Hole in the Black by PD ARCHIVAL: Gossamer, no thanks. Stories will be housed at my site only. If you'd like to link, I'd love it, but please drop me note with a heads up. DISCLAIMER: Can I borrow the keys to the franchise, Chris? I won't go to any FBI balls, I promise to make a full stop at most clichés‚ and I will try not to dangle my participles at the nice couple in the unremarkable house. CLASSIFICATION: SRA, MSR, IWTB, TMI, ASAP RATING: R SPOILERS: Through The X Files: I Want To Believe SUMMARY: "I wasn't in the group, Mr. Mulder. I was a tangential part of the project - in league with those few who were adamant on the subject of developing an antidote and a vaccine. He was our man on the inside, but we were not on the side of complicity with the colonists and that meant we were on the outside. Fringe element. We were not highly regarded. We weren't even invited to the group barbecues." He caught himself and smiled. "Ah. No pun intended." ~ Chapter 6 ~ Sunday, April 13th 7:15 pm 35,000 feet over Colorado The only flight they could get non-stop to Arizona was not non-stop and not to Arizona. After four hours which included a sprint to the departing gate at Dulles and an hour layover in Denver, they were still an hour and a half from Farmington, New Mexico. From there, they'd have to drive another two and a half hours to get to Kayenta. "Scully," Mulder said after the flight attendant had dropped two box dinners on their trays, "flying isn't what it used to be. We used to get crappy hot meals." He sniffed the cellophane-wrapped box and fumbled with the seals. "Cold." Armed with longer nails, Scully had already sliced into her cellophane with surgical precision. She opened the box and tapped her roll against her tray table. "And hard," he said, observing. "It's a new world, Mulder," she said and eschewed her roll for a slice of salami. Mulder ate the cookies and dropped the rest into the garbage bag when the flight attendant walked by. "Thanks. Could I have two Bloody Marys?" he asked. She nodded and continued down the aisle. "I don't want a drink, Mulder." "They're both for me," he said flipping through an in- flight magazine. "Hey, Scully, did you know that Sean Connery tried out for Manchester United?" "Mm." She was staring out the window. The darkness obscured any view she might have had, but she wasn't really seeing anyway. She was remembering his face, the softness of his perfect skin, the sweet smell of him as she held him to her breast... A few minutes later, the flight attendant brought Mulder's drinks and, with a wink, dropped another package of cookies onto his tray. He didn't stop to wonder if he was being flirted with. He opened the package and tapped Scully's forearm with one of his cookies. Scully smiled and took it from him. After a moment, she reached out and took one of the drinks. "Thank you," she said and took a long sip of the spicy concoction. "Who do you think this man is, Mulder? I'm sure you have an opinion." "I have many. I'm betting on a fed of some flavor." "That's a pretty safe bet." "Yeah. Whether or not he is or was a part of our cigarette smoking friend's syndicate or whether or not he's part of that project or in its periphery in some other way - I don't know." "Maybe he's an alien," Scully suggested. Mulder glanced at her, a wry grin at his lips. "You know just what to say now, don't you?" Scully smiled fondly at him, searching his face. "What are we going to say to him, Mulder?" she asked suddenly. Mulder stuffed his magazine on the seat next to him. He knew immediately she wasn't talking about the man anymore. "Depends on what he says to us, I suppose. We can't possibly know what he's feeling or what he thinks about us or - what he knows..." "Or what he's grown into," Scully finished for him and he nodded. "God, Mulder, I'm so nervous, I feel like my heart it going to pound out of my chest." He took her hand and they twined their fingers. "We'll deal with it," he said. She sighed and smiled in spite of herself. "I've faced monsters and murderers. Now, I'm more terrified of this little boy than I ever was of all that - unknown." "Buck up, Starbuck," he said and sipped his drink. "I've got a feeling this is all going to turn out all right." She turned to look up at him and smiled. He pulled her hand to his lips and kissed it. ~:~:~ By the time they landed in Farmington and rented the last available car of questionable reliability, it was past 10 pm. The two lane highway they were on eventually left civilization behind and darkness truly settled in around them. "Mulder, if this car breaks down out here..." "I know," he said. "We're fucked. Don't worry, it's not a clunker. It appears to be running fine and we've only got about another two hours or so. I think the last hour and a half through Arizona will be more like this, though," he said glancing up through the windshield. "It's so dark out there." "No city lights - to speak of." He nodded toward the windshield. "Look at the stars." Scully leaned forward and looked up into the blackness. "Oh, my. Look at that." It was beautiful. ~:~:~ Two hours later they were fed up with stars and just wanted a bed to fall into. They checked in at the front desk and, as promised, were handed a phone number along with their room key. They entered their ground floor room where Scully made a beeline for the bathroom. Mulder dropped their bags on the floor at the foot of one of the two double beds and slowly turned to take in the surroundings. It was a study in lavender. Scully came out of the bathroom giving the bed, the floor and the lamp in the corner a cursory glance. "Hm," she grunted. "Just like old times, Scully." She smiled. "Give me the number. Let's call him." "Scully, it's almost 2 in the morning. Let's get some sleep and we'll call in a few hours." She exhaled a frustrated breath knowing that his was the better idea. "Fine," she said. "In the morning." "Are you hungry at all?" he asked, rubbing his own stomach. "Not really." "Candy bar?" he asked. "Cheese and crackers?" He dug out the change in his pocket. "I think they even had granola bars in the vending machine. You should eat something." "Anything," she said dropping down onto the bed. "No candy." ~:~:~ Monday, April 14th 6:25 am Holiday Inn, Kayenta, AZ An uneasy, fitful night finally gave way to morning, chilly and uncomfortable. In the night, Mulder had wrapped himself around her and at some point had managed to pin her arm behind her back and kept it there long enough for her to completely lose circulation. He must have been dreaming about apprehending a felon. She was warm, but in considerable discomfort. "Mulder. Oh, Mulder, wake up. I can't move my arm." "Mm, sorry." He gave her arm back and stretched as she massaged the feeling back into her numb limb. They each crawled out of bed, stiff, and after only four hours of unconsciousness, still in desperate need of a decent night's sleep. "Splash your face and wake up, Mulder. Let's call." Mulder's head bobbed, not quite up and down, but it approximated agreement. "Make coffee," he managed and went into the bathroom. Scully eyed the small coffee maker and prepared the brew without really paying attention to what she was doing. She closed her eyes as she pressed the button to start the drip and saw herself in her old apartment, William clutched to her with one arm, making coffee with the other - the slow motion memories of those mornings with her son at two months, five months, nine months. It was a memory to which she frequently went back - pain and unrivaled joy at once. "Okay," Mulder said, startling her as he stepped out of the bathroom. "Let's go." She moved to him at the little table in the room as he set his phone to speaker and punched in the number. He didn't sit and neither did she; it felt wrong to adopt a relaxed pose. He glanced at her. "Ready?" She nodded and he pressed send. The phone rang, three times, four times and went to voicemail. "Dammit," Scully whispered. "It's okay," Mulder said as he was instructed to leave a message. "It's Fox Mulder. We're in Kayenta at the Holiday Inn on Route 163. It's after six - almost seven," he said and left his cell number and Scully's, just in case. "Please call us as soon as you get this." He looked at Scully and his face crumpled at the disappointment on her own. "We're here," he said. "We're waiting." Mulder disconnected the call. And they waited.