Disclaimers: The characters Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, and Walter Skinner belong to 1013. I have only borrowed them and I haven't made a bloody cent on it. Everything else here came from my mind and my heart. Except the FBI and it belongs to the Federal government.

Please send any comments to me, MSTieMom@aol.com

Thank you.

THE X-FILES

THE SAFE PLACE

By

SANDRA S. TYRA

Vicksburg, PA

1993

11:51 p.m.

He couldn't sleep. He tossed and turned. The monster was in his head again. Never any peace. Never. Not since the monster was born. He muttered to himself, "Leave me alone. Leave me alone. Get out of my head!" But he knew that wouldn't work. He threw his blankets off and jumped to his feet. Enough was enough. The monster had to go. He started down the hall.

Margie woke up and rolled over. Ron wasn't in the bed. He probably went to the bathroom.  Oh, well, since she was awake she might as well go check on the baby. It was almost feeding time anyway. The baby was only three weeks old and Margie was still nursing her. She got up and started down the hall.

He came to the nursery and went in. The monster slept peacefully in her little bed. She wasn't even in a crib yet, she slept in a bassinet. Looking down at her, he told her again, "Leave me alone!"

She looked so sweet and innocent lying there. But he knew she was a monster. He picked up a pillow and pressed it over his daughter's face.

"I've had all I can take," he told the infant.

Margie screamed behind him. "No!! Oh, my god, what are you doing! Stop!! Stop it! Oh, God!" As she screamed, she charged into the room and threw herself at Ron, knocking him away from the bassinet. Then she scooped up the baby and ran.

2630 Hegel Place

Alexandra, VA.

December 14

6:45 p.m.

Fox Mulder headed for his apartment, rummaging in his pocket for his keys. It had been a long day - oh, he'd had longer, but he was tired and ready for a soft couch and bite to eat. A ball rolled down the hallway and came to rest against his foot. He looked down at it, then he looked up to see where it had come from. He hoped it wasn't the Corrigan kid - a royal pain if ever there was one. It wasn't. A little girl stood looking at him from about ten feet away, hesitant to come and fetch her toy. She was about 5 or 6 years old, with huge dark eyes and glossy black hair. He didn't know her. He smiled at her reassuringly as he stooped down and rolled the ball back to her.

"Here you go." he told her. No doubt she had been told not to approach strangers and he didn't want to encourage her to do something she shouldn't. The child giggled as she caught the ball.

"Thank you." she said. A polite kid. That was unusual. Not many kids these days seemed to have any manners.

"You're welcome." He told her. "Where's your mom?"

"In our new 'partment." she told him. She stayed where she was. "She's unpacking."  Ah, Mulder thought, new neighbors.

"Well, you better get on back. Didn't she ever tell you that you shouldn't talk to strangers?" He was still smiling at her. She was a cutie and he didn't want to frighten her.

"Yeah." The girl said.

A woman came around the corner. "Jenny?" She said, obviously looking for her child. Mom had arrived. Mulder did his best to look like a good guy.

"I'm here, Mama." Jenny said.

Mama saw Mulder and stopped. He stood up. He smiled reassuringly at her, too. They were going to be neighbors, after all. Good relations with the neighbors were always desirable.

He didn't want to alarm her. Lord knows what the other neighbors would have told her; most of them weren't to happy with him since X died in his doorway. He had never even tried to let them know about his connection to Mrs. Farber killing her husband.

"Who are you?" Mama asked. Her posture around her daughter was protective, her attitude towards him suspicious.

"Your neighbor," he indicated his apartment. She nodded her understanding. He was going to introduce himself, but she took her daughter by the arm and pulled her away. Mulder pondered the possibility that he looked like a child molester. He hoped not. Maybe he would ask Scully in the morning. He pulled his key out of his pocket and inserted it in the lock as Jenny and her mama moved away, still talking.

"Honey, you don't know that man. What have I told you about talking to strangers?"

"But he's nice, Mama. And I didn't talk to him."

At least Jenny liked him. Mulder closed his door. They weren't really any of his business.

"Sweetheart," Jenny's mama replied, "You don't know if he's nice!"

"Yes, I do, mama. He's nice. He's sad. But he's nice." Mulder would have found this description both gratifying and a little puzzling if he had heard it.

"What makes you think he's sad, Jenny?" Mama asked. The man had been very handsome, but he hadn't looked sad to her.

"He felt sad when he looked at me." Jenny said.

They had reached their own door and Mama unlocked it as she answered, "You have to stop doing that to people." She said. In her short life Jenny had shown that she was incredibly sensitive to the thoughts and feelings of others. It was as if she could see right inside them. It was un-nerving. Mama had often wondered if this ability had anything to do with Jenny's father's longtime use of methamphetamines. Certainly Jenny was different from other children.

"He lost his little girl, mama." Jenny went on. "So he's sad inside."

"Did he tell you that?" What had been going on that hallway? Why would the man have told Jenny such a thing? Didn't they have enough trouble?

"No. He said 'don't talk to strangers'. And he smiled. But he's still sad."

Oh, a good guy, then. Jenny was just doing "it" again. "Most people are, Honey. Most people are." Mama said, as they stepped into their new home and closed the door.

2630 Hegel Place, Apt. 48

Alexandra, VA

Dec 19

11:30 P.M.

Jenny's mama, who had once been named Margie but was currently calling herself Lydia, slept in the bedroom with the window that led to the fire escape. Jenny had the inside room. It was the only safe way. Lydia never slept deeply any more. She couldn't. It wasn't safe. But she did sleep when she could. She was just dropping into a truly restful sleep when something rattled the window.

Ron appeared at the bedroom window. He watched her for a few moments. Yes, she was asleep. He wondered where the monster was. Close. Very close. He could feel her. He slid the window up slowly. Lydia woke with a start, saw Ron, and screamed, as he started to climb into the room. She tumbled out of bed and made a run for the hallway, still screaming.  She raced into the living room, past the still undecorated Christmas tree, as Jenny came running out of her own bedroom, having been awakened by the noise. Lydia caught her daughter up in her arms and headed for the door. Ron was right behind, though, and he got his arms around Lydia just as she got the door open. Dropping Jenny, Lydia screamed, "Run, baby!!" she shouted to Jenny. "Get away!! Run!!"

Jenny tore down the hall. She knew if she stayed the bad man would hurt her. She had always known it. Always. But where would she go this time? The bad man was hurting her mommy. She had to get help. As she came around the corner of the hallway, she remembered the nice man who had rolled her ball back to her. He would help her. She knew he would. She skidded to halt in front of his door and started pounding on it and screaming. "Help me!!!  Please help us!! He's killing my mommy!!! Help us!!"

Mulder was watching a late night movie - "It's a Wonderful Life" in honor of the season - when he heard the pounding on the door. His first reaction was relief - he had seen this movie too many times and it was losing some of its charm. Bummer. He went to the door. It was the little girl from the other day. Jenny, her mom had called her. She was sobbing incoherently.

