Author's Notes:

When I started this story two years ago I thought how this chapter ended would be happening much sooner in the story, and I didn't think I would be watching a season eleven that seems to have parallels to where I see some of this going. Is that a little spoiler-y? Perhaps. Oh well.

As always, sorry for any errors. I really need to get a beta because it takes two years for my eyes to catch my own mistakes in a sea of text as expansive as this has become. And also, a huge thank you to all of the followers and reviewers, new and old. You are what has pulled me out of my writing hole.

-Luna

Chapter Eleven

Ottawa National Forest

Upper Peninsula, Michigan

March 15, 1992

8:34 AM

In Mulder's eyes, the morning had gone two ways: both good and bad. The good was that, as Joe the hotel manager promised, there were snowmobiles ready and waiting for them first thing that morning. Joe had mapped out the best trail routes into the forest and around the Porkies. Mulder knew they would have to backtrack, probably hiking the rest of the way to their destination, given the terrain as they got closer to Lake Superior.

Byers proudly showed off his self-made GPS, in which the coordinates for the location they sought had been input. Mulder and Scully humored him as he explained how GPS worked, once again, while Missy had actually listened in awe and interest asking him various questions about the device. It was clear Byers was tickled by her attention, even more so without the beard to hide behind.

Now Byers was straddled behind Mulder to help navigate. Which Mulder saw as part of the bad. However, Scully was the only other person who knew how to drive a snowmobile, a skill picked up during rough winters at their place in Virginia, and Missy had seemed keen on riding with her sister.

Though, Mulder knew what was really eating at him was what felt like another complete shutdown of Scully since the night before. She had promised that they would talk about her experience as a teen, but when they woke to get ready, he could tell she had completely retreated into her own head. By the time she had emerged, they were ready to get on the road, and Scully was in business mode.

Now that they were on the move, the thrum of the snowmobile's engine as they shot through snow covered pines and barren hardwoods, had drawn him into his own head. Mulder realized that he was also feeling hurt. Hurt that Scully had never shared with him something that was so clearly personal, even after all of the years and intimacy between them. Had she chosen just to forget about it? Scully was remarkable at the art of repression, that was for certain, but he still had the feeling that whatever had happened, it had probably impacted her life in a large way. Whether she had repressed it or not. Mulder wondered if Missy had not been killed in the timeline from which they came, would have he had learned about it earlier in their partnership. Clearly the elder Scully sister had not repressed those events...whatever they were.

Mulder was pulled out of his self-induced hypnosis by a literal knocking on his helmet. He slowed, stopped and killed the engine. He pulled up the visor of the helmet and squinted against the harsh morning light reflecting off the snow. The snowmobile behind them stopped, and he heard Scully's voice shout, "Is this where we need to stop?"

Mulder watched as Byers looked down at his GPS receiver and also the map given to them by Joe the motel manager before they left.

"Yeah," he shouted back at her before turning to nod at Mulder, "I think we are going to need to find a place to hide these, and then hike our way in. Based on my calculations about how fast we can hike through this snow and the location of the coordinates, it will take use a couple hours."

Mulder felt himself grimace. He had too many bad experiences trekking around in cold snow, in the middle of nowhere. Hopefully, this experience went smoother than some of those.

"Sounds like a plan, Byers. You lead the way," he said.

10: 19 AM

It had taken them about thirty minutes to find a good cover for the snowmobiles and get situated with packs and snowshoes before they began their hike toward the lake. Mulder was surprised at how rough the terrain became, but luckily the conversation between the group, including Scully, made the wintry hike palatable. Missy and Byers asked them a barrage of questions about their cases together and were trying to formulate theories as to what had caused their consciousness to time jump. Unsurprisingly, Missy's theories were very spiritual and metaphysical, while Byers' were tied to rogue technology and conspiracy theories. Mulder imagined that what actually happened lie somewhere in between.

After about another hour of hiking, Mulder felt a tug on his sleeve. Scully was holding the binoculars up for him to look through.

"Byers, how far off are we from the location?" He heard her say as he looked to see what appeared to be a dated trailer perched in overgrown brush, a few hundred yards away.

"We can't be far now. Why?" Byers replied, and Mulder handed him the binoculars.

Mulder looked down at Scully, "You think that might be it?"

"A creepy trailer in the middle of nowhere?" She snorted as she looked up at him, "Given our track record for finding what we are looking for in creepy trailers in the boonies, I would say, yes. Unfortunately, yes. But I call dibs on not going in first."

He couldn't help but grin back at the grin she was giving him, before he looked over to Byers again, "Byers?"

Missy and Byers were both behind them looking over the map and GPS receiver.

"I think so given our current coordinates, and what I believe to be where we are when I check back on the map," he confirmed.

"Are you guys ready?" Missy asked looking between her and Mulder.

Mulder looked down at Scully again and shrugged. "I guess it's now or never, Scully."

"I guess," she replied. He could still see the trace of a smile on her face, but behind it was clearly trepidation.

"We got this," he assured her and gave her arm a squeeze.

When Mulder looked up he saw Missy and Byers frozen in place, a look of what he read to be a mix of fear and panic on their faces. For a moment, Mulder thought perhaps they had finally run into a bear or other large predator, but as he turned with Scully to see what they were looking at, what they were instead met with was a human. A woman with dark skin and hair, trying to mask her own look of fear and panic with one of challenging grit, as she stared at them down the barrel of a shotgun.

He saw Scully's hands go up in his periphery as he put up his own. Silence between them seemed to stretch on forever as the woman looked them over. When the woman spoke her voice wavered briefly before it found its strength.

"What year is it?" She demanded as Mulder watched her finger curl around the trigger.