USS Escondido - Atlantic Ocean 

McGuinness scanned the horizon in the direction of the rendezvous coordinates, but there was simply nothing there - not one indication that any of the twelve had survived. Checking his watch for the third time in as little as a minute, it seemed as if all hope of their return was lost. Already they were an hour overdue. Delony asked how long they'd wait. He didn't answer because doing so meant there was no hope, and McGuinness was not one to lose hope, especially where lives were concerned. 

He wiped his arm across his forehead, staining the uniform sleeve with the sweat and dirt that had collected on his brow. A little more grease and grime wouldn't matter. The uniform was beyond cleaning, beyond repair. He gave it little thought. 

"Any sign of them?" Admiral Scully asked, walking gingerly towards McGuinness, his head bound in a tight white wrapping of gauze. 

"Not so much as a ripple. You should be in sick bay." 

"My head can hurt just as easily here as it can below deck," Bill said as he looked out over the water, willing Dana to return. "It serves me right," he admitted. 

"What does?" 

"Losing Dana." 

"You don't know that she's lost." 

"Still, it would serve me right. For years I've doubted her - doubted the things she tried to share with me... with our family. I turned them against her in that respect." 

"As it relates to this alien business?" 

"Every bit of it and more. About the things she'd seen... the things she'd experienced... the pain and ridicule from her colleagues, from her family. We should have been the ones to support her. Instead, I led them to doubt her. I was so certain of myself, blaming Mulder for leading her on... for warping her mind and filling it with his own personal fanaticism. I never even once considered she might be right - they might be right," he lowered his head in shame. 

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I've had my doubts. Even though I've see things... things I couldn't explain. I doubted." 

"But she's my sister. I should have believed her. You know, Dana's an incredible woman. Even when we were kids, she had an understanding of things that went way beyond others her age. While most girls were playing with dolls and lighting up their Easy Bake Ovens, Dana was looking for ways to explain everything. She was always searching for meaning, for understanding... not settling for someone else's theories, but formulating her own based on facts she discovered." 

"She sounds pretty amazing." 

"She is... and I should have believed her. I should have trusted that she wouldn't fall victim to someone's cockamamie stories if there wasn't a clear, scientific basis of truth to support them. And now, it may be too late... too late to tell her I'm sorry." 

"I guess I'm not so willing to give them up for dead yet. Gibson's a remarkable young man with some amazing abilities of his own. If what he's shared with me is true, then I have to believe there's hope, and they'll come through this." 

"I hope you're right, Captain. I certainly hope you're right." 

"I have to be. How the hell else will I explain what's happened to my crew... to my cutter." 

"We're going to have to vouch for each other to our respective superiors." 

"True," McGuinness said. "But what frightens me about that... I won't know if they're human."