Italics: Thought-speak
Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize except my own characters.
AN: Well, here's another chapter! I hope you enjoy!
Later that morning, Scully prepared herself to face the military court in order to protect the man she loved. She just hoped that she, Doggett, and Reyes could find some sort of evidence that could exonerate him before having to go too much into the trial. They had been working overtime to find something, but the military wasn't very forthcoming about their information.
Scully sighed as the paced the small room. She worried about what questions Skinner would ask as well as the prosecutor they've picked to represent them. A guard walked into the room and looked at her.
"Ma'am, come with me, please."
Scully followed the guard into the courtroom. She took the seat in the chair in the center and looked over at Mulder and Skinner who were at the defense table. She then looked over to the prosecutor. He looked very much like a lawyer and seasoned agent as well as a skeptic. She then examined the panel in front of her, centered like a king, but rather a puppet in a master plot was Kersh. There was one man on the end that she recognized from Kersh's office a few months back; the man she suspected that had killed the agent who attacked her and her children in their home.
She sat back and prepared to tell her story, their story of hardship and disbelief, of how she went from a serious skeptical scientist to a believer of certain phenomena that she couldn't explain, categorize, or easily reference.
"Please state your name for the court," Skinner asked.
"My name is Dana Katherine Scully. I was assigned nine years ago to the X-Files to spy on Agent Mulder whose methods the FBI distrusted."
"Assigned not just as an agent, but as a medical doctor, a scientist, and as a serious scientist you came to believe in Agent Mulder's theories."
"I came to believe in the existence of extraterrestrial life and in a conspiracy inside the government to keep their existence a secret."
"The proof was overwhelming. It was even scientifically undeniable."
"I believe as do many respected scientists that life came to earth millions of years ago from a meteor or a rock from Mars."
"So, what you're saying is life, human life, is extraterrestrial by definition."
The prosecutor then spoke up.
"Objection. What does this nonsense have to do with Mulder murdering a man in cold blood?"
"Agent Scully will prove that a government conspiracy exists to deny the existence of the extraterrestrials."
"You are not here proving government conspiracies, Mr. Skinner. You are here to defend Fox Mulder," Kersh said.
"And I'm trying to do that."
"It's your case, Mr. Skinner."
"So, a meteor crashed to earth but along with the biological building blocks on it there was something else, an alien virus," Skinner said.
"I believe there was a virus which thrived here prehistorically. I believe that virus infected early man and transformed his physiology."
"Changed him into something else."
"Into an alien life-form himself."
"And what happened to these aliens?"
"They died in the last ice age, 35,000 years ago."
"And the virus?"
"It lay dormant until it surfaced once again during our current geologic period."
"And the government knows of this?"
"The government learned of this virus in 1947 when a UFO crashed in Roswell, New Mexico."
"A UFO crash revealed a virus?"
"The virus thrived underground in petroleum deposits, in black oil. It has sentience. It can think. It has the ability to communicate and it communicated with the UFOs."
"And the government knows this too."
Scully looked over to Mulder.
"In Roswell, they captured aliens from the spacecraft wreckage. They salvaged various alien technology from them and from their data banks they learned of the alien plan to 're-colonize' the earth."
"Is this all leading anywhere?" Kersh asked.
Everyone looked at him.
"Yeah. The destruction of mankind," Mulder said.
"I'll warn you once, Agent Mulder," Kersh said angrily.
Mulder turned and looked at Scully with a slight smile on his face.
"And what did the government do with this…information of an alien takeover?" Skinner asked Scully as he tried to get the trial back on track.
"They kept it a dark secret. If it had gotten out there would have been wild panic."
"Mr. Skinner, are we finished?" Kersh asked annoyed and clearly fed up with what he believed to be nonsense.
"No. There's the matter of Agent Scully's own abduction in 1994," Skinner said.
"Abduction by whom?" Kersh asked Scully.
"By the military, working with the government conspirators to develop a breed of human-alien hybrids that the aliens would use as a slave race.
"Thank you, Agent Scully. Your witness, Mr. Kallenbrunner," Skinner said with an air of finality.
Kallenbrunner stood and walked around the table until he stood in front of Scully.
"All these ET's running around…it's hard to keep these aliens straight without a scorecard. I myself have never seen an alien. Could we call one as a witness?"
"You're being facetious."
"No, I'm not. I'd like to see some proof."
"There are the mars rocks…"
"No. I need something good. Something amazing. Something really cool."
"I don't know what you mean."
"Well, what I mean is you have no proof to back up one word you just told us," he stopped and Scully stayed silent, "Agent Scully, isn't it true that you and Mulder were lovers, and you got pregnant and had his love child?"
Skinner shot out of his seat.
"Objection!"
"Thank you. Next witness."
Scully looked over at Mulder who shook his head 'no' slightly. He mouthed 'it's okay' to her and she slowly got up to leave the chair and the courtroom.
Once outside the courtroom, she took a deep breath. She felt the pressure of Kallenbrunner's question at the end. Yes, she did love him, but how she got pregnant and their personal lives were not on trial here. He had no right to ask such a question. She did feel proud that Skinner did stand up for her in there. She wanted nothing more than to slap that man's face, but he wasn't worth it. She wouldn't have answered the question anyway in order to protect her children.
She straightened up and then followed her escort to the front checkpoint where she got her weapon and turned in her visitor badge. She then left the base and headed home to her children.
Layla couldn't focus on her schoolwork today. Her mind swam with worry for her father. His trial started today. She knew that there was only so much that her mother, Skinner, Doggett, and Reyes could do to help him. She wished she knew what to do.
Kyle noticed Layla being distracted. He tapped her arm. She looked over at him.
"You okay?" he whispered.
"Not really."
"What's going on?"
"I'll tell you at recess."
"Okay."
They went back to work. At recess, Layla and Kyle met up at their spot and she told him all about her father coming back from wherever he was hiding.
"Do you think they'll hurt him?"
"I don't know. I'm so scared that now that we just got him back that we'll lose him again. I don't want to grow up without a dad and I know I don't want my brother growing up without one either."
Layla looked at Kyle with tears in her eyes. Kyle put his arm around her.
"If something did happen, I would make sure you're okay. I know it's not the same thing, but I'll look out for you and William."
"Thank you, Kyle."
Layla cried on his shoulder. She let everything she'd been feeling out. Mrs. G walked over to them and knelt down in front of them.
"Layla, what's going on? Do I need to call your mom?"
"No, ma'am. I'm okay. I'm just having a bad day."
"Is it your dad?"
"Yes and no."
"Come here, sweetie."
Mrs. G took Layla's hand and led her over to the bench. She sat down next to Layla and Kyle, who followed them, took the other side of Layla.
"Kyle, you can go play. I need to speak to Layla alone."
"You okay with that?"
Layla looked over to Kyle and took his hand.
"He can stay. I've told him everything. I trust him."
Mrs. G was amazed at the turn-around of their relationship. She nodded.
"Layla, is everything okay at home?"
"If you're asking does my mother hit me or anything like that, no. I love my mother and she loves me. It's my dad. He's home, but he's in a lot of trouble. I really can't say much more."
"You can tell me anything."
"No, I can't because I don't know. They think my dad killed someone, but I know he wouldn't do that."
"Well, you believe in your dad. That will help. In the meantime, if you need to talk to someone, I'm here."
"Thanks, Mrs. G."
"You're welcome. Well, come on, let's line up. It's time to go in."
Mrs. G got her class back into the classroom and everyone got back to work. Layla felt much better after talking to Mrs. G and to Kyle. She only hoped that her dad would be able to come home to be with her and her brother and mother soon.