A/N: This is just an alternate universe for the x-files. I've borrowed the characters, threw in a few of my own, and do have a bit of a bones feeling as well. Therefore, episodes in reference will not be at the same time as they do in the series.

"Keep him under control!" was yelled out the door as Special Agent Dana Scully closed the Assistant Directors door behind her and headed for her new assignment.

Originally when this had all started, she was called in as a favor to do an autopsy. That was when she originally met him two years ago. At that point, she'd been called in at the lab in Virginia near Quantico late at night, with a car seat in tow. She had just returned from maternity leave and felt she could not turn any assignment or request down. Luckily at that point in her life, nothing could be recalled by the child seat. Soon she discovered that he was always asking for her to do his autopsies. That was what led to this new assignment.

As the elevator dinged and she stepped out onto the basement floor towards a door marked Fox Mulder; she took one last deep breath, smoothing out the wrinkles of her suit, making sure no cereal was anywhere on them. She tucked a few stray red hairs behind her ear, put a smile on her face and knocked. "No one here but the FBI's unwanted." She'd pulled open the door, smile faltering a bit as he turned in the chair to look at who was in his office. He knew he'd recently gotten a partner but he'd expected someone much older, not the young …. Lady seemed the only appropriate word, standing in front him. She cast her eyes down. He suddenly felt a pang of guilt. She looked back up, smile on her face and stuck her tiny hand out.

"Hi Agent Mulder, I'm Dana Scully. I'm your new partner." He took the hand taking her in as she continued. "I'm very excited to be working with you. I've heard all about you at Quantico." He was looking up and down her form. Beautiful deep blue eyes, red hair with blonde scattered in, freckles she was desperately trying to hide behind her make up. Curves all in the right place, however at the mention of Quantico, he dropped her hand and stopped observing.

"Spooky Mulder right?" He questioned her. She smiled quickly and shook her head. "No. Your profiles." He turned to his desk and picked up a file, handing it to Scully giving her a break down.

"Kids in Oregon, having multiple abductions. Our flight leaves at 8:00am. Might want to look over that." Her face dropped slightly.

"8:00am …."

"Tomorrow".

She sighed. "Oh. Ok." She stepped out into the hallway to make a few phone calls, leaving for the day.

He stared at her in the passenger seat of the car he was driving. He was actually not minding having a partner. She'd proven herself useful.

"So what's your deal anyways? You look like your 12." Scully frowned slightly then looked up and at Mulder.

"No deal" she said then looked back down.

"But I mean, you're like a baby for a doctor."

Scully smiled, realizing he wasn't trying to be an ass or start a fight. "No deal. Just smart I guess. I got to go to kindergarten when I was 4. I insisted on going with my older brother Charlie when he got to go to school all day." She shrugged. "Couldn't be left out. Proved myself smart. Took college classes during high school and when I graduated high school, I didn't have much left to do to complete my undergrad. Completed the undergrad in a semester. Took the MCATs and went to medical school." She trailed off.

"And you went to teach at Quantico instead of pursuing medicine?" Mulder asked, cocking an eyebrow. If she was as smart as she was, why drop a high profile career path like that?

She shrugged. "Life happens." He smiled. She may not believe in aliens but she was about finding the truth. She had said she was going to try to keep an opened mind, however, she liked her science. He had to give her credit. "I would also like to state for the record that Doogie Howser was much younger than me."

"Mulder it's me. I'm assuming your out since Colton gave us the night off. I say we file a complaint against him. I'm furious! Call me when you get back in." Scully hung up the phone, and turned the water on in the tub when something fell and hit her.

Bile.

Scully looked up and took the cover off the vent to come face to face with Tooms. He launched himself on top of Scully, while she kicked and screamed. Grabbing his face, she tried to put her thumbs in his eyes. He got off her quickly and broke the window, realizing he had to get out. He had seriously underestimated this woman. Scully got up and tackled him, thoroughly pissed off. Mulder came through the door as Tooms turned to choke Scully. Tooms was soon stopped.

Soon after, crime scene investigators came out, while a call to her super got her a new window after her old window was dusted. Mulder stood talking to Skinner as the crime scene unit began to walk in. Scully moved towards a doorway down the hall and closed the door, knowing no one needed to be there for dusting or anything, not wanting to share that place with the world. When Scully reappeared Skinner was gone and Mulder was sitting on the sofa. Deep down, Scully was grateful for the commotion. It kept Mulder from noticing his surroundings. Scully went and sat next to him.

