FBI Headquarters
30 June 2009
Monday
"Director Skinner will see you now," said a short receptionist that sat near the door to the large office. Mulder stood from the couch where he had sat many times before. His strides were long and purposeful; he closed the door behind him. After the door clicked shut behind him, he stood a moment and looked at his long time friend and former boss.
Walter Skinner hadn't changed much over the years. Perhaps he was a little larger around the waist, but e still wore the same wire rimmed glasses and serious face.
"Would you like to take a seat, Agent Mulder?" he asked in his usual unrevealing voice. As Mulder headed toward the chair, Skinner leaned back in his and sighed very deeply. Mulder could tell that he had already gotten word of William's cancer.
"I talked to Dana. Fox, I'm sorry about Will." It took very extreme circumstances for Skinner to take such a familiar tone and use first names. Mulder could tell that he was very disturbed by this news, but having a heart to heart talk was not the reason that he had come here.
"Thank you, sir." Skinner slightly squinted his eyes as he looked at Mulder. The fact that Skinner had been taken by surprise at Mulder's formality was painted across his face.
"What brings you here, Mulder?" The curiosity carried over into his voice as well.
"Don't you find in coincidental that William's cancer is in the exact same spot as Dana's was?"
Skinner eyed the agent sitting in his office like he had done so many times before when Mulder would come to him with a crazy explanation to the case he was working on. He would usually dismiss whatever outrageous theory Mulder had concocted, but the Assistant Director couldn't dispel this idea so easily. Of all the unexplainable things that he had seen in his years, coincidence usually yielded darker secrets.
But, he had to be objective to keep Mulder from running off and doing something drastic. "Mulder, it has been years since anything has happened. In fact it has been since William was born. No more aliens, or government conspiracies, or anything like that has happened in eight years."
Mulder could tell that Skinner was trying to rationalize things in his head. This was the perfect time for an attack to sway him to Mulder's side.
"There are too many questions left unanswered!" Mulder raised his voice.
"All of the doctors working in the fertility clinic where Dana got pregnant with Will were killed. And all of the evidence was destroyed with them. And it was done by Billy Miles. The same Billy Miles who was a former alien abductee, which just happened to be the first case that Dana and myself worked on together."
Mulder's voice was gaining depth as he spoke, but now he softened. "I don't think Billy Miles was human when he did that though. I think he was turned into some kind of alien. We pushed him off the roof of this building into a garbage truck where he was crushed and, yet, somehow he showed up at an abandon town where Dana was in labor and tried to kill her. And how do you explain all of the people that showed up with him while she was giving birth?" Mulder was practically yelling at this point. "And to top it all off, they all left right when Will was born!"
Mulder took in a breath at this point and Skinner took his opportunity, "Agent Mulder, sit down!"
As he said this, a light knock came on the door. "Yes!" Skinner yelled in response.
The short receptionist stuck her head lightly into the room. "Is everything alright in here, sir? I heard yelling."
Skinner forced himself to calm down, "Everything is fine."
The woman took her que to shut the door again and the two men continued their conversation. "I know all of this already." Skinner said in a low and controlled voice. "So why are you in my office yelling it at me?"
"Because I need answers." Mulder's voice was mush calmer now, too, but Skinner could see the urgency and anger pressing onto Mulder's face.
"What kind of information are we talking about?"
"About the Cigarette Smoking Man," Mulder answered quietly.
Those five words brought an enormous about of memories to the surface of Skinner's mind. He had seen the same look of desperation and determination in Mulder's eyes all those years ago when Mulder had come to him and asked him the same thing. Seeing Scully in so much pain and not being able to do anything for her was too much for Mulder to handle. He felt that he had to do something, so Mulder decided to get involved with the elusive CSM.
The Cigarette Smoking Man had been a key player in the government agency that was conspiring with aliens. The agency pretended to be working along with the aliens, but actually, they were stalling, trying to develop a vaccine against the alien virus that would eventually turn the human race into aliens themselves.
This government agency had been made up of high ranking officials in the FBI, members of the pentagon, and many other people in high places. The CSM had used Mulder like a pawn in a game of chess. But the CSM had disappeared long ago. Skinner doubted that he was still alive. And he would not let Mulder get drawn back into that world. Nothing alien related had happened since the incident when William was born, which seemed odd in itself.
