Title: Starkweather: Shelter from the Storm (Season Nine "Starkweatherized")
Authors: Scully3376 & Spookykat
Category: Mytharc and MOTW combined; Alternative Universe; Virtual Season Finale.
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Chris Carter is the god of the X-Files Universe. Therefore I am not allowed to make money off of the characters: Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, John Doggett, Monica Reyes, Walter Skinner, Alvin Kersh, the Cigarette Smoking Man, Alex Krycek, Marita Covarubias, Samantha Mulder, Deep Throat, the Lone Gunmen and a sundry of other fictional characters he dreamed up that I can't remember all of them right now.

However if the characters that Scully3776 dreamed up mysteriously appear on the future and inevitable movies... characters such as Benjamin Starkweather, Admiral Jeremy Bailey, Senator Jenneva-Wesley Bailey, Lux Carlos, Edward Carillo, Sandy Gallimore, Ace, Autumn Chamberlain, Andrea Nowark, Dr. Wick, Noelle Goodhall, Bravo, Charlie, Tummy, Caesar and of course Special Agent Jerilyn Starkweather and not give me any money or credit for it... I'm going to pout. (I mean, hell, they could AT LEAST take me out to dinner)

If any of the characters that Spookykat dreamed up appear, she's going to be ROYALLY pissed...that includes Justin Leo, Lilly Stratford, Manny and Isobel Ibarra, Blade Connor, Bunny O'Dell, and will do a WHOLE lot more than pout...

Note to Readers: In the Starkweather Universe, an extra year had been inserted in between s8 and s9. Consider it an "s8.5" **grins**

The fics: "Introitus", "Future Past Perfect", "Quanta", "Frequency Modulation", "Rex Tremandae", "One Nation, Indivisble", "Meum Mel", "In the Spirit", "Meum Mel II: Echo of Eden", Meum Mel III: Nothing Else Matters", "Inheritance" and "Ne Tempest Crede" all occur post s8 "Existence" and pre s9 "Nothing Important Happened Today." All following Starkweather fics will be post s9. The only thing off continuity-wise is William's age. He is now over one year old. Forget the fact that Scully was breast-feeding him in "Nothing Important Happened Today Part One."

Prologue:

Her death confirmed the truth he did not want to hear and yet brought a welcome relief to his soul. The autopsy demolished the walls of sweet illusion. They stripped the colored contact lenses from her sightless eyes and discovered that the irises were truly blue and not hazel. They discovered that her true hair color was auburn, not dark brown, although they both chose to be blondes. They took her fingerprints and saw how they did not match at all with the set of prints they had.

The truth was undeniable.

The dead woman lying on the cold, steel table was not Agent Jerilyn Starkweather.

Which meant she was still out there.

Was she waiting for them to come find her? Or had fate already found her and removed her from this earthly plane and her spirit was now at peace?

Those were the questions that quietly tormented her partner, the tall Southern-born, Southern-bred ex-Marine as he left the hospital that night. He vowed he would find out. He was already planning on requesting to his superior to re-open the X-File they had closed when the imposter entered their world.

But a plan had already been set in motion, a plan that depended on absolute secrecy, a plan that included him by excluding him. A plan that depended on another man, a another man with the same haunted dark eyes as Jerilyn's to leave behind everything and everyone he loved to disappear, to infiltrate the borders beyond the bounds of belief. To risk his own life for her resolution and his redemption.

For this man felt he had already failed one sister, he was not going to fail another.

For this plan to succeed, this man needed the protection of the X-Files.

And John Doggett was needed to stay behind to protect the X-Files.

"Carl Wormus drinks alone at a bar in Baltimore, MD. He notices a dark-haired woman in a low-cut dress walk in, and he approaches her. They get into a discussion about the ice in his drink. As a water expert, he knows that the government-added Chloramine in the water is actually not as healthy as has been reported. Intrigued, the woman entices him into leaving, and they drive off in his convertible. He slows down at an opening drawbridge, but the woman clamps down on his right leg, forcing his foot on the accelerator. The car flies off the open bridge and plunges into the Potomac River. Deep underwater, Wormus wiggles out of his seatbelt and begins to swim to the surface. The woman is lifeless next to him. Suddenly, the woman opens her eyes, grabs his ankle and pulls him deeper under the water.

Two days later, Scully calms the crying William. She looks uneasily at Mulder's packed bags in her apartment, and shuts the bathroom door so that he does not hear the baby." (From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

John Doggett's Residence
Falls Church

Doggett woke up with a start. He started to get up, but then winced in pain. He pulled the comforter away from his chest, saw the bruises. ::Damn bitch:: he thought, remembering the final confrontation he had with Starkweather's double, the hit man... or hit woman to be more accurate who only had one name: Bravo. By all rights, he should been dead for no one knew that Bravo was a fifth dan black belt in Tae Kwon Do. She had literally kicked the shit out of Doggett, managed to knock his gun out of his hand and turned it on him.

But Lily Stratford, the last sister Starkweather had left now, had glided in from the shadows and shot Bravo to death. Lily, or 'Alpha' as the Syndicate referred to her as, had shrugged at Doggett and said "I never liked her anyway." She disappeared just as Mulder and Skinner had come running. Before they could question her where Starkweather could be. Find Alpha, find Starkweather, Doggett was willing to bet on it. At least that he said so much to Mulder.

"I'm gonna ask Skinner to reopen her X-File tomorrow," he had gasped to Mulder later that night from his hospital bed. Bravo did manage to do quite a number on him.

Mulder had looked down at Doggett with a strange look on his face. "Hey Puppy Man," he said uneasily. "Why don't you wait a few days before asking."

"WHAT???" Doggett had snapped. "Why the hell would we wait???"

Mulder had opened his mouth as if he was going to say something, but then closed it as if he was re-thinking his words. "I'll go tell Scully to take care of it," he finally said. "Bravo hurt you very badly and you need to recuperate before we can bring you on board to find Starkweather." He had grinned tightly and muttered "Talk to you later," and left very quickly.

As he replayed that scene in his mind while he laid in his own bed, Doggett could have sworn that Mulder was lying to him. ::But that's crazy:: he told himself. ::Mulder don't lie.::

Slowly, painfully, he dragged his ass out of bed...

"Doggett, meanwhile, prepares for work as the television news reports the death of Environmental Protection Agency Deputy Administrator Carl Wormus. The man was found dead and alone in his car under the water. At the FBI, Doggett shares an elevator with Kersh. The Deputy Director smugly asks if he has found any incriminating evidence against him.

A ringing phone awakens Reyes in her Washington hotel. FBI Assistant Director Brad Follmer greets her warmly and asks her to stop by his office." (From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

Reyes pulled the comforter up to her bare chest, sighing. She wasn't sure she was up to seeing her old flame. She didn't have any clothes, except for the ones lying on the floor. Thanks to the "little" fire Bravo set in her apartment, she didn't have any clothes, any possessions, any place to live. ::Damn bitch:: she thought.

Caesar the cat yowled at her impatiently, lying on top of the dresser. It had taken a lot of whining to have management bend the rules about no pets, but when it was confirmed that the woman lying dead in the church was not Starkweather, she had gone to her apartment and collected her cat. And harped and bitched at the hotel management to no avail. Skinner ended up coming to her rescue by telling management she would be staying there for an indefinite amount of time on the Bureau's dime since she had just lost her home and possessions in the line of duty. Reyes hoped she would be able to find an affordable apartment where Caesar would be welcomed. Otherwise, who knows who would inherit Starkweather's beloved pet?

She knew Scully already had her hands full with Mulder and William and she really didn't picture Doggett as a "cat person." Plus Caesar hated him. Passionately. And vice versa, naturally.

With a sigh, she pulled the sheet around her naked body and walked to the bathroom to take a shower, which seemed pointless since she had to put on the same dirty clothes she was wearing yesterday. Fortunately, she had left her purse in her car, so she still had access to her money and credit cards.

::If I'm going to meet Brad:: Reyes groaned as she turned the bath water on. ::I better go buy some new clothes and underwear...::

"When she arrives, he plants a firm kiss on her mouth. Reyes pulls away. Although they have not seen each other in years, they had previously been involved in a romantic relationship while working at the Bureau's New York office. He gives her videotape from the security camera in the Hoover Building garage. Although the date stamp is the same night Scully gave birth, the garage is empty. Doggett and Skinner are not seen defending their lives against Knowle Rohrer, nor is Rohrer's exploding car in the garage. Reyes tells Doggett that no scrap of evidence even remains at the crime scene, which means that they no longer have a case.

Doggett goes to seek the advice of Mulder, but his apartment has been cleaned out. Scully tells him that Mulder is gone.

Back at the FBI, Skinner and Reyes find no traces of Mulder, and Doggett suspects that perhaps someone got to him. With no credible evidence, Skinner asks Doggett to drop the case against Kersh and the FBI. Doggett accuses the A.D. of backing down under pressure, but Skinner only fears for the safety of Mulder, Scully and their baby. Doggett and Reyes must continue their investigation alone, without Skinner's help." (From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

After Doggett had stormed out, with Reyes following, Skinner sat back down at his desk. He picked up the phone and dialed.

"Scully."

"Scully this isn't going to work."

"Sir?"

"Not telling Doggett anything. About Kersh, about Mulder. He's already putting it together. Scully, we have to tell him what Mulder is doing."

"That could jeopardize the mission. Not to mention the safety of Mulder."

"Dana, Doggett and Reyes will not drop the case without an explanation. If I tell Doggett if he persists in his present course of action that he puts the lives of Mulder and Starkweather on the line. You know him well enough that he would drop this whole thing right there."

"With all due respect, bullsh*t," Scully responded. "You know him well enough that he's going to try and join Mulder in the search and we can not have that. We need him here. *I* need him here."

"Dana, is that you talking or is that Mulder?"

There was a painful silence. "I wish we could tell him, but it's too risky right now."

Then the AD said. "We'll continue to try and stall him but Dana, we're not going to be able to keep this from him forever."

"I know," she said and hung up.

"At the Greater Maryland Water Reclamation Facility, worker Roland McFarland places a call to a naval ship after reading about Wormus' death. The dark-haired woman from the bar inexplicably swims up in one of the tanks. Before McFarland can speak into the phone, he notices the woman walk through the plant naked and he follows her tracks. She surprises him from behind, pulls him into a tank and drowns him.

Reyes meets with A.D. Follmer at the bar in Maryland. She informs him that Doggett's investigation has been dropped. Showing feelings for her, Follmer is interested in keeping Reyes assigned to the X-files in Washington. Doggett, meanwhile, tries to appeal to Scully. He is unsure why she won't trust him, but she does not reveal anything about Mulder." (From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

"Gone??" Doggett looked at Scully in utter disbelief. "Whattaya mean, 'gone.'"

Tears welling up in her beautiful blue eyes, Scully whispered, "He's just... gone." After a hideously awkward moment, she added, "I think you should go now."

After kicking out her friend, Scully wiped her eyes and went to tend to William. She felt terrible but what else could she have done? She promised Mulder she wouldn't say a word...

Scully's apartment
24 hours early...

"... Mulder?" Scully called out, entering her apartment, the Lone Gunmen right behind her. Frohike was carrying a suitcase, Langly and Byers were contending with an empty fish tank. Scully was carrying two enormous Ziploc baggies, filled with water and beautiful tropical fish.

Mulder came out, carrying William. "Hey guys," he said with a smile.

"So you've finally caved, huh?" Langly teased him. "Givin' up the bachelor pad and moving in with the little woman."

"About time, we think," Byers said.

Frohike just pouted.

"Where do you want this?" Langly nodded to the fish tank.

"On that empty table, right there," Mulder pointed as William giggled.

"Daddee," William crowed, leaning forward. "Fissy."

"That's right, Boo," Mulder said, voice thick with emotion, "Fishies." He kissed the back of his son's head.

After the Gunmen helped set up the tank and the fish were peacefully swimming in their home as opposed to a big plastic bag, Byers asked. "Anything else you need from us?"

"No, I think the moving company is handling everything else," Mulder said.

"Hey, you guys wanna get a pizza with us?" Langly asked. "Maybe watch a DVD or something? We've got "Conspiracy Theory", "JFK", "All the Presidents' Men", "Revenge of the Nerds" and "A Bug's Life.""

"We're just going to spend a quiet night alone," Scully said politely. "Maybe some other time?"

They all shrugged. "Sure, no prob," Langly said. "Catch ya later then."

"Later," Mulder said flatly.

As they walked away, Frohike asked his friends, "Did they seem a little... weird to you?"

"They seemed tense," Langly said.

"They didn't seem very happy for two people, who are in love and are finally getting a chance to build a life together," Byers said, then regretted his words when he saw Frohike's crestfallen face. "Sorry."

Frohike heaved a large sigh. "S'all right... but you're right. They didn't act like they were finally gettin' together... they acted like..."

"Mulder's goin' away," Langly said faintly.

The three of them stopped dead in their tracks in front of the apartment.

"Holy shit," Frohike said. "He's gonna go after Starkweather."

Meanwhile inside the apartment, Scully asked him "So how long did you think that fooled them?"

Mulder was sitting in her armchair. "Probably five minutes." He was still cuddling William.

"Mulder," she crossed over to him, standing in front of him. "If the Gunmen figured it out, how am I supposed to keep this from John?"

"Scully, we talked about this."

"Mulder, he is her best friend... maybe more now... Yesterday he nearly died for her. He deserves to know what is happening. Right now. Today."

"Dana," Mulder said firmly, using her first name to guarantee he had her full and complete attention. "As far as Doggett is concerned, nothing important is happening today. If he even gets a whisper of what I'm doing, he is going to be on me like a cheap suit and he can not follow me. Not where I'm going. Scully," he reverted back to the familiar moniker that over the years had become so much more than a surname, but a term of affection. "I need him here. I need him to keep the X-Files going. He's the only one left now. Skinner said they're going to transfer you back to Quantico. And Reyes just doesn't have enough experience."

"But what am I supposed to say to him when he asked me where did you go?"

Mulder was resting his cheek against William's head. "Just tell him I'm gone..."

Back to the present...

"Doggett returns to his apartment and tries to contact some of his old Marine buddies that were in his squadron with Rohrer. No one has information on Rohrer's activities after the military. One of them, Shannon McMahon, is the mysterious dark-haired woman. Reyes sees McMahon in the FBI hallway. She senses something, but ignores her intuition. In the X-files office, Reyes hears someone creeping outside the door. The person disappears into the elevator, but leaves behind a folder with Wormus' obituary inside.

Scully puts William down for a nap, and the mobile over his bassinet eerily moves on its own. Scared, she phones Doggett and asks him not to drop his investigation. He and Reyes summon her to Quantico to perform an autopsy on Wormus' body. Scully finds fingerprints on Wormus' ankle, as if someone had been holding him down. Doggett has the Lone Gunmen hack into Wormus' files, but all they recover are reports on water. Follmer briefs Kersh on Doggett's investigation, and he asks the Deputy Director for swift punishment. Kersh, however, puts the burden on Follmer to reprimand Doggett.

While Mrs. Scully watches William, Shannon McMahon comes looking for Scully. Mrs. Scully refrains from opening the door, and McMahon vanishes without leaving her name. As Scully and Reyes leave the morgue at Quantico late that night, they see McMahon. Reyes is suspicious, but McMahon disappears. The two agents are surprised by the arrival of Follmer, who swarms the Quantico morgue with a team of agents. He tells Reyes that he is trying to uphold her reputation in the face of Doggett's career-ending investigation. However, when they enter the autopsy bay, Wormus' body is gone. Reyes pretends that there never was a body, and she accuses Follmer of sending her the obituary to throw them on a wild goose chase. Reyes goes to Doggett's apartment, and the Lone Gunmen show her Wormus' encrypted emails from Roland McFarland.

That same night, Doggett and Skinner go to the Maryland water plant and rifle through McFarland's desk. They find a number of files labeled "Chloramine." Follmer and his crew approach, so Doggett grabs the files, and he and Skinner run out. Follmer chases them, catching Skinner. Doggett hides underwater in one of the tanks, holding his breath. Suddenly, McMahon swims up from below and grabs Doggett's ankle. She pulls him farther down into the tank."

Chapter Two:
"Nothing Important Happened Today II"
May 16, 2002

"A naval captain on a vintage World War II Merchant marine vessel passes through a sequence of tight security checkpoints. He approaches a door that hides a science lab where cells are being manipulated. Dr. Nordlinger opens the door to receive the Captain's communiqué, but he is somewhat unsettled by the note's request. The Captain returns to his bridge and orders Petty Office Bamford to bring the ship to shore.

At the Greater Maryland Water Reclamation Plant, Follmer does not see Doggett, getting pulled further into the water tank by a naked Shannon McMahon. When Follmer is out of view, McMahon places her mouth over Doggett's to blow air into his lungs.

The next morning, Reyes and Skinner are summoned to Follmer's office. They are being reined in on the X-file case they are pursuing. Follmer warns Reyes to distance herself from Doggett to save her career, but she accuses Follmer of having his own agenda against her partner.

Doggett, meanwhile, wakes up in his bed, alive. (As opposed to "dead" *snark*) McMahon is in his apartment. She tells him that she and Knowle Rohrer were both transformed into "Super Soldiers" who can't be killed. Although they were the original experiments, the program has since expanded to produce many more of their kind. She, however, hates what she has become, and she asks Doggett for help in exposing the men who are altering the water supply.

Skinner asks Scully why she is getting herself mixed up in Doggett's investigation when she was the one who specifically requested that Skinner let it lie. She admits that something unexplainable happened with her baby. She is afraid to tell Mulder, because he will want to come back, and that will place him in danger.

Doggett and Reyes call Scully to Doggett's apartment. McMahon explains to her that a chemical called chloramine has been added to public water supplies. Although the substance is usually harmless, the molecular structure of this chloramine has been altered to promote the mutation of offspring. This mutation will breed a generation of Super Soldiers. Scully is at first hesitant to accept the woman's claims, but then she sees the familiar reptilian ridge at the top of McMahon's spine. However, a medical examination shows that McMahon is, by all accounts, a normal human being.

After waiting at the Baltimore port with no word from his superiors, the Captain unsuccessfully tries to contact Carl Wormus at the Environmental Protection Agency. He then finds that Officer Bamford has been replaced -- by the presumed deceased Knowle Rohrer. Bamford's body is found floating nearby.

Meanwhile, Follmer suspends Doggett from the FBI, and Doggett lashes out at both Follmer and Deputy Director Kersh over a turf war for the X-files.

The Lone Gunmen show Reyes that they have tapped into the EPA's phone system and found calls to Carl Wormus. The calls were made after the man drowned. As they flip open their laptop, another call comes in, and Frohike answers as Wormus. It is the Captain, instructing Wormus to notify the FBI about the lab on board his ship. As the Captain asks for Wormus' help in exposing the inhumanity, Rohrer uses his extrasensory hearing to listen to the conversation from far away.

After finding that McMahon works for the Justice Department, Reyes pleads with Follmer to obtain the woman's files. She then reports to Doggett and Scully that McMahon is not to be trusted. The two men she killed were actually trying to expose the water contamination program. McMahon is using Doggett to get to the third whistleblower -- the Captain.

The three agents go down to the Baltimore docks to meet the Captain, but they find Knowle Rohrer instead. Scully and Reyes run off while Doggett tries to defend himself against the Super Soldier. Rohrer is about to kill Doggett, when McMahon appears and slices off Rohrer's head. Suddenly, Rohrer's bloodied hand rips through her torso, and she and Rohrer's headless body both fall off the pier into the water.

Doggett goes onto the ship with Scully and Reyes in search of the Captain. They see the Captain's decapitated head on the ground, but the ship is otherwise empty. Doggett stumbles upon an already detonated bomb, and he hurriedly gathers up Reyes and Scully in the ship's lab. Scully is reluctant to leave when she sees that whoever was on the boat was manipulating ova for transplantation. Doggett forcibly pulls her out before the ship explodes.

Two days later, Kersh reads Doggett's report on the case. Although he accounts for Super Soldiers, a naval ship and a conspiracy in the government, he does not mention Kersh in the investigation. Doggett admits that he could not find any wrongdoing on the Deputy Director's part, but he knows that his hands are indeed dirty. Kersh tells Doggett that he warned Mulder to leave to protect his life. Knowing that Mulder wouldn't leave only on Kersh's recommendation, Doggett realizes that Scully was the one who pushed Mulder to go.

Under the dark water, Shannon McMahon's body lies at the bottom the ocean. Although she appears to be lifeless, her eyes pop open.

Scully is woken by William's cries, and she soothes him back to sleep. When she turns out the light to go back to bed, the mobile over his crib slowly turns on its own." (From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

But it was not the squeaking of the mobile that woke Scully up, but a knock on her door. Rising from her couch, she tried to smooth down the strands of hair that stood up because of static electricity. "Who is it?" she called out casually as she took Mulder's small Baretta out of the ankle holster he left behind for her.

"John Doggett."

She safetied the weapon and quietly put it back in the holster. She crossed over and unlocked the door. "What are you doing here?" she asked. "It's late."

He got right to the point. "He went after Starkweather, didn't he?" When Scully dropped her head and looked at Doggett's shoes, not answering, his voice was soft with reproach. "Dana, why didn't you tell me?"

Scully looked up and leaned her head against the doorframe. "I wanted to... but Mulder asked me not too. He was afraid that you would try and follow him."

"He was right."

Scully chose her next words carefully. "I want to find her just as badly as you do. But Mulder has been given an opportunity to use avenues that you and I as federal agents do not have access to," When Doggett opened his mouth to protest, Scully reached out and grabbed his hand, "John, please listen to me. I'm not going to be in the X-Files Division anymore. Not in an official capacity. They've transferred me to teach at Quantico. Reyes can't handle the X-Files alone. We need you there. "

Doggett now was the one who lowered his head. "I really don't got a choice in the matter, do I? Mul-duh's long gone, isn't he?"

"Yes."

Both stood there awkwardly, Scully still holding his hand. Doggett raised his head. "You gonna be okay, by yourself here? With Boo?"

"I'm fine," she lied. "What about you?"

"I'll be fine," he lied right back at her. After giving her small hand a gentle squeeze, his withdrew his and said, "You call me if you need anything, Agent Scully."

When he turned to walk away, Scully cried out, "Agent Doggett, wait!"

Doggett walked back and waited by the door as Scully dashed back in. A few minutes later, she came back out, clasping something very tightly in her left hand.

"Everyone says that Mulder and I are night and day," she said, her voice wavering now. "But we do have one trait in common, we're stubborn as mules. When he steadfastly believes in the unbelievable, I have always doubted the extreme possibilities. Even when I learned that I was infertile because of tests performed on me when I was abducted. Somehow, Mulder got a hold of a vial, that contained my ova..."

"What?!?!?" Doggett spluttered. "Are you...? You've got to be... how in the hell did he manage that???"

"How does Mulder manage to do anything?" Scully said with a small smile. "I was so afraid to hope, but hope I did. I never gave a thought to having children or a family until that basic biological right was taken from me against my will. And even though I knew it was going to be next to impossible to conceive, I had to try. We attempted in vitro fertilization... and it didn't work. When I broke the news to Mulder, he told me, 'Don't give up on a miracle.' Then William came to me... and I pray to God that he's just that, a miracle. A gift of faith. Not somebody's science project. That's why I wanted to see if my name were on those test tubes on that ship."

Doggett looked away, swallowing a great lump in his throat. "I'm... not sure where you're going with this Agent Scully ..."

"During the bad times, while I was pregnant and while Mulder was missing, those words his have sustained me. It's not easy for me to go against my nature and I struggle everyday to believe. I never have and never will be as open as Mulder. But I want to believe and so I try. And every morning, I wake up and tell myself what Mulder told me. And now," with her free hand, she took Doggett's right hand and opened it up. "I tell those words to you, Agent Doggett," she opened up her left hand and let the contents fall into his hand.

Doggett stared, took a sharp breath and swallowed again. In his hand, shining in the bright hallway light, was a holy medal of St. Christopher, the Patron Saint of Travel on a delicate silver chain. Normally this necklace was around Starkweather's neck. Doggett looked away from the necklace and up at Scully.

Her eyes were wide and solemn. She whispered to him. "Don't give up on a miracle."

A pickup truck parks unnoticed outside Evelyn and Darren Mountjoy's house, while the couple plays Scrabble inside. When the Mountjoy's dog barks at the front door, Evelyn lets it out to run into the woods. They hear the dog's yelping outside, and the lights mysteriously go out. Darren orders his wife to hide in the basement while he loads his revolver. From the stairs, he sees the intruder approaching, and he fires. However, Darren soon realizes that the person he shot is his wife. Her hands and mouth are bound with duct tape. Suddenly, strange sounds rise behind him. They are voices, whispering backwards. Darren turns to see two men with demonic-looking faces coming towards him.

The next morning, Agents Reyes and Doggett look over the crime scene at the Mountjoy home in Weston, West Virginia. The couple's bodies are sitting upright at the kitchen table, and Evelyn has a gun posed in her hand. The Scrabble board is laid out in front of them, blank, except for "DAEMONICUS" spelled out in the center. The word means "Satan" or "demon possession." Doggett tries to fend the case off as merely some kind of Satanic ritual, but Reyes has other ideas beyond those based in reality. Her theories are confounded when three blood-slicked snakes squirm out of the bullet holes in Evelyn's chest.

Although Scully is on leave and serving as an instructor at Quantico, the agents ask her to perform the autopsies. Evidence proves that Darren was most likely tricked into shooting his wife, and that he was held down and shot in a chair. The snakes were sewn into the body post-mortem. The facts show that the murders were man-made, but Reyes still believes that she felt the presence of evil in the house. With a lead about an escapee from a nearby mental institution, Reyes and Doggett question Dr. Monique Sampson about her patient, Kenneth Richman. Richman was a doctor who brutally murdered his own patients, but he had no prior knowledge of Satanic ritual. Dr. Sampson tips them off to a possible accomplice -- Paul Gerlach, a hospital guard who has recently gone missing.

Reyes and Doggett question Josef Kobold, a former professor who is now an inmate in the cell next to Richman's. Kobold's cryptic answers lead the agents to believe that he knows more than he is letting on. Meanwhile, the two demonic-appearing men from the Mountjoy attacks get out of their pickup truck in the woods. One shoots the other with a gun, then wipes the blood from his hands. The backwards whispers echo once more, but seem to be coming instead from Kobold. Dr. Sampson summons the agents back to the institution when Kobold asks for Doggett. The professor was also repeating the phrase, "Prince of the Apostles." Kobold tells them that "He" is speaking and has killed again. He leads the agents to the woods, where Paul Gerlach's body is found hanging upside down from a tree. He is wearing the demon mask and is staged in a mock-crucifixion pose, presumably put into such post-mortem. The "Prince of the Apostles" phrase refers to St. Peter, who was crucified upside down. This is known as the symbol marking the power of the anti-Christ.

Although Doggett believes Kobold is a master manipulator toying with them, Reyes is convinced that Kobold can somehow help them find the real perpetrator -- Richman. They turn to Kobold again, and he requests a larger cell with windows. Doggett is frustrated that Reyes wants to give in to the psychopath's every whim, but Kobold is moved to another room, and Officer Custer is assigned to guard him. Kobold confronts Doggett with personal intimations about his own life that no one else would know. Doggett is uncomfortable, but before he can leave the cell room, Kobold's eyes roll back and a strange sound emanates from his mouth -- voices, whispering backwards. Doggett calls for Reyes, who translates the word as "medicus," or physician.

The agents rush to the home of Dr. Sampson, who unbeknownst to anyone, has been followed home by the looming pickup truck. However, they are too late to save her, finding her body with a dozen hypodermic needles jammed into her face. Scully reports that the needles contained the same medication that Dr. Sampson had treated Richman with, and he is determined to still be a suspect. Doggett furiously looks over at Kobold, held in restraints, knowing that he is really the one responsible for the crimes. Kobold watches as Scully tries to calm Doggett. The backwards whispers swell once more." (From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

FBI Academy
Quantico, Virginia
Outside of Autopsy Room 1

Pacing outside of Quantico's morgue, waiting for Scully to finish up the complete autopsying the unfortunate Dr. Monique Sampson, Doggett paced back and forth.

"John," Monica sighed. "Sit down, you're wearing a groove into the floor. Agent Scully is working as fast as she can."

Doggett didn't hear her. He was too busy re-playing Kobold's last insinuations back in his mind, like a tape loop. Play, stop, rewind. Play, stop, rewind.

Play....

"Agent Reyes believes me, but you don't, Mr. Doggett."

"Doesn't matter what I believe."

"I'm wondering... Why would a skeptic, such as yourself would accept assignment to an obscure unit of the FBI devoted exclusively to the investigating of paranormal phenomena?"

"Been checkin' up on me, Professor?"

"Ordinarily men don't pursue occupations **against** their natural inclinations, unless there's some strong countervailing reason... Seeking the love and approval of a woman perhaps. Agent Reyes has affection for you... but you for her? Of course... it could be for someone else. Or something else... some dark secret from your past..."

"That's enough..."

"... an unsolved tragedy for which you feel responsible. In some morbid way you haven't even admitted it to yourself. Perhaps you feel that chasing ghosts will answer the questions that damn you."

Stop.

Rewind.

Play.

"Ordinarily men don't pursue occupations **against** their natural inclinations, unless there's some strong countervailing reason... Seeking the love and approval of a woman perhaps. Agent Reyes has affection for you... but you for her? Of course... it could be for someone else. Or something else... some dark secret from your past... an unsolved tragedy for which you feel responsible. In some morbid way you haven't even admitted it to yourself. Perhaps you feel that chasing ghosts will answer the questions that damn you."

Chasing ghosts, chasing ghosts... another ghost materialized in his mind. A ghost of a memory that slowly faded from transparency into full texture and color. Like a forgotten old home movie transferred from 8mm reel to digital.

September 27, 2001
Best Western Manhattan Hotel
17 West 32nd Street
New York, New York
8:21 PM Eastern Standard Time

It was becoming routine for Doggett to stop by Dae Dong, a Korean/Japanese restaurant just off of the hotel lobby, and place a carry-out order to bring up to his room. He was normally too worn out to seek out supper anywhere else. Or to be more accurate, too depressed.

Sometimes Starkweather would join him, sometimes not. Depended on what kind of day she had. Sometimes she wouldn't make it back to the hotel until eleven o'clock, midnight, one o'clock. But then, sometimes, neither did he.

Tonight, she was back from Ground Zero relatively early. She had stopped somewhere and purchased a rather large bottle of Jack Daniels. Which they both ended up almost finishing as Starkweather picked half-heartedly at her clam and scallion pancake and Doggett stirred his rice cake soup around and around after eating just the wontons. Neither one of them were saying very much as Doggett flipped through the channels, trying to find something to take their minds off of why they were there. But every other channel had a September 11 news story on. Every channel either was either re-broadcasting the planes crashing into the towers, the desperate people jumping from the burning skyscrapers or the panic in the streets. Since Doggett and Starkweather witnessed the entire tragedy up close and personal, neither one of them felt the need to watch the re-runs of the disaster.

"Just turn it off," Starkweather finally said wearily. She rolled over from her stomach to sit up on Doggett's bed. Crossing her legs, Indian style, she reached for her glass and drained it. She looked exhausted and a little bit drunk.

Doggett complied and switched off the TV. He grabbed his drink glass, got up from the little table he was sitting at and walked over to the bed. Taking her empty glass, he went over to the small dresser where the Jack Daniels was. He fixed her another Jack and Coke with ice before pouring himself a neat whiskey. Handing her back her beverage of choice he slumped back down in his chair, loosening his tie. "Jesus," he finally said.

"Your day as good as mine, then?" she took a mouthful of liquor and swallowed.

"Oh dandy," Doggett said sarcastically. "Love my job."

"Yeah, me too." Starkweather held her cold drink glass to her cheek. "What fresh hell occurred today?"

"Ended up bein' called away from questionin' suspects to help break up a protest that turned ugly in front of a Muslim mosque. It wasn't like riotin' in the streets. But they were bein' disorderly. Yelling, "Towelheads, go home" and worse'n that. " He sipped at his drink. "They were throwin' shit at the mosque time I got there with the other feds. Broke a few windows. The NYPD wanted fed back up 'cause they weren't sure if it was Klux Klan or some damn thing. 'Course it wasn't. Just a bunch of angry, ignorant assholes looking to place blame somewhere." "Jesus," Starkweather shook her head. "Blame the terrorists, not the religion."

"Do you understand it?" Doggett asked her. "Islam?"

She shrugged. As Doggett finished his whiskey, she started to talk in her wonderfully hypnotizing lecturing voice. It did not surprise Doggett she wanted to be an instructor at Quantico. She certainly held his attention. "As much as it fascinates me, world religions are really not my forte. You'd be better off asking Reyes. But, from what I remember from my world religion class, the original concept behind Islam is peace. The word Islam actually means peace. Some people just perverted the tenets of Islam to suit their sick needs. Which any religion can be susceptible to that. And there is always going to be ignorant people persecuting those who do not believe in what they believe. That kind of hatred goes back to the time of Jesus Christ. The Jews and the Romans hunted the Christians. Then the Christians rose to power and hunted the Jews and Muslims. Provoked wars, called them 'Crusades' in the name of God. Then Christianity divided against itself and we have the battles between the Catholics and the Protestants. And while this was going on, witches were still being burned at the stake, heretics were stretched on the rack. Native Americans were being chased of their lands in the name of the white man's God, for it was the Manifest Destiny. And the Muslims still nursed their hatred for the infidels as Muslim Africans were being kidnapped and bought by wealthy cotton plantation owners. And as we as a species and a society progress, becoming more knowledgeable. Favoring science over mythology, the occasional madman somehow manages to rise to power and have the ability to annihilate thousands, millions of innocent people all in the name of religious intolerance. Queen Mary. Hitler. Slobadad Milosevic. Saddam Hussein. Bin Laden. " She shook her head. "The irony, the ultimate irony is if you pick apart every religion. Christianity. Judaism. Islam. Buddhism. Hindu. Taoism. Wiccan. Paganism. Whatever. The bare bones of it are the same. Treat others as you wish to be treated. And the hope that there is a Greater Power who will reward our correct actions when faced with adversity. Man's desire to believe that there is a method behind the madness." She drained her drink. "It just doesn't make sense to me. Religion." She rolled off the bed and walked over to Doggett.

