Title: Nova: East of Eden

Feedback: I love it more then chocolate.

Rating: NC-17 for possible graphic violence and sexual situations.

Warning: Minor character death and sexual situations.

Disclaimer: Not mine, I’m making no money, just playing.

Classification: Angst, Post-Colonization-sequel to my fic ‘Nova’, available at my page, Ephemeral, Gossamer, and, Annex to name a few.

Spoilers: It’s a WIP, so I really don’t know what will happen. But anything up to but not including the 7^th season finale is fair game. PLEASE PLEASE don’t try to read this fic without reading ‘Nova’ first. Thank you.

Summery: Five years have passed since the ending of ‘Nova’, one late night Scully looks back .

--If you are missing any parts of East of Eden they are at my page and Ephemeral.

Dedication: To Evie for her always perfect beta job and from the get go listening to my endless questions and whining. Melissa for her more then excited response when I told her of this fic, her encouragement and beta. And to all the original ‘Nova’ readers, I became addicted to your feedback and just had to get some more of it. I hope this WIP can live up the standards ‘Nova’ set for me.

Part 5/?

Present day…

Out of all the deaths in Nova, the Cancer- if that’s what it was, was the most painful. It was obvious Their attacks had weakened the Earth’s protection from the sun, if that’s what the cause was. It really is a mystery to me. I first noticed the spots one night on Mulder’s shoulder, a few weeks following an attack. The sight turned my stomach, those large pale, almost gray welts, with fluid beneath.

It seemed overnight people would become covered in the sores. I had no idea what was causing them, and no way to help.

Three years earlier….

Late Spring.

"Shh, Aeryn, its ok. It’s over now."

Scully watched motionless from the bed as Mulder cooed to Aeryn as she clutched his shoulder crying. He kept pacing and murmuring to her, hoping she would tire herself out soon and fall asleep. It had been a long day for all of them. The attack wasn’t close by, it was too mild to be directed at Nova, although they still felt it. Not too much damage was done, nothing they couldn’t fix. But it had still shaken Aeryn. Scully too. Mulder glanced over at the bed and gave Scully a concerned look. She looked down at her hands, twisting in her lap. Scully didn’t know this attack was going to happen. She didn’t ‘feel’ it. Not only that, but during the attack she had taken a bad fall. Her right leg now lay elevated on the bed, swollen and black and blue. Thankfully nothing too serious, she would just have to be off her feet for a few days.

"Mama’s hurt." Aeryn whimpered in her father’s ear.

Mulder leaned his cheek against hers, damp with tears. "Just a little."

"She’ll be ok?" Aeryn picked up her head and wiped at her eyes, sniffling.

"Of course she’ll be ok." Stroking the curls away from her face, Mulder tried to give her a reassuring smile. But Scully had sat in bed for the last two hours, listening to her daughter crying, not speaking a word since.

Aeryn dropped her head back down to his shoulder, still sniffling. Mulder rocked her gently against him, feeling as she lost her battle with exhaustion and slowly fell asleep. After another moment he gently laid her in bed and tucked the blanket beneath her chin. He left the curtain around her bed open in case she woke during the night.

With a barely audible sigh he sat at Scully’s hip on the bed. "You ok?"

She met his eyes. "I hate not knowing."

Mulder pressed his lips to her temple. "You can’t know everything, Scully." One more kiss and he pulled away. A sudden smile came over him as he raised his hand to trace her nose. "She looks so much like you." His fingers traced over her nose, her jaw, the bow of her top lip.

Scully turned her gaze to their sleeping daughter. It was true. "She has your eyes though."

They fell silent for a moment as Mulder watched her look at Aeryn. "Let’s get some sleep." Carefully he took Scully by the waist and helped her lay flat on the bed. Pulling the blankets up he tucked her in just how he had with Aeryn. "Are you comfortable?"

She gave a tired shrug. "As much as possible I think."

Careful, as not to jostle the bed and Scully’s tender leg, Mulder settled beside her after a lingering look towards Aeryn.

