Children From A Lesser God
Chapter Twelve: William
Christmas Day
Highway 80, outside Big Springs, Nebraska
08:09
35 weeks gestation
around 6 hours later...
They had been driving on pretty much straight, undisturbed highway for the last six hours, so to come up to another road jam was a ball ache. Probably eventual. Odd? Didn't the majority of Americans have the Christmas holidays off to be with their families? Wasn't this a bit last minute? His family were usually at Martha's Vineyard at least two or three days before Christmas.
Fox taps the steering wheel and suppresses another yawn.
He should have made that stop at that motel they passed back in Grand Island, but she had said she was fine and that he could keep on driving.
But of course, she was fine. She's been sleeping twenty out of twenty four hours a day for the past couple of weeks. The last time Fox went to bed was two days ago. She's had her magic shot and she's being driven around like she's precious cargo - which she is. But, of course she was fine.
He still hasn't heard anything from the Lone Gunmen. But then he'd impulsively thrown their cellphones out the window speeding past Papillon just incase they had gotten into any trouble, so it wasn't likely they were going to be able to contact him. He hated not having them around to ask what he should and should not be doing. They were so much better than him at this. He only had Dana, and she had said to keep on driving. She didn't want to go back to that place, even if it had made her feel better.
Fox agreed it had the worst vibes, but they seemed to actually know what they were doing when it came to her health. How long would it be before her magic shot ran out?
She lets out an over dramatic sigh in the passenger seat next to him, and Fox looks over at her.
Her eyes are screwing the traffic in front of them, like she's wishing she could evaporate all the cars in front of them. Like that X-Men.
It was cute.
"Hey", he calls to get her attention.
Her laser eyes turn on him, but he leans across and kisses her lips softly. "Merry Christmas".
"Merry Christmas", she mumbles.
He smirks, indicating right. He will just continue on Highway 80, he can cross the border over to Colorado further up. Hopefully there the traffic won't be so bad.
~xXx~
Highway 80, outside Bushnell, Nebraska
15:29
7 hours later...
Fox continued on Highway 80 only to pull in at a motel outside Kimball. The, 'TRAFFIC AHEAD LONG DELAYS', was not something he had wanted to entertain on little sleep. All in all, it had only been a seven hour delay and now he was rested and fed and they were on the road again to San Diego.
Did he think San Diego was a wise decision?
He didn't know.
Did he think they would be waiting for them at her mother's house?
Most likely.
But what Dana was going to give birth to wasn't human anyway, and he was quite frankly tired of fucking up on decisions. At least she would be safe with her mother, and be her responsibility like she ought to be. Not his. He would be free to find his own mother. And then in a month or so time, Dana would have her baby and everyone would see that it had nothing to do with his father.
But that was, IF they ever got to California IN THIS CENTURY!
The traffic was even longer and now.
'HEAVY TRAFFIC AHEAD. SEVERE DELAYS. ESSENTIAL TRAVEL ONLY ADVISED'.
Dana looked pissed. But he ignored it and her internal raging fire he knew was directed at him, because he had decided to stop. But he'd needed sleep, and it wasn't like she could share the driving. Fourteen years old, nearly nine months pregnant, hasn't even started Drivers Ed. She could huff and puff, roll her eyes, and pout her lips all she liked, her ass was his and she wasn't going anywhere without him.
"Do you know whats going on?" He asks to the person in the car next to him. He looks the same kind of age as him. The traffic had been moving at a snails pace the last couple of miles but had again come to a complete stop again. He had wound down his window a bit to let some air in, but it hadn't been the satisfying breeze he thought it would be, just the stench of more pissed off-ness and over heated exhaust fumes.
The guy gestures that he doesn't know.
"Some kind of road block at the border". A woman in a different car near him says.
Well, he had guessed that much.
"Nothing on the radio about it". A man wearing a Denver Nuggets cap in another car says.
He didn't realise that his question would attract so much attention, and tries not to judge the man for his team choice.
"Could be some kind of accident but considering how long it's been going on for, my guess is they're looking for someone and they're checking peoples' car before they cross the border", the woman continues.
The colour drains from Fox's face.
Why hadn't he thought about that? Because that was it, wasn't it?! They somehow knew they were in Nebraska and the someone they were looking for was Dana.
But how did they know they were trying to cross state lines? No one but Dana knew his plan.
What or who was it that actually gave them away?
"Nothing on the radio about it", the Dever Nugget man repeats.
That doctor?
Or was it the Lone Gunmen?
If it was, did they need to get out of this car?
No, because if they knew which car they were in, they wouldn't be checking every car.
"Those who trust and believe in Him, don't need no radio to learn His joyous news. The Madonna and Child have returned to Earth. We are all children of God and we must witness and rejoice", a different voice speaks.
Oh great. Even the fanatics seemed to know they were trying to cross the border.
"Amen"
"Amen"
Fuck. That meant they were definitely talking about Dana. And there she was sitting in the front passenger seat, visible for all to see.
Fox leans more forward in his seat and slowly starts to wind up his window.
"Yeah, right. The messiah is returning. You now what, you're all a bunch of freaks for believing any of that crap!"
"You talking about those kid runaways? They think they're here. In Bushnell?"
Luckily, they are in the last lane, so the only people who had a good view of her were the other side of the highway, travelling the opposite direction. Which in a stark contrast, had hardly any cars on it at all.
"I swear if I miss my appointment because of that pervert asshole. I'll tr-"
With the window up, Fox rests his head on the steering wheel.
Pervert asshole?
Where they talking about him?
Is that how people saw him?
He breathes in and out deeply.
And again.
They couldn't be talking about him.
He needs to focus.
Focus on who and what is important.
She is depending on him.
His father is depending on him.
But what, what does he do now?
He turns to look at her.
