Author's Notes, Disclaimers, and other stuff in the previous chapters. Please read and review, I'd love to hear if anyone is enjoying this…
Friday
"He seemed so familiar, I just wish I could place him. Do you think you could find out for me?" Kayla twisted her hands in the hem of her cardigan, unable to meet Anya's eyes across the table. The sounds of Alex carousing with the children floated in from the back yard, a pleasant backdrop to the painful conversation.
Anya had been stunned to learn that Dana Scully was part of the breeding programs. She and Alex had assumed Scully's ova were being used in hybridization exclusively. The fact that Scully, whom Spender considered a possible future project head, was being bred was unforeseen to say the least. Anya took a deep breath. "I can look into it. Shouldn't be too hard to get into FBI records. What I'm more concerned about is the woman. Do you think you could give me the record numbers from her chart, so that I can give you more complete information on her? She will be the key to finding her partner, and if you need to approach them for any reason they might want this information in exchange for your assistance."
Kayla nodded, watching her hands. "Of course. I would like the file to be complete." Suddenly, Kayla remembered a conversation with Jeffrey when they were 10 and 11. "Cassandra." She whispered. "Her name was Cassandra Spender. Her husband's name was Christopher."
Anya flinched at the mention of Spender. "Jeffrey's parents?" She was proud that her voice remained steady, if only for two words.
"Yes, but not mine." Kayla's eyes were unfocused as she grasped at the memory. "It was like the foster families. I…I think he thought he was our father. Father to both of us. But I had been in another house before, with another brother; I had another name. Jeffrey…He thought another man was his father. A Russian man; Jeffrey saw the other man kiss Cassandra, we fought about it. He came with another little boy…Alex." Kayla made eye contact with Anya for the fist time in almost an hour. "Alex is Jeffrey's half brother…Jeffrey is my half brother…My older brother's name was…Fox…He called me Sammy."
Anya bolted out of her chair, toppling it to the floor as she ran for the yard. "Alex!" She called, running towards her husband and Kayla's younger children where they played on a blanket in the yard. "Alex!" She gasped, dropping to her knees beside him. "We have to get them out of here!"
Alex met his wife's eyes, surprised at the fear and excitement he saw there. "She remembers?"
"Most of it. She remembers you and Mulder. She's not safe here anymore."
He nodded, following her train of thought. "She needs to call Scully. And we need to be with her when they come to get her." They gathered the children up to bring them inside, shoring up their courage to explain the repercussions of her memories to Kayla.
As they crossed the threshold Kayla was hanging up the phone, her face pale and drawn as she turned to them. Before any of them could open their mouths, Marissa filled the silence. "Mommy, we need to take Vixen to her parents."
Alex almost dropped the little girl in his shock. "Vixen?"
Marissa met her Uncle Alex's eyes, knowing that he needed to hear it as much as her mother needed her suspicions confirmed. "Uncle Fox and Aunt Dana's daughter. Jeremiah will have to wait at the lab until he's older, he's safe for now. Besides, Vixen is with Kseniya. You need to take Kseniya home, too."
Mulder pulled the car up in front of the house Kayla Davis had directed them to, cutting the engine and meeting Scully's eyes, communicating their thoughts effortlessly. He knew she wanted to get home, back to the familiarity of her apartment and their work. He didn't blame her. God, he was tired. And there was the funeral on Saturday…Mulder closed his eyes.
They had done a background check on Kayla last night, and although they couldn't seem to find a public record of her birth, there was record of a transfer of custody from her Grandparents to her mother. The story was that Kayla was illegitimate, and her grandparents had raised her until she was a teenager, then handed her over to her mother.
Kayla had called a few hours ago to say that she had information for them, and since they were already packed for their return flight, the LaPierre case at a standstill, it was simple to take a detour to the Davis house before their flight. Scully worried to herself that they were getting their hopes up for nothing, but that was the way the game was played, especially where it concerned Samantha.
Mulder turned his focus to Scully, catching her frown. "Ready, partner?"
She smiled. "Ready when you are, love."
"Scully, I'm surprised at you! We're on a case." Mulder leered at her. "Of course, I love you too, Kitten."
