Summary: Post ep. A different beginning for Season 8. MSR, Krycek/Marita, Gibson, LGM and more. See also Lost Boys And Golden Girls and Tear A Petal From The Rose.

The Wrong Kind of Paradise I

----------------------------------

Disclaimer - all characters contained in this story are the
creative property of 1013 Productions and FOX Broadcasting.
Classif: S
Rating: PG
Spoiler: Requiem (US7)
Summary: Post ep. A different beginning for Season 8.

Author's notes follow story.


The Wrong Kind of Paradise I
by Martha
marthalgm@yahoo.com


Scully's hospital room
2:33pm

He had not planned on telling Scully about Mulder's apparent
abduction, but he should have never mentioned that Skinner was
enroute to the hospital. It inevitably led to her wanting to
know where her partner was and, as her insistence grew, his
resolve broke.

Frohike could only watch as Scully struggled emotionally and
verbally at the news - at first dismissing his edited account
of Skinner's phone calls to the Gunmen over the past few hours
until he reminded her that she could verify it with Skinner if
she didn't believe him.

`Smooth move, Frohike,' he thought, shaking his head. He
located the Kleenexes on the lower shelf of the bedside table
and placed the box on the bed next to her clenching fist.
Desperate to find something to allow him to leave her alone for
a few minutes, opportunity presented itself when he came across
her water glass and mumbled some words about getting her a
refill.

He lingered at the water fountain, slowly filling her glass and
taking a few gulps for himself as he replayed his inept telling
of the previous night's events. He knew that she wanted the
straight facts - waiting for Skinner to show up should have
been the call, though; there were better odds for the two of
them to match up against one distraught Dana Scully.

He had listened at the door before knocking, catching her while
she was blowing her nose and hopefully before she could start
on another crying jag - happy to give her those few seconds to
compose herself before entering. He pulled the lone visitor's
chair up next to her bed. They sat together in silence for a
short time - every couple of minutes when Scully's breathing
became labored and audible, he would reach out and touch her
hand. She would glance over at him and nod - perhaps she was
making a mental note to add just that much more crying time to
some point in the future. Frohike had thought about leaving
the room again but wanted to watch over her in case she decided
not to wait for Skinner and try to leave. Which brought him to
why she was still in the hospital in the first place.

Well, no time like the present. How much more upset with him
could she be? "Did he know?"

"Did who know?"

"You know who. Before he left for Oregon."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

In the past few years, when the guys were working as much with
her as they were with Mulder, Frohike had begun to develop a
sense of when she was being less than forthright with
information. "Scully, there are very few circumstances that
would make a reasonably healthy woman faint, especially one
still in her childbearing years."

"What makes you think . . ."

Frohike continued as if he were practicing his summation in a
bathroom mirror. "Although in your case, that's not something
that I would have thought possible, but I've read your chart."

"There's nothing on my chart."

"Nothing is spelled out specifically. You have to interpret
some lab results and read what is not there. Couple that with
your not being scheduled for a CAT scan - which, by the way,
would have been the first test *I'd* run since you can't have
an MRI with that chip still in your neck." Frohike had a few
more checkmates up his sleeve but decided to wage his final
challenge. "Well?"

"I have to find Mulder."

There was a slight quiver in Scully's voice when she spoke her
partner's name out loud that made Frohike soften his stance on
his curiosity about her present condition. He was thankful to
have been given the opportunity to change the subject. "We're
working on a few leads."

"Tell me."

"When you're discharged."

At this point, the exasperation module in Scully's spectrum of
moods kicked in. "Stop treating me as if I'm some sort of
invalid, Frohike. I'm being released in the morning."

"Sorry. That was not my intention. I'm just not comfortable
discussing them in our present setting, you understand." He
gestured to the door and then quickly glanced up at the
ceiling; there would have been plenty of time for anyone to
bug the room in his opinion, and he hoped that she would play
along with his idiosyncrasy. "Anyway, I need to get going."
He did not repeat that Skinner was already on his way and
didn't see the need to remind her of the details that Skinner
was bringing. "One of us will be back later. With Mulder gone
- well, not that any of us are up to filling his shoes, but he
would want us to keep an eye out for you under the
circumstances."

