The Four Corners Cycle Book One - Naked In Her Shroud Spookey247 Feedback- Who wouldn't love some? spookey247@msn.com http://www.geocities.com/spookey_247/ Archive - Gossamer, Ephemeral, ok. If you archived my other story, go ahead. Anybody else drop me a line and let me know. Rating - PG for profanity, otherwise just good clean angst (but be warned, the other books are pretty much NC-17. We're headed there, people. ) Classification - TRA, AU, Post-Colonization with MSR and MM (Mystic Mulder) Disclaimers - Most of these characters are mine, with two notable exceptions, who belong to Chris Carter and the suits at Fox. Spoilers - Zip, zilch, nada. Keywords - Post-Colonization, Mulder/Scully Romance Summary - Somewhere near Tuba City, Arizona, 2036. "The pain is buried, but he feels it waking." Thanks - To Amanda and Kim, for patient beta. And to Amanda, for creating my website!!!! Dedication - These stories are dedicated to the Goddess Amanda, without whom they would not have been written. Her head must be sore from so many ideas being bounced off it. Her eyes must be itchy and red from reading so many drafts. Her fingers must be weary from typing so many encouraging messages. She's probably sleepy from so many late-night brainstorming sessions. Long story short, she is a wonderful friend. Thanks for helping me tend the pashminas, A. Suggested Listening: Robbie Robertson "Contact From the Underworld of Redboy" and Dead Can Dance "Spiritchaser" Author's Notes: We could say this tale takes place in an Alternate Universe, or we could pretend everything after TINH and DeadAlive didn't happen. Either way, whatever. Choose one. There's lots of Native American imagery in these stories. I just want to say that the words, symbols, and locations found here were carefully researched and used with respect. Whatever liberties I've taken are meant harmlessly. My understanding of some concepts is bound to be incomplete. I apologize in advance for my oversights and welcome any feedback that might gently teach me something new. The night keeps all her light inside She wonders at the stars In and out of time, she sings A song that has no words The night keeps all her light inside She's naked in her shroud She knows the earth is hollow She knows her heart is gone MAY 22, 2036 SOMEWHERE NEAR TUBA CITY, ARIZONA It is six o'clock. The sun suggests the coming sunset. Cicadas chirp in steady rhythm and the air is beginning to cool. A weathered trailer sits on a rocky plateau in the midst of desert scrub. Two men stand silently near the edge of the yard. Both are tall and imposing, their bodies hardened by manual labor and scorched dark brown by the harsh sun of the high mesas. They wear identical expressions of disgust. Will is a patient man, but right now he's hitting his limit. He uncoils himself slowly and takes a few steps toward the rusted Chevy Impala that is buried in the side of his chicken coop. He surveys the damage. The chicken coop is a total loss. It engulfs the hood of the ancient car, sagging like a three-legged dog. The Impala was clearly the victor in the confrontation, but it has not emerged completely unscathed: its front right tire is ripped clear off the rim. Will sighs deeply and addresses his seventeen-year- old son in a soft, weary voice. "I still don't understand it, Dru. How did Quinn manage to drive the damn thing? My god, he's only seven." Dru stifles a smile and pushes his cap back, scratching his head. "Well, shit, Will, I wouldn't really call that driving." Will passes a hand through dark hair that shows isolated streaks of gray. He regards Dru severely through his wire-rimmed spectacles. "She's too hard to start for a kid that young. Someone must have taught him how. How did he get the key?" Dru stares at the ground, rubbing the stubble on his chin, avoiding his father's gaze. "You got me on that one, Will. I dunno." Will studies his son intently. He can't figure out why this boy insists on lying to him every time he gets a chance. There's never been a time when Will hasn't been able to see straight into his children's hearts. Most of them are smart enough not to try and put one over on him. After all, uncovering the truth is his vocation. Will has been away from home the last three days, nursing a sick woman in Pasture Canyon. After giving birth, the woman had developed an infection in her womb. He gave her healing herbs and prayed over her body day and night, reminding her to stay on earth, reminding her to stay with her baby until the spirits could help her heal. But giving birth scared the woman to death. She was afraid to come back to her body. The woman's people brought him as far down North Road as they could, but they were poor and couldn't bring him all the way home. They didn't have enough gas for their car. As if anyone does these days, he thinks. They left him in Willow Springs and he walked the rest of the way: ten miles across the mesa, in the heat and dust of afternoon. Will climbed the last hill home half