Disclaimer: I do not own the X Files.

What William Heard

When Dana led him into the room William was taken aback again by the sight before him. His birth father lay sleeping and in the bed next to him his mother lay dying.

He looked up to Scully and she nodded him toward Leah's bed. Scully grabbed a chair and put it next to the cot and motioned for William to sit.

Scully walked over to Mulder's bed and woke him. They began to talk but William found himself unable to focus on anything but his mother. He was disturbed to see that she seemed to look worse than she had just a few minutes before.

William remembered sitting next to a similar bed when his father was dying. His father had been sick for a long time; they had seen his death coming and Will had time to prepare himself. But this, this, was different. It was so sudden. He could feel it in the pit of his stomach as he looked at her.

He had seen his father go; he knew death.

"Mom, don't go. Dana says that you can hear me and I believe it. You can't be ready to go yet. I still need you! Please don't leave yet. Dana is going to find a way to reverse this you just need to hold on and stay alive till then." The commotion from Mulder's bed broke him of his trance and he looked up to see them having a disagreement in heated whispers. He saw Scully begin to walk away and Mulder trying to get up after her.

Will got to his feet intending to help him when Scully turned and sighed to see them both up. William sat down as she moved to Mulder to push him back into the bed.

He watched them. He had wondered about his birth parents and they were nothing like he had imagined. It seemed like his life was out of a novel and amazingly it all felt right to him.

They argued quietly for another minute and then seemed to come to an agreement. Mulder's eyes were constantly on him and William knew that he must be amazed by the fact that he was there.
Scully came to William and knelt on the floor in front of him.

"I am going to go and try to find a way to make her well." She took hold of his hands, "Please stay here in this room. Don't let Mulder get out of bed. I will fix this." William just nodded along. She leaned put her hand on the back of his head and moved it forward so she could lay a kiss on his forehead.

She then got up and went to Mulder. She kissed his forehead as well and left the room without a glance back.

The room was quiet for a moment as Mulder and William stared after her. Mulder's head then turned to William who got up to go to the chair near Mulder's bed.

"So you're William." Mulder said with a hint of humor.

William smiled widely, "Yep. You're Fox."

"Yeah sorry about the middle name."

William laughed, "At least it isn't my first." Mulder smiled a huge grin and nodded.

"I always wondered where my middle name came from. It seemed kind of random. My parents decided not to change my first or middle name when they got me. Mom said it was out of respect for my birth parents. But I know they always wondered about the name too."

"Yeah I, myself, have often questioned the reason for my name. You're birth mom was a little emotional when she filled out your birth certificate. She was feeling sentimental."

"Is my first name after someone?"

"There is a long line of Williams on both sides actually. Although Scully specifically named you after my father as a gesture. Her dad was named William too and you have an uncle named William."

"Wow a lot of Williams. So I have biological grandparents? My grandparents have all died. I only knew two of them though."

Mulder's face grew sad, "Both our parents are gone. Scully's mom died just a few weeks ago. She… Maggie, your grandmother, grieved for you so much. Her last words were about you actually. All of Scully's family except for her mom believed that you passed away from a sudden illness. She wanted no one to go looking for you even with good intentions."
William's heart hurt a little to hear about the grandmother who apparently loved him so much. "What did she say about me?"

"You mean her last words?" William nodded, "She grabbed my hand and said, 'my son is named William too.' Since she has a son who they call Bill. Scully thinks it was her mothers way of reminding her that you were still our responsibility."

William thought about this for a moment and batted back some tears. He knew he should go lay down but he was worried that if he closed his eyes his mother would be gone when they opened.

He could tell that Mulder wanted to do something to comfort him but didn't want to make William uncomfortable. He finally reached out his hand and took William's.

"I'm sorry William." He said looking at him seriously.

"For what?" William wondered aloud.

"For not being there with you. Someday we can tell you the whole story but when I think about it none of it seems to matter. We should have been with you."

