Title: Lightening Shadows III-What Child Is This? Author: Elizabeth L. Iacono Rating: PG Category: Story, Angst, slight hint of Romance Keywords: Mulder/Scully UST Spoilers: Paper Hearts, Detour Summary: Mulder confronts Mrs. Mulder about what happened in August of 1965, and has some waking flashbacks. This is part three in the series. It would be best if you read the other two first (shameless self promotion here) so you had some idea of what's going on. Basically, what happened so far is that Mulder's had some strange dreams that made him doubt who his real parents are, and then finds a police report from 1965 that backed up his theory. Disclaimer: to hell with making this interesting, they're not mine. They're CC's, 1013, and Fox's. Mine are Mama, and any of the Vineyard cops. Lightening Shadows III-What Child Is This? Elizabeth L. Iacono August 24, 1965 The little boy lifted his head out of the sand and spit some out of his mouth. He ran a hand through his dark brown hair to get rid of the itchy sand in it. He was so lost. He couldn't remember anything. Not where he was, or where he'd came from, or who his parents were, or how old he was. He only remembered one word-Fox. He tried speaking the word. Only with effort was he able to say the word. He looked around at where he was. He couldn't recognize anything. He looked up at the sky. It was very dark, but still warm enough that the little boy wasn't shivering with cold. He looked down at what he was sitting on. He sifted some of the tiny grains through his fingers. He couldn't remember what these were called either. Next he looked at his clothes. They were wet with seaspray and sticking to his skin. It was making him colder by the minute. He looked out over the water and saw the sky getting brighter. But he didn't know what all this was called. He was so unsure about what to do he didn't see the man walking towards him. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Officer James Singer was going for his daily early morning walk on the beach. The beaches of Martha's Vineyard were always busy during the daytime, so the best time to take a walk was in the early morning. He was staring down the beach, when he noticed a dark spot on the sand about a hundred yards down from him. As he approached, he realized it was a little boy. He began to walk quicker. The little boy didn't notice him coming in until he gently laid a hand on the boy's shoulder. The boy jumped and stared at him. Singer bent down until he was at the boy's level. "What's your name?" he asked the child. The child just stared at him. The little boy knew he was supposed to say something, but he couldn't put his finger on it. So he said the only word that came to his mind. "Fox." Singer nodded. This was a start. "Good. Do you know where your parents are?" he asked next. The boy looked scared. The man was expecting him to answer. "Fox," he said once more. Singer's thoughts took a different turn. Suddenly, he thought that the boy could possibly be retarded. He was going to have to take this slow. He stood up and took the little boy's hand. The boy looked up at him, puzzled. "I'm going to help you, okay. You're going to be fine now." All the little boy would say as Singer led him back to his house was Fox. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX August, 1998 Mulder stared at the police report. This was too coincidental. It just seemed to add up with the dreams, yet at the same time contradicted everything his parents told him. It was time to call Scully. She would know what to do. She would be able to remain calm, unlike how Mulder felt at that moment. He wanted to scream and throw things and yet at the same time curl up into a ball and not come out. He was royally confused. Mulder picked up the phone and dialed in the office number. She should still be there. It rang twice until Scully picked it up. -Scully.- He sighed deeply and then spoke. "It's me, Scully." -How are you feeling?- He decided on honesty this time. "Not that great. Look, could you come over here? I have to show you something." -Of course, Mulder. I can take the rest of the day off. I'll be right there.- "Thanks." Mulder hung up and leaned back into his chair. He wasn't sure as to how to tell Scully this one. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Scully sat down on Mulder's couch and looked at a printed out copy of the police report. "I don't know what to say, Mulder. How did you get this idea?" She was still having a hard time trying to grasp the concept of Mulder's latest theory. Mulder walked over to the couch and sat down next to her. He wasn't sure what to tell her either. So he decided on a joke. "Do you want the truth or a really good excuse?" "Mulder." She glared at him. