Disclaimer in Part One
"THE TRUTH WE BOTH KNOW..." (PART SIX OF SIX)
*Will*
My son is missing. The words do not process well through my head. My infant son, my little boy is missing abducted by these evil forces that are at work. I stare at Cam and Scully. How could this have happened? How could they have let it happen?
"Will?" Cam stares at me with her beautiful eyes, questioning, concerned.
I stare at her. The mother of my son, the son that is missing. My mom looks at me and then to Mulder. I can tell that it is very serious because of the looks that they have been exchanging. I've seen those looks in the last nine months that I've spent with them. Those looks have become even more frequent in the last month or so. They know more than they are leading on to.
"What do you mean he's gone?" I ask stupidly.
Tears start to form in the corner of Cam's eyes. I stand here questioning the woman I love about an incident that isn't her fault...she too has lost a son, our son.
I pull her in close to my body and sobs shake us both. We are both lost in the world without the joy that our infant son has brought us since his birth. We cling to one another...crying, consoling each other. My mom and Mulder talk in hushed voices just a few feet away from us.
"I'm sorry, Cam. I'm so sorry," I say rocking her back and forth, gently.
"Will...I...don't know what to think...or to do," she says in between sobs.
I pull her in closer, holding on tightly, not wanting to let go.
"We will find him. I promise Cam. We've got the two best agents that the Bureau has ever seen," I tell her trying to reassure myself as well.
My mom and Mulder walk over to us, looking at us with solemn faces.
"Scully and I think that we know were Will is," Mulder says trying to find his empathetic face.
"Where?" I inquire.
Mulder's eyes go towards the fire in the woods, staring at the crash site. I follow his gaze and look as the men in their white suits continue to take debris away.
"You're crazy," I yell at him, "Completely crazy."
"Will, listen to Mulder," my mom whispers in a scolding tone.
"I'm not suggesting he's on that ship, but on another one like that," he says coolly.
"Another ship?" Cam pipes up.
"We've encountered this before, Will, Cam, and we think that we know where the ship is heading..." my mom pauses for effect, "...it's heading towards the forests of Oregon."
"Oregon?" I inquire, "How the hell are we going to get to Oregon?"
"If we leave now we could get there in a few days," my mom says.
"Scully, I think that we can take an airplane," Mulder tells her.
"Mulder, have you not been around for the last week or so? Everything has been shut down."
Mulder's eyes go towards the horizon and a tall air traffic controller in the distance.
"How come I've seen five planes leave that airport then?" Mulder says as he starts to head back to the car.
He turns back and looks at all three of us. I'm sure that all of our faces had looks of disgust and disbelief.
"Coming?" he asks playfully.
We are off again. To my mom and Mulder Oregon is where it all began for them and ended in a way too. How much longer can we fight this fight? How much longer will they let us?
*Scully*
Bellfluer, Oregon
September 13, 2101 8:34 p.m.
I never thought that I'd be back in Oregon searching for a loved one of mine or my grandson for that much. In being pregnant with a child that has already had its life threatened I'm afraid of what we will find in the dense forests of Bellfluer, Oregon, where we began...Mulder and I.
The green trees sway gently in the breeze as the four of us stare at the woods...the place where just about every alien abduction has happened. Mulder grabs my hand and doesn't let it go. He
remembers when I fainted out here in the woods, years before.
"I don't understand. Why Oregon?" Cam questions...still very confused.
"Abductions have happened here before," I tell her calmly.
"Big deal, they've supposedly happened all over the southwest too and that's where we were," Will says with anger definitely in his voice.
I study him. His deep hazel eyes show a furry that only Mulder's eyes had had before. The anger of losing someone and not being able to find them, being betrayed by the system that he's worked for I can feel his anger.
"Will, calm down," I respond in a motherly tone. I love doing that to him...scolding him and comforting him at the same time; it's what mothers do best.
"How can you be sure, mother? That's my son up there riding around in some flying saucer!" he spits out at me.
"I know, Will, I know," I tell him trying to reassure myself as well. But ever since I lost Mulder I had a keen sense for things that go on. Call it woman's intuition or a motherly instinct, but I know that we are going to find him here and Mulder knows too.
"Let's get started. This could be a long hike," Mulder says heading into the forest turning on a flashlight. All four of us follow suit, not wanting to be left alone in this place...a place that too many strange things have happened to lone wanderers.
