Thank you to those of you who took the time to review. Made my Christmas.

I have to warn you - well those of you who might not have completed watching the show - that this chapter and the next few are going to hold spoilers for season eight ... well actually the rest of this story is going to hold spoilers in some way or another so read at your own digression. I will not be held responsible for ruining it.

Secondly, title comes from the Pink song 'How Come You're Not Here' ... I didn't model it on the lyrics. But good song.

Lastly, the next ten chapters are planned out so I should have no excuse to update, well I do. Because they have to be written, but I know what the content is supposed to be. I would like to point out, for those of you who are not aware. I am seventeen and starting my senior year at the end of January I am most possibly going to be drowning this year with work and study - who am I kidding? I already am - I am telling you this because I adore this piece and I really REALLY want to finish it. So, if I haven't updated by Friday feel free to send me a message. It's extremely likely that I am chocking on something and just about ready to call it quits. I am scared as all hell for next year, and I don't want to forget about this piece. I really don't.

Disclaimer: It ain't mine, honestly it's not. Danica is though, I'd like to be keeping her.

All mistakes mine. I haven't had time to edit this tonight, it's longer than usual and I am supposed to be reading 'Atonement' :/ Sorry.

Part 26

How Come You're Not Here?

She had Danica walked the rest of the distance to the house in silence. The little girl squeezed her hand every now and then, especially when Scully thought she hadn't seen the tears slip down her face. But the little girl had noticed, and instead of the calm and collected adult being Scully, it was the six-year-old at the end of her fingertips.

When they reached the large house they found the driveway filled with FBI issue cars. She gripped the child's hand tighter as they walked up the driveway. "What the hell is going on?!" She asked in the doorway as she watched the foyer stream people like the highway streamed cars right before traffic hour. "Can someone please tell me what is going on here?" She asked as a young agent walked past her trying to look busy with the hope that the angry, red headed woman wouldn't stop him.

"We're collecting material." He told her swiftly before trying to take off again. She grabbed his arm enabling him from his departure.

She looked him up and down before she glared at him, "For?"

"Anything that might be pertinent to the manhunt." Her hand tightened on Danica's who was now hiding behind her legs.

"What manhunt? Manhunt for who?" It was obvious, who else would they be looking for in Mulder's home, but she couldn't help the question. She had heard nothing towards a team being dispatched for a manhunt. Kin were supposed to be informed of goings on in a case, Mulder's only Kin was Danica and as of Christmas the year before Scully was Danica's legal guardian. They had to be told.

"You're kidding, right?" It was the young agents turn to look at her as though she had lost her marbles.

She took a step towards him. "Look, there's nothing. If you're looking for Mulder, you're wasting your time and you're scaring a little girl. Are you listening to me?" She wanted to growl, to grab him by the lapels and kick him out of the house, but he wasn't the only one there. There were close to two dozen men walking through the house and tipping things upside down in an attempt to find anything that would connect them to Mulder.

The agent tilted his head at her while he shook his hand from her grasp. "I'm not the man to talk to." She knew that, he was far too young to be leading a pointless manhunt. This was something that came from a remarkably stupid higher power.

Readjusting her hand on Danica's she stood up straighter. "Well, then whose stupid idea is this?"

When the agent didn't warrant her with a response Scully stepped further into the house, collected her keys from the dish beside the door and quickly ducked into Danica's room to grab Schatz and a change of clothes for the now very tense little girl.

Slipping back out of the house Scully made sure to give each and every agent she passed a predatory glare. Manhunt or not, she was pissed at finding agents who very much disliked her partner sorting through his and his daughters things.

It hadn't crossed her mind to take Danica to her mother's when she left her own apartment after changing both Danica's and her own clothes. She was far too annoyed with the world to even think at all.

Her partner was missing and now her superiors were making it hard for everyone.

Danica trailed behind her mother as she stormed through the building that had claimed his life's work for close to eight years, the building that held their secrets from the rest of the world, and the place where the search had led them down blank corridors and through circles as the endless battle seemed to get weaker but his hope, Mulder's innocent hope only got stronger in those days.

The hallways had secrets even Scully wouldn't believe but her mind was focused on making it to Assistant Director Walter Skinner's office as fast as she possibly could. She hadn't wanted to lose the rage that was burning in the back of her mind since she found the agents in her partner's home.

"There are agents tearing apart Mulder's house who say they're part of an FBI manhunt." She huffed as she held the door open for the scared little girl who was trotting behind her in order to keep up, her bear dangling from her little hand with a reckless abandon only a well-loved bear could possess.

