CHAPTER 4
The man with the salt and pepper hair, who Will had just identified out of thin air, looked as if he had seen a ghost. "Impossible," John Doggett said, shaking his head.
"Wait," Will grabbed the door before Doggett could slam it in his face; Doggett was shocked with the apparent strength Will displayed, his face slowly softening.
Doggett took a long look at Will, rubbing his eyes in disbelief. "Holy shit," he muttered. "Monica!" Doggett yelled over his shoulder. "Take a look at this!"
Within a few moments, a dark-haired woman appeared behind Doggett's shoulder, clearly shocked at the sight of Will. "John?" she asked softly, glancing over at Cara, then to Doggett.
"Monica, this is William Van De Kamp," Doggett said to Monica Reyes, gesturing forward with his head. He heard an audible gasp from Monica, who stepped closer to the pair on their porch. "I know, right?" Doggett commented, still staring hard at Will. "Spitting image."
"Oh my God," Monica said, swallowing hard. "But … how?"
"I don't know," Doggett muttered, glancing over at Cara. "Who are you?"
"Cara English," Cara stammered, unsure of what the two people who stood in front of them were insinuating or capable of.
"John," Monica said quickly, "they were on the news today."
"For what?" Doggett asked, directing the question more toward Will, who still had the door held open.
"Killing a doctor in a Hoboken hospital," Monica replied, noticing the visible shift in Will's demeanor at the accusation. Cara's eyes grew wide at the news, her eyes shifting from Doggett to Will.
"I didn't kill anyone," Will said firmly. "They were trying to kill me."
"Who's they?" Doggett asked.
"How the hell should I know?" Will spat, his eyes narrowing at Doggett.
The two men stared at each other, the tension between them thick. It was Monica's gentle touch on Doggett's shoulder that broke the awkwardness, her voice steady and sure. "Come in, William. You too Cara."
Doggett glanced at Monica, who nodded softly, assuring him that her gut feeling was good about the duo that stood in front of them. With a small nod, Doggett opened the door wider and gestured for Cara to come in. With a hesitant glance up at Will, Cara stepped inside the house, Will following closely behind.
Cara saw Doggett deadbolt and lock the door, turning and facing them with his hands on his hips. "I don't understand," he said, examining Will. "You should be ten years old."
"Wait, what?" Will said, stepping toward Doggett.
"Please," Monica said, gesturing toward the couch. "Sit."
Cara reluctantly sank into the sofa, Monica following suit as the two men remained standing, facing each other defensively.
"How the hell do you figure I should be ten years old?" Will asked, perplexed.
"Because you were born in 2001."
"That's absurd. I was born in 1987."
"No, you werent," Monica interjected. "I should know. I delivered you."
Will's head dropped, shaking it in rejection of the "facts" that were presented to him. "This was a mistake," he said to Cara. "Let's go."
"Wait," Monica said. "I bet we can tell you a few things about yourself that no one else knows. Then would you trust us?"
Will's eyes narrowed at Monica. "Try me."
"Well …" Monica inhaled deeply. "You have unexplainable strength."
"I work out," Will said dryly.
"Damn, and the same sarcasm as your father," Doggett muttered.
"Will," Monica said, her glare chastising Doggett as she stepped toward Will, "you hear things, don't you?" Cara's lips parted, her eyes shooting to Will, who looked down at the floor. "You hear people's thoughts."
Cara breathed heavy in anticipation of Will's response. It would explain the odd feeling she had in the car earlier of what seemed like him trying to draw out her innermost secrets. She frowned at Will's reply. "Yeah. I see dead people too."
Monica wasn't swayed by Will's resistance. "You struggle with opposite forces. Darkness and light. Your whole life, back and forth between good and evil."
"Doesn't everyone?" Will challenged, glancing over at Cara.
"You know what I mean," Monica said sternly. "It's an intense battle, not the average struggle. You've never felt at home anywhere. Or that you belonged."
"This is bullshit," Will growled, grabbing Cara's hand and pulling her to stand. "Anyone could spout loose information like this as facts. Let's go." Will protectively pushed Cara forward, blocking her as Doggett stepped closer.
"William …" Doggett's voice was deep, calm. "You can't hide who you are forever."
"You know nothing about me," Will said darkly, closing the gap between Doggett and himself.
"You're the one who came to us!" Doggett challenged.
