Rainbow Continuum
6/10
Emily Miller


JANUARY 1, 1999
8:30 A.M.

Rammin, as good as he was at tracking, was growing tired when his backup
finally showed. He had been watching Fox Mulder and the 3 Scullys- Dana,
Melissa, and the girl, who Melissa Scully had called Daina Kathryn for years
now- sit, backs against a large tree that was just big enough for them all
to sit side-by-side, and talk, laugh, and just have a good time. If he
hadn't been told that he would be killed for injuring any of them in the
least, he would have shot them long enough and buried the bodies.

"Hey," a voice said behind him, startling him from his dreams of their
bloody bodies, of running his hands over the wounds and feeling the
stickiness on his fingers.

He turned to find the man, formally known as Alex Krycek and Jonathan
Johnson, and currently Adam Jonnes; crouched beside him on the damp leaves
that covered the ground and allowed them to walk silently. Those leaves were
the only reason Rammin hadn't heard Jonnes, he assured himself. Any other
time, he would have known he was coming when he was a hundred feet away.

"Ready for me to take over?" Jonnes asked.

Rammin didn't reply immediately. He didn't like Jonnes, even if Jonnes had
been working with the Consortium for almost a year longer than he had.
Jonnes was a double-crosser, first turning on them, then rushing back and
wanting to be allowed back in after losing his arm.

But he had to admit, it had been Jonnes that had helped make their little
problem possible to fix- and it HAD been fixed, of course with Rammin's
help, until 2 days ago. When the FBI agents had found Melissa Scully and the
girl.

"Yeah," Rammin said, just as Jonnes was about to ask again. "But I'm
stayin'."

Jonnes blinked, surprised at that- after more than 24 hours without rest, he
would have been exhausted, and if he had the chance to go home, he would
take it. "Uh, okay, I-"

"Shut up, they can hear you if you talk too loud," said Rammin.

Jonnes looked a little galled, as though he had known that and Rammin had
only said it to rile him, but didn't provoke things further. He simply
settled a little more comfortably onto the leaves to wait.

"So what're they doing? What're WE doing?"

"They're just... talkin'. We're supposed to wait for the right time to get
Melissa and that girl and get 'em back."

"You mean to the Consortium."

"Yeah, who else?"

"So when're we gonna do it?"

"When the time's right."

"When's that?" Rammin forced himself not to start a fight- Jonnes was
obviously trying to annoy him on purpose with senseless questions.

"Later. When they don't expect it."
>>>>>>>>

JANUARY 1, 1999
8:35 A.M.

Daina Kathryn was still giggling from one of Mulder's jokes, Melissa was
smiling, and Scully looked happier than she had in a long time- a year, in
fact- when Mulder heard it.

Someone was talking. Close to them.

He could barely make it out.

"...Melissa and that girl...back..."

"You... the Consorti-..."

"...Who else?"

"...When're... gonna do it?"

"When... don't expect..."

Then there was silence.

Scully, Melissa, and Daina Kathryn didn't seem to have heard. They were
still talking and giggling like they had been before, even Scully relaxed.

"And you should've seen me jump away from him!" she was saying, and Melissa
was laughing while Daina Kathryn looked a little confused.

"Why?" she asked.

"Because he wasn't Fox- he was Eddie van Blundht!" And Daina Kathryn figured
it out and laughed too, though not as loudly as Melissa had. She still
wasn't completely sure what was so funny about the whole thing. She thought
it was kind of sad that her mother had been so close to admitting to Fox so
long ago that she loved him, only to find out it WASN'T him.

"Scully!" Mulder whispered, urgently beckoning Scully over to him.

She left Melissa at the beginning of an embarrassing first-date-for-Dana
story and Daina Kathryn hanging onto every word. "What?" she asked Mulder,
joining him a few feet from where she'd stood before.

"Shh. I heard people talking. Somebody's following us."

"But... how... how could they without us knowing?"

"I don't know. I think one of them just got here. I think they're after
Melissa and Daina Kathryn."

Scully sucked in her breath quickly and a little too loudly for Mulder to
feel comfortable with. "Shh," he said again.

"I knew it couldn't be that easy..." she said softly, seeming not to have
heard his warning. She was leaning as far over as she dared, trying to see
what he was hearing. But there was nothing but the trees, brown and leafless
in the cold of winter. She shivered involuntarily, knowing that just a few
feet away were at least 2 people who wanted her sister and daughter- and
possibly herself.

"It's going to be okay, Scully. We can split up, and run. You go with Daina
Kathryn, I'll go with Melissa," Mulder said.

"I don't even know where we're going!" she said.

"Just stop at the first clearing you come to. We'll find you."

"Mulder-"

"Scully, we do it or they'll catch us."

"All right. But if we're not to a clearing by tonight, I'm coming back."
>>>>>>>>
JANUARY 1, 1999
8:40 A.M.

Jonnes looked at Rammin, who was glaring at their targets. "They're
splitting up," Jonnes said, stating the obvious. That annoyed Rammin.

"I see that," he said, only just managing to keep his voice- and fists-
under control.

"We could split up, too," Jonnes said.

"No. You're expected back by tonight, and I'm supposed to have both Melissa
Scully and the girl by tomorrow morning. If somethin' happens to one of us,
we'll both have trouble."

"Well then... uh, they have to meet some place. We can follow... which one's
more important?"

"The girl. She's proof of what's been going on."

Jonnes, with the usual na‹ve-ness that many men who only wished they were
members of the project showed, appeared to think about this statement for a
moment. "But I thought she was a regular kid, she didn't need the
treatments."

"She still has the blood. Most of it will be gone by the time she's old
enough to be released, but for now..."

"Let's follow the girl and Scully."
>>>>>>>>

JANUARY 1, 1999
8:50 P.M.

"What's going on?" Melissa finally demanded to know as Mulder released her
arm and slowed down. She and Daina Kathryn had still been talking about
absolutely nothing when Mulder and Scully had suddenly forced them quiet,
explaining only that they had to split up. And then Melissa had found
herself being dragged away from her sister and niece with Mulder.

"Someone was following us," was all Mulder said. He was still looking around
nervously, but didn't see or hear anything and eventually relaxed- mostly-
and slowed to a normal walk.

"Who? And how?"

"I don't know. We're trying to get away from them and meet back with Scully
and Daina Kathryn later." He whirled when he heard a crack behind them. A
squirrel, just a squirrel. He allowed himself to breathe again.

Melissa was shaking her head. "No."

"No, what?" he asked, truly confused. She was giving him the same look
Scully did when she wasn't about to back down and let him have his way. The
one with the narrowed eyes and the set of the mouth and the jut of the chin.
He had a feeling Daina Kathryn would have the same one, one day.

"I'm not going anywhere without my sister and her daughter. For 4 years,
I've taken care of that child for her, with the hope that one day they would
meet, and they're not going to die now."

He wasn't going to yell at her, which would give their location away to the
men who were, for all he knew, following him and her. He hoped they were,
and not Scully and Daina Kathryn. "If we go back and try to find them, we'll
ALL die. There's a 50/50 chance now that these men are after US, not them,
so if we keep going, we can lead them away. Do you understand what I'm
saying, or do I have to force you to come?"

"Fox Mulder, you watch it," she hissed, stepping towards him. "I'll go with
you... but only because what you're saying is true."

He wanted to say "good" but managed to stop himself. She was already
obviously pissed with him, and it wouldn't help matters for them to spend
the whole time fighting. They had to get through this, find Scully and Daina
Kathryn, and get to Canada. There they could hide out for as long as they
needed to.
>>>>>>>>

JANUARY 1, 1999
8:55 A.M.