Her eyes are already on him, wide and panicked.
So it wasn't just him.
This was serious.
They were on to them.
And they were stuck because couldn't exactly turn around.
He concentrates on her eyes. Those blue orbs that he has come to know so well, that go on forever, like their own solar system...
It's too soon. He needs to get her to her mother first before he leaves her. He can't just leave her to them on her own while she's still pregnant. She needs someone who will actually care for her, that has some kind of authority over her and won't be thrown out the room like he was back in Omaha. Someone who doesn't just see her as a host. Someone they can trust.
"Move into the back".
She nods, immediately unbuckling her seat belt.
The car horn blaring loudly behind them makes them both jump.
Did someone spot her?! He panics.
He looks around wildly but there is so much confusion now going on outside as cars start to pull sharply in front of him.
The traffic in the lane ahead of him is moving again. And quite quickly.
No.
Why now?
He needed time.
More car horns sound angrily again behind him.
Fuck!
"OK, move later", he says, pushing her back down into the passenger seat.
~xXx~
Country Road 13
The traffic had only moved for five minutes before it started slowing down again and Fox made a last minute decision, and took a sharp left turn down a dirt track country road, aptly named, 'Country Road 13'. Hoping, '13', wasn't a sign of him literally taking the wrong turn.
Through his wing mirror, he saw a few cars also do the same, which made him relax a bit. There were also a few in front, which made him relax even more. He didn't know where this road led, but it had to better than where the highway had been leading him to.
His turn had made her gasp, and he could now feel her eyes boring into him, but she otherwise stayed silent.
He didn't have any answers for her, so he too stayed silent, keeping his eyes on the road in front of him.
~xXx~
Country Road 11
16:47
over an hour later...
Everything seemed to be going OK until the car a couple hundred yards in front with the Colorado plates Fox had been following suddenly stops.
Fox starts to slow down because he was kind of counting on that car taking the short cut home.
He slows down even more when he realises there are no other cars in front for him to follow either.
His eyes refocus on the stationary car in front. What were they doing anyway? They hadn't pulled in or anything, they just stopped.
He sighs loudly.
The Colorado border was less than twenty miles away. The sign a couple miles back said so. But there were so many turnings, he didn't want to take the wrong one. Logically, he guessed it was a question of just staying on this road, but...
He looks through his rear view mirror and sees that there are a few cars following behind him.
Maybe he should just pull over and just follow them?
Indicating left- "- Fox! "
His heart jumps into his throat over the urgency of her voice and he quickly looks to see what's wrong with her.
But whatever it is, is straight ahead.
Following her gaze, he immediately slows his speed right down to an almost stop.
Someone had gotten out of the stationary car in front of them and was now walking on the road towards them.
He quickly presses his hazard lights on, checking to make sure the cars behind him were also slowing down.
They were.
The person on the road - a woman, he can now distinguish - still walks in their direction.
She stares directly at them with a wide smile on her face.
Did she need help?
He starts to wind his window down."- No!" Dana shrills again quickly, grabbing his arm and causing him to break suddenly.
"What?!"
Why was she so jumpy? She was going to make him have an accident.
Dana continues her fearful stare in front.
He rolls his eyes - But, but the woman is now not actually that far from their car...
She starts to open her arms like she is trying to hug them or something...
Or worship their car...
Dana's fear starts to creep slowly over him, and all he can think is, what if she has a gun somewhere or a knife?! And before he knows it, his foot is on the gas again and he is driving full speed around the woman and her car.
He doesn't look back until they have driven a good couple of hundred yards.
The car is still stationary but he can't see the woman.
None of the other cars appear to be stopping either.
What the fuck even was that?
He reduces his speed, before pulling over and stopping.
He waits for the other cars to pass him, which they do without a problem.
The car is still stationary and he still can't see the woman...
"I think you better move to the back", he resolves.
~xXx~
Weld Country Gas and Diner Stop
17:22
under an hour later...
Fox initially pulled in and stopped because it was what the cars in front had done. He watched people spill out of their cars, have a stretch, fill up on gas, and head to the diner or shop and guessed he should probably do the same.
"Do you need to use the restroom?" He looks over his shoulder to ask her.
She shakes her head, no. "Do you know long until we reach San Diego?"
Fox looks ahead at the long road in front of him and shrugs. It literally looked like they were in the middle of nowhere. When he had checked back in the motel it had said eighteen hours, but who knew how long it was going to take now with this detour? Maybe the diner had wifi, but he doubted it.
He looks at her through the rear view mirror.
She looks sad. Disappointed, maybe? Scared, even? Nervous?
He hadn't actually told her that the reason they were headed to San Diego was to leave her with her mother. But he assumes she's guessed that already and was probably happy about it. She must miss her mother. He doesn't know how long its been since she's seen her, but it's been around three months that she's been living with him. When was the last time she spoke to her? Whenever she talked about her family, it's always before she got pregnant. Fox knows that there has been many times since they have been on the run that he has wanted to call his mother, even just to hear her voice.
... Maybe he will surprise her and allow her to call her mother just before they leave Colorado? Or just after they arrive in California? He can call his own mother too. But then maybe ... maybe it wasn't a good idea?
"I'll go grab us some food. I'm sure they'll have something vegetarian".
She lifts her eyes from her bump to give him a smile, but he thinks it's more for his benefit.
~xXx~
Fox ordered them both the meal deal, but they said he had to wait ten minutes for her garden burger to cook. So he filled up on gas and was now in the store filling a shopping basket up with random items he thought they might need. A torch, that was useful. A couple of thick blankets. A map of the vast nothingness they were approaching, Pawnee National Grassland, that was very useful.
"Is that all?" The woman behind the tiller asks.
Fox looks over his goods. He was hoping to find some cheap throw away cell phones, but no such luck.