"That was my first mistake," Will spat.
Cara jumped as the china cabinet in the dining room next to them shattered, the glass seemingly self-combusting from the inside as shards of it shot outward toward them, rather than inward as it would if something had hit it. She still ducked, thinking it was a round fired into the home; however, she slowly stood when she realized no one else was affected by the strange occurrence.
"Hmm … still like controlling things with your mind, William?" Doggett taunted, trying to make Will realize they knew more about him than he even knew himself.
"Dammit!" Will yelled, pinning Doggett up against the wall. "Who the hell are you?"
"Easy, son," Doggett said sincerely. "Easy. We're not the enemy." Doggett knew Will must have read his thoughts of fear for his life, as he felt Will's grasp loosen slightly.
"Tell me who you are!" Will demanded, shaking with rage.
"We're friends of your parents," Doggett said firmly.
"My parents are dead," Will replied darkly.
"Those people might have raised you, but they aren't your parents." Doggett winced as Will strengthened his grip. "Okay, son. Just relax. We can tell you everything you need to know. But you have to trust us."
"Will." Cara's hand was gentle on Will's back, the warmth of it sending an unexplained shiver up his spine. "Will, let him go."
Doggett watched the visible struggle in Will's face as he was slowly released by Cara's request. Though he was obviously intrigued by Will's reappearance as an adult with all of the powers that were once thought to be lost to him, he was increasingly curious about the woman who stood next to him, wondering how she seemed to calm him with a mere touch.
Will stepped back, Doggett stepping toward Monica, who took his arm gently. Monica gave a nervous smile and laugh. "Are you hungry?" she asked them. "Let me make you something."
Without waiting for a reply, Monica slipped away into the kitchen, filling glasses of water and bringing them to the coffee table for Will and Cara. Taking the cold water gratefully, Cara sipped it as she sat on the couch, Will next to her in an armchair.
"Sorry about the cabinet," Will mumbled.
"Wait," Cara interjected, "are you saying you did that?" Will nodded solemnly. "But-"
"Cara," Monica's voice was gentle as she brought out some snack foods and fresh fruit that was already chopped from the fridge, "there is much to talk about."
"But how-"
"I want to know about my parents," Will interjected to Doggett on purpose, wanting to avoid the revelations about himself at the present.
"Well …" Doggett leaned back in the armchair that faced Will. "... where to begin? Their names are Fox Mulder and Dana Scully."
"I have a father named Fox?" Will asked, perplexed.
"It was the sixties," Doggett said with a small smile. "I'm sure your grandparents thought it was … clever."
"What about them? My grandparents?"
"They've all passed, William. Much of your family has. Nearly all that is left are your parents."
"And who are they? What do they do? Why did they give me up?" Cara could sense the sorrow in Will's voice as he demanded answers from Doggett, who nodded grimly.
"Look, it wasn't easy for them. They love you dearly. In fact, your mother had to make the decision alone and it nearly killed her."
"Why? What was wrong with me that I couldn't be kept?"
"Nothing, William," Monica said softly, coming to sit beside Cara. "That was where the danger was."
"That I was 'perfect'?" Will wasn't following and his sarcastic nature got the best of him.
"William," Doggett took control of the conversation, "your parents were FBI agents assigned to work on what became known as the X-Files."
"Oh my God," Cara breathed. "I've heard of them." She heard Will mutter under his breath at her recognition. "But weren't they all just myths?"
"Oh no," Doggett replied. "They are very real." Doggett turned to Will. "They are your father's passion, and your mother was assigned to work with him, originally to debunk his work."
"But she ended up being his closest ally," Monica said with a smile, recalling the last time she saw them together.
After a couple hours and many bowls of pretzels and fruit, Doggett and Monica had relayed the entire story of Mulder, Scully, the X-Files, aliens, Syndicate, tests, clones, hybrids, invasions and super soldiers to Will and Cara, complete with photos of them and even some old files Doggett managed to replicate for his own use. Naturally, Cara was extremely intrigued, connecting the dots easily while Will resisted, his arms crossed tightly over his chest.
"So … where are they now?" Will asked, picking up a photograph of Mulder and Scully and looking at Scully intently, imagining what his mother might be like.
