DAYBREAK III: DARKEST HOUR
inspired by: "When the Bough Breaks" by Jennifer 
Frye(LFrye123@aol.com)
written by: Annie Jennings(Auralissa@aol.com)

CHAPTER NINE: AND TIME STANDS STILL

"Jesse, come home
  There's a hole in the bed
  Where we slept
  Now it's growing cold

"Hey, Jesse- your face
  In the place where we lay
  By the hearth, all apart
  It hangs in my heart

"And I'm leaving the light on the stair
  No, I'm not scared
  I wait for you
  Hey, Jesse,
  I'm lonely
  Come home

"Jesse, the floors
  And the boards 
  Recalling your steps
  And I remember, too

"All the pictures are faded
  And shaded in grey
  But I still set a place
  At the table at noon

"And I'm leaving the light on the stair
  No, I'm not scared
  I wait for you
  Hey, Jesse,
  I'm lonely
  Come home

"Jesse, the spread 
  On the bed
  Is like when you left
  I've kept it for you

"All the blues and the greens
  Have been recently cleaned
  And it's seemingly new
  Hey Jess- me and you

"We'll swallow the light on the stairs
  And do up my hair
  And sleep, unaware
  Hey, Jesse, I'm lonely
  Come home..."
--Janis Ian
"Jesse", Stars, 1972

Harley, Vermont
10:00 PM, December 31

He couldn't move his arms. Strapped to a table... he 
couldn't move his arms, his legs, Jesus, his entire body... he 
opened his eyes to see a bright, brilliant light over his face, 
and doctors observing him. 

Mulder tried to speak, but his mouth wouldn't move to 
form the words. His protests and screams stayed in his 
mind, trapped in his thoughts and subconscious.

"He's coming to," a doctor said. A man stepped next to 
Mulder, and Mulder wanted to strike out at the man. The 
man with the cigarette in his mouth. The cigarette-smoking 
man gave Mulder an oily smile. 

"We've been expecting you, Agent Mulder," the man said, 
and Mulder tried to sit up, to do anything, but he was 
utterly helpless. "Now that we have you, the experiment is 
finished. You and your family will die here."

They're weren't dead yet, Mulder thought, relieved. There 
was still hope if they weren't dead yet. They were still 
alive, and he was still alive, and if he could just move...

"I assure you, Agent Mulder, that they will indeed die," the 
man said, and his words held an eerie likeness to Mulder's 
previous thoughts. As though the man knew what he was 
thinking. "You, Agent Scully, Baby X, and about six others, 
are the only ones alive. Nine left."

Nine out of hundreds... nine out of thousands... Jesus 
Christ, how many people had been massacred? What kind 
of bloodshed had happened in this place of death and pain?
 
"And yet, Agent Mulder, they will die in good health. We 
have the cure for the disease. We've had it ever since we 
created the disease. But thanks to your bringing our crimes 
into the public, we are forced to eliminate any and all 
evidence of the project. This was your doing."

No, this all began before I ever even considered telling the 
public, Mulder mentally argued. The cigarette man smiled. 
"It's all over, Agent Mulder. No one here leaves this 
building alive, including the lovely Agent Scully. She's 
being taken care of by a mutual friend. And Skinner, the 
spineless bastard, won't make it tonight, either. Neither will 
you."

Just as Mulder opened his mouth, preparing to call out for 
any form of mercy that could possibly serve him, he passed 
out.

*************************************************


She crept through the building, keeping her voice silent, 
and her footsteps unheard. Things were going well, very 
well. She had only a few places left to go, when she came 
across the sleeping men.

A tall, muscular, stern-faced bald man, dressed all in black 
and soaked to the bone, was strapped to a table. She 
furrowed her brow, and shifted the heavy sack on her back. 
There were still live ones in this place, and she had a duty 
to them to save them as well.

