Title: Home and Free
Author: Elizabeth L. Iacono
Rating: PG
Category: Story, Romance
Keywords: Mulder/Scully Romance, Kidfic (I know!
Yet another one...)
Spoilers: Field Trip, Two Fathers/One Son,
Triangle, Fight the Future
Summary: Skinner finds out what Mulder and Scully have
been up to in the four years since they quit
the FBI and moved away.
It's just yet another idea for a kidfic I had. I hope
you don't mind it.
Feedback-Please? My addy is RhiaRamsay@aol.com
Archive-wherever, Gossamer especially, anyone else
just tell me where it's headed.
Disclaimer-Mulder, Scully, Skinner, Mrs. Scully and
Charles Scully are not mine. Mara Rowan Mulder is.
Home and Free
Elizabeth L. Iacono
September 25, 2003
Somewhere in Scotland
The man walked down the university halls with
determination. It was the last place Assistant
Director Walter Skinner of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation would have expected to find the man
he was looking for. The man was Fox Mulder.
He and his partner Special Agent Dana Scully
had all but disappeared a little over four years ago
after suddenly turning in their resignations. There
was no rhyme or reason as to why they had quit,
although the rumors were plentiful.
They did, however, leave one thing behind before
they disappeared. What had happened was five days
after they turned in their resignations, Scully's
mother had called him up saying that Scully had been
late for their lunch date. Apparently she didn't know
that they had quit. So they had decided to go visit
Scully's apartment. When they got there they found
the place cleared out, as bare as the proverbial cupboard.
Except for one thing. In the center of Scully's
living room was a simple cardboard box. Inside the box
were three letters, one to Mrs. Scully, one to
Mrs. Mulder, and one to Skinner. There was also four
vials in there filled with an amber colored solution
that looked like honey.
Skinner decided to start with his letter, it might
explain what was in the vials. And it did. He felt his
jaw dropping as he read through it. He learned that
contained in the vials was a vaccine to fight the oncoming
virus that they were all warned about with the El Rico
massacre and how to re-create it for distribution. It
was Mulder and Scully's last bit of help before they
disappeared.
It was one conspiracy Skinner was happy to
participate in, a vaccination program that would
secretly inoculate everyone alive against the virus
called Purity. The biggest payoff was when it worked.
Around two months ago there were reports of bee
attacks throughout the world. Skinner had a specimen
from each attack sent to the lab for tests, and each
was clearly infected with the virus. But no one who
was stung had any symptoms of the virus.
Shortly after the attacks Cancerman had come to
visit him for the first time in a long time with a
message from, of all people, the rebel aliens saying
that now colonization was effectively stopped.
Skinner wasn't sure that he could believe him, so
there were still many precautions set up just in
case invasion ever approached. Still, things had
calmed down greatly in the last two months.
The next step, at least in his mind, was to find
Mulder and Scully. He had no idea even remotely where
they went, hell, he didn't even know if they were still
together. More likely than not though they were.
As a last ditch resort he tried the Lone Gunmen to see
if they had anything. He'd met them a while back
through Mulder and Scully, from Scully's
second kidnapping to the Antarctic and Mulder's little
jaunt into the Bermuda Triangle. They'd also been very
instrumental in the vaccination program. All they had
was a web based e-mail address for emergencies which
hadn't been used yet, so they had assumed that everything
was fine. Now though they had done a massive Internet
search to see if they could find anything from the last
four years on Fox Mulder or Dana Scully.
Luckily, they found one thing. Just one, but it
was a place to start. In a town in Scotland Skinner
had never heard of there was a Fox Mulder who was the
professor of psychology at the local university. It
didn't seem like something Mulder would end up doing
with his life, but Skinner knew that there was a slim
to none chance that there were two people called Fox
Mulder.
That was how Skinner found himself walking down
the halls of this small university towards room 121
where Professor Fox Mulder was teaching Behavioral
Science 101. The heels of his dress shoes clacked
as he walked, and his long coat swirled around his
legs. Soon he found himself standing in front
of room 121.
He stood there for a few minutes, wondering what
exactly he would find behind this door. In the four
years that had passed, what had Fox Mulder turned into?
The possibilities were endless. Could he have become
even more obsessive than before? Or was he just a
hollow shell now, lacking the passion that he had
invested in the X-Files? There was only one way
to answer that.
He gently pushed the door open and slid into the
back of the classroom, quietly closing it behind him
and blending in unnoticed. The class room seemed more
in the style of a lecture hall, the seats terraced in
a half moon shape looking down upon a space where a
desk and a blackboard resided. Perched on the edge
of the desk facing the class wearing a green sweater,
a pair of jeans, and wire-rim glasses was Mulder,
speaking about some psychology basics that even he
remembered from college.
Skinner was certainly surprised at the man he
was now looking at. Mulder pretty much looked the
same as he had the last time he'd seen him. Actually
he looked a little different, younger almost. The
years of aging the X-Files had put on him seemed to
have faded away. There was an air of calmness, if
not outright happiness around him now.