"You're not religious then?" he asked her as he gave her his empty glass. "I thought you were Catholic."

She shook her head. "When Ben and I got engaged, his family, although they liked me, were not happy that he was marrying an agnostic. So I converted to Catholicism to shut them up. But I don't practice. Neither does Ben. The holy medal I wear is actually a gift from that kid at Rose Hill. Sandy Gallimore. To thank me for trying to find his sister's murderer. Not because I believe Saint Christopher will protect me when I travel," She poured warm Coke over ice and whiskey while reminding herself that Doggett took his straight. After pouring the last of the Jack Daniels in to Doggett's glass, she said, "I believe there's a God, but beyond that, I don't know... there's too much I question and too much that science refutes that most religions demand you to believe in. The Creation Story for example. I'm sorry, I just can't bring myself to believe in a Garden of Eden when we have tangible proof of our planet's evolutionary process. "Her words slurred just a little. "What about you? You don't strike me as a religious soul." She handed him his tumbler back to him and sat back on the bed, facing him.

"I used to be," he said, grinning at her raised eyebrows. "I'm not so much as a skeptic that I don't believe in God. In fact, He's saved my ass a time too many not to believe in a God. I was raised Baptist and like you, I switched religions when I got married. But unlike you, mine was more 'cause at that point in my life, I didn't agree with the Baptist dogma. And Barb really wasn't thrilled with being a Lutheran. So we church-shopped and became a happy Methodist couple. Baptized Luke a Methodist. I used to love it when I'd have Sundays off... so I could go to church with both of 'em..."

Starkweather had a feeling why he stopped attending church but she stayed quiet as Doggett continued to speak. The liquor had loosened his tongue too.

"After we lost Luke, Barb and I still attended Sunday services, but after a few weeks of nothin' but pitying glances from the parishioners, Barb stopped going. Said she couldn't handle the looks, the whispers no more. I still went, but didn't last much longer than she did. It was harder to go by myself. Plus, instead of sittin' there like a sponge, soakin' in the words like I was taught we were supposed to do, I started questioning every damn word that came out of the minister's mouth. It just stopped makin' sense. It stopped being a comfort. I started noticin' that people liked to hide behind 'God's will'. It just seemed that people didn't want to be accountable for their own actions or make people accountable. They preferred to hide their heads in the sand instead of standin' up to it. Rather claim God's Will or the Work of the Devil. Supernatural forces in charge. Conveniently forgetting that humanity has the blessing and the curse of free will. Nobody **makes** anyone do anything." He sighed and slumped back into his chair, stretching his long legs out. "Sorry," he apologized with a sheepish grin. "Didn't mean to ramble like that."

Starkweather dismissed his apology with a wave a hand. "So you believe in God, but not the Devil?"

He snorted, shaking his head. "It's a story made up to scare people. You're a doctor. You know that most if not all mental illnesses were blamed on demonic possession for the longest time. Evil comes from here," he pointed to his head, "and here," he pointed to his heart. "Not" and he pointed down to the floor. When Starkweather laughed he protested. "Well, it's true. And that's another thing that I can't swallow about religion. To me, ultimately it seems to be about the blame game. That evil comes from without instead of within. The classic age-old story on how people don't wanna be accountable for their own actions. Oh the snake made me pick the apple. Oh the woman made me try the apple. The devil made me do it."

"It's just not the devil people blame their actions on," Starkweather said softly. "Everyone blames their actions on something or someone else instead of the face in the mirror. God made me do it. Allah made me do it. The drugs made me do it. The booze made me do it. My dog told me to do it. My mother beat me, that's why I hit my children. My father beat my mother, that's why I hit my wife," she laughed darkly as she took another swallow of Jack and Coke. "I think my spouse is cheating on me, therefore I'm going to have an affair."

The silence following her final remark was extremely uncomfortable. Starkweather lowered her eyes, stared at the carpet and Doggett's feet.

She heard him put his glass down with a clink and get out of his chair. She still looked at the carpet when he sat down beside her. "I'm sorry." He took her glass out of her hands and set it on the floor.

She finally turned her head. A small smile was on her lips. "It's not your fault he doesn't trust me," she whispered, gripping the edge of the mattress with both of her hands. She shifted her eyes away from him, looking down at the carpet again. "No matter what I do, I just can't win. If I do what I want to do, I lose my husband. If I do what I'm supposed to do, I lose myself." She looked up at him again, her heart and her conflict contorting her pretty face. "I'm sorry. I'm tired and I'm drunk and I'm saying things I shouldn't be saying, I'm thinking about things I shouldn't be..." her voice trailed off uncertainly as she hung her head, her hair falling like a veil.

"Thinking what?" Doggett asked her softly, tentatively placing his hand over hers. Not holding it, just resting it over hers while with his other hand pushing her hair away so he could see her face.

She hesitated a second too long. She even leaned towards him, then tensed up and leaned away. "That I should go," she stood up. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," he lied, hating himself for being so transparent.

She backed away, turned and stumbled towards the door.

Doggett couldn't leave it alone. "Hey Doc..."

She paused by the doorframe. She turned her head, "Yeah..."

He stood up. "You stopped tonight... why didn't you...that... other night?" That was closest that he could bring himself to actually ask her why she kissed him while trying to comfort him over the loss of his friends after the September 11 attacks.

A wicked little smile lit up her lips. "The devil made me do it," she quipped as she let herself out of the room.

Back to the "present"....

"Back at the mental institution, Doggett attempts to interrogate Kobold about his past knowledge of Satanism. Kobold lobs back insinuations that Doggett is competing with the long-lost Agent Mulder for Scully's affection. Angrily, Doggett grabs hold of Kobold, but a thick orange goo violently spews from Kobold's mouth. It keeps gushing uncontrollably as Doggett calls for a medic.

"After an examination, Scully concludes that Kobold is completely normal. Reyes suspects that the orange bile is spiritual ectoplasm, but Doggett won't be swayed by any more unexplainable theories. He is convinced that Kobold is a liar who is playing games with them." (From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

Angry, Doggett stalked away from Reyes. ::How can a woman so smart be so stupid sometimes?:: he fumed inwardly at her. ::God f*cking dammit, Monica, sometimes you can be so naïve.::

He was afraid that her naivete was going to get her killed one of these days.

As he walked away, he did cool down a little. He had to admit to himself that if he informed Scully and Reyes about the two probing conversations he had with Kobold, they would see things his way. And he had to admit he couldn't just because it was too personal. He paused to glare at Kobold through the small glass window in the heavy security door to his new room.

::But you f*cked up and you don't even know it. I know you're a liar now. Yeah, you pulled the rug under my feet 'bout the whole "love and approval of a woman" and the "dark secret" bullsh*t, but you didn't do your homework, good Professor. You picked the wrong woman. It was never Dana that I wanted... it was never her...::

Feeling his anger building up again, Doggett pulled himself away from the cell door and stormed away, wishing he would have punched Kobold just once before the man threw up on him. Then he got angry about how expensive the dry-cleaning bill was going to be for this month. And about how his favorite tie had been ruined.

Inside his cell, back towards the door, Josef Kobold knelt on the floor, yoga style. His eyes were closed the entire time that Doggett had stood there, glaring at him through the window. He did not open them when Doggett finally went away. But a depraved little smile appeared on his lips as the whispering started up again.

"Starkweather..." Kobold himself whispered once as he tilted his head up to better hear the voices surrounding him....

"As Officer Custer guards Kobold's room, a lightning storm competes with the ever-present whispers. Custer is drawn to the source of those whispers, and looks in Kobold's room. Kobold's face suddenly changes into the demonic mask.

Doggett calls Scully in her car. Kobold has identified something called "Happy Landing" as the place to find Richman. Scully recognizes it as an old marina she passes on her commute to Quantico, and she heads there alone. At the marina, Scully is attacked by a demon mask-wearing man. When Doggett and Reyes arrive with a pack of troopers, Scully is nowhere to be found. Kobold is held in shackles in a police car, and Doggett threatens him to tell where she is being hidden. All the professor can say is "Game's over, Mr. Doggett. You've lost." A gunshot rings out over the marina, and the agents find Scully unharmed, in an abandoned warehouse. Richman, having held her at gunpoint until Doggett arrived, shot himself. Reyes can't figure out why he would do that, but Doggett quickly understands, and he runs after Kobold, who is escaping from the police car. Doggett shoots at the fleeing prisoner, and Kobold, hit, falls into the water.

Back at Quantico, Reyes and Doggett tell Scully that their case is not completely solved. It is understood that Kobold designed the crimes so that they would be on the case, and then researched all of their backgrounds on the internet. However, Kobold's body has not been found, even though they saw him get shot. The body in the water is actually Officer Custer, the guard assigned to his cell. Kobold had selected his victims so that parts of their names spelled out the word "Dæmonicus." He wanted the agents to see how brilliantly he could beat them at his game. By the time they realized it, Kobold would be too far away to get caught. Reyes is still unsettled. She did feel the presence of evil and believes that Doggett had the same premonition as well."

Chapter Four
"4-D"
June 1, 2002

"Erwin Lukesh enters his apartment building foyer, while Reyes fiddles with the derailleur of a bicycle in the hallway. This is a stakeout being recorded by a hidden camera, as Doggett and Follmer watch from a surveillance van nearby. Lukesh is a wanted killer who removes women's tongues. This makes Doggett nervous for Reyes' safety. In order to positively ID Lukesh, the agents wait for him to open the mailbox for Apartment 4-D. Doggett, however, is eager to nab him sooner. Lukesh senses that something is not right, and he moves away from the mailboxes. Reyes takes out her gun and begins to follow him, talking to the agents in the van as she heads into a stairwell. Suddenly, Lukesh appears and slashes a straight razor at her. Doggett and Follmer bolt out of the van when they hear Reyes' screams. They find her throat cut, and Doggett goes to apprehend Lukesh. Follmer warns him that the killer has Reyes' gun. Doggett goes outside into a dead-end alley and corners Lukesh, who calmly raises his bloody hands in surrender. Police cars approach from behind, and Doggett turns slightly to let them know his location. When he turns back, Lukesh has disappeared. Doggett walks forward into the dead-end alley. The police cars have vanished, and Lukesh is now behind him. He holds Reyes' gun pointed at Doggett's head. When Doggett swerves around, Lukesh fires.

Reyes, unharmed, unpacks boxes as she moves into her new apartment. Doggett pays her a visit. He is also unharmed, and he has brought her a housewarming gift -- polish sausage sandwiches from a nearby stand. Reyes goes into the kitchen to get plates, and her phone rings. It is Skinner, with news that Doggett has been shot in an alley. Reyes is confused when she sees that Doggett is no longer in her apartment.

Follmer and Scully meet Reyes at the hospital. She is convinced they are mistaken about Doggett, since she knows he was just at her apartment. However, she sees for herself that Doggett lies paralyzed in a coma. Reyes tries to make sense of this impossible situation, and Scully recounts her own story of her father's visitation to her after his death. Reyes is certain that this is not what happened to her. Skinner learns from ballistics that the bullets came from Reyes' weapon, and he has Scully bring Reyes to the police station. Follmer questions Reyes. As he brings up the evidence against her, she stands by her story. From the observation room, an eyewitness to the crime identifies Reyes as the shooter. The eyewitness is Lukesh.

At the hospital, Scully and Skinner explain to Reyes that the case against her has some weaknesses. When Skinner called earlier, Reyes was at home, putting her fourteen miles from the crime scene. However, while her gun was never fired, the bullets do match her weapon. Doggett awakes from his coma, tapping on the bed rail. Skinner recognizes the tapping as Morse code. Doggett spells out "Lukesh." Reyes, however, has no idea what the word means. Back at his home, Lukesh tends to his bed-ridden mother. When she's not looking, he fingers the Sig Sauer pistol he grabbed from Reyes. Mrs. Lukesh asks for her favorite sandwich, and Lukesh pulls the secret ingredient from the refrigerator -- a human tongue. Later that night, Lukesh slips out of the house, but his mother hears him leave. He walks into the alley with a straight razor in his hand. He mysteriously vanishes into thin air.

At Reyes' apartment, Skinner shows her a file on Erwin Lukesh. Lukesh claims to have seen Reyes exit the alley after Doggett was shot. She believes that Lukesh might somehow be involved. Follmer has Skinner bring Reyes to the hospital, because she is the only one Doggett will speak to. As Doggett maneuvers a joystick attached to a communicator, he asks how Reyes is actually alive when he saw her throat cut. Doggett tells Reyes and Follmer that Lukesh not only tried to kill him, but Lukesh also murdered Reyes. The next day, Reyes asks Doggett if he knows of a food stand near her new apartment. He immediately recognizes it as the best polish sausages in the city. With renewed hope in his answer, she proposes a theory to him. Perhaps Lukesh can move freely between parallel universes, and somehow Doggett followed him through that door. In this other world, Reyes was killed while investigating Lukesh. Yet here, she doesn't even know the man's name.

Follmer and Skinner interrogate Lukesh, informing him that Doggett named him as the shooter. They ask to speak to Lukesh's mother in order to corroborate his alibi. Lukesh refuses the request, which alerts Skinner and Follmer that he is hiding something. As Lukesh walks out, he passes Reyes in the police station hallway. She boldly asks how he moves between worlds to act out his fantasies. He inches close to her face, calmly saying, "God, I enjoyed you. You bled just like a pig." "(From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

As Lukesh strutted away from the police station, he thought smugly of the reason why the other agents from "the other world" (as he liked to think of the alternative universe he had access to) were investigating him. Seems that he killed the wrong woman, pissed off the Bureau intensely, especially John Doggett, oh but the fun he was having made it well worthwhile. It was a good memory that put him in a good mood as he walked home...

The Alternative Universe
A few months earlier...

Erwin Lukesh couldn't keep his eyes off the pretty woman, standing outside the J. Edgar Hoover building. Her hair was long, blonde and lovely. Her hazel eyes sparkled with a zest for life and a feline energy coupled with a feral intelligence. Her coat, a vintage black military coat she scored at an antique shop for under thirty dollars, engulfed her tiny frame. But what was pushing Lukesh's buttons was her porcelain skin.

He bet that she would be like Snow White if he spilled her blood.

He watched the woman wait for someone inside the federal building, occasionally stamping her feet to keep them warm, keeping her bare hands in her coat pockets. Finally, her wait paid off as a tall man with crystal blue eyes walked through the heavy doors and straight towards her. Lukesh watched him kiss her tenderly and her loop her arm through his and together they walked down the street as it began to snow.

"So," Special Agent John Doggett asked her, "how're you doin'?"

"Shitty," Special Agent Jerilyn Starkweather grumbled. "The divorce proceeding are taking fucking forever. Ben's being such a dick. He's contesting the divorce on the novel grounds that we're Catholic."

"Wonderful," Doggett groaned. "So now what?"

"Oh I don't know," she scowled, leaning her cheek against his arm. "I don't understand why he just won't give me a clean break. I mean, well... Jiminy Christmas, he already moved back to Minneapolis. It's bad enough he took my cat, I don't know why he's prolonging this. After I caught him with his pants down, no pun intended, naturally, I highly doubt we're going to get back together so I do not see the point of his actions," she growled.

Doggett now put his arm around her and held her closer. "I told you divorce was gonna be a bitch, Mrs. Starkweather."

"Well, I know... but still... Jesus Christ, what a little shithead." She shook her head. "Oh, I don't want to talk about it anymore. I do not want to waste my Christmas break whinging and whining about my soon-to-be ex."

"Rub it in that you get a Christmas break," Doggett quipped.

"Don't get too excited. I get to spend most of it grading term papers and I swear, Papa John, I can not BELIEVE the utter MORONS Quantico is allowing into the Academy these days. Half of my class is failing right now, I am not kidding. But I don't want to talk about work either," she rubbed her hands together to keep them warm.

"Hey, where are your gloves?"

"I lost them," she said blithely. "Besides, it gives me a chance to show off this," she held out her left hand, looking at the pretty ring on the third finger. "Much better than the other ring, that diamond Ben gave me was way too ostentatious," she said as she admired the tiny, sparkling lavender stone called tanzinite, surrounded by tiny diamond chips set upon a white gold band.

"I thought it suited you," Doggett said, secretly relieved that she liked it. He made a mental note to thank Scully in helping him pick it out.

Just then, shots fired out, screaming started. Doggett and Starkweather looked at each other. "Shit, there went plans for a nice evening," Starkweather bitched as she pulled out her badge and her gun.

Starkweather and Doggett ran after the thieves as they fled the café they had just robbed. "FEDERAL AGENTS, STOP RIGHT THERE!" Doggett yelled as the thieves split up, one ducking into the alley, the other kept running down the street. As Starkweather followed the one that went into the alley, Doggett yelled at her, "Doc, be careful!"

Starkweather barely heard his warning. Gun out, she entered the alley, unaware of a seemingly meek and mild mannered man following her.

"Alright, scumbag," she yelled, weapon out. "I'm a federal agent, I'm armed and I'm on my period. Come nice and quietly and I promise I won't shoo-" she gasped in surprise when Lukesh jumped her from behind.

It took maybe five minutes, but to Lukesh, it was the best and longest five minutes of his life. Whistling, he folded up his long razor and calmly left his other world, unknowing that he had left behind a witness to Agent Starkweather's murder. A witness who promised to the police officer that found him, shaking beside the body, laying as still and pale as Snow White in a puddle of ruby blood that he could ID the killer, if the DA would cut him a deal, of course.

Upon hearing the news, Doggett pushed through the crowd of police and onlookers to get to her body. He made it just as the EMT was closing her pretty hazel eyes.

And he felt his world collapsing...

Meanwhile, back in "Our World"
The present....

"Lukesh returns home to find that Reyes' gun is missing from a drawer. His mother confronts him about the gun, as well as his sneaking out of the house. She tells him that the FBI has left messages for her, and that she intends to speak to them. Lukesh begins crying, and pulls out his razor. He approaches his mother's bed and strikes her.

At the hospital, Doggett types out the message "2 Doggetts cant be in 1 world - U can fix." He begs Reyes to pull his life support plug, believing in her theory about the parallel universes. If one of him is removed, the other Doggett will enter this world. Their conversation is interrupted by Skinner, calling to tell her that Lukesh killed his mother and then disappeared. Reyes returns to her apartment with a radio wired to Scully, Follmer, and Skinner in a surveillance van outside. They are watching everything in her apartment over video monitors. Suddenly, Lukesh appears from nowhere and grabs Reyes from behind. He pulls the earwig radio from her ear and holds his razor to her throat, fully aware that a van is outside. When the agents lose Reyes on the video, Scully is sure that Lukesh is inside the apartment. Lukesh blames Reyes for making him kill his mother. He is about to slit her throat, when Follmer storms in and shoots him, saving Reyes.

Late that night, Reyes goes to the hospital with her decision made. She turns off Doggett's respirator, and he takes his last breath. Crying, she closes her eyes. When she opens them again, she is no longer in the hospital. She is in her unpacked apartment, as she was before, and Doggett tells her to forget the plates for the polish sausages. She is stunned and overwhelmed at the sight of him. He wonders what is wrong with her, as she tearfully hugs him. "I'm good," she happily cries." (From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

Meanwhile...

The "other" Doggett, the one who had his life support shut off by the last living Monica Reyes opened his eyes. Confused, he looked around, not sure if he believed what he saw. Beautiful blue skies. Tall, green grass waving in the wind. Wildflowers growing tangled up in the grass. And a grove of trees on the very fringe of the horizon.

He got up and dusted himself off, discovering that he was wearing jeans and a T-shirt instead of the very drafty hospital gown. He started walking towards the grove.

The closer and closer he got to the grove, he could see a figure of someone standing in the shade of the trees. Then he realized that it was actually two people, the smaller of the two was being held by the taller. The taller, upon seeing Doggett approach, put the smaller person down and he made a beeline towards Doggett.

"Daddy, daddy, daddy!!!" he cried out joyfully.

"Oh my God," Doggett felt tears come to his eyes. He dropped to his knees and held his arms out for his son to fly into for unfortunately... or fortunately, depends on how one chooses to interpret this, some things, no matter where they are, never change.

Little Luke wrapped his arms tightly around his daddy's neck. "What took you so long?" he reproached his father.

Doggett smiled. "I had some things to do 'fore I could come," he told him.

Luke pulled on him. "Daddy, come meet my new friend. She's a real nice lady," and Doggett got to his feet and let Luke pull him towards the figure standing by the trees. "Jeri, Jeri!" he cried out. "Look! He came, I told you he would. I told you!!"

Jerilyn Starkweather, dressed in a simple white sundress came to Doggett with a shy smile on her lips. "Hey Papa John," she said, her voice cracking as Doggett took her into his arms. Blinking back her own tears she said, "They said you were coming. I didn't want to believe them..." she stroked his hair.

"Doc," he said, resting his cheek on top of her head, holding her as tight as he could. "You ain't gonna believe how I got here. I guess there are parallel dimensions or some damn thing like that."

"I know," she said, looking up at him, wanting, needing to see his face, his blue eyes. Luke just grinned, taking both his dad's hand and hers. "I heard about it. How there's two worlds and how things got fu- arggh..." she stopped herself from swearing in front of Luke. "Messed up by that troll Lukesh. I hope it's hot where he's sitting now," she smirked wickedly.

"What about the other us's?" Doggett asked. "Are they... we... um... the other Doggett and Starkweather okay?"

"Well... the other you is fine. I guess the other me was kidnapped and as of right now, they can't find the other me. The other Mulder, and God help us that there's TWO Mulders, he's looking for me while the other you and the other Scully and the other Reyes keep the X-Files going."

"They're gonna find the other you, right?"

Starkweather put her hand on Doggett's cheek. "I hate to put it this way, Papa John," she whispered tenderly. "But it's really not our problem anymore." She stood on her tiptoes. "We'll be fine, I know it. But it's out of our hands now," and she kissed him. Luke pulled his hand out of Starkweather's so he could cover his eyes.

"Are y'all done YET??" he complained after about five minutes of "mushiness."

Doggett swung Luke up onto his shoulders and took Starkweather's hand. "How 'bout you and Jeri show me 'round?"

With a gaggle of onlookers, teenagers "Sky Commander Winky" and "Cap'n Dare" are videotaping their latest stunts for the cable access "Dumb Ass" show. Cap'n Dare (otherwise known as Bill) slips on a helmet, as Winky (David Winkle) pelts him with balls from a pitching machine. Cap'n Dare's girlfriend, Natalie Gordon, watches unhappily. So does another boy, Dylan Lokensgard. The boys move on to their next feat, and Cap'n Dare sits inside a portable toilet that is pulled by a car across a parking lot at a high speed. The car skids to a stop, and Cap'n Dare and the toilet roll down an embankment. Cap'n Dare emerges unharmed, and the crowd laughs. Natalie is again, not amused. They move onto their third stunt, where Cap'n Dare will roll down a hill in a shopping cart, onto a ramp that will sail him over Natalie, who waits on the ground. When the stunt goes awry, Cap'n Dare is thrown to the ground. Natalie and Winky are horrified to see that Cap'n Dare's head has collapsed inside his undamaged helmet.

Doggett and Reyes arrive at the Medical Examiner's Office in Ocean County, New Jersey. Dr. Fountain has requested help because he is unable to explain Bill's cause of death. Suddenly, the corpse's eyelid flutters. Reyes gently opens the eye with forceps, revealing a hollow socket from which a swarm of flies emerge. They immediately call Scully in to make an assessment, and she concludes that the flies fed at such a furious rate that it caused the boy's head to collapse from within. The helmet actually protected his head in the crash. Yet Scully pronounces that no fly would act so aggressively. Dr. Rocky Bronzino, an entomologist who appears in the doorway, quickly refutes her conclusion. He informs the agents that the Australian bush fly and the New Zealand screwworm fly are both aggressive insects. However, these varieties are not the flies that apparently killed Bill. Reyes says that they are not investigating a murder by an insect, but a human.

At Garfield High School in nearby Manahawkin, New Jersey, Natalie sits in the cafeteria, saddened by her boyfriend's death. Dylan watches her from afar, as Winky approaches Natalie with a camera. He wants her to speak on the "Cap'n Dare Memorial Video," but she refuses, blaming him for making Bill do the stunts. Winky notices that Dylan has stood up to defend Natalie. He threatens Dylan, and spreads food on his head. Dylan's mother, an Administrator at the school, sees this and summons Winky to her office. Waiting for him are Reyes and Doggett, who believe that Winky may have killed his friend in order to sell the video to television networks. Winky denies the claim, and jumps out of his chair while violently scratching his back. Reyes and Doggett see that on his back is written DUMB ASS in red, bloody welts. Dylan returns home, ignoring his mother to retreat to his bedroom. He lies on his bed, listening to Syd Barrett and looking longingly at a picture of Natalie. Mrs. Lokensgard knocks on his locked door, which makes him only raise his music louder. As he shuts his eyes to cry, bugs swarm over his window and begin to fill up his room.

The next morning, Dr. Bronzino informs the agents that the flies that ate Bill's brain and skull happened to all be female. This suggests that something chemical or hormonal might have triggered the attack. Yet since lice had also caused Winky's wounds, they wonder whether someone was somehow directing the bugs to act. They decide to question Dylan Lokensgard, who was present for every stunt and had a run-in with Winky just before the lice injured his back.

Dylan sees Natalie leave his front door. He rushes out the window, but his mother intercepts him and warns Dylan to stay away from Natalie. She tries to talk to him about the changes his body is going through, but Dylan brushes her off and heads for school. Meanwhile, Dr. Bronzino and Scully revisit the scene of Cap'n Dare's death, tracking the atmosphere with an electroantennogram device. While not-so-subtly hitting on Scully, Bronzino surmises that the bugs are somehow being driven crazy with desire.

Suddenly, the device's signal loudly blares. They don't see Dylan, the cause of the device's alarm, peddling past them on his bike. Dylan finds Natalie at school, and she apologizes for Winky's behavior in the cafeteria the day before. They reminisce about their childhood. Feeling uncomfortable, Natalie leaves abruptly. Reyes and Doggett accost Dylan, and question him in his mother's office. They show him the "Dumb Ass" video, and he nervously begins to perspire. Doggett hands him a tissue to wipe his sweat. Mrs. Lokensgard enters, refusing to let their interrogation continue, when flies begin to gather on the office ceiling. Dylan's entire body is suddenly and mysteriously covered in flies.

A Vector Control team evacuates the school, but all the bugs have disappeared. The paramedics examine Dylan, who is unharmed with no bites on him. Reyes believes that Dylan staged the attack to make himself look like a victim instead of a perpetrator. Mrs. Lokensgard drags Dylan to the car, while Winky eyes him suspiciously. Dr. Bronzino examines the tissue that Dylan used to wipe his sweat, finding that the boy is actually secreting bug pheromones. Although that notion is preposterous, Reyes theorizes that Dylan is using the bugs to act out against anyone who might harm Natalie. Later that night, Dylan is surprised to see Natalie climb up to his bedroom window. She hasn't been there since they were in the fourth grade. She apologizes for not being a friend to him over the years, realizing only now how important he really is to her. He is ecstatic that his dream girl has opened her heart to him. They kiss, but she pulls away when Dylan's tongue causes her mouth to bleed. Natalie cries and quickly leaves, as Dylan tries to explain. He runs after her into the street, when another car stops behind him. It is Winky with a group of friends, who capture Dylan. They ask how he killed Cap'n Dare. Dylan responds angrily, "I just have to open my mouth." And when he does, a set of bug mandibles appears between his lips, spraying an opaque mist. The car loses control, turning upside down before it rolls to a stop. Doggett and Reyes come upon the car wreck, where Winky and his friends are stuck under a thick spider web. He tells them that Dylan is the one responsible, and that he chewed his way out the back window. Reyes finds Natalie at home, curled up on her bed and crying. Reyes asks Natalie to talk to Dylan and convince him not to hurt anyone else. Yet Dylan is already standing in Natalie's bedroom. At the Lokensgard home, Scully and Dr. Bronzino arrive to question Dylan, but the house is empty and dark. They enter through the open front door, and Bronzino finds high readings of pheromone levels. After Scully leaves to join Doggett at the crime scene, Bronzino continues to scan the Lokensgard home with his electroantennogram. Mrs. Lokensgard surprises him, and she shoots a stream of webbing at Bronzino from the insect mandibles in her mouth. Dylan returns to his house with Natalie, and Mrs. Lokensgard confronts her son. He is upset when she tells him that he is not like the other kids and never will be.

Doggett arrives at Natalie's to find Reyes completely wrapped in layers of webbing, barely able to breathe. She tells Doggett that Dylan took Natalie to his house, which is where Scully is headed when she lost contact with Dr. Bronzino. Scully creeps in the Lokensgard home and sees Natalie sobbing. Scully cautiously goes into the attic with her weapon ready. Her flashlight beam locates a cocoon, from which comes the voice of Dr. Bronzino. Scully frees him. Paramedics arrive soon after, followed by Doggett and Reyes.

The agents discover that the other cocoon in the attic was a crude coffin for four bodies, one of whom was Dylan's father, long reported missing. Mrs. Lokensgard had killed her husband for not being what she and Dylan were -- neither human nor insect, but an anomaly in between. Although Dylan had tried to fit in with his peers and was in love with Natalie, he could not hide from his true nature. Mrs. Lokensgard escapes with her saddened son.

Natalie lies awake in her bed, when her attention is drawn to a light in the night sky. She goes to her window and sees a swarm of fireflies, their lights twinkling and forming a message that reads, "I Love You." (From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

Later on that night...

"No," Doggett stopped Reyes from paying for her drink. "After the night you had, it's on me." He opened his wallet and pulled out a twenty.

Instead of being dutiful federal agents and rushing back to headquarters to write their field reports, Doggett, Scully and Reyes stopped at a neighborhood bar for beers.

"My mother is going to kill me if I don't pick up William at a reasonable time," Scully muttered as Doggett bought another round for her. She sighed. "Oh well, wouldn't be the first time I pissed her off."

"Dana Scully, were you a hellraiser?" Reyes asked, eyebrow arched.

Scully snorted. "NOT like those kids. **I** did not jump into grocery carts and fly down hills at a hundred miles per hour. That's more up Jerilyn and Mulder's alley. Me, I always just tried to be one of the boys. Shooting BB guns... shooting real guns. And I swear to God, when William becomes a teenager and if he thinks he's going to jump into a grocery cart to get on some dumb TV show... " Scully shook her head. "He'll be grounded for life.

Doggett shook his head. "Y'know... it might have been a blessing in disguise that Mulder and Starkweather did not grow up in the same house... probably would have given their poor mother a heart attack."

"Oh my God," Scully sighed, smiling as she reminisced, "the things Mulder did when he was a kid... I about fell over when he told me about some of his stunts. I can only imagine what Jerilyn pulled as a kid."

"When she was a kid?!?!" Doggett looked at Scully like she was insane. "What about now?"

"What do you mean?" Scully asked.

"You mean to tell me," Doggett asked incredulously. "That you forgot how on our first case together, how she stood in front of a MOVING vehicle, trying to shoot out the tires 'cause our suspect was in it?"

"Oh yeah..."

"How about when the three of us busted the Lone Gunmen for spying on us? I think she would have cheerfully shot them. She shot Justin Leo in the kneecap with no problems," Reyes added.

"True," Scully remembered. "And then there were all the stupid and heroic things she did on that damn island, La Luna Blanca."

"I've never been able to watch 'Jurassic Park' the same since," Reyes shuddered. "Of course now I don't think I'll be able to watch 'Lord of the Flies' or 'Arachnophobia' the same again either. Or 'Charlotte's Web' even."

"I ever tell you the damn stupid thing she did while we were in the Black Hills?" When Reyes and Scully shook their heads, Doggett groaned "I can't believe I didn't tell you. We were going down a mountain trail on horseback , right? Outta nowhere, that b*tch Bravo appears, hot on our tracks. Well, I kick the horse into high gear and we are just flyin' and Doc's holding on for dear life 'cause she's never ridden before. All of a sudden, she lets go of the saddle horn, leans over, like this,' Doggett leaned to the side, then righted himself. "Takes out her gun and fires at Bravo."

"Oh my God, she could have been killed," Reyes said.

"She's lucky *I* didn't kill her!"

"It must run in the family," Scully grumbled. "Both of them are so damn arrogant."

"Cocky, I think's a better word," Doggett muttered.

"Know-it-all," Scully added.

"Smug."

"Snotty."

"Bitchy."

"Yeah DOES work for Mulder, especially when things aren't going EXACTLY his way," Scully agreed.

"How about rude?" Reyes asked. "You don't know how many times I wanted to slap that little smirk off their faces when they make some crack at my expense."

"Insulting," Scully nodded. "We can add insulting on the list."

"Patronizing too," Doggett said. "It'd be nice to have a conversation with them without feeling like a complete dumb ass afterwards."

"Sometimes I think William is more mature that both of them put together," Scully sighed, stirring her drink, hoping she'd have time to stop at the internet café near her home to see if she had received the sporadic email from Mulder. "Isn't that a scary thought?"

