From: "Randi Peterson" <iluvxf@hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2003 01:22:18 +0000
Subject: ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD
Source: direct

ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD 2/2

By:  Traveler
Summary information and disclaimer in Part 1



CATOCTIN MOUNTAINS, MARYLAND


I remember waking up with my head in Scully's lap,
voices and then some men dragging me out of the car,
placing me on a gurney.  Pleading with Scully 'no
hospital' and her hand on my forehead reassuring me.
Skinner's voice advising someone about the gunshot
wound to my leg, Scully giving them my blood type and
another female voice saying she'd take good care of me.

I remember the rest of my clothes being cut away but
being too incoherent to care, it seems like half the
world has seen me naked by now anyway.  Voices giving
orders and stating vitals, a mask over my face and
something cold in my veins and then all went black.

I hear voices now.  Someone, I think its Skinner asking
how I'm doing.  Scully in a soft voice so as not to
wake me telling him I'm fine.

"That's a lie."

I feel her hand that's been resting on my arm jump.
She turns to look at me startled by my reply to her
answer.  She drops her gaze, concentrating on tracing
the veins in the back of my hand.

"We have to stop meeting like this partner."

"Just like old times, huh?"

She doesn't answer me, still refusing to look me in the
eyes.  I reach up and brush her hair back from her
face.  "Hey, can't be too bad, I still have my leg."

She finally looks up.  "God, Mulder, don't even think
that.  Yes, you still have your leg and some nice
tapestry work to go with it.  How do you feel?"

"Not fine.  Kinda dizzy."

She smiles briefly in sympathy.  "That's probably the
anesthetic.  They put you out to sew you up."

"Where are we anyway?"

"Camp David."

My eyes widen in shock.  Jesus Christ, Camp David is
under Marine control just like Quantico.  Are they
insane?  What exactly is going on here?  I want to know
everything but I can't keep my eyes open.  Even doped
up Scully can see the panic spreading across my face.

"Welcome to the revolution, Mulder," she says with more
conviction than I have heard in her voice in some time.
She wraps her hands around my wrist. "It's a really
long story and I can see you're drifting off.  Get some
rest.  What I've got to tell you even you won't
believe."

She gets up and leans over the bed.  Running her
fingers through my hair and kisses me softly.

"I think this is another one of those miracles you told
me to never stop believing in."


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


There's a soft glow in the sky when I wake up alone.
The clock says 7:20 but I'm not sure if it's AM or PM.
Hell, I'm not even sure what month it is.  I look
around to get my bearings.  Standard hospital-type room
in a very swanky hospital.  I try to pull myself up a
little and am reminded by my leg that I'm going to need
some help.  Besides that I gotta pee.  They might have
stripped me naked but at least they didn't humiliate me
further with a catheter.  I'm checking out my options
when Skinner strolls into the room unaware that I'm
awake.  He sees me rifling through the covers and
quickens his pace to be of assistance.

"Mulder, what do you need?"

Frustrated I look up.  "Somebody better get me a bottle
or they're gonna have to change the sheets."

I see his face redden when he realizes what I'm talking
about.

"I'll get the nurse."


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


Relief and a dose of pain medication later Skinner is
back in my room.  He's dressed casually, the 'man-in-
black' look gone.  I get the impression he's got a lot
to say but doesn't know where to start.

"Where's Scully?"

He finally looks at me.  "She's asleep Mulder, she's
exhausted."

Now that we're alone I can read him better.  This is
the Skinner that defended me in that hokey courtroom.
He knew what a futile cause it was then and yet he
stood by me because he believed in me.  They all did
I've now come to realize.  But things have happened
since then  I can tell by his demeanor.  He's got a lot
to tell me but he's waiting for me to take the
initiative.

"Good, then you can tell me what the hell is going on."

"What's going on is what you started at Mount Weather."

"It all came to an end there.  I don't understand."

He comes over to sit in the chair next to the bed,
resting his elbows on his knees and bringing his hands
up to scrub his face.  He's exhausted too.  Freedom
never comes without a price.

"The shock wave from that investigation Agent
Kallenbrunner started in LA has reached all the way
back here Mulder.  All the leads you gave him.  The
information panned out. It was me who cleaned out your
office at the Bureau.  All the original files are here.
All your missing evidence was recovered in the raid on
the Pentagon.  There's going to be a huge Grand Jury
investigation into the military, all the cover-ups and
the government's involvement in them.  When this
information gets out to the press the public will know
the truth.  It goes all the way up to the president
Mulder and he knows what other leaders are involved."

I don't know whether to be elated or terrified.  The
implications of what he's just told me are
astronomical.   I think about my fear for what the
truth would do to Scully.  I couldn't tell her our fate
had already been determined and now the whole world
will know it.

I realize Skinner is waiting for some reaction from me.
I honestly don't know what to say.  I know the
president is a pawn like the rest of us and the people
are going to need someone to restore their faith in the
government.

"The president's not one of them, he's a pawn just like
the rest of us.  He's only been used to perpetuate the
lie.  Implicating him will destroy any faith the public
has."  Something else he's said suddenly dawns on me.
"What do you mean you cleaned out my office?"

He doesn't answer my last question.  Preferring instead
to let me know I wasn't the only one they rescued from
the White House.  "The president is here Mulder."  He
looks away from me, getting up to cross the room and
look out the window.  The sky is considerably brighter
now and I realize it's AM and I slept all night.

He turns to face me.  "Doggett and Reyes came back to
the Bureau after you and Scully left that night.  They
had Gibson with them.  When they went to down to the
basement office it was empty, down to the bare walls.
I'm sure they thought everything had been confiscated
by bureau personnel but I'd beaten them to it."  He
looks down at his feet, ashamed of what he's about to
admit.  "I knew you didn't have a chance in that
courtroom Mulder.  If I couldn't save you at least I
could save your work."

I'm overwhelmed with his admission and when he finally
meets my eyes I stumble to express my gratitude. "That
was a huge gamble on your part Sir," is all I can choke
out.

We spend the next hour or so discussing what
information they have and what plans have been
established.  I'm shocked to learn that these aliens do
have liabilities, that there is still a need for human
collaboration in their plan for colonization.  It's
much easier for them to grow an alien force right here
on this planet than to transport one here from
elsewhere.  But humans are frail creatures, which is
why they needed the Syndicate's help in creating a
better species in which to propagate the invasion
force.  That's why the implants were needed to track
the abductees and monitor the progress being made.
Those fools within the Syndicate thought they could
outsmart the aliens and stall the date of colonization
by killing Cassandra.  The colonists didn't need any
politely worded announcement that a hybrid had been
successfully created, they knew immediately.  I think
about the implant Scully still carries in her neck.
Can they still track her with it or did Spender in some
final act of redemption turn it off?  I still want to
know how we were followed to New Mexico.

Skinner and Kersh were called on the carpet about their
duplicity in my escape but were allowed to continue
their roles as pawns in this unholy game. They're
needed to keep their unsuspecting subordinates on board
for the final move.

Scully and I have determined that there is more than
one faction of aliens involved here.  The colonists
aligned with the military have created this race of
super-soldiers.  Designed as assassins, their job is to
destroy any chance the human race has of preventing the
eventual colonization of earth.  They're the ones who
are out to get me and her and anyone else who poses a
threat to their plans.  They're indestructible or so
they believe.

The magnetite that Scully discovered is our only weapon
against them right now.  But luring them to it or
getting it to them is the problem.  There is no way to
identify who is the enemy here.  There is however,
another party in this scenario, one that could hold the
key to our salvation, another alien race.

There have been incredible leaps in development over
the course of mankind's evolution, baffling scientists
for centuries as to their cause and origin.  Scully's
investigation into the claw we found in Arizona some
years ago proved that we are all in some part 'alien'.
Each one of us possesses the genetic remnants of
another race of beings.  This is not information we
should fear.  It is instead a revelation of the unity
of the entire universe.  Further proof that we are not
only one species here on earth but genetically related
to whoever else inhabits the universe.   We are not
alone.

It is within these genetic remnants that the key to our
survival may be found.  Found in the gifted few that
through some quirk of fate of perhaps the hand of God
find themselves with abilities far beyond what we
believe are humanly possible.  It is unclear why or how
these genes became dormant in some of us or why in some
of us they remain active.  This is what I tried to get
an assembly of agents and Skinner himself to
understand.  This is the key to the X-Files.  The proof
of everything we can't or won't explain lies in these
genetic codes.


Gibson, my brave young friend is one of these gifted
individuals.  His ability to read minds allows him to
communicate with the aliens and also to identify those
who plot against us.  I believe William is also gifted.
We cannot however, bring children into this war.  We
need to find a better way to identify our enemy, to
understand how these alien races are connected and as
the president pleaded with me as I was dragged from his
office, find a way to stop this.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


Skinner must think I've zoned out on him.  The gentle
pressure of his hand on my leg brings me back to the
present.  I think about what he's said.  Is revealing
the cover-up of plans for alien colonization to the
world really a good idea?  For years this is all I had
wanted and then when I knew it to be true I couldn't
even speak it myself.  We have to be very careful about
what is revealed because it has to be backed up with
irrefutable evidence.

Despite how much I want the truth to win out we need to
be extremely careful.  "Look, this is a great idea, but
the Grand Jury could be just as much a part of the
cover-up as the military is.  They would make a mockery
out of the judicial system. We could end up putting all
the evidence right back in their hands.   How can we be
sure who we're dealing with?"

Skinner sighs.  "That's just it Mulder, we can't.  We
have to find a way to identify them.  If we can do
that, along with Scully's research, we have a chance to
defeat them."

This sounds too much like the McCarthy hearings.  "I
won't bring Gibson into this."

"No one's asking you too.  There's another way."  He
looks away from me, mulling over something in his mind
that he's not sure I'm ready to hear at the moment

"What other way?  I don't understand what you're
getting at."

"You."

'Me' I think to myself, how can Skinner possibly think
that I can help identify the enemy.  "I can't read
minds, I told you that, not anymore.  Where did you get
this idea?" I finish with a laugh.  He's beginning to
aggravate me and he can see that my patience is
beginning to run thin.  He draws a manila folder from
his coat.