She approached the man, and untied his restraints, and the 
man opened his eyes. She had a mask over her face to keep 
her identity secret, and all the man could see was a tall, 
slim figure, dressed in black and wielding a weapon. 
"You're safe," she murmured, and the man sat up.

"Who are you?" he asked. She shook her head.

"No time. Help the others."

The bald man and the girl took their positions, and the girl 
came across a man that was familiar to her. In sleep, his 
years were taken away from him, and he seemed a child in 
innocence held. His eyes were closed, and his lips parted. 
He was dressed in similar attire to the bald man, and was 
also wet. The man's dark locks clung to his brow, and she 
shook her head, not really surprised to find him there.

"Mulder," she muttered, and untied the unconscious agent. 
He awoke, and she took off her black ski mask, keeping her 
hair covered by the cap she wore under the mask.

"Jesse?" he asked, and she smiled. It felt good to be called 
by her real name. She peeled off the other hat, and her red, 
bobbed hair, fell about her young face. In that instant, 
Mulder realized that Anya had been Jesse that night in the 
club. He had seen that red hair before.

"Fancy meeting you in a place like this," she said, and 
helped the agent to his feet. "I can figure out why you're 
here. She and Christopher were abducted, I know that 
much. I'm also going to guess that cue-ball's in your little 
party, too."

Mulder took Jesse's arm, and swayed a moment, getting his 
bearings. The next words out of his mouth were spoken 
with such a mixture of love, fear, determination, and worry 
that Jesse almost stumbled. "Chris... Dana..." he mumbled, 
and she nodded, putting an arm about his waist and 
bringing a wobbly Mulder to his feet.

"Yes, they're going to be fine," she promised. "How many 
more of you are there?" 

Mulder brought a hand to his head, steadying himself. 
"Nine," he muttered. "Just nine."

Jesse stared at him for a moment, taking in all that he had 
just told her. There were nine of them left. Nine, out of so 
many. "I see."

The agent looked at the bald man and the other man alive. 
The other man was a tall, thin, black man, with dark hazel 
eyes. "Skinner," Mulder called, and the bald man looked 
up. Jesse took it that her assumption was correct. "Let's go."

The black man was Henry Harrison, a veterinarian from 
Los Angeles. "Why am I back in this place?" he asked, and 
Mulder wished that he could give Harrison an answer. 

The trio, led by the black-clothed Jesse, were preparing to 
abandon the room when there were screams from the next 
room that Mulder recognized. "Scully..." he muttered, and 
ran into the room.

She was strapped to a gurney, unable to move, with a tall, 
dark-haired man with a military man burning numbers into 
her thigh. She could only open her mouth and scream, 
scream for her life which she was afraid she would lose. 
The man turned around at the sound of Mulder's footsteps, 
and revealed himself to be Mitchell, the same man who had 
tortured them so badly in West Virginia.

Scully looked up at her partner, and her eyes were full of 
terror. "Mulder!" she cried out, her voice stronger than it 
had ever been before. "Mulder, help!" 

He needed to hear no more. He lunged for Mitchell, taking 
the tattoo needle from him and throwing it across the room. 
He hit the man repeatedly, and Jesse raced in, Skinner and 
Harrison behind her. Thinking quickly, Jesse pulled out her 
gun and threw it to Mulder. He caught it and looked down 
at Mitchell. "Tables are turned, aren't they?" he asked, and 
shot the man in the head.

With Mitchell dead, Mulder stood up and bent over his 
partner. There were only two numbers on her thigh, the 
numbers six and three. He untied her, and swept her up into 
his arms. She thrust her arms around his neck, and the two 
stayed that way, the lace on the edges of her white cotton 
nightgown sleeves tickling the sides of Mulder's face. 
"Mulder," she whispered, and he looked into her face. 
There was color in her cheeks again, and the sores were 
gone. Her hair was fuller, and her eyes were brighter. Her 
voice was clear, and strong, and she was not so thin. She 
seemed to be healthy.

He looked over her, and shook his head. "What happened?" 
he asked.