Skinner saw the expecting look on Mulder's face and realized that he had been thinking for several moments. "You should already know that I don't know where he is. Dead for all I know. But even if I did know I wouldn't tell you. We have had this conversation before. He is a dead-end and I suggest you not persue it."
Mulder's rage came down along with his fists on top of Skinner's tidy desk with enough force that it knocked an empty coffee cup off the edge. "Damn you!" The words came from deep inside.
Skinner's voice was calm but with a slight scolding edge to it, "Being upset with me isn't going to help you any, I promise you."
"I'm sorry," Mulder responded quieter, seeming to withdraw into himself. He was now pacing the room. "I have to go," he said suddenly.
"Agent Mulder, wait." Skinner commanded rising from his chair, but the door slammed shut in response.
***************
Basement Office
1:00 pm
Mulder sat in his office trying to gather his thoughts and make a plan when a knock on the open door pulled him back to reality.
"No one here but the FBI's least wanted," he muttered bitterly. Mulder glanced up to see Agent John Doggit, his partner, enter the room.
"Hey, how you holdin' up?"
"What makes you ask?"
Doggit laughed nervously, "I, uh, actually got a call from Skinner. He was worried about you. He couldn't reach you on your cell."
"I turned it off," Mulder answered the unasked question.
"Yeah, well he's not the only one that's worried about you."
"What the hell am I supposed to be doing?" Mulder exploded suddenly into an angry rage. "I just found out that my son has an incurable cancer, and I'm what? Supposed to be okay with it? I've been through this with Dana and the only reason that she's still alive is because of a man that is probably dead. Damn it!" He lowered his head to rest in his hands. Doggit just stood in the doorway, not knowing how to comfort his friend.
Softly, Mulder added, "I need a miracle." He looked up in time to see a slight smirk to cross Doggit's face, which quickly faded. "What?" Mulder asked anxiously. "What is it?"
"You say you need a miracle? I think I might have just the thing.
************************************************************************
"'Hold the Mayo Clinic'" Mulder read suspiciously. The two men stood in the adjoining room to their office and looked through one of the many file cabinets.
"I know it doesn't sound ligit. but we have the police reports and eye witnesses saying that all of the children had the same silver rash that looked liked like a hand print. A nurse describes the appearance of the two men, and look at this." Doggit pointed the paper that Mulder held.
"This says that the metal of the door was fused to the door frame?"
"I don't know how hot that had to be to melt, but it is pretty unreasonable." Doggit realized that he was getting too wrapped up in the case and tried to calm down.
"Why didn't you investigate this?" Mulder asked.
"Well..." Doggit paused as if unsure how to word his thoughts. "We were a little busy trying to find you at that time."
Mulder looked up to the date and realized that it was during the time that he had been abducted allegedly by aliens.
An awkward silence had settled that Doggit decided to break. "Look, Mulder. I don't know if I did the right thing by showing you this. It might turn out to be nothing, but..."
Mulder cut him off, "Don't worry about it."
"I'm just saying..."
"Listen," Mulder interrupted again. "I have something I need to do." He glanced at his watch. "It's getting late and I'd better get home." He grabbed his jacket and headed out the door with the file his hand.
"Say 'hello' to Will for me," Doggit called out the door, doubting that Mulder heard him. He sighed out loud and wondered what exactly he had just done. The basement office seemed cold and lonely. He wondered what Agent Monica Reyes was doing and left the room in search of her.
************************************************************************
Mulder drove his car around the large city to try and clear his head. After an hour he picked up his cell phone and dialed his home number. William answered.
"Hi, Daddy!"
"Hey, Slugger. Tell your Mommy that I'll be late coming home and dot to wait for me."
"What are you doing?"
"Just paper work, nothing to worry about. Be sure and tell your mom for me."
"Mommy's right here. Do you want to talk to her?" Will looked up at his mother who had just walked into the room.
"Who's on the phone, baby?" Scully asked.
"It's Daddy."
