"Mulder...it's Scully-I'm right here," he said, barely catching himself.

"Sam, remember," Al warned, "if you let on who you really are- Poof! we could go into oblivion faster than Jimmy Hoffa."

"You're *NOT* Scully. I just heard you referring to her as another person. I heard you talking to thin air as though you were having a one-sided conversation."

Mulder felt completely helpless. It was all his fault. It was his quest that got him in this situation, and his search for the truth that might have cost him Scully-again. Sam really felt sorry for the guy. Mulder couldn't understand what was going on. He thought his partner was gone. He tried to calm Mulder down the best he could.

"Mulder, your mind was just playing tricks on you with the anesthesia. I'm Dana Scully-your partner."

"Nice save, Sam." Al encouraged.

"I'm not buyin'. I know what I saw. I know what I heard. You're not Dana Scully. Now tell me the truth!"

"Mulder, I'm Dr. Dana Scully." Sam lied again

"Alright, if you're Dana Scully, then tell me what my lucky number is."

Sam was silent.

"If you're Dana Scully, then tell me what my favorite movie is?" Sam was still silent. He couldn't answer. Al was panicking.

"Sam, I'm outta here! If you tell that kid who you really are, I want that nurse at the counter to be the last thing I see."

"Mulder, you wouldn't believe me even if I could tell you."

"Try me."

"I-" he gave a warning look back at Al.

Roswell, NM

QLHDQRTRS

9:47 AM

It took everything Doggett had in him not to tell Scully what happened to her. By now, he was used to getting left-field theories from his partner, but this one...this one was wierd. It was beyond wierd...just plain bizzare.

"So, Scully. Just let me see if I got this right." His expression was pointed, as if he was trying not to laugh in disbelief. "You're tellin' me all this is part of a time-travel experiment, and you're not actually this guy right here," he flashed a photocopied picture he had of Sam, "But Dana Scully as she existed in 2001, so this guy" he held up a picture again, "Can help that guy," he pointed at Mulder "fix what went wrong in the original history."

Scully nodded.

"That would be correct, John." came the droning "voice" of the computer. There is a 94-point-five percent possibility that you're finding this all a bit hard to believe."

Doggett flashed an awkward smile up at in the computer's direction, and Scully shot Ziggy a dirty look.

"Ziggy, don't you have something useful to do?" Scully wanted to know.

"Dr. Scully, right now, I am configuring statistics on fossils found carbon dating to the paleolithic era, playing a game of chess with the world's top player, and stylistically differentiating the different authors of what are perported to be Shakespearean plays. I was *built* to be useful." Doggett could have sworn he saw the computer module smirk.

"Agent Doggett, we need your help." Dr. Beeks was saying. "You came here looking for information on the murder of Fox Mulder. We don't know anymore than you do at this point, because we can't access the FBI files. But both you and Dr. Scully know people who possibly can."

Doggett looked at Dr. Becket-er...Scully-quizzically.

"The Gunmen?" She answered.

Doggett sighed and got out his cell phone. "Hey, Byers, you guys feel like taking a trip to Roswell?" Doggett nodded during the slight pause. "How soon can you boys catch a plane out here?" The Lone Gunmen were on their way.

3:47 pm

Newberry Memorial Hospital

Newberry, SC.

Just then, the doctor walked in. Sam sighed in relief at not having to answer the question just then.

"Well, Mr. Mulder. Everything appears to be normal. It looks like you'll be fine, and you'll require some extensive physical therapy, but you should be walking in a day or so." Mulder closed his eyes in relief. "Thanks."

"I'll send orders for a prescription for the pain. But now-" the doctor stopped to look at the watch-"huh...that's weird...the compass on my watch is going all haywire. Huh! How 'bout that. Oh well...I guess I'll just hafta get a new battery. Anyway, I need to be going. I have a golf date with a colleague. I'll be by to check on you again during my morning rounds. Bye!" The doctor wagged his head, dumbstruck as the compass seemed to fix itself again as soon as he stepped out of the room.

