Title: Beyond the Truth: 02. High Stakes 
Author: Neoxphile 
Author Email: neoxphile@aol.com 
Status: NEW - Series 
Size: 172k 
Rating: PG-13 
Archive at Gossamer: Yes to Gossamer/Ephemeral 
Category: Crossover , Romance, Friendship, Humor, Angst 
Keywords: None 
Crossover Info: Anita Blake Vampire Hunter 
Spoilers: seasons 1-9; 
Books 1-4 by Laurrel Hamilton in the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter
series; Beyond the Truth fic 01: Lost and Found 

Summary: Crossover between the X-Files and the Anita Blake Vampire
Hunter novels. While investigating a series of vampire "deaths", Blake
poses as a nanny in Mulder and Scully's household   
 
Part 1
Please see part 0 (template) for warnings and summary.

Title: Beyond the Truth: 02. High Stakes(1/1)

Author: Neoxphile

E-mail: neoxphile@aol.com

Website: www.geocities.com/mulderscreek.html

Rating: PG-13 (violence)

Series: Beyond The Truth, story  #2  (preceded by #1 Lost and Found,
and to be followed by #3 Elegy For Origin)

Summary: Crossover between the X-Files and the Anita Blake Vampire
Hunter novels. While investigating a series of vampire "deaths", Blake
poses as a nanny in Mulder and Scully's household. This is a
continuation of the first Beyond The Truth fic "Lost and Found." This
story will make a *whole lot* more sense if you read L&F first and
perhaps at least "Guilty Pleasures" (if not up through " Lunatic Cafe"
)by Laurell Hamilton. I'll do my best to make the story 
understandable to those who haven't read her books, however. 

Time frame: I'm taking a little bit of liberty with the Anita Blake
timeline. Since the books don't come out and say when they are, I'm
going to pretend that  they're this year, despite the first having
been written in 1993. (the first six books, written over a span of
several years apparently are all placed in the same year's span.)
Being that is the case, this story will take place after 
" Circus of the Damned" (book 3) in her world. Since there's a several
weeks gap in between the 3rd and 4th books, this works out rather
well, even for someone as anal as I am. The epilogue briefly mentions
some events from book 4,  also. Spoiler-lightly, though.

As for the X-files gang, this story is still post-season nine, and
takes place a few days after Lost and Found ends. (so the first
November after "The Truth")

Disclaimer: I own neither the X-files characters, whom are owned by
Chris Carter and 1013, nor do I own the Anita Blake characters, whom
were created by Laurell Hamilton. 

Final note: Because the Anita Blake novels are written in first person
point of  view, and having several characters necessitates the BtT
stories being in third  person, the story will alternate between 1st
POV and 3rd POV, depending on if it's from Anita's or the X-files
characters perspective. It sounds more complicated than it is =)

***
***

I blame Sergeant Dolph Storr for getting me into trouble this time.
Apparently one of his friends in the D.C. area was having trouble with
vampires, and since  the city is behind the times, they don't have a
preternatural crime squad. So my name came up, in their talks between
one law officer to another. Fantastic. 

" Blake, I'm really sorry I didn't think to ask your feelings on the
matter before suggesting you could help. I just think so highly of
you..." Dolph had attempted to apologize. 

I sighed deeply and looked at my hands, willing myself to have
patience, which isn't my strong suit. But then I figured, what the
hell? I could use a break from my would be suitors anyway, so maybe a
little work out of the state might be good for me. It would also piss
my boss off, and I loved making Bert angry. It was a sport of sorts.
However, I didn't let Dolph know that, since I didn't want to let him
off that easily. " I'll consider it." I grudgingly agreed. 

" Great. My friend knows of a couple who is looking for a nanny. From
what he tells me, they're your sort of people." 

" A nanny??? Are you insane??" I ranted, just getting warmed up. 

He continued to smile. " Just read this before you flip out entirely."

I grabbed the paper out of his hand, and began reading it aloud. "
Nanny wanted: Professional couple with two children, ages 18 months
and 8 years, seek  a nanny who has an open mind. Knowledge of the
occult and weaponry very desirable." 

" Is this a joke?" I asked, not bothering to keep the incredulity out
of my voice. 

" Have you seen the X-Files movie?" Dolph asked. 

I wondered why he suddenly was asking about my movie viewing habits. "
Yeah. Who hasn't?" I asked, thinking about what a hit the stupid movie
staring Tea Leoni and Gilbert Godfry had been three years ago. 

" They're them." Dolph replied with a grin. 

" They're the people the movie is about?" I asked and he nodded. " But
the movie was fiction." I protested. 

" The movie might have been fiction, but the people aren't. There
really is a Mulder and Scully, and they really do work for the X-files
division of the FBI." 

That could be interesting, especially if even a fraction of the movie
was the truth. Sh*t. Dolph was talking me into this fool's errand
after all. I made a last ditch sally towards getting myself out of
this. Perhaps I could foil the plan with logic. " Sure, whatever. I
sort of understand why I'd fit into their household, but why would I
need to? If I'm only undercover to keep the Vampires  from knowing I'm
the Executioner, as if my reputation spreads to DC anyway, why 
would I need to have a job? I could pose as a student, or
independently wealthy." 

"We need you there so you can find out what these FBI agents know."
Dolph said so reasonably that it irritated me. 

" Why would they know anything?" 

" Oh, did I forget to mention it? They've been assigned to the case."
Dolph replied, glibly. At least for him. I wanted to punch him, but
balled up my fists and ground them into my sides until the urge
passed. 

After that my legendary sanguinity prevailed, so there was no yelling.
" If there are FBI agents assigned to the case, why would I need to do
anything?" I asked ever-so-sweetly. Points for me.  Dolph was quite
for a longer time than is usual for him, which made me very nervous.
Finally he cleared his throat and  gave me a weak smile. " My friend
has been in contact with the master vampire of DC. If the case isn't
solved post haste, the master promises a bloodbath the 
likes of which we've never seen before." 

Great. All I had to do was worm my way into the confidences of a pair
of FBI agents, who seemed, at least judging by the movie, to trust
people only as far as they could throw them, and find out who had been
murdering vampires. No problem. Right. 

*** 

" Scully, this is hopeless." Mulder moaned, as the sixth potential
nanny left their home white-faced. A week into their nanny search,
Mulder and Scully were feeling very pessimistic and stressed. 

Scully looked grim but determined. " Maybe we'll have better luck with
that ad we placed yesterday than this nanny agency." She said, though
she'd vehemently protested the wording the day before. 

" Well, I certainly hope so. I love your mother for offering to look
after them, but I think we've already imposed enough." Mulder said,
thinking about all the times Maggie had looked after William for
Scully while he was gone. 

" She says she doesn't mind, so maybe it wouldn't be so terrible if do
have to take her up on it for a little while." 

" I guess." 

" But the next nanny is going to be the right one." Scully said. " I
can feel it." 

" You've been spending too much time around Reyes." Mulder teased her.

" Speaking of which, they're supposed to get home from their
honeymoon tomorrow." Scully said, ignoring his dig. 

" It must be nice to get away to somewhere warm in early November."
Mulder said  enviously. 

" Play your cards right, Mulder, and maybe I'll agree to take the kids
to Disney World over Christmas vacation." Scully said. 

" Oh, can we go to space mountain? You could hold my hand if you get
scared." He flirted, making Scully give him a wry look. 

***

I looked over my resume and groaned. 

Education  B.A. in Preternatural biology  Job History  1997 to
present- Animators' Inc.  Job duties include: raising the dead,
putting zombies to rest,  and handling cases involving vampires.  2001
to present- Preternatural Expert for preternatural crime division  -
on retainer to St. Louis Preternatural crime squad. Called in to
consult with preternatural crimes involving non-human  entities.  2000
to present - Legal Vampire Executioner for the state of
Missouri  Job duties include: hunting down renegade vampires and
staking them after receiving death warrants from the state. 

This might have looked good if I was applying to become an animator at
another firm, but it simply wouldn't do for a nanny position, even if
they did want someone who was familiar with the occult. I was going to
have to be creative. 

I opened the resume wizard and started a new resume. 

Education  Masters in abnormal psychology, minor in early child
education  Job History  2001 to present- Little People's Center  Job
duties include: teaching 3-4 year olds arts and science, report
writing, parent-teacher conferences, and  playground duty. 

I looked it over and nodded to myself. It would do with a bit more
fluff, maybe  some things thrown in about volunteer work. I'd make
sure that I'd use the right names for the couple to call for
references, namely Dolph and my friend Ronnie, who would readily lie
to protect my under cover status. If I got the position, that was. 

I dragged myself to a Mailbox ect. and paid to have my resume and
cover letter faxed to a DC number. I suppose I could have mailed it,
but preferred to fax it  to save myself a few days wait on whether or
not they were interested. I liked to know if I should feel relieved or
anxious right away. 

*** 

Doggett wrapped his arm around Reyes' waist as they walked towards the
luggage carousel. He was aware that it probably looked possessive, but
he thought that was fairly appropriate behavior for a new groom. Reyes
smiled at him, so he took it that she didn't mind.  He didn't realize
though, that she was distracted, because she was thinking about their
wedding again. She had an internal debate over which had been more
entertaining after the vows: when she threw the bouquet, or when she
and Doggett had their cake. 

To be sporting, she tossed the bouquet without looking, then had
quickly turned  around to see who had caught it, finding that no one
had. Her blind aim not being true, it had apparently first gotten
itself caught up in one of the other  floral arrangements, and was
only just falling from there when she turned around. She saw it just
before it landed on one of the wedding guests' head. The woman,
Abigail Brown, Abby to friends, had lived down the hall from Reyes
when she'd worked under Brad Folmer. Abby was a good sport about it,
and merely  plucked the bouquet off her head and gave an obligatory
triumphant smile to the  other guests. Some of the other unmarried
women grumbled good-naturedly, but unlike an episode of Jerry
Springer, there were no fist fights. 

As for the tradition of the bride and groom feeding each other cake,
she'd decided to rein in her sense of mischief, because she didn't
think Doggett would appreciate playfulness in front of such a large
audience. Which is why it  surprised her so much when Doggett smeared
frosting all over the tip of her nose. When she saw his broad grin,
she couldn't be mad at him, and had just laughed instead. 

They heard their names being called as they reached for their bags,
and were glad that they wouldn't have wait for Skinner. He and Gibson
walked up to them looking happy to see them. It had surprised Doggett
that Skinner had offered to  let Gibson stay with them while they were
gone. He thought Reyes was still being over-protective of the boy, and
that he probably could have survived for a week on his own, but it was
nice of Skinner to let Gibson stay with him. Apparently the two of
them had hit it off the night Doggett proposed. 

" There's the newlyweds." Skinner said with a smile. 

" Here we are." Reyes replied happily. 

" Doggett, I wanted to let you know that the movers did bring all of
your things over to Reyes' apartment like you asked." Skinner said,
having been asked to check up on that. Doggett decided that it made
more sense for him to move to Reyes' apartment, rather than the other
way around, because she had two  bedrooms and he only had one. 

" Great, thanks. I'll swing by to make sure they got everything when I
drop off  the keys for the landlord." 

They walked to Skinner's car, and put the luggage into the trunk. When
they were all seated, Skinner turned around in his seat. " There's
something I need to dicuss with the two of you tonight..." Skinner
says, wondering how to tell them that the X-files is going to be
re-opened in a week. 

*** 

I was a little surprised and slightly unnerved that there was a
message from Dana Scully on my machine only eighteen hours after I
made that fax. I couldn't  tell from the tone of her voice if they'd
been impressed by my "resume" or if they were merely desperate.
Beggars can't be choosers, I thought as I replayed the message at 4:30
am. 

I was only hearing it that late, because it had been a long long
night. As predicted, Bert had a hissy fit about my needing to take off
an unknown amount of time to help the police department. He threatened
to fire me, again, and I called his bluff, again. It's becoming quite
tiresome. I suppose he would have an even bigger fit if Dolph had not
been the first one to broach the subject with him. Dolph claimed that
it was the least he could do for me. He was right.  In the end Bert
went martyr on me and tentitively suggested that with Larry and 
John Burke now on board at Animator's inc, he could get by without me.
As if I don't know full well that Zombie raising isn't terribly
unpopular between All Saints Day and Christmas; for some reason
rotting corpses don't fill people with holiday cheer. But, being on my
best behavior, I let it slide and managed to appear somewhat grateful
for the unpaid leave. 

After I raised two zombies- one who needed to tell a loved one the
location of a safety deposit box key, and the other to hear a guilt
ridden confession in front of her family from the DUI convicted person
who'd killed her- I took a long enough break to chicken out about
telling Richard that I would be gone for  a while. 

I left a message on his machine. I thought long and hard about it, but
the thought of telling him face to face just seemed too much to bear.
I shouldn't have felt so guilty, since we'd only been seeing each
other for a few weeks, but things had already become complicated. 

I supposes he could have used my cowardice to guilt me when I got
back, but little things like not getting around to telling me that he
was a werewolf until after we started dating didn't leave him a leg to
stand on, right? Right. 

I decided not to share with Ronnie my decision not to Richard, because
she'd just look at me with those gray eyes of hers and tell me that
I'm just using the assignment as a way to distance myself from my new
relationship. And she'd probably have been right. Richard would,
without a doubt, be my Mr. Right if he  was human. I know it's not his
fault, but...It was hard to have rationalized rejecting another suitor
for being a monster, then falling for another one. 

I obviously didn't make any attempt to contact Jean-Claude, because
the less he  knows about me and my whereabouts, the happier I am. A
lot of people joke about  stalkers, but I have a feeling that few of
them have the undead in mind when they make their quips. I have to
give Jean-Claude credit, though, he's very persistent for a dead guy.
Comparing them to him, it almost gives me the warm fuzzies to think
about the zombies I raise, at least they never have crushes on 
me. 

That Scully woman gave me the home phone number and assured me that
the children's father would be home to talk to all day, so I didn't
feel too guilty  as I slipped on an over-sized t-shirt and crawled
into bed, intending to put off returning the call for several hours. 

*** 

Mulder handed out mugs of coffee. Skinner took his black, but everyone
else took a moment to add cream and or sugar to theirs. Once everyone
had settled, Doggett turned to Skinner and said, " Sir, do you have
any information on what will be the X-files first case when it
reopens?" He and Reyes had readily agreed to return to the X-files the
day before, both wanting to escape profiling hell, but they found
themselves short on information. 

Skinner took of his glasses and polished them. " Since there will be
four agents on duty at the same time, for a change. " He glanced
pointedly at Mulder. " It was decided by the powers that be that
resources can be divided up  to allow us to work on two cases at a
time." He paused for a moment as his four  agents gave each other the
same worried glances you see on the faces of high schoolers after
their teacher announces that they'll be assigned lab partners.
He had the grace not to let his amusement show. " Doggett and Reyes
will be investigating a claim that a poltergeist is haunting a dorm-"

" That should be interesting." Doggett said with a smirk, earning a
reproachful  look from Reyes.  Skinner ignored him. " And, given
Scully's medical background, she and Mulder have been assigned to
investigate a series of strange deaths." 

Scully raised an eyebrow. " Strange how, sir?" 

" For all intents and purposes, it looks like spontaneous human
combustion." Skinner said, pleased that Scully resisted the urge to
rant about the stupidity  of the idea; he'd overheard an augment she
and Mulder had had on the topic. Predictably, Mulder looked excited
about the case. 

" Everything should be on your desks Monday morning so you can begin
familiarizing yourselves with the case. Unfortunately, they're being
very adamant about not opening the office until then, so we don't have
the opportunity to do so in advance." He half apologized. 

" Monday sounds good, Sir." Reyes said with a smile. 

Skinner then asked, " Mulder, Scully, how is your nanny search going?"

Mulder covered his face with his hands and groaned. 

Scully tried to put on a brave face. " We have a good prospect set up
to interview tomorrow." She said, but was thinking about how polite
Mulder said the girl had been on the phone when returning their call.
She wasn't sure that it was necessarily a good sign. After all, the
other applicants had been polite  girls as well. 

*** 

Exactly three days after submitting my resume, I found myself standing
in the driveway of a nice two story home in Washington, D.C. I
reminded myself that I was a recent recipient of a Masters in a
abnormal psychology, which wasn't much  of a stretch since I did deal
with abnormal people daily, and that I was new to  the area. I kept
repeating these faux facts, and my new mantra "be polite,
dammit," as I rang the doorbell. 

The door was opened by a petite redhead who had a toddler on her hip.
" You must be Ms. Blake." She said, and I replied that I was. I was
surprised at first that she was movie star pretty, since I had
expected an FBI agent to be more...dowdy. She smiled at me, and showed
me in. The little boy, I observed, looked a lot like her with red-gold
curls and big blue eyes, though he definitely didn't have her nose. He
was staring at me much more intently that I'd expect of a baby, and
for some reason I couldn't put a finger on, it made me nervous. 

When we got to the living room, I got my first look at the rest of the
family. A handsome dark haired man with a lanky frame was stretched
out on the floor next to a pixie-like blond girl. They were playing a
video game, and finally glanced up at us when the woman cleared her
throat.  The man blushed. " Uh, sorry, Scully, we didn't notice you
come in." Scully? I thought, maybe Dolph wasn't putting me on after
all. Unless they were both in on it, of course. 

He got to his feet and offered me his hand, which I shook. " I'm Fox
Mulder." He said, " And this is lovely young lady is Emily." He
pointed to the girl." The little fellow Scully is holding is our son
William." 

" They're beautiful." I said, and meant it. While it made the adults
smile, the  little girl rolled her eyes when her parents weren't
looking at her. I hid my smile, she reminded me a bit of myself as a
little girl. 

The next forty-five minutes passed quickly, as we went through a
typical interview. I couldn't help but notice that the woman, Scully,
looked nervous. I  thought the interviewee was supposed to the nervous
one? Maybe she was leaving the baby for the first time. Just in case,
I asked " Is there anything else I should know about the children?" 

They exchanged a quick look, and I suddenly had the feeling that the
interview was about to get a lot more interesting. 

