AN: Thanks for all your reviews – you guys are great!

Chapter 8

Jonathan stumbled into the guest room, his face a mixture of shock and excitement. Scully looked up from where she sat holding Mulder's hand and wondered what else had gone wrong.

"Jonathan? What is it? What's wrong?"

"It's Dad, he's back!" He bounced up and down, unable to contain himself. "And he's alive!"

"He's what?" Dana's jaw dropped.

"He's alive, oh, Dana!" Unable to help himself, he pulled Scully around in a circle and held her close, even giving her a kiss on the cheek.

There was a soft growl from the bed and they looked over to see Mulder watching them with bleary eyes. "None of that, Jonathan. She's mine."

"What? Oh, sorry," with a grin Jonathan released her. "But can you please go check on him? Make sure he's okay? Oh, and Mom too?"

"Carolyn? What's wrong with Carolyn?" Scully's alarm was genuine, but she spared Mulder a smile as he held her hand.

"Not too much, I think she was just overwhelmed because Dad's back and that he's alive! Please, just go check on them? I have to go get Candy, I don't know why she isn't here yet." He bounded out of the room.

"Wow!" Mulder yawned.

"How do you feel?"

"Like I was hit by a truck. How do I look?"

"Like you were hit by a truck," Scully chuckled, and he smiled at her.

"Did I hear right? Danny's back? We got him?"

Scully nodded, and couldn't help the tear that trickled down her cheek. "You and Will did it, you brought him back. I'm so proud of what you two did."

"Hey, no tears, G-woman. We're fine." He yawned again. "Did I hear right? Danny's alive?"

"That's what Jonathan said. I'm going to go check."

"I wanna go with you."

"You should rest." She tried to push him back against the mattress.

"I like when you manhandle me, you know?" He leered at her and she laughed. "But seriously, I'm going with or without your help. With would be more pleasant."

"But you need to rest. You survived better than last time, but it was still hard on you."

"I'll rest later. I need to see Danny. He's my friend too you know."

Their eyes met for several long moments as they exchanged their unspoken communication and after a few long moments, Scully nodded.

"All right, let's get you up. Will is sleeping and should be out for a bit."

"Then we'll leave him. We can come back later," Mulder said.

Scully nodded and helped her husband to his feet, where he leaned against her for a couple of minutes. With a sigh he pulled away from her and bent his head to offer her a sweet kiss.

"What's that for?" She asked with a smile.

"Because I love you, because you're you."

"I'll take it. Come on. We need to go check on Daniel and Carolyn." He leaned against her as they made their way out of the room.

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Jonathan pounded on the door and rattled it and called to his sister from outside the door. When she didn't answer, he opened the door and entered the guest bedroom. She was standing in front of the mirror on the closet door seemingly frozen in place as she stared at herself.

"Candy, come on, you have to come with me."

"Jon, what is it?"

"Dad! He's back. And more than that he seems to be alive! Candy, he's alive!" Not having paid attention to her until this moment, he spun her around and then froze as he stared at her.

"Candy? What happened to you?"

His sister's appearance had changed overnight. Though she had been pretty, and grown into a lovely young woman, now she was drop-dead gorgeous. With thick, wavy strawberry blonde hair that cascaded over her shoulders, a face that was subtly altered to enhance the best of her features, and clear blue eyes that Jonathan associated with only one person, the Captain.

"Sis?" He squeaked.

"Jon! I don't have a clue! I went to bed as normal but when I work up I was like this. What is this? What does it mean?"

"Umm, I have a thought, but I think we need to talk to Mom and Dad. Maybe they can shed some light on this."

"Fine. Better than freaking out in here. Let's go."

Shaking his head, Jonathan and Candy headed to the Master Suite to see what they could do to solve this mystery.

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The Captain groaned and concentrated on thinking past the pain he was feeling in every joint, every pore of his body, and opened his eyes to find a room full of people staring at him.

"What the hell are all of you doing here?" He grumbled.

"Daniel," he heard the whisper of Carolyn's voice and turned his head to look at her. There were tears streaming down her face.

"My love, what's wrong? Why are you crying?" He felt her hand in his and squeezed it. "It's all right, I am back with you again."

"Do you know where you've been?"

"At the moment no. Just that every fiber of my body hurts," he winced in pain.

"Congratulations on that, Danny. That's a good thing," Fox grinned broadly.

"How can being in such pain possibly be a good thing?"

