THE X-FILES "AROUND THE WORLD IN TWELVE MONTHS" Part Six "A Venture in Venice" By Alien Girl comixgirl@juno.com Rating: PG Classification: Adventure, Mulder/Scully Engaged Spoilers: None DISCLAIMER FROM PART ONE APPLIES TO...oh, forget it. Song Disclaimer: This part's wonderful song is "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" from the "Lion King" soundtrack. (Notice how I have this thing with Lion King??...) I don't know who sings it, but I know it ain't mine. I know I didn't use the song in the last one, since I couldn't find any place for it to fit, but oh well. Pardon me and my pitiful problems! :) As for what this song could be realted to in the story...just picture Frohike and Langley as Timon and Pumbaa and you might get an idea!! :):):) Summary: Upon arrival in Venice, Italy, the crew of 'The Believer' stumbles across some strange creature inhabiting the canals of the city...only to discover something *stranger* and *very* significant for Samantha. Author's Notes: Alright, then...this is the midway point in the series! I don't have any language dictionaries besides French, so everyone's just going to speak English. Everyone knows English in Europe anyway. This is such a lazy country...because everyone else speaks our language. I've been to Venice before, and it was a *beautiful* city, so I just had to include it in the series. :) I'm not sure what sort of story will get going in this one, but I hope you enjoy it just the same! On with the show!!!! ------------------------------------------------------------------ ***************AROUND THE WORLD IN TWELVE MONTHS****************** ......................"A Venture in Venice"....................... **************************By Alien Girl*************************** ------------------------------------------------------------------ "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" I can see what's happening... What? And they don't have a clue... Who? They'll fall in love and here's the bottom line, Our trio's down to two. Oh. The sweet caress of twilight, There's magic everywhere, And with all this romantic atmosphere... Disaster's in the aaaaaaaaiiiiiirrrr!!! (Chorus) Can you feel the love tonight? The peace the evening brings The world, for once, in perfect harmony With all its living things. So many things to tell her, But how to make her see The truth about my past? Impossible! She'd turn away from me. He's holding back, he's hiding But what, I can't decide Why won't he be the king I know he is The king I see inside? (Chorus) Can you feel the love tonight? You needn't look too far Stealing through the night's uncertanties Love is where they are... And if he falls in love tonight.. Sniff...... It can be assumed... His carefree days with us are history! In short our pal is doooooooooooooooooooooooomed!!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ 9:46 A.M. Saturday, January 15th, 2000 Venice, Italy "Ahh, Venice!" Mulder breathed in the salty streets with ecstasy, letting the scent fill his nostrils. After spending so much time at sea he had come to get used to it, and even enjoy it. The air was crisp and fairly mild for January, and there was enough of a breeze to make the sailing perfect. "Now *that* is something different." Troi's remark was certainly valid. As they approached Venice, Italy, the city came into view. The most obvious abnormality was Venice's transportation routes...the city was completely surrounded by water. Instead of streets and roads there were canals. Instead of crosswalks there were bridges. Instead of cars and buses there were boats. The buildings of Venice were built right next to the water. Cars were few and far between, as there were hardly any roads in the city. This, of course, proved very useful for 'The Believer' as they could dock it right next to their hotel. The only setback was that most of the canals were too small for the huge houseboat to fit through...which was where 'The Skeptic' would be of use. "It's gorgeous!" Samantha said with awe. "Just imagine going through these streets on some starry night..." Mulder cast a hinting glance at Scully at Samantha's inviting comment. Scully smiled in response - the idea sounded pleasing to her as well. They turned the gleaming houseboat into the Grand Canal. It looked like some form of an Italian Atlantis, with domed towers with pillars that were government buildings and brightly-colored yet old-fashioned buildings right next to each other, like most European homes. There were many other boats already on the Grand Canal, most of them small speedboats or motorboats similar to 'The Skeptic'. There were also taxiboats and busboats for tourists without a private means of transportation. Many of the smaller boats had to move out of the way to make room for 'The Believer'. But when they did so, it was more out of respect than simple courtesy. It seemed that practically everyone on the planet knew where they were and what they were doing at all times, even though they tried to keep their tour as private as possible. Some of the people even waved at them from their little boats. They just waved back. "Do we *know* them?" Samantha quiered. As they were sailing through the gray-blue waters of the canal, Troi watched the water and the houses closest to them to see where they were going to dock. It was then that she noticed something...something just below them in the dark water. She saw it only for a second, but it was there...a flash of smooth, gray flesh rippling beneath the surface, like an octopus arm, that was there and gone in a flash. Troi was obviously very startled. She wished that she had had some binoculars, or a camera, even the SamCam...*anything* so she could have recorded or at least seen better whatever was down there. (What sort of thing could be living in these canals?) Troi knew that although Venice was filled with water, there was very little plant or animal life because of garbage and other normal city waste accidentally leaked into the canals. The most someone would ever find was a few fish. There were sharks and other large predators in the Mediterranean itself, but certainly not in Venice, and she wasn't even sure if there were octopuses or squid in the Mediterranean at all. There was something not right about that thing... Troi had no time to ponder over it, however, because then 'The Believer' came to their docking place. Their hotel was actually farther back into the city, so they would have to take 'The Skeptic' to get the rest of the way there. Mulder (who was very careful this time not to get knocked into the water again) started to help unload their seemingly oversized supplies. He noticed that Troi kept glancing uneasily at the grayish water every few minutes, as if looking for something. He couldn't help but smile at the possibility of something strange happening here, too...for one thing, it would certainly drive Scully nuts. "What are you gazing at, Mulder?" He heard the familiar voice say from behind. "We don't have time to sit around until we unpack all this junk!" Mulder grinned. "And why is that?" "Because my mom isn't planning for us to spend that much time here...and I want to enjoy myself in this city for as long as I can!" Mulder smiled and picked up another box. 7:05 P.M. Saturday, January 15th, 2000 Venice, Italy Scully had been serious about them enjoying Venice for as long as possible...for just that evening they had already taken themselves out for a meal at an Italian cafe'. The cafe' had a perfect location: it was right against one of the larger canals with several other close-knit buildings on the opposite side. The cafe' outside, spread across a large cobblestone platform over the water. The place was also facing west, giving the diners a clear view of the sunset over the water. Mulder glanced down wearily as a large, overweight gray-and-white pigeon glared up at him expectantly. In this city, there were practically as many pigeons as there were people. They were everywhere...on the church steeples and around the cathedral, on the telephone wires, in the streets, on the tables. And even worse, their *droppings* were everywhere. As he looked into those dark, unblinking eyes, he knew that this fowl foul certainly didn't mean him well. Scully saved Mulder from his distress by giving the bird a kick, sending