"Al, I seriously don't see another way around this. He knows anyway,if we poofed out of existence because of Mulder finding out, we would've been long gone."

"Al? Who's Al? What the hell is going on?"

"Mulder, you and your partner are part of a time-travel experiment."

"Sam, I'm warning you! You tell this kid about the project and we go bye-bye." Sam could almost see the acid churning in Al's stomach.

"Al, I'm telling you, it's the only way! My name is Dr. Samuel Becket, and I am from the future in a time machine that I built."

"The Playwright? Don't tell me you're another nutcase that needs to destroy his time machine."

Sam was glad Mulder was buying his explanation.

"No, no...not at all...I'm a physicist."

"Nobel-prize winner? I saw you on the cover of Newsweek a few years back. Who are you talking to?" "Oh. Uh, this is my friend Al Calivici." Sam gestured to the air where Al was. He's a friend of mine who helps on the leaps, sometimes." Sam was actually relieved he didnt' need to keep up the sherade anymore.

"So, Dr. Becket. What are you here to fix? I hope it's not my love life, because that would be damn pathetic if you came all the way across time and space to fix that."

May 18, 2015

4:02pm Roswell, NM

PQLHDQRTRS

Doggett met Byers, Langly, Frohike, Jimmy, and Yves at the gates, who were each carrying as much equipment as they could in one load, explaining exactly what Scully had explained to him.

"So no telling her, anything, ok? Seriously fellas..." he looked nervously over at Yves, "and ma'am...if she finds out anything that's happened to her in this history, it could make all of us disappear."

"Cool!" Langly seemed grimly delighted by the prospect. Byers let an aggrivated sigh, and followed Doggett in.

"So *that's* what they're hiding in area 51, huh Doggett? No little green men after all?" The wheels were already turning in Byers' head for the next Lone Gunmen issue. What a great cover story this would make!

"Don't even think about it, Byers." Yves countered. They went inside the complex, and were given the grand tour.

"The computer module doesn't have any extra outlets for our laptops.

How do we communicate?"

"Like you would talk to everyone else." the computer module chirpped. "Speak to me."

Frohike was embarrassed, and they were all starring in awe at the machine, looking around, trying to figure out how it worked.

"I'm capable of composing music based on fractal equations, writing twenty thousand programs, patting my head, and rubbing my tummy." If that weren't a computer, Frohike could've sworn he heard her tone dripping with sarcasm.

"Ziggy, I think I'm in love." Langly's nasally voice was dreamier than either Scully or Doggett had ever heard it before. "You like Megadeath?"

"Put a sock in it." The module answered dryly.

"What do you know, a million megabytes of megabitch," grumbled Frohike.

"This is so awesome!" Jimmy was poking around the project like a little kid in a toystore, being interrupted every now and then by Verbeena Beeks' stern warning "Don't touch that!" To which, Jimmy pearched up on the research table. "Hey, can you beam me up?"

"Boys," Yves was always aggitated, trying to bring them back to earth. "We got work to do."

"So is there any main computer we can hook our systems up to?"

"Over here, this is the mainframe." Goushie said, relieved that Jimmy and Langly were going to be occupied for a while, and showed Byers and Yves where to set-up. Doggett and Scully hoped that the Gunmen could do their job.

Newberry Memorial Hospital

"See, Al...I told you we wouldn't disappear. Remember Tamlin? When I told her who I was? We didn't disappear then, either, because she knew already."

"That china doll and Roy Neary over there are different situations enTIRELY! We were lucky we didn't disappear like a pizza in front of Marlon Brando." Al punched in a few buttons in the handlink.

"Tamlin?" Mulder was confused.

"Tamlin's this girl I met in San Fransisco a while back. She found out who I was, too."

"So, seriously...what are you here to fix? I'd hate to think God, or time, or whatever it was who pinballed you around sent you here for my lovelife. That would be just pathetic. You ever think that what's leaping you around are an alien race?"

