Bridges
by Elizabeth Rowandale

Feedback:  Email: bstrbabs@gmail.com
Rating:  Mature
Relationship:  Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Additional Tags:  Angst, Romance, An X-File Case, Mytharc

Summary: A family in a small town in New Mexico appears to 
be suffering the ill effects of an encounter with Black 
Eyed Children. While in the desert to search out the truth, 
Mulder and Scully find themselves confronting more than 
they bargained for, both in the investigation and in their 
personal relationship. Early Season 11, turns AU after 
"This." Past and eventual present MSR.

DISCLAIMER: Mulder and Scully and the search for the truth 
all belong to Chris Carter and Co. I'm just borrowing them. 
I promise to return them in no worse condition than Chris 
would.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Almost there! Chapter 19 is approaching 
ready to go to beta, and Chapter 20 should be the last one! 
Hope you enjoy this one.:)



Copyright (c) 2019
 
Chapter 18
 
Mulder slid the car to a halt in front of the Garcias' 
home. The front windows of the house were the only ones lit 
for miles. Even the street lamps were few and far between 
in Verdad.

Donna Garcia opened the door even as Mulder and Scully were 
starting up the walkway.

"Oh, thank you," Donna said, holding the door wide as the 
two agents brushed past her to cross the threshold. "Thank 
you for coming here." The woman's normally controlled voice 
was hoarse and shaky.

"No problem, that's what we're here for," Mulder said, 
turning to face her in the warm light of the living room. 
There was a tangible sense of wrongness in the air of this 
otherwise cozy home.

"I just didn't know what else to do," Donna said, clenching 
and unclenching her elegantly manicured hands. She wore a 
soft fringed shawl around her shoulders, covering what 
looked like a set of worn pajamas.

"You did the right thing to call," Scully said. She reached 
out and cupped a hand to Donna's elbow, and Mulder 
registered that there was a notable warmth between the two 
women. The thought passed through his mind that given the 
chance they might have become friends. Which made him 
realize he couldn't remember the last time he had seen 
Scully have the chance to spend time with a friend. "Come 
on," Scully was saying to Donna, "come sit down and you can 
tell us what happened."

They lead Donna to the nearby sofa, a tan and green plaid 
sectional that had seen better days. The rest of the 
furniture in the room appeared newer, more coordinated with 
the surrounding decor. This piece must have been well-
loved.

Scully took a seat beside Donna, their knees mere inches 
apart as Scully angled to give the other woman her full 
attention. Mulder perched on the edge of a nearby easy 
chair, forearms propped on his thighs.

"This just isn't like her," Donna said, appearing to speak 
to herself as much as the two agents.

"Tell us exactly what happened," Scully said. "When was the 
last time you saw Mariela?"

"She said goodnight around 11 o'clock. She went into her 
room and closed the door. Just like any other night."

"And when did you notice her missing?" Mulder asked.

"It was just after 3:30, I think. There was a dog barking 
outside. I got up to go to the bathroom. I saw moonlight in 
the hall I can't usually see. When I went to look, I saw 
Mariela's door was partly open. I looked in to see if she 
was all right. And she was gone. Her bed was empty. Still 
made from this morning, I think."

"And can you think of any reason Mariela might have left?" 
Scully asked, her voice soft and respectful, guiding the 
traumatized witness without pressing. She had had a 
lifetime of experience. "An argument with a family member? 
A friend in trouble? Anything at all."

Donna shook her head. "No. Mariela has never left without 
telling me. Ever. We hadn't argued today. We talked to 
Christian on the phone after visiting hours. He might even 
be home by the end of the week. Mariela was happy to think 
we would have him back. She loves her brother. She and I 
had dinner together. She didn't have too much homework 
tonight. We watched some TV, went to bed. Everything was 
normal...at least...our new normal. I have no idea why she 
would leave. Or where she would go."

