Meanwhile...

Doggett and Reyes checked the rest of the basement without finding anything. They met up at the stairs in the middle of the hallway, and walked up to the first floor together. Before they could split up again, they heard a door from another stairwell swing open. The footsteps that immediately followed were too heavy to be Mulder's.

The replicant hadn't been expecting anyone to show up, but it didn't bother him. Two more pitiful dead humans lying on the floor wouldn't inconvenience him any. He actually smiled when Reyes drew her gun, shouting. "Freeze! FBI!" He even smiled as the first slug hit him in the stomach. Doggett flattened himself against the wall across from Reyes.

"Guns won't help you." He said, not sounding as though the bullet was causing him any pain, even though he was bleeding, and his shirt was becoming even bloodier than it had been already. Reyes continued to fire her weapon, and he continued to approach her, even as a bullet sheered away his left arm.

"I know that guns won't help, but I think this will." Doggett said, as he dodged around the replicant, and plunged the needle into his neck before the replicant could react.

The replicant began to vibrate, as though he were suddenly and inexplicably being electrocuted. As they'd seen happen with Rohrer three months earlier, black patches began to form on the replicant's skin, as his flesh became metallic. But he laughed, and it was a terrible sound.

"You think you won. But I left you a present on the second floor. I hope you like it. "He said, before his face was consumed by the process of becoming metal. He lost his balance and fell to the floor. Within seconds he was fully consumed.

Doggett and Reyes gave each other horrified looks, and wondered for the first time whose blood stained the replicant's clothes. Doggett kicked the metallic corpse, and watched for a moment as the metal form collapsed into a shower of silvery dust. Then he and Reyes turned and ran for the stairs.

**

Though he didn't realize it at first, Mulder had, by some luck, managed to pick the right end of the third floor to start his search. He opened the first door he came to, then jumped back in surprise as screams issued from within.

Mulder tried to put as friendly a look on his face as he could before he peered back into the closet. To his dismay he saw that there were only two children in there. A small boy, and a girl who looked very much like she had at three years old. He tried to sound friendly too. "Doctor Calderon said to tell you that you should come with me."

"He's dead, isn't he." Emily stated flatly, which took Mulder aback.

"Um...why don't you guys come out of here now." Mulder hedged. They slowly got to their feet and walked towards them." Where is the other little boy?"

They both shook their heads. "Don't know." Georgie said, sounding worried.

"We told him to stay with us, but he wouldn't." Emily said, sounding angry. Mulder was suddenly seized by an urge to giggle at the idea of Emily having inherited Scully's temper, but composed himself. "He left....a while ago. Maybe fifteen minutes ago?" She guessed, not sounding as though she was really sure how to tell time yet.

"Don't worry, we'll find him." Mulder told her, and privately hoped they'd find the boy before they found the replicant. He bent down and retrieved a thick file folder from off the floor and tucked it under his arm before taking the children's hands. "If I tell you to, let go of my hand immediately, ok?" They didn't understand why, but agreed to, if that was the condition for being able to hold somebody stronger's hands.

**

Meanwhile...

"Oh my God, no!" Reyes stricken voice echoed through the deserted corridor. Doggett's blood froze in his veins, suddenly sure that his only glimpse of Emily would be of a dead child.

As he rushed into the room he thought for a moment he was right. It was a typical child's bedroom except for one thing. On the floor under the window lay a crumpled and improbably small body. Thoughts of finding Luke fluttered through his mind as he looked down at the dead child. It might have been the superficial resemblance to Luke that made his knees threaten to give out. He reached out and took the boy's wrist, hoping for a pulse though he knew he would find none. As he got to his feet and picked up the limp body, he thought that you could almost pretend that he was sleeping. As long as you ignored the gaping wound in his chest. Doggett shifted the body to one arm as he grabbed a blanket off the bed and draped it to hide the hole. Tears poured down Reyes' cheeks as she silently followed him out of the room.