A silence fell on the table.

"I miss her," Doggett admitted quietly.

Reyes smiled and took his hand. "We'll find her."

"In a montage of surveillance images, Mulder and Scully are seen throughout the years. They are not only captured on investigations, but during private moments in their homes. More recent surveillance footage shows Scully on the platform of a train station, crying over a slain man's body.

Scully enters an internet café with William and logs onto a private mail box. Waiting for her is a message from Mulder, who expresses his desire to return home to her and to William. As Scully begins her reply, a woman who has entered the café with a baby leaves to argue with a man outside. Scully goes to the unattended baby, and the woman comes back to reclaim her child. Later, at Quantico, Doggett and Reyes tell Scully that a source has been trying to contact Mulder with information about the Super Soldiers.

Unfortunately, the man will talk to no one but Mulder. Scully says that she doesn't know how to contact him, and Doggett questions why she still refuses to trust him or anybody else.

Later that night, Scully returns home and sees the woman from the internet café on her street. The woman is again fighting with the same Man on the Street, but this time he takes her baby and drives off. Scully approaches the woman, who introduces herself as Patti. Feeling sorry for her, Scully offers to Patti to stay the night. Meanwhile, Doggett and Reyes watch a nondescript building that has been traced to the source that had sought out Mulder. A car pulls up, and the driver heads into the building. It is the Man on the Street who had been fighting with Patti. Inside the building is a room full of surveillance monitors. A Shadow Man at an adjacent monitor asks the Man on the Street about his wife and child. As he exchanges pleasantries, the Shadow Man calmly watches on his monitor as Doggett and Reyes break into the Man on the Street's car outside.

At 5:41 a.m., the Man on the Street finally leaves the building, and Doggett and Reyes follow him. At Scully's apartment, Patti rises, turns off the baby monitor and picks up William. Scully's cell phone vibrates, waking her up. It is Doggett, telling her that he and Reyes have followed a strange man to her building. Suddenly alarmed, Scully pulls her gun on Patti, and orders the woman to put down William. Doggett accosts the Man on the Street before he is about to break into Scully's apartment. The Man will not reveal anything, only muttering, "They're watching." Scully suspects that both the Man and Patti had conned her to get to her son. Scully closes her blinds, and the Man finally divulges that he works for the National Security Agency. He can not be traced. Patti confesses that her daughter, like William, is somehow different. The Man knows that William affected movement of the mobile over his crib. He admits that he has not only been watching Scully, but Doggett and Reyes as well. The Man had told his supervisor about the oddities surrounding both his daughter and William. The supervisor believes that they are related to the Super Soldiers, and the Man had hoped that Mulder could somehow make the connection to find out what their children really are. Suddenly, the Shadow Man from the nondescript building phones Scully. He says that he has been listening to the conversation. As he watches their every movement, he does not tell her that he has cameras inside her apartment. The Shadow Man knows that Scully had sent Mulder an email the previous day. She refuses to give him any information on Mulder unless she can see him personally. He instructs her to come alone to the internet café. Although Doggett protests, Scully leaves William with them to meet her secret contact.

As she waits outside the café, Scully is called by the Shadow Man. He directs her to a green car while he watches her from a camera on the street. She is told to start the car and drive into an alley. Then she gets out, and enters another waiting car. As the Shadow Man watches from a camera inside the second car, she drives onto the highway. At nightfall, the Shadow Man has her stop in the middle of a desolate field. He orders her to leave the car running and open the trunk. She is told to change into the clothes inside the trunk. Suddenly, the Shadow Man appears. He has her put her gun and her old clothes inside the car, which he explodes by remote control. He inspects her watch for microphones. Believing her to be free of bugs, the Shadow Man admits that he knows everything about her -- her blood type, childhood fears, pet peeves, etc. -- and has risked his life to talk to her in order to get to Mulder. He warns her that she must contact Mulder. Then he hands her a set of keys to another waiting car.

At Quantico the next day, Doggett expresses his worries that both Scully and Mulder are in danger. He fears that these men are using her to lure Mulder out in order to kill him. Scully reveals that Mulder is already travelling on a prearranged train, arriving at midnight. She can't call him off.

At 10:48 p.m., Scully waits on the train platform, as Reyes backs her up from a distance. The Shadow Man is also watching her through a security camera. The Man on the Street walks onto the train platform and sprays black paint on a security camera above. Doggett, meanwhile, brings Scully's clothes from the car to an FBI lab. He asks the technician to quickly look for any traces of a man's DNA on the clothes. Just before the midnight train approaches, the Man on the Street sees Scully. Reyes catches sight of the Man on the Street pulling out a gun. Reyes calls out for Scully's attention, but the Man is not pointing at Scully. Scully notices the Shadow Man come toward her with a gun from the other side. Although the Man on the Street is aiming at the Shadow Man, the Shadow Man fires first and hits the Man on the Street. Reyes pulls Scully to the ground, and the Shadow Man points his gun at them. Suddenly, Doggett arrives on the platform and shoots the Shadow Man repeatedly, sending his body onto the tracks of the incoming train. Seeing the gunfire, the station manager orders the train to keep moving. Scully begs for it to be stopped, calling out for Mulder as the train quickly passes. The Man on the Street dies at Scully's feet. She is grief-stricken and unsure she will ever see Mulder again.

Police later scan the tracks, but the Shadow Man's body has vanished. Patti arrives at the station, asking Scully for forgiveness. They had only sought answers, and her husband was trying to protect Scully from the man he worked for. Scully comforts Patti over the death of her husband. Doggett tells Scully and Reyes that the fabric on the clothes from the car show that the Shadow Man has a DNA that is complexed with iron and can not be tested. This seems to prove that the Shadow Man is a Super Soldier who is unstoppable. Scully fears for Mulder's life, believing that the Shadow Man jumped on the train after him. The station manager is alerted that a man jumped off the train into a rock quarry. The agents drive to where the jump took place, and Doggett and Reyes walk down into the quarry. They see a man running away, and Doggett, believing it is Mulder, calls out to him. Although Doggett identifies himself, the man runs off. Scully drives deeper into the quarry, and calls out for Mulder. Suddenly, the Shadow Man comes out from the fog and chases her. She runs into the quarry, becoming trapped. With nowhere else to turn, she pulls her gun on the Shadow Man, asking him why he intends to kill them. The Shadow Man says that either Mulder or William must die. Suddenly, the Shadow Man struggles as a force wracks his body. His face becomes contorted, and he is magnetically pulled to the quarry wall, flying past Scully and knocking her down. As his body impacts the red quarry wall, it disintegrates into a cloud of dust. Scully gets up and runs off". (From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

Doggett refused to believe it.

He couldn't afford to believe it.

He couldn't face the possibility that Fox Mulder might have just used up his ninth life.

Not that he was particularly close to the man. But he wasn't jealous of Mulder, either...he could have left the X-Files any day of the week. He had no stake in that division. It wasn't a venue he was using to find justice for someone in his family.

It was because of Mulder that the steely resolve of Dana Scully had been ripped to shreds. A woman who rarely cried was quaking with sobs...stripped down to a shadow of her former self. Reyes was with her. He knew he couldn't help her. He never could. Doggett hadn't seen her that devastated since the night not so long ago when they had found Mulder's body in Montana. In Montana, it was almost a relief to Doggett when he was found that night. He had felt awkward and out of place that cold autumn night, but he knew that would pass. He knew that he could play hero and that she'd pick up the pieces. It was over then. That night there was no disputing his death. She was grieving for him then and she was grieving for him now.

But now-

Now he was grieving too.

Doggett suddenly felt compelled to leave. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and, eyes focusing on the quarry, he left the mourning woman on the station deck.

Jerilyn Starkweather didn't have a prayer anymore because her half-brother, Fox Mulder was dead. He had been in hiding, going across the country-around the globe-searching for any evidence that his sister was alive. Now nobody was looking, and that shook him to the core.

His partner was on her own.

He picked up his cell-phone, and called his superior.

"Skinner, sorry 'bout the hour, sir. At the train-station now with Scully and Reyes."

"And Mulder?" Skinner added hopefully.

"We dunno, sir." Doggett's voice was shaking. He hadn't said the reality out loud yet.

"Oh my god..." was all Skinner could say.

"He was last seen in the quarry. I'm going down in a minute to see if I can find 'im."

"Agent Doggett, wait till I get there."

"Sir, I don't think I can do that," he was running now, the possibility that he might actually still be alive just registering. "He might be hurt...we may need to get him to a hospital. That goddamn super soldier smashed a boulder near his head. I...need you to send a team out here to search the premises."

"Way ahead of you Agent. And Starkweather?"

His voice cracked with emotion now. "No word, sir."

"I'll be out there in about ten minutes. And Dana...how's she holding up?"

"Reyes is with her. She's about as expected, sir," he answered honestly. "Look, I'm headed down there now," he said, trying to keep his footing as he made his way down the steep hill, and not being very successful at it. "See ya when you make it here."

Reyes had managed to get Scully into her 4-runner. She was worried about the woman. She hadn't known her for very long but she had never seen her act as though she had just been destroyed...even on that night not so long ago in Montana. She was grieving and defeated...but not destroyed like she was now. She hated to leave her in this state, but she needed to tell Doggett of their plans.

"Doggett!" Reyes hollered after him, "what the hell are you doing?"

"What I've been doing since the beginning, Monica!" He shouted back up at her, "trying to find 'im!"

Reyes had a greater difficulty making it down the quarry in her slick-heeled boots, but she wasn't about to keep a shouting conversation.

"I'm taking Dana home. She needs to be with her mother and William right now. What good do you think finding him dead again is going to do for Dana?"

"I gotta know he's alive, Monica...I need to know he's out there lookin' for her. Cause I sure as hell wouldn't know where the fuck to begin."

"Keep me posted, John," she sighed, taking a pack of Morley's out of her coat pocket and lighting one up. "I'll keep my cell on, and I'll probably be at Dana's."

Doggett wasn't paying attention. He was literally hauling off the rocks, one by one, looking for any trace that Mulder was either alive or dead.

He looked at the boulder and saw blood, spattered all over it.

"Oh God..." was all he managed to croak out.

Lights came up behind him as squad cars arrived. 5 teams of two spread out over the quarry, sliding down into the rocks.

Then Skinner arrived. "Agent?" He shouted down as soon as he spied Doggett, "whatchya got?"

"To be honest, shit sir. I found a rock spattered with lotsa blood, but that's all. No body yet. No nothin'."

"If there's no body yet, then there's still a good chance...for both of them." Skinner finished.

Half an hour later, the leader of the search teams tapped Doggett on the shoulder.

"I'm Agent Cahill, SWAT captain, sir. We couldn't find any trace of Agent Mulder. We couldn't get enough of the blood from the rock to test it for DNA."

"Thanks, Agent. 'preciate your work..." Doggett answered.

"You can clear your men out, now Cahill." Skinner finished. Then turned to Doggett. "He's still alive, Doggett." Skinner said. It wasn't a speculation, nor was it an opinion. "I'm gonna go look in on Dana."

"I'll follow you."

1:21 am
Georgetown
Scully residence

Maggie Scully answered the door, red-and-wet eyed. She should have been surprised to see the men arrive at such a late hour, but for some reason, under the circumstances, she wasn't.

"I apologize for the late hour, Mrs. Scully," Skinner immediately said. "We thought Dana'd like to be kept aware of what we've found."

"Mom, let them in." Scully said from the kitchen.

"I think my daughter would wonder if you weren't here, sirs. Agent Doggett, nice to see you again. Haven't seen you since the fune..." she stopped herself short. "Well...for quite a while...please, make yourselves at home. How do you gentlemen take your coffee? There's a pot already made."

"Black." They both said in unison. She got them the coffee and made sure William stayed asleep.

Skinner released a ragged sigh. "Dana," he took her hand cautiously, "we haven't been able to locate Mulder, but I had a SWAT team go down in the quarry after Doggett explained what happened. We haven't found a body."

"You really expect me to buy that again? I'm sorry...I've held onto the hope that he's still out there for too long...I just can't do it anymore. Not after tonight."

"I need to know he's still out there Dana." Doggett told her softly, "That he's looking for her. Just please..." he pleaded with her, "send 'im a wire tomorrow. Set out feelers and see if he's still out there. If you don't get anything..." he glanced over at Skinner, "I'm going to open up a murder investigation on Jerilyn, 'cause I might as well give up."

She nodded, and the two men exchanged glances, trying to decide if there was anything else they could do. "I appreciate everything you've both done," she said quietly. "I need some time to process all of this...but I'll be fine."

The Next Day...

"Dana, honey, why don't you go for a walk. The fresh air will do you good," her mother said. It was the only comfort she could offer her daughter.

With immense effort, she made herself get dressed. She made herself bundle William up. She was glad that he didn't resemble Mulder just then. When Mulder left to search for Starkweather, she had wished that William resembled him more, just so she wouldn't forget what he looked like. But now...it would have been too much if he had his coloring and more of his features.

It was cold and raining, but she bundled her son up, folded out his stroller, and put him in it, and took her son out for a walk.

Unconsciously, she went down past the park near her apartment complex and down by the business district. She had no intention of hoping any more, but the internet café was right there...she needed to check her email anyway.

She paid for half an hour's worth of service and logged on, and sent him an e-mail. Praying fervently for the first time since last night that he'd get it.

"The next day, Scully emails Mulder with hopes that he is still alive and will someday see her again." (From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

The following day after work she took William for another walk, and walked again past the internet café.

She logged on.

She had two messages. A stupid forward from Bill, and one that made her well up with hope that she thought was long gone. Doggett wasn't going to have to open a murder investigation after all. At least for now.

DAY ONE
"Doggett wakes up on the floor of an abandoned building to find a Crackhead stealing a sneaker from his foot. He chases the guy out onto the street, and realizes he is on the main drag of a dilapidated town. All the signs are in Spanish. He accosts the Crackhead for the shoe, but the man calls in Spanish for the police. Doggett tries to explain to the Spanish-speaking policeman that it was his shoe that was taken. Hearing an American accent, the cop requests Doggett's passport. Doggett is empty-handed. The cop then asks Doggett his name. Doggett, however, does not know the answer.

DAY TWO
Doggett sits in a grimy but packed jail cell. He still only has one sneaker. A big man in the cell laughs at Doggett's predicament, informing him that he is in Sangradura, Mexico. Although Doggett does not remember his own name, he is sure that he will somehow get out of jail. The big man tells him that Americans come to this town to hide because they are on the run. For all he knows, a call to the American Embassy might just put him in an American jail. Later, Doggett has a vision of himself sleeping next to a woman. A little boy jumps on the bed, calling Doggett, "Daddy." Doggett jerks awake, finding himself still in the Mexican prison.

DAY EIGHT
The big man, named Domingo Salmeron, is released from prison by his cohort, Nestor. Domingo offers to pay for Doggett's release with a job proposal. However, out on the street in complete freedom, Doggett turns Domingo down and starts to walk away. Nestor pulls a revolver on him, but Doggett disarms him and tosses the gun away. He walks off alone.

Doggett goes back to the abandoned building and asks the Crackhead if he also took his wallet or papers. The Crackhead produces a silver skull that looks like it was pulled from a piece of jewelry, and mutters the word "Desaparecido." Desperate, Doggett then goes to a cantina to inquire about Domingo's job. Domingo tells him that they smuggle immigrants over the American border and then gives Doggett money to rent a room over the bar. Doggett pulls out the skull charm, but Domingo claims he doesn't know what it means. After Doggett leaves, Domingo tells Nestor that Doggett only wants to remember, "same as all the rest."

In the dingy room, Doggett finds a crescent scar at each temple of his hairline. He does not know where they came from. He also sees a Marine Corps tattoo on his left arm, realizing he was once a Marine."(From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

After studying the tattoo, Doggett pulled the collar of his dirty T-shirt down and pulled out the necklace around his neck. He had felt the chain around his neck while he was in jail, but really didn't take the time to examine it. In the privacy of the filthy little room, he stared at it for the longest time before taking it off. He examined it thoroughly hoping it would provide some clue, some hint of who he was.

The tiny, delicate silvery links of the chain gave it away that this necklace once belonged to a woman. No man would wear a chain so fragile, unless it was a keepsake from a sweetheart. Doggett, puzzled, studied the pendant hanging from the chain, a small silver medal, heavy for it's size. "Saint Christopher..." he muttered, reading the minute lettering on from of the medal. "Where the hell did I get **this**?" he asked aloud, more confused than ever. "Am I Catholic?"

He had the nagging feeling that this holy medal was a precious possession to him. He put it in his pocket...

"Outside the boarding house, an old caballero watches Doggett through the window. The man is wearing a bracelet with the familiar silver skulls dangling off it. One of these skulls is missing.

DAY TWELVE
At the FBI, Scully and Skinner apprise Kersh that, after two weeks of looking in Texas, Doggett was seen crossing the Mexican border. Reyes, who was raised in Mexico, is already in Texas investigating his disappearance. Against Scully and Skinner's wishes, Kersh decides to dismantle the search party and leave it to the Mexican officials. In San Antonio, Reyes interrogates a shady tractor dealer who may have been questioned by Doggett when he was investigating the disappearance of Hollis Rice, a bank vice president. Although the man feigns innocence, Reyes is convinced that he is part of a drug smuggling operation for which Rice laundered money. There may be some connection to Doggett's disappearance.

Doggett, meanwhile, has another memory flash of his son jumping on his bed. Doggett is snapped back into reality, finding himself in a Larga Distencia office where locals make long distance calls. He contacts a Staff Sgt. of the Marine Corps Public Affairs, pretending to be a Detective Ladatel who is trying to identify a victim. Doggett describes the tattoo, and the Staff Sgt. recognizes the regiment, promising to try to pin down the Marine's name. Suddenly, two Federales come into the building. Before the Staff Sgt. can say another word, Doggett bolts out of the phone office.

At a rusty garage on the outskirts of town, Doggett fixes an old bus for Domingo. Nestor eyes him warily. Domingo gives Doggett a Mexican APB flyer describing an American named Henry Bruck accused of murder. The description matches Doggett, and Domingo warns him to stay away from the Federales. Later, Nestor approaches the caballero who wears the silver skull bracelet at the cantina. They both work for the Cartel. Nestor senses that Doggett, whom he refers to as one of the "Disappeared Ones," is different. The caballero informs Nestor that Doggett is an FBI agent. Although he was not ordered to kill him, the caballero would look the other way if something were to happen to Doggett.

Scully eludes Kersh and goes to Reyes in San Antonio. They learn that someone in Mexico has been trying to track down a former Marine with amnesia who matches Doggett's description. When Reyes recognizes the name Ladatel as the Mexican telephone calling card, they run a trace on the call.

Later that night, Nestor comes to the garage where Doggett is working alone, underneath the bus that is suspended by a lever jack. Nestor looks at him and says, "See you in hell, FBI." Doggett reacts to this, but Nestor pulls a revolver out. Doggett quickly flips the lever and rolls out from under the bus. The bus falls on Nestor's foot, and he screams in pain. He manages to pull his bloodied foot out and looks under the bus for Doggett, who is gone. Doggett jumps out from the roof of the bus, and Nestor is shot in the resulting struggle. Domingo arrives at the garage an hour later and finds Nestor's body. Doggett asks if Domingo had sent Nestor to kill him. After Doggett pulls the revolver on him, Domingo reveals that Doggett is a "Desaparecido," one of the Cartel's disappeared ones. Doggett realizes that they took away his memory, and Domingo tells him that it can never be retrieved. Suddenly, Doggett experiences another memory flash of his son jumping on his bed. This vision, however, is speeded up. It ends abruptly, and Doggett winces in pain. Domingo notices this and grabs the gun from Doggett's hand, putting it aside. He then begins to mercilessly beat up Doggett.

On Ciudad Street in Mexico, Reyes bribes a police officer for information on Doggett. He leads her to a funeral parlor, but the body there is not Doggett's. Reyes sees the same crescent scars that Doggett has on this dead man's head.

DAY THIRTEEN
At the cantina, Domingo reports Nestor's death to the caballero, knowing that this man most likely gave Nestor the permission to kill Doggett. The caballero does not believe that Domingo said nothing to Doggett. Suddenly, the caballero's eyes glow reflectively like a cat's in the dark. He sinks his long thumbnails into Domingo's temples, in the same spot as Doggett's crescent scars.

A beaten Doggett wakes up on the floor of the garage and sees Nestor's dead body next to him. A rental sedan pulls up, and Reyes comes in. Doggett, who doesn't recognize her, grabs her gun arm in a lock and spins her face first into the bus. She identifies him, and herself as his partner, but he is still unsure of her. A group of Mexican police cars pull up. The local officers draw their weapons on the garage, ordering the agents to exit the building. One of them is the policeman that Reyes had bribed. As they wait, Doggett asks Reyes what his son's name is. He can see the boy's face, but can't place his name. From the look on Reyes' face, Doggett remembers that Luke was kidnapped and killed. He breaks down just as the police begin to fire. Reyes tries to hold them off, but she must revive Doggett from his emotional breakdown. He tells her to get in the bus, which he backs out and smashes into the police cars. The bus topples over, and the policemen descend upon them. Suddenly, the Federales arrive with Skinner and arrest the Mexican police. Doggett and Reyes are saved.

Doggett returns to the cantina and questions the caballero. He knows that the man works for the Cartel and somehow stole his memory. Doggett pieces together his still-hazy memories, explaining that he tracked banker Hollis Rice there. Doggett knows that the caballero did the same thing to Rice as he did to Doggett, but the caballero does not understand why Doggett would want to remember his pain. Defiantly, Doggett says, "Because it's mine." He walks out.

Out on the street, Doggett remembers Luke waking him up to show that he could ride his bike. Reyes comforts her partner about having to relive his son's history." (From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

"How can you bear it?" Reyes asked him.

Doggett wasn't sure how to answer her at first so he didn't answer right away. Quietly, quickly he examined all of his recovered memories. He put his hands in his pockets, felt the Medal of Saint Christopher in his right pocket, and smiled, recalling a small neighborhood bar in the dead of a frigid January night. The sharp tang of Jack Daniels tempered by the sweetness of Coca-Cola. The sounds of an unexpected love song coming from a dust-coated jukebox.

"Trust I seek and I find in you
Everyday something new
Open mind for a different view
And nothing else matters

Never cared for what they do
Never cared for what they know
But I know..."

"We got into a fight about it, shock surprise," Starkweather had said, rolling her eyes as she nursed her drink. "I just love this song. It's so powerful and... at the risk of sounding "cheesy" but I... I thought that song symbolized everything love was supposed to be... Ben wanted something a little less metal... I whined and got my way," she took a long draw from her drink. "We had a beautiful wedding though."

Doggett remembered looking at her, her long blond hair half-hiding her face, her sparkly eyes, strange hazel eyes that shifted color according to her mood, turning a dark brown, brown like Jack and Coke. He remembered asking her: "Doc, how can you handle all of this? All this shit that's happenin' to you?"

Her remembered her smile, small, shy, almost childlike. "As long as I can have the good," she said in her husky voice, "I can handle the bad."

"You don't have to handle the bad by yourself, you know."

He remembered how her steely resolve had broken, how her eyes filled with the tears she did not shed in front of him when she learned of Ben's death. He remembered the feel of her small hand on top of his, remembered how her voice cracked when she said: "I know, Papa John... that's why you're part of the good...."

Doggett, tightening his grip on Starkweather's necklace, finally answered Reyes' question...

"Doggett tells her that it was Luke's memory that saved him, and he will take the bad memories as long as he can also have the good ones." (From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

Chapter Eight:
"Hellbound"
July 28, 2002

"Terry Pruit talks to a group of assembled ex-convicts at an anger management meeting inside a church in Novi, Virginia. One of the ex-cons, Ed Kelso, shakes his head in disgust at the topics of conversation. Afterwards, Kelso gives his buddy, Victor Dale Potts, a hard time about the group. Potts, who had been having bad dreams, suddenly has a strange vision of Kelso -- his skin is stripped from his body. Five days later, Reyes briefs Doggett and Scully about the murder of Victor Dale Potts. He was skinned alive, but had a premonition of his death in a dream. He told his dream to Dr. Lisa Holland, the therapist who runs the anger management group. Although the case itself is odd, neither Scully nor Doggett understand why it is an X-file. Reyes is also unsure, but she knows that she must solve the crime. Doggett and Reyes are led by Detective Van Allen to speak with Dr. Holland at the Virginia church. She tells them that Potts had been to the meeting with a friend named Ed who felt negatively toward what the group was trying to accomplish. As they are leaving the church, Detective Van Allen tells Reyes that she looks familiar, but Reyes has never been to the town before. Meanwhile, at a meat packing plant where they both work, Terry Pruit confronts Ed Kelso about Potts' death. Although Pruit says that the FBI will probably want to question him as well, Kelso pulls out his carving knife and threatens Pruit. As Kelso walks away, Pruit is shocked when he sees a skinless Kelso. Outside the plant, however, Kelso looks completely normal.

At Quantico, Scully pulls old files on other skinning cases. One body found in 1960 matches the manner in which Victor Potts was killed. Scully visits Dr. Mueller, the coroner who autopsied the body in 1960. Although the man is now retired, he remembers the case vividly. Since the victim was not identified and no suspect was ever arrested, the case was dropped. The sheriff then committed suicide. However, Dr. Mueller reveals that the victim was the first in a string of skinning murders.

Terry Pruit is working alone at night in the meat packing plant when the lights shut off. He suspects that Kelso has come to start trouble, but he sees no one among the rows of hanging pig carcasses. Suddenly, someone wearing a butcher's apron hits him over the head and straps him upside down on a meat hook. The unseen person pulls out a knife and begins to carve into the screaming Pruit. Meanwhile, Reyes has a dream in which she goes to the church looking for Dr. Holland and finds a skinless man there. She is startled awake by Doggett, who heard her cries through the wall of the hotel room. Dr. Holland called him with news that Terry Pruit's skinned body was found. The sight of the body at the plant unsettles Reyes, but she listens intently when Scully shows her similar case files dating back to 1960.

Kelso is quickly packing up clothes and knives when Doggett and Detective Van Allen storm in and take him into custody. At the police station, Reyes gets the sense that Kelso is not really responsible for the murders. She tells him that she sees the same bad things that he is now seeing in his dreams. Doggett is unsure of her line of questioning, but she doesn't let on to what she is hiding. Detective Van Allen informs them that Kelso's girlfriend vouches for his whereabouts at the time of the murder. As Kelso leaves the police station, he sees that Dr. Holland is now skinned. The vision terrifies Kelso. Scully calls Reyes to Quantico, where she had two bodies dug up with the same forensic details as the current murders. The men who had died in 1960 had both been ex-cons. Oddly, the dates of their deaths match the birthdates of Potts and Pruit. Since Scully has four old case files, Reyes fears that there may be two more victims. She calls Doggett, who is running surveillance outside Ed Kelso's house, and asks him to find out the man's birthday. When Doggett goes up to the front window, he is shocked to see Kelso's body completely stripped of its skin.

Reyes meets Doggett at the crime scene at Kelso's house. Since the birthdates do match the 1960 murders, Doggett believes that it is merely a serial killer. Yet Reyes is convinced that she is somehow involved in these connecting cases. She is certain that these men's souls are murdered over and over, from one lifetime to the next. She even knows that there was a rag stuck in Kelso's mouth that was covered in coal dust. Doggett and Reyes go to an abandoned mining camp to look for clues on the possible fourth victim. As Doggett discovers the remains of a sheriff in the office, Reyes comes upon old newspaper clippings inside the mine that detail unsolved skinnings. The oldest article is about four men who got away with the murder of a prospector in a mining claim dispute. In the photo, the body of the prospector is skinned. Also in the mine are the hides of a number of humans. Suddenly, Reyes hears footsteps. She draws her gun, but someone grabs her from behind and holds a knife at her throat. It is Detective Van Allen. Doggett comes into the mine, but Reyes is alone and unhurt. She explains that Van Allen is the reincarnation of a man killed in a mining dispute. His four killers were never punished. He continues to avenge that injustice. After skinning four people, he commits suicide so that he can be reborn to start it up again. The cases never get solved because he returns as the cop who investigates the skinnings. Reyes notifies Dr. Holland that she is the next victim, and warns her about Detective Van Allen. The doctor runs when Van Allen comes for her with his carving knife. He chants, "It always ends the same." Doggett and Reyes arrive in the nick of time and shoot Van Allen.

As Van Allen lies in a hospital bed, Reyes still can't figure out why she knew the things she did. She wonders if perhaps she was someone involved in the past cases who had let justice slip by. Her biggest fear was of failing, but Scully suggests that maybe in this life she actually succeeded.

Van Allen goes into cardiac arrest, and he dies with look of vengeance still in his eyes. At the same time, a baby is born whose eyes are the same as Van Allen's." (From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

"Hey Mon," Doggett said, as she was finishing up, "you go on ahead I'm gonna hang out a while."

"John, exactly what do you think I've got to hurry home to? The cat from Pet Cemetery?" It was her week to take care of Caesar the Fat Orange Tabby Cat that Jerilyn Starkweather got from her late husband Ben as an engagement present who had a reputation for being a hell raiser. "On second thought...maybe I should go rescue what furniture I've got left..."

"Come with me if you want, I'm just gonna stick around." It was his way of letting her know he didn't want to be alone just then, and she knew it, so she trotted up behind him.

"Where you headed?"

He shrugged like a disinterested little boy. "Who the hell knows, Monica...where any of us is headed..." he finished sadly.

"Look, John," she hesitated, "I know you're worried about Jeri..." Monica started slowly, trying to conjure up the right thing to say. "Mulder's doing all he knows to do to get her back. He's not going to give up on her. Neither are you. None of us are. We don't wanna be stuck with that cat."

"Yeah..I know...just got to thinkin'...with this whole reincarnation bull..."

"It's not bull, John." Only half-realizing where they were headed, they turned down towards the neonatal unit of the hospital.

"It's her birthday today."

"So that's what this is all about." Reyes mused. Then realization struck. "You think she's dead, don't you."

"Go rescue your furniture. I'll be ok."

"John," she shook her head, "you can't keep doing this to yourself...she needs for you to be fighting her fights right now...not wallowing in self-pity and self-abnegation. That means everything that happened since she joined us...to Ben, to Charlie, to Samita, to Mulder, to Scully, to William, to Teresa, to you, to her is in vain."

He shook his head, looking wistfully at a fussy little boy about half an hour old being put into its crib. "When Luke was born, I just kept thinkin' if I show him how to be a good person, if I take care of 'im...keep 'im safe, no matter what medals I may have gotten or what other achievements...keepin' 'im safe...showin' 'im how to be a good person...to do the Right Thing would be the best thing I did. I couldn't keep 'im safe 'till he knew what right and wrong was, Monica." He choked. "I know William's not mine, but I saw another chance in that little boy. A chance to make it Right again. Then...I dunno...in Starkweather...there's a chance for something again with her...a chance to protect again...a chance to show her that there are good people."

"Starkweather's hardly an infant." Reyes corrected him. You didn't have to tell John Doggett that twice.

"I know...just all the sh*t that's gone on in her life...she didn't ask for any of that. I just wanna stop it all...She could be one of 'em..." he sighed like a brick and pointed to the babies behind the window. "Luke could be one of 'em too..."

"Van Allen is one of them too, John," she prompted him again. "So is Jeffrey Dahmer, Timothy McVeigh, Saddam Hussein, Lee Harvey Oswald, Stalin, and Hitler. Mother Theresa will be another life same as Bin Laden will be. Martin Luther King, Jr and John Lennon's soul will be reborn into other souls and so will Mike Chapman and James Ray. The assassinated get the same second chance as assassins."

"Then what's it all for, if we can't make it Right another time around? I dunno...bein' recycled just doesn't sit well with me. What's the fair in that?"

"That's what the reincarnation :bull: is about..." Reyes insisted softly. "Another chance. And for the record, I don't think Starkweather needs another one. I think with you, Scully, Mulder, me, Skinner, that dumb cat and the rest of us on her side...I think she's got a damn good chance. See you at the office, John." Reyes said, giving up. She still had questions of her own she needed to sort out. She got into her 4Runner and cranked up her CD. The words the lyrics hit her like a pail of icy cold water...

"Galileo's head was on the block the crime was looking up the truth
as the bombshells of my daily fears explode I try to trace them to my youth
then you had to bring up reincarnation over a couple of beers the other night
now I'm serving time for mistakes made by another in another lifetime
how long till my soul gets it right?
can any human being ever reach that kind of light
I call on the resting soul of Galileo king of night vision king of insight
I think about my gear of motion, which I never could explain
some other fool across the ocean years ago
must have crashed his little airplane
how long till my soul gets it right
can any human being ever reach that kind of light
I call on the resting soul of Galileo king of night vision king of insight
I'm not making a joke you know me i take everything so seriously
if we wait for the time till all souls get it right
then at least i know there'll be no nuclear annihilation in my lifetime I'm still not right
I offer thanks to those before me that's all I've got to say
maybe you squandered big bucks in your lifetime
now I've got to pay
but then again it feels like some sort of inspiration
to let the next life off the hook
or she'll say look what i had to overcome from my last life
I think I'll write a book
how long till my soul gets it right
can any human being ever reach that kind of light
I call on the resting soul
of Galileo king of night vision king of insight
how long, how long, how long..."

"Border police chase a man on a motorcycle as he illegally crosses into North Dakota from Canada. As the man comes to the edge of a cliff, he continues into the ravine. The motorcycle crashes at the bottom, bursting into a ball of flames. The man lies unconscious on the ground. Next to him, several pieces of folded paper fall out of his backpack. On the paper are symbols that resemble the ones Mulder and Scully found on a spaceship in "Biogenesis" (6X22).

