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The New Truth, A Project: Truthseekers Alternate Season Nine
Prologue: A New Beginning
By: Tess
Email: Tnv099@aol.com
Spoilers: Through S8Disclaimer: Many characters contained herein are the property of 1013 Productions and 20th Century Fox. No profit is being made from the posting of this story.
Summary: "The New Truth" offers an alternative to S9 wherein Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, with the assistance of Agent John Doggett, Agent Monica Reyes and Assistant Director Walter Skinner, establish and lead a global resistance to the impending alien colonization.
Please visit the stories that comprise "The New Truth" at http://truthseekers.xphilia.net/
Prologue
"From the moment I became pregnant, I feared the truth. About how... and why. And I know that you feared it too."
Scully watched his face as she spoke, torn between wanting him to look at her, and the thrilling joy of being witness to his seeming absorption in their son.
"I think what we feared were the possibilities." Mulder's voice was a soft rumble of sound. He finally lifted his gaze from the baby's tiny face peeking out from the white blanket and let it settle on the beloved features of the child's mother.
"The truth we both know."
She knew the answer before she even spoke and still the words fell from her lips.
"Which is what?"
His reply, though silent, echoed in her senses. She saw his answer in the hazel eyes that watched her as he bent closer, tasted it in the warmth of his lips as they brushed hers. Felt it in the explosion of love that sent her pulse skittering. Heard it in the whisper of a promise that sparked in her brain. Smelled it in the milky, powdery scent of the child they had created together. He leaned over the baby cradled in his arms and breathed a lifetime of promises into her mouth.
Scully cupped his elbow with her hand and shifted onto her toes to better reach him. Their kiss was as soft and hesitant as a first kiss shared between two people - and as languid and unhurried as one shared by lovers who know every way there is to kiss one another. She broke the kiss first, sinking back on her heels and her hand slipped over his arm to cup his cheek.
"You shouldn't be on your feet." Mulder shifted William into one arm. He wrapped the other arm around her waist and steered her back to the bed. The ordeal of the last few days was etched on her face in the tiny lines that bracketed her nose and mouth and in the faint bruises of color beneath her eyes.
He tugged the comforter to the foot of the bed and tossed the decorative pillows onto a chair in the corner of the room while she eased the pale, blue robe from her shoulders. She neatly folded the robe and draped it over the foot of the bed before settling onto the crisp, clean sheets. She held out eager arms and Mulder willingly, although somewhat awkwardly, shifted the now sleeping baby back into her embrace. Her face was transformed as she leaned against the pillows and cuddled the infant close. Gone now were the traces of exhaustion and fear, replaced by an expression that was at once joyous and serene.
Mulder tucked his fingers into the front pockets of his jeans and studied the pretty picture they made. His family. An overwhelming need to protect filled him, and his head began to pound as he contemplated the enormity of the task of keeping them safe.
"Come to bed, Mulder." She noted the sudden tension in the rigid line of his jaw and the fierceness of his gaze and, as always, she sought to ease and comfort.
"Come to bed," she repeated, reaching for him with one hand. Mulder shrugged out of his jacket and toed off his boots before stretching out on the bed beside her. Scully laid William onto the mattress between them.
Still sore from the arduous delivery, she gingerly curled up on her side, facing Mulder and the baby and with a blissful sigh, nestled her cheek against the cool cotton covering her pillow. She stifled a yawn behind one fist and unwrapped the blanket swaddling the baby. She dipped her fingers between the buttons of the tiny blue pajamas and stroked his silky skin.
"You did good work," Mulder murmured as he tentatively ran a forefinger though the baby's downy tufts of hair. Scully was more than happy to take the credit for their beautiful boy. Despite Mulder's earlier comments, to her eyes, William was the very image of his father from the sprinkling of light brown hair on his head to the sulky mouth with the slightly damp lower lip.
"Thank you." She smiled and blinked sleepily, fighting a losing battle to keep her eyes open.