"Yes, thank-you, Mam".
"I'm going to have to see your I.D. for the flare guns".
He reaches into his pocket and hands - he looks to see which one he stuffed in his pocket - Robert Klein's I.D.
Maybe the flare guns were a bit excessive.
"This your first time in Pawnee?" She asks, handing him back his I.D.
"Yes", he answers quickly. Seeing the total on the screen, he gives her the money before she asks for it.
"You travelling alone?"
Why is she asking him these questions? "No, with my family", he lies. "My mom just asked me to come in a grab a few things. They're waiting for me in the car".
Because that is something that Fox's mom makes him do.
"Well, you tell you're mom, she has a good son, helping her like that".
Fox had her. Hook, line and sinker.
"Thank-you, Mam", he gives her his best smile.
It was probably just routine. Some kind of safety thing. If this was border control, he'll take it over the ones on the highways.
He collects their food from the diner and then walks to the car, tapping the opposite back passenger window to where Dana is sat.
"What are you doing?" Dana asks when he's in the car.
"Keeping up a rouse", he says, leaving the bags in the back with her and climbing over to the drivers seat.
"How much did you buy?" She asks astonished, and Fox watches her root through the bag, not wanting to miss the moment she sees he's got those MnM's she likes.
~xXx~
Keota, Colorado
19:13
around two hours later...
They stopped a little way after the road stop to eat.
She didn't end up eating the burger he waited ten minutes to be made, because, 'she wasn't hungry'.
Whatever.
He ate it instead, and her fries.
She did at least sip on the drink he'd got her and ate a few MnMs.
He'd only just balled up his rubbish when she asked him if they were going to start moving again, because, 'it was getting dark'. He could see it was getting dark. It was him who was going to be driving through it whilst she most likely pleasantly slept; and thought that she'd better not get hungry for anything else but potato chips.
"Why are you stopping?" She asks in the passenger seat next to him. She had asked him if she could move back after he had finished eating, and because she had looked so miserable, and because she hadn't eaten anything, he agreed, hoping it would put her in a better mood.
He's quietly parked in the drive way of a weathered shack which he guesses was once a house. It was the first 'house' he'd seen since coming off the highway.
Keota, Colorado.
From the looks of it, everything in this... it wasn't really town, not even a hamlet, just a derelict, broken down area, and he didn't blame it's previous residents for having left. Pawnee was just large rocks, the occasional crop circle and a lot of dust. Why would anyone want to live here? Heck, he didn't even want to park here. He had thought he would be driving throughout the night, but with no street lamps and winding unfamiliar roads, it would be safer if they just used the blankets he purchased and rest up until morning.
Fox turns on the overhead light and stretches out his back.
It clicks satisfyingly loud down each vertebra.
He was here. He had managed to get her into Colorado state without having his car checked or being caught. That had to count for something. Maybe it was his Christmas present from the universe? "It's too dangerous to drive", he explains, tossing the keys on the dashboard. "But I've got some blankets. I'll put the seats down in the back. I'm sure it I'll be, sort of comfortable".
Truth, he didn't think it would be comfortable at all, but it was just for one night.
"Please, can we please just keep driving", she says in a small, cry-ey voice.
Was she scared?
"You don't have to be scared. I'm right here and I would never let anyone hurt you", he assures her, but she just drops her gaze to her bump.
He hoped she knew that. He realised he maybe didn't have the best track record ... Or maybe she was right to be scared to be left alone with just him...
Even in the poor light, he can see a tear roll out her eye, down her nose, dropping on her bump.
He watches another one make the same path.
"I'll start driving again as soon as first light hits, I promise".
Not just for her but for himself. Her magic shot was obviously wearing off.
~xXx~
Fox!
Fox wakes up with a start.
Blinking his eyes, he adjusts to the darkness surrounding him.
He is in the trunk of the car. He remembers he had put one of the seats down and convinced her to lie in the back with him. He hadn't realised he had fallen asleep.
He couldn't have been asleep long though... It didn't feel like it. ...It felt like he had only just rested his head.
He blinks more, trying to remember what it was that woke him up... He heard her screaming for him.
A bad dream.
He goes to lay back down, but realises, she is not lying with him!
He unsuccessfully feels around for her. But really, there is only so far away she can be from him as it is very cramped.
He should be feeling her right next. to. him.
"Dana!" He calls, standing up and knocking his head on the low ceiling.
"Fox", she cries out. Sounding like she's in pain.
It hadn't been a dream?
Where was she?
Her call came from up front.
"Where are you?" He asks, tumbling over the seats.
He peers over at her in the front passenger seat.
"What are you doing here? Come lie back down with me. You'll be more comfortable. Come on, I'll help you out".
He feels around for the overhead light so that he can see where the door handle is.
When he can't immediately find it, he feels out the back passenger door handle itself.
He's successful, but now he can't open her front passenger door. It's locked.
"Fuck sake", he mutters.
Of course it wouldn't be open because he'd locked all the doors.
He taps on the window. "Dana".
Why couldn't she just stay where she was? What was her obsession with sitting up front anyway? It was safer her being in the back, where she could be unseen behind the tinted glass. She knew this.
"Dana", he taps on the window again, when she doesn't open it straight away, keeping his voice light and calm.
He hears it unlock.
The overhead light illuminates her as he opens her door and he reaches over to turn it off and on again, in the hopes that it will stay on when he shuts the door.
When he looks at her for the first time, he has to double blink.
"Dana?" He asks, leaning in closer.
Her face is kind of sweaty and contorted.
"Are you sick?"
She lets out an anguished moan in response.
"Dana?" Curling some stray hairs back around her ears.
"He's coming. He's coming now".
She sounded like one of those Nuevo Kings Christian fanatics and he laughed.
The look she threw him.
