When Conspiracies Collide:
The Fountain of Youth
By Axianna

This is pretty much the same spiel as in the first book so you can skip it if you want. Just know who's mine and who isn't.

Disclaimers

Jane is mine. As is the character of Father, AKA Alex Thompson, Micheal Bentley and a few others. Not all of their identities are, though.

Duncan MacLeod, Richie Ryan, Joe Dawson, Methos, AKA Adam Pierson, Immortals, the Game, Watchers, Joe’s bar and the Dojo all belong to Rysher’s and their creators.

Jarod, Miss Parker, Sydney, Broots, Mr. Raines, Mr. Lyle, Angelo, Brigitte, Kyle, Mr. Parker, Mrs. Catherine Jameson Parker (ever notice she's about the only one with a first and last name on the show?), Sweepers, Cleaners and the Center belong to their respective owners, such as NBC. I expanded their universe to include the Assassins.

Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, AD Walter Skinner, Cancerman, the Lone Gunmen, the Well Manicured man, Mighty Morphin’ Bounty hunters, Giant Fluke men, Eugene Tooms, William Mulder, Mrs. Mulder, Samantha Mulder, Mrs. Scully, Melissa Scully, the X-Files and it’s associated conspiracy all belong to Chris Carter, 1013 and all those guys.

There’s also a passing reference to MacGyver, Pete Thornton, Murdoc, the Phoenix Foundation and may be a few other, and I don’t own them either. Can’t say off the top of my head who does.

This is a work of fiction that I’m not making any money of off so don’t sue me. It’s not like I have any money in the first place. Just talk to all the people I owe money too, including the Bank. I’m just a poor, starving student, who’s soon to be a poor, starving working stiff trying to pay of student loans.

Continuity

Just forget about it and call it an AU; it doesn’t really fit in anywhere. But if you want to get picky, it could take place before the season finale of the 97-98 season for Pretender (Season 2) and X-files (Season 5) and so before XF: Fight the Future. I do mention in passing various things that have occurred in previous X-Files, but nothing too major and it’s not like you have to have watched every episode to get what’s gong on. For Highlander, just ignore the season 5 finale. Maybe I should take out membership in Clan Denial. . . RICHIE LIVES!!!!

This is the second installment of When Conspiracies Collide, a multi-show crossover. The first installment, Auspicious Beginnings really should be read in order for you to make any sense about what in heaven’s name is going on.

Personal notes

Thanks to Michelle and Terri for encouragement and picking out holes in the plot. They also put up with me calling them and obsessing about this thing. Also for my Mom, for reading it in the first place and for correcting my grammar in the second. She even liked it. My husband even liked it.

As for myself, this one is not as good as the first part, but I’m hoping it’s not terrible. It just didn’t come to me as nicely as the first part. The major overhaul should help. The third part however, I’m very pleased with. Hopefully you can get through this and still want to read the next part.

Rating

Well, this one is much more violent and I think I’ll have to bump it up to an R for violence. The language is a little worse as well. There is also a character death. I’m sorry, but if you have bullets flying around people get hit and not everybody is Immortal.

Now, onto the story

***

Prologue

"What!"

"You are always so elegant on the phone Miss Parker."

"Cut the crap and get to the point Sydney."

"Broots has found a lead on Jarod."

"Where?"

"Seattle."

"I’ll meet you at the airport in twenty minutes."

The line went dead as the two parties hung up.

It had taken more time than he would have liked to decode the call, but the four hours were worth the wait. He wasn’t happy that the Center knew where Jarod was, but he could work around it. The last pieces of the puzzle were falling into place. For the most part.

Setting up Marcus to attack Duncan MacLeod had taken substantial effort and the agents were taking their sweet time figuring everything out. For someone called Spooky, he wasn’t putting things together very quickly. Though to be truthful, Ann was doing a wonderful job of covering things up and the illustrious agent did have other things on his mind. Such as family.

Leaving the computer, he turned around and picked up a picture. It was of a young child, a little boy in a sailor’s outfit with a small cap on his head, sitting on the lap of a young woman; her straight dark hair pulled up in a loose bun. Running a finger over the two faces, he paused for a moment before he slid the photo back in the pocket of the case he’d taken it from. He had mourned them for a long time.