"Do you know if she took her cell phone with her?" Mulder 
prompted. No teenager went anywhere voluntarily without 
their phone.

"As far as I can tell," Donna said. "I can't find it in any 
of the usual places." She glanced around, gaze scanning 
tabletops and chair seats for no doubt the hundredth time 
in the past half hour. "She always keeps it on her desk at 
night. It's not there. It's not in her bed... I called it, 
but I didn't hear it ring in the house, and the call went 
to voicemail. And I think...her purse is gone. That doesn't 
sound like a kidnapping, does it?" The woman turned her 
wide dark eyes to Scully, looking for a reassurance Mulder 
knew his partner couldn't offer. "It sounds like she left, 
right? The house was still locked. But she wouldn't 
just..."

Scully shook her head and touched light fingers to Donna's 
forearm. "We can't tell what happened yet. But she didn't 
take the car, correct? And you don't think there could have 
been a car outside to pick her up without you knowing it?"

Again, Donna shook her head, her shawl slipping slightly 
from her shoulder. "I don't think so. My bedroom faces the 
front of the house. I keep my curtains open once the light 
is out. I like the sunlight in the morning. I had the 
windows open to hear the rain. I would have heard a car, 
seen the headlights. I hadn't been asleep long."

"You were up late?"

She nodded. "Sleeping...isn't so easy, anymore."

Scully swallowed. "I don't imagine that it is."

"So she must have started out on foot," Mulder volunteered. 
"Someone could have picked her up a few blocks away."

"In a car she could be so far away by now...every 
minute..." Then suddenly Donna's eyes widened, and she 
reached out blindly and grasped at Scully's wrist. "Dios 
mio. The app."

"I'm sorry?" Scully asked.

Donna pushed to the edge of the couch, preparing to rise. 
"There was an app...something Joseph put on the family 
phones. To keep track of where we were. He did it when he 
was traveling for work. But it might be on Mariela's phone. 
If she hasn't disabled it. My phone, it's..."

Mulder and Scully locked gazes, latching onto this concrete 
and actionable knowledge as Donna Garcia hurried off to 
retrieve her own cell phone. A moment later, Mulder and 
Scully were flanking Donna Garcia on the couch, working 
together to understand and activate an app with which none 
of them was truly familiar. Combined intuition prevailed, 
and within minutes they had a reading on the location of 
Mariela Garcia's phone.

"Is that...it's..." Donna frowned at the phone, holding it 
up as though a different angle might change the information 
the small map was offering.

"It's Miller's Clearing," Mulder finished for her.

Scully's gaze snapped to his, and they were on their feet.

"I'm going with you," Donna said firmly.

Mulder took a step back and faced down Donna's determined 
stance with a sympathetic immovability of his own. "Mrs. 
Garcia, we really need you to say here. In case Mariela 
comes back." And the last thing he wanted was an innocent 
bystander running around Miller's Clearing and encountering 
the same guys with guns that had run them out of the area 
just a few hours ago. But he wasn't about to tell her those 
guys might be out there with her daughter.

"But what about my phone? Don't you need it to track her?"

Mulder shook his head. "We're not far from there. The GPS 
on that isn't specific enough to pin down her location to 
the exact spot. We're better off just searching. Call us if 
it looks like she's left the area in a car."

Donna shook her head and drew a breath, but before she 
could launch into a protest, Scully surprised Mulder by 
reaching out and grasping the panicked mother's hand. 
"Donna, look at me," she said. "Look at me," she repeated. 
As Donna complied, Scully held onto the gaze until the 
woman slowed just enough to make a genuine connection. 
Scully spoke with a slow, deliberate weight that was almost 
always reserved for close friends or family, so rarely 
offered to those they met on a case. "I will do everything 
in my power to protect your daughter and to bring her home. 
Do you believe me?"

