Chapter Text
“This isn’t working.” Mulder’s voice seemed unusually loud, cutting through the silence we’d been immersed in for the past couple hours.
“What isn’t?” I asked without a pause in my work.
“This, everything.” He gestured around the work area. “It’s all bullshit.”
It was evening, nearing the end of an interminable day in the office, and I was finishing up the notes on our latest case. Although I didn’t respond, he knew he had my attention.
“Every morning I wake up, put on a generic suit, go to work where I flash my badge around, and then sit at my desk in an underground room where I play Plan Nine from Outer Space until some scared yuppie calls the Bureau. They transfer the call to me, the believer in all things freaky and slimy, and then we’re off on another field assignment: take me to your leader boys, I’m ready to fly!” he mumbled without cracking a smile.
“Mulder—“
“It’s as if I’m playing this role and it’s not even challenging to me anymore. This character that I’m playing, that I continue to play way past the punch line, the “Spooky Mulder” shit—is that all there is to me?”
He could be so melodramatic sometimes, as if nobody else was ever forced to occasionally sit in an office all day and do paperwork. It could have been worse, as he well knew; we could have still been assigned to the Domestic Terrorism division. But, he was right on one point: long ago our roles had been assigned to us, and we hardly ever deviated from them.
“Skinner just wanted you to do a profile as a favor to him. You know that’s not all you do. We just finished an assignment,” I pointed out, holding the pages I had just printed up for him to see.
“Yes, and what happened with that, exactly?” Mulder snatched at the papers. “Ah yes! Our latest adventure: into the underground where mushrooms attempted to eat us alive, coating us with their digestive juices! Or was it just bog sledge?” he asked in mock horror. “Let us read further and find out.” He flipped through the pages as I sighed with impatience. “’Predictions proved incorrect’” he read, and then skimming further down, “’Findings have proven inconclusive.’ Pretty impressive work, I must say.”
“I thought it summed things up rather well,” I said neutrally.
He looked down at me and sighed. “What’s the point of even working on the X-Files if we never really do anything? We don’t solve anything; we don’t help anybody. And meanwhile, as we run around in circles…”
He didn’t finish his thought, but he didn’t have to. His missing sister was always at the forefront his mind. She was the whole point of his crusade; the reason why he was on the X-Files. “Our work hasn’t been worthless,” I said quietly.
“Hasn’t it?” he asked harshly. He flopped back down in his chair and sighed. “Something has to change or I’ll go crazy. I’m done with being careful. It hasn’t gotten me anywhere.”
“Careful? That’s really the word you want to use? After all that we’ve been through, all the lies, the people who want you dead, the—“
“So what?” he said. “If I never find what I’m looking for, I’ve wasted my time.” He looked over at me. “I’ve wasted your time.” He stood up abruptly and moved to the door.
“Mulder, where are you going?” I asked wearily.
To find justice, I thought he’d say, and I’d roll my eyes. But he surprised me.
“Out,” he answered and left the office.
*****
Not long after I’d fallen asleep, the phone woke me up. I looked at the clock. 11:21 PM. “Yeah, Mulder?” I asked sleepily.
There was a pause and then, “Scully, you know there are things I’ve done that I’m not proud of but I did them anyway in order to find the truth.” He was whispering and I could barely hear him.
“Mulder, where are you? What are you talking about?” I was genuinely confused, but not really surprised. I was used to his late-night cryptic conversations by now.
“One day you find that you’ve run out of time and the one thing you’ve fought for is all there is. I’ve been patient for too long but I can’t take it anymore.”
I wasn’t sure but I thought he might be crying. “Mulder, you need to tell me what’s going on,” I said, forcing back the urge to panic.
“Scully, no matter what happens…” he stopped, distracted. “I have to go.”
“What are you trying to tell me? What do you need me to understand?” But I was holding a dead phone in my hand. I dialed his number and waited until his answering machine clicked on before I hung up.
