Title: Never Really Gone
Author: katiemulder
Fandom: The X-Files
Characters: Katie, The Lone Gunmen
Prompt: Grave (2.2)
Word Count: 479
Rating: PG
Summary: Katie visits the Gunmen
Warnings: Spoilers through "Jump the Shark"
Disclaimer: I own nothing except Katie. So please, Chris Carter, don't sue me. And don't make the movie suck.



The rain had disappeared overnight, giving way to a blue and mostly cloudless sky. As she made her way across the grounds of Arlington National Cemetery, Katie could hear the ground squishing beneath her sneakers. It would be a day or two before the water from the rain was completely evaporated which meant there was still a great deal of mud in those areas of the city not covered by cement. Good. Mud meant fewer tourists with their oversized cameras and antsy children.

Normally, Katie didn't mind tourists. Having grown up in the DC Metro Area she saw them as just another part of life. But there was just something weird about seeing tourists in a cemetery. How were you supposed to visit with loved ones when Little Timmy kept complaining he was bored.

As she came to a stop in front of three headstones, she felt her heart stop. Every time she came here, she told herself that the next time would be easier. But it never was. A part of her was beginning to doubt it ever would be.

Laying a Ramones tee shirt over the middle stone, she set the new JFK biography in front of the one to the left and the new issue of "CyberBabes Quarterly" on top of the one to the right. Sure, it was a little odd. Okay...very odd. But she had a feeling the boys would have appreciated it more than flowers.

She had brought along a sweatshirt -- an old gray thing that had been her father's while at the Academy. She felt bad using it for a blanket but it was that or her jeans and it wasn't like the sweatshirt couldn't be washed. Once she had it spread out to her liking, she took a seat.

She was quiet for a moment or two, making sure she wasn't going to spontaneously burst into tears, before speaking. She told them about the tips that had come into the Lone Gunmen office, the cases her parents were handling, school, and the typical Katie gossip. She talked to them the way she had always talked to them -- only this time it was without answers.

As the sky began growing darker and she realized just how long she had been sitting there, she stood, brushing her jeans off and collecting the sweatshirt. Bidding the guys a quiet good-bye, she headed back towards the parking lot -- wiping at the silent tears that had begun to fall.
***
She was about ten feet off with the three figures stepped out from behind the monument, one immediately going for the loot while the other two watched the figure slowly disappearing from sight.

"This isn't right...she should know..."

"And she will know. One day."

"Yeah." The shorter one nodded. "One day. She's going to kill us for real when she finds out..."

"Possibly."