Chapter 4: Mulder’s Deal
Sometime in the future.
Outside the Mulder Summer House
Quonochontaug, Rhode Island
“They’re going to kill her!” Samantha 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.”
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Two Months Earlier.
“Then she’s going to die.” Mulder said gravely, he had not wanted to accept that possibility before. It could all be for nothing if she has to die anyway. <No. Keep it going and you can save her>
“Yes.” The well manicured man sitting opposite him said flatly.
“Once the process is started the tumours are inevitable.”
“Are you happy with the truth Fox?” Samantha stood against the window and he couldn’t see her face, but he could see her thoughts from across the room and wondered if he was just as open to her. He still hadn’t got used to this. <Get your mind back on this. Remember what you’re doing>
“It’s not me that you need to ask that.” Mulder replied and brought the cel-phone up to his ear. “Did you hear all that Scully?” He asked into the phone.
“I heard it.” Her voice came to him from out of nowhere, as small a whispery as the breeze. He hadn’t wanted her to hear what she just had but there was no way to call it back now.
“I’m sorry.” He said with genuine feeling.
< “I love you. I’m doing this for you. It’s for the best. Goodbye.”>
<Pull yourself together man. Let’s do this> Setting his expression firmly, Mulder turned to face the room.
“This is the end for all of us.” He reached down and pulled his gun from the ankle holster, the woman at the door having taken his other gun away from him. “My briefcase contains a bomb, which is on a timer..”
“No.” Scully said firmly into his ear. He bit his lip and fought to maintain his icy veneer. Taking a deep breath, he spoke into the phone one last time.
< “Please forgive me” >
“Scully, I’m going to close the line so that you don’t have to hear this.”
< “I love you” > He willed the words to her; through his phone, up to the receiver and back down to her phone. The words leaking out of the system into the vastness of space.
“No Mulder. Please don’t do this! Mulder!” He pushed the button with her desperate exclamation of his name still echoing in his ear. The line went dead. He lowered the gun.
“Mr Mulder,” The well manicured man began, with a thinly disguised note of humour into the silence that followed. “You do not appear to have a briefcase.” Mulder hung his head and surreptitiously blinked back a tear. Then he raised his head and faced the men and his sister.
“Agent Scully now believes me to be dead.” Mulder caught his sister’s eyes and saw her stunned expression.
< “What are you doing? This is a mistake.” > Her voice said urgently inside his head.
< “As if you care.” > He replied. “The deal I agreed to before still holds. If you’ll agree.”
“Quite brilliant.” Cancerman spoke suddenly. “Believing you dead and having the answers she needs regarding her abduction Agent Scully will not question the shutting down of the X Files.”
“Might I suggest reassigning her to Quantico, she’s proved herself there.” Mulder stated in an expressionless tone.
< “You mean that it’s safer for her there.” > Samantha said to him and him alone. Mulder ignored her.
“And you’ll agree to having no further contact with her.” The well manicured man asked with a trace of a smile. Mulder shrugged.
“She thinks I’m dead. We’ll have no contact, but from now on she is no longer a part of this.”
“Sounds fair.” Samantha cut in, a little too sharply, drawing everyone’s attention to her.
“How about upping the stakes?” Cancerman suggested with a grim smile and Mulder turned to face him with an inquiring expression. “If Agent Scully learns that you’re alive, then she’ll die of something more immediate than cancerous tumours.” He paused to take a drag from his Morley. “Agreed?” He asked smoothly, holding Mulder’s eye. Mulder tried not to display any emotion.
< “No. Don’t Fox.” > Samantha said suddenly and Mulder fought the urge to look at her.
“Agreed.” He said flatly.
**********************
The present (relatively speaking)
Just outside Philadelphia.
Mulder eased his foot off the accelerator pedal and the car slowed back to a more reasonable speed. He’d be no good to anyone if he crashed before he got to Scully’s apartment. With his new status he wasn’t worried about getting stopped by the police. Fox William Mulder was dead – he even had a copy of the death certificate – but the person he now was would only need to show some ID to be able to get away from any policeman and any charge, even murder if necessary.
He needed to get to Scully’s apartment before she did, just about anything or anyone could be waiting for her. He tried to will his thoughts to her again, but could not be sure whether she was receiving or even understanding that he was sending them. <Wait right there. Whatever I’ve found out, Scully is still Scully. She’s not going to believe the things that I now know to be facts. She doesn’t even know that I’m alive> Mulder was not worried about breaking the terms of the deal. Scully was already in immediate danger. <Of course, Samantha could be lying. What reason do you have to trust her?> That much was true, when they had finally met, Samantha had been sent to keep him away from finding the information that he’d needed. Still, something – maybe their much lauded ‘connection’ – made him think that she was telling the truth about this.