Skinner sighed as he moved across the office, his hand aching from slamming the phone down so harshly just seconds before Scully and Danica entered his office. "I know. I heard. Believe me, this is not my idea. I just found out myself. They're searching his office too." He offered Scully a sympathetic look once he noticed the little girl who was standing behind her.

Danica hid herself further behind her mother's legs, her hands on either one to stop Scully from moving away suddenly and leaving her exposed. "They're not going to find Mulder this way. You know that and I know that."

"I told you last night. I will find him. I'm going to do that. Okay?" His eyes flicked down to the still cowering little girl. There were two children who were involved in this mess, three people he had to find Mulder for. "I don't want you to do anything to upset your pregnancy." He whispered the last words, unsure if the little girl had been informed.

Scully shook her head as she told him that no matter what, while there were people out there looking for Mulder she was going to be out there as well. It was too important for her to not be involved. She couldn't sit on the side lines, no matter what condition she found herself in. "Look, I don't understand. You are the Assistant Director. Who is going over your head on this?"

He looked at her; his lips pursed "Our brand new deputy director." His words were sarcastic. Their conversation broke as the phone on Skinners desk began to ring. "Speak of the devil." He groaned as he picked it up.

With Kersh's call, the two of them were summoned to his office.

By the time they made it to the elevator Scully bent down and picked up the little girl whose steps were getting smaller as the day's events started to dawn on her tiny being. Skinner reprimanded her about heavy lifting but she waved him off. Danica was tiny, smaller than any of the other children her age and she weighed nothing when she was carried. Scully had no fear of carrying the girl, whom of which, on a tiresome and emotional draining day like this would usually be reaching for her father's comfort and strength to carry her extra burdens. Mulder wasn't there and Scully knew the little girl wouldn't ask her for the comfort her father usually provided.

Scully knew with the stubborn little girl that she would more or less follow behind at her heels, her body exhausted but her mind alight with the prospect of her father jumping out from around the corner and shouting at her playfully. But Scully knew, no matter how hard that little girl wished, her Papa wasn't going to come back just like that. Clutching the girl to her body tightly she pressed a kiss to her hair, hoping beyond hope, and relying on the faith she continuously left in the background that perhaps this was all a silly little game Mulder was playing. She hoped for their little girl that he was hiding in the closet ready to pounce.

Her hopes weren't strengthened when they found Deputy Director Kersh packing his things into boxes in his old and now retired office. The man had always gotten on Scully's nerves, and just like everyone else he held no respect nor care for Mulder which immediately irritated her already fragile mindset. "A.D. Skinner, Agent Scully." He greeted the, but ignored the child in Scully's arms. A child, whom of which he had heard about.

If they had thought rumors were bad when Danica was taken from them two years ago, they had then proceeded to multiply with suspicions into the girl's true paternity. Danica had fallen ill with a heavy bout of the flu only weeks before Christmas. Neither Mulder nor Scully could risk taking time off so close to the holidays, and all of Danica's usual sitters were otherwise occupied and were regrettably unable to take the sickly child. Rumors blossomed almost as fast as Danica's temperature when Mulder was caught – with Scully in tow – as they carried the yet again sleeping child into the building. The rumors flourished when Scully was caught walking hand in hand with Danica through the long corridors on their way to the break room to see if there was anything good in the vending machines for the small girl who was still feeling under the weather.

But, what made things better was Mulder being called into Kersh's office and bolding decided to take the sick child as a human shield towards any outburst Kersh was planning on throwing his way.

Scully knew her superior had met the child, she had also heard that he was kind to her daughter when he thought Mulder wasn't looking. But now, in a situation so tender and delicate, so fierce and madly out of their hands, the man was cold, which for Scully was the usual. "Thanks for getting right over. I don't want to lose any time. We have one of our own missing and the only acceptable outcome is that we find him safe and alive." She had to be glad, that even though the FBI hated her partner, and although there was a possibility of ulterior motives. They were still trying to find him. For that she would be forever grateful. "I'm sure the two of you agree."

"That goes without saying, Sir." Skinner struggled on the title but managed to tilt his head towards the painfully quiet girl in her mother's tired arms.

