Author's Notes:
Hello there! long time, no see - actually, the last update was in January, 2017 - but in fact, I've never stopped writing "Sam". I took so long to update because I was planning many things before hand, things that would require me to go back into the chapters to add / edit a lot of things. So I just decided to write everything and only post again when everything was tied up and done.
And today is this day. Thank you so very much for your patience and kindness so far!
[three months later - April 2nd, 1996]
The afternoon poured a warm light, filtered by the leaves so high they could very likely be touching the clouds. The smell of damp earth and luscious green was so strong it could have actually been relaxing.
But the jungle was deadly quiet.
One couldn't hear a single animal amongst the dense trees, not a bird's chirp, nor a monkey's scream, nor the soft steps of a jaguar. Something was clearly wrong, and there was no way of looking ahead through the tree trunks - they were too close together, the foliage acting like an Invisible Cloak to whatever it was covering.
Suddenly, the sound of something lurking around could be heard, faint and far, but it was there, deadly, coming closer…
And closer…
And closer….
"Alright, Sam.", said Langly across the table, from behind all his annotations and maps. "What are you going to do next?"
"I will… I will….". Sam thought, as she took another apple and cinnamon cookie from the plate by her and thought carefully from behind her own papers, looking at Lua's sheet and slowly reading the words as she chewed - she was still getting the hang of reading after so many years, but she remembered most of it by now. She just needed a bit of practice.
A translucent illusion of a tiny forest rose in the middle of the large table, the charmed figurine of the robust character called Lua waiting in the middle of the see-through trees. If there was one small, but significant detail Langly absolutely loved about being a Wizard, was how his stories came to life so vividly with all the charms and Illusions - almost like the holograms that always showed up in his favorite shows and books growing up.
At last, Sam's expression went from concentrated to joyful as she found the solution to his question.
"Roll perception!"
"Good choice.", smiled Langly, as she did just that.
She rolled the dice, getting a disappointing 3 on them.
"Oh, man!", he said, surprised by Sam's bad luck. "Even though you were able to know something was coming for you in the jungle, you never saw it coming when a Minotaur - one of the blood-thirsty soldiers of the so-called President - came from behind you, swords held up in its monstrous hands!"
As he narrated, a figurine of the Minotaur he had just described showed up next to Lua and did just as Langly had commanded, as if he was an Illusion puppeteer. After a dramatic pause, he continued to narrate the outcome of Sam's roll.
"One of his blades fell on your shoulder like the toll of the Bell of Sorrows on a Funeral's Day, giving you 5 points of damage."
"Five!? Come on, Langly!", cried Sam. If Mulder was there to watch the campaign's unravel, he would definitely see a glimpse of her child-self coming back to the surface, just like he had seen so many times whenever he did something she disliked of in their childhood games.
"Take it easy Langly, she is still a beginner.", said Byers from the other table, a scolding tone in his voice as if he was telling his older child to stop teasing their younger sibling. It also had a hint of humor he couldn't hide.
"No easy-taking on beginners, Byers. Not with Lord Manhammer narrating this glorious adventure.", answered Langly in his usual dramatic ways whenever his RPG-self was around.
"Heh, Sammy would kick his bony blonde ass if it was real life", teased Frohike, nudging Byers' at his right side on the table they were next to.
"I would never hurt Langly!", Sam replied, taking the teasing seriously as she turned to face the two man behind her, a blush coming up her face - for the implication of hurting Langly, but also for the other pet name they all had started using lately. "I wouldn't hurt any of you, for that matter…"
Langly shot an ugly look towards Frohike and his ability to be as sensitive as a sandwich.
"He didn't mean it, Sam. He is just fooling around. We know you would never hurt any of us."
It was always hard for her to understand how they could joke around the fact she could kill people with the blink of an eye. However, she was coming to understand that their sense of humor was just... really odd. She could see why they were all her brother's friends, after all. Sam just made her best to control her urge to take a glimpse into their minds every time they would joke like that.
