"Is there any more sausage left, Cam?" Murphy asked.

"I believe so." Camier stood up and got the extra sausage from the griddle.

Mulder faced them, eyes wide. "Alexei just... blew up and you want to know if there is more sausage? What the hell is wrong with you?!"

Camier walked over to the table and slapped Fox. "Mr. Mulder, I know it seems strange to you. However, we, not you, raised Sascha and we know that this is a natural thing for him. Sit down and be quiet."

Fox sat down, raising a hand to his hot cheek. Shaking his head and taking a deep breath, he just sat still. When he raised his eyes to see Walter staring at him with wide eyes. Something cool touched his cheek and he flinched. Murphy gave him a tight smile and placed the cold cloth against the handprint. "Fox, dear Fox. We are all under pressure. Us maybe more than you two. Knowing as we do that Sascha has been hurt and tested and run around by the Consortium. He has been hunted and led and lunged on lead, by those men. I won’t apologize for Camier’s action, nor will he. We had to stand by and watch. They never missed an opportunity to remind us and him that he was an assignment, that the only reason we raised him was the contract. It wasn’t. We love Sascha. They have finally pushed him too far.

"So many times, Sascha has been a bedrock, a supporter. He supported you even when you didn’t know it. He fought for you, he fought for Sergei. He fought for us at times. It’s in his nature. However to continue to support someone who continues to fight you, to beat on you... after his blood father, do you think he desires this?! Once in eighth grade, some young thug thought that our little Sascha was an easy mark. He’s always been rather fey. The parents of the boy insisted we pay for his medical bills. Two bones broken in one leg, three in one arm, and a cracked collarbone. So now what... just what could impel our Sascha to submit and accept both of you beating on him?

"Love... and he will run himself ragged for those he loves. That includes you two and us, Nathan, even the Director, Dobrinksy; even he denies it. And perhaps one friend from school, Michael. That’s it." Murphy stood up and left Fox holding the cool cloth pressed to his cheek. He picked up some of the dishes. The pancakes, eggs, and sausage went into a warming tray.

"Fox," Camier said, his voice sounding tired, "we have to be strong for him. For once, stop thinking about what they did to you; he was forced into doing things to you. Some of the things he did, he would come home and cry about. He did them, because the alternate was a visit from Cardinale. So now we are here to heal him, not to ask him to heal us. Part of that is giving him an extremely stable home life. You and Sergei wouldn’t know stable if it smacked you! So it falls to us. It falls to us to be stable, to be Home for him. We have to be simply like rocks. So that means stop trying to get reactions from us. You got it. Now stop it. Go to the bathroom and wipe your face. Come back, sit down and we will try breakfast again. Go."

Camier took another cloth and wiped Sascha’s face. Sergei stared at them and levered Alexei up. With a tight face, he left Alexei in their arms and went looking for Mulder

* * *

He found Fox staring into a mirror over the sink, in the nearest bathroom. Fox was sniffling and wiping his face with a wet towel. Taking a deep breath, he rubbed red rimmed eyes and looked up. Seeing Walter behind him, he turned and put on small forced smile.

"S- Walter, hey, I was just on my way back." Fox’s voice has the husky quality of someone who just finished crying.

Walter reached out and wrapped his arms around his shoulder. "Fox, if you want to cry..."

"No, Walter, it’s ok."

"Sergei, I’m going stay ‘Sergei’ to you. And I don’t know why they seem to pick on you. I think maybe... they don’t want to lose their boy."

"Yeah, I don’t really doubt that but they were right about one thing. I shouldn’t have yelled at them. They were handling Alexei right. If they pay no attention to his outburst, then later talk to him, they will become less likely. I know that it’s been building up, I’ve been waiting for it. Wal- Sergei, I’m a psychologist. I know better. Yet, when he broke down, I acted... like..."

"A man in love? A man who worried about the man who he has wronged and finally has a chance to make things right? You are." Walter kissed him on the nose. "How’s your cheek?"

"Better. How’s Alexei?" Fox leaned back against the sink and pulled Sergei with him. Stroking his back, Fox kissed the shiny bald pate. "Sergei?"

"Hmmm?"

