Chapter 3: Mulder’s Family
Sometime in the future
Mulder Summer House
Quonochontaug, Rhode island
Scully shifted uncomfortably and re-adjusted her grip on the cardboard box. The verandah was dark except for a small porch light. Balancing the box on one knee, she reached up and rang the doorbell a second time. The box began to slip from her fingers and she grabbed at it, catching it just before it hit the ground. She wasn’t in time to stop Mulder’s poster – still neatly rolled into a cylinder – from falling out, rolling across the wooden floor and sliding over the edge, finally coming to rest under a bush. As it disappeared from her sight, Scully’s throat closed up and she was gripped by a minor wave of panic. The poster was her piece of Mulder, the only thing that she had left. She let the box drop to the floor and crouched down to search in the darkness under the shrub. Her hands felt around blindly and finally closed over the stiff glossy paper.
Taking a reassuring breath, she pulled the poster towards herself and began to stand up. The shadowy outline of a man was visible near the trees and, as Scully looked up, he stepped out of her line of sight. Her mind instantly cleared and her hand went instinctively to her gun in the holster at her waist. She partially withdrew it as she stood up, all the time glancing around warily. The early evening wasn’t yet completely dark but the garden of the house was already a mass of shadows. A sound came from behind her and she spun around, the gun almost completely out of the holster now. The diminutive figure of Mulder’s mother stood in the soft light of the doorway.
Scully relaxed and let the gun slide back into the holster.
“Miss Scully!” Mrs Mulder exclaimed in surprise and Scully smiled as reassuringly as she could. “How did you know I was here?”
“I rang your home number, but the man that answered said you were here.” Scully explained. Mrs Mulder frowned a little – just a small frown that disturbed Scully more than she could understand – and invited Scully to come inside the house. Scully replaced the poster in the box and followed her inside.
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“I thought that you might want Mulder’s things from his office.” Scully said, indicating the box. She placed it on the floor and looked up to find Mrs Mulder smiling sadly.
“I never thought that my son would die before me, but I suppose that no mother ever does.” Scully smiled back at her, as she took the poster out of the box.
“I wondered if you would mind me keeping this.” She unrolled it and showed it to the elder woman. Mrs Mulder reached out a tentative hand and touched the image of the hovering UFO. She wasn’t smiling.
“I want to believe.” She read out quietly. “Poor Fox, I wish..” She licked her lips and took her hand back. She turned away with determination. “I’m sure that Fox would like for you to keep that Miss Scully.” She drew in a slow deep breath. Scully re-rolled the poster and lowered her eyes to it with a sense of extreme loss. Her hand tightened on the cylinder of glossy paper which had so much embodied the man that she’d loved.
Scully raised her eyes and found Mrs Mulder standing in the middle of the room staring into space.
“Are you alright?” Scully asked her softly. “Maybe this is not the best place for you to be right now.” Mrs Mulder sighed deeply.
“I was just clearing everything out.” She said, in a soft tone that was reminiscent of Mulder’s hurt puppy tone, as she indicated the crates piled in the living room. Mrs Mulder sat down on the couch and indicated Scully into the chair across from her. “I thought that it was about time that someone did. Bill left the house to Fox, but no one has lived here for a long time.” She sighed deeply. “I’m afraid that this house did not hold happy memories for any of us, Miss Scully.” Scully was unsure what to say. For long minutes Mrs Mulder hung her head, apparently lost in the past. Scully looked around the room and saw that a lamp had been smashed on the floor. She remembered Mulder telling her about his finding the “weapon”. What other secrets did this house hold – buried in the wall themselves and hanging in the ether? Scully smiled sadly, if she believed in that then it might have been a good way to find out the truth.
The elder woman’s head snapped up suddenly and her expression reminded Scully so much of Mulder that for a second she was stunned. The eyes met and held hers and Scully found herself unable to look away. “I’ve already had one scare on my life that I didn’t deserve to live through, Miss Scully. I’ve done many bad things..” She paused to lick her lips. “You know something of my family already. I think that you should know it all.” That woke Scully up.
