Title: What He Knew
Author: Gillian Leigh
Summary: What if Skinner had been abducted instead of Mulder? What would it mean for the X-Files and for Mulder and Scully themselves? Why would he have been abducted in the first place? Post-Requiem.
Disclaimer: Ah, this song and dance again... Well, I do believe we all know who they belong to, but for the sake of saving myself from possible lawsuit, any characters you recognize belong to CC, 1013, FOX, and the actors (David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish, Mitch Pileggi, Arlene Pileggi, et al.) themselves.
A month and two weeks later
Mulder came through the door of Scully's apartment to find her flitting around, placing last minute touches on the settings on the dinner table. He remained in the doorway for a minute, watching her, until she looked up and saw him standing there.
"You can come in you know..." she said, placing a salad fork and knife beside the last plate. He stepped away from the door and closed it behind himself, bringing the bottle of champagne with him. After removing his coat and hanging it on the coat rack, he started to walk toward the kitchen. "Stop right where you are, Mulder." He froze. Oh good Lord, was he dripping on her floor again? Two days before, he had come to her apartment after it had snowed, and when he had removed his coat, his shoes were leaving wet marks on her clean floor. She'd nearly killed him, and he didn't want to get yelled at again. But rather than yell at him, Scully walked over and smiled at him. She stood on her tiptoes and lazily wrapped her arms around his neck. He raised his eyebrows in question, and her gaze moved toward the ceiling, so his did as well.
"Mistletoe," she said.
"But it's not Christmas yet," he protested playfully.
"Maybe not, but 'tis the season," she replied only a moment before pressing her lips to his. The kiss was short lived, too short for Mulder's tastes. They parted for only a moment before he leaned back in for another kiss. She pulled away when she felt the kiss leading them toward the bedroom. "Now, now, our company will be arriving in a few minutes, and you wouldn't want to start something we don't have enough time to finish," she chided. He pouted, and she smiled again saying only, "Later, I promise."
He sighed melodramatically. "Fine, fine, fine. I just hope you weren't planning on sleeping tonight. We have the whole day off tomorrow."
She smiled. "But we have my doctor's appointment tomorrow. If the baby's turned the right way, we can find out if we're having a boy or girl. And hopefully the doctor can tell me why I'm so huge," she said, running a hand over her belly. He smiled at her and gently rubbed her back. Though he'd never agree with her, she was rather big for four and a half months, but he blamed it on the fact that she was of such a small frame. "Now, if you'll just put that champagne on ice, I'll go get changed."
She headed into her bedroom, and removed the sweatshirt and sweatpants that she'd had on, standing before her mirror in only her bra and underwear. The sight of her swollen belly made her smile. It made everything more real to her, of course, it had provided several obstacles in the workplace, including telling Kersh about her present condition, and the realization that they had to train yet another agent. Mulder had been relieved to find that she was not a green agent, but rather a strong willed female from the Bureau's New Orleans field office who went by the name of Monica Reyes. With a strong background in suspicious deaths and ritualistic killings, and a willingness to believe, she was just what the X-Files division would need to balance out Doggett's adamant skepticism.
Monica's addition to the division had been the reason for this get-together that she and Mulder were having at her apartment. They had met during the work day at the office, where she and Mulder found out that Agents Doggett and Reyes were already familiar with one another. Monica had expressed a great interest in Skinner's disappearance, and was ready to learn everything she could about the currently stalled investigation and help out in finding him. So they had agreed to have another conference at Scully's apartment, with dinner to start and x-files and dessert to finish.
After slipping into a cardigan set and pair of black pants, Scully slid her feet into a pair of slippers and headed back into the living room, where she found Mulder sitting on her couch, with a tissue to his nose. Her heart immediately began hammering in her chest, and she flew to his side, kneeling before him.
"Are you alright?" she asked quietly, hating the question. He nodded.
"It's not a bad one," he replied quietly. "And I didn't feel dizzy or anything. I think it's stopped by now." He removed the tissue to find that his nose had indeed stopped bleeding. She sat back on the couch, relieved, and then leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder. She reached over and took his hand, squeezing his fingers.
"Mulder, the baby's kicking again. Do you want to feel?" she questioned with a broad smile, looking up at him. He nodded, and she moved his hand onto her belly, where he could feel a fluttering movement. The smile that the feeling brought disappeared in a moment, and Scully saw that his eyes were pooling with tears. "What? What's wrong?"
"I just keep thinking that I might not ever get to see this baby," he said. "I might die before my only child is born." After a pause, he admitted, "I'm so scared Scully." She bit her lip, and willed herself not to cry in front of him.