Kersh nodded, whilst he did so Scully could have sworn that she had seen some form of sympathy in the man's eyes. But it was gone all too quickly for her to completely register it. "Good. This comes at a stressful time, with my new appointment." Scully wanted to scream, 'stressful time'. In that moment Allen Kersh had no idea what that phrase even meant. She, although never usually a self-centered person found that she was the only one in the room who knew the meaning of 'stressful time'. She couldn't comprehend not finding Mulder, she couldn't hold the thought of raising Danica and a baby alone, without either child ever getting to see their father. "But I am thankful for your cooperation in the hunt for Mulder." She flinched at the word "hunt" he wasn't an wild animal to be hunted, he was a man in need of a savior, in need of someone who knew where to look in order to find him. She knew that where ever he was, out there alone or up in the stars with things they both couldn't deny existed that he would be counting the days until she figured out where he was. Until she came to his rescue with the same blazing faith and compassion that she had held for years.

She knew that he was out there waiting for her to save him, and to tell him that there was no such thing as extraterrestrial life in the same breath as 'I've been looking all over for you'.

Instead of pilling her grief onto the man who she knew couldn't hold a care in the world she responded in the way she knew she should have. "Our cooperation? With due respect, there aren't two people better qualified to be directing this action, Sir."

There was an amused smirk hidden behind Kersh's features that neither Skinner nor Scully noticed completely. "Right now, you and A.D. Skinner are the two primary witnesses to Mulder's disappearance. I want your statements taken ASAP."

Scully took a step back, her hands readjusting the deadly quiet child who was soaking it all in. The adults had forgotten she was in the room, and even though Scully was the one holding her weight she herself had managed to slip into the situation and forgot that the six-year old was capable of hearing them and understanding most of what was being said. "You make us out to be suspects, Sir." Scully was offended not to mention taken aback. She shifted Danica again, thinking the small child was sleeping until she noticed her eyes were still open, taking in the world and its words with a horrified look. She rubbed the girls' back and whispered small comforts into her ear as Skinner inquired into who would be taking their statements.

"My task force leader on this, Special Agent John Doggett. He's waiting to hear from you now." Skinner turned to Scully, his hand brushing her arm in a silent way of telling her that they could turn and leave now, but as they moved Kersh stopped them again. Taking off his glasses he cleared the lenses of dust with the edge of his coat. "One more thing. Anything leaves this building about aliens or alien abductions or any other nonsense that might cast the Bureau in a ridiculous light – hey, you can forget about looking for Agent Mulder. You'll both be looking for new jobs." Kersh threatened before turning his attention to Scully fully. "Which I heard you were already doing Agent Scully." She nodded her head.

"But," She started. It was only something she had discussed with Skinner and although he could see her point of view he recommended her against it. "I would like to revoke my resignation. Mulder would never give up looking for me, if that were me out there. In fact, he didn't." She wasn't all too sure if that was the truth, it were all merely speculation from the small bits of her abduction he had told her about. She was fighting the crusade with him, even if it was so early in their partnership. But she would have liked to have hoped that he never gave up. "I have to do the same" Kersh nodded, his movements livid as he cast his gaze back to the paper on his desk. At the end of the day, it wasn't up to him if she came back to work, but she knew – more the voice inside her head that sounded an awful lot like a paranoid Mulder – that with Mulder gone and Scully leaving the X-Files were being shut down. With Scully revoking her resignation they would no longer be allowed to do so, but they would sure as hell try.

"That's all." Kersh announced as he slipped his glasses back on.

Stepping out into the hallway Scully huffed. "I don't believe this."

"This isn't about finding Mulder – this is about Kersh covering the FBI's ass." Quickly Skinner apologized for the cuss when Danica lifted her head to look at him. It wasn't the first time she had heard it, her father tended to prefer a large string of colorful words when he hadn't realized she was in the room, or tripped on something.

Scully hummed, brushing it off. "Why do I get the feeling they'd be happy if we never found him at all?" They both stopped in front of a closed door that would lead to one of many bullpens within the Bureau.

Skinner's voice lowered as he quickly checked their surroundings for prying ears. "Look … I saw what I saw. I have to make a statement in there. I'm not going to tell them it didn't happen." Scully raised a brow as she reminded him of Kersh's threatening words to cut their jobs if they even thought of the word 'alien'.

It was there that Danica started to whimper, her small cries growing quickly. Scully put the girl down on the ground in front of her as she crouched to be at her height. The girl sniffled as she tried to hide her face in her shirt and behind the curtain of her hair that had fallen loose from her pony tail. Tears were falling freely down her face and the occasional hiccup caused a sob to fill the hall. "I'm not going to tell Mulder out." Skinner told her as he looked down at the scene before him.