*****
I didn’t hear from him for the rest of the week. He wasn’t at home, and he certainly didn’t show up to work. I was more anxious and worried by the minute, and Skinner was understandably pissed, his patience having run out. I was supposed to report to him as soon as I arrived at work, and I had no idea what I was going to say.
And that’s when Mulder finally called, just as I was walking into the office, just as I was growing desperate. “I need you to cover for me,” he said without prelude. His voice was breathy like he had just run a long distance.
“Just what is it you think I’ve been doing for you the past few days?” I replied through gritted teeth. On the one hand, I was ecstatic that he wasn’t dead in a gutter somewhere but at the same time I had a very strong desire to wring his neck.
“I know, and I’m sorry I haven’t been able to get in touch before. I might be on to something, but it’s going to take a bit more time.”
“I need to know what’s going on if I’m going to continue to cover for you,” I said firmly.
“I don’t have that much time and this isn’t a secure phone. Meet me where we last had lunch in three hours.”
I hung up the phone. There was something in his voice that didn’t even sound like my partner at the other end of the phone. But there wasn’t any time to think about it, as I was due to face Skinner and complete next phase of covering Mulder’s ass.
“Agent Scully, I’m sure you know why I’ve called you here. Agent Mulder has not been at work in almost a week. It’s imperative that you inform me of his whereabouts.” Skinner’s words were formal, but his eyes showed that he was as worried as I was.
“Sir, he just contacted me. He had a family emergency and he asked me to request some personal time off for him.” I fixed my face in a perfect mask of concern, but Skinner had heard it all before.
“Care to be a bit more specific?” he asked gruffly but then his face softened. “Please tell me what’s going on.”
“I’ll get in touch as soon as I have more information,” I promised, knowing I sounded just like Mulder.
“Scully…” Skinner’s voice was laced with a warning.
“I’ll do what I can,” I mumbled and escaped as quickly as I could.
*****
The figure looked lonely, scuffing his shoes softly across gravel as he stood in front of the dive restaurant. He was absent-mindedly cracking sunflower seeds with his teeth, and I thought he didn’t see me approach.
I came up behind him and tapped him lightly. “Mulder,” I whispered. He shook his head slightly and started walking, so I had no choice but to follow.
He finally stopped and turned around, offering me a small smile, maybe apologetic, maybe just as a greeting. “I need you to do something for me,” he said.
“What, saving you from Skinner’s wrath isn’t enough?”
“Thanks for that, Scully, but I actually did uncover something.”
I looked up at him quickly. “An X-File?”
He nodded. “Something we have to keep under wraps right now, though. There’s a lab in southern Florida that’s testing what seems to be human hybrids. If we can get down there and find out what’s going on, we have a good chance of figuring out how we can stop it.”
“It can’t be the Syndicate.”
“No, I think they’re an independent group but just as dangerous. If they succeed, it could mean annihilation for the entire human race.”
I pursed my lips together. “Is this similar to what happened to the women at the testing sites who didn’t take successfully to the hybridization?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I think.” He looked relieved. “Scully, I need you to go check it out for me. There have been bodies down there that had been almost successfully transformed but at the last moment, something went wrong. I need you to fly down there and autopsy those bodies.”
“But Mulder,” I argued, “Skinner’s not going to agree to this. Why don’t we just have their field office find the lab and fly the bodies up here so I can take a look at them?”
“No, Skinner isn’t going to allow it,” he agreed. “But I need you to do it anyway. I would feel better if you can find out firsthand what’s actually going on.”
“Why I am going alone? Where are you going to be?” I asked.
He gave me a small grin. “Somebody has to elude Skinner while you’re gone. You know, to tell him you got sick or something.”
“That’s not—“
“I have a few things here that need to be taken care of,” he said quietly.
I was about to argue further but decided to just give up. There was no point in trying to force things out of him when he had his mind made up. “All right, fine,” I conceded wearily. “I’ll go to Florida and see what I can find.”