For the first time during his visit, Frohike saw Scully smile.
"My mother has beaten you to that. Oh," she called out as his
hand rested on the door handle, "and I would appreciate it if
you would not share your unsubstantiated theory with anyone
else."

Frohike turned back towards her and saw the blue eyes across
the room glaze over just a bit and then blink free of their
excess moisture. He had earlier decided to keep her pregnancy
a secret for the time being and nodded his acceptance. Scully
would already be the object of everyone's concern in dealing
with Mulder's disappearance; she did not need the additional
burden of pity from the outside world. There would be plenty
of time for that later.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Scully's hospital room
4:20am

The door to the room opened and shut quickly, letting in the
minimum amount of harsh hospital lighting possible but enough
to awaken a light sleeper. The intruding figure approached the
bed while the occupant was struggling to sit up. "Agent
Scully?"

"Ms. Covarrubias? What time is it?"

"Early morning." Marita had noticed Scully's eyes peering
around her frame to the door. "Your watchdog is in the men's
room."

Scully had noted her visitor's white coat, mentally theorizing
an attempt to not be noticed in the hallways. "Making rounds
now?"

The visitor was having none of this. "Agent Scully, I'll get
right to the point."

"Please do."

Marita's coolness continued in light of Scully's annoyance at
being woken up so early. "You've been told that you are in the
early stages of a pregnancy. Is this correct?"

"Why should that be any concern of yours?"

Marita repeated her question with some urgency. "Is this
correct, Agent Scully?" When the patient continued to stare at
the door and refused to answer, she continued, "I'll take that
as confirmation. Are you comfortable with the diagnosis? What
I mean to ask is, do you trust your physicians here? What are
your instincts telling you about this pregnancy?"

Scully glared back at her in disbelief. How dare she bring up
`trust' when she herself is in alignment with Krycek, of all
people? "Why don't you leave now so that I can get some
sleep?"

"And the father is Agent Mulder, is it not?"

Had she been fully awake and oriented, Scully would have thrown
back the bed covers and forcibly removed Marita from the room.
As it was, she punched the rough hospital pillows to give them
some thickness and turned over on her side, feigning sleep in
the hope that the other woman would take the hint and leave.

Marita tried for a softer approach and sat down on the corner
near the foot of the bed. "Dana, do you plan to go back to
work? Continue with your regular routine?"

"Why?" Scully spoke into her pillows, suddenly questioning why
Marita would show any concern for someone other than herself.
"Do you think that someone wants to hurt me? Hurt the baby?"

"No, Dana; harming the child is the *last* thing that these
men want."

Scully turned over to face her again. "I'm tired of people
speaking in circles and not answering my questions. Why don't
you just tell me what you know?"

"If I may make a suggestion - don't go back to an empty
apartment. Not just yet." Marita rose from her perch on the
bed and turned towards the door. "Do you have a place to go
to, someone to stay with for a few days?"

"Yes." Scully would not elaborate further, that her mother was
expecting her to stay at her home through the coming weekend.
Two could play this game.

"Do that, and I will be in contact with Mr. Skinner. I should
be able to present enough evidence to convince you of what the
future holds for you." And for your baby, Marita would add as
an afterthought as she closed the door behind her.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lone Gunmen Headquarters
the following Monday
2:18pm

"OK, so tell me why I'm developing film instead of looking at
the originals." Frohike confronted Skinner upon returning from
his darkroom. "I can just see you doing undercover work," he
added in a mocking tone. "There's got to be a story there."

"The film is courtesy of Krycek. The originals are in a
briefcase." Skinner sighed and completed the explanation, not
wanting to undergo anymore interrogation after spending the
past several days repeating to the Gunmen and to his superiors
what had transpired in Oregon with Mulder. "The briefcase is
still in someone else's possession."

"Why not steal the briefcase?"

"The briefcase is attached to this other person."

Langly's ears perked up. "Handcuffed?"

Byers interrupted from the other side of the room. "Secret
Service or military?"

