Thank you to all of you who reviewed, alerted and all that funky jazz.

Firstly I have to apologize for not updating on Friday my only excuse - this. is. crap. Really that's all. I could not - still can't - wrap my head around it. Which is not usually a good thing but I think it's mostly that I haven't been well lately and these tests just make me tired. But anywho, enjoy. Feel free to threaten me in a review. It would be greatly appreciated.

Part 16
Progress

Bill Scully Jr. kept Mulder in the hallway the next morning when he showed up with news for Scully. His words were harsh, with the intention to be threatening but the euphoria running through Mulder's system had him smiling softly and nodding ever so slightly. He had no words for the protective older brother and instead just waited for the other man to finish before he slipped past him and made his way into Scully's room.

Ignoring the use of a chair Mulder walked straight to Scully's beside and knelt down on his knees, his partner's face held a confused little smile towards his goofy grin. With his forearms on the bed he leant in and pressed a lingering kiss to the corner of her mouth. He was invading her personal space so much in that moment, yet his partners grin had shifted to reflect his own. Scully had been curled on her side when he entered the room, she was still laying like that as his knees lifted off the ground to reach her. It was just the two of them in their close proximity their noses almost touching as neither of them dared to move.

She grinned back at him a with a puzzled smile as she brought a hand up to cup his stubble covered cheek. "What's got you smiling?" She asked softly a bubble of laughter leaving her lips with the words. Her voice was soft even through her laughter as though she was scared the moment would shatter like glass.

He moved back slightly, only to kiss the tips of her fingers as his grin strengthened. "We got a hearing." His words were quiet and Scully had to think for a moment if he had spoken at all. "The courts want to hear my appeal, Scully." His smile widened, if that was possible. "We have a chance at getting her back. Jebsen's put a case together we have a chance at this." From that point on his grin was contagious to his partner, every time he moved she couldn't help grinning that little bit harder. "It's a long shot Scully. But they're going to hear me out." There were tears in her eyes as she reached to cup his cheek again.

"I wish I could be there to help." She gave him a watery smile as her eyes continued to take in his hope. She knew it was dangerous that he was so hopeful, but for the moment, for the day she could not let him down. His smile was so rare that she didn't want to get rid of it before she finished enjoying it.

Mulder's smile got a little wider as he stuck his hand into his pocket and pulled out the miniature metal cylinder. "Well, maybe you can be there." His hands were shaking as he held it out for her to grab. "Don't ask how I got it, but Scully it's possible that this could save you, make you better." He looked at her as though he'd found his most prized Truth.

"Possibly?" She inspected the item in her hands with caution. "Mulder, I can only suspect where you got this from. Are you sure it's a good idea?" He nodded, not offering any words, merely pleading looks.

"Please, Scully. Just give it a try." It had taken him a few minutes in silence before he bought words into their quiet little world. "I know it could be risky but I'm grasping at straws here." She just stared at him, the metal cylinder twirling between her fingers. Taking in a deep breath she nodded slowly.

"I'm going to go out on a whim here, Mulder and say, 'let's try it'."

"Really?" He breathed not believing nor accepting that she'd outright agreed. Scully nodded as she watched the emotion flicker across his face hope and fear all rolled into one. He didn't have the time to verbally react as his phone went off in his pocket.

"Mulder you can't answer that in here." Scully told him pointedly. He fished the phone out of his pocket and answered anyway, within seconds the color was draining from his face rapidly. "Who is it?" She whispered as she watched his panic face unfold with a rare one of her own.

"Mom, I ah, about that. I have to tell you something about Danni, I'll come down to the vineyard." His words were slurred and panicked as Scully watched him try to reassure his mother it wasn't anything completely damaging. He clicked the phone of in a quick succession as though he couldn't get away from the piece of technology fast enough. "She, ah, wanted to see Danica this weekend. She planned to bake and take her to the beach. Apparently Danica and mom had been planning this for a while." Scully's face fell.

"You didn't tell her."

"Of course I didn't tell her, I thought I could get Danica back over night. Hell I never suspected she'd be taken away from me. I never had any warnings." His words were pointed at her directly and she flinched at the venom in them.

"Mulder, you know I wanted to …" She felt the breath escape her lungs, he said he wasn't mad. But why was he mad now?

"Who was he talking to?" Mulder's mind latched onto a thought.

"What?"

"Skinner, you said you heard him talking to someone, who was it?"

"I assumed the Smoking Man." Mulder shook his head.