“Okay then,” he said briskly, all business again. “I’ll get the information to the office as soon as possible about where you will need to be and what you’re looking for.” He walked with me until we were almost on the main road again before we parted ways. As I turned away, he suddenly called back to me. “And Scully?”
I looked back at him. “Yes?”
“Be careful.”
*****
I took a flight down to Ft. Myers, Florida that very evening as per Mulder’s instructions. I ended up spending way too long driving around Naples, trying to follow his ambiguous instructions on where to find the labs, but everything led to a dead end. Nothing Mulder had told me existed on any maps, and even worse, none of the contacts he’d given me seemed to exist either.
At first, I thought there had been a major cover-up. I’d begun to hypothesize that perhaps this was actually the cunning work of the Syndicate, and that somehow they had managed to regroup and had carefully hidden any evidence of their testing sites. I had been congratulating Mulder on being able to even discover the tiniest hints of this activity.
But after a while, I began to have doubts, especially since I could no longer reach Mulder. Desperate and out of ideas, I finally decided to call Skinner, even though Mulder had specifically warned against it.
“Assistant Director Skinner speaking.”
“Hello sir, this is Agent Scully,” I said, cringing.
“Agent Scully? Agent Dana Scully?” he asked sarcastically. “And just where have you been? This isn’t the private sector, you know. You’re expected to check in every once in a while.”
“I know, sir, but I had the flu all week. I couldn’t move and—“
“The flu, huh? Interesting. With both of you gone I expected to hear that you two were AWOL in Roswell or something, collecting ‘alien’ specimens,” he said scathingly. “But if you were laid up in bed, am I to take it that he’s still preoccupied with his ‘family emergency’?”
“Sir?”
“Agent Scully?”
I was perplexed; this hadn’t been the plan. “Didn’t Mulder tell you that I was ill?”
“I haven’t seen or heard from him since I last saw you. Now listen, I want you here, both of you, and I want that to happen fast. Do you know how much trouble I could get in for covering for you? It’s been over a week, Scully. Where the hell is he?”
I’d kind of like to know the same thing myself. “Don’t worry, sir, we’ll both be there as soon as we can.”
It was starting to become clear. He hadn’t just been hanging out at the office tying up loose ends. He had sent me away—not to investigate, but to just be away, out of the way. The weird phone call in the middle of the night came to mind, and I felt something strange in the pit of my stomach. I knew that Mulder had been out looking for trouble. I lifted the phone again to call the airline.
*****
After finding nothing amiss at our office, there was only one place left to check before I was officially out of ideas as to Mulder’s whereabouts. I knocked on the door to his apartment and when no one answered, I slipped the key in the lock to let myself in. The fish in his tank swarmed hungrily towards the food I gave them, which I didn’t take as a good sign.
You have to think calmly now, Dana. Go through the apartment and get the facts. Something has to tell you where he’s been.
I began methodically searching the place, not even sure exactly what I was looking for. I didn’t know if clues would even be there. I ripped open cupboards and drawers, wasting time. Why didn’t you tell me? We’re supposed to trust each other, dammit! Nothing, and more nothing. I slammed my hand down on the coffee table in frustration and sank down on the floor. In vain, I tried his cell phone again, but it was out of service. Of course.
I rubbed my temples. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong, that he was in trouble. I sat there, limp with exhaustion for several moments before willing myself to move. Upon standing up, my hand grazed a folder I hadn’t noticed. Looking down, I saw that it was almost hidden under the couch. It was an X-Files folder, familiar and nondescript. Opening it, I saw that it was the one I had been working on when Mulder disappeared. But why was Mulder still holding on to it?
Everything seemed to be in order, but when I got to the very end, there was an extra page that had been shoved haphazardly inside. On the crumpled piece of lined paper a few names were written, and I recognized them instantly: Betsy Hagopian, Penny Northern, Lottie Holloway. They read like a MUFON reunion, these names of people who had supposedly suffered my plight but ultimately were less fortunate than I was. My name was on the list; so was Samantha Mulder’s. Her name was circled several times, almost frantically. I didn’t understand at first. What did all this have to do with mushrooms?
