CHAPTER TWELVE
The plane touched down in DC only about an hour after it had taken off. They could have drove, but they wanted to be able to get there and back as fast as possible. It was risky showing up there, being that Mulder was wanted as a murderer, and that they were both supposed to be dead. They had yet to inform anyone they were going to DC, for fear that their phones were tapped, although after the previous incident they changed their numbers and bought new telephones. There was a baby on the way, and they couldn't be too safe--not with all the loss they'd experienced in the past. It was something they never wanted to experience again.
They got off of the plane, unsure where to go. It was Saturday, so they knew Reyes and Doggett would be home, and probably AD Skinner. It was early, however, only about noon. Scully took out her cell phone to call Skinner at home, but there was no answer. She didn't leave a message... They couldn't leave records of their existence anywhere. She dialed Monica Reyes next, and getting no answer, she assumed they were at John's. She called his, and a female answered.
"Hello?" She asked.
"Monica Reyes?" Scully asked.
"Yes, whose this?"
"Dana Scully. Is John with you?" She asked.
"Yes, he is." Monica replied. "Why?"
"I'm not sure the line is secure. You'll figure it out soon enough. Don't go anywhere." She said furtively, hanging up the phone.
"Let's go." She said to Mulder. They rented a car, which reminded them of the good ole' days, chasing mutants in rental cars. It was kind of depressing, if chasing mutants were the good times, how terrible were the bad? Nobody except Fox Mulder and Dana Scully could look back at chasing around liver-eating mutants and smile.
Monica Reyes heard a knock at John's door. She got up from the couch, where Gibson and John followed her with their eyes. She opened the door to see two figures there she never thought she'd see in Washington DC again. "No freakin' way!" She said. "Oh my God, come in." John called, as Monica ushered them in.
"Dana," John said, smiling. He then shifted his gaze. "Mulder." It came out more like Muld-ah. That always irritated Mulder.
"Miss me?" Mulder wiggled his eyebrows at John, who looked rather unamused. Then, he looked to Gibson. "Hey, buddy."
"Hey Mulder. Hi Scully." Gibson said.
"Hi." Scully said.
"What are you guys doing in DC?" Monica asked. "Is it safe for you here?"
"It's not safe for us anywhere." Mulder mumbled.
"We came to see how the production of the liquid magnetite was going. We wanted to make sure you didn't need any help, and we need some to take back to New York. We've been threatened several times, and we found a surveillance device on the chain of my cross. We got rid of it, of course, but these people know too much, you can't be too careful."
"Especially with a baby on the way. Congratulations, you two." Monica smiled.
"Yeah, it was really great to hear that." Doggett said.
"How have things been here? Have you gotten the X-Files back?" Mulder asked.
"Almost. We're working on it, and we've gotten several cases, but they still need to give the department all of its funding back. Deputy Director Kersh placed us under the supervision of AD Skinner, so things have been goin' pretty well." Doggett said.
"That's good." Scully said. "Somebody's got to keep searching."
"I'm going to go change, guys, I'll be right back. We can call AD Skinner and have him meet us here with some of the liquid for you guys." Reyes said. It was then that they noticed Monica and John were still in their pajamas.
"Yeah, I better change too." John said. "C'mon, Gibson, go get dressed."
The three of them left Mulder and Scully alone in the living room.
"Ah, lounging around on a Saturday morning. I'm still getting used to not having to chase X-Files on my time off." Scully smiled.
"Well, one question has been answered already today." Mulder said.
"What's that?" She asked.
"John and Monica are definitely doing the horizontal tango." He smiled.
"Mulder! The horizontal tango? How do you know?" She asked.
"She answered his phone and his door, plus she's in pajamas."
"Maybe she slept over." Scully smiled.
"Oh shut up. Like a man and a woman can sleep in the same house and not have sex."
"I do believe we were with each other regularly for seven years without sleeping together."
"But you never answered my door in your pajamas, now did you?" He grinned.
Just then, Monica walked back in. She smiled, and brushed her behind her ears, admiring the two of them standing there. She had always admired them for what they had with one another. Mulder interrupted her train of thought, asking "Hey Monica, where's John's bathroom?" She directed him and sat down on the couch, Scully following her.
