Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Nothing could have prepared Scully for the whirlwind of what was to come or the truths she would have to face alone. From Agent Doggett’s deceptions to the entire FBI, with exception of Skinner, glaring down at her like giants from their fortresses high above the clouds. Scrutinizing and surveying through screens of darkness and veils of cigarette smoke.  

The nightmares never subsided. Although nightmare was too gentle a word. These were visions. Her connection to Mulder growing in tandem with the baby inside her. The torture, the pictures, the fright, all flurrying through her mind’s eye. It had been all too much. Every time she closed her eyes the horror became more vivid, the marathon of tests too real. The sickness unable to stay hidden inside, stirred by the baby, would spew every morning like a sacrifice to the porcelain god.

Scully’s hand grazed over her daintily protruding belly. Three months had passed since Mulder’s abduction and subsequent death. Four months, yet in her mind, the conversations with him continued, her heart refusing to stop pursuing him, her hollow soul longing to be reunited. Nights crept in slowly and mornings only shattered her all over again. Every muscle and limb wanting to shut down, to give in to the treacherous misery. She lived her life in mourning, willing herself to live for the sake of their child, overcoming the unending grief to force herself to do the simple tasks which now felt nearly impossible. To eat well, to work, to go on. Simultaneously, ignoring the intense fear of a truth unknown.

“Billy Miles was found fifty miles offshore in the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Fear, NC,” Skinner told Scully when they were in the sanctity of his office.

“In the ocean?” Scully confirmed and waited for Skinner’s nod. “He’s dead,” she concluded solemnly.

“Not exactly,” Skinner replied. “That’s something I’m going to need you to confirm. They’re shipping the body here.”

“Sir?”

“His heartbeat and rate of metabolism had slowed to imperceptibility. The body has rigored, but now, he’s showing signs of life.”

By the time Scully arrived at the naval hospital, Billy Miles had already been hooked up to life support. His body bloated and bruised, skin peeled away and full of decay. All she could think of as tears sprung to her eyes was Mulder and the fate that had been cast on him. Billy’s body was hardly recognizable, his scarring jaded by the ocean’s unabated tenacity. 

Scully recoiled at the startling sight of Billy Miles as his body succumbed to grand mal seizure. Glancing at his vitals on the screen, two heart beats signaled before one flatlined and the other stood alone. What had become of Billy?

Scully used every part of her brain, everything she had available to her, to scientifically explain what could have happened to Billy. He shed his skin and literally became a new person, no longer containing the consciousness of Billy Miles. What if this had already happened to Mulder?

If Mulder and Billy were abducted… If it was an alien or human influence performing these procedures... In all Scully’s cases on the X-Files that involved aliens it always led back to a virus. Even her own experience of being bitten by the bee, it was a virus. Could this also have a viral influence? Reprogramming the genes? Was Billy simply a host for the virus? Eventually killing Billy and replacing him with its own consciousness? Altering Billy’s DNA to optimize his body, rejuvenating his cells to make him an optimal host? Transforming the body… into alien. What she was thinking was fantastic and at the same time not improbable. Instead of infecting one cell at a time, what if the virus had the ability to act in a hive fashion affecting the electrical activity in the brain? What if it was somehow related to black oil? To colonization? Her brain slid back to what she knew. With all viruses, the solution would begin with antiviral therapy. Putting away her fears she trudged forward towards the inconceivable. With Billy checking himself out of the hospital, she would yet to have a subject for her testing, but if her visions contained any truths, it was knowledge she needed.

One week later…

“You retrieved that latest information from the satellites?” Scully asked, as she marched inside the Lone Gunman’s layer and leaned against the long flat table.

“Yes and we received some interesting chatter,” Frohike replied, sliding in next to her and handing her the latest list of downloaded info.

Langly added, “In the last two weeks MUFON has picked up a scattering of sighting reports around Montana. 

“I plotted the towns and it does follow a pattern,” Byers answered, flipping the light on the projector to display the plot diagram overlaid with the map of the U.S. onto the wall. “If we are correct, the next drop will be in Helena.”

“This is it. This is how we find Mulder,” Scully replied.

*

Among the tall pines of Montana, Mulder’s motionless body lay. Richie Szalay discovered Teresa Hoese and that sent Doggett and Skinner back into the woods for Mulder. Meanwhile, Scully investigated a compound, interrogating Absolam and Jeremiah Smith until Skinner returned to speak to Scully of their discovery.

“What is it?” she asked, but she already knew. They had located Mulder and he was dead.  She didn’t want to believe it until she saw it with her own eyes, even if he had spoken to her soul the night before.

“How bad is he hurt?” She knew Jeremiah could still bring him back. The aliens knew that too. Knew how important Mulder’s death would be for their plans. But by the time Scully returned to the compound she could only watch as the alien spaceship took Jeremiah. She had been so close to getting Mulder the help he desperately needed. 

Now, if she could not save him with her science, the other part of her soul might dissolve, departing to live among the starlight.  

“This is not happening! No!” she screamed into the night at the helplessness of it all, her despair, now at its absolute height, dragging her to her knees.

Her core, in his absence, had crystallized and hardened like diamonds. With the weight of his lifeless body in her arms, hope began to crack it like glass. Emotions, encased in an unyielding quartzite castle surrounded by moats of lava, were now free flowing rivers crashing through empty caverns. She needed to save him. Could she bring Mulder back from the dead? 

Scully reluctantly tore herself away from Mulder’s decayed and pinholed face to look up at Skinner and the disbelief of Doggett. 

“He needs to be in a hospital, hooked to life support. There has to be a way I can save him,” she begged.

Doggett looked to Skinner with an eyebrow raised as if to say Scully had fallen off the deep end.

Scully ignored Doggett and continued to plead her case. “Billy Miles survived, Mulder can too.”

Skinner pressed his lips together and looked from Doggett to Scully, then nodded. “I’ll make the arrangements to have him transported to Annapolis Naval Hospital where Billy was treated.”

“Sir,” Doggett whispered. “This is not a good idea.”

Skinner shrugged him away. “We have to try.”

Fitting into her lab coat, Scully took slow measured breaths. She rubbed her belly as if to comfort their unborn baby, to let them know she would not allow it to grow up without a father. What did she know about alien DNA? 

Scully paced, looked at the light boxes and stepped back. She knew that aliens liked heat. When Mulder was exposed to the alien blood, it took chilling his body for him to recover. The alien that birthed itself from that man craved heat for development, going so far as to seek out a nuclear power plant. In order to cure Mulder, she had to keep his body heat low as she administered the antivirals. 

The attending nurse interrupted her deductions and theorizations. “Dr. Scully. You’re needed in Agent Mulder’s room. His life support has been compromised. As you hold his power of attorney, the doctor needs your direction on how to continue.”

Scully darted down the hall and into Mulder’s room. “How did this happen?”

“Walter Skinner,” the doctor said as she entered.

Scully checked Mulder’s vitals. They were extremely weak, and his temperature had dropped. Meticulously, she set up the life support again, forcing her mind to see what only her heart knew to be possible. His temperature rose with his heart rate. She unplugged the machines and monitored his vitals. His temperature fell. This would be the key. Along with administering the antivirals and transfusions, he would keep him off the life support and target the fifth nucleotide significant to only the alien virus. “This could work,” she said to Doggett as he questioned her. 

Days later… 

Scully entered Mulder’s room. His skin flaked away like translucent paint chips, lips blue, cheeks scarred gray, his body purple and chalky. With a delicate hand, she tested his heartbeat, still too faint to feel. Her visions flashed, all the torture he had endured, etched into his skin as confirmation, all the agony of a life without him and the buried fears inside her and acceptance in order to get him this far. The connection she wanted from only him. The love, the devotion, the need. The moment broke her and she gripped him tight as her face fell to his chest, shutting her eyes to block out the world, trying with all her might to recall the sound of the heartbeat that had guided her and willed her so many times over, the one whose cadence thrummed in time with her own. No matter how cold and withdrawn from the physical world it became, she never let go of his hand.

Mulder’s body stirred, his eyes fluttering open. Scully looked into his teal oceans and greeted him with a soft “Hi”. 

“Who are you?” he asked and her state of mind made the question hit like a gut punch, quickly turning at the sight of his mouth’s raised edges.

Unable to control the emotions she reserved deep inside, they spilled over as tears fell from the edges. “Do you know...? Do you have any idea what you've been through?”

She watched the puzzlement on his face as it lined and creased. “Only what I see in your face.”

Her fingers gravitate to the silky strands of his hair, regaining their life. His beautiful hair, stroking it again, wondering how her memory never held the intricacy of their beauty. When she met his eyes again, they softened, and she felt them penetrate her, felt his heart surge, an outpouring of what was shared by only them, layering and filling her soul, completing her heart, actualizing a physical connection with her face to his chest.

“Anybody miss me?” he asked and this time she couldn’t help but laugh, hugging him, holding him, he smelled like death, a pungent and sweet sickening stench, but his heartbeat throbbed into her ear once again. She felt his cheek lean against her head, his touch growing stronger, his blistered lips smoothing against her skin.

Time passed unnoticed until she pulled away and stood, understanding there were tests and treatments remaining to be completed.

Mulder’s eyebrows raised as her lab coat fell open and the four month old baby bump pushed against her trousers. Instinctively, she pulled her shirt over it and hid it from view once again. 

His eyes floated to meet hers. A hopeful gleam cutting across them. “Is it?” he started.

“You were right, Mulder,” she admitted, lowering her head to stare down at her hand. “I tried to believe, to have faith, but it wasn’t like yours. You never gave up.” Her eyes stung at his glowing reaction. In it his whole face brightened and his mouth upturned, growing wide, lifting the apples of his cheeks. Their moment was interrupted by the doctor waiting to report the news that Scully already knew. Mulder’s body had rejuvenated itself back to perfect health.

She squeezed his hand before releasing it and heading to receive the report from the doctor. “We’ll talk more when we get home,” she whispered.

*

Mulder had been quiet on the drive from Annapolis to his apartment. Most of his attention seemed to be to the world outside. The past week he had spent in the hospital continuing to repair and with the cleanest bill of health ever, he was released to go home. 

“Must feel good to be home,” Scully said as they entered his apartment. 

He didn’t answer, instead inspecting and running his hands over everything like it was a crime scene. All he needed to do was dip his fingers in the grape jelly in the cupboard and take a taste and he’d be able to start a profile. “Something’s different,” he replied.

“It’s clean,” she answered.

He nodded and chuckled, rubbing his hand over where his missing computer had been. He sat on the corner of his desk and scratched at his head. “How far along are you?”

Scully consoled her tiny bump. “Four months.”

“I’m really happy for you,” Mulder replied. “I know how much that means to you.”

His reply hit her hard. “Mulder..”

He rubbed his face. “I-I’m sorry. I just.. I don’t know where I fit in right now. I’m having a little trouble processing everything.”

“Of course,” she said solemnly. “You need time.” Scully sighed. “Maybe I should go.”

“No,” Mulder replied. “Please don’t. I want you here.” 

A knock at the door interrupted them with Skinner standing at the other end with news that Kersh refused to reinstate Mulder, compromising to relegate him to a desk job. It sent Mulder on a tirade, and once learning of Doggett partnering with Scully, he left the room to get ready for work. 

“There’s been changes since you’ve been gone,” Scully said, following him into his bedroom after Skinner left.

“That’s painfully obvious,” he spit back.

“I can’t begin to understand what it felt like to go through what you’ve been through, but you can’t understand my situation either. Discovering I was pregnant, having to go on without you, carrying the X-Files, when we found you, fighting for them to let me save you, then you coming back to life…” She fought back the tears threatening her composure. 

“Scully..” He turned and reached for her but she stepped away.

“No,” Scully said. “I’m only asking that you see me.”

“You are the only reason I’m standing here today, Scully. I know that. Every day that I was conscious, even with instruments drilling and lasering me, my thoughts were only of you, you and the possibilities,” he said, his hand slowly reaching and continuing its journey, giving a nod to her tummy. “..of this.” He leaned his forehead against hers, his hand remaining snug against her. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here for you. That I didn’t get to hold back your hair when you were sick, or do a late night run for a craving. That I wasn’t the first to know.”

Her eyes opened and her head rocked and brushed her nose with his. “I never told anyone. I’ve hidden the signs beneath my clothes.”

Two lines formed between his brow. “Not even your mother?”

“I tried, but I couldn’t get the words out. I never gave up on you returning to me.”

“You really have been alone,” he whispered. 

Scully rocked again in a nod and Mulder wiped the tear from her cheek. “I’m here now,” he returned, his voice cracking. “But I need to work. I need to make some sense of what happened to me.”

“I get it. You need to put your back up against something.” Scully wiped away the rest of her tears. “But I’m part of the X-Files too.”

“As much as anyone,” Mulder answered.

“And we’re partners, Mulder.”

“I thought you dumped me for Dagwood.”

Scully fought back a smile. “Agent Doggett, Mulder, and he would never replace you.”

Mulder chewed on his cheek and mumbled, “He better not.”

Chapter Text

“You’re being placed on probation in light of your recent actions,” Skinner replied gruffly to Mulder.

“But I can still work on the X-Files.”

“Mulder, can’t you see, it’s a setup,” Skinner hissed. “He puts you down there and waits for you to break protocol with Doggett as a witness.”

“I’ll take my chances,” Mulder replied.

“Mulder,” Skinner called and Mulder paused and turned to look Skinner in the eyes. “I’m glad to have you back.”

Mulder tightened his lip and nodded, before leaving for his office.

Meanwhile, downstairs in the basement, Scully started the projector to the audience of one, John Doggett.  

“Two homicides in Idaho. White male, 62, undertaker by profession, he was killed on his front porch about ten feet away from his wife,” Scully explained, paused for effect, then advanced the projector to the next slide of a closeup of the victim’s face and neck, torn and bloody.

“Holy god,” Doggett gasped and winced.

The movement by the doorway caught Scully’s eye and she looked over to see Mulder stepping through inside. 

“Exsanguination?” Mulder inquired, looking closely at the projection on the wall. He pointed closer to the wounds. “Those marks look like they’re made from human teeth.”

Scully got a slight thrill from Mulder’s astuteness, warming her upper region, but she made no reaction other than a small smile. It was so good to have him back. “Cause of death was blood loss from numerous deep wounds … from bites. Any thoughts, any questions?” This time she looked over at Doggett hoping for his participation. 

Doggett stepped closer to the image. "Bites?”

Scully nodded. “On his head, torso and hands. Two of his fingers are missing... eaten off.” Then she recognized Mulder. “These were murders. The, uh, bites appear to be human.”

She advanced to the next slide of another victim, this time female. “Whoever it was, attacked his wife as well.”

Doggett cringed. “I've seen some violent crimes, I mean, some seriously screwed up stuff, but, uh... this is extreme. Is there demonstration of motive?”

Scully once again glanced at Mulder. He raised his hand and his eyebrows as if to tell her to carry on. “Not according to local P.D.”

Doggett continued. “Is there any pattern, uh … ritual or anything?”

“No,” Scully replied.

“Then I have to admit,” Doggett said, “I’m at a loss.”

Mulder tilted his head in a shrug. “At least he’s truthful.”

Scully advanced to an empty chamber, her eyes on Mulder. “Well, that's a good place to start.”

“I’ll get the fleet sedan,” Doggett said, looking first to Scully, then Mulder. “Meet you two in the parking garage.”

Scully nodded and Doggett left, but she was still fixated on Mulder who was stepping closer. When he got close enough for her to smell the mint of his toothpaste he stopped and reached over to shut off the machine. “You used my projector,” he said softly. “I kinda liked it.”

“Meeting with Skinner went well?” The close proximity to his body made her breaths deepen; knowing he wasn’t ready for physical contact she stood stoically.

“He wants me to join you and Agent Dogbreath on this case.”

“Agent Doggett, Mulder. Agent John Doggett,” Scully corrected. “We’re happy to have you.”

BURLEY, IDAHO 11:18 AM

They pulled up in their blue rental car, kicking up some local dust into the air, the crime scene scattered with law enforcement already active in their investigation. Mulder and Scully opened their prospective doors, Mulder in the back, Scully in the passenger seat. Scully took three smaller, but quicker steps than Mulder and held out her hand for the large red-haired detective to shake.  

 “You the folks from the FBI?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Scully acknowledged.

“Yale Abbott, Cassia County Sheriff's,” the detective replied.

“Hi. Agent Scully. This is Agent Mulder and behind him is Agent Doggett.”

Detective Abbott politely shook Scully’s hand, but quickly turned his back, focusing his attention on the two men in front of him. “We like to think we can handle our own problems around here but a couple hotshots up in the county seat seem to think this is beyond us. Not that we don't appreciate your coming out all this way to give us a hand.”

Mulder peeked over Detective Abbott’s shoulder at Scully, his eyebrows shooting up towards his hairline with Doggett’s next comment. “Well, I hope we can. I have to admit I'm a little baffled by what I've seen.”

“Oh, really?” the detective answered, sounding genuinely surprised.

Mulder put out his hand for Scully to interject then brought it tightly behind his back, squinting out towards the house. 

Scully rotated around the detective to regain center stage. “Understand, Detective, that we've seen cases like yours regularly on our unit. Agent Doggett has only recently been assigned to the X-Files and I can assure you that there's nothing baffling about human bite marks.” 

“Well, that's just what I was getting around to, ma'am. We're not so sure now that these bites are human.”  Scully looked around, but Mulder had already disappeared inside the house.

While the detective distracted them with a four-toed animal print on the porch steps, Scully grew more irritated at Doggett’s complicity and the detective’s unwillingness to take her seriously. And where the hell was Mulder? Scully looked up as she defended the possibilities she presented and noticed a beam deeply scored by large claws. 

Inside, Doggett showed her a print on the stairs that looked similar to the one on the porch. “Looks like it’s leading upstairs,” Scully said to Doggett. Which was where they found Mulder, standing on a chair in the closet and pulling himself through the scuttle hole into the attic.

Scully called after him, “Mulder, where are you going?” 

Doggett crouched by the bed. “More prints,” he commented.

Mulder didn’t answer her, assisting Scully, with a boost from Doggett, to pull herself up into the attic and follow him. 

“Our killer must not be fond of hippies,” Mulder said dryly, pointing at the two bloody and slimy mutilated index and middle fingers of the killer’s victim.

“How did they get up here?” Doggett asked, finally catching up to Mulder and Scully.

Scully turned her head away from the pungent odor. “Well, from their smell, I'd say they were regurgitated. Recently.”

“By what?” Doggett asked.

“I’d say, by whatever made those claw marks,” Mulder replied, his flashlight highlighting the deep gouges in the attic’s wooden rafters.

“I saw those on the porch, too,” Scully added.

“Looks like, to me... I don't know,” Doggett ventured, “Like it was... it was…”

“Hanging there?” Scully finished, then looked for Mulder as his flashlight drew away from the marks and headed towards the scuttle hole. “Mulder, where are you going?”

“I’m going to do some digging in the county library,” he said, lowering himself back into the bedroom. He steadied himself on the chair and held out his hand waiting to assist her back down. “You’ve got two dead bodies that still need to be examined.”

Scully turned to Doggett. “Where will you be?”

“I’m going to head out around town. See what I can learn.”

As Mulder helped her in the most gingerly fashion, Scully indulged in his warm strength, even after all those months of atrophy his muscles were easily malleable to her needs. “So what’s your theory?” she asked slowly, hearing her own voice playing in the deeper octaves.

“I’m not certain what we’re looking for is man or animal.”

Not ready to tear away from his arms she stayed in his cradle. “Because of the four toes and the claw marks? You’re not thinking that this is one of those newborn aliens, are you? Because Mulder, four toes is not an unheard of birth defect, no more rare than polydactylism, and the claws could be from some type of tool.”

“I’d say we have some type of tool approaching us now…” Mulder commented, staring at Doggett walking their way. He concluded in a tone that was barely a whisper. “I never said anything about aliens."

“You know, all these clues we’re finding may not even be related,” Doggett said. “I mean, the more basic answer is, what we’re dealing with here is simply a man. A psychotic killer with a deformed foot. I’m assuming you two are familiar with the principle of Occam’s Razor?”

“Yeah. You take every possible explanation and you choose the simplest one.” Scully ran her tongue across her bottom lip as she stared at Mulder. “Agent Mulder refers to it as Occam's Principle of Limited Imagination."

Mulder’s eyes darkened from mossy green to gray as his gaze on Scully deepened. Scully’s insides buzzed at the connection. Mulder directed his question at Doggett. “Are you trying to tell us that you have a simple explanation as to how a killer leaves a deformed foot print every twenty-five feet or has the need to hang from the rafters like Dracula?”

Doggett shook his head in what appeared to be disgust. “Look. I don’t know. I’m trying to figure it out just like you two are.”

*

Hours later, inside the Cassia County Morgue, Scully removed her latex gloves and sighed. Exhaustion from the flight, and this case was starting to take a toll on her body and her unborn child was letting her know. That and she had a strange craving for..

The door clicked open and Scully spun around. “Mulder.”

He was holding up a paper bag and smiling. “I thought you’d still be here.”

She tugged the bag from his hands and joined his greedy grin. “I was waiting for some lab results and then I wanted to take another look at George.” Scully reached into the bag and looked back up at Mulder in wonder. “How did you know?”

“I didn’t. Honestly, no mind reading. Not anymore.” He pursed his lips and smiled as she bit into her sticky sandwich clearly enjoying her delight. “I recalled my mother telling me how she had craved peanut butter when she was pregnant with me and spicy foods with Samantha and I just thought you might..” He trailed off with a laugh, pointing at the jelly stain on her lab coat and the peanut butter threatening to join. Mulder scooped up a clump of peanut butter before it fell and licked it off his finger. Scully didn’t notice, taking another huge bite, the dead body mere feet away not detering her a bit.

“So what did you find?” Mulder asked, rocking onto his toes.

“Well, to be honest, what I found here leans more towards an animal explanation. The, uh, scratches on the body match the four-toed prints that we found. And the bites have fang-like tears. What I thought were marks left by human molars are now inconclusive because of enzymes that were found in the bites which are clearly inhuman, anticoagulants, which are found solely in the saliva of bats.” Scully examined Mulder’s demeanor. “You’ve found something.”

He retrieved a printed page from his pocket and unfolded it for the big reveal before transferring to her hands.  “From the Montana Press Telegram,” Mulder said.

Hunters kill Human Bat! , the headline read with three men proudly holding a creature between them as they might hold a deer.

Scully read portions of the article aloud. "The creature was taken to the county coroner who confirmed it was neither man nor animal."

Mulder added, “Two days later, the county coroner was disemboweled by something with sharp teeth and four-toed claws. Something that ate several body parts and regurgitated them elsewhere.”

Scully looked up from the page. “Did they ever find it?”

“Five men died or disappeared and then the killing stopped. Forty-four years later it appears that it's back and killing again.”

*

Mckesson Residence, 5:51 PM

At Doggett’s call, Mulder and Scully rushed to the house of Mrs. Mckesson, where she was found dead and bloody in the attic. Doggett was already well into his investigation, suited with latex gloves examining deep scratches on a window sill. Mulder leaned into Scully, pointing at the gloves, “Now I see why you like him.”

Doggett left the window to examine another set of claw marks on the rafters. Mulder went in behind him and ran his fingers over the ragged markings on the window sill sinking into every cut and groove. Looking up at Scully, he mocked creating the marks with his fingers, his mouth opening and teeth showing in a faux menacing fashion. Scully suppressed a giggle.

Doggett spoke, observing the marks on the rafters. “Looking at those claw marks I think we can all concede that what made them was not human.”

Mulder gasped, sarcastically. “Are you implying that our suspect, Agent Doggett, is Bela Legosi?”

Doggett peeled his eyes at Mulder. “I found something you two might find interesting. A photo album. I think it's our first break in this case.” He handed Mulder the photo album bagged in plastic. Mulder unceremoniously removed the bag and leafed through the album.

“The victim's daughter, Ariel,” Doggett explained, “her dead body was pulled from the river here last week.”

“The detective had told her mother that her 62-year-old daughter was dead and that her body had been horribly and inexplicably burned,” Scully began. “One she hadn’t seen in over 40 years.”

“Since 1956, to be exact,” Doggett stated. 

Mulder nodded his head. “Which is the date the article I found says those first killings started. The daughter is the connection.”

“The killings only started up since her burned body was found,” Scully concluded. 

“But why was it burned?” Doggett asked.

“There’s only one sure way to find out,” Mulder said.

“I’ll make the call to the detective,” Scully answered.

*

At 1:07 am, Scully watched as the detective’s dead body was wheeled into the morgue.

Doggett, returning from being berated by the sheriff’s deputy, joined Scully and Mulder in the morgue. “I think this is looking very bad for the FBI.”

“That's par for the course,” Mulder said.

Doggett pushed back his shoulders to place his hands at his hips, subsequently pushing out his chest. “How do you figure that?”

Scully uncovered the badly burned female body on another table. “This is the body pulled from the river. She died of natural causes, congestive heart failure, but her body was only burned afterwards.”

“By who, and why burn it?” Doggett asked.

Scully held up her hand to stave Mulder off. “Well, obviously to cover something up.”

“Yeah, but what?” Doggett returned. Not waiting for an answer he continued. “Look, we know what we're looking for. We should be out there looking for it. We're not going to catch it standing here speculating.”

“It kills like an animal, but with purpose,” Scully explained, reviewing the facts out loud. “It stalked the detective for the same reason that it stalked the old woman and the undertaker. Each of those victims had had contact with this burnt body. The undertaker prepared it. Her mother ID'd it and the Detective got the call when she was found.”

“Who else would have had contact with it, Scully?” Mulder butted in, knowing the answer, but needing her to come to the same conclusion.

“The, uh, man who found her in the river,” she replied. 

“Myron Stefaniuk?” Doggett answered.

“Yes,” Scully confirmed.

“One of the hunters in the photo in 1956 was Ernie Stefaniuk,” Mulder said.

“There's an address in his file,” Scully said. “I hope we're not too late.”

SLADE RIVER

6:58 AM

Myron Stefaniuk was a very talkative man who failed miserably at withholding information. He explained to them that Ernie was his brother, one of the three men that killed the creature and he hadn’t seen old Ernie in forty years. 

On Doggett’s insistence that the man was lying and Mulder’s lack of resistance to the idea, they spent the next nine hours staking out Myron.

*

“I could use a good afternoon shower of sleeping bags right about now,” Mulder smirked. His five o’clock shadow scraping Scully’s cheek as they both looked out of the same binoculars, Scully conceding to sharing the eyepiece with him. 

Doggett, obtaining his own set, watched as Myron loaded the last of the gas cans into the back of his truck along with other supplies. “He’s on the move. Let’s go.” 

BIRD ISLAND 9:17 PM

Doggett was rowing the boat while Mulder and Scully were seated at the stern, each with a flashlight in hand, each pointing their beams of light in different directions only to cross as their pull drew them closer.

“Stop right there!” Doggett yelled as Mulder’s flashlight landed on a masked man.

“I see him,” Scully yelled back. Retrieving her gun from its holster she leapt from the boat, splashing on the shallow ground, Mulder following with his own gun at the ready, Doggett a few steps behind.

“Stop where you are!” Scully yelled as she caught up to the man. “Put your hands up and out! Now, turn around, slowly.”

“Are you Ernie Stefaniuk?” Doggett asked, shouting into the night.

The terrified masked man gasped out a  “Yeah.”

Doggett pulled down the man’s mask. The old bearded man shied away from the light.

“Let’s go talk in the cabin,” Mulder suggested.

*

“You never left the island?” Scully asked Ernie.

“Not for forty-four years,” Ernie said, his weak voice echoing in the dimly lit cabin. “I wouldn't dare knowing it was out there. That it could come back for me.”

“How could it possibly find you out here on an island?” Scully asked.

“My brother helped me,” Ernie confided, holding back tears. “And then there was my wife.”

“It was her body your brother pulled in,” Mulder said in a gruff monotone.

Now Ernie broke, bawling and gasping through his words. “She gave up everything to be with me. I forbade her to tell her mother. Forty-four years on six acres of island, she made only one demand, to be buried in consecrated earth. She was a Catholic her whole life.”

Scully looked at Mulder, then at Doggett.

“Mr. Stefaniuk…” Scully said, her voice lower and without its previous sting. “It's killed four people. All of whom would have had traces of your scent through various degrees of contact with your wife's body.”

“My brother?”

“Your brother's alive,” Mulder confirmed.

Panic struck Ernie’s face. “But he had contact with Ariel's body. It'll come after him, too.”

Mulder looked over at Scully. “If it has the characteristics of a bat, it’ll only attack at night.”

“I’ve heard enough,” Doggett said and headed for the door and Scully got up to follow, but Mulder stopped her. “I know you want to go, but I need you to stay.”

“But Mulder, you can’t make concessions just because I’m..” He interrupted her with a nod. “I know, but someone still has to stay back to protect Ernie.”

They heard a scream and both of them darted for the door. Scully struggled to see into the cloud stricken night. When her eyes grew accustomed, the shadows revealed Doggett wrestling with the creature, fighting it off in a frenzy of wings and water, an oar flying in the air. 

“Wait here!” Mulder demanded and ran after Doggett. 

Inside, Scully turned to Ernie who looked like he had seen Elvis Presley’s ghost singing a round of Hound Dog. Wow. She really was starting to think like Mulder.

“The moment you stepped foot here... You're marked now, you know that,” Ernie cried.

“Sir, I'm here to protect you,” Scully reminded him.

“And how are you going to do that? You thought of everything... Except that.”

“Well, this thing, Mr. Stefaniuk is … uh … still flesh and blood. It can be killed.”

The monitor for the ground radar Ernie kept beeped letting him know something large and at least ten feet high in the sky was coming in through the trees. A loud thump drew Scully’s gun to point at the roof above. Fear trickled up her spine and caused her to fire nine times.

Scully shoved a new clip into her gun with a confident click. “If you've got a gun, get it,” Scully said and ventured outside not heeding the directions of her partner, but saw nothing. What she heard was howling and a shotgun blast exploding through the roof. She raced back inside in time to see the monster ripping at Ernie’s chest. The thing looked up at her with blood dripping from its fangs. Scully fired five rounds into it before it flew out of sight. She headed for the door to pursue it and crashed into Mulder. He put his arms out to catch her and she crumpled into them. “Are you alright?” he asked, the lines already fully formed between his brow.

“I’m fine, Mulder, but Agent Doggett…”

“He’s injured. He needs your help.”

They ran out into the dark together, Scully struggling to keep up with Mulder’s stride.  She dropped to her knees at the sight of Doggett lying down unconscious. 

“I’ve already called paramedics,” Mulder told her as she checked John’s injuries. 

Mulder looked up at the trees with his gun ready to fire, protecting them all as the screech of a bat howled into the night.

*

Taking an earlier flight while Scully tended to Doggett, Mulder decided to take inventory of all the unsanctioned items invading his office space. New pictures and clippings decorated the walls. Scully really had missed him. If you want to know the monster, you need to get inside its head, Mulder thought, touching a picture of a fat ugly unidentified worm pinned on his corkboard.

Scully appeared at the open door. He felt her presence before she entered the room but he didn’t acknowledge it. 

“John’s going to recover,” she said. “The biggest concern now is infection. He’s been transferred to Washington University Hospital.”

“Well, he had a great doctor watching over him,” Mulder replied before turning. “Shall I take you home?”

“I hope you haven’t been waiting for me. You need your rest, Mulder.”

Mulder’s brow narrowed and he chewed softly at his bottom lip. “I haven’t been sleeping much.”

A smile flickered across Scully’s face. “You really are back to your old self.”

“I’m trying,” he said softly. The sweet crooked movement of his lips hugged her soul and gave her an uncontrollable want to reach out, but she resisted. The world had gone on for months while he stood still and it would be unfair to put a timetable on healing.

“Come on, Mulder,” Scully said. “Take me home.”

“Sleepover?” He asked as he shut the light off and waited for her to walk underneath his arm. 

“I’ll bring my sleeping bag.”

“Scully?” Mulder asked gently.

“Yeah.”

“Maybe this weekend we tell your mother.”

Her whole face lifted as she gave him a single nod. “I’ll call and ask her when would be a good time to visit.”

To Be Continued.... Next chapter we visit Mrs. Scully...

Chapter Text

Part 1

Scully hadn’t returned to Mulder’s apartment since she dropped him off from the hospital. The emptiness layered in sadness that encompassed her when she entered kept her distant. Laying on his bed, smelling him on his shirt, crying herself to sleep on his pillow all compounded her resistance. It rocked her all the way to her core. Being in that apartment made her fear to even blink, that she might wake up and realize it had all been an illusion.

The drawn expression on his face reminded her that they both had strained to keep their senses heightened for over forty-eight hours. 

“Hungry?” he asked, staring into what she could only assume was an empty fridge.

“Thank you, but it’s too late. How about we watch tv.” 

Finding the remote, Scully sat on her side closest to the fish tank while Mulder took the other corner, propping his feet up, unceremoniously setting a glass of water on top of the latest edition of The Lone Gunman newsletter in case she got thirsty. 

“So what are we watching?” Scully asked, folding her hands on her lap.

“Got any preference?”

“Not really. Just not Six Feet Under,” she joked. He snickered at the inappropriateness. Her lids already heavy, she suggested something she thought he might enjoy. “New Star Trek?”

“You don’t want to watch that… How about Smallville.”

“I already know a superman.” Scully eyes flitted at him affectionately.

Mulder leaned forward towards his VHS collection. “Caddyshack it is then.”

“Smallville is fine,” Scully replied quickly.

It didn’t take much longer than ten minutes before they were both asleep. 

Scully woke first, the heat from Mulder’s body making her sweat. Perspiration dripped from him like a summer shower over a windshield. His body shivered uncontrollably. She pressed her lips to his forehead to check his temperature, but he was cool. “Mulder,” Scully nudged quietly. “Mulder.”

“No. No! Scully, Scullaaay!”  He shook himself awake. His eyelids shot open like window shades, pupils widening like a double eclipse. 

“Mulder, you were dreaming.” 

Mulder covered his face with his hands. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. Yeah, just a bad dream.”

“Maybe you should go to bed.”

He looked down at the couch, then at her. “I’ve been sleeping out here,” he mumbled softly.

It was in his eyes, the way he held his head, the slump of his shoulders. He had been through a torture and torment beyond the capabilities of the mind and the body and yet there he sat, continuing to fight, never giving up, making certain that he was the impenetrable force at her back. Her arm reached around his shoulders and he leaned his head into her chest. 

“Come, lay down,” she said and nudged him, shifting over to give him room, letting his head drift to her lap. 

The pads of Scully’s fingers floated over his forehead with a feather-light touch, coursing through his hair, coaxing him into a peaceful sleep.

“Mmm,” Mulder purred. “Mommy, can I have a glass of warm milk?”

“Sleep, Mulder,” Scully said, continuing to caress his face, avoiding his scars, her knuckles brushing at his temple.

“Soon Scully, you won’t have a lap left for me to lay my head on,” he muttered as he drifted.

Scully felt her eyelids grow heavy. A moment later she was jolted awake by Mulder, screaming incoherent words. He rolled off her lap and with a loud thud, hit the floor. 

“Maybe you have less of a lap then I thought,” Mulder mumbled, rubbing his bruised shoulder, doing a pushup before lifting himself from the floor. He held out his hand. “If you don’t mind, maybe we should try this in a bed.”

Stepping into the room, Scully had to close her eyes to absorb reality. Mulder flopped down on the mattress and Scully took her well earned spot next to him. They faced each other with an arm under their respective pillows. 

“You’re smiling at me,” Mulder observed.

“It’s good to have you back.”

“Beats the alternatives.”

He reached for her hand resting at her hip, bringing the palm to his lips. “I see the look on your face. I don’t want you to be afraid to touch me.” 

“You’ve gone through so much.” Scully flexed her fingers, grazing over the scars on his cheek. Her eyes closed as she lightly kissed each one. She hovered over his lips, his eyes steady on hers. Mulder swallowed hard, his lips parting, calling hers into them, but she resisted, instead landing her kisses on each scar on the other side of his face. She felt the wet warmth of her own tears stain his cheek. 

She pulled back to brush his lips again and his face scrunched in confusion. “Please, Scully. Don’t. I’m not on that ship anymore. I’m here with you.”

Scully sighed. “Not too long ago I laid on this bed, on your pillow, praying you’d come back to me, crying my eyes out, and now… now you’re here.”

“I’m here.” He gathered her into him and she hugged him tight. Her head firmly on his chest.

“Who found me?”

She nuzzled against his shirt relishing in the warmth he provided. “Skinner found you first, with Doggett.”

“Has anyone not seen me naked?”

That made Scully smile. “No, I’m pretty sure the entire Bureau was there.”

Mulder laughed and the vibration in his chest made her happy, she squeezed him and he squeezed her in return, rubbing her back.

“Mulder, that giant bat, whatever you want to call it, it was after those people for vengeance. A very human quality.”

“I think it’s a disregard to basic scientific evolution to believe that there could only be one way to achieve intelligent life, even here on this planet.”

“But another path for humans?”

“It might explain the evolutionary path of Dracula,” Mulder shrugged.

Scully yawned loudly. “We should really try to sleep.”

“I know. It’s difficult. Every time I close my eyes I’m back on that ship.” He shifted to get comfortable, but didn’t let her leave his arms, sending a kiss into her hair. “I’ll sleep better now.”

*

The phone rang in the X-Files office and Mulder, with his feet propped up on the desk, lifted the receiver. “Agent Spooky Mulder.”

“Mulder, what happened?”

“Well, Doggett decided to bring his friends down here to witness the freak show.”

“What did you do?”

“I behaved if that’s what you’re alluding to. I just told them that the monkey cages were part of the circus on the fourth floor with the clowns. Then I told them I didn’t have time to chat because I had a meeting with a reticulum in half an hour.”

“You didn’t.”

“Let’s just say I got a call from Skinner mentioning the word insolence.”

“Insolence?”

“He may have misinterpreted my use of the term elephant dung.” Mulder twirled the phone cord around his finger. “I noticed your lack of presence this morning.”

“Actually, I’m out of town. I’m on route 901 in Lewis County, West Virginia.”

“What are you doing there, Scully? You got some toothless cousins I should be worried about?”

“I called my mother to ask if she was free this weekend so we could tell her about the baby and she told me she was being detained in West Virginia by the local Sheriff for questioning. Seems she was on a bus trip with her church group and they were traveling through the state when her bus almost ran over a man lying in the street. She needed a ride and had suggested to the coroner to speak with me. The coroner decided a consultation with the FBI might help him and had her call me. He told me the man had been beaten to death before being tossed in the road.”

“Is your mother okay?”

“She’s fine, but the man they found was showing some anomalous characteristics.”

Mulder straightened in his chair, pulling his legs up under his desk. “A shapeshifter? Multiple organs? Green Blood? Don’t keep me guessing, Scully.”

“Nothing like that. He was 22, but his body had advanced signs of osteoporosis, arthritis, and kyphosis of the vertebrae. Those are typical of the spine of someone 90 years old, not 22.”

Mulder raised his brow and he tilted back in his chair. “Your mother’s church group found an X-File.”

“That’s why I stayed, to find out.”

“Your mother is still with you?”

“She’s at the Sheriff’s station. I’ll drive her home once I get a chance to autopsy the body.”

“If you need me I’ll be here.” Mulder picked up the pencil lying on his desk and gave it a hard toss towards the ceiling. It stuck the landing and hung next to the tens of others that marked the times Scully had left him in a pensive state of boredom.

“There is something you might be able to help me with,” Scully continued, “Somewhere in our files I remember an unsolved murder case where they found unidentifiable glycoproteins at the crime scene.”

Mulder bolted up from his chair. “Ectoplasm?”

“A viscous mucus, Mulder. I’m going to need you to fax the information to me at the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.”

“I’m on it. I recall three or four cases like what you’re describing,” Mulder was already at the tall cabinet beside his desk, sifting through the files. “I’ll give you a call as soon as I locate them.”

“There’s no signal out here,” Scully said, already breaking up through the payphone. “You’ll have to reach me at the Sheriff’s office.”

“I will do that.. And hey, Scully,”

“Yes, Mulder..”

“Run if you hear banjo music.”

Scully hung up the phone and got back in the car, driving about an hour before reaching a gas station. She pulled out a map and spread it across the hood of the silver Impala she had rented. 

“You need any help?” a voice boomed, seemingly from nowhere.

Startled, Scully quickly composed herself. The man was young dressed in overalls and grease, obviously working at the gas station behind her. “If you could fill up the tank, I’d appreciate it.”

“I would, but the tanker hasn’t showed up yet and we’re empty. How low are you?” he asked in his thick country accent.

“I’ve got about a quarter tank left I think. I’ll make it.”

“I’d feel awful bad if you didn’t. Hang on.” The man headed towards the back of the station.

“Thanks,” Scully replied, directing her attention back to her map.

A few minutes later he returned with a large gas can. “This should do it.”

“Thank you,” she said again.

“Don’t go telling people I’m giving away free gas,” the man retorted.

Scully didn’t really pay him any mind, too busy trying to find her current location. “What town am I in? I don’t see it on the map.”

“We’re not really a town. Just a… just a few like-minded people trying to keep the modern world at bay.”

Scully thanked the man and drove off without seeing the woman that stepped outside as soon as she was out of sight. “Is she the one?” the woman asked. “The prophecy said she would come today.”

“Yeah, I could feel it. It’s her,” the gas station owner responded.

Two hours later, Scully was tired and extremely disgusted, shortly turning to fury, having been forced to trudge back three miles to the gas station attendant sitting on the front porch.

“Hey,” she shouted. “Excuse me. You put something in my tank that killed my engine.”

“What?” the man stated in a tone of faux disbelief.

“Where’s that gas can? I’d like to see it, please,” Scully demanded.

The man retrieved the can and handed it to Scully. She poured a handful of the remaining contents and held it to her face. “That’s water. I barely even smell gasoline.”

The man sniffed at the can. “Oh, God, you’re right. I’m sorry.. It must have gotten rain in it.

“Oh, and it rains a lot here, does it? Seeing how the entire state is in a drought and it looks like a desert? I need to use your phone.”

“I, uh, I don’t have one.”

Scully rested her hands at her hips. “You run a business and don’t have a phone? How did you call up the tanker that was supposed to come here yesterday?”

“There’s a phone up the street.” The man pointed. “Mr. Milsap’s place. He’ll help you out.”

Frustrated, Scully stormed up the street to an old house. She entered, pulling open a screen door, but there was no sign of anyone.

“Hello?” she called out but there was still no answer. “Hello?” she said louder.

Looking up at the top of a set of stairs, she finally saw signs of life. A kind older gentleman stared down at her.

“Can I help you?” he asked.

“Mr. Milsap?”

He nodded.

“My, uh, car has stalled up the street and I was wondering if I could use your phone.”

“Sure. It's in here,” Mr. Milsap replied.

Scully picked up the phone in the room, started to dial, then set it down again in disgust. “The line's dead.”

“Oh, no. Let me see.” Mr. Milsap took the phone from her, confirming it was dead. “Damn phone company. They're updating the lines, so the service gets interrupted. It'll come back on.”

“How long?”

“Ten minutes... two hours... I could say, but I'd just be guessing.”

The look on Scully’s face didn’t hide that she had been calling bullshit on everything the man had to say. On a hunch she followed the phone cord to the wall, but it was indeed plugged in. 

“You're welcome to wait here. I could even give you a room if you like,” the man said. “This was a boarding house.”

“I won't be here that long.” She studied the man with every sense of her FBI skills. Nothing in his face gave her any reason to trust him. “What the hell is going on here?”

“Sorry?”

“I get the distinct impression that somebody doesn't want me to leave.”

“I don't know anything about that,” he said, crossing his arms defensively.

Scully turned and walked out of the house only to have Mr. Milsap follow and call to her, “It's 18 miles to the state road.”

Scully, halfway down the porch steps, rested her hand for a moment on her abdomen. It wouldn’t be wise to go out alone and stress her body in her current condition. There was more than her life to consider now.

Scully sighed and looked down the street, then noticed a woman walking briskly into one of the houses. Scully jogged after her.

“Excuse me,” Scully shouted. “Ma'am, excuse me. Ma'am. Excuse me, ma'am.”

The woman ignored her and Scully followed her up the porch steps, knocking and calling loudly for the woman, asking for help, testing the door, but finding it to be locked. Peeking inside, Scully saw the woman with several other people standing in a circle in a room reading from a Bible. Some of them glanced her way but quickly turned away again, ignoring her calling and knocking on the window. 

Infuriated and slightly alarmed, Scully tested another house and within it another group of people were inside that one, also in a circle and they also ignored her. 

Without any options she could conceive at the moment, she sighed in defeat. Returning to the boarding house, Mr. Milsap met her at the bottom of the steps in a rush, a contrite expression at his lips. Not knowing what to expect, she nervously checked her weapon, resting secure and weighted at her side. 

Mr. Milsap looked almost frantic. “There's a man downstairs that needs help. Do you have any medical training?”

Scully relaxed her hand. “Yes, I’m a medical doctor.”

“Follow me.”

Scully and Mr. Milsap entered the room where a woman was watching over a young man. The young man was convulsing. The woman was holding him down. 

“Let go. Don't hold him down,” Scully instructed.

Scully instead tucked a pillow under his head to keep him from hurting himself. “How long has he been seizing?”

“Uh, three... four minutes.”

“It's okay. You're all right. You're okay,” Scully repeated to the young man. “What's his name?”

Mr. Milsap stepped forward. “He's a stranger. He needed help.”

“Wha... what's wrong with him?” asked the woman.

“He had a grand mal seizure,” Scully explained. “As far as I can tell, he's in status. It's a continuous seizure state. He doesn't smell like acetone, which would indicate that he's hyperglycemic and … uh … he doesn't appear to have any head injuries. He could be epileptic and just ceased taking his medication.”

While performing a head to toe exam, Scully turned him over and saw a gaping bloody wound on his lower back. She looked up at the woman and Mr. Milsap. “How did this happen?”

They both shook their heads.

“Uh-huh,” Scully said, not buying it for a minute. “At any rate, we need to get him to a hospital. Immediately.”

Mr. Milsap and the woman exchanged glances.

Scully looked over to Mr. Milsap. “I assume that your phone's still not working.”

“Sorry,” he replied.

“Well, do you or one of your friendly neighbors happen to have a car?”

“No one here has a car,” the woman answered.

“No cars?” Scully said in exasperation.

“We could send someone to the state road on foot. All right? We could get them to bring back help,” Mr. Milsap suggested. “In the meantime, please, anything you can do for him.”

Scully nodded and sighed. “All right. Let me finish my exam.”

*

The phone rang right as Mulder was about to leave. “Mulder,” he said into the receiver.

“Fox, it’s Maggie.”

“Mrs. Scully. Is something wrong?”

“Dana hasn’t shown up at the Sheriff’s station yet to pick me up and I’m starting to get worried.”

Mulder raked a hand through his hair. This was not a good sign, “Nothing to worry about, Mrs. Scully. She might have gotten side tracked. That happens sometimes on these type of cases. Can you put the Sheriff on?”

He waited a moment and heard some muffled voices and then finally, “Sheriff Ciolino.”

“Hi, I’m Agent Fox Mulder, my partner, Agent Scully was supposed to be there today.”

“Yes,” the Sheriff replied. “The murder victim’s family is waiting for us to release the body.”

“Sheriff, could you help me and send a car out? She called me this morning off of route 901, heading south. Said she was a little over an hour from you. She also said she had no cell signal so she might be stranded on the side of the road or quite possibly, might have run into our killer.”

“You got it. I’ll get someone right out there.”

“Thanks.” Mulder hung up the phone and picked it right back up dialing an interoffice number. “Danny. I need you to trace a call for me. It came to this office from a payphone this morning about 1030. Yeah. Thanks. Uh, when you get the information, call me on my cell, I’m heading out.” He tapped the tab on the headset rest to reach another dial tone and dialed a different interoffice number. “Yes, I’m going to need a fleet sedan. Right away. I’ll be right up to sign the paperwork.”

*

“So what do we do?” The woman asked, hovering over the man lying in the bed slowly regaining consciousness.

“Well, I'm afraid that I have done all that I can do …” Scully sighed. “unless you know how to get ahold of some diazepam or phenobarbital. This man needs to be in a hospital in order to be properly treated.”

The man began to gasp, struggling to speak and then finally croaking out, “Are you a doctor?” 

“Yes. I am,” Scully answered.

“Thank you. For, uh, for helping me,” he said hoarsely.

“Well, I'm not sure if I've actually done anything. In fact, I don't even know, uh, I don't even know what's going on with you right now. Do you know what your name is?”

“Um…,” the man said, clearly straining to think of anything at all.

“You don't remember, do you.  How about how you got here?”

The man simply shook his head. 

“What about these people who have taken you in? Do you know anything about them?”

“Um, they, uh, take good care of me?”

“Yeah, I'll say they take very good care of you,” Scully muttered. “The sun seems to rise and set on you as far as they're concerned. In fact, they seem to have stranded me here in order to nurse you back to health.”

“What … why would they do that?”

Scully glanced over to the door then spoke in a low even tone in case others were listening. “A murder took place about 20 miles from here. A man was stoned to death. His head was so badly crushed that they couldn't identify him from his teeth. Now it looks like upwards of a dozen people may have participated due to the footprints at the crime scene, but it's a very tight knit group of people who would murder together. A cult, in a word. And I'd say that these people qualify.”

“What are you? Detective?”

“FBI. And I need to get you out of here, but I don't know how. Okay, do you think that you can walk?”

“I don't know. Kind of weak.” The man struggled to rise, but soon gave up and laid back down.

“I understand. Can you lean to one side?”

The man did as instructed and Scully was able to more closely examine the wound. Squeezing it with her fingers, she compressed it and a strange black fluid bubbled out. The man gasped in pain.

“That hurts! Maybe you shouldn't do that.”