*** 

Mulder inwardly groaned when he realized that Scully had no intention
of being straight-foreword with the girl interviewing for the nanny
position. Apparently  she'd given up on the "honest is the best
policy" tactic that had failed to work with the other women
interviewing for the position. Finally he interrupted. "Scully, do you
want to tell her the rest, or should I?" 

He noticed the young woman suddenly looked a little bit excited, and
he wondered if she'd somehow found out things about them. Scully
sighed and told him, " You may as well, Mulder." The look on her face
suggested she didn't think it was a good idea, but he didn't think it
would be fair to let her take the job blindly. 

He steepled his hands and looked Anita in the eye. " I have a feeling
that you know more about us than the nanny agency told you." He said
evenly. He looked at her for a moment and wondered what they hadn't
been told about this girl with the milky skin and dark curls. For a
moment the thought that he knew so little about her scared him. He
figured he was probably being paranoid again. 

" I know you're FBI agents." She confessed. " And that you were the
inspiration  for that X-Files movie." 

" Well, I guess that makes it a little easier...As you know, we work
for a division of the FBI that's concerned with the paranormal." He
waited until she nodded. " Unfortunately, it's not the type of job you
can always leave at the office." Something about the look in her eye
suggested that she might be able to sympathize, though he couldn't
imagine why. 

" Is...that why you want someone who is familiar with weapons?" Anita
asked him  hesitantly. 

" Yes. To be perfectly honest with you, attempts have been made on all
of our lives over the years. Including theirs." He said, pointing to
the two children. 

Anita looked at him, and hoped that the shock she felt wasn't visible
on her face. She found it difficult to believe that someone would try
to kill a child.  Or someone human, she silently amended to herself,
thinking of a recent case with the spook squad: two preschoolers, an
infant, and their parents had been murdered by a zombie that had
broken free of a rogue animator's control. " Are you worried that
someone might try again?" She asked. 

" Always." Scully said, finally adding to the conversation. " The man
who tried  to harm the children has since died, but we feel paranoia
is best, because we work with dangerous felons who might seek revenge
on us through them. For some reason federal agents aren't terribly
popular with criminals." 

" Well, I'm a good shot." Anita told them. " If it comes to that." She
added. They nodded in approval. " Anything else I should know?" 

Mulder reached down and picked up his son. " William here, isn't
exactly your typical toddler." He said, ruffling his hair. 

" He's atypical how?" Anita asked. 

" He...He's telekinetic. And reads minds." Scully said, looking as
though she expected Anita to run from the house screaming. 

" I don't though." Emily piped up. " I'm boring." 

Anita gave them a calm look. " When do you think you'll be making your
decision  on who you'll hire?" 

Scully looked surprised. " If you're still interested, you've got the
job as far as I'm concerned." She blurted out. 

*** 

Since I was supposed to be new to DC, which I technically was if you
overlooked  the fact that I didn't intend to stay, it was quite easy
for me to move in a couple of days later. At first I worried that I
would be put in a spare room, or worse yet a made-over study/office/de
n but they had something unusual- an apartment above their garage. It
reminded me of one of the shows I watched back  when I actually owned
a TV: Growing Pains. The eldest son lived above their garage too. 

Thinking of TV reminds me that Dolph unknowingly embarrassed me before
I left Saint Louis. He asked me to tell let him know if the "real
Mulder" looked like Gary Shandling. Apparently the guy had his own tv
show for several years, and only someone as out of touch with TV as I
am would confuse him with Gilbert Godfey. It almost made me curious
enough about what I'd been missing to buy a tv. Almost. 

It turned out that I didn't need to do that, because the garage
apartment included one in the furnishing. And it even had cable. I
gave it an appraising look as I brought my luggage, with Mulder's
help, up to the room, and decided that maybe I might take advantage of
it. 

I waited until I thanked him and he left the apartment before I opened
up the suitcases. It's sort of ironic that for a change I could be
free and easy with showing off my guns, but my suitcase hid something
my employers must never see.  Sigmund. It seemed best for both my
employers and I if they never learned my deepest secret- I sleep with
a stuffed penguin. 

As I covered Sigmund with my comforter, just as a precaution against
him being seen if Mulder or Scully came up, I thought that there was
at least one good thing about this half of my assignment. At least
there will little threat of any blood getting on my favorite penguin.
It'd only been a few months since zombies broke into my apartment,
intent on killing me. They hadn't succeeded, of course, but one of the
zombies had been fresh enough to bleed, so when St. Louis' finest and
I took him out, he'd bled all over some of my penguins and
had ruined two of them. Well, technically they'd only been completely
ruined when I'd tried to clean them by soaking them in the bathtub. I
still blame him,  though. The event had been traumatic enough to make
me leery of taking my favorite with me, but what's the worst that
could happen to a stuff penguin here? 

*** 
***

Scully looked down at the body with clinical detachment. Mulder stood
a few steps back, trying to concentrate on not becoming ill. He
couldn't figure out how she dealt with the dead with such an
unflappable attitude. He'd only seen her balk once at the sight of
death, and afterwards he'd wondered if Melissa might not have been the
only Scully girl with a touch of clairvoyance, since the murderer had
nearly taken Scully's life as well. Other than that, though,
she approached death with a sanguinity that most men could not hope to
match. 

Scully examined the burnt remains with interest. The body had been
burned, no doubt about it, but tox screens of the remaining tissue
hadn't revealed any sort of propellant being used to burn the corpse.
The only other time she'd seen something like this was when she and
Mulder worked on a case at the behest  of Phoebe Green. Scully had
been somewhat distracted by her extreme dislike of the European woman,
so as much as she hated to admit it, the details of the
case weren't as sharp in her memory as she'd like. The consensus they
came to in that case was that the murder had laced things with rocket
fuel, then used a  pyrokinetic power to ignite his victims.  Scully
poked gently at the body before her, who, unlike the victims of that
long crime, was not anyone important. From the out-dated the i.d. that
had been extracted half-melted from  his pocket, the police had been
able to determine that the deceased had been a young man who'd been
reported missing by his family some five years earlier.
None of his unburnt effects gave any clues as to what he'd been doing
to sustain himself since he'd dropped off the radar. 

" Have you discovered anything interesting?" Mulder asked, trying to
distract himself from thoughts about how horrible it would be to burn
to death. He really hoped that the dead man was not pyrophobic too. 

" Depends on what you mean by 'interesting'." Scully said calmly. " I
did find something very unusual, though." 

" Which is what?" Mulder asked. 

" It seems that our victim here was at least partially drained of
blood before he died." 

" How can you tell that?" Mulder asked, daring to take a step closer
to Scully and the deceased. 

" Blood will burn, boil off actually, but even so there is usually
some deep within the unburned tissue. There's very little blood even
in the deepest veins  here." 

" So you're suggesting someone bled him before setting him on fire?" 

" No. There's no immediately apparent evidence of that sort of thing.
His throat wasn't slit, and there aren't any discernible puncture
wounds at the sites of large veins." 

" So you don't think someone bled him then?" Mulder asked, starting to
get a headache. 

" I'm not going to rule it out, but it doesn't look like it. It'll be
harder to  find wounds given the degree of burning the body has
sustained, but either I, or the coroner, will be careful to look for
them. However, there's something else that bothers me about the body."
Scully said as she turned to look at him. 

Mulder wanted to run out of the room because he knew what she was
going to do next. " What's that?" He asked, hoping he was wrong. 

" Come here and take a look at the heart." Scully said. 

Damn, he thought. He inched his way forward until he a better view of
the man's  chest than he would have liked. " What am I looking at?" 

" The rule of thumb is that our hearts are about the size of our fist.
That's a  little simplistic, but look." She said, pointing with a
scalpel " His heart is only about half the size you'd expect in a man
this big." 

Mulder looked again, and decided that it did look small, even to his
untrained eye. " So what do you conclude from that?" 

Scully shrugged her shoulders. " This man should have been dead a long
time ago. There's no way a heart that small would allow him to
function normally." 

" That's why they call it an X-file, Scully." Mulder told her, smiling
despite the greenish cast to his skin. 

" Do you feel all right, Mulder? You look a little sick." Scully said
with concern. 

" Ah. Must have been something I ate." Mulder lied. He glanced at his
watch, and saw that it was nearly 2pm. He wondered for a moment if he
should suggest calling Ms. Blake to find out how her first day with
the kids was going, but he  decided that it would just make Scully
worry. She was a capable young woman, surely she didn't need to be
checked up on. 

*** 

As three o'clock that first day rolled around, I congratulated myself.
 Either I was a lot better with kids than I thought, or taking care of
them wasn't as hard as it seemed. The kids had behaved like angels the
entire day. I didn't know if it was their normal behavior, or if
they'd been told by their parents to be nice, but I honestly didn't
care. After walking Emily to school, William and I spent a nice day
reading books, watching G-rated movies and finger painting. I even
surprised myself by producing something for us to eat for
lunch without causing a fire. I wouldn't exactly say I'm a bad cook,
because you actually have to cook in order to be a bad one. No fires
and no food poisoning, so I thought I did all right.

After lunch he napped, which left me time to surf the internet to see
what I could find in the local papers about the vampire murders. I'd
brought the laptop Dolph lent me over to the house, so there would be
no record on anyone else's computer of the sites I'd visited. Until
the week before I didn't even know Dolph had a computer, which just
goes to show how little you know about even your closest friends.  I
put the computer away well before anyone would be  home, because I
still felt a little guilty about using their second phone line
to connect.

I woke the baby up at 1:30 so we could go get his sister, and he
surprised me by waking up in a bright and cheery mood. My mother died
when I was very young,  but I still remember her telling me that I'd
always woke up on the wrong side of the crib when I was his age. I
still don't wake up very easily, so I guess some things never change.

William, on the other hand, seemed delighted to be going to get his
sister, because he kept crowing " See Em!" as I put his coat on him
and strapped him into his stroller. I was a little surprised that he
knew where we were going, but as I understood it, his father had been
his primary caretaker while on leave from the FBI, so I chalked it up
to a precocious ability to remember daily routines. 

Emily ran up to us all smiles, which made me feel better. I wasn't
sure how she  was going to react to having someone she barely knew get
her from school, but it seemed I worried for nothing.  I didn't know
if it was genetics or environment, but I was pleased to be around a
pair of genuinely friendly and happy kids. For a little while on the
way home I fantasized about what it would  be like to be a mother,
which was unusual for me since I've made up my mind not 
to have kids. The fantasy bubble burst the moment I pictured myself
wearing a snuggi while raising a zombie. Zombies and the occasional
vampire probably aren't the healthiest beings for a baby to be
around.

Like I said, I was congratulating myself by three pm. The parents
would be home  at 5:30, so I thought that the day was going very well.
Emily sat at the table and the baby was in his playpen while I got
them a snack. Their mother, Scully,  said that it was ok for them to
have a couple of cookies, so I brought those to  the table and make
them some peanut butter crackers, at Emily's request. I
figured why not, since they probably wouldn't be eating dinner until
after six.  I'd been invited to eat dinner with the family, and I was
still trying to decide if I would or not. On one hand it would be
strange to be part of a family dinner, but on the other I might hear a
bit about their case, which was something I was trying to figure out
how to access.

After the kids finished their snacks I washed William's hands, which
made him giggle. Emily played with her brother for a while, then asked
if she could play  with paper and glue at the table, mentioning
something about wanting to make a Thanksgiving turkey out of
construction paper. I said sure, then gave Will some  toys to play
with, since he was too little to play that with her. 

Every thing was going fine until Emily asked me for a  glass of water.
I turned  towards the sink and was filling the glass when I heard an "
Uh oh." From behind me. When I turned around I saw that William not
only had the bottle of Elmer's glue, but he was squirting it all over
himself. At first I couldn't figure out why Emily would have given it
to him, but soon realized that she hadn't.

" I didn't give it to him, I swear." Emily told me quickly. "
Sometimes he gets  what he wants all by himself."

I remembered what Mulder and Scully had told me about the boy being
telekinetic. Until this point I hadn't actually taken the claim
seriously. Since I can raise the dead, I shouldn't have been so
dismissive of other people's powers, because if one was real surely
others were as well.  Maybe things weren't going to be quite as easy
as I thought.

William looked up at me with his bright blue eyes, and handed me the
bottle without having to be asked. Normally I wouldn't think a baby
would know that they'd done something wrong, but he looked a bit
ashamed of himself. " Sorry Ne-ta." He said with a downcast look and a
sigh.

I took him by one sticky hand and began to lead him up the stairs for
a bath and a change of clothes. Emily trailed after us, and grabbed a
book from her room. Emily preached on the closed lid of the toilet and
read aloud to us while  I gave William his bath.  I thought she read
rather well for an eight-year-old,  then laughed at myself because I'd
forgotten that she was already in the fourth  grade. Of course she
read well.

I was just draining the tub when I heard the front door open. A voice
floated up " Where is everyone?"

Emily went to the door and called down " Upstairs, Daddy."

Mulder poked his head into the bathroom while I finished wrapping the
towel around William. " Was it pudding?"

" Elmer's glue." I admitted sheepishly.

" It's usually pudding." He said, scooping his son up. " Other than
William covering himself in something, again, how did your first day
go?" He asked, carrying William to his room.

I had to walk quickly to keep up with him. I wondered if Scully
struggled with that, too. She was just my height and had short little
legs too, but perhaps she was used to it. " They were great. No other
problems at all." I said.

" That's good to hear." He said, with relief coloring his voice. It
was then that it occurred to me that he was even more nervous about
leaving the kids than their mother was. I thought that was kind of
sweet. " Would you mind getting this guy dressed? I'd like to help
Scully with dinner."

" Oh, no problem." I said, deciding to eat with them after all.

***

By the time Anita got Will dressed and helped him toddle into the
kitchen, Mulder was already pulling a pan out of the oven and putting
it on the counter.  Emily didn't notice them come in because she was
concentrating on setting the table, but Scully did. She relieved Anita
of the toddler and whisked him into his high chair. 

" Ms. Blake, why don't you have a seat?" Scully suggested. " We'll be
eating in  a couple of minutes."

" Thank you." Anita said as she sat. " You can call me Anita,
though."

Mulder and Scully exchanged an amused look and grinned. The corner of
Mulder's lips twitched as he said, " Calling someone by their first
name. That'd be novel."

" In our line of work it's customary to call people by their
surnames." Scully explains. " It's a hard habit to break." Mulder nods
in agreement.

" But Monica and John call each other by their first names." Emily
objects.

" They're our partners at the FBI." Scully says for Anita's benefit.

" Our friends are a bit strange. They did marry after all." Mulder
monotones. Anita gives him a puzzled look.

Scully, not liking the direction the conversation would most likely
turn, decides to change the subject. Instead of looking at Mulder,
which might encourage him to elaborate, she turned her gaze towards
Anita. She's startled all over again by the contrast the younger
woman's dark eyes and long curling black hair make against her nearly
ghostly white skin.  " How are you liking D.C. so far?"

" It's nice." Anita said, sounding slightly shy and uncertain. Scully
gave her an encouraging smile. " It's not much like St. Louis."

" I found D.C. a big change when I first got here too. Just wait a
couple of weeks for the holiday decorations to go up, though. It's a
sight to behold." Scully gushes. The shopping is wonderful too. Do you
have many people left to shop for?"

The stricken look that flickers across Anita's face makes Scully
instantly regret her urge to dig for details about the younger woman's
life.

***

I looked up at Scully's face and wondered what I should say. I
couldn't very well explain that some of the people on my holiday
shopping list aren't human. So I decided to talk about the more
painful stuff first. " I lost my mother when, I was eight," I decided
to quickly continue my explanations before I let the adults'
sympathetic looks get to me. " but I still have my Dad, my
step-mom, a younger step-sister and a half brother. I'm not sure what
I'm going  to get any of them yet. I still need to buy something for
my best friend, and a  couple of cops who are friends of the family,
too." And I'll probably pick up little some things for Larry, Dead
Dave, Willie, Jean-Claude, Irving and Richard before my shopping is
completed, too. Three vampires, two werewolves, and an animator
trainee in a pear tree.

" Are you going home for the holidays?" Mulder asked me. " We'll be
visiting with Scully's mom, so we don't want you to think that we want
you to work over the holidays."

I shrugged. " I'm not sure yet. I might spend the holidays in St.
Louis."

" So there's a guy in your life." Mulder concluded. Scully shot him a
look that  made me think that they'd had many discussions about tact.
I nearly smiled.

Instead, I blushed. " Sort of. I recently started dating a guy named
Richard."

" And he's ok with the idea of a long distance relationship?" Mulder
asked next. I was beginning to get the sense of what having an older
brother must be like. A very nosy older brother.

" I guess so. It's not as though our relationship is very serious at
this point."  I was quickly getting tired of his questions, so I
decided to attempt to steer the conversation to a more useful
direction. " Working for the FBI must be neat. Can you talk about your
cases, or are they top secret?" I asked oh-so-innocently.

***

Scully nearly gave a sigh of relief when Mulder let up with his
strange line of  questioning. " To tell you the truth we're really not
supposed to talk about open cases-"

"-but we do anyway." Mulder interrupted with a grin and a shrug. "
Would you like to hear about the case?"

Scully sighed but didn't say anything.

Anita nodded, " I'd love to hear about any of your cases. As I
understand it you guys get the 'strange' stuff, unlike the cops I
know." 

(Continued in part 2)

Part 2
See part 0 for header information.


Mulder couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something about the
look in her  eyes made him think that she was committing the sin of
omission. " This case isn't all that interesting, it's just some
deaths, probably murders, that have been made to look like spontaneous
combustion. Which is something Scully doesn't believe in." 

" The human body isn't constructed in way that would allow for this to
happen nearly as often as it's reported." Scully said, starting to
warm up.

Mulder held up his hands in surrender. " But we have seen a lot of
interesting stuff." He thought he caught a flicker of disappointment
in the younger woman's  eyes. " Like there was this one case in which
we went to investigate a house that was supposed to be haunted by the
ghosts of a couple who had committed suicide..."

Anita smiled and nodded, but wasn't really paying attention to the
recounts of the old cases or the bantering between the couple. For the
rest of the meal she  felt more like one of the kids than one of the
grownups. 