Hearing this and not wanting to talk to his wife, Mulder hurriedly said into the phone, "I've got to go now. Goodbye, Will."
"Let me have it," Scully said as she took the phone. "Fox? Fox?" Hearing nothing but silence, she lowered the phone from her ear and look at Will. "Sometimes your Daddy is so weird."
They both laughed, but inside Scully knew that this was just Mulder's way of dealing with the circumstances.
****************************************************************
The elevator dinged as it reached the bottom floor and slowly opened its doors. They revealed a darkened storage room. Even with the lack of light, Mulder quickly made his way through the shelves filled with boxes of files with practiced accuracy.
Mulder unlocked his office and turned on a light. It was unorganized, but not messy. Two desks filled the middle of the room and UFO posters still clung to the walls. Mulder sat at his desk, pulling and reading various files.
This process continued for most of the night. Around 6:30, Agent Doggit entered the room wondering why the door was unlocked and finding the answer asleep on his desk. Files were strewn across the desk where Mulder's head lay.
Doggit slammed the door shut, achieving his goal of waking the sleeping Agent. Mulder lifted his head and blinked his eyes rapidly.
"Good morning, Sunshine!" Doggit said playfully, unable to resist teasing his partner.
"What time is it?" Mulder asked.
"Past six thirty. We have a meeting at nine this morning. You might want to go home and change your clothes." Doggit didn't like to come right out and tell people what to do. He found they were more willing if they thought they were doing things of their own accord.
"No, I'm okay." Mulder insisted.
"Mulder," Doggit sighed, "to be blunt, you look like Hell."
"Thanks," Mulder said sarcastically.
"Go home. You've been here all night. Take a shower. I don't want to be seen with a stinky partner. They'll talk about me at the water dispenser."
Mulder laughed at the joke, "I guess I will." He picked up certain files, leaving the rest to clutter his desk top.
Doggit already knew that he was up to something. What he didn't know, but had a good idea that it was something to do with the file he had shown Mulder last night. Doggit supposed that was his motive in showing Mulder the file. He wondered now if it was the right move and if Mulder would be back on time for their meeting with Kersh.
30 June 2009
Monday
"Director Skinner will see you now," said a short receptionist that sat near the door to the large office. Mulder stood from the couch where he had sat many times before. His strides were long and purposeful; he closed the door behind him. After the door clicked shut behind him, he stood a moment and looked at his long time friend and former boss.
Walter Skinner hadn't changed much over the years. Perhaps he was a little larger around the waist, but e still wore the same wire rimmed glasses and serious face.
"Would you like to take a seat, Agent Mulder?" he asked in his usual unrevealing voice. As Mulder headed toward the chair, Skinner leaned back in his and sighed very deeply. Mulder could tell that he had already gotten word of William's cancer.
"I talked to Dana. Fox, I'm sorry about Will." It took very extreme circumstances for Skinner to take such a familiar tone and use first names. Mulder could tell that he was very disturbed by this news, but having a heart to heart talk was not the reason that he had come here.
"Thank you, sir." Skinner slightly squinted his eyes as he looked at Mulder. The fact that Skinner had been taken by surprise at Mulder's formality was painted across his face.
"What brings you here, Mulder?" The curiosity carried over into his voice as well.
"Don't you find in coincidental that William's cancer is in the exact same spot as Dana's was?"
Skinner eyed the agent sitting in his office like he had done so many times before when Mulder would come to him with a crazy explanation to the case he was working on. He would usually dismiss whatever outrageous theory Mulder had concocted, but the Assistant Director couldn't dispel this idea so easily. Of all the unexplainable things that he had seen in his years, coincidence usually yielded darker secrets.
But, he had to be objective to keep Mulder from running off and doing something drastic. "Mulder, it has been years since anything has happened. In fact it has been since William was born. No more aliens, or government conspiracies, or anything like that has happened in eight years."
Mulder could tell that Skinner was trying to rationalize things in his head. This was the perfect time for an attack to sway him to Mulder's side.
"There are too many questions left unanswered!" Mulder raised his voice.
