Chapter Nine: Smoke and Mirrors:

Alexandria, Virginia, January 14, 1999:

John Doggett watched as his son stood ready to attack. The boy was small for his age, but then again Doggett had been too, but he was a strong boy. He was happy Barbra had agreed to more children, at first she had refused, only wanting one, but then she saw how happy Luke made their family and so they had added two more, Greta (his wife's choice of name) and Anna and had moved from their small first house to a larger four bedroom. Doggett did not know this, but that kept his family safe, by having a larger family he had saved his son's life and did not even know it. Though he had caught Nicholas Regali who had an eye on his son, and not in a good way. Regali never went to trial as it seemed he hung himself in his cell. It was no great loss, but that was the final straw that got Doggett to move to the DC area where Barbra had her parents living and it had taken a great strain off the Doggett family.

Luke was now a brown belt in karate, he would have to work on his weapons study to advance, but for now his foot and hand work were perfect. Greta and Anna were in karate too and all the children were required to take piano lessons to balance out the karate. Luke was not allowed on any sports teams, not because his parents were mean, but because his father did not see the point of a child going into sports before high school, there was simply too great a chance for injury, though he did allow karate but that was for self defense. He even took his kids to the shooting range though Barbra had to be with him and the children, and in fact she went with them when he could not. She was fully on board with his job, though he could not always be there for his family and it was very hard, she taught her children to be proud of their father and the work he did.

As soon as Luke was done with his match, Doggett went and congratulated him and walked to where Barbra was waiting, they had to drive separate most days as Doggett was on call, but for America and the people they were willing to do what it took. Barbra had seen the evil out there and knew her husband was the one who could bring it down, besides he was good to the children and loved them dearly, she was not going to be selfish and demand he take a safer job. It would not be right, though she did worry so very much about him. Luke knew that his dad was going to have to head back to work, that he had made sure to fit his match into his schedule, he wanted his dad around more but knew he was hunting bad guys and so he did not mind as much. He wanted to hunt bad guys too when he grew up.

"I love you guys." Doggett said giving Barbra a quick kiss, "I have to get back to work."

"Stay safe, okay?" Barbra said, "we need you."

"I know, I will be fine, just got a missing person case now, but we will find him." Doggett said.

"I will pray that you do." Barbra replied.

"See you later sport." Doggett said to Luke, "you did very well out there today."

"Thanks dad, thank you for coming." Luke said, "thank you."

"Of course, you know I will always be there for you, always." Doggett said.

"Go find who ever it is that is missing." Barbra said.

"I will, I love you guys." Doggett replied.

He left and headed back to work, and saw a man who he hated but had to work with on occasion. The man reeked of more than cigarette smoke, he reeked of evil and Doggett hated him. Mulder was out as was Scully and so he was the only one to talk to this man. He wanted him to compromise his standards, but he had refused time and time again, the only reason the man did not see him as much of a threat is that he did not believe in the conspiracy, at all. Still he did not trust the man and knew he had something to do with Stephan disappearing. He went and got a cup of coffee, offering one to the smoking man who refused, Doggett was a polite man after all.

"What can I help you with?" Doggett asked.

"What do you know of Stephan Stone?" The smoking man asked lighting up.

"Not much, he has helped profile some cases, we use him as an asset, good one too, helped put away Edward Jones, we had nothing on the man until Stone came along and was able to help us find his warehouse as it were."

"Have you visited with him outside work?" The smoking man asked.

"No, why would I, look all I know of the man is he is or was British, he is working to get his citizenship here, Interpol did not find anything on him, he is what he says he is. Prints came back clean, his family story checks out. Which is strange that he is missing now."

"Perhaps it is not." The smoking man replied taking a drag, "a bit of advice, certain things are dangerous, perhaps it is wise to leave them alone." The smoking man said softly, "then again some things are valuable."

"Don't threaten me, and quit with the riddles, you came to me to help me, and now you threaten me!" Doggett said starting to get mad.

"That is because he is not on your side." Mulder said, "let me speak to him, now."

