Title: A Conversation
Author: SpookyLady
Disclaimer: The whole Mulder family and CSM don’t belong to me. They belong to CC, 10/13, and Fox.
Category: Vignette
Rating: G
Spoilers: Minor references to "The End"
Summary: A conversation between an old man and an old woman.
Archive: Yes
Dedication: A certain nasty conversation with a certain friend inspired me to write this story.
Special thanks to: Cathy, Susan and Dad

* * *

Washington, DC
Place unknown
May 29, 1998
8:34 p.m.

"I will meet you there." These five words were the only message on his answering machine, but he already knew that she would call. He took another cigarette out of the package, and lighted it.

He didn’t receive many calls from her, and he was a little surprised by this call. Last time he saw her, she got furious at him, and refused to talk.

He even knew the questions she would ask him. Her relationship with her son at the moment was bad, but nevertheless she tracked down her son’s every move. She would sit in the chair like she used to in the old times, and look at him without saying anything, then, after almost an hour of silence, demand the answers she wanted.

He threw the cigarette into the ashtray and took his coat, preparing to go out. A quick look around the room, and he was gone.

Washington, DC
A café at Dupont Circle
May 29, 1998
9:00 p.m.

When he finally reached the café, she was already there. Her short white hair was combed accurately. She wore a gray coat, matching with her beige dress. She wore the same clothes last time he saw her, he remembered with a smile.

They seated themselves. A young waitress came to the table and smiled. "What would you like to drink?" she asked.

"I’d like a cappuccino," said the woman.

"Nothing for me, thank you," said the man.

They sat quiet for some time, then the man spoke.

"Why did you want to talk to me, Teena?" he asked, already knowing why she called him. He took her hand and looked in her eyes.

"For you it will be Mrs. Mulder," she answered coldly, jerking her hand back. "Now tell me: do you have something to do with it?"

"What do you mean?" he asked, sounding as innocent as possible.

"You know what I mean." Her voice would send a chill down someone’s spine, but he was not afraid of her voice. He was alarmed by her eyes, which looked at him with an indication that she knew something. Oh God, why did this woman marry that Bill Mulder, the man thought. Mulder gave her nothing but trouble. Her son also was costing her a big deal of her health. If he would just stay out of the X-Files, everything would be alright.

"OK, Mrs. Mulder. Am I right that you are accusing me of what happened?"

"I did not say I was accusing you. I just know that you did it. Listen, I lost Samantha, and I lost William. My heart is broken enough. Fox is the only thing that keeping me alive. If something happens to him, I will tell a certain thing to them." She wrote something on a card and showed it to him.

How would she know about them? he thought with a hint of panic, but then consoled himself. He knew many ways to close people’s mouths. And who was she? Just a lonely woman, with no power except her knowledge. But again, what she knew was dangerous, and he wondered how she found out about it.

"You could be dead by then, and your son with you," the man said coolly, but his voice not sounding as cold-blooded as usual, as he looked in the eyes of the woman.

"Wouldn’t it be suspicious? My daughter is missing, my husband was killed, and now mother and son will die in one week?" Her voice sounded sarcastic, bitter and almost as if she was laughing in his face. "You were crippling his soul since he was a kid, you tried to kill him so many times, and you want him to die now? Is his only fault that he wants to know the truth?"

He thought for a moment. Well, maybe he couldn’t resist now, but it was the last time he’d do something for this woman. He loved her many years ago, now nothing was left except a nostalgic memory. They both changed, now she was just a lonely woman with a broken heart, and he was a very powerful man. Their relationship was gone, and now they were just two distinct old people. But in some ways she was stronger than him. She told him she wasn’t afraid of death, and was not afraid of him anymore. When she told it to him, he instantly knew it was the truth.

But he still would do this for her, even if it was the last time. She knew definitely too much, but she had to be alive to control Mulder, and Mulder had to be alive to control her.

"You are right, in some way." Their eyes met again, as if in some kind of silent duel. They looked at each other for a long time. He blinked first, ashamed of himself being afraid of a woman’s glance.

"You bastard," she said, slowly and quietly. "Just for what you’ve done to my son's life you deserve a death penalty. I don’t care about my life. But I do care about my son’s life. You never had children, so you don’t know how it feels when you lose a child. But I know. I lost Samantha, and I nearly lost Fox so many times. If you do something like that again, or he dies, nothing will stop me. Nothing, I tell you."

"Fine, I promise," he finally said, each word slow and incomprehensible.

She drank her cappuccino in silence. Then the waitress came, and the woman paid the bill. The man and the woman went out of the café.
For a moment they stood on the sidewalk.

"Good-bye, Teena," he said, faking a smile.

"Good-bye."

They turned away and walked their separate ways without looking back.

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