"What're we doing? Where're Missy and Fox?" Daina Kathryn asked, struggling
to catch her breath when Scully finally stopped and let her stop, too.

Scully leaned against a tree as she, too, tried to get air back into her
burning lungs. She dropped her backpack and slid to the ground, putting a
hand to her chest and closing her eyes. Daina Kathryn joined her, leaning
into her side and holding her hand.

"Somebody was following us," Scully said. "We had to split up so they
couldn't catch us." She deliberately left out the fact that the people who'd
been after them would more than likely choose either them or Melissa and
Mulder to go after, not just give up.

Daina Kathryn figured this out on her own, but didn't bring it up. Instead,
she reached up her free hand and rubbed her mother's face as Melissa had
rubbed hers when she'd cried about various things that seemed unimportant
now. "It's gonna be okay," she said, then, after a pause, "It's gonna be
okay, Mom."

"Oh, D.," Scully whispered, tears coming to her eyes. She put her arms
around Daina Kathryn and pulled her closer, into her lap. "I love you so
much." It was the truth. Although she'd known the child almost no time at
all, she'd fallen in love with her in the same way she'd fallen in love with
Emily. This was her daughter, a little person that with her help had been
created. So maybe she had never held her as a baby, heard her first words or
seen her take her first steps. There had been no laughs or tears or moments
like this one until just these last couple of days. But what she had now was
enough. She had a child. And now a man to be the father to the child. And
all the more reason to get out of this situation alive.

She wasn't doing it just for her. She was doing it for her daughter.

Holding each other in a cold, evil world neither looked up even as the men
crept closer to them and got near enough that their careful, near-silent
footsteps could be heard. Jonnes raised his gun and Rammin reached for
them...
>>>>>>>>

JANUARY 1, 1999
5:30 P.M.

The day had been warmer than most; warm enough that Mulder and Melissa could
put their jackets into the backpack Mulder carried as they traveled. They
reached the first clearing at around 4:30 and waited, silently, for Scully
and Daina Kathryn to find and join them.

But an hour later, Mulder was getting worried and Melissa was to the point
of hysteria. "I told you it wouldn't work!" she said when he calmly told her
to wait just a little longer, still suppressing his anger at the way she was
treating him and the fact that she blamed him for their having to split up.
He'd saved their lives.

"They'll get here, they may have just taken a longer route to make sure
nobody could follow them," he said.

"I'm going to look for them." She stood up, pulled her jacket from the open
backpack, and started walking off. He quickly got to his feet and took a
step forward, grabbed her arm.

"You're not going anywhere," he said in the same voice he used with the
killers he'd seen while working in violent crimes at the FBI.

She tried to jerk away, but he tightened his grip. "Melissa, stop. If we go
back there, we could be doing just what they want us to do. They might have
Scully and Daina Kathryn, yeah, but we'll have a much better chance of
saving them IF someone has gotten them if we're still free."

Melissa looked back in the direction they'd come, clearly still aching to
find her sister and niece. But she relaxed and allowed Mulder to lead her
back to where they'd set up camp for the night.

OCTOBER 6, 1970
5:00 P.M.

"There's no places left!" Dana whispered, looking around her. Behind her,
Bill was still counting, faster than they'd told him to. Just like Bill.

"11...12...13...14." He was supposed to count to 50, but would probably come
after them before he got to 40, since he still thought that they would never
know the difference. Dana was 6 years old, Melissa, hiding with her, was 7:
they knew how to count.

They'd been playing, until just this time with the next-door neighbors, for
over an hour. And, like Dana said, all the good hiding places were gone,
used long before.

"We could go in the woods," Melissa suggested.

Dana looked at her with wide eyes. Did she realize what she was suggesting?
The woods behind their home and most of the others around were known to be
dangerous. A 10-year-old boy had gotten lost in them the year before and
died before anyone found him. The one major rule that the Scully parents had
was, NOBODY goes into the woods.

"Mom 'n' Dad will kill us!" Dana said, her voice rising dangerously close to
a level that Bill could hear.

"20... 21...22..."

"Oh, come on, Day!"

"Dad told us about that kid that went in there and died. He got lost PLAYING
WITH HIS FRIENDS." She made sure to emphasize the last words, hoping
Melissa, hardheaded as she was, would get the idea and they could go hide in
the bushes around the house or something.

But she only rolled her eyes. "That's just a story, Dana. Nobody ever died
in the woods. They're not THAT big."

"How do you know?"

"I just do. I'm older. Now come ON, before he catches us."

She was right, he would be coming soon: "30... 31... 32..."

Dana looked one more time back at the house, then at the woods, and finally
at her sister. She sighed. "Oh, okay. But not very far."

"Of course not," Melissa grabbed her arm and dragged her into the trees. It
was dark inside, cooler than outside in the setting sun. Dana tried to hold
back a shiver, but didn't quite manage to stop her body from shuddering
once. Melissa turned and gave her a look. "Don't be such a baby. Nothing's
going to happen. It's just a bunch of trees."

"Mel..." Dana said, using the nickname Melissa had decided just recently was
her favorite of all the ones she could make from her name. Using it would
usually get Dana on her good side, at least for a few minutes. Long enough
to talk her out of this. "I don't know about-" she was going to say 'going
any farther,' but didn't get the chance.

"Here I come!" Bill yelled.

The changed her mind. Bill always found her hiding spot and she never found
his. It was time for revenge, even if that meant breaking a couple of rules,
major rules, but nothing anyone but Melissa would ever know about. Bill
would give up eventually, and they could come out and refuse to tell him
where they'd been hiding. He would never know. Hopefully.

"He'll find us if we stay here," Melissa said, reading Dana's mind,
apparently. Dana glanced, again, worriedly around her. It was like something
out of a movie or TV show. The dark woods, the children all alone, lost,
ready to take the help of anyone willing. The man who took them back to a
deserted shack deep in the trees and... and... she forced herself to erase
that image completely from her memory. "Just a little farther."

Dana closed her mind and her eyes at the same time, allowing Melissa to lead
her deeper into the unknown, away from the safe and customary simple game
with their older brother and anyone else who wanted to join them.  But she
quickly opened her eyes again when she stumbled on a tree root and almost
cried out. Melissa turned and glared at her. "Shh," she hissed.

Fighting her fear, Dana only nodded. She went quietly along, making sure to
watch where she was going, until Melissa felt they were far enough in the
woods the Bill would more likely than not miss them even if he DID come in
and sat down, leaning against a tree. They could still faintly hear Bill
shouting, "Hey, Melissa! Dana! I'm gonna find you! I know you're in there!"

Melissa giggled; seeming not at all affected by their surroundings. "Idiot,"
she muttered.

Dana forced a smile, but still didn't speak. She pulled her legs to her
chest and wrapped her arms around them, put her chin on her knees. Even the
cool breeze that had seemed so nice earlier was now ominous, dangerous. A
strand of hair had escaped from under Bill's old baseball cap that she never
left the house without wearing; it whipped her cheek and made her shiver.
She reached up and brushed it away, but it just came right back.

Bill was quiet now, and she didn't like that. Bill was NEVER quiet, not even
when he was asleep: he talked, laughed, and had even cried once or twice,
all without ever gaining consciousness.

Melissa, it seemed, noticed that something was up, too. "Huh, Bill shut up.
Must be judgement day," she said, still trying to make jokes. But Dana could
tell she was getting nervous now, too- her voice shook just enough that
someone who'd known her for the better part of her life, 6 years, could tell
it.

