Power.

Wayfield, Virginia.

May 17, 2010.

It was the middle of the night when bright headlights illuminated her entire room. Frankie rolled off the bed and shot off like a bottle rocket, barking all the way to the door. Scully squinted, coming clumsily into consciousness, and stumbled to her feet. She went to the hall closet, ripped open the drawer, and pulled her gun from its hiding place, flinching back when tires squealed outside. She heard a slamming noise and Frankie skittered across the front porch.

She came out with her weapon raised, staring at a pair of headlights bobbing rapidly away. Frankie ran down into the yard, circling the skinny, trembling girl who stood in the driveway.

"Iden?" Scully lowered her gun, mystified by what she was seeing. Was she dreaming? She walked down the front steps, glancing around, and then following the glow of taillights through the wooded path to the highway. "Iden, did Deloris just drop you off? Where is she going?" Her eyes began to adjust and she saw how pale the girl looked. "Come inside, sweetheart."

Scully led her into the house, sitting down with her on the couch. Iden melted into her arms, sobbing quietly. Her skin was clammy. Her hair was disorderly, like she, too, had suddenly been awakened. She was starting to hyperventilate.

"Deep breaths," Scully whispered, grabbing the blanket from the back of the couch and wrapping it around the girl's shoulders. She seemed to be in shock.

Iden took a few deep breaths, her lip trembling, and then she started sobbing again. She buried her face in Scully's shoulder. Frankie started pacing, whining, just as unsure about the situation as Scully was. She ran her hand up and down Iden's heaving back.

"Just calm down for me, okay?" Scully started checking the girl for injuries, only finding a slightly reddened spot on her cheek. It looked like she had been slapped. "Did she hit you? Did Deloris hit you?" When Iden nodded, Scully pressed the back of her palm to the girl's cheek, feeling the warmth still rolling off of it. "Why would she do that?"

Iden stared at her, her glassy eyes bleeding innocence. She laid her head on Scully's shoulder, remaining that way for a solid hour before she spoke again.

"She said I can't live with her."

Scully was stricken by those words. "Why not?"

"She said I… I… I'm not really psychic."

"Why would she say that?"

"I… I told her… I said…"

Scully reached between them, taking the girl's trembling hands. "You can tell me. Just talk to me so I can help you. Why did she say that to you?"

"I had a dream about her… I saw her die."

Scully felt a chill in the back of her neck. She was not sold on the idea of psychic powers – or any types of powers, for that matter – but hearing those words from a child was disturbing. Mulder had stated that the most powerful psychic powers in the world rested with children.

"So she… she left you here?" Scully glanced up, as if expecting Deloris to come through the door at any moment. "That's not okay, Iden. She can't just… leave you here."

"I can go if you want," Iden said, staring downward.

Scully tipped her face up, shaking her head. "No, no. I want you to stay here with me tonight. We'll figure this out in the morning, okay?"

"O-O-Okay."

She tucked Iden into the guest bedroom, with Frankie lying diligently by her side, and went back into her room. She wanted Mulder there with her to deal with this, and at the same time, she knew that calling him would be a mistake. Mulder would rush home, abandoning his passion to help her. He would resent her for ruining this for him, and he would do it in secret. It would widen the wedge that had formed between them. She would do anything to keep that from happening, even if that involved dealing with Deloris by herself.

She lay awake for the longest time, staring into the ceiling as the night dragged past her. Iden awakened and cried for a short time, but she was already sleeping when Scully went to check on her. She had her back to the door, her little body curled up in a ball. Frankie was sitting up beside her, as if guarding her.

Scully finally tried to sleep around three in the morning. Her thoughts about this sudden situation drove her to some strange dreams. She often had nightmares about her days in the FBI, but tonight was different. Tonight was completely different.

She dreamt of Mulder, with the words she had said to him as he left for the airport bouncing around in her mind. I hope you find what you're looking for. Her lover was walking alone through a shady patch of woods. Everything was surreal and beautiful, like an exotic postcard, but his eyes were on the ground. He seemed to be thinking. Every now and then he stopped, glancing about himself, and then changed directions, walking like he knew exactly where he was going.

