A/N I apologize for the delay in posting! I really appreciate everyone's reviews-happy reading!

XXXXX

The three minutes between dialing 911 and Nathan opening his eyes were the scariest of Scully's life.

During those 180 seconds, she practically babbled, concentrating on her speech as a way to keep herself calm. "Passing out is the body's way of protecting itself," she shakily reminded herself out loud, searching for words that would rationalize why her boisterous two-year-old was lying crumpled on the wooden floor. "I don't want to move him in case of a spinal injury. I really don't think that's the case, but I'm not taking that chance."

Mulder breathed heavily as he tried to concentrate on his partner's voice instead of thinking about worst-case scenarios. When his middle son finally opened his eyes, relief washed through him. "Don't move, monkey," Scully said soothingly. "We need to take you to the doctor. Does anything hurt?"

Nathan just began to sob, screaming 'ow.'

It was the sweetest sound Scully could have ever heard. "Thank God," she whispered, blinking back tears.

"What?" Mulder asked, confused and alarmed.

"If he couldn't feel anything, there would be more of a chance of permanent damage," she continued, smoothing down Nathan's hair. "Nathan, sweetie, you are going to have to stay still. Don't move around, monkey."

The next few minutes blurred by, as they tried to keep Nathan calm. While Scully held a towel to his injured scalp, Mulder pressed Woofy into his son's hand, which helped to quell his cries. "You and Woofy are going on an adventure," Mulder promised him as Scully let in the EMTs, briefing them on the boy's condition. Mulder could barely hear their conversation, caught in a stupor when one of the paramedics gruffly asked him to step aside.

Scully argued her way onto the ambulance with Nathan, and Mulder promised to meet them at the hospital as soon as he could. He stood on the front stairs in a daze until he could no longer hear the wail of its siren. While a broken arm and possible concussion could never be taken lightly, Nathan's injuries could have been far worse. Mulder was fearful and thankful at the same time, and he needed a moment to himself in order to process how everything that had just happened.

"Dad?"

Mulder whipped around to see his oldest son stare at him wide-eyed, his voice tentative.

"Is Nathan going to be okay?"

"I hope so," Mulder muttered, squeezing Kyle's shoulder as he brushed past him, turning his attention to clean up the kitchen.

XXXXXXXXXX

It wasn't until he wandered into the living room fifteen minutes later that Mulder remembered Kyle's friends were visiting. The sixth graders all looked at him with blank stares; the only noise came from Bandit, who was eyeing him suspiciously as he approached Will. Although he was impressed with Bandit's guard dog stance, he felt disappointed in himself, in that he had scared the children.

"You guys should call your parents," Mulder quietly said, stepping back with Will in his arms. "I need to get to the hospital. I'll see if Coop and Elisabeth can come by."

"We aren't leaving," the girl with the dark hair, Chloe, defiantly stated. "Not until we know what's going to happen to Nathan."

"Would your parents let you stay here with a baby sitter?" Mulder tiredly asked. He was in no mood for arguing with anyone, much less an eleven-year-old.

"What if I got my dad to stay with us?" she suggested.

Mulder knew he was outnumbered as soon as he saw the expectant faces of the group. He was touched that they wanted to stick together. Obviously, in the few weeks since school had started, Kyle had found acceptance with a solid circle of friends. "I'll call your dad," Mulder agreed.

XXXXXXXXXX

"And you're sure you want to do this?" Mulder asked Hank Gibson as the two men looked on at the chaos in the bustling kitchen. Chloe was standing over the stove, simmering the ground beef, while Kyle and Dave were creating an assembly line of toppings on the kitchen island. Natalie was in the corner with Will, playing with his animal magnets, and Aidan was chopping vegetables at the table.

"Let's just say I owe my daughter," Hank responded carefully, stepping back into the hallway, not wanting his daughter to overhear too much. "She's in her last few weeks of only child-om, we just moved, and she's beginning to realize that having a stepmother means she can be punished by two people when appropriate."

"Welcome to my world," Mulder quipped. Under different circumstances, they would quite possibly be having this conversation over beer while watching a game instead. "I think—what they saw—they might be a little shaken up."

Hank nodded, appreciating the warning. "I'll see if they want to talk about it," he promised. "I know these kids, they all have good hearts. I've heard a lot about your boy, and he's in with the right crowd here."

