Title : To Regain : A New Beginning (1/1)
Author:  Jenn Chiprich
Rating: The whole thing is somewhere around R
Category:  SRA
Summary:  A continuation of the Taking Universe
Feedback: ipomea@msn.com
Timeline:  The future, or a possible future
Spoilers/ Episodes:  Wellll....since it is in the future, any and all of
the episodes and/or the movie is fair game

Disclaimer:  Dana Scully, Fox Mulder, Walter Skinner and Maggie Scully and
any of the previous memories do not belong to me.  They belong to Chris
Carter, 1013 Productions and to Fox Broadcasting Company.  No copywrite
infringement is intended.There is no money being made from this.  Nor do I
ever intend to make money from this.  It's just plain fun.  And a well
deserved break from graduate school.

Notes:  Hello everyone.  It has been a while, but I am determined to finish
this.  Anyway, this is a continuation of the Taking Universe and what our
heroes might do.  Please read and enjoy.

2.  I would like to extend a special thank you to Ten for being such a
patient and wonderful editor.  Thank you!!!!!

 Journal Entry #1:  July 2, 2000

I swore.  I remember.  I swore that I would never again place my thoughts
in a sealed book, hidden from others eyes.  I had sworn a solemn oath to
Mulder that I would never do this again.  But, this book will serve a dual
purpose.  If and when we devise a way around this cluttered and sealed pass
that we live in, this book will be a legacy to our children how we escaped
a fate worse than death.  

I am sitting in the recliner in our bedroom, facing the south window, its
curtains billowing in and out.  Fox is next to me, on the bed, sleeping. 
Our lovemaking usually tires him out, leaving nothing except a feeling of
contentment and a laziness that only sleep can cure.  I, on the other hand,
after our erotic dance, only feel more awake, more alive.  I need these
times, when the rest of the world is quiet and I can almost believe that
all is right.  But it isn't....

Fox and I, us.  A bond. A strength.  A bond that was nearly severed a short
time ago.  From here, where I sit, I can see the scar.  It is vivid, ugly,
menacing.  Not only does it represent there sundering of flesh, but also it
personifies the tearing of my soul.  True, the flesh healed.  But, my soul
has not.  I nearly lost him to the pain afterwards.  I had nothing to give
him, no medication to offer to lessen the pain.  And the need to keep the
wound a secret meant that he was unable to remain home for healing.   After
remaining  on his feet all day,  remaining upright in his chair at work,
and walking, talking, using his body without the luxury of showing the
pain, he would come home and weep.  Double dressings,  praying that the
blood would not stain through, that the stitches would remain secure,
cleaning it daily with salt water.  He lived through it, but the pain
ridden facial expressions would  never leave my mind.  His anguished cries.
 Ingrained.  All ingrained.  But, he made it.  He is here, alive and well
enough to make love to me in his lazy, sensuous way.  And I am grateful.

Never would I have believed that he and I would be to this point.  True, I
have loved him for a long time...but I always envisioned our love as a
gothic, tragic romance....yet he has become the love and light in my
life....the only cause for happiness.  He knows how hard it will be,
though.  That our love might produce a child.  Even in the best of times,
without this weight of time hanging over our heads, our chances at children
would be chancy at best.  Since the time that they restricted me to the
clinic and did the medically impossible.....reimplanted my ova....I have
had the chance of conceiving a child again.  The conditions of conception
would have to be near perfect...timing and everything.  And timing is hard
now....my cycle is never the same twice.   If I were to conceive under
these conditions...the child itself would be a miracle.  Much like a
miracle that happened a long time ago, with another child.  But .....

He stirs.  He knows he could only sleep for a short time.  He has a meeting
with Jerry tonight, as do I.  We need to discuss something that has only
recently come to light.  Yes, my dear, dear, unborn child, there has
appeared a light in this darkness that we are now living in....a hope. 
However, it is the fact that it has appeared on a completely different path
from the one that we are currently pursuing that causes a problem.  The
good news, though, is that it is an easier path....in a way.

