Mulder's Basement Office
December 29, 1999

Scully stared at the envelope. She knew what it was without even opening it. It was the chance of a lifetime detailed on a piece of Bethesda Naval Hospital stationary.

When she got the first letter she was ecstatic. She was in a state of euphoria that was only ended when Mulder walked into their basement office. It was a state of euphoria that was laced with sadness and regret. She knew that as incredible as the chance was she could never leave the X-Files. She could never leave Mulder. She wanted to tell him of that letter, of the great things it held, but she could not. She wanted to share the news with her best friend, but she knew that it would hurt him. Instead she neatly folded that first letter and put it in the back of her briefcase.

As he handed her this, the second letter, she saw the worry etched in his face. She knew he was afraid that this was about her health. She wanted to tell him otherwise, but she couldn't, not without telling him exactly what it was. She had hoped that this was the letter saying that her acceptance period had expired, and that the passing of time had made the decision for her, but alas that was not the case. This was a copy of the same letter as she had already received, only this one had a post it note attached.

"We are looking forward to you joining our team, in the New Year." It read in bold black block print.

A smile crept across her face as she glanced at the note. The smile was more for Mulder's benefit, but she couldn't help but think that this project was exactly what she was looking for in life. She had vowed on many occasions that she would not leave the X-Files, but this was her chance to really make a difference, a tangible difference in the lives of many people. This was her chance to do more than just try and help the world a few people at a time.

As neatly as it had arrived, she folded the letter back up and put it in her briefcase with the other letter. As much as she wanted to not have to make the decision she knew that she would have to deal with it, and she would have to do it without her best friend's input.

Mulder's face softened as he saw the smile begin to form on Scully's face. Whenever she got mail marked, "Personal & Confidential," he became uneasy. There was always the chance that someone higher up in the chain of command was going to split them up. The threat always loomed that they would take her away from the X-Files, take her away from him. All past attempts had failed. The X-files were closed down twice, she was abducted twice, they had tried reassignment, new partners, and they even threatened her health with cancer but she remained. The only time they had nearly succeeded was when they tried to reassign her to the Salt Lake City Field office, and that was only because that assignment did not interest her, with or without him it just did not interest her. When time and fate erased that dilemma, he even tried to tell her to go and be a doctor, but she would not leave. That was the past though, and the fear always lingered that they would find some way to make her decide to leave. It was an unfounded fear, he knew that she would not leave, at least not without some kind of a fight. As long as they were together, as long as they were the formidable team that they were, he knew that separation was a possibility, and he knew that he had to accept it.

This was different though. This was mail from a medical institution, an institution that she had received treatment from during her battle with cancer. When he handed her the envelope, he tried to cover the shake in his hand and the fear on his face, but he knew that he could not. He knew that she already knew the thoughts that were coursing through his mind. He knew that he could not hide something as simple as this base emotion from her. He could not help it though, he was too wrought with fear. What if the cancer returned? What if there were some other complications from her abduction to Antarctica? What if they found some new way to torture her for her association with him?

When he saw the smile on her face, he was lost for a moment in the beauty of it. She didn't smile much, but when she did it was a sight to behold. It was a sight that could soften the countenances of the most evil of men. It was a smile that could turn a crying baby into a giggling one. It was a smile that even made him feel the need to smile.

As he watched her fold up the letter as neatly as it was sent, he kept silent for a few brief moments that seemed to last an eternity. He hoped that she would mention the letter and its contents, but something told him that she would not. Instead she took out a file folder and started to put the finishing touches on an autopsy report.

Scully's Apartment
Later That Evening As she sat at her kitchen table and did some additional paperwork, Scully knew she would have to make a decision. She desperately wanted something of a more normal life, but she also did not want to give up the X-Files. She didn't want to give up on the search for what happened to Mulder's sister, and she didn't want to give up on finding out what had happened to her. She also didn't want to lose the friendship that meant the most to her at this point in her life. For a brief moment she thought about calling Mulder and telling him of her dilemma. She thought about trying to get his opinion, but she knew that he would tell her to be a doctor. She knew he would tell her that they would still be friends and he would still consult her on cases, but she knew better. She knew that he would only distance himself from her. In the end the decision to stay was easier then all of the thought she put into making it. There really was no decision, The X-Files was where she belonged. She knew it, and for a brief moment she couldn't believe that she was actually questioning it.

As she took the letters out of her briefcase and decided that she would call in her rejection in the morning, her cell phone rang. Thinking it was Mulder, she picked it up on the first ring.

"Scully"

"Hello, is this Dr. Dana Scully?"

"Who is this?"

"This is Dr. Van Taylor from the CC-10-13 research study team. I am sorry to disturb you at this late hour, but we were afraid that you had not received our invitation to join us. We are looking forward to you becoming the regional team leader for the Washington Metro Area."

"Oh, Hello Dr. Van Taylor, actually I had received both of your invitations. Why didn't you call me at the office?"

"I actually did call you there, your partner, an. an Agent Mulder, gave me your cell phone number. He didn't think you would mind his giving it to me."

"Well, I was just going through your letters and was about to contact you myself. Although I do appreciate your generous offer, I feel the need to decline your invitation at the moment. It sounds like an exciting project, but I am quite happy where I am and with what I am doing."

"Is there anything I can do to change your mind? I have a considerable amount of leeway in what I can offer you to ensure you join the team."

"I'm sorry, but at the moment, I am not ready to leave my current position. Again I appreciate that the offer was made, but I am really not interested at this time. Thank you."

"Well, Dr. Scully, I am sorry that you are not joining us, but I wish you the best in your endeavors."

"Thank you." said Scully as she hung up the cell phone and placed it back on the end table next to her.

She thought about calling Mulder and telling him, but decided better of it. "He doesn't really need to know," she said in a barely audible whisper as she put the letters in her top desk drawer and started to get ready for bed.

Bangor Construction Site
Office Trailer
December 29, 1999

Marie sat at her desk in the office trailer, and wondered. She wondered if anyone knew what was going on other than herself. She wondered if anyone outside of the organization knew about it or would even figure it out. She wondered if anyone knew the horrors that awaited the United States population and probably the world's population shortly thereafter. She wondered if the people in power cared. From her findings, it was fairly obvious that the Federal Government was not doing anything to stop it, in fact they were helping perpetuate the problem. As she closed her office door and began to pace the tiny area, she wondered if there was anything she could do about it.

Marie was a Technical Engineer for a construction management firm. By degree she was a Chemical Engineer, but those talents and that knowledge base were very rarely touched upon in her current assignment as an assistant project engineer for a pharmaceutical facility that was being expanded. As most people do, she often got bored in her position, and would do anything to enhance her mind. At times she cruised the Internet, often for hours looking for anything that she found interesting. Unfortunately, Beech Pharmaceuticals, the Client Corporation for this project, thought her modem phone bills were too high and curbed her access. She didn't have any real friends in the area as she was working some 300 miles away from home, so she needed to find something else to do in order to pass the nights. After many failed hobbies she decided to tap into the vast amounts of information that she worked with every day. It was a wealth of knowledge at her fingertips in her own cleverly arranged filing system. It was enough to keep her busy reading and assimilating information for months.

She started by reading operations and maintenance manuals, she learned everything there was to know about the equipment that was being purchased and installed. She then went on to reading plans and design criteria for both the pieces of equipment and the entire facility. It was a standard Pilot Plant expansion. It was all cut and dry. They were taking an existing structure, making it larger and adding new equipment as well as upgrading the old equipment. Her company had built hundreds of these in the past. There was nothing to look into; there was no reason for anybody to question anything. The engineer designed what they were asked, and her company built it. There was nothing more to it.

She had found things in her reading that had confused her. She found things in the basis for design that made no sense. She began to question the engineering company. They merely designed what they were told to the specifications that they were told to use. They found some things a little out of place but were told the facility was intended to be dynamic and expandable in the next few years. They stopped questioning things at that.

Instead she started asking the client, and the others working on the job. She didn't think she was doing anything wrong, she was merely questioning the design. She thought that the owner had made a mistake. She thought she was being helpful. She thought she was justifying her salary. She knew that she had been terribly wrong when every question she asked was answered with another question, and her files were often rejected and otherwise tampered with. She learned very quickly to keep her mouth shut. She learned very quickly to stop asking questions.

Instead of letting it go, and forgetting about the things she had seen and discovered, she kept a private journal and wrote detailed passages of what she saw that was wrong and what the implications were. She kept reading and kept letting pieces fall together in her head. She kept looking into things that she never should have questioned. The pieces really started to come together when she was given full access to the plant computer server.

Now her time was coming to an end on this job. She was being transferred back to the home office as of the first of the year. She would spend some time waiting for her next assignment and all would be OK. She couldn't say that she wasn't glad to be leaving. Things in Pennsylvania were no longer as nice as she had remembered. First her car was vandalized, only untraceable parts were taken, but it was enough to keep her out of work for a few days. Then her apartment was ransacked. She didn't own much so there wasn't much to take other than a few dollars and her computer. The stereo was left behind, as were the CD's. She thought it was just some kids, maybe the superintendent, since her lease was about to expire and she was not renewing. She never thought it could be anything else, she was just happy to be leaving.

She paced the office one last time, it was fairly late, and she was alone, so she turned on her computer, and decided to check her email one last time. When she went to open her mail, there was a single message, from Faye, the jobsite secretary.

Marie-

Best of Luck on your new assignment. I am going to miss all of your weirdness and the way you got hyper when you drank sprite. I hope the Jeep is up and running soon, and try to have a nice holiday before you head back to the Bangor Office. Keep in touch and let me know when you want to hit the outlets again.

--Bye old buddy old pal
Faye4

There must have been an update. Faye was not a computer nerd, aside from knowing how to email and do all of the office type applications, she was fairly computerphobic, relying on Marie to fix problems and find files. Faye did have a knack though for knowing when the server was updated, and knowing what type of information it was. Maybe it was because the backup was run off of her computer, or maybe it was because everyone on the site loved her, but either way she was a valuable resource.

Marie popped the tape out of the back-up, popped a clean tape of hers in, and waited for the back-up to be completed. This was the big one, this was the month end back up as well as the year end back up. This was the tape that would hold all of the marbles, everything Marie needed to try and stop this. While she waited for the back-up to complete, she put a floppy in her computer's drive and tried to download everything she could. She didn't have a tape back up of her own, so she would have to have somebody else open those files, but these files she could read. She only had about 3 minutes before the server would figure out all of her scrambling and rerouting, so she grabbed all that she could. Reading them now wasn't important, she would read them when she had the time. The final file that she grabbed, the one that she might have been detected while downloading, one that she would open a few days later, would be the one that made it all crystal clear to her.

As she packed the last box with her personal items from the office, the questions of what to do about all of this nagged at her. She couldn't just forget about what she saw. There was only one thing she could do. She had to tell someone, but secrecy agreements and other legal jargon bound her. Essentially she was trapped. She kept telling herself that there was nothing she could do about it. She kept trying to convince herself that she was doing her job, and that she shouldn't have been looking so closely at the plans and design of the facility. She tried to convince herself that she hadn't seen any of it, and that none of it could possibly really be happening. She should have just been doing her job, she should have only been gathering the information and filing it. All she had to do was make sure that the information was kept orderly and did not get lost. She never should have read it, and she never should have started putting the pieces together. All she could do was take the journals she so carefully wrote and protected, and send them to someone who might be able to help. At first she only kept the journals as a record of events in order to save her ass as well as her employers in case everything went to hell. Now she hoped that if she sent them to the right person, maybe her months of rambling could be used to stop all of this. She wasn't sure who to send them to but she was absolutely certain of one thing. Everything was going to go to hell.

