Redemption (2/26)
by GeorgeHale

Rating: R
Feedback:

Classification: Colonization/Mythology/MSR/William, post
I.W.T.B. Canon.
Spoilers: Left, right, & center. This is best served if you
REALLY know your X-Files.

Disclaimer: I wish I made this. This has been my catharsis, five
years in the making. Maybe it can be one for you, too.

Warning: Violence, Gratuitous employment of the 'Our little
sailor' clause (swearing,) Fluff with two 'f's, Cheesy dialogue,
Friendly Ghosts, Melodramatics, Plot devices, Fiji Mermen (no,
not really,) Angst, Blasphemy, Dehydration via crying,
Scientific Whammies, Plams, Lots & Lots & Lots of...Bees,
Magical Growing Scully Cross Chain, Red Herrings. It's going
to get strange and ugly before the end.

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II

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"For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only
through love."

- Carl Sagan

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Scully had drifted off at some point without intending to. His
hand entwined with hers, Mulder had been telling her about the
bunker when he realized she had fallen asleep. He refused to
disturb her rest knowing how exhausted she was and turned his
thoughts outward as he tried to focus on the road ahead. It had
started pouring shortly after they had left their house and
visibility was nil. Attempting to gain lost time, he sped as fast as
he dared along the back roads he had mapped for this trip. The
thought of the unknown usually excited him, but the
omnipresent nausea was there to replace it in light of the
circumstances with the thick smell of gasoline and the constant
metronome timing of the ticking wiper blades.

Mulder had barely registered the sound of something heavy
landing on the car when a fist shattered the driver's side window
and drug him out of the car by his coat collar. The car drifted
slowly forward as Mulder was thrown down on his back on the
car roof. Scully had woken in panic as Mulder's hand was torn
from her own and now struggled to control the car. Moving
quickly, she shifted the car into neutral and directed the vehicle
to travel down the berm as she maneuvered into the driver side
seat where her exhaustion heightened her disorientation. Above,
Mulder felt himself gasp for breath as the supersoldier atop him
drove his heavy knee down into his ribcage.

Scully slammed on the brakes and shifted the vehicle into park
position as soon as she could and the car came to a lurching halt,
headlights illuminating the fog that had settled over the stretch
of highway they had been traveling. Mulder took the opportunity
and used his advantage and the forward inertia of the vehicle to
throw the soldier off him with his foot, sending him sprawling
onto the hood of the vehicle. Bloodied and wheezing, Mulder
scrambled to his feet and felt for the gimlet switchblade bound
to his leg. Inside, Scully blindly groped around the glove
compartment for the gun that she had placed back inside earlier.

Mulder and the supersoldier cautiously assessed each other
before the assassin moved in a blur of motion and swept
Mulder's feet out from under him with a kick. Exiting the
vehicle, Scully saw the being attacking Mulder and searched her
pocket for the gimlet. It paid her no attention as she screamed at
it and continued its assault by dragging Mulder off the roof of
the vehicle onto the hood and then from the hood on to the road.
There was a distinct snap when Mulder met the pavement
shoulder-first and cried out in agony.

The being's hands were now around his throat and Mulder
watched his vision condense to a tunnel. The gimlet was still in
his hand though he was quickly losing consciousness and his
grip on the weapon. Knowing he had one chance and with every
ounce of strength he possessed, Mulder wrapped his arm around
the creature's shoulders and thrust the gimlet toward the back of
the predator's neck. The creature moved to deflect the blow and
left himself exposed in doing so. Rushing forward, Scully seized
the opening Mulder had created and drove her gimlet down into
the creature's weak spot from behind. The assassin struggled
helplessly a few brief moments before collapsing in a heap atop
Mulder.

Scully helped Mulder roll the hunter off his body before she
bent down beside him to assess his injuries. He was a mess but
began to struggle to his feet and push her away from the bounty
hunter's body. Scully pushed him back down onto the pavement
firmly as a thin trickle of blood appeared at the corner of
Mulder's mouth.