Donna hesitated a moment, then she swallowed hard and gave 
a single nod of acceptance. Perhaps she sensed the same 
thread of personal empathy for a child lost in the night 
that Mulder was feeling vibrating between himself and his 
child's mother in the marrow of his bones. "All right," 
Donna whispered.

Scully held the woman's hand a moment longer, then let go 
and moved toward the door.

"We'll be in touch the moment we know anything," Mulder 
said as he guided Scully out the door. "Just stay here and 
keep your phone on you."

 
*****

Mulder parked the car in a thickly shadowed area beside the 
road, about a quarter of a mile from the path leading to 
Miller's Clearing. In silent synchronicity, he and Scully 
made their way at a jog along the side of the deserted 
highway and up the rough path they had traversed on their 
first exploration of the area. As Mulder gave Scully a hand 
up on the steepest part of the incline, he noted with 
appreciation that she had opted for her boots this time. He 
wondered if the goat's heads had had their way with her 
heels when she had run earlier.

As they moved cautiously through the deepening darkness, 
increasingly far from the road lights, Scully swung her 
flashlight beam off into the distance, and for a moment the 
white light gleamed off the distant crime scene tape. They 
were still outside of the quarantined zone.

Mulder took his phone from his pocket and checked his text 
messages.

"Anything?" Scully asked, still scanning the far borders of 
their visible bubble.

"Mrs. Garcia says the dot hasn't moved. So, Mariela's 
phone, if not Mariela, is still here somewhere. It looks to 
me on the map like it's..." He took a moment and held up 
his phone which was now showing a screenshot of the map 
sent moments ago from Donna Garcia's phone. He oriented 
himself to the mountains and the faint glow that evidenced 
the moon behind the clouds. "East of here. Either right up 
against the restricted area or inside it."

Scully let go a disgruntled sigh and bounced a little on 
her heels. "What the hell is she doing out here, Mulder? 
Would she really come out here on her own? And for what 
possible reason?"

Mulder shook his head. "I don't know. But I don't know a 
lot of kidnappers that let their victims stop for their 
phone and purse."

"Fair enough."

They began to make their way across the rough ground, 
flashlights alternating between scanning their surroundings 
and checking for safe ground beneath their feet. Weren't 
there rattlesnakes out here?

"Do you hear that, Mulder?"

He glanced at his partner. She was pressing a finger to her 
ear as they walked, as though some sound were too loud. Or 
as though the pressure hurt.

Mulder shook his head. "I don't hear anything," he said. 
"What is it?" The query was something of a role reversal. 
Normally, he was the one with what Scully termed 'dog 
ears.' Though in recent years he had been noticing some 
unfortunate residuals of having gotten to see all the cool 
bands.

"High pitched," Scully said. "Like an...electric hum?" She 
glanced at him for some kind of confirmation. "God, it goes 
right through your head." She winced and rubbed her finger 
across her ear.

"I still don't hear it." Mulder angled his path closer to 
Scully's, stretched his neck forward to see if he could 
catch the sound in her space.

He was about to say he thought maybe he heard *something,* 
but it might have just been night insects, when Scully's 
hand moved from her ear to grasp his arm, and she halted 
her steps. "Mulder, there's someone out there."

He looked up, following the beam of her flashlight. In the 
distance he could just make out a figure..., 
no, two figures...standing against the backdrop of the 
rising mountains, beyond the narrow arroyo. "I see it. Two 
people."

"That could be her. Maybe with a friend?" Scully said, her 
breath accelerating. With a brief confirming exchange of 
eye contact, she broke into a run, and Mulder fell in step 
beside her.

They had just gotten close enough that Mulder was almost 
certain he was seeing Mariela. The second figure was close 
against the girl, maybe holding her there, and he was about 
to make the judgment call and shout out to declare their 
presence, when a gunshot rang through the blackness, 
reverberating over the open expanses and traveling up into 
the mountains. Scully skidded to a halt, and they both were 
reaching for their weapons, when out of the blackness, 
Scully was hit full force by a body of at least 6 foot 5 
and 200 pounds.