Basement office
February 9, 2000

A large package sat on Fox Mulder's desk. It was a copy paper box, and from the weight of it, it was full of either bricks or books. When he first saw the copy paper box on his desk, Mulder couldn't help but think it was some kind of mistake. They no longer keep the copier in here, they haven't kept it here in years, he thought, as he looked at the meticulously wrapped package and saw that it had no return address.

He was so distracted by the box, that he didn't notice Scully as she walked in behind him and started to go through the other mail that she had picked up on her way in. Amongst that other mail was another envelope from Bethesda Naval Hospital.

For a brief moment she was glad that Mulder didn't see the Bethesda envelope, or the envelope from Skinner's office that was marked similarly with a big red "Personal and Confidential." She was curious as to the contents of those two envelopes, but along with Mulder was slightly more curious about the box that sat atop his desk.

"What's that?" She asked as she watched him cut at the massive amounts of tape all over the box.

"I don't know, but the person who sent it wanted to make sure that it got here intact." Mulder said as he pulled at the tape, and cut at the cardboard.

Scully saw the note attached from Shipping and receiving, and proceeded to read it to him. "Agent Mulder, The content of this package was considered suspicious due to the lack of a return address and the way it was shipped. We detained the package until the proper tracing could be done. The package is considered to be safe, with the contents being books and files. The package was x-rayed and any computer items enclosed may have been altered. We are sorry about the delay in getting this to you."

"What is the date of the postmark?" Scully asked

"December 30, 1999, that's almost 6 weeks ago." Said Mulder as he looked at his watch.

"Well, we had better figure out what's inside before it waits any longer." Said Scully as she peered into the box.

The box was tightly packed with red hardbound journals loose-leaf binders and notebooks. Also enclosed in a metal box were several floppy disks and zip disks. Finally there was a small zip-lock bag of a dark green substance, labeled "Control Batch - CC-10-13." On top there was a sealed envelope addressed to Agent Fox Mulder or Agent Dana Scully.

As Mulder pawed through the contents Scully took the envelope and read the note.

Agent Mulder or Agent Scully,

I don't know if you remember me or not, but my brother, Tony Woods, was a firearms instructor whose class you both attended although Agent Scully did not finish. I had coffee with you and my brother, Agent Mulder, and I thought that maybe you could help me as I don't know whom else to turn to. I am sending you all of these files because I don't know what to do. I was on a project to build a pilot plant for small-scale production of pharmaceuticals and vitamins. In my work on this project I found some things that did not add up. It was capable of mass producing a drug in a very small area, which would be taken by the masses. It was labeled as the nutritional supplement of the future, but it was something more. It lead to improved health, increased strength, and the ability to heal wounds and cuts and illnesses at a rate 17 times faster than normal. I know this sounds like a wonder vitamin, and sounds like something we should all be taking, but that might very well be the problem. Amongst its side effects, it has the ability to alter the physiology of the brain, and make individuals much more susceptible to alternate stimuli. It also led to alterations in the blood's chemistry, alterations whose effects are not completely known. Even some of the doctors who worked on the development of the drug are baffled as to the side effects, and many have no idea how to handle the patients who have taken this drug.

They said it was a nutritional supplement but I found it to be a completely chemical drug with properties I've never heard of before. I don't even know if they are possible. I am not a doctor, I'm just a chemical engineer, so I really don't know, but if people start taking this with unknown side effects who knows what could happen.

I am bound by secrecy agreements and since I am not a doctor, I do not know all of the details, but I do know that the FDA is looking the other way and, in fact, helping to push this product to market. A hearing is set for February 15, 2000, but it is merely a formality, as the FDA doesn't approve or regulate nutritional supplements. They only monitor them, and that is only on rare occasions when it is felt that the public may be being deceived or when somebody else is involved. This hearing is because a competing pharmaceutical company (Haughey Pharmaceuticals) thinks the vitamin employs their patented product without credit or royalties being paid. I think the hearing is a ruse so that it will appear that the FDA investigated and tested this vitamin, although I can find no record of such an inspection, or release of a sample to any agency.

I cannot believe that the only thing stalling this from reaching the public is greed, when there are so many other issues involved. My questions to both the Companies involved and the FDA have gone unanswered or I have been told that I should mind my own business, as I cannot comprehend the science at hand. I have also been told that the FDA will not entertain my questions or concerns because nutritional supplements are not regulated like pharmaceuticals are.

I have enclosed all of my notes on what I found as well as some computer files that found their way to my desk. I have also enclosed all of my journals detailing the responses I received to the questions I asked. Finally I have enclosed a sample of the substance.

Maybe you can help. I don't want to just let this go. This may be nothing other than a nutritional breakthrough, but from what I have seen there is something else at hand. I would appreciate your contacting me upon receipt of this. If you choose to look into it I may be able to assist you. My business card for my home office is enclosed.

Thank You
Marie Woods

"Maybe we should start by reading it." Said Mulder a little annoyed at Scully's lack of enthusiasm.

"You can read it Mulder, as interesting as it sounds, I have some other things I need to take a look at. I will catch up with you a little later." She said as she walked out the door.

"Where are you going? You just got here." He said in disgust.

"I think I will take a walk to the reflecting pool." said Scully as she flashed the two pieces of mail at him so he could see that they were mail but not whom it was from or that it was marked "Personal & Confidential"

He just waved her off as he started rummaging through the box. He started pulling out journals and the metal box as she looked at him and walked out the door. He should have known something was wrong, but even if he did, he just let her go.

The past 5 weeks seemed tense between the two of them. Scully thought as she walked in the brisk winter air. Mulder was always pulling some wild theories out of thin air, and lately he was wrong much more often than he was right. They didn't really talk, other than to argue, and even when they tried to have a rational discussion about receipts and itemizations of expense reports it seemed that there was a coldness in the air. As much as she didn't want to admit to it, she knew it was partially her fault. She was not as willing as she used to be to just go along with his theories, not even for argument's sake. She tried a lot harder to work more reasonable hours, not staying in the office till all ungodly hours of the night like Mulder did. She tried to spend more time with her family, spending weekends with her mother instead of at the office. When her mother questioned her about her new habits, she merely told her that it was a New Years resolution, to try and lead a somewhat more normal life. She was pretty sure that her mother knew better though.

Mulder was being himself but it was her, she realized that had changed. When she stopped to think about it, she discovered that the change began almost immediately after she rejected the research position. She knew that she didn't want the position, but she wondered if she didn't subconsciously yearn for that type of a normal life. She wondered if it wouldn't have been the perfect new start for a new year and at the cusp of a new century.

It was a cold day to be sitting at the reflecting pool, but she wanted to read her mail in private. She didn't want to have to worry about Mulder staring at her and wondering what it said. She also wanted the few moments of walking to allow her to think. She walked to the far end of the pool, and found a spot on the somewhat deserted steps leading up to the Lincoln Memorial. She sat down and proceeded to tear open both the letter from Dr. Van Taylor and the envelope from Skinner's office. She opened them both, but was more interested in the one from Dr. Van Taylor. She had assumed it was the standard, "We understand that you are not interested in the position but we would still like to have you as part of our team. If you change your mind, please feel free to call." Letter.

She was wrong. She had to read the letter twice before what it said even remotely registered.

Dr. Scully

We are sorry that you were not interested in the research position that was offered to you. The prestige of this position should have lead to your acceptance, but we respect the fact that you chose to remain in your current position. However, we are in a crisis stage of the research, and we need someone of your unique talents and abilities to not only be the regional team leader but also to do a great deal of the research. We would like for you to accept this new position of your own accord, but if you choose not to do so, we have taken other measures.

We have petitioned the federal government and your superiors and requested your permanent assignment to this project. I understand this was not the most ethical of ways to get you to join our team, but we felt it was necessary in order to complete the research in a timely manner. The item we are working on will benefit many people who have no hope left, and we may be able to cure many cancers and other terminal diseases as a result of this research. We thought that you would understand once you saw the scope of what we are doing.

Again we apologize for the tactics, but please understand that it was necessary for the good of the population and the project. We are looking forward to your arrival to begin working with us, effective February 15, 2000.

Regards
Dr. Anthony Van Taylor

There was a post it note attached from Skinner. "I must say this came as something of a surprise but I wish you the best in your chosen assignment. Please see me before you leave."

Mulder sat there in shocked disbelief. He looked at Scully and watched as she fumbled with her cell phone and kept dialing other numbers. He looked at her with betrayal written all over his face. Scully was being transferred. She was being transferred, not for a short term, not on loan to another region, but she chose to be transferred permanently. She chose it without even talking to him. It wasn't that she would be far away, Bethesda Naval Hospital was only a short drive from Washington, but the point was that Skinner signed off on the transfer, effective immediately, without questioning either him or Scully. He held up the transfer papers, with the post it still attached. Mulder looked at her, making sure he got her attention, dropped the papers, and walked away. He knew things had gotten rocky between them, but he never expected this.

"Mulder, . wait. I didn't ask for this." She said as she grabbed the back of his arm. "I wouldn't leave, not now, not when there is so much more to find out. Mulder wait." She said as he pulled away and started walking back to the office. "Mulder, I am trying to straighten this out."

Mulder walked back to the office. He wanted to get his keys and drive home. He never turned to face her, even though he knew she was rushing after him. He heard the clicking of her heels against the relative silence of a cold February morning on the Mall. He wasn't thinking, he wasn't paying attention to anything other than that he had to get out of there. He had to get away from her. He was being propelled back to his office only by gut instinct and reflex. He knew she would follow, he knew that his apartment was the last place he wanted to be, and he knew she would find him there, but he couldn't stay at his office, the office they shared. She would be cleaning out the few things that were hers, at least at his apartment, he could not let her in, he could bolt the door so he wouldn't have to face her apologetic stare as she walked away from The X-Files, as she walked away from him. He was brought back to reality, if only briefly, by the horn of an angry motorist as he crossed the street. Then it was back on his journey to get home so he wouldn't have to look at her and see the betrayal.

He knew something was wrong. He knew that his relationship with Scully had been strained lately, but he didn't expect this. He didn't think she would ask for a transfer. He didn't think she would do it without at least talking to him first.

He had gone out to the mall to find her, he had wanted to talk to her. After a few moments of sifting through the voluminous amounts of information in the box, he was excited. He thought this was exactly the type of case that would bring their relationship back to what it once was. He wanted to tell her that this was a medical conspiracy of sorts. She would be doing more in this investigation than just autopsies and other clean up work for him. He wanted her to see how important her contribution was to the X-Files, and this was just the case that would show that. He wanted her to know that the X-Files was nothing without them working as a team, together.

The look of betrayal on his face was ingrained into Scully's memory as she tried to catch up with him. She knew he had not heard her. She knew he wasn't listening when she told him that she was not leaving. He saw the transfer papers and everything turned off except his feelings of betrayal. She was worried about him. She knew he would go back to the office. She knew she had to follow him, and make sure he understood that she had no intention of leaving. She had to make him understand that she was not taking this assignment, at least not without a fight.

By the time Scully got back to the office, both Mulder and the box were gone. Her first instinct was to go after him. There were only two places that he could have gone, His apartment or to see the lone gunmen. Instead though, she decided that she needed to straighten this out.