At the FBI, Scully is summoned to Kersh's office, where she is met by Kersh, Skinner, Follmer and an unidentified man standing silently in the corner with a toothpick in his mouth. Kersh shows her the paper from the motorcyclist's bag and asks if she recognizes it. Although she knows exactly what it is, Scully is hesitant to answer for fear that she is under suspicion. She storms into the X-files office and asks Doggett and Reyes whether Follmer had been in their files. Scully pulls out a case folder from two years ago, showing them a rubbing she took from the hull of a spacecraft. The symbols in the rubbing are like the ones in the evidence bag in Kersh's office. Although she did not tell the senior staff about her old case, she wonders if the FBI is fully aware of the power that these symbols represent.

Doggett goes to the crime scene in North Dakota, finding that Follmer is already there, leading the investigation. He admits that the body of the motorcyclist has not been recovered. While revealing nothing else, Follmer warns Doggett not to get involved in the case. Unseen, the motorcyclist crawls out from a nearby hiding place. His exposed skin is blistered and burned, and he struggles to move. He grabs from his jacket pocket a metallic object that has the symbols on it. His burns begin to miraculously heal. In her apartment, Reyes pieces together the rubbings from the old case file. She asks Scully what she had interpreted in the symbols. Carbon dating of the fossils on the ship proved that it was millions of years old, but Scully found the text to contain religious passages and scientific equations. This would put into question everything in which mankind believes. Although she refused to accept this at first, Scully is now under the impression that she was meant to find these rubbings. It may contain answers about William's existence. However, she does not know what the FBI wants with these rubbings and why they are keeping it a secret from her. Later that night, Doggett waits for Skinner outside his office. He questions why the A.D. has been avoiding him and Reyes. Skinner refuses to say anything, telling Doggett it is for his own good that he doesn't know. (From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

Skinner stormed down the hallway; furious at the position Doggett put him in. Either he had to be evasive or lie. And he was sure as hell through lying.

So evasive it was.

What was it that Mulder said once upon a time?

"I didn't lie. I participated in a willful exchange of misinformation."

"You ass," Skinner muttered to the air, as if he words would be carried to Mulder, wherever he may be.

Still bitterly angry, he pushed the elevator button harder than necessary. But by the time he reached the parking garage and was walking towards the car, the anger dissolved into melancholy. As he got into his car, weariness overtook him.

For the first time, he was actually looking forward to retirement. Only a year to go...

But would it be over once he stepped down? And when he stepped down, could he pull Doggett up? John seemed to keep digging himself more and more into the hole that was the basement office.

Skinner started up his car and drove home on autopilot. His mind wandering back to the conversation he had a few days back...

Three days earlier 'Coffee is My Friend' Twenty Four Hour Coffee Shop

Skinner sat at a table, blowing on his cup of coffee as he read the "Washington Times." As he skimmed the sports page, the bells above the door jingled merrily.

"Let me help you dear," a patronizing voice tinkled.

Skinner looked up and saw a well-meaning older lady hold open the door so Lux Carlos could wheel himself in without problems.

"Thank you," Carlos muttered, barely polite.

He wheeled himself to the counter, ordered his coffee, then after paying, wheeling himself over to where Skinner was sitting.

"Carlos," Skinner said coolly, folding up his newspaper. "What's going on?"

Carlos then proceeded to make meaningless small talk until the waitress brought his coffee to him. Once she was safely away, Carlos murmured, "I don't have good news, Assistant Director."

"Why does that not surprise me," Skinner grunted. "Go ahead, Carlos. Spill it."

"There are more than a few rumors that Mulder is dead."

"Do you know how many times Mulder's been dead?" Skinner asked him sharply.

"Hence the key word, 'rumor'," Carlos reminded him curtly. "We're still investigating. Personally, right now I think the rumors are bogus, but rumors could turn to truth soon enough."

"What are you saying?

"We got intel on Starkweather."

"And?"

"This goes no where." Carlos, despite his handicap, was still a very intimidating man. Even though his legs were useless, thanks to Bravo, his chest, belly and arms still rippled with muscles. His eyes still glistened like onyx. He thrust his finger in Skinner's face. "No Scully. No Reyes. No Doggett. No FBI Senior Staff. Nobody."

"You have my word." Skinner vowed.

"Mulder secured a location on Starkweather."

Skinner's mouth dropped open. "That's great news!"

"Not when the dumb shit goes in by himself to find her!"

"WHAT????????" Skinner exploded. Several of the coffee shop patrons and wait staff turned to stare at him.

"Way to be inconspicuous," Carlos daintily took a sip of coffee as Skinner's face and top of his head reddened.

"Tell me," Skinner said, "what you know."

"The second to last communication we have from Mulder was right after that disaster at the train station," Carlos said, serious again. "He said he wanted to get home to tell Scully and Doggett that he had a lead on Starkweather.

"Seems that the Syndicate got tired of her stubborn ass and sold her."

"SOLD HER?????" Skinner spluttered.

"To an UFO cult."

Skinner buried his face in his hands. "Shit."

"Mulder has been tracking them ever since. He tried to get home to warn Scully that they were also after the bab-"

"William? This cult that has Starkweather is also after William?"

"These people are messed up, Skinner. We've been monitoring them ever since Mulder was abducted and Scully got pregnant. Thanks to the internet, these people have been monitoring Mulder and Scully since 1993. Scully is their personal Madonna, so when she got knocked up..." he trailed off.

"Oh my God..." Skinner moaned. "So why Starkweather?"

"I personally think it's a trap, to lure in Mulder. For the bits and pieces Mulder was able to send us, they've got this whacked dogma that the Son of an Alien-Man is destined to save them all from the Evil ET, but to do so, the Father must be destroyed because he is an abomination."

"Mulder... his exposure to the Black Oil... his illness...."

"He emailed me a week ago, saying that he had spoken to the cult's leader, a Zeke Josepho. That this Josepho confirmed to Mulder that he had Starkweather."

"What proof did he offer?"

"No proof. Mulder just believed him."

"You would think," Skinner raged, "after ten fucking years in that damn basement he would learn to trust no one..."

"That last message came to us a week ago, when Mulder was in North Dakota, near the US-Canadian border. We haven't heard from him since."

Skinner cleared his throat. "What... could this cult do to Starkweather? Is it possible that they'll let her go?"

"Skinner," now the agony was apparent in Carlos' voice. "This cult is more ruthless than the Syndicate. They're... they're nuts. They believe that God is on their side... she was better off with the Syndicate. If Scully is the Virgin Mary, than Starkweather is Magdalene."

"Oh God..." Skinner leaned forward, covering his mouth. "They're going to kill her."

"'Sacrifice' would be a better word."

Skinner closed his eyes. "But we don't have any real confirmation. For all we know this Josepho could be full of shit."

"That's what we're trying to find out," Carlos said seriously. "We've been monitoring this little group for a couple of years now."

"How?"

"Before Mulder vanished, the first time, in Belle Fleu-"

"That wasn't the first time he went missing," Skinner grumbled.

Carlos glared at him. "You know what I mean."

"Sorry. Continue."

"This little group was pretty quiet. Almost Amish like. Kept to themselves. Stayed in Montana mostly."

"Near the dump sites of abductees?"

Carlos nodded. "I have strong suspicions that they had ties to the dearly departed Absalom the Prophet and our MIA buddy, Jeremiah Smith."

"Have you heard from Jeremiah lately?"

Carlos shook his head. "Last I saw of him, Mulder and Jeremiah were running off into the Arizona sunset. Mulder helped Jeremiah go into hiding after the rescues of Samita Saint-Claire, Scully and the others and no one has seen him since then. Or Alpha. Or Gibson Praise," Carlos slugged his coffee down before continuing. "Anyway, this group kept themselves to themselves. Until the abductions started."

"Until Mulder vanished."

"Thanks to various security leaks, once word about Mulder's... uh, ascension and Scully's blessed conception, they have been on those two like stink on shit. How else did you think those damned replicants knew where Reyes took Scully to give birth?" Carlos took another drink. "And then they found out about Starkweather." In all earnestness, he asked, "Ever watch any of the 'Highlander' movies?"

"No," Skinner replied confused.

"Lots of cool sword fighting. And bad acting. Anyway, the premise of the movies and the equally bad syndicated television series is that a band of supernatural humanoids who can not die battle each other for supremacy. And they have a saying...

"'There can only be one.'"

"I don't follow."

"If Mulder is the Devil to these people and somehow he helps Our-Barren-Lady-Of-Angst in creating this cult's Messiah... they may not look so kindly on the fertile sister of the Devil. Did I say Magdalene?" Carlos said sourly. "I should have said Lilith."

But another thought, a bone chilling thought had entered the Assistant Director's mind. "What if," Skinner said, slowly. "What if they DON'T see Scully and William as their Mother of God and Christ... but Starkweather and her future children as...

"And there can only be one," Carlos looked down at his cup. "God, I didn't even fucking think of that..."

"And we still don't know if this Josepho told Mulder the truth or not."

"And that's the main problem," Carlos said gravely. "When Scully and Mulder made it home safely after William's birth, one of my agents infiltrated the group. He had been giving us status updates throughout the past two years."

"Had been?"

"He's dead. He was killed right before Mulder's last message. I didn't have time to warn Mulder that they were on to us."

"How did they find out?"

"Maybe Covarrubias. Blade Connor escaped from our custody and he's got an axe to grind. Could be that fuck Justin Leo, who the hell knows," Carlos groaned. "I've sent Joshi out there to find Mulder and to get his ass back into safe territory. But chances are, it's already too late." He then took out a manila folder out of his coat and pushed it towards Skinner. "Grow eyes in the back of your head," he advised him. "There're traitors everywhere. That's the only thing we know for sure." He sighed. "I'm not saying I don't trust your crew. They're good people. And God knows Scully deserves answers... but... for now, all we have is speculation. We don't know for sure if Mulder is dead. We don't know for sure if Starkweather is dead. But it's not good. These people, this Josepho, is bad news. Keep that hidden. And keep your mouth shut. Especially around Scully and Doggett. They're gonna push you. But it's for their own good they don't know right now. They're worried enough without being fed rumors. Because as of right now, that's all it is, is rumor."

"So why am I being fed the rumor?"

"Because," Carlos said softly, "In every lie, there is a grain of truth. And it is possible that this time, that arrogant son-of-a-bitch used up his last life and cost Starkweather hers in the process. But maybe... maybe, we can still save the boy. We can still save William." He backed up his wheelchair. "That's what Mulder and Jerilyn would have wanted. Beyond anything else. To keep Scully and William safe." He looked at the file he gave Skinner. "Keep that hidden."

Carlos wheeled himself out of the coffee shop without another word.

Back to the present... "After Skinner leaves, Doggett breaks into the A.D.'s office. Rummaging through his boss' desk, Doggett finds the evidence bag with the rubbing from the spaceship. He brings it to Reyes, with the news that the missing motorcyclist is actually an FBI agent named Robert Comer who was working undercover on a UFO cult in Canada. Scully leaves William with her mother to meet with the agents at Reyes' apartment. Doggett fills her in on Comer's disappearance and the FBI's conclusion that he may have gone crazy. They are under the impression that Comer started to follow the UFO cult himself. Reyes comes to the conclusion that the FBI doesn't even know about Scully's case files because the rubbings from Comer's backpack do not match the two-year old rubbings from the ship. The UFO cult may have uncovered a second spaceship.

Under a large tent in a deserted field in Alberta, Canada, a group of people excavate something out of the ground. What they are carefully digging up is a full-sized spaceship. The mysterious symbols are on its hull. At a rest stop in Maryland, Comer hijacks a moving van and heads towards the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C. The next morning, Comer is waiting inside Scully's apartment. He attacks Mrs. Scully when she comes in with William. Scully returns home to find her mother on the ground. Scully battles Comer, but he locks her out of William's room. As he is about to suffocate the baby with a pillow, Scully finds her pistol and shoots Comer in the chest. Doggett and Reyes rush over, and Scully asks Reyes to take her mother and son to safety. Scully demands answers from the bleeding Comer. Before he loses consciousness, Comer manages to tell her, "Your son has to die." The EMTs arrive and take Comer to the hospital. Scully notices that the man's jacket is still in William's room. In the pocket is a metallic piece of the spaceship with the symbols on it.

On a Calgary street, a woman in an overcoat picks up the morning newspaper with a headline about Comer's injury in a shooting. The overcoat woman drives out to the tent in the field and shows the newspaper to another man. "He can expose all of this," she tells him. "He's got proof he can show them." They nod in solemn agreement about what they must do.

Scully is once again called in to appear before the senior FBI staff. This time, Doggett accompanies her. She refuses to give them any information until they provide her with some answers. Kersh explains that Comer was sent to infiltrate the cult based on a series of threats against Mulder. Before the FBI lost contact with Comer, he sent out a communication that Mulder was already dead. Unfortunately, they can not confirm the validity of his information. Scully goes home, and Reyes brings William back to her. When she hears a rattling noise, Scully puts William into his crib, and she and Reyes go into her bedroom. A drawer in her bureau is somehow shaking. Inside it is the piece of the spacecraft from Comer's jacket.

Scully slowly opens the drawer, and the object flies across her apartment and into William's room. It slices through the wood bars of the crib and comes to a halt, hovering right over William's head. Scully is stunned as William calmly watches the piece rotate silently in mid-air above him. Reyes calls Doggett to Scully's apartment and tries to describe to him the strange events she just witnessed. The baby has some connection to this object. Although Doggett may not believe in extraterrestrials, she and Scully fear that the cult is willing to kill for their belief in alien life. Scully comes down with William and they get into her car. Doggett, however, notices a car parked on the street with the overcoat woman inside. He becomes suspicious, and tells Reyes that he will follow them in his car. Reyes pulls away, and Doggett approaches the parked car. Despite his drawn weapon and orders to stop, the overcoat woman drives directly at Doggett. He fires at her windshield, and she plows right into him, sending him over the car and onto the street. The overcoat woman speeds away as Doggett lies unconscious. Reyes drives Scully's car into an alley where the Lone Gunmen are waiting in their van. Scully gives William to them for safekeeping, and when she and Reyes return to her apartment, there are police cars and ambulances outside. Reyes runs to Doggett's side. Scully gets back in the car to find William. Meanwhile, the overcoat woman ambushes the Gunmen's van and fires at their tires. They crash into a pole. The woman opens the van door and forces Byers to hand over the baby. (From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

Chapter Ten:
"Providence"
August 8, 2002

Captain Zeke Josepho remembers a moment during the 1991 Desert Storm campaign that changed his life forever. Josepho's unit had been overtaken by an Iraqi troop, and although all of the men were killed, Josepho was still alive. He watched as a group of four combat-ready soldiers ran through the desert into the Iraqi encampment. The gunfire that struck them had no effect. The soldiers pulled the pins on their grenades and headed directly into the desert hideout of the enemy. The building exploded, and the soldiers marched out unharmed. Josepho knew then that his life was spared in order to deliver the message of the "God who came before all other Gods" responsible for these miraculous men. Now a civilian, Josepho recalls this tale as he stands upon the unearthed spaceship housed in the Canadian tent (last seen in 9X10). The symbols on the craft represent all the religions of the world. (From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

Later that day...
A small diner
Twenty miles outside of Calgary, Canada

Zeke Josepho was enjoying a cup of black coffee while reading his well worn leather bound Bible when his guest arrived.

He did not look up when his guest sat down, but instead, in a sotto voice, began reading out loud.

"Hannah rose after one such meal at Shiloh and presented herself before the Lord; at the time, Eli the priest was sitting on a chair near the doorpost of the Lord's temple. In her bitterness she prayed to the Lord, weeping copiously and she made a vow, promising: "O Lord of hosts, if you look with pity on the misery of your handmaid, if you remember me and do not forget me, if you give your handmaid a male child, I will give him to the Lord, for as long as he lives..." he looked up at his new companion and smiled. "The Old Testament is a wondrous thing of prophetic beauty."

"I am not familiar with that verse," Justin Leo told him stiffly.

"The First Book of Samuel," Josepho informed him mildly. "Chapter One, Verses Nine through Eleven. Hannah was the beloved wife of Elknanah. But the Lord saw fit to make her barren. She begged the Lord to conceive. And so she did, but at a price. A price she happily paid. She brought him to the temple and left him in the care of Eli, the priest." He began to read again. "'Pardon my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood near you here, praying to the Lord. I prayed for this child and the Lord has granted my request. Now I, in turn, give him to the Lord; as long as he lives, he shall be dedicated to the Lord.' She left him there." He sat his Bible. "This is your meeting, Mr. Leo. You requested to see me."

"You have something I want," Leo said quietly.

"Or rather," Josepho rose the coffee cup to his lips. "Someone."

"Yes."

"What ever you were told, was in error" Josepho said, setting the cup down on the table. "She is not here."

"But you can bring her here," Leo pushed on. "You can bring her to me."

Josepho stared at the young man in front of him. "What makes you think I have such powers?"

"Because you have powerful friends."

"I would not call those men 'friends'."

"But they are powerful."

"Yes..." Josepho looked out the window. "Yes, they are... "

"And I can help."

"Help?" Josepho chuckled and shook his head. "How?"

Underneath the table, Leo handed him the heavy knapsack he carried in. "Open it."

Josepho peeked into the bag. His eyes widened at the sight of all the money stuffed inside. "I.. don't know what to say."

Leo shrugged. "Man does not live by bread alone." When Josepho did not answer, Leo continued. "I figured your people are getting pretty hungry. And I haven't seen anyone on the mount multiplying fish and bread." Still, when Josepho still would not reply, Leo told him. "There's another fifty-thousand for you and your followers upon delivery... and to sweeten the pot... I also have information."

"Information?"

"Concerning Fox Mulder."

"Fox Mulder is dead."

"No."

Josepho glared at Leo. "I have it on good authority that Fox Mulder is dead."

"And I can assure you that he is not."

"What proof do you have to offer?" Josepho demanded.

Casually, Leo looked out the window.

Josepho looked out and his eyes widened.

Sitting in a parked truck, in broad daylight, eating sunflower seeds, Fox Mulder nodded at him, his eyes smoldering in hatred.

Josepho narrowed his eyes. "What is this?"

"He is offering a trade."

"A trade?"

"Himself. For the return of his child and his sister."

"His son... no," Josepho shook his head. "We can not do. The child is safer with us... but his sister... his sister I can do. That I can deliver."

"When?" "Give me two days."

"Done."

"And you will deliver Mulder to me?

Leo got and left a twenty on the table. "No problem."

He walked outside of the restaurant and got into the truck. "He went for it," Leo told Mulder. "Two days from now, we exchange you for Jerilyn and baby."

Mulder asked. "How long will it take Josepho to figure out the money is counterfeit?"

Leo shrugged as he started the truck. "The guys I deal with are pretty good. And they're smart. For every five fakes, they throw in one genuine. That's why they cost more than the others."

Mulder cracked open another seed with his teeth. "Leo, if you are trying to double cross, I'll kill you myself. I'm not with the Bureau anymore. I don't exist anymore."

Leo replied coldly. "I just want what you want, man. I'm tired of the bullshit. I'm tired of the Syndicate. I just want William and Jerilyn away from them."

Meanwhile...

At the FBI, the Toothpick Man watches as the Lone Gunmen scan the mug shots of suspects who may have taken Scully's baby. Meanwhile, A.D. Follmer briefs a task force about William's kidnapping and Doggett's near death in the ensuing attack. Scully is appalled at Follmer whitewashing the investigation, and she leaves in a huff. When Skinner stops her, she accuses the FBI of attempting to rid any element of the X-files - which includes not only Doggett and Mulder, but also her son. Skinner bristles at her allegations, but he is still concerned for Scully.

Reyes stands vigil as Doggett lays in a coma at St. Mary's Hospital. When Skinner visits, Reyes gets a call from Scully. Scully asks to meet her, but not tell Skinner. Reyes arrives at Scully's apartment, where the Gunmen are working at a laptop. They identified the overcoat woman kidnapper, but did not tell the FBI. Byers had been able to tuck a cell phone into William's car seat, and they hope to track the phone's signal and find the baby. The signal is coming from Warfordsburg, Pennsylvania, and Scully sets off with her gun in pursuit of William. Reyes follows. In Pennsylvania, the overcoat woman leaves William in the car to make a call at a pay phone. She dials Josepho, who is watching a group of cult members try to pry open the spaceship's hull from underneath its fins. When she informs Josepho that she has the child, the fins of the spaceship interlock, trapping the workers under a dome on the craft. Scully and Reyes finally arrive at the pay phone location, and while the car is still there, the overcoat woman and William have disappeared. The baby seat and cell phone remain in the back of the car. Reyes returns to St. Mary's, and prays in the hospital chapel for Doggett's recovery. Follmer finds here there, and informs her that he knows that she went after the kidnapper. He is aware that there are forces within the FBI working against them, but Follmer swears that he is indeed on her side. Follmer now needs her help. Robert Comer, the FBI agent who Scully shot in 9X10, has woken up and has written the word "jacket" on a notepad. Follmer wants Reyes to find out from Scully what that word means. Reyes approaches Scully with the paper, but Scully refuses to tell the FBI what she knows. Comer had been carrying the artifact from the spaceship in his jacket. That artifact may have healed his wounds from the motorcycle accident at the Canada border. Reyes follows Scully back to the hospital, where they sneak into Comer's room. Scully waves the artifact over Comer's gunshot wounds, and his heartbeat spikes. He awakens, and grabs Scully's arm. She threatens to kill him unless he explains why he wanted her baby. Comer explains that Josepho is the leader of a cult whose followers believe that an alien race will rule the world. The spaceship they found is a physical manifestation of God. God spoke to Josepho, and told him that William is a future savior who will try to prevent the aliens' return -- just like his father attempted. William will succeed at stopping this colonization unless his father, Mulder, is put to death. To fulfill the prophecy, Mulder was killed. Josepho now wants to protect William, but Comer has come to rid of William with his own plans to prevent the aliens from taking over the world. Comer reaches for the artifact to complete his healing when a nurse walks in with the Toothpick Man. Scully covers the bed sheet over the artifact. The Toothpick Man orders Scully and Reyes' removal. As the others leave, he ominously remains in Comer's room.

At the tent in Canada, Josepho's men try to open the spaceship to save the cult members inside. When the overcoat woman enters the tent with William, the fins of the spaceship inexplicably open. The men who were trapped are revealed to be burned and smoking corpses.

Scully and Reyes hide out in the hospital's chapel, and Scully admits her fears to Reyes that her son is an abomination meant to die. Reyes convinces Scully that this perception is only one man's belief that may not even be true. Skinner comes in with news of Comer's death. Because they are suspects, he advises them to leave immediately. Reyes rushes back to Comer's room. Reyes pulls off Comer's sheet, but the artifact is missing. Reyes wants the Toothpick Man searched for the artifact, and she looks to Scully to backup her account of the events. Scully, however, has gone to Doggett's room... (From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

Scully sobbed as she sat beside his bed and began to pray. She wept for the role she played in complicating this decent albeit consistently crabby man's life. After all, all he was supposed to do was find Mulder. He was never meant to be ensnared by the tricks and traps the X-Files created. He had a brilliant career ahead of him. He had his life still in front of him. He didn't deserve this, didn't deserve to his career derailed from the top brass down to the damp basement. He didn't deserve to be lying on this hospital bed.

Clutching the tiny crucifix necklace she received long ago, she whispered. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry... oh God, I'm sorry..."

Deep into coma, Doggett did not hear Scully's apologizes. He felt no pain, no worries and no fears. He felt as if he was floating, like he was freed from his burdensome body. He felt pretty good actually and was wondering if maybe he should just stay like this permanently. Whatever **this** was.

"Doggett."

::Go away::

The husky voice penetrated the abyss again. "Doggett."

Wearily he thought again, ::Go away...::

"Doggett, get your ass up or I'm going to beat the hell out of you."

Doggett's eyes popped open.

Jerilyn Starkweather, clad in a silvery white dress was sitting at the foot of his bed.

"What'n the hell is this??" he exclaimed. "Am I dead?"

The room was completely black, except for a beam of soft light encircling the bed, as if it was a prop on a stage. And they were not on a hospital bed, but his bed, from his house. Doggett recognized his sheets and comforter.

Starkweather shrugged. The dress was strapless and her pretty blond hair rippled past her shoulders. "Nah. This is one of those fun fugue states you go into when you're in a coma and the real world is a little more than you can bear right now."

"Is this a dream?" Doggett asked tentatively.

"How the hell should I know?" Starkweather asked back. "I'm not exactly awake either."

"Are you alright?"

She shrugged again. "I've been better. You?"

"I got hit by a car."

"Told you not to play in traffic."

Doggett shook his head. "I was tryin' to stop someone. This lady-"

"Woman."

"Whatever. Was roamin' 'round Scully's apartment. She didn't look right. I tried to stop her. I fired into her windshield... but I didn't get out of the way in time."

"Sucks to be you."

"Doc, I only got hit by a car. What the hell's goin' on with you? WHERE are you?"

"Got me," she shrugged. "I've been shuffled around more than a deck of cards. As to what's happening... shit, I don't know. I'm usually not conscious."

"But when you are???"

She gave him a withering look. "Just because you're unconscious doesn't mean you've changed a whole lot. I highly doubt you'd believe me if I told you."

He found himself blinking back tears. "I miss you," he whispered.

She folded her lips tightly. Her eyes shone with her own unshed tears. "Don't get sappy on me," her voice cracked. "This is hard enough as it is."

"Whaddya mean Doc?"

"Oh, I have a feeling that the prognosis is you'll live."

"What 'bout you?"

She shrugged. And smiled. And sang softly:

"Shot down in a blaze of glory
Take me now, but know the truth
'Cause I'm going out in a blaze of glory
Lord I never drew first
But I drew first blood
I'm the devil's son
Call me young gun."

Doggett glared at her. "The hell you are. Not while I have anything to say 'bout it. You're not goin' out. You're not. We're gonna bring you home."

"Bring William home first. Worry about me later."

"What?"

"The last thing I remember is that someone named Zeke Josepho is going contact Scully about Mulder and Boo. He's a bastard. He's not to be trusted. He wants to keep William to make him this Godhead and he wants to kill Mulder. You can NOT let her go meet this guy. It's a deathtrap."

"How can I stop her?"

Starkweather stared at him. "By waking up," she said firmly. "This is bullshit Doggett. I heard your thoughts. You are not staying here. Not if **I** have anything to say about it."

They glared at each other, neither one blinking or looking away. Both of them had angry, futile tears streaking down their faces.

"You are so Got-damned stubborn," he said thickly.

"So are you," she whimpered. "But this time, I get my way. You can't stay. You have to help her find Will. Or else she's going to go out and do something else stupid."

Doggett pointed his finger at her. "Don't you fucking give up, Doc. You die on me, I'll be pissed beyond belief."

"Your words are heart-warming as always."

"I mean it, Jerilyn. I need you here. You're coming back. You're coming home."

"Papa John," she said in a broken voice. "If I was you, I wouldn't hold my breath," her voice cracked on the last word.

Her words finally sunk in. "Oh no," he said. "Oh no you don't. You aren't here to tell me good-bye, Starkweather. You are not doing this."

"Just go find William, okay?" she begged. "Please? That's all I ask now. Nothing else matters." She covered her face with her hands. "I'm not arguing with you on this."

He threw the covers back and moved to her. From behind he wrapped his arms around her and rested his damp cheek against hers. "Fine you pain in the ass," he said a quavering voice. "Have it your way."

She leaned into him. "I'm sorry about leaving you with Caesar. I know you hate him."

"He kinda grew on me. Like a fungus."

She laughed, reaching up to grip his arms with her hands. Turning her head to face him, she said "Make sure Mulder doesn't get his dumb ass killed, okay?"

"I'll do what I can."

"And stop Scully from meeting with that man."

"I will. I'll tell her."

"I miss you too," she wept.

She pivoted her body and tilted her head to kiss him gently on the lips, holding him tight. As she wiped his tears away, he remembered her gentleness on that nightmarish night after September 11. The sweet Jerilyn so few people ever got to see.

He stole a few more tender kisses from her, then rested his forehead against hers. "When will I see you again Doc?"

She backed away. "At night. At the same place I'll only see you... in dreams." She brushed her fingers against his face, then slid further away from him. "You have to wake up now, Papa John."

Doggett closed his eyes. And reopened them...

"Doggett suddenly awakes from his coma, and tells Scully that he heard someone talking. Doggett warns Scully that someone is going to come to her, but that she shouldn't trust him. Scully's cell phone rings. It is Josepho, giving her strict instructions that she must obey in order to see her son.

Scully meets Josepho alone in a diner outside Calgary, Canada. He tells her that he has witnessed Super Soldiers, and that they are the true sons of God. Josepho believes that William will be the leader of the alien race that will rule the Earth. Although Josepho once believed that Mulder was dead, he now has doubts. He offers to give her William when she brings him confirmation of Mulder's death. Mulder being alive is the one thing that will prevent William from leading the aliens. Scully accuses Josepho of lying, and he demands that she bring him the head of Mulder. Josepho walks out, and Scully quickly calls Reyes in a nearby van. She is with the Gunmen, who have wired Josepho's car. As the Gunmen track Josepho, Reyes and Scully follow him. Yet the Gunmen lose the signal, and Scully is forced to blindly pull over. She sees a white tent in the distance and runs toward it. (From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

Meanwhile...
Not so far away from the white tent

Leo looked warily at the tent in the not so far distance. "What the hell is that thing?"

Mulder shrugged. "Probably where they hold their alien tent revivals."

Leo groaned and looked away, towards the road. "Look," he said, pointing at the headlights in the distance.

Mulder put his hands in his pockets. "Here we go." He looked at Leo. "Don't do anything stupid."

"Who? Me?" Leo tried to look innocent.

"You know Leo, I think you may be one of the many individuals who would reap great benefits from the wonder drug Paxil."

"I think you need a boot up your ass," Leo grumbled as a van pulled up.

The driver got out.

"Blade Connor," Mulder said dryly. "The CIA frees you and look where you ended up. As my little sister would say, shock, surprise, dismay. And speaking of my little sister, where is she?"

"In there," Connor nodded towards the van. "Where's the money?"

"Where's my son?" Mulder started to ask but then felt the barrel of a gun being pressed against his neck. "Leo, you goddamned punk."

"It was the only way," Leo cried out. "It was the only way I could get Lilly back!"

"Starkweather is NOT Lilly Stratford, you MORON!" Mulder yelled at him.

"Losing your touch in the insult department aren't you Mulder?" Connor pulled out his own gun and pointed it at Mulder's head. "I was expecting something far wittier than that."

"I can't believe that you would stoop to assist the Syndicate," Mulder said. "The very organization that authored Samita and your children's deaths and now you help them."

"If it weren't for you," Connor cried out. "I would still have Samita and my children."

A child's wail pierced the night. Both Connor and Leo jumped. Mulder took advantage by smashing his elbow into Leo's gut and grabbing Connor's gun out of his hand. Connor charged him to retrieve his gun, but Mulder fired, hitting him in the knee.

Leo fired at Mulder, hitting him square in the other shoulder. Mulder staggered. "Well," he rasped out. "At least I haven't ever been shot there before."

Leo advanced on Mulder, then, if he had second thoughts, turned and fled to the van. Grabbing Connor and pulled him up and dragged him inside. He started the van up and, spraying gravel everywhere, drove away very quickly.

Mulder, frustrated, watched the van drive away. Then he heard the child's cry again and he ran towards it...

Meanwhile, inside the tent, William begins to cry. At the sound of his voice, the bezels on the spacecraft suddenly turn and drop into the ground. The ship then blasts a shaft of white light into the sky, and begins to vibrate and hum. The cult members watch as the spaceship starts to surface. Scully and Reyes see the ship take off into the night. The tent explodes into flames. (From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

Mulder was only a few feet away from the tent when it burst into flames. He fell onto his ass and raised his uninjured arm up to shield his eyes from the fiery glow. His greatest fear loomed in front of him, consuming everything inside and around it.

There was screaming of people being burned alive.

And then there was the scream of his son.

Mulder forced himself to move, to run through a charred opening. His jaw dropped open once he was inside.

They were not alone.

The cultists were being ignited by Faceless Alien Rebels. Whenever one would try and run from Rebel, there would be another to take his place.

Mulder felt very disorientated, light-headed. For some reason, he felt complied to check his watch.

It had stopped.

Everything was moving slowly, as if they were underwater. Everything seemed to be glowing brighter than the ring of fire.

Then, after roasting Zeke Josepho alive, an Alien Rebel looked at him.

Mulder balled his fists and stood his ground.

But the Alien Rebel only beckoned another Alien Rebel, a female, to come over.

She did not carry a flamethrower.

She carried William.

William squealed with immeasurable joy and held his arms out to Mulder. With arms wide open, he took his son from the female Alien Rebel.

As he hugged and kissed his child, he could hear the female Rebel's thoughts in his own mind.

::His mother is near. Leave him where he can be found. He is safe. He is our ward. He will always be protected. You must go find your sister.::

Mulder, not understanding why he understood, nodded and left the tent.

He walked through the flames unscathed.

Once outside of the tent, time resumed its natural course. Mulder felt his primal fear of fear reassert itself and he backed away from the ruins. But there was nothing left but a few smoldering heaps here and there.

Mulder sat William down on the ground. "Hey, buddy," he whispered to him as William grabbed at his nose and ears. "Stay here and wait for Mommy, okay? Be a good boy and wait for Mommy, she's coming."

He heard an anguished cry in the distance.

"William!!"

Mulder paused, heart wrenching. He wanted to stay. He wanted to see her again.

