Chapter Nine - Clarification...

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by each experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, "I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

“After the ‘incident’ in Tunguska I stayed in Russia.  A while later, I found out that you had learned of the other rock that had been discovered, which contained the Black Oil.  Of course you wanted it, and I, of course, could not let you have it, so I had a man by the name of Vassily Peskow hide it in Terma, North Dakota.  There he effectively destroyed it by fire from the oil refinery.”  He pauses for a sip of coffee; suddenly dying for a shot of Bailey’s to go with it.  However, steadfastly ignoring the urge, he continues.

“Now you, Mulder, naturally became irate by what happened, and yet--again--failed to realize that what I had done was for the good of everyone involved; not because of some personal vendetta against you.  Sadly, being the paranoid person that you are, not that it is a bad quality mind you; you once again hated me.

“Coming to this conclusion, I knew I would have to go into seclusion until the heat died down.  So, I stayed in Russia, until I found out about Dana’s cancer.  I couldn’t make my presence known, for obvious reasons, but I wouldn’t allow her to die, either.  Especially, over some sick logic Spender had in his mind about finally separating the two of you, as a team.

“The two of you work so well together; it is practically unheard of, even in such a place as the FBI.  As I told Dana last night, I have always admired you and the last thing on Earth I would do is try to keep you and her apart, as a unit.  The both of you have come so far.  I saw what it did to you when she was taken the first time, and I saw what it did to her when you were taken back in May.  You two are a lot like twins.  Neither one of you can seem to function properly without the other.

“Now, obviously, you will have to find a way to accept the fact that I’m a part of Dana’s life, because I’m not going anywhere.  I love her too much to let her go.  However, I am very happy that you are back, and you are well, because now I have the chance to watch the two of you work again.  This time, by your side, and not from the shadows.”

Mulder, taking a sip of his own coffee, stays silent.

I can’t believe I’m actually touched by his sentiment!  How the hell do I respond to that?!

 “Okay, back to Dana’s cancer.”  Alex continues, realizing that Mulder is not going to say anything.  “I returned to D.C., had the chip taken from the larky who was going to ditch it into the Potomac, and sent it to the Pentagon with Kritschgau with instructions on where to place it, and how to lure you there.  You retrieved it.  She recovered.”

Dana looks at him long and hard.

Because of this man, this man I had hated-fiercely hated-for so long, I’m alive.

She then turns and looks at Mulder.

Because of this man, this man I have followed without question, and trusted like no other, I am alive.  The irony is a bit spooky.

 

The mood in the room grows somber.  Reflective.  As each person sits and thinks about what they have heard.

Mulder, having a hard time believing everything he is hearing, realizes that as long as it is a truth that is being presented, no matter how far fetched it may seem; he will eventually believe.

Therefore, no matter how reluctant he is to do so, his mind keeps saying that Krycek’s words are true, and in his heart he is starting to believe it.

“I want more, Krycek.  I want…everything.”

“After Dana’s cancer was cured I went back to Russia for almost a year.  Then I came out of hiding.  Not so much because I wanted to, more than because; I had to.  Because that is when the Rebels came.”

“The Rebels?”  Monica asks.  “Who are the Rebels?”

“They are aliens, themselves, who are, like us, against the Grays.  They are trying to prevent the colonization of the Earth.  You would recognize one immediately, if you saw it.  They have no eyes, noses or mouths.  They have been mutilated shut.  To keep out the Purity.

“I first came into contact with their work in Kazakhstan when a group of Russian UFO watchers were burned to death.  One boy, Dmitri, was found in the woods the next morning by me and a group of other Russian men.  We had seen the smoke and gone to investigate.  It was there I came across Marita.  She was with a group of U.N. troops, also investigating.  I knew she worked for Spender, so I told her to tell him that I finally had a reliable witness, as to what was going on.  The boy.”  He pauses for some water.  “By that time, however, you, Mulder, had become a non-believer.  I don’t know how, so maybe later you can explain, but you were.  That is, until Cassandra Spender showed up with her ‘little boy’ in tow.”

Alex looks down.

“I know Jeffrey is dead, as do you, Mulder, and I must admit that it had been a bit unnerving when I found out.  Jeffrey would have been a great agent, had he been allowed to live.”

“Little boy?”  Monica asks.

“Cassandra Spender?”  John questions.

“Cassandra was Spender’s wife.  Well, former wife.”  Mulder states.

“Jeffrey Spender was a Special Agent assigned to the X-Files after they had been reopened.”  Dana adds.

“The X-Files were closed and reopened?”  John inquires, stunned.

Walter, Dana, Alex and Mulder each stare at him, resigned.

“More times than we can remember.”  Walter replies, softly.

The room falls silent.  Everyone knows that Alex wants to continue, but all of them feel his uneasiness at having to do so.

“Are you all right, Alex?”  Dana finally asks, concerned.

“I’m fine, Dana.  I’m fine.”  He smiles at her.  Using her favored words somehow feels comfortable, and now he understands why she tends to use them.

He goes on, then, as if he had never paused.

“Cassandra Spender was taken by the aliens in November of nineteen seventy-three.  The same night Samantha Mulder went missing.  Samantha was taken by a group of men, and tests were performed on her.  Much like what happened to Dana, except that Samantha was also cloned.  Cassandra was given to the aliens, for a different series of tests.  They wanted an Alien/Human Hybrid.  It took twenty five years, but They eventually succeeded.”  He stops again, looking at Mulder; waiting patiently for a response.

Mulder silently cries at the memory of his beloved sister, but he looks up at Krycek and waves for him to keep going.

“What They never counted on was our ability to generate a vaccine.  They look down on us, as some form of subservient life force.  Slaves, if you will.  Only here for one purpose; to host Them, while They gestate.  Then They can throw us away and have our planet.  They are wrong.  With a vaccine, we can beat these sons of bitches.  But, it will take some time and effort.  Time, I feel, we are quickly running out of.  If we don’t act quickly, it will be too damn late to do anything.  Except await our imminent deaths.”

Everyone stares at him, taking in the words he speaks.  Though they were spoken quietly, they resound in their heads like gongs.

Imminent.  Deaths.

“On the plus side, however, after a similar incident at Skyland Mountain, where other UFO watchers were burned to death, the media began to take notice.  Unfortunately, the public simply brushed it aside, thinking of it as a mass suicide conducted by nothing more than a group of sick, twisted individuals caught up in a doomsday cult.  Much like Heaven’s Gate.  Which was exactly what The Syndicate hoped would happen, so as not to cause mass panic.  Surprisingly, Mulder, at that time being doubtful about his beliefs, thought the same.  That it was merely a cult.  That is, until Dana happened to fall victim to it also, by ending up at Ruskin Dam with Cassandra Spender.  Thank God she wasn’t killed; only slightly injured!”  He exclaims, before pausing for a moment to regain his calm persona.

“How did you know that?”  Dana asks him curiously, not recalling this tale being told the previous evening.

“I told you, Dana, I was watching your back.  But…let me go back for a minute.  Marita had imprisoned me aboard the Russian freighter that I had taken to get back to the States, along with the boy Dmitri.  This was after I had come into port in New York Harbor.  How the hell that woman knew I was there is beyond me, but she did.  She came aboard and tried to play kissy-face with me, and when I was not looking, drugged me.  When I awoke some time later, she was gone.  As was the boy, and she had handcuffed me to a portion of the ship.”  He pauses again, looks at Dana to see how she is holding up, and once satisfied that she is okay, continues.

“The British Man then showed up, Mulder.  The same man who later died after giving you the vaccine.  Anyway, he showed up on the ship.  His appearance confirmed for me that Marita was working for The Syndicate.  He offered me my freedom on one condition.  The vaccine.  He demanded that I hand over the vial that I kept with me at all times.  What he failed to mention to me, at the time, was why he wanted it.  I found out, later, that Marita had contracted the Virus from Dmitri, who had contracted it in Russia.  Hence why I kept a vial on me.  The British Man wanted to use it on Marita.  To test its worth.”

Mulder finally looks into Krycek’s eyes and interjects, “Marita called me.  She told me of the burnings in Russia and she also told me she had a witness, but before she could say anything more the line went dead.  Or rather, she disappeared and left me hanging, yelling into the phone.”

“That is because Dmitri had attacked her.”

“How did he get infected, Krycek?  Why wasn’t he administered the vaccine?  Especially if you had it with you?”  Mulder asks, suspicious once more.

“He was infected while in a holding cell in Russia.  Yet, though I knew I should have, I didn’t give him the vaccine because I wanted to show him to you.  To prove to you what was happening.  But, before I could do that Marita had taken him, thus becoming infected herself.  The British Man wanted the vaccine to use on her, to see that it worked.  I am not proud of my actions in that regard, to the boy; however, I did what I felt, at that time, was the right thing to do.  By withholding the vaccine from him.”  He pauses, and then turns to look at Dana.  “In response to your question, Dana, that is how I knew about you.  The Brit--Wheaton Maury--had also informed me of your condition.  He told me about Ruskin Dam.  About the Rebels attacking the people who were there.  That you had been there.  I gave him the vaccine, to buy my freedom, so that I could see you.  Once I was free, I snuck into the hospital, when Mulder was not there of course, and took a peek at you, myself.  I had to see, with my own eyes; see that you were going to be okay.”

He looks away from her, tired, wishing he didn’t have to finish.  Afraid of hurting her, again.  He knows though, that he must finish what he started, before he loses his courage to do so.

She raises her hand to his face, to make him look at her again.  “Alex, I am okay.  Really.  Please, go on.”  She smiles at him, comfortingly.  Wanting him to do what they both know he must do.