"I have to show you something that might change you
mind," with some hesitation he continues.  Handing me
three clear plastic sheets he's withdrawn from the
envelope.

"These are PCR results.  These two," he says as he puts
the top two sheets together, "are from the nail you and
Scully found in Arizona and Gibson Praise.  These
markers," he explains, pointing to several of the
stains, "are not genetic codes normally found in human
DNA, they match."

"I know all this, Scully and I have this information,"
I say impatiently.

"This one," he continues as he lines up the third
sheet, " is yours.  Scully did this when...when we dug
you up, it also matches.  Do you understand the
implication here Mulder?"

I sit and stare at the results in front of me.  Yeah, I
understand perfectly.  It's like I've been trying to
tell Scully, I'm not who I was.   Finally able to find
my voice I look up at him.

"Scully knew this?  She ran tests on the baby.  Why
didn't she say anything to me?"

"Maybe because she was afraid of what the information
means.  Or what you would do with it if you knew. I
told you before; she can't lose you again Mulder.
Whatever her reasons, she knows.  The truth you've been
searching for, it's in you but she's not going to let
you die to prove it."

He finishes by staring into me.  I read him loud and
clear.

I have this sudden flash of Diana leaning over me
saying almost those exact words not long ago.  She had
something else on her mind then and it terrified me, as
I lay there unable to do anything to save myself.
Little did I know then how truthful her words would
turn out to be?  I look down at the sheets in my hands
still not totally comprehending what I've been shown.
This gift Skinner tells me I have, is it what's guided
me all along?  Given me the ability to empathize with
victims, allowed me access to the minds of killers and
provided those leaps of logic that too others seemed
'spooky'?  If that's the case, then this has always
been a part of me.  My head hurts with confusion.

"Can I keep these for a while?"

Skinner's not sure telling me all this was a good idea
now.  He hesitates for a moment at my request.  Finally
acknowledging when he realizes that I want to discuss
this with Scully.

"Yeah, sure.  Mulder.  You know this doesn't make you
a..." he looks at me sympathetically.

"Freak," I say finishing his thought for him.  "Not any
more than my son, huh?"

He doesn't deny that's what he was thinking.

"I'll talk to you later," he says as he walks from the
room.  Leaving me to face a truth I'd often thought
about but was always afraid to admit, even to myself.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


They must have a heck of a satellite system here
judging from the selection I'm finding on the TV.  I'm
surfing stations when Scully walks in the room carrying
a duffel bag.  I'm also guessing it's warm outside.
She's dressed in a tank top and khaki slacks, her hair
tied back.  She heads my way, dropping the bag at the
end of the bed and nailing me with a good morning kiss.

"Morning, Mulder."

"Morning yourself.  Sleeping without me does you good."

I meant that as a compliment but she seems taken aback
with my comment.

She grabs my hand. "I don't ever want to be without
you," she says quietly, looking down at our joined
hands.  "How do you feel?"

"High as a kite actually.  A little dopey."

She resists the urge to make a comment and leans over
the end of the bed, grabbing the chart hanging there.
"They still have you on Demerol?  Are you in that much
pain?"

She came in her all bubbly and bright and I've already
succeeded in dampening her mood.  I just want to get
the hell out of here so I give her a cocky answer.

"How would I know?   What's in the bag?"

She smiles, rolling her eyes with exasperation.
"Clothes, want to get out of here?"

"Are you serious?"

"I'm...we're in a private cottage, what difference does
it make where you lay around."

She reaches to unzip the bag she's brought with her,
suddenly eyeing the envelope still resting on the bed
where Skinner left it.

"What's this?"

I meet her eyes.  "Maybe you can tell me."

She eyes me suspiciously, opening the envelope and
withdrawing the charts.

"These look like PCR results."

"Yep, they are.  I understand you know all about them."

She stands there comparing them in silence.  I'm trying
desperately not to sound like I'm calling her on this.
But sensing her reluctance to address the situation I'm
beginning to wonder what else she knows.  Realization
dawns across her face.

"I'm not who I was am I?"

"Mulder?  Who gave you these?"  She's cautious now.
Not wanting to give up the game she has so cleverly
manipulated to keep me in the dark.

"Skinner, they think I can help them identify the
aliens.  You didn't answer my question."

Anger, fear, I feel them start to come off her in
waves.  She slams the sheets down on the bedside table.

"Damnit Mulder, stop saying that!"

"You just won't admit what I am because then it means
that William is the same thing and you gave birth to
him!"  I can't hold my anger in either.  I thought we
were though lying to each other.

"Don't you even think that!"

The slap I get is not surprising but I'm quick enough
to grab her wrist before she can pull away.  She yanks
back hard enough to almost pull me out of bed and I
have to let her go.

"You're not some fucking alien Mulder and neither is
our son!"  Suddenly all the fight goes out of her.
"He's just a baby, an innocent little baby."

The expletive surprises me but the tears do not.  She's
backing away from me as I start to climb out of the
bed.  I realize she's about to flee when she turns
quickly for the door.  As soon as I hit the floor I
know why they had me on Demerol.  Pain shoots up my leg
but I refuse to let her escape.  Somehow I beat her to
the door, my IV pole crashing to the floor in the
process.   I hear footsteps in the hall and slam the
door shut throwing my weight against it and turning
around to face her.  She's standing in front of me,
bewildered and upset by this whole event.  I try to
reach out to her, blood running down the back of my
hand from where the IV line was ripped out but she
flinches away from me.

"Scully...I...I just want an explanation.  Please...I just
want to know what's happened to me."

She doesn't say anything; we're just staring intently
at each other when there's someone pounding on the
door, pushing against me as I try to hold it shut.

"Tell them it's okay Scully," I plead with her.
Panting through the pain, perspiration starting to bead
my forehead.

She sighs, her brows furrowing, a look of defeat
crossing her face.  "We're okay...can you just give us a
minute?"

I open the door a crack to an insistent looking nurse.
She's surprised to see me standing there.
"We need a minute here, please."

I see her glance back up the hall like she's looking to
someone else for help.  But then she acknowledges my
request turning away without comment.  I close the door
again and turn back to Scully trying not to put any
weight on my leg I lean on the door for support.  I
really need to sit down.

She steps toward me, taking my bloody hand in one of
her shaky ones.  "Mulder, look what you've done to your
hand," she looks up finally meeting my eyes.  "Let's
get you back to bed."

We stager across the room like a couple of drunks and
she unceremoniously plops me back on the bed.
Returning from the bathroom a minute later with a basin
and washcloth to clean off my hand.  I watch her as she
gently dabs away the blood, removing the rest of the
tape and pressing the cloth against the wound to stop
the bleeding.  I have to break this silence.

"Those are the abnormalities you were talking about in
Arizona aren't they?  I didn't understand how you could
just let that comment go without an explanation.  Tell
me what it means."

I watch her run her tongue across her teeth; she won't
look at me now.  She's debating how to approach this.
Confusion, disbelief, denial and a little fear all
fighting for control.  I feel the same way Scully, talk
to me.

She struggles to put the words together.  I reach for
her, bring her hands to my lap, holding them there.

"Talk to me."  I say to her quietly.

She sighs like she's dealing with a petulant child.
"Mulder you suspected this.  It's why you asked for
Kritschgau, to help you prove that what had happened to
you was alien in nature."

"I wanted you to prove it Scully."

She looks away from me again and I touch her chin with
my finger drawing her gaze back to me.  "You didn't
fail me Scully."

"Mulder, this is all my fault.  When I came back from
Africa, Kritschgau stole my files.  He sent them to the
National Institute of Health for evaluation.  All your
personal medical files, proof of what you suspected.
Even if they didn't believe what was in them, the
information was out there for anyone to see.  I thought
I had deleted them but someone killed him for those
files."

Krycek I think to myself.  If she'd been there instead
of Kritschgau would she have believed what her science
told her about me?  Do I believe it?  Like she says,
the information is out there now, obviously of interest
to the people here and making me a prime target of the
colonists. Everybody has a bounty on my head.  None of
that matters now.  What I need to know is how she feels
about all this.  I squeeze her hand again.

"So what did you find?  What did your science tell
you?"

She looks down again at our joined hands.  "You
remember what I found out about the nail we discovered
in that house and how it related to Gibson...to all of
us?"  Her voice is soft, almost like she's still
refusing to believe what her science was telling her.

"When I saw the abnormalities in your scans it reminded
me of what we had seen in Gibson's tests.  I went back
and checked Gibson's file that's how I found it.
William has then too."

"But you said we all have these dormant genes."

"We do, but remember I told you that in Gibson they
were turned on?"

"You can't just turn genes on and off can you?"

"No, but certain influences can suppress them or
actuate them."

"But that has to be at conception doesn't it?"

"Normally, but not always."

"The artifact?"

"No, in your case it was probably something you were
exposed to or a trauma to your body."

"The black oil," she looks up then, the reminder of my
trip to Russia pains her face. "Or dying," I finish
sadly.

"Or coming back to life," she says with a gentle smile.

She pulls her hands from mine with her last sentence.
Running her hand down the left side of my face now
reddened from her hand.

"But you were exposed to the virus Scully."

"There's something in your genetic code Mulder that was
triggered.  We're all different.  It's why I have blue
eyes and your are..." she doesn't finish.  Instead gazing
deeply into my eyes that want so badly to make all this
go away for her.

"They're very special boys.  And you, Fox Mulder are a
very special man.  You always have been, this doesn't
change anything, it only confirms it."

Reaching to taking my right hand to place it on the
washcloth she signals the end of our conversation for
now.

"Keep some pressure on that, I'll get something to
dress it with, then we can get out of here."

As she turns towards the door I grab her hand again to
make her turn back to me.

"Scully?  Why didn't you tell me before?"

"I was afraid Mulder."

"Afraid of what?"

I see a sad smile cross her lips. "Afraid that you'd do
just what you're about to do anyway.  Save the world."