***

When the cell phone chirped I nearly jumped out of my skin. A pager
was status quo for me, but Dolph had insisted that it would make more
sense for me to have  a cell phone on this "case." Something about
there being no chance of the Feds getting ahold of the physical bill
and seeing who I was calling. It sounded a little paranoid to me, but
I'm not a cop, so I know less about this undercover stuff than he
does.

After I put my skin back on I fumbled for the cell phone and flipped
it open. "  Anita." I didn't bother asking who it was since Dolph was
the only one with the  number.

" Any luck?" He asked, also not bothering to identify himself. It's
nice how simple things can be if there's only one person with the
number.

I sighed deeply. " Not really. I tried to get them to talk about the
case, but the man, Agent Mulder, decided it wasn't as interesting a
topic as some of their past cases..."

" So he entertained you with tales of mutant man-eating Franciscan
fruit bats?"  Dolph guessed. He sounded halfway between amused and
annoyed.

" I doubt they'd be Franciscan."

There was a moment of dead air. " What?"

" The fruit bats. I doubt they'd be allowed into a religious order
like that."

After a moment he realized that I was playing with him and emitted a
short burst of laugher before sobering. " Do you think you'll be able
to get anything  useful out of them?"

I toyed with the lining of the quilt on the bed. " I don't know." I
confessed at last. " I hope so, but I have this feeling that Mulder
suspects something. That might make him less likely to share."

" Are you saying your cover is blown?" Dolph asked sharply.

" Oh no. But he's given me suspicious looks now and again."

" Since he's reputed to be one of the most paranoid people in the FBI
I don't think that's unexpected."

" I guess you're right..." But I wasn't convinced that he wasn't on to
me. I don't think there was any way that this Mulder could have
figured out who I really am, but I knew he thought he knew something.
That bothered me. I was going to have to be very careful around him.

Dolph either didn't hear the doubt in my voice, or chose to ignore it.
" So, how would you like to meet the Master of DC?"

I blinked at the sudden change of topic. " On a scale of one to ten?"

" Anita." He told me to be serious with a single word. He's that
good.

" Nothing good ever comes from my meeting Master vampires, so can you
blame me for not wanting to meet another? And why do people ask if you
want to do something when there's no choice to decline. " I admit it,
I was whining.

Dolph wisely decided not to point out my childishness. Points for him.
" The master expects to meet with you on Friday night at 10pm."

" What's his name?"

" Lancaster." That's Dolph for you, an economy of words.

" Where am I supposed to meet this Lancaster?" I asked. Dolph gave me
the address and hung up on me. I guess the conversation was over.

***
***

Another day, another body. Mulder sighed impatiently as Scully swatted
to examine another burnt corpse, this one on the roof of a bar called
High Stakes.  Apparently the place had once been owned by a man who
thought that the anti-casino laws didn't apply to him, and the
successive owners kept the name but not the illegal gambling.

Scully gently prodded the curled up fist of the corpse as the bar's
current owner looked on, green and worried. The man tore his eyes away
from the dead and anxiously spoke to Mulder instead. " How long so you
think it will be before you take...it away?"

" Probably not long."

The owner relaxed a little. " This isn't going to keep me from opening
tonight,  is it?"

" Nah, as long as you lock up the roof to keep people from coming up
here. You'll probably have a record crowd. Nothing brings out the
ghouls like the chance to be near a murder scene. A cop will probably
be stationed here, though, to make sure that no one gets too curious.
It's not that we don't trust  you..."

The man smiled. " It's just that you don't trust the crowds. To tell
you the truth, I'm not really going to mind someone with the weight of
the law behind them being here."

" Mulder!" 

Scully's sharp call confused Mulder for a moment, and he wondered if
he'd said something she didn't like. Glancing over, however, he saw
instead that she was looking quite intensely at the body's hand, and
probably had been completely oblivious to their conversation.  Once he
got closer he asked her what was so interesting.

" He's holding something in his hand."

" And?"

" And I think it might be a clue of some sort." Scully said
impatiently.

" Can you tell what he's holding, then?"

" It's slightly melted, but it seems to be a cross. The shape of
appears to be burned into his palm." She told him, moving the cross a
fraction of an inch so Mulder could see the imprint scorched into the
palm. Mulder's feelings on burnt  bodies had become slightly less
apprehensive, but he'd still rather not have been crouching by one. 

" Any theories on the significance?" He asked.

Scully pulled off her gloves, and reached back to rub her calves,
which ached from her prolonged crouch. She stood up and stretched
before offering her opinion. " The way I see it, there are three
possibilities. The first is that someone who is religious had a grudge
against him, and burned the cross into his palm as a perverse sort of
calling card. The second is that the victim was the one who was
religious, and pulled the cross out for comfort during the
attack." Scully paused.

" And the third?" Mulder prompted.

Scully sighed deeply. " The third theory is that it doesn't mean
anything at all."

Mulder was afraid to ask which theory she was leaning towards. Instead
he gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze.  " We will figure this out.
We always do." 

Scully didn't say anything.

***

It's sort of funny how life can sometimes seem to sense that you're
spending too much energy worrying about one thing, so it sends
something else to upset you. I had thought that my biggest worry for
the week would involve vampires, but life threw me another care before
I even met Lancaster. 

It was all because of holidays. Will and I had spent an afternoon
quietly other  than his frequent requests "Ne-ta cookie pwese" which I
denied after the first time as not to set up Mulder and Scully for a
guest appearance on the Maury Show with their 60 pound toddler. He
didn't enjoy my considerations for his health, and was beginning to
get pouty when we went to get Emily.

Emily, through a magic all her own, always managed to put a smile on
her brother's face, no matter how cranky he was. I bet her parents
thought she was a godsend, because I knew I did. As soon as she came
out of the school she showed us a construction paper turkey that she'd
made in art class. Will found it entrancing and demanded " Will make
too" so I promised that we'd make another once we got home.

It was fun, I have to admit. I used the scissors, and made sure to
hold them very tightly in case William got any ideas about taking them
away, and Emily helped him glue on paper feathers. It didn't look as
nice as hers, but that didn't stop him from happy crowing that it was
his.

It was as we were cleaning up during William's nap that our
conversations turned to more exciting holidays. " I can't wait for
Christmas." Emily told me.  " This is the first Christmas that I get
to spend with my family."

That confused me a little. Why would it be an eight-year-old's first
Christmas with her family? " Why didn't you spend all the other
Christmases with your family?"

" Oh. The first few Christmases I spent with my other Mommy and Daddy,
who died. Then, after I died, I spent Christmases with Dr. Calderon."

" You died?" I repeated dumbly, sure I'd misunderstood.

" Yes." She said, nodding as though it made perfect sense.

I took a step back and looked at her. Could she be...a vampire? She
was awfully  fair, but I'd seen her outside. Although, I'd heard
rumors that there were some  vampires that could withstand light. And
I had meet child vampires before, one was the master of a city, in
fact. I knew I was thinking crazy, she was just a little girl, wasn't
she?  I reached into my shirt and pulled out my cross. " Emily, you
ever see one of these before?" I asked, holding it up for her to
see.

" Oh, yes. Mommy gave me hers, a gold one, right before I died. Daddy
said they  got it back at the funeral. She said she was surprised I
remember that, since I  was only three. I think she might get me one
for my next birthday, since she says that's when her mom gave her
hers."

Vampires definitely don't age and grow. Still..." You want to try it
on?" I asked, slipping it over my head, and feeling like a heel. But I
told myself that either it would do nothing to her, and I'd just feel
a bit stupid, or it would do something to her, and prove she was a
terrible monster. The latter would be hard to explain to her family,
but I'd manage to make them see the bright side.

She reached out and I held my breath. "Thanks," she said, putting it
over her head. There were no flames or screaming, so I allowed myself
a small sigh of relief when she handed it back. I was going to have to
have a chat with Mulder and Scully.

***
***

Meanwhile...

" It's up there." A white faced freshman said as she pointed to the
stairs that  lead to the dorm's third floor. Reyes couldn't tell if
the girl was pale because she was scared, or due to a liberal
application of Goth makeup. She didn't have time to study the girl to
figure it out, because Doggett had already headed up the stairs. She
tried to look dignified as she attempted to quickly catch up with
him.

The third floor had a desolate and abandoned look to it that suggested
that few  people ever ventured up there. The hall director, an
artificially cheerful woman in her mid-twenties, assured the agents
that the lack of occupants on that particular floor was due to nothing
more sinister than a decline in campus  enrollment. Reyes and Doggett
had their doubts about the truthfulness of that as they examined the
floor.

Half of the ceiling light fixtures had been disconnected, presumably
to save on  the costs of electricity, so there were spots of uneven
lighting all through the floor. Some of the fixtures flickered
unreliably, as if the lights were demonstrating their hope to be
reincarnated as strobes. The lighting was just effective enough to
show that the agents' footprints were displacing a fine
layer of dust that coated the entire length of the long hallway.

The walls along either side of the corridor were regularly interrupted
by doorways into the unused dorm rooms. The closed doors themselves,
however, whispered of residents past: many of the doors were marred by
the scrapped up remnants of now fuzzy adhesive squares that marked
where white boards had once been hung. A couple of doors still had
construction paper nametags curling away  from the doors' surfaces, as
if they were trying to escape but finding it difficult.

The only thing to break up the monotony of the sea of doors was a set
of windows through one wall that looked into the common room. As
Doggett peered in  through one such window, he wondered if the room is
where the dorm's shabby furniture was sent to die. All of the room's
furniture was old, and looked as though it had been old for a very
long time. A herd of loveseats tiredly flanked the walls, their
sagging cushions bearing indentations that suggested generous human
bottoms; a bookshelf with a peeling finish that pretended to be
woodgrain gave shelter to a collection of tattered paperbacks; a pool
table with a couple of cigarette marks scorched into the frame listed
to one side in a manner that suggested that if you played a game balls
would tend to gravitate  to that side. And an ancient television set
sprouting rabbit ears looked blankly at the loveseats.

Doggett accidentally startled Reyes when he spoke. " I guess the only
ones who'd want to be up here would have to be ghosts."

" But poltergeists aren't ghosts, John, even if they are the cause of
a haunting." She informed him in a tone she hoped didn't sound
condescending.

Doggett wasn't offended, just curious. " Then what are they?"

" Parapsychologists believe that they're the result of the
unrestrained mental energy of an agitated person, usually a teenager,
acting upon the environment the person inhabits." She explained.

" So you're saying one of the kids living downstairs is responsible
for what they claim has been going on up here?"

" Well yes, but it's not deliberate, and whoever it is probably
doesn't have a clue that they're doing anything."

Doggett just nodded, not looking at her. His eyes were fixed on a book
that was  busily prying itself out of the bookcase.

***

I waited until Mulder got home and the kids were occupied by a video
before I approached him. Apparently Scully wouldn't be home for a
while, so I was only going to have the one parent to talk to. " I
think we need to talk about Emily." I told him in as gentle a tone as
I could manage.

" Sure, is there something wrong?" he asked, looking over at the
kids.

" She...told me some strange stuff today, and I thought I ought to let
you know  about it." Shit, his face just went pale, so there must be
something he thinks she said.

" Ok, what did she say, exactly?" He asked in a calm tone. Brownie
points for him.

" Well...she told me that this was the first Christmas she'd be
spending with you folks, that she had other parents who died, and that
she herself died at one point." I said sounding embarrassed even to my
own ears. To my surprise he just nodded as I laid out the list. That
was not a good sign.   " Anita, why don't you sit down? There are some
things Scully and I neglected to tell you since we didn't think they'd
come up, but now they obviously have."

" Ok, " I said, as we took seats as far from the little ears in the
room as possible.

" The first thing you should know is that Emily isn't exactly my
daughter."

" She isn't?" I asked, feeling confused. There wasn't a strong family
resemblance there, but there was definitely some.   " No, while she
calls me Dad, she's my niece." Mulder said so quietly only I could
hear him.

For a second I almost recoiled from my chair in horror, because I
certainly hadn't signed up for a 'flowers in the attic' sort of
family. Then, for once my  brain raced past my mouth, and I realized
that there was a more obvious possibility than the horrific one my
mind pounced on first. In my defense, all I can say is that I've seen
a lot of twisted things.

" Emily is the product of a genetic experiment that was done without
the knowledge or consent of either of her natural parents, one of whom
is Scully, and the other of whom is my younger half-brother Jeffrey. 
I won't go into the gory details, because it's suffices to say that
after their genetic material was obtained by illegal means, someone
created her in a lab and had her carried  to term by a surrogate
mother. "

" And Scully and your brother didn't even know?" I asked softly,
horrified that  such a thing could happen.

" No. Scully had been told that she'd been made barren by an
experiment done on  her by people who had kidnapped her and left her
for dead, but she didn't know that anything had been done with her
stolen eggs. Until she got involved in the  murder investigation
involving Emily's adoptive mother. Once she saw Emily she
became convinced that the fact that Emily looked identical to Scully's
dead sister must have been because she was Melissa's daughter.
Eventually tests proved that Emily was in fact Scully's daughter."

I had to interrupt. " But Emily said she died too." I repeated, hoping
to impress upon him the bizarreness of her claim.

He just nodded again, which was beginning to freak me out a little. "
She did. Or so we were lead to believe. She was very sick as a small
child, and became deathly ill, eventually slipping into a coma a few
days after Scully found out who she was. We were told she died, but we
discovered at her funeral that her casket only contained sand...and
the cross Scully had given her. We thought that her body had been
taken by the people who had experimented on her, and in
a way, we were right."

" How did you find out she was still alive?"

Mulder looked away from me, so I instantly knew he was going to feed
me a half-truth. " We were tipped off that there was a death threat on
her former doctor, who was seen in the company of three children who
had been the products  of that experiment. We got there too late to
save the doctor, but we were able to recover Emily and the two boys,
both of whom are now back with their adoptive families."

" Wow." Was all I could say. " I can't imagine having missed so much
of one of your children's lives." I said, thinking of how hard it must
have been on Scully.

He looked very sad for a moment. " Both children." He told me softly.

" What do you mean?" I asked.

" The people who arranged the hit on Emily's doctor also were
threatening William's life, so Scully gave him up for adoption. He
lived with other people for four months. I was away on a case that
required that I stay out of contact with loved ones, so she had no
idea if I was dead or alive, and she had to make  a difficult decision
about our son by herself. She concluded that he'd be safer 
in the care of strangers than with her. "

" But he wasn't." I suddenly realized.

" No. Not long after she and I were reunited, his adoptive parents
were murdered by someone had been scared off before finding him.  I
went to court and asked for custody of him. Since he'd been put up for
adoption without my consent, it was granted."

I looked at him, speechless. No wonder they'd been very concerned
about finding  someone who could handle themselves to care for their
children. What sort of monsters try to harm babies and grade school
children?

***

The pages of books flapped like wings as Doggett threw his arm over
Reyes back and forced her to the floor with him. They'd ducked under
the doubtful protection of their coats a moment earlier when the first
book shattered one of  the three windows looking into the lounge.
Other books were now threatening to take out the remaining windows, so
with the coats obstructing their vision, they didn't have a clear view
of what was going on.

They could hear as the T.V. switched itself on. Elmer Fudd chanted
maniacally at them, assuring them that he would indeed "kill the
wabbit," which was a thought that gave them no comfort considering
their leporine cowering.  As if aware the still falling books were
claiming more of their attention, and jealous of that, the volume
edged itself upwards.

Doggett's eyes widened when he heard an inhuman groan emanate from the
lounge.

" John, what's that?" Reyes hissed.

"I'm not sure but it sounded like- " He popped his head up and peered
in through the jagged shards of window that still clung to the frame.
" It's one of the loveseats." He whispered back as the lumbering piece
of furniture strained away from the far wall. " Why are we
whispering?"

Reyes grinned despite her worry about the situation." It just seemed
like the proper thing to do," she told him in her normal tone of
voice.

" I guess that-" Doggett's voice trailed off in mid-sentence. His eye
had been caught by one of the books that had flung itself at them.
Specifically he looked at the spine. " I guess that we've been had."
He concludes in a stronger  voice.

Reyes' wide brown eyes filled with confusion, and she cringed as the
scraping sounds in the lounge became more energetic. " Wha-t-t-t? "
She stammered, wondering how Doggett could remain so calm.

Doggett dipped his hand to the floor, and a book was suddenly dangling
in mid-air. For a second Reyes was dumbfounded, then she realized the
same thing her husband already had: each book has a clear string
attached to it.

" Some ghost." Doggett grumpily surmised the situation.

" Why would anyone go to the trouble to set something like this up?"

" For the same reason anyone plays a prank. Attention."

Forty-five minutes later they were on their way out after having
addressed all 93 of the dorm's residents. They'd admonished the
students that if they the wrongdoer did not come forward on his or her
own, they would be turning the case over to the local PD who would
begin investigating criminal mischief charges; most likely beginning
the investigation with looking for fingerprints on the objects used in
the prank.  A smile tugged at the corners of Reyes' mouth on the way
out when she caught site of a pair of shame-faced kids hesitantly
approaching the hall director.

***
***

I woke up when my alarm went off, which was three am. I sat up and
threw my legs over the side of the bed, already awake. It surprised me
that I was clear-headed instead of groggy, since it was yet another
disruption to my normal sleep pattern in such a short time. Eagerness
chased tiredness away. 

I threw on a pair of well-worn jeans, and a navy blue cable-knit
sweater. Once I'd picked up the firestar and stuffed it in the holster
that didn't show beneath the generous sweater, I was ready to slip out
the door. I had trouble shaking the feeling that I was doing something
wrong as I made my quiet way through the yard. The FBI agents were
neither my parents nor my jailers, yet...  I was a couple of streets
away before I felt better.

It was cold enough to see my breath, and I half regretted leaving my
coat behind, but I was walking fast enough to keep myself almost warm.
A couple of drivers passing by gave me disapproving glances, the sort
girls walking alone at night attract, but of course they didn't know I
was armed.

When I got to a more populated area I began to sense them. There
weren't as many vampires as I'd run into in a similarly sized crowd in
St. Louis, but there were enough to make me glad that the firestar was
loaded with silver bullets. Silver bullets won't usually kill a
vampire, but they might slow them down enough to get away, and that
makes them valuable enough. I didn't think it  would come to that,
though, since none of them gave me so much as a second glance. I was
anonymous. I was just a typical woman to them, not the big bad
Executioner who struck fear in the hearts of good little vampires
everywhere. It was sort of nice to wander the night without a kick-me
sign.