“That’s none of my business..” She attempted to interrupt, but Mrs Mulder would not let her.
“Did you love my son?” She asked suddenly and Scully shut her mouth with a sharp snap. Her throat dried up.
<”I love you Dana..Are you gonna add anything here?”>
<”Of course I love you”>
“Yes.” Scully answered softly, looking at her hands. Then more confidently she raised her head and looked steadily back at Mulder’s mother. “Yes I did.” Mrs Mulder smiled and nodded reassuringly.
“Good.” She said firmly. “That, at least, was as it should have been.” Her face fell. “Now that I want to tell the truth I have no idea where to begin.” Her eyes raised to Scully’s again. “I guess that it really began with my brother Gerald. He worked for the State Department and he helped me to get a job on an assignment he was working on.” She smiled fondly. “That’s where I met Bill..” The smile faded. “..and the other men..” A wry laugh. “..that would shape my fate.” Mrs Mulder stood up and crossed to one of the crates. After searching for a moment, she pulled out a photograph album. She sat down on the couch again and motioned for Scully to join her. With a sense of trepidation Scully moved to sit next to her.
The pretty little album had an unassuming floral patterned cover that had been faded by time. Mrs Mulder opened the album confidently, as if she knew by heart where to find the photograph she was looking for. The picture she indicated sent Scully’s heart into her mouth.
“That photograph was taken at the Strughold Mining Company..” Mrs Mulder began, but Scully already knew that. She knew that fact only too well. “..my husband..” She indicated Bill Mulder on the left of the picture. “..my boss..” She indicated to a well manicured man on the right, that Scully was also familiar with. “..my brother..” Scully’s eyes widened and she surpressed a gasp as Mrs Mulder indicated another familiar face, but Mrs Mulder had not yet finished. She drew in a deep and shaky breath. “..my – God help me – my lover.” She gestured to the figure on the extreme left of the picture. It was confirmation, but not exactly a surprise to Scully.
Scully watched as the elder woman firmly blinked back tears.
“I was a fool.” The tears fell despite her efforts, but her voice was firm. “I did love Bill. Honestly I did, but..” She cleared her throat. “I couldn’t have children, Miss Scully and I so wanted a little boy and a little girl.” She looked down at her hands. Scully watched her in shocked awe.
“What do you mean? You couldn’t have children?”
“I..we..Bill and I..we so much wanted to have children, but we couldn’t. I knew that Bill was upset, although he tried to pretend that he wasn’t.” She licked her lips. “We argued over it..so I went to him.”
“To him?” Scully asked pointing at the figure in the picture. “You know his name?” Mrs Mulder smiled ironically.
“Yes, but I can’t tell you that. I can’t give you that much power over him.” Scully frowned. “I’m bound by promises..and by old loyalties.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You know more that you think you do, Miss Scully. You have more to do with all this than you realize.” She gestured sweepingly towards her. “Your abduction. The implant. Your work. It’s not without meaning.”
“What do you know about my abduction? And the implants?” Scully demanded. Mrs Mulder laughed sarcastically.
“I was a part of the project Miss Scully. I was one of the group collating the information collected during the smallpox inoculations. I knew what they used the information for..and I was a willing volunteer.” Scully’s eyes widened as a thought struck her.
“They..you..*were* trying to create hybrid humans using genetic information from the medical records. That long ago, you already had the technology.” She said in an awestruck voice.
The tears in Mrs Mulder’s eyes had completely dried up and they were curiously dead as they stared into Scully’s.
“They were attempting to create an *alien*-human hybrid.” She smiled suddenly, a smile that chilled Scully despite the warmth of the room. The smile approached pure evil. “I got the son that I wanted Miss Scully, then later on I got the daughter too.” Mrs Mulder’s face became twisted with pain and hatred. “Then that bastard gave her away, after everything I’d done. He gave her away.” She shrieked. Scully put calming hands on her shoulders.
“Mrs Mulder, please. Calm down. Your heart..” Scully managed to catch her eyes and they stared at each other for a long moment. “You’re saying that Mulder and his sister were genetically engineered alien-human hybrids.” She tried to make it sound skeptical but all it came out as was tired. She shook her head. “But that can’t be.”
