From: ephemeral@ephemeralfic.org
Date: Sun, 22 Mar 2009 11:46:03 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Revised: Staged Duplicity by Neoxphile
Source: revision

Reply To: Neoxphile@aol.com


Title: Staged Duplicity
Author: Neoxphile
E-mail: neoxphile@aol.com
www.geocities.com/mulderscreek/otherfics.html
Spoilers: TrustNo1, Providence, William, The Truth 
Category: MSR, babyfic, challengefic
Summary: An unexpected child is a burden and a gift.

Author's note: Since a sequel "Recovering Gemini" is a
new work progress here on my x-files site 
www.geocities.com/mulderscreek/recoveringgem.html this 
seemed like a good time to do a bit of revision to this fic.

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April 2002

It was the final goodbye. The social worker, Carlie Thomas, already
had the baby in her arms, and I was half glad that the silly ears on
his hat obscured his view because I couldn't bear to look him in the
eyes.

I hadn't expected it to hurt this much, not after doing my level best
not to get too attached. Months of caring for him had unknowingly
worn down my resolve. It wasn't until the first tears slid down my
chin while I kissed him one last time that I noticed I was crying.
Damn.

Even though this had to be a scene she'd seen dozens of times before,
the social worker looked nearly as sympathetic as Monica did. When
I'd agreed with John that one of them ought to come for moral
support, I'd thought that I was humoring him. Just then I was much
less sure.

The smile the social worker gave me was one part pity, one part
empathy. "They're a lovely family Ms. Scully, truly. William will be
very happy with them."

All I could manage was a nod of agreement. The couple seemed perfect
from what I'd been told of them. They were desperate for a child to
love and had the means to spoil him. I imagined that they'd buy him a
puppy for his third birthday, and have him on a horse by the time he
turned five. Best of all they were completely average; I counted on
that to keep him safe.

I realized that she was still speaking while swaying slightly to keep
him from fussing. "There's still time to change your mind about a
closed adoption. Many mothers these days prefer open adoptions so
they can monitor their children's progress-"

"No!" My forcefulness clearly startled the other woman, so I hastened
to explain. "I can't do this if it's not a clean break." God forbid
my curiosity about how he was put him in danger. Again.

"I understand." She said compassionately before turning to Monica.
"You're driving her home?"

"Yes, of course." Monica waved at the baby. "Goodbye Sweetie."

She started to move towards the door but I hung back. "Can you tell
his new...parents something for me?"

"Of course, Dear." But I could tell that she wasn't committed to
keeping her word, yet. Who knew what mothers had asked her before, so
it was hard to blame her for being wary.

"Um, please let them know that he answers to his middle name." I
hoped she would remember.

Tension drained from her posture. "I will."

"I have to..." I gulped for air.

"Dana?" Monica sounded even more concerned than she looked.

Beginning to cry again, I pushed past them, and stumbled for the
exit. Monica hurried to catch up with me. John was waiting for us in
the car.

None of us said anything until John parked the rental car at a park
ten miles down the highway. I turned to Monica. "Was that
believable?"

"Very. If I didn't know better, I'd of sworn you were heartbroken."
There was a note of admiration in Monica' voice.

I actually was heartbroken, not that I was going to readily admit it.
"Good. He is better off this way, isn't he?" I asked anxiously.
Giving him up had been the right thing to do, for both of us, but I
still felt so guilty.

"Absolutely."

"Monica is right. No one could expect you to keep him. You were a
saint for keeping him as long as you did." John added.

"It wasn't a bother. And it's not like it didn't benefit me at all."
I said, feeling like a heel again. "Now that he's played his part,
I'm glad that he's going to a good family. He deserves that, poor
little tyke."

"Yeah." John agreed. "He's a good little guy."

"I was tempted to keep him." I admitted for the first time. Up until
then the thought of keeping him forever was something I'd kept
strictly to myself. "I was giving how I could work that out serious
thought. Right up until Spender gave him that shot. Then I realized
that he'd be better off with someone with no connection to the
X-Files and Mulder. He'll be safer with another family."

"We know." Monica told me. She'd said it before.

"Before we return the car, do you mind if I call my Brother Charlie?"

"Of course not. You may as well take advantage of a bug-free
environment." John said as he restarted the car.