She was on the ground with a sharp and breathless cry, and 
Mulder heard his own voice shouting, "Scully!" as he lunged 
in her direction, not even knowing what or who had her. But 
his own gun arm was wrenched painfully behind his back, and 
a smack to the back of his legs had him on his knees in the 
scrub before he could get anywhere near Scully.

"I believe we told you this was a restricted area," the 
voice said, close near Mulder's ear, repellent and 
unnatural and all too familiar.

*****

Her face hit the sharp dusty ground, and she felt her tooth 
split the edge of her lip. The salt of blood stung her 
tongue. The impact nearly knocked the wind out of her. The 
weight pressing down on her body was probably twice her 
own, and she wondered in passing if she might have cracked 
a rib.

*How the hell had anyone so large snuck up on them without 
a sound?*

Scully glanced over her shoulder, barely able to move under 
the pressing bulk. She shifted her free arm, working to 
give herself leverage to press her body up, but before she 
could place her open hand on the ground, a rough hand 
grabbed her wrist and wrenched her arm behind her back. She 
tasted blood and sand as her head was forced down again.

"Get off of her!" she heard Mulder shout, voice strained, 
telling her he was constricted as well. "We're FBI, we're 
out here looking for a missing girl! Who the hell are you?"

"I believe I told you, we are with the U.S. government," 
said a voice too far behind her for Scully to see, the 
clear tone cold in its lack of vibrato. "And you are 
trespassing. This is not a safe place for you to be."

She heard Mulder's voice rise in protest, something about 
the radiation and private citizens and then the ringing in 
her ears surged and flared until she lost all other sound. 
The ringing and the light merged into one. Miller's 
Clearing turned from pitch black to awash with blinding 
white light. The color wasn't daylight; not crime scene 
spotlights. It felt almost like moonlight multiplied times 
a thousand. The weight on Scully's back let up just enough 
that she could turn her head toward the source of the 
sound-light. Squinting through loose and disheveled hair, 
she saw something that froze her breath in her throat and 
rushed back memories she had struggled for decades to 
forget.

Far across the clearing, in the sky at the first ridge of 
the Organ Mountains hovered a triangular...something. 
Blacker than black against the night sky. Below the ship-
like hulk, a wide circular light extended to the 
ground. *Screaming. Cassandra's hand in hers. Oh my God... 
Ringing in her ears. Lights rushing over her like wind. The 
smell of fire.* In the spotlight of the beam, Scully could 
just make out a gathering of bodies. Ten, maybe fifteen 
figures. All of them the height of children. All of them 
black silhouettes, unusually still, heads tilted back to 
look up at the mesmerizing lights. She could have sworn she 
saw the outline of hoods falling back as the figures leaned 
up.

Then the light flared all around her. The figures were 
floating, then lost in the glare. A wild rush of sound 
moving through the sky above her. The world turned white 
and deep blue. Then black.

*****

Mulder knew his eyes should have been open. Something was 
happening...he was...they were...Scully...Mulder blinked 
into consciousness and found himself with his cheek in the 
sand, now gazing directly into Scully's wide blue eyes. She 
was plastered to the ground in a mirror image posture to 
his own, just a few feet away. And she looked as terrified 
and confused as he felt.

He realized first that the pseudo-military man that had 
been plastering Scully to the ground was now gone. Only 
then did he register that he himself was free.

Mulder pushed to his knees, cringing as the bits of gravel 
in the sand pressed through his slacks. He reached out a 
hand to steady Scully as she made her way to her feet, and 
she clutched at his sleeve. She was looking around them, 
scanning the clearing as far as their eyes could serve them 
in the dark. They were both blinking sand out of their 
eyes. Their flashlights had rolled away in the commotion. 
Thin beams spilled through the brush.

Mulder reached in his pocket for his phone. He meant to 
activate the flashlight, but he stopped when he saw the 
lock screen's display.

