Rainbow Continuum
4/10
Emily Miller

DECEMBER 30, 1998
3:00 P.M.

Daina Kathryn Scully did not sleep. She wasn't really tired. She needed to
be alone.

She'd never been alone that she could remember in her whole life.

She found it hard to believe that her sister Emily could be dead. She'd
looked forward to being with her mother and her sister, and maybe even her
father, all her life. All her older life, anyway.

As she lay in her mother's- her real, true MOTHER- bed, she thought about
things. She, though Melissa believed her to be a skeptical, hard, scientific
child, she often daydreamed and pretended in her head. Tried to imagine a
regular life.

Her life would never be regular.

Never.

She felt a tear, a single tear, slowly fall from her eye and across her nose
to drop silently on the bed.
>>>>>>>>

DECEMBER 31, 1998
6:00 A.M.

The phone was ringing. Scully, waking to its sound, had to get out of bed to
answer it. Daina Kathryn hadn't gotten up after her original nap, and so
Melissa had slept with her, to keep her life at least partially what she was
used to, and there was no phone in her other bedroom.

Scully yawned as she got out of the bed, then gasped, the chill of the floor
a shock to her bare feet. She hurried to her living room and grabbed the
phone.

"Hello?"

"Scully?" It was Mulder. Who else would it have been at 6?

"Hi, Mulder," she yawned again.

"You have to get out of your apartment. I'm at the office of the Lone
Gunmen."

"What's wrong?"

"Last night, the same blue van went past my building 6 times, and there was
a guy watching me in the hall when I went to get the paper this morning.
Chances are, they're at your place, too."

She wanted to call him paranoid, but he was probably right. "The Lone Gunmen
haven't changed offices since the last time you dragged me there?"

"No, they're still here."

"And what about work?"

"I already talked to Skinner. We have about a decade of vacation time piled
up, anyway, he was very happy to be rid of us for the day."

"Okay, I'll get Melissa and Daina Kathryn up and we'll be there in a few
minutes."

"Be careful, Scully."

"Right." She hung up and smiled to herself, imagining what Daina Kathryn
would think of the Gunmen themselves. It would be just perfect if she
decided Frohike was her best friend.

Scully went back to the bedroom she'd used and grabbed the jeans and T-shirt
she'd gotten the night before from her room, having been thinking about
taking off from work, anyway. Why did it always seem that every time she
took time off, a family crisis came up? Her father's dying, Melissa's
supposedly dying, even if that had been a FORCED vacation, finding Emily...
and when Mulder took time off, he got to go to Graceland.

After she was dressed and she'd pulled her hair back as best she could, she
went to wake up Melissa and Daina Kathryn.

"Missy?" she said softly, shaking her sister first.  In her limited
experience, it was usually harder to get kids up, so she was saving it for
last.

"Huh...? Oh, Dana... what's wrong now?" Melissa rubbed her eyes and sat up.
As she did, Daina Kathryn's eyes also opened, and she blinked as though
trying to remember exactly where she was.

"This is a bed," she finally said softly and mostly to herself. She rolled
over and closed her eyes again.

"We have to go and meet Mulder at the office of some of his... friends. As
soon as possible," Scully said.

Melissa raised the characteristic Scully-eyebrow. Although she didn't use it
nearly as often as her skeptical little sister did, she was still a master
when she wanted to be. "Why?"

"Well, we, in reality, broke more than one law yesterday during our little
'prison break.' And certain people who already seem to dislike Mulder and
me, for obvious and not-so-obvious reasons, are trying to find us- and you."

"That's plenty of detail, thank you. I could live with just knowing we'd
broken a law or two. I don't want to be told how they're going to kill us
when they catch us."

"Who's gonna kill us?" Daina Kathryn asked, turning on the bed back to face
Scully and Melissa.

"Nobody, D., if you'll get up right now and put your clothes on," Melissa
said.

"You said I could have new clothes when we got out. Those clothes are too
small."

Melissa looked at Scully and rolled her eyes. "The second we get out of that
place," she said. "And she starts complaining about what she does and
doesn't have."

"Daina Kathryn," Scully said, unable to call her 'D.' so early in the day,
when she was still exhausted after waking up many times the night before
when a dream- or maybe nightmare- about Emily came to her. "Get up and get
dressed and we can go meet some really neat people. Have you ever seen a
computer?"

"No, but Missy told me about 'em."

"I bet they have, uh, lots of good games," Melissa said, shrugging at
Scully.

"Um, yeah," Scully said. She leaned close to Melissa as Daina Kathryn
climbed off the bed and trotted off to the bathroom. "Yeah, lots of good
games. She can find out all the latest JFK conspiracy news and everything
there is to know about hacking," she muttered.

"Maybe I shouldn't have spoken so soon?" Melissa asked, and she and Scully
managed a laugh.

"I'll go get stuff we need, you get yourself and Daina Kathryn dressed,"
Scully said.

"Yes, ma'am!" Melissa said, saluting, mimicking the way Scully had always
saluted her father when he was coming or leaving home.

Scully forced a smile.
>>>>>>>>

MAY 29, 1968
4:30 P.M.

Dana Scully, never patient, had been restless all day. All week, really.
She'd thought the day would never come, her father would never get home.

Just in the last couple of hours, she'd been kicked out of first her own
room, then Bill and little Charlie's room, because she was making too much
noise and wouldn't sit still.

Not that her siblings didn't make noise. She could hear Melissa yelling at
Bill that if he didn't get his big, ugly face out of her room she was going
to throw every shoe in the closet at him. Melissa had a strange way of doing
and saying things.

"Mom, how much longer?" Dana asked, wandering into the living room. Margaret
Scully was attempting to read before her husband got home and things got
even crazier than they already were.