"They have certainly impressed me, but it's good to have that kind of confirmation all the same," Mulder said. "Are you okay with Will? I don't know how quickly our sitter can get here."

"Don't worry about the sitter," Hank reassured him, waving him off. "God knows I need the practice. Just go see your little boy, and don't worry about us."

"I really appreciate this," Mulder said, shaking Hank's hand before walking towards Will, to give the little boy a hug. "You be good, okay, bullfrog?"

"Bye bye," Will responded in a sing-song voice, his left hand in his mouth, turning his attention to his magnets.

Thankful that Will was occupied, Mulder pulled Kyle away from his friends. "I'm heading to the hospital now," Mulder said. "Either Dana or I will be back later tonight. Are you okay with everyone here?"

Kyle nodded, staring at the floor. "I want my friends to stay. Will you let me know what's wrong with him?"

"As soon as we know something, I'll call you, buddy. Okay?"

Kyle nodded, walking over to his friends downcast, Bandit running around them, eager to eat up the spare bits of food on the floor.

XXXXXXXXXX

They did not so much hug as they clung to one another as soon as they met in the emergency room. Mulder fought a sense of deja vu as he hurried along the hospital corridor, determined to keep himself mentally on track. He ignored the flashes of memory from past hospital visits that raced through his mind: storming the halls to find Scully after her return from her abduction; the dread of anticipation that accompanied him the day she told him about her cancer; the trepidation that he felt each time they visited Emily. Instead of clutching flowers or toys, he was toting a small backpack of things for Scully, Nathan, and himself. He instinctively knew that one of them would stay the night in the hospital, while the other would go home to tend to their other children.

"I got here as soon as I could," Mulder explained, tucking Scully's head under his chin, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "I hit a ton of traffic."

"There was a huge multicar accident—they just rushed several critical cases in here. It's going to slow down things for Nathan. They still haven't let me back there. It's been an hour since I've seen him. They made me leave after they stitched him up."

The sudden crack in her voice cut through his own emotions, and he struggled to quell the lump in his throat. "They let him keep Woofy, right? That will make him less scared."

Scully attempted to nod, her face tickling his neck. "I brought everything you asked for," Mulder explained. "His Thomas pajamas, the Richard Scarry book, his trains, clothes for us."

"Were the kids alright?" Scully asked. "I didn't even think to—"

"Scully, don't worry about them," Mulder assured her. "They were shaken up, but they were going ahead with making tacos when I left. They don't want to leave until they know that Nathan will be okay. They are sticking together."

"I'm glad Kyle's with friends," Scully weakly smiled. "He shouldn't be alone."

"Nathan's parents?" A woman in scrubs softly tapped Scully's shoulder. "You can come back here now."

Scully dried her tears, determined not to let her son see her so upset. She knew from her own experience that children who picked up on their parents' anxiety faced more difficult recoveries. Mulder slipped his hand into hers as they followed the nurse, who introduced herself as Trisha, through a complicated series of twists and turns.

"Mr. and Mrs. Mulder?" asked a tired looking man, fumbling in his lab coat pocket for a pen. "Ned Larson."

"It's doctor and doctor, actually," Mulder muttered under his breath, annoyed as Dr. Larson yawned, flipping through Nathan's chart. "And he was here last week for tubes in his ears?"

"No, that would be our youngest son," Scully explained, trying not to let her frustration show, especially before she knew any information about the boy's condition.

"He broke his right arm in a couple of different places, maybe three," Larson droned. "He needed eleven stitches on the right side of his forehead, and we suspect he has a concussion. We'll be administering anesthesia to reset the bones. We'll want to keep a close eye on him for the next couple of days. Once we clear the critical cases from that car accident, we'll be in business."

"I'm the most worried about the possible concussion," interrupted Scully. "When can we get a neurology consult?"

"He's on the list," Larson said loudly as he hurried off. "Again, we have critical cases that have been prioritized."

Mulder snorted. "He seems to be really on top of things," he barked, the aggravation apparent in his voice. "How do we know he's even talking about Nathan? Whose chart was he even reading?"

"Let's just sit with Nathan," Scully said, squeezing his hand as they followed Trisha. She too was annoyed with Larson's behavior, but with the amount of time they would probably spend in the emergency room, she didn't want to risk a reputation for alienating the staff so quickly.

