Author: Daydreamer  
Posted: 12 January 2008
After the Fact Round Robin - Jersey Devil 
Rated: G  
This little vignette is part of an ongoing Round Robin on the After the Fact Mailing List. Vickie 
Moseley did part 1, this is part 2. At this time, I don't plan to pick it up and take it any further. 
 
Jersey Deviled Part 2

Smithsonian Museum of Natural History 
Oct. 12, 1993 
“Dr. Gonzalez? I’m Fox Mulder. I called you earlier?” 
The short, studious-looking woman turned away from the basket she was studying and pushed 
her glasses up onto her head. A few strands of hair, mixed black and silver, slid out of the messy 
bun she wore, and she shoved them away in frustration. She blinked twice, slowly, as she looked 
up to meet Mulder’s eyes. Glancing over at Scully, she shrugged and muttered, “Mulder, 
Mulder, did I agree to see you today?” as she picked up another basket and turned away. The 
glasses were pulled down again, and more hair slid free. 
Mulder cast a slightly sheepish grin at Scully, who quirked an eyebrow back, then he tapped the 
woman on the shoulder. “Yes, today. I asked to speak to you about a feral child?” 
Dr. Gonzalez sighed, frowning as she turned around once more, the glasses going up again. Large 
brown eyes stared up at Mulder while little wrinkles of annoyance drew tight about her mouth. 
“No, young man, you asked to speak to me about a Neanderthal child, a carnivorous 
Neanderthal child to be exact.” She tapped one foot impatiently. “I told you it was 
impossible.” She moved as if to turn away again and paused when Mulder gently caught her 
arm. 
“How about a feral child, one of a family that had been feral for multiple generations? Could 
that child have Neanderthal-like qualities?” 
“You’ve seen this child?” the woman asked sharply. 
Mulder shook his head. “No. I’ve seen the mother.” He removed his coat, looking around for a 
place to lay it. Every flat surface was covered. Artifacts ranging from arrowheads and spears, to 
pots and pot shards, as well as scraps of clothing, bits of woods and plants, and the ubiquitous 
baskets were everywhere. Terrariums grew strange and unfamiliar plants and in one, an odd, 
spider-like creature was just visible, while something long and thin slithered through bark in 
another. Books and papers were stacked on the desk, the worktables, the chairs, and in between 
all the other materials. Even the small sofa was completely covered. Scully gave a soft sigh and 
held out her hand. Mulder nodded, passed her his coat, then drew his shirt from his pants and 
lifted it. He winced slightly as he pulled the bandage away, then turned and showed the wound 
to Dr. Gonzalez. “She gave me this.” 
Gonzalez reached out, her hand hovering over the wound. “Four stripes, claw-like.” She 
glanced up. “You grappled with her?” 
Mulder shook his head. “Not really. She knocked me down, nailed my chest as she took off.” 
Eyes that had been almost owlishly sleepy suddenly cleared as Gonzalez shot Mulder a gimlet 
look. “Why do you think there is a child?” 
Scully answered. “The woman died. It was apparent at autopsy that she had been pregnant.” 
She looked over at Mulder. “There was a man who had died some months earlier. It’s possible 
they were a mated pair.” 
“And why do you think Neanderthal? Was it appearance?” 
Mulder shook his head again and dropped his shirt, tucking it in as he spoke. “No. Behavior, 
more than appearance.” He closed his eyes as if to sharpen the image in his mind and frowned. 
“No heavy brow ridges that you would expect in a classic Neanderthal, but hugely increased 
strength and dexterity.” 
“Which could have been an adaptation to the way she was living,” Scully pointed out as she 
handed his jacket back to him. 
Mulder shrugged into the jacket, shifting slightly to settle the coat on his shoulders. “She’d 
have had to live a long time to adapt that much, Scully.” 
Dr. Gonzalez made a slight sound and they both turned to look at her. “Let me tell you a bit 
about some recent research,” she began. She moved over to a chair, lifted the contents and 
looked about, then shrugged and dropped it on the floor. “Get comfortable,” she advised. 
Mulder moved to the sofa, then shifted the content to adjoining tables and sat. He patted the 
seat next to him and Scully rolled her eyes, but joined him. 
“Humans average a difference of between 1 and 24 positional differences in their DNA, with an 
average of 8. Some very early studies of mitochondrial DNA, conducted on skeletal remains, 
show that Neanderthals differ from humans by between 22 and 36 positions, with the average 
being 25. There’s controversy over whether or not Neanderthals are actually a sub-species of 
homo sapiens, or a separate species.” She paused and looked around, then pulled her glasses 
down and looked around once more. “Aha,” she exclaimed softly as she located a coffee maker 
on a table behind her, under a dubious looking piece of plant with large amounts of dirt still 
adhering to it. She shuffled more papers and baskets on her desk and unearthed a cup. Holding 
up the pot, she offered, “Want some?” 
Scully gave an almost imperceptible shudder and politely declined. Mulder laughed out loud, but 
he declined as well. 
Coffee was poured, sugar excavated from yet another table, then added to the cup, and finally 
Dr. Gonzalez was facing them again. She shoved the glasses up once more and the whole bun 
cascaded down. A sharp curse spewed out, then she rapidly pulled her hair back up and focused 
on Mulder and Scully. “You do know that humans and chimps are only 55 positions different, 
don’t you?” 
“Of course,” Scully replied. 
Mulder glanced at her and laughed again, then nodded. 
“Well,” the doctor continued, “what’s interesting about the differences between human and 
Neanderthal DNA is that the mitochondrial DNA differences are at mutational hotspots where 
substantial mutational change can occur in short periods of time, resulting in rapid genetic shifts 
within a population.” 
“And this relates how to our Neanderthal child?” Mulder asked. 
“Well, it may not relate at all,” Gonzalez replied, “and I’m an ethnobiologist, not a geneticist, 
anyway. But what I find interesting about this research is that we now know that the longer a 
person lives, the more mutations occur within the DNA.” She sipped her coffee and looked at 
Mulder and Scully, smiling smugly. She placed the cup on a stack of papers where it rocked back 
and forth briefly before settling. Leaning forward, she clasped her hands in front of her and said, 
“There is some indication that perhaps Neanderthals aren’t a sub-species of homo sapiens after 
all. Perhaps they are fully human, but extremely long-lived, thus accounting for the abnormal 
number of genetic mutations.” 
Mulder glanced at Scully, then asked, “How long?” 
“How long, indeed,” Gonzalez replied. She shrugged. “Who knows?” She narrowed her eyes 
as she studied him, then smiled. “How long did the patriarchs of the Christian Bible live?” 
It was Scully who answered. “Methuselah purportedly lived nine hundred years.” 
Gonzalez lifted her eyebrows and remained silent. 
“Nine hundred years?” Mulder asked. 
Gonzalez shrugged. “Probably not. But three or four hundred years could account for the 
mutational differences.” 
“So my feral child…,” Mulder began. 
“Could be seventy-five or eighty years old.” 
 
End