an hour ago. He's hot and he's hungry and his head is starting to hurt. He's trying to see things reasonably. Gas has been in short supply for months; they haven't been using the car much, anyway. The coop can be replaced and the chickens will come home when they get hungry. It's the irresponsible son who refuses to own up to his mistakes that's getting under his skin. "You'll need to do a salvage in town to get some lumber. I'm out of nails, too. Go see Wynn and see if she'll let you work for a box." "Will, I didn't do this. Why should I have to fix it?" "You either left the key in the car or you gave it to your brother. That makes it your fault." "Look, I didn't even know the car would start. I'd just got finished putting the starter back in. I hadn't even tried to turn it over yet. I went to eat lunch. How was I supposed to know Quinn was gonna take a joyride?" "So you left the key in it." Dru looks away sharply. Ah, Will thinks. Caught him. There's nothing to say now. Will puts his hand on Dru's shoulder. "By supper, day after tomorrow, okay?" Dru nods resentfully. "Get Quinn to help you." Behind them they hear footsteps. It's Quinn, the demolition driver, shaking light brown hair from green eyes and bouncing nervously on the balls of his feet. Shoving his hands in the pockets of his shorts, Quinn delivers his message to the sky. "Will, Dru, it's supper." ~~~~ Seven-year-old Mato wrinkles his lip in disgust and elbows his twin brother, Quinn, in the ribs. "Shit, who cooked this? Tastes like I'm eating my shoe." Their older brother Sam smacks him in the back of the head. "Shut up, dumb ass. At least you've got something to eat." Quinn starts laughing with his mouth stuffed full of food. "Sam cooked it," he giggles. "Sam cooks even worse than Will." "Shut up, Quinn." Sam is nineteen, but when his seven-year-old twin brothers gang up on him, he feels like he's six, and scrawny, too. They're real bullies, those two. Like devils. They don't ever let up. "You two should be grateful Sam was around to cook your dinner," says their sister Kaya. Mato spits a mouthful of food at Quinn and makes a gagging sound. They both dissolve in peals of laughter, stomping the kitchen floor and howling like coyotes. Kaya grabs the boy by the arm and forces him to look at her. "You're gonna clean that up, you little shit." Sam thinks his little sister is probably the twins' one hope of ever being worth jack shit. She was a bossy eight-year-old when they were born and she's acted like their mother ever since. She's the only one that ever bothers trying to teach them how to act, Sam thinks. Grandmother sure didn't know what to do with them when she was alive. It was almost like she was scared of them. And Will has never tried to teach them anything. He just lets them run wild. Kaya shoves a rag into Mato's hand and gives Quinn her best evil eye. "Anyhow, I wasn't here to cook dinner, Quinn, because I was out chasing the chickens. If Sam hadn't of cooked you would have gone hungry." Quinn stuffs his mouth full of tortilla. "Didja catch the chickens, Kaya?" "One. Old Nana." "Old Nana's too fat to walk." "The other's'll come home tonight. There's nothing to eat out there." The trailer door flies open and the steps creak loudly as Will and Dru climb into the kitchen, dragging their disagreement behind them. The air goes thick and foul when they enter. Their mutual resentment stinks up the room like dog shit on someone's shoe. Suddenly, everyone at the table is very interested in overdone fried rabbit and this morning's tortillas. Dru sits heavily at the table and Kaya quietly fills his plate. Will regards his five children warily. He was gone longer than usual, but they don't seem any worse for the wear. What do they need with me, he thinks. Shit, they're all grown up now. "Hey, everybody," he murmurs. "I'm just gonna go wash up." ~~~~ Will's bedroom, at the rear of the trailer, is not much bigger than a closet. He shoulders his way into the room and unbuttons his shirt. The shirt was blue when he left home three days ago; now it's carrying so much dust it's become an odd shade of gray. He sits on the bed and pulls off his boots, smoothing the duct tape that holds the left one together. He rests without moving, boot in hand, head dropping low to his chest. Before those people from Pasture Canyon pulled their old station wagon into his yard three days ago, Will's life had been good. Peaceful. Balanced. He could say without wondering that he was happy, maybe for the first time in his long, long life. His kids were strong and smart and he admired each one of them. All over the countryside there were people who loved him. People he loved in return. He liked helping those people. His work was a balm to his soul. It made him forget everything. But now everything feels different. Will melts onto the bed and curls up tight, wrapping his arms around his knees. He aches all over with the sadness and fear of the woman from Pasture Canyon. He did everything he could