Lucky me, I was sick last week and I was finally starting to feel better so I decided to write. I wasn't even on my computer for a day or two, which is shocking even to me. My mom and I suspect that reading is giving me migraines so I had to cut down on the typing and stuff until my reading glasses came in, but they're here now so no more worries. And I'm sorry for the wait. Life go tin the way as it always does.

Anyways, enough about me. This part of the story is about the camping trip they take with their school which I'm basing on an actual thing that went on at my school, though I've changed the setting because I don't think mountains from California have any reason to be in Maryland.

Chapter 5: A Nice Little Trip to the Forest…Really!

Dana went to bed around 9:30, but she wasn't ready to go to sleep. Instead she felt the overwhelming need to write in the new journal Mulder had given her. There was something she needed to talk about and she was definitely not going to talk to him about it and she wasn't quite ready to tell her sister. So she would tell her surrogate Mulder: the journal. She pulled it out of her desk drawer and sat on her bed with her back against the headboard. She flipped through the pages and noticed something she hadn't the first time she looked at it. There were four more quotes on the inside back cover of the leather book.

Don't walk behind me, I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.

~Unknown

Faith is, at one and the same time, absolutely necessary and altogether impossible.

~Stanislaw Lem

It's the friends you can call up at four a.m. that matter.

~Marlene Dietrich

The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.

~Carl Jung

Dana smiled down at the page and the simple and important quotes written in the now familiar scrawl. Remembering why she had taken out the journal in the first place, she picked up a pen and flipped back to the front. She wrote. She wrote everything she had been to afraid to think about in the living room. Everything she felt, she wanted to get it all out so it would no longer threaten the life it belonged to. Melissa and Bill always seemed to know what she was thinking anyways and she wasn't sure she wanted anyone to know, but she had to figure it out so she wrote. When she was finished, as if on cue, Melissa knocked on her door. The knock was distinct. Soft but commanding, friendly, and trustworthy.

"Come on in, Missy." Her older sister opened the door. She was fourteen and a freshman in high school, something that was still mysterious to the seventh-grader.

"Hey Danes. Wanted to talk to you." 'Oh great! Here it comes!' Dana couldn't help thinking. "Its about Mulder." Dana nodded, her suspicions confirmed. "He really is the best friend you've ever had isn't he?" Dana looked up from her knees, which she had momentarily become very interested in. She nodded.

"Yeah, he is. He's my best friend and I'm his." Missy nodded and continued.

"I know Bill hates him, but let's ignore that for a second." She paused. "You like him, don't you?" Dana's head shot back up, wide eyed.

"What?" Melissa shook her head.

"That wasn't a question actually. It was more of a statement. It's pretty obvious that he likes you, too. But I wouldn't risk a friendship until you're sure it isn't a stupid little crush." Dana had recovered, taken her sister's advice and logged it away, then looked at her sister and smiled.

"I'll keep that in mind. But I don't remember ever telling you that you were right, or asking for help." The two girls smiled and Melissa chuckled a bit as she left, sticking her head back through the crack of the door before closing it.

"But I am right." The door closed, her grin seeming to be the last thing to disappear, much like the Cheshire cat. Dana got up and slipped the journal into her desk drawer, when she saw Mulder sitting at his window looking for her, she sat down and looked back. Her face and eyes questioned him, asking if he was alright. He smiled reassuringly, but then looked slightly downcast. Confused even. Dana questioned him again, this time asking what was wrong. He couldn't figure out the best way to convey it without anyone in the upstairs of her house being able to tell exactly what he was telling her. So he grabbed a notepad and wrote on it, then held it up, just out of view from above.

"I smelled cigarettes when I came in. No one in my house smokes. And my dad hasn't been home in two days. I think my parents are going to get divorced."

"I'm so sorry Mulder." Her eyes really showed it, until his door opened and his mother walked in. He waved her a quick and nearly imperceptible goodbye as he turned to greet his mother who said a few short things that Dana couldn't understand but Mulder nodded to before she left the room. Then he looked to her across the space between their windows, with an expression that confirmed that something was not going well between his parents.

The rest of their winter vacation, however, passed with a relative amount of normalcy. Mulder had not smelt the cigarette smoke again and his dad had started coming home again. Before they knew it they were back at school and everything was normal. It felt like they had only blinked their eyes and it was March and the Friday before their camping trip.