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


Skinner ran us over here in a Jeep a few hours ago.
They'd released me with crutches and a nice supply of
pain pills and told me to get lots of rest.  I'm
sitting out here on the porch of our cottage enjoying
the fresh air and hoping it will wake me up.  Most of
these cottages were built back in the 50's but the one
we are in is one of the few that were rebuilt to
upgrade the accommodations for visiting dignitaries.
FDR lovingly called this 'Shangri La' and while it's
nestled in a very scenic part of the Maryland hills,
it's far from paradise.  Scully tried to get me to go
in and lie down for a while but I told her I could just
as easily nap out here.  After spending the better part
of my life in a shirt and tie sequestered in an office
building I've grown to feel at home outdoors in the
past year.   The Appalachian air is humid, reminding me
of my childhood days on the Vineyard and making me wish
to be back in those days of innocence.

Nobody, not even Scully, knew what it was like, or
could in any way comprehend what only I knew to be
true.  For years I was the joke of the Bureau.  Living
with the scorn of my peers who now come to me looking
for the answers that everyone then refused to
understand or believe.  I'd like to tell them all to go
to hell but they know I won't that I can't.

Damn that CBG.  He sent me to Mount Weather, knowing
what would happen when I got there.  Did he also know
that no matter what the outcome, that trial would open
the door to the dirty secrets that have been hidden
behind if for years?  Scully tried to tell me that she
saw in him a desire to redeem himself somehow for the
wrongs he had done.  I highly doubt that man has
anything resembling a conscience but maybe his using me
was his attempt to expose the project.

These people here believe I've got some kind of inside
information or some kind of alien radar system and that
by pointing me in the right direction I can pinpoint
the enemy for them.  Scully believes it too, it's why
she didn't tell me and why I realize now she protected
William by giving him up.  I'm afraid to believe it.
It's going to take a lot more than me to win this war.
I've got to make them understand that.

I hear the door open and close and Scully's soft
footsteps as she crosses to porch to where I'm sprawled
in one of the Adirondack chairs.  She has something to
drink with her, I hear the ice cubes clinking against
glass as she approaches and hesitates, trying to assess
if I'm conscious or not

"I hope you have one of those for me, it's hotter than
hell out here."

I pry my eyes open and look at her standing beside me
with two glasses of ice tea in her hands, patting my
right thigh for her to sit.  She hands me a glass and I
drink greedily from it.  Wiping the sweat from my
forehead with my other hand.

"You know, it's air conditioned inside.  You don't have
to sit out here in this heat."

"Yeah, I know," she can see the resignation, feel the
despair in my voice and she slowly sits down on the
thigh I offered her.  "But there's birds and a breeze
and green things out here.  I was hoping they'd
convince me I'm doing the right thing."

"I've never doubted that Mulder."  She rubs her hand on
my injured thigh, stirring things I can't deal with
right now.  "They need you, I need you and I was wrong
to keep what I knew from you."

I grab her hand, pulling it away from the caress.

"Sore?"

"Not exactly."

She doesn't say anything but smiles at me with an
acknowledgement.  The breeze stirs her hair, blowing
fine tendrils of it across her face. I reach to tuck
them behind her ear like I've done so many times
before.

"You really believe I have some kind of inhuman
abilities don't you?"

"No, not inhuman Mulder."  She runs the fingers of the
hand that had been caressing my thigh across my chest
stopping to press them against my heart.  "You are very
much human, more human than any of us.  I look at you
and realize what we all could be," those wonderful blue
eyes of hers coming to rest in mine.

I shake my head slightly at her words. "Spooky doesn't
even begin to describe me now."

"Mulder, I want you to listen to me for a minute."  She
sets her glass down on the little table next to my
chair and puts both her hands on my shoulders making
eye contact that she dares me without saying so to
break.  "You are no different now than you've ever
been.  You keep trying to tell me that you're not Fox
Mulder but you are.  You're still that man that could
always put the smallest of clues together to find an
answer.  You are the most caring, charismatic, charming
and conscientious person I have ever known.  Only you
could makes those incredible leaps of logic that
eventually lead to a solution and who could always see
that the evil was not in the person but in the cause.
I know you hated the nickname and the scorn that came
with it but those people were jealous Mulder and a lot
of them admire you as I do.  They wish they had your
courage."

I set my glass down next to hers and tip my head back
against back of the chair closing my eyes with a sigh.
Her hand comes up to caress the side of my face and I
feel her fingers ripple gently through the short hair
at my temple now lightly peppered with gray.

"The miles are starting to show."

She chuckles softly at my acknowledgement.  "They're
medals of honor Mulder, and you've earned every one of
them."

"I'm tired Scully," I say as I lean into her hand. "And
I don't know what they want from me."

She pulls me towards her placing a soft kiss on the top
of my head and then rests her chin there mimicking a
comforting pose I have often used with her.  We sit
like that for a few minutes in silence listening to the
sounds of the earth all around us.  "They want your
help Mulder.  The truth is out there now and its'
frightening. They just want you to tell them there's
hope."

"It's not up to me Scully, they have to find the hope
in themselves."


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


CAMP DAVID, MARYLAND


Scully and I have spent weeks going through the files
that Skinner stole from our FBI office.  They have very
efficiently set us up with a room here that we can use
as an office and just about anything we need.  There
are other things here too.  My degrees, commendations
back from when I'd actually had an interest in a
career, an old antique microscope, photos of Scully and
I and a multitude of other things that I never thought
I'd see again.  Everything that I'd left behind when I
walked out of our basement office over a year ago.
Scully had asked me then if I'd cleaned out the office
and all I could tell her was there was nothing there
that meant anything to me anymore.  That everything
there belonged to someone else, in a different life.  I
think that frightened her but what I was trying to tell
her was that she and William were the only things that
I really valued.

Just as I had told Kallenbrunner, evidence of our
investigations was found in of all places, the archives
of the Pentagon.  The original implant Scully had taken
from the corpse in Oregon and more importantly fetal
tissue, several of them actually.  Scully believes one
of them is the material Deep Throat had her steal in
exchange for my life all those years ago.  How ironic
actually that it was all there the day I'd broken in to
get the chip for Scully.  It makes me furious now to
know that I'd been such a damn fool.

We've been able to come up with some theories, all
incredibly unbelievable but true.  The question is now,
how do we approach the people here with what we think
are the answers and how will they use them to develop a
plan to fight back.

I heard someone at the front door a few moments ago,
it's Skinner and I can hear he and Scully discussing my
recovery.  She's angry with him that I spend all my
time in here.  Scully doesn't see it this way, but this
is just another prison cell, the only difference is the
bars are invisible.  There's no where else for us to
go.  I look up when I sense someone at the door.

Skinner's standing there with his hands in his pockets
looking like he has a really bad wedgie.  "Mulder, what
are you doing in here?"

"Looking for the answers you and your constituents
think I can give you."

He sighs, looking away from me in disgust.  I'm the one
who should be disgusted. He wants answers and Scully
wants me to slow down.  I just wish they'd both leave
me the hell alone. I may be out of the Bureau but
nothing's changed.

He wanders over but doesn't say anything.  "Look, I
know Scully called you so why don't you just come out
and say what you came over here to say."  I throw the
pen I had been using on the desk and push the chair
back. I want him to know I'm on to the game.

He's got a short fuse today because it doesn't take him
long to react.  "No, you look!  I didn't bring you up
here to martyr yourself.  There are a lot of good
people here.  People like Scully and myself who believe
there's a way we can prevent this colonization plan.
I've been riding the fence since I met you Mulder, it
costs me my wife and damn nearly my life so don't think
you're the only one who's lost here!"

I love it when Skinner gets angry.  His whole head
turns red, I swear it glows.  I get up from the chair
and limp around the desk to face him.   Slamming the
door to the room on my way.  "Fuck, all I have to do is
look at Scully to realize that!"  I seriously crowd his
space.  "That's exactly why I'm here.  I don't want
anybody to have to go through what she or I or you have
gone through.  It stops now.   If you only knew how
badly I wish I could do what you think I can.  I'd like
nothing more than to point my finger at everyone of
those fucking bastards and then watch them dissolve
away right before my eyes.  I can't, okay?  You got it?
I can't do that and all I know is that we've got a
deadline so if you want me in the fight then you let me
do what I can, on my own terms."  My anger abates as I
step back, breaking eye contact and staring at the
floor.

"Mulder?" Skinner steps towards me, putting a hand on
my shoulder in an attempt to get me to look up.  I
don't.  "How do you know I'm not one of them...or the
president for that matter?"

If I answer him, I'm doomed and yet I have trusted this
man since I met him.  I have to tell him the truth.
When I look up all I see in his eyes is compassion.  He
knows what I'm struggling with.  With a shaky voice I
finally answer him.  "I just know."  I step away from
him again.  Limping over to the window where I trace
the outline of the panes before I continue.  He doesn't
say anything to me, patience winning out over
aggravation.

"That day in the courtroom, when Gibson pointed them
out I could feel it too.  It scared the hell out of me,
it still does."  I look over at him still standing next
to the desk.  I can tell he doesn't know what to say at
my admission.  I catch his eye for a second and then
look back out into the compound.  "I won't be the one
this whole plan rests on.  You can't ask me to do
that."  I close my eyes, my hands coming up to rub at
them and scrub my unshaven face. Finally I just stand
there with my head in my hands.  Too tired to move or
say anything more.

Skinner clears his throat, I hear the rustle of
clothing but he doesn't approach me.

"Nobody in their right mind would accept that burden
Mulder."

I drop my hands and turn to him an incredulous smile
slowly spreading across my face. Finally I laugh at
him. "Nobody ever thought I was in my right mind, sir."

I watch as the smirk turns up the corners of his lips
and that little twinkle forms in his eyes.  We both
know this is serious business we are discussing but the
humor is a welcome relief and I sag visibly with the
acknowledgement of the joke.

"Mulder, sit down before you fall down and I'll tell
you what I really came over here for."

I flop into the chair under the window as he leans up
against the desk.

"We've got a project meeting day after tomorrow.  I'd
like you and Scully to be there.  Things are happening
fast Mulder.  They know their plan has been exposed.
We think if they could they would step up the date for
colonization but the hybrid program is at a standstill
because of what happened in Antarctica and at El Rico.
It's slowed down their ability to gestate an invasion
force. You were responsible for that."