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. He searched internally for the best way to explain it. "I've been having these dreams lately that contradict almost everything I've been told about my childhood." "Maybe it was your subconscious projecting what your child hood should have been like?" Scully suggested, always one for the rational explanation. "I thought the same thing at first, but sometimes it just seemed so real. More like a flashback, or a repressed memory." Scully leaned back against the couch. This was really bothering him. She would do anything to try to make him smile a little. "So what is it? Do you think you're some lost alien or something that fell out of its spaceship onto Martha's Vineyard?" Bingo. Mulder laughed a little and shook his head. "No. Maybe just some lost kid who fell out of a boat. A head injury would explain the memory loss." "Mulder, that kind of complete memory loss is rare. And besides, most people don't remember their early childhood. As you get older you have a tendency to forget the earlier memories." "But then explain why I couldn't remember then, when I was three?" Scully raised a hand, then let it drop to her side. "I can't." She looked over to him. "What are you going to do now?" "I think I'm going to go see my mother. There's just a few questions I have that she'd probably be the best one to ask them to." He stood up, grabbed a bag and began to pack. Scully stood up quickly. "What do you think you're doing?" He looked up at her. "Packing so I can drive up and see my mother this weekend." "Not without me." He looked puzzled. "What? Why?" "Look Mulder, you haven't been sleeping enough, for all you know you're going to fall asleep on the road and plow yourself into a tree." Mulder grinned at her. He loved it when she made such a fuss because of him. He calmly consented. "Okay. Let me pack here, and then we can take your car over to your apartment so you can pack, and then you can drive me up to Greenwich." He said it all in a condescending tone that earned him a punch in the arm from Scully. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Later that night Mulder sat in the passenger seat in Scully's car. He was apprehensive about going in to confront her about this. He wasn't sure how she would take it. "You okay, Mulder?" Scully asked. "Yeah, I just wish I knew how she's going to react." Mulder felt Scully take his hand in hers. "Well, whatever happens, I'll be right there beside you, okay?" Scully said quietly. He smiled softly at her. "I know." They reluctantly untangled hands and got out of the car. Mulder looked up at his mother's home. Now, he was really starting to doubt whether she was his real mother. Slowly, he led Scully up the stairs with the automatic response of putting his hand on the small of her back. With an shaking hand, he rang the doorbell. Scully looked over towards him. "You sure you're up for this?" she asked quietly. "I don't think I have any choice." Mrs. Tina Mulder opened the door, and smiled when she saw Mulder there. "Fox!" Mulder winced. "What a nice surprise." Next, she noticed Scully standing there. "Hello, Ms. Scully. Please come in." Mulder once again gently led Scully into the house. Tina sat them both in the living room. "Would you like anything to drink?" "Some coffee would be good," Mulder said quickly. Tina walked off into the kitchen. Scully looked at him, puzzled. "I can't do this," Mulder whispered so low only she could hear. "I just want to run away so bad, but I know that if I don't ask I'll never find the answer." Scully laid a comforting hand on his back. "It'll be okay, Mulder." They couldn't talk anymore because Tina came back into the room. Tina handed out the coffee cups and both Mulder and Scully said their thanks. "Well, this is definitely a surprise, Fox," Tina said. "You hardly ever come up here unannounced and on a work night." Mulder ran a hand through his hair. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the printout of the police report and handed it to Tina. She unfolded it, read it, and sighed. "I was wondering when you'd find that," she said. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Mulder's eyes opened wide. Tina had known about this. He tried to speak but the words got stuck in his throat. He glanced at Scully, who almost imperceptibly nodded. "Mrs. Mulder, could you tell us exactly what happened?" Scully questioned. Tina took a sip of her coffee. "It's all pretty simple. The police report there is accurate. In the early morning of August 24, 1965, a little boy was found wandering around the beach. The officer took the boy, you, down to the local police station to see if anyone had reported a little boy missing. They were afraid that you had some mental problems, because the only word you knew was Fox." She got up and stood by the window, looking out at the oncoming night. "That was how you got the name, the police officers started calling you that, you responded to it at least, and for some reason it stuck. Well, you stayed at the officer's house who found you for a week, and when