Chapter 1, Age 4 (Almost 5):

The young girl quietly pushed herself onto her tip-toes, just so that she was able to climb into the low laying living room cupboard. She turned herself around, and patted the wooden base beside her, so that her sheep dog would come and sit behind her. The dog took up most of the cupboard, but she didn't care if it was crowded, she always played hide and seek this way. In the distance she could hear her mother counting, 5, 4, 3 – by the time the girl had closed the door her mother was at one. Sometime last year, she had accidentally broken the knob off the door, so she could now see the world outside of her hiding spot. She chuckled quietly as her Mom entered the room, keeping her eye pressed against the small peak hole. Diane looked around, smiling slightly as she tried to find the girl. Diane paused suddenly, and Kate scrunched her eyebrows together, curiously wondering why her mother had stopped looking. She blinked once. Then twice, and there was someone else in the room.

"Adrik…" She heard her say in an almost wistfully voice. "Wha-What are you doing here?"

"You took her from me." Adrik told her, reaching behind his jacket.

"You know I would've stayed –" Diane began.

"I've spent years wondering how my life could have been. Would I have been happier? But, you ruined any chance of that happening, didn't you? You took her away from me…and now – I see her with him every day."

"I didn't take her away from you. YOU took her from yourself!" Diane interjected the volume of her increasing with each word.

"SHUT UP." The man replied, gripping his hands together, tightly as he cold. "Don't you tell me what I did!"

"YOU TOOK YOURSELF—"

Adrik paused, lowering the steaming gun from the grip in-between his two hands. The entire world seemed to have stopped, until the pounding shot hit his ears and a scream echoed in the background. The floor started to shake, and he turned to see a large white sheep dog, whom was barking wildly. He ran his fingers through his dark curly hair, inhaling intensely, he watched the little girl stumble, her dark curls bouncing uncontrollably, as she hung onto the dogs red collar.

"Kate…" He breathed.

Kate stared at him, her eyes wide, her hand so tightly gripped around the dog's collar that she felt her nails dig into her skin. The entire world seemed to be blocked out. She couldn't hear sirens or people outside, the only two things she was aware of was the loud echoing footsteps drumming towards her on the wooden floor, and Mulder's continuous leaps toward the man. She held onto the dog until his force was two much for her to carry. The moment he was the dog's barks grew fiercer as he lunged forward. Adrik only smiled, reaching out to pet the dog in attempt to comfort him. Mulder growled deeply into the back of his throat, his head snapping forward aggressively at the strangers oncoming arm.

"Fuck!" The dark haired man yelped, pushing the dogs head away forcefully. Mulder whimpered, suddenly backing off at the man's aggressive movement, and sulkily went over to the corner of the room. Adrik paused too examine his forearm. Fresh blood leaked out of the curved teeth marks the animal had created. He rubbed his arm, trying to sooth the pain, then looked over at Kate. He watched her for a few moments, somewhat curiously. She stood there, her eyes still widened, but this time she had her hand raised in the air and was looking back and forth from where the blood fell from her hand, to Diane.

"Katie…" He began walking towards her. Kate looked up, jumpily pulling out of her trance at the sound of her name. Adrik knelt down, his knees cracking as he did so. "Hey there," He said, reaching out to tuck her hair behind her ears. The little girl turned her head, squeezing her eyes shut, as if she expected the same fate as her mother. "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you." He comforted. "I could never hurt you, and I'm sorry you had to see that, but you have to believe me, I did it for your own good. You're better off now." For the first time since she had seen Adrik, Kate closed her mouth and lowered her head, finally allowing herself to stop staring at the scene before her. "Look at you, so beautiful. Our hair…eyes…we're the same." He told her, gently reaching up and grabbing both of her arms. "I know, this must be confusing right now," He continued. "And it hurt me, that I had to do this, but I couldn't go on knowing you existed…without ever seeing you. I don't know what Diane-your mother, has told you about me, but I promise, I've changed. I want you to grow up, knowing that I exist. Listen Katie, this is very important. I'm you're--" Kate pulled her small wrist out of his grasp, slowly backing up into the coffee table behind her.

"DADDY!" She screamed as loud as she could.

"Yes…Tha-"

"DADDY! HELP ME!" She yelled again, her eyes focused on the door behind him. Adrik turned, letting his hands drop from the girls arms. The lock jiggled. Someone was home. The man looked at the little girl again, one last time, before standing up and running in the direction of the backdoor. Kate started unable to pry her eyes from the jiggling door. Suddenly her heart started to pound inside her chest, as she looked from Mulder, to Diane, her hand and the direction the man had gone repeatedly. As the door opened another scream echoed in the air. She jumped, as the paper bag fell from his arms and egg splattered all over the hardwood floor.