To their horror, they ran into Mulder in the stairwell, who held a child's hand in each of his. "We took care of that problem." Doggett said to Mulder, who nodded his understanding.

The two children probably wouldn't have noticed if Doggett had told Mulder what they'd done in blunter terms, because they were both staring at their fallen friend. The younger child, whom Doggett took to be no more than six, looked up at Doggett with frightened eyes. "What's wrong with Brian?"

"He's..."

"He's hurt. So he needs to sleep." Reyes said quickly, daring both men to correct her.

"Yeah." Doggett said, his voice coming out more gruffly than he'd like. " We're gonna bring him to the hospital now." He could tell that the little boy believed him, but the girl...Scully's skeptical eyes stared at him from out of her small face. Doggett would remember his first real look at Scully's daughter for the rest of his life.

**

Doggett gently placed the body in the back seat of his car, and started the engine while he waited for Reyes to slip into the passenger seat. They had waited until they saw Mulder leading the children off the property, on the way back to his car, to call the police and the coroner's office. They agreed with Mulder that it was better to get some flack for waiting a few extra minutes to report the crime if lessened to Emily and Georgie's sense of trauma by keeping them unaware of the deaths. Which was also why Doggett had a dead child in the back of his car. He picked up the phone and made the phone call to the coroner's office while Reyes used her own phone to call the police.

He and Reyes sat in a morose silence for several minutes while they waited for the cruisers to arrive, both unable to stop thinking about the body in the back seat and the ones in the building. In all six people had died, not counting Dr. Calderon or the unnamed replicant. Reyes reached for his hand, and he allowed himself to find a little comfort in her touch.

It was so quite that they both jumped when they heard a small sound like a sigh. They looked at each other with scared eyes, then looked in the back seat when the sigh turned into a pained moan. Doggett reached down and gingerly moved the blanket away from the body.

Pain-hazed green eyes blinked up at him. "I hurt." The boy croaked out before his eyelids fluttered and he seemed to pass out. Which was just as well, so that he didn't notice Doggett recoil in fright when he opened his eyes.

"He was dead!" Doggett sputtered, thinking of the red hole the size of a baby's fist in the boy's chest. "He was very dead."

Reyes nodded to him, already dialing 911 for an ambulance. Doggett gently pulled up the child's shirt so he could have a better look at the wound. Though still terrible, he swore that it seemed to have gotten shallower. He took the boy's pulse again, and this time it was there, and fairly strong.

"How do we explain to people that we had a dead child in the car with us, but now he's alive?" Doggett demanded as she turned off her phone.

"We tell them that his pulse must have just been weak." Reyes told him.

"But that's bullshit. He wasn't unconscious with a weak pulse, he was flat out dead."

"John, you and I both know that, but the typical person can't deal with knowing the details of an x-file." Reyes told him, looking at the little boy.

"At least," Doggett said gruffly. "We won't get a hard time for removing a body from the crime scene."

**

Before he drove off, Mulder pulled out his cell phone, and dialed Scully's number. Being mindful that the children were listening to his every word, he let Scully do most of the talking. "It didn't quite go as planned...well, we did, but there was more damage before we got there than we anticipated...got an earlier start is why...fine, fine, bad news though, we only got two...Reyes and Doggett...we're on our way there, I'll keep you posted...Can't see why not, now...Yeah, see you at home then." He looked back at the kids, sighed and threw the car into drive.

Mulder pulled into the local police station's driveway, then reached into the back seat to help Emily and Georgie remove their seatbelts. He then got out of the car, and opened their doors for them. The followed him into the station, looking frightened. They were walking up the stairs when his phone rang.

"Mulder.... What's keeping you? Really?? That's good news.... See you soon. Thanks Reyes." Mulder smiled a bit as he lead the children into the station.

A man walked over to him and smiled warmly. "Hi, I'm Officer Green. I believe I spoke to one of your partners?" He asked Mulder

"Yes. Agent Reyes mentioned that when I just spoke to her."