With the nice man in front of her, Jenny's voice dropped from a shout to simple hysterics.  "You have to help us! You have to help us!" She said, "He's killing my mommy! Please, please, help us!! Please, please, please!!!"

Unable to understand her words through her sobs, Mulder stooped down and took her by her shoulders to calm her a little, "I don't understand, honey. What are you doing here in the middle of the night?"

"Please you have to come! He's killing my mommy!" she said again.

He heard it that time. "Okay, okay, you show me where you live." He told her. He darted back into his own apartment to grab his gun off the table where he had dropped it when he took it off earlier. He pulled his door closed behind him and followed Jenny to her apartment. They went as fast as Jenny could run.

Jenny's apartment was just around the corner and three doors down from his - no. 48. When they reached it, the door was open and he could see a man bending over Jenny's mother, who was lying on the floor apparently unconscious. Mulder swung Jenny around so that she was against the wall and out of the line of fire.

"Stay there!" he told her. And stepped into the apartment.

Aiming his gun at the man's chest he said, "Freeze. Federal Agent! Face down on the floor!" Because of the proximity of the woman, Mulder knew he couldn't fire - he could only hope that the man would respond correctly.

The man stared at Mulder for a long moment, then turned and ran for the back of the apartment. Mulder followed. Most of these apartments were laid out about the same and he could see that the man was headed for the back bedroom. The man reached the bedroom moments ahead of Mulder, and was crawling out the window as Mulder crossed the room. If he fired now, he would be shooting an apparently unarmed man in the back. Not good. Not good at all. He jerked his gun up, so the muzzle was pointed at the ceiling. Then he scrambled across the room, rolled over the bed, and made a grab for the man. He missed by a tiny fraction. As Mulder reached the window, the man slid down the fire escape ladder. He dropped to the ground and scurried down the alley. Mulder watched him disappear around a corner. Damn. At

least he had gotten a real good look at the man, he could identify him again if he needed to. Of course, the guy had gotten a real good look at Mulder, too.

There was an injured civilian to see to, which was more important then capturing her attacker at the moment, so he clicked the safety on, on his weapon and shoved it in his waist band, then headed back for the living room.

He checked the woman's pulse. It was strong and regular. He stepped over to the door and stuck his head out. Jenny was still waiting right where he'd left her. He smiled at her. "He's gone. You better come in here."

Jenny came into the apartment and went to her mother, as Mulder went to the telephone and picked it up. He dialed 911. When he got an answer, he said, "Yes, this Special Agent Fox Mulder of the FBI. I need an ambulance at 2630 Hegel Place, apartment 48. There's been an assault. Send the police too."

The dispatcher said, "Yes, sir."

Mulder thanked her and hung up. He went to sit beside Jenny who was sitting with her mama and stroking her forehead and hair. "I've called for help." Mulder told her, reassuringly.

"She's going to be all right." He hoped he was right. Jenny was awfully little to be left alone. There obviously wasn't any dad around.

"I know," Jenny said. "She's not hurt very bad. He hit her head."

Curious, Mulder asked, "How do you know that? Did you see him hit her head?" Maybe his question was just the result of him being a professional snoop. She must have seen it, right?  That's why she came screaming down the hall.

"No," Jenny said. "But it hurts."

This kid was very strange and fascinating. Mulder was reminded of Teena and Cindy, the Eves, who could communicate with one another telepathically (or something.) Jenny wasn't an Eve, but there may have been more than one batch of clones at Litchfield. Besides the Adams and Eves, could there have been Cains and Abels? Liliths? He'd never even considered that possibility until now. That was incredibly stupid. He would check it out first thing in the morning.

_{* * * *}

While the paramedics worked over Jenny's mom, the police questioned Mulder and Jenny. Officer Elaine Gray had had them sit on the sofa so that they would all be out of the way of the medical people. Officer Mark Stanton, a little younger than Officer Gray, was checking out the apartment for anything the man might have left behind that would identify him.

Jenny had crawled into Mulder's lap when Officer Gray had started talking to her. Mulder had been a little surprised, but if she needed to sit there to feel safe, that was cool with him.

"Can you tell us what happened, honey," Officer Gray began.

Jenny shook her head, "no", but she answered anyway, "I woke up because mommy was screaming. I came in here and Mommy grabbed me and carried me to the door. But the bad man grabbed her and she dropped me and I ran."

"Where did you go?"

"My place." Mulder interjected. "My apartment's just around the corner.

"Are you a friend of her mother's?" Officer Gray asked.

"No. I saw them in the hall once, but we've never really spoken to one another."

"So why did she come to you?" Officer Stanton asked, joining the folks at the couch.

"I don't know." Mulder said, then to Jenny, "Why did you come to me?"

"I was scared." Jenny said. Officer Gray shrugged and smiled at Mulder. This was a five year old. They weren't going to get much.

The paramedics lifted Jenny's mother onto the stretcher for transport. She had regained consciousness, but she was far from alert. She was no doubt concussed and possibly had other injuries as well. One of the paramedics pulled Officer Gray aside and told her they were going to take the lady to the hospital now. Officer Gray nodded and returned to Jenny and Mulder.

"Honey," she told Jenny, "your mommy's going to the hospital and you can't stay here alone, so we're going to take you to a shelter for tonight." Jenny's reaction startled them all.

"No!!" she sounded terrified! "He finds me in those places!!" She turned to Mulder, "I want to stay here! I want to stay with you!! He won't get me if I'm with you!! He's scared of you!! He ran away from you!!"

Mulder, nonplused, tried to calm her. "No, honey, he ran away from me because I had a gun. Not because he was afraid of me."

To everyone's surprise the semi-comatose woman suddenly spoke, "Please," she said weakly, "don't put her in a shelter. She's right. He'll find her. He always does." And then she lapsed into unconsciousness again.

The two police officers exchanged a look with one another and Mulder. "Always?" Officer Gray said. Then to Jenny, "Has this man been chasing you and your mommy?"

Jenny nodded. "Yes."

"For how long?"

"Always." Jenny said.

"Do you know who this man is?" Mulder asked her.

"He's a bad man." Jenny told him. "He wants to hurt me."

"You?" Mulder said. "He wants to hurt - not your mom?"

"Yes."

"What's his name?" Officer Stanton interjected.

"I don't know." Jenny said. Then to Mulder, "Please, can I stay with you?"

Mulder was discomfited by this request. He didn't know why Jenny had taken to him so strongly, children didn't usually, "I really don't think that's such a good idea."

Jenny pouted. "Don't you like me?" she sounded very hurt. Officer Gray hid a grin behind her hand. Here was a female who already knew how to manipulate men. Mulder looked very uncomfortable.

"Sure I do," Mulder was saying, "but. . ."

