Title: Journey
Author: Susan 
E-mail: susanf34@comcast.net or filesfan34@yahoo.com

Classification: This takes place after the events of 
Requiem, then goes off in a direction completely 
different from the actual show so I guess you would 
consider it to be an alternate universe story.  In
other words, as you read this you need to keep your
mind open to any and all extreme possibilities.:)

Keywords: angst, romance, sexual situations
Rating: PG, chapter eight, rated R
Spoilers: Some references to past episodes from seasons 1-7.
This story occurs several months after Requiem, but has 
nothing whatsoever to do with seasons eight or nine.

Archive: No archive without permission.
Disclaimer: These characters belong to each other, not me.

Author's notes:  Once upon a time in a fanfic galaxy from 
long long ago, I started this story.  The words came quickly 
at first, but then I struggled with it, and so I put it aside.  
Several months later I started working on it again. I struggled 
some more and consequently had to shelf it again.  And so it 
went for the next TWO years.  Then one day not too long ago, 
my muse decided that I'd suffered long enough, and she finally 
gave me the the go-ahead to finish the story.;) It is my hope
that you'll find it worth the wait...

More author's notes at the end.

Summary: After Mulder returns from his abduction, he and 
Scully end up going on a journey they never planned on...
******************************************************************

Journey
by Susan 
~~~~

~~~~~~
chapter one
~~~~~~


February 6, 2001
12:06 am


For six months, I had searched for him.  

For six months I had prayed for him, dreamed about him, 
ached for him.

But now he's holding me in his arms and he's covering 
me with kisses and all I can think of is that I don't
ever want him to let me go.

~~~~~~

She feels so good.

Oh God, she feels good...so soft, so alive.

For months I had thought about her, dreamed about her,
ached for her.

And now I'm actually sitting on her bed kissing her and 
holding her in my arms and all that I can think of is
that I don't ever want to be away from her again.

~~~~~~

"Scully, I know," he said, finally pulling himself from 
our embrace and gently placing his hand on my stomach.  
Putting his other hand on my cheek, he whispered, "I know 
you're carrying our child."

I placed my hand next to his on my belly, and almost as 
if on cue, she began to kick.  "She knows you're here.  
She knows her daddy's home."

"She?" he asked in amazement as he moved his hand all 
around my stomach.

"Yes, a healthy little girl.  She's been waiting to meet 
you," I said, my voice beginning to break.  "She's been 
waiting so long..."  

"I'm sorry, Scully.  I'm so sorry," he said, quickly 
drawing me into his arms again, and this time as he 
held me, there were no kisses.

Only tears.

~~~~~~

1:12 am


It's been an hour since her eyelids finally closed. 

She cried in my arms for so long that exhaustion finally 
overtook her, and she fell asleep, her head resting against 
my chest.

I've been watching her ever since.

It's dark in her bedroom except for the subtle glow of 
the moonlight through the curtains, but I can still see 
the peaceful look on her face, the roundness of her 
stomach, the way she's clutching the bottom of my shirt.

I love her so much.

And even though we've only just met, I love our baby too.

The moment I laid my hand on Scully's stomach, she and 
I formed a connection, an instant bond that I find both 
intriguing and terrifying.

I'd like to think that she can sense that I'm her father 
simply because I am a part of her, but I can't help 
thinking that it's because of something more.  

Something that They did to me.

"Mulder?" Scully said, lifting her head up from my chest 
and rubbing her eyes.  "Are you really here?"

"I'm here," I replied, stroking her hair.  "Go back to 
sleep."

"Need to talk," she said, her voice slurring with sleepiness 
as she laid her head back down and flopped her arm across 
my waist.

"We'll talk in the morning, I promise. Sleep, Scully.
Just sleep," I said softly, moving my hand from her hair 
down to her stomach.

"Don't leave me," she whispered as she slowly closed her 
eyes.

I leaned over and kissed her forehead.  "I'm not going 
anywhere."

~~~~~~

7:42 am


I still can't believe it.

Mulder is back and he's sleeping beside me, his chest 
steadily rising and falling with each breath. 

He looks so beautiful lying there.

When he returned, I feared that he would come back to me 
damaged physically as well as emotionally, yet he looks 
exactly as he did the night before he flew to Oregon all 
those months ago.  

The muscle tone in his arms and chest seems to have been
unaffected, and both his hair and skin look healthy. From
what I can see, there also don't seem to be any scars on 
his face, neck, or arms although he'll need to have a more 
thorough examination done on him at the hospital later.

When he walked into my bedroom last night, all I could 
think about was how relieved I was to have him back and 
how good it felt to finally have his arms around me again, 
but now as I look at him lying there with seemingly nothing 
wrong with him, I find his condition to be a bit unsettling.

Could They have done something to him internally or is it 
actually possible They sent him back completely unharmed?

We have so much to talk about.

~~~~~~

She's been watching me for the past several minutes.  

She thinks that I'm still sleeping, but I know exactly 
when she woke up and when she propped herself up into 
a sitting position so she could check me out.  I could 
feel her, just as I felt the immediate connection to my 
daughter last night. 

The more I think about it, I'm almost positive it's 
because of something They did to me.

If only I could remember what it was...

~~~~~~

As much as I wanted to stay in bed with Mulder, the 
pressure from my very full bladder was telling me 
otherwise.  After lightly brushing my hand against 
his cheek, I quickly slipped out from underneath the 
sheets and headed towards the bathroom.

When I was finished, I grabbed my cell phone and sat 
down at the kitchen table.  I know I should've called 
Skinner immediately upon Mulder's return last night, 
but in all honesty, picking up the phone then was the 
last thing on my mind.

"Scully, what are you doing?" Mulder asked, startling 
me from behind.

"I'm calling Skinner.  He needs to know what's going on. 
He needs to know that you're back."

He sat down beside me at the table and placed his hand 
on my forearm.  "No, not yet.  I don't want anyone to 
know I'm here."

"I don't understand."

"It may not be safe to call him."

"Skinner helped me so much these past six months, and 
I don't know what I would've done if I hadn't had him 
to lean on.  Mulder, I owe it to him to call and let 
him know you're back and that you're okay," I stated 
firmly.  

Mulder abruptly stood up from the table and averted his 
eyes from mine, then quietly said, "I'm not sure I am 
okay, Scully."

~~~~~~

"What do you mean you're not sure you're okay?" Scully 
asked with concern as she stood up from the table and 
walked over to me. "What haven't you told me, Mulder?"

I quickly drew her into my arms and held onto her tightly, 
trying to concentrate on the way her expanding belly felt 
pressed up against me instead of all the things we had yet 
to talk about.  "I'm sorry.  I didn't mean to scare you. 
It's just that I...I'm not really sure what I'm feeling."

"I don't understand," she said as she pulled away from 
my arms. 

"That's just it, Scully.  I don't understand either. I
mean, one minute I'm taken aboard a spaceship traveling
to God knows where for the past six months, and the next
minute I'm dropped off in front of your apartment building
apparently in the same physical condition I was in before
I left...I can't even begin to explain it," I stated 
matter-of-factly.

"Come sit down over here on the couch," she suggested 
as she led me out into the living room. I sat down first, 
then she followed, sitting close enough to me so that our 
thighs were touching. "Talk to me.  Tell me what you're 
feeling."

"I told you, Scully...I'm not sure what it is I feel." I 
leaned back against the couch and closed my eyes, trying 
to gather my thoughts.  

She gently squeezed my leg, then left her hand there. "It's 
okay, Mulder.  Just take your time."

Time.

Six months worth of time.

I know that's how much I lost, yet in my mind it feels 
like I've only been gone a few days. Where the hell did 
all that time go? How could They have taken it away from 
me without me knowing it?  

~~~~~~

He's been sitting there with his eyes closed for awhile 
now. I know he's trying to figure out the best way to 
tell me what's going on without scaring me. 

How could he not know that I'm already scared?

I've been scared since the moment I found out he was 
missing.  And even though he's sitting safely beside me 
now, I still am.

"They didn't hurt me," he quietly stated, finally breaking 
the silence between us.

I let out a sigh of relief and slipped my hand into his.  
"How do you know?"

"They did tests on me, but from what I can remember, they 
weren't physical ones."  He closed his eyes for a moment 
again and licked his lips before continuing. "I kept expecting 
Them to stick tubes in me, cut into my chest, suck things 
from my brain, something, but They mostly just asked me 
lots of questions, studied my facial expressions, watched 
my reactions.  I don't really remember feeling any pain, 
but They hardly ever left me alone, and They never stopped 
watching me."
 
"I'm sorry, Mulder.  It must've been so hard for you," 
I remarked, giving his leg another comforting squeeze. 

"It was," he said so softly I could barely hear him. Then 
he turned towards me and cupped his hands around my face. 
"I thought about you a lot though, Scully...and the baby 
too.  Thinking about how I was going to get back to the 
two of you was what kept me going."

What did he just say?

Last night when he had told me he knew I was pregnant, I 
wasn't really that surprised given the obvious size of my 
stomach, yet now he was essentially sitting there telling 
me that he had known about my pregnancy the entire time 
he was gone. 

How could that be?

"I just knew," he answered before I even had a chance to 
ask him the question. Then he placed his hand on the left 
side of my belly and added, "Just like I know that she's 
about to wake up any minute now and start kicking you...
right here." 

My mouth dropped open.  "How could you possibly know that, 
Mulder?" I asked incredulously as I looked down at where 
he had placed his hand.  

"I just do, Scully.  I don't know how and I don't know why, 
but somehow I feel this connection with her that's unlike 
anything I've ever felt before."

"I can believe that you somehow had a sense of my pregnancy 
while you were gone, Mulder, but there's no way you could 
predict what our baby's about to do and when she's going 
to do it. It's not possible.  It's just not.  Ouch..." I 
blurted out, all of sudden feeling several strong twinges 
inside of me.

Mulder looked down at my stomach, then up at me. "She 
just kicked you, didn't she?"

Without taking my eyes off him, I put my hand beside 
his on the left side of my abdomen and quietly replied, 
"Yes...right here."

~~~~~~

I've seen many facial expressions from Scully over the 
years, but I've never seen one like the one she has on 
her face right now. A mixture of bewilderment, curiosity, 
amazement...

And fear.

"It's okay, Scully," I quickly said, trying to alleviate 
her apprehension about my apparent premonitory skills.  
I removed my hand from her belly. "I didn't mean to upset 
you."

"Mulder, I...I don't know what to say. I don't know what to 
feel.  I don't know how to explain what just happened here.  
How did you know?" she said, the words tumbling out of her 
mouth in an awkward rush.

"Just calm down, Scully," I told her as I helped her lean 
forward so I could rub her back.  

She took a couple of deep breaths, then said, "But how, 
Mulder?   How could you possibly know that our baby was 
about to wake up?  I can't even tell that, and I've been 
carrying her around inside of me for eight months.  How 
is it even possible?"

"I don't know.  It just is," I stated.

Normally she would've jumped all over me for that statement, 
but right now I think she was still in a bit of shock.

I know I was.

When I touched Scully's abdomen for the first time last 
night, I felt an instant connection with our daughter. 
At the time, I had attributed my heightened sensitivity 
to the intensity of the moment, yet I couldn't help 
thinking that maybe there was more to it, that maybe it 
was because of something They had done to me without my 
knowledge.

Now after what just happened, I no longer thought of it 
as a possibility.

It was a certainty.

"I think They did something to me," I stated calmly, 
trying to work out my theories inside my head before 
putting them on the table for her to try and digest.

"What, Mulder? What did They do to you?" she asked 
nervously.

"I'm not sure, but I'm feeling sensations inside of me 
that I never felt before, most of them are coming from 
our daughter...but some of them are coming from you."

She tilted her head to the side and wrinkled her forehead.  
"What kinds of sensations?"

"I don't know how to explain what they feel like. I just 
know that they're there.  I've been feeling them ever 
since last night, and they seem to be getting stronger."

Without taking her eyes off of me, she lifted the bottom 
edge of her shirt and placed my hand on the bare skin of 
her abdomen. "Do you feel them now?"

The instant my fingers touched her flesh, I was hit with 
what felt like several tiny jolts of electricity. I know 
I should've taken my hand away immediately, but something 
was telling me...no, *someone* was telling me that I had 
to keep my hand there.

My throat started to constrict and my pulse quickened and 
I felt like I was going to pass out.  "Oh, my God..." I 
somehow managed to say.

"What is it, Mulder? What's happening? What's going on?" 
asked Scully, her voice becoming more and more panicked 
with each word she said.

I bit my lip and took a deep breath, then turned to her 
and said, "Our daughter just spoke to me."

~~~~~~

"It was incredible, Scully..." he said, his voice filled 
with awe.

He removed his hand from my stomach and pulled the bottom
of my shirt back down.  "I know she's inside of you, but 
I heard her inside of *me*. She was speaking to me, Scully.  
It wasn't very loud, but I heard a voice...our daughter's 
voice."

How could he have possibly heard the voice of unborn fetus?  
A fetus has neither the emotional nor the physical capabilities
to express words.  It's a scientific impossibility...

He took both my wrists in his hands and looked at me with
such intensity I almost had to turn away. "Scully, I know 
you don't believe me, but I know what I felt, and I know 
what I heard.  It was her."

"I want to believe you," I said softly.

"You saw what happened when I put my hand on you.  You 
saw the look on my face. You felt her move inside of you, 
didn't you?" he argued as he pressed his fingers against 
my wrists before releasing them.

"Yes, I saw the way you looked, and yes, I felt some 
movement, but you said it yourself, Mulder.  You told 
me you thought They may have done something to you, that 
They may have somehow manipulated the way you think and 
feel things.  How do you know that the voice you just 
heard was real?"

"I just know."

How could he 'just know'?  How could he be so certain 
when my mind was swimming with nothing but uncertainties? 
And how come he could hear our daughter's voice and I 
couldn't?

But even more importantly, *what* words did he hear her 
say?

"She said a name...her name," Mulder answered before I 
had a chance to open my mouth and ask the question out 
loud.  Then he leaned over, gently kissed my cheek, and 
said, "Anna Claire. Our daughter's name is Anna Claire."



~~~~~~
chapter two
~~~~~~


Anna Claire.

Our child's name is Anna Claire.

I have no idea how she was able to say those words or how 
I was able to hear them, but I did, and now I just made 
the mistake of telling them to Scully.

The moment I said them, her mouth dropped open, her eyes 
glazed over, and she sat so still and erect it looked as
if she had suddenly gone into some sort of trance.

"Are you okay?"  I asked anxiously.  

Nothing.

I grasped her forearm and gently shook her. "Say something, 
Scully."

Finally after what seemed like an eternity, she pushed
my hand off of her arm and leaned back against the couch
cushion.  Then she closed her eyes, pursed her lips, and 
let out a big sigh.

"Come on Scully, talk to me."

Placing her hands on her abdomen, she slowly opened her 
eyes and said, "Anna Claire was my grandmother's name."

Now it was my turn to be surprised.  "What?" I asked,
tilting my head to the side and rubbing my chin.

"Anna Claire was my grandmother's name, on my father's
side," she quietly said. 

"I had no idea," I stated, my mind racing as I tried 
to understand the implications of what she was saying.

"I know you didn't."

I put my arm around her shoulder.  "Well, at least now
I understand why you were so surprised when I told you  
the name.  Geez Scully, when you spaced out on me there, 
you really scared me."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry."  I kissed her on the forehead and
shifted my arm a bit so it felt more comfortable around
her.  Then I chuckled and said, "This whole thing is 
pretty hard to comprehend, even for me." 

"Stop it, Mulder," she said abruptly.

"Stop what?"

"Stop talking to me as if there's nothing wrong," she 
grumbled, quickly standing up and knocking my arm off 
her shoulder.

"Scully, what are you talking about?" 

"I'm talking about you...you and our daughter, all these 
sensations you're having, all the words you're hearing...
none of it makes any sense, and yet here you are acting 
as if there's nothing wrong, that it's completely normal 
for an unborn child to be talking. Do you know how crazy 
this all sounds, Mulder?  A fetus can't talk...it just 
can't!" she shouted, the words coming out of her mouth
in a breathless rush.

What just happened here?

A few moments ago, we were sharing what I thought was 
a wonderful and unbelievably incredible moment with our
child, and now she was spitting out accusations and looking
at me so harshly it made my chest ache.

"Calm down, Scully. It's not good for you to get so upset,"
I said, trying to keep my voice neutral even though my 
chest was feeling tighter with each passing second.

"I don't want to calm down," she retorted with fire in 
her eyes.

"I know you're upset, but you need to calm down.  It's 
not good for you...or the baby."  I stood up from the 
couch and tried to touch her, but she immediately pushed 
my hand away and stepped back.

"How do you know what's good for me and the baby?  Where
were you for the past six months when I was crying my eyes
out for you every night?  Where were you when I was going 
through morning sickness or going through test after test 
trying to determine if our daughter was healthy?  Where
were you, Mulder?" she lashed out, her fists clenching.

"You know where I was," I replied matter-of-factly.

"Do I?  You've told me next to nothing about where you
were or what They did to you.  Instead you come home and
start spouting off theories about how you can *feel* our
daughter and how you can *hear* her talking to you...and 
then, then you tell me that her name is exactly the same 
as my grandmother's. What the hell am I supposed to think 
about that?!" she said, her voice burning with anger and
frustration.

"I know what I heard, Scully," I stated, trying to keep
my voice low and in control.

"You mean, what you *think* you heard." 

She pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes 
for a moment, carefully contemplating what she was going 
to say next.  After several seconds of silence, she 
finally looked up at me and calmly said, "I should've 
called Skinner the moment you showed up last night, and 
we should've taken you to the doctor *immediately*. None 
of this is right, Mulder, and it's my own damn fault for 
not doing something about it sooner."

"I don't want you to do anything," I said softly.

"Mulder, you need to see a doctor.  You need to have an 
MRI done."

"No doctors, no Skinner...I told you it wasn't safe."

"I'm not going to take no for an answer, Mulder.  Now 
you need to see a doctor, and I'm going to drive you 
there right now," she insisted.

I took another step closer to her and cautiously put my 
hand on her cheek.  "Scully, you don't understand."

"What don't I understand, Mulder? What are you not telling 
me?"

I swallowed the lump in my throat, then nervously replied, 
"I can't go to a doctor."

"Why not?" she asked, both her face and voice suddenly 
filled with concern.

"Because if I do, They'll take me again."

~~~~~~

In the early weeks of my pregnancy, having dizzy spells 
was a regular occurrence, but since my fifth month, I 
haven't had a single one.

That is, until now.

The room began to spin and my knees began to collapse,
but instead of reaching out and trying to hold onto
something so I wouldn't fall, I instinctively reached       
for my abdomen, wrapping both my arms around our unborn
daughter.

I remember nothing after that.

"Scully, can you hear me?  Wake up..." I heard Mulder's 
muffled voice say.  "Come on, open your eyes, Scully."

Hearing my name, I slowly opened my eyelids and tried to
focus on my surroundings. I was lying on the couch, and
Mulder was on his knees beside me with one hand on my
cheek and the other on my stomach.

"Hey you...welcome back," said Mulder, his voice sounding
a bit shaky. 

"What happened?" I asked, trying to raise myself up into
a more comfortable position.

"Lie still, Scully.  You had a bad dizzy spell and passed
out.  You probably shouldn't move for awhile," he stated, 
gently pushing my shoulders so I couldn't sit up all the 
way.  "I'm going to go get you some water.  Just relax,  
and I'll be right back."

As I closed my eyes and listened to the sound of his 
footsteps walking around the kitchen, everything we'd 
been talking about before I got so dizzy slowly seeped 
its way back into my memory. "Mulder, get in here," I 
called out.

"What is it, Scully?  Are you okay?" he asked, hurrying 
over and getting down on his knees beside me again. "Are 
you feeling dizzy again?"

"I remember now."  I slowly raised my cumbersome body up 
into a sitting position. "I remember what happened before 
I passed out.  We need to talk, Mulder."

His body instantly stiffened, and he looked down at the 
floor so he wouldn't have to look at me.

"Look at me," I said, grabbing his shirt sleeve and 
tugging him towards me. "Sit down, and tell me what 
you meant earlier when you said They'd take you again 
if you saw a doctor. Tell me *now*."

"Scully, you just passed out. The last thing you should 
be doing is talking about something that will only upset 
you. We'll discuss it later, after you've rested," he 
suggested, clearly trying to avoid the issue at hand.

"I'm fine now, and I want to discuss this now," I insisted,
taking his hand and clasping both my hands around it.
"Mulder, I want to help you, but I can't if I don't know 
what's going on.  I know I was angry with you before and 
angry with myself for not insisting that you go see a 
doctor sooner, but I don't want to be angry anymore. I 
just want to make sure you're okay...please, Mulder, tell 
me."

He bit his bottom lip and nervously rubbed the side of 
his pant leg, then finally said, "Right before They 
released me, They told me that if I tried to go see a 
doctor or have any kind of tests run on me, They would 
take me away again...and I would not return."

"Mulder, I..."

"Listen to me, Scully," he interrupted.  Then he leaned 
in closer to me so our faces were only inches apart.  "I 
don't remember much of what happened to me there, but I 
do remember what They said to me and the *way* that They 
said it.  There is no doubt in my mind that They'd take 
me away again if I go anywhere near a doctor or a hospital."

"But I don't understand.  If They're still so interested
in what you're doing, why return you at all?" 

"I don't know, but I think it has something to do with 
Anna and my connection to her," he replied, cupping his
hands around the sides of my abdomen. 

Almost immediately, our daughter responded to his touch, 
first rolling to one side, then to the other. "Can you 
feel that, Scully?" he asked, his face no longer filled 
with the fear I saw just moments ago, but with a sense 
of wonder that nearly took my breath away. 

"Yes, I can," I answered as I watched him gently stroke 
my belly. 

"I can't risk being taken again. I just can't. No doctors, 
Scully."

As hard as it was for me to accept, I knew he was right. 
We couldn't risk three lives for one trip to the hospital.

We just couldn't.

Putting my arms around him and laying my head against 
his shoulder, I quietly said, "Okay Mulder, no doctors."

~~~~~~

"I know this isn't easy for you to agree to, but it's 
for the best, Scully.  They've already taken me away 
from you and Anna once.  I refuse to give Them a reason 
to take me again," I stated, gently stroking her hair.

She lifted her head up off my shoulder and looked at me, 
her forehead crinkled with worry. "Are you really okay, 
Mulder?"

"Actually, I feel fine. Whatever They did to me, I don't
feel any physical effects from it.  From what I can tell, 
I don't have any actual marks on my body either."

She sat straight up on the couch, held up my arm and 
started examining it. "Well, I think you should let me 
take a look at you. There are some places on your body 
that I can see much better than you can."

"Are you sure you're up to it?  I mean, after your bad 
dizzy spell, and after all the things I've just told 
you, are you sure this is what you should be doing?"

"I *know* it's what I should be doing.  Actually, it's 
what I should've done last night.  Now take your shirt 
off and sit still," she insisted.

"Okay," I agreed, slipping my shirt up over my head and 
dropping it on the coffee table.  Watching her as she 
scanned over my shoulders and chest, I could see in her 
eyes how much she needed to do this.

In all honesty, I needed it too.

Last night while she was sleeping, I had gone into the 
bathroom, stripped off all my clothes, and examined 
myself as thoroughly as I could. I didn't find anything, 
but then again, I didn't expect to.

If there's one thing I took away from my experience of 
being with Them, it's that They're intelligent...much 
more intelligent than we are.  If They actually did 
put something inside of me to give me the ability to 
communicate with Anna, I don't think we'll be able to 
find it, much less understand it.

"I think I could do a more thorough exam on you if you 
lie down on the bed, Mulder. I'd like you to go get my 
medical bag and a flashlight.  They're in the kitchen," 
she said, her voice disrupting my thoughts.

"Hmmm....what'd you say?" I asked, rubbing my forehead.

"The lighting in here isn't very good, and I don't have 
much room to work with.  I'd like you to take off the 
rest of your clothes and lie down on the bed so I can 
get a better look." 

She slowly ran her hand over my bare chest down to the 
snap on my jeans, then said,  "I promise I'll be gentle 
if you'll promise to let me look over every inch of you."

Without taking my eyes off her, I moved her hand from the 
outside of my jeans and guided it inside, then whispered, 
"Every inch..."

~~~~~~

Did he just say what I think he said?

Surely, he's not thinking about sex at a time like this.
After all he's been through, what we've both been through, 
becoming intimate is the last thing we should be thinking 
about.

Isn't it?

Yet, here we are on the couch...me with my hand down his 
pants, and him with a very satisfied grin on his face.

"Mulder!" I yelped, jerking my hand out of his jeans so 
quickly that the snap and half of the zipper popped open.