it flying back to its large group close to the water. The she returned to her meal of pasta, garlic bread and vegetables that she swore tasted like pure heaven. It there was one thing Scully couldn't resist, it was Italian cooking. "I think I like this place better," Scully said with content as she finished chewing the pasta. "It doesn't have the pollution, the smelly sewers, the cigarette smoke and the noise Paris had, but it still has the old European architecture and spirit about it." "Yeah, I'm glad we decided to come here instead of Rome or Florence." Mulder added. Troi, Samantha, Tina and Maggie were at two other tables close to Mulder and Scully's. Tina was attempting to explain to their Italian waiter that they *didn't* want to retell their experiences fighting aliens, and no, they didn't want seconds, thank you. But it was during then that they picked up another conversation at a nearby table from two locals, who were surprisingly speaking in English. "...So Antonio talked to the head of water safety and they *still* won't do anything about it?" "Not a thing! They just didn't believe him, of course. Told him he was ^crazy^." "^Crazy^ my eye! I saw it with my own eyes! I'm a lawyer, a respected citizen, are they going to say *I'm* ^crazy^?" "But...are you *sure* you know what you saw?" "Are you doubting me, Marco? Of *course* I know what I saw! The bastard nearly chewed my foot off. And I'll tell you one thing...it won't be long before that thing *really* attacks someone. Then we'll see how ^crazy^ everyone thinks I am..." "I never said you were ^crazy^..." Mulder was intrigued, and couldn't resist interrupting. "Excuse me...what are you two talking about?" The two Italians seemed very startled by the third speaker, but got over their surprise quickly. "That monstro of course." "That what?" "That monster!" "*What* monster?" Scully interjected. They seemed to be even more surprised by Scully's speaking, and one look at her deepened their shock. "Aren't you Mr. Mulder and Ms. Scully?" One of them asked with raised eyebrows. Mulder bit his lip. "No...I'm Mr. Muldrake...and that is my wife!" The two Italians seemed disappointed, if not still a little suspicious. "I saw it," The man who was the lawyer said, refering to the "monstro". "It's in the canals. I didn't see all of it, the water was pretty dark, but it was definitely there." "How can you be sure it wasn't just some large fish?" Scully quiered. "Believe me...I've seen some big fish around here, and that was *no* fish." Although Mulder was interested, it was clear that Scully was not convinced. "It still doesn't sound plausible to me at all." The frustrated Italian stood. "Are you calling me a liar, woman?" He said in a loud voice. Mulder forced the man back into his seat with a deadly glare. "Of course not," Scully answered. "I'm just saying that what you saw could've been a fish or other animal, or even a piece of waste that you easily mistook for a large sea creature. "I've lived in this city since the day I was born, and I've *never* seen anything like that before around here." Scully just shrugged. The two Italians were apparently finished with their conversation with them and turned back to themselves. Scully caught a look from Mulder. "Don't you *even* start with me, Mulder. I've *had* my fill of sea monsters, and the last thing I want on this trip is to spend my time monster-hunting. What are we going to call this one? Big Gray? Venikudda?!" "Don't worry, Scully," Mulder responded. "We're not going monster-hunting in Venice. I'm just interested in what they were talking about, that's all." Scully seemed apparently satisfied with his answer and sat back in her chair. She sighed with content, too full to eat another bite. The sun had just sunk beneath the water, and the sky was a royal purple studded with the first stars. "First dolphins, then Amazonian tribes, then time warps, then stampedes, then radioactive towers, and now sea monsters," Mulder mused to himself. "Pretty soon we may have to stop an alien invasion all over again." "Aha, so you *are* the Agents Mulder and Scully!" the Italian exclaimed. "Aw, crap." 10:29 A.M. Monday, January 17th, 2000 Venice, Italy Scully was surprised at the strength this creature had. Moby was pulling her along the cobblestone sidewalks with incredible speed , and with no definite direction. He would run ahead, then spin around and run backwards, then turn left and then forward again, tangling Scully in the leash so much she spent almost as much time getting her leg out of the leash as she spent walking the dog. Mulder struggled to keep up, even as he refrained himself from bursting into laughter. Scully hoped that Moby would find what he was sniffing for soon and get the walk over with...she had spent nearly an hour getting dragged around by this overzealous puppy. She and Mulder had simply wanted to take a walk alone around some of the city...only Maggied had demanded that Moby needed to be walked and they must take him if they wanted to go. Scully had considered this to be fine since that night they were all going to a carnival down in the main square. "Need any help, Scully?" Mulder snickered from behind. "I have absolutely *everything* under control!" She protested, even as she tripped over her own legs and was sent sprawling. Mulder caught her just in time. He gave her a lopsided grin as he helped her to her feet. "Thanks," She mumbled, even as she tried to hide her blushing. Moby's wild route led them straight to the City Hall. There was a large, ancient-looking building looming up in the center, while a huge cobblestone courtyard bordered it. The courtyard was *filled* with pigeons...hundreds of the fat little birds fluttered back and forth across the street, looking for scraps of leftover food. Moby ran right into the middle of them, but the birds were so lazy they just fluttered into the air and then landed again a few feet away. "Venice has a reputation with pigeons," Scully remarked as she struggled to make Moby heel. "The birds are so tame you can even let one perch on your arm and feed it." "Thanks...but no thanks," Mulder said wearily. "What's the matter, Mulder? Scared of a few birds?" "FEW?! There's *millions! I mean...of course not!!" "Wimp!" Scully snickered. "DON'T you start that again..." "Come on, Mulder, it's not so hard," Scully dug into her pocket and drew out a baggie with some bread leftover from their lunch. "Use this." Mulder reluctantly took the bread from Scully, eyeing the nonchalant birds suspiciously. He gathered a few crumbs in his fingers and knelt down close to the pigeons. The hopped to him like feathered raptors closing in for the kill. "Heeeeere birdie birdie birdie...." Mulder said in a nervous voice. One big, fat, ugly pigeon hopped forward and then perched on his arm. Mulder stood, the bird remained. Mulder watched in amazement as the pigeon pecked at the crumbs in his hand. "See? Not that scary," Scully said. CHOMP. "YEEOOOOOOOWWWWW!!!" Mulder let out a cry of terror as the startled bird on his arm flew away, and stared with horror at the blood on his fingers. "IT BIT ME! THE LITTLE MONSTER BIT ME!!" Mulder wailed. "Mulder..." "LOOK!!" He cried, pointing to his injured hand. "THERE'S THE EVIDENCE! THE BIRD TRIED TO KILL ME!!!" Scully stuck Moby's leash under her shoe and observed Mulder's 'war wound'. "You big wimp! It just nipped you. It was probably trying to get some crumb. I've seen *much* worse for you." "But did you see that?! It deliborately attacked me! What if it was carrying some deadly virus?" "I'll put some disinfectant on it when we get home." Just then, Moby managed to pull his leash out from under Scully's foot and went running down the street, charging through the flock of pigeons. "MOBY!!!" Scully cried in frustration, and took off after the little ball of fluff. Mulder completely forgot about his injury and chased after them. Scully tried to catch up with the michevious pup, but she could barely keep the dog in sight. The crazy pomeranian ran down the streets, through rows of buildings, and past startled people, with Mulder and Scully tailing behind and calling out the dog's name. (Why does this feel horribly familar?) Scully thought to herself with a groan. Moby rounded a corner, and they suddenly lost track of him. Scully skidded