Title - After the Future XXII
Author - Donna
Email address - donnah@donnas-stories.com
URL - www.geocities.com/Area51/Quadrant/4571/
Rating - PG-13
Category - MSR, post-colonization
Spoilers - None
Keywords - MSR, angst
Summary - Next chapter in the continuing saga after the 
colonization
Feedback - Please
Archive - Anywhere, just please keep my name and let 
me know so I can visit

Disclaimer - Mulder, Scully, the Lone Gunmen and 
Skinner all belong to Chris, 10-13 and Fox - Bless them 
for it!!  No infringement intended.


After the Future - XXII


Before Mulder could respond, they heard her scream.  

"NO!  Daddy no!"  All heads turned toward Katy's 
bedroom.  Mulder was already on his feet racing in that 
direction, Scully two steps behind him.  

He had her in his arms immediately and carried her out 
into the light.  She was clinging to him fiercely.  The 
others were frozen into position.  Katy had never had a 
nightmare before, what in the world . . .

"Baby, come on, calm down.  You're awake now and it's 
all over.  See we're all here.  We love you."  He sat on 
the couch and held her trembling body.  Scully was 
rubbing her back.

Katy burst into tears on her Dad's chest.  "Katy, Baby talk 
to me.  What was the - "

"You can't go!"

"I'm not going anywhere, it was just a dream."

"You can't go to Texas to get him!  You can't!"

Scully's head jerked up to look into his guilty eyes. The 
look of horror and betrayal that came over her face 
caused his heart to skip a beat.

"Scully - "

But she had risen and was out the back door.

"Katy, I'm not going to Texas.  Calm down, I promise I'm 
not leaving you."  He looked up helplessly, torn between 
comforting his daughter and chasing Scully.

"Give her here."  Kevin sat beside him.

"What?"

"Give me Katy.  You go find Scully."

Mulder looked down at his daughter.  "Baby, will you go 
to Kevin for a minute?"

She nodded sleepily then, reassured, and made herself 
comfortable in Kevin's lap.

Walter spoke for the others, "We'll clear out Mulder.  If 
you need us - "

Mulder nodded, already moving toward the door.

"Mulder, I'll stay as long as you need."  Kevin looked at 
the worried man.  Mulder nodded and let himself out.

*****

He finally located her at the foot of the tree bearing his 
and Samantha's initials.   He sat beside her but she didn't 
acknowledge him.

"Scully, please, it was a half-formed thought - "

"It was formed enough to wake Katy out of sound sleep, 
screaming."

His face flushed and he looked down at his knees.  "I . . . 
I promised her I wouldn't go."

"Gee thanks, Mulder."

He reached for her and she jerked away - a first in his 
memory.  "Scully - "

"You go caveman because I search for him with my mind, 
but you make plans to leave me, us, for a year or more, 
to confront them personally - for someone you despise!"

"I said it was half-formed."

"It was half assed."  She rose to her feet then and he 
scrambled up beside her.

"Scully, I'm not going.  I couldn't be away from you or the 
kids that long.  You believe me, don't you?"

"Why didn't you even discuss this with me?"

He hung his head, "Because I knew it was stupid from 
the beginning."

"You just wanted to pretend you were single again, some 
sort of mid-life crisis?"  Her eyes were snapping and he 
wanted to shrink into the underbrush.

"I'm not going Scully.  I fight them in a different way now."

"But it's not enough?"

"Yes it's enough!  It was a . . . a fantasy.  You fulfill all of 
my sexual ones, so I had to move on to Indiana Jones 
stuff."

Her eyes seemed a tiny bit less icy at that statement.

"Scully, please, I wasn't ever really going.  You've got to 
believe that."

She sighed and he felt a sliver of relief.

"You know it was stupid?"

"Absolutely."  He crossed his heart.

"You know how you felt when you saw my nosebleed?"  
He closed his eyes and nodded.  "That's how I feel when 
you ditch me, or plan to."

He met her eyes then and after a moment, nodded once 
slowly.

"Scully, I never meant to scare you, or Katy, and I have 
no intention of ditching you ever again.  May I, Scully, let 
me hold you."

She didn't refuse, so he stepped closer and took her into 
his arms.  After a moment she began to relax against 
him.

"Never."

"I swear Scully."

*****

The next morning Tricia burst into Scully's office just 
minutes after she arrived.  "Scully, he's gone!"