"If I recall correctly, Scully, you said you wanted to 
examine every inch of me. I was just making things a 
little easier for you."

"I also said I wanted to do it in the bedroom, not here."

"Well, now we're talkin'...let's go," he suggested, standing
up from the couch. 

Looking up at him standing in front of me with his shirt 
off and his pants hanging halfway open, it was all I could 
do to breathe, let alone speak.  "But Mulder, I...we..." 
I said, nervously stumbling over my words.

Seeing my obvious discomfort, he quickly sat back down 
and turned towards me. "I'm sorry, Scully.  I didn't mean 
to get so carried away.  It's just that it's been so long 
since you touched me like that, and it felt so damn good...
and well, I thought..." he said, stumbling over his words 
the same way that I had just done.

I turned towards him and brushed my fingertips over his 
cheek.  "Mulder, it's okay.  You didn't do anything wrong. 
If you want to know the truth, I thought it felt good too.  
*You* felt good."  Softly tracing my finger around his 
lips, I added, "I missed being close to you...kissing you...
touching you like this. I'm just so glad to have you back."

"I missed you too, Scully," he said, putting his arms
around me and nuzzling his head against my neck. 

Ahhh, this is nice...

He sprinkled several soft kisses on the side of my neck 
and my shoulders.  "You're so warm."

Oh my...

Then he began massaging my back, gently kneading my tired 
muscles with his knuckles.  "God, you feel good."

Oh yeah, that's what I'm feeling all right...

The next thing I knew, his fingers were running through 
my hair, and his mouth was pressing against mine, and
his tongue kept probing deeper and deeper...

"Mulder?" I mumbled, somehow managing to tear my mouth 
away from his for a moment.

"Hmmmm?" he replied, peppering the skin along my jaw line 
with tiny kisses.

"Let's go in the bedroom."

~~~~~~

Did she just say what I thought she said?

Surely, she's not suggesting what I think she is.  With
all that we have to worry about, not to mention the fact
that she's eight months pregnant, having sex is the last 
thing we should be doing. 

Isn't it?

"We shouldn't be doing this," I said, unbuttoning the
top two buttons on her blouse and placing a trail of
kisses along her collarbone.

Her fingernails dug into my shoulders as she tilted her
head back and let out a long contented sigh.  "It's okay, 
Mulder," she said breathlessly.

I unbuttoned two more buttons. "I don't want to hurt you."

Her hand moved over to my chest, then down to my belly.
"You won't hurt me.  We just have to take things slow."

The next thing I felt was her hand back down in my now 
completely unzipped jeans.

Oh, God...

"Ah Scully, I think I'm past the point of trying to take
things slow," I gasped as she began to slowly stroke me.

"Do you want me to stop?" she asked, stopping her movement
for a moment, yet still holding onto me.

What'd she just say?  Something about stopping?  

The sensation of her hand on me, and the heat her body was 
generating was making me feel light-headed, not to mention
hearing-impaired.  "What did you say, Scully?" I blurted 
out.

Looking up at me with smoky eyes and flushed cheeks, she
asked, "Are you okay with this?  Do you want me to stop?"

"I want what you want." 

Of course, what I really wanted was to be inside her right
this instant, but I had to make sure that it was what she 
wanted too.  After all, there wasn't just the two of us to 
think about.  

There was also the baby.

Would having intercourse hurt Anna?  Would it make Scully
start having contractions?

The last thing I wanted to do was hurt either one of them.

"It's safe, Mulder," she said, answering my question before
I had a chance to ask it. Then she pulled her hand out of 
my now extremely tight pants and smiled.  "I'll have to be 
on top though.  Is that going to be a problem?"

Let me see.

Would having a very pregnant Scully straddling me in the 
throes of passion be a problem?

Ah, I don't think so.

Taking her hand in mine, I helped her up from the couch,
then kissed her on the cheek and said, "Let's go get
reacquainted."



~~~~~~
chapter three
~~~~~~


9:12 am


I've been crying for the past fifteen minutes.

I could blame it on my pregnancy hormones, but I know
they're not responsible for the tears slipping down my
cheeks.

It's Mulder.

He's the one who's making me cry.

He's the one who just made love to me, who held me and
told me many times how much he wanted me.

He's the one who gently caressed me and whispered my name
as I slowly took him inside of me.

He's the one who made me feel alive and safe and beautiful.

He's the one I love, the man who finally came back to me
after all these months, and is now peacefully sleeping
beside me.

~~~~~~

I know she's crying.

Actually, she has been for a while, but I know that it's
what she needs to do.

And so I let her.

She thinks I'm sleeping, and although I'm feeling really
relaxed after our lovemaking session, I'm not ready to
give into my exhaustion just yet.

I want to make sure she's okay, and so I wait.

And I listen.

~~~~~~

I've got to stop this.

I can't let him hear me crying like this.  If he does,
he'll want to comfort me and take care of me, and right
now I'm not the one who needs to be taken care of.

Something was done to him, and I have to find out what
it was.

Leaning over him, I slowly pulled back the top part of
the blanket, exposing his right shoulder and part of his
back.  As lightly as I could, I ran my fingers over his
bare skin, feeling for bumps, cuts, knots, anything...

His skin was so smooth and taut, and I couldn't help but
smile thinking of how that same skin was all hot and slick
and pressed against my own skin just minutes ago.

Finding nothing unusual, I gently picked up his hand and
looked at each of his long fingers, then his palm.  Upon
finding nothing out of the ordinary there either, I scooted
even closer to him and leaned over to get a better look at
the right side of his head and neck.

Pressing two of my fingers along the base of his neck, I
felt for an implant, then breathed a huge sigh of relief
when the only thing I felt was smooth skin and several tiny
hairs.

I wanted to run my fingers through his hair so I could
check his scalp as well, but being the light sleeper that
he is, I knew that if I tried that it would wake him, and
I didn't want that.

Besides I was starting to feel rather sleepy myself.

After touching the skin on his neck one more time for
reassurance, I laid my head down on the pillow next to
his and closed my eyes, then let the slow rhythm of his
breathing lull me to sleep.

~~~~~~

She's finally sleeping now.

I can tell by the sound of her breathing and the way her
arms are twitching. I know how badly she wants to figure
out what's going on with me and make sure I'm okay, but
right now rest is what she really needs.

And maybe it's time for me to get some rest too.

Carefully rolling myself over so my chest was pressed up
against her back, I put my arm around her and rested my
hand on her abdomen, letting the soft rolling movements
of our daughter lead me to sleep.

~~~~~~

10:27 am


I was awakened by a flurry of kicks and a rolling sensation
deeper and stronger than anything I'd ever felt before.

"Ummpphh....."I groaned, tightly squeezing my eyes and
wrapping my arms around my abdomen.

The next thing I knew Mulder's warm hand was on my face,
rubbing my cheek and brushing some loose hair off my
forehead. "It's okay, Scully. Just relax, and take some
deep breaths," he said in a soothing voice.

Pressing my hands against the sides of my stomach, I
immediately tried to do what he told me to, breathing
in through my nose and exhaling through my mouth.

"That's it, Scully.  Just breathe.  Breathe..."

"What's happening, Mulder?" I gasped in between breaths.

"She's talking," he said calmly, helping me up into a
sitting position.

What'd he just say? Who's talking? What the hell's going
on?

My mind was racing, my stomach was doing flip-flops, the
room was spinning, and if I didn't get to the bathroom
in two seconds...

"I'm gonna... be...sick...I...need...to go...." I said,
tripping over my words and trying to get myself out of
bed as fast as I could.

Mulder jumped out of bed and hurried over to my side,
then grabbed my arm to keep me steady. "Let me help you."

"You can help me by getting out of my way," I snapped,
pushing his arm away.  Cupping one hand over my mouth
and using the other one to hold onto the wall for balance,
I made my way to the bathroom.  Dropping to my knees, I
then proceeded to lose what felt like an entire seven
course meal.

"Oh God...it hurts," I moaned, clutching my constantly
moving stomach.

Mulder got down on his knees beside me and wiped my
forehead with a wet washcloth. "It's okay, Scully.  I
think the worst is over."

"It's not okay. Something's wrong, Mulder.  Something's
wrong with my baby!" I cried out, wildly grabbing at him.

Pulling me into his arms and stroking my hair, he softly
said, "Anna's fine.  She's not in pain, Scully."

"You don't know what she's feeling, and you damn well
don't know what I'm feeling.  Something's not right,
Mulder," I said with shaky hands and a shaky voice.

Still stroking my hair, he rested his chin on my head
and put his left hand on my uncomfortable belly. Then
he began to stroke it too, rubbing it in small clockwise
circles. "Shhh...shhh...just breathe...breathe, Scully."

I don't know if it was the calm certainty I heard in his
words or the constant and gentle movement of his hand,
but I began to feel myself slowly relax.

"That's good, Scully.  Just keep breathing like that."
He kissed me on the head.  "Let me take care of you."

And for several minutes, I did just that, letting his
reassuring touch and gentle words flow through my entire
body.

When I finally felt good enough to get up off the floor,
I braced my hands on the edge of the bathroom counter
and tried to shift my body into a more upright position
so I could stand more easily. "Mulder, could you help me
get up?"

No answer.

"Mulder, I need some help here.  Mulder?"

Still no answer.

Being careful not to twist my body too fast, I turned
around and looked up at his face.

His cheeks were flushed, his forehead was sweating, and
his eyes looked glazed over, as if he were hypnotized.
"Mulder?"

He quickly put his finger over my lips and closed his
eyes.  "Shhh...don't say anything."

Immediately pulling his hand away from my mouth, I reached
up and touched his cheek. It was burning. "Mulder, you're
scaring me. What's going on?"

"She's been trying to talk to me," he replied, his eyes
still closed.

"Who's talking to you?" I asked, even though I was pretty
sure I already knew the answer to my question.

He opened his eyes and leaned towards me.  "It's Anna.
She's upset, and she's been trying to tell me why."

"What?" I asked with disbelief.

"That's why she's been moving around inside of you so
much. Don't you see? She's been trying to get my attention,
trying to make me understand," he said, his voice rising
with each word.

Okay, now he was really scaring me.

"No Mulder, I don't see. I don't understand what the hell
you're talking about. What's going on?" I asked frantically.

"Anna's been trying to tell me something, something important.
I've been trying to hear her voice ever since I woke up, but
I couldn't...not until just now," he said, nervously rubbing
his forehead.

"What?  What is it, Mulder?  What did she say?" I asked,
anxiously gripping the edge of the bathroom counter again
to brace myself for his answer.

He put both his hands on my shoulders and leaned in even
closer to my face, then whispered, "They're coming."

~~~~~~

If I didn't know better, I'd say she was in shock, but
I know that what she's really doing is trying to process
what I've just told her.

Actually, that's what I've been trying to do too.

It's not every day that your unborn daughter speaks to
you from her mother's womb and tells you the thing you
most fear.

Just moments ago, in a voice that was unmistakably clear,
I heard Anna tell me that They're coming back.

And I believe her.

~~~~~~

This can't be happening.

Surely, I didn't just hear Mulder say what I think he
said. There's no way They can be coming here. Not now,
not when I've just gotten him back after all these
months.

He told me that it was our daughter who spoke the words
to him, but I don't see how it could be true.

How could she possibly know and understand something like
that?

I know he said she spoke to him last night and told him
her name, but I'm still having a really difficult time
wrapping my brain around that fact, let alone this new
development.

I don't know what to believe anymore.

~~~~~~

"Listen to me, Scully," I softly said, trying to break
her concentration as gently as I could.

She looked at me blankly. "I don't know if I can," she
said so quietly I almost couldn't hear her.

I took both her hands in mine. "I know that this is a
lot for you to take in right now, but I know what I
heard, and I believe it.  What I need is for you to
believe it too."

"Do you realize what you're asking of me, Mulder?  Do
you really expect me to believe that our unborn daughter
knows something about Them coming here and that she can
communicate her fears with you?"

How could she even ask me that after what happened last
night?

She saw how Anna communicated with me, how she told me
her name.  She *felt* it, I know she did, and I know
she felt it a little while ago too.

"Look Scully, I don't expect you to understand this. I
sure as hell don't, but I do expect you to believe it.
I mean, how can you not?  You felt what was happening
to your body before. You know how uncomfortable you were,
how uncomfortable Anna was. You know that what I'm saying
is true.  You also know that you're afraid to admit it."

She looked down at her abdomen and placed our still
clasped hands on top of it. Then she took a deep breath
and said, "You're right.  I am afraid."

I released my hands from hers and tilted her chin up
with my index finger so she had to look at me.  "I'm
afraid too, Scully, but we'll figure this all out, we
will," I said reassuringly.

"But how?"

"We have to trust each other...and we have to trust our
daughter.  Somehow she knows we're in danger.  I don't
claim to know how or why, but she knows."

"Ouch!" Scully cried out, suddenly grabbing her stomach
with one hand and my shirt with the other.

"What is it?" I asked, trying to steady her by putting
my arm around her back.

Scully's eyes widened. "She just kicked me...really hard.
She's never kicked me like that before. It was almost as
if she did it deliberately."

"Maybe she did," I suggested. "Maybe she's trying to tell
us something else." I removed my hand from Scully's back
and put it on her belly, then closed my eyes.

"What are you doing?" she asked, her voice a mixture of
both annoyance and curiosity.

"Listening."

"Mulder..."

I opened my eyes just long enough to locate Scully's
right hand and place it alongside mine on top of her
stomach.  "Close your eyes, Scully.  Close your eyes
and believe."

"But Mulder, I..."

"Shhhh, just listen."

For the next minute, we sat in silence, our hands resting
side by side over our child, our minds listening...

And then it began.

Her movement was slow at first, a sort of rocking back
and forth motion, and then gradually she became more
intense, methodically punching her tiny fists and kicking
her strong legs against Scully's stomach as if she was 
typing out some kind of message.

"Do you feel that?" whispered Scully in amazement.

"Yes, I do," I whispered back.

"It's incredible, Mulder."

"I know.  Keep listening."

"Oh my God," Scully blurted out just moments later,
squeezing my arm so hard I thought her fingernails
were going to break right through my skin.

My eyes jerked open, and I immediately looked over at
her.  Her eyes were staring straight ahead, her face
was pale, and her mouth was quivering.  "Are you okay,
Scully?"

She bowed her head and covered her face. "I...don't...I
don't believe this," she mumbled into her hands.

I bent down over her and pulled her hands away from her
face. "You heard her, didn't you?  You heard Anna's
voice."

With tears in her eyes, she slowly looked up at me and
replied, "Yes."

~~~~~~

I am a scientist.

As such, I sift through information, trying to come up
with various theories as to how and why certain things
happen.

I am also a mother.

And as such, it's my job to love and accept everything
about my child no matter how difficult it may be at 
times.

Not a minute ago, I actually heard my daughter speak 
to me from *inside* of my womb.

How did it happen? How was I able to hear her voice?

And how can I possibly reconcile both what I *know* as a
scientist and what I *feel* as a mother?

I honestly don't know, but I do know what I heard, and
it has shaken me to the core.

"Scully?"

"Yeah," I softly answered, wiping the moisture away from
my eyes.

"Are you okay?"

Looking at his chest instead of his eyes and clutching
the bottom edge of my shirt, I stammered, "Is this real?"

"It's real, Scully."

"But how, how is it possible?" I asked, still trying to
compose myself.

"It's possible because you *believed* it was," he stated
with a calm certainty that both frightened me and intrigued
me.

"It's not that simple, Mulder. It can't be," I weakly
argued.

"It's always been that simple, Scully, don't you know
that? Your mind is a powerful thing, it always has been,
but you've been afraid to let it imagine, to let it take
you deep inside yourself...that is, until now."

He looked at me intently, his eyes dark and filled with
wonder. "Scully, you let yourself believe, and because of
it, you were able to experience something truly incredible."

I looked down at my belly, then back at him. "She really
spoke to us, didn't she?"

"Yes."

"I understood every word she said," I said quietly, looking
down at my well-rounded stomach again and cradling it in
my arms.

"So did I," he said, wrapping me in his embrace and softly
kissing my forehead, "but everything's going to be fine,
Scully. We're going to be okay."

I lifted my head from his chest. "Are we, Mulder? How are
we going to be okay, knowing that They're coming and that
They probably want to take you back?" I asked, my voice
straining with each word.

He cupped my face in his hands and looked at me with an
expression so intense I almost had to look away. "You
know what we have to do, Scully."

Then he quickly pulled me into his arms again, holding 
me so close to his body, I could actually feel his heart 
pounding against my chest.  "We have to do what Anna 
told us to do.  We have to get out of here as soon as 
possible."



~~~~~~
chapter four
~~~~~~


Two hours later


When I was gone all those months, all I could think about
was how much I wanted to get back home and to be with
Scully.

I thought about how I would take her in my arms when I
first saw her and how we would celebrate the creation 
of the baby she's carrying inside of her.

And I thought that maybe, just maybe after things settled 
down, we could begin to live some kind of life approaching 
normal.

I was so wrong.

I haven't even been back 24 hours, and our lives have been 
completely turned upside down. Instead of celebrating my 
return and the impending birth of our child, we're packing 
up as many things as we can and making arrangements to 
leave everyone and everything we love behind.

And I don't know if we'll ever be back.

~~~~~~

Last night, the man I love finally came home after being 
gone for nearly six months.

We talked and held each other, and shared in the miracle 
of the child we created, and I thought that maybe, just 
maybe once we both got readjusted to everything, we could 
have at least some sense of normalcy and stability in our 
lives. 

I was so wrong.

At approximately 3:00 this afternoon, Mulder and I will 
drive away from my family, our friends, our jobs, and 
the life we've shared here for the past eight years, all 
because of nine words.

Nine words spoken to us by our own unborn child:

"Get out of here as soon as you can."

~~~~~~

"Are you sure you've got everything you want to take,
Scully?" I hastily asked after putting what I presumed 
to be the last of our supplies into the trunk of the 
car.

"No," she quietly answered, stretching her neck and 
pressing her hands against her lower back.  "I'm not 
sure about anything, Mulder."

Stepping closer to her, I replaced her hands with mine
and began to massage her aching back. "We have to do
this, Scully.  You know that, don't you?"

"But my mother, our jobs, Skinner...we can't just leave 
like this. It's not right," she replied, her eyes beginning 
to fill with tears.

Taking her in my arms, I softly said, "No, it's not, 
but it's also not right for us to just sit around here
and wait for Them to come back and take me again...or 
you, for that matter.  I won't risk losing you, not when
I just found my way back to you. And I won't risk losing
Anna either.  I just won't." 

Her body trembled in my embrace, and I could feel the
dampness from her tears begin to soak through my shirt,
but as much as I wanted to stand there and comfort her
and tell her that everything was going to be okay, I
knew that we had to get moving.  

For the past fifteen minutes, I'd been feeling the oddest
sensations, not really premonitions, but feelings deep 
inside my gut that were telling me that we had get out 
of here, and it had to be now.

Holding Scully as close as I was, I was also picking 
up some strong sensations from Anna. I couldn't actually 
feel her rolling around in Scully's stomach, but I could 
sense her distress.

And it was getting stronger with each passing minute.

Lifting Scully's head off my chest, I cupped her face in 
my hands and kissed her on the forehead. "We have to go, 
Scully.  There's no other way."

"My mother's going to be so worried, Mulder.  She's not
going to understand.  Damn it, *I* don't understand,"
she said, wiping her face with the back of her hand.

"Listen to me.  I know this is hard, and I know it's
not something we planned on, but we have to do this. 
We have to get out of here.  We have to," I insisted.

At the sound of my words, Anna suddenly became even more 
agitated, making my head feel dizzy and my legs unsteady.  
Not wanting to upset Scully more than she already was by 
telling her what was happening to me, I leaned in closer 
to her face and looked deeply into her eyes, hoping that 
she could see the strong sense of urgency I was feeling.

"Scully, we have to go.  We have to go *now*," I insisted
again, grabbing onto the kitchen counter to steady myself. 
Just then, a sharp jolt of pain tore through the side of 
my head, hitting me with such force, it knocked me to the 
floor.

"Mulder! What's happening?! Say something...Mulder!"  I
heard Scully shout, her words muffled. Grabbing the sides 
of my head, I tried to concentrate on the sound of her 
voice, but all I could hear was Anna's voice saying over 
and over again, "They're coming...They're coming...They're 
coming..."

And then everything went black.

~~~~~~

"Mulder, Mulder, can you hear me?" I frantically asked
as I bent down beside him. "Mulder, talk to me!"

His face was pale, his lips pursed, and his eyes halfway
closed, and although he appeared to have no injuries from 
his fall to the floor, it was obvious that he was in pain.

Lightly hitting his cheek with the back of my hand, I
cried, "Come on, Mulder.  Look at me, and tell me what's
happening to you."

He rolled over on his back and mumbled, "We have to go...
we have to go...They're coming...They're coming..."

I was about to take his pulse when all of a sudden, his 
eyes flew wide open and his body spasmed as if someone had 
just given him a shock. Looking at me with panic in his 
eyes, he roughly grabbed my arms and said, "They're getting 
closer. I can feel Them, and so can Anna. We gotta get out 
of here, Scully."

Normally I would've questioned such an implausible statement, 
but after what I myself experienced this morning with Anna 
and the fear and panic I saw in his eyes, I had no doubt 
that what he was saying was true.

We had to get out of here, and we had to do it NOW.

"Come on, Mulder, let me help you up." Hanging onto the
counter, I tried to quickly lift my lumbering body up 
off the floor, but before I even got halfway to a standing 
position, he was already upright, taking hold of my arm 
and helping *me* up.  

Grabbing my hand, he yanked me through the kitchen, then 
the living room, hastily picking up a duffel bag and some
towels and a blanket I had left on the couch along the way. 
Barely able to keep my balance or catch my breath as he 
dragged me along, I awkwardly slammed the door shut, then 
rushed down the steps with him out to the car.

Swiftly ushering me over to the passenger side of the car, 
he opened the door and started to push me inside.  "No,
Mulder, you're not driving," I said firmly, planting my 
feet on the ground and bracing one hand on the roof of
the car so he couldn't push me all the way in.

He pressed down on my shoulder.  "Come on, Scully, get 
in the car.  There's no time to argue," he insisted.  

"Damn it, Mulder, you were just passed out on my floor.
You are NOT driving.  Now move out of my way and give me
the keys," I said brusquely, grabbing them out of his
hand before he had a chance to argue with me anymore.

Knowing that I was right, yet clearly irritated with me
because of it, he grumbled, "Fine," and reluctantly 
climbed into the car as I hurried over to the driver's 
side.

"Hurry up, Scully," he commanded as he tugged at my arm 
and dragged me down inside the car the moment I opened 
the door.  "Come on, Scully, start the car," he urged, 
his voice becoming increasingly panicked.  "Start the 
car now, damn it!" he shouted, pointing out the back 
window at the dark blue car that was barreling around 
the corner about two blocks behind us.

Turning on the engine, I peeled out of my parking space 
and took a sharp right turn at the first corner, then
weaved my way through several streets, blowing through
one stop sign after another.  Anna wildly kicked and
punched at my stomach, and what little food I had left
inside after vomiting this morning began to make its way
up into my throat, but I forced myself to ignore it and 
kept on driving, taking two more right turns, then a left 
until I was finally able to pull up onto the highway. 

"Is he still behind us?" I asked in a shaky voice, holding
onto the steering wheel so tightly that my fingernails 
were cutting into my palms.  Anna was still moving around 
a lot, but the nausea that was so intense before was now 
gradually subsiding.

Mulder turned around and scanned the three lanes of 
traffic behind us.  "You're clear.  I don't see anyone 
that looks suspicious."  Letting out a sigh of relief, 
he put his hand over my fingers and tried to loosen my 
grip on the wheel a bit.  "You did good, Scully. I think 
we're safe now."

"Are we, Mulder?" I snapped, jerking my hand away from
his.  "When are we ever going to be safe?" 

"Scully, I...I'm..." he stuttered.

"You're what?" I lashed out, trying to stay focused on 
the road, yet also watching him out of the corner of my 
eye.

Cautiously placing his hand on my thigh, he hesitantly 
replied, "I'm sorry." Then just as carefully as he had 
put his hand on my leg, he slowly took it off, and turned 
away from me towards the window. "I'm sorry for everything," 
he mumbled, rubbing his fingers back and forth along the 
window ledge.

As scared and angry as I was feeling right now, I knew
that none of this was his fault.  He didn't know any of
this was going to happen, but there he was, sitting beside
me, the layers of guilt practically piling up on top of
him right before my eyes. 

Feeling a little more at ease now that we were getting
further away from the city traffic, I loosened my hands
on the steering wheel and set the car on cruise control.
Then resting my right elbow on the armrest between us, I
placed my palm up, hoping that he'd take my hand.

