Chapter 10
The next afternoon, the group of them, along with William who was once again an energetic five-year-old, waited uneasily in the living room for Sucellos to appear to them. He appeared at the designated time to his waiting audience and immediately saw a sea of glum expressions.
"Why so sad? You have a choice that not many people do. Either way you will all be together." He sighed, knowing he was not going to be able to cheer anyone up. "All right then, let's get down to business. Wait there's something that's changed." He wheeled around and shook his finger at Mulder and Scully.
"What?" Mulder said defensively.
"What did you do?"
"Really? You want me to answer that?" He gave him a shit eating grin.
"After I expressly told you not to…"
"Not to make love to my wife? No, I couldn't follow those orders, and neither could she." He intertwined his hand with Scully's. "I canoodled the hell out of her."
"You what?" Daniel stood up as his voice rose in anger. "You couldn't follow a simple order?"
"Oh, he could, he just didn't want to."
"Scully?"
"And neither did I," she admitted. "We wanted to see what it was like in our younger bodies, we never had a chance to when we really had them."
"And all five times were wonderful!" Mulder puffed up, ego in full display.
"And the halves…" Scully added.
"The halves?" Carolyn asked, and Daniel gave her a significant look. "Oh," she said.
Jonathan and Candy leaned on each other and laughed. William sighed and leaned into his mother.
Sucellos pinched the bridge of his nose and counted mentally to ten, very slowly.
"I thought to help you by taking this assignment. I had no idea you would muddle it up and then continue to muddy the waters by being so obstinate." He glared at Mulder and the house shook, just a little.
"Look, we're sorry if we offended you, but we thought we might only have one night together with these bodies, so we decided to make use of them. What's the harm?" He shrugged. "I bet Carolyn and Danny did the same."
Carolyn and Daniel shook their heads and looked at him with a grim expression.
"It was only one night," Scully interjected. "What possible harm can that do?"
"They are all children, why don't they understand?" Sucellos beseeched the ceiling. After a few more moments he turned and focused on the two of them. "The harm is that you have added another complication to the mix, one that everyone will need to consider."
Daniel grasped the implication first and his mouth dropped opened for just a moment before he swore. "Blast! Are you saying what I think you're saying?" He asked the elder spirit who only nodded.
"I don't understand, what's going on?" Scully asked, pressing into Mulder.
William tugged on his mother's arm until she looked down at him. "Mom, it's because of Sissy."
"Sissy? Who is…" she began and then froze as she looked at Mulder in shock.
"No, no, that can't happen. Dana can't get pregnant, we've tried…"
"You tried before you had these bodies. For the most part they have been reset but that part of things was to be explained to you when we got past everything else. The abridged version is that yes, now she can. And due to your activities, she already has."
"But how can you know? I mean, it was just last night?"
"He's right, Mom. You have Sissy in your tummy." William smiled up into his mother's shocked face.
Sucellos turned back to Daniel and Carolyn. "My apologies for this Daniel, I expected that Mr. and Mrs. Mulder would understand the seriousness of my request. Obviously, I was wrong. So now you will have to take this into account as well."
"What happens if he doesn't go back?" Candy asked.
"Everything will be reset to as it was before; it will be as if none of this ever happened."
"And the baby?" Scully touched her stomach in wonder.
He shook his head.
"Blast!" Daniel muttered some very unflattering thoughts under his breath.
"You all have to cast your vote, but the ultimate choice belongs to Daniel and Carolyn." Sucellos paused and turned to where Candy and Jonathan sat together. "Candace?
"I vote for them to go ahead; I want Dad to go back."
"Jonathan?"
"No question; I want him to go back."
"Very well," Sucellos turned to face the Mulders. "And the two of you, how do you vote?" he asked with some disdain.
"We vote that he should go back," Mulder said and squeezed Scully's hand. She nodded her agreement.
Sucellos walked across the room and placed himself before Carolyn and Daniel. "Carolyn?
"I want him to go back, to do what he has to so that we can get back to this point," she said in a calm voice, eyes locked with her husband's.
"Damn it all to hell! I don't want to do this. I know all of the good reasons I should do this, but I don't want to seduce her and then leave her to raise my child. What kind of a cad does that make me?" Agitated, he got up and walked out of the room.
They all heard the front doors slam behind him.
Fox jumped out of his seat and followed him, motioning for everyone else to remain seated.
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He found him on the road outside of Gull Cottage, staring off the cliff at the ocean.
"Danny?" He asked, approaching him slowly. "Danny?"
The Captain finally turned to face him, and Mulder saw the sadness etched there.
"Hey, it will be okay."
"Fox, how can you possibly say that when you and everyone else in that room wants me to go back in time and not only seduce but impregnate the woman I love and then abandon her." He stopped talking for a moment and swallowed with difficulty. "How can I do that?"