Silence fell over them, broken by not even the wind through the trees. When
Dana shivered this time, it was easily noticeable, but Melissa didn't say
anything about it and Dana didn't care. She wanted to go home. "Mel, let's
just-"

A hand reached around the tree and grabbed her shoulder. She screamed and
tried to jerk away, fighting whoever- or WHATEVER- it was that had her.
Melissa tried to scramble to her feet, but only skidded across the leaves,
crying out softly as her knee scraped against a tree root and her hands slid
against the tree itself as she tried to stop herself from hitting her head.

"Gotcha!" Bill cried, laughing maniacally at them. He let go of Dana's arm,
and she promptly turned and slapped the only part of him she could reach,
his lower leg. "Oh, that hurt," he said, kicking her.

Her heart was still beating so fast she was afraid it would burst right out
of her chest. "Bill, you jerk," Melissa said, examining her injured knee and
hands.

Dana started to tremble, unable to control it. Her whole body shook as she
realized what could have just happened, who it could have been. Melissa was
ALWAYS getting her into trouble...

"Dana?" Melissa asked. "Are you okay?"

She took a deep, shaky breath and got to her feet. "I'm fine," she lied.
>>>>>>>>

JANUARY 1, 1999
5:45 P.M.

"Mom! Mom, wake up!" Scully moaned as someone jerked her shoulder, a scared
voice penetrated the deep, drug-induced sleep. Her head ached from
something... she reached out to stop whoever it was. Bill? Melissa, or
Charles? Mulder? "Mom, please!" the voice was pleading now, tear-filled.

She forced herself awake and picked her head up to look into the small,
worried face of Daina Kathryn. "D....?" she muttered, groggily. Her voice
sounded weird, so she cleared her throat.

"I want Missy," Daina Kathryn said, a tear slipping down her cheek. Even if
she trusted and loved Scully enough now to call her 'mom', Melissa was the
still her 'mother'- the one who'd done anything for her for all of her short
life. Scully knew what it was like to be without a parent for the first
time. When she'd been 8, a friend had talked her into going to camp for a
month during the summer. The first week, after she and her friend were
separated and the friend made what looked to the little Dana like hundreds
of new friends, had been the most miserable time of her life.

She and Daina Kathryn were in the back of a truck, she noticed immediately
as she managed to get into a sitting position, the world around her still
spinning. It was a pickup, but wire had been put over the back so they
couldn't get out without alerting the driver. Mud covered most of her left
side, which meant they had probably been dragged to the vehicle.

Although her first thoughts were of escape, she glanced again at the silent,
scared child in front of her; doing her very best to be brave but not quite
achieving it, and knew it wasn't the time. She held her arms out for Daina
Kathryn, who fell into them gratefully, sighing quietly as they wrapped
around her and rocked her gently, soothing her.

"Gonna be okay, D. Gonna be just fine," Scully whispered, the same words her
father had said to her when she was frightened of the dark or a
thunderstorm. "Nothing's gonna happen that won't end. Just think to
yourself: it's gotta end sometime."

"Umm," Daina Kathryn mumbled, already half-asleep from the motion of the
truck. Sleeping in the arms of a loved one was millions of times better than
the cold floor of her former home.

Scully ignored her pounding headache and told herself that her daughter came
first, before her own needs, every moment of the rest of her life. This
wasn't going to turn into another situation like the one with Emily.

She would never let that happen again.
>>>>>>>>

JANUARY 1, 1999
6:00 P.M.

"What the hell is going on?" Bill Scully, Jr. demanded of Walter Skinner as
he stomped over to the Assistant Director of the FBI, ignoring the yellow
tape that had stopped his wife Tara and their year-old son, who she held
carefully, unsure of what she was doing there. Bill hadn't wanted her to
come, but she'd insisted because he was only going to be home a few more
days and she and Matt wanted to spend as much time with him as they could.

Skinner looked at him and knew immediately he was a Scully. "I'm Walter
Skinner," he said. "Assistant Director of the FBI." The usage of a title was
usually enough to calm people down and let them at least think he was in
control, even when he wasn't.

"Bill Scully. Where's my sister?" He didn't slow down a bit, just walked
right into the now-empty prison, again right under the tape that kept
curious people who'd gotten under the first strip from going on inside.

Skinner reached out a hand and grabbed his arm. "I'm sorry, you can't go in
there," he said.

"I want to know where the hell my sister is!"

"Which sister do you mean?" Skinner said, deciding the truth couldn't be
kept back any longer. Mulder had left him a message at his apartment on his
answering machine, something that was dangerous to do, but he realized once
he heard it why Mulder probably hadn't been thinking as he usually did when
he recorded it.

"Sir, this is Agent Mulder. Agent Scully and I went to look at the old
prison yesterday, as we were instructed to, and found some rather...
unexpected 'prisoners.' Agent Scully's sister, Melissa, thought to have been
killed about 3 years ago when mistaken for Agent Scully, and a girl who it
seems is Scully's daughter- I'll explain this later- were hidden in a room
on the last floor. When we went to question Mark Biars- the man in charge-
we found him dead with a bullet in his head. We're going into hiding. Don't
send anyone out looking for us, I'll find a way to contact you as soon as I
can. Erase this."

"What're you talking about?" Bill asked, jerking away from Skinner and
heading back for the building.

This time, Skinner tightened the grip on his arm. "You can't go in there. If
you try, I'll have to arrest you. Your sister has gone into hiding with
Agent Mulder, a woman that is possibly your sister, and a child that may be
your niece."

Hearing 'niece', Bill quit fighting and glared at him. "I want to know
where. Right now."

"I wish I could tell you, Mr. Scully."
>>>>>>>>

JANUARY 2, 1999
3:30 A.M.

Rammin was asleep beside him and Scully and the little girl slept in the
back of the truck. Adam Jonnes felt alone for one of the first times in
years.

He'd always been the insecure type who needed to be part of something to
feel okay with himself and not contemplate suicide. As a child, the times
he'd been left out of games because his parents were the town nuts, he'd
often been sent to a counselor for climbing trees and jumping from as high
as he could. As he'd gotten older, he had once tried to hang himself from a
basketball goal, but had been discovered before succeeding and been sent,
again, to counseling- this time in the form of a special school. It was
after that that he dropped out.

The Consortium had wanted him from the first time they laid eyes on him,
begging for a job at a McDonald's. He had the looks that were thought of as
'all-American' at that time, hair short and clean, face not the handsomest
in the world, but not ugly either. They had a job for him, a man he still
didn't know the name of, had said to him. They needed someone to spy on a
man named 'Fox Mulder', an agent at the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Getting into the FBI, with their help, hadn't been too hard. What had been
hard was trying to gain Mulder's trust. It had been only weeks since those
damn X-Files, so beloved to him, had been shut down and he'd been assigned
to a new section. He wasn't ready for a new partner, not with Scully seeming
both right next door and worlds away at Quantico.

Although he'd trailed along, Jonnes knew even then that he was NOT going to
turn into the next Scully. She had been a fluke, somehow able to get behind
the warning signs he seemed to put up that said not-so-subtly: "keep out."

Jonnes had been instructed only to stay long enough to make sure that Mulder
didn't get to Scully in time. And that's what he'd done, still the good
little boy, slightly na‹ve, but good at his job anyway.

But when he'd watched Luis Cardinal kill Bill Mulder when they'd been
instructed only to talk him into coming with them, using force if
necessary... and Mulder blamed him. He guessed it could have looked like
that.

Since that time, when he'd betrayed the same ones who'd taken him in after
his short experience on his own, he'd gone from one agency to another, when
not trying to stay away from Mulder, still hell-bent on killing him.

