TITLE: Prodigality
AUTHOR: Ana Vicente Ferreira

RATING: PG
CLASSIFICATION: S; A
KEYWORDS: MSF
SUMMARY: Emily is returned but the consequences of this aren't exactly what Scully would've expected.
SPOILERS: Emily

DISCLAIMER: The X-Files name, characters and concept belong to CC, 1013 Productions and 20th Century
Fox. No transgression intended.
ARCHIVE: Just let me know where. (Beforehand would be nice)
FEEDBACK: avicente17@clix.pt

AUTHOR'S NOTES: This story was written a couple of years back for one of the challenges of the Church of X. It's kind of big, so I'll divide it up into chapters just the same, though it's already finished. Hope you enjoy!

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"We have to do something about him."

The three men were sitting around a dark wooden table. He looked away from the window that opened into the larger room and faced the one who had spoken. "I think I have an idea on how to do that."

"Will it work as well as your other ideas to control Mulder?"

Calmly, he pulled a pack of Morley cigarettes out of his pocket and lit one. "We always knew Mulder would be a problem. We knew even before we let him into Quantico. It was a conscious risk we took."

Another of the men stood up. "Why can't we just kill him and be over with it?"

He eyed him derisively. "You know why. We all do."

The man sitting at the head of the table carefully removed a strand of gray hair from the shoulder of his dark suit. "You said you had an idea."

The Cigarette-Smoking Man nodded. "There is something that may give us some control over Mulder, something that may even drive Scully out of the Bureau."

"Mulder will never allow that to happen," The one who had first spoken said. "He'll find a way of making her stay."

The Cigarette-Smoking Man smiled and again looked out the window at the men, women and children moving about below, on the equipment filled room.

"I know Mulder, he won't try to stop her, not if it's over something he can't deny her."