Overweighted Chapter Nineteen By RocketMan ~~~~~ The sounds of the water greeted them with a soft, mothering lullabye. The faint ripple of sea against the weathered dock reminded him of animals licking their wounds, attempting to right the wrong of the manmade attachment. It was the touch of cool relief against hot rage and burning fear, the touch of phantoms on his skin, like her fingertips on his brow when she thought he was asleep. The whisper of a mother's lips to his soul. He shifted Helen's weight onto his other arm, then tucked her head into his shoulder. Sam bounded up behind them, pulling at the leash Scully held as she dragged her exhausted body forward. She hadn't slept in hours, and even then it had been a little nap when Mulder had gotten back. Helen was asleep in his arms and she walked in wearily, guiding Mulder to the back, sneezing in the dust and ancientness of their old boat house. "I remember when we first came here. I was six. The water was attractive to me and Dad had to keep reminding me that it was also dangerous, that I could never go off by myself." Mulder glanced absently to her then nodded his head to the piles of tarp, used to cover boats. "We could lay those out for Helen, let her sleep on it." Scully turned inward, recognizing the tone of voice he snapped in, the one that said he was anxious to get going, not willing to listen to anything she had to say. "I think that would be good," she murmured. Mulder handed Helen to her and yanked on the green plastic, a grimace of disgust planted on his face. Scully cradled her daughter closer and pushed Mulder away with an angry shove. "Go ahead and leave, Mulder," she snapped, picking up a loose end of tarp and gathering it to her. Mulder stared at her for a moment and then hung his head. "Sorry. I got a lot on my mind." "Well, I do too, Mulder. And it all concerns your safety in this. And the longer you stomp around here, the more I worry." Mulder glanced away from her, digging his nails into his palms, gritting his teeth. "This is never going away, Scully. Don't you get it? I have to do this." Scully finished making Helen's bed and carried the girl to it, putting her back to Mulder as she attempted to keep control of herself. Helen settled into the thick pile of heavy duty tarp and Scully pulled one of the moth eaten boat blankets around her. As she turned back around, Mulder caught her body and pulled her roughly to him. "You've got to understand, Scully. They're not going to leave us alone." She dipped her eyes back to Helen's sleeping form, to the blonde curls framing her round face. The innocence and very life of this child was held in their hands, and Mulder was willing to do anything to keep her protected, keep her loved. "Tell me you understand, Scully. Tell me you understand." Scully leaned her head onto his shoulder, her nose pressed into his pectoral muscle, her breathing hot against his T-shirt. She took one of his hands and pressed it to her cheek, wishing he would actually listen to her for once. "Let me go with you," she said, impulsively, tightening her grip on his fingers. He released her and went to sit next to Helen, pushing a tendril of hair back from her eyes, lifting the blanket and tucking her in tighter. "Scully," he began, his words trembling. "I know. I know, never mind." He nodded, chewed on his bottom lip for a moment, then sighed. "I have to do this," he said and gazed up at her for one long moment. She couldn't say it. He needed to hear her say she understood, but she couldn't. It wouldn't be the truth. "Just come back, Mulder. Everything will be fine as long as you come back." He watched her a long time before rising to his feet and shuffling to the door. He didn't look back. She was glad; she didn't want him to see her crying. ~~~~~ Mommy's hands are soft, trembling in my own, her round fingers skimming across my palms as she attempts to describe the boat house to me. It keeps her mind off Daddy, and it lets her work on understanding my language. She is halting, her fingers awkward at first, her mind not ready to remember strange things like arch and wood and beam. She uses her hands to walk me through the room, her finger formed words shape the vision: broad long boards, weathered with water and salt, stretching from one end to the other: the look of dungeons and castles and moats because of the reflection of the water across the ceiling and the thick stone walls: a soaring roof, raising to the tops of trees, peaking at the center with a funny twist in the stone work, the imitation of the Zephyr, the god of wind, blowing the boat to sea: etched waves lapping into the bottom stones, carved in intricacies and sweeps like Chinese dragons. She takes my hands and leads me to the walls, brushing my fingertips into every crevice, touching every rough unpolished stone, following the still waves' journey around the room. I thank her and lay down into the tarps piled up for me, letting my ears open as she signs to me the sounds assaulting her: the gentle gurgle of water trickling in through every one of those cracks I felt: the creak of old wood finding a rhythm in the unsettling movement of the waves: her steady in and out breathing matching time to the continuous call of birds across far distances: the ghost reminders of long ago memories and forgotten times. I curl into my mother and lay my head on her lap, knowing through her words, through the stiff way she holds herself, through the jerky motions of her chest, that she is afraid. She's afraid Daddy won't come back. ~~~~~ Caulkin was alone for the moment, his broad back displayed as he leaned over to stuff some papers in the trash. Mulder removed the binoculars he had bought from a pawn shop, then hunkered further down into the roof of the