After the incident with Russia, he'd had to go into hiding yet again, the
last of many times over the past 4 years. And the Consortium had found him
again. He'd thought they would kill him, but instead, they'd offered him
another job. He'd taken it eagerly, never stopping to think that it could be
a trap. He needed to be with these people again, the ones that made him a
part of something important.

And that was how he'd found himself in the woods with a man named Rammin who
hated him, the woman he'd almost gotten killed, and a little girl who might
have been created during that time. He wondered what was so important about
getting the girl back, anyway.

Scully called her "Dana Katherine," which, according to the files he'd read
on her and Mulder before going to the FBI, was also her name. That seemed to
prove that it was either her daughter or someone closely related to her in
another way. They'd been instructed to get Melissa Scully, too, maybe it was
her daughter.

The girl, of course, had never done anything to hurt him or affect him in
any way, except get him his job back. When he thought about it, Scully
hadn't either: she'd saved his life.

But his job was to keep them in captivity, not kill them. It didn't seem to
bother Rammin, so why should it bother him? It didn't, he tried to convince
himself.

He had no reason to feel guilty. But he did anyway.
>>>>>>>>

JANUARY 2, 1999
7:00 A.M.

Melissa was still asleep, but Mulder had been up for almost half an hour.
He'd eaten most of the rest of the fruit they had, leaving just enough for
Melissa, then went into the woods to do what he had to do four or five times
a day.

Now, with nothing to do, he explored the edges of the clearing, searching
for any sign of life. Maybe Scully and Daina Kathryn had stopped when it got
dark, but only a few feet away from him and Melissa, not knowing how close
they were to their current destination.

He'd gotten worried the night before when they never showed up, but he'd
managed to hide it from Melissa and convinced her that her sister and niece
MUST have stopped somewhere for the night. They hadn't been that far away:
they would have heard the fight if anyone tried to capture Scully. Maybe she
didn't have her gun, but she was strong even without it and a better
fist-fighter than most men he knew. Not only for herself, but for her
daughter, she would fight to the death.

There was nothing anywhere that he could see.


Rainbow Continuum
7/10
Emily Miller

MAY 29, 1971
2:45 P.M.

The last day of fourth grade was finally over, and Samantha wouldn't hurry
up. She'd only just finished kindergarten, so school hadn't lost its appeal,
and she always, every single stupid day, made him wait for practically years
while she talked to her stupid little friends.

They were all the dumb girls that Fox hated and had hated even when her age
and most of the boys loved to tease them in ways that he knew would get to
mean something one day. They all had really long hair and bit bows in it and
stupid frilly little dresses or pink T-shirts with pictures of unicorns or
puppies or whatever on the front.

"Samantha!" he finally called. "Will you move your butt just a LITTLE
faster, please?"

She stuck her tongue out at him. "Why don't you make me? And don't call me
Samantha." She and her friends, as though all the ribbons and bright colors
and cute little animals actually meant nothing to them, all considered
themselves `tomboys' and tried to act tough all the time, when it only took
a simple slap on the arm to start them wailing and tattling to whatever
adults happened to be nearby. She made him call her `Sam', yet still
insisted on calling him `Fox' or `Foxy' no matter how many times he tried to
beat `Mulder' into her dumb little skull.

She'd told him to make her, so he dropped his backpack and leaned his bike
against the fence around the playground and walked back, around the few kids
still milling around, to the school. "I'd love to," he said, grabbing her
arm and jerking her towards her bike, a very pink, too-small one that she
loved and refused to get rid of, but she jerked right back.

"Leave me alone," she said, stalking back to her friends, who giggled at him
as he stood with arms crossed and eyes narrowed, imagining himself hitting
Samantha like most of his friends hit their siblings. Hard enough to hurt-
and get him in real trouble when she had a bruise.

"Mom said be home on time, Dad's gonna try to get home early," he replied,
to which she rolled her eyes.

"So what? He'll just get mad at you `cause you didn't clean your room like
he said to."

It was the truth, but the way she said it made him even angrier. This time,
as he grabbed her arm, he held on tightly enough that her lip trembled and
tears came to her eyes as he shoved her along in front of him, not giving
her the chance to fight back, even though she probably wouldn't have anyway.

She ripped her bike from the rack, one of the few left, and climbed on,
wobbling off on the recent-two-wheeler towards home. He went back to the
fence, got on his own bike, and took off after her, reaching her easily.

"Sam, calm down," he said. She peddled harder, trying to get ahead of him,
long brown hair flying out behind her, the blue ribbon she'd so carefully
tied herself that morning and showed off to him loose and flapping in the
wind, tears streaking her face.

"No!" she yelled at him around choked gasps for air. She was panting for
breath and still struggling to keep the bike up. Her backpack, light blue
with a picture of a GREEN, of all colors, pony on it, was only half-on,
sliding down her arm. She didn't seem to notice any of it, too intent on
getting away from him.

She managed to stay on her bike most of the way home, against all odds, and
he let her stay ahead so she could just a little more easily. She had to
slow down a little at the turn onto Vine Street, but not much. That was when
he finally realized the real reason she was wobbling so much: one of the
wheels of the bike was loose.

He caught up with her again; meaning to tell her what was wrong and get her
to stop before anybody got hurt. But she was still in competition with him,
wanting to win the race at all costs. "Samantha!" he called. "There's
something wrong with your bike!"

She went even faster, ignoring him, faster than she'd ever gone on this
bike. She could barely breathe at all now and her legs ached. But she still
wouldn't even slow down. Fox was trying to trick her, and this time it
wouldn't work.

Still, he managed to get next to her. They were almost to the house now. if
she could just go a little bit faster.The handlebars of the bike twisted
away from her as the front wheel came off. Fox grabbed for her, throwing
himself off his bike and holding tight to her arm, but it was too late. They
both wound up on the sidewalk in front of the house.

Samantha immediately started howling, though she had no injuries that Fox
could see. When Mrs. Mulder came out, pulled the bike off her daughter, and
ignored her son completely as she comforted her, he knew that once again
this was a no-win situation for him. He HAD made Samantha leave school
before she wanted to, HAD let her ride as fast as she had, and HAD tried to
grab her. The fact that her bike was falling apart beneath her and she
wouldn't ever listen to him wouldn't matter.

"It's okay, Sammi," Mrs. Mulder said, using the nickname they'd called her
until she was about 5. Fox had come up with it when he couldn't get the `th'
part of her name out when he was little. She'd spent a few months of her
life as `Samanta', until his father suggested they just call her `Sammi'.
"Tell Mommy what happened. Did you fall?"

"He broke my bike!" Samantha wailed, pointing a finger accusingly at Fox.
"He pushed me and broke my bike so the wheel came off!"

Mrs. Mulder looked at Fox angrily. "I just don't understand you sometimes,
Fox," she said, looking again at Samantha, crying and hugging her mother as
though Fox was going to come get her. "Samantha never does anything to you.
Why can't you just be nice to her?" She walked away, holding Samantha and
talking softly to her.

Fox watched them go, stunned, although he shouldn't have been. Nothing ever
went right for him.
>>>>>>>>

JANUARY 2, 1999
5:05 A.M.

Scully woke when the truck started moving. Daina Kathryn was still curled up
against her, breathing through her mouth and making small noises as she
slept, as though in the midst of a dream.

There was something different about the way they were moving now. It seemed
faster, more reckless, than it had the day before. Almost as though they
were trying to get somewhere or away from something. They hit a rock or tree
root or something and the truck bounced, waking Daina Kathryn.