Four days later…

Aeryn laughed gleefully as she slashed around in the small metal tub they used to bathe her.

"Aeryn….honey, hold still so I can wash your hair." Mulder let out a frustrated sigh as he tried to soap her hair with her wiggling all over.

Scully just smirked from her lounged position on the bed.

Aeryn shrieked with laughter as she set a small wave of water out of the tub and directly on Mulder, staining his blue tee shirt dark with water. "I got Daddy all wet!" She laughed.

Mulder looked down at himself, unable to hide a smile. "Yes, yes you did." He glanced over at the bed where Scully was giggling. "What’s so funny?" She just shrugged and kept giggling as Mulder pulled his shirt over his head. "Ok, Aeryn." His serious tone made her pause the splashing and look at him. "Sit still so I can wash your hair then you can play all you want, deal?"

"Deal, Daddy." She said, although she couldn’t resist kicking her feet as Mulder washed her hair.

After a few moments Mulder sat back on his heels and motioned for Aeryn that she was free.

"Mulder?" Scully called evenly. "Come here for a second."

He hauled himself off the floor with a barely restrained groan and an "I’m getting old" under his breath.

"Turn around." She directed when he sat facing her.

He did as asked. "Ouch! What the hell was that?" Mulder tried to look over his shoulder at the spot that hurt when Scully touched him, but couldn’t see anything.

"It’s…some sort of welt." Scully carefully skimmed her fingers over a long irregular blister. The skin was a sickly gray color obviously filled with fluid beneath. "Did something fall on your shoulder? Maybe during the attack?"

"Not that I remember." Mulder grimaced. "Scully, can you stop that? It really hurts."

She pulled her hand away quickly. "Sorry. Are there any other’s like that?"

"I didn’t even know that was there." Mulder looked over at Aeryn who had stopped splashing to watch her parent’s serious conversation. "You done, Sweetie?"

Aeryn nodded, reaching her arms up for Mulder to pick her up. "Daddy, are you sick?"

"Nope." He answered while wrapping her up in a towel.

"Do you have an ouchie?"

Mulder snickered. "Yeah, just a little one."

Aeryn shrieked with laughter when Mulder turned and dropped her on the bed, causing her to bounce a few times. Scully grabbed her wiggling body, dragging her to sit so she could brush through the tangles of wet hair. "Daddy, I’ll kiss it and make it better like Mommy does."

Both Mulder and Scully struggled not to laugh at the serious tone their daughter was using.

Mulder sat in front of his daughter and tried not to flinch as she kissed the sore on his shoulder, he failed.

Three days later…

"Hold still for just another minute." Scully begged Aeryn as she carefully searched her body for blisters. Scully was scared-everyone was-that this was another illness. Maybe one that would wipe Nova out completely.

The only reason Scully even knew anyone else in Nova was suffering was an off handed comment to Amanda, who looked at her in confusion, saying Skinner had the same welts. An announcement went out. People piled into Nova with these unexplained sores.

"Mommy, I want to go play." Aeryn finally managed to wiggle out from Scully’s grip and to the floor with her toys.

"Let her play for a while." Mulder said as he sat by Scully’s legs on the bed. "How’s your leg?" He asked quickly to distract her.

Scully sighed softly, finally taking her eyes off Aeryn to look at Mulder. "It’s ok. Sore."

Mulder pulled her injured leg into his lap, pushed up her pant leg as far as he could and began to gently massage the bruised flesh and tense muscles.

With a tiny moan of contentment she leaned back into the pillows piled against the wall. After many moments of listening to Aeryn play, Scully spoke. "I’ve been thinking-"

"You’re kidding!" Mulder said with mock shock.

Scully kicked him lightly with her free foot. "Anyway, as I was going to say." She gave Mulder one last smirk before becoming serious. "These blisters, nobody who doesn’t work outside most of the day has them. I’m worried the sun may be causing it."

He nodded slowly. "That makes sense. It’s so much hotter now, especially for this climate. They must have weakened the ozone with the attacks, the sun shouldn’t be this strong so early in the summer."

