When Scully opened the door to her apartment Reyes had never seen anybody move so fast as Mulder jumped up to greet her. He walked straight over and pulled her into a hug. He could see how exhausted she was, and he knew it wasn't just physical, she was tired of wanting William back, to be safe – he had to make sure that he got that for her.

"How is he?" Scully looked up at him as Doggett walked in behind her, Reyes hadn't realised she'd missed him so much until he was standing beside her. He smiled at her reassuringly, but she knew he wasn't offering as much.

"He's not doing so well. He came through the surgery. But then the doctors had to resort to methods that have left him unconscious but stable."

"Were you able to talk to him before he was unconscious?" Scully looked into Mulder's eyes and nodded her head. She stepped away and moved towards the kitchen, everybody else followed her.

Even Doggett didn't know what Skinner had said. They'd left the hospital immediately after he was unable to speak anymore and Scully hadn't said a word about what she'd heard. But he knew enough to know that whatever it was had unnerved Scully.

"Dana?" Reyes was the closest to her now, somehow it seemed as if a woman's approach might make this easier. Less pressure than from Mulder – a concerned father, and Doggett – a guy who didn't like waiting to help save those he cared about most.

"There's a folder. In Skinner's office. It sound so cliché, but he has a safe hidden behind a painting on the wall."

"A safe?" Doggett asked, "what the hell is he doing with a safe at work?"

"He said that in the safe were instructions on what William's adoptive parents are to do if any of us try to get him back," tears were already forming in her eyes and nobody actually wanted her to speak the words they all knew she'd painfully had to hear. "These instructions make it very clear that William must not live if we get even remotely close to bringing him home."

"But they need him, that's what this is all about. They won't kill him."

"We don't know that. They clearly think that we would rather him live and be with them than risk his life to be back with us."

"This is a load of BS, how do we know that Skinner isn't just lying? Why does he even have this information? How do we know it isn't just a trap? All one big conspiracy?" Doggett started to raise his voice and Scully looked at him. She knew that he understood the pain she was going through and then she looked at Mulder. He wasn't looking at her and she followed his eyes to the doorway of her bedroom. The last place he'd seen William. She could see in his eyes that he was remembering that day, replaying it. Probably thinking that he should never have left.

"So what do you want us to do?" Reyes directed the question at Scully, but Scully didn't take her eyes off Mulder.

When he turned to look at his partner, the woman who had instantly become his whole world, he had nothing to say that would take the fear out of her eyes. It made him sick to the stomach to know it was true. This time, they might not win. He stood up and went into William's old room. Reyes and Doggett looked at each other and then Scully followed Mulder into a room she avoided at all costs.

When she stepped inside she closed the door softly and Mulder turned to look at her.

"Mulder…"

"I know what you're going to say Scully."

"No you don't," he looked at her and she didn't move a muscle. If she moved any closer then she didn't trust herself to be able to say what she had to say. She could feel him even with five feet between them. She could always feel him.

"I'm going to get him back."

"I know."

"You aren't coming with me."

"I know that too," tears ran down Scully's cheeks and Mulder closed the gap that was soon to be permanent. He held her close and didn't ever want to let her go. He had to hold on to this moment in case he never could again.

"If I don't make it back, you have to promise me that you won't let it finish you. We've been through so much Scully…"

"I can't lose you Mulder, and I honestly don't know if I want you to do this. But I know that it's something we have to do. Not for us. For William. He doesn't deserve this. All the lies, the years we've endured them. It has to end for him, we have to end it," Mulder kissed her and replaced his arms around her as she cried softly into his chest. Tonight he was leaving to bring William home. Whether he would be able to deliver his son himself was something that he didn't dare to think about.