If he's going to spell out the plan I want Scully to
hear this too.

"Wait a minute, ask Scully to come in here.  I want her
to hear all of this too."

Skinner steps away from the desk to open the door and
then he wanders down the hall in search of Scully.  I
get up and dig through the boxes of shit from the
office to find a tape recorder.  I'm sitting behind the
desk with the recorder ready when they both return.
Scully and I exchange a brief glare as she sits in the
chair I had just vacated. I motion to Skinner to
continue.

"I was just telling Mulder where we think we stand so
far.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


When we walk into the conference room two days later
I'm shocked by who I find in attendance.  One person in
particular actually, Marita Covarrubias.  No wonder
Krycek warned me not to let her expose herself.  Scully
gives me an incredulous look. She trusted this woman
even less than I trusted Krycek but Maria is one of the
slickest double agents I have ever known.  I asked her
once why she was so willing to help me.  She replied by
telling me because she could and because there were
people who believed in what I was trying to do.  I've
now come face to face with those people.

Skinner comes over to tell Scully that the medical
personnel are meeting in another building and that they
could use her expertise.  She's torn between wanting to
go and being here to hold me up or to keep me from
blowing up.  I make the decision for her.

"You go, this is how we do things."  I say it with as
much conviction as I can and I know by the look in her
eyes that she doesn't believe me.  Skinner introduces
her to one of the doctors here and I watch her back
disappear through the doors as she goes off to make the
world a safer place.

During the course of the meeting I come to find out
that parts of the Syndicate are very much alive only
now they're working for the other side...so to speak.
Resistance is in our grasp.  Through a coalition of
scientists from around the globe work has continued on
a vaccine against the virus.  Now with Scully's help
and my cooperation the antibodies we and perhaps other
abductees carry may aide in creating an effective way
to prevent infection by the black oil. Both Maria and
Krycek knew that the path the Russians were taking with
their research was the right one.  Their methods were
incredibly unethical and inhuman but they were
obtaining success with their research.  Scully and I
are proof of that.

As much as I hated Krycek he is one of the few people
who had the better interests of all of us in mind.  For
years he snatched up evidence and research that could
aid us in forming a resisting force against
colonization.  I called him a murderer, a liar and a
coward and yet he did these things to obtain the
information he needed...we needed because he knew I could
never do them.  He used me just like the Syndicate used
me as a miss direction for what was really going on.  I
hate knowing that now but I no longer regret it.

Krycek knew what had happened to me long before I could
bring myself to face it.  He had the data from
Kritschgau to prove it and he lured me to that Oregon
wood knowing exactly what I would do when I got there.
He tried everything to open my eyes, a first hand
experience was all I needed.

Marita has now taken up his cause, the cause that's
always been mine; a search for the truth and the answer
to how to change it.  How far do we go now?  How much
can we expose without exposing ourselves?  There is a
lot of work to be done here.  The desire to bring these
truths out into the open warring with the possibility
that doing so will cause more harm than continuing to
keep the secrets.

Scully and I had this discussion years ago during a
case involving Pink Pharmaceuticals and the
government's knowledge of a cover-up.  I was determined
to release the information to the media, feeling the
public's right to know outweighed the dangers involved.
But Skinner and Scully convinced me of the error of my
ways.  The epidemic was contained though not without
the cost of lives and the general public went on about
their lives none the wiser. The bastard's words come
back to me, 'The truth would have caused panic.  Panic
would have cost lives.  We controlled the disease by
controlling the information'. Can we do that now
without a guilty conscience?  I can't help but think
it's against everything Scully and I have fought for.
That withholding the information of a possible plague,
of the dangers to human life is wrong.  My heart tells
me this.  My mind on the other hand tells me that if
somehow we can find a cure, if we can find a way to
destroy these indestructible soldiers and if we can
find a way to defeat the colonists all without the
public's knowledge it will be for the best. This battle
within me is becoming too much to bear.

I am also shocked to learn that after the destruction
of most of the Syndicate members at El Rico a fragile
alliance was formed between this new group and the
rebel forces that had been systematically eliminating
abductees through the brutal deaths at Kazakhstan.
Skyland Mountain and Ruskin Dam.  It's unclear who
called these abductees to the sites but it's obvious
that the rebel forces whose survival is also being
threatened are fighting back with a violent attempt to
prevent colonization.

It doesn't take me long to put two and two together.
This is another reason they want me around...to
communicate with the rebels.  They need this ability I
seem to have, to hopefully get into the rebels heads
and coordinate the efforts.  Even if we can't stop it,
if we can make it next to impossible for them to carry
out their plans we can buy ourselves some time.  Murder
however, is not the answer.

The problem now is these new 'Super Soldiers', just how
do they fit into the equation and are they a product of
alien research or something even more frightening, our
own government?  And more importantly, just what is
their agenda?

Scully is certain that I would have ended up like Billy
Miles, a Super Soldier.  When the Oregon abductees were
returned they were in a state of hibernation,
resembling death.  Those that Jeremiah wasn't able to
help either transformed into soldiers or were given a
proper burial like myself.  This Scully tells me is
what saved me; the cold of the earth around me
prevented me from transforming.  Heat evidently is
necessary in the gestation process.  It's what drew
that creature to the nuclear plant in Arizona. And it
was only because Skinner took matters into his own
hands, unwilling to force the choice between our baby
and I on Scully that I'm here today.  He told me the
about the conversation with Krycek. The offer of a
vaccine to save me in exchange for the baby but Krycek
knew exactly what Skinner would do.  He saved my life.

This information leads me to believe that these
soldiers are alien in nature.  I know where I was and
it sure as hell wasn't any government facility and if
all the abductees from those Oregon woods came back
this way, it can be the only answer.

Marita is arguing this point with several Marine
officers and I head over to rescue her from their
stupidity.

"You just don't understand.  We have to determine why
these soldiers have been created.  If the colonists
were on to the fact that we are trying to undermine
their plans there has to be a leak somewhere.  If
they've created these indestructible beings because of
information they obtained from one of our personnel we
have to find this leak before we can proceed."

"Maybe it's you who doesn't understand. We have no way
of knowing who is on our side.  How the hell to you
expect us to plot an offensive against an unknown
enemy?"

Maria catches my eye as I approach and I'm surprised to
see the 'stay out of this' expression on her face.  She
knows this is the reason I'm here.

"We have to determine who they are Colonel.  We don't
know if there were designed to protect the colonization
project or to prevent it.  They have been
systematically destroying the evidence of alien
presence.  We need to know why."

"Well," the colonel says looking in my direction.
"Isn't that why he's here.  Agent Mulder, the FBI's
star profiler."  He looks right into me now as I come
to stand next to Marita.  "Profile them.  Get into
their heads.  Isn't that what you do?"

"You can drop the 'Agent', I don't work for the Bureau
anymore."

The bastard fluffs out his chest in an unconvincing
attempt to prove whose boss.  "You're right, now you
work for us."

"I'm here voluntarily."  I'm desperately trying to keep
my cool here.

This guy's not much taller then I but he outweighs me
by a good twenty pounds.  We're probably close to the
same age but he's obviously got a problem with
authority...he's the authority and nobody better question
him on it.  "You just go right on thinking that.  Just
goes to show how easily it will be to convince the
public of the same thing."

Now he's starting to get under my skin.  "What the hell
are you talking about?"

"Nothing you need to concern yourself with 'Mr.
Mulder'.  You're here to do your job.  These people
have a M.O., your job is to figure it out and come up
with a theory of what they will do next.

Fuck, if only it was that easy.  "You can profile a
man.  Profiling an army is something all together
different."

"Then you need to find the man who is controlling the
army."


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


Hours later Scully finds me sitting on the porch of our
cottage.  I won't even look at her as she climbs the
steps.  I'm sure she heard about my explosion this
afternoon and Skinner's subsequent dumping of my ass in
the presidential pool to cool it off.   'Find the man
who is controlling the army', that asinine colonel's
words are still ringing in my ears.  There is no 'man'
controlling this army.  Fucking idiots I'm dealing with
here.  These men are here to fight but they refuse to
believe the evidence that the 'killer' in this case is
not an earthly one.  And if they continue to believe
that then these killers will be successful in
destroying the evidence that proves that fact to be
true.  The public, the courts, no one will believe and
accusation unless there's evidence to back it up.  And
if they can destroy all the evidence then the plans for
colonization will continue unabated until it's too late
to stop it.

Scully thinks her science will give us an answer but
these scientists here, conviction scientists who harbor
an unshakeable belief that they're right, that they're
following the right path even with all the evidence to
the contrary.  This isn't just a virus we're dealing
with, it has intelligence and right now it's smarter
than we are.  She scowls at me as she climbs the steps
and I can read the anger in her body language.  I stop
her before she can voice her opinion.

"Don't say it, I know I made a lot of friends today."

"Just stay away from MY friends Mulder, we don't have
time for this."  She walks right past me and on into
the cottage without another word. I think I've just
been insulted.

Getting up I follow her into the cottage, petulance
getting the better of me.  "Well, hey, if you and your
'friends' have this all figured out I'm through here."

"Oh, you're through Mulder, through making an ass of
yourself.  What the hell has gotten into you?  You've
been telling me for months that you...that we can't do
this alone and now that we've got all these people here
who are willing to risk everything to help us you...you
can't play nice.  You tell me that they have to figure
out for themselves that there's hope for the future but
you offer them none."

Jesus doesn't she see what's still going on here?
Skinner, these people here they're creating their own
conspiracy in the name of humanity.  "They're just
planning new ways to cover it up Scully.  You weren't
at the same meeting I was!  Oh, they're working on a
vaccine and with your help they'll discover one only
when it's available to the public it won't be because
it prevents them from being infected by some alien
virus, they'll make up some fucking story about a flue
vaccine or something.  And maybe the evidence of a
cover-up will go before the Grand Jury but it won't be
about covering up the government's knowledge of
extraterrestrials or a plot to cover up the
colonization of this planet by an alien race. Don't you
see Scully, people still won't know the truth!"