I must go.  He is stretching, moving his muscles and he will wonder where I
am, why I am not beside him.


"Dana?"  Mulder squinted in the coming night to see Scully curled in the
recliner next to him.  "Scully?  What are you doing over there?"

"Waiting for you to get up, G-man."  Dana smiled gently.  "Really tired you
out this time."

"Still training, been out of shape for a while." Mulder shot back, pulling
his covers down.  His mind quickly jumped to business, as was his way. 
"What time is it....?  Shit, I keep forgetting we don't have watches."

"Yes, and I am utterly surprised that you haven't slipped into catatonic
schizophrenia yet."  She smiled up at him as he approached the chair and
knelt beside it.

"Ha, ha, Agent Scully." he tugged on her until she fell forward into his
arms.  "I love you."  His face dissolved into a wistful smile as she sighed
and nuzzled his neck.  The past month had been bad for them.  Long,
tiresome hours working on the genome project at home, while struggling to
maintain their level of productivity at work.  There had been precious few
times that he had told her that before their night of intrigue getting the
computer file, and even fewer afterwards.  He sensed a change in their
relationship, though, additively to the physical change that had already
occurred.  They were truly become each others other part, two halves to a
whole.  He would kill for her now, even more so than he had in the past;
but he also had the strong urge to keep himself away from harm...knowing
what it did to her.  He felt more cautious, more grounded...loved.

"Fox?"

"Hmm?" he kissed the top of her head.

"We need to get moving.   I just heard Skinner go into the utilities room."

"Shall we then?" he asked with a joking manner, standing and extending his
hand to hers.

"When you don at least a resemblance of clothing, Mulder.  I might like you
this way...but I don't know what it would do to Mom to see you in a state
of undress."  Scully winked and duck out before he could catch her with the
thrown pillow.


The utilities room was packed now in days....a various collection of papers
sat on the utilities themselves, and more people graced its secret
interior.  Skinner and Maggie were in attendance as well as Jerry and
Kathy, Dana and Fox rounded out the sextuplet.  Jerry waited until the
newest arrivals had shut the door and sat on the dryer to start.  "Now,
then....what on earth were you talking about earlier, Dana?"

Scully brushed her errant red hair back from her face with a impatient hand
and looped her other one through Mulder's.  He squeezed it reassuringly and
leaned back against the wall.  Dana began her speech, reassured and at
peace.

"Well, about a week ago, I started having a collection of dreams.  A weird
collection.  They weren't repeating, but they were similar...it was as
if...." she made eye contact with her mother.  " It was as if my
subconscious was trying to get my attention and was switching the fine
tuning button....trying different angles.  Anyway..." she continued, seeing
impatience glinting out of Skinner's eyes.  "They start out the
same...exactly the same.  I'm in a laboratory, years ago.....the laboratory
where I helped to isolate and work on the alien retrovirus....the one that
infected Mulder in Alaska.  I am talking with the doctor who had completed
most of the work...he was a virologist.  He says that although it is unlike
any retrovirus that affects humans, it was quite similar to that of a
retrovirus that affects retells...in fact, it is so common that it is
considered an a permanent inhabitant in their blood.  He used a similar
isolating technique to figure out what it was in the man we were examining
and to determine treatment." she paused for a breath and then continued. 
"Then the dream shifts to another lab where I had worked shortly after the
arrival of the guardians.  Here, I am helping the guardians to vaccinate
their own against a common reptilian virus found here on earth.  All were
vaccinated...I mean all...this reptilian virus is the equivalent of
smallpox in humans.  They wished to eradicate and protect against it.  Then
I am shown a path....one is rocky, one is smooth, but hard to reach.  They
both end up at the same spot, far ahead....but the one that is hard to
reach insures quicker and easier completion than the other."

"What do you think it means, Dana?"  Skinner asked from his perch on the
chair.

"We've discussed it...." Mulder interrupted.  " We've discussed it and
we've come to the conclusion that her mind feels that we are on the rocky,
hard to finish path...."

