Calderon looked in on the sleeping children. Each had its blond haired head on a pillow. The youngest clutched a teddy bear to his chest, and had a smile on his lips. Once his nightly rounds were completed, Calderon shut their doors and went to his own room.

There had once been eight children, now there were only three. Most of the "mothers" that Mulder had once meet in the retirement home had lost their children without even knowing it. In fact, they would have been surprised to learn of the children's existence, dead or alive, in the first place.

The "beauty sleep" that Anna Fugazzi had told Mulder about when she met him was not an actual process that Dr. Calderon had perfected: He told his patients that the beauty sleep would take years off their age, as Anna had said, but in reality he was merely drugging them into a coma state for nine months at a time. None of the women ever suspected what was happening to their bodies while they were helpless and unconscious.

The products of the experiments, like Emily herself, eventually all came under the care of Doctor Calderon's successor. A man who looked like Calderon, and went by the same name, but was not him. No one on his staff ever figured that out he killed the first man and took over his identity, perhaps because there had been no one who has really wanted to know it. This doctor Calderon doesn't mind the fact that a few people had to die in order to ensure that the project continued, or that some of the deaths personally stained his hands. In his mind, the only important thing was the children.

The original Doctor Calderon's delays also had cost lives. Five of the children died because the second Calderon could not help enough soon enough. Those of whom stayed with their adopted families all fell victim to their strange blood chemistry, and died, as Emily herself nearly did, because the out-patient treatment they received was not aggressive enough to halt the disease's progression. Had the five other adoptive mothers dared open the caskets for one last glance at their beloved children, they would have been met by the same sight that Scully had been: coffins full of sand. Calderon had ordered this be done so their bodies could be disposed of in a place where no one was likely to stumble over them before there was no psychical evidence of their differences left to threaten the project.

In fact, it was this practice that had saved Emily's life, though the girl herself didn't know it. The alien element of her DNA sent her into a similar sleep as Mulder's post abduction state, and like the doctor who declared Mulder dead, the hospital staff hadn't realized that she was just deeper within her coma. Calderon himself realized it, and was gladdened by the realization, because he'd been too late four times before. The only other child who was in such a coma and not dead never woke up, and truly died two months after his body was confiscated.

Emily, and the two boys, whose adoptive families gave them up so they could have round the clock medical care, flourished beyond his wildest expectations. All three were well enough to attend a private school during the day, and needed treatment only once a week, which was an improvement over the states they were in when this Calderon got ahold of them. In fact, though he never told the boys' families, they could have returned to them with little danger to their health. However, both families had moved on and tried to forget that they had ever loved boys named Brian and George. The younger boy, who went by Georgie, was the final product of the first Calderon's experiment, and had been give up by his adoptive family at such a young age that he didn't realize that he'd once had a family. The other boy, like Emily, vaguely remembered what it was like to have parents, and resented the people who'd given him up because of it.

Calderon kept the three surviving children in a private home he purchased when he became convinced that there was a chance that some of the eight children might recover from the rapid failing they were all experiencing around the time that the first Calderon was disposed of. Emily, Brian and Georgie regarded the doctor as a nice person, and he worked hard to keep it that way, going so far as living in the house with them, so he was always on hand when they might need him.

**

Scully had fallen into an exhausted sleep not long after everyone had left, but Mulder, who had not spent the day working, was still awake in the middle of the night. He sat in front of the tv, hoping that the inane programs would drug his mind into unconsciousness, but it hadn't worked. He was determined not to climb into bed before he was ready to drop, because he didn't want to wake Scully. He even found himself wishing that William would wake up, so he would have someone to be awake with.

As he flicked to a rerun of a golf match, a sport he hated, he gave up hoping to empty his mind of unpleasant thoughts. He felt guilty about the ambivalence he felt upon learning that Emily was still alive. Of course he didn't begrudge her life, but he was at odds at what her being alive would mean to him and Scully. He was sure that Scully would want to have the girl with her, and he found the idea of having two children that were targeted by sinister forces under on roof to be frightening. Though he thought that the alternative would be worse; they could be too late to save her once again. Even in the best of worlds they'd face yet another battle for custody. He worried that he and Scully would not survive if the cycle of losing and gaining their children continued.

**

When Scully woke up the next morning, she had only one thing on her mind. Mulder was lying in bed looking dead to the world, so she tried not to disturb him when she left their room. Once she got to the kitchen, she pulled out the step stool and carried it to the hallway closet. The thing she was after was in a box on the top shelf. She took the box down and opened it, pulling out a thick packet of papers. After the thumbed through they, she returned them to their envelope and got ready for work.

** Mulder yawned, stretched, and dragged himself out of bed a couple of hours later. He walked to William's room and looked at the sleeping boy for a minute before going to start a pot of coffee. It was only as he was pouring the water into the coffee maker that he noticed that Scully had left a note for him on the kitchen table, next to a fat envelope.