"It's your mom and dad, Nathan!" Trisha cheerfully greeted Nathan as she opened the curtain to his cubicle. Scully's heart cracked as she saw the sleepy two-year-old look so small and fragile on the gurney. His right arm was completely swollen and propped up on pillows, and his right temple was bandaged.

"He's pretty out of it," explained Trisha. "I was going to wait for you guys to get here before I took more blood. After I'm done, he can sleep. He's all set up with a saline IV, and we gave him some anti-nausea meds, and the doctor gave the okay to let him doze off. I know he's had a rough day."

Scully nodded wordlessly, biting her lip.

"Larson might come across as a little absent-minded," Trisha responded, as though she could read their minds. "But he's a great diagnostician. He actually likes being in the ER too. Believe me, he's on top of your son's case."

"Could have fooled me," Mulder sarcastically muttered as he reached for a latex glove to make a balloon for Nathan, who weakly giggled before closing his eyes again. Hearing Nathan laugh felt like music to his ears.

"When you finally get out of here, the biggest challenge will be keeping him still. Nathan will be feeling better before he can really run around, which is hard to explain to toddlers, as I'm sure you know. So I suggest that you all get as much rest as you can, because the next thing you know, you won't be able to keep up with him."

XXXXXXXXXX

Although they were in silent agreement about who would stay with Nathan and who would go home, Mulder felt the need to raise the issue once he saw the clock inch towards 11:00 PM. "It makes more sense for me to stay, especially since we haven't seen a doctor in three hours," Scully rationalized. Although Nathan had been admitted to the pediatric unit, he still hadn't seen any specialists. "It's not that I think you don't want to be here for him too."

Mulder nodded. "Scully, I know what you mean," he offered. "I'll be back tomorrow morning, as soon as I can. Kyle has his appointment with Dr. Meadows, so it probably won't be until ten-thirty."

Scully's eyes grew wide. "We should have called Elisabeth or-"

"I've got tomorrow covered, Scully," soothed Mulder. "Child care is taken care of. Let me worry about the logistics for once, okay? We'll never have to leave Nathan alone. I couldn't do that to him...or to us."

Scully nodded, feeling her resolve break as Mulder slowly stood up to kiss Nathan goodbye before giving her a sad smile as he left his room. Her tears muddled the image of him walking away, his head slightly bent. Suddenly, he hesitated, mournfully looking through the frosted window that separated him from his little boy. Squeezing Nathan's foot, she hurried out of the room.

He didn't see her at first; instead, his eyes lingered on their sleeping son. It wasn't until he felt her softly grip his forearm that he realized she had joined him in the hallway. Instinctively, he pulled her close, cupping her face in his hands before wrapping himself around her small frame. Although he couldn't hear her sobs, he could feel them ripple through the thin layers of cotton that separated them.

When they finally separated, he wasn't sure whether thirty seconds or thirty minutes had passed since they first embraced. "We'll get through this," he softly said into her hair. "I'll be here in the morning. Call me later."

She nodded, taking deep breaths. The worst thing she could do at the moment would be to walk into Nathan's room upset. "I will," she promised.

Mulder continued his way to the elevator bank. As he passed by the nurse's station, he overheard some medical staff briefing one another as they prepared to make their rounds. He opened his mouth, wanting to ask them the status of the neurology consult. He knew that Scully wouldn't sleep until she was certain that the pediatric neurologist would stop by Nathan's room. But before he could speak, he realized that the subject of the group's conversation-the 'nightmare parents with the arm fracture' referred to him and Scully.

"Have you ever seen your three-year-old child die in a hospital?" Mulder gruffly asked, cornering the three doctors, taking full advantage of the fact that he had found a way to channel his rage. "Answer me. Have you?"

"No," sputtered one of the residents. "But-"

"I would never wish what happened to us on anyone," seethed Mulder. "She...we...sure as hell can't go through that again, and believe me, if I hear any of you talk like that about my son—or about any other patient—that will be the end of you."

He pushed his way through the small crowd, impatiently banging on the elevator buttons. Lost in thought, he didn't even realize that one of the medical staff he had just confronted had also entered his car. "I'm sorry you lost your child," the lanky man nervously commented.

"So am I," Mulder muttered, refusing to look at him, waiting for what seemed like an eternity before reaching his parking level.

