"Tell me who you are," he demanded, not moving at all.
David, don't do this. Please. Don't do it. Don't make me do it. I-I- She could not even think it, but she knew that her heart had been captured and wrapped around this case, captured by this child. "David," she said slowly, her arms shaking, trying to keep the tears that so desperately wanted to come out inside, "please, just put him down." Her voice cracked, and she did not know how much longer she could keep her emotions in check. Professionalism was becoming the least of her worries.
Mulder's heartbeat quickened; his pulse raced. His face twisted in an anguished scream that reverberated in only an eerie echo of silence.
"I heard you talking," David said, disenchanted, "about me. About what happened to my family. I want to know who you are."
Scully shuddered as she inhaled deeply. It was no use to deny it now. Finally, she said, "We're special agents Dana Scully and Fox Mulder with the FBI. We were assigned to investigate the murders of your father, mother, and sister by posing as foster parents."
He made no move, despite her heart begging him for everything, to put Mulder down. She wanted nothing more than to go back to the house, to go back to the lie, and to live the last few days all over again.
"David, don't do this. We really do care about you. Please, put him down. Don't make this any harder on yourself or us, please, David, just let him go. I don't want to hurt you. Please, don't make me hurt you."
At first, nothing happened, the three of them motionless in the driving rainstorm. Then slowly, to Scully it seemed an eternity, David fell to his knees in the mud. His face hung down, and his body shook with each and every breath he took in and let out.
The agonizing pain consuming Mulder's body lessened. The heat subsided, and the coolness of the rain soothed him as he once again felt the mud beneath his feet, dirt and water rolling off his back.
Scully was still frozen, unable to take it all in. Finally, realization sunk in, and she let her gun drop to the cold, wet earth. It killed her to watch David kneeling there, alone, so alone, and she longed to hold him and tell him that it was okay.
Hesitantly, she walked to him, and kneeled next to him on the ground. Hearing his sobbing as he held in as much as he could broke her heart, and she could not control her arms as they wrapped around the child. His body shook in her arms, each shake tearing her up inside.
From the cool rain came a comforting hand on her shoulder.
Dana Scully looked up into the soothing face of her partner as he said, "Let's go home."
"That's a nasty scrape you picked up, David," Scully said, blanket draped around her shoulders, wrapping a bandage around the boy's arm. "That should just about do it," she said upon finishing.
"Thanks," he replied, having to swallow his hot chocolate quickly so he could say it. "So… you two aren't married?"
"No," Mulder replied, sitting down next to his partner, "we're just…partners…"
"Really?" David asked, disbelieving. "Never even dated?"
"No," Mulder replied.
"Wow," David muttered.
Scully looked up at Mulder and smiled. He blushed, or he would have had he been anyone other than Mulder, and changed the subject. "David, we need to have a talk."
"I'm ready."
"Could you explain your…gift…to us?"
"You mean my telekinesis?"
Seeing the stunned look on Mulder's face, David added, "I saw it in Uncanny X-Men and looked it up on the Internet."
"I see," Mulder replied. "Go on."
"Any way, I've been able to move things with my mind since I was about four, I guess. I never told anybody about it, not even my friends. I was always kind of afraid of Mamma; she was real big into that 'Get him, he's a devil!' stuff. My sister got in big trouble once for just mentioning Harry Potter." The thought of his deceased sister made him look down.
"Can you explain how it works?" Scully asked. Rationalization was no longer a priority.
"I just think of something moving, and it does. I've gotten better at it as I've practiced, if that means anything."
"I see," Mulder again said slowly.
"David," Scully said, even slower, " can you tell us about your family?"
He took a deep breath. "Well, my mom and dad were always arguing about something. Sometimes it was with each other, but usually it was with me and Kris. I usually got off pretty easy; Momma usually just hit me a couple of times, but Kris…Momma was a lot crueler to her.
"She always found something to yell at Kris about. Always. Even stuff that Kris had nothing to do with. Like when Momma broke one of her good plates or if she forgot where she put her cigarettes, she took it out on Kris. One time she locked her in the basement all night." He bit his lower lip.