"Are you married, Agent Mulder?" Stanton asked him.

"No." Mulder said. "I live alone." Which explained a lot of his problem with letting little Jenny stay with him. "I could take her to my partner's place."

"Your partner is married?" Stanton asked.

"Female." Mulder supplied.

After discussing the other possibilities for keeping Jenny safe, the three decided that for this night, at least, Scully was their best answer. Finding extra security for the shelter would take time and be complicated, and finding an emergency foster home at this hour was equally time consuming. It was already past midnight and they were all exhausted. Tomorrow would be soon enough to find a safe haven for Jenny. Officer Gray helped the little girl pack an over-night bag.

Mulder dialed his cell phone as he drove through the Virginia night. Jenny slept in the passenger seat beside him. Scully's phone rang several times, and then the recorded voice told him, "The cellular customer that you are trying to reach is not answering their phone at this time." he cut off the rest of it.

"Oh, hell," he mumbled to himself, "that's right, she's at her mom's for dinner tonight. I hope she doesn't plan to spend the night." He didn't think he should pull her away from her mom's unless somebody was dead. And nobody was.

Jenny woke up when Mulder stopped the car. He was surprised to find that he was mildly disappointed that he wouldn't have to carry her into Scully's place, surprised that he had been looking forward to that "dad" moment. He told himself to get a grip as he unlocked Scully's door with the key she had given him a million years ago when they had exchanged apartment keys.

He led Jenny into Scully's quiet apartment. There was a Christmas tree in a place of honor in the living room. The furniture had been rearranged to accommodate it. Brightly wrapped packages were jumbled around the bottom of the tree, and decorations, homemade and store bought, decorated its branches. It was a beautiful tree. As Mulder put Jenny's overnight bag down by the door, Jenny wandered over to the tree. She stared at it for a long moment.

"Can we turn on the lights?" she asked.

"It's not ours. We better not mess with it." He said. Funny, he thought I feel perfectly fine about walking into her apartment when she isn't here, but turning on her Christmas tree lights would feel like a violation.

Dana Scully keyed her apartment door at 2:00 a.m. She was looking forward to her warm bed and a good lie-in tomorrow morning. She was positively beat. If Mulder called he could go to wherever by himself. As she opened the door, she realized that there was a lamp on over by the sofa. Her hand went around behind her, going for her weapon, when she saw the man and the child asleep on the couch. Mulder was here. He must have heard her as she came in, because he was sitting up slowly, sleepily.

"What. . .?" Scully asked softly, her hand returning to her side.

"Scully, hi," Mulder said, softly. He sat up a little, and as he did so, he slipped an arm around the little girl in his lap, adjusting her so she wouldn't slide off. "Merry Christmas. I brought you a present."

"I don't remember asking for one of those." Scully spoke equally softly, indicating Jenny.

"It's a surprise. Last minute shopping. I saw it and couldn't resist." The little girl started to stir in Mulder's arms.

Dropping the banter, Scully asked soberly, "What's this all about?"

"Her mom was attacked tonight. She needed a place to stay." Mulder explained.

"And you thought of me?" Scully asked. "How did you get involved?" Did Mulder have a girlfriend with a kid?

"They live down the hall from me." Mulder explained. "I sort of got dragged in by this young lady. She came to me for help."

"Why didn't the police take her and put her in a shelter?"

"This seemed like a better idea. The attacker could track her to juvie hall. That would endanger all the kids there. So here we are."

Jenny sat up, awakened by the conversation and Mulder's movements.

"Hi." Scully said in her warmest tones.

"Hi." Jenny said.

"This is my friend Miss Scully. She lives here." Mulder said to Jenny. "Scully, this is Jenny."

Jenny leaned towards Scully and said in a conspiratorial whisper, "He has a key to your house."

Scully, in an identical whisper, replied, "I know. I gave it to him."

Jenny nodded. "Oh, okay."

Scully looked at the sleepy little girl. "Are you ready to go to bed?" she asked. "You look pretty tired to me."

Jenny nodded. "I guess. He won't find me here till tomorrow."

Scully and Mulder exchanged a look over Jenny's head. That was an odd thing to say. "How does he find you?" Mulder asked.

"This is the man who attacked her mother?"

Mulder nodded. "Yeah. According to Jenny, she was his target. He's been stalking Jenny and her mom."

"Stalking?"

"Apparently he's tracked them down a number of times."

"Oh? This man has found you before?" Scully asked Jenny.

Jenny nodded. "Lots of times. Every time we move. We get new names and everything and he still finds us. It makes Mama mad."

"How many times have you moved?" Mulder asked.

"I don't know." Jenny said.

Scully gave Mulder a look that told him he had asked a silly question. She tried a different approach.

"What was your name before it was Jenny?"

"Sally."

"And before it was Sally?"

"Bonnie."

"And before it was Bonnie?"

"Kelly."

"And before Kelly?"

"Uh, Kathy, I think."

Mulder, realizing that it would be difficult if not futile to go any further back, broke in with a question of his own, "How old are you, Sweetheart?

Scully was fascinated with the way Mulder was interacting with the little girl. He was not usually particularly drawn to children. His usual m.o. when they had to deal with children was to leave it all to her, but with Jenny he was extremely gentle and solicitous. He was charmed by this child.

"Five and a half." Jenny told him.

Mulder looked at Scully, "About how far back would a five year old's memory go? Two years? Three?" He asked.

Jenny leaned back against Mulder and closed her eyes. She was very tired and this grown-up conversation was probably boring her. Mulder cradled her head against his chest.

"Probably not much more than two years." Scully said.

"They've moved and changed their names at least five times that she remembers. That's five times in two years to two and half years. And he always finds them? How?" He wasn't really expecting her to have the answer, he was just working out loud. Scully glanced at her watch. No wonder Jenny was tired, even after the night she must have had. It was nearly three in the morning.

"I don't know. Look, Mulder, it's very late. Let's get some sleep. We can talk about this in the morning."

Glancing at is own watch, Mulder said, "Sure. You're right. Let's put this one to bed and I'll get out of your way."

Jenny sat up suddenly, "I want to stay with you!!!" She said, her voice trembling.

"Well. . .uh. . ." Mulder looked at Scully. What should he do?

Scully, knowing that there are times when arguing with small children is useless, and in this case would be almost cruel, said, "You can sleep on the couch."

Mulder nodded his gratitude. "Okay, thanks." He said and then to Jenny, "Okay, I'm staying here. Relax."

"You promise?" Jenny asked.

"I promise." Mulder told her. Then he grinned at Scully. "I should feel right at home on the couch." Scully just shook her head.

Hospital

Dec 20

11:24 a.m.

Mulder and Scully sat in chairs next to Lydia's bed. Jenny stood as close to her mother as she could get, holding her hand. Mulder had introduced himself, reminding Lydia that he was her neighbor.

