think they're running out of time."

"No shit," Frohike muttered. "Byers... there's nothing more you can do from there. You did what you could. The calvary's on the way."

"The calvary needs to hurry. Mulder said they were surrounded by raptors and they were losing power."

Frohike closed his eyes. "Ya did what you could," he said to his friend, feeling ill, hanging up on him.

"What was that?" Ben noticed that the funny little man had turned a sick shade of gray.

Over his big glasses, Frohike looked up at Ben. Opened his mouth to say something, then changed his mind. He leaned over and yelled to the pilot "Can't you make this bird go faster???"

"We're almost there," the helicopter pilot yelled back at him.

Frohike leaned back into his seat.

"What is it?" Ben demanded.

"We're too late," he finally said, bluntly. "For Mulder and your wife anyway."

Ben stared at Frohike, mouth hanging open. "No," he finally said. "No... no. I refuse to believe that. You said so yourself. Mulder has more lives than a damn cat. And Jerilyn... uh-uh," Ben was deep in denial. "I don't believe we're too late. We're going to get them out," he said, determined and grim.

"I hope you're right," Frohike said bleakly, thinking of Langly.




 

Meanwhile...
The Main Bunker at La Luna Blanca

The two raptors chewing on the metal bars on the skylight were working quickly. Mulder looked over his shoulders at the door and said harshly to Langly. "Help me," as he ran over to shove a heavy filing cabinet against it.

As Langly helped Mulder barricade the door, Starkweather said "What good is that going to do? That won't keep them out forever."

"It's better than nothing. And it'll buy us some time."

Starkweather wanted to argue with him that time was up, that they were in checkmate. But her natural instinct to survive coupled with her inborn stubbornness stilled her tongue. She looked up at the skylight again. <<Come on, girl, think. Get it together, there's GOT to be a way out of this...>> she racked her brain.

Mulder looked up, looked down, then said "Ah-ha," he grabbed Jerilyn by the arm and dragged her towards a very small looking closet. Actually, it turned out to be a very very small bathroom. "Stay," he said cheerfully as he shoved her inside and slammed the door in her face, locking it from the outside.

"MULDER!!!" she shrieked. "GOD DAMMIT, YOU LET ME OUT RIGHT NOW YOU SON-OF-A-BITCH!!!! DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE KEEP ME IN HERE LIKE A WEAK-ASSED DAMSEL IN DISTRESS!!!!!"

Meanwhile, in another part of the jungle, Skinner jerked the phone away from his ear. "Ow," he muttered.

"Problems sir?" Scully asked as she ran beside him, pointing her gun at Leo's back the entire time.

Skinner tried not to look down at Scully's cleavage.

"Starkweather is just having a discussion with Mulder is all," he said mildly, not really too concerned. The man HAD to be part cat, what with all the lives he had.

Back at the bunker, the discussion between Mulder and Starkweather progressed. "You're right," Mulder said thoughtfully, looking up at the skylight again, then looking down at Doggett.

"Oh no," he protested. "Mul-duh, don't you even think about it."

"Think about what?" Mulder said innocently as he slapped Doggett companionably on the arm that Leo shot.

"OW!" Doggett yelped, his knees buckling.

"Thought so," Mulder grinned as he hauled Doggett towards the bathroom door with Langly unlocked and threw open.

"In you go, Dogbert," Langly said cheerfully as Mulder pushed Doggett into Starkweather's surprised arms.

Slamming the door shut again, Mulder said as Langly relocked it. "There, Jerilyn. Now you're locked in like a weak-assed damsel in distress with a cripple."

"Fuck you, Mulder," came Doggett's weak reply.

"John, Jeri," Mulder said seriously, looking up at the skylight again. "Don't be stupid. You two have Doggett's cell phone. You're still in connection with Skinner. As long as you stay quiet, the Air Force can come find you," Mulder started to barricade them inside the bathroom with another filing cabinet.

"It's hot in here!!!" Starkweather complained.

"Drink from the toilet," came Mulder's unsympathetic reply.

"Whattabout Langly?" Doggett gasped. "Gonna let him be eaten?"

Langly gave Mulder the deer-in-the-headlights look, which wasn't easy for him to do with his thick black glasses.

"Whattabout me?" he whimpered. "Can I go in there with them?" he pointed at the bathroom door.

"Langly," Mulder purred, "I didn't know you were into threesomes." He patted on the bathroom door. "Play nice, kids."

"Fuck you Mulder," Starkweather and Doggett snapped in unison.

In the dark, airless bathroom, Starkweather leaned against the door. "He's not going to let us out, I don't believe this," she pushed sweat-soaked strands off her sticky face. "The cocksucker's actually going to keep us in here..."

"I HEARD that," Mulder said in a sing-song voice.

Fumbling around in the darkness, Doggett found the sink and tried to turn the taps on. "Dammit," he grunted, clenching the sink with both of his hands, trying to fight another wave of nausea and vertigo.

"Doggett, sit down," the doctor said sternly. "You won't do anyone any good if you faint again."

Doggett leaned back and carefully eased himself down to the floor. "We can't," he rasped, "just let them be bait."

"Apparently we don't have a choice," she fumed, sliding down the door, sitting next to her partner in the dark. "Scully is going to kill me for letting him be heroic..."

"... and stupid," Doggett finished her sentence. "Runs in the family."

"Kiss my ass," she grumbled.

Doggett heard her suddenly inhale sharply, quickly. He was slightly unnerved when he realized he knew her well enough that based on the slightest sound, he could determine what facial expression she was affecting. Her eyes probably widened as her eyebrows probably raised up high while her mouth opened just slightly. Then she would snap her mouth shut and narrow her eyes slightly just before saying something she just realized.

"Mulder isn't stupid. There's plenty of other unflattering adjectives we CAN call him and they would fit him nicely, but stupid is not one of them. He's got something up his sleeve. Something that we'd be in the way of but he needed Langly for."

"Computers... but there's no juice on this island."

"Right and wrong..."

"Huh?"

"The computer system. The main generator was shot, but which one? I can't hardly imagine ONE generator powering the ENTIRE park. I mean, one metropolitan hospital has two, even three generators PLUS a back up and that's ONE building. Surely this place has-"

"More'n one generator."

"Langly's notebook computer," Starkweather desperately tried to remember. "He said the battery was dead. But, maybe... if there's another battery HERE, in the main compound-"

"Langly could power up."

"And hack into the mainframe."

"Run the show from there."

"God, I hope I'm right."

"God, I hope this works," Langly said to Mulder as he typed frantically on his little notebook computer. Luck was finally on their side for one and the right battery was found for Langly's computer. He got back into the system's mainframe easy enough and discovered what Mulder guessed first and what Starkweather just figured out. Although the main power generator was gone, there were several other auxiliary generators out on the island. Langly was trying to map power from one generator over to the computer bunker so they could reactivate the security defenses.

"Hurry," Mulder looked up as one raptor bit through a metal bar triumphantly. She still couldn't squeeze though the bars, but she was getting closer. She could poke her head through. She hissed down at Mulder and Langly.

"I'm going as fast as I can," Langly muttered. Then yelped out. "Shit! Shit, shit, shit! The mainframe's corrupted..."

"What?" Mulder felt his stomach drop into his hiking boots.

"A virus was detonated. Probably because they were finally busted. Byers was able to download a buttload of crap to give to the FBI but someone in the know must have gotten a headsup because system files are being deleted... destroying evidence." Langly typed faster. "It's locking up Mulder..."

"Don't say that, Langly," Mulder licked his lips and locked up again. Then he looked at his friend. "I'm sorry," he said simply, sincerely.

"It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings," Langly said stubbornly, still typing. "And this ain't your fault..." he muttered even though his computer screen blinked at him, telling him that 'a fatal error had been committed.' "I mean," he jerked his head towards the barricaded bathroom. "THEY'RE okay, aren't they?"

