Disclaimer: I do not own X Files. If I did the mythology would all flow better (Hopefully? Maybe I am being prideful.)
Note: Understand that I know very little about stem cell research and transplants. From what I have learned I know it is a process that takes a lot of outside influences and a lot of time but for the sake of the story please understand that I am going to simplify the procedure by about 90% because I am a phycology major and not pre med. Thank you!
Silence
The bridge that had just been bursting with life was still. The light was still shining on Scully but William could tell that she was not affected by the sudden stillness that overtook everything else and neither was he.
He turned around to look at Dr. Sharp who also appeared unaffected. William wanted to run to her but he was afraid. She seemed to be in a trance looking into the light and he did not want to break that. He waited a few moments till he couldn't anymore and sprinted toward her.
As soon as he moved her head snapped in his direction. He could tell she knew right away who he was. She turned to face him with her mouth hanging open. He ran right to her and without a thought ran into her arms. His arms were around her back and he suddenly felt like crying. He could tell she was still in shock as she slowly put her arms around him. He was almost as tall as her and he knew that they would probably be the same height if not for her heels. His head rested on her shoulder as they both stood there for a moment trying to process the situation.
She suddenly took both her hands and put them on either side of his face. She pulled his head back so she could look at him. William could see that she had been crying and it made his eyes prickle even more.
"You have your father's eyes." She said almost breaking but before she could she seemed to come back to reality. The reality was that everything and everyone around them was frozen. It was as if time itself had stopped. She turned suddenly to the car next to them and went to the man in the passenger seat never letting go of William's hand as if she were afraid he would disappear if she did.
She crouched down next to him. His bloodshot eyes were open and some sort of alien spacecraft occupied looking at the sky that just a few minutes before.
He heard a sob catch in her throat as she put her hand on his cheek. William recognized the man as his father, Fox Mulder. He was so beaten up and looked close to death.
Not removing her free hand from Mulder's cheek she turned to William.
"I need something very big of you. It will be painful and you can say no if you want to but I need to harvest some of your stem cells." She paused as if to see if he had a reaction but continued at his silence, "This man is your biological father and he is dying. The only thing that will be able to save him now is a stem cell transplant and you are the only person who can provide that."
William understood the process of a stem cell transplant but he didn't even have to think about his answer, "Of course." He said without question.
She then noticed Dr. Sharp who had been standing to the side casually just observing.
Scully got back to her feet, "Don, how are you…?" She didn't finish and William could tell it was because she was putting it all together.
"Did Agent Einstein give you the cure at the hospital?" She asked.
"Yes she did. She was administering it to other doctors and nurses as well when we left. She asked me to drive your son to you." He said.
She suddenly moved forward and hugged him with one arm as the other was attached to the hand that was holding on to William.
"Thank you." She said softly and pulled away.
"What do you think is happening?" William asked her.
Before she answered she pulled him in close against her and ran her his head, "I think that only the people with Alien DNA are able to move right now and the rest are frozen. I have no idea why but I have a feeling that someone somewhere is giving us a head start. We need to get back to the hospital and make more of the Alien solution and harvest William's stem cells." She said seriously.
Both William and the doctor nodded.
"We should take Mulder." William said hopefully.
"I don't know how we can." She shook her head as if to remind herself of this very fact, "I will come back for him. Right now we need to move it."
Scully picked up two IV bags that she had put on the ground earlier and moved them to Mulder's lap.
Then the band of three made their way quickly back to the car she had been driving which was closer to the end of the bridge. They got in and headed on their way.
The drive back to the hospital was much less confusing and crazy since no one else was moving. William's birth mother drove quickly and smoothly through the parked cars and only had to consider her path when an unmoving pedestrian was in her way. They pulled up to the hospital and William was unsure of how much time had passed. It appeared that the clocks had stopped telling time that, he surmised, must mean that time had stopped.
The rational part of his brain rejected this but could not think of any better explanation. They got out of the car and ran toward the hospital. Scully only stopped to reach out her hand for William.
When they came in they noticed that some of the medical staff was indeed moving and looking healthy. There were three in the lobby that seemed to be taking the quiet opportunity to get a real look at their patients without all of the chaos. Of course they didn't totally understand that there was nothing they could do for them except wait on the Alien DNA.
They entered the lab to find the agent that William had met Agent Einstein. She seemed optimistic but confused. They were apparently able to make quite a bit more of the antidote but they all did not understand the frozen patients around them. Scully could not it either but encouraged them to continue working until time restarted. She told the agent that she believed someone was giving them time to save the people who did not have the DNA to keep them safe. William could tell Agent Einstein didn't believe a word she said but she did not question the older woman about it.