to a halt as she found herself having to chose between a small back street and a walkway along the water. Mulder caught up and stood beside her. "We'll split up," Mulder said. "Meet back here in 10 minutes unless you see him. Whoever sees him hollers." With that, Mulder went to the walkway by the water. Scully sighed and tread into the other back street. Mulder had not gone a few yards before he heard a familiar yelping. He followed the sound down the walkway past the houses and private boats. He breathed a sigh of relief as the recognizable ball of orange fur appeared. Moby was down at the edge of the water, apparently alright, and sniffing and yelping at something floating in the water. Mulder grabbed up the leash and stared closely at the thing in the water..... "SCULLY!!!!" It only took a few moments for Scully to arrive. She ran up to the walkway, breathless and with the familiar expression of approaching panic. At seeing both Mulder and Moby alright she relaxed somewhat. Mulder did not feel the same. "Scully, look at this..." Mulder pointed into the water below. Scully followed his finger, looked, and took a step back with surprise and disgust. Floating in the dirty water was a body. It was obvious that the person had been dead for at least 12 hours, the body had already turned a yellow-gray and had begun to decay in the muck-filled liquid. It was a male, probably in his early 50's. But the weird thing was that it wasn't apparent how he had died...there were apparently no wounds or burns or anything on the body whatsoever. And as far as Scully could tell...there was not a bone left in his entire body. Mulder nodded at the waterborne corpse. "*That* is definitely not a pigeon attack." Scully shot Mulder a look. She observed the dead body carefully, but didn't let herself touch it. "Got any theories, Scully? Cause I know I do...." "I'm sure you do," She backed away from the water. "We'll have to find the local mortician so they can identigy and and do an autopsy on the body." She glared at Mulder suspiciously. "And no, I am NOT doing the autopsy, Mulder!" "Why does it look like that...The body seems to have a rubbery look." "Well, apparently, the body is missing the skeleton." Moby let out a little whine of apprehension. SPLOOSCH. "What was that?!" Mulder turned his head quickly to the water. "What was what?" "There!" Mulder pointed to where a few ripples were widening out from a point farther out in the water. "Don't you *even start with me, Mulder..." Moby growled at the ripples. "Alright, I won't! I just want to get out of here so we can get someone to come and take care of this!" "I agree," Scully tugged on the dog's leash. "Let's get going." 9:38 P.M. Tuesday, January 18th, 2000 Venice, Italy Troi typed away at her laptop vigorously, feeling some foreign pleasure come out of tapping away at the keys. She absolutely loved her Christmas present from Dana and Mulder. She had already gotten her own e-mail account, and was thinking about starting her own webpage. The laptop even got Internet access without having to be plugged in. Troi was sitting in the bottom-glass living room in the bottom level, which wasn't that interesting anyway since there was nothing to see but dark gray muck. The TV was on, and Troi had put in her "Lion King" tape to get some background sound going. "I can see what's happening..." "What?" "And they don't have a clue..." "Who?" "They'll fall in love and here's the bottom line: our trio's down to two!" "Oh." Troi had been very interested in finding out what was going on in Venice since Mulder and Scully's discovery of the dead body. The local mortician had come and picked it up, but the autopsy hadn't revealed anything unusual...aside from the fact that the body had no skeleton. It had been a rather difficult autopsy, since the body was like a giant sack with nerves and organs mixed everywhere around in it. The doctors had determined that the removal of the skeleton was not surgical, but still very clean. As for how the skeleton had been removed...they didn't know yet. There was no evidence as to how it has happened...no wounds, nothing. Nothing...except one thing that one of the doctors found. It was a small hole in the sole of the foot, practically unnoticeable, as if someone had stuck the man with an ice pick. The dead body in the water and the thing Troi had seen in the Grand Canal as they had entered Venice had sparked her interest, so she decided to do a little research via the Internet. She looked up Venice's newspaper prints for current events. She scanned through prints from a month ago to the present day, but surprisingly, she found nothing. Then she tried looking through Italian science journals to see if they said anything about a strange creature in Venice. Still nothing. "Can you feel the love tonight... The peace the evening brings... The world for once in perfect harmony... With all its living things..." The TV sang. Now Troi was becoming discouraged. Why wouldn't any records talk about a sea monster in the canals? What if she had just been fooling herself and hadn't see a creature there at all? She then started looking up species native to Venice and the Mediterranean area to find out if what she had seen really was nothing more than a big fish. Looking in the records, she saw plenty of fish...too much for her tastes. There was the occasional shark, a few species of jellyfish, and hundreds of different kinds of crabs, mullosks and barnacles. But absolutely *none* of the creatures she saw resembled the flash of gray flesh in the water. "And if he falls in love tonight..." "*Sniff!!*" "It can be assumed..." "His carefree days with us are history!" "In short our pal is dooooooooooooooooomed!" "WAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" Troi drummed her fingers with dissatisfaction on the keyboard as the song ended. Could it be perhaps that Dana and Mulder's discovery of the body and her sighting had simply the only two instances of it occouring? No, that wasn't possible, there had been those two Italians at the cafe' talking about it...it was just that someone was not letting the secret out. Troi began to flip through Internet information at random, not really having any idea what she was looking for now. Records of the amounts of produce brought in each year. Population increase and decrease. Issues argued about in the City Hall for the past few weeks. Political issues between Venice and Rome. The amount of waste pumped out of Venice each month. For some reason, Troi stopped on that section. She studied the laptop carefully, reading the words glowing on the screen. There were problems...a major waste company that controlled most of the waste shipping in all of Italy had a cargo of nearly 20 tons of toxic waste material that had suddenly disappeared. Nobody knew where the garbage had been dumped. Several more shipments had disappeared as well...all at regular intervals. The shipments were supposed to be taken to Turkey where the waste would be burned in furnaces. But the ships carrying the trash had never arrived. Troi was slightly interested by this. Could it be that the sea monster attacked the garbage ships for some reason? She turned back to the recent news articles she had highlighted and looked them over again. Nothing caught her attention until she saw a status report from two weeks ago. According to the article, the water quality in the city's canals had recently decreased. Fish and other waterlife were dying in considerable numbers, the temperature of the water had risen, sometimes the water tasted and smelled funny, and a lot more toxic substances had been screened out of samples. Troi stared quizically at the screen, trying to put the pieces together. Missing waste shipments, decreased water quality, and one dead body with no skeleton. (Sounds like an X-File) she thought with a grin. 7:58 P.M. Wednesday, January 19th, 2000 Venice, Italy "Can I open my eyes now?" "No, not yet..." "Mulder, I *hate* when someone does this sort of thing to me! It drives me nuts!" "Just keeeeep going...we're almost there..." "But *where* are we going?!" "Woah, there! You almost fell into the canal!" "*Now* I'm worried..." "Okay...now you can open your eyes!" Scully opened her eyes...and her vision rested on an old wooden gandola, painted black with blue