She looked up at him sharply her hands rubbing at the little girls' arms. "What good are you to Mulder if you give them the power to ruin your career?" She asked her question rhetorical as she shifted her attention to the little girl. Skinner couldn't find an answer. He didn't have one that could quell both of their fears. "What's wrong?" She asked Danica as she forced the little girl to look her in the eye. It was a stupid question and Scully knew it. But she had to ask.

"I want Papa." The little girl hiccupped. Scully looked at her apologetically as she told the little girl she couldn't have him right in that moment. "Where did Papa go?" She asked innocently. "I want him to come back." Scully could have sworn that she sensed the little girl was to stamp her foot, but in the end she couldn't decide whether she was angry or upset.

Scully squeezed the little girl into her arms, rubbing her back and kissing the top of her head she stood with the little girl once more. Danica started to whimper for her father as Scully spoke to her, "We'll find him, liebechen." She told her as she looked to Skinner who was waiting at the door for them. She made a promise, not only to the little girl but to herself as well.

Once inside the busy bullpen Skinner was dragged away for his statement while Scully had been shown the red chairs that sat haphazardly against a wall. She plopped both herself and the still crying Danica one of the plastic chairs. A man was sitting only a seat way from them when she settled Danica on her lap, her face still buried in the crook of her neck.

The man who was only an arm's reach away turned his gaze upon the struggling agent. She had only watched him out of the corner or her eye as she whispered in Danica's ear and fiddled with the edge of the little girls' shirt. She had assumed that he was in his forties and, without noticing the badge that hung from his neck, but rather his rugged yet sharply dressed appearance she determined that he was an agent.

The man got up and crossed her as he went for the water cooler. She ignored him, uninterested as she placed her energy into trying to console the emotional child. She had been waiting for it since she had picked her up and now that feeling of guilt towards taking the girl out of her school day was starting to seep into her mind.

It was one thing to tell a little girl her father was missing, it was another to drag said little girl around the FBI while other agents practically spat on her father's name.

Scully tapped her foot against the ground in a soft rhythm as the little girl called out softly for her father in variations of 'Papa' and 'daddy'. It wasn't fair on the little girl, a day like this, she was only just recovering from the loss of her Oma three months prior and now she had to learn that her father wasn't going to be around.

The world kept on giving her harsh truths and their devastating realities. Her mind was so young, so ill formed and yet the world kept pressing its urgency for her to grow up. To suffer like the rest who found all of this out too slowly.

Scully kept reminding herself that Mulder was only missing, that she would find him. But to Danica, even to her wise young mind. Missing was as good as dead, she didn't understand it beyond simple hide-and-go-seek. A paper cup was placed in her line of sight snapping Scully out of her thoughts. "Water?" The man asked as he held out a second cup for the girl who flat out refused to have anyone remotely look at her. "It could be a wait."

"Thank you." She said softly before apologizing for Danica's behavior. The man gave her a light not a smile before he turned back to the file in his lap.

"Weren't you his partner? Mulder?" He asked his face curious, his voice collected. "And that's his daughter. Right?"

Shaken slightly at the unexpected questions her head peaked up while she threw him a curious glare. "Yes." She answered simply.

"I guess nobody is beyond suspicion on this thing." She wanted to laugh at him, better yet. She wanted him to shut up. But she was curious; she had never seen his face before. She queried into why he was being spoken too. "I knew Mulder back a bit. They're developing a working profile – character background." She had that urge to laugh again. It sounded as though they thought Mulder just ran away on his own free will.

"I'd say they have all the character profile they need on him." She scoffed. For years, they made up rumors and laughed at the man with the crazy ideas and the brilliant mind.

"Certainly his reputation. I doubt we agents ever really truly know each other even our partner. Not at the end of the day. Their real lives, their friends, girlfriends, deeply personal things, issues." She wanted to tell him that she knew all of those things. That most of her time was spent in his home, with the little girl they shared. She knew who his friends were, she knew his girlfriend and to top it all off she knew most of his fears. She had been there when he had faced his daemons. But even Scully knew that there were things to her partner that she would never understand and there were fears he would never reveal to her, but perhaps she held onto the hope that in time he would eventually release it.

But this agent, this man. He was trying to plant a seed of doubt into her mind. He was trying to strike a nerve on purpose, that was what held her back from spilling everything. "I think I know Mulder as much as his own flesh and blood." She ran her hand down Danica's long hair before rubbing the little girl's back in a futile attempt to sooth the whimpers that were still making their way past her lips.