He smiles at her, grateful that she is here.  For him.  He turns his attention back to Mulder.  “I gave him the vial to use on Marita.  He told me, later, that while they were performing their tests on her, they happened to catch one of the Rebels.  I also found out later that, for a reason I can not explain, the vaccine failed to work on her, and they became stupid, scared men, and turned the Rebel over to the Grays.  That is when I decided to pay you a visit at your apartment.  That is when I tried to explain to you, what was really happening.

“I told you about Kazakhstan, about Skyland Mountain, about Ruskin Dam.  Don’t you see, Mulder?  They were all beacon points for the Grays.  The Rebels burned those people before they could be taken.  To prevent colonization!  I gave you the location of the Rebel prisoner.  I warned you, because of the Resistance.  The Rebels are on our side!  I needed you to know.  And damn Mulder, but you actually believed me!  For once.  I was so pleased!  Until I learned that, in your attempt to rescue the Rebel, you encountered the Bounty Hunter, thus losing not only the Rebel, but your memory of the entire incident.

“I was crushed.  Pissed would be a good term to use, too.  Because that meant we had lost not only one of our best allies, the Rebel.  But that you were back to hating my guts.  So I left again.  Back to Russia.”

“But I do remember you being in my apartment, Krycek.  I do remember going with Scully to get the Rebel.  I just have no recollection of the rest of it.”  Mulder says, almost sadly, as though, if only he could remember, he could have prevented what was to come.

Alex looks at him, knowing it was not Mulder’s fault.

I just wish that we had not lost so much precious time.

“Then came Gibson Praise.  A child both gifted and cursed, with the ability to be clairvoyant.  I was summoned by Wheaton to find Spender.  The Syndicate felt that, with the discovery of Gibson, The Project was in even greater peril.  So, I did what I was told.  I had to in order to maintain my cover.  Therefore, while you and Dana were trying to protect Gibson, I found Spender.  He was alive and well in Canada, and I forced him to come back to the States.

“Remember how we had thought him to be—finally, dead?  Nope.  He was just on an extended vacation.  We came back, only to discover that someone else had, too.  Diana Fowley.”

Both Dana and Mulder stare at him.

Then Dana turns and glares at Mulder.  “Unfortunately.”  She mutters, before turning away, disgusted.

“Who was Diana?”  Monica inquires, intrigued to hear about another woman in Mulder’s life, and quite surprised by Dana’s reaction to the name.

“My ex-wife.”  Mulder replies, bluntly, looking straight at Scully.

Scully gasps, and turns her head back around swiftly, staring at him sharply; ice in her eyes.  “And you accuse Alex of holding back secrets?!”  She exclaims.

“Not now, Scully.  She’s dead, what does it matter?”  Mulder asks, clearly annoyed at the turn of events, and once again feeling like a real ass.  “I know I should have told you, but I…”  He pauses a moment, taking a breath, and then continues, “I didn’t think it mattered.”

“Are you out of your mind?  Of course it mattered!  Okay, so now it doesn’t seem as important, but damn it, Mulder.  It would have.  Do you know what her presence did to me?  Do you have any idea about the doubts it gave me?  In my ability to talk to you?  In my ability as an agent?  It sure as hell explains a few things in retrospect!  Your wife?”

“Such as?”  He asks; his curiosity piqued by her sudden mood change.

“Such as why the hell you were so damn willing to trust her over…”  She stops, looks down to wipe a tear from her eye, and then looking up at him, continues.  “Over me.”

“I did not trust her over you, Scully.  It was simply…  Shit.  Some of what she said made sense.  Plus, in the end, she did help you to save my life, even though she was a traitor.”  He looks at her, pain in his heart, wanting to convey how sorry he is for the whole damn mess that had happened to her, to them, because of his perceived loyalty to his former wife.  “Besides, she meant nothing to me, really.  You…you meant everything.”

“What the hell does that mean?”  She wonders aloud, as everyone returns their gazes toward her.

“Let me clarify.”  He states, not wanting his words to be misconstrued.  “You are my best friend.  She was my enemy.  It took you to show me that.  For that, I am grateful.”

She watches him for a moment, and then sighs.  “It’s over, Mulder.  What happened happened.  All we can do now is move on.”  She squeezes Alex’s thigh, indicating she is dropping the subject, and says, “Please continue, Alex.”

Mulder stares at her for a long moment, and then smiles.  She really has changed.  Just a year ago she would have been itching for an argument regarding Diana.  Now?  Now she knows it doesn’t matter.  Or, she simply doesn’t care.

This last thought bothers him, but he knows it is useless at this point to open the subject again, after she has so clearly closed it.  He reminds himself to bring it up again later, when they are alone.

“I’m sorry, Dana.  Mulder.  I wasn’t trying to start an argument between the two of you.  I was only making a correlation.  To see if Mulder would realize the coincidence of Diana’s reappearance into his life.”

All of a sudden, Mulder and Dana both burst into laughter, surprising everyone at the table, and scaring the hell out of Alex in the process.

“Alex.”  Dana says soothingly, trying to reassure him.  “It was not you.”

“No, it wasn’t.”  Mulder agrees, smiling.

“We will always spat over that woman.”  She continues.  “Much like, at family reunions, brothers and sisters will always argue over certain circumstances of their youth.  It has nothing to do with your statement.”  She smiles at him and he visibly relaxes.  “It is simply something that happens.  I didn’t mean to make you feel badly.”  She says, hoping to make him feel better.

“She is right, Alex.”  Mulder assures him.  “It always happens.”

Alex looks down at the table and grins.  Mulder just talked to me like a real person.  Maybe I am making progress with him.  God I hope so.

“Please, Alex.  Continue.”  Mulder coaxes, recognizing that he is warming up to the man, even if it is still somewhat unwillingly.  Maybe I should learn something from Scully.  Trust her, like she trusted me, even when Diana tried to get her claws back into me.  Maybe, if he continues, it will not be so bad, to get to know him.  He diverts his full attention to the man, hoping that the story has a somewhat happy ending.  That Scully is right.  Like she usually is.

“The only reason I brought her up was so that you would realize why she showed up.  It most certainly was not because of some ‘long lost love’ syndrome.  It had to do with the fact that she was working for him.  Spender.  She had been in Europe for awhile tracking the women who had been abducted.”

“See?!”  Dana suddenly exclaims.  “Isn’t that what I tried to tell you, Mulder?”

Mulder knows this will be a losing battle with Scully, if he opens his mouth to answer her, so he merely smiles at her and nods, gesturing Alex to go on.  Kind of pointless now anyway, she is dead.

Monica glares at him.  Hard.  She cannot understand why he would keep something so important, an ex-wife, from Dana, of all people.  It makes her wonder how things would be with her, if they were to ever get that far.

Dana glances at Monica, wanting to convey to her friend that it truly is no big deal.  Not anymore, and she will explain later to her, if she would like to hear the story.

Monica understands Dana’s look, and relaxes, knowing that whatever the tale is that is told, Dana would never lie to her.  She brings her attention back to Alex and the conversation at hand.

“Gibson Praise was brought to Wheaton and me after he had been forcefully taken from Diana, by Spender.  My role was to be his guardian, and of course, the chauffer.  Therefore, I really had no idea what they were planning to do with the very gifted child.  All I do know is that, upon taking one glance at me, he knew instinctively which side I was truly on, and he smiled at me.  He knew why I was doing what I was doing, by pretending to be on the side of the Syndicate.  I was grateful that he knew.  It actually made me feel better.  I just wish, for his sake, that I had known what they were going to do to him.  I wish now, that I had hidden him away, when I had the chance.  But, what with everything else that was happening, I couldn’t risk leaving the area for a prolonged amount of time.  Then, I learned about what happened in Dallas.  What it was that had been found by those boys.  That became my top priority.

“I had to find a way to stop the killings of innocents.  I found out about the bee colonies and the crops that were being grown, but I didn’t know how to stop any of it.  So I turned my attention to what I knew could stop the effects, if those bees were let loose on the public.  The vaccine.  When I learned that Dana had been stung by one of those damn bees, I feared the worst.  I knew where Spender had her, and I knew I had to get the vaccine to her, but did not know how to do that, without you thinking me a fool, Mulder.  Or killing me.”  He pauses again, and watches Mulder keenly.  Why is he so quiet?

“After I gave the vaccine and the instructions to Wheaton, I waited, hiding out.  Until I heard that you had made it safely to Antarctica and to Dana.”  He looks over at her and smiles, then turns to Mulder.  “Didn’t you ever wonder how there could have been a chopper waiting for you, Mulder?  After the two of you made it from the chasm of ice to the Sno-Cat?”

Mulder and Scully look at him in earnest.

How had someone, anyone, known where we were?  Dana ponders again, for the umpteenth time.  It is a question that has bothered her for some time, because she could never answer it.

Neither could Mulder.

“Jesus, Mulder!  Don’t you realize if I sent you there, even unbeknownst to you, to get Dana out that I would find a way to get you off the ice?  Back home?”  Alex runs his hand through his hair, trying to calm his nerves.  “Always there, but never seen.  That is the way it has been, for years.  Now?  I am tired, Mulder.  Tired of the dark, smelly, underbelly of this fucking world.  Tired of running for my life.  Tired of being blamed for things that I would never do, unless I absolutely had to do them.  I don’t deserve to be there, Mulder, and damn it, I will not return to it!  I deserve to be in the light.  I will have a life!  I will be happy!”  Alex vows, not meaning to become angry, but now that he is, grateful that he, at last, has Mulder’s undivided attention.  “I want so much to prove to you how severely these past eight years have hurt me, as well.  To make you realize what I, too, have lost.  What I almost did lose.”

Mulder flinches at the fierceness of the younger man’s voice, but he does not back away.  He feels, in his heart, Krycek is right.  He also understands; he is partly to blame for the man’s pain.