"You should go to sleep," Mulder ordered softly. She nodded and slid down in the bed to curl her body loosely around William's.
"Maybe I should put him in his crib..."
She gave a tiny shake of her head and drew the baby against her breasts.
"We could squish him in our sleep," Mulder protested, ever the new father.
Scully cracked open one eye and saw the worried frown on his face. "Okay," she mumbled drowsily. "But when he wakes up in a couple of hours, you have to be the one to bring him back to the bed for me."
"Deal." Mulder slid gentle hands beneath the baby and lifted him into his arms. The baby stirred at being moved and Mulder swayed and whispered soothing noises into his ear until he quieted. He settled the infant into his crib and then walked through the apartment, turning off lights and quietly testing door and window locks. He huffed out a bitter laugh at the futility of relying on a deadbolt to keep their enemies at bay. By the time he returned to the bedroom and stripped out of his clothes, both Scully and William were sound asleep. He slipped into the bed and settled onto his side. Watching his family sleep, he waited and worried and wondered about what tomorrow would bring.
"I can't believe how much he's grown in three weeks." Scully dragged one of the oversized pillows across the sofa cushions and tucked it under her elbow.
"That's better," she murmured as the pillow helped to absorb some of William's weight while he nursed. She absently played with the baby's hand as his tiny fingers flexed against her breast in rhythm with his tugging mouth.
Mulder shifted restlessly from his place at the other end of the sofa and looked away from the local news broadcast. "Time's flying," he commented.
Scully murmured an agreement as she lifted the baby onto her shoulder and rubbed her hand over his back.
"That's something we should probably talk about." Mulder turned off the television and tossed the remote onto the coffee table.
"Talk about what?" Scully's closed her eyes and leaned against the sofa cushions contentedly as William nestled his face into the crook of her neck.
"Time." Mulder turned and propped his back against the arm of the sofa.
"Your maternity leave will be up in a few weeks," he reminded her. "And we still haven't discussed what we're going to do."
Startled, Scully's eyes popped open. She had been enjoying the quiet coziness of the day; tucked into the apartment with the two people she loved most in the world while rain tapped in a steady beat against the windows. She felt Mulder's steady gaze, even as she steadfastly refused to meet it and she knew that the time of living in a world of 'let's pretend' had just come to a crashing end.
"These last few weeks of being a normal little family have been wonderful," Mulder said softly. "But, Scully..." he scooted across the cushions and leaned into her side. "We're not normal people." Scully turned her face away and stared at the rain-drenched world outside the windows.
"Scully." He touched gentle fingers to her chin and urged her to look at him. "I've been thinking about this a lot - even before he was born." Mulder tunneled his fingers into her hair and cupped the back of her head to keep her from turning away from him again. "I haven't said anything until now because I wanted you to have this time - I wanted US to have this time... but time is running out."
Unable to turn her face from his, Scully closed her eyes in mute denial. Just a little more time, her mind protested. Was that really too much to ask, she wondered? A little more time...
"We have to decide what we're going to do." Mulder let his head fall onto the cushions next to hers and his breath feathered over her face as he spoke.
"Do we stay here? Or do we take William and run?" He felt her body jerk as he laid the most basic decision on the line.
"We both know that our lives are different now. It isn't just you and me anymore." He felt her burrow her face into his neck, unconsciously mimicking their son, as she sought comfort in his nearness. Her mouth was pressed against his throat and she felt the vibration of his whispered words.
"We have decisions to make, Scully. Are we going to try to live a normal life... or are we going to do what we know needs to be done? One way or another, we have to decide."
Mulder laid a hand on William's tiny back. He could see the gentle flutter of the baby's heartbeat in the pale blue veins visible beneath the translucent skin at his temple. The slow, steady rise and fall of the small back beneath his hand was in direct contrast to the agitated breaths of the woman tucked into his side.
"I know." Her words were barely audible and Mulder had to strain to catch them. "I've been trying not to think about it, but every time I lay down to sleep... as soon as I close my eyes..." Her voice trailed off for a moment. "As soon as I close my eyes, my brain goes into overdrive," she admitted. "You're right," she murmured against his skin. "We need to start making some decisions."