We start our long trek into the forest when a bright light blinds us. Mulder starts to run and we all follow. Deeper and deeper into the forest we go until we come to a clearing. A blanket lies on the ground in the clearing. It starts to move, sending chills up my spine and fears into my heart.
We all stare at the blanket, not knowing what could be in it...not sure if we want to know. Mulder moves closer to the blanket and lifts it up, slowly, carefully...
*Mulder*
I shine the flashlight under the blanket and find myself staring at Ren, my grandson. I let a sigh of relief go and then I pick him up, examining him, looking him over for any marks. Scully, Cam, and, Will come running to my side, staring at little baby Ren. Cam grabs him away from me and starts to rock her son that has now started to scream.
"Oh my god! I'm so sorry," Cam whispers to her infant son.
I stare at Scully. Our eyes meet and she looks away. She thinks that this is all her fault. A lot like I thought that her abduction was my fault as well as my sister's. Scully must have thought that it was her fault when I was abducted in this very forest because she didn't go with me; she stayed behind and figured it out too late.
"Scully," I whisper.
Scully turns her guilt-ridden eyes away from Will and Cam having a happy reunion with their son. Scully walks towards me with questioning eyes.
"What?" she replies.
I study her. She looks too tired for her state; too many tears have fallen from her beautiful blue eyes. I think she is even starting to show a little...swollen with our child and she's only eleven or so weeks along. Maybe its just wishful thinking. I missed most of her pregnancy with our first child...and I won't miss this one with her-I won't miss anything.
"It's not your fault," I reassure.
Tears come into the corners of her eyes and she bites down nervously on her bottom lip. She always does that when she tries to hold back tears.
"Mulder, I was there...right there and I was blinded by the light..." she stops, her voice quivering as she is near tears.
"He's fine, Scully, completely fine."
"How do you know that? They have implanted so much shit in us from the time that we took jobs at the FBI that I'm not even sure what they took out of me," Scully nearly yells at me, again biting her lip.
I grab her and pull her close to my body. She breaks down into tears, sobbing on my shoulder.
"You'll always be able to lean on me, Scully, always. They'll never get to us again. I promise," I whisper into her ear.
I sure hope that I can fulfill that promise. I look over at Cam and Will they are both nearly crying as they hold their screaming son, examining him making sure he's okay.
"Mom...Mulder..." Will calls to us nervously.
We break apart and head for the two. Scully wipes away her tears. I put my arm around her as we walk towards them.
"What?" I inquire.
"There is a small scar on the back of his neck," Cam says her face as white as a ghost and her voice wavering.
Scully and I stare at her, not believing that it is happening again: the alien implants...in a tiny infant. Looking at the scar on the back of the child's neck I believe that I am looking at the future of the truth that we have sought so desperately...our truth.
*Cam*
I stare at Mulder and Scully. My knees have turned to jelly and I'm shaking uncontrollably. I hand Will our son and stare at them. I found a tiny scar on the back of his neck...one that I have read about in all of the X-Files that involved alien abductions, and I don't even believe in that kind of stuff.
"What does this mean?" I ask the two of them, already knowing the answer. I need to hear it from them before I start to worry. My eyes go from them to little Ren. His eyes start to scrunch up as a loud wail is released from his lungs. A good strong cry. At least he sounds healthy...regardless of what they put into his neck.
Scully swallows hard and then stares at me. Those are the eyes of a mother...and a woman that has experienced what I am going through. Except she was the one that was tested...the one that received all of the side effects.
"That, Cam, is an implant that many believe comes from..."
"...Alien abductions," Mulder finishes for her.
Will turns to me, his eyes searching for some response. I only stare back at him, not truly believing what I have just heard...not wanting to believe that it is indeed true.
"Cam, Will, Scully and I think that this is going to help us find the truth," Mulder tells me, sympathy showing in his eyes.
"A truth? What kind of truth?" Will asks confused.
"The one and only truth that Scully and I have ever gone after. A truth that we thought has been long dead as we had thought each other to be for all of those years but..."
"...We were wrong. The truth is out there and we've got to find it now or we won't have a chance to later on. We have to stop it...fight the future," Scully finishes explaining for Mulder. It's spooky how they can do that. Finish each other's thoughts...something that would only come from years of practice.