“Jesus!  I had no idea that you had been in this shit so deep.  On our side.  I mean, I just always thought you were a sorry son of a bitch.  Out to gain as much as you could, for yourself.  It is what it always looked like to me.”  Mulder states, conflicted by his feelings for the man.  I can’t believe this!  I am starting to like this guy.

“I tried to tell you, Mulder!  But you would never listen.  You couldn’t get passed what you thought to be the truth, long enough to hear the truth!”

“Alex.”  Scully speaks, gently, quietly.  Trying to calm him with her soothing tone.  To show him that it is okay.

“I understand how you feel.  I can recall the occasional times that I, too, had been left in the dark by Mulder’s actions.  Thinking that the light of knowledge would never grace me.  However, that is over now.  Those times have past.  All there is now is the process of getting this night over with, and starting over.  To look toward the future.

“My future.

“Your future.

”Our future.

“The future of all of us that will not be spent in the dark, either.  Not if I have anything to say about it.”

After a few moments, Alex calms.  “I am sorry, Mulder.  I didn’t mean to lash out at you.  Not now.  It is all in the past, what I speak about, so there’s no need to throw anger into the equation.  Whatever has happened happened, and it can’t be undone.  However, we can prevent some of what can happen, if we all work together.”  He stops a moment to take a deep, cleansing breath.

“Once Diana came into the fold, I knew that I had to be extremely careful.  She was playing both sides, just as I was.  But not like I was.  She was playing your side to gain your trust, while hindering you all the while.  Giving every speck of information she could receive, back to Spender.  I, on the other hand, was doing just the opposite.  Playing their side, so I could get information to you.  The SR819, regarding nanotechnology, was not supposed to go awry like it had.  Walter was not supposed to be infected, only watched.  His security check was all that was left for the bill to pass the Senate.  However, Spender’s contacts in Tunisia and elsewhere thought it was taking too long for him to do his job.  Thus, they infected him by way of touch.  They felt that if they could control him, they could get what they wanted from him.  Also, they realized, not with just that damn bill.  They could turn him into their puppet, to do with as they pleased.  I couldn’t allow that to happen, either.  Walter had become too important an ally to you and Dana.  So, when Walter was in the hospital, near death, I confronted Senator Matheson and threatened to expose him if he didn’t tell me where the controller was.  The Senator made the correct decision and told me where I could find the Tunisian Diplomat.  You, of course, were just about one step, maybe two, behind me.  The Senator then let you in on what exactly was swimming around in Walter’s bloodstream.  Nanobots.

“While I am glad you know what it is, I’m also glad to inform you, like Dana’s cancer, which can never come back unless that chip is removed, the nanobots in Walter can never awaken, without using this.”

Alex reaches over and takes the small device from Walter’s outstretched hand, placing it on the table, in front of Mulder.

Mulder looks first at Krycek, and then at Skinner.  “This is why you were so willing to believe him, isn’t it, Sir?  Why you befriended this man?  Because he gave you this?”

“Yes.”

“If he handed it over to you, what?  Six months ago?  Why is it still here?  Why didn’t you destroy it?”

“To give you the proof I knew you would ask for.  Actually, what Dana would ask for.  I really didn’t expect to be having this conversation with you, Mulder.  You were dead.  I wanted to be able to prove Alex’s loyalties.  He has only used it once; in the six months we have been friends.  But his intentions were good, so I said nothing about it, except that it hurts like you would not believe.”  Walter smiles shyly.

“But there is no use for it now.  None whatsoever, so it can be destroyed.  I want it to be destroyed, rather than to have to ever worry about it falling into the wrong hands.”  Alex rejoins.

Mulder lays the instrument aside.  “Destroy it.  I have seen the proof of your intentions, Krycek, and your story of the last few hours has made sense, to a point.  However, what I want to know is, why did you wait so long?  Why didn’t you come forward sooner?”

“Because you would not have believed me.  Besides, there is more.  If I had come forward before now, I would have lost the connections I had on the inside.  I would have lost the edge I needed, to learn what I know.  What I found out, when Cassandra came back.”

“Cassandra Spender?”  John asks.  “I thought you said she was burned to death.”

“No.  I said that most were burned to death.  Though Dana survived the incident at Ruskin Dam, Cassandra Spender was not among the dead, nor among the living.  I found out later, through unofficial channels of course,” he smiles at Dana, “that, after Dana had been released from the hospital, she had gone to see a hypnotist.  While there, she explained that Cassandra had been taken by the ship that had hovered over the dam, when the Rebels started attacking.  I put two and two together and realized that she had been abducted, again.  Thus, when Cassandra came back, a year later, and it was found out by the rest of the Syndicate and Mulder and Dana, I knew I had to find out what was going on.  I had to know if the experiments were a success.  They were.  After twenty-five years, Cassandra Spender was indeed an Alien/Human Hybrid.  Which means now, the Grays can invade at any time, but it also means that we can fight Them off.  The vaccine that Bill Mulder had come up with, though successful, was still weak, still flawed.  Yet, with Cassandra’s DNA added, it has the power to become something so valuable, men would kill for it.

“Cassandra is the only one who knew for certain that the aliens were not to be trusted.  She knew about the Black Oil and what it both is and does.  She also knew that her just being alive put the planet in danger of immediate colonization.  This is exactly why she sought out Mulder in the first place.  She had to get him back on the side of the Believers.  Hell, Dana, though reluctantly, did believe her.  But, they were off the X-Files.  Jeffrey Spender and Diana were the team down in the basement, and Jeffrey was pissed.  He felt the X-Files were nothing but a joke, a ruse.  That Mulder had somehow, himself, managed to make everyone around him believe in the possibilities of Extraterrestrial Life.”

Alex stops a moment, remembering the look in the young man’s eyes, when the truth was finally thrust at him.  That he was nothing but a pawn in a fucking game.  That the aliens were real, and that his father was the Cigarette-Smoking Man. 

Alex continues.  “Spender tried very hard to get his son on his side.  One night, shortly after Cassandra had reappeared, CGB contacted me and asked me to drive his son to the home of the lead Elder.  I obliged, as I wanted to know exactly how the young agent would react, upon seeing the truth in front of his own eyes.  His father had instructed Jeffrey to kill the alien that was posing as the Elder.  How the hell he knew the Elder was an imposter I’ll never know, but, I did know what that meant for Agent Spender.  So, I followed Jeffrey into the house.  Upon seeing the imposter, however, Jeffrey became scared and couldn’t kill him.  He had too much honesty in him, and he could not kill in cold blood, though that is not what it would have been.  The imposter attacked him, forcing me to act, and I killed the thing with one stab at the base of his neck with my own stiletto.”

Alex saddens at the memory of having to see the look of surprise on Jeffrey’s face.

“That is when I thought it best that I inform Jeffrey of what kind of man his father truly was.  I told him how it was his father’s doing that his mother was who she had become.  He realized, that night, that by being the over-protective son, he was actually playing right into his father’s hands, and had indirectly allowed the experiments to continue.  Cassandra, herself, however, had other ideas and fled the hospital, ending up at Mulder’s apartment.”  Alex abruptly stops his storytelling, and stands.

He leans over and helps Dana to her feet, while she looks at him quizzically.

“What are you doing, Alex?”

He smiles at her.  “Don’t worry, My Sweet, I just think we could all use a break, and I thought you might want to walk around a little.  Stretch those little legs of yours.”  He states, as he grins devilishly at her.

She smiles at him in return.  What a doll.  I will never, as long as I live, get used to the sweet, gentle way in which he cares for me and treats me.  It is very nice, and damn if it doesn’t make me hunger for him.

Alex’s actions –and statement—shocks the hell out of Fox William Mulder.

He just teased her about her legs and she simply smiled at him?  Shit!  Not too long ago, I made a similar comment, and she was extremely indignant.  This really is turning into an interesting evening.

He continues to watch the two of them together, as they each walk around the table, she to stretch and he to go and make some more coffee.  By merely looking at them, I realize they will last as a couple.

Did I just think that?  They just seem so damn right together.  He smiles and wonders, not for the first time, Why did she follow me for so long?  This is what she wanted, needed, craved.  A man who will love her unconditionally, undeniably, and unequivocally.  The fact that it is Alex Krycek?

The irony is not lost on Mulder and he has to smile, in spite of the situation at hand.  He continues to look at Alex, and then it happens.

The first inklings of true belief seeps into Mulder’s mind.

If any man could ever get Dana Katherine Scully to smile, as she is smiling at Krycek, he should be more than trustworthy.  She is not a fool.  Also, I trust her.  Implicitly.

A feeling of utter peace washes over him then, as he watches his friends gathered about the room.  He stands up, much to the surprise of those still seated at the table and makes his way to the kitchen, after Krycek.

Dana watches him from her position against the wall, where she is stretching her tired back muscles and she wonders what the hell he is doing, but she makes no move to get in his way, nor does she say anything.  She only watches him, as he walks up and stands behind Alex, careful not to startle the man, as he works around the kitchen preparing coffee.  He is very adept at what he is doing, even though he only has one fully-functional hand, and his movements impress Mulder.

“Alex?”  He asks, quietly, trying to keep from causing him to jump.

Alex turns around, a look of mixed emotions crossing his face, as he peers at Mulder.  “Yes, Mulder?”

Mulder clears his throat, looking at him, finally seeing him.  He feels he is doing the right thing, and realizes he has been in the wrong, for a long time, and he is a nervous wreck.  It is not everyday that he admits when he has erred.

“You wanted something, Mulder?”  Alex asks, careful to keep all emotion from his voice.

Words will not come out of Mulder’s mouth, no matter how hard he wants or tries to get them to, so he simply smiles at him, and extends his hand.

Alex lowers his gaze and stares at it.  Visibly shocked and shaken.  This is something I would never have expected.  Never!