XXXXXXX

Upon arriving home, Mulder was impressed to see all of Kyle's friends still in the house, finding the group playing Clue on the living room floor. Although he had called them with an update on Nathan's condition as he was leaving the hospital parking lot, Mulder repeated the information. He noted the look of relief that washed through Kyle's face when he realized that his brother would be okay.

"Can I still go apple picking tomorrow?" Kyle asked nervously. At some point over the course of the past few hours, the eleven-year-old had convinced himself that things would be alright if he would still be able to go out with his friends. However, if his father were to tell him that he needed to stay home, that would be a bad sign altogether.

"Of course. Just remember that we have a couple of things to do first thing tomorrow morning," Mulder tactfully responded, hoping his son received the silent message that there was no way he would be cancelling his appointment with Dr. Meadows. Otherwise, Mulder was thankful that Kyle had already made plans with his friends before the accident; hopefully, by keeping busy, his oldest son wouldn't worry too much about what was happening with Nathan.

"How is the kiddo?" Hank asked Mulder once the kids abandoned their game in favor of making another bag of microwave popcorn.

"Broken arm in three places, eleven stitches, and a concussion," Mulder explained, with a hint of pride in his voice, stretching his arms overhead, sinking into the couch. "Well, we think. The hospital is a madhouse—there was a bad traffic accident, and we're still waiting for an MRI. We might be able to bring him home tomorrow night. This kid is not used to slowing down, so this whole cast thing will be interesting to say the least."

"Chloe took a header down the stairs once. Fourteen stitches, broken nose. Scariest night of my life," Hank reminisced. "She was four. I don't think I had ever seen so much blood coming from a tiny person. She was showing me what she had learned in her gymnastics class and kept walking backwards and I reached out to grab her and I was too late. Her mother had left only a couple of months before and I just felt like a failure of a parent."

"I can't imagine what must have gone through your head, especially when you were on your own," Mulder carefully responded.

Hank nodded and said,"It was Stella who held it together for us, for me, especially. Without her, I just would have wallowed in self-pity. She made me realize that Chloe needed to see me try, even if I ended up making mistakes. I sometimes wonder how different things would have been if she hadn't answered the phone that night. If anyone had told me back then that in seven years we would be together with a baby on the way, I would have called them crazy."

The two men sat in silence, both brooding. Mulder caught himself beginning to once again wonder how things could have played out differently if he had told Scully about Kyle. However, he knew he needed to stop before his thoughts went too out-of-hand, and decided he needed to change the topic of conversation. "Thanks for helping out like this. Not what you probably had in mind for an exciting Friday night."

"It was my pleasure," protested Hank. "You actually got me out of painting the nursery, so don't be surprised if you get a phone call from Stella checking out my alibi."

"Scully said that you and Stella are coming by for dinner next weekend."

"Yes, Stella mentioned something," Hank explained. "Dinner parties are usually not my thing, but now I'll be looking forward to it."

"I'll cut you in on a secret," offered Mulder, trying to stifle a laugh. "Around these parts, a dinner party is any meal not served on a paper plate that requires a fork. Scully promised to keep it informal. She's eager to meet more of the other parents in the neighborhood. We don't do a whole lot of socializing. In fact, I think we're pretty terrible at it."

"Then you're definitely my kind of people," Hank nodded.

XXXXXXXX

The next morning, Will woke up confused, asking for Nathan and his mother, but was cheerfully distracted with the cookies Mulder fed him for breakfast. Somehow over the chaos of the morning, Mulder had lost track of the cereal, and hadn't been able to find any frozen waffles in the freezer either. Despite not sleeping much, he had still managed to drag himself out of bed at the last possible moment, and now they were running behind schedule.

"This is our secret, slugger," Mulder said to his youngest son as he placed another Chips Ahoy in front of him, wincing as Will began to loudly repeat everything his father said, banging his trucks on his plastic high chair tray in the process.

