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The Sunrise Motel off of Highway 270 just outside DC. Mulder pulled up there at 4:31 to see almost a dozen law enforcement cars parked outside, ranging from the Virginia State Police to FBI sedans. He could see that the door to room 6 was open, though the entrance was covered in caution tape. Just taking in the sights, the minute details. Anything more than just surface observations would have been too much at the moment, and he needed to keep his head about him. For example, he didn't want to think about the situation he was in snowballing completely out of control, even though that was certainly where it was headed. The state trooper on the phone had assured him of that.
"Do you want me to go in with you?" Scully asked once they had parked and had been sitting in the car for a few minutes. He'd almost forgotten she was in the front seat.
"No."
Another minute of silence.
"Are you sure?"
"No."
More silence. But he was biting his lower lip in that Mulder way and she could tell he was scared. She wasn't sure he was ever going to move from the car until another agent knocked on the car window, snapping Mulder back into the present.
He spoke with the agent, just an investigator, for a brief moment while Scully picked at her cuticles, trying not to look inside. Then, as abruptly as their conversation had started, it ended, and Mulder took a deep breath before turning to his partner.
"They have everything but an ID right now."
"Are they waiting on you?"
"I'm the only family member around."
"Do you need a few more minutes before we go in there?"
"No, Scully. We need to get back to Megan and Zach."
So they made their way into the motel room, the crime scene, where nothing was as it should have been. There was broken glass everywhere because the mirror on the dresser was broken. The TV had been taken. Clothes were everywhere. And on the floor by the window was the body of Mulder's cousin Stacie, elastic still wrapped around her arm. The tips of her fingers and her lips were a deep shade of blue, and the needle that undoubtedly killed her not far from her final grasp. Her eyes were open and staring blankly up. Scully wondered if the woman had even known she was dying.
"Agent Mulder," a man with a jacket that read "Coroner" stepped in the room, not taking even a second glance at the scene around him.
While Mulder identified the body as his cousin's, Scully stepped outside to gather her thoughts. She knew what this meant, and she wasn't experiencing the degree of shock Mulder was that would prevent her from thinking about it either. In fact, it was all she could think about.
What would happen to Zach and Megan? From what Mulder had shared with her, both children were products of irresponsible sexual encounters, and there was great suspicion as to who their fathers were. Even if she knew for sure, there was no way Scully would open that can of worms. Mulder had also told her that Stacie's mother was in no way fit to take care of herself, much less her grandchildren, having made arrangements to live in a retirement community not long ago. Mulder's mother had died, and aside from a few disinterested people on Stacie's father's side of the family, there was nobody who could take the kids in. They would go to foster homes and be part of that system until they were possibly adopted.
Unless Mulder stepped in. It wasn't a question in Scully's mind. It was just a matter of what kind of hoops he would have to jump through and what kind of impact it would have on his life. Their lives. Her life was on the cusp of total upheaval as well, and she knew it.
"Can you get in there and do a brief examination?" Mulder had snuck up on her outside as she had been deep in thought.
"For what? The coroner is inside. Mulder, we both know what killed her," she hated to tell him.
"Scully, you saw the state of the room. Somebody else was in there with her, and that somebody may have had a bigger hand in all this than we think."
"Mulder, you and I have both seen cases like this before. Whoever was with her probably got scared and tried to make the room look like an intrusion occurred by destroying the place. Either that, or they did it in a drug-induced frenzy. There are so many ways this could have panned out."
"Please, Scully. I just need to know for sure. I just need to know that Stacie was all along the type of mother who would kill herself with drugs instead of work on her life for her kids. Please," his eyes were cloudy. It had felt so much like a typical crime scene for a minute that Scully got too caught up with her position to remember that the woman laying on the floor in that room was a member of Mulder's family. And that she loved that woman's children already, after only a day of caring for them.
"Alright," Scully relented.
XXX
Stacie had been a pretty woman.
It was clear that her body had deteriorated because of the drug use. She was disgustingly thin and bony, her skin was marred by scabs and scratches, and her hair was dirty and tangled. But she had a kind face, pretty eyes, and despite everything else, Scully knew that before she had developed an addiction, she had been a healthy, happy woman with the whole world at her fingertips. Every day women and men, boys and girls, like Stacie had once been, had their lives destroyed in one way or another. Scully was just having a hard time grabbing on to the fact that this woman's destruction had been completely of her own doing, and now her children were going to have to live with what she did for the rest of their already traumatized lives.
It was just as Scully, just as everybody, knew the case to be. Stacie did not display any exterior signs that would lead Scully to believe that her death was caused by anything other than an overdose. She didn't tell Mulder that with her words, though. She found him outside, leaning on his car, and putting her hand on his shoulder was enough to let him know. He aggressively put his hands over his face and stomped his foot on the ground. He was so much like Zach and Megan. Both of their mothers had killed themselves.
"You know, some addicts who have recently been in treatment overestimate their tolerance. That's why you see so many overdoses in people who have been recently recovering."
Nothing in Mulder's expression showed that he even registered that she had been speaking.
"Mulder, please talk—"
"Let's just leave. We have to get back," he flung the car door open and got inside.
"Mulder," Scully rushed around to the passenger's side, "Mulder, you need to listen to me. You are not handling this well. I don't think it would be a good idea for you to see the kids right now."
"Don't tell me what's a good idea."
"They're too little, Mulder. It's going to be a hard enough blow when we have to tell them properly. If they were told or they suspected something, it would devastate them."
"I'm not planning on telling them, Scully. Not like this."
"What I'm saying is that the way you're acting right now is going to tip them off. I don't think you should come back to my place tonight."
