Part 7 XXXXX Undisclosed location April 9, 2000 4 AM Todd set up the homemade smoke bombs at the entrance to the house and right outside of the entrance to the second floor. If all went well, he'd be carrying Jessica down those stairs and looking like the true hero he was as he carried them both out through the billowing smoke. It wasn't part of his original plan. After all, a fire was part of Tina's nightmare, not Jessica's. But he needed to do something to hasten her acceptance of him and this might turn the tide. Besides, since this wasn't a real fire, there was no real danger. He wouldn't make that mistake twice in one lifetime. He shook his head to wipe out that particular memory. Times were different now. He would get the girl and they would live happily ever after. It was just the way life was meant to be. XXXXX Scully's hotel room 4:15 AM Scully was wide awake within a couple of hours. She listened for Mulder's deep rhythmic breathing but it wasn't there. "You're awake, aren't you?" "Yes." "What are you thinking about?" "Us?" he said, opting for political correctness but falling a bit short in the delivery. "No. Seriously." "I'm thinking of Daly Avenue," he said. "I'm thinking of how much of an effect a 14-year old girl could have had on a 9-year old boy." "Ah, Scully," he said, gripping her bare shoulder. "You have obviously never walked a mile in our Reeboks. You are talking about a shy little kid. Jessica was probably nice to him in that condescending way young teens have to demonstrate their superior manners whilst pleasing their parents. She had sprouted in all the right places and that old male ego kicked in and convinced the little pre-pre- pubescent that she liked him-liked him." "So, that obsession doesn't concern you?" "No. If his life was falling apart and he was unable to fill the role he felt destined to fulfill with his own wife, he would embrace the past where things were simpler." "Then why are you thinking of Daly Avenue?" "Todd's family left just as the neighborhood was changing. He was not there when the buildings were being burned for insurance. Years later, while semi-stalking Jessica, in the middle of some sort of steroid abuse, romantic overload combination, he finds out the very ironic fact that her worst nightmare centers around that semi-burnt out shell of a neighborhood. Although, if you look at her original post, she never mentions anything being burnt out. She just mentions being completely alone in her now empty apartment with no way out. It's more a dream of loneliness, than fear, but he might not have taken it that way. I'm pretty sure he took the other two women to establish some sort of serial kidnapping fantasy that he could use to convince Jessica he truly saved her. And he probably had the full intention of going to Daly Avenue, finding an abandoned building and setting up an old apartment to keep her in. But nothing had stood still. What he found was a neighborhood in the middle of urban renewal. A good place to take a new bride, too, perhaps—if they are into the nostalgia of reliving their childhoods as adults. But now he needs to keep her somewhere similar." "A burnt out shell of a place . . . " "Right. And his ex-wife mentioned getting insurance to rebuild on the property. She said nothing about the property itself being sold. So, that building might still exist." "There's only one way of finding out," Scully said, as she made a mad dash to the bathroom to get dressed XXXXX Todd and Theresa Spector's house New Rochelle, NY 4:25 AM Jessica watched the smoke as it came through the bottom of the door. She felt no panic. She had actually felt very little panic since she found out Todd was responsible for her abduction. As frightened as she had been when he was writing the notes, once she had seen him again, she knew he wouldn't hurt her. Their relationship hadn't really changed a bit. They knew nothing about each other as adults. They were still interacting as they did as children. He was a pain in the butt kid and she was the one he had a crush on. And everyone knew a 14-year old girl could kick a 9-year old boy's ass. "Smoke bombs," Jessica heard herself saying. "Todd!" she yelled. She remembered the article about one of those women whose dream she shared. Todd must have been responsible for her kidnapping and subsequent rescue. He was the common factor between herself and those women. Damn. "Todd!" she yelled again. The door burst open and he stood in the doorway, in true super hero pose. She wasn't buying any of it. "Toss those bombs out of the window so the smoke can dissipate." "What bombs? There are no bombs. We have a small fire. I don't want to alarm you but it's necessary that you leave right now. I'm here to save you." He approached her and grabbed her hand. She stretched her other arm down and picked up a shard of glass from its pile on the floor and scratched his hand from elbow to wrist. He pulled away sharply and watched the blood drip to the floor. "What the hell are you doing, Jessica? I'm only