"Think about it…yeah…that's it…"

The Captain frowned trying to get his lagging brain to think why it would be a good thing to have pain, and then it occurred to him, he hadn't felt pain in a very long time; in fact, the last time he remembered feeling pain such as this was when he was alive…

His eyes widened as that thought sank in, nestled into the corners of his mind, and he couldn't help himself, he smiled, and looked at Carolyn who was still crying. "I'm alive?"

"You most certainly are," Scully said with a grin matching Mulders. "Welcome back to the land of the living, Daniel."

Carolyn fell into his arms and they hugged, both wrapped up in the emotion of the moment.

Jonathan came bounding into the room at that moment and stopped dead in his tracks, he smiled and wiped a tear away from his eyes before anyone saw.

"Uhh, I hate to interrupt the moment, but something has happened to Candy…"

"Candy?" Carolyn said, her head snapping up.

"Is she all right?" Daniel finished before Carolyn could.

"Calm down, she's fine, but she's…different. We're kind of hoping that the two of you might tell us what happened?"

"Lad, what do you mean?"

"I'll show you," he said and with a nod to Candy who was waiting in the hallway, she entered. Everyone in the room gasped at her new appearance then looked at Carolyn and Daniel whose features conveyed their shock and alarm at Candy's new look.

Feeling a bit under the microscope he sat up in bed and leaned against the headboard. "Why are you all looking at me as if I've done something wrong?" He chafed under their scrutiny.

"Umm, Danny, look at her," Mulder said.

He did and saw the young woman that he loved with all his heart, but now that he was studying here, he saw what everyone else saw. He'd always thought Candy was lovely, not quite as stunning as her mother, but a quiet beauty just the same. Now her hair color was a vibrant reddish blond, long and flowing; her once slender figure now more full and voluptuous, and her face was more beautiful than ever. But when he looked in her worried eyes he saw his own looking back at him.

"I don't understand…"

"Candy, honey, are you all right?" Carolyn asked her eldest as she held out a hand and called her over to the bedside.

"Yeah, I guess. I just don't know what happened." She sighed and went over to grasp her mother's hand.

"I'd say it was pretty obvious," Fox started but Dana elbowed him in the ribs.

"Fox, if you're implying that I took advantage of Carolyn while I was on my way back here…" he was so angry he was sputtering as the color in his face rose.

"Daniel, it's all right."

"But he's insinuating that you and I…that we…I would never take advantage of you like that."

"I know, really, I know." She gave him a quick peck on the cheek which reduced him to quiet grumbling.

The air pressure within the room changed and for just a moment everyone felt a cool breeze as Sucellos appeared in their midst and gave them a polite bow.

"And what brings you to these shores?"" Daniel growled.

"If you must know, I'm here to straighten out a mess that all of you have created."

"Us? What have we done?" Mulder asked.

"What haven't you done is a better questions Mr. Mulder." He paused. "You remember that 'alien hunt' that you went on?"

"Yeah?"

"It was that gel like substance, wasn't it?" Scully said. "Was that was caused all of us to become younger?"

"Yes, of course." He gave all of them an impatient look. "Are all of your memories so dense? You do remember my saying that there was a reward in your future for getting rid of that problematic demon, don't you?"

"He was a bit more than problematic, Sucellos," Daniel growled again.

"Stop taking that tone with me, you know better." He turned back to the lot of them. "Your reward was in place and working until you mucked it up."

"Working? You can't be serious." Carolyn got off the bed, and hands on hips stood in front of the powerful spirit. "Yes, we all became younger and that is all well and good, but Daniel was gone! There is nothing good about that!"

"Ahh, the fire that the Captain so loves. Sit down, Mrs. Gregg, and listen to what I have to say."

"But…"

"Sit down," he said in an authoritative voice and with some reluctance she did.

"Yes, Daniel was gone, but in order to become as the rest of you are he had to be. We had to reunite him with his true body and the only way we could do that was to send him back to it in the past."

"What good would that do?" Scully asked trying to grasp what the elder spirit was telling them.

"That, my dear Mrs. Mulder would give his present spirit self time to accumulate some physical matter. To restore him to a living person he needed to accumulate as much of his physical matter that he could. Upon the death of his physical self, his current spirit self would be brought here again, and he would be transformed into a living person. Not quite the same as the lot of you because he has been a spirit for so long, but close enough."

"There was no other way for you to accomplish this unless you reunited him with his physical body?"

"There is one other way, Mrs. Mulder, but it is most unpleasant."

"You would have had to dig up what was left of his body?"

"Yes, as I said, most unpleasant. And somewhat possible he would have been resurrected disfigured. That wouldn't make anyone happy, least of all Daniel and his lovely wife."

"So, if we hadn't done anything to rescue him?" Mulder queried.