"Thanks." She mumbled. Mulder nodded. He noticed a picture behind Scully's head, near the lamp and picked it up. Scully was holding up the arms to some chubby girl, wearing a sun hat and floaters on her arms while the waves rolled in, the baby in the green suit looked about to dance. Scully was smiling down, herself in a navy one piece that happened to be very nice to her cleavage, her hair curled and freckles covering her nose. "Cute kid" Mulder said. "Must like being an aunt." He looked over the apartment now that things were calming down. "Must be a great aunt, taking care of her." Scully's breath stopped for a moment as he took in the booster seat at the table. She exhaled.

"Yeah. Um. Emily's a great kid." Mulder was so dense sometimes, however this time she was not going to complain.

They'd been working together several months now, when his old flame from Oxford showed up. Scully had called and left a message with Skinner and him, telling them she would be in late today. Something had come up suddenly. Phoebe had already been by, explaining that as of late, three British politicians had suddenly burst into flames, and was here providing security to one Sir Malcolm Marsden. Even though Mulder wanted to take care of this one himself, he still needed to bounce off of Scully. But where was she?! He picked up his phone and called her home. Busy signal greeted his ear. He then tried her cell phone. It sent him straight to voicemail. Annoyed, he picked up his jacket and keys and walked out the door.

Twenty minutes later he was knocking on Scully's door. He heard her rush to the door, all the while "Oh thank god! Thank you so much Mo-" She stopped short, realizing it was Mulder standing in her doorway and not her mother she had called earlier this morning. "Well. You're not my mother. Um. Come in." Mulder had shock written all over his face.

On Scully's hip was a very small child with piercing blue eyes and red curls. The little face was tucked to Scully and flushed with tear tracks running down. As Scully stepped aside and let Mulder in, Scully shut the door and began walking back and forth, slowly rocking herself. "Your phone" was all Mulder could muster.

Scully blushed. "After I called my mom, I kept it off the hook, hoping to get this little one back to sleep." Mulder stood there watching Scully in the kitchen, holding this little chubby thing. Suddenly, the little thing threw up down the front of Scully and she stopped her movements. "Oh Emily. Not again." She started walking towards the hall way and to a room with a baby gate across the door, rubbing the little things back all the while. "I'll be right back" She set the toddler down who immediately began to cry hysterically. Scully rushed off into her bedroom, ripping her top off to put a new one. Still listening to the crying child, she began to run water in the sink over the shirt. But as she turned the water off to let the shirt soak, she realized there was no crying.

She bolted out the door to Emily's room. Mulder had come out of his daze of just following Scully around and while she had gone to clean her shirt up, the crying toddler must have tugged at his heart strings, because he'd climbed the baby gate and picked the child up and sat in the rocker with the child on his lap. Scully stood in the doorway of the room. "Um. Scully. You might want to finish getting dressed." Mulder's face redden. Damn did her chest look good, encase in lace.

Scully looked down and saw in her haste to see why her child had stopped crying she ran out only wearing her bra. She bolted back to her room, running the water to the sink again, splashing the cold to her face. She quickly pulled a shirt on and went back to Emily's room. To her surprise, Emily was passed out holding her pink blanket on Mulder's lap in the rocker, with her thumb in her mouth. She climbed the baby gate as well, picked the sleeping one up and carefully laid her into her bed, while pointing that Mulder should go to the kitchen. "Watch the baby gate," She mouthed at him, knowing that running into that left marks on your shins for weeks.

In about five minutes Scully arrived back in the kitchen and placed the phone back on the hook. "So" Mulder said, not really knowing where to go with this.

"So" Scully said. Mulder was curious. Why hadn't Scully ever mentioned her? He considered Scully to be one of the only people he trusted, so why leave such an important part of her life out of office? Mulder also still had his mind on other things, such as Scully's tight stomach and perky chest.

"So I guess its time to tell you the truth. That was Emily. She's not my niece. She's my daughter." She waited for Mulder to say anything at that point.

"Cute kid" he said grinning at her after what felt like an eternity.

"If you call the terrible twos cute". She was grateful he didn't dive in wanting answers.

The landline rang. Scully and Mulder jumped. A comfortable silence had built between the two of them. The machine picked up. "Dana, it's me," Scully jumped up for the phone. "Mom! Hi Mom. It's ok. Wow. Now that's a mess. No it's ok. I'll work from home today. Love you too. Bye." Scully set the phone down. "Hope that's ok. My mom is stuck in traffic. It'd probably take her another 90 minutes to get here."