"They were cataloguing us," she replied, and her eyes were 
once again full of that Scully pride that had often filled her 
eyes before. "Numbering us before they killed us. Mulder, I 
was going to be number 6,309. That's how many of us were 
going to die. That's not even counting the men and the 
children." She took a deep breath, keeping her cool. "They 
cured us before they were going to kill us. I don't know 
why."

Jesse spoke up, walking to Scully, and next to the older 
titian-haired woman, she was a youthful version of the 
agent. "I can tell you my best guess," she said. "They had 
the cure. They needed to get rid of it. The easiest way to do 
so would be to use it on the women. That would also 
eradicate any trace of the disease during an autopsy, so if 
the bodies were found, there would be nothing to prove that 
the women had been ill. They got rid of any evidence that 
there was a disease and a cure."

It was the only logic that made sense. They had blessed the 
women with life before taking it away. A cruel teasing of a 
life that they could never have.

Mulder brought his mouth to hers, and she kissed him back, 
glad to be able to taste his lips upon hers again. A luxury 
that had helped to keep her alive during all of the times 
when she had been sick. The cure had hurt at times, and 
had been painful, but she could always focus her mind on 
memories of her lover.

Skinner watched the agents embrace, and a smile 
reluctantly crossed his face. Mulder had his prize. The 
smile left, realizing that Mulder would still have to get out. 
"The children," Skinner reminded, and Mulder and Scully 
broke apart.

"There's still time," she said. "Mitchell didn't get to them 
yet. There's only one baby left, and they killed the rest of 
the women, except for one."

Mulder helped his partner to her feet, and the cotton 
nightgown flowed around her bare legs. She padded to the 
woman on the gurney next to her, and looked down at the 
sleeping face of Suzanne Brinkley. "They brought her 
here," she told Mulder, and Mulder unstrapped her, 
bringing the mother of two to a sitting position. Suzanne's 
face was still warm and healthy, and she was more 
appropriately dressed in a pair of blue jeans and a silk 
blouse. 

"Agent Mulder?" she questioned, and he nodded.

"We're going to get you out of here," he promised. "We're 
all going to get out of here."

The nursery was abandoned, and Mulder and Skinner made 
their rounds, before Jesse walked to Scully, a sleeping 
Christopher in her arms. "I thought it best not to wake 
him," she whispered. Scully took her son in her arms, 
blessing the fact that she was able to once again.

The corpses of poisoned children were left haphazardly in 
cribs around the room, and Suzanne Brinkley walked to the 
crib in which Baby D, daughter of Suzanne Carol Brinkley 
and Allen Lambert Oliver rested. She brought a shaking 
hand to smooth the baby's auburn curls, and started to cry. 
"I always wanted a daughter," she whispered, and Mulder 
put a hand on her shoulder.

"You still have two sons," he reminded, and she was 
immediately grateful for the man's compassion. 

Jesse put her hand on Mulder's arm. "You have to get out of 
here. Get them all out of here. I have something that I have 
to do." He gave her a questioning look. 

"What's going on, Jesse?" he asked.

"I'm going to blow up the building, that's what I'm going to 
do," she said. "And you have to get them all out of here 
when I do it. There's a boat in the lake. That's how I got 
across. It ought to hold everyone."

Mulder shook his head. "Jesse..."

She gave a small smile. "This will never end, Mulder," she 
whispered. "It's just going to go on and on, them hunting 
you down and plague you until it's over forever. I can't let 
that happen. You have a future with her, and a future with 
your son. I have no future. This is the only thing that I can 
do to ensure that the last of you do have one."

Jesse reached into her bookbag, and pulled out an obsidian 
music box and a journal. She opened up the journal for a 
moment, and scribbled in a last note. "Sign this," she 
ordered, and Mulder obeyed. "You and Scully are now the 
sole heirs to the Jesse Phillips estate. Congrats. Believe it 
or not, I actually had some money from my little business 
excursions. Take these," she said. "This is the box that 
holds all of my memories of my life. This journal has all of 
the evidence and all of the truths of what was done against 
me. They tried to take that away from me, but I have my 
memory. All of the disk locations, and my will is in here."