they couldn't find any information about you or your real parents, they put out a call on the island to see if anyone wanted to officially adopt you. "One of the first people they called was your fath- my husband and I." Mulder noted the slip, but put it to the back of his head. "Bill had always wanted a little boy. We'd had trouble conceiving before, and Samantha was the first one that had carried to term. The officer knew this, and so he asked us if we were willing to take you in. We agreed, and so you were officially registered as Fox William Mulder, and we raised you as our own." Mulder took all this in. It was shocking, yet at the same time it made sense. He wasn't sure as to whether he should have felt horrified or relieved. This was going to change a lot of things in his life. "Is that the whole story?" he asked. Tina turned back to the two FBI agents. "Pretty much. After a while you started talking again. You had decided yourself how old you were and what your birthday was. But anything after that you couldn't remember. We were always expecting your memory to come back, that kind of memory loss we were told was very rare. By the time you were ten, we had pretty much given up that any memory was going to come back. It had been over six years at that point. At the time the police had checked many reports of missing children from all over Massachusetts, but none had ever matched with your description." Mulder slowly nodded, accepting this. he thought it was odd that Tina never questioned how he'd found this, but had just proceeded to tell him what had happened. "Okay. Thank you for telling me the truth." Mulder knew this was the truth. He knew Tina well enough to tell when she was lying, and this was one of those times. "It was the least I could do." She bent down and picked up the now empty coffee cups and brought them back to the kitchen. She could tell Mulder needed some time to digest all this. As soon as Tina walked out of the room Scully kneeled down in front of Mulder's chair. He was staring out into space again. "Mulder?" He looked down at her. "I'm okay, Scully. Really," he asserted when he saw her raised eyebrow. He continued. "It just bothers me that it took me this long to realize that they weren't my real parents, that Samantha wasn't my real sister..." his voice trailed off. Suddenly she understood. He was afraid that this news would put a whole new twist on his quest. "Mulder, listen to me." His eyes focused in on her. "You loved Samantha like a sister right?" He nodded. "You believed she was your sister, and I'm pretty damned sure she thought of you as a brother. It's still okay to try to find her, as long as you remember that you thought, hell, you knew she was your sister, and that she felt the same way." She waited with bated breath until Mulder's face relaxed. Scully stood up to give him some space, but stopped when his arm slipped around her waist. In a move reminiscent of a time long ago, Mulder laid his head down on her stomach. Scully ran both her hands through his hair, unable to move anything else because of his arms. "Thanks," she heard whispered, almost inaudibly, but loud enough to get the point across. Mulder released her waist and went over to stand by the window Tina had just occupied. He let out a slight laugh. "This has been one hell of a day, hasn't it Scully?" "Yes, it has." Mulder didn't hear her response. His head was spinning, and he couldn't see straight. The one thing he realized was that the image of the nondescript houses and trees across the street were changing into... XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX ...into a large Christmas tree, complete with all the trimmings. It was late at night judging by the clock on the mantle, and the almost total darkness outside. The only light that fell outside was from the tree, its multi colored lights hitting the still falling snow. The beautiful glass balls hanging from the boughs reflected the lights into his eyes. Fox was so entranced by the sight, he didn't notice the person walking towards him. "What are you doing up?" Fox's head whipped around. There was Mama, standing tall in a blue silk bathrobe. Mulder knew for a fact he wasn't dreaming, so what the hell was going on? Fox fumbled for an explanation. "I wanted to wait for Santa," the boy said. Mama smiled and sat down next to him. "I used to wait for Santa, too, but then my parents always took me up to bed." Fox saw his chance. "Then we can wait for him now!" Mama laughed and pulled Fox into her lap. "But, one night, my parents told me that Santa didn't come unless everyone was in bed. So I went to bed, easy as that. And when I woke up in the morning, I knew that he'd come. All the cookies were gone, and there were some presents under the tree that I knew for sure they hadn't bought." "I still wanna wait," Fox said stubbornly, his lower lip sticking out. "Oh, Fox," Mama said. "Come to