Notes: Hi there!

Well, this is just a short to get me over my writer's block that I have something fierce(I can't believe it-eight hours a day to write in and I can't think of anything to say!). It's a story about Erin, mostly, who you'll only know if you've read Debut and Gossip. If you haven't, all you need to know is that Erin is a fifteen-year old with semi-psychic powers, and is Fox Mulder's cousin. Michael Mulder is her adopted father, but blood uncle. It gives some background not given in Debut or Gossip, and I'm working on the story behind that.

Fox Mulder was an insomniac. Of the worst order. He was the kind of person who could fall asleep anywhere but where he was supposed to-planes, cars, couches, but not in his bed. And anywhere he slept, his dreams disturbed him. Fire and flashing light were the main subjects, usually, and the occasional liver fluke or deranged abductee thrown in for good measure. He got, on average, two to three hours of sleep a night. It was something of a wonder he even functioned at all, let alone as a normal human being. Somehow, he managed.

The nightmare was horrible.

During his work in the VCU and Behavioral Sciences, when he'd slipped into other people's heads eight hours a day, five days a week, he'd had this sort of dream.

Fog swirling around him, around his ankles and across his face--he was stalking someone. He was the killer this time, and he was chasing the people chasing him.

A flash of metal directed him to the fact that he held a light-calibre gun in his hand--not his Sig from work, but something a little more powerful. He crouched and glanced around, assuring himself they weren't aware of him. Whoever was chasing him, they weren't particularly adept at the job. A swirl of fog off to his right gave him a glimpse of someone running away, running from him.

He hefted the gun and followed, realizing he was barefoot, and the floor wasn't floor, it was forest. All the better, it would silence his footsteps. Booted feet thumped up ahead.

A leaf brushed his face-when he reached his hand up, he felt blood running down his temple. Time to take care of that later.

The footsteps stopped.

A plaintive voice called his name.

Oh god. Samantha.

"Fox?" the voice was frightened, daring him to come out and do what he was supposed to. "Fox, where are you?"

He crept up behind the girl and felt his hand hold the gun under her chin. She went stiff and trembled slightly. He whispered in her ear, hoarsly.

"Don't move, girl."

"Fox, it's me. Fox, don't-" the dark haired girl begged him, her grey eyes wide.

Samantha didn't have grey eyes.

In shock, he pulled the trigger-

And awoke in a cold sweat.

At the same time, in an apartment about twenty miles away, Erin Mulder also awoke, her neck bleeding. She wiped at the blood, realizing she must have clawed herself in her dream.

*Phew, what a nightmare.* she rubbed at the cut. Fox had been chasing her, he'd *shot* her-

Fox...of course. Only he had vivid dreams like that. Erin glanced quickly at the crystal hanging from her lamp, the one Melissa Scully had given her a few months earlier. The caked blood on the tip was glowing.

She picked up the phone by her bedside.

When the phone rang, it startled him again, being only half awake still. He reached for it, knocking it off the table and onto the floor before recovering the mouthpiece.

"Yeah."

"Fox, I'm coming over. See you in ten."

Erin said...and hung up.

Perfect, really. He'd just shot his cousin and now she was coming over. She must be linking again.

So she didn't actually have a driver's license. She had a learner's permit. But she'd be getting her license in a month. She figured she'd rather drive over herself than wake Mike, he needed sleep almost as much as Fox. So Erin sped down the highway, going at least twenty miles over the limit. Due to a miracle from god, perhaps, she didn't get caught.

Especially since it was one a.m. and she was the only person on the freeway. Well, dumb luck was the first thing she always depended on.

Erin, when she was fourteen, had survived not only institutionalization but later on the death of her father. When she was twelve her mother, Michael's sister and Fox's aunt, Leslie, had died, leaving her almost alone. Fox had hypothesized that those odd experiences, combined with abuse and afterward, institutionalization, had awakened a sort of latent psychic power. She just shrugged her shoulders and did what she did. There was no need to question it as long as it worked. And as long as she had it to defend herself with-

*No, I will not think that. I have no need to defend myself because nothing is going to attack me.* she firmly told herself as she pulled into the parking lot of Fox's apartment house.

He opened the door, squinting out into the hall. "Where's Mike?"

"He didn't come." She brushed past him and dropped her coat on the couch.

"Then...Erin, you didn't drive-"

"Yes I did, and I did it for you, so don't even start." Erin moved into the kitchen. "We need to talk, now."

"It was a nightmare. I get them all the time. I'm sorry you linked to me, but there's not a lot I can do about it." Fox followed her and sat at the table. Erin stood on tiptoe to grab a saucepan.

"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm making cocoa." She retorted. "And you are going to have some and you are going to listen to me."