Mulder grabbed the file he'd stuck on the counter through his shock.

"I need to take care of this on my own, but I still wanted to run this by you." Scully looked through the file.

Originally for Phoebe, this case had started back in England with a man waving goodbye to his wife and instead managed to spontaneously catch fire and dance around, burning to death in the driveway. However, when Phoebe had placed the recording in Mulder's car she was not expecting to see the two agents together as they were. That was the day before. When Phoebe finally had Dana in her vision, she tried to mark her territory, leaning in and up on the balls of her feet and kissing Mulder. Scully felt awkward. The pervious morning, Mulder had met her little one, a part of her life that she allowed no one but her family in, and had trusted Mulder. She felt like the odd man out, sitting in the basement office. Phoebe was bluntly rude to her. She hadn't felt this way since her youth.

Mulder had promised, after conferring with Scully, to run this case by the arson guys. Phoebe met Mulder in an upper office that after noon, Scully sneaking in to stand watch, only at the back door, trying to draw zero attention to herself, which she did manage, as the FBI's top arson guys went over details with Phoebe. Phoebe admitted they had looked into much of the same ideas the arson guy was talking to her about, however, they had come up empty handed. No accelerant. No starter device. Mulder was intrigued.

Meanwhile, that afternoon, Sir Malcolm and his family showed up to a home in Cape Cod, being rented for the summer. Little did they know a firebug was watching them. "Hi. I'm Bob. The caretaker. We've been exchanging emails." Bob informed the couple that they could call on him day or night if anything was needed as he made his way out into the yard. The family dog was digging things up in the garden. "Bob" ran over to chase the dog away. No way was this dog going to ruin him.

Back at the FBI, Scully was sitting at Mulder's desk, waiting for Mulder to come back, staring at a file. Mulder walked back in, looking as if he'd seen a ghost. "I told you Scully, you're off the hook for this one." Scully stared at him. "I'll let you in on a secret. I'm terrified of fire. My friend's house, when I was little, burned to the ground and we had to spend the night in the rubble, keeping away looters. Ever since." Mulder trailed off.

"And Phoebe knows this?" Scully questioned.

"It's classical Phoebe." Mulder stated. Scully shook her head.

"So basically, she just shows up, and she knows the power she has over you." Scully trailed off under her breath. "Are you sure you don't want my help." Mulder stood up shaking his head.

The next morning, Mulder had called Phoebe down and they were at the hospital. "I pulled this off the wire last night. Said a customer caught fire. They're still looking for a body. Supposedly melted concrete." Mulder signed a log before going over, knocking on the door, entering in. After talking to the woman, convincing her to go down and talk to a sketch artist to draw up the guy who had set himself on fire. The woman laying in the hospital did manage to recall one vivid detail at that moment; the guy was British, or at least spoke with a British accent. After leaving the room, Phoebe tried to make small talk.

"So you ignored her indiscretions like they were nothing."

"A skill I perfected with you." Mulder looked down. "Sorry. That was a cheap shot. I don't want to drag up the past." Phoebe was angry.

"Don't you think ten years should be long enough to be forgotten about?"

Scully sat in the basement office. She knew Mulder asked her not to get involved, but she couldn't help it. It was sitting right there, in front of her. Mulder had obviously ran off and left it sitting there. She wasn't sure why but it annoyed her. Tentatively, she opened the manila folder and began looking over everything. Booting up her own laptop, she slowly began to build her own profile. She had papers being checked for people coming into the country as well. If this had happened overseas to three other people, this had to be a jumping point.

Meanwhile at the house in Cape Cod, the children were outside playing, while Bob painted a swing set in the yard, near the two boys playing soccer. "Do you boys want to see a magic trick?" He called out. The two came running over. "What's your names?"

"I'm Michael, and that's Jimmy." Bob began to entertain the two, magically lighting cigarettes on fire. Time went by and the boys' mother came out calling them over to her. Bob stood up, smiling.

"We've had a bit of bad news. Our driver has taken ill and we're due in Boston tonight for a party. We were wondering if we could impose on you to drive us. We'd be happy to pay you for your time as well as putting you up for the night." Bob was shaking his head.

"No. I'd be happy to do it." Bob had laid his trap.

Phoebe and Mulder walked through the rain. "We're going to have to keep them under cover for awhile." Mulder said. Phoebe nodded.

"Oh. There's a party be given for them in their honor tonight. In Boston. I suppose we could cancel."