"You're an FBI agent?" Lydia seemed a little dazed at the idea. Apparently the neighbors had not yet gotten around to telling her about the goings on in and around apartment 42. That was just as well.

"Yeah," Mulder assured her. "And this is my partner, Agent Scully. Jenny spent the night at her apartment."

"I. . .thank you both, so much! That was so good of you. I guess we finally got some good luck for a change."

"Jenny told us a little bit about your stalker last night. Do you know who he is?" Scully asked.

Lydia looked at Scully then over to Jenny. "Jenny, honey, are you hungry?"

"No." Jenny said.

"Not even for a donut?" Her mother persisted.

Scully, realizing that Lydia didn't want to discuss this with Jenny in the room, said to Jenny, "I'd sure like a donut. Why don't you and I go get donuts for everyone while Agent Mulder visits with your mom?"

Jenny, far too wise for such a small child, knew the grown-ups didn't want her to hear something that they were going to say, so she took Scully's hand and said, "Okay."

When Scully and Jenny were safely out of ear shot, Mulder turned to Lydia and said, "You don't want Jenny to know who he is?"

"No, I don't. He's her father."

Talk about poor parenting skills. "Oh." Mulder said. "Have you reported him to the authorities?"

"Of course. The first time he tried to kill her. He spent some time in a mental institution."

"Send him back." Mulder was surprised at how angry he was at this revelation.

"I've tried. He gets out and comes after her again and again."

"Why? Why does he want to hurt her?"

"I don't know. He's delusional. Look, he's a long time meth user. Along with a whole pharmacy of other drugs. And please don't lecture me about how stupid I was to make a baby with a guy who's a drug user. I know that. God do I know it."

"I wouldn't think of it. He hasn't given any kind of a reason for wanting to kill his own kid?"

"He says that she's 'in his head,' " Lydia told him.

"What does that mean?" Mulder asked.

"Only he knows that," Lydia said bitterly. She told him as much as she knew of her husband's problems and his desire, his fixation, on killing Jenny.

Lydia wouldn't be discharged from the hospital for at least another day, leaving Jenny with no place to go. Mulder and Scully discussed possibilities with Lydia and it was decided that Jenny would stay with the agents as anywhere she went, she was in danger and so was anyone else she was with. Nonetheless, Mulder and Scully didn't think they should take her to the office. Scully had meant to take the day off before all this happened, but now they were going to be working on finding this man and seeing to it that he was put away, yet again. Jenny had said that the bad man wouldn't find her at Scully's "until tomorrow." which would seem to imply that they had twelve to twenty-four hours before he would track her down again.

They were in the car on their way to Mrs. Scully's place, having decided to leave Jenny with Scully's mom for the day, while they went on in to the office, when their plans changed.  Mulder was driving, Scully was in the front passenger seat and Jenny was in the back seat.

Scully glanced over her shoulders to check on Jenny, in the back seat. She was stiff and she had an odd look on her face as if she were listening to something only she could hear. Then she snapped off her seat belt and got to her knees to look out the back window.

"He's following us." She said, her voice trembling with fear.

Startled, Mulder glanced into the rear-view mirror to see if he could spot a tail, "What?" he asked. "Can you see him, Scully?" Why hadn't he realized that this guy would know Lydia was in the hospital and all he'd have to do was stake the place out and wait for Jenny to show up? It was obvious. And easy. He wouldn't even need to use whatever special ability he had that allowed him to track them down so easily.

Scully, who had already drawn her weapon, twisted around to look out the back window of the car. "I don't know what to look for. Did you get a look at his car last night?"

"No. Damn." Mulder slapped the steering wheel in frustration. "We can't take Jenny to your mom's now, Scully. Not now."

Scully nodded. "I know a real safe place." She said. Then, to their passenger, "Jenny, sit down and fasten your seat belt." Jenny did.

J. Edgar Hoover Federal Building

Washington, D.C.

12:45 p.m.

Scully had scrounged up a cot from somewhere and put it in a corner of the basement office. It filled way too much of the room. Jenny was lying on it, napping. After last night, she needed some rest. Mulder and Scully worked at the desk, talking in whispers.

Mulder had obtained Lydia's husband's full name and the places where he had been incarcerated, plus some background on him. The man was a long time user of meth-amphetamines, and had been arrested a number of times before he met Lydia and before Jenny had been conceived. Mulder was running everything he had through NCIC and had contacted the local police in Vicksburg, Pennsylvania to get the man's records.

"So where do we take her tonight?" Scully asked.

"I don't know." Mulder had been thinking about this. "If he followed us here, he'll just wait outside until we leave and follow us wherever we go."

Scully looked thoughtful. "If he saw us, he'll be looking for you and me, right?

"Right. So?" Mulder wondered what she was getting at.

"We need help. Who can we get to slip her out the back way, while we go out the front?"

Oh. She was right. That made a lot of sense. "Kimberly? Holly?" He suggested the only two names that came to him right off.

"Not a secretary." Scully said. "Someone who's armed. Just in case."

Mulder sighed. "As you may be aware, I am not the most popular guy around here. And several of the guys who I did consider friends have died in recent years. I don't think anybody around here would be real anxious to do a favor for me. How about you?"

"Not a favor." Scully said. "This is a case. . ." before she could finish, there was a tap on the door and A.D. Skinner stepped in. He had a sheath of papers in his hand. He noticed the cot and its occupant immediately. It would have been hard to miss - it filled up half the available floor space. What was that all about?

"Are we running a day care center, Agent Scully?" He asked, making a wrong assumption.

"No, sir." Scully said. "But we are sworn to protect the citizenry. And this citizen is being stalked, with intent."

Skinner stepped over to the cot to get a better look at their stalking victim. "She can't be more than five years old." he said.

"Yes, sir." Mulder agreed. "And someone is trying to kill her."

Skinner might have said something then, but Jenny sat up and looked at him. He stooped down to her level. "What are you doing here, young lady? He asked her, his usual gruffness buried under a gentle, quiet tone. Scully and Mulder exchanged a glance that Skinner couldn't see. A glance that said, "Who is this and what has he done with the real Skinner?"

Jenny looked at Skinner for a moment. She could have told them that he was a nice man. She knew this, because she could feel it. What she said was, "Uncle Fox is taking care of me till my mommy gets out of the hospital."

Mulder wasn't really comfortable with "Uncle Fox" but "Uncle Mulder" had sounded weird even to him. And Scully had been "Aunt Dana" by the time he got to the breakfast table this morning. He'd been stuck with it.

Skinner looked over his shoulder at Mulder. "I see." He said.

Jenny was looking intently at Skinner, Mulder noticed. Suddenly she asked, "Who are you?"

"My name is Mr. Skinner. I'm. . Agent Mulder's boss. Do you know what that means?"

Jenny nodded. She knew what a boss was. "Sure." She said. "Is that why you look scary?"

