Scully squeezed the baby in her arms more closely once the blonde woman appeared in the room, and she noticed that Mulder had done the same. She hoped they could stick with their plan—to get the children out the house as quickly as possible, and to make their way north.

"I'm so sorry, I should have introduced myself," the blonde smiled. "I'm Valerie, 'Mantha's nanny. I just started last week. Mantha wanted to be here herself, but she needed to take Amelia to the dentist."

"So what's 'Mantha's big news?" Mulder asked casually as he adjusted the toddler on his hip, tickling the boy on his stomach. In return, the boy laughed, and tried to do the same thing to his father.

"Well, she asked me to give this to you," Valerie said as she turned around to pick something up, waving a flat, wrapped package at her visitors before tossing it on the sofa. "And she asked me to tell you that she owes you a game of Stratego the next time you see her, which probably won't be until after she and Di finish their next project, and she has no idea when that will be. But she's excited about the work, so big brother shouldn't worry about her and his niece."

"Thanks," Mulder managed to say as his mind began processing the myriad of questions that stemmed from Valerie's message, trying to block out the anxiety that soured his stomach upon hearing the word 'Di' come out of the nanny's mouth. Finally, he blurted out, "Tell her I won't worry, and I look forward to that game."

"I will," Valerie said excitedly. "They won't be back until this afternoon, and I know she said that you would need to get back on the road immediately. I have their stuff packed up by the door, and I'll need some help moving the car seats."

Scully breathed a small sigh of relief. They were almost free; she was also grateful that they wouldn't have to stop for the sole purpose of buying car seats. She wasn't sure how she would handle holding two small children in the backseat of the rental until they stumbled into a Kmart or Wal-Mart. She knew that they would have to stop somewhere to buy the boys clothes, diapers, and other essentials for their trip, but at least this way they would be able to put some distance between them and Charleston.

"Hey Nathan, buddy," Mulder said softly to the toddler in his arms. "Why don't you play with Mommy and Will while I get the car packed up, huh?"

Scully shared a small smile with Mulder as he set Nathan down on the floor without complaint. She did the same thing with Will before sitting down herself. "Doggy!" Will called out, pointing at the playpen.

"Woofy!" Nathan said excitedly, as he toddled to the playpen and began to hit its sides.

Scully got back up and peered into the playpen, spotting two stuffed dogs and two blankets. She picked up the four items and set them in front of her as she sat back down, and sure enough, both boys claimed their spoils. "Doggy!" Will cried as he held up a stuffed beagle with a slightly chewed up ear with a triumphant grin, handing Scully a blue blanket with frayed edges. To her surprise, he immediately sat in her lap, talking softly to Doggy in gibberish. Scully's eyes danced to Nathan, who was sitting on his dark green blanket, parts of it in tatters. He was enthusiastically bouncing Thomas the Tank Engine in his left hand and a stuffed dalmation in his right. "Woofy, Thomas," he repeated in a sing-song voice.

"Is your puppy named Woofy?" Scully asked as Nathan crawled a little closer to her.

"Yes," Nathan said, looking up at her with wide, hazel eyes. "I'm two."

"You're a big boy," Scully responded. "You must eat all of your vegetables."

"Yuck," Nathan scrunched up his nose.

"Uck!" Will repeated.

Scully smiled, as Nathan handed her Woofy. "Mine," he reminded her as he clutched Thomas tightly.

"Thank you!" Scully grinned as she gave Woofy a kiss and handed it back to the two-year-old. "Woofy is a very good puppy."

"I'm good!" Nathan said.

"I know, you're a very good boy," Scully smiled. She was relieved that she was able to communicate with the boys so easily, wishing that Mulder was sitting there with them but also hoping that they would be able to leave the house as soon as possible so they would be able to begin to connect as a family.

Mulder walked into the room a few minutes later, and gasped when he saw Scully sitting on the floor, one boy in her lap and the other at her side, playing with the stuffed animals. The light refracting through the bay window lent a certain softness to the scene, which he soaked in for a moment before speaking. "The car is all set," he finally said, walking over to Scully and the children. He picked up William as Scully took Nathan's hand while gathering the blankets.

Somehow, they managed to easily put both boys in their rather complicated car seats. Scully judged by their amount of wriggling that the boys wouldn't be too fond of a long road trip. She also used the opportunity to check the size tags on their clothing, making a mental note—she wanted any stops they would make to be as quick as possible.

"And these are the last two things," Valerie said, running to the driveway from the house. "Diaper bag and 'Mantha's present."

"Thanks for everything," Scully said as she accepted the diaper bag and swung it over her shoulder. She then took hold of the wrapped item, noting that the cream colored card read "Fox."