stripes, sitting next to the dock. "You got me a *boat*?" She said with one raised eyebrow. "I didn't buy it, Scully...I rented it. Just for tonight, and just for us!" Mulder said, his hand clasping hers eagerly. "So who's the driver?" "Yours truly." Scully was obviously skeptical. "Since when did *you* learn how to sail a gandola, Mulder?" "Come on, Scully! I didn't want a driver with us! It'll be just us two, out on the water for the night." Scully realized the purpose of the idea, and she smiled. "Mulder...you didn't!" "Just a little something I planned for my fiancee' and I to enjoy." Scully stepped gingerly into the gandola. It rocked beneath her feet and sort of creaked. "Are you sure this thing is safe?" "Would I get it if it wasn't? Trust me!" Scully sat down on a blanket at one end of the gandola as Mulder climbed in. He grabbed the steering pole from the dock and detached the boat, and they drifted off into the canals. Scully tried to settle down into the gandola, but her control-needing self was still persistent. "If you ever get tired, let me sail, okay?" "Absolutely not! *You* are going to lie there and relax...and *I* am going to steer the boat and sing you a romantic song in Italian!" Scully gave Mulder 'the eyebrow'. "Prego sauce...oh Prego sauce is the beeest..." He sang in a ridiculously exaggerated voice. Scully burst out laughing, which set off Mulder's laughing, too. Scully finally relaxed and let the feel of the gandola on the still water fill her with contentment. Mulder tried a series of "romantic songs in Italian", all of which sent Scully laughing after the first verse. The gandola sailed around through the canals, into secret back passages and under ancient bridges. Mulder proved to be very good at steering the vessel using only the traditional long pole. Twilight darkened into evening with a clear night sky filled with stars. The lights from the stars and the city reflected on the water, so it looked like they were sailing in a sea of lights. The gandola turned out of a back passage and into one of the larger canals. When they reached the canal, Mulder put away the pole and let them just drift along. "This is just perfect, Mulder," She gave him a half-cocked smile. "I never knew you were such a romantic." Mulder blushed. "Well.....there was no one worth being truly romantic to until I met you." "Then why the six-year wait?" Mulder sighed. "I think you know just as well as I do." There was silence for a moment as Scully let her fingers trail in the water. "Are you happy?" Mulder said. "Hmm?" "Are you happy? With the way things are now?" "Of course I'm happy! It's just wonderful that we get to do all this! Why wouldn't I be happy?" "It's just...I don't know. I love it that we're together, engaged, and on this trip...but I think I'm already starting to miss it." "Miss what?" "Our working together. The cases, and the things we did during them." Scully nodded nostalgically, turning her gaze up to the stars. "There's still a chance that we co---" KKRRUNCCCCCHHHHHKKKK!!!! "WOAH!" Mulder was knocked to his back as a sound like crunchy candy filled the air. The gandola rocked violently, nearly tipping over. Mulder and Scully struggled to their feet. "What was that?!" "I think another gandola might have hit us!" The boat rocked again, throwing Mulder to the deck. When he got up again, he discovered that his entire backside was soaked. "We're taking on water!" Mulder cried, pointing to the source of the leak. Several of the bottom boards had split and broken, and now the gandola was rapidly filling with water. "Ohhhhhhhhh no..." Mulder began to try and bail out the water with his hands. A few seconds of this proved that this method was entirely unsuccessful. The water continued to bubble in through the widening hole. Scully backed away to the edge of the gandola while Mulder grabbed up her blanket and tried to use it to plug the leak. The only thing he succeeded in doing was getting his legs and the blanket sopping wet. The bottom half of the gandola was completely filled with water. "Mulder...." Scully said nervously as her end of the gandola began to rise into the air like a miniature "Titanic". Mulder scrambled to get away from the water as the realization struck him that there was no way they could stop the boat from sinking. The gandola rocked and frothed in the murky water, and began to dive rear-first into the canal. All Mulder and Scully could do was cling desperately to the stern. In what seemed like a matter of seconds the gandola sank completely beneath the surface...leaving Mulder and Scully treading water in the canal completely alone. They were stuck in the water. The canal was very wide, and the nearest shore with buildings was at least 40 yeards away. As fas as they could tell, there were no other boats on the water. There was silence as they analyzed the situation. "I wonder how many drunk Italians have peed in this canal..." "Just shut up, Mulder." Mulder held onto Scully's hand tightly as they struggled to remain afloat. "We have to get out of here, we could be in danger from that---" Mulder didn't have time to finish his sentence, for just then another gandola pulled up beside them. Both of them instantly knew that this was the vessel that caused theirs to sink. "HEY DOEN THERE!!" Mulder and Scully stared at the gandola with wide, unbelieving eyes. Mulder stuttered for a moment before uttering, "Ohhhhhh shoot..." "Tell me I'm not seeing this...*please* tell me I'm not seeing this..." There were four people in the gandola. One of the people was the driver, who was obviously Italian, and was wearing the traditional striped shirt, cap and mostache of a gandola driver. The other three people were John Byers, Melvin Frohike, and Ringo Langley. "Hi you guys!" Frohike said with an ear-to-ear grin. "Scully...you look absolutely gorgeous." If Scully had had her gun at the time Frohike probably would've lost a lung. Instead she just said, "If you're going to be so courteous...WHY DON'T YOU HELP US OUT OF HERE?!?!?!" The three Lone Gunmen reached down and helped Mulder and Scully into the gandola, which was obviously much sturdier than theirs had been. Mulder pushed some strands of wet hair out of his face and glared at the terrible trio. "Would you mind explaining a few things to us? Such as...WHAT EXACTLY are you doing here?!?!" "It's a long story..." "Don't give us *that* excuse!" "But it is!" "Alright then...let's start with why you caused our gandola to sink!" "We didn't mean to!" protested Langley. "But our driver is kinda half-blind...and he doesn't know English." The driver gave them a grin full of missing teeth. "This is insane..." Scully said, rolling her eyes skywards. "You three are *supposed* to be back in the US! *How* did you get to Venice?!?!" Mulder demanded. "Could you let us explain once we get back to your place?" Frohike pleaded. "We're starving!" Mulder was about to protest again when he sighed and gave in. "Sure. Fine. Whatever. We'll go home...but this had better be good..." "Trust us, it is!" 9:42 P.M. Wednesday, January 19th, 2000 Venice, Italy "You go out on a romantic cruise in a gandola...and you bring back the *Lone Gunmen*?!" Maggie said, trying to overcome her initial shock. "Now *this* is paranormal..." Samantha snickered to Troi. "What's paranormal is how much *food* they ate!" Troi responded. "They practically emptied half our supplies!" "Now *this* is luxury!" Langley said happily as he snuggled down into one of the leather armchairs in the living room. "This is definitely worth all the stuff we had to go through!" "Alright then..." Mulder faced the three computer hackers, arms crossed. "We're all here. You've been fed and gotten showers and everything. Now will you *please* tell us what you're doing here!" All three Lone Gunmen exchanged uneasy glances. Byers cleared his throat nervously. "It all started when we lost track of you guys on the radar..." "What? You were *tracking* us?!" "Let us explain! We had been tracking you guys on 'The Believer' since you left D.C. Everything was going fine until you entered the South Altantic Ocean...and then suddenly the signal was lost. "That must've been the storm we got caught in!" Samantha realized. "We got blown way off course!" "Practically went to Antarctica," Tina sighed. All three of the Lone