He didn't.

"You have nothing to apologize for, Mulder...nothing,"
I softly said, moving my hand over to his forearm and
lightly squeezing it. "I'm the one who should apologize.
I didn't mean to snap at you like that.  You didn't
cause any of this. I know that...and I know that you 
do too."

His arm tensed at my touch, but he finally turned towards 
me. His face no longer looked pale, but I didn't like the
look I saw in his eyes at all. Not only did I see exhaustion 
there, but I also saw something in his expression that I
rarely ever see.

Defeat.

"I don't know what to do, Scully. I don't know what to 
feel.  I don't know where to go or how to protect us. I 
don't know why this is happening or how to stop it. I 
don't know anything anymore..." he said, the words spilling 
out of his mouth, then hanging in the air between us. 

My eyes began to well up with tears at the hopelessness
I heard in his voice, and it was all I could do to focus
on the highway in front of me.  But as much as I wanted 
to reassure him and tell him that we would find a way
to figure things out, I just couldn't. 

How could I tell him that everything would be all right 
when right now I was feeling just as helpless as he was?

Rubbing the moistness from my blurry eyes, I wrapped my 
left arm protectively around my abdomen and did the only 
thing I could do.

I kept on driving.

~~~~~~

6:18 pm
Interstate Highway 81


Two heartbeats.  

One, much slower and steadier than it was a few hours 
ago.  The other, fast and strong, yet barely audible.

The first is mine.  The second belongs to my daughter.

Whatever residual effects I had from my earlier 'episode', 
they were gone now, and Anna, who was so upset before, 
was now sleeping peacefully.

Her mother was not.

Since Scully fell asleep about an hour ago, she's been 
restless and unsettled.  Her arms have been twitching, 
her face looks tense, and she's been talking in her sleep
a lot.

Mostly about me.

Listening to her cry out my name with such desperation 
was disconcerting, but as much as I wished I could help 
ease her torment, I hadn't really wanted to disrupt her 
chance to get some rest. Our narrow escape from whoever 
it was in that blue car took a lot out of her, and although 
she had wanted to keep on driving earlier, I insisted she 
let me take over the wheel after we passed Richmond.

Actually, I was beginning to feel a little tired myself, 
not to mention hungry.  We hadn't eaten anything since 
this morning, and my stomach was letting me know in no 
small way that I needed to give it some food soon.

According to the signs I had seen along the highway, 
there was a McDonald's coming up at exit 150, which 
was also the exit for a town called Daleville. Since 
everything appeared to be safe and there were no signs 
of anyone following us, I decided that when the exit 
sign came up in about another fifteen miles, I'd turn 
off the highway. 

Once we stopped there, we could use the bathroom, stretch 
our legs, get something to eat, and then decide where to 
go next. 

If only I knew where that was...

This morning when Anna had told us that They were coming
and that we needed to get away from Them as soon as 
possible, I didn't think about where we were going to 
go or what we were going to do once we got there.

All I knew was that we had to get away.

But now as we continued to get farther and farther away 
from home, I couldn't help wondering if our decision to 
leave everything and everyone behind was the right one.

Was running away really the best thing for us to do or
would it have been better to go underground somewhere 
in the D.C. area and wait things out?  

And what about Scully? Was it really that safe for her 
to be traveling so late in her pregnancy?

But even more importantly, what do They want with me? 
Why do They want to take me away again when They themselves 
returned me just yesterday?

Letting out a frustrated sigh, I flipped on my turn signal 
and moved over into the right lane so I could turn off at 
the next exit.

Noticing the change in the movement and speed of the car, 
Scully sleepily opened her eyes and looked over at me.  
"Mulder, where are we?" she asked in a low groggy voice 
as she slowly pushed herself up into a more comfortable 
sitting position.

"Daleville, Virginia."

She rubbed her eyes and yawned. "I've never heard of it."

"Well, let's hope nobody else has either," I said, turning 
left off the exit ramp and heading towards the McDonald's 
that was just on the other side of the bridge.

Now gently massaging her belly, she yawned again. "Why 
are we stopping here?"

After turning into the entrance and pulling into a 
parking spot close to the door, I answered, "I need 
to have something to eat, and so do you.  We need to 
keep our strength up, Scully."

"And you chose McDonald's food for that?" she asked, a 
slight smile crossing her face.

"Everyone knows they make the best fries," I replied, 
taking her hand in mine and giving it an affectionate 
squeeze before opening the car door. "Come on, let's 
go inside." 

"Mulder, wait," she said, abruptly grabbing my wrist 
before I could turn and swing my legs out of the car.

"What is it, Scully?  Would you rather eat out here in
the car?  I can go in and get us something and bring it 
back out here if that's what you want," I suggested.

"I just need to sit here for a minute," she said, leaning
her head back against the seat and closing her eyes.

"What's wrong, Scully?  Are you feeling sick?" I asked, 
leaning over and pressing the back of my hand against 
her forehead.  She didn't feel warm, but I could tell 
by the way she was clenching her jaw that something 
wasn't right.

Just then, she grabbed her stomach with both arms and 
let out a loud "Ummmphhh..."  

"What's going on?  Are you all right?" I asked, my own 
jaw beginning to clench.

Firmly rubbing the sides of her abdomen with both hands, 
she let out a deep breath and said, "I think I just had 
a contraction."

~~~~~~

"Are you sure it was a contraction?" Mulder asked, putting
his hand on top of my tight belly.

"I'm sure," I replied, taking a deep breath as I felt
another wave of pressure begin to roll over my stomach. 

Leaning forward so that his face was just inches above 
my abdomen, he put his hand on it and began to rub it 
in firm, but gentle circles.  "I hope you're not thinkin' 
about making your debut already, Anna Claire," he said 
as he leaned over even more and placed a quick kiss right 
in the middle of my stomach.  "You've still got a little
more than a month to go."

The circular motion of his hands coupled with the soothing 
tone of his voice made my abdominal muscles begin to relax 
almost immediately.  "Does this help?" he asked as he 
continued to rub my stomach.

"Yes, it does. I guess you've got the magic touch, Mulder."

"Tell me something I don't already know," he replied, his 
eyes sparkling. 

I put my hand on top of his and softly squeezed his fingers, 
then let out another deep breath.  "Okay, I think I'm all 
right now."

"So, you don't think Anna's ready to make her grand entrance 
just yet?"

"No, it's too early.  I think these are just some of those 
Braxton-Hicks contractions.  This is the right time in my 
pregnancy to have them, although I have to admit I wasn't 
expecting them to be quite so strong."

Now that was an understatement.

If two contractions could make me feel this uncomfortable,
how bad would it be when I went into actual labor?

I didn't want to think about it.

"You sure you're okay, Scully?" he asked, snapping me out  
of my brief moment of reverie.  

"I'm fine, Mulder. Just let me sit here a few more minutes
until I'm sure they've passed, and then I'll come inside
with you.  In the meantime, why don't you go ahead and
order us something?  I'm feeling kind of hungry now."

He looked at me for a moment, or should I say, he studied
me, trying to determine if I was really okay, then feeling 
satisfied that I was, he gave me a kiss and opened his car 
door.  "Anything in particular you want?"

I looked over at him, remembering what he had said earlier
and replied, "I think I'd like some French fries."

~~~~~~

I knew exactly what she was doing.

It's the same thing she always does.

She trying to act like she's completely in control of
what's happening when what she's really feeling is scared 
and uncertain.

It's not like I haven't seen her do this before. Throughout
the course of our partnership, I've seen it more times than
I can count.

I could tell by looking at her before I got out of the car
that those contractions had unnerved her more than she let
on and that now she needed to be alone a few minutes to
compose herself before she came inside the restaurant where
other people could see her.

And so I let her have her time alone. 

Of course, I also made sure I could see her out the window
from where I was standing.

Because it was after the dinner rush and no one was waiting
in line, I was able to get our order rather quickly.  After 
grabbing some extra napkins and catsup, I started heading 
towards the door, but just as I was about to pull it open, 
Scully pushed on it, almost knocking our drinks off of the
tray.

"Oh Mulder, I'm so sorry," she said, quickly reaching out
to grab the wobbly drinks.

"It's okay. Let's go sit down. I'm starving," I remarked
as we moved away from the doorway over to a corner booth.

"Those fries smell pretty good, Mulder.  I hope you got
me a large order," she said, sniffing the air. 

Pulling everything out of the bag, I replied, "Of course.  
I also got you some milk to drink and a chicken sandwich. 
Is that okay?"

"It's fine, Mulder.  Thank you," she replied, turning 
away from me and heading to the restroom. "Go ahead and 
start eating.  I'll be right back."

I watched her until she walked through the door, then
scanned the seating area.  There was a family of five
sitting at a table on the other side of the room and
an older couple sitting three booths down from us.

Satisfied with our surroundings, I took a bite out of 
my Big Mac and turned sideways in my seat so I could 
see when Scully came out of the restroom. 

We were safe...for now.



~~~~~~
chapter five
~~~~~~


Bristol, Tennessee
10:09 pm


I couldn't sleep.

Of course, not being able to sleep was something I'd been 
dealing with ever since my stomach started to expand, but 
now I wasn't restless because I was uncomfortable.

I was restless because I was afraid.

Although Anna had been relatively quiet since we left my
apartment and it appeared that no one had been tailing us
for hours, I still couldn't shake the feeling that our
lives were in serious danger.

But why?

Why would They want to take Mulder back so soon after 
releasing him?

Is it because he's able to communicate with Anna or
because They need him for more tests?

Or do They want to take him back simply because They
can? 

Clutching my pillow to my chest, I closed my eyes and 
tried to concentrate on the sound of my breathing and 
the gentle ripples rolling across my stomach.

~~~~~~

Although Scully's eyes were closed and she was lying
still, I could tell when I came out of the bathroom 
that she wasn't asleep.  

After we had eaten at McDonald's, we drove for another 
couple hours, then stopped at this motel just across 
the Tennessee border. After registering under false names, 
I carried in as many of our belongings from the car as I 
could without looking too suspicious while Scully stayed 
in the room and took a shower.  Once I was finished, I 
took a shower too, then crawled into bed beside her.

"We're safe here, Scully," I said reassuringly, nuzzling 
up behind her back and draping my arm around her waist.

She put her hand on top of mine, but it wasn't a soft
touch.  It was a tense one. "You don't know that, Mulder."

"Yes, I do," I replied, kissing her shoulder.  "We'll be
safe here tonight.  I can feel it."

She turned around and laid on her side so she was facing
me.  Her forehead was crinkled and her jaw tight, and
I could tell by the look in her eyes that it was taking
every bit of self-control she had to keep from crying.
Her tongue made a quick sweep across her lips before
nervously darting back inside her mouth.  "Why are we
doing this, Mulder?" she asked, her question hanging
thick and heavy in the air between us.  

I put my hand on the right side of her abdomen, and just
as I thought she would, Anna immediately started to move 
toward it.  "You know why," I softly answered as I moved 
my hand up and over about six inches.

Anna moved with me.

"Did you feel that?" I whispered.  I ran my fingers down
along the left side of Scully's abdomen then back up again, 
and just as she did the other two times, Anna followed my 
movement with several tiny kicks.  

"She knows it's me.  I don't know how she knows or how 
we're able to communicate with each other, but right now, 
I don't want to question it, Scully. I just want us to be 
safe."  I brushed my hand across her cheek, then added,
"And I think that getting away from the DC area is the 
best way for us to do that."

"I know, Mulder, but that doesn't make it any easier for 
me to understand...or accept," she said, doing her best 
to keep her voice in control. 

Taking my hand away from her belly and using it to gently
rub her arm, I calmly said, "I feel safe here, and as crazy 
as it sounds, I think Anna feels safe too.  I haven't felt 
any strong sensations from her indicating otherwise, and 
from what I can tell neither have you... so let's just try
to get some rest now while we can, and in the morning we'll 
figure out what we should do next." I leaned over and kissed
her cheek, then added, "It'll be okay, Scully, it will."

She squeezed my hand, then closed her eyes for a moment
before rolling over onto her other side so she was facing
away from me.

All without saying a word.

I scooted over closer to her and curled my body around hers, 
resting my arm on her hip and hoping that she wouldn't push 
me away.

She didn't.

Instead she threaded her fingers through mine and placed
our intertwined hands on the side of her abdomen where 
Anna was lightly kicking her. Snuggling back against me, 
she let out a big yawn, and sleepily mumbled, "I trust 
you, Mulllderrr...g'night..."   

"'Night, Scully," I whispered back, relieved that she 
finally felt comfortable enough to let herself relax.

I only wish I could do the same. 

~~~~~~

10:30 pm


Three days ago, I was given an assignment.

Monitor Agent Mulder's activities from the time he was
returned until the time that his daughter is born.

Since I was the one who had administered and analyzed 
most of the tests that We had performed on him while
he was at our facility, it was decided that I was the
most qualified for the job.

As I found Agent Mulder to be the most fascinating and
unique specimen I had ever studied, I was more than
happy to accept the assignment.

My orders were to know his and Agent Scully's whereabouts
at all times and to send periodical reports back to the 
facility detailing his activities and my observations
about them.

According to our plan, he was to be returned late last
night, and I was to be sent here today. I assumed that 
he would go directly to Agent Scully's apartment and 
stay there, and then I would begin monitoring him.

What I didn't plan for was their hasty departure from
her apartment this afternoon.  I'm not quite sure how 
he did it yet, but somehow Agent Mulder figured out that
I was coming, and that's how they were able to get away 
from me.

Despite the fact that they got a good head start on me, 
I was finally able to track them down, and now as I sit 
here in the motel parking lot watching their room, I can't 
help but be impressed with their resourcefulness.

I also can't stop wondering about what they'll do next.

Will they figure out that I'm here and try to elude me 
again or will they stay in this town?

And if they do decide to stay here, will I be able to
follow them around virtually undetected or will Agent 
Mulder recognize me the moment he sees me?

I do not know the answers to these questions, but of one
thing I am certain.

This assignment is already a lot more interesting than 
I thought it would be.

And a lot harder.

~~~~~~

1:35 a.m.


The moment I opened my eyes, I was surprised by the
overwhelming urge I had to pee.

I was also surprised to find myself alone in bed.

After rubbing and blinking my eyes several times in an 
effort to adjust to the lack of light, I pushed myself 
up to a sitting position and looked around the room. 

"Mulder?" I called out into the dark, thinking that he 
was probably in the bathroom doing the same thing that 
I needed to do.

No answer.

"Mulder?" I called again, this time with more urgency.

Still no answer.

Going into immediate panic mode, I climbed out of bed 
as quickly as a pregnant woman with a full bladder can, 
turned on the lights, and rushed to the bathroom to see 
if maybe he just didn't hear me in there.

But the room was empty.

Trying to tamp down my urgent need to pee, I cradled my 
hands underneath my stomach and turned to head out of 
the bathroom.

Just then, I heard the door open.  "Scully, what's wrong?
Are you okay?" Mulder asked, rushing over to my side and
taking my arm. 

"Damn it, Mulder.  You scared me," I grumbled, pushing 
him out of my way and hurrying back into the bathroom. 

"I'm sorry..." he said, his voice sounding muffled 
through the closed door.

Even though he apologized, I knew that he didn't mean to
scare me.  Knowing him, he probably couldn't sleep and
just needed to get some fresh air.  Still, waking up and 
finding him gone was unsettling, especially given our 
current situation.

Finishing what I came in here to do, I washed my hands
and splashed some water on my face, then opened the door.
"I didn't know where you were," I gruffly stated as I 
walked over to the bed and sat down.

"I was just outside the door, Scully.  I couldn't sleep,
and I didn't want to disturb you with all my moving 
around," he explained, sitting down beside me.

"But I didn't know where you were, Mulder...and I don't
like that," I said, quickly pulling him into a tight 
embrace.

"It's okay, Scully.  I'm right here," he said reassuringly 
into my ear as he lightly rubbed my back. "I'm right here..."

His soothing words and the rhythmic movement of his hand 
on my back coupled with my fluctuating pregnancy hormones
and the considerable amount of body heat he was throwing 
off at the moment made my skin feel warm and sensitive, 
and despite the fact that he had just scared me half to 
death with his brief disappearing act, I suddenly found 
myself feeling aroused. 

Very aroused.

Letting my own hand wander down his back and around the 
curve of his ass, I kissed his neck and whispered, "Make
love to me, Mulder."

"Hmmm?" he mumbled into my hair.

Rubbing my hand over the top of his leg and down between 
his thighs, I replied, "I want to be close to you." Then 
I pulled back from his embrace and looked up at him. "I 
need you close to me, Mulder."

Searching my eyes and understanding immediately what it was
I wanted...no, what I *needed*...he got up and turned off 
the lights. 

Then he carefully lowered me onto the bed and let his fingers
slowly trickle down my pajama top. 

One button at a time.

~~~~~~

"Are you sure, Scully?" I asked, unbuttoning the bottom
button of her top and reveling in the sight of her fuller 
firmer breasts.

She pulled me closer and kissed me. "I want this, Mulder."  
Then she kissed me again, this time tugging on my bottom
lip before releasing her mouth from mine. "I need this..."

Tracing a path down her neck, between her breasts, over 
her well rounded belly, and down along the inside of her
leg, I murmured, "I love you."

Then I pressed my mouth to hers and showed her just how 
much.

~~~~~~

One of the best things about being who I am is that I
don't require much sleep.

In fact, an hour a day is about all I need.

This leaves me with 23 hours to observe, collect data,
and analyze whatever or whoever it is I'm researching.  

In this case...one Fox Mulder.

I was quite surprised when I saw him come out of their 
motel room, especially since it was at a time I know is 
usually reserved for sleeping.

Being careful not to let him see me sitting in my car,
I watched as he paced around in front of his door, 
stopping occasionally to look up at the stars.

Based on what I knew about him, it was my guess that 
he was probably thinking about his sister. That, or he
was trying to figure out what he and Scully should do
next.

Or maybe he was thinking about his time with us.

I remember when he was first brought to our facility.
Needless to say, he was not happy, and yet from the
moment I met him, I saw something in his eyes that 
immediately captured my interest.  

In fact, it was what I saw in his eyes that fascinated 
me the most. 

Although it was impossible for me to see his eyes now
from where I was sitting, it was easy to see just how 
nervous and unsettled he was.

For about fifteen minutes, he continued to walk back
and forth, sometimes putting his hands in his pockets,
sometimes rubbing them across his hair, until finally
the lights came on in their room.  Almost the instant
he saw them, he rushed back inside, no doubt wondering
if something was wrong with his partner.

Once I was certain that it was safe for me to do so, I
got out of my car and walked over to their window.  
Hoping to get a glimpse of them, I leaned up against
the wall and peered through the side of the window.
With the curtains not quite pulled all the way shut, 
it left a small crack by the left side of the window 
just big enough for me to see through.

For awhile they just sat on the bed talking, and then 
they put their arms around each other. Although I couldn't 
see his face from my vantage point, I could see hers, and 
like Agent Mulder, she was able to convey several emotions 
with just one look.

Since arriving here only this afternoon, I hadn't really
had a chance to see the two of them together up close, 
but watching them now, I was intrigued by the expressions
on their faces. 

How was it possible for two people to communicate so much
without saying a word?

And if conveying their emotions so easily through visual
expressions was an ability they both possessed, what kind
of abilities would a baby created by them have?

Torn between wanting to watch them some more as their
touching became more intimate and recording my immediate 
observations about their actions, I quickly decided on 
the latter and hurried back to my car, leaving them to 
share the rest of the night in private. 

~~~~~~

6:13 a.m.


The next time I woke up, I wasn't alone.

Mulder was sleeping on his side beside me, his hand resting 
protectively on my belly and his bent knee pressing against 
the back of my legs.  As quietly as I could and without 
moving his hand off of my stomach, I turned my body around 
so I could look at him. 

Although his body appeared to be in a relaxed state, his 
face was filled with tension.  His forehead was creased, 
he was grinding his jaw, and his eyes were rapidly moving 
underneath his lids as if he was having a very vivid dream. 

Resting my hand on top of his, I leaned back against the
pillow and kept watch over him as I waited for him to
wake up.

~~~~~~

I was sitting in a chair.

It was white, as were the floor and the walls of the room 
I was sitting in.  In front of me was another chair, also 
white...and a door.

I had assumed that the lights here would be bright and 
harsh, but they weren't bright at all.  In fact, the 
combination of the filtered lighting and the cool air 
that was blowing down from the vents above me was very 
relaxing.

Trying the door and not surprisingly finding it locked,
I decided to go sit back down, but when I turned around,
there was a woman standing there.

At least I think she was a woman.

"Who are you?" I asked cautiously.  "What do you want
with me?"

"Sit down," she commanded as she walked towards me.

Nervously backing up against the door, I balled up my
fists and shouted, "What do you want from me?!"

"We don't want to hurt you, Agent Mulder.  We only want 
to study you," she calmly stated right before lunging 
towards me and plunging a long needle into my arm.

~~~~~~

"No, stop...don't...don't hurt me!" Mulder yelled as his 
eyelids suddenly flew open and his hands jerked up into 
the air. Immediately bending forward and rubbing his head 
with his hands, he took some deep breaths in an effort to 
calm himself down.

"Mulder, it's okay," I said as I awkwardly pushed myself 
up into a sitting position.  Then I touched his shoulder
and quietly said, "You're safe here, and no one's going 
to hurt you.  It was just a dream, a bad dream." 

Lifting his head up, he turned and looked at me with the
strangest expression on his face and said, "It wasn't a
dream, Scully.  It wasn't that at all."

"What do you mean?" I asked, anxiously grabbing his wrist
and bracing myself for his answer.

He took another deep breath and replied, "I wasn't dreaming.
I was remembering."



~~~~~~
chapter six
~~~~~~


"Did you remember something They did to you?" I asked, 
not sure if I really wanted to hear his answer.

He ran his fingers over the top of his hair and let out 
a deep sigh.  "I think so," he replied as he got out of 
bed.

I watched him as he closed his eyes and tilted his head
back, and even though I already knew what his answer was 
going to be, I asked him anyway.  "Do you want to talk 
about it?"

Opening his eyes, he looked towards the window instead 
of at me, and quietly answered, "No...not yet."  Then 
he went into the bathroom and closed the door without
saying another word.

Just like I knew he would.

~~~~~~

I don't know why I didn't tell her.

It's not like I really remembered that much anyway, and 
I'm not even sure if the visions I saw were of an event 
that actually happened to me or not. 

So, why didn't I just tell her what I saw then?  

Because I didn't want to upset her, that's why...and I 
don't want to do anything to upset Anna either.  

Keeping both of them healthy and safe is my number one 
priority right now, and as much as I'd like to discuss
what I think might have happened to me with her, I don't 
want to say anything that would make things even more 
stressful than they already are.

I turned the pressure on the faucet as high as it would 
go, then climbed into the shower.

~~~~~~

They were awake.

Although there were no lights on, I could see a shadow 
walking across the room.  No doubt they would soon be 
leaving their room to eat breakfast and then probably 
vacating the motel for good.

And when they did, I'd be right there watching.

~~~~~~

I couldn't leave things this way.

Mulder was clearly upset about what he had remembered,
and although he wasn't ready to talk to me about it 
now, I wanted him to know that I'd be there for him 
when he was.

Lifting my well-rounded body up off the bed, I walked 
over to the bathroom door.  He was in the shower now, 
probably trying to gather his thoughts, but I wasn't 
about to let him deal with his emotions alone.  

Opening the door, I walked inside the room and started 
taking off my pajamas and panties. Then I slowly pulled 
back the shower curtain and began to get in behind him.  

He was facing away from me when I first opened the 
curtain, but he immediately turned around once I started 
to step in the over-sized shower stall, taking hold of 
my hand so I wouldn't slip and fall. 

"Mind if Anna and I join you?" I asked, taking the wash
cloth from his hand and running it across his soapy 
chest and down along his arms.

"I know what you're trying to do, Scully," he said as 
he reached around the shower curtain and grabbed another 
wash cloth from the wall rack.  Then he held it under 
the water, put some soap on it, and gently started 
rubbing it over my big belly.

"Oh?" I remarked as I lifted his right arm up and washed 
underneath it, then did the same with his left one.  "I 
thought I was helping you get clean."

"And I'm helping you," he commented as he moved the wet
sudsy cloth up over my breasts then around my neck and 
down my back until his hand stopped at my hip.  

"Yes, you are," I agreed, scooting forward so that our 
bodies were touching...his stomach firm and flat, mine
also firm, but filled with our daughter.

Just then, almost as if she knew I was thinking about
her, Anna began to stir. "I think she likes being in 
the shower," I said, looking down at my now moving 
stomach. "Either that or she likes being this close 
to her daddy."