"Military." Skinner sensed that, with a few more keywords,
these guys would be able to piece it together without ever
leaving the room.

"And how did Krycek get pictures of the contents without that
person knowing?" Frohike demanded.

"The individual in question is in the hospital. Concussion."

"He knocked the guy out and broke into his briefcase to take
pictures of the paperwork inside of it? Don't we have enough
problems right now?"

Skinner jokingly threw up his hands in surrender. "Considering
it's Krycek, I'm glad he didn't kill the guy."

Frohike returned to his darkroom to continue the development
process and returned to the main office a short time later. He
handed off the CD with the photos to Langly, who promptly
loaded it into the nearest PC.

Langly took a moment to clear some shadows and enlarge the
frames. "OK, so what are we looking at here?"

"What are all these sets of numbers?" Flanked by the other two
Gunmen, Skinner looked over Langly's shoulder at the screen,
unable to comprehend the data on the photo.

Another long minute passed while the Gunmen mumbled various
combinations of possibilities under their breaths. Frohike
spoke up first. "The first two kind of look like latitude and
longitude, but those others don't jibe."

"Altitude. Wind velocity." Byers half-whispered after a few
seconds and then started to point at the pairings on the
screen. "This is a printout from an old SDI program."

Skinner was still running his rusty map-reading skills through
a drill. "What, that Star Wars stuff from the eighties?"

"The Air Force was developing some special projects about
weather in high altitudes back then - if you're tracking
anything incoming or outgoing, you'd want to know what the
weather was like over the target area so that you could
compensate speed and trajectory and still hit your mark."

Langly was slightly bewildered. "Why would Krycek want us to
have these papers?"

"We should locate these areas first," Byers suggested. "That
might give us our answer."

Further investigation on the pairings of numbers led them to
Marietta, Georgia. Reynoldsburg, Ohio. Ada, Oklahoma.
Sidney, Montana.

And Bellefleur, Oregon.

Skinner nearly went ballistic with this latest discovery.
"Wait a minute. Does this mean that the Air Force knows about
what happened to Mulder?"

"Possibly," Byers cautioned, "or they were just documenting the
activity. Some of these datestamps are consistent with the
times that Mulder was in Oregon with Scully and with you."

"Do we stand a chance on getting someone in the Air Force to
confirm this data?"

Langly and Frohike immediately turned towards their partner, as
if to silently hand off that assignment to him.

Byers nodded his acceptance. "I may have a contact that I can
try."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lone Gunmen Headquarters
4:14pm

"I came straight from my mother's," Scully began after all the
initial pleasantries concerning her health were exchanged.
"Have you found anything new about Mulder?"

Byers quickly spoke up. "I've got a meeting in a couple of
hours with someone who might be able to answer some questions.
If he confirms some of our suspicions, then we'll have a route
of action to start planning."

Scully acknowledged his answer by absentmindledly drumming her
fingers on one of the lab tables. She looked around at the
room's occupants, waiting for the expected elaboration, and for
the first time noticed that someone was missing. "I was told
that Marita would be here with some information for me."

Skinner cleared some stray diskettes from a nearby chair and
motioned for her to rest a while. "She's already contacted us.
She's on her way."

"She's here." Langly pointed at the monitors. He started to
get up to let her in and was surprised when he noted that
Scully was already at the front door.

Upon entering, Marita turned away from the others and half-
whispered to Scully, "Do they know?"

She did not need further explanation. "I've told Skinner."
Which is true, she reasoned; Frohike may have guessed as to
her condition, but she never actually *told* him.

Marita was again as insistent as she had been during the visit
in the hospital. "If we are to be of any assistance to you
over the next year, they will *all* have to know."

Scully honestly did not want to have to reveal her secret to
too many people. There were many questions that she either
couldn't or wouldn't answer concerning the circumstances of her
unexpected condition, and she had just spent the last two days
hiding in her bedroom to avoid her mother's demanding stares.
She reluctantly agreed with Marita - they all would need the
best current information in order to get through the upcoming
months. Scully glanced over at Skinner before pausing to make
her announcement to the Gunmen. "I'm pregnant."

