Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Files or the Bible (well, I own copies of both the X-Files and the Bible, but…never mind).
Spoilers: "Conduit," "Little Green Men," and other episodes dealing with Mulder's memories of Samantha's abduction.
A/N: As BeshterAngelus said, canon dates are kind of wacky; other elements of the show are wacky, too. When was Samantha born? How is Chilmark spelled? What happened during Samantha's abduction? That depends on which episodes you watch. Throughout the series, Mulder tells different stories and has different dreams/visions. Some of these contradict one another—or do they? This story has no real basis in canon, although it is not directly refuted, either. I suppose you could call it an extreme possibility. The Bible verse is 1 Corinthians 13:12, King James Version.
November 27, 1973
Chilmark, Massachusetts
8:30 PM
Through A Glass, Darkly
"…so cute…doesn't even know I exist…stupid Cathy, the fat cow…notice me someday…" Dana halfheartedly listened to her cousin drone on and on about her nonexistent love life.
She contemplated delivering a few well-aimed reality checks but stopped when she saw her older brother glance furtively from side to side before walking out the back door. Missy also noticed, catching Dana's eye and communicating wordlessly in sister code. They stood up and walked away from their cousin without a backward glance, neither sister hearing Molly's complaints and insults.
Dana paused at the door, but Missy gently propelled her onto the back porch with a hand to the small of Dana's back.
"What if someone sees us?" Dana asked.
"So what if they do?" Missy said. "It's not like it's illegal to walk out the back door or anything. Besides, who's gonna notice?"
Dana had to concede the point; the belated Thanksgiving party at her grandparents' house was in full swing and would likely continue into the wee hours. In the crush of family, friends, and neighbors, who would notice a couple of missing Scully children?
Besides, Dana thought, it's not like Grandma and Grandpa stay anywhere long enough for anyone to recognize us.
"Where are we going?" Dana asked.
"Wherever Bill's going," Missy replied, tilting her head at the footprints that led to a wooded copse.
"Will we be out long?" Dana asked, shivering.
"Dunno," Missy said. "That depends on what Bill's doing. Of course, if you'd rather stay here and listen to Molly's guy problems…"
"I never said I wouldn't come," Dana said. "I guess I…What if we get caught?"
"Come on, Danes," Missy said. "Life's about risks. You can stay here and wonder what fun Bill and I are having, or you can be safe and obey Mommy and Daddy. Be sure to fill me in on whether Josh has noticed Molly exists."
Missy turned to go, and Dana jogged a few steps to catch up.
"Okay, I'll go. Let's see what Bill's up to," Dana said.
"That's the spirit, Danes," Missy said.
They followed Bill's footprints into the copse, stopping when they heard voices.
"…still on?" they heard Bill say.
"Yeah," a teenage boy said. "She says she'll be waiting in her room. Throw a rock at her window and she'll let you in."
Dana and Missy grinned at each other.
"I doubt he's going to visit Jen so they can talk about Thanksgiving leftovers," Missy whispered.
"What are we going to do?" Dana asked.
"Follow me," Missy whispered.
"I always do," Dana whispered back.
"Hey, Bill, Jeff!" Missy said, walking up to him and his friend. "Whatcha doin'?"
"Hanging out," Bill said, scowling at both sisters.
"Yeah, I can tell this is the local hotspot. Look at everyone having fun."
"Maybe I came out here to get away from all the stupid people," Bill said.
"Or maybe you left, hoping we would see you and follow. If that's true, you got your wish," Missy said.
"That wouldn't be my wish in a trillion years," Bill said. "Now get lost."
"Is that any way to talk to your dear, sweet sisters?" Missy asked, her body language changing suddenly from teasing to predatory.
"That's how I always talk to my dear, sweet sisters," Bill said.
"Even dear, sweet sisters who know you were sneaking out to see Jen for a little Thanksgiving goodbye?" Missy said. "It would be a shame if Mom and Dad found out."
"You wouldn't dare," Bill said. "How would Mom and Dad like to know you snuck out last week to meet up with Matt?"
"They would probably ask for proof," Missy said. "Don't the guilty always try to make others look guilty to avoid getting into trouble?"
"And you don't have anything on me, Bill," Dana said.
"I can tell Mom and Dad you were in on this whole thing, that you snuck out with us," Bill said.
"Why would I want to see Jen?" Dana asked, wrinkling her nose. "She has the personality of a sea slug."