"Yeah, probably so." He shrugged. "I always took the rumors with a grain of salt." She pressed him about the rumors, her own mind clueless. He said that Mulder had once called her 'ambitious' and confided this information to other women within their workplace. This unnamed agent proceeded to place doubt in the back of her mind. But she wasn't biting. He was talking about something Mulder might have though seven years ago. That hardly mattered now. The man had trusted her with his life on several occasions. "It's just talk. So, what do you think happened? To Mulder? What's your theory?" She arched a brow, not impressed with his question at all.

"What's my theory?" She repeated his question in a smug tone. "My theory is that you don't know Mulder at all. You never did." She reached over to him as best she could with the second body on her lap. She flipped his badge over so it could be read. "John Doggett. Kersh's task force leader, you might have just introduced yourself." She glared at him.

In one swift move she shifted Danica in her lap and stood up. Taking the water he had handed her she tossed in at him with the flick of a wrist. "Nice to meet you, Agent Doggett." She dropped the cup as she turned to leave, leaving the other agent to stand there in her wake, wet and stone-faced, realizing that that was hardly the full wrath of Dana Scully and there could very possibly be more to come.

Danica was sleeping fitfully in the guest bedroom of Scully's apartment that night. She hadn't wanted to chance an encounter with anyone after their afternoon in the bullpen. She couldn't put the girl through any more stress and decided even though her own bed would be better that the guest room of her apartment would have to do.

Rain was trickling against the window only aiding to the melancholy she couldn't shake from her mind. Sitting cross legged at her computer, her glasses on the edge of her nose, Special Agent Dana Scully scrolled through federal archives for the one and only 'John Doggett'. She hadn't found what she wanted; there was nothing on his records to make her feel the slightest bit of unease. He was a good man, according to his service. She wanted to hate him; she wanted something against the man, but in the end found nothing.

With a shift in her position her stomach turned, the infamous "morning sickness" struck her again, causing Scully to drop her glasses to the desk and run for the bathroom. She tried to be quiet, more for the little girl sleeping across the hall, then herself having to hear the sound of her own suffering.

After taking a moment in the bathroom Scully returned to the living room and picked up the phone. Dialing the number she had been calling for years, the one number that for her allowed her emotions to poor free and her mind to relax. But tonight wasn't the night. Her mother hadn't picked up as Scully had hopped. Waiting for the beep she sighed before leaving a message. "Mom, it's Dana. I, uh … I'm sorry that I didn't call about picking up Danica today. It's just been crazy with work and, um, with something … else that I should probably tell you about in person. I mean, I don't even know if you're annoyed with me about getting Danica or if you're busy, or if you're checking your messages." Scully's voice cracked the urge to cry on the brink of her control. "But, um … but I really need to see you and talk to you. There's a lot of stuff that's going on with me right now and, um … I just really need to talk." A click on the line stops her from saying more. "Mom?" She queries, thinking that perhaps her mother had picked up the phone. Another click sounds and it's then that notices a figure standing on the street,

Disconnecting from her mother's call she furiously dials another. "John Doggett." She growled into the phone with a predatory hiss that he stay out of her business. "What? Who is this?" The man was oblivious as she stated that he have a court order for tapping her phone lines. "For what? Who is this?"

He remained oblivious and Scully wasn't lenient on giving him a hand. "How many agents are you doing surveillance on?"

"Is this Agent Scully?"

"Thank you. You just answered all of my questions." She hissed with a smug tone. Slamming the phone down she stood in the silent apartment, curing herself for being loud in her anger in fear that she would wake up the distressed child.

The floorboards creaked causing Scully to spin and face the front door. She may have called Doggett and told him to bud out but that didn't mean he was going to do it straight away. A shadow was lit under her door and without second thought she grabbed her gun off the coffee table and moved for the door, the shadow now gone. Entering the hallways Scully moves from her front door, leaving it open she continues to stalk the hall in hope of finding whoever was at her door.

Adrenaline pumped through her veins when she finds a man on the fire escape a level below her apartment. "Stop there!" She pointed her gun at the man's knees. "Right there! Now come on through the window nice and easy." She instructed, glad for once that no one tried to run.

A defeated sigh left her lips when she was greeted with the face of her fifty –year-old landlord. "I'm sorry, Mr. Coeben. I'm sorry." Scully moved to help him out of the window, the man drenched from the rain outside. "There was a man. There was someone in the building. Did you see anyone?"

Mr. Coeben looked at her for a moment with a soft smile, he had liked Dana her rent was paid on time and she was pleasant. Better yet, he liked the security of having an FBI agent in the building even if it meant that her apartment was broken into and people were killed in it every once in a while. "Yeah, yeah, you know him, he works with you. Tall guy – brown hair." He tried to describe the man he had only just seen moments ago. A man who frequented the building quite a lot in search of Dana.