Before the silence that fell between Sam and the Wanderers became an awkward one, she watched as the men's notebooks buzzed with the usual message from Mulder, asking them to open the house.
Mulder and Scully soon showed up and Sam's complaints about Lord Manhammer's ways of mastering would have to be left for later, as she and Langly stood up and joined the group in the middle of the room. She placed herself by Mulder's right side and he greeted her as he smiled and placed his arm over her shoulders in a side hug that was so new for her, yet so familiar.
"How are you doing today, Sam?", asked Scully, looking at her from Mulder's left.
"I'm feeling well, Miss Scully. Better than ever, to be honest."
"Good.", the Healer answered, happy with it for now, leaving for later the more in-depth questions on how she was doing, and to check on her treatments as it was the routine.
All the progress Sam did during the latest three months since her arrival was evident to everyone - especially to the Wanderers who were with her for the most part of the day before Mulder and often Scully came in.
Besides the medicines and potions she would take daily for her blood conditions, Scully soon noticed that Sam would always feel less lethargic and weak after eating, so the Healer told her to eat a little every two hours instead of three as she had recommended at first, and telling Sam she should always have on her something to nibble.
Scully had had the theory that, maybe because Sam's magic worked so differently from the norm and plus her blood issues, it could mean her body would run out of energy way too quickly - which also explained why Sam was so thin, because her metabolism was way too fast.
So far, according to the Healer's opinion, her own theory seemed to be correct: while Sam still looked pale, she was not as ill-looking or feeling so tired all the time anymore now that her body was being able to absorb nutrients correctly and had enough energy to function properly.
"So, what is the plan so far?", Mulder asked, with Sam still close to him as he looked down at the scheme they had drawn with fine lines on parchment paper - the map of a property with a house in the middle, and a small grove around it.
"It is actually fairly simple.", answered Byers. "At first, we thought of making the house like ours, but that idea was quickly discarded because that would take an absurd, long time to perform. And it would require the owner of the house - in this case, Mrs Mulder - to participate in the casting, but that is out of question exactly because of the time and effort it takes. We three were drained when it was done, and we are three, and younger. So that definitely won't do."
"So we thought, that less is more.", Sam explained, using the same words Byers had used to describe the plan earlier, when they were all discussing about it. "Maybe using more simple spells, but many of them together."
"Exactly. The house is already guarded by a Fidelius since… well, since the incident with Mulder Senior." continued Langly, glancing at Mulder. Sam had already been told about the circumstances of her father's death, but he spoke of it carefully anyway. "However, we will also guard it with a ton of Concealing, Protection, Shielding and Alarm spells and everything else we can think of, just to be sure. And of course, wait outside to watch and cover you while you are in the house."
"I could help with the spells, too.", added the youngest Mulder sibling, hopeful. "I would just need to see them being cast first."
The Healer looked at her.
"I am not sure about that, Sam. As you know, you can't drain yourself. Even more if…", she hesitated, something Scully didn't usually do.
"If what, Miss Scully?", asked Frohike.
"If we need to fight people out of there.", answered Mulder in a low voice, following Scully's line of thought.
"That won't be a problem either", continued Byers. "We will be out of there at the slightest sign of distress. That's also the reason why we will be guarding outside."
"Alright… we should get started then,", intervened Byers, looking up at the golden clock on the wall. "and get it ready as soon as we can."
[the following night - April 3rd, 1996]
In the end, Sam was not able to help cast the spells around Mrs Mulder's house: she obviously couldn't show up before everything was set, besides the fact Scully was really against the idea anyway. Sam felt a bit bad because she really wanted to help and make something useful on her behalf instead of just sit and wait like she had done most of her life.
But that's precisely what she had to do as she just waited for the sign, sitting next to Mulder in the Wanderers' main room as she ate apples - soon they were gone, and she saw it was still 10:27 PM as she tossed the apple cores away with a wave of her hand, making them fall straight into one of the garbage cans under the nearest desk.