Chapter 1

Opening the door, I felt almost strange. I finally had answers to some of the questions that were becoming important to me. I found out I had a brother. A real, live, flesh and blood brother. I even had a real name. Samantha. Of course my brother wasn’t exactly normal, but than what in the past few weeks had been.

Waking up with no memory, finding out I was an assassin trained by a place called the Center with an Immortal protector, who was currently no where to be found, and a brother, who’s job was to investigate the cases that usually ended up on the cover of World Weekly News, didn’t lead me to believe in the myth of normality. But none of the strangeness took away from the joy I was feeling now that I knew who I was. It was a really sappy thought but somehow, I still felt like everything would work out. Eventually.

Since finding out that Fox Mulder was actually my brother instead of a merely irritating FBI agent sticking his nose where it didn’t belong, Mulder. . . Fox and I had just sat and talked. It was hard, because neither of us really knew what to say. I told him about what I’d managed to find out about my past with the Center, though I left out the connection to Immortals and Duncan MacLeod. Everyone has their secrets and it’s up to them to confide them. I also told Fox how I met Joe Dawson here at the bar and my introduction to Duncan as well as how I met Jarod. It’s not like there was all that much to tell.

Fox, though, talked about what I was like as a child and what happened when I disappeared. He talked about his work, not going into many details but there was enough to give me a fair idea of how whacked out some of his cases were. Compared to giant fluke men in the sewer system, what was a little Immortality? He also told me about the death of his. . . our father and Mom’s stroke.

I didn’t have any memories our parents, but I could now remember the night I disappeared. The flashes of memory that I’d had earlier, had since resolved into the whole sequence; the headache accompanying it wasn’t the nicest though. It was quickly fading into the background.

Fox was behind me as I cracked the office door open and stepped through. We’d spent a long time talking so it was now pretty late in the evening. The place was almost empty with only about five customers spread out among the tables and Joe was behind the bar explaining how to pour the different drinks to the Pretender Jarod, currently using the guise of Detective Logan. Duncan was sitting next to Richie Ryan, who must have just shown up from the drops of water still clinging to his hair. Fox’s partner, Agent Dana Scully was nowhere to be seen, off hand I’d guess the ladies' room. I don’t think she had much to do while Fox and I were talking.

Walking up to the bar, I watched as Jarod threw a bottle up, putting enough spin on it to spray liquid out of the spout before he caught it with a final flourish and poured the amber liquid into a glass. Joe clapped appreciatively, then threw a towel in his face.

"Clean it up Tom Cruise." Joe’s smile still tugged at his lips.

"Who?" Jarod had that ‘I’m missing the reference’ look he got on occasion, but picking up the towel from where it had fallen, he proceeded to mop up the mess anyway. I shyly stepped up to the bar, brother beside me.

"Jarod, I have a brother." It was really starting to sink in and my heart was soaring. I could hear the excitement in my voice bubbling up.

"Yes, you do." His grin was infectious and I could feel my own starting. Pulling Fox up by the arm, he now stood beside me, a few inches taller.

"His name is Fox. That’s what I was trying to remember." I sat on a stool, sinking down a few inches so I could rest my slightly trembling hands on the bar. "I have a name, a real name. I’m Samantha Mulder!"

"Pleased to meet you, Fox." Jarod held a hand out to my brother.

"Call me Mulder." I glanced over, unsure of myself and watched the gleam in Fox’s eye sparkle as he grasped Jarod’s hand. "Where’s Scully?"

"Dana is in the kitchen, making a phone call." Joe piped up from his seat behind the bar.

Just then, the diminutive agent stepped in from the door to the back and paused as everyone looked at her. Stepping forward, she came and sat beside Fox.

"Scully, it’s Sam." That’s all he said but I could tell from her look, it was all he needed to say.

The next few minutes were dedicated to inane conversation, filling the still slightly awkward gap. Duncan and Richie came over and joined the club, re-introductions were done and I became Samantha.

***

"Who’s that?"

"How the hell would I know?"

"Well find out, why don’t you."

