As Scully kissed Mulder goodbye he promised to call from the FBI as soon as he had finished his meeting with Skinner and told her not to worry. He didn't want to leave her at home knowing all she would do is sit and worry about William, and whether he would be with them much longer, or if they needed to be concerned about his claims he could hear his unborn sibling.

With Mulder gone Scully sat down and placed her hand on her stomach, she could feel a slight bump already and it sent a happy tingle throughout her body. But as she watched William the sceptic in her said that he couldn't possibly have been communicating with her baby. The part of her that was still routed in science despite everything she had been through, repeatedly told her that her son was normal, that the only voices he heard in his head were his own. But the part of her that had grown with Mulder, that she shared with him now as he shared in her science, told her to be realistic, and that if she wanted to keep her family together she had to be honest with herself.

Staring at the four walls of her apartment was making her feel dizzy. She put some things in a bag for William and placed him into his stroller. Some fresh air would do them both good instead of being cooped up indoors all day.

As they went through the park together William fell asleep, and Scully was relieved that his mind was getting some rest. If he really was reading people's minds then he needed all the rest he could get. She watched him sleep for a while and didn't want to stay out too long in case Mulder called. So as she stood up to walk home she didn't expect somebody to grab her arm and tell her to act natural so nobody would get hurt.

"Just keep walking Scully, over to the car parked across the street. We're going for a ride..."

"If you think I'm getting into a car with you then you've seriously misjudged me..."

"Don't argue with me, I'm doing this for your own good. Gibson Praise is on the other side of the park; he's been here waiting for you all day. Just get into the car." Scully didn't like how her arm was being pulled in a direction she had no desire for herself and her son to take.

"Listen to me Krycek I don't work for the FBI anymore, so you can't get anything out of me because I don't work for the government now."

"I don't care about that, and even if I did you're practically married to the only man inside the government that has any power right now, so you'd be the perfect person to target an attack on."

"Are you threatening me?"

"I'm trying to save you, both of you. Now get in the car." As they reached the outskirts of the park Scully managed to pull her arm free and stopped steadfast before she was forced to do anything else. She was sick of being pushed and pulled around.

"Just leave us alone Krycek, is that really such a hard thing for you to do?" Krycek didn't do anything, he simply nodded his head in a particular direction and Scully turned behind her to see Gibson Praise. Nothing that made any sense in her head told her she was safer with Krycek than with Gibson, no warning alarms came on, she just did not want to get into a car with Alex Krycek.

"You expect me to find you less threatening than a boy that we still have no hard evidence for his crimes?"

"He's afraid of William."

"What?"

"He can't read your boys mind, the only person in the whole world who he can't read and he doesn't like it. William is the one thing stopping Gibson from being the ultimate power, if anything happens to your son, nothing will stop Gibson from controlling every single alien race that has ever visited this planet, and then it's the end for all of us." As she looked into Krycek's eyes she wished she could see some element of honesty, anything that showed her he was genuinely concerned for her safety. But still she remained standing on the sidewalk.

It was at that point that a car came speeding around the corner and screeched to a halt beside Scully and Krycek. The passenger door flew open and Scully slowly looked inside and was startled to see Mulder driving the car.

"Get in the car Scully! Now!"

As Scully loaded William quickly into the car, with Krycek's help, Krycek then ran to his own car and sped off just after Mulder slammed the pedal to the floor to get the hell out of there. The sooner he got his family away from the open space and the dangers of the predators around them the better. His meeting with Skinner had proved to give him news that he did not want to hear. It made sense in its own twisted way, but for all the years they could have prepared for something like this, they never had, and they had never dreamed to have such an enemy grow from such a friend.

As he sped along the streets he could see Scully out of the corner of his eye wiping tears away and resting her head against the window in sheer exhaustion from fighting this fight. She had believed these kind of battles were over, they both had. But to hope for such news was to hope for a miracle. For they both knew they would always be running, always be hiding, and if they ever truly wanted it to stop, there was only one thing that they could do. One way that once they had removed the obstacle in their path now they could be a family. And they could be safe. The question was which one of them was going to bring it up and make the suggestion that would change their lives forever.

As they pulled up outside their apartment they all got out of the car and Scully got William's things together whilst Mulder watched in understanding as Krycek pulled up behind them.

"Krycek."

"Don't start with me Mulder. I just saved her and your kids ass."

"I know." Krycek wasn't one to receive agreements from Mulder, so it took him a few seconds to take this is and watched as Mulder guided his tired family indoors. Krycek knew when to cool off so he didn't throw any kind of witty comment back at Mulder. For now he was grateful that he wasn't being excluded from talks about what was going to happen.

Scully put William down for a nap in his room and closed the door softly to join Mulder and Krycek staring across the room at each other. She didn't have time for Krycek, she never had from the day she had met him, and she didn't intend on giving him any credit now.

"Mulder, what the hell was that?"

"I had to get you away from Gibson."

"But why? He's just a boy..."

"No he isn't. Not anymore."

"What are you talking about?"

"He's it Scully, he's everything. Everything we've ever looked for, everything we've ever fought, joined forces with, our dreams and our nightmares. Gibson Praise is the world."

"How?"

"Think about it Scully, he can read everybody's mind, he can tell what every person on this planet is fearing, dreaming and thinking about. He can control the world by circumventing everything to go against us. Against mankind."

"But I don't understand what that has to do with us." Krycek stood up and looked at Scully.

"I told you in the park Scully. Your boy is the only mind that Gibson can't read. Until he gets him out of his way he can't move forward with his plans. William is the key to Gibson's demise or his success."

Scully looked at Mulder with tears in her eyes and he couldn't bear to see her like this. What made things worse was he knew what she was going to ask him.

"Mulder... Is this true? Is this what Skinner found out and told you about today?" he couldn't answer her. There were no words to tell her the truth. He simply nodded his head and watched as she walked away and closed herself in the bathroom.