Mulder sat on his couch and stared at the far wall. It was a dreary day even by February standards, but it was made all the drearier by the knowledge that Scully was leaving and there was nothing he could do about it. He wanted to try and persuade her otherwise, but she chose this. She chose to leave, and considering their relationship of late, he couldn't say he blamed her.

For a few moments he tried to contemplate what it would be like without her. He tried to convince himself that it was the breaking in of a new partner that he dreaded the most. In the back of his mind he knew it was much more than that. He knew that he was losing his best friend.

As the moments passed, he almost wondered why Scully hadn't followed him here. He wondered why she tried to follow him back to the office but not back to his apartment. She always followed, he thought. Even, if it was just to explain why she was leaving, even if it was to say good-bye. She didn't even call, he realized as he clutched his phone.

In the end, he decided that it was easier to just accept that she was leaving and go on. He had this great lead on a case, and he wasn't going to let it go, even if his partner, the medical expert was abandoning him. He had to pull it together and accept that she had betrayed him, as everyone else had, it only took her much longer than he ever expected. Who said he ever needed her anyway?

Office of the Lone Gunmen
February 9, 2000
6:45 p.m.

Mulder thought about calling first, but decided that this was better not being discussed over cellular lines or unsecured lines. He knocked at the door and waited for a response.

"Just a second," said Frohike as he embarked on the task of unlocking all nine deadbolts and locks on and around the door. "Mulder," he said as he opened the door, "is Agent Scully accompanying you on this fine February evening?" he asked as he peered around Mulder and his box of journals and notebooks.

"Actually no, Scully will not be accompanying me," he said indifferently.

"Then where is the beautiful and enigmatic Agent Scully?"

"I don't know. She is probably still cleaning her stuff out of MY office" he said making sure he properly stressed the right words.

"Why, what happened?"

"Look, I don't want to discuss that. I have some items I want you boys to take a look at. I have a lead on something that I think needs some fast action. Can you clean your plate for a few hours to give me a hand?" He said as he saw Byers and Langly enter the room.

"Sure Mulder, but where is Scully?" asked Langly innocently.

"She asked for a transfer, and got it. All right? Now can we let the Agent Scully issue go and work on this? I really don't want to talk about it."

"Geez Mulder, lighten up." Said Langly as he looked at Byers.

Byers nodded in response, and merely said, "OK" as he walked back out of the room.

"Look I didn't come here to lament Scully's transfer. I came with some important business." He said as he pointed to the copy paper box that he placed on the table. "This package was x-rayed, and for starters I was wondering if you could open the zip disks and computer files. I don't know whether they were damaged or not. Also I was wondering if you could dig me up any information on Beech Pharmaceuticals and the research they were doing.. Specifically in the field of Neutriceuticals."

"Ah yes," said Langly, "The new wave of the future, the field of natural supplements that carry medicinal properties. The best part is that none of it has to be tested or even proven effective. All you need is someone who is willing to believe that this root will help enhance memory and this leaf will help in weight loss."

"Who sent you this Mulder?" asked Frohike as he pawed around the box looking for any other computer files.

"A woman by the name of Marie Woods, she is the younger sister of a firearms instructor who tried to enhance my capabilities."

"Woods. Woods. Woods," said Frohike as he pondered the name and recent events. "She wouldn't happen to be a chemical engineer from New Jersey, would she?"

"Yes. Yes she is. How did you know?" asked Mulder as he walked over to the computer that Frohike was now sitting at.

"Here is her obituary." said Frohike as he turned the screen so that Mulder could more fully see.

"What?" said Mulder as Scully walked in.

"Marie Woods, age 26 missing and assumed dead after an explosion February 8, 2000 at a chemical/pharmaceutical warehouse in central western Pennsylvania. She was a chemical engineer for the Bangor Advanced Technologies Group. She is survived by a brother, Anthony Woods, who is an instructor in the United States Airforce, and her parents, John and Barbara Woods, both retired. Memorial Services will be held in Clifton New Jersey on Thursday February 11, 2000." Read Frohike. "The memorial is the day after tomorrow. She sent you all of this stuff?"

"Yes," said Scully, "I didn't think she was in danger. Do we know anything else about what happened?"

"Can you guys look into this for me?" asked Mulder as he gathered up the papers "I have to make a road trip to Pennsylvania."

"We need to talk," said Scully as she followed Mulder out the door.

"There is nothing to talk about. You found something you would rather do than work on the X-Files, and I respect that. It would have been nice of you to tell me about it, but you didn't, and that is OK too. Now if you will excuse me, I have a long drive ahead of me. I wish you the best on your new assignment."

"I am coming with you. I tried to explain to you that I did not choose that assignment. In fact I refused a very generous offer because it is not what I want to do right now. I belong here with you looking into this. Trying to figure out what happened to your Sister, what happened to me, and now what happened to Marie Woods." She said as he got into his car. "I will meet you at your apartment in an hour, don't leave without me."

"What about your transfer? Skinner's paperwork said it was effective immediately. Aren't they expecting you at Bethesda?"

"I will handle Skinner, and I have a few calls in to Dr. Van Taylor at Bethesda. I am trying to straighten this out. I will see you in an hour. Besides they are not expecting me for a few days." She said as she rushed to her own car.

Mulder's Apartment
8:00 p.m.

Scully walked in with her overnight bag over one shoulder. "I am glad to see that you didn't ditch me." She said with a smirk.

"We have worked together for 6 years, and this case is more in your expertise than mine. I figured that I might be able to use your assistance on this one. Not to mention the fact that you are a better shot that me. I didn't want to piss you off just in case you were staying with the X-files." He said with a sneer.

"Well lets go. It's a long drive to Pennsylvania." Said Scully, completely ignoring Mulder's last comment but inwardly smiling at it.

Bangor Construction Site
February 10, 2000
8:47 A.M.

"Have you gotten in touch with her brother yet?" asked Scully as they crossed the state border into Pennsylvania.

"No, he hasn't returned any of the messages I left for him on base."

"I didn't know that you kept in touch with him. That course was over five years ago."

"We exchanged a few emails over the years. We had a beer last time Tony was in DC, and he kept me up to date on what his sister was doing. But he never mentioned this. I am surprised that you didn't keep in touch with him, I thought you and he got pretty close during that week of training."

"Well, I guess he and I lost touch. But either way, we can't just walk up to the scene, flash our badges, and start poking around. If this was more than just coincidence, we could be putting her family in danger."

"I haven't been able to speak with him, but if I know Tony, then he will be in Pennsylvania searching the wreckage brick by brick if he thinks there is still hope of finding his sister. I have left word with the funeral service to have Mr. and Mrs. Woods contact me. And Scully, I don't think this is just a coincidence."

"If it isn't just a coincidence, then whomever killed her was incredibly sloppy. Somebody will make the connection."

"I don't know about that Scully. I don't think that she told many people of her concerns. I would doubt that she even told her family the details. And whomever she asked questions of within the company is going to keep their mouths shut for fear that they will face a similar fate. I think their secret is pretty safe. Besides we aren't even sure that the site she died on is the same one that she was worried about."

They arrived on the site to see it was still extremely busy. There were people mulling around the parking lots, and there were still press crews on site. It seemed as though they were all waiting around, hoping that Marie would turn up alive, or at least that her body would be found. When they walked up to the trailer, they saw, as Mulder had expected, Tony sitting there.

At first Tony didn't see them as he had his face buried in his hands and was just sitting there shaking slightly.

Scully walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder, "I'm sure they will find her." She said in her most soothing tone.

Tony didn't budge, he barely even moved to acknowledge her words of concern, but there was something familiar in that voice. There was a warmth that he only knew of two people to have, one was a federal agent that he thought of as a star pupil, and the other was Marie. He was pretty sure it wasn't Marie, so he looked up to see the warm and compassionate smile of Agent Scully.

"They should have found her. They should have at least recovered her body by now." He said solemnly. "What are the two of you doing here?"

"We were in the neighborhood. and we heard what happened to Marie." Said Mulder. As he looked at Scully.

"They wouldn't let me aid in the search. They said it was too dangerous, that the structure that remained standing was too unstable. They told me there was nothing I could do." Said Tony as he put his hand over Scully's that still remained on his shoulder. "I tried to do it anyway, but they threatened to arrest me."

"It's OK, Tony, I'm sure they are doing everything they can. I am sure that they will let you know if they turn anything up." Said Scully. "Where are you staying?"

"Marie's apartment was only a few miles from here. I am staying with some of her neighbors. Faye, the secretary said I could stay with her, but Marie's neighbors are closer."

"Can we buy you dinner?" asked Scully as she noticed how bad Tony looked and that it seemed like he was rambling. "I am sure that they will contact you if anything happens."

"Come on," said Mulder as he started to walk towards the door. "Let's get out of here for a while"

Tony walked to the door begrudgingly. He followed Mulder, and Scully walked behind him with a hand at his back. He knew that there was nothing he could do, but he wanted to be there at the site when they found her. He knew that Faye would contact him if they found her.

The three of them went to the nearest restaurant that looked quiet. As they were walking in, it occurred to Tony to ask, "So what brings you out here anyway?"

"Actually, we were looking for you, and we didn't want to wait for the memorial service to talk to you." said Mulder.

"Why? Why were you looking for me? Is there some other problem?" asked Tony a little worried. Mulder and Scully may be friendly acquaintances of his, but it worried him when federal agents were looking for him.

"We were actually trying to reach Marie," said Scully. "She sent us some information that we were following up on."

"When we tried to look into the information she sent us, we stumbled upon her obituary, and the fact that they hadn't found her body. That led us here. Can you answer some questions for us Tony?" asked Mulder trying to be compassionate and failing miserably at it.

"What did Marie send you? Why would she contact you at all? Why didn't she tell me that she contacted you?"

"We just got her package today." Said Mulder. "She sent it 6 weeks ago, I am sure that she was wondering why we hadn't gotten back to her. She never told you that she was trying to contact us?"

"No" said Tony, "I don't even know why she would have felt the need to contact you. She was just a glorified secretary on this job, or at least that is what she told me." He continued as a tear streamed down his face.

"She had some concerns over a substance that was being tested and marketed for the general public. She never said anything to you about it?" asked Scully as she took Tony's hand. Normally the emotions of the people she interviewed did not have this strong of an effect on her, but Tony was a friend. Tony was someone who helped them in the past. In fact Tony seemed like the kind of person who would help anyone. He was just that type of person. It was a shame that Tony lost a sister to something senseless, and she found herself thinking of Melissa as she tried to comfort him.

"This job." Mulder cut in, "I thought she was transferred off of this job. Why was she here if she was transferred?"

"She was on this job for almost 2 years." Began Tony as he stared at his hands and a small piece of rubble from the accident that he was playing with. "When she was transferred, she felt that she had not finished what she needed to do as far as getting all of the files together and in a presentable format. Bangor sent some other people to finish, as they felt that they had more important things for her to do in the home office. She was asked by the client to come back for about a week or two to just tidy things up and finish. She didn't want to come back to this job, as she said it was extremely stressful, but she would never say no to the folks she worked for. She was too dedicated for that and she didn't want to leave a job undone. She used to say that she had to work twice as hard as anyone else in her group, since she was the only woman engineer. She was just home this past weekend. She said things were going well, and that she would be done by today. She said she would be home tomorrow. She felt that she had proven herself, and that things would get easier from this point on. She had taken the rest of the week off to spend time with the family and her boyfriend." Said Tony as the tears began to freely fall from his face, and he continued to play with the piece of concrete. "Now she is gone, and I don't even have her body to take home."