"Just give me a sec to get a good visual." There was a pause as the click of a keyboard filled the air. "Here it is. Oh shit!"

"What?"

"It’s Parker’s daughter."

"Oh Shit!"

"Give me a sec to find out if this changes anything."

Pause.

"Well?"

"No, it’s still a go. Two minutes and we’re in."

***

She stepped through the door like she owned it. Never liked people like that. She was followed by a few guys, also in black, with all four of them pointing standard issue handguns at us. Jarod froze for no more than an instant as she came into view, then moved out from behind the bar. Everyone else was biding their time, sensing that this was Jarod’s show.

"Hello Miss Parker, I thought you’d still be out checking fireworks factories." Jarod’s face was calm, but I could tell he was worried. Not much, but a little. Joe moved closer to the bar, probably going for the Smith & Wesson by the cash register, and Fox and Scully were on edge, ready for whatever happened. Duncan was completely still, a look of disbelief on his face, while Richie leaned forward, almost anxious for a fight.

"Enough of this Jarod, you’re coming back. I’ve had enough of your little games." Miss Parker had her gun pointed straight at Jarod’s head. I moved closer to his side, eyeing one of the thugs off to her side. It would have been an interesting fight if we hadn’t gotten interrupted. I don’t think the guys who burst in the front door were with Miss Parker. She was the first one they shot.

As she fell, the rapid staccato of fully automatic gunfire filled the air, bullets ripping through the building. In the next few heartbeats the sweepers went down and then two of the ‘customers’ pulled out handguns and started killing the real customers, including Richie and Duncan. Time stretched out as I dropped and dove for a gun held by one of the now deceased sweepers. Jarod also dropped and was making his way to the bar. Fox and Scully just dived over the top.

Miss Parker was still game, lying on her side; her gun was aimed at the three men now coming in from the back door. One dropped in his tracks but the others came on. I aimed at the two ‘customers’ who’d shot Duncan and Richie, taking them out with head shots, then flipped over as I heard shots from behind the bar. A man by the back door fell. Fox, Scully and Dawson seemed to be taking care of them.

There was a tug at my side as I started to shoot through the wood, systematically emptying the clip into a sheltering table in a jagged line. I was rewarded with a body falling, the sound of cursing and a returning hail of cover fire.

Miss Parker was hit again and she passed out. Back on the floor, I crept over to another gun, which almost had a full clip. Then I was around the stage so I could get a better shot. A quick glance over my shoulder revealed Duncan and Richie back in the game, creeping up on a gunman who’d found shelter in Joe’s office. Jarod and Scully were aiming at a guy hidden in the back while Joe and Fox took pot shots at the two left up front.

I had a clear shot at the two still behind the table; their dead associate was shoved out of the way to make room. The two behind the table fell with three shots, then I twisted to find out what was happening in the back. Richie was down again and I couldn’t see Scully. The only guy left was the one in the office. He was maintaining a rain of bullets that dug into the wooden top of the bar; one ricocheted into an arm aiming over the top.

They where essentially pinned behind the bar by the guy in the office and while he was free to fire at will, they were in a bad position to fire back. Standing up, I picked up one of the machine guns that littered the floor. Inner walls tend to be two by four framing, with drywall and paneling over top. Doesn’t do much to stop flying lead.

Letting the gun empty, there wasn’t a sound from the office. Creeping up to the door, a quick peek in got no answering shot and revealed a body on the floor, shot to doll rags. He wasn’t going anywhere ever again.

"It’s clear."

The gun seemed to weigh more now than it did a moment ago and I sagged to the floor with my back against the wall. I let the weapon drop from my hands, finally noticing the throbbing from my side. Looking at the spreading red splotch, I pressed a hand into the gash at the bottom of my ribs and concentrated on breathing through the sharp ache. It wasn’t bad, but I didn’t particularly feel like moving. Jarod was looking over Miss Parker and from his expression she’d live. Scully was limping over to the inert from of Richie, who was on the morbid side of life and Duncan was making his way over to me.

"Where’s Fox?" I called out to him, a little worried that I couldn’t see Fox.

