Oh, look, it's Tuesday and I remembered to post. That's a first.

Again, thank you to everyone who left a comment, favourited and followed. You're all wonderful. It keeps my spirit going.

To the guests who left a review, I can't respond to you privately. But thank you for leaving such lovely comments. I promise. I will try to keep the drama to a minimum. I am currently trying to think of a way to reshape the fic ... for the millionth time. In order to keep out unnecessary drama. I hate it as much as everyone else. I just, have worked on this for so long, breaking away from moulds I've already set up, is proving to be a challenge. But, I'll grit my teeth and bare it.


Burning Snowflakes
…Part Four…

He didn't like keeping Danica cramped in his small apartment. Mulder thought, with reasonable knowledge, that her previous dwellings had been just as cramped, if not more so. It was guilt that stirred in him at that thought. She deserved so much more. Having known her relatively mute self in such a small amount of time, he was already convinced that he would give her the whole world in order to ensure she was comfortable.

She was an early riser. Danica fought sleep with all her little might but as soon as she was out, her subconscious taking over, she slept like the dead they left behind. She tossed and turned in her sleep, silent screams caught on her the tip of her tongue, strangling her. She never so much as whimpered out loud.

Danica roused at six, every morning, the sun barely had time to rise let alone to stretch across the floor. With prodding fingers against his scratchy cheeks she woke him before the sun had a chance. He didn't mind so much, the quiet little girl was quickly becoming his own personal alarm clock.

With Danica's sudden addition to his life, Mulder's routine was thrown off kilter. He never had much of one regardless, but there were small things, like his morning run that were starting to set a nervous tick in his bones.

He sat next to her, that morning, watching children's programming flick across the screen as the early morning light stretched across the floor. His legs itched, a sleeping dog twitching in his dreams of an open field. He couldn't exactly take the child on a run with him and he most definitely could not leave her alone. He wanted to run. He needed to run.

Mulder watched her for a second, his eyes straying from the mindless program she was engrossed in. Reaching out he gently bushed a hand over her forehead, pushing back her sweaty bangs he checked her temperature briefly. She had been up for an hour and yet the girl was still teetering on the line of a little too warm.

He needed to get her out of his stuffy apartment.

Hoisting her up on his hip he walked out the door. They walked into Old Town Alexandria Danica staying mostly on Mulder's hip as his long strides equalled four of her smaller ones. Schatz bounced against his back as he walked, the little girl's arm dangling over his shoulder.

Danica was clingy in the open air. She rested her head easily against Mulder's shoulder, soaking in the warm comfort he provided. She was still too warm as they walked, small beads of sweat slipping across her brow and onto the crook of his neck. He blamed her warmth on the weather.

The walk into Old Town took Mulder fifteen minutes at a leisurely pace. He stopped for Danica's benefit, pulling her head back from his neck to make sure she was okay before he pointed to a local park, a promise on his lips that they could visit as frequently as she wished.

They had left his apartment too early. The shop front still closed as they rounded the corner onto the main street. Mulder continued to walk, knowing the local bakery would have its doors wide open. He ordered coffee and a bear claw for himself, a cinnamon scroll on the menu for Danica. It was sticky and sweet, he didn't think there was anything to go wrong with that option. Taking their treats he let Danica plod alongside him towards the docks. They sat and watched the river move, life already midway on the other side, while they slowly woke in Alexandria.

He watched her take a tiny bite of her large pastry, hesitant, cautious. She pulled back, eyes wide with the exhilarating taste of sugar on her young tongue, her little nose covered in the sticky substance. Mulder chuckled as he bit into his own breakfast. She nibbled like a too shy mouse, the sticky outside melting in her fingers as she lingered before picking at it more heartily, an eager fox starving for a meal.

Preoccupied with her sticky treat Danica was oblivious to the quickly filling streets. Noise was building, early morning chatter filling their ears, making Danica suddenly aware of their new found company. He was standing beside the park bench she was sitting on, stretching out his corked limbs the second she noticed. The cinnamon scroll was dropped immediately as she pushed herself into a stand and jumped at him in fear. The little girl climbed him like a tree, her sticky fingers pressing into his neck as two women walked past, one smiling directly at her.