"It's for the greater good…"
"Don't give me that line of poppycock. How would you feel if you were forced to do this?"
"How would I feel?" Mulder had to pause and think about that for a bit, he hadn't put himself in his friend's shoes, but when he did, he realized the enormity of what they were asking this man to do, how completely foreign it was to his code of ethics. Mulder contemplated having to travel back in time to save Scully by impregnating her, which he could wrap around, but to leave her knowing he had done that? He didn't know that he could, but he realized that in a sense this had already happened when he left her alone with William, even though it was done to save them.
When he looked back, he saw that the Captain was waiting for his answer and he blew out a held breath. "Well, you see, Danny, the thing is I kind of have already done this; not the time travel part, but Scully was pregnant with my child when I was abducted. And when I returned and finally got my head on straight, we had a couple of months of joy where we thought just maybe we could have something normal in our lives. But then I had to leave them to keep them safe. It was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life." Mulder said, and swallowed with difficulty.
"I'm sorry, Fox. I had briefly forgotten that."
"It's okay, Danny, I really do get it. I'm sorry I didn't think of what you might be going through." He took a deep breath and addressed his friend by looking him in the eyes. "If you really feel you can't do this, then don't. We can go back to the way we were before, we were all reasonably happy."
"But the baby?"
"We won't know, will we? I'm assuming our memories will be reset as well and then we won't have to remember that. So, really, it will be okay…"
As the Captain looked at Mulder, he didn't know which one of them he was trying to convince.
"If I go back in time, I do not know how I can lie to her, how I can whisper things that aren't true and then leave her…"
"Then don't." Fox shrugged. "Tell her the truth."
"But I can't; that could confuse things even more."
"Or straighten them out." Fox stepped forward and placed an encouraging hand on Danny's shoulder. "Sometimes you have to break the rules, Danny. And this may be one of those times. If you feel you have to tell her and she believes even half of it and goes to bed with you…it's all good."
"Hmm," he mused stroking his chin. "Perhaps."
"We don't have much time, what do you want to do, Captain?"
"Respect, Fox? From you?"
"Hey, I respect the hell out of you. I just thought you needed to know that. Whatever you decide. It's okay." Then he stopped and drew something out of his pocket and handed it to the Captain.
"What's this?"
"Look at it."
Daniel found he was looking at a picture of Carolyn with Candy and Jonathan as young children. He quirked an eyebrow in question at his friend.
"I thought you might need to break the rules and this will help to explain things when you do."
"Ahh, very astute. Thank you, Fox."
Mulder nodded his acknowledgement as the Captain turned away again.
Daniel turned to the ocean again and stared at it for a couple of more minutes. Then without another word, turned and walked into the house.
He marched in and stopped in front of his spirit mentor, sparing an apologetic look to Carolyn, who nodded her encouragement, understanding without words what he was about to say. Fox quietly entered the room and assumed the spot next to Scully.
"All right. I will do it."
Jonathan couldn't help himself, he stepped up to his father and pulled him close, hugging him as tightly as he could. "Thanks, Dad. I love you."
"As I do you," he whispered into the other man's ear and hugged him fiercely. After a few more moments, they separated, shamelessly wiping the tears away from their faces.
Sucellos cleared his throat.
"Just to be clear, so that all of you understand. This is your do over. Daniel has an opportunity to straighten out this alternate time line so that all of you end up here and now and alive and well. The other option is to reset to what you had before, and you would not remember any of this." He paused and looked at all the faces in the room that were watching him. "Are you all sure this is what you want?"
Without exception, they all nodded. He looked at the Captain last.
"You are certain, Daniel?"
"Yes, now let's get on with it before I change my mind."
"Daniel, it will be all right. Just remember that I do love you, and I'm pretty sure my earlier self does too, even if she doesn't completely realize that yet."
Unable to look at Carolyn for more than a moment knowing what he had to do, he turned away from her and faced Sucellos. "I trust that this time I will at least have clothes."
"Of course, and you will be lucid, though a bit disoriented at first, and weak. Nothing for it, time travel can do that to a person. I will place you in Carolyn's proximity about three years later. You will be there for a week before you have to be pulled back here to your correct time."
"Only a week?" Daniel echoed faintly.
"Daniel, I've seen you woo women in far less time, I'm sure that is adequate. I dare not keep the time portal open longer than that for you, it would lead to all sorts of nasty complications." He sighed. "And be sure you do your part or there will be no Jonathan."
"No Jonathan? But I thought that if I fail we would simply revert back to what we were before."
"No. It is only this now. With or without Jonathan." He took a deep breath. "Are you ready?"
"Yes, I understand." He said solemnly.
"Very well, then good luck in your endeavor; we will see you in a week." Sucellos clapped and Daniel disappeared from the room as if he had never been there at all.
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AN: Well, what do you think?