"Dana, I thought it best to tell you this without Mulder around... I received a phone call from your mother about two weeks ago."
"What?" Scully asked.
"She said she received a note from you, saying that you were alive, and that John, Skinner, and I knew it. She wouldn't tell me how she got the number, but she wanted to know if it was true, if you were really alive." Monica said.
"What did you tell her?" She asked.
"The truth. Not your whereabouts, but that you were indeed alive. That's really it. Maybe you should visit her..." Monica said.
"Mulder doesn't know I wrote her, I wasn't supposed to. I just couldn't let her believe she lost two daughters. If I do visit her, it would have to be when he wasn't around..." She heard the door open and shot Monica a look, telling her to change the subject.
"So when's the baby due?" She asked.
"Late February." Scully said.
Mulder walked back into the living room, and immediately after, so did John and Gibson. They called Skinner at work, and he decided to meet them at John's. Scully and Mulder were afraid to go anywhere very public, afraid they'd be recognized. They all sat in the room, the air serious and slightly uncomfortable.
"I'll call AD Skinner." John said, picking up the phone. After two rings, the AD picked up.
"AD Skinner." He said gruffly.
"Sir, it's John Doggett. I think you'd better come to my apartment, right away."
"Why?" He asked.
"It's important, Sir. I can't say over the phone." He said.
"I'll be there in twenty." Skinner said, before hanging up.
"So, everyone thinks we're dead?" Mulder asked.
"All those who don't know firsthand what happened, yes." Monica said.
"They had a funeral and everything... A joint one. Mrs. Scully arranged it."
"She always liked Mulder." Scully said.
"I think she was just after grandchildren. She always wanted to see you happy." Mulder smiled.
"She was really tore apart about it, thinking you were dead and all." John said. Monica and Dana silently looked at one another, knowing it was before she had received the letter. Gibson watched them with a knowing glance, but Gibson knew everything that ran through their minds. Scully began to wonder who would show up at her funeral.
"There were a lot of people there." Gibson said, answering her unspoken question. "You're family flew in. People from work were there, too. And old friends, I guess." People ran through Scully's mind... People from college, people like Daniel, her old flame... Would they come to pay respects if she had died? She had died. There was no more Dana Scully. It was depressing, but true.
They made idle chitchat, discussing their new lives, their jobs, and other irrelevant things, until there was a knock at the door. John quickly got up, looking through the peep hole just to be sure it was AD Skinner. He let him in, saying "Hey, Skinner." The Assistant Director looked at the two former agents in the room, with disbelief. What they hell were they doing here?
"Mulder? Scully? What on earth..." He trailed off.
"It's good to see you, Sir." Scully smiled, falling back into old habits.
"Likewise." The AD said.
"Skin-man... Long time no see." Mulder smiled.
"Mulder." The taller man smiled back. "What brings you here?"
"You said yourself you could use my expertise with the production of the liquid, and we can't produce it on our own anymore. We need to take some back with us, so we can remain safe." She said. "Well, as safe as possible." She mumbled.
"Of course... Especially under the circumstances." He said, glancing down at the redhead's stomach, still as flat as ever.
"Sir, we need you to do us a huge favor." Scully said. "We need you to bring us some of the liquid, and maybe a microscope. That would enable me to check out the liquid, and make sure production is going well at the Bureau, being that I can't show up there in person. Then, we can take as much as possible back with us."
"Okay, that sounds very possible. I'll get on it now, and I'll have it all for you by tomorrow. Is that alright?" He asked.
"Perfect." Scully smiled. "Thank you."
"Yeah, thanks." Echoed Mulder.
"I'd better get back to the building... I told Kimberly I was on a lunch break. I'll see you later." He said, briefly letting a smile tug at his lips. He was happy to see them, and it showed. Skinner was a stoic man, like Scully almost, in the fact that he didn't like to show emotion. He was probably worse than her, he rarely smiled. He rarely had anything to smile about, especially if it concerned Mulder and Scully.
"We should make reservations for a hotel." Mulder said. "Can I use your phone?"