"Any minute now, Dana."

"Like right now?"

"Maybe."

"Do you think he's hiding outside and is just making us wait?"

"I don't think your dad would do that to you, Dana. He knows how much you
miss him."

"Is he home NOW?"

"Why don't you go check?"

With a vigorous nod of agreement and a grin, she turned and got outside as
fast as she could.

The sun was just starting to go down as she stopped in front of the closing
door. The air outside smelled fresh, summer-y. Only two days into vacation,
things hadn't had a chance to build to full-blown boredom yet. Except for
waiting, she was as happy as she had ever been.

She would be even happy when her father, her hero and favorite person in the
whole world, finally got home. He'd been gone so long she'd begun to think
he would stay away forever.

For a while, she'd worried about him running away from them. There was a boy
who'd been in her pre-school class, and his father had left his mom and him
and all his brothers and sisters. There were 12 kids in his family, and he
was the youngest. He'd told Dana, who had, for some reason, become his
trusted confidante, that his mother was 'struggling' now and they might have
to become 'foster kids.' Dana wasn't sure what most of it meant, but she
knew she didn't want it to happen to her.

She'd gotten really upset at one point, and had admitted her fears to her
mother. Mrs. Scully had comforted her, making her realize that her father
was a wonderful person who loved his family too much to EVER leave them.

Now, she sat on the front steps and looked up at the dark-blue-evening-sky.
She could see a single star high above her. Though she knew it wouldn't come
true, she made a wish as she gazed at it, alone up there while she was alone

below.

"Star, I know you're just a sun far away, but maybe you can talk to God. If
you can, I wish for my daddy to come home, right now. I miss him a whole
lot."

She smiled a little, and the star seemed to twinkle more brightly for a
second.

That twinkle, bringing the tiniest bit of hope, so occupied her for a few
seconds that she almost missed the sound of the car turning in to the
driveway.

It wasn't until her father called, "Dana!" that she looked over.

"Ahab!" she shouted, using the nickname she'd given him after he told her
about 'Moby Dick.' He'd called her his first mate for over a year and she
called him captain, but it wasn't until then that they gave each other
actual names. She ran over and grabbed him as tightly as she could, wanting
to hold on to him until he promised he wouldn't ever go away for so long
again.

"Starbuck," he returned to her yelling. He picked her up, something that
made her feel almost as special as the name- he didn't call any of her
brothers and sister and anything special, and he didn't ever pick them up
anymore, except Charlie sometimes, and he was little.

As he carried her back to the house, she asked him, "Daddy, if you make a
wish and it comes true so that you KNOW it came true, is that a miracle?"
She was hugging her arms around his neck, feeling secure now, and really
believing that either her wish or prayer had been answered.

"I think it probably does. A little miracle. Why, did something happen to
you while I was gone?"

"I'll tell you later." Looking over his shoulder, her head went back to look
at the star again.

Putting a hand to her head, she saluted.
>>>>>>>>

DECEMBER 31, 1998
6:30 A.M.

Scully only a little trouble finding the office of the Lone Gunmen. She'd
never had to get to it alone before, always with Mulder. Only once had she
even SEEN any of the Gunmen without Mulder, and that was only because they
all believed he was dead. Even though, as seemed to be usual with Mulder, he
wasn't.

It had been Frohike who had told her about Melissa.

"Is this where that man lives?" Daina Kathryn asked as Melissa helped her
out of the car and held her. She still didn't have any shoes, and it was
colder early in the morning than it was in the afternoon.

"What man?" Scully asked.

"The man from yesterday. The one who drove us to your house."

"Oh, that's, uh... Mr. Mulder. No, this is where his friends live."

"Are they your friends too?"

"Not really." Scully knocked on the door of the apartment-turned-office. She
saw the curtains on the window move slightly as someone looked out, then
heard the lock on the door turn.

"Scully," Mulder said, opening to door and standing back to let them in. He
closed the door behind them and locked it again, as overly suspicious as the
ones whose place of work he stood in.

Scully simply nodded at him, went to stand by a wall, a little confused. She
saw nobody but Mulder. Melissa joined her, but Daina Kathryn wiggled until
she was put down, so she could run around the room and look at everything.

"What's that?" she asked, looking at one of the computers. She leaned
closer, putting a hand on the back of a chair to steady herself so she could
get even closer. "Is that another TV?"

"It's a computer," Mulder said. He didn't offer any explanation as to where
the Gunmen were.

"Mulder, where are they?" Scully asked, crossing her arms.

"At home. I called them first, made sure it was okay to be here. We can stay
as long as we need to. There are a couple of beds in the bedroom, just in
case they're ever needed. We can use them, if we have to."

"How long're we gonna stay in this place?" Daina Kathryn said. She'd figured
out that if you pushed a key, the screensaver would go off. She was now
using arrow keys to go from icon to icon, almost completely engrossed in
what she was doing.

No one bothered to answer her, and she didn't seem to care. She had now used
the enter key to get to some kind of card game- Scully hated to think what-
and was clicking on the cards at random.

"Scully, would you come with me to the other room for a minute?" Mulder
asked. He gave her to tell her they were going to discuss 'things' that
Melissa and Daina Kathryn might be better off not knowing.

She followed him without speaking to the bedroom, then waited silently for
him to speak.

"Are you okay with this?" he said.

"We're not staying here over night. We have to get in touch with my mother,
with Bill and Charles..." she said.

"You have to."

"We CAN'T, Mulder. What of that don't you understand?"

"Why can't you?"

"Why is it any safer here than anywhere else? They'll be looking for us
around Washington, anyway. If we go to Bill's in California, we'll all be
okay."

"They know you have family there, Scully."

"I have a feeling 'they' know where Charles is, too."

