Redemption (3/26) 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. ------------------------------------------------------------------ III ------------------------------------------------------------------ "'Truth,' said a traveller, Is a rock, a mighty fortress; Often have I been to it, Even to its highest tower, From whence the world looks black. 'Truth,' said a traveller, Is a breath, a wind, A shadow, a phantom; Long have I pursued it, But never have I touched The hem of its garment." - Stephen Crane, XXVIII ------------------------------------------------------------------ VAN DER KAMP RESIDENCE Elkton, Virginia 8:44 p.m. A clearing appeared ahead that opened to a lot occupied by a farm. An old yellow farmhouse occupied the central location but it appeared quiet and lifeless. Nearby, the barn was also silent. "Is he here?" "He's close." They cautiously approached the barn first. Scully's mind raced, hoping they were not too late. If Mulder's "sense" was correct, they would find him alive. She helped Mulder as he opened the barn doors but they only found a pair of frightened horses inside. Scully felt sympathy for them as she unbolted their pen stalls, briefly recollecting a doomed snake from her childhood. The residence was different and Scully felt a wave of foreboding wash over her as they entered the dark house through the swinging kitchen door. The oven was still on and the aroma of burnt pastry and bananas filled the air even as the door springs continued their rhythmic squeaking. The woman lying on the floor had been baking in the kitchen when she had been attacked. A young girl lay beside her face down in a pool of smashed glass and flour, unconscious and breathing, but infected and grossly swollen with stings. Turning her over gently, Mulder saw her powdered eyes were lifeless, fathomless dark black pools. Scully suspected the woman had suffered anaphylactic shock and asphyxiated. She knelt by the woman, knowing it would be easier to examine her than the little girl she could do nothing for. She never wanted to see the lifeless living eyes again. "How long do you think it's been since they were stung?" "Several hours if you want to trust the oven." "See if there's any evidence that she or the girl were abductees. I'm going to check out the upstairs." Mulder bolted up the stairs before Scully could protest. If he was going to find William's body, he didn't want her to see. The phantom farmer he had seen earlier was now beckoning to him at the top of the landing, insistent. "Don't touch them with your bare hands!" Pictures lined the upstairs hallway and a large framed school photo of a toothy, devilishly smiling little boy immediately drew Mulder's attention. It was the nose he recognized first, and Mulder found himself matching the expression of the boy who resembled him so closely. Save Scully's eyes and coloring, Mulder could have been looking at one of his own elementary school photos. This was the boy that Mulder had built sand spaceships with on the beach in his dreams for years, but had never fully recognized until this moment. He braced his hand against the wall for a moment as the knot in his stomach reinvented itself. Mulder found the boy's bedroom at the top of the stairs and off to the right. His flashlight scanned over several posters of baseball players adorning the room and an old alarm clock that had been carefully torn apart on the desk. He continued the search through the room, intent on finding anything that might give a clue to where William might have gone, fairly certain now that he wasn't in the house. Beneath the mattress, Mulder found a notebook with hundreds of sketches and was shocked as they progressed from childish doodles to elaborate detailed recollections. Near the end he found several sketches of himself and Dana, some together and some apart. There was an image of Dana walking in a black dress through the desert, a picture of himself painting an 'X' on a lonesome road with spray paint, Scully and him arguing in the rain in a dark cemetery. The last image was that of a smoldering pie. How much of what was happening had William foreseen? He tore several of the later pages out and tucked them in his coat pocket. His eyes and fingers shifted over the walls. Several pictures were taped to the wall above the desk where the broken clock lay. None included the boy, but the one that drew Mulder's attention was of a tree house in a field. Tearing the photo off the wall, Mulder tore down the stairs. Scully was examining a report card attached to the refrigerator with tears in her eyes, afraid of what Mulder might have to reveal. "What did you find?" she whispered, bracing herself. "Follow me!" Mulder was already out the door by the time Scully spun to join him. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Behind the farmhouse, Mulder ran through a field of tall grass. His flashlight prodded the tree line looking for the outline from the picture. He tripped over something and slowed to watch his step. Several cows scampered from hiding in a group, bellowing as they moved toward the forest. Not far ahead, Mulder found a man's body lying face down in the dirt. Mulder dared not roll him over but saw from his clothes that this man had been their phantom guide. The older man was hot to the touch, infected and swollen beyond hope for recovery. The family members were incubators now, and Mulder might have ended their suffering if he could bring himself to do it. He had killed in mercy before but these people had raised his son in his absence. They had been the people William loved. He apologized wordlessly to the older man. Scully called his name and pointed out the tree house that stood at the edge of the field before he could dwell on the tragedy any longer. They ran for the base of the tree and Mulder climbed the ladder that led to the entrance when he arrived first. A double layer of plastic sheeting had been stapled and taped over every opening. It gave the tree house the appearance of a cocoon and Scully silently prayed that it wasn't a death shroud. Mulder rapped at the door and waited through the pregnant silence, his stomach looping turns that betrayed his outward calm. A boy's voice finally responded, weak and scared. "Who's there?" Mulder sighed with relief and the look he shared with Scully at that moment conveyed the joy, sorrow, and hope they both felt. "William!" Mulder raised his voice. "My name is Fox Mulder and I'm here with my friend Scully. We're here to help you. Can you let us in?" "I can't," came the muffled reply. "The door is locked - I got stung and...can't move." Scully felt her pulse quicken further and felt her heart might explode. She felt an overwhelming need to go to him. "That's okay. I'm going to break through the door. Cover your ears, okay?" Mulder tested the strength of the door with his hand and knew it wouldn't give to brute force at this angle, despite his reckless urge to slam against it with everything he could muster. He climbed down a few rungs and aimed his pistol where he thought the lock clasped. The explosion was deafening and Mulder turned his face from the shrapnel that flew against him as his ears rang. An opening large enough for Mulder to slip his hand through formed and he was able to push the door open. William was huddled inside in the corner in a sleeping bag, pale, sweaty and delirious. Dead bees coated the floor around him giving the impression of a poor shag rug. Dana shed her heavy coat to kneel on and dropped beside him to check his vitals while Mulder provided light. Seeing William alive and conscious had brought tears to her eyes that she hastily wiped away. She fought to control her emotions, knowing the Doctor side of her needed to reign over the frantic mother. She smoothed his hair back from his brow before feeling his forehead. If there had been any doubts regarding his paternity when William was a baby, seeing him now made it obvious to her there should be none. "You're burning up with fever. Are you allergic to bee stings?" "Don't think so," William slurred past chattering teeth, barely opening his eyes as he looked behind her. "What's that? Do I know you?" Mulder uncapped the syringe of vaccine in his hand from the knapsack and was handing it to Scully discreetly, his own emotions betrayed as it shook in transit. "Goddamn bees." "The bees are carrying a virus that's making people sick," Scully said, examining it. "This will help you keep from getting it." They had already both seen the dark shimmer of the virus in William's eyes, but he seemed to be resisting it in part and neither of them wanted to acknowledge it. William leaned to his side and vomited violently before righting himself slowly. His sunken blue-black eyes bored into hers even as his shoulders slumped. "You don't lie very well. I'm already sick." Scully realized looking at Mulder how apparent their fear had been. "Well, I'm a doctor and your F...ox and I are going to do everything in our power to get you someplace safe and feeling well. That much is the truth." William ground his teeth as she injected him in the upper arm with the syringe. "Can you tell us what happened?" The boy had seemed on the edge of losing consciousness and Mulder desperately wanted him to stay with them. "The cows were acting funny. A few got out...we were trying to get them back in the fence. I was getting Pop a drink when I saw the swarm. I ran to help him but he yelled at me to run." "How did you know to put the plastic up?" William was silent and Mulder thought he was going under for a second when he leaned his head back. "I've been having terrible dreams lately," he admitted quietly. "There were black clouds coming at the house...Were you inside? My Ma and Gracie were in the kitchen when I left. Gracie's only six. They were maki..." Mulder turned away as tears threatened his vision and was almost grateful that was the moment William's brain submitted to the drug. As William passed out in her arms, Scully left herself release the frustration and sorrow she felt through her tears. She hugged her son to her fiercely, never wanting to let him go. He was so ill and everyone he had loved was gone. "Should he be unconscious? Mulder?" "The vaccine has a sedative component, but I don't know," Mulder said, quickly wiping at his eyes. "It was an adult dosage." "Mulder!" "That shot was meant for me. I won't tell you what I had to do to get it. Better he's overdosed than under. You saw it's already in his system. We have to get him to the compound." "How are we going to get him down from here?" Scully was already zipping William's sleeping bag up around him. "You help me." Mulder lifted the boy gently in a fireman's carry with Scully's assistance and made for the ladder. He slid down it as soon as he was able and shifted William to his arms at the base. Scully gasped in horror, thinking Mulder would break his legs or slip in the mud, but saw they were both fine before she could even shout. Mulder offered a thin smile. "Should have told you not to watch." Scully hurried down the ladder and struggled to keep up with Mulder as he made for the route they came in from the forest. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Scully was gasping for breath when they made it back to the car and prayed it would start. She slid in on the rear passenger side and helped Mulder get William onto the back seat where she could monitor him. The car turned over a few times in protest but started finally and Mulder nearly hydroplaned as he sped off toward White Sulphur Springs. "Tell me there are medical facilities where we're going," Scully pleaded. "There are. How do you think I convinced them to let you in?" Mulder smiled at her grimly in the rear view mirror, wishing he could see what was going on. "How is he?" "He seems stable for the moment, but there's a lot of swelling and I'm terrified we may be...They know you're bringing him?" "William was the reason they left me out. They think he's central to destroying the colonists. They want to protect him." Scully sighed. "Not this again. There's nothing special about him, Mulder. Spender injected him with that..." "The effects of that shot weren't permanent. It just artificially dampened his abilities. The suppression continued as he was treated for what his adopted family believed were migraine headaches. That's how they were able to keep him hidden, Scully. They convinced the family to move here under the guise of a clinical trial program dealing with their treatment." Scully was silent, processing. "How do you know all this?" "The group that purchased the Greenbrier - they call themselves the Resistance. I've been working with them since I left last year. Here, look at these." Mulder felt in his pocket for the crumpled sketches and handed them over his shoulder to Scully. "What are these?" She fished through her coat for her flashlight. "Sketches he had in a notebook in his room. Do you remember what he said about his dreams? He foresaw what was going to happen. He knew we were coming. Look at the one of the pie in the oven. Why do you think he had plastic on all the windows and over the door?" Scully looked through the detailed photos, impressed but nonplussed. "If he was able to see the future, why didn't he save them? You're really leaping here. He didn't know they were gone, Mulder." Her breath caught as she saw Mulder marking a lonely stretch of rural highway with the mark that symbolized them now better than any other. "I don't know...Maybe he only saw glimpses and couldn't piece them together." Scully felt as if she'd been struck. "You think he's like Gibson... I can't believe this is happening." She looked down at their son and stroked his cheek, wishing she could take his illness away. Forgiving his pale complexion and the short mop of dark copper locks that outlined his face, he was every inch the young image of his Father. "He looks just like you, Mulder." "Poor boy." In the rear-view mirror, Mulder's eyes gleamed. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Scully thought of the sunrise as she awoke in the dark, thinking how it had always risen and set over each great species in pre-human history. Protozoans. Invertebrates. The empires of human history passed in her conscious and she wondered how long it might be before she saw the sun again and if this dawn marked the first in what would become a post-human era. Would it be an era dominated by telohumans like Mulder or some seldom-seen alien invaders and bogeymen? What place would humanity hold? What had she dreamed? She dismissed the thought as she felt William's burning forehead and made sure he was still soundly wrapped in his sleeping bag. Mulder slowed the car as he turned left onto what appeared to be an old forest road. The rain had washed it out and Mulder was forced to slow down considerably. "Ten more miles." He looked at his watch nervously and reset the odometer, glancing quickly in the mirror at Scully. "Once we're inside the bunker, the gates will be sealed for six months, maybe longer. We'll have to go through decontamination, but at least we'll be able to get help for him right away. I'll have time to explain everything better once we're inside." The dirt road before them gave way to gravel. The unkempt forest they had traveled through began to thin and appeared to be under much higher upkeep. "Here we go." Mulder felt around in the console and pushed a button on a keychain. The road ahead began to descend into the ground and they traveled down a ramp into a tunnel. The opening to the outside world shut soundly behind them and Scully felt the sound reverberate through the tunnel and car. The steady drum of the rain outside and in the front end of the car suddenly ceased and Scully felt disoriented. The tunnel wound slowly. Motion-activated lights faded on and off as they passed, casting shadows of the car behind them. Finally, they came to a dead end and Mulder pulled the car up very close to the wall before he pressed the keychain again. The wall and panel they were parked against began rotating and they found themselves in a dimly lit parking garage. "When did we enter a James Bond movie?" Scully asked him. Mulder turned around in his seat and examined her coolly as they waited through the turn. "All these years you've known me, Scully, and you never realized that I'm Bond?"