But then I realized that the case and the folder were incidental to the piece of paper, just somewhere to put it while Mulder followed his instincts. These women belonged to Skyland Mountain, and on some level I had to admit that so did I. But Samantha? It must have been what he had been trying to figure out. I grabbed the folder and hurried out of the apartment.
*****
Clutching the steering wheel, I navigated my car through the mountains of Virginia on the same road I had taken so long ago when I was still fairly new to extraterrestrial phenomena. Again I traveled the Blue Ridge Parkway, but this time I was in the driver’s seat. It made me smile sadly to think of how young I had been back in those first days, how I had thought that everything had a rational explanation, if I could only get that through Mulder’s head. But those naïve days had ended once I’d been abducted. Nothing had been the same since.
I pushed a wayward strand of red hair behind my ear and glanced down at the creased map on the seat beside me. I had no way of knowing where Mulder might be, if he was even here at all. Still, I had to keep going on my hunch; it was all I had. I sighed and turned my attention back to the road, squinting a bit to see clearly. The air was foggy and heavy as if ready to burst with precipitation, and I turned carefully into the entrance of Skyland Mountain resort and crept up the winding road.
Now where to go? I thought about asking the welcome lodge if they’d seen any suspicious activity. But then, through a break in the mist a crumbling building, reminiscent of a warehouse, beckoned me. Although it seemed a bit familiar, I felt sure I’d never been there before. I knew, though, that it was impossible to trust my memories when it came to anything in this area.
Making a quick decision, I was soon dashing down the halls of the dingy warehouse, gun in hand, blindly taking turns until a voice I recognized as Mulder’s wafted from behind dirty crates and boxes in an adjacent room. I moved closer to hear the conversation but made sure I was still hidden.
“It’s over now, don’t you get it?”
“They didn’t give me a choice. I loved her, I would have died…” A raspy voice trailed off. It sounded as if the man it belonged to had been run over or shot, or both.
“Don’t change the subject. You know where she is. You know because you put her there, you bastard!” Mulder’s voice broke my heart. It was both the sound of a madman and a scared child. I ventured a peek. The cigarette smoking man lay on a grimy mattress. He was almost unrecognizable and coughed up blood. Mulder had a gun pointed at the fallen man and was yelling in frustration.
“I know you have her! Diana told me you tried to hide Samantha from the aliens, waiting for your precious vaccine to be ready. But the aliens found out and torched everyone. Everyone but you. You managed to save yourself, Diana, and my sister. I know it all!” They threatened you to drop the project and you agreed to let them experiment on Samantha to save your own ass!”
I slid further into the room quietly, but Mulder heard me and whipped around, gun drawn. When he saw it was me, his whole body sagged as he lowered his weapon. “Scully,” he said simply with a look of helplessness on his face.
“Oh my God, Mulder,” I murmured as I moved to his side. His left cheek was caked with dried blood, and the gash that stretched diagonally across his forehead needed stitches. I reached up to his head but he shied away. His face was ashen and for a moment, he looked worse than the man lying on the dirty mat.
“He’s losing consciousness,” I said. I slid my hands over the cigarette smoking man’s stomach, pressing gently as Mulder watched. “There’s internal bleeding.” I picked up my first-aid kit I had brought along with me in anticipation of finding Mulder in this condition. Without a word between us, I knew what he wanted, and so I started to work on the old man.
After several tense minutes, I stood up and looked up at Mulder. “He’s out now, but he’ll live.” Mulder nodded. “I guess you did this to him?” I prodded.
In a hollow voice, Mulder answered, “I had to. There wasn’t any other way. I needed to know, I needed…” He broke off and started to cry. Tears slid down his face making canals in his dirty cheeks. I moved to him and wrapped my arms around him as he leaned his weight on me, burying his face in my hair. “I’m sorry you had to put up with so much of this,” he murmured. “But it’s almost over now.”