“Hold on, hold on,” Scully said as she prodded. Scully released a sharp inhale of breath as she saw a large lump moving along the man’s lower spine. She pressed on it and he began to convulse again. It moved farther up his spine and the man relaxed. Using a pair of medical forceps, Scully reached into the wound and closed onto something. The thing inside him began to move rapidly from side to side, eventually breaking free and leaving her with a small piece of the tail end. The man grunted. The remainder of the worm-like creature crawled back up his spine. Scully held up the quivering black piece in her forceps to more closely examine it. The slime around it oozed black liquid. If Scully didn’t know any better she would swear it looked identical to the black oil they had found oozing from the rock they had discovered in that diplomatic pouch all those years ago. It couldn’t be. That substance was much much smaller. What was going on here?

“This... wound in your back…” Scully said to the man. “it seems to be a point of entry for a parasitic organism that has taken up residence along your spine. I don't know how far this extends or how to get it out of you without harming you.”

“Does that mean I'm dying?”

“You will die if we cannot treat you properly. Now, these people don't seem to want to let you go. I think that they put this thing inside of you. I have no idea what the motives of these people are-- whether it's some bizarre religious activity-- but they killed the last person who was in your condition and I'm afraid that they're going to try and kill you, too.”

“This is a lot to take in.”

“No kidding,” Scully said as much to herself as to the man. She headed towards the window, deciding to find some mode of transportation and get help.

“Where are you going?” he asked in a panic.

“I'm going to try and get us the hell out of here.”

Chapter Text

At the Sheriff’s office, Mulder arrived in an FBI fleet sedan, shaking the hands of Sheriff Ciolino as well as FBI field Agent Mayfield currently assigned to the case. Maggie sat in the Sheriff’s office with a ghastly look on her face and a complete set of luggage underneath her eyes. When she spotted Mulder she waved and came forward.

“You made good time,” the Sheriff said to Mulder.

“I usually do,” Mulder smarted back. Not wanting to waste any time he pulled some photocopies from his file folder. “Do these wounds look similar to the victims?” he asked the Agent and the Sheriff. 

“One in the same,” the Sheriff answered.

Mulder pointed at the first photograph. “That’s a photo of a John Doe found off a West Texas highway in 1991.” Then he explained the other three photographs, his finger following along with his words. “Arizona ‘93, New Mexico ‘97, Nevada ‘99. All four victims had their brains beaten out and were dumped in remote areas. All four cases were unsolved.”

“How'd you run these down?” the Agent asked.

“They were all X-Files,” Mulder explained with a sense of pride dripping in arrogance. “From my office. Agent Scully recognized the similarities in the cases and I dug them up. It noted glycoproteins at the crime scene which is what she found. I’m guessing with some trace amounts of a black substance as well. This same wound had been identified in each case. These murders range mostly in the southwest, zigzagging over remote areas across the country.

*

The beam of Scully’s maglite traveled along the walls of an old barn and onto the body of a bus with the letters MCI on the front. The sounds of footsteps caused her to freeze and soon she was surrounded by the townspeople, each holding gas lamps, led by the man with the slug in his back. “Hey. How'd you...?”

The others crept onward without hesitation. Scully drew her weapon. “Don’t come any closer,” she yelled, but there were too many of them for her to fire her weapon blindly. So Scully beat at them with both hands, using the gun in her right she smashed the nose of one, spattering blood onto the other that met her heel from a swift kick. She clenched her fist and punched another in the mouth loosening a tooth. Still they marched on and surrounded her. A man wretched as she administered a thunderous roundhouse to the stomach. Another tried to grab her, but she jumped into the air, landing on his thigh with a splintering crunch. Trembling, she fought with all her might as they slowly closed in. There were just too many. A knee slammed into the small of her back and knocked out her breath, but she persevered. She swung to the right and broke a man's jaw. Another cried out as she punched them in the kidney as hard as he could. Even though she never gave up, soon they had her restrained, Mr. Milsap, pulling her weapon from her hands. 

“You had me convinced,” Scully screamed. She struggled and grunted as their hold tightened. “I’m a Federal Agent! At this moment, the FBI is searching for me!”

“They won't find you,” the woman said.

“Talk to her,” Mr. Milsap commanded the young man.

The young man took a couple more steps toward Scully.  “Your life... is about to take a wonderful turn. You're going to become a part of something much, much greater than you are.” He smiled. “You have no idea how long we’ve been waiting for you.”

“Me? Why me?” Scully screamed, losing her breath. 

“Your baby, with the two of us as one, will become the savior of all of Earth, leading us through colonization.”

“Amen. Amen,” shouted the townspeople in unison.

Scully screamed again. “Who are you?”

“You don’t recall? You met me back in Africa. I am of the original explorers, sent to create a world for our settlers so we may one day take back our rightful place on this earth. Your baby will grow to lead that mission. It is time."

“Amen. Amen,” The townspeople chanted again.

The man kneeled down and Mr. Milsap nodded and smiled as he lifted the hammer he had been hiding behind his back and brought it down with great force on the young man’s head.

“No! Ahhh!!! You son of a bitch!” Scully yelled.

Now the woman stepped forward and began to bash the young man’s skull with another hammer, the rest of the townspeople that weren’t restraining Scully joining her with rocks and other tools. They all chanted as the man’s blood spattered across the side of the bus.

“Amen!”  They said in unison.

“You just murdered him!” Scully shrieked. 

“Amen! Amen! Amen! Amen! Amen!” The townspeople continued.

With the young man clearly dead, the woman removed the large cylindrically shaped black organism, slimy with black oil and another viscous substance, its horns and teeth shining like piano keys.

Scully protested and howled, begging them not to do this to her baby, but it only seemed to egg them on. 

“What did you put in me?! I'm going to get every last one of you bastards!” Scully promised, now tied to each of the four bedposts, face down on the same bed the man had been in, panting and groaning, struggling against the restraints, animosity and rage burning as much as the slug currently curling up her spine. 

“You'll love us. You'll protect us,” Mr. Milsap replied. “You'll teach us, make us better than we are. We're taught not to envy, but I do envy you so. That you'll soon be one with him.”

“Him?! That thing in my spine is a "him"?!”

Car headlights illuminated the window and Scully wailed with all the air left in her lungs, “Help! Help! Help!”

A woman shoved cloth in her mouth to muffle Scully’s cries and another man closed the window.

Down on the street, Mulder slammed the door of his rental.  Maggie, who refused to let Mulder leave her behind, “It’s my daughter,” she had insisted, was now sitting in the passenger seat.

“Good evening. Can we help you?” Mr. Milsap asked, approaching Mulder along with another woman. 

“I’m hoping you can. I’m looking for my partner, Special Agent Dana Scully.” He pulled a picture of her that a forensic photographer had taken once while she was on duty. He had given it to Mulder after solving the case and Mulder had kept it with him ever since. “Have you seen her?”

“No, can’t say I have,” Mr. Milsap said, indignantly.

“No,” agreed the female, shaking her head for emphasis.

*

As a last ditch effort in hopes to draw the attention of the headlights that had graced the window, praying it was law enforcement and not another townsperson, she reached for whatever she could. Knowing a gas lamp lay at the bench at the foot of the bed she reached with all her might and managed to tip it over with her toe as she lurched her downwards. The room soon engulfed in flames. Scully screamed into her gag, the gas station owner who had been left to watch her did his best to stomp out the fire.

Back down on the darkened street, Mulder returned to his car. 

“Have they seen her?” Maggie asked, wringing her hands in worry.

“I don’t know,” Mulder said gently. “I got the feeling from their demeanor that they know more than they’re letting on.”

Mulder flipped on his headlights and drove away from the main road, pressing his thumb into the side of the walkie talkie, giving the illusion that he was leaving town. “Sheriff, this is Agent Mulder.” 

“I'm reading you, Agent Mulder. Where are you?”

“20 miles off the state road, just north of the crime scene. An outpost. It's on the police map. Just talked to a man and woman. One had a gun in his pocket and I don't mean he was happy to see me.”

“I'll send everybody I've got.”

Mulder nodded “Copy. And I’ll be tearing this town apart.”

With a swift tug at the steering wheel, Mulder reversed and headed back into town. 

“Fox, look,” Maggie pointed. “That building is on fire.”

“Stay in the car. Whatever happens, do not leave this car,” Mulder instructed.

He took off with full long lengthy strides and the speed of a cheetah towards the flash of flames and smoke pluming out of the second story window. Wasting no time he jumped, getting hold of the windowsill of the room next to the one on fire, pulled himself up, and slid inside.

Slinking stealthily, Mulder entered the room where Scully was being held captive. Luckily he had gone unnoticed by the gas station owner who had been distracted by Scully.  A boulder laid heavy in his stomach as Mulder took in the scene. Scully tied face down, spread eagle on the mattress. “Hey,” Mulder yelled and the man turned in surprise. With a single squeeze of the trigger, Mulder put a bullet between the man’s eyes, the back of the man’s head exploding onto the carpet. 

“Are you hurt?” Mulder asked, searching the dead man’s pockets and pulling out a pocket knife, wasting no time cutting the ropes at her wrists, then her feet. “What did they do to you?”

Mulder had her in his arms before Scully could answer and was already heading for the stairs. With his teeth he removed her gag.  “Can you walk?” He asked. 

“I don’t know,” she said weakly.

Mulder ran from the house with Scully in his arms when he saw Maggie waving him towards a barn. “I told her to stay in the car,” he mumbled, but followed, knowing the car was too far for him to carry her without getting caught. Maggie pushed open the wide barn door and exposed the bus within. Once inside, Mulder set Scully down on the floor of the bus.

He removed his sport coat and tossed it onto the closest seat, loosening his tie and rolling up his sleeves. “Scully talk to me.”

“Cut it out before it gets to my brain,” she whined in pain. 

The black oil slug inched up her spine and Mulder’s eyes grew wide as he saw it for the first time. Mulder grimaced and shook his head in disgust. “Slicing and dicing is your territory.”

Scully groaned and screamed. “Cut it the hell out of me now!”

Scully clamped her hand on her neck to keep the thing from moving into her head and away from her chip. Mulder pulled out the pocketknife and hesitated, watching it move, not certain exactly where to make the incision. 

Maggie screamed as the worm inched higher.

A brief glance upwards and Mulder watched in horror as the townspeople marched into the barn, hammering at the windows of the bus.

“Aah! Just do it, Mulder!” Scully screamed.

“Fox, don’t wait any longer,” Maggie said and reached for Mulder’s holster. He let her unsnap it without a word and looked on as she exited the bus, the gun aimed at the townspeople. 

Mulder thought of his baby, of Scully and adrenaline pulsed inside his veins. He took the pocketknife and cut just below the base of Scully’s neck, digging around her upper back until he got hold of the thing. With one scooping tug the black oil worm released and Mulder was able to free it from Scully’s spine and her body. The townspeople were now denting the sides of the bus and breaking the windows. However, Maggie was doing a good job of keeping them out of the bus. Mulder tossed the thing out in front of him and yelled for Maggie, “Give me the gun!” Extending her arm towards him, he grabbed his pistol and Maggie made the sign of the cross as he shot three times, hoping to at least immobilize the black oil that reminded him of a giant Jello liquorice Mike & Ike. He could only stare in revulsion as the thing squirmed for the last time.

Blue and red lights strobed against the barn’s walls as law enforcement drew their guns and closed in on the townspeople. Mulder draped his sport jacket around Scully, lifting her with the greatest of vigilance and protection, knowing he was not only carrying her, but their unborn child in his arms. The ordeal had left her in an unconscious state and he bore the burden as he and Maggie persisted towards the screaming sirens of the ambulance. 

University of West Virginia Medical Center

Mulder gently pushed open the door to Scully’s hospital room, his arm around Maggie. A large bandage draped over Scully’s upper back and another covered the stitches on her lower back. Her freckles took center stage to her pale complexion. Mulder’s heart clenched and twisted in fear.

“What did the tests say?” he asked as softly as he could bear.

“I got lucky,” she said. “It hadn’t had time to attach and begin using me as its host. All my tests came back normal. Even the entry wound and the incision only needed stitching. You were so precise he said it might not even leave a scar.”

“That’s great news.” Then he gathered up courage and pointed to her belly.  “What about..”

Maggie knitted her brow. 

Scully glanced at her mother, then at Mulder, her cobalt eyes twinkling. “Everything is fine.” 

Relief rushed through him like a hurricane. Mulder laid his hand over hers and she squeezed it beyond grateful that she and the baby were okay. “You ready to tell her?”

“Tell me?” Maggie asked.

Scully tightened her hold. “Go ahead.”

He faced Maggie, keeping Scully’s hand snug inside his. “You’re going to be a grandma again.”

Maggie's whole face shined and her eyes lit up like the stars during a clear night in area 51. She sobbed as she threw her arms around Scully and wailed, “You’re pregnant! Oh, honey, that's wonderful!” She hugged her tighter then turned to Mulder hugging him just as tight. “Congratulations Daddy.” Her focus went back to Scully. “Everything’s okay?”

Scully gave an exaggerated nod for emphasis. “Yes. In fact, I’m about to go in for a sonogram if you’d like to join me..”

“Me too?” Mulder asked.

Scully nodded. “Yes, both of you can come.”

*

While Scully, adorned in a hospital gown, placed both feet in the stirrups, the tech came in to set-up the machine for the trans-abdominal scan while the doctor shook all three of their hands and made small talk. 

Running the wand through the lube on Scully’s tiny belly, the doctor explained, “Your baby is almost six inches long and probably weighs close to four ounces.”

Mulder took Scully’s hand, rubbing his thumb across the webbing. He leaned over and pressed a kiss to her forehead. She squeezed his hand just as the doctor stopped the wand and a small body, about the size of a pear, came into focus. “And there’s your baby,” the doctor said and smiled. Suddenly the world stopped rotating as the black and white pixels on the screen made everything real and made all their fears take a back seat. The doctor pointed out the head, limbs and body. Tears pooled in Mulder’s eyes, slowly trickling down his cheek.

Maggie took Scully’s other hand, reaching over her to clutch Mulder’s arm and give him a supportive squeeze. His blurry eyes looked up at Maggie and he gave her a breathy laugh. 

“The baby is healthy. You can see the heartbeat is strong,” the doctor continued. “Would you like to know the sex?”

Mulder nodded at Scully. Scully addressed the doctor. “Yes.”

“It’s a boy,” he answered.

Maggie clutched Mulder’s arm and held tight. Mulder’s soul opened to the amazement of the reality revealed before him, and he felt his lips stretch wider into a gaping grin as he met Scully’s eyes. Her eyebrows arched for the skies. “A boy,” she repeated as her voice cracked. Mulder felt her joy and affection without words, reaching and touching him in ways only she could. 

Paralyzed by the situation, everything now real and tangible, he could only continue to stare at her in awe. His Scully had achieved miracles in herself, but also within him. Clasping her hand he pressed his lips to her forehead. She lifted her chin to catch his lips with hers and he felt their bubble come around him and the rest of the world blur in the distance. All that now lay before him was Scully. And this baby.

“Can we each have a picture of the sonogram?” Mulder asked in awe.

“Absolutely,” The doctor said.

Mulder came around to hug Maggie and give her cheek a kiss. She cupped his face and stared back at him with all the love and affection of a mother.

Chapter Text

“Is the wedding before or after the baby?” Margaret Scully asked as they were entering Maryland.

Mulder passed Scully a shit-eating grin, keeping his eyes fixed on the road. “Yeah, Scully, which is it?”

Scully rotated in her seat to look at her mom sitting in the back. “Mom, there are a lot of things Mulder and I have to consider. It's complex.”

“Nonsense, you are having a child together, Dana. Whatever the answer is, it’s not something that can wait. You have to be fair to Fox.”

Mulder pursed his lips to tame his smile. Maggie had a knack for breaking things down into stark black or vivid white. Rain pelted down upon the old fleet sedan. The sudden inclement weather had Mulder gripping the steering wheel and focusing on his driving. After all, his child and its mother were in the car along with its grandmother. That thought sobered him and kept him alert. 

Before leaving the car, Maggie bombarded them with more hugs and tears, making them promise to ring her once to let her know they returned home safely. Mulder had never recalled a time when his own mother requested such things, another reason why Maggie meant so much. 

“I know what the doctor said,” Mulder started as they pulled up in front of Scully’s apartment, “But if it’s alright with you, I’d feel a lot better if you’d let me stay the night.”

Scully gave a slight nod and moistened her lips. Mulder lifting their overnight bags from the car, took her hand. Her eyes lifted at the gesture.  “It’s been a while since you stayed at my place."

*

Donning her light gray silk night clothes, Scully curled up in her bed watching as Mulder slipped off his pants and tossed his shirt on top of her dresser. “My mother certainly has a very definitive opinion,” she said.

Scully was reaching, but he wasn’t quite sure for what. It had been a very emotional few days. “That’s a loaded statement,” he said, crawling into his side of Scully’s bed, cuddling up to her, more than elated that she was safe and he was with her again. “And it’s probably a little too late to be getting into all that at this hour.” She was facing him and her fingers danced over the planes of his chest. It all felt just a little too good. “Let’s get some sleep,” he suggested. He closed his eyes, but the nightmares of the alien spaceship played behind the lids. Disgusted, he opened them again. 

Scully was staring at him, her words rushing to him in a breathless whisper. “It’s okay, Mulder. I’m here.” She didn’t say anything else, but in her eyes he saw the questions.

Reaching over he smoothed a stray auburn tendril behind her ear, wanting to kiss her, but needing to touch her. As he pulled his hand away he strummed his knuckles across her cheek. Her breath danced around his face. “You are my focus now,” Mulder whispered, “When the baby comes that won’t change, it will only widen to include them.”

Scully’s lip trembled and her eyes brimmed with compassion. “That baby will love you, Mulder, unconditionally, and you will be an incredible father.”

“I need to be there for him,” he exclaimed.

“Then you will,” Scully replied, her forefinger tracing his lip. He kissed it gently. Breathing in her soothing scent, he closed his eyes, knowing her reassurance would keep the darkness at bay.

*

Monday morning came quickly, but to Mulder every day gave the opportunity to be as fruitful as the next. He had felt unusually cheery driving to work from Scully’s apartment. The two of them had shared a bed last night and even though sleep had been all that transpired, it felt like everything in his life might actually be starting to settle. That took a turn when he stepped into his office to listen to his messages. 

Doggett came in just as he had finished returning the call from a Sheriff Frey.

“The Grand Jury will convene today concerning that cult. All 47 cult members are sticking together. They're not offering up much defense other than that they're being persecuted for their religious beliefs,” Doggett said.

Mulder shook his head. “They believe that giant piece of alien goo they worshiped is the second coming of Christ.”

Doggett paused. “I don’t know which is harder to wrap my head around, what you and Scully believe or what they believe.”

Doggett turned to leave, but Mulder cut him off at the door, using every bit of his six feet to stare down at Doggett. “Before you go bury yourself in the bullpen there’s one more thing. I was just on the phone with Sheriff Frey out in Squamash, Pennsylvania. He said that you were there investigating me while Scully and I were in West Virginia. Is this something that’s coming from upstairs?”

“Well, no, not exactly. When you had gone missing they gave me access to your cell phone records and there were discrepancies,” Doggett replied.

“Like what?”

“There was a report filed on May 6th for a case in Washington D.C., the same day you were in Squamash. Your phone records match what the Sheriff confirmed... What were you doing there Agent Mulder?”

Mulder tightened his lip and clenched his fist. “That’s personal Agent Doggett.”

“Personal or not, it doesn’t make sense.”

Mulder’s jaw rocked against its socket as he breathed down at Doggett. “It’s a two hour drive. I could easily be in both places on the same day finishing up one case and researching another.”

“A case report was never filed for your time in Squamash.”

Mulder’s brow jutted downward. “Are you telling me you’re reporting me to OPR?”

“No. I reported it to Skinner, but it’s an open case.”

“On me?”

“I’m afraid it also involves Agent Scully.” 

Mulder closed in on Doggett, close enough for John to feel the fire in his words. “I don’t care what happens to me, but you leave Scully out of it.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

Mulder curled his fingers around Doggett’s lapel and slammed his back against the door, raising his voice to match his fury. “It’s not a request. If you do anything to harm her..”

“What Agent Mulder,” Doggett replied seemingly unphased. “What are you going to do?”

“You’ll find out.” Mulder released him and walked down the hall towards the records room. 

“I’m not finished with this case, Agent Mulder,” Doggett called after him.

*

When Mulder returned, Scully and the calming scent of her perfume had replaced the vile stench of Doggett’s overpowering Old Spice. “Doggett  is investigating the souleater,” Mulder huffed out before she could even offer a good morning.

“What does he know?” she asked, her eyes wide.

“I don’t think it’s much.”

“What if he finds out?”

“I won’t let him.”

*

FLASHBACK to May 5, 2000, one year earlier

Scully rounded the corner of the basement hallway, the aroma of fresh made coffee wafting from the office. The smell brought her fond memories of years of caffeine consumption and all the cases that had led to those early mornings and sleepless nights. The voices on the other side of the door surprised her. It was decisively feminine. Scully took a deep inhale, drew back her shoulders, turned the knob and pushed open the door. Someone had taken the seat across from Mulder’s desk. 

“Good Morning,” she said hesitantly, removing her jacket and laying down her satchel on the only free desk in the office. 

Mulder passed her a warm smile. “This is my partner, Agent Dana Scully. Scully, this is Linda Cavanaugh.” Scully shook the woman’s hand and Mulder continued. “Mrs. Cavanaugh called me last night and I asked her to meet with me this morning. She’s concerned for her sister Marie.”

“You want to tell Agent Scully what you told me?” Mulder said, directing the question to Linda.

Linda nervously wrung her hands. “My sister is dying. She’s suffering from end stage renal failure. Her husband is becoming desperate. They’re from Squamash, PA, where her husband grew up. He knew of the legends there.  He believes there is a creature living in the forest that can be summoned and will come in the night and consume my sister’s disease. My sister is frightened. She’s terrified of disappearing forever.  I told her to leave, that she could come live with me, but she’s scared of leaving her husband.”

“Do you believe what your sister is telling you?” Scully asked, but her eyes were on Mulder. 

“No, but I do believe that a man will come and I’m afraid they’re going to hurt my sister. She’s very frightened. She said she was going to run. She’s hooked up to a dialysis machine. She needs a real doctor, not a witch doctor. If she tries to run she won’t make it. I didn’t know what else to do. I called the police, but they said there was nothing they could do until she was missing for at least twenty-four hours or she stated that she felt there was a threat of physical violence. Then they said that it was most likely a domestic issue that would resolve itself. I could tell that they thought I was overreacting. So I called the FBI and told them this story. The man I spoke with laughed and I knew he thought I sounded crazy, but he directed me to your office. Can you help me?”

Scully smiled politely, softly nodding to appear sympathetic to the woman’s plea. “Mulder, can I speak with you in the hallway?”

“Excuse us,” Mulder said politely and the woman slowly nodded.

Out in the hallway Scully closed the office door and whispered, “Mulder, you’re not telling me that you’re taking any of this seriously.”

Mulder shrugged. “Okay, I won’t tell you.”

“A man that comes out of the woods and eats people? Sounds like a Grimm’s fairy tale.” 

“What if we do nothing and this woman goes missing? I think it’s worth our time. Besides tomorrow is Saturday and the weatherman said it was going to be sunny. Nice day for a drive through the rolling hills of Pennsylvania.”

Mulder burst back through the door before Scully could protest and offered his hand to the woman. “My partner and I will be happy to investigate the situation.”

“My sister said that it was going to happen tomorrow night. Please, you have to hurry.”

“We’ll be there in the morning.”

Scully waited for the woman to leave to continue her skeptical opinion. “Do you really believe any of what she told us?”

“I believe that the sister’s husband believes and that maybe the sister does too. Something is going to happen there tomorrow tonight and I’d like to find out what it is.”

“Mulder, we’re already in the middle of a case. One that we were assigned. We’re supposed to be reviewing the wiretap today and completing the case reports that should have been completed yesterday. We have statements to gather.”

“And we can get all of that done.”

“You’re talking about working through the night.”

Mulder waggled his eyebrows. “Dinner’s on me.”

*

“Mulder, we’ve been at this for hours,” Scully said, completing the sixth page of her field report.

Mulder’s nose was in a book, piled on another book and two more at the ready. None of them concerning the current case. All of them about Soul-eating and Sin-eating legends and folklore around the globe. “You’ve got somewhere else you’ve got to be?” Mulder mumbled.

“Well, no, but..” Scully’s finger skimmed his hand circling in a way that woke up his lower half.

It was enough to draw his attention away from his studies. “What?” he asked bashfully.

“I don’t know, when you invited me over here to spend the night… I guess I thought… maybe…” Scully stopped, staring him down. 

“Agent Scully, are you suggesting…”

His voice was husky and she returned it with a closed smile, her finger hooking his tie and tugging him closer until she hummed against his lips. It was music to his soul. Lust surged like a pipeline down below his waist. In a spurt of inspiration he picked her up suddenly and landed her on the couch. Scully squealed his name in surprise and feigned protest. Without giving her time to object, Mulder’s mouth covered hers, his tongue teasing and tasting her. While they kissed he lifted her again, walking them both towards the bedroom. Leaning against the doorframe, the tension built until they broke for air. Scully’s intense gaze communicating right down to his groin. With their hands roaming over the other's body and stripping each other of clothes, they made it to the bed.

“Mulder,” Scully moaned and he hummed his pleasure against her chest, feeling her hips pressing forward and her thighs starting to tremble. He pulled away to calm himself only to find her hand wrapping around his erection and pulling him back into yet another heated kiss. All the while his fingers brushed over her sex, stroking her soaking insides, his thumb rousing the outside, feeling her climb, vibrating as every part of her called him. About to burst, Mulder removed his fingers and pushed himself in, burying inside her, cherishing the feel of every inch. Scully joined him thrust for thrust, over and again, her breasts rising and falling against him, their bodies slick. Her legs tightened. Arching off the bed, she cried his name. He rained kisses along her forehead and down her cheek, back to her lips. Their hands intertwined and Mulder felt her release around him and he let go, crashing against her tides. If he died tomorrow he took solace in the fact that he had found true happiness, complete peace and a joy to fill up a cosmos.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Chapter Text

[In the voice of Fox Mulder]

Blinded by the incessant impulse of survival, one seeks a cure to an affliction, even with the loom of certain death. But what if the answer is presented with a solution who’s consequence came at the torture and torment of another? How far will we go to achieve opulent health? As we peer out into the faceless abyss, will our fortress of morals falter?  Do we travel through life’s vast universe knowing the capabilities of the stranger inside, or is it only in the face of death that our authentic selves are fully revealed?

[Cue theme music]

Squamish, Pennsylvania

FLASHBACK, 2001

“ Sheriff Frey, I’m Agent Fox Mulder, this is my partner, Agent Dana Scully,” Mulder said, displaying his badge and looking at Scully as she raised hers as well.

“Nice to meet you Agent Mulder, Agent Scully,” the Sheriff replied. “You can just call me Kurt if you like. As I told you on the phone, you’re probably wasting your time coming here. I’ve spoken to Paul and Marie and I think there’s been a misunderstanding. Marie is at her house. All that happened was she and her husband had a disagreement. Meanwhile, it seems her sister is threatening to file a missing persons report thinking that Marie is going to disappear.”

Mulder nodded his head, his mouth forming a thin line. “If it’s alright, I’d like to have a chance to speak with Marie.”

The sheriff picked up his keys off his desk, jingling them. “That’s fine. I get it. Need it for your paperwork. Dot the eyes and cross the T’s and all, right? I’ll give them a call and then I can give you a ride up there.”

Traveling up the steps to the Hangemuhl’s home, Mulder paused at the symbol, swiping it with his finger. He rolled the sticky crimson substance between this thumb and middle finger, bringing it up to his nose to give it a whiff. Catching Scully’s gaze, he held his reddened finger up to her.

“Why red paint?” she asked, mumbling close to his ear.

“It’s not paint,” he whispered back, cocking the side of his mouth. Scully waited for an answer, but Mulder provided her with none.

Inside, Paul, Marie’s husband, sat with his arm firmly around Marie, hardly allowing her to speak. Scully situated herself next to Mulder to gauge all of the Hangemul’s reactions to his pointed questions. Sheriff Kurt Frey did little to interfere, with his hands resting at his belt, leaning against the couch, observing the exchange.  

“ You told your sister you were going to disappear, Mrs. Hangemuhl. Tonight,” Mulder said.

Paul Hangemuhl squeezed his wife’s arm and although he wanted it to appear protective, Scully interpreted it as threatening. “I told you already,” Paul interjected, not allowing his wife to speak, “We had a fight, she was going to leave, not disappear.”

“I'm talking to your wife,” Mulder shouted, irritated. Scully laid a hand at his shoulder to calm him. He took a breath then grimaced, wincing in pain and pinching at the bridge of his nose. 

The uncharacteristic move concerned Scully, but she had to play it off until she had time to examine him more closely outside. Maybe the situation was giving him a migraine. She knew she felt one coming on.

“Mrs. Hangemuhl,” Mulder initiated, forcing her to speak.

Marie Hangemuhl avoided Mulder’s eyes until the pull of his gentle biding drew her towards his face. “It's what he said.” Marie spoke softly as if trying to placate both her husband and Mulder.  “My sister lives out of state. I was going to go... I didn't want her to worry.”

“You told your sister a story, a story you were afraid of.” Mulder’s voice dropped to the empathetic tone that got children to admit their fears and forced women to wring their panties. Scully crossed her own legs out of habit.

It would have worked on Marie if Paul hadn’t blown his top and interfered. “This is crazy. There is no crime here!”

“I don't think you were going anywhere tonight, Mrs. Hangemuhl,” Mulder continued in his melodic tone disregarding Paul’s outburst. “I think someone or something was coming here. And I think maybe it still is.”

Marie diverted her eyes away from Mulder. In contrast, Paul’s eyes flared and his body slid forward on the couch.  “We had a fight. We patched things up and that was the end of it.”

“He’s lying, Scully,” Mulder said out of the earshot of the Hangemul’s and the Sheriff once they had left the house.  

He waited until they were in the car and then explained “The symbol on the door is used for summoning what they refer to as a soul-eater. If you test the substance that symbol was made from, you’ll find that it’s blood, and most likely from a sacrificial animal. Chicken or goat is most common.”

“From everything I know of a soul-eater, Mulder, it’s more like a cannibalistic witch,” Scully replied. 

Mulder chewed on the inside of his mouth waiting to see if she had any more unhelpful tidbits. “That could be true for those of the Appalachian region of the United States. They viewed a soul-eater as a Shaman that had supernatural healing powers. They called upon them, but at the same time they were greatly feared and often were forced to live outside of the village. Unlike Appalachia, the Hausa people in Nigeria and Niger have a folklore figure which is translated as a soul-eater being an actual human animal. Those legends have been carried over to many parts of North America and the Caribbean.”

“Like werewolves?” Scully said, crossing her arms and tapping the toe of her heel into the dirt. “Werecats? Selkies?”

Mulder pursed his lips. “Are you flirting with me?”

Scully sighed. “All I’m saying is how do we know it’s not a case of Wendigo psychosis?”

“You are flirting with me.” Mulder held his gaze on Scully, hoping for her to return the warmth stirring in his chest, but she denied him so he carried on. “Mayans, ancient Egyptians, even Greek mythology mentions types of soul-eaters. There is a belief, based in the U.S., that there are men who were cursed by witches and have to eat the soul for sustenance. After the soul eater devours a victim's soul, the victim disappears as dust. This may be what Marie is fearing.”

“That she’ll turn to dust.” Scully tried as best she could, but her eyes had other plans, gravitating upward until they achieved their full, Mulder you’re crazy, roll. She then doubled down with a, “ Mulder, why are we here?”

Mulder closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. Another tremor of pain resonated through his frontal lobe. 

Scully, unaware, continued, “Threats of being turned to dust aside, I don’t see an X-File. Even if there is something supernatural going on, there’s no crime to justify our presence.” 

Mulder leaned his head closer to Scully’s “What if there is a force out in those woods. One that could heal. Wouldn’t you as a doctor want to know?”

“I don’t understand your fascination with this… I can’t even call it a case. This investigation is not in the interest of the FBI.”

“What are you saying, Scully? You want to go home?” He tossed her the keys. “I’m going to stay. There’s more here that needs to be uncovered.” 

Scully palmed the keys and stared at them, then placed them in the front pocket of her dark slacks.

Mulder continued to state his case. “Scully, it’s Saturday. We’re not on the FBI's watch. I want to know what’s out there.”

“Mulder, if this is somehow about saving me, about conceiving, this isn’t an avenue I’m willing to travel.”

“I know it’s not.” He looked her dead in the eyes. “I’m looking for you to trust me.”

Scully stilled, pensive. “The other woman that was cured, Janice Stolz. I’m going to pay her a visit. See if she’ll open up about her illness and about her cure.”

Mulder nodded in agreement. 

*

It only took a short time roaming through the woods for Mulder to realize it would be far more effective to lure the man out rather than search for his habitation. The walk had given him time to think and to affirm Scully’s suspicions as to his driving force. Although, for once, it wasn’t about another, but himself. The draw to continue on with Scully consumed his thoughts and ate at his feelings to the point he wondered if he constructed a medicine wheel right here among the trees if it might be enough for the soul-eater to find.  At the opening in the woods, a delicate shape appeared. Mulder shaded his eyes from the sun, casting its long shadows upon the figure. When he got close enough to see that it was an older woman, he gave her a warm smile.

“Are you Agent Mulder?” she asked, her loose flowing clothes catching the breeze.

“Yes,” Mulder replied. “The Hangemuhls sent you?”

The woman fixed a lock of her grayish blonde hair behind her ear, the remaining tugged tightly into a ponytail. “The Sheriff told me of your visit. Said you were searching for it. You’re dying, aren’t you?”

“How do you know?” Mulder asked quietly, his insides stinging from finally admitting it to someone. 

“The ones that look for him always are.”

“So the legend is true.” He took note of the woman’s reactions and demeanor. The sadness and dismay, the empathy soaking her voice. “You are its keeper,” he confirmed.

“This has gone on for hundreds of years. Way before my time, but I try my best to protect it.”

“From someone like me?”

“It is true, he has the power to consume your disease, but that disease will become a part of him. A burden he will continue to carry.” The woman gave Mulder a deep heavy sigh. “If you must, follow me, I will bring you to him.”

*

“Janice Stolz? I’m Agent Dana Scully of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” she said holding up her badge. “I’d like to ask you a few questions.”

“About what? Am I in some kind of trouble?” the woman asked, in a shaky voice.

“No. Not at all. There have been reports of a healer in this area. That he may have visited you?”

The woman crossed her arms as if she was cold, closing her beige sweater jacket. “Why would the FBI be searching? Are you, yourself, sick?”

“No,” Scully returned quietly.

The woman frowned.“You have no ailment that you might want fixed? That’s why they come.”

“So you were sick?” Scully asked, making the connection.

“Yes, and no. Infertility. I had only one functioning ovary and I don’t know if the other one even worked half the time. We summoned the Shaman. He came in the middle of the night and the next morning I woke, reborn. The following month I was pregnant.” 

“That’s an incredible story,” Scully said, appeasing the woman even though she didn’t believe it.

The woman must have picked up on her doubts because she followed up with, “I understand how it must sound, but it is true. We try our best to keep the secret, but all the townspeople know and sometimes others come. Now the word has spread to the FBI. Please don’t use him as a lab rat for you to dissect. He’s needed.” 

“Why does this person desire to help so many? What does he get in return?” Scully asked, thinking maybe it was the case of a simple snake oil salesman.

“This isn’t a person, it’s a creature and I don’t know if I’d say free will, it’s like an obligation or maybe a curse on his part.” 

*

Mulder entered the woman’s home. The dark wood of the cabin walls and the roaring fire made for a warm and welcome setting. The woman instructed him to undress and lay flat on the floor. Mulder did just that, staring up at the old boards of the ceiling. He imagined how many people had come before him, how many times this exact act had been performed. To be cured, to have the opportunity to continue on and pursue the truth. To know how many more people Mulder would be able to save alive and healthy. To be able to continue on with Scully, with their life, to have a chance to give her what she so desperately wanted. 

Heavy footfalls became louder as Mulder’s hair stood on end, feeling it approach. He looked up to see a drooling grotesque figure marred with imperfections and disease. The sour sweet stench of rot and decay invaded his nostrils. Underneath the skin, a festering black sadness awoke. Mulder fixated on its eyes, yellowed in pain, marked in the dirt of eternal damnation. Beneath all that a single blossom of blue emerged. Perhaps the only piece of what had been left of its own sacrificial soul. Mulder understood. This creature, brave enough to bear the suffering for the weak, held it all inside himself without the benefits or the compassion of death. A life of eternal hell. True damnation.  

For those who had come before Mulder and succumbed to this miracle cure, they would be changed. They would be forced to live with saving themselves at the expense of having another carry their cross. Were the suffering entitled to the sin-eater’s help? Was their desperation excusable? Mulder’s chest tightened and his heart rang against his rib cage. He sprung from the floor. “I’m sorry. I’ve wasted your time. I-I can’t.” In a flurry he dressed and headed out the door.  Stopping feet from the porch steps his hands fell to his knees and he wretched. The grotesque inevitability dizzying him in a whirlwind of pain.

Present Day, 2001, Mulder’s apartment

“Mulder, I hate to ask you this, but I’m going to need you to hand over your secondary weapon. Skinner told me you carry a Walther PPK and I have reason to believe it may be involved in a crime,” Doggett said, standing in the entryway of Mulder’s apartment. 

The question seemed ludicrous. There was nothing professional about this investigation. “Do you have a warrant, Agent Doggett?”

“No, but I was really hoping it wouldn’t come to that.” 

“I think you better leave,” a strong feminine voice boomed from behind Mulder. Scully appeared around the corner, her hands firmly planted on her waist. 

“No, Scully. I’ll give him the gun.” Mulder left for the kitchen while Scully continued to stare Doggett down.

As he handed over the gun, Doggett asked, “Was there a time that this gun was out of your possession?”

“No,” Mulder stated firmly.

“Mulder, don’t do this,” Scully pleaded.

“It’s alright Scully,” Mulder returned.

FLASHBACK, MAY 6th, 2000

Squamash, PA

“We’re going back there,” Mulder said, creating deep muddy tracks as he swung the car around.

“But why, Mulder?” Scully asked as she gripped the panel on the passenger side door to keep from sliding into him.

“Because I can’t allow it to experience anymore pain. I looked into its eyes. I saw what he goes through. Being forced to carry everyone’s disease. It wants to die. I can help him.”

Mulder stopped the car in front of the Hangemuhl’s house and released the Walther from his ankle holster, laying it on the car’s console. Scully covered his hand and her warmth cascaded up his arm. “Mulder its murder.”

He turned his head to look her in the eyes. “This isn’t a man, Scully. It’s a monster. One that was made to suffer for other’s pain.”

“Mulder, Mulder wait..” Scully called to him, but Mulder was already out of the car and bounding up the steps. 

Mulder burst in and pushed past Paul and then Marie who shouted, “No! Please!”

Mulder took one more look into its eyes to solidify what he knew to be right. Lifting the gun, he pressed the barrel firmly underneath his own jaw, and closed his eyes, his forefinger preparing to squeeze. The breath left Mulder’s lungs as he felt the brunt of Scully’s weight into his arm and lost balance, crashing to the floor, the gun skidding across the hard wood.  

Before Mulder could focus, Scully had picked up the gun and shot, three times, into the Soul-eater. 

“Scully, what are you doing???” Mulder shouted over the crying and screaming of Marie in her husband’s arms. 

Scully was already over the body. It had no pulse. “It is dead, Mulder.” 

Still holding Marie, her husband said. “Go! Just go! We’ll clean this up. We’ll dispose of the body. You’ve done enough!”

“He wanted to die!” Mulder said to the husband. “He couldn’t take anymore pain.”

“I know.” Paul said. “I only wished to cure my wife. I’ll call the sheriff.”

“If he asks,” Mulder said, “It’s my gun. I pulled that trigger.” 

“Mulder,” Scully said, soaked from the rain pouring down. She raised her voice above the thrumming on the car’s roof. “I know what you saw, Mulder.”

Gently, Mulder let the key hang in the ignition. He lifted his head to look over at Scully. “You tried to end its pain.”

“Yes. It was in misery. It didn’t want to live anymore.”

“Scully, we need to get back to the old woman. Its keeper. She will need to summon it again. You didn’t kill him.”

“Mulder, I put three bullets into his chest. Man, beast, or monster, it’s dead.”

Mulder shook his head. “You can’t kill it in any scientific way. It must take death from you. But maybe he has a chance at peace if the townspeople think he’s dead, maybe she can hide it from them.”

Present Day, 2001

FBI Headquarters, Basement Office

“Skinner told me in the meeting you missed this morning that Agent Doggett dropped the case and what you called the “soul-eater” is finally deceased,” Scully said, closing the door to the basement office and then coming around to prop herself at the corner of Mulder’s desk.

Mulder rocked back on his chair, placing the interoffice memo  in his hand onto his keyboard. “Impossible, Scully. I don’t believe that. The only way he could truly die is..”

“...if he took someone else’s death,” Scully finished. “Skinner says that he witnessed the Sheriff shoot Doggett trying to stop him from pursuing the soul-eater. Doggett said he woke up healed underneath “the keeper’s” home.”

Mulder stood. “Then it’s truly dead.” He walked away to file another set of papers. The warmth of Scully’s hand at his shoulder stopped him.  

“ You sought the soul-eater for your own disease.”

Mulder turned cocooning them in their bubble. “I wasn’t going to give up Scully.” 

“You didn’t have to go through that alone.” He felt her eyes searching his own, her heart hugging his. “I could have helped you find a cure.”

His brows tilted and he could feel the skin tighten between them. “I knew that and I wasn’t going to have the time we had left spent that way. Last year was the happiest and best time of my entire life and I wasn’t going to give that up. I wanted that time with you and my decision to live those moments with you the way we did was right and the only way I would have ever wanted to spend them. Nothing. No disease, no conspiracy, no interference with the unexplained was ever going to keep us from that time we had. I was not suffering, Scully, I was never more alive and it was all because of how I spent that time with you. I can only hope that you can find it in you to respect that decision and the choices I made. They made me happy. They made me feel complete. You.. you make me happy.”

Scully’s hand brushed his cheek and it heated under her palm. “Mulder, you destroyed the means of your own salvation.”

“And yet I live,” he smiled, stroking her temple, the urge to kiss her as strong as ever. “It’s lunch time. Let me buy you something to eat.”

Scully nodded, pulling from their gaze. “What are you in the mood for?” she asked, opening the door of the basement. 

“Choice is yours,” Mulder replied, waiting for her to walk ahead of him. He tilted his head upon reflection and added, “Just no banana pudding.”

Chapter Text

On the threshold of consciousness, Scully coughed. Her throat closed and a warm trickle dripped into her esophagus. Choking, she rolled and rose from the bed. The tissue hardly covered her nose before she sneezed out bright pin drops of blood onto the white paper. As a doctor she knew logically that it was most likely the increased blood flow from being pregnant, but given her last bloody nose, her bought with cancer, it sent an odd shudder down her spine. Sliding her feet into her fuzzy slippers she shuffled into the kitchen for some water. She paused at the image of the ultrasound. The pads of her fingers outlining the ears, the arms and legs, where the heart had formed. It was all there on schedule. All very human.

When Scully returned to the bedroom, the bathroom light shone underneath the door and Mulder was missing from where she left him under the covers. Pausing in front of the mirror, she lowered the waistband of her light gray silk night clothes and unbuttoned the lower part of her shirt, exposing the barely protruding bump in her abdomen. Tears sprung to her eyes and her chin quivered uncontrollably. From out of the bathroom, strong arms came around her and Mulder’s large hand caressed her abdomen. 

“I’m fine,” she said, swiping her eyelids.

His raspy voice cascaded over her ear. “You’re not alone, Scully. It’s your body, you that will have to take it the rest of the way, but I can have a part in this too, as your partner.”

“Mulder, I don’t think I’ve pushed you away.”

“I know, but you’re so damn independent and…” Mulder slowly shook his head and lowered his tone. “I want to do everything I can to protect and support you.. And this baby. I want to carry that weight. Scully, please, allow me this.” His voice broke with the last set of words and Scully overlapped his hand with hers, both resting at the tiny curve of her belly. 

Scully leaned against his hard chest and the dam broke. Her head tilted to the heavens so she might compose herself. With a deep breath and a sigh she nodded. “I’ll try.”

“You’re really starting to show,” Mulder said with a smile, rubbing over the bump. “Soon you’re going to have to tell work.”

“I’ve had my reservations. You know why. Because of the X-Files, because of… the first three months of pregnancy is when the chance of miscarriage is highest.”

Mulder nodded, his lips grazing in her hair. She loved the way he felt, the comfortable warmth of his arms, of his cologne. The way he touched her, looked at her.. she could get lost in it all day. 

A wave of nausea crashed inside her and she leaned forward, her hand at her stomach as she gagged and ran to the bathroom. Without time to close the door behind her, Mulder followed her in, lifting up the toilet seat cover for her. Raking her hair behind her head with one hand, dampening a washcloth with the other. The cool cloth he laid gently on the back of her neck. 

“Thank you,” she said. “I hoped this would have passed at this point, but it’s really the dizziness that is getting to me the worst right now.”

“Why don’t you let me draw you a bath?” Mulder asked, sitting on the floor alongside her, softly wiping her cheek. 

“We’ll be late for work,” Scully returned, uneasy about being doted upon. 

The corners of Mulder’s mouth lifted. “So, that’s a yes?”

Panic grew in her chest, but she fought it down. Sooner or later the baby would come and she would be forced to lean on someone. There was no greater trust than what she held in Mulder and it would be unfair to her mother to only depend on her.

Mulder turned the faucet and hot water bucketed into the white porcelain bath while Scully brushed her teeth. Listening to Scully’s instructions, he squirted some bath oil into the cascade and soon the soothing fragrance of lavender and lilies were filling the bathroom in clouds. 

He watched her undress, pretending not to notice her shy hesitation, but not able to ignore her beauty. Out of concern that dizziness didn’t overcome her again, he held out a hand. With a deep settling breath, Scully stepped into the tub. 

Mulder squeezed some body wash into his hands and made a lather. Working her hair, she used the heated water of the handheld showerhead to rinse away the suds. He fought his urges with every caress of her skin, massage of each taut muscle, but her reactions and willingness tugged at his heart as well as below his waist. 

He moved to her feet, lifting them from the water, fragrant foam sliding off of the smooth skin of her leg, rising like Old Ness.  Rubbing it in circular motions with his thumbs he worked her instep.

“That feels good,” Scully groaned, with eyes closed.

Finally, she had relaxed, pleasantly moaning as he gently, but thoroughly scrubbed. Offering comfort, he anticipated her needs better than if they actually communicated. Always the quiet moments between them that affected him the most, especially when they included her happiness.

Water spilled over the bath as she sat up and slowly stood. Mulder folded the towel around her, a soothing hand at her back, keeping her close. “Better?” he whispered, his heart swelling with the acceptance of his touch.

Scully nodded. “Much. Thank you.” Her intensely blue eyes locked onto his mossy ones, and her lips danced millimeters from his, the sweet smell of minty toothpaste mingling between them. “I, uh,” Scully stammered. “I’m going to rinse in the shower, then I’ll be ready to leave.”

Mulder cleared his throat hoping to slowing his hammering heart. “I’ll make some decaf for two to go.”

FBI Headquarters

Scully stepped into the elevator and Mulder pushed the button for the basement. 

“Still feeling okay?”

“Yes. Thank you.” Scully checked her watch. “We’re late.”

“Ah,” Mulder said, the doors opened and he stepped out into the hallway. “Some things are more important.”

Mulder shortened his stride to Scully’s pace. He leaned into her before opening the office door. “Maybe tonight, we could eat in public, table for two, maybe a movie, maybe I’ll get to hold your hand?”

Scully shrugged, turning the knob of the office door and lifting a brow. “Maybe.”

Mulder’s face dropped and Scully turned to see what image had darkened his sightline. “Agent Doggett,” Scully smiled, then behind her shoulder shot Mulder a disapproving stare. 

“Good Afternoon Agent Scully, Agent Mulder.” Doggett finished writing up his notes as he spoke. “Since you two weren’t around, I held down the fort. Some guy named Duffy Haskell came in. Said he knew Mulder from eight years ago when his wife was abducted. Said she told Mulder about her abduction and he claims he also wrote several letters to Agent Mulder describing his wife’s other abduction experiences.”

“Is he saying she was abducted again?” Mulder asked and Scully felt a burning in her gut, a fluttering in her chest. She just got him back, she couldn’t take losing him again. The room began to spin. She placed a hand on the desk to ground herself.

“No, she’s dead. He says they killed her because she gave birth to an alien.” 

Mulder looked towards Scully. Her heart skipped a beat. Perspiration beaded her forehead. 

“He told me about procedures, tests,” Doggett continued, “said one procedure would give her cancer while another one would cure her. Said this went on for years, and then, this year,” Doggett flipped the page on his notes and read, “they came right into her bedroom and implanted an alien embryo.”

He handed Scully an envelope labeled, "Zeus Genetics, Germantown, Maryland 1-800-555-0100." She opened it and pulled out a copy of an ultrasound printout. 

Doggett added, “He told me that the tests from the abductions left her unable to have a child, but as you can see, she was pregnant. Haskell seemed to be pretty adamant that the ultrasound was abnormal, but I’m no doctor.”

“Do you, uh... have all the information and numbers and a way that we can reach Mr. Haskell?” Scully asked, appreciating Mulder’s silence. 

Doggett handed her the yellow sticky with the information.

“Thank you, Agent Doggett.”

Doggett’s brows deepened as his eyes peeled.

“Something else?” Scully asked.

Doggett shrugged. “I thought you'd find it interesting, actually.”

“Interesting?” Scully watched Mulder float to the back of the room out of the corner of her eye. She turned her attention back to Doggett. “As in preposterous and outrageous?”

