Mulder and Scully wearily entered their motel room. It was a roach infested dump, but it beat sleeping in the car, which was something they had done too often the past three months. Since they had narrowly escaped annihilation after the last meeting with Cancer Man (Oh, how Mulder prayed the bastard was really dead!), their days consisted of changing vehicles every few days and traveling every back road from Oregon to Virginia and back. They kept contacts with their allies brief and infrequent.
Mulder saw his helpful dead once during that time. While lying awake watching tv holding a sleeping Scully in his arms, Alex Krycek stepped out of the shadows and handed him a slip of paper. It was a phone number and the password to an account in the Cayman Islands.
"Thank you," he whispered. Krycek smiled and stepped back into the shadows. The very large account, he never did know how large, kept them alive and running. Scully never asked him where the money came from, and he blessed her for that. Their mutual trust was complete, and they were confident that somehow they would subvert the alien invasion.
One day, the running ended.
They entered the room, and he was sitting there on a rickety chair at a rickety table. It was the alien Gibson Praise had exposed at Mulder's mock trial. He sat there like a kindly old uncle and smiled invitingly. Scully and Mulder looked at each other. There was no need to speak. If he was there, then there was no point in running. They sat on the bed, side by side, held hands and waited.
"Agent Mulder, you have been an annoyance to us. Not a major annoyance, mind you. We would have terminated you long ago if you had been. No, you were a gnat, constantly buzzing in the face of destiny. We brushed you away, but you always came back more irritating than before."
"I don't understand," Mulder said. "I was never successful at stopping the plans for colonization."
The alien nodded amicably. "True. Yet, you never completely failed. Locations had to be changed, loose ends eliminated, schedules altered. Much valuable time was lost, thanks to your efforts. And in your wake, you left behind fellow gnats. Your partner, Agent Scully. Agent Doggett. Agent Reyes. A.D. Skinner. Young Mr. Spender. Kersh was a most unpleasant surprise. Others, merely more gnats, but a swarm of gnats can goad a huge beast to its destruction. Thus, we have decided to reschedule the colonization."
Mulder's heart leaped in his chest, and Scully squeezed his hand until her knuckles turned white. "Rescheduled," Mulder echoed when his vocal chords would cooperate.
"Yes, the date of the invasion is no longer 2012, it's 2073. Long after you and your gnats will be dust." He smiled again. "Our species is millions of years in advance of yours, Agent Mulder. Our life span is measured in centuries. A few decades here or there is just the blink of an eye."
Behind the alien, Mulder saw the shadows in the corner flicker. X stepped forward.
"He's telling the truth, Mulder. It's over." He turned around to leave, stopped, and looked back over his shoulder. "For now." He faded back into the shadows.
Mulder turned his attention back to the alien. "Say we believe you. What now?"
"Now? Nothing. Go back to your lives. Go home." He stood up and walked to the door. On his way out, he said, "We considered not telling you, but it amuses us sometimes to indulge in the human concept of 'closure'." He looked at Scully for the first time. "Agent Scully. Just to show you we have no hard feelings, look in the bathroom. Call it a parting gift." He closed the door behind him.
Guns drawn, Mulder and Scully approached the bathroom. Carefully and slowly, Mulder opened the door. They peered inside and their jaws dropped. Sitting beside the stained and rusted bathtub was a blue portable crib. Inside, sleeping the sleep of innocence, was baby William.
In all their years in the X-Files, there was nothing more surreal than their journey back to Washington, D.C. They packed up William, hauled ass to the nearest payphone, and called A.D. Skinner.
"Mulder! Thank God, you called. You won't believe this."
"Don't bet on it," he said grimly.
It was just as the alien had said. There was a rash of sudden resignations and retirements from the Bureau and Congress. There were also some complete disappearances, which strangely went unreported inthe news. Mulder and Scully had been on extended personal leave and there was no record of a trial. Not that there had ever been a record.
Time had been rewound, and it was as if Mulder had never disappeared. Friday night, Mulder and Scully sat on the old leather couch in the apartment at Hegal Place, drinking beer, and not watching tv. William slept in his crib nearby.
"Well, Mulder," said Scully. "What do we do now?"
"It isn't over, Scully. The aliens are still out there. They're just biding their time, hoping we'll forget the threat while we earn our daily bread. We won't forget. We'll find a way to protect the future."
"That, we will," said Scully, taking Mulder by the hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze. "But what do we do tomorrow?"
"Hell if I know," Mulder admitted. "Go back to work, I guess. Life will sure be dull." They laughed.
Mulder would soon regret saying that.
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Story Notes:
Law & Order/X-Files
Challenges: #1 Crossover with another show. #2 Mulder must at one point say, "You are naked and you are not in your right mind." #3 Write an MPREG into the story.
Additional Notes: // indicates thoughts. XXX indicates flashbacks.