Kyle and Avery whined a little when they realized they weren't being
included in their father's plans, but Cat pacified them by suggesting the
three of them make cookies. Kyle shot his brothers' a triumphant look when
he realized that he and Avery were going to do something they couldn't.
Meanwhile, Mulder had the older boys put on their hoodies and follow him out to the car. They asked a lot of questions about where they were going, but he kept telling them it was a surprise.
When they got to their destination, they all piled out of the car. Mulder got a blanket out of the trunk, and led them down a sandy footpath.
"Dad, it's too cold for the beach, isn't it?" Owen said, looking at the deserted water. They'd definitely never gone swimming in late October before.
Mulder spread out the blanket. "We're not going to go swimming. I thought this would be a nice place to talk."
"Talk about what?" Benji asked as he took a seat on the blanket next to William. Owen climbed on Mulder's lap, for once not claiming to be too big for that.
"There are some things we need to talk about, about William, and about me. I know that some of the things I'm going to tell you are really hard to understand, and if you don't believe them right away, I don't blame you. I know a lot of grownups who have seen these things with their own eyes, and they still don't believe the truth."
"This sounds kind of scary." William remarked, shivering slightly as the sea breeze pulled at his sweatshirt.
"It's ok to be scared. Some of this scares me too." Mulder confessed, making none of them feel better. "I guess I should start at the very beginning first. When I was twelve years old, my little sister was taken away from me."
"Aunt Samantha." Benji said promptly.
"Right. She was taken away by aliens."
"There are no such things as aliens." William said with a grimace, reminding Mulder of his mother.
"I wish that were true, but there are aliens. "
"Dad..." Benji protested. Part of him wanted to believe his father, but he didn't want for his half brother to think that he was a baby or stupid.
"I believe you, Daddy." Owen said eagerly. Benji rolled his eyes.
**
"When I grew up and became a man, I worked for the FBI, with William's mother, and then with agent Doggett."
"What about Monica?" Benji asked.
"She didn't really work with them until after I was gone."
"So you and my mother went looking for aliens?" William asked, giving Mulder another skeptical look.
"Aliens and other sorts of things that no one could explain. They called it the X-Files."
"Like X-rays?" Owen asked.
"No, like planet X!" Benji corrected.
"Something like that." Mulder told them to end the speculation.
"So you saw aliens like the ones that took your sister?" William asked with a puzzled frown.
"I saw all sorts of strange creatures, but yes, I did see some aliens."
"Do they really take people away, like in the movies?" Benji asked.
"Yes they do. And they took me."
"No way!" William exclaimed, looking like he was about to run off.
Mulder ignored that. "They took me away right before your mother found out that she was going to have you, William."
"No."
"And they kept me for months. They hurt me... and when they brought me back, everyone thought I was dead."
"They didn't bury you, did they?" Benji asked, looking horrified by the thought.
"They did. But when one of the other people they thought was dead turned out not to be, William's mother realized I might not be dead either, so they dug me back up again." Mulder said, glossing over how long they thought he was dead.
"Eww!" Owen exclaimed.
"But you were ok." Benji said over his brother's disgusted noises.
"I was in the hospital for a long time, but I was ok after that." Mulder agreed. "I was all better by the time William was born."
**
"Then why did you leave?" William asked, nearly shouting.
"To keep you and your mom safe." Mulder said quietly. "There were men who worked with the aliens that hated me, so I thought maybe if I left for a while they'd leave you and your mom alone-"
"Stop calling her my mom. She's not my mom." William looked furious, and Mulder couldn't imagine why he always reacted so badly when they talked about her.
"Ok, her name is Scully, so I'll call her that instead. Anyway, I thought if I wasn't with William and Scully, they'd be safe. I was going to go back to them as soon as the people who'd hurt them were gone."
William's face clouded as he remembered his dreams. "But we weren't safe. Not at all."
"No. Other people that I didn't even know about found out about you, and they thought that they could use you to help them. So they kidnapped you, and tried to get you to open up a space ship that they'd found."
"But he couldn't, could he?" Owen gave the older boy a fascinated look.
"I don't know. Something did, anyway, and when it did, all the people died. Except William."
"I was cold and alone." William whispered.
"Luckily Scully and Reyes found you right away. They were so scared for you. You were just a little baby, and people wanted things from you, maybe to do things to you..."
"Daddy, that's not fair!" Owen protested. "If he was just a little baby like 'laney, how could they be so mean to him?"
"Not everyone is good." Benji declared. "They were bad people."