"Gone?  Who's - " for an instant she felt blind panic.  No, 
she pulled herself together, he'd promised and she'd just 
left him.

"My Dad!  He's gone back to prove he didn't bring that 
clone here."

"Wait, calm down Tricia.   Are you sure?"

"He left a note."  She thrust the paper at Scully.

'Tricia, these are good people, better than I could have 
hoped and they'll look after you.  I have to prove to them 
- and to myself - that I didn't purposely bring harm to this 
community.  If I can find this 'Bill' and convince him to 
leave with me, I'll try to bring him back.  In the meantime, 
you do your part to help out and be like your mother.  I 
love you, Dad'

Scully's face was pale.  "Come with me."  She was on her 
feet.  "Anne," she called to the younger woman, "Tricia 
and I have to head over to the office, can you - "

"Of course.  Go.  Mary will be here any minute.  Go!"  
She shooed them out, but worry at the expression on 
Scully's face grew within her.

They burst into the office.  Mulder, Walter and Kevin were 
all in the outer office and jumped when the door flew 
open.  "Scully?"  Mulder reached for her automatically.

"Stan's gone.  He's headed for Texas to find Bill and, and 
make reparations to us."  She could see Mulder's mind 
working.

He turned to Kevin, "Is Sam here?"

"Yeah."

"Send him for Greg, hurry."  He turned back to Tricia.  
"Come on in here."  He led both women into the office he 
shared with Walter. 

"When did he leave?" 

"I don't know.  During the night, I saw him when I went to 
bed."

"Good, he doesn't have much of a head start."

"Can you find him?  Bring him back?"  She looked a lot 
younger than fifteen right now.

"We're going to try."  He looked up at Scully, "Long 
before he gets near Texas."

She gave him a tight smile but nodded.  

Greg knocked on the door then.  "Did you . . . what's 
wrong?"

They brought him up to date and he sank into the empty 
chair in front of the desk.  "He didn't bring that . . . we 
didn't!  I swear he joined us just a few days before we got 
here.  We didn't recognize him, we had no - "

"Greg, Greg its okay.  We believe you.  I want you to go 
with me, you and, and Todd."  He looked up at Walter.

Walter nodded, "I'll get the stuff together."  

"He doesn't have that much of a head start and I don't 
want it to get bigger."  Mulder spoke rapidly.

Greg nodded and went to change, and to let Megan know 
what was going on.

"Tricia, I want you to try not to worry.  We'll find your Dad 
and bring him back.  And I want you to remember, we 
don't blame him for what's happened.  I believe he didn't 
know Bill."

"But he knew the cult he was in."  Tricia spoke quietly.

"What?"  Everyone's eyes were fastened on her now.

"The ones that look like us, but aren't - isn't that what 
Katy calls them?  I believe he knew them."

"Talk to us, Tricia."  Scully took her hand.

"Before we moved to where Greg and Megan and Becky 
lived, we lived near this . . . this group of people that were 
. . . strange."

"Strange how, Tricia?"  Scully asked gently.

"I didn't see them much, only a couple of times.  Dad 
would see them at the bar; after Mom died he spent a lot 
of time there at first.  They, I don't know, from what he 
said they acted different from the people that used to live 
there.  They came from somewhere else and settled in.  I 
never saw this Bill guy, but then like I said, I didn't see 
them often.  Then Dad got . . . got scared of them and we 
moved."

"Scared of them?"

"Well, they, they were all men and they didn't seem to 
like women except in one way.  There was talk about 
them attacking women, at least that was Dad's story to 
me.  That's when we got out."

Mulder looked over at Scully; was this where the girl's 
fear of not being equal because she was female came 
from?

"Tricia, that may be what he's thinking, but they're out 
there, everywhere.  This thing didn't join you until you 
were here.  Remember that.  I need to change, Kevin, 
can you find the extra clips?"  Mulder was on his feet 
now, ready to do something.

Kevin nodded as Scully watched him.  He was going and 
she was frightened, frightened at a base level.   She took 
a deep breath.  "You'll be careful."

"Oh yeah.  Too much to come back to.  Scully," he drew 
her to the side and held her, "I'm not ditching you."

"I know."  He looked deep into her eyes, then nodded and 
gave her a quick kiss.

Scully nodded.  She wanted to go with him.  No one had 
his back like she did, but he wouldn't hear of it and she 
knew it.


