Frohike was sitting in a chair near the door of the waiting room debating whether to wait another 15 minutes before calling. They had agreed that each one of them would take an 8 hour shift. Allowing for morning traffic, he had sat patiently as the clock passed the 8 hour mark and moved on to 8 and a quarter and now 8 and a half. While he considered no news to be good news, he was getting nervous, wondering if perhaps they had placed too much trust in Marita and Krycek, if he had unwittingly sent Byers and Langly into a trap. He was getting ready to call them when he saw the doctor enter Scully's room. Forgetting the phone call for the time being, he got up and quickly made his way down the hall.

The doctor stopped speaking and gave Scully a questioning glance when Frohike entered the room. Scully briefly considered asking Frohike to wait outside. But, knowing that over the years, his efforts to assist Mulder had made him privy to the most private aspects of her life, coupled with her certainty that he could probably gain access to her hospital records faster than the doctor himself, she opted to allow him to stay, simply nodding at the doctor to continue.

Frohike was as surprised as the doctor that she was allowing him to remain in the room. She'd made her anger at the Gunmen apparent from the moment she regained consciousness in Byers' arms in the elevator at the Bureau. She hadn't wanted to go to the hospital, arguing that there was too much work to be done. Langly had stared her down, bluntly stating that there was no way in hell he was going to suffer the wrath of Mulder by letting her get sick and die right under their noses. Byers and Frohike had cringed at Langly's lack of finesse, but secretly they were relieved--he had stated their worst fear--that her cancer was no longer in remission and that she was once again dying.

By the time they'd gotten to the hospital, Scully's anger had dissipated into a quiet resignation. The Gunmen had attempted to appease her with their assurances that they were going right back to the Hoover Building to amass the information that she had requested and to continue poring over the reams of data that Krycek and Marita had provided in the hopes of finding the information that Mulder and Skinner would need to quickly locate the craft, take what they needed and get back.

However, the Gunmen had decided to forego telling Scully that only two of them would be going back to the Hoover and that one of them would always be within sight of her room. Now however, Frohike's nervous presence just inside her door had let that cat out of the bag. And despite her cool acceptance of his remaining in her room, Frohike could see her nervousness in how her hands were working the thin fabric of the sheet that was draped over her lap.

Part of him wanted to rush out of the room, understanding immediately how nervous she truly was to have allowed him to stay and hear the doctor's pronouncement. Another part of him wanted to rush over and grab her hand, let her know that she was not alone, that whatever death sentence the doctor laid upon her head this time, that they would help her fight it. But he was afraid of how she would react to such a presumptuous move, so he simply stood near the door and tried to peer around the doctor's considerable bulk to let her know that he was there if she needed him.

Scully's eyebrow arched and she calmly began to answer, "That's not..."

The doctor raised his hand to forestall her. "I've seen your medical records. I know that you were diagnosed as infertile some time ago. And I know that you underwent some fairly rigorous and experimental cancer treatments, which often compromise the reproductive system. Therefore, when I saw the initial results, I had them re-run the tests. When we got the same results, I requested an additional battery of tests. We're looking for a host of other things, including fibroadenomyosis which, as you know, can sometimes cause a false positive for pregnancy. I don't think any of them will come back positive, particularly since you're not showing any of the other symptoms for any of them, but I'd rather be 100% certain, as I'm sure you'd like to be as well."

"What about irregularities of the pituitary gland? Sometimes that can also mimic pregnancy? And...." Even as her mind filled with gruesome images of Dr. Sacks, suspended in a vegetative state after some organism had attached itself to his pituitary gland, she was unwilling to display her distress, and kept her eyes focused on the doctor and her voice steady.

The doctor's voice was gentle as he cut her off. "*Doctor* Scully, as I said, we're running a battery of other tests. Some of them, including the ones for irregular glandular function have already come back, with negative results. Now, unless you've been suffering from sudden-onset and rapid weight gain, near manic mood swings, mild disassociative states, or chronic bladder and/or pelvic inflammatory disase then the odds that you're experiencing anything other than a typical pregnancy are, as you well know, very, very slim.

"And as a doctor, you, of all people should know that the human body is a miraculous thing. You wouldn't be the first woman who was told that there was absolutely no way for traditional impregnation to occur, only to have that turn out to be wrong. Our ability to reproduce, for life to develop inside us, sometimes against the highest odds..." he trailed off into a shrug.