"He’s in the back with Joe, getting the First Aid kit." His voice was tired and anxious, but there was a hint of something else that I couldn’t quite identify. He almost sounded stunned.

"Is he okay?"

"He’s got a hole in his arm but he’ll live. What about you, are you okay?" Kneeling down beside me, he gently lifted up the side of my shirt to look at the damage.

"I’ll live. I think it cracked a rib though." Putting my hand back on the seeping wound I pressed back down, the sharp stab of pain confirming the cracked rib. "A hand up?"

Duncan pulled me up just in time to hear Scully’s reaction to Richie.

"What the. . . " The shock in her voice was more than obvious.

Richie sat up and looked at her, his expression a comical mix of confusion and sheer terror. Scully was sitting beside him with plain old confusion playing across her features. "Um, Duncan?" His plea for help went unheeded, as we walked closer.

"You were dead, you had no pulse! Not to mention you have a hole in the chest, right there." She pointed to the bloody hole in his shirt and the clear, unblemished skin underneath. "Had a hole? Someone please tell me I’m not going nuts. Maybe this is just a delayed stress reaction?"

"Hate to say this Scully, but ‘I told you so.’" Fox came up beside us, his right arm hastily wrapped up and carrying an armload of various bandages in the other.

"But he wasn’t on the short list. And Jane was." Scully held a hand out for a dressing and pressed it down firmly on the hole in her leg. Her mental confusion didn’t seem to affect her first aid skills.

"I was right about MacLeod though" Fox dumped the remaining bandages on the table and sat down. MacLeod’s response was to look at me, then at the bickering agents, then over at Richie, who had gotten up, before looking back at the couple on the floor.

"Are they always like this?"

"How should I know, I’ve only known them for 24 hours. Actually, it’s probably closer 30. What time is it?" All that got me was a dirty look.

Feeling the physical let down from the fight, I started to walk around, looking over the bodies littering the floor. Kneeling down beside one of the customers, I gently closed his eyes before I stood up and moved on. He was the only guy who still tried to hit on me. It had almost become a game of sorts. He’d come up with some cheesy pick up line, some of them really embarrassing, and I’d bat my eyes at him and tell him to take a long walk off a short pier or some other such brush off. Not any more though.

A few steps further on, one of the attackers was still breathing, barely. I doubted he would last very long no matter what was done to help him and I wasn’t in a very charitable mood. Looking in his face, his eyes flickered open and regret shot through his face. Over what I didn’t know, or care. As he lifted his head up, his com gear slipped off his ear and on to the floor.

"Ann. . . " He could barely whisper the word out before he died. It took a moment for my eyes to register the bulky gun by his side. It was a tranquilizer gun. Whoever they were after, they wanted them alive.

Shaken, I headed over to where Jarod was sitting beside Miss Parker. Her face was pale, but her breathing was steady and it looked like she’d be fine. Jarod had a hand on his shoulder, trying to control the bleeding.

"Are you okay, Sam?" He was sitting on the floor, his shoulder mangled while I was walking around and he was asking if I was okay.

"It’s not too bad. Just glanced off a rib, cracking it. What about you?" I knelt beside him and took his hand off the bandage so I could put more pressure on it.

"Oh I’ll survive no doubt." He flashed me a bit of a grin, that turned into a grimace as he shifted his arm a bit. I gave him a dirty look and put another handful of gauze over top the pile which had already bled through.

"I think I’m glad I sent everyone else home already." Joe came and stood beside us. "I wonder if the insurance will cover this."

"Joe, I’m sorry about this, I don’t even know who those guys were." Fox interrupted me, drawn to our conversation.

"Government henchmen." He had a no nonsense tone that said he had full confidence in his conclusion. I had to agree with him. They didn’t look like Center goons and it just wasn’t the Center’s style. Too well organized.

I never had a chance to say anything though, as sirens called out in the distance. I jumped and almost landed on my rump from the way I was sitting. I stood up and only paused when Fox put a hand on my arm. My heart was in my throat and I could feel the tension running up and down my spine. I still had that instant reflex I guess.

"Sam, you don’t have to run." He said it gently, but I shot him a look anyway. "It’s better if we’re all here."