"Huh.?" she asked sleepily as she looked up at Scully. Then she seemed to
remember what was happening and, in her usual way, smiled as though looking
at it in the best light she could. "Hi, Mom."

Scully still felt a strange feeling go through her at the sound of those
words. Mom. she'd been told that no one would ever call her that, would ever
need to be held and calmed down after a skinned knee, she would be as alone
as she had been until less than a week ago forever. But suddenly she had the
best sister in the whole world back, her best friend had asked her to marry
him. and she had a daughter. A 4-year-old one, but a daughter just the same.
Even their current situation wasn't so bad when she thought about it. Her
whole life, it seemed, had become an adventure. They should make us into a
TV show, Mulder had remarked once. It was true.

She had no idea who she was with, where Mulder and Melissa were. none of it
mattered. Either she had gone crazy or she was finally seeing things the way
Melissa had always tried to get her to: optimistically, the way Daina
Kathryn also seemed to. She threw back her head and laughed in a way she
hadn't in months. no, years.

When she was finally able to calm down and catch her breath, Daina Kathryn
was looking at her like she was crazy, but was smiling. "You okay?" she
asked.

"Sure am," Scully said, pulling Daina Kathryn to her and tickling her like
her mom always had when she'd been in an especially good mod. "Better than I
've been in a long, long time."

Daina Kathryn giggled and tried half-heartedly to escape. When Scully quit,
she snuggled against her with a small, contented sound. Soon she was asleep
again.

Scully watched her sleep, arms around Scully, legs curled up so they were
almost behind her back, as comfortable and secure as she'd ever been. It was
as she was really drifting into deep sleep that the truck jerked to a stop.

Scully didn't move, not wanting to wake Daina Kathryn again. She watched
warily as the door opened and a man stepped out. She couldn't see his face,
but there was something about him that she knew. and then she realized what
it was.

The hand he was using to close the door was a prosthetic.

It was Alex Krycek who walked to the edge of the wire and pulled it off the
back. "Go. Before he wakes up."

But Scully didn't move, just clutched Daina Kathryn more tightly to her.
"Who?" She wasn't about to trust this man, Alex Krycek, of all people. He'd
killed her sister and Mulder's father and almost gotten her killed:
according to Mulder, he might have been able to save her from her abduction
had Krycek not tried to kill him.

She couldn't stop herself from looking down at the child held tightly in her
arms. Without that horrible time she'd been missing, this little girl would
not exist. But then, the thing with Emily never would have happened. And any
children she had she would give birth to, watch them grow from infancy, know
who their father was.

"Thomas Rammin. He's the one being paid for this. Go, before I change my
mind about it and tell him you're trying to escape. He'll kill you without a
second thought."

Scully, stunned by the change she was suddenly seeing in Krycek- he actually
sounded compassionate and caring, instead of as cold and uncaring as most
people thought her to be-, found herself, without her conscious consent,
gently shaking Daina Kathryn to wake her.

"Come on, D. We're going to find Fox and Missy," she said softly.

Daina Kathryn sat up, saw Krycek holding up the wire to let them out, and
asked, "Who's that?"

"His name is." Scully's voice trailed off, unsure of whether or not he was
still using `Alex Krycek', since the chances were pretty good that wasn't
his real name. Mulder said he'd used a different one while they'd been in
Russia, possibly to fool the men who might have been working for the same
Consortium he was running from.

"Alex," he said. His voice was as gentle as Mulder's had been. Scully
wondered about this: Daina Kathryn seemed to have an effect on people. Maybe
this `aura' thing Melissa had been so big on for a while wasn't really all
that crazy. She herself never thought of herself as as apathetic as others
thought she was, Mulder thought he was a failure because he hadn't been able
to save his sister from things beyond a child's understanding, when in
reality he was THE smartest, bravest, strongest man she knew. And Daina
Kathryn, without trying to, seemed to make people love her. She looked like
Scully, talked like Scully, and had a mind like Scully. But her `soul', if
that was the appropriate word, was different. "What's yours?"

"Daina Kathryn. That's my mom's name, too," Daina Kathryn said, pointing
back at Scully. "She's the best mom in the whole world," she added with a
grin, as though proud that she could finally say something to somebody about
her mother that didn't already KNOW her mother. The only people she'd been
around in days that she had talked to had been her aunt and her mother's
partner. They already knew how great her mother was.

Krycek gave Scully an amused smile, confusing her even more. What was going
on? Why was the man who'd tried to have them killed every few months for
years suddenly doing this? "Well, Daina Kathryn," he said. "If you and your
mom want to go now, you can."

"Why do we have to go?" Although she'd been scared at first, now that she
knew the nice man who drove the truck, Daina Kathryn didn't mind staying.

"It's not safe here, D.," Scully said.

Daina Kathryn frowned. "But I'm tired of walking."

"I'll carry you. Come on, D. We have to find Missy and Fox, right?"

"Yeah, okay." Daina Kathryn, followed by Scully, climbed under the wire and
jumped from the truck. She turned to Krycek. "Thanks a lot, Alex. You're a
real nice person for letting us leave."

"Well, you're a real nice kid," Krycek said, holding out a hand for her to
shake. At Scully's quit explanation of how to do it, she took his hand and
shook it vigorously, smiling widely. Then she took Scully's hand and allowed
herself to be lead away, turning back only once to wave.

It wasn't until they were far beyond the truck that Scully, having been
hopelessly bewildered with the situation in the truck, realized that she had
no idea where they were.
>>>>>>>>

JANUARY 2, 1999
6:00 A.M.

"Bill-" Tara reached out to try and grab her husband's arm. He was pacing
the room, cursing Fox Mulder and Melissa and even his beloved youngest
sister, Dana.

He shook away from her. "It's got to be that bastard's fault. He got. almost
got Melissa killed, took 3 months from Dana, gave her cancer. and all this
crap about children. Dana's never had ANY children, they checked last year.
They're probably his, he just wants her to have to take the blame for all of
his damned emotional problems.his sister being abducted, yeah, right,
goddamned lunatic she's stuck with. Melissa died; I was stuck at her
funeral. Whoever this is, it's an imposter. Probably needs money. And I'm
stuck in some stupid hotel while the incompetent assistant director of the
FBI claims he's getting information that will help us find Dana!"

His voice had grown louder and louder, from a mutter to almost shouting. As
he yelled `Dana' the last time, Matt woke up where Tara had carefully put
him on the bed, surrounded by pillows so he couldn't fall, and started to
wail.

"Bill, calm down," Tara said. "They're going to find Dana."

Bill shook his head angrily. "And this woman who claims to be my dead
sister, the nutcase Dana works with, and another child like the one that
ruined our whole Christmas last year!"

Tara, remembering against her will the way Scully had looked when talking
about Emily, couldn't help defending her. "Bill. that wasn't anybody's
fault."

"It was that damned partner of hers!" Louder still. Matt cried harder,
reaching out for his mother when she picked him up and held him against her,
afraid of her husband for the first time since they'd married years before-
almost 7. She knew he had a temper like this, but he'd always managed to
just keep it under control when she was around. But now, with Dana missing.

"Please. calm down."

"Stay here. I'm going to find them myself!" He headed for the door.

She got up, Matt still in her arms, calmer now but still crying, and walked
as quickly as she could to stop him. "Don't. they'll find them."

"Who? The FBI?" He laughed and shook his head. "No they won't." He stepped
around her, opened the door, and was gone. She didn't bother following.
>>>>>>>>

JANUARY 2, 1999
6:15 A.M.

