Overweighted
Chapter Four
By RocketMan

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"But let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many."
--Ecclesiastes 11:8
=====

The little girl was curled up in her arms, her head resting against
Dana's shoulder and her breath tickling her neck.

Mulder watched them in the semi-dark of the motel room and waited for
the phone to ring, for the news to come back.

The institution had finally conceded to allowing Helen to stay with
them, since her captors had not yet been caught, but only after teaching
them both a variety of standard signs. A limited conversation could be
held and they could spell out just about anything.

When they had figured out what Helen was asking the entire time, it had
been very silent for a long awkward moment.

She was asking about Jane.

Mulder had to tell her that Jane was gone.

She had made primitive mewling noises, almost like a kitten mourning for
a mother.

Scully had held her very close and tried to comfort the wailing child,
but it seemed as if Helen had closed herself off to anyone.

Now, after carefully taking blood samples from Helen, they were waiting
on the results, both DNA and toxicology, just to make sure nothing had
been done to her.

Mulder sat anxiously in the plastic chair and hoped that this was not
Scully's child, yet also, he wished it was.

He had to admit that on second glance, Helen was different from Emily.
She was not an Eve, but she was very, very similiar. Almost as if they
had the same mother, but different fathers.

Fathers.

He felt a shudder run through him. Just who or *what* were their
fathers? Aliens or humans, or an odd combination of both?

Were Helen's blindness and deafness the effects of a human and hybrid
cross?

He stood and stumbled into the bathroom, retching and trying not to let
that image stay in his head. He knew it had all been some kind of
sterile lab experiment, but still, it made him sick to think they had
done that to Scully, to Emily, possibly to Helen.

The phone shrieked at him and he clicked it on before Scully or Helen
could wake up.

Softly he answered.

"Agent Mulder?"

"Yes."

"Well, sir, we have the reports back on the blood. It's got some
oddities to it, but nothing . . . ah, extraterrestrial in origin, sir."

Mulder felt his body slightly relax.

"See the real mystery is this, sir: Her DNA seems to be a match with
Agent Scully's and yours."

Mulder's mouth dropped open. "Mine?"

"Yes sir, we typed it as a control. When we got some screwy answers, we
had to start over with a new control, and that time, against yours."

"Are you sure?" he demanded.

"Yes, sir. I'm faxing you the report now. Good night sir."

"Ah, good . . . good night."

He hung up  and watched in dumb amazement as the fax machine lit up and
began rollng sheets of paper to him.

His DNA?

~~~~~

Scully was reading it again, for about the fifth time when he came back
in with the ice bucket.

She looked up at him and then back to Helen, who was doing a sloppy job
of eating some potato chips. Mulder could not look in her eyes; instead,
he walked over to the table and plopped two cubes of ice into Helen's
Coke and touched her shoulder.

She signed thank-you and guided the straw to her lips.

Mulder marveled at how well Helen manuevered around places, at the grace
she possessed even though deaf and blind, and at the innate sense of
boundary that she had for things.

She caught his hand and pulled him closer then made an unintelligible
noise and kissed his cheek.

He smiled and ruffled her hair, then turned to where Scully was watching
them.

"Mulder?"

"Scully, I'm sorry," he said immediately.

She shook her head. "No . . . I'm . . . I'm glad it's you and not . . .
not someone, or something else."

He sat down on the bed and looked hard at her, making her turn her head
and sit down awkwardly next to him.

"Do you think Emily . . . ?" she murmured.

He sighed. "I don't know. It wasn't even something I thought about. The
things I saw at that retirement home . . . all I thought was how
horrible it was."

"Mulder, I don't think Emily was. Helen is different. She looks . . .
she looks like Emily with you in her."

He looked over at the little girl quickly. "She looks like me?"

Scully smiled and her face saddened. "Her eyes, when she's listening
inside of herself . . . her eyes are yours."

Mulder grinned suddenly, his mouth turning into a huge smile of silly
good fortune. "This is . . . strange and wonderful all at the same
time."

Scully sighed. "I keep trying not to love her . . . I don't want to be
left again if they . . . if she dies."

Mulder looked back at her for a moment, then took her hand. "I think
that's part of love, Scully. Having the courage to love when it can all
be taken away in the blink of an eye."

"I don't like it much."

"But really, even without . . . without CancerMan's friends breathing
down our necks, we're all in danger of dying. A car wreck, lightning . . .
cancer."

She turned to him and her eyes were deep and dark, almost like Helen's
when she wasn't focusing on things. He saw pain in them and it hurt him
that she felt awful about such a wonderful gift.

He'd been given a daughter; he'd been allowed to be the father of . . .
her child.

And she was grateful it was him.

"I guess," she said softly. "Anyway, it's too late now. I'm already
falling in love . . . with her."

~~~~~

They like watching me. I can feel their eyes on me and they talk to each
other in softness: I can barely feel the air moving around their lips
and voices.

Mulder is nice to me and he's always careful to make sure I have what I
want. Dana keeps her arms around me when I dream about bad things.

They both are confused.

But I know. Jane told me my Mommy and Daddy were important people who
didn't even know they had a little girl.

The air in here is so charged, so changed, I can tell that my Mommy and
Daddy now know they have a little girl.

I want to make them see me, I want to see through them.

I drop the chips back onto the old, plastic table and stand up, reaching
out with just the barest touch to establish where I am in my dark room.

I can picture it with the help of my mind eyes. I can see the old
mustiness of the room, the two unmade beds, the soft grainy curtains and
thick carpet. I step forward to where they are on the couch and worm
between them, my eyes open and trying to train on where I think their
faces are.

I lower my head and take Dana's palm, place it in my lap so that they
both can see what I sign.

I have to spell out the question part at first and I can feel their
breath as they murmur the letters.

And then the regular signing.

I feel the dampness of her palm, the tingling of her blood through the
tips, the muscles working and relaxing.

I sign:

Are you my mother?

~~~~~

Dana felt her hands constrict around Helen's little fingers and she
glanced up at Mulder with dazed eyes.

Mulder signed yes against her cheek.

Helen signed Daddy back to him and took their hands in hers.

<Do I have to go back?>

The room was pressing down on them, and Mulder stood suddenly, bringing
Helen with him to let her know he was not running away from her.

Scully stood and they all went outside, sitting on the steps leading to
their motel and smelling rain and concrete.

Helen was in Mulder's lap, placed almost between them and hanging on to
his neck with both hands.

She was very silent and still as she processed the new environment and
analyzed her new dark room. She knew they were outside by the smell of
living things and rain, and she feel the cool wind across her skin
drying the sweat of a summer day.

Scully reached out and touched her cheek, an unconscious movement to let
her know where they were.

Helen laid her head against Mulder's shoulder and wrapped her baby
fingers around his neck.

Mulder looked to Scully and saw the same gentleness in her eyes that he
had been so shocked to find in Home, and again when she was with Emily.
That gentleness that was mother, that was soft sighs and caring hands,
that was love and reassurance.

His eyes spoke with hers and slowly, Scully signed against Helen's arm.

<You don't have to go back.>

~~~~~
end chapter four
adios
RM