I quickly looked over the place where I would be meeting Lancaster the
next night, counting doors. When dealing with strange vampires the
more exits you know about in advance, the more likely you'd like to
exit one of them. I was "home" before it was light enough for anyone
to have noticed my absence. 

***

" ..so our 'poltergeist' turned out to be a vandalism case. We turned
it over to the local PD since even Kresh wouldn't try to convince us
that that sort of mundanity is under our jurisdiction." Doggett told
Mulder and Scully over desert - a decadent chocolate cake Reyes had
bought at her favorite bakery- that night. Since the agents were
working on more than one case at a time they'd rarely met in the
office, which is where they'd normally discuss cases.

" I bet you're disappointed that it turned out to be people." Mulder
remarked to Reyes, half teasing, half commiserating.  

" A little." She replied with a smile. Her attention throughout dinner
was captivated by Emily and Will's nanny. It wasn't the girl's looks
that drew her,  though Reyes was secure enough about her own to admit
her admiration of others', but something emanated from the younger
woman like a faint breeze. In a way she found it similar to what she
could feel from Gibson and Will if she concentrated, but different
enough to make her sure that she was special in a way they weren't.
Reyes gave a slight shake of her head; she was sensitive
enough to realize that there was something out of the ordinary about
Anita, but  not sensitive enough to even hazard as guess as to what.
She half wished that Gibson had come to dinner with them, but she
supposed having a mind reader expose secrets wouldn't be sporting. She
idly wondered if Mulder or Scully had any inkling that their nanny was
unusual.

Anita lingered a couple of minutes after dinner and watched Reyes play
with William. " You seem to enjoy being around kids."

" Oh I do." Reyes looked up with a friendly look. " Scully's kind
enough to lend me this fellow time to time, while John and I discuss
having one of our own."

" Isn't that dangerous? Given your line of work."

Reyes shrugged. " There are always dangers. You can't let fear rule
your decisions." Something in Anita's look made Reyes wish for
Gibson's interpreting  powers again. She didn't think her reply made
the girl think of children.

***
***  

I hope you don't mind if I skip over Thanksgiving day, because I found
it pretty boring. Mulder and Scully invited me to have dinner with
them, since they were having over a mix of family and friends, but I
took the day off. The other FBI agents seemed nice enough, but
something the dark haired woman said unsettled me. That bit about not
letting fear rule your decisions...it felt like a judgment, which was
silly, since I'd only just met her. So why did it feel like she knew
me, and was talking about my reluctance to love Richard, and 
not about children? It was dumb, yet... I begged off claiming that I
had a friend in DC to see.

Thanksgiving. I kicked around DC for the day, taking in what sights
weren't closed, grabbed a turkey sub at one of the few open sandwich
shops, then braced  myself to meet a master vampire. I found it
slightly perverse that the dead don't even take off national holidays.
For some reason he'd canceled the meeting planned for the previous
Friday night, and insisted me had to meet Thanksgiving. Of course,
since he didn't have my number, I had to learn all this through a note
pinned to the door of the meeting place. Something about
the spidery handwriting unnerved me, even days later while I got ready
for the meeting.

Dressing for a hot date is child's play compared to picking out an
outfit appropriate for meeting an unfamiliar member of the vampire
hierarchy. The considerations are less " Do I look appealing in this?"
than " Does this outfit  give me easy access to weaponry?" In both
cases, however, there's the matter of  concealing my scars. Although
I've pretty much accepted that they're part of me, there are cases in
which I don't feel comfortable showing them off. In front of the kids,
a potential love interest, the type of creature who gave
them to me...there's more than one way to give a wrong idea.

For this little foray I decided to go casual.  Blue Jeans, a red tunic
style sweater that's conceal a holster gun... I might be obligated to
met with this Lancaster, but I didn't have to dress in a way that'd
suggest that I thought it  was an important event. Never give more
respect to a situation than absolutely necessary.

I waited until  9:45, then approached the building. The streets were
completely  deserted. Since it's never nice to feel like the only
human on the block, I brushed against the gun through my sweater for
comfort. I prayed I wouldn't need it.

***

Meanwhile...

Doggett had been watching a tape of the football game- he'd been the
only one interested in it earlier in the day, so it hadn't stayed on
long over at Mulder  and Scully's-  when he heard a distressing sound
coming from the bathroom near the bedrooms.

The bathroom light was on, but it didn't really tell him who was in
it. At first he wondered if it was Gibson, since as was traditional
the teenager had stuffed himself at dinner, but the boy's door was
shut and he could hear the sounds of music and typing, so he assumed
he was still working on a paper. If it wasn't Gibson, it had to be
Reyes.

She'd gone to bed an hour earlier, claiming that the turkey she'd
eaten had made her tired. Doggett had suspected that she'd just been
trying to find a diplomatic way to avoid watching the game with him,
but when looked in the bedroom the tangled blankets suggested that she
had indeed been sleeping.  When  the sound of retching stopped he
knocked softly on the door, " Monica, are you all right?"

There was the sound of running water for a few seconds before the door
opened. Other than being a little pale, she looked no worse for wear.
" I'm ok, John."

" Was it something you ate?" He asked in concern, thinking of the
heavy meal that they'd eaten earlier in the day.

She shook her head. " I don't think so. It probably would have hit me
sooner if  it was, since, to tell you the truth, Dana, Maggie and I
sampled the food as we  cooked. Only Mulder was able to resist, but
then, he was cooking veggies, so...  I think we could be more certain
about what this is if you'd be willing to go to the 24-hour drugstore
at this time of night." 

He almost asked her what he could buy at the drugstore that would
confirm or rule out food poisoning, but he figured it out on his own
before opening his mouth. Instead he grabbed his coat.

***

When I knocked on the door, I didn't know what to expect when the door
opened.   Frequently the vampire sent to the door would have an
appearance calculated to scare or intimidate a visitor- so they would
look like a bouncer, or worse yet,  a fright out of a horror movie.
Which is why I was surprised that the vampire doing door duty had the
appearance of a fresh-faced eighteen year old girl. The 
appearance was deceiving, since I could sense that she was 200 if she
was a day, but it was a nice touch.

" Good evening, Ms. Blake." She greeted me politely. " Lancaster asked
me to bid you welcome to our home."

" Thank you." I replied just as politely. However nice a reception I
got, it was still hard to let my guard down, because doing that sort
of thing at an inopportune moment could get a girl killed.

While the outside of the building was probably bringing down the
neighborhood's  property values, the inside was quite nice. It brought
caskets to mind for some  perverse reason.  I'll say this for
Lancaster, no matter what his faults might be, he has great taste in
art.  We entered a long hallway, and the walls of it were decorated
with copies that were rendered so perfectly that, had I not
known that the originals were hanging in museums, I would have been
fooled. Landscapes by Parrish, Surrealism by Dali, even a touch of
whimsy in the form of a painting by Bedard.  

The man seated on a throne-like chair in the large room we entered was
no less a masterpiece himself. He looked up and cheerfully said, " Ms.
Blake, so glad you could make it.

***

Meanwhile...

Mulder glanced into William's room. The toddler was sleeping on his
back, his bow lips slightly parted. In a dusty corner of his mind, one
that he never visited except in his nightmares, lurked a fear: that,
on one of his nightly rounds, he'd open the boy's room and find him
huddled in terror at one end of his crib, or even worse, gone. His
conscious mind could mostly lock down those sorts of thoughts, but
they were what motivated him to check on the boy each and every night.
After he was satisfied that all was well in the nursery, he
gently closed the door so he wouldn't wake his son, and walked to the
next one. 

Emily slept as soundly as her brother, thought for the life of him,
Mulder couldn't fathom how that could be possible. Most of her bed was
taken up by a hoard of stuffed animals that looked back at him with
impassive plastic eyes. If he'd asked Maggie, she could've told him
that it was the nature of small girls, and she herself had spent many
a night marveling that there had been room among the fuzzy armies for
her little redheads. As it was he had become adapt at locating the
sandy blond head on the pillow each night before he closed the door.

He sighed to himself as he thought about the children. His children.
Emily was his by the bonds of love and care, but Jeffrey's by blood
and chance. Though he  realized that was as much a choiceless victim
in Emily's making as Scully was, he couldn't help but slightly resent
the facts of biology. His brother never asked for this visceral
connection to Scully, never asked for a child, while on 
the other hand Mulder would have been thrilled if he discovered that
his beloved's older child was his. He tried to shake the wistful
thought from his head as he went back downstairs. 

Scully was frowning as he rejoined her at the table. She barely
glanced up at him before refocusing her attention on the papers and
lurid photos spread before her. 

" Scully, it's late. It's Thanksgiving. Give yourself the night off
and get some sleep. You'll be fresh in the morning." Mulder gently
massaged her shoulders as he spoke to her in a coaxing tone.

Scully leaned back into his touch and sighed. " I will. Soon. There's
just something I'm missing. There has to be some sort of clue we've
over looked." She made a frustrated noise.

" We'll get it soon. I'm sure of it." He declared with a true
believer's conviction. She gave him a half-hearted smile, but was much
less sure.

***

The jovial-seeming man on the throne was very old. My gift of
detecting vampiric ages told me that he'd breathed his last over half
a millennia ago. " You look very well for someone who has been dead
for over 500 years." I said,  mixing faint flattery with a display of
that power. 

It was an easy compliment to give, though, since he was indeed good
looking. Shortish curls as black as my own adorned his head in
startling contrast to his  sky-blue eyes. The rest of his features
were classically handsome. The only thing that marred his appearance
was a ridiculous beaten gold crown perched precariously on the right
side of his head. I didn't like the look of it; it made me doubt his
mental stability, which, as it was, was suspect by the virtue 
of most powerful vampires being insane. At least in my estimation.

" Six hundred and six on my next birthday." He casually corrected me,
then gave  me an expectant look. There was some clue in that look I'd
missed, since he soon looked disappointed instead. " The fact that I
was born in 1396 means nothing to you, then."

" I'm sorry." I said nervously, wondering why it upset him.

He waved off my apology half-heartedly. " Yes, well, I keep forgetting
that you  Americans learn little of our history."

It was only then that I became conscious of his faint accent. British.
" I'm afraid you're right. Besides the wars, we don't learn a great
deal about England."

For a second he looked faintly pleased that I'd guessed his country of
birth, but the pleasant look was quickly chased away by another one. "
But I suppose you learned all about my brother." He said bitterly.

Perhaps. But who was his brother?

***

Doggett frowned deeply as he stood in an isle of the 24-hour
Wal-greens. There were many more choices than he'd been anticipating.
He nearly had a heart-attack when he read the price flag under one box
and read $39.99. His heart began to beat again when he realized that
the box was touting a spiel about thermometers, which made it a
different sort of kit than the one he was there to buy. Once he made
that revelation he was able to rule out half of the products on the
shelf.

Which, unfortunately, left the other half for him to contend with.
Reyes hadn't  stipulated a preference, saying only that she'd never
used one before. That, of  course, turned his thoughts towards her
using effective birth control, with other men, on he'd instantly said
he'd figure it out and left before one of them made the mistake of
bringing Folmer up.

So, as he stood there, he tried to remember the commercials that he
complained about whenever she took over the TV to watch Lifetime,
which he jokingly referred to as " The women in peril network." Right
then and there, though, he couldn't remember if the one that claimed
to be the fasted one was also one with the handy plus and minus, or it
had colors, or dots.

He finally gave up and grabbed all the ones that had familiar names:
EPT, Clear  Blue Easy, First response.  His reasoning was that he'd
let her pick, and odds were they might need to use another test at
some point, anyway.

The cashier smiled at him as she rung up his purchase, and Doggett
could have all he could do not to succumb to the urge to offer an
explanation. It wasn't for a girlfriend, or worse yet a teenage
daughter, it was for him and his wife,  and...but the cashier didn't
say a word about it.

***

" Your brother?" I asked timidly. I was afraid of setting him off
unnecessarily. 

" Yes. My brother Henry. " I gave him a blank look. A first name
doesn't narrow  it down much. " Even Americans like you know about
him. They named a detestable  beer after his idiot friend Falstaff.
That nancy boy Shakespeare wrote a play..."

" Your brother was Henry the 4th?" I asked, stunned.

Lancaster clapped sardonically. " Yes, yes, my famous half-brother, 30
years older, and born on the right side of the blanket. I never even
knew him except from afar, but I was never allowed to forget whose
blood I shared, no matter how much I wished otherwise."

" It's terrible to grow up in another's shadow."  I said sincerely.
My step-sister, Andrea, two years younger than me, has always been my
step-mother's measure of young female normalcy.  Judith has never
hesitated to point out how different from, and therefore wrong for it,
I am from Andrea. The  normal one, with normal boyfriends, and no
skills for raising the dead.

" That tone...do I detect empathy in your voice?  Surely not. Could
the Executioner have lived in someone's shadow, too?"

I was less concerned by his half-mocking tone than by his use of the
"e" word. I was surprised to hear that my reputation had followed me
half-way across the country. You kill a few vampires for the state and
you become the vampire equivalent of the boogie-man. For a moment I
had the unkind urge to causally mention my colleague Edward, and see
if Death was famous on the East coast as well. For once, I
reconsidered the wisdom of something before blurting it out.
" You'd be surprised." Is all I said in the end.

" If you can understand that, I can skip all the self-pitying dreck
about low self-esteem and depression prompting me to seek out my own
death...It all sounds too much like an Anne Rice novel." He said with
a faint smile. " Now that we've made our introductions, why don't you
take a seat? The blue one is quite comfy."

" Thank you. "

" Now, let's talk about how you're going to catch whoever it is that's
been killing my people."

I swallowed involuntarily.

***

The seconds ticked by like hours as Reyes waited in the bathroom for
the results. Tired of pacing, she was sitting on the closed lid of the
toilet. She idly wondered what Doggett was doing, thankful that he'd
taken her insistence that be alone in the bathroom gracefully. She
couldn't quite explain her need to be alone, but he'd understood
without demanding the reasons for it.

(Continued in part 3)

Part 3
See part 0 for header information.


When the kitchen timer she'd set finally went off, she was torn
between the desire to rush over and look, and the fear that the
results wouldn't be the one  she wanted. She and Doggett had agreed
before they got married that they would let nature take its course,
something that would have pleased her Catholic parents greatly if they
knew. It was more sudden than she anticipated, and she was in dread
that she'd be disappointed, because she wanted very badly for the
test to come out positive.

She hadn't always wanted a baby this badly. It wasn't until she and
Doggett begun to get closer after she got out of the hospital that she
even started thinking about it more than on rare occasions. Something
about being around a guy who'd make a good dad finally set her
biological clock ticking. However, it  was only after she failed to
talk Scully out of giving William up that her mind, and her heart,
became set on the issue.

Maybe part of it was her not-quite-subconscious desire to prove to
herself- and  to Scully- that people like them could have a child, and
keep it safe. The rest  of it, however, was that the boy's adoption
brought her own issues from childhood to the surface. While she loved
her adoptive parents fiercely, the fact that she had no idea who her
parents had been haunted her. She'd hired someone to search for them
while she was in college, but nothing ever came of it. If she couldn't
find a blood relative, maybe she could create one. With
help.

Eventually she got up her courage, and looked at the test results.

***

" All right...I don't know a whole lot beyond what my friend Dolph
told me, and  even his knowledge is second hand, do maybe you could
tell me everything from the beginning?"

He gave me a charming smile. " Anything to please a pretty young
lady." I had to try very hard to keep myself from rolling my eyes. If
I discounted the lack of detestable nicknames, it was a lot like
talking to Jean-Claude. Except that it was a little scarier, since as
annoying as Jean-Claude could be, he'd never threatened a city-wide
blood bath.

" Thank you."

" About two months ago, my favorite fledgling, Krya, left here to go
to her home. It was far too close to dawn to suit me, but she insisted
she'd be home in plenty of time. She'd been mopey and moody for days,
so I let her go rather than starting another fight. It was the worst
mistake I could have made."

" I'm sorry to hear that." I said, it was the only thing that seemed
appropriate.

Apparently he didn't agree. " Do not patronize me." He continued
before I could  protest that it wasn't my intention."  As I was
saying, it was the worst mistake I could have made. She didn't make it
home safely, and was waylaid by...I don't know what, a person, another
vampire, something unkind. Some stupid humans discovered her
afterwards, much too late. She was..." His voice caught and he looked
so miserable that I almost felt bad for the ridiculous blood-sucker.
After a few seconds he got himself together and went on.
" ...burned. Hideously burned. If it wasn't for a few unsinged locks
of her crimson hair, I might not have... I'll never see those
catty-green eyes again."  This time he covered his face with his
hands. He looked angry when his eyes returned to my face. " They found
her during the day, so the only way I knew for sure that something had
happened to her was to get the crime scene photos. Otherwise she would
have seemed to have just disappeared."

I knew I didn't want to know how he got the photos. " And there have
been more...deaths." I only hesitated over using the "d" word for
vampires for a second, but I think he noticed.

***   Mulder brushed a stray lock of Scully's hair from her face. He
was lying on his back, while she lay on her side, cuddled up against
him. " You're still awake."

" So are you." She pointed out reasonably.

" Ah, but it's not abnormal for m to have trouble sleeping, something
my old couch could attest to, assuming it could speak. But
you...you've fallen asleep on me during enough cases for me to have
know for years that you do not share my peculiar insomnia." He said as
he trailed fingers down her bare back, making  her shiver and squirm
closer. " Besides, I thought I just finished tiring you
out." He added with a naughty smirk.

Scully smiled and kissed his neck. " Body tired, yes, but I can't seem
to shut down my mind."

" You would be the type who would have difficulty making their mind go
blank." His tone was half complaint, half compliment. " There's one
effective trick I learned during my years of insomnia." He hinted.

" Oh, what's that?"

" The best way to fall asleep when you're desperate is not counting
sheep, no matter what the books advise. All that wool gets confusing,
so you could count enough to fill 100 Serta commercials and still be
awake. No, the thing you have  to do is to imagine speaking to someone
you really dislike, so your brain shuts  down in self-defense."

