PART NINE

By now you know, all legal stuff is in part one.

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Part Nine-'There are more things in heaven and earth than 
               are dreamt of in your philosophy'

     Catriona paced back and forth in front of the side 
door to her home.  Any minute now she would see the two 
cars pulling up the long, sloped driveway.  She knew 
exactly what those two cars contained: six people, one 
of which was currently unconscious and had a bed made up 
for him on the couch in the family room.  Her brown plaited 
hair had come loose from its knot and the long braid now 
dangled well past her hips.

     Thirty-five years.  It had been thirty-five years 
since Fox disappeared.  And now, those thirty-five years 
seemed like they only spanned a minute.

     Finally the two cars pulled up.  One was Shannon's 
that she recognized immediately.  The other car was a 
non-descript dark blue Taurus.  From Shannon's car she, 
Alec, and Robynne got out.  From the other car came Molly 
and a smaller redhead she didn't recognize.  In the back 
of the car Cat knew was the man her little boy had become.  
Suddenly she noticed the cold wind whipping around and 
burrowing its way into her bones.

     "Come on in!" Cat suddenly cried.  She saw the 
smaller redhead start, ('That's probably Dana,' Cat 
guessed) probably at her accent.  Most people didn't 
expect to hear it coming from her mouth.  Although she 
figured a name like 'Catriona' would give them a hint.  
"It's frigid out here!"  With that she turned and walked 
in through the wooden door, leaving it open in invitation 
for the others to come in.

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     Scully stared after the older woman walking into 
the house, her skirt flaring out behind her.  'Was that 
Mulder's real mother?' she wondered.

     Suddenly Scully sucked in a deep breath and pressed 
her palms flat against the car door.  'What the hell am 
I doing?' she thought frantically.  'I'm following people 
I don't know at all with a partner who could be seriously 
injured--'

     'But what about what your gut is telling you?  That 
all that's wrong with Mulder is that he's getting his 
memories back.  That you know deep down that this really 
is his family,' that little nagging voice popped up in 
her head.  Scully pushed the voice back down and went 
on with her mental tirade.

     'And I'm willingly, willingly following people I 
don't know, don't trust because of a hunch.  A pretty 
damn extreme hunch.'

     That little voice popped up once more.  'You do 
trust them though, on an instinctual level.  They're 
Mulder's family, they would never do anything to hurt 
you.'

     She mentally kicked the voice for jumping ahead 
and assuming that this was Mulder's real family, 
although she wouldn't admit to herself that the 
voice was probably right.  A hand came down on her 
shoulder.  Scully turned to see Shannon's hazel eyes 
('Mulder's eyes,' it occurred to her) staring down at 
her.  "We really should get him inside.  It is getting 
cold out here."

     Scully looked at Mulder, stretched out across the 
back of the Taurus, and then up to Shannon once more.  
"Yeah.  That's a good idea," she said, placing a trust 
in unknown sources that this situation would not turn 
out badly.  "Should we carry him inside?"

     Shannon looked over at Molly, who rapidly shook 
her head.  "Nah-uh.  No way."  She backed up a step 
and tripped on a loose piece of gravel and stumbled, 
the only thing preventing her from meeting the ground 
was Alec's arm suddenly going around her waist.

     "I guess we carry him then," Shannon said.  She 
moved over to the door by Mulder's feet and pulled 
it open.  Scully moved over to Mulder's head.  She 
saw his eyes moving rapidly under closed eyelids.  
She gently ran a hand through his hair, and he seemed 
to relax at her touch.

     "So how do you want to do this?" Scully asked, at 
a loss as to how to get Mulder out of the car without 
hurting him.

     "Uh..." Shannon stuttered, at a loss for an idea.  
Finally, after a few minutes of gentle pushing and 
pulling, Mulder's body was out of the car and being 
carried by the five people to the house.

     They got him through the door, and Scully found 
herself in a short hallway.  The hallway almost 
immediately opened up to a large room with a dark, 
wood-beamed ceiling and white walls.  To the right 
and left of her the walls were embedded with windows.  
The ones on the right, the front side of the house, 
looked out over Staten Island, and the one on the left 
facing the back of the house looked out on a garden, 
grass, and trees.  Her eyes then flew to the couch 
facing the back window, made up with pillows and 
sheets and had the woman standing at the head of it.  
"You can put him right here," the woman said.  The five 
moved over to it and gently laid him down.