"Should be," Mulder hoped devoutly that they would be. If the raptors DID make their way inside, hopefully Doggett would find a way to shut her mouth so her bitching wouldn't give them away. The filing cabinet WAS heavy, but God, those raptors were so strong... "Langly, maybe you should find a place to squeeze your skinny ass into so that you aren't mistaken for a tasty snack," Mulder suggested.

Langly shook his head. "Mulder, you're gonna need me to explain to Saint Peter why he should let you in."

"What makes you think he wouldn't?"

"Why else would they have sent you back into the world of the living?"

"Hardy-har," Mulder mumbled but he clamped on companionable hand on Langly's bony shoulder.

Langly's computer screen went blank. Both Mulder and Langly looked up.

The entire building shook with a violent roar.

"That's not a raptor..." Starkweather whispered to Doggett.

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Doggett whispered back.

The raptors turned and squealed briefly just as the Tyrannosaurus Rex opened her wide black jaws and swallowed them whole.

Then she glared at Mulder and Langly.

"Out of the frying pan..." Mulder started.

"... into the grease fire," Langly finished.

The T-Rex swung her giant alligator-like head away from the skylight. The smaller raptors circled her, snarling. One screeched at her and attacked her, sinking her teeth into the tyrannosaur’s thickly muscled calf, tearing at her leathery flesh with evil hooked claws.

The T-Rex was not amused. She bowed her head and let loose an ear-splitting roar of rage. The glass of the skylight shattered. Mulder and Langly bolted as chunks of glass rained down. "Help me," Mulder said, grunting as he pushed against the heavy filing cabinet that was blockading Doggett and Starkweather in the small bathroom.

Starkweather heard Mulder and Langly pushing the cabinet away from the door. "Papa John, get up," she groped in the dark for him. When her hand grazed his face, she left it there for a minute. "They're letting us out."

"Nice of 'em," Doggett muttered, struggling to his feet.

The door swung open. Mulder stood in front of her. "Come on Jerilyn, it's time to go- OW!" he hopped away from his sister after she kicked him in the shin.

"NEVER treat me like a weak-assed damsel in distress again," she snapped at him, storming out of the bathroom with Doggett stumbling behind her.

"Duly noted," Mulder glared at her. "Next time, I'll leave you to be eaten," he snapped as he and Langly pushed the filing cabinet away from the main door.

Cautiously, Mulder and Langly poked their heads out. "What's the plan?" Doggett asked, leaning against a table. His head spun.

"Run like hell to the rendezvous," Mulder droned.

"That's it?" Langly was used to more complicated Mulder-plans.

"Short, sweet and to the point," Starkweather grumbled.

"Let's go," Mulder said.

"Come on Doggett," Starkweather beckoned her partner. "Only a little more to go."

Doggett followed them out the door, through the hall and down the stairs.

Mulder waved at them to stay put for a second. Stealthily, he crept towards the main entrance and peeked through the broken glass.

Doggett weaved a little, closing his eyes. He felt nauseous. His arm hurt like hell. With his good hand, he gripped the banister to right himself. He felt like he was suffering from the world's worst hangover. Starkweather put her arms around his waist again. "Just a little further, Papa John," she begged him.

Jealously, Langly muttered, "Wish I'da been shot."

While Langly pouted, Mulder watched the T-Rex make fast work of the quick little raptors. It was very similar to watching a fat lazy cat eyeing vicious little rats, scampering about. However, one snap of the jaws, the rats were no more.

"Come on!" Mulder hissed over to the trio huddled by the stairs. Starkweather let go of Doggett's torso and grabbed his grimy hand. Langly was about to complain but then she grabbed his hand as well.

"We're off to see the Wizard," she sang softly as she lead her friends to her brother. "The wonderful Wizard of Oz."

"Remember," Mulder said seriously. "Just follow me and run like hell."

Starkweather looked nervously up at Doggett.

"I'm gonna be fine, Doc," he said wearily. "Only a little more to go, right?" he forced a smile for her sake.

"Let's get the hell out of here," Starkweather said, raising her head. "I want to go home. I want to take a shower and see my cat."

If anyone thought it was strange that she said she wanted to see her cat but not her husband, nobody remarked on it.

They all just crept out of the bunker, scurrying around the corner as the T-Rex dealt with the remaining raptors.

The quartet ran down the trail towards the rendezvous. Starkweather pulled Doggett's cell phone out of her pocket. "Sir? Are you still there??"

Skinner took the phone off of his belt clip and put it to his ear. "Hello?"

"Sir? It's me," Starkweather gasped as she ran with the others. "Where are you?"

"We're at the rendezvous," Skinner said, surveying the area. It was a nice spacious cliff, a perfect scenic view of everything, the roaring ocean below, the floating clouds above. Which were now being obscured by the black plumes from the belching volcano. The tropical trees waved in the breeze. There were brightly colored flowers everywhere. It should have been a romantic touristy spot to visit. Not a place where an Air Force Blackhawk helicopter was coming to rescue a sorry lot of FBI agents, security guards, a batty mathematician, a solemn paleontologist, a Deputy Mayor, a little kid, a cropduster and a weasel of a man. And a puppy. He sighed. This has been a hell of a trip. He put his hands to his eyes, watching a black speck on the horizon, getting closer by the minute. "I think I see the cavalry coming."

"Don't leave without us sir," Starkweather instructed him. "We're on our way. All four of us."

"Wouldn't dream of it, Agent Starkweather," Skinner said. He walked over to Scully, who was still pointing her gun at Leo. "Starkweather and the others are on their way."

"Thank God," Scully said, her icy blue eyes never leaving Leo's face.

Leo just grinned his weird little grin.

Grant and Isobel were caring for the wounded Quinto. "Agent Scully," Isobel whimpered. "Quinto's losing a lot of blood."

"Hold on Quinto," Scully said encouragingly, still not taking her eyes off of Leo. "Help is on the way."

Malcolm had led Peter off, away from all the blood and gore and was talking to him quietly, trying to distract the boy.

But it wasn't working. "How come she shot my uncle," Peter was distressed at Miss Scully's actions. "Only bad people use guns."

"No Peter, she's a federal agent. They use guns to protect people. She thought that your uncle was going to try and put you back in that hole again. She just wanted to stop him. She didn't mean to hurt him." That wasn't entirely true, but Malcolm had to have the boy regain his trust for Scully. "When the others come back," he sighed as Peter cuddled the little moppett of a dog, "they'll be able to explain it better than I can," he sighed.

"I wanna go home," Peter whimpered finally. "I want my mom."

"I know, I know," Malcolm was quick to reassure the boy. He pointed towards the sky. "See that? That helicopter’s coming for us to get us off this island."

"Really?" Peter brightened. "I'm gonna get to go home."

"Of COURSE you're going home," Malcolm hoped he sounded more resolute than he felt. They were still on this God-forsaken rock. The helicopter was still far away. So many things could still go wrong. "I mean... well... ah, Peter, that's what we promised you. That we would take you home." Then, inspired, he burst out. "That's why Miss Scully shot your uncle. She was afraid that if he put you in that hole, we wouldn't be able to get you home. She was just keeping her promise to you."

Peter petted Tummy. "We're not gonna leave without Mr. Fox an' Mr. John and Mrs. Jeri and that funny guy with the long hair and big glasses, are we?"

"No," Malcolm shook his head, patting Peter on the shoulder. "We're not leaving anyone behind."

Although he wouldn't cry if they accidentally left Leo behind to be a tasty snack for the random raptor wandering around on this island.

He glanced at the menacing volcano and realized that there wasn't going to BE any island left to wander around on. For anyone.

<<Hurry up>> he silently begged both the helicopter and for the four stragglers.