“It was okay,” I assured him. “I’m just glad you’re okay. I was so worried about you, and about everything that could have happened.”
“So many years have passed,” he said, looking over my head, seeing something I couldn’t. I knew he wasn’t talking about us anymore. “It’s almost over. It has to be almost over.” With a foreboding feeling, I knew he would be right, one way or another.
*****
It was much later when the smoking man woke up. We had been in that warehouse for several hours and Mulder had slept during most of that time also, huddled in his coat. I couldn’t help but wonder where he’d been since I’d last seen him.
“Water,” croaked the cigarette smoking man, looking around for Mulder. He was more lucid than he’d been when I first arrived.
Mulder walked from the hallway where we’d been sitting towards him but ignored the request, instead taking his weapon out and pointing again it at the man who had caused him nothing but pain for years. “Are you ready to tell me now?” he asked with a deep growl.
The smoking man laughed, a horrible sound like steel crushing in on itself. “How many times are you going to wave a gun in my face before you find the courage to pull the trigger?”
Mulder grabbed the smoking man’s lapel, hard. “Where is she?” he hissed.
The cigarette smoking bastard smirked contemptuously and replied, “Your sister is better off not knowing what a pathetic coward you’ve become.”
“Shut up,” said Mulder, briefly closing his eyes and letting go of the old man. The hand holding the gun started to shake a bit, but if it was from fatigue or distress, I couldn’t tell. I sucked in my breath quietly, revulsion bubbling up in me at the scornful words he directed at my partner.
Like a dog that could smell fear, the cigarette smoking man seemed to grow stronger and more confident with each moment that passed without a bullet in his chest. “You could forget about all of this if you turn around and return to your basement office like nothing ever happened,” he said, “or you can agree to join me and see your sister today.”
To my surprise, Mulder started to waver. Don’t listen to him, Mulder! I balled my hands into fists and willed him to understand my silent message.
Cigarette smoking man noticed the indecision too. “My son,” he said gently, and reached his hand up, as if to caress Mulder’s face, even though Mulder wasn’t close enough.
The look of anguish on Mulder’s face triggered my protective reflexes. I refused to let this wretched excuse for a human being toy with his emotions any longer. Walking into the room, I pulled out my gun and fixed it on the smoking man as well. “I don’t threaten people lightly,” I said softly, standing alongside Mulder. “If I have a weapon pointed at you, it’s for one reason only.”
The cigarette smoking man was surprised to see me, and for the first time there was trepidation in his eyes. I couldn’t help but feel smug about that; he had to be realizing how much he’d underestimated me, always assuming I was more Mulder’s sidekick than his partner. Cancer man looked from me to Mulder and then back to me again.
My eyes never left the smoking man but I could feel Mulder watching me and saw his bewilderment. I found a perverse joy in shocking him, in shocking both of them. I was the wild card and a loose cannon and this son of a bitch was not going to mess with Mulder again. Narrowing my eyes at the old man, I quietly said, “Last chance.”
It wasn’t quite clear to me why someone so pathetic still wanted to live, but the survival instinct was admittedly a strong one. “Wait,” he begged, addressing Mulder. With a quick glance at me, he then lowered his eyes and muttered an address, somewhere I had never heard of before.
This seemed to satisfy Mulder and I lowered my gun and turned away, waiting for the inevitable since it was the only possible ending to this sordid nightmare he had been living. But nothing happened for several seconds and I looked up.
Mulder had turned away and was reaching for my elbow. “Let’s just go,” he murmured. What the hell was happening? Mulder should have known better than to let him live. And he would live too, despite the fact that Mulder had practically beaten him to a bloody pulp. He would live to threaten the world’s security, to plan conspiracies, and continue to make Mulder’s life a living hell. I thought about lifting my weapon and just doing it, but something in Mulder’s eyes stopped me. Wordlessly, I followed him out the door, leaving the pathetic man where he lay.
