Scully rolled her eyes at that statement. She would have expected such a remark from Mulder, maybe even from Monica, but she was hoping Andrew had a little more sense. [I guess I was wrong,] groaned Scully.

She delivered her standard scientific argument. "Andrew, demon-possession is a medieval blanket term that was used for everything from epilepsy to a variety of mental illnesses. Whenever someone acted beyond the confines of 'normal', they were labeled as demon-possessed. You can't possibly believe..."

Mulder had heard this type of argument from his partner a million times before, but this time he couldn't be sure whether or not she had a point. There just wasn't enough information yet. So he decided to call off this argument for now. "Scully, wait a minute. Andrew, how do you think demon-possession could come into play in this case?"

Scully looked at her partner for a minute, and saw the gears warming up in his brain. She knew that when that happened, her best course of action was to get out of the way until her 'spooky' partner was ready to come out and pitch theories to her.

Andrew, for his part, was still trying to come to a connection with Bacon's Corner himself. "I'm not quite sure yet-I just have a feeling that the school's curriculum might have something to do with it." He pulled out four copies of the grade school curricula for first grade and sixth grade that Guilo had handed him on their way out of the Board of Ed offices. "I was able to get a copy the curriculum that the first and sixth grades follow. I'd like for myself and Monica to go over it tonight." Monica was about to balk at the idea of splitting up into angel and non-angel teams, but Andrew gave her a look that indicated that this was not his idea and she needed to follow his lead.

Mulder nodded. "Good idea. I'd like to get some more background on this Amber Brandon case you mentioned - I have some friends who can get me the information. I'll talk to them tonight and see what they come up with. Maybe they can even fax some of it to the hotel tonight." Knowing the Lone Gunmen, he thought, they will be able to find more about the case than he ever wanted to know. He continued, "After I talk to them, Scully and I will work on the preliminary report detailing what we know so far."

That settled, they got up from the table and, after paying their bills, separated for the evening.

Hamelton Motor Inn
Front Desk
9:00 p.m.

One thing Mulder hated to do was wait. Yet, he found out that, as an FBI agent, three-fourths of his time was spent doing just that. Waiting on a stakeout, waiting to get chewed out by Skinner, or, the worst one, waiting for key information.

Waiting was what he was doing just now. It turns out that the Amber Brandon case was a hot topic with Langley, who felt that the ACFA was really a front for the ominous 'men in black'. He had plenty to say on the case, particularly the "Finding the Real Me" curriculum that was taught in the public school where Amber went before she went to the Christian school. "New Age histrionics taught in the public schools and approved by major school districts as an 'affirmation of self-esteem'," Langley had said. "Frightening."

He got off the phone with them fifteen minutes ago, and Langley had promised to fax him enough information on the case to get him started, including pieces of the "Finding the Real Me" curriculum. What surprised Mulder, however, was that Langley also promised to drive up by Thursday morning with copies of everything he had on the case. "If you're dealing with the guys who wrote this curriculum," Langley had said, "you'll need all the help you can get."

The fax had just finished coming through, and, after making June promise that she would give it to him exactly as it came off the machine (Langley wanted him to pull it off page by page, but even he wasn't that paranoid), he picked up the rest of the fax and quickly brought it to his room.

As he closed the door, Scully looked up from her laptop, where she was typing her notes. "Anything interesting in the fax they sent you?"

"I don't know," replied Mulder, "I wanted to wait until I got back here to really read it over." Knowing that meant he had already fully read the fax and just wanted to 'read' it again with her around, Scully went back to her notes.

Having come out of the fax machine backward, he saw the last page first. The bottom of the last page held a note in Byers' handwriting, saying:

Mulder -

On a hunch, I checked out the two 'junior agents' who are 'observing' you.

Found out some interesting things.

Call me back ASAP.

"Hmm," wondered Fox, "what's this about?" He dialed the number for the Lone Gunman.

Frohicke answered the phone. "Lone Gunman."

"Turn the tape off Frohicke."

"It's off."

Mulder didn't hear Frohicke move, but he did hear the tape going in the background. "Yeah right," he muttered, then decided to just get on with it. "Can you put Byers on?"

Mulder heard some movement on the other line. "Hello?"

"It's me," replied Mulder, "What did you find?"

"Ah, Agent Mulder. Let me tell you something, our friends in the dark must be getting sloppy. I went to check the records of your observers, and I found out that outside of their biographies in the FBI personnel database, these people have no other proof that they ever existed. No birth records (fake or otherwise), no social security numbers, no drivers' licenses, nothing. Their bios make them FBI for all intents and purposes, but that's it."

