The Truth is Out There--Scene 11 from XF3
by Lolabeegood

E-mail: lolabeegood@gmail.com
Distribution: Archive freely with my name attached.

Rating: R
Categories: S, R
Keywords: Mulder/Scully romance, Post-IWTB
Spoilers: IWTB
Summary:  The truth is something Mulder & Scully may have to pay 
a steep price for.

Author's Notes: 

Ever since I watched IWTB I have thought of the ideal way to start 
and storyline a third movie.  So, after much thought and 
deliberation I have a series of scenes that I have written for 
the third XF movie.  The scenes will not necessarily run right 
after each other but they are in sequence.  They are more like 
scenes I would like to see in the XF3 that develop character, 
tie loose ends, and add plot interest.  

I do not own the characters and I don't make any money from this.

Enjoy!

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"Mulder, this is William, but he goes by the name Patrick" she 
said as she sat next to the young boy and placed her arm across 
the back of the bench behind him.

'He doesn't believe I'm William' the voice said softly in her 
head.

"He will" she said looking at him "we need to do some blood work 
though, so Mulder gets..."

'Confirmation' the voice said interrupting her.

"Yes, that's right" Scully smiled down at the top of his head.

'What if I don't want to confirm he's my dad' the voice said 
sadly.

"You will" she sighed, knowing that their first meeting today 
had taken the worst possible turn "trust me, Patrick."

'I trust you. But not him' the voice said as Patrick looked up 
and directly into Mulder's eyes.

"I know you think I'm being a real ass right now" Mulder sighed 
as looked down at the young man "but I'm only doing this to 
protect Scully.  You may not even know you are being used.  
Were you talking to her in her head right now?"

"Yes.  And I'm not being used.  That's exactly what I'm trying 
to prevent from happening" Patrick spoke harshly.

"Well then, explain it to me" Mulder said as he shifted his 
feet.

"Explain what?" Patrick groaned and looked back at his comic 
book.

"How do you talk to Scully in her head?"

"I don't really know..."

"Oh, come on Patrick.  You must have some concept of how..."

"...I feel her okay?"

"You what?"

"I can feel her taking up a part of my mind.  When I want to 
talk to her I just access that part" he said tersely "I can't 
explain exactly how I do it, but I do.  When she's close to 
me, like now, I can actually hear her thoughts.  When she 
was far away it was more feelings, if that makes sense."

"So Scully is always there, lurking in a part of your brain."

"Sort of" Patrick sighed as he rolled the comic book into a 
tight wand.

"Do you feel anyone else in there?" Mulder asked smugly.

'I told you' the voice said to Scully.

"Patrick, answer his questions" she said calmly as she gave 
Mulder a stern look.

"Not really.  There are others, but I can't really feel them as 
clearly as her.  It's like I know they are there, taking up space, 
like old computer files, but I can't access them.  Does that 
make sense?"

"You are doing great Patrick" Scully said as she patted his 
leg.

"Do you know how you can access them?" 

"No, and I don't really want to."

"Why not?" Scully asked concerned.

"It's enough having you in there" he smiled up at her "I don't 
think I can handle managing others."

"Am I that much to deal with?" she smiled at him.

"Sort of" he said looking back at his lap.

"How so?" she asked quietly.

"I don't really want to talk about it."

"Patrick" she said shifting in her seat. "I think we need to."

The young boy sighed and shifted in his seat, drawing up a 
dangling leg and hugging it to his chest.

"Sometimes I have accessed you over the years and found that 
you were very scared, or sad, or happy and I didn't know why, 
and there was nothing I could do about it.  It really bothered 
me sometimes."

"When was she scared?" Mulder interrupted, his voice cracking

"Just over a year ago she was really scared for a few days, 
but not scared she'd get killed or anything."

"What was I scared of?" Scully asked remembering back to the 
case that brought Mulder out of hiding.

"You were scared of losing everything" Patrick said as he 
looked up into her eyes. "Were you bankrupt or something?"

"No" she sighed as she looked up at Mulder "I was scared of 
losing everything I loved, though."

Mulder smiled down at her and shifted his eyes to the young 
boy.

"When was she very happy?" Mulder asked trying to gauge the 
young man's response.

"Last night and um, this morning" the young boy buried his 
head into his leg more "you were having sex, weren't you?" 

Scully gasped and threw a hand across her mouth.

"How...how would you know that Patrick?" Mulder asked 
quickly.

"It was just a hunch."

"It was a pretty good hunch" Mulder smirked down at him. 

"I get a lot of those feelings at night" Patrick said with 
his head still buried in his leg "it took me a few years 
to figure out why.  Now, I know I was right."

"Patrick...I...I..." Scully began, unable to formulate 
words.

"Can we stop talking about this now?" he interrupted, 
obviously embarrassed.

"Yeah, sure" Scully said patting his back "you did very 
well."

'But he still doesn't believe me' the voice said to her.

"He will" she told him reassuringly.

"I know you two want to talk" he said matter-of-factly 
"I'll head over to the climbing wall."

"Thanks Patrick" she said patting him on the back as he 
rose to leave.

