A little over a week after Mulder's move to the new house, Scully walked nervously into the kitchen where her mother stood buttering slices of bread. In the six weeks since she had put Operation Contego into effect and moved her family to New York state, Maggie had taken charge of kitchen duty. She had inventoried what existed of the house's sparse kitchen and made a list of everything they would need to keep a group of nearly 100 people fed, from a toaster and silverware to a large fridge and frozen vegetables. The task had been made all the more difficult by the house being a vampire design and thus having no real kitchen facilities except a tiny fridge-freezer and small stove built in for the occasional human guest. The house had simply never been designed to accommodate this many human beings at once. Maggie had carefully planned menus for at least two weeks and created a list of ingredients before sending a number of Scully's friends to the local towns to buy everything. Scully knew exactly what her mother was up to because it was what she would be doing if she were in this position, keeping herself busy and trying to fill her mind with menial work so she could avoid the bigger questions that plagued her. The problem for Scully was that she really needed to talk about those bigger questions with her mother.

"Hey Mom," she ventured quietly, loitering by the door. Maggie looked up in surprise.

"Dana, I didn't expect to see you around here," Maggie said with a genuine smile that had the effect of relaxing her daughter somewhat.

"I," Scully hesitated, "I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Oh?" Maggie replied buttering the next slice, "well what is it honey?"

"Have you prayed much since you got here?" Scully asked her quietly. Maggie stopped what she was doing and put the knife down, turning to look at her daughter.

"Of course," she answered honestly, "more than I have at any other time in my life I think."

"Has it brought you any clarity?" Scully asked.

"It's brought me understanding, and acceptance," Maggie said slowly, considering her answers carefully. "What is it that's concerning you Dana?"

"You know what I am," Scully said, her voice catching slightly, "I'm not sure that God hears me anymore because of what I've become. I'm not sure he listens to my prayers."

"God listens to all those who speak to him with an honest heart," Maggie replied kindly.

"You've studied your Bible," Scully replied, "you know what's written in there. 'You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off.'"

"Leviticus," Maggie sighed, "but remember what Father McCue always taught us Dana. The Bible is the word of God and because we cannot understand His plan it can often appear contradictory. Remember John's words: 'Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection.' Perhaps that's what you are meant for Dana."

"This happened so I can serve God?" Scully asked incredulously, "but I've killed people Mom. How can that be a part of God's plan?"

"Do you feel remorse for it?" Maggie asked her. Scully hesitated.

"Not as much as I should. I had to do it to stop more people from suffering and dying at their hands."

"Then have you asked forgiveness?" Maggie asked. Scully nodded.

"Every single day," she replied sadly. Maggie smiled.

"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," she told her daughter, "but He delights in mercy. He will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. Jesus died on the cross for our sins Dana," Maggie reminded her, "if you ask forgiveness, and mean it in your heart, God will forgive you. He would never forsake one who truly sought His mercy." She crossed the room and found her purse, digging around inside it until she pulled out a string of wooden rosary beads, the sky blue paint that once coated them now chipped and worn away. "Do you remember these?" she asked.

"Yes," Scully said with a smile as she took them from her mother, "it's the rosary my Sunday school teacher gave me before he died. My first ever one. I didn't know you kept it."

"I have all your first rosaries, and your father's too," Maggie told her with a sad smile, I keep them with me at all times so I can hold them and pray for each of you." She pulled out another set of beads made from dark wood, now shiny and smooth from decades of use. "How about we go out into the garden and pray together?" she asked, quickly putting her things away. Scully smiled and nodded, taking her mother's hand as they walked out through the large wooden door and out into the sunlight. As they crossed the grass to the edge of the tree line, Bill strode over and joined them. He seemed surprised to see the rosary in his sister's hand.

"Mom?" he asked curiously.

"Dana and I are going to sit and pray a while," Maggie told him, "will you join us?"

"I will," Tara called as she crossed from where Matthew and Luke were happily playing with Charlie. She smiled at Scully as she sat on the grass beside her. "I don't have a rosary though, we never really practised."

"You can borrow Melissa's if you like." Maggie offered, passing over the faded purple beads when Tara nodded. "Are you joining us Bill?" He swallowed.

"I think I'd better help Charlie actually," he mumbled, shooting a slight frown at his sister before muttering an apology to his mother who glared at her son's retreating form.

"He'll come around," Tara told Scully in what she hoped was a reassuring voice, "you know Bill, he has a very narrow view of the world and you've shattered that! He just needs time to re-adjust and accept your reasons for doing what you've done. It was the right thing to do Dana and Bill knows that, he just needs time to work through his pride and admit it."

"The amount of pride and stubbornness that boy has, I think it's him that needs to pray with us the most," Maggie sighed. Scully grinned and Tara laughed quietly. "Come on then," Maggie said with a smile, holding out her beads in front of her and waiting for her daughter and daughter-in-law to follow suit. After they did, Maggie began speaking quietly as her family followed her lead; "I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth..."

Author notes:

This chapter is dedicated to BeshterAngelus, author of the wonderful Seasons series. If you haven't already read them then clear out your schedule for the year and get started. Seasons has explored Scully's faith in ways I had never seen before and my understanding of that side of her character is all the more complete for reading it. This chapter was written after reading some chapters that dealt with faith and I realised that my Scully would almost certainly be struggling with hers too. Not much else to say except that I've added Thea to the cast gallery in my profile, and the title of this one is both a Biblical reference and a song by The Stone Roses. Please let me know what you're enjoying (and what you're not) and I hope to keep updating more frequently now my son is back in school.