"Scully. We lost time."

"What?" She took a step closer, brushing off the thighs of 
her slacks, touching a careful hand to the back of her 
neck.

When he looked up to catch her gaze, he saw the trickle of 
blood from the corner of her mouth. He frowned and reached 
out to cup her chin. "You're bleeding. Are you hurt?"

But Scully brushed away his hand and shook her head. "I'm 
fine, I cut my lip. What do you mean we lost time?"

Mulder held up his phone for her to see the display. "4:26. 
I looked at the time just before we were attacked, when I 
looked down at the map. It was 4:16 then. So if it changed 
just after that.... Scully, we lost nine minutes."

Scully looked at him for a moment, breath heavy and uneven. 
"Yeah," she finally breathed. "I saw my smart watch. It 
flashed in my face when I hit the ground. Mulder, where the 
hell did those men come from? How did we not hear them? Who 
were they?"

"I don't know. But they're the same ones I ran into, the 
ones who chased us out of here earlier tonight."

Scully breathed, swallowed hard. "Mariela. That was her, 
wasn't it? That we were following?"

Mulder nodded. "I sure thought so."

They scanned their surroundings with renewed urgency, 
started forward, snatching up their flashlights from the 
ground. "Mariela!" Scully called into the night, perhaps 
sensing as he was that they were alone, again. No one was 
bothering to watch the barren stretch of desert ground. 
"Mariela! It's Agent Scully and Agent Mulder! If you're 
here, we just want to know you're okay."

Mulder thought he caught a hint of movement off to his 
right, and he was about to signal to Scully when she broke 
into a run off to the left. He checked her trajectory, then 
followed his own lead to the right.

He skidded to a halt in front of a figure seated in a low 
outcropping of rocks. "Nate? Nate Monroe? It's Agent 
Mulder." He dropped to a crouch beside the boy, resting a 
hand on his hunched shoulder. "Are you all right?" In the 
penumbral light of the flashlight, Mulder could see a small 
line of blood trailing from a rising welt on the kid's 
forehead. "Did you hit your head?"

Nate looked a little dazed, but he raised a hand to his 
forehead, winced and probed cautiously at the wound. "I 
must have. I think...I passed out. Oh, my God, where's 
Mariela?"

"I think she's right over there," Mulder said with a glance 
over his shoulder. "My partner's with her. She'll be fine, 
Agent Scully's a medical doctor."

Nate squinted in the darkness, nodded, but he still seemed 
confused and uncertain. "Agent Mulder, what happened? Did 
you see what happened?"

"I'm not sure. What did you see? What were you guys doing 
out here?"

Nate shook his head. "We weren't trying to cause any 
trouble. I just wanted to see her. And this was the first 
place we thought of. We didn't know we'd...we didn't..." 
The boy suddenly looked a little green. Probably a result 
of the head injury. *Or the close encounter and the missing 
time. Abductions did run in families.*

"Just take it easy, man," Mulder said. "Slow breaths. Looks 
like you cracked your head pretty good."

"No, I'm all right," Nate protested. He raised a hand once 
more to shield his injury and squinted into the darkness 
toward Mariela. He seemed a bit more focused and oriented 
this time.

"Probably so, but what do you say we let a doctor make that 
final call?"

"I don't know what happened."

"I know. I'm not sure either, but we'll get it figured out. 
I just need you to hold still a little longer."

Mulder suspected the kid might have protested further if he 
hadn't still been in genuine danger of puking.

****

Scully dropped to a crouch beside the prone figure of 
Mariela. The girl lay on the scratchy ground, long hair 
strewn about her face, blouse pulled out of place. Scully 
immediately touched two fingers to the side of the girl's 
throat. She found a strong pulse almost at once, and Scully 
pulled in a grateful breath, her own heart still racing. 
She cupped her hand to the side of Mariela's face and 
prompted gently, "Mariela? Can you hear me? Can you open 
your eyes for me?"