    The group began to disperse.  Robynne began to walk 
into another hallway opposite the one they entered by, 
saying "I'm going to get some breakfast, Gramma."  Alec 
went over and turned on the TV and sat himself down on 
the loveseat facing it, slouching down with an exhausted 
sigh.  Molly bent down and unzipped her backpack.  She 
pulled out the little bottle that had the sickly looking 
color contained in it, shifting and swirling within its 
glass confinement, and handed it to the woman Scully had 
determined what Shannon's, and possibly Mulder's, Mama.  
"Got it," Molly grinned at her, handing her the bottle.

     Cat smiled and took the bottle from her.  "Perfect," 
she whispered.  She walked over to one of the front 
windows and pushed it open.  She placed the bottle on 
the windowsill and uncorked it.  The sickly color flowed 
out of the bottle and dissolved into the air.

     "What the hell is going on?" Scully suddenly broke 
in.  Shannon and Cat turned to her, with puzzled looks 
on their faces.  Scully continued.  "I mean from their 
unexplainable stunt in the woods," she waved a hand back 
at Alec and Molly who were both slumped on the loveseat, 
oblivious to the conversation that was taking place 
because they were both on their way to falling asleep, 
"to why I'm here following people I don't know just 
because of Mulder and his uncanny resemblance!"

     Cat walked over to the couch and sat down on 
the floor next to it, near Mulder's feet, showing 
surprising agility for her older age.  She patted 
the floor and looked at Scully.  "Come on and 
sit down."

     Scully looked wary, the conflicting feelings being 
reflected in her eyes.  She wasn't sure she should, but 
something inside her knew that this older woman was to 
be trusted.  Cat suddenly grinned at her.  "You feel 
it, don't you," she said.  "That feeling inside of you 
that says I'm not going to hurt you."  Scully's mouth 
slowly opened, wondering how this woman knew what she 
felt.  Cat nodded.  "I know.  I've felt that feeling 
many times myself."  She patted the floor in front 
of her once more.  "Come sit down and I'll tell 
you my story."

     Scully slowly sat down, crossing her legs.  Cat's 
accented voice began to take on a singsong quality as 
she began to speak.  "Alec called here before while you 
were in the car and told me how you had called your 
partner by his first name, Fox.  I had a son named Fox, 
who disappeared when he was almost four years old.  I 
remember the date, August 24, 1965."

     'That was the date that Mulder first appeared on 
Martha's Vineyard according to the police report,' 
Scully thought.

     Cat looked at Shannon.  "Get the picture from 
the mantle, please," she asked.  Shannon nodded and 
retrieved the picture, handing it to Cat.  Then she 
sat down a distance away from them in an easy chair.  
"This is him," Cat said handing the picture over to 
Scully.  Scully took it gingerly.

     The picture was a black and white picture of a 
little boy, no more than three years old, sitting on 
a big reclining chair, still dressed in his pajamas.  
The little boy had dark hair that stuck up all 
different angles, with a wide smile that had an 
mischievous look to it, and there was a noticeable 
birthmark on his right cheek.  Scully reached into 
her jacket pocket and brought her wallet out.  She 
pulled a picture out of it that Mulder had given to 
her one day.  It was taken when Mulder was about eight 
years old, and was of him and a four year old Samantha 
at the beach.  Aside from the wet, slicked back hair 
of the young Mulder, and the slight difference in age 
between the boys in the picture, they could have been 
identical.

     She handed both pictures over to Cat.  "That 
picture is of Mulder, Fox, when he was eight years 
old," and let her fill in the rest of the blanks.

     Cat nodded.  "The resemblance is incredible."

     Scully shook her head and rubbed a hand across 
her forehead.  "This is..." she couldn't finish her 
sentence.

     Cat smiled sympathetically.  "It's a lot to take 
in."  Suddenly both women were distracted by movement 
on the couch next to them.  Scully's head whipped around 
to see Mulder's body moving restlessly on the couch.  
And shortly after that, his eyes opened.

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     Mulder's mind whirled.  His head was filled with 
images both unknown and yet familiar at the same time.  
A birthday cake with a three on it.  Walking down a rocky 
beach holding onto the hand of his father.  Playing a 
game of catch with an older boy who looked like him, his 
older brother.  A tall, dark haired woman with sparkling 
blue eyes, Mama, singing him to sleep.  The memories all 
of a sudden broke through the haziness of his memory, 
and he felt his body twist on the couch.  He now knew 
exactly who he was before he forgot, who he grew up to 
be, and who he was now.  His eyelids suddenly burst 
apart and he found himself looking up at a dark, 
wood-beamed ceiling.

     Scully's face appeared above him.  "Are you 
okay?" she asked worriedly, her hand stroking the 
side of his face.