Dana stands, wide-eyed, leaning against the wall, grateful for the support it gives her.  Knowing she most surely would have fallen at the sight in front of her, if it were not there.

“I owe you an apology.”  Mulder states, finally able to move his tongue and form words.  “I owe you a lot more than that, actually, but an apology first and foremost.  If I had not been so bullheaded and stubborn, I probably would have been able to see the truth long ago.  What you have done here, tonight, took guts.  For the first time in my life, I believe you.  Truly believe you.  All I have to do is watch the way you look at Scully to know that you would never hurt her.  That she trusts you.”  He pauses a moment to peek at Scully, then returns his attention to Alex.  “If Scully trusts you, after everything that has happened to her and I, than who am I, to go against her?  She has saved me more times that I can count, and I know that she would never hurt me deliberately.  If, after almost ten years, I can still see in her eyes, and I do, that same level of respect and trust in me, than I know that what you say must be true.  Because she believes you.  As I believe in her.  So, I am asking you, Alex Krycek, to please forgive me, for all that I have done to you in the past and yes, let us start over.  Let us all have a new beginning.”

He still holds his hand out, not knowing if Krycek will take it or not, but not putting it back down either, until he knows for sure.

What Alex actually does, however, renders him speechless and causes Dana to cry out with joy.

Alex takes not only Mulder’s proffered hand, but he pulls him into a bear hug, and holds on like a toddler to his mother.  And then he cries.

After eight long, hard years of pain, sorrow, loss, death and even resurrection, Alex Krycek finally has peace.  He has Fox Mulder’s forgiveness and nothing, except for Dana’s love, has ever felt so good.

Alex pushes Mulder away and can only look at him; having no idea what to say.  What words could possibly convey how happy I feel at this moment in time?  He opts to remain silent.

Mulder does not need to hear any words to know how he has just relieved this man of his suffering.  It is written all over his handsome face.  Mulder smiles at him, basking in the feelings of peace and tranquility that envelope him, as he stands there in the middle of Skinner’s kitchen.

Dana can tolerate the sight no longer and rushes up to the two men.  She puts an arm around each of them and they slowly, carefully, take her into theirs, and the three of them embrace.

It is over.

Finally over.

The three of them can now bury the past and move on.  Together, as it should have been so many years ago.

Walter, John and Monica are still seated at the table, talking quietly amongst themselves about everything that they have heard, each understanding that whatever is going on in the kitchen, it is beyond their scope of understanding.  Walter, though he has been here almost as long as the unrest between the three individuals, knows this is for them to work out.  He knows to stay put and talk to his two newest additions to the X-Files.

John and Monica, having only heard the story just today, know that whatever is going on, it is powerful and would have nothing to do with them.  Only the future contains the destinies of these two agents among the folds of friendship that are quickly—and solidly—developing inside the walls of A.D. Skinner’s apartment.  Not the past.

It is enough for them.

After a few minutes have past, Dana pulls away from the men and, grabbing a paper towel, dabs at her eyes, grinning.  They smile back at her.  No words are spoken, but the feelings she has are speaking loud and clear.  Alex and Mulder again shake hands, and then Mulder takes the coffee decanter and follows them out of the kitchen, back to the table.

Dana makes a quick diversion to the rest room and, upon returning, finds everyone laughing and chatting about Kersh and how much of a stiff he has become.  Upon seeing her, they quiet down to a friendly murmur and wait for her to take her seat.

She pauses a moment, after sitting down, and then broaches the subject of Alex’s reinstatement, with Mulder.

“Mulder?”

“Yes, Scully?”  He looks at her, as he takes a sip from his freshly made cup.

“What do you think about the idea of having Alex reinstated at the FBI?  With the knowledge he has, combined with all of the experience in this room, I believe he would be more than an asset to the X-Files.  Hell, he used to be on the team, anyway.  He knows how it works.  Technically, he has done nothing wrong, Mulder.  He should be allowed to be reinstated.  With the Syndicate gone, I think that the only thing that could stop us now is us.”

“Or Kersh.”  Walter reminds her.

“No.”  She ponders.  “I don’t think he should be a problem.  I mean, who does he have to answer to now?  Spender is dead.”

Mulder watches her and contemplates what she is saying.  Having Alex back would make a great impact.  But all five of us in that little office?  “Scully, where are we all going to fit?  That office is small.  There is only one desk in it.”

She smiles at him.  “Actually, we have two now.”

He unwittingly shoots up an eyebrow.

“Well, Mulder.  What did you think I was going to do?  We thought you were dead.  I had one brought down for John.”  She continues to smile at him.

“Okay, two desks for five people.”  He grins back at her.

“I’ve been thinking.  I’ll be on maternity leave for awhile.  Alex, Monica and I can work from my apartment.  Or Walter’s.  While you and John work out of the Hoover Building.  That will give us at least three months to figure something else out.  Besides, Mulder, how often were we actually ever at the office?  Not too often.  We were always out and about, traveling the countryside.  Looking for little grey men or liver-eating shape shifters.”  She chuckles.

Alex has to smile, too, as he remembers how often they really had been in that office, back when he first met Mulder and Dana.

Walter looks at his agents, all of them, and smiles.  Long way from when we first met and were barely civil to one another.  Now we are like one happy family.  So to speak.

“I think having Krycek back among us, where he belongs, is a great idea, Scully.”  Mulder chuckles.  “Won’t it just piss off Kersh to absolutely no end; having both Krycek and me back at the same time?”

They all laugh together at his comment.

Alex clears his throat and looks at Mulder, realizing that the continued use of his last name is just a ‘Mulder quirk’.  He might as well anyway.  Shit, Dana is carrying his child and he still doesn’t call her ‘Dana’.  He momentarily smirks, than becomes serious.  “I still have more to tell you, Mulder, if you are interested in hearing it.”

The mood, at once, becomes somber again.  But the tension of the last few hours is gone.  Now they are like a bunch of old friends, simply gathered around reminiscing the old times.  It makes it easier for Alex to continue, and for Mulder to listen.

“I am interested.  Please, go on.”  Mulder nudges.

“All right, where was I?”

“Cassandra Spender had gone to Mulder’s apartment.”  John offers.

“Yes.  She had.  Dana and Mulder can assist me here, as the only information I know about this, is what I learned from Diana Fowley.  From what she reported to the Syndicate.  So, hopefully, they can help fill in any gaps.  Such as, why exactly was she there?”  He asks.  “It most certainly was not for the reason that Diana played it to be.”

Mulder looks at Scully and she nods that it is all right with her, if he fills in the rest of the group on what happened between them that night.  He can now, safely, reveal exactly how close he had actually been to killing Cassandra Spender.

“She wanted me to kill her.  She was afraid.  Afraid that if she lived, there would be no way to stop the invasion from happening.  I almost obliged her, too.  She finally had me convinced.  However, just before I could squeeze the trigger, my front door was literally broken down by my ex-wife, because she decided to play the part of a big shot agent and have us dragged to Fort Marlene for a little government-issue shower.  After which, she fed us some more bullshit about Cassandra having contracted a contagious virus, thus needing to be isolated from the rest of the outside world, pending tests and an evaluation.”  Mulder pauses a moment while looking across the table at Scully.  “Of course, I should never have listened to her.  I should have trusted my partner about Diana.”  He stops once again, still looking at Scully.

She doesn’t know what to say to him, thus, she stays silent and simply motions, with a slight wave, for him to go on.

“Anyway, Cassandra had been taken away and hidden at Fort Marlene, and of course I went looking for her.  I came across Marita Covarrubias in a hallway, looking like death warmed over.  She told me the Syndicate had been performing tests on her.  Tests using Krycek’s vial of vaccine, to see if it worked against the Black Oil.  She informed me about how The Syndicate had started out in league with the aliens, but had decided against it, at some point, and were now only trying to buy some time, to get the vaccine to work properly, so they could fight.  Yet, now that Cassandra was a success, the aliens were going to go forth and start with the colonization.”  He pauses and smiles.  “After the incident at my apartment, Scully was out for the blood of Diana.  She went to The Gunmen and had them pull up all the information on her that they could find.  She called me to join her, which I did.  Only to have an argument between the two of us happen.  I refused to listen to her tirade about Diana’s involvement with The Syndicate.  She stormed out.”  He laughs a moment, causing Scully to glare at him.

“What she may not know is that her attitude toward Diana had actually, finally, started to put a seed of doubt into my thick head regarding Diana’s intentions.  So, I went to find my own answers, at her apartment.  Except what I found was Spender.  I put a gun to his head, and it took everything in me to keep from shooting him.  Oh how I wanted to, too, and I should have.  If I had killed him then…”  Mulder trails off for a moment, takes a sip of his coffee and then speaks once more.

“Anyway, he started talking and would not shut the hell up.  He told me it was my father’s idea to come up with the vaccine to fight the aliens, using their own DNA from some fetus that they had been given by the Grays.  The fetus was supposed to only be used in the Alien/Human Hybrid experiments, but, after Samantha was taken, my father decided to use it against Them.  Then Spender told me about El Rico Air Base.  He went on about how the aliens were coming back for the new Hybrid genes; that they were coming to permanently retrieve Cassandra.”

“Once I learned from one of Spender’s goons that Diana had Mulder and Scully in quarantine,”  Alex takes up,  “I left Maryland, flew to New York and went to the offices of the Syndicate, looking for Spender.  Instead, I found nothing but an empty suite, and Jeffrey.  I told him everything.  That he had been played for a fool.  I told him that They were coming, and The Syndicate was going to turn over his mother to Them, permanently.  He left in a fury and I followed, back to Fort Marlene.  I then found Spender’s Gray fetus to be missing.  I knew that if the suites were deserted, than the plan was indeed in action.  I thought that it might finally be the chance I had been looking for, to give Mulder the proof he needed.”

“Oh my God!  I have seen the fetus!”  Dana exclaims.

