Title – Atonement
Summary – As the hunt for a missing child intensifies, Will and Brody part ways both in a professional and personal manner.
"Atonement"
There is a weight with vessels that weave through the solid metal with a beating spirit in the core. The weight lives, pumping the blood through its vessels every single day. The days are drawn out, painted with loss and confusion. The weight's mind often contemplates the decisions of the past with painstaking agony. That weight with its mind and core is my heart. I live with the guilt and grief of letting you go. Years ago, so long ago that you cannot remember, I was faced with a reckoning. I could have kept you with me, could have run away and never looked back to the odd surroundings that had somehow become my life. Or I could have given you up in hopes that the darkness would not follow you into a new home with parents who were not hunted by secret governments or alien beings.
I do not need to tell you the path that I set into motion. I loved you more than anything in the entire world, and I knew that I could not keep you safe. As I signed the papers that would make you no longer mine, I signed away a piece of my soul. I know that I can no longer claim you as my son, but I feel the motherly instincts that have grown inside of me are not so easily put at ease with the idea of you not in my arms. My heart tells me that giving you away for a life without constantly looking behind your back, a life without the darkness, a life without the fear, was not in the cards.
You see, Sweet William, you are part Mulder and you are part Scully. That small fact automatically gives you the burden of birthright. My attempt at keeping you safe backfired in the worst ways as I see you following in the same footsteps as your father. I watch in pain as you battle through the smoke with only a heart of valor and desperation for the truth. I fear the consequences of my rash actions all those years ago, of my once rational brain thinking irrationally out of panic and loneliness has put you in the greatest danger imaginable.
As your father and I paste together the pieces of the truth, we fear for our only son. I fear that your obsession for the truths that you are not meant to know will break you. I watched years before your father searching for those truths. I watched as his family was picked off one by one, watched as he raged a battle within himself. When the curtains were drawn back and the truth laid out in a carefully painted façade, I watched a part of your father die. I cannot watch that happen to you, William. I cannot sit back and watch as these truths slowly aid in your destruction. So I beg of you, if you decide to soldier through this journey, please be careful with each decision you face and place your trust wisely. The truths are out there, my son.
The truth is not engrained into science or some other worldly plane. The truth is within you. The truth is within me. Within your father. The truth is the core of our own hearts; and by looking deep enough, can be revealed. I hope that you do not have to trudge this voyage alone. I pray that you have had the chance to meet your perfect other, your protector, like I have in your father.
-
Conquistador Motel
"You don't believe me," Brody said with a long, exhausted sigh.
Honestly, Will didn't want to have this conversation because it blurred together his professional and personal lives. Not to mention, the very subject of trust was a hard thing to tackle. He had been duped so many times in his life that he was surprised that he could trust anyone at all. Daphne seemed like someone he could trust and then she betrayed that trust by leaving him months ago. Brody had done nothing but attempt to gain his trust, and he always wanted to back down every time the very issue would arise.
"I've known Daphne for years," he reasoned.
"So that means she's automatically in the trust category? Seriously, Will, that's how your brain works?"
If there was ever a time for a movie perfect moment of interruption to occur, Will wished it would come soon. He could literally feel the hurt and anger that was radiating off his partner. Out of everyone Will had known, Brody was the only person who constantly seemed to seek his friendship.
"There could have been a million reasons why she was in Monroe's office when he assigned you to me."
Frankly, Will didn't know why he was defending Daphne. She had left him, tossed him aside like an old doll and yet he felt some sort of devotion towards her. She had been the queen of bitches to him months ago, but he was standing there defending her honor to Brody. He knew he was officially messed up in the head completely.
"I tell you everything, Will. I have not kept anything from you and yet you don't trust me as far as you could throw me. I-I think once this case is over with it would be best if I asked for a transfer out of the X-Files."
Part of Will wanted to tell her not to leave him, that he just needed time. Another part told him that her leaving would be the best thing because he didn't need a little spy snooping around his office.
"Yeah, you know what, I think that would be for the best too," he found himself saying.
"All right. Consider this our last case together."
Will watched Brody as she grabbed her jacket and slipped on her heels. She refused to look at him, refused to acknowledge him any longer. When the door slammed shut, Will let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. Then, his damn cell phone rang, and Will thought that he was cosmically being laughed upon.
"Van de Kamp," he barked into the cell.