bed. By the time you fall asleep and wake up it'll feel like no time has passed at all, and in the morning, you'll see that he came." "Awright," Fox agreed, but still not wanting to go back to bed. Mama carried him up a flight of wide stairs, and then into a bedroom. As Mama tucked him into his bed Fox asked "Will you watch the gifts tonight, Mama?" Mama's brow wrinkled. "Why?" Fox sat up. "The gift eaters." "Gift eaters?" The little boy nodded earnestly. "Yeah. Col said that on Christmas Eve, the gift eaters came after Santa and eat all the gifts. And then, they eat the littlest kid in the house," he finished with wide eyes. Mama groaned and rolled her eyes. "Don't worry and don't listen to your brother when he says things like that. I'll keep the monsters away." She kissed him on the forehead. "Now go to sleep." "Sing to me please Mama," came from the bed. "It'll keep the monsters away." The older part of Mulder thought back to a time in a forest, when he wanted someone else to sing to keep the monsters away. He still wasn't sure if it was Scully's singing that kept the MothMen away. Mama came back to the bed and sat down on the side of it. "Of course I'll sing." "Can you do a Christmas song?" Fox asked. "Sure," Mama smiled at him, and began to sing. "What child is this Who lay to rest On Mary's lap Is sleeping Whom angels greet With anthems sweet While shepherds' watch Is keeping..." XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Mulder was brought back to the present by Scully's hand on his back. "Are you okay? You really zoned out there for a minute." A minute? Was that all that really passed? Mulder thought. "Yeah. I'm just really tired. Maybe we should start getting back home?" he asked hopefully. "All right. Go say goodbye, and I'll warm up the car." XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX By the time they hit New Jersey, Scully was beginning to fall asleep at the wheel. Mulder was busy staring out the window. "Hey, Mulder, I'm going to pull over and get some hotel rooms for the night. I'm really tired." "It's no problem. I'm dead on my feet myself." Scully pulled off the highway and into the parking lot of the first motel she saw that was nice looking. She parked the car and walked into the lobby. Two minutes later she came back with a key. "We're in luck. They've got one room left with two double beds." "Good," Mulder said. By this time he was too tired to care about much except for settling down for the night. Scully drove the car down to the room and they entered it together. It was a small room, designed for people spending most of their time on the beach, as shown by the sliders in the back that provided a direct line down to the beach. Mulder just barely stripped down to his boxers and got into bed before he was out like a light. Soon, Scully followed suit and fell asleep quickly in the other bed. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX The next morning, actually a little before since the sun hadn't risen yet, Scully awoke to find the other bed empty. She stopped worrying when she saw the slider door open with the screen pulled across it. Beyond that, she saw Mulder's bare back and him sitting on the sand. She got out of bed, grabbed her bathrobe, and went out to join him. Mulder heard her approaching and turned around to greet her, and motioned her to sit down next to him. They looked like an odd combination, her in a terry cloth bathrobe and him just in a pair of jeans. Before she could think anymore Mulder began to speak. "Y'know, I was just thinking. This was where it all started." He waved a hand out at the sea. "Am I going to have to begin here to find out the truth, or will this new path lead us here?" Mulder sighed and looked out at the sky and the bright orange line that was just starting to blossom at the horizon. Scully turned to him and placed a hand on his cheek. "Well, whatever happens, I'm here, okay." Mulder placed his hand over hers and held on to it tightly. Then, Scully leaned forward and softly brushed her lips with his. It was meant as comfort and received as comfort, but both couldn't help but wonder what more would be like. "We'll do this together," Mulder said, and they both turned to watch the sun rise. Not the end :) XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX To be perfectly honest, I don't know who wrote the Christmas song. But it's not mine. Part four is in the works. I'm not sure where's that one's going so far, but I still think I have maybe one or two more parts until I get to the BIG part. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX "True love, it's the greatest thing in the world." Miracle Max The Princess Bride XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX "Men will fight bravely and be heroes, but for a last ditch defense against any odds, get a mother." Lightbringer High Wizardry XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX