Author: Ann Ripley, annripley@hotmail.com
Spoilers: Existence
Category: Vignette/Humour
Summary: One life ends, another life begins
Thank you Vanzetti and Melissa for your excellent betas.
x x x
Everyone assumed that the offspring of Mulder
and Scully would
be exceptional. At first these extraordinary qualities put mother
and child in danger. When the baby was born without a glowing
red finger and asking to "phone home," everyone chimed
in to
safely proclaim that William Samuel Mulder-Scully was the most
exceptional baby around.
Surely no one's eye's were bluer. No one's
cries as harmonic. No
one's smiles as bewitching. Like most first time parents, Scully,
and particularly Mulder, basked in their child's uniqueness and
superiority over other babies. In the pediatrician's waiting room,
Mulder's eyes would narrow in on all the other little bundles,
confident that none of them possessed as much wavy black hair
or as solid hand-eye coordination that little William displayed
at
one month.
Mulder was convinced his son was bound for
greatness.
Supreme Court Judge. NBA star. The greatest musical talent
since Zeppelin. There was so much potential in this little bundle
of joy. William could be anything. Mulder had no idea that his
child was already somebody.
Despite their agreement that William was
perfect, Mulder and
Scully could not help recognizing that their child was cranky.
He
seemed to cry for no reason. Fed and dry, he would lay in his
crib, face turning a deep red, arms and legs flailing wildly.
In this
state he could not be soothed by Scully or Mulder. In fact it
was
almost as if he recoiled from their touch, beating his tiny fists
against their bodies. Exhausted, they would take turns rocking,
bouncing and cooing to him, but everything they tried only
seemed to increase the ferocity of his screams. Scully and the
pediatrician chalked this up to colic but Mulder was sure that
it
meant that William was born to be the center of attention and
was not afraid to speak his mind, much like his father.
At his Baptism, William howled through the
entire event,
pausing only to vomit, twice, all over Godfather Walter's Armani
suit. Agent Doggett commented that William had a helluva set of
lungs. Agent Reyes announced that William's screams were a
sign that he was an old soul having a hard time readjusting to
life
as an infant. Scully was mortified but Mulder was secretly
pleased that his son was clearly protesting his unsolicited thrust
into organized religion.
At three months, the crying jags wore off
only to be replaced by
a sulky sullenness. Scully relished the silence but Mulder was
sure this meant the baby was bored and needed stimulation. He
searched every toy store in Washington and pursued everyone
online catalogue for the most educational infant toys but nothing
seemed to catch William's attention. He took William for jogs
in
the park and parent and tot swims at the YMCA. It didn't work.
Every effort was met with a blank stare or a yawn. In fact,
Mulder could have sworn William actually rolled his eyes when
his father sang Itsy Bitsy Spider.
It seemed that William was most content
sitting on Mulder's lap
while he surfed the net or lounging in Scully's lap while she
watched CNN. He appeared to be captivated when Mulder and
Scully discussed current events. Mulder assumed that this meant
his child had a high level of intelligence, possibly at the genius
level, and would not be entertained with age appropriate and
juvenile antics. So he started taking William for walks in the
Smithsonian, playing classical music and reading out loud from
the Post.
When Scully's maternity leave ended, Mulder
insisted on
becoming William's full time care giver. He had purposely
avoided finding a job because he didn't trust anyone else to look
after William and nurture his many talents.
Ahead of Dr. Spock's schedule as predicted,
William started
crawling at five months. Mulder scrambled to baby proof the
house but William always seemed to be one step ahead of him:
discovering the cleaning products under the sink, poking his
fingers in electrical outlets and escaping through the front door
left open by the pizza delivery man. He seemed most cheerful
when he was one step away from disaster, often giggling when
Mulder whisked him away to safety. Mulder was impressed by
his son's curiosity and adventurous nature but was unsure of how
to handle what developed next.
When Scully was away on her first case out
of town, Mulder
carried William around the house, pointing out photographs of
his mother and telling him that she loved him and that would be
back soon. He also showed William pictures of other family
members: the one of Grandma Scully holding William the day
after he was released from the hospital, the family portrait of
Bill
and Tara Scully and their obviously inferior child Matthew, and
the very special photos of William's two aunts who were
watching him from heaven.