The girl moved just a bit, gave a soft sound from the back 
of her throat. Then she startled awake, eyes wide and 
fearful. She pushed to sit up, but Scully kept a steadying 
hand on the girl's shoulder.

"Whoa, whoa. Lie still. Give it a minute."

Mariela twisted to look over her shoulder, off in the 
direction Mulder had run. "Where's Nate? Where's Nate, is 
he okay?"

Scully smoothed Mariela's hair back from her face, checking 
for head injuries with her fingers as she glanced over to 
where she could just make out Mulder crouched down and 
speaking to a figure that must have been Nate. The boy was 
sitting up, that was promising. "I think so," she said to 
Mariela. "Agent Mulder is with him. I'm more worried about 
you right now." Scully ran her doctor's hands lightly and 
appraisingly over Mariela's legs. Does anything hurt?"

Mariela shook her head. "I don't think so. I'm kind 
of...sore."

"Sore how? Where?"

"Just, ummm..." Mariela caught her breath, bit her lip, and 
looked away. She suddenly looked much younger than her 
burdened years.

Scully rested a hand on the girl's wrist. "I'm a doctor, 
sweetheart, you can tell me."

Mariela took a couple of shaky breaths, then she started to 
cry. "You can't--you can't tell anyone, okay? Oh, God, what 
if something's happened?" Mariela rested a telling hand on 
her belly, then glanced between her hand and Scully's gaze. 
"What if it--"

Scully closed her hand on top of Mariela's. "Okay, just 
calm down. Breathe for me. It's okay. We're going to get 
you to the hospital and have you checked out, okay? Just 
lie still."

"No, I can...I can walk. We can drive there."

"Are you sure?"

"I think so."

Scully helped Mariela to a sitting position, then kept a 
firm hand on her shoulder. "Stop here a minute, let your 
blood pressure adjust."

The girl nodded and seemed willing to take it slow.

"Mariela, can you tell me what happened? What were you 
doing out here?"

The girl closed her eyes, sagged with a kind of jaded 
resolve. "We just...I just had to see him. I had to see 
him, I couldn't...lose him, too. We just wanted to meet for 
a little while. This was the only place we could think of 
where we thought no one would come. Because you aren't 
supposed to. We'd been here before. To look at the lights. 
Before the quarantine."

"You and Nate Monroe? You're still together. Against his 
parents' wishes?"

Mariela nodded, lowering her gaze to stare at the scraps of 
rough grass beneath them. "We didn't want to hurt anyone. 
We didn't want to go against our parents. I've never lied 
to my mom before, I swear." She lifted her gaze to meet 
Scully's eyes with a plea for approval that caught Scully 
off guard. When Scully didn't reply at once, Mariela 
pressed on. "But it just... Do you know what it's 
like...when you can't get to the person you love? When all 
you can think about is that if you could just see them, 
just touch them for a few minutes, maybe you could keep 
going? Do you know what that's like?"

Scully drew a long breath. For the briefest moment she 
closed her eyes, listened to the night air. *(I need to see 
him so bad...I am physically shaking reading your 
words...This is not happening!)* She said in a low voice, 
"Yeah. Yeah, I know what that's like."

"I never thought anyone would get hurt."

"I know," Scully said softly.

"Is my mom really mad?"

She reached up and hooked Mariela's hair behind her ear. 
"Your mom's just terrified. She wants you safe."

Mariela looked like she wanted to cry, again.

"Come on," Scully said. "Let's get you to the hospital."

Before she could help Mariela to her feet, they both heard 
the scuffle of Mulder and Nate approaching.

Nate immediately rushed forward to Mariela's side, and 
Mariela fell into his arms in a rush of tears. Scully 
glanced up at Mulder. "We need to get her to the hospital."

Mulder nodded. "Both of them. Nate took a good hit to the 
head. He's pretty woozy."