"Unless," Mulder stopped her, "you wanted to set a trap."

Hours later, Scully called Mulder. She had something major to show him. Emily was in the backseat, flinging her little legs around, holding onto her teddy bear and pink blanket. "Mommy." She kept calling from the backseat.

"Hold on baby." She said, looking into the rearview mirror at Emily in the backseat, her happy two year old being vocal, as Mulder picked up his phone.

"What did you say?"

"Not to you Mulder. Where are you? I've got something to show you."

"I'm actually in Boston." Scully sighed. She guessed she would be making a road trip that evening.

"I'm coming up."

It was dark by the time Scully got there. She had made a trip over to her parents own vacation house in the Cape that they had recently bought, now being child at home free, to drop off Emily, who by that time, had her head drooped over in sleep after watching Clifford the Big Red Dog. It was obvious the party was well under way. Scully felt awkward, arriving in her navy trouser pants, low heels, and black button down dress shirt. As she entered into the lobby just outside the party, she came across Phoebe, wearing a long black party dress, with low cut reveling sweetheart top to it, and Mulder, wearing a tuxedo, dancing. Scully didn't know why, but she felt as if she'd been slapped in the face. She turned to leave, to go back to her parent's home, but came across a man, glaring at her from behind a plant, almost glaring in the direction of the couple dancing in the lobby. Scully turned again, not sure what to do, but when she turned back, the man was gone. She, herself, was about to leave when, while walking towards the door, near the elevator of the lobby, she noticed a flashing red light going off. It was indicating smoke on the fourteenth floor. She ran through the two dancing. "There's a fire on the fourteenth floor."

"The children!" Phoebe said, calling the authorities. Mulder, swallowing his fear went running up. He heard the children calling for help and waded in through the thick smoke, attempting to find them. Meanwhile, down in the lobby, the distraught parents were relieved when the elevator popped open to Bob, holding Jimmy and Michael. Meanwhile on the fourteenth floor, Mulder had succumb to smoke inhalation and the fire fighters were rescuing him. The last thing that Mulder could recall was Scully leaning over him.

Mulder woke, coughing. His throat hurt. His chest hurt. His eyes burned. The sunlight pouring in through the open shades did not help matters much. Slowly, images from the previous evening played themselves out. Mulder looked up to see Scully, leaning over him, handing him a glass of water. After taking the glass and a drink, all Mulder could muster was "Where's Phoebe?" Scully was hurt. Covering her hurt up, she answered Mulder's question.

"She's down the hall."

"How are the kids?"

"They're ok. A doctor checked them out." Mulder coughed, climbing out of bed. He wasn't sure when the dress shirt came off, but it was off. He was only wearing the tuxedo pants. "What happened up there?" Mulder, shook his head at his partner.

"I panicked Scully. I just froze up." Mulder went into the bathroom.

"It could have happened to anyone Mulder." Scully called out after him, attempting to be supportive even though he was clearly being an ass to her. Mulder frustrated, ran his hands through his hair.

"But it happened to me!" He yelled at Scully. A small thought had been building in the back of Scully's mind through the night, over her watch of Mulder.

"Mulder… What do you know about the guy that saved the kids. The driver?" Phoebe choose that moment to make herself present in the room.

"I personally checked him out myself." Mulder took that moment to reappear.

"Was he watching the kids last night?" Scully asked, sick of Phoebe's "I'm better than you" tone. She nodded. "Well I thought I saw him down in the lobby around the time the fire broke out."

"Impossible" Phoebe said. Mulder coughed. "I came to see how you were doing. Everyone's anxious to get back."

"To the Cape?"

"No. We're going back to England the day after tomorrow. I'll give you a ring before I leave." With that Phoebe took her leave of the room. Mulder sat down on the sofa in the room, completely defeated. Scully didn't know why she was so upset, but she swallowed back her tears and emotions and sat down in front of the now, boxer and robe clad Mulder.

"Interested?" She asked, holding up a folder. Mulder shrugged.

"I guess so." Scully slid the folder over to him across the coffee table Mulder was using as an ottoman.

"I took the liberty to run the names through Interpol of all the servants who worked for the victims around the time of death. Mulder… These people can't even tie their own shoes. Over two hundred names. And no duplicates…Except for one. A Cecil Lively. Model citizen of Great Britain until he was killed in 1971 in a fire." A little glimmer was coming back into Mulder's eye. "I checked Cecil apostrophe Lively, and this came up twice. One was a child killed in ritualistic sacrifice outside of Bath in 1963 and a visa stamped a couple of weeks ago." Mulder jumped up and handed orders to Scully.