"Yes ma'am." He saluted her. She glared. "Fox, how long have you been having nightmares?" she demanded, in the don't-bullshit-me-if-you-don't-want-to-lose-an-arm tone she must have picked up from Scully.

He shrugged. "Since I was twelve. Why?"

"And you never got help."

"Never needed it." He shuffled some papers on the table. Erin poured the milk into the pan. "You seriously believe that? You've been stalking, killing, attacking people-"

"Not always."

"You've been insomniac, then, for close to twenty-three years and you don't think you need help."

"What are you trying to say, Erin?" he asked suspiciously. "It was a nightmare, nothing more. And I'm used to not getting a lot of sleep. I think you're blowing this out of-"

"Blowing it out of proportion?!!! You must be joking." Erin snapped as she stirred the chocolate in.

"Look, I don't have to answer to you or to anyone, Saman-" he shut his mouth and looked at her, suddenly embarrassed.

Erin switched the burner off and turned around. "So that's it."

She said quietly. He winced as she continued. "That's why you put up with me and go out places with me and why you made Mike adopt me." Her grey eyes snapped. "Because I remind you of the baby sister you lost over two decades ago and are still looking for!" she threw up her hands in frustration.

"Erin, I didn't-"

She cut him off. "Regardless of how I look or whose child I am, Fox Mulder, my name is Erin Alison, not Samantha. I am not your little sister, and I am not an eight-year-old girl who needs your protection. I am almost sixteen and I am telling you as one mature adult to another that you need to get some help. You told me that when I was in the institute and you helped me get over that time in my life, and now it's my turn to be the dictator. You cannot spend the rest of your life feeling guilty because a twelve-year-old boy couldn't stop a bunch of aliens from taking his sister!!" her face was about three inches from his, and she blinked once before returning to the stove and pouring the slightly cold drink into a mug. She handed it to him and walked back into the living room.

"When I have nightmares, I have my father to turn to, and I know he'll always be there. When you have a nightmare-you choose to 'not bother anyone'." She rammed her arms into her coat. "My suggestion to you, Fox?

Try calling someone once in a while. Dana would be over here before you could snap your fingers. Or Mike. But I'm not going to come over and hold your hand every time I link with you."

Before he could protest, she slammed the door shut. He heard the car pull out a few minutes later.

He stood there, cold mug of cocoa in his hands, before picking up the phone and dialling a number.

"Scully? It's me..."

Driving home, Erin turned on the radio to keep herself awake. It was tuned to the light rock station her father enjoyed.

So no one told you life was gonna be this way.
Your job's a joke, you're broke, your love life blown away-
It's like you're always stuck in second gear-
When it hasn't been your day, your week, your month,
or even your year....

She began to hum along, beating her fingers in time to the guitar riffs.

But I'll be there for you
When the rain starts to pour
I'll be there for you
Like I've been there before
I'll be there for you
Cause you're there for me too....

Major guilt trip time. But dammit, Fox needed to learn-

You're still in bed at ten, and work began at eight
you burned your breakfast, so far things are going great!
Your mother warned you there'd be days like these,
But she didn't tell you when the world would drop
you down on your knees...

Well, Fox certainly wasn't in danger of sleeping in, but with his cooking habits--she wondered, suddenly, if that was how he felt after Samantha had been taken. The world dropping him to his knees.

No one can ever know me,
No one can ever see me,
Since you're the only one who knows,
What it's like to be me.
Someone to face the day with,
Make it through all the rest with,
Someone I'll always laugh with
Even at my worst, my best is you...

Well, she certainly was the only one who could know him like that, through linking-but she wasn't the one to face the day with him. That would have to fall to someone else...

She reached into the pocket of her coat and pulled out the crystal. Pulling over to the side of the road, she gripped it and remembered what she'd done the last time she'd used it to contact Fox. For a minute, she saw through his eyes, and smiled. Dana Scully was standing in the doorway, looking at him expectantly.

"Come in." Erin invited, in Fox's voice.

Then she left him his privacy, and came back to her surroundings in the dark car.

It's like you're always stuck in second gear-
When it hasn't been your day, your week, your month,
or even your year....

But I'll be there for you
When the rain starts to pour
I'll be there for you
Like I've been there before
I'll be there for you
Cause you're there for me too
I'll be there for you.

'That was I'll Be There For You, by The Rembrandts. Next up...' the DJ began.

Erin sighed, pulled back onto the freeway, and wondered whether or not using the crystal was such a good idea. She decided maybe a little nudge now and then wouldn't hurt. Maybe later.

END

Oh well. Looks like I'm still not over THE BLOCK-hopefully it'll lift soon. So, a nice little argument over cold cocoa, and a little psychology thrown in for good measure. Hm...And that song is copyright The Rembrandts, from the 'Friends' soundtrack. A nice, rocknroll type song to dance to.