Truth (7/12)         
by Fallon

Category: Post-The Truth/Pre-IWTB


Chapter 7

The following day, the former agents packed up and headed
back out for the United States. Thankfully their American ID's
albeit fake, made leaving Mexico a lot easier. Apparently the
neighbor country was glad to be rid of them.

Mulder and Scully spent several more days with Bill: it was less
than a week before they decided Scully's brother was far too
intolerable and that motels were really the only viable option. 

On the last day at Bill's, Scully was playing with her three-year-
old nephew, Matthew. Bill frowned as he watched his sister
hold a stuffed bunny in front of his son, then pretend to hide it
behind her back.

"Where did Bunny go?" Scully asked him, teasing the child,
whose eyes then started to tear up. "Where is he?"

Bill turned to Mulder, acknowledging him as a former parent for
the first time. "How are you two anyway, with not having the
baby and all? That must be hard."

"Yeah, it is," he replied, not wanting to get into too many details
without Scully's permission. 

"You know," he said, "I don't give you enough credit where it's
due. I've always blamed you for everything bad that's happened
to Dana, but I've never thought much about all the good things
you've done for her."

"Well, we've saved each other's lives dozens of times over,"
Mulder remarked, glancing over at Scully who was now reading
a kid story to Matthew as he flapped his arms around and said
 Anny Dana, read more, more!'

"I know you didn't mean to put her in danger," Bill finally
admitted. "It's something you both signed up for at the FBI. I
don't really think I'll ever understand the nature of your work,
but I do understand from the Navy what it means to have
someone's back, for better or for worse. It's kind of like being
married."

"Yeah, kind of," Mulder agreed.

"Will you ever marry my sister?" Bill asked curiously.

"Not until I'm in the clear," he said, fiddling with one of the
buttons on his jacket, then adding, "Well, I'm going to head to
the drugstore and pick up a bag of Swedish Fish. It's Scully's
favorite candy."

"Fine. You'd better not give any to Matthew," Bill said
grumpily. "The last time he had candy, his sugar high lasted
almost two weeks." 

"That's not possible," he heard Scully say. She must have been
listening to them because she was apparently now an active
participant in their conversation. 

"What?" Bill asked her gruffly.

"It is not medically possible for a sugar high to last that long."

He rolled his eyes at her. "Well, it sure seemed like it."

"Children have natural high energy at that age. It's a good thing.
Means he's healthy." 

Not wanting the conversation to steer in the wrong direction for
Scully's sake, Mulder offered to bring her along for the ride to
the drugstore. 

"We'll just be twenty minutes or so," he assured Bill. He and
Scully walked out of the house and into her car.

They sat in silence on the way there, and when they pulled into
the parking lot, Mulder asked her, "We're not really going to
deprive the kid of candy are we?"

"Yeah, I'm afraid so. Bill would kill us himself if we gave
Matthew Swedish Fish." She shrugged her shoulders, adjusting
the sleeves of her fall jacket that she didn't really need to be
wearing.

"Poor kid is going to be traumatized if he catches us eating
them." He paused. "Do you think your brother is going to want
any?"

She sighed. "I doubt it."

There was a fairly large line of people. The colorful displays of
the candy aisle gave them both a headache and made them
realize they were too old for this kind of thing. Yet they were
doing it anyway.

Mulder shook a package of Milk Duds in front of her as if he
were Matthew's age. "No," she snapped, as if she were his
mother rather than the woman who brought him to multiple
orgasms just a week ago. 

"Please," he said, clearly just teasing her for shits and giggles. "I
want candy," he began to sing, and only stopped when he saw
the anger on her face.

"People are looking at us," she said. "We don't want that, now,
do we?"

He stopped dead in his tracks, realizing the unnecessary danger
he was putting them in just by being in a store with her, even
with her hair dyed black. 

Without a word, he pulled a crumpled ten-dollar bill out of his
pocket and paid for the candy in cash. They were even quieter
on the way home than they had been on the trip to the store.

When they got home, Bill and Tara had already put their son to
bed and had dinner, as he figured that the two of them would be
eating candy all night. Scully was secretly envious that they had
such a normal life and she didn't even get to kiss her son
goodnight. It was heartbreaking, yet nothing in the world could
get her to trade Mulder for children and a life that she could
have had with someone like Jack. 

In fact, she would not trade Mulder or those 10 or so months
with William for anything in the world.

Bill came downstairs just as Mulder pulled open the bag of fish
and stuffed a handful of them into his mouth.

"You're going to choke yourself," Bill pointed out.

"I tell him all the time," Scully began, "but he never listens."

It was a good forty seconds before Mulder had swallowed his
candy. "I should become a competitive eater," he mused.

"No," Bill corrected. "You should become a functioning
member of society so you can give my sister the life she
deserves."

Scully sighed. Party pooper Bill was back. To try to shut him up,
she reached for some candy and handed it to him.

"I've never eaten these before," he said, popping one into his
mouth and chewing. His face lit up. "Is this what I've been
missing all these years?" he asked incredulously.

Mulder and Scully laughed. Maybe they did have supernatural
powers in the family if they could melt Bill with some red,
gooey fish.


Author's Note:  Thanks so much to my Beta (Singing_Violin)
for helping me fix this chapter.