**
William expected Mulder to correct Benji, but he merely nodded. "Yes, they were. These people believed that humans weren't doing so good a job taking care of things here on Earth, so we'd all be better off having the aliens come and dominate us."
"What about people changing things on their own like they teach us in social studies?" William asked. "That's why they want peace in the middle east instead of wars."
"That's a good point. These people wanted to take away humans ability to work things out on their own. In most people's minds, that sort of thing makes someone evil, no matter how good their intentions are by wanting something like that." Mulder said, keeping his thoughts about the smoking man to himself.
"But they all died, though, right Dad?" Benji asked. "So they're not a problem any more."
Mulder looked grim. "That's what agent Scully and everyone else thought, yes. But then my brother Jeffery convinced her that you still weren't safe, Will, because and the aliens would know about you and want you back again. So she gave you to the Van DeKamps, thinking you'd be safer in an anonymous family."
"But you didn't, or you wouldn't have tried to get me back when I was little."
"I thought you were better off with Scully and I than with anyone else. We could protect you better than anyone, since we knew the dangers. So I tried to get you back, but couldn't. I wanted to try again, but my lawyer told me it wouldn't be fair to you, since you thought of those people as your mom and dad. And you did seem to be fine, so I decided that Scully was wrong, you were fine. But I don't think that any more."
"Why not?" Owen piped up. He barely understood what they were talking about, but he realized they were talking about being safe, and he knew all about feeling safe.
"Because people have been approaching Will, and saying things like he's 'the one' and how he's going to lead them. So we were wrong. Not all the people died."
Benji's face looked horror stricken. "Does that mean someone is going to try to hurt Will?"
"I hope not. But that's why I'm talking to you boys right now. I don't think they know yet that William is here, but they might find out. So we need to talk about what happens then."
"What does happen, then?" Owen asked, wide-eyed. "We're just kids."
"The things that need to be done don't need grown ups to do them. If someone you don't know comes near Will and talks to him, I want you to scream and draw attention to yourselves."
"Scream what?" Benji asked.
"Scream ' Help! Someone's trying to take my brother!' until other grown ups pay attention to you. And I'm going to get all three of you cell phones too- "
"Cool!"
He gave them a stern look. "That are going to be programmed to only call Cat or I...and a few other grown-ups I trust. Even if they run away, or a grown up helps you, I want one of you boys to call me immediately."
"Ok." They all agreed, looking slightly frightened.
"I'm not trying to scare you, but people need to know what to do in an emergency, like why we have a plan in case there's ever a fire. This is just one more in-case. Telling you about this doesn't mean I expect something bad will happen, but it could, so we need to talk about it."
"Always be prepared?" Owen asked, thinking of something his Cub Scout friends say.
"Exactly." Mulder agreed. "Are you guys ok?"
"We're fine." Benji said, and William and Owen nodded their agreement. " We understand this is just an if thingie."
"Good. I didn't want to upset you, but I thought you'd want to know what to do if something happened, so I decided to treat you like big boys instead of helpless little kids who can't do anything." Mulder looked at them, and it was hard to keep from crying. They were really still so little..." Does anyone want to help me build a sand castle before we go?"
**
Owen happily helped Mulder construct a fortress in the sand, but William and Benji opted to take a walk instead. Or William did, and didn't seem to mind it when Benji tagged along.
The two of them walked in silence for a while, letting the wind ruffle their hair. Eventually Benji found a tide pool and squat down to see if anything was in it. William joined him, also gently poking under rocks, trying to coax out hermit crabs.
Benji paused, the short muddy stick hanging in mid-air. "Will...can I ask you a question?"
"What?" William asked, his voice guarded.
"How come you don't like your mom? Your real mom, I mean. You get mad whenever Dad talks about her."
"It's all her fault." William's voice was bitter.
Benji flashed him a confused look. "All what?"
"Everything! She's the one who decided to give me way. If she didn't want me, why couldn't she give me to your dad? Our dad." He corrected himself. " Even if she didn't want to stay with us, she could have helped him get me back before going off to do whatever it is that's so important. At least he likes kids."
"The people who adopted you didn't like kids?"
William shook his head. "They wanted to have a baby, but when they couldn't they adopted me, I guess thinking that they'd love me as much as their real baby. They didn't."
"I'm sorry." Benji said in a small voice.
"Me too."
"At least you never have to live with them again."
"Yeah, at least." William agreed, but still, as hard as living with the Van Dekamps had been, his heart ached a little when he thought about never seeing them again. Just a little.
"You know," Benji said as they walked back towards the now elaborate sandcastle. "I didn't know if I'd like having a big brother. If I've gotta have one, I'm glad it's you."