"No, he sent me out there Scully. That smoking son of a bitch sent me out there to bring light to what was happening. He told me that it wasn't part of the plan, I wasn't supposed to find Danica. I was sent out there to illuminate the darkness for those who cannot see, but not to bring back something that could already see the darkness' invasion." She watched him as he further unraveled the story that the Smoking Man had handed over willingly. Her face fell, contorted and paled. It wasn't the easiest story to swallow, he himself had fought with the idea. But in the end, it was believable and correlated with that he'd heard from Danni herself. "We have to find out who knew, Scully."

"Mulder, that could be near impossible."

"Near impossible, it's not impossible yet."

"But first, you have to tell your mom." Her voice was a whisper, his words still echoing in her head.

"Thanks for the reminder." Scully smiled softly at his forlorn expression.

"You better get going." She reminded him even though she didn't really want him to leave, he could be harsh to her all he wanted but something told Scully that it was more frustration towards the situation than what it was towards what she had done.

"Are you going to …?" He pointed at the cylinder in her hand as she gave him a soft nod. He gave her a worried smile as he lent in to kiss her cheek. Shoving his phone back into his jeans pocket Mulder pulled back and headed for the door.

He wasn't all that excited to head towards his mothers, but with Danica's hearing coming up in his mind and Scully's willingness towards putting another metallic object into her body with the hope of curing an incurable manifestation that lie viciously under her skin, he had an extra shove. He had the courage to go on, these terrible things that were happening to those he loved, the prospect of making things better was now, once again, in his hands. Well a court had to decide about Danica's placement and Scully's life was really in the hands of the smoking man, but he'd had some input, he was fighting the fight to.

He reached the vineyard without a problem, the roads were perfect and the ferry wasn't crammed full of people, he'd managed to cut a whole two hours out of the usual nine hour drive that day. His mother was waiting on the front porch - like she had been every other time he'd brought Danica over. But this time he could see the panic and worry etching across the surface of her tired and weathered face. Instantly he felt the guilt in his gut, the stabbing pain that was telling him it was entirely his fault, he'd lost Samantha again.

His mother took a step forward as he climbed out of the car but she didn't leave the porch to greet him. "What happened, Fox? Where's Danica?" Teena asked as she shifted on her feet to see if he was just simply hiding the little girl as an awful prank. "Where is she, Fox? What the hell has happened to my granddaughter?!" His mother was almost yelling as he climbed the steps and moved to usher her inside.

He bit the inside of his lip as he followed Teena in the door. "I haven't been completely honest with you about Danica, mom." With those words the story flowed; the wet Russian morning when the snowflakes seemed to burn and the innocent little girl trapped amongst it all. He couldn't seem to drift away from the way the snow fell and the ash rose, how he'd first seen Danica the burning snowflakes sticking to her coat. It was that image in his mind that drove him, behind that happy and sweet smile sat an image no child should ever have to be placed in.

His mother watched her mouth moving like a blubbering fool as she tried to fight words that wouldn't even come. Mulder lead his mother to bed early that night, he watched her cry for hours, but not once did she blame him – his mother praised his actions. Sure, she had called him stupid for being caught but praised his courage, his strength, his ability to live his life even though it was infiltrated with lies. His mother cried that night, telling him that Danica wasn't Samantha, that this time they could get her back.

He left his mother whilst she slept with the intention of a no stop trip back to D.C. The sun had gone down long before Mulder hit the city, but that wasn't stopping him. He could not sit there and watch his mother cry herself to sleep over something he'd done, again, not when he knew justice was so close to his reach. He walked the echoing halls of the J. Edgar Hoover building, knowing that his chances of finding the man he was looking for here were slim but nothing and no one was stopping him from barging right into the man's office.

Mulder wasn't surprised nor relieved when the baldheaded man he was looking for was actually found in his office. A red hot fury had burnt though his soul, temporarily striking force enough for Mulder to push his superior against the wall by the lapels of his shirt. "Who is he?!" His voice demanded as he started into the brown eyes that held secrets within this building behind their color. Breathing heavily Skinner just started at the younger agent. Calmly he asked what Mulder was talking about. "The man. The man Scully heard you talking to about Danni. Who is he? Why is he doing this to those people?" He spoke, his voice never wavering. He pushed Skinner against the wall a little harder as he shouted. "Who is he goddamn it?!"

Skinners face flinched at Mulder's outburst and the force he was using to keep him against the wall. Mulder gritted his teeth, his jaw clamping as his fists tightened further around his superiors shirt. "Who does this to a little girl? Who decides to send her back for the gates of hell?" He let go of Skinner's shirt allowing for the man to slip back down the wall. "Who is in charge of pulling apart my family?!" An animalistic growl left his lips. This was a side to Mulder no one had seen and the sheer shock and force of the growl had Skinner stumbling back into his desk chair.