"What do you think of the name Antonii?"

"I think it’s beautiful, Antonii. Like you. Ready to go back?" Sergei stood up and wrapped one hand around Fox’s neck. "I think I like this learning to love both of you."

"Good." Alexei said from behind them. Both men jumped and turned, "Sorry about them slapping you, Fox. They take direct action whenever they can and damn the consequences." Alexei reached up and gently ran his fingertips over the reddened outline of Camier’s hand. His green eyes grew shiny for a second and then his hand fell.

Fox took Alexei’s hand and raised it to his cheek again, "Hey they protect you, they are your fathers and they just want to protect you."

"But they aren’t supposed to protect me from you and Sergei."

"Yes, they are. They will but they jump the gun a bit at times. Now, isn’t it time for breakfast?

"Yeah." Alexei nudged Sergei with his shoulder and took Fox’s hand. Together the three men walked back to the kitchen to eat their breakfast.

* * *

Alexei felt Fox’s long fingers running through his hair. It was almost enough to put him back to sleep but he struggled to sit up. Fox, realizing what Alexei wanted, carefully sat him up. Rubbing his eyes, Alexei noticed that there were a lot more people then there had been when he had laid down after breakfast. Yawning, he stretched and flexed before looking around.

"Glad you are up, Sascha. You can start helping us. Fox the red binder there, the one that says NKJ 1, give that to Sascha. You can read each chapter in there and summarize this... at this rate we should be done in about... three years." Camier gave his son a tight smile and went back to reading.

"Great, where did all this stuff come from?" Alexei asked, looking the binders covering every surface.

Byers flicked his eyes up to Alexei’s and gave him a flash of a grin, "We don’t know. About an hour after we got here, some guy, twitches a lot, came to the door. He had about twenty large guys come in carrying boxes. It took them and us about two and half hours to unload them and this is what was in them."

"Ahh, the Agency. Still is a lot of work." Alexei replied cracking his neck, taking the binder and opening it on his lap.

"Yes, so next time we go there, plan on spending a lot of money buying them food. They deserve it. Unfortunately we can’t borrow them to help us go through all of this... we do really need about a hundred more people. If we had them then we could speed this up and it would only take around four to five weeks." Murphy replied.

In silence, the eight men read until the light from outside began to redden. Rubbing his eyes, Sergei leaned back. "People, this can not go on. If this was something bureau related, I would have asked Kim to pull together at least 150 people. She would have posted the position and done the preliminary interviews forwarding only the top 150 and keeping 50 in reserve. Murphy, you said we really need at least another hundred people, so my question is why not get them?"

"Because where would we find them, Sergei?" Camier put the volume he had been looking through down.

"Well, the Gunmen have a site and connections to numerous conspiracy buffs, can the Agency provide us with a safe house for that many people? And if no one objects, let’s bring Kim in on this... she does well with my other postings, why not this one?"

Camier looked at Murphy who looked at Camier. Shaking their heads ruefully, they stared at Sergei. Fox laughed and tossed Sergei the cordless phone. Alexei smiled, his eyes shining with pride at his Sergei’s thinking. Alexei leaned over and kissed Sergei’s cheek. "I knew I loved you for more than your buff good looks."

Sergei blushed and dialed Kim’s home number.

Kim covered her eyes with her hands and took a deep breath. "Ok, Sir. Let me see if I have this right. About 50 or so years ago a group of men called the Consortium undertook an arrangement with oil type aliens who inhabit the so-called Roswell Grays. Now part of the oil type are rebelling and fighting the Grays who are themselves on the run from their home planet from which they were exiled. The whole point is the colonization of Earth. Now the Consortium is falling into pieces because Krycek, the same Krycek who is on the run from the FBI and every single government agency, stole materials from the Consortium which proves their intent to allow aliens to colonize the Earth."

"That's it, Kim. What we need you to do is interview some conspiracy nuts, tell us which are the most useful, then we will sequester them for about six weeks in a safe house, while they help us read and summarize the files." Walter gently moved her hands from her eyes, "Will you do it?"

