Echoes -  Epilogue  Complete. 



"I....I can't do this Mulder.."

"Yes...yes you can.... go for it."

"I... don't know if I can.."

"Yes you must... we don't have a choice ...
It's okay ...I'll be alive....with you...I 
can deal with the rest...."   he gulped 
down his own tears and the sickening dread
that gripped his heart. "..later.... Scully
please."  

His partner leaned down and kissed him, 
awkward and strange because he was 
upside down facing her. He felt her 
warm lips against the wet chilled skin 
of his throat, her fingers stroking his cheek, 
and he was buoyed by her courage when she 
whispered "Okay," against his ear, no more 
than a quiet shaky breath. 

"I love you Mulder," her fingers smoothed 
the clumps of drenched hair out of his eyes, 
then travelled down his cheek and wiped 
moisture and blood from his lips where he 
must have bitten them. She crushed his body 
against her for what seemed a long time but 
in reality was just a few beats.Not wanting
to relinquish that precious contact with 
him. 

There was a roaring in his ears now, like 
bees on the warpath and his head was the 
hive. An unrelenting noise that twisted into 
an almost faraway lilting voice, transporting
him into the abyss, pulling him down further
as he watched her eyes bleed water all over
Echoes - Epilogue 
(Disclaimer in part one.)


Undetermined time later.  
Sand dunes near the Giants Causeway. NI.

Damp and cold to the bone Katherine sat 
dazed in a sandy dune. Ears still 
deafened she remained there for a while, 
unable to think or feel, or see anything. 
Her head hurt and for a few moments it 
was hard to remember who she was. 
Getting up she thought she should be 
somewhere... The storm ....yes the 
storm....Dana, Mulder.. "Oh god....No!"

She ran, despite her gammy legs she ran, 
not really knowing where she was or going 
but she had this voice in her head familiar 
and compelling so she followed where it 
sent her. The air was electric like the 
storm had charged everything around her 
heightening her energy and purpose to find 
them. The waves and the wind still mocked 
her but she ignored them. It seemed like 
hours since she had been running but her 
breath carried her on, wind at her heels 
and sloshing of wet sand soaking her 
stocking clad legs.  When she could go 
no further her steps faltered and she 
stopped, gasping. There was something 
moving up ahead... but sometime during
...whatever this was, she had lost her 
glasses and her vision was blurred. Never
did get that laser surgery did ya Katherine,
damm it to hell, her conscience mocked her. 
But It looked like.... No it couldn't be....


"Merlin."  The dog saw her and came
bounding over to her, he was wet and 
sandy and wouldn't keep still as he 
licked her all over, practically 
shaking with euphoria at finding his 
mistress.

She bent down and ruffled the dog's wet 
fur hugging him to her while tears 
streamed down her face.  Her poor niece 
and her man were probably dead, there 
was no way they could have survived all 
that, it was happening again, it had 
taken them too....just like Ned... like...
Corwen.... and the tears flowed anew at 
the thought of them...

Her partner and only Son. 

Lost here so many years ago... claimed 
by this coast's unforgiving, indiscriminate
wrath.... She only sought to understand....
Now they had robbed her of her Dana and Fox
as well. How could she ever tell Maggie, that 
her only surviving child had lost her life 
trying to save the man she loved ... just as 
she had lost her loved ones all those years
ago?

Merlin started to bark, pulling away 
from her before she could stop him 
leaving, her arms empty just holding 
fresh air. Katherine climbed unsteadily 
onto feet made weak with grief and 
followed him; he was going like 
lighting up the beach towards what 
looked like the area of the causeway...
But the landscape was different somehow;
like she'd been transported to another 
place entirely. 

Chunks of rock strewn out across the 
beach like discarded toy blocks thrown 
by an angry child. Deep fissures in the 
sand opened up like greedy mouths 
swallowing smaller rocks and drifting 
sand kicked up by the wind rising in 
great swirls like apparitions skimming 
over the shore. 

Hexagonal clusters of basalt indigenous 
to the famous causeway lay scattered 
and tilted in the sand but when she 
rounded the edge of the long beach where 
the cliffs had been, there was nothing there.

.....A large gaping maw of cliff had vanished 
and the pillars of rock that once stood like 
organ pipes so tall and impressive had gone...
scooped out like a vertical crater as if 
something had tunnelled through it and 
blown it apart on impact.

She bowed her head, tasting fresh tears, 
wishing it had blown her apart as well, 
the guilt and grief threatened to overwhelm 
her but then she felt something soft and wet 
against her hand. Merlin barked again and 
tried to pull her coat sleeve....  

