13.
Scully was asleep on the backseat, her head resting against the edge of Adam's seat and her left hand draped across the baby's middle. Satisfied they were both okay in the back, Mulder turned his attention back to the envelope he held in his hands. Their new lives printed on fresh white paper with dark black ink. New identities, new memories, new futures.
Futures.
"They're not just going to disappear if you face the front for more than five minutes at a time, Mulder," Krycek said blithely, not taking his eyes off the road.
"I've had too many things disappear from right under my nose, Krycek, to believe that statement. Especially coming from you."
"I like you, Mulder," Krycek said. "I always know where I stand with you, and that's something I don't find in my usual circles."
"Your usual circles make the sewage tunnels look like a palace," Mulder pointed out.
Krycek shrugged, flipping on the indicator with his fingers and pulling smoothly into an exit. "You've shared those circles with me a few times," Krycek pointed out, "and it looks like we're sharing again."
"I'm not sure why I'm evening listening to you," Mulder muttered, closing his eyes. "I think I've lost my mind."
"You're listening to me because I'm telling the truth," Krycek said. "You heard it yourself ten minutes ago. They're after you, and I guarantee that the murder accusations are only a smokescreen."
Mulder sighed. "You keep telling us that you're telling the truth, that you're going to help us keep Adam safe, that this is to save everyone, but you haven't actually explained anything to me yet."
"Such as?"
"How? How did this entire situation just happen?" Mulder asked. "I mean, one day Scully gets papers to go to San Diego. We find nothing, and get suspended. All of a sudden a baby appears, a man is burnt alive and I'm under suspicion, and a group of esteemed scientists is also found burned alive at a train yard, of all places, while Cassandra Spender is found alive among them, and then murdered. And then you appear, claim to want to help and whisk us all off on a road-trip to nowhere."
Krycek remained silent for a few minutes. "When you put it like that, Mulder, it sounds like and Scully were just innocent bystanders who just happened to get mixed up in the whole situation."
"Weren't we?" Mulder countered.
"Neither of you were innocent bystanders," Krycek said. "The minute you found the X Files you became a part of the game, and the minute Scully decided to stand by your side and ignore her orders to shut you down, she became a part of the game."
"You still haven't told me why this has all happened. What's the purpose to it all?"
Krycek chuckled. "There are so many purposes and agendas and reasons that none of them make any sense anymore. Your child, Mulder, holds the key to the vaccination we need as a human race to survive. The Consortium made a deal with the devil, so to speak, to buy time and shot themselves in the foot when they decline an alliance with the rebels. Now the rebels want your son, because he is what they need, and the Consortium want your son because he is what they need. The Consortium can't be trusted though – there are Rebels and Colonists who infiltrated it long ago, and know all the 'secret' plans the Consortium have to doublecross them. If we can keep Adam out of their hands – all of them – and we can isolate the genes behind the natural immunity, maybe we stand a chance."
"Given the circumstances, Krycek, I find your story plausible," Mulder conceded.
"But?"
"I still don't understand why you're helping us. What's your real interest in Adam, Krycek?"
"I told you, it's personal," Krycek said. "I don't want to be wiped out when the Colonists get tired of the games and take this planet, and I don't want the Rebels burning me alive to prevent the Colonists from expanding their ranks. Either way, I lose. This way, I win."
"I still don't believe you."
Krycek just shrugged.
"He wants to use Adam," Scully said softly, her voice surprising him.
"Scully?"
"He wants to use Adam as a lab rat. A monkey. For research."
"What if he's right, Scully?"
"Even if he's right, Mulder, can you justify using Adam like that? Treating him like a human blood and tissue bank?"
Mulder sighed, rubbing at his hair. "I don't know what to think, Scully. All I know is Krycek is right, I can't go back because the minute I surface they'll have me locked up before I can even breathe."
"What do you mean?"
"They've got a national search underway for us. Me specifically, but you feature pretty heavily too. Apparently you're my right hand woman."
"What do we do now, Mulder?"
"What we planned to do," Mulder said, lifting the envelope. "Our new lives," he explained.
"What about Adam?"
Mulder smiled. "They've been updated to include Adam," Mulder said. "In fact, they've been completely updated. Take a look."
She took the envelope from him, looking nervous. "Where's Krycek?"
"He's getting food," Mulder said. "And paying for the gas."
There was silence in the car as Scully opened the envelope and pulled out the new documents. "Married, Mulder?" she asked, frowning.
"The perfect family," Mulder said dryly.
"Married?" Scully repeated. "Mulder, I thought we agreed to individual new IDs. What if we need to separate?"
"Frohike thought it was safer this way," Mulder said simply. "We're a ready made family, Scully. Everyone is looking for Mulder and Scully, not Mom and Dad and Junior."
He heard her sigh.
"We're sticking together, Scully," Mulder added softly as Krycek stepped out of the store and headed back toward the car.
"We may not have a choice, Mulder," she whispered so he barely heard the words.
They fell silent as Krycek opened the car door. "There's a motel three miles back," Krycek said. "I think we should stay there tonight."