"Have I ever let you down? We need to find the most compelling information because you will have to prove it to them and they will need to see how dangerous this really is before they get too deep into it. And we don't want the freaks." Kim reached down to the briefcase beside her and pulled out a yellow legal pad. Taking notes, she started to list the most obvious, to her, qualifications. The eight men just stared at her with amazement. "Boys, instead of watching me, why don't you bunch write up an ad. I'll check it before you post it to your website."

Still, they stared. "Boys. MOVE!" Shaking her head, she sighed. When you need real help call a woman. "So when is Scully coming in?"

"She's not, Kim." Alex stared at her, "She has something else to live for, you'll find out in little under a year. But not now."

Kim stared into the jade green eyes for a moment before nodding. "Very well. However, Mr. Skinner, you will need to come up with a reason for my request for Mr. Kersh. This is too extensive for me to do in my off time. I can take my sick time and vacation time but that will only give us about five weeks... It will take us at least four weeks to get through the chaff and pick out the people we want. Then we need to set up in a secure location. Then we will let them read the files. Mr. Murphy and Mr. Camier, can you provide the safe house and if I give you the requirements can you find adequate work spaces?"

"Of course, Ms. Kim."

"Good, then we can do this yet."

* * *

Ad as it reads of the Lone Gunmen's Website:

Are there aliens among us?

Have they manipulated our lives?

Have they come to conquer

and colonize?

YOU BET!

For the next four weeks, we are taking applications for people who are willing to help us collect and collate proof. Actual proof of the Aliens' plans. Submit your application on line to:

Conspiracy@lg.net or AliensAbductedme@lg.net

* * *

Kim looked it over and nodded. "Since you three rent out email boxes no one will be able to trace this to us, right?" At their nods, she handed the laptop back to them. "Very well, now we need to set up interviews. Murphy, Camier, their first interview will be with one of you and we will be using networked computers. I want the Lone Gunmen to set it up. Back to the interviews. First ones with Murphy and Camier, just a general let us know about you, why do you want to help, that sort of thing. However, this will be a first cut. Anyone, who is to be accepted, simply fill in a form, that the boys will put on the computers. Simply fill it out and send to the next tier. That will be the LGs themselves. You will have a longer interview with them and decide whether they do really believe this, or are they just doing this for fun. This is second cut. Same process and send the form to the third tier. Where Agent Mulder and AD Skinner will interview them. I take it that we don't want it known that Krycek is alive still so he won't be in any of the interviews, but is there a way he can still look in on the interviews? I take it that you trust his judgment so I would like a way for him to tell any of us that he wants someone to be sent away. I will take people in for processing and that's where your Agency comes in. They will need to provide a place similar to a decommissioned armed forces base or a survival camp. The barracks will give our workers a sense of camaraderie, a sense of group belonging. They will take pride in taking down the conspiracy. Even if they have to join the hated establishment to do so."

Camier smiled and raised his hand. Kim shook her head and pointed at him. "This is very well thought out, I can see why Sergei chose you to be his assistant. One question. You are part of a paramilitary sanctioned federal force. Perhaps you are somewhat biased towards order. Now, no offense to our technological friends but I do not see them or those who are like them being willing to be subject to any regimented purpose. Why do you think they would?"

"Simple, no offense but they want... desire... need to be proven right! It is the only way for their TRUTH to be proven, the only way for they, themselves to learn the truth. In their own way they are as fanatic as Agent Mulder to find the Truth and we will give it to them, we will recognize their fight. For that they would join the Nazis." Kim stood up and shook her head, "Let's get started."

Fox, or Antonii as he decided to be called, watched as Alexei struggled to get out of his shirt. Walking up behind Alexei, he stopped him and reached around Alexei. Unbuttoning the shirt, he gently slipped it off. Dropping it to the floor, he laid his head on Alexei’s good shoulder and hugged him. "Can three fit in that shower, if they are friendly and don’t try to play around?"

Alexei stiffened and relaxed. "If they don’t play around too much, they should be able to take a good shower together."

"Good, go start it and I’ll see what’s holding up Sergei, k?" Antonii whispered in his ear. "Oh just one thing?"

"Yes, Antonii?" Alex turned his head and smiled.

"Why did they want me to pick out a Russian name?" Fox asked as he opened the door.