Langly muttered "Yeah, right," and then began looking to the
others being suckered in with her joke. But the other faces
appeared to be taking her seriously, so he began to defend his
argument. "Scully, that's not possible. We have your files
from that Allentown clinic; you can't *get* pregnant."

Byers appeared stunned by Scully's revelation but reasoned,
"Research and modern technology have made great strides in the
last decade."

Frohike and Skinner wisely kept quiet.

"The fact still remains that I am pregnant." Not wanting to
deal with the so-far unasked obvious questions, she turned her
attention back towards Marita. "Now what is this information
that you have for me? Why is my condition so important to
anyone else?"

"Because I've already been through a similar situation." If
Scully's announcement had been a stunner, this latest bit of
news was a knock-out punch to them all. "I was held at Fort
Marlene. I had been infected with the black alien virus, and
they experimented on me with vaccines that they had hoped would
make them immune. The last round of dosages seemed to work.
And then as you know," she looked directly at Scully, "all hell
broke loose.

"Jeffrey Spender had tried to help but Alex Krycek finally got
me out of there, and we started running. But they found us,
confined us, and eventually we began to work for them again.
Running their little errands. Only the errand that they sent
Alex to do landed him in a Tunisian prison. And I was in a
hospital with what was diagnosed as a high-risk pregnancy.

"The baby was Alex's. I had been told at the time that he had
been ordered to conceive a child with me. We both had been
exposed to the substance." Marita approached Scully, reaching
out to lay a hand on her forearm. "It does have the ability to
alter and disguise cells in certain areas of the brain. The
changes are not that noticeable in adults, and we've seen that
it can not be transplanted from one person to another."

Scully began the next sentence, "But in an infant . . ."

"Yes. If both parents had been exposed to any of the variables
and the mutations allowed to flourish, then a child from their
union may inherit those mutations which would be allowed to
develop right from the fetal stage."

"What happened to your baby?" Langly called out.

For the first time since arriving, Marita appeared visibly
shaken. "I don't know. She was taken from me at birth. I was
told that she had some genetic problems and that she died
several hours later. I was never allowed to see her so I can't
swear to this with any certainty, and of course, there are no
records of my confinement."

"How convenient."

"Mr. Langly, if we are to work together, then there must be
room for a small amount of trust in certain matters between us
all."

There was a short pause while the group absorbed the
ramifications of Marita's statements before Skinner spoke up.
"So what do we do - send Agent Scully into hiding until the
baby is born?"

"That might not be such a bad idea," Marita answered. "I
believe that, sooner or later, they will come to take Dana and
her unborn child."

"The same `they' that took Mulder?"

"Honestly, I can't be sure that the two incidents would even be
related, but Alex believes that Agent Mulder was taken to use
to trade for the baby at a later time."

The three Gunmen, as was their habit, turned to each other to
work on an approach to the problem. "How can we be sure that
Scully's child will even be affected by any of this?" Langly
began.

Byers continued in the same line of thinking. "Isn't there a
statistical possibility that there will be no anomalies with
this child even if both parents carry the mutation?"

"Yes, that is possible." Frohike pushed himself up off of the
couch and started to cross the room towards the computers. "So
we would need to be able to locate any other women who may have
been exposed to the black virus and monitor any subsequent
pregnancies, although coming by that information may be damn
near impossible to get."

"Gentlemen." Marita commanded their attention. "You don't
have to look too far for your first control subject." And
their attention is what she got. "I am also pregnant."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lone Gunmen Headquarters
later that evening

"Shouldn't we tell her about the coordinates we found?"

Langly was still looking over the printouts from the most
recent satellite transmissions, looking for the same set of
values that they had come across when looking for the alien
spaceship. Skinner was briefing Scully on his latest round of
information gathering at the FBI. Marita had left a few
moments earlier, presumably to meet up Krycek.

Byers looked over at the agents to make sure that they were
otherwise occupied before answering. "Let me get confirmation
back from my contact first. I'd rather not get her hopes up
with uncollaborated information."