"Where would we find this truth?" I finally inquire. My eyes going from them back to my son.
They look at each other, quickly, already knowing the answer.
Will nearly glares at them. "Mom? What aren't you telling us?"
Mulder and Scully stare at us and then at one another. Scully opens her mouth to speak, but Mulder silences her with his eyes.
"We need to go back to D.C., ground zero for the aliens and for a man that has more information than what he leads on to," Mulder says his voice hinting at a fear that is hidden deep with in.
"Then we must go. We have to find the truth to this all," I tell them being naive in my thoughts.
"We might not make it out alive," Scully tells me, solemnly.
"We've got to try and stop it...we must fight the future," Will tells them. I agree with him completely. He heads for the van and I start to follow. We are off once again...this time to a destination that could be the end of all destinations.
*Mulder*
Washington D.C.
September 17, 2101
I never thought that I would see the destruction of the United States, but looking at the many landmarks of Washington D.C. that stood for everything American it was destroyed. The White House no longer stood, the Capital gone, all of them gone...destroyed by something much greater than terrorists.
Cracks the size of cars run through the street and barely anyone is around. Fire streaks across the sky and I stare at Scully. She places her hand protectively on her stomach. Our child might not live to see the day when the world is safe...we might not.
We walk along the desolated streets, staring in disbelief. The FBI Headquarters looms in the distance, as we get closer. Strange. It hasn't been destroyed. The J. Edgar Hoover Building still stands among the crumbled buildings of the once populated city.
"Mulder, look!" Scully says staring at the same building that I stare at.
"How the hell could that be?" Will questions taking a closer look.
"It shouldn't be," I tell them. Cam and Will are protective of one another...they shrink into one another. Little Ren is on the arm of his father. The poor child has gone through so much in his short life and he's probably going to witness the biggest event that any country has ever seen.
"Mulder what are we going to do?" Scully inquires looking at me. Her eyes start to fill with tears. I study her face, her eyes, and finally my own eyes drift down to her mid-section where our unborn child sleeps and I start to formulate a plan that won't endanger the lives of those that I love.
What if I sent them somewhere safe? Somewhere where I knew that nothing would hurt them. But where could that be? And would Scully go? Her and I have been inseparable since we found one another again and I know that her stubborn nature wouldn't leave me, I don't think I'd want to let her.
"Mulder?" Scully looks at me quizzically.
I stare at her, ready to break my news and the plan that will affect everything that we have ever known.
"They are in there, Mulder, all of them. We are so close to the truth, our truth," Scully says almost excited that we are close to the truth that we looked for, for years.
"I can't let you go in there, Scully, I won't."
*Scully*
I stare at Mulder in disbelief. He's not going to let me go in there? I don't understand at all. Mulder's eyes are full of protective compassion...something that I don't ever want to lose, but he's telling me that I can't go in there. I was a FBI agent for crying out loud and I encountered so many evil villains and almost lost my life more times than I could care to count.
"Excuse me, Mulder?" I finally question.
Cam and Will appear to be a tad bit uncomfortable with us. They must sense that there might be a verbal fight or a battle of wits.
"I can't let you go in there, Scully," He repeats.
"Mulder I heard you the first time. Why can't I go in there?" I respond becoming angry, even hurt.
"Scully, you are pregnant and I don't want that child to be harmed, I don't want you to be hurt. I love you too much for that," he tells me, nearly melting my anger away.
"If we don't stop them, this child won't have a future," I tell him, trying to get my point across.
"Mom, I think that you should listen to him," Will says, becoming protective of me. I know that most people would kill for this kind of protection by my lover and my son, but I'm too stubborn to want to take it.
I bite my nervously bite my lip, trying not to start crying. The last time that Mulder told me to stay behind they took him and I don't think that I could go through with that again.
"I'm going with you, Mulder, I have to," I tell him. Mulder pulls me close to him and holds on tight. He doesn't want to let go and I don't want him to.
"Scully, I..." Mulder just stops. I can sense his feelings and I look into his eyes. He knows my thoughts and I know his. No words are needed. I'm going with him because I'm afraid of what would happen if I let him go again. I know deep down that if I let him go in there by himself he won't ever return...and that would break my heart for the second time.