"Why are we leaving so early?" protested Kyle, rubbing his eyes as he slumped on the kitchen table. He hadn't slept well the previous evening. All he could think about was Nathan smirking before he jumped off the kitchen counter. One minute the two-year-old was being his usual irritating self, and the next, he was deathly silent. He felt guilty for not liking his younger brother too much. For some reason, it was different with Will; maybe it was because he looked (and acted) more like a baby who didn't know any better. But Nathan was just old enough to know when he wasn't supposed to do something, and he took enormous pleasure out of annoying everyone when he did it. And instead of getting in trouble (Kyle would never agree that sitting in time-out was really a disciplinary action), everyone rolled their eyes and pretty much ignored him. But knowing that Nathan had a broken arm, and possibly had a brain injury…well, that was just too much punishment at once.

At least he would be keeping busy. Although he didn't exactly want to see Dr. Meadows, he had been looking forward to apple picking with his friends all week.

"Because we have to make a stop before your appointment," Mulder explained, jarring Kyle from his thoughts, trying not to sound as cranky as he felt. He was anxious to get back to Nathan and Scully, and he didn't want to take it out on his son. "We need to leave now."

Kyle remained silent during the car ride; while Mulder wasn't in a mood to respond to the unanswerable questions that he anticipated Kyle would ask regarding Nathan, he didn't want to play guessing games about what the eleven-year-old was thinking either.

"Stay here with your brother," instructed Mulder as he pulled into the pickup lane in Terminal A of National Airport. "And get into the backseat."

Once he climbed out of the car, Mulder saw Hannah waiting with her luggage through the terminal window. She spotted him instantly, waving as she walked towards him. He insisted on grabbing her suitcase, but before he could lead her to the car, she stopped him.

"Fox," she quietly said. "How are you holding up?"

A lump formed in Mulder's throat.

"You'll be with him soon," she patted his arm as they made their way to the car. "He'll bounce back before you know it."

XXXXXXXX

Mulder nearly had a heart attack when he walked into Nathan's empty hospital room, but was quickly redirected to the imaging department, where he saw an exhausted Scully sitting on a bench in the hallway.

"It only took twelve hours to get this MRI," she wryly commented.

"At least he's being seen," Mulder sighed as he sat down next to her.

"Nathan spiked a fever this morning, and had trouble keeping down the contrast shake," explained Scully. "They wouldn't let him eat before the MRI so he's miserable. How are Kyle and Will?"

"Great. Kyle saw Dr. Meadows, and now he's with his friends, and Will is going to be spoiled rotten."

"Is Elisabeth really okay for another full day? We need to make sure that—"

Mulder grinned, prompting Scully to ask him what was happening back at home. "Not Elisabeth," he shook his head, enjoying the sight of a flustered Scully. "Hannah. I picked her up from the airport this morning. She's going to help out for a couple of weeks. I know that making sure Nathan rests will be a full-time job in itself, and Will might not be too cooperative about it either."

They both knew what remained unsaid—that one or even both of them might be forced to become involved with the trial proceedings once the judge handed down his rulings regarding Charlie's testimony and the admissibility of the evidence of Mulder's involvement with the investigation.

"You are brilliant," Scully finally said, relieved beyond words. "Thank you for thinking of it. I don't know what we would have done otherwise."

A few minutes later, the double doors opened, and Nathan's hospital bed was wheeled out. "Daddy!" beamed Nathan. "I throwed up!"

"You did?! Was it messy? And stinky?"

"Yup!" Nathan proudly answered.

"Good job, monkey," Mulder told his son as they began to walk towards his room, giving Scully the time and space she needed to pump information from the radiologist. Although he was obviously tired, Nathan chattered non-stop, which his father took to be a positive sign that he was beginning to feel a little better.

"It's going to be a few hours before they get the results read," Scully softly told Mulder, her discouragement obvious.

As soon as she stifled a yawn, Mulder saw his opportunity. "Go home and get a few hours of sleep, check-in on Will. I'll call you as soon as something changes here. Even if we get to bring him home tonight, we'll need to be on our toes."

Scully looked at her partner skeptically, remaining unconvinced even after he brought out his puppy dog eyes and pout. Although she was exhausted, she was loathe to leave Nathan's side.

"Nathan, tell Mommy she needs to go home and take a nap so that way we can have a meeting of our boys only club," Mulder instructed his son. "Which means we get to have awesome fun without her."

After his father whispered something in his ear, Nathan's eyebrows shot up. "Go home!"

Scully rolled her eyes, but was too tired to call out Mulder on his low blow tactics. "I'll find a cab," she yawned. "But, if—"

"I promise I'll call," Mulder smiled, giving her a small kiss. "And remember, I'll be checking up on you too. Hannah has her orders."