He was startled out of his thoughts by the sound
of the between class bell ringing rather close to his
ear. The class flooded out of the room and soon it
was just him and Mulder, who was walking around the
desk to sit behind it. Skinner began to walk down
the stairwell leading to the desk, his shoes sounding
louder than they really were in the stillness of the room.
Mulder looked up at the sound of the shoes, his
face going through the range of emotions when he saw
who was approaching him. He removed his glasses and
stood up, standing there nearly open-mouthed until
Skinner began to speak.
"You know, of all the places I thought I'd find
you I was certainly not expecting this."
Mulder shrugged. "I wanted a change of pace.
Never thought I'd see you here either."
Skinner reached the bottom of the stairs and
stopped there. "I've got a message for you. About
your vaccine."
A look of near shock spread across his face.
Yet another thing he obviously wasn't expecting
to hear. "What about it?" Mulder asked, trying
to keep the curiosity out of his voice.
"It worked. I don't know if you've heard about
it but about two months ago there were reports of
widespread bee attacks around the world. I managed
to get a hold of a specimen from each attack, and
every single one was carrying the virus. Yet there
were no reported deaths from it, the only deaths that
resulted were from sting related anaphylactic shock.
After that I got a message from our old friend Smokey
saying that colonization was over. Now I don't know
whether he's telling the truth or not, but things have
calmed down a lot recently," Skinner finished.
"Wow," Mulder exhaled and leaned against the desk
once more.
Skinner decided to take this opportunity to ask
some questions of his own. "So what have you been up
to the past four years?"
Mulder looked around the room warily, as if he was
expecting someone to suddenly jump out at him. Soon
though he seemed to come to a decision. "Tell you what,
why don't you come over for dinner. I can explain better
there." He reached back onto the desk and grabbed a
piece of paper and a pen and began to write an address
on there, with some simple directions. "It's not too
far, only about twenty minutes from here. There'll be
less chance of someone eavesdropping there. Here people
are always going in and out."
Skinner took the paper. It wouldn't hurt to go
over for dinner, he'd probably find out more that way
than any other. He looked up at the clock, it was 4
p.m. now. "How does six sound?" he asked.
"That sounds fine," Mulder said.
Skinner nodded. "I'll see you then," he said,
and walked up the stairs and out of the room. Mulder
sighed and begin to gather up his papers. He was going
to have a lot of explaining to do when he got home if
Skinner was going to come over tonight. And most likely
he was the one who was going to end up doing the cooking.
About twenty minutes later his car was driving up
the lane where his home now was. Soon, the small
stone-walled home came into sight, with the matching
waist high stone walls surrounding the property. He
pulled into the driveway and opened the two car garage,
surprised to find one of the spaces already filled. He
got out of the car and walked to the side door leading
to the kitchen.
The kitchen itself was small, just like the rest
of the house, but it fulfilled all the functions of a
kitchen, including plenty of space for many people to
fit at the kitchen table. The fading afternoon light
shone through the windows, one facing the front street
and the other facing the walled-in backyard, and giving
the place a warm yellow glow.
He crossed through the kitchen and the front hall
to get to the slightly larger living/family room.
Reclining on the couch, leaning against the arm so she
could see out the window facing the backyard, was a woman
with bright red hair burnished gold by the yellow light
and paging through a medical journal. Slowly Mulder
crept up behind her and knelt down, wrapping his arms
around her shoulders. He could feel her smiling and
she leant her head back against his chest. "Hi Mulder,"
Dana Scully said, tilting her face up to him.
He tilted his own face down and kissed her gently
on the lips. "Hey, Scully. You're home early."
"Dr. Gregory's daughter's in town from Edinburgh
and he wanted to spend as much time with her as possible,"
Scully smiled, "he sent me home and said to the
receptionist if anyone called with any emergencies to call
him at home. So I picked Mari up from daycare early and
came home."
"Where is Mari, by the way?" Mulder asked.
Scully nodded towards the back window. "Outside
playing in the dirt." Mulder got up from his kneeling
position and walked over to the back window. In the
back yard a young girl of about three played around
pretending to build miniature cities out of the mud
and getting it all over her clothes. Scully
spoke from behind him and patted the couch down by
her feet. "Come here, tell me about your day."
Mulder's face took on a rather uneasy look as he
lowered himself onto the couch, moving Scully's
feet onto his lap. Scully saw the sudden expression
on his face. "What is it?" she asked.
Mulder bit his lip and looked around the room,
stalling for time. Soon Scully's foot insistently
kicking at him persuaded him to finally spill it.
"I ran into an old acquaintance of ours today.
Actually he found me, at the university."
Scully sat up straighter and leaned towards
him. "Who was it?"
Mulder took a deep breath, preparing himself
for what he was about to say. "It was Skinner."
Her eyes almost bulged out of her head. "You're
kidding," she said.
He shook his head. "Nope."
"Why'd he come and visit like this out of nowhere?"
Scully asked, the puzzlement clear on her face.
"It was because of the vaccine. It worked."