here because I love you and want to get you out of here. God, you're like a rabid dog or something." "I'm going to show you a rabid dog in a moment. Now, I'm leaving here and you can do what you fucking well please but if you're planning on killing me or something, you better do it now." Todd looked insulted but stood aside as Jessica started down the stairs. After a moment, she could hear his footsteps slowly following as she carefully made her way through the smoke. The white mist was so thick in front of her and, once again, she felt as she had the first time Todd had extended his hand toward her. She felt as if she were lost in time and space—in a world somewhere between life and death. She heard a wheezing sound behind her and then felt a thud as Todd fell against the creaky banister. She had enough time to brace herself against it as his body fell down the entire flight of stairs and landed in a heap at the front landing. She saw his bright blue shirt through the billowing smoke and ran down the stairs. She touched his neck for a pulse and didn't feel one. Jessica flung open the door. It wasn't locked. As the smoke started clearing out the front door, she could see Todd's car and freedom. But she couldn't leave a dying man. Certainly not this one. Leaving him to die would leave herself with a lifetime of guilt. There was a bond between the former residents of Daly Avenue. She couldn't fully understand it, but she respected it. She had to at least make the attempt to save him. She left the door open and went back to him. She checked for a pulse. If it was there, it was faint and she couldn't find it. The damned jackass had heart failure as he was trying to 'rescue' her. Jessica cursed herself for not taking CPR courses or for really finding out what to do in an emergency. Finding a phone, at this point, would have to wait. He would be long dead by the time she located one. He probably needed CPR now and she'd just have to wing it. She remembered compressions and mouth to mouth. A certain amount of time for each. She could do that. She made sure his airway was clear and then breathed into his mouth for 8 seconds. For some reason, that seemed like a good amount of time, considering she didn't really know how long she had to do this. Then she did the compressions for double that time, cursing all the way. "You think," she said, pushing down on his chest, "that I need to be saved from something. Well," she said, pressing down again, "I don't. I stopped believing in fairy tales long ago." She breathed into his mouth for the requisite amount of time. When she was done, she started the compressions again. "You didn't even see your opportunity to be a hero when it was right in front of you. Your kid, you idiot. He wasn't out to get you. He was out for love. All kids are. And you're his daddy. You can do no wrong in his eyes. Not at this age. You could have been his hero. But, no, you have to act like an ass and leave him through whatever the hell it is you did that pissed your wife off so much she doesn't even want you to see him." She stopped for more mouth to mouth. "Well, you're not dying on my watch. You can have that second chance. That much I can give you. For old times sake." She kept up the compression and breathing until she found the faint pulse she was looking for. She continued doing what she was doing because she didn't know what else to do. When Mulder and Scully came running through the door, Jessica was shocked to hear sobs in between her rescue efforts. The sobs were coming from herself. XXXXX Daly Avenue, Bronx, NY April 11, 2000 9:30 AM "Look at it," Jessica told Karen as they walked down the street. Jessica kept looking at each building in wonder; Karen wondered if perhaps they should double check Jessica for injuries. The place, while improved since the last time Karen had seen it, was still just a notch or two above a shit-hole. "Jessie, it's been one day. This is really not the time to be here." "Agents Mulder and Scully said Todd put us on a waiting list for an apartment here. I just want to get that cleared up with the landlady. No one is moving here and she can rent to whoever she wants." "A phone call would have been sufficient." "No," she said, looking around. "I need closure. This will do it. She looked at the community garden. "This has taken the place of two houses. My grandparents lived right about here. It was the corner house. Todd and his family lived in the building next door. It's so funny. I still can't remember anything specific about Todd from the past. He was just a little kid who played in the streets and just moved away at one point." "Well, you made more of an impression on him, obviously." "No. I think the idea of me made more of an impression on him. He didn't know me at all." "What do you think they are they going to do with him?" While Jessica had spent half of the night before filling her friend in on the details of her questioning and her long sessions with the two FBI agents, she spent most of the following