"So you see what I mean by you have to stay here. You do, for the safety of
you and your sister and your... your..."

"You can call her my daughter, Mulder."

"And your daughter."

"You can't force me to stay here."

"I can if I have to. I'm not asking if you want to stay. You don't have a
choice, this time."

"Mulder, that's not fair."

"I'm trying to keep all of you safe, Scully."

She turned away from him, and at first he thought he had said something to
make her angrier than she was.

Then she spoke, and her voice cracked mid-sentence. "I know, but I-" She
couldn't finish. He could see her shoulders rise slightly as she took a deep
breath.

"Scully..." Very cautiously, he went to her and put his arms around her. She
leaned back into him, held his wrists. "Scully, I don't want you to lose
Melissa and your only child again."

She turned in his arms, so that she could wrap her own arms around his waist
and put her head to his chest. "I don't want to either. But it's not safe
here."

"I... I know a place we can go," he said. He hadn't wanted to mention the
place he had in mind, but knew they would never expect the ones they were
hunting to go there.

To the place in Canada, the place that had almost cost him his life. The
place where he'd thought he'd found his sister, only to lose her once again.

Once again.
>>>>>>>>

NOVEMBER 29, 1973
5:00 A.M.

"Please tell us, Fox. Whatever happened, we won't get mad at you," William
Mulder pleaded, once again, with his son.

"I don't remember," Fox said, on the verge of losing his temper again. No
one would leave him alone. They didn't seem to care at all about what he
felt about it all. They just wanted to find Samantha.

His father was lying about not getting mad. Although Fox could already
barely remember it, he knew that he would be in more trouble than he'd ever
been in his life if he told his dad what he DID remember- the arguing, the
lights, his going for the gun he wasn't even supposed to know about...

"Fox Mulder, don't lie to me!"

"I DON'T REMEMBER!" Whatever had been keeping him calm finally snapped and
he yelled it.

After yelling, he didn't even bother to try and run. He did his best stone
impression as Mr. Mulder walked, very slowly, closer to him.

His father slapped him. Still, he didn't move.

"When you're ready to tell us what happened, we're listening. But for now,
you can just stay here and think about it. Maybe something will come back to
you." He left.

Fox didn't allow himself to cry- for the first time- until his dad had left.
>>>>>>>>
DECEMBER 31, 1998
6:45 A.M.

This time, Melissa sat in the back with Daina Kathryn and Scully sat up
front with Mulder. Other than Mulder, nobody had any idea where they were
going. All of them, most of all Scully, wanted to keep it that way.

"Are we going back to the other place, Missy?" Daina Kathryn asked.

"You mean the prison? No, I think we're going some place safe."

"A place where we can always be safe? Forever?"

"I hope so." Melissa put an arm around Daina Kathryn. Daina Kathryn snuggled
against her, happy with whatever they did. For her, life was suddenly an
adventure.

Nobody spoke for what seemed like hours to the tense passengers, days to the
driver. Daina Kathryn fell asleep, still curled up against Melissa, and then
the only sound was her heavier breathing and occasional sighs.

"How far away is this place, Mulder?" Scully asked, finally.

"It's-" he swallowed hard, knowing she wasn't going to be too happy with him
after this. "It's in Canada."

"It's WHERE!?"

"Canada."

"Mulder, that's worse than going to Bill's house. If we cross an
INTERNATIONAL BORDER, we have to have I.D. And while that may not be a real
problem for us, it is for the two fugitives we have in the back!"

"I never knew you could be so dramatic, Scully."

"This is NOT the time, Mulder!"

"Calm down. When we get close to the border, we just abandon the car and
walk off-road."

"With a barefoot 4-year-old wearing a T-shirt?"

"Well, I can't think of everything."

"Mulder, you're going to stop somewhere that sells clothes, and hopefully
shoes. We all need warmer coats, we need something to carry extra food in,
the food itself, bottles of water..."

"I get the idea. We'll stop at the next place I see."

Scully seemed happy with that. She turned away from him- she'd been glaring
at him since he'd talked about getting out of the car- and stared out the
window at the passing streets at the edge of Washington.

She appeared content. But Mulder could tell from her lack of movement that
she was thinking about something, thinking hard.
>>>>>>>>

DECEMBER 31, 1998
9:45 A.M.

Mulder had finally found a mall to get shoes for Daina Kathryn, warmer coats
for them all, and food. He had driven around Washington for close to three
hours finding someplace open, had found it, then spent forty-five minutes
standing around while Scully and Melissa helped Daina Kathryn.

Back in the car, again, he was trying to remember how long it had taken to
get to Canada in the first place. Almost a day, he knew that, while driving,
but that time they had taken back roads he wasn't sure he could find again,
even with photographic memory.

"Missy, I'm hungry. They don't give you breakfast here," Daina Kathryn
complained in the back. She was tired, even after sleeping longer than any
of the adults, and was showing it by complaining- about EVERYTHING.

"Not right now, D. We have to save food," Melissa said.

"But I'm HUNGRY," Daina Kathryn insisted.

"D...."

"What?"

"Be quiet."

Daina Kathryn, not used to being told 'no' since there had never been much
for her to be told 'no' about, slumped against the backseat. "I think I
liked the other place better," she muttered.

As he had the day before, Mulder suddenly pulled the car to the side of the
road. "Scully, you drive," he said simply, and got out and into the backseat
to sit on the other side of Daina Kathryn. The little girl glanced at him
warily, then scooted a little closer to Melissa.

"Mulder, what're you doing?" Scully asked. She hadn't moved.

"I'm going to talk to Daina Kathryn, is that's okay with you."

"Sure, I guess." She got out, walked around to the door he'd left open, got
in, and started the car again, shrugging as she drove and listened to the
conversation from the back at the same time.