Everyone, including Mulder, look at her, incredulously.

“When?”  Alex asks, clearly surprised at this new revelation.

“I saw it, several years ago, at, oh my God….  At Fort Marlene!  Purity Control.  Deep Throat.”  She pauses and looks at the table, trying to keep her sudden tears from falling.  She takes a deep breath and looks up, at Mulder.  “The night that he died.  I had gone and actually stolen the fetus from Fort Marlene.  I used it, to get you back.”

Mulder looks at her, at a loss for words.  “You never told me, Scully.  Why not?  Why didn’t you tell me that?”

“Mulder, our partnership was too new.  I was still walking that thin line of ‘Do you trust me, or not?’ and I didn’t know how you would react, knowing that I had placed myself in mortal danger, getting into that facility, just to save you.  Not to mention the fact that, I was in extreme denial of its existence the entire time I had it.  Mulder, I held it in my hands.  I looked at it with my eyes, and yet?  Yet, I still found myself unable to admit that it was real.  That the possibility for Extraterrestrial Life was a reality.  It went against everything I believed in.  My science.  My faith.  I didn’t know you as well, then, as I do now, and I just couldn’t bring myself to speak of it.  Instead, I made myself deny it.  I placed it into a box and shoved it into the corner recesses of my mind, and forgot about it.  I was not ready, for a very long time, to acknowledge it.”

“Alex mentioning it now, has brought this back for you?”  Mulder asks, the psychologist in him coming to the fore.

“Yes.”

“Are you okay with that knowledge, Scully?  The realization that you, yourself, held the fetus of an Extraterrestrial Biological Entity?”  He presses.

“Yes.”  She replies, steadfastly.  “You want to know why?”

“Of course, please.  I am very interested.”

“Because I know it can be killed.”

All eyes around the table go wide at her remark.

“What do you mean, Dana?”  John asks.

“Just that, It, the fetus, was a lot like the fetus of a human being.  It had soft tissue, muscles, a head, and a nose.  And eyes.  Jesus, those eyes.  Granted they were closed in It’s death, however, I already know what I would have found had they been open.”

“What is that, Scully?”  Mulder inquires, softly.

“Fear, Mulder.”

They all watch her, knowing how hard this admission must be for her.  Of her belief in the aliens.

“Scully?  Are you okay?”  Mulder tenderly asks, reaching across the table to rub his fingers gently along her forearm, squeezing slightly to show he cares.  To show her that he does not think any less of her for being so bold about how she feels about Them.  That she thinks of them as an invading insect.

“I’m fine.”

He chuckles, while everyone else bites their bottom lips to keep from doing the same.  “I’m sure you are.  However, I am glad to hear it.  Your catch phrase, if you will.  I’ve missed it.

It is her turn to laugh and with it, the tension diminishes from the room.

“Unfortunately, Mulder, I realize that holding an alien fetus, knowing the power I could have had by having it, to control the Grays had it actually been living, is a lot different than the ability to kill one of the mature ‘beings’, if you will.  I know, from personal experience, that it is a lot harder to kill a mature one, even if I had such a bargaining chip.  However, it does give me a little bit of comfort to know that it is possible.  That They can die.  We just need to find a way to do it, collectively.  I am so scared, Mulder.”  She admits, looking up at him, forgetting everyone else in the room.  “What if we can’t do it?  What if we fail?  I don’t know if I could go through, again, what I have just gone through over the past six months.  I don’t know if I will be able to survive losing you, or anyone else I love, to these, these, Things!”

“Scully.  I know you are afraid.  Trust me, I know.  I’m terrified, too.  However, I know we can.  We will win.  Hell, with Krycek’s help, I have already managed to kill off an entire colony of the sons of bitches.”  He replies, giving her a lop-sided grin.  “Though you were out of it, at the time, if you hadn’t been taken, again, to the Antarctic, who the hell knows what would have happened?  But we did it, we killed Them, Scully, and we will do it again.”

She flashes him her mega-watt smile.  “You did surprise those fuckers didn’t you?”

Almost everyone gasps at her choice of words.  Alex laughs out loud, in awe of her sudden trash talk.  Jesus, will she ever stop surprising me?

She realizes what she has done and actually breaks out into a howl of laughter of her own.  “Shit.  I guess my little secret is out.”

They all laugh with her, in agreement.

She looks at Mulder and smiles, and then diverts her attention to Alex.  “I’m sorry; I really didn’t mean to interrupt you, Aleksei.  Please, do continue.  What did you find at Fort Marlene?  The same thing I had?  I am safe in assuming that there was more than one?”

Mulder pulls his hand away from her, happy that she is back to herself again, and actually content with her taking her attention from him.  *She is not gone.  She is not pulling away from me.  We still have that special connection of ours, she has just...  He smiles to himself.  Broadened her horizons.  He turns, and grins at Monica and then returns his attention to Krycek, once again immersing himself into the previous conversation.

Monica, John and Walter each exchange glances and smiles.

The team is finally on solid ground.  Walter decides.  Finally.

Alex peers down at Scully and returns to where he had left off.  “It was gone, Dana.  The Syndicate had taken it.  Or most likely, Spender had.  I became enraged and went wandering through the halls like a madman.  That is when I ran into Jeffrey again.  He had whispered to me as I walked by a doorway.  He told me that he needed my help to get out.  His mother was indeed gone, taken by Spender, and he needed help to remove a patient.  I asked him who, and, to my surprise, Marita stepped out from behind him.  I saw what those bastards did to her and I became even more infuriated.  I knew she was a bitch, however no one, and I mean no one, deserves the torture that they had evidently put her through.  I informed Jeffrey about El Rico.  That is when he placed the call to you.”

“I remember when Agent Spender called me.”  Dana states.  “He seemed to be extremely anxious and told me about the plans.  However, I didn’t know they were from you.  Then I received another phone call.  From Mulder.”  She turns her gaze to Mulder momentarily, than resumes her portion of the story, looking at the center of the table, as if going back in time, in her mind’s eye.  “He informed me of what he had found out, which was the same information Agent Spender had given to me, and he asked me to meet him and Diana at the base.”

“Diana had returned to her apartment shortly after I allowed Spender to leave.”  Mulder interjects.

Scully looks at him, not knowing if she should still be angry at him over his admission of his relationship with Agent Fowley, or not, but she decides to deal with that issue later, and continues with her part of the tale.

“I told Mulder to meet me, instead.  Which, to my surprise,” she grins cheekily at him,  “he did.  However, we were too late.  By the time we made it to the train yard that outlines the base where the Syndicate had placed Cassandra before the transfer, we knew we had been setup by Spender.”

“Setup?”  John asks.

“Yes.  We figured it out when the train that had held Cassandra pummeled our car.  We barely escaped with our lives.  Mulder called in Skinner, and when he pulled up we got into his car and gave him an extremely summarized version of events, than told him to head for El Rico.  However, the incident with the train caused us to be too late.  By the time we made it to the hangar, the place was in flames, from the Rebels, who, God only knows how, found out about the Syndicate’s plans to meet the aliens.”

She stops and starts to cry at the loss of Cassandra Spender.  A woman she had felt a kinship with.  A woman who had actually understood the pain and torment that, she alone, had faced due to the chip in her neck.  Only Cassandra had been able to understand, and finally clarify, the feeling of waking up in the middle of the night, feeling as though she had to be somewhere, just not knowing exactly where.

“Cassandra had helped me to realize that it was the Grays who were trying to control me.  Which, I had found to be true, after Ruskin Dam.”

Alex takes her by the hand and caresses it, to show his support over her loss.  She is grateful and smiles softly.  Not wishing to appear weak.  She wipes at her eyes with her free hand and nods over at Mulder, to continue with the story.

“Every member of the Syndicate, including most of their family members, was incinerated, along with Cassandra.  All but three.  Diana, who had managed to slip into the hangar before us, Cancer Man, who escaped with Diana, in her car.  The third of course, being Krycek, who was with Agent Spender at the time.  Who, as I now know, was not actually a ‘member’ of the Syndicate; therefore he had no reason to join the others in the hangar.”  Mulder looks over at him and merely smiles.

Alex has no idea how to respond to this ‘soft’ side of Mulder, so he simply keeps quiet and continues to caress Dana’s hand.  Conveying to her, by his touch, that he is thankful she is there for him, or he would surely have given in to his urge for some Bailey’s to calm his wracked nerves, after experiencing Mulder’s niceness.

“What happened to Agent Spender?”  John asks, curious as to why he has never been introduced to the agent, who had apparently been an integral part of the X-Files division.

“After the burnings at the hangar, Agent Spender had asked for a meeting with then Assistant Director, Kersh.”  Walter explains.  “We had our meeting, at which time; Agent Spender recommended that Agents Mulder and Scully be reinstated to the X-Files.  He, in effect, resigned.”

“He resigned?”  Monica asks surprised that someone could give up so easily, when it was obvious that answers still needed to be found to the questions regarding the death of his mother.  “So, where is he now?  Why isn’t he here, with us?  Surely he would be welcome to the team now.  Now that his father is dead.  I am shocked that he is not here, demanding answers regarding his mother’s death.”

“He can’t be here with us, Monica, because he is dead.”  Mulder responds, quietly.

John and Monica both look at him stunned.

“Dead?  How?”  John asks.

“It was made to look like a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.  He was found shortly after our meeting, in the basement office.  Scully took one look at him and knew he was gone.  But it didn’t feel right.  So, after some blood spatter and trajectory tests, we knew for certain, his death had been staged to look like a suicide.”  Mulder answers.

“He was murdered?”  John inquires.

“By whom?”  Monica adds.

“We are pretty sure it was by his own father.”  Walter replies.

They turn to Alex, more for a confirmation, than anything else.