"Call me Kitten again and die, Muldoon." Scully exited the car in one smooth movement, offering Mulder an all-too-brief view of her shapely back. Mulder sighed and hurried to join her, thankful for her affectionate efforts to relieve his tension. The last few nights they had been unable to risk sharing a hotel room, and he missed those warm moments with her before they drifted to sleep. Not to mention the sex. Man, he wanted to go home.
As they neared the door Mulder heard several voices arguing. He caught Scully's eye, and she had noticed it, too. Curiouser and curioser, as they say. He rang the doorbell, realizing with mounting trepidation that he might be about to come face to face with his sister, and have her recognize him. Kayla Davis opened the door with a shy smile for the agents, although it was obvious she had been crying. "Agent Scully, Agent Mulder." Her voice cracked on his name, and she took a breath to steady herself. "Please, come in. I have company, I understand you and I have a mutual acquaintance." She took another steadying breath. "Before we proceed, I need you to promise to be calm. This is all very complicated, and I have small children. I must ask that you remain calm and receptive to what we are about to tell you."
Scully met Mulder's eyes, arching her eyebrow Do you feel as uneasy about this as I do?.
He nodded slightly, I feel like we're about to find the White Rabbit. He turned to Kayla. "Please, lead on."
She nodded, leading them into her family room. Scully's jaw dropped as she recognized Alex Krycek. She held her tongue in the face of his calm acknowledgement, feeling the anger and confusion rise like a wave in Mulder. Now was not the time to lose her cool, she needed to be in control, for both of them. She managed to remain calm, sending soothing over Mulder like a blanket, reaching out with her energy to run a 'hand' down his back, until she locked blue eyes with the third woman in the room. Only an inch or two taller than Scully, another redhead with only slightly darker hair; damn it, she looked more like Scully than Melissa had. Scully felt for the connection, but there was more than one unmapped wave in the room, and she had trouble isolating the woman. She finally resorted to asking. "What the…"
"Please, Dana, no swearing around the children." The anonymous woman responded before anyone else could. Out of all of them, she was the best prepared for this moment. "I've been waiting to meet you for a long time. I'm Anna, Alex's wife." She extended her delicate hand in Scully's direction, attempting to will the other woman into hearing her thoughts, that she wasn't a threat, that this would all turn out all right.
Scully had no idea why, but she knew Anna was just as upset as she was, and somehow she felt better about shaking her hand. The presence of the other Krycek in the room, however, was troubling. "I wish I could say I was pleased to meet you." She felt the frission of Mulder's sarcastic mental chuckle in the back of her head, and it helped to bolster her. She used Mulder's energy to push off the unmapped waves so she could focus. She needed to be clear right now; she could decomp later if she needed to.
Alex chuckled aloud, drawing the attention of the two FBI agents. Mulder opened his mouth to ask what was so funny, but before he could get anything out, Anya asserted herself. "Hey, Cowboy, why don't you take Rizzo up and put her down for her nap."
"I'm not tired!" Melissa responded without being asked.
"You're right, I probably shouldn't be here." Alex nodded, rising slowly from the couch where he had been lounging, trying to appear less of a threat. Scully noted it and passed the thought along to Mulder. "Come on, Rizzo, nap time."
"Uncle Alex, I said I'm not tired." The little girl responded with as much patience as she could muster, which wasn't a lot, even for an empathic three year old.
"Marissa Anne Davis, go take your nap." Kayla declared. "I'll come check on you in a little while, and if you're not sleeping you can come back down. We need grown-up time, now."
Marissa sighed, and allowed herself to be picked up and removed from the room without further comment, although she would have liked to fight it out with her Mom. They were wasting time, she was getting scared.
Anya sighed as they Alex carried the little girl off. "I apologize for him. My husband has a big attitude sometimes. I realize that your previous associations with him have left you with some unfinished business, not to mention a lot of resentment, but please be patient with us for a little while longer; hopefully you will begin to understand his motives a bit more clearly."
"He killed my father." Mulder muttered before he could stop himself, blocking out Scully's warning push to keep quiet and gather information.