Doggett leaned back in his chair. “Well, unless I'm mistaken you already knew that man's story.” She felt him waiting for a reaction, but she steeled and offered none. Doggett raised his brow and tilted his head. “The abduction, the tests, a bout with cancer then a remission.”

Scully crossed her arms. “What exactly are you getting at?”

Doggett drummed at the desk, then pointed his pencil towards her. “That's your story, Agent Scully. I'd say right down to a tee.”

Scully stared at him concentrating on the heat threatening to color her neck and cheeks.

“I mean, except for the pregnancy,” Doggett said. “It's all right there in the X-Files.”

Scully silently looked over at the file cabinets where Mulder was idly rifling through them, then allowed her eyes to float over the room. Anger flushed through her system and she forced herself to steel against it. “Well, I appreciate your thoroughness, Agent Doggett, and your familiarity with the X-Files cases in those cabinets, but my personal files are my personal files. Okay?”

Scully stormed from the office. Mulder raised his brow at Doggett, slamming the file drawer closed. He pursed his lips. “You’ve got the finesse of a lead balloon,” Mulder said and headed after Scully.

“I can tell you like him,” Mulder commented when they were both back inside the elevator.

“I do. He’s a good agent,” Scully replied, glancing up at Mulder. “I won’t hold it against him that he’s trying to follow orders. Although, he needs to understand that what’s in those files about me are not for his perusal. They were only ever meant for our eyes.”

“We could keep them at your place if it makes you more comfortable.”

The sudden movement of the elevator made Scully unsteady. “Maybe. I don’t want Doggett to feel excluded. He is part of the X-Files.”

“Yeah, but does he have to use my desk?”

“You heard Kersh, we have to share.”

Mulder glanced up at the elevator’s glowing lights. “As my sister would have attested, that was never my strong suit.” When his sightline floated back to Scully he added, “Eventually, you’re going to have to tell him.”

“I know,” Scully replied, inadvertently rubbing the tiny ponch of her belly. “Do you think there is any truth to what Haskell is saying? You think my doctor is a part of this?”

Lines formed between Mulder’s brow, displaying the light creases in his forehead. “All we can do, Scully, is pull the thread.”

The butterflies inside Scully’s stomach started to flap. “Mulder, even if the initial tests were wrong, the timing doesn’t add up.”

Mulder took a deep breath, remaining quiet. She knew it was because he agreed, but didn’t want to admit his doubts. It made her wonder if he ever blamed himself for not telling her about the vials before that day. But why didn’t he? 

“Mulder, looking back, it might not have made a difference, but why didn’t you tell me sooner? Knowing the loss of control I felt over Emily’s passing, to know I could have had a little bit of something back.”

“Scully. You were going through so much. I-I didn’t know how to tell you. The timing was never right and to look into your eyes and give you that news.”

“But why keep the vial if you knew it was hopeless? Why pay all that money?”

“Because no matter what, I couldn’t give up on you, on your dream.”

“That day you told me in the elevator. I was so angry, so hurt, but when the doctor told me there might be a chance, all I could think about was you.”

“I’ll never forget the night you asked me, the way it felt, what it meant.”

“I was so nervous.”

“You tried to woo me with Chinese take-out.”

“It worked, didn’t it?”

Mulder laughed.

[FLASHBACK]

“Scully, you said it was important.. What did the doctor say?” Mulder asked as she walked into his apartment.

She paced across the hardwood flooring, then with big glowing eyes looking up at him exclaimed, “He said that he spoke with his colleagues and they agreed that with the proper approach there’s a good chance of being successful.”

“That’s incredible.” He offered his arms to her and she stepped into his embrace.

“He wants to do it as soon as possible,” she said into his chest. She pulled away only far enough to meet his eyes again. “I-I’ll need to have a donor.”

“Right.” He never considered the man that would have to be involved. “Do you, um, pick him out of a catalog?”

“Actually, I have someone in mind.”

“Oh.” Lightning electrocuted his abdomen. It better not be Byers or Frohike. The thought prickled his skin. Although, the idea of any man caused his chest to tighten and his breath to halt. “Have you talked to him about it yet?”

Scully’s breathing slowed and her tongue felt numb as the words left it. “I’m trying to now.”

“Oh,” Mulder said quietly. His face was drawn, his eyes losing their shine, then Scully saw the lightbulb go on in his brain and brighten the room. “Are you asking…?”

Scully swallowed hard. “I know it’s a lot to consider… Mulder, you have all the qualities I would ever want in my child. You’re kind, compassionate, driven… your will to never give up is so strong… and you’re intelligent, passionate, you have such a big heart.“

Mulder tilted his head, a smirk to match his arrogance. “You didn’t mention stunningly handsome.”

Scully felt her cheeks heat as she smiled and her eyes drifted to the floor. 

“We’d make a beautiful baby.” Mulder said. He looked up at the ceiling fan and rubbed his face, then sent his fingers through his hair, before interlocking his hands behind his head and arching his back into a stretch. “A baby,” he breathed out.

“I know it’s a lot to think about and I’m springing this all on you,” Scully started, feeling the panic well inside her.

“Scully, after what I held back from you… I just… yeah, I-I mean… It’s a really big step.”

“I-uh. I’ll give you some time,” Scully said, feeling vulnerable, and claustrophobic, and having an overwhelming desire to sit in her apartment in the dark and just cry. “I, I need to go anyway.”

Mulder nodded his head as if his neck couldn’t bend. He wrapped her up in another hug and she felt the pat of his hand on her back. She returned it more out of obligation than anything else. She needed to regroup, to reconstruct her walls, in the safety of her own home. The risk she had taken, would be taking, with their friendship, their new possible reliance and devotion, it all swirled around with the dust in the ceiling fan, and that’s where she left it, circling in the draftiness of Mulder’s dark apartment. 

Out in the hallway, through the thin walls, Scully could hear the steady sound of the worn composite leather of Mulder’s basketball bouncing off the hardwood flooring. The thump echoed out into the caverns of her heart while the ping vibrated into her throat as it slowly receded into the greater cacophony of a group of excited young men coming off the elevator. Scully passed them a weak smile and entered alone, the doors encasing her in an eerie emptiness and fear for so many unknowns and so much beyond her control.

2001 Present Day

Elevator, Headquarters

“I think to say that was an awkward moment, might be an understatement,” Scully sighed. 

“Not any more awkward than I was when I went to your apartment and told you that I’d do it,” Mulder replied, feeling the embarrassment heat his skin all over again. Then he felt Scully’s fingers intertwine with his own. He gave them a squeeze and met her eyes.

“One of the greatest moments of my life,” Scully said and her entire face seemed to glow like she had spent a summer’s day outside at the beach.

[FLASHBACK]

Scully’s heart went into double time as she opened the door to her apartment. Mulder stood nervously on the other end. He stepped inside and immediately she tried to read him. Nothing gave away any answers and his fidgeting and lack of eye contact left her empty. A sandstorm raged inside her, scraping her insides with the coarseness of its wind. Whatever he had decided, she just couldn’t wait any longer.

“Obviously, you’ve had some time to think about my request,” Scully said. 

He heard the tremor in her vocal chords, saw the shifting of her weight and darting of her gaze. It matched his own, and suddenly he felt extremely uncomfortable in his own skin. His coat swam on him, yet his suit tugged his arms and upper thighs to the point he thought he’d lose his breath. 

“It’s um… It’s not something I get asked to do every day. Um, but I’m absolutely flattered. No honestly,” Mulder heard himself speaking as if he was outside of his own body. It wasn't coming out right at all. He watched Scully close her eyes to take the blow from his words, then nod cutting him off. “Look if… if you’re looking for a way to politely say “no” It’s okay. I…I understand.”

Mulder shook his head, he wasn't communicating. She needed to know their friendship meant everything to him. Beyond all else. As long as they had that, he would do anything for her. He nodded nervously with a hint of a smile forming as the vision of them having a child with their shared traits formed in his head. “See, as weird as it sounds and this sounds really weird I know, but I.. I just wouldn’t want this to come between us.”

“Yeah. I know. I…I understand. I do.” She was shaking and nodding her head and the disappointment made his heart grow because it showed how much it really meant to her; for him to be the one. It made him want it more.

He lightly brushed her chin, floating his finger like a feather against her cheek to garner her attention. “But… the- the answer is… yes.” As he said it, he felt his cheeks rise, his heart kaleidoscoping with every emotion projecting from Scully’s face.

Scully smiled meekly. “Um... Well, I'll call Dr. Parenti and…”

Mulder nodded, knowing, not wanting to continue such an intimate conversation, but knowing they needed to plan. 

“I assume that he'll want to meet you and go through the, uh, the donor procedure.”

“At that part, I'm a pro,” he said and smiled as sheepishly as she did. 

He could feel how uncomfortable she felt and the moment of intimacy was replaced as if they were both suddenly naked, facing judgement in front of a church full of parishioners with the priest and God himself looking down from the pulpit. 

2001 Present Day

Elevator, Headquarters

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. Mulder felt Scully release his hand from their entwined clasp and he breathed in the smell of cheap cologne and burnt coffee that regularly wafted from the bullpen.

“I’ve got a debrief with Skinner,” Mulder said, “and some research for a possible case.” He paused and faced her. “You’re going to visit Zeus Genetics aren’t you.”

“We’ve seen the name Zeus before Mulder.”

The shakiness in her voice drew him back in time to bodies floating inside clear tanks in a storage unit. Clones for the purpose of creating a human/alien hybrid, a superior soldier was what Deep Throat had told him.  Mulder shuddered. “I can go with you,” he suggested.

“No,” Scully returned quickly. “I need to do this by myself.”

It perturbed him, her going without backup, at the same time, he knew better than to challenge her decision. “If anything concerns you at all, you’ll call me.”

Scully smiled and it set off a twinkle in her eye. “Always.”

Chapter Text

“Okay, got it. Thanks,” Doggett said, hanging up the phone. 

It pleased Mulder that Doggett was back at his rightful place and NOT behind Mulder’s desk. When Doggett looked up Mulder actually greeted him with a respectful, “Hey.”

“I just got a call from a Dr. Parenti's office. About an ultrasound Agent Scully left there this morning.”

The moment didn’t last long. “Why are you taking calls concerning Scully’s personal information?” Mulder shot back, not even bothering to hide a tinge of disgust.

“Come on, Agent Mulder. The ultrasound was the one Duffy Haskell left here. Dr. Parenti is one of the doctors he consulted with during the course of that pregnancy.”

“I’m not going to ask you again. Why are you in Scully’s business? First that Squamash case and now this? You just don’t give up, do you? Trying yet another angle to get us off the X-Files? Or are you gunning for us out of the Bureau? Is this your way to the director’s chair? Kissing up to Kersh?” Mulder leaned into Doggett, both hands fisted on the desk.

Doggett stood, staring down Mulder, his hands and stance matching Mulder’s, millimeters from his nose. His speech was slow and determined. “I was doing a background check on Mr. And Mrs. Haskell before I dropped the case, like Agent Scully asked me to do.”

Mulder backed off, but held Doggett’s stare. “She never said to drop the case. Don’t make it like she was threatening you. There was no case.”

Doggett pointed at the phone. “She’s investigating something.” Then he aimed his finger at Mulder. “It’s hard to do my job when I’m working with two agents who claim to want to expose the truth, but they’re both keeping secrets and telling lies.” Doggett picked up the paper he had written on and threw it back down on the desk. “What were you doing down here anyway Agent Mulder?”

“I recognized Haskell, so I looked through my files,” Mulder said and handed Doggett the file. Doggett skimmed through it. Mulder continued. “He was president of the Ohio MUFON and as you can see from the file he sent me several very threatening letters.”

“This guy is a real piece of work,” Doggett said. “He also threatened Dr. Lev with letters that he was going to kill him.”

“Skinner’s got a copy,” Mulder said. “He’s calling him in for questioning now.” 

Hours Later…

In the office of the licensed clinical social worker Karen Kosseff, Mulder sat wondering how much more efficient the workforce might be if everyone participated in the employee assistance program. He intentionally sought out Karen because she was familiar with Scully’s history and for what he wished to discuss, this was a huge advantage.

As usual, Karen’s line of questioning was direct and germane. “Last time we spoke you were telling me about two new agents that joined your team, Agent Doggett and Agent Reyes. How is that working out? Are you feeling any different about them?”

“I like them more when they’re not in my office,” Mulder said in his dry monotone. “I don’t really know much about Agent Reyes. She’s been out working on assignment. I guess I have made some progress with my relationship with Doggett. I haven’t pinned him against a wall lately. I wanted to, but I figured straightening his nose might not be a great example of anger management.”

Karen crossed her legs and admonished Mulder with her eyes, but said nothing, leaving it all in her notepad. “Have you had these moments of aggression in the past before you were held against your will?”

“Before my abduction most of it I directed towards my boss…” Mulder admitted, the familiar scent of deep brown rich leather serving to calm him. “and the man who killed my father.”

“You know the man that killed your father?” Karen asked in surprise.

Her pinpoint on it made Mulder almost regret mentioning it. “I can’t really get into that. Confidential.”

Karen nodded and flipped through her previous notes. “Maybe we should shift the conversation to your personal life.”

Mulder straightened his shoulders. “You mean Scully?”

“We can start there if you like. You told me you feel she’s been keeping you at a distance, that she rather be self reliant. Do you know why that is? Have you asked her like you committed to in our previous session?”

“I did. I told her that she could depend on me and I made it clear that I wanted to be a part of everything. I believe her self-reliance has a lot to do with fear. I was gone and then I was dead. And that’s not the first time I’ve been resurrected.”  

Karen’s eyebrows rose, shifting her bangs across her forehead. She swiped it away with her finger, then fluffed the tight dark curls sitting like streamers from the top of her head. “Last visit we discussed recurring nightmares and shying away from some forms of physical contact. You mentioned that certain types of touching brought back memories of the time you were held captive. Have you spoken to Dana about the way you’re feeling?”

“She knows about the nightmares and she caught on that I need to take it slow, but I want her concentration to be on her health and her pregnancy. She’s had very bad bouts of sickness and I don’t need to add to anything going on with her.”

“It must have been quite a shock when you returned to find her pregnant. What are your feelings about it now?”

Mulder rubbed his fingers against the palm of his hand. “Excited for her. Nervous. I just need the baby to be healthy.”

“You realize you directed your feelings towards the mother and baby. How do you feel about becoming a father?”

He lifted his head to meet Karen’s eyes. “I want to be there for both of them. I want to be a part of everything.”

“Yes. How do you feel?”

“I’m happy." Mulder shrugged. "I love him already.” 

“How would you describe your current relationship with Dana?” 

“We’re getting along great I think.”

“Specifically your romantic relationship.”

Bringing his hand to his neck, Mulder massaged the tense muscles there. “I don’t know if we ever had much time to get it off the ground. It’s kind of hard to define. I mean, it was like we had our friendship and then we had that too, but it was never really in the traditional sense if you know what I mean.”

“Are you referring to the progression of dating?”

The muscles of Mulder’s back tightened and he stretched, lengthening his arms, then resting them on the leathery arm of the chair. His fingertips patted the soft material as he strummed them against it. “I don't know if we progressed. More like jumping onto the middle rung of a ladder. It was like we weren’t and then we just were.”

“Are you saying it was primarily sexual?”

“Well, no. I mean it was,” Mulder said, crooking the side of his mouth, “but it was much much more.”

“Let me ask you this way, what is your relationship like outside of the bedroom and outside of work.”

He leaned forward with his hands on his knees. “That’s, uh, that’s the part that’s lacking. And I recognized that. I asked her to have dinner with me tonight.”

Karen blew out a breath. “You’re willing to communicate, which is important especially with the upcoming birth. I might try my best to keep the conversation at tonight’s dinner away from work and the baby. Focus on the two of you.” Karen’s grin was amicable. 

Mulder rubbed his palms together. “I don’t want my relationship to be like my father and mother. I don’t want my son to have to go through what I went through. So yeah, I’m going to work at it.”

Karen’s eyes softened. “You lost your mother last year, received information about the death of your sister, being taken away against your will and tortured, your close call with death.. This is a tremendous amount for anyone to deal with. You need to allow yourself time to grieve, to be in the moment and process all that has happened to you.”

Mulder calmly shook his head. “I’m better at just moving forward.”

Karen passed him another warm smile. “We can discuss that in more detail next time. I believe the hour is up. I’ll see you next week and congratulations, Fox.”

“Hm?”

“The baby. You’re going to be a father.”

“Yeah. Yes. Thank you.” 

Four hours later…

“Scully, I haven’t seen or heard from you all day and then you come in here with that look on your face..”

“What look?”

“The one I’ve seen a thousand times. The one that says, Mulder, a ghost drenched me in ectoplasm and an alien gave me his number for his home planet, but I still don’t want to believe. What did you find, Scully?”

Scully lifted her chin and tightened her jaw. “I did come here, Mulder, to my house.” When she realized how harsh it sounded, she took a breath. “I’m sorry if I worried you.”

Mulder waved it away. “It’s okay, Scully. It’s just, I thought we had a date. I made dinner. Now it’ll have to be lunch for tomorrow. So did you find any truth to Duffy Haskell’s story at all?”

“There was a woman at Dr. Levy’s office. At Zeus Genetics. She was highly upset. I couldn’t get close enough to hear the conversation. To avoid detection I had to duck into a room…” She sat down at the dining room table suddenly caught up in a dizzy spell. She held her head in her hands rubbing at her forehead.  “..full of abnormal fetuses.” 

“Hybrids?” Mulder asked, sitting down in the seat beside her, stroking lightly at her back. 

“I’m not sure what it was. Mulder, What have they done?”

“It’s what they’re trying to do. If they are impregnating these women it means the tests have not been successful. At least not yet.” 

Scully straightened her back and rested her hand on the table. “And Ms. Hendershot?”

“I don’t know.” Mulder’s fingers danced around hers. “Dr. Parenti’s office called the basement phone and Doggett picked up.” 

“They didn’t tell him...”

“No. He thinks you were there investigating the case behind his back.” 

Fire threatened to burn a hole in Scully’s stomach. “Dr. Parenti said he didn’t see anything abnormal with me or Duffy Haskell’s wife’s ultrasound.”

“But you’re not convinced.”

Scully searched Mulder’s eyes, fear building inside like ants trying to save the queen. “What if Dr. Parenti is involved? What if I’m…”

“Scully, the IVF failed,” Mulder stated quietly.

“Then how?”

Mulder lifted his brow and monotoned, “I’m sure your mother taught you about the birds and the bees.”

Scully’s mouth opened to speak, but Mulder quickly interjected, “Is it really out of the realm of possibility that the ones that did this to you missed something? That your doctors did as well? And that by a miracle you are able to have this baby?” Mulder squeezed her hand and a tear fell to Scully’s cheek. “That night, our first time together, was nothing short of supernatural. I’ll never forget any of the times we were together, but that first time.. A world opened up that I didn’t know existed.” 

“You have done so much for me.”

“And then we did so much to each other,” Mulder said in a gravelly voice that stirred her insides. 

“Mulder,” she returned, feeling almost shy.

“What?” Mulder asked, and even though they were seated she felt him cocooning his body around her. Their chemistry buzzed and crackled. With his breath hot against her cheek and lips close enough to feel their steam beside her’s, he took her back in time. “That night..”

[FLASHBACK]

Left to his own device’s, Mulder let his brain churn until finally his body tired. With all the cases lately, he had gotten little rest and Scully’s couch had a pillowy softness to it that he had worn out of his lumpy one years ago. 

The tumblers of the lock startled him awake. A burst of hope leapt from his chest, but quickly fizzled with the shadowy clouds over Scully’s eyes, despair threatening to seal their fate like a cruel shellac. 

“Scully? I must have dozed off. I was waiting for you to get back.” The stiletto in her heart tightened his like a vice.  “It didn’t take, did it.”

Tormented by the weight of truth, Scully’s head hung and her eyes failed to meet his own. “I guess it was too much to hope for.”

He reached for her and she welcomed his arms. Agony squeezed at her lids and spilled from her eyes. “It was my last chance,” she cried against his soul.

NO. For her he would find a way, they would find a way, she would have a child and he would transcend death. “Never give up on a miracle.”

He hugged her again, the intense emotions shutting his eyes, squeezing love and will from his body and into hers. The heat of her soft cheek brushed against his neck then slowly, her lips trailed behind and his body came alive.

“Scully, I…” he started, not willing to allow their emotions to rule the moment, to test their friendship.

“I don’t want to be alone tonight,” Scully finished, still in his arms, in a breathless voice that drove him half crazy. Mulder pulled back enough to search her eyes. They begged him not to leave her to fight the demons alone. 

“Scully,” he protested softly, attempting to be the voice of reason, but she had already lifted to her toes. Her eyes closed and her lips pressed to his, taking his breath and his thought. The slow dance of her jaw as she sucked on his pillowy lips rattled him down to his foundation. Inside their kiss he was born again, to realize that every fluid inside him flowed, every ion charged, every muscle flexed only to be where he belonged, with her, eternal. 

She pulled from his lips and admonished him. “Don’t kiss me like that and tell me it’s for the wrong reasons.”

His mouth went dry and he could hear his heartbeat thrumming inside his ears. Slowly he shook his head, “With you, Scully, there is only right.” 

Delicately she braided their fingers and tugged, taking a step back, leading him to the bedroom with hooded eyes. He yanked her back towards him, his hand tangling and fisting in her hair, while his tongue boldly stroked past her parted lips and his mouth crashed down on hers.

In their fervor Scully’s blouse ripped free, their shoes and socks and a bra trailing behind them, Mulder’s large frame banged against the hallway wall tilting a painting as they both lifted his sweatshirt off his back. Wrecking her credenza as they passed, they knocked over an array of knicknacks stripping Scully’s lower half, not coming up for air, Mulder backpedaling, until their lips parted at the bounce of their bodies landing on the mattress. Eyes wide open he watched Scully’s naked body straddle him, her hand moving down to unbuckle his belt, then her fingertips fell on the tab of his zipper and began to pull it down over the long curve of his cock.  

“Mulder,” she moaned into his mouth as her petite hand slid underneath his waistband.

“Uh, Scully,” he groaned back against her lips. Desire rushed through him and a surge of nerves hit him harder than anything experienced before.

He removed his boxers, Scully rolling to her back, her hands roaming over his body, urging him to follow. Even through the sorrow and danger that had befallen their lives, Scully remained beautiful. He loved every curve and line, appreciated and proud of her brilliance and prowess. Scully’s eyes lidded in desire and he was on fire. The feel of her underneath him, the feel of the slide of his hand from her neck to her breasts, the way her nipples hardened at his touch, the dip at her waist, the rise of her hips, the curve of her behind, it all made him relish every sensation he felt and cherish every one he manifested inside her .

He ran his lips down her body, taking his time at the pinnacle of her opening. Her fingers curled in his hair. He sucked harder and her grip tightened, bucking, writhing against his mouth. His heart surged and he directed that passion to her sex, lapping her with his tongue, his jaw sensually moving to allow his lips to kiss and caress each ridge. 

Mulder kissed all the way back up to her eyes and carefully, with short delicate nudges, pushed himself inside. Scully’s face softened and he saw the affection in her blue seas as her arms wrapped around his neck. He thrusted faster, his abs gliding along her chest as he tilted his hips to increase the pressure on her front wall, eyes closing to feel her rhythm.

“Mulder,” she moaned. It was all she said, but the vibration against his mouth tugged at his heart. Her hips moved faster after that, her pants ending in short moans. Nothing could spike his desire like the sight of her filled with passion, her eyes darkening to cobalt, every pulse of her body calling to him. 

“Scully,” his voice broke, containing every bit of the emotion his heart was pouring out. Need took over until their movements were so fast and he felt so hard he thought they both would shatter. Her walls swelled and pounded hot as they cradled him tight and it took all his might to hold on. 

 The thought of Scully and her alone made him come, spilling into her in waves of pulsing madness, exploding joy and bright sharp color through every cell, curling his fingers, lighting his brain, straightening his toes. Her eyes captured his and he shouted, the sensation of years of coiled tension releasing.

She kissed his lips, her tongue dancing along his as he held her body, pumping the last of himself inside her. He thrusted a few more times before the pleasure was overcome, doused from oversensitive nerves. He groaned out her name, pulling out, keeping her in his arms as they caught their breath.

[Present Day]

Reminiscing, she realized how much she missed those moments. What it was like to spend a night naked to each other, exposed, their walls down and hearts open. Their souls sharing, mingled and interwoven as they held each other in dim light. Just him and her, no darkness, or overreaching entity, no X-File. All of it fuzzy and distorted into the background of him, all of him, all focused on her and the emotions bleeding from open veins.

She stroked his rough stubble with the soft texture of her hand, smoothing out his lines. “Mulder, during your abduction and then almost losing you, so many thoughts, emotions, there were so many things I should have told you, things I should have had the courage to say, and I promised myself..”

Mulder reached up and tenderly rested his hand at the back of her neck, kneading gently with his thumb. “Scully, whatever it is you think you need to say, you’ve already said it. Maybe not the words, but you-you’ve said it..I heard you and I-I know.” 

Silence stretched between them, hovering among heavy breaths and a longing gaze. A soft brush of his finger alongside hers, an innocent touch, perhaps unintentional, yet sent a lascivious shiver. His fingers curled and squeezed gently. The severe electricity of his touch made her swallow hard and her tongue flared to caress her top lip. 

His other hand withdrew from her neck, featherlight on her face as he guided her mouth towards his. She held her breath as their lips connected, and the soft pressure sent a warm ache humming through her veins. It was sweet and tender, different then the hot needy kiss of her desires, but it still evoked every feeling, all the urges that lay beneath. Her lips parted in a sigh that turned into a small moan when Mulder slid his tongue to meet hers. 

To ground herself, gain control of the growing pounding ache, she pressed her hands against his chest and felt a hard plane of muscle through his dark thin shirt. It was all him. Their kiss grew deeper and more intense, sparking a fuse that jumped along Scully’s breaking point. His strong hands touched her hair, face, under her blouse and along her back.  Scully moaned from the welcoming stroke of his warm skin. His hand dipped down the waistband of her slacks and beneath her lacy navy panties. So much time had passed. The anticipation of pleasure buzzed between her thighs, but Mulder stilled. 

Could he be having second thoughts or PTSD?  At the nudging of his lips, then his tongue, her head tilted and her mouth opened wider. Her hips slid forward on her chair and against the large bulge, hot and hard inside his pants. No, that wasn’t it. 

A rush of sensation forced her away from his mouth in a whimpering whisper. “Mulder.”

Deep long lashes fluttered against her cheek. His eyes blazed. “I want what we had, and more.”

“I want to be sure,” she replied with her insides aching and wet, her heart hammering in her chest so hard she could almost hear it.

“I think we already are. Fear is the only thing between us now.”

Their mouths came together, beginning a tender sway that again grew steadily in intensity, their tongues finding one another and intertwining over and over again. Mulder stood and brought Scully with him. They stripped in front of the other, nose to chest in a frenzy of need. All the feelings she had for him tingled her nerve endings.  

Both undressed, he placed his hand on her belly and Scully’s breath hitched. Her eyes met his and in his carribean depths, she saw her future. The thought so enticing that when he brushed her sex with the tips of his fingers, she dripped around him hot and wet. Her knees buckled and she groaned from the pleasure. Unable to resist she tugged him back to her lips. Mulder groaned in surprise, and her tongue plunged into his mouth. Desire, hot and heavy, traveled at light speed all the way to her center. He lifted her onto the table and her hand wrapped around him. Oh God he was hard. Moaning he returned her kiss, his tongue tangling with hers. It felt like eons ago the last time she allowed herself to feel this way. The taste of him, the feel of him, the scent of him surrounding her. 

 “Scully,” he breathed in longingly against her. His hands moving over her lower back, the soft flesh of her thighs. “I don’t want to wait anymore.”

“Neither do I,” she conceded and he eased her onto her back, stretching her out on the dining table. Her slender legs wrapped around him. 

Staring down into her eyes, dazed with passion, he knew his words were inadequate and no match for the feelings behind them, but still he blurted out, “You are beautiful, Scully.” 

Her fingers strummed his face. He kissed them and positioned himself to her, her body rising to meet his. “I’ve missed this,” she admitted, just before her back arched and she cried, “God, Mulder, easy,” as she squirmed against the fullness he gave her. She had almost forgotten how big he was.

“You okay?” he asked, pulling out in a swift bobbing motion.

“Yes,” she replied. She sat up to meet his eyes and rested her hands on his shoulders, while he ran his lips along her throat, leaving tender wet kisses in their wake, down to the soft swell of her breasts. Glancing down, she noticed his smile against them. Yes, Mulder, they are bigger than the last time you saw them. 

Doing his best to coax her nipple awake, he nuzzled her breast with his nose and his tongue until it strained, puckering as it begged at him. Slowly he drew it into his mouth and sucked hard.

Scully flinched beneath him and Mulder stopped.

“They’re just sensitive,” she explained. “It’s okay.”

Hands following lips, he rhythmically squeezed each breast farther into his flexing palms and electric pulses stabbed sharply into her core. 

“Mulder,” she warned, her one arm tight around him, the other reaching between them to draw him closer and align him.

He took the hint and with a short peck on his lips to reassure him that she was fine, he worked his way back inside her.  

With soft gentle movements he rotated his hips, and slowly her body formed to his. Almost nose to nose he leaned in and kissed her, his tongue and fingers teasing and tantalizing her while he simultaneously thrusted.  Scully enjoyed the friction and reveled more in his response, gliding her fingers across the scruff of his face, breathing and kissing against his throat, biting, underside of his chin.

She gazed down where they met, watching his long strides pleasure her, before meeting back up with his eyes. His pace becoming wild and erratic, their moans steady among their gasps, “Mulder,” she warned in a panic, “Mulder,” she warned louder before she came, her orgasm rolling through her as she felt him pumping against it. He squeezed her so tight it bordered pain, but she loved the heat it brought. 

When their hearts and breaths slowed he nuzzled in her hair. “I want to move in with you,” he whispered in his deep rustic tones. “My lease is coming due and I don’t see a reason to renew it.”

Suddenly Scully felt the bareness of their damp bodies. The cool air separating them with a prickling of skin. She dropped her head and slid off the table and out of their bubble, glimpsing his long toes uncurling. “We can discuss it tomorrow,” she said quickly, trying to keep her voice upbeat, passing him a tight smile before heading to the shower.

The door sprung open while she was rinsing off, Mulder stepping in without an invitation. He squirted bodywash into his hand ignoring her glower. Scrubbing under his arms he looked down at her and asked, “Have you made a decision?”

“We can discuss it tomorrow,” Scully repeated, hoping it would end the conversation and the growing volcano erupting inside her stomach. 

“I’ve got thirty days left,” he said, his arrogance swirling down the drain with the rest of the suds. “It’s not home anymore, Scully. I’m lonely without you.”

Scully twisted off the water and opened the door, reaching for a towel and handing another to Mulder. “Mulder, why do you have to do that?”

“What?” he asked, toweling his head dry before working on his chest.  

She felt her heated cheeks pull back and lift, a glow warming inside her rib cage. “Make it so convincing to say yes.”

Chapter Text

The weight of Mulder’s bare body draped lazily over Scully’s smaller frame. It felt lighter than the last time they laid like this. Thinner. Months without movement on unforgiving metal; saws and lasers ripping him apart had caused his body to atrophy. Whatever science repaired his body recovered his muscles slower and doubled his indignation. God, the thought of all her nightmares being true. How did his back bear the burdens of so many while living tied to their whipping post? Nevertheless, the feel of him left her floating in a waveless storm of unanswered fears and a dream of possibilities with him she never dared enter her desires.

The breeze from the open window danced in to disrupt the dust fairies bedazzled by the sun’s rays. Security from his presence allowed something as simple as an unlatched pane. More indulgences. Her lip quivered. The smooth sinewy curve of his shoulder too close, and drawing her closer. Her eyes closed and her lips pressed against the valley at the top of his bicep. It made her hum all over and stirred him simultaneously. Without words, he cascaded over her like silk on a hot day. Lips and tongue sweeping, hips capricious in their need. He slid inside her hard and swift, like a well lubricated piston. Her muscles tightened  and head fell back, absorbing and resigning to his body’s movements of unrelenting delight.

*     

“Good Morning,” Scully said to Mulder, standing in her kitchen, hiding her smile behind the tiny tornado above her ceramic coffee mug piping with herbal tea. The pout on her cherry lips blew delicately at the steam and Mulder had to chew at the inside of his cheek to keep from taking her back into the bedroom. 

“Good Morning,” Mulder returned, the coffee maker clicking as he took the large glass carafe from its base, and poured what resembled high octane gasoline into the mug sitting readily at the counter. He took a sip and edged closer to Scully. He shared a few breaths between them before he said in a gravelly voice, “Last night, I don’t believe that we actually heard a yes to my question.”

“Was there a question?” Scully served back. “It’s kind of sudden don’t you think?”

“Seven years?” Mulder said in a huff, clanking his mug on the counter. He shrugged. “I heard seven’s heaven.”

“At least give me a couple days to mull it over.” Scully said, still flirting with her mug.

Mulder leaned on the counter, his fingers close enough to touch her arm, but the electricity between them warmed it without contact. “A couple days? I know it’s been a few years, but isn’t that your birthday?”

A knock at the door made them both turn. 

Mulder answered. A woman at the other end said, “My name is Mary Hendershot. My baby's in danger. So is yours.”

Mulder raised his brow. “Can you tell me who’s going to win the World Series?”

“Ms. Hendershot,” Scully said, passing Mulder an uneasy glance. “What makes you think our babies are in trouble?”

“I know you were there, Agent Scully. Your doctor is in on it.”

“In on what, exactly?”

“You saw the alien babies in those… those jars. They’re using us as alien/hybrid incubators.”

“Scully, can I speak to you for a moment in private?” Mulder said, offering Ms. Hendershot a seat on the couch.

Scully excused herself from Ms. Hendershot and followed Mulder into the kitchen. 

“Scully, how do you know this woman isn’t Cuckoo for Cocopuffs?” Mulder whispered loudly.

“Because she’s right, Mulder,” Scully whispered back with added conviction. “I saw those jars. There’s something not right, and the fact that it’s my doctor? Knowing what we know, how can you not question it?”

“What if there’s something we’re not seeing? How do you know she’s not setting you up?”

Scully brought her palm to her forehead, gently raking it through her fiery locks. “I don’t know.” She paced forward and back. “When my mother told my brother Bill I was pregnant and that I had concerns with privacy, he suggested I go to a secured Naval hospital. Told my mother he could give me a team of the best obstetricians anyone could ever hope for. I’ll give him a call. We should be safe there.”

Unable to think of a better solution, Mulder reluctantly agreed.

*

Mulder stood motionless listening to Scully speak of the improbable and, for most, unimaginable. Pride swelled in his gut. He knew the fear she overcame to say the words, communicating Mrs. Hendershot’s claims of being about to give birth to something inhuman. Her delivery was so much more professional than Mulder felt he ever communicated the supernatural. People thought the theories coming from his mind were that of those in padded cells or that howled at the moon. Scully commanded the room and the respect they had for her words, from that of an FBI agent and a medical doctor, could not be understated. It made Mulder recall how green she was when they first started and how seasoned she had become. It honored him to stand beside her, in silent admiration, and call himself her partner.

*

In the exam room, a very human form wiggled on the ultrasound monitor and Mulder released the breath from his air filled lungs.

“Looks like a healthy baby boy,” the doctor confirmed.

Scully looked at Mulder and squeezed the hand holding hers. “I want to know that it’s healthy.”

The doctor nodded. “It’s early, but we can do the amnio just to be certain.”

Mulder knew amnios had their risk, but he also knew Scully was bound to have it done. So, instead of voicing his opinion, he offered his support. 

“I’m anxious about the results,” Scully said to the doctor. 

“You’ll need to take it easy after the procedure,” the doctor told Scully, then addressed Mulder to explain, “The baby will be at risk if the membrane were to rupture.”

Mulder had more questions, but his buzzing cell phone led him out of the room. “Mulder.”

“It’s John Doggett. I got some info on this guy, Buddy Haskell. You’re not going to believe this.”

“Try me,” Mulder replied.

“The prints match up with a dead man named David Haskell. He died in 1970.”

Mulder started to pace, pinching the bridge of his nose. “This is a setup. They want Hendershot’s baby.” To himself he thought, I need to get Scully out of here .

“Where are you?” Doggett asked. “You might need backup.”

Mulder didn’t exactly refuse to answer, he just ended the call before his location could be obtained. Racing to Scully’s side, he found her already helping Mrs. Hendershot into the elevator.

The doors opened and there stood a man that looked vaguely familiar to Mulder. 

“I was sent by Doggett,” Knowle said.

“How did Doggett know how to find us?” Mulder returned.

Knowle looked around clearly stressed. “There’s no time. Follow me.”

Mulder’s doubts spun in his head, but knowing the hospital had been compromised and Scully needed to be off her feet, with his Sig Sauer firmly in his holster, he helped them into the large SUV. 

They hadn’t driven far when a shout came from the back seat. “I think the baby’s coming,” Ms. Hendershot gasped, holding her stomach, perspiration beading her forehead.

“If you don’t stop the car you could be endangering her life,” Scully yelled at Knowle, her face lined with concern. 

With a scowl, Knowle commanded the driver to pull over. Scully attempted to get out of the car and tend to Mary Hendershot, but Knowle stopped her.

“If you lay a hand on her, it’ll be the last thing you touch,” Mulder warned. 

Knowle gritted his teeth. “Then take care of your wife, Mulder, it’s for her own good.” 

Ms. Hendershot screamed and Scully called out her name. “Mary!”

Mulder, desperate to appease Scully, watched the woman give birth. It looked normal, with a healthy set of lungs that matched his mother.

*

After a lengthy checkup in yet another hospital, Scully had finally been released. 

“Six pounds eight ounces. A boy,” Mulder said to Scully, referring to Mary’s baby.

Scully glowered at him. “They switched it on her, we can prove this, Mulder.”

“I’m afraid we can’t prove anything,” Doggett said, placing the flowers he brought for Scully on the table next to her bed.

“I really hate to agree with anything Agent Doggett says, but the proof would be hard to come by,” Mulder returned. 

Scully pleaded, “They showed me a tape of another person’s womb.”

Mulder nodded, listening intently. “Possibly. Agent Doggett, how did you know where to send them?”

“Skinner finally told me when he realized Scully’s life might be in danger as well.”

Scully closed her eyes and took a deep inhale of the antiseptic air of the hospital room. “It was all planned, Mulder, you know that, from the moment that man walked into our office. We were used to get at Ms. Hendershot’s baby and now we are being used to cover it up.” 

“Right now, Scully, I’m not sure what to think. I think it’s left all of us with a lot of questions.”

“The important thing right now is that your baby is fine,” Doggett added. The lines in his face creased and his voice softened. He asked Scully, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was afraid, afraid they’d use it against me, take me off the X-Files so I couldn’t find Mulder.” Tears sprung to her eyes and she quickly wiped them away.

Doggett lowered his head. “I told you I’d help you, I told you we’d find him and we did.”

“I know, but then when he returned, I knew the best way I could help him was to stay on the X-Files,” Scully replied. 

Doggett gently squeezed Scully’s arm. “Just know, Agent Scully, I can be here for you as a partner, and a friend, if you let me in.”

Scully nodded, more tears streamed and she opened her arms to Doggett who leaned in to give her a hug. With a crooked grin he looked at Mulder. “I’ll leave you two to it.”

Scully waited for the door to close and to see Doggett heading down the hallway. With Mulder’s help she rose from the bed. He gathered her bag, and the flowers from Doggett and Skinner. “There was one other thing,” she said quietly. “Mulder, Mary confided in me, said she had a boyfriend, but her conception date didn’t match up.”

With Scully’s hand still in his own, his thumb brushed her webbing. “Scully, I know what you’re thinking, but it also could be possible that you weren’t as barren as everyone thought. You and I both know there were other ways.. Other times..”

[Flashback - All Things]

The weekend’s journey had sent Scully twisting and turning like a weak garden hose dancing to Shakira. Evaluating her life, she had examined each road of choices, though only one called to her through spooky mystical chimes. That draw had landed her on a worn leather pine colored couch sitting next to the man she knew as her friend and her partner and so much more. The past few days she had opened herself to that beyond science or religion, and finally to the one she chose to follow and that chose to follow her right back. 

She could hear Mulder’s sweet baritone as he philosophized over the complexity of it all. The weight of the day catching up to her and drawing her eyelids closed. Moments later she felt her body weightless, cradled by Mulder’s tender strong arms, pulling her close to the warmth provided by his body. 

Her eyes fluttered open as he lowered her onto the bed. “Are you leaving?” Scully asked sleepily.

“I’m sleeping on the couch,” he said, tucking the blanket back around her.

“Stay,” she yawned. “It is your bed.”

“It’s okay Scully, get your rest,” he stated firmly, squeezing her hand. She held onto it, refusing to let it go as he started to pull away. 

Mulder relented with another gentle tug, the mattress sinking to accommodate his weight as he sat beside her. Softly, he tangled his fingers in her hair, gently placing back a few strands, the pads of his fingers stroking away her weariness. 

Her sightline floated to meet his, embracing the electricity warming between them. She felt the moat around her heart dry into the cracks. “It terrifies me, Mulder, that there could be a world where we didn’t know each other.”

“I believe we would have found each other no matter what,” he returned softly.

Scully took a long deep breath, releasing it slowly. “What now?”

Mulder tightened his lip and slowly shook his head. “You decide what you want to do with the life you’ve chosen. If you want children, Scully, there are ways. You can adopt.”

“Mulder, we’ve been down this road. They’re not going to give a baby to an unmarried FBI agent.”

“There are ways around that too.” He paused as she gave him a puzzled look. “Scully, we’ve got to try.”  He tenderly brushed her face. “And I’ll break every law of man, science, and God himself to make it happen.”

Scully sat up, closing her eyes, pressing her lips to his, their mouths slowly opening in unison, tongues reaching to glide along the others’, knowing when they opened she would be staring at the only man she could ever imagine herself with.

Scully’s cheeks heated when their eyes met again. “Mulder,” she breathed, and without the need for the question, she nodded and said, “yes.”

They peeled off the other’s clothes with the swiftness of a Sig Sauer being pulled from a holster, touching bare skin with jaws rocking against the other. Scully’s hand rustled needily through Mulder’s hair as they laid back on the bed, his body covering hers. He smiled at her then, his eyes holding that same gentle fire and connection as the first time she shook his hand in the basement office. 

“Are you sure?” he asked tentatively. 

Feeling his body tense on top of her own, she replied smoothly, “I’ve never been more certain.” 

She had given him more than her choice of a shared journey. She had given her heart, for him to keep safe or break, but either way it bled for him. In his eyes she saw his understanding. “It’s always been you, Scully.”

Her hand glided between them and Mulder’s eyes widened and his lips parted at her touch aligning them. Heavy and thick he pushed reverently inside. 

For long minutes, they kissed and reveled in their feelings, in the waves of sensations hitting them as he moved inside her. Her walls hugged him tightly again and again, and each time she released a small moan against his lips. He groaned in return. Their pace was slow, considerate, languid and vividly profound. Mulder paused and kissed her gently, his right index stroking her forehead in reverence, both of them knowing he was intrinsically home. 

The trees rustled against the window as if awakened by the thunder. A moaning sigh escaped her at the new revelation of their bodies, a mere medium to their connected souls, branded and pounding in pleasure, writhing against and within. His hands memorized every line and curve in stimulating ecstasy. She kissed him until forced to breathe. He was holding her tight enough to weld them together and she felt him, a deep ache between her thighs calling, craving completeness. Mulder let out a long moan as his body throbbed inside her. 

The pleasure of Mulder was intoxicating, all consuming and she embraced it all. Words on the tip of her tongue, cried to be spoken into existence. Even if she never said it, it was there every time she uttered his name. The same as she knew every time her name left his lips.

With each long slow deep thrust their breaths labored. The magic bled through the other, stroking nerve endings, their consciousness transcending and binding. Time stood still, and every pore Scully had, cried out. She flexed around him and the waves shook her fiercely, the intense power driving her under. Mulder’s warmth seeped into her core and he growled her name.

She stared into his eyes as they slowly recovered, tender emotions flowing from one to the other. Their electricity pulsed in the air. She palmed his face lovingly caressing his cheek with her thumb. He was still deep inside her and she never wanted to let go. Her eyebrows raised and a single tear fell to her pillow. It had always been him. With every hand held running blindly toward lights above a forbidden plane, squeezed in order to ground the other, caressed over a hospital bed. The intimate sway of their hips in time, a brush of their bodies in passing and gazes of trust, of knowing. It was every time their eyes communicated what their mouths failed to say. It was him with the sound of a voice, a name on the other side of a phone. Every night in a car driving to the unknown, every joke, every exchange of banter, she knew. She knew with every pull of gravity to his orbit. The affection in a single kiss on the forehead, fingers caressing a cheek or across lips, foreheads melding in a way more intimate than sex. Shared truths, smiles, tears, a cross and medallion, a shared adventure. Every time they followed and saved each other to the ends of the Earth, in hallways, in apartments, and into the darkness. Fingers intertwined reassuring that they always had their partner. Through every shared moment, shared heartbeat.. It had always been them.

[Present Day, 2002]

Scully’s hand fell over her belly and she caressed the small bump. Mulder’s hand affectionately joined hers, lacing their fingers. The truth of this child lay not only in science and tests, but between them. Could their connection have transcended all obstacles to bring this child into existence? She felt his lips press to her head and her taxed body slumped against him as his reassuring arm draped around her. “Come on, Scully,” he whispered. “Let’s go home.”

Chapter Text

Mulder’s voice carried out of the office, into the hallway and caressed Scully’s ear canal as she stepped out of the elevator. Her heart pounded so hard against her rib cage she had to stop to take a deep breath. His hearty laugh at someone on the other end of the phone had the butterflies in her stomach doing backflips. Never before had he had such an effect, but with every day that passed, she felt herself succumbing to the reality of it all. Embracing and appreciating the intensity in their connection. Sharing the experience of her pregnancy with him. His voice boomed again. The cord he struck within her sounded loud and low inside her belly, vibrating against its walls as she entered the office. Mulder’s gaze reached hers, and his mouth curved into a delicious smile. 

“Morning,” he said, hanging up the phone. She inadvertently glanced at his rolled up sleeves. They exposed every sinew of muscle in his forearm, lightly bronzed from years of traveling around the country with her. 

“You seem extra chipper today, Mulder,” she answered.

Mulder sifted through the stacks of papers scattered along his desk in an order only he knew existed. “I was reviewing some of these cases I missed while I was being tortured in a spaceship.”

Scully folded her arms defensively at the chill of his words. She realized it would take a long time for him to process all that had happened during his abduction both on and outside the ship. The best she understood to do was give him his time, be patient, and not pressure him. Let him take the lead.  “Any you find interesting?”

He lifted one of the red folders outlined in white, then began to leaf through it. “Scully this case about the siddhi mystic … I know you don’t believe, so I’m finding it hard to understand..” 

The memory of the case and the face of the boy before she pulled the trigger sent tears springing to her eyes. “I knew you would believe Mulder, and I used those beliefs, and for a moment, I just knew.. Beyond my own logic, or my own science.”

Mulder lifted the graphic picture of Hugh Potoki, one of the victims, and rotated it sideways. His eyebrows raised. “He’ll never have to worry about constipation problems again.”

Scully lifted a brow, refusing to be amused by his lightheartedness.

Not receiving the response he desired, he continued. “There were a few things I found peculiar. The first one being Doggett’s notes. It stated there was no forced entry.” He held up the picture showcasing the man’s massive trauma to his lower intestines. “I tend to disagree with that assessment.”

“I did miss you, Mulder,” Scully replied.

Mulder shrugged. “Be that as it may, I better sharpen up my scalpel and start practicing slicing and dicing because it looks like you just keep me around for kicks.” 

Scully tucked her chin as if her smile weighed heavy on her face avoiding his eye contact. “It was very difficult without you and the cases were not even close to as enjoyable as it is with you.” 

“Even with Chuck helping you?”

“He assisted…” she clarified, “and became vital to leads on certain cases.”

Mulder raised a brow and said flatly, “I’m glad my friends were able to pick up the slack.”

“I only wanted to be able to see each case the way you would. That case was especially difficult given it was a little boy I saw.”

Mulder’s brow furrowed. “You didn’t believe. Then how were you able to pull the trigger?”

“In an instant I knew that it was what you would have seen because that’s just the way you come at things, without judgment or prejudice, and with an open mind I’m not capable,” she said softly.

“You’re capable of a lot more than your fears allow.” Mulder stood and narrowed the space between them, taking her hand and bringing it to his chest, and holding it with such determination she felt his heart beating through his shirt. 

“I think that’s something I learned,” she replied. Bunnies chased butterflies inside her abdomen. Her eyes gravitated to his lips and she found it almost impossible to resist their pull.

Those plump luscious lips were surrounded by the lightest of scruff from his haphazard shave. Was he in a rush this morning? Maybe it had been a late night chasing a lead or the couch had a spring come loose. The thought of him lonely on his couch, cloaked only by the company of white noise made her empty inside. Why did she choose to keep him at such a distance? Did she even know anymore, or was it just a reflex from years past?

The scent of his heady cologne brought her into the present where he was gently sending her into a trance with the pads of his fingers. Softly they stroked her face, the other hand gently massaging the webbing of hers against his chest. The softness in his eyes lit up her entire body.

“Morning everyone,” Doggett’s voice rang out, startling them both and causing Scully to step back out of their cocoon. Her eyes remained on Mulder’s and the longing in his made the embers inside her flare. 

“Morning, Agent Doggett,” Scully replied and Mulder almost blushed.

Doggett eyed them suspiciously. “Skinner’s looking for you two. He’s got a temporary assignment for us. Another department requested our help.” 

