Title: Beyond the Truth: 01 Lost and Found
Author: Neoxphile
Summary: This story takes place immediately after season nine. The X-Files gang discovers that some lost parts of their lives can be reclaimed after all...but it's not easy.
Spoilers: all nine seasons, possibly, but particularly "Christmas Carol," "Emily," "William," and "The Truth."
Disclaimer: These characters all belong to 1013 who, though they probably don't realize it, have lent them to me.
**
Beyond the Truth: 01 Lost and Found
by Neoxphile
Scully dropped her book and looked out the window without really seeing everything. The character in the book was cooing over her baby, and Scully just couldn't take it any more. She missed her son too much to be unaffected by the paternal pride of others. Feeling caged in, she grabbed her sandals and headed for the beach.
That she was not dead, and instead was smelling the salty air and listening to the cry of seagulls was a wonder in and of it self. Everyone was sure that their detour had signed their death warrants, or at the very least it'd keep them from escaping the country, but by some miracle they had gotten to Mexico, safe and sound. But her thoughts were circuitous and the thought of one miracle immediately conjured up thoughts of her own missing miracle again. The wind picked up, making her white linen shirt billow and her hair stream behind her as she walked, remembering.
Most days she didn't regret her decision to give her son away, but some days were worse than others. Today was one of those days. She had given him up because she thought it was safer for him, but there were days she worried that she might have done the worst possible thing. Her daughter, the child she never knew existed, had died after being in the care of strangers her whole life. Scully tried not to remember her, but whenever she worried about William, thoughts of Emily, the doomed child, would surface. She hoped her baby, her perfect baby, was safe and happy.
**
Mulder looked out the window of the motel room and watched as Scully walks the beach, managing to look both determined and listless at the same time. He knew that being on the lam was taking its toll on her, because she was less adventurous than she wanted him to believe, and that she missed her life. He missed his life too, but he'd had more practice with dealing with the loss of their brand of normalcy. He knew from experience that if he were to chase her down and ask her what's wrong he would be rebuffed by her dismissively said "I'm fine," because though she could bear him knowing that she isn't fine, she can't bear saying it aloud. So instead he watched her from the window.
**
Two days and three cities away, Mulder leaves Scully sleeping in bed to go jogging at dawn. Even though his entire life has been in upheaval, and they have been constantly on the move, he's able to cling to some old habits to comfort himself. Some mornings it seems like jogging, sunflower seeds, and Scully are they only things he can still call his own.
Jogging has always been a way for him to get away and think, because the moving of muscles as they pound the pavement is so automatic he doesn't need to waste any of his concentration on it at all. His thoughts over the past few days keep returning to the one thing he can't tell Scully.
Though he told her that he agreed with her decision to give up their son, privately he worried that William was no safer with his adoptive family than he would have been with them. In fact, over the past few days he wondered if the baby might be far less safe, which is ironic because trying to figure that out is what made him worry more.
A week ago, leaving on the pretense of picking up some Chinese food to bring back to the motel room of the moment, he drove out to the middle of no where to use a pay phone near at broken down looking convent store. The man he called was an old friend, one with resources at his fingertips. Danny. The only friend he could count on with such a request now that the lone gunmen had passed on. Danny cheerfully agreed to try to find out what Mulder wanted. And he did.
Three days later Danny called him back from another pay phone, one far from his house, just as Mulder insisted as a precaution to ensure that the call couldn't be traced. When Mulder thanked him and hung up he had the name and address of the family caring for his son.
What frightened Mulder about the news was not the temptation to go there and whisk his child away from those people, though he certainly did feel it, but that Danny was so easily able to break into sealed adoption records and find that information. Scully obviously thought that the family's anonymity would keep them safe, but if Danny could track them down, who else could?
Mulder wiped the sweat off his brow and jogged back, hoping to have time to slip into the shower before Scully woke up and missed him.
**
The teenager opened the door to the apartment and walked into the living room. The older of the two women who are chatting there looked up at him with a big smile. "Well hello, Gib. Good day at school?"
"Yes, Ma'am, thank you." He said, returning her smile.
"Oh, come on now, no need to be so formal. You can call me Helen."
"Ok...Helen." He said, trying it out. He found it a little strange to be calling a woman who was old enough to be his grandmother by her first name, but figured it couldn't hurt to be nice to the landlady.
"Your aunt was just telling me about how well you're doing in school. I'm glad to hear it, because a good education can take you far in life. Have you any idea where you think you'd like to go to college?"
"Not yet. I still have a couple of years to think about it, since I'm only sixteen." Gibson said, taking a seat next to Monica. Helen smiled at him and nodded knowingly.
