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Chapter 4

7:01 am

Since Mulder had lived and breathed while invading her personal space,
it had come as no surprise that he slept there as well. Rare was the
morning that she awoke alone on her own pillow, instead finding his
face only inches from hers. While it had scared the hell out of her
the first time, she'd grown to savor it.

She could feel deep, even breaths warming the back of her neck, and
decided to stay where she was, not risk waking him. She couldn't bring
herself to steal his temporary serenity, and hoped his mind would
allow him the same reprieve, not torture him with unanswerable
questions.

Mentally, she composed a to-do list for the day. 1. Track down the
source of that case folder. It didn't jump on Mulder's desk by itself.
2. Talk to the agents officially assigned and try to weasel
information from them; she was pretty sure Mr. Harrison would have
issued shoot-to-kill orders should they come back around the house. 3.
Restrain Mulder from looking for Lauren Harrison on his own. They had
absolutely no idea what they were dealing with yet. Maybe she could
lock him in a room and convince him to profile the kidnapper. 4....

"Are you awake?" The words rumbled into her ear, like the echo of an
avalanche.

"Mmm.."

"I hoped maybe it was all a nightmare." She turned to face him, his
haunted gaze pleading for a lie from eyes that had only ever told him
the truth. "But it's real, isn't it?"

She nodded.

"Scully, of all the ways I imagined finding her...I thought, if she
was dead, that would hurt the most." He closed his eyes. "Even with my
talent for self-inflicted torture, I never could've come up with this
one."

She reached up to touch his hair, and he turned his head into her palm
like a kitten. She indulged herself for a moment, then kissed him
softly, watching his eyes blink open.

"She just needs time, Mulder. You've always had the hope that she was
out there somewhere. She had that hope taken away from her. You can't
blame her for that."

He shook his head, morning stubble rubbing like sandpaper on cotton.
"I don't blame her. I blame him." She felt his body tense in a
familiar posture. "He took her away." One tear, defiant in its sudden
freedom, made its way down to stain her pillowcase. "He took you away
too." He ran his hands up her sides and through her hair. "It would
have killed me if you'd come back and not known me. Not wanted me.
Because I didn't look hard enough for you. Didn't try hard enough to
get you back."

She shook his shoulders gently, tilting his chin down so he was
looking her in the eyes. "Hey, I'm here. We're not talking about me,
Mulder. I came back, remember?"

Mulder smiled, warmth like a sunrise melting away his tears. He
reached for her, holding her securely to his chest. "Yeah, I know
which one you are Scully. You're my one in five billion."

She lay quietly, drinking in his strength, cautiously feeding it back
to him. They would need every bit the two of them had to get through
this together.

Ch. 5

10:27 am

"Sit."

Mulder suppressed the urge to bark.

He sat.

Skinned loomed over his desk, daring either of them to question being
called in on a Saturday morning.

"I'm going to assume you both know why you're here. Unfortunately, I
wasn't quite as enlightened as you seem to be at 9:00 this morning
when I got a call at my home." 

Expecting a little squirming, Skinner was disappointed to note only
calm resgination in their postures.

"From the Director."

He waited a beat.

Nothing, save two pairs of raised eyebrows, more from curiosity than
any fear of reprimand.

"He ordered me to order *you* off the Harrison kidnapping case. Which
I would do, except that I never *assigned* you to the Harrison
kidnapping case."

Scully spoke. "Sir, if I may?"

"No, you may not." Skinner lowered his body and his voice
simultaneously. "I know that we have at times had a tenuous working
relationship, and I know that you have occasionally had reason to
question my integrity."

Scully flushed, and found she couldn't meet his gaze.

"However, when you are on official business, I expect to be informed
of your actions." He sat back in his chair, wondering what it would
take to intimidate these two. "You seem to have forgotten how this
chain-of-command concept works. Technically, I'm supposed to *dictate*
your actions."

Mulder looked over at his partner, a momentary glance all they needed
to concur that they'd both received the same message.

In some bizarre way, they'd hurt his feelings. Left him out of the loop.

Mulder barely nodded at Scully, and she leaned forward to speak.

Skinner found himself once again amazed at the nuanced conversations
they seemed to hold with their eyes.

"Sir, the truth is, before you called us in this morning we'd planned
on getting in touch with you."

Mulder interrupted. "We don't know where that folder came from. It was
on my desk yesterday morning."

Scully took over. "We assumed until now that it was an assignment from
you." She paused. "Well, actually, we realized yesterday afternoon
that it wasn't."

Mulder began to speak and Skinner felt like he was watching a slow
game of Pong. To keep from giving himself whiplash, he looked down at
the file on his desk.

"When you called us in, we further assumed that you didn't know how it
ended up in our office either."

Skinner turned the few pages that comprised the entire case. "Why
would someone want you two on this kidnapping? There don't seem to be
any unexplainable phenomena." He looked up at Mulder. "Did they want a
profile?"

Mulder shook his head. "No." His mouth went dry, useless. Scully
touched his arm, so quickly Skinner wondered if he really saw it.
Whatever she did, Mulder gratefully passed the baton to her.

"Sir, you know that while I was ill Agent Mulder made contact with a
woman who claimed to be Samantha."

Skinner nodded. It had been sort of a peace offering between the three
of them, after everything that had happened. They'd sat in her
hospital room and Mulder had told them both, knowing how crazy it
sounded, knowing it was probably the sanest thing any of them had to
hold on to at that moment. People were dying all around them, but
maybe, just maybe, he'd found his sister.

"You also know that she asked that Agent Mulder make no further effort
to contact her. We knew she lived somewhere in the area, and with our
resources we probably could have obtained her current identity and
whereabouts, but Agent Mulder chose to respect her wishes."

Skinner thought he might throttle her if she didn't get to the point.

"What does any of this have to do with...?" He lifted up the folder,
dropping it unceremoniously back onto his desk. The copy of the little
girl's picture came loose from the paperclip, and it surfed out over
the edge of the desk. Mulder dove to catch it, but instead of
returning it slid it into his jacket pocket.

"Sir, the little girl's mother, Amanda", Scully took a deep breath.

"What?" Skinner asked, exasperated.

"She's my... Samantha," Mulder said, without raising his head.

Skinner remained poker-faced, but this whole conversation had
exhausted him.

He looked to Agent Scully for confirmation, her weary glance telling
him it was as true as anything else they'd been told.

Skinner exhaled, mentally counting the years he had until blessed
retirement. Then he reminded himself of several occasions upon which,
if not for the two people before him, he wouldn't even have made it
this far.

His words crossed the desk, falling heavily before them. 

"The Harrison family has requested you not work this case. The Bureau
has had enough public relations problems," he tapped his fingers
together, sighing. "Our public image is in the toilet. I can't...go
against their wishes. I'm sorry, but it's out of my hands."

Scully rose, and nodded. "Yes, sir, thank you, sir."

After a short pause, Mulder stood and parroted her words. "Thank you,
sir."

As they left the office, Skinner had to wonder if she could do that
while drinking a glass of water. It was the only thought all day that
had given him reason to smile.