William ignored the one of Samantha but
took particular interest
in the photo of Melissa. He studied it for several seconds, then
removed his thumb from his mouth and pointed his hand toward
the photo. He closed his right fist, extended his index finger,
raised his thumb and made a noise that sounded like "bang,
bang."
A stunned Mulder went weak armed and nearly
dropped
William. He contemplated with awe the little wonder in his arms
dressed in denim overalls and a N.Y. Yankee's baseball cap. The
obvious display of telepathic qualities was remarkable. He had
never heard of psychic ability developing in a child so young.
With William still on his hip, Mulder raced
around the house
digging up old photo albums, hoping that other photos provoked
equally strong reactions. William placidly looked over the other
photos, one arm curled around his teddy bear. He showed no
reaction to the parade of dead and alive Scully and Mulder
relatives immortalized on film until they came to a photo of Bill
Mulder. William stared at the photo of his namesake before
casually uttering a single "bang."
William's awareness of violent deaths forced
Mulder to conclude
that he more likely had a junior version of Clyde Bruckman on
his hands than a Gibson Praise. Afraid to worry her, Mulder
decided to hide his knowledge of their son's metaphysical
powers from Scully, however he couldn't shield her from
William's growing aggressive behavior.
One day, on a trip to the FBI to meet Scully
for lunch, Mulder
dropped by Skinner's office to say hello. William greeted his
godfather with a rare smile, prompting Skinner to take the boy
in
his lap. As soon as he was seated, William reached across
Skinner's desk and grabbed the A.D.'s Palm Pilot. Skinner moved
to take the device out of the child's sticky hands only to have
William stab him in the hand with a letter opener. William was
immediately handed back to his father while Skinner sought first
aid for the ruptured vein in his hand. Mulder could have sworn
William smiled for the rest of the week.
William's first Christmas was spent at Grandma's
house along
with Scully's brother's family. At four years old, Matthew Scully
towered over his eight-month-old cousin, yet he took great
interest in William. He spent hours hovering over the baby,
showing him all the toys Santa brought him. The boys seemed to
be getting along well until an almost inhuman cry poured out of
William. Mulder and Bill raced to the living room to find
Matthew cowering in the corner with the beginnings of two
black eyes and William sitting in his excersaucer trembling with
rage, cradling his teddy bear. In between tears and hiccups,
Matthew explained that he had accidently torn the left arm off
William's teddy bear. William had freaked out and punched
Matthew in the face. Mulder could tell that he would never hear
the end of this incident from a furious Uncle Bill.
Other violent episodes followed, the most
disturbing being when
Mulder took William to the doctor's office for his ten-month
check up. William bit the doctor who was trying to give him his
immunizations and swept to the floor vials containing polio,
diphtheria and tetanus vaccines. Then on the way out, William
reached out of his stroller to push an elderly man in a wheelchair
down a flight of stairs.
Mulder was at a lost to explain his son's
aggressive behavior. He
knew that intelligent children often acted out because they were
uncomfortable with their peers or had a difficult time coming
to
terms with their high aptitudes. But these reasons shouldn't apply
to a child not even a year old. Mulder speculated that William's
actions were due to his frustration at not being able to express
himself. Although far ahead in every other developmental stage,
he had yet to start speaking. This didn't worry Mulder since he
knew that it was common for speech to develop late in
exceptional children because they preferred to speak immediately
in full sentences.
William seemed to behave best on their daily
walks to the park.
He loved to throw bread to the ducks. One day they arrived at
the pond to find a woman, wearing a grey trench coat and
sunglasses, waiting for them by the water.
"Mr. Mulder."
"Marita?" Mulder asked, surprised
to hear the voice of his
former informant.
"Please be quick about this. I cannot stay long."
"What do you want?" Mulder picked
William out of the stroller
and held him protectively against his body. The last time he had
seen this woman she had been in the company of Krycek. Who
knew where she stood now?