At school that day their first period math teacher was out sick and they had a substitute who insisted on calling everyone by their last names. It wasn't really a problem for Mulder, who actually preferred it that way. But Dana wasn't used to being called Scully. Anyone looking for Scully was usually an older Navy man who was looking for her father. On top of that, the man said Scully in such a way that Mulder, at one point, had to actually bite his lower lip to keep from laughing. Afterwards he took to mimicking the very old sub by calling her Scully in that weird way, just make her glare at him or laugh at him or raise her eyebrow at him. Every time she did he would burst out in laughter again, and it just became infectious. Their new inside joke. He still called her Dana in normal conversation, but when he really wanted to get a smile he would turn on the funny accent and call her Scully.

Dana was packing, a bit frantically though due to the fact that she only had two days left. She had just finished zipping up her suitcase when she looked over at Mulder's window. It was open and he was gesturing for her to do the same. She opened her window and got as close to it as she could with the desk in her way.

"Did you pack bug spray?" She chuckled at him and nodded.

"Yes Mulder. I'll share." He grinned.

"Thanks, Scully." She grinned and shook her head in mock exasperation. He laughed. Everything was good. They shut their respective windows and went back to work. The weekend was pretty boring. A lot of Bill being annoyed that she was going off for a week with a bunch of people he didn't know and trusted about as far as he could throw them. Dana didn't really care all that much what he thought, but he had taken over as man of the house when Bill, Sr. had been shipped out only six weeks prior. He had felt it was his job to make sure a birthday celebration had been arranged for her the previous month. He had tried to keep Mulder from being invited but Dana had gone over his head and behind his back and gotten her friend to come anyways.

Soon it was Monday morning and Mulder was jogging over to the Scullys' front door with his suitcase and sleeping bag. He set the sleeping bag on the stoop and rang the doorbell. Charlie answered the door and let him in. It wasn't terribly cold for late March so he only had a warm jacket on, instead of the heavy coat he had needed every once in a while during the past few years, for the same time. He hung it on the rack in the mud room quickly and deposited his camping supplies next to the door with Dana's. He walked up to the breakfast nook and hopped onto an empty stool next to his best friend. They didn't need to be at school until nine so they would drop off Bill and Melissa first, then Charlie and then Maggie would stay to see them off.

"Morning Mulder. You're here early."

"I just couldn't wait." She laughed and continued to eat her toast. She pretended not to notice when he snuck a piece but her amused smile gave her away. "Did you put the tag on your luggage?"

"Yup. It's pink. I guess they're using the tags to tell which is boys and which is girls." He nodded as he continued to munch on her toast. Finally the time came for them to leave. Mulder had volunteered himself to put the luggage in the car. When Dana had brought hers out she was intent upon helping but he managed to wave her away and put it all in the trunk very nicely. Getting into the car was a different problem all together. Maggie drove, of course, Melissa sat in the middle of the front bench seat, and Bill took the window. The original idea was to have Charlie take the middle in the back, him being the smallest, but he didn't want to. He wanted a window seat. Once he was buckled in and not about to move, Dana was forced to sit in the middle and Mulder beside her. It wasn't a difficult feat, as she was not much larger than her brother, but it would have definitely been easier if he had conformed to the original plan.

The problem that they soon noticed was that neither Mulder, nor Dana had gotten much sleep because they were much too excited. The car ride was longer than it usually was and it lulled them into a soft slumber. Her head on his shoulder and his on her head, a comfortable arrangement considering their height difference. Luckily Bill didn't see it until he was already out of the car and Maggie had started pulling away. This gave them at least another fifteen minutes of sleep.

By the time they pulled up to their school the pair was stretching and rubbing their eyes. Dana's barely shoulder length, straight hair was falling in front of her face as she moved to pop her vertebrae back into less stiff positions. Mulder had finished stretching and tucked the last errant lock behind her ear as she settled back into the seat, rested and comfortable at last.