Starkweather turned her head, noticing that Doggett was lagging behind. "Papa John, c'mon," she paused, reaching out her hand.

He grasped it like a lifeline. "You're s'ppose to run like hell and not look back," he scolded her. He was coated in a cold sweat. The wound was weeping again.

She gave his hand a little jerk and together they sprinted to catch up to Mulder and Langly. "Since when I do ever listen to Mulder?"

Mulder missed the jibe. "Not much further!" he yelled at his companions. "Only a few more-"

 

Out of the foliage, a velcioraptor with bluish-gray scales leapt out, blocking the trail. Obviously a juvenile, it was a good foot shorter than Mulder. But still lethal, still equipped with thick, hooked claws and pointed teeth.

"Fuck," Mulder said, walking backwards, spreading out his arms, as if he alone could protect his sister and friends.

Bobbing his head like a bantam rooster, the raptor slowly advanced on the poor Homo sapiens who just happened to be in the way.

"This is gonna suck," Langly whimpered.

"Understatement much," Starkweather muttered.

The raptor lashed out, swiping it's horrible claws at Mulder. Mulder dodged the swipe as he and the others continued to backpedal quickly, the claws missing his face by inches.

"It's playing with us," Starkweather mumbled, completely surrounded by three very tall, very protective men.

"No shit, really?" Mulder snapped, dodging another swipe. "You guys, run. Get out of here."

"Mulder..." Starkweather started to say.

"I mean it," Mulder ducked his head again as the playful raptor tried for another blow. "Get the hell out of here."

Langly quavered, "Scully'll kick our ass."

"She'll get over it," Mulder yelled. "Go! While it's distracted!"

The raptor suddenly stopped playing. It sniffed the air, then stretched out it's long neck and stood on it's tiptoes. It growled menacingly.

"What the hell?" Doggett muttered.

Starkweather looked over her shoulder. "Uh boy..."

"Do I even want to know?" Mulder's shoulders slumped in resignation.

"The cat came back, shoulda been a goner," Starkweather sang in a trembling voice.

Mulder, Doggett and Langly peered over their shoulders.

"Holy fuckin' shee-yet," Doggett murmured, looking at the massive saber-tooth tiger with a snow-white coat, standing behind them on the path.

"This can't be good," Starkweather muttered.

The saber-tooth tiger rumbled threateningly. The young raptor responded with an ear-piercing shriek.

"When good genetically altered pets go bad," Mulder droned.

"I can't believe I'm gonna die listenin' to you make bad jokes," Doggett grumbled.

Suddenly the raptor squealed again, but this time in pain. Mulder, Starkweather, Doggett and Langly whipped their heads around.

Another saber-tooth tiger, the female that Langly and Starkweather had seen with the fuzzy little cubs, had pounced on the raptor from a tree branch. She was busy gnawing the young raptor's neck off.

The male saber-tooth continued to stand perfectly still behind the humans, his cold blue eyes surveying them dispassionately. The humans acted like deer caught in headlights. Finally, the saber-tooth tiger cocked his head as if to say "Well? What are you waiting for? Get out of here" as the female quickly drug the dying raptor off the trail. Starkweather could hear the mewling of the cubs nearby.

So could Mulder. "Gives all new meaning to fast food, doesn't it," Mulder said dryly as he slowly began to back away from the tiger.

When the foursome felt they had slowly walked backwards away from the tiger far enough, they whirled around and bolted.

The male never moved.





A few minutes later…

Everyone jumped when they heard the rustling from the trees. Scully had to force herself to keep the gun pointed at Leo.

"Scul-lay!!!"

"Mulder!" Scully yelled in relief. "Over here!"

Mulder burst out of the foliage, followed by Langly, Starkweather and a very pale Doggett.

Peter grinned and made a beeline for them. "Mr. Fox! Mr. Fox!" he cried out, carrying Tummy.

Mulder crouched down to the boy's level. "Hey, Peter."

"Look!" Peter proudly held Tummy up just a bit. "I found her!"

"Hey there pretty lady," Mulder crooned to his puppy as Tummy licked his big nose. "Did Peter take good care of you?"

"I did the best I could," Peter boasted, but then he looked over and saw that Starkweather was helping Doggett sit down. Lip trembling at the sight of more blood, he quavered. "What happened to Mr. John?"

"He got hurt," Mulder spared the boy anymore misery. Although Mulder firmly believed that the Truth should never be hidden, he didn't see the harm of delaying it for a little while in Peter's case. The poor kid had been through enough. Later, when he wasn't so traumatized, he would tell him that Leo caused Doggett's injuries. Later, when they were in a nice, safe place off this damn Land of the Lost. "But Jeri is taking good care of him. She's a doctor."

"What happened to him?" Starkweather asked Scully, pointing at Quinto.

"Same thing that happened to him," Rafael replied, jerking his head at Leo.

Starkweather's eyes narrowed to slits. "I can't wait to testify at your trial, Leo," she snarled.

Doggett raised his head a little, saw Reyes sitting on the ground not too far away from him. "Hey Mon," he said weakly. "What're you doin' here?"

"Been asking myself that question ever since I came here," she joked feebly as she shivered in the oppressing tropical heat.

"You look like shit."

"Isn't he just the sweet-talker?" Starkweather drawled. "And he wonders why he's single."

The sound of the massive chopper drew nearer. "Move, everyone," Skinner barked at them all. "Make room for them to land."

"This way, Leo," Scully waved her gun at him.

Leo obediently raised his hands and walked forward as the healthy helped the injured and sick move to a safer place.

"Leo, that's enough," Scully ordered him. Leo kept walking, towards the edge of the cliff. "Justin Leo, god damn it, stop right there!"

Leo turned around. The same crazed grin was on his face. Nothing on this mission had gone right. He didn't get the computer disk that had the cure for all diseases out of the cave. And he didn't save Lily again. In fact, it looked like she hated him even more.

But at least that bitch Andrea Nowark was dead. That was an unexpected bonus.

He blew Lily a kiss. He quoted John Keats to her.

"What the imagination seizes as beauty must be truth."

He jumped.

Starkweather, Mulder and Scully ran to the edge of the cliff, looking down. There was no sign of him anywhere. Just cresting waves crashing down on jagged stones below.

"I hate him," Starkweather whined.

"Think he's dead?" Scully asked Mulder.

Mulder snorted. "We couldn't get that lucky." He then mischievously grinned at he eyeballed her lacy bra, the dark color of the fabric contrasting nicely with her pale skin. "And speaking of getting lucky..." he raised his eyebrows, admiring the cleavage.

After getting into a catfight with Nowark, being drugged at the bar, rained on, slobbered on, threatened with a gun, kidnapped, nearly drowned, sunburned, scraped up, cut up and then becoming half-naked, her patience was gone. Scully was done.

"Fuck off, Mulder," she snapped, stalking away from him.

"Why does everyone say **I** have the potty mouth?" Starkweather said wonderingly as Mulder pouted.

Nobody got a chance to answer Starkweather's query for the helicopter was in plain sight now, coming closer and closer to the island. "Thank God," Reyes mumbled. "Land that think and get us the hell out of here."

The enormous military helicopter now hovered above them.

"ATTENTION PLEASE!" a crisp voice boomed from the helicopter’s speakers. "DUE TO UNCONTROLLABLE ACTS OF NATURE, WE CAN NOT LAND HERE."

"I knew that was going to be too easy," Starkweather muttered, looking over her shoulder, watching uneasily the volcano steaming, sending up small balls of flame now.

Ropes dropped down. Airmen slid down. "LOWER THE BASKET!" one of the airmen cried out. "OKAY!" he addressed the bedraggled crowd as slowly, an oblong basket was lowered down to the ground from the chopper. "THIS IS HOW IT'S GOING TO WORK. CHILDREN FIRST-"

"Mulder, that's you," Starkweather mumbled to her brother.