"It was no problem. Amelia and I will miss having the boys around during the day," Valerie explained. "They were great. You are lucky to have such easy-going kids."

"We are," Mulder answered as he fiddled with the car keys. He looked at his watch and began to tap the dial. "We better get going so we beat the traffic."

"Of course! Get to it," Valerie said, waving to the boys through the tinted car window. "Bye boys!"

Mulder and Scully gave Valerie a farewell wave as they backed out of the driveway. "Thank God," Scully sighed once the house was out of view. She looked in the back seat, and upon catching her eye, she heard Nathan say, "Ernie!"

She ripped open the diaper bag. Besides the diapers and wipes, she found a couple of tumbler cups, a ziplock bag of cheerios, a box of animal crackers, and other odds and ends. "Is this it?" Scully pulled out a Sesame Street CD, and slid it into the console, and was relieved to see a smile cross Nathan's face.

"We can probably get away with not stopping for supplies until after lunch," Scully said as she rummaged through the rest of the diaper bag. "There are some diapers and extra clothing in here."

"I have no idea what's in the duffle bag," Mulder responded. "But I used Frohike's metal detector and it didn't beep. It's probably just clothes, but I don't think I want to take that chance."

"We have the cash to get enough stuff to last us the trip," reasoned Scully. "And there are plenty of places near the Vineyard where we can get what we'll really need moving forward."

"I wasn't expecting this to go so easily," Mulder said, fiddling with the audio tuner so the CD played more loudly in the backseat instead of the front. "How the hell are we going to explain this to Kyle?"

"A simple version of the truth?" Scully suggested, suddenly distracted by cries emanating from the backseat.

"What's wrong?" she asked, as Mulder turned the music down. Will's face was scrunched up, and he was pointing to the floor. "Did Doggy fall?" She unclasped her seat belt and squeezed her way to the backseat, somehow managing to pick up the stuffed animal without falling over on either of the children.

While stopping for a diaper change at a rest stop an hour later, Mulder called Langley from a park bench to tell him that they were on schedule; he could hear Kyle in the background asking to talk to his father. "Is your case over?"

"It's over," Mulder confirmed, hoping that Will, who was sitting on his lap, wouldn't announce his presence. "We're going to meet up just before dinner."

"Can we do something fun tonight if you aren't working?"

"We need to get and early start tomorrow," Mulder responded. "We're meeting up with Preston for lunch."

"But I'll still be able to get up early," Kyle promised. "Langley said that there's an awesome ice cream place near where we'll be staying. And he said that there used to be a bowling alley, but it might not be there anymore."

"Let's settle for ice cream, okay?" Mulder said to Kyle as Scully rejoined him with Nathan settled on her left hip. Mulder reflexively smiled as he watched her interact with the children. She set Nathan down on the bench, pleased to see that he gravitated towards his father. She fumbled through the diaper bag, producing tumbler cups, bottled water, and the juice she had purchased from the vending machine. Mulder looked on impressively as she watered down the orange juice and gave each boy a mug. She then passed them both some Cheerios, which they immediately gobbled down.

"This should hopefully last them until lunch," Scully said once Mulder was off the phone. "Did you open the package Valerie gave us?"

Mulder shook his head. "Not yet," he said somewhat gruffly, accepting some smooshed Cheerios from Will.

"Do you think we should open it now?" Scully asked, trying to gauge Mulder's frustration with the situation. She wasn't sure whether Mulder was purposely ignoring her as he turned away and began to converse with the boys. It wasn't for another ten minutes, after they settled the children in their car seats, that Mulder responded to her question.

"The envelope—the writing on the front is Diana's," he said very softly. "I don't want Kyle to see anything that connects her to this. Let's just get it over with and dispose of the evidence."

Scully fumbled for the package, which was sitting near her feet, stuck between the diaper bag and passenger side door. She nodded to Mulder, indicating that he should be the one to open the envelope. Just as he was about to unfold the single piece of paper, he was interrupted by Nathan's cries. "Ducky! Ducky!"

"I think I know what that means," Mulder smiled, as he started the car and turned on the Sesame Street CD. "And, I think we're getting a hang of this parenting thing okay."

"Damnit," Mulder said under his breath, his expression turning sour as he skimmed the note, before passing it along to Scully. She stared at Mulder, who was gripping the steering wheel, his arms cradling his head. She whipped open the note, and grimaced. Fox—Don't they remind you of Kyle? Keep them close and they'll be safe in your Ever Ever Land.

