MULDER'S POV

Mulder glanced at Ezra. The sassy boy was silent for a change. But the silence was unsettling and he decided to address it. "You okay?" The boy seemed to have gone into shock. Mulder crouched so he and Ezra were face to face. "Ezra, what's going on?"

Ezra paused a moment and shakily stood up with Mulder following suit.

"He...he betrayed me. Alex... I told him everything..."

Mulder took a second to process this. From Ezra's reaction it seemed almost as if Alex was a brother. He wanted to press the boy for details, but he could see no point. What Ezra had said was almost unintelligible anyways. Ezra didn't seem to be ready to even move, and with in a gentle "Come on," on Mulder's part, he didn't budge. Mulder was about to pick the boy up and take him to the room, but Ezra slowly walked to the room. Mulder followed and hesitated for a second, but he decided not to lock the door.

*Le skip of le night time*

Mulder awoke early and went to Ezra's room. The boy was in the room, luckily. He was buried under the blanket and the wisp of wheat colored hair was the only thing that allowed Mulder to be sure that Ezra had not escaped. Mulder swiftly left the room and dialed Scully's number into the phone. He waited two rings until he heard Scully's familiar voice on the other end of the phone. "Scully."

"Hey Scully,it's Mulder. You said we needed to take the kid to an ophthalmologist?"

"Mulder, the nearest ophthalmologist isn't open till 10."

"Yeah, but mine is."

"I already made an appointment at 1, we need to run some tests."

"Okay. Should I head over?"

"Mhm. Make sure he doesn't get away."

Mulder sighed. "Look Scully, Ezra doesn't seem like such a bad kid..."

"Mulder, you know what he's done! He's robbed countless convenience stores and a house too!"

"Scully, the kid is an orphan! He lives in an abandoned building! The kid is trying to survive, and he didn't exactly go about it the best way."

"I still don't trust the kid."

"Scully, we aren't cuffing him."

"Yes Mulder, we are!"

"I think I'll be able to watch a child. I've killed vampires and an alligator, I think I can handle a boy."

Scully sighed. "Fine. But if he escapes it's on you." Mulder hung up the phone and quickly got dressed. He then walked down the hallway again to wake Ezra. "Kid, wake up." He said.

Ezra fidgeted on the mattress but did not awaken. Mulder reached down and shook Ezra gently. This turned out to be a bad move. Ezra's arm flew out towards Mulder. Mulder ducked but he was not missed completely. Ezra blinked and then apologized, to Mulder's surprise. "What happened to you?"

"You know, Mu-Fox."

Mulder didn't say anything about that. "Things happen, Ezra. You'll get betrayed at least once in your life. That's the way things work."

Ezra spitefully growled,"Congratulations . You broke me."

Mulder calmly responded, "I have no malicious intentions, Ezra. Adapt, improvise, overcome. I feel like you should know that better than anyone."

Ezra blinked for a second. He began to say something but he simply stood up. "Where are you gonna take me today? Juvie? The bureau headquarters?"

Mulder sighed. This is why he didn't have kids. "No Ezra, we are taking you to the hospital. We are going to run some tests."

Ezra backed away, stumbling over the mattress. "No."

"Ezra, you won't get in trouble. Trust me on that, I've asked for some crazy things."

"I don't believe you."

Mulder was beginning to get mad. "It doesn't matter if you believe me or not, Ezra, because you'll be going anyways," He said quietly." Now let's go, or you'll be treated like a fugitive."

Ezra raised an eyebrow and muttered, "As if i'm not already."

Mulder ignored Ezra and led him to a parking lot, and then into an old, battered-looking car. Ezra didn't know very much about cars but he could tell it was a Buick. Ezra smirked. "Can I drive?"

"You wish."

Ezra slid into the passenger's seat, and they began the drive to

the nearest hospital.

EZRA'S POV

Ezra tapped his foot up and down on the floor of the Buick.

He was quite anxious about being tested, and he had just lost the small amount of trust he had for Fox. Or Mulder. He didn't know whether Dana called him Mulder as an FBI thing, or if he actually went by Mulder (which would be weird.) Honestly, he had lost all his trust for pretty much everyone. He began tapping his fingers on the dashboard, which must've gotten to Mulder, who was popping sunflower seeds. "Can you stop that?!" Growled an annoyed Mulder.

(Ezra decided to just call him Mulder which seemed like what he went by.) On any average day Ezra would have shot back sarcastically, but today was most definitely not his day. He ceased the mindless tapping. Ezra blinked, and then felt the poke in his side. Mulder had forgotten to empty the pockets of his jacket. Ezra eagerly dug through them and found nothing. He almost died but instead he felt for the secret flap that had been sown in. Nothing but his small collection of lockpicking tools. (Four sizes of paper clips, two of each. A toothpick. A few bobby pins.) That wasn't exactly going to help him- you can't really incapacitate someone with a bobby pin, and Ezra didn't exactly want to stab anyone. (As if a stab from a paper clip would hurt anyone.) They sat in silence as Mulder drove for a few more miles. He was still popping sunflower seeds, which was making Ezra hungry. But sunflower seeds weren't filling, and he had survived for weeks at a time without food. Ezra reached forward towards the radio dial, which he surprisingly knew how to use (he and Alex had hotwired quite a few cars.) and flipped to an FM channel he had seen when they hotwired the car. Mulder glanced at the radio momentarily, and switched to a sports channel that was recounting a football game from the previous night. Ezra raised an eyebrow. "Wouldn't have labeled you as a sports person."

"Looks aren't what they seem."

"Creepy."

Ezra thought he saw a flicker of a grin on Mulder's face.

The cynical man seemed to be good to have on Ezra's side, so he decided to keep at it."

"What's with the sunflower seeds? You a chicken or something?"

Ezra didn't get much of a response with that one, except for a raise of one eyebrow. Ezra hadn't gotten very far with the crack at the sunflower seeds, but he continued to attempt at making conversation. "Got an FBI question for you."

"Chances are it's classified."

Ezra flicked up his left eyebrow but continued. "How come FBI agents wear suits out in the field? Dana-er-Scully wore high heels when you guys... Caught me. High heels can't help when you're running for your life. I doubt dress shoes could either."

Mulder grinned lopsidedly for a few seconds.

Ezra seemed to be making progress. Seemed like the man no longer hated him. That was good.

He leaned back in the Buick and began gently bouncing his leg. Mulder finally spoke. "No need to start that again, Ezra, we're here."

They were in the parking lot closest to the doors. Ezra trailed after Mulder as they entered the pristine hospital. Ezra bit his lip, nervous. He wondered how bad it was going to turn out to be. He watched as Mulder spoke to the receptionist, only half focused. Mulder nodded, and took a confusing amount of turns until a wing was in sight that had a "security guard" standing in front of it (They weren't going to be protected very much by that guard, Ezra probably could have taken the guy out when he was 8. Mulder flashed his badge at the "guard" and stated "Fox Mulder. I'm with the bureau." (A/N:I love that line so much it's not funny xD.) The guard nodded and pointed his chin at Ezra. "He with you?"

Mulder was about to respond but Ezra saw his chance. "No, my name is actually Ly Areely. I'm with the Department of Hospital Guard Checks."

The guard simply said,"ID?"

Mulder held back a laugh and nodded. "Yes, 'Ly' is with me." He made air quotes when saying Ly. They passed the boring security guard and began to laugh. "Ly Areely? Liar Really? Nice one."

Ezra didn't hide his wide grin. He wasn't being hated for his quick wit. That was new. He followed the still-smiling Mulder into a small room that looked like the school nurse's office from when he was with the Goldens. There was an examination table in the center of the room, which Ezra immediately sat on. He preferred raised surfaces like tables over chairs, strangely. Mulder eyed the chair under the window, but first put on a surgical mask and latex gloves. He then sat on the chair, and that was when Scully entered the room. She greeted Ezra cautiously and glanced at Mulder. Ezra was able to read her eyes clearly, and he assumed she was asking him if Ezra had done anything. A shake of the head from Mulder basically initiated the 'tests.' Scully began with what seemed like it should be called medical small talk.

"I suppose you haven't been checked up on for a while now?"

Ezra raised an eyebrow. "Obviously."