     "I...I remember everything," he said in a 
breathy, whispery way.  He sat up abruptly, staring 
wildly around him.  His eyes fixated on Cat, staring 
into hers.  "Mama," he whispered, and Cat smiled a wry 
grin.  Mulder let out a deep breath and slouched against 
the back of the couch.

     Scully sat up on her knees and touched his face 
with her fingertips.  "What's going on, Mulder?" 
she asked.

     "I remember everything," he said, staring her 
in the eyes.  "Who I was before I was with the 
Mulders.  It's all back in my head."  His eyes 
wandered around the room once more.  "I've been 
in this room before."

     Cat's voice spoke up from behind Scully.  
"Well if you are who I think you are you've spent 
quite a lot of time here.  You grew up in this house."

     Mulder and Scully looked at her, and then back 
at each other.  "I think she's right," Mulder said.  
"I think she's..." he couldn't finish the line, out 
of fear or hope or maybe a combination of both.

     Scully nodded.  "I think you're right."  Mulder 
smiled slightly with surprise at her quick acceptance, 
but he had figured something had happened while he was 
taking a little trip into his memories.  "But I think 
we should do a blood test, just for confirmation."  
She looked over at Cat.

     "I've no objections to that.  It's best to be 
positive.  Although I'm sure that Mulder here is my 
dear, sweet long lost son," Cat smiled serenely.

     "Sweet?" Scully said disbelievingly, and Mulder 
pouted.  "I can think of plenty of words to call you, 
but sometimes sweet isn't one of them," Scully 
grinned in a playful way.

     "Oh believe me, he was no angel as a kid either," 
Cat spoke up, and Mulder and Scully sat back to listen 
to her.  "The amount of trouble this one got into had me 
running around frantic a good part of the day."

     Scully looked pointedly at Mulder, and he hung his 
head, trying not to laugh at her expression.  Cat's 
description sounded decidedly Mulder-like.  By this 
time Mulder and Scully were sure that he was Catriona 
Ramsay's son, even without the proof of a blood test.  
And Cat knew it because of the bond that is shared 
between all families.

     Cat spoke up, voicing an observation she had come 
to from watching the short interaction between the two 
F.B.I. agents.  "So you two are just partners, huh?" she 
asked, her crooked grin signifying she thought 
otherwise.  Mulder and Scully both blushed and looked at 
the floor.

     "Is it that obvious?" Mulder asked.

     "The way you were acting in here it is.  Outside, 
though, is probably a whole different story."  Cat 
winked at them.  "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone 
who's not supposed to know."

     Mulder straightened up, swinging his feet onto 
the floor next to Scully.  "I've got a question though.  
What the hell was going on in that forest?  I've seen 
some-" here he glanced at Scully, "-pretty strange 
things in my time and I've got to say that this was 
one of the strangest."

     Cat primly folded her hands in her lap.  "In 
short, a Cader-Ieran, a soul stealer,  was coming 
into the woods through a time slip, a sort of bridge 
between times, and attacking those five kids because 
he needed their souls for food," she said bluntly.

     Scully gaped at her.  "You expect us--" she 
began to say out of habit, but then she realized 
exactly what she saw in the forest that morning 
and revised her question.  "What about the Dragon?  
I know I wasn't hallucinating this morning and I saw 
Alec physically transform into a Dragon, a creature 
of myth and legend."

     Mulder's mind thought back to some of the dreams 
he had, and some of the story began to come together.  
"I had some dreams about this," he said.  "About you 
showing me, Shannon, and Colin a diagram of the family 
tree in a cave and you telling us a story about there 
being Dragon blood in the family.  Seeing Shannon make 
her hand get covered in scales, Dragon scales.  And 
you telling me that you were a Witch." Scully sat in 
silent agreement, having heard what happened in his 
dreams before.

     Cat nodded.  "Those things all happened, and 
it's all true.  The Ramsay family is one of the few 
families in this world that are descended from 
Dragons.  No one knows the logistics of this, but 
somehow, the blood running through the veins is part 
Dragon.  That includes you."

     "But Dragons have never been proved to exist," 
Mulder said.  "Most medieval accounts of Dragon 
sightings have never been considered accurate."

     "Some are.  Some are of people using the Dragon 
side of their heritage, whether it be for transportation 
or like Alec was doing this morning, to defeat some evil 
that needed to be defeated.  Some are actual Dragons, not 
people with Dragon blood.  The appearance of an actual 
Dragon is rare, they don't come out often because they 
don't have the human blood in them, and can't blend in 
with ordinary people.  And some...some are just the 
delusions of people looking for explanations of 
ordinary things."