He kissed William on the top of the head, told him he loved him and disappeared into the night. William started to cry loudly.

They run to the tent's remains, discovering charred bodies among the wreckage. They suddenly hear a baby's cry. William is lying on the ground, unharmed.

Reyes finds Doggett in the chapel at St. Mary's Hospital. He says that when he was in the coma, a voice told him to get up and warn Scully about this man. Doggett asks Reyes if it was she who was talking to him. (From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

Before she could answer, a glimmer of light caught her eye. She looked over Doggett's shoulder and her mouth dropped open.

Jerilyn Starkweather, just as she was the last time anyone saw her, in a dark suit and her hair pulled neatly in a bun, stood in the corner of the chapel, watching them. She smiled at Reyes.

"Monica?"

Reyes blinked. Looked over Doggett's shoulder again. The ghost was gone.

"What?"

"Was it you I was talkin' to?"

"She says no. At the FBI, Follmer tells Kersh that he has recently learned that the monitors in Comer's room show that the man's vital signs returned back to normal right before his death. Follmer is befuddled, and has no explanation for this. The Toothpick Man is waiting in Kersh's office, and Kersh hands him the case folder. Kersh then congratulates him because it now appears that everything from the case is dead. However, the case itself seems to still be active. "I'm sure I can take care of that," the Toothpick Man replies. Unseen on the Toothpick Man's neck is the familiar spiny ridges of an alien replacement. "(From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

Meanwhile...
Interstate 35 Southbound
Somewhere in Minnesota...

"He SHOT me," Blade Connor bitched. "I can't believe the fucker SHOT me!!!"

Leo had driven all night and most of the day. He had finally pulled over to catch some sleep. Connor had the passenger seat completely reclined, resting his injured leg on the dash, covered up with a thick camping sleeping bag. He shivered with fever.

"Blade," Leo said, exhausted. "Shut up. I need some sleep. And I need to think of what we're gonna do next." Leo, meanwhile, was lying on an uncomfortable cot in the back of the van, head on a hard pillow, no blanket for him.

"We?" Connor snorted. "There is no we. YOU got what you want. As soon as we get back to DC, I leave you, my friend. I have a different agenda."

"I know," Leo said, smirking. "That's what got you shot."

"Fuck you," Connor sighed. "I do have to give you congratulations, Leo. You did get exactly what you wanted. Too bad she's comatose."

In the cot straight across from Leo, laid Special Agent Jerilyn Starkweather, dead to the world.

Chapter Eleven:
"Audrey Pauley"
August 16, 2002

"Here," Doggett handed the cat carrier to Skinner.

As Caesar yowled petulantly, Skinner grumbled, "You owe me."

"Well, Agent Reyes and I are gonna grab a beer after work. I'll buy ya a round."

Skinner glowered at him. "A round is NOT going to pay me back for this favor, Agent Doggett." He sighed. "How did I get roped into this again?"

"Agent Scully asked you nicely to switch cat weekends with her. Then when you hemmed and hawed, she whined until you gave in." Doggett grinned, handing him a grocery sack filled with cat food and litter. "Have fun." Doggett then bent down and grinned at the angry tabby cat. "Good riddance to you too, you miserable cat fro- whoa!" Doggett backed up as an angry paw lunged out of the carrier and swiped at Doggett.

"And I was worried about the cat being hurt by my dog," Skinner muttered. Then he said. "Seriously, John... maybe we should think of finding a... permanent home for Agent Starkweather's cat."

"Yeah, but who can keep that monster on a full time basis? Scully can't keep 'im from eating Mul-duh's fish plus she's worried that one of these days he'll bite William. Monica is not supposed to have pets at her apartment unless she pays an outrageous down deposit and me... well, I hate that fuzzy fucker, so..."

Skinner sighed. "That's not what you mean and you know it."

"I don't want to talk about it right now..."

"That's fine, John. But we are going to have to discuss it soon. Before he left, Mulder transferred his power of attorney over Jerilyn's affairs to me. I don't like this any more than you do. But... after all this time now... and with no word from Mulder... we may have to start... assuming the worst and making provisions. Like what to do with her property. Her possessions... her cat."

"I don't want to talk about it right now," Doggett repeated, his eyes narrowing as he added coldly "And I don't wanna give up. Not yet."

"John," Skinner said kindly. "It's been almost six months now."

Doggett muttered "I know," as he walked over to the couch and sat down. He had always liked Skinner from the beginning, found out he was a man after his own heart. Scully and Reyes had been like guardian angels ever since Mulder broke the news to him that Starkweather disappeared without a trace. But there some things he was more comfortable talking to Skinner about than "the girls."

Especially Reyes.

Skinner put the cat carrier and grocery sack down on his desk and walked across his office to close the door. Then, walking back towards Doggett, hands in pocket he said "I know you think I'm full of bull if I say I know how you feel."

"Yeah, yeah," Doggett leaned his head against the wall, closing his eyes. "Get on with it. Tell me how I'm just chasing after ghosts again. Tell me how I'm livin' through memories 'stead of tryin' to make new ones. Tell me everything that I've been tellin' myself."

Skinner pulled out a chair and sat down in front of him. "John, in our line of work... we always run the risk of losing one of our own. But no matter when it happens, it's not easy... I've lost friends in the service. In Vietnam. I've lost good friends during my time in the Bureau too." He folded his hands loosely as he leaned forward. "You question "Why him? Why her? Why not me?" But there is no answer for that." Skinner took off his glasses and tossed them on his desk carelessly. "And every left behind is stuck in limbo, wishing like hell what happened didn't happen while at the same time, feeling guiltier than hell for wanting to go on with life."

Doggett opened his eyes. "It just hasn't been me. Dana...and William."

"I know. I hate William growing up without his dad. I hate what Dana's been going through. I hate what you both have been going through," Skinner told him. "And if there was more that I could do, I would be doing it, you know that. I'd love nothing more than to bring Mulder and Starkweather home... but... at the same time, I've got to be realistic too. There's a strong possibility that Mulder and Starkweather aren't coming home."

"I know," Doggett said softly, looking up at the ceiling. "I just... I wish I knew. For sure. One way or the other." He shook his head just a little. "Six months... I can't believe that it's already been..." Quickly he stood up. "I gotta get going... Monica's waiting... sorry to be a bother."

"Don't worry about it," Skinner said watching Doggett leave. "John?"

"Yeah?"

Skinner hated himself for what he was about to say. But Doggett was slowly turning into a grimmer shade of himself. Even his dry sense of humor was dissipating. The strain of not knowing was slowly eating away his spirit.

"Jerilyn would understand if you got on with your life."

Doggett didn't even attempt speech; he just nodded and shut the door quietly behind him.

He ran into Reyes in the hallway just outside of Skinner's office. "There you are!" she said brightly. "I've been looking all over for you. Are yo-" she then noticed his face. "Are you alright?" she asked instead of asking if he was ready to go.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine," he said, forcing a smile onto his face. "Ready?"

Reyes smiled and together they walked towards the parking garage...

Later....

"Reyes drops Doggett off after work, and he laments that he is thinking about getting a cat to subsidize his lonely existence. "You are a dog person, John," she laughs. There is an awkward moment between them, but Doggett gets out of the car and goes into his house. Reyes pulls away and her car is suddenly hit in a crash. She is rushed to the hospital where she is examined by the trauma team. When Dr. Preijers flashes his penlight in her eyes, Reyes wakes up. Yet she is in another hospital's emergency room and she is all alone. There are no doctors around, and this doppel hospital seems abandoned and quiet. Although there is one trickle of blood on her forehead, Reyes is otherwise fine. She walks to the entrance of the ER and stops short. The hospital building is floating in a dark void of nothingness.

Reyes goes back inside and wipes the blood from her forehead. Stephen Murdoch, a patient who doesn't know why he too is in this doppel hospital, greets her and introduces her to another patient, Mr. Barreiro. Both Murdoch and Barreiro are convinced that they are dead, but Reyes doesn't believe it. She roams the doppel hospital, realizing that there are no signs on any of the walls and that all of the paperwork on the charts is written in gibberish. Murdoch tells her that he has gotten used to this fact, figuring that he is in some kind of in-between state on his way to Heaven. Reyes wonders if maybe she is merely hallucinating. She again goes to the door of the hospital and drops a coffee mug into the void. It is caught in a flash of electricity and vanishes.

At the regular hospital, Reyes lies in a coma-state attached to ventilators. Her heart still beats. Doggett does not want to accept that Reyes is brain dead. Dr. Preijers states that Reyes signed an organ donor card, but Doggett refuses to let her go just yet.

Reyes sees a woman in the doppel hospital. The woman runs away and disappears into a blank wall. Suddenly, Barreiro's body is overcome with electrical sparks. He fades away, just like Reyes' coffee mug. Reyes explains to Murdoch that she believes that they are not really dead. Whatever happened to Barreiro caused him to die. Meanwhile, in the regular hospital, Dr. Preijers shuts off the life support unit keeping the real body of Mr. Barreiro alive. The doctor apologizes to Barreiro's family, as the mystery woman in the doppel hospital watches. She is a patient's aide by the name of Audrey Pauley, and she goes about her rounds delivering flowers.

Doggett begs Scully for help in buying time for Reyes. He points out on Reyes' EEG chart that she had brain activity up until one distinct point. Doggett is determined to find out what happened. He questions Dr. Preijers whether there was a change in Reyes' condition at that time. Preijers gives Doggett Reyes' chart. Doggett goes to Reyes' room and finds Audrey Pauley there. She comfortingly tells him that Reyes' soul is not gone. He says that he wishes he could talk to her. (From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

Meanwhile...
Dana Scully's residence
Georgetown

Scully felt guilty as hell for not keeping vigil over Reyes, but she had a small child at home waiting for her. And a cranky babysitter who wanted to go home.

Letting herself into her apartment, she heard the low drone of static from her television set. Putting her purse down on the night stand near the door, she shut the door behind her, re-locked it and went to shut the television off. Turning on a small lamp, she crossed over to the man snoring slightly in her overstuffed chair, cuddling her son.

"Hi baby," she said to William, gently extracting him from Uncle Walt's arms.

Skinner woke with a start. "Dana..." he said groggily. Reaching for his glasses he asked "What time is it?"

"About five in the morning sir," Scully responded, swaying back and forth slightly as she held William in her arms now. "I'm going to put this guy back to bed."

"He woke up crying," Skinner apologized. "I..."

"Its okay," Scully smiled her Madonna smile. "I understand." She went down the hallway and put the now soundly sleeping William back in his crib. Smiled at him and stroked his downy head. And damn, if his hair wasn't turning dark brown.

She returned to the living room. Skinner had put his glasses back on and was looking more alert. "What's the word?" he asked.

Scully shook her head. "We're going to lose her, sir." She sat down on her couch. Her lip began to tremble. She couldn't cry in front of Doggett, but now, in her own home with an old friend, she could. "This isn't fair," she snuffled like a little girl.

"I know, I know," wearily Skinner agreed.

"It's too much," Scully went on, wiping the tears off her pretty oval face with the back of her hand. "First Jerilyn, now Monica." She laughed bitterly. "I'm running out of girlfriends."

"How's John?"

"In denial."

"No surprise there," Skinner grunted. "Are you absolutely sure there's no hope though Dana? I mean..." he hung his head. "I hate to give up without a fight."

"I went through her medical charts with a fine tooth comb. Short of a miracle, there is nothing." Scully absently fidgeted with her crucifix. "We're going to need a lot of prayers on this one. Because there's nothing more modern medicine can do."

Throat feeling tight, Skinner said "I'll stop by the hospital to see how John's doing... Jesus... he's going to think he's cursed or something..." He got up, slacks and shirt completely rumpled from sleeping in them all night.

"Thank you for coming at such short notice," Scully said, looking down at the floor. "My mother is out of town and..."

Skinner walked over to her and leaned over; kissing her on the forehead like Mulder had done so many times before. "You're welcome," he muttered awkwardly backing away.

Scully looked up at him, grateful for his consistency and gruff overtures of friendship. "You better get home to see if that damn cat left you any furniture."

"I'm going to the hospital first," he reminded her. Then he sighed. "That's another problem. What are we going to do with that damn cat? We can't keep pawning him off on each other forever."

Scully produced a watery smile. "Monica was thinking about adopting him."

"She's good about taking on lost causes," Skinner said quietly. "Get some rest."

"You too."

Meanwhile,
Back at the hospital...

Audrey then goes down to the hospital basement to her own private room. There's a small-scale model of the hospital there. She peers inside the model and concentrates. In the doppel hospital, Reyes and Murdoch are trying to open all the locked doors when Reyes sees Audrey. She begs her not to run away again. Reyes asks Audrey to show them the way out, but Audrey tells them that she can't. Audrey informs Reyes that her friend loves her very much. Reyes gives Audrey a message for Doggett: "Tell him he's a dog person." Audrey rounds a corner and disappears.

Back at the hospital, Nurse Edwards helpfully tells Dr. Preijers that he neglected to put an injection on Reyes' notes before handing them over to Doggett. Preijers asks if anyone else noticed, and then lunges at her. He stabs her with a needle in the neck. The nurse falls to the ground.

Doggett sadly remembers his last conversation with Reyes about pets. Yet he imagines that this time, he kisses her. He is snapped back to reality by the commotion in the hospital. Nurse Edwards has been found dead. Doggett tells Scully that this nurse worked on Reyes, and perhaps foul play is involved. He has her autopsy Edwards' body for signs of murder. Scully suggests that he not believe this will bring Reyes back to life. Audrey delivers Reyes' message to Doggett, explaining that she is "not gone." She takes him to her room and shows him her model hospital, explaining that she made it so that she can enter it in her head. She used to have it all to herself, until hospital patients showed up -- including Reyes. Doggett asks her for the names of the other patients inside.

Reyes theorizes that the doppel hospital resembles a movie set, created by someone who didn't get it quite right. Suddenly, Murdoch falls to the floor. His body begins to crackle with electricity. In the real world, Dr. Preijers has clicked off Murdoch's life support system. (From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

Reyes stared at the patch of floor where Murdoch used to be. Gone. Just... gone. Reyes swallowed. Legs trembling, she made herself stand up. "Audrey, come back," she whispered. The lonely silence of the doppel hospital pierced her to the core.

Fighting the surge of panic beginning to swell from the depths of her stomach up into her throat, Reyes began to roam the hospital, calling out "Audrey! Audrey!"

She turned down a hallway and gasped in disbelief. There was someone else in the doppel hospital.

"Oh my God," she gasped out, reaching for the wall to steady herself. "JERILYN!?!?!"

Jerilyn Starkweather turned around. "Christ, the party just keeps getting better and better."

Reyes could only gape. She looked exactly the same as she did before she left for her fateful trip to Russia. A no-nonsense FBI tried-and-true-and-approved black blazer with a matching skirt and a grey turtle necked sweater, nude pantyhose and boring black high heeled pumps on her feet. Her blond hair was neatly coiled into a merciless bun at the nape of her neck. Her wedding ring was on her finger, her medal of St. Christopher around her neck. Her hazel eyes, intense and feral bore down on Reyes, waiting... waiting... for what?

"Jerilyn..." Reyes said weakly. "How long..."

"Have I been here?" she finished her question for her. Then she held her arms out wide and said "How the hell do I know?"

"What..." Reyes asked nervously, not sure if she was speaking to a figment of her imagination, a spirit, a demon or what.

She knew it was no angel, that was for sure.

"What... is this place?"

Starkweather's eyes fluttered here and there, taking inventory. "I have no idea," she said. "Not yet anyway. It reminds me of a doll's house."

"A doll's house?"

"Yeah..." Starkweather walked towards Reyes, fingers dragging against the wall. "This place, it's not real. It's... created."

Reyes lost her fear. "By a person?"

"Possibly..." Starkweather mused. "I just can't figure out how... but... if I can figure out how... maybe... maybe we can get out of here."

"We?"

"Well, unless you WANNA stay?"

"Jerilyn.... You're alive," Reyes said, first feeling an upwelling of relief. Then the draining pull of remorse.

Starkweather shrugged. "Technically. Of course," she sighed now. "With the stockpile of memories I have now... death may be preferable."

"Jerilyn, no!" Reyes burst out, forgetting their predicament. "You can't give up!"

The look Starkweather gave her could only be described as pure Mulder haughtiness. "Do not presume to tell me what I can or can not do, Reyes. The last time I was conscious was hell. God knows what I'm going to wake up to next." Then she sighed, leaning against the wall. Rolling her head over towards Reyes, she said, "I'm very tired, Reyes. I feel like shit. And I don't know what's happening to me anymore. What has happened, I don't like." She slid down the wall, sitting down. Reyes walks over to her and sat beside her. Starkweather turned her head again to look at her. "If this place is some sort of purgatory or haven for lost souls, as you will, then I am not a very stable soul. Sometimes I find myself here. Sometimes... I'm somewhere else... sometimes..." she shrugged. "Sometimes its oblivion." She looked at the floor. "I like it here though. It's quiet." She glared at Reyes. "Usually."

Reyes reached to touch her, stroke her pretty hair. "We're trying to find you."

Starkweather batted her hand away. "I'm a lost cause. "

"Lost causes are my favorites."

"Oh really?" Starkweather arched her eyebrow. "Good. Then when you get back, you can take care of my personal favorite lost cause."

Reyes was no fool. "John."

Through narrowed eyes, she said snootily "Hurt him and I'll haunt you."

"How... I mean... he was missing when..."

Starkweather closed her eyes. "I'm tired, Reyes... don't waste my time with stupid questions... I just... know..."

Reyes looked at her incredulously. She was fading out, literally. She looked ghostly, transparent. As if she was made of stars. Slowly rolling her head over back to Reyes, she said as her being grew fainter and fainter "Just... remember what I said about my lost cause Monica..."

"Jerilyn, please..." Reyes tried to grab at her, but her hand passed through her as if she was comprised of air. "Don't go... it's not me he wants."

"Bullshit..." Starkweather whispered, opening her eyes which now looked washed out and exhausted. "He's typical male... dumb as brick and can't see a good thing when it's standing right there in front of him.... I already told him that I wasn't coming home..." she closed her eyes. "Get out of here Reyes..." Before she completely disappeared she managed to spit out "Go find the chick that built this place. She can help you... I think."

Alone again, Reyes started to tremble again. "Audrey," she whispered again.

The next day...

Doggett hands Scully the charts of Barreiro and Murdoch, who had both been declared brain dead by Dr. Preijers. Doggett is convinced that Preijers injected them and Reyes with something to cause their bodies to shut down. Although Barreiro has passed, they can still save Murdoch and Reyes. Yet Doggett and Scully find that Murdoch is already dead. Doggett goes to Audrey's room and begs for her help. He asks her to go back into her model and explain the situation to Reyes. Doggett breaks down in tears, saying that he needs Reyes to fight and prove that she's still alive. Dr. Preijers secretly watches as Doggett leaves Audrey's room.

Audrey goes into the doppel hospital and warns Reyes. She is upset because she can't help Reyes escape. Yet Reyes realizes that Audery is dyslexic, and that the doppel hospital and all its gibberish charts are her creation. She convinces Audrey that since it is her hospital, she can make the rules work any way she wants. Audrey disappears, and returns to her real room. Dr. Preijers is there, holding a needle. He blames her for what he's being accused of. In the doppel hospital, Reyes sees the walls warble and finds that Audrey has returned. Audrey leads her to the front door and tells Reyes to jump into the abyss. Although Reyes is afraid she will die, Audrey assures her that she will be safe. Audrey serenely says that she now knows who told her to build the fake hospital. With a leap of faith, Reyes falls into the void. Audrey evaporates along with the doppel hospital.

In Reyes's hospital room, Scully tells Doggett that the transplant teams are in place. Doggett still refuses to let them take Reyes. Scully wants him to convince her and the doctors that Reyes is still alive.

Suddenly, Reyes awakes and says, "Audrey." Doggett rushes to the basement and grabs Preijers. He is saddened to see Audrey dead on the floor.

Three days later, Doggett drives Reyes home from the hospital." (From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

"Here we are," Doggett said cautiously as they pulled up in front of her apartment building. He put the truck in park and let it idle.

"Here we are... again," Reyes smiled at him. "Are you alright?"

Doggett's mouth dropped open. "Me?!?! Mon, what drugs did they give ya? I wasn't the one an inch away from pushin' up daisies. **I'M** fine. Are YOU okay?"

Reyes turned her head to look out the window, remembering her nightmarish experience with Audrey Pauley, Dr. Preijers and the doppel hospital

::"Then when you get back, you can take care of my personal favorite lost cause."::

"John," Reyes said softly, reaching out to lay her hand on his arm. "I'm okay. But I'm worried about you. Dana and Skinner both said you almost went over the edge."

Doggett struggled for an answer. "Well... yeah, I mean... of course... we've... you and me, we go back and..."

"I'm not Starkweather, John. I'm not going anywhere."

Doggett closed his eyes. "She said that to me too," he muttered inaudibly wishing she wouldn't stare at him. When Reyes refused to look away, he finally said, "My wife resented me because I wouldn't move on. That I wouldn't let Luke go... " He finally opened his eyes and looked at her. "Am I making the same mistake?

::"Hurt him and I'll haunt you."::

Reyes blurted out "I don't think this will work out...I'll never be..."

"Starkweather? I know."

"I really **really** hoped that things would work out with you and her... you two just clicked together. You looked happy."

"I was," he said, looking out the window. "But...I wasn't enough for her." "So what am I?" Reyes tried to joke. "Leftover Queen? Thanks a lot."

"No," Doggett sighed. "You're not Leftover Queen... you're... you're one of the best friends I've got, Mon. You have been since Day One. And... I don't want to hurt you. But... I don't want... I screwed up with Starkweather. I remember when we were talkin' 'bout her, after Eagle's Ridge got raided and those bastards took Scully... how you told me that I was fallin' for Starkweather because she was 'safe'. Unattainable so I couldn't get hurt."

"I remember," Reyes said faintly. "Pandora's Boxed Twilight."

"Yeah," Doggett said, acutely aware how uncomfortable the atmosphere was becoming in the truck. But he was on a mission, dammit. He waited too long with Starkweather. And now she's gone. Now, he had almost lost one of his oldest and dearest friends in the world. That was not going to happen again. "You... you also said that... you wished that it would have worked...but what you got from us just bein' friends was better than what might have been."

Reyes nodded. "I remember that too."

"Still feel that way?"

She turned her head, not sure if she heard him right.

::"Hurt him and I'll haunt you."::

"Maybe not so much now as I did back then," she said, a shy smile appearing on her face.

She leaned into him just as he touched her face and for a few minutes, they kissed each other the way old lovers and better friends do when they reintroduce intimacy into their lives. When they broke apart, Reyes said huskily. "I should go."

"Okay," he said, stroking her face one more time before getting out of the truck so he could walk around and let her out.

"They say goodnight to each other, and Reyes goes into her apartment, alone. (From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

Meanwhile...
Back at the hospital...

"I'm sorry you feel this way, Mr. Kimble," Dr. Arthur Covey said as the nurses prepared the patient for transportation. "I wish there was something I could do to reassure you that we do not take the safety of our patients lightly.

Justin Leo's smile was cold. "The only reason why my wife is still alive is because she is not an organ donor, Dr. Covey. However, how many innocent people died at the hands of that madman? I can not take any more risks."

And he couldn't take any more risks of being around FBI agents.

How many times did Agents Scully and Doggett pass by her hospital room? He almost ran into the Assistant Director but managed to slip away without even being noticed. Fortunately, whatever crisis they were embroiled in held their attention firmly. And away from him. And his life.

The nurses inelegantly but expertly moved the patient from bed to gurney. "Are we ready?" he asked them, dismissing the doctor by turning his back to him.

"Yes Mr. Kimble," one of the nurses responded, glad to be rid of this insufferable pest, but she felt sorry for the patient. She looked like she went through a special kind of hell. Whatever the girl had been through, it was enough to earn a Glasgow Coma Scale score of 3, the highest and worst score a coma patient could have. Her EEGs were dismal but not brain dead yet.

Leo walked over to what he felt was his rightful place beside her. Taking her hand, he leaned down and whispered "Don't worry, Lily. We're moving to a different hospital. We're going somewhere safer. I promise you. And we'll find answers. We'll find out what's wrong with you." He kissed her knuckles and stroked her ruined hair.

Agent Starkweather didn't move, flinch or budge. She barely breathed.

Flashback to 1989: On a rainy night, a Triboro Cable repairman named Bob Fassl pulls up to a house in Brooklyn, New York. A male voice from the back of the van tells him to "do his job." After kissing his rosary, Fassl timidly goes to the front door and tells the teenage girl of the house that he her cable is out. Believing that her father may have called the cable company, she lets the man in. The father questions whether Fassl made a mistake, and he asks to see the work order. Yet when Fassl looks down at his empty work order, a spray of dark red blood splatters onto the paper. The father is suddenly lying on the ground, dead. A bloody screwdriver is in his neck. Fassl is horrified to see that both the mother and daughter are also lying in pools of blood on the kitchen floor. The front door immediately opens and two NYPD cops burst through and apprehend him. One of the policemen is Doggett.

In present day, Doggett is furious to learn that, after thirteen years, DNA tests cleared Fassl of being the "screwdriver killer" who had murdered seven people. Doggett is insistent that he caught the right man. Although Scully has verified the DNA tests, Doggett still wants answers to back up his police work. He asks both Scully and Reyes for their help." (From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

Later...
'Coffee is My Friend' Twenty Four Hour Coffee Shop

"Well?"

Scully looked up from her steaming up of green tea. "Well what Monica?"

"What did you think?"

"About Agent Doggett?"

"Obviously you're not happy with him... you're calling him Agent Doggett." Reyes sipped a bit of the steaming chai, let her taste buds revel in the rich creaminess, then reluctantly swallowed and asked again. "So what do you think about John and this Bob Fassl."

"I think he's drunk and he needs to lie down," Scully said flatly without a trace of humor in her voice.

Reyes sighed. "Are you going to help him, Dana?"

Scully also sighed, but hers sounded more exasperated than Reyes. "Yes. Yes of course I'll help him... I've helped Mulder on stranger cases..."

"It's not going to be easy... John going back to New York."

"It's not going to be easy for any of us to go back to New York," Scully said softly.

"I still have dreams, reliving when I saw the plane crash into the Pentagon." Reyes closed her eyes. "Until... until what happened to Teresa, I thought that was the worse thing I had ever had to live through... I can't imagine... with John and Jerilyn being at Ground Zero..."

Scully didn't want to talk about it, didn't want to old, festering wounds to be picked at, encouraging infection instead of healing. Quickly, she shifted the conversation to work. "It's also not going to be easy talking to Doggett's old police force. We'll have to talk to his old partner... what was his name?"

Reyes' face darkened. "Tomasick. Duke Tomasick."

Scully's eyebrow arched. "Is there something about him that I should know about?"

Reyes shook her head. "Nothing... pertinent to the case. I didn't get along with him. I could never lay my finger on it, but he rubbed me the wrong way. Bra- umm... the man I was dating off and on at the time, didn't care too much for him either." She smiled ruefully. "But then, he was kind of a snob. Everyone else got along with Duke."

"I'm sorry, Monica. But I'm a little confused. I thought John's partner in New York was named Jason?"

"Jason Mick," Reyes looked even sadder. "Jason and John met while they were in the Marines. After they were discharged, Jason somehow convinced John to move to New York with him and go to the police academy. After they graduated, they were partners for awhile. But then, if I remember correctly, Jason needed different hours because his wife Minerva went back to college after their second child. And they couldn't afford to send Cindy and Claudia to day care. So while Minerva went to school during the day, Jason worked the night shift so he could be home with the girls." Reyes shook her head.

"Impressive," Scully said after the waitress brought them their lunches. "Not a lot of men would do that." She began to nibble at her Caesar salad. Lately her appetite kept dwindling. Eating was becoming a chore.

Reyes noticed but chose not to say anything. She sensed Scully's depression and knew that nagging her to keep eating would only provoke an argument. She stuck on the safe paths on Memory Lane. "Mickey wasn't like most men. Maybe that's why I can't make myself like Duke very much. Anyone would pale in comparison to Mickey." Reyes shook her head before biting into her ham-and-Swiss cheese panini sandwich. "Minerva even told me that Barbara didn't like Duke much."

"Barbara?"

"John's ex wife."

"Oh... why not?"

"I don't know. I didn't ask. Minerva didn't like him either... come to think of it... all the women in Doggett's life at that time, just didn't like him when they met him. Yet they could not come up with a valid reason why."

Scully shrugged. "Maybe it's just feminine intuition. "

Reyes reached for her mammoth cup of chai again. "Intuition? I thought most scientists eschewed intuition." She grinned mischievously at Scully.

"As a scientist, yes, I do doubt the validity of intuition... but as a woman," Scully gave Reyes one of her rare smiles. "I know better."

They dropped the subject of Duke Tomasick and the Micks and started talking about other things, less painful things to remember. But Scully made it a point to keep Reyes' words in the forefront of her mind when she would meet Doggett's old partner. Scully quickly learned to trust Reyes' quirky impulses and prophetic visions. She wondered if Reyes was learning how to hone her emphatic skills. She was right so many times... it was ... spooky. Shades of Mulder-and-Starkweather spooky.

It never crossed either woman's mind that Starkweather may have met Duke Tomasick. If they would have thought of it, they would have wondered if Starkweather received the same vibe off of Duke as Reyes, Minerva and the former Mrs. Doggett did...

October 1, 2001
Best Western Manhattan Hotel
17 West 32nd Street
New York, New York
10:13 PM Eastern Standard Time

Her cell phone was ringing.

Special Agent Jerilyn Starkweather MD, clad in an extra large faded Darth Vader t-shirt, a pair of Mickey Mouse pajamas bottoms and fuzzy bunny slippers padded out of the tiny bathroom that she had made into her own over the past weeks. Mumbling under her breath "If I'm not married to you, I don't want to talk to you," she hurried to the phone. "Shock, surprise," she said, looking at the caller ID. Then hit the 'Answer' key. "Hey Counselor."

"Hey baby," Benjamin Starkweather's smooth voice caressed her homesick ears. He began to sing softly. "I just called... to say.... I love you... I just called... to say... how much I care..."

Starkweather sank down onto the bed. "You never fail to surprise me."

"Did you get my package?"

"Yup," she said, looking at her feet. "I'm wearing 'em right now. I've always wanted bunny slippers. How's life in DC?"

"Cold, wet. Boring. Lonely. How's New York?"

"Cold, wet. Depressing as hell."

"Have you heard when you're coming home yet?"

Starkweather lay down on the bed. "They said maybe the end of the month."

Ben snorted. "Maybe."

"I know. It's just like being back in the Air Force. You know... 'hurry up and wait.' So, did you get a chance to talk to your boss about taking some time off?" She hated herself for whining but she couldn't help it.

"Hon, I'm sorry, but we are swamped now at the office. So many people filing suit wanting damages for loss of life and property due to the Pentagon Attack and more than half are frivolous cases that we're turning down. But they keep coming in. It's unreal."

"What is?"

"How disaster can bring out the best and the worst in people."

"Tell me about it," Starkweather said darkly.

"Why?"

"Oh, ignore me."

"No, tell me."

::He's going to pitch a fit:: Starkweather realized wearily. ::Please, God, don't let this turn into a fight. Please. Pretty fucking please, with two tons of sugar on top?:: "Doggett invited to have dinner with a friend of his tonight."

"Oh?" The tone was politely curious.

::Asshole:: she seethed. "Yeah."

"How was it?"

"Sucked." ::There, you dipshit, I hope that makes you feel better:: Starkweather fumed to herself. Right now, she hated all of humanity, emphasis on "man".

"Why did it suck?"

"Well, because-" Before she could even begin her explanation, she was interrupted by a sharp knock on her door. "I knew it," she said with clenched teeth.

"Knew what?" Ben sounded bewildered, as he should.

Sitting in his office, he pressed the phone tight against his ear, listening to whatever was going on in his wife's hotel room up in New York.

She seemed to be yelling at someone. And she seemed to be pissed. Not her normally bitchy attitude, good and pissed off.

"I HAVEN'T TALKED TO BEN FOR OVER A WEEK, THIS CAN WAIT FOR FIFTEEN GOD DAMNED MINUTES!!!"

Even though she wasn't yelling at him, Ben still held the phone away from his ear. And he could still hear her shrilling at someone. "NO. I DON'T FUCKING CARE, YOU CAN WAIT FIFTEEN MINUTES!" and the slam of a door. Then her voice was back into his ear, just as sweet as honey. "Sorry about that."

"What the hell was THAT about?"

"Nothing," she said sharply. "Anyway... how was your day?"

"Um... fine... Jeri, hon, are you okay?"

"Peachy."

"You're full of shit."

"I'm pissed off at the world right now. Deal with it."

"Am I part of that world you're pissed at."

"You will be if you don't come and see me," she threatened him.

"Jeri... it's like I said, we're swamped right now... I've turned a request but I don't know if it's been approved."

"What about talking to your boss? I thought Jessie was pretty cool."

"She was... is, but look, Jeri... it's just like your job. You just can't take off from the FBI on a whim either."

"Oh fuck you for throwing that in my face. The FBI is SLIGHTLY different from a law firm. And I'm so fucking homesick right now, it's about killing me. I want to see you. I want to see my cat. I want to sit in my own damn apartment and sit on my ass and watch movies with you but I fucking can't. Because I get to shift through debris at Ground Zero and try to identify whether or not something is a pebble or a tooth. I've TRIED to get time off to come home for a weekend, but I keep getting told that they can't spare me right now... so I would really REALLY like it if you could put some more effort on your end to get some time off. A weekend. Hell, a day at this point."