"You asked me to come here today."
Mulder shook his head and tightened his
grip on William. "I did
not."
Marita's head swivelled around, eyeing the
other children and
parents playing in the park. "Last night you left a message
on my
answering machine telling me to meet you here this afternoon.
You said that you had important information to give me."
"That wasn't me." Last night he
had brought William to visit the
Gunmen. They had spent the evening playing around with some
voice modification software.
"Then I suggest you do not wait around
to find out who set up
this meeting and why." Marita turned on her heel to leave
but
stopped when William cried out to protest her departure. Marita
turned back to contemplate father and son. "You're very lucky
that everything has worked out to so well for you. Not
everyone's been blessed with such a fairy tale ending."
"I know," Mulder said.
Marita flashed Mulder and William a bittersweet
smile. "Good
luck."
"You too." Mulder watched her
quickly walk across the park,
never looking back. When she was out of sight, he looked down
to see that William had tears running across his face. Mulder
concluded that William must have sensed the tension in his body
when Marita appeared. Perhaps all this time William was merely
reacting to the stress and horrors experienced throughout
Scully's pregnancy. Hopefully William would settle down when
he realized that he was loved and safe.
It would only be after the bizarre events
marking William's first
birthday that Mulder would be forced to acknowledge another,
more disturbing, possibility surrounding William.
"Your boy is special."
"Yes," Mulder said as he strapped
a struggling William into his
stroller, expecting another lecture on discipline. Mulder had
just
been asked not to bring William back to the playgroup after he
spent the morning furiously pedaling a Little Tykes car into other
groups of children.
"I can see it in his eyes."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm Irina, Katia's grandmother."
The woman nodded toward a
little blond girl finger painting in the corner. "I'm also
clairvoyant." The woman handed Mulder her card introducing
her as Princess Irina although Mulder would never have labeled
the middle aged heavyset woman as a princess. "I would love
to
do a reading with your son. He has such an unusual energy."
"I don't know . . . " Mulder said
politely, pocketing her card.
Scully would kill him if she knew he had taken William to a
fortune teller.
"Did anyone close to you die before your son's birth?"
Startled at the question, Mulder hesitated
before answering. "My
mother died over a year before William was born. But we
weren't very close."
"No. Not family. Someone you worked with, perhaps?"
Mulder shook his head. "Could he be
reacting to any external
events leading up to his birth?"
Irina opened her arms to pick up William.
Mulder shrugged and
handed the baby over. "Possibly, possibly. I've known babies
to
respond to events or emotions that occurred well before
conception but that's not what I am sensing here."
"And that is?"
"I am getting a very clear impression
of your son's past life . . . "
Irina looked deeply into William's eyes. "You knew each other
. .
. You had complimentary goals but went about things differently.
There was certainly no love lost between you."
Mulder's heart seemed to rise and take residence
in his throat as
Irina's claims sunk in. He had barely given the violent afternoon
before William's birth a second thought since it happened. He
hadn't wanted to. Skinner mentioned that he had taken care of
the body but Mulder hadn't wanted to know the details.
"Is this some sort of sick joke?"
Mulder grabbed William from
her arms and stuffed him back into the stroller. "Who put
you up
to this? Marita?"
Irina looked hurt and surprised. "I'm sorry to have upset you."
"It's impossible." It was impossible.
It was unthinkable. His son
was just willful, high spirited, a little hell raiser. He was
just
going through the terrible twos early. His son was not the
reincarnation of Alex Krycek. It was impossible.
The car ride home was one of the longest
ones Mulder ever
experienced. Every time he glanced in the rearview mirror, he
saw William was staring back at him from his car seat with a sly
grin on his face. When he pulled into the driveway, Mulder was
relieved to see that Scully was home early. He needed to hear
her calm and sensible take on this. He needed her to tell him
that
he was crazy, that there was no way that any part of their son,
whether it be his earlobe, baby toe or soul, belonged to Krycek.
Mulder unstrapped William from the car seat.