"Would you like it better if I called you Daina Kathryn or D.?" Mulder
asked.

"You can't call me D.," Daina Kathryn said, refusing to look at him.

"Okay then, Daina Kathryn. That's fine with me. Did you know that I think
Daina Kathryn is one of the prettiest names I've ever heard?" Melissa looked
at Mulder and gave him a smile that told him he was saying just the right
things to a child who was both very intelligent and only four years old.

Daina Kathryn glanced up at him, her face stretching into a rare grin.
"Thanks, Mr. Mulder."

"Fox," he corrected, then winced inside. He'd never told anyone before in
his life to call him Fox if he had any choice. His parents, maybe, had
always insisted he go by his given name, but unless they introduced him, he
was Mulder. Mulder suited him more, anyway.

"Fox. That's a pretty name, too. I mean a nice name," Daina Kathryn said,
then looked at the floor again, embarrassed.

"Well, I only let certain people call me that. You're lucky, you're one of
the few I trust not to laugh at it."

"I won't laugh. I like that name... you can call me D, I guess."

"Thanks a lot... hey, D., have you ever tried making up a story?"

"Uh-uh. Missy told me stories sometimes, though. About my mother."

"You mean Scully?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Could you make up a story so I won't be bored?"

Daina Kathryn giggled. "You're a grown-up. They don't get bored."

"Well, I am. So tell me a story." Melissa gave him a second grateful smile
as Daina Kathryn bit her lip and thought hard, eyes blinking quickly with
ideas.

"Once upon a time," she finally said. "There was a... a little girl. Named,
uh... what's a good name, Missy?"

Melissa turned her smile from Mulder to Daina Kathryn. "How about, um,
Margaret."

"That's your mother's name, you told me."

"Yeah. Make up a story about her."

"Okay. Once upon a time, there was a girl named Margaret..."
>>>>>>>>

JULY 22, 1969
EXACT TIME UNKNOWN

The car was so hot that Fox was sure he was going to suffocate before the
long drive to Grandma's was over. His legs, bare under shorts, stuck to the
leather of the seats, his hair stuck to his forehead with sweat, and
Samantha's annoying voice stuck to his ears.

"Dad, I'm bored. When're we gonna get there?" she asked. Fox rolled his
eyes. If he'd asked that question, he would have been told to entertain
himself. But not the little angel/ family suck-up/ bratty little sister.

"Soon, Sam. Why don't you ask Fox if he wants to play a game with you?"
their father asked, using the tone that meant that Fox should
understand-without-being-asked that he was supposed to agree.

"Yeah, sure," Fox said, having nothing better to do, anyway. He'd finished a
book he was supposed to read for a book report in the first half hour in the
car- showed how intelligent most of the people at his school were, since
they complained the books they were assigned were too hard- and hadn't
brought anything else to keep himself entertained.

"What do you wanna do, Fox?" Samantha asked.

"Um... how about we make up stories?" He had to come up with something that
she could do but wouldn't bore him to death, which was hard when there
wasn't a TV around- and even then, they argued over what to watch.

"What kind of stories?"

"Stories about what we'll be when we grow up."

"Okay. You first."

He shrugged, his way of agreeing. "I want to be a police officer, probably.
I'll have a gun, I'm not sure what kind, but a good one. I'll shoot lots of
criminals- robbers and murderers and stuff."

"Are you gonna get married?"

"Yeah, probably. I want to marry somebody with red hair."

"Why red?"

"Because its different. Not many people have red hair."

"There's a girl in my class with red hair."

"There's a couple of people in my grade with red hair. But there's a lot
more with brown hair and blond hair and black hair."

"Yeah, you're right."

"Anyway, that's my first story. You're turn."
>>>>>>>>


Rainbow Continuum
5/10
Emily Miller


DECEMBER 31, 1998
11:00 A.M.

Mulder was still in the backseat, with Daina Kathryn now curled up against
him in sleep. Melissa had moved to the front to talk to her sister and try
to catch up on the years she'd missed.

"How'd you find Emily, anyway?" Melissa asked.

Scully hesitated and took a deep breath. "I-I got a phone call. It was from
a woman who sounded just like you. She told me that someone needed my help.
At first, I thought whoever it was was talking about the one who'd been
murdered- Roberta Sim. But then I realized they were talking about Emily."

"Someone called you and said that Emily needed your help?"

"They didn't say Emily. They just said that SHE needed my help."

Now it was Melissa's turn for a deep breath. "Oh my God," she said softly.

"What?"

"One day, about a year ago, maybe a little more, Daina Kathryn thought
something bad was happening to her sister. She was screaming about it. I
just thought she was pretending, or trying to get my attention for some
reason, but when she asked me to try and contact you to help her sister, I
really tried it."

"It's got to be coincidence," Scully said, shaking her head. She looked away
from the road and into Melissa's eyes to try and tell if she believed that
or not. She obviously didn't.

"Maybe not," she said.

"Missy, it's impossible. There's no way you could have... sent me thoughts.
And I already told you I got the message through the phone. And I seriously
doubt you had access to a phone in that prison."

"Maybe the only way you would listen was through a phone. It worked, didn't
it?"

"Yes, but that's beside the point. The calls also came from the house where
Emily was living. So how do you explain that if it was you?"

"Again, the only way to get you to listen."

"Look, Missy, I'm not in the mood for arguing. You can have your idea and I
can have mine, just like it's always been."
>>>>>>>>

MARCH 6, 1967
5:00 P.M.

Dana stared down at the new baby, lying on its dumb-looking bed-with-bars.
She wasn't so sure she liked having it there. It was a boy, and she thought
one boy was enough. Especially when that boy was twice her age.

