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 9 ~
 
6:45 pm
Holiday Inn, Kayenta, AZ

Three cheeseburgers (and a chef salad for Scully) later, 
they walked out of the restaurant and stepped into the 
brisk April evening air. Mulder and Roy had stepped out 
first followed by Scully and William. 

"And that one - um," William was saying, "about those 
caves, and the one cave in - I forget where - um, how all 
the stalag - stalac - "

"Stalactites?" Scully wondered.

"Yeah. Sta-lac-tites... and stuff - they're all white and 
crystally. I think it's in Mexico. Like milk?"

Mulder glanced back at them as they walked into the parking 
lot. "Lechuguilla, William, in New Mexico." Mulder said. 
"Leche. Close."

"Le-chu-guill-a," William echoed, pronouncing each 
syllable. "Yeah. That was really cool." He looked up at 
Scully. "Did you like Planet Earth?" 

Scully nodded and smiled at him. "I did." 

"Which one was your favorite?" 

Scully pondered - a little more animated than normal for 
William's benefit - and while she was at it, 
surreptitiously rested her hand on William's shoulder as 
they walked. She needed to touch him. "Hmmm. I liked the 
one with the sharks."

"The great whites? Yeah, that one was neat," he said. He 
stared at the ground as they walked, seemingly content, 
nodding his head to some beat only he could hear. He looked 
up at Scully. "How come you got a salad instead of a 
cheeseburger when you really-I-could-tell wanted a 
cheeseburger?"

Scully smiled and looked at the back of Mulder's head. He 
hadn't turned to look at her, but she knew he was grinning. 
"If I had a cheeseburger and fries every time I wanted 
some, I'd be too big to fit through the door," she said and 
puffed out her cheeks. "Especially French fries. And 
ketchup." 

They'd stopped at Roy's car.

"You ate some of mine," William observed.

"She does that," Mulder said and Mulder could see the boy 
absorb this information as the smile bloomed on his face. 
An interesting, inconsequential new fact about his mother. 

"Well," Roy said. "I'm gonna go. Got a long drive back to 
Flagstaff."

Scully's face fell as she looked at Mulder and then down to 
William who was digging in his pockets for something. There 
hadn't been enough time. Never would be enough time, but 
this - oh, it wasn't fair.

"William," Roy started, "you okay with the plan still?"

The boy looked up at him and nodded casually, still digging 
in his pockets. "Yeah. I'm okay. Thanks for the ride and 
stuff."

As Roy smiled, Mulder and Scully finally realized what was 
happening. William was staying with them. "And," Roy 
started, "I'm guessing this will be all right with you 
two?"

"Yes. Sure. Of course," Scully said. 

Roy stuck out his hand at William who stopped digging in 
his jeans long enough to shake the man's hand. "I'll see 
you again, I hope, William."

William shrugged. "Okay. Thanks again."

"Dr. Scully," he said offering his hand. She took it, shook 
it warmly and mouthed a thank you. He nodded back and 
turned to Mulder.

"Uh, Scully why don't you take William back to the room. 
I'll be right there," Mulder said. 

They turned and Mulder watched Scully drop her hand on the 
back of the boy's neck as she guided him back to their 
room. Mulder turned to Roy.

"First," Mulder said, "thank you. Thank you for contacting 
us, thank you for getting him here safely."

Roy nodded and narrowed his eyes at Mulder. "And?"

"And," Mulder started, "what do you get out of all this? 
What's the angle? We never did find out why William came to 
you. And you lied when William brought up supersoldiers - 
feigning ignorance. Why? Who are you, really?"

"I'm - a former colleague of a man you knew as - mostly an 
enemy, but I do believe he died giving you information that 
would save Dr. Scully's life. Dapper Brit. You know who I 
mean." 

"Yeah."

"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 for 
the alien threat. 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."

"Fortunate for you, then," Mulder added, and the phantom 
smell of burnt bodies wafted around him. He sighed heavily. 
"Why? Why did William come to you?"

"Mr. Mulder, I swear to God I don't know. I work at Luke 
Air Force Base. I'd rather not tell you my rank, but I'm 
not in command. I was taking a few days off, went to the 
Grand Canyon. When it's only an hour and half away, you 
don't really have an excuse not to go, so I go every once 
in a while. Hike, camp. You know. I was in Mather 
Campground. I was cooking a steak and this kid walks up to 
me. He wasn't scared, he wasn't lost - he walked up and sat 
down and said, 'smells good.' He asked me if I knew you. 
When he told me who he was..." Roy shrugged. "That's it. I 
don't know how he knew or even if he knew how or why. All I 
know is, he did and I'm not the kind of guy that leaves a 
kid to wander on his own - especially if he's the savior of 
the planet."

Mulder chuckled mirthlessly and shook his head. "Okay."

"Okay," Roy said. "He's yours now. I'm not involved in this 
anymore, Mr. Mulder. I haven't been since the vaccine 
project unceremoniously stopped. It's alive in some other 
form, I know, but I don't know enough to help you with 
whatever William has in store for you." Roy stuck out his 
hand and shook Mulder's. He opened his car door. "Let him 
be your guide. He's a smart kid."

Roy settled into his car, started the motor and with a 
final nod, pulled out of the parking lot and onto the 
highway.