"Fuck the truth Mulder!  Does it really matter what
people know if it saves their lives?"  Her eyes are
blazing at me.  "It's about survival Mulder, the
survival of the human race.  What does it matter
anymore how it's done!"

She turns away from me as tears well up in her eyes.
She's fighting the same demons I am.  Both of us
wanting to do the right thing but not knowing what the
right thing is.  This is what I feared back at Mount
Weather.  This is everything we've fought for and now
the truth is that after ten years we have to admit we
were wrong.  Perhaps our job all along was to protect
people from the truth.  She won't look at the defeat in
my eyes and I can't bear to see it in hers.

"Scully, don't do this."

She turns slightly and I see here eyes soften at the
look of desperation on my face.

"Look, I know how badly you want the truth to be known
Mulder but is it really wise?  Look how much you feared
telling me."

'Whose truth?'  I hear X in my head and close my eyes.
A moment later I feel her touch on my arm, hesitant and
uncertain.  When I open my eyes she is standing right
in front of me.  This is so hard to come to terms with.

"I couldn't tell you Scully because to tell you would
have meant invalidating everything we've done for the
past ten years.  What was the point of it all if we're
just going to lie about what's going on just like the
rest of them?  It's all been for nothing."

"Do you really believe that Mulder?"  I don't.  We did
good work you and I.  Work that I'm proud of.  We saved
a lot of lives and isn't that really what it's all
about?"

In the Fifth World that the Natives believe is dawning
the focus of life will be on truth.  They believe that
all the information in the world is useless without
truth.  But for them it is an inner truth, an inner
knowledge of all things.  In order to change the world
we must first change ourselves.  How do I change
something that has driven me for the better part of a
lifetime?

When I don't answer her she turns away from me, walking
over to look out the window.

"We need to get away from here Mulder.  Even if it's
just for a day"

I walk over and put my hands on her shoulders and she
leans back against me.  My arms coming around to wrap
her in an embrace and pull her to my chest.  I kiss the
top of her head.  Wordlessly we've come to an
understanding.  She's right, we need a day in the sun.
I lean down and whisper close to her ear. "What would
you like to do?"


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


Scully's been busy all morning while I sit here and
surf through what CD TV has to offer.  She closed the
door to our office first thing this morning and told me
if I went in there she'd shoot me where it hurt.  It
always hurts when you're shot but I know what she meant
and I really have a fondness for my manhood.

She told me this morning she had plans for today and I
it made me think of telling her the same thing months
ago on a desert night that started out with stargazing
and ended with us wrapped around each other.  There's a
Ford Explorer parked out front with government issue
plates.  I suspect Skinner had it dropped off sometime
early this morning I found the keys in an envelope
inside the front door.  I'd like to think that when I
close that door I'm shutting out everyone else but I'm
not that naïve.  I sweep the cottage on a regular
basis.  All those years being friends with the Gunmen
did teach me a thing or two about electronic
surveillance.  I haven't found anything, but I still
can't shake the feeling.  She wants this day badly and
in all honesty so do I.  We both need it if we're going
to hold on to our sanity.

"Mulder?  Can you put this stuff in the car?"

I get up off my ass and head into the small kitchenette
to find she's borrowed a backpack from someone and has
stuffed it with all the essentials we need.  Where the
hell did she get this stuff?  She's also got a blanket
rolled up and a shoulder bag with our jackets in it.

"You're not going to tell me where we're going are
you?"

She smiles, wickedly and shakes her head.  "Trust me,
Mulder."


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


A half-hour later we're passing through the high metal
gates that guard the entrance to the camp.  I find it
hard to believe we can actually get out of here without
an escort.  I look over at Scully who's commandeered
the driver's seat.  She smiles at the Marine guard at
the gate and then steps on the gas, her attention
fixated on the road ahead as it winds through the
Maryland woods.

"This is a big complex Scully, I can't believe they
actually let us out of here...alone.  Hell, we could just
as easily take off."

She turns to look at me in disbelief.  "We're not
prisoners here Mulder.  What makes you say that?"

"I'm not a free man either and neither are you."  I
look away from her, back out the front window of the
car and watch the early fall foliage pass.  "We're
prisoners of our conscience Scully, we could never
leave here without wondering what we could have done
had we stayed.  I hate that feeling."

She reaches over to touch my arm and my gaze comes back
to rest in her eyes.  What I see in them is a
determination I wish I could say I had.  One I need
desperately to get back in order to convince these
people here what needs to be done.

"Mulder, none of these people would be here if they
weren't all prisoners of the same thing.  The
president, these military leaders; think about what
they've risked to be here.  I know you don't like the
circumstances, the way they're going about it but they
have only the best interest of the public in mind
Mulder, I honestly believe that and I think if you
thought otherwise you wouldn't waste any time in saying
so."

She's right. I've gotten no impressions otherwise but
my conscience is also telling me that this is not the
way it was supposed to be.  As much as I try I still
keep thinking that this fight is mine, that I'm the one
who's supposed to stop it even though a few billion
other people are at risk.  Scully is aware of this war
raging inside me, it's why she planned this day and I
have to let it go...just for today.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


CUNNINGHAM FALLS STATE PARK, MARYLAND


It's the middle of the week and the park is relatively
quiet, we haven't passed another car since we entered
the park boundary.  The early fall foliage glows softly
against the brilliant blue sky; we couldn't have picked
a prettier day.  Scully is following the signs to a
picnic area near the lake and when she sees the one
she's looking for she turns in to the empty lot and
parks the car.  I'm a little confused since it's not
even 11 yet but following her lead I get out of the car
and stretch my legs.  The air smells like fallen leaves
and though there's a chill in the air, the sun feels
warm on my face.

"You're hungry already?"  I ask over the roof of the
car.

"No, come on, I'm going to put you to work before we
eat."  She heads around the back of the car and when
she gets to my side she points to a sign with an arrow
pointing to a boathouse.  Oh great, another boat ride.
I remember the last time we rented a boat together and
suddenly wish I'd brought a change of clothes.  She
opens the back of the car and removes our jackets and
sets off in the direction of the boathouse.

Within a short while I'm rowing us out onto the lake.
A nice little launch would have been better in my eyes
but Scully is obviously enjoying watching me exert
myself.  The breeze whips her hair and she pins it
behind her ears in an attempt to keep it out of her
face.  She's kept it long, the way she wore it when I
first saw her at Mount Weather. It gives her a wistful
child-like look and I can almost believe for once that
we're just to ordinary people. She is so different from
the woman who walked into my office some ten years ago.
Knowing me has cost her her innocence but not her
strength. She sees me eyeing her and smiles softly.

"Mulder, you're thinking again, what's wrong?"

"I'm thinking about you actually.  About you when I
first met you and about who you are now."  I stop
rowing and let the boat drift with the current.

"I'm the same person Mulder, nothing's changed."

"Everything's changed Scully.  This has all cost you
too much and I'm forever in your debt for that."

She starts to deny what I just said and then something
makes her change her mind.  She smiles.  "OK, then it's
time you started paying up."

I look up at her, my mouth agape and she's just
grinning wickedly at me.  "Keep rowing."

By the time we've toured the lake once my arms feel
like they're about to fall off.  I shucked the jacket a
while ago and I've broken out in a sweat as the day
begins to warm up.

All this land was once inhabited by small tribes of
Native Americans who left the area shortly after the
first settlers appeared.  It now belongs to the park
service.  It's one of the few branches of government I
have any faith in.  I look around me and wonder what is
to become of places like this if we cannot stop what is
to come.

Scully's been quietly enjoying the ride.  She's
lounging in the front of the boat, her face tipped up
to the sun and I have an almost insatiable urge to
nibble my way down her neck.  Something must alert her
to my desires because she tips her head back down and
gives me a wonderfully seductive look.

"You hungry yet?"


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


My desire to jump in the back seat of the car is gone
when Scully pulls the backpack and shoulder bag from
the back and announces we're going for a hike around
the lake. She throws the bag over her shoulder and
hands me the pack.  I guess I haven't paid up yet.

The sun filters through the trees above us casting rays
down upon the fallen trees and rocky ledges that lay
hidden in the foliage.  All we can hear are the sounds
of the forest and our own breathing.  Scully's walking
at a good clip using the trail map as a guide. She's
succeeded in bringing us almost half way around the
lake.  It feels wonderful to get out in the fresh air
and get the old heart rate going again.  We chat about
things we see along the trail and she laughs when I
stumble on some roots because I'm too busy looking at
things she's pointing out to me.  We've probably come
about two miles on this up and down trail and my leg is
starting to ache.  The wound has healed but between it
and the one I suffered some years ago the muscles just
can't take the stress.  She comes to a stop just ahead
of me where the canopy of the trees opens up and waits
for me.  She seems so young and I'm beginning to feel
more and more like an old man.

"How about here?"

God yes, I think to myself, anywhere will do.  The spot
she's picked is a small clearing that goes down to the
edge of the lake.  She takes the bag off her shoulder
and pulls out the blanket she brought.  Getting down on
all fours she spreads it out.  If I get down there with
her will I be able to get back up?  I set the backpack
down and join her on the blanket. She digs into it,
handing me a bottle of wine and a corkscrew...good stuff.
What else have I been lugging in that thing?  She opens
a container of fried chicken and some cheese, finger
food.  Well at least I didn't have to bring the
dinnerware.

Her face is a little flushed from the hike, the hair
around her face slightly damp. I watch her lick the
grease from the chicken off her fingers and I begin for
feel an ache elsewhere.  She giggles when I look at her
with obvious desire in my eyes.

"We'll have something to eat and then we can hike up to
the falls.  It's supposed to be very pretty."

Oh great, more hiking.  Nothing like killing the mood
babe.

We eat in silence.  I wish I could think up some witty
conversation that doesn't suggest the end of the world
but the fun center of my brain seems to be the one
that's been missing of late.  I find myself chugging
the wine.  Scully's trying desperately not to say
anything to me.  She knows my mind is elsewhere and she
thinks I'm aggravated with being taken away from what I
feel I should be doing.