Scully ducked out from her nest beneath Mulder's chin. "I can't stand the thought of leaving him," she admitted. "I know it's not completely rational, but the idea of letting him out of my sight is unbearable. I don't want to go back to work," she told him. Her hand stroked over the back of William's head and she swung her gaze up to meet Mulder's. "Can we swing that?
Financially, I mean?"
Mulder nodded slowly. "I invested the money from the sales of my parents' properties," he told her. "There's enough for us to live on for now - but not forever. If we're conservative, we could probably buy a small house and hopefully still have enough to sock away for his future; for college, at least."
He toyed with the ends of her hair. "But first we have to make sure that he HAS a future - or else it's all pointless."
"We can't just worry about his future," Scully told him. "We also have to worry about his present. Every decision we make is going to impact on who he is going to be when he's grown." Her arms unconsciously tightened around the baby and he gave a sleepy mewl of protest. She hummed a tuneless song against his temple and waited for him to settle down again before resuming.
"We want him to be happy and well-adjusted in the future that we're determined to make sure he gets." Her expression was imploring as she stared into Mulder's eyes. "He can't be that if we raise him in a world of terror. We have to find a balance."
Mulder nodded in agreement. "We're not going to figure it all out today." He stood and stretched his arms over his head. "There's one thing that I want you to think about." He dropped his fists onto his hips. "I'd like you to consider going back to work." He held up a hand to forestall her objections.
"Part-time," he suggested. "I think it's important that one of us keeps a connection to the Bureau." His laugh was rueful and selfmocking. "For obvious reasons, it can't be me."
Her eyes were stormy, he noted, but she bit back her protests and waited for him to finish speaking.
"I'm just not comfortable with the idea of our completely cutting ourselves off from the Bureau's resources... from the X-Files." Scully's own expression softened as she saw how haunted he still was from the loss of the work to which he had dedicated so much of his adult life.
"Skinner and Agent Doggett would keep us in the loop," she offered.
"They're good men, Mulder. We can trust them."
He nodded. "I know." He looked around the apartment that had been hers but which was slowly but surely becoming theirs - just as his basement office had eventually mutated from his to theirs. He sank down onto his knees before her.
"You know what they say, Scully." He lifted one of her hands into his own and stroked his thumb over her knuckles. "Old habits are hard to break. You're still the only one I trust." He looked up from his study of the small, pale hand he held. "If we're going to do this, if we're going to fight for William's future, I need you to be there," he told her honestly. "Even if it's only part-time... I need you to be my eyes and ears."
Scully looked down - first at the baby who was nestled so trustingly against her shoulder - and then at the man who was watching her with an expression that was all at once pleading, hopeful and trusting. She sucked in a deep breath.
"I'll think about it," she promised.
"So, Dana," Monica Reyes took a small sip of beer and eyed the other woman over the top of the bottle. "When are you coming back to work?" Scully hurriedly swallowed the bite of pizza she had taken and wiped her hands on a paper napkin.
"Actually..." she hesitated and glanced toward Mulder for support. He gave a barely perceptible nod and took a healthy swallow from his own beer bottle.
"Actually," she repeated, "I'm not coming back." She fiddled with the napkin in her hand and forced herself to look at each of their guests. She saw understanding in Monica's eyes along with a tiny glimmer of excitement. John Doggett's face showed genuine surprise. Skinner's jaw tightened as leaned forward in his seat and dangled his hands between his knees.
"This comes as a bit of a surprise, Agent Scully," he rumbled. "When did you come to this decision?
"I'm not coming back full-time," she qualified her initial answer. "If that can be arranged." She tossed the mangled napkin onto her plate and set it on the coffee table.
"That's one of the reasons we asked you to come over." Mulder jumped into the conversation. "We wanted to know what our options were and to discuss some plans with all of you."
"What plans?" Doggett asked.
