Mulder had five days medical leave. Agent Skinner didn't ask how the man had become so injured looking for the missing Senator, and though Scully thought he wanted to…perhaps he knew better. She sat with her partner in his hospital room as he was bandaged up, and watched him wince as he gingerly tested his shoulder. "Well, I'm not sure what was worse – the goblin bites, or the antibiotic shot they gave me in the ass."

Scully's lips were pursed, unamused. "I see there's no permanent damage, you still make the same old stupid remarks."

Mulder didn't have the energy for his usual, dashing smile, but he managed a conservative one instead, leaning back amongst the hospital pillows and sipping from a Styrofoam cup. "How's the Senator?"

"Stable. We got a card from his wife – and a….monetary encouragement not to say anything about the Senator's whereabouts. I guess he's been spouting off about goblins since he came back. It's being credited to trauma."

"I don't want her money."

"You should, I happen to know you didn't splurge on disability insurance." Scully just sighed. "But I'll endorse it over to the Policeman's Ball or something…" Looking into her lap, she added, "There's talk of a special election in Georgia. The Senator's advisors say he's more than competent to continue to hold his duties of office – but for his own personal health after such an ordeal, is stepping down."

Mulder sighed through the nose. "Let's hope the next elected official doesn't make any deals with Goblin Kings…" Scully said nothing, smiling quietly to herself and finding her partner's hand where it hung off the side of the hospital bed. His thumb briefly brushed the back of her own hand, and she felt the scrape of the thin hospital linens. After a quiet moment, the man spoke. "We came back to Sarah's room, didn't we?"

Scully raised a red brow. "I'm surprised you remember that; you were all but passed out at the time."

Mulder said nothing directly in response, instead staring up at the ceiling. "Hoggle was there."

"He was – pitching a fit over Sarah."

"Was she crying?"

"No; she'd stopped by then."

"Good." The lanky agent wearily closed his eyes. "He isn't worth her tears." Rolling to his good side, Mulder's eyes caught some of their usual mischievous light, and he said, "Get me some good, dirty magazines, will you, Scully? It's boring as hell in here."

They had been back to work for a month when the intern rolled the mail cart to their door. "Pardon me, Agent Scully, Agent Mulder. You have something."

Mulder was stooped over his desk, his shoulder largely recovered. "Is it the dismembered hand I'm expecting?"

"Ah…" the underpaid intern thumbed the envelope. "No…?"

"Don't care."

"Mulder." Scully pursed her lips at him and took the envelope from the cart. "Thank you, Mitchell." When the young man had left, Scully strolled casually over to his desk and sat on the edge, while her partner poured over photos of his latest UFO crash site. "You aren't curious?"

"No dismembered cryptoid hand, no time," he muttered, placing his pencil between his teeth as he studied.

"Mm." In a cool, easy manner, she began to open it. "Well, the return address is from Sarah Williams." That made him stand straight and take notice. From the envelope, two tickets fluttered to the floor. Mulder stooped to pick them up, and Scully read the included note aloud. "'I told you I do a lot of regional tours. – SW'"

"Two tickets to 'Camelot' at the Lincoln Theater."

"And," Scully added, pulling a final scrap from the envelope, "a pass to see her backstage."

Mulder seemed to smile in spite of himself. "Well, I guess you're my date for the evening."

"Just remember – no sunflower seeds in the theater this time," and she taped the envelope against her partner's forehead.

Sarah played Guinevere, and she did so beautifully, as if she were born to be a fairytale queen. For a moment, watching her on the dark stage, Scully thought she might have been; and then hated herself for the thought. But it was a hard one to avoid, when she sang "Before I Gaze at You Again" with tears in her eyes, as if she meant it.

And, what if, the agent wondered, she did?

Dana was glad to be seeing Sarah again, when the curtain fell and the cast made their final bows. She liked the girl: she was bright, and kind, and brave, and Goblin Kings, Labyrinths, and missing senators aside, she enjoyed her company. She was excited when an usher showed she and her partner backstage, and thought Sarah might be, too.

However, when they entered her dressing room door...

Sarah was still in full costume, stage makeup and notes scattered across her vanity table. She was bent before it, face in her hands, and weeping. The agents were as startled as she was. "O-oh, Dana! F-Fox!" She quickly rubbed at her face with a moist towelette and great gobs of stage makeup came off with it. The real girl peeked beneath the theatrical mask, and Scully felt her heart aching for the young thing, without fully knowing why. "I-I'm so glad you came, I'm so very happy to see you." She stretched out her hands toward the agents like old friends, and Scully was about to grasp hers in return-

But her blue eyes caught sight of something on the dressing table, the thing that had reduced the girl to tears. "That's…" One of the Goblin King's crystals, just waiting there for her – with a barn owl feather resting next to it. The intention couldn't have been clearer.

Sarah bit her lip and looked at it for a moment, her shoulders shivering with repressed tears. "I-It's silly to be crying over such a thing, I know. Please forgive me; after a performance, actors are on edge. I-I knew a guy at Columbia who said he'd rather come down from coke than being on stage. That's all this is. Just my nerves." Without waiting for a reply, she opened a drawer of the dressing table and shoved the crystal and feather inside. "It's crazy! Things could never work out between us anyway." She laughed uncomfortably. Mulder shifted nervously on his feet next to his partner. "Even if all you thought about was all the things I'd have to give up! Well!" She rose to her feet and clapped her hands together. "Enough about me. I'm so happy to see you!" and she embraced Scully in a fond hug. "It wasn't much of a goodbye we had, and we went through a lot together! Tell me everything that's been happening with you – well, everything you can without having to kill me after, anyway." She laughed, and they pretended it wasn't forced, and everything was fine.

But Mulder was in a foul temper when they left an hour later, fists shoved into the pockets of his coat and walking like a hurricane. Scully said nothing, skirting him and waiting until the pressure opened his mouth – which it always did. "She can't be in love with him!" His partner asked for no clarification, waiting quietly as he gesticulated wildly. "That's crazy! She knows exactly what he is, exactly what he does-"

"Mulder." Scully stopped him with a hot light in her blue eyes. It was absurd to jump to Sarah's defense in such a matter – for what was there even to defend? – but she did. "There are some people in this world who just cannot get away from each other. And there are some unexplained phenomena you can't put in an X-File."

The man said nothing to that, and little as he drove Scully back to her own apartment. She noticed he'd left the barn owl feather from Georgia sitting on his dashboard, an exact replica of the one on Sarah's dresser; and she wondered where that crystal might be as well, and if it had brought them any of the luck Mulder had hoped for.