Scully looked at him speechless. "Who? You … you don't mean Mulder?" But of course, who else did she and Mr. Coeben both simultaneously know. With her landlords head nod as a sigh of agreement Scully turned on her heel and ran back up to her apartment. She was expecting Mulder to be there when she returned. A goofy smile on his face and some dumb apology as to why he had everyone convinced that he had been abducted. "Mulder? Are you in here?" She asked cautiously as she kicked herself for leaving the door open with Danica in the apartment.

Her heart rate picked up in fear of who else could have ceased the opportunity to get into the apartment. It was through her own stupid mistake that she had left her door open, that small hope that Mulder was playing games on her and the fury of having her privacy breeched that she didn't even recognize the door needed to be closed in order to protect the things inside. She could hardly be surprised when she found her computer missing from its place on the desk, but her mind had no time to linger on the curiosities towards its theft when she took off down the corridor. There was an image of Mulder pressing a kiss to his daughter's hair while she slept pressing in the back of her mind, but when she reached the guest room door she found the room devastatingly untouched and the girl alone as she tossed in her sleep.

Leaving the girl for a moment, Scully collected her things. Coming back to the room she whispered the girl awake. Tucking an errant strand of Danica's vermillion colored hair behind the girls' ear, she let her fingers return to her soft cheek as she stroked the flesh and her eye lashes fluttered in her dreams against the feel of her mother's hand. "Danica." Her voice was a whisper, "Let's go home, liebechen." The girl opened her eyes and for a moment just started at her mother, her mind still fogged with sleep. "I need you to walk to the car, baby." She rubbed the little girl's back as the child grunted at her and shifted her little legs in a slow attempt to get out of bed.

Returning to the large Alexandria home Danica was quick to get inside and find her little comforts. There was no one there when they arrived, for that Scully was grateful. Danica was quick to curl up in her own bed, but not before she stole one of her father's pillows from his bed. "It smells like Papa." She said as Scully walked behind her short steps as she smiled at the little girl with her noise buried in the pillow

Scully helped Danica into bed, she tucked her in tight trying with the best of her ability to do it as she had seen Mulder do so many times. She knew he tucked the girl in tighter than she could herself, she knew how much Danica loved to be tucked in so tight that she felt like she was wrapped in a cocoon, Scully realized the girl probably hardly thought about the things she was going to miss with her father not around. And in the light of the little girl's soft toned room, she tried too hard to recreate the things Mulder had done for her. Kissing the girls forehead she moved to sit on the edge of the bed. "How come he's not here?" Danica asked, her voice already covered in sleep as she curled around her father's pillow.

Scully, unable to find an answer that would terrify the small child, just shrugged her shoulders as her fingers played with the ribbing on the patchwork quilt. "I don't know, sweetheart. But, Papa loves you. Do you remember how important that is?" Danica nodded softly as she drew the pillow closer to her small body, her mind relaxing as she was finally surrounded by the comfort of her own bed.

She had remembered what her father said about love alright and how much she said he loved her mother.

[...]

Mulder had come back from his crop circle hunt in England; Danica had been staying at Molly's while the prospect of all things loomed over his partner's head.

When he woke her by accident as he tried to carry her to a far more comfortable place the events of Scully's week took a turn for the best, the prospect that every moment leads them to the next lead them to a far greater moment neither of them thought would happen. A line was crossed, and their semi-cohabiting with a child became something of its true potential.

They awoke the next morning to a quiet home, that told them Maggie hadn't arrived to pick Danica up and Danica herself was still sleeping. They held no concern towards being caught by the child or her Grandmother as Mulder and Scully prepared breakfast in a perfect tandem.

It was a dance as the two of them moved about the kitchen stepping around the other as they tried to complete their individual tasks. Mulder broke free from the sink he had been washing strawberries in when the swipe of her hand across the small of his back became the last straw of his well-defined control.

He locked his fingers around her wrist as she passed for the second time, in one movement he had her back against the counter and his hips pressed against the juncture of hers. Together, pressed like that, the two agents who were well into their thirties stood in the kitchen like love struck teenagers addicted to three little words that meant so much.

Scully giggled between her words as he peppered kisses across her face. In the moment neither adult knew the little girl had come down for breakfast and was silently watching them from the staircase. But when a question loomed in her mind as they were eating breakfast both parents realized she must have been present.

