Note: OK, I really went overboard this time. I am taking everyone completely out of character. I have to. There have been certain scenes in my head that I have been wanting to use, and this was the only way I could use them. This series is, for the most part, nuts and flakes. Don’t look for any redeeming value in this series. This is pure silliness which I will blame on Spring and the wonderful Seattle weather. –Batela.

Something woke him up. He was still as he listened. Mulder was snoring lightly next to him but that wasn’t it, he was used to that sound. He heard it again, it sounded like someone was in the kitchen. Skinner leaned over.

"Fox. Wake up." he whispered. Mulder stirred and blinked.

"Wha.."

"Shh. Someone is in the kitchen." Skinner whispered in his ear. Mulder was instantly awake. They silently dragged their pants on and unholstered their guns. They carefully made their way into the hall. A light was coming from the kitchen. They slinked around the wall.

"Freeze!" they yelled, jumping into the open doorway, guns drawn. Two small faces stared up at them in surprise and the men immediately pulled their guns up.

"Chill, guys." a weary voice said. Krycek took his head out of the refrigerator. He put a bowl of left-over chicken on the table.

"Krycek, what the f.. what do you think you’re doing?" Skinner asked. Krycek stopped in mid-reach for the glasses.

"Feeding these boys, what does it look like?" he completed his quest for the glasses and poured milk for the two boys sitting quietly at the table. Mulder looked at the boys, identical twins about four years old. They had dark hair and were dressed in blue jeans and black sweaters, also identical.

"Tell me you haven’t taken up kidnapping." Skinner said suspiciously.

"Only certain children." the man responded. He looked up from the chair to see Skinner’s lawman expression. "Oh, come on, Skinner, even you’re not that blind. Look at them." Krycek jerked a finger at the boys who were carefully eating a piece of chicken. The men came into the room and took a close look at them. Mulder drew a breath.

"Krycek, didn’t anyone tell you about condoms?" The boys looked up at Mulder with moss green eyes surrounded by a ring of thick black lashes. Krycek snorted.

"Nice try, Mulder. Try again. While you two are out here playing house, I’m still working. I rescued them from the tanks." he said around a chicken leg.

"The what?" Skinner looked back and forth at the men, not following.

"The tanks?! Oh, God, Krycek." Mulder sat down. He waved for Skinner to sit. "Later." he said, gesturing toward the boys. Skinner resigned himself for a session of double talk until the explanation.

"I’ve been sifting through more of the experimental crap and I came across my ID. Since I was unaware of ever having volunteered for lab duty, except for my new arm, thanks for asking by the way, I checked it out." He looked disdainfully at the milk and fetched himself a beer. "Someone must have gotten wind that I was on the way because by the time I got there, the lab was almost completely destroyed. The firebugs hadn’t gotten there yet, though. All the tanks were dead except these two." He looked at the boys with an odd expression.

"What was I supposed to do, Mulder?" he asked softly. "It would have been like killing myself. I’m no angel, but these two are still innocent."

Skinner absently wiped the mouth of the nearest boy.

"Someone tell me what’s going on." he said easily, not wanting to alarm the children. Mulder turned to him.

"They’re not his sons, Walter, they’re his clones."

Skinner froze. Mulder turned back to Krycek.

"There was nothing else you could have done, Krycek." he reassured the man. The boys were finished with their late dinner and were beginning to look sleepy. "Come on, let’s get them to bed and then we can talk." Mulder handed his gun to Skinner and picked up one of the boys while Krycek took the other. Skinner went on ahead to put the guns in his room before going into the guest room to turn down the covers on the bed. The boys were striped down to their underwear and tucked in. Krycek touched their hair hesitantly before turning out the light.

They went into the living room where Skinner poured them all a drink. Krycek sat at the end of the couch with his head thrown back, staring at the ceiling.

"Walter, I’ve told you about the tanks." Mulder said. "Remember the Clones’ story? And about all the tanks with more of them being grown?" Skinner thought for a moment and nodded; science had never been his strong suit, he was a poli-sci major. He got into the legal aspects of the Clones’ case and glossed over the scientific parts. He trusted what Mulder and Scully told him, while they listened to his legal advise.

"They’re like big seven foot fish tanks, only each one has a person growing in it. I saw Kurts that were nearly completely grown and others in various stages of growth, from fetal to teenager." He turned to Krycek.

"Alex, I don’t mean this to sound snide, but why were they cloning you?" Mulder asked. Krycek shrugged.

"I guess they were done with me." he said.