Gunmen seemed very relieved by this knowledge. "We didn't know what had happened to you guys! We kept waiting for the signal to reappear, but for weeks nothing showed up. We thought maybe you'd been abducted or something!" Scully groaned. Frohike continued where Byers left off. "So that's when we decided to take action. We took 'The Conspirator'..." "What's 'The Conspirator'?" Langley gave a sigh of nostalgia. "Our private jet." "You have a PRIVATE JET?!?!?!" "Actually, it was a private plane. Too small to be a jet." Scully began to walk away, hands in the air, groaning loudly. "What?! You all get your own private *houseboat*! With a speedboat included!!" "Alright, never mind. Just go on." Frohike nodded. "I can't remember the exact date that we left D.C. We didn't really know where you were, so we didn't know where to go. In the end we went to the place you were supposed to have stopped in Dakar, Africa." "We didn't go to Dakar. We went to Cape Town instead." "We know. We asked around the city, but no one had seen 'The Believer'. Then someone said that 'The Believer' had recently docked in Cape Town. So we got back to 'The Conspirator' and started to fly down there. We stopped for fuel in Bangul and then someone there said that you had already left Cape Town for Paris!" "...Which meant we had to switch direction and fly to Europe!" Langley continued. He sniffed and added, "And this is the sad part...our plane got destroyed!" "How?!" Langley was trying to hold back tears of grief for the lost plane. "We don't know! We were flying pver Paris...it was at night, I think, and we were flying low and looking for a place to land." "Then we lost control of the plane! Steering, direction, engine, radio...everything was down! It was *the* scariest thing in the world! The plane was diving down and we were screaming and we thought we were all going to DIE!!" He paused for breath. "And Frohike screams like a girl!" "I DO NOT!!!" "You do to! It sounded like a dying weasel!" Byers grunted with annoyance and continued. "We decided there was nothing we could do, so we bailed out." "I just wish 'The Conspirator' had a parachute, too..." Langley wailed. "The plane crashed somewhere in the city; we don't know where..." "Oh my g-!" Mulder exclaimed, nearly collapsing with surprise. "The New Year's Eve Party!!" "*Your* plane was the one that crashed into the Eifel Tower?" Scully said, voice filled with shock. "It crashed into the Eifel Tower? Cool!" Langley grinned. "I don't think it was that 'cool' to the people in that tower who fell to their deaths!" Mulder said in an angry voice. "I don't think it was 'cool' that your plane scared the life's breath out of everyone in Paris! I don't think it was 'cool' that hundreds of people were killed in a panicked riot because they thought the world was ending! I don't think it was 'cool' that Scully and I had to spend New Year's Even hiding in a French public bathroom!" The Lone Gunmen sat silently, too ashamed to respond. "Do you guys have any idea what you *did*?! That riot killed hundreds of people! People wouldn't leave their homes for days! The top of the Eifel Tower was in pieces on the ground! And it's all because *you* three couldn't let us enjoy our own trip alone!" "Fox...." Samantha said quietly from off to one side. "I don't think you should be so harsh with them. If what you said about the cause of the crash is true, then it's not their fault it happened. It's just their bad luck that they were flying overhead at the time." Mulder looked at this sister, then at the Lone Gunmen, and let out a long sigh. "Alright then. I'm not trying to blame anyone, I'm just sorry that it happened at all. Come on, finish your story." They were silent for a moment. Then Frohike grunted and continued. "That's where things started to go downhill. We found each other after we landed, and luckily none of us had gotten injured beyond a few bruises. But we did have a big problem...it's a problem we *still* have, in fact." "We gots no dough!" Langley cried. "All of our money and credits and practically *everything* we owned had been in 'The Conspirator'. We had *no* currency whatsoever! We spent a few days sleeping in back alleys and old houses and stuff before we finally found some shopowner who spoke English. He said that he had heard that you had already left for Venice." Byers said, "It's been a rather hectic past few weeks. We were lost in Paris with no money, no food, and no way to communicate. We knew that we somehow had to catch you guys in Venice before you left for Egypt. We hitchhiked with this drunken Dutch hick who drove us all the way to Switzerland in his little beige electric car..." "All four of us had to *sleep* in that thing..." "Anyway, we got to Switzerland and then we had to find some *new* form of transportation to get all the way to Italy..." "I was really glad to get out of that car," Langley butted in. "It smelled like decade-old rum. The only thing he would ever listen to was 80's polka, and he never seemed to be able to decide which side of the road to drive on!" Byers rolled his eyes. "ANYWAY...this guy at the train station was giving away free train tickets. We HAD three tickets...but SOMEONE LOST theirs!!" Byers shot an evil look at Langley, who cringed behind a pillow. "That, of course, presented a problem..." Frohike sighed. Then he began to snicker to himself. "IT WAS NOT FUNNY!" Byers protested. "Yes it was!" Frohike laughed again. "What was funny?" Frohike giggled. "So that we wouldn't get kicked off the trian, Byers and Langley both got into the same suit and told the conductor that they were siamese twins so they only needed one ticket." Mulder burst into uproarious laughter. Byers and Langley flushed. "It's not funny! We had to sit like that all the way it Italy because the conductor kept walking past the train compartment!" Byers cried. "And it's all because the DUMB BLONDE over here couldn't hold onto his own ticket for two minutes!!" "Oh, sure, blame ME for everything..." Langley argued back. "Alright, that's enough!" Mulder said between fits of laughter. "Just get on with it!" "There's not that much more to tell. We got off the train in Italy, at some small town whose name I can't remember, and we walked *10 miles* trying to find some more transportation. We came across this Russian guy somewhere in Northern Italy. He said that he had a boat he was planning to take to Venice for a few days, and he offered to give us a lift there...but on one condition..." "What condition?" Now it was Langley's turn to laugh. "That Frohike sing 'When Irish Eyes Are Smiling' and dance an Irish jig for him because the guy liked Ireland so much and thought that Frohike looked like a leprechaun." This, for some reason, caused Scully to start laughing tremendously. Frohike frowned with resentment. "Well...at *least* it got us to Venice..." He grumbled. "I never though Frohike could be such a good dancer!" Langley said, still laughing. "So that's it!" Byers concluded. "That's how we got here! *Now* are you happy?" "I must admit..." Scully sighed. "I've heard you guys get into strange situations before, but this one tops them all!" "Now we just have to figure out how to send you guys home..." Mulder said matter-of-factly. "You mean you're sending us home *already*?!" Langley whined. "After *all* we went through to find you guys?" "What...you didn't *expect* to come on the rest of the trip with us...did you?" The three Lone Gunmen gave him identical sad-puppy-faces. "You did." Mulder said in a toneless voice. There was a moment's silence. "Well?" Frohike persisted. Mulder groaned. "This can't work out! How would we manage taking all *three* of them along with us?! We'd have to add in all the food and clothing...and we only have six bedrooms!" "We can sleep in the living room!" Langley suggested. "We really don't mind...this place is a Hilton compared to most of the places we've been sleeping recently!" Mulder groaned again, and paused to consider the options. They certainly had money to give the Lone Gunmen so they could catch a flight back to the US...but then that would completely defeat the purpose of them traveling all the way across Europe to catch up with 'The Believer'. If they let the Gunmen stay, it would be three more people to feed and clothe and provide beds for...not