"No-I don't think so." He never considered that possibility. He just always got the feeling that it was some omniscient entity with an agenda for good.

"You really believe in little green men, don't you Mulder? I mean, don't you think it could be just that you blindly want to assume that some big bad alien took your sister so that you can have something to fight against?"

"They're gray. You know what took me so long to catch on that you weren't Scully?"

Sam shook his head.

"Because right now, you're sounding a lot like her. After all you've seen in the files from that basement office-how can you *not* understand that we're not alone...and the truth Scully and I have fought so hard for is in that understanding?" Sam remembered the mantra on the poster on the office wall back in D.C. "I want to believe-but I can't. Not without physical evidence."

"Look me up when you leap back home. I'll set you and Scully up. You two would be perfect for each other." Sam whirled around to face Al as the handlink to Ziggy's mainframe hised and whirred and beeped like crazy. The panic swam back to Mulder's face, responding to Sam's.

"Sam, you changed history. Mulder doesn't get killed anymore. Scully does."

"Sam, is Scully alright? Where is she?"

"You're partner's fine for now. She's in the future...in my time...at the project."

"What do you mean, *for now? Sam, I don't like this!"

"I don't get it Al...what happened between now and this afternoon that changed things?"

"Changed what things? What things changed?"

"Uh...Sam-the kid?" Sam had nearly forgotten that Mulder was there.

"Sam, is there anyway I can see Al? It's like a constant two- sided three-party telephone conversation here. Just getting a little complicated"

"Uh...I don't think so. The experiment was tuned to Al's and my brainwave's only."

"Maybe we should get two cans and a string. Wait a sec...what if we've got similar brainwaves? Could I register Al's signal then?"

"Hang on kid, lemme try something." Al said as if Mulder could here him, and punched a few buttons. "Sam, ask the kid what his psychological profile is."

"Mulder, what's your psychological profile?" Sam looked at Al a little confused, wondered what Al was getting at.

"If we can find similatities in your profiles, then bingo bango bongo, we can rewire the neurotransmitters so both of you can see me."

"Uh...photographic memory," Mulder wasn't used to being the one with the left-field theories.

"Al," Sam was protesting, "we don't know what part of the brain that's responsible for that yet...how can it be possible..."

"Bippety..." Al said, punching in a few keys to the handlink.

"Genius I.Q,"

"What if it takes up a lot more power than we can affoard? Al-I don't think it's the greatest idea in the world..."

"Boppety..." a few more keys punched into the handlink.

"Boo. Hi kid, how's it going." Suddenly, Mulder could see a shorter man with dark-set eyes and dark hair, greying at the temples in a dolphin-gray suit with a gold-color tie with matching shoes, and plumb colored shirt sporting a cigar.

"Hey Al. So what costume shop did you pick that get-up at?

No *wonder* Scully thought the project was a practical joke.

"*VERY* funny." Al made a face, "At least I'm not wearing something with a draft. I don't think that was in at the beginning of the melinnium."

"You know, you two were made for each other." Sam piped up. "Could you two stop going at it for two seconds so we can figure out what to do?" Sam was secretly glad that someone else had to deal with Al's weird sense of humor for a change.

"I can't tell you what happens, Mulder. It's against the regulations of the project." Sam was beginning to feel like a gradeschool teacher.

"Wait a sec...how did you know that stuff about my sister?"

"I spent most of last night reading Scully's e-log." He said, and rubbed his eyes, just then realizing how extremely exhausted he was.

"And here I was thinking my insomnia was contagious." Then, shifting gears completely, "So, what happens?"

"If you knew, everything could go ca-ca." Al interjected.

"I'm not exactly supposed to find out who you are, either, Sam."

"Mulder, even if you knew what happened, exactly what can you do about it strapped to a bed?" Sam countered.

"I have my connections, Sam. Hey-wait a sec...what if you just stayed here. No way anything could happen just hanging out in the hospital room."