As he sat and listened to the two women talk, he tried not to smile at the thought of how easy it all had been to get people to believe their story. After Doggett and Reyes returned from New Mexico, they debated for hours what to do with him, because Doggett was determined to keep his word about keeping the boy safe.
Eventually they decided to concoct a story about Reyes' nephew coming to live with her after being orphaned. Most people readily went along with it, figuring that Reyes must be one of those people of Hispanic origin that was like Cameron Diaz- so fair you couldn't guess their nationality. Reyes didn't correct them by revealing that the only thing Spanish about her was her adopted surname. She also didn't bother to tell them that it was moot since Gibson was from the Philippines
Helen suddenly leaned forward in her chair. "So...how's that boyfriend of yours, Monica?" She asked slyly.
Reyes felt heat coming to her cheeks. "I don't know if I'd say we're as serious as that...John's fine." She finished quickly, giving a Gibson a sharp look he interrupted as ' stop reading my mind this second'. Gibson grinned at her.
**
Skinner grimaced at the phone though he knew the person on the other end of the line couldn't see him. "Yes sir, I understand that you feel an obligation to defend his privacy, but this is a matter of national security..."
Doggett half listened to Skinner's conversation as he filled out a form that he'd withdrawn from the mountain of paperwork on his desk. After the X- files was closed, he, Skinner, and Reyes were reassigned to work on a project doing security checks that related to 9/11. None of them found the job very stimulating, so Doggett worked by rote, his mind elsewhere, until he heard Skinner put the phone down none too gently.
"Problems, sir?" Doggett asked, giving him a sympathetic look.
"Oh, of course there are. You know, sitting here right now, I can empathize with how bored Mulder and Scully must have been doing background checks the last time the X-Files was closed. Or was it the time before..."
"I remember thinking as I read through the files that the X-files has quite a history of being shut down and reopened again." Doggett commented.
"Tell me about it. Every time I ran into a friend of my ex-wife's, the woman's first question was always ' Hi, Walter, is the X-files open or closed this week?' Which just goes to show that it was so bad even civilians noticed." Skinner grumbled.
"Speaking of Mulder and Scully, have you heard from them?" Doggett asked.
"No. Not since before they went to New Mexico."
"Let's hope no news is good news, then." Doggett said, looking a little worried.
"Come on, Doggett, let's finish up here and go home. This is no place to spend a Friday night." Skinner told him, then sighed as he reached for the phone again.
Author: Neoxphile
Summary: This story takes place immediately after season nine. The X-Files gang discovers that some lost parts of their lives can be reclaimed after all...but it's not easy.
Spoilers: all nine seasons, possibly, but particularly "Christmas Carol," "Emily," "William," and "The Truth."
Disclaimer: These characters all belong to 1013 who, though they probably don't realize it, have lent them to me.
**
Beyond the Truth: 01 Lost and Found
by Neoxphile
Scully dropped her book and looked out the window without really seeing everything. The character in the book was cooing over her baby, and Scully just couldn't take it any more. She missed her son too much to be unaffected by the paternal pride of others. Feeling caged in, she grabbed her sandals and headed for the beach.
That she was not dead, and instead was smelling the salty air and listening to the cry of seagulls was a wonder in and of it self. Everyone was sure that their detour had signed their death warrants, or at the very least it'd keep them from escaping the country, but by some miracle they had gotten to Mexico, safe and sound. But her thoughts were circuitous and the thought of one miracle immediately conjured up thoughts of her own missing miracle again. The wind picked up, making her white linen shirt billow and her hair stream behind her as she walked, remembering.
Most days she didn't regret her decision to give her son away, but some days were worse than others. Today was one of those days. She had given him up because she thought it was safer for him, but there were days she worried that she might have done the worst possible thing. Her daughter, the child she never knew existed, had died after being in the care of strangers her whole life. Scully tried not to remember her, but whenever she worried about William, thoughts of Emily, the doomed child, would surface. She hoped her baby, her perfect baby, was safe and happy.
**
Mulder looked out the window of the motel room and watched as Scully walks the beach, managing to look both determined and listless at the same time. He knew that being on the lam was taking its toll on her, because she was less adventurous than she wanted him to believe, and that she missed her life. He missed his life too, but he'd had more practice with dealing with the loss of their brand of normalcy. He knew from experience that if he were to chase her down and ask her what's wrong he would be rebuffed by her dismissively said "I'm fine," because though she could bear him knowing that she isn't fine, she can't bear saying it aloud. So instead he watched her from the window.
**
Two days and three cities away, Mulder leaves Scully sleeping in bed to go jogging at dawn. Even though his entire life has been in upheaval, and they have been constantly on the move, he's able to cling to some old habits to comfort himself. Some mornings it seems like jogging, sunflower seeds, and Scully are they only things he can still call his own.