to help that woman. He enfolded her with his spirit body. He tried to help her be strong. Her death was an omen. He's sure of it. He can feel that something is coming. ~~~~ Will is no stranger to women who die in childbirth. He thinks about Maia, tender and faithful, lost, seven years ago. He still doesn't know what went wrong that night. Twenty years ago, Maia claimed him. She forced him back into his life when grief had made him forsake it. She loved enough for both of them. He could not have asked for a better companion. But Maia always understood how things really were. The pain of losing her is fresh and familiar. He can reach out and touch it whenever he wants. There's a pain that's deeper than that one, though. It's buried, but he feels it waking. Will rolls onto his back. Hot tears trail like fingertips across his temples, drawing him deep inside himself, toward the heart of his heart. His first mate. His true mate. She waits for him there. She is the soul who was meant to live inside his soul. And he lost her a lifetime ago. ~~~~ In the kitchen, someone screams like a mountain lion. They're waiting for me, he thinks. Dressed in nothing but his jeans, Will steps out into the hallway. The clamor in the kitchen fades as, one by one, his children become aware of his footsteps. They can sense his sorrow. He knows they'll be watching him. Waiting for him to act like their father again. "Go on and eat," he tells them, opening the screen door. "I'll be in, in a minute." ~~~~ Kaya sets a plate in front of her father and sits down near him, leaning over to kiss him on the cheek. "I cleaned up the lean-to while you were gone, Will. I was thinking, now it's getting hotter, we could start eating out there again." "That sounds good." Will looks down at the food in front of him. A bead of sweat rolls uncomfortably down the back of his neck. Kaya is right, he thinks, it's getting too hot to eat inside. His headache is getting worse. Pick up the fork, he tells himself. It doesn't take a lot of energy to do that. Sam leans forward in his chair. "Will, I heard something in the trading post today." "What?" "A man said the Bugs were gonna clear this area soon. Do you think that could be true?" Will takes a deep breath. He is really feeling old tonight. Even though his body doesn't show the passing of the years, his mind gets impossibly tired some times. Especially when the subject of the Colonists comes up. "Who said it?" "A man came through from Flagstaff. He told Kevin the Bugs already chased all the People out of Winslow and Williams and that now they're headed north. He said we were all gonna have to leave here and go somewhere else." Will stabs a piece of meat with his fork, but a wave of dizziness washes over him, forcing him to set the fork down. He rests his head in his hand. "I haven't heard anything about that. It's probably just gossip." "What makes you say that?" "The Bugs don't need a place like this. Not anymore." Dru shoves his empty plate across the table, hard. "They better not try to run us off our land." "This is Hopi land," Will says, dully, straightening and picking up his fork again. "Grandmother's land. We stay here because her people let us." Dru regards his father with his usual intensity. "Ben and Matthew say the Resistance is coming back." God, not the Resistance again. Dru has turned so idealistic lately. Will finds it really exhausting. "Ben and Matthew *wish* the Resistance was coming back. They'd find a way to get a free meal out of it." "Why would they say it if it wasn't true?" Will is too tired to be diplomatic. "Well, maybe some people want the Resistance to come back, but I go all over this part of the country and all I see is people who are too hungry and ignorant to organize anything. The Resistance has been dead for years. I think all we can hope for now is to be left alone in places the Bugs don't want." Dru's forehead furrows in anger. Will wonders how he could have raised a boy with such a dark soul. "If there was a Resistance, I would join it," Dru says softly. "And I hope you would, too, Will." Will's not listening to Dru anymore. An eerie hum seems to be coming from somewhere underneath the kitchen floor. He can feel a low vibration in the soles of his feet. He can feel it in the pit of his stomach. No one else in the room seems to notice. Will closes his eyes. Spirits are calling. Something is coming. "Dru, Will's real tired," Kaya says. "I think you should lay off him." "Well, it's great that you think that, Kaya," Dru says, standing up to leave, "But he's pissing me off, saying the Resistance can't come back. You used to believe in the Resistance, Will. My mama believed in it. You're spitting on her, talking like that." Will stares at his plate, digging his fingertips into the tabletop. He feels himself slipping. He reaches up to touch the small, round scars that run in lines from his jaw to his temple on both sides of his face. "Will," Kaya says, tenderly. So grown-up for fifteen, he