"Is there anything else you can tell us about the work she did? Did she have any friends on site that we can talk to?" asked Mulder as he watched Scully comforting Tony.

"She loved her job, she said it wasn't really glamorous, and that it would never make much of a difference in the world, but in her own way, she thought she was helping people. She really wanted to make a difference." he said, putting the rock down and looking up at them, with tears again beginning to fall from his eyes.

As they sat in the diner and their food came, Mulder's cell phone shrilled to life. He answered it to the sound of Frohike's voice.

"Mulder."

"Mulder, this is Frohike. I think you are going to want to get back here right away, and bring Scully with you. You have to see what we turned up, and even then I don't know that you will believe it."

"What is it?" asked Scully

"We have a memorial service to attend in the morning. What do you have?" said Mulder into the phone.

"Trust me, you need to see this. I'm sure that you can get back in time for the service. Oh and by the way, Langly has an idea he would like to pursue. Can you get any of the wreckage from near where the blast center of the explosion was?"

"I will see what I can do. We will get there as soon as possible. Thanks" finished Mulder as he pressed the end button on his phone.

Scully looked at him with a puzzled expression, "What is it Mulder?"

"We need to get back to DC as soon as possible." He then turned to Tony, as he grabbed his coat. "Tony, I am sorry about Marie. We will be in touch, and we will do our best to make the memorial service in the morning."

Scully grabbed her coat as well, and as she gave Tony's shoulder a final parting squeeze, she promised that they would be in touch.

The ride to drop Tony off back at the site was a quiet one. Scully spent most of the time staring at Mulder waiting and wondering what transpired on that phone call that had them rushing back to DC.

Tony sat in the back seat staring off into space, and Mulder drove without so much as a word.

As soon as Tony stepped out of the car, Mulder handed Scully the piece of rubble that Tony was playing with. "Could you please bag that Scully?"

"What is it Mulder, why did you blow him off like that? Why are we going back to DC now?"

Before she could finish, Mulder cut her off. "It was Frohike, he said that we needed to get back to DC to see what they have discovered. He said that even if we saw it we would probably not believe it. I have a feeling that I know what they found." Said Mulder as he briefly looked away from the road to steal a glance at Scully. "Tony knows he may be in danger. He's Military, he knows that there is no such thing as an unannounced friendly visit from a pair of federal agents. He knew from the moment he heard your voice that he was in danger, and trust me, he will take the appropriate actions to ensure his safety and that of those around him."

"What do you think they found Mulder?" asked Scully as the wheels in her mind began turning. "Was Marie abducted by little gray men?" she asked exasperated by the lack of information that he was volunteering.

"Now you are starting to think along more reasonable lines." He said as he stole another glance at her now annoyed face.

"Reasonable??? What????"

"Lets just wait and see what the boys have to say." Said Mulder with a smile curling at the corners of his lips. This was just like old times, before their recent lack of communication. He was going to miss this type of banter; he was going to miss his partner.

"So you aren't going to give me your theory?" said Scully exasperated yet again. She knew that this was like old times, and she saw that Mulder was trying to enjoy it before it all came to an end.

"No. I want to wait and see if the gunmen confirm it for me. Besides you might believe them, I doubt you will believe me."

Office of the Lone Gunmen
11:21 P.M.

They looked around the dark area that the gunmen called home, and saw some items that had not been there the day before. There was an isolation apparatus, with a glovebox and a few other pieces of scientific and lab equipment. Mulder picked up the gas mask and some of the other items that were lying around.

"Where did you get the new toys?" he asked as he played with a personal respirator.

"Just some old things that we dusted off out of storage." Said Frohike as he took the respirator from Mulder's hand.

"Government Surplus and fire sales at biotech facilities that went belly up are wonderful things." Said Langly cheerfully.

"We decided to isolate the substance and break it down." Said Byers "We did some testing on it, with the aid of a bio-nerd friend out of MIT. Mulder, take a look at this." He said as he led him to a computer monitor that held a somewhat familiar looking molecule.

"Hey Mulder, does that look familiar?" asked Langly as he hit a few keys on the keyboard.

Mulder looked at it, with Scully at his side, and his chin nearly dropped. "That can't be," he said not believing what he saw. "Scully, take a look at this."

She took one look, and all she could say was two words, "Purity Control"

"They found a way to distribute it to the masses." Said Mulder. "Marie had reason to be worried, and she didn't even know why."

"I don't understand Mulder? Why are they doing this? What is their motivation to expose the population to this?"

"I don't know, Scully. I don't know why they are trying to hybridize the population."

"Hey Mulder do you have that piece of rubble I requested" asked Langly as he adjusted the glasses on his face.

Scully took the bagged piece of concrete out of her pocket and handed it to him. "What did you want that for?"

"I think he's playing a hunch Scully," said Mulder.

"How close to the blast center was this taken from?" asked Langly.

"I don't know." Said Mulder, "The way Marie's brother was holding and fondling it, I would assume it was as close as he could get. I didn't want to flash federal credentials to try and get any closer. Everyone is already in enough danger."

He took the rock and put it into the isolation box, he smashed it up, and started to analyze what he was looking at. He continued to examine it as Byers asked a few more questions.

"Mulder, don't you think it was weird that there was nobody else in the vicinity of the blast when it happened?" asked Byers.

"It occurred at lunchtime. The construction crews were in their designated areas eating lunch." Said Scully wondering what they were getting at.

"You mean to tell me that Marie was the only person working at lunch time?" asked Frohike.

"What are you getting at guys?" asked Mulder starting to get annoyed. He was tired and it was well after midnight. "Could you just cut to the chase, we have to be on the road a couple of hours if we want to make that memorial service."

"I think you can call it off," said Langly as he looked up from the microscope.

"What do you mean?" asked Scully.

"He means that Marie wasn't there. It was a clone, wasn't it Langly?" asked Mulder

"How could you know that?" asked Scully incredulously.

"Do you remember the substance you found on your shoe right around the time you found this whole purity control thing?" asked Langly rhetorically. "That same substance is all over this rock. I would guess that the flooring that this came from was within 30 feet of the rapidly decaying body. They will never find Marie's body, because Marie wasn't there."

"But they could have been producing this substance in that facility, or. it was a warehouse, maybe they were storing it there. How could you be so sure that this is something else?" Asked Scully

"It was a facility that was still under construction." Said Frohike "The accident reports and the information given to local police and fire departments all state that the space was empty. There was supposedly nothing in that area other than construction supplies. Last I heard they were still baffled as to what caused the accident."

"They are going to be baffled for a while, but as long as they are still looking for a body, that should distract them from any potentially damning findings." Said Byers. I am sure that it will be a long time before they simply rule that it was a faulty valve on a welding gas bottle and let it go from there."

"Won't somebody notice if they never find a body?" she asked.

"I am sure they will eventually find a body that is so badly destroyed from being at ground zero that they will declare it hers without much of an identification process." Said Langly.

"They will find a body Scully, it just wont be Marie's" said Mulder as he grabbed his jacket. "We have to hit the road Scully, if we are going to make that memorial service in 5 hours."

Scully walked to the car, with Mulder's hand in its familiar place at the small of her back. She didn't believe any of what she was just told, but at this point, she didn't know what else to believe. She also had something else running through her mind. She was enjoying this. Mulder was treating this as if it would be their last case together, and for once she was almost an equal. He wasn't ditching her as he went off to look into something, and he didn't relegate her to only reading the information that was sent. What if this transfer could not be cancelled, what if, when Mulder found out she was back, things reverted back to the way it was before, what if the transfer was what she really wanted. Her head was reeling as she leaned her head against the window and fell asleep as Mulder started the five-hour drive to northern New Jersey.

St. Andrews Church Rectory
February 11, 2000
11:21 A.M.

Scully gently squeezed Tony Woods' shoulder. He had been through a lot and was not doing all that well. At some point during the service he decided to let his emotions show and the tears fell freely from his eyes.

"It was a beautiful Service." Said Scully as she tried to offer some comfort.

The memorial ran almost four hours as people spoke of the things that Marie did for them, and how she helped them in some insignificant way that really meant a lot to them. There were moments when Scully couldn't help but smile at the things people said. Marie was the kind of person that Scully would have liked to know. She seemed like she would have been a great friend and confidante in some of Scully's worst times.

"Thank you." said Tony. "I am sure that Marie would have liked it. She would have been surprised at who and how many people turned out to pay their respects, and how much of a difference she made in some of their lives. We videotaped it. I want to bury it with her if they ever find the body"

"I am sure that she would have been very pleased." Said Scully. I wish I had the chance to meet her."

"You would have liked her Scully. You shared many qualities." Said Tony.

Mulder stood there and watched. He spent much of the service surveying the attendees and looking for anyone who might have not belonged there. They decided on the ride that they would not tell the family that Marie might still be alive until they were more certain. They didn't feel the need to put the family in any more danger than they already were. The less they knew the less chance of them getting hurt. Tony knew though, or at least Tony seemed to know that something wasn't quite right.

His excuse for the taping was good, but in the back of his mind, Mulder knew that Tony would spend hours pouring over the tape. He would check the names of everyone who signed in, seeing who was there. He would pour over the tapes looking for the person who did this to his little sister. That was a danger in and of itself, but there was nothing Mulder could do to stop that other than let him know that he and Scully were doing everything in their power to find out what happened. Tony would never accept this to be an accident, especially without a body. It didn't help any that Tony was as paranoid as they come, and the moment Scully told him that Marie was concerned about something at work, he would assume that this wasn't an accident.

Scully wanted to tell Tony that there was a chance that Marie was alive. She wanted to give him some hope and end his anguish. The problem was that they were still not sure. She couldn't decide what would be worse, for Tony to assume his sister was dead without a body, or to spend his life thinking she was alive and searching for her. It made sense that Mulder didn't want to tell him. Mulder didn't want Tony to spend the rest of his life on a quest to find his sister that was quite possibly futile.

As they left the Rectory and headed over to the repast at the Woods home, Tony turned to Scully. He stared her straight in the eyes with a cold and deadly stare. "Agent Scully, Marie is still alive, isn't she?" he asked with anger seeping from his voice.

Scully was taken aback by his question. She looked over to find Mulder but he was too far ahead with his long strides to have heard the question or even notice that Tony stopped her. She didn't know what to tell him. She didn't want to lie to this man, who had been through so much, not unlike what she had been through in losing a sister. She also didn't want to get his hopes up based on the wild theories of her partner and the lone gunmen. Tony had put her in a bad position, not giving her the opportunity to consult Mulder, and not giving her more than a few breaths of time to give him an answer. He had put her in a bad position, and he knew it.

Without having the luxury of time to think about it, and needing to give him an answer, Scully took a deep breath and spoke. "Tony, I know what you are going through. I lost my sister a couple of years ago. I also know that Mulder can sympathize with you, he lost his sister over 20 years ago. I honestly don't know if Marie is still alive. As long as they haven't recovered a body, there is always hope, but a handful of people saw her go into that building minutes before it collapsed. I think it is only a matter of time before they find her. I'm sorry Tony, I wish I could tell you otherwise."

"Thank you Scully. I appreciate your honesty. Do you think that what she sent you had anything to do with her. her .. Her passing?" he asked as he began walking towards the car.