An explosion comes from the building. Mulder and I pull apart quickly and stare at the FBI Headquarters. "We've got to go now, if we are going to go," Mulder says.
Will turns to Cam and then back to us.
"You two go, I'm going to get Cam and Ren out of here," he states as he grabs Cam's arm and guides her away from us.
I nod and then start to head into the building. Mulder isn't following. I turn back.
"Are you coming, Mulder?"
*Mulder*
She won. I follow Scully into the FBI Headquarters and the memories start to come back of the eight years we spent together as partners in the basement of this building. Meeting her changed my whole entire life. It changed her's as well.
We split apart from Will, Cam, and their son. I couldn't let them go in there with us and I didn't want Scully to go in there either. It is just she and I again, like old times. This time it is her defying my protective orders instead of me going against every rule in the book.
Scully stops at the door waiting for me to catch up. I start to jog...trying to get there as fast as I can, but also delaying a fate that I know we are going to encounter in that building.
"Mulder are you ready?" Scully asks, her eyes giving a hint at a fear deep down.
I study her again. Her abdomen seems to have a tiny bulge from our child...the child that I vowed to protect. With this child I promised not to leave Scully's side throughout the entire pregnancy and I was trying to force her to leave me just minutes ago.
We were meant to be together through everything and in this life we've gotten a second chance to be together. Our eyes lock and words pass between the both of us...words that we have never said out loud and never will.
"Yeah, I'm ready," I say still keeping my eyes glued to hers.
She opens the door and I follow quickly in behind her. A cold breeze from the vents hits my face right away and I shiver involuntary.
Scully stops as does I. I'm straining to hear any kind of sound, anything at all. Nothing. We wait a few seconds longer and then I start forward, not exactly sure why I'm going that way.
I head for the stairs and Scully follows, starting to quicken her stride as she tries to keep up with my long strides. We climb two stories and then I stop again. Scully nearly runs into me, but she holds in her startled yelp.
At first there is nothing. All I can hear is my pounding heart in my ears. Scully is still standing very close to me, straining to hear for any noises.
I proceed to open the door, but I freeze.
Voices. I hear voices through the door, voices I recognize, but ones that shouldn't be possibly here.
I turn to Scully; her eyes are wide with recognition of the voices as well.
"Mulder?" she whispers, questioning the voices and me.
"It can't be," I try and reassure her.
The voices stop abruptly and footsteps follow. They head straight for the door that we are standing behind. The doorknob starts to turn as my heart jumps into my throat. I feel fear for the first time in a long time...and that can't be a good sign. Scully and I back away from the door as it starts to open. There is no way to escape and only one option: face the owner of the voice.
*Scully*
It can't be, it seriously can't be. The man that stands behind the door is no other than the long deceased Special Agent John Doggett. Mulder and I back away from him, fearing that he isn't truly real, maybe a ghost from our ancient past, one that I know I watched die of old age sixty years ago. I watched as they put this man into the ground, but then again I've seen one too many dead men come back to life.
Doggett stares at us with a hint of recognition in his eye. An alien wouldn't have that kind of look: the look that Doggett gave me one too many times...a look of longing for a true love that he lost years before. He looked at me like that up until the day that Agent Reyes joined the X-Files department and then he realized that he had feelings for her all along. He cam to a conclusion that he was more of a protector of me until Mulder returned, but here he was standing in front of us, not a day over forty-two, the age that he was when he came to join the X-Files unit.
Mulder turns to me with a look of shock and utter disbelief. We both turn our attention back to Doggett.
"Agent Scully," he inquires, "is that you?"
I look to Mulder for an answer, but strange thoughts are going through his head. I know that he thinks that Doggett is an alien, but what if he isn't? That would change everything that we knew and it would bring up thoughts that even Mulder would have a hard time believing.
"Agent Scully?" Doggett asks again.
I stare at him and then finally I nod my head.
"I'm so happy to see both of you," he exclaims with his thick New Yorker accent.
"I don't believe that it's him," Mulder whispers into my ear.
Without warning Mulder grabs Doggett violently and reaches for the back of his neck searching for the bump, the protrusion of skin that all aliens have on the backs of their necks.
"Nothing," Mulder says becoming confused.
Doggett backs away from Mulder, rubbing the back of his neck.
"What the hell was that about?" Doggett asks.
We both look at one another...still trying to put together the pieces. What is he doing here? And how could that be possible?