He took these items, and held them closely. "I can't let you 
do this," he protested. "I'll set the bomb..."

"You don't know how," she said. "I have to do this. I'm 
sorry, Mulder... but this is the only hope for any of us." Her 
eyes grew sad. "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth 
shall make you free..."

She turned to Scully. "Take this, Scully," she murmured, 
and passed the gold, heart-shaped locket that hung about 
her neck to the agent. Scully held the locket in her hand, 
and read the inscription aloud.

"'One Heart, One Soul, For All Eternity'," she murmured, 
and Jesse nodded.

"Joe gave it to me a long time ago," she said, sadly. "And I 
have found it to be true. One heart and soul, made from 
two, will last through out eternity..."

Jesse's eyes turned sad, and the agents took Jesse into their 
arms, holding the youth tight for a moment, comforting the 
woman before she left them forever. "I'll never forget what 
you did for us," Mulder whispered.

"Then make sure that the entire world remembers," she 
whispered back. He released her, and she walked away, her 
red hair bobbing behind her. 

Scully put a hand on his shoulder, and he turned around. 
"We have to get out of this building," he said, his voice 
clipped. "It's going to explode."

*************************************************


Jesse climbed through the air duct, reaching her 
destination. There was a small, hollow shaft where she 
could set up the explosives and not be noticed by any 
security cameras. She would die in that hollow shaft, for 
she could not set the timer without risking the bomb not 
going off. If something went wrong, she would have to be 
there to fix it. 

She went about planting the devices, and hooked the timer 
up to her computer. She set the bomb to go off in twenty 
minutes, giving the men and women just enough time to get 
to safety, and enough time to transmit her message to the 
F.B.I. headquarters. Specifically, to Fox Mulder's computer.

She did not want anything trite, or anything planned. She 
just closed her eyes for a moment, and reflected upon the 
hurt in her soul. She drew up her knees to her chest, and 
tears finally came to her eyes. Oh, but that was true irony, 
for she had thought that she would never cry again. She had 
sworn it, and now, before her death, she would weep.

Then, Jesse hooked up the microphone, and sang.

And Jesse opened her heart, and spoke her last words in 
music. 

"Dear God, please hear us
  Listen to our prayer
  And help us do thy will
  Upon this Earth

"Let our children 
  Suffer war no more
  And let a peaceful world
  Be given birth

"Every hand that holds a sword
  Can hold a baby
  Every heart can learn
  To love

"Lay down your arms
  Begin the journey home
  And join the human family

"Somewhere deep inside a soldoer
  There's a dreamer
  Dreaming of a
  World of peace

"Lay down your arms
  Let time heal every wound
  And love will someday set us free..."

11:59


Mulder took his lover's arm, and led her from the boat. She 
struggled to run, the pine needles sticking into her bare feet 
and the sleeping child tight in her arms. As his watch 
turned from 11:59 to 12:00, the building exploded.

The evacuees were knocked to the ground, Scully and 
Christopher landing on Mulder, and Skinner landing on top 
of Harrison and Suzanne. Mulder sat up, holding his 
partner and their child tightly in his arms. They were safe, 
but the life of a child had expired in that fatal blast.

"Jesse," Scully whispered, and his hand reached up to touch 
her hair in a comforting gesture. The child below him 
opened his eyes, and looked directly at Dana Scully.

"Momma," he said, his voice clear. Scully gasped, and 
Mulder looked down into the eyes of their son. They were 
full of peace, love, and serenity. The spell that the men had 
cast with science and technology had been shattered, and 
Christopher was all right.
 
"Happy New Year, Dana," Mulder whispered. She kissed 
him, long and full, and they sat on the forest ground in their 
embrace while Skinner called for the helicopter. 