"He's got a point Al. See what Ziggy says." Sam leaned over Al's shoulder as he pushed a few keys in the handlink.

"Nope." Al shook his head, "No dice, kid. Still a 72 percent possibility with that scenerio."

"Possibility of what?" Mulder still was going to do everything he could to get an answer out of the hologram.

"I told you, Mulder..." Al used a phrase he heard Agent Doggett use a couple of times. "I can't tell you that."

"Alright, Sam, why don't you go and see if you can find out anything." "What about Mulder?" Sam couldn't break his promise to Scully.

"Sam, don't worry about me, I've got Casper over here to keep me company."

"Kid, if I weren't a hologram-" Al shook his cigar at him threateningly.

Sam took one last worried look at the bullets that seemed to fire between the two of them. "Play nice, you two. I'll be back when I can."

With that, Sam left.

Al sat in a silence that seemed to fog the room for a few seconds as Mulder channel-surfed. "Hey, look at that...they're making fun of Plan 09 From Outter-Space on Mystery Science Theatre"

Al suddenly had a revelation. He would be damned if he was going to help the kid sitting in the hospital bed next too him, but he wanted to help Dana. What if he got Mulder to leave the FBI? He really got a kick out of playing matchmaker sometimes.

"Hey, Mulder...now that you've found out about your sister...ever thought about just picking up and leaving the FBI?"

"Yeah...it has crossed my mind, actually. It's put too many people at risk. I just don't think I could bring myself to leave Scully alone in that office. She's completely ruined her career...risked her life...lost her sister, and a child, and her chance to have kids...I don't think I could just pick up and leave-not after that. I need to make sure she's ok. The FBI's not much, but it's the only way I can do that."

"Mulder, what the hell were you doing pawning Scully off on Sam like that earlier? Not only are you a royal pain in the ass, you're a bonefide yabbo for giving up a woman like that!"

"Al...I told her once. She shrugged me off. No way am I gonna resurrect that ghost," he said. Mulder couldn't even look at Al as he was saying this.

"You think she'd stay in the FBI anymore if you weren't there?"

"Probably not...but then, I still couldn't look after her. She knows too much now. The guy who did this to me and his lackies would make sure one way or the other that her information would go with her to the grave. I can't let that happen."

"What if Sam got that Krycek yahoo?"

"You know, I never really even thought about it. I've never considered leaving as an option." Mulder let out a sigh as if he didn't even realize he was holding in his breath.

Mulder was begining to grow on Al. Like Mulder, Al knew what it was like to come from a broken home. Like Mulder, Al knew what it was to loose a sister. He reminded him of himself about thirty years or so ago. Maybe that's why the kid irritated him to the core.

"Come on, Mulder...it could be a real possibility. Sam and I have about as good a success rate as you and Dana. If that's what it takes to change history, it could mean that schnoz would be worm food. Go ahead...dream a little...what would you do?" Al took a puff of his cigar as if it were a challenge. Mulder was thoughtful for a minute, eyes still intent on the television, not quite able to look at Al.

"I guess I could get a professorship somewhere and teach psychology, or offer my expertise as a consultant or something like that."

"You know what I meant, Mulder." Al pressed. He could tell Mulder was avoiding the answer.

Exactly what was Al trying to get at?

"Scully and I weren't meant to be like that. Not Scully. Not Dana." Mulder was close to tears now.

"Mulder, what happens to the soul and what is meant to be isn't sealed by fate alone. Trust me on this one-Sam and I are in the business of changing that."

There was a long silence.

Sam had another appointment with the fourth victim's father. It was in the next town over in Cayce, so he had some much needed time to clear his head. What didn't make sense in the medical report was that ammonia was basic, and sea water was neutral. It shouldn't have given them acid reflux. He would call back the families and get the victims physicians tomorrow afternoon on the way to the Methodist College.

