Meanwhile...

Mulder managed to get Emily to wake up enough to get herself changed for bed. He wouldn't have objected to helping her, but he knew from what Scully said that Emily had begun to insist that she was a big girl and wanted to do everything herself. He turned his back until she declared "I'm all set." Despite her growing independence, she did still like to be tucked in at night.

Mulder finished tucking her in and was about to leave when Emily looked up at him expectantly. "Is there something you wanted to say?" He prompted.

"You know how it's my birthday on Saturday?" She asked him.

"Nope, you've never mentioned it." He teased.

Emily ignored that. "Can I ask for something? From just you?"

"I guess so." Mulder said, wondering what she wanted.

"Would it be ok if...If I called you Dad like William does?" She asked shyly.

Mulder wasn't sure if he was more stunned or happy. "Of course you can!"

"Thanks...Dad." Emily said sleepily, trying it out.

"Goodnight, Emily." Mulder said, leaving her to her dreams.

**

"Mulder, Mom just told me that Kresh called and asked us to call him back as soon as we got home." Scully told him when he got downstairs.

Mulder decided that he'd have to recount his conversation with Emily later. "I guess we better call him then."

"Do you want to call him, or should I?" Scully asked as she gave her mother a hug good-bye.

"Well..." He stalled, watching Maggie leave. "Maybe you should call him, you don't tend to irritate him as quickly as I do."

"You missed a lot while you were gone, but ok, I'll call him." Scully replied.

Mulder munched on some of his Halloween candy while listening to Scully's side of the conversation. "Hello, I'm sorry it's so late, but my mom said you asked that we call you back immediately...when was this?? ... You don't know why, though? I suppose that we shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth... I think so sir, I'll have to ask him. I know I am... Well, they're on their honeymoon, so I think you'll have to wait until they get back, but I'm sure that... Skinner already said yes? Well, that's great... two weeks from Monday, ok. See you then." Scully hung up the phone with a look of wonder on her face.

"What was that all about?" Mulder asked her.

"Kresh said that he was called by the head of the FBI this morning. They're reopening the X-Files, Mulder. And they want us back."

"Do you want to go back?" Mulder asked her.

Scully thought about her job at the hospital, and the day in day out autopsies. "More than anything. What about you?"

"Of course." Mulder exclaimed. "But we're going to have to find someone to watch the kids."

"At least we have two weeks for me to give notice and find a suitable person, right?" Scully asked brightly, trying not to think about how hard finding someone who was qualified would be.

"Sure." Mulder agreed, also thinking about leaving their children to the care of strangers. "I never thought we'd go back to it, did you?"

"No, but it feels right." Scully said.

"It's what we're supposed to do." Mulder replied, warming up to the idea of returning to the fight to find the truth.

Epilogue

In a darken D.C. office, a man looked out the window and sighed. He pressed the intercom button and summoned his assistant. "Is it done?" He asked the younger man.

"Oh yes, Sir." The assistant fawned. "Kresh was informed, and the tap on his office phone picked up him calling Mulder and Scully. They're on board."

"Good. That's all, thank you." The man said, dismissing his assistant. Scully, he thought was negligible as long as she didn't know who had given the order to re-open the X-files, but it was Mulder he wanted back in the X- Files office. Mulder, a man he'd never met, but felt a connection to because they'd both gotten off on murder charges. The difference was that Mulder was innocent, but when you have the prosecution in your pocket, little things like guilt and innocence aren't as important as the dollar signs in front of the bribe for blowing the case.

The man got out of his chair and locked up the office, certain that Mulder would provide the proper foil to keep the grays on their toes as the time of the scheduled invasion approached, and distract them from the re-doubled efforts to develop a vaccine to protect against the black oil. As he walked down the stairs, he wondered if, when Mulder inevitably learned that they syndicate survived in part, if he'd still think it was run by devils. Folmer didn't honestly care.

The End

Want more? Stay tuned for Beyond the Truth:02 High Stakes, the follow up to this story =)