"Let me help you to the trunk so that you can lie down", he tries again.
"No, need to time contractions", she grits out.
His heart misses a beat. ... "Contractions?"
She nods, looking him in the eyes; her own quickly filling up with tears. "I wasn't sure before because they're not really painful, but I've been timing them and they've getting closer and closer", she hiccups.
Closer and closer.
"Dana". He blinks. "You can't- ... Brax-Brax", he loops. Fuck it, he can't remember. "Those fake contractions. You must be having those fake contractions", he reasons with her urgently. Because she couldn't be having real labour contractions. Not now. Not out here in the middle of nowhere. Not when she still had a month left of her pregnancy. Not when it was Christmas-fucking-Day and there were psychos calling her the reincarnated Madonna with Child.
She blinks her eyes and the tears roll down her. "That's what I thought at fir-"
"-No", he interrupts. Leaning over to grab the car keys off the dashboard. "That is what is happening, Dana", he assures her.
"That is what is happening", he assures himself, after he has shut her door.
She is not going into labour.
The baby isn't ready to come.
That was what the nurse said just earlier today!
She wasn't dilated or showing any signs of early labour. She couldn't be in labour.
"How much time is there between each contraction?" He asks, after he has belted himself in the driver's seat and turned on the ignition.
"Around ten minutes".
Jesuschristtenminutes! That wasn't long, and his palms start to sweat on the steering wheel.
Actually, his whole body sweats.
His stomach clenches painfully.
- And then, a glimmer of hope. "You can't be going into labour, your waters haven't broken?" He looks at her.
She is silent but the overhead light is still on, so she can't hide from him.
And her face gives away everything.
"When did they break, Dana?" He asks, well aware of how dangerously low his voice sounds.
"After you left me"
"-Left you?" it's a knee jerk reaction, his temper spiking, because it sounded like she is blaming him for her not telling him her waters broke. "I've never left you?!"
"You did!" She shouts back. "Back at the hospital, you left me!" She cries, her hand resting on her bump.
Fox purses his lips, because he doesn't currently have the patience for theatrics between them but also because yeah, he did leave her. He hadn't wanted to. He wouldn't have if Ringo hadn't volunteered they leave. But that so wasn't what was important right now.
"When I asked you earlier what they did to you, you said they just gave you that shot. I was in the room when they said that you were not showing any signs of early labour and you weren't ready to give birth. So, what else did they do to you, Dana?" He asks very slowly, probably failing to keep his temperament calm because he swears if he ever sees that doctor and that nurse again, he'll rip both of their heads off.
"They didn't do anything else", sobbing, and he winces at her unearthly high pitched tone.
"But your waters broke?" Still calm, flicking his eyes to the time on the dashboard.
20:01
Which would mean it had been maybe 18 hours since her waters had broken... She definitely could be in labour.
"I don't know" She whimpers. "It wasn't what I thought or expected. No water came out".
Fox frowns. "What came out instead?"
"Blood", she sniffs.
Blood.
Fox nods.
He had to get her to a hospital.
This wasn't going to be a normal birth.
The Lone Gunmen had warned him that it was a hybrid, not a baby.
A hybrid that might be born with an oversized head; webbed toes and hands; and the chance that Dana wouldn't survive the pregnancy.
God. He wished he had just left her in that hospital.
"Are you angry with me?" She sniffs.
"I'm not angry with you", he answers automatically.
"I didn't know what was happening to me", that pitch returning. "All I knew is that I didn't want to be alone in that place away from you".
"Dana", he says and he doesn't continue until she's looking him in the eye.
Her eyes are all swollen and she looks absolutely petrified - which made two of them. "We're going to find the nearest hospital and you're going to give birth in a hospital, OK?"
She nods.
~xXx~
Fox rips the car out of the drive - only to stop sharply at the end of the street.
There was a house with a light on?
And it had cars outside that looked they were still used.
If there were people inside, they might know where the nearest hospital was?
He fails to get out of the car on his first attempt because he is still belted in, and then almost trips running up the long driveway past the cars, but he doesn't have to worry about alerting anyone for help because the door opens before he's even reached anywhere near it.
"Please you got help me", he rushes. "I need to find-"
He stops.
Everything about him, stops, when he realises who has opened the door.
It was the woman from the road, and she had that same wide, creepy smile on her face.
And behind her was the man with the Denver Nuggets cap on.
What ... ?
"Who is it?" A voice from inside, and because the door is wide open, Fox can see through to a crowded open room, and in the middle of all the people, is a crib.
What. The. ...
And although he couldn't be sure, it looked empty.
Was that for Dana's baby?
He didn't want to find out.
"Sorry", Fox staggers back. "Sorry to disturb. I don't need your help"
"Fox Mulder?" One of them calls after him.
Shit.
"Fox Mulder?" A different voice. "Do you have Dana Scully?"
In the car, he turns off the overhead light, because of course it's still on and it glorifies Dana for all to see.
"What did they say?" She asks after a while.
FuckingShit! He had just gone full circle to the house they first parked at.
He only answers her when he reads the sign, 'You are now leaving Keota'. "They couldn't help us. They didn't know the area. They were tourists like us. But it's OK, we'll find a hospital soon", he says, briefly resting a hand on her leg before turning on the overhead light and getting the map off the dashboard.
He opens it on the steering wheel, searching the map, looking over the landmarks, concentrating on the map's edges.
Greeley.
Greeley, Colorado looked like the next big town because there were two highways around it.
And it looked pretty straight forward from Keota. Down, right and then sideways left.
"OK", he gives her the map. "We just left Keota. Greeley is where we are headed. I need you to direct me to Greeley. There is a great hospital in Greeley. That is where you're going to give birth. OK, Scully?" He looks over at her.
And bless her, she's nodding.
He looks down to her bump, her hand is on it.