"Thanks." William replied with a crocked smile. Benji didn't know it, but he'd just made his day.
Meanwhile, Mulder had the older boys put on their hoodies and follow him out to the car. They asked a lot of questions about where they were going, but he kept telling them it was a surprise.
When they got to their destination, they all piled out of the car. Mulder got a blanket out of the trunk, and led them down a sandy footpath.
"Dad, it's too cold for the beach, isn't it?" Owen said, looking at the deserted water. They'd definitely never gone swimming in late October before.
Mulder spread out the blanket. "We're not going to go swimming. I thought this would be a nice place to talk."
"Talk about what?" Benji asked as he took a seat on the blanket next to William. Owen climbed on Mulder's lap, for once not claiming to be too big for that.
"There are some things we need to talk about, about William, and about me. I know that some of the things I'm going to tell you are really hard to understand, and if you don't believe them right away, I don't blame you. I know a lot of grownups who have seen these things with their own eyes, and they still don't believe the truth."
"This sounds kind of scary." William remarked, shivering slightly as the sea breeze pulled at his sweatshirt.
"It's ok to be scared. Some of this scares me too." Mulder confessed, making none of them feel better. "I guess I should start at the very beginning first. When I was twelve years old, my little sister was taken away from me."
"Aunt Samantha." Benji said promptly.
"Right. She was taken away by aliens."
"There are no such things as aliens." William said with a grimace, reminding Mulder of his mother.
"I wish that were true, but there are aliens. "
"Dad..." Benji protested. Part of him wanted to believe his father, but he didn't want for his half brother to think that he was a baby or stupid.
"I believe you, Daddy." Owen said eagerly. Benji rolled his eyes.
**
"When I grew up and became a man, I worked for the FBI, with William's mother, and then with agent Doggett."
"What about Monica?" Benji asked.
"She didn't really work with them until after I was gone."
"So you and my mother went looking for aliens?" William asked, giving Mulder another skeptical look.
"Aliens and other sorts of things that no one could explain. They called it the X-Files."
"Like X-rays?" Owen asked.
"No, like planet X!" Benji corrected.
"Something like that." Mulder told them to end the speculation.
"So you saw aliens like the ones that took your sister?" William asked with a puzzled frown.
"I saw all sorts of strange creatures, but yes, I did see some aliens."
"Do they really take people away, like in the movies?" Benji asked.
"Yes they do. And they took me."
"No way!" William exclaimed, looking like he was about to run off.
Mulder ignored that. "They took me away right before your mother found out that she was going to have you, William."
"No."
"And they kept me for months. They hurt me... and when they brought me back, everyone thought I was dead."
"They didn't bury you, did they?" Benji asked, looking horrified by the thought.
"They did. But when one of the other people they thought was dead turned out not to be, William's mother realized I might not be dead either, so they dug me back up again." Mulder said, glossing over how long they thought he was dead.
"Eww!" Owen exclaimed.
"But you were ok." Benji said over his brother's disgusted noises.
"I was in the hospital for a long time, but I was ok after that." Mulder agreed. "I was all better by the time William was born."
**
"Then why did you leave?" William asked, nearly shouting.
"To keep you and your mom safe." Mulder said quietly. "There were men who worked with the aliens that hated me, so I thought maybe if I left for a while they'd leave you and your mom alone-"
"Stop calling her my mom. She's not my mom." William looked furious, and Mulder couldn't imagine why he always reacted so badly when they talked about her.
"Ok, her name is Scully, so I'll call her that instead. Anyway, I thought if I wasn't with William and Scully, they'd be safe. I was going to go back to them as soon as the people who'd hurt them were gone."
William's face clouded as he remembered his dreams. "But we weren't safe. Not at all."
"No. Other people that I didn't even know about found out about you, and they thought that they could use you to help them. So they kidnapped you, and tried to get you to open up a space ship that they'd found."
"But he couldn't, could he?" Owen gave the older boy a fascinated look.
"I don't know. Something did, anyway, and when it did, all the people died. Except William."
"I was cold and alone." William whispered.
"Luckily Scully and Reyes found you right away. They were so scared for you. You were just a little baby, and people wanted things from you, maybe to do things to you..."
"Daddy, that's not fair!" Owen protested. "If he was just a little baby like 'laney, how could they be so mean to him?"
"Not everyone is good." Benji declared. "They were bad people."
**
William expected Mulder to correct Benji, but he merely nodded. "Yes, they were. These people believed that humans weren't doing so good a job taking care of things here on Earth, so we'd all be better off having the aliens come and dominate us."