Just as the helicopter flew overhead, Mulder opened up the 
journal of Jesse Phillips, and read the last entry, his eyes 
clinging to her last line.   

"My voice will be heard." 

He picked up the pen that had rested in the binding of the 
book, and added the final line in Jesse's life.

"And time stands still."

As the helicopter landed, Mulder opened up the music box. 
The tinkling music of the song, "Memory", played over the 
sound of the helicopter landing, and as they left the place, 
he saluted the lost life of a young girl.

EPILOGUE: AND A NEW DAY WOULD BEGIN

"Midnight, not a sound from the pavement
  Has the moon lost her memory?
  She is smiling alone
  In the lamplight, the withered leaves collect at my feet
  And the wind begins to moan

"Memory, all alone in the moonlight
  I can smile at the old days
  I was beautiful then
  I remember the time I knew what happiness was
  Let the memory live again

"Every street lamp seems to beat
  A fatalistic warning
  Someone mutters and a street lamp gutters
  And soon it will be morning

"Daylight, I must wait for the sunrise
  I must think of a new life
  And I mustn't give in
  When the dawn comes, tonight will be a memory too
  And a new day will begin

"Burnt out ends of smoky days
  The stale cold smell of morning
  A street lamp dies, another night is over
  Another day is dawning

"Touch me, it's so easy to leave me
  All alone with the memory
  Of my days in the sun
  If you touch me, you'll understand what happiness is
  Look, a new day has begun..."
-- "Memory"
       Cats

One year following the death of Jesse Phillips
Washington, DC
3:56 PM, May 3

The sunlight burst through the cotton shaped clouds, 
forming golden haloes all around the party-goers. Waving 
softly in the cool May breeze, azaleas and angel-faced roses 
spotted the scene with their virbant colors and sweet scents. 
A round of applause sounded the small crowd as the happy 
newlyweds appeared.

Fox Mulder walked proudly onto the lawn, his new bride 
Dana on his arm. She graced the scene with a rare smile, 
and he laughed, his velvety chuckle adding more warmth to 
the beauty of the day. "Congratulations, Mrs. Mulder," he 
said, and she just laughed as well, her voice chiming like a 
bell. 

"Congratulations, Fox," she said, and threw her arms 
around his neck, embracing him with her heart as well as 
her limbs.

It seemed hard to believe that only a short while ago, they 
had been apart. In the comfort and solidity of their love, 
they found a wholeness unknown to either one of them 
before. He had been so romantic when he had proposed. He 
had gotten down on one knee, once again bearing that 
angel-faced rose that had come to mean life, freedom, and 
fantasy as well as love and beauty. Pulling out a traditional 
diamond ring, she had pulled out her own small rings.

"Do you remember these?" she asked, and he laughed, 
telling her all that she needed to know. In her small hand 
were the two plastic rings that Mulder had gotten from a 
gumball machine after just finding Christopher.

Now, with a silver band on her finger, she put her arm 
around his waist. Dana was aglow with the joy that entered 
her heart, and she looked the part of the perfect bride. Fox 
was suitably uncomfortable in the tuxedo that Margaret 
Scully had forced him into renting. He had earlier whined 
to his fiancee about it.

"Dana, to be frank, I would rather go see the softer side of 
Sears than wear this thing," he had said. She had stubbornly 
stuck to her guns while being kind and polite.

"Deal with it," she had said, passing him the suit.

Fox rubbed the collar of the cursed tux with mocking 
melodrama. "The kind of torture I go through for you," he 
said, and she kicked him with her elegant white heel.

Margaret Scully approached the couple, smiling broadly. 
"Congratulations," she said, hugging her daughter and 
son-in-law with increasing warmth. "I'm so happy for you."

The newlyweds obligingly returned the embrace, and Dana 
straightened her veil. "Thank you, Mom."

