William drifted in and out of consciousness, each time grasping a better hold of his surroundings. It was noticeably calm after the pandemonium of the past few hours, though he had no real concept of the time that had passed.
Rubbing his eyes, he pulled back the fleecy sheets of the hospital bed. He'd been changed into a hospital gown but had no recollection of when or how. At least he still had his boxers on.
He was in his own private room from what he could gather; there was a bedside lamp dimly lit but enough to show him the set up. Will winced as his head twinge in complaint, he could feel the roughness of stitches and soon recalled it was from the attack back in the crevasse.
Apprehensively he dangled his legs over the bedside, hoping they'd remember how to work and not just let him collapse in a heap on the floor. They supported him, thank god. Now to find his parents and brother, and make sure Doggett was on the case for finding Rachel.
Hastily, he searched for his clothes; he had to at least try to keep whatever dignity he had left. They were piled haphazardly on the side. He glanced at the door briefly before pulling the loose tie on his hospital gown and letting it slide down his arms.
The corridors were empty and the lighting sporadic. He'd lost his watch but assumed it must be some time in the early hours of the morning. William turned right headed for the room his brother had been residing in.
"Excuse me" A nurse appeared in one of the doorframes, "You're not supposed to be up without having first been signed off by a doctor"
"I'm fine" William argued, "I need to check on my brother, and see my father"
The woman's facial expression changed dramatically.
"What?" William asked, now very worried.
"Your brother is no longer here"
"You mean they moved him?"
"No… he disappeared"
"People don't just disappear" William stopped in his tracks, feeling himself getting annoyed at the nurse.
"When there was an electrical disturbance and it blew the system everything went dark, when the power came back on he was gone, vanished from the bed without a trace"
"That doesn't make any sense"
William ignored the woman, pacing the corridor until he was stood outside the biohazard set up. Through the glass he could see the body of a man, presumably the person who'd been infected in the breach, but no sign of Alex.
"I want to see the CCTV footage" William ordered.
"It's been checked, it shows absolutely nothing"
"Then I want to see Agent Scully, and Muld-" He remembered his father dying, and how he'd saved him, "-Mulder, my father, is he alright?"
"I'll take you to your Dad if you'll just calm down" The woman offered, treating him mildly like a child.
He was acting irrational, but the situation warranted it. Nothing made any sense.
The nurse led him to a different room from the one he'd first been in when they'd been working on Mulder. They stood outside the door, her hand hovering over the handle.
"I must warn you, your father is not in great shape. It's pretty touch and go at the moment. We induced a coma to give his body time to focus just on the essential organs-"
William didn't have time for the details; he just needed to see that he was there and not in a morgue. He made to push the door himself just as the woman opened it for him.
Mulder was hooked up to every machine imaginable. Wires and tubes connecting him in a tangled mess that just happened to be keeping him alive. A breathing tube was taped in place and he watched as his father's chest rose and fell with each artificial breath. His arms were jammed with IV lines delivering transfusions and saline drips, and his abdomen was wrapped with bandages, the blood already beginning to seep through.
William sensed the nurse watching him.
"Can I umm, have some time alone with him… please?"
The nurse nodded and closed the door gently behind her.
William crossed his arms and bit his fingernails, pacing the room slightly. He stopped in front of his father, leaning over him.
"I believe you can hear me… hear my voice" He began, "Thank you for coming after us, if you hadn't found us we'd have had no chance out there with those things…"
William cleared his throat, getting to the point quickly, time wasn't in their favour, "I can't find my brother, Alex, and I don't know what's happened to him. But I know you'd have a good idea of where he's gone, where he's been taken. You're the only one in this place that would. Rachel is there too, right?"
It was a one sided conversation, but William found a strange comfort in talking it through with him.
"How do I find them? How do I get to this place?"
His father lay still. The heart monitors bleeping steadily.
William sighed; he knew it was no use. He didn't like to admit it, but this was a pursuit made for him and him alone.
He squeezed his fathers hand gently, "I'll be back" He lied, knowing full well that this was the last time he'd see him in a long time.