Scully bent down in front of William, "I am going to need to go out on to the bridge so I can make sure that the emergency personnel get the cure as well as any police officers so that they can direct people to the hospital. I am also going to bring Agent Mulder back. If you are willing Agent Einstein would be able to start a stem cell transplant while I am gone and have it nearly ready by the time we get back." He could tell she was genuine about not wanting to force him to have the procedure done.
"I want to do it. I'm ready but I want to see my mom first." William said looking at Agent Einstein.
"Alright. She is still on the mend follow me."
William put his arms around Scully's neck.
"Thank you." He said and followed after the agent.
Leah Van De Kamp had woken up confused and concerned. She was reassured by the doctors and the agent there that her son was all right and currently with a doctor searching for Agent Scully but Leah could not help the panic she felt at not knowing where he was.
She still found that every muscle in her body was filled with pain but the dizziness and sharp pain in her head had gone away. That and she was conscious. She noticed that some of the doctors and nurses who had been sick recovered much quicker than others. She wondered if this had to do with how long the person had been sick or how bad their sickness was. All she knew was that after an hour she was still feeling pretty awful.
Her heart lept when William entered the room where she was sitting and trying to read and ran to her,
"Mom!"
He hugged her from where sat and she felt tears on her face.
"What happened Will? Did you find her?" She asked.
"Yeah I did but she had to go back out to help other people. There is one thing that I need to do."
William explained the procedure and the nesscity of it and begged his mom with his eyes to give permission. She had doubts about all of this. She wondered why it was happening all of a sudden and she was afraid of the risks involved in the transplant. Leah had not even met his birth mother yet and she was supposed to take this all on good faith? She told him she needed a few minutes to think it over.
William sat down next to her.
"When we got there everyone was sick except for her. But then the coolest thing ever happened, something appeared in the sky over the bridge. It looked like a space ship! It was hovering over us but shined a light right down on to her. That is when everything stopped! It was so weird. She thinks that someone powerful is looking out for us but she does not know who. We don't know how far spread it is or if it will last."
"God is watching out for us William." She said confidently as she ruffled his hair.
"I know but this was different mom. It was a space ship in the air. I saw it!"
"He works in mysterious ways."
It was not that William didn't believe in God but if it were God saving them why would He have to use a space craft to do it? It seemed more likely that these were aliens or very powerful people.
It had been a couple minutes with no answer from his mother and William began to get nervous.
"I saw my birth father, the one who needs my stem cells. He was frozen like the rest of them. He was so sick mom. If his eyes were not open I would have thought he was dead. She didn't want to leave him. I know it is all sudden and crazy and that you don't know if you can trust all of these people but please trust me. If the only way to save him is with this isn't that worth it?" He said.
"Yes of course it is worth it but that is not what I am worried about. What if you are being used William? What if these people are not who they say they are?"
"I know it is her. I know they are my biological parents because they are the same people from my dreams."
Leah sighed. She knew that allowing this procedure was the right decision but something in her didn't want this. She wondered about herself and thought that maybe the problem was that she was not really as ready to share William as she thought she had been. Not that she would allow a man to die but perhaps all of these thoughts were coming from the fear that she was not enough for him. She had understood his whole life that he would have a connection to his birth mother that was different than his connection with her. Was she ready to watch another woman act as a mother to her son? These were questions for another time.
She looked at her son, "Call in the doctor I'll sign whatever she needs me to sign."
William hugged her and ran out of the room.
An hour later Leah sat in a wheel chair just outside the room where Will was getting worked on. She was not sure how long it would take but Agent Einstein had informed her that due to the lack of doctors and staff along with the great need it would take longer than usual. However the young red headed agent would be in the room herself, which still did little to calm her fears.
The doctors had begun to give the 'cure' to the children but it was slow going. The doctors all seemed to be up and feeling better giving a spark of hope to the sick, most of whom were too sick to do much.
William had been in the procedure for around forty-five minutes when the commotion started. The doctors and nurses began to clear people out of the way to make an aisle for a group of the sick who were all being brought inside. On the first stretcher was a pregnant woman who appeared to be going into labor and was hooked up to an IV that contained the cure. Leah watched in amazement as more stretchers followed behind that had others that seemed in very desperate need. Most were again children who seemed on death's door.
A young man in a suit ran into the hallway where Leah was sitting and looked around and then down at her.
"Have you seen an Agent Einstein anywhere?" He seemed rushed and still slightly sick.
"She is in there operating on my son." She pointed to the room behind her.
The agent paused and looked at her for a moment before going to the door and sticking his head in, "He's here where do you want him?"
She heard a mumbled reply and the man just ran in the other direction and then almost immediately was followed my two more men carrying a stretcher that held a man who Leah would have thought to be already dead if it were not for the nurse running beside them puffing air into him.
