Lauren's A/N: Lauren is currently recovering from the aftermath of her show... she will be back to reality soon. :)

Leslie's A/N: Sure, fine, uh… whatever?


The only noise in the townhouse was Scully in the kitchen, mashing carrots to feed William. An uncomfortable silence hung in the air around Mulder, Sara, and Grissom. It had since Nick, Skinner and Brass left.

They were returning to D.C. for reinforcements.

The four adults and one baby were holed up there, and Mulder was nervous. He paced the floor like a caged tiger.

"Sara, why don't you go help Dana." Grissom lightly nudged her, and she acquiesced, making polite small talk as she entered the kitchen.

"Talk to me, Mulder," Grissom said from his perch on the edge of the couch.

"What do you want to know?"

"How deep into this are we?" His words were tentative.

"Pretty damn deep." Mulder sighed. "At least in the past I used to know who the players were. I'd be in the middle of a case by the time I stumbled on half of this shit. We're flying blind here. We trust no one."

"I'd... I'd normally accuse you of being paranoid here..."

"Paranoid?" Mulder leaned down into Grissom's personal space, his heated words muffled through his clenched teeth. "You want to call me paranoid? We thought it was over... done. The end. We finally...FINALLY... settle down, try to pull some kind of normal life together out of the ruins and it got shot to hell. I had to go into hiding. My son was born on the run in an abandoned summer camp. Attempts were made on his life, to take him from us. He lived with a safe family for months, and more attempts were made on Dana's life than I'd ever care to remember. You want to call me paranoid? Fine. Don't say I never told you so."

"Mulder?" Scully stood in the doorway. She tipped her head and with a sigh he followed her into the bathroom.

Sara appeared in the doorway, William cradled on her hip, his lips orange with mashed carrot. Grissom looked up at her. "He's the only one with an appetite, huh?"

"Not so much. Almost seems like he knows what's going on," Sara said, rocking him a bit as he bit on his orange hands, his head dropping to her shoulder.

"I never knew you wanted children," he said, and regretted it almost as soon as it was out of his mouth.

"Uh, yeah," she replied, a little flustered. "I change my mind a lot, but usually get back to yes." She smiled down at the baby, then up at Grissom. "Don't change the subject, though."

"You're afraid." He said plainly.

Sara looked up at him under her lashes and whispered. "Very," before turning back to the kitchen for a wet towel to clean the boy.

"I don't know how it got to this." Grissom mused to himself, stepping forward to lean into the kitchen doorway.

"I don't think any of us do." Sadness tinged her voice. He winced.

"I... Sara..." He stuttered a bit. "I'm sorry."

She stared at him, and she almost smiled. "Don't be. You never know what's going to happen. Hey, maybe we're on one of those hidden camera shows right now."

Grissom shrugged.

Griss watched as Sara carefully wiped the remnants of food from the baby's mouth. She grinned and cooed to him, he, finding solace in her nonsensical mumbling, reaching up to suck on her hair.

A pang suddenly struck Grissom's midsection and he faltered, moving into the kitchen to stand beside her. "You're good with him." He said quickly, before he could bring himself to reign the words back in. Sara, for her part, stared back at him, a smile not on her lips, but in her eyes.

"I guess." She said, extracting her hair from the toddler's mouth.

In the bathroom, things weren't so at ease.

"Can we even trust them?"

"Dana, you sound more paranoid that I am, and we both know that's saying a lot." Mulder said, leaning against the wall. Scully sat on the toilet and rubbed her sweaty palms against her pants. "And you just left Will with Sara, I think that's saying a lot of you."

His wife shot him a death glare and he grinned, pushing himself away from the wall. He came to stand in front of her. "You left our son with a complete stranger, and you're comfortable. That says something about this. I rely on your instincts here."

Mulder paused to kiss her on the head. "If you tell me to run here, we'll leave, we'll run. But I don't think that they would have blindly taken off to D.C. just to reel our asses in."

Dana sighed, closed her eyes and fought back the tears. She was sick of running, so very sick of running, but she had to. For her husband and for her son. She'd do anything for either of them, whether or not it seemed so at some points.

Grabbing her husband's hand, she spoke. "They, I do trust them, and I think that's what's getting to me. Neither of us have any background on them. And... it feels right. It just feels right Mulder. That must mean something... right?"

Mulder nearly laughed at the look his wife shot him. So helpless, so foreign, so... trusting. "Yes, yes it means something, especially since it's coming from you..." He trailed off and listened, settled into the silence. "And that's the first time that we've left Will with someone else... that he hasn't put up a fuss."

Scully smiled a bit and leaned into Mulder. "I'm just... so very tired of this."

"I know." Mulder kissed her head and held her tighter. "You know I'd do anything to make this stop." The quiet desperation in his voice told her that he was thinking that he somehow belonged back in that prison, that he should be sacrificing his life so she and William could pretend to be happy.

She took a shuddering breath. "I don't want you to have to do anything."

"We'll disappear for real this time."

"Mulder, we can't..." Her protest stemmed from her acceptance of the truth, of their inevitable role in the coming Apocalypse, and her determination for their suffering to not have been in vein.

"We will." His tone was cold. "I know what you're thinking. But, maybe... maybe we can just have a little time before we have to save the world, ok? Maybe I'm being selfish..."

"You're not. You're not." She stepped back, her hand left on his arm. "We'll talk about this later." She took a deep breath and opened the door, smiling as she leaned on the frame. Mulder looked around her to the three in the kitchen.

"Kinda sweet," He said, amazed at how their son was acting.

"They remind me of us." Scully smiled, taking her husband's hand.

"Paranoid and crazy?" He asked with a smile, resting his head on her shoulder.

"No," She laughed and patted his hair. "They remind me of us about 4 years ago. Tiptoeing around each other. The glances. The incredibly protective alpha male thing."

"The 'no work romances' thing..." Mulder led.

"They'll get over it," Scully smiled.

"We did."