He listened patiently as the head detective on Jonah Parker's case told him about another small child who was abducted earlier that day. Will scanned his mind quickly, realizing that this was the only town where more than one child had been taken. Letting out a groan, Will made his way out of the motel room to pick up Brody.
-
Grosse Pointe Police Department
November 26, 2030
2:33 A.M.
When they arrived at the station, the debriefing had already begun. Will noted Daphne sitting towards the front of the room, her attention caught by a small handheld computer. He took a seat in the back, Brody sinking down next to him. At the front of the room was an unfamiliar agent in a crisp suit explaining the circumstance of the latest abduction. Perhaps the fact that most unsettled Will was that this agent looked better suited to be in a magazine spread and not in charge of anything let alone the disappearance of a ten year old named Joshua Knopf who was last seen at a video game store after school with a friend.
Will watched as the surveillance video played from outside a small candle shop. Joshua was walking down the sidewalk when a car veered in front of the kid. The back door opened, hands reached out to grip the boy by the arms and haul him into the vehicle. Their faces were not visible. Except, as the one man bent forward to grab the kid, something caught Will's eyes.
"Can you rewind that?" he questioned.
"You can ask questions at the end," the man commented.
"I don't have a question. I just want you to rewind. I think I saw something."
"I'd like to look myself," Brody interjected. "Can you please rewind the tape?"
With a sigh, the man rewound the tape. Will told him exactly when to stop, when the suspect reached out to grab Joshua Knopf. There, on the base of his neck, were two very visible protrusions from the skin. A Super Soldier. They were Super Soldiers kidnapping children just like they had done eighteen years ago. His original instinct had been right.
"See that? Those bumps?" Will pointed out.
"Yes, Agent Van de Kamp, I see this man's spine sticking out. So what?"
"That man is not a man. He's been extraterrestrially enhanced."
The room grew silent as a dozen pairs of eyes gave their full attention to Will. Even Daphne glanced at him, an unreadable expression painted across her face. Next to him, Brody was looking anywhere but at him and no doubt wishing that she wasn't automatically associated with his ideas.
"Agent Van de Kamp, your reputation is not lost within the walls of the Defense Department, but I must say I'm a little underwhelmed," male model said crossly.
"Sorry to disappoint you..."
"Sawyer Davies. Daphne Walsh and I are now heading this investigation since it's under DOD jurisdiction."
"I'm sorry, Davies, I don't understand why the Defense Department is so interested in kidnappings."
"I'm sorry, Van de Kamp, but I don't understand how you are still an agent with the FBI when you go around flashing a badge and shouting to the heavens about aliens," the man snapped. "There are young children being kidnapped here, and you have the audacity to go around crying alien when these kids are being taken by real sick bastards."
"You think I don't understand the seriousness of this situation? I was kidnapped when I was eleven years old. Trust me, Davies, I understand completely how deadly serious this is."
"Yeah, Van de Kamp, you were kidnapped but I hear you blame aliens for your little abduction."
Will let out a scoff, anger boiling up inside of him. A gentle touch brushed across the back of his head. Snapping his head to the right, he saw Brody silently pleading for him to stop the war of words. Except Will had never wanted to punch someone in the face more than in that moment. Wrenching his hand away, Will leaned back in his chair and motioned for the dickhead to continue.
As soon as Davies started talking again, Will rose from his chair and stormed out of the room. He couldn't take listening to the smug bastard any longer. He could feel his heart pounding wildly against his ribcage, could feel the pure rage pumping through his veins. Moments later, Brody was joining him outside the debriefing room.
"Will…" she trailed off.
"I know what happened to me," Will hissed. "I know those Super Soldiers abducted me and-and tested their little theories on me. I know that they're taking these kids now. I know what they're doing to these kids, and for Mister Big Shot in there to tell me that I don't give a damn about them is just ludicrous! Where does he get off?"
"Will, you gotta understand that not everyone sees the world as you do."
"What the hell does that mean?"
"It means that your summation of the world is different than other people's. Not everyone believes in Super Soldiers or government conspiracies."
Will sighed, the argument dying on his tongue. It was useless to argue with Brody about the subject, fruitless to force her to see what was right in front of her. Part of him knew he was losing his professionalism by making this case close to his heart, by taking personal responsibility for these kids.
"Where does the Knopf family live?"
"We're not heading this investigation, Will," reasoned Brody.
He watched as her hand started to reach for his but suddenly jerked to her side as though she thought better about the whole thing. Will sighed, turning his neck from side to side in order to crack it.