"Hi, Charlie," she said softly to the baby. It wasn't asleep, but her mother
thought it was, so she knew to stay quiet as long as she was in the same
room.

Melissa knew to be quiet, too, and almost scared Dana to death when she
suddenly appeared beside her at the edge of the bed-with-bars. Bill said it
wasn't called that, but he was mean and wouldn't tell them what it was
called.

"I like him, don't you?" Melissa asked, reaching a hand through the bars and
touching the baby's arm.

"No," Dana said.

"Why not?" Melissa giggled as Charles grabbed her hand and tried to pull it
away.

"Because he's dumb, that's why. And he's too little."

"I thought you said you didn't like being the little baby of the family."

"I don't, but I wish he'd been a girl."

"So do I. Bill's bad enough, isn't he?"

"Yeah... you wanna go play outside?"

"Yeah, I guess."

Melissa and Dana left.

Charles went back to sleep.
>>>>>>>>

DECEMBER 31, 1998
3:30 P.M.

"We're almost to Canada. We'd better leave the car here," Mulder said. He
was again driving, with Scully beside him and Melissa and Daina Kathryn both
asleep. Neither was used to any difference in schedules or the littlest bit
of excitement, and so had tired out just riding in the car. Mulder and
Scully had let them sleep as long as possible, but now they were less than a
15 minute drive to the Canadian border and could no longer risk the
possibility of being spotted.

"I'll wake them up," Scully volunteered, nodding towards the back as Mulder
pulled the car to the side of the road. She turned and reached an arm back
to gently shake Melissa. "Missy, wake up."

Melissa blinked a few times and then opened her eyes fully. "Hi, Dana."

"Uh, hi," Scully said, a little confused with the greeting. "Wake up Daina
Kathryn, okay, while Mulder and I get the stuff out."

"Okay," Melissa agreed. She moved Daina Kathryn off her arm as she said
softly, "D.? Time to get up now."

"Why?" Daina Kathryn managed to say, her voice sounding thick with sleep.
She didn't open her eyes, just burrowed into Melissa a little more.

"Because its time to go," Melissa said.

Daina Kathryn looked up then, her eyebrow raised, making her 'Scully' look
complete. "Where're we going?"

"I'm not sure."

"Do you know?" She turned to look at Scully.

"Nope," Scully said.

"Is it someplace fun?"

"You'll never know unless you come, will you?" Melissa said.

Daina Kathryn thought about that for a moment, then nodded. "I guess you're
right. I'll go." She leaned over and opened the door, then hopped out and
went around the side of the car to stand beside Mulder, who was putting food
into one of two backpacks he'd bought for him and Scully to wear and keep
food and extra clothing in.

"What're those?" Daina Kathryn asked, reaching out to see what one of the
packs felt like.

"Backpacks," Mulder said, trying to stuff a final sweatshirt they'd gotten
for Melissa into the same one that Daina Kathryn was still examining. She
moved back as he finally forced the shirt in and zipped the bag closed.

"They're for carrying stuff?" She asked.

"Yep. Do you think you could go tell Melissa and Scu- your mother that it's
time to go?"

"Sure." She skipped back to where Scully and Melissa were talking, in an
unusually good mood. "Fox says it's time to go."

"Tell him we'll be right there," Scully said, then turned back to her sister
as Daina Kathryn ran off. "Is she going to be okay?"

"What do you mean?" Melissa asked. She wasn't looking at Scully, but was
Daina Kathryn, who was excitedly explaining something to Mulder. As she told
him whatever it was, she waved her hands and jumped around, seeming to be
enjoying herself. Mulder laughed every few seconds, indicating that he, too,
was taking pleasure from whatever it she was saying.

"With all of this. With finding me, her mother, with Mulder, with going to
Canada. It's a big change, and she's a little girl," Scully said.

"She's also a brave girl, Dana. She lived her whole life with almost no
sunlight, no play time outside, no change in schedule... and she never once
complained."

Scully, too, turned now to watch Daina Kathryn talking to Mulder. She paused
in her hopping to let him speak, then put a hand over her mouth and giggled
loudly enough that Scully and Melissa could hear. Watching her, Scully
couldn't help thinking about being her mother. About- she had to fight not
to catch her breath- allowing Mulder to be her father.

"Dana? Are you okay?" Melissa was looking at her with a worried expression,
seeing her staring at Daina Kathryn and Mulder with a look that even
Melissa, her own sister and one of her best friends, had never seen before.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Scully quickly assured her, then added, "Seriously. Let's
go before it gets too late." She walked with Melissa to Mulder and Daina
Kathryn, but her mind seemed to be somewhere else, even when Daina Kathryn
decided to tell them what she'd told Mulder, something about the difference
between a dog and hot dog. Melissa laughed at it, but Scully only gave a
forced smile.

An image was forcing its way into her already cluttered thoughts. A picture
of a little girl, the image of Melissa at the same age, lying on a bed,
alone and scared. Her own mother had just agreed to let her die, but she
didn't know it yet. She was just waiting for things to get back to normal.

"Emily..." Scully said very softly, to herself, and just loudly enough that
Mulder, standing beside her, was able to catch it. Melissa and Daina Kathryn
went on talking and giggling.

"Scully, you ready to go?" Mulder asked, putting a hand on her shoulder and
squeezing just enough to let her know that he was right there for her in a
way that neither Melissa nor Daina Kathryn, hard as they might try, could
ever be.

"Uh... yeah, I'm ready." She allowed Mulder to pull her closer to him as
they started walking, Melissa taking the other backpack without asking. She
and Daina Kathryn, holding hands as usual, followed behind the FBI agents,
able to feel the love and trust even from almost 5 feet away.

"I think they're in love," Daina Kathryn whispered, grinning up at Melissa
like she'd made a wonderful discovery.