"No, not now boy.... I'm sorry, can't play with
you now....please.."  But the dog was insistent 
and kept tugging before finally breaking away 
again, seeing that he had his owner's  
attention and  scampered off up the beach a 
few feet ahead towards an outcrop of rocks 
sticking up from the sand.... no they weren't 
rocks...  

"Oh my ...."

The dog jumped around in excited abandon 
finally able to show his mistress his find, 
circling and barking. Something was moving. 
Despite advancing age and fatigue, Katherine 
ran the rest of the way.

"One, one thousand, two one thousand...three.."  
A breathless, Dana Scully had been so intent 
performing heart massage on her partner's 
lifeless body that she never heard her aunt 
approach until she felt a warm hand rest on her 
back. Looking up startled, she saw the 
unspoken question in the old lady's eyes 
and nodded acquiescence. Wordlessly they 
slipped into sync working on the badly 
injured agent. Katherine doing chest 
compressions and her niece with her mouth 
fused to her partner's blue lips forcing 
life giving breath into his lungs. Swirling 
sand and wind whipping around the trio as 
they worked with a single purpose to do the 
seemingly impossible. 

When he coughed finally, his body physically 
lurching off the sand in his, lover's arms 
they both cried, Scully hugging her partner 
to her tightly and pressing her lips against 
his forehead. "It's okay Mulder, it's alright 
... you're going to be fine. Breathe... Keep 
breathing ..just..we can work out what 
happened later...but for now ...."

 " A chuisle mo chroi,"   Katherine whispered 
softly, touching Mulder's face as he opened 
two sand crusted  eyes to meet her beautiful 
smile and his Scully's.

Carefully they rolled him into the recovery 
possition mindlful of his managled legs and
doubtless other injuries. Mulder's coughed 
quickly turned to vomiting and a seeming 
endless slough of gritty sea water pooled 
in the sand under his mouth. katherine draped 
her wax jacket over his shuddering body while 
scully checked his viotals as best she could.      


In the distance 
a helicopter circled and banked towards them, 
moving ever closer. 

Ballycastle Hospital 
22nd March. 

Mulder was lucky, after being rushed to 
hospital by an Irish navy rescue helicopter,
undergoing surgery to set both his broken
legs and treatment for bronchitis, concussion 
and exposure, he only spent three days in 
intensive care with breathing problems and
an erratic heartbeat. Scully was unhurt but 
shocked and spent a night sleeping on a put 
you up bed near Mulder's room, lovingly 
watched over by Katherine who refused to 
leave the hospital until they were awake 
and looking healthier. She divided her 
time between them.

No one knew how the emergency services were 
called. The generator had been down at the 
farm at the time and there was no way 
anyone could have known... unless .... 

Scully had her own theories as to where 
the helicopter came from. She'd inquired 
to thank those responsible for airlifting 
them from the beach only to find there 
was no record of such a helicopter ever being 
sent out and the Irish navy couldn't even 
trace the registration code. It didn't 
belong to them. All they could tell her is 
that a man who wouldn't identify himself 
had emailed them.  Right then she could 
have cared less. she had no idea what 
happened out there on that cold vicious 
day but what she was thankful for was the 
fact that Mulder was alive ...and in once piece 
not least though they were so far from home 
they had her great aunt's caring company.  

One thing though was that when Mulder was 
examined in hospital it was found that he 
had sea water in his lungs, and in his 
unconsciousness kept muttering about mermaids.  
During a lucid moment he'd claimed they'd 
dragged him from the sea to save him from 
drowning. Katherine had grinned indulgently 
at that, saying that they may never know and 
that something mysteries were best kept that way. 
Scully feared Mulder would want to go explore 
that beach again soon as he was able to get 
hold of some crutches, maybe open a new X 
file when he was better. ...it terrified her.

She was still coming to terms with her ordeal. 
Waking up alone and frozen, dazed  without 
Mulder, not knowing how she got there. Not
knowing if her partner were dead or alive. 
Her head  arguing with her heart that he 
surely was gone from her life.

Her heart refusing to beleive that.

Sometime later she had simply stumbled over 
his body while wandering for what she mistook 
for hours and found he wasn't breathing. . 

A nightmare still fresh enough to wake her
from sleep gasping for air. Fractured images
of him falling,dying a hundred diferent ways. 
Scenarios she couldnt fathom if they were real
or imagined. So much of that day was sureal and
hard to take in.  

Alive... he cheated death once again and her 
fingers confirmed that as they soaked up his 
strong hearbeat beneath his hospital gown as 
they rested against his chest; tiny shamrocks
for luck in miniscule print, she 
smiled inwardly. How quirky.