"Are you having another contraction?"
"Not yet. It's weird. It's not how I thought it would feel".
"What do you mean?"
"I thought it would be a lot more painful. I can ... feel ... everything that's happening, but it's not really hurting as much".
"Well, that's good isn't it?"
"Yes", she sniffs.
"See. You're going to be fine".
He didn't dare tell her that he thought he saw those people file out that house and into the cars.
He didn't dare tell her they knew their names.
~xXx~
20:14
When they made it onto proper road, Fox had the biggest release of anxiety he felt he had ever had in life.
She was doing her map reading job properly and had told him when to turn right.
He wouldn't get his hopes up yet - he kept flicking his eyes to his rear view mirror, vigilant for headlights - but, it seemed like they were going in the right direction, unfollowed.
~xXx~
Briggsdale, Colorado
20:31
fifteen minutes later...
Fox's fingers tingle on the steering wheel when he reads, 'Welcome to the town of Briggsdale'. Towns led to cities. Cities had hospitals. Dana had so far had two more contractions. They were getting closer together and lasting longer, there had only been six minutes between the last two.
"It's here I need to turn left?" He asks her.
When she doesn't respond, he looks over at her to find her bent as far as her seat belt will allow her.
Fuck.
That wasn't long at all between the last one at all.
Please.
Please God.
Do
Not
Let
Her
Have
This
Baby
In
This
Car.
He's about to ask her how long it had been since the last contraction, when he notices headlights in his rear view mirror, as about three or four cars start to pull out of one driveway consecutively.
Not leaving anything to coincidence, he increases his speed from 60 to 90.
It puts some distance between him and the headlights but he also misses the turning because he is driving too fast.
But before he can get worked up over it, on his right, he sees a sign for, 'Crow Valley Family Campground', and impulsively turns right. He had to turn round anyway. Maybe luck would be on his side and they would drive right past him. Or maybe luck wouldn't be on his side and-
- Fox has to swerve immediately left to stop him from knocking over a woman standing ahead of his car.
Heading into the trees, like a deer in headlights, he looses all functionality and takes his hands and foot off the steering wheel and pedal in surrender.
He hears Dana scream and his hand makes a desperate grab for the hand break, pulling it with so much force, he is surprised he doesn't rip it out. His other hand shoots out in a fist to protect Dana's bump from the crash.
The car makes a soft bump against the tree and Fox lets his whole body slump. Grateful that the airbags weren't triggered, because there was no way that his lousy fist would have protected her bump from it.
"Uegh, Fox", she groans.
He looks up to see she is still leaned over her the dashboard.
It wouldn't have just been her bump, it would have been her whole face too.
"I know, I know. But it will all be over soon. Soon, you will be back with your family and you won't need to have anything to do with me. Are you-" - Her passenger door opens and his whole body goes rigid.
"Are you guys alright?" A woman with dark hair asks bewildered.
How did - ... "-Stay back!" Fox shouts, flying to get out of the car, only to find himself trapped again by his seatbelt. "Stay away from her!" He rushes round the car desperately, pulling the woman away from her.
How did she open the door? The doors were all supposed to be locked.
"- Hey!"
"You just almost knocked me over, you jerk! I'm only trying to help!".
He rests a hand on Dana's back ignoring the other voices. "Are you alright?"
"- Hey!" - Fox is jolted as he feels a strong force pull at the back of his top.
"Hey. Look at me!"
He's whipped around violently and then lifted up in the air by the scruff of his top.
He dangles over an oversized lumberjack who looks like he could quite easily snap his neck.
"Who do you think you are, that you can just push my wife about?!"
"Jed, Jed", the woman says calmly. "Put him down. He's just a kid. Put him down".
"Not until he says he's sorry".
Fox glares down at the man. "I'm sorry", he bites out because he is and he's scared this guy might actually snap his neck.
"To her, not me".
Fox looks at the woman. "I'm sorry".
The guy puts him down slowly.
Fox pulls away from him as soon as his feet touch the floor. Taking his time to fix his t-shirt, trying desperately to recompose himself, and get the upper hand over his floundering emotions and wildly beating heart. He shoots the guy another glare, before turning back to Dana.
Whom, from the looks of her face, looks like she saw everything.
It makes him feel pathetic. He may as well be made of straw the way that guy picked him up. He couldn't protect her. He can't even drive without crashing a car. Fox starts to feel tears collect in his eyes and he wipes them away. But they only collect more.
A hand rests on his shoulder making him flinch.
It's warm and soft, and nice.
"Let me help you", the woman says.
"I don't need your help", Fox croaks, shrugging her hand off him.
He takes Dana's seatbelt off her and helps her out.
"Are you OK?" He asks.
She nods, before hugging him tightly.
He allows himself to cry.
"I'm so sorry", he says, kissing her forehead. "I'm so sorry. I'm going to get you to a hospital now, OK?"
She nods in his arm.
"But I need you to sit in the back, OK?"
He opens the back door without the key, so it's either automatic with him crashing the car, or the crash has caused the car to glitch.
After he has gotten Dana seated, and shuts the doors, he turns to find the couple still watching him. "I'm sorry", he mumbles again to them, genuinely.
He assesses the front of the car. The headlights were on and there was no steam or anything. The front was just dented a bit. He was sure it was still safe to drive.
"I'm a nurse".
"Monica. Stay out of it. He's already said he doesn't want your help".
"I work at North Colorado Medical Centre in Greeley. It's just 30 miles out, I can help her".
"I don't need your help", Fox affirms, walking back round to the driver's door.
"Please", her warm, soft hand stops his shoulder again just before he's about to open the driver's door. "Let me help her".