All too quickly the three men were assembled at the 
clinic.  In addition to their regular weapons, Scully had 
given them each additional vaccine to carry, just in case.  
Katy was sad, but not hysterical and Walt hugged each of 
them, then stood holding his Dad's hand.  Lexie picked 
up on the vibrations and was crying quietly, not 
understanding.  Scully held her close.

"Don't worry. We'll be back in three, four days, with Stan.  
You guys can handle anything, so don't worry."  He 
glanced over at Byers, who nodded.  There was no 
definite chain of command, though Walter had become 
the unofficial patriarch of the clan.  But even he deferred 
to Mulder and everyone had a bad feeling about this.

"Come on guys, it's almost noon.  We can't give him too 
much advantage."  They were on foot, as was Stan.  The 
bikes were no longer useful for long trips.  Each of the 
men kissed their wives goodbye and Mulder especially 
seemed reluctant to release Scully, but then they were 
off, following Katy's directions.

The group left behind seemed to have trouble dispersing 
as well.  It was Byers that took Scully's arm.  "Come on 
Dana."  She nodded and watched him pick up Walt to 
head back to the clinic.

*****

They ate as they walked, not bothering to stop for any 
length of time.  Mulder could finally admit to himself that 
he'd had some concerns about keeping up himself.  Both 
of his companions were younger, and had had more 
recent experience with this kind of thing, but they actually 
had to move to keep up with him.  He grinned, maybe 
being 'Mulder' wasn't so bad after all, and no doubt Walt 
had given him a little boost.

They passed signs of Stan a couple of times, but as it 
was getting dark, Mulder called a halt.  "We've made up 
some time, let's rest now and move out as soon as it's 
light."

The two younger men agreed gratefully and Mulder hid 
his satisfaction.  Greg drew first look out, so Mulder and 
Todd crashed in their sleeping rolls.  There was no fire, 
just in case, and they didn't need it for heat.

Mulder roused them just before dawn and they moved 
out.  About three hours later they reached Stan's 
campsite.  The fire had been carefully extinguished, but 
they knew they'd catch up before lunch.  All the better, to 
get back to their loved ones as soon as possible.

*****

They heard voices before they saw him and moved into 
hiding, creeping closer to keep from being seen.  Stan 
was talking to a man and he seemed to know him.

"Did you follow us!  If you wanted to come east, you 
should have traveled with us, unless you just wanted to 
cause problems."  Stan was obviously distraught, his 
voice rose.

Mulder looked over at Greg who shook his head.  He'd 
never seen this man before.  They all froze when the 
second man stepped out from behind them.  Mulder 
closed his eyes, he'd been out of the game too long.

The second man didn't speak, just motioning them 
toward Stan and the other stranger.  The silent man 
came to stand beside the first one.

The taller of the two men, the one talking to Stan, turned.  
His eyes focused on Mulder.  The look raised the hackles 
on Todd's neck and he reached into his pocket and 
uncapped the syringe there.

Mulder and his companions stopped, the man staring at 
Mulder morphed into a familiar adversary.

"Mulder.  You do live.  And now I can take them your 
lifeless body."

"That's it?  I don't even get a hello, how you been?"

The alien bounty hunter's eyes narrowed and without 
warning, his hands closed on Mulder's arms lifting him 
into the air.

That was all Todd needed, he lunged at the larger man, 
stabbing the needle into his forearm and plunged.  Green 
fumes immediately escaped into the atmosphere and 
Todd blinked.

The alien tossed Mulder aside and grabbed his arm as 
Mulder hit the ground with a grunt.

"Go!  Upwind!  Go!"  Mulder managed to shout at Todd 
and Greg.  Greg's military training took over.  He was 
used to following orders and that had been an order.  He 
grabbed Todd's arm and they were racing out of the way.

Stan had no military training, when his eyes began to 
burn, he didn't run.  Instead he took the opportunity to 
stab his knife into the second alien.  The fumes 
overwhelmed him then, and he dropped to his knees.

Mulder had rolled and pulled his gun out.  The alien that 
had been stabbed hadn't even slowed down.  Mulder 
aimed and fired, seeing the bullet enter the second 
alien's throat and emerge out the base of his neck.  The 
being was already turning into green goo before it hit the 
ground.