The officer nodded, then bent to speak to Emily and Georgie. "I bet you guys are tired. I'm going to bring you into the lounge where there's a nice soft couch, and a TV. You can watch cartoons while I talk to Agent Mulder, here." Emily looked like she was going to protest for a moment, but then followed Officer Green and Georgie.

Officer Green returned after a moment, and offered Mulder a seat. "I believe I heard that this has something to do with the deaths at Doctor Calderon's home?"

"Yes. Yesterday we were tipped off that a hit man had been sent to kill the people who lived in the house." Mulder replied. "These two children, as well as a third who is being treated for a gunshot wound, were kidnapped by Doctor Calderon, who seems to have fled the location."

"Do you have any idea why the hit man had been hired?" Officer Green asked, looking confused.

"Apparently someone was not keen on his work, so they decided to kill him. To complicate matters, we believe that the doctor kidnapped the children so he could give them experimental medical treatment without having to get FDA approval. To be more accurate, documents show that he may not have kidnapped the boys, but cohered their parents into giving them to him, claiming that the treatments would be the only things that would keep them alive."

"But you don't think that's the case with the little girl?"

"I know it's not. She's my fiancée's daughter. We were told she died in the hospital in 1997, but that is obviously not the case." Mulder said with some heat unintentionally creeping into his voice.

Green didn't say anything for a moment while he digested what Mulder had told him. " The children are ill? They seem scared and a little shaken, but perfectly healthy."

"That seems to be the case now, as Calderon had great success with his treatments. I suppose, in a warped way Dana and I should be thankful for his actions, but right now all I want to do is know that Georgie and Brian's parents have been informed of what happened, and take Emily home to her mother."

Green gave him a sympathetic look. "I'm sure. Do you have the numbers for the boys' families?" Mulder handed them over, having copied them from Calderon's files while in the car. "Great. We'll just do a little paper work, then you and your daughter can leave."

Mulder blinked at that, but Green was already dialing the first number so he didn't notice. He supposed that given that he claimed that Scully was his fiancée, it was natural enough for Green to have called her his daughter for simplicity's sake. He wondered if he would be given pause for the rest of his life every time someone applied a short label to a member of his complicated little family.

**

As Mulder plowed through the paper work, Green got in touch with both families, who were both, he related, very surprised to hear that their sons were doing very well. They both promised to come and get the boys, although Brian probably wouldn't be going home from the hospital for a few days.

"There's something I need you to tell the parents when they get here." Mulder said to Green, who nodded to show he was listening. "While I can't make copies of it because it's evidence," or because it doesn't exist, he thought " in a federal case against Calderon, he left notes on the children that indicated that he believes that the children may eventually need bone marrow transplants to continue to stay healthy. I know that's something that they'll have to consult with their family doctors, but since he's the one who figured out how to treat their disease so successfully, it's important that they know his opinion on the matter."

Green pulled out a pen and jotted it down. "Will do."

It was hard to leave Georgie behind. Mulder had hoped that he'd go into the lounge and find them both asleep, but he was only half right. Georgie was watching the loony tunes with rapt attention. Mulder reached down and picked Emily up, being careful not to wake her.

"Where are you going?" Georgie asked, his eyes big.

"I'm taking Emily home to her Mommy." Mulder whispered.

"Emily doesn't have a Mommy. None of us does." Georgie replied.

"Actually, your Mommy and Daddy are coming to take you home too. And Brian's Mommy and Daddy are going to get him at the hospital." Mulder explained gently.

"Noooo! I don't know them. I wanna stay with Brian and Emily!" Georgie wailed, starting to cry even as Officer Green came in and tried to console him.

Mulder felt a stab of pain in his chest. "Listen, Georgie, I left my address with Officer Green to give to your parents. You'll be able come to see Emily soon."

Georgie scrunched himself up on the couch and continued to cry, looking miserable. For a moment Mulder wished he could take the boy with him, but he knew that he belonged with his own family. Still, his heart was heavy as he carried a sleeping Emily out to the car.