to mention increasing the probability of someone getting into trouble. "Why *wouldn't* you let us stay?" "Well for *one* thing...Scully and I would like to enjoy our engagement without you three constantly bugging us and--" "You and Scully are ENGAGED?!" "Yeah," Mulder said, who couldn't help beaming with pride. "When?" "In Paris, right before New Year's." "Congratulations!" Byers said, sticking out a hand, and Mulder shook it. "I *knew* you two would come to your senses some day! So...when is the big date?" "We're not sure...but it'll be once we get back to the US." Scully heard Frohike let out a long sigh of regret. "Still...couldn't we *please* come with? We swear you won't even notice us!" "Yeah, right..." Scully mumbled. "I think we should let them stay," Samantha said. "We'll take a vote," Mulder decided. "But you three can't vote for yourself. Who votes that we should let the Lone Gunmen come with us on the rest of the trip?" Samantha raised her hand first. Troi did the same. Maggie, although weary, also raised her hand. She was certainly not about to let the three go without some sort of reward for their efforts. Mulder waited, and there was a tense silence. Then slowly, hesitantly, Scully raised her hand. "As long as they *behave* themselves," She said, "I think that we can be gracious enough to let them come along. But *only* if they behave themselves!" Mulder accepted. "Alright, fine. It's settled. The Lone Gunmen *can* come with us on the rest of the trip." "Yes!" Samantha bounded up and kissed her brother on the cheek. "Thank you, Fox!" Mulder was surprised at his sister's sudden burst of happiness at the decision, but he smiled back at her anyway. The Lone Gunmen, obviosuly were the most thrilled. Frohike lept up and began shaking everyone and anyone's hand. "Thanks you guys! We knew you would understand!" "Mulder, with a guy like you, who needs these two?" Langley exclaimed. "Hey!!" "I get the couchbed, though!" "Mulder," Scully said to him aside, "That just might have been the worst mistake of your life..." "But you voted for them!" "Your point is?" Unnoticed by everyone else, Samantha and Byers exchanged a glance. It was not drawn out or obvious, but certainly something passed between the glance...something secret. Samantha smiled at Byers. For some reason, this caused Byers to flush all over and sort of wobble. "Hey, Byers? You alright?" Frohike asked with something between concern and interest. "He's just wigged out that we get to spend the next seven months on this floating Jamacian resort!" Langley said happily. 10:25 A.M. Friday, January 21st, 2000 Venice, Italy "Where's Fox and Dana?" "Oh, I think they went out on the town again," Maggie sighed, taking another sip of her coffee. "Ever since Paris they've kept going off together for something or other." Tina sighed in response. "Well, they certainly have every right to do so. I've honestly never seen Fox this happy before." Maggie and Tina were resting on the edge of the dock overlooking the canal and a good portion of the opposite shore. It was late morning, and the sky was still slightly overcast with the morning fog. "It seems a shame that we're already leaving tomorrow," Tina said after a pause. "This is such a beautiful city...I wouldn't mind living here." Then she added, "Are the Lone Gunmen also ready to leave?" "We went and got clothes, a few travel possessions, and more food for them yesterday. They should be completely ready to go. They will have to sleep in the living room, but there's plenty of room in there and it's pretty comfortable. Right now Troi is showing them the stuff that she got from the Internet on the 'monster'...I swear; Fox, Troi and those three are hopeless!" Tina suddenly noticed her emtpy mug. "Hold on, I need to get some more coffee..." "Stay here, I'll get it," Maggie offered. She took the mug from Tina and got up from the dock over the water. She walked across the boardwalk to where Samantha was having a conversation with the bartender at the little outdoor bar. "Need some more coffee," Maggie said, handing the mug to the bartender. Then she noticed that Samantha had her SamCam strapped to her shoulder. "What are you doing with *that* thing?" "I was gonna ask this fellow to say something in Italian for 'Tales from the SamCam'!" "Did he comply?" "He will after I subdue him with my persuasive charm..." Right at that instant, they all heard Tina scream. Without waiting a second both women ran as fast as they could back to the dock. "MOM!" Samantha cried out in terror. It was as if a giant, mutated octopus was attacking the elderly woman. One slimy gray tentacle was attached to the dock's posts...and the other was wrapped around Tina's leg, preventing her from going anywhere. The water below bubbled and frothed as if it were boiling. Maggie was too dumbstruck to do anything, but Samantha definitely took action. She got out her SamCam and began recording! "I'm here at the docks in Venice, where Mrs. Mulder is being attacked by what appears to be a squidlike monster!" Samantha cried, even as she ran up to Tina and stomped her foot down on one tentacle. Something like a scream came from beneath the surface. "This is definitely no ordinary fish in the canal...it fights with a vengeance!" "Samantha!!!" Tina cried out with something between horror and surprise at her daugher's nonchalance towards the whole situation. Suddenly, what appeared to be the monster's head popped out of the water. It was a grotesque, disturbing thing, as if it's genes had come from various kinds of squids and sewer rats. It had six eyes all the way around it's head, and a round, fleshy mouth with small irregular teeth. A long, razor-sharp tongue licked the fleshy gums. "Oh, shoot! OH SHOOT!! People, would you look at this...would you LOOK AT THIS!!" Tina screamed again at the sight of the creature while Samantha continued to film. She stomped down on the tentacle holding Tina's leg again. The monster's tongue shot out at Samantha, and she dodged just in time. Instead, the tongue hit the wood of the dock. With a SHI-TUNK, the tongue punched a nice, neat hole in the wood plank, as easily as a laser. "OH WOW!! DID YOU SEE THAT?!! This is unbelievable! Did you SEE that?!?! This thing has got one deadly tongue..." The monster gurgled out a roar as it looked straight into the camera while she babbled on. Then the thing began to drag Tina towards the edge of the dock, and all of Samantha's stomping couldn't slow it down. "Um...it appears we have a problem here, guys...." BRAM! BRAM! BRAM! Samantha knocked herself flat with surprise at the blasts, then whooped with relief at realizing that it was Maggie and the bartender, who had run back to get his shotgun. The monster let out a wail of pain as one of the bullets burrowed into it's head. BRAM! Another shot. This one hit home on the tentacle that held Tina's leg. It split in half as if a meat cleaver had lopped it in two. Two more shots in the monster's body ended the assault...the creature disappeared beneath the surface slowly, apparenly dead. The water was stained red...and also a yellowish-orange color. The red and yellow mixed together and created an odorous, poppy color. Then, much to everyone's surprise, the liquid exploded! It was as if someone had thrown a match on an oil-filled lake. The area near the dock was lighted with a firey ball on the water, and then sizzled down into sparks and hot, glowing, bloody muck. Samantha bit her lower lip as she helped her mother to her feet. "I'd definitely say this matches up with the Lone Gunmen's plane crashing into the Eifel Tower." 