They took the man right into the room where William was and Leah knew that it must have been Fox Mulder, William's biological father. She panicked for a moment and looked around to see if Dr. Scully was anywhere near when she heard an authoritative female voice shouting orders,
"I need you to take Assistant Director Skinner right over to Dr. Vega to be hooked up to an IV! ... Rebecca this child needs attention right away where is his mother?" The woman continued giving directions as she came into Leah's field of vision. Leah did not need to know what Agent Scully looked like to know right away that she was the woman tying her hair into a surgical cap and walking quickly down the hall toward William's room. She did not look anywhere but the door and moved past Leah so quickly that there was a strong breeze left in her wake.
Leah's curiosity finally got the better of her and she stood up to look through the window on the door.
William laid on one bed asleep and just a few feet away his father lay looking worse by the minute. Agent Mulder was now hooked up to the IV and at his side was Dr. Scully who seemed to be saying something to him. She held his face in her hands for a moment, kissed his forehead, and then got to work. All of the procedure went over Leah's head and after standing for a few minutes at the door she began to feel light headed. She sat down and found that her eyes were heavy she fought sleep for a bit but finally gave in knowing that the next days ahead would be some like she had never experienced.
When Leah woke up she had been wheeled into a small hospital room that held two beds. She was against the wall with a couple pillows stacked between her head and it and a blanket was around her shoulders. In the closest bed to her lay her son who was soundly asleep with an IV in his arm. In the bed a few feet away lay Fox Mulder who was in much worse shape. He had a tube under his nose feeding him extra oxygen and the beeping in the room told her that he was being monitored.
She rolled up closer to William's bedside where she sat and watched him breathe for some time. She looked across at the man on the other side of the room. She could not tell much about his features because bruises covered his face but she wondered what she would see when the man finally woke up and was healthy. Does her son look like him? It was something she had wondered about often and had tried to picture the couple that had created such a perfect boy.
The door opened and a distracted Dr. Scully stood at the doorway peering at a chart in her hand she turned out the door again and said something to a person behind her and came back in with no chart. She stopped in her tracks when she saw Leah.
"Hello." She said tentatively.
Leah could tell that the woman was nervous of what she would think of her so she smiled reassuringly at her.
"You're Dana Scully." She stated rather than asked.
"Yes I am." She said seeming to suddenly come to her senses she shook her head for a second and then approached and held out her hand kindly. "Thank you." She said.
Leah looked into her face and saw a wet sheen over her eyes as she continued, "Thank you for raising him and loving him. I have not spent much time with him yet but I am just so happy he is alive with someone who loves him. I… I can't even tell you how grateful I am that you allowed us to use his stem cells. There is no way I can ever repay your kindness for letting me meet him and for saving Mulder."
"You don't have to 'repay' anything Dana. There is nothing to repay. Both of you gave me the greatest gift I could ever hope for and I am just beginning to repay you."
She looked over at Agent Mulder and said. "One moment." Before going over to his bedside to look him over.
She gently ran her hand over his head looking for signs of any trouble. She felt at his throat and his wrist as if she didn't trust the machine to tell the truth about his condition. She paused for a moment and just looked at him and once she was satisfied that he was not in imminent danger she walked over to the wall behind Leah and pulled up a chair next to her.
"Do you mind?" She asked.
"No please."
They sat in silence watching the two infers before them.
Leah broke the silence, "How long have I been out?"
"It has been about twelve hours I believe. I don't know when exactly you fell asleep but you were out for a very long time. I even tried to wake you to move you to a more comfortable place but obviously you needed the rest."
There was then another pause that was filled by Scully this time, "How did the two of you get here?"
"Well… That is a very very long story. One that before my husband died I never would have gone along with but… Well I suppose when it all started it seemed to make sense." Leah knew she was sounding cryptic which was unintentional but she was not sure how to start, "William has been different his whole life but I doubt that comes as too much of a surprise to you based on what I know. He is mostly a normal boy but every now and then something strange and amazing will happen and… I don't know how to describe the things that happen. They are so small that if you were not paying attention you might miss it. He healed our dog's broken leg when he was just four, which was the first time we truly knew he wasn't just 'strange' but was indeed 'special'. Since then he has shown that he can sometimes move things with his mind depending on his mood. There are times when he seems to know exactly what I am thinking and when he looks at me it is like I am talking to an old man rather than a child. But he plays sports and video games and he scrapes his knees and yells and slams his door like all other teenage boys."
She shifted in her chair unsure of what to say next,
"Since he was young William has had a photographic memory and a vivid imagination."
She stopped when Scully let out a small laugh to herself. Leah looked at her curiously.