"Ooh! Hey Doc, thanks." Mulder caught Scully's hands with his
own and held them still over his busted collarbone before he
cried out again.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Scully was angry and
horrified that Mulder had aggravated his injuries by trying to get
up. "Are you completely insane? You could have a punctured
lung or worse! There aren't any facilities that can-"

"No, Scully. Listen! I know you have no reason to believe me
about this, but I *will* be fine. Really, Scully..." With horror and
fascination, Scully watched as the cuts from the shattered glass
on Mulder's face began to seal shut, leaving unblemished skin in
their wake. She scrambled backwards in shock, taking the gun
with her as she stared, unable to reconcile what she saw with
what she knew. She trained the gun at his throat, unsure what
she was witnessing in the gleam of the headlights. "What the
hell? What's happened to you?" Her voice was barely a whisper,
drowned out by the rain. "Mulder?" Her voice trembled as she
demanded answers.

Mulder had been afraid Scully would react this way and raised
his hand apprehensively as he rested his weight on the front
fender, his other arm useless now that his adrenaline had waned.
He remembered a time she had shot him in the past and did not
care to relive the memory anew. "Scully, it's me. You know me
better than anybody."

Scully sighed with a flippant annoyance, trying and failing
miserably to view him with casual detachment. "Apparently
not."

"You're the most stubborn..." Under different circumstances,
Mulder may have actually smiled at the indignant expression his
partner was directing at him, but he knew he stood on dangerous
ground. "Trust me, I would have told you sooner and I was
working my way up to it in the car...but you drifted off and I
wasn't going to wake you. I wanted to tell you back home but I
didn't have the heart to do it," he sighed. "I wish I could laugh,
say 'I had you big time,' but I can't." Mulder saw she was waiting
for further explanation and knew he needed to be completely
truthful with her now, despite the lack of time.

Their relationship had always been founded on trust and he saw
it hanging in the balance as he looked into her conflicted eyes.
He sighed, feeling the urge to panic, not wanting to share what
she needed to know. He was afraid that her perception of him
would change forever, that she wouldn't believe him. He looked
past her when he finally confessed softly. "When I was returned
from my abduction experience, the antiviral agents you pumped
me full of only slowed the process, Scully. I think we both
understood what was happening and chose to ignore it."

Scully transforming into something inhuman had been one of
Scully's greatest fears since his return, the muse of her most
vivid nightmares. The fear realized before her now as she
listened in horror.

Mulder slowly sat up and used his working arm to crack his
opposing collarbone back into place, debating the best way to
convince her of his good intentions. It popped suddenly and
Mulder shouted as it shifted. It would take longer than his face
to heal and the pain was excruciating. He couldn't stand Scully
staring at him silently.

"I never would have discovered myself if it hadn't been for a
confrontation like this that should have killed me..." He
searched for his next words carefully before he swallowed and
looked up into her eyes, his voice sounding with the desperation
of a man accustomed to loneliness and alienation. "I've been
changed, Scully, but I am still me and *you* are still my
touchstone...I love you. Ask me anything! Ask me anything
and I'll prove it to you."

Scully felt hot tears mix with the cold rain on her cheeks but
chastised herself and didn't lower the gun. She wanted to believe
the man desperately, did believe him, but she had been fooled by
monsters impersonating Mulder before and couldn't think of
anything to ask him that any imposter might not know. "How do
I know this isn't a trap? Even if you believe yourself, how can
you be sure it's the truth?"

"You don't, you can't," Mulder shook his head very slowly,
wincing. "Twenty years together, Scully...and it always comes
back to trust. There's nothing left back there to return to but
death." An awkward silence punctuated the air between them.
"Scully, there's still more I need to tell you but right now we
need to keep moving. It's important and we may already be too
late." Mulder rose slowly and kept his gaze on the ground,
testing his ankles and other joints carefully on the way up. "I
know you still don't completely believe it, but I hope you can
accept it with time. I'm having a rough go with it myself."

Mulder opened the driver's side door and used his uninjured
hand to pound out the large dent in the roof and clean the
remaining glass out of the frame and off the seat. Cuts from the
glass appeared and healed within moments along his hand and
forearm. He moved slowly to retrieve Scully's gimlet from the
quickly decomposing soldier's body, aching from their
encounter. The rain was already dissolving what remains were
left. He tried not to think of her second question or the issues it
brought to surface.