"Who cares, Brody?"
"Will…"
"Honestly, you think that this is the Defense Department's main job? You think that they have any clue how to run a kidnapping? Brody, come on. You know just as much as I do that this isn't a DOD case. There's something beyond simple kidnappings going on here."
"We could get into so much trouble for this, Will. I mean, they could have our asses on a platter for going above them on this."
"Come on, Brody, be a rebel."
A soft smile crept up on her face as she glanced back at the conference room. She turned back to him, stared directly into his eyes, before nodding in defeat.
-
Knopf Residence
When they arrived at the seemingly regular all-American house, reporters littered the sidewalk and street. Police barricades were stationed to keep civilians at bay. The reporters stood under the street lamp, huddled together like a swarm of buzzing bees. Light bulbs from cameras flashed frantically at the house. When the swarm of reporters caught sight of the FBI agents, they were ambushed. An odd dozen journalists were barking questions at the pair.
Will let his hand trail down to the small of Brody's back and led her quickly towards the home. Jaw tightened and hand up to block the flashes, Brody dug through her jacket pocket to produce her badge to gain them access.
Once inside, the Knopfs sat together, fingers intertwined, on the living room couch. Police and detectives were scattered about the house, bustling through for evidence and whispering in low tones. Will strolled forward, taking a seat across from the couple. Elbows rested on his knees as he leaned forward and plastered his most empathetic look he could muster.
"My name is William Van de Kamp. I'm a special agent with the FBI, and I want you to know that I'm going to do everything in my power to find the bastards who took your son."
"He's such a sweet boy. Why would anyone want to take him?" Mrs. Knopf sobbed.
"That's what we're here to figure out," Brody spoke softly.
"Tell me about Joshua. Was there anything different about him that could have made him a target?" questioned Will.
"Uh, I-I'm sorry?" Mrs. Knopf questioned in confusion. "We're just a-an ordinary family."
"He's a smart boy," Mr. Knopf supplied as he licked his lips. "He, uh, had advanced classes during first grade. They didn't want him to skip, because they say that kids who skip grades sometimes struggle later in their school career. So he took special lessons, sort of a step-up program."
Will glanced over at Brody who was standing beside the chair he was currently residing. She looked interested as she jotted down notes into a pad. Turning back to the couple, Will tried to process the information in his mind.
"Is there anything else you can think of? Perhaps, odd things that would make him stand out against other kids," he pressed.
"Uh, not that I can think of. I mean, he's like any other ten year old. He's a good boy."
The front door to the house opened, and Will could hear Daphne's brisk voice wafting through the air. She appeared in the living room with her partner, both looking irritated at the scene in front of them. Will's jaw clenched.
"Agents, I'm so glad to see that the FBI doesn't know how to follow through on protocol," Davies commented. "Mr. and Mrs. Knopf, we're with the Defense Department and we're the actual one's heading the investigation."
"The Defense Department?" Mrs. Knopf whispered.
"Yes, I'm Sawyer Davies and this is my associate Daphne Walsh. Look, we're not going to beat around the bush. Your son is missing, and I'll be damned if I let anyone hurt him. So let's cut the bullshit and get to the facts. Do you or your husband have any enemies? Has anyone ever threatened you or your family? Are there any grudges? Anything at all. I want to hear everything even if it was just borrowing a hammer from Joe down the street and never giving it back."
A chuckle escaped Will's lips, his attention solely on Davies. It was as though the Defense Department was just wasting time until Joshua showed up, and that pissed Will off.
"Anything at all would be helpful at this point," Daphne spoke gently.
Standing up, Will made his way towards the back of the house. Hopefully, he would be able to slip out the back and slowly make his way back to the rental car without the slew of reporters hounding him. He could hear Brody's heels clicking on the hardwood floors behind him. Soon enough, she walked beside him with her shoulder bumping against his arm.
"Do you find it odd that they're here talking to the Knopf family and not out finding the car that was seen on the surveillance?"
"They probably have a team on that, Will."
"Yeah, maybe."
Stepping out into the crisp November air, Will stuffed his hands into his pockets. A hand touched his elbow, stopping him from continuing forward. He turned around to meet Brody's concerned face looming there.
"You're making this case personal, Will, and I think it's clouding your judgment."