“I can’t say for sure, but I would not have put it passed the bastard to kill his own son.”  Alex responds, looking away, sorrowful for yet another life that he could not save.

Dana places her hand on his thigh and squeezes.  “It’s all right, Alex.  You had no way of knowing what was going to happen.  To realize that that son of a bitch was so sick in the mind, as to kill his own child.”

“No, but I should have.  I knew most everything else.  I should have seen it coming.”  He pauses for a moment, to allow the feelings of guilt to pass, then he turns to Mulder saying, “Then you got sick.”

Mulder looks at him, contemplating whether or not he should delve into the whole story of his having been committed for awhile, due to an unexplained brain anomaly.  Would they be able to fully understand what it was like for me?  To be able to read people’s thoughts, yet have no way to communicate myself?  That was one of the worst experiences of my life.  Of course, being “dead” for three months is the winner on my list, but…I digress.  “I really don’t see the relevance of that story, at the moment, Krycek.  I mean this ‘discussion’ we are having is about you.  Your connections to the entire scheme of things that have happened.  Maybe later, I will tell.  But, not right now.”

“Fair enough.”  Alex agrees, reluctantly.  “Though you do need to know that Diana was a part of the problem with your illness.”

Dana looks at Alex intently.  “What do you mean, Alex?  Diana is the one who helped me to save Mulder.”

“Oh I don’t mean to make it sound as though she caused his illness, because she didn’t.  I have no idea what caused his illness.  However, it did not help matters, for you Dana, I’m sure, to find out that she had to have been there with him, all the while you were searching for him.  It was not until the end, when she helped you, when he was able to be saved; that I figured out she had known where he was all along.  However, for awhile there, next to Spender, she was your worst enemy.

Dana can’t think of anything to say to this.  Not out loud anyway.  Not if she wants to keep the still fragile peace between Alex and Mulder.  I knew it!  Damn it, Mulder.  I was right about her all along!  Why didn’t you just listen to me?

Mulder, on the other hand, is none too happy with statement Alex has made either.  Nor is he afraid to voice his opinion about it.  “What the hell do you mean, Alex?  Why are we back on this subject, anyway?  Didn’t we just discuss Diana?  Besides, I would think Kersh was the bad one, alongside Spender, not Diana.  She believed in the X-Files!  Shit!  She was there when I found them!  How could she have been against me?  She…”  He pauses.  “She loved me.”

Dana catches her breath at this last sentence, unable to understand how he could even voice it, after everything that that woman had put them through.  Put him through.

“Love, Mulder, is a strong word.  Don’t you think?  If she really loved you, do you believe she would have been working for the Syndicate, against you?  For Spender?”  Alex asks, a bit surprised that Mulder would address him by his first name in anger, instead of the usual sarcastic drawl on his surname.

“Please don’t tell me that you actually believe that of Diana, Alex.  That she was only out to get me.”

“Haven’t you been listening?  She was using you, Mulder.  The best way a woman can, through your heart.”  Alex states, as gently as he possibly can, needing to stress the falseness of Diana Fowley’s relationship to him.

“What about you, Krycek?  You love Scully, but you worked for the fucking Syndicate!”

“That is different, Mulder, and you know it.  I was working to help Dana, even if she didn’t know it.  Not against her.  Or you.”

“Did you kill her, Krycek?”  Mulder suddenly asks.

Scully looks at Mulder, stunned he would ask such a question, and especially after all he has heard.

Alex looks at him, speechless.  He knows not how to react, until the implication of Mulder’s question sinks in, and it pisses him off.

Thoroughly.

“I cannot believe that you…wait.  I can believe that you would ask me that question.  Of course you would.  You don’t trust me.  No, I did not kill her!  You actually think, after all I have confessed here tonight, that I would be the one who took your former wife’s life?!  Granted, she was not the sweetest woman on Earth, but I would hardly kill her for it!  I have killed people, Mulder, yes, I will admit that, as terrible as it is, but only in self-defense, or because I felt it to be necessary to protect someone else.  This is, by the way, the same reason why I felt compelled to throw Spender down a flight of fucking stairs.  To protect you and Dana!  I did not come clean, now, simply for the hell of it, Mulder!  I could have, just as easily left, never to return.  However, I was sick and tired of being controlled and manipulated, and I wanted you to know the truth!  Because even after all of the shit between us, you deserve to know it.  Yet, you sit there and ask if I killed Diana?  Spender?  Yes.  But Diana?  No, Mulder.  I did not kill her.  Why would I?  In the end she helped Dana save you.  Why would I kill her for that, if that was my main goal, too?  Saving you?  You are really thick Fox!  You know that?  Really fucking thick!”

He drops Dana’s hand and stands up, ignoring the stares of the others, as he walks into the kitchen to retrieve a glass of water.  He can no longer tolerate being in the same room as Mulder, and needs to get away before he says something he knows he will regret later.

Damn it!  What happened to ‘please forgive me, for all that I have done to you in the past and yes, let us start over.’  I should have known it was wishful thinking to get him to believe me.  God, what do I have to do?  Knock him over the head and then tie him to a chair and dictate it to him, until I know he gets it?  How the hell do I penetrate that thick skull of his?

Alex fills his glass once more, and stares out the window above the kitchen sink, pondering.

Why the hell do I even care what he believes?  Dana and Walter believe.  John believes.  That should be more than enough.  What the hell is it about Fox Mulder that has me so damned determined to convince him of the truth?  He sighs.  Because he is just like me.  Whether I like to admit it or not, he is the closest person to a brother, albeit estranged brother, but brother nonetheless, that I have ever had.  We are so much alike it is spooky.  He laughs, realizing he has made an unintended pun and drinks the rest of his water.  I’ll convince him before this night is out.  I have no choice.  Or I will simply tie him to a chair, until he does.

Dana watches Alex leave and turns to glare at Mulder, beyond livid.  “How could you do that, Mulder?  After all he has said to you tonight, proved to you?  He is sincere, damn it!  How could you ask him that question?  After you said you forgave him?  How could you?”

“Damn it, Scully!  I had to know!”  He looks away from her fiery gaze, while also trying to avoid the others he is receiving from the rest of those in the room.  Even from Monica.

Dana stands to join Alex in the kitchen.  “You are unbelievable, Mulder.  Unfuckingbelievable!”  She spits out, as walks away from the table toward the kitchen.

“Scully, wait!”  He calls out to her, standing himself and making his way to her.

John This is insanity!, Monica Damn, not again, and Walter Are they always going to be at each other’s throats?, look at each other, and shake their heads at the turn of events.

Dana stops just short of the doorway.

“What, Mulder?  What?  You tell him that you are willing to listen to him, to possibly believe what he has to say; yet you tear him back down.  Why?  Do you always have to feel like the superior one?”

“What?!  Is that what you think my motives are, Scully?  To reign supreme over Alex Krycek?  Shit, you must be suffering from sensory overload to think that.  I only wanted to know, for my peace of mind.  I am sorry if I offended you, but she was my wife, at one time, and I had to know.”

“Has everything he has told you, over the past few hours, done nothing to show you he is not the person you believe him to be?  He is not the Devil, Mulder.  He has made mistakes, yes.  But haven’t we all?”

“I am sorry, Scully.”  Mulder says quietly, looking down, as if the floor has become of an extreme interest to his mind.

“Why the hell are you apologizing to me, Mulder?”  Scully demands, perturbed by Mulder’s apparent lack of couth.  “Alex is the one you should be apologizing to.  He has been through Hell, just like we have, and all because he looked up to you, Mulder.  You.  Because he wanted to help you, in your quest, even when you wouldn’t give him the time of day.  For years he has been trying to show us that he is not as bad as we convinced ourselves he was.  We never gave him a chance to, either.  Walter did, thank God, and now I am.  I do not expect you to suddenly be his best friend, Mulder.  However, a little respect would be a nice start.  He did help save you, in case you have forgotten.”

She walks away from him, into the kitchen and up to Alex, who is leaning up against the counter, feeling both admiration for Dana and anger at himself, for once again allowing her to defend him.  This is pathetic.  Get your ass back in there and defend yourself!  Quit letting her do it for you, damn it!

As she walks up to him, she gazes at him, tentatively.  He opens his arms to let her in.  She closes the gap and wraps her arms around his waist, burying her head in his chest, pulling him close.  “I am sorry, Sashka.”

“What are you sorry for, Katya?  We are the ones who should be sorry.  He and I.  He for being an arrogant jerk, and me for not defending myself.  You have nothing to be sorry for.”

“I am sorry that he hurt you.”

Mulder makes to follow her, but stops just inside the doorway and, unable to control himself, watches the interaction between his partner and his semi-enemy.  He is transfixed at how different the man is with his Scully, than with anyone else he has ever seen him encounter.

“Damn it, Dana.”  Alex scolds, softly.  “When are you going to stop apologizing for him?”

She peers up at him.  She knows he is angry, not with her, but angry nonetheless.  “I do not apologize for him often, Alex.  Only when I feel the need for one, and when I know that he may not give it himself.  Especially with regard to you.  Damn and I thought all might have been forgiven earlier.”

He chuckles.  “Dana, don’t fool yourself.  Mulder is a good man, but he has also been lead down some pretty harsh paths, as we have, so I do not expect to receive his total forgiveness anytime soon.  I am hopeful, yes, that the day will come eventually.  However, I’m not stupid.  I can’t expect it overnight.  I still find it hard to believe, wonderful, but still hard to believe that you forgave me as quickly as you did.”

She smiles.  “How could I not?  You showed me the truth, and because it was the truth, why would I hold back my forgiveness?  To do that would have been wasting energy.  I believe you.  I forgive you, and one day, I know Mulder will too.”

He smiles while squeezing her, gently, so as not to disturb the baby too much, and leans down and plants a kiss on her lips.