"Plans for what our next move should be," Monica said quietly.
Mulder nodded and lifted his bottle in a silent salute.
"And what plans have you come up with?" Skinner chose another slice of pizza from the open box and settled back into his chair.
"Not a lot," Mulder admitted. "We're just trying to figure all of that out now and we wanted your input."
"Admittedly, our focus has not been on work these last few weeks," Scully glanced toward the baby monitor propped on the end table nearest her. The red lights of the monitor rose and fell with each soft snuffle of the infant sleeping in the bedroom. Mulder stretched an arm along the back of the sofa and stroked a hand over Scully's hair.
"Scully and I have discussed some of our options," he said. "We've agreed that we don't want to completely cut ourselves off from the FBI."
"Thus the part-time hours?" Doggett asked.
Scully nodded. "Yes." She turned her attention to Skinner. "Is that even possible?"
"In what capacity?" He had an idea, but wanted to hear from them what they had in mind.
Scully shrugged. "I don't know exactly. I guess I would have to go back to Quantico. Maybe do some teaching, if there's a part-time instructor position available... lab work, autopsies... whatever position is available with limited hours - but with the proviso that any forensic work generated by the X-Files division would be steered my way."
"Of course, this all hinges on finding a new, permanent partner for Agent Doggett." Scully leaned more comfortably into Mulder and stifled a laugh when Monica abruptly straightened in her seat. She would not have been surprised to see the other woman's hand shoot into the air. Every muscle in Monica's body shouted 'Me! Pick me!'
Doggett ducked his head and picked at the label on his beer bottle. "I don't know, Agent Scully. It won't be easy to find a replacement for you." His expression, when he lifted his head, was bland, but the corners of his eyes were creased with merriment as Monica failed to suppress an indignant gasp.
"Perhaps Agent Reyes would not mind sticking around a bit longer," Mulder suggested with a grin.
"I'll think about it." Monica returned his smile and sank back into her seat with the realization that they had been toying with her. Skinner cleared his throat. "The most obvious problem, of course, is Kersh."
The others nodded in agreement. "Still, the government likes to project the image of being a family-friendly employer." A quartet of mocking expressions met his statement. "I can probably make a case for your request for a reduction in hours. As Agent Reyes has already been working on the X-Files, I can also make the argument that she is the logical and obvious choice as your replacement, and have her permanently reassigned to the division."
He took off his glasses and polished them with a napkin. "However, Kersh will not be inclined to make it easy." He put his glasses back on and looked around the room. "None of us are held in his highest esteem. More than likely I'll have to call in a couple of favors in order to push this through. Favors that may do us more good sometime down the line." He paused. "Are you sure that it's worth calling these favors in now?"
"Sir, I realize that my priorities-" she flicked her gaze towards Mulder, "that our priorities," she qualified, "are not necessarily the same as yours or the same as Agents Doggett and Reyes." Once again she let her attention drift to the softly humming baby monitor.
"For a long time I thought that I would never be able to have a child," she said in a low voice. "The few times that I did indulge in the idea of being a mother..." She hesitated, trying to put her feelings into words. "My fantasies didn't include my child becoming the focus of this kind of..." She lifted her hands into the air helplessly. "... unwelcome attention." She rubbed two fingers over her forehead against a building headache. Unwelcome attention didn't even begin to remotely describe the threat she perceived against her child.
"I don't know why those... things showed up at his birth only to leave the way they did." She felt Monica's penetrating gaze and the two women locked eyes in remembered terror. "But what I do know is that it is our responsibility as William's parents to protect him." Scully laid one hand on Mulder's thigh and watched as he tangled his fingers with hers.
"I've learned that life is short and time spent with the people you love is precious." Her fingers tightened around Mulder's as she thought of those agonizing months when he had been missing and of the emptiness in her heart when she had buried him. "I don't want to be separated from my baby any more than I have to be," she said simply.