~xXx~
Driving
Dana lets out a loud cry and Fox thinks, for the millionth time, that surely it made more sense that he should be the one driving, and Monica, the qualified nurse, be the one in the back with Dana. He kept trying to argue his case and she kept insisting that it was quicker her driving because she knew the way and that he was doing a great job.
But Fox didn't feel so great.
Not with him hunched over Dana's naked lower half trying to get the guts to see how dilated she was.
He had a blanket underneath her and the other at the ready for the baby. The torch was in his right hand. He would be using it to ... examine her. When he bought these items earlier, this was not what he had in mind they were going to be used for.
He turns the torch on and points it purposefully at her bump, building himself up.
He slowly inches the light down and is met with her ginger pubic hairs.
He wonders if that is what gave them away at the hospital? If they had known that she was Dana Scully.
"What do you see Robert? Do you see a head?" Monica asks.
Fox sits back, pulling the torch off Dana.
He didn't want to see a head.
Even if it was a normal sized baby's head.
He didn't want to see it.
She was the nurse.
She said she would help them.
"Are you sure we shouldn't swap?"
But before Monica can answer, Dana takes a fistful of his hair and pulls his head down between her legs.
He shines the light on her.
"I don't see a head", he says in relief.
"How many centimetres is she?"
"What?"
"Use your fingers to gauge how many centimetres dilated she is".
The woman had to be enjoying this.
There was no way she couldn't be doing this herself.
Fox breathed out, but before he had even touched her. Water gushed out of her. Warm and wet.
Did she just pee on him?
Fox recoils.
"Ehh", he stammers.
"What is it?" Monica.
"I think her waters just broke".
For real this time.
~xXx~
"What's this" Monica mumbles and Fox looks up from where he is huddled over Dana. ... What was that?
There was a wall of strong lights in what looked like some kind of blockade?
"I can hardly see anything", Monica complains, slowly her speed right down.
Then suddenly there are bursts of blue.
"It must be the police? Maybe there was some kind of accident", slowing down even more.
Police?!
Fox looks around for a sign of an accident, but he can't see anything.
He can't see any other cars on the road apart from theres.
He looks behind him and sees a line of headlights.
"Where they always behind us?" Fox asks her.
"Maybe", she says stopping the car.
Fox squints at the long line of silouhettes in front of the cars. In the middle, further front than everyone else, stands a man.
Don't ask how he knows it's a man from that distance, but he knows.
And what's more, he knows which man.
He can picture him smoking his cigarette in his long trench coat. He can still smell that particular brand of cigarettes.
'Fox'.
His phantom voice still sends shivers down his back.
"Please, keep driving", he asks.
"I can't. It's the police", turning on the overhead light.
Fox crouches low.
Was there anyway they would let Monica through without them asking to look in the back or her telling them she had them in the back?
Peering, he sees that the figure in the middle has started to walk towards him.
The pulse in Fox's neck notches up to overdrive.
"Please. Please, keep driving", Fox pleads.
This is precisely why he was the one who was supposed to drive.
"Hey, what's the matter with-"
But her speech stops abruptly.
So does Fox's heartbeat as he watches those cars behind speed past them and crash into the police cars.
The explosion is loud and the fire ...
"- What happened?!" Dana starts screaming. "What was that?! Fox? ...Robert?" She cries. "What happened?!"
But Fox doesn't even know how to describe what happened.
~xXx~
Monica left the car to see if there was anyone who needed help. Fox didn't stop her because she was a nurse, and that's what nurses did. She had thrown him her cellphone in his direction telling him to call 911, but he didn't look for it.
"What happened?" Dana asks again. Her hand latched on to his like a life line.
Fox looks away from the carnage to look down at her. Her whole body looks as though it has been washed in her tears.
He crouches over her and strokes her forehead.
Not believing anything.
Not believing what's going on outside.
Not believing that after so long of waiting, here they were. Dana about to give birth.
"There were some police cars. But then these other cars came behind and crashed into the police cars". He was aware he sounded like a three year old, but that was the best he could do.
"Do you think they were here for us?" She sobs.
He didn't know. The police, the people in the other cars, or both. But those people most likely saved them from the police.
But why?
Why would they do that?
Shots fire and Fox immediately forces his hand out of Dana's.
Monica?
He peers over the front seats.
Anther shot fires.
He sees a figure try to run from the wreckage.
Monica.
Fox quickly scrambles into the shopping bag and pulls out the flare guns. Not knowing how he reached for them before his brain even thought to do so.
He quickly jumps over into the driver's seat and winds down the window, slowly moving the car towards the wreckage.
The unmistakable sound of a shotgun fires.
Fox aims the first flare gun at the wreckage.
It doesn't really make an impact other than make a loud sound, the actual sight of it lost to the blazing explosion.
"Were they shooting at you?" Fox asks when she's in the car.
"I don't think so. Move back and let me drive".
"No".
"If they shoot. They're going to shoot at the driver. Stay hidden with her".
"I can ask you to do that", his pulse picking up over the prospect of being shot. Surely, this isn't what his father thought would happen when he told him to drive. Surely, he never imagined Fox in this scenario.
"I'm asking you to do it for her and your baby".
He feels like he should correct her and tell her that it is neither of their baby, but then he hears Dana groan.
He can't leave her.
He needs to make sure she makes it back to her family.
He gives Monica the last flare and moves to go be with Dana.
"The baby's coming. The baby's coming now, Fox", she whispers, when he grabs her hand back.
"We're going to get you to a hospital soon".
~xXx~
When the car stops again, it's not at the hospital. It's inside someone's garage.
"This isn't the hospital", Fox..
It wasn't five minutes ago Dana pulled his hair back between her legs to show him that the baby's head was making an appearance.
Thick, black, curly hair. Juxtaposed against her white body and ginger pubic hair.
Crowning.
That's what Monica said was happening.
