AUTHOR'S NOTE: 

Attention:  Lena has not been allowed to compose this note
herself, as it would have delayed this story by at least another
month. Instead, her beta team has elected me, Shannon, to tell
you that this story has been in the works for more than a year
and has had more editors than a dog has fleas.  She has been
threatened within an inch of her life if she ever, ever attempts
another story of this magnitude. This is her Magnum Opus, so
enjoy it. She'll never write anything over 50K again or we'll
break all her fingers.


... Pssst, this is me, Lena.  Shhh.  Don't tell Shannon, but
I'm gonna write my own notes anyway.

I feel like I've been writing this thing my entire life. 
Certainly I've been writing it for most of my fanfiction career;
there are people that met me a year ago who don't remember a
time when I *wasn't* working on what we called parrotfic.  Many
people have stepped in to help out over that year, and hopefully
I can thank them all.

First and forever, I have to thank Erlybird, giver of the
world's best feedback, constant cheerleader, and den mother to
the most unruly pack of fic puppies ever seen.  When I took the
dead parrot out of my first fic and substituted a regular
corpse, Erly demanded that the parrot get a story of his own,
and so was parrotfic born.  Who knew?

Lysandra, my first beta reader and She Who Knows Where Quotation
Marks Ought To Go, for constant beta duties, for ordering me to
stop outlining and start writing, and for not laughing when I
presented her with a truly horrible first paragraph an hour
after it was ordered.  Not to mention for her Herculean effort
this week as she ran a quick final beta on four chapters every
day (five, today).  I owe her much cheese.

shannono, the Grammar Nazi, for beta services, a stellar
introduction to baseball at Wrigley Field and the strangest
"revise this thing NOW" stalk I have ever encountered.

KatyBlue, who not only responded to my gushy feeback but also
asked about my next story and sent me tons of amazing
information on parrots, including the idea to make the sucker
sing.

Jean Robinson, for stalking me on a story that hadn't even been
posted as a WIP.

wen, for stalking me gorgeously with a cover for the newly
named Gutless, for mentioning that my ending really ought to act
like an ending and then for graciously forgiving me for acting
like a jackass about having to rewrite it.

Marasmus, for asking to read it and then agreeing to do machete
beta... not to mention the shipment of British candy and British
music and the funniest picture-stalk I've ever seen.

Cofax, who asked all the right questions about the later
chapters, who wouldn't let me forget to give Mulder a little
continuity and resolution, too, and who nicely ignored my
whining and bitching when it then took me twice as long to write
the chapters.

And last but never least, my beta groups, Babyfishmouth and
Yes, Virginia, for patient support above and beyond the call of
duty, for the prudent application of pointy sticks, for coming
up with upwards of a hundred bizarre title suggestions, and for
putting me on trial for refusing to write smut.  I am still
honored and amazed to be surrounded by such a brilliant bunch of
writers.  This Bud's for you.

Magdeleine 
March 4, 1999 - July 6, 2000

P.S. No parrots were harmed in the making of this fic.