"I don't know Tony, I don't even know if what she was concerned about is even true. Besides it is going to take time before we can finish sifting through it all and investigating it. We will do what we can to figure this all out." She said as she quickened her pace to catch up with Mulder.

The Woods Family Home
February 11, 1999
12:00 p.m.

The repast was similar to the service in that there were more people there than anybody imagined, and they kept speaking of Marie's greatness and that her passing was a waste. There were the philosophers amongst the group that were certain that she was in a better place, and that god had some greater duty for Marie than what she could do in this world. Mulder spent the time continuing to try and find the person who didn't belong. Scully was introduced to the rest of the family, and many of Marie's and Tony's friends. One of whom slipped Scully a motel business card during their handshake.

On the back it said:

Come alone. I have information for you. 11:30 p.m. - don't dress like a Fed.

Scully put the card in her pocket in a swift movement that insured that nobody saw her put it there. She didn't want to put this person in any further danger, than she already was by virtue of her friendship with Marie, and she was still working on the site.

The two of them tried to get more information from the attendees, they wanted to know who was working on the site. They wanted to know who Marie's friends were, and if there was anyone that she might have told her concerns to. The problem was that they had to try and get this information without anyone knowing that they were FBI Agents. They couldn't even tell the family, other than Tony, for fear that it might get back to the people who were responsible for this.

"I guess Marie was good at keeping information and her concerns to herself." Said Mulder as they headed to their hotel. "I just cannot believe that she accessed all of this information, and liberated the sample and the computer files alone."

"Yes, she did seem to keep to herself, but ." said Scully as she reached into her pocket and handed him the card, "somebody knows what is going on."

"You can't go alone Scully. What if this is some kind of a trap to try and figure out what we are up to? What if they want to hurt you to keep us from getting to the truth?" asked Mulder with concern.

"I don't think that is the case Mulder. I was introduced to the woman who gave me the card. It is the Project Secretary, Faye Blurry. I think she might be able to help us to get to the bottom of this. I just think she is afraid. Maybe she knows more than we think."

"OK.. Just make sure you take your cell phone with you, and your weapon, and I wont be too far behind." Said Mulder as he glanced at his watch. I have some reading to do, and some calls to make. Do you want to get together for dinner?"

"I have to see if Skinner has gotten anywhere with reversing this transfer myself, and I want to see if the boys came up with anything further on the substance CC-10-13. I will meet you in your room at 7:30, we can get dinner then." She said as she got out of the car and walked to the trunk to get her overnight bag.

Peter Pan Motel Parking Lot
11:30 p.m.

As she parked her car, Scully saw Faye drive up in a little red Ford Probe.

"Come on, I want to do some driving." Said the red haired woman. "I never let Marie drive when we went anywhere. Her driving scared me, and I like to be in control.. But mostly her driving scared me." Said Faye as a smile crept across her face. "I wore the hat, because I figured that two red headed woman would definitely stand out," she said as she pointed to the hat that said "Trust No One"

"I like the hat, I should get one for my partner. That is his motto in life." Said Scully as she tried to calm Faye, who was obviously very nervous.

"I am sorry that I could not just tell you at Marie's house, but I didn't want anyone to see that I was talking to you. My husband is afraid that they might come after me." Said Faye, talking a little faster than necessary.

"How did you know I was a federal Agent?" asked Scully

"I saw you when you were consoling Anthony on the site yesterday. He told me that you and Your Partner.. Mildew.was it?" she asked taking a brief pause.

"Oh you mean Mulder," Scully said with a chuckle as she corrected her.

"Oh sorry, you and your Partner Mulder were FBI agents. Old friends of his. He didn't want to tell me who you were, but he eventually caved in. I guess he thought I was trustworthy enough, and he was pretty exhausted. I don't think he told anyone else though. He said that Marie sent you some stuff. I stopped him at that. I didn't want to know any more. I already knew once he told me your name."

"So you know what was going on?"

"You have had the files and stuff for a couple of weeks now, is Marie right? Are you going to be able to stop this?"

"We only got the files a couple of days ago. The package was delayed first in the mail and then in the Bureau's mailroom. We have barely had a chance to even look at the majority of the items in the box. We were researching it when we stumbled upon Marie's obituary."

"Did you get the package that was sent to you a few days later? She saw your name as a filename, and she wasn't sure it was you, but it triggered her thinking of Agent Mulder, so she sent the stuff to the two of you. A couple of days later she told me that she saw your name in a few of the most recent entries. She was sure it was you, Dana Katherine Scully MD. So she sent you a package containing a disk with all of the files she was able to get as well as a hard copy of them. She said she sent it to your office at Quantico, since that was the only address she was able to get, and she wanted you to see it before your partner did."

"No, I never got anything from Marie addressed to me. If it went to Quantico, it should have been forwarded to me in Washington. Maybe it was held up in the mail room as well?" Scully said as she tried to think of what could have happened.

"I think I have a copy of the disk back at the hotel. Marie was wondering why you and your partner never contacted her. She said that maybe Mulder would not see this as an X-File, but when you saw what she sent you, you would have dragged him with you to investigate this. When you leave tomorrow for Washington, you will find the disk tapped to the underside of the bumper of your car."

"What did the file say?"

"I don't know. I never opened the files Marie gave me for safekeeping. I just told her when the server was updated. I thought it was funny at first, I thought Marie was delusional. I had never met anyone who was as paranoid as she was. I knew that she was having a hard time with some of the folks we worked with, both from Bangor and from Beech. At first, they used to talk to me about her. Tell me that she was asking questions that a young snot nosed project engineer from a construction management company had no business asking. They would say that she was not doing her job, that she was being paid too much, things like that. The standard office gossip and complaining. Every now and again though Beech's project manager would yell at Bangor's project manager that he needed to shut her up. They needed to stop her from nosing around. First they took away her modem time, but she found a way around that. Then they didn't allow her to speak to anybody but the senior Project engineer. Then they demoted her to only filing. Then the thing happened with her jeep, and her apartment was ransacked, and Bangor's management decided that they needed to get her off of this site, for her own good. They decided that it was unsafe for her to be living out there all alone. Or at least that is the story that I heard."

"So they were the ones who robbed her apartment?" asked Scully.

"Well I don't know. Bangor just decided that they didn't want her to be in this area because it was so unsafe. She was the only woman in her department, and sometimes they treated her like she was a frail and weak woman. I couldn't believe that they would move her for that reason. I have worked with this company for years, and a person's wellbeing was never very high on their list."

"What did Marie find?" asked Scully, fascinated by the whole story, but wanting to cut to the chase.

"Like I said, I never really looked at what she did, and I took most of what she said with a grain of salt, but she found out that the vitamin that they were supposedly going to use this facility for was not exactly what they said it was. She found files that detailed the transformation that a person would go through after prolonged use. She discovered that it seemed like they were using the guise of a vitamin to hide it from the FDA, but instead the FDA suggested that route so that it would be more appealing to the masses. She found files on the people who served as the initial test subjects many of them completely unaware. She said that they were fed it intravenously in high doses for a week or two then monitored regularly by being kidnapped. None of those people ever remembered where they might have been for the time they were missing. When people started to remember using hypnosis or whatever, they started taking the homeless, and even prisoners in a few cases."

"So Marie had proof of all of this?" asked Scully, not quite sure whether to believe this woman or not.

"She had computer files. She also had studies of people who were terminally ill, some with cancer, who were used as test subjects. Those people all got better, very quickly. But they had to be terminated. Their body chemistry had become alien and toxic. Exposure of their blood to air led to toxic fumes."

"Where were these studies done?"

"That particular study was done right in your back yard, in Arliss Maryland I think. Marie found that they had found a way to adjust the properties of the substances, prolonging the time it took for changes to take place. They could slow down the transformation by years, and create a population that was basically manipulable to what ever they wanted. Like I said I though Marie was nuts when she came up with all of this. I thought she had spent too much time on those government conspiracy web sites. I thought maybe she was watching a few too many episodes of Star Trek, or that this was just science fiction that she was dreaming up in her head. This is all science fiction, right?.. Agent Scully?... None of this is possible.. Right?"

"I don't know Faye, I need to see what is in those files. I have one question though. If you never read the files, or really listened to Marie when she was telling you about this then why do you seem to know so much now?"

"I never thought they would bring Marie back to the site. There was too much bad blood between Beech and her, but somebody convinced them that she was the only person who could finish the files. When she called to say that she was coming back, I did some downloading from the server. I wanted to give her the files to see if there was anything that she needed to know before she got here. I gave the files to Brian Couldon, someone who worked with her. I guess he read the files, and told me not to let her out of my sight while she was here. He said we would take turns watching her. Apparently one of the files, one that Brian gave me a copy of shortly after the explosion, was a detailed description of Marie's unfortunate accident. So then I read some of the other files, and well that was when I decided that I needed to talk to you."

"I don't understand how you got the file. Nobody would put something like that on a readily accessible server. Nobody could be that stupid." Said Scully, believing less of this incredible story with each moment.

"My computer ran the back up. I had access to everything, even the private folders, and the encrypted server. They thought I was too computer illiterate to know how to access any of it."

"Didn't they know that you and Marie were friends, and that Marie would be able to figure it out?"

"I don't know. I know they knew we were acquaintances, but I am not a people person, I would just not talk to anyone if I didn't have to. It was weird that I was able to be friends with Marie, since I just really don't like people. I know that they knew I didn't like people. Maybe they didn't think I would have given her access. I don't know. "

"Thank you for all of your assistance." Said Scully as she noticed they were turning back into the parking lot. "By the way, where can I find this Brian Couldon?"

"I am really surprised that he didn't come to the memorial. He works for Bangor, though. If you call their main number, I am sure they can put you in touch with him. I will have that disk under your bumper by the time you leave your hotel in the morning. Oh and Agent Scully, thank you. I hope you can put a stop this."

"We will look into it. Where can I find you if I have any further questions?"

"I don't know that you will be able to find me. My husband is extremely paranoid, in fact this is his hat. He thinks that we should get out, get away, just in case Beech comes looking for me. Whatever we haven't sold off is already packed. We are leaving the day after tomorrow."

"Where are you going to go?"

"I don't know, most likely somewhere out west, where there is less humidity. Someplace where the cost of living is cheaper, and nobody knows who we are, where we can start all over again." Said Faye as she pulled up around the back of the bar. "Good luck, Agent Scully. I will be rooting for ya."

"Thank you for all of your help. Good luck, where ever you end up." Said Scully as she got out of the car and walked towards her car.

Darkened Warehouse
Somewhere in the Continental US.

It was dark. It was cold. The wood floor was damp. Marie had no idea where she was. She didn't know if it was day or night, or what day it might even have been. She was awake, or at least she thought she was. She didn't really know because she couldn't see. She sincerely hoped that this was a dream, but as realization hit her and her last memory of being in the warehouse came back into focus she knew that this was no dream. The side of her head stung and she smelled the distinct odor of dried blood. As consciousness started to come through the cloudy haze of darkness that occupied her mind, she realized that she was blindfolded. She realized that she was in pain, but she could not scream out. She inhaled to scream, but instead ended up gasping. She was having a hard time breathing. She couldn't feel her left arm. There was a dull ache in her left leg until she tried to move it, and found the pain to be excruciating. So excruciating in fact that before she knew it, her body decided that the moment of consciousness wasn't worth the pain, and mercifully she was unconscious again.