Mulder took a step backwards, bent over and pressed 
his ear against my rippling abdomen, then said, "I 
like being close to both of you."

"I know you do," I said, stroking his wet hair, "and 
I understand that you want to protect us, but Mulder, 
I don't want you to feel like you have to keep things
inside to do it."

He stood up and put his hands on my shoulders. "I hear 
what you're saying Scully, but I'm just not ready to 
talk about what I remembered, not yet."

Pulling him into my arms, I laid my head against his
smooth bare chest, and quietly said, "Okay."

~~~~~~

"If we don't get out of this water soon, we're going
to look like a couple of prunes," I said, taking a
step back and finally breaking our silent embrace.

"You're right, I wouldn't want that tight smooth skin
of yours to get too squishy," she remarked, playfully
pinching my stomach. 

Knowing that I couldn't really pinch her stomach to
retaliate, I pinched her ass instead.  "Last one to
finish washing up has to pay for breakfast," I said,
quickly grabbing my wash cloth from the rung and
putting some more soap on it.

She smiled at me and reached for her own wash cloth.
"How bout I just pay for breakfast and we wash each
other?"

Taking the cloth out of her hand, I kissed her and 
replied, "It's a deal."

~~~~~~

7:23 a.m.


Just as I knew they eventually would, they came out of
their motel room and headed next door to the restaurant
for breakfast.  For two people who had done everything 
they could to flee from me yesterday, they sure did 
look relaxed today.

Perhaps having sex with each other last night caused 
them to let their guard down this morning...or maybe 
they're more relaxed simply because they think that 
they're safe here.

In either case, their comfortable demeanor has enabled 
me to make a decision.

I have been debating about whether or not I should 
continue following Agent Mulder from a safe distance 
or if I should try to observe his actions from a closer 
vantage point.

Seeing him the way he is now, I have decided to take a
chance on the latter.

~~~~~~

As soon as we walked into the restaurant, Mulder 
immediately gave it the once-over, no doubt scanning 
the room for any signs of anything unusual or unsafe.

I have to admit, I did the same.

Despite the fact that we were both feeling a little less 
on edge today than we were yesterday, there was still the 
threat that one of Them may be following us.  "It looks 
okay in here, Scully," Mulder commented as he took my 
elbow and led me to a table that was only a short distance 
from the door.

Agreeing with his assessment but still being cautious, I
made sure I sat down in the chair that was facing the door
in case we had to leave quickly.  Moving his chair over to
the left so that he was also facing the door, he said in a
low voice, "We should probably make this a small breakfast."

"Okay," I agreed, understanding immediately what he was 
implying.

Just then the waitress came over to our table. "Are y'all
ready to order or do you need some more time?" she asked
in a slight southern drawl.

"I'd like some orange juice, a bagel, and some cantaloupe
if you have it," I said, looking up at the blonde waitress,
then down at my stomach. Anna was beginning to move around
quite a bit, and I quickly put my hand on the spot where 
she was kicking me to try and calm her down.

"Looks like y'all got yourselves a kicker there," she
remarked as she scribbled down my order.  "When's the
little one due?"

"In about a month," I replied, shifting in my chair so 
that I would be more comfortable.

"Aww, I betcha y'all be glad when he...or she gets here,
huh?" she asked, leaning forward and looking down at my 
stomach as if she was going to touch it.

"Ah, Miss...could you just get her order please? We're 
kind of in a hurry," Mulder said, trying to remain 
polite, yet clearly becoming impatient.

The waitress looked awkwardly at me for a moment, then 
at him, and said, "Yes, sir...and what would you like?"

"A cup of coffee and some scrambled eggs would be nice,"
he said in a much kinder voice as if he was trying to
make up for his earlier impatience.

"Got it," she said as she quickly wrote down his order.
"I'll bring you both some water while you're waitin'," 
she added, turning around and heading for the kitchen.

"Thanks," he called out. Then he turned to me and 
immediately put his hand on my rolling stomach. "She 
feels pretty active.  You okay, Scully?"

I leaned back in my chair a little and shifted my body
over to the side. "It feels like she's kicking a soccer 
ball around in there."

He smiled and said, "No, she's probably dribbling a 
basketball." 

"Well, whatever she's doing, it doesn't feel so good 
right now," I said, suddenly grabbing onto his forearm 
as she gave a good hard kick to my lower abdomen.  

Scooting his chair closer to mine, he put his other hand
on my shoulder and asked, "What is it, Scully?  Are you 
having another contraction?"

A thin layer of sweat broke out on my forehead and as 
much as I tried to remain calm, I was failing miserably.  
"No, this feels different," I said, taking a deep breath 
and wiping the back of my hand across my damp face. "I 
think something's wrong."

~~~~~~

I walked into the restaurant shortly after they went 
inside, and I sat on one of the round stools at the 
counter facing away from them.  Although my biggest 
concern was that Agent Mulder would recognize me, my 
worries were instantly put to rest as they were both 
too busy with the waitress to notice me.

Breathing a sigh of relief, I opened up the menu the 
man behind the counter had given me.  "Mornin', ma'am.  
Can I get you a cup of coffee?" he asked in a husky 
voice.

"No, thanks...I'd just like some water right now please,"
I answered politely, turning my head slightly so I could
see what the two of them were doing.

Pouring me a glass of water, then setting it down in 
front of me, he asked, "So, what can I get for ya this 
mornin', pretty lady? Ya know, our cook Joey makes the 
best scrambled eggs in all of Tennessee."

"Oh?" I responded half-heartedly, fiddling with the menu
and trying to watch them out of the corner of my eye at
the same time.

"Yeah, he puts some kinda spices in there or somethin'.
Gives 'em that extra zing," he bragged as he winked at 
me.

Quickly becoming annoyed with his distracting chitchat, 
I said, "I'm sure his eggs are delicious, but I think
I'd just like to sit here for awhile and drink my water."

"Suit yourself," he grumbled, obviously irritated that 
not only had I turned down the scrambled eggs, but I 
had shunned him as well. 

What a strange specimen.

Thank goodness, I was assigned to study Agent Mulder 
and not him.

~~~~~~

"Just try to relax, Scully, and tell me what you're
feeling," I said as calmly as I could even though my
chest was feeling tighter by the second. "You said it 
wasn't a contraction.  Is it a stabbing pain or more 
like a dull ache?"

"I don't know, Mulder...it's just really uncomfortable," 
she snapped, firmly rubbing her hand in a circular motion 
over her belly and trying to concentrate on her breathing.

"Do you think that standing up would help?" I suggested.

"Maybe," she replied, blowing out several short puffs of 
air.

"Here, let me help you." Putting my arm around her waist 
and her arm around my shoulder, I lifted her up out of 
the chair.  Once she was standing, she put her hands 
underneath her belly to support the extra weight. "Does 
that feel better now?"

"A little."

At that moment, our waitress came out into the dining
area with our glasses of water.  Looking at me with a
concerned expression on her face, she asked, "Hey, is 
she gonna be okay?  Ya want me to call a doctor or 
somethin'?  I can get Doc Matthews here in fifteen
minutes."

"No...no doctors," Scully answered abruptly as she reached
over and tugged on my arm.  

Knowing that she was thinking of my situation now instead 
of her own, I quickly agreed with her. "No, we don't need
a doctor, but I'll tell you what you can do for us.  Do
you think you could make our order to go so we can take 
it back over to our motel room?  I think she'll be more
comfortable there," I suggested, knowing that I'd also 
feel more comfortable and more in control once we got 
back to the privacy of our room. 

"Sure, no problem.  It's about ready anyway, and I'll 
just have Joey pack it up for ya instead of puttin' it 
on plates."

"Thank you very much," Scully said as she linked one 
arm around mine and kept the other one cradled underneath 
her stomach.

As we walked over to the cash register to pay for our 
food, I couldn't help noticing the brunette that was 
sitting at the counter.  I didn't remember seeing her 
when we first came into the restaurant, and unlike the 
few other patrons that were sitting at the various tables 
and booths, I got the feeling that she wasn't from around 
here.

I also got the feeling that even though she was trying 
to act as if she couldn't care less about what was going 
on with the people around her, she was very much interested 
in what *we* were doing.  

Not wanting to alert Scully to my suspicions, I paid for 
our breakfast, thanked the waitress for all she had done,
and hurried Scully back to our room.

"Will you be okay here for a minute, Scully?"  I helped
her onto the bed, took off her shoes, and handed her the
two containers our food was in. "We were in such a hurry 
to leave the restaurant, and I think I might've left 
something there.  I'm just going to go back and check, 
and then I'll be right back," I said, quickly turning 
away from her and heading for the door before she could 
get a good look at my eyes and see that I was keeping 
something from her.

"But Mulder..." 

"It's okay.  I'll be right back," I said abruptly as I
closed the door.

I hated deceiving Scully like that, but I just couldn't
shake the strong feeling I had about the woman sitting
at the counter, and I had to go back to the restaurant
and check her out.

Making my way through the parking lot as quickly as I
could, I was just about to go inside the restaurant when
all of a sudden, I heard the sound of squealing tires
behind me.  When I turned around to take a look, the car 
was too far away for me to see who was driving, but it 
wasn't too far away for me to see what kind of car it 
was.

A dark blue Toyota Camry.

And although I had only seen it briefly before, I was
almost certain it was the same car that had chased us
away from Scully's apartment yesterday.

And yet how could it be the same car?  How could They 
possibly have found us here?

Or maybe I was wrong.  

Maybe it wasn't Them at all.

Maybe someone else was following us, but I had been too
preoccupied with worrying about Scully to notice.  

Anxiously pushing open the door, I walked into the
restaurant and looked around the room hoping that my
newfound suspicions were wrong and that the mysterious 
woman I saw earlier would still be sitting at the counter.

But I was too late.

She was gone.

~~~~~~

I couldn't believe how much I was sweating.  

And it wasn't just a little bit of moisture on my skin, 
but an overwhelming amount of stickiness under my arms, 
between my legs, down my back, and all over my face.

I had never experienced such an uncomfortable bodily 
function before, and even though it was my own fault 
it happened in the first place, right now more than
anything I just wanted it to stop.

And the sooner, the better.

Finally seeing a Walmart store to my right, I pulled 
into the parking lot and stopped the car.  Reaching 
into the bag I kept in the backseat, I took out a towel 
and began to vigorously wipe myself off as I thought 
about what had just happened.

I don't know what I was thinking.

Going into that restaurant and sitting just a few feet 
away from Agent Mulder was a careless mistake...and one 
I couldn't make again if I wanted to keep this assignment.

After tossing the now damp towel on the back floor of the 
car, I began to watch the entrance of the store as people 
walked in and out.  Finally seeing the woman I wanted, I 
studied her as she walked to her car, concentrating mainly 
on her facial features. 

And then I changed into her.

~~~~~~

Anna was calm now.

She was still moving around, but not nearly as much as 
she was when we were in the restaurant.  And now that 
she was settling down and I wasn't feeling nearly as 
uncomfortable, the need to fill my stomach with food 
was hitting me with full force.

Even though Mulder wasn't back yet, I was sure he wouldn't
mind if I started eating without him.  Opening the white
styrofoam container, I greedily began to devour the chewy
bagel and juicy slices of cantaloupe.

"Looks like someone's a little hungry," Mulder commented
as he walked through the door and took off his jacket.  
"Did you leave anything for me?"

"Maybe," I playfully replied, picking up another piece 
of cantaloupe and sliding it into my mouth. "I am eating 
for two now, you know."

He sat down on the bed and picked up his cup of coffee.
"I know you are," he said softly as he took a couple of 
quick sips, then set it back on the nightstand. 

Picking up the container with his eggs in it, he asked,
"So, you're feeling better?"

"Yes I am, especially now that I've had something to eat."  
I took a few gulps of my orange juice, then added, "Anna's 
still moving around some, but not nearly as much as she 
was.  I'm not sure why she was so active before, but she 
seems to have settled down now."

Opening up the white container, he took one look at the
now cold scrambled eggs and closed it back up.  Then he
set it down beside his coffee and lightly brushed his 
hand across my cheek. "I'm glad you're feeling okay now, 
Scully." 

Well, I may be feeling okay, but I could tell by the 
tentative way he touched me that he wasn't.  

Something happened to him while he was gone, and I was
going to find out what it was. 

~~~~~~

She knew.

I could tell the moment I touched her cheek.

She knew I was keeping something to myself, and there 
wasn't a damn thing I could do to hide it from her.

"So, did you find what you thought you'd left at the
restaurant?" she asked, obviously giving me a chance
to tell her what happened on my own.

Taking her container of food off the bed, I scooted 
over closer to her and took a deep breath.  "I didn't 
leave anything at the restaurant, Scully," I said 
in a low voice.

"Oh," she said, waiting patiently for me to explain.

"I went back to the restaurant because I had to check
something out," I said, nervously looking towards the 
door and trying to figure out the best way to tell her 
everything.

She took both of my hands in hers and looked deeply into
my eyes for what seemed like an eternity.  "Something 
happened there...I can see it in your eyes," she finally 
said.  "Someone's following us again, aren't they?"

"Yes," I admitted, "but I don't think it's one of Them."

She sat up straighter, but still held onto my hands.
"What do you mean?  Who did you see, Mulder?" she asked
anxiously.

"There was a woman.  She was sitting at the counter at
the restaurant.  I was so worried about what was going
on with you that I didn't see her when she first came 
in, but when we left, I noticed her and she seemed 
really interested in what we were doing.  I had a bad 
feeling about her the moment I saw her."

"And you went back to the restaurant to see if she was
still there," she said, filling in the blanks.

I nodded my head in agreement, then let go of her hands 
and stood up from the bed.  Walking over to the window, 
I looked out into the parking lot and tightly pinched 
the bridge of my nose.  "There's more." 

"What is it, Mulder?" she asked, her voice rising with
anticipation.  

Continuing to scan the parking lot, I replied, "When I
was just about to go inside the restaurant, I heard some 
car tires squealing behind me, and when I turned around 
to see what was going on, I saw a dark blue car driving 
away, a Toyota Camry..." I turned around and looked right 
at her to see if she knew what I was getting at.

"You think it was the same car that was following us
yesterday," she deducted just as I knew she would. 

"Yeah, and I think that the woman in the restaurant
was the one who was driving it."  I walked back over
to the bed and sat down beside her legs.  Putting my
hand on top of her stomach, I continued with my theory, 
"I also think that somehow Anna knew.  She knew that 
woman was trouble the moment she walked into the 
restaurant, just like she knew that we were in danger 
back at your apartment. I think she was trying to warn 
us, Scully, trying to get us away from that woman by 
kicking you so hard and making you so uncomfortable 
that we'd end up leaving the restaurant."

Scully said nothing, but rubbed her forehead, then rested 
her fingers on her lips.  I knew that she was trying to 
process everything now, trying to find the logic in what 
I had just said, and trying to decide what, if anything, 
she wanted to believe.
  
Finally, after what seemed like hours, but was actually
only a few seconds, she looked up at me and quietly said, 
"Mulder, I think you're right."

"You do?" I asked, completely surprised that she had 
actually agreed with me.

"Yes," she replied, squeezing my hand.

The slight upturn of the corners of her mouth and the 
gentle caress of her thumb on the back of my hand made 
my heart immediately beat faster, but there was no time
to savor this rare moment of mutual agreement between us.

We had to get out of here.

And fast.

~~~~~~

Twelve.

That was the name given to me when I was created two years
ago, and that's what everyone at the facility has always
called me.

I've never liked it.

Not only is it unoriginal and impersonal, but it's just
about the most boring name They could've given me.

That's why I was thrilled to find out that while on this
assignment, I could give myself a new identity.

When I was first sent here, I had no idea what to choose
for my new name, especially since the only other names 
I knew were all numbers as well, but then last night as 
I was sitting in the car recording my observations about
Agent Mulder, I came up with what I thought was the perfect 
name for me.

Camry. 

It's unusual, it's original, and it's certainly not boring.

And since most of the time I spend here will probably be 
spent in this car anyway, I figured why not name myself 
after it?

Not surprisingly when I had gave my superiors my first 
report about Agent Mulder this morning and signed it with 
my new name, they declared it "a questionable choice", 
but I couldn't be happier with it. And now that I also 
had a new appearance to go along with my new name, I was 
ready to get back to work and check up on my specimen.

Running my fingers through my curly blonde hair, I looked
at myself in the rear view mirror, then headed back to 
the motel.



~~~~~~
chapter seven
~~~~~~


8:33 a.m.


Not wanting to be easily found by the dark-haired woman 
who was apparently following us, we had decided that it 
would be best to travel on the interstate highways instead 
of the lesser traveled two-lane highways.  Since those 
roads are generally busier, it would be much easier for 
us to blend in with other vehicles, and since the speed 
limit on the interstate is also higher, we could get to 
where we were going much faster.

Unfortunately, neither of us had any idea where that was.

Or so I thought.

"Which way are we going, Mulder?" I asked, opening up 
the atlas to the Tennessee page and searching for I-81 
to see what other highways it connected with.  

"I think we should head north," he answered, keeping 
his eyes on the road instead of turning towards me.  
I couldn't help but notice the firm hold he had on the 
steering wheel and the way he kept slightly bouncing 
his left leg.

"Why north?" I asked, turning the pages of the atlas to 
a map of the entire United States. "Do you have someplace
in mind?"

"I don't know.  It just seems like that's the direction
we should go," he replied, easing up on the vice-like 
grip he had on the steering wheel.

"Mulder, what aren't you telling me?" I asked suspiciously.

"I told you, Scully...it just feels like that's where we
need to go." 

Wanting to question him further, yet trusting his instincts,
I looked over at him and said, "Okay...for now."  

~~~~~~

Ever since I noticed that woman at the motel restaurant, 
I couldn't stop thinking about her and why she would want
to follow us.  There was something about her that seemed 
familiar, and yet I was fairly certain I had never seen 
her before this morning.  Still, thoughts of her kept 
invading my mind, at times making it difficult for me to 
concentrate on the road in front of me.

It had been several minutes since Scully had asked me 
where we were headed, and since then, neither of us had 
said a word to each other.  I have to admit I was rather 
surprised when she didn't push me to tell her why I 
thought we should head north, and yet somehow it didn't 
surprise me at all.

Since I came back two days ago, we have been more in 
tune with each other than we ever have before.

Maybe my heightened sense of Anna and how she's feeling
has also heightened my ability to better understand Scully
and her ever-changing emotions, or maybe we both finally
decided to let each other in more often instead of keeping 
things to ourselves.

Whatever it was, whatever had changed us and the way we
reacted to each other, I liked it.

"What are you thinking about, Mulder?" Scully said, 
touching my forearm and breaking the long silence we 
had been sharing for the past fifteen minutes.

"Lots of things," I replied, taking my hand off the wheel 
for a moment and placing it on top of hers.

"Oh?  Like what?" she asked, shifting her body to the 
left so she could better see my face.

"Like how glad I am that you're with me right now...and
how I'll do whatever I have to do in order to keep you
and Anna safe."

"I know you will, Mulder," she said, moving her hand 
from my arm to my face, then briefly running her fingers 
across my cheek. 

I gave her thigh a quick pat, then turned my attention 
to the road sign to my right. "It says that it's 100 
miles to Knoxville, which means that we've got about 
110 miles until the I-75 turnoff."

Opening up the atlas again, Scully turned to the map 
of Tennessee and asked, "How'd you know that, Mulder?"

"Well, last night I woke up around 2:00, and when I
couldn't go back to sleep, I started thumbing through
the maps and checking out our options.  I-75 will take 
us all the way up into Michigan if that's where we want 
to go."

"So, that's why you suggested going north."

"Yeah, and also because well...someone else thought it
was a good idea," I said.

"What are you talking about? We haven't contacted anyone 
since we left yesterday...unless you're saying you spoke 
to someone without telling me about it."  She tilted her 
head to the side and raised her eyebrow.  "Mulder, did 
you call someone while I was sleeping last night?"

"Not exactly."

"What do you mean 'not exactly'?"

"I didn't call anyone.  That would be too risky, but I
did have contact with someone, someone we both know,"
I answered, reaching over with my right hand and touching 
her belly, yet still keeping my eyes on the road.

"Anna?" she asked incredulously.  She put her own hand
on top of her stomach and looked down at it for a moment, 
then looked back over at me.  "She was talking to you
last night while I was asleep?" 

"Well no, she wasn't talking to me...it was more like
she was giving off these sensations, like she was aware
of me and what I was feeling."

"You mean that somehow she knew what you were thinking
about, and she wanted to let you know that she could
hear your thoughts?" she concluded.

Now it was my turn to react with incredulity...and to
start swerving over into the left lane.  

"Scully...do you hear what you're saying?  You're saying
that our daughter can communicate with me, that she can
feel what I'm feeling, that I can feel her. You're finally
admitting that Anna and I have some kind of psychic
connection," I said excitedly as I quickly steered the 
car back towards the center of the lane.

"Yes, I guess I am," she said quietly, putting her other 
hand on her stomach and leaning back in her seat.

"I don't know what to say."

"I don't either, Mulder," she remarked, rubbing her 
forehead.  "But I believe you.  I didn't want to at 
first, but I've seen and heard too much these past 
couple of days *not* to believe anymore."  Letting out 
a big sigh, she began to move her hand up and down over 
her belly. "And I also think that your connection with 
Anna may be even stronger than either of us realize." 

"What do you mean?" I asked, trying to stay focused on 
the road, yet wishing I could give my full attention 
to our conversation instead.

"From the moment I found out I was pregnant, I felt 
close to this baby, mostly because she was a miracle 
I never expected to have, but also because she was a 
part of you," she said softly.

"Scully..."

"All those months you were missing, I prayed for your
return, and when I did, I would put my hands on my 
stomach, hoping that by touching our child I would be 
able to feel even closer to you."

"And did you?" I asked, fascinated with what she was
telling me. 

"Yes, I felt you all the time," she replied with a 
slight hitch in her voice. "And as I got further along 
in the pregnancy, not only did I feel Anna's presence 
more strongly, but yours became stronger too.  Sometimes 
at night when she would roll back and forth or punch me 
with her little fists, it was almost as if she was trying 
to play with me, like she wanted me to try to have fun...
and it just...well...it just reminded me so much of you, 
Mulder," she said, her voice finally breaking.

"Oh Scully..." I said, wanting to put my arm around her 
to comfort her, yet knowing that I really needed to focus 
on the road as the traffic was beginning to get heavier. 
"Why didn't you tell me any of this before?"

Sniffling and wiping the moisture off her cheeks, she
answered, "Because I'm afraid.  I'm afraid of what it
all means."

Listening to her talk about what it was like for her 
while I was gone made my heart ache with guilt, and 
although I knew that pulling over onto the shoulder 
of the road wasn't the best thing to do on a busy 
highway, I started to do it anyway.

"Mulder, what are you doing?" she asked, tightly grabbing 
my forearm as I slowed down and began to ease my way over
to the right. 

"Pulling over."

"You can't just pull off a busy highway, Mulder.  It's 
dangerous."

"And you can't tell me all these things and not expect
me to react to them," I snapped.  "Now I can't do that 
while I'm still driving.  I'm pulling over." 

"Okay," she conceded, looking straight ahead instead of
at me.

Seeing an exit sign about a quarter mile ahead of us, I
sped up again and kept driving.  "We'll get off at this
next exit," I mumbled, silently admitting that she was
right and that it was too dangerous to stop along the 
busy interstate.  "And then we need to talk about this,
Scully."

Still looking straight ahead, she reached over and put
her hand on top of my knee, and replied, "I know." 

~~~~~~

8:55 a.m.


I wasn't surprised to find Mulder and Scully gone once 
I got back to the motel. I had a feeling that even though 
he hadn't looked directly at me when I was in the restaurant, 
Agent Mulder somehow felt my presence, and upon doing so,
he had immediately gathered up all of his and Scully's 
things and checked them out of their motel room as quickly 
as he could. 

I also wasn't surprised that he thought he could outsmart
me by traveling to a new location. 

When I first met him at the facility, I immediately recognized 
the depth of his intelligence and resourcefulness, but now 
that he's feeling threatened, I'm sure he's more determined 
than ever to do whatever it takes to keep his family safe.

Which makes me all the more determined to find him.

Opening up the trunk of the car, I reached into the back
and took out the black rectangular box my superiors had 
given me the day I started this assignment.  Yesterday
I had been able to locate the two of them without using 
the box, but today I had no idea where they were headed. 

After carefully unlatching the lid, I looked inside at 
the intricate control panel.  It had been specifically
designed for Agent Mulder, and although I had never been 
lucky enough to use a box like this before, I had read 
about its capabilities.

With trembling fingers, I inserted the tiny ear piece 
into my right ear and turned on the volume button.

And then I listened.

The words I heard in my head were faint at first, as if
they were coming from the end of a tunnel, but then they 
gradually became louder until finally I could hear his 
voice as clearly as if he was standing right in front 
of me.

Surely, I wasn't hearing what I thought I was.

Or was I?

Hurrying back into the car and sitting down in the front 
seat, I closed my eyes and completely focused on the 
man's voice I heard in my head.

This was unbelievable.  

Somehow this tiny black box was giving me access to 
something I never dreamed I'd get the chance to hear.

Mulder's thoughts.