'Papa,' She started in her usual way before proposing a question, 'What is love?' She asked maturely over her pancakes, causing the man to choke on his coffee and for her Grandmother to smile brightly.

'The two most important days in your life; the day you're born and the day you find out why. 'Love'.' Maggie whispered to her daughter as she gave a soft smile to the man who was looking at them with wide eyes.

Scully hid her smirk behind her coffee mug as Mulder's panic face flooded his features. He was never one to panic, not usually. But since Danica, Scully noticed he did it a hell of a lot more. 'Do you want the dictionary definition?" He asked the concise child who had always been eager to learn. Scully scoffed but quickly caught herself when the little girl nodded. Stunned, she listened as her partner prattled off the definition without the need to second guess his photographic memory. 'Instead of "love" sometimes you can use; "devoted", "fond", "cherish", "dote on", "hold dear", idolize", "treasure" and quite a number of others,' All of which he knew would go straight over her head.

Danica's unpleased look didn't soothe his nerves towards answering her question. But he had already known that "A great liking or affection" wasn't enough for the curious girl. He was starting to think that one day she would end up down the rabbit hole with her unsustainable curiosity. 'Okay,' He sighed mentally wiping the slate. 'You know in Disney movies how the prince and princess fall in love,' She nodded. 'and usually it's because they just looked at each other and they knew – well, actually … I have no idea what happens in those movies.' The girl giggled at him. 'Love is when two people are completely devoted to each other- as a matter of fact you can use those words I said before – It's when you hold dear to you everything about them and the things they care about; like the freckles on her nose, her need for faith and science, even though you've shown her the lies, the things that cannot be measured, and you've unveiled them and held up an unexplainable Truth that knows no bounds. Love is when you are willing to lay anything and everything on the line for them; it's when you're willing to risk your own happiness for their dreams. Love is a bit like having a best friend that you come home to at the end of the day. Someone you can tell your secrets too and someone you can be a bit silly with. I like that,' He made a mental note out loud as he brought his ideas down to a level Danica could understand, causing the girl to giggle with understanding. 'Love is having a best friend. Someone that you know you can spend the rest of your life with." With this hands on the bench Mulder beamed at his answer, tossing a look towards the smiling Scully and her mother he turned back to the girl when she asked the question;

'Are you and Mommy in love?' She asked sweetly never cutting her father a break and this time causing her mother to choke on her coffee. She had Mulder barely managed to talk about it properly for the first time the night before and now Danica was already inquiring.

Mulder nodded without hesitation. 'Yeah. Mommy and I are in love.' He could practically feel Margaret Scully's grin and hear her mind already planning a wedding.

'How do you know that you and Mommy are in love?'

'Because, all of those things I told you about what love is. I was talking about Mommy.' The child's eyes grew wide with sheer amazement and her mother's cheeks flushed under her own mother's knowing stare.

[...]

Scully woke with a start, a frightening image of her partner strapped down was pressing at the front of her mind causing her heart rate to quicken. Her breathing was coming out hard and fast. Being surrounded by his smell both coming off his bed sheets and the shirt of his she had fallen asleep in was starting to make her nauseas and was making her mind dizzy with the thought that he was still there.

A creaking on the floorboards, just behind the closed over bedroom doors, made Scully second guess the thought that Mulder wasn't there. But when the body that caused the sound revealed itself to her, she found her heart crushed and the feeling of nausea return only harder. "What are you doing here?" She snapped her words as foggy as her still sleepy mind.

To say that Dana Scully wasn't impressed to find John Doggett in the home belonging to her partner in the morning hours was an understatement. She was furious, and she would have acted upon that fury if she wasn't so embarrassed to be caught sleeping in her missing partner's clothes and if her stomach wasn't still churning.

John Doggett raised a brow as he took a step into the room. "I could ask you the same." His tone was suggestive, implying things beyond his words as he looked around the room and found the occasional object that was too feminine to be a part of Mulder's belongings.

"He has a young daughter who needed to be around her things in her father's absence. I feed the fish when Mulder's away as well as hold guardian ship over Danica if anything happens to her. I thought I may as well kill two birds with one stone and brought her home."

"What. And then you decided to stay." His voice was filled with sarcasm and she couldn't understand how it was so hard for him to swallow it all. Danica was six; she couldn't bring her home for ten minutes then rip her away suddenly. The little girl knew she held a home at Scully's; she had stayed the night countless times. But there was nothing like sleeping in your own bed in a time of need. She couldn't deny the distressed child of that.