A couple of hours later and Scully was on the phone. She had been fighting with a fax machine the last couple of hours, a battle which she was obviously losing by the lack of fax. She was calling to ask them to send the composite of a fire suspect over. As it began to finally come through she saw a face she recognized. The driver. She immediately began to try calling Mulder. As luck would have it, his cell phone was either turned off or dead. Voice mail all the way.

Mulder had made his way back to the Cape Cod rented home, believing the arsonist would be lying in wait at the home. As he pulled into the driveway, barely remembering to put the car in park and turn it off, he bolted through the door. He wasn't sure why, but his stomach sank. Phoebe was on the stairs kissing the very man she was supposed to be protecting. They parted and stared at the intruder. Phoebe walked down the stairs towards Mulder, not knowing what to do fully. Mulder fixed that for her. "His name is Cecil Lively. Where's the rest of the family? We have to get them packed and get them out of here."

Mulder answered the door to let Scully in. Scully, after having received the composite, had driven straight out, after stopping to pick up Emily and hope that she would just sleep through this one. Mulder, idiot that he was, turned his phone back on to get the voice mail of Scully screaming at him and saying she was on her way out. She was there by nightfall. Scully looked upwards and into Mulder's eyes. He hated that he could never get away from those caring yet prying eyes. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah." Mulder nodded as the family came down the stairs, Phoebe in tow.

"It's the driver!" Scully said, digging the composite out of her pocket.

"And he's disappeared." Mulder told her. Sir Malcolm looked down. He began to shake his head.

"This isn't the driver. This is the care taker."

"And he's upstairs with the children!: His wife gasped out. They began running up the stairs. Everyone was calling out. "Michael. Jimmy."

The walls began to burst into flames along with the drapes and bedding. "He's rigged the entire house." Mulder said, smelling what he was holding. "It's soaked." As he ran down the stairs with Phoebe, Scully, Sir Malcolm and Sir Malcolm's wife, Mulder knew it was time to take action. He couldn't let his fears control him. Not when innocent lives were at stake. "Everybody out."

Mulder went up the stairs attempting to look for the children and their puppy. Mulder was fiddling with a doorknob when Cecil appeared at the end of the hallway. "Time to call 9-1-1-" He said mockingly at Mulder. Mulder was coughing, the smoking was getting to him, but he couldn't let anything happen to Jimmy and Michael. Cecil walked past him, lighting up walls and the ceiling.

Meanwhile, Scully being the great listener that she was, stopped Cecil at the bottom of the stairs with her gun drawn, making an attempt to grab at the can Mulder had showed her when she first walked into the door. "Stop right there! Federal Agent!" She yelled at him. He began walking towards her taunting her.

"Don't you realize that just one spark from that gun and we all go up." Naturally Scully had realized all of this but was buying herself time to grab the can of accelerant Mulder had shown her. She managed to bend down and pop it open throwing the fluid onto Cecil. Cecil began to stagger out of the house and into the yard, while Mulder made his way out with Jimmy and Michael in his arms, they're dog at his heels. Cecil decided if he was going down, he would go down in flames and lit himself up. The family was torn between watching Cecil or watching the home.

A month later, Scully was finishing an add on to the report. Cecil was being studied. Everyone was amazed at his basal cell tissue's regrowth properties. He had been admitted with fifth and sixth degree burns, ones, which no one would normally survive, instead, he was healing, and was expected to have recovered within the month.

Scully sat at the laptop, pounding on the keys, while Mulder kept staring at her. She kept glancing up, trying to ignore his gaze. He hadn't been right since Phoebe showed her face. He kept knocking her foot with his underneath the desk. Scully had been painfully distant with him since. He couldn't understand. Was it the fact that he knew the truth about Emily and Scully's past that caused her to build a brick wall around her towards him, or could he be hoping too much, that somehow, she had been jealous of Phoebe? Yes, Phoebe was his past and he could never care for her in that way ever again. She had cheated, multiple times on him throughout their relationship. She had just always held some strange power over him, as if he needed to prove that he could be the better person, help her, but be over her. God, he really hoped it was the second of the two. Scully fed up with him tapping her foot every few moments looked up. "Yes Mulder?" It was almost like being with Emily that day.

"How's Emily?" He asked, trying to keep it all light, smiling, deep down, he knew it was the second reason.