Scully's eyes took on a far-away cast and she reached towards the hollow of her throat. She caressed the bare skin there as she answered, "Yes, you're right."

"I'm getting you started today on some neonatal vitamins to deal with the anemia and I'm going to keep you here another night for bed rest, and barring any unforeseen complications or unexpected test results, you'll be able to go home tomorrow."

She nodded absent-mindedly.

Knowing that the shock of what he'd just told her was sinking in, the doctor took his leave. "I'll be back a little later to discuss the results of all the tests with you."

As the doctor left, Frohike gave in to his urge and rushed over and took her hand. Quelling the urge to ask for her confirmation as to the baby's paternity, he solicitously started, "Agent Scully, we..."

As if she was just noticing him for the first time, Scully looked at him in wide-eyed surprise and asked, "Frohike? What are you doing here? I thought you were going back to keep examining the data? If we can't pinpoint the location soon, whatever evidence there might have been will be long gone before Mulder and Skinner get there."

Frohike blinked at her. Quickly regaining his composure, he continued to stroke her hand as he answered, "Byers and Langly are there, looking at everything. If there's something to be found, they'll find it." Dropping into a more solicitous tone, he went on, "But you have other things to think about right now. Is there anything I can do for you? Do you want anything? Do you want me to call anyone for you?" Clearing his throat and dropping his voice he asked, "Are there any additional tests you'd like run. These young punk doctors think they know it all..."

Scully gave him a small smile. "That's ok Frohike. I know some doctors that I can trust for this sort of thing. I'm fine. I just need...some time. Why don't you go on. The more eyes looking over all that data, the faster we'll find the missing piece. In fact, it'd be great if you could bring some of the paperwork here."

When he drew back and began shaking his head in objection, she squeezed his hand. "Frohike, I'm not going to overdo it. If the doctor is right...or even if he isn't, I have been overdoing it these past few days. And that isn't going to help Mulder, or anyone else right now. I just want to look at a few of the documents. That's all. There are a few things I saw that I'd like to think about a little more, but I need to see them again."

Frohike wanted to say no, but he couldn't. Scully was holding his hand.

HIS hand. And looking into his eyes like, like, like nothing he could think of, and at that moment, if she'd asked him to dance naked on top of the nurses' station, he would have happily done it. So, he nodded his acquiescence to her request, and began the heartwrenching process of removing his hand from hers. When he got to her door, his brain was beginning to function normally again and he turned and asked, "Are you sure there's nothing else you need?"

She gave him a dreamy look and said, "I'm fine." Before breaking out into a joyously tearful smile that made Frohike believe that this time, she really was telling the truth.

As he started off down the hallway towards the phone, Byers and Langly came rushing out of the elevator.

"Where the hell were you two? You're nearly an hour late and towards the end there, I..."

Byers cut him off. "There's been an incident."

"What is it? Was it those rat bastards Krycek and his little hottie? I *knew* we..."

Langly answered him. "No. They're not the problem. At least not as far as we can tell. It looks like Agent Scully was right."

Frohike stopped and took in the tense posture and haggard faces of both Langly and Byers and when Byers told him to sit down, he did it without question.

Minutes later the trio entered Scully's room. She was staring straight ahead and seemed unaware that they were even there. Byers quietly tried to raise her attention by calling out her name.

She blinked, as if coming out of a trance, then her brow furrowed as she saw Frohike, still hovering near the door. "Frohike? You're back already? Have you guys relocated down to the hospital parking lot?"

He stepped forward and walked around to perch himself on the side of her bed before he again grasped her hand. Leaning down, he softly said to her, "I, uh, I haven't had a chance to, um, talk to these guys about, you know...I didn't know if you'd want, uh..."

Scully couldn't help but smile at the nervousness in his voice. She just turned towards him, and giving his hand a quick squeeze, softly said, "Thank you."

If Langly and Byers noticed the furtive conversation that had just taken place, they had the good graces to remain silent about it. Byers, his suit still unwrinkled despite his having worn it for nearly 24 hours straight, cleared his throat and looked at her with worried eyes as he began. "We've continued to monitor all of our usual sources as we've sorted through the data that you and Mulder gave us."

Langly, standing near her feet, looked into her eyes and informed her, "At 12 am our time, there was a rash of UFO sightings all along the West Coast."