Margaret stepped back, admiring the couple. The radiant 
bride and the dashing groom. And she had thought that she 
would never live to see the day in which Fox Mulder 
settled down and got married, let alone get married to her 
daughter. "The first dance is yours," she said, and Fox put 
his arm around Dana's waist escorting her to the dance 
floor. They had spent a lot of time trying to decide on the 
song, but then found a box of tapes and CDs that had 
belonged to the deceased Jesse Phillips. All of them were 
of her and her band.

The CD started to play, and the couple started to dance to 
the sound of the girl's beautiful voice.

"For all those times you stood by me
  For all the truth that you made me see
  For all the joy you brought to my life
  For all the wrongs that you made right
  For every dream you made come true
  For all the love I found in you
  I'll be forever thankful baby
  You're the one who held me up
  Never let me fall
  You're the one who saw me through
  Through it all

It had been the first time that they had danced since 
Valentine's Day in Charleston, and neither of them had 
forgotten how the music had swept them away from all of 
their troubles and their fears with the simple flow of music. 
Dana looked elegant and healthy in her white lace dress, 
which was cut slim and tight around her shapely legs, 
falling just below her knees. The veil was also remniscent 
of the 1940's, and her red hair was curled and styled. 
Around her neck hung the rose and diamond ring that Fox 
had given her for Christmas.

"You were my strength when I was weak
  You were my voice when I couldn't speak
  You were my eyes when I couldn't see
  You saw the best there was in me
  Lifted me up when I couldn't reach
  You gave me faith cause you believed
  I'm everything I am 
  Because you loved me

"You gave me wings and made me fly
  You touched my hand I could touch the sky
  I lost my faith, you gave it back to me
  You said no star was out of reach
  You stood by me and I stood tall
  I had your love, I had it all
  I'm grateful for each day you gave me
  Maybe I don't know that much
  But I know this much is true
  I was blessed because I was
  Loved by you

Fox looked out beyond the others, at the flashing and 
radiant sun. He kept his hand on the small of his wife's 
slender back, and tilted his head for a moment. Home at 
last, with a family and the woman he loved, he wondered if 
life would ever be the same.

"You were my strength when I was weak
  You were my voice when I couldn't speak
  You were my eyes when I couldn't see
  You saw the best there was in me
  Lifted me up when I couldn't reach
  You gave me faith cause you believed
  I'm everything I am 
  Because you loved me

"You were always there for me
  The tender wind that carried me
  The light in the dark, shining your love into my life
  You've been my inspiration
  Through the lies you were the truth
  My world is a better place because of you

"You were my strength when I was weak
  You were my voice when I couldn't speak
  You were my eyes when I couldn't see
  You saw the best there was in me
  Lifted me up when I couldn't reach
  You gave me faith cause you believed
  I'm everything I am 
  Because you loved me"

The sun smiled down upon the selective wedding party, 
gracing the husband and wife with its allusive touch. 
Perhaps there was some hope in life after all, and happiness 
that lived inside of every man and woman. Hope springs 
eternal, after all, he thought. 


Later that night, after the wedding party was over, and the 
husband and wife sat on the balcony of the expensive hotel, 
Fox sat out on the balcony, looking at the sunset. For a 
moment, the sky was filled with the same shade of indigo 
as Jesse Phillips's eyes had been. He wondered if she was 
happy in that netherworld of death, looking down at the 
two with her family and friends. He chuckled to himself. 
Jesse would have a smart remark for that musing.

Dana smiled, taking his hand. "Fox, I have some news for 
you," she murmured, and he heard the words that he 
thought he would never hear from her. 

"You're going to be a father. The old-fashioned way."

He smiled back, an impish look in his eyes. "Isn't that way 
the most fun way?"

As a response, she kissed him, and he held her tightly, 
keeping her as close to him as possible.

They laid there, happy and contented, with the rest of their 
lives and their children's lives in front of them, and 
watched the sun rise, and a new day break.

THE END(FINALLY, HUH?)

This is the final story in the "Daybreak" trilogy. I hope that 
you have enjoyed it, mes amis, for there will be no more. 
Thank you for your time.