"I had dreams and visions that led me here. I learned so much about both of you. It is why I wanted to meet you. For a long time they were only visions of Dana and everyone else were just apart of a blurry backdrop. Then one night, a few days before mom and I left for D.C., I saw you for the first time. What all of the things I have seen have taught me is that neither of you wanted to give me up but that you had to." He was slightly amazed at how easily Mulder seemed to accept this as fact.

"And your mother wanted to take you here?"

"Yeah she is curious too about the beginning of my life. She wanted us to do something this weekend anyways." William looked slightly sad for a moment, "My dad probably would have loved to be here."

"He is gone?" Mulder asked quietly.

William nodded, "He died of cancer a few years ago. He was sick for a lot of my childhood but was able to do stuff still. He would have loved to see D.C."

"I'm sorry William." Mulder said seriously.

William gave a sad shrug. Mulder could tell that William was done talking about it for now so he moved on to another burning question he had.

"How did you know where to go?"

"Some friends of yours helped me. The Lone Gunmen."
Mulder snorted, "Of course."

"My friend and I found their website a while back and that is how we figured out who I might be."

"So you are into the kind of things those guys write?" Mulder asked casually, trying not to show his excitement at the idea that his son might believe in the paranormal.

"Yeah my friends and I have done tons of research on that kind of stuff. But it was not hard for me to believe it. I've always been different than everyone else. I can do weird stuff and I figured the only explanation had to be out of this world. My dad used to say that I was so crazy I had to be from Mars."

Mulder's smile was huge. He was happy to have this moment with William. The future was uncertain and he didn't know if he would be able to have more moments like this in the time ahead but he could die at peace knowing that his son was happy and healthy. The fact that he was so open and excited about extreme possibilities was just the cherry on top. Scully would roll her eyes at him.

William gave a small yawn.

"William you should go lie down." Mulder said knowing it is what Scully would have advised.

"No I can't leave her while she is like this. Dana said that she can hear what is going on. I want her to know I am here." William said trying to wake himself up.

"You go sleep for a little while I'll talk to her. Then she will know someone is here."

William considered this for a moment till his tiredness won out.

"Ok but I don't want to be asleep for too long."

"Deal." Mulder said and laid his hand softly on William's head before removing it and letting him go over to his cot to get rest.

Mulder lay there trying to think of what to say to the woman next to him. He had seen on her chart that her name was Leah Van De Kamp so he started there.

"Hi Leah, I'm Fox Mulder but you probably know that. Thank you for coming to D.C. You saved my life and now you are in trouble. I wish I was out there with Scully trying to find the cure for what is happening to you. Thank you for raising our son, for being his mother. Not a day has gone by where I haven't thought of him and wondered about his family. It is helpful to know that he's had a good life. I am also sorry that you have been dragged into this world that Scully and I belong to. That never should have happened and I wonder if you would be in this position if you had not come here. But I'm glad you did.

You see I did not get to see much of Will. I only knew him as a newborn baby just a few days old. He was so small and unchanged by the world around him. It is hard to reconcile that image with the young man I see now. It seems you have raised him so well. He is smart and compassionate."

He went on to ask Leah questions that he knew she couldn't answer then. Questions about William's life and about her husband. He told her about him and Scully; How they met and fell in love. He told her the story of William's birth and what a miracle he was.

He told her about how Scully would cry on holidays for William and how on his birthday every year she would spend the day in bed. He wanted her to know how much they missed him.

Mulder described being away from William before he was given up. He told her how he would think of different ideas for their future. The dreams he would have of a nice house in the country where he could build a tree house for William and huge yard where they could play baseball. He had dreams of their little family but he realized that all of those dreams were unrealistic.
He told her about his sister and his family. He also talked about Scully's family and even told her the story of Emily.

Mulder found that he had so much built up inside and he let it all out not knowing if she could even hear it. He hoped she did and that if she passed she would know all about him and Scully and if she lived she would understand how much they loved William.

He did not know that William had been in and out of sleep for most of his ramblings. William lay in his bed enthralled by all of the stories Mulder told. William smiled to himself and fell back into a dreamless sleep.