Abruptly, Mulder nodded at Doggett and grabbed his jacket, looped it over his shoulder and strided out of the office and into the elevator, pressing the floor button and staring up at the numerals as he leaned against the back bar. Scully followed close behind, curious as to his sudden rush of adrenaline.

“This better not be a jerkoff assignment,” Mulder mumbled, not taking his eyes off of the numbers.”

“I think we should hear Skinner out. Give him the benefit of the doubt.”

The doors opened and Mulder stepped out, giving a half step so she could keep up. “We’ll see.”

*

“This morning I was called into a meeting headed up by the assistant director of counterterrorism requesting our assistance,” Skinner said as he fixed his glasses and sat down in his chair.   

Mulder retrieved the empty shell from his mouth and allowed it to join its friends in the ashtray on the corner of Skinner’s desk. He noted the lack of cigarette butts. “You’re putting us back on general assignment?”  

“They’ve asked for your assistance temporarily. It’s all hands on deck listening to wire taps and it needs to be taken seriously. These are possible threats to national security.” 

“It’s all hands on deck, Mulder,” Scully repeated, trying to be both supportive to Skinner and convincing to Mulder. “All departments.”

Mulder nodded absently without a word. He leaned into his fingers, his thumb supporting his head and an elbow leaning on the arm of his chair, Mulder rubbed his brow. “Why assign two seasoned agents to monitor the wire? There’s a reason you want us on this.”

Skinner stared intently at Mulder, pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, and in a harsh tone released in a grunt, “Senior law enforcement has uncovered evidence suggesting suspecting bombers believe in aliens and lizard people.”  

Mulder laughed. “So it only stands to reason they call in Mr. and Mrs. Spooky.”

“I have to agree with Mulder, Sir, I find it kind of insulting,” Scully inserted.

Skinner held up his hand. “I understand, and I’m not into wasting anyone’s time or the Bureau’s money. I have reason to believe this may be worth checking out.”

“How’s that?” Mulder asked.

Skinner handed over two thumb drives. “I was hoping you could come at this subjectively prior to this information in case it was a false lead. We received a package two days ago with those drives along with typed pages. The pages reference various conspiracy theories, including that aliens have launched a detailed plan to take over the earth. Including, and I know you’ll find this intriguing, using humans as incubators and hosts for long term colonization.”

Mulder leaned back in his chair. “Let me guess, no return address or fingerprints.”

“No.”

“How do we know this isn’t a misdirection?” Scully asked.

“I am counting on your skills to determine that. On the drive you’ll read his arguments in detail of how reptilians and lizard people have already controlled parts of the government and have altered human DNA.”

“Is this the only known copy?” Mulder asked.

“Actually he indicated in his letter that he has dispersed the material to several people throughout the world in the event of his death in order for the truth to get out.”

Mulder gave a nod. “Guess we’ve got work to do.”

“They’ve designated the tenth floor to this project and that’s where you’ll be reporting,” Skinner said.

Mulder raised a brow and pursed his lips. “Next to the gift shop?”

“That project is set to be finished in 2003, so no, no gift shop,” Skinner answered.

Mulder looked at Scully. “Guess I won’t be getting you an FBI bibb for your baby shower Scully. Although, with all the shit we’ll be stepping in, I might pick up some diapers.”

The room was large, sectioned off by individual cubicles. Mulder led Scully to a U-shaped area with their name plates on perpendicular desks. He pulled out the chair and Scully sat down. Mulder’s hands rose to his hips, flaring out his suit jacket as he surveyed the area. “Sanctioned to the cattle mazes for the meek and the spineless.”

“Hey,” Scully said, curling her finger around his, “you still got me.”

Mulder’s eyes sparkled as they gleamed down at her before he raised his finger to his mouth and gestured with his head to the cubicle next to theirs. An agent with steel eyes and peppered hair to match sucked on the end of a plastic straw and spoke in almost inaudible tones to someone on the phone. “Yeah, they just arrived. Guess it’s officially a circus. I’ll fill you in on the details later. Okay. Later.” The guy returned the handset to its cradle and pushed back on his chair to poke his head around the cubicle. He passed Mulder a tight smile and a nod. “The tapes we’re reviewing today are stacked in the corner over there. Notepads and a computer are on the desk, coffee is in the breakroom next door. I personally don’t care if they’re lizards, ISIS, or martians, if they mention an attack on this country, they’re going down.”

Before Mulder could reply, Scully tapped him on the shoulder and handed him a headset. This was going to be a long day.

Instead of diving into the tapes he was assigned, he decided to rustle through the files on the thumb drive Skinner had given him. He quickly became immersed in the attention to detail. 

Lunchtime came and Scully surprised him by ordering a hamburger all the way. He never remembered Scully having a preference for burgers or the french fries that came with his sandwich, but when he reached for a fry, his plate was bare. He looked up and Scully had the other half of his chicken salad sandwich in her hand. 

“Are you going to finish this?” she asked meekly.

He bit back his smile, pressing his top teeth firmly into his bottom lip. “All yours.” He supposed she was eating for two now. Or a baby elephant. 

His stomach growled and he shuffled through his pocket and tossed a few sunflower seeds into his mouth for good measure. Crunching away, he slid on his headphones and pressed play. Men with thick accents argued over a football game while the sound of a dog barking echoed in the distance. He listened intently, mostly to the Raiders running over the Bills, until the hairs on the back of his neck slowly stood on end. His heart flooded with warmth as Scully lightly clasped his knee and slowly her fingers had found their way to the inside of his thigh, her nails scraping against the taut fabric between their skin. A bulge formed inside his pants, thickening and growing towards the warmth of her hand, already anticipating the sensations to follow. His mouth went dry as he croaked out a whisper, “You want something?”

“I’m not sure,” she huskily whispered back. “I was considering going to the machine to get something sweet and wondered if you wanted anything while I was up.”

Mulder’s eyes widened. “You’re still hungry?”

“Just a craving.”

His cock throbbed as her fingers thrummed millimeters from the crown through the tight slacks. The severe pulse forced him to close his eyes as it shot into his lower back. It made it very hard to concentrate. “Scully, you.. Um.. you’re...”

“I’m sorry,” she said, quickly. Her eyebrows arched. “I didn’t realize..”

“Yeah,” Mulder said. “I don’t mind, it’s just that if I get called into Skinner’s office, he’s going to want to know how I spilled glue all over my pants.”

Scully passed him a sly smile. Her enjoyment of their indiscretion, their unique and intense intimacy, had spread to her beautifully rosy cheeks. With a quick glance to ensure there were no prying eyes, he leaned in closer to her lips and just as his eyes closed and fully committed to the act, the small part of his overworked brain doused him in ice water.

A breath away from her lips he whispered, “Scully, what if they are counting on no one believing that man. What if he is a scapegoat for the larger plan? What if he exposed something they are trying to hide?”

Scully sighed heavily. “Mulder, what are you talking about? And how would you even go about proving any of that?”

Mulder felt the weight of his own heart. “You think it’s crazy.”

“Yes.”

“Hey guys, sorry I’m late, Skinner had me check out a couple things before I met you up here,” Doggett said as he pulled up a chair. “What I miss?”

Scully passed Mulder a look. “Nothing yet,” she said as she handed Doggett a headset.

Mulder stood and pushed in his chair, taking his tapes with him, shoving them into his pockets. 

“Mulder, where are you going?”

“I’ve got a roast in the oven and I want Frohike to tell me if it’s done,” he replied pulling his arm through the sleeve of his jacket.

“Mulder, wai..”

That was all he heard as he left the large room. She knew where he was headed. She’d be there soon enough and maybe then he’d have more answers.

Chapter Text

The Lone Gunman’s Lair - 9:14pm

“It’s a standard wire tap, no big surprises,” Byers said as he handed the tapes back to Mulder. 

“But where were the tapes recorded from?” Mulder asked. “Can you get a location or an IP? Were the agents recording from a van or office? Were they in a motel or FBI headquarters?” 

“Not from what we could see,” Langly answered.

“So where? Are you able to tell?”

Frohike spun around in his chair. “Glad you asked. You’ll want to hold on to your hat because all of the tapes you gave us traced to a single location.”

Byers leaned into Mulder. “Inside the Pentagon.”

Mulder frowned. “The Pentagon? That seems like an odd place for the FBI to be listening in on a wire tap.”

Frohike nodded. “We thought so too.”

The familiar click of unlocked doors and Mulder opened his car, pausing at the folded paper lying delicately on his seat. Slipping inside, he palmed the note and drove, waiting several blocks before pulling over to read it.  There was an address and a time. Mulder looked at the clock on the dashboard. He had less than 20 minutes to get there. Normally, somebody might think twice before following the suggestion of a haphazard note left on a car’s seat, but the mystery intrigued Mulder. And if it happened he was being led into something nefarious he’d be ready for that too.

Street lamps cast a dim light on the side street the address had led him to. Tiny dark figures scurried down the tar road and Mulder glanced at his watch. Scully hadn’t shown at The Lone Gunman's and if he didn’t call soon she might start to worry. Headlights turning down the street caused Mulder to shade his eyes. A car slid up alongside his and rolled down the window. The man in the car was familiar although hardly recognizable out of uniform. Mulder was almost certain he was one of Knowle Rohrer’s buddies and with that, his trust meter plummeted.  

Not sensing an immediate threat, Mulder rolled down his window and said, “You’re DoD. You were there to help with Mrs. Hendershot’s baby.”

“You may have been followed,” the man spurted out in close knit syllables. “They’re watching us. I live two doors down from here. I have a scrambler. We can talk inside.”

“First I want to know why you’re doing this,” Mulder shot back. 

The man looked around fearfully. “Follow me before you get us both killed.” 

“They’ll be a lot more dead than that if you don’t tell me what your stake is in all this,” Mulder replied. 

The man answered, sounding like the rumbling of a train starting on a track. “You’re wasting time. And keep your voice low. They’re already covering their tracks. You must follow the evidence and find the bombs before it all unravels. We must fight the future.”

***

“I assume you read the files from Wagner,” the man said as Mulder took a seat on the leather recliner in the apartment.

Mulder waited for the man to stop pacing and peering out the window. When he finally sat on the sofa perpendicular to Mulder, he wrung his hands and explained. “It’s a test. It’s to see how far they can really take this. To find the answer to the question: if there is a bomb threat to destroy every bridge in NYC, will people allow their civil liberties to be taken away? Even if they don’t agree, with the bridges gone and the tunnels shut down there’s no way off the island except through the waterways.”

“If there is a threat, the waterways could be blocked as well. They’d be trapped. Millions of people, trapped, confined to a twenty mile radius,” Mulder said. “From there you can use water to weaken their immune systems, give them viruses from all sorts of origins, or spray from overhead,” Mulder took a breath allowing his thoughts to run wild. “If they get scared enough they’ll agree to blood tests, DNA testing… All under the guise of national security.” Mulder raked a hand through his hair and asked,  “Is that what they’re testing? a virus?”

The man shrugged. “Virus, supersoldiers, compliance, does it matter?” 

The corners of Mulder’s mouth tightened. “Not a lot. So what’s your stake in all this?”

“My family is from NYC. I need to do everything in my power to save them. Protect them.” His shallow breath and pained expression convinced Mulder he was telling the truth. The man lifted his head to look straight into Mulder’s eyes. “Find the bombs Agent Mulder. Get to them before they destroy all of NY and take away all our freedom.”

Mulder’s phone rang, causing them both to jump. He smiled and nodded, removing his phone from his jacket pocket and holding it up for the man to see. “I better answer this.” He got up and headed toward the door. “Until we meet again.”

He waited until the front door closed before he answered, “Mulder.”

“Special Agent Fox Mulder?” the female voice said on the other end.

“Speaking.”

“Agent Mulder, this is Monica Reyes.” 

Mulder rubbed the bridge of his nose and headed down the cement steps and towards the car. “Yes, Agent Reyes.” 

“I’d like to meet with you. I think I can provide assistance on this case.” 

Mulder stared up at the night sky. Cloudless, yet there were no stars. “Scully contacted you?”

“She was given the order by Deputy Director Kersh to stay at her posted position. She doesn’t want you doing this alone and you shouldn’t be doing this without a partner.”

Mulder shut his eyes and leaned against the car. “I don’t need another partner, for so many reasons.”

“Skinner requested me. I’ll be in D.C. in a few hours. I’d really appreciate it if we could work together amicably. Please. I need your cooperation.”

Mulder kept his eyes closed and breathed out. If it kept Scully away from danger he might as well let Monica help. “So what did you have in mind? What assistance did Skinner request?”

“I have connections within the Bureau that may be able to help you on this case.” 

Mulder opened his eyes and opened the car door, getting in. “Call me when you get here.”

By the time Monica had met up with Mulder, the sky had morphed into a black star studded canvas streaked with violet ribbons upon the horizon. Monica sat across from Mulder in the twenty-four hour diner sipping coffee and rambling on about her past cases. Mulder couldn’t help but smirk at Monica’s open mindedness. So very opposite of Scully.

“So what started you on this path towards the unexplained?” Mulder asked, taking a bite out of his bacon, egg, and cheese roll.

Monica passed him a warm smile that he couldn’t quite discern if it was genuine or condescending. It hit like a mother patting their young child on the head for telling her they knew where babies came from and then telling her it was from the stork. 

“It started when I was about thirteen. I started getting certain strange feelings.”

“Yeah, that happened to me too, every time I looked at my Farrah Faucett poster.”

Monica laughed. “I’m being serious.”

“So am I,” Mulder smiled back.

“I believe there are certain energies in the universe and I believe I’m sensitive to them.” Monica picked up her coffee cup and said before taking another taste, “That belief is why I became the black sheep at the NOLA field office.”

“If you’re hunting for the supernatural, New Orleans is a good place to start. Scully told me you have a masters in religious studies. I’m not exactly the biggest proponent of religions or that the claims from the people that run them are always genuine.”

“Neither am I,” Monica said. “Not exactly. It’s like I said, I have these feelings. A search for answers to those feelings led me to studying different religions, some of which I found truly fascinating. That led me to studying the occult and ritualistic crimes. It felt like it was a calling for me to join the FBI and use my sensitivities to do good.”

Mulder nodded and finished the last bites of his sandwich. “Did you ever find any answers?”

“Not exactly. I’ve seen glimpses of the whole,” Monica replied.

“Do you believe in the existence of extraterrestrials?” Mulder asked, testing her reaction.

“I don’t not believe. I’m open to the idea and after what I witnessed with your abduction, after seeing a UFO with my own eyes, I’m leaning more towards there is a lot I have yet to learn on the subject.”

“I never thanked you for offering your support to Scully during my absence… thank you.”

“I like Dana a lot. Both John and I care for her.”

“You also helped her tackle some of her fears and stay open to possibilities in my absence.” Mulder pursed his lips. “That’s no small task.”

“It was my pleasure.” 

Just then Monica’s phone rang. “Excuse me, I’m waiting for a call from someone.”

Even though she didn’t leave the table, her side of the conversation didn’t give away too much information. In fact, all Mulder could really get from it was her saying, “Oh, I see.” When she ended the call she looked back at Mulder. “That address you gave me, he confirmed that it was the home address of the man you were talking to. That address was also called in earlier tonight. The man is dead.”

Mulder returned to the house with Monica in stride. Military and forensics had already left with the body. Chalk marks and overturned furniture from what seemed to be a struggle, were all that was left. Mulder unhinged the yellow tape and made his way around, searching for anything that might help understand why this man died, other than reaching out to Mulder. 

“They must not have searched the place very well. I see his desk drawers are empty, the computer that was here is gone, but the safe looks untouched.”

“Safe?” Monica echoed.

“Yeah, right behind this night stand.” 

“You realize you’re tampering with a crime scene.”

Mulder looked up at her as he squatted down so the safe’s dial was at eye level. “Trust me, the defense department did a whole lot more than tampering. You do realize we’ll never see that body again.”

“Do you know how to pick a safe?” Monica asked, folding her arms as she continued to hover above.

“Don’t have to. I think I can guess the combo.” Mulder twisted the dial left and right and with a loud click, the safe opened.

“What was it?”

“6-20-6”

“How did you know?”

“When he was talking to me he used the call line, Fight the Future. I tried it on a hunch.”

“You have very acute instincts, Agent Mulder.”

Mulder chuckled and said sarcastically, “Scully tells me that all the time.” Past the decoys of money and jewelry, Mulder found a vial leaning against the back wall. He held it up for Monica to see.

“This guy must have been through some hell to get this vial,” Mulder said, tucking it snugly into his inner jacket pocket below his ID.

Through Monica’s influence, they were finally able to persuade the powers that be to re-assign Scully to the lab. After twenty-four hours, Mulder was more than happy to see her again. 

“How many laws did you break to acquire this, Mulder?” Scully asked, smugly.

Mulder waggled his eyebrows in return. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

Scully held it up to the light, but by her expression, Mulder could tell she hadn’t a clue as to what might be in it. “It’ll be a few hours before I can get any results, but I’ll make sure everyone knows it’s the priority.”

Doggett arrived at the lab with Monica and some news. “We were able to track down the guy’s car. They have it in the FBI impound garage. It’s scheduled to be searched and dismantled.”

“I’ll have to get Frohike to get me some clearance ID’s,” Mulder said, already dialing his cell.

“Or you can use real ones,” Monica replied, handing him the papers for release of the vehicle.

Mulder turned and hesitated, meeting Scully’s eyes.

“Go,” she answered. “I’ll call you as soon as I have some results.”

He lightly grazed her fingertips. The electricity between them would have to be enough. Whatever happened, he just couldn’t lose anymore time.

Sparks flew like dying stars from the torches and saws cutting and slicing through steel doors and trunks. The garage was filled with rows of impounded cars in the back lot. The front had trucks on lifts and a van on ramps. Mulder took note of the array of different sizes and colors, some tinted and lifted, luxury and standard. The souped up hoop dee caught his eye and made him smirk. He wanted to meet the owner. Security handed them a slip, had them sign in, and pointed them towards the correct row. Luckily, the car hadn’t been thoroughly searched and dismantled yet.

Mulder’s long fingers pushed along the rough fabric of the floor mats and under the seat. The tips ran along the metal slide as he reached underneath the driver’s side. 

“Find anything?” Monica called and slammed down the trunk.

“Not yet,” Mulder called back, moving on to the front floorboards. There, between the seats and the center console, tucked under the hard plastic was a blue lined paper. Mulder pulled gently and it tore. Using his office key he pried the plastic corner from the floor and was able to pinch enough to pull out a small spiral notepad.

He flipped through it. There were lots of little notes, but only one scribbled address. “Agent Reyes, I think I’ve found something.”

“Me too,” Monica said. “I found some powder residue in the back of the trunk.” She held up the baggie she had scraped it into and handed it over to Mulder. 

The sight of Scully in her long white lab coat hiding the hint of baby bump made him, shall he dare to feel it, downright gleeful. It made him want to turn to Monica and say, nope, she didn’t ingest a small cantaloupe, that’s my baby in there. 

“You get any closer to knowing what’s in that vial?” Mulder asked Scully, fighting back his reaction to her smile when their eyes locked.

“Mulder I think it might be some kind of vaccine.”

“How do you know?”

“I’ve found remnants of preservatives, adjuvants, and other residuals indicating a vaccine production process. Even though they are removed, trace amounts can still remain.”

“Like what?”

“Like formaldehyde.”

“Formaldehyde in a vaccine?”

“It’s used as a detoxifying agent or to inactivate the virus. We’ve also found traces of antibiotics, neomycin specifically, egg protein most likely as an antigen, yeast protein and aluminum salts.”

“Were you able to determine the type of virus?” Monica asked.

“No,” Scully said and her voice quieted. She lifted her chin and met Mulder’s eyes. He knew what she was thinking.

Mulder fished the evidence baggy from his pocket and transferred it from his hand to her tender grasp in a protracted movement. “See what you can make of this. We found it at the impound.”

“We also found an address in the car,” Monica added. “Mulder’s already called it in to Danny to try to get us a name.”

Scully frowned. “What are you up to, Mulder?”

“I need to know if the man at this address has something to do with those bombs.”

“Monica, can you give us a minute?”

“Sure, I’ll be down in the X-File’s office,” Monica said, passing Mulder a knowing grin before leaving.

As she watched Reyes walking down the hallway, Scully’s features relaxed and they shared a smile. “How you feeling?” Mulder asked softly, craning into her.

“Like we should have both called in sick. Mulder, I need you to be careful.”

“Scully,” he cocked his head to one side as if it might give him a clearer view of her insight. “What’s really going on?”

She turned away from him to busily put away random items. “I just think we need to be careful now. Not just in what we say and who we tell…” she stopped and faced him again. “I guess I just thought maybe you might have more to think about now.”

A morpheme palette of expressions crossed Mulder’s face as he absorbed every nuance of her utterance and that which she selectively constrained. Gently, he took her hand, his thumb skimming across her knuckles to ignite the sediment of endearment buried deep within. Her strawberry cheeks burned bright as his soul when she was within reach. Yes, there had been other things that had remagnetized his compass’ true north. “I’ll be careful.” She raised her brow and he added in a grave sincerity, “I promise.”

Chapter Text

Mulder crunched sunflower seeds over Monica’s astrology lesson of which he felt he already had ample knowledge.

“Are you still listening, Agent Mulder?” Monica asked.

“Sure,” he said, twirling an open shell around his tongue, scooping out the insides and sending its hard outer counterpart past his lips and out the window in a silent whistle. “Libras are concerned with attaining balance, peace, and justice in the world. They’ve got charm, intelligence, persuasion, and frankness, which frankly I’d like to persuade you to change the subject.” 

“They also have a seamless connectivity with their surroundings which might explain your razor sharp instincts.” Mulder gave her a side-eye and sent another shelled seed flying off into the pile beside his door. Monica sighed. “If you rather talk about something else, we could broach the subject of your sunflower seeds. The hulls actually contain a toxin that inhibits growth in some plants, especially those on the endangered list through a process called allelopathy. You might want to think twice as to where you dispose of your shells and the effect on the environment.”

That made Mulder turn his head toward Monica. “More harmful than say… cigarette butts?”

“I’m in the process of quitting.”

“Uh-huh.” Mulder stuck another shell in his teeth, but this time discarded it carefully in the car’s ashtray.

“Do you believe in life after death?” Monica asked him flatly.

“I’ve had experiences, one in particular involving my sister, that made me want to believe.” He glanced again at Monica who was staring intently, listening to his every word. It was obvious she was taking it all very seriously and it made him feel more comfortable opening up. Scully trusted her, so that gave her a leg up. “The way I see it, our souls are constructed from the materials of the universe and could have existed since the beginning,” Mulder told her.

Monica thought for a moment and then asked, “But what about brains?”

“Basic receivers and amplifiers for the photo-consciousness pre-woven into the fabric of space-time.”

“You could test your belief to the theory of quantum physics,” Monica said. “Once your blood stops flowing in your body the microtubules lose their quantum state. The information within the microtubules cannot be destroyed, so it becomes distributed and dissipates into the universe.”

“Are you certain it dissipates into this universe?” Mulder proposed.

“Are you alluding to multiple universes? Our souls existing in that other universe?” Monica paused. “That’s interesting. So what if the person doesn’t die?”

“What do you mean?” he asked thinking she might be alluding to zombies or supersoldiers.

“Like a near death experience. As the person gets resuscitated, the information goes back into the microtubules, back from that other universe and what that person witnesses they translate into a near death experience.”

“And people they recognize? That they believe they saw in that experience?”

“They are their soulmates. Traveling through the universes with them, grouped quantum information tumbling through universes together. Very romantic.”

Two lines form between Mulder’s brow. “Is it?”

“Think about it,” Monica said, “we could have just stumbled upon the answers to astral projection, any out of body experience, even reincarnation, the energy of your consciousness could potentially get recycled back into a different body...”

“And in the meantime it exists outside of the physical body on some other level of reality, in another plane, possibly another universe.” It did go along with his theory on the souls becoming starlight, speaking to them from the past, perhaps even the present. Mulder perked up. “We would have proved it scientifically without leaning into any religious ideology. Wait til I tell Scully,” Mulder said, flipping open his cell.

“I wouldn’t call her just yet, she’s with John and that subject matter is very touchy with him.” 

Mulder snarled, “Doggett. He’s all on top of this case isn’t he?”

“John can be trusted. He’s a really good guy with a strong moral compass. If he wasn’t, Dana would have never spent the night with him.”

“John spent the night with Scully?”

“During your abduction, Dana was so distraught, and one night she trusted him enough to start to talk about it and in a moment of weakness she broke while John was there. I’m not certain what triggered it, but I know she was in a state of mourning. John stayed with her all night to make sure she was okay.”

“He spent the night with her?”

“It is possible for a man to offer friendship and support and have it be only that. In fact, that’s when he called me and asked if I could stay over the next night. We were both worried about the baby. She had a rough first few weeks. Maybe he was scared he was developing feelings, but she needed you. The point I’m trying to make is the way I see it, if you’re really lucky, life will give you one chance at true love, I couldn’t even imagine the luck it takes for it to happen twice.”

“I don’t know much about luck and I’m not even sure I believe in true love,” Mulder said gruffly. “The whole night?”

“But you believe in soulmates, and that woman is yours..”

“You really will just say anything.”

“Because I read it in your eyes, you don’t have to be psychic to see it. You love her, don’t put her through hell because of your own device.”

Mulder pushed the back of his head against the driver’s side headrest. “What am I supposed to do if she keeps pushing me away?”

“Maybe the question you should be asking yourself is why.” Monica looked out of the car’s windshield up into the dark midnight air. “Even if the universe is infinite, the fact that the speed of light is not infinite means we can only see as far out as our own horizon. We will never be able to see infinity.”

“Does speaking in fortune cookie work for you?” Mulder retorted. He pressed send on his cell phone and waited for Scully’s sensual voice to tumble into his ear drum. 

“Hey Scully, it’s me. You got an update yet on that powder?”

“DBX 4%, RDX 4%, ammonium nitrate 37%, TNT 37%, and powdered aluminum 18%.”

“An explosive,” Mulder concluded.

“Not just any explosives,” Scully said. “This combination was developed by the British Royal Navy and used in torpedoes, depth charges, and naval mines.”

“Scully,” Mulder growled seductively, “Not now. I’ve got Monica in the car with me.” He glanced over at Monica, but she didn’t seem to be paying close attention.

“Mulder,” Scully continued, “I’m not sure how they plan on using this material, but if they are using ground transportation you need to be careful. That combination is at risk of detonation if they are subjected to a high enough acceleration.” 

At 11:17pm on the dashboard’s digital clock, a man around six feet tall exited the house. Mulder waited until the man entered a black Jeep Grand Cherokee before starting up the car. “It’s showtime,” he said to Monica who acknowledged him with a nod. It was a good three hours on I-95, in which they almost lost him twice, but managed to keep a safe enough distance to avoid detection. He led them to a U.S. Navy yard in Norfolk, Va. 

Mulder watched the tall heavy gates slowly clang and screech open. His knees clamored in anticipation of his next move. His muscles flexed in preparation. The top of the fence was lined with barbed wire, but if he covered it with his jacket he might not rip his suit too badly. When the doors closed he felt the light pull of Monica’s hand on the shoulder of his coat. “We can’t go in. The danger of getting caught is too great.”

“He’s getting the explosives,” Mulder said, indignantly. “We’ve got to stop him.”

“We wait,” Monica insisted. “When he comes out, we follow him. We’re going to have to call it in.”

Mulder ran a tongue around the inside of his cheek and shoved a sunflower seed in his mouth to keep himself from speaking. Instead of ditching Monica and running into the night, he thought of his promise and hunkered down and waited.  Another hour later and a tractor trailer was at the gate. As it passed them, Monica said, “That’s him.”

Mulder started the engine and turned around, following again at a distance. They followed the truck to a large rest area  and ditched the car to get a closer look. Crouched behind bushes at the animal rest area where dogs were walked to relieve themselves and the stench of urine hung low, they observed more men unloading the truck’s cargo into vans. 

“We have to call it in,” Monica whispered to Mulder. “If these vans are headed north for each bridge, we won’t be able to stop them alone.”

Mulder shooshed away a long-haired gray and white dappled chihuahua sniffing him, yapping, and hopping around for attention. Thinking of Scully once again, he remembered his promise. “Yeah, call it in,” he conceded.

Chapter Text

Mulder removed his dark suit jacket as he entered Skinner’s office and tossed it over the back of the empty chair next to Scully. Before sitting down, he dutifully picked up the aforementioned chair, and with a loud bump placed it closer to her so that the arms were nearly touching. The office seemed unusually warm.  

“Morning,” he smiled. She looked beautiful in her dark navy suit and skirt riding just above the knee. The slats of morning rays through the window reflected the gold and amber flames in her hair. Mulder longed to run a knuckle over her peppered cream skin, or press his nose against the button of her own as their third eyes drew butterfly kisses.  

“You and Agent Reyes got to spend some time together,” Scully said, interrupting his daydream with what felt like a garden hose.

“Yes, and you two are nothing at all alike.”

“Neither are you and I,” she said, her smile lifting her cheekbones to highlight the bright blue in her eyes. “I like her.” 

“Yeah, well, she didn’t like my sunflower seeds,” he pouted. “And she didn’t make me a sandwich or drool on my lapel.”

“How did you ever survive?” As she asked the question, her fingers trailed in his hair, soothing him, her gaze holding repressed emotions. They had mastered the art of kissing without contact.

Mulder sighed. “It’s been tough, especially without your cold tiny feet digging into the small of my back.”

“I’ve missed something of yours digging into the small of mine.” Her eyes darkened and her chest expanded as she drug air into her lungs. Her lips parted and she paused.

 “A penlight?” he answered with what he thought was witty, the static between them making his hair stand on end. His lips sought hers as he angled his head. 

He could feel her breath as she licked her lips and replied, “No, this is thicker… definitely longer.”

His voice, hoarse, as he whispered back, “Ah, the mag..” Her body rose and pressed against his, tantalizing him with the swell of her breast. His fingertips skimmed her cheek, the other hand feeling the warm flesh of her thigh. 

“We’re in Skinner’s office,” she reminded him, almost scolding him.

He felt his own need as he leaned in closer, met her eyes, and breathed, “You love it when you drive me crazy.” 

With a sharp intake of breath she muttered, “I drive you crazy?”

This time, Mulder couldn’t keep himself at bay. His eyes closed and felt her mouth hot against his. 

“Agent Mulder, Agent Scully!” Skinner boomed.

Jolted out of the kiss, Mulder’s hand dropped to her lap and found hers there. 

“It’s not what you think, Sir,” Scully said quickly.

“What I think is I have two agents behaving inappropriately in my office.”

“With good reason, Sir,” Mulder said, not giving Scully a chance to answer. 

“And why is that,” Skinner said loud and gruff.

Mulder gave her a half smile and a nod before turning towards Skinner. Mulder looked into Scully’s eyes. “Because I...”

“Because I’m pregnant,” Scully said, cutting him off.

“And you were trying out a new type of lamaze!?!” Skinner said in an even rougher tone.

“No Sir,” Scully replied, moistening her lips and glancing down at Mulder’s hand covering hers. She laid her other hand on top of his. “The hormone fluctuations and increased blood flow must be affecting me, I was irrational.”

“They’re affecting me too,” Mulder piped in. 

Skinner and Scully both glared back at him. 

“Tough room,” Mulder muttered in response.

“Whatever the case,” Skinner said, preparing them for a reprimand, tapping the file on his desk. “Congratulations.” He looked them both straight in the eye and smiled, a big goof of a smile, holding his arms wide. Scully shrugged at Mulder and accepted Skinner’s embrace, Mulder piling on, kissing the shine on Skinner’s head.

“I wish you two luck,” he said. Then directed his attention to Scully. “If the baby needs anything, his Uncle Walt is here.”

Scully nodded and Skinner straightened his tie, the rose in his cheeks fading as he got himself situated behind his desk waiting for them to take their seats again. 

“Did you happen to turn on your television this morning?” Mulder asked, directing his question to Scully as he put on his jacket before sitting back down.

“No, I came right into work. Something about us?”

“We’re heroes. Didn’t you get the memo?” Mulder replied.

“For what?” Scully frowned.

“Stopping an act of terrorism,” Skinner answered. “You should all be very proud of yourselves. Not only did the four of you work tremendously well together, but the FBI was able to arrest the men involved, and the bomb squad was able to defuse the bombs.” He handed them both a certificate signed by the President and the Director of the FBI. “There’s a new bill being expedited through the New York State legislature. Under the HR 4299 amendment Intelligence authorization act they will be expounding on electronic surveillance. All thanks to your teamwork.”

“We played right into their hands,” Mulder said.

“You think that was the purpose of those bombings? So they could get this bill passed?” Scully proposed to Mulder.

“What do you know about the Federation of American Scientists?” Mulder asked.

“It’s a non-profit organization. Its objective as I know it is to provide a nonpartisan technical analysis on global issues that hinge on science and technology.”

“Would you think it was odd if I told you that they provide a list of resources under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act? That they report these findings to congress, that they provide data for the Department of Justice memoranda and provide justification for court cases to allow FISA to extend their power which was given to them in 1978.”

“You’re suggesting, what? That they are monitoring biological warfare?”

“Or justifying the development of it.” 

“I think you two need to be careful with what you’re implying,” Skinner warned.

Mulder stood. “Thank you, Sir, but this was a test and I’m afraid the next one won’t be.”

“A test for what?” Skinner’s face scrunched like he was auditioning for Mr. Magoo.

“To be able to control our very elements of life. To make the populace willingly relinquish our freedom. Keep us away from wherever the real action is happening behind the scenes. The key to a magician’s trick is to focus your attention on where he isn’t. Then justify whatever their real motive is as the answer to make you feel more secure. To make you believe they are catching the real evil, when the devil is the one behind the wheel.”

“So you believe there will be more attacks,” Skinner said.

“They’re conditioning us. Eventually, we’ll be the ones demanding the laws, begging them to take our defenses, standing in line for the tests.”

“You know, Mulder, sometimes I’m afraid that paranoia of yours might be contagious,” Skinner replied.

As they approached the elevator Scully leaned into Mulder. “You called for backup.”

“I did,” Mulder confirmed, punching the elevator button. “I had other things I needed to get back home to.”

Once they stepped inside, it was Scully who pushed the button for the basement. She turned and the look she gave him shot right to his groin. “You know, Mulder,” she said, running a manicured finger down his tie, “that increase in blood flow hits me at the most peculiar times.”

Mulder’s heart did a couple calisthenics against his rib cage. He felt the sweat pooling at his brow. “Sc-Scully you’re not suggesting…”

She shook her head slowly. “All I’m saying is that it’s awfully hot in this elevator.”

“Are you okay?” he asked, stroking her head. “I’ll get you some ice water when we get downstairs.”

“That’s not what I’m craving.” The fire in her eyes blew smoke over hot coals and sparked the flames inside him.

“What has gotten into you?” he asked, quietly.

“It’s lunchtime and everyone is out of the office.”

“Is it really hitting you that bad?”

“It’s really that bad.”

“Our basement office has too much traffic, but I got a better idea.” He closed the doors as they slid open and hit the button for the sixth floor. The elevator paused before heading towards the sky. The doors sprung open and they walked hurriedly down the hallway, Mulder not breaking his stride. He noticed the open door and waved Scully in. 

“Mulder, Kersh’s office?” Scully objected.

“He’s out to lunch. His secretary is too. Come on, he won’t be back for at least an hour.”

On a hope and a prayer he turned the doorknob. The door swayed open. “Come on, it’s unlocked.”

They creeped in like school children late from recess, Scully locking the door behind them for good measure. 

In the middle of Kersh’s office they stood. When she raised her gaze to his, a staggering rush of heat rumbled through him. 

“You know what I really love?” she asked, pulling him off guard.

“Yes, but I’d like to learn more.”

“Sharing it all with you. Watching it through your eyes.” The heat in his chest from her words threatened to melt his internal organs. 

Once again he felt his heart racing, knowing he had to ask her at least once. “You’re sure about this?”

She leaned up on her toes, mere inches from his lips. “Kiss me.”

His lips touched hers and he knew that he was caught between the hormones of a pregnant woman and logic. At least she could justify it on her end, on his… he was taken, by her beauty, by her lust, by what he could not deny. 

Without thought he led her behind Kersh’s desk, scooped her up in his arms and teetered her on top of it. He realized he could stop them here, stop something that she may one day regret, but he couldn’t. No matter what his brain reasoned, he could do nothing, but ask her in a deep dark whisper, “Where do you ache the most?” 

“Here,” she said hoarsely, loosening the button of her blouse and taking his hand to slowly raise it and slide it underneath the cup of her bra. 

Pushing the matter seemed inappropriate, but as usual, he did it to spite himself. Rarely did he ever have power over Scully and this was too tantalizing to pass up. With deliberate slowness he skimmed his fingertips across the rosy skin, raising gooseflesh in his path. The sound she released was quiet and primitive.

“Like this?” he asked with a sultry half-smile. “Or maybe you’d prefer this,” he murmured, rolling her nipple between his fingers, her body arching into his touch.

“Mulder,” she spoke harshly, but her eyes were glazed over in desire.

“Yeah.” 

“Enough.”

He knew the teasing couldn’t last much longer, so he used his other hand for good measure. They were both so soft and full in his palm. A lightning wave of pleasure coursed his body and the guttural groan she released made him pulse so hard and sharp he thought for a millisecond he had started coming. Both his hands had surrounded each breast, kneading and caressing while she sent intense daggers into him, her eyes dilated as she pulled the hairs at the back of his neck. His grin grew wider knowing she was enjoying it, how badly she wanted him, knowing he needed her to feel more. His fingers squeezed and twisted at the hard tips, tugging firmly.

Scully gasped and held him tight to her lips at the apple of his cheek. “Oh, Oh wow, Oh God.” She was focused in a world of pleasure. 

He tickled and teased her more with his hands, massaging and tweaking until her hips began moving against him.

“I’m close,” she whispered. “Harder, Mulder. Oh God. Touch me.”

He released her and she let out a whine, but he needed his hands free to remove her underwear. Stuffing the soft fabric into his pocket for safe keeping, he returned his left hand to her breast while the other rubbed circles just above his prize. Applying greater pressure he quickened the speed with her breath, the other working her nipple. Scully came sharply, mouth open, drooling on his ear, scraping at the back of his head. Taut and throbbing and beautiful.

“More,” she breathed hotly against his ear’s shell. 

There was definitely more to give and he glanced at the big and little hand of the enemy hanging on the wall. “Lie back.”

She passed him a weary look, but eased back on her elbows. Knowing they were pressed for time he wasted none, spreading her legs, trailing kisses from her knee to thigh. Her legs spread wider, riding up her skirt, revealing more of her. She cried out softly when his tongue circled. Her feet flexed as he sucked gently. He continued over and over, ignoring the catch in his neck or the scream of his back, feeling her writhe, soaking his chin, tiring his jaw as her tilted pelvis begged for more. 

And he didn’t dare stop, covering his face in her, her legs starting to tremble and he eased his tongue inside her, then then out and back in, losing himself, working along every sensitive area until she bucked and he pinched her clit tight. She came as he kissed the lips between her thighs. Filled with hubris, he lapped with a flattened tongue over quivering heat.

Then Scully surprised him, pushing him so hard he fell back, into Kersh’s seat. Sliding off the desk, she situated her knees on the chair and straddled him, forcing his head into her chest. Mulder nuzzled there, relishing in her forward affection. 

When he looked up into her eyes, Scully leaned down and kissed him, kissed him like she owned him, like she owned the entire building. He felt her fingers over the button of his pants and then his zipper, pulling him free from the restraints of his clothes. Her eyes floated downward to stare at his length, at her small hand around it. 

“Do you like what you see?” he asked shyly.

Her eyebrows danced wildly, but “Mmmm,” was her only reply.

“Because it’s yours,” he croaked out, harsh and raw in his throat. He shuddered with pleasure at her possession as she slid him inside her. Not needing to move, he stared into the other half of his soul with his heart in his eyes. Her sudden grind against him took him off guard and made him remember the forbidden place they were in. His hand slid between their bodies and under her skirt, moving his thumb in soft circles, circling his hips as she moved up and down his length, building momentum.

Scully ran her hands over his chest and up his shoulders, her hungry fingers unbuttoning his shirt to bare enough and stroke his skin. 

She strained her neck and tilted her chin up towards the ceiling tile, bouncing faster on his lap, bucking nearly off of him, making his tarnished depths glitter. She didn’t let up, pounding on top of him, controlling her movements, tightening painfully around him before releasing and contracting hard and steady with a rough sigh of a moan. 

Panic struck within the pleasure. Kersh could be back at any moment. Scully backed away to fix herself and Mulder glanced out the window as he did his belt, tucking his raging erection to hide within the constraints of his waistband. There, down on the sidewalk, was Kersh as sour-pussed as ever walking towards the building. “Shit. We gotta go.”

Kersh made his way to his office too quick, catching Mulder at the secretary’s desk.

“Your secretary wasn’t here so I was leaving a note for a meeting request,” Mulder explained. “Wanted to thank you for the recognition.”

“Agent Mulder, what is that in your pocket?”

Mulder flashed red at first, thinking maybe his waistband had betrayed him, but then he looked down to see the flash of pink in his front pocket revealed by his open jacket. “That’s a… my handkerchief.” He pulled it out and pretended to blow his nose in it with a loud push of air through his nostrils. Out of breath he inhaled and his body throbbed at her scent. Quickly he shoved it down deep into his back pocket. 

“It’s pink!” Kersh stated, confused.

“Only on Thursdays, Sir.”

“Today’s Friday, Agent,” Kersh grumbled.

“It was still clean.”

“Get out of my office, Agent Mulder.”

“Technically, we’re not…”

Kersh’s face turned almost purple as he screamed, “OUT!!”  

Chapter Text

“This is a very special gift,” the woman said to Mulder as she delicately placed it in the box and prepared to wrap it in the paper and ribbon he had chosen. “Do you know the history behind the spoon doll?”

“I know it’s been in my family since colonial times,” Mulder replied. “I know it was handmade and passed down from female to female and the spoon inside it was hand carved by my great great great great grandfather and he had offered it to my great great great great grandmother as a token of their engagement to be married.”

“And who’s the lucky lady to receive this?” the woman asked. 

“Someone very special to me,” Mulder mumbled.

*****

Two at a time, Mulder took the steps to Scully’s apartment, the wrapped box with the big blue bow on it secured around his arm. 

With a sweaty palm he knocked and when he didn’t hear an answer he pounded out “a shave and a haircut” to see if it might work better. And it did, Scully answered in the cutest, kinda flirty, Scully whine, “Mulder.”

“What?” he returned.

“I was just about to jump in the shower but I was waiting for the pizza man.” 

Mulder peeled his eyes, taking note that she was still in her robe and night clothes. “You got something going on with the pizza man I should know about?”

She looked at him quizzically, but not enough to give anything away. “The pizza man?”

“Well, correct me if I’m wrong but you just said you were waiting for the pizza man to jump in the shower.”

“What I meant was the pizza man’s usually late and so…”

Mulder stared her down, trying to break her with the truth, seeing how long it would take before she cracked. 

“You want to come in?” she offered, clearly exasperated by the tiring conversation.

“Thank you,” he said, slipping his gift inconspicuously under the pillow.

“I feel like I’m trapped in an episode of Mad About You,” she called back.

“Yeah, well, small technicality, Mad About You is about a married couple and we just work together.”

“You know what I’m talking about.”

“I do, I do,”  Mulder said and her movement in his peripheral vision sent his heart pumping. This was his chance to broach the subject. “And what I’m trying to say is that you have yet to provide any answers as to who, if anyone, you want to have move in with you, and I have no good reliable information on this pizza man and what I’m saying is you may as well have already made an agreement with the pizza man to be your next roommate.”

“Ah I see,” she replied when she was back facing him again.

Mulder’s eyes shifted toward his almost hidden gift. Scully followed his gaze and her eyes lit up. “Is that for me?”

“Yeah.”

“Nice Package.”

That put a crease in Mulder’s forehead. “Thank you.”

“What’s the occasion?”

“Oh, I was going through some stuff after my mother died and it’s just an old family keepsake and I wanted you to have it.” 

“Well, I’m touched.” Without wasting time, she sat on the couch and tore away the pretty paper, pulling at the ribbon. 

A knock at the door interrupted Mulder’s enjoyment. “Little Ceasar I presume?” he asked Scully, passing her a snarling stare, but getting up to open the door anyway.

“Hi,” said the cutishly tall young man on the other side with dark spiked hair.

Mulder peeled his eyes, staring intently at him then accusatively back at Scully.

“Just, uh, give it to the man with the funny look on his face,” Scully called back, still excited over her present.

“Yeah it’s $29.08,” the pizza man said, unaffected.

“$29.08? What’d she get on it, a tank of gas?” Mulder answered, rummaging through his wallet and handing the pizza man a twenty and a ten.

The guy took it and looked back at Mulder tilting his head and raising a brow.

Reluctantly, Mulder pulled out three more singles and closed the door before the guy could petition for more. Scully waited for Mulder before lifting off the top of the box and watched as he peaked underneath the hood of the pizza box.

He sat back in overplayed amazement and pointed at the pizza. “Your ability to ingest this pizza could be an X-File.”  

Scully sighed and smiled. “Can I finish opening my present now?”

“Yes.” Mulder relaxed back on the couch in silent anticipation.

Without a big smile she opened the gift and stared in wonder, her mouth in an open smile showing her pearly whites. She held up the doll. “Oh, my God. Oh, Mulder.”

“Is it what you imagined?” Mulder asked, wondering what in the world she could have thought he would have given her.

“Not even close,” Scully admitted.

Mulder leaned over and studied the doll’s hand embroidered face. “Oh, my, that’s the wrong doll, actually.”

Scully wagged the doll at him playfully. Mulder shared her laugh.

“But then that’s the other gift that you gave me, Mulder.”

Mulder looked at her questionably, not trying to make any assumptions as to her point of reference. Scully simply gazed back at him fondly.

“Courage... to believe,” she explained. “And I hope that's a gift I can pass on.”

Mulder glanced down at her belly and they shared another smile. 

Softly, Scully caressed the doll’s face as she studied it. “This isn’t any old keepsake, Mulder. This is old and handmade. There’s a wooden spoon inside this, isn’t there?”

“Yes,” Mulder replied. “Carved by my great great great great grandfather for their engagement. The way my mother told me, she took different scraps she had from making clothes and things and hand sewed the doll. Then it was passed down through the generations, to you.”

Scully looked up at him, her eyes wide. “Mulder, you understand what giving this to someone represents?” 

Mulder felt the rush of self-consciousness hit him hard. He reached out to her for connection, lightly running his fingers along the soft curve of her jaw. “I do,” he said delicately. “That’s why I wanted you to have it.” he held their gaze until it burned bright in his chest, then added, “I mean it.”

“Thank you,” she repeated and offered him a hug. 

Mulder embraced her and she squeezed tight. He felt her lips hot at his neck, and he returned the sentiment, his mouth sucking at a pulse point. Scully trembled, not pushing him away, warming to his touch. 

“If I would have known I’d get this reaction, I would have given your present to you sooner,” he said, smiling against her skin, running his nose up along her throat.

The tiny kisses just underneath his jaw that she replied with made his body come alive. He grazed her earlobe and tugged it gently with his teeth.

“Mulder.” She said his name in a soft rumbling moan.

“I want to stay here with you,” he whispered hoarsely against her skin. She was his home and he couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.

“Mulder.” This time her voice was more of a featherlight sigh. “I think we should continue this in the bedroom.”

“That makes two of us,” he replied slyly as he untied the belt of her sky blue terry cloth robe. It fell open, revealing her navy silk nightclothes beneath. It clung to her body, showing her curves, dips, and ranges.

His hand skimmed from her neck to her breast, a whisper of a touch over her hardened nipples. They crowned against the satin when he circled with the pad of his finger. Knowing how sensitive she was there now he didn’t linger, moving his hand to her waist then her hip. “Keep going,” she whispered with eyes closed.

He kissed her, coaxing her mouth open and massaging her tongue with his.

Scully groaned and her fingers curled around his face, stroking his bristly cheek. One by one he opened each button before peeling off her maternity top. He took in a deep breath to steel himself from the exquisite sight of her bare skin, full breasts, and small belly below. Slowly he teased her lean athletic legs, enjoying the feel of the rich soft satin against them, then reaching behind him to remove each fuzzy slipper. Finally he pushed down her bottoms and slipped her out of them. 

His hand cupped her bare, lovely, behind. 

She was naked.

And his phone was ringing.

“I don’t have to get that,” he said, shaking his head, his brow scrunching together above his nose.

“It’ll only keep ringing,” she relented.

Unable to resist, he gave her a peck on the lips. “Not if I turn the power off.”

She passed him a weak smile. “You need to answer it. It’s probably important.”

Unfortunately, she had a point. “Okay,” he replied softly with a peck at her nose.

In a completely formal, albeit slightly bitter tone, he answered, “Mulder.” 

As he held the phone, Scully fixed his hair, kissing his temple and teasing his unoccupied ear.

“Agent Mulder, this is Monica Reyes.”

He crooked his eyebrow Scully’s way. “Yes, Agent Reyes. What can I do for you?”

“I have a case I need your help on. It involves a certain phenomena.”

“I’m sorry, Agent Reyes, but I’m about in the middle of someone..SomeTHING.” He smiled at Scully as she playfully slapped at his bicep. “Did you try calling Agent Doggett?”

“I can’t call Agent Doggett because it involves him. I’m in New Orleans but I can be in D.C. in a couple hours. It’s important, Agent Mulder. Very important.”

Isn’t it always? “Call me when you get here.”

He glanced over at Scully. “Looks like we might have a new case.”

Scully frowned and looked at him with doe eyes. Or in Scully’s case, dough eyes. “My pizza.”

****

FBI HEADQUARTERS

WASHINGTON, DC

Mulder and Scully caught up with Monica in the records room. She pulled out a file and closed the drawer, handing it to Mulder. He intentionally lowered it so Scully could look over his bicep and read as well. 