The first alien seemed to be moving in slow motion, his 
attention still on his arm.  Mulder made it to his feet and 
stumbled toward Stan.  He'd gotten a full dose of the 
fumes and was now in a fetal position.  He was a big 
man, but Mulder started dragging him away.

That caused the alien to look up and start to move toward 
Mulder.  He was sluggish, but moving.  He grabbed 
Mulder's arm, twisting him up to his feet.

"What have you done to me?  What is this?"

Mulder was cradling his arm and didn't speak, just trying 
to catch his breath.

"Fine, I shall kill you now and get the information from 
your friends."

Mulder saw the bullet emerge from the man's throat 
before he realized he'd heard the shot.  He blinked at the 
large man collapsed at his feet and began to fall in on 
himself.

Todd immediately started moving toward Mulder.  "No!  
Let it disperse."  Mulder tried to rise, but groaned and fell 
back.

"Mulder!"

"I'm okay.  Stay there."  He made it to his feet on the 
second attempt.  He grabbed hold of Stan and began 
dragging him away with one arm.  Stan was in bad 
shape; Mulder wished again, for all new reasons, that 
Scully was with them.

"Mulder?  Now?"

He nodded and allowed Todd and Greg to take over 
moving Stan.  Mulder leaned back and lost his balance, 
landing on his rear.  He cried out as he jarred his arm.

Todd was on his knees beside him, examining his 
shoulder.  "It's dislocated."

"I believe you."  Mulder said dryly.  "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, Greg got me out of the way.  Hey, Mulder, why 
weren't you . . . "

Mulder shrugged, then grimaced.  "I guess I've been 
exposed enough times.  How's Stan?"

"Bad shape."  Greg answered.  "Real bad.  Is there 
anywhere around here we can take him?"

Mulder turned to Todd at that.  "Well, there's a small 
village a couple of miles north.  They were just barely 
hanging on last time I was through here.  We vaccinated 
everyone but they were talking about moving south.  We 
can try it."

"At least we can be inside."  Mulder held out his good 
arm to let Todd help him to his feet.  "By the way, which 
one of you shot him?"

Todd looked over at Greg, Greg shrugged.  "I held a 
'Marksman'."

"Glad you did."  

They refused to let him help build the stretcher for Stan, 
but it didn't take long.  Once he was loaded Mulder trailed 
them toward this village Todd had mentioned.  He was 
right, it wasn't far, but it was deserted.

Stan was barely breathing when they arrived.  They 
placed him on a bed in one of the houses, then Todd 
turned to Mulder.  "There's not a lot we can do for him, 
but we can reset your shoulder."

Mulder closed his eyes, but he agreed and finally 
nodded.  They placed him on the floor and, while Greg 
held him steady, Todd placed his knee against his arm 
and after a nod to Greg, jerked.

Sweat broke out on Mulder's forehead, but he managed 
to keep quiet, barely.  "We need to wrap it, keep it 
immobilized."  Todd rummaged through his pack and 
pulled out a t-shirt.

"Don't tear it."  Mulder spoke low, but he was with them.

"Yeah, okay."  They bound him and finally let him sit up.  
"Mulder?  You okay, not sick?"

"I've been better, but I'll live."

Greg looked over at the bedroom door.  "Is there 
anything we can do for him?  What worked for you?"

"Scully."  Mulder followed his look.  "Sorry, but it's the 
truth.  I know she used hypothermia in her treatment, 
which we can't do here and antiviral injections, which 
have probably been destroyed."  Mulder shook his head, 
"I'm sorry Greg."

Greg nodded, "What do we do about Tricia?"

Mulder sighed, "I . . . we'll raise her.  She belongs to us 
now.  She needs to know he was a hero.  He had to 
know what stabbing one of them would expose him to, 
but he did it and that's what gave me the time to get to 
my gun."

Todd nodded at that.

"I'll go sit with him."  Greg rose. 

"Let me."  Mulder let them help him to his feet.  He didn't 
bother to look at them, just made his way slowly to the 
bedroom.

*****

Scully massaged her shoulder once more and looked up 
from the information Byers had brought her.

"You okay Dana?"  He asked gently.

"No."  But she managed to smile.  "Never when he's . . . "

"I know.  I think we all feel that way, but he needed to go 
with them to find Stan.  It makes a statement and I know 
Tricia needed to see it."