'Your daughter is beautiful,' One woman said, stepping a little closer to observe the tiny girl and her giant. Mulder only smiled, his cheeks warming slightly. He had decided to play Danica off as his child, but no one, outside of a flight assistant or two, had addressed the little girl as such in his presence. It was a little too real to the man who had not exactly thought it over. Had it been any other situation he would have claimed that he was not ready to be a father, but Danica, her need and her safety pushed every other fear out of him. It wasn't just necessity that he saved her, it was his own need to protect. To be the saviour she needed.

The children's boutique was mostly empty for that Sunday morning, the shop assistant tore her attention away from the lone customer to tend to the openly bewildered Mulder. She was quick and efficient in helping him pick out a sleek black jogging stroller, before coercing him in spending more money on clothes for his 'adorable little girl'. Danica shied away at every point of contact the woman tried to make and yet she still made out like a bandit in treats and goodies.

With the stroller out on the street Danica was hesitant to let Mulder strap her in. She watched his face closely, her eyes darting around his gentle face for signs of abandonment and malice. He bopped her on the nose gently, teeth showing through his large smile, trying to ease the quiet girl. Hiding her head into the soft belly of her bear, Danica giggled softly, relaxed enough to let the clips fall in place before she was securely locked in.

Content that the girl was comfortable, happy even, Mulder moved to the back of the stroller. He felt ridiculous. Needing to push a stroller as he ran, but as they started walking, moving away from the busy street and stretching out along his usual route he realised, for the first time, that people did this every day.

Danica shrieked as he ran, a half hour jog that had the wind greeting her face in a rushed and hasty manner. She giggled as she watched the world go by quickly, her little mind feeling as though she were invincible to the damaging hands that wanted to catch her. She kept her fingers to her mouth as he ran, giggles pushing out around them as the warm temperature on her skin slightly lowered with the fast moving air.

[…]

His ears were ringing, his head thumping even his hands were shaking with tired exhaustion. Lack of sleep pulled at his eye lids as his hands fought the urge to pull out his hair. Danica sat on the bed in front of him with puffy red eyes as she gnawed on the fingers in her mouth. Tears streamed down her cheeks in a constant flow as wails erupted from her small lungs. She was howling, her entire body shaking with the force. He was worried that the neighbours were going to complain. Children cried, he knew that, everyone knew that – but not for three hours straight.

Mulder couldn't understand. They had a good day. He ran for an hour and a half before stopping at a small café to purchase lunch, they ate in a park, Danica taking precautionary steps away from him as her little heart longed to race for the play equipment. He jogged them mildly back home. The day wasted around them before it was time for their nightly routine; dinner, bath and bed. She slept easily, her temperature still warm when he moved to check on her before he himself retired.

She had been asleep for two and a half hours before the crying started, little hiccoughs at first, ones he thought he could manage before they turned into harrowing sobs and painful screams.

Mulder stared at her, Danica's cheeks were red her eyes almost turquoise in contrast. He didn't know what to do to make her stop, he didn't know what was wrong and he hated himself for it. Mulder had initially thought it was a nightmare, the girl's cries jolting him up from the couch he was gently dozing on, but she didn't stop, the hour slowly ticking towards 2 a.m. as she continued to cry.

He just wished she would stop.

Mulder was at his last thread of strength as the girl quietened for a moment to catch her breath before pipping up again. He had held her, walked with her, rubbed her back, he even sang her a song and attempted to tell a badly recalled story. Nothing was persuading the little girl to be quiet, nothing was helping her get to sleep.

'Danica,' he groaned her name, his frustration breaking through. Danica stopped wailing for a second as her voice broke, stuttering with a croak before it continued normally, shocked at the sound her throat had made she looked to Mulder helplessly. For a second she held her breath, her little body swaying gently on the mattress before she exhaled, her crying continuing. Mulder groaned again, his hope breaking in half.