It wasn't helping her either, the fact she had to wear boots as it would be very cold when they Apparated in their mother's property, located more towards the north - Sam spent two decades without having to wear shoes at all, and at that moment they bothered her to no end.
"It is going to be alright.", Mulder told her gently, noticing his sister shaking her leg in anticipation and her hands fidgeting and twisting the front of her favorite dark-red robes again after a while, as she tried not to overthink and to take her mind away from the weird sensation around her feet. "I've already talked to mum about you. That we have found you, that it is really you this time. No need to be nervous, Sam. And she knows you needed time to recover."
"I know…", she finally spoke, after a moment of silence. "It is just that I can't help thinking… or asking myself if she is going to recognize me or like me at all … or if I am going to recognize her, too. It's been so long, and I've tried to remember her, and I do but sometimes… sometimes I think I'm just filling in the missing parts myself, you know…?"
"Well, you will see her soon enough! And don't be silly. Of course she will like you, she is our mum. Also, who wouldn't like you?", he said, giving her a warm smile.
She felt her face go as red as her robes, still very unused to praises, or even thinking of herself as likeable at all.
"She is so excited to see you again…!", her brother added.
"I am too…", she let a nervous laugh out, turning the edge of her sleeve between her fingers. "Even if it doesn't look like it."
"It is okay to feel nervous. I would be worried if you weren't ", Mulder said in one of his half-smiles. He then said, "Oh! I almost forgot. I have something for you."
Sam gave him her usual confused/curious expression as she watched him reach inside his dark robes and take out a small book covered in black leather. He offered it to her.
"A communication notebook, you've seen us using them a lot. It's easy - you can reach out everyone at once, or only one of us if you write the name before the message. I thought it would be useful. And well, you are part of the team now.", he told her, a wide smile on his face as he tapped his breast pocket where his own book was.
Sam picked it up, looking at its smooth cover with her name engraved in silver on it, and at the blank pages, before turning her eyes up to her brother.
"Thank you… This means a lot to me, Fox."
"I knew you would like it.", the Auror said, happy that she liked the gift but also glad he was able to help keep her anxiety at bay for a bit. "By the way... I've been wanting to ask you, how is the training going?"
"Oh!", she said, the excitement instantly ringing in her voice. "It's being very nice so far! I don't do much on Byers' classes yet, it is mostly theory as you know, with creatures and spell names and functions. I can't push myself too far for now, with my powers… but I am still able to practice some things - Expelliarmus, Protego, Impedimenta. This kind of stuff, nothing really fancy, but still interesting."
"Byers and Frohike told Scully and I it's been a lot easier for you to produce your spells now that you know their names and functions", added Mulder.
"Yes. I only have to think of the spell's name and direction I want it to go, and it happens almost immediately. Well... it is a lot easier the dummies don't really move yet... Brewing Potions and learning new charms is being fun too, Frohike is kind of grumpy and tough on me, but I've been learning a lot."
"He just knows your potential, Sam. He told me you are pretty good already at brewing potions from memory, that's pretty impressive for someone who never had formal training in their life."
"It is only three or four potion recipes, and they are pretty simple anyway.", Sam clarified, a little embarrassed.
Mulder didn't insist, not wanting to upset his sister, which would be very counterproductive to the conversation's main goal. He just listened to her as she continued to tell him about her academic adventures with the Wanderers.
As she did it, Mulder observed how she seemed so excited about all these new discoveries - how she was being able to make her mind work with things that were not terrifying voices telling her what to do, but with things that were interesting and useful to her, and also how she was being able to use her powers not because she was being forced to or being "tested" on them, but because she wanted to .
After elaborating further about some of Frohike's other classes - Charms and Transfiguration -, she made a pause as if thinking about something else for a second. She then turned to her brother.
"Was it like that when you and Miss Scully went to school together? All the classes and learning?"