"Jerilyn. I can't. I'm sorry."

"Fine," Starkweather rubbed her temple and felt extremely unloved. "I'm sorry I brought it up. Forget it."

"I said I'm sorry."

"I know you are. I don't want to talk about it anymore."

"Fine," Ben said shortly. "I better let you go so you can finish chewing out Doggett for whatever he did. Breathing probably."

"How do you even know that it's Doggett I'm pissed at?"

"Who else is up there that you can be pissed off at. I'm not there, so he's your next logical target," he said nastily as he hung up the phone.

"Ben!" she cried out but the phone already went dead. "Oh for Christ's fucking sake!" she snapped, turning her phone off. "Jesus, I guess I can't do anything right today."

She stalked back over to the door to let Doggett in. "Gee, I only had to wait ten minutes," he drawled icily as he walked in.

"Fuck you," she lashed out at him.

"Alright, what the hell crawled up your ass and died?"

"Nothing. Jesus. I'm just pissy tonight, alright. Leave it."

"Like hell I'm leavin' it alone, Jerilyn-"

::Fuuuuuuuuck, first name, not good:: Starkweather grit her teeth as Doggett continued to lecture her.

"I can put up with your mouth and your bullshit princess attitude-"

"Princess!?!?!" she squawked.

"But I'm not gonna put up with you bein' rude to my friends. That is not gonna fly at all Jerilyn. So unless Duke said or did something that I need to know abou-"

"Or what? You going to make me apologize to him, Dad?" she snarled at him.

"You don't know how bad I wanna hit you right now," he said, not joking at all.

Starkweather stood in the middle of the room and held her arms out wide. "Take your best shot, you son-of-a-bitch."

Doggett glared at her. "I'm not stupid. You fight dirty. One shot below the belt an' I'd be done."

"Damn straight I would. Why are you being such a prick anyway?"

"Because you're being a bitch."

"I'm always a bitch, that's NOT a news flash."

"NOT towards people I care about. You didn't act this way when I introduced you to Mickey and Minerva."

"Because they're different!"

"How!?!?!" Doggett spluttered.

"They... they just are... because... Mickey was... a sweetheart and he was funny and just a good guy..."

"Duke's a good guy too."

"No he's not," she blurted out.

Doggett crossed his arms "And you're basing that off of??"

"He...." Now Starkweather lost her fire. "Gave me the creeps," she finished lamely.

"He gave you the... oh Christ... you've been talking to Reyes and Mul-duh too much. You, of all people..."

"Hey, YOU were the one who told me to pay attention to my gut instinct. And my gut instinct told me that this guy was creepy. I can't explain it. He just rubbed me the wrong way. He was loud and obnoxious and... and... oh hell, I don't know... he annoyed me."

"So you treated him like shit because he was annoying."

"Look, I don't expect you to like all my friends. Hell, I don't expect you to like Ben. And God knows you have no reason to. Don't expect the same from me!"

"I DON'T expect you to like the same people I do either! But I expect you to act your age and not like some snotty little teenager."

"What the hell did I do that was so horrible!?!?!? My God, I was only acting like myself and I'm sorry, if someone is going to act like the village idiot at dinner, don't expect me just to grin and bear it."

"How would you like it if I treated Ben the same way you treated Duke tonight."

Starkweather opened her mouth, then closed it quickly. Feeling trapped, she muttered, "I told you I didn't want to go out anyway. I told you I was in a bad mood and not fit for human companionship."

"Oh yeah, I really twisted your arm."

Starkweather closed her eyes. "Doggett, look at me..."

Doggett, against his will finally looked at more than just her face. "Yeah? So?"

"I'm in my pajamas and I'm wearing bunny slippers. Do you really think I'm in the mood to continue this?" she pleaded with him. "I'm sorry if I hurt his feelings. I really am. But I am sick to death of arguing. I'm sick of being awake, I'm just sick of PEOPLE right now. Tonight I just wanted to be by myself and was not in the mood to deal with... anybody." She opened her eyes again. "I promise to be completely fake and be nice to him next time I see him."

"I don't want you to be fake," he mumbled. "I hate fake people."

"Well, I don't like Duke. I'm sorry. I know he's your friend, but I don't get along with him. We don't have the same interests; he's loud as hell and... just... I don't know... he brags a lot, he seems proud of some of the things he's done on the job that weren't quite ethical but not totally illegal and... oh, Papa John, I think you have him up on a pedestal and I'm afraid he's just going to break your heart."

"It's been broken before," Doggett said coolly, looking at her. "I'll survive."

Starkweather felt tears welling up in her eyes. "Low blow," she muttered to herself as she turned her back to him. Louder she said, "Just... do me a favor and go away. I want to go to bed..." she looked over her shoulder. "ALONE."

"Whatever you want Mrs. Starkweather," Doggett muttered as he left.

Starkweather sat down on her bed and pressed her hands to her eyes and wondered what in the hell she was crying about as the tears streamed down her face.

Doggett meanwhile took a long walk down the city streets that he vowed wild horses couldn't drag him back to when he left for Quantico.

God, he hated this city. He hated being here. He hated working here. And he especially hated Starkweather for bringing up character flaws in a man he did indeed idolize. After all, Duke had taken Mickey and Doggett under his wing and showed them the ropes. And lord, he and Mickey had been so green... But, about an hour later, when he finally made a loop back towards the hotel, he spied a small, blonde woman sitting by herself on a bus stop bench. No longer wearing pajamas or bunny slippers but a sweater, jeans and tennis shoes.

A wino approached her. "Miss, can ya spare a quarte-"

"FUCK OFF!"

"Okay, sorry..." he mumbled drunkenly as he wandered off.

Doggett shook his head. Damn her.

He walked up behind her. Resting his hands on the bench, he lowered his head to her ear. "You shouldn't be out here by yourself at night," he said softly.

She turned her head. If she leaned in a little more, she could have kissed him. "I think I'm capable of taking care of myself," she said, trying to sound haughty, but instead sounding frail.

Another bum approached them. "Ma'am, I'm kinda down on my luck an I was wonderin-"

"NO!" Starkweather suddenly thundered. "GET A JOB!"

As the bum, eyes wide as saucers, slunk away, Starkweather turned back to Doggett. "You should try it. It's really therapeutic. Keeps you from yelling at the wrong people," she attempted a smile.

"You're impossible."

"So are you."

"Mule."

"Jackass."

"Is this seat taken?"

"It's a free country," she shrugged.

Doggett walked around and sat down on the bench beside her. Together, they sat in silence, watching traffic and people as the City That Never Sleeps forced itself to stay away to stave off the nightmares.

Eventually, Doggett stretched his arms out on top of the bench and eventually Starkweather snuggled up next to him and eventually she was curled up in his arms as he stroked her pretty hair.

"I'm sorry Ben won't come out and see you," he said gently.

She swallowed a couple of times. "You overheard then, huh?"

"I've overheard the last few times, Doc. The walls are thin."

"Damn. I'll have to remember that when my Cabana Boys come to service me."

"Too much information, Doc."

"He says he's busy. That he's swamped at the office"

"Think he's lying?"

"I don't know... "

Doggett didn't push it. The cords binding Mr. and Mrs. Starkweather were thinning rapidly, but bound together Ben and Jerilyn were still.

::And I can't forget that... no matter... oh Jesus Christ, I'm in trouble here...:: Doggett thought to himself as he absently continued to stroke her mane of golden hair.

He heard her say meekly "I'm sorry I was a bitch to your friend."

Doggett sighed. "That's okay. I think he just turns off women some how... my ex-wife and Monica hate him too. Hell, Minni even hates him and she loves everybody."

"I don't hate him... I just... okay, I hate him."

"Doc?"

"Yeah?"

"Stop while you're ahead."

"Stopping."

Just then, another vagabond crept up to the agents. "Look, I hate to be bodderin' you but I'm havin' a hard time and I was wonderin'-"

"NO!" Both Doggett and Starkweather yelled at him.

"Jesus Aloysious Chree-rist! I'm sorry!" the vagabond yelped and scurried away.

Mortified, Doggett moaned, "I can't believe I just did that."

Laughing her ass off, Starkweather wriggled out of his hold to wrap her arms around his neck. "I can," she whispered...

Back to the present...

"Fassl, meanwhile, is released from Sing Sing Prison in New York. The world around him seems to blur when he sees a scraggly bearded man near the courthouse. Fassl becomes disoriented, and the man mysteriously disappears.

In New York, Scully and Doggett convince Damon Kaylor, the Assistant District Attorney, to hand over his case files. Kaylor reluctantly agrees, and Doggett and Scully pore through the numerous boxes of evidence. Doggett summons his old partner, Duke Tomasick, to meet him at the Brooklyn courthouse. Unlike Doggett, Duke accepts the DNA test's acquittal of Fassl." (From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

Later that day...

Minerva Mick's residence
Long Island, New York

"I'm coming!' Minerva Mick bustled from the kitchen of her new house to the front door. Throwing it open, she threw her hands up in unexpected delight. "John! I was wondering when you were going to get around to seeing me!"

"Hi Minni," he said gruffly, bending down to give his best friend's widow a huge bear hug which she reciprocated enthusiastically.

"Come in, come in," Minerva said, ushering him inside.

"I like your new place," Doggett said, looking around at the neat little house.

"Thank you, it's not much, but with Claudia in college now and... well, we just don't need very much space anymore. And after everything... I thought it would be best to move the girls out of the city."

"Yeah..." Doggett agreed following Minerva into the living room. "How are the girls been adjusting?"

"Well, Claudia is disappointed that there was no money for an Ivy League school right away, but there's nothing wrong with SUNY. Plus a lot of her friends decided to go there to, so it helps."

"She like school then?"

"Oh, she's always liked school. Plus, I think she just likes being in the city again. I..." she shook her head. "I couldn't stay in our old apartment... seeing the gaping holes where the World Trade Center used to be... but Claudia's a city girl so," Minni shrugged. "I thought I was going to have trouble with Cindy, she howled the loudest when I told her we were moving to the suburbs, but she loves her new school. She made the cheerleading squad and already has loads of friends and breaking boys' hearts. Weekends come and she's either at some game or pep rally or party or sleep over or visiting her old school friends in the city. I never see her." Minerva looked contented. "She's on cloud nine here. Especially now that she has her driver's license." She shuddered.

Doggett laughed. "And Laurel?"

Now Minerva looked sad. "Nothing's changed since the last time I called you to talk about her. Her teachers all tell me that she needs counseling..."

"What do you think?" Doggett asked softly. Laurel held a soft spot in his heart. Minerva had introduced Doggett to Barbara and when Luke had finally been conceived, Minerva had announced she was also expecting. Friends since grade school, the women became inseparable as their bellies swelled. With Luke and Laurel, it looked like a second generation friendship also had also been born. They slept in the same playpen, got dirty in the same sandbox. But the Micks lived in the city and the Doggetts in the suburbs. Because Barb insisted that Long Island was safer to raise a child.

Now Laurel was a young lady of thirteen and Luke, forever seven.

"I think I'm at my wits end," Minerva admitted. "She's so distant. Unreachable. I lost so much more on Nine-Eleven. I didn't just lose my husband; I lost my baby girl too. And before you tell me it could be a phase, I can tell you it's not. I've lived through the phases of two teenaged girls already. What's happening with Laurel is no phase."

Just then the backdoor slammed. Minerva turned her head, "Cindy, that you?"

A sullen voice responded "No."

"Laurel, come here, honey, somebody's here to see you."

Doggett carefully controlled his dismay when Laurel walked in.

He honestly didn't recognize her at first. She had always been a tall, graceful child. Child no more, puberty ruthlessly shattered her grace. Her legs and arms seemed to be outgrowing her body. She walked with a slouch, as if ashamed of her height and of the budding breasts which she had camouflaged with several layers of tops, a long sleeve shirt, a big baggy t-shirt and a hooded sweat shirt. Still wearing shorts despite the hint of chill in the October air, her bare legs had Band Aids here and there as she was still trying to master shaving. Her hair pulled back in a sloppy pony tail. Her eyes considered him sullenly. She had a heavy book back slung over her curved back and a sketch book under her other arm while clutching a small black case containing her flute.

"Hi Laurie," Doggett said neutrally, not sure how this changeling was going to react to him. The last time he saw her, she was just a little girl he held in his arms as she wept for her father, one of the many police officers who had gone inside the World Trade Center on September 11 and never came back out.

"Hi," Laurel muttered.

"How are you?"

"Fine," she said, looking at her dirty Converse sneakers.

"How's school?" Doggett asked while wondering ::Why am I bothering?:: The girl was obviously uncomfortable in his presence and was dying to get away.

When all she did was shrug, Minerva reprimanded her, "Laurel, your Uncle John asked you a question."

"He's not my uncle," she said crossly. "He's not your brother or Pop's brother."

"No, but we love him as a brother and you will speak to him respectfully," Minerva's voice was edgy. Doggett realized that this drama played nightly, only with different dialog. Dysfunctional improv.

Minerva had always been a stickler for protocol. Doggett said nothing, knowing that the worst thing he could do was undermine Minerva's authority even though he really didn't care if Laurel called him 'Uncle' or not.

"Fine, whatever," Laurel muttered. "Sorry. Jeez." She then looked around. "You're girlfriend isn't here?"

"Girlfriend?"

"Yeah, that blond lady that was with you the last time."

"She's not my girlfriend," Doggett gently corrected her. "She was my partner in the FBI. And she wasn't able to make it this time."

"Why not? Did she dump you?"

"Laurel!" Minerva snapped at her, knowing full well why Doggett's partner was not able to make it. "That is enough."

"Gawd, I can't do anything right, can I?" Laurel snapped back at her.

"Enough, go to your room," Minerva told her. When Laurel continued to stand there, Minerva said "Now, young lady, or you'll be grounded from the computer and television for a week."

Laurel slammed everything she had been carrying onto the floor and stomped off. Minerva sighed and said, "Excuse me," and stormed after her.

Doggett, always inquisitive, got up to presumably to pick up Laurel's things. But really to look through her sketch book, hoping for a clue while feeling guilty for going through the girl's personal things. He flipped though the pages. She wasn't very good at drawing realistic people yet, but inanimate objects she was very proficient at. And cartoon characters she excelled at. Doggett didn't recognize the Anima characters from "Cowboy Be-bop" and "Sailor Moon" but he recognized most of the Disney characters except for Mulan and Princess Jasmine. And her buildings were quite good as well. Doggett noted that there were three works in progress, one was the Empire State Building in pastels, the other two charcoals of the World Trade Center.

Minerva came back, looking older. "Well... what do you think?" she said wearily.

"I think she needs counseling," Doggett said bluntly, showing her Laurel's art work.

Sitting back down, Minerva said "Her pictures aren't anything new. She's obsessed about the Twin Towers now. She has books and posters and..." she sighed. "I'm going to set up an appointment for her with a therapist tomorrow. John... I'm so sorry about her prying into what happened to Jerilyn. It's none of her business."

"It's okay."

"She only said that to antagonize you."

"I figured."

"How is that going?"

Doggett shook his head. "Not good. The Bureau wants to close her file... but we're pullin' some strings to keep it active."

"Any hope?"

"Of her comin' home? No," he said brusquely. "But I wanna know what happened to her. And then go after the bastards that hurt her."

"I know how you feel," Minerva said. "And how your mind works. That's why I wasn't surprised to hear that you were going to be in town when the decision on the Fassl case was overturned."

"I don't get it, Minni. The guy was... is guilty as sin. Duke and I were both there... we both testified to what we found. He did it. I know he did."

Minerva asked "What does Duke say about this?"

"Duke? Not a lot, which surprises me. He's not the type of guy to roll over and play dead."

"Actually, Duke's actions don't surprise me a bit," Minerva said tartly.

"What are you saying?"

"You and Mickey, God rest him, always had such a blind spot for Duke. And you two would never admit that Duke sometimes used less than ethical means for a collar."

"Well... yeah, but, Jesus, Minni, you get into a situation and sometimes the rule book gets tossed out the window."

"Situations, yes. But issues that should have been best left in the hands of due process of the law and not vigilante justice..."

"Aw, Minerva, c'mon..."

"I know it's ludicrous. But underneath his respectable veneer, Duke is not a good man. And he's not a good cop. You and Jason both learned from Duke. Of what not to do." When Doggett frowned, Minerva said impatiently, "John, come on. Is it any wonder that Jason and you were both promoted and Duke's still a beat cop? Not even a Detective? Or a pay raise at least? And with you now in the Bureau? That's no accident."

Feeling more and more uncomfortable, Doggett swiftly changed the subject. "Speaking of the law, what's the story with Fassl's attorney?"

"Jana Fain?" Minerva rolled her eyes. "I know her well. She's an idiot."

"Great..."

Later...

"Fassl's lawyer, Jana Fain, brings Fassl to stay at her house. That night, as he prays silently with his rosary beads, blood appears on his hands. The words "Kill Her" have been scrawled in blood on the wall. He is terrified. Fain then catches Fassl praying, and leaves him in his solemnity. Suddenly, Fassl sees the bearded man in his room. He begs the man not to hurt Fain, but the bearded man slaps Fassl across the face. The man follows Fain. A screwdriver is in his hand. The next morning, Fain confronts Fassl because, when she left to see another client, her dresser drawers had been rifled through. Fassl is relieved that she is still alive. When Fain goes to work, Fassl finds her maid's body stuffed into a dumbwaiter chute. Fassl removes the body and cleans the blood. He chops up the woman's remains and places them in a plastic tarp.

Reyes meets with the Sing Sing superintendent, and he informs her that Fassl's cellmate had also been murdered with evidence pointing to Fassl. The security camera caught the murderer on tape, but instead of Fassl it was a bearded man. This man did not fit the description of any prisoner, so the case was never solved. The superintendent, however, believes that Fassl had something to do with this killing. Scully, meanwhile, finds that the hair samples found at the scene of the crime do not exactly match Fassl, but to someone who is his blood relative. Yet Fassl is an only child whose parents are dead. Kaylor is furious at Doggett for ordering a re-test on Fassl's DNA. Kaylor gets a settlement for Fassl from the county and retrieves his case files from Doggett. Reyes shows Doggett and Scully the picture of the bearded man from the Sing Sing file. The man has no identity, but he materialized in a federal prison and then disappeared. Reyes is convinced that this bearded man is responsible for all the murders attributed to Fassl. They can prove it by comparing the evidence from the Sing Sing murder to the ones in 1989. Yet Scully reveals that the 1989 DNA evidence needs to be thrown out. It had been planted to convict Bob Fassl. Doggett confronts Duke, who admits to framing Fassl in their initial investigation. Duke is troubled that he helped put an innocent man behind bars.

Damon Kaylor comes to Fain's house to tell Fassl about the settlement, but Fassl asks to be sent back to prison. The bearded man appears, and stabs Kaylor with a screwdriver. Fassl dismembers Kaylor, wraps the body parts in a tarp and hides the remains in an underground sewer tunnel. The next day, Reyes questions Fassl about Kaylor. Fain interjects that her client had nothing to do with the Assistant District Attorney's disappearance. Reyes shows Fassl the photograph of the bearded man, and Fassl begins frantically praying with his rosary beads. Scully tries to appeal to his faith, asking Fassl to tell them about the bearded man in the photo. Fassl begins to cry, and Fain quickly ushers him out of the room. Reyes suggests to Scully and Doggett that perhaps Fassl is such a devout Catholic that he can't even admit that he has a sinful side. That other side of him may have manifested itself into a whole different personality that has its own physical traits. This might explain the DNA profiles not matching perfectly. Back at Fain's house, the bearded man beats up Fassl in an attempt to have him kill Fain. When Fain enters the room, the bearded man is gone. She turns around, and the bearded man appears. She gasps in fear.

Doggett and Reyes sit outside Fain's house in surveillance. He sees the bearded man leaving through the front door and chases him to the backyard. Fain tells Reyes that somehow Fassl disappeared and the bearded man was there. Doggett comes upon a manhole cover used for cable access, and he and Reyes descend into the underground tunnel. Suddenly, the bearded man appears and strikes Reyes to the ground. Doggett fires as the man runs off. Doggett and Reyes follow him, but separate at a fork in the tunnel. Reyes falls through a grate and lands in a culvert filled with water. With her flashlight, she spots the head of Damon Kaylor. She also sees the skulls and bones of well more than the seven victims known about. Reyes calls out for Doggett. When he turns around, Doggett is stabbed in the shoulder by a screwdriver. Doggett drops his gun. Reyes rushes up and finds the bearded man holding a screwdriver at Doggett's neck. She tells the bearded man that she knows that he is Fassl, and that Fassl is a murderer and a sinner. The bearded man tells Reyes to shut up, and Doggett escapes his grasp. Reyes fires a shot at the bearded man, who falls into the water. Doggett turns over the body -- it is Bob Fassl.

Scully informs Fain that the maid, Kaylor and many other bodies were found in the sewer. Fain can't understand why she saw a bearded man. Doggett tells Reyes that he can not accept everything that has surfaced with the Fassl case because it's not the way his mind works. Reyes says that what he believed was enough to close the case. "What happens next time?" Doggett asks. (From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

The next day...

He had always liked bridges.

When he had lived and worked in this city, sometimes after a bad day at work or a bad night at home, he would stop at the Brooklyn Bridge and walk from one end to the other.

He felt guilty for lying to Reyes and Scully. They both offered to pick him up from the hospital, but he told them that he already had a ride. He didn't want questions asked or, God forbid, requests to tag along. He just wanted to be alone for a while. Try to process the impossible. A vicious bearded man transforming into pious Bob Fassl. A sweet little girl transforming into a vicious prepubescent. And an old friend, turning into a vicious liar. But, it seems that the old friend was already a vicious liar, only he refused to believe.

As usual.

Doggett leaned against the railing and watched the Hudson rush by below him as cars flew by on the pavement behind him.

He still hated this city with every fiber of his being. The noise. The dirt. The indifference. The arrogance was gone, the al-Queda quelled that, but Doggett hated how the city was humbled. He saw how the city was humbled. He and Starkweather had been nearly killed in the blast. And Reyes witnessed the plane plowing into the Pentagon. And Mulder had missed boarding the doomed plane out of Boston by five minutes. And God only knew what happened to Mickey that day. But they knew what happened to Mickey's little brother, Danny, barely an adult, more kid than man. A firefighter, one of the many who ran in the Towers while others were running out. Doggett had been friends with a lot of the veteran firefighters that took Danny under their wings. And most of the guys in Doggett's precinct... gone. Just gone.

Duke and his wife had been in Albany that day, visiting the in-laws. Duke said he fought tooth and nail to get back to New York as soon as he could. At first, Doggett has smiled, imagining Duke battling traffic to get back so he could help. Now, Doggett had to wonder. Of course he wondered. Doggett was finally cluing in to the greatest credo of the X-Files.

Trust no one.

Doggett looked up at the sky, watched the clouds silently scud by.

Well, there was once someone he trusted. But he didn't listen to her the one time she was right on the money.

"Go ahead," Doggett said to the clouds and skies softly as the river and the city roared around him. "Say it, Doc."

He could just hear her gloating too...

"I told you so..."

At a casino, a dealer shuffles a deck for a group of hard-core gamblers. One of the gamblers with a prison-style tattoo on his hand, Mad Wayne, reaches for his hand and folds angrily. He gets up from the table and walks through the casino, approaching a woman at a slot machine. Mad Wayne only stares at her and moves off. Watching from across the room is Mr. Burt, playing solitaire at the bar. Mr. Burt nonchalantly says to the bartender, "Seven seven, pack of Morleys." Mad Wayne sits next to him at the bar and orders exactly what Mr. Burt predicted. Mr. Burt strikes up a conversation parceled with gambling odds and motions to the woman at the slot machine. When she heads for the ladies room, Wayne gets off the barstool to follow her. Mr. Burt stops him, indirectly cautioning him to not do what he's intending to do, but Wayne ignores this and goes to her. A casino patron screams that a woman has been murdered in the bathroom. Mr. Burt doesn't even flinch at the turn of events. He flips another card in his solitaire game to reveal the Ace of spades -- the death card.

Agent Reyes reads a newspaper article about the casino murder in the X-files office. She is staring at some case files and rambling numbers when Scully enters. Reyes shows Scully a photo of a murdered woman and lists the woman's birthdate. Then she does the same for two other similar cases, informing Scully that the victims all had significant karmic numbers. Scully dismisses numerology as child's play, but she sees a connection in the photos -- all the women had the same mark on their bodies. It could be from the killer's ring.

Mad Wayne gets dressed in his dark apartment, putting on a large ring with a devil's face. He sees out of his window that Mr. Burt is on the street working a three-card Monte scam. Mr. Burt smiles and nods at Wayne, lip-synching to music. The other people on the street are clustered in threes, moving to the beat of the music in an accidental symphony. Wayne threatens Mr. Burt to stop following him, but Mr. Burt is confident that it doesn't fit Wayne's "pattern." When Mr. Burt implores Wayne to "choose better," Wayne becomes agitated and turns over the card table. Reyes visits with a numerologist named Vicki Burdick who resides in a hotel suite numbered 33. Although reluctant to get involved, Burdick agrees to help when Reyes shows her photos of the murdered women. Reyes gets a call from Doggett with news that two more victims surfaced with the distinctive ring marks. She meets him and Scully at the FBI's behavioral science office, where Special Agent Fordyce briefs his task force. After three murders in 1999 and the three current ones, they have determined that the killer is working in patterns. Yet they don't know how he chooses his victims, why he kills and if he'll kill again or disappear like he did previously. They call him the Triple Zero killer because of the three circular marks on the victims. When Fordyce asks for Reyes' insight, she begins to list the numerological characteristics of the suspect. The room of agents stares at her dumbfounded. The silent room is awakened Reyes' cell phone rings, and Burdick tells her that she has uncovered something strange in the numerology charts. Suddenly, Burdick's front door opens. It's Mad Wayne.

Later, Fordyce questions Reyes at the crime scene of Burdick's hotel room. Although Reyes told no one else about consulting Burdick, how did the killer find her and kill her? Fordyce chides Reyes for consulting with a numerologist because a killer acts on incomprehensible impulses. Yet Reyes questions whether these impulses may be the result of otherworldly things that no one understands. Outside the hotel, Mr. Burt is holding a domino tile with six dots when Mad Wayne approaches. As Doggett passes the table, Mr. Burt sets the chain reaction of dominos to fall. Mad Wayne asks Mr. Burt why he is trying to get him caught. Annoyed with Mr. Burt's insouciance, Wayne walks off to avoid the police surrounding the hotel.

Scully begins her autopsy of Burdick's body at 6:06 pm. The tools of her trade have been laid out for her in groups of six. She notices that Burdick's bangs are in the shape of three "6"s on her forehead. Six freckles on Burdick's chest are in the formation of dots on a domino. Scully grabs her microcassette recorder and is spooked that the counter reads "666." Scully rushes to the hotel to inform Reyes that the markings on the victims are not three zeros, but the numbers "666," which is the sign of the devil. Reyes has discovered that the victims' numerology charts actually matched Burdick's chart. However, none of this information gets them any closer to find the killer. Fordyce's profile is no help either, matching every serial killer the FBI has hunted. Doggett starts to believe Reyes' numerology claims when he notices on a map that the path of the murders forms the number 6.

As Scully and Reyes leave the hotel, they share an elevator car with Mad Wayne. As they step out, Scully notices the large devil ring on his finger and pulls her gun. Wayne darts back into the elevator, and the agents follow him on the stairs to the underground parking garage. A car exits as they are left trapped in the locked garage. They try to use their cell phones, but can't get reception in the garage. Scully and Reyes come upon Mr. Burt, who has no identification on him. However, his car trunk is filled with thousands of compact disks and a checkerboard. After failed attempts to shoot the lock off the garage door, they agree to his invitation to play checkers and listen to music. While the agents play each other, they realize that the red and black checkers match their hair colors. It then occurs to them that the suspect has been killing in a succession of three hair colors: blond, redhead, then brunette. Reyes wonders if they will be his next victims, and Scully instinctively pulls her gun on Mr. Burt. While Scully and Reyes debate about numerology's role in these murders and the theory that higher forces move the universe, Mr. Burt only eggs on their discourse. When Reyes suggests that perhaps the killer is still in the garage, the lights suddenly go out. They separate, and Scully does not hear Reyes struggle with Mad Wayne. Three shots ring out, and the lights go back on to reveal that Doggett has fired at Mad Wayne and saved Reyes. He figured out from Wayne's pattern that Scully and Reyes would be the next victims. Scully tries to ask Wayne about his motive, but the man dies. Mr. Burt, however, has vanished. Later, at 9:09 pm, Scully calls Reyes to ask what her karmic number is. Reyes tells her that she's a

9, meaning she is a spiritually evolved person. Yet Scully has one other burning question: who was Mr. Burt? "God knows," Reyes answers.

Outside the hotel, an Italian feast is being celebrated as the people happily dance in the streets. From above, the lights of the world have formed the shape of a familiar face: the smiling Mr. Burt.

Heaven Casino
3am

The slot machines were not in his favor today.

It struck him as ironic that he controlled the heavens and the earth, but he was having monumentally bad luck.

"Not a winning machine, huh?" Mr. Burt asked the old man.

The old man said nothing in response.

"Luck can change, ya know," he winked.

"I don't need luck," he gloated, taking a drag from his cigarette.

"Do you think it's sheer coincidence that you and I are having this conversation today? That you keep loosing your money? That because you kept loosing your money, you're now talking to a total stranger? Luck isn't hocus-pocus. It's how life turns out."

"Luck has nothing to do with why I'm here today. I'm here on business. I'm a lucky man, just a bad gambler."

"I thought you didn't need luck," Mr. Burt answered wryly.

"Are you a betting man?"

"Are you sure a bad gambler wants to risk it?"

"What's your game?"

"I like games without gameplans. Strategies are a waste of my time."

"Are you a betting man?" The smoking man returned the obnoxious strangers' question.

"I don't need to bet. I know how it'll all play out."

"High card draw." He said, and laid his hand on the table and a deck of cards appeared.

The smoking man didn't question it, didn't stare wide-eyed at it, just nodded.

"What are the stakes?"

"You draw the highest card, and you get the world."

"I have the world."

"Not yet," he winked.

"And if you draw the highest card?"

"You have to return the FBI Agent."

The Cigarette Smoking Man allowed a cheshire grin to spread across his wrinkled face, "She's out of my hands."

Rohrer and Leo were seeing to that. He was in Vegas at this very moment making sure that they were seeing to that.

"I didn't say you had her."

"Draw," CSM dared.

"Oh, look at that," Mr. Burt said, face totally unreadable, but didn't show what he drew, "take your pick."

He drew the King of Spades, and laid it on the counter, the shit-eating-cheshire grin only seemed to broaden. To Mr. Burt it looked like the cartoon Grinch they showed at Christmastime.

"I think I have a debt to collect," he said.

And then Mr. Burt laid his card on the table.

The Ace of Spades.

"No, old man, I do."

(From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

Eight-year old Tommy Conlon lies awake at night in Fairhope, Pennsylvania, when he hears a scratching noise coming from underneath his bed. He yells for his father, who comes into the bedroom. Jeffrey Conlon checks under the bed and sees something scurry across the floor. Yet he assures his son that there is nothing there, and Conlon leaves. Tommy hears the noise again and darts for the door. Despite Tommy's cries, Conlon holds the doorknob on the outside to keep his son from opening it.

At Quantico, Scully is approached by Agent Leyla Harrison (from 8X19) who wants to discuss a case that she thinks might be an X-file. A boy named Tommy Conlon told his grandmother that he believes a monster had killed his mother and that his father is well aware of this. Harrison questions why the coroner had found that the mother stabbed herself sixteen times. Strangely, Tommy's cat was also killed. Despite Harrison's plea, Scully dismisses her. Later, Scully receives a call from Reyes who is headed to Pennsylvania with Doggett and Harrison. When Scully tells her that there is no case, Doggett turns the car around and heads back home. Harrison persists, however, and asks them to at least check out whether the little boy is in danger. (From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

"So," Doggett b*tched to himself, "'How'd you spend your Friday night John?'" He answered his own question. "Ran around like an idiot."

::NO!!!:: Leyla thought desperately. ::We can't turn around, we can't! That little boy is in… oh heavens and I thought Agent Reyes was the psychic. Doesn't she feel that the little boy is in danger!!:: She appealed to the driver: "Agent Doggett ... both of you got in this car believing a little boy may be in danger. What's changed since then? Even if this isn't an X-File…which it is," she muttered as an afterthought before saying brightly, "What will it hurt to keep going?" When neither Reyes nor Doggett acknowledge her statement, she added "If Agent Mulder were here, he'd keep going."

As Doggett steadfastly ignored Leyla, Reyes let loose an exasperated sigh but said nothing. Piqued by being mislead, Doggett didn't trust himself to speak and Reyes saw no need to, abiding by the credo "If you can't say anything nice…"

Discreetly, she reached over and grazed the back of Doggett's hand with hers and was rewarded with a devilish grin. They had been watching a DVD over at Reyes' apartment while eating Chinese when Leyla's call came in. With stifled sighs, Doggett re-buttoned the top three buttons of his dress shirt and put his tie back on while Reyes took the greasy white Chinese boxes into the kitchen to stuff them into her refrigerator.

She knew from experience that Mongolian Beef and Cashew Chicken on fried rice reheated wonderfully. And Reyes quickly jotted down which chapter of the movie they were on before Leyla's call came in so when they got back, she could just cue up her DVD play to that specific scene.

And if they got home late enough, Doggett would make some lame excuse about not wanting to drive all the way back from DC to Falls Church so late…

She was seriously getting used to waking up next to him.