In one movement, Mulder swooped her up, grabbing Schatz as he went before turning to the door and storming out of the building. He was doing the only other thing he had left to do and his partner was going to kill him for the hour.

He didn't need to knock when he reached the door, Danica's cries echoed through the street before bouncing off the walls of Scully's apartment building. She was waiting for him in the doorway when he stepped off the elevator.

'I didn't know what to do.' Mulder offered weakly, apology burning in his eyes as he caught sight of his partner, waiting with arms crossed over her pyjamas.

She gave him a small, sympathetic smile. How could she blame him for not understanding a child crying out in the night? Scully reached for the girl, quickly taking her from Mulder's arms as he stepped into her apartment and closed the door behind him. He watched, glued to the door as Scully carried Danica on her hip, chatting to her softly in a dialect he was still yet to grasp, in order to distract the girl from her distress. Mulder was impressed at how quickly Danica and Scully had formed an easy connection. For two people who had only met the night before, he was surprised that Danica was unafraid to place her trust in Dana Scully's faithful hands.

Pushing away from the door Mulder followed his partner's lead into the kitchen. Danica was sitting on the bench, her legs dangling over the edge while she shoved the fingers of her right hand into her mouth, her left clutching tightly to the brown bear that was never out of her sight. 'You should have taken her to the E.R., Mulder.' Scully huffed, pushing a drawer forcefully closed as she went.

'I couldn't,' His response was dry. Scully knew that he couldn't. Danica didn't have an American medical record, she wasn't even American and the bruises that encased her little body were still prominent against her pale skin. A trip to the E.R. would result in an enquiry.

Scully fluttered about the kitchen, thinking wildly as she searched for things unknown. Every few seconds she darted back to Danica, ensuring that the girl was not about to fall off the counter. 'You don't have any of her medical records, do you?' Scully asked, hopeful that there was a clue she could branch from. She wasn't as used to dealing with the living as she was the dead.

He replied as she passed him, stopping to pull the freezer door open in search of ice. 'Scully, they were openly killing those people. I don't really think there was anything of record, even if there was, I can't get my hands on it.'

She sighed, devoid of hope before turning back to what she was doing. Scully wrapped the ice from the freezer in a tea towel before securing it with an elastic band. Gently, she wrapped her fingers around Danica's right hand. Slowly, she tried to ease her fingers out from between her teeth in order to replace them with ice. Danica allowed for the exchange, munching down on the ice instead of her flesh only for a moment before she pulled the towel out of her mouth and replaced her fingers.

Scully scrubbed at her face with a defeated huff, she felt out of touch as her mind remained fogged with sleep. 'It would be helpful to know what I'm dealing with here, Mulder.' Rubbing her eyes with the ball of her hand, Scully groaned. 'Hell, it would helpful to you as well.'

'Don't you think if I could get her records that I would? I wish I had them, but I don't, Scully, there's nothing I can do.' Taking Danica's fingers from her mouth again, Scully slipped her own in against the girl's small teeth. Running her finger over the top counting as she went. As her finger reached the first set of molars Danica bit down, hard.

Yelping Scully pulled her hand back, 'She bit me!' The woman shrieked, her eyes turning to Mulder before she inspected her hand, Danica's cries escalated from quiet whimpers to heavy sobs beside her. Teeth marks ran a ring around Scully's right index finger, blood blossoming lightly under the skin. Danica wailed. She fought every fibre in her being to not just pick up the distraught girl and cuddle her, but she had to keep her distance. This was a mess Mulder had gotten himself into, she was not helping out, not unless she had to anyway.

Mulder stepped closer, worry edging over his face. 'What do you think is wrong?' he asked quietly, watching as she restrained from rolling her eyes and huffed instead.

'Honestly?' she asked, one hand rubbing Danica's back while the other tried to trade her fingers for the makeshift ice-pack, again. 'I think she's teething, her two-year molars should be cutting through, considering she wouldn't let me get that far, I would say that's it.'

'What do you do for a teething kid?' He asked, expression hopeless as his voice pleaded with her.