I'm not angry with her.  I'm angry with myself for
ruining the day for her and the more I think about what
an ass I'm being the more it disgusts me.

When I throw another chicken bone in a 'lets get this
over with' style to the plastic container on the
blanket she's decided she's had enough.

"You know Mulder, I'm really sorry I pulled you away
from your work today.  God only knows but this might
have been the day you figured out how to save the
world."

"I can't save the world Scully."

"So what?  Life's not worth living now?"

I look up and see how annoyed she is with me and know
it's all my fault.

"Shit, no, look I'm sorry...," she doesn't let me finish.

"Shut up!"

She draws her legs up to her chest and wraps her arms
around them, withdrawing from me.

"Scully, I don't know what you want me to say."

"I want you to say that we're going to spend the rest
of this life together and that the time we spend
together will be doing things like this and not locked
away in some office or some lab trying to change
something that maybe isn't our place to change."

She turns to look at me, her eyes pleading with me to
see this her way.  "What if we can't stop it Mulder?
What if 10 years is all we have?  I want to make the
most of those years, do all the things we missed.  I
want to spend that time with you.  I love you Mulder,
why can't that be enough for you?"

Why can't it?  The guys standing there by the side of
the road while I pissed in the wind.  Frohike telling
me to turn around and Byers asking me 'Why risk perfect
happiness?  Why risk your lives?'  I've pissed my whole
life away until now; I've got to find a way to change
that but I don't know how.

I can't answer her and when the silence becomes
unbearable she unwraps herself and gets up off the
blanket heading up the trail without me.

Shit.  "Scully wait!"

I get up to follow her taking the trail to the left
that leads further into the woods. There's no sign of
her.  How did she get so far ahead of me?  "Scully!"

About a quarter mile up the trail I come to a sign that
says 'FALLS TRAIL' and take it.  She mentioned the
falls when we sat down for lunch.    I can hear the
rush of water ahead and when I make a turn on the trail
the falls comes into view in front of me.  Scully is
standing on some rocks just below the 70-foot drop.

Either she can't hear me above the roar of the water or
she's ignoring me as I climb up to stand beside her.
The falls are beautiful and I find myself watching them
and not paying attention to the slippery footing.

"Why did you run off like that?"

"Leave me alone Mulder."

Like hell, I step towards her, reaching out to her to
get her attention.  Suddenly my feet fly out from under
me and I feel the impact from my tailbone all the way
up my spine when my ass hits the rock I had been
standing on.  All I can do is sit there, biting my lip
to stifle the misery I feel myself in.  Scully says
nothing, continuing to watch the water as it cascades
over the falls.  She finally looks down to where I
still sit waiting for the pain to abate.

"You alright Mulder?"

"Oh, yeah...I'm fine."

"Of course you are," she says with more bitterness than
I expect from her but understanding it's just a
reaction to my 'fine' comment.

"I'm okay."

"That's just another four letter word Mulder," she
huffs at me.

Is this ever going to stop?  As I struggle to my feet
her hand wraps around my arm to steady me.   I look at
her surprised at this turn in her demeanor.

"What the hell do you want me to say?"

"I can't take you anywhere can I?  It's nice to know at
least that hasn't changed."

I wince as I straighten myself out and I see her eyes
soften.

"Seriously Mulder, are you alright?"

"My ass broke the fall...again."

She watches with a smirk as I rub my rear end.  "You
know, you could kiss it and make it better."

Instead, she reached up to wrap her arms around my neck
and I stoop to meet her half way.  Our lips meet.  This
woman loves me with all her heart and I know what I'm
about to ask her is right.

"Marry me."

She pulls back from me, amazement in her expression.
"What?"

"You asked me for a commitment.  Marry me Scully."

It soon becomes evident she hasn't heard what I said.
She's not looking at me.  Her gaze is trained on
something over my right shoulder and I see the
disbelief in her eyes.  I turn around, following her
gaze up the falls to the rocky ledge at the top and see
what has garnered her attention.  Albert Hosteen is
standing at the top of the falls watching us.  I'm
thinking this is just another vision of mine until
realization dawn on me.  Scully can see him too.

I look into her eyes.  "You see him too, don't you?"

"Yes," she says hesitantly.  "I told you once before
that I had seen him.  You told me at the time that I
couldn't have, that he had passed away."

She meets my gaze.  "You are actually seeing all these
people you've told me about aren't you?"

Christ, she thought I was making all this up?

"You didn't believe me?  What did you think...that I was
delusional?"

She looks away, ashamed of her admission.  "I...when you
said 'voices of the dead' I didn't believe they were
really talking to you or that you really 'saw' them
Mulder.  I thought you were using this as a coping
mechanism, to deal with what had happened to you."

"Shit."  I turn my back to her and step away.

I feel her had graze my arm.  "Mulder, wait.  I don't
know what to say.  Are you saying you are seeing the
dead?  How?"

"Yeah, me an Haley Joel Osment.  I see dead people.  I
don't know how!"  I glance back up to the top of the
falls but Albert is gone.

"You don't understand why the spirits come to you?"

We both jump at the sound of his voice.  Albert is now
standing directly behind us.

Albert is a man of simple wisdom and I came to trust
his judgement and his advice.  I feel Scully's arm
slide around my waist.

"I don't understand what they want from me."

"They do not want anything from you.  They come to you
to share their knowledge and to help to follow the
right path."

"And what path would that be?"

"It is not for me to say.  You must find it here," he
reaches out to place his palm against my chest.

"Then why are you here?"

"I have come to bring you something that was destined
to be yours."

I notice now that he has been holding something wrapped
in leather.  "What is it?"

"Instructions that were meant for you."

It dawns on both Scully and I what Albert has brought
for me and Scully is instantly afraid of what my
accepting the gift might mean.   Something within me is
telling me that this is what I must do and I extend
both my hands to accept his gift.

"No, Mulder, don't take it."  Scully grabs my arm in an
attempt to stop me from taking the artifact from
Albert.

"It was not meant to harm him."

"It almost killed him!"  Scully is visibly shaken at
what is transpiring here.

"It wasn't the artifact or the rubbing of it that
affected him.  It was what those men did to try and
stop him being who he is meant to be; from fulfilling
his destiny."

"Drugged me into a Haldoperidol coma is what they did."
I shudder, thinking back to being restrained, my mind
on overdrive but my body useless to me from the
influence of the drugs.

"You and your people are under some illusion that
Mulder is some mythical savior of the world.  It's not
true!"

"No, Mulder is not.  But he and you are one of many who
can awaken the consciouness of the world and bring
people to an understanding of what must be done to save
it.

"What do I do with this?"

Albert looks at me and as I meet his eyes there is an
understanding between us.  He knows that I understand
his message.

"You will know when the time comes.  It is a part of
something that is bigger than the both of you."

I look down at what I hold in my hands and slowly start
to unwrap it.  Scully says nothing, the fear evident on
her face.  Inside the leather wrapping is the actual
artifact the rubbing Skinner handed me in his office
came from.  Scully believes to my astonishment that it
is a piece of the ship she saw on the Ivory Coast.

I have no reaction to it, no hollow noise, no voices in
my head, no disorientation.  Scully searches my face
warily and takes the artifact from me to wrap it back
in the leather covering.  When we look up, Albert has
vanished.

"What did he mean...we'll know when the time comes?"

"I don't know, but if I start building Devil's Tower
out of my mashed potatoes we could be in trouble."


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


CAMP DAVID, MARYLAND


When we pull up to the gate a young marine check's our
ID's.

"Agent Scully, they've been looking for you.  There's
been an incident in the labs."

Scully eyes flash to me instantly as I lean into her
space to question the guard.  "What kind of incident?"

"I don't have that information sir."

Scully's not waiting; she hits the gas as soon as the
gate opens careening through it and on up the road to
the compound.

"Stop at the cottage first."

"Why?"

"We need to put this someplace first," I say as I pick
the artifact up off the floor.

When we get to the center of the compound there are
military personnel and emergency vehicles everywhere.
Scully makes a quick right and follows the drive to our
cottage.  She looks over at me without taking her hands
off the wheel and I'm actually surprised when she comes
to a stop a few feet from the porch.

"Give me two minutes," I say, jumping from the car.  I
take the steps in one leap and crash through the door.
Scrambling through the cottage to hide the artifact my
sore tailbone protesting the quick movements. I barely
get the door closed when I jump back in the car as
Scully peels off toward the labs to see what is going
on.

Skinner meets us at the clinic where the labs have been
set up.  She slams the car into park but doesn't turn
it off and is out the door instantly with me right
behind her.

"What the hell is going on?"

Skinner tries to slow her down, grabbing her by the arm
to prevent her from entering the facility.

"There was some trouble.  Several of the doctors have
been shot."

"Shot?"

"Yes, three of them are dead.  The equipment has been
damaged; it looks like records were stolen.  It's a
mess Scully, just stay out of the way!"

Scully is furious.  She's spent as much time working on
the vaccine as I have trying to get into the heads of
our alien enemies.  "I thought this was a secure
facility.  Who did this?"

She pulls her arm from Skinners grasp and heads into
the clinic. Skinner tries again to stop her but it's me
who stops him with a hand on his shoulder.  He turns to
look me in the eye.

"Let her go."

We follow her into the clinic.  Skinner was right, it's
a mess.  The dead and injured have been removed but the
evidence of what happened here has not.  Pools of blood
dot the floor; it's rich coppery smell filling my
nostrils.  Broken glass crunches under our feet as we
cross the small lobby and enter the research lab.  Most
of the computers have been destroyed, the freezers and
refrigerators emptied.  I get this sickening feeling in
my stomach that all we had gained in the past months
has been lost and we are once again left with nothing.

"Who did this?"

Skinner gets a nervous look from one of the officers
helping with the cleanup.

"A marine.  We have him in custody."

One man, how could one person have caused this much
destruction without being subdued by the army of
enlisted men who are stationed here?  The answer is
suddenly obvious.  It wasn't a man.

"I want to see him."

"Easy Mulder, he's been restrained and is being
questioned.  It's okay."

I grab Skinner and turn him around.  "Bullshit.  I want
to see him now.  A man didn't do this!"