At that exact moment across the country, Scully froze in the hallway of the hospital she worked in, an amazing sensation hitting her that she had never experienced before. She gasped, shocked at the clarity of the words that entered her mind: "Where are you, Mom?"
Reaching out to the wall for support, Scully's pulse quickened, squeezing her eyes tightly in disbelief. This just can't be …
Assuming a medical issue, a nurse nearby rushed to her aid. Scully heard her voice asking her if she was alright, but was focusing too much on the words in her mind she heard in a man's voice:
"Where are you?"
"Last we heard, Oregon," Monica said, sipping some hot coffee she had brewed for the group.
"Why Oregon?" Will asked.
"Because of Bellefleur, right?" Cara interrupted, receiving a quick glance from Will.
"They never said," Monica replied. "We just know that Dana wanted to get away from it all after Mulder was exonerated."
"William," Doggett said softly, leaning forward, "do you know what you're capable of?"
Cara's eyebrow arched, watching Will as he leaned back in his chair. "I suppose I'm great at breaking glass," he said with a smirk.
Doggett gave him a sideways grin. "Oh, you can do more than that."
"Because of the mutated egg?" Cara asked.
"Well, there's the tricky part," Doggett said with a sigh. "When you were a baby, you were suppose to be injected with magnetite, which would normalize you to a regular person … like me."
"I am normal," Will defended.
"Come on, Will," Cara said quietly. "I think the china cabinet begs to differ." Will shot her a look, still not wanting to admit what he had unknowingly did with his mind in the hospital. Cara looked at Doggett intently. "So magnetite is Will's kryptonite?"
"Cara," Will grumbled, "I'm not Superman."
"You're the closest thing to him that's ever really existed," Doggett replied in a serious tone. "William, you were created organically with powers that are anything but natural. Once you come to accept that, you will know how to control them." Doggett glanced over at the china cabinet, then back to Will.
"You must believe, William," Monica said sternly, her eyes fixed on the young man that reminded her so much of Mulder in the physical sense, but Scully in her doubt. "You can't keep fighting it."
"Look, I know how it sounds, believe me," Doggett said with a sigh. "But honest to God, this makes more sense to me now than normal stuff does at times." He glanced over at Monica. "Women in particular." Monica frowned at Doggett, then gave him a smile that made Cara realize they were more than just working partners.
"It's a lot to ask one guy to learn about himself in a day," Will said, rubbing his temples.
"My guess is," Doggett said, leaning back in his seat, "you've suspected things for a while."
As Will searched Doggett's face for the meaning behind his statement, Cara's eyes widened with a sudden revelation.
"Wait …" Cara stood, which Will knew that it meant she was coming up with a theory. He smiled to himself at the nuance of hers, imagining the wheels turning in her mind. "... Will," Cara looked down at him, "what if somehow there was magnetite present in the Terminal?"
"The Terminal?" Monica asked, unsure.
"It's where this all started," Cara explained. "Will began to lose control in the Terminal in Hoboken. He was overpowered by something."
Doggett's head turned to Will. "Yet, you're fine now?"
Realizing he had been without incident for some time, Will nodded slowly. "Yeah, I am."
"Describe what happened before," Monica said, leaning in closer.
"There were voices," Will said softly. "So many of them."
"And white noise?" Doggett asked.
"Yes," Will confirmed.
Cara stopped pacing, snapping her fingers. "Will, they were giving you magnetite in the hospital, not just sedatives!" she exclaimed. "All of that was to try to take away your powers!"
"But that doesn't make sense," Doggett countered. "If magnetite was to take away your powers, then how come they were activated instead?"
"Maybe it wasn't the magnetite that activated it …" Monica nodded, continuing her thought. "Maybe it was a fragment. John, remember the file about Mulder's reaction to the ship fragment?" she directed at Doggett. He nodded. "I think someone was trying to flush William out. They used a fragment to see if the magnetite he received as a child worked, to determine if he was still a threat."
"I think you're right," Doggett agreed. "Then they tried injecting you with magnetite to see if it would kill you. Only, it wasn't enough."
"And they couldn't have figured a perfect stranger would die trying to save my life," Will added solemnly, remembering his last image of Dr. Weitz with a shudder.
"Okay, but why not hunt us down now?" Cara asked. "Why is no one looking for us?"
The group sat silent, unsure of what the reason could be. Their rolling theories had come to a complete standstill, the silence thick in the air. "They're changing strategy," Will finally said, standing, an overwhelming sensation of remorse filling him.