~~~~~~

Once we got off the exit ramp, Mulder turned into a Shell
gas station parking lot and parked the car way over to the
side where there weren't any other cars or trucks.  After
shutting off the engine, I watched as he tilted his head 
back against the head rest, closed his eyes, and began 
to rub the palm of his hand back and forth over the top 
of his thigh. Usually I can read his body language pretty
well, but right now I had no idea what was going through 
his mind. 

All I knew was that the inside of the car was quiet.

Too quiet.

"I owe you an apology, Scully," he finally said, breaking
the rather uncomfortable silence between us. 

My mouth dropped open in surprise.  "You do?"

He turned towards me and put his hand on my shoulder.
"Yes, I do."

"For what?  I'm the one who brought up some things we 
should've talked about before," I remarked, shifting 
my body in the seat so that I was facing him.

"But that's just it, Scully.  Ever since I've been back,
I haven't asked you about *any* of those things.  I don't 
really know what it was like for you while I was gone...
what you felt, what you did and thought about all those
months...I don't know about any of it," he said, letting
out an exasperated sigh.

"And I don't know what it was like for *you* all those
months either, Mulder," I pointed out.  He looked away 
from me then, but I quickly touched his chin with my 
finger and turned his face back towards me.  "But that 
doesn't mean that we're trying to keep things from one 
another.  It just means that we haven't had a chance to 
talk about them yet. I want to tell you what things were 
like then, I want to tell you all of it, but right now 
the only thing I can think about is getting somewhere 
safe."
 
Putting his arms around me, he whispered, "All I wanted 
when I came back to you and our baby was to love the two
of you.  I never wanted any of this for us, Scully."

I rested my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes. "I
know."

He kissed my head and stroked my hair. "I won't let anyone 
hurt you or Anna."

Pulling him even closer to me, I replied, "And I won't 
let anyone take you from me again." 

~~~~~~

Incredible.

Absolutely incredible.

I was actually hearing the thoughts of a human being.

I had only been listening to Agent Mulder for a few 
minutes, but I was completely mesmerized by what I
heard.

His thoughts were an emotional whirlwind...a mixture of
fear and regret and frustration that I found absolutely 
fascinating...but what amazed me even more than the 
variety of emotions he was feeling was the fact that 
every one of those emotions were connected to his love 
for two people.

Scully and a child he's never even seen.

~~~~~~

"We should get out of here," I said, pulling back from 
our embrace. "We've got a lot of driving ahead of us if 
we're going up to Michigan."

"Is that really where you think we should go?"

"I'm not sure why, but I think we'll be safe there...
if we can find the right place to stay," I answered.

"But what about that woman you saw this morning?  What 
makes you think she won't find us no matter where we 
go?  If she's one of Them, she can probably get to us 
any time she wants to, and if she's not, then what 
reason would she have for following us?" she asked, 
her voice full of uncertainty.  "I don't understand 
any of this, Mulder."

"I'm not sure how it all fits together yet either, but 
the fact of the matter is that *someone* is going to a 
lot of trouble to keep tabs on me, and I want to know 
why...and how."

"I know this is the last thing you'd ever expect to 
hear me asking, but is it possible that They could be 
tracking you somehow?" she asked hesitantly.

"What do you mean, Scully?" I replied, even though I 
knew exactly what she was talking about.

"Mulder, when I examined you back at my apartment, I 
didn't feel or see anything unusual, but what I did 
was just a basic external exam.  How do you know that 
They didn't put something inside of you, some sort of 
implant or tracking device?"

The truth was I didn't know.

There was still so much I couldn't remember from the 
past six months.

Was it because They did something to me to take away my
memories or was it because I didn't want to remember?

And what if They did put something inside of me? Why 
can't I feel it? I can feel and hear Anna all the time, 
but she's in Scully's body, not mine.
 
Then again, maybe that's exactly what They did.

When I first returned, I had considered the possibility 
that They had done something to me to heighten my 
awareness of Anna, but since I didn't *physically* feel 
any different, I had pushed the idea to the back of my 
mind.  

But now to actually hear Scully say out loud what I had 
been thinking...

Maybe what They did was actually put something inside of 
me that allows me to not only communicate with her, but 
also allows Them to keep track of me.

"Oh my God," I suddenly whispered.

"Mulder, what is it?" 

I could hear her voice, but I couldn't hear her words.

"Mulder, what's the matter?  Are you alright?"

I could still hear her voice and I knew that she was 
touching my arm now, but I couldn't really feel it.

I couldn't feel anything.

"I asked you a question, several questions, in fact. 
Didn't you hear me, Mulder?" she asked, squeezing my
arm and slightly tilting her head to the side in that 
concerned way that she does.

"I heard you, Scully," I answered, finally shaking 
myself out of my stupor. 

"You look a little pale.  Are you alright?" she asked 
as she pressed the back of her hand against my forehead.

I closed my eyes for a moment, then quietly said under
my breath, "I want you to examine me again."

~~~~~~

He knows.

He knows that we put something inside of him, something
that has enabled him to have telepathic access to his 
unborn daughter.

I have to admit I thought he'd figure it out sooner, 
but now that he has, the question is...what is he going 
to do about it?

Will he figure out where we put the monitoring device 
and immediately try to remove it, causing me to lose 
the one tangible connection I have to him?

Or will he be too afraid to remove it for fear of getting
cancer like Scully did when she removed her implant?

Or what if he doesn't find it at all?

When I put it inside of him, I put it in a place where 
it would be difficult to detect. Perhaps he won't be 
able to find it, and I can continue to track him and 
his thoughts without interruption.

As I was looking down at the complex box in my hands and
pondering what I should tell my superiors about this 
latest development, I was startled out of my reverie by 
two loud taps against the window.

"Ah excuse me, ma'am," said an older man who was now
standing next to my car gesturing for me to roll down 
the window.  "Are you registered here at the motel, 
Miss...?" he asked.

"Camry," I stated proudly. "My name's Camry, and no sir,
I'm not a motel guest."

Luckily his eyes were too busy taking in my appearance
to notice the equipment I was holding.  Taking advantage 
of his obvious attraction to me, I seductively brushed 
my fingertips across my lips while quickly setting the 
black box over in the passenger seat with my other hand, 
then replied as sweetly as I could, "Is there a problem, 
sir?"

Loosening his tie and clearing his throat, he replied,
"Unless you're a registered guest here, I'm afraid I'm
going to have to ask you to leave.  These parking spots
are only for those people staying here at the motel."

Little did he know that I had spent all of last night
monitoring Mulder and Scully while parked in one of his 
precious parking spots.  Pleased with the knowledge that
I knew something he didn't, I smiled politely and 
flirtaciously batted my eye lashes a few times.  "I'm 
sorry...it's just that I've been driving for a really 
long time, and I needed to take a break."

The man bent down closer to my window and put his hands
on the window ledge. "I can fix ya up with a real nice 
room if you want to rest awhile, Miss Camry," he suggested.

"That's not necessary, Jerry...that is your name, right?
I can see it on your motel badge."  I leaned over in my
seat and put my left hand on top of his.  "If you could
just tell me the best route to take to get to Michigan,
I'd be grateful...*very* grateful."

Tiny beads of sweat began to form above Jerry's upper 
lip and he loosened his tie even more, and it was all 
I could do to keep from laughing at his gullibility.  

Why is it that human men turn into drooling idiots when
they're around an attractive woman?

First, it was that greasy busboy hitting on me at the 
diner this morning, and now this Jerry person.  

Agent Mulder never treated me that way.

During all those months I was testing him at the facility, 
he never looked at me as a sexual object. 

Not once.

"Miss Camry?" said Jerry, disrupting my thoughts. "Do you
need to write those directions down?"

"No, I'll remember," I answered, knowing full well that 
I didn't really need the directions anyway. "You've been
very helpful, Jerry.  Thank you," I added, giving him one
last thrill by squeezing his hand and winking at him. 
"Now if you'll excuse me, I really need to be on my way."

And with those parting words, I quickly turned on the
engine and peeled out of the parking lot, leaving poor 
Jerry and his sweaty upper lip behind.

~~~~~~

"What did you say?" I asked with bewilderment.

"I want you to examine me again, Scully.  I want you to
check me over right now," he stated firmly.

"We're in a car in a gas station parking lot, Mulder. I
can't examine you here."

He took hold of both my arms and leaned in closer to my
face.  "I need you to," he pleaded. "I need to know, 
Scully."

The panicked look I saw in his eyes frightened me, and 
despite the fact that this was no place for a physical
exam, I said the only thing I could say. 

"Okay, I'll do it."

~~~~~~

I knew as well as Scully that the front seat of our car 
wasn't the ideal place for giving me a physical exam, 
but right now, I didn't care about that.

All I cared about was getting to the truth.

She took my right wrist in her hand and turned my arm
over.  Then she began to press her fingers into my skin, 
working her way up from the palm of my hand to my shoulder.
"What's this all about, Mulder?" she asked in a calm 
voice even though I could tell by her demeanor that she 
was anything but calm. "Do you think They put something 
inside of you to keep track of your whereabouts?" 

"That's exactly what I think," I replied quietly as I 
watched her perform the same ritual on my left arm. "And
I think that whatever it is, it's also connected to what
I'm experiencing with Anna."

"But Mulder, why now? Why not tell me about this sooner?"
she asked with a puzzled expression on her face.

"Because I didn't want to believe it. Because I *don't*
want to believe it, that They're tracking me like a wild 
animal...that They're manipulating an innocent child, 
*our* child, Scully..." I said, closing my eyes.

"I don't want to believe it either," she whispered as 
I felt her cup her hand around my cheek.

"I had considered the possibility of all of this when I
first started experiencing such strong sensations about
Anna, but when I didn't see or feel any unusual marks 
on my body and you didn't find anything wrong with me, 
I pushed the idea to the back of my mind.  Now I don't 
know, Scully. I just don't know," I said, lowering my 
head.

"Mulder, as much as we both want to figure all of this 
out, a gas station parking lot in Fall Branch, Tennessee 
is not the place we should be discussing this, and it's 
definitely not the right place for giving you another 
exam."

"I know that. It's just that I want to be sure, Scully. 
I mean...I don't know...maybe I'm completely wrong about 
all of this...but I don't think so." 

"I don't think you're wrong either, and I don't think 
it's a coincidence that the same car that chased us 
outside my apartment the other day just happened to 
appear at our motel this morning," she remarked.  Then 
she brushed her hand across her forehead and let out a 
sigh. "Look Mulder, I know you're worried, and so am I, 
but right now I think it's more important for us to keep 
moving. We need to keep driving and put some more distance 
between us and whoever it is that was driving that car 
this morning."

As anxious as I was to have her perform another, more
thorough exam on me, I knew she was right.

We had to keep moving.

"You're right, Scully," I conceded, immediately taking 
note of the relief I saw in her expression.  "The longer 
we stay here, the better chance that woman has of finding 
us.  I'm going to pull around to a pump and top off the 
tank, and you should probably try to use the restroom 
again before we get back on the highway," I said as I 
turned the key in the ignition.

Grabbing my forearm before I could put the car in reverse,
she put her other hand over her belly and quietly said, 
"Everything's going to be alright, Mulder...for all three 
of us.  We have to believe that."

Leaning over and kissing her cheek, I put my hand on top
of our daughter too, who immediately greeted me with a 
gentle flurry of kicks. 

And in that moment, nothing else needed to be said. 



~~~~~~
chapter eight
~~~~~~


*This chapter is rated R.*


2:21 pm


"You doin' okay, Scully?" he asked, releasing a long puff 
of air and loosening his grip on the steering wheel now 
that he'd gotten through Knoxville and made the turn north 
onto interstate 75. "You need to stretch your legs or use
the bathroom?"

"I'm fine, Mulder.  You can keep driving."

Of course, I wasn't fine and neither was he, but neither
one of us wanted to talk about that.

Putting my hands on my abdomen, I began to massage myself, 
closing my eyes and slowly moving both hands in circles.
The soft pressure and heat I felt radiating through my 
belly from my constant rubbing was soothing, and I quickly 
found myself feeling very relaxed.

"Ohhh..." I moaned as I exhaled deeply and let the tension
in my arms and legs flow out of me.

"Are you sure you're okay, Scully?" asked Mulder, a hint
of concern creeping into his voice. "You're not having
another contraction, are you?"

"Actually, I feel pretty good...although I wish it was 
your hands giving me a massage instead of my own," I 
answered, lazily opening my eyes and looking over at 
him.

He smiled back at me, clearly relieved.

"Maybe once we stop for the night, I can help you out
with that," he said, reaching over and placing his own
hand on top of my stomach, then giving it a quick rub
before putting his hand back on the steering wheel.

"I'd like that," I said, giving our daughter a gentle 
pat. "And so would Miss Anna here." I looked down at 
my now rippling belly, suddenly overwhelmed by the fact 
that there was actually a living breathing child growing 
inside of me who was depending on me to keep her safe.

"I just love her so much...you know," I said, tears 
starting to well up in my eyes despite my efforts to 
hold them back.

"I love her too, Scully, and I'll do whatever I have to
to protect her...even if it means I have to..."

"No Mulder, I don't want to think about that," I said,
cutting him off before he could say what I'd been trying
to avoid thinking about for the past several hours.

Ever since we'd left Fall Branch, neither of us had said
anything about what we'd discussed in the gas station 
parking lot...what we both so desperately didn't want 
to believe.

And yet we had to talk about it.  We had to talk about
what we were going to do if it was true, if there was
something inside of Mulder that was giving Them access
to us.

If They did put some kind of an implant in him, would
it be possible for me to remove it?

Or even worse, if it was something that couldn't be
removed, would we have to separate to keep all three 
of us safe?

No, I couldn't think about those things now.

And I certainly couldn't be separated from him again.

"We have to think about it, Scully," he said quietly,
but firmly. "And we have to make a decision about what 
we're going to do if you find something," he added, 
tightening his grip on the steering wheel again.

"I know, but I might not find anything," I offered weakly, 
not really believing my own words.

"Scully, as much as I'd like that to be true, too much 
has happened since I've been back for me to believe 
otherwise. Now I've given this a lot of thought over 
the past couple hours, and I've come to the conclusion 
that there's only one thing that can be done."

He looked away from me and swallowed a couple of times.

"You want me to remove whatever I find, don't you?" I 
interjected before he could say anything.

"Yes."

~~~~~~

I didn't want to think about all the implications.

That I would no longer share a telepathic connection to
Anna.  That it would hurt having Their device cut out of
me and that I could become sick once it was removed.

That Scully would have to do something I knew she really
didn't want to do.

All I wanted was to get it out of me, and the sooner, 
the better.

I reached over and put my hand on her leg. "You know 
it's the right thing to do, Scully."

Sitting up straighter in her seat, she rubbed her eyes
and swiped her hand underneath her nose, then softly
said, "I know."

~~~~~~

This is not good.

If Agent Scully finds the device we put inside of her
partner and removes it, the most important connection 
I have with Agent Mulder will be gone, and I will have 
failed.

At least, that's how They'll see it.

They'll consider me a failure, and They won't allow me 
to ever come back here to study anyone else.

Well, I can't accept that.  I just can't.

Although I've only been here a short time, I've already
come to appreciate this place and all that it has to
offer, but I've also come to appreciate the unique bond 
I've seen between Mulder and Scully.

The emotional, physical, and intellectual connection
they share with each other and their daughter is like
nothing I've ever seen before and probably never will
again.

And that's why I've come to a decision.

No matter what happens with the implant device, no one
is going to stop me from learning more about Agent Mulder.

Not even Them.

~~~~~~

Motel 6
Beree, Kentucky
5:12 pm


"It feels good to get out of the car," commented Mulder 
as he kicked off his shoes and flopped onto the queen 
size bed.

"Yes, it does," I replied, kicking my own shoes off and
sitting down beside him. Leaning back against the pillows,
I stretched out my legs and patted my belly.  "I can't
believe we drove that long without stopping."

"Neither can I, especially since you usually need to use 
the bathroom every half hour," he teased. He put his hand 
on my belly too and smiled.  "So, how's our little stowaway 
doin' anyway?"

"Stowaway?"

"Well, maybe not a stowaway...more like a passenger."  
He pressed his cheek against the top part of my abdomen. 
"A passenger with first class accommodations, right, 
Anna Claire?"

Just then I felt my little passenger begin to stir, most 
likely responding to the sound of her dad's voice.

"She knows you, Mulder. She knows when it's you talking," 
I said, running my fingers through his hair.

"Yes, but it's you who's protecting her right now, Scully." 
He raised his head, lifted up the bottom of my shirt, and 
pulled my pants down a few inches.  Then he kissed me right 
below my belly button and began to lightly trace circles 
over my bare skin with his index finger. "She's lucky to 
have you.  You're going to be a great mom."

Moving my fingers from his hair down to his face, I 
brushed them across his cheek and softly said, "I'm 
the one who's lucky."  Then with both hands, I lifted 
his head up to mine and our lips met, not in a fiery 
moment of passion, but in a quiet moment of love and 
commitment.

"Mmmmm..." I mumbled, my mouth still pleasantly attached 
to his.

"Mmmmm is right," he murmured back, raising himself up
and sliding the palm of his hand down over my belly and 
in between my legs.

My pants were still partway off, and he began to pull at
them.  Lifting my hips up to make things easier for him, 
he tugged at them and then my panties until they were all 
the way off, then tossed them on the floor beside the bed.

"You feel so good," I said, sliding my hand over the rapidly 
growing erection beneath his jeans.

He sprinkled my face with playful wet kisses, working 
his way over to my earlobe, then down my neck.  "So do 
you," he answered, running the tips of his fingers down 
the inside of my thighs and back up again.  "God, you 
feel so warm, Scully...so soft...and wet..." 

He plunged two of his fingers inside of me then, and in 
an instant, every nerve in my body crackled and sizzled 
and I could hear myself gasping for air and I could smell 
his heat on my skin and I could feel my hips rising up 
off the bed...

And then much too soon it was done, the exquisite sensations 
no longer burning through my body, but gently washing over 
me. 

"Hey you, you okay?" he asked, brushing the hair off my 
face.  

"Ohhh..." I moaned. Anything else just required way too 
much energy at the moment.

He pulled the sheets up over me and kissed my blushing 
cheek.  "I guess I don't know my own power," he chuckled 
as he looked down at his left hand.  Then he placed that 
same hand on my very firm stomach and began to massage it. 
"Are you sure you're okay? I didn't hurt the baby, did I?"

I pushed myself up higher against the pillows and let out
an unintentional groan.  "I'm fine, Mulder.  Just give me 
a minute. My body's not used to such direct...stimulation."

"I didn't mean to get so carried away, but you just felt
so good I couldn't stop myself."

I let out a big breath, then another as a mild contraction
squeezed at my abdomen, making it feel even harder. "I 
didn't want you to stop," I said, gripping his arm and 
breathing through my mouth.

"You're having a contraction now, aren't you?" he asked, 
his voice filled with worry. "Damn it. I'm sorry, Scully."

I inhaled again.  "I'm not."

And I wasn't sorry.  Having him touch me that way, *want*
me that way, was one of the things I missed the most when
he was gone all those months, and letting his hands have
control over me like that was just what I had needed.

And wanted.

"You have nothing to apologize for, Mulder," I said, 
letting out another deep breath. "Besides, it's already 
done, and actually, I think it was milder than the ones 
I had before."

"Are you sure?" he asked, his forehead still creased 
with concern.

I picked up his hand and placed it on my abdomen. "I'm
fine now, see?"

With his fingers splayed out across my abdomen, he lightly
pressed down and said, "It doesn't feel as tight as it did
before, and you look better...although you do still have 
that motherly glow on your face."

"Actually, I'd say it's more of a 'satisfied woman glow',"
I said, smiling.

"Well, I'm just glad you're okay," he stated, sliding
back on the bed so he was lying down again.  

I immediately noticed the rather large bulge still pushing
against the front of his jeans, and even though I was 
exhausted, I knew what I had to do. 

No, what I *wanted* to do.

"You know, Mulder, I think you could use a little *glow* 
on your cheeks too." Lowering myself down onto my side, 
I unsnapped his jeans and pulled down the zipper, then
waited for him to pull them off.  He had barely gotten
them all the way down over his ankles before I eagerly
slid my hand inside the waistband of his boxers. 

A small gasp escaped from his mouth and his stomach
began to ripple as my fingers encircled and squeezed
his erection.

"You don't have to do this, Scully," he said, but I
could tell by the look on his face that he very much
wanted me to.

"I know, but I want to," I replied, increasing the
pressure and movement of my hand.

He closed his eyes and gripped the edge of the bed, 
and within seconds I could see a light sheen of sweat 
break out on his forehead.  "That feel good?" I asked,
leaning over and kissing his damp forehead.

"Mmmmm..." he moaned, his hips rising and straining
with each stroke of my hand. "Better than good...don't...
stop...don't..."

And I didn't stop.

I kissed his face, his neck, his chest, his stomach,
all without breaking the rhythm of my hand, but just
as I was about to go even lower for a taste, it happened. 

The tightening of his stomach, the arching of his back,
the clenching of his teeth, the quickness of every breath.

The release...

God, he looked beautiful.

He was wild and virile and out of control, and everything 
else that was going on in our lives right now faded from 
my mind.

But only for a moment.

All of a sudden, he lurched upward and grabbed his head 
with both hands, his elbow knocking me back against the 
pillows in the process. "Shit!" he exclaimed, squeezing his 
eyes shut and biting down hard on his bottom lip. "My 
head...Scully...my head..." he winced as he scrunched 
his face up even tighter.

"Mulder, what is it?  What's happening?" I cried out,
pushing myself back up again and taking hold of his arm.

No response.

"Mulder, please...talk to me. Tell me what's going on," 
I pleaded, but just then I was hit with my own sharp pain, 
a hard kick to the bottom of my stomach. "Ooommppphh..." 
I blurted out as I clenched my teeth and gripped the 
sheets in my fists.

Then just as quickly another kick came, this one up higher 
by my ribs.  I tried to concentrate on my breathing, but 
before I could get it under control, Anna kicked me again 
so hard that she made me see tiny yellow spots in front of
my eyes.

"You've got to stop this, Anna, please..." I whispered,
closing my eyes and wrapping both my arms tightly around 
her. 

"Believe him," she said.

My eyes flew open, and I immediately looked down at my 
now rapidly moving belly.  

"Anna?  Is that you?" I whispered.

"Believe him," she repeated, this time her voice much
clearer.

Completely oblivious to everything else around me now, 
I concentrated only on what I was hearing, and what I
was hearing was my unborn daughter talking to me.

"Believe who?" I asked, moving my hands across my abdomen 
and trying to figure out which way Anna was positioned 
inside of me.

Gently nudging my left side with what I think was her 
head, she quietly replied, "My dad."

~~~~~~

I'm in an examination room.

The walls are blue, the ceiling white, and I can feel
cold air blowing at me from all sides.  The lightweight 
gown I'm wearing is thin, so thin that it's nearly worn 
through in some spots.  And my feet are bare.

Normally I like to be barefoot, but not here.

I don't like anything here.

I am alone now, but I know that at any moment, someone 
is going to come in here and ask me more questions. The 
last time They didn't like my answers, they gave me a 
shot of something, and although the shot itself didn't 
hurt, the look in the woman's eyes who stuck the needle 
into my arm terrified me.

I wonder if she's going to be the one who comes in here 
this time.

There's a table in the room, a black one, and it's covered 
not with white paper like most doctor's offices, but with 
a gray cloth.  I walk over to the table and try to pull 
the cloth off of it so I can wrap it around my cold body, 
but the moment I begin to tug on it, an alarm goes off, 
a shrill high-pitched alarm that hurts my ears and makes 
my knees feel weak.

In an instant, the door to the room bursts open and three 
of Them come in.  Two are men, the other is the same woman 
that I saw before. I don't like the way They make me feel, 
and I try to yell, but before I can even open my mouth, 
the women sticks a gag in it and pushes me down on the 
table.

I struggle to get up, but the two men hold me down and 
attach some clamps to my wrists and ankles.

"Don't make this difficult for yourself, Agent Mulder," 
the woman says as she writes something down on a chart.  
She has brown hair and a tiny cleft on her chin, and 
although her eyes frightened me before, they look less 
threatening now.

I try to say something back to her, but the gag in my 
mouth is too tight.

"Contrary to what you believe, we don't want to hurt you.  
We only want to study you."  She bends down closer to my 
face then and runs her fingers across it as if she's
scanning it for information. After writing something else 
down on her chart, she does the same thing with my hair, 
running her fingers through it and pressing down on my 
scalp in various places.  "This will be suitable, " she 
states, pressing down particularly hard on a spot on the 
right side of my head.

Surprisingly though, the pressure I feel from her touch 
isn't painful, but numbing instead. The longer her fingers 
press down on my scalp, the less I feel and within a matter 
of seconds, I can't feel anything.

She turns to the men then and says, "Go tell Them he's
ready, and that I'm going to insert the device now."

Taking a small bottle out of her lab coat pocket, she 
opens it up, then dumps something out into her hand that
is so tiny, I can't see it.

My eyes grow wider as she leans over me, just inches 
above my face, and with the tiny object placed between
her thumb and index finger, she pushes it into the right
side of my head. 

But how is this possible?  How is she able to insert 
something into my brain with her bare hand?

Just then I feel one slight spasm and then nothing.

"I told you I wasn't going to hurt you," the woman 
says as she pulls her fingers back out of my head, 
washes them off, and writes yet another thing down on 
her chart.

After undoing the clamps on my wrists and ankles and 
taking the gag out of my mouth, she walks over to the 
door and says, "You won't remember any of this so don't 
even try."

And then she's gone.