"Mulder, I don't know if I can hear this," was what Scully wanted to say, but she did not. Be strong, Dana. Be strong for David.
David continued. "One night, Momma and Kris got into at the top of the basement stairs. I think Momma was blaming her for her cigarettes being missing, accusing her of hiding them. It's kind of funny," David said, smiling because if he did not he might cry, "but Kris did hide them. She never liked Momma's smoking; I didn't either, but not as much as Kris didn't like it. Well, Kris starts yelling back in her face, saying that she'd run away, and it makes Momma really angry. Really angry.
"I don't know if she meant to, but," his voice caught in his throat, "she ended up pushing Kris down the stairs. I saw her do it. Right before she fell, she reached out for something to hold on to, and she looked right at me. I-I tried to get to her in time, really, I did, but I couldn't reach her, and I watched her as she fell. Each time she hit a step, it was the worst sound I had ever heard. Finally, she stopped falling, and she just laid there, her body all twisted around.
"She moaned. She was still alive. I-I wanted to go to her, and I tried to go down the stairs, but Momma grabbed me, and drug me away. Then she locked the basement door so I couldn't get to her. I kept shouting Kris's name over and over, but Momma wouldn't let go. I begged and pleaded with her, but she wouldn't let me go to her. I tried to get away, but she was too strong. I did the only thing I could; I pushed her back telekinetically. I didn't mean to push her all that hard, but she went flying across the room and into a wall. It shook pictures off in the next room. Dad came in to see what happened, and I was kicking and banging on the basement door, trying to get it open and get Kris out of there." He sniffled, and wiped his eyes.
"David, if this is too painful…" Scully began.
"No, I'm okay," he lied. "Mamma stumbled to the table in the den, and she came back with the Bible and the gun. She started talking to me like I was Satan. I froze; I didn't know what to do. Dad tried to stop her, saying that she was out of her head, to go sit down. He didn't know about Kris. He just knew she had a gun pointed at my head. She pushed him away and started to pull the trigger. I panicked and reached out and shoved her arm away with my mind; the shot went wild. It…it hit my dad. He fell to the floor, choking and gasping as he lied there. Momma goes ballistic, saying every prayer she can think of and cursing me to Hell and back. 'Momma, please,' I said, 'please calm down.' I was crying; I couldn't help it. She slapped me across the face and I fell to the floor."
He took a deep breath, shaking almost violently. Scully put her hand on the boy's shoulder, trying to steady him.
"Then she pressed the gun to my head. Oh, God, I can still feel its hot metal against the side of my face." A tear began a trail down his cheek that many soon followed. "I've never been more scared than I was at that moment. I shut my eyes, waiting for the bang of the gun. During that time, it felt like my head was on fire. Just a burning, painful fire. When the gun never went off, I opened my eyes, and Mamma was dead. I don't know how I did it…but I killed her.
"After that I used my power to knock the basement door down. 'Kris! Kris!' I called, 'It's me, David!' She didn't answer me. When I got to her, she wasn't breathing, and she was cold. So cold." The tears came quicker than before.
"I took the gun, and I threw it out the window, just to get it as far away from me as possible. Then I called 911, told them my family was…dead…and that was the last time I talked about it until now."
Scully put her arm around him.
An eternity of silence passed in about a minute within the quiet white light in the soft, crème colored room.
"David," Mulder asked, breaking the silence, "where is my gun?"
David smirked weakly. "It's at the bottom of the pond in the park. I threw it in yesterday morning, on the way to school. I-I couldn't sleep at night knowing that you had it."
Scully could feel her heart tearing itself into shreds. The story had broken it, no, shattered it, but the most agonizing pain came from knowing that the case was over. It came from knowing that she would have to leave this house, that she would have to get up from this crème colored couch soon, and that this wonderful person sitting beneath her arm's protection, sipping hot chocolate, would step out of her life forever. "David, if there is anything you want to do tomorrow. Anything at all, just name it. Is there something you want to do?"
"Yeah."