Dana and Mulder hopped out of the car and opened the trunk to get their gear. Mulder grabbed both suitcases and Dana grabbed the sleeping bags. It was another good arrangement for them. They walked into the cafeteria to check in, then they went to find Monica and John. Monica bit back a small chuckle, replacing it with a friendly smile. She couldn't help thinking how much the two friends before her looked like a couple. Both were troubled beyond their years and helped each other through their troubles in their own ways. That, and they just fit together, like pieces of a puzzle.

"Hey guys!" Dana greeted as she walked up with a smile, failing to notice Monica's near slip.

"Good morning." Monica answered sweetly. She opened her mouth to continue but was cut off by the teacher.

"Good Morning Everyone!" she shouted over the din of the students. "Will you all please be seated!" Dana and Mulder squeezed into the remaining space on the bench. The teacher then began her instructions as to how the transportation would go. Which bus would contain which luggage and where they would be allowed to sit. Bus #1 would contain the girls' luggage, and #2 would contain the boys' luggage, but they were allowed to sit with whoever they wanted to since the ride was pretty long. After a fairly long-winded and pointless speech about bus etiquette the students were sent to put their luggage away.

"Bus one or two?" John asked the girls as they stood up and made their way outside.

"One." they replied in unison. Both boys nodded and went off to bus #2 to stow their luggage. Monica and Dana stayed at bus #1 and stowed their own luggage. Dana backed away from the bus into Mulder's sightline as he waited in like to get to the storage where his suitcase would be held. She tipped her head slightly toward the large yellow vehicle behind her, silently telling him that they would save seats. He nodded and turned his attention back to the line in front of him. Monica and Dana had finished with their bags and had gotten on the bus. They took seats in the back row, Dana taking the two on the passenger's side and Monica taking the two opposite her..

People filtered into the bus but it was obviously taking John and Mulder much longer to get their things loaded, as the bus was nearly full when they stepped onto it. They looked around confused until Monica stood up and waved quickly to them. They walked to the back of the bus.

"Thanks." John said as he slid over Monica, taking the window seat she offered. She never liked the window seat. Mulder nodded his agreement and slid onto the bench with Dana, letting her have the window seat, knowing she liked it better. They had had a long talk about bus rides and seat preference while waiting for Maggie to pick them up the past few days. The last person climbed the stairs and walked toward the back of the bus where a blonde girl saved a seat. She was tall and brunette, and little too sure of herself. She noticed Mulder sitting in the back and perked up, waving and smiling at him.

"Hi Mulder!" the girl said loudly, as if claiming him. He barely nodded in response and turned back to Dana, quickly beginning a conversation. The girl huffed and sat down next to her friend, determined to remain unhappy.

"Who was that?" Dana asked her friend.

"Someone I don't want to talk to, or about for that matter." Mulder answered. Dana looked across him to her other friends, who seemed to get the message.

"Diana Fowley. She's liked Mulder forever. He liked her too for a while, but she's, um, evil, to put it nicely." Monica answered. John scoffed loudly at his girlfriends final comment.

"That's like saying Satan isn't such a bad guy. You're being really nice, Monica." They chuckled and Dana seemed to catch the drift of what they wanted to say and decided to leave well enough alone. Soon the bus was ready to leave and Mulder helped Dana pull down the window so they could wave goodbye to her mom. Maggie craned her head and arm over as many other parents as she could. She waved and blew a few kisses their way. They smiled an craned out the window to wave back. Dana and Maggie reached their hands toward each other and grasped firmly for a moment as Mrs. Scully quickly told her daughter to have fun and be careful. Then she let go and reached her hand toward Mulder, whose longer arms made it much easier on both of them. She told him to take care, have fun, and to take care of Dana. He smiled kindly and nodded vigorously at her last request. She laughed and let go, waving one last goodbye as the bus left.

Once on the road they put the window back up and sat back talking for what felt like forever. It was really only an hour or so before the lack of proper sleep due to excitement had begun to affect them again. Dana lazily yawned and put her head down on Mulder's warm shoulder. He then laid his head on hers and promptly fell asleep. Of course Diana chose this moment to look back, the two of them comfortable, asleep, and reflexively smiling. She huffed again and turned back around. Monica and John were having too much fun collecting bets on how long it would take their two friends to get together.