Jarod stood up and came to the other side, his hand on my shoulder anchoring me. "He’s right, you shouldn’t keep running."

***

Jarod looked on as the paramedics loaded Miss Parker into the back of an ambulance. She would be fine; one bullet had glanced off her hip, while the other went cleanly through the same leg. He had a minor hole in his shoulder he was currently trying to ignore but was otherwise fine. He’d refused to go to the hospital, so they were patching him up in the back of another ambulance. Across the parking lot, he wasn’t the only one with an aversion to being confined to a hospital bed.

He watched the reunited brother and sister as they sat and bickered with the guy looking at Mulder’s arm. It was interesting to see how they were getting along. There was concern displayed on both parts; Mulder had hovered, refusing to do anything until Sam had been taken care of and she refused to let anyone touch her, until Mulder’s arm had been looked after. They eventually compromised and were now arguing with the paramedics working on them (at the same time) over whether or not they were really going to go to the hospital for a few ‘scratches’.

Scully was talking with an officer, waving away the paramedic hovering around her gurney. As soon as she had given her side of the story, she’d be on her way to the hospital to get the bullet in her leg removed. As for Duncan and Richie, they had faded into the woodwork just before the police showed up. Considering all their clothing was bloody and less than whole, yet they had a complete absence of any injuries, it seemed like a wise course of action.

Joe, the only one to get off without anything more serious than a few splinters in his hand, was leaning heavily against the bumper of a police car, taking a breather. He’d already given his version of what happened to the officer currently talking to Scully.

Everyone had agreed that Duncan and Richie were never there and Jarod had managed to convince them to leave Miss Parker’s involvement out of it. Let the cops think she was a customer unlucky enough to be there that evening, but lucky enough to survive the experience. Everything else was pretty much explained as it happened. Group A entered and was attacked by group B, with everyone else more or less caught in the crossfire.

Stepping away from the back of the ambulance, wincing ever so slightly at the sharp pain radiating from his shoulder that he couldn’t quite pretend away, Jarod wandered over to where Joe was still resting.

"How are you holding up?" He looked over at the older man and the strain in his eyes, but his fears were put to rest with a wry smile.

"It could have been worse. And I’ll survive." Shifting to a more comfortable spot and taking some of the weight off his feet with his cane, Joe continued. "I have a friend who should be able to help us get some information. Did you get all of your stuff out before the cops showed?"

"I gave it to Duncan before he left. We’re meeting at the Dojo in the afternoon. Till then, I’ve a few tracks to cover. Is that enough time for you?" Jarod leaned against the car beside him.

"I should know something by then. How are the siblings doing?" He nodded in the direction where the police were questioning the two of them. Mulder had his badge out and they seemed to be waiting while his identity was being confirmed and Sam was still jumpy with all the cops around, though she seemed a little calmer than earlier. Her brother seemed the more edgy of the two, as unsure looks kept being exchanged, as though trying to confirm that the other was still there and not a figment of their imagination that could suddenly disappear.

"Not bad."

Chapter 2

Finally being released from the presence of the police, it was coming on three in the morning and I had to stifle a yawn. Fox finally finished off the last of his questions and then we were pretty much free. Jarod and Joe had taken off a little earlier and those that could, would meet at the Dojo at about 3 p.m. tomorrow. Make that 3 p.m. today.

"Where do you want me to drop you off?" Fox was being courteous again.

"Well, my room at the back of Joe’s is now a crime scene, so that makes it my previous residence. But first, we go see how your partner is doing and fill her in on what’s going on tomorrow." I picked myself off the car hood and waited for him to open the door.

"No, you’re going to go and get some sleep. And I thought you didn’t like hospitals." Now he’d gone from courteous to overprotective. And he still hadn’t unlocked the door.

"I don’t like being a patient in a hospital. Visiting is different kettle fish. Besides, you’re gonna go nuts until you know she’s okay. So we go see her." I wasn’t so tired that I needed someone telling me what to do.

"It’s three in the morning, they won’t let me see her. So we go and get you some sleep." Maybe he was just being concerned.

"I had plenty of sleep last night. Get a little adrenaline pumping and I’ll be as good as new." Not that it made it right for him to start bossing me around.