"The truth is," Mulder interjected, "that it's all intertwined. Scully's abduction. The chip in her neck." His fingers tunneled under her hair to lightly caress the tiny scar. "Her stolen ova. The virus that we were both exposed to. The vaccine. Cassandra Spender. Good old C.B.G. and his cronies. My abduction. Billy Miles and these socalled Super Soldiers and their interest in William." He looked around the room.
"Scully and I have a primal need to protect William. He's our child and nothing is more important to us." He saw a spasm of pain cross Doggett's face and knew that he was thinking of his own son. "But it's also apparent that William is somehow tied into all of this as well. As much as we wish it otherwise, he's not just our child." He heard Scully suck in a pained gasp and he stroked his thumb over her knuckles soothingly. "William is one of the threads in the knot of this conspiracy. We need to know why there is so much interest in him - both as his parents and for other reasons."
He shrugged. "Before, it was just the two of us - looking for answers and running into walls and dead ends." His eyes moved from one person to the next.
"But now there are more of us. I believe that every person in this room is fully committed to finding the truth - there are no split loyalties to higher authorities." He noted Skinner's involuntary wince and sent an apologetic glance his way. "We need to work together to start pulling at all of those threads. I believe that when we get the answers to one question, it will lead us to the answers to the next."
"Well, Krycek seemed to know a hell of a lot," Scully commented. "Maybe we should dig him up and find out what else he knows." Her remark was met with a snort from Doggett.
"Dig him up," he repeated with a jaded bark of laughter.
Scully's brows knit in confusion. "What's so funny about..." Her voice trailed off as Doggett, Monica and Skinner stared at her with surprise before their gazes skittered away. Beside her, Mulder stiffened.
"What's going on?" she asked suspiciously.
Skinner expelled a rush of air in a long sigh. "Krycek is dead."
Her head snapped back in shock. "Dead?" Her gaze darted from one face to the other. "When?" she demanded. "How?"
As Skinner haltingly laid out the events that had taken place in the underground parking garage while she and Monica had raced towards Georgia, Scully turned her face to Mulder's. Her lips thinned with barely suppressed annoyance.
She knew that he had withheld this information to allow her to spend these first weeks with William wrapped in a protective bubble free from as much of the ugliness that was their lives as possible. Yet still she couldn't tamp down the surge of irritation that came with the knowledge that once again she had been kept in the dark. Someday she would find a way to get it through his thick head that lies and half-truths - even when told from love or a desire to protect - were still harmful. Her fingers tightened on Mulder's in silent warning.
His eyes pleaded for understanding. Hers promised that the discussion would be shelved for the moment but not forgotten. Their guests shifted uncomfortably as their unspoken conversation continued and she turned her attention their way, forcing herself to relax again.
"Do we concentrate on one thread at a time?" Monica spoke quickly to redirect everyone's focus back to the earlier discussion.
"No," Doggett drawled softly. He had come to the realization over the last few months that he understood Mulder's way of thinking more than he could have ever dreamed possible. "I think Dana and Mulder asked us here because we each bring different strengths to the table."
Scully smiled at her former partner. "Exactly. And we need to make the best use of those strengths."
Mulder propped a foot on the coffee table. "If you and Monica stay on the X-Files, you will have the FBI resources - limited though they are at times - to continue the investigations that we started. Scully's part-time status will allow her - and me by extension - access to those investigations." He grinned. "Of course, you should feel free to also keep us in the loop on some of the other, more ah... intriguing cases that cross your desks. Nothing like a good flukeworm to get your mind off your troubles, huh Scully?"
She shoved an elbow into his side. "Director Skinner, by virtue of his office, will be able to continue to protect the work as he has all of these years and, we hope, will become more intimately involved in the investigations - both through official and non-official channels."
"And what about the two of you?" Monica asked.
"There are a lot more people who share our beliefs than you can imagine," Mulder said. "People who have been driven to the fringe of society because of those beliefs."
"Like your three buddies - the Gunmen?" Doggett wondered.
Mulder bristled in automatic defense of his friends and Scully spoke quickly to head off a confrontation.