Mulder sat on the grass at the edge of the clearing, staring sadly into the
trees. He had a horrible feeling that Scully and Daina Kathryn had been
killed. They hadn't been THAT far apart when they'd split up: if someone had
captured them, wouldn't he and Melissa have heard something? But they also
would have heard gunshots if that had been the means of killing.

"They aren't back yet, are they?" Melissa asked, joining him on the ground.
She yawned as she did so, having just gotten up. He'd been sitting there for
over an hour, waiting for her to wake up so they could keep going. There was
always the chance that Scully and Daina Kathryn had found a different
clearing and stayed there and were just as worried about Mulder and Melissa
as they were about them.

Mulder shook his head. "We need to keep going. They might have stopped
somewhere else and we'll meet eventually."

She obviously didn't think so, but knew they couldn't stay in one place
indefinitely: someone would either find them or they'd run out of supplies.
Already their food was running low. "Let's go, then."

They got up and she walked across the small area they'd camped in while he
hid the remains of their small fire as best he could and picked up the
backpack they'd brought- Scully had the other one- before setting off.

It was a quiet journey now, both of their minds on her missing family. "She
was so happy just to sleep on a bed." Melissa remarked suddenly, breaking
the silence.

Mulder glanced at her quizzically, then realized she meant Daina Kathryn.
The bravery she had shown the day before, the way she looked on everything
with an almost adult perspective. it was hard to believe she'd spent 99% of
her life in captivity, never running or playing outside, never meeting
anyone new, alone with her imagination and Melissa's stories.

"She's not dead," Mulder said, feeling a strange sense of d‚j? vu. It was
almost like when Scully had first been returned. They didn't know if she
would live or die, now they didn't know if Daina Kathryn was alive or dead.
But they couldn't help beginning to reminisce as though she was.

He remembered the story Mrs. Scully had told him. but that had been even
before Scully came back. They'd gotten to the point of believing her dead by
then, too. It was a human instinct thing, maybe. Scully would have known.

But she wasn't there.

"I hope not," Melissa said.

Back at the clearing, her forgotten copy of Moby Dick, which she'd been
reading the night before before falling asleep, waited patiently for
discovery, its torn pages gently moving in the morning breeze.
>>>>>>>>

JANUARY 2, 1999
6:30 A.M.

Matt was asleep again, Tara looking at a paperback she'd brought but not
reading. She'd opened it to a page and stared at it, looking the same words
over and over again. She jumped when the phone rang, then grabbed it quickly
to keep from waking Matt.

"Hello?"

"Mrs. Scully?" It was the man from the night before, Skinner. The assistant
director of the FBI. "Is your husband there?"

"No, he-" Should she tell him where Bill was? He WAS the assistant director
and anything she said was probably mostly confidential. But there was always


that chance. "He went to look for Dana."

He covered the phone for a minute, and she thought she could hear swearing.
He spoke to her again: "Mrs. Scully, we found Agent Mulder's car."

Her eyes widened, even though he couldn't see them. "Where?"

"Near Canada. If they were on their way there, like he told me, they'll be
over the border by now. We've got people over there looking, but I'm still
going over later today. I thought your husband would want to go."

"If he comes back, I'll tell him."

"Thanks, Mrs. Scully. I'll be leaving around 10:00." He hung up, and she did
the same.

She turned and spoke softly to her still-sleeping son. "When are things
going to be normal again, Matt?"
>>>>>>>>

JANUARY 2, 1999
7:00 A.M.

Daina Kathryn had run ahead of Scully a few minutes before: though truly
tired of walking, new experiences still called her. She'd never really
gotten to RUN before, and there was something about it that was just
wonderful. The cold wind hit her face, stinging her eyes and nose, but it
also whipped through her hair, which was nice. She was breathing hard, her
side hurt, and her nose was running: great, great, great!

"Hey, Mom, hurry up!" she called once, slowing for a minute to wipe her nose
with her sleeve and get her breath back. Then she was off again, dodging
trees and obstacles on the ground that did their best to trip her.

Scully watched her run out of sight, not worried. They'd gotten far into the
woods, farther than they'd been the day before. There was no way Krycek and
whoever he was with would be able to catch, or even find, them now. Their
truck, she was pretty sure, wouldn't go very far in the dense trees and it
could take days to find 2 small people in the miles and miles of forest.

She took her time walking, feeling pretty confident that they would find
Mulder and Melissa soon. They'd probably stopped at a clearing, like they
said, and were still waiting. Melissa was probably trying to feel their
spirits, make sure they weren't dead, while Mulder searched for them around
the area, for once the sensible one. Melissa liked him and he thought
Melissa was okay, she knew, but that didn't mean they always got along.
Scully herself liked both of them and spent 90% of her time fighting or
arguing with one or the other.

"Mom!" Daina Kathryn no longer had any laughter in her voice. She sounded
more scared than anything; maybe worried. "Mom, they were here!"

Scully started to jog, building speed as she got closer to the sound of
Daina Kathryn's voice, still urging her to hurry up. She was panting by the
time she reached the girl, who was crouched in a clearing. Probably the very
one Mulder and Melissa had stopped at. But there was no sign of either of
them. How did Daina Kathryn know?

"Look!" Daina Kathryn said, waving her arm at Scully so she would come over.
Scully did, leaning over to see what Daina Kathryn had found. An ancient,
torn, well-read copy of Moby Dick.

"Let me see," Scully said, holding out a hand. Daina Kathryn put the book in
it, and Scully stood and opened it.

Inside were the words, written in a child's handwriting:

TO MY SISTER MELISSA
MERRY CHRISTMAS
12/25/72

She'd been 8 years old. She remembered that Christmas. Her father had given
her a puppy. A car had hit it months later.

Melissa's reaction to the book had been less than expected. "Yeah, thanks,
Dana," she'd said, going on in typical 9-year-old fashion to the hair
ribbons their mother had given her.

"This is Missy's book. She was always reading it whenever she got sad,"
Daina Kathryn said, but didn't see the look of sorrow and surprise on Scully
's face. "She loved it as much as she loved me. She said one of the most
special people in her life gave it to her. Do you know who? She'd never let
me look at it, I don't know why she'd leave it."

Scully put a hand on Daina Kathryn's shoulder and handed her back the book.
"Do you know who gave it to her?" Daina Kathryn asked again.

"I did," Scully said.
>>>>>>>>













Rainbow Continuum
8/10
Emily Miller

JANUARY 2, 1999
7:15 A.M.

Jonnes watched silently as Rammin cursed Scully, the little girl, and Jonnes
for letting them get away. "You should have been watching them. I give you
less than a day of watch and you lose them! You know what's gonna happen to
us now?"

Still, Jonnes refused to speak, feigning anger. In reality, he was relieved
that his story about Scully having hid something to cut the wire somewhere
on her had worked. Rammin had never questioned Jonnes' loyalty, although
both knew Jonnes wasn't really one to trust. Rammin just didn't believe that
Jonnes, who always did what HE wanted to, would let them go and risk his
life for the ones who'd gotten him in the middle of nowhere in the first
place.

"Once they go over the border, we'll never get them." Rammin continued,
barely noticing that Jonnes hadn't answered his question. "They'll stay even
farther off-road now that they know we're looking for them. If you hadn't
gone and fallen asleep we'd still have them!"

"You don't know that." Jonnes finally spoke. "If they had something strong
enough to cut wire, they could have just as easily attacked us."

Rammin grabbed the gun he'd brought from the floor and waved it in Jonnes'
face. "That's why I brought THIS, you idiot!"

"It's a little late to tell me about that now. Look, the sooner we get
going, the sooner we find them again. Maybe all of them," Jonnes said,
remaining calm.