~~~~~~

When I opened my eyes after apparently experiencing some
sort of blackout, Mulder was still beside me, holding 
the sides of his head and mumbling something.  He didn't 
look like he was in pain anymore, but his eyes were glazed
over, his expression blank.

"It's here," he whispered, tapping the right side of his
head with his fingers.  "It's here."

"What's here?" I asked quietly, not wanting to push him 
too quickly.

"It's here...inside.  She put it here," he said, his
eyelids now fluttering. "With her hands..."

What did he say?

Still feeling rather shaky from my "conversation" with 
Anna, I grunted and groaned as I pushed myself up to a 
more upright position.  Not surprisingly, Mulder was 
completely oblivious to my discomfort as well as the 
fact that his penis was still hanging out of his boxers 
from before.

After wiping him off with the sheet and gently tucking 
him back inside his shorts, I gradually moved my hand 
up over his stomach, his chest, and then up to his face.  

"Went inside...touched my brain," he mumbled incoherently.

Not dissuaded by his ramblings, I continued to move my 
hand up further, touching his cheek and then carefully 
placing it on the side of his head where his own hand 
was resting.

"Is it right here, Mulder?" I asked calmly, even though 
I felt anything but calm at the moment.

Just then he looked at me, his eyes wide and disoriented.
"Scully?"

"Yes, it's me," I answered tentatively.

Watching him as he desperately tried to process what had 
just happened, I could practically see the gears in his 
brain turning as his eyes nervously darted around the 
room.

"You're okay, Mulder.  Just take some deep breaths and
relax," I suggested, wishing I was able to follow my own 
advice. 

The truth was I wasn't completely clear on what had just
happened to both of us either, and every bone and muscle 
in my body felt tight and uncomfortable, not to mention 
the fact that I really had to pee.

"I'm going to go use the bathroom right now, and when
I come back, we're going to figure all of this out,
okay, Mulder?" I said, leaning forward to get a better 
look at his eyes.

Unlike before, his gaze was intensely focused on mine
now, and I could tell that he was completely aware of 
me and his surroundings.

"Are you and Anna alright, Scully?" he asked, touching
my leg. 

"I think so," I replied as I swung my legs over the 
side of the bed. "But we need to talk about this."

Leaning back against the pillows and letting out a
contemplative sigh, he replied, "Yes, we do."



~~~~~~
chapter nine
~~~~~~


The pieces of the puzzle were falling into place.

Grant it, they were tiny pieces, but still, little by
little, things were beginning to come back to me.

Now I just had to somehow put them all together.

Closing my eyes, I pressed my fingers to the right side
of my head, and tried to remember more.

"I'm okay, Scully," I said without opening my eyes.

I could hear her walking back over to me from the bathroom,
her footsteps heavier now that she had Anna to carry around.
"You do look better than before.  What happened to you?"
she asked as she sat down beside me.

"I'm not sure exactly," I replied, opening my eyes and
taking my hand away from my head.

She tracked my eye movement, then pressed her cool fingers 
to my forehead again.  "What do you remember?"

"We were having sex," I said, detecting the faint scent of
my semen in the air.  Touching my slightly damp boxers, I
remembered the overpowering sensation of the orgasm I had
had followed by the sudden pain I had felt in my head.  
"And then I felt this sharp pain...right here," I added, 
putting my index finger on the exact spot where it had 
hurt the most.

"That's the spot you pointed to before," she remarked.

"Before?"

"You were mumbling something before about how it was right
there and that *she* put it there with her hands. Do you
remember saying any of that, Mulder?" she asked anxiously.

I *did* remember it, not as well as I wanted to, but I 
remembered it. 

Now I just had to figure out how to explain it to Scully.

~~~~

"I remember," he said quietly, nervously licking his
bottom lip.  "I remember what was done to me...and as
impossible as it may sound to you, I need you to believe
me."

Believe him.

That's the same thing Anna had asked me to do.

But why?

Why was it so important for me to believe what he was
about to say?  Was what They had done to him even worse
than what was done to me all those years ago?

"Scully, did you hear me?" he asked, disrupting my
thoughts.

"I heard you.  Tell me what you remember," I said, my
body stiffening as I braced myself for what was coming.

Turning towards me and putting both hands on my shoulders,
he leaned in closer to my face and said, "That spot I 
pointed to before...it's where the tracking device is,
and it was put there by a woman using only her fingers...
no scalpel, no latex gloves, just two bare fingers."

"I don't know what to say, Mulder," I immediately replied
even though my brain was still trying to make sense of 
his words.

"Say you believe me," he replied simply, his eyes searching
mine for something, anything, he could hold onto.

Thinking about all that had happened to us the past few 
days and remembering what Anna had said to me before, I 
put my hand over his and placed them on my belly, then 
calmly said, "I believe you...and so does your daughter."

~~~~

I can't believe it.

He remembers.  He actually remembers what I did to him.

How could my calculations have been so wrong?

In all my studies of him, I thought I knew what he was
capable of and what his limitations were, but apparently
I didn't take into account just how powerful his mind was.

Just how was it that he was able to remember what I did 
to him when I specifically programmed the device in his 
head to make him forget?

Did the emotions I developed for him while he was at the
facility cloud my judgment enough to affect the way I had
treated him?  

No, that couldn't be true. It just couldn't be.  When I 
inserted the device into his head, I did everything right.  
I'm sure of it...so how?

How was he able to remember?

Turning off the small rectangular box, I tossed it over 
into the passenger seat, then quickly got out of the car 
and walked around to the back.  Opening up the trunk, I 
grabbed all the files I had on Agent Mulder and rapidly 
began to scan my notes.

"Is everything okay? Do you need some help?" a woman's
voice asked, startling me from behind.

Clutching the papers to my chest so she couldn't see them,
I spun around and looked at her. She had short black hair,
wore red framed glasses, and was carrying a purse.  From 
the looks of her badge, she was probably a motel employee 
either leaving for the night or on her way inside to start 
her evening shift.

"Ma'am, are you okay?" she asked again. "Do you need some
help bringing your things up to your room?"

Unlike the man back at that other motel, the woman had a 
friendly face and genuinely seemed interested in helping 
me. Of course, she'd probably faint right on the spot if
she actually knew why I was here, but still, I could tell 
by the look on her face that she was being honest with me, 
so I decided to give her a break and be nice to her.

"I'm fine.  I just got back from a science conference, 
and I was checking over my notes to make sure I didn't 
leave anything there, that's all.  My boss wouldn't be 
very happy with me if I didn't have everything I was 
supposed to have," I lied, although I guess it wasn't 
technically a lie since my bosses were counting on me 
to be as thorough as possible with my field research 
on Agent Mulder.

"Well, okay.  My name's Jamie, and I'll be at the front 
desk all night if you need anything," she said, smiling 
at me.

"I'm Camry...and thanks," I responded, carefully holding
onto my notes with one hand and closing the trunk with 
the other.

"Can I carry something inside for you?" asked Jamie, 
turning towards the motel entrance.

"No, I can get it. Besides, I have a few more things 
inside the car I need to get," I lied again, having 
absolutely no intention of going inside the motel.  
"Thanks though."

"Sure.  I hope you enjoy your stay here," she remarked 
as she left.

"I'm sure I will," I replied as I watched her walk off.

What a nice specimen, much nicer than that other motel
employee back in Tennessee and definitely better than 
that annoying busboy back at the diner.

In fact, I kind of liked the way she looked too.  Down
to earth, yet very professional.

Perhaps the next time I need to change my appearance, 
I'll change into her.

~~~~

She believes me.

Despite the improbability of it all, despite the fact
that it goes against every scientific theory she knows
and trusts, she believes me.

And so does my daughter.

I have never felt more love for the two of them than I 
do right now.

Or more fear.

"You have to take it out of me, Scully," I said quietly,
kissing the top of her head. "It's the right thing to do."

"Is it?  And what happens if I can't get to it, if it's 
buried too deep?  What happens if I take it out, and you 
get sick...or even worse, what if you die?  What happens 
then, Mulder?  What are Anna and I supposed to do then?" 
she said, the words tumbling out so fast, she was practically 
hyperventilating.

"That's not going to happen."

"How can you say that? You don't know what's going to 
happen," she snapped back, her eyes fiery, her cheeks
flushed.

"No, I don't, but I know you...and I trust you." I put my
hands on her shoulders and leaned in closer to her face.  
"You won't hurt me, and if something does go wrong, I 
know you'll find a way to fix it," I stated with complete 
certainty.

She took a deep breath then, wrapping her arms around her
stomach and looking down at the floor, no doubt trying to
calm herself down and think of a logical reason why she 
shouldn't do this for me.

Unfortunately, nothing about our lives was logical anymore.

Our unborn daughter speaking to us, a mysterious woman
following us all around the country, a chip or tracking 
device or whatever the hell it is put inside my head 
without the use of any surgical instruments.

Yeah, I'd say we passed logical a long time ago.

"I'll do it," she said so softly I almost didn't hear her.
She stood up from the bed.  "I'll do it...but only on one
condition."

"What's that?" I asked, suddenly feeling very exposed with
only my boxers on. Getting up from the bed, I grabbed my
t-shirt from the floor and quickly pulled it on over my 
head.

Putting her hands on her hips and setting herself in her
'This is how it's going to be' stance, she replied, "I'll
try to remove it, but once I make the incision, if I can't
locate it or if I see that it's impossible to take it out
without hurting you, I'm leaving it in."

I nodded.

"I mean it, Mulder.  I won't take any unnecessary chances
with your life...I just won't," she said, her eyes filled
with even more determination than her words.

"Okay," I agreed.  I walked over to her and put my arms
around her.  "I trust your judgment," I said, resting my
chin on the top of her head.

She pressed her cheek against my chest.  "I just don't
want to do anything that would hurt you, Mulder."

"How many times have I gotten cut during the course of 
our partnership?"

"Too many to count."

"And out of all those times, have I ever had a problem
with the incision or the way my stitches healed?"

"No," she answered, fiddling with the bottom edge of my 
t-shirt. "But what about last year?  It took you weeks 
to recover from that."

I lifted her head from my chest and held her face in my
hands.  "Yes, it did, but those men were butchers who
were only concerned with how much genetic material they
could suck from my brain," I said, trying not to grit my
teeth as memories of what they had done to me back then
raced through my mind.  Then I pressed my lips on the 
side of her forehead, closed my eyes and continued, "You 
love me, and you don't want to hurt me...and that makes 
all the difference in the world."

"I do love you," she whispered, her eyes filling up with
tears despite the fact that she was trying to hold them 
back.

Wiping the moisture from my own eyes, I cleared my throat,
kissed her cheek and said, "Well, then let's get this show 
on the road."

~~~~

Well, that was interesting.

I just talked to my bosses, and it seems They're not too
happy with me. They're also not happy about the fact that 
Agent Scully is going to try to remove Mulder's tracking 
device.

They told me to use whatever means possible to stop her
or I would be considered a failure and banned from ever
working again at the facility.

Needless to say, I told Them to screw it.

When I agreed to take on this assignment, my sole purpose
was to learn what I could from Agent Mulder, take the
information I gathered, and present it to Them...not to
hurt him or Scully or their daughter.

I mean, I like poking around in specimens' heads and seeing 
the look of fear in their eyes as much as the next clone, 
but even I have my limits.

I refuse to hurt them, and if Scully's actually able to 
take the device out of his head, well then, I guess I'll 
just have to come up with some other way to monitor him.

Pleased with myself for making such a bold decision against
my superiors, I leaned back in my seat and let myself do 
something I'd never done before.

I smiled.

~~~~~~

6:35 pm


"How do you feel, Mulder?  Are you comfortable lying like 
that?" I asked, double-checking everything to make sure 
I had what I needed for what I was about to do.

Reaching out and taking hold of my forearm, he looked up 
at me and said, "It's okay, Scully.  I'm in good hands."

That was all I needed.

"Well then, let's get this show on the road," I declared, 
repeating the same words he had spoken to me earlier.

I had already shaved off a small patch of hair on the right 
side of his head where he said the device was, and although 
it looked rather strange to have that one chunk of hair 
missing, it actually made him look even more beautiful to
me.

What he's endured over the years, what he's survived...most 
men would've given up long ago, but not him.  

Not him, not ever...

"I'm ready whenever you are, doc," he said, a slight smile 
on his face.

"Okay, in just a minute I'm going to give you something
that will deaden the nerves in the area where I'm going 
to make the incision."  I checked the syringe, then slowly 
began to insert it into the side of his head. "You're going 
to feel a little prick, but you need to lie still."

"Hey, that sounds like something I'd say to you, Scully," 
he teased as he clenched his fists at his sides.

I carefully pulled out the syringe and replied, "True, but 
I don't think 'little' is the right word to describe it,
do you?"

He chuckled and winced at the same time, and I quickly took 
hold of his hand, gently prying open his fingers.  "It's 
alright.  I'm done now. Just relax, and let the shot take 
effect."

"Anyone ever tell you that you have a sexy bedside manner, 
Dr. Scully?" he commented as he lightly rubbed his thumb 
over my knuckles.

"Just you," I replied.

"Good answer," he said, squeezing my hand in return.

~~~~

6:55 pm


"I don't see it, Mulder."

"It's there, I know it."

"I believe you, but I don't see anything.  Either it's 
lodged deeper in your brain or it's not where you think 
it is."

"It's there.  Go deeper."

"I won't do that."

"You have to get it out of me, Scully," I insisted weakly, 
knowing full well that she wasn't about to do what I asked 
no matter what I said.  

"I told you before.  I'm not risking your life for this, 
and that's final," she said firmly.  

She was right, of course.  Making a deeper incision would 
require anesthesia, and we didn't have that, let alone all 
the other proper medical equipment.

"I'm sorry," I said softly, looking away from her.  "I'm 
sorry I made you do this."

"You didn't make me do anything. *We* made this decision 
together, Mulder.  Now I need you to hold still while I 
close this up," she said as she made the first stitch and
then the second one.

"I know there's something inside of me, Scully. I'm sure 
of it," I said, letting out a frustrated sigh.

"I think so too," she agreed. "But for now, it's going 
to have to stay in."

As much as I hated the fact that They were still going 
to be able to monitor my activities and possibly even
my thoughts, a small part of me actually felt relieved 
that Scully hadn't been able to take the device out.

Because of it, I was experiencing something truly unique 
with my daughter, and although I thought I was ready to 
sever the connection that made it possible, I suddenly 
realized that I wasn't ready at all.

At least not yet anyway.

"I'm almost done, Mulder.  You doin' okay?"

"I think so...I feel kind of dizzy though," I replied, 
closing my eyes in hopes of easing my lightheadedness.

"That's not surprising," she said, making another stitch.
"It's a little after 7:00...plus the medication's probably 
starting to wear off a little."

Just then almost as if on cue, my stomach made a long 
rumbling noise.

"Unfortunately, I don't think this motel has room service,
but I did see a diner next door.  When I'm finished, I'll
go get us something."

"No," I quickly said, my eyes flying open.

"I'll be okay, Mulder," she said reassuringly, tying off 
the last stitch and lightly dabbing at my head with some 
gauze. "It's just right next door, and it'll only take
a few minutes."

Her work finished now, she stood up from the chair and 
stretched, pressing her hands to her lower back and 
cocking her head from side to side. "You need to lie 
low for awhile, especially if you're still feeling 
light-headed."

She leaned over and felt my forehead. "You feel a little
warm too.  Let me get you some Tylenol from my bag."

While she was doing that, I slowly raised myself up into
a sitting position.  I still felt a little dizzy, and my
mouth was dry, but at least my head didn't hurt. "Can I 
have some water?"

"Here, take these, and I'll get you some.  What would you
like to eat?" she asked as she unwrapped the plastic from
one of the cups by the sink.

"Something greasy," I answered, although that was probably
the last thing I should be eating right now.

She put some water in the cup and walked back over to the
bed.  "Nice try, Mulder," she said, handing me the cup. 
"How 'bout I get you something light for now, and then if
it stays down and you start feeling better, I'll get you
something big and greasy later," she suggested, her eyes
sparkling.

"Okay," I agreed, moving into a more upright position.

She bent down and gave me a kiss.  "I'll be alright,"
she said as she turned towards the door.

Grabbing her arm before she could leave, I looked up at
her and said firmly, "Be careful."

"I will," she said, taking her gun out of the nightstand
drawer and sticking it inside her jacket pocket.  "If I'm
not back in ten minutes, come get me, okay?"

I smiled.  "You know I will."

~~~~

Tired of having to spend so much time in the car, I had
taken a walk around the motel parking lot and then gone 
inside the diner next door. While sitting at the counter, 
not only did I get to drink this beverage called "coffee,"
but I also got the chance to observe all sorts of humans.

An exhausted-looking mom and dad and their three noisy
kids, a couple that sat on the same side of the booth
and couldn't seem to keep their hands off each other, a
grungy old man who looked like he'd been wearing the same
clothes for days. 

Although it was interesting to watch these specimens, they
weren't nearly as interesting to me as the person who just
walked in the door. 

Agent Scully.

Surprised to see that Agent Mulder wasn't by her side as
he usually was, I had a unique opportunity in front of me.

Should I stay here and observe her, see what she wants
and listen for anything she might say that would tell me
something about her partner or their daughter?

Or should I take advantage of the fact that Mulder's
most likely alone back at their motel room?

Either way I win, but ultimately, my assignment is to
study him.

Paying for my coffee, which by the way, was too bitter
for my liking, I got up and left before Scully had the
chance to get a good look at me.

~~~~

God, I looked awful.

A clump of hair missing, dark circles under my eyes,
stubble on my cheeks and chin, and a bright red line
of stitches on the side of my head.

As soon as Scully left, I had gotten out of bed and
looked at myself in the mirror.

Big mistake.

I mean, I knew I'd look strange with that hair missing,
but I didn't expect the rest of me to look so dark and
disheveled.

Why didn't Scully tell me I looked so bad?

Splashing some water on my face, I leaned even closer
to the mirror and examined the incision on my head.

Was there still really some sort of device inside of me? 
Was there actually a woman out there who reached inside 
my brain and put it there or was my mind playing a cruel 
trick on me?

It had to be true.  It had to be.

Didn't it?

Just then I was hit with another wave of dizziness followed
by an even bigger wave of nausea, and before I could get
over to the toilet, up came the contents of my lunch,
splashing onto the sides of the sink and up on the counter.

~~~~

For someone who prides himself on being discreet, Mulder 
sure has a bad habit of leaving the curtains of his motel 
rooms open just enough on one end so whoever's walking by 
can look inside. He did the same thing back in Tennessee 
too, and although it provided me with an interesting view 
then, I wasn't too happy about it providing a view for 
everyone else to see.

After all he's my specimen to observe, not theirs.

Right now he appears to be vomiting into the sink, no 
doubt as a result of Scully trying to take out the device.  
I remember the first time he did that at the facility, 
how messy it was to clean up, how sour it smelled...it 
was one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen.

From here, I can't tell whether or not she was successful
at removing it, but I can certainly see that Mulder's
hurting right now.

It's amazing to me, really, the strength of his spirit, 
the amount of pain he's able to endure, the way he takes 
the weight of the world on his shoulders time and time 
again.

I have to give him credit for that.

Of course, my bosses wouldn't want to hear me saying that
though.  Then again, They don't like much of anything I 
have to say anymore so I guess it doesn't really matter 
what They think of me at this point.

Watching him like this, I can't help wondering why Agent 
Scully isn't with him right now. Surely, she wouldn't 
have left him in this condition.

Unless she doesn't know about it.

On second thought, I guess it's not all that surprising
that she doesn't know he's sick. From what I've observed
of them so far, they both have a habit of keeping things
to themselves so as not to hurt each other.

In any case, she should be back soon to take care of him.

In the meantime, I should get back to the car and use 
the black box to determine for certain whether or not 
she was able to remove the monitoring device I put inside 
his brain.

Although there's a part of me that wants her to have 
failed so that I can continue to monitor his thoughts, 
there's another part of me that actually hopes she 
succeeded.

I've always enjoyed a good challenge, and keeping tabs 
on the two of them without the use of the device and 
without the support of my superiors would be very 
challenging indeed.

Taking one last look at my specimen uncomfortably hunched 
over the sink, I walked back to my car.

~~~~

Her movements began as tiny flutters, but by the time I
was ready to pay for our food, Anna's entire body was 
rolling all over the place, bumping around inside of me
like a bowling ball.

She wasn't usually very active when I was moving around a
lot, but the fact that her activity had been steadily
increasing ever since I left our motel room gave me an
uneasy feeling.

"What is it, Anna?" I asked her, gently pressing down on
what felt like one of her feet poking into my left side.
"Is it your daddy?" I whispered, nervously scanning the 
diner for anything suspicious-looking.

Feeling too unsettled to wait for a reaction, I quickly
paid for our food and hurried back to our room.

~~~~

Still feeling kind of dizzy, yet no longer nauseous, 
I made my way back to bed, holding onto the wall for 
support.  Collapsing on top of the sheets, I clutched 
a pillow to my stomach and tightly closed my eyes.

And I remembered.

"She's pregnant, you know," said the brown-haired woman.

"I know...and I think it's a girl," I replied.

Excitedly writing something down on her chart, she asked, 
"What else do you know, Agent Mulder?"

"Nothing I'd want to tell you," I said defiantly, looking
her right in the eye as I stood up from the examination
table.

She wrote down something else.

"You do realize you're not going to remember any of this
once We return you," she stated.

"You're letting me go?" I asked, trying not to sound too
hopeful.

Pressing down on the right side of my head where she had
placed the device, she answered, "Soon."

~~~~

When I opened the door to our room, my sense of smell 
was immediately bombarded with the sour odor of vomit.

Hurrying inside, I dropped the bag of food on the table 
and rushed over to Mulder, who was lying on the bed, his 
arms wrapped tightly around a pillow.

"Soon, Scully...soon..." he mumbled, rolling over onto 
his back, the pillow still tucked in between his arms.

I touched his forehead, feeling for a fever.  "I'm right
here," I said softly as I felt his cheek with the back
of my hand.

Although his skin was warm to the touch, he wasn't hot,
and much to my relief, he also didn't appear to be hurt.
If anything, he was simply exhausted, which wasn't really
surprising, considering all that he'd been through in the
short time since he was returned.

I was tired too, but at least I was able to sleep in the 
car during the day when we traveled.  Leaning over him, 
I kissed his forehead and checked the stitches on the side 
of his head. "Just rest," I whispered, pressing my lips 
to his forehead again.

"Scully?" he said, his voice groggy and his eyes unfocused.
"I wasn't feeling very good," he said, slurring his words.

I brushed my hand over his hair.  "I can see that...or 
should I say, I can smell that," I commented, lamely 
trying to use humor to help him become more alert.

Rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands, he said,
"I'm sorry.  I couldn't get to the bathroom fast enough."

I stood up from the bed and walked over to the sink. 
"It's okay, Mulder.  Most of it went down the drain, 
and I'll just clean up the rest," I remarked as I pulled 
some tissues out of the box and wiped around the edge of 
the sink. "How are you feeling now?  Better?"

"I always feel better when you're around, Scully," he 
said, a slight smile crossing his dark unshaven face.  
"I'm just so tired," he added sleepily, closing his eyes 
and letting out an exhausted sigh.

The sink now clean, I picked up the bag of food from the
table and walked back over to the bed.  Sitting down
beside him, I pulled a turkey sandwich out of the bag
and asked, "Still feel like eating something? I got you 
a sandwich.  Mulder?"