"He did it to save me. I know that's no excuse, but he did what he needed to do to save me. If you had been asked to kill his father to save Scully, I don't doubt you would have done the same thing." Anya responded sharply. "Besides, it allowed him certain access. If anyone else had carried out that hit, it's entirely possible none of the people in this room would be alive today."
Mulder and Scully froze. So may of those words seemed wrong, yet they were so titillating. What the hell does she know Scully sent the thought to Mulder in a push filled with fear and confusion.
Consortium. She works for them. Double agent maybe, working from the inside towards the same goals as us. I think we're being set up to believe it. She was pushing calm at you earlier, when she shook your hand, but there's a resentment or dislike she feels for you also. She's guarding very well, but I got a bit when she was pushing, she was off her guard.
So we play along until you find a crack. Something in the house feels off; I can't map it, because there are too many new people, but there was something Mulder flavored here before we arrived. Could be Kayla, might be one of them, trying to cover for her.
That would mean they knew about the nexus, if they were using the blood to make us believe there was a connection between her and I.
It was their greatest fear, that someone would discover their connection, and what they could do with it. They both knew how to cover, but were they good enough, or had they accidentally let something slip around Krycek?
Kayla broke the silence. "Why don't you sit, and I'll try to explain this from the beginning, as I know it, anyway. Anya will help fill in the blanks; I suppose you can help with that, too."
Silently, they agreed to go along, although they were both teeming with questions already. Mulder and Scully sat on the loveseat, and with a sigh of relief Kayla joined Anna on the couch recently vacated by Alex. "Well." Kayla began. "I suppose the best way to begin is to tell you that I have been experiencing traumatic mental episodes…Flashbacks, seizures, sleep disruptions, night terrors…Since I was about sixteen. I was referred to a psychiatrist, who prescribed medication. It worked for a while, until I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. I was 25. I went through…They called it post-traumatic stress, from having cancer, if you can imagine. I saw a specialist who put me on new medication, which worked for many years.
"As I got older, I became part of a research project. I was recruited out of medical school…I'm an Ob-Gyn, I should mention that. I work with human embryos, in research; I don't see actual patients, except surrogate mothers. I fertilize them, essentially it's a breeding program, I've learned that much over the years.
"When I became part of the project, I was assigned a 'mentor'. Alex Krycek. I began having problems again with my medication, and my health insurance referred me to Anna. This was just before they got married." She smiled faintly in Anya's direction. "Anya was the first to bring up the idea that I might have repressed memories. When I tried to remember things, I often thought my memories were wrong, even when my mother supported them. Other times, there were blanks. We've been working together for six years now. I've had a major breakthrough today, and since you were asking about Arbutus Ray…It seems strange to think of her as my mother, although until about a year ago I would have sworn that she was my biological mother. Anyway, I remember more of my childhood right now than I have in years, and I believe that I am your sister, Fox." Kayla said it in a rush, almost afraid that if she didn't get it out, the words wouldn't come.
She changed names on our mystery woman, did you notice? Scully felt Mulder's lack of response before she turned to see his panic face. She reached out to their connection and pulled Mulder back, as bodily as she could without touching him, grounding him with her own mental weight. When he was marginally calmer she refocused outward, visually and mentally observing Anna's calm and Kayla's fresh tears. She wasn't getting a read off of either of them, but Mulder's blood; someone related to him was in this room. She could feel it as outside of their special connection, yet inside the connection. She just couldn't tell where it was coming from.
Scully took a deep breath before plunging in. "What makes you think that? Have Krycek and Dr…Krycek…"
"Ivanovich, actually." Anya chimed in. "I believe I can fill in some blanks, here. I was recruited to work on the project when I was enlisted in the US Marine Corps. They put me through medical school, and gave me a grant to study sleep disorders and post-traumatic stress. I realized after a while of working with the patients taking part in my study, that some of them had faced a force much greater than the normal stresses of military service. They were being treated with medications I had never heard of. I began analyzing the medication, and discovered that it contained proteins not found in any substance I had seen before. Over the years I've developed variations on the medication, and eventually discovered how to create a placebo, which looked the same as the functional variety on blood tests, but didn't function in the same way. The medication was a memory suppressant, for lack of a better term."