" You mean I should imagine conversations with Diana?" She teases
him.

" Sure, it always works for me." He told her dryly enough to make her
laugh.

Eventually her mood sobered. " Why don't you suffer insomnia any
more?"

" Because I have you." He said, making her melt. After nearly a
decade's worth of conversations, he still had the power to charm her
socks off. Not that she was wearing any then.

***

" How many more?"

Lancaster sighed, eyes downcast. " Four. Four more of my little ones
gone."

I raised an eyebrow. I didn't think he meant height. " Little ones?
They were young?"

" Yes, yes, very. None had been with us for even as long as ten
years."

To me, a person in her mid-twenties, ten years sounded like a fairly
long time,  but I guess the perception of time is different when
you're 600 years old. " I'm sorry to hear that."

" Pretty words, but what are you going to do about it?" There was a
sudden hardness to his voice that nearly made me shiver.

" Before I can figure that out, I need to know what it is you expect
me to do- find the killer or avenge the deaths?" I was afraid to hear
the answer.

Lancaster hesitated. " As much appeal as revenge has, I know not even
you would  willingly shirk the law...at least not to aide a vampire."
His eyes challenged me, but I knew he was probing, not reading my
mind. My secrets were safe enough. " Find the killer, I just want this
to stop."

So did I, but if the feds thought it was spontaneous combustion, how
was I going to get anything done?

***

Doggett noticed that his hands were trembling as he poured glasses of
white grape juice. When he'd solicitously asked if he could get Reyes
anything, after  insisting she sit down, she'd said she was thirsty.
It was then he realized that his throat was terribly parched. He
almost felt like he'd been sucking on a salt lick like the one his
rabbit had had when he was a boy. 

Which made wonder if they should have a pet. A cat, no a dog,
definitely a dog,  might be nice. Gibson would love it, and a pet
taught responsibility, not that he wasn't already, especially for a
teenager. But a dog would be good to protect the house, especially
with the baby coming...his hands were still shaky  as he mopped up the
juice with a napkin.

He couldn't believe that the human mind held the capacity for being
filled simultaneously with joy and terror. Like his was. He counted
his blessings that  of all the females who could have thrown their lot
in with his, he found one with the rare insight to know why he could
be scared and trilled both. I have eight months more months to learn
to believe in happily ever after, he thought,  picking up the glasses
of juice.

***

Five hundred and eighty odd years older than me or not, Lancaster had
not attained any semblance of maturity during all his years
side-stepping the mortal coil. Dealing with him had an eerily familiar
feeling to it...it was not  altogether unlike dealing with my younger
half-brother - when he was eight. The  petulant vampire may not have
enjoyed all the privilege that his brother had, but he'd been royally
spoiled anyway. I had a sneaking suspicion that this might have been
the first time in centuries that he'd not been able to get his
way by throwing a tantrum.

I got through the rest of the meeting without losing any of my blood,
or being thrown into anything hard, so I considered it a roaring
success. Your idea might differ wildly from mine, but that can't be
helped. I promised to begin looking in earnest for the "killer," and
left the quasi-art museum. Lancaster was wallowing so wantonly in his
misery that he scarcely seemed to notice my departure.

There were only a few hundred yards left on my walk home when I heard
rapid footfalls behind me. I spun around, expecting trouble, and
finding it. What looked like a stocky boy in his late teens, but was
actually a vampire, was running at me at full tilt. Unaccustomed to
such bullish behavior from a vampire, even while wearing red sweaters,
I did the first thing that came to mind- I held out my foot to trip
him. 

Apparently vampires, or at least this one, can't stop on a dime. He
looked undignified, and a bit dazed, as he sprawled out flat on his
back. Wasting no time, I fished my cross out and held it in front of
me. It instantly flared to life with a phosphorous glow. Even dazed,
the vampire had the presence of mind to lift his arms to shade his
face from its sight. Many older vampires are impervious to a cross's
affect, but this one was still wet behind the ears, metaphorically
speaking, so the cross was enough to keep him at bay.

To my surprise, he began emitting a high pitch keening from deep in
his throat.  " Are you...whimpering?" I asked in disgust. I'd never
met such a wimp of a vampire, even Robert had more dignity than this.

" I'm sorry, ok? When I picked you I had no idea you were the
Executioner. " He  whined.

" So if I were anyone else, you would have eaten me??"

" No! It's not like that. We're only supposed to scare a human
tonight, not hurt them." He said, which made no sense. Even if he were
one of those rare vampires that didn't feed on people, why would he be
out pestering them? " It's  part of the initiation." He whimpered,
still shielding his face. " Please don't  kill me!"

Great, a vampire fraternity, just what the world needs. I sighed
deeply. I didn't have a warrant of execution on me for him, and he
hadn't actually done anything to hurt me, so it would be hard to claim
self defense. Your honor, I thought he was going to annoy me to
death... " Go. Now" I said sternly.

I backed away so he could get up, since I had no intention of putting
the cross  away. You never knew when someone, human or monster, was
playing innocent.

" Thank you for your mercy," he simpered, scrambling to his feet while
trying to bow in a servile manner. He was so bear-like in shape that
he didn't pull it  off with anything resembling even human grace. I
guess there's a clumsy few even amongst the vampires, then. 

" Don't let the fact that I let you go get around." I growled in my
most menacing tone.

" Oh, I won't!" He called back over one shoulder as he bolted.  I
stood there a  moment and shook my head. Vampire kids these days.

I made it back to the apartment with no further mishaps. Sinking into
bed I rejoiced that I'd have no further vampire encounters. At least
for the night.

***
***

Mulder yawned and stretched as he and Scully got ready for work. While
it was technically a day off, the bureau was a bit worried about
terrorist attacks, and thought that completely empty buildings would
be too tempting a target, so they'd offered over-time to anyone
willing to come in for a few hours. Scully talked him into going in
until noon, so they could puzzle through the case without any
distractions.

Scratching his belly, he watched idly as Scully checked under the bed
for one of her black pumps.

" Couldn't you wear the brown ones?" He asked, buttoning his shirt.

" I could, but I don't want to." Came her muffled reply.

Mulder shook his head, there was no reasoning with her when it came
to footwear. " So...I think I got a preview of Emily and Will's teen
years." He commented in a dry voice.

" How so?" Scully asked emerging from under the bed victoriously, a
black pump clutched in one hand. 

" Oh, I woke up a few hours ago, and looking out the window, saw Anita
sneaking  back in the yard. It was considerate of her to be quiet, but
it almost made me expect to see her looking around furtively for
spotlights and vicious dogs."

" I'm sure you're exaggerating, Mulder."

" Me?" Mulder tried to sound innocent. " She's hiding something, I'm
sure of it."

" Aren't we all." Scully muttered. " You worry too much."

" I'm not worried. I'm intrigued." 

" I find it oddly comforting that you are still paranoid of everyone."
She remarked.

" Right, because I'm always wrong about my suspicions." He smirked. "
And after  all, there are tons of books and movies about nannies with
shady, hidden, lives."

" Mulder..." Scully sighed, too tired to put her heart into a proper
protest.

***

A loudly buzzing mosquito the side of a poodle was pursuing me from
room to room, and no amount of arm-flapping or cursing would persuade
it to let me be. It had just landed on my shoulder and was about to
spear me when I woke up. The  buzzing continued, which confused me at
first.

I nearly fell out of bed trying to reach for the cell phone.  I
planned to kill  Dolph. The bedside clock read 7am, and it had been my
intention to sleep in. The kids' grandmother had, rather insanely in
my opinion, picked them up at the  crack of dawn to do some serious
Black Friday shopping. I was very put out at having been woken up,
nightmare or no.

Flipping the phone open, I growled into it, " This better be good,
Dolph."

" Anita?" An uncertain voice, not Dolph's, asked. " It'd Willie
MacCoy." Ironically, I'd traded one blood sucker for another in the
matter of two minutes.

" How did you get this number? Dolph said neither of us should give
anyone else  this number, and I certainly didn't." I held the phone
away from my mouth as I yawned loudly. 

" Jean-Claude tracked Dolph down, though that kid you work with-
Larry. I guess  Larry told Dolph that Jean-Claude isn't on your good
list, so Dolph wouldn't give him the number to reach you."

I shook my head to clear it; even knowing everyone he mentioned, it
was still difficult to follow that soon after waking up. I quickly
puzzled it out: from what I gathered, Jean-Claude had decided that
Larry, the intern at Animators inc., whom I was training, would either
know where I was, which he didn't, or would know who did, which was
obviously the case. Oh to have been a fly on the wall during Dolph and
Jean-Claude's conversation.  " How did you get the number, then?" I
asked tiredly.

" When Dolph refused to give him the number, he threatened to go
looking for you. Dolph didn't like the sound of that, so he asked
Larry if there was a vampire you trusted, and he recommended me."

That was true, insofar as I trusted any vampire. " Dolph trusted you
not to give your master this number if he demanded it of you?"

Willie's laugh came over the line. It was a nice, normal laugh, with
no powers behind it, which made it different than Jean-Claude's. No.
This Dolph of yours is clever. He dialed the number, in another room,
before handing me the phone. I can't tell what I don't know."

Sunlight was streaming into my room, I noticed as I looked towards the
windows.  " Wait, you're at the police station? Shouldn't you be
tucked into your coffin,  fast asleep? It's light out."

" Not here it isn't." Right, the time zone change.

" Willie, I'm tired. Let's cut to the chase. What did Jean-Claude want
you to tell me?"

There was silence for a minute, leading me to wonder if the connection
had been  lost. " Well...he'd kill me if he knew I told you this, but
there isn't a specific message he wanted me to pass along. I think he
just wants to be able to hold it over Richard's head that he'd been in
touch with you, and Richard hadn't."

It figured. Why didn't a vampire-werewolf pissing contest surprise me?
" If he asks, I'll tell him that you asked how I was, that he sent his
'love', and that  your request for my location was summarily denied."

" Yeah..." He sighed. " Thanks. You're sure you won't say where you
are?" He wheedled.

" I'm sure." I said firmly. I gave it some thought, and added, " And
tell him if he tries to track me down, I won't have anything further
to do with him for the invasion of my privacy." Although he was a
tremendous pain in the rear, he also considered himself the soul of
gentlemanly behavior, so the suggestion that he'd be deliberately
inconsiderate might sting enough to do the trick. Maybe.

" Will do, Anita." Something in his tone suggested he'd accurately
read between  the lines.

" Good-bye Willie." I hung up, hoping to get at least another hour of
sleep.

***

It was cool and cloudy, the weather threatening one last November
rain.  The light that bravely attempted to filter through the lone
window was thinner than  usual, giving the basement office a greater
than usual sense of desolation. The  hush of the relatively further
added to the sense of isolation from the rest of  the world.

At a table, Mulder studied all five sets of crime scene photos,
rearranging them repeatedly, as though they were pieces of a puzzle,
and the correct order would present a clear picture.  Sitting at
Mulder's desk, Scully poured over the reports, hoping that a clue
would leap out at her.

The clue leapt at Mulder instead. " Scully, do we have the dental
records for the victims?" 

She gave him a hopeful look. " Sure, what are you looking for?"

" Pointy teeth."

" Oh god," She muttered under her breath. " I'm not going to ask you
if you think the victims were vampires, because you'll say yes, and
I'll have to hit you."

" It's not as though previous cases haven't set a president." He
reminded her.

" Ronnie's pointed teeth were a bizarre affectation, one that nearly
got us arrested if you'll recall, not natural. So I hardly think that
dental records are going to show us anything useful."

" As I told you then," He started arrogantly, ignoring her
eye-rolling. " There  are many different types of vampire, of which
Ronnie was only one.  The vampires in the other x-file most certainly
had sharp teeth."

" What other x-file?" She asked, looking puzzled.

" It was a case I worked on while you were..." He let his voice
catch. " Missing." He hoped a show of emotion would be enough to
dismiss the conversation before it got to the woman who'd been at the
center of it. 

" Oh. I don't think I ever got around to reading that file." She said
sheepishly.

" Don't worry, I won't rat you out to Skinner."

" Gee, thanks." She replied dryly.

" Now, where are those X-rays?"  

***
***

It's funny how worrying about blowing your cover can make you nearly
blow it. It was later that same day, not long after Mrs. Scully had
brought the kids back. I'd actually gotten a couple of hours of sleep,
so I was thrilled by the short day. Mulder and Scully came home in the
early afternoon, and I was just finished telling Mulder about
William's newest word, "dump-truck," pronounced correctly by some kiss
of fortune. I was on my way out the door when I heard something that
stopped me in my tracks.

Walking by Emily, I heard her telling Scully, " You should have seen
it, Mom! The vampire didn't stand a chance because she was too smart
for it-" My mind started racing. How could Emily have known? I surely
was too far from the house  for her to see what happened, and William
was the one with the mental powers, not her. It didn't really matter
how she knew, just that she did, and her parents would have questions,
" -she kicked him a few times, then pulled out a wooden stake, and
jabbed him in the heart. Poof! He turned into dust."

Wait, what, wooden stake? Dust? I didn't even have a stake with me,
and I certainly hadn't killed the moron. " What are you talking about,
if you don't mind me asking?" I hoped that I didn't sound as nervous
as I felt.

" Buffy the vampire slayer." Emily said happily.

Who the what what?? I gave them a genuinely confused look. " What? 

" Oh, it's this tv show Emily has been trying to convince me to let
her watch. I think it's too violent for an eight-year-old to watch."

" But Mom! Brian's mom lets him watch it, and he's only a little older
than me.  And the commercials look so cool!" 

" Has this show been on long?" I asked.

" For practically my whole life." Emily said, pouting.

See? You don't own a TV and you completely miss the fact that there's
a whole tv show based on your profession. I nearly asked Scully how
she felt about that  silly movie, but I thought it might sound
suspicious, so I held my tongue. Instead I made a mental note to watch
it.

" When is it on?" I asked casually.

" 6 and 7 on FX!" Emily replied quickly, earning a suspicious look
from her mother. I got the distinct impression that she'd seen more
than a commercial at  Brian's house. I didn't have to be a mind reader
to know Scully was thinking the same thing.

***

I turned off the TV at eight o'clock and tried to sort out what I'd
just seen. This Buffy chick seemed to live in a world where vampires
had no respectability  or rights; I was surprised that Humans First
didn't recommend it in their recruitment literature. Or, maybe they
did, I'd never actually read the brochures.

She didn't seem to have a steady day job, and there was zero mention
raising the dead, so I got the impression that raising the dead wasn't
amongst her talents. I didn't know which one us that made luckier. 

I was a little jealous, though, I have to admit. Her vampires
dissolved when she staked them- how quaint- leaving no messy inanimate
bodies to deal with. And she could fight! I really wouldn't mind
having super human strength. I work  out, and being an animator gives
me a slight boost, but nothing like that girl's. Except for the brief
and unpleasant time I was under Jean-Claude's marks, I regularly got
my *ss handed to me on a platter any time I got into a fight with a
vampire.

And the guy thing! There was this nice normal guy, who apparently had
recently broken up with a demon, right there, but no, she goes for the
vampire. Sure, he  was cute, even if his hair is too short for my
liking, but a vampire...It made my stomach turn just thinking about
it.  

Watching the show made me wonder if maybe a TV might not be such a bad
thing to  buy once I got back home. Whenever that was.

***
***

Doggett was looking forward to Mulder and Scully's arrival at the
office the Monday morning after Thanksgiving. It was the first time
that they'd be seeing their friends since the holiday. Reyes said that
Scully had mentioned anticipating a busy weekend, so they hadn't call
them. Now, after a few days to  get used to the idea, he'd been able
to push most of his worry aside, and was eager to share their news.

Thus far they'd only told Gibson, mainly so he wouldn't feel awkward
about  knowing before it was discussed with him. He'd explained the
concept of "loud thoughts" to them once, too, and they were sure that
the thoughts about the baby must register as shouts.

He and Reyes were at a research stage of their new case, which
involved cult-like crime, so they'd been in the office all morning. 
Mulder called to let them know that they would be in around
lunch-time, after they'd examined the latest victim.

" Hard to work up an appetite after that." Doggett had foolishly
remarked.

" At least it's not a skinning death." Mulder monotoned. Doggett had
only shuddered.

Once he hung up, he turned to Reyes and asked, " So, are you looking
forward to  telling them our good news?"

She gave him a half-hearted smile. " I wish I could say yes, since
you obviously are, but... I don't think we should tell them yet." 
Doggett gave her  a concerned look, wondering if there was something
wrong. Reading him, she continued. " Nothing's wrong, so don't worry
about anything like that. It's just..."

" Just what?" He prompted.

" This will probably sound silly to you, but they both care very
deeply about children. And I don't just mean theirs and Gibson,
either. Part of the way they  care is to worry... This is the first
Christmas that they'll have both kids, and it feels a little selfish
to tell them before then.  Is it wrong to want to  let them enjoy the
holiday before giving them something new to worry about?"

Doggett kissed her cheek. " Not wrong at all. I'll just have to
contain myself for another month."

" You'll manage." She grinned at him. " I'm sure I can make it worth
your-"

Mulder and Scully came in just then, so with a shared look they agreed
to continue the conversation at home.

***

I was getting no where. No where at all. I poked around in the middle
of the night, talking to what vampires who would dare talk to the
Executioner, but they didn't know anything. Never did. I'd found a bar
a lot like the one Dead Dave ran, but without the helpful bartender
who would willingly act as a go-between for humans and vamps. This
fellow was a vampire with closed lips. Very pale lips.

All I was getting out of my attempts at investigating was tired. I'd
settled into a terrible little pattern: watch Will and Emily from 7 to
4, try to stay awake until 8 or so, numbing my brain with the tv-
which I was suddenly watching way too much of-  then crash so I'd have
gotten at least a little sleep before playing interviewer to hostile,
uncooperative vampires. I swear, if I'd grabbed the average vampire in
DC's hand, they'd have gnawed it off like  an animal to get away from
me.  You would think, that if Lancaster wanted me to  get anywhere, he
might have put out a warning to the locals that they should
play ball with me. It seemed rather grating to be trying to save their
flamable * sses if they weren't even going to help me do it.