A while later the pair was waking up as the bus began its ascent up the mountain and to the camp. They watched the beautiful scenery unfold, pointing out little things to each other, truly enjoying the ride. It seemed only minutes later on that majestic mountainside that they were coming to a graceful stop in front of the camp's central building. The students were directed off the bus and into the main hall of that large log cabin. Older high school students serving as chaperones and voluntary help for the week were beginning to unload the luggage and put it on one or the other of two large trucks. Once this was completed the juniors and seniors climbed into the beds of those trucks on top of the luggage and braced themselves as the vehicles took off up the steep hill.

The campers watched for a moment from the large open room where they were seated on the floor before turning back to their instructors and listening to the layout of their week. Then they were put into cabins. Dana and Monica were very happy to be put together, as were Mulder and John. The girls had cabin 2 and the boys were in cabin 12. There was another school there as well but they wouldn't be doing any activities with them. Not long after the high schoolers returned from luggage duty and were introduced to them. Jessica would be in the girls' cabin and Freddy would be in the boys' cabin. The many cabin leaders took the middle school kids up to their cabins to get their things arranged. Once this was done they all went back down the hill to be paired off with another cabin and their trail guides. Cabins 1 and 11 were paired, 2 and 12, and 3 and 13. The other cabins housed students from another school. The four friends were very happy to be in the same trail group.

That day they had dinner in the mess hall and a big campfire with the rest of their school and got to mail postcards home.

"Aren't you going to send a postcard Mulder?" Dana asked quietly as she sat next to him around the campfire. He shook his head slightly and gave her a look.

"Who at home would want a postcard from me?" he replied as if it were obvious.

"My mom would like one, I'm sure." she responded, smiling. He leaned over and pushed her slightly with his shoulder, she pushed him back and he smiled. He decided he would write a postcard to Mrs. Scully, she did like him after all. They toasted marshmallows and watched funny skits and listened to jokes until it was nearly time for lights out. The students walked back up to their cabins with their leaders and promptly fell asleep. They awoke the next morning and headed down to the mess hall for breakfast. Mulder, in particular, attacked his pancakes, much to Dana's amusement.

"Good pancakes, Mulder?" she asked. He looked up at her, mouth stuffed with the syrupy goodness. She couldn't suppress her giggle; he looked adorably amusing. He looked even more so when he nodded vigorously in the affirmative. He chewed a few times and swallowed hard before responding.

"It's been a while since I've had breakfast, let alone good breakfast." She looked at him sympathetically, recalling a conversation they had had one morning at school about his mother's lack of desire to cook anymore with all their family troubles.

"Then come over to my house in the morning for breakfast. I'll make Bill behave." she smiled and he nodded with a slight smile gracing his features. They finished the rest of their breakfast without any more stunning revelations and got up with the rest of the camp to go out to meet their trail guides. As they walked out the door Mulder hugged Dana with one arm and whispered a quick 'thank you' in her ear before letting go and continuing on.

Their trail guide's name was Rick and he was tall with dark curly hair. He wore cargo pants and a long sleeved flannel shirt with a vest. Most of the girls in the group looked at him like he was a Greek god, the boys, like he was a superhero. Mulder liked him well enough and John a bit more. Monica thought he was cute, in a middle school crush on a celebrity sort of way. Dana acknowledged that he was good looking but didn't care much past that.

In no time they had gone over the info on their hike and were walking through the forest, dodging tree roots and stepping over rocks. It was about noon when they arrived at the side of a small river or a large stream. Rick stopped the group and asked them to gather around.

"See this is poison-ivy, here. If you see any plants that look like this, don't touch it." The group nodded and looked intently at the plant to make sure they wouldn't touch any of it. Rick pointed across the stream at a small clearing surrounded by rocks and large tree roots that would make a decent seating area. "We're going to eat there, so let's get across the stream." he said, gesturing at the stones dotting across one of the fairly narrow portions, thought it was still a good ten or fifteen feet in width.

Rick crossed first, followed by a fair amount of the boys, wanting to show off their ability. So far no one had fallen in. This continued as the majority of the girls crossed. Monica stepped ahead of John and he hopped along, one stone behind her. Mulder bowed dramatically and extended his arm in the direction of the stream. Dana laughed at his over-exaggerated chivalry and stepped toward the edge. It was a pretty long step to the first stone. It wasn't hard for the taller students in the group but she was by no means tall. To be honest, she was short. Standing on her left foot, she reached toward the stone with her right. She started to fall forward into the water, not into John's legs as he was already a stone or so ahead, keeping up with Monica. Suddenly a strong arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her securely onto the shore.