Doggett slowly nodded, realizing the reality of the situation. "They're going to try to kill your father. They're going after Mulder."
"What?" Will asked, confused. That wasn't what he had meant.
"It was prophesied that you, being controlled by both darkness and light, would serve the light so long as your father lives," Doggett said quietly. "Should your father die, you would serve the darkness."
Monica whispered, "They can't overcome you, so they will take your choice away."
Will picked up the photo of his parents from the coffee table, tracing his finger around the shape of Mulder's head. "Then I need to find him," he said firmly, determined.
Another unexplainable jolt ran through Scully in the hallway. She had dismissed the nurse earlier, but wasn't able to fend off the swarm of medical staff that came to her aid as she dropped to the floor, the weight of the man's words in her mind playing on every emotion she held deep in her heart for her long-lost son:
"I will find you. I will find you both."
"What I don't understand is, how did you age into an adult?" Doggett asked. "You're fifteen years older than you should be!"
"Maybe he was given an accelerant of some sort, to try and change who he is," Monica theorized.
"For what purpose?" Doggett asked, still perplexed.
"Maybe they didn't expect him to survive it," Monica continued. "What if whoever is trying to kill you now was trying to alter you as a child as well?"
"And made me an adult?" Will asked in disbelief.
"It's possible. Or maybe you were designed to mature rapidly."
"Whoa," Will said, sitting back in his seat. "'Designed'?"
"Or what if someone was trying to help you," Monica continued. "To give you more strength, which then turned you into an adult faster."
"You'd be more of a threat as an adult than as a child."
"Listen," Will interrupted, slightly bothered by the banter about him. "I appreciate all of the theories about this, but we need to get on the road." He glanced at Doggett, as if to say he had enough for one day, and Doggett nodded.
"Let's get you packed," Monica said.
It took another half hour to formulate a plan for finding Mulder and Scully, as well as for Will and Cara to both pack bags of borrowed clothing and toiletries from their new friends.
Doggett tucked a wad of cash into Will's hand as everyone stood in the doorway, preparing for their goodbyes. Will began to protest, but Doggett wasn't giving an inch. "Thank you," Will said softly, slipping the money into the pocket of his jeans he borrowed from Doggett.
"Tell them we say hi," Doggett replied with a smile.
Will picked up his and Cara's bags, giving a small smile to him and Monica. "We will." He began to leave, stepping out into the cold January day when he noticed Cara wasn't beside him.
"Will, I'll be right out," Cara said quickly, flashing him a smile for reassurance. "I just wanted to use the bathroom before we go."
Hesitantly, he nodded, turning his back on Cara as she slipped back into the house, pulling Monica by the hand. Once the door was shut behind them, Cara pulled out the bottle from her coat pocket, showing it to Doggett and Monica.
"I need you to take a sample of this," Cara said softly and quickly. "I need to know what it is."
"Where did you get this?" Doggett asked.
"It doesn't matter," Cara replied. "I need to know what it contains and what it is used for within 24 hours."
Monica looked to Doggett, who took the bottle hesitantly. "Okay," he said, going into the kitchen to extract a sample.
"Text me at this number," Cara said, rushing into the kitchen to scribble down her cell phone number. "Don't call. I can hide a text but not a call."
"Why do you need to hide this?" Monica asked, her voice laced with maternal concern.
"I was told Will was dying," Cara sighed, defeated in keeping the secret. "He only has 48 hours to live if I don't inject him with this."
"Told by who?" Doggett asked suspiciously.
"I was held at gunpoint in a car by an Englishman who gave it to me, claiming his 'grandfather had died for this truth' … then he shot himself." Cara bit her lip, the secret weighing on her still. "Please. Will is holding back. I know there is so much more that he knows, but has yet to come to terms with. I just want to be sure that I don't kill him in the process of trying to save his life."
"Okay," Doggett said with a nod. "We'll be in touch."
"Thank you," Cara whispered, taking the bottle from Doggett and rushing to the door so Will wouldn't suspect anything from her prolonged absence.
As Doggett held the sample, Monica touched his arm. "Do you think they will be okay?" she asked as he watched Cara climb into the driver's seat and pull away from the house.
"I sure hope so," Doggett replied softly, gripping the sample a little tighter.