Melissa clasped her hand a little tighter. "I think you're right. But they
don't know it yet, so don't spoil it."

"I won't."
>>>>>>>>

DECEMBER 31, 1998
5:30 P.M.

"I'm too tired to walk anymore, Missy," Daina Kathryn complained, dragging
her feet even more than she'd been doing for the past half-hour. Walking for
as long as they had had exhausted them all, but none had complained until
now.

"Just a little farther, D."

"I want you to hold me," she begged, reaching her arms up in a way she had
rarely done since she was not even 2 years old and was scared of 'that man'
that came to their room, Mark Biars.

"I have to carry the backpack," Melissa said, pushing her away as gently as
she could.

Tears came to Daina Kathryn's eyes. "I'm TIRED!" She wailed as they slowly
slipped out and slid down her cheeks.

Scully, hearing her, left Mulder's side to walk back to Daina Kathryn and
lean over to pull her up against her chest and shoulder. Daina Kathryn
curled up with her head against Scully's neck and closed her eyes, looking
content, tears drying on her face. "Thank you, Ms. Scully," she said, still
not to the point of trusting her as a parent yet.

"You're welcome... D.," Scully said, rubbing a hand slowly along Daina
Kathryn's back. The girl was shivering even with her new sweatshirt and coat
on, tired and cold and hungry.

Scully imagined what Daina Kathryn's dreams of the world would have been as
she rejoined Mulder, this time with Melissa by her side. A place where the
sun always shined, everything smelled of the flowers Melissa said she loved
to draw and talk about, and there was no more being alone and scared.

And Scully hated it that her dreams had been killed so quickly. In less than
a week, less than 2 days, she knew the truth. Even outside of the prison,
things weren't perfect. There was pain and fear and things weren't always
full of comfort and safeness.

The world was a cruel place, to all those in it, whether they be children
living lives they'd never asked for like Daina Kathryn or adults trying to
stay alive when it seemed like everybody was out to get them like herself.
Hearts were easy to break and consciences were fragile, easy to damage
forever.

In the woods, as it began to get dark and even colder, that last day of
1998, Scully made a pledge to herself and the person so close to her in both
body and mind- she would make it up to Daina Kathryn Scully for all the
things she'd missed and all the times she'd made mistakes. Not only for her
daughter, also for Mulder, her family, and the few other friends she had...
she would make it all up.

Fortunately, the oncoming darkness and Daina Kathryn's hair in her face hid
the small drops that slowly streaked down her face.
>>>>>>>>

DECEMBER 31, 1998
6:30 P.M.

Even Mulder, who tried to jog at least once a week, was close to collapse
when they finally stopped, because Melissa couldn't walk any further.

They did their best to make a campsite by a large tree, in the middle of
who-knew-where. Scully had made sure to buy matches at their last stop, and
luckily it hadn't really snowed in almost a month, so a fire was made with
only a small struggle.

Melissa and Daina Kathryn were unconscious minutes after eating a quick meal
of the fruit Scully had gotten- apples, pears, and oranges, since they
wouldn't make as much of a mess in the backpacks as anything else and would
last longest-, but Mulder and Scully weren't yet ready to go to sleep, tired
as they were.

Scully was sitting by the fire; knees pulled to her chest and eyes staring
into the flames when Mulder finished throwing out apple cores. He crawled
over to her, not caring about the dirt beginning to coat on the knees of his
jeans, and sat on her left. Without even thinking about it, his arm moved up
and around her back. She leaned against him, head going to his shoulder.

"Mulder..." she started to say, but he put a finger to his lips.

"Don't talk," he said, pulling her a little closer to him.

She nodded, leaned closer, and closed her eyes. He was beginning to think
she'd fallen asleep when he felt something hit the hand that was resting on
her cheek.

"Scully?" he asked, breaking the silence.

She turned her head to look up at him. Her eyes were glistening, but a smile
brightened her face. She didn't look at all sad or afraid, but so happy
suddenly that she couldn't keep it inside and had to release it in the form
of tears. "Yeah?" she said softly.

"What's wrong?" He had to make sure she was as okay as she looked.

"Oh, nothing. I'm just... well, I'm happy."

"Why?"

"Oh, lots of reasons."

"Tell me about it, Scully. Please."

"Things are just coming together for me. I've got my sister back, a daughter
who I should never have had, and..."

"And what?"

She reached back and took his arm from around her shoulder, then slid over
so that she was curled up between his legs, her head on his chest. When he
put his arms around her, she sighed contentedly.

"And I'm with the one I love more than I've ever loved anyone in my whole
life."

She felt the warmth that covered and protected her tighten for a moment, but
before she had time to worry, his arms were pulling her even closer than
before, moving her body around so that she was facing him. As she looked up
at his face, he saw that her eyes were still wet, but now larger than
before. She was scared- afraid of him and what he was going to say. She'd
felt his reaction to her words.

"I love you, too," he said.
>>>>>>>>

DECEMBER 31, 1998
6:30 P.M.

Thomas Rammin pulled his truck to the side of the road when he spotted the
car that they'd been seen leaving the office of the conspiracy theorists in.
They were either sleeping somewhere nearby, which he doubted, or they were
smart enough to have gotten out to walk on foot.

Or thought they were smart enough.

Rammin was a genius at making people disappear. The man- Mulder- had a
sister. And Rammin was one of the few who knew where she was currently being
held for the tests. He was one of the very few, one of the 5, in fact, that
knew the location of Hoffa, who had just been joined by Biars. Neither would
ever be found.

But now Rammin had his hardest job yet. He had to make Melissa and Daina
Kathryn Scully disappear and still have it look enough like they'd died that
Mulder and his partner, Dana Scully, wouldn't search long enough for them to
discover where they were taken.