"You can stay here, or at my place. I'm sure John wouldn't mind." Monica said.
"Thanks, but we wouldn't want to be a bother. I will bother you for your phone, though."
"Yeah, sure." John said, gesturing towards the cordless. Mulder stepped into the other room, and made the call.
"I got us a room for the next four nights at least in a pretty nice place, Scully. Mostly tourists." He said.
"Sounds nice. When can we check in?" She asked.
"Today, as soon as possible, so that we can sleep there tonight." He said.
She kept thinking about when she could sneak in a visit to her mothers house.
"Well, we ought to get going then. We'll be in touch, of course." Scully said.
"Right. Nice to see you, guys." Monica smiled.
"Take care," John called.
"See you around, buddy." Mulder said, looking to Gibson who had been relatively quiet. He had no need to talk, and instead just listened to their thoughts.
"Yeah. Around." Gibson said.
Scully smiled a goodbye and the walked out of the house. As they walked out to the car, Scully looked up at Mulder.
"So you didn't want to be a bother? Since when do you care whose house you crash at?" Scully asked. "You slept on a couch for Lord knows how many years."
"I care since I had you around, Scully." He said suggestively.
"I suspect, Mulder, that you have some other intentions in mind." She smiled.
"That's what I get for loving an FBI Agent. No secrets." He smiled back at her.
She nervously licked her lips. "Yeah, no secrets."
They went to the hotel, unpacked their things, and decided not to go out for lunch. Mulder said he would run downstairs and pick up some things from the hotel store, and Scully obliged. It couldn't be dangerous, it was right downstairs, and they were using their fake identities. Exhausted, Scully laid down on the bed, her hand laying on her stomach. She was waiting for it to grow, for the child there to grow. She reached over, and picked up her cell phone off of the night stand. She went through the phone book, and hit send when she had selected Monica Reyes' Cell. She heard Monica's voice after two rings.
"Hello?" She said.
"Monica, it's me. Don't tell anybody I'm calling you... I need a favor." Scully said.
"Yeah, sure, what is it?" She asked.
"Well, I'm alone in the hotel room now, without Mulder, and I wanted to let you know that tomorrow night I plan to leave, to see my mother, and hurry right back. I'm going to leave Mulder a note, saying you had a fight with John and needed to talk. If he calls your place, I need you to back me up. John too, so I suppose you'll have to let him in on my secret. I just... I hate keeping things from Mulder, but I don't want him to know I wrote to my mother. He told me not too, and I'm ashamed I betrayed that."
"Dana, I'll do this for you, but you're betraying him again by keeping this from him. You love him, and he loves you. He wouldn't be that angry with you."
"I just don't want him to know that I lied to him. It would hurt him. I don't want to do this."
"One lie builds on another, Dana." She said. Scully was becoming frustrated, she knew what she was doing. She hadn't called for advice.
"Thank you for your input. Mulder will never even know."
"Is that what you want?" Monica asked.
"No. I can't have what I want, which is normalcy. So I'll have to settle for this. Thanks for doing this, Monica. I have to go." She hung up, without giving her friend a chance to say anything.
When Mulder walked in to the room, she practically jumped him. He was surprised when, without a word, she kissed him roughly. Little did he know she was making up for hiding something from him. Her mind wrangled back and forth, saying she was wrong to hide things from him, but also contesting that he hid the most important thing of all from her... Colonization. So she tried to make up for it, to prove her love for him--it was there, no matter what she did, it would never go away. True love isn't fleeting, it never leaves. It may have tough times, it may go through trials and be tested, but it was always there.
So she proved it to him, and who was he to stop her? It didn't make the guilt go away for her, however, it made it worse. She hadn't even done anything yet. "I love you." She whispered into his ear, while they lay on the bed some time later. He echoed her words. She didn't use them often enough, she told herself. She didn't let him know how much she cared, how much all of this meant. But there was something else, something she felt she had to do. She loved her mother, the woman who gave her life, raised her, made her who she was. And she needed to see her. She was afraid, somewhere inside, that Mulder would object to this. So she settled the debate inside of her brain. Mulder would never know. All he would know was how much she loved him. They both slowly rose form the bed to eat something, being that it had been hours since they had consumed anything. Not a word was said for quite some time.