“It is the truth.” Mrs Mulder insisted flatly. Scully broke away from her, stood up and began pacing the room.
“But Mulder is..was..a normal human being. I’ve seen his medical records. There was no trace of any abnormality.”
“Of course there wasn’t. I wanted a son, not a freak!” Mrs Mulder stated indignantly from the couch. Scully spun to face her.
“You *are* serious!” She exclaimed.
“I’m deadly serious.” They glared at each other. “Whatever else Fox was he *was* my son and he was Bill’s.” Mrs Mulder broke the eye contact. “I know you must hate me now Miss Scully, but I need you to know. Please, sit down.” Scully swallowed the sick feeling she had, and sat down in the chair opposite Mulder’s mother.
“I’m listening.”
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“I never told Bill what I’d done, I only told him that I was pregnant. It seemed like a miracle. Then Fox was born and, at last, I had the family that I’d dreamt of. It was so good that I wanted more. I’ll admit to being selfish, if I’d only let it be we might have stayed happy. I went to *him* like Oliver Twist, bowl outstretched, asking for more. He gave me Samantha. It was then that I started having a real relationship with him.”
“With the Cancerman?” Scully asked and Mrs Mulder looked up at her in shock. Then she gave a wry smile.
“I suppose that *would* be an apt name for him.” She focused firmly on her hands. “After Samantha was born it felt as if I had more of a connection to him than I did to Bill. I thought that I loved him. Bill was so focused on the project all the time and I was alone with the children, here in this house or on the Vineyard. Then he, your Cancer man, would come to see me. He was so wonderful with the children, you wouldn’t believe it now.” She smiled fondly. “He taught Fox to swim, all with Bill’s knowledge of course. They were best friends.” She sighed. “For a few years things were wonderful, but nothing ever stays that way. The project was advancing but not as well as it had been expected. I was worried about the children and I became convinced that they would suddenly develop two heads or at least show an adverse reaction from the process. I can’t imagine now how I managed to keep it from Bill for as long as I did. Gerald knew, of course, but he didn’t approve.”
Mrs Mulder picked the photo album up once again and turned it to another photograph. This time it was of a family group; Bill Mulder, Mrs Mulder, Gerald, Cancerman, a teenage Mulder and Samantha. Both of the parents looked tired and unhappy, Gerald appeared happy and relaxed, but it was the smiling image of Cancerman with his arms around both of the children which made the hairs on Scully’s neck stand on end. It did not look like the man she had regularly seen standing in Skinner’s office with a perpetually burning cigarette. There was also something strange about the children. They were smiling, but they only seemed to have eyes for each other.
“You can see it, can’t you?” Mrs Mulder asked her and Scully looked over at her. “It’s right in that picture. The only complication in my own little plan.” She sighed. “I knew that there might be side-effects, but I had wanted children so much and I was happy that they would be part of a new order of intelligence.” Her sigh was heartfelt. “Samantha and Fox were incredible when they were together, they seemed to communicate without needing words. The connection between them was almost palpable. With a simple touch they said a thousand words, it was amazing to watch them. That was my downfall. It became obvious that they were not normal children and the secret could not be kept. Someone broke the silence – all for the greater good..” She spoke with sarcasm. “..and they told Bill about it..and about my relationship with your Cancerman. Bill closed himself off from me totally that day, from the project, from all his old friends. It destroyed him.” She paused to clear her throat.
“With all this out in the open, Fox and Samantha became the focal point of the project overnight, their relationship was unique among the test cases. Ironically, they turned out to be the breakthrough the Project had needed at that point. When they were together they possessed an unusual power and strength of will. It became an imperative that they be kept apart..and studied.” She licked her lips. “Bill asked me to chose, since it was my fault, but I loved them both so much that I couldn’t chose. I don’t know why Bill chose Samantha, I just know that after she was gone he was cold to both me and Fox. I could understand him hating me but I tried to explain that Fox was his son, at the very least he contained his genes. Bill couldn’t see past the experiments, although he stubbornly refused to let them conduct any tests on Fox. I think that was the deal he made – that they take Samantha and leave Fox alone.” She closed her eyes momentarily. “My poor son. His connection to his sister was *so* strong that the separation was like removing a part of himself.” She opened her eyes and looked up at Scully. “I wonder if they knew what they were doing when they sent you to him.” Scully frowned, but wasn’t given a chance to speak. “I think it’s that connection that made him keep searching for her.”