"We all know that it is going to be hard." Jerry held up his hand, his palm
facing the ceiling.  "Besides, Dana I thought you didn't subscribe to this
dream interreptation mumbo-jumbo."

"I don't usually....but then again...I've never had my dreams happen this
way.  I think...in answer to what I was asked earlier, that I think there
is an easier way to finish this."

"And that would be?"  Jerry folded his arms across his chest.

"That we engineer a new, slightly genetically variant, reptilian virus that
can wipe these suckers out in a matter of days."

"What?!" Jerry sputtered, leaning forward suddenly.  "Do you even
comprehend how much work goes into isolating and mass producing
viruses...let alone engineer a new one?"

Mulder sat forward on the dryer and held out his hands.  "Just calm down,
Jerry."

"What do you mean, Dana?  Engineer a new virus?"  Maggie's eyes glittered
with glee, she knew that her daughter was now in her element.

"Engineer, mom.  Find a similar reptilian virus...." Dana began.

"Reptilian...why? "Skinner's voice had taken on the authoritarian tone that
he had once had in abundance in the FBI.

"Essentially, that is all that they are.... in a way.  A collection of
mammalian characteristics existing on a reptilian based morphology and
anatomy."  Jerry answered, clearly thinking hard.

"We find a similar reptilian virus...and mesh it, if we can...with
something virulent and fast working, give it some attributes of the
diseases we dread the most...Ebola, Marburg, Lassa Fever.  Test it and...."
Dana was practically falling off the dryer, she was excited.

Jerry grinned suddenly, laying a hand on her leg.  "Okay...I see the
logic... and the fact that it will probably the easier of the two paths to
finish.  The slowness of the way we are going now...and not having a clear
idea of exactly the genetic mutations that they are trying to cause in us;
we would still need another round of shots...but that won't happen until
the next round in pregnancies.  The way we are going now could take
years....definitely take at least five to do it right."

"Uh huh." Mulder nodded, holding Dana's hand again.  "We knew that from the
very beginning that it would probably take that long.  But this way...if
Scully has described it accurately to me...we could do this in a little
over a year....if we really push it....from the time we start."

"Good estimate." Jerry answered, beaming still.  Then his face fell.  "We
don't have the resources here, though."

"But the Centers for Disease Control lab in Atlanta does." Skinner ventured
quietly.  Silence answered him, as Jerry and Dana smiled and the others
blinked in semi-comprehension.   Walter knew that this was one of the few
areas that would serve this particular purpose.

"So would any major university lab, Walt." Jerry offered.  "Besides...I'm
not quite sure that we have the know how."

"We can't go to any of the major campuses, Jer." Walter started to pace.  
"They're being used in a similar fashion to this base.  The CDC may....by
an act of God....be unmanned by the Guardians.  Nothing there exists that
could hurt them is housed there....they've vaccinated against what can hurt
them....."

"Wait." a quiet intrusion was whispered into the conversation, carried on a
small, scared voice.

Jerry turned to Kate, seeing her eyes wide and scared.  Kate swallowed, and
ignored the hand that was held out to her.  "What do you mean the CDC? 
You're talking about leaving?"

Dana looked to Mulder who nodded for her to go to her younger friend. 
"Yes.  Yes...we are, Kate.  We are talking about leaving."

"But...all the work we've done on the drug....all the trouble you all had
getting the Human Genome project...."

"Scientifically speaking, the fact that we are deviating off of a course
that we set earlier is normal.   But this isn't set in stone...we may not
pursue this, Kate.  But...as we were saying....the course that we are
on....it will take too long.  We'll be able to accomplish the end we
want....engineering a custom infective agent for these guys....this way;
however, taking an already existing virus and meshing it....will cut years
off.  And....we can do so without waiting for others to be harmed."  Dana
hung her head in exasperation.  "I can't continue to do this....I know I
have to...but it's killing me."

Mulder reached out to hug her....but she moved forward toward her friend. 
"Yes....Kate....we need to leave....and the information that we have
already collected on the drug and on the Human Genome Project will come in
handy.  We would have to know what it is that the virus attacks and whether
it would hurt/harm any of the children."