"There's no such thing as a memory suppressant." Scully frowned. This woman couldn't be for real. Something was very wrong here. And who was that Mulder smell coming from? She knew it was a person now; it was just different enough that she knew it was not Mulder's blood or a clone of him, but close enough to be a relative, a part of the nexus. It only she could touch either of them…
"Alien DNA. Unidentified protein compounds. Tell me if any of this sounds familiar, Scully. You're the only surviving civilian researcher in the field." Anya snapped, a wave of malice rolling off of her before she could calm it. "You have some nerve, telling me what isn't possible. You have no idea what any of us have been through. Not even any clear idea of what happened to you, although I think we can figure it out. We're dealing with a series of projects you can't begin to see the scope of until you have all the facts. Do you want to be part of the solution, learn the facts and learn how to stop them; or would you rather bury your head in the sand, die barren, risk cancer and abduction all over again?"
"Anya!" Kayla jumped out of her seat. "Leave her alone this minute! I can't believe…"
"Anya!" Alex called, thundering down the stairs. "We need to get them out of here, now!"
Anya focused all of her attention on Alex, searching his face. Mulder and Scully sat by, watching the interplay between their supposed enemy and this new player, both of them feeling the flare in the nexus as it recognized fear in another of their blood. There were just too many of them, too much emotion, to figure it out now. Scully was assailed by a heightened sense of Mulder, as if he had moved closer to her, but she could see that he was still almost six inches away. The nexus was tightening, the way it did when they were chasing a suspect, but they weren't drawing it in. Someone else within the nexus was.
"What happened?"
"You've received a new assignment. Tunguska, tomorrow at 07:00 leaving from Andrews. We're made"
Kayla blanched. "How the hell did they find out?"
Alex took a deep breath. "Brandon. I'm so sorry, baby. We need to run, with you and the kids. Quicker the better." He moved across the room to take Kayla's trembling form in his arms. "Rizzo just told me."
"Marissa." Anya muttered. "Lexi, does Marita know?"
He nodded, meeting his wife's eyes over Kayla's shoulder. "Rizzo says she transmitted, but I'm not sure Riz wasn't trolling for something. Marita's never shown that kind of range before. We need to get the kids packed, then…" He was cut off abruptly as Kayla slumped into a dead faint. "Jesus, not now." He muttered, lowering her limp form to the couch.
"She's probably in shock. It's too much too soon." Anya was at her patient's side, taking her pulse. "Why don't you guys go get the kids together, see if you can grab some documents and pictures but don't sweat it too much. Scully, could you help me with her?"
"Right." Alex turned to head back upstairs. "Come on, Mulder."
Without realizing exactly what they were doing, Mulder and Scully found themselves obeying Anna's orders, caressing mentally one last time before they simultaneously brought down their shields and focused on the task at hand. At the top of the stairs, Mulder and Alex encountered a sobbing Marissa and her suitcase. "What's wrong, baby Rizzo?" Alex asked, kneeling before her. They didn't have time to talk, but he knew the girl's powers. It was better to be prepared, and she was currently their only source of information.
"Tommy. Daddy's trying to get to keep all three of us, but they're gonna kill Tommy." The girl sobbed for her hero, her big brother who had hung the moon as far as she was concerned. "We don't have time to get him. Daddy doesn't know what they're doing, and I can't tell him; he won't listen."
Alex grabbed the little girl up in his arms, giving her a heartfelt squeeze, then handed her to Mulder. "Rizzo, stay with Uncle Fox, I need to get Mikey and some things for him. Mulder, try to calm her down. She's terrified." And so am I, he thought. He turned away so Mulder couldn't see the fear, but Mulder saw it nonetheless. He felt it like a wave pushing over him, igniting his own. Mulder felt for Scully's reassurance, and received it, but his uncertainty remained. It had felt, for a moment there, like Krycek was inside the nexus.