His kiss is so soft and sweet that it makes her want to both scream and cry.  Scream because of the suffrage that seems to want to continue, and cry at the amazement of his gentle nature which has somehow managed to survive.

After they part, they smile at each other, love very evident in both of their faces.

Mulder can stand it no longer.  He feels like a son of a bitch.  He can see, by watching them together, that Alex would never allow any harm to come to her.  Nor she to him.  So the man could not possibly be as horrid, as he has felt him to be.  Have they always loved each other?  Is that why, whenever Krycek came around and I laid into him, she would become so angry with me?  Did she love him and never know it, until she was allowed to love him?  Once the truth was known to her?  Is he really telling me the truth?  He leans against the doorjamb, torn between walking all of the way into the kitchen and apologizing to Alex, or retreating, to sit back down next to Monica and stay an ass.

The truth.  Isn’t that what I have been seeking for so many damn years?  The truth that this man holds right in front of me?  How stupid am I?  To ignore the possibilities that the truth may reveal to me?  “Pretty fucking stupid.”  He mumbles to himself.

Alex looks up upon hearing a voice and Dana turns her head.  A strong sense of déjà vu falls over her, as they all remain silent, standing much like they had been hours earlier.

Mulder finally understands that if there is ever going to be peace in his relationship with Scully again, he will have to make peace with the man that she now holds.  The man she is obviously in love with.  A love that she is clearly no longer willing to hide.  Even from him.

It is going to take me a lot of time, I think, to get used to the new Scully.

He walks over and extends his hand, surprising them.  “Can we all agree that I am an asshole?”  He asks.

“Yes.”  Alex replies without hesitation.

Dana giggles, as does Mulder, surprising her yet again.  “You will get no arguments from me, Mulder.”  She replies, causing both men to smirk.

Alex is still angry, yet he understands that it has taken a lot for Mulder to walk over to them; therefore, thinking better of making another smartass remark, he takes Mulder’s hand and shakes it.  “I agree.”  He pauses a moment to collect his thoughts and then continues, “Mulder.  I don’t expect you to become my best friend, hell, even a friend.  However, I know that after all of the shit that has happened both between us, and to us, that you deserve to hear the truth.  I realize it’s not easy to hear, much less to believe, but I am speaking it.  I have no more reasons to hide.  To play the rat.  The Syndicate is gone.  Spender is dead.  I am in charge of my life once again, and what happens with it.  Things are already changing for the better, and I aim to make damn sure that my future is filled with light, because, frankly?  I’m fucking sick of living in the dark.  I understand why you would think I killed your former wife, but I didn’t.  I’m not a bad person, Mulder.  A bit misguided at times, but not a bad person.”  He pauses for a moment, smiling down at Dana.

“Now, you can either accept me, for me, or you can’t.  Either way, I have said the truth and it is time for me to move on with my life.  There are greater dangers out there, and they need to be addressed.  We can either do this together, or apart, but whichever way it is, I am not your enemy.  I will be your friend.  I don’t have many.  Hell, I can count them on my one hand, but I will cherish them.  I will never lie to them, and I will do whatever it takes to protect them.”  He replaces his arm around Dana, and she pulls him tightly to herself.

She can feel how badly he wants Mulder to believe and accept him.  Yet, she understands that it is solely Mulder’s choice and she will say nothing more.  The decision Mulder makes must be his, alone.

Mulder looks at them, standing together, holding onto one another.  He is aware, not for the first time, of the transition that somehow took place in the span of hours.  She is going to stand by Alex Krycek, over him, no matter what his decision may be.

Surprising both of them he looks directly at her and asks, “You love him, don’t you, Scully?”

She is startled by his inquiry, as it is definitely not what she was expecting to hear from him, but without faltering, she looks directly at him and replies,  “Yes, Mulder.  I do.  I love him very much.  Don’t ask me ‘why’ or ‘how’.  Don’t tell me it is ‘insane’ or any other bullshit, such as that.  I can’t explain it, nor can I control it.  It is simply something that has happened and I do not regret it.  Nor will I apologize to you, or anyone else, for how I feel.  I love him, I believe him, and I will stand by him; even defend him if necessary.  You can accept it or not, it is your choice.”  She pauses to look up at the man in question, who is watching her, stunned, and she returns her attention to Mulder.  “As far as I’m concerned, Alex has been just as much a victim in all of this, as we have.  So what if he did not lose a sister, or a father, in the search for the truth.  He still lost something precious to him, and I feel that he has just as much right, as we do, to be angry.

“Yes, he has killed people, Mulder, but so have we.  I killed Donnie Pfaster and you killed Eugene Tooms, consequently, wouldn’t that make us just as ‘bad’ as he is?  We are all guilty of taking another life, Mulder.  However, we were allowed to go on.  Alex has just as much right to make a new life for himself and to start over.”

Mulder watches her intently, as images start to flash through his mind of past cases, long solved.  *Barry, Tooms, Pusher, Pfaster.  All people that are dead, and yes, deserve to be.  But Krycek?  Does he truly deserve to be placed in the same classification, as those other men?  Have my actions, over at least the past few hours, really been unjust?  She’s right, I have been such an ass.

“All right, Scully.  As usual, you are able to convince me.”  He glances at Alex for a second, and then returns his gaze to her.  “Maybe he does deserve a second chance.  God only knows how many times I have received one.”  Returning his attention to Alex, he again tries to apologize.  “I will try my best to stop being such an asshole where you are concerned.”

Alex searches his face, his eyes, and decides that this is the closest he will get, of any type of formal apology from him, but he can see that he is at least telling the truth.  “All right, Mulder.  I’m willing to accept that.  Now, can we all sit down and finish this tonight?  Or would you rather wait until tomorrow morning?”  He turns to Dana.  “Which would you prefer?”

She glances at her watch.  “It’s a quarter after eleven.  I’m doing okay.  Besides, tomorrow is Sunday.  I will be able to catch up on my sleep then.”

“Yes, but what about the baby?”  Mulder asks, surprising both of them with his sudden interest in his child’s welfare.

“The baby is fine, Mulder, don’t worry.  Compared to all that I have been through over the last several months, missing a few hours of sleep is not a problem.  What I need to keep an eye on is my blood pressure, but that, too, is fine.”

“You’re the doctor.”  He replies, smiling at her, hoping that his recent behavior hasn’t jeopardized his relationship with her any further.

“All right, let’s all go and sit down and finish this.  I wouldn’t mind spending some time tomorrow just relaxing, myself.”  With his arm still around Dana, Alex escorts her back to the table and helps her to maintain her balance as she sits down.  He then takes his own seat; mindful of the questioning glances he is receiving from the others.  He merely shrugs and smiles.  “It’s fine.”

“Are you sure?”  Walter asks, more than a little ticked at Mulder for behaving like a jerk.

‘Yes, Walter.  Things are fine.”  He replies, trying to assure his friend that everything is, indeed, all right.

Walter drops the issue, but makes a mental note to watch Mulder for anymore signs of an outburst.  He will not keep tolerating it, even if he did promise Dana he would allow things to be done her way during this little powwow.

Monica watches Mulder, as he returns from the kitchen and also retakes his seat.  He smiles at her and leans over.  “I’d like to talk to you later, after we are finished here.”

She looks at him, questioningly and replies.  “Okay.”

Dana notices the exchange and smiles.  Yes, Mulder.  If you will only take that chance, things will definitely work out nicely for the two of you.  She looks over at John, and then at Walter.  Now, you two on the other hand?  She smiles unconsciously.

John notices her smile.  “What it is Dana?”

Embarrassed at having been caught, she chuckles.  “It’s nothing, John.  I was merely thinking to myself.”

“Really?  About what?”  He inquires, his curiosity piqued.

“Oh, nothing in particular.”  She looks away, back at Alex, who is smiling at her with a gleam in his eye.  He has no idea what she was thinking either, but he thoroughly enjoys the pretty shade of pink that her face has developed under John’s scrutiny.  “Go on, Alex.  Please.”  She implores him, trying her best to appear nonchalant.

Taking her left hand in his right, he glances around the table at the group assembled.  He carefully picks up his coffee cup with his left, takes a sip and replaces it.

They are in awe of him.  That he has managed to overcome the tragedy that had befallen him, and use his artificial hand with almost no effort, is astounding.  However, no one utters a word about it.  They instinctively know not to touch the subject; instead, they patiently wait for him to speak.

After giving himself a few moments to gather his thoughts, he starts to once again, tell his tale.

“After Dana saved Mulder from the clutches of Spender, he became extremely angry.  He accused me of being the one who had slipped Diana the keycard that gave Dana access to Mulder.  It was not me, but with Diana now dead, there was no one around to prove otherwise.  Except for the one who killed her, and I still do not know who that was.”  Alex looks down at the table, clearly frustrated for his lack of one significant piece to his puzzle.  “One night, shortly after Mulder had returned home and was recovering, I was out and about, enjoying the night air.  I was thinking of a way that I could come clean, as I often did, when I was jumped from behind.  It was not something that happened to me often, trust me, not in my line of work, but it did on that night, unfortunately.  I was hit pretty hard, but still conscious, so I was able to put up a reasonably good fight, to my still unknown assailant.  However, in the end, as humiliating as it is to admit, I lost.  I was promptly handcuffed and shackled.”

Dana squeezes his hand, knowing where this is heading, but still uncomfortable about hearing it.  He squeezes hers in return, to assure her that he is fine and continues.

“I was taken to the newest residence of Spender.  The Jefferson Hotel.”

“The Jefferson?”  Mulder asks, taken aback.  “The hotel with the antiques and canopy beds?”

“Yes.  The one and the same.  Why?”  Alex questions, looking at him, wondering why on Earth one of Spender’s hide-outs would surprise him.