Although, maybe with the way he remembered college students' eating habits, the heartburn probably didn't have so much to do with the case, even though the acid reflux would make sense with the way the bodies appeared to be burned on the slides. Still, every aspect the case was still about as clear as the proverbial mud. "The docs gave Mulder some demorwhatsit for the pain a few minutes ago, so the kid is sleeping like a baby now."

"Al! Could you just for once stop popping in like that?"

"I'm sorry Sam, I'm thin air, remember? Holograms can't exactly knock!"

"Any ideas from Mulder?"

"Yeah, actually. He's got this thing for Dana." Sam, for some reason or another, wasn't surprised.

"Thanks for the soap opera update, but I meant about the case, Al."

"Oh! Oh, yeah...uh...he says if we can get the nozzle that knocked him off the road this morning, a one..." he punched in a few buttons on the handlink "...Alex Kry..." Al gave the side of the handlink a good whack "...cek...Alex Krycek...he and Scully can leave the FBI in peace."

"That's wonderful, but that still doesn't tell me squat about the case that apparently I'm here to solve. That Krycek guy is dangerous. I can't put Scully's life at risk for Mulder's cause...least of all for his love life"

"That's what Dana's done for the past seven years, Sam...at least for the cause part. I'm telling you, get Krycek."

May 18, 2015 Roswell, NM;

QLHDQRTRS

It wasn't long before The Lonegunmen were able to crack the FBI database and get the files needed for Ziggy's mainframe. Much to Doggett's relief, they didn't slip anything about Scully's future...er past. To Doggett, things were mixed up more than the ballots in Florida fifteen years ago.

"Scully, if things are alright here, I'm gonna head on back to D.C. Good luck with everything. I'll-uh-good luck." The phrase "see you back at the office" didn't seem to fit at that moment. If he understood everything Scully said, there was no telling the implications if Calivici and Becket succeeded in their leap. He might find himself not in the dingy basement office, but back in the NYPD. God-what would happen to Melissa? Would she even exist if they succeeded?

"Thank you, Agent Doggett-for everything."

"Just doin' my job Agent." He said a silent good-bye to her and followed the gunmen and Yves Harlowe out the door. It must have been only a few minutes later, Scully heard shots ring out in the door. Krycek was leading Doggett by gunpoint back into the project.

Scully ducked under the computer console, panicking as her mind raced, trying to figure out the next logical step.

Nobody was going to die. Not here. Not like this. Not if she had anything to do with it.

May 18, 2015 2:54pm Roswell, NM;

PQLHDQRTRS

Scully and Doggett were both veterans of hostage situations.

Doggett knew that the memory of Pfaster was still vividly etched on Scully's mind.

Doggett could vaguely recall his first hostage situation with the X-Files involving Absalom. Scully and Doggett were both familiar with Krycek. They both knew how tricky and slippery he could be. Doggett thought he was like a fish who got the bait and swam away without being hooked. What made it different this time was that if Krycek messed anything up for Al or Sam, who knows what the reprocutions would be for all involved-down at the FBI in D.C., and at the project.

"You don't wanna do this, Krycek." Doggett was saying in the calm, cool, steady tone that Scully thought he must have learned during FBI training from the section of the handbook entitled "How to Handle a Hostage Crisis."

"What you do here could mess everything up for all of us." He was praying silently for Scully not to get up.

"Why wouldn't I wanna do that-I got nothin' to loose. You got a bone to chew on, Dogbreath? 'Cause we're gonna be here a while."

"Alex," Scully called as she rose slowly from her crouching position she was finding hard to hold under the computer console. She could not sit there hiding from Krycek forever.

"What is it you want?"

Kryceck cocked his pistol behind Doggett's ear. Doggett looked to Sam-who-was-Scully, part of him excited about seeing Luke again. Scully rushed at Krycek, giving Doggett an opportunity to get out of the way. Krycek poised the gun at Scully, and then slowly and deliberately pointed the gun at the screen up ahead, and fired at the image of Mulder's head. The profile of Mulder suddenly dissappated, and Scully managed to kick the gun from Krycek's grip. Doggett dove for it, and pointed it at him.