Brian sat at the small desk he had set up in the darkened trailer. He used a flashlight to work on the paperwork he needed to complete so he could get off this job. He knew that he should be in the trailer complex or aiding in the attempt for the project team to get back to normalcy. He didn't want to leave Marie alone though. He knew that she was in bad shape, but at the moment there was nothing he could do about it. He made the decision to get her out of the warehouse even though he was repeatedly told to not interfere with Marie's work. He needed to get her to a hospital, but he couldn't utilize any of the local ones because they were all tied in with the PhD's in research and development at the facility. He needed to help her. He needed to get her some medical attention as she was bleeding and he had no idea of the extent of her injuries. But at the moment he couldn't get her out of the situation he had gotten her into. He believed that he would help her live, and that was better than the alternative offered by the people who owned the warehouse.

Brian had followed her to the warehouse. He was a Senior Technical Engineer with Bangor Advanced Technologies, and he had been charged with Marie's professional development since she began with the company. He had always tried to keep her involved in different things. He had always tried to make sure that she was learning something at every turn. When he discovered what was going on at this job site, he pushed for Marie's transfer. He knew that she had found something big, and he knew her personality. He knew that she would only get hurt as she tried to help. He wanted her off the job before she got really hurt. No matter how many times he told her, she never learned to keep her mouth shut. He had not envisioned that they would try and kill her. He never thought it would go that far.

She told him she was going to the warehouse. He was only a minute or so behind her, since he didn't want her going anywhere alone. He slipped into the back entrance, when he heard what sounded like a slow leak from a gas cylinder. He grabbed her arm, and told her there was something she needed to look at outside. She followed him out of the warehouse, but left her inspection binder inside. She was going back for it when the building collapsed all around her.

The first person he saw, he thought was her, it was her face, or so he thought, until he saw the body start to decay into a mass of green slime. For a moment he thought that maybe she wasn't in there, that maybe she got out. Then he saw her, lying amongst the rubble. At first he feared that she was dead, until he heard her gasp his name and whimper in pain before she was unconscious.

He spent a few moments digging her out until she was uncovered enough that he could drag her to safety. The structure was unstable, and he didn't want to risk leaving her there to find help, lest she be buried even deeper. He dragged her outside and behind the structure as he waited for help to arrive.

He had not intended to hide her. He only wanted to get her help, but when help was slow in arriving, very slow, he decided that he would have to do something. Fifteen minutes later he had her tucked away in a storage trailer when the first sirens of help started to arrive. They spent most of the start of the rescue effort surveying the damage to the nearby facility. They made it seem like they had no idea anyone was in there. It was lunchtime and it was a union job, so they figured that everyone was safely in their area eating lunch. It wasn't until a craftsman told them he saw a woman enter the warehouse that they even started to try and look for her. And then they took their time. Brian was sure that even if he told them that she was inside, and he told them where she was, she would have certainly died as they took their time to find her.

He did his best to control the bleeding and to immobilize the appendages he was sure were broken. The construction safety courses and emergency medical training that Bangor had subjected him to left him still woefully unprepared for anything like this. Then he had to clean himself up so that they would not know he was near the explosion or that he dragged Marie from it. Luckily she was in an area where he could drag her out of the rubble and to the trailer without being seen. He didn't want to blindfold her, in fact he didn't mean to, he only wanted to stop the bleeding above her eye, and to keep the dirt, blood, and whatever else was in that warehouse from further harming her. After he thought about it though, it was probably a better idea to blindfold her. He didn't know if the bright flash of the explosion had done any damage, and he didn't know if he wanted her to know it was him who was holding her in this trailer.

The day of the explosion, and the next he could not get her out of there. He worried that there was internal bleeding, and he was afraid that she was bleeding to death but he knew that if he tried to do anything, not only would her life be in further danger, but his would be as well. There were too many people around until all hours, including a man that looked familiar from a picture Marie once showed him. He wanted to get the man's attention so he could tell him that Marie was alive. He wanted to tell the two well-dressed people that the man was talking to that she was not dead, that she desperately needed medical attention, but he could not. How would he explain it? How would he tell them that he only did this to help her? In the end he didn't tell anyone. He just waited. He spent the time in the dark trailer doing work, hoping that he would be ready the first chance he got to get Marie out of there.

He was going to drive her to her home. Maybe a hospital up there would be able to take care of her. Maybe her family would appreciate what he did. When he thought about it though, he figured that if they wanted her dead, they would be keeping tabs on what was going on up there. He was sure that even they were wondering why they had not found a body.

As he sat and thought about the events, he wasn't sure what was going on. He remembered the body that was decaying, but he didn't know what it was, or what it was doing in there. Eventually he decided to forget about that other "thing". It was probably a hallucination anyway. He was certain that nobody would believe him if he tried to explain that one. None of that mattered anyway, he would try and figure it out later, after Marie was safe.

Mulder's Apartment

Sunday February 14, 2000
11:21 a.m.

Mulder stood in his apartment violently bouncing a basketball. Something didn't add up. They went through all of the journals. They went through all of the documentation that was sent to them, but something was missing. Something was missing other than Marie's body. After all of the reading Mulder had come to a conclusion. A conclusion that he was even a little worried about sharing with Scully. He knew it was off the wall, but it was the best he could do. He was certain that Marie Woods was nowhere near the explosion when it happened. He was certain that the traces of residue that were found on the stone that Tony recovered were the remains of a clone. A clone of Marie. The question was, where was the real Marie, and how were they going to find her? He paced around his tiny apartment continuing to dribble the basketball when his phone chirped to life.

"Hello?"

"Mulder, it's me. I think I found something. Meet me at the Gunmen's." said Scully.

"I'll be right there." Was his reply as he grabbed his jacket and ran out the door.

He knew there was something missing in this whole picture, and he hoped that Scully had found it. They were running out of time to find conclusive proof that the FDA should not allow this product to be sold.

Scully had found the disk that was taped to the rental car. It was exactly where Faye said it would be. In a single swift motion Scully removed the disk from its hiding place and had it in the pocket of her lap top bag so that nobody would notice, not even Mulder.

She now sat in her apartment and opened the files. The first file was a listing of women's names, along with catalog numbers. Amongst the names, when she took a quick cursory glance, were; Betsy Hagopian , Penny Northern, and hidden amongst the S's, her name. This file was nothing new to her though, she had seen it before, when Albert Hosteen cracked the Navajo code. She could not open any of the other files.

After a little more digging, Scully thought she had found it. She found inconsistencies in the molecule. She found unidentifiable compounds that could not be broken down into any elemental form. She found that there was no known way to make this compound. It was a nutritional supplement, supposedly all natural, but there wasn't a single solitary atom of carbon in it. There was no Nitrogen. There was no oxygen. A mass spec report that she had run by the gunmen showed unidentified peaks. This compound was getting stranger by the moment. After careful analysis of the various reports from the gunmen and her pile of stuff from the package Marie sent, she couldn't find reason not to put this product on the market. She was getting frustrated. All she found were problems with the chemistry. Without further real reports from the clinical trials she was at a loss. She was going through the last journal when she found it. A couple of pieces of microfiche were taped to some pages in the middle of the journal.

Early Sunday morning Brian finally got the opportunity to get Marie out of the trailer. It was raining and it was just past dawn when he pulled up to the trailer. This would have to be the day when he got her out of there, whether he had been seen her or not, this was it. Her periods of consciousness were getting further apart, and her pulse and breathing had slowed. Considering how dreary the weather was, it was going to be easier than he thought. He pulled his minivan up to his favorite parking spot, at the back of the trailer and opened the back door. When he stepped into the trailer, and saw the paleness of Marie's face, he was afraid that he had waited to long. He was afraid that his efforts to help Marie had inadvertently killed her. He carefully walked up to her body, and touched her face. She was burning up. He knew he had to get her to a hospital, now it was more critical than ever. She was not doing well and he knew it, he thought about just taking his chances with getting her to a local hospital and registering her under a different name, but he knew in the back of his mind that that would be her end. He had to take her somewhere else. He carefully lifted her body, and put her in the back seat of the van. He needed to take her someplace safe that wasn't to far away so he took her to the closest jobsite that he had friends on. He was going to take her to Rockville Maryland. They both had friends there that would be willing to help. It was going to be a fairly long drive, four hours or so, he was hoping that she would make it.

As the drive proceeded along, Marie stayed mercifully unconscious, and except for a few grunts and moans when he first moved her, she was quiet. Brian felt the need to check on her every so often to make sure that she was alive. He was almost there, when he heard her start to cough and gasp from the back. He looked over and saw a stream of blood dripping from the corners of her mouth. He was trying to tilt her head so that she wouldn't choke on the blood when he heard the crash.

Smoke was streaming from his radiator, and the tail end of the car in front of him was not in such great shape. When he smelled the gasoline he knew that he was in trouble. He left Marie in the back of the minivan and raced to the driver's side door of the Oldsmobile Intrigue. He saw a woman who looked vaguely familiar slightly slumped over the steering wheel airbag. She had a small cut over her left eye as though she had banged her head on the side window. She appeared to be disoriented but trying to get out of the car. Brian helped her out of the car, and then went back for Marie.

The fresh air was exactly what Scully needed. She wasn't quite sure what happened, other than that somebody had rear-ended her. When the air bags discharged she knew she was hit harder than she had at first thought. Her head hurt, and the gas from the airbag was getting to her when somebody pulled her from the car. He pretty much dragged her to the side of the road, apologizing profusely all the way. Then he was gone, he had gone back to his vehicle, to get somebody else out, she thought.

Marie had been banged around pretty badly as a result of the jolt. As he struggled to get her out of the car, he silently chastised himself for driving so close to the bumper of the car in front of him. He was in trouble, and he knew it. He would have to explain to the police what he was doing with a person who was in such a state in his car. He would be forced to explain what had happened. When the folks in Pennsylvania were informed that Marie was found, he would have not only endangered himself and his family, but he would be sealing the fate of Marie. He thought about trying to continue on, and take both Marie and the other driver to the hospital, but his radiator was leaking so badly that he knew he wouldn't get very far.

Scully watched from a slight distance away, as this man struggled to get someone out of the car. By this time she had regained her composure and was starting to call the police, when she saw all of the blood on his shirt. She put her phone down and rushed to his aid. There was somebody in his vehicle who was badly hurt, and her oath as a doctor compelled her to help.

When she stood to rush to his aid, it became apparent that it would not be as easy as she had originally thought. A wave of dizziness overtook her, but she continued on. She had to help.

Brian was startled when he felt the hand of the woman reach around to help him lift Marie. "You should really be sitting down Miss. That is a pretty nasty gash on your forehead. You probably have a concussion. Please just sit down and hopefully help will come soon."

"I'll be alright.. We need to get her out. I am a doctor. Let me see what I can do to help." Said Scully as she looked at a woman, who was obviously suffering from injuries that were from more than a simple rear ending accident. "What's her name? What happened to her?""

"Marie." said Brian as he started to realize where he had seen this woman before. This was Marie's brother's friend, or one of them. "We were in an accident. That's what happened to her. I hit your car." He finished as he began to panic that this woman would recognize him. "Who are you?

"Dana Scully." She said as she gave Marie a cursory examination. "She isn't breathing," she noticed as she went to check her pulse. "I need to know what happened to her, it looks like she has some broken ribs and god only knows what else. I cannot help her if I don't know what happened. My phone is by my jacket on the side of the road, get it and call for help." She yelled as she began CPR.