"What do you mean, done with you?" Skinner asked. Krycek lowered his head.

"They only clone people they have a continued use for. After the original is dead." he said expressionlessly. Mulder nodded; Sam was killed when she was still a child, but her adult clones were walking around.

"You’re next on the hit list."

Krycek gave a hollow laugh. "Yeah, I guess they got kinda pissed at me." He drank down the glass of scotch and grimaced. He hadn’t noticed what Skinner gave him.

"Jeez, Skinner, do I look like a Highlander to you?" he got up and helped himself to the vodka.

"So what are you going to do with them?" Skinner asked him. Krycek sat and stared at the men. Skinner stared back.

"No!" Skinner pointed a finger at him. "You cannot leave them here, are you crazy?"

"What else am I supposed to do with them? I don’t have a permanent home, I don’t have the world’s most secure job, and I’m not exactly father material. Maybe I should just drop them off at the nearest orphanage?" Krycek said sarcastically. "They may be newborns, Skinner, but they are house-trained. Just feed and water them, wash them and give them a bed."

"What?! They are children, not dogs. You have a responsibility to them, Krycek." Skinner was growing disgusted with the man. Krycek glared at him.

"I really don’t think so, since I had nothing to do with their development, except for stolen DNA which wasn’t my fault, but I will make sure that they are kept safe. Should I take them to the nearest Kurt and drop them off? What kind of a life is that? I’m not complete scum, Skinner, I do wish for them to have as normal an upbringing as possible, God knows I sure as hell didn’t. What would you like me to do? Should I go down to the nearest unemployment office and sign up? ‘Well, Mr. Krycek, and what was your last job?’ ‘Well, Mr. Official Sir, I can proudly say that I am responsible for the chaos the world is currently in at the moment, I’m the one that turned over the evidence on the Consortium. I have thirty glorious years with the bad guys, seventeen of which I spent running around the world assassinating people.’ Wouldn’t that impress them?" he stood in front of the men, daring them to refute him. Skinner rubbed his face; Krycek was right. Damn. Mulder stood up.

"Let’s go to bed and sleep on it. We are all tired." He held out a hand and pulled Skinner to his feet. "Alex, I’ll get you a pillow and blanket for the couch." Krycek nodded a silent thanks.

Later in bed, Skinner tossed, unable to sleep.

"One Krycek is bad enough, but three?" he muttered. Mulder sighed.

"There is only one Krycek. The boys are clones. The other clones I’ve met all had separate personalities so I think that it is safe to assume that the boys will, too. Our personality is from nurturing, for the most part. But, Walter," Mulder turned Skinner’s face toward him. "Krycek is also the one who turned over the evidence, he saved our lives and the lives of those children." He kissed Skinner lightly. "We can’t turn those children over to a stranger or to the government. There are still pockets left over that haven’t been found. They will find out about the boys and take them back to a lab, if they don’t kill them outright. I certainly don’t want them raised by some asshole that will turn them out to be worse than Krycek. Picture it; eighteen years from now, I could be chasing them all over creation trying to kill them before they kill anymore innocent people. We can’t allow that to happen. We can’t allow them to be raised as assassins. They have the potential to be good people. We can turn their bio-engineered talents toward the law, instead of away from it. They’re just children." He stroked Skinner’s cheek lovingly. Skinner could find no argument, Mulder was right.

"Alright, Fox, alright."

When they awoke the next morning, Krycek was gone. The men really weren’t surprised. A quick check showed the boys still asleep in the guest room, a large envelope stuck to the door with another computer disk. The men read the note, unbelievingly.

"We need to make sure there is nothing wrong with them. What if they get sick or break something?" Skinner asked. Mulder instantly thought of green goo and cursed Krycek for leaving so fast.

"Scully, would you get your little black bag and come out here, please? No, nothing is wrong, just a little preventive medicine." Mulder hung up the phone after a confirmation.

"She isn’t going to like this." Skinner warned.

*************

Two hours later, Scully looked into two pair of green eyes. She turned to the men, her own blue eyes speaking volumes. She turned back to the boys, speaking gently to them as she turned them this way and that, doing the doctor thing. She looked them over as they stood, still clad in their underwear.

"Well, they appear healthy. No signs of physical injuries, they’re quiet, which is a little abnormal in boys but then they may be a little traumatized. God knows, I would be."

She sat them at the table and poured milk into the cereal, looking with disapproval at the sugared stuff. She tilted her head toward the livingroom. The men followed her out.