"That's only part of the experience, I would say.", Mulder said, leaning back into his own armchair by her side. "There are other things, like being at school itself, interacting with other kids. But yes, it was pretty much like that. I have to say it was extremely tedious most of the time, being a child sitting in a classroom for hours in the mornings. Scully had it worse than I, I think - she was always complaining about how all was too easy, in her opinion. And how Muggle school subjects were completely ignored. At the time I thought she was only being dramatic but now as an adult I think she's probably right about that. She usually is."
"Langly has been teaching me about the Muggle side and their lifestyle. It is… very different. Once I asked him what does the Muggle school look like, what do they learn, and he said it is 'mostly super hard things that are rarely used in adult life, like trigo… ' trigo-normetry '? I think that's what it is called. I'm not really sure what that means, but he seemed really angry about that anyway."
The oldest Mulder sibling laughed.
"Trigonometry, that's Maths. It is similar to Arithmancy... in a Muggle way."
"Oh... I see why now, Byers showed me a little about Arithmancy. It doesn't look very… friendly ."
"The most important question however, is what House would you be in? Probably you would be the black sheep and be a Hufflepuff. Or worse: a Ravenclaw !", Mulder said, being unnecessarily dramatic.
"The boys told me about them. And I vaguely remember something about them from before the abduction… but what does sheep have to do with them?"
The Auror laughed again, harder this time. He couldn't help, as it was always funny - and cute, in a way - when Sam took things very literally.
She blushed a little, a bit embarrassed.
"No, no, that's okay, don't be shy about it. It is a Muggle saying, actually. Being 'the black sheep' is just a way of saying you are different from everyone in your family, or from other people in general. Our family is traditionally Slytherins, if you were something else you would be different from all of us."
She made an expression of finally understanding what he meant.
"Do you think so? What House do you think I would be in then?", she asked.
"It is hard to tell, it is the Sorting Hat that gets to choose it. And it is also hard for me to guess since you would be… well, different from what you are now, if you had the chance to attend the school with us… But", Mulder quickly added, not wanting to bring the conversation's mood down", as the way you are today, maybe you would get to go to Gryffindor with Scully. You both are very brave, about so many things."
Unaware of Scully's own abduction, Sam thought he was only talking about the Healer trusting her to go inside her mind during her power and magic test, months prior. Or how intimidating Dana Scully was when she was angry or provoked.
"Our parents would probably want to disown you for being a Gryff though.", he chuckled. "But you would be in good hands with Scully in there."
Mulder then wondered for a moment how it would have been like, accompanying his little sister to Diagon Alley to buy textbooks and tools they would need, watching as her measurements were taken for her first uniform set, following her as she chose an owl pet to send letters home - or maybe, he thought, she would chose a rabbit instead, as her favorite Animagi form revealed them. He imagined for a second how it would be like, holding Samantha's hand as she climbed aboard the train for the first time.
Would she have many friends? Or would she be the "Spooky Sammy" to the other kids as well?
He wondered if Sam would have liked to meet the grumpy, but kind and friendly little child Scully had been, or the tall, eccentric Hufflepuff girl who used to tag along with him and his partner later on by the third year. He was about to mention her, but before he could elaborate the words, both of them felt their notebooks buzzing in their pockets.
All is clear. You two can come over.
Scully
They were all able to recognize each other's hand writing by now, but Mulder knew Scully signed because she was aware Sam would now be reading her message too.
Putting their books back into their pockets, the Mulder siblings stood up almost at the same time. The house was set to close itself after they left. Sam held her brother's hand, and he felt it trembling. He gave it a soft squeeze in a reassuring manner.
"Ready?", he asked his little sister.
"Yes.", was all she managed to answer, her heart about to burst through her chest in excitement and anticipation, all the light mood from the conversation vanishing into her anxiety.