I was thoroughly sick of DC and it's vampires by the end of the first
week of December.

***

" Mulder, we're getting no where!" Scully moaned as they sat down to
watch a movie. Scully had finally given up for the night after the
kids when to bed, so  Mulder was able to get her to reluctantly agree
to pay him a little attention outside the bedroom for a change.

" You're obsessing again." He helpfully reminded her.

" I. Know. That. The question is, why aren't you? The sanguinity is
getting a little old, and it makes you seem like you know something
that the rest of us don't." She gripped.

" I know that we'll get to the bottom of this soon." He replied,
patting her on  the head.

She pulled away from him, annoyed. " How? How do you know that?"

" Because we always figure things out." He said with a smile.

" Oh, thank you Mr. Zen." She said, her voice dripping sarcasm.

A sudden wail drifted down to them. " Moooommmmyyyy!"

Scully sighed and was about to stand up when she heard Emily's voice
as well. "  Go to sleep, Will. Mommy and Daddy are busy. We're
supposed to be in bed."

" No! Want Mommy!" he insisted.

Scully shook her head, and walked to the foot of the stairs. " Emily,
bring your brother downstairs please."

Emily appeared a couple of minutes later, carrying her brother in a
precarious grip because he was squirming vigorously. " Are we in
trouble?" She asked quietly as she set Will on his feet. He
immediately ran to Scully.

This of course made Scully feel guilty. " No, Honey, you're not. It
was thoughtful of you to try to get Will to go back to bed. You've
been very good while we've been working on this case. I'm sorry that
we get stuck on thinking about work, but, unfortunately, that's how
grown-ups are some times. I was thinking, though... The Nutcracker is
going to be playing all this week, and I know someone who is trying to
sell their tickets for Thursday night. Do you think maybe we should
ask Gramma if she'd like to go with us and see it?"

" That would be so cool!" Emily exclaimed.

" No! Will cool!" her brother corrected her, making her laugh.

" Do I have to go too?" Mulder whined.

" Yes!" Everyone said, even William

***

William and I were enjoying our lunch, or rather, I was enjoying mine,
and he was tearing apart his grilled cheese, when the phone rang.

" Mrs. Scully?" A woman with a curt voice asked.

" No, I'm sorry, she's at work. I'm the nanny. Would you like to leave
a message?"

" I'm with Emily's elementary school, and I'm calling parents to let
them know that the school is closing early due to the snow storm.
Besides Emily, another pupil, George, has left this number in case of
emergencies. We can't reach his parents at work."

" Oh..." I didn't relish the idea of bringing Will out in the storm,
and bringing home two small children, but what were the alternatives?
" I'll come get them right away."

" Yes, well, we're not closing until 12:30."  She said in a clipped
manner, as if she suspected I'd drag them out of class.

" Thanks for the heads up." I hung up and shook my head.

" Mean lady." William commented.

" Right you are." I agreed. " Ready to get your sister?"

William mashed his already mangled sandwich into the tray of his
highchair. " Em come home!"

I took that as assent, and gathered up our coats and hats. His hat was
rather cute, and looked like the type a jester would wear. I'd seen a
picture from when he was smaller, and wore a bunny ear hat. I thought
this one was even cuter.

It took twenty minutes to get to the school because the wheels of
Will's carriage kept getting mired in the snow that already covered
the sidewalk. Unlike me, William seemed to enjoy the sensation of
having snow blown into his face, because he smiled even as the cold
reddened his cheeks.

I don't think I was ever so glad to be back at the house as I was
that afternoon, extra kid to look after or no.

***

Doggett cast the store window a worried look. He'd promised  Reyes
that he'd meet her at home after just one little stop before going
home, but he was beginning to worry that he had lingered in the store
too long.

It was a toy store, so it wasn't the type of place he'd been to in the
past several years. He had bought William something that first
Christmas, when he knew it would be just Scully and the baby, pining
for Mulder, but he'd ordered it on line. He'd actually already ordered
Christmas gifts for Will, Emily and Gibson, but this was different.

He knew, from past experience, that as soon as they announced the
impending birth, the gifts would begin to pour in by people charmed by
the thought of a newborn. Luke's first present had come from his
maternal grandmother, and Doggett always felt that it shouldn't have.
So this time he was determined to buy the very first gift for his new
son or daughter.

At first he'd gravitated towards stuffed animals, but he knew that it
would be something that would only gather dust for a couple of years
before the baby was  big enough to drag it by an ear or a limb. He
wanted something immediate. Something the baby would notice first
thing.

Which was why he was standing in the isle that sold mobiles. After a
shudder at  seeing one that was the duplicate of William's, he began
to look through the others. It wasn't as though William's wasn't cute,
it just seemed like it would  be tempting fate if he bought the new
baby one that had such strange memories attached to it. It didn't take
long to find another he liked just as well.

Ten minutes later he was leaving the store with a box under one arm
and a smile  on his face.

***

Monica made hot-coco and brought a mug of it to Gibson. He looked up
to thank her, but something pinched in his expression bothered her. "
So what's wrong?"

" Nothing." Gibson said quickly.

" Uh uh, you're not going to throw me off that easily. I might not be
a mind reader, but I know there's something bothering you."  Gibson
sighed deeply. " Spill it." She commanded.

" Is there going to be enough room for me after your baby is born?"

Reyes gave him a puzzled look. " You don't mean you're jealous, do
you?" She wondered if she was going to have to give a we-have-enough-l
ove-for-everyone speech, which surprised her considering his age.

" No. I mean room, literally.  Space. I'm thankful that you've taken
me in, but  if my living here will be a problem, I can probably get
into college early. I'm  already a junior, and I bet I could get them
to let me skip my senior year-"

" Oh no, Gibson, don't think like that. Our living in this apartment
was only supposed to be temporary anyway. We're planning to look for a
house this winter, and rest assured, we're not looking at anything
with less than three bedrooms. There will always be room for you. "
She said with a warm smile.

Relief flooded his face. " I didn't want to be a burden." He
muttered.

" You aren't." She declared firmly. " I think we'll need to re-heat
our coco, though."

" Let me give you a hand with that." Gibson said. As they entered the
kitchen he was in time to get the door for Doggett, who was finally
coming in from the cold.

***
***

The storm was picking up momentum, and it kept waking me up. Even
Sigmund's fuzzy presence wasn't enough to let me rest comfortably. He
tried his best though, or so I inferred from the look in his shiny
plastic eyes. Every time I woke up I thought about how silly it was to
be upset by a storm.  I'd already weathered a great many storms in my
life, but the fact that it was the first one in that strange place
made me nervous. At least at home I knew where the candles and matches
were.

Just as a huge gust howled past, there was a knock against the door.
It was only as it repeated that I realized that it wasn't the wind.
Reluctant to leave  the warmth of my bed, I eventually gave in and
padded to the door. I realized that the knocking wasn't likely to stop
otherwise if the knocker was determined  enough to see me to brave the
weather.

When I turned on a light and opened the door, I was greeted by a
snow-speckled Scully. The wind's sounds had apparently been even more
smothering than I had initially thought, since I hadn't heard her come
up through the garage. She had  a hurricane lantern in one hand, and
there was a vinyl zipper-bag under one arm. It looked like a tiny
body-bag, I caught myself morbidly thinking.  " Sorry to wake you,
Anita." She said.

She looked so apologetic that I found myself saying, " No need to
apologize, I was already awake."

" Well, it's still late...They think that the storm is going to get
much worse,  so I'm worried that the power might go out tonight. I
brought over a hurricane lantern and a couple of extra blankets just
in case."

" Thanks, that was very thoughtful of you." I said. She didn't say
anything or move to hand me the items. I realized after a second that
she wasn't paying attention, because she was staring at me. It hit me,
I'd chosen to wear a favorite t-shirt to bed.  " The scars still look
pretty shocking, huh?"     Her  checks turned as red as her hair. "
I'm sorry."

" It's ok. Most people stare the first time they see them." I wondered
if I should assure her that I'd never worn anything around the kids
that would have allowed them to notice the scars.

She shook her head, hard. " Mulder's younger brother was scarred
horribly, over  his entire body. I thought of that, I'm afraid to say.
Yours aren't nearly as bad, of course." She added anxiously,
apparently worried about offending me. She hadn't.

" Was scarred? Did he...die?" I asked, hoping I wasn't opening old
wounds, so to speak.

" No no. He had several very good reconstructive surgeries. He looks
very much like he did before, besides the synthetic hair." She
explained. " Do you mind a  personal question?"

I figured that she was going to ask me why I hadn't done the same. I
quickly prepped myself for giving an explanation about how they were,
by that point, an  integral part of who I was. " Ask away."

" Jeffery came about his scars when he was kidnapped and
tortured...how did you  get those?"

I looked down at the thick, shiny scar tissue on my arm. I couldn't
see the scars at my collarbone, but I knew they were there, and having
them looked at so intensely seemed to make them itch. I wouldn't allow
my fingers to raise up to scratch, though.  I hesitated.  All that
worrying for so long about being found out... " I was attacked."

A sympathetic look. "A stranger?" she asked. The look in her eyes
hinted that she hadn't been spared the wrath of strangers herself.

" Not exactly." I hesitated again. A voice in my mind said it was
time. I was just treading water by keeping my secret, and I suddenly
realized that there was no way that anything would be resolved if I
kept my secrets. " I was attacked at work one night, when a vampire
fought back."

She looked deeply puzzled. " You dealt with vampires while working at
the preschool?" She finally blurted out.

I didn't have any idea what she was talking about until I remembered
the salient details on my fake resume. That was sticky, but at least
she hadn't lectured me on the non-existence of vampires.

" I'm sorry." I said.

(Continued in part 4)
 
Part 4
See part 0 for header information.


" About what?" She looked even more puzzled, though that scarcely
seemed possible.

" I lied to you." I said, walking over to the small apartment's living
room. She trailed after me.

" When?" 

I wrung my hands, worried about her potential reaction. It'd be hard
to find a hotel room that time of night. " Since before I even met
you."

She sat down reflexively, picking the nearest chair. I sat on the
couch, kitty-corner from her. It probably should have been a sit-down
conversation from the start, was my belated realization.  " I don't
understand." Her voice was quiet. I didn't know what that meant.

It was incredibly hard to look her in the eyes. I sighed. " My name
really is Anita Blake, and I'm actually from St. Louis. Beyond that...
Under normal circumstances, I work for a company called Animator's
Inc." I decided to gloss over that, since she didn't seem the type to
approve of zombie raising. " I'm also a legal vampire executioner for
a tri-state area, and on rare occasions that a rogue vampire needs to
be put down, I'm called in after the warrant is received. A more time
consuming side-line is that  I'm on retainer to St. Louis 
Preternatural crime squad. Far too frequently to suit my boss, they
call me in to consult with preternatural crimes involving non-human
perpetrators and victims.  A lot of time that means vampires." I
explained.

" Like the one that bit you." She said slowly. I was impressed by the
lack of screaming. " If all this is true, what are you doing here in
DC, in our home? It doesn't sound as though you need another job." She
added with a wan smile.

" Vampires have a sort of hierarchy. Those who develop the most
strength and powers are called 'masters,' and usually, though not
always, a master vampire over-sees a region and looks after the
weaker, younger, vampires within it. Dolph, the leader of that
preternatural squad I mentioned, got a phone call from the police
here. The master of this area threatened a blood bath if he
didn't supply some help with a problem the vampires are having. After
the police failed to remedy the issue, Dolph suggested that I might be
the best help they could get."

" But what does that have to do with us??"  She was starting to get
upset. Understandably, I thought.

" The problem that the vamps have been having is that someone, either
another vampire or a human, presumably, has been murdering the
youngest vampires in this area. Five so far have been found after
having been forced into daylight."

Scully gave me a blank look at first, then understanding blossomed in
her eyes.  " Our case." She breathed.

I nodded in agreement. " Indeed. Dolph had hoped that being planted
here would help me to learn more about what you and Agent Mulder were
doing on the case.  Unfortunately, while I've enjoyed caring for your
children, this clandestine arrangement hasn't helped either of us get
any closer to figuring this out. If we're going to save the city from
the threatened blood-bath, we'll have to work  together." I waited
nervously for her reaction.

Finally, she cocked her head to the side and asked, " Of course we'll
work with  you. This case needs to be solved, but... will you still be
able to look after Will and Emily during the day?"

I couldn't help but grin.

***

Mulder awoke to Scully standing over him. He gave her a lazy smile. "
When did you get up? That usually wakes me."

" About an hour ago. Mulder, we need to talk."

He immediately sat up with a panicky look on his face. " Is Emily sick
again?" He asked, his memories of her recent illness and doubt over
the finality of the  cure filling his mind.

Scully sat on the bed and gave his leg a reassuring pat. " Em and Will
are both  fine. I just checked on them."

" Then what is it then?"

" As much as it pains me to admit it, you were right. Anita isn't what
we thought she is. Or isn't only, rather."

" Oh? Is she a member of a wacky cult? Or an alien shape-shifter?" He
asked eagerly.

Scully shook her head ruefully. She should have known that the
revelation of a secret background would be more interesting than
worrisome to him. He seemed to  trust the girl despite his suspicions,
and his earlier comment about being intrigued by the possibility of
the girl having secrets should have predicted his response. "
No...She...She's on retainer for a police force that deals with 
preternatural crime, sort of like us, actually. Her superior sent her
here on an under-cover assignment because they know that our case
involves...vampires."  She finished with a frown, knowing what his
reaction would be.

" I knew it!" Mulder crowed. " And you threatened to hit me for even
suggesting  that the victims were vampires." He finished with a
reproachful look.

" Oh please." She muttered. " So does this mean that you're willing to
work with her to solve this case?"

" Well, yeah." He drawled. " Seeing as we're struggling on our own.
Anita Blake  Vampire Slayer. I like the sound of that." His grin was
dopey and he completely  missed the suspicious look Scully gave him.
She was wondering if Brian's mom hadn't been the only one letting
Emily watch Buffy. She dimly recalled that it was on early in the
morning as well as the evening...

" I don't think so. We're not trying to add to the body count, so she
shouldn't  be slaying anything." Scully objected.

" Hunter, then. Hunting can mean finding, not just killing." Mulder
reasoned.

" Whatever."

" Yes, our nanny, Anita Blake Vampire Hunter..." Mulder waxed on in a
monotone until he noticed that Scully was on the verge of throwing
pillows at him.

***

I put it off as long as I could, but eventually I had to face the
music, so I called Dolph. No, I wasn't afraid that he'd rant and
scream at me, because he wouldn't. Heavy silences were more his style.
It wasn't a call I was looking forward to.

Someone reasonably cheerful for the time of day- around five pm there-
answered  the phone in dispatch. "Sergeant Dolph Storr, please." I
didn't know who it was, but there were several people in dispatch, and
I'd only made an effort to get to know a couple of them.

" Who might I say is calling?" The chipper male voice asked.

" Anita Blake."

" Oh yes, Sergeant Storr said to send any calls from you through
immediately."

I didn't like the sound of that. It made me think that Dolph had been
sitting by the phone, waiting for news. That sort of thing can almost
make a person feel guilty. " Thanks."

A moment later, there was a click on the line. " Dolph." 

" It's Anita, Dolph."

" Just checking in, or do you have some news to report?" He asked.

" Well..." I twisted the phone cord in my fingers. " I broke my
cover." I said in a rush. There, it was out.

There was nothing but silence on the other end of the line. Finally,
he said something. " I see."

As it was calculated to do, the non-accusing comment made me what to
explain myself.  " The case was going no where, and then the woman,
Scully, saw my vampire scars, and I simply couldn't continue to lie to
her...but it's ok, they're going to work with me so we get this all
wrapped up. Which, frankly, I'm looking forward to, since I don't want
to still be here over the holidays..." He let me babble on like an
idiot. I'm sure it amused him.

" Well." He said slowly. " If you've worked it out with the FBI
agents, I guess  there's no harm in them knowing who you are. Keep me
informed on how you progress."

" Will do." I said. Before I could say good-bye he'd hung up. I wonder
if anyone had ever gotten anything but a dial tone from him when he
ended a conversation.

***
***

Mulder twisted in his seat, and tried not to yawn. Emily, on the other
hand, was wide-eyed and paying rapt attention. Mulder glanced
enviously at his lap, where Will was quietly dosing. Scully had made
good on her threat, and bought them tickets to the Nutcracker.

He glanced over, and saw that Scully and her mother were paying as
close attention as Emily. Sighing inaudibly, Mulder began to make a
mental list of people whom he was, at that very moment, envious of:
Skinner, who was probably at home watching a hockey game; Anita, who
he'd noticed as they left returning from the video store with a bag
full of movies; Doggett and Reyes, who were probably doing something
as a couple that didn't involve uncomfortable seats; Gibson, who was
probably doing something more interesting, like calculus
homework.

The ballet was just at the scene when the nutcracker was being
harassed by giant rodents, when  something in the audience caught his
attention. At first he wondered if the young man was a member of the
cast who'd snuck out for a break, but eventually he realized that no
one on stage was paying him any attention because they didn't know
him. It was this realization that made his crown seem like a more
peculiar affectation. Mulder found himself wondering if
there was now en vogue to dress up at ballets like one would at an
airing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Glancing around he saw that
no one was in costume, so he shrugged.

The man must have sensed that he'd captured Mulder's attention, 
because he turned in his seat just then, and awarded Mulder with a
sardonic little wave. Mulder shivered and became very interested in
the remainder of the ballet.    ***

I'm not sure if it fell under my job description or not, but I found
myself out  shopping with Emily and William for parental Christmas
gifts. I'd thought that Mrs. Scully might have done it while she had
them a while back, but apparently Emily convinced her than I would be
a much better co-shopper. Me? The only thing I bought on a regular
basis was flowers for Ronnie and Edward when it was  them who ended up
in the hospital for a change. They didn't wake up in stark
white rooms as often as I did, but they took their breaks and bruises
too.