He couldn't help
cringing when William wrapped his chubby arms around him,
hugging his father tightly. Then he relaxed into his son's
embrace, embarrassed that he had reacted otherwise, and hugged
him back. This was ridiculous. William was his son, sociopathic
tendencies or not. He was not Alex Krycek.
Mulder put William on his shoulders and
proudly piggybacked
him into the house. Scully met them at the doorway and opened
her arms for William to come to her but he refused to move from
Mulder's shoulders. Mulder bent down so Scully could lift him
off but William hung on tightly, his tiny fingers digging into
Mulder's neck. Scully shrugged and disappeared into the kitchen
mumbling something about daddy's little boy. Mulder set William
down in his playpen and went to decorate the den for William's
birthday party that evening.
Before he could even blow up a balloon,
Mulder felt something
light and fluffy hit his head. Mulder picked up the bear and
placed it on the couch. He looked over to see William standing
at the edge of his playpen, eyes wide and face red, pointing
toward the bear. "If you cannot learn to respect Mr. Bear,
he
will not be your friend."
William's response was to hit Mulder on
the side of his head with
a rubber ball. Mulder decided to ignore William this time. His
son would just have to learn that violence would not get him
anywhere.
"Mullda!"
"Hey. What did you say?" Mulder
asked, voice cracking with
glee.
"Mullda!" William cried again,
waving frantically at Mulder with
both hands.
"Scully, you gotta hear this. William
just said his first . . . " All of
a sudden he was hit over the head with something that certainly
wasn't the bear or a rubber ball. It felt like a sledge hammer.
His
body fell fast to the floor, his head hitting the corner of the
oak
coffee table. His last conscious thought was that he had to
protect William and then everything faded into black.
When he awoke, all he could see was Agent
Doggett's
concerned face peering over him. "You're going to be fine,
Mulder. Everything's okay. Can you hear me?"
"What happened?" Mulder croaked.
He could taste blood in the
back of his throat. "Where's William?"
"William's fine, Mulder. Thanks to
you." Scully appeared on his
other side. "Don't move. The paramedics will be here shortly."
"What happened?"
"We were hoping you could tell us that,"
Doggett said. "Best
near I can tell is that someone attacked you."
"By the time we got here, the den looked
like a tornado hit it and
all that was left was a puddle of bubbling green goo," Scully
added. "You'll be happy to know that carpet you hated so
much
is ruined."
"I didn't see who attacked me. William
and I got home from
playgroup. You were here and then someone hit me."
"Mulder, that wasn't me. I came rushing
home when I received a
call from our home number and all I could hear was William
crying."
"Scully, I didn't call you and I didn't
kill any green blooded
alien."
"Mulder, you've hit your head pretty
badly. You probably have
short term memory loss."
Mulder closed his eyes and tried to remember.
When he opened
them, the paramedics were there and he could hear Scully
rattling off his vital signs. He felt a surge of pain spread all
over
his body as they lifted him onto a stretcher. He hurt like he
had
been in a fight but all he could remember was passing out. Could
someone else have been in the house and saved him and William
from a shape shifter?
"Mulder, John is going to ride with
you in the ambulance.
William and I will meet you at the hospital."
"Wait, wait. I want to see William."
Scully disappeared for a moment and then
returned with William
in her arms. William looked drained. His head lay on Scully's
shoulder and he was grasping his teddy bear limply in one hand.
"He was curled up beside you when we got here."
"Is he okay?"
"He's fine. Just hungry and tired."
Mulder reached up and touched his son's
leg. "He said my name,
Scully. He said Mulder, clear as a bell."
"Sure he did, Mulder."
The paramedic cut in, "Ma'am, we have
to get him to the
hospital."
Scully leaned down to kiss Mulder on the
forehead. When she
stood up Mulder could see something narrow and metallic
poking out of William's diaper. It reminded Mulder of the
devices used to stab an alien in the back of its neck. Seeing
Mulder's glance, William dropped the teddy bear and pushed the
object out of sight. As the paramedics wheeled him out, Mulder
could have sworn William winked at him.
No, it couldn't be possible. Could it?
The End
x x x
All feedback is appreciated at annripley@hotmail.com.