"You saw the bumps, Brody. You know just as I do that Super Soldiers kidnapped Jonah Parker and now have taken Joshua Knopf. You can't deny what you saw!"
"Will, right now, I'm seeing an agent on the brink of an emotional breakdown."
"Oh, please, save your pop psychology for someone who will actually appreciate it!"
Anger and frustration pumped through Will's veins as he watched police scour the house for God only knew what. He wondered if when he went missing police had searched tooth and nail in his home. He wondered if his parents even questioned the acts, wondered if the Defense Department had been there covering the whole mess up. There were so many questions that never seemed to find answers. In fact, just more inquiries were piled on top on a never ending game of cat and mouse. Just for once, he'd like a few answers and this was the case that could help him find them.
"Look, would you just, for two seconds, get off your high horse and listen to me? What kind of person would kidnap a child and return them days later without a physical scratch on them? What kind of returned kid has ever acted the way that Jonah Parker is without being molested or beat? Like any of the other kids in this case that we haven't met. Can we just pretend for a bit, for the sake of pretending, that Super Soldiers or whatever the hell they are kidnapped these kids?"
"Okay, so a couple of Super Soldiers are kidnapping kids and hurting these kids but no physical trace was left. How were they hurting them?" Brody played along.
"Mentally. They were performing parapsychology tests on the children."
"Parapsychology?"
"Hear me out, all right?" Brody nodded. "ESP, telekinesis, telepathy, psychokinesis, psychometry, the whole freakin' nine yards and plus some."
"Pseudoscience in layman terms."
"Po-tay-to. Po-tah-to."
Brody ran a hand down her face, a sigh escaping her lips. Will cleared his throat, his eyes drifting upwards to the cloudy sky. He speculated what kinds of tests were being performed on Joshua in that very moment.
"Will, I honestly don't know what to say to this."
"You know, when I was fifteen or sixteen, this book came out. It was called Foxhunt about a paranormal journalist and his skeptic wife. The protagonist uncovered a government conspiracy of alien invasion, and that a shadow government had conspired with the aliens to buy time for the inevitable invasion. This shadow government was all killed by a rebel force of aliens except for a select few who had molded the whole situation into a giant chess game."
"Where is this story heading?"
"Well, these select few who had avoided the rebel forces let the project spiral out of control until the aliens themselves started to progress the work. They would abduct humans with brain abnormalities and subject them to tests in order to make an alien-human hybrid."
"I thought you didn't read science fiction."
"I don't normally. Although I was a loner teenager looking for some sort of release from every day society in school where I was looked at like a freak."
"Please, Will, don't tell me that you use this book as the basis for your search for the truth."
"I must admit, I read the book and never thought much about it again until I found the X-Files. I was shifting through old case files, going on cases with unexplained phenomenon, and a lot of my findings reflected what I had read in this book. I looked up the author and found that he wrote a couple of books. I bought them all and submerged myself into his storytelling of alien conspiracies and found so many parallels that it was literally shocking."
"Lemme guess. You located the author and found out he was actually writing the truth because he was one of these conspirators of the shadow government."
"No, actually. I tried to find the author but it was as though he never actually existed." Will sighed. "I want you to go review that surveillance tape and try to locate the vehicle."
"What are you going to do?"
"The jury's still out on that."
Brody nodded as Will held out the keys to the rental to her. He'd find another way around, perhaps rent another car. Hell, who cared if he racked up the expenses? It was all paid for by the bureau, and they already bitched at him enough for the most minute things. What's one more small bullet of ammunition gonna hurt? Brody grasped the keys in her hand without hesitation and walked away. Will watched her go, watched as she disappeared around the corner. He looked at up the house one last time before following suit.
Once at the front of the house, Will noticed a young woman struggling to get past the barricades. All of the other journalists had stepped back. The woman yelled about the truth and government conspiracies. Her long red hair was tied back in a messy ponytail, her pale face covered in an array of freckles. A tape recorder was held in her hand, her suit twisted on her frame as she attempted to get passed the cops.
"Excuse, Miss?" Will called.
The woman stopped, her lips twisting into a smirk. She stepped back, straightened her jacket and pencil skirt. She just stared at him, finger grazing over the record button. Will walked up to her, stood on the other side of the barricade.
"You shouldn't be here. You all shouldn't be here. These people's son has been kidnapped. Leave them alone."
"Oh, I shouldn't be here? Ever hear of freedom of the press, Buddy?" the redhead challenged.