building. Caulkin was acting safe, acting secured, as if his prey had no gotten away, when in fact, Mulder assumed he and Scully had. As this finally drifted into thought, Mulder stiffened. Caulkin didn't seem too worried. By now, he should know that he and Scully were gone, by now there should be some sign of fear at their disappearance. Unless . . . Unless he already knew exactly where they were. Mulder slumped against the high wall running around the business office's roof, burying his head in his hands. Caulkin knew exactly where his family was . . . and he had left them alone. ~~~~~ As her cellular phone rang, Mulder prayed she had brought it with her, and that she had remembered to turn it back on. He thought back, remembered the hospital, saw it clearly in her hands that day they had left, remembered back to their sudden flight. In that fish factory, in the hole where she had killed a man . . . his attention to detail waned. Was the small black phone in her coat pocket at that point? Had she thought it too risky and chunked it sometime during their walk to the motel? The phone continued to ring, Mulder began to sweat, and Cauklin calmly sat in his high rise office, assessing important facts on white sheets of paper. Too calm. He was too calm for any of this to be good. ~~~~~ Scully felt a twitch at her side; her eyes refused to allow in the light. Helen's small hands touched her forehead and pushed at her eyelids, then a kiss on her cheek made her smile and respond. It was then that she heard the shrill jangle of her cell phone. Scrambling for the phone, half in fear that someone would hear it and come looking, and half in fear that it was someone calling about Mulder, she slammed her thumb into the 'talk' button and breathlessly answered. "Scully," was her whispered dread. "It's me. You have to get out of there. I think they followed us. I think they know." Coming from any one else, it would have sounded paranoid, even in their current situation, it would have been crazy. There was no possible way for anyone to have followed them there. They had been so careful. But Mulder didn't call in a panic for needless worries, he didn't sound agonized through the phone lines because of some sort of notion. He knew. And she had that faith. "Okay. Where?" "I don't know. Someplace safe, hell, Scully, there's no place they can't follow. In a crowd, all right? Crowds. It'll keep them away." She suddenly felt the itching at the back of her neck, the slow crawl of ants up her back and to her brain that she had felt before, felt as fear claimed her. Only this time, she knew it as something different. Not fear. Not the sudden knowledge of being hunted. But the sudden knowledge of being tracked. Tracked through the implant in the base of her neck. The implant that had saved her life. "Scully?" She had stopped breathing. She had stopped thinking or feeling or being. Listened. She had listened to her body as it sent and received signals to a foreign intelligence. "It's me," she whispered. "What?" "It's me. They know where we are because of me." "Wait, you're not mak --" He stopped. She felt the air between them grow heavy. "Mulder, you have to come get Helen away from me. I'll drop her off to you somewhere. Then you go take her somewhere. Away from me, don't tell me, don't even hint." "Scully . . ." He sounded ripped apart, torn between saving his daughter and not hurting her and killing Caulkin for everything that had been done to them. "Mulder. It's the chip. I can feel it. You have to get her away from me. Now!" The panic in her voice made him snap into a decision. "Okay. Okay. Meet me halfway. On that bridge between --" "Castle Ridge?" she interrupted, and the haste in her voice made knots of tension squeeze in him. "Yes. Castle --" She had already hung up. Mulder pushed himself up and began to run. ~~~~~ Scully wanted to have Helen walk a few yards in front of her, but she was afraid Helen would get into trouble that way so she carried her, half running and half briskly walking all the way to the corner. A taxi jumped immediately to help them and Scully waved it on, not trusting the man's eagerness. After three passed by, Scully grabbed the fourth and hustled inside, panting the address to the driver. She pulled Helen close to her and explained as closely as she could to the truth about what was going on. All she managed to sign was -- Daddy's coming to get you for awhile. Helen began to cry, already frightened from being rushed from one not so familiar place to an entirely strange place and then the pounding, crushing panic that her mother radiated didn't help either. The driver looked at them briefly, disconcerted by Helen's strange animal noises that went for sobs, but Scully glared at him and he turned back around, the question dying from his lips. Cradling Helen to her, Scully stroked her cheek, wiping away the quivering tears and smoothing her blonde hair back behind one ear. As Helen calmed down a bit, the driver glanced to her in the rearview mirror. "Lady, there's a navy blue car following us. I thought you might want to know." Scully swallowed thickly and nodded appreciatively, faintly wiping her eyes closed with a weary hand. "I won't ask too many questions, but I need to know. Are you in trouble with the law?" Scully felt the tears rise bitterly again but she shook her head and shoved them away. "No, not with the law." The law was no longer being upheld itself, so how could she be in trouble with the law? As far as she knew, they had abandoned law a long time ago. Abandoned the Bill of Rights and essentially the very freedoms that had formed their country. Helen was testament to that. Helen was the the last living proof of their deceit. She felt her body begin to tremble again. ~~~~~