*****
“You should have let me shoot him.”
We were on the road, headed to the mysterious address we’d been given, and Mulder was so jumpy I thought I would have to sedate him. I didn’t know when he had last eaten, and he hadn’t let me properly tend to the wounds on his face. He had been in no condition to drive, so I had taken the wheel and we’d been winding down a convoluted path of forgotten back roads for an hour before we started talking.
He glanced sideways at me. “That’s not who you are.”
“That man has taken so much from you,” I argued. “He’s taken so much from both of us.”
“He gave us what we needed,” he said. “If it leads us to Samantha...”
He trailed off and gazed out the window. I let a whole minute pass before I said, “You mentioned Diana, earlier.” He kept his face turned away without answering. “You know, I have a right to know what’s been going on while you’ve been gone.” Nothing, so I tried again. “I heard you tell the smoking man that Diana gave you information that led you to him. What else did she say?”
He sighed. “It doesn’t really matter anymore now.”
“Mulder, I can only imagine what you’ve been through, but you have no idea what I’ve gone through in trying to find you as well. I’d really like to know what’s going on.”
“We should probably call an ambulance for him,” said Mulder, changing the subject.
“Go ahead.”
After the call and several more tense moments, Mulder consulted the map. “Turn here, I think,” he said and pointed out an almost hidden road.
I sighed and yanked the car left. He was clearly not going to tell me anything right now. For the rest of the short trip, our only conversation focused on which road to take or when to turn around when we hit a dead end. Eventually, we pulled into a half-hidden dirt driveway.
“Here it is,” he announced. “Hopefully.”
I peered closer at the house in question and said, “It looks abandoned.”
“I think that’s the point.” He hopped out of the car and sprinted towards the door.
He wasn’t taking any precautions. There could have been a million traps set and Fox Mulder would have run right through them all to get to his sister. I followed more slowly, picking my way through the weeds that had grown freely for years. The porch creaked loudly as we stood on it, hesitating. It seemed absurd to knock at such a rundown place. Mulder made the decision for us and opened the door slowly. The inside hall was brightly decorated in blue wallpaper, and cartoonish ducks on those walls were flying away from the boarded up doors and windows.
We both drew our guns; I didn’t know why; habit, maybe. There were no noises at all. Nothing moved except for the light that shimmered in from the few cracks in the windows. Mulder turned toward the staircase and I followed. I was worried that the dilapidated stairs would not hold our weight but before I could say anything, Mulder ran up ahead. I kept my gun pointed at the shadows. When I reached the top of the stairs, I heard distinct and raspy breathing. For a moment we stood there and listened to the sounds of life coming from the room a few feet away from us.
Mulder walked forward and I began to feel a bit disoriented. Somehow I still couldn’t believe this was happening. He pushed open the door and we stood in the doorway, staring at the person who stared back at us. The composed and intelligent-looking woman who stood before us caught me by surprise. She looked just like her clones that we had seen years before.
Suddenly, her expression changed to fear, and Mulder motioned back to me. “Scully, put away you gun,” he whispered as he sheathed his own. Numbly, I put my weapon back in its holster and exhaled the breath I hadn’t known I was holding. Mulder took a step forward and held out his hand. “Samantha,” he said simply. It wasn’t a question of identification but more an answered prayer. I was feeling a bit awkward as an intruder on their reunion, but I couldn’t make myself move. I looked around the room instead. Cobwebs hung in the rafters and the place didn’t appear to have heat or plumbing. She lived here?
The raspy breathing increased; her eyes darted around. “Samantha,” he said again. He took a cautious step closer as I remained by the door. “My name is Fox Mulder. I’m your brother, do you remember me?”
But she turned away from him and looked once more at me, as if she knew me and not him. Her eyes narrowed and then brightened as she held out her hand to me. Moving toward her, I grasped it automatically. “A confederation of women,” she said distinctly. Her warm brown eyes showed that she recognized me from a place far away or long ago. We locked eyes for several moments as I searched to remember what I had been glad to forget.