Mulder stifled a chuckle and Scully turned away to hide her smile. "Do I look scary?" Skinner asked Jenny.

"Only on the outside. On the inside you're nice."

"I think your cover's been blown, sir." Scully said, amused.

Something went "click" in Mulder's mind. "How do you know that, Jenny?" He asked, waving down Skinner's unspoken reaction to Jenny's remark.

"I can feel him."

Mulder could hear Lydia saying, "He says she's in his head."

Scully smiled suddenly. She had an idea. "Sir, maybe you could help us."

"Help you what?" Skinner asked standing up and crossing the three steps to the desk. He handed the papers he had brought with him to Mulder who set them on his blotter.

"Well, sir," Scully said, and explained the problem with getting little Jenny out of the building, simultaneously filling the assistant director in on the whole case.

Mulder, only half listening, was watching Jenny. She had stretched out on the cot again, but she was listening to Scully. Ever since last night, he had been thinking about Jenny's odd remarks. The incident in the car had spoken volumes to him.

"Have you determined how he tracks her?" Skinner was asking Scully.

"No, sir." Scully said.

"He feels her." Mulder supplied.

"He what?" Skinner asked."Agent Mulder, what the devil are you talking about?"  Skinner didn't bark it, like he usually did. Trying to spare Jenny, no doubt.

"According to Jenny's mom, he wants to kill her because he feels her in his head. That's got to be how he tracks her, too. Like she feels you and me and Scully, he feels her."

"Empathy?" Scully asked.

"Or telepathy. She's only 5, it might not be real well formed at this point. And he's been trying kill her since. . ." he stopped his mouth just in time. "Forever." he said, instead.

"Oh?" Skinner waited.

"I can't document it." Mulder said, a trifle testily.

"Agent Scully?"

"She's said some odd things, sir, but she is only 5 years old."

"If he can feel her - sense her - won't he know where she is, regardless of who she leaves with?" Skinner pointed out. Skinner's apparent acceptance of Jenny's ability was very gratifying to Mulder. Scully didn't seem to know how to react to it.

"Damn." Mulder agreed. So how were they going to get her out of here? He thought of several more "colorful remarks" but kept them to himself - there were ladies present.

"Agent Mulder," Skinner continued, "if you can recognize this man and you have reason to believe that he is just outside this building, why don't you go see if you can locate him and bring him in?"

Mulder should have thought of that hours ago. "Because I'm an idiot, sir." he said. "I'm on my way." He grabbed up his suit coat from the back of his chair and as he put it on, he said, "Scully, you keep an eye on Jenny. I'll be back shortly. Jenny," he turned to the little girl, "Where is he?" It was along shot, God knew.

"That way." Jenny pointed. Mulder faced the direction she was pointing and got himself oriented. Okay, he was on the west side of the building.

"Got it. Thanks, Honey. I'm going to go arrest this guy right now."

"I'll call the local police." Scully said. "This is really their case."

"Ask for Gray or Stanton - they were the ones there last night." Mulder said as he headed out.

Jenny sat quietly on the cot for a moment after he left.

"Thank you, sir." Scully said.

"For what, Agent Scully?" Skinner asked.

"For your," her mouth twitched, holding back a smile, "wise counsel."

Skinner nodded and headed for the door. He had taken only a step when Jenny suddenly giggled. Scully and Skinner turned to look at her. Skinner shrugged and left.

Mulder reached the west steps of the building and looked around. Now what? He scanned the area for a moment. He spotted his quarry almost immediately. Piece of cake. He sprinted down the steps and across the space to where the man was sitting. He didn't seem to know Mulder was coming until he was nearly on top of him. He tried to run, but running was one of Mulder's strongest suits. The man had covered no more then ten feet when Mulder brought him down.

Ron Parker was not a pretty sight. In his mid- thirties, he was medium height, at least 30 pounds underweight and he had very bad acne. He was the classic image of an meth user.

* * * *

When Mulder returned to the basement office ninety minutes later, Jenny was sitting in his chair, coloring in a coloring book. Where Scully had dug up crayons and the book was anybody's guess. That woman was amazing. Mulder went over to his seat and lifted Jenny out of it, then sat down, settling Jenny in his lap. He was smiling. "All taken care of." He told Jenny and Scully. "He's in custody. Gray says she'll see to it that they keep him at least 48 hours, until Lydia can get in and they can press formal charges."

"Okay." Jenny said, but not very enthusiastically.

"What's the matter?" Scully asked her.

"Now we gotta move again. And get new names. I didn't have this one very long."

"Maybe not." Scully said. "Maybe you can stay here while he's in jail this time."

Jenny just sighed. She knew better.

"Jenny," Mulder said, "I want to ask you something." Jenny looked at him. "You can feel the bad man, and me, and Scully, and Mr. Skinner. You can pretty much feel everybody, right?"

"Yes."

"The bad man can feel you, too. Can he feel everybody, like you do?"

"I don't know."

Oh, well, it had been worth a try. He really didn't think the man could feel everybody - he hadn't sensed Mulder coming for him, he'd simply seen him across the mall.

* * * *

"But if you leave now, they'll have to let him go, because you won't be here to testify." Mulder argued as Lydia threw the last few things into her bag. Mulder and Jenny had arrived to take her home from the hospital and he had brought up Jenny's assertion that she and her mother would be leaving shortly. Lydia had confirmed Jenny's opinion.

"Look, Mr. Mulder, it's very nice of you to worry about us, but we know what we're doing."

"What will you do when Jenny starts school? Hell, she should be in kindergarten now."

"That's right. I'm home schooling her. I have to. If she goes to regular school all the kids there will be in danger - I can't allow that."

"You can't live your lives on the run!"

"We have to. Or I'm going to have to get a gun and kill him."

"Why haven't you gotten a gun to protect yourself and Jenny with?" It was what he would have done. "Or a really big dog? Or both?"

"We had a dog." Lydia shot a glance at Jenny. "He killed it. And how do I get a gun with residency requirements, waiting periods, and the fact that I'm not living under my real name all conspiring against it? I started to buy a gun once. Do you know you have to fill out more paperwork to buy a gun than to buy a house? It's ridiculous."

"Yeah, I know."

"I guess you would know. Look, all I know to do is to keep running."

"Okay, okay. At least you know you can relax for tonight."

* * * *

When they got back to their apartment house, Mulder walked the ladies to their door.  "Listen," he said, as Lydia was keying the door, "Would you ladies like to go out to dinner tonight?"

Lydia looked at him for a moment. She couldn't remember the last time she had gone out to eat with anyone other then Jenny. Even though she knew he wasn't really interested in her as a woman, what did that matter? She and Jenny would be gone in a couple of days anyway. And she didn't particularly want to cook anything tonight either. "Yes, she said, "I think we'd like that." Jenny nodded.

"I'll pick you two up at 7:00." he said and turned and hurried back to his own apartment.