As she continued to linger over Nathan, Mulder practically had carry her out of the room. "It's just a few hours," he reminded her, before lowering his voice. "This is a marathon, not a sprint. It's going to be a tough week even without a broken arm. He'll be outrunning us this time tomorrow. Keeping this kid from wreaking havoc is going to be our life's mission for the next few days. And selfishly, I want you well rested for reasons of my own."

Scully nodded, knowing Mulder was right. She finished her goodbyes, tiredly making her way back home.

XXXXXXXX

For the first time since high school, Scully was sent to bed, no questions asked. After warm hugs from Hannah and Will, the older woman, with a mock stern glare, pointed towards the staircase. Scully knew marching orders when she saw them, and seeing Will so content with helping Hannah make cookies put her mind at ease.

Hannah's presence in the household comforted Scully to no end; over the summer, she remembered what it was like to have the advice and wisdom of a mother-figure. Besides, she was the closest thing the boys had to a grandmother—at the least the type who enjoyed baking, coloring, and playing trains on the living room floor. Despite Teena Mulder's growing interest in her grandchildren, Scully doubted that her mother-in-law would chase after runaway toys under the sofa.

After a hot shower, she managed to drop into a three hour nap. Upon waking, as soon as she realized how much time had passed, she reached for her phone to check-in with Mulder.

"The patient is eating jello and watching Bugs Bunny," he reported. "The pediatric neurologist will stop by around four thirty, or so the charge nurse tells me."

Leave it to Mulder to bat his eyelashes and have the world do his bidding. Maybe he should have been the one to stay over at the hospital the previous evening. "I'm leaving soon," Scully promised, a wry smile crossing her lips as she hung up the phone.

She made her way to the living room, where she found Will napping on the floor, Bandit curled up next to him. Hannah was sitting on the couch, reading a mystery novel, and stood up from her place once she caught sight of the younger woman.

"Playmates for life," Hannah observed. "I'm not sure which one of them needed the nap more."

"Bandit is very gentle with them. I was a little worried at first, but we haven't had any incidents," Scully explained, thinking of the first time she saw Will and Bandit curled up next to one another, both fast asleep; had it really only been a few weeks before? She remembered watching them nap with baited breath, ready to protect her baby in case of a nip from a nervous puppy. "But how have you been? We've missed you...I've missed you."

"I've been keeping myself out of trouble," answered Hannah. "My fall gardening chores are done, Lyman insists on fishing no matter the weather. I just wish I was here in DC for a certain little boy's third birthday party instead."

"Me too," Scully agreed, her voice trailing as she thought about what they should have been doing—spending time at the park, taking a walk around the neighborhood with the dog, squeezing in one last trip to the zoo before it switched to winter hours. "I better get back to the hospital before they end up driving the entire staff crazy. I have visions of them making water balloons from the latex gloves and using the gurneys as go karts."

"Well, I'm sure if they did all that, they would charm whoever they needed to and smooth it all over in a heartbeat."

"All three of them have inherited their father's charm," agreed Scully. "But even when they are up to no good, their hearts are in the right place."

Looking at her watch, Scully called a cab, torn when it pulled up and she had to leave. "Don't worry about us," Hannah assured her.

"Thank you for being here," Scully said, hugging the woman goodbye. "It really means a lot."

She tried to nap during the cab ride, but became distracted by the variant crackling of the radio. What woke her was not loud music, or the irate voices of call-in program listeners, but the WASPy drone of a newscaster saying her name.

She panicked, unsure of whether she wanted to ask the driver to turn up the radio or to turn it off completely. She decided to do neither, and instead strained to hear what was being said. But before she could catch more than a few words, the segment ended and the jingle for a local car dealership began to play. Frustrated, she struggled to remember everything that was allegedly happening with the trial that weekend—the fallout from her brother's testimony, the possibility of Mulder's name being dragged into the investigation.

Lost in thought, she nearly jumped when her cell phone went off. "What's wrong?" she asked immediately, assuming the caller was Mulder.

"Everything and nothing at the same time."