The day carried on uneventfully. They ate, watched a movie on HBO, and slept. They didn't have many options, they were still in hiding from everyone. Scully would have gone to see her mother that night, but she didn't feel up to it. Physically, she was exhausted, and needed to sleep. Unfortunately, like all other women, Dana Scully had a biological clock, and it was staring forty in the eye. She was healthy, of course, in better shape than most women, but she was tired. She had woken up early, and didn't get any sleep on the plane. It wouldn't do her any good to spend the night out talking to her mother, especially because she wasn't quiet sure she was emotionally up to it either. So she decided not to slip out of the room that night, and wait for tomorrow to come.
They were awoken that morning by a knock at the door. Startled, Mulder slid out of the bed and locked around for something to put on. Scully stirred, having heard the knock as well. "Who could that be, Mulder?" She asked tiredly, pulling the sheet around her. He shrugged, throwing on the hotel robe, and tossed her one as well. Just as she tied the front closed, he opened the door to see Walter Skinner outside it. In one hand he held a large suitcase, and in the other, a microscope.
"I got it." He said simply. "The suitcase is full of vials of it. It should last you a long time, being that you probably won't need it, and the lethal dose is simply a hypodermic needle full of it. I suggest you take a train back to New York to avoid Customs service picking up on it." He said.
"Thank you so much, Sir." Scully said.
"I figured it'll keep you out of trouble." He said.
"I don't know if that's possible, Sir." Mulder smiled.
"Neither do I." Skinner said. "Get back to me about the liquid, Dana, about making sure it's the right composition." He said.
"Sure, right away." She smiled.
"I've got to get going, stay safe. Don't get yourselves caught."
"I'll keep him out of trouble." Scully smiled.
"That's all I ask." The taller man said, a slight smile tugging at his own lips, before he walked out of the room.
After showering and getting dressed, they ate a small breakfast. Scully then plugged the microscope in, opening the suitcase. Luckily Skinner had packed all the supplies she needed, like a slide and whatnot. She prepared a drop of liquid on the expensive electron microscope, wondering how he was able to get it out of Quantico. After fiddling with the focus for a few moments, she looked up. Mulder's face was worried, afraid something in production had gone wrong.
"It's just fine, Mulder. Exactly what I saw in the lab back in New York." She smiled.
"Thank God, Scully. For once, everything seems to be going right." He smiled back.
"Yeah, Mulder, you're right. Things are finally working out, as odd as the circumstances may be. Maybe now that to everyone else we're different people, we'll finally have a little success." Scully said.
"We've already had one." He said, resting his hands on her stomach.
With his display of emotion, she felt that pang of guilt again. Calm down, she told herself. It's not even that bad. You didn't lie to him, you just didn't tell him we're you're going to go tonight. You didn't even do it yet! All of her reasoning did nothing, her mind was made and she still felt guilty. The rest of the day was spent doing basically nothing worthwhile. Scully called Skinner to assure him the liquid was indeed the right mixture. Their trip had little purpose; they came to check on the production of liquid magnetite, and take some home for themselves. They'd already done so, and they'd only been there two days.
Laying in bed with Mulder that night, Scully watched him lay beside her. It always took him a while to fall asleep.
"I love you so much, Mulder." She whispered.
"Is something wrong, Dana?" He asked.
"What, I can't tell you a love you?" She asked.
"No, it's just that you don't usually say it a lot, and I don't mind that. In the last two days, you must've said it a half dozen times." He said.
"Nothing's wrong, Mulder. I just thought I should let you know more often."
"You don't have too. I already know." He said, kissing her lips lightly. Moments later, he was asleep.
Scully waited fifteen minutes, to make sure he wouldn't stir too easily. Of course, she would simply tell him she was going to see Monica, but she'd rather not have to say anything. She silently maneuvered herself away from his arms, slipping out from under the covers on the hotel bed. She quickly threw on a pair of clothes, shoes, and ran her fingers through her hair. She scrawled a quick note at the dresser.
