From: Captain Average Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2002 17:06:56 GMT Source: atxc Title: For Cryin' Out Loud (A 9th-Season Mulder fic) Author: Captain Average E-mail: captain.average@shaw.ca Archive: Ask and it shall be given unto you... Rating: PG Classification: V Disclaimer: Just borrowing them, don't sue Summary: Twas the month after Christmas... Spoilers: Not really He sits on the porch of the old Tudor manor, covered in green ichor. "That's one demon that won't be bothering anyone else," he thinks, but even in the aftermath of victory, his heart isn't in it. ********** The package had been carefully wrapped in a dozen layers of brown paper, before he sent it to the first of its many stops. The Lone Gunmen had assured him that it would reach Scully and William by Christmas, but he hadn't heard back yet and it had been almost two months. He'd gotten William a basketball - partly because it would provoke Scully ("Mulder! What were you thinking? He's a baby!") and then he could say, like a real, live daddy, "He'll grow into it." And they'd laugh. ********** Three months on the road, searching for anything that could make the threat against him disappear; searching for something that could make it possible to be back with Scully and his son. His son. *His* son. His *son*. After more than a decade of chasing mutants, ghosts, demons, UFOs and other strangenesses (before and after Scully), he has never felt so alone. His son. Whom he might never see again. Talk about yer basic post-miracle depression... He stands, wiping the ichor on the back of his jeans (the only part of him that is green-free). He shuffles back to his car - tired, frustrated, maybe a little bitter. He turns the ignition and pulls away from the curb. "For cryin' out loud," he thinks. "It wasn't supposed to be like this." ~Fin~