Mulder glared at her, still wounded from Scully's lack of humor.

"THEN THE INJURED, THEN THE REST OF YOU." The airmen strode over to Peter and knelt down. "Hi," he said in a friendly voice. "My name is Airman Crowe. We're here to get you home."

Peter took one look at the basket that he was supposed to get in and recoiled. "NO!!" he whimpered.

"Scully," Skinner said. "You can ride up with Peter. Would you like that Peter?" Skinner said hopefully.

Peter's eyes filled with tears. He was so overwhelmed. "I dunno..."

"Mulder," Starkweather snapped at him. "Give Scully your shirt so Peter doesn't feel so weird."

Mulder peeled off his sweat-soaked T-shirt and handed it to Scully. She crinkled her nose in disgust at the order, but then again, she didn't exactly smell very good either.

Pulling the enormous shirt over her head, she hurried to the boy and said, "Peter, I promised that I would get you home. This is the last step, I promise."

"Young man," Airman Crowe told the boy authoritatively. "Your parents are coming for you as we speak."

"Really??" Tears splashed down his dirty cheeks now. "Both of 'em? My dad too?" He clutched Tummy tighter. She licked his face.

"Aww," Reyes and Isobel whimpered, trying not to cry. Even cold-hearted, child-hater Starkweather had to swallow a lump of emotion back down her throat.

"Peter, let's go," Scully held out her hand. Peter, still clasping Tummy, took her hand and walked with her to the basket.

"Atta boy Pete," Malcolm cheered the boy on. Grant just smiled, marveling in the wondrous mystery of children

Scully got in first. She looked up and exhaled a nervous breath as Peter and Tummy sat in her lap. She held Peter to her with one arm nervously as her other hand gripped the chain.

Airman Crowe gave the signal and with a jerk, the basket rose heavenwards. Scully squeezed her eyes tightly shut. She hated heights. Mulder, however, watched nervously below.

Starkweather, in a gentler voice than normal, said while touched Mulder's arm. "She'll be fine." She pointed. "Look, see? She and the kid and your damn dog are already inside."

Weak-kneed with relief, Scully allowed the airmen shepherd her to a corner of the rescue chopper. Peter, forgiving her for shooting his bad uncle, threw his arms around her neck and hugged her tightly. Scully, thinking of her mother and her son back home, squeezed the child back just as tight.

She couldn't believe it was almost over.

The airmen worked quickly and efficiently. Soon, the only ones left to be taken up into the helicopter were Starkweather and Doggett.

Doggett stubbornly refused to go up until everyone else was safely up there. "It's not that bad!" he rasped at them when Airman Crow insisted that Doggett be transported up before Reyes. "She's sick. I'm fine."

Which of course, had Starkweather up in arms instantly.

"The HELL you are fine, your arm is getting ready to drop off from gangrene, you stupid rednecked mother-"

"Doc," his eyes were glassy with fever. "Really. I'll survive a few more minutes," he rolled his head to see Mulder being equipped with a harness. Only the injured were getting the honor of the rescue basket.

"Careful with the Hank and the Twins please," Mulder had scolded the young man buckling him in.

Starkweather had rolled her eyes in disgust. "Jesus, Mulder." She then had looked down at her prostrate partner. "You are a stubborn jackass." With a pout she plunked down besides him.

"Now, hold on Doc-"

"Oh, shut the hell up," she bit his head off. "If you're going to be stupid and wait, then I'm going to be stupid and wait with you. That whole 'I've got your back' kind of thing," she had grumbled. "Reyes, I don't fucking feel like arguing with him anymore. You're up next."

So, Reyes had gotten into the rescue basket and sat down, both hands gripping the chains. With a jerk, she was whooshed up into the air. She gasped and concentrated on not throwing up. She felt the basket swinging slightly. She shut her eyes.

Something buzzed by her, hitting the side of the basket. Her eyes popped out just in time to see a pterodactyl take a nosedive into the ocean after ramming right into the side of the rescue basket.

"Jesus, what the hell???" the rescue pilot yelled. "What the hell was that???"

Another pterodactyl, after seeing his mate plummet into the ocean, howled horrifically and flew straight towards Reyes, attacking the basket dangling precariously halfway between heaven and sea. He swooped by with his claws extended, missing Reyes by inches but causing the basket to swing erratically. Reyes felt herself sliding. She grabbed the bars of the basket for dear life.

"PULL HER UP! PULL HER UP!" Grant screamed at the gawping airmen inside helicopter. "She hasn't a chance out there!"

From the ground, the three remaining looked up at the sound of the shouts and screams. "Oh my God, Doggett moaned. "Monica..."

Airman Crowe looked over his shoulder. "Holy fuck..." He turned around, quickly unstrapping his harness and started to put it on Doggett as a raptor slinked out of hiding and stood there in their presence. He looked to be more dragon than dinosaur, with his rusty red scales and bloodshot eyes. He curled his black lips, showing off hundreds of yellowed teeth.

"Oh holy God..." Starkweather felt her mouth go dry.

"There's no time," he yelled at him, pushing Starkweather into Doggett's arms. "Hold on to him tight." He pulled on the bungee cord as Doggett's good arm encircled her tiny waist.

"No! Wait!" Starkweather cried, but the signal was already given. Doggett and Starkweather were jerked up into the air just as two female raptors ambushed the valiant Airman Crowe while the haughty male watched. The airman's screams were the stuff of nightmares for everyone for years to come. The helicopter moved away from the island and headed towards open sea.

Doggett could feel Starkweather slipping. "God, Doc, please hold on," he begged her, grabbing her shirt in his hand as well.

Her tiny hands clung to the harness itself. She looked up. "Why aren't they pulling us up any highe-" she squealed as the recently widowed pterodactyl dived at them. One of the claws hooked Starkweather and slashed down her back.

"GODDAMMIT!!!" she swore in agony, barely hanging on now. Doggett felt her blood drip down his arms and hands.

"Get out of here!" he tried to kick it away, but that only encouraged it to swoop back up towards Monica. Who at this time had pulled out her Sig Sauer. The woman who was crying during "Bambi" earlier this week was ready to blow one of God's Creatures back to Kingdom Come. Too bad the vicious pterodactyl slammed into the basket again, causing it to capsize. Monica dropped her gun as she grabbed hold of the chains. She tried to pull herself back inside the basket, but the flu had taken too much out of her. She only had adrenaline left enough to just hold on as tight as she could.

"There's too much weight down there, we can't pull them up!" the airman in the helicopter yelled.

"You BETTER pull them up," Skinner got in the man's face.

"We are NOT leaving ANYONE behind!" Grant also joined the argument. "We've bloody been through enough to lose anyone now!!"

"Miss Scully," Peter whimpered.

Scully wrapped her arms around Peter. "Shh shh now," she whispered. "It'll be okay," she tried to soothe him despite the ruckus on board.

"I'll be damned if I allow for them to hang like that, no pun intended," Mulder growled at the airmen.

"Look, it's not like we're not trying!" the airman yelled back. "But look at the cords already!!"

Starkweather also observed the straining cords. "They can't pull us up," she muttered. "We're too heavy."

"Bullshit. There were pulling us up just fine a minute ago."

"They were pulling us up by twos. Not threes." Starkweather looked down at the angry ocean below. "Doggett, let me go."

"What???" Doggett glared down at her. "Uh-uh, no way."

"Dammit, don't argue with me. The cords are getting ready to snap anyway. It's either my way or the high way." When he obstinately refused, she snapped. "Fine. Have it your way," and she balled up her little hand into a fist and slugged him right where Leo shot him.

"OW!!" Doggett cried out. She felt him loosen his grip. "Got-dammit, Doc, don't you fucking dare-"

She hit him again. He lost his hold on her.

