9.00am, Boxing Day

Mulder woke well rested, finding that he was still cuddled right up to Scully and realised that he had been nuzzling against her chest in his sleep. Just as he was about to pull away, he felt her small hand on the back of his neck, urging him closer to her breast. He sneaked a look at her face and found himself looking into half-open, still sleepy eyes that were full of desire. He moved closer to her and heard her give a soft sigh as he neared the place of her longing. She moaned as his mouth closed over the tip of her right nipple through her pyjama top and brought her other hand to his head to keep him from leaving. He moved his hand up to separate the two sides of her top, unbuttoning the only still-fastened button on his way past it. He was just starting to edge the silky fabric away, exposing bare skin to his eager mouth when a loud knocking at the bedroom door interrupted him. Scully hastily redid the buttons on her top whilst Mulder scooted up the bed so his head rested on the pillow. They just managed to get themselves settled so that they didn't look 'interrupted' when Maggie popped her head round the door.

"Sorry if I woke you. Do you have Mattie in here with you?"

"No, Mom. Why would we have Mattie? ...What's wrong?"

"We can't find him...he's gone. He was in his crib sleeping and now he's not. Bill and Tara are frantic, they only left him for a couple of minutes to get some breakfast and when they came back up to get him he wasn't there."

"Oh my God. Give us two minutes and we'll be right down."

Nodding, Maggie left the room as Scully got swiftly out of bed and, picking up some clothes, went into the bathroom to get dressed. Mulder grabbed clean clothes from his bag and hurriedly dressed whilst she was in the bathroom, sitting down on the bed to wait impatiently for her to finish. He left without her though when he heard a panicky yell come from Jessica, and he rushed downstairs, calling to Scully that she needed to hurry.

When he reached the den he found Charlie and Jessica cuddled together, Jess trying very hard to calm down. Looking around he saw Maggie sitting on the sofa with the twins, holding them close and trying to soothe their frightened cries. He opened his mouth to ask what was wrong but recognised that no one was in a state to answer him at that moment. He waited for a long moment as he watched Charlie try to force words out of his mouth to explain what was going on and then turned towards the door expecting Scully to walk in. Instead he saw Bill and Tara walking into the room alone, tears running down Tara's face, and he realised that someone else was missing.

"Peter. Where's Peter?"

"He was in here watching cartoons on the T.V. with the girls but when Jess came in she found only the girls here. She called out and gave the girls a fright but they're okay. He was here...where could he have gone? How..."

Charlie broke off, unable to speak for fear of breaking down completely, instead concentrating on holding Jessica tightly in his arms. She had started to sob in her husband's arms whilst he was explaining the circumstance to the others and Tara had hidden her face in Bill's chest as she heard Charlie speak. Mulder turned towards the doorway, averting his eyes from the two distraught couples, and found Scully standing there with a questioning look on her face. She had come in after Charlie had spoken and so didn't know the newest update. Mulder saw her begin to ask what was going on so he crossed to her quickly and quietly explained the situation, not wanting to upset the parents anymore than they already were. She gasped as she realised the seriousness of the situation and tears welled in her eyes too. Mulder pulled her into his arms and whispered gently in her ear that they needed to be the strong ones - they needed to keep their heads. She nodded into his chest and, after one last squeeze she pulled away and wiped her eyes dry. Taking a deep breath she asked her mother where they had looked for them and if there was anywhere in the house they could have missed.

"Dana we looked everywhere for Mattie - we didn't see Peter while we were looking either. We all thought he was in here though, with the girls."

"Jess, Charlie...sorry but when did you guys last see Peter? Was it before or after you knew Mattie was missing?"

"Umm...before I think Day. The kids were watching cartoons while we had breakfast with Tara and Bill and then they went upstairs. When they came down they told us Mattie was gone. We helped look - the kids were all still in the den as far as we knew until Jess came in ...then..."

"It's okay, Charlie. We'll find them."

Scully watched as her brothers both comforted their wives, trying to be strong for them but failing miserably. She made sure her mother was going to stay with the girls and pulled Mulder gently by the arm until he followed her out into the lounge. She started to tell him what she was planning to do but realised that Mulder was staring at the wall blankly and wasn't paying any attention to her. She tugged on his sleeve but all that did was make him put his arms around and hold her close, swaying them both slightly. She eased gently away from his tight hold and tilted his head down toward her until she was looking straight into his eyes.

"Mulder...Mulder...you with me?"

"Oh, sorry. Sure I'm with you, Scully."

"What's wrong? You looked like you were somewhere else."