"I would have thought you would have figured it out by now, Antonii. You need a Russian for Russian class." Alexei walked into the bathroom, leaving a shocked Antonii behind him. Soon, Fox could hear the water of the shower starting...

* * *

Fox grumbled about a certain assassin’s need to never answer a question clearly. So caught up in his mutterings, he didn’t notice their Sergei standing in front of him until Sergei stopped him. "Where’s Alexei?"

"Starting the shower. It’s big enough for three and we do need a shower." Fox purred as he wrapped one hand over Sergei’s waist.

"Antonii... a shower with all three of us? Isn’t it a bit early to try that? He is more relaxed with us but he is still, understandably wary of us." Sergei ran his thumb over Mulder’s lips.

"Hey, who is the psychologist here?" Mulder turned his head into Sergei’s hand.

"You."

"Right, I won’t push him farther than he can go. However I am going to get him used to idea that we should be naked together. Tonight is just a shower. We will wash him and he’ll wash us but that’s it. Let’s go before he’s done." Antonii reached up and took Sergei’s hand. Quickly, Antonii lead him into the bathroom.

* * *

Alexei leaned back and let the hot water cascade down his back, as it crawled down his smooth back it massaged with a thousand careless fingers. The heat seeped through the skin and into his bones. For some reason his scar was hurting badly. Leaning gently to the side, he let the water flow down. Warming and loosening tense muscles. The gentle clatter of the shower rings made him snap out of the lull that the shower put him in.

"Damn. If I knew you were this beautiful Alexei, I would have gone after you earlier." Antonii said as he stepped inside the shower, in front of Alexei.

"Foxxx..."

"What Sergei? As if you wouldn’t have if you could." Fox smirked and wrapped his arm around Alexei’s waist, "Climb in, you’re letting the heat out. Will you wash Alexei’s back?" Sergei soaped up the washcloth and carefully started to scrub in circles on Alexei’s back.

Alexei tensed up as Sergei scrubbed his back. Antonii gently used the arm around his waist to turn him as Sergei carefully washed him. Sergei’s fingers traced the small scars caused by his many escapes, adventures, and the many made by Dimitri Ivanovitch Krycek. The fingers slowed and Sergei leaned his head on Alexei's shoulder. His breath came slow and caressed the side of Alexei’s neck. A slight pressure on his hip caused Alexei to turn to face Fox with Sergei hugging his back. A soapy washcloth brushed Alexei’s shoulder as Sergei passed the cloth to Mulder. Mulder tilted his Alexei’s face up and placed one hand on the back of Alexei’s neck and rubbed. Lifting the washcloth, Mulder caressed soapy circles around Alexei’s nipples. The slippery cloth caressed the too thin ribs and up the too flat stomach. A whimper crawled out of Mulder’s throat as he surveyed the damage Alexei had done to himself. Kneeling, he soaped the skinny legs, pressing a little harder, massaging them. Lifting one foot, Mulder firmly washed it, pressing harder on the toes and the ball of the foot. Silently he lowered it and picked up the other, doing the same. Soaping up the other leg, he grinned as he stared up into the jade dark green eyes. Ignoring Alexei's groin, Antonii finished up his front. The only place left was Alexei's left shoulder. The shoulder of the missing arm. The shoulder that was hurting Alexei earlier. The shoulder that caused the pain that Alexei thought he could hide from the two who wanted to love him. Antonii leaned down and dropped a kiss on the shoulder. Leaning back, he let Sergei kiss it as well.

"Alexei, we are learning how to love you. All of you. The missing arm is still a part of you. To you... the... what should I call it? The end of your arm is still a part of you. We don’t hate it... I hate how it happened. I hate the pain you went through. I hate the fact that it was my stupidity that got you in that position. But we can’t hate it." Antonii stepped back and used the washcloth to quickly wash himself before tossing it over Alexei’s head to Sergei. "Do you need to wash your hair?"

"Not right now. I wash it twice a week, never gets too greasy." Alexei murmured.