Feet first she plunged into the sea.

And the airmen were able to pull Doggett and Reyes up into the helicopter.

An Olympic judge would have given Starkweather the lowest score possible for her pathetic high dive into the blue water.

Especially since she fell into the ocean feet first.

Still, after the stinging shock of her body cutting through the surface of the sea, the water actually felt quite soothing. Like a warm bath filled with Epsom salt after a long hard day of physical labor. The only part of her body that wasn't pleased with the current state of affairs were her lungs, which were screaming bloody murder.

With a kick, Starkweather propelled her way back up to the surface. Her hands stretched out for the light that teased her above the waves.

She thrust her head out of the water and gulped in a big lungful of air. Unfortunately, the volcano on la Luna Blanca polluted the tropical atmosphere so Starkweather gagged. But stinking air was better than no air at all. She swam a few more yards away from the source of the sulfuric fumes, moving like a mermaid. Like her brother, she enjoyed swimming and was fairly adept to it. Finally her limbs ached too much to go on. Blinking the salt-water out of her eyes, she took stock of her situation.

She had fallen a few miles away from the island. So she was relatively safe from the volcanic blasts from the angry mountain that was now pumping hot lava down La Luna Blanca's rugged terrain. She thought of the lethal carnivores, being melted alive and gloated. Then she thought of the peaceful plant dwellers and the magnificent saber-tooth tigers and knew sorrow. And regret.

<<We still don't know HOW those fuckers were able to do it>> she raged as she treaded water. <<We still don't know if those creatures really came from prehistoric DNA or if they were modern day animals genetically altered.>>

She then realized that they still didn't know what in God's name Leo was after in those caves. Something precious enough to risk of the life of a little boy. His own family. <<Scully's right, he's the monster, not those animals. They have no free will. They do what they need to do to survive. Leo was not after survival. He was after glory... and me... lucky-ducky me>> Starkweather fumed as she wracked her sizable brain for an answer and to her frustration, couldn't produce one.

<<Speaking of survival>> Starkweather looked around. <<I think I better get a game plan going on how I'm going to get MY sorry ass out of this...>> She looked up at the sky, saw nothing but bits of pretty blue sky peeping through the cracks of the ominous black haze. Hopefully that might Doggett and Reyes got on board in one piece and the helicopter took them safely away.

<<It's not like they could really hang around>> she told herself desolately. <<There were injuries... Doggett, Quinto... and Reyes was deathly ill... and the kid's parents are waiting for him... they couldn't wait. That wouldn't have made sense.>>

She turned herself around in the water, looking for sight of land. There was nothing but La Isla de la Luna Blanca dissolving in the distance. And miles and miles of the deceptive azure sea.

Starkweather then noticed the water around her slowly turning maroon. "What the hell...?" she muttered, looking around.

Then her adrenaline wore off and a single, thick line of prickling pain shot down her back in an odd diagonal direction.

<<Oh fuck... it's me...>>

Her eyes welled up with tears of agony. The salt water tormented the long, gaping cut where the pterodactyl got her as her oozing blood left a telltale trail of where she'd been. A very easy trail for sharks and God-only-knows-what-else to track her down.

She vaguely remembered someone telling her that sharks were considered the "Dinosaurs of the Deep."

"Great," she mumbled, trying to stay afloat. "I'm going to get eaten by a dinosaur after all..."

Starkweather, her natural stubbornness kicking in again, tried to force herself to start swimming again, but fatigue had settled into her limbs. She felt like her arms and legs were literally made of lead. "Come on, come on," she tried to cheer herself on, but her head was spinning. She just wanted to close her eyes for a little bit...

... and then she heard a horn.

A ship's horn.

"No freakin' way," Starkweather said wondrously, jerking her head towards the lovely, lovely sound. She summoned up with little strength she had left. "HERE!!! I'M OVER HERE!!! SOMEBODY!!" She waved her arms around. She felt like she was an extra on the set of "Titanic" except that it was warm and she was the only one floating in the ocean.

But soon, a small rescue craft materialized, gliding towards her out of the smoky haze created by the volcano. She didn't really register much, just felt hands lifting her out of the water, masculine voices introducing themselves as members of the Coast Guard and that the Air Force had radioed them to be alert for a blond woman who fell from a helicopter into the ocean. She felt her soaking wet T-shirt being lifted up and heavy gauze padding being pressed into her back, soaking up the blood and salt-water. She then felt a thick, itchy blanket enveloping her entire body. She heard questions being asked.

"My name is Dr. Jerilyn Michelle Bailey Starkweather. I am a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I live in Washington DC with my husband and my cat. I am twenty-eight soon to be twenty-nine years old. The current President of the United States is George "Dubuya" Bush... and other than a splitting headache, a big ass scratch down my back and a screaming desire for a cold beer and a hot bath, I am fine."

The Coast Guardsmen looked down at her and grinned. "They said you were a spitfire."

"'They'?" She asked stupidly.

"Your friends. Your family. When the Air Force radioed us with what you did, we didn't have much hope that we were going to find you in one piece." It was easy for the Guardsman to be jovial now since the victim was found alive and relatively coherent. "They said you were too bitchy to die," he informed her cheerfully.

"How nice of them," she muttered.

As they approached the ship, the Guardsman looked down at the tiny, bedraggled figure and told her. "You're a lucky lady, Dr. Starkweather. You've got a lot of people who love you."

<<Barf>> Starkweather couldn't stop her brain from producing it's automatic reaction to sappiness. Deep down though, in the dark irrational recesses of her soul that her uncompromising intellect couldn't touch, she admitted she was touched by the young man's words.

"I know," she said simply as she allowed him to pick her up and help her aboard the giant ship.

After hauling her up onto the ship, the nice Guardsman tried to continue carrying her. "I can walk," she said irritably.

As the Guardsman put her down, a familiar voice called out her name, or rather, an affectionate diminutive of her name.

"Ben?"

Benjamin Starkweather rounded the corner, followed closely by a very green-looking Frohike. "Oh my God!" she cried out, stumbling towards him. He caught and swept her up in his arms, just like a hero in an old black-and-white film. She threw her arms around his neck. "We've got to stop meeting like this," she buried her wet face in the crook of his neck and shoulders.

"Jeri, Jesus Christ..." he exhaled in relief, cupping her face in his hands. "Are you okay?"

"Oh. Just dandy," she grinned like a naughty little girl. "You know, you missed out on ALL the fun."

"Yeah," Ben said dryly. "I heard."

"How-"

"Did we get here?" Ben finished her question. After kissing her on the forehead, he answered her question while hugging her tight. "We were flown from Mexico City to the air base in Puerto Rico. When the helicopter was sent to La Luna Blanca, they also radioed the Coast Guard for assistance. They asked if we wanted to go along on the ship. At the time, they thought a sea rescue was going be more likely than an air-to-land rescue."

"And everyone...?"

"Everyone else is okay and celebrating," he reassured her as he felt her arms wrap around his waist. He stroked her wet head as he amended his previous statement. "Well, the ones that are capable of celebrating. As we speak, Doggett and that security guy-"

"Quinto Ibarra."

"Yeah... anyway, they're being prepped for surgery. Reyes, I guess, took some cold medication and is currently passed out on a cot at the Air Base. And Mulder and Scully are taking that kid-"

"Peter Sedai."

"Yeah... to meet his parents. So," he sighed, "a happy ending."

"For once." Lazily, Jerilyn opened her eyes. "Hey Fro," she said, seeing him for the first time. "What's the matter?" she asked, upon noticing his coloring. "Are you seasick?"

"Well," here Ben shot the funny little man with the greasy ponytail and thick glasses an evil look. "He's nauseous alright, but not because of the ocean..."

"What?"

"Let's just say," the reticent man grumbled. "You can add Mexico City to another place were I can never go back to."