thinks. "Gonna eat something?" The room is receding. Voices fade. "I'm not hungry," he tells his daughter faintly, turning in her direction. Kaya turns into a lizard and scampers away. The hum of the lower world escalates, rising through the floor and into his feet. It becomes an unearthly wailing sound as it courses through his body. Will's head pulses; his ears roar...steam rises hot through bright red light and his nose and mouth fill with the stench of blood. The lizard slips underneath the kitchen table. Slowly, heart pounding, Will pushes his chair back, sinking to his knees. He looks under the table to see what is waiting. All at once he finds himself buried alive. The walls of the chamber are luminous, throbbing. The lizard's eye glitter, hard and black. "The night keeps all her light inside..." The lizard sings with her voice. ~~~~ "Will? Will, are you all right?" Will opens his eyes. Kaya is bending over him, worried. A plate of fried rabbit sits an inch from his nose, reeking of grease. "Kaya, get my bag," he murmurs. "We need to go into town." Suddenly, outside, their dog starts to bark. Within moments there is an urgent knocking at the door of the trailer. Dru opens the front door to find their friend Matthew standing on the steps. Dru and Matthew touch hands briefly, in greeting. "I need to see Will," Matthew murmurs. "Wynn sent me." "Will's sick," Kaya is saying. "He needs to go to bed." "No, Kaya," Will hears his voice as if from a distance, rising with urgency, though he doesn't know why. "Get my bag. Matt, what is it?" "Wynn says you need to come, Will. We found a strange woman on North Road last night. Wandering not far from Tuba, all alone, naked. Totally out of her mind. She won't tell us anything...she won't even speak. I don't know what this means, Will, but Wynn said to tell you the woman has the Marks." ~~~~ The sun begins its final descent as Matt's truck bumps northward on the road to Tuba, with Will and Kaya sitting in the back. "Will, don't you want to sit in the front with Matthew? It would be more comfortable. I'm worried about you. You're really pale." "This is fine, Kaya. I need some air." Will's head is swimming and his insides are tight. But the cool darkness is helping; his mood is improving. The important thing now is to get to town. They ride in silence for a minute or two. "Who do you think she is?" Kaya asks. "I don't know." "Matt said 'A strange woman.' Don't you know everyone around here who has the Marks? Aren't they all friends of yours?" "Yes, Kaya." "Then who could she be? Where did she come from? How could they find someone new with the Marks, after so many years have gone by?" Kaya has a very thorough mind. She gnaws on problems like a mouse with an ear of corn. "Do you think she came from the Labs, Will?" "I don't know. It doesn't seem likely." The Labs were emptied of captives and abandoned many years ago. "Maybe she was left behind. Do you think they could have forgotten her?" "I don't know." "Do you think she'll be able to remember where she came from?" "Sometimes people can." Will can remember almost every moment of the thirty- odd years since the World was stolen. He can remember lots of details about his life before that, too, if he lets himself. Will has a stabbing feeling in the back of his neck. He rubs the spot and sighs. Kaya watches her father drifting off into his private thoughts. Stay with me, Will, she begs him silently. You've been gone for days. I need you to stay. She reaches for his hand and he locks his fingers with hers. "Will, on the day that you told me about, when you went into the kiva in Grandmother's village..." "Mm-hmm." "That day that you went inside and you were just a man, and when you came out, you were a Medicine Man, what's the first thing you did?" Will turns to his daughter with a strange half-smile. Always talking, this one. Never quiet. She's asked him this question dozens of times in the past. He sighs and answers the same way he always does. "You mean, did I go to the outhouse, or go home to Grandmother's to get supper, or something like that?" "You know that's not what I mean. What's the first thing you did? Did you go alone to the mountains to pray, or did you..." "I did that, yes. I still do that." "How long was it before you healed someone?" "When you're older I'll tell you all about it." That's what Will always tells his children when their questions touch something off-limits. Matthew pulls the truck onto West road and the noise of the wind makes conversation impossible. Will welcomes the sudden solitude. Kaya's not old enough to understand how complicated things can be when you're called to be a healer, he thinks. You resist, you delay, you don't want to believe. You put all your energy into your private attachments and try to forget you've been called. And until you give up longing for the things you hold most dear, you can't heal anyone, least of all yourself. Will figures he ought to know. A few months before Will became a Medicine