"How did you two get here anyways?" Doggett inquires, after not getting an answer from us.
"What do you mean?" I ask, looking at him confused.
"Agent Scully don't play dumb with me. You were the one that told me about the wrinkle in time.
I didn't believe you and yet I find myself one hundred years ahead of where I should be," he says, still as skeptic as ever.
Mulder and I exchange another confused look. A wrinkle in time? Is that how we are able to be here as is Doggett? My mind is running with questions as I stare at Doggett...the man from our past that might be able to give us a second chance. A second chance in the life that Mulder and I thought was long gone.
*Mulder*
I'm confused as I have ever been. A wrinkle in time? Scully told Doggett about a wrinkle in time 100 years before and she never told me about it. Of all of the things that I have believed in my life this is one of those times were even I am skeptical.
I checked the back of his neck for the bump, but it wasn't there. Is there a new kind of alien marking? I can't think of any other explanation. Doggett is standing in front of me telling me that
he is from the past.
But it makes me wonder what part of the past? The past as in before I was found dead or the past as in after I left Scully for my hide out?
Scully and I share another confused look.
"What was the year when you left?" I finally ask him, trying to figure out how this history fits.
"What the hell are you talking about, Mulder? It's the same year that you two must have left," he
says thinking that we too walked into the wrinkle in time.
"You don't understand, Agent Doggett," she starts, trying to think of the best way to phrase her explanation without sounding crazy, "we have lived for one hundred years and I never aged past thirty-seven, the age I was when Mulder left."
Doggett looks at the both of us with a look on his face that tells me he thinks that we are joking.
"You're kidding right?" Doggett asks.
I stare at him with the most serious expression that I can make. I try not to laugh because I too wouldn't even believe it and I believe in just about everything.
"You're not," he concludes.
"What was the year?" Scully says repeating my question.
Doggett appears as though he had just been slapped across the face. And in a way he was...with the truth.
"2001," he says, "May of 2001."
Scully and I look at one another. It would have been only three months after I left.
"Is Scully still there, in 2001?" I ask him, complicating it.
"That's the reason I'm here. She disappeared along with William not long after you left," Doggett finally says, swallowing a lump in his throat.
We aren't in the life in 2001...William isn't there either. The wheels start to turn in my head thinking of a plan and a theory as to why we hadn't aged...why we won't age until we go back...even though I had thought that we had started to age months ago and the reason that the end of the world is upon us. It is exactly that...upon us.
"Scully...I have a theory," I tell her looking from her to Doggett and then back again, "a big theory."
*Scully*
Mulder has a theory...a theory about everything that is happening to us and I stare at him anticipating his theory. What could it be this time? Aliens? Black Oil? A Time Machine? Seriously I'm not this skeptical, but I can't help, but wonder when the wheels start to turn in his head. He should have been a writer because some of the stories he comes up with are only something that a reader would believe.
"What's your theory, Mulder? Do tell," I say.
He looks at me nervously and then towards Doggett.
"Now you said that all three of us are missing from May 2001, right?" Mulder asks Doggett making sure his story is right.
"Right. You two have been gone for a few months. I was sent out to find you in the only way that
I knew how: following your directions, Agent Scully...your idea of a wrinkle in time," Doggett replies.
Mulder has it all figured out. I can tell by the way that his eyes look as though he is a young child in a candy shop or something like that.
"Mulder?" I inquire becoming anxious.
"This is a kind of time travel that only H.G. Wells had dreamt about. We found a wrinkle in time and didn't realize that we found that wrinkle. We thought that we weren't aging because we really weren't and over one hundred years passed," he pauses catching his breath. "William continued to age until the time when he reached his thirty fifth birthday, then he too stopped aging. We are screwing up the universe."
I stare at him in disbelief.
"You've got to be kidding, Mulder. That seems horribly impossible," I tell him.
"And living for a hundred years isn't?" he rapidly questions back.
"So what you are saying is that you two stumbled through the same wrinkle and only a few months have passed in regular time, but 100 years have went by with you two stuck in it along with you son. If you two leave the world will be right again," Doggett concludes, not believing it at all. For a first time I actually agree with his extreme skepticism.
"That's exactly right. William belongs in this universe because he grew up here and he fathered a child with one of the people that live in this time. We are imposter that are threatening to throw the whole entire universe out of whack," Mulder informs us.