Frohike immediately read behind his partner's weak explanation.
"If the docs think that she would be in any danger of not
carrying to term, they'd have confined her already."

"That's another thing." Langly leaned in to bring their circle
a bit closer. "You know, I didn't want to say this earlier but
aren't we making an assumption that the baby is Mulder's?"

Frohike whispered through clenched teeth, "Who else's would it
be?"

"I don't know, but just because they're partners and all . . ."

Byers interrupted before Frohike could further lose his temper.
"I think that the concerns that Ms. Covarrubias has raised
about the baby's possible inherited genetics and Scully's
acceptance of that theory would lead to only one probable
father of that baby."

Langly was not prepared to let the subject drop. "You mean
it's Krycek's?"

"Oh, you are asking for it now." Frohike slipped off of his
stool and began backing Langly against the wall.

"Hey, I'm kidding here. Jeez, lighten up."

"We're talking about Scully here. This is *not* something that
you should be joking about."

"Of course it's Mulder's." Byers again checked for their
guests who were still deep in discussion. "We've been busy and
probably haven't been paying too much attention to the two of
them lately for either one to say anything. *But* until we
hear it straight from either Scully *or Mulder*, none of us
brings the subject up in front of her. There's no need to
embarrass her any more than she already is. Understood?"

Even while the other two were making their agreement to the
deal, Byers was silently hoping that Mulder was indeed the
father of Scully's child. Though not practical, he was not as
convinced of it as he should be, given Scully's past medical
record. And that thought worried him.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Hoover Building
X Files Office
Friday, 11:32am

Scully was catching up on her reading of interoffice memos when
Skinner appeared in the doorway. She was about to address him
when he put his fingers to his lips, motioning for her to keep
silent and then gestured for her to follow him out into the
hallway. He put his hand on her shoulder and guided her ahead
into a nearby supply closet, shutting the door behind them.

Her curiosity was piqued, hoping that there was news about her
partner. "What's all this about, sir?"

"We . . ." Skinner began, "you don't have much time. Are you
still planning to go out to lunch at your usual place?"

"Yes, but I don't understand."

"Just let me get all of this out first. A short time ago,
someone tried to make a grab for Marita. As luck would have
it, Krycek was there and *took care* of the situation. She's
fine but the general consensus now seems to be that you'll be
next."

Scully was shocked at the news of this latest event - she
thought that she would have more time before Marita's
prediction of having to run away came true. "They'd come after
me here?"

"We think that they will probably wait until you get home this
evening. They wouldn't know about the earlier failure just
yet. I want you to go back to your office and gather anything
that you think that you will need later, but don't make a big
show of it. Don't get on the phone and don't tell anyone what
I'm about to tell you. You are to pretend that you're just
leaving the building to go to lunch. Understand?"

"Yes."

"Head for that sandwich shop. Don't stop anywhere along the
way. When you turn the corner onto 9th Street, Langly should
be there with the van. Just get in and go."

Scully put her hand on the doorjam and paused. "Should I call
you on your private line later?"

"No. I don't want to hear from you." Skinner shook his head
before apologizing. "I didn't mean it like that - I just don't
want to be put in the position of having to lie about you.
`The less I know' and all that. As far as I can tell anyone,
you left for lunch and you never got back to your office. If
we're lucky, no one will know that you've gone until Monday
morning."

"Sir, about Mulder?"

"The Gunmen will be contacting you with updates. I didn't want
them to tell me what they'd arranged. Krycek is taking care of
Marita - he says that we're on our own with you." Skinner
almost added a cynical postscript to that but he was thankful
that Krycek had notified him as soon as it happened. "It'll be
a good thing that you're both not in the same place. I will
also see to it that your mother is not unnecessarily worried
about your disappearance. I won't be able to tell her much but
at least I can assure her that you are still alive."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Washington DC
Friday, 12:02pm

Scully walked briskly down E Street focusing on the corner of
the building ahead of her knowing that, when she turned the
corner, her life would abruptly change. She had quickly
gathered her billfold and keys and weapon that were in her top
drawer, but there was little else that she wanted to take. She
had looked around, wanting to find something of Mulder's to
take with her. She regretted not taking more time to look and
nearly stopped to go back to the office when she noted that she
was already at the corner.

