The Truth is Out There--Scene 5 from XF3
by Lolabeegood

E-mail: lolabeegood@gmail.com
Distribution: Archive freely with my name attached.

Rating: R
Categories: S, R
Keywords: Mulder/Scully romance, Post-IWTB
Spoilers: IWTB
Summary:  The truth is something Mulder & Scully may have 
to pay a steep price for.

Author's Notes: 

Ever since I watched IWTB I have thought of the ideal way 
to start and storyline a third movie.  So, after much 
thought and deliberation I have a series of scenes that I 
have written for the third XF movie.  The scenes will not 
necessarily run right after each other but they are in 
sequence.  They are more like scenes I would like to see 
in the XF3 that develop character, tie loose ends, and 
add plot interest.  

I do not own the characters or make any money from this.

Enjoy!

**********************************

Scully watched as Jeremy and Barbara, the manager of Barnes 
& Noble, gushed over Mulder.  He was a little embarrassed by 
all the accolades but Scully could tell he was pleased to be 
respected again.

"I can't say again what an honor it is to have you with us, 
Mr. Mulder" Barbara said touching his chest for the third 
time in their brief conversation.

"Well, it's great we could fit your store in." Mulder smiled 
at her.

"After all the requests we got to come to this location, we 
couldn't refuse" said Jeremy smiling.

"Well, as you can see" she said pointing to the people 
assembling in chairs "you have quite the Chicago following.  
And this is only the morning crowd, I'm sure the evening 
reading will be even more packed."

"Speaking of which" Jeremy looked at his watch "you are on 
in 2 minutes."

"I better visit the facilities then.  Excuse me" Mulder 
said making himself scarce.

Jeremy left to straighten the poster behind where Mulder 
would be reading.  Scully noticed a local camera crew also 
setting up and wondered if Mulder would make an entertainment 
clip on the news tonight.  She also wondered if he was this 
popular in every city he visited; he hadn't mentioned all 
the attention on the phone.

"Do you work for the publisher as well?" Barbara asked.

"Me? No" Scully replied warmly.

"His assistant?" Barbara inquired further

"I guess in a matter of speaking." She laughed at the 
analogy. "I'm his..." Scully always stumbled over 
terminology "...wife, sort of." 

"His wife?" 

"Well, we're not married." She clarified "I just think at 
our age the term 'girlfriend' seems odd.  We live together, 
we've...uh, been together for a while." 

"So you know his old partner Murphy?"

"Yes, yes, I do" Scully said uncomfortably.

"Are they still close?" Barbara asked eager for insider 
information.

"They are" Scully said wistfully. "When you go on the 
cases they have together, and see what they've seen, 
you can't help but feel that's the only person who 
understands you, sometimes."

"And you're not jealous?" Barbara asked "I mean, the way 
he describes his love for her in the book...well, a 
girl's gotta wonder..."

"I know he loves me.  I also know he still loves Murphy.  
I'm okay with that" Scully said matter-of-factly.

Just then Mulder appeared and gave her a peck on the 
cheek. "Wish me luck."

"You don't need it, Mulder" she smiled back.

Jeremy went in front of the audience and introduced 
Mulder.  Citing his career as an FBI agent, profiler, 
and paranormal expert.  He talked about the book series 
Mulder was working on and read some of the fabulous 
reviews the book had received.  He cited its long run on 
the New York Times bestsellers list and the many places 
they have visited on the book tour.  The audience clapped 
and Mulder walked to the podium.

"Usually, I read first and answer questions later but I 
always like to mix it up.  How about we start with some 
questions?" Mulder smiled at the bevy of people in front 
of him.

"Hi Mr. Mulder, I'm a huge fan of yours." A young man 
stood from his seat.

"Thank you" Mulder replied.

"I'd like to know how many books are planned for the series 
and when can we expect the next one?"

"The second book is with the editors now and hopefully 
it'll be out by the New Year" he smiled as the audience 
clapped. "As for the rest of the series, I've signed on to 
do 6 total, and we'll see what happens after that.  The 
publisher might be sick of me by then" he laughed.  "Yes, 
the lady in the green shirt."

"Hi Mr. Mulder.  I just loved your book.  You and Murphy 
seem to have this amazing relationship in the novel.  Is 
she a real person you worked with and if so, are you still 
together and is she supportive of the book?"

"I get asked this a lot" Mulder smiled over to Scully. "Yes, 
she is a real person; she saved my ass more times than I 
can count."

The audience snickered at his comment.