"Well, the fight is over for tonight, so let’s go," he said. I couldn’t argue with that. But I didn’t have to like it.

"Fine," I snapped.

It took a few minutes to drive to the office building I’d been using and when Fox saw the place, his face became hard and unreadable. It wasn’t that bad, but I figure he didn’t like seeing first hand what I’d been through lately.

I didn’t care about the past; I just wanted to start over.

With the car parked in the back, I got out and smoothly picked the lock on the back door, Fox following me. Reaching blindly in the lunchroom, I found the flashlight where I’d left it and turned it on, the weak light reflecting off the walls with a harsh gleam.

"Do you want the grand tour, or are you going to be sensible and go to your hotel?" I turned around and looked at him, flashing him in the face with the beam. If he could boss me around, I could boss him around.

"I was thinking you could gather your stuff and sleep in Scully’s room." He just looked at me, his face drawn and grim and the hard lines showing no give, regardless of the carelessness in his voice.

"I don’t think so. I can take care of myself, thank you." I wasn’t about to let him start ordering my life around just because of some half-baked reasoning that made him feel responsible for me.

"Tell that to the hole in your side." He had a point.

"It’s not a hole, it’s a scratch. It doesn’t even have stitches! And I don’t have my arm in a sling." I couldn’t believe this. I’d known my brother for only a few hours and we were already fighting.

"No you just can’t take a deep breath with out wincing." His comeback hit home as I took a deep breath for my next statement, but I ignored it.

"It’s cracked, not broken. I’ll be fine in a few days if not sooner. At least I’ve never ended up in an isolation ward."

"That hasn’t happened in over a year." He didn’t have so snappy a comeback this time.

"Yea well, who say’s I need you to start looking after me?" I was now starting to go from annoyed to mad.

"I do!" We were standing toe to toe.

"Now children, I’m sure this can all be resolved without resorting to violence." A voice cut out of the dark, it’s English accent distinct.

We both immediately dropped down, my gun out first, Fox’s a second later though his was held a bit awkwardly in his left hand. Both guns were sweeping the black of the shadows around us, finally locking on the figure that stepped out from around the corner of the hall. The flashlight shone in his face, but he didn’t even squint in the light. His sharp, dark eyes peered cleanly through the light in his face, gazing at us with a strange intensity.

"Nice to know all that training hasn’t gone to waste. You may put the gun away Agent Mulder, I’m quite harmless at the moment." As he stepped further forward, I got a better look at his face. Not that I needed to. His voice was just like that on the video Jarod had of me. This was the man I called Father. My gun disappeared.

"Who are you?" Fox spoke up, his gun still trained on the man. "And why send me to Samantha?" Father had led Fox here?

"I wanted Ann to find her family, as simple as that. Well, almost as simple. As for who I am, that is a rather long and complicated story." The man hadn’t moved a muscle since the light was trained on him, but he still managed to fill the surrounding space.

"He already knows, Father." I hadn’t meant to say the last word. It just sort of slipped out, and now Fox gave me a questioning stare. I’d worry about it later.

"How many times have I told you to stop calling me that." There was a note of exasperation in the man’s voice. "Oh well, I never could break you of that habit, so I guess I’m simply going to have to get used to it." Turning to look at Fox, his eyes took on a challenging gleam. "As for Mulder’s knowledge, I’m surprised it took him as long as it did to figure this much out. As for the rest of the details, I’m sure you will figure those out as well."

"Why did you come?" I couldn’t seem to wrap my mind around all the information that had been thrown at it the last few days. This last piece just added to my mental confusion. Fox’s hand on my shoulder grounded, his voice cutting through my thoughts.

"Why now? Why come out instead of manipulating things as you have been?" Fox asked. Things finally started coalesce in my mind. Jarod being here, the mysterious beheading, Fox following it up. Father was the connection. It seemed like his style.

"Another player has entered the picture and is. . . interfering with my plans." That was the first time he moved, as he cocked his head slightly.

"The bar tonight, you don’t know who that was?" I rejoined the conversation.

"I have some ideas, but no proof. Some faction of the government perhaps." His head tilted forward and a slight patronizing grin tugged at his lips.