'Ice,' she pointed to the cloth on the bench, discarded once again by the little girl. 'Sometimes Tylenol, when it's severe enough. Most kids push through the pain. Mulder,' Scully's voice turned stern as she watched a hopeful look bloom in his hazel eyes. 'I'm not giving her medication on the basis that it might help.' His eyes pleaded with her, there was no use arguing over Danica's cries. Scully shook her head. 'She'll cry herself to exhaustion.' The man was sceptical, Danica had been crying for close to four hours. Scully wanted to continue to let her cry. She was mad.

Scully picked Danica up off the counter, holding the little girl on her hip she took a moment to soak her in. She smiled softly when the sweaty, tear soaked girl, cuddled against her, cries still wobbling from her little mouth. 'How about we put you in the bath?' Scully asked, chatting easily to the girl who didn't understand her English. She was halfway to the bathroom, translating her words for the girl to understand when she stopped and turned to Mulder. 'There's a 24 hour pharmacy a few blocks away if you want to pick up some children's Tylenol.' Smiling softly, Mulder nodded, asking quickly if there was anything else he needed to collect for a First Aid Kit.

He returned half an hour later, nothing in his hands but a bottle of red wine, a peace offering for the woman who had saved his hide, yet again. He let himself into the unlocked apartment only to find Danica lying on her belly on the couch, one arm thrown over the side, clutching onto Schatz, the other holding the ice filled cloth between her teeth. Scully sat at the other end of the small couch, Danica's feet against her thigh as the light from the television bathed them both in a blue glow. It took him a moment to realise it at first, Scully's apartment was silent, outside of The Little Mermaid soundtrack. Danica wasn't crying.

Making his way around the couch, Mulder crouched beside Scully before whispering; 'What happened here?' Scully jumped, his voice startling her. She had heard him come in but she had not expected him to sneak up on her. Danica whimpered, Mulder and Scully cringed, waiting for the outburst but nothing came.

'I told you she would settle.' She whispered at the man next to her, smug grin tugging at the corners of her mouth. Looking over his partner's shoulder he watched Danica for a moment, absorbing the way she watched the Disney film play out before her in a language she did not understand. She was wearing only a t-shirt, one too big for her, as she lay on his partner's couch comfortably content.

'Do you want me to take her home?' He asked quietly, not wanting to interrupt the silence. Scully shrugged. 'It's nearly four in the morning, Scully. We have to be at the office in a few hours.' The reminder that they had a job to do buzzed in Scully's head. For a moment her mind had been trapped in a small pocket of domestic bliss. There was a sleepy toddler curled up next to her, little toes pressing into her leg, a Disney movie she did not know how she got her hands on playing in front of them. She did not want the reminder about men in black, UFOs and Mulder's missing sister. Suddenly, she didn't want to be a part of the crusade if she had something else at home. Leonard Betts' words rang in her ears, another reminder that something was wrong with her life, another reason to seek out normalcy. She didn't want to face the truth behind the blood on her pillow, she did not want to face Mulder's Truth. Scully wanted to sit in the dark with a cosy little girl watching princess movies all day. But, that wasn't an option, not to her. She had to face the demons, she had to go to work, and she really needed to book a check-up with her doctor.

Silently Scully nodded, 'You should take her home, put her to bed'. She whispered, knowing that if the girl fell asleep on the couch she would only wake in the car. 'What are you doing to do with her tomorrow?' She asked, watching as Mulder moved to scoop the little girl up with ease. Mulder shrugged, he hadn't thought that far ahead.

'"Who Framed Rodger Rabbit", Scully? I didn't know you were a fan.' Mulder teased, finally catching sight of the image on the little girl's very large shirt. Scully was quick to explain that it was her Godson's t-shirt, something Trent had left behind after a messy visit.

'Danica's clothes are in the machine, I'll bring them tomorrow.' She finished, explaining that the girl's clothes had been soiled with sweat. Mulder nodded easily, adjusting the girl in his arms, he got her comfortable before moving for the door. 'You should take her to a doctor, Mulder.' Scully commented, 'Just a GP, to be sure she's teething'. With one last nod, he let Scully open the front door for him before he took the tired little girl home.