The van door was slightly open. Frohike peeked out and pushed
it wider. "Get in."

Scully settled into the bench seat while Langly pulled out into
traffic. "Where is Byers?" She did not see him occupying his
usual passenger-side seat.

"We're meeting him." Frohike motioned to her with his hands,
"Give me your cellphone."

She watched as he removed and examined the battery, putting
both it and the phone into a plastic bag on the floor, before
it registered that he was not going to give it back to her.
"No. What if . . ."

"We'll monitor your phone calls. Problem is, someone else may
also be tracking it so you can't take it with you. Understand,
Scully, that we may have to dump it later to throw people off
your track."

She reluctantly agreed to his wishes. She realized that she
was also giving up the last avenue of contact that Mulder had
with her.

Frohike was not yet finished with taking inventory. "What else
do you have on you? Come on, Scully, everything. We have to
be sure that they haven't already planted something on you."

She turned over what was left in her pockets. She saw her keys
disappear into the same bag as her phone. Her billfold was
opened, and the money transferred into a similar wallet.

"I'm sorry, Scully, but you can't take any ID or charge cards.
Is there anything in here, pictures or stuff, that you'd want
to keep?"

She shook her head. She was now thankful that her one picture
of Emily was in her nightstand at home; if the guys had to
trash her personal items, at least that small memento would not
be lost. "I'm keeping my weapon."

"I hope you won't need it, but you should hang onto it."
Frohike looked it over before handing it back to her along with
the wallet. "Your new ID is in here. Don't open it yet, not
until you're on your way. You'll also have a account for any
funds that you need. I would like to take this moment,
however, to remind you that we did not have a whole lot of lead
time on this. The picture on the license is about a year old."

"Can you at least tell me where I'm going?" By now, they were
traveling on Interstate 95.

"That's Byers' job. We should be seeing him shortly."

A few more minutes passed before she spoke again. "Do you know
anything about Marita?"

"Last we heard, Krycek was spiriting her away to her own hiding
place. I'm sure that this is nothing new for the two of them.
They've been on the run before." Frohike paused to check the
mile marker signs on the interstate. "We have an agreement
that we don't tell the other about where you ladies will be
living. Just safer that way."

Langly pulled off of the interstate into a designated rest area
and parked at the far side of the lot near the picnic area.
Within minutes, a white late-model Toyota Camry pulled up
beside them. Byers, dressed in tan dockers, dark green
pullover shirt, and sunglasses emerged with two small bags.

Langly was impressed with his partner's new dressing habits.
"Damn, you do clean up good."

"One of the perks of doing this kind of work. How are you,
Scully?" Byers had carried two bags into the van and handed
one off to Langly. "OK, guys, here's your snacks as promised."

Langly took the bag and prepared to leave the van. "We've got
to say `good-bye' now, Scully. Take care of yourself. Drop us
a postcard or two. Just kidding about that last part."

"Good-bye, Scully." Frohike began to mumble something else and
then leaned over to kiss her on the cheek. He left the van
just as quickly, never turning to look back for fear of
becoming too emotional over their forced separation.

Byers walked to the back of the van and pulled down the black-
out shades. "Here's the thing, Scully. You're going to have
to change. We may have to use your clothes later as a decoy."
He handed her the second bag. "I'm pretty sure about the sizes
though I do admit my taste may not be on par with yours. And
no, I didn't even try to get underwear. You'll have to buy
more clothes once you get to where you're going." Byers
climbed out and added before closing the door, "Just make sure
that you put on the hat and the sunglasses before you come out
and get into the car."

Scully examined the contents of the bag for her new outfit - a
pair of pull-on khaki pants, a dark blue tank top with matching
lightweight sweater, and deck shoes. A cloth pouch purse,
sunglasses, and a small straw hat with dark blue trim
accompanied them. He didn't do too badly, she thought.

She dressed quickly, leaving her clothes behind in the bag and
placing her new wallet and weapon inside the purse. Her
getting out of the van was their signal to continue again. As
the four settled into the vehicles, they were all individually
hoping that they had gotten out of DC in time to make all this
work.