"K." Sergei shut off the water and the three men stepped out. Grabbing a towel to dry off and tossing an extra towel to Sergei, Antonii went to get some pajama bottoms. Walking back in, he took the towel Sergei handed him and passed out pjs to everyone. To Sergei he gave midnight blue bottoms covered with stars and moons. For himself he took a pair of tan with red and gold leaves on it. To Alexei they gave a forest green set, top and bottoms with small black cats on it. One on each side of him, Alexei was led to the bed.

"Umm, are we all going to fit in there?"

"Of course, Alexei. We have been sleeping with you since we got here and I don’t think we can sleep apart. Just sleep and maybe holding you. That’s it. Ok?"

"Ok." Alexei moved to get in the bed only to have Antonii stop him. Silently Antonii slid in the bed and held the covers open for Alexei. Alexei slid in next to him and Antonii lay one arm over his ribs. Sergei slipped into bed, flicking off the lights; he turned to face Alexei and laying one arm across him and Antonii. When the slow deep breaths of the two men indicated they were asleep, Alexei Sascha Krycek let go and cried.

Mulder handed the plate of sausage to Alex with a raised eyebrow. Alex had way too little on his plate. It was important to Walter and Mulder that he ate more. When Alex placed the plate back in the center of the table, Mulder nodded to Walter who, using a sterling silver fork, speared three of the larger sausage patties and put them on Alex's plate. Alex looked at him and sighed. Picking up a sausage, he dragged it through the syrup and bit off a piece.

"I’m not wasting away, you know." Alex said flatly.

"I know, but let’s keep it that way, ok Alexei?" Mulder replied as he picked up the jug of milk and refilled Alex's glass.

Alex sighed and shook his head. Ok this is getting bad. Next thing I know, they won’t let me take a shower because they’ll think I’ll slip.

Alex watched the two men he loved communicate without sound. In perfect harmony they continued to keep Alex's plate and glass full. Without thinking about it, Mulder cut up four pancakes and placed them on his plate. Walter broke up the shredded potatoes, buttered and cut his toast. No little amused by this as well as touched; Alex leaned back to watch his family.

"Sascha, finish your breakfast." Camier tapped his fork on Alex's plate.

"I would, papy, except how can I ever finish my plate when the minute I eat half of it, these two put more food on it. I know I’m a little thin..."Alex held up one finger for quiet when Mulder opened his mouth. "Hush! I can’t put on fifty pounds in one meal though. I’m almost full."

"Ok, Alexei," Walter reached over and brushed the longish hair back from Alex's face. "But you are too thin. You were running too hard, too fast, too much and it’s taken its toll on you. We can not only count your ribs, I’m positive that last night, in the shower, I could feel where you cracked them. We did wrong by you. You and I did wrong by Fox. Fox did wrong by us. Now, we are doing the right thing. Part of that is feeding you. I want to know that when I am in bed at night and I hold you and hug you, that I won’t hurt you. I need to know that you won’t crack a rib when I squeeze you. So do this for us. Eat two more pancakes and the rest of the sausage and we won’t try to feed you until lunch, k?"

"Yes, Sergei. Kvochki.<Mother Hens>" Alex muttered.

"I heard that, Alexei."

Murphy and Camier smirked at the three men. Letting go of a short laugh, Camier turned smiling at the three young men, "Boys, boys. Now, we heard Sergei call Fox, Antonii. I take it he has chosen this name, so from now on, we shall call him Anton. Save for Sergei, you each have a very personal variant of your Russian names. So now we are ready to start your Russian classes, Anton. Sergei, I understand you learned Russian from your grandparents on your mother’s side. Well then, this class will be a refresher course for you. Sascha, we would appreciate it if you sat in on the classes to help us with your mates. Now, knowing Anton is curious about why we had you pick Russian names, I have one question for you? What did you plan to do after you expose the Consortium?"

Mulder jerked his head up from his plate, swallowing a piece of pancake. "I’m... not really sure. I guess go back to being an agent or maybe... write about the consortium."

Camier shook his head in disbelief and a soft whine exited his throat as he looked at his mate, Murphy. Murphy rolled his eyes and lifted an eyebrow as he silently asked his son Sascha how the hell did he pick ‘that male’ to fall in love with. Beside him, Walter silently and with exaggerated care put the glass of milk he was drinking back on the table before lowering his head into his hands. Alex shuddered and turned his face up to the ceiling.