"But...." Kate's hands spanned her growing abdomen.  Her eyes filled with
tears.  "Atlanta...?  It's so far."

Mulder nodded gently.  "We'll talk about it later, you two should get back
home.  That was a lot to take in one night."

Jerry stood and ushered a quiet and shaken Kate outdoors and down the front
path.  Mulder watched them at the front door, shaking his head.  Dana could
here his quiet whispering that was only meant for her ears.  "I hope that
we're right, Dana.  I hope that we are going to make a decision that won't
get us killed any quicker than we should."

"What ever happened to fate,  G-man?" Dana sat down in the chair in the
kitchen and waited for Mulder to scrunch his larger frame into the one
across the table from her.  "You know we've been tempting the Fates for
years, even more so since we've come here."  She stopped her light speech
when his eyes met hers, a deep set pain flashing from their hazel depths. 
"Mulder..... I can't stay here.  I can't continue to do this to my own
species.  You have to understand that."

He remained quiet and moody.  

"Fox."

He refused to meet her eyes and got himself up and out of the chair and up
the steps before she had a chance to ask or follow.  Once he left the room,
she turned her face downwards.  A hand on her shoulder prevented her from
submerging herself farther into introspection.  The hand was olden and
slightly wrinkled, but was fashioned with a set of warm, elegant fingers. 
Her mother's.

"I don't know what you two were talking about, Dana, but I think you need
to clear the air with him."

"Mom..." Dana turned her blue eyes to her mother's matching set and sighed.
 "He thinks that I'm backing out of the plan that we have been living with,
that we devised all those months ago.  I've asked him to deny all the pain
and the dispare that he was feeling to remain on this track for the good of
the masses.  We both have....  but.... Mom, I can't take this.  And he
knows it.  And I know, deep down that if I wanted to leave this place
tonight, Fox would move heaven and earth to ensure that I would.  Just like
I would for him.  That's the problem."

"What's that, dear?" Maggie moved to the stove to cut  what remained of
dinner into the pot.

"Somewhere along the way...we have become too important to each other. 
When I saw him with all that blood last month.  I thought that he was
possibly going to die.  I....it wasn't like anything I've been through
before....I treated him....I healed him...but the pain that I felt watching
him there....   I wanted nothing else then to pack him up and leave.  To
hell with the plan... to hell with children and people.  I just wanted him
safe.   I mean....  he's my best friend, my partner, my lover.... he's
trying to be the father of my children....."

"I know, baby, I know."  Maggie sighed and turned her neck to check for
Walt's presence.  When she saw that he had also retreated up the stairs,
she continued.  "It was that way for me and your father, sweetheart.  There
was one time that he was wounded in battle, during the early Vietnam
conflict, right after you were born.  I was pregnant with Charlie at the
time....  He came stateside and was in the hospital, hooked up to every
imaginable piece of equipment.... I knew your father, Dana.  Since I was a
teenager.... I knew that he felt his duty to his country was even above
that of his love for his family.  And when I married him, I realized that I
had the same devotion...I had to...it was the only way to remain sane
sometimes.   Anyway, it was then that I realized that I could lose him to
that cause, to that drive.  I was angry, worn out and barely able to think
coherently.  All I wanted was to bundle him up, and take him away.  Hid
him, love him.   But he had his duty, as I had mine..... and we stayed
strong....."  she held up a hand to stop the tirade from Dana's mouth.  "I
know that it isn't the same instance...and I know that it wasn't as
powerful...but I loved him and he, me...as much as Fox loves you and you,
him.  But let that love be your strength, Dana, not your stumbling block. 
Straighten it out with him, and get yourselves together and make the
decision that you have to...just like you always have."  

With the end of the speech, Maggie turned back to the pot and sighed. 
Dana, turned to the window and allowed herself to fall into deep thought. 
And silence fell over the two women, as they retreated into memories and
fears.
 

End (1/1)