If he had his way, Daina Kathryn would be killed. She was a hazard to all
that he'd worked most of his life on. The hybrid project. She was the only
one they'd created who didn't have to be kept alive by others.

She was the mistake.
>>>>>>>>

JANUARY 1, 1999
7:00 A.M.

Daina Kathryn shivered as she awakened and felt the almost frigid air of the
early morning. She had rolled away from Melissa in the night and out of the
coat she had been using for a blanket, and now only her sweatshirt protected
her from the cold. She reached over and jerked her coat away from beside
Melissa and wrapped it around her shoulders, then scooted forward to sit by
the still-warm ashes from the fire.

Fire was something Melissa had told her about, but she'd never seen it
before last night. It already fascinated her- but most of what she'd seen
had fascinated her. The smell of the woods as opposed to the city, the way
it felt to walk over the dead leaves, the feel of the bark of trees... it
was wonderful, in its own way.

She thought she liked life outside of the prison, but wasn't sure. She'd
always thought she would love it. But she'd really never believed it would
happen. Now that it had, it was much more frightening and alien than she'd
thought it would be.

Across the burned sticks she leaned close to, she saw her mother and Fox.
They were sleeping together, curled up close. It made Daina Kathryn smile to
see it- she knew how much they loved each other, even more than her mother
loved her. That didn't bother her. It was a different kind of love, anyway.

Maybe, when it was okay to go back to her mother's apartment, Fox could live
with them. And Melissa, of course, because Daina Kathryn wouldn't go
anywhere Melissa didn't, not even to live with her own parent.

Melissa had told her that most people had TWO parents- a mother and a
father, who was a man. Like Fox was. Even though Melissa also said there was
almost no chance that she would ever find her father, she could pretend that
Fox was, couldn't she? And maybe he was. Except she knew about sex, too, and
she didn't think that her mother and Fox were allowed to do that if they
worked together like they said they did.

Fox would make a good father.
>>>>>>>>

JANUARY 1, 1999
7:10 A.M.

Mulder woke up with a small body curled up against his, something he
definitely wasn't used to. It took him a moment to remember the night
before- after his professing love, she had cried harder, and he had held her
against him and let her, feeling the warmth of their agreed feelings.
Eventually, she had fallen asleep, exhausted, and he had laid her gently on
his coat, then moved down beside her and used her coat as a blanket of
sorts.

He smiled and rubbed Scully's hair for a second before sitting up. He yawned
and looked around, his eyes coming to a stop on Daina Kathryn, sitting
across from them, a curious but pleased look on her face.

"You guys love each other, right?" she asked.

He smiled at her. "Yeah."

She smiled back, an uncertain smile. "I wish somebody could love me like
that."

He was almost shocked by her reply. She was wise beyond his years; from the
way she talked. He tried not to show how surprised he was by her words. She
didn't seem to realize what she'd said and how startling it was to him.
"What about Melissa and your mother... and me?"

"You love me like you love her?"

He patted the coat he sat on and she slid around to him. He put his arm
around her like he had Scully the night before. "Maybe not exactly the same.
But pretty close."

"That's nice," she said. He saw her smile was an exact mirror of her mother
as much as anything else about her. She was going to be Dana Scully all over
again. Just what the world needed, he thought with a mental grin.

"Mulder...?" Scully asked sleepily, waking up when she felt the chill that
had been held back by Mulder the whole night slowly seeping into her clothes
and skin.

"We're over here," Mulder said. Scully looked up, saw them, smiled, and got
up, stretching after a slightly uncomfortable night on the ground and in
Mulder's arms, joining them. She sat on the other side of Daina Kathryn.
When Melissa, too, came over, Scully knew of only one thing- suddenly her
life was just the way she'd always dreamed of.
>>>>>>>>

FEBRUARY 14, 1977
3:30 P.M.

Dana had pretended all day that she didn't care that no one gave her
anything for Valentine's Day. She was still relatively new, only living
there 6 months... that had to be the reason. Unless she was really as ugly
as Bill often said she was.

She wasn't. She knew she wasn't. Her parents, Melissa, even Charles admitted
that one day she could be beautiful if she took the time to care.

That could have been the problem. She DIDN'T care, not really. She pretended
to be as giggly as all the rest of the girls her age, boy crazy and slightly
nuts anyway. But maybe it was obvious that she didn't really care about boys
yet.

Or hadn't. And suddenly, when she'd been watching the others in her class
get little notes and even flowers, she had wished with all her heart that
someone would walk over to her with a big smile and admit that they had
liked her since she'd first walked into the school.

It hadn't happened.

She slammed the door when she finally got home, having left as quickly as
possible and not waited for her brothers and sister and the little kids that
lived next door as usual, dropped her backpack on the floor- where her mom
was always yelling at her not to leave it- and ran upstairs to the room she
shared with Melissa as fast as she could.

She locked the door, even though she knew that Melissa would be home within
the next 10 minutes and would want to come in. And Melissa wasn't one that
would take no for an answer unless she had to.

Melissa would want in, then would want to know what was wrong, and then
would try to make Dana feel better once she finally learned what the problem
was. Melissa was like that- always trying to help without realizing that her
methods and Dana's methods were as different as fish and birds.

Dana sat on her bed, to wait mostly, and let herself be carried away on a
daydream.

She was at school. It was morning again, that morning- February 14,
Valentine's Day. No, wait, it was afternoon. She was getting ready to go
home, a little letdown because she hadn't gotten anything but not daring to
let it show.

She felt a hand on her shoulder, someone turning her gently around.

"Hi, Dana," It was Michael from her English and math classes. "I was just...
I was just hoping you would take this... its... from me..." He would thrust
a plastic flower, maybe a rose, at her, then leave, embarrassed and fearing
that she would laugh.