"What does it mean," Scully asked quietly. Slowly, Mulder pulled his head up and sat back in his seat, his eyes closed and his hands raking through his dark hair.

"When Kyle was five, he became fascinated with Peter Pan, and that didn't go away for a couple of years. Instead of calling it Never Never Land, he called it Ever Ever Land. When he was about six, I asked him about these pictures that he was drawing. He told me that they are of Ever Ever Land, and most of them were me and him, and some of them included his friends. He said that his mother wasn't allowed because she didn't believe," Mulder explained. "While part of me was thrilled that I made the cut, that he and I were front and center of that picture, another part of me was devastated that he was only six years old and he could see that his mother was so disconnected from his life. I struggled with that. Some time later, Diana and I had some argument, and I'm not sure which one of us brought it up, but that's when I realized that she was aware of it. At first, I thought it bothered her, that she wasn't allowed in Ever Ever Land, but I don't know. I guess it doesn't matter."

Scully thought she saw a tear fall from Mulder's left eye as he recounted the story. "You're his hero, Mulder. He looks up to you, he adores you," she reminded him.

"I know," Mulder said, sniffling slightly. "But this note—Scully, it means that she's not going to interfere. I don't know if she's defeated, or resigned, or apathetic, but this means that we're in the clear."

Mulder took the note out of Scully's hands and slid it into his back pocket. As much as he wanted to ensure that Kyle did not see it, he wasn't quite ready to destroy it either. He knew that there was something that he was missing, that the note provided some clue that he did not yet understand.

"Mulder?" Scully repeated.

"Yup?" he jolted out of his fog, hoping that he had only spaced out for a few seconds; the look on Scully's face told him that she was worried.

"Sorry, I just know that I'm missing something here," he tried to explain.

"Do you want me to open this?" Scully asked for the second time, interrupted by some frustrated cries in the backseat. She turned over and saw that both boys were beginning to fidget in their car seats.

"Shouldn't they be genetically predisposed to long car trips?" Mulder cracked as he began to pull out of the parking lot.

"Them in their carseats is like you on an airplane," Scully bantered, Mulder throwing her a wounded look as they settled back on the highway.

After another round of Rubber Ducky, Mulder suddenly said, "Open it."

Scully carefully unwrapped the package, which revealed a photo album. She suddenly gasped upon opening it, quickly turning the pages and then flipping back to the beginning of the book. Now it was her turn to tear up. "It's their baby pictures," she whispered, surprised at how choked up she felt.

A wave of emotion swept through her; sadness and anger for not having been a part of the boys' lives from the beginning; anxiety for not knowing how they were treated; and relief and happiness that they were now with her and Mulder.

She continued to page through the album in a daze. She could see that William had been born a towhead, much like her, his hair growing darker throughout his first year, and that Nathan's hair became curlier as it grew. She then began to reexamine the background of the photos, hoping that there was some clue as to how the boys spent the first years of their lives.

"Most of these seem to have been taken at that house," Scully narrated. "There are no marks or bruises on the boys, thank God. But I see Valerie's reflection in a few of these photos, but they must have been taken at least six months ago—William is crawling."

"The whole 'I was just hired' routine was probably a lie," Mulder said. "She wouldn't want us to ask any questions. Every photo is there for a reason."

"There are a couple of shots of a girl, who looks to be about eight—dark hair, braids," Scully continued. "I'm assuming that's Amelia."

"She probably looks just like my sister," Mulder guessed, hitting the steering wheel with the back of his right hand, obviously frustrated.

"She does," Scully agreed, not looking up from the album. "Do you want to switch places?"

Mulder shook his head. "I drive faster," he pointed out. "I'll look at it when we stop for lunch. I want to make sure I see it before Kyle has the chance. I still don't know what I'm going to say to him. Is there any indication of Samantha in those photos?"

"I see something reflected in the mirror of a few of these shots. If we can get these scanned, we might come up with something. It looks like a woman's face," Scully said, moving the album around to try and get a better look.

Suddenly, Scully dropped the album. "What was that?" Mulder asked as he heard the thud. He turned to his right when Scully failed to answer him. His line of sight went to the floor, then to Scully's shaking hands, and then to Scully's quivering mouth.

"What?" Mulder asked, raising his voice higher as he guided the car to the breakdown lane. He killed the engine, and tried to tune out Nathan's immediate protest.

"It's us," Scully creaked.

"What do you mean?" Mulder demanded, his hazel eyes wide. He looked from Scully to the boys in the backseat back to Scully. He snapped off his seat belt and picked up the album from the floor of the car.

Panic rose up Mulder's throat as he flipped through the pages furiously until he saw that he was looking at himself.