Mulder watched until it disappeared into the distance.

~:~:~

Scully sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the closed 
bathroom door. She was clenching her teeth so hard, her jaw 
ached, but it reminded her of that awful inevitability: at 
some point, probably sooner rather than later, William 
would go back to his parents. She closed her eyes. This was 
going to be a lot worse than it was the first time. She was 
sure when the time came that she would crack open and 
everything she was would spill out and be lost forever. 

The bathroom door opened and William came out. Scully was 
too late in hiding her expression and William was unsure 
how to react to it. He stopped in his tracks and toed the 
floor with his sneaker, his eyes moving around the room, 
settling on everything but Scully. 

"William." She sighed and released some of the accumulated 
tension. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to seem sad. I'm not. I'm 
very - so very happy to have you here."

William nodded at her and smiled. "I know." He cautiously 
sat down on the end of the other bed. "Is it gonna be okay 
if I stay here?"

"Yes, of course. I would have been - we both would have 
been very disappointed if you had left so soon."

"Is this my bed?" he asked, patting the bedspread.

"Yep, all yours. You didn't bring any - we'll have to get 
you a toothbrush and some fresh clothes you can change 
into. I'll bet Mulder would let you sleep in one of his T-
shirts."

"'kay," he said. "Why do you call him 'Mulder'?"

"Oh," Scully said. "It's just - I guess the same reason I 
call you 'William'." She smiled. "It's what I've always 
called him."

William accepted that and grinned. "Okay," he said, and he 
stuck out his hand offering Scully the object he'd been 
squirreling in his pocket. "This is for you," he said. "Can 
I watch TV?"

"Sure," she said. She looked at the object. It was a tiny, 
carved wooden buffalo. "Thank you, William. What's this 
for?"

He shrugged. "It's mine. My dad gave it to me. I wanted you 
to have it." 

She smiled, closed the obviously treasured buffalo in her 
fist and tucked it to her chest. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." William picked up the remote, flopped 
down belly first on the bed and began flipping channels as 
Mulder knocked once and walked in the door.

William looked up at him and smiled. Mulder and Scully 
exchanged a look and a silent conversation.

"Hey, William?" Scully began and William hit the mute 
button on the remote and rolled to look at Scully.

"Think I'll go take a bath," William said and smiled. 

"Oh," Scully said, surprised. "Okay."

Mulder kneeled down next to William and searched his face. 
"William. Can you read minds?"

William chuckled and rolled off the bed. "Naw. But Mom and 
Dad look at each other like that all the time when they 
want to talk about me alone." William shuffled into the 
bathroom and closed the door behind him.

Mulder turned to Scully, grinning ear to ear. "Wow," he 
chuckled. 

"What did you get out of Roy?"

"That he's more on the periphery than we first thought, and 
that he was just as stumped at William finding him as we 
were. We're gonna have to get that from William - if it's 
even important anymore," he said, scratching his head. "Roy 
is done as far as he's concerned."

"Who is he?"

Mulder sat down next to Scully on the bed. "He said he 
worked on the vaccine project. That he wasn't so highly 
regarded, that developing a vaccine was a fringe goal at 
best. If it worked, okay, great; if it didn't, complicity 
with the colonists was always priority one anyway."
Scully sighed and started to get up from the bed. She 
thought better of it halfway up and instead dropped back 
down and rested her weary head. "I'm exhausted, Mulder."

"Yeah," Mulder said, pulling off his shoes. "We'll sleep 
tonight. I don't think we've had a decent night in a week."

"Feels like it. Do you think there's a store around here 
where we can get William some things - toothbrush, pajamas, 
fresh underwear?"

"I don't know. I can go to the desk and ask."

"Would you? He can sleep in one of your T-shirts tonight, 
but he should have some fresh clothes if we can get them."

Mulder put his shoes back on, got up and made his way to 
the door. "Hey, Scully?"

"Yeah?"

"This is - pretty great."

Scully smiled at him and closed her eyes. "Pretty great," 
she echoed and she heard the door snick closed behind him. 

~:~:~

After William had finished with his bath, they decided that 
if they were going to call William's parents at all, it 
should be now. Waiting any longer for a booster shot of 
courage was only going to make it worse. Of course, each of 
their concerns were for different things. William was 
afraid his parents would be mad at him. Mulder was 
concerned that they would call them kidnappers and that 
both Dateline and the FBI would show up to ambush interview 
them *and* haul them away - not necessarily in that order. 

Scully wasn't afraid of suddenly claiming insanity and 
begging them to give William back. She was afraid that if 
she did beg them, William wouldn't want her.

After all their concerns, they didn't even speak to them. 
William left a message saying that he was fine, that he was 
with grown-ups who cared about him. Mulder took the phone 
(when Scully was suddenly struck dumb) and was the perfect 
voice representing the authoritative, responsible adult - 
Fox Mulder, Former FBI. 

For good measure, they elected to call Skinner and have him 
pre-empt any event that might escalate into a manhunt. This 
time, in their apparently never-ending life of crime, 
they'd be wanted for kidnapping. Hopefully, Skinner's words 
and authority would be enough to assuage the Van de Kamps 
and prevent any kind of criminal charge. 

Hopefully.