Scully nodded and stretched, her hand again coming to 
her upper arm.  "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes.  I must have lifted something wrong.  I don't 
remember hurting it, but . . ." she shrugged.  "I'll be fine."

"Come get some lunch, before the crowd arrives."

She smiled up at him, he was the consummate 
gentleman.  To this day it jarred her a little to see him not 
dressed in coat and tie.  Even in jeans and t-shirts 
though, he had the air of sophistication that no one else 
had.

She rose from her desk and decided to change the 
subject.  "What's the deal with Langly and Becky?"

Byers grinned, "Don't know, but he didn't come home last 
night."

Her eyebrows rose, "Langly?"

"Maybe he was just waiting for the right woman."

"When are we going to find her for you?"

"I already found her, Dana."  He looked wistful and she 
wished she'd kept her mouth shut.

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay.  If Suzanne's still alive, I'm sure she's working 
hard at the same thing I am, so that's a nice connection."

Scully squeezed his arm and preceded him toward the 
kitchen, she was unaware that she was still rubbing her 
arm.  They both stopped when Katy approached them, 
her eyes brimming with tears.

"Katy, what is it?"  Scully took her hand as Byers knelt in 
front of her.

"Daddy's arm hurts."

Scully's eyes flew open wide as Byers looked up at her.  
"But he's okay other than that?"

Katy nodded.

"Did they, did they find Stan?"

"He's mostly dead."  Byers looked up at Scully.

"Let's go to my office, Honey."  She patted Katy's head 
and they retreated back to her office.  Byers shut the 
door.  Scully took a deep breath.  "Is Stan dead, Katy?"

"Not quite, but soon."

"What happened to him?"  She asked the little girl gently.

"They had a fight with the other ones."

Scully gasp and met Byers' look.  "I have to go."

"Dana, wait.  You can't -  "

"John, he needs me.  He's injured."

"We let you go off and he'll injure us.  I'll go, and . . . and 
someone."

"I'm going."  He'd seen that look before.

He turned to Katy.  "Honey, what do you think of your 
Mom going to bring your Dad home?  Think everything 
will be okay?"

Katy nodded reluctantly, "Daddy really wants her there."

Byers smiled, "I know that, but is it safe?"

Again Katy nodded.  "You and Kevin will look after 
everything."

Byers looked up at Scully, "You better go change."

Scully nodded and hugged Katy tightly.  "You can stay 
with Grandma and Granddaddy tonight."

Katy smiled at that and hurried off to find Maggie.

"Scully?  How's your arm?"  Byers smiled at her, but 
didn't wait for an answer.

*****

Greg opened the door and looked inside, then quietly 
joined Mulder.  "I'm going to relieve you.  You need some 
rest yourself."

"There's no need, he's gone."

"Gone?"  Greg looked back quickly at Stan, then put his 
hand out to check his pulse.  Mulder was right.

"I'm sorry, Greg."

"Yeah, me too.  Mulder, he didn't -  "

"I know.  Greg, wipe it from your mind.  We don't blame 
Stan.  We never have."

Greg nodded.  Mulder started to rise and Greg's hand 
was there to help him.  They moved out into the main 
room, to see Todd returning with his arms full.

"Is Stan . . .?"

Mulder shook his head.  Todd turned to Greg, "I'm sorry."

Greg nodded; there was nothing else to say.

After a moment, Mulder motioned to the stuff Todd had 
carried in.  "What's all this?"

"Oh, the women keep a list going of things we can use.  
I'm just in the habit of looking around now."

Mulder nodded, "Good."  He looked around, "How, how 
are we going to get the, get Stan back?"

Both younger men looked at him surprised.  "Mulder, we 
can't . . . it will take several days to get home.  You're 
injured and -  "

Greg broke in, "Tricia shouldn't see him like that.  We 
need to bury him here."

Mulder looked over at the door, and finally nodded.

"We'll get started, you should probably lie down for a little 
while."

"I'm not that old."  Mulder muttered.

"No, but we have to answer to Scully.  Since you're 
injured, that prospect is more than a little scary.  Just 
take it easy while we dig the, the grave."

Mulder sighed, but they were right.  He couldn't help 
them and if he were honest, his arm hurt like hell.  He 
nodded and the two younger men headed outside.  
Mulder kicked his bedroll open on the floor and stretched 
out.  He couldn't really get comfortable, but he rested his 
eyes and had drifted off before they returned.

