Alice and Mulder had been in their office for nearly a day straight, sorting through physical and computer files. They were still no closer to finding an answer. "Pro-possession case files go in which pile again?" Alice asked, closing a Manila folder.

"By the coffee pot. Hey, babe, while you're up, can you make some more coffee?" He perched his glasses on his forehead, rubbing his eyes.

"I'll put some on, and then I'm going to make a food run."

"We've already got Chinese and pizza leftovers."

"I can't sit and work any more. I need a break. You probably should take one too." She put her glasses back on, standing and stretching.

"I'm on to something. I've got to be."

"You were on to something an hour ago. And yesterday. You were on to something when I took a nap at 1AM, and when you woke me up to make me read something at 5. Mulder, you haven't slept, you haven't left this room for more than ten minutes, and you're going to crash soon." She put her high heels back on, moving towards the door.

Mulder sighed, setting down his work. He agreed to join her, but only on the condition that, "we head back soon. I've got some stuff to work on."

"I'm going to make you take a nap, even if I have to drug you."

"Alice."

"Fine. Let's go to that burger place down the road. It'll be quick. We can get back here and I'll let you work until nine, but then you're going to get some sleep," Alice planned, checking her watch as they headed upstairs.

"Why time is it?"

"Nearly six. You'll have a couple of hours."

"Okay."

"But after that, we're going home. We both need showers and sleep," she told him as they headed out of the J. Edgar Hoover Building and onto Pennsylvania Avenue. Mulder nodded, thinking he would bring some books home with him. "You're not staying up reading all night either. You need to sleep, Mulder."

They were both in a better mood after leaving the building for a little while, but Alice's smile dropped off when she saw their door. While they had been out, someone had strung plastic bats and paper pumpkins all over the door to their basement office. "What is all that?"

"Sometimes they do that," Mulder shrugged.

"Who?" Alice began tearing the decorations down. "That's just mean. It's cruel."

"It's a joke."

"They're making fun of you, Mulder, and I know you don't mind it, but I do." She crumpled up a string of paper pumpkins, throwing them in the nearest trash can. "I'm going to find out who did this and-"

"Don't bother. It could've been any of them." He walked into their office and went back to work as she continued to take the decorations off of their door.

"Agent Hemming," a voice said from behind her. "Or should I call you Mrs. Mulder?" She turned around to see a man in a suit watching her. "Very nice of you to be defending him."

"Are you-"

"I'm coming to warn you, dear. Don't probe into this case. Let us handle Agent Scully. Leave this alone."

She shook her head. "Not a chance. My friend, our colleague, is in danger. I'm not leaving her. She wouldn't have left me."

"Looking into the inner workings of the FBI, all of our secrets, wouldn't be good for either of you."

"I'll accept the consequences, if we can save her."

The man gave her a final warning. "You will find things you're not going to like. Life-changing things. Be prepared to accept all of the consequences." He turned and walked away, disappearing up the stairs.

"Alice, who are you talking to?" Mulder called, rolling his chair over to look out into the hallway.

She stuffed a final armful of decorations into the garbage. "No one. How's the research going?"

Alice sat in her library at home, sorting through FBI files on her laptop. Mulder was asleep in their bedroom. She had slipped part of a ground-up Xanax in his coffee (probably his twelfth cup of the night) earlier, and he had fallen asleep as soon as he laid down.

Mulder was actually the one who had remodeled the room into a library for her. When she had been living in her apartment, she had kept stacks of books everywhere. She'd always wanted her own library room, and Mulder had promised her one when she moved in. He had cleaned up the room, moved in bookcases and a desk, and had helped her shelve her collection of criminology books. He already had an office across the hallway from hers, but it was mostly taken up by filing cabinets and newspaper articles pinned to the walls on top of maps and charts tracking alien activity.

She was about to go to bed when she noticed something in Mulder's personnel file. Normally, she wouldn't have been able to access all of the notes the Bureau had on him, but she was using a special database allowing for complete access a few levels above her security clearance. In the area for additional notes, someone had attached a report that detailed the testing he had undergone at Quantico. There were the normal things like blood and drug tests, but also several copies of DNA maps. That in itself wasn't that unusual, especially for agents assigned to higher-risk cases. They could be used for identification if no other ID could be made on a body. There had been consistent anomalies circled on the scanned-in chromosome maps. Alice closed the file, thinking of what it could mean. She really should talk to him about it. About a lot of things. Shaking her head, she turned her laptop off and went upstairs, climbing into bed next to her husband.

When she woke up, sunlight was streaming in through the bedroom window. Mulder was already up. There was still steam filling the bathroom, so she reasoned that he hadn't been up for too long.

Alice headed downstairs, seeing that Mulder stood in the kitchen, flipping pancakes as he read something on his laptop, which was balanced on an overturned bowl. "Hey." Alice walked up behind him, giving him a hug. "You're making pancakes and reading without setting anything on fire? I'm impressed."

"I think I found something. I don't like it, but it's our only option." He stepped to the side, letting her read the document.

"It sounds like we're going to have to almost kill her," she observed, pulling her hair up. Mulder nodded. "And that thing is going to put up a fight."

"It's our only option."

"Are we flying up to New Jersey?" Alice asked, perching on the counter and watching him cook.

"Not today." He flipped a pancake onto the stack on a plate next to him. "Impressive, huh? They're moving her to a secure location near the bio-defense place at the fort. We'll head out there tomorrow, but we've got to flesh out a plan first. How many pancakes do you want?"

"Just two for now." Mulder made them both plates, setting them down in the small breakfast nook that overlooked the garden.

"So I'm thinking we- are you okay?"

"Mulder, there's something I've got to tell you." She took his hand, asking, "Remember that night a little before the wedding? A few weeks ago? We were sad about Scully and glad we were going to get married and full of hormones and... it must have been that night. Mulder, I'm pregnant."