Disclaimer: I OWN nothing & CLAIM nothing!
"I appreciate your concern; Mr. Mulder, but this facility is top secret, I assure you that no one is going to find her here." Dr. Turner, who headed up the facility said arrogantly as he went about his daily rounds with Mulder & Scully in tow. "We found it, didn't we?" Mulder said, his patience was beginning to wear thin. "What you found was what you were supposed to find, Mr. Mulder, a mental facility. The only reason you know any different was that because one of our residents told you otherwise." Dr. Turner said as he made to close his office door in their faces. "Sir, if I may, the people that we are talking about work deeply in the government. They are powerful & manipulative & do have a vast amount of surveillance tools at their disposal. A few years ago there was a boy just like Candace; even our best efforts to protect him were not enough. They kidnapped him & performed horrible experiments on him because he was a danger to their operation." Scully interjected "But what about the other patients here, what will come of them?" Mulder rubbed his forehead wearily. "I guess we'll have to compile a list of their abilities & see if they can be perceived as a threat." "I can print one out for you right now." Dr. Turner said as he showed them into his office.
"So you're saying that there are powerful, corrupted government officials after me? & to think, before you arrived I was just another nobody." Candace said as she watched the facility which had been her home for over ten years be swallowed by the forest as their car followed the winding road back to civilization. "How long have you been able to read people's thoughts?" Mulder asked abruptly. "Since I was old enough to remember, my parents… they couldn't handle it, so they left me here, said that it would be the best thing for me, but if course, I knew better. I knew they never intended to come back for me." She said with a hard look in her eye. "I know it's not as nice as what you had at that facility but…" Scully began as she opened the door of to their hotel room. "Strange, I would have thought that the FBI would put it's finest in better hotels." Candace interjected. "Well, we're not actually on the FBI's starting roster." Mulder replied with a grin, Candace suddenly shot him a calculating look. "You're work & you're pursuits are a thorn in their side, they would love to get rid of you but they can't because on some level, they need you. As for you, you'd love nothing more then to stick it to them & you've been close enough to taste victory more then a few times, but you just can't seem to reach the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow." She said, Mulder stepped back, a mixture of shock & excitement on his face. "She's exactly right, Mulder." Scully said with a grin. "Okay, we'll take shifts until we can leave in the morning, Scully, why don't you get some sleep, & I'll take the first shift." Mulder said. "Actually, I'd rather take the first if you don't mind; I don't feel much like sleeping." Scully replied. "Okay, I'll be in the adjoining room if anything goes wrong." He said.
"That stuff that you said about how Mulder's superiors feel about him, how'd you know that? I don't even think that Mulder knows how they feel about him in that much detail." "I read their minds. See, for me the world is like a crowded room filled with people whispering, I can hear every thought of every person on the planet." "How do you keep it from driving you crazy?" "It took a lot of years & a lot of rigorous training, but I was finally able to 'turn on' the thoughts of the individuals that I wish to hear, like turning on a radio & tuning the dial to your favorite station." She explained. "Lie right now, I can hear your thoughts as clearly as if you were speaking them to me, the nearer the person is to me, the harder it is for me to tune their thoughts out, it takes a load of concentration, so usually, if I'm in the room with one or two other people, I usually let my control slide. There is power in knowing everyone's most intimate thoughts, why do you think no one at the facility would talk to me?" She said with a benign smile. "So you're saying that you know all my thoughts?" Scully said slowly, Candace nodded. "Everything from how your battle with cancer affected you to you're… you're buried feelings for you're partner. I'm telling you, everyone should be lucky enough to be loved as completely as you love him. Too bad you haven't told him." She said, Scully swiftly got to her feet & walked to the window. "You can turn your back all you want, but your mind doesn't lie to me." Candace said. "Don't worry; I won't tell him, but for what it's worth, I think that you should."