I could tell by the way his mouth had dropped open and
the way his breathing had become slower that he was
about asleep, and as anxious as I was to tell him about
what had happened with Anna back at the diner, it would 
have to wait.

Now it was time for him to rest, and as soon as I had
something to eat, I needed to do the same.

~~~~

She failed.

I can't say I'm surprised, but I *am* disappointed. In 
all honesty, I was really hoping that Agent Scully 
would've been able to remove the device from Mulder's 
head.

Not just because it would've been more challenging for me,
but also because I wanted to see how it would've affected
Mulder's feelings towards his daughter.

It's obvious that he loves Anna and is absolutely fascinated
with everything she does, but would he still react to her
in the same way if I hadn't given him a special connection 
to her?

As long as the device stays inside of him, I guess I'll 
never really know.

Or maybe I already do.



~~~~~~
chapter ten
~~~~~~


I'm sitting in a rocking chair.

It's a maple rocking chair with light blue cushions on it,
and it's facing the window.

Outside the leaves on the oak tree rustle in the breeze, 
a few of them fluttering to the ground.

Inside I hold Anna to my chest, her tiny head nuzzled in
the crook of my left arm.

Leaning back in the chair, I slowly rock back and forth
and close my eyes, savoring her soft snoring sounds and
the warmth of her tiny body pressing against my heart.

"You two look comfortable," says Scully quietly as she
walks up behind me and puts her hands on my shoulders.

I kiss Anna's fuzzy head and contentedly reply, "We are."

Opening my eyes, I immediately realized that I wasn't 
sitting in a rocking chair holding my daughter, but 
instead lying beside Scully in a motel room somewhere 
in Kentucky.

And yet I still felt comfortable.

Being careful not to wake her, I rolled over and looked 
at the clock on the nightstand. It was after 8:00, which 
meant that I'd been sleeping for over twelve hours.

No wonder I felt so good.

"You okay, Mulder?" Scully sleepily mumbled, her eyes 
still closed.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you," I replied, rolling
back over and draping my arm across her abdomen. I lightly 
pressed down on the side of her belly, feeling what I thought 
was Anna's head...or maybe it was her bottom.

In either case, it caused her to stir.

"I think I woke up Anna too," I remarked, amazed by the
power I felt every time she responded to my touch.

"I can feel that," said Scully, slipping her hand into
mine.  "I can also feel this," she added, moving our
joined hands down lower where Anna's feet or fists, I
wasn't sure which, were rapidly punching against her.

"She's amazing," I whispered, nuzzling my cheek against
Scully's neck.  "And so is her mom."  

"Ouch...that's rough, Mulder," she said, rubbing her
knuckles across my unshaven chin as she gently pushed 
my head back.

"I thought you liked it rough," I teased, purposely
rubbing my stubbly cheek against her ear.

"You wish," she teased back, pushing me away again.

She rolled over onto her back and looked at me then,
her eyes sparkling, her cheeks tinged with pink. "You're
obviously feeling better," she said, shifting her body
onto its side so she'd be more comfortable. Tilting my
head to the side so she could get a better look at the 
incision she'd made there yesterday, she said, "Your
stitches look good.  No signs of infection."

"I am feeling better...about a lot of things," I declared,
lifting her hand away from my head and kissing the back 
of it.

"Like what?" 

"I had a dream...or maybe it was a vision. I don't know, 
but I know what's really important now," I said with
certainty, letting go of her hand so I could stroke her 
hair instead.  "And it's not whether or not I have an 
implant in my head or whether or not some strange woman 
is following us."

She looked at me intently, her eyebrow slightly raising,
her tongue curling out to the corner of her mouth and
back in again.  "That must've been some dream."

"It was our future, Scully...or at least what I want it
to be."

"What do you mean?" she asked with curiosity.

"I saw myself sitting in a chair holding Anna, and I was
rocking her while she slept. There were no government 
conspiracies to worry about, no impending colonization,
no threats of being separated again. It was just the 
three of us...living our lives the way we should be."

"So I was in this dream too?"

"Of course, you were," I replied, kissing her, then
sitting up in bed.  She sat up too, although it took 
a bit more effort and some assistance on my part.

I put my hand on her belly again and looked deep into
her eyes.  "I don't know where we're going to end up,
and I don't know what's going to happen with this woman
who's following us, but I'm going to do my damnedest to
make a normal life for us, Scully, I promise," I said, 
kissing her again.

"But how can you promise something like that when we
don't really know what we're up against, Mulder?  How
can our lives ever be normal?" she asked.

She was right.

How could I possibly make a promise about the future 
when I had absolutely no idea what it had in store 
for us?

"Faith," I said, suddenly struck by the fact that it was 
all really that simple when it came right down to it. 
Putting both hands over Anna now, I added, "Faith in us, 
in what we can accomplish together.  Faith that we're 
both strong enough to do what we need to do to ensure 
that our daughter has the kind of life she deserves."

Scully looked down at where my hands were caressing our 
daughter, no doubt trying to absorb what I had just said.

Hell, after what I'd just said, I felt like I needed to 
do a little processing myself.

Last night, the only thing I could think about, the only
thing I wanted was for Scully to remove the monitoring
device in my head.

But after getting a good night's sleep and experiencing
a dream I now believe I was meant to have, I felt a kind
of calm acceptance I'd never felt before.

"Are you sure you're okay, Mulder?" asked Scully, lightly
pressing her cool fingers around my incision again and 
interrupting my reverie.

Quickly pulling her into as close of an embrace as you
can give someone who's eight months pregnant, I kissed
the top of her head and replied, "I'm fine."

And I was fine.

For the first time since I'd been returned, I was fine
and more determined than ever to make things right for
all three of us.

~~~~

I never expected this.

I mean, I knew that Agent Mulder believed in extreme
possibilities, but I never expected him to take what
happened in a dream so seriously, especially since it
was such a simple dream.

So he was sitting in a rocking chair holding his daughter
while she slept.

Big deal.

Even with only an hour of sleep each night, I have more
exciting dreams than that.

In any case, I guess what I should be asking myself is 
what caused him to have the dream in the first place.

Was it possible that Agent Scully's attempt to remove his
implant last night somehow affected his subconscious or 
was his connection to Anna becoming so strong now that 
it affected everything he did and felt?

Either way I could sense a change coming.

For all four of us.

~~~~

"Ooommph..." I blurted out, pushing back from Mulder's
rather tight embrace.  I closed my eyes and inhaled, 
long and slow and deliberate, and then exhaled, my hands 
rubbing the sides of my abdomen in a clockwise direction.

"Just breathe, Scully.  Long deep breaths."

The contraction now easing up, I opened my eyes to see 
Mulder's face just inches from mine.  "You're getting 
better at these," he said, smiling as he planted a kiss 
on the tip of my nose.

The kindness of his words and the gentleness in his eyes
made my heart swell with pride. "It's your voice," I said, 
leaning back against the pillow.  "It calms me down and 
keeps me focused, not to mention the fact that Anna likes 
the sound of it."

His eyes shining, he lifted up my pajama top and kissed
my bare belly, then asked, "Do you think if I asked her 
to make your labor and delivery as short and painless as
possible, she'd do it?" 

"If only it were that simple, Mulder," I replied, relishing
the tickling sensation of his whiskers on my sensitive skin.

"It could be," he said thoughtfully.

Maybe he was right.  Maybe it could be that simple.

Thinking back to when he was first returned to me, he had 
told me that things were possible because I believed they 
were and that if I let my mind imagine and let it take me 
deep inside myself, I could experience some truly incredible 
things.

And I did, hearing our unborn daughter speak to me for 
the first time.

Now he's asking me to believe again, to believe in something
so simple, yet completely impossible.

Or could it really happen?  Could what he says to Anna
actually change the way I deliver her when the time comes?

I was just about to tell him what I thought of his theory 
when I was hit with another contraction. It started deep 
in my belly, moving slowly up at first, then squeezing at 
every part of my abdomen.

Gritting my teeth and grabbing a handful of Mulder's 
t-shirt in my fist, I focused on the 'No Smoking in this 
Room' sign that was hanging on the wall by the door and 
made myself breathe.

Inhale through my nose.

Exhale through my mouth.

Long deep breaths.

"You're doing great, Scully," said Mulder reassuringly as
he rubbed my lower back. 

Inhale.  Exhale.

"Just let yourself relax," he whispered in my ear.  "It's
almost over."

And then it was.

I let go of his shirt and placed both of my hands on my 
still hard stomach, trying to massage the tightness out
of it, and before I knew it, his hands joined mine, gently
pressing on our daughter.

"That was a bad one, wasn't it?" he asked, the concern
in his eyes clearly evident.

I nodded my head.  "Maybe your idea about asking Anna if 
she could make my labor and delivery easier wasn't such 
a bad one after all, Mulder," I remarked, looking up at 
him for reassurance.

"What are you saying, Scully?" he asked, his hands still
caressing my stomach.

I thought about his question for a moment, then answered,
"I'm saying what you think I am."

"Wow..." he said, his mouth dropping open.

"Is that all you can say?  Wow?" I asked, surprised that
*he* was so surprised.

"Yeah, I'd say that pretty much sums things up," he said,
shaking his head. "So, what brought about this change?"

"I believe you," I replied simply.  "And I believe what
you said to me the first time I heard Anna speak, that 
things can be possible if you believe that they can."

"Can I just tell you how incredibly turned on I am right 
now, Scully?" he remarked, smiling as he slid his hand 
down my leg.

Nudging him with my shoulder, I gave him a mock look of 
disgust.  "Mulder..."

"I mean it, Scully. You are so hot right now...tell me 
more..." he said seductively, running his fingers 
underneath my knee, then back up the inside of my thigh.

"Well, it's pretty hard to talk with you doing *that*,"
I commented as several jolts of electricity shot through
both my legs.

"Do you want me to stop then?" he asked, bringing his 
hand up over my belly, then sliding it underneath my
pajama top and cupping it around my tender breast as 
he nuzzled my neck with his nose.

"No," I was somehow able to whisper despite the fact
that my body was now in complete sensory overload.

"Then I won't."

~~~~

They're at it again.

I'm not really surprised though.  Agent Mulder is a
very tactile person, and it doesn't take much to get
him aroused when it comes to Scully.

Still, I do find it interesting that even in the midst 
of all the stress they're under, they take the time to 
be physically intimate with each other.

I wonder what it feels like, to literally be connected 
to another person's body.

From the sounds I've heard the two of them making before, 
it must be quite pleasurable, but I can't help wondering
if sometimes it hurts.

Perhaps some day I'll try it with one of the men clones
back at the facility.

~~~~

"Do you really think it's possible for me to influence
what Anna does during your labor and delivery?  I mean,
if I understood you correctly before, you actually
admitted that I might be able to," I commented as I
helped her button her pajama top back up.

She looked up at me, her face and neck still flush.
"Yes, I did," she said matter of factly.

God, she was beautiful.

"I've always put my faith in science, and I still do,
but we've experienced too many things these past few
days, *not* to believe in more than just that."

Did I mention how beautiful she was?

"And then after what happened last night..." 

"Last night?"

"While I was at the diner last night getting us some
food, Anna started rolling around inside of me quite 
hard.  I wasn't really sure if she was upset about you 
or what, but I got the food as quickly as I could and 
hurried back here. Then when I saw that you had gotten 
sick and found you sprawled across the bed, I assumed
that's what it was...but I don't know, Mulder, maybe 
she was upset about something else."

"You think maybe we're still in danger, that that woman
is still following us?" I asked, even though I hadn't
felt any strong premonitions one way or the other since
we'd been here.  Getting up out of bed, I walked over to
the window, pushed the curtains back, and did a quick 
scan of the parking lot.

"I don't know, maybe," she said, swinging her legs off
the side of the bed.

"Well, let's not wait around and find out," I said, grabbing 
my jeans from the back of the chair and hurrying off to the 
bathroom for a quick shower and shave. 

~~~~

Fifteen minutes later as I watched Mulder put his clothes 
inside his suitcase, I couldn't help noticing that his 
demeanor was different than the other times we had to pack 
up our things and move on.

He was still as determined and focused as he always was, 
yet he seemed calmer and more at peace with what was
happening than he was before.

Was he acting like this because of the dream he'd had?

Or was it simply because he had faith that things would
work out for us, like he'd said before?

Holding onto the edge of the bed, I once again concentrated
on the 'No Smoking in this Room' sign as another contraction
swept across my abdomen.

"Another contraction?" asked Mulder, stopping what he was 
doing and walking over to me.

"Yeah," I puffed, puckering my lips and exhaling through
my mouth.

"You seem to be having more of them this morning.  Are
you going to be okay for a long drive?" he asked as he
sat down beside and began to rub my back.

Inhale.  Exhale.  And then, thankfully it was done.

"I think so," I replied, slowly lifting myself up off
the bed. 

"Are you sure because we can stay here longer if we need 
to," he suggested hesitantly.

"I'll be fine, Mulder," I said even though I really wasn't
feeling very 'fine' at the moment. "You go ahead and finish 
packing.  I'm going to walk around a bit and try to loosen 
up some of this tightness in my breasts and stomach."

"Well, if you need a breast massage, you know where you
can find me," he said in a teasing tone of voice, even
though the look in his eyes was anything but playful.

He was concerned for me, and in all honesty, I was feeling
rather concerned myself.  Although I was fairly certain 
that I wasn't in real labor yet, the fact that I'd been
having more contractions than usual was disconcerting.

He picked up his suitcase and started for the door, then
stopped and looked at me with so much love and compassion
it made my heart ache. "Are you sure you're going to be 
okay, Scully?"

Knowing that he wouldn't take anything less than a
completely honest answer from me, I replied, "As long 
as you're with me, I will be."

~~~~~~

They gave me a reprieve.

They contacted me a little while ago and told me that 
because Agent Mulder still had the tracking device inside 
of him, I could continue my assignment.

How big of Them.

It's not like I would've stopped following him around
anyway.  After all, he is *my* specimen, and if anyone's
going to track and record his emotions and motivations, 
it's going to be me.

Actually, I'm rather surprised They even bothered to
contact me at all, especially after the last report I
sent Them.

Oh well, at least now I don't have to worry about Them
sending anyone else to take my place, which is a good
thing because I have a strong feeling that something's
about to happen.

Something big. 



~~~~~~
chapter eleven
~~~~~~


Interstate 75
Somewhere in Ohio


You know, I never thought I'd say this while on this 
assignment, but for the first time since I've been here
on earth, I'm feeling frustrated.

With Mulder and Scully, with all this driving, with all
the boring scenery along this highway.  Come to think of
it, I'm not too thrilled with this curly blonde hair
anymore either, which is why I've decided to change into
that nice motel clerk Jamie when I make my next stop. 

They've been doing nothing but driving for the past day 
and a half, with neither of them saying much and Scully 
doing a lot of sleeping.  As for their baby, she's been 
rather quiet too, only giving Scully mild contractions 
in the mornings and evenings.

As far as I can tell, they're still heading for Michigan,
and although I know that Mulder is still worried about 
their safety, there's a calmness about him that I can't
quite figure out.

I think maybe it's because of that dream he had before.

At the time he dreamt it, I thought it was rather silly
of him to place so much importance on such a simple dream,
but now I'm not so sure.

Do other humans take their dreams so seriously or just
him?

As much as I've tried to understand what he's feeling
now, I just can't.

And I've never felt more discouraged.

~~~~

For a day and a half we had driven, stopping at numerous
rest stops along the way as well as a handful of nondescript
restaurants and a motel in southern Ohio that could best 
be described as a step below a Motel 6.

It's not what I wanted for Scully and Anna, but it had 
kept us safe, and it had kept us from being followed.

Although Anna may have gotten a sense of the dark haired 
woman back in Kentucky the night Scully had tried to
remove the tracking device in my head, I hadn't really 
felt her presence since she'd been in the diner way back
in Tennessee.

But still I wondered.

Was she traveling on this highway too, waiting for the 
right time to make her move?

Or was this all just a game of hers, making us think we 
were in danger when in fact, we weren't in any danger at 
all?

"She hasn't done anything to us," I said out loud, my 
words waking Scully from her light doze.  

"Hmmm?" she said sleepily.

"The woman who was following us. She hasn't done anything
to hurt us."

She rubbed her eyes and sat more upright in her seat. 
"What are you talking about, Mulder?" she asked, her 
voice sounding much more alert now.

"Since we left DC, she's only gotten close to us that 
one time, in Tennessee, and even there, she didn't do 
anything to hurt us.  In fact, she drove away from us, 
like she didn't want us to know she was following us," 
I explained as I slowed down the car for a construction 
zone coming up.

"Why would she do that, Scully?" I asked, looking over 
at her in hopes that she might help me make sense of 
things.  "If her purpose is to track me through the 
device in my head, why doesn't she come after me when 
we stop for the night, abduct me from our motel room, 
or do something else to hurt me?"

She rested her elbow on the door and thought for a moment.
"Maybe she doesn't want to hurt you or abduct you again,
Mulder.  Maybe she just wants to track you for some other
purpose...although I'm not sure what for," she suggested.

Turning my attention back to the road as the highway 
narrowed down to one lane, I considered what Scully 
had said as I steered the car in between some orange 
pylons, then veered over to the left.  Even though our 
windows were closed, I could hear the sound of several 
jackhammers slamming into the concrete, their loud 
vibrations pounding in my brain.

And I remembered.

"Why do you insist on being so difficult, Agent Mulder?"
asked the tall brown haired woman.

"You have no right to keep me here."

"And you have no right to fight us. We haven't hurt you,
and we have no intention of hurting you for the remainder 
of the time that you're with us.  We only want to study 
you," she said matter-of-factly, looking at her watch 
and recording the time on the chart she had in her hand.

"But why me?"

"Because your mind is capable of understanding things
that other humans cannot, Mr. Mulder."

"What kinds of things?"

"I think you already know."

"Mulder...Hey, Mulder, snap out of it, traffic's moving,"
said Scully, her voice bringing me back to the present.

"Sorry," I mumbled, pressing my foot on the accelerator
and maneuvering my way around some more pylons.

She gently touched my arm. "Where were you just now?"

"I think you might be right, Scully."

"Right about what?" she asked, tilting her head to the
side and putting her hand on the edge of the window as
if to brace herself for my answer.

"I don't think that woman wants to hurt me, or you and 
Anna either for that matter. I think maybe it's all some 
kind of psychological test to see what I'll do under 
extreme circumstances," I said, easing up on the 
accelerator as traffic came to yet another standstill.

"What do you mean?"

"Remember what I told you about the woman who put the
tracking device into my head?"

"Yes."

"I just had another vision of her, a flashback to 
something that she said to me...in fact, this is the 
third time I've remembered her saying the same thing," 
I said calmly even though my both my pulse and my brain 
suddenly felt like they'd gone into overdrive.

Could it all really be this simple?

Could They have sent someone for the sole purpose of
following me around here on earth and studying my 
physical and emotional reactions to various stimuli?

And what about the woman in my visions?  Was it possible
that she was the same woman who'd been following us?  I
didn't really get a good look at her back in Tennessee,
but still...

"What? What is it, Mulder? What did she say to you?" 
she asked, her voice once again bringing me back into 
the present.

"She told me that They didn't want to hurt me, that They
only wanted to study me," I replied, the words sounding
strange coming from my mouth, yet familiar.

Just then the cars in front of us started moving again, 
and I had to turn my attention back to the highway.

"She told you that? You specifically remember her saying
those words to you?" she asked, rubbing her forehead.

"Yes...three different times," I said, keeping my eyes 
fixed on the road, partly because traffic was moving 
faster now, but mostly because I knew she needed time 
to digest what I just told her.

"I don't know what to say," she remarked, exasperation
in her voice.  She laid her head back against the headrest
and rubbed the tips of her fingers together the way she
often did when she was contemplating something important.
"I mean, if that's true...it changes everything, Mulder,"
she said quietly.

She was right.

If I was being tracked only as part of some observational
experiment rather than being tracked in order to be 
abducted again, it *would* change everything.

And for the better.

"Do you trust me, Scully?" I asked, my heart suddenly 
pounding ninety miles an hour in my chest instead of
the seventy miles an hour it was doing just moments
ago.

"Of course, I trust you," she answered.  "What is it?
What are you thinking?" she asked, her voice tight with 
apprehension.

"I'm thinking that this is all wrong, what we're doing,
where we're going...it's not right," I replied, abruptly
swerving over to the side of the highway so I could stop 
the car.

"What are you doing?  Why are you stopping?  You're not
making sense, Mulder," she said, the words spilling out
of her mouth as she protectively wrapped her arm around
her abdomen.

"Yes, I am.  For the first time since all this started,
I finally understand," I said with certainty, putting 
the car into park mode, then turning to her and placing 
my hands on her shoulders.

"Understand what?" she asked, her eyes widening in
anticipation.

"We're not in danger, Scully.  I'm not.  You're not,
and neither is Anna.  Don't you see?  I *assumed* that
we were because of all that I was feeling when I was
first returned, but the truth is I don't think They
ever intended to hurt me. I think They do just want to
study me."

"Mulder..." she said, giving me that skeptical look I 
know so well.

"No, listen to me, Scully.  Remember when I first came
back, and I told you that They asked me lots of questions 
and spent a lot of time just observing me?"

"Yes, I remember," she said calmly, though I could tell 
by the way she was squeezing the bottom edge of her shirt
in her hand that she wasn't calm at all.

"Well, I think that's what They're still doing, what
that woman has been doing...tracking me so she can
observe me and study my reactions, my *emotional*
reactions, to you, to Anna, to the threat of being
abducted again.  Don't you see?  I'm being followed
so that They can learn from me, not so that I can be 
taken away again," I excitedly explained.

She looked at me then, not saying anything, just thinking,
and I could literally feel the adrenaline surging through 
my body as I anxiously waited for her response.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then opened
them again and reached over to my head, her hand touching 
the spot she had carefully stitched up two nights ago.  
"Do you really think that what you're saying is true, 
Mulder, that we aren't really in any immediate danger?" 
she asked, gently pressing her fingers against the 
sensitive skin around my incision.

"Yes, I do," I replied without hesitation.

Moving her hand down to my cheek, she leaned forward 
and kissed me, then said, "Then that's all I need to 
know."

~~~~

It's never been easy between us, especially when it 
comes to our individual beliefs, but looking at him 
now, hearing the conviction in his voice, seeing the 
certainty in his eyes, I have no doubt that what he's 
saying is true.

Now the question is what are we going to do about it?

Should we keep going north towards Michigan like we had
planned or should we take a big leap of faith that we'll
be safe and head back to DC?

"We're going back," he said, answering my question even
though I hadn't said it out loud.

"What?"

"We're going back home, Scully, back to DC," he stated
with a certainty that both reassured me and frightened
me.

"Just like that, Mulder?  After days of running for our
lives, we're just going to turn around now and go back 
home as if nothing happened?" I asked incredulously.

Leaning over towards me, he placed his hand on my belly,
on our daughter, then he kissed me and said, "Just like
that."

~~~~

One thing I've learned about Agent Mulder in the time
that I've been studying him is that he's impulsive. Once
he gets an idea about something, no one's going to talk
him out of it, even Agent Scully.

And that's just what happened now.

He's suddenly decided that he is no longer in danger 
and that they should go home, and much to my surprise, 
she agreed with him.  Of course, he's right, they never 
really were in danger from me, but still...the fact that 
he's been remembering more about me has me a bit on edge.

An hour ago, I was frustrated with the lack of activity
between them and the endless amounts of driving we've
been doing over the past couple days.

Now all I can think about is how unprepared I am.

I mean, I had a feeling something big was about to happen,
but in all honesty, I thought it would have to do with
their baby. I never expected them to literally turn their 
car around and start heading back home.