3:58 P.M. Friday, January 21st, 2000 Venice, Italy "I *still* don't believe it." Scully pressed pause on Samantha's tape, trying to get a good, long look at the thing in the water. One thing was for sure...it definitely wasn't a fish, *or* a pigeon. "You better believe it!" Samantha exclaimed. "You can't deny proof like that!" Scully raised her hands in despair. "Sure. Fine. Whatever. I've seen sea monsters before...I guess I should've been expecting this." "I guess the question now is...what do we do about it?" Troi said. "What do you mean, what do we do about it? We've done everything there is to do. The bartender killed the sea monster with his shotgun. Soem scientists came and got samples of the liquids in the water..." "What did they find?" Scully asked. "The red stuff was blood, obviously. The yellow stuff...they don't know what it is. It's an 'unidentifiable compound', they say. But they do know some things...it's flammable with blood. It's *extremely* acidic. *And*...it's the same stuff they found inside the dead body. They did a test on it, and found that it dissolves bone tissue in a matter of seconds." "That's it, then!" Mulder said, putting the pieces together. "That's how the creature lives...it injects that yellow poison into the body. From Sam's tape, it looks like it does so with it's tongue. The poison *liquifies* the bones in the person's body...and then literally *drinks* the bone tissue out of the person...that would explain the condition of the dead body!" "Lovely," Scully said, rolling her eyes. "I think I prefer the normal chew and swallow." "But all of that still doesn't explain how the monster got here in the first place," Troi persisted. "Giant bone-sucking squidlike monsters don't just appear out of nowhere. There had to be a reason why it has surfaced and started attacking." "Got any ideas?" Troi smiled. "As a matter of fact...I do!" She showed everyone the Italian news articles she had printed up. "I've been looking through these things...apparently several shipments of toxic waste material have never reached their intended destination of Turkey. At first I thought that maybe the monster had attacked the waste ships. But now I think it's the opposite...the monster might've come from three different places. Either it was transported with the waste material on one of the ships, or it somehow *formed* or came into being because of the imbalance with the chemicals, or it was brought out of hiding somewhere else in the sea because of the different chemicals. Either way, it definitely proves one thing...that someone has *illegaly* been dumping toxic waste chemicals into the canals of Venice!" There was a brief, somewhat surprised silence. Scully cast a glance back at the creature on the tape. "If that's true...I *definitely* don't want to know exactly what's been dumped into these waters!" "*That* is why I was wondering what we should do about it!" Troi explained. "Someone is responsible for dumping those chemicals in the canal...therefore someone is responsible for the monster's appearance." "I think..." Samantha said slowly, "I can do it. I got the best view of the monster. I can bring the issue up at Venice City Hall tomorrow...and I can use the tape as proof! There's no way they can turn down that! Then we can prove to them that someone has been illegally dumping chemicals here!" "How are you going to do that, Sam?" asked Mulder. "You don't know Italian!" Samantha slapped a hand down on Byers' shoulder. "But my pal Byers here does!" She grinned. "He'll come along as my translator!" "I will?" "I didn't know you knew Italian..." Frohike asked with raised eyebrows. "Remember that one time we spent months trying to get information from that Italian nuclear company? I practically taught myself the language inside out." "Oh." Frohike paused, then shot a confused look at Samantha. "How did *you* know that he knew Italian?" She shrugged. "Lucky guess?" 12:00 P.M. Saturday, January 22nd, 2000 City Hall; Venice, Italy Inside the courtroom it was cool and slightly stale, but definitely more comfortable than the cold wind blowing outside along the canals. Samantha squirmed nervously in her seat. It had taken a lot of convincing the mayor of Venice that it was okay for her to present her evidence to the counsil...what probably convinced him was her mentioning that she was the sister of the infamous Fox Mulder. Byers sat next to her. Dana and Fox sat a few rows behind her, and were there mainly to provide some support. At the moment the council was going over something about the economics; Sam couldn't understand what it was all about since it was all in Italian. "Hey," Byers nudged her. "They're talking about the water condition problem now. We'll come in here soon." The officials in their dark suits rattled off in their foreign language, muttering to each other, and then speaking out loud. The mayor, who was sitting at a large desk at the front of the room, looked directly at Samantha and said something it Italian. "He said he wants to know what we believe is the cause of the strange water conditions," Byers translated. "Tell him...that we think the reason the water quality is so poor is because someone has illegaly been dumping toxic waste materials into the canals." Byers repeated what she said, stumblind over the words and pronounciation somewhat. This comment caused a great stir among the officials; they all began chatting among themselves excitedly. The mayor shushed them angrily. He blurted out something at Samantha in a tone that was certainly not pleasant. Byers gulped. "He says...'Impossible! We have very strict laws in Venice about dumping waste in the canals! Such actions result in severe punishments...no one would dare pollute our canals!" Samantha was unsure of how to respond. "Ask him which waste companies they know of that transport waste chemicals from Rome and Naplesto Turkey." A quick translation; another response. "There's a company called 'Mercurio Waste Inc.' that takes waste from the larger cities in Italy to Turkey. There's a representative from that company here right now." "Hey! It's that guy!" Mulder said from behind. "Huh?" "It's the lawyer! The one we talked to at the cafe'!" Samantha looked...and noticed that her brother's statement was true. It *was* the lawyer from the cafe'...only he was the lawyer for the representative of 'Mercurio Waste'!" (*This* definitely adds flavor to the situation...) Scully thought. "Tell them that I have proof that shows that hazardous chemicals have been dumped into the canals." The answer: "We shall see it." The group had already handed in the tape to those running the slide projector. The projectionist took the cue, and the room darkened with one beam of light focused on a small blank screen in one corner of the room. It started out with a short of the very frustrated bartender, then suddenly flashed to a very blurry shot of the dock in the water. There was Tina Mulder, screaming her head off, and then a lot of splashing, and then the monster came into view. The entire courtroom fell into a deathly silence. The shots were jerky and difficult to follow, but it was certainly clear what it was that was being filmed. Those that were not sitting with dumbstruck looks on their faces were actually snickering or laughing at Samantha's insane exclamations. The short video ended, and the lights came back on, but the courtroom was still silent. Byers and Samantha took advantage of the opportunity. "We believed that this creature emerged or was created because of the toxic chemicals that have been dumped in the canals. Scientists have gathered some evidence from the place where this was shot, and they are certain that this was an unidentified creature with *very* unusual chemical properties. The only reason such a monster would appear would be if there was an introduction of hazardous materials into a normally clean environment." Byers said for her. Some more muttering. The mayor cleared his throat for silence. There was another answer in Italian, and another translation: "Let's hear what 'Mercurio Waste Inc.' has to say about it." All eyes turned to the table where the waste company representative and the lawyer sat. They appeared to be in the middle of a heated arguement, shouting contradictions back and forth in Italian sprinkled with words that definitely *weren't* Italian. "Let the representative speak!" The mayor bellowed. "Our company would never do such a thing! All our employees are completely trustworthy, and all of our waste shipments have made it to their destination!" "No, they haven't," the lawyer said, this time speaking in English. "The ships themselves have returned to their base...but the shipments they were carrying never reached their destinations. They *must've* been dumped in Venice!" "That's not true! Are you going to believe this foreigner's story that a *sea monster* appeared because of waste dumps?!" "Yes..." the lawyer said slowly. "Because I saw the monster myself." *This* caused quite a commotion. The small