Man, he walked barefoot, in the cold of the winter, with snow on the ground, from Tuba City to Moenkopi, where he collapsed in the kiva of his mentor. He asked for a peyote ceremony and it was granted. He did that for selfish reasons. He had seen in a vision that she was still alive. Peyote had lifted his spirit. With his body discarded on the floor of the kiva, he had journeyed far into the world, visiting all the places he knew of and had known in the past. But no matter how much he had searched for her, she had remained hidden. Desperate and full of grief, Will had refused to give up. He starved himself and prayed every day to find her. He lost so much weight and spent so much time outside his body the local people began to call him Ghost That Sometimes Walks. A marriage proposal was the thing that finally brought him back from the dead. When Will had been in Moenkopi for a month, Maia begged a ride from Tuba City. She hiked to Moenkopi and entered the kiva against the protests of the village Elders. She doused Will with a bucket of cold spring water, dragged him to the ladder, and forced him to climb. She bathed him and fed him and made him make a promise: he would give up wasting his life in a search for someone he knew he could not find. And then she told him he needed to go find them a house of their own. Will wonders if he should choose another wife. It's hard being alone. It would be very good to have a woman in his bed. He is weary, though, of watching people he loves die. Even his children will, in time. They'll have their turn and leave him behind. As far as he knows, he will remain. Just like all of his kind. ~~~~ "Listen, Kaya. Kevin's running the generator. A gas truck must have come through." The silhouettes of ruined buildings salute them as the truck pulls into Tuba City. Near the edge of town there is a collection of small houses that shows signs of life: a generator roars near the trading post; lamplight flickers in windows. Matthew turns up a narrow side street and they make their way to the end of a cul-de-sac, where a woman crouches over a cooking fire in the yard of a small house. Matthew drops them off in the driveway, saying he'll be back soon. "Is that your laundry or your dinner, Wynn?" There's a smile in Wynn's voice: "It's too dark to be cooking either one, Will." Wynn is Will's oldest friend in Tuba City. "I didn't know if Matt would find you at home. Kaya, welcome. It's good to see you." Wynn pauses, studying Will's face with concern. She puts her arms around him and for a moment he allows himself to sink against her. It's comforting to be in Wynn's company again. It reminds him that he's not alone. Wynn touches Will's mind gently, just as she used to, years ago, when they lay in prison together. She plants a soft kiss on his forehead. Wynn has capable hands and a warm smile. Although she appears to be in her mid-thirties, she is, like Will, far older. "Come in," Wynn says, taking a pot of herbs from the cooking fire. "I'm just making our guest some tea." "Is she inside?" "I've hidden her in the room behind the workshop. We haven't told anyone she's here." "Is she alone?" "No, Ben is with her." "Does she really have the Marks?" "I'm worried about you, Will. Are you all right?" "No," Kaya pipes up, answering for her father. Will gazes at Kaya for a moment, bemused. Then he turns back to Wynn. "It's nothing. Just a headache." "I've got fresh bread. Why don't you come in and have some?" "I want to see her." "She's been hysterical...hyperventilating. I don't think it would be a good idea for anyone new to go in the room. She seems to trust Ben. Let him stay with her for now." Wynn holds up the herbs in her cooking pot. "This should help calm her down. When she's sleeping you can go check her over." Wynn is stout and motherly. She has a soothing effect on people. Will is profoundly grateful for her presence tonight. He hasn't felt this weak in years. Sometimes Will wishes the Elders would let him marry Wynn. They'd be perfect companions. They'd live like a couple of old folks, finishing each other's sentences, going for days without speaking a word. They could live and breed together for who knows how long...a hundred years? Two hundred? For all he knows, they could repopulate the earth. But with what? That's what the Elders are concerned about. There's a good reason for the taboo. The restrictions don't really bother Will. In his heart he knows there's only one person he could live with for a hundred years or more. And he doesn't know where she is now. Will presses his hand against his forehead. The headache is getting worse. ~~~~ Wynn's kitchen is tidy and smells of the loaves she's been baking. Will and Kaya sit silently at the table. After a few minutes Wynn returns from the workshop. "She's exhausted herself. She's sleeping." "So Ben and Matthew found her?" Will asks. Ben and Matthew are Travelers; they live no place in particular. They have delusions that Will's going to train them as healers