Rammin, on the other hand, was seething. But he knew what Jonnes said was
right. "Yeah, whatever." With a jerk and a couple of noises neither man was
sure of, the truck groaned and started. "We'll go as far as we can in the
truck. From there, we'll just have to hike and hope for the best."
>>>>>>>>

JANUARY 2, 1999
7:30 A.M.

"I think we're in Canada. I remember this road," Mulder said, stopping for a
moment and looking around him.

Melissa came to a stop slightly ahead and turned. "When were you here?"

"I guess I might as well tell you," he said. "Come on, let's go." He
continued walking, as did she, the morning cool but they warm enough from
over an hour of walking to be content with just sweaters and jeans on.

"A few years ago. about 2 and a half, actually. Scully and I came across a
man- or men- named Jeremiah Smith who could apparently heal people with his
touch. We investigated and, to make that part of the story short, discovered
that he was possibly either part of the human/alien hybrid project that may
have also created Emily and Daina Kathryn or a creation of the government
conspiracy that now even your sister believes in. Well, he told me he could
show me my sister, Samantha, who disappeared when I was 12 years old."

Melissa looked surprised at this, and he realized that Scully had probably
never said anything about it and he CERTAINLY hadn't- he'd only really seen
Melissa once before these last few days.

"I was 12 and she was 8. I'm really not sure what happened anymore, my
memories change, but whatever it was, I did my best to save her and failed.
That was my real motive for originally trying to get the X-Files open- to
look for Samantha."

"I knew there had to be more reason than just curiosity," Melissa said with
a small smile.

"It definitely matured," he said, smiling back, then continuing. "Anyway,
this Jeremiah Smith claimed he could show me my sister, so I went with him.
Oh. and there was also what I suspect to be an alien bounty hunter after us-
he could change his shape and had green blood. The only way to kill him was
to pierce his neck at the base of his skull.

"Smith took me to a farm in Canada, where I was later told they were growing
Ginseng. But according to him, it was something else, something you'd never
find in books. And my sister WAS there- only she was still 8 years old, the
same way she'd been that night back in 1973, couldn't talk, and wasn't the
only one of her there. Smith told me she was a drone, a worker, and not my
real sister at all- none of them were. But I insisted on taking one of them
with me, anyway. Just in case there was some way to find the truth through
her.

"We were on our way back to Washington, thinking it was safe, when the
bounty hunter showed up. We managed to hide for a short while with a bunch
of bees- don't ask- but as I was calling Scully to tell her what was going
on, he showed up and got Smith. He almost killed me and I never did find out
what happened to Saman- the girl who looked like Samantha."

"Wow," Melissa said, then laughed at herself. "I'm sorry, Mulder."

"Fox," he said. He looked at the ground. "You can call me Fox, since I guess
your sister and Daina Kathryn are both going to."

"Well, when are you going to quit calling her `my sister' and start calling
her `Dana'?"

He smiled. "Fine, Dana. but you're still Melissa. Missy's always reminded me
of a name of a poodle."

"You know what, Fox? It always reminded me of one, too."
>>>>>>>>


JANUARY 2, 1999
8:05 A.M.

"I see them! I see them!" Daina Kathryn yelled suddenly, the fatigue that
she'd complained about only seconds before disappearing as she went from a
jog to a run to catch the figures in the distance. Behind her, Scully too
sped up towards Mulder and Melissa, if that's who they were- and she hoped
it was-, but Daina Kathryn was too far ahead for her to catch up with.

Daina Kathryn went as fast as her short legs would carry her, remembering
her fear that she would never see Mulder and Melissa again. "Fox! Missy!"
she called.

Mulder turned and, seeing her, stopped Melissa. Daina Kathryn reached them
soon enough and launched herself into Mulder's arms. "Fox!" she cried,
throwing her arms around his neck as though he really were her father and
she'd known him for years. He lifted her up and hugged her back as Scully
caught up, panting.

She watched Mulder holding Daina Kathryn against him, loving her in the way
she knew he would love a child that was truly his, and felt like the
luckiest person in the whole world. Maybe they WERE on the run, but she was
with what would eventually become her family: Mulder, Daina Kathryn,
herself, and maybe Melissa if she didn't choose to live by herself again.

Daina Kathryn was already half-asleep in Mulder's arms, exhausted from
refusing to let herself stop even as she had complained to Scully about it,
and Scully suddenly remembered that night from over a year before: her phone
ringing, their tracing it and finding it came from the same place that was
caring for Emily, going and finding her already in the process of dying,
even if they hadn't known it at the time. Mulder had picked her up then as
he did Daina Kathryn now. But Daina Kathryn wasn't going to die.

If she had to sacrifice herself to prevent it, Dana Katherine Scully was
going to make sure her only daughter lived to adulthood.
>>>>>>>>

DECEMBER 25, 1997
5:00 P.M.

Bill and Tara and her mother had gone on to yet ANOTHER party, but Scully
had once again declined going. She sat on the couch in the living room,
stunned into an almost stupor. She was a mother. Emily Sim's mother. it was
too much to handle on her own after a week of trying to convince everyone
she knew that it was MELISSA'S child.

Mulder. She could call Mulder. No one else understood what this had done to
her, least of all her brother and sister-in-law, who were too excited over
the upcoming birth of their own child to care a bit about Emily, or so it
seemed to Scully. Her mother had been almost as stunned as she, but she,
too, was more interested in a child who she was sure of the parents and way
of coming into the world.

She'd thought about calling Mulder earlier, as soon as she found out, but
hadn't been sure she would be able to make sense to him. All that had
happened since that day last week she'd told him that she was going to spend
a week with her brother. that had been the last time she'd talked to him.

Getting up from the couch and gripping the back for a moment to get her
balance, she half-walked, half-staggered over to the phone. This was the
same phone, she realized as she picked it up to dial, that she'd gotten to
the original call. from whoever it was. Melissa. Or not Melissa, because
Melissa was dead and had been for years now.

Mulder's number was memorized, but she had to think a minute before it came
to mind. She was used to having it on her speed dial.

The phone rang in his apartment once, twice. she was about to hang up after
the fourth time, but just as she was taking it from her ear he said,
"Hello?" He sounded tired and was breathing heavily, as though he'd been
out running. Did he not invite his mother or ANYBODY over for Christmas?

"Mulder, it's me," she said. Her voice shook as though she was going to cry,
although she didn't think she was going to. Her eyes didn't have that normal
ache, her lip didn't tremble in the slightest. She cleared her throat.

"What's wrong?" he asked immediately.

Another clearing of the throat and she could answer. "Something really
strange happened this week. I just need to talk to somebody."

"I'm here, Scully."

"I know. That's why I called."

"So what happened?"

"I-" Deep breath, Dana, she thought. Deep breath. "I. Mulder, I have a
daughter."

He didn't answer for so long that she was worried for a moment he'd had a
heart attack or something equally horrible. "Scully." he finally said.
"How.?"

"Something they did to me while I was missing. Her name is Emily Sim, she's
living right here in San Diego, near Bill."

"Do you want me to come?"

Did she? Would it help to have him here? Did she even need to ask herself
that? "Yes, Mulder, I do. I want you to meet her."

"I'll be right there. Gimme a couple of hours, okay?"

"Yeah, sure." He hung up and she was holding a phone with only a dial tone
to her ear. She pulled it away and looked at it as though it was something
to be afraid of. Then, with a shaky sigh, she hung up and went back to the
couch to wait for Bill and Tara and her mother to return.
>>>>>>>>


JANUARY 2, 1999
8:30 A.M.