"She is very supportive of the book, although I think she 
could have done without all the sex scenes for everyone to 
read about.  She's sort of shy that way" he looked over 
to her again.

The audience giggled at his comment.

Scully was starting to blush as she leaned against a 
book shelf.

"Okay, the lady with black hair" he said gesturing to 
another person.

"Uh, Mr. Mulder" the first lady interrupted.

"Yes?" he asked confused.

"You didn't answer my question, are you still together?"

"Oh, sorry.  I missed that." He smiled "Uh...she's the 
only woman for me...now, and always" he said looking 
directly at Scully. "So, yes, we're still together."

Scully pursed her lips into a kiss and he blushed 
slightly as he looked back at the audience.

"Where was I? Oh, yes" he smiled. "The lady with the 
black hair."

Scully noticed out of the corner of her eye Barbara 
who, was now focused on her instead of Mulder.

"You're Murphy?" she mouthed toward Scully when she 
turned to look.

Scully gave her a tight-lipped grin and looked back 
towards Mulder.  He had been good at keeping her anonymous 
in all of this.  The people who knew them from their days 
on the X-files and her family knew who she was, but 
Mulder had kept her out of all the attention, at her 
request. 

She had heard collogues at work talking about his book, 
saw people reading it in the waiting room, and had not 
said a word.  They had no idea that the book was about 
her as much as it was about Mulder.  She liked that they 
still had one secret to keep.  It would have also been a 
distraction at work if word got around and Scully wanted 
to look privately and nostalgically back on her X-files 
days, not publicly as Mulder had.

She looked back at Mulder answering a question about 
government conspiracies and smiled.  This was perfect for 
him.

'William was a bullfrog...he was a good friend of mine...' 

She heard herself singing the words in her head but she 
had not been thinking of William.  She opened and closed her 
eyes a few times and ran few fingers along the opening of 
her ears but the music kept playing over and over again.

'I never heard a single word he said...but I helped him 
drink his wine.' 

Scully's head quickly jerked from side to side looking 
around the store for the source of music. It must be a 
CD playing somewhere in the store and it just sounded 
like her voice.

'Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea...joy to Wil 
and me.' 

She held her breath and turned to look at Mulder.  He 
was opening his book to read and was not looking at 
her.  

'If I were the king of the world...I'll tell you what 
I'd do.'

Scully stepped back from the crowd and walked through 
the book stack.  As she walked the sound got louder 
and louder.

'And I'd give sweet kisses to you.'

Scully knew those were not the real lyrics.  It was 
her modified song for William, from many, many years 
ago.  He body was shaking as she walked on and the 
lyrics got louder.

'You know I love my baby...we love to have our fun.'

As she entered the children's area of the bookstore 
she had to cover the openings to her ears,  the song, 
her song,  was so loud it was painful in her ears.  
She looked around the area and spotted two moms in 
the corner reading books to their toddlers.  At a 
side table there was a young boy drawing on some 
paper.  

'Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea...joy to 
Wil and me.'

The music suddenly stopped and Scully let out the 
breath she didn't realize she was holding.  She 
closed her eyes and held back the tears that such 
a memory usually brought to her eyes.   

She was just thinking she would chalk this up to a 
minor mental break, when the young boy sitting at the 
table turned and looked right at her with his hazel 
eyes.  Scully gasped and took a step back shaking her 
head back and forth.

'Come, sit with me' the voice in her head requested.

Scully grasped her one shaking hand with the other 
and took tentative steps toward the young boy.  Her 
eyes were filled with tears, her throat was dry, and 
her lip was quivering.  She pulled a stool out from 
the children's table and stumbled into the seat 
placing her hands flatly on the table.

"Take a breath" the young boy said quietly.

"I can't" Scully told him truthfully.

"Just try" he said gently as he placed a hand over 
hers.

Her eyes fell to their two hands resting on the 
table together.  Together. She looked back up at his 
face.  His beautiful, perfect face.  He had his father's 
eyes and hair.  He had her nose and face shape.  He 
had a small beauty mark under his right eye that she 
remembered as much smaller when he was a baby but must 
have grown over time as he aged.  She opened her 
mouth several times to ask the question but no sound 
came out.  She shook her head and looked down at 
their hands again.

"Hi mom" he said as he smiled at her.

She let out a gulped cry and leaned her forehead 
against their hands, her whole body rocking forward.

'You can't make a scene.  We can't draw attention to 
ourselves' the voice in her head told her gently.

