Chapter Text
When Scully woke up, she could feel his arms around her middle, his nose nestled into her hair. She looked at the clock. 4:30 AM. She gently placed her hand on her stomach, kneading the foot that wouldn’t stop kicking. She was 34 weeks pregnant. In theory, she had six weeks to go before she met their little girl but she had a feeling it would be sooner than that. She hadn’t gotten a full night's sleep in months but she tried not to let on to Mulder.
As she laid there, listening to Mulder’s breathing, she let her mind wander to William. It wasn’t rare these days for her to find herself thinking about him. As she felt the continuous movements underneath her skin, she compared them to her son’s.
Her sleepless nights couldn’t have come at a worse time. Ever since the ordeal with Vane and Craddock, she couldn’t stop thinking about the possibility of William being alive.
On one hand, it would make perfect sense for him to have some sort of immortality just like she seemed to. But on the other hand, everything that she stood by for her whole life went against this belief.
If he did have immortality, could he have survived a gunshot? He did it once before, she thought. All of those things she said to Mulder on the dock, she said to try to calm him down. When she stood there, looking into the water, something in the back of her head wondered if he really was dead. Was their connection truly ever severed? It was thoughts like these that kept Scully up at night, but she’d rather let Mulder believe it was the baby.
Just as the dark started to fade into dawn, she felt Mulder stir. “I can hear you thinking.” He said, bringing her back to their days at the Unremarkable House.
“I was hoping not to wake you.” She whispered.
“You didn’t.”
“Hm?” She said, sleep still trying to claim her.
“She did.” He said, tapping lightly on her stomach. Scully laughed, covering his hand with hers.
“What are you thinking about?” He asked, hoping she’d be willing to talk about it. They had gotten better at communication and as their new apartment began to feel like home, so did their relationship once again.
“William.” She said, closing her eyes, feeling guilty for bringing him up.
“What about him?” Mulder said as Scully attempted to roll over to face him.
“Nothing. Just how he felt at this stage. I think she’s going to be bigger than him.”
“Do you?” Mulder smiled, knowing that really wasn’t what she was thinking about. He could always tell when she was sad and this instance was no different.
“Feels like it anyway.” She laughed.
He wanted to ask her what she was really thinking about but he would wait for the right moment to bring it back up.
She shifted slowly and lifted herself out of bed and made her way to the bathroom. The sun rays barely lit up the room as she looked at herself in the mirror. She stood there silently, eyes closed, hoping to focus on her connection with William. She wanted to feel him, if she could sense him, she could have concrete evidence of his continued existence. She felt nothing. Perhaps he wouldn’t want to be found anyway, she thought, not after everything.
Mulder was waiting for her in the kitchen, coffee already brewing.
“What are you doing up? I hoped you could go back to sleep.” She said groggily, standing with her hands on what was left of her hips.
“We’re going to talk about whatever’s bothering you.” He said, placing two cups of coffee on the table.
She rolled her eyes at him. He had always been an empath. Always had this convincing way about him. And she wonders why she’s stayed with him after all these years. “Mulder…”
“You can’t sleep, I can’t sleep. We might as well talk.”
“Fine.” She said, sitting down across from him.
“We’re doing this conversation thing now, remember?” He winked.
She laughed. “Sure, fine, whatever.”
“So,” He started, “What’s this about William.”
“You’re going to think I’m crazy.”
“Scully,” He reached across the table to take her hand. “How many times have I said that to you.”
“Well, you are crazy.” She laughed.
“You know what I mean.” He said, trying not to deflect with humor like they so often did. “Nothing you could say to me would shock me, Scully.”
She looked down at their hands. “When Vane took me to Mistica, he brought me into a meditation room with Cherish Craddock.” Mulder knew where she was going with this. He hadn’t mentioned to her who Craddock channeled for him. The only good that did was confirm to him that Cigarette Smoking Man really was dead. “Did you know that she claims to be able to talk to the dead?”
Mulder nodded. “Yes, pretty convincingly too.” Scully looked up at him, wondering what experiences he had when he went to investigate the facility. “Did she channel someone for you?” He asked.
“No, that’s the thing.” Mulder willed her to continue. “She didn’t…I mean, she couldn’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“She asked me who I would want to speak to most.” She took a deep breath as her hand went to calm the restless child within her. “I told her I’d like to speak to my son.”
Mulders heart broke for her, and if he were being honest, for himself too. He would have given anything to talk to William. Instead, the single most evil man he’d ever known showed his voice instead.
“And what happened?” He asked, hoping she was able to find some closure.
“She couldn’t.”
“What?”
“She couldn’t ‘reach’ him.” She said, using air quotes. “She said it was because he was alive.”
“Scully…” Mulder said, trying so hard not to get his hopes up. “Do you think-
“I don’t know.” She said, trying to play down her hunch like she always did. When will you just accept that strange things happen, he wondered.
“But what if he is? What if he’s still out there?”
“Mulder-”
“Look, I don’t know how Craddock does it but she really can channel the dead.”
“We don’t know that, Mulder.”
“Yes we do.” She looked at him quizzically. “She told me things no one else would have known.”
“Who did you speak to?” She asked, wondering why he wasn’t jumping at the chance to tell her this when they got back to D.C.
“It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that Craddock has some sort of power and if she said she thinks William might still be alive, that means something.”
“I didn’t want to believe her at first. I just thought she was telling me what I wanted to hear. I mean every mother would want to know that her son was alright after all.”
“When did you start thinking it might be true?” He asked.
“Knowing what we know now, I’ve been trying to piece together all the details of his life. The only thing that links it all together is this alien DNA. Mulder, you’ve seen what I can do, you’ve seen the results of my DNA tests. My abilities, my so called ‘immortality,” Again with the air quotes. “Has to be a direct result of my past abductions.”
Mulder couldn’t help but chuckle. “Look who’s finally coming around.”
She slapped his hand and smiled. “Mulder, I’m trying to be serious.”
“I know, I know.” He said. “Continue.”
“Look, we know William has powers, we’ve seen them ourselves. He had to have inherited them from me. Would it be so hard to believe that he inherited the indestructibility too?”
“No Scully, it wouldn’t.” She could tell he was getting excited. When they came upon a potential lead, it’s almost like he started vibrating with excitement. She reached over and placed a calming hand on his bouncing knee.
“Mulder, I know what you’re thinking.”
“Do you?”
“You’re trying to plan the best way to go looking for him.” For a moment he didn’t respond, knowing she was right. “We need to stop and think first, Mulder. Not to mention the fact that we’ll have a new child in just a few short weeks.
“But, Scully-”
“I’m not disagreeing with you, Mulder. I want to find him too. I just think we need to sit with it for a bit, come up with a plan, and take care of our girl while we’re at it.
Mulder got up from the table and knelt in front of her, putting his hands on the side of her stomach. “Speaking of which, “ He smiled. “What sort of abilities do you think this little one will have?”