We glare at each other.  "This is what you want me for
you bastard.  To point the finger at the enemy."

Skinner shrugs out of my grasp.  Several enlisted men
and the officer come over to subtly convey the message
that I'm getting out of hand.  He turns and watches
Scully and two of the other doctors as they pick there
way through the destruction that this animal has
caused.

"Now," I hiss at him.

"Come on."  He finally gives in and turns; I follow him
out the door and across the compound to the security
office.

When we enter the building we find this 'marine'
shackled to a chair.  Skinner tells me his name is
Private Randall.  As soon as I see him I know what he
is and he is equally aware of the fact that I can
identify him for what he is.  A chill overcomes me; I
can feel him in my mind daring me to make the first
move.  We stare at each other, everyone else in the
room well aware of the mind game going on here but
unable or unwilling to challenge us.  This is my chance
to make everyone here realize just what we are up
against.

He knows my intentions instantly and we all watch in
amazement as he stands, effortlessly breaking his
bonds. The two guards who had been standing beside him
become his first victims; both of them dropping like
rocks from blows to the head.  Someone shouts for more
help.  The officers in attendance scramble away from
this monster, pinning themselves against a wall in an
effort to get out of his way.  Randall is still making
eye contact with me as he makes his way across the room
towards the officers.  He's daring me to come at him
but I can't beat him and he knows it.

What happens next is still a blur.  I'm wearing my gun
but bending down to retrieve it from my ankle is not an
option.  Skinner is still standing next to me, his
service weapon easily attainable.  Slamming him into
the wall I manage to relieve him of his gun before he
can stop me.  Lunging away I fire off five rounds into
Randall's head and chest before the extra guards
Skinner called in can stop me.  I hit the wall hard.
Someone's wrenching my right arm behind me so hard I
hear my shoulder pop and cry out in pain from the
separation.  I drop the gun.

"Look at him...look at him, he's not dead!"

Randall lies still in a pool of blood on the floor
looking VERY dead.

The ruckus has attracted quite an audience.  I'm still
pinned to the wall by several guards but I can hear
Marita's voice and the colonel I made such a big
impression on discussing the nutcase who cause all
this, me.  Suddenly the room grows quiet.  The guards
lessen their hold on me and I turn to see that Randall
has begun to move on the floor.  We all watch in horror
as his wounds begin healing themselves.

"Magnetite!  He has to be exposed while the flesh is
still breached!"  It sounds like Scully.

I try to wrench myself away from the guards but one of
them slams me hard again against the wall and all goes
black.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


When I come too I find myself in our bed in the
cottage.  My head is pounding.  My right arm is rather
snuggly wrapped in a sling to immobilize it and throbs
relentlessly.  This has got to stop.

"Hey, sleepyhead."  My angel of mercy is once again
sitting by my side.  "How do you feel?"

I take a quick inventory again.  My ass still hurts my
shoulder hurts and my head feels like it's going to
explode.   I don't answer her.

"How'd I get here?"

"You don't remember?"

I close my eyes; I don't want to remember.

I feel her warm hands on my left arm and open my eyes
to gaze into hers.  "You did something incredibly
stupid...again."

"Some things never change."

"They could have killed you Mulder."

"They know what they're up against now don't they?"

She breaks eye contact.  "Yes, they do and they're
rethinking their whole strategy.  Skinner said
something about bringing in a General McLean.  Someone
he knew in Nam."

"What happened to Randall?  Where's Marita?"

She hits me with a glare at the mention of her name.
"What's left of Randall is in what's left of the lab.
They're doing an autopsy now.

I'm confused, what is she doing here?  "Why aren't you
there?"

"Because I'm here with you."

"I'm fi..."

"You're not fine Mulder.  That jerk dislocated your
shoulder and you have a concussion.  I can't give you
anything but Tylenol for a while, I'm sorry."

I drop my head back onto the pillow.  "Just go Scully.
Go figure out what makes these soldiers tick.  I'm just
gonna lie here and..."

I feel her hand caress my weary brow.  "What did you do
with the artifact?"

"I'm sitting on it.  It's under the mattress."

I open my eyes to see her smile.  "I'll send Skinner
over.  Someone needs to wake you every few hours to be
sure you're coherent."  She kisses me gently on the
lips.

"Sure, fine, whatever."

She slaps my leg as she leaves me alone in my misery.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


The time Albert spoke of comes to me unexpectedly.  For
the past month Scully and the rest of the research team
have been working hard to restore the destroyed labs
and recreate the vaccine that Krycek brought from
Russia.  Several Russian scientists have joined them in
the project bringing with them samples of the rock from
Tunguska.  They now have the live virus to work with.

Tests have provided a positive outlook that they are on
the right track.  Survivors of the virus like Scully
and I have been instrumental in helping to strengthen
the effectiveness of the vaccine.  I'm beginning to
look like a drug addict from the needle tracks on my
arms.  The final step of course will be human testing.
The idea brings back the memories of those terrified
men in that gulag.  That will not happen here.

I continue to study the movements of the super
soldiers.  There have been reports of several other
encounters between them and the rebel forces.  The
soldiers are systematically working to destroy any
evidence of alien presence.  The rebels have been
helping to identify and destroy the last pockets of
alien research and genetic engineering.  We are
systematically destroying their ability to gestate an
invasion force.

After spending almost a month here, the president
returned to Washington.  Our escape from there in July
was explained to the general public as a terrorist
attempt on his life.  More lies.

He remained in seclusion here until new security
measures could be established.  We're all well aware
that sending him back there will expose him to an even
greater threat from the super soldiers but he has to
retain the image for the people.  Even they realize
that.  He's a brave man.  His job is to go about the
everyday process of running the country and right how
he has a lot of work on his hands.

Most of the work being done here has been kept from
him.  Having an alien probe his mind to find out we're
secretly plotting against them isn't an option right
now.  We're in the fight of our lives.

It's now 3AM and I find myself standing in the drive in
front of our cottage my gaze drawn to the heavens above
me.  The mighty constellation of Orion who for
centuries has guided dreamers and discoverers fills the
sky.  I stand here and wonder if it is he I have heard
for the past three nights beckoning me to a place
unknown.

I hear the door slam behind me and turn to see Scully,
wrapped in a heavy robe making her way down the steps
and across the drive to where I stand shivering.  She
steps up against me and wraps her arm around my waist.
I put my good arm over her shoulder and pull her close
relishing her warmth.

"What are you doing out here again Mulder?"

I chuckle softly, what am I doing out here?  I look
back up at Orion.  "I don't know Scully."

She follows my gaze.  "You're feeling it aren't you,
what Albert said?"

"I don't know, maybe.  I've just had this powerful
feeling of late that I need to be somewhere else, that
something is about to occur that we're supposed to be a
part of."

I rub her arm and turn to face her.  "I keep having
this dream, about a mountainside and a gathering of
people.  There's a ship or something resembling one.
I'm a part of that gathering."

"It sounds like what you remember from before your
abduction Mulder.  Maybe you're just reliving it in a
dream."

God, I don't want to relive that, even in a dream.
"No, it's not Oregon.  It's open rolling hills, out
west, maybe the Black Hills."

"Wyoming?  You're not going without me, not this time."

I chuckle sadly.  She trusted that I'd come back from
Oregon and I let her down.  "I don't think I'm supposed
to go alone Scully.  We both saw Albert, remember?"

She hugs me as I look back up to the heavens.  "Isn't
that Orion?"

"Yeah, the constellation sits on the celestial equator.
It's visible in both the northern and southern
hemispheres.  It's been used as a navigation point for
centuries."

"You know in Greek mythology, Orion was a handsome and
mighty hunter...not unlike someone else I know."

I smile back down at her with the comment, squeezing
her tightly.

"You're freezing Mulder, lets go inside."

We start to walk back towards the cottage but I
hesitate for a moment.  "Scully, if we leave here it's
possible we may never get back.  Once we're out in the
open again we're vulnerable."

"I realize that Mulder.  The research can continue
without me.  There are good dedicated people involved
and they already have what they need."  She rubs my
arm.  "I'm so sorry about this.  McLean and his men,
Skinner, they won't give up, not now.  Where ever you
and I are supposed to be I feel it's something we need
to do for ourselves."


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


BLACK HILLS NATIONAL FOREST, WYOMING


It took three days of driving to get us out here.
Skinner wasn't even surprised when we told him we were
leaving.  I got the impression he expected it.  They
have enough evidence to take before the Grand Jury on
charges of a government cover-up of unethical military
practices.  A lot of people are going to pay for their
duplicity.  Any reference to alien involvement has been
replaced with mentions of terrorist plots against the
American people.  I don't like it but until we can hand
them absolute proof of the invasion threat it's better
we keep our mouths shut about that.  My hope is that
someday humanity will welcome the existence of alien
life and not view it as a threat to our survival.

Skinner didn't ask where we were headed but he did
offer to provide us with identification.  We both
politely declined his offer; tired of pretending we are
someone else.  He seemed satisfied with our assurance
that we intended to come back, that our work here
wasn't finished.

In every great revolution there are those who sacrifice
their personal wellbeing for the greater good.  Those
who choose hope over selfishness.  My father was one of
those people and I have followed his example.  His hope
as the Englishman told me was that I would do
everything in my power to stop colonization and I have
made that commitment without regrets.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


DEVIL'S TOWER NATIONAL MONUMENT, WYOMING


As we make the turn into the park there are cars parked
everywhere making it hard to navigate the road.  People
are walking to an unknown destination and we follow
them in our car.  When we get to the point where the
car can take us no further Scully and I climb out to
watch the procession of people passing by us.  It's a
warm evening for early autumn and the setting sun has
left an amber glow on the horizon.  The huge monolith
of Devil's Tower dwarfs us as we climb the small rise
before us.   Scully hasn't said a word.  I didn't tell
her back in Maryland that its presence was a part of my
dreams.  At the time I'm sure she would have thought
seriously of having me committed.

