Overweighted Chapter Twenty-Two By RocketMan ~~~~~ "He said that a stern sense of the duty he owed his Maker, not less than his fellow-men, would permit him no longer to remain silent." -- "Thou Art the Man" Edgar Allan Poe ~~~~~ Mulder opened his eyes and laid still for a long moment, his mind racing forward and back and everywhere at one time. There was light and explosions of pain and Scully's face swimming above him and pain pain pain in every part of his body, rocketting out to the very ends of his fingertips and through his mind until there was only the light, the light, and no. No. He took in a deep breath and turned his head, feeling the warm bodies pressed against him. Helen on his right and Scully curled up on his left. Gently, he touched Scully's cheek, caressing the soft skin, skimming his fingers lightly over the red scratches there, wishing he could remember what had happened to them. There was the park, trying to get her and Helen out of there and then -- then, nothing. White light. And nothing. He felt the prickling in his stomach and the stirring deep within him. The white light pulsing pulsing exploding him into shattering pieces of fragile glass. She had picked him up, put his pieces back together and understood. Mulder brushed her eyes with a light touch and she opened them, blinking to rid herself of sleep. "Mulder?" "Are you okay?" he whispered, raising himself up to his elbow, looking down at her with soft, bedroom eyes. Bedroom eyes. It was an odd look on him, but the smoking way his dark pupils followed her every twitch made her suddenly too warm. She raised her hand to his cheek and brushed her fingers along the creased skin, the effects of sleeping on him. "I'm fine. They didn't . . . need me, I guess." Helen stirred beside him and he turned to pick her up, determined to be there, a comforting presence to her when she woke and remembered what had happened to her. "Hey baby," he said softly, brushing his fingers over her forehead, kissing her nose and gazing down at her. She tilted her head and blinked, hard, a tinge of panic rising in her face, her eyes starting to focus on the round edges of his face. Mulder glanced over to Scully with a hint of fear, his eyes touching hers with the pleading look. "What's wrong with her?" he said sharply. Helen flinched violently and jerked from his arms, raising her hands to her ears and making an unintelligible noise, something akin to panic. She began whimpering and Scully reached out to her, more out of instinct than any ability to calm her or offer reassurance. "Mulder, --" Helen shrieked and moved her head between them, glancing from one to the other. A low keening began in her throat and Scully felt the tears slipping free from her eyes as she grabbed her little girl and held her close. Signing calming words into her hands, Scully brushed her hair from her forehead and rocked her back and forth in time to her wails. Helen's hands were fumbling to meet Scully's, and Mulder grabbed them and let her sign into his palms. Her words were panicked attempts to explain something she could not. Mulder stopped, a look of horror and sudden joy racing across his face. He touched Scully's arm and she turned to see him, her mind still caught up in trying to calm her baby girl. The look on his face made her still. "She . . . she can see. Scully. She said she can see us. And hear." Scully glanced down to Helen, who was tightly closing her eyes and pressing her hands over her ears, whimpering. "See. And hear?" Mulder nodded and touched Helen's arm. Helen turned to him, slowly opened her eyes and squinted, trying to keep down the visual overload. He signed Daddy into her fingers and she shook slightly, then nodded and turned to the woman holding her, looking. Seeing. "They changed her back, Mulder. They changed her back." He shook his head. "What?" "They took away that connection. It's gone now, I can feel it. But they gave her sight and hearing back." Mulder touched Helen again and signed to her "I'm going to say your name." He waited until she understood, then softly said, "Helen." Her face lit and she slowly let her hands fall from her ears. Grabbing his hands, she asked him to say it again. He did and she glanced to her mother, then asked her to say it. She looked surprised when the sounds were different coming from Scully. She opened her mouth and tried to repeat the attempt, only found that the sounds were missing. No beautiful words came from her mouth. Scully looked to Mulder, frantic. "She can't talk, Mulder." "Of course not. She's never heard it before. I don't think she ever will be able to talk though, Scully. She's missed too many critical periods. The formative years are basically over now for her. She'll be able to say a limited amount, I think." "How can you be sure?" "Not sure. But children have been found in the jungle, raised by either monkeys or just left there. Feral children is what they're called. They can't speak obviously, and even when they're taught, the words don't come. The children even died much sooner that usual. Most committed suicide." "Suicide?" "But those were feral children. The same concept applies here. She's never heard the language. Signing *is* her language and in order to keep her grounded in this new world, we've got to sign to her, Scully." He glanced over to Helen to see her head following them, her eyes wide as they talked, taking it all in. He smiled and ruffled her hair, just as he always did, and then kissed her nose. Helen closed her eyes and smiled, then opened them and attempted to stand up. She pitched forward and weaved and ended up hitting the floor hard. Making a noise of frustration, and then surprising herself when she heard the guttural growl, Helen closed her eyes and stood easily, then moved towards them, positioning her body in Scully's lap. She sank into her arms and snuggled deep, keeping her eyes closed. "See? Life for her is this darkness. She operates better in it. With time, she'll come to understand it, process it, but now, things are too much all at once." Scully nodded and stroked Helen's forehead, kissing her softly. "So what do we do?" she asked, unaccustomed to being at a loss. "We get out of here." They both stood, Scully cradling Helen and waiting for Mulder to gain his balance. He stepped away. "I think you'd better carry Helen. I . . . I'm a little unsteady." "You probably haven't gotten your strength back." He nodded and they moved around the room, exploring walls and seams and wishing for an easy way out, just once for them to get lucky. He paused. "What if we're on a space ship?" She raised her eyebrow and shook her head. "I'm more than convinced now that this is run by our own government. They're using humans to further their genetic testing and the idea of the super race. They're trying to create superhumans, Mulder. And they're using our genes and our DNA to do it." She was ready to start yelling, her face flushed and her arms shifting Helen's weight. Mulder glanced over to her and then back to the walls. "But if it's aliens, Scully. What if the governement is simply copying their experiments? What if this is a race to find the breed of humans that are impervious to the aliens' colonization efforts? What if the aliens are testing to come up with a better, bigger, stronger virus?" "Mulder. We can argue the finer points later. Right now, we have to get out of here." "But if this is a space ship and we go ripping a hole in the wall, we might get sucked into space." She rolled her eyes and put his questions out of her mind. "Keep looking Mulder." ~~~~~ She leaned against the wall, resting her arms as Mulder sat down, panting, his energy nil at the moment. Helen was sitting at Scully's feet, her head sweeping the entire room with enthusiasm. She seemed to be doing better about suddenly being able to see. Mulder leaned back and sprawled onto the floor. Suddenly the room went too bright. Too white. Helen whimpered and pressed her face into Scully's leg. Too white. It was enveloping them, erasing every thought and scouring their minds. Then there was blackness. A yawning void that swallowed them whole. ~~~~~ end chapter adios RM