"All of the doctors working in the fertility clinic where Dana got pregnant with Will were killed. And all of the evidence was destroyed with them. And it was done by Billy Miles. The same Billy Miles who was a former alien abductee, which just happened to be the first case that Dana and myself worked on together."
Mulder's voice was gaining depth as he spoke, but now he softened. "I don't think Billy Miles was human when he did that though. I think he was turned into some kind of alien. We pushed him off the roof of this building into a garbage truck where he was crushed and, yet, somehow he showed up at an abandon town where Dana was in labor and tried to kill her. And how do you explain all of the people that showed up with him while she was giving birth?" Mulder was practically yelling at this point. "And to top it all off, they all left right when Will was born!"
Mulder took in a breath at this point and Skinner took his opportunity, "Agent Mulder, sit down!"
As he said this, a light knock came on the door. "Yes!" Skinner yelled in response.
The short receptionist stuck her head lightly into the room. "Is everything alright in here, sir? I heard yelling."
Skinner forced himself to calm down, "Everything is fine."
The woman took her que to shut the door again and the two men continued their conversation. "I know all of this already." Skinner said in a low and controlled voice. "So why are you in my office yelling it at me?"
"Because I need answers." Mulder's voice was mush calmer now, too, but Skinner could see the urgency and anger pressing onto Mulder's face.
"What kind of information are we talking about?"
"About the Cigarette Smoking Man," Mulder answered quietly.
Those five words brought an enormous about of memories to the surface of Skinner's mind. He had seen the same look of desperation and determination in Mulder's eyes all those years ago when Mulder had come to him and asked him the same thing. Seeing Scully in so much pain and not being able to do anything for her was too much for Mulder to handle. He felt that he had to do something, so Mulder decided to get involved with the elusive CSM.
The Cigarette Smoking Man had been a key player in the government agency that was conspiring with aliens. The agency pretended to be working along with the aliens, but actually, they were stalling, trying to develop a vaccine against the alien virus that would eventually turn the human race into aliens themselves.
This government agency had been made up of high ranking officials in the FBI, members of the pentagon, and many other people in high places. The CSM had used Mulder like a pawn in a game of chess. But the CSM had disappeared long ago. Skinner doubted that he was still alive. And he would not let Mulder get drawn back into that world. Nothing alien related had happened since the incident when William was born, which seemed odd in itself.
Skinner saw the expecting look on Mulder's face and realized that he had been thinking for several moments. "You should already know that I don't know where he is. Dead for all I know. But even if I did know I wouldn't tell you. We have had this conversation before. He is a dead-end and I suggest you not persue it."
Mulder's rage came down along with his fists on top of Skinner's tidy desk with enough force that it knocked an empty coffee cup off the edge. "Damn you!" The words came from deep inside.
Skinner's voice was calm but with a slight scolding edge to it, "Being upset with me isn't going to help you any, I promise you."
"I'm sorry," Mulder responded quieter, seeming to withdraw into himself. He was now pacing the room. "I have to go," he said suddenly.
"Agent Mulder, wait." Skinner commanded rising from his chair, but the door slammed shut in response.
***************
Basement Office
1:00 pm
Mulder sat in his office trying to gather his thoughts and make a plan when a knock on the open door pulled him back to reality.
"No one here but the FBI's least wanted," he muttered bitterly. Mulder glanced up to see Agent John Doggit, his partner, enter the room.
"Hey, how you holdin' up?"
"What makes you ask?"
Doggit laughed nervously, "I, uh, actually got a call from Skinner. He was worried about you. He couldn't reach you on your cell."
"I turned it off," Mulder answered the unasked question.
"Yeah, well he's not the only one that's worried about you."
"What the hell am I supposed to be doing?" Mulder exploded suddenly into an angry rage. "I just found out that my son has an incurable cancer, and I'm what? Supposed to be okay with it? I've been through this with Dana and the only reason that she's still alive is because of a man that is probably dead. Damn it!" He lowered his head to rest in his hands. Doggit just stood in the doorway, not knowing how to comfort his friend.
Softly, Mulder added, "I need a miracle." He looked up in time to see a slight smirk to cross Doggit's face, which quickly faded. "What?" Mulder asked anxiously. "What is it?"
"You say you need a miracle? I think I might have just the thing.