Scully winced but didn't speak. They let the young couple 
have a moment longer, then Mulder carried Mariela back to 
their car, while Scully kept a steadying arm on Nate and 
his mild case of vertigo.

The mountains and cattails kept their silence and secrets 
in the endless night.

*****

Scully called Donna Garcia from the car and told her to 
meet them at the hospital.

Two and a half hours later, Nate was settled in for a few 
hours of observation for a mild concussion. Apparently, his 
head had hit a rock when he blacked out during the 
unaccounted for nine minutes. Donna was taking a break from 
sitting with Mariela to go upstairs and check in with her 
son as the day dawned over Las Cruces. The hospital's day 
shift was burgeoning to life. Mulder was on the phone with 
Skinner in the hospital lobby explaining a phone call the 
Assistant Director had gotten bright and early from White 
Sands security. Scully, test results in hand, was making 
her way back to where Mariela was resting following an 
ultrasound.

Scully circled the bed, pushing back the curtains now that 
the testing was done, letting the morning light warm the 
sterile room.

She stepped up with a soft smile and rested her weight on 
the narrow edge of Mariela's cot. "How are you feeling?" 
she asked.

Mariela nodded. "I'm okay. What about Nate?"

"A mild concussion. He'll be fine. He's resting. As you 
should be." Scully held Mariela's gaze for a long moment, 
an unspoken exchange thickening the air.

Mariela drew a slow breath. "The baby's gone. Isn't it?"

Scully lowered her gaze to the file folder in her lap, then 
forced herself to hold Mariela's deep dark eyes. "Yes. It 
looks like a missed miscarriage. Your hCG levels indicate 
you were pregnant recently. But there's no fetus. Did you 
experience any bleeding?"

Mariela shook her head. "No. Everything was okay until 
tonight."

Scully nodded. "It was early enough, your body may have 
just reabsorbed the fetus." 
The girl closed her eyes, and Scully looked down at her own 
lap. "How long did you know?" she asked gently.

"Only about a week," Mariela said. "Do you have to...do you 
have to tell my mom?"

"No, not at your age. But you didn't want to tell her?"

Mariela's voice shook, tears glazing the girl's eyes once 
more. "I can't tell her. Not with everything else. I 
couldn't do this to her. She's counting on me to..." She 
trailed off and closed her eyes, lids pushing her tears 
down her flushed cheeks.

Scully reached out impulsively and grasped Mariela's hand, 
took in the beautifully manicured nails, the delicate 
pattern of sparkles and jeweled studs mounted in the 
varnish. She couldn't remember the last time she had 
indulged herself in a proper manicure. "Mariela, none of 
what happened to your family was your fault. Nor is it your 
responsibility to take care of everyone else."

"This one was my responsibility," she said, fixing Scully 
in a determined stare.

"It was. But even the best of us make mistakes."

"Was this my fault?" she asked pointedly, her fingers 
tightening around Scully's.

"The pregnancy or the miscarriage?"

"We used protection every time."

Scully nodded. "That's very good. But unfortunately, no 
method of birth control offers 100 percent efficacy. And at 
your age and Nate's...fertility rates are extremely high."

Mariela took this in in silence, then she drew a few 
shallow breaths and asked, "And the miscarriage? Was that 
my fault?"

Scully closed her other hand over Mariela's and fixed her 
with the steadiest eye contact she could summon. "I think 
you know the answer to that. You were not responsible for 
this. Miscarriages happen all the time. People don't talk 
about it as much as they should. Estimates suggest one in 
four pregnancies ends in miscarriage. Perhaps even as many 
as 50 percent if you count those that happen before the 
woman's next period is even due. Most often it's the body 
recognizing a genetic abnormality and course correcting on 
its own. You have no control over that."

"Has it happened to you? Have you lost a child?"