"I don't want to know," Jerilyn mumbled, closing her eyes again.

As Frohike wandered off to give the couple some privacy, Ben ventured. "So... what did you find out that? On that island?"

"You don't want to know... TRUST me," she sighed. She tilted her head up to look at him and whispered. "You came after me."

"Of course I did."

She smiled in wonder and appreciation. "I love you Counselor."

He pushed a lock of sticky wet hair off her face. "I love you too, you big bad FBI broad." He whispered back to her, "The Crocodile Hunter's got NOTHING on you, sweetheart."

She was still giggling when he kissed her.




 

Later on...
Rafael Hernandez Airport
Coast Guard Air Station Borinquen, Puerto Rico

Mulder looked down at the sleeping Peter, his head resting on Scully's lap. "Can I trade places with him?" Scully scowled at him. "Aw, c'mon Scully..." he cajoled her as he scooped Tummy off the floor and ruffled the pup's ears until her tail wagged frantically. "It's over. Loosen up. Everyone is more or less in one piece and we get the added bonus of spending the rest of the weekend here in bonito Puerto Rico," he finished with a flourish.

After receiving the good news that Agent Starkweather had been recovered and was on her way to Air Station Borinquen, everyone who was conscious demanded a shower and clean clothes. The black jeans donated to Scully were far too long and she had to cuff them several times to make them fit. She was also swimming in the extra-extra-extra large flamingo pink T-shirt a crabby National Guardswoman had ungraciously given her. Scully had been too fearful to say no.

Mulder, meanwhile, looked absolutely ridiculous in the Def Leppard T-shirt and denim shorts that had been given to him. Being so tall, shorts just looked funny on him.

Still, the clothes smelled of Tide and sunshine, not blood and sweat. And all the filth and muck of La Luna Blanca had been washed away from their skins, helping to improve their moods immensely.

Plus, Skinner, after examining the "TuPac Shakur Lives!" T-shirt they had given him to wear, discreetly slipped Scully a Bureau credit card and murmured to her to rent a car, go to the nearest town and buy everyone clothes. Today. Which made Scully feel immensely better as well. Especially since only a few weeks ago, she helped Starkweather run up a significant credit card bill on the Bureau's dime for the undercover mission she was on in Sioux City, Iowa. <<He must of forgot>> Scully devoutly hoped before turning to talk to Mulder.

"Mulder," she said sternly, "I don't want to stay here any longer than I have to. Poor Mom must be going out of her mind with worry. I need to get home to William."

Just then, Peter woke up. No clothes small enough could be found on base for the poor boy, so he was still wearing the dirty shorts and socks that he had been wearing ever since Justin Leo took him on the island. He was wearing a man's medium plain white Hanes undershirt, the closest thing anyone could find to his size. "What time is it?" he asked, sleepily. "Are they here yet?"

The estranged Sedais had been flown into San Juan, Puerto Rico. Once word had been received that their child had been found, they caught the first available flight to the civillian airport on the Coast Guard Base.

"Soon, Peter," Scully promised him. "They'll be here soon."

Yawning, Peter sat up. "I've been thinking," he said, his little face set and serious. "I don't know if I wanna be a femeral agent no more."

"Anymore," Scully automatically corrected him.

"Why not?" Mulder asked him mildly.

Peter crinkled his brow in deep thought. "'Cause," he finally said. "I don't think I'd like shooting people."

Scully closed her eyes in deep regret. "Peter," she said gently. "I don't like shooting people. It's just that... it's just that..." she struggled for the right words. At the time, she didn't have choice, it was either Leo take the boy or Scully take the shot. She looked up at Mulder for help.

"When we were on the island," Mulder said. "Do you remember how we had to hurt some of the animals to make sure they wouldn't hurt us or anyone else?" Peter nodded. Mulder continued, a trace of sadness in his voice. "Sometimes people don't act any better than animals and police officers, soldiers and federal agents sometimes have to hurt them to stop them from hurting anyone else."

"I think that was the scariest part of the whole trip."

"The shooting?" Scully was astounded. She knew she was going to have nightmares of the velicoraptors and the T-Rex for years and years. "Why is that, Peter?"

"Because," the child said darkly. "I think my uncle liked it." He quickly added, "Shooting people," just in case Mulder and Scully missed what he was trying to get at.

At a loss for words, Mulder and Scully looked at each other, both trying to conjure up the magical phrase that would make it all better. To undo the damage of disillusionment that Leo inflicted on the boy. "Well..." Scully tried again.

"La atención por favor," a feminine voice cried out over the loudspeaker system. "El vuelo 781 de San Juan ahora está desembarcando en la puerta 14." The phrase was repeated for the Spanish-impaired. "Attention, please. Flight 781 from San Juan is now disembarking at Gate 14."

Peter beamed. "C'mon!" he slid off the bench and pulled at Scully's hand. "Come meet my mom and dad!"

Over Peter's head, Mulder and Scully smiled.

Children were wonderfully resilient.

Ana Sedai walked side by side silently next to her ex-husband. The irony was a few months ago, she would have prayed for a crisis to bring her and Harry back together. She longed, ached for his friendship and love. She did feel pity when she saw how her sniveling half-brother injured him, but that was all. The almighty Harry Sedai had been reduced to a shadow in Ana's life. He was the father of her son and nothing more.

It was Peter she longed for, ached for. Every since this nightmare began, she did everything humanly possible a single mother could legally do to get her son back. Her mind had even began to explore the illegal possibilities but before it could wander down that dark path even further, the phone rang. It was the FBI. Peter was in Puerto Rico. Ana called Harry and together they caught the first flight out of Washington DC.

And now... so close... so close... she could almost...

"Mom! Dad!"

Ana had promised herself she wasn't going to cry, wasn't going to make a big embarrassing scene. It was a promise she broke instant when she saw the child with her hair and Harry's eyes, let go of a red-headed woman's hand and run straight for the both of them.

"Hey pal," Even Harry's eyes brimmed with tears as he ruffled Peter's hair. "We were so worried about you."

"Hey baby," she whispered brokenly, clutching at him. "Oh my God, Peter, I was so scared..."

"You shouldn't have been," he scolded her in a typical child's fashion, oblivious to logic. "I was with femeral agents the whole time. And the Deputy Mayor." He was pleased with himself that he was able to get that those two complicated words out with no stuttering.

"Femeral??" Harry looked over at the odd couple in the tacky clothes.

"Forgive me for not looking more professional," Scully apologized. "My name is Special Agent Dana Scully with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. And this-"

Ana's eyes widened in recognition. "-Deputy Mayor... I've... seen you on television. In the news," she mumbled, remembering how the Deputy Mayor had been accused of murdering an environmental lawyer. And how it came out later that her half-brother had set Mulder up to take the fall for a murder that never took place.

Harry's eyes shifted from the tall, dark-haired, dark-eyed man to the short, flame-haired, icy-eyed woman. "How...?"

"They're dating," Peter informed his father cheerfully.

"Oh," Harry was nonplussed. "Well..."

"Was it Leo?" Terror invaded Ana's eyes. "Was it Leo that..."

"Yeah, Mom, Leo took me to the island," Peter tattled on his uncle darkly. "He said it was gonna be fun, like an amusement park. But it WASN'T fun an' he put me in a hole and he was gonna leave me and the dog in there if I didn't get this stupid box out for him."

"He did what???" Ana turned ashen while Harry grumbled "I'll kill him. I'll kill that sonofbitch with my own bare hands."

"And I kept tellin' him I wanted to go home, but he wouldn't take me home. I ran away and found Miss Scully and Mr. Fox and Mr. John and Miss... uh... I forget her name 'cause it's real long and she kept sayin' bad words all the time but she was real nice..."

"My sister," Mulder explained to the bewildered parents.