Skinner took a moment to suck in his breath as he started bewildered at the now family driven man in front of him. "I, I can't answer that."

Mulder lurched for him, his reflex's quick. "The hell you can." He growled again, with one hand on either arm rest of Skinner's chair Mulder trapped the man in place, belittling him to show who was boss when families were brought into question. The name was poised at Skinner's lips as he mumbled the name rather that out right say it. Mulder pushed back on the chair as he pulled away, the chair span softly as he stalked towards the door. "I hear Agent Scully is regaining her health." He called in a voice that sounded chocked with cigarette ash. He felt the urge to turn and stalk back to the man, to bring his fist to his superiors face. But he didn't, Mulder held his calm and left the room.

[…]

It was the pounding in his ears that pushed him forward, the rhythmic beat of a crushed heart. She couldn't be taken from him and yet these people were trying so hard to prevail and take her away, just to hide their own dirty secrets. He wouldn't reveal their secrets, not if he could have her back. He would keep his mouth shut if only he could tuck her in at night for the rest of her life.

There was a surging energy in his ears, something he hand not noticed until through the sound of his pounding heart. Trying to focus on the noise he started to feel the anger that companied the surge. His fists rolled at his sides, his back stiffened, this was a game to them. He could play a game.

The Wolff's attorney was playing everything off as a "vicious" kidnapping by a man who was "clearly mentally unstable". He felt his own muscles tense at the attacks proposed to his name. This could not be happening. It felt as though he was trapped in a predetermined horror movie and he was the next to die. But instead of killing him the murderer had plans to keep him alive, just barely.

He heard Scully gasp behind him towards the attorney's latest proposition as to why Mulder removed Danica from her "home". He stood bolt straight in his chair, shocked at the words that flooded from the other mans' mouth. With the force of his stance Mulder sent the wooden chair he was sitting in sliding across the wood floor with a screech. Fox Mulder stood there almost too scared to move, he entered this building not as an employee of the federal government but as a citizen who could very well make a great living for himself below the law. To the left of him sat Jebsen calmly, as though his sudden movement hadn't changed anything in the room. To his right sat Klaus and Angelika Wolff quiet and composed although he sensed that some part of them was nervous just as he was. Their attorney stood in front of the wooden desk they sat behind as he paced the floor and threw his case to the judge.

Very few people had filled the small courtroom. Byers at the back of the room, moral support for Mulder mostly and the fact that he was the only one who had ever met Danica – even if she screamed at him the entire time. Skinner sat on a stray pew; Section Chief Scott Blevins had also attended the case due to Mulder's request. But behind him sat a still sickly looking Scully even though both she and her doctor had promised him things were picking up and only a few inches away from her sat his mother quiet her face completely unreadable. This would kill her if they didn't get Danni back.

"I don't know how they did it or why," Mulder began to speak as the courtroom went quiet. His voice was calm, well it sounded that way to him anyway as he fought with his inner daemons to keep his voice free of wavering emotions. "But Russian men, within a conspiracy have been taking the families of veteran World War II SS soldiers as a way for the men to repay what they did during the war. Danica's family was no exception. And infant girl and her young sister were set up as test subjects, for what – I don't even want to know. These people, these children were used as rabbits. What was being done to them was surely supposed to kill them and if it didn't, they were to be exterminated. I saw Angelika Wolff dead," He paused for his words to sink in and so he himself could breathe. "her daughters, her only living child's knitted hat was clasped in between her cold dead fingers. I can't prove it, but I know what I saw. This woman," He pointed towards Angelika. "She's not Danica's mother. As far as Danica herself is concerned she, she thinks her family is dead and the only thing she has in this world is a Papa. And that's, well, me." He shrugged his shoulders unapologetically. "I don't have much proof of anything, Your Honor but I believe Scott Blevins would be more than happy to answer any questions you have about the Russian organization. I think you'll find he runs it all." Mulder didn't have to turn around to know what had happened when the sound of wood slapping wood filled the room. Blevins was making a run for it.

No one moved to stop him. No one knew what to do; instead Blevins was left to make a hasty escape without the following footsteps he was expecting.

So ...

Lastly, how much of Danica do you want? Because when I started writing this I had an epilogue set for when she is eighteen, but as I get bored at school and whatnot I'm creating little senarios throughout the show with Danica at various ages. So let me know. :)

Annaliese