So what am I supposed to do now?

~~~~~~

A half hour later


We were going home.

After days of being on edge and on guard, we were finally
going back to the lives we'd so abruptly left behind.  

I was still apprehensive about what exactly it was we were 
going back to, but the fact that a decision had been made 
and we had both agreed on it had eased my uncertainty 
considerably, and though Scully hadn't really said much 
in the last hour, I could tell by her body language that
she felt the same way.

"You've been kind of quiet for awhile, Scully.  You doing 
okay over there?" I asked, breaking the long stretch of 
silence between us.

"I was just thinking," she replied thoughtfully, resting
her elbow on the window ledge and rubbing her chin with
her thumb.

"Oh?" I remarked, sensing that she needed to talk at her
own pace.

"I was thinking about my grandmother."

"Oh."

Putting her other hand on her abdomen, she began to 
lightly trace circles on it with her index finger. "She
would've liked you, Mulder," she said, looking over at 
me briefly, then back down at her stomach.

I reached over and squeezed her thigh in acknowledgement,
waiting for her to continue.

"And she would've been thrilled to have her first great-
granddaughter named after her."

"Tell me about her, Scully.  What was she like?" I asked,
pleased that she wanted to talk about our child's namesake.

"She was a lot like my dad.  Proud, stubborn, set in her
ways."

"I guess it runs in the family, huh?" I teased.

She gave me a playful poke with her elbow and continued.
"She understood me and she supported me through some very
difficult times in my life, and for that I'll always be
grateful."

"You mean your decision to go into the FBI instead of
being a doctor?"

"Yes, she told me to follow my heart and go after what
I really wanted...and I'm very glad I did," she said, 
tenderly running her fingers down my arm. "Just think, 
Mulder, if I hadn't joined the FBI, I probably never 
have met you."

I smiled.  "I'd like to think that we would've eventually 
met and gotten together regardless of the circumstances.  
You know, fate and destiny and all that."

"Why Mulder, aren't you the romantic one," she teased.

"I'm just being honest," I said sincerely.

And I did mean it, every word of it.  I truly believe 
Scully and I were meant to be together, just as I believe
we were meant to have this baby together.

"You know, that's one of the nicest things you've ever
said to me," she said, quickly wiping the corner of her 
eye.

"Are you crying, Scully?" I asked with bewilderment.

"So what if I am?" she replied, turning away from me 
so I couldn't see her face.  "It's these damn hormones. 
They're all over the place now."

Keeping one hand on the steering wheel and putting the
other one on her shoulder, I tried to turn her around
so she'd look at me.

And surprisingly she let me, looking back at me with 
what could only be described as *the* most beautiful 
blue eyes on this whole damn planet or any other planet 
for that matter.

"I love you, you know," I said, briefly touching her 
cheek before turning my attention back to the busy 
highway.

"And I love you," she replied, squeezing my arm, then 
gently resting her hand on my thigh.

~~~~

This man continues to amaze me.

Or maybe I should say, the depth of love he feels for
Scully amazes me.

How does he do it?  How does he feel things so deeply?

I wish I knew.

I've been observing him and studying him and listening
to his thoughts, and still, there is so much more I want 
to know about how his emotions work.

I only hope I get the chance to learn it.

~~~~

3:34 pm
Highway 75
Just north of Beree, Kentucky


I had been quietly having mild contractions as Mulder and 
I talked about my grandmother, but nothing that I couldn't
handle.

That was an hour ago.

Ever since then they've slowly been getting longer and 
stronger, and with each one I was feeling a little more 
pressure against my bladder than with the one before.

Could this be it?

Was Anna ready to be born?

The thought that it might finally be time to give birth 
to our daughter scared me, but the thought that I might 
have to do it out in the middle of nowhere scared me 
even more.

No, that's not true.  It *terrified* me.

"You doin' okay over there, Scully?" asked Mulder, the 
crease lines in his forehead deepening.  "That last 
contraction seemed pretty strong."

"I'm scared," I accidentally blurted out, keeping my eyes 
straight ahead so I wouldn't have to meet his eyes, knowing 
that I'd fall apart if I did.

He slid his hand off the steering wheel and gently placed 
it over my hand.  "You don't need to be," he said softly, 
looking over at me, then turning his attention to the road. 
"Everything's going to be okay, Scully."

I took hold of his fingers and squeezed them.  "You don't 
know that, Mulder," I said as I put my other hand on my 
abdomen, bracing myself for the next contraction.

"But I do know," he said with calm certainty.  "I can 
feel her."

Just then a strong wave of pressure moved across my belly,
starting at the top, then traveling downward.  Closing my
eyes, I squeezed Mulder's fingers even harder and focused
on my breathing.

"Just breathe, Scully, long deep breaths. That's it, long...
deep...breaths. Don't fight it...just relax," he said, his
soft voice smoothly guiding me through the pain.

Several seconds later, it was over and I opened my eyes 
just in time to see him pulling off the highway onto the 
rest stop exit.

"What are you doing?" I asked breathlessly, still a little 
dazed from the contraction I just had.

"I told you before, Scully.  Everything's going to be 
okay," he replied as he pulled into a parking spot. 
"*You're* going to be okay, and so is Anna."

"What are you talking about?  What's going on?" I asked, 
still confused and more than a little concerned about 
the way Mulder was looking at me.

"I'm going to take care of you," he said, slipping his 
hand behind me and rubbing my lower back.  "Whatever 
happens, I'm going to take care of you, and everything's 
going to be fine."

The tone of his voice and the somewhat glazed over look 
in his eyes frightened me, and I couldn't help but wonder 
if he was having some sort of delayed reaction from the 
impromptu surgery I had performed on his head the night 
before.

And then I remembered what he'd said to me right before 
my last contraction.

"I can feel her."

Was he acting this way because he knew something about 
Anna that he wasn't telling me?  Was she trying to talk 
to him again?

I also remembered him saying last night that when the 
time came maybe he could actually make my delivery 
easier by communicating with her.  

When he first said it, I thought he was joking, but then 
the more I thought about it, the more I believed it was 
possible.  Maybe he really could make the delivery of our 
daughter easier for me, and considering how uncomfortable 
I was feeling at the moment, I was willing to do or believe 
anything to feel better.

Another contraction suddenly overtook me then, not only
causing my abdominal muscles to tighten, but every other
muscle in my body as well.

"Ooommph..." I groaned, gripping the door handle with my
right hand and grabbing Mulder's t-shirt with my other 
hand.  Twisting the fabric in my hand and squeezing my 
eyes shut, I inhaled through my nose and exhaled through 
my mouth.

"You're doing great, Scully. Just keep breathing like 
that," I heard Mulder say, and then I felt him, his 
lips pressing against my forehead as I rode out the 
rest of the contraction.

"I'm so proud of you," he whispered, his breath warm 
against my temple.

Two more deep breaths, and it was over.

But only for a moment.

The next thing I knew there was a rush of warm liquid 
pooling beneath me on the seat and running down the 
backs of my legs.

"Jesus, Scully!" exclaimed Mulder, the calm expression 
on his face now replaced with a panicked one as he backed 
away from me. 

My body going into its own panic mode, I just sat there, 
frozen.

Was this really happening?

"Scully?"

<I can hear you.>

"Scully, talk to me."

<I want to, but I can't.>

"Just hang on, Scully.  I'm going to take care of you."

<You always take care of me, Mulder.>

The next sound I heard was the car door opening and the 
next thing I felt were his arms around me, pulling me 
from the seat, pulling me, pulling me...then gently 
laying me down on the back seat.

"It's going to be okay, Scully.  Trust me. I won't let
anything happen to you."

"I know you won't," I whispered, finally snapping myself 
out of my hazy state.

"Geez Scully, you scared the shit out of me," he said, 
leaning over me, his long body stuffed into the small 
space between the front and back seats. "You looked 
like you were in shock."

With a shaky hand, I reached up and put my palm on his 
cheek.  "I think maybe I was for a few seconds, but I'm 
okay now...thanks to you," I said, still feeling a little 
unsteady.

"You're the strongest person I know, Scully, always have
been, always will be," he said as he leaned over and gave 
me a kiss.

"Mulder, my water just broke. Do you know what that means?"
I said, lifting myself up into a more upright position.

"It means that our daughter's finally ready to meet us,"
he replied, softly brushing the hair off my forehead.

"And it means that there's no turning back, Mulder. This
is it, and there's nothing we can do to stop it," I stated,
feeling a lot stronger now than I felt just moments ago.

"I know, but I told you...you and Anna are going to be
okay.  I can feel her, and she's fine, Scully.  She's
ready," he said, placing his hand on my swollen belly
and gently massaging it. "And so am I. Just tell me what 
you want to do, and I'll do it."

What did I want to do?

Risk going to a hospital?  Use our cell phone to call 
for help?  Have Mulder try to deliver her himself?

"Ohhhh....." I moaned as another contraction made its 
way across my abdomen.  Gripping the back of the seat 
with one hand and Mulder's arm with the other, I rode 
it out, taking one deep breath after another until 
finally the tightness eased up.

"Talk to me, Scully. Tell me what you think we should 
do," he said, his voice calm and self assured, which 
is exactly what I needed right now. "I'll do whatever 
you want."

Of course, he'd do whatever I wanted.  He'd lie for me,
risk his life for me, do whatever it took to protect me
and keep me from getting hurt.

And I'd do the same for him, which is why we couldn't go
to a hospital now.  Even though the strange woman who'd
been following us hadn't harmed either one of us, it was
just too dangerous to go to such a public place or to
use our cell phone.

And judging from the intensity and closeness of my
contractions now, we didn't have much time left, leaving 
us with only one option.

Reaching for his hand, I looked into his eyes and quietly 
said, "You're going to have to deliver her, Mulder."



~~~~~~
chapter twelve
~~~~~~


I knew it.

I knew something big was going to happen.  I just didn't
know what.

Agent Scully's going to have her baby, and from all the
thoughts and emotions I can hear rushing around in Mulder's
head right now, it looks to be an incredible experience.

When they first decided to turn around and head back home,
I thought that was the big change that was coming and that 
my assignment was going to end on a rather uneventful and 
disappointing note, but now...

Now there's going to be a baby.

A human baby.

The logical part of me knows I should contact my superiors
immediately and let Them know about this, but the emotional
part of me wants to go through it by myself without any
outside interference.  

At the facility, I learned a lot about human babies and 
the uses for their fetal tissue, but to see one actually 
being born...it's almost too much for me to comprehend.

Quickly turning off the black box and tossing it on the 
seat beside me, I pressed down on the accelerator and 
drove.

~~~~~~

I was going to be a father.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Scully?"

"I'm sure."

Me, of all people...a father.

"We're at a rest stop."

"I know that, but you said it yourself, Mulder. Everything's
going to be okay, and I believe you."

I was going to be a father, and Scully, a mother.  

The two of us, parents of a beautiful little baby.

"Things *are* going to be okay, Scully.  I'm sure of it."

"Then so am I."

This was actually happening, and in the back seat of a
car of all places, which I guess in the scheme of things 
wasn't all that difficult to believe.

After all, everything Scully and I have ever done has
been unconventional. 

So why should having this baby be any different?

I couldn't help but smile at the thought.

"What is it, Mulder?" asked Scully, both of her hands 
resting on her abdomen as she braced herself for the 
next contraction.

"I was just thinking about how we never do anything the
conventional way."

"No, I guess we don't," she replied, her tone of voice 
and demeanor surprisingly relaxed considering the tense
situation we were in.

I reached up and tucked some loose strands of hair behind
her ear. "Are you really alright with this, Scully? I mean, 
maybe we should call for an ambulance.  I know we probably
shouldn't use the phone, but what if what something goes
wrong?  I'd never forgive myself if something happened to
you or Anna," I said, feeling a lot less confident in my
abilities than I had just a little while ago. 

Before she could respond, another contraction overtook her, 
and it was a bad one, lasting nearly a minute according to 
my watch.

"Oohhhhh..." she moaned over and over again as she struggled 
to work her way through the pain.

"It's okay, Scully.  I'm right here," I said reassuringly,
though the length and intensity of this contraction had 
me concerned.

If things were this bad for her now, what would it be 
like for her when it actually came time to push?

Trying to concentrate on my strong connection to Anna 
instead of how afraid I was for both of them, I lifted
her hand to my mouth and kissed it. "It's over now. You 
can relax."

"It hurts, Mulder," she said weakly, letting her eyes 
slip shut.

"I know it does, but you're doing great, Scully," I said, 
sliding my hand behind her back and massaging it.

"I'm just so tired..." she said, her voice fading out.

"Then rest.  Just keep your eyes closed and let yourself
relax, Scully.  All the tension you feel in your neck and
shoulders...just let it go.  Relax your arms, your hands,
your fingers.  Just let it all fade it away..." I said,
hoping that the soft rhythmic sound of my voice would be 
enough to give her at least some relief.

"That's it, Scully, just like that..."

"Oooo...here comes another one..." she groaned, tightly
squeezing her eyes and squeezing my forearm with the
strength of a vice grip as she worked her way through
yet another contraction.

They weren't supposed to be coming this fast yet, were 
they?

"Oh God...Mul...der...I feel like I...have to...push...
have...to...push..." she stuttered, digging into my arm
so deeply she drew blood.

"Hold on, Scully.  Just hold on," I said as I scooted
out from in between the seats. "I'm going to go get
some towels from the trunk and your medical bag...yeah,
we're gonna need that...and oh shit, we don't have any
hot water..." I mumbled to myself, thankful that she was
too preoccupied with what she was doing to notice how
panicked I was.

So much for everything being okay.

What was I thinking...delivering a baby in a rest stop 
parking lot, for Christ sakes.  I didn't know what to 
do, I didn't know what to say...and I sure as hell 
didn't know how to take care of either one of them 
if something were to go wrong.

I fumbled with my keys and threw open the hood of the 
trunk, then quickly grabbed some towels, a blanket,
and Scully's medical bag.  My hands full with supplies,
I slammed the hood shut and scanned the parking lot.
The only other car that was around was just now pulling
back out onto the highway, and from what I could see
in the other direction, there weren't any cars coming
down the entrance. 

Damn.

Shaking off my frustration, I took a deep breath and
said a quick prayer.

For all three of us.

"Mulder!" Scully suddenly screamed from the inside of
the car.  "I have to push!" she cried out, the raw fear 
in her voice sending a sharp chill through every bone 
in my body.

I rushed around to the side of the car, whipped open the
front door and threw everything onto the seat.  Then I 
climbed back into the back seat with her again.  "I'm 
right here, Scully.  I'm right here.  Just hang on," I 
said, trying my best to keep my voice steady and calm, 
though inside my heart was pounding so fast it felt as 
if were going to explode.

"Mulder...I don't think I...can do this," she said weakly, 
her teary eyes pleading with me to make it all stop.

"Yes, you can," I replied, grabbing a towel and a blanket 
from the front seat and putting one underneath her lower
body, the other behind her head. "You can do this, Scully, 
but you've got to help me out here," I said reassuringly 
as I reached over the seat again and pulled out some latex 
gloves from her bag.

Another contraction erupted inside of her just then, and 
she grabbed onto me again, her fingernails digging into 
my other arm this time, drawing blood, drawing strength.

Her contractions were coming nearly on top of each other 
now, and from what little I actually knew about how labor 
worked, she was probably almost fully dilated and effaced, 
which meant she was probably right about being ready to 
push.

"Look, I know you're tired and you're scared, Scully, 
but I need you to help me. I need you to lift your hips 
so I can take your pants off," I said, awkwardly snapping 
the gloves onto my hands. 

"Are you coming onto me?" she asked, a weak smile crossing 
her face.

"Hey, that's usually my line," I teased, smiling back and 
dropping a quick kiss on her warm cheek.

"I know," she whispered, closing her eyes as she arched 
her back and lifted her hips up off the seat. "But it's 
mine today," she added, her eyes still closed, her lips 
slightly curving into another smile.

Tugging at her now soaked pants, I peeled them down her 
legs, then gave them a big yank, pulling both them and 
her shoes all the way off at the same time.

I was not prepared for what I saw next.

There, between her legs was the top of our baby's head, 
all dark and slick and covered with brown hair.

My eyes swimming with tears, my hands shaking, I tentatively
reached down and touched its fragile surface.  

It was soft and warm and one of the most amazing things I'd 
ever felt in my life.

"What?  What is it, Mulder?  Is she okay?" asked Scully,
straining to lift her head so she could see.

"She's fine," I replied, trying to fight back my tears so 
I could actually see what I was doing.  "She's just fine," 
I whispered, gently brushing my finger over the tiny wet 
hairs on my daughter's head.

My daughter.

Our miracle.

~~~~~~

When I got to the rest stop, I was surprised to find 
that there weren't any other cars there.  Usually 
whenever they've stopped at a rest stop or a restaurant, 
there are plenty of other people and cars around.

But not today.

Then again, maybe that's how things are supposed to be 
now, the three of us going through this momentous occasion 
alone.

Or maybe I should say the four of us.

As much as I am connected to Agent Mulder, I feel connected
to his daughter as well.

And I have to be near her when she arrives, no matter what
the consequences.

Bravely pulling my car into the lane just two parking spots 
over from their car, I turned off the engine and hoped that 
they wouldn't notice me.

~~~~~~

When I first found out I was pregnant, I actually had 
visions of having a baby shower, decorating the nursery 
in yellow, and giving birth in a hospital with my mom 
out in the waiting room and Mulder by my side.

I had it so wrong.

Eight months later, and here I am lying half naked at 
a rest stop in Kentucky about to give birth in the back 
seat of a car.

At least I got one thing right though.

Mulder is by my side.

And looking at the expression on his face right now as 
he touches our daughter for the first time, I don't think 
I've ever loved him more.

"On your next contraction, I'm gonna need you to push,
okay Scully?" he said, brushing his thumb across my chin.

I opened my mouth to answer him, but suddenly my abdomen 
was flooded with a huge wave of pressure, and it was all 
I could do to breathe, let alone speak.

"Now, Scully, now.  Bear down and push," commanded Mulder
as he lifted both of my legs so I could better push my
back down into the seat.

I grunted and groaned and pushed as hard as I could, but 
Anna wasn't ready to come out.

Not yet.

My arms and shoulders trembled, my lower body burned with 
over-exertion, and yet I never felt so powerful, so alive.

So wonderful.

A few more pushes, and I'd become a mother.

Finally.

~~~~~~

I can't believe this.

I'm actually sitting in my car less than twenty feet away 
from them, and they don't even know it.

From what I can see, they're both in the back seat with
Scully lying down on her back and him on his knees. Both
the front and back doors are also opened, and I can hear
her making some strange sounds I've never heard before. 

I think she's in pain, which I guess isn't really all 
that surprising, considering what she has to go through 
in order to push a baby out of her body.

It really is amazing, the human body.  What it can do, 
the pain it can withstand.

Agent Mulder's body has certainly withstood a lot of pain 
over the years.  

Then again, so has his mind.

But watching him now, his partner about to give birth to
their child, I don't feel any of his pain.

I feel joy.

~~~~~~

"Come on, Scully...that's it...another big push.  That's
it...you're doing great," I said, watching in amazement 
as she scrunched up her face and tightly gripped the seat 
cushions with each new push.

Rubbing her leg for encouragement, I said, "I know you're
tired, and I know this is hard, but you're almost there,
Scully.  Just one more push so she can get the rest of
her head out."

"I can't," she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Yes, you can. I told you before that you're the strongest
person I know, and I meant it."  Leaning over, I kissed 
the inside of her knee, then said, "Your daughter wants 
to meet you."

She looked into my eyes then, her cheeks flushed, her wet
hair sticking to her forehead, her delicate veins pulsating 
in her neck, and she never looked more beautiful to me.

Or more determined.

"You ready?" I asked, though I already knew her answer.

She nodded her head, then closed her eyes and pressed 
her back and hips down onto the seat as hard as she could.

It was all Anna needed.

Her head finally pushed its way out into the open air, 
and I cradled it in my hand while quickly aspirating 
her tiny nose and mouth using my other hand.

"She's alright. She's breathing," I immediately said, 
knowing that Scully needed to hear the words.

And so did I, for that matter.

"Okay Scully, the hard part is over, but now I'm gonna 
need you to give me one last push so I can get the rest
of her out."

I had barely finished my sentence when she squeezed 
her eyes shut and pushed again, gently forcing Anna's 
shoulders out into the open too. Once they were out, 
the rest of her warm slick body slid out easily.

Right into my arms.

~~~~~~

Since they were still completely oblivious to the fact 
that I was watching them, I decided to be even more 
daring and get out of my car so I could get an even 
better look at what was happening.

And boy, am I glad I did because now I'm getting to see 
the most amazing thing.

A real live human baby being born.

I have to say although I find the whole thing to be noisy
and uncomfortable and more than a bit messy, it's also 
beautiful in its simplicity.

Two people have sex.  Something from each of their bodies
combines to make a baby.  It grows inside of the woman.
Then it's born.

It's really quite incredible.

And so is the look on Mulder's face.

He's wiping the baby off now and placing it on Scully's
stomach, and he's crying.

I remember seeing him cry a few times when he was back at 
the facility, but those were tears born out of loneliness 
and frustration.

These tears are different.

And they're better.

~~~~~~

"She's beautiful, Mulder," I said, my eyes swimming with
tears as I carefully held Anna against my chest.

He leaned over and kissed me on the lips, then kissed our
daughter on the cheek.  "And so is her mom," he replied,
his voice choking up.

Anna's hand wrapped around my finger, Mulder's hand 
stroking my hair, I felt like the luckiest woman in 
the world, and though I knew there were still people 
and forces out there working against us, none of those 
things mattered anymore.

All that mattered was now.

~~~~~~

From what I've learned about the birth process, soon 
after the mother delivers her baby, the umbilical cord 
that connects her and her baby is cut, and then she 
delivers a placenta.

I haven't seen Agent Scully do either one of those 
things yet, and I have to admit it has me worried.

What if in the excitement of finally meeting their 
daughter, they both forget that those things need to 
be done, and consequently something goes wrong?

The thought that something could happen to them now, 
after all they've endured, after all I've put them 
through bothers me more than I care to admit.

Still unnoticed by them, I hurry back to my car and 
climb inside.  Reaching underneath my seat, I pull 
out a phone and start pressing the numbers.  I know 
I should be calling my superiors, but right now the 
only thing I can think about is taking care of my 
specimen and his family.

After explaining the situation and telling the woman 
on the other end of the phone approximately where we 
are, I hang up and look over at the three of them again.

They still haven't noticed I'm here yet, although I have 
to say I'm not surprised.

They're so mesmerized by their new daughter right now, 
they probably wouldn't even notice if a UFO landed right 
beside their car.

The thought of one of our top of the line spacecrafts 
landing right in front of Agent Mulder, but him being 
too busy to notice it makes me chuckle.

It also makes me sad because I know that it's time now.

It's time for me to let him go and move on to a different
specimen, and though I'm sorry for all that I've put him 
through, I'm not sorry for what I learned from him.

Picking up the black box from the seat, I open up the 
back of it and yank out the microscopic cartridge that 
makes it work. I know that Mulder still has the tracking 
device in his head, but with the cartridge disabled, he 
should be able to function normally from now on without 
the threat of any serious medical problems.

As for the meticulous records I've been keeping on him 
for all these months, I will hold onto those, but only 
for as long as it takes for me to reread them.  

Then I will destroy them.

Of course, once I go back to the facility, I know that 
there will be a price to pay for my betrayal to my 
superiors, but after what I've experienced, what I've 
learned, I will proudly pay it.

Hearing the faint sound of the ambulance off in the 
distance, I study the three of them one last time, 
then quickly scribble down a few words on a piece of 
paper and toss it out the window, knowing that my 
specimen will find it.

And understand it.

~~~~~~

"Scully, did you hear that?" I asked, turning my head to 
look out the window, only to see a dark blue car racing 
out of the parking lot.

"I'll be right back," I said anxiously, every nerve and 
muscle in my body instantly going into alert mode as I
started to get out of the car.

"What is it, Mulder?  What's wrong?" she asked, grabbing
my arm before I could back all the way out of the seat.

"I'm not sure," I said, taking her hand off my arm and
kissing the back of it.  "Just take care of Anna.  I'll
be right back."

Understanding the implications of what I was saying, 
she drew our daughter even closer to her body, but 
said nothing.

I said nothing else either, instead brushing my fingertip
across Anna's soft warm cheek one last time before getting 
out of the car.

I walked around and looked in all directions, scanning 
the parking lot, the restroom area, and the woods behind 
it, but just like before, there wasn't anyone around.

But there was something on the ground that caught my 
attention.

At first I thought it was just a piece of trash that 
someone had thrown out of their car window, but as I 
walked closer to it, I could see that it was something 
much more than that.

And I could feel it.

My pulse quickening, I picked the unusual looking paper 
up from the pavement and unfolded it, then carefully read 
the words I'd heard her say to me before:

"I never wanted to hurt you. I only wanted to study you."

And it was then that I understood.

Just like she knew I would.

Tearing her words into pieces and letting them fall to 
the ground, I watched the wind carry them away, then 
quickly hurried back to the car.

My family was waiting for me.


~end~


*Well, this is it, folks.  After spending nearly 2 1/2 
years of my life working on and off on this, it's finally 
finished. I'm happy, sad, proud, exhausted, and more 
RELIEVED than you can possibly imagine.:) Thank you so 
very much for taking the time to read my story and 
especially to those of you who have stuck with me since 
the beginning. I know it wasn't an easy *journey*, but 
I hope it was a worthwhile one.:)

Susan

possibilities
http://possibilities.bravehost.com/

the bare essentials
http://www.geocities.com/filesfan34/


Started November 2000.  Finally completed January 2003.