************************************************************************
"'Hold the Mayo Clinic'" Mulder read suspiciously. The two men stood in the adjoining room to their office and looked through one of the many file cabinets.
"I know it doesn't sound ligit. but we have the police reports and eye witnesses saying that all of the children had the same silver rash that looked liked like a hand print. A nurse describes the appearance of the two men, and look at this." Doggit pointed the paper that Mulder held.
"This says that the metal of the door was fused to the door frame?"
"I don't know how hot that had to be to melt, but it is pretty unreasonable." Doggit realized that he was getting too wrapped up in the case and tried to calm down.
"Why didn't you investigate this?" Mulder asked.
"Well..." Doggit paused as if unsure how to word his thoughts. "We were a little busy trying to find you at that time."
Mulder looked up to the date and realized that it was during the time that he had been abducted allegedly by aliens.
An awkward silence had settled that Doggit decided to break. "Look, Mulder. I don't know if I did the right thing by showing you this. It might turn out to be nothing, but..."
Mulder cut him off, "Don't worry about it."
"I'm just saying..."
"Listen," Mulder interrupted again. "I have something I need to do." He glanced at his watch. "It's getting late and I'd better get home." He grabbed his jacket and headed out the door with the file his hand.
"Say 'hello' to Will for me," Doggit called out the door, doubting that Mulder heard him. He sighed out loud and wondered what exactly he had just done. The basement office seemed cold and lonely. He wondered what Agent Monica Reyes was doing and left the room in search of her.
************************************************************************
Mulder drove his car around the large city to try and clear his head. After an hour he picked up his cell phone and dialed his home number. William answered.
"Hi, Daddy!"
"Hey, Slugger. Tell your Mommy that I'll be late coming home and dot to wait for me."
"What are you doing?"
"Just paper work, nothing to worry about. Be sure and tell your mom for me."
"Mommy's right here. Do you want to talk to her?" Will looked up at his mother who had just walked into the room.
"Who's on the phone, baby?" Scully asked.
"It's Daddy."
Hearing this and not wanting to talk to his wife, Mulder hurriedly said into the phone, "I've got to go now. Goodbye, Will."
"Let me have it," Scully said as she took the phone. "Fox? Fox?" Hearing nothing but silence, she lowered the phone from her ear and look at Will. "Sometimes your Daddy is so weird."
They both laughed, but inside Scully knew that this was just Mulder's way of dealing with the circumstances.
****************************************************************
The elevator dinged as it reached the bottom floor and slowly opened its doors. They revealed a darkened storage room. Even with the lack of light, Mulder quickly made his way through the shelves filled with boxes of files with practiced accuracy.
Mulder unlocked his office and turned on a light. It was unorganized, but not messy. Two desks filled the middle of the room and UFO posters still clung to the walls. Mulder sat at his desk, pulling and reading various files.
This process continued for most of the night. Around 6:30, Agent Doggit entered the room wondering why the door was unlocked and finding the answer asleep on his desk. Files were strewn across the desk where Mulder's head lay.
Doggit slammed the door shut, achieving his goal of waking the sleeping Agent. Mulder lifted his head and blinked his eyes rapidly.
"Good morning, Sunshine!" Doggit said playfully, unable to resist teasing his partner.
"What time is it?" Mulder asked.
"Past six thirty. We have a meeting at nine this morning. You might want to go home and change your clothes." Doggit didn't like to come right out and tell people what to do. He found they were more willing if they thought they were doing things of their own accord.
"No, I'm okay." Mulder insisted.
"Mulder," Doggit sighed, "to be blunt, you look like Hell."
"Thanks," Mulder said sarcastically.
"Go home. You've been here all night. Take a shower. I don't want to be seen with a stinky partner. They'll talk about me at the water dispenser."
Mulder laughed at the joke, "I guess I will." He picked up certain files, leaving the rest to clutter his desk top.
Doggit already knew that he was up to something. What he didn't know, but had a good idea that it was something to do with the file he had shown Mulder last night. Doggit supposed that was his motive in showing Mulder the file. He wondered now if it was the right move and if Mulder would be back on time for their meeting with Kersh.