St Patrick may well have saved him as much as 
any other explanation for all this. 

Maybe Katherine was right.: *Some mysteries 
were best left be.* 

*****


Black Rock Cottage  29th March.

A few days later, after Mulder had been 
released they returned to Katherine's 
farmhouse, the old lady making a bed up 
for Mulder in the conservatory that swept 
a full panarama out over the fields down 
to the sea...It was breathtaking, even 
though he still slept a lot with cocktail
of meds he was on, he got a kick out of 
the veiw. Scully on the other hand found 
it rather unerving after all that had 
happened down there but Mulder seemed 
pretty relaxed. Kather had given him her 
laptop to surf with and he'd had a couple 
of conversations with the guys about a few 
things. Scully hoped he wasn't teasing 
Frohike ...tooo much.

He'd been even more delighted that 
katherine's sun room harbored some hidden 
treasure; in this case a very large plasma 
Tv squirrelled away inside a big pine cabinet.
Since he was confined to bed for a week or so 
he probabaly would find it too hard to behave 
if he could access a few ball games on ESPN.     


He wasn't going to be able to travel 
yet for a few weeks and in truth the old 
lady was only too happy to have their 
company a bit longer. It seemed that 
Seamus and Merlin thought so too as 
they were both curled up either side 
of Mulder as he tried to scratch at the 
tops of this plaster casts.   

"Damn it I wish I had a knitting needle or 
something. It itches." Mulder complained 
as Scully brought him a mug of hot milk. 
Heavy meds meant he couldn't have caffeine 
yet so tea was out. However, it didn't stop 
Katherine spiking his milk with odd drop of 
Poitin when her niece's back was turned. She 
winked conspiratorially at Mulder, a gesture 
that disturbingly reminded him of Frohike, 
and handed him a plate with some more upside
-down apple cake which he was fast getting 
addicted to.  

"Aye if ya had that you might stab yourself 
in your leg. I have something in my pantry 
better for making you forget the itch."

"I'll make you forget all about the itch 
Mulder, if you promise to behave and quit 
scratching." Scully purred in his ear and 
she shifted the cat to sit beside him on 
the floor by the sofa, her hand squeezing
his.

"Ah you know Scully this is a bummer, me 
being laid up like this. We never got to 
do much sightseeing. What about Skinman's
Bushmills. He'll kill me."

"Probably for the paperwork on your medical
leave and desk duty when we get back too." 
Scully piped in to remind him.

Her aunt looked thoughtful. "Well you know if 
I have to be honest," the old lady shuffled 
off to the kitchen for a moment. She returned 
shortly with a big dark brown bottle bearing 
a James' label. "James's is better by far a 
whisky, but everyone and his chum head over 
to Bushmills when they come to here because 
it's well known and they canny guided tours. 
You tell that boss of yours that this is a 
much better brew. I'm telling ya true." 

"Thanks we will but Katherine, you didn't
have to go out of your way to get that for me."

"Oh I didn't... it's an old bottle and I filled 
it up with a drop of hard stuff."

Scully and Mulder exchanged amused glances. 
His partner swatting his hand as it went to 
scratch at his casts again. 

"You mean you filled it up with Poitin."

Mulder started to laugh at Katherine's knowing 
wink. "I'd have just peed in it, "

"Mulder," Scully swatted his good arm for that.  


"And when he runs out he is welcome to come 
visit me to pick up a fresh supply. Poitin, 
that is not pee." The old lady added 
laughing." Sides' don't have you aim, Fox."  

"Got an inexaustable suppy of that too.. 
ow... Scully!  He did give me this cold...which 
turned into an ugly chest infection." Seemingly on
cue his lungs erupted again. scully rolled her eyes.

"Which he will get full karma for every time 
he has to slave over filling in your sick 
leave forms."

Just then something came through the letter 
box in the hall cutting off Mulder's retort
and Scully went to retrieve it. She returned 
holding a newspaper.

"That's odd Dana; I don't normally get a 
delivery out here." 

"Really?"  

"No, lets give that a once over." She popped 
on her new specs and scanned the print on the 
first few pages. She looked up a few moments 
later, a shocked expression on her face. "Dana, 
you and your man might want to see this."

Dana took the paper from her and stared at the 
news article from a few days ago, sat down next 
to Mulder and shared it with him. It made no 
mention of their lucky escape as she had expected, 
but instead reported that that causeway area 
had suffered a disturbance, a small earthquake....
the epicentre a few miles out to sea. The photo of 
the beach area and the Giant's Causeway though was 
very intriguing. It had been taken the day before 
by the British geological society, but ....was 
strangely intact, none of the destruction that 
they had been embroiled in. It was like it had 
never happened.  