"Yes, John. People like the Gunmen. People like Mulder. People like me. People who have witnessed things that cannot be explained. People who have been used against their wills."
"I meant no offense, Dana."
"I know."
"These people exist," Mulder said. "They want to fight back but no one will take them seriously."
"Until now," Monica murmured.
"Until now," Mulder agreed. "They come from all walks of life - and they all have something to contribute"
"They want to fight," Scully echoed Mulder. "But they need someone to help organize them. Someone to help them turn their experiences from a negative into a positive."
"And that's what you'll be doing?" Skinner asked.
Mulder nodded emphatically. "It's what we'll all be doing," he insisted. "We need to find these people and work with them to make the best use of their talents."
"So many people who were involved in the project are dead now," Scully said. "But some of them must still be around. Some of them must realize that their allegiance was misplaced. We need to find those people and see if we can't use their knowledge to fight back."
"There are a lot of former abductees," Mulder said softly. "People like Scully who don't remember their experience, but whose lives have been changed nonetheless. People like me," he swallowed hard. "People who remember every moment of their time away. People who have more knowledge than the project members realize. People who can use that knowledge against them."
"We'd need to keep it quiet," Monica murmured.
"Underground." Doggett said thoughtfully.
A heavy silence hung over the room as the enormity of the operation they were contemplating hit each person. Mulder and Scully watched their guests and saw them struggle as each weighed the costs of the task laid out before them.
They, more than anyone, understood that the stakes were high - both on a personal level and for the world at large - and they waited in silence for their companions to reach their own conclusions.
As the moments passed in continued silence, they saw their own emotions reflected on the faces of their friends. Fear... anger... hope... cautious excitement... and finally resolve.
Mulder pushed the door closed and leaned back against it tiredly. Scully gathered up empty beer bottles and he pushed away from the door to help her finish cleaning up. He followed her into the kitchen and they worked quietly to wrap up the leftover pizza and rinse out the bottles for recycling. He stored the pizza in the refrigerator and wiped his hands on a towel.
"Come here." He pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Krycek," he murmured into her hair. "I just wanted to-"
"I know," she whispered into his shirt. "But Mulder, you have to understand that what we're planning on doing... it's so huge. It won't work if you keep things from me."
"I know, but I can't help wanting to protect you."
"I want to protect you too, but we're not safe if we're not fully armed with the truth."
He leaned into her, a welcomed weight as he trapped her between his body and the counter. He threaded his fingers through her hair and tilted her face up to his.
"The whole truth and nothing but," he vowed. Their lips met in a gentle kiss to seal the promise.
"I love you," she sighed into his mouth. She dropped her head onto his shoulder and nestled comfortably against him.
"I love you, too." His arm wrapped firmly around her waist, he turned off the kitchen light and led her through the apartment to their bedroom where their son lay.
Scully stripped out of her clothes and pulled on a pair of comfortable pajamas while Mulder tugged a lightweight blanket over his sleeping son. He rubbed his hand over the tiny back and silently wished him the sweetest of dreams.
He turned from the crib and peeled off his own clothes. He slipped under the covers and curled his body around Scully's.
They would have to learn to find a balance between the overwhelming tasks of bringing down their enemies and raising a healthy, happy child, as well as finding time for each other. He stifled a yawn against her shoulder and relaxed into the pillows.
Tomorrow they would start saving the world.
End
If you enjoyed this story, please feed the author.
Title: Project:TruthSeekers Alt Season Nine: Prologue
Author: Tess and The Truthseekers
Details: 27k · R · Series · 01/01/06 · Email/Website
Gossamer Category(Keywords): X-File [Romance, Angst]
Characters: Mulder/Scully
Pairings: Mulder/Scully romance
SPOILERS: Through Season Eight
SUMMARY: alternative to S9 wherein Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, with the assistance of Agent John Doggett, Agent Monica Reyes and Assistant Director Walter Skinner, establish and lead a global resistance to the impending alien colonization.
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