"She's right, Bill," Missy said. "Mom especially would never buy it. Nope, you're stuck with us, whether you like it or not."
Bill rose up to his full height, but slumped over as he seemed to realize Dana and Missy had him. He scowled at his friend, his facial expressions running the gamut of anger, cunning, and acceptance.
"Guess you better tell Jen it's off," Bill muttered.
"Sure thing, man," Jeff said. "Sorry."
Jeff took off quickly, obviously wanting to escape the escalating family quarrel. Bill turned on his sisters, obviously ready to fight.
"Now, Bill," Missy said, raising her hands, "I know you're mad at us, but it's all for the best. Jen wasn't good enough for you, especially not when you have two sisters who want to go on an adventure with you."
"I'll get you both back for this," Bill said, glowering at Missy and Dana. "But we might as well make the most of the next hour."
"Can I come, too?" a muffled voice said from inside a bush.
"Come on out, Charlie," Bill said, rolling his eyes.
"Way to watch the battle from a distance," Missy muttered.
"Yeah, thanks for the help," Dana said.
"If there'd been a fight, I would've jumped right in," Charlie said.
"Whose side would you have been on?" Bill asked.
"Why would I tell you that?" Charlie said, grinning mischievously.
Nobody could resist Charlie's adorable smile, not even Bill.
"Alright, Charlie," he said, "you can come too."
So the four Scully children walked out of the woods and onto the street, looking for adventure.
"I don't know what you expect us to find here," Bill said. "It's not like this place is a thrill a minute."
"Have a little faith, Bill," Missy said. "Excitement happens when you least expect it."
"Excitement would've been happening in a few minutes if it weren't for you three," Bill muttered.
"Let's turn down this street," Missy said.
"Vine?" Bill said. "Why Vine? Do you know someone down here?"
"Nope," Missy said. "I just have a feeling. Know what I mean, Danes?"
"Yeah," Dana said, not wanting to let Missy down. "Yeah, I feel it too."
"I don't," Charlie said. "All I feel is cold."
Suddenly, Dana felt as if she could sense the same inexplicable impression as Missy. She tried to label and classify the feeling, but gave up. Not waiting for the others, she stepped onto Vine Street and started walking.
"You really feel it now, don't you, Danes?" Missy said. "Like we're meant to be here. Like it's fate."
"I don't know that I would go that far," Dana said. "I want to walk down Vine. That's it."
"Let's go, then," Bill said impatiently, herding the rest of the Scullies onto Vine Street.
They walked briskly, hunching their shoulders against the cold.
"Maybe we should just go home," Charlie said, shivering.
"This is pretty boring," Bill said.
"Aw, c'mon, guys," Missy said. "You never know when something might happen."
"Like my watch stopping?" Bill said, taking the watch off his wrist and shaking it a few times. "Piece of crap," he muttered.
Dana was about to make some crack about getting what you paid for, but the red and blue pulsing lights drew her attention to the house across the street. The lights were coming from…no. No way. Dana's common sense rejected her senses' observations, denying their plausibility.
"A spaceship!" Charlie said.
"Don't be ridiculous!" Bill said. "It's just a new type of fighter, some sort of military technology."
"Then what are those?" Missy asked, pointing.
"Those are…" Dana began, but stopped. "No," she said, aloud or to herself, she did not know.
"Men in hazmat suits," Bill finished for her.
"Aliens!" Charlie yelled. "Those're aliens!"
"Shut up, Charlie!" Bill said. "Those are not aliens in a spaceship! They are clearly government agents taking care of government business. We should go home."
"Where's your sense of adventure?" Missy said, although she began to edge away from the scene.
"In my brain, where it will only exist if I'm alive," Bill said, turning.
Dana tried to run away, but her legs felt as if they were stuck in quicksand, as if time itself were holding her in place.
"I can't run!" Dana said, frantically trying to escape.
"Me neither!" Charlie said.
Missy and Bill grunted with effort as they tried to run away, but they also seemed bogged down in time.
A blinding light glowed from everywhere, its intensity surrounding and penetrating Dana as if she were caught in a giant X-ray. A piercing scream drew Dana's attention back to the house. Another scream echoed in the night, and the pulsing lights grew brighter and flashed faster.
"Fox!" Dana heard a girl scream. "Help me, Fox!"