Scully sucked in a surprised breath, but Mariela 
immediately let go of Scully's hand, pushed back in the bed 
and dropped her gaze. "I'm sorry, that was way out of line. 
I should never have ask--"

"No, no, it's okay," Scully said. "I, um..." She swallowed 
stiffly, cleared her throat. "I haven't had a miscarriage, 
no. But, uh...in a way...I've lost two children."

"Oh." Mariela sank back into the cot and gazed up at Scully 
in the threads of morning light. For a moment, there 
weren't so very many years between them. "I'm sorry," she 
said.

Scully breathed for a beat, then she said, "You're going to 
be okay, Mariela. I promise you."

Mariela nodded.

"Get some rest."

*****

Scully found Mulder in the lobby just heading back toward 
the elevators with two cups of coffee.

"Hey."

"Oh, you're a godsend," she said, reaching for the steaming 
cup of liquid fuel.

"Don't thank me yet, you haven't tasted it," Mulder said. 
"Hospital coffee a la Nowhere, New Mexico."

"I'll drink anything black and caffeinated right now." She 
took a tentative sip. She had had far worse on the road and 
in backwoods station houses. "How did it go with Skinner?"

Mulder shrugged. "I still have my balls. I'll count that as 
a victory."

Scully huffed a slight acknowledgment of the dark humor and 
took another sip of the bitter brew.

"How's Mariela?" Mulder asked.

"Exhausted. Stressed. Generally feeling the weight of the 
world. But she'll be okay. Turns out she was pregnant."

Mulder almost snorted his coffee. "Seriously?"

"Seriously. Nate was the father. But she's not pregnant, 
anymore."

Mulder's eyebrows rose.

Scully shook her head. "No, Mulder, I don't think she's an 
abductee. No scar, no chip. I think she got pregnant the 
old-fashioned way and lost the child the same way. Not that 
the overwhelming stress of recent months couldn't have been 
a significant contributor."

"Did Nate know?"

"I don't know. I didn't ask. Her mother didn't know, and I 
don't think Mariela plans to tell her any time soon. How is 
Nate doing?"

"Mild concussion, sleeping it off. Nothing you and I 
haven't had our fair share of."

"Hmm." She contemplated the swirl of new information as she 
gazed into her paper cup. "The pregnancy could explain some 
of Mariela's strange symptoms. The rash... And the 
pregnancy was recent enough it wouldn't have shown in 
testing back when they were looking for a diagnosis."

Mulder nodded and offered no argument.

Scully strolled the few steps toward the windows at the 
front of the hospital. The small gathering of padded seats 
was empty at this hour of the morning. All the activity was 
in the E.R. and the ICU.

"I had their clothes checked for radiation," Mulder said, 
moving up beside her and taking in the same view of the 
circle drive and the quiet street beyond. Adobe rooftops in 
every direction. "Exposure seems minimal," he said. "I 
don't think they put themselves at any risk last night. 
From the radiation, at least."

Scully stared into her coffee cup for long moment, the 
steam warming her cheeks in contrast to the cranked 
industrial air conditioning.

"Mulder...did you see what I saw out in that clearing?"

"What, you mean the gathering of Black-Eyed Children being 
sucked back up into their mother ship?"

Scully let go a dark bark of laughter and closed her eyes. 
She wasn't ready to go there. She was starting to feel her 
own kind of exhaustion. "I don't know, Mulder. I don't know 
what I saw."

"But you saw them?" he urged.

She was quiet for a beat, gaze on a man standing at a 
distant crosswalk. From this distance he reminded her of 
Langley. "I saw a group of figures in the light," she said 
carefully.

She turned and fully met Mulder's eyes. The world steadied 
a bit beneath her.

He listened to her unspoken words, then he nodded slowly. 
She sidled a bit closer and bumped his chest with her 
shoulder as she turned back to the windows and took another 
sip of her coffee.

He rested his hand at the small of her back.

*****

(End Chapter 18)