Lydia sighed to herself as she and Jenny stepped through their door. Jenny was really smitten with Agent Mulder - "Uncle Fox." She had never attached herself to anyone like this before. It was going to hurt her to have to leave here, even if she had known Agent Mulder for only a couple of days. And Jenny had reached some place in Mulder's heart as well. At the very least, she had activated his protective instincts. Hummm. What was it Jenny had said about him the day they were moving in and she had run into him in the hall? He lost his little girl. Oh, dear. What had happened to the little girl's mother? This evening could turn out to be very interesting.

They let Jenny choose the restaurant. It was a sort of up-grade pizza place, comfortable, homey, with a few video game machines on one wall.

"Lydia," Mulder said, after the waiter left with their orders, "I've been trying to work out a solution to your problem."

"That's very kind of you, but why do you care?" Jenny sat quietly watching her mother and Mulder. They were talking like she wasn't even there. Uncle Fox did that with Aunt Dana, too.

"The same reason I'm an FBI agent, I guess. The desire to make the world a better place. To catch the bad guys." He shrugged it off. At least he wasn't pretending an attachment he didn't feel.

"Um huh." she murmured. "Look, I will testify. I'll come back for the trial. I'll let the police know how to reach me. I've done this before. But we can't stay."

"If he's locked up, why can't you stay for a little while? Jenny . . ."

"I know she doesn't want to move again. Neither do I. But he'll be out on bail by morning. Breaking and entering and assault with intent isn't serious enough to deny bail. I've had that beaten into me many times over the years. He'll check the apartment tomorrow night, and if we're there, it'll all start over. Oh, if he gets caught, they'll hold him longer this time, maybe commit him, but in the meantime, what kind of damage will he do? I can't protect Jenny if we stay."

Mulder looked thoughtful. An idea was forming in his mind.

"Mommy," Jenny broke in, "Can I go play video games?"

"Sure." Lydia dug in her purse and pulled out a handful of quarters. Mulder found a few in his pocket too.

"Here you go." He added his to the pot.

"Thank you!" Jenny scurried off across the restaurant to where the machines were.  Mulder could still see her. He made certain that she was within his line of sight at all times.

"Can we change the subject?" Lydia was saying.

"Sure. What do you want to talk about?"

"You."

". .me?"

"You know that Jenny is. . .different."

"The empathy or telepathy or whatever it is. Yeah."

"You don't have any trouble accepting that?"

"No." he grinned. "I've seen weirder things."

She took a deep breath. "The first time we saw you - in the hall that day, you remember?"  He nodded. "She said that you were sad because you'd lost your little girl." Mulder stiffened.

Jenny could do more than feel a person's presence.

"Well, Agent Mulder, Jenny is MY little girl. I know you like her and she adores you -but she can't fill your little girl's place."

Mulder was more than a little embarrassed by Lydia's assumption. "Jenny was mistaken, Lydia. I haven't lost a daughter. I've never had one. I lost my sister when we were kids. That must have been what she "felt" or "sensed." He surprised himself by the way he brushed past Samantha's disappearance. Scully would never believe it was possible. "I guess it must seem odd to you that a man you scarcely know has gotten so protective of Jenny. I should have tried to explain myself. But it's what I said before - I became an FBI agent because I wanted to fight the bad guys - to make the world a little safer. And. . .I'm a man. We male animals think we're supposed to find solutions to problems. You have a problem, I automatically try to solve it.  Sorry." he smiled at her, reassuringly.

Uh oh, she thought, Danger, Will Robinson, Danger. That smile was a killer. She knew she was smiling back at him. She relaxed. A little.

"I see. I think." she said. "I'm sorry about your sister."

"It was a long time ago." He shrugged it off. He didn't really feel comfortable talking about it with Lydia. Besides, right now she trusted him. It wouldn't be wise to rock the boat.

They talked about Jenny for a while. Mulder didn't often use his training as a psychologist for anything beyond catching killers, and he certainly wasn't an expert on children, but they talked about how all of the running and hiding was effecting Jenny emotionally.

When they got back to their apartment building, Mulder walked the ladies to their door once again. As Lydia keyed the lock, Mulder rested a hand on her arm.

"Wait."

"Why?"

"Let me go in first and make sure it's clear."

"It's okay. He's not here." Jenny said.

Mulder looked down at her. Okay. Then to Lydia, "Would it be any safer if you two slept in my apartment and I slept here? I mean if. . ."

"Officer Gray said she'd call if he was released."

"Sometimes they forget." Jenny said. Obviously they'd heard that promise before.

"I - ah - I have a spare gun in my apartment. Would you like to borrow it for tonight?"

"I don't really know how to use a gun, and besides. . ." Lydia indicated Jenny. Mulder nodded his understanding.

"Well, if you need anything, I'm just around the corner." He stooped down to Jenny. There was a business card in his hand and he gave it to her. "This is my number. Call any time if you need help, okay?" Jenny nodded, then hugged him tight around the neck. He hugged her back.

"Goodnight, Uncle Fox." she said.

"Good night, ladies." he said and headed down the hall.

Back in his own apartment, he found that he was too restless get any sleep. The idea that had started forming in his mind back in the restaurant was growing rapidly. After a time, he picked up his phone and called Scully.

"How'd dinner go?" She asked him.

"It went okay. I think Lydia's satisfied that I'm not a child molester, anyway. But I get the feeling she's not sure what to make of me."

"I've known you for five years, Mulder and I haven't figured you out yet. So what's this call about?" She said.

"I . . .could you come over to my place? I have something I want to talk over with you, but I don't want to leave them unprotected. Lydia wouldn't take my spare gun."

"He's in jail, Mulder. They're safe for the night."

"People have broken out of jails before. We've nown a few. Please, Scully? I have rocky road in the freezer."

Now that was low, using a girl's weaknesses against her. "Uh. . .sure." Half an hour later she walked through his door.

Tossing her coat onto a chair - the only chair - she said, "So what's this you want to talk about? And where's the . . ." he handed her a bowl before she finished talking. She took a bite.  Oh, Lord, Haagen Daaz. Then she settled herself on the couch to hear him out.

"You nosh, I'll talk." He did. For the next twenty minutes he laid out the plan that he had come up with. When he finished, Scully was staring at him.

"You can't be serious."

"It would work. Wouldn't it?"

"Sure. But you can't do that. You can't use Jenny as the bait in a trap. Never mind it being immoral, Lydia would never allow it!"

"She won't actually be at ground zero, Scully. He just has to think she is. I'd never put Jenny in danger."

"Mulder you are talking about cold blooded, premeditated. . ."

"I know. Talk me out of it Scully. Please."

"Well . . ."

"Tell me what kind of a chance at a normal life Jenny has as long as he's alive?"

"Not much of one. I do see that, Mulder, but. . ."

"What you do in Lydia's situation, Scully?"

"I'm not Lydia - I'd never get involved with a man like that in the first place."