day sleeping. This morning, she was pretty determined to go straight to her old neighborhood and no amount of discouragement could change her mind. "Well, after he gets released from the hospital, there will be a trial. He'll be down for three counts of unlawful imprisonment or worse. I don't know. I imagine there will be a sanity hearing, perhaps. I know Agent Scully said something about there being a whole hell of a lot of steroids in his blood. I have no idea what will really happen." "What do you want to happen? I mean, I'm sensing a whole nostalgia thing going on here, that makes me think you want to fix things somehow. You have that knack, you know." "Well, there are some things I can't fix. I guess I faced those facts. I will go out there and tell the truth. Whatever happens afterwards is up to the courts, Todd and his family." She stood in the middle of the street and looked around. The house she had spend the first 19 years of her life stood just a few steps away from her. Suddenly, she couldn't move. "You know, this place has changed but still reminds me so much of childhood. I can almost hear the laughter. But if I walk in that building for the first time since our moving van took us to a new life, it *will* be my worst nightmare. Everyone is gone," she could almost see her dad's bright blue eyes, her mother's warm smile. "Let's go. Let sleeping dreams—and nightmares—lie. I'll call the landlady from home." Without another word, Karen linked her arm through her best friend's, gave her a tiny squeeze and headed back toward the car. XXXXX Plane on the way back to Washington, DC 9:45 AM "What's wrong?" Mulder leaned over and briefly rested his chin on Scully's shoulder. She was looking out the window of the airplane at nothing but clouds. "Jessica is kind of haunting me a bit." "I thought you didn't believe in ghosts," he teased. "Well, the jury is still out on that one. This was such an odd case, Mulder. In a way, it was not even an x-file." "Oh, I don't know about that. There were the prophetic dreams. There was also that disturbing life-death vision Jessica experienced twice during her captivity. That could signal a whole new realm of psychic ability." "Mmmm. When push came to shove, Jessica held her own. Chances are, even if we never had shown up, she would have gotten out of it just fine." "And that makes you sad?" "No, no. We served our purpose. It was wrong to brush off Karen Noyes' concerns. It was wrong to ignore facts due to possible repercussions with the FBI. After yesterday's dressing down, I'm sure the Scarsdale P.D. will never ignore proper procedure again. And I am glad Jessica was able to keep her head. I talked to the doctors who examined her. There is sure to be some post-traumatic stress and she might need a bit of therapy for that, but I think she will be all right. Considering the fact Todd was playing on the worst, subconscious fears of these women— they didn't do half as badly as one might expect." "I guess that's the crucial difference. Dreams are scary because of their ethereal qualities. Add some substance to them, and they can become manageable." "I guess so." "You're not going to tell me why Jessica haunts you?" "Of course I am, Mulder. It was heart wrenching when we walked in and she saw us. She had been sobbing as she was doing the CPR." "It was an emotional overload." "I know. For that split second, I felt all those emotions with her. It's also ironic. Todd spent so much time weaving dreams of being her knight in shining armor and she was put in a position where she had to decide whether he lived or died." "It's not easy being a hero, is it?" he asked, brushing her shoulder with his. "You tell me," she said, brushing his shoulder right back. "Mulder?" "Hmmm . . ." "You want to come over tonight? We could just order in, have a nice bath or something and turn in early? Does that interest you at all?" He lifted her hand to his lips and brushed her fingers lightly against his mouth. "Very much so, My Lady." "Ugh," she said, pulling her hand from his. "No heroes, no courtly anything. Tonight, it's just me and you, okay?" He smiled and leaned down to place a quick kiss on her shoulder. Scully looked at him as he leaned back against his chair and closed his eyes. This was comfortable. This was easy. And they were doing *this* just fine. And, even with the roller coaster dips in between, she had been right. It was the never-ending ride of her life. The End Author's notes: I like author's notes. I don't know why. Just a chance to continue gabbing, I guess. This story is dedicated to my mom, because even though she isn't "allowed" to read my stories, she "knows they are great." How's that for unconditional love? And it's also dedicated to the echoes of laughter from childhood memories. And to the fuzzy vision that comes with age, turning what was sometimes torture to live though into a Donna Reed episode . Christmas-time brings out the sentimental fool in me. Thank you for reading this and have a very happy holiday season.