"Then he would have been returned to you in this time, alive." He spoke to them as if he was speaking to a group of children that didn't understand. "All you had to do was wait." Then he blew out an exasperated breath and ran a hand through his hair before he turned to look at Candy, appraising her with sharp eyes.

"What happened to me?" she asked.

"You really don't know? Look at yourself. Who do you think you look like?"

Candy bit her lip, she knew who she looked like now, she knew whose eyes stared back at her. "I look like Mom…and like the Captain…" she whispered.

"Glad you can see that, perhaps there is some hope for some of you in this room." He tapped his foot impatiently on the floor before turning to look at Carolyn and Daniel. "Look what you have done!" His focus was on the two of them.

"I did nothing! I didn't touch her in that manner!" Hid blue eyes were stormy as he lifted himself off the bed to stand up.

"Tell us what you remember, Daniel."

"I just did."

"Say it again for me please."

"I felt like I was yanked out of my real body just before I was going to die…"

"An apt description…"

"And I hurt tremendously, I can't remember the time I felt such pain. I had a vague recollection of landing hard, on the ground, there was green grass…and feet…and when I looked up I saw Carolyn."

"Then what?"

He frowned as he struggled to remember. "I had some rather vivid dreams, but when I woke two days later I was at the lake house of Carolyn's family. She was the only one there and she nursed me back to health. We had two more days together, in which we talked and ate together, but nothing else!" His blue eyes stared into those of his mentor, but the older spirit didn't flinch.

"Dreams you say? What kind of dreams?"

"I am not at liberty to say. It would be impolite of me."

"They were sex dreams," Mulder smirked and glanced at Jonathan, who reddened in embarrassment at such talk about his parents, but he laughed anyway.

Daniel refused to say any more, but Carolyn quietly looked to the floor.

"Mom? Do you have something to add?" Candy asked, noting her mother's behavior.

"No, nothing."

"Oh, come now, Carolyn. You need to be honest and tell everyone what really happened because if you don't I will. What happened has affected everything that was set in place."

"Really? No, it can't be that serious."

"No?" Sucellos nodded over to Candy. "Think what you did, didn't change anything?"

"My dear?" Daniel turned a questioning look on his wife. "What did you do?"

Carolyn closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to pull images, thoughts from her mind that eluded her all day. Glimpses of things she knew couldn't be true, dreams that had a strangely real quality to them, dreams that seemed more like memories. As she concentrated they all pulled together and coalesced into a lifetime different from the one she had already lived. She gasped and opened her eyes looking at Sucellos who nodded in acknowledgement.

"No?"

"Yes, it's true. The original timeline has been altered."

"Carolyn?" Daniel laid his hand on her arm, and she turned to him.

"Umm, I thought that these things in my mind were dreams, or daydreams but instead maybe they're new memories?"

"What do you mean?" Jonathan asked.

"Start with what you know about meeting Daniel at the Lake House," Sucellos suggested.

"Okay, as good of a place as any." She gathered up her courage before she spoke and looked at those around her. "My new memory of that time is this. I was staying at my parent's Lake House. I was in grad school, and twenty-three. I was going with Bobby, but we had had a fight and I needed some time away from him to sort things out. I was at the Lake House alone, I was out in the yard, and bear in mind it is a yard with a rather large so it's impossible for a person to sneak up on you, and suddenly this strange naked man was at my feet."

"Naked?" Mulder grinned, and Scully couldn't help herself, she laughed. Jonathan and Candy bit their lip to refraining from commenting.

"Naked, not a stitch of clothing, anywhere." Carolyn covered her eyes and felt herself blushing as she remembered the moment. "I looked around to see if there was anyone else with him and where he could possibly have come from, but I had no clue." She sighed and looked at Daniel. "He was barely conscious and babbling rather incoherently. He seemed to know me though I had no idea why as I had never seen him before that moment. I couldn't just leave him there. I could either try to get him into the car, take him to the hospital and then try to explain why I had a delirious naked man at my house…"

"Which would have created quite the scandal…" Scully said.

Carolyn exchanged a grateful look with her friend.

"Yes, or I could try to get him into the house and a guest room. I had a nurse friend that I knew would help out with information and thought that maybe I could nurse him back to health myself."

"Which you clearly did as I woke up two days later feeling quite myself. Well, except for being a bit weak." He smiled at her in appreciation. "What could have possibly happened?"

"Well, you see, I found myself rather admiring your physique while I tended to you. Since I couldn't lift you to get you into a bathtub with cold water, I had to do the next best thing, I had to bath you…all of you…" She bit her lip and giggled. "I found you very intriguing. I had limited experience and I wondered how you stacked up against someone like Bobby…"

Daniel shot Mulder a look and the other man bit his lip as hard as he could to refrain from his normal smart-ass remark, and let Carolyn continue.