“He didn’t find anything good when he did find her.” Scully finally cut in bitterly. Mrs Mulder curled her lip in something that might have meant to be a smile but didn’t really work.
“I’ll admit that I am..was concerned about Samantha’s behaviour when she did return to us, but I am not surprised. You have to understand that Samantha and Fox were the turning point in the project. They could have spent all eternity searching for the perfect pattern and, by pure chance, Samantha and Fox had the right one. Samantha was the genesis.”
There was silence for a moment as Scully contemplated this with a mixture of fear and disbelief. She didn’t want to believe what Mrs Mulder was telling her. She fidgeted nervously with the poster.
“You’re saying that they’ve created a new race of beings, essentially descended from a single mother.” Scully mused in a horrified tone.
“A queen, Miss Scully.” Mrs Mulder smiled.
“Like bees.” Scully said softly. “What do they intend to do with them?”
“Colonization.” She met Scully’s eyes as she said the word. “Your Cancerman gave me the children I wanted, but his motives were not wholly altruistic. He loved me Miss Scully, but I was not the only one he helped. He knew what the plans were and he wanted a piece of them. However, he had his own plans and he gave me the tool with which to defend myself from them.”
“The object that Mulder found in the lamp.” Scully interjected.
“Yes. It will be the only way to kill them.”
“To kill who?” Scully asked and Mrs Mulder looked at her as if she were stupid.
“The colonizers.”
“Then why did he want it back?” Scully asked, remembering Mulder’s talk of them meeting at the summer house. Mrs Mulder seemed shocked.
“He didn’t, what made you think that he did?”
“But..” She paused in confusion. “..before your stroke..” Mrs Mulder smiled in relief.
“He wanted me to give it to Fox.” She stated. “He was concerned that Mulder would encounter one of them. The one they sent after Jeremiah Smith. He – it – knew who Fox was. He was concerned that it might consider Mulder to be..er..dispensible and he wanted Fox to be able to defend himself.”
“Why?”
“Because Fox is an important part of his plans. Do you think that Fox would have survived this long if it hadn’t have been for him.” Mrs Mulder looked at Scully gravely. “The time is soon, Miss Scully. You’re not out of yet. I know that Fox was trying to get you out of it, but it didn’t work. He didn’t know then.” She paused momentarily, then rushed on. “I have something that will help you. Follow me.”
Mrs Mulder stood up and walked determinedly out of the room. Scully followed her into another room. Mrs Mulder went straight to a bookcase and reached up to the top shelf. Pushing aside books, her hand closed around a small glass bottle with a blue lid. She brought it down and handed it to Scully.
“What is this?” Scully asked as she contemplated the clear liquid. “Our only hope.” There was a label on the base of the bottle and Scully tilted it a little. Her eyes widened as she read the acronym.
“SEP?” She asked quickly.
“You’re aware of it?” Mrs Mulder returned.
“Yes.” Scully commented wryly.
“Thanks to Fox’s actions, you’re the only one who can change things. You have stop them.”
“But what about the people in that building that Mulder blew up. Are they dead? Mulder, Samantha, Cancerman, the others..?” Scully asked, tearing her eyes away from the liquid. Mrs Mulder looked up at her expressionlessly.
“Fox is dead.” She replied flatly.
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Scully left the house without looking back at Mrs Mulder. In her right hand she was clutching the rolled up poster and in her left hand, she held the flask. Her eyes were filmed with tears, Mrs Mulder blank statement that her son was dead had affected Scully in a way she had never expected. Her mind was whirling in confusion. Things she’d never been willing to believe, not because she did not suspect them to be true but because she wanted to believe that they weren’t. Now she had to face that, not only, were they true but that Mulder was not what he had seemed to be. Could she believe? Colonization? It sounded plausible, but..? What if it was true? She had given up the X Files too easily. She hadn’t thought that before but now she was not so sure. Mulder wouldn’t have given up, not ever. But then again, he *did* give up, didn’t he? He let himself die.