"I'm scared too, Mulder," she confessed, taking his hand in both of hers and squeezing it. She kissed him gently, and their tender moment was interrupted by a knock at the door.
Both swiping at their tears, they moved toward the door, and Scully pulled it open to find Doggett and Reyes on the other side. Doggett held a stack of files, and Reyes carried a cardboard box (from the corner bakery near where she lived) with a pie inside.
"Hi, Agent Scully!" Reyes exclaimed, smiling broadly at her.
"Call me Dana, please," Scully said, welcoming the two into her apartment.
"Wow," Doggett said, stepping inside. "Dinner smells great." He shook Mulder's hand.
"John you can put those files on the coffee table, and I'll take that pie Agent Reyes," Scully said, moving to take the box from Reyes.
"If I'm calling you Dana you can at least call me Monica," Reyes said, handing her the pie. Scully smiled. She already liked this woman.
"I'll just put this away and then we can get started on dinner," Scully said.
"Do you need a hand in the kitchen?" Reyes asked, but was clearly not about to take no for an answer as she joined Scully in the kitchen anyway.
"Thank you," Scully said, as the dark haired agent joined her.
As they gathered the various dishes, Reyes turned to her, and said, "So, Dana, when is your baby due?" This was a question Scully had been asked umpteen times since she started showing in the previous weeks, but she always delighted in being able to answer it.
"May nineteenth," she replied. "The doctor should be able to tell us if it's a boy or girl tomorrow." She could've kicked herself, and paused for a moment, hoping Reyes hadn't picked up on the 'us'. If she did notice it, she let well enough alone.
"Congratulations," she said smilingly as she and Scully put the food on the table.
Dinner went smoothly, with casual talk, shop talk, and no mention of Mulder's illness, which he was very grateful for. He was sure that Scully had briefed both Doggett and Reyes at the office that day. Mulder and Scully entertained their two counterparts with tales of the more memorable x-files past. As the meal came to a close, and the dessert was brought out, the conversation turned to more current matters. The most recent trip to Bellefleur, Oregon, and Skinner's subsequent disappearance, and of course, the investigation into his disappearance, which had seemingly reached a dead end.
"And there's been no registering UFO activity, or anything that could possibly be perceived as UFO activity since the incident in Arizona. It's like they're all camped out somewhere, just biding their time, doing their experiments," Mulder said, eating a forkful of pie. They all pondered the data in hand before Reyes spoke up.
"But what if that's what they are doing, Mulder?" she queried, setting down her fork. "You said that there's been no activity since the sighting in the desert...but maybe that's because the UFO never left. You said that there was a force-field around the ship that hid it in plain sight, protecting it as it rebuilt itself... What if it never left? What if it's still there, in that desert?" Scully's eyebrows went up, and she looked to Mulder, eagerly awaiting his response to these allegations.
"So you're saying that the UFO is hiding in plain sight in the Arizona desert? It would be registering something even if it was just sitting there..." he replied. Scully swallowed hard.
"Not if it's been disabled," she said, quietly. "Mulder, I think the aliens are making their ship better than it's ever been. I think they've gone to a place their kind has been before..." She paused for a moment, hoping he would catch on; he didn't. She sighed. "What I'm saying is, there was a twelve hour lapse in intelligence reports from the Gunmen, time enough for the ship to move someplace new, to a place where it could disable itself and continue to gain strength by making use of other alien technology. Technology that's been on earth for fifty-three years..." Mulder's eyes went wide as he finally understood what she was getting at.
"Roswell," he murmured as Scully solemnly nodded her head.
-x-
Author's Notes: Alright, so I know that you're all sitting there thinking, "What?! She's leaving it THERE?!" but I must ask that you be patient with me. This is by far the most complex story I've written (in terms of all of the separate things going on in the storyline) and it's shaping up to be a good one, if I do say so myself.
For those of you who are dying to know the answers to the questions I use in my summary of the storyline, they will be answered in the upcoming chapters, but there is a chain of events that is being set into motion that leads to their answering and includes events after the answer of the questions as well, especially those about Skinner's involvement. So, I ask again, please stick with me on this one... The answers are coming, and in comparison, it took us nine YEARS to get some answers out of Chris Carter, and I promise this won't take nearly that long.
I hope to have Chapter 10 up shortly, because my muse seems to be cooperating for once (knock on wood) and things are going fairly smoothly for this story. I'm also pleading for reviews, because I need to know how I'm doing! Review or send me an email, whatever your little heart desires, but please let me know what you think!
Thanks, G.L.