A snap and a second later, they found themselves landing on a very thin coat of frost, at the base of a set of stairs leading to a large, white house with a porch in the front. The orange-yellow light coming from the windows was warm and inviting, like a beacon in the cold, cold night. Mulder knew they were inside the perimeter of protection spells the Wanderers and Scully had set and that made him feel safe, but he still focused on his surroundings, alert to any sign of movement in the dark. He saw nothing.
Mulder looked around, his eyes moving through the trees around his mother's house, but it was his mind that was actually searching through the branches and darkness.
Scully...?
We are right here, Mulder ., said the Healer's mindvoice in his head. She sounded clear, which meant she was probably very close or seeing him. We are well hidden. Don't worry - and don't worry about us, either.
Her voice was confident, so Mulder tried to let his worries aside, trusting his partner and his friends to cover them; still holding Sam's hand in his, they started to climb the small set of stairs towards the house.
When they got to the front door, Mulder knocked. He felt Sam tighten her grip on his hand.
It's going to be alright, Sammy. , he told her, mind to mind. I'm here with you.
She didn't have the time to answer, for a silhouette moved behind the door's glass and soon an older lady wrapped in dark, fine robes and with silky, white hair opened the door, revealing anticipation and fear in her light eyes that were just the same as her daughter's in color, but more alike her son's in shape.
She was just like in Sam's memories, so faint she thought she had been making them up - except in them, her mother was twenty years younger.
Teena Mulder didn't speak.
She kept silent, framed by the light coming from inside the house. She extended a hand towards the young woman's face and then the other, tracing her features and the thin scars on there with her thumbs. The older woman seemed to be searching for something in the girl's face that she could not yet point out.
She then let her hands go of Sam's face and held her hands, gently pulling her inside the house, wanting to see her under the full, warm light. Mulder came in right behind her and stood next to his sister: just a little taller than her, both bearing the same bold jawlines, small chins, hooded eyelids and round lips; their noses were also the same, even though the young woman's was thinner, but still so alike to Mulder's.
Mrs Mulder already knew that her son had made sure to check if the girl was indeed Samantha, and that everything about her identity had been clarified and proved. But only by looking at her children together, side by side, Mrs Mulder was finally able to believe it and she didn't have to say a word.
The Mulder siblings saw it on their mother's face, in the tears she shed and on her arms slowly opening to hold her long, lost daughter in a tight hug at first, and then gently waving at Mulder to join in her joyful embrace.
Her little girl was finally home. She was finally holding her two children again.
In the living room, Sam sat across her mother and managed to tell her about her escape, and how she was able to find Mulder - how he had been calling her for years, without knowing they somehow had a distant, mental connection. How he and his friends did everything to help her and take care of her, and were still doing it.
She tried her best to leave the heavier details for later, for she didn't want to upset her mother about her ordeals in the Purity Control - not in that moment, when they were finally reunited -, but she couldn't really hide what they had done to her as it was literally all over her face and thin body.
She was not able to lie when her mother asked about the scars on her face and fingers - the only parts of her skin showing -, and soon discovering they extended to her entire arms.
"Oh, Samantha…", Mrs Mulder said, her eyes filling with tears at the sight, caressing her arms softly as if by doing that, she would be able to take away all the pain that had been inflicted to her child, taking all of it to her own - she would do that without hesitation, if only she could. "My little girl…. I'm so, so sorry … what you must have gone through in this people's hands..."
It was more than evident now to Mrs Mulder why Samantha had needed weeks and weeks to recover before risking a visit - she didn't even want to think how her daughter must have looked like when she first got to Mulder's place, three months prior.
Sam looked up at Mulder, who was leaning by the fireplace as he watched their reunion. He was alert, unable to sit or let his guard down, but he was paying full attention to the conversation nonetheless, sad about his mother's reaction, and the reason behind it.
"It is all in the past now, mum.", Sam finally managed to answer, with her thin, low voice, repeating what her brother, Scully and the Wanderers would always tell her. "I am fine. I have you, and Fox and his… my friends now, to help me. And I am here right now, with you."