"It's just it reminds me of Sam ... of how my parents were...I don't want anything to happen to those little guys...they're so small...what if its happened again...I couldn't bare...Scully... she...they...I..."

"Oh, Mulder..."

"I'm fine Scully...I'm fine."

"No you're not."

"No ... but I will be. We need to find the kids - that's what's important. I just can't help thinking that it's my fault. I couldn't save HER and now...Bill's right - people I know do get hurt, or go missing. I...I..."

"Come on Mulder, like you said - you need to keep it together. Tara and Jess are already a mess and Bill and Charlie aren't far off it. We both need to keep calm about this - how else are we going to find them?"

"You're right Scully. I'm sorry, I just..."

"I know Mulder. I know it's hard but you've got to try. There's no need to apologise either, I understand what's wrong but we can't afford personal feelings just now."

"I know. So what do we do?"

"Let's search the house once more...it won't take too long and it might solve this quickly and easily."

"Okay. I'll take upstairs, you take down."

"No problem. Mulder...just...hurry would you?"

"Of course."

Mulder bent down to give her a quick peck on the lips and she squeezed him gently before letting him go completely. She watched as he bounded off to go upstairs and then set out to search the downstairs thoroughly. She went through the rooms one by one, checking in every single cupboard and behind every piece of furniture. Calling out Peter's name as she went, she heard Jessica's sobbing increase in volume from n the den, soon joined by Tara's. She quickly realised that there was nowhere that they could be downstairs and so went through to the hall, intending to go upstairs to help Mulder. When she got to the bottom of the stairs however, Mulder was just coming down them, shaking his head at her hopeful glance. Her face fell as did her hopes and she stood still, momentarily paralysed by her fear for her nephews. She knew that, as a trained FBI agent, she should know exactly what to do but she found that her mind had gone blank in the panic that was overtaking her. As she thought of her job her thoughts cleared, letting her think rationally about what she had to do and she headed towards the phone on the hall table. As she lifted the receiver, Mulder put his hand over the hand that was getting ready to dial the emergency number and closed his fingers around hers, stopping her from doing just that.

"What are you doing Scully?"

"I'm calling the police."

"No Scully, wait. Isn't it a bit too soon to involve the police? They've only been gone twenty minutes at the most."

"Mattie's only five-months old Mulder. There's no way he could have got out of his crib, never mind been able to hide from us for this long."

"I suppose you're right. He can't have gotten out, not on his own at least. ...Scully, what if Peter took him out? Could he have done that?"

"Probably...yes, that could have happened. But where are they now Mulder. If that's what actually happened - where did they go? We've checked everywhere."

"I don't know Sc ... wait a minute. Peter said something about taking Mattie out into the snow when we were out sledging yesterday. He got upset when we told him that Mattie was too little to play with them, remember? Peter might have just taken Mattie to play in the snow with him. Did anyone check the garden?"

"I'm not sure...I think so."

"Let's check it again."

Mulder pulled Scully by the hand he was still clutching and they both rushed through the kitchen, bursting hastily through the back door. Their eyes quickly scanned Mrs Scully's pretty extensive garden for the two boys but neither could see any sign of them. The snow had been falling heavily for most of the morning and would already have covered any tracks that Peter's little feet would have made. Scully had just turned to Mulder to tell him that they should go back in when a sudden movement caught her eye. Her head whipped back round and she searched the garden for the motion she had detected and, just as she was beginning to think that she had been mistaken, she saw it again. Mulder had looked at her curiously when she had spun back round and was trying to follow her gaze to determine what she had spotted. He didn't see anything in the snowy garden and was confused when she tugged on his hand and started running across the snow, hope replacing the fear and worry that had been in her eyes. He followed her anyway, trusting that she was right and soon he saw what she had already noticed. There on the stark landscape of the garden he could see a splash of colour, which was moving slightly in the wind. As he looked more closely, he could see that it was the same colour and shape as the hat that Peter had been wearing when they had gone sledging the day before. Near the hat, in the far corner of the garden, there was a mound of snow that looked very much like the beginnings of a snowman. He suddenly remembered Charlie telling them that, the day before he had arrived, they had built a small igloo in the garden for Peter to play in. Still hand in hand, he quickened their pace and they quickly arrived at the entrance to the small snow building. Scully crouched down in the snow in front of the igloo and peered in, not caring that the wet snow was seeping through her clothes.

"Peter? ... Peter honey?"

"Scully, is he there? You're blocking the entrance and I can't see. Talk to me Scully?"