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She didn’t see Mrs Mulder standing in the doorway watching her with sad eyes. <I thought they told her everything about her abduction but it seems that they missed out the most important facts. Who would have ever suspected that she was One?> Inside the house, the telephone rang and Mrs Mulder stepped back inside.
Mrs Mulder rubbed the bridge of her nose in a tired gesture that she was not aware was identical to one that her son had often used. She would have been pleased if she’d known. The ringing phone was insistent, a fact which added to her concern. She was in danger. Someone had informed Dana Scully of her presence here. In fact, someone had *insured* her presence here. What did he have planned for her? Was that him on the phone? Only one way to find out.
“Hello?” She asked warily into the receiver. There was silence for a moment, then a female voice that she had not heard in a long time.
“Hello Rebecca.” There was a trace of a fond smile in the tone.
“Maggie?!” Rebecca Mulder asked in shock. “How did you know I was here?”
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Scully took out her key and opened her car door, blinking tears out of her eyes as she did so. A laugh sounded behind her and she spun around, her hand going for her gun. She drew it and aimed it at the figure standing in the shadows.
“Can you shoot a ghost?” The familiar female voice asked in amused tone. Scully’s face betrayed her shock, but she didn’t lower the gun. “Come on Dana, shoot me. I know you want to.” The woman stepped into the light and Scully saw that she was grinning. Pulling herself together, Scully forced herself to think clearly.
“Why aren’t you dead Samantha?” She asked bitterly but the other woman just casually pulled a cigarette from her pocket and lit it. She took a deep drag before answering Scully’s question.
“Fox wasn’t as smart as he thought he was.” She took another drag and blew it out slowly. “You’re next question is ‘Is Mulder dead’?” She said the words in a mocking tone. Scully’s expression was a frozen mask and the gun’s aim was rock-solid. Samantha laughed wryly. “Fox Mulder is very, *very* dead and making a fool of yourself in the lobby of the Hoover Building wont change that.” She mocked. Scully’s calm nearly cracked and her finger tightened fractionally on the trigger.
“Does your mother know that you’re alive?” Scully asked, fighting for calm.
“Oh yes!” Samantha laughed and leaned forward conspiratorially. “Are we playing twenty questions Dana?” She straightened again. “How about you ask me when you’re going to die. I can answer you better than that fool Bruckman did!”
“What do you mean?” Scully demanded.
“With Fox out of the way, you’re the only loose end left. Your life is in very immediate danger.”
“Why tell me?”
“Because..” Samantha began seriously. “..Fox loved you and, despite what you may think, I do love my brother.”
“Why do I have trouble believing you Samantha?” Scully asked ironically.
“It’s the truth.” Her eyes met Scully’s. “Fox is a fool, I told him this wouldn’t work.” She said reflectively. “Look Dana. Wherever you go they’ll find you but that’s not a reason to stop running. Get out – hide – while you still can.” She was so serious that Scully believed her.
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Samantha stood still by the roadside watching Scully’s tail-lights disappear.
“What did you tell her?” A male voice demanded from behind her. Samantha didn’t turn around. She knew who it was.
“What? You can’t read my mind?” She asked in return.
“If you can read mine then you’ll have realised that I’m not above ringing your neck. Especially right now.”
“I’m not your enemy.”
“But you’re in it with them.” He said bitterly and Samantha finally turned around to face him.
“They’re going to kill her!” She said flatly. “Your little arrangement was for nothing. They’ll kill her and then no one will stand in their way.”
“What about you and me?”
“You can’t count on my help, I’m in it with them – remember?” She mocked.
“I made a deal regarding Scully.”
“You *really* thought that they’d honour it?!” She exclaimed in genuine shock. “With what they’re intending to do!” She laughed wryly. “Don’t you see what you’ve done? You’ve let them win Fox.”