group of four stared around nervously as shouts flew over their heads and then back again like a hot potato being tossed back and forth. The mayor shouted something, and the courtroom fell quiet so quickly it was as if someone had pressed mute on the remote. "All I'm saying...is that we think that's enough proof to start an investigation into 'Mercurio Waste' to see who's responsible," Samantha said. The council thought about her proposal. It was obvious that the representative was *very* upset with the outburst from his own lawyer. The mayor stole one last look at the now-blank screen and sighed, apparently distressed. "Very well. We will look into the matter." Samantha let her breath out slowly, relieved they had finally convinced them. Byers gave her a weary smile. It had been a long shot, but at least they were going to do something about it. 8:17 A.M. Sunday, January 23rd, 2000 Venice, Italy "I can't believe we're already leaving. It seems like we just got here." "You mean *you* just got here. We've actually been here a week!" Samantha said back at Byers with a grin. The two were working on getting the rest of the Lone Gunmen's things away and rearranging the room to make it seem like suitable sleeping quarters. "Hey...thanks for helping out me at that City Hall meeting. I think we really made a difference in this city," Samantha said after a pause. Byers grinned. "I think we made a difference in *every* city all over the world! But to return the favor...I just want to say thanks for sticking up for us when we were asking to stay with you guys. it means a lot to all of us...especially Langley, I think!" "And to throw it right back at you..." Samantha's cheeks flushed. "I never got a chance to really thank you for saving my life that one time when we were trying to escape from that military fort during the shootout..." Byers was dumbstruck. "You remember that?" "Of course I do." There was an unnatural silence that seemed to sieze the living room by the throat. Samantha folded and then unfolded the same blanket twice. "Samantha, I...." Byers stuttered. "Yes?" "I just wanted to say that...no. You'd think I was such an idiot. I shouldn't..." "Byers, what is it?" Byers choked on air. "I...just thought...that you were...the most amazing person I ever met." Now *Samantha* was dumbstruck. "And I'm not just...I don't know. You would think it would be Scully, like Frohike...I respect her, but she just seems so much better for Mulder than me. I *don't* want to be bachelors forever like Frohike and Langley. They've always been happy the way they are. But I just...I've always dreamed of...what I'm trying to say is, um......" "You love me?" "Um, something like that, yes." Samantha did not say anything. "I know what you're probably thinking...how stupid I am. I mean...I barely know you! I only met you that one time in May, and it was impossible to do anything else...I'd heard about Mulder talk about you so much before...but I never quite pictured...you! I mean...you're so funny, and lighthearted, even after everything you've been through. I really admire that. And it's just...every moment that I'm around you I feel happy...I feel like I have some worth, some *future* beyond a computer hacker who hangs out with two lunatics. I just...I don't know what else to say." Samantha still did not say anything. Byers gulped nervously, suddenly feeling very hot. "I-I-I'm sorry..." "Why should you be?" She said, breaking into a grin. "Well, I mean..." She took a step closer. "I think that is absolutely the sweetest thing that anyone has ever said to me." "You mean...you're not upset?" "How could I be? Byers...John...I'm sort of in the same situation you are. I've never really had anyone outside of my family care for me much. And I think...I *like* you. No, that's not enough, I..." "Love me?" "Something like that, yes." Byers shook his head. "Wow...I can't believe it." "Believe what?" "It took Fox and Dana six years to realize they loved each other...and it only took us six minutes!" Samantha laughed. "Well...I guess this means the Mulder family is improving somewhat!" "Samantha..." Byers stuttered, clasping her hand. "You...have no idea what this means to me." Samantha stared down at their hands, and then looked up into his eyes. "I think I do..." "So..." Byers coughed, still somewhat in shock from the situation. "We know how the other feels...so what do we do about it now?" "I think...that we should wait. For anything serious, I mean. This is really Fox and Dana's trip...too much excitement might drive the moms crazy. Besides...I think it'd be good to enjoy some time together just being friends. We've got a whole six months more at sea before we go home...we've got plenty of time to work things out!" Byers smiled back secretly. "I wonder if the others will catch on..." "Oh, I think we'll catch on pretty quickly, Byers." Byers and Samantha twisted their heads towards the door in breathless surprise. Standing in the doorway were Mulder and Scully, both with ear-to-ear grins on their faces. "Hey! You were listening in, Fox!" Samantha cried. "Don't I wish I had the SamCam now..." Scully snickered to herself. "Join the club of non-bachelors, Byers," Mulder said. "But you know...the other two are going to think you betrayed them." "Let them think it," Byers shrugged. "I'll always be a Lone Gunman...but at least I won't be a Frohike or a Langley!" Mulder and Scully laughed. "Fox..." Samantha looked earnestly at her brother. "Just please promise me that you won't tell anyone else..." "It's fine, Sam..." Mulder shook his head with amazement. "I'm just glad you're finally finding someone of your own, too." "I feel like this is right," Byers said. "I feel like this is right for me...and her." "Well then...finish fixing everything up! We've got to get going for Cairo!" 1:21 P.M. Sunday, January 23rd, 2000 Venice, Italy Scully let out a long, slightly regretful sigh as 'The Believer' headed out of Venice's Grand Canal and out into the wide freedom of the Mediterranean Sea. Once again, there were several people whom they didn't know waving goodbye from their small boats below. "I sure am going to miss this place," She said to Mulder a little ways away, leaning against the railing. "I wish we could've stayed longer..." "I guess it is impossible to really experience the world in a year...or even a lifetime," Mulder responded. "But you can definitely at least hit the good places!" Scully sighed, then smiled. "Who would've thought...your sister and a Lone Gunman! It's practically paranormal!" "I think they're happy, and I'm happy for them, too. It'll definitely be interesting to see what develops between them." "Just as long as they don't have to go through everything that *we* had to go through..." Mulder walked over to Scully and put his arms around her waist. "Well...I'd do it all over again for this." "So would I." 'The Believer' left the Grand Canal and cruised, proud and ready, into the sea. As they were leaving, a flock of the infamous pigeons glided on air currents over the water's surface. However, no one noticed the sliver of gray flesh that shot up out of the water and dragged a single pigeon beneath the surface, leaving behind only a few bubbles and feathers. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE END OF PART SIX ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Author's Notes: HOORAY!!! It's finally done!!! I know that some of you have been very anxious in awaiting this, and I thank you for your patience! The thing with Samantha/Byers sound interesting? There's hints of it in "Accumulation"!!! One word: FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!!!!!!! Give me all that you possess!!! I'm desperate for feedback, especially on the Sam/Byers deal! Does it sound like a good idea?! I just really needed to get Samantha with someone...and Byers was the best choice! You MUST MUST MUST MUST MUST give me lots and LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of feedback for any and all things and I will love you forever!!! (Unless you flame me.....) Even though the next part will probably be longer than this one, it will hopefully be coming along longer than this one, since I already have some scenes done. You Scullyists are probably going to hate me for some things, though.......;) See y'all later!!!!