one day, so they visit him all the time. Will finds them entertaining. They remind him of some friends he once had. "Ben recognized the Marks and brought her into town. I hate to think what would have happened if anyone else had found her out there." Wynn cuts slices of bread from one of the loaves on the table and hands them to Will and Kaya. Kaya devours the bread, giving it her complete attention. Sweet, soft, wonderful bread. It must be so good to have an oven, she thinks. Wynn puts a hand on Will's shoulder. Will lays his hand over hers. Kaya stares at her father and his friend. She hates it when they do this. It's as if she's not grown up enough to be told what's really happening. She swallows her bread and breaks the silence. "Will," Kaya asks, "How did you and Wynn get out of the Labs?" Will puts his elbows on the table and removes his specs, burying his head in his hands. "Now's not the time to talk about it." "I was just curious." Will passes both hands slowly over his face. A wide band of pain pulses steadily just above his eyes. "It's a very long story," Will tells the table-top. "It was the Resistance," Wynn tells Kaya. "We'll tell you the rest sometime." Kaya's eyes flash. "My mother was in the Resistance." Will's head snaps upright. Bright light. Spectral music. The stench of blood. "The night keeps all her light inside..." Her voice. What is this tonight, he thinks in anguish. They're trying to drive me insane. Wynn touches Kaya's arm. "Kaya, now isn't the time." Kaya feels ashamed for goading her father. She knows it can't have been easy for him in Pasture Canyon. But she knows she could comfort him, too, if he'd let her. Certainly better than Wynn. "I'm sorry, Will," she tells him softly. "Will?" Will pushes away from the table with a moan and stumbles toward the back door. ~~~~ "The night keeps all her light inside...She wonders at the stars..." The lizard scampers just ahead of Will's boots, pausing every minute or so to allow him time to catch up. The pain in Will's head has become unbearable. He clutches it in agony. Suddenly the lizard disappears. Will falls to his knees, eyes darting wildly from side to side. Light seeps from a crack in the earth before him. He falls to ground, thrusting his fingers into the crack, trying to rip the earth open. He's got to find the truth. He flattens his body like a rat under a barn door and forces himself into the opening. Abandoning his three-dimensional nature, he enters the earth like a shadow. Fingernails digging into the rock, he drags himself down the narrow crevice, tendrils of metallic steam scorching his nostrils and burning his eyes. The crevice grows incredibly tight; it becomes a hairline fissure. Will feels himself shattering under the pressure of the earth above him. He becomes pure energy and leaves his two-dimensional body behind; for all he knows, it's entombed now, lost forever in the rock behind him. The walls of the subterranean chamber glisten; they bleed. The lizard's eyes glitter, hard and black. It opens its mouth and begins to sing. "The night keeps all her light inside She wonders at the stars In and out of time, she sings A song that has no words The night keeps all her light inside She's naked in her shroud She knows the earth is hollow She knows its heart is gone" Will freezes where he stands. In the exact center of the chamber there is a stone. On the stone there is a small box of polished wood. Will walks toward the stone with feet so heavy he feels he can barely move them. One step. Her hands. Two steps. Her body. Three steps. Her face. Will stops in front of the stone and picks up the box. The wood is smooth and warm in his hand. When he opens the box, he hears her voice. He knows that he has found her. ~~~~ Kaya touches Will's back. She's afraid he's dead. "Will. Will, please." Will lifts his face up off the ground. She's here. Oh god, she's here. Will's face is soaked with tears. He rises onto his knees, blind and enraged, pushing Wynn and Kaya aside as he struggles to his feet. "Will, what's the matter? Are you all right?" "Wynn, where is she?" "Will, what's going on?" "WHERE IS SHE?" "The room behind the workshop, like I told you..." Will stumbles into the workshop and runs toward the back room, closer to her, and still closer, ripping the door open, bursting inside... "Will, what's the matter?" His friend, Ben, stares at him in awe, moving away from the small cot instinctively, as if pushed back by the force of Will's emotion. Chest heaving, Will freezes in the doorway. One step. Pale hands lie on the blanket as she sleeps. Two steps. Her body is smaller than he remembers. So thin. So frail. So delicate. Three steps. Her face. Oh god, her face. Her face, her face, her face.... Will melts onto the bed, moaning violently and curling around her, touching the one who was lost to him, enfolding her with his body. Knowing he must help her be strong. Wynn stands in the door, eyes wide with what she's witnessing. "It's Scully." End Book One