Once the coffee began to drip, he picked up the note and read:

Mulder, I know you must be as overwhelmed as I am about this whole Emily thing. I hope you don't feel badly if you have mixed emotions, because personally, I can't sort through mine rationally enough to know if they're mixed or not. However, the envelope on the table should make things a little easier for us to both deal with; I spoke to a lawyer this morning about their validity, and she seemed certain that they'd at least help. It's nice to know that there are law firms open early in the morning! I think it won't be as hard as you fear...I know what you've been worrying about, I saw it in your eyes last night. I never mentioned the envelope's contents before, because they arrived three days too late. I love you, Scully

He had a sneaking suspicion of the envelope's contents, so he snatched them up with eager hands. Inside was the adoption approval that Mulder had helped Scully fight for over four and a half years earlier. He wondered how much Scully had hurt when they'd arrived on what must have been on the day of the girl's funeral.

**

Gibson, with a visitor's pass pinned to his shirt, followed Skinner down the hallways of the Hoover building. A man smiled at the boy and asked Skinner, "You got a new recruit?"

Uncharacteristically tolerant of the ribbing, Skinner said, "Nope, he's a little young for that. Peters, have you met Agent Reyes' nephew, Gib, yet? He's taking the opportunity this summer to do a little job shadowing, and today he's spending the day with me."

"Nice to meet, you Gib." The other man said, shaking Gibson's hand. " How's DC treating you?"

"It's, uh, a nice place to visit." He told Peters, hoping to come off sounding like a typical teenager.

"But you wouldn't want to live here. I get you." Peters replied with a laugh. "Well, I hope your visit helps you decide to lean towards, or rule out, a career in the FBI."

"Thank you, sir." Gibson said as the man began to walk off.

** As Gibson got into Skinner's car at the end of the day, he grinned broadly. Skinner noticed his mirth. "Did it work?"

"Like a charm. No one perceived 'Reyes' nephew' as a threat, and, fortunately, the super solider who was at Mulder's trial wasn't around, so no one who could identify me as anyone else was in the building. I pretended to be lost after using the restroom and asking directions back to your office most of the day." Gibson told him.

"Did you hear what you needed to?"

"I did indeed. Do you realize that there are six or seven replicants working right in this building?"

"No, and while that's fascinating and frightening, I need to know what you found out." Skinner said, trying to be patient.

Gibson decided not to toy with the man anymore, having heard about his temper in many people's thoughts. "Emily and two other children are being cared for in New York. There's a tentative attack on the care takers, and the children, scheduled for tomorrow night."

"Did you hear when, though?" Skinner pressed.

"They told the person who is supposed to 'eliminate the problem' to make his move at 11pm sharp. The town is having a fireworks display then to celebrate it's 200 anniversary, and they're hoping it will cover up any of the noise, since the house is near the launch site."

"We'll have to get there before then." Skinner told Gibson grimly.

**

Mulder walked down the hallway, and peered into the bedrooms. For once he'd managed to make their bed before Scully got home, so it was neat. The next room was Will's nursery, and they'd only begun to decorate it, consciously making it look nothing like the room he'd had in the Van Dekamp's house. He passed these first two rooms quickly, but the third made him pause. As he looked in he focused on the only thing in the room: a bare twin bed with white sheets and a pillow case stacked neatly on the foot of it. He closed the door with a sigh and went downstairs to continue his argument with Scully.

Skinner had called earlier that night and told them what Gibson had learned, and they'd been arguing ever since. Scully started arguing her side again as soon as he stepped back into the room. "Mulder, she's my daughter. I need to be there."

"All right, Scully, fine. You better find a baby carrier made of kevlar while you're at it." He snapped angrily.

"What are you babbling about?" Scully demanded crossly.

"What I'm getting at is that if you go, William needs to go too, so he won't be left unprotected. Or have you forgotten that Gibson said that the same person who is after Emily already tried to kill William once? What would be a better opportunity for one of the others to try again than knowing that we both left William alone? We know from experience that they're as likely to pick up the phone as we are. Maybe we could leave him at your Mom's house so we can put her in danger too." Mulder said cruelly.

Scully opened and closed her mouth without saying anything, then burst into tears. Mulder immediately felt guilty and flustered, because he rarely saw her cry, and even less frequently was the cause of her weeping, at least that he knew of. He stood there, frozen, unable to decide how he should be reacting.

She wrapped her arms around her body and tried to stop herself from shaking. She looked up at him with red eyes. "I'm sorry. Sorry. I just...I just can't deal with being left out of important decisions regarding my children. I know that I need to get a grip and put aside my selfish need to be there always, but it hurts, Mulder. I'm afraid that when they grow up and ask me why I wasn't there for important moments of their lives, I won't know what to tell them. I've already missed so many events in their lives..."

Mulder finally crossed the room and gathered her up in his arms. He stroked her hair as he spoke to her. "You'll tell them that you weren't there because it was what was best for them. Tell William that you weren't there in court because it increased the odds that he would come home to us. And you'll tell Emily that you couldn't be there because you needed to keep her brother safe so she could have the opportunity to meet him. They'll love you, so they'll know it's true."

Scully didn't say anything, but nodded her head against his chest while she let her tears dry up.