Brian dutifully ran and got the phone. He picked it up and dialed 9-1-1 as he noticed the badge lying open on the ground next to where her jacket was laying. When he recognized her at first, he thought he would come clean with her. This was a friend of her family. She would surely help protect them. When he saw the federal badge he thought otherwise. What if she knew what was going on? What if she was only a friend of the family for convenience sake?

"Did you hear me?" Scully asked frustrated. "I said that I cannot help her if I don't know the extent of her injuries. I know this is not a result of the accident. What the hell happened to this woman?" she again asked as she heard the sirens blare in the distance.

"I can't tell you what happened. I don't know. I just picked her up from a deserted road, and was trying to get her help. "

Scully glanced over at the license plates of the car, as she was becoming more frustrated with this man. When she saw the Pennsylvania plates, then she took a closer look at the injuries and the woman's face. There was something very familiar about her face. This woman was in an explosion," she said as she wiped some of the concrete dust off the woman's forehead. Suddenly she knew. "This is Marie Woods, isn't it?" When she didn't get an answer she knew she was right. "Look sir, If this is Marie Woods, then you are going to have to trust someone. I will help you. I will make sure that nobody hurts her."

"You were on the site. You were talking to her brother. You have to help her. If she dies then we all may die. You can't possibly understand how important what she knows is."

As she was about to try and allay his fears, the ambulance pulled up. She turned to him , "I don't know who you are, and at the moment I don't care. These people are going to ask you questions. Don't say a word. Just keep your head in your hands and act distraught. Do you understand me?"

He nodded and put his head in his hands.

The paramedics loaded Marie, Scully, and Brian into the ambulance, and took them to the nearest hospital.

Lone Gunmens Offices

Mulder was pacing around the office. "She should have been here by now. She should have been here." He kept trying her cell phone, but she didn't answer. It just kept ringing. He was starting to fear the worst, when his phone rang.

"Mulder."

"Mulder, its me. I need you to come to Georgetown Medical center right away."

"What's wrong? Are you alright?" he asked as he grabbed his jacket and ran to his car.

"Just get here. Now."

"I'm on my way."

Mulder was worried. She had called him, and she sounded OK, at least it wasn't the hospital calling him. He wondered what had happened, but he decided to wait and see what she had to say as he raced to the hospital.

Scully was waiting for him at the entrance to the emergency room waiting area. "Mulder, I want you to meet Mr. Brian Couldon." She said as she pointed to a distraught man who sat in the reception chairs with his head in his hands and was shaking.

Mulder began to walk to the man, but Scully stopped him. "Who is this Scully? What happened?" he asked as he reached out to caress the bandage above her left eye.

"Mr. Couldon rear-ended my car. On his way to Rockville Maryland."

"Are you alright? Maybe you should sit down." Said Mulder as he guided her to a chair near Brian's.

"It is just a minor concussion and a few stitches. That is not important though. We are waiting to hear news on Mr. Couldon's passenger. I think you will recognize the name if you don't recognize Mr. Couldon. His passenger, was a Marie Woods"

"Scully? How could that be? I was waiting for you to get to the Gunmen's. They found Marie's body late last night. Marie is dead."

"Did they positively identify the body?"

"I don't know. Tony called to tell us that they had found a body. A body that they believed was hers. Are you sure this is the same Marie Woods? Are you sure this isn't somebody or something else?"

"Yes Mulder. I am absolutely certain that this is the Marie Woods whom we were looking for. Mr. Couldon said that he pulled her out of the wreckage mere moments after the explosion, long before rescue crews got there."

"Why didn't he tell anyone that she was OK?"

"I haven't asked him much. I wanted you to be part of this. He says that she is in danger. He says that he was trying to protect her. We have her registered under the name Marie Oaks. And Mulder, she isn't OK. She is not in very good condition. It will be a miracle if she makes it out of surgery, but I haven't told him that yet. He will answer all of our questions when he knows she is going to be OK. In the mean time, I think we need to get Tony here, discreetly and quickly."

They sat there the rest of the night. Information on Marie's condition was sketchy at best and not that easy to come by. She had spent almost 11 hours in surgery. They had found out that she was suffering from massive internal bleeding, and she nearly bled out. Her body was ravaged by the precursors of infection, and they refrained from setting her broken bones until they had a better idea of whether she was going to make it or not.

Tony got there within hours of the phone call. He didn't understand at first. A body had been found in the wreckage. He was certain that Scully was wrong, how could Marie have ended up in a hospital three hours away from the accident site. It was Scully's insistence that he get there and at least take a look, that convinced him to make the five hour drive. Upon arrival, his first instinct was to yell and scream until he got some answers. He wanted to know how his sister ended up in Washington. He wanted to know who brought here there, and who did this to her. He wanted to, most importantly, make sure it was her.

Scully calmed him down. She assured him that it was in fact Marie that was in surgery. She told him that she had held Marie's hand in the ambulance. She told him that they were doing everything to help her. She also told him that the person who brought her here was trying to help. She would have told him the whole story, but instead Tony raced to the door of the OR that was opening.

Marie had made it out of surgery. Tony rushed to her bedside. Mulder asked that a guard be placed outside of her room explaining that Tony was a protected witness, and that he needed to be guarded. It was a stretch, but at five am, Mulder figured that nobody would really question it. Scully and Mulder then proceeded to question Brian.

"Mr. Couldon, if you could please come with us, we would like to ask you some questions." Said Mulder.

"I didn't mean her any harm. I was only trying to protect her. If I had left her at the warehouse, she would surely be dead right now. If I had taken her to a local hospital, they surely would have killed her." Cried Brian.

"It's okay, Mr. Couldon." Said Scully. "We only want to know what happened."

"Yes, Mr. Couldon, can you please tell us why you were so afraid for Marie's safety?" questioned Mulder

"Please call me Brian." Started Brian, "She had found something. Neither of us really knew what it was, but when things started getting weird we knew that it was not just a design flaw. She was just doing her job when she started asking questions, the questions kept getting deeper and deeper, until she was told that she should drop the topic. Marie is the kind of person who saw that as a reason to continue. When things started happening to her, like her car was vandalized, and her apartment was ransacked, I had her transferred off the site. She was the kind of person who never learned to believe or trust authority, and she never learned that there are times when you really have to shut up. I don't think that she made the connection about the things that were being done. I don't think she saw these random acts of violence as a reason to stop searching. I saw it immediately and I asked her to let it go. She didn't listen. They brought her back to the site against my wishes, because they thought she knew too much. I don't know what she knew. I know that she stopped asking me about things, but I thought that she was heeding my request to let things go. I think that was what she wanted me to believe. She had kept journals. We all saw her writing in them, but she never let anybody get close enough to see what it was she was writing. I think that is why they ransacked her apartment, looking for those journals. I knew they were planing on hurting her. The secretary gave me a file that detailed her accident. That was a couple of days before she even came back on site."

"Who was doing all of this?" Scully broke in.

"Beech Pharmaceuticals was doing it. They are very protective of their research and their intellectual property. They thought she knew too much."

"They are also the lead manufacturer of Military vaccines and medical products. Any drug administered in a military hospital is either manufactured by them or at the very least inspected by them," said Mulder

"I don't know what their intent was with this facility, but I can tell you that I never saw a Pilot plant designed to that degree before. The rest of us just thought that it was the engineer's way of making a larger profit on the overdesign. I guess Marie just took it a little further."

"Do you know what it was that Marie found? Do you know what they were planning on producing here? What did she tell you of her findings?" Asked Mulder, trying to let Scully know that he had no intention of letting Brian know that they were in receipt of the journals and notes.

"No, she stopped asking me and telling me when I made it apparent that I didn't want to know. All I know is that whatever it was that they were working on, she knew enough about it to be dangerous. I knew that she was in trouble. I knew I had to help her. I did the best I could. I am sorry if I made things worse, but I know that if I didn't help her they would have killed her. I know that I couldn't have lived with myself if that happened." He paused as he cleared the single tear from his eye. "I have to go. My family is probably wondering where I am. If it is all right with you, I would like to go home. I just have one request. Please don't tell her it was me who did this to her. I will still have to work with her when she comes back and I would rather she not know. So, Agents Scully. Mulder. Can I go?"

"Wait a minute Mr. Couldon," said Mulder as he put a hand on his shoulder.

Scully broke in "If we have any further questions, where can we contact you?" before Mulder had the chance to finish.

"You can get me at the Bangor Offices."

Scully reached into her pocket, and took out her card. "If you need to get in touch with us, don't hesitate to call."

"Thank you." he said as he took the card and began to walk out the door.

"You can't just let him go Scully" said Mulder as they watched Brian walk to a pay phone.

"Yes I can. He hasn't given us any information that we didn't already have, and from the way he handled her, and the way he tried to dress her wounds, he was trying to help her. And besides, we don't need to put him in any more danger. He still has to go to work on Monday."

Georgetown Medical Center.
ICU
Monday February 15, 2000
6:15 am

Tony sat at his sister's bedside, gently clasping her hand. He didn't know what happened, he didn't how she got here, but he was grateful for the opportunity to see her alive again. Her face had some bandages on it, and there were some stitches, but he was certain this was Marie. He held her hand as if, she would vanish if he let go. He didn't notice when Scully walked in. He was slightly startled by her hand on his shoulder.

"Tony, I just spoke with the doctors. She is very weak, but they are hopeful that she will make it."

He turned to her and smiled. "Thank you Scully. Thank you for giving me my sister back."

"We have some work to do to get ready for the hearing this afternoon. You can stay here as long as you want, but if you decide that you need a place to sleep or get a shower, you can come to my place. The address is on the back of my card." Said Scully as she handed him the card.

Lone Gunmen's Office
February 15, 2000
6:30 A.M.

"How is she doing?" asked Byers as Mulder led Scully into the office.

"Marie is very weak, but they think that she will make it." Said Mulder.

"I have a couple of files that I need opened," said Scully as she handed him the disk. "How soon can you take care of this?" she asked as she went to sit down.

"Right away." said Langly

They were only sitting there a few moments when Langly called Scully over.

"What is it Langly?"

"I can only get one of the files to open. The others are badly corrupted and only partially complete. They all are about you Scully." Said Langly. "One file lists your abduction date amidst data on other abductees. The next is pretty bad, but we can make out your name."

"What about the file you were able to open?" asked Mulder as he walked over to where Langly was sitting.

"The third file, Mulder is an email, with a file attached." Said Scully as she glanced at the email.

CGB-

The project is moving along nicely. All of the trials have produced the expected results. We have had a few problems, but those problems will be rectified in time for the hearing date. We have spoken with the other parties involved and the hearing will go as planned. The agents in question will be taken care of in an amicable way, that will give us the necessary freedom to pursue our goals with plenty of time before The Date.

Attached are the files that you requested.

Sincerely
Dr. A. Van Taylor

Attached File <>

"Scully, do you know who this Dr. Van Taylor is??" asked Byers ready to answer his own question.

"Yes, that is the Doctor who had me transferred to his research project."

"I know" said Byers, "But do you know why he had you transferred? Do you know why he so specifically ensured that you were on his research project?"

"No, I hadn't even thought about it, but I never applied for any research projects or grants, I never even thought to ask where they got my name."