And she couldn't pick up on any serious threat in the environment so she decided to chalk it up to over-dramatizing a la Agent Harrison.

Agent Harrison was not ready to give up though. She was too busy trying to formulate a valid argument to get Doggett and Reyes to turn around.

Then it hit her.

Tactless as ever, Leyla blurted out. "And I bet if Mulder's sister Agent Starkweather was here, she would keep going too."

Both Reyes and Doggett looked straight out ahead at the road before shifting their eyes towards each other. Reyes, feeling more than just defeated, more like flattened, shrugged her shoulders to say "It's your call, John."

But she couldn't help thinking ::Thanks, Leyla. A lot:: because now it was guaranteed Doggett's mood would be ruined for the rest of the evening. The mere mention of Starkweather's name would cause him to lapse into a dour, uncommunicative sulk. A sulk tainted with survivor's guilt.

Resting her hand on her cheek, Reyes watched the black nothingness outside her window as again her horrific experience with Audrey Pauley, Dr. Preijers and the doppel hospital…

::But dammit, Jerilyn:: Reyes thought helplessly. ::I would never hurt him and you still haunt me. You haunt us both…::

Most than anyone, including her partner, Reyes wished Starkweather would just come home so she could stop beating herself up with her own guilty feelings of thievery.

Meanwhile, swearing under his breath, Doggett turned the car around.

(From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

Doggett turns the car around once again toward the Conlon home. When the agents pull up, Conlon, who has been digging, hides the shovel in his pickup truck. Reyes asks to speak with Tommy, but Conlon is resistant. Hearing voices, Tommy comes out of the house. Harrison mentions that his grandmother told her about the monsters. "No such thing as monsters," Tommy says meekly, and Conlon sends the agents away. As Harrison apologizes, Doggett and Reyes conclude that something is indeed suspicious. Doggett had noticed blood on the man's hand and an evidence of digging. The agents get in the car to seek a search warrant, but the car does not start. Suddenly, blood spits out from the air vents and splatters them. They check under the hood. All of the wiring is mangled and covered in blood. Inside the house, Tommy tells his father that the monsters won't let the agents leave.

Later that night, Harrison's friend Gabe Rotter brings Tommy's dead cat to Scully's apartment. On Harrison's behest, Rotter had dug it up from Conlon's previous house. Scully begins to wonder if Harrison really does have an X-file. She autopsies the animal and learns that it took its own life. Yet it appears as if the cat were trying to get at something in its stomach to chew it out. Scully manages to contact a sheriff in Fairhope and asks him to check on the safety of her colleagues who are missing. The sheriff knows the Conlon house because he was asked by the grandmother to check up on Tommy the previous week. Conlon had threatened the sheriff off his property. Inside the Conlon house, Reyes can not make a call from her cell phone even though it has full reception. With their car inoperative, the agents are stuck there for the night, but they believe that being there will help protect the boy. When they hear Tommy's cries, they find Conlon holding a door closed with Tommy trapped inside. They open the door to find three creatures crawling on the floor. Although Doggett fires at one, it regenerates into two new creatures. The creatures disappear into the tiny seam beneath the wall's molding, and Doggett can't find any trace of them in the house. Later, as Tommy calmly draws a picture of him standing next to Reyes, he tells the agents that those creatures are what hurt his mother. Doggett interrogates Conlon, who explains that the creatures attacked him as well and that they won't stop until they have killed everyone.

Doggett orders Conlon to pack up his son so that they can all escape the house, but Conlon is insistent that the monsters will not let them leave. The sheriff arrives, but tells the agents that they can't go because of the cold. Suddenly, the sheriff pulls out a gun, and Doggett fights him off. Yet when Doggett throws a punch to the man's ribs, his fist punctures right through the sheriff's chest and leaves a gaping hole. The dead sheriff, however, has no internal organs and the blood in his body is not real. Doggett questions Conlon, but the man says that he locked Tommy in the room with the creatures because he knew they wouldn't hurt him. Upstairs, Tommy shows Reyes a picture that he made of the monsters attacking her. She asks why he would draw such a thing. "Because I'm afraid," he says.

(From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

Scully becomes alarmed when she can't get through to the sheriff and she drives to Pennsylvania with Gabe. She finds the sheriff very much alive. He tells her that he tried to get to the Conlon house but that the roads were too dangerous.

As Doggett and Harrison realize that the body of the sheriff has disappeared, Reyes comes down the stairs clutching her belly. The creatures writhe around under the skin of her abdomen. She tells them that it is Tommy doing it. Conlon explains that he can't make his son stop imagining things when he is afraid. Doggett heads upstairs to confront Tommy, but when he follows the boy to his closed room, Doggett falls into a black void. He lands at the bottom and is attacked by dozens of the creatures. They cover his body.

While Reyes squirms in pain, Harrison begs Conlon for help. She suddenly bleeds from her eyes. Conlon goes upstairs to his son and is stopped by Doggett. Doggett tells him that none of these things are really happening. Conlon's wife believed it was real and stabbed herself to death. Since Doggett did not believe it entirely, he could not be harmed. Tommy calls for his father, but Conlon does not respond. Tommy looks out the window to see Conlon and Doggett aiding Reyes and Harrison to the car. Doggett returns to the house and spreads gasoline on the floor. Tommy comes downstairs and accuses Doggett of trying to scare him. Yet Doggett tosses a match on the ground to taunt the boy, and the living room lights up in flames. For the first time, Tommy begins to feel fear. At the same time, Reyes and Harrison are miraculously healed. As they rush to the house, Scully arrives with Gabe in a snowplow. The house is unharmed and Tommy has passed out. Doggett had only drenched the room with water, but Tommy imagined otherwise.

Back at the FBI, Harrison innocently praises Doggett for saving their lives with his lack of imagination. Reyes tells Scully and Harrison that psychiatrists have figured out a way to stifle Tommy's imagination. In the hospital, Tommy sits in a cell before a bank of television sets playing a cacophony of shows at the same time. He has a blank stare, watching as if he has been lobotomized

(From The X-Files Official Site Episode Guide)

"Monica…"

Lost in her dream, she murmured out loud "John, turn around… turn around, she's there, she's right there."

Doggett sat up in bed and shook her gently. "Mon, wake up."

Her soft cocoa eyes flew open. Then blinked rapidly, putting her hand on her forehead. "What time is it?" she asked without knowing why. It seemed to be a safe question to ask.

"'Bout three or so. We don't have to get up yet," he whispered, lightly brushing a thick black lock of hair away from her face.

In the dim light of her bedroom, Monica Reyes looked up at his face, careworn and tired but still managed to be able to produce a smile. "Good," she admitted.

"What were you dreaming about?"

Reyes didn't answer right away. Doggett pushed on a little. "Was it a bad dream?"

"No…" she said truthfully. It wasn't a bad dream and yet it terrified her. "It just didn't make any sense…"

She mulled over what she could remember. There was a lake. That much she could recall.

"You sure it wasn't a bad dream?" he quipped laying back down again. "You said my name."

"I did?"

"Sure… I figured that if you were dreamin' 'bout me, then it had to be for some harbinger of terror."

She laughed a little as she lay back down as well. But her eyes reminded wide open for a while as she pondered over what she could evoke of the dream.

The images of the dream were hardly threatening. She liked lakes. And she remembered a boat… a boat tied to the lake with a rotten piece of rope that seemed to be fraying… she struggled to remember.

::There was a woman in the boat:: she realized. :: A blond woman… oh God.::

Agent Harrison had said that Doggett had saved the day with his utter lack of imagination. Reyes wished desperately that her own imagination wasn't so vivid. Maybe if she stared at thirty television sets all day, she would be desensitized too.

::God yes:: Reyes thought, resting her head on his chest as he held her close. ::More than just scared, I'm terrified. I'm terrified of hurting everybody. I'm terrified of doing the wrong thing. I'm terrified of being the bad guy. And I'm too scared to do the right thing and walk away…:: She put her arm around loosely around his chest and closed her eyes, willing herself not to cry.

Why did she let the illusion of monsters eating her innards frighten her to death? The reality of uncertainty was far more terrorizing.

Chapter Fifteen:
"Jump the Shark"
September 22, 2002

A few days after the funeral
Sands Motel
Okefenokee Swamp, Fla
3:02AM

Fox Mulder was dead to the world. Middle age was catching up to him, and with all leads in this newest location exhausted, he just wanted to lay on the bed and collapse. The small, almost child-like rapping on the door, like some child knocking who had been scared of the monsters under his bed barely made him stir. He pretended not to hear it. Maybe if he ignored it, it'd go away, and he could go back to sleep.

Maybe never get up.

He was tired of the hotels. Tired of the highway food. Tired of being on the run. Tired of being terrified for his son. Tired of being terrified for his sister, of losing another sibling. Tired of being away from Scully, away from everyone and everything familiar. Mostly, he was just tired.

And it had been several weeks since he had heard anything from his contacts back in D.C. with any word on Scully and William and the general well-being of the people he had come to trust with his life who were working now on The X-Files.

The rapping became knocking. "Agent Mulder?" Came a young man's muffled, weary voice from the other side of the door. It sounded familiar, but at 3AM, and barely alert, he couldn't figure it out. But instinctively, he got the .22 caliber pistol that the CIA had given him.

"Agent Mulder...I've come a long way from D.C." The voice announced helplessly, "look, I know it's late, and I hate to bother you...but I've got some news...I've been looking for you for a while now...Agent Scully sent me..."

" 'M'c'm'n'" He mumbled.

Slowly, in stiff, gradual, slothing movements that echoed Jabba the Hutt from Star Wars, he managed to find his bathrobe, wrap it around him and, for extra insurance, the pistol that he had laid on the nightstand.

Mulder rubbed his eyes at the sudden impact of his sleep-glazed pupils with bright hall-way light and his jaw dropped open when he realized who it was.

"I met you. A year ago...Jimmy Bond, right? How the hell did you find me? The Gunmen are the only ones who know where I am."

"I had a colleague of theirs hack into their computer."

"Look," Mulder seethed murderously, taking Jimmy by the collar and throwing him against the thin walls of the hotel, "having this information could not only get :you: killed, but everyone else back in D.C."

"I'm sorry...I know it's stupid," Jimmy squirmed, "but there was no other way to reach you. I thought you ought to know about what happened."

"So what, that June/November thing didn't work out?"

Jimmy lowered his eyes, hating the task that had been given to him, and then dug out an article from the Washington Post from the knapsack he was carrying.

"There's no easy way to tell you this...so, um...I guess I'll just show you the article," he said miserably.

He saw the headline in bold print: "3 Conspiracy Journalists Killed in Bio-Terrorism Attempt"

Mulder's voice was thick-more with emotion this time than with weariness, "How?"

Jimmy exhaled a ragged breath. "They died heroes. Morris Fletcher conned them into finding Yves...I mean Lois. Said that if they found Yves...they'd find your sister. They cornered the bad guy...and I tried to get 'em out...but I couldn't..." Jimmy was choking down sobs now, unabashedly grieving for the Lone Gunmen again in front of an almost total stranger.

"So they died going after a girl?" Mulder said, his own voice quavering.

Jimmy just nodded.

"Only those guys would get themselves killed to get laid..." Mulder quipped faintly. "Just wish I could've been there to get them out of that one. DAMN" he said, slamming the article on the floor, "Starkweather's gonna be pissed when she gets back and finds out they were all heroic and stupid."

"I hope she's okay. She's kinda bitchy, but I hope she's okay."

Mulder nodded.

"Just want you to know...Lois..that girl...her dad's loaded...and she's funding the publication. And Kimmie...the guy who hacked this place...is gonna be our technology specialist...and believe it or not...Morris Fletcher agreed to help us out too...so, don't worry about Scully and Will being looked after. They've already got it staked out as much as they can."

"Thanks...that's good to know," he said, hoping in a few minutes he'd wake up and it'd be just a dream.

"I'm not letting the guys down. Yves and Fletcher are also hunting down more leads on ...so expect an email from us in a little while."

"Neither am I...I appreciate it, kid."

"Just glad I could do this for them," he said, smiling sadly. With that, Jimmy left.

Chapter Sixteen:
"Sunshine Days"
September 29, 2002

"Mom?" Scully called out as she entered her apartment. "Mom, I'm home."

"We're back here!" a cheerful voice called from the back of the apartment.

Scully put down her briefcase then kicked off her shoes. "Coming," Scully said as she wearily walked through the hallway to William's small room.

But then she realized she felt a good tired, a sleepiness come from working hard. And for once, her hard work paid off. Granted, the X-Files did not receive the proper credit, as usual, but at least two lonely people found each other.

And she wasn't talking about Oliver and Dr. Reitz.

She tried to ignore the guilt about Starkweather as she neared William's room. After all, she rationalized, whatever was happening between Doggett and Starkweather had barely had a chance to grow, turn into anything substantial. Doggett and Reyes had been quietly building for years. Who knows, sure they were… are… were close friends but to Doggett, maybe Starkweather was nothing more than just a crush. As Scully had suspected from the beginning. And besides, by now, Starkweather would understand.

She hoped Starkweather would understand, anyway.

She just hoped for the best. That's all she could really do anymore.

"Hi, sweetie!" Scully said, kneeling down in the doorway, arms open wide.

William looked up from his little table. His round little face positively lit up. "Mom-mee!" he yelled happily as he toddled towards her, throwing his chubby little arms around her neck as Scully scooped him up. "Hi Mommy."

His grandmother, Maggie Scully beamed. "He is talking so much now!" she exclaimed. "You're going to have a chatterbox on your hands."

"Don't I know it," Scully rolled her eyes as she planted a kiss on his sticky cheek. "And what did we do today, Boo?"

"Pway-Doe," he said, pointing to the little Play-Skool table Maggie was still kneeling at. "Gwamma has Pway-Doe."

"Grandma has Play-Dough?" Scully asked as the little boy squirmed out of her arms to return to the table. "Is Grandma being nice and sharing her Play-Dough?" A smile tugged at her mouth as she looked at the table. Maggie had rolled out snakes and sausages and balls out of the brightly colored Play-Dough for William. Who promptly squished them.

"Uh-huh," William said, grabbing fistfuls of purple and red Play-Dough, mixing the colors together. Holding it out to her, he beseeched her "Mommy pway?"

Scully felt tears in her eyes, remembering her own words in the hospital just before she left Reyes and Doggett. "Of course sweetie," Scully walked over to her table and knelt at the head of the small picnic table, in between her son and her mother.

Maggie smiled as she watched her baby girl make wild animals and funny looking snow-mannish people for William to destroy, laughing as she watched the Play-Dough squish out from in between Will's little fingers. . Finally, she understood. Finally she stopped being afraid for her child and was just enjoying him. And William was so easy to enjoy, so easy to love. A sunshiny boy, Maggie decided. Where that came from, lord only knew. Dana had been a sweet little girl, but a wild child at the same time. Even while in diapers, she had ran after Bill and Charlie wanting to do whatever the boys were doing. And then there was Fox. God only knew what kind of childhood he had to become so dark and moody.

Maggie stifled a sigh and started to make her Play-Dough snakes, sausages and balls for William again. The only cloud in a perfect sky.

Where was this boy's father? What was so important justified missing out on William

Meanwhile…
Días De la Sol Trailer Park
Verdad, New Mexico

"Here's a story… about a lady… who was bringing up three very lovely girls…"

He reached for the remote control without even opening his eyes. The minute he found it, he hit the OFF button. Then threw the remote down on the floor littered with empty water bottles, sunflower seeds and case files.

Curled up on the couch that could turn into a bed, he struggled to find a comfortable position as he coughed. He threw an arm over his eyes to block out the light even more than his burning eyelids could.

Because he was tired of him worrying, he had given Gibson Praise some errands to run. Mulder did not fear discovery as long as he stayed in this dried up spot of hell in the middle of the desert.

He feared other things. Things happening to Scully and William. Things that had happened to Jerilyn. And the ultimate fear, that he would never find out why. Why they preyed on Jerilyn and took her away. Why they hunted Scully and the baby.

But William wasn't a baby anymore. He was a little over eighteen months old now.

::I'm missing it:: Mulder shivered in the blistering New Mexico heat as he pulled the heavy wool blanket over him. ::I am missing out on everything. He's probably talking more now. And walking. And I'm not there. Dammit… is the truth worth this?::

He coughed. ::You know the answer. As weak as an answer it is. Yes, it's worth it. It's worth it as long as William is safe. As long as he never has to suffer what I have. What his mother has. What his aunts, both of them have. And oh God, Jerilyn, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I failed you. I'm sorry I didn't see through Bravo right away. I'm sorry…::

As his fever rose, he moaned involuntarily. He didn't want to be there anymore. He wanted to be in Scully's apartment and feel her cool hands on his burning forehead.

He wanted to feel better but he couldn't.

He had used the last of the serum that stabilized the Black Oil virus lurking in his veins.

He was cut off from his suppliers, from Scully and from the CIA.

He was completely on his own, his body failing him and his mind starting to.

Because he kept seeing Jerilyn wherever he went and he was convinced that the madness that nearly destroyed him was returning.

Chapter Seventeen:
"Release"
October 4, 2002 J. Edgar Hoover Builder
Offices of the Employee Assistance Program
Washington DC
4:43 PM Eastern Standard Time

Karen Kosseff quietly completed some mundane filing before her next and last appointment of the day. The agent had asked for an appointment close to the end of the business day. Kosseff correctly suspected the agent did not want to be seen seeking outside help. Most agents didn't.

"Ma'am?"

Startled, Kosseff looked up. A man, a tall guy with sandy brown-almost-blond hair with piercing blue eyes stood in her doorway. Suit and tie. FBI identification clipped to the lapel of his black suit jacket. Spit shined shoes. Federal agent.

"Yes?" she said politely.

The chilly look left his eyes. "I'm… early," he said uncomfortably.

"Are you," her eyes glanced at her open appointment book. "John Doggett."

"Um… yeah, look I can come back some other time…" he said, ready to retreat.

::Yeah, right:: Kosseff thought. She had dealt with the 'strong, silent type' before. Let them leave and they'll never come back. "It's alright," she said soothingly without a trace of patronization. "Please. Come in. Would you like something to drink?"

"Whiskey if you got it," he quipped as he hesitantly entered her office, shutting the door behind him.

For about twenty minutes, she engaged him in conversation, which was pretty typical and safe. How long he had been in the Bureau, what he did before joining. What his specific duties and responsibilities lay in his particular division. He spoke freely about his job. As he talked, Kosseff strongly suspected that he was not in her office on his own free will. He was either there under duress, to placate someone or both.

She asked him how he handled pressure. He had shrugged and said he normally he thrived on it, pushed him to go beyond what was expected. He said he supposed it was his military training that molded his mindset, Semper Fi and all that "horsesh*t."

"But what about credos, beliefs that you've formed on your own?" she asked.

A wry smile appeared on his face. Then he snorted. "Everything," he told her. "That I believed was thrown out the window in the summer of 2000."

"Why is that?"

"That's when I joined the X-Files," he said ruefully. "And nothin' is… you can't… you can't even trust your own eyes half the time with all… it's…" He looked at the floor. "Reality is something that you do not question normally. As an adult you know certain things belong only in make-believe. That there are no such things as monsters but explain that to a terrified kid who believes there are. Or explain that to someone who was traumatized by a childhood experience that aliens," he said the word 'aliens' derisively, "snatched his sister away in a beam of light in the sky. But you know that there's no monsters and no aliens, right? Logically you know that the sky is up and the ground is down. But then something happens so incredible so mind-blowing, you question even that. You question everything. You trust nobody."

"Do you realize," Kosseff asked gently as the surreal sensation of déjà vu crept into her. "That you've been speaking about yourself in the second person?"

Doggett lifted his head up to look at her. "I have?" When she nodded, all he could say was "Oh."

"Surely you trust somebody?"

"Sure but…" he shrugged.

"But what?"

"I… I'm not here because I wanna be," he said bluntly. "I'm here because… well…"

"Somebody thinks you need to talk, perhaps? A loved one?"

"Yeah… kind of," Doggett mumbled. "I want… I want this one to work out. My track record with… um… 'loved ones' is not so hot, and… she said that there's… she said maybe it wouldn't hurt to try and talk to a…" his mumbling got worse on the last word. "Professional."

"Why is your track record so bad? Do you believe it's the work?"

"Honestly, no. I was married. And we had problems… but, our son… he… died. Killed. He was killed. His murder was unsolved until a few days ago. And… my wife… we… we couldn't… he held us together. We wouldn't have… we needed… without him, we were nothing," Doggett finally admitted. "We probably would have divorced sooner if there hadn't been… we were too young and immature to get married. We… were selfish. I was tired of bein' by myself and thought she was the right girl and she… was lookin' for someone to take care of her. Barb's not independent. Not by a long shot. She didn't wait for the ink to dry on our divorce papers. She was re-married a few months later."

"And the others?"

"Well. Others were far and few in between."

"How many?" she pressed him.

It took him a while to say "Two."

"And you still don't believe that it was the pressure of the job tha-"

"No," he quietly interrupted her. "Because they were… are… um… both agents. The girl I'm seeing now… and she's a great girl, I mean… I really… I care… um, I love her, I do, I really do…um," he stammered in the classic way one does when he's trying to convince himself. "And I just want to do right by her. That's all. She said that I have a lot of baggage and I should try and sort it out."

"And the other girl?"

Another long, pain-wrecked silence. "Mr. Doggett?" Kosseff pushed him gently.

"She's gone," he said almost inaudibly, "I lost her."

"Lost her?"

"We were workin' a case and I… somethin' happened to me and I don't remember." He said stubbornly. "I was missing for almost a month. She got a tip and she followed up on it. And she never came back."

"Do you feel responsible for her disappearance?"

"Responsible!?!?!? That is the stupidest damnest question I've heard!" he burst out. "Of course I feel responsible. I didn't listen to her. She told me, she said "Doggett, turn around. It's a trap. And I didn't listen…" he blinked his eyes rapidly. Kosseff knew she was dealing with one of those guys who nobody how badly he needed to, he was not going to start crying in front of a stranger. He took a breath, got himself under control and said flatly "So yeah, it is my fault."

"Why do you believe that?"

"Because in less than a year, she became the most important person in the world to me and I swore to her that I would watch her back and the one time that I really needed to, I didn't. I let her down.

"You really don't believe that…"

"Yes I do…. Look, you asked me 'bout my beliefs…. And not only do I believe what I just said, but I also I believe I deserve to know what the hell happened to her. I just want closure. I want it to be over. I got release for my son. I just want to know what happened to **her**. And why… because I don't believe the bullsh*t in the files. I don't. I can't… I can't believe the lie. And I can't let it go until I know the truth. I won't."

If he had known how much he sounded like Fox Mulder at that moment, Doggett probably would have contemplated suicide.

Chapter Eighteen:
"William"
October 13, 2002

J Edgar Hoover
Interrogation Room C2

::Come on, Scully, don'tblowitdon'tblowit…":: Doggett prayed as he watched the exchange from the double-sided mirror.

Reyes squeezed his hand.

Skinner's jaw never once loosened its clench.

"I need proof," Scully finally said on the other side of the glass, sighing resignedly.

"You have proof. In the DNA sample you took from me. I am who I say I am."

"You've proven nothing to me except that you are a liar, Mr. Miller, and someone who can't be trusted," she hissed coldly. Then added softly, "The Mulder I knew told the truth. Unfailingly. I trusted the Mulder I knew. I wouldn't trust you any farther than I could throw you."

"You mean the Mulder you knew never willingly conveyed misinformation?" Miller said, cracking a small grin.

Scully's features softened.

"Damn," Skinner, Reyes, and Doggett all three said at once on the other side of the mirror.

"It's not over yet," Reyes reminded them as they turned away.

"Tell me…if you are Mulder…what have you been doing all this time?" Scully

"Looking for my half-sister."

"Have you found anything?"

"With my personal affects…there was a box…that's what I found," Miller answered.

"Hold that thought," Scully said, and then poked her head out the door.

Without saying anything, Reyes nodded and almost-sprinted to the FBI locker room down in the gym where they were keeping his belongings.

She unlocked it using her faux fingernails, and found an undecorated, unpainted wooden box, no more than two inches long, and brought it back upstairs to the interrogation room.

Scully eased it open, and began to feel nauseous and inhaled a sob when she saw the contents of the box.

"I think we've found what we're looking for," Scully said, "what we've been looking for all these months."

"Oh God…" Skinner said hoarsely, instantly turning pale, and then just as instantly turning away, wiping his hand over his face as if to erase the memory of what he just saw.

"Doggett…" Skinner said, laying a sympathetic hand on his shoulder, "I think he's telling the truth."

Doggett's shoulders slumped in defeat, and wordlessly watched the man on the other side of the mirror.

Then Scully brought the box and its contents into the room.

It was a ring finger. A ring finger cut off at the hand, with a small blood-encrusted solitaire diamond engagement ring still remaining end that would have been attached to the hand.

Scully and Doggett knew immediately whose ring that was.

"It's over," Doggett said emotionlessly, turned on his heel, and left.

Reyes ran after him.

"JOHN!" She called out. "JOHN, WAIT!"

"Don't do this Monica," he glowered, "Not this time. I REFUSE to let you tell me I need to fight when the fight's over. That I need to hope when the facts are glarin' that there ain't any reasons for hopin' left." Doggett yelled, tears unabashedly rolling down his face.

"Can you honestly tell me that you want to give up now?" she said, wiping the tears away.

"Agent Scully got her proof. I got mine. I ain't pretendin'. I ain't destroyin' everything I've ever worked for. I gotta stop chasin' after somebody who don't exist anymore. I don't wanna give up. I wanna believe she's still out there. That she's still alive. But…God…the evidence against her being alive now is overwhelming."

"John…I can't…I'm not arguing with you," she sobbed, no longer fighting the tears welling in her throat, "But I also think…no…I know…that facts are skewed…that perceptions are warped by desperation when we want our answers so badly. We start collecting fool's gold instead of panning for the real thing."

"I think a severed ring finger with her god damned engagement ring still on it is a little too friggin' real for me. It's time to cut my losses Mon."

"Come on, John," she said softly, "I'll buy you a drink. It can't heal anything, but it can't hurt."

She was the Healer.

Not from medicinal herbs or chemicals or technology, but by her touch.

Because of the Ones who took her.

Everyone was desperate to be healed. Everyone wanted a piece of her. Like a saint's artifact. Only she wasn't a miracle, but a fluke in an experiment.

And she sure as hell wasn't a saint.

But desperation breeds desperation. They wanted so badly to find her. She wanted so badly to be washed of it. To be normal.

She had been desperate that night last year when FBI Special Agent John Doggett went in her place.

Desperation was her demon, and it possessed her, as it possessed her now. As it always seemed to possess her since they returned her.

She had to get out.

She needed to be good. She needed redemption.

Her attempts to fight against the syndicate were caught in a stalemate ever since she found Agent Starkweather.

Then, just as quickly as it screeched to a halt, it began again.

Marita Covarrubias paid her a visit.

"We need your help."

"I can't," Alpha answered.

"You're the only one who can."

"Watch what you say. There could be cameras. Taps in the room. They've bugged me before."

"We know of ways to get around them."

"We?"

"People like me who believe that The Syndicate's agenda is a reign of terror. That they need to be relieved of their control."

"I can't help from here."

"You don't have to BE here. Have you forgotten who you are, Lily? Who they made you into? What capabilities they allowed you to have?"

"I can't BE that anymore."

"You're not the only healer, and you're not the only one who can morph, but you're the only Healer who can morph. And it may prove to be the key to this fight. They took me too. They took so many…they made us all into monsters too. They took my sisters. They took my father. They made us freaks. Do you want any more families destroyed knowing you could have done something to stop it? You may be the only line of defense we have, Lily."

"What if I fail? They…they have their influences everywhere."

"We can't afford the what-ifs, Alpha," then, like a salesman trying her last pitch, she added, "William Mulder is out of our hands, and we have our influences everywhere too."

"No…"

"Agent Scully has given him up for adoption."

"So what do you want me to do? Baby-sit?"

"Will you help then?"

She sighed reluctantly, and nodded, "What information do we have on him?"

"Go to Tacoma Falls in Virginia. Pay the Lone Gunmen a visit."

24 Hours later

Marita had given her the Lone Gunmen's address, and Alpha arrived at their lair, morphed as Alex Krycek. Then as Assistant Director Skinner, she climbed out of the rental car. Expecting her to find at least two of the three conspiracy theorists at the helm, she was very surprised to find one tall blond youngish looking man there who looked…depressed.

"AD Skinner?!" He cried, "What brings you here?"

"I need adoption records."

"Oh. Then I guess you heard about William, then. I wish I could help, but I'm not that good at that sorta thing. That…that was Langly's expertise…" he added sadly.

"Mine too, fortunately" a dark-haired woman said as she breezed in from a room somewhere in the back.

"Can you hack into adoption records?" Alpha asked eagerly.

"Ask a stupid question…" Yves chided.

"Just…keep this our little secret," Alpha-as-Skinner added.

"I got it," Jimmy nodded, "can't let the bad guys know you're on their tail. Sometimes, I'm not as dumb as people think I am."

"Sometimes you are, Jimmy," Yves chuckled, and clicked away on the keyboard, "easy as confusing an idiot," she purred, and a screen came up, highlighting William's birth date, name, Social Security Number, and the people who adopted him.

"And Scully thought he'd be safer this way? If it was that easy for you to find, what makes her think the bad guys can't find it just as easily?"

"Because she knew that as long as he and Mulder were part of a package, then neither one was safe for the rest of their lives," Yves answered. "Together, there's no way to protect them."

"That still doesn't make sense," Alpha answered in Skinner's voice. "The people who have adopted him have no idea who the child is. They can't possibly protect him…they can't protect themselves."

"Why it was done makes no difference now, Assistant Director? Whether it was a mistake or a key to solving the problem hasn't been determined yet. It is irrelevant."

"He's not safe there. WE'RE not safe if he's there."

"Are you going to try to bring him back?" Jimmy asked.

"Yes. I have to."

"Good, Mr. Skinner," Jimmy answered. "Somebody does."

"Got-dammit Dana, how the HELL can you just throw him away like last night's garbage?"

"You're one to talk about giving up, John."

"I was adopted, so I'm last night's garbage too, John? Thanks. A lot," Reyes grumbled.

"I'm sorry Sweetheart that came out the wrong way. All I know Scully is that Jerilyn is dead."

"I don't think she's…" Reyes started to say, but Doggett interrupted her.

"Dead because she wanted to save your son's life. That kid was the world to her. And now, you wanna take it away from her? From us? After all that. After ALL THE SH*T WE WENT THROUGH TO SAVE HIS LIFE, you just wanna throw him away to some STRANGERS!?" He exploded, pacing like a caged animal.

"I had no choice," she seethed. The old steely resolve Dana Scully had thought was gone a long time ago returned.

"LIKE HELL YOU HAD NO CHOI-

"JOHN!" Reyes interrupted, feeling her face flush with anger, "We may not agree with her, but it's not our decision to make."

"John," she said softly, without remorse or regret, "I love my son. I want him back so badly it hurts. But my job as a parent is to protect him. I know you and Monica did your best. I love you both for it. But we can't protect him." her eyes began to glisten with unshed tears, "While Mulder is his father, I can't…" and then she began to quake with fresh sobs, "be…his mother."

Reyes held out her arms and pulled her into a bear hug.

"Oh God…" Scully said over and over again.

"Dana…I didn't…" Doggett started to say, and then was interrupted by Reyes.

"John, stop while you're ahead. I wonder about my real parents." Reyes said slowly, "But mostly, I just think about how my mom and dad are doing. I thank whoever my parents are every day for giving me life. It doesn't matter who they are. I know they're the best parts of me, and that's enough. They gave me a life to enjoy and gave me a place in the world. That's the greatest gift, Dana. You gave that to somebody. That's nothing to be ashamed of. Jerilyn was adopted and you know as well as I do how much the Admiral loved her as much as Lynette did. A family who wanted a child more than anything in the world adopted him. He'll never be without love. I know you love him more than life itself. I know you want him back, but sometimes, the greatest love is letting go."

"I just hope Mul-dah understands when he gets back." Doggett said bitterly.

"Get out, Agent Doggett." Scully spat, folding her arms in a stand-off.

Doggett left, slamming the door behind him.

"I better…" Monica said, glancing apologetically towards the door.

"I know. Monica, I appreciate your help, but I think I just need to be alone right now."

Reyes hugged her again, and then said, "Things usually work out, Dana. If you need me, call, ok?"

Scully smiled weakly as Reyes shut the door.

Chapter Twenty and Chapter Twenty-One:
"The Truth"

"My little girl is not here yet," The Late Admiral Jeremy Bailey said to Mulder in his prison cell. "Oh God...I don't ever want to see her here. Or you. You're her only hope."

"No, I'm not," Mulder answered resolutely.

"I'm happy that my little girl is being taken care of. That's all I ever wanted to do in life, but I couldn't. Not really. Funny. I can do that better alive than dead."

"Is there a way out of this?"

"There's always a way out," he said, gesturing grandly.

And then he was gone.

"Mulder," Ben Starkweather said, "I think we both know you have to get out of this. You're not going to do her any good if you're sentenced to death." You could still see the bullet holes from when the Syndicate assassinated him.

"That's what they will do if I fail?"

"You cannot fail. If you fail, I died in vain."

"You died because I...didn't. I should have been the one..."

"No, you shouldn't have. Your sister and I would've gotten a divorce. She would have been killed regardless of what happened to me, and then I would have died a bitter old man, making my secretary a widow. At least this way, I get to play hero. Sometimes everything lines up everything else. Sometimes...these things just happen."

"So how do I..."

"Save me? Save her? You'll be shown how when you need to know. Just make sure I don't see her here."