Mulder lowered his eyes to the adorable brunette sobbing in his arms, and was thrown back to a memory of Samantha crying herself to sleep in his bed, terrified because of their parents' screaming fight. He held her a little closer, running a trembling hand through her snarled curls. "Don't worry, Rizzo, we'll keep you safe." He lowered his face to press a kiss to her heated forehead. His niece, his heart felt it. The nexus accepted her and her powers, and even without Scully here to map the connection, he was sure it existed.
As he held Rizzo and her crying slowed, he felt Scully shut down their connection. He panicked for a second, worried because he couldn't feel her, then he realized what she must be doing. She was taking the opportunity to map their connection with Kayla; to find out if they were related. He cuddled Rizzo closer, wondering what Scully would find, afraid to hope
Alex emerged from a bedroom down the hall with a bundle in blankets, carrying another suitcase, and again Mulder felt the nexus pull. How the hell was Krycek involved in all of this?. "Rizzo, baby, can you move over so Uncle Fox can hold Mikey, too. I need to get some things for your mommy."
The little girl shifted, and suddenly Mulder's other arm was full of baby. He blinked down at the little bundle, heavy and warm in sleep. The boy had very dark fine hair, which seemed to be a mixture of curly and straight, as though it was still making up its mind.
Rizzo followed his eyes to her baby brother, calmed by the feelings of love and protection this man gave off. He didn't know that mommy was telling the truth, but he still loved them, and part of him knew that they were family. That was enough for her. "Can I get down please, Uncle Fox?"
Mulder's eyes shifted back to meet hers. "Did Kry…Alex tell you to call me that?" He knelt on the floor so that he could put her feet down.
"No. He told me that I should call you Uncle Mulder if I had to call you Uncle something, but I said no." She pouted out her lower lip, and if Scully were there she could have told him that he'd made the same face more times than she could count. "You're my Uncle, I'm going to call you Uncle Fox." She picked up her little suitcase, and Mulder picked up the bag Krycek had packed for the baby almost without thinking. Scully was opening up to him again, but she was confused and faintly bruised in spirit, and Mulder could ask nothing more of her than to accept the bear hug he gave her and a soft kiss. He needed to see her, and they needed to leave the house. Krycek appeared with another bag and headed down the stairs, Marissa and Mulder following at a slower pace.
When they reached the living room, Kayla was sitting on the couch next to Scully, while Anya checked her vital signs again. Kayla's eyes were red from crying, and Scully looked pale. Mulder felt the nexus tighten again, as it seemed like there were more people, more shields than there had previously been. Anya turned to meet her husband's eyes. "We need to go. Now."
Alex nodded, turning toward the door. "Mulder." He murmured. "It might be safer if you and Scully take the kids, and we take Kayla. We'll call you in a few hours and arrange to meet. I suggest driving south, somehow. Don't discuss the route. There are diapers and formula in Mikey's bag. His name's Michael, he's six months." Alex kneeled to meet Marissa's eyes. "Rizzo, can you call Mulder and Dana mommy and daddy if you're around other people? It's very important."
The little girl searched Alex's face, until evidently she found what she was looking for. "Okay Uncle Alex. Take care of Mommy. She's very sad."
"I know, baby." He gave her a watery smile. "Be good. I love you."
"Love you more." The little girl threw herself into his arms. Mulder stood a little in awe of the emotion he'd seen on Krycek's face. Who knew that the assassin had real human feelings? "Don't worry. Uncle Fox won't let anything happen to us." She sounded so sure, Mulder suddenly realized the responsibility he would be taking on. He hadn't even really accepted it, they had simply taken for granted that he and Scully would drive off with a stranger's children. Granted, that stranger was his lost sister, but it was a lot to take in. He needed to talk to Scully; she had to have found out something.
The sense of her presence surrounding him, the feel of her silky little arms wrapped around his waist drew his attention away from Krycek and Marissa, and Mulder turned to find Scully in the doorway behind him. "Mulder, can I have the car keys? I need to transfer the car seats for the kids into our car." Well, evidently Scully had sorted some of her confusion out. She was almost entirely focused on soothing him, and he worried for a minute that her emotions were still too closed off. He hoped they were doing the right thing.