“As I said on the phone, it involves a case Agent Doggett and I had worked on a few years back,” Monica explained, “in fact it was the first case we worked on together… the death of his neighbor’s son.”

Mulder took a closer look at the picture. The boy was only seven years old. He swallowed hard knowing that his son would be brought into a world with these very real dangers. “Doggett knew the boy.”

“Yes,” Monica nodded. “His family was living across the street when he got kidnapped. In fact the boy was his son’s best friend. They had been riding bicycles together before it happened. Their mothers were talking on the front steps of Doggett’s house when only Doggett’s son returned from around the block.”  

Scully continued to scan the information, turning the page to see another picture of the child lying dead, face down on the ground. “He, uh, he never discussed this case with me, but I have heard some things about it.” 

“Were you the lead investigator?” Mulder asked.

“Once it fell to the FBI,” replied Monica. “Agent Doggett was with the NYPD at the time. We worked it together. We never caught the killer. It was the hardest case I've ever had. As in stealing-into-the-bathroom-to-cry-my-eyes-out kind of hard. I can't begin to imagine what it was like for John, having to answer to such close friends, thinking about his own son. He got obsessed with finding the killer. So much so that it led to his divorce.” Monica sighed, taking a moment to gather herself. “I couldn't bear to put him through this again, but if it means we could catch that boy's killer... I just can't go to him until I know if what I saw means anything.”

Mulder nodded thinking maybe he understood. “You said this case involves some kind of phenomenon?”

Reyes crossed her arms. “I don't know if it was a psychic experience or what, but when we found the boy’s body, I had a vision. It was as if for just a moment... The body was changed.”

“Changed?” Scully asked, looking almost fearful. “Into what?”

“Ashes,” Reyes replied. “It looked like ashes. The thing of it is Agent Doggett told me he saw it, too … although he spent the last few years convincing himself he didn't, that even if he did, it didn't mean anything.”

“What do you think it means?” Mulder asked softly.

“I can't shake the feeling that it's a clue, that it could somehow point to who's responsible, if only I let it. And now I've seen it again. A thousand miles from here, a seemingly unrelated case and I've had the same vision. There has to be a reason for it, a reason it's happening now.”

“You have the file for this new case?” Scully asked.

“It’s on the desk in the X-File’s office,” Reyes answered. “I’ll give you the rest of the files when I receive them from the NOLA field office.”

*****

“Find anything interesting?” Scully asked as she entered the office, bringing Mulder his mug of steaming coffee fixed the way he liked it and a cup of decaffeinated herbal tea for herself.

Mulder released the chewed pencil from the clenches of his teeth, uncrossing his legs from the corner of his desk to sit up straight. He nodded a thank you at Scully and took a swig of his coffee before answering. “I’m  going through every case file I have on the subject, but nothing is really standing out except the fact that they are all completely unrelated.”

 “Agent Reyes gave me more files for you to go through and more notes on the current case.” Scully set down the files on Mulder’s already cluttered desk. She kept a few on the open case for herself. Perusing the top file, she flipped through the first two pages. Mulder looked up from his notes to find Scully’s face drained of its color.

“What is it?” Mulder asked, a ball of spikes beginning to churn in his gut.

“It can’t be,” was all she could muster.

“What? Tell me.”

“I-I don’t want to Mulder. I know last time what it did to you. I don’t want to go through this again.”

“Scully, what is it?”

Scully took in a sharp breath and held it. Lifting the page the picture came into view. It was a sketch drawing of a demonic figure. A gargoyle. 

“Where was that found?” Mulder asked, his chest feeling the weight of the drawing.

“In the desk of the man who killed all the office workers.”

“It can’t be… I mean, Patterson is in jail.”

Scully’s eyebrows rose. “Is he?”

Chapter Text

“I got some background on Patterson, Mulder,” Scully said, returning to the office.

“He was released?” Mulder asked and came around from his desk to loom over her head at the paper printout she was holding.

“He appealed the initial verdict and the appellate court remanded the case to the trial court. They re-held a sentencing hearing under a new standard in the law and his sentence was reduced and they accepted his insanity plea.”

Mulder chewed at the inside of his cheek. “So he’s back out on the streets.”

“Yes,” Scully said and the gaze that looked back at him had all the fear in it that it had when she told him that she had seen the new gargoyle wallpaper coating his apartment back in ninety-six.

“So what’s the connection?” Mulder asked.

Scully shook her head. “Other than that drawing, I don’t know.”

“I don’t have a theory either, but I did find a connection between the dead boy and Reyes’ new case.”

Scully’s body stiffened. “What?”

“There was a fiery crash that night on the same street as the office where the killings took place. Must have happened not long before. The person that died in that crash was one of Doggett’s suspects.”

“That’s not exactly a connection, more like a coincidence. Have you told Reyes?”

“Yeah, and, you know I don’t believe in coincidences,” Mulder said and headed out.

He schlepped over to the records room to see if there was anything else he might have missed and as he was leaving he quite literally ran into Doggett. Before Mulder could apologize, Doggett grabbed him by the front of his suit jacket and slammed him violently against the wall.

Dizzily, Mulder tried his best to understand what was happening. “Hey!” he yelled. “Hey!”

“You stay out of my business!” Doggett spat back at him.

“Take it easy, Agent Doggett,” Mulder replied, trying to calm him, and trying to understand what could make him so furious.

“You want to get something on me, you ask for it!,” Doggett returned. “I don't want to get calls about you going behind my back! You got that straight?!”

Mulder held up his hands as if in defeat. “I don't want anything on you. I was asked to look into this file.”

“Who asked you?!”

They both turned at the patter of heels in the hallway.  “Agent Doggett,” Reyes said calmly,  “What are you doing?”

Doggett released Mulder and stared down Reyes like an eagle hunting prey. “Did you ask him to look into my case?”

“Yes,” Reyes answered, keeping her even tone. “I asked Agent Mulder and Agent Scully.”

“Why?” Doggett demanded. “There's nothing in there for them to bother with.”

“Why don't you just calm down, Agent Doggett,” Mulder replied. “Let her explain the connection to you.”

“I was going to tell you, John,” Reyes said softly. “I was in New Orleans on a case, a shooting. Something that I saw connected back to the case, a vision.”

“Bob Harvey,” Mulder piped in. “Does that name mean something or nothing to you?”

“Bob Harvey was a suspect in the case,” Doggett answered. “We questioned him but then we realized he wasn't our man.”

“Agent Mulder and Agent Scully pointed it out. Bob Harvey was killed last night in a car crash fleeing the police near a shooting in New Orleans. He died in front of the building where the shooting occurred.”

Doggett frowned. “What's the connection?”

“That's it,” Mulder returned. 

The creases in Doggett’s forehead deepened. “That's it?”

“And then there was the vision,” Reyes added.

Doggett’s face bloomed again. “No, there's no connection. I don't care what you saw, you leave it alone,” he said to Reyes and pointed his finger at Mulder and growled, “and you leave it the hell alone.”

*****

Spartanburg, SC 11:02 a.m.

The day was overcast and cool, a gray beard of fog blocking the view of the Smoky Mountains in the far distance. Mulder stood by with Scully at his side as Doggett approached.

“What am I doing here?” Doggett asked them, bringing his hands to his hips as he came to the foot of the body.

“It seems the tenacious Agent Reyes does not want to let go of this one,” Mulder replied.

“That’s because I’m right,” Reyes cut in.

“She thinks it's probably the same man who killed those two people down in New Orleans, Jeb Dukes,” Mulder explained. “That and she wants to know if you see it, too. What she's been seeing.”

Doggett paused, studying the dead body. He shook his head. “I'm sorry, Agent Reyes. I don't see it.”

“I think you do,” Reyes said, stopping Doggett in his tracks. “You're just afraid to go there.”

Mulder couldn’t stand in the shadows anymore and he directed his comment at Reyes. “Whoo. You just keep shooting till you hit something, don't you?” 

“Mulder,” Scully warned, placing a hand on his arm, bringing him to heel.

Reyes ignored them and kept her attention on Doggett. “You'd rather blind yourself to the connections, but I can't.”

“You keep talking about these connections,” Doggett said, clearly annoyed. “Connections to what? To who?”

“What if this is a thread of evil…” Monica said, “connecting through time through men, through opportunity, connecting back to you. In India, in Africa, in Iran, in the Middle East, in the Far East. Most of the world, they take it as a given. They see evil in death the way other people see God in a rose.”

“I saw Elvis in a potato chip once,” Mulder replied dryly. 

“Mulder, you know what she’s talking about,” Scully scolded.

“Yes, I do. I do,” he replied. “But if this man doesn't see it, he doesn't see it.”

“Did you have time to look through the X-Files?” Reyes asked him.

Mulder nodded. “I looked through all the cases involving images like you described. People close to crimes who experience visions of death disassociated from reality.”

“And what did you find?” Reyes asked.

“Absolutely nothing. Those visions are so random as to have absolutely no significance to the cases they're supposed to pertain to.”

“Monica,” Doggett pleaded.

“I know what I saw,” Monica said, standing her ground. “There's a reason these things are happening. There is something at work here, and it all began with the man killed in the car crash, Bob Harvey.”

“Why do you think this guy Harvey knows Jeb Dukes?” Doggett asked.

“He doesn’t,” Monica replied. “I already asked his family. Which is what I expected.”

“Now I’m really lost,” Doggett said.

“I did find something,” Scully added, drawing the attention her way. “Bob Harvey spent time in prison.. At D.C. Correctional, at the same time as Bill Patterson, but it still doesn’t explain how the drawings got in Jeb Duke’s desk unless he found them in the street the night of the wreck and brought them back with him.”

“Who’s Patterson?” Doggett asked.

“A long story,” Mulder answered and started walking back up the grassy hill to the rental car. 

Scully lengthened her stride to almost a gallop to keep up with Mulder. When they got to the car they stared at each other over the hood. Mulder softened just from her gaze. She made it very difficult for him to be arrogant when she was turning his legs to jello. 

“Don’t give up on him, Mulder. He needs your help.”

“Yeah well, you can’t help a man who can’t help himself,” he rebutted.

“He’s worth the effort, Mulder.”

Mulder waited for Scully to strap on her seatbelt, then started the engine. “Have you noticed that every once in a while Agent Reyes gives me that look like she knows what I look like naked?”

“That’s because she does, Mulder,” Scully replied flatly. “Remember, she was there when you were returned.”

“Oh.” He looked at the road, then back at Scully. “Does that bother you at all?”

Scully took a long inhale and an even longer exhale. “Only if you plan on doing it again.”

Mulder tightened his lips. “I’m not.”

“Then no.” Scully stared out the window, leaning her elbow against it. “You don’t actually believe this string theory of Monica’s do you?”

Mulder made a left and then replied, “I believe that this case is for Doggett to solve for himself.”

*****

Scully worked busily to sew up the Y-incision on the body shipped from New Orleans. The creak of the door startled her and she had to hide her disappointment when she realized it was Doggett and not Mulder. If she was being honest, lately, being alone felt greatly overrated and she waited for those moments when Mulder was around to do those little things only he did.

“Agent Doggett, what are you doing here this late?” Scully asked, sanitizing her scalpel and other tools.

“I was about to ask you the same thing, Agent Scully.”

“I wanted to finish this autopsy before I went home for the evening.”

Doggett nodded and lifted his brow. “Avoiding your personal life?”

“That too.”

“Well, I’m no stranger to that.”

Scully finished putting everything away and dried her hands. “So what’s on your mind?”

“You’ve worked with Agent Mulder for a pretty long time now, right?”

“Yeah, almost eight years.”

“You never believed in any of this stuff. This paranormal or whatever you call it. So, what changed your mind?”

She saw the earnest look in Doggett’s eyes. The desperation and apprehension. “I believed in Mulder… and.. Well..I realized it was me, that I was afraid. Afraid to believe. For as impatient as he is, he allowed me the time and space I needed, allowing me to get there on my own, and when I was ready, he was there.” Scully laughed. “Doesn’t really answer your question, does it?”

“Nah, nah, I think it does.” Doggett pointed at the body. “So you, uh, you find anything? Ghosts, goblins, alien goo?”

Scully gave him a warm smile. “Are you sure you’re prepared for the answer?”

“Hit me with it.”

“The lab found trace amounts of ash around the bullet.”

Doggett scratched his head. “Ash? That doesn’t..”

“..make logical scientific sense?” Scully finished. “No, but it does put the X in X-Files.”

Chapter Text

Doggett hung up Mulder’s desk phone in disgust and looked up to see Monica enter.

“What are you doing, John?” Monica asked.

“I'm looking into this case,” he answered, keeping his eye on Mulder who was busy in the back area.

“You're looking in the wrong way,” Monica said. “There are a hundred agents in this building who could be doing that.”

“Ah, but there's only two who can solve crimes with mental telepathy. You and me. So we'll just read the tea leaves on this one and there it is, right? Case closed?” John replied sarcastically.

“John…” Monica pleaded.

Doggett slammed his hand on the desk. “Damn it, Monica, you want to find this guy. I'm trying to find him. What do you want from me?”

“I want you to be honest with yourself about what you saw that day. Honest about what your feelings tell you.”

“Feelings don't solve crimes. What the hell does it matter what my feelings are? How the hell's that going to get the job done?”

“I'm not talking about the job, John. What are you scared of? Why does it scare you?”

“That was my kid’s best friend. My close friend’s son. I got to believe that I did everything I could to find him.”

“You did do everything, John, I know, I was on that case with you.”

“I’ve got to believe I did everything to get that child back, that I didn’t let my son down. That he didn’t live through the hell of losing his friend and everything that followed, when there was something else I could have done.” Doggett’s voice broke. “These other possibilities that you talk about, that Mulder talks about, that Agent Scully talks about... if they're real... if they're real, then...”

Just then, Mulder returned from the back room. “I’ve found some more background on Jeb Dukes. I found it in the X-Files. He laid the photograph on his desk and pointed to one of the men. “Is that your Jeb Dukes?”

“Yes,” Monica said. “When was that taken?”

“He is part of Absalom’s Doomsday cult,” Mulder answered. “This is their class picture.”

“Wait. So if Jeb Dukes was part of this Doomsday thing, how does that relate to me or that case?” Doggett asked.

Mulder led them past the clear wall divider to his red string on the corkboard he had temporarily leaned against the back wall. “If we take Monica’s theory and it started with Patterson, and Patterson passed it to Harvey in the prison, Harvey is in the crash and somehow passed it to Jeb.” As he spoke he followed the connections with his finger so they could follow. 

“So where’s the connection? So what?” Doggett demanded, not even trying to dampen the annoyance in his tone.

“I don’t know,” Mulder admitted.

“There’s a lot you don’t know, Agent Mulder,” Doggett said. 

“Hey, I’m assisting Agent Reyes, this is not my case.”

Reyes stepped closer to the board, retracing the string. “What if this evil that he caught, held memory?”

“So, it remembers me?” Doggett asked. “Like it has unfinished business with me?”

“Maybe. Or if Jeb has some resentment towards you he could express that evil towards you,” Monica replied.

“But I didn’t know any of those people he killed,” Doggett said.

“Maybe they were just on the way to his real goal,” Mulder offered.

“But what resentment could this guy have with me?” Doggett countered.

Mulder raised his voice. It was his turn to point at Doggett. “You got one of their men killed. You betrayed their cause when they tried to get the information out.”

“What, that again!?!” Doggett yelled back. “I didn’t realize what any of that was? I’m still not one hundred percent sure. That’s your guys, not me.”

“But what if they held that against you John?” Monica challenged.

“So he’s coming after me now?” Doggett turned up his palms. “I’m ready. Where is he?”

Mulder looked at Monica. “Maybe it’s not just Doggett, maybe he wants to hurt everyone close to him.”

“Wait,” Doggett said, lifting his hand like a stop sign. “If Monica’s right and he’s holding some memory from that missing boy. What if he’s after my boy?”

Mulder exchanged a look with Monica, then replied, “I think we should head to your exes and make sure he’s safe.”

Doggett picked up the office phone and dialed. “Barbara? Yeah, where’s Luke? Okay, lock your doors, we’ll be right there. No, no, it’s just a precaution. Just wait for me. I- I’ll explain when I get there. Yeah, okay.”

Mulder at the same time was already on the phone with Scully. “Meet me at the car. We’re heading out.”

******

With guns drawn  Mulder and Scully approached the house. Mulder headed to the back and motioned Scully to follow. They could hear Doggett screaming inside.

“Hands in the air! Federal Agent, I'm armed, I'll shoot!” Doggett screamed.

Scully double timed to keep stride with Mulder, but he still managed to outrun her. With a foot planted where a large oak tree branched off he made his way up over the awning and to the second floor window. 

“I’ll go through the front,” she yelled back to him. 

Inside, Jeb yelled at Doggett with his arm holding Luke Doggett tight to his chest. “You drop the gun or your son is dead.”

“Let him go!” Doggett hollered back.

Luke started to cry. “Dad!”

“I'll shoot him, I swear!”

Monica kept her gun on Jeb while Doggett slowly set his gun down at the bottom step and held up his hands. “You don’t want him, you want me.”

“Daddy!... Daddy, Daddy!” Luke cried.

With his hands up in the air, Doggett approached. “Leave the kid alone and do what you want with me. I’m the one that got that man killed. I screwed up the mission. I got it comin’. The kid’s innocent.”

Jeb seemed rattled. He waved his gun in the air. “Stay back!”

Scully burst in at the sound of Mulder’s gunshot and Jeb tumbling down the stairs. Mulder came into view from the upstair’s hallway. Luke ran screaming into his father’s arms, Barbara hysterically crying, reached for Luke.

Scully yelled out the front door to the flashing blue lights and approaching backup. “Suspect is down! Gunshot wound! He needs medical attention!” 

****

“Jeb died late last night as a result of his injuries,” Scully said, placing the case file on Mulder’s desk. Mulder opened the file and studied it. Scully approached him. “Mulder, you didn’t have to enter that house alone, you could have given me a boost and I could have joined you on the second floor.”

Mulder looked up from the file. “I wasn’t hoisting a pregnant woman in the air.” 

Scully raised her hands to her hips. “I’m not an invalid, Mulder, I’m pregnant.”

Monica and Doggett entered the office and it ended their conversation. Monica noticed the file in Agent Mulder’s hand. “This is not the end. It’s only jumped to someone else.”

“Even if that were true Monica,” Scully said, sitting down at the small desk over to the side. “you could spend eternity trying to catch it and even then you might not be able to stop it.”

Like a bull facing the taunting of the unattainable red cape, Monica huffed at the thought. “I’ll be in Skinner’s office if you need me, submitting the case report,” Monica replied and Mulder handed her the last four files.

Scully returned to her lab work analysis and Doggett leaned against Mulder’s desk looking out the small windows above.

“You're wondering if there really was a connection,” Mulder observed. “Proof is hard to find in this line of work, Doggett.”

Doggett’s head bobbed up and down, his arms crossed.

Mulder gazed at Scully. Her eyes told him that Doggett needed more, reminding him that he was worth the effort. Mulder added, “You know, when I, uh... I first came to work at the FBI, I worked at Violent Crimes, and I saw, I saw the worst of humanity. I saw monsters and I wondered how they became that way, how these men became so evil. I know there were psychological explanations, victims of their environment, victims of their parents, but the scientific explanations were never truly satisfying. And I began to think about evil like, like a disease. I think it's possible that there's... an occurrence in somebody's life, a tragedy or a loss that leaves them vulnerable, hurts their immunity to evil, and all of a sudden at that point in their lives when they're weakened, they're open to evil and they can become evil.”

Doggett rang at his neck and blinked slowly. “If that were true, then what you're saying is... is that man was infected with evil, the same evil that killed that boy and then tried to kill my son. You really believe that, Agent Mulder?”

Mulder caught Scully’s eye again and she smiled knowingly. He said to Monica, “I'm not really a good test for questions like that. I'll believe almost anything, you know, but the, uh... the pisser is you may never know.”

“What if it isn’t random?” Doggett proposed. “What if that evil had been after my son all along?”

“Careful, Agent Doggett,” Mulder warned. “You keep asking those questions and you may find yourself in this basement searching for those answers for a very long time.”

“You make it sound like being on the X-Files is a disease, Mulder,” Scully said, making her presence known. 

The phone rang and Mulder waited to see if Doggett was going to lift the receiver, when he did not, Mulder answered. 

An old familiar voice boomed into his ear. “Agent Mulder. I heard you’ve been asking about me.”

Mulder sat straight in his chair like a rod had shot up his spine. He looked at Scully. “Patterson?” he answered, “I heard they released you.”

“In more ways than one.”

*****

Saturday morning couldn’t come soon enough and as Mulder returned from Scully’s kitchen carrying two plates and silverware, he caught the shine in Scully’s eyes.

He sat beside her on the sofa and set the two plates on the coffee table in front of them, opening the pizza box and allowing the happiness of Scully’s reaction to the mountain of toppings fill his rib cage. 

Something in the back of Scully’s mind gave Mulder a sinking feeling, but he hid it with mock disappointment. “You miss the pizza man, don’t you?”

A small pout formed on Scully’s lips. Then she replied, “That's okay. He's coming by later.” She couldn’t hold her laugh in for long and after a faux look of shock, Mulder broke as well. She kissed him on what felt like a whim that turned suddenly consequential. With a hand idly stroking Mulder’s cheek, she joined his gaze and his world warmed then turned to brilliant color. 

“I thought about your gift a lot during this case,” she said.

Mulder felt a fluttering of nerves thread and bind in his chest. “And?”

“And if you want, you can tell your landlord you have another place to stay.”

A lightning wave of pleasure washed over him. His mind began to race with all he had to pack and prepare. 

“Just because it’s real, doesn’t mean it’s easy, Mulder,” she said.

His mouth covered hers in a kiss that had a sense of belonging, a feeling strange and welcome to Mulder. Slowly and softly, his lips parted from hers. He searched her eyes. 

“You’re thinking about the pizza, aren’t you?” he asked in exasperation.

Scully pouted again. “It does have all my favorite toppings.”

Mulder leaned back on his heels. Pressure built inside him threatening not to subside. Then Scully’s face lifted. “Although suddenly, I don’t feel very hungry.” She rose from the couch and offered her hand. 

It’s okay to admit you like my pepperoni, Scully, Mulder thought, then quickly told himself, definitely, absolutely, DO NOT say that out loud. 

Mulder followed her into the bedroom, allowing his eyes to take in her beauty, watching as she stripped off her clothes while he clumsily kicked off his. His were scattered, and Scully neatly folded hers and placed them on the dresser, the sight of her making the last of Mulder’s willpower break. 

Like a breeze he gently covered her back with his body, kissing her neck, scooping his hand over her breast, holding his other over her belly. Her body snuggled back into him and she moaned, leading him to the bed, her warmth flushing his body. 

“You ever think about what we did on Kersh’s desk?” Scully asked him.

“Every time I walk by,” Mulder smirked, covering her as she rose up on all fours and gazed back at him.

She purred back, “We were bad.”

“We were really bad, Scully,” Mulder whispered into her ear. “They’d punish you just for being with me.” As he said it he entered her, smooth and slick, with the accelerant of a matchstick. 

Scully moaned out a crisp, “Mulder.” 

“Scully,” he moaned in response, waves of pleasure rolling through his body as she cradled him inside hers.

 “He wanted to discipline me,” she mumbled. 

He leaned over her and thrusted with purpose, his reply coming between short breaths. “To think of him sitting there, steaming at the thought that the same place he’s forced to bend underneath the ash of a cigarette and toe the company line, is where you sat, with your chest bare and your legs spread, hot and wet for me.”

“Mulder,” she moaned again, almost chastising him for his crassness. 

It pushed him to move faster, running his hand along her torso, the other tight at her hip. 

“Scully,” he groaned back. “you can’t believe how hard that got me..” He reached around her, creating featherlight circles along her soft flesh. “..you riding me in the Deputy Director’s chair.” 

Scully bucked against him, and he hastened his speed. “The way you snuck in, willingly, knowing how angry he would be if we got caught.”

“I should be punished,” Scully growled faintly.

Mulder gently smacked her behind, vibrating her against him. She cried out as her body tightened and her flesh pinkened under his hand.

“Again,” she cried softly, then whispered, “harder.”

Mulder gave her another tame slap but her response was an even louder moan, and he felt her grow hotter and wetter around him. He groaned, unable to control himself.  

He bent over her body, her back against his ribs, his mouth hot against her ear, thrusting into her at a desperate pace, over and over. “All that pleasure you felt lying on his desk, my mouth between your thighs, licking you as you begged me not to stop.”

 “Oh, Mulder..” she cried fisting the sheets.

“defiling me on his chair.”

“Oh, oh yes.”

“Your heart was beating with fear, but you were so excited.”

“Yes.”

“We shouldn’t have been in there, but you needed to come so very badly and you needed me inside you.” 

“Oh, God.”

“It felt so good when you came, again and again.”

“Mulder, God!” 

Mulder grunted and shouted, his orgasm sweeping over and taking him, pumping inside her as she writhed underneath him, tearing at the sheets, arching her back, reminding Mulder of a wolf baying at the moon.

Chapter Text

“Mulder, I understand your desire for a home office, but does it have to be my guest bedroom?” Scully asked, looking around in astonishment.

The once simple room with only a bed, small dresser and night tables, was now covered floor to ceiling in boxes and files and papers. His saturn lamp had now been plugged into her wall socket, replacing her contemporary lamps. His basketball balanced on top of her dresser. Her art she had on the walls were now a mere backdrop to his, covering most of the wallspace, including his signed Knicks jersey.  

“Well.. I mean, besides me, when have you ever had a guest?” Mulder countered. “Your mother lives close enough that she doesn’t need a place to stay. If anyone comes to visit they could stay at your mother’s house if they don’t want a hotel. I guess I could leave the bed in here..”

“What about the baby?” Scully asked.

Mulder pointed at the wall. “I put the, uh, the crib in our room. I figured when he was old enough for his own room.. We’d have a house by then.” He studied her face, feeling the heat creep up his own neck. “Is-Is this too fast for you? I didn’t think you wanted me to move into the living room.”

“No-no. I guess it’s fine.” Scully leafed through the books on her bookshelf. The ones formerly there were now piled in the closet. An entire shelf was dedicated to pregnancy, a father’s role, and babies. “This isn’t your normal conspiracy library, Mulder.”

“Yeah, well, I thought it was time to expand to novels other than those by Carl Sagan and H.G. Wells.”

“I also notice a few missing, and some periodicals absent.”

Mulder pursed his lips, tilting his head as his eyebrows lifted. “I thought it might not be quality reading around the little guy. Besides, it made Chuck and Frohike happy.”

“You sound like he’s going to be reading from the womb.” Scully comforted her belly. “So have you learned anything from your studies?”

Mulder picked up the pillow on the bed and stuffed it under his shirt. “Relax the back, breathe in, breath out,” Mulder panted in demonstration.

Scully smiled appreciatively. “Thank you for doing this with me.”

“I uh, I thought it was a you and me kind of thing. I thought it was important.”

“Yes, of course,” she said, shaking her head, “that’s not what I meant.”

His voice softened. “I’m not trying to jump on your words, Scully.”

“I know. For so long I’ve done everything myself.”

For a moment, Mulder thought she might cry. “If it helps, it’s a little strange for me too.”

“It’s just, there’s a we now and it’s something I have to get used to,” Scully explained quietly. “It’s just going to take some time.”

“I see.” Mulder said, putting his hand on her belly, slightly bigger than it was before. “We might want to get used to it before he applies for college.” Scully looked down at his hand over their baby. She still looked sad. “There’s something else. What is it?”

She looked back up to catch his gaze. “I don't know, I, uh, maybe it's hormones, or, I, I'm just feeling so strange about all this.”

“Moving in this? Or having-a-baby this?”

“No, no, leaving work, I guess. I mean, I, I walked out of that office today feeling like a deserter.”

“You paid your dues there, Scully. More than paid them. You're concerned about Agent Doggett?”

“You know, the entire time that I was down there I had someone to watch my back.”

“I'm betting that Agent Doggett can take care of himself. He's a big boy. You gotta worry about the little boy.”

“You think Kersh will assign Monica down there full time?”

“Probably. She’s well liked, but more importantly she has connections in all the right places.”

“You’ll still be there.”

“Scully, you’re not asking me..”

“He’ll be your partner now.”

That made Mulder scowl. “Scully, I only have one partner and she is going to be late for our first lamaze class if we don’t leave soon.”

“Yeah,” she agreed, looking at the time. “Let me get my keys.” She turned to leave and did a dance with his pool ball coat rack. She tightened her lip as she placed it back where it was.

Back in the living room, passing by the fish tank, she noticed his telescope on her desk, along with his laptop alongside hers, and the picture of his sister. Two more picture frames sat beside it. One of the two of them, taken at a crime scene of all places, another of her ultrasound. It touched her and a string of guilt wallowed in her chest. His wooden hand carved bowl adorned her dining table, the Aztec throw he had once wrapped her in now hung over her sofa. He was right. This felt more like home.

“Where is all your furniture, Mulder?” Scully asked when he made his way into the living room.

“I donated it to Byers, Langly, and Frohike.”

“Even your couch?”

Mulder chuckled. “I know. Lot of good memories on that couch, but yeah, they need it more than I do.”

As they headed out and Mulder closed the apartment door behind Scully he said, “You know, we should really look into baby proofing the cabinets and drawers…”

*****

Months later…

The buzz of a chainsaw stirred Mulder from his sleep. Shivering from the early morning chill, he shifted his weight towards the human furnace lying next to him which was where the saw mill from his dreams also resided. The pillow that previously cradled his head had volunteered itself to the fortress supporting her back. All the blankets had also deserted him to serve as the fortresses’ canopy. 

Carefully, he lifted each pillow so he could curl around her, filling his senses with her scent, his hand at her belly, feeling his son pressing a foot to his hand. 

“Morning, Mulder,” Scully grumbled. “What time is it?”

“Only a little after six. Go back to sleep.”

“Mmmm,” was her only response. 

She wiggled against him and desire woke his body. Ignoring the fleeting urge, he snuggled in tighter, floating his lips over her neck. Fear flitted over a feeling that was a complete stranger to him. Contentment.  “Let’s stay like this all day,” he proposed, his voice thick with emotion.

“I can’t. My mother will be here shortly to set up for the baby shower.”

Mulder rolled his eyes. “Do we have to?” 

“Well, traditionally, baby showers were attended by only women,” Scully explained. “So you’re off the hook.”

“I never thought of us as traditional people.”

“No, no I guess not.” Scully said, squeezing his hand. “You’d get to meet all mine and my mother’s friends.”

A forced smile stayed frozen on his face as he nodded slowly. “Maybe I’ll go shoot some hoops at the Y.”

Slowly and clunkily Scully shifted to face Mulder. There was an adoring glow across her cheeks as the first streaks of morning light caressed her body. He studied her for a long quiet moment before she stated, “Your mind is traveling.”

“I-I was thinking about the way I feel, right here, with you, and what it was like every night before I met you.” He paused to absorb her reaction, the intensity of her eyes on him. “Scully, I was numb, to everything except the pain from my sister’s abduction. I used that pain to drive my life. Now, for the first time, everything matters, and life has become so much harder, the weight of it all.. and I know how that sounds, but my life doesn’t have a singular purpose anymore.” 

Scully’s eyes softened. “Mulder, I’ve come to a realization too, something I guess I’ve known for sometime and just haven’t been able to share.. maybe because I feared its strength and the implications, maybe I wasn’t ready for what I might have to leave behind.. I didn’t think enough about what possibilities it would open. That as incredible as what we have is, there could be more.” She moistened her lips, her breath shallowed. “When I thought that I might lose you, what went through my head wasn’t just all we had left to do, but all I had left to say to you.” Scully paused again and took another deep cleansing breath. Mulder opened his mouth, but Scully waved the words away. “I know you know, but I’ve come to realize some words, some feelings, should be spoken, some words should be felt..”

“Scully, whatever you’re going to say….” 

He tried to interrupt again, tried to give her, or them, an out, but she cut him off. “What I want to say to you, Mulder, is I’m..” A faint knock echoed down the hall and Scully froze. They both held their breath listening for the second knock. 

“I thought the baby shower was at noon,” Mulder said.

“It is. My mother probably just wants to get a jump on setting it up,” Scully replied, struggling to lift herself up and roll out of bed.

Mulder stole back his pillow and surrounded himself in the Scully warmed comforter. His intention was to fall back to sleep and wake up when the party was over. 

With little luck, he padded out an hour later, shirtless, rubbing the spattering of hair at the center of his chest, his long blue pajama pants hugging the pronounced V between his hips.

Maggie looked over at him in delight as she cooked something delicious over the stove. “Good morning, Fox. I hope you’re hungry because I made you some breakfast.”

“Oh,” he said, pleasantly surprised as she set down a plate filled with eggs, bacon, homemade biscuits, and hashbrowns. He cleaned his plate and refilled his coffee. Something about the way Maggie prepared it always made it taste better.

Ellen, Scully’s friend, arrived shortly and while they set up the balloons and other decorations, Mulder propped his feet up on the sofa and watched the headline news stories. One in particular sent up his radar. This wasn’t something that could wait and he didn’t want to ruin Scully’s day without any facts. Other women had arrived and the apartment had started to get noisy with conversation and laughter. Mulder went over to Scully to tell her he was heading out as they were sitting her down to open gifts.

“Aren’t you staying, Fox?” Ellen asked. The rest of the women crowded around for his answer, swooning over him like he was the last turkey left on Thanksgiving.

“Me?” he said bashfully. “Well as much as I would like to stay a little longer with all you beautiful women, I have some errands to run. Nice to meet all of you.” He took one last look at Scully and rushed out. Down the hallway, he ran into three of the ugliest women he had ever met in his life.

“Byer’s?” he asked the bearded lady upon further inspection.

Frohike, dressed in a flowery Moo moo, shrugged. “We bought some gifts for her and the baby. We wanted to wish her well.”

“Is there a reason you’re dressed like Mrs. Roper from Three’s Company?” Mulder asked.

“Men weren’t invited to the baby shower,” Langly explained. “So we thought we’d go as women.”

“Yeah, well, good luck,” Mulder answered. “They’re all in there. You’ll probably fit right in.”

Instead of heading to a bar or having Skinner throw him a shower, Mulder headed over to Doggett’s to join him in a quiet beer, watching some Nascar. 

“There’s another race on I’d like to show you,” Mulder said to Doggett.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, but this one is for who is going to get control of the planet.”

Mulder switched the channel to show Doggett a medical research clinic in Germantown, Maryland that burned down. The announcer said that it appeared to be arson.

“Does the name Zeus Genetics mean anything to you?” Mulder asked.

Doggett looked up at him. “This is related to Dana’s doctor?”

“Possibly,” Mulder replied. “Dr. Parenti was the co-founder. I need you to back me up because I’m going to call in the FBI to sift through the ashes.”

“What if they don’t find anything?” Doggett asked.

“They will,” Mulder said confidently. “I’ve been through this too many times not to see the signs. While they’re doing that we’re going to go give Parenti a visit. Maybe he has something he’d like to share.”

Chapter Text

It was after nine when Scully started to pace. Mulder hadn’t come back and he wasn’t answering his phone. Her mother had almost completed cleaning up from the party and had asked for the fourth time when Mulder would be returning. Scully both wanted the phone to ring and feared for when it did.

The door burst open, Doggett warning Scully not to panic, Mulder holding a bloodied rag to his forehead, blood pouring into his eye and down his cheek. 

“Fox!” Maggie cried, almost hysterical, meeting him at the sink, insisting on cleaning his wound. 

“Let me see,” Scully said, squeezing between them. “Mulder, you need stitches.”

“Go ahead,” Mulder replied. “I’ve got no time to go to a hospital.”

“What happened?” Scully asked, looking over at Doggett.

“While Muldah was beatin’ the crap out of Parenti, a strung out Billy Miles attacked him.”

“That wasn’t from drugs, Doggett. You saw the way he threw me through that wall,” Mulder argued.

“Oh my God, Fox,” Mrs. Scully gasped, holding her hand to her chest.

“I’m okay,” Mulder reassured her. “Ask Scully, I’ve got a hard head.”

Scully nodded and smiled, beginning to stitch the wound as Mulder winced and moaned. “So what is it you’ve gotten into now without me?” she prodded.

Mulder’s head raced. Scully needed to know.“Billy Miles, before he landed me in the next room, said that our baby is special. That he would make sure that you were going to have that baby.” 

Scully, pulled out the chair next to him and with a hand to her lower back to balance herself, eased into the chair to finish the last stitch. “Why would he say that? What does it mean?”

“It means you’re not safe here,” Mulder replied quietly.

Doggett, who had left the room to answer his phone, returned. “They analyzed the substance they found at the arson site. It came back as unidentifiable biological material fused with laboratory grade silica.”

“Mulder, I can’t have my life being one continuous X-file,” Scully said.

Mulder squeezed her hand for reassurance. “Scully, this has nothing to do with the X-Files and everything to do with you and our baby. I am going to make sure that you are safe, that our baby is safe, and I will do everything I can to protect the two of you, but I can’t do that here.”

The lights flickered off and all the electricity in the apartment powered down. Maggie looked up at the fixtures. “Oh no.”

“We need to go now,” Mulder said, helping Scully to her feet. Doggett followed Maggie out.

“Take the back way,” Doggett instructed. 

They just about got to the street when Billy Miles burst from the building. They piled into Scully’s car, but not before Billy met Mulder at the driver’s side window. His arm pulled back ready to shatter the glass. Mulder watched in horrible delight a sedan come screaming down the road and smash right into Billy Miles, his head popping and exploding under the pressure of the back right wheel. 

The window rolled down and Mulder clearly made out the driver. Krycek.

“Get in. There’s no time,” he demanded.

Mulder looked at Scully who shook her head.

“Now!” Krycek yelled.

“Let’s go,” Mulder said, waving them on and one by one they followed him into Krycek’s car. Krycek sped away, explaining as he drove:

“The government has been experimenting with alien/human DNA since 1947.”

“But they’re all dead,” Scully said.

“But the work continued,” Mulder replied. “Alien babies birthed by human mothers. That’s what was going on in Dr. Levy’s office, Dr. Parenti’s. Wasn’t it?”

Scully turned to him frightfully at the sound of her old doctor’s name.

“They were never able to get them to live more than a couple days,” Krycek continued. “But they needed them for the tissue and stem cells for other experiments.” Krycek spun the tale of human replacements and alien replicants coming to prepare for colonization. “They are fearless and answer to only their biological imperative to survive. They’re almost impossible to kill.” 

“But what about my baby?” Scully demanded. “What is wrong with my baby?”

“They didn’t even know about it,” Krycek replied. “I don’t even know how they could have found out just how important it is. More human than human, a miracle baby. A perfect human child with no human frailties.” 

Krycek slammed on the brakes at the crossing, almost running the stop sign, as a car approached at great speed. The car screeched to a stop and the window retracted. A shiny bald head came into view with the glasses and scowl to follow. It was Skinner.

“Come on!” Skinner yelled.

Krycek lifted his right arm and held the pistol in his hand to Mulder’s temple. “If anyone moves, the last thing to go through his head will be a nine millimeter.”

Mulder felt something wet hit his face and then heard a loud crack. He watched as Krycek’s head slumped back, a hole leaking copious amounts of blood appeared in the middle of his forehead. In the other car, Skinner held the smoking gun. Doggett rushed Maggie and Scully out of the car and into Skinner’s. Mulder took one last look at Krycek, then turned to Skinner. 

“I had called Skinner,” Doggett explained. “When Billy Miles led the FBI back to Parenti’s office saying he wanted to turn himself in and I got the call that he didn’t show.. I knew that there would be trouble. I might not be proficient in X-Files, but my experience and training had me sniffing something sour.”

“Please, someone tell me what is going on,” Maggie said. “Why are they trying to kill us, to hurt a pregnant woman?”

“We don’t know, exactly, Mrs. Scully,” Mulder said. “We only know that she is in danger. The why will have to wait.”

Maggie put her arm around her daughter. “I’m so worried about you, you keep everything all bottled up.”

“Where can we take her?” Mulder asked. “Doggett, do you know of a safe place where she can have her baby?”

“There is,” Doggett said. “In Georgia. She’d be safe there. It’s about 800 miles from here.”

“I know of somewhere closer,” Skinner said. “My cousin has some land that was passed down from my grandparents. There’s a house on it with a big porch, a long shed over to the side, a barn in the back where they kept horses, and some other buildings. Several acres of land. It’s been up for sale for over a year and right now it’s just sitting there.  Fully furnished. It’s a little over an hour from here. It’ll be the perfect spot. In fact, my parents lived their when they first got married and my mother gave birth to me in that house.” 

“Where I would send you is an entire abandoned town where I was born,” Doggett said.

Mulder shifted in the passenger seat in order to see Scully sitting in the back. “What do you want to do?”

She reached out and linked their fingers. “I rather stay in Virginia.”

“We’re going to need some reinforcements,” Doggett said.

“Wait,” Mulder replied. “I’ve got a better idea. We might need to use your reinforcements as a decoy. Meet them at the FBI building. Let’s see how deep the rabbit hole goes. ” Then Mulder added, “We’ll need to get an old model car and I think it’s time we all dumped our cell phones.”

*****

Scully stared out the car window and watched the city blur into the countryside. How could she dare to think she would be granted the chance to live a part of her life free? What and whose debt was she paying and would this be her life? Was this the price of choosing Fox Mulder? Or was it the sins of her father? Of the government he trusted and served? Whatever the justification, how did she protect her child from this world? 

The highway gave way to a two lane road with only reflectors to keep them from careening off the sides. Scully dozed on and off on her mother’s shoulder until she was roused by the crackle of gravel spitting from the tires. Mulder got out and pulled open the heavy galvanized gate attached to a rickety fence with mildewed and weathered posts. That won’t even slow them, she thought. Owls hooted in the distance along with the undertone of cicadas. Through the veil of night the overgrown grass looked like large fans waving them towards the house. It reminded Scully of the dunes on the beaches in San Diego where she’d sit by a fire on cool fall days with her sister and their friends. Dancing and laughing as the waves crashed against the dense sandy shoreline. How far away from that place her life had taken her. 

Approaching the house, it looked much larger than the picture she had in her mind.  The tires splashed in puddles from the recent rain as Skinner slowed the car in front. The porch, large and grand held possibilities she had not been easily afforded in the past.

“It’s not much, but it has what you need,” Skinner said.

The steps on the porch were stained in mossy growth and slimy in the damp night. Scully grasped the railing to keep herself steady and moved gingerly up the porch as it flaked white paint like snowflakes. She could hear the trees whispering among themselves. The incandescent moon, the sole source of light as the squeaky hinges of the screened door welcomed them inside. The odor of stale air hit her first, dry and musty, as if waiting to breathe. 

Maggie flipped the switch for the lights, but the house stayed silent.

“They must have cut the breaker,” Skinner said. “I’ll go around back and reset it.”

The furniture was sparse with the bare essentials, covered in sheets like ghosts. Mulder and Maggie pulled them away, while Scully hunted for cleaning supplies and used the bathroom. Mulder met her in the hallway. 

“I know it’s not a hospital, but if anything goes wrong, there is one close enough to get you there.”

Scully nodded, but didn’t answer. There really wasn’t much she could say. “Are you staying or going back with Skinner?”

“Me being here could be putting you in danger. I could be used as a decoy to keep them away from you.”

“We’re always in danger. You deserve to be here for the birth of your son,” she said faintly. “I deserve to have you here with me.”

Mulder stood silent, his lip tight and firm, his eyes steaming. “I’ll speak to Skinner.”

Scully spied through the triple glazed glass held in by the strong window frame. Mulder and Skinner stood by the car talking, but she couldn’t read their lips or interpret their animation. 

A comforting hand touched Scully’s shoulder. “You’re going to have to put your trust in his decisions,” Maggie said. “I know how hard that is for you. I also know you trust him more than anyone. I saw it when you returned from your abduction, with the death of your sister, and with your cancer treatment. Even your faith in God isn’t as great as your faith in him…”

“...Mom,” Scully interrupted, feeling her mother stripping her naked.

“You need to have that faith in him now, Dana,” Maggie said.

Mulder entered the house. “Monica is coming with clothes and more supplies. Mrs. Scully, give Skinner your keys to your house and tell him what you need Monica to take from there. After he meets with Monica he’ll be heading to the FBI building to help Doggett.”

“And you?” Scully could hear the frailty in her own voice. 

Mulder’s mossy eyes twinkled and his lips curved upwards. “I’ll be here with my catcher’s mitt.”

*****

After a short nap, Mulder took the first post outside by the gate. Scully and her mother got what little sleep they could in a back bedroom on the first floor. 

After a misty night, morning came and brought with it the sun. After a hearty breakfast cooked by Scully’s mother, Maggie decided to read outside on the porch and look out for Monica or anyone else approaching. 

Muddy, sweaty, and without sleep or a shower in over twenty-four hours, Mulder decided to check out the upstairs accommodations. 

He stripped down, piling his dirty clothes in the corner of the wooden floor, then headed to the shower. Thinking only of Scully, he forgot to tell Skinner to bring any clothes or clean underwear for himself. Hopefully, Monica thought ahead for the both of them.

The house had good pressure and the hot water doused him, rinsing off all the grime and sending it into a grayish brown vortex down the drain. As he soaped his hair, Mulder lost himself in thoughts of Scully, becoming a father, and how to protect them from the world around them when he heard the sound of the bathroom door open. The curtain pushed open, water splattering softly on the tile floor, and Scully stepped in, completely naked, her belly brushing his hip and her arms splaying on his back as she kissed it. Mulder turned, pushing back his hair as the stream of water flattened it. 

“My mother’s outside reading,” Scully said. “I thought you might need something.”

They stood quietly, Mulder too stunned to come up with a witty remark.  Adoringly, he coaxed her softly to him, enjoying the softness and warmth of her body. Scully’s eyes darkened as she tipped up on her toes and he pressed his lips to hers. She moaned as she opened her mouth to meet his tongue, pouring themselves into each other while she ran her hands over him, pushing him against the cold tile.

Breathless, she nipped at his jaw. “I need you,” she murmured over the rush of the shower.

Her words sent an electric current, sharp and swift through him. His fingers tangled in her wet amber hair, his mouth taking all that she gave and sending her his passion while his erection grew hard and full at her touch. 

He hadn’t expected Scully to even be in the mood given what was happening around them and considering her condition.  And definitely not like this. Scully was fire, begging for relief, craving him.

Her hand moving up and down along his length stole his breath and he broke their kiss in a gasp under the hot waterfall of the shower head. He pulled back to gaze at her, her eyes dazed and intense.

“Here?” he panted.

Her hand tightened around him as she licked her lips, staring inside him.

“Okay,” he breathed, his hand dropping to cup her behind. Her belly too big to get around, he rotated her towards the tile and slowly eased into her. Her head fell back, her fingertips white against the wall as she groaned, echoing up into the steam.

“God, Scully, what you do to me,” he whispered.

Her natural beauty in her reaction to him made him move, thrusting up into her, faster and deeper than intended, but she was just so slick he couldn't stop. She pushed back against him, breathing hard, egging him to go faster. Over and over he drove into her, grunting and holding her hips for balance. Each plunge inside her, jolting his insides with overwhelming pleasure from the top of his head, to a sharp tingle at the tip of his dick. Every breath out, loud and pulsing with life, Scully moaning his name, praying to God, in an inaudible benediction. With one hand planted on the tile, her eyes closed and water sliding from her forehead over her open mouth, Scully moaned out her orgasm and Mulder released, diving over the cliff with her, their soaked bodies succumbing to the pleasure of their connection. 

Pulling away, Scully turned slowly under the water, pushing her hair away from her forehead. Not ready to break their physical connection, he pressed his head to hers, and they stood slowing their breaths together, holding each other beneath the stream of hot water.

Mulder helped Scully dry off, carefully dressing her, and leading her to the bed. “I want you to get some sleep. It’s important. Let me stay awake and keep the demons at bay.”

“Mulder, you need your sleep too.”

“I will. When it’s safe.”

Mulder unintentionally dozed, with his arm around Scully, holding her, spooning with her, one hand on his Sig Sauer. A knock on the bedroom door startled him awake and he pointed his pistol at the intruder. 

“Fox!” Maggie yelled.

His head craned as his eyes shot open. “Mrs. Scully, I’m sorry. I-I thought…”

“I didn’t mean to disturb you two… Monica is here.”

Chapter Text

Mulder, Scully, Monica, and Maggie entered the kitchen with arms full of groceries from Monica’s car. As Scully walked into the room, she noticed that the sun had cast a warm tangerine glow onto the old cabinets. They were hard pine, a layer of  dirt and dust covering its personality, but not marred. In fact, they held a charm all their own that Scully found almost nostalgic.

Their footsteps echoed in the empty space, the dark hardwoods creaking and cracking like stiff bones on an early morning spring run. Once all the food was put away, Mulder hit the wood with a couple gallons of Murphy’s Oil soap and had it shining to Scully’s amazement and approval. 

All the scrubbing and washing of sheets and clothes left Scully suddenly tired, and after a mid-afternoon nap she woke in search of Mulder. On the porch was where Scully found him, leaning against the railing in dirty ripped jeans and a black shirt, biceps curved and ample, holding a rag and a spray bottle, looking out into the far distance, beyond the woods and dirt roads, at the city sparkling like Christmas lights. 

“Remember that case, Mulder, with the Peacock family?” Scully asked as she joined him.

Mulder made a face that looked like he had just sucked on a lemon. “I’d rather forget. What would make you think of that?”

Scully ran her hand over the top of the railing, impressed, once again, with Mulder’s attention to detail. “When we were on that case, you spoke about if you had to settle down, build a home, it would be a place….”

“...Kind of like this?” Mulder passed her a half smile. “Scully, I want the place to be ready for the baby. That’s all. I also recall telling you that I had never seen you as a mother before and here you are..”

Scully looked up into his eyes. “You said it would be a place out in the country.”