     Scully looked up at Mulder, the fantastic tale 
astounding her and making sense at the same time.  
He sat, the wonderment obvious on his face.  "What 
about you being a Witch?" was Mulder's next question.

     Cat shrugged.  "I am.  Not a Witch in the Disney 
sense of the word, the evil witches whose sole purpose 
is to be bad.  And we're not like Wiccans either.  
This kind of Witch is someone who is more in touch 
with the world around them.  Basically we can 
communicate with nature.  We can talk with everything 
from trees to the ocean.  When we cast spells we're 
asking nature to help us.  Sometimes nature will help 
us without our even asking, a Witch just realizes 
exactly what's going on where an ordinary person 
wouldn't.  Our powers are there from birth.  You 
can't predict which family a Witch is going to come 
from.  It's not like Dragons, where the blood is passed 
down from generation to generation, they just appear.  
There have been some theories saying that Witches 
evolved as a balance for Dragons.  Dragons are 
notoriously hot-tempered, whereas a Witch is more 
prone to think things through.  When a mission is 
undertaken, like this morning, a Dragon and a Witch 
always work in a pair to form a balance."

     "So how do I recognize a Witch?" Mulder asked.  
Scully sat back, knowing that the questions more 
applied to Mulder than herself.  She was content 
for the moment to sit back and soak this newfound 
knowledge in.

     Cat let out an exasperated breath.  She was 
surprised he didn't figure out who the other Witch 
was yet.  "It's instinctual," she shrugged.  "Neither 
a Dragon nor a Witch is ordinary, and they can each 
sense that quality in the other.  That and the fact 
that Witches and Dragons are naturally drawn to each 
other."  Cat began to stare pointedly at Scully.

     Scully caught the stare and shrunk back a little 
uncharacteristically.  "What are you looking at me 
for?" she asked shakily.  Mulder looked down at her 
too, worrying about her sudden discomfort.

     "Have you had any experiences recently that would 
be considered out of the ordinary?" Cat asked calmly.

     "You think I'm a Witch?" Scully gaped incredulously.

     "I think it's highly possible," Cat said softly, 
trying to calm the agitated Scully down.  She knew, 
though, just from looking at Scully that she was 
indeed a Witch who had a connection with her son.  
"Still, has anything that's out of the ordinary 
happened to you very recently?"

     Scully bit her lip, deep in thought.  One 
incident in a school bathroom came to mind.  She felt 
Mulder's hand stroke her shoulder.  "What is it?" he 
asked, close to her ear.

     She closed her eyes and then slowly re-opened 
them.  "Yesterday, up at the school, I had confronted 
Molly in the bathroom, and in her backpack, I saw one 
of her books turn into another book.  It was different 
from the school textbook; it was leather bound, with 
gilded pages."

     Cat nodded.  "Molly cast a glamour on the book, 
an illusion to disguise the true nature of some 
things from ordinary people.  It's not so easy to 
hide things from a fellow Witch."

     Scully sat back against the front of the couch 
and crossed her arms in front of her.  Mulder slid 
off the couch to sit next to her and wrapped an arm 
around her shoulders.  Cat reached over and rubbed 
Scully's arm comfortingly.  "Don't worry, you'll 
get used to it.  Most Witches realize their abilities 
when they're very young.  And the young accept these 
things much more easily than adults do."

     "I think I've got to get used to some things 
myself," Mulder whispered in her ear, and Scully 
let out a small smile and leaned her head against his.

     "I've got a question," Scully said, still leaning 
against Mulder.  "What was that thing that Molly pulled 
out of that creature?  What she had in that bottle?"

     "Those were the souls the Cader-Ieran had taken.  
You can't destroy a soul, so they're imprisoned inside 
the Cader until the Cader dies.  At that time the 
souls go back to their original bodies, if they're 
still alive.  If they're not, well, it's believed 
they have a choice to go on either to the afterlife, 
or to be reincarnated into another body.  What Molly 
did was move up that process a little bit.  It sounds 
a little brutal, but when she pulled the souls out of 
the Cader, she effectively killed it.  What I did was 
release the souls so they could find their way back to 
their respective bodies."  Cat smiled at them.  
"Any more questions?"

     Mulder smiled an identical grin back at her.  
"You know it."

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     At that moment, the five kids who were comatose, 
Jenna Dreiser, Adam Douglas, Michelle Sellers, 
Peter Lanson, and Jason Ericson, came back to life, 
their souls restored to their bodies.

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END PART TEN-'There are more things in heaven and earth 
                 than are dreamt of in your philosophy'