"Special Agent Jerilyn Starkweather and her partner Special Agent John Doggett. They were assisting Agent Scully on this case."

"WHAT case?" Harry exploded. "What in the hell did that basta-" he censored himself. "That creep want with my son?"

"That is confidential as of right now, pending a followup investigation," Scully told the Sedais gravely. "But I don't think you have to worry about Justin Leo anymore."

"Why?" Ana clutched at Peter a little tighter.

"They think he's dead," Peter announced. "When Miss Scully was gonna arrest him, he jumped off the cliff. But if he's not dead, he promised if I helped him, he would stay away forever... but he don't keep promises. He's not... honor-rabble." He looked up at his two new heroes. "Miss Scully and Mr. Fox and the others all promised to get take me home," he beamed at them. Then he turned to his parents. "Can we go home now? But first, can we get something to eat? Do they have McDonald's here? Or Chucky Cheese?"

"They'll have supper on the plane," Ana explained to him. "And we'll have pizza tomorrow night, after everything's calmed down."

"We may have to ask Peter some questions," Scully quietly informed them. "We still don't have a clear motive to Leo's actions."

"You're gonna come see me?? Cool!" Peter burst out.

Harry stuck out his hand. "Thank you," he said as he shook first Mulder, then Scully's hand. "Thank you for finding our son." He turned to Peter. "Ready to go home, pal?"

"Yeah!!" Peter crowed. Then timidly asked. "Um... I know you and Mom are 'vorced and everything... but can you stay with us tonight?"

"If it's okay with your mother," Harry asked for permission. Ana smiled and nodded her head. They would never get back together, never re-marry, but they were still a family. It was enough.

"Say goodbye to your friends, Peter," Ana gently instructed her son.

Peter's face crumpled. "Mr. John and his lady-friend aren't here," he whimpered. "I'm not gonna get to say goodbye to them... and Mr. John's in the hos-spittle. Uncle Justin shot him."

While Ana and Harry turned white, Scully quickly reassured him. "A full recovery is expected. As for you," Scully crouched down. "Mr. John had a message for you before the doctors gave him medicine to make him sleep while they took the bullet out."

"Yeah?"

"He said that he promises to come see you as soon as he gets a chance to when he gets back to Washington."

"Really!!!!!"

"Mr. John doesn't break promises. And neither does Mrs. Jeri. She said she wants to visit you too and she wants you to draw her lots of pictures to hang on her fridge."

"Okay! I'll work on one on the airplane!"

Scully hugged the boy as Mulder ruffled his hair affectionately. "We'll see you soon," Scully promised him.

"Okay," Peter broke free and knelt down to pet the puppy at Mulder's feet. "Bye Tummy," he said desolately. "Be good..."

Scully looked up at Mulder. He pouted. "Aw..."

"Mulder," she said firmly. "We've already discussed this."

Mulder looked down at the little moptop of a pup. Tummy smiled back up at him. "You know Peter..." Mulder said slowly, as if a thought had just come to mind. "I'm going to be awfully busy when I get back to work... and you did such a good job watching my dog when I got lost on that island..."

"Oh no," Harry grumbled under his breath.

"It really is a well-behaved puppy," Scully whispered back to him. "And Peter did fall in love with her."

"Would you like to keep taking care of her for me?" Mulder asked.

"Really!!" This day kept getting better and better for Peter. "Mom? Can I? Please??????????????????"

Tummy looked up at Ana and smiled. Ana felt her resistance melt away. "Alright," she said. "But taking care of Mr. Mulder's dog is going to be your responsibility."

Ana's warning flew straight over the excited child's head. "Tummy, you're gonna live with me for a while, okay?" he scooped the dog up.

"Well..." Harry felt awkward. "We need to catch our flight. We'll let you know if we hear or see Leo anywhere. We fully intend to cooperate with the FBI."

"That's a first," Mulder mumbled. Scully shot him a dirty look but fortunately, only Scully had heard Mulder's jibe.

Ana felt herself get teary-again as she took her son's hand. "Thank you," she whispered. "So much. So much."

"Bye!" Peter let go of his mother's hand long enough to wave and then he grasped it again, walking down the corridor between his parents, with a puppy tucked under his arm.

Mulder put his arm over Scully's shoulders and together they watched the little family walk away. Scully sighed. "Why can't all the X-Files end like this?"

"It's not exactly over Scully," Mulder reminded her. "It's just over for them. And my dog," he added bitterly, like a spoiled teenager who just had his car keys taken away.

"Mulder, neither one of us has the room for a puppy, it's going to be years before William is old enough to appreciate a dog-"

"I know, I know," Mulder sighed. "But she was so cute..."

"Oh, I'll buy you a new fish," Scully rolled her eyes. "Or maybe a turtle..."

"It's not the same."

"You know... I've always been partial to cats..."

"I'll get Jerilyn to loan you Caesar for a weekend."

"I said I was partial to cats, not demons."

Mulder thought about the magnificent saber-tooth tiger with the glossy white coat and the blue eyes, blue like Scully's. "How do you think those creatures came to be, Scully? The animals on that island?"

"Mulder, I was too busy running from them to take the time to examine them. And when Dr. Grant, Jerilyn and I investigated that lab, Christie Carter interrupted us, babbling about being forced to wear a paper hat... I don't know. I don't have any proof, but I'm going to stay with my original theory of that they took previously existing creatures and altered their DNA structure in utero to create the likeness of prehistoric creatures."

"You don't believe that there's any substance on this planet that could contain prehistoric DNA?"

"Other than insects trapped in amber, which is now impossible to get a hold of, due to the fiasco on the first Jurassic Park island... no, there really isn't anything else that would be able to carry dinosaur DNA. Of course," she looked up at him. "You have a completely different theory, don't you?

"Of course," Mulder was smug.

"Are you going to tell me now or can you wait until I've had two or three tequila shooters under my belt."

"Scully, ONE tequila shooter and you'll be on your ass, passed out."

"Perfect position for listening to your theories.'

"One of the great mysteries of the X-Files actually has nothing to do with the supernatural or paranormal," Mulder explained as they walked out of the airport to the battered car Scully rented so they could drive over to the nearby town to buy clothes that fit. "But economics."

"Economics?"

"How in the world, did something as big as the Syndicate able to bankroll itself. Sure there were a few wealthy men involved. But then there are men like Admiral Bailey who got wealthy off of it, and men like my father who never saw a dime. Where did this money come from?

"According to the information provided, Roald Schabasser was making his money by covering the tracks of a major drug trafficker who ran a lot of dope through the Washington DC Metro area. This same drug cartel also had ties to a struggling genetics company that was wasting money because they trying to use genetics to create idiotic frivolous things. Dyes to change eye-color. Chocolate products that stimulate metabolism. Then, all of a sudden, someone gets the bright idea to create a real-life Jurassic Park. Not just a book, not just a movie anymore, the real deal.

"Thanks to Ben Starkweather and the Gunmen, we know the drug cartel was involved with Unigen, the company, the park was all part of their money laundering program. Schabasser knew this and helped set this up. The question still remains, where did the DNA come from?"

"Mulder, I have no idea where you're going with this..."

"You are wrong about prehistoric DNA, Scully. There is another substance on this planet with the DNA needed. Only it's not OF this planet, so to speak..."

"Mulder..."

"Purity, AKA the Black Oil, is older than the dinosaurs, Scully. It consumes it's host, absorbing it's DNA into it's own, to procreate..."

"Mulder..."

"Only the Syndicate is known to have this substance, Scully. It makes sense. The Syndicate provides enough of the Black Oil so they can figure out how to genetically engineer a dinosaur with it and the Syndicate, along with the drug cartel, receives a part of the profits from the park once it became operational. For if it they could have controlled it, it would have been an overnight sensation. People would have spent thousands to see creatures of the past, that roamed the earth billions of years ago without having a clue how Unigen was able to create them..."