"Michael!" she would call, wanting him to know she loved the flower.

He would stop reluctantly, and when he twisted to face her direction, his
eyes would be on the ground and his hands in his pockets. "Yeah?" he would
ask softly.

"Thanks," she would say simply, but both would know it was love...

Dana gagged to herself, amazed at how sappy she was getting even in her own
head. Then she laughed. She knew what would happen if anybody came up to her
in reality- she would either ignore them or hit them, unable to know what
else to do. Not that she wouldn't like a kiss or... anything else if she
ever got the chance.

She was still laughing when she heard Melissa pounding up the stairs,
yelling one final insult at Bill, then hitting the door and yelling at Dana
to let her in.

Dana got up and opened the door, letting Melissa in and walking out, a smile
still lying on her face. Suddenly the day seemed a whole lot brighter. One
day, all her fantasies would be real, if only she would grow up a little
faster. She would meet a 'true love' like out of some movie, maybe have a
kid.

She laughed out loud again. There was no way she could imagine herself with
children! At least, she'd never been able to before. Now it was getting a
little clear.

She would have to thank Michael tomorrow.
>>>>>>>>

JANUARY 1, 1999
7:30 A.M.

After everyone had had a night of sleep, all were prepared to spend the full
day- or until they got to wherever it was they were going- walking. Even
Daina Kathryn seemed eager to get started, having forgotten all her
complaints the night before.

"Can I carry one of the backpacks?" she asked as Mulder and Scully finished
putting their coats, unneeded as the day was already surprisingly warm for
January, in the bags along with all leftover food.

"Not today, D.," Melissa said. "Maybe when you get a little bigger."

"I'm big enough!" Daina Kathryn said, standing as tall as she could on short
legs. She laughed as she tried to walk, stumbled on her toes, and eventually
fell.

"You're in a good mood," Scully said, swinging her pack up onto her
shoulders and Mulder did the same beside her.

"Yep," Daina Kathryn agreed, getting up and brushing off her jeans, still
grinning. She skipped behind the adults as they started off, unable to come
up with anything to be sad about. That was a nice feeling.

Mulder fell back to walk with her, even offering to stop and take out some
of the smaller bags of clothes or food for her to carry.

"Sure!" she agreed, and they let Scully and Melissa walk ahead while he
pulled his backpack off and got out the paper bag they'd gotten when they'd
gotten the fruit the day before and handed it to her, then zipped the pack
closed again. Pleased with her job, Daina Kathryn held her bag with both
arms and gave Mulder a bright smile as they resumed walking.

They'd been walking for a few minutes before she got up the courage to ask
him something that had been worrying at her mind since she'd first seen him
with her mother earlier. "Fox?"

"What?" He looked down at her, slowing enough that it was easier for her to
talk and try to keep her grip on the not-really-heavy-but heavy enough-bag.

"If Dana Scully... if Dana Scully is my mother... and if you guys, you know,
love each other... do you think you could ever be my father? Not my real one
I mean, just a pretend one..." her face was rapidly turning pink as she
looked at the ground in front of her, and she went back to walking quickly.

"Stop," Mulder said. "Right now." He didn't sound angry, but his voice made
it obvious that he meant it. She halted, eyes still watching the dirt, but
didn't move back to where he was standing. "Scully!" he called, moving up to
stand next to her.

Farther ahead, a good distance by this time, Scully and Melissa, their small
talk about the period of time Melissa had been missing ending quickly.

"Yeah?" Scully asked Mulder, turning to look at him, hands going up to shade
her eyes from the sun.

"Can you come back here for a minute. I need to ask you something," he said,
sounding both scared and nonchalant at the same time. She raised an eyebrow,
puzzled, but shrugged at Melissa.

"Want me to come?" Melissa asked.

"Yeah, come on, come too. You might as well," Scully said. They joined
Mulder and Daina Kathryn, who was still staring at the ground and worried
that she was in trouble. "What's wrong?" Scully asked her.

"Nothin'," Daina Kathryn whispered. She clutched the bag Mulder had given
her a little tighter, like a shield.

Scully glanced at Mulder for an explanation. He didn't give one, instead got
on one knee in front of her, causing her eyebrow to rise for a second time.

"Mulder?"

He reached forward and took her hand in his, ignoring both her eyebrow and
the bafflement in her voice. "Scully... Dana, as soon as we get out of
this... will you marry me?"

She jerked away from him, almost collapsed into Melissa's arms. "Mulder..."
she said, trying breathe normally and hide her surprise. "Mulder, you are
so... so... bizarre."

He laughed. "That the best you can do? I really did take your breath away,
huh?"

"You might say that." She held out a hand for him to use as an anchor to
stand up. Again on his feet, he didn't release her hand.

"Yes or no, Scully?" he asked.

She took a deep breath. "Yes."

He released her hand, his arms going around her shoulders to pull her
against his chest. She felt suddenly safer than she could ever remember
feeling, even snuggled against her father while he read to her and her
brothers in the dead of winter, with snow outside and Melissa and her mother
arguing in a half-hearted way in another room.

He pushed her backpack off her shoulders- his had been discarded as soon as
he'd called her name- to draw her even closer. As he did, he lowered his
head so that he could put his lips to hers.

She didn't fight him, but didn't kiss back at first, just letting herself
get used to the feel of his soft lips and the way the world had seemed to
just disappear. Then she pushed back, hard enough that for a moment it hurt.
A good hurt.

Other than the slight movements of her mouth, she didn't move for what
seemed like hours. Then, starting off slowly, then gaining speed as if on a
hill, she heard clapping and a child's laughter and Mulder's lips were gone
from her own and were now against her ear.

"I love you so much, Dana."
>>>>>>>>