"Charlie? I thought you weren't so supposed to be—"

"As you know, I'm not too good with the whole following-the-rules thing," her brother answered, sounding distracted and uncharacteristically monotone. "Danes, I need to let you know—"

"I'm losing you, Charlie," Scully nervously stated, unsure of whether her reception had dropped, or if the muffled static was coming from Charlie's end. She swore under her breath as the line went dead. Once she climbed out of the cab, she dialed her brother's cell phone, which went directly to voicemail.

Her mood brightened when she walked into Nathan's room to see her little boy sitting up smiling. "Hi Mommy," he said.

"How are you doing, monkey?" Scully asked him as she brushed her hand over his forehead.

"No," Nathan stubbornly protested, pointing to the television with his left hand. Scully moved out of the way, knowing from experience that Nathan did not appreciate his view of Sesame Street being blocked.

"Any updates?" Scully asked Mulder as they stepped to the side of the room.

"He threw up again," Mulder said. "They mentioned that they won't release him until he is able to keep down some food. But he had some toast and Gatorade about twenty minutes ago, and so far, so good."

"Not releasing a patient until they are able to keep down food, that's standard," Scully agreed, unable to tear her eyes away from her son. "Have you heard from Preston, by any chance?"

"No, why?" Mulder asked, curious.

"Charlie just tried calling me but the line dropped," Scully shrugged.

"I completely forgot," Mulder said, finding his coat on a chair, fumbling for the phone in his leather jacket pocket. "I asked Langley to look into something about that. I'll be back in a minute."

As he left the room to make the call, Scully took the chair closest to Nathan's bed. His right arm was noticeably less swollen, and he looked much more comfortable than he had that morning. "Are you feeling better, monkey?" she asked.

"Yes," he automatically responded. "I wanna play."

"You'll be able to play once your arm gets a little better. We don't want to accidentally hurt it even more," she attempted to explain, fiddling with the blanket on his lap.

"No," he stubbornly protested, the stubborn.

She recognized that particular whine as of the immediate-precursor-to-a-much-needed-nap variety. "Do you want to read your Busytown book?" she suggested, muting the television.

Despite the fact that he shook his head, Scully pulled the book out of his backpack, and started reading. Within seconds, Nathan was looking at the pictures, pointing to things and by the time his father re-entered his hospital room, he was fast asleep. "He's exhausted," noted Scully. "He didn't nap at all today?"

"No. I mean, I asked him if he wanted to nap earlier, and he said no," Mulder explained, caught off-guard by the look his partner shot him.

"Has he ever answered yes to that particular question?" she asked, her amusement apparent.

"You got me there. I guess I kind of walked into that one, didn't I?" admitted Mulder.

"Any news from Langley?" Scully treaded carefully; she could tell from the distracted look on Mulder's face that he had received some piece of vital news.

Mulder nodded. "I'm pretty sure that he met with Marita," explained Mulder. "The security cameras on his floor were out for eleven minutes the night before he imploded on the stand."

"How did you know it was Marita?" Scully asked. It wasn't that she did not trust her partner's leaps of intuition; she was just genuinely curious. Out of all of Mulder's contacts, Marita was the one she understood the least. Unlike his other informants, Mulder knew her name and where she worked; this made Scully wonder why Marita was willing to risk so much.

"He did something with his hands," Mulder softly explained. "It was something that he had done the night I introduced them. Let's just say it was a lewd gesture of sorts."

Before she could ask any more questions, the nurse who had been working with Nathan all day entered the room to take his vitals. Scully took the opportunity to speak with her about his progress, while Mulder stepped back into the hallway to take another phone call.

"I have some good news," Scully brightly told Mulder when he re-entered the room. "The nurse thinks we have a good shot of bringing Nathan home tonight if he doesn't get feverish again."

A small smile crossed Mulder's lips. "That's real good, Scully," he said, hugging her. "It will be nice for everyone to be at home together,"

"What's wrong? Something's wrong, Mulder. What is it?" As soon as she had picked up on the tension in his touch, she knew something wasn't right.

"Charlie's gone, Scully. He left us a note saying that he is okay, that he's going to follow a lead. He said he's almost figured it out, but he's going to find out why your father made that decision that Thanksgiving weekend," Mulder soberly told her, his hands resting on her shoulders.

"But that—that's stupid, even for Charlie," Scully explained, bewildered.

"Scully, he left this morning, with Marita Covarrubias. Security footage from his hotel lobby proves it," he continued. "All evidence proves he went willingly."

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