Scully watched him walk away from them. She was scared 
he would go too far.  She didn't want him out of her sight 
for a minute.  She also couldn't stop herself from 
constantly touching him whenever he was near.  It was like she 
was trying to make up for years of not being close enough 
to hold him.

"So he's a little Karnack.  Maybe he's another Gibson Praise, 
but it doesn't make him our son.  And why is his name Patrick?" 
Mulder said looking after the boy.

"His adoptive parents changed his name, they liked Patrick 
better." She added "Mulder, look at him" she said gesturing 
toward the boy. "He is the spitting image..."

"Made to look that way so we'd believe" he winced "Look, 
Scully, I want him to be William, just as much as you do,  
I just think the chance that he is William, is slim to none."

"How can you say that so...so callously?" she shifted to look 
directly at him.

"Because of Emily" he sighed. "Because I know what losing her 
did to you.  I was there, remember?  I picked up your broken 
body and spirit and put you back together after they were 
done fucking around with your feelings."

"I know" she sighed.

"I don't think you'd get put back together again so easily" 
he said as he touched her cheek "and maybe I'm just a little 
afraid of losing everything I love too."

Tears welled in her eyes as she looked at him.  Emily, was 
a subject, like William, that they never spoke about.  She 
remembered her daughter's death and shook with fear of going 
through an even greater loss.  

Mulder had picked up her pieces.  He ushered her from Emily's 
deathbed.  He tucked her into a bed that night and held her 
while her body raked with sobs.  He made the funeral 
arrangements she couldn't bring herself to do.  He spoke with 
her family and explained the importance of their attendance.  
And finally, he took her away to his father's empty house 
and sat next to her on the porch in the freezing rain for 
hours while she stared into oblivion.  He was right, if this 
wasn't William, she wouldn't get put back together as well 
as the first time.

"We need to get DNA testing" she said definitively "before 
we go any further with this."

"Thank you" he said as he reached for her hand.

"What now?" she asked unsure of their next move.

"I would like to know how the hell he got here but" he said 
glancing at his watch "I have to get back to a book reading."

"A book reading?  Mulder!"

"Scully, I have a feeling that William, or Patrick, or 
whoever the hell he is, is here hiding, don't you?"

"Yes, we took all kinds of precautions and he seemed very 
nervous back in Chicago."

"Then, whoever he is hiding from might know who he really 
is, and, if he's William or even like Gibson Praise, people 
will be looking for him and they may be connecting him to 
us."

"You've got a point."

"So...we need to be above reproach.  I'm going to my reading 
tonight."

"I can't leave him Mulder."

"I don't expect you to" he said squeezing her hand "but I 
do think you need to be at my reading tonight, if only for 
appearances."

"Mulder, I can't..."

"Yes you can.  We'll get him set up in a nice hotel here in 
Melrose Park and we'll get back to him tonight. That buys us 
almost a day.  Jeremy and I aren't leaving for our flight 
until supper time tomorrow.  I'll tell him I'm with you and 
no one will know we've skipped town.  In the meantime we'll 
run the DNA test."

"How do you propose we do that?" she asked crossing her 
arms in front of her.

"Do you remember Dr. Berenbaum?"

"Bambi?"

"Yeah, her."

"Well she's doing some research here at DePaul for a semester.  
She contacted me about the book tour and wanted to know if I 
could meet..."

"And when were you planning on telling me you were meeting 
up with Dr. Bambi?" Scully asked as she crossed her arms 
over her chest.

"I was going to meet her and her husband for coffee tonight, 
maybe I could push it up?"

"Bambi and her husband?"

"Sure Scully, what did you think?   I was stepping out?"

"No" she acquiesced. "I'm just not sure why you didn't 
mention it."

"We were busy with other activities" he said as he rubbed 
her back "activities that little Karnack over there was 
privy to."

"He didn't say he could see anything, only that he felt 
when I was happy."

"Well that brings me some comfort" Mulder murmured.

"How do you think Bambi, I mean Dr. Berenbaum could 
help us?"

"If she could get you into a lab..."

"Okay, but can we trust her to keep this quiet?"

"I don't think Dr. Berenbaum is interested in global 
conspiracies, just bugs."

"Patrick!" Scully stood up and called him over.

The young man came ambling towards her but stopped short 
a few feet away "you want to stick me with a needle."

"I'm going to run a DNA sample today when I go back 
to Chicago."

"I can't go back there.  I ran into a kid I knew from 
back home..." he said panicked.

"Are your parents looking for you?" Mulder asked.

"No."

"Patrick, I can't believe that the parents of a missing 
8 year old are not combing the countryside looking for 
him" Mulder said standing from his seat.

"They're...they're dead" Patrick said as a tear ran 
down his face.

"What do you mean?" Scully stepped forward. 

"Did people come to your house to kill you?" Mulder 
asked suddenly on alert.

"No, they came there to kill my parents" Patrick said 
in muffled tones.

"They weren't interested in you?" Mulder asked confused.

"They...they set it up to make it look like I killed 
them" Patrick said with hitched breath. "I got out 
just before the police arrived."

"Patrick, did you...did you see your parents after..."

"Yeah" he choked out and started to cry. 

Scully engulfed him in her arms and pulled him tight 
against her "It'll be okay" she said over and over 
again.

In her heart she hoped she was right.

**********************************

The end of part 11