When they did return, they moved quietly to the bedroom 
and wrapped Stan in a cloth as a shroud and carried him 
out, then Todd returned for Mulder.

He knelt beside Mulder and shook his good shoulder 
slightly.  "Mulder, sorry man, but do you want to say a 
few words?"

"What?  Where, oh Stan.  Yeah."  He took hold of Todd's 
arm and made it to his feet.  They returned to the 
gravesite and Greg.  They stood silent for a few minutes, 
then Mulder looked at the other two.  "I'm not sure what 
to say.  He gave his life to protect ours and our 
community.  Nothing could be more important.  I thank 
him."

Todd nodded and then Greg.  They looked at Mulder, 
then together began shoveling dirt back into the grave.  
Mulder stood there until they were through, then all three 
returned to the house.

"I guess we should get going."

"Mulder, we can't get anywhere today, and I haven't 
finished looking around.  Let's stay here tonight."  Todd 
spoke up.

After a moment Mulder nodded, it made sense, much as 
he wanted to get back to Scully.  This had shown him in 
ways he hasn't realized how firmly entwined they were 
now.

He insisted on helping out with exploring the place.  Todd 
had his eye out for cloth in any form, and particular 
clothing that could be repaired.  The people had 
obviously left with only what they could carry.

*****

Mulder was still on his feet, putting one foot in front of the 
other.  He couldn't think about much besides his arm and 
Scully.  Man, he had actually given thought to traveling 
across country - without her.  Showed what an idiot he 
was.  He couldn't wait to get home to her.

"Hey, Mulder."  Todd got his attention, and he sounded 
amused.

"Yeah?"  He looked up and saw where Todd was 
pointing.

His redhead, she'd come for him.  He broke out in a grin 
of happiness and relief.

Then she was in front of him, his good arm was around 
her, anchoring her to him.  Her arms were around him as 
well, her face buried in his chest.  He realized she was 
crying.

"Hey, I'm okay, really.  Wonderful now that you're here."  
His fingers under her chin tilted her face up to him and he 
kissed her lips, then her tears.

"Let me examine you."

"What, in front of everyone?"  He grinned at her.

She swatted lightly at his good shoulder and tugged him 
into a sitting position on a stump.  She unbuttoned his 
shirt then and untied the t-shirt Todd had bandaged him 
with carefully removing it.  He grimaced, but kept quiet.  It 
didn't help, she saw the pain he was in.

She sighed when she saw the bruising.  His entire 
shoulder was a mass of blue and black.  Her fingers 
probed him gently.  "How does it feel?"

"A lot better now."  His eyes devoured her.  His lips 
twitched when she blushed.

"You're an old married man, cut it out."

He looked around then, and realized everyone else had 
moved off, leaving them alone.  "Old, maybe Scully, but 
definitely married.  I don't want to go off without you 
again."

"I always suspected you could be taught."  Her words 
were light, but he saw the tears that hadn't fallen from her 
eyes.  He quietly moved closer and kissed her again. 

"Let's go home."

"Not tonight, big guy.  They're setting up camp."

"It's early."

"You've walked long enough today.  We'll do half a day 
tomorrow, and get home the next day.  I know you'd like 
to get to Walt," she smiled, "but you'll have to wait."

"With you here, it's okay."

She nodded and placed a cool cloth on his shoulder.  "No 
ice, this will have to do."

Their bedrolls were apart from the others and she held 
him, his head resting on her breast.  He was already 
asleep, but she was still awake.  Kevin was on guard 
tonight, so she knew she and Mulder would be safe, but 
she wanted to watch him sleep.

The bruising had been worse than she had imagined.  
The bounty hunter had tried to twist his arm off.  Todd 
had done a good job of fixing him up, but . . . but it was 
no wonder her own arm had hurt.  He was sleeping like a 
baby now that she was here.  She needed to get some 
rest as well; they'd pushed to get here and it would be a 
couple of days getting home.

He was here, here in her arms.  She should be able to 
relax.  Knowing 'they' had been within days of their home 
was jarring.  She felt safe there, but it was an illusion.  
No, she'd get no sleep if she went in that direction.  They 
knew that the vaccine even affected the aliens now.  That 
was valuable.

Mulder murmured something, nuzzling her breast.  She 
caressed his hair and felt her eyes finally grow heavy.  
They were safe tonight.  That was good enough for now.