It was almost a personification of her longing for him, but something changed all of the sudden. He stopped, staring around with wide eyes. She could feel his fear growing. She felt something coming for him – something she could not see, something she could not warn him about.

He started running. His path through the trees was unobstructed but he seemed to be running at half speed. He was shouting something she couldn't understand.

When he came to a depression in the earth, he tripped over the edge and rolled into it. He scrambled to his knees, looking around rapidly, panic emerging on his face. She tried to form words, to get him to keep running, but she could not save him.

Her nightmare ended with a metallic thud.

She sat up in bed, falling halfway back down when she realized she was in her own bedroom. Iden was standing in her doorway – it was the soft sound of the knob turning that had awakened her. For the first few seconds her dream was so vivid that she couldn't catch her breath, and then it started fading, slipping away from her like shifting sand.

"Can I sleep with you?" Iden asked from the door.

Scully stared at her, only half conscious. "What?"

"I had a nightmare," Iden said, coming up to the side of the bed. Her face was wet again. "Can me and Frankie sleep with you?"

Scully took a deep breath and flopped back into her pillow. "Yeah. Sure. Hop in."

"Did you have a nightmare too?" Iden wondered, climbing into Mulder's side of the bed and snuggling down into his pillows. Frankie hopped up and laid by her side, her eyes darting between them both.

Was it a nightmare? Scully scratched her head. She was having trouble recalling why she was so panicked. It was something to do with Mulder. Perhaps she was still thinking about him getting hurt in those caves. "I'm not sure," she admitted to the kid. Her eyes were barely open, weighed down by lack of sleep. "I don't remember."

"Do you want to hear about mine?"

Scully nodded, yawning.

"I was flying with some birds, and they started pecking my wings. And then there were zombies everywhere trying to hitchhike so they could get me. And then that guy that you guys locked up, that one that could squeeze into small spaces, he was chasing Fox."

Scully blinked, smiling slightly. "Remind Mulder that his ghost stories are too scary for you."

"That wasn't even the worst part," Iden said. Her voice became low and she leaned in. "Promise you won't tell anybody about it, though."

"I promise."

"I saw that lady from the supermarket, the one who waters the vegetables – I saw somebody hitting her really hard."

Scully sat up on her elbow. "You mean Katie? The teenager?"

"Yeah." Iden looked away, her eyes growing sad again. "I get scared when I see stuff like that. I think… I think she might die soon."

Scully stared at her. "You think… you think somebody hurt Katie?"

"I think they're going to. It was tomorrow."

She was conflicted. It was easy to discount psychic visions when they were about people's love lives and personality types, but Iden was talking about murder. Someone was going to die. Or were they? Was Iden just projecting her own trauma onto the teenager?

It was impossible to know.

"Go to sleep now, Iden. We can talk about it in the morning."

"But what if someone kills Katie?" Her voice came out as a whimper, barely heard above the soft snoring of the dog. Scully could already see tears forming in her eyes.

She sighed. "We can go see Katie in the morning and make sure that nobody wants to hurt her, okay? Does that sound good to you?"

Iden nodded, cautious. "What if somebody does?"

"Then I'll stop them."

"What if you can't?"

"I will," Scully insisted, pulling the covers up onto the girl's shoulders. "Get some sleep so you can be ready tomorrow. We have a big day ahead of us."

Her first stop would be at Deloris' house, and her second would be at the supermarket. She was still painfully skeptical about Iden's supposed abilities, but the girl's fear was genuine. She was a smart kid. If she saw some sketchy behavior, she might have made up the vision in order to tell Scully about it. Or she could have seen her being beaten to death in her dreams.

Either way, Scully could not let it go. She had to know for sure.

I wish you were here, Mulder, she thought. He would have been all over this. It would have been nice to have him there to back her up in both instances.