Scully stared at him wide-eyed and he nodded in
confirmation. "There's something else though."
He waited a few seconds before he told her the rest
of the news. "I uh, I also invited him over for
dinner tonight."
"You're not joking, are you?" she said.
Mulder shook his head again. "He said he'd
be here at six."
Scully looked up at the VCR clock that was
reading 4:45 now. "Well it looks like you better
get moving then, you've got a dinner to whip up,"
she smirked at him.
Mulder laughed as he hauled himself off of the
couch and headed for the kitchen. "Somehow I saw
that one coming," he laughed.
A half an hour later Mulder had surprisingly
managed to scrape up some dinner and even Scully
had to admit it smelled pretty good. The chicken
was in the oven, the potatoes were baking along
side it, and a fresh salad was prepared and
waiting on the kitchen counter.
Scully stared out the kitchen window facing the
backyard, watching Mari still playing around. "Maybe
I should bring her inside now, start getting her
cleaned up," she said thoughtfully.
Mulder nodded, walking over next to her. "Yeah,
that's a good idea." He paused for a second and then
began to speak again. "Skinner'll probably be in shock
when he finds out about her."
She looked up at him. "Mulder, I was in shock when
I found out about her."
He wrapped his arms around her waist. "So was I,
but she's healthy and perfect so I'll just accept the
miracle."
She smiled and leaned her head back against his
shoulder. "Me too." Scully reluctantly pulled out
of Mulder's arms. "I better go bring her in. It'll
take a half hour just to get all that mud off of her."
She walked over to the side door and opened it, leaning
out it to look into the back yard. "Mari, time to come
in," she called. After a few minutes of standing there
Scully sighed impatiently and called again. "Mara,
come here!"
Soon the sound of little footsteps were heard
on the little path in the backyard and in the doorway
next to Scully appeared a little girl, although it was
hard to distinguish that from all the layers of mud
that covered her, from her small sneakers and jeans,
the Yankees T-shirt that Mulder had specially ordered
for her, her dark red hair and her wide grin. Scully
swept her up into her arms, not caring about the mud
that was getting splattered on her own clothes. "Come
on," Scully said. "It's time to get you cleaned up."
"Why?" Mara Mulder whined.
Mulder reached a hand over and tousled her hair,
not minding the mud. "Because we've got company coming
over tonight and you have to be clean."
Mara pouted. "I don't wanna take a bath," she
muttered.
"Too bad," Scully said with a grin, and began to
carry her out of the kitchen and up the stairs to get
her cleaned up.
Mulder sighed and sat down at the kitchen table.
So many things had changed over the past four years,
most of them for the better. He was beginning to wonder
if Skinner's visit was going to dredge up some unpleasant
memories they'd both rather forget. But he had to keep
his mind on the good things, he now had a real future
to look forward to, something that was nearly non-existent
before.
He sighed once more and began to pace around the
kitchen, waiting for the doorbell to ring.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
A little while later in Mara's bedroom Scully and
Mara sat with Scully brushing out the little girl's
long, wet, dark red hair. "Why do I hafta wear a dress,
Mommy?" Mara whined as she picked daintily at the dress
Scully had lain out for her to wear.
Scully grinned. That sounded like a comment she
herself would have made as a little kid. She leaned
down and pressed a kiss to her head. "Because, Mari,
and old-" here she hesitated a little bit "-friend of
Mommy and Daddy's is coming over for dinner and we want
you to look as nice as possible."
"Why can't I wear my jeans?" she begged.
"All your jeans are in the wash, and you look nice
in a dress too," Scully said, smiling. She realized that
she always seemed to smile more when she was around her
daughter and Mulder, two things a few years back she
thought she'd never have.
Scully put the hair brush down and began to pull
Mara's hair back into a braid. To tell the truth she
was somewhat dreading Skinner's visit. The past few
years had been mundane compared to the rest of their
lives, but they were very happy. She didn't want to
lose that now.
Finally the braid was done and was dangling down
Mara's back, leaving a wet patch on her undershirt.
Scully picked the pretty blue dress with the green
and white flowers up and slid it onto Mara. "There.
You look very nice," she said.
Mara tugged at the collar of the dress with a
pout. "I don't like it."
Scully slid off the bed and began to walk to her
room. "Come on, it's my turn to get changed. You got
mud all over me." Mara giggled as she followed Scully.
As she was picking out what pants and shirt she would
wear she heard the doorbell ring downstairs, the door
open and shut, and two voices talking, both familiar
but one she hadn't heard in over four years.
Mara listened intently for about half a minute
and then said, "Is that your friend?"
"Uh-huh," Scully said, tugging a fresh shirt over
her head. The other one she was wearing before had
gotten splattered with mud and water while she was
trying to bathe Mara.
"I wanna meet 'em," she said and ran out of the
room, heading towards the stairs.
Scully sighed and sat down on the bed, trying to
calm the nervous feeling in her stomach. This one
dinner tonight could change nearly everything they've
known for the past four years.
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END OF PART ONE