Be that as it may, I did succumb to the inevitable, and helped them
pick out gifts. Or rather, I followed Emily around while she picked
out gifts, since Will didn't seem to care much about buying things.
Emily would ask my opinion on each thing that caught her eye, which
reminded me of all the times Ronnie played fashion consultant for me.
She's always had great taste in clothes. We eventually picked out
suitable gifts for Mulder, Scully, Mrs. Scully, and various other
people on the kids' list, although William's list was far
shorter, since he didn't know as many people. Fortunately, the gifts'
costs didn't exceed the amount of cash Mulder designated for the
shopping trip.

It was fully dark by the time we got outside. Since I didn't have a
car, Mulder  had also given me money to hire a cab for there and back.
It was easier than walking, that's for sure. We brought a stroller
along anyway, though, since William was too little to walk around the
mall for hours, and I didn't relish the idea of carrying him. It
proved useful to fill with bags while I let him toddle holding our
hands on the way out, too. 

I was trying to hail a cab when it happened. A stocky figure in a
college sweater rushed up to us. I cringed, and held on tighter to the
little hands. The last thing I needed while with the kids was run-in
with the fratpire. If I'd been by myself, I could have dealt with him,
but since I didn't want to put  the little ones at risk, I was
prepared to scream bloody murder to get the attention of other leaving
shoppers. It turned out that it wouldn't be necessary.

" You're Anita Blake, right?" He asked, his voice sounded So Cal,
which was odd  given it was DC. I nodded. " Cute kids."

" Yeah, thanks. What did you want?"

" Ok, so Lancaster said we ought to tell you if we like knew anything
about those guys dying. I don't know anything for one hundred percent
sure, but I think I heard something important." 

I kept waiting for him to say " Dude!"  " What was it that you think
you heard?" 

" I um, heard a couple, three people talking. Vampires. They were
saying how that someone they knew was gonna kick off on December 15th.
  They didn't sound  too sad about it, come to think about it.
Anyways, they were gonna meet at 4am at that High Stakes place. I
thought you should know or something."

" Um. Thanks. I'll tell Lancaster that you were very helpful...what
was your name?"

" Chip." He said with a smile.

Chip the vampire. How unmenacing sounding can you get? At least we had
a lead. I think.

*** 

Anita told Mulder and Scully about the tip-off as soon as Scully sent
Emily up to get ready for dinner. " I'm not sure what they understood
about what was going on," Anita told them, referring to the kids. "
But he did mention the 'v'  word, and death, so Emily might have
questions for you. I thought it would be best to let you handle it,
since she didn't ask me any direct questions about it."

They thanked her, and said they'd deal with that hurtle when and if it
came to that. Anita declined the invite to stay for dinner, saying she
had some phone calls to make. Dinner went off without any mention of
the subject, so they began to feel a false sense of security. It
didn't last.

Mulder was sitting on the couch reading a sci-fi novel when Emily
scrambled up and scooted next to him. She didn't say anything, but
instead gave him appealing looks. Finally, he put his book aside and
smiled at her. " What's up?"

" Dad...I think Anita has a secret." She confided. Mulder immediately
began to feel wary. They hadn't told the kids anything about Anita's
true identity yet, hoping it wouldn't come up.

As casually as he could, he asked, " What sort of secret?"

" Well, a while back, she said she had no idea who Buffy was, right? I
think she was pretending. I think she knows a lot about vampires."

" You do?" Mulder asked, hoping his nervousness didn't show. He began
to wish that he'd offered to put Will down for the night. 

" Yeah, I think...I think she might be one of the writers for Buffy!"
Emily exclaimed.

" What?" Mulder's mind had gone a total blank.

" They keep showing these things on TV about Buffy, and lots of them
are with people who write the show. There are a bunch of different
writers. A guy talked  to Anita today, and it sounded just like one of
the thingies on tv with the writers talking to each other. I think
they were setting up a meeting to write the show. Do you think she
could be one of them?"

" I suppose it's possible..." Mulder agreed faintly. His head began to
ache.

Emily bounced on the couch. " Cool! Can I ask her about the episode?"

" Um...You know that there was a movie based on what Mommy and I do at
work, right?" Mulder asked, and she nodded vigorously. " Well, we had
to talk with a writer, and he pretended to work with us, so he could
write things accurately,"  yeah right, he thought. " and a lot of
people wanted to know about what was going to happen, but he couldn't
talk about it until the movie was made."

" How come?" Emily asked, looking disappointed.

" The writers have to sign a contract saying that they won't talk
about things,  because there are people who might steal the ideas if
they overhear them. The people making the movie or show might not be
able to finish it if that happens."

" Oh...I won't ask her then. I'll even pretend she doesn't have
anything to do with the show."

" That's a good idea." Mulder agreed. *Scully is either going to find
this funny, or kill me,* he thought. " Pretend that she's just your
nanny."

" I will. You and Mom like her, right?" Emily asked.

" Sure. We might even go out some place with her before Christmas."

" Like with John and Monica, right? Grownups go out with friends."

" Yup, just like that." Mulder said, wondering for the first time what
was going to happen when Anita had to leave. The thought of finding a
new nanny gave his head ache new strength.

" I'm going to ask Mom if we can watch Buffy." Emily said, slipping
off the couch with a grin.

" Do you have any homework?" Mulder called, but she giggled and ran up
the stairs instead of answering.

***

The reason I gave for declining the dinner invite was legitimate
rather than invented. I sat cross-legged on the middle of the bed
while talking on the phone. I'd gotten the overwhelming desire to get
in touch with people from home  after the latest vampire run-in, so
I'd picked the person I could talk the most  freely with. Someone
without raging testosterone that would cloud their view of 
what was going on, and someone with no reason to feel that they had to
color the truth in order to make anyone else look good, or else. 

That of course immediately ruled out all the vampires and
werecreatures that I knew. So I called Ronnie. I suppose I could have
called Edward, but while we were something like friends, he wasn't the
type of buddy you just called up for  a friendly chat. He was the type
of friend you called to get back up.

Ronnie seemed thrilled to hear from me, which is nice. It feels good
to know you're missed. "Anita! I didn't know if I'd hear from you
before you got back."

" I wasn't going to call anyone, but I've been feeling a little
homesick." I told her. " How is everything going around there?" I knew
she would know, she's  a PI, it's her job to keep tabs on things.

" By everything you're asking about vampires and things that grow fur
by moonlight?" She shrewdly guessed.

" Well...yeah." I admitted. " Of course I want to know about you
first." I hastily added.

" I'm fine. Everything over at Animator's Inc is doing fine, but Bert
was complaining to me the last time I was in the office that you've
been gone too long." Ronnie is on retainer at Animator's Inc, much
like my own connection to Dolph's team. Bert calls her in to handle
cases of a more investigative nature than most of us handle on a day
to day basis. " Although I'm not sure what he's  complaining about,
there's very little raising of the dead going on right now,
so far as I can tell. "

" That's good to hear. Larry's still in one piece, right?" I asked.
The only qualm I'd had about taking the leave of absence was that Bert
would request too  much of our intern. The kid was a good animator,
but not as in control of his power yet as I'd like. Not to mention he
kept getting into scrapes with vampires, although that was more my
fault than his. He was only four years younger than me, but I felt so
much older.

" Larry's fine." She assured me. " The vampires don't seem that
interested in him without you around. And as far as I can tell, he's
been bright enough not to seek them out on his own."

It was nice to know he'd listened to me. For once. " Speaking of
vampires... Have Jean-Claude and Richard been behaving themselves?" 

" Publicly, at least. Louie told me that they haven't been so much as
in the same room together since you left." Ronnie said.

Louie? Why was she talking to Richard's best friend? I shrugged it
off, it wasn't my business if she didn't care to tell me. " That's
good to hear." Even I could hear the relief in my own voice.

" So... when are you coming home?" She asked.

I shrugged, then remembered that people on the phone can't see you. "
I don't know. I'm hoping that it will be before Christmas. We've
finally gotten a lead,  so maybe it'll be cleared up soon."

" We?" 

" I blew my cover. Dolph knows. The FBI agents were pretty cool about
it, considering. So now we're working together on solving this, since
none of us were getting anywhere by ourselves. The kids don't know who
I am, though. At least they don't as far as I know, but the parents
might clue in the older kid.  I think she could handle it." I
explained.

" Ah.  So have you been miserable playing nanny? I know you're not the
kids type." Ronnie said, probably thinking of the many conversations
in which I'd firmly declared my intentions to be child-free forever.

" Actually, I'm not. They're nice little kids. The little girl, Emily,
is so bright they put her ahead a couple of grades. I overheard her
talking to one of  her little friends recently, and I think she was
really sick not long ago and spent a lot of time in the hospital," I
told her, thinking about the afternoon Georgie was over until his
parents could get him. That was strange. Mulder had mentioned that
she'd almost died when she was three, but could she still get
that sick? " They never talk about it, and she seems healthy, so I'm
not going to bring it up. "

" There's a baby too, right?" She asked me.

" Oh yes. William. He's an adorable little kid, but he's a handful.
He's um...telekinetic. " I wasn't sure how she'd respond. She believed
in a lot of the supernatural since she'd seen it, but moving objects
with one's mind wasn't  a human talent we'd ever discussed.

" That sound like a fun kid to clean up after." She laughed.

" Yeah...I didn't believe his parents until he got ahold of something
off the table he could never have reached and doused himself with it.
Do you know how hard it is to get glue out of a toddler's hair? He's
supposed to be telepathic,  too, but it's sort of hard to tell since
he doesn't talk a whole lot yet."

" Sounds like you're having a fun time, vampires not withstanding."
Ronnie commented.

" Sometimes. "

" Is it going to be hard to leave them behind when the problem with
vampires is  cleared up?"

" I haven't known them long, so probably not." I said, but I wasn't so
sure.

***
***

December 13th

Scully hung up the phone. There was a frustrated look on her face, so
Mulder asked, " What's wrong? "

" Mulder, that was Mom. She's calling from a doctor's office in
Atlanta. A friend of hers needed to see a specialist, and was afraid
of making the trip alone, so my mother offered to go with her. They
were supposed to catch a flight home an hour ago, but the specialist
ordered a whole new battery of tests- for tomorrow. The woman is
frightened, so Mom can't just leave her there-"

" Of course she can't!" Mulder exclaimed. He knew that Maggie was too
kind to abandon anyone in need.  

" But it means that she's not going to be able to watch the kids for
us." Scully said unhappily. They'd arranged for Maggie to keep an eye
on Will and Emily so the adults could stake-out the place Chip said
the next vampire death was going to take place at.

Mulder thought for a moment, before his face brightened. " Please give
me the phone, I've got an idea." Scully handed it to him without a
word. Mulder dialed  a number quickly, and from memory. As soon as it
connected he cheerfully said, " Hi Doggett, it's Mulder. Can I ask you
a favor?"

Doggett glanced at the clock. It was eight at night. Favors asked for
that late  were seldom little ones. "What do you need?" He asked
warily.

" Well...I know you said earlier that you were in for a boring night
since Reyes was taking Gibson on a shopping excursion to NY, and they
aren't going to  be home until tomorrow. I was wondering if you'd like
some company- in the form  of two little angels."

Instead of answering in words, Doggett groaned.

Mulder was not deterred.  " We finally got a lead on our case, and
were planning to stake out the place from two until probably sunrise.
I think vampires head in at sunrise, anyway.  Maggie was going to take
the kids tonight, but she is stuck in Atlanta with a sick friend, so
she had to cancel. You're our only hope."

Doggett dragged a hand over his face. He decided not to even ask what
Mulder meant by vampires. " Couldn't you get the nanny to spend the
night with them? Pay her time and a half or something."

" No. She's going with us." Mulder told him.

" You're taking the nanny with you on a stake out?!" Doggett yelped in
surprise.

" Uh...we'll explain her connection to everything when the case is
over." Mulder said nervously.

" Oh, what the hell. Bring them over in a couple of hours. They can
sleep in Gibson's room, but you better bring a playpen or something
for Will. I don't want him to fall out of Gibson's bed."

" Thanks! They'll be no problem, I swear." Mulder said excitedly.

" Just bring them over before I change my mind." Doggett said. 

" Thanks, pal."

" Don't call me pal." Doggett said sourly. So much for a night
watching NASCAR,  accompanied by a couple of cold ones.

***

We got there at 1:57 am. The owner of High Stakes nearly fell over
himself in his efforts to oblige us. Mulder explained to me that the
rooftop of the man's business had already been a crime scene, which
explained his 100% willingness to help the FBI. The poor bastard was
probably worried that he'd be a suspect if he showed any resistance.

Though Mulder and Scully had been there, I hadn't seen the place
before, so it was interesting to learn that the door opened right in
the middle. In fact the door rose up in a shed-like structure, that
was perfect for three adults to crouch behind. Assuming that they'd be
coming from the road. As soon as I had that thought, I began to fret.

I think it was noticeable, because Mulder gave me a reassuring grin. "
Stake outs are a little nerve-wracking, huh?" 

I nodded. I kept thinking about the night I spent helping Dolph and
the rest of  RPIT team look for the killer zombie that'd broken free
from the animator that had raised it. I haven't looked at trash-cans
the same way since. We weren't in  that sort of danger, but the same
thing was at stake- innocent lives. Or afterlives, depending on how
you view vampiric existence.

My worries about being seen were soon put to rest as I watched Mulder
and Scully move around some wooden packing crates that were on the
roof. They didn't seem as excited about the door, since they weren't
going anywhere near it. I soon got the idea that they intended to
surround us with the boxes, reducing are chances of being seen. "
These boxes being here is convenient."  I  noted.

" Convenient nothing," Scully said as I helped her to haul one into
place. " We  had them delivered this afternoon. You don't do a
stakeout in December without having something to help keep out the
elements."

" Usually, we do stakeouts in a car, but you can see why that wouldn't
work in this case, so we had to improvise. It's sort of like a duck
blind, don't you think?" Mulder asked as we finished stacking up the
boxes near the center of the roof. There were several tiny window-like
openings that we could view most of the rooftop from. " Except I guess
this would be a vampire blind." He chuckled. From the outside it
really did look like a collection of randomly piled boxes.

" Very clever, Mulder." Scully said dryly. We all filed in, dragged a
few more boxes into place to block the "doorway," then threw a few
large pieces of cardboard over the top of the structure.

Mulder leaned towards me. " She's probably unhappy because she can't
sleep while we're crammed in like this. Scully normally takes naps if
we're in the car." He said in a conspiratorial tone. 

" I do not." Scully said irritably.

" Oh yeah? What about when we were looking for Pusher?" Mulder
complained. " You drooled on me!"

" You told me I didn't really." Scully insisted.

" I was just trying to be polite." 

I realized that it was going to be a very long two-hour wait, so I
hunkered down in front of one of the openings and looked out at the
clear cold night. It  was fortunate that the three of us produced a
lot of heat in the little area, so we were in no danger of freezing.
Of course the vampires wouldn't be bothered by the cold, but I was
hoping it would bother whatever it was that was  hunting them. I was
also betting on it being too cold for them to smell us, but 
I supposed there was a risk that they could detect us, since I didn't
actually know if the sense of smell was affected by cold, or when
vampires said they could smell humans if they meant it literally.
What's a stakeout without a little risk, though, right? Since Mulder
and Scully didn't actually ask me if vampires could smell people, I
didn't mention it. Mulder seemed like the obsessive type, so why worry
him about a vague possibility?   I decided to try to distract them
from their squabbling since it seemed not to be ending on its
own. " These holes are nice. I'll be able to video tape what goes on
through them." Besides a cell phone and the laptop, Dolph had insisted
I borrow the camera as well. I half suspected that he was hoping I'd
bring back some video of Lancaster. He was hoping for something like
America's Wackiest Vampires, I guess.

" Why video?" Scully asked immediately.

" You haven't meet Lancaster. He's petty and immature, and I know
there's no way he'll ever believe the explanation of what is happening
to his vampires unless he sees it." I told her.

" Vampires show up on film?" Mulder asked with interest. " I thought
that they wouldn't, like mirrors."

I shook my head. " Vampires show up on film. If you watched the news
where I'm from, you'd see them talking to spokesvampires on occasion.
I even think that they show the masses for The Church of Eternal Life
on the public access channel."

" Good to know." Mulder said drolly. I didn't bother to ask why it was
good to know. It'd probably have lead to more bickering. Instead we
talked about the game plan: observe until it looked like the vampire
would die without our interference.  I wasn't sure I liked that, but
it was the way it was going to have to be.

***

As they hunkered down in the blind, Mulder let his thoughts roam free.
It was easy to come up with an explanation if you didn't discount
anything, anything at all, out of hand. He was thinking about the
message that the frat-boy vampire had given Anita. He didn't see
anything new out of the openings, so he turned to Anita and whispered.
" Anita, what exactly did that vampire say to you? Exactly."

She was quiet for a minute, obviously thinking. Scully looked at
Mulder with interest, wondering what he'd come up with. " Does it have
to be exactly what he said?" Anita asked plaintively.

" Exactly." Mulder said with a firm nod.

Anita imitated the vampire's So Cal accent. " I um, heard a couple,
three people talking. Vampires. They were saying how that someone they
knew was gonna  kick off on December 15th.   They didn't sound too sad
about it, come to think about it. Anyways, they were gonna meet at 4am
at that High Stakes place. I thought you should know or something."

Mulder snapped his fingers. " It's just what I thought."

" And that is what?" Scully asked sharply, hoping to keep him on
track.

" The other vampires, the ones he heard talking, must be involved in
this.  Or how else would they know that the other vampire was going to
die?"

" They heard a rumor?" Scully suggested.

" Not likely. " Anita said. " The sort of thing that would kill a
vampire wouldn't casually mention it to someone, it'd sooner have as
an additional victim."

" Then at least we know that the killer is a vampire." Mulder said
confidently. 

" I wouldn't be sure of that." Anita objected. " That's jumping too
much to conclusion at this point. We'll know more when the potential
victim shows up."

Unused to anyone but Scully and their fellow agents correcting him,
Mulder sank  into a sulky silence.

***

A few minutes before four a.m., we heard voices.  Scully pointed
towards the opening nearest her, indicating that she could see them. I
looked out the opening near my shoulder, and was relieved to see that
I had a decent view as well. As quietly as I could, I put the lens of
the camera into the opening.