“Yeah, but you’d never go for it,” Mulder replied and looked back out into the expanse. “The first time the power went out and you had no water you’d be packing up for the big city.”

“That may have some truth to it.” Scully walked away from him, leaving him with nothing to do, but watch her, and wiggled herself into one of the white chipped wooden chairs. She patted the one next to it. “Come, sit with me.”

Mulder complied, setting the cleaning solution on the floor, with the rag over the top. He nodded happily and said, “The porch looks a lot better without the dirt and cobwebs.” Then ran his foot over the faded stain. “It needs a good sanding, with some paint and stain though, it could really be something.”

Scully looked over at him curiously. “You think we’ll need to stay in hiding after the baby is born?”

“I don’t know, but cleaning gives me something to do other than sit around with my gun in my hand and wait.” 

Mulder grew silent after that, watching the trees lean as a gray mist covered them. She knew he wanted to be out there with Doggett. Letting someone else fight the good fight was not Mulder, but this time she had earned the right to have his attention, his devotion, solely on her. 

“You asked me to help Doggett and now he’s out there all alone,” Mulder said when he finally broke the silence.

“Skinner is with him,” she countered.

“I just hope that will be enough,” Mulder replied.

They fell back into a comfortable silence. The skies opened up and drummed against the roof, cascading down over the porch like they were encased underneath a waterfall.

Mulder stood and offered his hand. Scully accepted his help. 

“How about a movie?” he asked. “I saw some VHS tapes in the cabinet under the television.”

“I don’t know,” Scully replied. “It’s hard to do much of anything knowing what’s out there looking for us, waiting to take our baby.”

Mulder’s brows gathered, forming two heavy lines between them. “It might be good for your mother. She’s strong, but all of this has to be taking its toll on her.”

Scully nodded in agreement. “Okay. You coming inside?”

“I’m going to stay out here a little longer,” Mulder said. “Watch the rain.”

He was guarding them, ready to sacrifice his life in exchange for hers and their son if the enemy reared its head. She knew this with utmost certainty. What if the hybrid monsters did come? What defense did they really have? The way she saw it, they had zero protection against these human replacements so the best they could do was hope the plan worked and find a semblance of normal. Scully decided to seek out her mother, last seen making the beds.

It wasn’t long before the door screeched open and Mulder was joined by Monica, who sat in the chair previously held by Scully. Although, her silence did not have the soothing pleasure he had with Scully.  Instead there was a distant tension. Thinking of the positive, without Scully around, he was able to interrogate Monica as he wished. 

“Have you delivered a baby before?” Mulder asked.

“I’ve been in a house during a natural childbirth. Plus our FBI training.”

“But you never actually..”

“No,” Monica replied and then stated with confidence, “You’re worried. Mulder she’s going to have the baby and it’s going to be okay.”

“How can you be sure there won’t be complications?” Mulder asked. “That she won’t need medical help? That might be why they haven’t come. Not that they don’t know where we are, but are waiting for the inevitable trip to the hospital.”

“That’s not how I feel it will turn out, but if that’s true, we’ll find a way. All those X-Files, even when she was taken in that alien spaceship out in Antarctica, you found a way to save her. You’ll do that now.”

Mulder squinted as the sun peeked through the clouds. “How do you always speak with such certainty?”

Monica’s dark eyes pieced into his lighter ones. “It’s the way I feel. Some things you just know.” 

*****

Mulder lost his picks of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Major League for Maggie’s pick of Dances with Wolves. Who would have guessed she was into Kevin Costner.

“I didn’t bring any popcorn with me,” Monica said, breaking the news to Scully. “We do have lots of nice healthy fruits and nuts.”

“Just some water is fine,” Scully replied, situating herself in the center of the couch to the right of her mother. 

“I found popcorn,” Mulder called out from the kitchen area. “It’s a couple years old, but popcorn doesn’t go bad, does it?”

“It might be a little stale,” Scully called back, “But once it’s drenched in butter we won’t notice.”

That made Mulder step into the living room. “You want butter on your popcorn?”

“Yes, lots,” Scully answered. “Why?”

Mulder sucked in his lips and shook his head, tilting his brow. “No reason.”

The movie started without incident, Mulder passing out bowls of buttery popcorn, while Monica smiled and exchanged glances with Maggie as he and Scully shared the same bowl.

When Maggie got up to go to the bathroom, Scully stretched her legs out across the couch, leaning her back against Mulder.  He took the hint and massaged her shoulders, kneading his thumbs into the knots of stress buried in her muscles.

“Mulder,” she purred softly when she had enough.

Maggie returned and chose to sit on one of the side chairs. Monica resumed the movie and Mulder slowly snaked his arm around Scully. Moments later he felt her head softly dip to his heart and his lips fell naturally to the top of her head where he sent two delicate kisses. Her hand squeezed his. It filled his body with an exhilarating joy.

The movie sent all four of them to sleep. Probably the best nap Mulder had taken since he got there. Scully nudged him to go with her upstairs and he followed, finding every creaky step along the way. Luckily, it did not wake Monica and Maggie who resumed their dozing undisturbed.

Cuddled in bed like a litter of kittens, Mulder sent a kiss to the tender skin of Scully’s temple, feeling her pulse timidly against his lips. She locked their fingers, tugging his arm until it rested beneath her warm cheek.  

“You’re going to be the best mother, Scully,” Mulder said in a gravelly whisper. “After all the mothering you did to me all these years.”

“You never listened to me, Mulder,” Scully replied.

“I wouldn’t say never,” Mulder said. “Besides, kids don’t listen either. I was good practice.” He snuggled in closer, their heat smoldering under the blanket as he enjoyed the pure bliss of being next to her. “I’m in awe of you, Scully. Everything you’ve done, endured, and what you’re about to do.”

“In all honesty,” Scully said. “I’m ready to get his part over with. This is not at all what I had planned. I should be having this baby in the hospital.”

“I know.” Mulder said, caressing his shadowed cheek against the silky strands of her head. “Nothing in your life has been what you would have planned.” He released a heavy sigh. “Not since you met me.”

She craned her neck to look him in the eyes, but his heart felt too heavy to receive the affection. “That doesn’t mean I would change any of it, Mulder.”

Scully face contorted in pain. 

“What’s wrong?” Mulder said, lifting himself to his knees. 

“I just had a contraction.”

Mulder jumped from the bed and flung open the bedroom door. “Monica!”

Footsteps pounced on the stairs and Monica met Mulder in a flash, her glock poised in her hand. “What!?! Are they here?”

“No,” Mulder said, pulling himself together as to not startle Monica further. “But the baby will soon be.”

“She’s going into labor?” Monica asked, relaxing, her face rising into a smile. “I’ll go get sheets and towels and a basin with water, oh and I’ll light the candles and put on whale songs.”

“Whale songs?” Mulder and Scully said in unison.

“Yeah, they’re very soothing. You’ll see,” Monica returned and then darted away.

Mulder closed the door. “You ready for this?”

“No,” Scully replied, then rubbed her belly. “We have some time before I have to head downstairs. The contractions only just started.”

“What do you want to do?” Mulder asked.

“Come back and lay with me.”

“Shouldn’t you be walking around or something?” Mulder asked, recalling all the information he read in his books. 

“Not yet,” Scully said. 

He did as she requested, sliding underneath the covers, returning them to their spooning position. Rotating her body, she hooked her hand around his head and gently coaxed Mulder to bring his lips to hers. He gave her a short sweet, but meaningful kiss.

She pulled back to look into his eyes and smiled. 

Her eyebrows lifted. “Monica reminds me a lot of my sister,” she said.

“I can see the resemblance.”

“I told her that earlier today. I think she appreciated the sentiment.” 

Scully gazed a little longer until her lids grew heavy and as he felt the intensity of their connection run through him, she kissed him again.

“Scully,” Mulder said, finding it hard to enjoy Scully’s newfound affection. “Shouldn’t we be getting ready for the baby?”

“I am,” she replied. “In your books, you must have read that kissing can shorten labor and lessen the pain of contractions.”

The thought of being able to alleviate Scully’s pain in any form made him happy, but also useful. More a part of the journey. She looked so peaceful, so calm about all of it. Then again, she had always been the bravest person he knew. Especially with the intelligence to know what she was facing among the headwinds. “I know I’ve never told you this, and I don’t know why I haven’t before, but I’ve always been very proud to call you my partner.”

Scully kissed him again, covering his mouth with hers, and he sent every raw emotion into their kiss, rocking his jaw with the passion that created universes, sweeping his tongue like God’s paintbrush over the vastness of nonexistence. He got carried away in her arms, his lips dancing with hers, over and over again.  

Her body jerked and Scully groaned, clutching her belly. Quickly, she held up her hand. “Just another contraction.”

“Scully, we need to get you out of bed,” Mulder said, beginning to get concerned. 

“I know, I just want a few minutes more of just the two of us, before it’s three of us.”

Mulder softly caressed her rosy cheek. “Scully, we’ll never lose us. We are whole individual people when we’re together. That’s not going to change.”

“This baby will change everything,” Scully said. “I feel like I may have cheated us out of the romance of our relationship.”

He brushed over the apple of her cheek again and whispered hoarsely. “I couldn’t think of anything more romantic than what you’ve done and what you’re about to do for us, for this baby.”

Mulder threaded his fingers in her hair and swam in her oceans, feeling the emotions fill inside his heart, his chest, his mind. The intensity of their gaze deepened and Mulder felt their souls align. “Everything we’ve ever done has been one big romantic encounter.” She was going to be the mother of his child, give him the family he had been denied. She had given him the world and now she was giving him back himself. Through the years, one thing rang true. One thing, he had only said once and yet he felt she had not taken seriously. Ironically, the most serious thing he ever said. “Scully, I love you.”

Scully’s lids couldn’t keep the tides at bay and the honesty spilled down her cheeks. “I’ve always loved you, Mulder. It took me time to not fear it, to accept what I was feeling, to allow my heart to feel it, but somehow I knew. Once that switch was flicked, I couldn’t hold it back anymore.”

Mulder leaned into her lips and caressed them with his own. He felt his own tears stream hot down his face and deepened their kiss until the saltiness of their tears fell upon their lips to share in the moment. He pulled away enough to rest his forehead to hers. “You ready?”

“Yeah,” she nodded. 

*****

Downstairs, Monica and Maggie were waiting to lead her to the back room already prepared for the birth. Scully had to admit that they had done an amazing job to make it feel cozy, like home. 

“With everything you must be feeling, you look amazingly beautiful,” Monica told her.

“And what about what you’re feeling, Monica? Any vibrations?” Scully asked wearily.

“Yes, very, very good ones. It’s almost like..”

Scully’s stomach tightened. “Like what?”

“Like well… absolutely nothing feels off. Like this is where you’re meant to be.. Where Mulder is meant to be.”

Throughout the labor, Scully paced, then got on all fours, laid on her side, then paced again. She leaned into Mulder’s strength. Allowing his will to never give up, feed her fortitude, to fuel every push. The familiarity of their partnership running tandem with the foreign intensity of the experience. She felt an equal measure of love and hate for him in a harmony of chords, crescendoing in a loud orchestra of trust. And because of that, when he wiped the pain and sweat from her head with a cool damp cloth and told her she looked beautiful, she believed it. 

Maggie placed another pillow behind Scully’s back to keep her propped up. Mulder held her hand tighter and kissed her forehead reminding her of her breaths. 

“You’re ready,” Monica said in agitation. “Push, Dana.”

Scully breathed into the pain and pushed with all her might.

Monica yelled to push again.

“I don’t know if I can,” Scully whined. 

“Come on Scully, you got this,” Mulder whispered, “Push.” 

“Shut up, Mulder,” Scully shouted. She knew she didn’t mean it, but it did make herself feel a little better. Then she remembered what he said. They were two individuals, viewing each other as wholes that were simultaneously connected. She squeezed his hand tight. He didn’t do this to her, she chose this. “Say it again,” she said.

“What?” Mulder asked, clearly confused.

“I need you to say it again.”

He covered her hand. “Push, Scully. I need you to push.”

And she did. She pushed and pushed, through the pain and anguish and hell, till the top of her head pounded and her insides felt as if they were ripping apart. She pushed until she felt the finality of release. 

Monica cleaned the airway while Mulder cut the cord and placed their baby on her chest. She looked into his eyes, the place she found life, a sanctuary, home, and the will and courage to travel beyond the boundaries. Mulder smiled, his face alive with amazement and a tranquility Scully had never witnessed before, his chest carrying the badge of honor they both wore. 

Monica and Maggie left the room to give them some time. Mulder leaned down and kissed her forehead, then her lips. 

“They didn’t find us,” she said. 

“Or maybe they realized he wasn’t who they were looking for,” he countered. With his finger he played inside the baby’s hand and the baby’s pudgy pink fingers moved with delight. “What are we calling him?”

“William,” Scully replied. “After your father.”

Mulder smirked. “I’m sure we could include Ahab in there too. Although.. he's got your coloring and your eyes, but he looks suspiciously like Assistant Director Skinner.”

They shared a laugh that was silenced only by William’s soft cry. The hope in Scully’s eyes, the love contained inside her took hold of Mulder’s heart, filling it with a passion and love from a family that he thought he could only dream about. The softness of their lips met over their son, and Mulder felt like they were levitating, he felt weak and strong simultaneously. This was the beginning of a life with the promise of ineffable joy, untainted by fate. One they had finally willed into being.

Chapter Text

For so many years, Mulder had shrouded himself inside a heart crippled by the loss of family, while Scully remained in her dissociative shell, fearful for a truth that had manifested beyond the walls of known science. Paralyzed, she became a servant to her fears and only with the courage he instilled in her, did she rise. With their child between them, they lay beside each other now, unable to drift and ever present, filled with a trepidation that they might wake from the dream. Amidst their devotion, an unspoken promise for their child never to be paralyzed by limits of the world and those that sought to control its future. When they first met, Mulder had offered a branch, with a soul scarred and battered, yet as she stared into his eyes in the bed they shared, she saw it mended with the immortal thread of their bond. No matter what was to come, she knew their tether would not fray and their resolve would stand. 

*****

An elbow for support, laying on top of the sheets, Mulder observed intently while Scully fed their son. William closed his eyes as he sucked, and a surge of joy, of pride, a pure brightness of love and light filled Mulder’s heart to the point he felt it would beat out of his chest. He reached out to stroke the soft pudgy apple that was William’s cheek and when he did, William’s gentle hand came to rest on his finger. It lifted him from the ashes and breathed life into the faith that there was a world worth fighting for.  What he felt in that moment was overwhelming and unconditional, and would forever be a part of who he was. Loving him was as involuntary as breathing. William had become his limb, his heart, forever formed inside his mind with every thought, much like Scully, formed and fully autonomous, but always a part of him.

William lifted his hand away and rested it on the swell of Scully’s breast, his concentration solely on the sustenance it provided.

“Does feeding him hurt at all?” Mulder asked curiously.

Scully smiled at him warmly. “It did the first couple times, but it’s fine now. I think he actually might have learned not to suck so hard, so that helps too.”

Her rosy pink nipple fell from William’s tiny wet lips and he started to fuss. Scully pressed two fingers to the top of her nipple to gently lift it back to his mouth where he quickly latched on and sucked merrily. 

“I might be jealous,” Mulder said in a serious jest.

“You’ll have them back soon enough,” Scully replied.  

Mulder pursed his lips and lifted his brow as he tilted his head. “I meant of you.”

Her nipple fell from William’s reach again and this time he started to cry.

“May I?” Mulder asked, holding out his hand.

Scully passed him an odd look before her face softened at his earnestness and repositioned William. “Go ahead.” 

With his unique gentle curiosity, he slowly reached with his left hand between her cleavage, cupping her right breast with the utmost tenderness, lifting it towards his son’s mouth. Mulder unintentionally squeezed a little too forcefully at the nipple and a pearl of milk formed at the tip. William greedily devoured it, sucking heartily. Against his fingers, Mulder felt the drum of warm milk pumping beneath the skin. He wiped a dribble of milk from William’s chin and without much thought, licked it off his finger. When he realized what he had done, he froze. 

“Does it taste bad?” Scully asked.

“No,” Mulder replied quickly. “Not at all. It tastes like the milk at the bottom of the bowl after eating frosted flakes if you mixed it with melted vanilla ice cream.” His cheeks dimpled, the corners of his eyes wrinkled, and his teeth shone bright. “Marry me.”

“It tasted that good?” Scully asked with a flirtatious smirk.

“No,” Mulder said softly, his stomach burning, his heart beating hard against his rib cage. “I mean I’m laying here, looking at you, looking at our son, and.. And I want us to be a family.”

She searched his eyes and his pulse raced. “You’re serious.”

He shrugged and smiled. “Yeah.”

Scully laughed, catching him off guard. “Mulder, we’re out here in hiding.. we can’t just walk into a church.. I mean…” Scully sighed. “Who would you even get to do it?”

Mulder slid both his hands behind his head flailing out his elbows. “Your mother is friends with that priest. I was thinking if we could sneak him over here.”

Scully shook her head with a chuckle. “Mulder, that’s not the way it works. He’d want us to attend Pre-cana and marry inside a church, and you would have to convert to a religion you don’t even believe in, in fact detest…”

Mulder tightened his lip and frowned, knitting his brow. “Oh. What about your brother?”

“Bill?”

“Didn’t you tell me once he was granted permission by the courts to perform a civil marriage?”

“Mulder, are you feeling okay?”

“I feel fine.”

Scully lifted William and set him on her shoulder. Mulder fit the burp cloth underneath William’s button chin. Now it was Mulder’s turn to sigh. He wasn’t prepared for a debate. “I’ll leave you two to it.” 

Not knowing what else to do, he decided to explore the grounds, going through the old shed, looking inside the barns.    

Time passed unnoticed and he was caught in a deep thought when he looked up to see Scully coming towards him. 

“When I didn’t see you in the house, I thought I’d find you out here,” Scully said as she approached.

Mulder kicked at the rocks buried within the grass. “I thought I’d walk the perimeter. Make sure there isn’t any other way they might come into the property.” 

“May I join you?”

“Always.” He offered her hand and she grasped it, lacing their fingers, he held her hand tight and she hugged his arm. “I found something you might like in one of the sheds. I don’t think Skinner would mind if we borrowed it.”

He opened the heavy barn door and led her inside the darkness. Across the piles of old furniture and miscellaneous items, Mulder pointed to a rocking chair, barely visible through the light coming through the slats in the walls. “It’s a glider. I believe for nursing. The cushions for it, I’m fairly certain, are the ones in the corner in those clear plastic bags. Walter’s grandfather must have been a fairly skilled carpenter.”

“That would be incredible if you think you can dig it out from everything else.”

Mulder nodded in agreement. “I’ll get it done.”

He offered his hand again and led her back out. “Have enough energy to walk a little more? I have another surprise for you.”

Off through the woods they passed between the pines and cypress, through ferns and moss, until the tree line opened and there in the clearing, laid a large pond. “I think there’s fish in there. Thought I saw one jump while I was investigating the grounds.”

They walked around the perimeter, their arms swaying as they did, connected by devoted fingers. When they came across a bench by a short dock, they sat so Scully could rest. 

Surrounded by forest, they were encased in a private sanctuary. The sounds of the rustling of leaves, tree frogs, and bird’s song were their only accompaniment. The pond rippled in the breeze. Scully squeezed his hand. “I didn’t say no,” she said meekly. 

“You didn’t exactly say yes,” Mulder countered, unable to look her in the eye, setting his focal point out beyond the trees, watching two deer with legs outstretched, chasing the sunset.

“You didn’t exactly ask me a question,” Scully replied.

Mulder involuntary clenching his teeth. “No, no I didn’t.” His eyes became slits as the memories pained him. “Scully, when my sister was taken from me, everything crumbled. Eventually my extended family, friends, everyone close to me began to distance themselves. My father could hardly look me in the eye and my mother became a shell of a woman. The quest for illusive truths fueled me, enough to sustain me as I sacrificed my career, my reputation, my relationships… how many times I prepared to hand over my life.. Scully, forty-eight hours ago, one heartbeat changed all that…” Mulder inhaled the crisp air and used it to clear his thoughts. The twinge in his heart lingered. “I don’t think I have the will or the ability to live without you and William in my life. You have been able to give me so much of what I had resigned to never have. It’s because of you, Scully, you gave to me what I forgot I was missing… you’ve made me want that more that you talk about, your normal life, or as normal as I could make it.. I want that with you.”

He felt her delicate hand at his cheek, guiding him back to her gaze. “Mulder, no matter what we decide to do or not do, no matter what will ever happen, I am forever yours.”

***

The early morning dew collected on the tops of Mulder’s white Nike’s as he made his way down the long rocky path. Three posts to the left of the gate, Mulder dug into the mud, regretting not bringing an implement to dig with. Underneath the dirt he lifted a baggie, weighted by the prepaid flip phone inside. 

Mulder dialed the number he had memorized.

“Mr. George Hale, I’ve been waiting for your call.”

Mulder surveyed the area as he spoke. “Mission accomplished Walter. All are happy and healthy. How’s it on your end?”

“Kersh needs to speak with her.”

“So he can trace the call? No.”

“He’s going to call this number in one hour from a prepaid phone.” 

“And why should I trust him?”

“Because he’s towing the line just as I’ve always done. He’s not the bad guy, he’s just trying to keep his job, his family safe. You’re going to have to trust me on this.” 

“This is my son and his mother, Walter. I can’t take chances.”

“I know. I wouldn’t tell you this if I wasn’t absolutely certain they’d be safe.”

*****

The wooden floorboards of the living room held strong to Mulder’s constant pacing as he waited for Scully to get off the phone with Kersh. When she finally appeared on the stairs, her head was hanging low, her shoulders down, and the puffiness around her eyes made him certain that she had been crying. 

“What is it, Scully?” Mulder asked, unable to contain his fears.

Scully didn’t answer, walking towards him, alarm and horror shone in her eyes. He couldn’t bare that whatever he had told her had her experiencing it alone. Instinctively, he pulled her into his arms, his face resting in the crook of her neck. “Whatever it is, Scully, we’ll overcome it together.

“You need to run Mulder. Run and hide as far away from us as you can get. They’re coming for you.”

He pulled back, shocked by her words. “Scully, you’re talking crazy. Who’s coming for me?”

“Super Soldiers. Aliens. The government. Does it matter? They said that you must die or else they will kill William to prevent some prophecy. Something they strongly believe in.”

“So, you come down here and ask me to leave because Kersh says so? Scully…”

“He’s looking out for us.”

Mulder chuckled. “That’s a good one.” He examined her face trying to find some semblance of sanity. “What did he say to you to make you believe him?”

New tears formed across her lids. “He told me almost verse by verse, a part of the scripture that I translated off of the ship in Africa.”

It was a punch. Mulder couldn’t believe what he had been hearing, but for Scully to believe… he shook his head. “I would do anything for you, Scully. Absolutely anything for you or William. I would give up my life, but not this. You can’t ask this from me.” 

“And what if they come to kill you? How can you protect us from them? You saw them with your own eyes, they are unstoppable. By staying you’ll almost certainly be killed and if not you’d be endangering our child. The best thing you can do, the only thing left to do, is run, hide. Go out there and find the answers. Find out how to stop these sons a bitches.”

“So, I leave my son when I’ve only just met him? Miss out on his life? Leave you when you’re most vulnerable? No.” 

“Mulder you told me you loved me, on that bed upstairs, right before the baby was born.”

Mulder swallowed hard. He felt the sweat bead down his back. “I know and I meant it.”

“Then you will leave. For me, for William. You need to get far away from here. We need you alive. We can be together again when we find the answers. You, hiding here with us will only certainly get us all killed.”

“I-I won’t do that," he replied, his voice cracking under the stress. " We will find a way, but we will do it together. So many weeks during your abduction you were away from me. So many weeks I was on that ship being tortured, then left for dead. All those times we were apart. Together is where we are meant to be, Scully. Even Reyes, with her, her vibrations, will tell you that. Come on, Scully. I don’t believe I’m saying this, but think logically. Don’t make me desert my own family. Don’t-don’t take William away from me. Please.”

She didn’t waver from his eyes. Slowly, painstakingly, want and doubt broke through, and with it the gears of logical probabilities. “Then we have to go back out there and fight. Fight with everything we have.”

Unable to take the distance, he cupped her cheek and curved his body to lean into hers. “You just had a baby, Scully. You need time to heal.”

Her voice was unwavering. “I need to protect our child.”

Chapter Text

Mulder’s one week old son lay cradled in his arms as he rocked on the porch swing. His mind raced with thoughts of what was best, what was right, and what he needed for his son and Scully. He reached into his pocket and retrieved a sunflower seed. It crunched between his top and bottom incisors, as his tongue retrieved the seed within. Like an ingrained response, his right fingers stole the remains and tossed them over the porch railing. That mundane process continued. It had always calmed him in the past, a meditation of sorts, allowing him to think clearly or sometimes to simply pass the time. When he was younger that sound came as a comfort, although presently, that felt more like nostalgia. Another seed and another shell flew over the rail. 

He retrieved another and the seed slipped from his fingers, tumbling to the ground.. No.. the seed stopped, as if in midair and floated, up, in front of his son’s eyes. A second floated from his pocket, then a third, they circled around like the baby’s mobile. A whirlwind thrashed inside his chest. His stomach tightened and suddenly he was convinced he would be sick.   

The screen door swung open, the seeds fell, tapping and rocking across the floor. 

“Dana is resting. She expressed some milk for you before she fell asleep,” Maggie said as she approached, holding William’s bottle.  

“Have you had a chance to feed your grandson?” Mulder asked, rising to greet her.

“No, but he looks so peaceful in your arms.”

Mulder carefully transferred his son to his grandmother. “He wants his grandma too.”

William gurgled with delight.

Mulder cocked an ear and a brow. “You hear that? Sounds like a car on the driveway.” Drawing his gun, he sidestepped down the porch steps. “Get in the house and lock the doors,” he said sternly. Maggie held William close to her chest and slipped inside. Mulder’s heart beat hard preparing for the worst.

His gun lowered when the silver van came into view. He walked towards the car with a smile. It was good to see some new familiar faces.  The Lone Gunman piled out of the car followed by Doggett and Skinner.

“Family reunion. Will we all be wearing matching shirts?” Mulder said, sarcasm dripping from his words. “I hope you haven’t stretched out my VHS tapes yet Frohike.”

Frohike passed him a half smile. “I haven’t, but I can’t speak for Langly.”

“Where’s Dana?” Doggett asked, unamused by their trite conversation.

“She’s in the house.”

Doggett headed into the house, but when Mulder went to follow him, a strong hand by Skinner stopped him in his tracks. “Let them talk. We’ve got something else I’d like to discuss. I think I found a way to kill the men that attacked us.”

Mulder furrowed his brow. “How?”

Skinner’s fingers rolled open to reveal his palm and the crumbled rocks sitting on top of it. That and a single bullet of the same color tone. “I’ll need Scully to test them. We found them on Krycek. I had them on me when Billy Miles came after me. It stopped him dead in his tracks. He knelt down like he was in pain and then backed off. I think they have some kind of power against them. This, he held up the bullet, is also one of those rocks. I believe he designed it to fire from his gun.”

***  

“They erased it all,” John said, pleading with Scully. “The cameras, the tapes. I need your help. These men must be brought to justice.” 

Scully walked away, but John kept in step. “You should drop it, John,” she answered.

“You too? Monica, Skinner, you’ve all gone mad.”  Doggett put his hands on his hips. “It just doesn’t make any sense. After all those years searching for the truth and you’re just going to drop it? With no where or why?”

Scully glared at him. “It makes sense in its own way. That’s all I can tell you.”

“Tell me why you can’t trust me. All those things I just did to protect you when you thought your baby was in danger. What changed? Why am I the enemy?”

“No one is saying that you are the enemy, John, but for all our safety, you have to let it go.”

“They tried to kill me. Try to kill A.D. Skinner. They would have killed Mulder had he been with us. They’re still out there Dana.” 

Scully turned to face him, putting her finger hard into John’s chest. “That’s right. They are still out there and they’re unstoppable. And they are inside the FBI.”

John shook his head. “You know something you’re not telling me. Mulder knows something. How long can you hide from it?” John raked at his hair out of frustration. “Knowle told me you were part of some kind of government experiment to try to create what he called a super soldier. Knowle, my buddy, that tried to kill us in the FBI garage.”

“I don’t want to hear this. My baby, my son, is fine.”

“I hope to God that’s true, Dana, but I just don’t want to pretend.”

“Is there a problem here, John?” Mulder asked, standing in front of the doorway with his arms crossed, not liking the tone John was speaking to Scully in or the look of terror in her eyes. His biceps flex as he tightened his fists. 

“No. I just want to know one thing,” Doggett said, headed to Mulder, his finger leading the way. “ How long can you keep this up? How long until the next Billy Miles rears his head? The next threat? The next phantom? You ever stop to ask yourself? All the sacrifice, the blood spilled, you’ve given nearly a decade of your life, where the hell is it all going to end?”

Mulder shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe it doesn’t.”

“And how long can you keep your family together if they never have peace? You’re going to spend your life running? We gotta get these guys. We have to find a way to defend ourselves.”

Doggett waited for his response. Scully was keeping her distance, her arms folded as tightly as his, staring at him as he spoke. “No, Agent Doggett. You have to get them. You are the X-Files now. I have to protect my child.”

John’s eyes softened almost in defeat. “Mulder, I’m going to need your help.”

“If I help you, they find us. Then what? Remember, every time we make contact, you put my son in danger.”

John took a deep breath and stepped back. “I’m not trying to endanger your family, Mulder. I understand, I have a son. I’ll try my best alone.”

Mulder watched his foot as it kicked at the floor, then looked back at Doggett. “You’re not alone, John, you have Monica. Use her talents. Her practices and theories can be out there, but she’s got a lot going for her.”

“I know. You’re right. I know,” John answered, softly.

“And John,” Mulder added, his tone dropping an octave, “you saved my son.” 

“We set up a decoy down in Georgia. They took the bait,” John explained. “You should have seen the look on their faces when they discovered it wasn’t you and instead was some nice old couple named the Gundersons flown out from Kansas. Dana had slipped me the number of  your old buddies Holman and Sheila Hardt. They were very friendly and it was on their recommendation we found them.” 

“The Gundersons, huh?” Mulder said in amusement. “They are a dead ringer for us. Either way, we could have never pulled this off without you, John.” Mulder shook John’s hand. “You’ll do fine.” 

Mulder decided he had enough of company and snuck upstairs to lay on the bed and study the crack in the ceiling. About twenty minutes had passed when he heard Scully’s light footsteps enter the room. “You hid too soon. The Lone Gunman are still downstairs and they have gifts for the baby.”

He craned his neck to see that she was setting William down in the bassinet. Nerves had kicked up again in his stomach. He couldn’t hide from her what William had done on the porch. It would be better to prepare her for when it was her turn to witness their miracle in action. “We can open them later,” Mulder answered, sitting up on the bed and then standing. “There’s something we need to discuss.”

Her eyes widened. “Mulder, you’re scaring me.”

“Something happened..”

Scully was already in defiance, shaking her head. “Mulder, whatever it is, I-I don’t want to hear it..” 

“Even if it’s about our son?”

“Mulder, there is nothing wrong with our son.” 

He placed his hands on her shoulders to ground her. “I didn’t say there was anything wrong with him.”

“What then?”

“When I was holding him out on the porch…” Mulder started and hesitated. A long whiney creek distracted him. They both turned to see the mobile move above the crib. William pointing and waving his pudgy little hand in the air, his eyes wide and filled with determination. 

Scully darted to the crib and held the mobile so that it was unable to rotate. William began to wail. The painful sound caused her to release it and the crying stopped. The mobile started again. Scully looked to Mulder. “Was this what you were going to tell me?”

“He levitated my sunflower seeds,” Mulder murmured, almost unable to dispense the words from his throat. 

“Mulder, what does it mean? Is Doggett right? Is our son a result of some government program?”

“Scully, we have to fall back on what we’ve always fallen back on.”

“And what is that Mulder?” 

“The science. You can test it. Run our DNA. William’s DNA. Hell, run every last chromosome. Find out if he’s the next Gibson Praise or the next phase in human’s alien evolution. That’s what we can do.”

“You really want to put our son up against that test?”

Two deep lines formed between Mulder’s brow. His heart ached for the journey Scully would have to endure. “I only want to know the truth.”

“And what if you discover that your son was manufactured? That he’s part alien? That he’s not even biologically yours? How would you feel then?”

Mulder shook his head and closed the distance between them. “No matter what those tests say, Scully. He is my son. I will love him as my son. Always. Would you feel any different?”

Scully’s chin trembled. Her eyes looked as if tears were ready to burst free at any moment. “If I knew that I was used as an incubator for one of their weapons? For some development of some new slave race? For colonization?”

“Yes. You need to make that right with yourself before you run his DNA. Would you turn him over to them if he’s something other than human? If you couldn’t, could you take his life?”

“No, of course not.”

“Then could you accept him as your own, for what he is?”

“I-I don’t know.”

“Would he be any different than Emily?”

He could see the way the question hit her, like a hunter’s arrow going through an unsuspecting deer. That was a name he hadn’t dared to use in a very long time. Perhaps he was pushing her too hard.

Scully didn’t answer the question. Instead she asked, “How could we even test him if the FBI is against us? How could we keep the findings a secret?”

“The Lone Gunman may be able to help us keep it under the radar.” That was all he said before his brain overtook the rest of his body and he galloped down the stairs in search of her answers.  Before Scully had a chance to follow him and protest, Mulder presented Frohike and the gang with his plan.

Upstairs, Scully tucked William under his blanket. He looked peaceful with his eyes closed. It reminded her of the way Mulder slept after being up for 48 hours on a case. Deeply, she sighed. Every time she looked at William she could see pieces of Mulder and every time he fell in love with both of them all over again. Tears sprang to her eyes and she quickly wiped them away. It was simply fear she rationalized to herself. Without any proof she had been putting together pieces and making connections that weren’t there. With William asleep in his crib, she headed downstairs with the baby monitor in her pocket. It didn’t take more than reaching the bottom of the stairs for her mother to ask her what was wrong.

“It’s very difficult to explain,” she said, taking the last step into the living room.

“Whatever it is, Dana, you can tell me.”

She closed her eyes and listened to her own breath. Her mother would find out soon enough. There was nothing more she could do to keep it from her. “The men that took me, that put me through those tests, there is new information that they have connections, possible roots, within the FBI. That these same men may have tampered with my pregnancy.”

“Are you afraid that he’s not healthy? Because he seems fine, Dana.”

“No, it’s not that. Something he did upstairs, just now, is making us question how he came to be.”

“Why does it matter?”

“Mom, he’s my son.”

“..and that’s why you need to love him and raise him in spite of all of it. He is a gift from God.”

“And I need to know that it’s God I have to thank,” Scully countered, trying to not sound as harsh as she did. 

“If I may interrupt,” Frohike said, distancing himself from Mulder who was in deep conversation with Langly. “I know how to keep your results anonymous, but you should consider what your mother is saying. No matter what they did or tried to do, the baby is yours. When you came to us to tell us that you were pregnant, the look in your eyes, the happiness in your face, anyone could see how badly you wanted to have that child. Don’t let them change that.” 

Scully stood shocked at his insight, her jaw slacked and brows raised. Then she saw Mulder enter her peripheral vision. 

“Byers is going to get you into the lab,” Mulder said. “There you can run the DNA tests…” he pulled a baggie filled with crumbled reddish rocks from his pocket, “..and I need you to tell me what these are made of.”

Scully’s knees buckled. The energy drained from her body, dissipating like the sun’s heat fading into an orange glow as it set behind a mountain. “What are you not telling me, Mulder.”

Mulder paused, his tongue running around the inside of his cheek. “It may be the key to stopping the super soldiers.”

Mulder was once again on fire and her body had yet to recover from the human she had recently pushed from it. Still, she carried on, making the preparations to head to the lab.

Chapter Text

“Doggett brought me a super soldier to examine,” Scully said to Mulder.

“He just followed Doggett right to the lab?”

“She..”

“She?”

“Yes, she told him she was part of the same program as his military buddy. That William was part of that same program.”

“And?”

“The only identifier that I found on her was a mutation in her skeletal structure. A bump on the back of the neck.”  

“William has no mutation.”

“No, he doesn’t, but there’s more. The.. uh.. The Lone Gunman located a Navy ship, the Valor Victor, that docked from international waters. On the ship, before all evidence was destroyed, Monica and Doggett uncovered ova being fertilized with…” Scully swallowed hard. “Monica did not find my name, but that doesn’t mean my ova wasn’t on that ship.”

“Scully, what difference would it really make? We knew they were using your ova. We knew because of Emily, we knew from what I discovered in the nursing home in San Diego. Your name on that ship wouldn’t prove anything.”

“It might prove what might have been done to me.”

Mulder tightened his lip and in a low even tone asked, “Were you able to reach any conclusions with William’s DNA?”

Scully shook her head, avoiding his eyes. “I haven’t studied the results yet. I waited for you.” 

“I’m here,” he said quietly, his forefinger skimming her cheek to draw her gaze. “Have you thought about what I said? About coming to terms?”

The space between them whispered away. Scully reached out, trailing the pads of her fingertips down his arm to clasp his hand. “He is ours, Mulder. The details will not change that.” She opened the envelope and placed the DNA slide on the desk behind a white sheet of paper in order to read them clearly. 

Single tears dripped from her eyes as she compared William’s DNA to Mulder’s. “With 99.99% certainty you are the father.”

“Considering the chance of interference,” Scully explained, “I tested William’s DNA against yours using as many markers as possible and it is conclusive. I don’t see any evidence suggesting anything different."

“Then how did he do what he did?” Mulder asked, his hands animated, “with- with the sunflower seeds and the mobile?”

“Our son is very human. As human as Gibson Praise. I would need to perform a high resolution EEG to confirm, of course I wouldn’t consider doing that especially as an infant without any signs of distress…”

“The God module,” Mulder answered, his brow peaking above his nose. “You believe his brain has anomalous activity, much like mine did.” The thought made Mulder test grow tight. Was he responsible? “Is it harming him? Overactivity?”

“He is not infected, Mulder. It is a natural part of his DNA, genetic remnants in us that are active in him, stemming from the germ line in our DNA. His brain is fine, much the way Gibson Praise’s brain developed to handle the workload, so is William’s brain.”

“So what now?” Mulder asked, hesitantly.

“Now we raise our child. ”

Scully’s confidence helped console Mulder’s anxiety. His mind began to process and finally drift. “What about the results from the rocks I gave you?”

“They’re predominantly made up of an iron substance called magnetite. It’s not something organic to this planet. In fact, magnetite comes from meteorites that have landed here from Mars over the course of the past millennium. There are pieces so large that some are mined in quarries for their unique properties and are used as a source of iron in many daily vitamins.”

“Does William have a lack of iron in his blood?”

“No.”

Mulder chewed the inside of his cheek as his mind worked. “I’m going to hand this over to The Lone Gunman. I’m pretty sure they know people who can turn this into ammunition.”

Four weeks later…..

The pain reverberated down his arm. At least he supposed it was his arm. It had gone numb a couple hours ago just about the same time he had fallen asleep. Mulder had slept on his bed, but his arm had chosen to sleep with William, and act as an anti-wailing device which had been fairly successful. William had slept and not cried for an entire five and a half hours. Right now, the loss of an arm felt like a fair exchange. 

With a lot of finesse, Mulder was able to wiggle his arm free and through the bars of the crib without waking his son. He crept downstairs with the baby monitor in hand in search of Scully and instead ran into Maggie. 

“She’s not here,” Maggie said.

“What do you mean she’s not here? Where did she go?” Mulder pressed, failing to control his irritation. They hadn’t left the house grounds since they had stepped onto them before William was born. 

“One of the Agents, John, he was shot, he’s in the ICU,” Maggie replied, a shaky uneasiness in her voice. “Monica had called her on the phone that the three gentlemen with the paper route had given her.”

“They have their own publication,” Mulder explained, trying not to take out his annoyance with Scully’s action on her mother. “although I don’t know how successful it’s been lately. She used her burner phone?” 

“Yes, I think so.”

“Damn Doggett,” Mulder grumbled. “I’ll call Langly, Frohike, and Byers. They won’t be the best help, but you can trust them.” 

***

By the time Mulder burst into the hospital, his adrenaline was surging into overdrive. 

A very helpful admissions nurse led him to Doggett’s room. He peeked through the window of the door and what he saw changed his entire perspective of the day. He spied Monica Reyes sitting at John’s bedside, running a razor with the utmost consideration and tenderness. He knew the look she was giving John. He felt that look and at the same time, he instantly felt her pain. He gave her a little more time with him then lightly knocked. She looked over to him and gave him a nod, then turned her attention back to John.

Approaching footsteps distracted Mulder. It was Skinner with his usual soured expression. Mulder’s fist clenched, automatically blaming him for her desertion. “Where’s Scully!?!” he demanded.

“She’s reviewing Doggett’s lab work.”

“Why did you allow her to come here? You know how dangerous this is!” Mulder’s eyes narrowed. “Who’s side are you on?”

“I didn’t know Monica reached out to her. You know I would never do anything to bring Dana or that baby into harm’s way.” Skinner looked around to see that the hallway was still uninhabited. He lowered his voice all the same. “This past month I’ve seen nothing to indicate that they are after you or William. You said it yourself that William is a normal healthy child. Maybe they were wrong about him and now they’ve moved on. Either way, the time allotted for your leave of absence will be up at the end of the week. Scully’s maternity leave as well. You’ll have to make a decision whether to leave the FBI or return to work by the end of the week.”

“Seems like Scully made that decision for us. Clock me in.”

“In that case, I’m assigning you to assist Scully in solving this,” Skinner replied. “I received information from ballistics that the bullet that injured Agent Doggett came from Agent Reyes’ gun and Fullmer has a hardon for her. He’s about to call her in for questioning.”

Mulder stood, shadowed in darkness, listening on the other end of the one way mirror as Fullmer interrogated Monica. A man was shuffled in to I.D. her and he did so with certainty. There was a lot in Monica’s answers that led Mulder to even more questions. He stepped from the room to call Maggie and check on William.

***

“How do you know if it reached the right temperature?” Frohike asked, opening up the microwave.

“NO!” Byers yelled. “You can’t put it in the microwave. Fill a bowl with warm water and place the bottle in the water for fifteen minutes.”

Langly filled the bowl and Frohike placed the bottle inside. Byers dipped his hand in the bowl to make sure the water wasn’t too warm then nodded for Langly to start the timer. All three of them stood and stared at the milk and waited.

“Should we go watch t.v. or something?” Langly asked.

“I’m just going to keep an eye on it,” Frohike said. “It came out of Scully’s breast, it deserves to be worshiped.”

They stared until Byer’s alarm on his watch sounded. All three of them lunged for the microwave. “I got it!” Langly yelled.

“Not on your life,” Frohike answered, grabbing it from his hand and testing it on his wrist, promptly licking the droplets away.

“Pervert,” Langly replied.

“I’m testing the temp,” Frohike said.

“Yeah, right,” Langly said.

“Can we feed William before it cools again,” Byers said in disgust.

The cell phone on the dining room table rang, dancing from its own vibrations. 

“Get the phone.” Frohike said, throwing a towel over his shoulder. “I’ve got this.”

***

After Mulder talked to Byers, Skinner motioned him into a private room. 

“You heard Fullmer’s questioning. The bullet matches Monica’s gun, but we’ve found no evidence of it ever being fired and I called Monica’s home phone to tell her about Doggett. Her house is fourteen miles from the crime scene.”

“What is this guy Lukesh saying?”

 Skinner handed Mulder a case folder. “You didn’t see that because if you did, I would be in a lot of trouble.” Mulder nodded and studied the file. “Lukesh has a delusional disorder and was treated for it. His father committed suicide and he lives with his invalid mother adjacent to the crime scene. He claims he heard a bang, went to investigate and saw Monica exit the alley.”

“So what’s your theory?”

“I don’t have one, but Doggett does have some insight.”

“I thought he was paralyzed?”

“He’s gained some mobility in the fingers of his left hand. Dana was able to set up a communication device used by patients with spinal cord injuries. It allows him to tap in morse code and the computer translates.” Skinner cleared his throat. “He would only speak with Monica. She’s in with him now.”

Mulder left Skinner and drove over to the FBI lab. There was Scully, bent over a microscope, her ass looking as sublime as ever, her body shaped into her lab coat like she had never left. It made it difficult to stay angry, he missed the work part of their relationship. Plus, he understood the need of running full cocked into the night. 

“Dammit, Scully. Why did you take the risk?” he asked as he walked in.

Scully spun around and didn’t miss a beat like every word had been rehearsed. “John risked his life to protect our son, to protect me. He took his beliefs and pushed them aside for us. If I was in this predicament I know he would be doing anything he could to solve this case, to get me well.”

“Not at the expense of his child.”

“Did you speak with Skinner? He told you that he has reason to believe that William’s life is no longer being threatened?”

“Maybe that’s how they smoke us out.”

“And maybe Doggett is right. We can’t hide forever. One way or another they will find us. Besides, if magnetite really does have an effect on them, we will be able to fight back.”

“We haven’t confirmed any of that.”

“Mulder, I’m not going back home. Not without knowing that I’ve done everything I could to help John.”

***

“How did all of that come out of one baby?” Frohike gagged, holding up the dirty diaper.

“Throw it out,” Langly said through his covered nose, holding onto the baby powder and squeezing white dust into the air for no known reason. 

“You have to dispose of it in the diaper genie,” Byers huffed. “You throw that in the regular garbage and we’ll be smelling that all night.” He held his face away as he pressed on the pedal with his foot to open the can. 

Frohike dropped it in. “Good riddance.”

“Now you’ve got to clean him up,” Langly said.

“Oh no,” Frohike protested. “I took it off, you clean him up.”

William started to cry and Byers ran to him before he rolled off the changing table. “Use the cleaning wipes.” As he said it a stream of pee shot from William like out of an old Italian water fountain.

“I think I got it from here,” Maggie said as she entered the room shaking her head. “Dana is on the phone and is looking to speak with one of you.”

All three men looked at each other and then took off, racing from the room, getting hung up at the door frame and struggling to get out, Langly using his height to finally squeeze through.

*****

At Monica’s apartment, Mulder, Scully and Skinner gathered to hear what John had told her.

“John said that Lukesh killed me, that he saw him slit my throat. That Lukesh was the one that tried to kill him.”

“It could be some residual confusion from the coma,” Scully reasoned. “Maybe something he had been dreaming seeped into his conscious mind..”

Monica shook her head. “When he was supposed to have been shot, he was at my apartment, he showed up late, he was supposed to have helped me move.” She got up from the couch and showed them the polish sausage he had given her and the half eaten one that was in his hand and had fallen to the floor. “He was here.”

“Did John tell you anything else?” Mulder’s voice monotoned, soft and low. 

Monica sat on one of her full cardboard boxes close to the one where Mulder was sitting. “John said I was on a stakeout with him. I think Lukesh was being investigated by Doggett and is somehow behind all this.”

“What if you were both right?” Mulder asked.

“What if we were both in two places at the same time?” Monica continued with Mulder’s train of thought.

Mulder exchanged glances with Scully. “I want to investigate the crime scene,” he said.

Scully looked over to Skinner. 

“It’s still under FBI jurisdiction,” Skinner said. “Let’s go.”

*****

The four of them walked down the alleyway. “This is where he was shot,” Skinner said, pointing to the white paint marks on the blacktop. Then he pointed over to the wall where more white paint marked over the brick and mortar. “That’s where the perp stood when they pulled the trigger.”

Mulder ran his fingers over the rough chipped brick, walking around the markings, feeling for weaknesses or cracks. His vision blurred, not as if needing reading glasses, but more like they lacked a focal point. The colors of the brick faded from red to brown and it seemed he was seeing through the wall into what looked like a bunker or one of those 1950’s style bomb shelters. Mulder touched a nearby worn wooden table and realized he was not just looking, he had actually stepped through the wall. A woman appeared, trying to communicate to him, moving her hands in an erratic motion and frantic pace. He shook his head not understanding, but knowing it to be American sign language. Sounds released from her vocal cords but they were not full words. Something about her looked familiar. An apparition he once saw…. from Gibson Praise’s mind. Somehow he knew that this was Gibson’s girlfriend. Mulder screamed for Scully, but there was no answer. He felt the now familiar creep of Gibson prying into his mind, even before he saw him enter. 

“Mulder, stop shouting. Someone might hear you,” he said as he tickled Mulder’s synapses. “I thought you were having a nightmare, but you are fully awake. Except, something’s different.” Gibson frowned and fixed his glasses. He continued to read his thoughts. 

“You bet your ass something’s different,” Mulder said. “Where are we?” He waved his arms at the air. “I was just with Scully. We were on a case and now I’m here with you.”

“Mulder, you ran and hid away from Scully and your son,” Gibson explained. “You left the FBI, you’re hiding from the super soldiers so that they might not kill you or try to take away or possibly kill your son.”

“Leave my son? And Scully? Gibson, I have to get back to Scully. Do you know something? Did something happen to my son?”

“No, Mulder… wait.” Gibson rubbed at his forehead. “You are Mulder, but you’re not. Something about your thoughts are different. The things I know about you are the same, but different. For one, you smell better and your clothes are cleaner.”

“Thank you?” Mulder scratched his head. “So what happened? Where am I?”

“I think you’re from another dimension. I think somehow you stepped into this one.”

“..and pushed the other Mulder out,” Mulder finished as his mind began to process the implications. “There must be some kind of wormhole in that alley… but how do I get back?”

“Back from where?” Scully asked. “Mulder, are you feeling okay?”

“What-what-was I just here?” he stammered, realizing that Gibson was gone and he was standing back in the alleyway with Scully, Monica, and Skinner.

“Yes, but your clothes, and you smelled something awful,” Scully said and scrunched up her nose, reaching to touch his forehead and brush away his hair.

“What did I say?”

“You don’t remember?” Monica asked.

“Just tell me, what did I say?”