Fox is grateful for her help and her knowledge but he swears he will bludgeon this woman with his torch if she is playing any games with them.
"I know, it's my house. If she's crowning already, the baby will be here very soon, it's too far for the hospital now", getting out the car. She couldn't find a way around the wreckage, so had to turn back and go a longer way. The back door opens, "I have a bathroom in just the other room. We'll both carry her".
~xXx~
"See, isn't this much nicer, Laura?" Monica asks turning the water off.
Dana in all fairness, did look more relaxed.
Monica moves towards Dana but she flinches away from the woman. "Don't leave me", gripping harder to Fox.
He crouches next to her and looks her deep in the eyes. "I promise, I'm not going to leave you".
"Laura, I'm only here to help you".
Fox can tell by Dana's face, that the woman's reassurances meant nothing to her.
"Maybe you should get in there with her?" Monica suggests.
He nods, not really knowing if he wants to.
~xXx~
The bath was large and triangle shaped, perfect really for giving birth. "It's quite nice", he says smiling to Dana.
She glares back at him.
"You're doing so well", he appeases, carefully moving to lean over her and giving her a kiss on her forehead.
She finally lets go of his hand and wraps her arms around him.
"We can try moving her into a squat position. It might be more comfortable for her".
Dana allowed Monica to help her into a squat over Fox, and slumped over him immediately. It felt like he was now doing most of the heavy lifting, but she had done so much already.
Who knew his little bird had all of this in her?
He pecked her lips and their eye lashes became entangled in each other. Fox watched their whole three months together in her eyes.
Then she started to whimper and she dug her head into his neck.
~xXx~
It felt like forever to Fox, listening to Monica telling Dana when she should and shouldn't push, while he held her. It was amazing, it was like he could - to a fraction - feel the motions her body was going through. When, finally ... he heard the cry, he and Dana both locked eyes with each other at the same time and blinked.
"It's a boy. Born 23:00 hours on Christmas Day".
Fox left Dana's eyes to see what was between them, and...
He didn't have an oversized head, or webbed toes - or feet, or a tail.
He looked like a normal baby.
"He's got a loud cry".
Fox nods.
"That's always a good sign. If one of you holds him, I'll go find something to cut the umbilical cord with".
Dana.
It had to be, Dana.
Monica couldn't whilst it was still physically attached to Dana.
Fox was holding Dana...
But her hands still clung on to him.
He shifted his eyes from the baby to look at her.
She was looking at what she birthed nervously.
"I'll hold him", Fox resolves, gently removing one of his arms off Dana.
He could hold them both.
Monica helped him move his arm into the right position before she carefully placed the baby in his arms.
A warmth spread over Fox's chest.
He held him closer so he was sure not to fall.
"Hey", he whispers to him. "Hey", louder.
But he still cries. Fox snuggles the baby even closer to him, placing a kiss on his forehead and it's cries halt, opening his eyes to look at him. "Look at that!" To Dana, but not taking his eyes off him. "He has your colour eyes".
She says nothing, but he feels her rest her head on his shoulder.
"Don't let her take him", she whispers when Monica returns.
~xXx~
Christmas Day
Monica's house, Colorado
0 days old.
Still only in his wet boxers, Fox cradles the baby whilst Monica helps Dana with the placenta and aftercare.
5 pound 8 ounces. 14 inch head circumference and 18 inches in length. He had a bright pink clip thing to secure the knot tying the umbilical cord, which Monica said would fall off when it's ready.
Monica had given him a warm towel to wrap the baby in and he now started to gently rub off, what looked like cream cheese off the baby.
He was dark.
No accusations about anyone from Dana's family or his own impregnating Dana would hold. It was plain as day.
He was dark. ... But he also had a lot of pink in him.
Pink lips too that he seemed to like to pout, like Dana.
Two hands, each with a thumb and four fingers.
Two feet, each with a big toe and four piggies.
Darkish junk.
Apart from his eye colour, he looked nothing like Dana.
But then, he was never going to, she was just his host...
But whose was he? Who did he belong to?
The baby stares up at him intently, his fist tightly gripping Fox's finger.
Fox wondered if he was reading his mind.
But then he nestled against his chest, did a big yawn and closed his eyes.
Fox watches as his little chest rises and falls, completely in awe of him. He was a whole month early, yet here he was, breathing in and out all by himself.
Fox wiggled his finger in the baby's still tight fist.
And he was strong.
~xXx~
December 26th
01:12
two hours later...
two hours old.
Fox holds the fussing baby whilst he watches Dana sleep, waiting for her to wake up.
There is a soft knock on the door of the room they're in and Fox turns to see Monica watching them from the door.
She's also washed and changed into clean clothes.
Fox offers her a smile.
"How is everyone?"
"We're all fine".
She sits at the end of the bed, her eyes on the baby. "Is he everything you expected?"
Fox frowns, not really understanding what she is implying by her question. "I didn't really know what to expect", he answers honestly.
"She seems ... distant, from him".
Her comment makes the hairs on Fox's back raise.
"What happened to your baby?" He asks instead. He'd had a wander around the house earlier. He saw the baby room with no baby in it. Monica had things that Dana and the baby needed ready on hand.
"He was early and died".
"That has to be hard when you deliver babies as a job".
"Actually this was my first delivery. I'm a nurse, not a midwife".
The baby lets out a whimper and Fox holds him closer against his chest. "Thank-you".
"Your welcome. I can feed him if you like. He's probably hungry".
"OK", he says, because he's sure he is. He was thinking maybe he should buy him some bottles and formula, but he didn't want to leave Dana and the baby alone. And as Dana seemed to be currently incapacitated ... The plan had been to leave the baby at the hospital but now - Fox watches dumbly as Monica starts to unbutton her top. "Oh", realising that she meant feed feed him. Not with a bottle.