There were four vampires, and, to my astonishment, they looked
completely at ease. All of them. My first thought was that this must
be because the victim didn't know what was going to happen. But which
one was the victim?

There were four vampires, two men, two women. They were all very
young. I could  sense that in terms of power, they were mere babies. I
don't think any of them had been a vampire for more than five or six
years. I glanced at Mulder and Scully, and I knew that they wanted to
know if all four were vampires. I nodded. You couldn't tell from
out-ward appearances, since they were dressed like neo-hippy concert
goers. Bright colors, not black, their skin looking healthy instead of
deadly pale. I knew of course that could only be because
they'd recently feed, but I began to feel less of an urge to talk to
Mulder and  Scully. For some inexplicable reason, the vampires were
setting up candles and gathering around them.

When I listened hard, I realized that I could hear what the four
cheery vampires were saying. One of the males, the one with long honey
blond hair, said in a ringing voice, " I now call this meeting to
order."

Mulder gave me another questioning look, but all I could do was shrug.
I'd never heard of any rooftop meetings of vampire clubs.

The meeting wasn't very illuminating about their purpose or goals. All
they did  was stand there, and stand there and... 

***

Mulder felt himself getting sleepy as he watched the vampires. Scully,
despite his prediction, proved not to be too cold to fall asleep. She
leaned heavily against him, and he sort of envied Anita the additional
room to move that she had. He thought about waking Scully a few times,
but decided against it. The last thing they needed was their cover
broken because she made a noise or thrashed around when startled
awake. Eventually she came around on her own, so there was no need to
wake her before the action started.

Not that there was a lot of action. The vampires stood around their
candles and  looked at the sky. Mulder wondered if there was some sort
of vampire equivalent  to Santa Claus, because this gathering was
beginning to remind him strongly of Linus waiting for the Great
Pumpkin.

Finally, as the sky began to lighten slightly, the vampires moved. 
One of the males took off his coat, which Anita suspected he'd worn
just to blend in with humans as they made their way there, and sat
down on the roof, giving the sky an expectant look. Both the female
vampires bent down and kissed him on the cheek, murmuring something no
one in the blind could hear.

The other male vampire pulled out a long flat box and smiled at the
sitting vampire. He bent and handed him the box. " Here is your
salvation." He said in a loud voice, and the others nodded.

Anita tensed, expecting that there was some sort of trick in the box
designed to kill the vampire. But the vampire seemed to know what it
was. " My salvation." He agreed. When he took the top off the box,
there was a flare of blinding white light, but none of the vampires
seemed bothered by it. Anita knew instantly that it was a cross.

***

My mind went blank at the sight of that cross. I knew that there were
some vampires that don't fear crosses, but I'd never heard of one
deliberately handling one. At least not without intending to inflict
torture on a less powerful vampire. This didn't seem to be the case,
since none of the other vampires looked the least bit nervous.

" With this, and the cleansing light, you will be free, Chris." The
first male said.

" Free." The females echoed.

" Free from this half life." Chris agreed eagerly. " Free from a
damning contract."

" We envy you. But we will join you eventually." The first male told
him as he and the females turned from him.

I stared at Mulder, my eyes wide. I didn't know if he knew what 'the
cleansing light' was, but I was pretty sure I did. I was about to
whisper to him when two  things happened: the three other vampires
kicked the door on the roof open and hurried away, and the sun broke
free of the clouds in a beautiful sunrise.

" We have to move. Now!" I shouted, using my shoulder to topple part
of our blind. While it was solid enough to keep in heat, it was
unfortunately, also solid enough to withstand my initial assaults on
it. I now regretted our artful  stacking of multiple layers of boxes. 
For a moment Mulder and Scully just stood there, giving me bewildered
looks; I suspected that they were confused, having assumed that the
danger was gone when the other vampires left, but eventually they
caught on, and helped me create an opening to get out of the
blind.

We were too late to do much. Oh, I picked up Chris's coat and beat at
the flames, but it was really too late. I half suspected that he'd
poured some sort  of acellorant on himself, but I'd seen other
vampires go up quickly, too. I think that the tears helped keep the
smoke out of my eyes. I wasn't crying out of sadness over a dead
vampire that I didn't know, but because we'd failed.

***
***

Lancaster's eyes were dark when Anita hit the "stop" button on the VCR
that night. Mulder and Scully kept giving the vampire nervous looks,
but Anita seemed perfectly calm. The fact that Mulder recognized him
as the vampire he'd seen at the Nutcracker only made him more
apprehensive. Anita had tried to explain to him that vampires can read
minds,  which is probably how Lancaster had known he was connected to
her, but all Mulder could picture was Gibson dressed as Dracula.

No one spoke for several moments. Eventually Lancaster broke the
silence." I can't deny the truth of the matter." He said heavily. "
Not when the evidence is right before me." Anita was glad that the
video camera only taped up to the point when there were the first
wisps of smoke started to come from the dead vampire: the camera had
been lost  and nearly forgotten after that in the scramble to get out
of the blind.

" I'm sorry." Anita told him sincerely. Scully thought she could
appreciate that. Despite the fact that the man before them was a
vampire, the dead one had  once been someone, or perhaps thing, that
he'd cared about.

He paced, the foolish crown bobbing with every tread of his foot. " A
vampire suicide club. Who ever heard of such a thing?" He stopped and
faced the three of them. " I want to thank you."

Anita blinked at him in surprise. " Why? We weren't able to save him.
He died, and there was nothing we could do about it."

Lancaster gave her a grim smile. " I'm thanking you for delving out
the truth. Now that I know that there is nothing harming my young
ones, besides themselves, we can all rest more easily. There's no fear
of someone stealing away our lives."

Mulder had to force himself not to react to the word "lives." He gave
the vampire a sad smile. " I wish there was more that we could have
done..." He trailed off awkwardly.

" You've done more than I'd expect from humans. We'll deal with those
who are intending to sacrifice themselves to the sun. They need some
help and understanding... to see the light." Lancaster said, his face
giving away no indication that he was aware of the ghastly pun he'd
just made.

(Continued in part 5)
 
Part 5
See part 0 for header information.


" Good luck with that." Scully murmured. 

A few minutes later, they left the morose vampire and went home.

***    I called Dolph the next day, and explained that the case had
been broken, although not terribly successfully. After that I began to
pack up my things. I couldn't believe that it was finally over, and I
was going to be able  to go home. 

Mulder and Scully didn't seem too broken up about my leaving. They
said they'd miss me, and that they would have trouble replacing me as
their nanny. I was equally stoic. I don't think any of us were
prepared to admit how much we liked  each other, not when my leaving
was inevitable.

The children, however, were none so inhibited as the adults. I thought
it would  be easier to tell William, if only because he was less
likely than his sister to understand my explanation. I, however,
underestimated the comprehension skills a nineteen-month-old might
have. Or this particular one, anyway. 

I sat him on my lap, remembering at the last minute to sweep my long
hair away from his chubby little fingers, and tried talk to him. "
William," I started. His bright blue eyes were riveted to my face, as
if he knew I had something important to say. " It's been a lot of fun
looking after you and your sister- "

" Em." He corrected me.

" Right, Emily." I hesitated a moment, my train of thought broken. " I
like you  kids a lot, but I need to go home now. Back to where I live.
I'm going to miss you." 

He gave a startled blink. " Ne-ta go bye-bye?" He asked. I was
surprised that he understood so easily. " Not come back?"

" Yes. I need to go." I said gently.

" Noooooooooo!" He howled. He punched me in the nose before he burst
into tears  and ran off. I couldn't tell if the punch had been
deliberate or not.

I really hadn't expected that. I heard Mulder catch him in the next
room, and try to comfort him. During all this, Emily came in,
apparently wondering what the noise was about. I rubbed my sore nose.

" What's wrong with Will?" She asked, giving me a wary look.

" I said something that upset him."

" What?" She asked, getting right to the point.

I sighed and gave her a sad look. " I had to explain to him that I'm
not going to be able to continue to be your nanny. I'm needed back
home."

" At home?" She gave me a blank look. " Your home is some place else?
Where?"

" Saint Louis."

" That sounds really far away." She said in a small voice.

" It is." 

" So you're not going to be able to visit." I was afraid she was going
to cry too. Me too.

" Maybe some times. There are airplanes, you know."

Emily threw her arms around my neck, throwing me off balance. " I'll
miss you."

I hugged her. " I'll miss you too."

***

The coffee steamed merrily as Maggie Scully sat at the kitchen table
with Mulder.  She gave him a kind look. " I really don't mind,
Mulder." She repeated  for at least the third time since she'd gotten
there. This did nothing to erase  the guilty look from his face.

" It's too much to ask-" He began, but she cut him off.

" Of course it's not. They're my grandchildren. How could helping to
care for them fall into the realm of above and beyond? Many
grandparents raise their grandchildren without complaint, so looking
after them for a few hours a day is  nothing in comparison." Maggie
said with a bright smile.

Mulder had to resist a shudder when she mentioned people raising
their grandchildren. That sort of statement seemed too much like
tempting fate for his comfort. " We'll be getting another nanny soon,
of course." He hastened to assure her.

" I'm sure you will." Maggie said, patting his hand. " It's a shame
that you lost that lovely young woman, though. She seemed so nice."

Mulder smiled to himself. The girl had turned out to a tough as nails
vampire hunter, how does that stack up against nice? He didn't think
Maggie would understand that. " The kids miss her already." He said
instead. " We all wish she wasn't needed back home."

" True, but the willingness to honor one's commitments is admirable,
even if it  disrupts one's plans." Maggie said with conviction. Scully
had told her that Anita had to go home to care for a sick parent, so
Maggie was slightly mislead about what commitments it was that the
girl was honoring.

" You have a point." Mulder told her. " I can't thank you enough-"

" Now, now... I'll be by to care for William in the morning. Perhaps
he can help me come up with fun ways to spend Emily's vacation."
Maggie said in a tone  that suggested that there would be no further
question about her caring for the  kids while they were at work. Not
up to arguing any longer against such a formidable opponent, Mulder
could only nod.

***

I slipped back into my old life like I'd never left it. My homecoming
was rather subdued, since I forbade everyone from making a big deal
about it. I honestly didn't want to dwell on leaving the strange
existence I'd grown to like over the past several weeks. I thought the
best way to keep myself from feeling sad was to pretend that I didn't
feel anything at all. I was moderately  successful at this attempt.

Though it was a few days before Christmas, I found myself on another
task almost immediately. A man whose wife had gone missing had
approached our firm, finally explaining that he was wary of going to
the police because his wife was  a werewolf and he was afraid that she
would be outed if they knew. I couldn't really blame him, not too many
people were wont to let the world know that they  were werewolves,
since there was so much common bigotry against them. Against
my better judgment, I agreed to think about taking the case on. It
wasn't as though I was doing much zombie-raising then, anyway.

I didn't end up agreeing to help after all. Perhaps reconsidering my
rash acceptance of this case, I tried to convince the man to give to
Ronnie instead.  This was more her specialty anyway. After a period of
arguing in Ronnie's favor, I finally convinced the man that she could
be trusted to keep her mouth shut. Lord knows she kept enough of my
secrets.

Once the man left my office, I began to wonder if my reluctance to
deal with a werewolf case had something to do with Richard. I'd seen
him the night I'd gotten back, and nearly every day since then. He, at
least, didn't take my admonishments that I didn't want a big deal made
very seriously. I was immediately sure that he'd missed me quite a
lot, and by more ways than his instant agreement to the suggestion
that he accompany me to a musical right before Christmas. 

***
***

December 25th

The entire living room was strewn with wrapping paper. Scully didn't
complain to any of them about it; she confined herself to shaking her
head disapprovingly at the mess. Mulder kept grinning at her, because
he knew that the mess must be driving her insane. She couldn't tell if
the grin was meant to  convey his opinion that she was being a good
trooper, or if it was merely gloating. It didn't seem worth the effort
to try and figure out.

William seemed to be enjoying himself thoroughly. He didn't seem to
find the gifts that Mulder had painstakingly picked out nearly as much
as the boxes they  had come in, though. Scully was prepared to tell
Mulder, who would inevitably be disappointed, that it was normal
behavior for a toddler, but Mulder was far too engrossed in setting up
the baby-safe train-set to even notice. " Look, Will! It has a bell
and everything!" He exclaimed excitedly. Since he didn't
look  away from the train as he spoke to William, he didn't notice
that his son  was climbing into a large box, rather than listening to
anything to with the train.

Emily, on the other hand, was completely fascinated by the gift Scully
had insisted at the last minute that they buy. The doll house was
elaborate, and nearly as tall as its new owner. There was siding on
it, perfectly to scale, and it even had working lights. The furniture
looked real, and the family meant  to people it was exquisite,
detailed in every way.  The little girl had another  doll house, one
made of plastic, but she'd wistfully confided that she wished
that she had one that was more realistic, hastening to assure them
that she was  careful enough to own a far more delicate possession.

Scully believed her, but she'd found a model with a removable front
that could be hinged into place to keep it from being tampered with by
tiny hands. Remembering her own childhood, she wisely sought ways to
cut off potential sibling rivalry at the past.

Emily looked up from her examination of a tiny sofa and asked Scully,
" Mom, what should we do with the other doll house? It's a good house,
someone should play with it."

Scully shrugged. " Maybe we can put it in the attic. I'm sure you'll
meet someone you'd like to give it to some day."

Emily's eyes lit up. " That sounds like a good idea!" She hesitated
for a minute. " Mom...do you think we could call Anita and wish her a
merry Christmas?" 

Scully nodded with a smile.

***

Apparently contrite about his bad behavior right after I returned,
Jean-Claude showed up at my house Christmas night, bearing an
elaborately wrapped package.   I let him reluctantly, not really
welcoming his company. He was on his best behavior, though, and her
was very persuasive.

He seemed to be very eager for me to open the gift, so I did so
almost immediately, knowing he would pester me until I did. It was a
glass sculpture, one of penguins on an ice flow. It was very nice. But
for some reason, I had trouble expressing that to him. I think I would
have liked it better if it had come from anyone else. I doubt he
noticed.

After I praised the gift thoroughly, and gave him the gift I bought
him before leaving Washington, he gave me an expectant smile. I wasn't
sure why, but I knew I didn't like it.

" Spit it out." I commanded.

" I know that we haven't had much of a chance to speak since you
returned, mon petite- "

" Because of how you and Richard have been acting." I interrupted
him.

He had the good grace to look somewhat embarrassed. " Yes...I was
wondering where you were for so long."

Thus far I hadn't gotten around to explaining that. " Oh, I met a
guy." I said lightly.

As I expected, a jealous look lit up his eyes. " Did you, now?"

" Oh yes. Quite charming. Young, beautiful reddish gold curls, bright
blue eyes. Didn't say much, but he was very affectionate." I told him,
enjoying myself.

" I see." He said evenly.

" There was a girl too, though." His eyes widened in surprise. " A
pretty little blond. Very personable. You would have liked her."

" And you spent several weeks, with these...these people?" He asked
abruptly.

I threw one of the sofa pillows at him, and he looked shocked. " Don't
be such a pill. They were little kids, I was taking care of them."

He didn't do a very good job hiding his relief. " I knew that you were
teasing me. " He said in a very dignified voice. 

" Fear not." I continued to tease him. " You have no other rival for
my affections than Richard."

But as I said it, I thought of the call I'd gotten earlier in the day.
Emily had called to say that they missed me, and I'll admit it, I miss
them too.

***
***

December 26th

Unlike Thanksgiving, Christmas was a more personal family holiday, so
the agents had agreed to spend the holiday quietly at their respective
homes, then get together the next day. The kids, even Gibson, seemed
more than willing to have the gift-giving extend another day. He spent
a couple hours in the morning  playing chess with Mulder. Mulder held
his own.

" How do you do that?" Scully asked with interest as the former chess
champion struggled to find a way to take Mulder's queen. 

Mulder laughed. " I'm thinking about plan 9 from Outer-space. I know
all the lines, you know."

" Given the number of times you've seen it, you should." Scully
smiled.

Reyes, who hadn't know Gibson back during his tournament days, looked
confused.  " How does that help?"

" Gibson won by reading people's thoughts. It's harder to figure out
what I'm going to do next if my brain is filled with unrelated
chatter." Mulder explained.

Gibson sighed. " He's right. It was more fun to play him when he
didn't realize  that I could only pick out his moves if he was
concentrating on them...I kept getting the oddest idea that he's going
to put his knight on a space craft."

" Knowing Mulder he might." Scully said dryly.

After the kids had opened presents, and gone upstairs to play,
dragging poor Gibson with them, the four adults gathered in the living
room to talk. Mulder opened a bottle of wine, and shrugged it off when
Reyes asked if she could have  ginger-ale instead.

" So, did you have a good Christmas?" Reyes asked them.

" Great."
" Wonderful."

" Must be nice to have had both the kids together for the first time."
Doggett said lightly. Mulder and Scully both nodded happily.  Doggett
looked a bit nervous. " Monica and I... we. We have something to tell
you."

" Oh?" Scully asked, giving them expectant looks.  

Reyes smiled brightly at her and Mulder. " It's just...well, by next
Christmas..." She glanced over at Doggett, who nodded. " There will be
another person in our family too."

Mulder looked slightly confused, but Scully gave a most uncharacterist
ic squeal, and threw her arms around Reyes. " You're having a baby?!"
she asked eagerly.

" Some time in July." Reyes said happily.

Mulder gave Doggett a disgusted look. " Why do women hint around?
Can't they just say 'I'm pregnant' so everyone is on the same page?"
He asked plaintively.  Doggett just laughed at him.

" Do you want a boy or a girl?" Scully asked eagerly, they just
shrugged.

" Doesn't matter, as long as it's healthy." Doggett repeated the old
standard reply.

Mulder gave them a look, having just mentally done the math. " Didn't
waste any  time, did you?" He asked with a foolish grin.

" Well, some of us don't have years to waste, you know." Doggett
teased.

The happy talk about Reyes and Doggett's coming baby took up most of
the evening.

The End 

***

Want more? Stay tuned for Beyond the Truth fic number 3-  Elegy For
Origin, the  follow up to this story =)



### The End ###