"Thanks Mulder." she said, not needing to turn around to know who had saved her from the chilly water.

"Hop up." he said, bending at the knees and offering a piggyback ride. His legs were much longer and he would be able to cross without the problems that she would have. She placed one foot in his hand and her arms around his neck, using her own weight and his boost to pull herself onto his back. He locked his arms under her bent knees and she interlocked her ankles in front of him. This took only a few moments and with a swift step he landed them both safely on the first stone, then the second, and then each other stone in turn. When he landed them safely on the shore, he did not let her go. He jogged over to the group listening to her giggle from his back. He set her atop a tallish boulder that was close to her current height. She let go of his neck and waist and sat on the boulder, swinging her feet back and forth like a small child.

John and Monica sat on a rock near her and Mulder went over to Rick to get their lunch bags. When he returned he climbed up a bulging tree root to sit on the boulder with Dana. He passed her a brown sack lunch containing a turkey sandwich, an apple, a juice box, and a chocolate chip cookie. They all pulled out their food and dug in eagerly. It didn't take long for the four friends to finish their lunches and they still had about ten minutes to rest before they had to hike off again. Mulder nudged Dana in the shoulder and she nudged him back, begging the question of what he wanted.

"Having fun?"

"Oh, yeah!" she replied sarcastically. "I just love being too short to cross a stream without help." He placed his hand over his chest in mock hurt.

"Are you saying that you didn't enjoy being carried all the way over here?" He attempted deadpan but by the end of his question he was laughing and so was she, shaking her head in amusement. "No really, are you having fun?" She nodded vigorously, smiling.

"Yeah, I love it here. I'm having loads of fun." He grinned.

"I'm glad." After a smile shared between the four, Rick stood up and beckoned them cryptically to the trail. They cleaned up quickly and headed off after him. Everyone, that is, except Dana. She was looking around to find a quick and fairly safe way off the boulder. Mulder turned around to look for her and couldn't suppress his laughter at her predicament. He didn't often think of how short his best friend was, he viewed her as an equal. Noticing her difficulties he walked back toward her and offered his hand to her. She shook her head.

"I'll fall. It's too far down." She looked down. Mulder had had to lift her higher to get her onto the stone, but even the way Mulder had gotten up was too high for her. He took a lot more risks.

"Come here, I'll help you down." He backed up to her resting place and she leaned down slowly on to his back. Once her arms were around his neck and she was secure, he stepped forward and then squatted so she could get off. Once Dana was on solid ground the two of them jogged to catch up with the group and continue on their hike.

"Thanks for saving me from my case of terminal shortness, Mulder." She looked up at him with a sarcastic smile. It seemed to bother her more than he had originally noticed. "How come you didn't notice I wouldn't be able to get down by myself?" He looked off into the trees for a moment, wondering how to phrase the truth so it would sound right.

"I don't usually notice your height." She raised her eyebrow quizzically. "I see you as an equal." That was all there was to say, so nothing more was said. They continued on the trail for the rest of their day, though Dana wore a small smile on her face.

Once they arrived back at the camp they retreated to their cabins for the afternoon shower cycle. Half of the cabin was allowed to shower then and the other half were allowed showers after dinner. Dana and Monica were in the afternoon set, as were Mulder and John. After showers there was some down time out in the courtyard area in the middle of all the cabins. The four friends sat on a bench on the lower end of the area, just talking about the day's events.

Dinner was pleasant and so was the down time in the cabin before lights out. They all slept peacefully that night. No fear. No yelling. No midnight doctoring. No waiting and hoping not to hear the car door slam, it's owner tainted with alcohol. It was a good night, a night they deserved.

I am, once again, very sorry about the slow update. The next one may take some time as well, but it should finish up the camping trip. It's just that there are a few other fics I have been ignoring, a huge chem test, a psych test, and English make up work I need to do before my glorious four day weekend. During that time I can almost guarantee an update. Ta-ta for now.