Who's she calling for? Her cat? Dana wondered.
"Samantha!" a boy's voice responded from inside the house. "Samantha!"
The white light blazed again, but it could not slow Dana's mind.
His sister! Dana realized. Those…things are kidnapping that boy's sister! We have to help…but what can we do if we can't even move?
Dana tried to move forward, and was shocked to find she could move fairly quickly toward the house. Time still felt distorted, as if it were passing around her, yet she ran swiftly toward the figures standing at the door of the boy and girl's unnaturally-lit home.
Dana was vaguely aware of her siblings yelling her name and telling her to stop, but she did not listen. Her world had narrowed; her life seemed to have one sole purpose. She launched herself at the nearest tall figure, but her best back yard football tackle failed to knock it down. In fact, the thing (man in hazmat suit, she reminded herself) barely noticed her presence as she bounced off of it and hit the ground.
Her foot connected with…a leg? As much as Dana wanted to convince herself otherwise, there was no way the leg she had just kicked was encased in a suit. Whatever her foot had struck, it was not human. She stared up at the creature in horror, her mind trying its hardest to reject what her eyes were telling her.
I'll figure this out later, Dana thought. What matters is helping the boy and girl.
Scrambling to her feet, Dana ran around the house to the back yard, looking for a back door. She twisted the handle and was relieved when the door opened. She ran through a few dark rooms and followed the light, which had turned a sickly yellow-orange.
Dana knew she would never forget the sight that met her eyes. An incredibly thin figure was silhouetted in the front door, thrown into sharp relief by the blinding white light. The sickly orange light had grabbed the girl and was levitating her toward a large glass window. The boy—Fox?—was crouched on a rug and hunched over a box, the contents of which had spilled all over the carpet.
"Samantha!" the boy cried out, his voice sounding distorted and distant. "Samantha! No!"
The girl—Samantha, obviously—disappeared through the paned window, the glass remaining whole and intact. Fox crumpled to the ground, on the verge of losing consciousness. Dana ran to Fox and crouched beside him.
"It's okay, Fox," Dana said. "She'll be fine; I know she will. Someday, she'll be returned to you."
What am I saying? Dana thought drowsily, her muscles and mind suddenly feeling weak and shaky. For all I know, she's gone forever and Fox will never see his sister again. But I still have to try…
"Don't be afraid," Dana whispered, running her fingers through Fox's hair.
Dana crumpled the rest of the way to the carpet beside Fox, her mind fast losing consciousness. The last thing she saw before passing out was a middle-aged man looking down at her and smoking a cigarette, a speculative look on his face.
Weirdo, Dana thought, her eyes closing on the strange scene.
"Danes?" Dana heard from afar. "Danes! Wake up!"
Dana sat up, immediately discovering that doing so was a bad idea. She and her siblings were in a wooded copse, their clothes covered in leaves and dirt.
"Wha?" Dana slurred, looking around in bewilderment.
"That's not up to your normal vocabulary standards, Danes," Bill said.
"Where are we?" Dana said, ignoring Bill and looking at Missy, who had shaken her awake.
"I think we're in the bunch of trees where we found Bill…earlier," Missy said.
"What time is it?" Dana asked.
"How am I supposed to know, stupid?" Bill said. "My watch is busted, remem…hey! It's working again!"
"So what time is it?" Charlie asked.
"9:20!" Bill said, swearing under his breath.
"You said it, Bill," Missy said, climbing unsteadily to her feet.
"We gotta get home or Mom and Dad'll kill us!" Charlie said.
"They'll definitely kill us if we show up looking like this," Dana said, trying to brush the dirt off her relatively new coat.
They patted themselves down the best they could, somehow managing to get most of the grime off their clothes. Dashing through the woods, they stopped at the tree line to their grandparents' back yard, listening. Hearing nothing, they emerged one by one.
Dana breathed a sigh of relief, but it was short-lived as she heard her name and her siblings' names being yelled by their mother.
"Play along!" Missy said, tackling Bill and wrestling him to the ground.
"Hey!" Bill said as Dana and Charlie also jumped on him.
Bill threw them all off and started tickling Charlie, stopping only when his mother opened the back door.
"Didn't you hear me calling?" their mom said, an edge of panic in her voice.
"Sorry, Mom," Bill said. "We were playing."
"You're all filthy!" Mrs. Scully said, peering out the door as if looking for someone. "That doesn't matter. Get inside. Now."