Although Mulder had his suspicions about their junior counterparts, he still wasn't quite prepared to hear the truth from someone else. Spies had been sent to him before - even Scully had first been assigned to him to spy on him. But, if the spy came direct from the consortium, the spies and their records were usually much more complete, or at least much more creative. Even Skinner, who won't look him in the eye when he's being forced to send a new 'spy' down to him, seemed to have no problem with these two. And these two have slipped up more times in the past twenty-four hours than that black-lunged fool ever had in his life. "I don't think they work with our men in black. Their men usually aren't this sloppy. Any ideas as to who they might work for?"

"That's your department, G-man. Maybe you should ask them."

Mulder sighed. "All right. Just another day at the office, eh? Thanks for the tip."

He could almost hear Byers half-smile over the phone lines. "Always glad to be of service, Mulder."

Frohicke chimed in in the background, "For both you and your lovely partner!"

Mulder couldn't help but laugh at that one. "Tell Langley I'll see him tomorrow night. Until then, we'll work with what we've got so far. Thanks again guys."

Byers signed off with, "Take care of yourself, Mulder."

Langley chimed in behind him, "And be careful!"

As Mulder hung up the phone, he turned to his partner. "Well, Scully, it seems you were right. Whoever our 'observers' are, they're not straight out of Quantico. In fact, I'll bet they probably don't even know where Quantico is."

Scully raised an eyebrow in half-surprise. She had figured as much all along. "Not FBI, Mulder? Then who are they? Any ideas?"

Mulder shook his head. "No. Their records are too sloppy for our cigarette-smoking friend to have sent them. Even Skinner liked these two too much for them to be after us. I guess we'll have to find out who they are when they get here."

Scully nodded in agreement. As if on cue, Monica and Andrew walked in the door.

"Hello," said Monica, "find anything interesting?"

"Actually, we did," replied Mulder. The suspicion was evident in his voice.

Andrew and Monica looked at each other on confusion. Mulder then continued, "My friends got us the information on the Brandon case, and a couple of other things."

"Like what?" asked Monica.

"Like we know you both are not FBI agents," replied Scully, "So we'd like to know who you really are."

Monica looked stunned. [This was never supposed to happen,] she thought. [Well, sometimes God has other plans.] She looked at Andrew, who was just as stunned as she was.

Andrew asked her, "Do you want to explain it to them, or shall I?"

Monica looked at the two agents, who were primed and ready for an explanation. "Do you think they'll believe us?"

Mulder replied, "I think we ought to be the judges of that."

Andrew sighed. [I don't know who's going to have a tougher time believing this, Fox or Dana.] After trying to come up with a better explanation and failing, he gave in and revealed the truth. "We are angels. We have been sent by God to watch over the two of you and help you out on this assignment. I suspect we may have other things to do here, but they have not been revealed to us yet. So, in some ways, we're investigating this case as much for ourselves as we are to help you out."

Mulder and Scully looked at Andrew in disbelief. Mulder, for his part, wasn't sure whether to be shocked at the sheer insanity of what he just heard or laugh out loud that such an obviously intelligent guy could be so self-deluded. This was something that was a little hard to swallow, even for him. "You're angels?"

Andrew looked at the agents, and it seemed like he was looking both agents in the eye at the same time. He glanced back at Monica, who stepped forward until she was just behind Andrew. As she touched his shoulder, the angels started to glow, almost as if a light were shining gently on them and another was shining gently from behind them. Monica's standard FBI dark blue suit was changed into a short-sleeved, ankle-length white dress that reflected the light around them, enhancing her glow. Her hair was released from the French Twist she wore it in to flow long and free down to her waist. Andrew's dark suit had turned completely white, and a long white scarf hung around his neck. His hair even seemed to grow a couple of inches, to lightly touch his shoulders. Mulder and Scully both gasped at the sudden changes in the room and their two 'observers'. As if on cue, Monica's pet dove flew into the room and contentedly perched on her shoulder.

Satisfied that they might not be so skeptical now, Andrew continued. "Angels have been protecting you on all your assignments, though you may not have always seen them."

Scully looked at the two [Could it really be?] angels in confusion, tears welling up in her eyes. If two angels were really standing before her, then she had some questions she needed answers to. "Then why was I taken? Why was Melissa murdered? She wasn't a part of what we do."

Andrew looked toward Scully, and the love in his eyes and the kindness in his voice started to set her at peace immediately. "I don't know why you were taken, but you know what an impact it has made on your life. His quest,"nodding over to Mulder, "is now yours as well, isn't it? That was the way it was supposed to be all along. Even then, though, we were watching. Remember Nurse Owens?"

At that point, Mulder nodded. Scully did not remember much about the nurse who watched over her in the hospital, encouraging her, but Mulder, who never left his partner's bedside, found her hard to forget. Mulder had to confirm what was going through his mind. "She was one of you?"