Byers picked up again, "Within two hours, various chapters of MUFON began reporting that they were unable to contact some of their members."

Langly's nasal tones again filled the room. "Within that same time frame, we intercepted several transmissions back and forth between Portland and Bellefleur."

Scully sat up a little straighter and her voice took on a sense of urgency.

"Mulder and Skinner? Did they find it?"

Byers took a deep breath before answering. "The transmissions were regarding a search team. The equivalent of an 'officer down' call."

Though Scully's voice remained level, Frohike was aware that the pressure she was exerting on his hand had increased. "Are they all right?"

This time, it was Frohike's voice that she heard. "A search team was convened at around 2 am our time."

"They've been combing the woods for the last 10 hours, but so far..."

Scully interrupted Langly to ask "Search team? Mulder and Skinner called out a search team?"

Byers, suddenly looking as if his tie was choking him to death, nervously glanced over at Frohike before looking back at Scully and replying, "Skinner called for the search team. He called them out for Mulder."

Scully's free hand once again moved towards the hollow of her throat while the other one squeezed Frohike's hand tighter. She closed her eyes and didn't respond.

Langly and Byers looked at one another, then Langly spoke up. "From what we've been able to hear of Skinner's initial reports, he was with Mulder. He turned around and Mulder was gone."

Byers continued as if he'd been speaking all along. "There was a light, increasing in brightness, and Skinner could see Mulder, within that light. Then, finally, a bright flash and after that, nothing other than a large craft in the sky."

"Skinner's being sent home on a flight this morning because they think he's crazy or suffering from stress or something." Langly couldn't keep his disdain for those diagnoses out of his voice.

Scully abruptly let go of Frohike's hand and sat up ramrod straight in the bed. Frohike looked over at his companions worriedly, but Byers and Langly didn't notice. They were watching her, fascinated as she closed her eyes, took a deep breath and visibly willed herself to lean back and be calm. Both her mind and her body were in chaos, but she refused to break down, not now, not when Mulder's future, when her own future depended on her being clear headed and rational. She had known that this might happen, had almost expected it, though the expectation in no way dulled the pain of hearing the confirmation of what had become her worst fear. After a moment, she reminded herself that now the stakes were high, far higher than either she or Mulder had ever imagined. There would be time for her to deal with the mind-numbing fear and heart-rending grief later, but not now.

They were momentarily bewildered when she opened her eyes and fixed each of them with a laser sharp stare as she said, "Did you get the information that I asked you to? On the rail lines? We need to know what was happening on every rail line within a 200 mile radius of those woods. Commercial, passenger and the ones listed as inoperable. Bills of lading, passenger rosters, everything you can get your hands on. And trucks. Any information that you can get from the weigh stations. Again, all the bills of lading, weight reports, and also, if anyone at any of the stations saw anything, anything at all that seemed out of the ordinary."

Byers didn't question her directions, rather, he simply asked, "What about the information from Marita and Krycek?"

Scully's voice could have seared through diamonds as she answered, "Right now, our *only* priority is finding Mulder."

Looking over at Langly, she went on, "Have you had any luck getting information about experimental military craft test flights? I know that information is difficult to get, but..."

Frohike's chest puffed out like a bird issuing a mating call, "That's a piece of cake."

Langly, tucking some stray locks of wispy blond hair behind his ears nodded his agreement with Frohike and added, "We've already got most of those flight schedules. We've been collecting everything we can about the unusual activity out there ever since you guys first called us." He shuffled his feet somewhat nervously and tone became apologetic as he continued, "I know you told us to keep our eyes open for something like this to happen, but, well, with you in here, we wanted to be certain of what had happened before we came and told you. But, we figured you wouldn't want to wait until Skinner got back before you found out."

Scully swallowed around the lump that had suddenly formed in her throat and simply nodded her acceptance of Langly's words.

Byers looked at his watch then said, "We'd better get going. We've got a lot of work to do."

Frohike stood up, and still lightly caressing Scully's fingers again asked, "Are you certain there's nothing we can bring you?"

Scully looked at him and though her voice was steady when she answered, "Just all the information I asked for", he could see the unspoken plea in her eyes. Frohike's gaze was determined as he answered, "We'll find him Agent Scully." He turned and walked out, Byers and Langly behind him, as he quietly said to himself, "We have to."

The End

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