"Look, this is an investigation. You can't just wander on in here demanding interviews for your little paper."
"Who are you to decide that?"
"I'm an FBI agent, and I'm going to ask you one last time to leave."
"Oh, so very typical. The G-man wants to keep the truth covered up long enough until he weave and craft a tall tale to tell the reporters!"
"Don't even speak to me about the truth, all right?"
"You suits in Washington just keep the truth hidden from the American public! They have a right to know what's really going on!"
"What's your name?"
"You want my name so you can tell your little government cleaners about me? So that I can disappear in the middle of the night for fighting for the truth? I don't think so, Sugar."
"Look, my name is William Van de Kamp, and I'll be happy to help you spread the truth loud and clear. Right now, however, we need to conduct an investigation so that we can begin to uncover the truth."
"William Van de Kamp?" She smirked. "I've heard of you. It's so so good to meet you."
"Excuse me?"
"Ione Scully – your mother's niece, which would make us cousins," she introduced herself as she extended a hand. "Gran has said so much about you."
Will stood there, shell-shocked. The pale, freckled hand grabbed his and shook it with gusto. It was such a foreign experience to meet someone so young in his family. In his adoptive family, it had just been his grandparents, parents and him. No siblings or cousins close to his age. When he found his biological parents identities, he had only met his grandmother and she had never mentioned any family members besides his mother and father.
-
Quarter-Side Dinner
7:13 A.M.
Will leaned back into the cracked faux-leather seats of the dinner. Mentally and physically exhausted, he couldn't find it in himself to actually go to bed. He had been at the police station and then the Knopf residence for hours. Upon finding his older cousin, he couldn't just let her slip away. He had always craved to know his biological family, and this woman was a part of that. Not to mention, she was a believer.
"Dad said you worked for the FBI. Gran called and told the whole family… well, I don't think she called Uncle Bill at any rate. If she called my dad first, then I'm sure my dad told her to spare Uncle Bill the news."
"Yo- Gran hasn't mentioned you guys."
"Yeah, well, she's been too busy fawning over you."
"Uh, you mentioned an Uncle Bill. Why wouldn't he want to know about me?"
Ione snorted, a smirk breaking out. She pushed around the pancakes on her plate before setting the fork aside. Lacing her fingers together, she propped her elbows up on the table and looked at Will.
"Rumor has it that Uncle Bill never quite liked your dad. In fact, I heard he downright hated him and wished he'd just disappear off the face of the planet. Not to mention, finding out that you joined the ranks of the G-Men, Uncle Bill would just be disappointed that yet another Scully has fallen victim to Fox Mulder's Idiotic Quest for the Truth – or as he likes to call it."
"So that's one uncle I can cross off the Christmas card list. What about you searching for the truth? Does he disapprove of you, Ione?"
"It's Scully and yes. I'm a royal disappointment, but he can kiss my ass." She chuckled. "My dad likes to say Uncle Bill has a God complex."
Will laced his fingers around the coffee mug to feel the warmth. His breakfast laid discarded, the grumbling in his stomach not strong enough. There were so many questions he wanted to ask his cousin but found that he couldn't form coherent thoughts in his mind. Everything seemed to be jumbled together in giant murky puddles.
"Tell me about yourself," he suggested.
"Uh, I have a little sister – a pain in my ass. I have two parents. Dad's in the Navy and Mom's a photographer. I got my undergrad in journalism and sociology only to go on and get my master's in sociology. I attended Stanford. Basically got my name discredited when I suggested a paranormal cause for this one murder case I was covering. So now I jump around the paranormal journals and magazines writing about the stuff that nobody wants to talk about because they're too arrogant to open their eyes to the possibilities."
"What got you interested in all of this?"
"Your mom actually. I never did see her much growing up, because she wasn't exactly the social butterfly in our family. I'd hear these stories though, from my dad. He's just so fond of her, and he respected the work that she did. I remember just hearing about the X-Files and all the outlandish tales. I just… I wanted to find the truths that she was searching for everyday. Except, you know, I don't have the stomach for gruesome murders or a taste for guns so I went the journalistic route instead of the investigative route," explained Ione.
"Not too into the whole gun culture mantra of America?" teased Will.
"You know, it was a toss-up on how I was going to turn out. My dad's this hardcore Republican and my mom's this headstrong Democrat, so basically it was destined that I would go liberal and my sister conservative."