Scully nodded, on the same train of thought. "You don’t burn easily, but you have had a sun burn for probably a month constantly, no resistance is being built up."

Mulder’s hands slowed their massaging as he thought. "Maybe we should pull everyone from outdoor work for a little while, see what happens. Everyone is sore anyway." He murmured under his breath. These welts seemed to increase in sensitivity, and more were forming, it was hard for sufferers to do much labor without discomfort. He squeezed Scully’s foot lightly. "I’ll make an announcement tomorrow, have everyone take a week off and only do the mandatory work, we are ahead of schedule anyway."

Present day…

I have been woken many ways in my life. Most often was the blare of my alarm clock, Mulder’s early phone calls to drag me off on a case, once in a while him knocking on the door. That was Before. Now, I had gotten used to the loud chime of the clock, Aeryn’s cries to be nursed as a baby, Mulder’s warm lips caressing my neck. Also that frantic pounding at the heavy wood door, the calls for help from the hall, Aeryn’s frightened cry after a nightmare. But nothing prepared me for Mulder’s groans of pain one early summer night.

Three years earlier.

Mid summer…

"Oh God… Scully."

With a jerk Scully woke. Mulder’s voice was strained and hoarse. "What is it?" She reached for his twisting figure in the dim light.

"My back." He groaned while trying to kick at the sheets tangled around his legs.

Scully gently took his upper arm in her hand and helped roll him on his stomach. Even in the weak light of the remaining fire Scully could see the dark wet splotches staining his shirt. "Oh no….Let’s get this off." Mulder cried out in pain as Scully lifted the shirt away from his flesh. She tried to sooth him with soft words but he couldn’t hear over his own groans.

Scully dreaded this moment, they both did. For weeks everyone was confident that they had beaten this illness. It meant they had to work in the dead of the night, and probably never see the sun again, but the sores stopped forming. Scully was mildly concerned when they didn’t disappear right away, but she decided to give it some more time before she would attempt to drain the sores herself. But it never came to that. It seemed all at once the people with the worst cases got worse. The welts broke, leaking thick clear liquid and causing unbearable pain. There was nothing Scully could do but try to stop the onset of infection. But, the ones who suffered from the sores the worst had them all over their bodies. Once the liquid drained the sores were left open and vulnerable. Two dozen patients had already been lost to severe infections.

With shaking hands Scully managed to pull the shirt over Mulder’s head. Tripping over the bed clothes, Scully rushed to soak towels in water as Mulder twisted and moaned on the bed. Her mother’s ears heard Aeryn crying in the corner of the room, she could only afford a moment to say reassurances before she hurried back to Mulder. Even though she knew it would happen, Scully jumped when Mulder cried out in pain as she went to work on his wounds.

Two hours later…

Scully massaged her temples, trying to ease the ache in her head. Across the room Aeryn was patting her father’s head as he lay in silent agony.

God she was tired. But she couldn’t sleep, not for a long while. Mulder’s bandages needed to be changed often to keep them dry and clean. She had done everything she could. The rest was up to Mulder’s internal defenses.

"Daddy is sleeping." Aeryn announced in a whisper with a self pleased smile.

"That’s good, Honey." Scully said tiredly. "That’s good."

Present day…

Mulder recovered. He was back to his old self after a week of painful healing and another week of rest. He was lucky, not many other’s were. We lost just as many that summer as we did to the first Illness. But that is something we have come to expect at Nova. Survival of the fittest… and luckiest in some cases.

With the proper medical supplies there isn’t a doubt in my mind that I would have been able to save dozens of people over the years. But I would never had been able to keep up with Them. I fear They have ruined Earth forever. I haven’t seen the true light of day since that illness. We work in the darkness and sleep during the day. Not that it made a difference while living in these tunnels.

What breaks my heart is the children of Nova will always grow up not knowing what it’s like to feel the heat of the sun on their faces. They don’t know what it’s like for their cheeks to have the sun-kissed glow….but, as it turns out, that should have been the least of my worries.

Notes: Took me longer enough, didn’t it? I’m sorry….I’ll try to do better.