Scully walked slowly up the sloping hill. Behind her the Pacific rolled angrily, the wind churning spray high into the air. Halfway up she reached the first gravestones; a mismatch of ages and styles that all looked out over the ocean. She picked her way around, the dim twilight giving way to an incredible sunset above the waves as she read the names on the stones. A tree had fallen nearby and lay across two of the graves. These days there was no one around to take care of the cemetery; the dead could mostly look after themselves and the living all had greater priorities. She walked over and picked the tree up easily, placing it down in some empty space and moving back to straighten the stone it had knocked over. Above her two birds flitted around in a nearby tree, chirruping angrily at each other; for some reason they reminded Scully of her and Mulder. She needed to get moving. She had spent almost two whole days visiting field hospitals. Between the visits she had been stealing vaccine bottles from nearby pharmacies and hiding in the back of her rental car to extract venom. At the same time she fed, drinking desperately from a handful of bags stolen from a nearby blood bank - there wasn't time for hunting. Now her task was complete and the prospect of a three day run home beckoned her. She would drive the car back through the desert then abandon it once she passed Phoenix. But first...

Her eyes scanned more stones until they landed on the one she had come for. The name Emily Sim-Scully was engraved into the small piece of white marble. The surname had been a concession from the district after the girl's death; a token gesture to the woman they could not deny was Emily's mother no matter how much they struggled to understand it. Scully had undergone their tests to prove that she had never given birth and there were, obviously, no records of her ever requesting the services of a surrogate. The judge had been baffled by the entire situation but presented with overwhelming evidence, had been forced to concede that Scully was in fact the unknowing, biological mother of the little girl. Sadly it had been too late by the time the decision was reached.

Scully walked over to the small white stone wondering now why she had come. Emily wasn't really here after all, she had buried nothing more than a little box of sand. She stood before the stone and couldn't think of anything to say. Instead she reached inside her pocket and twisted her fingers around the thin chain inside.

"Emily it's…" she began. She wanted desperately to continue with "mommy" but something stopped her. "It's Dana. I… I brought you something." She pulled the chain from her pocket bringing with it a golden cross similar to the ones she and Melissa owned; the latter now buried alongside her sister. She had bought this one over a year ago during her IVF attempts when her hormones had been all over the place sending her into wild mood swings. It had been an awful time. On one occasion she had started crying in Skinner's office over nothing more than a typo in her autopsy report. That incident still ranked as one of her most embarrassing moments.

"My sister and I, our mom bought one of these for both of us and I thought you should have one too," she said to the stone. She stepped forward and placed the necklace inside the small alcove where the remains of a burned out candle stood. Above it a small photograph of Emily looked out at Scully. The photo was the same one she had once stared at as she tried to understand just where this little girl had come from. It showed her daughter on her birthday, smiling delightedly behind an enormous cake. A birthday Scully had not even been aware of.

"I'm sorry I didn't visit sooner," Scully mumbled to the photograph, "I just… I found it very hard to come here. I'm still not sure what to say." A loud crack of thunder made her jump and Scully looked around. The ocean was rolling violently and dark clouds raced across the sky, moving inland as if they too had somewhere urgent to be. She looked back to the photo. "I'm so sorry for everything Emily. I wish we could have had longer together, but I'm also grateful you didn't have to live through this."

Down below her the city of San Diego was in chaos. Many businesses had closed down entirely and looting was a nightly occurrence. Scully knew that things were different now though. Mulder had succeeded at the CDC and she alone had administered the vaccine to over 900 comatose patients - all of whom had since awoken as if nothing had ever happened. The Black Oil had seeped out of their bodies and, unable to find new hosts thanks to Scully's insistence on hazmat suits, had vanished into cracks in the floors and wherever it could escape. Scully didn't much like the idea of letting it loose but there was simply no containment available; plus they hoped to have the vaccine rolled out almost globally by the end of the week. They would inevitably miss people but Scully had long since reconciled herself that this scheme could never be without fatalities.

A siren broke through the silence, joined seconds later by a second and a third. Scully frowned and stood to watch the vehicles race past. Sensing something was wrong she pulled out her new cell phone, the one Langly had given her just before she left the house. It had no signal. Scully stared at the screen willing the bars to change. No signal could mean only one thing; the colonists had figured out what they were upto. Scully suddenly panicked. She had believed her family safe in the house at Syracuse because it was so isolated and off the grid. No one even knew it was there. However if the colonists discovered the secure network the Gunmen had set up then they could trace its central servers right to the front door. If the network was down Scully reasoned they had not only discovered the network but had disabled it. They must know where the house was and now she had no way to warn anyone there about what was coming; if they hadn't already arrived.

Scully stared at the sky, frozen in terror, and watched the clouds race overhead as more sirens began to blare from the city. Had the colonists 'flipped the switch' and triggered gestation in patients who had not yet received the vaccine? She prayed that the teams she had sent out had all done their jobs over the past few days and that the major cities at least were mostly covered. She dragged her eyes back down to Emily's gravestone and stared at it.

"Goodbye sweetheart," she whispered, "I'll visit again soon. Mommy loves you." Immediately she walked away as if expecting censure from the silent stone for daring to use the term. She quickened her pace, reaching the warmth of her car just as rain began to fall. She allowed herself one last look up the hill before pulling away and beginning the long journey back home to fight beside her family, whatever might be left of them by the time she arrived.