Will gave a soft smile and suddenly longed for lazy summer days with his cousins at his grandmother's house. He longed to feel part of their little union, to know his uncle and aunt. He wished for a brother or a sister so that he could analyze which one turned out like mom and which one turned out like dad. Except, he would never have that. It wasn't as though he hated his adoptive family either. He loved them because they had stuck by his side and loved him when he was a royal pain in the ass. They were loving, caring people. They were his true parents in every sense of the word that mattered. The feeling of rejection and grief consumed him, however, with the longing to be loved by Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.
"… what you've read?"
"What?" questioned Will, snapping out of his reverie.
"I was talking about the X-Files cases. I've managed to dig up some history on them. You know, cases that Aunt Dana and Mulder investigated. I was speaking about two in particular but you were off in dreamland."
"I was just…"
"Thinking?"
No, wishing. Will nodded anyways at Ione's assumption and took a gulp of the rapidly cooling coffee. His mind wandered to his basement office where the files he's read several times were stashed. He never paid much attention to the investigators names on the page. He was more interested in the tales that were written on the page – how they were littered with mystery and intrigue. He wondered how many times he had skimmed over the names of his parents without even an ounce of thought given.
"So who do you think abducted Joshua Knopf and Jonah Parker?" Ione questioned.
"Super Soldiers. I know it."
"Super Soldiers? I don't understand."
"Alien-human hybrids," he supplied with an awkward smirk. "I know how it sounds, believe me, but they were men who were somehow changed into something alien. They have these bumps on the back of their necks and the only way I've ever seen to kill them is with magnetite."
"Magnetite? Really?"
"Ione-"
"It's Scully," she said in an exasperated tone.
"Sure. Fine. Whatever. Listen to me, I…"
Will faltered, the words dying in his throat. He was about to tell a perfect stranger about his abduction when he was just eleven years old, about the mental experiments he vaguely remembered. Except, he couldn't bring himself to tell her. Never before in his life had he wanted the approval of someone. His once upon a time family was so close, so real to him that he didn't want to drive them away. He wanted a connection with his cousin, his grandmother, his uncle. He wanted to feel apart of the Scully clan, wanted to be accepted into their fold of life.
"What?"
"Uh, if you write about this – any of this – just keep my name out of it. All right? I'm already in deep shit half the time with the bureau."
"I can do that."
Suddenly the food on his plate seemed more appetizing than before. Shoveling piles of egg onto his fork, Will ate slowly and steered the direction of conversation into the topic of generic X-Files cases that had nothing to do with aliens.
-
Conquistador Motel
Will bade farewell to his newfound cousin before making his way to his motel room. He was exhausted – no, he was beyond exhausted. Although, he doubted he'd be able to sleep with so many thoughts running wild in his mind. Upen entering his motel room, he stopped abruptly at the sight of Brody sitting on the bed with her hands folded in her lap.
"I thought you might like to know what I found while reviewing the tape."
Nodding, Will shrugged off his jacket and threw it across the back of the nearest chair. He walked over to the bed, plopped down next to his partner and closed his eyes. Brody shifted off the bed, and he heard her walk to the other end of the room. He could really care less.
"Thanks to some very crafty computer geniuses, I was able to get a partial license plate number. Currently, the good men and women of Grosse Pointe PD are looking for cars registered under the make and model of the car with that partial plate. They said they should have an ID on the vehicle in several hours. I already talked with Sawyer Davies, and he's getting a SWAT team on standby and gathering a team to raid the house."
"That's good news."
"What did you do, Will?"
Sitting up on the bed, Will glanced over at Brody. Her back was flesh against the wall by the door and her arms were crossed over her chest. He noted the dark bags under her eyes, the lackluster color of her irises, the defeated stance.
"Nothing dealing with the case." He sighed. "Look, um, I want you to concentrate on Joshua Knopf and I'll concentrate on Jonah Parker."
"Wow, so you're acting like my direct superior now?"
"Brody, I'm the senior agent in this partnership."
"I didn't know that a two year age difference put you on a higher playing field than me," she snapped.
"I'm not playing the role of your direct superior. I have two more years field experience than you do so therefore I am the senior agent. You can do whatever the hell you want to. I'm not going to stop you, because this partnership is almost over with anyways."
"Fine. I'll focus on finding Joshua and you protect Jonah."