A long, awkward moment of silence passes between us. Footsteps are heard outside the door. We all hold are breathes, not wanting to be caught.
"Let me guess, Mulder. We have to get out of here fast or else if they catch us and kill us it will throw everything in the universe out of its cycle," I whisper.
"Right," Mulder confirms.
"Where do we go then?" I inquire.
"The wrinkle in time," Doggett concludes before Mulder can.
I nod. This is it. We are going back to a life that I thought that we could never go back to, but we will be leaving our son behind, our grandson, and an amazing woman that changed Will's life.
"Scully, let's go," Mulder urgently whispers breaking my thoughts.
We are off now, finally finding some sense to this entire thing, but now fearing for our lives more than ever. What ever happens to us will be the fate of the world, as we know it.
*Mulder*
Scully and I follow quickly behind Doggett as he climbs down the steps of the FBI headquarters...heading straight for the X-Files office.
"Agent Doggett? Where are we going?" I question becoming the skeptical one.
"The X-Files office. That's where the wrinkle is. That's where it has always been," Doggett responds continuing to run down the flights of stairs.
"Mulder, what about William?" Scully asks me, her heart going out to our son.
Both Doggett and I stop. I turn around and look her in the face. "He has known all along that something wasn't right. He'll figure it out, he's a smart kid...he's ours isn't he?" I joke with her trying to make her feel better.
"But maybe, this would be a second chance for you, Mulder, to raise a child," Scully tells me.
I look at her. I can see her pain and agony on leaving her son behind...our son. She watched him grow up.
"Scully," I start, "you got to watch him grow up, something that I never witnessed and if we don't go back now I won't get to see my other child grow up and become an adult. Neither of us will. Besides he wouldn't go back if he had to...he has Cam and his son to think about now," I tell her, reassuring her with the look in my eyes.
She nods. Doggett turns and starts to run as we follow behind him. Finally we reach the bottom flight...our hallway and the place where everything happened the first time around.
"It's right here," Doggett says pointing towards a cabinet at the end of the hallway.
"A cabinet? That's our wrinkle in time?" I question, trying not to laugh.
"It's the only way, Mulder. We all have to leave now or not even William will have a safe life here," Doggett tells us both becoming very serious.
We inch closer to the cabinet as the lights begin to flicker and the building starts to shake.
"Hurry!" I yell, helping Scully into the cabinet and making sure that Doggett is right behind us.
*Scully*
A bright light blinds us as we pass from one dimension to another. I can't see where I am or what I'm doing, but suddenly the life that I lived for the last 100 years flashes in front of my eyes. The years that I spent looking for Mulder, watching William grow up and start a family with Cam, his perfect other, flow slowly...but intensify and get quicker. Then I see myself in 2001...the woman that I once was, but the one that I lost after Mulder left.
The flashes from my past or my future...I can't tell...go before me even faster like a roller coaster of events. The light starts to dim and I feel myself being thrown...my final rejection from an imperfect world that my son is now a part of.
Everything goes black, completely black.
"Scully? Scully can you hear me?" Mulder whispers, shaking me.
I open my eyes and stare at Mulder. I smile.
"What happened?" I inquire.
The building around me seems very familiar. The cabinet...or our time machine...is behind me, but looking newer than it was before. Mulder's eyes tell it all: we are back in 2001 and we were given a second chance of sorts.
Mulder grins at me and then helps me into a sitting position. "We just did a little time travel, nothing too important," he tells me.
It wasn't a dream! He's here with me, but then I realize that William isn't with us. I'll never see his beautiful face again.
"So that's it, Mulder? It's all over?" I ask, trying to hold my tears back.
He too, tries to hold back the watery look in his eyes, but here we are the two strangest FBI agents that the Bureau has ever seen nearly balling our eyes out in the basement.
"Scully," he whispers compassionately, "You are my perfect other. It will never be over for us. I will never leave your side and we will be bound forever by this unending love as well as our unborn child and of course William. We were meant to be, Scully, we were always meant to be."
He pulls me in for a long, passionate kiss. I am safe now, completely and entirely safe in his arms. This is our second chance at a life that neither of us thought was possible. But in working with the X-Files and Mulder...anything is possible. Our life is one that was lost, but now it is indeed found.
THE END