The Scully children did as they were told, once again brushing themselves off. Dana was relieved their ruse had worked so well; nobody could get others out of trouble like Missy. Of course, nobody could get others into trouble like Missy…
"What's wrong, Mom?" Bill asked.
"A couple who came over with the Galbrands tonight just got the news that their little girl is missing. I looked everywhere for you, and when I didn't see you…"
"We're fine, Mom," Dana said, hugging her.
"Just…stay inside, okay?"
"Sure, Mom," Missy said. "Whatever you say."
Their mom seemed startled by Missy's quick and easy promise of obedience; she blinked and hugged each of her children, shepherding them into the living room. Eventually, the party resumed, although everyone seemed more subdued.
Dana looked at the clock on the mantle, her brows furrowing in confusion.
"Bill, what does your watch say?" Dana said.
"Nine…son of a…"Bill said, eyes widening.
"Your watch is nine or ten minutes off, isn't it?" Dana said.
"How'd you know?" Bill asked.
"I did a little quick math; I knew it hadn't taken us that long to get home," Dana said.
"So what do you think happened out there?" Missy asked Bill. "Where did those ten minutes go?"
"I dunno," Bill said. "I remember walking down the road and waking up in the woods. That's all."
"I remember…bright lights and…monsters?" Charlie said, face screwing up in concentration.
"Don't be ridiculous," Bill snarled. "I don't remember anything like that, and if bogeymen had paid us a visit, I'm sure I would've remembered."
"Don't be so hard on him, Bill," Missy said, laying a hand on his arm. "I don't like not being able to remember, either. I also remember bright lights, but my memories are incomplete. I'd swear I could remember more when I woke up, like I was clutching at the wispy threads of a dream…"
"What do you think happened, Danes?" Charlie asked.
Dana considered telling her siblings the full truth.
"I don't remember."
That's not a total lie, Dana rationalized.
And it wasn't.
Lying in bed, Dana was torn between wanting to remember and wanting to forget. Her memories of that lost time resembled the illustration for a Bible verse her mom had made her and her siblings memorize earlier that year.
For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face, Dana mentally recited.
Her mother had told them that the verse was not talking about a clear piece of glass or a modern mirror, but instead referred to the shiny piece of metal most people who lived during Bible times would have used for a mirror. To illustrate, Dana's mom had held up a piece of freshly-unrolled aluminum foil in front of their faces. Unlike the mirror Missy spent hours in front of every morning, the aluminum foil reflected Dana's face in a blurry, imperfect way. Parts of her face were in focus, but the rest of the details were either hard to see or not visible at all.
Bright lights. Strange sounds. Faces. Face to face…
Dana had not lied to her brothers and sister; she had no complete memories of the ten minutes they had lost or of how they had ended up in the woods next to their grandparents' back yard. She had impressions, blurry images seen through a glass, darkly. Mind pictures that were growing dimmer and less focused the harder she tried to look at them.
One part of the night stood out to Dana, remaining in her mind more clearly than any other. The other images continued to fade away, and she let them, content to hold on to the most important memory.
Dana let everything else go, but she held on to Fox. She could not remember much about him, but she remembered his physical and emotional collapse. She remembered the way his hair felt when she ran her fingers through it.
Now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known, Dana completed the verse. Mom told us the true meaning of the verse is that we can only partially understand the divine while here on earth. We can only know God partially because we are imperfect and our minds are imperfect. But when we get to heaven…
Dana understood that she would probably never fully know what had happened during those missing minutes. Whatever had happened to her and her siblings, whatever they had stumbled upon, was strong enough to mess with Bill's watch and wipe their memories clean.
Mostly clean, she amended, remembering once again the impression of Fox's hair beneath her fingers. Too bad I'll never see him again. He seemed so sad about losing…something? Someone? Maybe I'll remember in the morning. I'll remember Fox…
When she awakened the next morning, Dana clutched at the remnants of a particularly vivid dream, but the pieces eluded her. The word "fox" tickled her brain, but she shrugged and dismissed it.
Besides, Dana reasoned, dreams are meaningless entertainment our minds make up for us while we're sleeping. They are not real; they do not come true.
Dana remembered Charlie's wild claims of lights and monsters, and chuckled at the innocence of youth.
Much too silly for a nine-and-three-quarter year old to believe in, she thought. Sorry, Charlie…