"Mulder..."

"Scully, billions of years ago, a meteor fell to this planet, carrying this Black Oil, this virus, this unexplored, unpredictable biological entity..."

"Mulder..."

"Who's to say that dinosaur DNA can not be plucked out of the Black Oil? It is documented that Purity is a living organism..."

"Mulder..."

"Or that maybe... the dinosaurs are aliens themselves. Just think of it Scully, the very first inhabitants of this planet, coming from a fluke meteor shower, carrying the Black Oil to this planet-"

"Mulder, enough," Scully finally said wearily. "There's no evidence to support your theories, just like there's no evidence to support mine."

"So," he taunted her in that familiar, irritating way that caused her heart to flutter even as she frowned in frustration at him. "What are you going to write in your field report, Agent Scully?"

They were out by the car by this point. "The truth," she said simply. "That Man decided to play God and all hell broke loose."

Mulder grinned as he got into the passenger seat. "Fair enough."

 

Epilogue
A week later...
Ben and Jerilyn’s apartment

Ben was going to be late coming in from the office.

Again.

Although Ben and Jerilyn's reunion had been tearful and honeymoon-esque, it only took three days for them to slip into the old pattern of diving into work.

Everybody wanted someone to pay for what happened to them, and Starkweather made it her mission in life to accuse someone of these crimes.

But since Reyes was hospitalized for dehydration, bronchitis and pneumonia, and Doggett was still recovering in the hospital for his gunshot wound, Mulder was out of town on business, and Scully was occupied with William, the case report got stuck on her.

But what could she say?

That dinosaurs still exist and that a Psychoboy thinking she was his long-lost girlfriend came to the island, tried to kidnap them, and get away with the Key to Life?

Yeah right.

The cursor blinked on the computer screen for a good half-hour before she finally started the case report.

"Case Report for X-File GAE10131121

In 1998, former President Clinton passed a bill outlawing cloning which states that those responsible for such acts would be sentenced to 10 years in prison for each individual act, but the specifications were loose as to the definition of cloning. There were at least 30 species cloned on La Isla Luna Blanca, and an estimated population of 1,000. The Mexican government denies any responsibility for allowing the corporation to exist. Also there are no moves being made on their parts to file charges. This act took place outside Federal jurisdiction, which makes them inaccessible. Even if charges could be pressed, there was no proof."

"What else is new..." She muttered hopelessly, and continued typing.

"While no one can be charged with cloning, the responsible parties can face charges of nine counts of involuntary manslaughter, three charges of attempted murder, drug trafficking, money laundering, and cruelty to animals.

Justin Leo, if recovered, will be facing charges of espionage, four counts of attempted murder, and kidnapping. He arrived on the island with his nephew Peter Sedai, who was unharmed. Leo was collaborating with the Unigen Panel architect, the late Andrea Nowark, who was killed on the island. He stated to Agent Scully that he arrived on the island looking for the key to life, but exactly what the key to life is remains unclear. The Late Roald Schabasser, who was also killed on the island, is responsible for covering the tracks of a major drug cartel in Mexico City.

"Investigations into this drug cartel are currently under way. Deputy Mayor Mulder, who aided us in this investigation, theorizes that profits from the drug cartel support Unigen Corporation, the responsible party for these acts. Whether or not the real monsters are the predatory creatures on the island or the corporation that sponsored their origin remains to be questioned."

It was 8:00, Ben still wasn't home. These days he stayed at the office till she was sure to be asleep. So she clicked 'save' and logged off. She had some errands to run.





8:22pm
St. Vincent's Memorial Hospital
Room 1609

She left a note telling Ben she'd be at the hospital visiting Reyes. It was a lie, but she really didn't want a fight about why she had to see her partner in the hospital. Carrying a bulky, bulging Gap bag her step-mother gave her for her birthday, she softly rapped on the door of Doggett's hospital room. When he didn't answer, she slipped in.

He was passed out; most likely from the morphine they gave him for the pain. His arm was secured in a sling and a thin beard and moustache was beginning to grow.

She glanced at his chart. The gangrene, thankfully, wasn't as bad as she had feared. The surgeons were able to repair the torn muscle that the bullet had penetrated quite easily. It missed the bone by a fraction of an inch. But it missed the bone.

Not realizing how heavy the cargo she had in her bag was, she plunked her bulging purse down beside her, and it landed with a clunk.

"Thought you could get past me, huh, Doc?" Doggett said.

"What?" She deadpanned, coming to his bedside. "No 'Hello, Thank God you're ok,' no 'Nice to see you?' Geez...I can get this kinda shit from Ben."

"Is that a proposition, Doc?"

"Last time *I* come visit you in the hospital."

"Fuck you."

"I'll take that as an offer."

"Since when do you start carryin' a purse. I thought those damn things would be too girlie for you."

"Since I started smuggling contraband into hospitals for sick bastards like you," she grinned. "Anyone tell you you're an asshole when you're sick?"

"Nobody's ever taken care of me when I was sick before," he said pathetically.

"Brought you the Sports page," She said, smiling weakly, ignoring his admission, and rifled through the purse before she found it, folded up as neatly as possible and covered in grease. "Got us dinner," she plopped a greasy brown paper bag from Steak-Out on his table, "and I brought J.D. for us later once the nurses leave us alone."

"As long as I stay awake, the nurses won't bother us. You got a lamp and a mirror in there too?"

"Since when do I look like fucking Mary Poppins?"

"So why aren't you with Ben?" He said, blatantly ignoring her smart-ass comment, "shouldn't you two be on your third honeymoon about now?"

She arched an eyebrow, "Been fantasizing about me now, huh? Not healthy." Then she sighed heavily. "He's...working...on the Unigen case...trying to get more charges brought up against them. They were already prosecuted for copyright laws but now the FBI wants murder charges. He came home smelling like sandalwood again last night, Papa John. I caught him whispering on the phone before I left for work this morning."

"Whatdya think the sonuvabitch is up to?"

"I dunno, and frankly, I don't care. I just wanna nail the mother-fuckers who put us on that island to the cross."

"Any word from Leo?"

"Not a peep. If he's alive, he's at least keeping quiet.

The boys are keeping a look-out for credit card uses and tapping into APB's across the country."

"Figures."

"Got a little something else for you."

"Christmas isn't for six months."

"Don't look a gift-horse in the mouth, Papa John." She dug around in her bag again, and produced a miniature toy T-Rex, still in its packaging.

"Doc. You really shouldn't have," he said when she pulled the gift out.

"Well, it's the least I could do."

"The very least after pulling that stunt and falling into the ocean like a friggin' stunt double. You're damn lucky I'm medicated, or you'd be gettin' the ass-whupping' of your life about now."

"Well...I forgot your birthday...I dunno when your birthday is...but I forgot it..." Starkweather meekly justified.

"You shouldn't have. Really. Shouldn't have. Might as well give a plastic shark bath-toy to the guy from the Jaws movies. Or Mul-dah a little toy ET. Hey...remind me to use that for a Christmas present idea."

"Last time I do something nice for you," she said, punching him in his bad arm.

"I'm glad you're ok," he said sincerely, unemotionally, and steadily. Impulsively, he took her hand in his as reassurance and affirmation.

They didn't notice a tall figure in the glass window, and a pair of green eyes peering in between the leaves of curtains trying to see what was going on in that room.

"Fuck the X-Files." Ben muttered, slamming his fists against the glass of the hospital room. Both Starkweather and Doggett jumped.

"What the fuck..." Starkweather muttered, bolting out of her chair and running for the door, drawing her gun. All she saw was Ben's form storming off in the distance like a bat out of hell.

"Oh, crap!" she whispered.


--THE END—

Starkweather Season OneStarkweather Season Two Non-Starkweather Stories Scully3776 Home