"What about people changing things on their own like they teach us in social studies?" William asked. "That's why they want peace in the middle east instead of wars."
"That's a good point. These people wanted to take away humans ability to work things out on their own. In most people's minds, that sort of thing makes someone evil, no matter how good their intentions are by wanting something like that." Mulder said, keeping his thoughts about the smoking man to himself.
"But they all died, though, right Dad?" Benji asked. "So they're not a problem any more."
Mulder looked grim. "That's what agent Scully and everyone else thought, yes. But then my brother Jeffery convinced her that you still weren't safe, Will, because and the aliens would know about you and want you back again. So she gave you to the Van DeKamps, thinking you'd be safer in an anonymous family."
"But you didn't, or you wouldn't have tried to get me back when I was little."
"I thought you were better off with Scully and I than with anyone else. We could protect you better than anyone, since we knew the dangers. So I tried to get you back, but couldn't. I wanted to try again, but my lawyer told me it wouldn't be fair to you, since you thought of those people as your mom and dad. And you did seem to be fine, so I decided that Scully was wrong, you were fine. But I don't think that any more."
"Why not?" Owen piped up. He barely understood what they were talking about, but he realized they were talking about being safe, and he knew all about feeling safe.
"Because people have been approaching Will, and saying things like he's 'the one' and how he's going to lead them. So we were wrong. Not all the people died."
Benji's face looked horror stricken. "Does that mean someone is going to try to hurt Will?"
"I hope not. But that's why I'm talking to you boys right now. I don't think they know yet that William is here, but they might find out. So we need to talk about what happens then."
"What does happen, then?" Owen asked, wide-eyed. "We're just kids."
"The things that need to be done don't need grown ups to do them. If someone you don't know comes near Will and talks to him, I want you to scream and draw attention to yourselves."
"Scream what?" Benji asked.
"Scream ' Help! Someone's trying to take my brother!' until other grown ups pay attention to you. And I'm going to get all three of you cell phones too- "
"Cool!"
He gave them a stern look. "That are going to be programmed to only call Cat or I...and a few other grown-ups I trust. Even if they run away, or a grown up helps you, I want one of you boys to call me immediately."
"Ok." They all agreed, looking slightly frightened.
"I'm not trying to scare you, but people need to know what to do in an emergency, like why we have a plan in case there's ever a fire. This is just one more in-case. Telling you about this doesn't mean I expect something bad will happen, but it could, so we need to talk about it."
"Always be prepared?" Owen asked, thinking of something his Cub Scout friends say.
"Exactly." Mulder agreed. "Are you guys ok?"
"We're fine." Benji said, and William and Owen nodded their agreement. " We understand this is just an if thingie."
"Good. I didn't want to upset you, but I thought you'd want to know what to do if something happened, so I decided to treat you like big boys instead of helpless little kids who can't do anything." Mulder looked at them, and it was hard to keep from crying. They were really still so little..." Does anyone want to help me build a sand castle before we go?"
**
Owen happily helped Mulder construct a fortress in the sand, but William and Benji opted to take a walk instead. Or William did, and didn't seem to mind it when Benji tagged along.
The two of them walked in silence for a while, letting the wind ruffle their hair. Eventually Benji found a tide pool and squat down to see if anything was in it. William joined him, also gently poking under rocks, trying to coax out hermit crabs.
Benji paused, the short muddy stick hanging in mid-air. "Will...can I ask you a question?"
"What?" William asked, his voice guarded.
"How come you don't like your mom? Your real mom, I mean. You get mad whenever Dad talks about her."
"It's all her fault." William's voice was bitter.
Benji flashed him a confused look. "All what?"
"Everything! She's the one who decided to give me way. If she didn't want me, why couldn't she give me to your dad? Our dad." He corrected himself. " Even if she didn't want to stay with us, she could have helped him get me back before going off to do whatever it is that's so important. At least he likes kids."
"The people who adopted you didn't like kids?"
William shook his head. "They wanted to have a baby, but when they couldn't they adopted me, I guess thinking that they'd love me as much as their real baby. They didn't."
"I'm sorry." Benji said in a small voice.
"Me too."
"At least you never have to live with them again."
"Yeah, at least." William agreed, but still, as hard as living with the Van Dekamps had been, his heart ached a little when he thought about never seeing them again. Just a little.
"You know," Benji said as they walked back towards the now elaborate sandcastle. "I didn't know if I'd like having a big brother. If I've gotta have one, I'm glad it's you."
"Thanks." William replied with a crocked smile. Benji didn't know it, but he'd just made his day.