"The second day you were delirious, but your fever was starting to drop, you were mostly sleeping and had only an occasional rant of strange things that you said. One point I had my hand on your forehead, checking for fever and you opened your eyes and grabbed me. It was quite…exciting. Your intent was clear, and you pulled me to you and kissed me."

"I didn't cause you harm, I didn't force you…" The Captain was horrified.

"No, Daniel, nothing like that. You kept telling me how much you loved me, how long we had been married, and when you began to touch me it was as if you knew what I liked best." She sighed. "I couldn't have stopped you even if I wanted to." She shrugged and looked at Scully. "What would you do with a gorgeous naked man telling you with great sincerity that he loves you? That he only wants to be with you?"

Dana nodded in understanding and turned her gaze on Mulder.

"So, we did it," Carolyn finished with an embarrassed smile.

"Carolyn!"

"Oh, Daniel, don't be so shocked. I was young, and you were a delicious treat even if I didn't know you. And don't think that I slept with strangers because I didn't, don't, whatever until that time with you. You were so fascinating, and so sincere in stating your love for me that I somehow believed you. Maybe I wanted to believe you, believe that someone could love me as much as you said you did? I let things happen." She paused and gave him a satisfied smile. "And when we woke up, I let it happen again."

"Carolyn! Twice! And I can't remember?"

"If you were lucid would you have let it happen?"

"No, by God! It's wrong for it to be like that between us."

"I hate to break this up, but Daniel, accept the fact that Carolyn is telling the truth and that you two had sex and changed the timeline."

Troubled, he frowned. "And then what happened?"

"We had a couple of more days once you were conscious, we spent time together, ate together, and had conversations, and you met Bobby."

"You met our father?" Candy asked.

"Yes, yes I did. And forgive me, but I was not impressed." The Captain said as kindly as he could.

"You were jealous."

"Of course, I was jealous, but even with that I stepped away and did my best to not interfere."

"You were very good," Carolyn said with a smile for him. "But after I got Bobby to leave, I went into the living room and you were gone. I searched the house but all I found was a note that said…"

"When you have the opportunity to lease Gull Cottage in a few years, do so. And don't be alarmed if I don't know you. It will all work out I promise you…" He quoted.

"Yeah, that. I hardly knew you, but I was heartbroken. I felt a bond with you that I couldn't explain, compelled to be with you. It's as if my heart recognized you and knew that we were meant to be together." She looked at the others in the room that were quietly listening to her story. "I know how hopelessly romantic and sappy that sounds, but it's true. And believing that helped me through things until the time had passed and I could move to Gull Cottage."

"Things? What things did you need help with?" Daniel's tone was grave.

"Well, you see, here's the thing I didn't plan on." She bit her lip and took a deep breath. "A month after you were gone I found out that I was pregnant. I hadn't been with Bobby as he was still trying to get back together with me. It was your baby." She exchanged a long look with him.

Several emotions passed across the Captain's face; shock, astonishment, and horror. "I abandoned you while you were pregnant with my child? My God!"

"Daniel just don't! You had no control over your leaving, you didn't know I was pregnant, I didn't even know I was pregnant. You would only have abandoned me if you had known and then walked out on me. I didn't even tell you that we had…you know."

"But still.."

"Daniel, stop feeling guilty, you didn't know and there was nothing you could do as you couldn't stay in that time frame. You know that," Sucellos said.

"What happened after that, Mom?" Candy asked.

"Well, nine months later I had you."

"That means that he's my real Dad now?" Candy looked from her mother to the Captain in wonder.

"Cool!" Jonathan exclaimed from nearby.

Daniel Gregg shrugged helplessly, overwhelmed by what had been revealed to him.

"Danny, you dog you! And Carolyn! Who knew you were such a hot number?" Mulder cheered his friends in his own unique way.

"What else, my dear?"

"Nothing special from what I remember. I almost married Bobby, but at the last minute I couldn't go through with it. He said he loved me and that he would treat this child as his own. But I couldn't do it, I just couldn't let him be intimate with me." She looked back at Daniel, tears in her eyes. "He wasn't you, you see."

"I ruined you," he said, disgusted with himself.