He *had* believed that he was doing the right thing. Having found Samantha, and been disillusioned by what he found, nothing had seemed important any more and nothing had changed. For so long his only purpose had been to find Samantha and he couldn’t think what to do now. The relieved pressure of his own obsession had removed the blinders from his eyes and he had taken a good look at Scully. She was not the woman that he remembered strolling casually into his office on that day so long ago. His eidetic memory replaced it all too him clearly; the ill-fitting suit, her long hair brushing her shoulders, her mouth curving into a smile, her astonishingly astute blue eyes, even the smell of her perfume seemed to linger in the air. The thing which stuck in his mind the most though was her air of innocence. Not innocent in the sense that she was trustworthy but innocent because she had not been exposed the bad things of the world. Her family life had been so opposite to his own, she always been secure in the knowledge that she was loved and that there was good in the world. Over the years that innocence had drained out of her, till finally she had stood in a mountain vault filled with medical files and shattered ideals. Knowledge had replaced that innocence and that knowledge was not the truths that Mulder had sought but the knowledge of her sister lying in a hospital bed with a bullet in her head. She had never been the same wide-eyed innocent since. Sometimes he missed her and sometimes she made an appearance, just for an second or she would show up in a statement, like a teasing reminder of what he had destroyed. More guilt and self-loathing, till he had wanted nothing more than setting her free of him. <It didn’t work though, did it? How did I never realize that she would react to my death the way that I would react to hers? Pain, guilt, regret and borderline insanity – wasn’t that the way you reacted when she was missing!> How could he have *not* seen it? How could he have hurt someone he loved so much? Despite the way they were, he’d been too blinded to discover something so obvious.
How could he tell her the truth? Maybe it wasn’t his place. Should he leave it her mother? Or maybe it would be better for her never to know? Why had Margaret Scully chosen him as her confidante? Maybe it was the fact that a dead man had arrived on her doorstep? He’d taken her by surprise, but what other option had there been. Mulder sincerely doubted that Cancerman was acting with authorization, he seemed to believe that he was a law unto himself. Maybe, in some ways, he was.
Mulder glanced up in his rear view and scanned the cars on the road around him. Not too many at this time of night, that was good. Gently he lowered his foot back onto the accelerator. He *had* to get there before Scully.
*************************
At about the same time.
Quonochontaug, Rhode Island
Samantha sat in the shadows were Fox had left her. What’d she told Scully had been the truth. Despite the things that she had done in the past – everything that she was responsible for – she did love her brother.
< “Please don’t let Scully die.” > Samantha willed, to anyone that would listen. Fox would be devastated and he would never forgive her. <That’s *so* selfish Samantha!> She chided herself harshly, but she could not help the way that she felt.
A shadow moved on the edge of her vision and she turned to see a familiar man run lightly up the steps to the house. His intent was not clear to her but she knew that he appearances never boded well. The time was fast approaching. Soon there would be no going back. The full moon shone brightly in the sky above her like a mocking spectre.
**********************
Sometime later that night.
Scully’s apartment building
Alexandria
Scully slid her car into the space and got out. She walked towards the building but, as she moved past a darkened alleyway, a hand shot out and dragged her into the shadows. Her breath was knocked out of her as she was pushed up against a wall. A strong male body barred her escape. Scully fought and tried to call out but a hand came down over her mouth, stifling her breath.
Scully tried to scream past the man’s hand.
“Scully, it’s me.” He gasped urgently and Scully’s eyes snapped up to his face. Her eyes widened. “You’re not gonna scream?” He asked on a hushed whisper. Scully shook her head and he removed his hand. She looked up at him in amazement.
“You’re alive.” She stated incredulously and he smiled, but before he could say anything, she threw herself into his arms. Mulder closed his eyes and returned the fierce hug. “You’re alive.” She repeated and Mulder could hear the tears in her voice and felt answering tears in his own eyes. Scully pulled back and their eyes locked. Their speeding breathing stopped altogether momentarily. All thought disappeared as their mouths met for the first time in a kiss that was blistering in its intensity. For long minutes they exchanged fierce, almost biting kisses. Scully tore herself away from his lips with difficulty and buried her face against his neck. A dozen wisecracks sprang to Mulder’s lips but he forced them back. He didn’t need them, not with this woman, not any more. He placed some distance between them and looked at her seriously. Her eyes were large and luminous in the dimly lit alleyway.
“I want you to go up to your apartment and change clothes, then pack a bag. Pack only what you really can’t live without.”
“Mulder, what’s going on?” She asked desperately.
“Do you trust me?”
“You know I do.”
“Then just do as I say. I’ll explain everything later. Don’t make it obvious what you’re doing. They can hear everything. Finish quickly, then get in your car and go to your mom’s house.”
“Mom knows that you’re alive?” Scully asked and Mulder nodded.
“We don’t have much time. You’re in danger, so watch your back. I’ll meet you at your mom’s house.” He smiled into her eyes. “I missed you.” Their mouths met for a moment.
“I love you.” Scully told him on a fierce whisper and he grinned.
“I should have known that you’d never say it softly.”
“I don’t feel it softly.” Their mouths met again.
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Scully’s apartment
Scully walked as casually as she could up to her apartment door. Her spine was set so stiff that it was giving her pain. <Mulder’s alive> A grin threatened on her lips. <Mulder didn’t die..hang on..> Her half-smile faltered. <..He deliberately lied to me and made me think that he was dead! *His* decision. He ditched me again! This really beats every time he’s done it in the past. This even beats the time he left me screaming after him. Dammit! He lied to me!>
Scully was fuming as she stepped into her apartment. She was distracted by her train of thought. She didn’t see the shooter in her apartment until a split second before the muzzle flash. Rational thought disappeared but instinct took over.
Pain ripped through her as the bullet tore into her flesh.