"Guess not, huh?"

Murphy wiped his lips with his napkin and returned it to his lap. "Anton, it is more likely that you will be killed for speaking out against them or they will let you talk and talk and talk until no one listens anymore, and then kill you. We have another choice for you and I believe that your men will agree with us.

"The Agency has many independent offices. We all come under the Head’s leadership. Under him are the Directors, one for each area. Our Director and Moscow’s are... friends or the closest things to friends that they have, it should come as no surprise that the Consortium flourished not in Russia but in the United States, where freedom of press and knowledge abound. Or so a person would think, but it is an old tactic that they used. However, it is a tactic that we learned, a person who says they have nothing to hide, that everything is open for scrutiny, is really hiding something. People expect to find a little corruption, so when they do; they think it is all there. They never believe there can be more; they would never believe there could be anything so large, on such a grand scale in such a free society. So they refuse to believe the truth for surely if it was that big, someone would have found it before. Humans never like to admit someone knows more than they. Therefore to hide you, we will place you in the one place they would never look for you. The only place where people know and accept the sheer amount of tampering by the Consortium. So, we have decided to send you to Russia where you can hide. But you will need to learn Russian."

"Oh, so when do we start?"

Camier stood up, "As soon as we clear the table."

* * *

Kim stared at the number of applicants in shock. "OK boys, revision. We either break into the FBI database to check some of these characters out first or we will have to so this all by sneaking around the web. We'll never even get to the interviews."

We can’t touch the FBI database... if we do we may lead them here and they still want Krycek and where as I really don’t care if they come after him but Mulder and Skinner do..." One of them tossed his long lank hair over his shoulder.

"Mr... Langley? Well, whether you approve of Alex or not is none of my business. However how you refer to him in my presence is and I will not have you talking about him in that manner. I read the reports. I read what was done to him. I read everything and all I can say is that I’m amazed that he’s as well mentally as he is. So from now on, you will address him with respect. And before you think I’ll run off and tell Skinner or Mulder, remember this, I ran Skinner’s office for years. Mulder was afraid of me. Now about the first ten applicants what do you know about them?"

Langley looked at the other two and turned to review the first applicants.

* * *

The boys sat around the dinner table, waiting for Murphy and Camier. Impatiently Mulder <Anton> drums his hands on the table.

"You will drive me sumasshedshii <nuts>, if you don’t stop that. Here." Alex stretches across the table and drags a stack of thick cards over. Picking up one, he shows Mulder the dog, "Gafh. Dog, Gafh."

Mulder moved the stack closer, quickly flipping through he looked at Alex, "Flash cards?"

"Yes, they are good for ummm new learners. Plus, children do better when they can see what it is they are talking about." Alex snatched the cards out of Mulder’s hand. Smiling he flipped through the cards looking for a particular card. Grinning he held up a card. On it was a realistic red fox with green eyes and a pert upturned face. His white tip waved in front of his face, like a fan before his face. The word on the card was ‘lisa’. Laughing he tossed the card to Walter. Mulder leaned his long body over and tilted the card so he could see it.

"Very funny, Rat." Fox dropped the card he was playing with on the table. "Krysa seems very similar to Krycek..."

"Ouch. Well Foxes eat Rats, so can I take it that someday you’ll eat me?"

"With pleasure." Mulder shifted over and kissed his Alexei. "You’ll be sweet."

The sound of Murphy and Camier clearing their throats made the two look up. A quelling look from the two of them got Mulder and Alex to settle down. "Well, I see you found your name cards. Hand me the cards, Sergei." Murphy held out his hand as he and Camier sat down.

"Now, ‘Lisa’ is for Anton" Camier pointed at the card in front of Mulder.

"and ‘Krysa’ is for Alexei" Murphy tapped the card showing a large rat standing on its hind legs and wearing a leather jacket in front of Alex.

"And ‘Medved’ for Sergei." At this Camier gave Sergei a tight smile and tossed him a card with a dancing bear in a tutu, the proper name had been scratched out and the word Sergei written under it. "Now let us settle down for your first Russian lesson. There are thirty-three letters in the Cyrillic...