"Thanks." I pulled out a newly activated disposable cell phone and
dialed my younger brother. "Hi Charlie, how's William?"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
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Three Months Earlier 

That Saturday morning, I got off to a slow start. I was still rattled
by William's abduction earlier in the week, and neither of us had
slept very well for days. Maybe he could remember what happened, or
maybe he was just reacting to my stress, but he'd been hard to
soothe, given to more tears than normal. For the first time in a
while, he was sound asleep when I peered into his crib, and I didn't
have the heart to wake him. Extra sleep would probably do him good.
It would have done me good too, if only I could sleep. Rather than
wake him up, I wandered the apartment in my robe and made a feeble
attempt to make coffee and toast.

After indifferently buttering slightly burnt toast, I remembered that
I hadn't gotten the morning paper yet, which made it difficult to the
crossword puzzle while my coffee got cold. Sighing, I shuffled to the
door. The paper was there, pushed to the side of the welcome mat, but
something else was sitting there too. A basket.

The basket was wicker. It was one of those expensive Moses-style
baskets that the baby catalogues my mother read were always pushing.
This was fitting, because although there was no river, this was
undoubtedly a foundling. A small baby slept under a blue blanket.

My first instinct was to look up and down the hallway, hoping to see
a sheepish parent returning for the baby they absent-mindly set on my
welcome mat by mistake, but there was no one else around. Even
straining my ears, I couldn't hear anyone else moving in the
building, which made me wonder how long the basket sat there. Surely
not very long, since the paper person would have wondered what was
going on. Wouldn't he? A blind man couldn't have missed the basket,
so the paper must have come before the baby was abandoned in front of
my door.

With the week I'd just had, the last thing I needed was another baby
to take care of. But no one else was volunteering for the job, so I
tugged on the basket's handles and backed into my apartment. It was
so awkward to carry, I was happy I managed to talk my mother out of
wasting money on one. The baby stirred as I set the basket down, and
when it shifted positions, I saw something sticking up against the
side. I plucked the envelope out without disturbing the basket's
occupant. It soon became clear that my welcome mat had not been
picked at random like I initially supposed.

Agent Scully,
Before she took off for good, my friend Pattie told me about how you
tried to help her and her daughter. I'm past the point of rescue
myself but I hope you'll find it within your heart to protect my
little boy, Joey. If you can't take him in yourself, please find him
a safe place to grow up.
D.T.

That was the full extent of the note.

Little Joey began to cry just seconds after I finished reading the
note, in big heartbroken sobs that left me wondering if he could
somehow comprehend his abandonment. I decided that was far less
likely than being wet and afraid of stranger. He thrashed around hard
enough to uncover himself.

"Hey, there, Joey, it's okay." I lied as I picked him up and tried to
restrain those flailing limbs. "I'm sure your Mommy will be back
soon."

When the words left my mouth, I fully believed that they would soon
come true. No one in their right mind just abandoned their baby on
someone's welcome mat. She may have heard positive things about me,
but she didn't know me from Adam. I could be completely insane for
all she knew. She'd be back. Soon.

That's just the way it is with foundlings. They don't stay lost very
long. Countless movies, shows and books about abandoned babies ended
with them being reunited with their families, breaking the
protagonists' hearts. Not that I worried about feeling that way - I
had a baby of my own to exhaust my maternal instincts on. Joey's
reunion with his mother would be a relief for all of us.

So I waited while time slowly ticked by. William eventually woke up,
and I put them both in his playpen. They goggled comically at each
other, and I realized with them side by side like that, that Joey was
just about William's age. Within a month, I'd say.

My irritation grew as the day waxed on. There were things I would
have liked to get done, especially considering my plans for the next
day, but I was trapped at home waiting for the woman to come back. It
struck me as extremely unfair to be waiting on the whims of someone I
was increasingly sure was unbalanced.

By the time I put them both down for the night I was exhausted and
felt a lot of sympathy for parents of twins, but I hardly slept
because I was convinced that I'd be woken up by the boy's mother.

The anticipated knock at the door never came.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I woke up agitated the next morning. It wasn't the baby's fault, but
his mere presence threatened to undo carefully laid out plans.
Waiting until eight a.m. to make a phone call taxed my patience to
the limit.

When Monica arrived at nine, she had the air of someone who had
expected to be needed. I never put much stock into the other woman's
claim that I was "sensitive" but I found myself grateful for it just
then.

"You said you've run into some sort of problem?" Monica asked before
she was even through the door. "Your brother didn't change his mind,
did he?"