"And I am so thankful, so happy you are here... You have been so brave and strong, my love. Stronger than anyone I've ever known in my entire life.", Mrs Mulder said. "Though I hate what happened to you, sweetheart, I am proud you were able to find a way out of it."
She gently placed her hand on Sam's face, and even if her eyes looked sad, still mourning her only daughter's lost, painful childhood and youth, her lips smiled sincerely and widely because her child was alive.
"You fought your way out back to your brother... to your family. We all missed you so terribly… Your father would've been so thrilled to see you again... I am sure that, wherever he is now, he is happy you are here with us once more."
Sam felt touched by her mother's words, and she also felt a small twist in her chest, like it always happened whenever she thought of her father and how she would never have the chance to see him again. She held back her tears, trying not to ruin that amazing moment.
But the moment was interrupted, anyway.
She didn't really know how she knew it - it was almost like there was a sound in the air, thin and almost inaudible. But it was not a real sound. It was a feeling, the same eerie, whispery sensation that makes the tiny hairs on the back of one's neck go up, and the same dark, silent feeling someone is grinning right behind you in a room with no lights on.
" Something was clearly wrong .", the memory of Langly's narration voice from the day before came to her mind. " It was there, deadly, coming closer…
"Closer… "
Sam was paralyzed by fear for two seconds that were enough for Mulder to see her terrified expression.
"And closer…."
But before he could say or do anything, they saw something swimming in the air into the living room, coming swiftly and soundless and bright from the back of the house - it was a Patronus. It took a moment for Mulder to see it was neither Scully's golden eagle, nor Byer's Irish Setter, Langly's weasel nor Frohike's octopus.
When the silver-blue bottlenose dolphin spoke, it had a thin, young, alarmed female voice.
A distant, very familiar one.
"Leave the house immediately! They are coming and they are going to kill all of you if you don't leave right now! They want Samantha back. Hide, now!"
As suddenly as it had appeared, it dissolved in the air. But the message was clear, and whoever was its sender, they would not take any chances. His wand already held up, Mulder quickly searched for Scully outside. Her mind was far, but it was there and he still could feel it.
Leave! You and the boys, leave this place now!
We're leaving right away, she answered, immediately understanding the urgency in his mindvoice, hers sounding faint to him with the lack of eye contact and the distance between them.
"W-what's happening, Fox…?", asked his mother, confused and scared.
"We are in danger here, mum. We must leave now. Hold my hand.", he offered his hands to both his mother and sister, who quickly held it and a snap and a second later, the warm lit room was deadly silent as if no one had been there at all.
Outside, the night was cold as it was quiet.
There was no one anymore in Teena Mulder's front yard, but a couple of minutes later, two tall figures Apparated among the trees right at the same place an invisible Scully would have been a moment earlier. Watching the empty house, one of them pulled out their wand and a swish later, the purple-blue light of a cigarette sparkled in the darkness.
"Someone told them we were coming.", said a man's voice.
"That's clear enough to see, Alex, thank you very much.", said an older man's voice, his irritation clear under the blue smoke coming out of his lips as he spoke.
"I've already told the group to retreat, as they are not needed anymore.", reported the younger man.
"And where is she?"
"I tried to contact her, sir. More than once. No success."
The older man grinned under the dim, blue light of his cigarette.
"I guess we have our traitor, then. Who would have known.", he said.
"I knew she wasn't trustworthy since the start."
The old man made an impatient sound.
"Don't give me that now, when everything is already fucked up. You've always told me she was more than fit for the job. And she had proved she was indeed fit, more than once."
After a long pause - almost to the darkness in front of him than to the man standing behind - he said:
"Find her."
The young man Disapparated right away, leaving the old Smoking Man alone, hidden by the trees and the blue light of his cigarette shining brighter as he smoked in. A silent trail of smoke was left behind in the dark when he Disapparated away as well a few minutes later, leaving the night as undisturbed as it had been before his arrival.
[END OF "SAM", ARC 1]