"No, I was young but made my own choices. I was a single mother, and with some reluctance my parents helped to support Candy and me. I eventually found a job at the local newspaper and made a reasonable career of things. I found out more about Captain Daniel Gregg and that he died long before I was ever born. I even found an early photo of you and it left no doubt in my mind that was who I had rescued that fateful day. And you lived in Schooner Bay. I watched for years to see a rental listing for Gull Cottage. When it did I called and rented the property sight unseen. And everything else happened the way it did the first time with one exception."

"You have not mentioned Jonathan."

"No. I only had Candy."

Everyone turned to look at Jonathan.

"What? What do you mean that you didn't have me?"

Sucellos came over and placed a gentle hand on the shoulders of the taller man. "It means that in this timeline you don't exist."

"What? That's impossible!" Daniel roared and walked across the room to stand in front of his mentor. "You have the power to fix it so do so!"

Sucellos regarded him with great patience and gave the same look to everyone in the room.

"I told you there was much to be discussed and now there is much to be decided. When we did this reset we did not expect that any of you would be able to interfere in what was happening; we did not realize that young William had the ability to pull someone through time. Or that he would make you aware of some latent abilities that you have, Mr. Mulder. Your interference has created this dilemma."

"We were trying to rescue Danny, make sure he came back to us. We couldn't just abandon him."

"He means so much to all of us," Scully stated in a firm voice.

"I don't doubt your intentions are good, but the execution left something to be desired."

"Now what? I don't want to be erased from existence, there must be a way to make sure that doesn't happen."

"We can't lose Jonathan, Carolyn agreed, and the Captain stood taller and glared at the spirt in front of him.

"I will explain the two options that you have left and then all of you will be given time to think about them and decide what you want to do."

"What are they?" Jonathan said, his expression grim.

"Option number one is simple; all of these changes are removed. Things will be restored to the original timeline. Carolyn will be seventy something, Daniel will be the spirit he was, and the Mulders will be the ages they were before the change. Jonathan and Candy will be as they have always been."

"Is there another option?" Candy asked.

"Yes, but he will not like it," Sucellos briefly inclined his head towards the Captain.

"To have Jonathan appear in this altered timeline you would need to go back to that time a few years later and create him. Just like you did with Candy," he couldn't help but grin at his charge.

"What? You expect me to seduce Carolyn and then abandon her again? I will not do that! It's unpardonable to ask such a thing. I love her, why would I leave her pregnant with my child and knowingly abandon her a second time? No! I'll have no part in this!" He crossed his arms in front of him and glared at his mentor.

"Be that as it may, that is the only way to make this alternate time lime workable. And with it the gifts of youth, and in your case, a restored life." He leaned forward and dropped his voice. "Think of it, Daniel. You will be able to live the life that you've always wanted to with Carolyn. And the Mulders will also be free to live the life they so richly deserve. The children will truly be yours as you and Carolyn have always wished them to be. Is that such a dreadful thing?"

"I will not seduce Carolyn just to impregnate her! How can you ask that of me?"

"Dad!" Jonathan's voice cut through the Captain's tirade. "Please, consider it." The man that Jonathan now was swallowed as he was trying to control his emotions. "I'm good with this whole change, and I'd love to truly be your son."

"Jonathan? You know how honored I'd be to have that privilege, but to do that to your mother…"

"Maybe his mother has a say in it too…"

Daniel turned to face his wife. "You would actually consider this?"

"I think Sucellos is right. We all need to talk about this and come to a mutual decision. Am I right?" she asked the spirit.

He nodded slowly. "Yes, you are. I will give you a day to decide, that is all of the time that can be spared." He looked from Carolyn to Daniel. "But you must behave yourself in

the here and now. No…canoodling."

"Canoodling?" Carolyn laughed. "That's a rather quaint term."

"Yes, but appropriate to convey my meaning without being vulgar."

"Agreed. This decision is too weighty to do something as frivolous as that."

"Thank you," Sucellos said and then turned a somber luck on the Mulders. "And that goes for you too. No canoodling. When we get this sorted out you will have plenty of time to do that on your own."

Mulder and Scully looked at each other and shrugged, then nodded at the spirit.

"Good, I'm glad that's settled." Then he turned to Jonathan. "And I am sorry to tell you this, but you will begin to experience pain and some anxiety."

"Why?" Jonathan asked suspiciously.

"Because you are beginning to fade from existence. I can keep things on an even keel for a brief time, but…" he shrugged.

Jonathan paled and swallowed the lump in his throat.

"Now that you have all of the information you need to make an informed decision I will be on my way. I will return the same time tomorrow, so be prepared." And with a final nod to everyone, he was gone.

The occupants of the somber room filed out quietly, leaving the Captain and his wife alone to contemplate their decision.

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AN: Thanks for sticking with me – reviews are greatly appreciated.