"Dr. Beeks, is there rope anywhere around here?" Scully asked.

"Scully, I don't think anyone would blame you if you shot the rat dead right here."

"Go ahead, Agent Scully, I got nothin' to loose." was all Krycek could say. Scully decided with doctors present, the safest bet would be to make a clean shot in a place that wasn't fatal. She aimed for his left arm, and fired. Dr. Beeks and Goushie carried him into the waiting room.

"Scully, thanks." She flashed him an acknowledging smile. "I- uh-hope everthing works out."

"Just doing my job, Agent Doggett."

Doggett had to wonder if Scully meant protecting Mulder or protecting him. He liked to think it was for them both. He laid a firm hand on her shoulder and left the project with goodbye in his steps.

May 18, 2001 6:14pm Hwy 229, SC

Sam knew that it would only be a matter of time before Krycek would resurface. He sent Al to sit with Mulder. The interview in Cayce didn't shed any light on the x-file. He didn't even find any real evidence of the paranormal in this examination. He would need to wait until the autopsies tomorrow to get any real data on the situation. The medication the doctors gave Mulder would be working their spell at this point. Sam figured the best thing he could do for everyone involved would be to get some sleep. He just hoped no nightmares like he had had the night before would tear him from sleep again.

May 19, 2001; 8:30am

Newberry Motor Inn

Newberry SC

The bed seemed to be pulling him back like a magnet as the alarm yanked Sam from sleep. It had been uninterupted, and he had to will himself in an upright position. He spent the routine replaying the case over and over in his mind. There *HAD* to be something he had missed. He felt a pang of guilt not being able to stop the events of the previous morning, but at least now Mulder couldn't be killed. If Al was right, then all he had to do was get Krycek, and then he could leap out-hopefully, this time, home. He had no idea how long it had been since he had been able to be himself.

He would do autopsies on the victims now that the morgue would be open. After he could find what he could in the morgue, Sam decided the best thing to do at this point was to visit Mulder, give him the notes from the interviews, see if he could pinpoint anything that might shed some light on things.

Sam was just about to open the door to leave when he heard a door open from the outside in Mulder's room. He tentatively grabbed Scully's gun, crept to the door and pushed it slightly open. He saw no one there. The only trace of human presence at all was a thin cigarrette propped ontop of an ashtray with smoke climbing lazily from it's red embers. Sam thought that it could have belonged to the maid, and pushed the nonevent out of his mind as he headed to the morgue.

He would grab breakfast at the hospital.

The coroner oozed southern gentility and was a little surprised to see Scully's dainty form in scrubs with scalpel poised. To him, it was as out of place as snow on a palm tree. Sam pointed the microphone down so he could speak into it. "Case file number G578893. Subject, male age 17. Newberry South Carolina. The body appears to be covered in 60% in acid burns. I am cleaning out the chest cavity."

"There appears to be a white substance." Once rotten-eggish whiff told Sam what it was. "that appears to be Sulfur." Still another base, Sam thought. It wasn't adding up. "The sulfur appears throughout the body. I am cleaning it out now."

Sam took a brush and proceeded, and was very glad that Al wasn't around to complain about the grotesqueness of the situation.

"Where the sulfur appears, there are signs of internal hemhoraging and on the epidermal surface, there appears to be signs of contusions and scar tissue. This internal hemmhoraging appears to be the cause of death."

The other three bodies had much the same effects, and still the case was no closer to being solved. He thanked the coroner and left to the hospital to tell Mulder what he had found.

Maybe there was something he could see that Sam couldn't. Sam thought that he smelled smoke again as he approached Mulder's room. It smelled exactly like the smoke that was in the hotel room. With a bagel in towe, Sam was hoping Mulder would be awake.

All of a sudden, there was a throng of nurses buzzing into his room. Al popped in front of him, looking haggard and anxious. At what Al said next, Sam broke into a gallop.

"The kid flat-lined, Sam."