“Nothing really.  Just curious.  I find it interesting that a man with no soul would stay at a place as fine as The Jefferson.”

Alex laughs, as it dawns on him what Mulder means.  “You must realize, Mulder, Spender would always try to stay at the fanciest places he could find.  It gave off the air of importance that he wanted to reflect.  He may have been a son of a bitch, but he did have good taste in his living quarters.  However, that is the only thing in this life that he seemed to have a taste for.”

“Besides those damn cigarettes.”  Mulder quips.

“Touché.”  He replies, grinning.  “Anyway, after I was taken to him, he proceeded to ‘sentence’ me to ‘prison’, as though he were the fucking king of my life or something.  He said my ‘sentence’ was to take effect immediately.  Of course, I was mortified, livid, and actually scared.  But, what the hell could I do while cuffed and shackled?  Not a damn thing.  He then instructed one of his new goons to chloroform me and when I awoke?  I was in fucking Tunisia.  In the worst pit of anguish and inhumanity you could imagine.  I swore then and there, if the chance ever came, I would kill him and make sure that he never hurt anyone again.”  He pauses, reflecting on how it had felt, when he had finally gotten his revenge.  He smiles a small, cold smile.

“I was trapped in Hell for, God, almost a year!  A year, before a miraculously recovered Marita, showed up to reclaim me, at Spender’s request, of course.”  He glances at Dana, who smiles at him to show she is doing okay, even though he can see that on the inside she is fuming, and he returns his attention to Mulder.

“After Marita and I returned to the States, she took me to Spender and that’s when I found out about the ship in Bellefleur, Oregon.  He had had me released, with the expressed reason being that I find it for him, as he had become too ill to take up the task on his own.  He informed me that, with the discovery of this crashed ship, we would be able to rebuild the Project.  You two, of course, were assigned the case, as it was eerily familiar to the first case you had ever worked as partners.  Except, this time, things were quite different for the two of you, weren’t they?”

“Yes.”  Mulder replies.  “This time, Scully and I trusted each other, implicitly.  This time, we had both seen things that we could not deny.”

“Mulder.  I had not seen the ship in Antarctica.  I was still, even in Oregon, not completely convinced of Their existence.  Even with after the fetus scenario.  However, yes, the trust was there and I had seen some things, such as the Bounty Hunters, that were unexplainable.  But I never saw a ship, Mulder.  Not until, well, until Montana.”  She admits quietly, keeping her attention focused on Alex, for fear of breaking down at the sudden recollection of Mulder’s cold body, lying lifeless in the field of the compound, where he had finally been found.

Alex can sense her distress yet continues, knowing she will stop him if she needs to.  “After my meeting with Spender, I flew to Oregon to search for the ship, and to find it, before you did.  At least, that is what Spender thought I was doing.  I was, in actuality, trying to locate it merely to see it, for myself.  To verify They were starting the abductions again.  I knew that if they happened again, the abductions, colonization would begin soon after.  I thought that, if I could just locate it, I could go to you and get the help I needed to keep it all from happening.  I would, finally, have the proof I needed for you.  Then things would be all right.  But I never saw it, and I came back to D.C. to report to Spender that it was not there.  He didn’t believe me.  At all.  He insisted that it was there.  He insisted that I simply was not looking hard enough, or in the right place, even though he is the one who told me where to look.  I knew then that I had to come forward to you, with what I knew, even if I had no proof of the crash.  Therefore, I took the chance at being shot on sight, and went to Walter at the Bureau.”

“That is when you and Marita showed up with Skinner in my office.”  Mulder recollects.

“Yes.  To inform you of everything, including Spender’s plan of reviving the Project.  However, Mulder, you must know.  I had no idea whatsoever that you would actually be abducted yourself.  I could not find the damn ship, so how was I to foresee it happening?  Your abduction?  The Gunmen were able to narrow down the possible location with satellite imagery, yes, but you could not possibly have seen the ship.  Not in that forest, or else Walter would have seen it too, and he has, countless times, admitted to only seeing it, upon its departure.  I tried my damndest to give you the truth, but I had no intentions of…”  He sighs.  “Of losing you to Them.  My only intention had been to warn you, to keep Dana safe, because They were taking previous abductees.  I truly had no idea that They would take you.  How did they take you, Mulder?  How?  If you could not see the ship.  How did you get close to it?  Where the hell was it?”

Mulder watches Alex, realizing that he is being honest.  He had not meant to cause harm to come to him.  It actually bothers him that the younger man feels he must take the blame.  This is ironic, seeing as how I have been blaming him for my abduction, ever since I was taken.  “Krycek, my abduction was not your fault, so you can stop blaming yourself.”

Scully stares at him, wide-eyed, as does Monica, as they both recall their previous conversation of the morning.

Walter and John simply look at him, stunned, as does Alex.

Mulder ignores the gazes of everyone in the room, keeping his attention focused on Krycek.  “We all met around that conference room table in Walter’s office and discussed this.  We discussed, not only the location of where the ship might be, as found by The Lone Gunmen, but we also discussed the risks involved with the undertaking of finding it.  That is why I would not allow Scully to go.  I could not risk losing her, again.  I had no idea, either, that I would not be coming back for such a long while.  If I had, I would not have left, no matter how strong the temptation to find the truth.  However, I saw no risk.  At least, not to me, personally, thus I did leave.

“I wanted answers, Krycek.  Answers to questions that I have had for years.  Questions that Scully has had, and even, as it seems, you have had.  How far did this Conspiracy and Project really go?  What I did not know was that to get those answers, a price would have to be paid.  I know now, without a doubt, that Extraterrestrial Biological Entities exist.  I have been to a place that no human should ever have to be.  It was horrible.  They did things…”  He trails off, trying desperately to keep from breaking down, as the images of his experience begin to haunt him.

Scully immediately rises from her seat and goes to him, as does Walter.  While kneeling down, bringing Mulder into her embrace, Walter leans over and places his arm around the pair.  These two have always been his top agents, and to see them both in such a state, is enough to make his blood boil.  He and Scully spend a few moments talking soothingly to him.

John watches in amazement, at the strength with which they hold on to each other.

Monica wants to go to Mulder, very badly, but she understands that no matter how much she has started to care for him, only Dana and Walter can take his pain away.  They were the ones who have experienced the past eight years together, through all of the lies, deceit and death.

Alex has too, yet he too knows, because he had not been there first hand, as Walter had been when Mulder was taken, or as Dana had been when he was found to be alive, he will not be able to provide the comfort Mulder needs at this moment.

After a few minutes pass, Mulder looks up, from crying on Dana’s shoulder, and smiles at her.  He turns to Walter, who starts to return to his seat, to give Mulder a chance at regaining his composure, and says, “Walter?”

“Yes, Mulder?”

“I know that you have felt guilty for what happened to me, as well.  But it was not your fault, either.  It was solely mine.  I had walked out into the forest, placing laser lights on the ground, when I saw, or rather, felt, a force field.  That is why we could never see the craft.  It was cloaked, much like something from a Star Trek episode, thus rendering it invisible to those on the outside.  I felt it pulling on me, as though something or someone was unconsciously drawing me nearer.  I know that I should not have done what I did, by walking through it.  That I should have returned to you and reported what I had seen and experienced the moment I felt it, however, once I walked through it, all I could do was stand there.  I was surrounded by white light and I found the other abductees.  I was the last one, Walter.  They had been…”  He shakes his head at the memory.  “It was as though they were waiting for me.  As soon as I realized what was about to happen, I wanted to flee, but a Bounty Hunter came into the light and stood beside me, preventing me from doing so.  The next moment, we were transported inside and we flew away.”

“That is when I saw the ship.”  Walter recalls, quietly.

“After that, the next thing that I remember is being strapped into some sort of body hugging chair, surrounded by Bounty Hunters.”

Dana gasps, as the memories of her nightmares instantly flood her mind.  They all look at her, concerned, but she says nothing, instead, urging Mulder, with her tear filled eyes, to continue with his story.

Monica watches the pair closely, as Mulder reveals his experience, as she too, remembers a recent event in her mind.

“There must have been eight to ten Bounty Hunters in the room, and I screamed out Scully’s name by instinct.  When she didn’t respond, I knew I was fucked.”  He turns to look down at her, smiling sadly.  “I am so sorry, Scully.  I never meant to leave you.  All I wanted was the truth.  To finally set us free.  Please believe me.  I never would have left you and returned to Oregon, if I had known what would happen.”

Scully gazes at him, her tears now flowing freely down her cheeks, and standing she pulls him from his chair, wrapping her arms around him, crying openly into his chest.  “I know that, Mulder.  I know.  You only wanted to protect me, as you have always protected me.  It is all you have done, since I came back, myself.  Yet, I feel like nothing but a failure, because the one time you really needed me, I failed to protect you.  I am sorry, Mulder.”

He wraps his arms around her, crying himself, and holds her tightly, laying his chin upon her head.  “Shh, it’s over now.  I am back and I’m fine.  Don’t apologize to me, Scully, please.  You did nothing wrong.  We were not able to control what happened, because we didn’t know it would happen.  But, we are going to be fine now, I promise.”

As they part, they smile at each other and he places a kiss on her forehead.  Then he lets go of her and turns to Alex, smiling.  “You are a very lucky man, Alex.”

“I know, Fox.”  Alex replies, with tears in his own eyes.

“Do not ever make her regret her decision.”

“I won’t.”  He promises, with all of his heart.

Mulder smiles at Monica over Scully’s shoulder.  “Would you like some ice cream?  I think we are finally done for the night.  I have heard enough.  Anything else can wait.”  He glances at Alex, who nods, and returns his gaze to Monica.

She laughs at him, amazed that after everything that has been said over the course of the evening, he is thinking about food.  She knows he has more to relay, but she understands; he is not ready to do it, so she agrees to the ice cream.