"I know. But what if you didn't realize he was like that - and then all this happened?"

"I'd do everything that Lydia's done - get a real good record of his harassment and the abuse officially listed with the police, then, if I was out of choices. . .I'd. . .I'd lay in wait and blow his head off."

"Ah, ha!!"

"But he isn't after you or me! Mulder, listen, you could lose your job, everything you've worked for. . ."

"Only you and I would know it was planned."

"Right. You've made me an accessory. Again."

"No, I haven't. You go home. You don't know anything about it."

"I don't think so. And I do know. I won't lie about this for you. Mulder, this is not a good idea."

"It is for Jenny."

"Yes, but not for you."

"I know. I know." He sat down heavily on the sofa next to her.

"Mulder," Scully said gently, putting the ice cream bowl on the coffee table, "It isn't normal for a grown man to feel this strongly about a child that isn't his."

He nodded, avoiding her eyes. "I know." Then he shrugged. "I guess you're right. It's a bad idea."

"Why do you feel so strongly about Jenny, Mulder?"

He shook his head, as if to say that he didn't know, then he started to talk, "I haven't really asked myself that. She just. . .ran into my arms one night and kept on going straight into my heart." he shrugged. "That sounds pretty idiotic doesn't, it?"

"No." Scully smiled gently. "It's not idiotic. It is unusual. I just wondered if . ."

"It had anything to do with Samantha? I don't think so." he said reflectively. "She's just a little girl caught in an awful situation."

"That sounds like Samantha. And the situation is caused by her father. That's the same, too."

"Well, yeah," he admitted ruefully. "But I really don't think this has anything to do with any of that."

"Well, maybe not - but don't lose your soul to save her, Mulder." He looked at Scully quizzically. "Don't commit a murder for her, Mulder. There's got to be a better way."

He nodded. "Okay, Scully. You talked me out of it - for now anyway."

"Good. I'm going home. I'll see you tomorrow. Maybe we can think of something." She stood up, squeezed his shoulder gently, and headed for the door, grabbing her coat as she went.

He pondered the problem all night. Murder still seemed like the solution. But Scully was right - it was a bad idea for him. He had skated very close to the edge with Osterman, but that had been self-defense, the man drew down on him. This would be an out and out cold blooded killing - a murder. He would almost surely wind up losing everything. Still - when he measured the cost to himself against Jenny having a chance at a real life, he was very tempted.

He did decide that he would give his spare gun to Lydia if she would take it and he would offer to take her to a gun range and teach her how to use it properly. Somewhere he had a trigger lock for it, that would keep Jenny safe from it. Dawn was creeping up over the horizon by the time he slept.

Lydia was surprised at the offer of the gun and the shooting lessons, but she accepted.  The idea had occurred to her on more than one occasion that she needed to buy a gun from someplace other than a gun store. Someone who wouldn't have to do all that paper work and who could skip the waiting period. Mulder explained that if he sold her the gun they would still have to do the paperwork and the waiting period would still apply - he couldn't even give it to her without those things, but he could loan it to her. They had their first lesson on the use of the gun that very morning.

With the gun now residing in her lingerie drawer, Lydia was in less of a hurry to move, although, she wasn't intending to stay. Ron would be arraigned and out on bail within a day.  This had been their shortest stay in any place yet. She and Jenny began packing.

Mulder was in his office, doing some paperwork, when the call from Officer Gray came through. Scully was sitting opposite him, listening. Ron Parker had been released that morning and Gray had been trying to reach Lydia ever since. She hadn't been able to. Did Mulder know where she might be? No. He didn't. He and Scully exchanged a look.

The reached his apartment building in record time. There was no answer when Mulder rapped sharply on the apartment door. Using the key they had gotten from the manager, Scully unlocked the door. They stepped into an empty apartment. That is, Lydia and Jenny were not here - but their belongings were - they hadn't moved out yet. The agents did a quick survey of the apartment. There was very little in the refrigerator or kitchen cupboards, but since they were planning to leave very soon that wasn't unusual. Everything looked perfectly normal, as if they had just gone out shopping. A possibility that Scully suggested.

"People do go out, Mulder."

"Yeah. But I don't like it."

"Let's leave a note and go. There must be somewhere else we can look."

"Okay." He scrawled a quick note to tell Lydia that Ron was free and to be careful. As he wrote it, he wondered if she had taken the gun with her. He put the question to Scully.

"Where was she keeping it?"

"Uh - I don't know. If it were you, where would you keep it?"

Scully did a quick search of Lydia's room. The gun wasn't there.

"Mommy," Jenny said as Lydia slid the new shoes on Jennie's feet at the Landmark Shopping Center's Payless Shoe Source, "Can we have ice cream?"

"Maybe, sweetie. We need to get our shopping done. Our plane leaves tonight."

"Where're we going?"

"Grandma's right now - then we'll go on from there."

"Can we tell Uncle Fox where we're going?"

"Yes, I think that would b. . ."

"Mommy!!"

"What?!"

"He's here!!"

"Where!?"

"Right here." Ron stepped out from behind a rack of shoes. He grabbed Jenny.

"Mommy!!!" She screamed and several clerks looked over to see what was happening.  One of them pressed a button under the counter that called summoned security.

Lydia tried to pull Jenny away from Ron. "You're not taking her!!" A male clerk stepped up.

"What's going on folks?"

"He's trying to take my little girl!! Help me stop him!"

Ron slugged the clerk with a free hand, without loosening his grip on Jenny. Then he grabbed Lydia and dragged her and Jenny out of the store.

Mulder got the call on his cell phone as he and Scully were leaving his apartment building. It was Gray.

"Agent Mulder, Jenny and her mother were taken from the mall about 20 minutes ago.  We believe they are heading south on Interstate 365. We're trying to track them."

Mulder and Scully ran for the car they had come in - Mulder's car, which put him behind the wheel. He peeled out at a frightening speed and headed for the nearest junction with the highway. When they reached the highway, he headed north, although he had idea where the hell he was going. They quickly found themselves outside of town and headed into farm country. There wasn't a lot of farm country around here, but there was some.

"How are we going to find them?" Scully asked a very agitated Mulder.

"I'm not sure." He said. He dialed Gray's number with his right hand while steering with his left. She answered almost immediately.

"Gray."

"This is Agent Mulder I need an update. I'm on 365 headed south. I just passed Clearfield."

"We're just ahead of you - we've lost them. There's a rest stop up ahead, we're going to regroup. Join us."

"Right." He thumbed the phone off. After giving Scully the information he muttered, "We can't stop, Scully. As soon as he stops, they're dead. Jenny first."

"Maybe Lydia has the gun. Maybe she can do something."

"After one lesson? Not likely." But what could they do? They had no idea where to go.  "Come on, Jenny." He thought. "Help me find you." He cleared his mind, blanked it, even as he steered the car down the Interstate. Then he heard her - or felt her, in his mind.