She had no tolerance for John Doggett, she did not like being interrogated by him in the confines of their workspace under the guise of talking about Mulder, she wouldn't stand it now; not in a place she called home. She could not understand where the nerve on him came from and that thought alone caused an angry fire to burn. "You've got a way about you, Agent Doggett. That might have worked with the NYPD but you're talking with a fellow FBI agent now and I'd appreciate some respect not only for myself but for the six-year-old who cannot comprehend why her father didn't come home."

Doggett scoffed as he crossed his hands over his chest. "Respect like you showed me over the phone? Give a little, get a little, Agent Scully." Scully climbed out of the bed no longer caring that Doggett was there. As she walked out into the hall she stopped.

"Who ambushed me with the phony chitchat about Mulder and then put a wiretap on my phone?"

"That's B.S." She glared at him when he raised his voice as they reached Danica's room. Peeking in Scully made sure the girl was still asleep before heading for the staircase that lead to the kitchen.

As she took the stairs she looked over her shoulder, "Now you're following me." Her tone was smug.

"I just came by to fee the fish." Scully moved for the large fish tank that made a short walk way in its place from where it jutted out from the dining room doorway.

Searching the cabinet under the tank, Scully tried her best to find the fish food he usually kept there. "What do you want to get on me, Agent Doggett? What is it you hope to find?" She wanted to laugh at the man when he told her he was looking for Mulder; he had no idea where to look. Scully firmly believed that he would never find her partner if he didn't open his mind to the extreme possibilities she wanted to tell him were possible.

She only found herself more frustrated when Doggett proceeded to know where the missing bottle of fish food was, when she couldn't find it in its usual place. . I doubt we agents ever really truly know each other even our partner. Echoed in her mind. She hated that she felt so suddenly out of place.

"I guess I just find it hard to swallow that a scientist, a serious person, could buy that. Ever seen an alien, Agent Scully?" Doggett continued to push the subject of Mulder's missing state and the possibilities behind what happened to him. It was Special Agent John Doggett who brought up the prospect of abduction. Not Scully.

She spun against the kitchen bench as she put down the items she was using to prepare Danica breakfast. "You want me to go on record?" Her voice was steel, hard and cool, biting to the agent who would not take a hint. "I will go on record to say this; that I have seen things that I cannot explain. I have observed phenomena that I cannot deny. And that as a scientist and a serious person it is a badge of honor not to dismiss these things because someone thinks they're B.S."

John took a moment to respond but when he did Scully felt as though she had wasted her breath to a lost cause. "So you think he was abducted?" He was persistent. She had to give him that but Agent Scully wasn't giving into John Doggett, she wasn't going to slip and give the man what he wanted. He was going to have to deal with that. Silently she turned back to what she was doing. "I'm just trying to find him."

"Then what are you doing here?" She asked with a huff confused as to why he wasn't elsewhere trying to find the man. He already had agents ransack the house.

Dropping a folder the kitchen bench he opened it to reveal the pages. "Trying to figure these out." He let his finger scroll across the pages. "I found them in his desk. Car rental receipts on Agent Mulder's Visa. Four consecutive weekends in February. Same mileage each trip – 370 miles, 375 miles… where was he going?" Scully shrugged. "Like I said, maybe you really don't know your partner."

She went to say more but as Scully looked up she found Danica's little face peeking around the corner of the dining room. "Maybe it's time to leave Agent Doggett. I don't appreciate being insulted, especially in front of my daughter.

Doggett looked at her apologetically for a moment before he turned to leave. Letting himself out while Scully tended to the little girl who looked worse for wear than what she did the day before. Leaning her elbows on the bench Scully studied Danica's face. "Where was Papa going, Baby?" Her voice was a whisper, the little girl hardly aware that her mother was speaking. "What was he doing?" The girl would provide her with no answers and even Mulder's belongings themselves.

The world was still. Nothing moved, nothing dared to breathe too deeply for weeks. Life felt as though it was on standby without Mulder. Danica became more irritable. Hardly capable of sitting still, she rarely wanted to go to school in its final weeks before summer break and all together shut off completely. She didn't want to play anymore, instead she would sit on the back deck and stare at the pool or look whimsically out to the half built tree house that's finish date now loomed closer to being torn down than staying up.

The world was still, unbearably so for a young girl who was holding her breath for the smallest of signs that her father was still out there. That he would come back to them. Little did she know, the young girl held her breath for three months before a sign came their way.

I only did a little bit of the episode, if I did the whole of it, well then it would have been two episodes and way too long.

Next up: 'This is Not Happening'

Until next week and Happy New Year,

A