Monica reaches for him and he passes her the baby, who starts crying loudly.
"Maybe I should -"
"-Fox?" Dana.
He takes the baby back quickly from Monica and turns to look at Dana, whose scowling at him.
He scowls back at her, mouthing, 'Rob'.
"Robert", she corrects. She winces as she tries to sit up and he moves to try and help as best as he can with one hand.
"Give him to me", she says when she's settled how she wants to be.
But Fox instinctively holds the baby closer. Thinking of the time she said she hated him. The times she rubbed her bump with uncertain affection. His father told him to protect her and the baby.
"He wants me, give him to me", she says, and there is something dangerous in her voice.
The baby's cries get louder and so does Fox's protectiveness of him.
She said that she wanted to leave him in the hospital.
She hadn't held him or really looked at him once since giving birth.
What if she went all crazy on him, and he was so small and defenceless...
"Fox", she whispers quietly. "Give me my baby", her voice shakey.
Her words send chills down his body, but he slowly inches the baby into her waiting arms, worried she is going to blow there - probably over already - cover.
He stays close and vigilant.
But she's right, as soon as he is in her arms, he stops crying, and like a little puppy with it's mother, he starts sniffing around her for his food.
He didn't do that when Monica held him.
He must know. He must know that Dana is ... well.. his.
But she's not holding his head correctly because she's trying to take her top off, and it just hangs backwards and he starts crying again, loud.
"Here, let me-", he tries to help but she bats his hand away, leaving Fox to recoil.
"Can you give me some privacy, please", she asks coldly.
"OK", he says dumbly. Standing up and making eye contact with Monica, who looks like she also doesn't want to leave the baby alone with her either.
"Fo- Rob", Dana calls suddenly.
Fox had been just about to close the door.
"Look!" Astonishment and happiness clear her voice.
He walks closer to her to see her grinning down at the baby with tears in her eyes as he feeds contently off of her.
He kisses the top of forehead, sitting next to her.
"Well done, Dana", he whispers into her ear.
~xXx~
03:22
Fox moves quickly at the noise coming from outside the house. He had woken up an hour ago and had been watching Dana sleeping with the baby tucked protectively at her side.
His brain had never worked so hard while he tried to figure out the best plan, that kept all three of them safe, as well as their fathers and her brothers. It was naive to think they would stop coming after them, literally or figuratively, unless they actually had the baby.
He kept thinking that maybe Dr Calderon had made mistake. Maybe this was just a normal baby. But then Gibson Praise had looked like a normal child, and nobody heard of him anymore.
William. That's what she said she was going to name him, after his father.
That's was who he really needed to get in contact with.
He asked if that meant she was going to keep him. She had said she still didn't know, but she had birthed him, so she had a right to name him.
He'd been thinking, if she does decide to keep him, it didn't change anything really. They could do a DNA test and they could see that he wasn't his father's child. But would they let her keep him?
Or was it all over now? He couldn't have known of course, if that was the Cigarette Smoking Man, it was too far away. His brain probably supplied that it was him, because he is the one he fears most.
Dana had mentioned Mexico. She stated quite confidently that they wouldn't be able to find them in Mexico.
'Don't you miss your family?'
'Everything is different now', she had said, looking down at the baby.
Fox was pretty sure they could find them in Mexico, but he was also pretty sure it was delirium which was speaking and encouraged her to go back to sleep.
Truth was, now that the baby was here, and Fox had seen him and held him, looked into his eyes, felt the protectiveness for him rush through him. Everything had altered for him too.
"Fox?" She calls him, her voice worried, as he's about to exit the bedroom door.
"I'm checking it out".
He quietly tiptoes down the unfamiliar stairs, picking up some kind of heavy wooden looking ornament on the way, but when he peaks round, he sees that it is just Monica.
She seemed to know he was there and makes eye contact with him. "I got rid of your car. Got you another".
Fox looks at her bewildered, putting the ornament in his hand carefully on the table.
"What money do I owe?"
"Nothing. My brother owns an auto shop. He will use your car for parts. It's not as fancy as the old one, but it will do. I also put a baby seat in there".
"Thank-you".
She nods.
Who was she?
How did she understand what had to be done?
"I'm making you a bag up to get you started", she indicates to all the baby things on the table. "I need you to leave before the morning. My husband will be coming back and I can't have him see you here with the baby. He still, we are still coming to terms. This trip was supposed to be our way of getting away from it. Not only that, he'll ask questions".
Fox gulped, he had guessed their cover was likely blown anyway.
"I'm not going to ask questions. So you don't need to give me any answers".
Fox didn't know what to say. Thank-you didn't seem enough. "Listen, Laura doesn't know if she's even going to keep the baby. Maybe you could keep it?"
"You can't do that. You can't just offer people babies"
Fox shrugs. "Why not? You're good people"
"Because it's her baby, and she is the one who gets decide".
"Why did you do it then? Why did you help us?"
She shrugs, "because you needed help, and I could offer you that help".
~xXx~
December 27th
San Diego, California
2 days later
2 days old.
Her parents house was boarded up and empty.
"I don't understand", she says.
"It's OK, we said that this might happen, remember?"
She nods. Taking a deep breath in and a deep breath out.
Dr Caulderon's clinic looked like it had been torched before it had the wrecking ball put through it, so just boarded up was OK.
"We could go to Mexico?"
"What about your family?"
"That's all changed now".
AN: Edited, 15/10/20 All through out this fic I wasn't going to have the baby born on christmas day because that was so corny and also not important to the plot but when i was checking the dates i put in for the last chapter it could only be born on christmas day unless i tried to think of material of what they could do in an extra day, which I wasn't going to. I think there is just going to be one chapter left. Which is quite sad for me because this is officially my last x-files fic. I'm so glad others continue to enjoy it too. Until next update!