"Katie…" He said, running towards her. "Are you okay?" He asked, kneeling down to eyelevel. Kate looked at him, and then around the room. "Katie…" he said again. "What happened?" She looked him directly in the eye for a few moments, then over at Mulder who was sniffing in Diane's blood. "Mulder." The man called, sternly. The dog looked up, and trotted over, his once pure white fur now covered with sticky wet blood. "Hold onto him." He told her, even though she was unresponsive. Wordlessly he stood up, his shoes clicking on the floor. His hand shook, as he reached out towards the woman's neck. For a moment his heart seemed to stop, and he dropped his head, defeated, as everything he had ever feared came true. Kate watched from where she stood, a curious look on her face.

"Daddy…" She began, and he looked over at him. "What happened to Mommy?" The man sighed.

"Let's get you cleaned up." He said, picking her up into his arms. Kate wrapped her arms around his neck securely, allowing him to take her out of the room. They didn't bother doing much to clean her up. Instead of a full on bath, they simply washed the crusting blood off her arm, and bandaged up her wrist. From there they went into her room, where she put herself into her pajamas, and her father wrapped her in the blanket she had had since she was an infant. Together they ventured over to the linen closet, and pulled out an old sheet, and wandered back into the living room. Their entire movement seemed staged, flawless and thoughtless, as if it had been practiced repeatedly. He covered Diane in the sheet without even bothering to put Kate down, desperate to hide the mess from his wounded eyes.

"I need to make a phone call." He almost whispered, putting her down on the dark colored couch cushions. Kate looked at him, but didn't nod or shake her head to acknowledge that she understood. The blanket fell loosely over her shoulders, revealing a small black stitching. She couldn't read yet, but she remembered her Mom telling her what it said. For my angel girl, Mommy loves you lots. Kate looked up, to where her father was standing, which the phone tucked under his head.

"Hey…Ivan. It's me, Andrew. I need you to come over here…its Diane. Something's happened…" With those two words Kate suddenly knew Mommy wasn't playing. She didn't understand what had happened, or why things would change, but she suddenly knew that there would be no more bedtime stories or playing hide and seek. She looked down to see what she considered to be her Mom's signature, a second time but her dark curls fell forward, blocking it from her view. We're the same, she remembered the man saying. She had a sudden feeling that if they were the same, she had somehow helped him succeed in what ever he had wanted. Feeling a sudden need for breath she gasped, staring at Andrew only momentarily, before she buried her face into the couch cushion, and clung on for some kind of remorse.

Andrew stopped talking, and looked over at his little girl. "I gotta go. Be here as soon as you can." He said before hanging up. Ever since he had adopted her, he thought he had learned enough to get them through any situation, but when he heard this sort of muffled sobs escaping from her, in such desperation, he had no idea what he should do.

Three Days Later:

Kate looked up, annoyed at the sun for shining, as she held onto her fathers hand tightly. The reverend spoke words that she somehow knew she should be listening, yet she couldn't understand any of the words that came from his mouth. All morning long people had been telling her how sorry they were, but apologies wouldn't bring her mother back. The few hugs she'd received had been nice, but were nothing like the ones she used to get from Diane.

"If any members of the family would like to come forward, and say a few words." The reverend said, holding his wrist in his hand respectfully. Kate looked down at the rose she held in her hand, and felt herself being nudged forward. Hesitantly she began to walk forward, until she was right in front of the coffin. She stood there for a moment, unsure of what to say. What could she say? She looked up from the coffin, at everyone who was looking sincerely at her tear covered face. Finally she bent forward and placed the rose on the coffin, and wordlessly ran back to Andrew, where she buried her face into his legs. Andrew stroked her head, then picked her up and hugged her tightly as she hic-upped back a sob. As the man stepped forward he breathed in deeply, in attempt to prepare himself to speak. Even still, his voice shook as began to speak.

"Diane—" His voice cracked, and he breathed in even deeper, rocking Kate comfortingly. "Diane, I – I just want, need, you to know how much I love you. I know, our relationship started out oddly – but that's what made it so…beautiful. I know things were hard at first, but you don't know how much it means to me that I'm the one who found you and Katie that night…" He paused, looking around at everyone tearfully. "Thank you so much for staying with me. I-I know that if I had never found you-I wouldn't be going through this right now, but, I wouldn't change it…ever. I know how to love because of you, and you gave me Kate – the most important person in my life. Thank you so much, and I love you so much." Kate let out a sob as he placed the rose on the coffin, as if it could break with a single touch. He stepped back, rubbing his daughters back comfortingly, finally allowing the tears he had been holding back as he spoke to fall. And that was that. People began to leave, each sympathetically looking back upon the two. Kate buried her face into Andrews shoulder. Nothing mattered now, they would depend on each other from now own, and Daddy was crying now, so she knew that it was okay to cry too.

Okay, I know some of you are thinking that this looks oddly like "The Early Years" and well, that's because it is, but I had a HUGE brainwave, and had to rewrite it. So, please review and Ill update!