Premonition.

Wayfield, Virginia.

May 18, 2010.

Scully sat on the front porch, watching Iden and Frankie attempt to catch fireflies. Her day had been a long one, marred by every possible catastrophe. She was now the legal guardian of the girl giggling on her lawn. She was sitting in a chair that had been mashed against the wall that morning, trying to find its way to her during the spontaneous haunting the night before. She had her mind on the insane diviner who had shirked her responsibilities, and on the teenage girl she had followed to her house. She was still anxious about the vision Iden had experienced, even though the kid seemed to have forgotten it in the wake of her own busy day.

It was a hell of a time to be alone. She had her phone in her hands, wondering if Mulder would be back at home base in Kentucky by now. He was probably still interviewing those people whose loved ones had gone missing.

She redialed the number again, expecting to get the answering machine.

Mulder picked up. "Scully?"

She breathed a sigh of relief. Just hearing his voice made the chaos around her seem a little more manageable. "Mulder. I called earlier. I guess you were out."

"Our interviews went a little… long. Sorry. Is something wrong?"

"No." She was watching Iden as she spoke. "I went to check on Deloris' place. She left some clothes for Iden, but she took everything else."

She heard a mattress moving in the background. "Where is Iden now?"

"I have her. She's catching fireflies."

"What's going to happen to her?"

Scully held herself back. Again, she thought it would be best if he stayed there and did what he had to do. She didn't want him to come running back. She went with the easiest answer. "I'm keeping her for now, until we figure out what happened to Deloris."

"Do you want me to come back, Scully?"

"I can handle this. It's fine." Scully swallowed. She didn't know why she kept saying that. "Did you come up with any new theories after talking to the witnesses?"

He sounded hesitant, but also excited. He was horrible at hiding it. "Nothing new. It's just a lot harder to hear those things in person. Can you imagine walking beside your loved one, and then just losing them, just like that? It was like they fell off the face of the Earth."

"Dimensional portals?"

"You know I love it when you talk dirty."

She laughed. "I was just making sure you were awake. You sound exhausted."

"I am. Gene is a handful. I swear he took LSD before we left this morning."

"He sounds like you."

"I didn't spend ten minutes arranging garden gnomes to look like they were playing poker."

"You tied the garden hose into a balloon animal."

"It was full of spiders. I told you that."

"I found no spiders."

"Because I tied it up and drowned them."

She was quiet for a moment, appreciating the soft sound of his laughter. "When will you be able to check in tomorrow? I don't like the idea of you going dark for a whole week."

"I said it might take a week. Four hundred miles is a lot of ground to cover."

"Covering four hundred miles in a week is impossible."

"We won't walk all of it. No one has gone missing from the upper tunnels. Most of the disappearances can be traced back to one section in the northwest corner of the cave. You have to get a physical to get clearance to join the tour group for that area."

"You didn't answer my question, you know."

"I was dodging it."

"I noticed."

"If you wanted to keep tabs on me, you should have come."

She winced. "Yeah, right. And get dragged into your insanity again? I don't think so." She took a breath, and then whispered. "Just please be careful. If your instincts tell you to do something, do the opposite. Your instincts suck. Never listen to them."

"Wow you are just super supportive tonight."

"I mean it, Mulder. I'm not bailing you out and I'm not visiting you in the hospital."

"Will you at least send me flowers?"

She was silent, waiting.

"Okay, okay, fine. I won't do anything stupid. If a giant snake or a giant alligator leaps out of the water I'll run the other way – after I take a few pictures, of course."

"Picture me rolling my eyes."

"I love you."

"I love you too, you big idiot." She paused thoughtfully for a moment, and then she grew serious. "Call me if you need me. Day or night."

His voice became very soft. "I wish that… I wish I could be…"

"In two places at once?" she murmured in response.

"I wish this wasn't so hard on you."

She was at a loss for words for a moment. He had no idea what was going on here, but somehow he still sensed it. Sometimes their connection took her by surprise. "Goodnight, Mulder. Be safe."

She hung up on him. He seemed torn, and she wasn't sure how to comfort him. She held onto the phone for a little while, imagining him curled up on some rundown bed, and then she set it aside. She would let him worry about himself while she worried about the situation at home. When he returned, they would handle this together.

"Dana, look!" Iden called, prancing around with her jar of lightning bugs. Frankie was right behind her, leaping at anything that glowed and trying to make a meal of it.

Scully stood up to join them, ready to give Iden the news that Katie would be safe tonight, but Iden had stopped suddenly. She looked at Scully, and then at the dog, and then at the sky – her eyes settled on the moon. Scully approached, but just before she reached the girl the jar of fireflies slipped out of her hands.

Iden blinked.

"Dana… I think he found her."