"So the government’s in on this?" Fox cut back in. I don’t think he was entirely comfortable with this situation but he was more than willing to get as much information as he could.

"To put it bluntly, yes. Where do you think the Center gets its money? Smart financial planning? The private sector wants income, not Pretenders and Assassins. Although I have had a few interesting contracts from that area." His eyes gazed off for a second before returning to look at the hard lines of Fox’s face.

"You’re an assassin?" Fox asked bluntly.

"Of course. And what do you think your dear little sister is? A waitress?" A sarcastic note lent it bite. He looked over at me, judging my reaction. Fox just glanced nervously between the two of us.

"I’m retired." If I wasn’t before, I was now.

"Yes well, I still hope you’ll change your mind. You truly are talented you know." The guy looked faintly disappointed.

"Doesn’t suit me any more." I felt a shiver crawl up my spine. I think I’d had this conversation before.

"There was always that problem. You had too much heart for this business." The man I called Father seemed to withdraw his presence as his eyes darkened. When he said that I felt the shiver run along my spine again.

"And that’s a bad thing?" Now I knew we’d had this conversation before; my response rolled out automatically, without a thought from me.

"Not really I guess, but it makes it too easy to have your heart ripped out." His face grew hard at this thought before he shook his head and continued. "I really should get going, I just wanted to let you know I was around. But right now, I have an appointment to keep."

"Wait!" I didn’t want to let him go yet.

"What is it Ann?" This man was confusing. One moment he gave off this aura of barely suppressed energy, but the next he seemed to be weighed down by a million thoughts.

"What did the Center do to me, why can’t I remember anything?" There was so much more I wanted to ask him, about who I was and what I was and the missing periods in my life where I still had no clue as to what had happened. But this was foremost in my mind, this violation of my past.

Looking at him, there was an instant of sadness in his face as the words left my mouth, but this was soon replaced with anger. His eyes went black in the dim light and there was a harshness to his face that suddenly appeared, making him look savage, instead of merely cold. "You will know everything that happened to you. Eventually."

Without another word he gone, melting back into the shadows. Not having the energy to move. I stared at the dark doorway until Fox came up beside me. "Come on, let’s go to the hotel and get some sleep." Placing his hand on my elbow, I let him guide me into the hall. "Um, Sam?"

"Yea." Monosyllabic answers seemed to be all I could muster.

"How’d you sneak the gun past the cops?" He looked at me in the reflected light of the flashlight and his eyes were completely guileless. "And the Paramedics?"

"You don’t want to know." A cocky note snuck in and I was grateful to Fox for giving my mind something else to chew on. But then the reaction from the entire day hit me and I felt what little strength I had left drain away, leaving me empty. I didn’t say anything else as he led me away from the building, waiting as I cleared my stuff out. I only left the makeshift mattress and the moving blankets behind.

***

Miss Parker was not having a good morning. Waking up in a hospital will do that to a person. Sitting up she ignored the lights flying around in her head and concentrated on what had happened in the past day. Broots had gotten the lead on Jarod, she went to the bar in Seattle that they had traced him to and then all hell broke loose. She’d been shot up, though she’d managed to take down two of the goons before she’d passed out. Jarod had no doubt gotten away again and she was going to be stuck in some hospital.

Just Great.

Reaching beside her, she looked for her cell or at least a table phone, not bothering to turn up the dimmed lights. She winced against the pulling at her hip, which protested any movement, and managed to grab the headset of a phone someone had set on the table beside her. Carefully easing the IV lines out of the way, she managed to punch in a long series of numbers. Then she leaned back, listening to the consecutive rings until a timid voice picked up on the other end.

"Broots, get me Sydney. . .

"Of course I’m alive. . .

"Quite sniveling and put. . .

"Thank you." That was said with a false sweetness that contrasted with her normally sharp tone. The next part was true to form.  "Sydney, who the hell put the other sweepers on this case, they just about killed me. . .

"No I didn’t recognize any of them, which is why I asked. . .

"Because if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck. . .

"Well find out. . .