Mulder,
Monica called me, she had a fight with John. I'm going to her place because she asked me to come talk to her about it. They're definitely doing the horizontal tango. I'll be back as soon as I can.
Scully
She smiled at herself, after throwing in his words from the other day. It was no big deal, she told herself. He'd never even know anyway. It wouldn't matter. By the time she walked out of the room, she'd almost convinced herself of that. Almost. She started the rental car and began the drive to her mothers home, going over what to say to her in her mind. Not much later, she pulled into the driveway. She glanced down at her watch. Half past midnight. Her mother would be asleep, but this was the only time she could be out in public. She walked to the door, took a deep breath, and knocked.
Margaret Scully was startled when she thought she heard a knock at the door. The clock in her room read 12:33. Who would be knocking at this hour? She listened, and heard another knock. She quickly got out of bed, throwing on a terrycloth robe over her pajamas. She rushed downstairs, and opened the door. She froze when she saw her daughter, Dana, standing there.
"Dana!" She exclaimed.
"Mom," Dana cried, tears already running down her cheek.
"Dana, oh my God, it's true... You're alive, oh, come in sweetheart." She said.
Dana walked inside, following her mom to the living room.
"What are you doing here?" She asked. "Your letter said you were hiding.."
"We are, Mom. We had to come down, to make sure something was going right within the FBI. We're producing something to stop the people who are after us."
"Where have you been?" Her mother asked.
"I can't say, Mom. It isn't safe. I'm endangering both of our lives sitting here right now... And one more. Mom, I have something to tell you."
The look of hope in her mother's eyes encouraged her words.
"I'm pregnant." She whispered.
"Dana... How?" Her mother smiled.
"The old fashioned way." Dana smiled. "And I suppose a little bit of a miracle for it to work. The baby's due in February."
"Have you been staying safe?" Her mother asked.
"Yes. I'm teaching." She said, not mentioning the incident involving her student Gina.
"You know, everyone thinks you're..." She trailed off.
"I know." Dana nodded.
"Charlie and Bill were torn apart, like I was. The thought of losing another daughter to me, a sister to them... Their families flew in. The kids were crushed. First their Aunt Missy... Dana, I was crushed. I had though I lost another daughter, but then I got your letter, and I didn't know what to believe. I've been told so many lies by these people... So I called one of the people in your letter."
"She told me." Dana said.
"I'm so glad to see you." Her mother said, still crying.
"I'm so glad to see you too, Mom. I had to come, even though I kept it from Mulder... I feel terrible not telling him, but he had asked me to keep our new lives secret.."
"I'm sure he would have understood, Dana." Her mother said.
"Well, I suppose it doesn't matter now. I should, uh, get back to him. I'm not supposed to be out, someone could recognize. I don't exist anymore, Mom."
"You always will to me. Please, Dana, promise to write. Give me your address once it's safe. Send me pictures of your child. Call me. I love you." She reminded her.
"I will, Mom, I love you too. That's why I came here. So you could know I'm alive, so you didn't have to think..." She trailed off. "Goodbye, Mom. I'll write. I love you."
"I love you too, goodbye." Her mother said.
Dana felt tremendous relief as she walked out of her mother's house. She had gotten to see her again. She wondered if Mulder had woken up. Her cell phone was off, and she didn't turn it on. She needed her story to check out with Monica's. A few blocks from her mother's, she realized how tired she was, and pulled into an all night convenience store for a coffee. The last thing she needed was to fall asleep at the wheel.
Minutes later, she walked out with a hot cup off coffee in her hand. She walked over to her car, and looked down at the door, noticed someone had slashed her tires. "Shit," Scully muttered. She looked back a few hundred yards at the store, and was about to go inside to be safe, when she felt a hand grab her from behind. She screamed, but it was muffled by a large hand. She managed to fling the coffee at the attacker, but the burn did nothing to the man, despite it's scalding temperature. This was no ordinary attacker, not somebody after her purse. No, this was far worse. This was a Super-soldier. She felt a prick in her arm, as the attacker flung her into the backseat of another car. After that, all she could remember was dizzy darkness.