Mulder looked worriedly at Scully, she could see 
him mulling this over already, forming a hypothesis
....Knowing he'd be itching to take a look for 
himself if he thought he could get away with it. 
She gave him her patent stern eyebrow and he 
chewed on his lip and scratched at his neck.  

"It's as though it's rebuilt itself ....that's 
astonishing."

"Aw it is that. And it's taken its secrets 
inside  it again. But for how long?"
 
Suddenly the penny dropped. And Mulder gasped 
his eyes full of compassion he looked at the 
old lady and watched her eyes cloud over. 

"Katherine? Is this what happened to Ned?" The
old Lady got up and came over to the big window 
that overlooked the landscape down to the bay. 

"Aye.....it is. And someone you didn't know. My 
only son, Corwen.  A number of years before we 
moved here, Corwen went on a camping trip with 
his school friends. He was sixteen, old enough 
to be going on a weekend away with friends. 
Sensible lad, good grades, loved us both like 
a son should."  Turning to look at the rolling 
sea beyond the window, "Well .... I think you 
can guess what happened. We came up here, bought
this place to be near him somehow....after he was 
lost. It helped a lot until Ned. This coast 
took him too, swallowed him up in the rocks. 
Gone. They never found his body but he'd been 
in that area walking when it all kicked off. 
Went out one day and never returned. He used 
to look for him down on the beach. He never 
did get over his death. Some say he went and 
drowned because he missed his son so much but 
I think they suffered twin fates."

Scully was almost in tears. "I'm sorry I 
never knew. I knw about Ned but ...I never 
realised you had a son..mom didn't say."

Katherine smiled. "No one did really. Your 
mother was the only I one was in touch with, 
having burned our bridges with our local 
family here, was only in the last ten or 
so years since we got the internet that 
I came across your mother and our family 
in the States. Did one of those families 
reunite things? But anyway, I don't know 
if I ever mentioned our boy to her. He'd 
been gone so long and it was too painful. 
I didn't want any pity." 

"Sorry, so sorry we never realised." Scully 
replied, tucking a blanket around Mulder as
he lay down. The meds were making him sleepy 
again. 

Katherine crossed the room to the mantelpiece 
and took two small objects from the top and 
brought them over to him and Dana. Mulder 
recognised them as something he'd perused 
when they'd first arrived. She handed them 
one each and smiled sadly.

"I want you both to have these. Corwen 
loved this place; he always talked of 
mermaids..... Singing to him when he was 
came to the beaches here as a child. Drawn 
back year after year. A special place for him."

"Oh Katherine we couldn't."  Mulder felt 
tears prickle at his eyes but his partner's 
were already spilling down her face. She'd 
been to hell and back in the last few days,
wondering if he would recover....the whole 
trauma and unanswered questions. Seeing him 
so ill and his condition touch and go.Reliving 
their cliff face horror in her dreams over and
over. To think that her aunt had gone through 
this twice now. 

"Thank you, so much we will treasure them 
always."  Fox's childlike wonder and 
whispered reply reminded her so much of 
Ned. And he would have liked this amazing 
young man. Katherine's lips curled up in a 
smile.  

"I'd like to think there are mermaids 
Fox. That they spared you from two 
warring giants. When you were delirious
you were saying they pulled you from the 
water you know. Perhaps Dana too. They 
owed me big this time." 

She pursed her lips.

Mulder shook his head, unable to pull that
yet from his eidetic memory, but just a 
fleeting flash of something tickled him 
in places he thought he'd forgotten. An 
angelic face, a never ending song that 
swept over him like a feather touch and 
too soon it was gone. When he came back 
to himself Scully was rubbing his hand. 
She leaned over and kissed his and she 
turned his mermaid over in his hand with 
such reverence, like it was speaking to 
him and only he could hear it. 

Katherine handed them a small glass of 
Poitin each and took one for herself. They 
toasted to the loved ones they had all lost 
and stared at the flames leaping up the back 
of the fire and just for a moment, Mulder 
thought he heard that ethereal melody 
again.   

"I'd like to believe that this time they 
saved both of you."  Katherine took his 
other hand, still bearing the bruising 
of his ordeal and held it gently in her 
weathered ones.

Mulder looked at her with great affection 
as he started to doze off again. "I want 
to believe that too." 

The end. 


Thanks for reading. Complete at long last!!! 

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