"When Mulder told us that you were leaving The X-Files, we did a little looking into your transfer. Dr. Van Taylor is the principle researcher for a project known as CC-10-13. Which also happens to be the name of the substance that you asked us to analyze. It is Dr. Van Taylor's job to insure that all regions have a medical professional who is extremely knowledgeable about the effects of and procedures associated with individuals taking CC-10-13. You Dr. Scully were going to be in charge of the Washington DC Metro Area."

"That never would have worked. I would have seen this research and have been privy to these side effects and the repercussions of taking this drug. I would have known that people should not be taking it."

"But would you have Scully?" asked Mulder, "You, yourself said that you couldn't find any reason why this should not be a part of every person's daily regiment. If you didn't have Marie's files and journals, you too would have thought this was a great medical advance."

"I would have had access to more information. I would have seen that this was not all it was cracked up to be."

"Scully, they would have you as convinced as they would have everybody. You would have only known what they wanted you to know." Said Mulder amused by Scully's denial.

"The way the project was slated to work was as follows," said Byers, as he took out a small print out. "First regional doctors were going to be set up in order to finish the research. That would have stretched till approximately March 31, 2000. Then all medical professionals were going to be invited to seminars in which this vitamin was going to be demonstrated, and shown to be highly beneficial in order to get their patients on it. The seminars would have been completed by August 31, 1999 by which time 70% of the United States population would have been regularly taking this supplement. In the time it took for the transformations to take effect, enough experiments would have been done as to what made you unique, Scully, that makes the transformation possible without the toxic byproducts that we have seen." Said Byers as he flipped the page.

"Wait a minute, you said I was unique. What do you mean by that?" asked Scully at least slightly confused.

"Scully, we found reference in your medical records to some unorthodox treatment you received during your cancer treatment. There was also reference to some anomalies in your blood chemistry after your abduction to Antarctica." Continued Byers.

"I don't understand why you checked my medical records."

"When a doctor goes to this much trouble to secure someone for a research study, there has to be a reason, and we guessed it might be medical in nature." Said Byers.

"So they wanted to use me as a guinea pig, but why did they offer me a research position?"

"They know your history Scully. They know your work ethic, in fact I would say that they know more about you than you know about yourself. They know that you would work tirelessly until you found the missing link, especially if you thought it might save people's lives. They also know that Mulder does not work as efficiently when your team is broken up. Add in his feelings of betrayal, and not only do they have you, essentially experimenting on yourself, but they have broken up the only team that could have stopped them." Finished Byers.

"The best part of the whole thing, Scully," said Langly, "is that you would be willingly experimenting on yourself, without even knowing it."

"How would that be possible? I wouldn't allow that."

"You wouldn't even know it." Said Mulder, "Things like mandatory blood donations, your own private bathroom off of your office, your yearly physical, etc. you would be working with your own biomatter labeled as that of a general sample."

"I have a call in to Skinner, and in to Dr. Van Taylor. I am not taking the transfer. I will quit before I am willfully a part of this." Said Scully as she picked up her phone.

"What would you do Scully? If you went into private practice you would be a part of this anyway. There is no escaping this, not unless Marie pulls through and can tell us what she knows." Said Frohike as he tapped away at his computer.

"But we have her notes and her journals. We have everything she knows." Said Mulder. "We can stop this."

"No," said Byers. "You do not have everything. According to these files, Marie was uniquely immune to this substance. And I am willing to bet she knows why. We are starting to get bits and pieces of the summary report on her recovered."

"It has to be in the journals we have, it has to be in the paperwork." Said Scully

"Mulder, in the paperwork you looked at, did you notice anything that pertained directly to Marie?" asked Byers. "Do you have or have you seen any of her medical records?"

"Actually, no, there is nothing in the files other than her observations. Nothing that referred to her as a test subject." Said Mulder.

"What about you Scully?" questioned Byers.

"No, most of what I saw was un-named trial results, and the files that pertained to me, that you opened. Nobody mentioned that Marie might have been a subject. I don't understand, her name doesn't appear in the names of those abducted, and Tony never mentioned anything about his sister having been abducted, or anything about her health."

"Unless nobody even knew, maybe she didn't even know herself that she was being tested. It is possible that she didn't figure it out until after she sent the box. She might have only figured it out as a result of that disc you had Scully" said Mulder. "Where did that disc come from?"

"It was left for me, the note said that Marie had sent it to me, but I never received it. This was a copy."

"Even if this gives us more information, we still don't know everything that Marie knows." Said Langly. "We need her to tell us."

"What about her family, what about where she lives, the information has to be somewhere. We have to be able to access her medical records at the very least." Said Scully.

"Has anyone even been where she lives over the past few days? I bet it is being cleaned up if it hasn't been already. Without her, you don't have much Mulder." Said Frohike. "Where are the rest of the files that she sent you?"

"They are back at my apartment." Said Mulder as he grabbed his jacket. "I'd better go get them."

"I will go check on Marie." Said Scully as she headed for the door.

"You boys, see what else you can come up with." Said Mulder as he walked out the door. "The hearing is at one this afternoon, we are running out of time."

Georgetown Medical Center ICU
Monday February 15, 2000
8:30 a.m.

Scully rushed to the room where she had left Tony and Marie two short hours ago. When she entered the room it was empty except for a single orderly who was changing the sheets and cleaning up the room, and the guard that Mulder had posted was gone.

"Where is Marie Oaks? She was in this room this morning." Asked Scully.

The orderly just kept going about his business cleaning.

Scully grabbed his shirt collar, and spun him around to face him. "Where is she? She was just here a few hours ago." She yelled at the orderly, at first not noticing the headphones he was wearing.

"Look I just work here." He said pulling the headphones form his ears. "I don't know where she is. I got a list of rooms that needed to be cleaned when I came in. I am just doing my job. I don't even know who Marie Oaks is."

As Scully was apologizing to the orderly, the charge nurse came in.

"Where is Marie Oaks? She was here this morning with a protected witness. I need to know what happened to them.," said Scully with urgency in her voice.

"Who are you? I cannot just give information on patients to anyone."

"My name is Dana Scully. I am a friend of the family. I left my witness here with Ms. Oaks at 6:30 or so this morning."

"I am sorry, Ms. Scully. Ms. Oaks passed away at 7:45 this morning. Tony Oaks has gone home, he asked us to let you know."

"What happened? When I left, she was weak, but they thought she was going to make it."

"I don't know exactly what happened. I came on shift at eight, but I can check her chart if you would like."

"Yes, I would appreciate that."

"She died of complications resulting from her injuries." Said the nurse glancing at the chart. "I guess in the end, her heart gave out. According to this chart, it was pretty miraculous that she made it through surgery. I am sure we did all that we could for her."

"I would like to perform an autopsy." Said Scully.

"I don't understand why. She died of cardiac arrest. With all of her other injuries, I doubt she would have made it anyway. Besides you cannot perform an autopsy. The body is in the process of being transferred, and it has been requested that her body remain intact for burial."

"Thank you." said Scully as she walked away and took out her cell phone. I need to get in touch with Tony, she thought. I need to find out what happened, and I need to perform an autopsy.

When Mulder walked up to his apartment, something in the pit of his stomach told him to expect the worst. When he got to his door to find it slightly ajar, his worries were confirmed. The apartment was more of a mess than usual. Everything was torn up, his desk was flipped on its side, and his computer lay on the floor with the monitor smashed. There were papers everywhere, and all of his books were strewn about the apartment. Picture frames were broken, and lamps were overturned. About the only thing that was not destroyed was his fishtank, but that didn't matter since the inhabitants were already deceased. As he had feared, the box with all of Marie's notes was gone, all of his notes from what he had read were gone, everything was gone.

As he reached into his pocket to call Scully, his cell phone chirped to life.

"Mulder."

"Mulder it's me. She's dead. Marie. This morning. Tony has left for home."

"What happened?"

"Cardiac arrest, her heart couldn't handle the stress of her other injuries."

"Was Tony there when it happened?"

"I don't know."

"You have to autopsy the body. You have to find out what killed her. You have to find out what was unique about her."

"The body has already been transferred. It is en route as we speak. Not to mention the fact that Tony has requested that the body be kept intact and no autopsy be performed."

"Did you call him? I can't believe that he is going to let this go."

"I am still trying to reach him. I will gather up all of her records and see what I can find out. I will meet you at the Gunmen's with all I can find. We can try and put something together to at least stall them until we have enough time to really comb through Marie's package. We haven't had it long enough to really work with it."

"It's gone Scully, its gone."

"What's gone Mulder?"

"The package, all of the journals, my notes from the journals, anything and everything pertaining to Marie Woods is gone. Again Scully, we have nothing. After all that we saw, we have nothing, and the hearing is in a few hours."

"But Mulder, what did we really see? We saw a dark green powder that we didn't learn enough about from the analysis. We never saw any effects of the substance, all we have are some corrupted files. There is nothing we can do about this. I don't even know if we can stall them."

"We do still have something Scully. You are due to report to Bethesda this morning for your new assignment. I am sure that you can come up with something before the hearing. We can't just let this happen. If Marie was right, we cannot let this happen."

"Maybe we can get something from Marie's medical records."

"Let me know what you find."

Holy Face Cemetery
Lodi New Jersey
Tuesday February 16

Mulder stood on the outskirts of the crowd in a dark suit and even darker shades. Scully stood at his side as they watched the casket of Marie Woods descend into the ground. The group was breaking up, and Tony was walking towards them.

"I just want to thank you both for helping us. I am sure that Marie appreciated it as well." Said Tony as he shook Mulder's hand. "Agent Scully, I am just sorry that you never got to meet her. The two of you would have been great friends. Thank you again." He finished as he hugged Scully.

"Tony," said Mulder, "it isn't too late. We can still do an autopsy to find out what happened."

"I know what happened. Marie died as a result of the injuries she sustained in the accident. In the end her heart just gave out."

"Were you in the room when it happened?" asked Scully

"Look, I appreciate all of your help, but myself and my family would like to just put this tragedy behind us, and try to move on with life. We would like to remember her for the person she was and all of the good things about her. Whatever you think might have happened is not important to us anymore. I am just glad that I got to see her one last time, even if it wasn't really her. I am sure that Lisa Hill, the woman at Georgetown Medical center appreciated your efforts as well."

"What do you mean? The woman at Georgetown Medical center was Marie. We have an eye witness who brought her there from the explosion site." Said Mulder

"The injuries," began Scully, "they were consistent with what happened. The witness. That was Marie."

"No, it wasn't. She could have been Marie's twin, and I understand how you could have made the mistake, but they found Marie's body at the site. The fingerprints and the dental records of the body at the site matched Marie's. Her husband, James Hill, claimed the woman at the hospitals' body. He thanked me for all that you did."

"Where is her body? I would like to take a look myself." Said Scully.

"Here is Mr. Hill's card. He gave it to me when he left the hospital."

"I will check into this." Said Scully as she took the card and squeezed Tony's hand not believing that she could have made such a mistake.

"If it's any consolation, your sister indirectly saved the lives of thousands of people." Said Mulder.

"I'm sorry that we couldn't do more." Said Scully as she continued to hold Tony's slightly shaking hand.

"You did all you could, and you did the best you could to give me the chance to say goodbye. Thank you, and my family thanks you for helping us to put closure to this. The next time I am in Washington, or either of you is in New Jersey, the beer and pizza is on me." Said Tony as he turned to meet back up with his parents.

"I will hold you to that." Said Mulder as he ushered Scully to their car.