They pulled out of the rest stop, Byers and Scully in the lead
with the van following them. After about thirty minutes of
verification that they were not being tailed, Langly exited the
interstate according the agreed plan. Frohike moved to the
rear of the van, keeping the Camry in sight for as long as
possible.

"We're going to see her again, Frohike." Langly watched in the
rearview mirror and tried to reassure him. "She's going to be
safe. We'll make sure of that."

Frohike swore at that moment that he was never going to rest
until that day came.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Interstate 95
2:01pm

Byers pulled into another rest stop and parked, once again at
the opposite side away from most of the traffic.

Scully spoke first. "Please don't tell me that I have to change
again."

"No. But this is where we part company." Byers leaned back in
his seat and began the speech that he had spent the past hour
practicing. "What I need for you to do is to go to the ladies
room. Take your time; try not to be conspicuous. Wait at
least seven minutes and then come back out." He paused to make
sure that he had her full attention. "There will be another
white Camry waiting right here. Don't hesitate - just get into
the passenger side and go. I promise you, Scully, it will be
all right."

She was stunned. She had assumed that Byers was to accompany
her to her new life. "When will I hear from you guys?"

"We'll be notified once you get to your destination, and we'll
be in weekly contact after that unless an emergency comes up.
It will all be explained to you shortly. Trust me on this,
Scully. Mulder will never speak to me or the guys again if we
screw this up."

The invocation of Mulder's name for the first time during their
drive unnerved them both, but Byers recovered quickly. "You
have a long drive ahead of you. You should take advantage of
the facilities."

Scully placed her hand on Byers', which was still gripping the
steering wheel. "Good-bye. And thanks."

Byers watched Scully enter the ladies room, then alternated his
attention between that door and his rearview mirror. Within
two minutes, an identical automobile slowly made its way
towards where he was parked and pulled up beside him.

He removed his sunglasses and looked at the driver. She was so
beautiful, he thought. Though he had not actually seen Susanne
since that last night in Las Vegas outside the Monte Carlo, he
carried the memory of that parting moment, knowing that they
*would* see each other again - someday, she had said. To only
have that final visual that may have to last them a lifetime -
he had hoped that Scully had picked out a good one of her and
Mulder to carry with her in the coming months.

The urge to get out of the car washed over him. He wanted to
go over to her and hold her and kiss her and drive away with
her. But he also knew that he would endanger Susanne's well-
protected new life, just as he might now hinder getting Scully
safely hidden. The guys . . . Skinner . . . Mulder were now
dependent upon him to carry out his end of the plan. To leave
Scully behind. And Susanne.

Byers fumbled for the keys and started the car. He made one
last turn towards Susanne and mouthed `I love you', barely able
to get out those words before the sting of tears began to
overwhelm him. He put his sunglasses back on and slowly,
deliberately, pulled his car out of the parking space and back
onto the road toward home.

Susanne had returned the endearment, though she could not be
sure that he noticed it before he drove away. She was still
drying her eyes when the passenger door opened and a now-
curious Scully slid into the seat.

Scully dug into her new purse and pulled out a travel-size
tissue that had been thoughtfully packed for her. "Are you
OK?"

"Yes, thank you. I will be." Susanne checked herself in the
side mirror before turning back to her traveling companion.
"Are you ready to go?"

Scully was now the one struck with tears. She nodded her
response and turned to look out the window as Susanne headed
for the interstate and her new beginning.

end of part 2


Notes: I had given serious thought to blocking the pregnancy
plot from anything that I might produce after the season-ender,
but the opportunity for Frohike-angst was too overwhelming. A
good chunk of this was written while on an extended vacation -
I must be losing my focus to have scheduled to be away from my
home computer just days before Requiem aired. Then to spend
the last three weeks moving left little time to type.

The title is a line from a Trisha Yearwood song, Walkaway Joe,
which has nothing to do with the theme of this story. I just
liked the sound of it and, in a way, it seems to fit.

end

CONTINUED IN PART 2