Mulder was trying to keep Daina Kathryn entertained with stories of himself
and Samantha while they walked, searching for the fields that he remembered
leading to the farm where he and Jeremiah Smith had gone before.

"She was a really sweet little sister. I hope you'll remember just how
wonderful younger siblings can be if you ever have any," he said, smiling
over Daina Kathryn's shoulder at Scully, who smiled back. She knew it wasn't
going to happen, but Daina Kathryn might as well have something else to
dream about now that she was out of captivity.

"What happened to her?" Daina Kathryn asked, tightening her grip on Mulder's
neck a little as she shifted in his arms.

"When I was 12 years old and she was 8, we were home alone. My mom and dad
were next door at a party. Something happened and she just disappeared."

"Didn't you ever find her?"

"Nope. but I'm still looking."

Scully, listening with a small smile to them, was suddenly reminded of a
song that had made her think of Mulder all the time she'd known him and the
story of his sister.

"Long ago a young man sits and plays his waiting game.
But things are not the same it seems as in such tender dreams.
Slowly passing sailing ships and Sunday afternoon.
Like people on the moon I see.
Are things not meant to be.
Where do those golden rainbows end?.
Why is this song so sad?.
Dreaming the dreams I've dreamed my friend.
Loving the love I love to love is just a word I've heard.
When things are being said.
Stories my poor head has told me cannot stand the cold.
And in between what might have been and what has come to pass.
A misbegotten guess alas and bits of broken glass.
Where do your golden rainbows end?.
Why is the song I sing so sad?.
Dreaming the dreams I dream my friend.
Loving the love I love to love."

She could very easily imagine a 12-year-old Mulder, or Fox as he would have
been then, sitting and staring out the very window that Samantha might have
disappeared out of. Hoping that, if he just stared long enough, then she
would be with him again, none of it would have ever happened.

Or Fox, like he'd told her about, shutting his eyes tightly and walking into
his room, praying that she would be there, sitting on her bed or his,
grinning. Maybe it had all been a joke, it wouldn't matter.

While she could imagine these things, Scully couldn't imagine losing a
sibling in that way. It had been hard enough accepting the fact that Melissa
had "died". but to have a sister or brother just disappear and not see them
for almost 30 years except once, then to have that turn out not to be them.
she knew she wouldn't make it. Her family was closer than most, though she
and Bill lived on opposite sides of the country and Charles was usually too
busy with his own kids to show up at the few family reunions they had, they
talked on the phone at least once every couple of weeks. She couldn't
imagine it any other way.

Soon after Melissa had died, or disappeared as the case was, she'd found
herself sometimes picking up the phone to call her only to remember at the
last moment that if she called the number, she would get nobody or a perfect
stranger.

"Dana?" Melissa reached out and touched her shoulder, pulling her from her
thoughts.

"Look who's miles away now," Mulder said, using the phrase she'd used at
Watergate during those months they'd been separated.

She realized that they had stopped at the edge of a fence- all but her. Had
Melissa not stopped her, she would have kept going for hours, lost in her
mind and the image she'd suddenly gotten. Of herself and remaining family
sitting silently watching TV or eating dinner or going someplace while all
the while one who was missing refused to leave their thoughts completely and
seemed to hang in the air around them.

"Where are we?" she asked, reaching out a hand that Daina Kathryn, who'd
just slid from Mulder's arms and come to her, took and used to pull herself
closer to her mother.

"This is where we can either keep going on the road or take the 10-mile,
more dangerous shortcut," Mulder said, gesturing towards the grass on the
other side of the fence. It was mostly brown and dead, and clouds had turned
the sky a grayish color, lessening the cheerful mood all had felt at first
meeting that day.

Daina Kathryn wrinkled her nose at Mulder's suggestions. "I'm too tired to
go anymore," she said.

"You haven't walked for a while, D. You'll make it," Melissa said.

Scully cut off Daina Kathryn before she could protest. "I'll carry you," she
said, handing her backpack to Melissa, who took it reluctantly. Daina
Kathryn let Scully lift her up and laid her head on her shoulder, closing
her eyes and sighing her contentment.

"I love you, Mom," she whispered, and Scully's arms around her tightened for
a moment- she wasn't used to this feeling of a child, a human, loving her
with all their heart though she'd done nothing for them. But it was a nice
feeling.

"Why is that way more dangerous?" she asked as Daina Kathryn again slipped
into half-sleep, looking out at the field.

"Somebody owns that land. I don't know if it's the government or if it's
privately owned, but we could get in trouble either way. I don't think our
credentials count for much out here," Mulder said.

"How did you and Jeremiah Smith do it?"

"I didn't even think to ask. Nobody stopped us, though."

"Let's try it. I'm almost too tired to walk any farther. She's right,"
Scully said, shifting her gaze to her sleepy daughter.

Mulder looked at Melissa, who nodded agreement. "Okay," he said. "Let's go."
>>>>>>>>


JANUARY 2, 1999
9:45 A.M.

"That's it," Mulder said, shifting the backpack on his shoulders. Scully
stepped to the side of him to see and found herself looking at exactly the
kind of place she would have denied the existence of if she wasn't seeing it
for herself: a farm of some kind, or a large garden, being tended by
children. And, though it was hard to tell from the distance at which they
stood, it seemed like the girls looked a lot like Samantha Mulder.

Melissa, of course, didn't recognize it as Samantha. "This is where we're
going to hide?" she asked.

"Yep," Mulder said, resuming the fast-paced walk they'd set off in soon
after deciding the route they would take. Daina Kathryn had fallen asleep
again, so they didn't have to worry about her trying to keep up. She was
resting against Scully's shoulder, beginning to mumble now in the way that
Scully guessed meant she would wake up soon.

"This is where you came with Jeremiah Smith." Scully said, realization
coming over her for the first time. "The person you said you were going to
take back with you was Samantha."

Mulder nodded. "Only the bounty hunter caught up with us. He killed both of
them, I guess." Although he tried to sound nonchalant, Scully caught the
slight sound of an old wound not quite healed in his voice. Every time he
found something like this, somebody like those girls, he got his hopes up,
only to have them torn away, leaving injuries to his soul.

She handed Daina Kathryn, who was mostly awake now, to Melissa, and went to
him. "Mulder." she started to say, putting a hand on his shoulder and
forcing him to stop. "Mulder, it's okay. Just because I've found my daughter
and my own sister doesn't mean we're going to stop looking for yours."

"Thanks, Scully," he said, taking her hand from his shoulder and holding it
tightly in his own. "Come on, let's get going again."

Slower now, since Daina Kathryn was awake and wanted to walk, they
continued.
>>>>>>>>

JANUARY 2, 1999
9:50 A.M.

Rammin and Jones watched as the very four they were after drew closer. It
had been Rammin's idea to try hiding out at the farm where the special bees
were being bred for the time being: neither had ever even thought that
either Mulder or Scully would know of this place to use it for their own
purposes, a hideout.

Now, Rammin smiled while Jonnes' mind raced. He'd thought he'd saved Scully
and the little girl, but they'd come right back to where Rammin needed them
without any struggle at all. Without even realizing it; it was like
something from a movie.

"We'll give `em time to settle in one of the houses, wait until they think
they're safe. Then we can get the ones we need easier. Maybe even at night,
so we don't have to bother with Mulder and Scully at all," Rammin was
saying, but Jonnes was only half-listening.

"Yeah, okay," he said, switching his thoughts to Russian so he didn't have
to hear Rammin at all. His mind did that: if he switched languages, only
that language meant anything to him unless he really thought about it.

For now, he wanted to be lost in his own mind. Rammin's way of things
suddenly disgusted him.
>>>>>>>>