She slept for a short time – or she imagined that she slept – before she heard something thudding outside. She sat up, struggling to come out of her dreams again, and Iden whimpered beside her. Frankie started growling and shot out of the room.

"Stay here," Scully ordered the child, slipping from the bed and going to the door. Frankie whimpered in the darkness and skittered past her, hollering like she'd been bitten by something.

Scully's heart raced. The front door was swinging open and closed. The curtain had already come undone and was whipping around madly. The blinds were crumpled on the floor. There was nothing outside to cause this, no sudden gusts of wind or transients messing with the hinges.

Iden appeared by her side, holding her by the waist. She yelled over the sound of the banging. "What's happening?"

"Get back to the bed!" Scully shouted, pushing her back into the bedroom. As soon as Iden was on the bed, the door shut behind her. Scully grabbed the knob, but she was unable to twist it. "Hey! Let me in! Iden, unlock the door!"

She heard the little girl panicking on the other side. "I can't! It's stuck! Dana!"

"Hold on!" Scully said, ramming her shoulder into the door over and over again. It wouldn't budge. It was like it was cemented in place. She ran for the drawer in the hall, but she was quickly deterred by the couch, which was bouncing around the corner. She retreated to the door, now trying to get in for two reasons. "Try to pull it open! Hurry up!"

When the door finally opened, Scully dashed inside and slammed it shut again. She went to the window, trying to wrench it open. It resisted her.

"Dana, I'm scared!" Iden screamed from the bed.

Just as those words left her mouth, the bed began to tremble. Iden squealed and jumped for it, running into Scully's arms. Scully tucked her into the corner, staring incredulously as the bed began to wiggle toward them. Everything was coming toward them. Frankie was wailing in the opposite corner. Scully had all kinds of furniture hopping in her direction.

Iden screamed again and the objects sped up.

Something occurred to Scully. She turned on the girl, pulling her into a strong hug. "It's okay. I need you to calm down. I need you to listen to my voice."

"I can't!"

"Iden, you have to listen to me. I'm going to keep you safe. I'm right here. I'm not going to let anything hurt you. Nothing is going to hurt you."

The momentum of the furniture slowed, and Iden sobbed into her stomach. Her heart was beating off the charts. Scully glanced behind her, running her hand up and down the child's back, watching with amazement as the creeping objects stopped completely. It was over. Even the front door stopped slamming.

Iden looked around her, clinging to her. "What was that?"

Scully did not want to say her theory out loud. She was already terrified enough. She hauled the girl up into her arms and took her to the bed – which was now about two feet away. Scully let Iden lay with her head on her chest, stroking her hair back. Both of them managed to slow their breathing over the next few minutes.

"Did you have another nightmare?" Scully asked delicately.

Iden shrugged into her breast.

"It's important. Did you have a nightmare?"

"Yeah."

"What was it about?"

"It was the same one."

"I told you not to be afraid about that. Katie is fine tonight, remember? And I'm going to go protect her tomorrow. No one is going to hit her."

"You promise?"

"I promise." Scully leaned over her, kissing the top of her head. Iden was trembling, but she seemed to be coming down from the terror of this ordeal. "You can go to sleep now, princess. I'm going to take care of everything. I'm going to make sure everything works out."

She stayed awake after that, unable to coax herself into sleep. She had been right when she had calmed the girl earlier. Her emotions were triggering the chaos. But why, and how, had this happened? Mulder had never mentioned this kind of event before. Perhaps it was time to call him, after all. He would have more insight into whatever this little girl was.

She dialed his number, letting it ring for a moment before she recalled that his cellphone was full of water. She redialed the number he had called her from earlier, listening to the eerie ringing for several minutes until she got an answering machine.

She hung up, discouraged.

"Where are you, Mulder?" she whispered to herself, looking down at the girl clinging to her chest. She knew it was only a matter of time before this got out of hand.

And now that she knew the power resting within this child was real and tangible, she could see more truth in her visions. Perhaps she was really seeing Katie from the supermarket being killed. Perhaps she really possessed the ability to look into the future.

In that case, her day became much, much busier.