Scully bit at her bottom lip, checking his head. “Well, you grabbed me and kissed me in front of Monica and Skinner and then you asked if this meant it was safe for you to come back home. You said you missed me and William so much. Really, none of it made much sense..”

Mulder shook his head and gently pushed Scully’s hand from his head, holding it firmly yet tenderly by his chest and caressing it gingerly. “I think it does. Come on, let’s get out of here. I’ve got some questions for Lukesh.”

Chapter Text

“Mulder, what happened to you back there?” Scully asked, when they returned to their D.C. headquarters. 

Distracted by his own thoughts, Mulder mumbled, “I think Lukesh was able to get one up on Doggett by passing from one universe to another.”

“Mulder, that’s impossible,” Scully replied.

Mulder’s words piqued Monica’s interest. “You mean like he’s opening a door?” she asked.

“What if Doggett followed him through that door without even knowing it?” Mulder proposed.

“And our Doggett got forced out,” Monica finished. “Doggett said that Lukesh was in the alley and he looked away for a minute and he was gone. Then somehow Lukesh was behind him and shot him with my gun, the gun that had never left my side the entire afternoon.”

“You two understand that what you are saying goes against the laws of physics? That can’t happen.” Scully said.

Monica looked at Scully. “But it did.”

“Good news,” Skinner said, walking into the room and closing the door. “We were able to obtain a warrant for Lukesh’s residence based on Doggett’s testimony. Considering this may be a serial killer case, they gathered a team together and discovered not only the tongues of several victims, but his mother’s body.”

“He murdered his mother?” Mulder asked.

“Yes,” Scully replied, “In a similar manner to his other victims.”

“Has he been arrested yet?” Monica asked.

“He hasn’t been located.”

“Wait,” Scully said. “If he’s been tracking Monica this whole time, what’s to say that she’s not his next victim?”

*****

“I’m surprised Mulder didn’t weasel his way onto the stakeout,” Fullmer said to Skinner and Scully inside the van. They listened in to Monica’s mic while she walked around in her apartment and watched with the cameras they had set up inside.

“I’ve searched all the rooms,” Monica said. “He’s not…” 

Monica’s scream echoed through the headphones followed by a gunshot.

Knowing Mulder’s plan to back-up Monica, Scully burst out of the van first with Skinner and Fullmer far behind. They found Lukesh slumped against the wall with a bullet hole in his head, Mulder standing over him, his gun in his right hand, and Monica to his left, her hands covering her face in disbelief. 

*****

Monica’s residence 16 hours later..

“I really want to thank you guys for helping me unpack,” Monica said to Mulder and Scully.

There was a short knock at the door and then it opened. All three of them turned around. 

“Well, if I knew you were having company I would have brought more,” Doggett said to Monica holding up a white paper bag filled with his goodies. “I brought you a housewarming gift.”

Monica didn’t answer, closing the space between them, throwing her arms around him and planting a very tender, quickly turning very sensual, kiss. Mulder was pretty certain he saw Monica slip John some tongue in the exchange. John’s cheeks turned a shade redder than Scully’s hair. 

“Mulder, don’t we have an appointment to get to?” Scully asked him, her brow raised and her lips tight.

“What?” Mulder asked, his eyes on Doggett and Monica caught up in another embrace. “Oh, yes, yeah, we gotta go.”

As they drove back to their hideaway and their son, Scully posed Mulder with a question. “Mulder, where were you when you shot Lukesh? You and Lukesh never showed up on camera.”

“Lukesh opened a door to another universe right in her apartment. He slipped inside it waiting for Monica so he could kill her without being spotted on camera. I just decided to follow.”

“Monica certainly gave John a warm greeting,” Scully said.

“You could call it that,” Mulder smiled, keeping his eyes on the road. 

“But there’s still something that doesn’t make sense,” Scully said. “How did John leave the hospital? When I called, the staff there said that it was like he just disappeared. No one saw him leave and he never signed out or anything. How did shooting Lukesh heal him?”

“It didn’t,” Mulder replied. “I believe that it was Monica that unplugged him from his life support and he died.”

“Mulder,” Scully shook her head in disbelief, “Monica would never do that. You’re accusing her of killing John? Then how exactly did he come back from the dead?”

“I believe Monica visited John’s room this morning and she disconnected John from the life support. That John on life support was not from our universe and when he died he created a void in this universe. The John from our universe, when the void was created, was drawn back into this one to fill that void. They switched places again. She had no choice but to end that John’s life if she was ever to see her John again. It was the only way for her to bring him back.”

“None of that holds any basis in science,” Scully replied indignantly, crossing her arms. “What about you, Mulder, what really happened in that alley?”

Mulder glanced over at Scully wishing she could have experienced what he did. “I believe I transported to another life, another Mulder, where we made different choices.”

Scully took a moment and then softly asked, “What happened in that other life?”

Mulder took a long deep breath, not wanting to tell her, but at the same time, not wanting to keep it from her. “All I know was I was with Gibson, in his hideout in the desert. The one you had described to me.” The excruciating agony and emptiness Mulder felt in the other realm returned. “You were not there and neither was William. I felt hollow. I was in an incredible amount of pain, but none of it physical. I don’t know what would ever make me leave you and William, but whatever happened, leaving you could never be the right decision. I never want to feel that way again.”

Scully gently touched his arm. His heart warmed and filled with her light and he couldn’t be more grateful. “It’s time to go back, Mulder,” she said solemnly.

“Back to work or your apartment?”

“Both.”

*****

one week later...

Scully’s apartment 

“Since when do you agree with the existence of human pheromones?” Mulder asked Scully while he bounced William on his arm trying desperately to get him to take his nap. 

“I don’t think that’s the point,” Scully retorted through the receiver. “I asked for your assistance on this case because I thought if you reviewed the findings you might see a connection that we don’t.”

“The flies being all female is definitely a connection,” Mulder responded, pacing up and down the hallway, giving up on bouncing and instead rocking him gently, nuzzling and sending soft kisses to his forehead. “I would say you’re looking for a male secreting an exorbitant amount of pheromones. Anyway, how are you suddenly so knowledgeable on insects?”

“Oh, well, uh, we have a field entomological expert assisting us. Rocky.”

“Rocky?”

“Bronzino.”

“Right. I’m heading out. I’ll get your mother to watch the kid and meet you out in the field.”

Several hours later…

With enough evidence to prove that Dylan was somehow manipulating the flies and had been somewhat the reason for the student’s death, Scully, with Rocky in toe, knocked on the door to Dylan’s house. The door creaked open, Scully illuminating the darkness with her flashlight as she entered. She called out to Dylan, but there was no answer. Rocky looked at his instruments, pointing to indicate that he had trace levels of fly pheromones inside the house.

“Well, I guess that’s probable cause,” Scully said. Carefully, she crept up the stairs.

“Dr. Scully,” Rocky said in wonder and a sense of pure jubilee in his eyes, “This is so exciting, I’ve never had a partner before.”

“I have,” Scully returned flatly.

“I’d like to think of it as a hymenopteran relationship,” Rocky said. “Two scientists using their special knowledge, reaching higher than either of them could ever reach alone. And if I may say so doctor, you complete me.”

“We’ll see how complete you are with my foot up your ass,” Mulder boomed as he entered the home. “That woman is a Special Agent with the FBI, a doctor, my partner...” Mulder felt his heart warm and his temper soften as he looked into her beautiful blues. “and the mother of my child.” 

“Mulder,” Scully acknowledged.

“A what?” Rocky turned.

“Rocky, this is Agent Fox Mulder,” Scully explained. “Why don’t you take downstairs and Mulder and I will take upstairs.”

“Alright,” Rocky said, but Scully could hear the disappointment in his voice.

The phone rang and Mulder waited for Scully to end the call. “It’s John,” she told him. “They found Dylan. He was in a car accident. He wants us to come down and see the scene.”

“I’m getting a stiff new reading,” Rocky called to Scully as he started up the steps. “You’re leaving me alone with it?”

With a hard roll of his eyes, Mulder muttered, “This guy is not for real.”

“You’ve got my number, partner,” Scully said to Rocky with a wink and a smile.

“Why are you stroking that guy?” Mulder asked as they headed to the car.

“He’s harmless,” Scully shrugged, “I kinda feel bad for him.”

“I think you’re enjoying it.” Mulder started the car and pulled out into the road. “Did I drool over you as bad as the Italian Stallion when we first met?”

“Who are you kidding, you still do,” Scully said, her face stretching into a smile.

Analyzing the car crash that Doggett and Reyes had called them to, it had been obvious that Dylan used his insect powers to crawl from the car. When they returned to the house Dylan and his mother had fled. Rocky was found cocooned in silk, not breathing and with no detectable heartbeat.

Scully proceeded to lay him on the ground and perform CPR until his vitals returned, ultimately saving his life.

Thirty minutes into their three hour drive back to D.C., Mulder broke the silence with, “It was obvious he enjoyed your mouth to mouth.”

Scully continued to stare out the window at the passing cars on the highway. “I actually felt sad for him. He has no partner, and when he gets out of the hospital he’s going back to an empty house and while being by yourself is fine, being lonely isn’t.”

“And the fact that he was completely enamored with you?”

Scully’s mouth slid into a smile. “It’s good to know I still got it.”

Mulder couldn’t help but return her warmth. “You’ll always have it, Scully, that doesn’t fade with age.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere, Mulder,” she said, watching him drive. “You know, my mother won’t be with us tonight. Since we’re settled back in my apartment, she’s going back to her house.”

“What will we do all by ourselves?” Mulder proposed, biting back a smirk.

“Once William falls asleep? I’m sure we’ll think of something,” she returned, a devious grin covering her face. 

Mulder felt the warm delicate hand of Scully grip his thigh, rubbing in a circular motion as she squeezed gently. A tingle of anticipation gathered in his crotch. Too many weeks had passed since they had been together. Before the baby was born. He covered her hand with his own and shot her a curious look. They were a long way from home. 

The pad of her finger tapped at his button fly. His cock thickened. He glanced in the rearview mirror. There was an SUV behind them, but they seemed a safe distance away. This was really happening. Scully fumbled with the button of his jeans. He assisted, uncovering his growing erection and almost lost his breath when the cool air hit it. 

There was no time to protest, only watch and not veer off the road as she grabbed him in one hand and guided him to her mouth. She pulled her head closer to his groin as her lips enveloped his shaft. He froze. His heart stopped. He couldn't breathe. His length slid out of her mouth, hot and wet, only to glide back in. It felt too good. Scully had no hesitation, her mouth nearly touching the root, moaning and sending vibrations of pleasure all the way to his balls, making him squeeze his eyes close, then dart them open in a rush. “Scully, this is not safe,” he groaned as he took the next exit down a deserted street and glanced down at his lap.

Somehow, her lips managed to curve into a wicked smile, even with her so very full of him. There was something so raw and sexual and yet their trademark intimacy prevailed. Fighting off the fuzziness threatening his vision of the road ahead, Mulder gritted his teeth and tenderly stroked the back of her head. 

Scully moaned again and went deeper still, relentlessly bobbing up and down. Against his body’s yearnings he pleaded breathlessly, “Scully, stop.” Thank the heavens she did because in that moment he felt his balls draw up and a tingle climb all the way to the tip of his length. He was way too close for comfort.  He covered his erection as best he could with his shirt and laid his foot heavy on the accelerator.

Finally outside the city limits, Mulder shakily pulled down a dead end road, slammed the car in park, and hardly had his seatbelt off before Scully drew him into a bruising kiss, shoving down his pants, pulling his hips towards her. He ripped her panties before tearing at her shirt, a hand under her bra, another guiding his cock to her entrance as she spread her legs around him. 

“Uuuuuh,” he groaned as he pushed himself inside. Two long arduous months and she felt devine, like sunbathing in hot springs, her walls massaging and coating him as he rubbed and slammed against them again and again and again. Long high pitched moans from deep within Scully sparked a sharp pulse throughout his body and all he could do was cry out in pleasure. 

His finger rotating in deep concentric circles at her clit had Scully gasping for air as she writhed and scraped her nails down his back. He lost control, hammering into her, grasping her breast, massaging it amiably while he twisted the plump pink peak. “OH God, Oh God, Mulder, I’m going to come.” He heard the words vibrate hotly into his ear canal and his hand planted firmly against the car door. His teeth dug into her neck to stifle his own moans as his body went numb with pleasure. Another thrust and he felt her come, his name ripping from her throat in broken spurts. He came at her call, holding Scully tight, sobbing her name before groaning low and long, with the last of it overtaking him.

“Are you okay?” he rasped before he even had his wits back. “Was I too rough?”

“I’m fine,” she whispered, stroking his matted hair. “That sure didn’t take us long.”

Mulder chuckled. “No, but it’s been a while. I wanted your body to be ready.” His chest tightened and he added, “I missed you.”

“I could tell.”

Mulder banged his head on the car’s ceiling as he tried to maneuver himself in the cramped space and back into the driver’s seat. After buttoning and zipping up his jeans and fixing his hair, he started the car. “Maybe you give me another chance after the kid goes to bed?” Mulder cocked a smile and pictured them on the couch - a movie on the television, popcorn spilled on the floor, and his mouth buried between her thighs, listening to her come from the blinding pleasure of his insatiable tongue.

Sorry, Rocky, the only chemistry my scientist has is with me.

Chapter Text

New Mexico, in the Television show universe

Down deep beneath the desert floor, entombed within its walls, Mulder held his head in his hands. Loneliness had touched his heart with its bony finger, hardening it to a ragged stone for what Mulder foolishly thought was out of kindness, something to bear the pain of distance; but instead loneliness hid in wait, and in an instant shattered his fragile heart with its fist. 

Gibson returned down into the harrowing depths of their sleeping quarters and handed Mulder a glass of water from the sterilization tank. He sat on the small roughly handmade bench across from him. Dehydrated and thirsty, Mulder drank it down greedily. 

“What happened to me?” he asked Gibson.

“Some kind of wormhole, maybe? You dematerialized and another Mulder materialized. Then, he was gone and you had returned.”

“I saw Scully. William wasn’t there, but Scully, standing there..” Mulder said out loud and then in his mind, beautiful as ever. All that caring and strength, right before me once again.

Mulder’s eyes stung as he held back a well of emotions. They had been so close... 

He raked a hand through his hair. “This is crazy. Being away from my son is crazy.” He rubbed his dampened eyes. “I did this for them, but if that Mulder chose to stay… maybe it was wrong to leave..”

“Mulder, you can’t know.”

Mulder looked over at Gibson. “But you can. He stayed, didn’t he?”

“Yes, but..” Gibson protested.

“And they’re all still alive and together.”

“You don’t know what other decisions he made to keep them together. You must wait for Agent Scully to tell you when it is safe to go back.”

Mulder stood quickly and headed for the hatch.

“Mulder, reaching out is a bad idea,” Gibson called back, but he knew Mulder had already made his decision. 

In a freshly laundered shirt and a shower at the full service truck stop where he changed, Mulder entered the empty internet cafe, and sat down at a keyboard. In the subject area he began to type:

Update

No, this wasn’t about work. Had to be less formal.

My heart

God, that’s awful. Keep it simple .

Scully

Shit . This was the mother of his child. He needed more than her last name. He felt more than that.

Dear Dana

She’d feel his desperation and heart just by the use of her name, but he wanted to tell her he loved her, something that didn’t sound like he was writing to his pen pal. 

 Dearest Dana

Still shitty, but it would have to do. He didn’t have much time. Out here within the population was too dangerous.

I’ve resisted contacting you for reasons I know you continue to appreciate. 

A lump of guilt formed in his throat. All of this happened because she followed him. The gnawing rat of misery chewed at his logic. If there was a chance of them together in one timeline, then there could be a chance in this one. Added to that a message from an unknown source claiming there was a date for the invasion, the coming apocalypse; stating the proof could be attainable. His fingers pressed at the keys, heavy with the weight of foreboding:

But, to be honest, some unexpected dimensions of my new life are eating away at any resolve I have left.

The emptiness made him shiver. Drowning in torment he typed:

I’m lonely Dana, uncertain of my ability to live like this.

I want to come home. To you, and to William.

Without even a reread he rolled his mouse until the pointer hovered over the send button and clicked it away. Tears rolled off the cliff of his cheek and fell to his bruised knuckles. He breathed in the pain, but he couldn’t stop the downward curl of his lip or the dip in his brow. Despite the shell of good deeds, he felt himself breaking and quickly snuck out of the coffee shop undetected, a sob breaking through the dam just as he started the truck. Unable to move forward, his forehead leaned against the wheel as his knuckles turned white around it. Sorrow racked his hollowed chest. His love for Scully was a razor sharp machete that twisted around inside his trembling heart and hacked at the dimming light in his soul. He needed his family. He wouldn’t make it without them.

*****

Present Timeline 

Steam billowed from the two cups of coffee warming Mulder’s hands. After a morning of strolling through stores and food shopping, he felt almost ordinary.

“Thank you,” Scully said, taking her coffee and gazing out the large windows of the coffee shop. The muffled resonance from the bustle of shoppers and people rushing to their destinations permeated the thick glass then faded into the static inside. 

Mulder chose the chair next to her, fixing William’s blanket and tickling his belly, eliciting a hearty giggle from his son. 

“So many people are here using computers, writing,” Scully said. “Makes you wonder if they’re composing the next great novel, developing the next techno giant, simply sending an email to a loved one, or writing an expose’ on society’s new big threat.”

“The seventy decibels of noise in your average coffee shop, spurs creativity,” Mulder replied. “Shoulder to shoulder with one another, sharing ideas perhaps, I think coffee itself can be the gasoline for creativity.”

“Is that so..” Scully answered.

Mulder shrugged. “Maybe not.” He took a sip of his java and explained his theory. “There was a study done at the University of Illinois on noise and its role in processing information. Quiet is good for intense concentration, but lacks stimulation of the imagination. A coffee shop gives you just enough noise to have a helpful disfluency. It can spur you to think on a more abstract level.”

Scully gathered up her hair and re-adjusted her ponytail. When she pulled her hair away from her face like that, Mulder always thought it made her look younger, playful, and he adored the way her eyes took center stage. It also gave him the urge to tug it like a second grade school boy starved for attention. 

“Cracking a case could be one cup of coffee away,” Scully mused.

Mulder on a whim, leaned in and kissed her softly, then murmured, “See and I thought we were playing house today.”

“Who said we’re not?” Scully replied, her nose brushing his as she smiled, the chemistry between them heating his lips and scalding his heart.

He bristled playfully. “Then woman, get me a blueberry muffin.”

Scully pressed her mouth to his again and just as his body began to respond, she sucked on his plump lower lip and bit down gently. “Ow,” he pouted as she pulled away, but she had already left, looking over her shoulder before ordering his request. It was at the counter that she noticed the unattended child. He started crying and the barista pointed to the woman outside arguing with a man. The woman rushed back inside and apologized to Scully and left.

“What was that about?” Mulder asked, pushing William’s stroller up to join Scully looking out the window.

Scully handed Mulder his muffin. “I don’t know.” 

Reverently, he broke it in two, the crumbs falling lazily to the floor as he shared the blueberry muffin with her. They walked in the direction of their car, Mulder’s mind remaining curious on what had unfolded in front of them.

Mulder and Scully’s Apartment, 5:27 a.m.

Mulder laid awake, his lips at Scully’s temple, his hand gently taming the fire of her hair. Scully slept with her back bare and pressed to his front, the warmth of it amazingly soothing. Their private bubble had him floating in contentment and what he believed to be happiness. Lightly, he traced her arm with his fingertip and fervently drank in her beauty. 

Daylight came, painting honey squares against the wall. Scully twisted in his arms and he covered her with his naked body like a blanket, kissing the line of her hair. “Good morning,” he said, his voice sweet, gruff, and low. He didn’t blink or move his gaze resting on hers, feeling their energy flow through him. 

“Morning,” she replied breezily. Her arms draped around him and his mouth covered hers. Her hips tilted to catch his body’s slide. They were quick to be joined, but slow in their movement, gentle and tender in the coveted silence. Holding on to each other tightly as they kissed. Scully rolled to her back and Mulder braced his arms on either side of her as their movements intensified. With their gazes locked and their hips knowing how to make the other feel, her face twisted in pleasure. The ebb to his flow, thrusts driving her into the mattress, the sound of the tired springs beating to their movement. Love had a heartbeat.

Mulder crashed against her waves and she came beneath his body, twisting and writhing against his hips, the long thickness of him pushed deep inside. She smiled dreamily at him as he withdrew and fell softly on the bed beside her. Needing their closeness, he slid his arm around her warm abdomen and pulled her toward him so her glorious backside turned to him. Her body fit right inside his like a battery in its cradle. Mulder looked at his long sunkissed arm around her slim pale waist. His large hand and long fingers splayed over her flat muscled tummy. Scully had never felt fragile to him, and in the moments her vulnerability surfaced he only saw its strength. Mulder considered the other dimension he had traveled and the decisions he had made in that timeline. Those thoughts always came with waves of stress and confusion. He would be able to keep her safe with him here. It had taken so much for her to accept and allow him to protect her, to help her with their son, just to touch things in her apartment. Could her independence and his respect for her have been what made him agree to leave? Was it his mere presence that kept them in danger? Or could it be that there were threats he was yet to uncover?

His phone buzzed and danced on the bedside table. 

“The world wants in,” she whispered, twisting in his arms so she lay on top of him, playfully kissing and sucking the sensitive areas of his neck. “Answer your phone.”

“I don’t want to let the world back in,” he whined, nudging her nose, to tilt her lips towards his. When they met, her lips blazed his like a fire in a cold winter cabin. He reveled in her mouth, the feel of it, the feelings it gave to him. His tongue reached out and tasted hers and his body sprung to life again. His phone continued to jitter. Scully unfortunately succumbed to its hustle and pulled away.

“Answer your cell, Mulder.”

Mulder, reluctantly, reached for it. The word “Dogbreath” splayed across the screen. “It’s Doggett. Do I have to?”

“Yes. It might be important. Probably an X-File.”

With a rebellious groan, Mulder answered. “Mulder.”

“Mulder, it’s Doggett. I’m tailing a guy and he’s heading in the direction of your apartment.”

“We’ll be ready.” Mulder ended the call then said to Scully, “Someone’s coming. Protect William.”

Scully nodded and leapt from the bed. There were no words needed between them. She dressed quickly and loaded her gun.

Chapter Text

Mulder held his Sig pointed at the entry door as Doggett and the perp tumbled through it. “You know this guy?” Doggett shouted, pinning the man to the floor and cuffing his hands.

“Never met him,” Mulder replied, then raised his gun back toward the doorway. A woman with wiry hair and frantic eyes appeared, quickly raising her hands and halting her step at the sight of Mulder’s gun.

“Please, I mean no harm,” the woman cried. “That is my husband. Please, don’t arrest him.”

“I know you from the cafe,” Scully said, appearing from William’s bedroom, her gun in her hand, close to her face, pointed at the ceiling, but ready to pivot and aim in a split second.

“I wanted to talk to you,” the woman said. “About my daughter. About your son.”

“What about my son?” Scully asked, returning her weapon to its holster and shortening the distance between them. “Tell me.”

“We want to protect William.”

Doggett turned to Mulder. “Mulder, can I speak with you for a minute?”

He nodded and the two of them ducked into the bedroom. Doggett maintained a low voice. “They started by contacting us through intelligence channels. He kept saying he wanted to talk to you. Says he has highly classified military files.”

“On what?”

“Bioengineered soldiers.”

“Super soldiers,” Mulder huffed. “So what does he want with me?”

“He told us he’d give you the names of all those he knew to be super soldiers and you’re the only one he’ll give them to. The only one he trusts with the information.”

Scully, who had been listening from the hallway, entered. Gingerly, the weight of her hand rested on Mulder’s arm and he felt himself conform to her touch. “Mulder. What if this is a trap?” 

“What if we can find answers?” Mulder broke from her spell, walked from the room and confronted the man. “Who do you work for!?!”

“I’m not at liberty to say,” the man replied, now seated on the couch with his wife beside him.

Scully entered, her glare set on the man. “You want my baby.”

“No, we want to protect William,” the man protested.

Doggett shook his head and pointed. “That’s enough.”

“You said you could help us,” Mulder said. 

The man looked at Mulder. “They’re watching.”

Understanding, Scully secured the windows and pulled down the shades.

The man’s demeanor immediately softened as his shoulders relaxed. “I work for the national security agency. The name on my driver’s license is false. If you were to call the police I would be detained only long enough for another NSA agent to authorize my release. I don’t exist as a citizen nor does anyone else that I work with.” 

“So what are you doing here?” Mulder asked.

“I told you, there’s something about my daughter, something different. Just like there’s something different about your son William.”

Scully scowled then bristled. “How do you know about my son?”

“I saw your child a few days ago affect the movement of the mobile over his crib. He spun it as if with his mind. It happened to us the same way,” the man said quietly. 

Scully’s bottom lip quivered and a surge of adrenaline rushed through Mulder. He tightened his fist. “How do you see in?”

“Various forms of technology.” 

“Who have you told this to?” Mulder shot back.

“Only my wife and my supervisor. He looked into it and learned things about a super soldier program. Crimes against innocent people.”

Scully crossed her arms. “Why is he looking for Mulder?”

“He is the only one to put together the connections.” 

The woman finally spoke. “We only want the truth of what our babies really are.”

The phone rang. Mulder walked over, picked it up from its cradle, and brought it to his ear.

“You’ve had quite an earful.” 

“You must be the supervisor,” Mulder returned in an even tone.

“We will meet… when the time is right.”

The phone went dead.

Scully’s cell rang and all eyes fell to her.

“Scully,” she said and after a pause, “Yes. Yes, I understand. I’ll be right there.” Scully hung up. “This will have to wait. I’ve been called into the Deputy Director’s office.”

“About this?” Mulder asked.

Scully shook her head and said softly, “No, I don’t think so. They said they need my expertise for a case.”

“An X-File?” Monica asked. She had gone to William’s room to protect him if things got ugly, but now that she was comfortable that the couple meant no harm, she emerged.

“They didn’t say,” Scully replied. “I know Mulder has some work at the office, can you watch William until I return?”

“No problem,” Monica said, heading back to check on him.

“I’ll clean up the mess here,” Mulder said. He stepped towards Scully, tilting his head downward to form their bubble. Her eyes met his and he felt his heart pump in his chest. “Be careful.” 

Her lip tightened and she nodded. “I will.”

Doggett clapped his hands together and turned to the couple still seated on the couch. “I think we’ve got enough information for now. I’ve got your number. I’ll give you a call if we have any more questions.”

“What about our questions? Our daughter?” the woman demanded.

“We’ll keep you in the loop.”

They got up to leave and the man said to Doggett, “Please do. This is our child’s life.”

“I understand. I will.”

Mulder sensed that they believed him and headed out. Doggett closed the door behind them.

“So what do you think?”

“I think they’re being genuine. At least about their kid and seeing strange things. We need to keep an eye out either way.”  Doggett peeled his eagle eyes at Mulder. “The only question I got is why you haven’t asked Dana to marry you yet. You already got the kid, what’s holding you back?”

“What?” Mulder asked, taken off guard. Giving him a wavy grin he looked away. “That’s a private matter between Scully and I.” Then he added, “I did, kinda.”

“Mulder, you either did or you didn’t. You give her a ring?”

Mulder was far from used to this type of interrogation. He felt his cheeks heat and he drew up his guard. “No.”

“You should probably start there.” 

This was a side of Doggett, Mulder had only glimpsed at. This had been the side Scully spoke about. He was genuine, but overbearing. “You got some ideas?” Mulder asked, doubt lingering in his chest at the possibility that Scully’s answer might be no. He slumped down into the club chair and offered Doggett the couch. He took it, resting his elbows on his knees. Friends they were not, but besides The Lone Gunman and Scully, he really had no one to go to.

“It should be special,” Doggett said, drawing Mulder out of his own head. “You know, with my wife I called her on the phone, invited her out and said it was a police function that just happened to be at the location of our first date. When she got there I had music going, her favorite take-out from this great Italian restaurant, and then, in front of the guys and her family that she did not know was going to be there, I proposed. She cried and said yes and then everyone clapped and we all got drunk.”

Mulder chuckled. “That’s uh, very.. romantic, but I just don’t see us and a crowd. We spend our lives buried in a basement.”

“Yeah. Well, I’m not telling you to do what I did or propose to her on a Jumbotron, I’m just saying go above and beyond.”

Mulder nodded, but his mind had already slipped into the place no one else was invited or had the ability to follow. Well, Scully may have crept in a few times. Never unwelcomed. Mulder grabbed his leather coat and slid his arms inside, fixing his collar before turning the doorknob. 

“Where are you going/” Doggett asked, looking up at him.

“To the office. If they’ve called Scully in without me, there’s trouble.” 

FBI Headquarters, Washington D.C.

“You have no idea how much I enjoy staring at you with your hands in my drawers,” Mulder said, while leaning against the office door frame before stepping over the threshold. 

“Close the door,” Scully said, rising from her squatted position at the file cabinet, holding a manilla folder stuffed with pages wrapped in plastic. “Fullmer asked me to identify the rubbings.”

Mulder did as she requested. “The ones off the spaceship in Africa?”

“The very same. Skinner was the one to recommend they go to me for the translations.”

“That doesn’t sound like Skinner. What do they want with them?”

“I don’t know. He said they found them during an illegal border crossing in North Dakota. Canada to the U.S.”

“And what did you tell them?”

“I asked them who or what they were investigating.”

“I’m guessing they had no answer.”

Scully scowled.

“What is it?”

“How did they get them, Mulder? Did the ship land in Canada from Africa? What is it they’re not telling us?”

There was much more she wasn’t telling him, and the hurt on her face, Mulder felt in his gut, struck a chord much deeper and older than she let on. It made him want to dim someone’s bulb.  “Something else happened at that meeting.”

Scully’s eyes fell to avoid his. “It-it’s nothing.”

“Now I know it’s something.”

She shook her head. “I just let Fullmer get under my skin.”

“The way he spoke to you?”

That was all he would get from her before the walls around her thickened. “Mulder, you know how powerful those words are on that craft.”

“I do. I will do what I can.” His focus waned and he headed for the door.

“Where are you going?”

He called from the hallway, “To educate a weasel that is unaware of where he falls on the evolutionary ladder..”

Wasting no time, Mulder stepped out of the elevator and into Fullmer’s office. “That case is not an X-File Agent Mulder and has nothing to do with you.”

Mulder pointed his finger at Fullmer. “If Scully is involved or her baby then it has to do with me.” 

Mulder kept forward until he could see his own spit fly onto Fullmer’s cheek. Fullmer flinched, then puffed out his chest. “Why? Because you’re the father? Because you and her shacked up so you think that entitles you?”

Red flashed before Mulder’s eyes and his knuckles screamed in pain. The blood from Fullmer’s lip streamed across his fist, yet Mulder pulled back and pounded him again with all his might. A blow to the stomach knocked his wind as Fullmer returned with an uppercut to the abdomen, but Mulder kept on, blackening Fullmer’s eye below the strands of straw colored hair, and reddening his already swollen plum cheek. With all his might he blocked another punch from Fullmer and threw him into the desk. Fullmer flinched in pain as the corner slashed just to the left of his spine, jarring his kidney. That was when Mulder felt a jolt to the shoulder and the strong authoritative hand of Skinner. 

“Don’t do this, Mulder,” Skinner said hotly into his ear. “He’s not worth it, you’re going to get yourself fired.”

Doggett had already pinned Fullmer to the wall while Fullmer screamed, “When I’m finished with you, you won’t even have a pension!!”

“Woah, woah,” Doggett yelled back. “What happened here?”

“You saw it,” Fullmer said, freeing himself from Doggett’s grasp and pulling his disheveled coat back onto his shoulder. “Agent Mulder attacked me!”

“I saw nothing of the sort,” Skinner replied indignantly. “I saw you swinging at Mulder and Mulder pushing you off of him.”

“Yeah,” Doggett agreed. “I saw you taking a shot at Mulder.”

“You two are not serious.” Fullmer pointed to his cheek already puffing below his darkened eye. “What about my face?”

“I don’t know,” Doggett answered. “Maybe you slapped it on the desk when you fell. Looks like you got your eye too.”

“That’s how we’re going to play this?” Fullmer spat. “Fine. We’ll see what they say down at Human Resources. Until then Agent Mulder,  you’re suspended.”

“Watch it Fullmer,” Skinner said. “You go to HR and they’ll suspend or possibly fire both of you. The best thing you can do is move on from this. Mulder, why don’t you take the rest of the day off and calm down. Assistant Director Fullmer I’d advise you to do the same.”

Fullmer looked at the men around the room as they glared back at him. He shook his head in firm disappointment and left his office. 

“What the hell was that about?” Doggett asked.

“They’re hiding something,” Mulder replied, walked out, and didn’t stop until he reached the concrete of the outside steps. There a man caught his stride and breathed heavily in his direction, “There’s a green sedan across the street. Get in it and wait for my next order.”

Chapter Text

Mulder canvassed the street, but no one had been paying attention to him. Even the bald man behind him had already dipped out of sight. Not fearing anything, Mulder got into the green car and started it. With the roar of the engine, his phone rang.

“Mulder.”

“Pull out now!” The man commanded. 

“You know Scully kisses me before talking like that,” Mulder said, but did as instructed.

“Turn right!” The man gritted and Mulder complied. “Stop the car. Get out and take the keys out. Get into the car at the end of the alley and get onto the highway heading west until I tell you otherwise.”

“This game is more fun with a couple cans of beer at a traffic light,” Mulder shot back. 

About thirty minutes later Mulder found himself standing in front of The Supervisor, just as the man had described, being told to change his clothes.

“You’re lucky I’m not wearing my Knicks jersey,” Mulder replied, knowing he would never see this particular Armani suit again. Luckily it had been an older one. At least he wouldn’t have to pay to have Fullmer’s blood dry cleaned off of it or repair the rip in the pocket. 

As Mulder predicted, the car and its contents disappeared into a fiery blaze. This guy had a flare for the dramatics. 

“So what’s next?” Mulder asked, hoping the anal probe wasn’t on the menu tonight.

“I needed to make sure we weren’t followed or that others could hear. I’m sure you can appreciate that,” the man said. 

He walked forward with a menacing scowl, but stopped about two feet away, holding his head like an anvil had been thrust into it. His body began to shake like thousands of tiny tremors rocked inside. He took a few steps back and looked at Mulder, tilting his head in confusion.

“You’re one of them,” Mulder told him. “I guess you didn’t get the memo. William is a human child.”

The man nodded with a malevolent grin. “Ah, that’s right. You believe that William was sent here by God, you just don’t know which side God is on.”

“I want to believe that William’s gifts were meant for something greater than whatever Terminator film you crawled out of.”

“Funny. I do find you funny. Not as humorous as Agent Scully inviting you to her bed. I bet you couldn’t believe she would ever be that lonely. I know I couldn’t.”

“You are one sick piece of shit,” Mulder spat, ready to lunge, not caring how much stronger the supersoldier was than him. 

The Supervisor tsked him away with his finger. “Watch it, Agent Mulder. Do I have to remind you what I’m capable of?”

“So why haven’t you killed me yet?” Mulder took the rock from his pocket. The one formed from magnetite, a super soldier’s kryptonite. He displayed it to The Supervisor like a diamond. “This slowing you down?”

The furrowed brow of the supersoldier made a lightbulb go off in Mulder’s head. “You didn’t know.”

“How are you doing this to me?” The Supervisor grimaced in pain.

Mulder took a step forward feeling the mojo of his new favorite pet rock. “How about I ask the questions now. Who is William to you?”

“He will lead us into colonization.” 

“How are you so sure that William is what you think he is? What is scribed onto your ship.”

“I’m not following you.”

“Scribbled on the ships are answers, for science, religion, our species. Why?” 

“I think you already know the answer to that, Agent Mulder. You think we are all so different. Has it ever occurred to any of you that being made of the same fabric, the same universe, we might have a similar god?”

“I have. And my son is the second coming of Jesus,” Mulder replied sarcastically. “The savior of the humans so that they can become a slave race to aliens.” 

“He must be raised by his mother to be human enough for your species to comply and by us to be a leader for this world.” 

“Because it’s written. Planned by an alien god. And I’m standing in the way. Because I will teach him to resist.”

“Because you are a fool,” The Supervisor growled. “You’re impeding progress.”

“So, without my son the whole plan goes to hell?” 

“We need your son.” 

“Because he’s in line with God?”

“What would make you think otherwise?

“I have a soul.” Mulder tossed the rock from his pocket high into the air and the super soldier caught it and unceremoniously turned to ash.

Mulder’s phone rang as he hopped into the super soldier’s blue Dodge Dakota. 

“I’m on a plane to North Dakota and guess who’s sitting four rows in front of me?” Doggett said on the other end.

“Steven Spielberg?” Mulder replied and cocked a smile, reminiscing on a youthful Scully.

“Fullmer,” Doggett answered, crushing Mulder’s daydream. “Fresh with the shiner you gave ‘em. I lowered my ball cap and snuck in the seat behind him undetected. I’m listening to him talking to some guy assigned to ‘em. I’m starting to think there is a lot more to this than they’re letting on.”

Mulder stepped on the gas and hung a left getting back on the highway back to headquarters. When he got there he caught Skinner walking into the garage. Mulder swung the car around into an abandoned spot, tossed the keys inside, did a rudimentary fingerprint wipe, and waved down Skinner. 

Jogging over with long, lengthy strides, Mulder called out, “Leaving early?”

“I thought I’d go get dinner. I’ve got to be back tonight to debrief with Fullmer and Kersh,” Skinner said in a gruff voice.

“Want some company? I’ll buy the first round,” Mulder proposed with a raised brow.

Skinner shrugged. “You know where we can get a good cheeseburger?”

“I know just the place.”

*****

Juice trickled down Skinner’s chin and he surreptitiously wiped it away with his napkin, taking another large bite of his double bacon cheeseburger. Everything Mulder knew of Skinner followed a structure. Lines drawn by Walter from the inkwell of the military and his dad’s swift hand. The bottle of Skinner’s past held a tight cork, but every once in a while he loosened it and what leaked out was lined with gold. In some ways Skinner offered protection to Mulder in ways his own father failed, followed with friendly and professional guidance, but mostly Skinner remained an enigma. Mulder knew Skinner preferred it that way, but it begged the question, who was Walter and could he be trusted when needed to skirt the company line?

Mulder bit down into the tender meat of his own burger, piled high with mushrooms and onions, and dripping with cheese. They really did make the best burger. When Scully cycled into a health kick she would order black bean which she argued was equally delightful, but he knew she secretly drooled inside as she watched him eat his beefy goodness. This somehow made the toasted sesame of his bun a little bit crunchier, the meat a tad more flavorful.  The waitress had winked at Mulder as she set down their plates. That always meant his fries were exactly the way he liked them, extra crispy. 

“So what do you want to talk about Mulder?” Skinner asked, drinking down the one beer he had allotted himself for the night.

“What you’re refusing to tell us. About why you’re tossing Scully’s name into a hat when you know the history behind her silence.”

“There’s no conspiracy on this Mulder.”

“That is the conspiracy. And you know why and what Scully went through to get it. Now, why the secrecy? Why aren’t we out there blowing this wide open?”

“Why aren’t you?” Skinner sneered back. “Any other day you would have been on a plane, searching for what we both know is out there.”

Mulder wasn’t expecting him to lash out and it took him off guard. He sat back in the booth. The fight in his voice melted away. “I-I won’t leave them. I won’t leave Scully, or William.”

“Why? Scully is perfectly capable of taking care of herself and the baby. You know I will do everything I can. Doggett, Reyes, they are capable agents.”

Mulder tapped shakily on the table with his palm. “The last case, in that other dimension, I don’t know what choice I made or how fate stepped in, but I will not leave them. They need me here. Scully trusts Doggett with the X-Files. That’s enough for me.”

Skinner’s voice dropped and he leaned in closer, stinging Mulder’s nostrils with the heavy scent of Old Spice aftershave. “I’ve been given the files to review.”

“And?”

“And I need to get back to them, in my office, before my meeting with Kersh.”

Skinner threw a couple bills on the table. “But first, I’m going to get my car washed. It’s dirty. Save the receipt. It’s a business expense.”

Mulder stared down at the money, contemplating Skinner’s words. Then his eyeline floated to Skinner’s plate. The fries were arranged in an “M”. Mulder? No. He rotated it. “W”. William. Mulder paid the check and headed back to the office. There, he pressed the button to the fourth floor. The place stood empty, the fluorescents beating down on him as his shoes clamored down the deserted hallway to Skinner’s office. Retrieving the secretary’s key she kept stashed in her drawer, he shoved it in the jagged hole and the lock clicked open. Mulder walked through, carefully closing the door behind him in silence. His desk as neat and structured as Skinner himself, Mulder fumbled through the drawers, finally pulling out the singed pages wrapped in plastic. He took the file and snuck away.

Chapter Text

Monica’s House

Scattered across the floor like fallen leaves were the rubbings Scully collected in Africa, intermingled with the pieces from Canada. 

“They don’t match,” Monica said, rising from her knees. “It’s obvious now that we’ve had a chance to look at the translations side by side.” 

Mulder took a breath, his hands resting on his hips, staring down at the pages. “It’s because these aren’t from the same aircraft.”

“I think you’re right,” Scully answered.

Monica folded her arms and drew her head back quickly, her palm rising to cover her mouth. “If what is on here were true, then these symbols…”

“...wouldn’t just be words, they would be the word of God on the surface of an alien spacecraft,” Scully finished in a breathy voice. “It would mean that everything that mankind believes in is in question.”

“You believe this?” Doggett asked, all eyes now on Scully.

She glanced at Mulder then looked over to Monica and finally to Doggett. “I didn’t. I mean - I - I refused to believe it. But now I think… I think there may be answers there.”

“Well, you’re not going to believe this ,” Doggett interrupted, reading the case file. “That man they’re looking for, Comer, is FBI. Looks like he was assigned to a cult case. He’s been undercover.”

“Maybe they think he’s joined the cult for real,” Scully said. 

“It’s happened before,” Monica agreed. “They fall into their role so deep they can’t dig themselves out. Separate the ideals of the cult with their own.”

“I don’t know if that matches here,” Mulder replied. “What if he wasn’t influenced by the cult? What if he escaped to warn us?”

“But then why break all communication with the FBI? Why not just relay the threat?” Doggett challenged.

Mulder’s eyebrow raised. “Unless the FBI is part of the threat. I believe this man, Comer, will be contacting myself or Scully shortly.”

“Because of the X-Files?” Doggett asked.

Monica shook her head. “Because of their baby.”

Mulder met Scully’s gaze. “Which means we should head back to the apartment so we’re there when he comes to greet us.”

***

Scully stared out the car window at the colorful storefront. Her shoulders rounded against the door looking like a small child, but Mulder knew it was simply a cover for the lioness underneath. He also understood the turmoil and it tore at him that all he could do was stand by her side and face the winds head on. That’s why today he wore his London Fog. 

“Mulder, why are we stopping?” 

“Because I know you haven’t eaten anything today and I thought maybe we could spend some time together before all hell broke loose again.”

Scully turned her head. “Mulder, what aren’t you telling me?”

“It’s what you’re not telling me. Are you in the mood for tacos or deli or a nice greasy cheesesteak…?”

“I guess I could go for a grilled chicken salad.”

“Interesting choice.” Mulder squinted out into the direction of the sun. “I was thinking of lunch in the park.”

*****

Mulder’s favorite sandwich shoppe was noisy and crowded. The few tables inside were already taken and the board hanging from the wall said the special today was chicken parmesan. They took a step forward in the deli line. Scully narrowed the space between them, sidelining closer to him. Mulder felt the proximity change light up his body. Public displays of affection were usually reserved for hospitals, hallways, and crime scenes, but lately… maybe it was the lack of privacy from their new editions at home and the office that had them taking their opportunities where they found them. 

“What do you think about going out later, seeing a movie?” Mulder asked, high from her scent and their combined magnetism.

That perked up Scully’s eyebrows. “Like a date?”

“If that’s what the kids are calling it.”

“Hmm.” Scully pursed her lips then widened them into a smile. “I was thinking about staying in. Maybe mom can watch the baby a little longer.”

Mulder tugged on the inside of his cheek with his teeth. “yeah?”

She smiled with her eyes, the way the sun does every morning from the ocean, and it warmed him just the same. He recalled the first time he ever felt that way. It was almost ten years ago now and it drove him just as crazy.

He cleared the gentle wisps of her crimson hair with his forefinger, exposing the lines of her forehead, panging with guilt for creating their creases, and pressed his lips to them. She leaned up to kiss him, touching his cheek and branding his soul. He closed his eyes, preparing his body for the ethereal bliss.

A clearing of a stranger’s throat caused his eyes to fly open. “What would you like?” the young man behind the counter asked as he blushed.

“I’d prefer to tell her in private..” Mulder remarked, tilting his head towards Scully. “Oh for my order, right. She’ll have the grilled chicken on top of a big salad with your lite house vinaigrette.” He slid his hand down her back to rest in its natural cradle and squeezed. “Hold the bee pollen.” 

“Sir?”

He shook his head, wincing and chuckling as she nudged him. “I’ll have the chicken parm sandwich.” He held up his fingers for emphasis, “Two iced teas.”

“Paying for the sandwiches with the bureau’s credit card?” Scully asked with a raised brow.

Mulder shrugged. “It’s a working lunch.”

*****

Scully bumped Mulder’s arm playfully with hers as she sat down on the bench beside him. “Mulder, what are you up to?”

Mulder kept silent, letting his eyes tell his story. Unwrapping his sandwich, he took  a bite and watched two nearby joggers make their way around the trail.

“Mmm good choice,” he hummed.

“Are you going to tell me why you lured me out here?” Scully asked between forkfuls of salad.

“What’s wrong with having some lunch away from the general populace and high tech listening devices?” Mulder took note of her dwindling patience and refrained from digressing further. “Scully, back at Monica’s house, you said you thought the ship contained answers about our son.” 

Scully dropped her head. “I know how that sounded… I know it doesn’t make sense and there is no real logic behind it, it’s the way I feel…. That those rubbings were meant to find me… that somehow… they were meant for me.”

“You told me you had a vision, when you were in Africa,” Mulder said delicately, “of a man, and he said those truths were not meant for you. What’s changed?”

“If you look at the biblical translations on that ship in Africa, they contained the book of Genesis, and the other readings, all of it were passages concerning the origin of our species and included with it was the science. A perfect genome.”

“And the rubbings found in Canada?”

“They cited scripture from Revelations.”

“End times.”

“Not necessarily. Revelation in the bible is actually the Greek word apokalypsis. It is translated as revelation, meaning what is revealed, disclosing in a way that can be understood. Revelation is about seeing what would normally be hidden. It is a glimpse into what is happening from a heavenly perspective. Allowing God’s servants to have a glimpse of what would soon take place.”

“Servants? Super soldiers or those slaves to the virus?” 

“Revelations states that right will ultimately triumph over evil and speaks of the second coming of Christ. Also included is the message not to compromise the culture of Babylon, the reference to Christianity’s culture, or all will fall and be destroyed. It’s about the people that will inherit the renewed creation.”

“Are we speaking about the aliens inheriting their renewed creation since it is on their ship or Christians of Earth?”

“I can’t prove who is the intended receiver of that message, but the ones that wrote it walked this earth before us.”

“Scully, wouldn’t the god your books speak of, if he isn’t of this earth, wouldn’t he, by very definition, be alien?”

“And passed on the same scriptures to us and the aliens?”

“Well, according to your book he is the great Creator, isn’t he? Creator of heaven and hell, all that is seen and unseen. Perhaps those other planets and solar systems out there are just part of our unseen. Part of the bigger picture. And the words on those ships might just be the key, truly to everything.”

*****

Scully’s phone rang as they pulled into a parking spot in front of her apartment. “It’s my mother,” she said nervously, hurrying from the car and running up the stairs as she answered it. “Mom, is everything alright?”

“Dana, come quick, a man broke in and… and… oh God Dana, he might be dead.”

Mulder, taking the stairs two at a time, passed by Scully and stormed through the door. There, Mrs. Scully sat shaking on the couch, the gun still dangling from her fingers, William held tightly to her chest. Scully scooped William up quickly, asking Maggie who was hurt. “Just the man,” Mulder heard her say.

In William’s room Mulder found the man, bleeding all over the carpet. The pale platinum hair and arian eyes made him look almost albino. It was Comer. Mulder recognized him from the picture.  

“What do you want with my baby!?!” Scully screamed at him, storming past Mulder and holding her own gun to the man’s head.

“Either William or Mulder must die,” the man replied, coughing and gurgling a scarlet foam.

“Why? Why!?!!” Scully screamed, but the man only choked on his own blood. “You’re the one that’s going to die if you don’t tell me!”  She took the gun and pressed it into the man’s wound and he howled in pain.

“Scully, this man needs medical attention or he’s going to die right here in your apartment,” Mulder said, speaking calmly and even.

“I want answers, Mulder. He’s after our son.”

Mulder lightly stroked her shoulder. “This isn’t the way, Scully.”

Maggie walked in carrying William, holding him securely to her chest. “Dana, listen to Fox.”

As they spoke, a metal piece laying about six inches from the man’s head went flying through the air, floating and spinning over the man. Mulder took a step back, surprised. How was he doing that?

“I wasn’t trying to harm William. I want to protect him,” the man groaned.

The object changed direction, hovering above Maggie and William, William’s hand rising to greet it, his eyes focused and controlled. Then the object shot back to hover over the man, slowly levitating. Mulder took it all in. His son was special indeed.

The object lowered leisurely onto the man’s chest. He pressed it against him as if warming from the sun. It was clear that the piece was healing him. 

“Call 911. Let’s get him to a hospital,” Mulder said, taking William from Maggie. “Then call Monica, we’ll need her to watch after William. Your mother will have to come down to the office with Doggett so he can fill out the report and complete the other paperwork.”