With that, Brody let herself out of the motel room. Will sat there, exhaustion residing heavily in his bones. Collapsing back onto the uncomfortable bed, he pulled a stiff pillow towards him and decided to rest for a few hours before going to see Jonah.
-
St. Clare's Pediatric Institute
12:56 P.M.
"What do you mean I can't see him?" snapped Will. "Whose orders?"
"I'm sorry, Sir," the frazzled secretary apologized, "an order from Washington said that you and your partner were not allowed access to Jonah Parker."
Will could feel his jaw tightening, the anger slowly bubbling up inside of him. Daphne. It had to have been Daphne who called Washington to deny him access. The bitch. The freakin' bitch. Will nodded curtly before making his way towards Jonah Parker's room. Some stupid order from Washington wasn't going to stop him from seeing Jonah, from protecting the boy. He had promised the kid, and he'd be damned if he let Daphne, Davies, or anyone for that matter make him break it.
The secretary called for him to stop, but he ignored her. He needed to see Jonah, needed to make sure the kid was all right because he had promised to keep the kid safe. Before Will could get to Jonah's room, a dull buzzing filled his head. He could feel his heart pounding at the warning signs going off. Instead of going straight for Jonah's room, he veered off to the left to lure the Super Soldier away from the kid. Will stopped short as the Super Soldier stood in front of him with a cold mask covering his features.
Will ran as fast as his legs would allow, the Super Soldier not far behind him. Orderlies, doctors, nurses all faltered at the two men in the hospital. The buzzing in his head dully vibrated through his mind, the warning ringing loud and clear. Reaching the door to the back stairwell, Will wasn't fast enough at escaping. Strong hands gripped his collar and shoved him through the door with such force that he banged against the opposite wall.
"We've been looking for you for so long, William."
Looking up, his vision slightly distorted in an array of black dots, Will saw a burly man looming over him clad in military attire clothes. The man stood erect, arms crossed neatly behind his back, feet squared into the ground.
"All those years ago, we had no idea that we had actually caught you until you started to display your abilities. I wonder, William, why you don't use them now."
"I don't…" Will trailed off, a lump accumulating in the back of his throat, "I don't know what you're talking about."
His vision slowly cleared and the man became more focused. A military haircut, combat boots, dog tags, a name patch that read "WALSH". It felt like all the air had been kicked out of Will's lungs at the gleaming name, mocking him. It had to have been a coincidence.
"Let's play a game. I'll even give you a head start. You have two minutes to figure out how to make those dormant powers of yours come to surface or else I snap you in half like a pathetic twig. Sound fair?"
"I don't-"
"Starting now."
Will scrambled up, his eyes never leaving the Super Soldier in front of him. Instead of playing some sick game he had no idea how to play, Will clumsily ran for the stairs. Hands gripping the handrail, he concentrated on moving one foot in front of the other. His pulse was quickening, sweat smearing on his forehead. Something was wrong, terribly wrong.
That's when the gunshot echoed in the stairwell. Bang! Boom! Will tripped over his feet, tumbling down a flight of stairs. It felt like critters were crawling under his skin, felt like his body was on fire. He crawled towards the other flight of stairs, his muscles protesting. Using the wall of leverage, Will managed to stand up on shaky legs.
"William! William!"
A male voice echoed through the enclosed space, vibrating in his already ringing ears. Will staggered on the stairwell, his vision blurring in front of him. Suddenly, his legs gave out from underneath him. His knees banged on the tiled floor, his hands shooting out to touch the cool ground. A sensation of vertigo was slowly overcoming him, swirling the colors around him into one big heap.
"William!" the man shouted again, closer than before.
"Mulder!" a female voice shouted from farther away. "Mulder!"
There were hands on his face tapping his cheek. Will was only vaguely aware that the man attempting to keep him awake was his biological father. Except, in that moment in time when nausea was overpowering him, he couldn't really comprehend what everything meant. Heels clicked loudly on the stairwell, growing closer and closer.
"Scully! Call 911!" his father shouted. "William, Buddy, can you hear me?"
Will groped around in front of him until he gripped his father's jacket. His fingers tightened around the fabric, his knuckles aching at the firm hold. The female voice – his mother – grew louder until it was directly by his ear. He could feel her soft touch on his neck and cheek. Then, everything went dark.
Notes - I'm terribly sorry about the long wait in-between episodes. Hopefully, this will not happen again. I've been majorly busy, but things are slowly calming down. Thanks to Carol for editing. Please leave a review.