Scully completed the basic procedure of a physical (which Ezra did not enjoy) and then warned Ezra,"I'm going to do a blood test. It might sting a little." Ezra shrugged it off, and allowed Scully to poke a needle into the inside of his elbow. He winced but got use to it-just as the needle was pulled out. A piece of gauze was used to cover the small puncture, where a small bead of blood was forming. It didn't seem to be so bad after all.

*Le time skip to le ophthalmologist because I'm not a doctor*

This time Ezra was in the backseat, and Scully was in the front seat. Mulder seemed to have an inexhaustible source of sunflower seeds-he was still popping them. They had made the turn to enter Bethesda. They passed the building he had lived in and drove across the street to a small deli that Ezra had stolen from before. Mulder opened the door and almost got out. "Wait. We can't go to this deli." Ezra said.

"Why is that?" Scully questioned.

"I...erm...robbed it before."

The two agents groaned.

"Where haven't you robbed?" Mulder asked sarcastically.

"There's a pizza place across the street. Alex stole from it quite a few times."

Mulder got out of the car with the others following to do so, and he crossed the street briskly with Ezra looking around nervously. They entered the pizza place and were greeted by a hostess. Ezra scanned the large menus they were given as Mulder and Scully discussed something he could only guess was about him. As soon as the waitress came he ordered a large cheese pizza and a liter bottle of Coke, which got a raised eyebrow from Mulder. "Sure you can eat all that?" "Yeah." Ezra offered no other answers and he wasn't willing to.

SCULLY'S POV

Scully didn't exactly want to engage the boy in conversation, but the agents were trying to get information out of Ezra- you can't exactly interrogate a child, especially not one that young. From what Scully could gather the best way to get information out of Ezra would be to befriend him. "So Ezra, how old are you?"

Ezra glanced at Scully and mumbled,"I turn fourteen in a month."

Mulder added a question of his own. "How'd you know about the X-Files last night? You steal newspapers too?"

"Tooms told me about you."

This alarmed Scully, and from what she could tell on the look of Mulder's face he was rather alarmed as well. Mulder finally spoke up. "Eugene Tooms?"

"Yeah. He lived in an abandoned building near me."

"Eugene Tooms tried to kill Mulder."

"He tried to kill me too."

"Where'd he go?!" Mulder asked, almost losing his calm facade.

"He died a couple years ago. He used to be pretty nice about three or four years ago, helping me and Alex out when we were younger, but he went insane and tried to kill everyone. Me and Alex put a whole .25 magazine through his head. Barely managed to kill him."

Scully and Mulder met eyes for a second, and then the pizza arrived. "Are you sure he's dead?" Asked Scully, hoping to confirm the killer's death.

Ezra, who was busy devouring the pizza, offered no answer. Mulder's eyes met Scully's eyes for another second. "You guys telepathic or something?" The eating Ezra said. Apparently he had noticed the glances between the two agents.

"I've seen quite a few of them, and I can sadly say neither of us are telepaths." Mulder said with a raised eyebrow. "Are you?"

From what Scully could see Mulder earned a chuckle out of Ezra.

"Sure seems like it sometimes." She quietly commented. "When you live in the streets you learn things."

Scully sighed. This boy was unbelievably irritating and frustratingly uncooperative. It was time to get serious. "Listen, Ezra. We are going to break you eventually, and you might as well avoid delaying it and tell us EVERYTHING you know!"

EZRA'S POV

Scully's outburst startled Ezra, although it seemed to have no effect on Mulder. The seemingly calm agent had blown a fuse. If this was going to happen often, he wouldn't be playing along anymore. So Ezra ran. He flew out of the restaurant, and obviously Mulder and possibly Scully were following. Ezra was able to run backwards at a decent pace, so he did so to gain a decent view of what was going on behind him. Mulder was making chase, with his gun drawn. Ezra wasn't worried about that, though. He seriously doubted that Mulder would shoot him. In fact, he didn't suspect it in the slightest. He turned into an alley, now running normally despite the 360 turn that confirmed that he was still being followed. So Ezra did what he did best. He disappeared.

Sorry for the cliffhanger. I'm a bad person. Changing plot here too. Just wanted to let you know that I think the first chapter implies that Alex is 14. He's supposedly 18. Thanks for reading. Review or whatever.