Monica nodded and smiled. This wasn't nearly as hard as he thought it was going to be. As usual, God made sure they had the words to make sure these two believed. Andrew replied, "Yes, she was. As for Melissa, well, Fox probably explained it to you as well as I've ever heard it. It was her fate."

When Scully heard that, he knew Andrew must be telling the truth. No other human being had heard the conversation in Melissa's hospital room, except for Mulder. Neither of them had said anything to anyone else about that conversation - it was one of their most private moments, and something that each had felt they should keep for themselves. Yet Andrew knew every word of their conversation. "You were there, weren't you?"

Dana watched him closely as he nodded, replying, "I helped your sister cross over. She is an intriguing woman."

At that, Scully had more questions. "What do you mean, cross over?"

Andrew replied, "Every human has an angel present when they die. That is my job."

Mulder steadied himself, and took a deep breath. He was afraid to ask the question on his mind, but he also felt he had to know. He might not get another chance. "My sister? Do you know-"

Andrew gave him the answer he was looking for. "She is not with us, Fox. Keep looking-one day you will find her."

Scully then put two and two together. "Wait a minute, if your job is to escort someone when they die, then is one of us going to-?" She couldn't stand to finish the thoughts running through her mind.

Andrew decided at that point to cut the 'light show', as he sometimes called it. Immediately, both angels returned to their 'normal' appearance, and Monica's dove flew away, disappearing quietly as she rose from the angel's shoulder. "No. As far as I know, I'm not here to do that this time. Why don't we all sit down? There are a few things we need to discuss, and they are directly related to this case."

Monica pulled in the chairs from the adjacent hotel room and the two agents and two angels sat down at the table by the window. Andrew then began to loosen his tie and tell Mulder and Scully what little he knew about the case so far.

"When we first got off the plane, and Monica was feeling sick, it wasn't, obviously, a human sickness. It is a feeling an angel can get sometimes in the presence of strong amounts of evil. Monica hasn't felt it before, but I have. There is a presence in this area that, for lack of a better word, reeks of evil. I believe that presence is a demon that is at least partially responsible for the killings."

[A demon?] thought Scully. [Makes sense. If I'm sitting here, speaking to two angels, then there must be a demon out there killing people. I have got to take a vacation after this case.]

Mulder, for his part, seemed to be taking all this in stride. After he was able to accept that he was dealing with at least one supernatural force, working from that base premise was simple. "Do you have any idea where this demon might be?"

Andrew shook his head, and replied, "Unfortunately, it's not that easy-believe me, I wish it were. A demon will usually work through a person, planting thoughts in their head. If we're working with one killer, I can practically guarantee that the demon will be working through him."

Mulder chuckled lightly at Andrew telling him to believe him, then shook his head. "I don't think we're working with a single killer. The distances between the murder sites combined with the timing of the killings lead me to believe that we're working with at least two people who are in contact with each other somehow." Scully nodded in agreement.

Andrew frowned. "Then he could be anywhere. Demons are not limited by the same constraints as humans. They can move faster than the speed of light, to the point where they could almost be in two places at once."

Scully spoke everything that was going through her mind. "So our killer is a demon who moves at the speed of light who kills indiscriminately? Then why are we" pointing to herself and Mulder, "here?"

Andrew explained, "There's more to it than that. For one thing, I doubt he's killing indiscriminately. Although we haven't found it yet, there has to be a connection between the victims. It's almost impossible for a demon to kill a human directly unless it's out of extreme desperation. More than likely, he is working through one or more human counterparts. Since you two are used to handling situations outside the realm of normal human experience, these facts would make you perfect candidates for finding out how he's working, who he's working through, and how to stop them."

"So where do we go from here?" asked Mulder.

Andrew addressed the group. "Dana was right on target when she came up with the idea of investigating a connection between the missing children. I definitely believe that the connection between the victims lies with the children, and that it might have something to do with what they're teaching in the schools in this area. Mulder, that's why I brought up the Amber Brandon case. I was part of a group of angels guiding the people surrounding the case, and that was the last time I felt an evil as strong as the one that is at work here. You did say that you got the information from your friends, right?"

Mulder agreed, "Right. And I also got an earful about a program called the 'Finding the Real Me' curriculum that Amber was being taught. Scully," he turned to his partner, "The guys got so nervous when I asked them about that case that they were only comfortable with faxing me a small amount of the information they had. Langley is driving up here tomorrow with the rest of it."

Now back on the case, Scully was much more comfortable, but this made her eyes widen in surprise. "Langley felt the need to drive here from DC with this information? Mulder, do you realize how big this has to be for him to do that?"