*****

At the hospital Mulder went into the room with Scully. She snuck the piece of the ship into Cromer’s hands. He held it to his chest. “Thank you,” he rasped.

“Now we want answers,” Scully hissed.

He nodded weakly. “Your son will lead the supersoldiers in colonization or he will destroy them to prevent their takeover of the Earth. He must follow in the ways and teachings of his father. For that purpose they are coming and they will keep coming until he belongs to them.”

Cromer kept speaking with Scully, but Mulder pulled away into the hallway when his cell rang. “Mulder.”

“Agent Mulder, it’s Monica. They took William!”

“What? Who?”

“Three men and a woman. They broke in and.. And they took him. I fought them but I was surrounded. I went to the bathroom and when I came out they jumped me, held me down. They left a number, told me only Agent Scully should call it.”

Mulder peaked into the hospital room. “Come on Scully, time to go.”

Mulder updated Scully as they headed to the car. With trembling hands she dialed the number.

“Listen carefully, Agent Scully,” the gruff voice said on the other end. “You want to see your son alive? You bring Mulder to us. No one but you and Mulder and follow my instructions to the letter.” 

Outskirts of Calgary, Canada

As their car pulled up the dusty road, multi-colored lights blinded the path. Mulder stopped the car and began to run, Scully chasing close behind. The lights fluttered, piercing through the tan clouds, the sky rumbled and the earth cracked. He heard Scully scream their son’s name as she caught up with Mulder’s stride. The speed and determination of a mother to be reunited with her child. The sky opened up in a brilliant beam, growing wider and brighter, scorching the earth and everything around it until it all burst to flames. Mulder covered Scully with his body, shielding her as he looked up, focusing on a star, until the ship eclipsed the moon and cloaked the sky, rising and finally disappearing into the night. The rattling hum of the craft consumed Mulder’s ears until it was high enough to hear Scully’s screams. She took off running again, screaming out, “William!” 

Mulder’s life fell into the pit of his stomach and rose to lodge in his throat. “Sculllaaaaaay!” he called into the night, into the fire. It wasn’t until he got to the site that he saw her, down on her knees, screaming at the heavens.

“He’s gone, Mulder,” Scully sobbed. “They have him. What, what do we do now?”

He joined her on his knees, pulling her into his arms, allowing her to pour the pain into him. Even with all his will, he didn’t know how much more a man could take. They searched the deserted ground as they made their way to the car, but his remains could not be found.

“Let’s go back home. I can get The Lone Gunman, members of Mufon. We’ll get access to satellites. Track the ship’s movements. We’ll get our son back,” he promised her.

Her face, puffy and swollen, looked up at his, the tears making tracks along the dirt on her cheek. “What if he’s not on Earth?”

“We have to try.” He reached out to her. She took his hand and she held it tight. “Hey, our son will be fine.”

“How can you say that? You can’t possibly know that.”

“He’s part me and part you. I know. Now you need to believe that. You can’t give up.”

Through her tears, Scully gave him a strained chuckle at his insolence. “Okay.”

***

When they got to the apartment, the front door was ajar by the smallest crack. Mulder unsnapped his holster. He whispered to Scully. “Did we not lock the door?” 

Drawing her pistol, she shook her head and followed his motions. Mulder kicked in the door the rest of the way open, shouting, “I’m a federal agent! Come out with your hands up!”

A disfigured man appeared with hands raised. “I mean you no harm.”

The shrill of William’s cry sent Scully running to his crib. Mulder flipped the man around, cuffing him where he stood. “Easy, don’t want to leave a scar,” the man joked.

“Is William okay!?!” Mulder yelled to Scully.

“He’s bleeding!” Scully said in a panic. “Oh My God! Mulder, there’s a puncture wound, he’s been injected with something!”

“What’d you do to him!!” Mulder screamed, fisting the man’s shirt and lifting him from the floor with his anger. The man coughed and groaned as Mulder bounced him off the wall. “Magnetite,” the man said in a hoarse whisper, curling onto the floor.

“You dosed my son with goddamn magnetite! He’s not a fucking super soldier!”

“Mulder, I’m taking William to the hospital,” Scully said, bringing William into the living room.

Concerned for Scully’s state of mind, Mulder asked, “You okay to drive?”

“Yes.”

“I’m going to take him down for questioning,” Mulder said, lifting the man roughly by the arm.

“Okay,” Scully confirmed. “I’ll call you as soon as I get William’s tests back.”

Mulder nodded. “Call Monica. Have her meet you there.” He murmured into what was left of the man’s ear, his fury rolling down the man’s neck. “You better hope to your god that they don’t find as much as a diaper rash.”

*****

“Anything happens to that kid, and I’ll take you out myself,” Doggett growled over the interrogation table. 

Mulder entered the room, ignoring Doggett he addressed the man handcuffed behind the table. “How did William wind up with you?”

“Word came of the existence of a cult. Knowing what they were after, I arranged for plants within the organization and waited. When they said they had found William I was there to meet them, but I didn’t get William away from them, he did that on his own. He spoke to the ship. He sent those people bursting into flames.”

“He’s an infant,” Doggett said, shaking his head in disbelief. He laughed, “You’re really going to believe this malarky, Mulder?”

Mulder threw the report at the man. “Your prints came back. After I’m through with you you’re going to wish that bullet that was meant to kill you had succeeded.” 

Doggett grabbed Mulder’s arm before he had a chance to swing. Mulder screamed, “Our father really fucked you up, but not as bad as I’m about to!”

“Mulder, calm down. I want to know his reasons before we give him what he’s due,” Doggett said.

“Our father couldn’t kill my hatred of him,” Jeffrey said.

“Why, Jeff? Why did you do this to my son? Your nephew.”

His head dropped in shame. “To stop alien colonization.”

“By injecting my son with magnetite?”

“Your son is the one thing the aliens need.”

“So I’ve heard. You think that injecting him with magnetite will kill the alien virus, the alien DNA within him.”

“Yes. I did him no harm.”

“And they’ll just stop coming after us?”

Jeffrey shook his head. “They’ll never accept what he is now.”

“What makes you think you have the right?” Doggett demanded.

“Scully and I will do what we have to and protect him,” Mulder replied to Jeffrey.

“And if you can’t?” Jeffrey coughed. The conversation had clearly put a strain on his vocal chords. “Look at me.. What they did to me, to you, to Scully. Is this what you want for your son? My nephew?”

Mulder swallowed down his fears. He leaned down at the table to meet Jeffrey’s gaze with his own. “That’s for Scully and I to decide.”

“Which is why I brought him back to you.”

Chapter Text

Mulder opened the apartment door. The room was dark with the exception of the illumination from the outside streetlights. Being accustomed to the company of his son, Scully, and others, the lack of noise felt unsettling. A note on the fridge indicated in no words that William was at her mother’s. Samantha’s frame facing downward on the desk meant Scully wanted to meet at the one spot they still had peace and solitude. 

The tests came back normal just as Jeffrey had promised. William remained unharmed by the kidnapping and Jeffrey’s meddling. Doggett, at Scully’s request, stood guard at Maggie’s house while she watched William for the night. Maggie seemed to be able to entice Doggett inside with homemade monkey bread and the swapping of war stories. Mulder had agreed it was safe to leave William at Maggie’s house because he felt if someone was to come, they would most likely come to the apartment. What better decoy than his parents?

Twilight was Mulder’s favorite time of day. No matter where the truth led him, the brilliant colors it painted never failed to provide him a perspective for the hope he may have lost or the faith to carry on. Wisps of tangerine bled over indigo as the last of the reddish disk they referred to as the sun slipped into the west; leaving the world in dark shadows, as if colluding with dusk to release the unattended souls. A frigid breeze awakened more than the possibilities lingering in the air.

“You’re early,” Scully said as she approached.

“Wanted to get a good seat,” he returned, sliding over to give her room to sit.

Folding her hands in front, her arm brushed his and their connection sparked right through his coat. Scully sighed in admiration. “Seven years later and this is still the best seat in the house.”

Mulder nodded, but said, “It’s dangerous meeting at all about this, Scully. There’s always a chance someone could be listening.”

“I took the usual necessary precautions,” she replied. “No one followed me.”

“So what specifically do you want to know?” Mulder asked, kicking at the loose rocks beneath his shoe. Seagulls screeched as they hung like jewels among the striations of clouds, drawing his attention. 

“What did you see out there in that field in Canada, Mulder?”

Mulder shook his head dismissing her implication. “I won’t judge him, Scully.”

“I’m asking you , Mulder. What did you see? Is it true?”

He sighed and squinted out at the horizon. “It was dusty and the lights blinded me.” Then he faded into his mind’s eye and took himself back to the moment, turning the pictures in his head into words. “I saw the spaceship rise. I saw someone pick up a baby I assumed to be William. The baby’s hands were outstretched to the ship, similar to when he controlled the metallic object. Then I saw William’s eyes. A maniacal gaze that cut through the smoke just as the people burst into flames. I’ll never forget that look or the feeling it gave me… I turned my head skyward and focused, not knowing if there would be more explosions, not wanting it to hurt my eyes. When I looked back again, everything, everyone was gone.” 

“Then what Jeff said was true,” Scully said quietly, her face dropping.

“I don’t know,” Mulder replied, shaking his head, covering his face with his hands. “I don’t know if any of it is true.” His elbows leaned on his thighs and he pressed his lips to his fingers. “I do know that our son is special. He has abilities. Far greater than that of Gibson Praise.” 

Scully sighed. “Jeffrey is right. They will keep coming for him.”

“Who could ever protect him better than us?” Mulder rebutted.

“Mulder, we can insist on protecting him, but what if we learn too late that we can’t?”

“We don’t have a choice,” he argued back.

“He didn’t have a choice to come into this life. We don’t have a choice about what he is or was.. But I do have a choice about the life my son will have.. And I choose that he never has to be afraid of anyone or anything, if I can really even promise him that.” 

Mulder sat straight up and looked accusingly into Scully's eyes, his voice low, but fierce. “What are you saying, Scully? We hide him? Just put our trust in that? Hope he leads a normal life? He needs us, Scully. Even if you don’t believe in any prophecy. He needs us to teach him, to show him the world, not the smoke screen and the limited view that most see. Without us to guide him.. To help him understand.. who knows what he will become..”

“You’re right,” she said and wrapped his hand in hers. “I won’t accept defeat, and I know you won’t give up.” She looked up into his eyes and lifted her face into a smile that gently warmed his chest with its fiery glow. “That Mulder, that is what I saw in you when we first met, it’s what made me follow you, and why I’ll do it all over again.” She squeezed his hand and laced their fingers. “But Mulder, how can we be certain that he will be safe?”

Holding her hand tight, he gave her fingers a gentle kiss and replied, “Because I don’t believe that they would harm you or William. They believe he is the one, and they need his mother to raise him. We are going to stand and fight, Scully. I’m not spending one more day chasing monsters with a butterfly net. We have the means now.”

“What means?”

“We have magnetite. We can weaponize it. We can defend ourselves and protect our son. Hell, I can build a crib out of it if I need to.”

“And it won’t harm William?”

“He is human, Scully. Just as human as Gibson Praise. You said it yourself; he is made up of our DNA. .” He studied her eyes. “Are you ready for this?”

“I’m ready,” she said firmly.

Mulder leaned back against the hard slats of the bench. “I know your mother is ready.”

“What makes you say that?”

Mulder laughed. “She shot Comer with my gun.” 

“It was in self defense, Mulder.”

Mulder raised his brow and pursed his lips as he chewed the inside of his cheek. “Still, your mother’s a badass.”

Scully shrugged and passed him a coy smile. “I had to get it from somewhere.”

Mulder’s face lifted in agreement, then he tightened his lip.  “I believe that William will be greater than we could ever be. That him and Gibson, they are the future for the human race. The next step in evolution.”

“I’m starting to believe the same thing.”

Mulder leaned his head back to gaze at the stars as they began their nightly appearance across the sky, his Adam's apple prominently bobbing as he spoke. “After all you’ve seen, Scully, what do you believe?”

“I believe in you, Mulder.”

Mulder rotated his head to look at her.

“Why? What do you believe, Mulder?” she countered.

Mulder deepened his breath and with both hands behind his head continued to stare out into the darkening horizon. “I want to believe that the dead are not lost to us. I want to believe that if we listen to what’s speaking, it can give us the power to save ourselves.” 

When she didn’t reply he looked over her way. Scully’s eyes were glistening. “Then we believe the same thing.” 

Delicately, he reached for her cross, stroking it between the pads of his fingers for emphasis before laying it back tenderly against her chest. Then he pressed his thumb to her lips as he stroked her cheek. She kissed it gently before falling organically against his chest, nuzzling his face, his neck and finally curling into his arms to share the sunset with him. 

Mulder sent his lips to the top of her head breathing in the faint scents of her lavender shampoo. “When we were back in that house on Skinner’s family’s land,” Mulder said, “life seemed different. Slower. I felt happy, like I belonged. I don’t know that I’ve ever felt like I belonged anywhere.” Mulder tilted his head. “I mean, besides the times I was in the basement with you.”

“It’s for sale, you know,” Scully replied. 

He held her tighter in his arms and closed his eyes, speaking into the soft red strands of her hair, feeling the heat of her body against his. “I want to spend an eternity living life with you, Scully. I want us to raise our son together. I want to do whatever it takes to make us happy. We deserve that.”

“I hear a lot of statements and assumptions, but is there a question in there, somewhere, Mulder?” Scully said with a hint of irritation.

Mulder tried his best to hold his expression and not laugh out loud. “What question is that?”

“I don’t know, maybe ask me, something, like, will you marry me?”

Mulder's smile widened. “Yes, Scully. Yes, I will marry you.”

Scully grinned, and slapped him on his lapel with the palm of her hand. He had gotten her good this time. She laughed and kissed him. 

“I guess we need a ring to commemorate the occasion,” he replied and ran his hand along the cast iron arms of the bench, unscrewing a loose bolt with his fingers. Taking Scully’s hand, he attempted to slide the coinciding nut onto her finger. Mulder frowned. “Guess it doesn’t fit.” 

He fumbled with it and it rolled from his fingers and fell between the slats. He quickly got down on his knees to retrieve it. “I think I found something here in the dirt.” When he rose there was a small ring box in his hand. “Now what’s this?”

Scully’s jaw fell, her lips parted, her eyes wide. “Mulder.”

On one knee he opened the box. “You have me, Scully, no matter what. No one else will ever hold my heart, no one else will ever share my soul. This part is up to you. Even though it’s not necessary, I believe we deserve the ceremony and the party and all the nicely wrapped presents.” Mulder took a breath to gather his courage and steady his shaking hand and trembling heart. He looked back up into her eyes. “Dana Katherine Scully, will you marry me?”

“Yes. Yes Mulder, I will marry you.”

She tried to steady her hand as he slid the twinkling diamond on her finger. Tears fell from her lids and rolled down her cheeks. Her gaze filled with hope and promise and blazed like magma, molten and wanting. His lips crashed against hers as she pulled him up into her arms, hugging him, feeling his soul melding with hers. 

They sat on the bench and watched the last vestiges of light reflecting off the Washington monument. The water rippled from ducks landing for a drink before gliding off to another destination.

When the lights of the city faded away the view of the stars, Mulder squeezed Scully’s arm and gruffly whispered, “Let’s go home, Scully.”

Scully sighed. “My apartment is empty at the moment.”

“I meant the house. While I was waiting for you I called Skinner and he said it would be okay to go look at it again.”

*****

Scully’s eyes rolled as they strolled around the outside of the property. “It’s a pretty unremarkable house,” she stated.

“Yeah, isn’t it perfect?” Mulder asked with a boyish grin. As they made their way to the front steps he added, “I should really carry you over the threshold.”

“You do and you could find yourself in the hospital, Mulder,” Scully replied.

Mulder threw his head to the side. “I’ll take my chances.” Scully braced herself and screeched as he lifted her up over his shoulder. She wacked him hard on his ass and he treated her with the same, carrying her up the stairs, swinging the screen door wide so he could unlock the main door. He crossed over the threshold and not so gently tossed her onto the couch, climbing on top of her before she had time to protest, covering her mouth with his when she opened it for rebuttal. The warm feel of her tongue and her hands at his ass made him grow hard beneath his jeans. 

His body pounded as he heard the clink of his belt and felt the desperate pull of her undoing his button and zipper. Even though he prepared for her touch, it still overwhelmed him every time and he moaned deeply against her lips. 

After a rushed unfastening of the buttons of her shirt, she guided him up into a seated position and they removed their remaining clothes. The warm scents of her perfume and Scully’s heated bare skin made his heart race. Smiling at him as she straddled him, he returned it helplessly, feeling it down to his bones, gazing into her eyes in wonder and need. Today would be one of those rare perfect days he thought to himself as she slid him inside. 

The pleasure, sharp and immediate, caused his skin to flush, his heart to pound, and his breath to hitch. She rode him quick and rough, her breath intermingling with his as she did. He let his feelings build with hers, staving off his peak with pure will. Scully was simply beautiful. The way she clutched at his shoulders, the way she slid up and down his body, the way her body molded to his, and every expression that crossed her magnificent face. 

“Mulder, Oh God, Mulder,” she cried between breaths.

“Yes, Scully.”

Her eyes closed, her hands squeezed his deltoids hard, and she slowed. 

“What’s wrong?” he asked, starting to panic, afraid he somehow hurt her.

“Nothing,” she said quietly, failing to catch her breath. “I had to slow down. It was too..” she panted, “too much to take.”

“Yeah?” he smirked. “That good?”

She huffed out a laugh. “Yeah, you could say that.”

He furrowed his brow and sent a hand through her hair. “There’s no shame in being afraid to let go, Scully.”

Scully took his hand and dropped it between them, resting it where they were joined. “I want to let go.”

Understanding her meaning, he twisted his hand so it held hers; then brought it up to cover his heart, brushing her lips with his. “At your pace.”

Without leaving his eyes, her fingers explored the planes of his chest and the valleys between his abdominal muscles. His cock twitched, nestled warm inside her, feeling her muscles clench and pulse. It took more than willpower to keep his hips still. His yearning numbed and throbbed. Much to his chagrin her hand dipped lower to the pale hairs below his navel. His eyes closed as he absorbed another tight sharp pulse. He loved the feeling of her hands on him. 

Scully lifted her body and moaned on the downward slide. Mulder’s mouth went dry. The ache to drive into her deepened. He stiffened his body and locked his hips into the couch. 

Scully tugged at the back of his hair as her breasts bounced against his chest. “Touch me,” she whispered. 

Unaware of his hands, he released their grip of the seat cushions and covered one of her breasts, the other just above her clit and rolled three fingers around and around. 

Scully groaned, grinding her hips, moving him around inside her. He felt himself growing harder against her plush walls as they soaked him in pleasure.

“Mulder, please,” she gasped. “if I stop again.. take over.”

“I promise,” he breathed back.

She kissed him hard and continued to ride him. Showers of sparks tumbled down his spine all the way to his balls. He felt her heart racing beneath his hand as he squeezed the peak of her breast, the other hand wetter with each motion over her clit. He could feel her swelling, tightening around his cock. The sensations worsening with each stride. 

Scully’s sounds grew in volume. She was getting close and he swirled faster with his fingers as she bounced and writhed over him. “God, Scully,” he moaned. 

Surprisingly, she took his wrists, dragging his hands away and up against the cushions of the couch. She squeezed them tighter as she rode him, punishing him with her tempo. He nearly lost it when he felt her wet lips along his neck, moaning his name harshly into his ear. Then Scully froze, her body tensed. Pleasure churned in his balls and Mulder did as he promised, thrusting wildly up into her, sending them both spiraling. The couch springs creaked and a board inside it broke, but Mulder barely noticed, the feeling of being inside of her superseding all his senses. Scully’s body clamped down hard on him as he thrusted, spasming and drenching his length. A silent scream released from her throat and he gave one last short thrust, his head spinning from the force of his orgasm. He held her to him, their hearts beating powerfully against the other, vibrating out a pulse, riding out the shockwaves. 

Neither of them spoke as they caught their breath. Scully quivered around him as he soothingly brushed his lips over her skin. 

Curled up together on the couch, his shirt clothing her body, his chest and arms warming it, they exchanged kisses while they watched the local news. Mulder bathed in its simplicity. 

“I don’t want to go back to my apartment, I want to stay here,” Scully said, her voice coated in sleep.

“We can,” Mulder returned softly, sending a kiss to her temple. “I have the only key besides the real estate agent and they hardly get any requests to see it. They’ll call Skinner first anyway.”

“Mmm no,” she grumbled groggily, her eyes flickering open as she turned. “That’s not what I meant.”

“Then what?” he asked, confused.

She draped an arm around his neck. “I want to live here, Mulder. Away from the world where we can raise our son, keep him safe.”

An unexpected warmth spread through Mulder’s body, he tangled their limbs and kissed Scully’s cheek. “I think it’s perfect. To live in the place our son was born. To raise him here. Besides, I always wanted to live in the country.”  

He squeezed her hand and felt the hard band of her ring, sparkling in the pale flickering light. “This ring was my great great grandmothers. Passed down to my mother and now to you. I found it in my mother’s nightstand the day she died. I’d like to think that your finger is the home it deserves, but if you want one that's only been worn by you we can pick one out.”

“No, no this is perfect,” Scully said, holding it out to see. “It feels a little strange, maybe a little too ordinary an act for us, but I love the ring. It meant a lot to you for you to want me to have it and now it means a lot to us.”

Mulder nuzzled her ear, and when she turned her head he kissed her again, long and loving. As her body shifted he lifted so he could blanket her. “You know the yard is big enough for a ceremony,” he mumbled, kissing her lips, her cheek, her neck. He could feel himself already growing hard beneath his sheer boxers and he embraced the control she had over him.

When she didn’t answer he searched her gaze, holding it until he felt her reaching into his heart. “One day, I want to fill this house with our miracles,” he whispered.

A pink flush colored her cheeks above the already rosy glow her body exhumed from their previous activities. She examined his face as if in wonder. Her fingers trailed through his hair as their eyes stayed connected. “We’re going to get married.”

Mulder nodded. “We are.”

“Well then,” Scully said as she smirked, her hand playing in his scruff. “Go make me a sandwich.”

“I will,” Mulder said, sending a short kiss to the tip of her nose. “I’ll make you a sandwich everyday of your life if you want me to.” Mulder tightened his lip. “In fact, you may find that is the extent of my culinary skills.”

“Well, I guess we’ll just have to work on that.” She craned her neck and their lips locked in a kiss, her fingers finding and compressing against his erection as Mulder fell willfully into her command.

Chapter Text

It started as a sharp pain in her stomach, a dull one in her diaphragm, and a radiated fluttering in her chest. These were the first signs of her body telling her that Fox Mulder wanted her to take a trip with him down the rabbit hole. “I want to tell you that we don’t have to act on this,” she said to him, rocking William in her arms, hoping their son would fall back to sleep now that she fed him. “But I know you’ll do it anyway.”

“With everything that we’ve learned in the past months, I can’t let this go, Scully. I need to know,” Mulder returned. He paced the hardwood floors of the bedroom, picking up random objects around the room, including taking a deep whiff of a bottle of her perfume as he turned to give her his attention as she spoke.  

“And what good will it do, Mulder? What will it change?” Scully pleaded. William began to cry again and she shifted him upright and over her shoulder, patting him gently. 

“It’s the proof we need to justify an army. To build weapons and fight.” Mulder stopped  to place his ipod playlist on shuffle. Soft music flowed from the speakers it plugged into. “Maybe this will help. Let me give it a try.”  

With outstretched arms, Scully transferred William to him. William squirmed for a moment then settled into his father’s strong arms. Mulder, who was watching his son, looked up at Scully and beamed. 

Scully chuckled despite herself, then crossed her arms. “My mother said that my brother is coming into town. He has a meeting at Mount Weather. Seems a coincidence that the keycard and the note wind up in a manilla envelope underneath your office door in the same week that he’ll be there.”

Mulder shrugged, playing with William, tickling him with his pointer and making him laugh. “Maybe the common theme is the meeting.”

“Maybe,” Scully said sitting on the bed, worried about what this meant for her brother, her son, and what dangers Mulder might be getting into. 

William’s eyes grew heavy as he started a gentle snore, and Mulder carefully set him down in a valiant effort not to stir him. 

He turned and offered  his hand to Scully, the shadows of the room staining his face. “Dance with me.”

She took it without protest. An opportunity to dance with Mulder was not something you turned down. Long ago she had learned how debonair he could be on a dance floor. An obvious trait of his upbringing. 

Mulder’s arms tightened around her waist as he pulled her in closer. She took his hand in hers, dropped her head on his shoulder and let him lead. Her feet made small steps as he whispered, “Now tell me what’s on your mind.”

She didn’t bother to lift her head from the place between his chest and shoulder where it fit so perfectly. “When you were in that other dimension, where was William?”

“He was with you. Why?” 

Mulder’s chest rose against her, vibrating as he spoke. She both resented and loved how secure it made her feel. “For one millisecond, while sitting on that bench with you, I considered Jeffrey’s words, considered giving away my child. Our child.”

She felt a kiss at her forehead before Mulder pulled her in so close she felt like they might be one person. “The consideration you made was only to explore all options that might be best for William with a disregard to your feelings, needs, and desires as a mother. You were ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for him. There is no guilt in that and I will not let you beat yourself up or second guess yourself over a fleeting thought.”

His, will not let you , hung in the air, a part of her railing against it, another embracing the support. “What if there is a universe that I gave our son away? Without you here as my touchstone, what would I have done?”

Their feet shuffled back and forth to the beat, the hazel in his eyes twinkled as moonbeams caught their reflection. Mulder shook his head. “I don’t believe it. I won’t believe it. That is not you Scully. Now we need to stay focused on what’s coming and what’s going on in that military facility that has been taken over by FEMA.”

“Promise me then.”

He twirled her out and then back into his arms. “Anything.”

Scully snaked her arms around his neck and stared into his eyes. “Promise you’ll come back to me.”

“I promise,” Mulder said, his arms slinking around her, his hips still swaying to the beat. “I’m pretty certain I can’t live without you.”

Scully nestled in the space beneath his chin. “Or I you.”

“You’d survive without me. You already did it once.”

“That would be all I do. It was all I did,” she replied. 

Scully took a breath, then murmured, “I need you, Mulder,” against the pulse beneath his ear.

“I need you, Scully,” he returned in a hushed tone, then cupped her face, pressing his lips to hers, moving over her mouth, long and languid. She loved the way he knew how to kiss her, the simple fact of Fox Mulder knowing and exploring her mouth, pressing his tongue against hers, churned so many emotions, so much excitement from within. 

*****

Washington Navy Yard

“Dana, no. You’re not dragging me into one of Mulder’s little green men fantasies,” Bill grimaced. 

Scully had seen this face on him so many times she was beginning to think their mom was right and it really was beginning to freeze that way. “Bill, he is the father of my child and soon he will be a part of this family that you can’t deny. I’d like you to treat our work with a little more respect.”

They walked along the docks, the sun glistening across the water making it appear like millions of stars were floating out to sea. Conversations with Bill were usually harsh and fret with years of complexity, but lately it felt more like a brick wall had grown between them.

“You know just because he knocked you up doesn’t mean you have to marry him, Dana. Being a single mother isn’t the worst thing. Although maybe not very popular with Mom’s church group. Don’t cut yourself short, I’m sure there’s a man out there, even at your age and with a child…” 

Scully stopped. “You’ve got to be kidding me, Bill. I know you’re looking for a reaction from me, but you’re not getting one.”

Bill took a step towards her speaking inches from her face. “After all this man has done to our family, to you, to our sister.. What do you want from me, Dana?”

The breeze changed direction, blowing strands of hair into her eyes. She tucked them behind her ear and swallowed her pride. “I want you to secure transportation for Mulder to Mount Weather. I want you there with him. If anything goes wrong, I only ask that you do your best to keep him safe.”

Bill looked up at the sky like he might be praying, then back at Scully. “I’m sorry Dana, I’ll arrange transportation, but I’m not putting my job on the line.” 

*****  

FBI Headquarters

“It’s a modified shotgun,” Doggett explained. “I figure if we can pepper a supersoldier with enough birdshot it’ll slow them down. The magnetite bullets work better than anticipated in both accuracy and distance. You want to fire it?”

Mulder ran his hand over the smooth double barrel. He imagined a scene from Terminator, the monsters closing in, the world an ashtray shaded in a grayish night. This would be no way to live. He lowered the gun back onto the table. “Don’t want to waste the bullets. Who’s your first test subject?”

“One I’m positive is a supersoldier,” Doggett grinned, “My ‘ol buddy Knowle Rohrer.”

“How will you track him down?”

“I’ll smoke him out. Spread the word around the DoD that I’ve got information on how to get to you.”

Mulder raised a brow and the corner of his mouth. “Happy to be your carrot, Doggett. Now I’ve got to run. I’m meeting up with Huey Dewey and Louie in an hour.”

“Oh, Mulder,” Doggett said, holding up a small black ring box with the signature ‘Kay Jewelers’ on the box. “Wish me luck.”

Mulder shook his head. “You don’t need it. Monica is going to say yes.”

*****

The Lone Gunman’s Lair  

“As you expected we weren’t able to pull any DNA or fingerprints from the envelope or its contents. We were, however, able to get you these..” Frohike lifted from the desk an I.D. with Mulder’s photo and an alias underneath. 

“Who’s Morris Fletcher?” Mulder asked suspiciously.

Frohike looked up at Mulder like a frog that wanted to be kissed. “He’s you. You’re him. At least as far as the military is concerned.”

“We had the unfortunate luck of running into that guy during our travels,” Beyers explained.

“Took most of our money and almost got us killed,” Langly whined. “Should have known he couldn’t be trusted when he bashed Joey Ramone.”  

“Doggett told me about what happened,” Mulder said. “Told me Frohike escaped like Han Solo sliding under a blast door.”

“More like Princess Leia,” Langly scoffed.

“Hey, don’t knock Leia,” Frohike said, pointing at Langly. “She was badass and when she chokes Jabba the Hutt in that bikini..”

“Settle down, Frohike,” Mulder said. “I think we’re getting off track.”

A knock at the door interrupted their tiff. Scully’s middle finger appeared on the surveillance monitor as Mulder glanced over. He laughed and thought, and that my boys is why I’m marrying her .

“What I miss?” she asked as she entered and stared at the four men gawking back at her. 

“They were just going over the plan to get me into Mount Weather,” Mulder explained.

Scully nodded, her eyes dancing. “Did you tell them?”

“No,” Mulder replied. “I-I thought I’d wait for you.”

“Tell us what?” Beyers asked.

“Mulder and I,” Scully said, nervously clearing her throat. “We’re getting married.”

“All right!” Langly shouted, giving Mulder a high five, Beyers shaking his hand, and Frohike wrapping his arms around Scully. 

“She’s marrying me , Frohike,” Mulder reminded him.

When the celebration quieted, Scully said, “I want you all to come to our wedding. It would mean a lot to me and Mulder because, and I know we’ve never said it before, but you all mean a lot to us.”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Frohike said. “Who’s your best man?”

Mulder glanced over at Scully. “Well, I guess all three of you,” he shrugged. 

Scully nodded. “At this point tradition is kind of out the window.”

“Have you spoken to Skinner?” Mulder asked Scully.

“Yes, he’s going to walk me down the aisle. Him and my mother.”

“Well, then, let’s think of this as an early wedding present,” Frohike said, nodding to Beyers. 

Out of a long wide tube from what Mulder thought could be Mike Brady’s from a Brady Bunch episode and almost asked if they stole it from the house of their last case, Beyers pulled out a set of blueprints of Mount Weather.

“Well boys, you’ve been doing your homework,” Mulder replied, peering over the shoulder of Frohike as Beyers unraveled it.

Chapter Text

Mount Weather, VA

Carved out of the base of the mountain, the dark tunnel entombed the green military bus, its heavy bullet proof doors locking Mulder in and ensuring no easy escape. Scully stayed behind, they couldn’t take the risk of leaving William an orphan. Mulder looked over at Bill Scully Jr. who hadn’t acknowledged him the entire trip. Every once in a while he’d wipe the large beads of sweat from his forehead, soaking his hairline, but his eyes remained forward. Mulder could only imagine the thoughts racing through Bill’s mind.

The bus came to a stop and he saw Bill give the signal, a short flick of his ear. This was it. Time to get off. Mulder took a sharp right down the first corridor, using his keycard to unlock the door. It led to a catwalk just as The Lone Gunman described, the first set of steps leading him to the next level and around the perimeter. There he could see Bill and the others taking their seats around a grand conference room table surrounded by war boards and computers. He unlocked the door at the far end, jogged down a deserted hallway to yet another door. Fourth on the left. Nothing was numbered, so he had to use his memory and hope for the best. At the last door he opened, at the end of the elaborate maze, he saw it, the mainframe computer. Down below, the meeting was in full swing. If anyone looked up they would see him. Without wasting time, he typed in the data sequence code to the files. Finally, he was prompted for his ID. Then: 

Endgame access code> 

Mulder felt the anticipation all the way down to the perspiration beneath his palms. The screen cleared then filled with gibberish. Another coded screen, but quickly it decoded. Like a hologram, the words displayed on the clear glass monitor:

  CONFIDENTIAL

     DECEMBER 22, 2012

     "THE DATE SET FOR MOBILIZATION OF ALIEN FORCES CULMINATES IN THE COMPLETE ...

     .. OF CIVILIAN AND MILITARY ...

     .. WAS FIRST RECORDED BY ...

     .. DANIEL M. MILLER UPON ...

     .. -IGENCE IN ROSWELL, N.M., I- ...

     .. -ONTACT WITH ALIEN FORCES ...

     .. MILITARY OFFICIALS ARE INSTRUCTED

     .. FOLLOW EMERGENCY PROTOC- ...

     .. -RUCTIONS. IT IS ANTICIPATED...

     .. -MENT WILL BE DESTROYED ...

     .. RESULTING IN THE TRANS- ...

     .. THE FEDERAL EMERGENCY …

Mulder glanced down again at the guards and high ranking military personnel below as he plugged in his zip drive and began the download. Now there was nothing to do but wait. Each excruciating minute passed by as if a year. There was a commotion on the ground floor. He saw Bill standing, waving his arms, then walked towards the front of the room. “I’d appreciate all eyes on me,” he boomed and the room silenced. “Gentlemen, last year we lost a highly classified Naval ship that had just been ordered to shore from international waters. The cargo contained inside, priceless…”

The conversation intrigued Mulder, and he wondered if it was the same ship as… the screen flashed ‘download complete’ and Mulder quickly pulled the drive. No time to stay and reminisce. He followed the same path as before to the locked doors. Flashing his badge at the guard, they nodded and let him through. As committed, Bill had a chopper waiting for his departure. Even after he was far past the military complex, and fiddling with the drive in his pocket, Mulder’s heart raced. The truth was finally within his grasp.

*****

FBI Headquarters

Fresh from his trip to Mount Weather, with Scully making copies of the files he had downloaded, Mulder received a call from Doggett, claiming he had found the key to mass producing weapons for supersoldier destruction. 

“Who is this guy?” Mulder asked Doggett as they walked down the hallway towards the conference room.

“His name is Morris Fletcher. He was some head honcho in Area 51,” Doggett replied.

Mulder felt the irony of stealing the man’s identity as he asked Doggett, “Can he be trusted?”

“No, but he may be able to get you in with some people that can,” Doggett said, opening the door to the conference room.

With his feet up on the table and a stogie fat enough to set off the smoke alarm, sat Morris Fletcher. An out of shape middle aged man, with washed out blonde hair. Not very becoming of a man who toted himself as former Men in Black. He looked quite comfortable in his suit that was of a little higher quality than the Men’s Warehouse. 

 “You’re Morris Fletcher?” Mulder asked. It was more than obvious that they had very little in common, especially in the looks department. They could never pass for each other.

Fletcher held his arms out wide, showing off his jazz hands, and smiled even wider. “The one and only.”

Mulder ignored the theatrics and held out his hand. “I’m Fox Mulder.”

“Fox. Your parents really didn’t like you much, did they?” Fletcher laughed. “Does the name at least get you some tail?”

Mulder looked over at Doggett, already beginning to lose his patients. “Are you kidding me with this?”

“He’s got connections,” Doggett shrugged. “His credentials have been confirmed.”

Mulder stared at his hand that felt a little tingly from the handshake. He was starting to wonder what communicable diseases this guy might be carrying when Scully walked in.

“And here comes the tail,” Fletcher said with a smarmy smile, standing and straightening the jacket of his suit, holding out his hand to greet her.

“Excuse me?” Scully said, her face contorting in a way that reminded Mulder of a bull preparing to charge a red cape.

Fletcher wagged his finger at her. “I never forget a redhead and you look suspiciously familiar.”

“I don’t think we’ve met,” Scully said, looking over Fletcher, watching him walk around her in a circle as he examined her.

“No. I know you from somewhere,” Fletcher protested.

Scully shook her head. “I don’t know you.”

Fletcher smiled as the lightbulb went off. A dubious one that made heat creep up Mulder’s spine and gave him the urge to reach over and hang him by his neck tie.  

“A couple years ago. You got frisky with me in Vegas,” Fletcher grinned.

Scully pursed her lips and glanced over at Mulder. The guilt on her face made Mulder’s hands rise to his hips, flaring out his suit jacket. What was going on?

“You would be mistaken,” She said slowly.

“Nah, nah,” Fletcher responded, continuing to shake his finger. “You slapped my ass at that bar. I’ve got the mark on my heart to prove it.”

Scully’s eyes narrowed, her face blending in with her hair color. Her voice rose. “I’m imagining a place I can leave another one.”

Now Fletcher turned to Mulder’s direction. “Ooooh, she’s a feisty one. She must be a regular spitfire in the sack. Does she tie you up?” His voice dropped with a sensual hue as if he might be imagining it. “Handcuff you?”

Doggett looked over at Mulder as if to plead with him not to beat the man senseless just yet. He then directed his attention to Fletcher. “Mr. Fletcher, you gave me a list of known supersoldiers within the DoD. I’ve shared that with Agent Mulder. You also said that you have connections with someone within area 51 that might be able to aid in the production of magnetite core ammunition?”

Fletcher nodded. “I know someone who owes me quite a few favors. We can have them manufactured right under the government's nose and with the government’s payroll. Even have them shipped to the armory undetected.” He searched their expressions as if they should “ooh” and “ah” at such a grandiose statement. 

“What’s your angle?” Mulder asked, quickly losing his patience.

Whatever was left of Fletcher’s antics dissipated. He replied, “I’ve seen these supersoldiers in action. I want protection and a cut when we sell the artillery back to the government.”

“We’re not selling them,” Scully chimed in. “This isn’t about making money.”

“Haha. That’s where you’re wrong,” Fletcher replied. “That’s all it’s ever about. Money and power. Most of the time it’s one in the same.”

“I’m not after either. I’m only looking after the safety of my son,” Mulder said.

“Why are the supersoldiers after you?” Fletcher asked. 

“I think we’ve talked enough,” Doggett said. “If you’re going to put us in touch with your guy, then do it.”

*****

Dreamland

Scully took her attention away from the distant lights and vast desert to gaze over at Mulder. “The last time we drove down this way, Mulder, we spoke of a normal life. Oh how far we’ve come.”

Mulder took her hand and smiled, his eyebrows dancing along his forehead. “I’m trying my best here.”

“Ten years, that’s all we have left,” she said solemnly.

“I wish you didn’t have to see the file,” Mulder replied, gripping tightly to the steering wheel. “I wouldn’t have told you. I don’t want to believe it.”

“Then don’t,” Scully answered. “In ten years we will have the answers and the vaccine.”

Mulder glanced over at her. “I know you Scully, and I know these aliens don’t stand a chance against you.” He tilted his head and rolled his tongue around his cheek. “There is one thing though. It seems you made quite an impression on Fletcher during your unscheduled trip to Vegas. Anything you’d like to share with the group?”

“That man is delusional, Mulder,” Scully replied. “And he has some nerve. I mean look at the way he kept looking at you, like he knew you too, like he thought he was looking in a mirror.” She settled back in her seat then added, “And for the record, I had been drugged.”

*****

The bar was just like you’d imagine. Noisy, smokey, filled with anonymous bodies and music that had been played in every jukebox in America. Oh yeah, and there were aliens everywhere. At least in the decor. This was just outside Area 51 after all.

“Fox Mulder?” an older gentleman sitting alone in a booth grumbled as they strolled by.

Mulder slid in opposite him, Scully close behind. “Yes?”

The man appeared paranoid as he perused the room before answering. “I trust no one, Agent Mulder. Do you have a copy of the files?”

Using the signaling catch phrase, “trust no one” Mulder knew he was the man they arranged to meet. “Yes, but first I need you to answer some questions,” Mulder replied.

“Is this your partner, Agent Scully?” the man asked.

“Yes,” Mulder answered, then proceeded with, “How do you plan on manufacturing under the radar?”

“I’m not one person. With the files you’re about to give me I can prove beyond a doubt our cause.”

“Where will you mine the magnetite?” Scully asked.

“There’s a quarry that’s been mined for years for granite, limestone and slate. Unbeknownst to anyone it is teeming with magnetite,” the man said, leaning over the table, his voice as low as he could manage to be heard above the music. 

“Who owns it?” Mulder asked.

“Strughold Mining Corp.”

Scully laughed. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“He’s already reached out,” the man said defensively.

“I bet he has,” Mulder replied. “He’s already gotten to you.”

“He only made me an offer. He told me to tell you that The Syndicate is dead. That he is not his father. He wants to join you. He wants to resist, but I need the drive.”

Mulder signaled to Scully that it was time to go, but Scully didn’t budge. “I think we should give him the drive, Mulder. ”

Mulder gawked in disbelief. “The man responsible for experimenting on countless women and children, harvesting hybrid crops laced with the alien virus…” He leaned in closer to her. “Or have you forgotten the bees of the damned?”

“No, of course not, but this is not him, this is his son.”

Mulder shook his head and once again attempted to usher her out of the booth. “We’ll find another way.”

“What if you were judged on the actions of your fathers?” Scully debated.

Mulder sat pensively chewing at his top lip and gazing into Scully’s unwavering eyes. “Okay,” he conceded and handed over the drive. “Let’s go, Scully.”

On the way to the car, with her heels shuffling through the noisy gravel, Scully asked, “You caved in pretty quick, Mulder. Why? What are you planning?”

He didn’t answer, maintaining a half step ahead of her. Once in the car, as they fastened their seatbelts, Scully asked again, “Mulder?”

Mulder started the car and smiled.

*****

FBI Headquarters

One month later…

“Scully,” Scully answered into her cell phone.

“Dana, it’s Monica.”

“Monica? Where are you? I was told you’re on a case in Utah.”

“I am.” There was a pause and Scully could hear Monica breathing on the other end. The hesitation was palpable. “I don’t know exactly how to tell you this. I was investigating a fertility clinic here and… Dana, I think I might have found some of your ova.”

Chapter Text

The Unremarkable House

Two Years Later…

A plastic rainbow of colors spun through the air and bounced on the freshly cut grass. William squinted up at the warm sun and laughed as the ball rebounded off his nose, his arms spread wide as he ran to it. 

“That’s it William, now kick the ball,” Mulder urged. 

William wound back his leg and kicked it with all his might, the tightly inflated beach ball rolling a couple feet before the friction of the grass slowed it to a halt. Happy with his effort, he clapped his hand and squealed with glee. 

Tires scraping the dirt road distracted Mulder from his celebration with his son. He waited, but when no one came he strapped William into his bicycle trailer car seat with the big thick black tires and tiny toy spaceship dangling from the top, and pedaled down to the gate. Disappearing around the corner was a white jeep with the American flag sticker on the rear. He flipped down the lip and checked the mailbox. It contained the regular bills and advertisements. Folded over the top was a shiny magazine with The Lone Gunman printed in bold letters along the cover. He was proud of his three best men. After giving them the inside scoop and permitting them to print the contents of the drive, their newsletter soared and soon became a magazine with the respectability they’d been trying to achieve, their circulation presently over three million. Mulder performed a cursory flip and stopped at Scully’s picture. His chest pumped with pride. The article was concerning the FDA clinical studies of Scully’s vaccine against the alien virus. Byers had done an impressive write-up and Scully looked magnificent in her fitted lab coat, her hair pushed back to display the oceans of her eyes. Even on the one-dimensional page her crimson lips stirred his soul. 

The sound of William fussing drew Mulder’s attention and he haphazardly shoved the mail into his saddlebag and headed back to the house. 

On the porch, Scully stood glowing as she waited for their return and he couldn’t help but smile as he climbed off the bike. “What is it?” he asked, unstrapping William and setting him carefully on the ground as he wobbled his way up the stairs and into the house. Mulder could hear the faint sound of William calling his grandmother, “Ram-ma! Ram-ma!”

“What?” Mulder asked again. 

With her face lit up from ear to ear she replied, “FDA has given us emergency use authorization. We’ll be presenting at the annual parliamentary hearing of the United Nations and at the United Nations Security Council. If approved it will supersede FEMA and override the actions of the World Health Organization.”

“Scully, that’s great!” He kissed her, hugging her tight, their wedding rings glistening in the sunlight. 

*****

United Nations Headquarters

760 United Nations Plaza, Manhattan, NYC, NY

“Thank you Secretary-General for allowing me to meet with all of you at this crossroads in human history.” Scully’s voice echoed throughout the large hall filled with faces from all over the surface of the globe. All eyes focused on her, all ears soaking up her every word. “There is a theory that life, human life, came to earth from a meteor from Mars. It’s a theory of many respected scientists.” She glanced over to Mulder who was sitting at the table beside her podium, nodding his approval. Then she turned back to the audience. “I believe that a virus did come to earth on the back of a rock or meteor, and survived here prehistorically, infected early man, and transformed his physiology into an alien life-form,” she paused for effect then continued, “but they died in the last Ice Age 35,000 years ago. The virus lay dormant underground until it surfaced once again during our current geologic period and communicated with the UFOs, calling them to earth, signaling them to prepare for colonization. Some have also proposed that nuclear warfare had also aided in our lack of anonymity throughout the galaxy. Acting as a beacon for other races to come and wage war on those wishing to colonize.” 

She waited again for the information to soak in. Out of the corner of her eye, beside the Deputy Director Walter Skinner, sat Mulder, pride evident in his gaze, his gentle eyes melting her where she stood. Her tongue came to pacify her lips and she cleared her throat and continued. “These alien colonists colluded with a world shadow government simply known as The Syndicate. They worked with the aliens in an attempt to produce a hybrid alien-human slave race. Government programs across the globe abducted women to secretly manipulate their biology so they may use them as surrogates for these hybrids. In international waters, a program conducted on a U.S. Navy ship, prepared embryos for surrogacy to produce a slave race of alien babies.”   

Scully cleared her throat again and tilted her chin higher. “I was one of those women that had been abducted, experimented on, left barren and to die of a cancer the procedures caused. All in preparation to act as an incubator for a slave race to serve the aliens during colonization. Through what is nothing short of a miracle, the support of my colleagues and friends, and most importantly, the insatiable will of my husband, I stand before you today, healthy, cancer free, and a mother of a human child, despite the odds.”

Applause erupted throughout the room, a loud roar bouncing off the ceiling and walls, rumbling the floorboards. Scully waited for it to die down before continuing. “Now I’d like to introduce to you, the reason we are all able to be meeting here today. His arrogance and stubbornness led him 158 miles off the coast of Texas, into the Gulf of Mexico, to investigate the death of a Texas oil worker; and risking his life, his career, and our future, discovered a man of Huecha background containing blood with T-Cells of improbable numbers and full immunity to the alien virus. I was able to take blood and tissue samples from this man, enough to later use it to develop a vaccine. One that the FDA has now pushed for emergency use and one which I am now opening up for world use so we can work as one to save our species.”

The auditorium erupted once again, everyone standing with their applause. Scully leaned in closer to the mic. “I now present to you, with pride, the man I have had the honor and privilege for the past twelve years to call my partner, my husband, Special Agent Fox Mulder.”

*****

Scully and Mulder returned to their house together, Mulder opening the door for Scully to walk through, Scully smiling as she strolled underneath his arm. William shouted as soon as he saw them, throwing his toys on the floor, using the couch to help him stand, stumbling before running towards them. “Mama! Dada!”

Mulder crouched down with his arms wide to catch William as he ran to him, his jester hat bouncing around his face. 

“Dana, your father would be so proud. I’m proud of both you and Fox, everything you’ve accomplished. Raising a family, developing a vaccine, exposing a government coverup,” Maggie said. “All those years ago I was so worried about you joining the FBI. Your father wanted so much for you, to be a doctor and not risk your life every day. Every time my phone rang or there was a knock on my door it struck up more fear in my heart than I ever prepared for. It took a long time and a lot of worrying, but now I see why you chose your path.” Gently, she cupped Mulder’s cheek. His eyes rose from his son to meet her gaze. “She couldn’t have picked a better man to stand by her side, a better father for her children, but know, you were a part of this family before she ever said yes. You give her so much love and you make her happy, what more could a mother want for her daughter?”

Mulder’s lips parted as if he was going to speak, but he was interrupted from the cry in the corner of the room. Scully reached down into the bassinet and lifted her daughter into her arms. Rocking her, she returned to where Mulder stood holding their son. Tenderly, he ran his palm over the back of his daughter’s tiny head and sent a delicate kiss to her forehead. He caught Scully’s grin out of the corner of his eye and when he turned his head to meet her eyes, she pressed her lips to his. 

“Dinner is almost ready,” Maggie said. “Walter and his wife said they might be a little late, but I think I hear Monica and John pulling up now.”

“You invited them all for dinner?” Mulder asked Scully.

“They wanted to celebrate with us tonight,” she replied.

Mulder sighed just as they entered; Doggett shaking Mulder’s hand heartily, Monica behind him holding their newborn.  

Scully leaned into Mulder, their son still on his hip, their daughter on hers. “We did it, Mulder. We really did it.”

“I always believed we would,” he said, leaning in to steal another kiss.