Scully stood outside in the Arctic wind until the plane was completely out of sight. The sun had now disappeared below the horizon and darkness was creeping slowly over the snowy land. The wind howling, gyrating the complex was enough to finally draw her back inside the hangar. She pulled the heavy door closed behind her, realising only now how much she was shaking. Still, she was unsure whether induced by the cold or the sheer emotional turmoil she'd experienced in the last couple of weeks.

"Agent Scully, are you okay?" A resident stocktaking peered into the drying room to check on the noise.

Scully stood motionless, unsure of what to do with herself.

"Dr Scully…?"

"I'm fine" She responded, quickly snapping herself out of it.

"Maybe you should sit down?"

"No, I'm okay. I umm… I need to get back to work. I'll be in the lab…" She was marching down the hallway before she'd even finished the sentence.

Upstairs in the research bay, Scully was alone. The majority of the scientists and doctors had left to get the planes to the mainland in hopes they'd be better use on the ground. Scully was one of the few nominated to stay on site.

She bit her nails impulsively. She'd spent years working on a cure. First in New Mexico, then from the Lady of Sorrows hospital, eventually ending up here in the tiny lab with thirty other scientists all desperately clutching for answers that may lead them closer to developing a cure.

She'd failed in every respect. When it came to developing a vaccine, despite her best efforts she hadn't even gotten close. She'd failed Mulder, giving up on him when he flatlined on the hospital gurney. Most importantly, she'd failed her son. She failed William when she gave him up when he was just a baby; she failed him again when they were reunited only weeks ago and she couldn't bring herself to even talk to him. Now, she'd failed him a third and final time, when he asked her for her help to find his brother and she'd declined.

Her answer to it all, her one way of blocking out the guilt was to throw herself back into work, besides, the world needed a vaccine now more than ever. Humanity would crumble and fall without it. She had no time reserved for trivial things as self-pity or doubt.

Ever since they'd found the downed UFO under the ice, the scientists had been feverishly working with the DNA sample lifted from the site. Scully whipped on the latex and lab coat, ready to pick up where they'd left off.

Five hours later, when her legs were jelly and her body's protests for sleep were getting harder to ignore, the first serum was ready for testing. With careful precision she lifted the bacteria from the bioreactor, praying that the antigens would be present.

Scratching her weary eyes on her sleeve, she began separating and purifying the antigens using the HPCCC equipment. When the system was up and running as it should be, she set to work scribbling notes.

It was the bleeping sound of the computer monitor coming to life that finally woke her. The last time she'd fallen asleep like this, head sprawled on top of her notes at the desk, had been during exam week in her college days. She remembered because she'd been out at a house party the night before her finals. Scully frowned at her youthful self, wandering how she'd been so foolish and still managed to ace every test.

Peeling herself up from the desk, she flicked the monitor and rotated her wristwatch to get a better view of the time, hoping she'd not fallen asleep for too long. It was a useless notion, she'd lost track of when she'd even begun.

Scully rubbed her eyes, stretched, and made to check the chromatography machine. It hummed rhythmically in the background of the cold lab. She moved the mouse on the desktop to check the data, pausing and squinting at the screen. It couldn't be.

"God damn it" She breathed, checking and checking again.

The sample was no good, the test unsuccessful. She scrolled through the data again, hoping she'd misread it, but it was no use. The antigen was nowhere to be found, the sample completely unworkable.

"This can't be…" She reasoned with herself.

They'd used the most salvageable sample for this. The others they had in stores from the site had been much smaller, damaged even; she knew this was their best hope and it had been a total fiasco.

"Damn it!" She yelled, launching her paper notes across the room and kicking the office chair out of her way.

She paced the lab, trying to calm her rage and figure out what to try next. The weight of the world was quite literally on her shoulders depending on her, and she'd failed.

The door eked ajar, a lab assistant stood awkwardly in the frame.

"Doctor Scully, sorry to disturb you but your partner, Agent Mulder is awake. He was fighting the breathing tube so they extubated him"

Scully quickly composed herself, looking a little embarrassed, "I'll be right there"

The assistant nodded and closed the door behind him.

She took a final look at the mess she'd just created, and locked the remaining samples away before heading to the medical bay. How on earth was she going to tell Mulder that there son had boarded one of the planes out? Knowing him, he'd try and go straight after him. He'd walk to DC if he had to if it meant getting their boy back safe.