"Scully…"
"My mom and I are perfectly capable of handling them. All I'm saying is that you need some time to yourself. You need to calm down."
"There's no way."
"Mulder!"
They did not realize they were yelling at each other until Scully felt the pain of her escalating scream as she said his name. Taking a deep breath, she waited to continue.
"Mulder, I'm sorry about your cousin."
"How could a mother want to leave her children like that?" he asked, and Scully knew he was asking on more than just Megan and Zach's behalves.
"She was a monster, Mulder. She subjected her children to unthinkable horrors only to die in some stereotypical motel room and leave them not only with no plan or anything to their names, but with a whole host of emotional and psychological problems. And you know what? That may actually be kinder of her than staying alive to prolong their hell. At least now they have a chance." Scully wasn't worried about hurting him by degrading Stacie. As far as both of them were concerned, it was more than deserved.
"I don't know what to do next, Scully. I'm completely lost. I don't know what to do, I don't know what to say… I don't want to do this."
"There is no right thing to do or say. You did the most right thing you could have when you answered Zach's call and went to get them."
"They're in my life now. And I know they're going to be for the rest of it."
He'd just confirmed what she had already suspected… Mulder was going to go ahead and petition to adopt the kids. That was another headache for a different day. All they could do at that moment, for their own sake, was to leave the investigation alone, get back to the kids, and make sure that they were going to be prepared for what life was about to deal them.
As they were en route back to Scully's, Mulder abruptly turned to her.
"If you were a kid again right now, what's the first thing you would want to do?"
It didn't take long for Scully to answer, and the car made a sudden turn into a shopping complex off the highway.
XXX
"Zach, Megan, wake up," Scully gently shook the two children. It was after 10 at night, and under any other circumstance, she would be horrified if anybody tried to wake them up. Some things can't wait, though.
"Zach, Megan, it's Dana. Mulder and I are home and we have a surprise for you."
Megan was the first one to start to open her eyes. Even after only limited time watching them sleep, both agents had already figured out that Megan was the lighter sleeper of the two. She also slept the most fitfully, tossing and turning all through the night while Zach seemed dead to the world during his sleep.
"Hmm?" the little girl murmured before her eyes were even open all the way.
"Sweetheart, it's Dana and Mulder," finally, Megan looked at them. "See? We told you we'd be back."
Megan didn't look too excited to see the two, undoubtedly still shaking off sleep, but once Zach was awake and saw Mulder, he seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.
"Kids, we have surprises for you out in the living room," Mulder informed them, watching Megan crawl into Scully's lap and stick her thumb in her mouth.
"Is it Christmas?" she asked innocently, causing Mulder, Scully, and Maggie to laugh.
"No baby, we just have a really fun surprise for you. But you can go back to sleep and see it in the morning if you'd like," Mulder knew that would get both of the kids out of bed. Soon, both of them had launched themselves out of the room. All of the adults quickly followed them, wanting to see their reactions to what was awaiting them in the living room.
"Ahhh!" Megan screamed, and the biggest smile broke out on Zach's eight-year-old face when they saw the purple and grey bikes waiting for them in the place of Scully's coffee table. The little girl immediately ran up to the purple one, which had white tassels on the handlebars and a basket, while Zach stayed back, seemingly dumbfounded.
"Do you like it buddy?" Mulder crouched down to his level. Zach could only nod enthusiastically.
"Can we ride them Mulder?" Megan ran up and threw her arms around his neck.
"You most certainly can ride them. They are yours."
Both of the children were stunned by that revelation. Megan responded by jumping up and down uncontrollably. Mulder took both of them over to the bikes, expecting them to jump on. They didn't, though, and when Mulder asked why, Zach piped up.
"I don't know how."
Maggie was the one most touched by that information. Years and years ago, when her children were little, she remembered them learning how to ride bikes. It started out with a tricycle, and the Scully family had had the same one from Bill Jr. all the way to Charlie. It was a rite of passage for one sibling to pass it down to the next one as they moved up to riding bicycles. When it came to learning on those, it couldn't happen if Bill Sr. wasn't home. Her mother remembered a four-year-old Dana waiting three extra months after her best friends from down the street had started riding their bikes and Maggie herself had offered to teach her to learn, just because it was "dad's job." The falls, the scrapes, everything that came with childhood, could all be symbolized by the experience of learning to ride a bike. And here were Zach and Megan, two children who had only seen kids riding bikes on the street or on TV, not knowing what to do in the presence of real ones.
"Once you learn, you'll never forget," Scully told the little boy, picking him up and setting him on his new grey bike with flames painted on the sides. He put his feet on the pedals but was hesitant to move them any further.
"Push down on the pedals, Zachy. One at a time," she instructed him further, even though that would mean him potentially riding across her living room. Mulder took a good look at his partner right then, and he couldn't help but smile. They had both thought that she would never get to do this. And even though they weren't related to her in any way, Zach and Megan had come at just the right time.
Slowly, and with a few slips, Zach made his way across the rug. Megan, not to be outdone, carefully climbed on her bike and started to move her legs in wildly different directions, missing the point of the pedals altogether.
"I wanna ride like Zach!"
"You know what? This apartment is a bit small to be riding bikes around in. Let's go outside," Scully suggested, making her mother's eyes widen.
"It's 10:30 at night Dana."
"Mom, tonight they're going to learn to ride their bikes," she said definitively, then went to assist Mulder in bringing the kids and their new toys outside.
XXX
Almost two hours later, Mulder and Scully each carried a sleeping child upstairs to bed. Depositing them down, an unasked question hovered between them. When were they going to tell Zach and Megan about their mother?
"Tomorrow. After breakfast," Scully said sadly, and Mulder nodded, putting his arm around her.
Tomorrow.