"Help us, help us, Uncle Fox. The bad man has us. You have to come and get us."

"Hold on, baby," he projected to her, "I'm coming!" To Scully he said, "I know which way to go!"

"How?" Scully asked, not daring to consider what she was considering.

"I can feel her."

Scully wanted to argue, but knew it was a waste of time. He wouldn't listen. And he had control of the car. They sped rapidly down 365, until they reached the next exit. Mulder pulled off and headed west on Keene Mill Road. Scully took Mulder's cell phone, hit redial, and when she got an answer, she let the police know which direction they were going.

In the car that was taking her and her mother where-ever they were going, Jenny smiled.  She wasn't afraid anymore.

Parker pulled the car off into the yard of an old farm. He didn't even know if there was anyone living here - he was just driving at random, looking for a good place to do what he had to do. Stopping the car, he pulled Jenny and Lydia from it and headed towards the barn in the back.

It was a pretty dilapidated building, but that hardly mattered. As he dragged his family through the door of the barn, he heard a car pulling up into the yard.  

Mulder and Scully piled out of their car and Mulder took off towards the barn. Scully kept up as best she could, she was right at his heels. He reached the door of the barn and slid to a halt. He drew his weapon and carefully leaned around the edge of the door to get a good look into the barn. It was dim, though not dark, in the barn. There was a large ladder leaning against a huge upper shelf sort of thing in the top of the barn. The shelf was a place for storing hay - a hay loft, that's what it was called. "Jenny?" he thought.

"Uncle Fox!!" Jenny screamed.

They were up in the hay loft. What the hell was he going to do? He had to get up there.  He pulled his head back and turned to Scully. Scully was talking on the cell phone. She was giving Officer Gray their present location.

"Can you keep him busy while I try to get up there?"

Scully nodded. As Mulder moved away from the door and Scully took his place, she finished her conversation with Gray and closed up the phone, which she stuck in her pocket. She edged around the door and stepped into the barn, her weapon drawn and in position.

"Parker!!" she called out. A male head leaned out of the darkness over her head. Parker was kneeling on the edge of the hay loft.

"Yeah, what?" he asked, conversationally.

"I need to talk to you, come down here."

"Not a chance. Not till I do what I have to do."

"What do you have to do?" Scully said to keep him talking.

Mulder ran around the barn, looking for another entrance. There had to be one. There was. A window opened into the main floor of the barn - under the hay loft. Parker wouldn't see him. Mulder slipped through the window and moved stealthily around the area, looking for a way up into the hay loft. He found a sort of ladder - chunks of wood nailed into the wall of the barn to create steps leading upward, right next to the window. He started up the ladder. It wasn't easy. His feet were too big and he had to re-holster his gun because he needed both of his hands as the little boards/steps were narrow and didn't give him much to get a hold on. As his head came level with the floor of the loft, he cautiously poked it up through the opening just enough to get a look. Parker was at the edge of the loft talking to Scully. Where the hell were Lydia and Jenny?

Damn. There was another window up here for loading the hay in and out through. He didn't want Parker to see him silhouetted against it. He moved slowly, quietly, up the last couple of feet and dropped into the hay right by the opening that he had come through. He could hear Scully talking to Parker, who seemed to be answering her quietly and rationally - if you discounted what he was actually saying. Mulder drew his weapon.

"Got to kill the little bitch. Never have peace until I do."

"What makes you say that, Mr. Parker?"

Mulder scrambled along on his belly, moving up behind Parker. When he got close enough, he saw that Jenny and Lydia were just behind Parker. He had one hand on Jenny and he was holding Mulder's spare gun in the other hand. Shit! He had taken the gun from Lydia.

"She haunts me, dammit! She's there in my head every waking minute!!"

"Jenny, are you in Mr. Parker's head?" Scully asked.

"Not on purpose." Jenny said.

"Shut up!!" Parker snapped at Jenny.

Police cars pulled up outside. Mulder needed to hurry. He inched up closer. Parker must have heard him because he whirled around and leveled the gun at Mulder. "Looky who's here.  Good neighbor Sam." Mulder leveled his own weapon at Parker, but he didn't speak.

"Shoot him." Lydia said softly. "For God's sake, shoot him."

"I can't. Jenny's in the way." Mulder told her.

Jenny started to squirm in Parker's arm. "Let me go!!!" Parker biffed her with the gun and she slumped limply. He'd knocked her cold. Lydia gasped as the gun connected with her baby's head.

Mulder had a clear shot at most of Parker's upper torso, but he was standing on the edge of the loft. If Mulder took him out, he would go over the edge and take Jenny with him. Lydia slid forward and snagged Jenny's foot and pulled it gently toward her.

"Let her go, Ron. Please. Let me have her."

He waved the gun at Lydia. "Get back." She held her ground - and Jenny's foot. "Hold tight, Lydia." Mulder said softly. Lydia looked at him, not sure what he was going to do.

"Mulder!" Scully called from down below, "Is everyone okay?"

Mulder didn't try to answer her. He was taking very careful aim at Ron Parker's head.  God help them all if this didn't work. He fired one shot. Parker's head flew back as the bullet hit him solidly between the eyes. Blood and brains were blown all over Jenny, Lydia, and the hay.  Parker started over the edge, still clutching Jenny. Lydia pulled hard on her daughter's foot. She would not let go. She would never let go! Parker's grip slackened, loosened. He went over the edge, leaving Jenny hanging over the barn floor from her mother's hand. Mulder dived forward and pulled Jenny safely up onto the loft and into her mother's arms.

The sound of the shot brought the police into the barn at a run. The dead man lay at Scully's feet and Mulder and Lydia were working their way down into the barn on a more conventional style ladder then the one Mulder had used to get up into the loft.

"So," Gray said to Scully, "What happened?"

"It's a long story." Scully sighed. She was worried. Mulder had wanted to kill this man and now he had. It looked like a righteous shoot, but was it? She hoped to God it was.

* * * *

Margie, no longer Lydia, dropped her suitcase into the trunk of the cab. Jenny's real name, Gracie, was restored to her too, but Mulder would always think of her as Jenny. Margie turned to Mulder who, along with Scully, was seeing her and Jenny off.

"Thank you for everything."

"Just my job." He shrugged it off. He found it awkward to be thanked for killing someone. Scully had been right - he could not have lived with committing a true murder.

Scully was hugging Jenny who then turned to Mulder. He stooped down to her level and she hugged him hard and tight.

"Will you be my friend forever?" She asked him.

"Forever. And forever." he assured her.

As the cab carrying Jenny and Lydia pulled away, Mulder smiled. Scully, looking at him, wondered what he was thinking about. He seemed content on a level he rarely reached.

"What is it, Mulder?" she asked

"I can feel her." He was really grinning now, "In my head. And she's no monster."

Scully smiled back at him. "I know that."

END