“It’s me, Samantha,” Mulder tried again. “Your brother, Fox.”
She turned abruptly away from me as if I had only imagined our brief connection and smiled at him. “Fox,” she said with warmth. “I knew we’d see each other again.” They embraced as I backed away toward the door, wanting to give them a moment.
A few moments later, we stepped into the blinding morning sun and were greeted by activity on the lawn: several police cars were parked nearby and officers lingered nearby, looking at the house and taking notes. Diana Fowley was also there, talking with a tall, lanky cop. Mulder walked up to her. “What’s going on here?” He put a hand protectively around his sister and held her back.
“Fox, I’m sorry,” Diana said, trying to appear innocent. She oozed with helpfulness and I bristled as I always did in her presence. “I told the local police to stay away and that it wasn’t necessary for them to survey the situation. But they insisted.”
“How did they even know to come here?” I challenged her.
She looked directly at me, undaunted. “Somebody called 911 in this area to report an injured man elsewhere, but it is protocol to investigate the place where the call came from as well. Unfortunately, they were unable to locate the man in question.”
“That’s so surprising,” I murmured sardonically.
Diana smirked as she appraised me. “Yes, and because of that we won’t be able to press charges against whomever attacked him, which is terribly unfortunate.” She paused for a moment to gaze at me significantly. “But at least something good came out of the situation,” she said, indicating Samantha.
Mulder was holding onto Samantha’s hand tightly. “I just wish they would leave us alone,” he murmured watching reporters start to make their way up the driveway to the house.
“Oh, Fox,” said Diana indulgently. “You know they aren’t going to do that.” She ran her hand lightly over his arm, the one that wasn’t linked to his sister. “This has made you a hero.”
I couldn’t help rolling my eyes. “We both know exactly what he went through to find her,” I snapped. “But why would the press even care? It’s not like he discovered a cure for AIDS.”
Out of the corner of my eye, Mulder winced as if I’d slapped him. I instantly regretted my words; that woman always made me irrationally angry.
“This is big news!” Diana’s voice was injured. “Can’t you imagine the headlines? ‘Man obsessed with aliens finds sister after 26 years.’ She turned her full attention back to Mulder and said soothingly, “I can help you keep them away from your sister, but they are going to want you to share your story.”
“I want to get Samantha home, back to my home,” said Mulder faintly. I saw that it was too overwhelming for him, so I decided to take charge.
“I’m taking Mulder and his sister home right now,” I informed Diana. “They’re in no condition to be interrogated by anyone right now.”
Diana ignored me completely. “But Fox, the reporters are going to want you to do a speech!”
Mulder looked bewildered. “What should I say? I don’t know what to say.”
“Just talk about what you know,” Diana said soothingly. “Tell them everything you’ve been through. They love human-interest stories.” Mulder looked to her hopefully and she rewarded him with a reassuring smile. I let out a sigh in frustration. Diana was clearly an expert at pretending to be concerned, and he was falling for it left and right. It was astonishing how men—especially Mulder—could be so dense at times.
I caught Diana’s gaze and held it. “Mulder already said he wants to go home and I will honor that request. If he wants to stay, then I will leave and take Samantha with me.”
“Actually, you can’t take Samantha with you,” said Diana coolly. “You may leave, of course, if you wish, but Samantha needs to stay here. The authorities want to look things over and ask some questions.”
“Fine, then. But I’m leaving,” I said. “Come on, Mulder. Let them figure out what’s going on here.” I started walking towards the car, but when I realized he wasn’t following, I turned back. “Mulder?”
“Well, I really don’t want to leave Samantha here by herself. I’m going to stick around and make sure she’s okay.” He smiled uncertainly. “And I should probably make some sort of statement.”
“So stay here. I’ve had about enough,” I said and stalked off.