"Who says chivalry is dead?" Mulder offered Scully the gimlet
in supplication as his dark eyes searched hers for the recognition
they had lost. "Do you mind driving a while? This will heal
faster if I sleep and it hurts like a bitch."

Scully examined him head to toe from afar suspiciously for what
felt like an eternity. Then she stepped forward to accept the
weapon and slid into the driver's seat again, adjusting it forward,
not knowing what to think or feel as a myriad of emotions
fought for her attention. They were both soaked so the chilled
rain coming in through the open window seemed to make little
difference. She regarded him with silence a moment holding the
sidearm she had taken from the glove compartment, evaluating
him as he seemed distracted.

"If you thought we'd encounter one of those things at the house,
why the guns? You know bullets don't stop them."

Mulder shook his head, wanting to reach out to her and say
something more, but struggled for words. "The bullets in that
weapon are magnetite hollow-points. It seems like I'm becoming
more sensitive to the stuff myself. Scully, if I ever would...lose
control of myself, I want you to end it before I hurt anyone."

"The gimlet you gave me," Scully exhaled, closing her eyes.
"That's why you insisted I take it." She shuddered, knowing now
it was Mulder for the power he had willingly gave her, and his
nearly imperceptible nod told her she had assumed correctly.
She turned the safety on the weapon and handed it to him
knowing it was a power she never wanted to wield. "Put this
back."

Mulder laid the gun in the console between them and shared a
look of gratitude with the person who mattered most in his life.
He hadn't felt human in a long time and her vindication was the
only kind he needed.

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Scully had been following Mulder's directions for a little over
two hours and the engine had been sounding off since it had
been used to bludgeon him. Mulder's route had covered many
rural roads and it was hard to discern many of the road markers
in the fog and rain. Now she was at an intersection and was
unsure which way to turn. The road sign had blown down or
disappeared and there was nothing to guide her. Exhausted, she
sighed and consulted the map again, wishing she had some
coffee.

"Left." Mulder mumbled. Scully looked at him curiously, unsure
when he had woken up. "Mulder?"

Mulder roused, seeing the pointing arm of the phantom farmer
in the field before them. He appeared like a white shadow, lit in
the fog by their headlights. "Just...trust me." She turned and
Mulder asked her to stop as they traveled down a stretch of road
surrounded on both sides by forest. There had been numerous
unmarked turn-offs and they were out of directions. "Great place
for a pit stop," she commented.

"No, it's not that at all. We're close now, come on." Springing
from the vehicle refreshed, Mulder retrieved flashlights from the
back seat for Scully and himself, a small knapsack, and checked
for his side arms. He paused only when he realized Scully was
not following behind him, slinging the knapsack over his
shoulder.

"Mulder...I need you to tell me what we're doing here before
we go any further. No more games." She retrieved the weapon
from the console and eyed Mulder's shoulder as she accepted a
flashlight when he walked back, envious of his newfound
energy. He seemed completely recovered from his earlier
encounter and she could hardly recall ever feeling so exhausted
or emotionally drained.

Mulder stopped and looked at her while biting his lip, knowing
he had to tell her but reluctant to say what might hurt her or
raise her hopes. He couldn't delay any longer. "William's here
somewhere." The words burst from his mouth as he gestured at
the woods with his chin, shaking his head as he continued and
approached her. "But I don't know what to expect. I don't know
what condition he's in. I don't know who he's with and if he's
somehow infected, I don't know if there's anything we can do for
him or anyone else with him. I have a dose of the vaccine, but
it's meant to be used before someone is infected, not after. I
figure if it worked for you though, it might work for him."

Scully gasped. "Why didn't you tell me earlier! Oh my God,
Mulder." Her eyes searched his face demanding an answer. The
man had been full of bombshells this evening.

"You're already in shock, Scully. I didn't want you to worry and
I didn't know what to tell you to expect. I still don't but now at
least we'll know soon enough."

"We have to find him." Scully felt her pulse quicken as she
turned toward the forest Mulder was already moving back
toward. "How do you know he's here?"

"The family that adopted him doesn't live very far from here and
it's hard to describe but...I can sense him."

In a different age, Scully questioned the legitimacy of following
Mulder's hunches, but knew better under the circumstances as it
had proved their saving grace many times. She ran to keep up as
Mulder moved deep into the forest quickly, his flashlight
searching.