"I'm sorry" she said as she pulled herself back up to 
a sitting position and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"It's okay" he said as he placed his other hand on 
top of hers.

"You should never wander away from me like that" she 
said in the sternest voice she could muster.

"I was just over here" he whined to play the part.

'Tell me we have to get going' the voice instructed her.

"We have to get going.  Your...your...your father is 
waiting."

"My what?" the young boy asked startled.

"Your father" she said gently as she looked over to 
the man reading at the podium across the bookstore.

"For real?" he asked in a whisper unsure if this was 
still a game.

"Yes, Wil.  For real" she smiled at him.

'We need to get out of here right away.  I'll tell you 
why later.  Can he meet up with us?' the voice asked.

"Yes, we'll get a note to him.  Just come with me..." 
she started to rise from her seat while still holding 
his hand.

"No" he said quietly. "We can't be seen around here 
together."

"Why?" she asked.

'Someone might figure us out.  This meeting was already 
a risk. Tell me where to meet you and I will' the voice 
said.

"Leave you alone?" she asked suddenly scared.

'You have to' the voice pleaded as he looked at her with 
love. 'okay...meet me at card catalogue number 
522 in the stacks in the library across the street in 
ten minutes.'

"I don't like this" she said as her voice wavered and 
her hand started to shake again.

"I know you don't" he said quietly. "But it's the only 
way."

He got up and released her hand and walked away from 
her without looking back.

Scully fell back onto the stool and starred after him.  
Astonished she had let him go so easily.  Again.

She took a deep breath and pulled herself together.  
She was going to be at the library in two minutes if 
she could.  She walked very purposefully over to 
Jeremy, Mulder's tour manager.  

"Do you have a piece of paper?" she asked quietly.

"Uh, sure" he said as he reached into his folder.

"And a pen?" she asked quietly as Mulder looked over 
at her from the podium.

She hesitantly smiled at him but he looked concerned 
and paused in his reading to take a drink and study 
her a little longer.  She turned her back to him and 
started to scribble on a piece of paper.

He finished the section of his book and everyone 
clapped.  He broke from the podium quickly and went to 
Scully's side.  Jeremy went to the podium and announced 
Mulder would be signing books in a few minutes if 
everyone wanted to form a line.

"Scully, what's the matter?  You look pale" he said 
grabbing her arm.

"I love you" she said as she kissed him on the lips 
tenderly.

"I love you too" he smiled back and put his hands on 
her waist. "Now what has gotten into you?"

"Take this" she said as she hugged him close and 
placed the paper in his pant pocket. "We might be 
watched, open it somewhere discreet and meet me there 
as quickly as possible with as much money as you 
can take out without drawing attention to us."

"Scully?" he asked confused as he looked into her eyes.

"I'll see you for lunch?" she asked looking around and 
playing a role.

"Sure" he said as he leaned in to kiss her again.

"You're scaring me" he said against her lips.

"I'm scaring myself" she said as she broke from his 
embrace and walked away from him, not looking back.

He stood there looking after her.  Unsure as to whether 
he should run after her or follow her instructions.  
She was obviously shaken and terrified. 

"Fox, ready to sign some books?" Jeremy asked as he 
slapped him on the back.

"Yeah, let me just run to the..." He paused "...it's 
all the water."

"Sure, I'll hold down the fort."

Mulder walked toward the washroom but ducked into 
a broom closet and shut the door behind him.

He took the paper out of his pocket and strained to 
read it in the dim lighting.

The note read simply:

Meet me where Wyle E. Coyote lives.

Mulder was perplexed.  Wyle E Coyote? He stood there 
for several moments trying to make the connection.  A 
connection Scully was confident he would make.  

Henry Weems!  He almost said the name aloud and stopped 
himself.  Scully had joked he was Wyle E. Coyote because 
he never got hurt.  He lived in Melrose Park a suburb 
of Chicago.  

He was to meet Scully there with as much cash as would not 
draw attention, as soon as possible.  He could finish 
signing books in a half hour if he hurried, get the money, 
and get to her about a half hour after that if he took the 
expressway.  He could be there for lunch just like she had 
said.  

Mulder reached for several spray cleaners and sprayed the 
paper with them.  He ripped it into shreds and dropped it 
into a bucket of soapy water where it started to dissolve.  
Now he was starting to feel as paranoid as Scully, only he 
didn't know what he was paranoid about.

Mulder walked out of the broom closet and over to the 
table to sign books.

****************************

The End