And with that, he left.

Starkweather stood there, watching as Scully and Skinner arrived.

And then she jumped when Mulder nodded at her in acknowledgement, "Hiya Hurricane," he mouthed.

"Oh God..." Starkweather whispered, and awkwardly waved at him, and then her face paled at the sight of her friend, and her expression was one of guilt and utter hopelessness. "Scully...Scully I'm sorry...sooo damn sorry. I wish...if I hadn't gotten on the plane for Russia, Mulder wouldn't have left, and he'd never be in this mess. This shouldn't be ha...wooooah, I think four's a crowd here."

Because without inhibitions, they kissed as two people who are obviously in love should kiss when they haven't seen each other for a very very long time.

"I should...go...before you guys get to third base," Starkweather said, making a study of her feet.

Mulder shook his head. "She doesn't blame you," Mulder said.

"Mulder?" Scully puzzled.

"It's ok," Mulder said, squeezing her hand, "she's alright."

"How do you..."

"Does it matter?"

Scully half-laughed, half-cried, "No, I guess not."

"Dana, I think...I think it's over."

"Don't talk like that."

"I want to talk to her for just a minute..."

"Mulder, God...what the hell is going on here?"

"She's here."

"Who??"

"Jerilyn. She's here."

"Mulder...I can understand why, and certainly after all that you've been through making you irrational, but...Mulder...I'm here now, so is Skinner, and we'll get you the best doctors..."

"For the first time in my life, I know the truth."

"Mulder...I think...once we get the serum...it might be easier for you to distinguish..." Scully pleaded softly.

"I think this is the most rational I've been since Samantha was taken from me, Scully. I don't think it is for us to understand. It's impossible to put into words for any sort of explanation. It's just...the truth...no layers to it...no complications...just...to accept."

"Mulder," Starkweather said, "you want some free advice?"

"Is she talking to you now?" Scully asked.

Mulder nodded in response to both of them.

"Run like hell and don't look back. Just make sure William is safe."

And then Starkweather was gone.

(Post "Let's Shove it up their Ass" Doggett-Speech)

"Then we'll testify, me and Monica."

"No," Mulder said.

Thinking of her sister, murdered by Rohrer, Reyes told him "Both of us have seen too much ... "

Mulder however knew the direction her mind was going and Doggett's too. He implored them "Listen to me, they'll destroy you. They'll put you out on the street."

"What's left for us on the X-Files?" Doggett demanded.

Reyes said resolutely, "We came to this job to give it our best. It's the way we're going to leave."

Mulder smiled, remembering something he said to Starkweather once. ::I like you. You remind me of me when I was young and stupid. Reyes' brave stance invoked the same brotherly impatience that Starkweather's attitude had. "It's not about how good you are. They control the game. They own it."

"Then let's shove it up their ass."

Mulder shifted his attention to Doggett then said casually to Skinner and Reyes. "Hey, how badly would your feelings be hurt if I told you I wanted some alone time with the Puppy Man here?"

Skinner and Reyes looked at each other then at Doggett, who seemed baffled. "Come on Agent Reyes," Skinner said, gently taking her arm and escorting her towards the door. "Mulder," Skinner growled at him over his shoulder. "I wish you'd tell me what the hell you're doing."

"Currently I'm converting oxygen into carbon dioxide," he said blithely. "If there are any other startling updates, I'll let you know."

When the guard let Skinner and Reyes out, Doggett informed Mulder. "You aren't gonna be convertin' oxygen to carbon dioxide much longerr, Mul-duh. Not if you keep this up."

Mulder suddenly lost glibness. "There's not much time. So I'll skip over the male bonding crap and get to the point." He sighed. "Skinner told me about Jerilyn."

"Yeah," Doggett said, looking at his shoes. "I'm sorry," he said sincerely. "You gave up everything to go find her… I shoulda gone in your place. You had everything. I don't."

Mulder smiled sympathetically at him. "Then it would be you wearing this sexy orange jumpsuit, not me. I tell ya, orange is my color. All the prison-bitches are just dying to make me their new boyfriend."

"Can you be fucking serious for once?" Doggett snapped. "You are on trial for your life."

"Thanks for the news flash."

"God, I could kill you myself."

"That could probably be arranged," Mulder grinned. "The way this trial is going. The government would probably thank you for saving them time and money."

"You said you didn't have a lot of time," Doggett reminded him. "So what'n the hell did you want to talk to me about?"

"I wanted to talk about you and Reyes testifying."

"Why?"

"Because I am afraid that either you or Reyes will bring up Jerilyn."

Doggett spluttered "What… but… of course I'm gonna bring up Jerilyn."

"Don't."

"Why?"

"Because," Mulder said, looking over Doggett's shoulder, seeing her standing behind him, leaning against wall, arms crossed, coolly assessing them both with through her witch hazel eyes. "I don't want you to."

"I gathered that," Doggett longed to shove his boot up Mulder's ass. "Why not?"

"What good would it do?"

"What good??? Mulder, she's… she's proof."

"Proof?"

"Of what they done to her as a baby! Of the experiments. Of the genetic manipulation. Of introducing foreign material to human DNA to create a Super Soldier. Jerilyn…" Doggett paused, struggling to get the words exactly right. He had only admitted this to one other person and that was Reyes. "She... she's different Mulder. She… stronger than the rest of us. Smarter… they… those girls, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta and Echo. The prototypes. The first Super Soldiers."

Mulder still had the funny sympathetic smile on his face. He was watching Starkweather behind Doggett. She was glaring at Doggett and at the end of his speech she flipped him the bird while mouthing "Fuck you."

"You, who have professed such love for my sister, now can only think of her as evidence." Mulder said as Starkweather turned on her heel and walked through the wall just as Krycek and Benjamin Starkweather walked in.

Doggett, shamefaced, looked at the floor again. "That's not how I meant it." He looked up at Mulder again, almost defiantly. "You know that's not how I meant it."

"Doggett," Mulder said, feeling Krycek and Ben's eyes on him. "If my sister meant as much to you as you think she did… then respect my wishes. I'd rather not you and Reyes testify. But if you do, please. Please. Keep Jerilyn's name out of the trial. If the prosecution brings her up, tap dance around her. As far as this trial is concerned, she doesn't exist. She never happened."

"How can you say that?" Doggett asked.

"Easy," Mulder said. "You just have to trust me." When Doggett didn't respond, he said "Please, Doggett. I'm asking nicely. Don't bring up Starkweather. Let her rest in peace."

After an agonizing moment of silence, Doggett said "Alright. I don't understand. But… this time I'll follow your lead."

"Good," Mulder said calmly, sitting down on the bunk. Leaning his head against the wall, he said with his eyes closed "I hope you and Monica will be happy together. Just do me a favor and don't name any kids after me. One Fox in this world is enough."

Doggett scowled, but kept his peace as he turned on his heel and briskly walked out of the cell.

Mulder opened his eyes to regard Krycek and Ben Starkweather. "You guys know that Jerilyn's alive, right?"

"Yes," Krycek said simply.

"But," Ben countered, "to quote my lovely wife: 'Doggett can be dumb as a brick sometimes'."

Mulder snorted. "Sometimes?"

Courtroom Scene

"State your name, please."

"Bunny. You know, like the hippity-hop? Bunny O'Dell," the blonde secretary said huskily, leaning her ample chest forward so that the prosecuting attorney could get a better view.

Her real name was Boneventure Merchant. Lux Carlos, fellow CIA agent had told her to testify to insure everyone's safety in the courtroom.

"You were Mulder's secretary during the time he was Deputy Mayor of Washington, D.C., were you not?"

"Uh-huh," she answered breathlessly.

"Did anything happen that made you question his integrity while you were working for him?"

"Oh, no!" she said, jiggling her whole body so that the court could plainly see she was not wearing a bra, "Foxy Loxy would never do anything bad."

"Thank you Ms. O'Dell. You may step down now."

Then Bunny O'Dell leaned over, and whispered in the lawyers ear. Her outward demeanor still air-headed and flirtatious, but her voice lost the airy quality as she whispered, "This is a warning. A LOT of people are going to be VERY pissed if something happens to the defendant. I suggest you rethink your strategy."

The lawyer coughed nervously.

"Councilor? Are you alright?" One of the judges asked him as he loosened his tie and took a long gulp of water.

The lawyer just nodded nervously.

"Are you feeling well enough to call your next witness?"

"I call Senor Manuel Ibarra to the stand."

"How did you meet the defendant, Mr. Ibarra?"

"In jail, sir." Manny answered.

Skinner and Mulder both rolled their eyes.

"I see," the lawyer continued, "and what did Agent Mulder tell you he was in jail for?"

"Murder."

"So there's a history of this in the defendant's past."

"How were you able to stay in this country?"

"Three highjacker friends of Mulder's got me a good job with the city."

"Highjackers? So these were criminals too?"

"No, you misunderstand, sir. They were friends of Senor Zorro who were on the internet and they were conspiracies theorists."

"So they were rebelling against the government?"

"No sir, they were fighting for truth, justice, and the American Way. Something you should know a little about."

"I see." The lawyer frowned, "your witness, AD Skinner," the lawyer sneered.

"I thought this country had rights!" Manny exploded.

The judges wrapped their gavels on the desk, "Mr. Ibarra more outbursts like that and I'll arrest you for contempt!"

"I've been in jail before, Your Honor," Manny said, "it ain't so bad."

"Thank you Mr. Ibarra," he sneered at Skinner, and said, "You're witness."

"I don't understand it Senor Aguilla." Manny said when Skinner approached the stand. This trial is not fair! And when did you get a law degree?"

"We're doing what we can, Manny. Just pipe down so you can watch the rest of the trial."

"Forgive me, your Honor. This witness is a big name in Mexico. He's got to see the rest of this trial for his story."

"I said no press!" The Judge boomed.

"I'm not press, you're honor," Manny said, "I'm just a friend helping out. But I promise, when this trial's over, if I've got any say about it, you're in trouble grande."

"If you want to stay in this country, I suggest you get out of this courtroom."

"Fair enough," Manny said, winked at Skinner, and then over at Mulder, and left.

Bunny O'Dell had to excuse herself for a few minutes, when her cellphone vibrated.

"Carlos, whatchya got?"

"Not a godamn thing, Agent Merchant."

"Well, you better get more than that in about an hour, cuz otherwise, Mulder's going up the creek."

"How's the trial going?"

"To hell. They're railroading him. Looks like we gotta get plan B fast."

"I hope your Kung Fu's better'n mine. Otherwise, our odds are worse than the chances of Steven Tyler singin' opera."

"What do you think I'm doing here? Trying to hook a sleezey lawyer? I'm working on it!" Bunny snapped, and then hung up the phone to finish her assignment.

Meanwhile

"One more outburst, I'm warning you, Mr. Ibarra!" one judge said, rapping his gavel.

"Have you ever known the defendant to do anything wrong."

"Not legal, not correct, or not good morals?"

"Not good morals," Skinner said through clinched teeth.

"No. I don't think Senor Zorro could do anything that's not good morals."

"Thank you, Mr. Ibarra."

"Senor Aguilla, you're a good lawyer." Manny whispered as he took his seat.

Skinner nodded a thanks.

"Assistant Director, your witness?" One of the judges said.

"I call Mayor Charles Swanson to the stand."

"Mayor Swanson, how do you know the defendant?"

"He worked in my office as Deputy Mayor. Did good things for me. If it weren't for his work, you can bet your ass I wouldn't be the mayor anymore."

"So you consider him an asset?"

"Very much so."

"Do you consider him an honorable man?"

"Yes."

Then Skinner turned to the lawyer. "Your witness."

"Mayor Swanson, was there ever a time in your office that you felt as though he was...distracted?"

"Why, yes...he'd be out of work for several days, sometimes weeks at a time...but I didn't think..."

"That will be all, Mayor Swanson."

"Next witness," the judge said. Mayor Swanson opened his mouth to say something, but then shut it again as he was being led off the stand.

"I call Felitza Covarrubias to the stand."

"OBJECTION Your honor," Skinner barked, "I have no knowledge that this witness was being called..."

"Defense council should have done his homework, your honors," the lawyer sneered.

"I'll allow it," the judge said, rapping his gavel.

"Ms. Covarrubias, how do you know the defendant?"

Felitza Covarrubias was sitting frigid and ashen-faced. Shakily, she took a sip of water.

"I don't know him very well..." she almost-squeaked, tears now freely flowing down her face.

"I should remind you, Ms. Covarrubias, if you fail to answer, you will be jailed," the lawyer continued, "Now, how do you know the defendant?"

"In the lawfirm where I worked, there was a lawyer named Ben…" she said, starting to cry again, "Ben St-t-t-aaa-arkwea-a-a-ather. He was married. Married to a woman named Jerilyn Starkweather," she said it as though she were sentencing herself. "She is the defendant's half-sister."

"So how did you come to know the defendant?" She buried her face in her hands. "Her husband and I had an affair. I knew him briefly because when he died, I met them all."

"Why?"

"To confess."

"Do you think the defendant murdered your lover?" The lawyer questioned rapidly.

Felitza Covarrubias made eye-contact with Mulder for the first time. "No. The same people who murdered Ben Starkweather are the same people who murdered my sister, and the same people who took his wife, and are the same people who are orchestrating this whole ordeal."

The gavels rapping on the desk echoed in the courtroom.

"Motion to strike the last comment, your honors." The lawyer sneered.

"Motion granted," droned one of the judges.

"Do you know if his wife is still alive?"

"I don't know," Felitza said softly, again looking at Mulder, only this time looking as though she had committed the crime herself.

"Do you know where his wife might be?"

Felitza Covarrubias didn't have time to answer, because at that moment, Skinner shot out of his chair.

"I object. Your Honors, the whereabouts of Agent Starkweather put not only her life in danger, but the lives of everyone who is connected to her. You cannot allow this line of questioning because it endangers anyone who is in anyway connected with her. And a lot of very powerful people are connected with her, sirs. I think a dead Assistant Director, a Judge, a Mayor, and Deputy Director of the FBI because you let sensitive information pass in court would put a smudge on your records."

"Sustained," the Judges all answered sourly.

At least a small battle was won.

Meanwhile
CIA Headquarters
Agent Lux Carlos' office

"Fine," Carlos barked into the phone before hanging it up loudly. In utter frustration, he threw his pen hard onto the nice mahogany desk provided by the United States Government. "Dammit," he said to himself, thumping his fist on the same abused desk.

Quiet and unassuming as always, his superior Agent Satish Joshi entered his office, shutting the door behind him. "We have to talk," he stated in his lightly accented voice.

Carlos briefly glanced up at the slender man in the black suit before looking back down at his desk while running a big hand over his neatly dreadlocked hair. "What about?"

"Lux."

Not Joshi's voice now, but a woman's with a wholly American intonation to it. Startled Carlos looked up and saw Lily Stratford standing in front of the shut door, dressed in a man's suit. The clothes sagged on her lithe frame.

"I was wondering when your happy ass was going to show up, Alpha," Carlos said, maneuvering his wheelchair around the large desk. "Where's Joshi?"

"On the way to J. Edgar. I saw him before I saw you. Not intentionally," she reassured him. "It just happened that way."

"What's going on at J.Edgar? Thought the action was going down in Virginia."

Lily shook her head. "The military, as we speak, is making plans to transport all of the X-Files into storage at what's left of the Pentagon."

"They're WHAT!?!? I didn't hear about this!" Lux fumed. "And I'm CIA!"

"This isn't through official communications," Lily told him. "And this isn't through an official military branch. Or official government. The 'official' government and military is slightly more concerned with the military actions in Afghanistan as well as distinct rumbling of discord in Iraq."

He sighed. "I know, as if Mulder's case isn't enough, I'm up to my eyeballs in Iraqi sh*t. Plus, with the circles you run with, I'm sure you've heard the rumors that North Korea hasn't exactly been playing nice either."

"Mm," was all Alpha had to offer on the North Korean crisis.

Carlos' eyebrows knit together in thought. "The Syndicate is much more powerful than we anticipated. I thought surely the death of Bravo and the disappearance of Smokey the B*stard would have crippled them at least."

"Remember, the shadow men still running FEMA is very much a force to contend with as well," Alpha reminded him. "After the fiasco in Antarctica, they split away from the Syndicate. Fortunately, the Syndicate is not as powerful as it was in the early Nineties. They're still suffering losses. Plus the destruction of the Black Hills lab and the failed abduction attempt of Agent Scully and William hurt them. But yes, Carlos they are growing strong again." She grimaced. "They are actually hoping for war to break out. If there's war, they can work undetected just as they did during Vietnam. My sources tell me that they've been in communication with their government contacts and… suggesting to them to lobby for military action."

Instantly Carlos said "Senator Wesley-Bailey?"

A cold, cruel smile appeared on Lily's lips "My mother, for the time being, is keeping her nose clean."

"You know, Lily," Carlos said casually, "We wouldn't have to worry about your adoptive mother's loyalties anymore if you would just let her know that you're alive. Go see her."

Lily's face hardened and it did not match her broken voice. "I can't. Not yet."

Carlos let it go. "What about the others?"

"Election year is less than two years away. Lots of hungry governors, Senators and a sundry of other politicians out there, liking their jobs and would be happy to keep them. And it costs a lot of money for them to keep their jobs."

"And therefore, the Syndicate needs to shell out quite a bit of green to keep the fat cats on Capitol Hill happy so they can get what they need," Carlos wheeled himself closer to Alpha. "Where is the Syndicate getting all that money?"

"I have no idea," she admitted. "But I do know that fifteen million dollars has been authorized to be cashed out from one of their Swiss Bank accounts and to be distributed to the hungry."

Carlos whistled. "Damn me and my morals," he sighed wistfully. Then reverting back to business, he asked "Who authorized it?"

"Who ever is in charge now," she told him.

"But who," Carlos said, discouraged "is in charge?"

"I have no idea," she said again. "I'm still working on that. But when I heard about what the military was planning on with the X-Files, I had to drop that project and come here."

"What's Joshi doing at the J.Edgar?"

"He's trying to get one step ahead of the military. He's got CIA agents with him and they are going to clean out the X-Files first then transport the files here."

"Good call."

"But I think you need to contact Bunny and both of you get over to the offices yourselves," Lily advised him.

"Why?"

Lily sighed. "Because it has come to my attention that there may be evidence proving the existence of extraterrestrial existence lurking in that office somewhere."

"The files?" Carlos was confused.

Lily shook her head. "No. Concrete evidence. Tangible. Evidence that wasn't turned into the evidence room after the case was closed."

"Oh really?"

"I learned that Agents Doggett and Starkweather stole evidence from a crime scene during the first case they worked together."

"No shit?" Carlos snorted. "Starkweather I can believe, but that uptight cracker?"

"He's not as uptight as he used to be," Lily assured him. "Rumor has it that Starkweather stole a piece of glass from the cockpit of the fighter jet that crashed in Scotland last May. The glass was significant because it was warped. As if it was heated up to the point where it liquefied then cooled into a solid again in a very short amount of time. The pilot, Major Vincent Major, was burnt to a crisp when his body was found but he had not ejected from the c*ckpit. The canopy never opened."

"What did Doggett steal?"

"After Starkweather shot to death the Alien Bounty Hunter, samples of their blood was taken from the vehicle. Agent Doggett nobly offered to take the samples to evidence to be cataloged. He conveniently kept a vial of the blood for himself."

"And you think they were dumb enough to hide that stuff in the X-Files office? That place has been robbed more than a 7-11 on the bad side of town."

"But it is also the last place anyone would think to look. Because it had not only had been broken into so many times, but shut down, locked up and even set on fire once."

Carlos considered this. "I'll call Bunny and tell her to hippity-hop back to DC. We can probably get the files out of there by tonight. There's not much more she can do anyway," Carlos said sadly. "We could have the Pope, the President and the Queen Mum come and extol his praises and still those bastards are going to hand down a death sentence."

"Then why are they continuing with this charade?" Lily said, suddenly angry.

"They're flaunting their power," he explained. "Showing to us what they are capable of. Showing them that they can have total disregard for our Constitution, our laws, our way of life and there's not a damn thing we can do about it."

A crafty smile appeared on Lily's face again. "So they think."

Carlos also joined on in her evil smile. "So they think." The smile died. "We better get cooking on a Plan B for Mulder."

"Scully too. They still want to take her to slice her open again and examine her. They still don't know how she conceived."

"How is William?"

"Fine. His new parents dote on him." Lily shrugged. "The first week or so was hard on him, kept asking where Mommy was, but now, he's seemed to be adjusting."

"Any word on Jerilyn?"

Now Lily allowed herself to soften. "I'm sorry Lux. I really am. It's like trying to see what color the wind is. For all intents and purposes, Spender's story is legit. The DNA testing proves the severed finger was hers… but I keep hearing strange rumors. However I can't chase after them while her big stupid brother is in so much goddamned trouble."

"I know," Carlos said. "It's okay." He started to roll towards the door. "Well, we've got work to do, Alpha."

"Lux, wait."

Carlos paused and watched Lily walk towards him. He became acutely aware of her similarities to her half-sister, Echo. The slender athletic build, the arched eyebrows, the heart shaped face. Her hair was long, thick and straight, too dark to be truly strawberry blond but too light to be anything else. Her eyes held the same tempestuous intelligence that shimmered in Starkweather's eyes. However Starkweather had Mulder eyes, a color-shifting hazel, amber one minute, fiery green the next. Lily's eyes were strange, a liquid gray, more like mercury than silver. Alien eyes.

"What is it?"

She placed her hand on his shoulder. "I owe you a favor."

Then Carlos felt a pain rip through his body, hot, searing and electric. He thought he was on fire. He wanted to scream, but couldn't. He could feel the pain from the back of his eyeballs down to the tips of his toes.

The pain lasted less than five seconds. Lily lifted her hand from his shoulder and knelt beside him, placing her hand on his knee.

It took Carlos a minute to realize that he could actually feel her hand on his knee.

She smiled at him.

"About damn time," he tried to joke. Slowly, he stood up.

(While Mulder and Scully snuggled in a crappy hotel room…)

As they drove back to civilization, she drove while he slept.

Despite everything, despite all the chaos and uncertainty and fear, she couldn't help but rejoice. Knowle Rohrer, at long last, was dead. Finally dead. And not just dead. Good and painfully dead. He had to have suffered as the magnetite reaked havoc on his body. That much was certain.

::Good:: Reyes thought vindictively as she continued to drive east. ::You horrible monster. You deserved it. After what you did to my sister. After kidnapping her, shooting her boyfriend then sending Billy Miles to finish the job. Hurting her and then finally killing her… you got what you deserved. And you still have hell to look forward too.::

Normally Reyes was not a vengeful woman. But she still had nightmares of Teri being shot down by Rohrer. Seeing her body, her shirt stained with blood. Knowing that the last few days of her life had been filled with pain and indignity and fear. Finding her, holding her, hugging her, telling her it was going to be alright, she was safe now just to lose her all over again.

Reyes was just as human as anyone. She needed justice just like everyone else.

She looked over at the sleeping man in the passenger seat. If only…

One step at a time. One resolution at a time.

She drove as the darkness started to encroach on the blue skies. However, when the gloom finally manifested itself into a spectacular thunderstorm, Reyes decided that she better pull over the first chance she got. Besides she felt her eyelids growing heavier and heavier. Finally, when she spied a desolate rest stop, she pulled over. Rain was pounding the SUV's roof.

"Why're we stoppin'?" Doggett mumbled, not opening his eyes or moving his head.

"Because it's storming," Reyes said, looking around. They were well off the beaten track, away from major highways and towns. There were no cars or semi trucks at this laugh of a rest stop. Just a place to use the bathroom and fill up water bottles. And a vending machine where all the candy was probably either melted away by the desert's unrelenting heat or dangerously past the expiration dates. "And I'm tired."

Not that it mattered, she wasn't hungry. Just tired. A spiritual exhaustion.

"Want me to drive?"

"No," she said. "Let's just sleep. Wait out the storm. Wait for morning."

So they fumbled around in the backseat, forcing the seats to fold down. Doggett found two ratty blankets and miracle of miracles, a battery operated radio. Something not only to distract them from the thunder and lightening, but to provide a warning if the storm got worse and maybe news reports of what was going on in the world they left behind.

As Doggett fiddled with the radio dial trying to find a frequency, Reyes found herself shivering. The sleeveless blouse she had thrown on in deference to the desert now felt completely inadequate. She sat Indian style, rubbing her bare arms until Doggett finally found a station that came in without much static, a soft rock station, but at least it wasn't country or hard rock. Reyes felt she couldn't stand sobbing steel guitars or loud and angry music at that particular moment.

One ratty blanket, flannel and itchy, had been laid on the floor of the spacious backseat. The other, a moth eaten knitted afghan that they used as a cover.

Doggett lay on his side and held Reyes close to him. Reyes melted into his warmth and closed her eyes, feeling safe, feeling his fatigue. Both were exhausted. Reyes soon fell into a deep well deserved sleep.

Doggett, meanwhile, laid awake for a while, listening to the radio. He knew that logically, they should not be going back to Washington. But his instincts told him it would be alright. They were not looking for him. Or Reyes. They were after Mulder and Scully. They would be their focus. Doggett and Reyes were insignificant in the scheme of things. His abduction had actually been a gross mistake. This was rectified when they got their hands on Starkweather.

Doggett closed his eyes and held Reyes closer to him. It was over. There were no more excuses. He couldn't hide anymore. So much of his life had been wasted on grieving for Luke. So much time had been wasted worrying about image and protocol when Jerilyn had been right across the room. Within reach. He had thought she was only a dream, a fantasy. She had become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

She literally was now just a dream.

Well, he'd be a damned fool if he didn't learn from his mistakes.

The radio crackled out a Bob Dylan tune:

'Twas in another lifetime, one of toil and blood
When blackness was a virtue and the road was full of mud
I came in from the wilderness, a creature void of form.
"Come in," she said, "I'll give you
shelter from the storm."

And if I pass this way again, you can rest assured
I'll always do my best for her, on that I give my word
In a world of steel-eyed death, and men who are fighting to be warm.
"Come in," she said, "I'll give you
shelter from the storm."

Not a word was spoke between us, there was little risk involved
Everything up to that point had been left unresolved.
Try imagining a place where it's always safe and warm.
"Come in," she said, "I'll give you
shelter from the storm."

I was burned out from exhaustion, buried in the hail,
Poisoned in the bushes an' blown out on the trail,
Hunted like a crocodile, ravaged in the corn.
"Come in," she said, "I'll give you
shelter from the storm."

Suddenly I turned around and she was standin' there
With silver bracelets on her wrists and flowers in her hair.
She walked up to me so gracefully and took my crown of thorns.
"Come in," she said, "I'll give you
shelter from the storm."

Now there's a wall between us, somethin' there's been lost
I took too much for granted, got my signals crossed.
Just to think that it all began on a long-forgotten morn.
"Come in," she said, "I'll give you
shelter from the storm."

Well, the deputy walks on hard nails and the preacher rides a mount
But nothing really matters much, it's doom alone that counts
And the one-eyed undertaker, he blows a futile horn. "Come in," she said, "I'll give you
shelter from the storm."

I've heard newborn babies wailin' like a mournin' dove
And old men with broken teeth stranded without love.
Do I understand your question, man, is it hopeless and forlorn?
"Come in," she said, "I'll give you
shelter from the storm."

In a little hilltop village, they gambled for my clothes
I bargained for salvation an' they gave me a lethal dose.
I offered up my innocence and got repaid with scorn.
"Come in," she said, "I'll give you
shelter from the storm."

Well, I'm livin' in a foreign country but I'm bound to cross the line
Beauty walks a razor's edge, someday I'll make it mine.
If I could only turn back the clock to when God and her were born.
"Come in," she said, "I'll give you
shelter from the storm."

Mulder had called her the Hurricane - a storm with the force of 70 MPH winds. Doggett thought that it seemed to fit her better than the damn nickname 'Papa John' she had for him. Mystery married her with her tempestuous moods, cocky attitude, stubbornness, wry sense of humor, and massive intellect, which she always loved showing off especially at someone else's expense. She was always getting into trouble. Something about her was always getting everyone around her into trouble. But yet, even in her most intolerable moments, there was something about her…something that strengthened him…that strengthened them all. Doggett realized, only now, that she was not the storm, but the shelter from it after all.

::Why would you want to remember? You can't tell me you're happier now, because you recall your life. I saw it all. So much pain. Why would you want to struggle, so long, and hard, to get that pain back? ::

::Because it's mine::

Still, he missed her. As hard as he would try to make do with whatever life was left ahead of him, there was going to be this void that was impossible to fill, despite all the good memories ::If I have the good, I can handle the bad. You're part of the good::. Maybe someday, he'll be able to release her as he did with Luke. But right now, that was just impossible. He hoped that Monica could handle him and his baggage because he wasn't ready to put the bags down. Weird thing of it was, he didn't know if he wanted to let her go. If he couldn't hold on to her, then what would be left? No way in hell could he put the bags down yet. Not today. Probably not ever.

And the pain lingered on, always burning, always accusing.

Epilogue:
The George Washington University Hospital
23rd St., NW, Washington D.C

"Mr. Kimble?"

Justin Leo did not look up from Jerilyn Starkweather's slack face. Continuing to stroke her head, he snapped "Can't they do anything about her hair? At least cut the dead ends off or something? She looks horrible!"

His poor Lily. His poor fair haired Lily. Something had happened to her. She had been blond when he knew her as a girl. Rohrer had chopped off her lovely hair with a knife and sent the braid as a Get-Well present to the agent they had forced her to work with. Now, due to some horrible trauma, her hair was growing back in a dark brown. She looked like a white-trash hoochie-mama trying to grow out a bad peroxide job.

"Mr. Kimble," the voice intruded again, politely but forcefully. Leo looked up. It was the attending physician, a Doctor Christian Larutannu. "We need to talk."

Leo leaned over, kissed Starkweather's head and whispered "I'll be right back," and followed the doctor to his office."

The doctor wasted no time. However, his speech was devoid of any enormous medical terms for which Leo was grateful. In his old life he had been a lawyer, not a doctor. "Mr. Kimble," Dr. Larutannu said from behind his desk. "Your wife has the medical establishment utterly baffled."

"How so?" Leo demanded. He didn't want to hear about doctors being baffled. He wanted to hear about treatments, cures. Hell, at this point, he was getting ready to invest in aromatherapy to see if that would get Lily to snap out of her coma.

"It is obvious that whoever abducted your wife mistreated her horribly. We have already been through the particulars so I will not rehash them. However, the perplexity stems from that you wife has recovered from the injuries inflicted on her body and the subsequent infections ravaging throughout her system afterwards. There appears to be no swelling of her major organs, including her brain."

"I don't understand what you're saying."

"I'm saying that, logically, other than her dismal EEG and her Glasgow Coma Score, which is a three, the worst score that there is, there is no physical reason that she is still unconscious. It's as if she wants to stay unconscious."

"So there's hope," Leo said. "She could wake up."

The doctor sighed. "I'm saying that whatever trauma your wife experienced while she was missing may have traumatized her to the point where she has no will to live." The doctor leaned forward, became kindly, became sympathetic. "I think it may be time to think about disconnecting the life support."

"NO," Leo said adamantly. "Absolutely not. That is not an option."

"Mr. Kimble, I understand your anger and your hurt. Truly I am not made of stone. But we must think about Lily. How she's suffered."

"I am thinking about Lily," he said stubbornly. "And I will not let her go. She loved life so much," his eyes filled with tears as he remembered how beautiful she was in her prom dress, so much a young lady. How she exclaimed softly over the elegant corsage he had gotten her, the classic rose and baby's breath. How he knew at that particular moment, he was destined to be with this woman forever. "I have risked EVERYTHING to find her. No, not Lily…n-n-not letting her go when I just got her back! Pulling the plug is not an option."

"I was not suggesting doing so tonight," the doctor said peaceably. "I said it was something to think about."

"I have thought about it," Leo said. "And it's not happening. Ever."

"Does your wife have a living will?"

"No."

"Is she an organ donor?"

"No."

The doctor sighed. Legally he could do no more. "I just want you to think about it Mr. Kimble. That's all. I don't want any snap decisions."

Leo nodded. "I want every avenue explored. I don't care if we have to explore extreme possibilities. Lily is there. I want to bring her home."

And undo the brainwashing preformed by that bast*rd Fox Mulder. Who was now a fugitive, on the run, in fear of discovery. Ha ha. Ha ha.

"Of course."

Then, Leo waffled a little, but only a little. "And then and only then, when all those avenues are absolutely and completely exhausted… before… if there is no other choice but to turn off the life support… I want to have what's left of her ova taken so we can try for in-vitro fertilization with a surrogate mother. If I can't have Lily, then dammit, I want at least a part of her to live on. "

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

Leo took his leave and returned to Starkweather's bedside. Grasping her limp hand, he whispered desperately "Lily please listen to me now. They want to turn the machines off. They think you're a lost cause. They think you want to stay unconscious. Lily, I promise you. No body is going to ever ever hurt you again. So please, wake up. Please, sweetheart. I spent my life searching for you. Don't go away when I just found you. I won't give up on you."

Leo had ordered that the radio by left on at all time. Right now it was tuned to an adult contemporary station and the disc jockey was playing a request. "You cannot quit me so quickly
Is no hope in you for me
No corner you could squeeze me
But I've got all the time for you love

The space between
The tears we cry is the laughter that keeps us coming back for more
The space between
The wicked lies we tell to keep us safe from the pain…"

That's all it was really. The whole Special Agent Jerilyn Starkweather, MD identity. Wicked lies to keep her safe from the pain.

And Justin Leo was ready to expose it as soon as Lily woke up.