Jogging has always been a way for him to get away and think, because the moving of muscles as they pound the pavement is so automatic he doesn't need to waste any of his concentration on it at all. His thoughts over the past few days keep returning to the one thing he can't tell Scully.
Though he told her that he agreed with her decision to give up their son, privately he worried that William was no safer with his adoptive family than he would have been with them. In fact, over the past few days he wondered if the baby might be far less safe, which is ironic because trying to figure that out is what made him worry more.
A week ago, leaving on the pretense of picking up some Chinese food to bring back to the motel room of the moment, he drove out to the middle of no where to use a pay phone near at broken down looking convent store. The man he called was an old friend, one with resources at his fingertips. Danny. The only friend he could count on with such a request now that the lone gunmen had passed on. Danny cheerfully agreed to try to find out what Mulder wanted. And he did.
Three days later Danny called him back from another pay phone, one far from his house, just as Mulder insisted as a precaution to ensure that the call couldn't be traced. When Mulder thanked him and hung up he had the name and address of the family caring for his son.
What frightened Mulder about the news was not the temptation to go there and whisk his child away from those people, though he certainly did feel it, but that Danny was so easily able to break into sealed adoption records and find that information. Scully obviously thought that the family's anonymity would keep them safe, but if Danny could track them down, who else could?
Mulder wiped the sweat off his brow and jogged back, hoping to have time to slip into the shower before Scully woke up and missed him.
**
The teenager opened the door to the apartment and walked into the living room. The older of the two women who are chatting there looked up at him with a big smile. "Well hello, Gib. Good day at school?"
"Yes, Ma'am, thank you." He said, returning her smile.
"Oh, come on now, no need to be so formal. You can call me Helen."
"Ok...Helen." He said, trying it out. He found it a little strange to be calling a woman who was old enough to be his grandmother by her first name, but figured it couldn't hurt to be nice to the landlady.
"Your aunt was just telling me about how well you're doing in school. I'm glad to hear it, because a good education can take you far in life. Have you any idea where you think you'd like to go to college?"
"Not yet. I still have a couple of years to think about it, since I'm only sixteen." Gibson said, taking a seat next to Monica. Helen smiled at him and nodded knowingly.
As he sat and listened to the two women talk, he tried not to smile at the thought of how easy it all had been to get people to believe their story. After Doggett and Reyes returned from New Mexico, they debated for hours what to do with him, because Doggett was determined to keep his word about keeping the boy safe.
Eventually they decided to concoct a story about Reyes' nephew coming to live with her after being orphaned. Most people readily went along with it, figuring that Reyes must be one of those people of Hispanic origin that was like Cameron Diaz- so fair you couldn't guess their nationality. Reyes didn't correct them by revealing that the only thing Spanish about her was her adopted surname. She also didn't bother to tell them that it was moot since Gibson was from the Philippines
Helen suddenly leaned forward in her chair. "So...how's that boyfriend of yours, Monica?" She asked slyly.
Reyes felt heat coming to her cheeks. "I don't know if I'd say we're as serious as that...John's fine." She finished quickly, giving a Gibson a sharp look he interrupted as ' stop reading my mind this second'. Gibson grinned at her.
**
Skinner grimaced at the phone though he knew the person on the other end of the line couldn't see him. "Yes sir, I understand that you feel an obligation to defend his privacy, but this is a matter of national security..."
Doggett half listened to Skinner's conversation as he filled out a form that he'd withdrawn from the mountain of paperwork on his desk. After the X- files was closed, he, Skinner, and Reyes were reassigned to work on a project doing security checks that related to 9/11. None of them found the job very stimulating, so Doggett worked by rote, his mind elsewhere, until he heard Skinner put the phone down none too gently.
"Problems, sir?" Doggett asked, giving him a sympathetic look.
"Oh, of course there are. You know, sitting here right now, I can empathize with how bored Mulder and Scully must have been doing background checks the last time the X-Files was closed. Or was it the time before..."
"I remember thinking as I read through the files that the X-files has quite a history of being shut down and reopened again." Doggett commented.
"Tell me about it. Every time I ran into a friend of my ex-wife's, the woman's first question was always ' Hi, Walter, is the X-files open or closed this week?' Which just goes to show that it was so bad even civilians noticed." Skinner grumbled.
"Speaking of Mulder and Scully, have you heard from them?" Doggett asked.
"No. Not since before they went to New Mexico."
"Let's hope no news is good news, then." Doggett said, looking a little worried.
"Come on, Doggett, let's finish up here and go home. This is no place to spend a Friday night." Skinner told him, then sighed as he reached for the phone again.