"Is that what he was sniveling about. He didn’t tell Daddy I was dead did he?" For the first time in the conversation, her facade broke and she almost sounded concerned.

"Good. . .

"I should be out of here in a few days. In the meantime, Jarod was here, but those idiots probably scared him off. Keep an eye out for one of Wonderboy’s presents and let me know when it comes. And get me another team down here; come yourself if you can. Something is going on here that stinks. . .

"Then send Broots out here first, at least he can crack into the police department’s computers. . .

"He was still with the same cover when I got here. . .

"I want to find him, Sydney not finish off his pet projects. . .

"He was investigating a bombing from a few months ago. . .

"It was? Since when did the Center start blowing up malls. . . ?

"I don’t care what the connection with the Center is. I want Jarod back where he belongs, so I can get out that place behind. . .

"Fine." The word was spat out. "Till I hear it myself, I keep hunting him." With a bit of a snarl she slammed the phone back in the cradle and continued to mutter to herself before ringing the nurses' bell more than a few times.

"I think they’re busy right now, there’s a code blue down the hall." There was a man in the doorway, back-lit by the lights shining in.

"Do I know you?" She wasn’t about to be nice to this guy, whoever he was, and her tone spelled that out in no uncertain terms. She tried to sit up further but decided against it when her hip violently protested.

"No, but I know your mother. The resemblance is remarkable." He stepped into the room. It took her a moment to recognize him as one of the men from the bar. It was the guy with dark, long hair who’d been shot. . . first. . . off? She must have been wrong. Maybe she hit her head when she fell. Then there was the medication she was on. She shook her head and glared at the man. This was not making her feel any better.

"Must be quite a trick, because she’s been dead a long time. If Jarod sent you, deliver your message and get out." She let a hard note creep into her voice. She was really getting sick of Jarod and his little games.

"Jarod didn’t send me, I came to see if you were all right. I guess you are." Turning around the guy started to leave, the odd note in his voice catching her attention..

"Did you really know my mother?" She hated herself for grasping at the small bit of hope this man held out to her, but she needed to know everything she could about the mother that had been ripped from her side. The man stopped and glanced over his shoulder.

"Catherine Jameson was a very caring person. Too bad you didn’t inherit that." The man walked out the door, the tail of his trench coat snapping in his haste.

***

Special Agent Fox Mulder stared at the television set for a moment before he flicked it to the next channel. The volume was almost non-existent, but the light still reached out of the screen and flickered against his face. On the screen was a voluptuous blond with big hair urging the masses to repent of all their sins. And with a check addressed to. . .

On to the next station. This time another blond but much more scantily dressed. Pause. >Click<

Finally settling on an old monster movie with Japanese actors running around the screen as a giant moth attacked a building, he let the surreal violence wash over him. He glanced over at the figure in the other bed. His sister.

He’d actually found her. The real her. There was no doubt in his mind this time. Not only were there the fragments of memory between them, but the fact that, for the first time, it actually felt like this woman was related to him. Scully would scoff at him and say it was merely his subconscious fulfilling the desires of his mind. Besides, if it was a hoax, they wouldn’t be at each other’s throats so often.

Point in case: getting her to agree to share a room when they realized Scully had her key-card with her and the night desk was already closed down. They sat and argued in the hall, keeping their voices down but they still got an angry head popping out of a door and telling them to take it inside. Sam then grabbed the card key, slammed it into the slot and pushed the door open. Plunking her bag on his bed, she then locked herself in the bathroom. Coming out a few minutes later, her face washed and her hair tied back, she jumped on the bed and climbed in, burying her head under the covers.

Now he could barely hear her as she drew a relaxed breath in her sleep. She hadn’t moved since she fell asleep and Fox wondered if that was from her training or if that was just the way she slept. Punching his pillow a few times, he drew his eyes back to the TV, willing his mind to relax.

When the Cigarette Smoking Man had approached him with a woman looking exactly like the first woman claiming to be his sister, he’d felt his hopes rise only to be dashed later, with the Cancerman’s supposed death and her subsequent disappearance. Every time he thought he found her, he was wrong.  But this time. . .

Slowly, the agent’s eyes drifted close and the TV was left quietly talking to itself.