Something about what Mulder said got Doggett to do just that. There was something going on here and he had seen Mulder's dark side, and he did not like it. Yet Mulder was not a bad man at all, just one who would do anything for the truth, the death of his family had nearly sent him over the edge and now he was not going to back down from anything. Once Doggett had left Mulder faced the man he had hated for years, oh he pretended to not know who this man was, pretended to not remember him with his family, but he knew him well. The smoking man was his uncle, and an evil man, the only reason Mulder was still breathing was the fact that this man did not want to harm family, or at least that is what he believed. Mulder was not buying that at all, the smoking man wanted something from him and so this cat and mouse game continued.

"What do you want?" Mulder asked the smoking man, "for Stone what do you want?"

"I have no idea what you are taking about." The smoking man replied lighting up again.

"Yea, you do, what do you want for him?" Mulder said, "he is not part of any of this, of you or your sick and twisted games."

"Covarrubias, alive and unharmed." The smoking man replied.

"No, she is ours, you know what she helped with, what she did." Mulder countered.

"That is the only way you are going to get him back." The smoking man said, "it's a one time deal, you have an hour."

Mulder went to Skinner who was not happy, yet an innocent life was on the line and Stone was an asset they could not afford to loose. Magical assets with the mind Stone had who would even work with the FBI were few and far between. Publicly the cases he helped on were difficult ones and it was his profiling that brought them in, and that was part of the truth. The other part was the fact that he was magical and so were the criminals he helped profile and bring down. That was the official reason that Mulder was doing this, the private, well that was simple, Stephan Stone was family now and he was not going to abandon true family now. Skinner was not happy, but he knew how valuable Stone was and knew they had no choice in this at all.

"Krycek did not find anything." Mulder said the charms in place, "we have no choice but to do this."

"I was hoping we did not have to loose her to them, this will set everything back." Skinner replied, "John still does not know."

"Nor will he, for his safety, I hate doing this, you know this is not how I like doing things, I am becoming them!" Mulder said.

"No, you are not, you are a man who has chosen to walk away from what your family stood for and do the right thing." Skinner said, "make the deal."

"Yes sir." Mulder said, "I just wish I could kill him."

"You can't, not yet, but one day that bastard and his kind will die." Skinner replied, "go make the deal before I kick your ass."

"Yes sir, going now." Mulder said, "can I at least beat the rat up?"

"Officially, no." Skinner replied.

Mulder met the smoking man on the mall, and the deal was made. Stephan would be delivered the next day, in a prisoner exchange. Mulder hated this, every time he got a head and seemed to be close to doing anything to the syndicate, things like this happened. At least the syndicate did not know the work being done on the Stughold Mining Facility; he would be dead if they did find out. Stephan was a great help with that too, he knew so much and Mulder knew there was something more to the man than he let on, Melissa knew this too but Mulder was smart enough not to say a word about it. There were things he was not suppose to know, and he was fine with that now, a few years ago not so much, but now, well Melissa was right to keep him in the dark, he was far too much of a liability if he was caught and tortured and he knew that. He will give up his secrets faster than anything, and he hated that about himself but what could he do about that?

Mulder loved his country, and what it stood for; he was beginning to think maybe it was not the aliens as the threat at all. The Syndicate just did too much evil to justify being around after all. What had really happened at that crash site in Roswell all those years ago? He had to go slow, the death of Deep Throat taught him that much, when he first start this hunt he had gone too fast and got in too deep, it nearly cost him Dana a few times and now he was backing off and going slower. Though he was sure that was not going to help protect anyone. So far Melissa was able to help in her own way and hopefully her help would keep them out of serious trouble. Though Mulder knew he was a trouble magnet of the worst kind some days.

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Not a long chapter, but packed with as much stuff as I could get into it. So yea, the whole "CSM as Mulder's father" that is not reliable at all, but uncle? Yea, that works, as it is a new angle but one I like. I don't see the Mulder-Spender families as good, well all but Mulder. Yes Doggett has a happy family life here, someone should in the series so yes, it is different here. Though much of the show stays the same, accept for Spender never taking over the X-Files, that was Doggett who was able to keep Mulder and Scully on them. Though Mulder is reigned in a bit for his safety. Mulder keeps Doggett in the dark not because he does not trust him, he does but to protect him.

Anyway, please review, it is how I get paid!