"Where is he?" A.D. Scully asked. Mulder blinked in innocence.

"Who?" he asked. Scully glared at him.

"Do I look stupid to you? I’d know those eyes anywhere, now where is he?"

Mulder tossed his arms up and sank onto the couch.

"We don’t know, Scully." Skinner said quietly. "He dropped them off here last night and was gone by morning." Scully paced.

"Let me get this straight. Alex Krycek brought his children here, out of the blue, and left them?"

"Scully, they’re not his children." Mulder said. He looked at Skinner. "I thought you told her while I was getting changed?" Skinner shook his head.

"I thought you told her."

Scully looked back and forth at the men.

"Someone tell me something!" she began to shout and changed it to an annoyed hiss. Mulder hated hurting her.

"They’re clones, Scully. Like Emily. I think they are a more advanced series, though. They aren’t showing any signs of a blood problem. Here, he left this addressed to you. His note said that it contains their bio-data." he handed her the disk.

Scully stopped and looked at it. She sat down abruptly and shut her eyes for a moment.

"Well. A social worker needs to be called, you both know that." she said. The men shook their heads.

"What do you mean no?" she asked. She could tell they were still hiding something.

"Gentlemen?" she said with a warning. Mulder looked at Skinner.

"We have to tell her." he said. Scully sat back, waiting for it.

"Krycek’s note. He says I’m their godfather and grants me temporary custody." Mulder hung his head, waiting for the storm to hit. He handed her the note.

The boys came into the room, having done with their cereal.

"Come on, kids, you need to get dressed before you get a chill." Scully said. She put the folder down and herded them up to the guest room. In a few minutes she called down clothing sizes to the men, instructing them to go to the store while she put the boys into a bath. Knowing when they’ve been out-parented, they did as ordered. In a panic, Scully opened a window and called down to them just as they were starting to walk down the street to the local mercantile.

"Don’t let Mulder pick out colors." she instructed Skinner. Skinner waved to her, trying not to laugh. Mulder wasn’t amused.

She was relieved when they came back with jeans and t-shirts, along with the pre-requisite under-things. And lots of toys. Scully looked on disapprovingly as Mulder unloaded them.

"They’re learning toys." he defended himself. She picked up a teddy bear.

"Everyone needs a teddy, Scully. Even you." He handed her a third one and kissed her cheek. "I didn’t get me one, I already have one." Skinner smiled at them as he got the boys into fresh clothes. Red flannel checks for one and blue flannel checks for the other. His heart felt strange as they steadied themselves by putting their hands on his arms and shoulders. He surprised himself by giving them each a hug and a pat on the fanny. Mulder knew there was an actual human inside Skinner.

"They need names." Skinner said. Mulder froze in amazement.

"We forgot to ask Krycek if they had names!" Mulder suddenly remembered. Skinner was still on the floor with the boys.

"Did Alex give you names?" he asked them. They looked blankly at him, still not talking. No one was going to push them for speech, after all, they were only a few days old. Skinner looked up.

"I refuse to call them Alex 2 and 3." Scully said. The men agreed. They thought about it.

"Well, want to stick with the ethnic angle?" Mulder suggested. The others didn’t know what he meant.

"Alex –Alexei...." he waved a hand. They got it, a Slavic name.

"Can I suggest Pavel? I like it, it flows." Mulder said.

"How about Sergei?" Scully said. Skinner snorted.

"I don’t think so. How about Ivan? It’s a good strong name. Paul and John, for short."

"Now all we need is a George." Mulder found a comb and ran it through their thick dark brown hair.

"What about Ringo?" Scully asked.

"We have a Ringo. Gunmen?" Mulder reminded her. She forgot that Langley’s name was Ringo. Poor man was doomed from the start, she thought. Skinner looked back and forth at them.

"Alright, you two. How about it, boys, Pavel and Ivan. Do you like those names?" he asked the kids. They nodded shyly. Skinner looked closely at them.

"You know, I can’t tell them apart." he confessed to the others. Mulder and Scully had to agree.

"I washed them, neither has any identifying marks." Scully said.

Skinner rummaged in the bags of new clothing. All the jeans were blue but the t-shirts were different colors. He held out the shirts to the boys.

"Which one wants the white?" he asked them. One of the boys pointed. Skinner handed the whites to him along with the red t-shirts.

"Which one wants to be Ivan?" he asked. The first one did. "Good. Ivan will wear white and red, Pavel will wear blue and green. At least until we can tell you two apart, alright?" they nodded.

End pt 3