"Sorry that just sounds… it sound exactly like Mulder who is the same way."
Scully smiled warmly at her lap as if hearing of the attributes the boy had inherited from his father were balm to her soul.
Leah smiled and continued, "He would also have dreams that were so vivid that when he was young he would wake up disorientated and confused every day. Most dreams were just… dreams but when he started into puberty he began to have more nightmares. All of the same stuff about evil men coming to get him and take him away. He could never tell us much about it afterward. Within the last year he has been able to recall many dreams in great detail and he had come to believe that they all held significance. The turning point was when he began to dream about a woman with red hair."
In the side of her vision she saw Scully stiffen slightly,
"He came to understand that she was his birth mother. William believed that the things he was dreaming about were memories and even some visions of you before he knew you. It all sounds so strange but he knew so many details. He changed I could tell that he truly believed these were memories and that they were being shown to him for a reason. There were other people in the dreams but they were all out of focus till only about a week ago. Up until then the only person he could really see was you. He would sit at the table and tell me stories from when he was a baby as if it had happened yesterday. A few days before we came to D.C. he had a dream that, for the first time, contained his father in detail as well. He began to have dreams about the two of you independent of him and he really believed that they were visions."
She paused for a moment to see if she sounded crazy but just found Scully looking at her intently so she went on,
"Whenever William has some sort of idea he cannot let it go. He obsesses on it and works on it and sometimes does not sleep for days." Leah gave a small laugh and decided to share a memory, "When he was in forth grade he was assigned a project that told him to choose a great mystery and to pretend to be a detective investigating like Sherlock Holmes. He chose the supposed alien crash in Roswell New Mexico."
Scully let out a full laugh but just gestured for Leah to continue,
"Well he is such a smart boy and I don't think he understood that this was not an in-depth study to discover the mystery but rather a cute project to help them understand the book they were reading in class. He borrowed stacks of books from the library and spent hours on the computer and begged us to take him to Roswell. We ended up having to sort through the piles of information he'd gathered and found the little that was needed for his project. The odd part is that he only got a 'c' on the project which I think is mostly due to all the distraction the topic brought."
"So like his father." Scully murmured with a smile at her lap. She looked up looking like she mean to say that out loud, "Like Mulder I mean." She then looked back at her hands.
Leah reached out and put her hand over Sully's.
"I know what you mean." Leah took a moment to remember what she was saying, "All of this to say that his latest obsession has been finding you. He somehow got in contact with some friends of yours here in D.C. who we were going to meet with when we arrived but when we got here the airport was on lock down."
"What friends of ours?"
"They call themselves the lone gunmen?" Leah said more as a question.
Scully let out a dry laugh, "Of course. I assume they helped you to get out of the airport?"
"Yes and led us to you."
"Well… This is all amazing." Scully was at a loss for words.
There was another comfortable silence in the room until a groan came from Mulder. Scully was on her feet in a second and at his side.
His eyes were part way open and he seemed to be saying something, or at least trying to. Scully just nodded to him as if she were listening to a small child and continued checking his vitals and making sure he was comfortable.
She put her hand to his cheek and leaned in close and whispered something to him. She pulled back and kissed his forehead. She stood there for a moment just looking at him as he fell back asleep and then she moved back to where she was.
"How is he?" Leah asked.
"He will live. He just likes to be difficult when he gets hurt. He wants to get up already but he can barely keep his eyes open."
"Does he know what happened?"
"I am not sure how much he knows. I doubt he will remember much of anything. He just hates staying still when he knows there are things going on."
That reminded Leah of the current situation outside the room, "How are things out there?"
Scully shook her head, "Stable here. Some get better very quickly while others still seem rather sick and we don't know why that is. As far as the city and country goes I don't know. Most lines of communication are down. I was able to get half a call out on my cell phone but most people can't. We have been sending teams of the healthy into the city to deliver the cure to different hospitals and crowded areas. I would still be helping produce more of the cure but they are beginning to make the doctors take mandatory breaks."
Leah took inventory of the woman next to her who on first look appeared fine but as she really looked she saw dark bags under her eyes and could see a slight sag in her shoulders from exhaustion, "Shouldn't you be sleeping?" She asked concerned.
"I'm going to sleep soon I just needed to see them or else I would not get a second of rest."
Scully's eyes rested on the beds in front of them tiredly and the look on her face made Leah believe that she wished they would wake and be healed simply from her being there.
Scully sighed and vacated her seat again.
"I am going to lay down. There will be someone checking in every half hour but don't be afraid to push the call button if anything happens."
She headed toward the door but stopped just short and turned to look at Leah, "And thank you." She disappeared before Leah could ask for what.