The deep blue of twilight is already beginning to creep
across the sky when we reach the top.  We both stop in
amazement.  Below us in the meadow are hundreds of
artifacts laid out in the shape of the ship Scully had
seen in Africa and I had seen in my dreams.  I look
down at the parcel I hold in my hand.  The artifact
that Albert had given us carefully wrapped in leather.
A glance at Scully as I begin to unwrap it.

Beyond the assembled pieces hundreds; perhaps thousands
of people have gathered.  People of all races that have
come together here on this spot to fulfill a prophecy.

Ages ago a force of unknown origin brought the power of
creation to this planet and with it, the instructions
for how that power was to be used to benefit all that
was created.  Somehow as the legends tell us, these
instructions got lost or misinterpreted or destroyed
leaving the earth an all those who inhabit it in
turmoil.  It's time to put those instructions back
together so we may all realize our true purpose.

I take the artifact from the wrapping and reach for
Scully's hand.

"I can't do this alone."

She smiles at me, holding tightly to my trembling hand.
"You were never supposed to."  And together we slowly
descend into the field.

It's almost dark now and the heavens above us shine
brilliantly with thousands of tiny lights of hope.
Without letting go of her hand I place the artifact we
had brought into it's rightful place among the rest and
step back.  The Natives who are here are chanting,
beating drums.  Others pray.  I feel slightly out of
place in this moment of deep spirituality.  The
chanting stops and it becomes incredibly quiet.  All
the sounds of the night have ceased.  The breeze that
had earlier been blowing has stilled.  Suddenly we feel
the ground shaking and we are all enveloped in a
blinding white light.  Scully lets go of my hand to
shield her eyes and I feel suddenly alone.  There is
nothing but the blinding white light around me.  I yell
Scully's name but there is no answer.

Tears run from my eyes, this isn't what was supposed to
happen is it?  The light begins to flicker and I can
make out shadows moving about.  Suddenly a figure
begins to appear before me, it's small and at first I
think it's Scully but then I realize the shape is
wrong.  It is a being with long slender arms and legs
and an odd shaped head.  It's not human.

As my eyes adjust and I can see it more clearly I
recognize it as one I am familiar with.  There is
something graceful and calming about the way it is
moving towards me and I am not afraid.  In a moment it
is standing right in front of me, its deep black eyes
seem to plead with me to accept what I am seeing and to
understand it's purpose.  In an act of salutation, it
reaches out its hand to me and I can find no reason not
to accept the greeting.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


"Mulder? Mulder, it's me."

I feel a warm hand caressing my forehead and struggle
to open my eyes.  It's hard to focus at first, the
brightness from the light momentarily damaging my site
like when you have your picture taken with a flash
bulb.  Scully's concerned face comes into view and I
realize I'm lying on my back in the grass.  What the
hell happened?  She smiles at me as I open my eyes.  A
peaceful gentle smile that I haven't seen on her in
ages.  She kisses me like she's waking up her prince
and I stroke her hair.

"What happened?"  I say as I gather myself up off the
ground.

"Everything Mulder."

I look around me, the artifacts; all of them are gone.
There are people milling about, whispering with
amazement.  I know what I saw, I remember the tiny hand
in mine and the peace I felt in knowing that I was
connecting to life that was so different and yet the
same as my own.  I feel somehow enlightened for lack of
a better word.  My soul filled with a peaceful
resonance in knowing a truth I have long searched for
has been found.

I reach to stroke the side of Scully's face.  She won't
tell me what she saw and I feel I have no right to ask.
Who ever came to her in the light I can tell she has
made peace with herself as well.

The first light of dawn is beginning to tint the
eastern sky.  We turn and join the others here to watch
the sun rise on a new day of hope.  I find it somehow
fitting that this event should happen here of all
places.  According to the Native legends it was near
this place that the White Buffalo woman first came to
the Sioux nation bearing her sacred bundle.  She taught
the people the ways to live in the world and when she
departed she promised to return in a time of great need
to bring a message of peace and unity.  Perhaps that
time is now.

I see now with the eyes of someone who has looked too
long for factual evidence that these 'original
instructions' the Natives speak of are not any written
or otherwise fixed documentation but instead the broad
understanding that we all exist in a universe of living
things.  That all things are related and that respect
and harmony for all must prevail

I stand behind Scully and wrap my arms around her.  Our
breath shows in the chilly predawn air.  A strange
feeling overcomes me suddenly.  Like I'm watching
myself from a distance.  It is the same feeling I had
once before when I found myself in a child's room with
the face of a gentle woman watching over me.  I look
around, scanning the crowd until my gaze stops on a
couple standing not too far from us.  The man is
holding a sandy haired toddler.  I recognize the woman
instantly.  I squeeze Scully tightly; unable to speak,
the child's eyes meet mine and he smiles.

Swallowing hard I feel Scully glance back in my
direction concerned.  She follows my gaze to the child
and she gasps.

"Oh God, Mulder."

I feel her sway and tighten my grip even more.  She
wraps her arms around mine as we stand and watch our
son smiling back at us.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


WEST TISBURY, MARTHA'S VINEYARD CHRISTMAS, 2012.


Ten years ago lost in a world of hopelessness and self-
despair I was sure this day would never come and yet
here we are; not just Scully and I but all six billion
of us still thriving on this miracle we call Earth.
And while a lot has changed in the last ten years
civilization really hasn't undergone any radical
transformation.

Something happened that night in Wyoming that none of
us were able to explain.  Whether it was unearthly or
divine intervention is not for us to question.  The
seeds that were planted that night have continued to
grow and a new awareness of peace and understanding
seems to be spreading across the globe.

The ancient texts predicted the world would end in a
cataclysm of fire. The Natives, say it is the time when
the earth passes from one world to the next.
Astrologists will call it the Age of Aquarius.  I'd
just like to think of it as a new beginning.

There will always be conflict.  It has been a part of
human nature since the Bible, this war between good and
evil is an eternal one.  But there are things now that
have unite us.  We owe our existence now to the
teamwork of some extraordinary men and women of which
my Scully is one.  She was right all those years ago;
there is no substitute for perseverance and hard work.
We haven't gotten here alone.  The sacrifices we have
all made have given humanity a fighting chance.

Truth vs. lies, good vs. evil, the quest continues.  We
may learn the truth but that truth only serves to
provide us with more questions.  There has to be
something for the next generation to discover and
achieve.

It took me almost half my life to realize that the
greatest truth is something you find in your heart; one
for which you need no proof.

There have been many times over the past decade when I
wondered why I drew the straw to keep the quest alive.
Like Frodo Baggins, in Tolkien's tales of the Hobbit, I
often wish the ring had never been given to me either
but I no longer question my place in the grand scheme
of things.    What matters, as Gandalf said is what you
do with the time that is given to you.

Scully is now that doctor she always wanted to be and I
bide my time writing and dabbling in the paranormal,
sometimes consulting for the Bureau.  I wrote a book
about my abduction experience.  Scully told me to do
it, she said it would help me get it out of my head.
She was right, again.  I've never had the nerve to have
it published but I no longer wake in the night
terrified by what had happened to me.

After 20 years together we still haven't tied the knot
so to speak but it's not something I regret.  She got
her diamonds, she wears them in her ears every day and
I got something this morning that further signifies our
commitment to each other.  Scully gave me a sundial, an
18th century time piece around which was inscribed "GROW
OLD WITH ME.  THE BEST IS YET TO BE.  I have no
intention of doing anything else.

I lie here now in my father's house having awakened
from a dream.  A connection I share with the son I
haven't seen in years.  I was standing on the porch of
that farmhouse I have seen often in these dreams.  It's
a clear and crisp tonight and I am alone on the porch.
I heard the door open and a man's voice telling me to
come in from the cold but I refuse.  Wanting instead to
enjoy the Christmas present I brought out here to use.
Mom and Dad insisted that Santa had brought it for me
and though I'm too old to believe that I also know they
couldn't afford this wonderful telescope.

Scully is reluctant to come on these journeys with me
but I need her here tonight.  I reach over and stroke
her cheek.  She stirs in her sleep and mumbles
something unrecognizable.

"Scully."

"Hmmm...Mulder?  What?"

I put my arm across her shoulder and touch my forehead
to hers.

"I want you to dream with me."

She hugs me back  and presses her head against mine.
Suddenly I'm back on the porch and hear my father's
voice as he comes out on to the porch with me.

"Son, you're gonna freeze out here.  What are you
looking at?"

"The universe, Dad.  It's incredible."

He chuckles softly at my enthusiasm.  "And what is it
you see in this universe of yours?"

"Life.  It's everywhere.  I can feel it.  Do you think
someday we'll discover where life exists out there?"

He puts his arm around my shoulder and we look up into
the heavens together.  "Son, if anyone can find it you
can.  I know you, you have a gift, you'll never stop
searching."

Scully can feel me smiling against her.  She runs her
fingers though my silvery hair and kisses the top of my
head.

"He has all the time in the world."


~*~*~*~*~*~*


We have all the time in the world,
Just for love,
Nothing more, nothing less,
Only love.

Every step of the way will find us,
With the care of the world behind us.

We have all the time in the world,
Just for love,
Nothing more, nothing less,
Only love.



AUTHORS NOTES:  This is it, you've made it to the end
of my story.  This whole thing started out as a little
40K story that I did because I felt some resolution was
needed at the end of THE TRUTH...this is what happened!
I apologize for any spelling and grammatical errors.
Goodness knows, it's been a long time since English
class.  I'll also apologize to the nitpickers and for
any inconsistencies.  I tried to do some research on
the subjects I touched throughout my stories but I
won't guarantee that there aren't some mistakes or
physical improbabilities.  But then I think CC sort
flew by the seat of his pants too.  You may not agree
with my ideas but I hope you respect the journey.
References to Native myth come from LEGEND OF THE
RAINBOW WARRIORS by Steven McFadden.   Also Devil's
Tower really does play a factor in these legends.
Perhaps that is why Steven Speilberg used it in his
film CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND.  I've sort of
nicknamed these stories THE BOND SERIES since they're
all named after song titles from James Bond films and
also because to me the show itself was centered around
a bond between two characters that not even death could
separate.

Feedback welcome at iluvxf@hotmail.com

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