Mulder nodded. Andrew also nodded in agreement. "Mulder, did your friends tell you who wrote the original 'Finding the Real Me' curriculum?"

Mulder grabbed the papers on the table and started looking through the fax pages that the Gunmen had sent over. "He sent me the title page to the curriculum. It's around here somewhere...here it is. Scully, take a look at this." He took one of the pages and moved it between himself and Scully so she could get a better look. "It says here that the curriculum was written by a Sally Beth Roe for a group called the Omega Center."

Scully looked at the page in front of her. "The Omega Center...Mulder, didn't we have a case involving them once?"

Mulder nodded, his eidetic memory flipping back to the details of the case. "Yeah, it was that guy Santinelli. He seemed to have his hands in everything, as I recall, including getting a Satanic cult that he often hired out as hitmen. Had some college professor killed, and tried to kill Roe off too, right?" Andrew nodded. Mulder continued, "I remember going to Massachusetts to arrest him. The place was supposed to be some sort of New Age retreat, but it had a really strange feel to it. Andrew, is that who we're dealing with? Is the Omega Center back again?"

Andrew shrugged. "I honestly don't know. Monica and I did look at the district's curriculum, and there was nothing unusual listed as part of their studies. However, that doesn't mean that they're not being totally truthful with their records. If we're not dealing with the Omega Center, though, we're dealing with someone very similar and just as evil. We do have someone in town who can help us, though."

Mulder and Scully looked at him, completely surprised. "Who?"

Andrew replied, "Tom Harris. He just recently moved here. I found applications for permission to home-school his children in the Board of Education files."

Mulder remembered the name from when he scanned the papers he got that evening. He also remembered the scenes he saw and the things he heard from the Board of Ed offices that afternoon. "Harris was one of the defendants in the Brandon case, right?" Andrew nodded.

Scully thought about the names of the missing children, and caught a detail that her partner, she thought, had missed. She asked Andrew, "Wait a minute. We were all looking at files under the victims' names. Harris begins with an H. How did you know to look there?"

Mulder continued Scully's train of thought. "My guess would be that the clerk at the Board of Education offices doesn't really work there, right?"

Andrew and Monica looked at each other in silent communication. The angels both realized they had to tell them, they couldn't lie and the agents knew about angels already. Monica replied, "We are not the only angels in town. There are others, although we aren't really sure how many."

Dana asked, "Well, how many do you know of?"

Monica replied, "Two. The gentleman who helped us at the Board of Education offices? You're right, he's not a regular employee. He's the one who tipped Andrew off to look at the Hs."

Mulder turned to Andrew and confirmed everything he saw and heard that afternoon, "You said something about him being in Special Forces. I take it you two know each other?"

Andrew replied, "Let's just say we knew each other from the Brandon case. Long story."

Scully cut in before Mulder could force Andrew to continue. "And the other angel?"

Monica sighed. "Okay, but you have to promise not to let on that you know who she is, because if she finds out that I told you, she'll throttle me." Mulder and Scully both nodded. "Tess, our waitress at the diner? She's my supervisor."

The two agents couldn't help but giggle a little. "Don't worry, Monica," replied Scully, "if there's one thing we're very familiar with, it's getting 'throttled' by your supervisor. We'll keep your secret for as long as we can."

"Although in this case," chimed in Mulder, "secrets don't seem to be getting kept for very long."

At that remark, everyone smiled and chuckled a little in agreement.

Scully yawned, and looked at her watch. It was almost midnight. She then announced, "Well, I don't know about 'angels', but we humans have to get some sleep sometime. Goodnight, everyone. I'll see you in the morning for breakfast?"

Mulder looked at his partner, and his overprotective concern for her kicked in at full speed. The dark circles under her eyes gave a good indication that the past couple of days had been quite long for her. "Why don't we make breakfast at 8:00 tomorrow, if that's all right with everyone?"

Andrew and Monica agreed. Andrew commented, "Sounds good. Maybe then you could get to breakfast on time, Mulder?"

Mulder had the urge to kick Andrew for that comment, but he suppressed it. To make sure he avoided responding to it, he simply turned and said, "Goodnight, Scully," giving her the chance she needed to return to her adjoining room and get some sleep. When Monica followed her, Scully turned around, surprised, and asked her, "Do angels really need sleep?"

Monica smiled. "Days like this make me crave sleep more than anything." She then turned and announced to the men, "Goodnight, gentlemen. We'll see you in the morning."

Outside the Inn, a small black shadow crept across the parking lot. He was scared to death, but he saw the burst of heavenly light and felt a little too curious for his own good. What he saw, however, intrigued and concerned him. "Two angels and two humans traveling together?" he asked himself, "And the angels revealed themselves to the humans? I must inform my master of this." He then flew off to the south.