"No, he didn't." That came out more short than I intended, so I
offered an apologetic look. "I have an unexpected houseguest." I
waved towards the playpen.

"Oh, he's cute. Is this one of your nephews?" She made silly faces,
and Joey started to laugh at her. "Or a neighbor's kid?"

"Neither." 

I handed her the letter to read, and she quickly skimmed through it.
"This isn't good."

"That's an understatement. I've been waiting for her to come back
since eight yesterday morning." I made sure she was looking at me
before I revealed the reason I'd asked her to come over. "I still
think she's going to come back. But I can't miss my flight. Do you...
do you think you could stay here in case she turns up?"

At first she looked like a deer caught in the headlights, but she
seemed to force herself to calm down. "Um. Sure, I can do that."

"Really?"

"Really. We'll be fine." She said nervously. "I'm sure his mother
will turn up soon, anyway."

"She will." I spent the next couple minutes showing her where to find
baby food and diapers, and offering her whatever she wanted from the
kitchen. Then I grabbed William's bags and him as well. "Thank you so
much for this."

Monica offered me a weak smile. "When you get back I'll tell you what
she said to explain her actions."

"Thanks, Monica."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A Few Hours Later

The hours that followed were some of the hardest of my life. Charlie
tried to make me feel better, but I was unable to be cheered. I knew
that William would be safer with him, at least until Mulder came
back, but not knowing how long it would be until then was depressing.

"I'll take good care of him." Charlie assured me at the airport. He
had William in his arms, and he looked comfortable. Of course he did,
he had three kids of his own.

I kissed my little brother's cheek. "I know you will. I'm just going
to miss him."

Charlie hugged me with one arm. "I know you will. But you're still
doing this anyway because you know it's what's best for him."

"Yeah..." I nodded slowly. All of the sudden I felt a lot more
sympathy for Joey's mother. It must being tearing her up inside to be
apart from her baby, too. "We'll be back for him soon, I promise."

"We know." Charlie moved William's arms. "Don't we, Will?"

The last thing I did before getting on the plane was to kiss William
and whisper "I love you, Baby."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Washington, DC

The lights were on in my apartment when I got home, and I wasn't
really surprised. Monica was on the couch, her head against the arm
of the couch, and one of my magazines draped across her lap. Joey was
just as soundly asleep in William's playpen.

Monica's eyes fluttered when I put my purse down. "Hey, she didn't
come."

"I can see that. Thank you for watching him."

"No problem. But what are you-" She stopped in mid-sentence as
someone knocked on my door.

"Oh good, that could be her." I said, flooded with relief. But when I
swung the door open, it wasn't a woman.

It was Skinner. "I'm sorry to bother you this late, especially on a
Sunday, but I have a few questions about what happened earlier this
week for my report. I figured that here we can speak freely. I hope
you don't mind."

"No..."

Then, before either of us could explain what was going on, the
strangest thing happened. Skinner walked over to the playpen and
looked down at Joey. "He doesn't look any worse for wear, does he?"

"What?" I'm sure I wore a blank look on my face.

He waved a hand in the baby's direction. "I was just saying that
William doesn't look traumatized by his experience."

"Oh." It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him that he wasn't
looking at William, but Monica shot me a pointed look. I knew what
she was going to suggest, long before we got a chance to speak alone
after Skinner left.

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Albuquerque, New Mexico
May 24th, 2002

Mulder and I held hands while we stood in the airport. It wasn't even
three in the morning yet, so there weren't that many people around.
The lack of a crowd made me feel a little less uneasy, but it was
going to take leaving there safely before either of us could really
relax.

He smiled up at me and said, "Tell me again about how you fooled
everyone."

I shrugged. "It wasn't as though I planned to deceive anyone, Mulder.
It just seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up."

"So they really couldn't tell that it wasn't William?"

"They really couldn't. I mean, my mom, Doggett and the gunmen could
tell, so we explained what was going on, but most people? They didn't
have a clue. The day after Skinner mistook Joey for William, I
brought him into the office. Everyone gushed about how cute he was. I
guess people don't really pay much attention to what infants look
like." That had really surprised me, at least until I realized I'd
done the same thing to friends' babies - said they were cute without
really paying attention to the child at all.

"And his mother never came back for him?" Mulder looked concerned.

"No." I sighed. "About a week after Joey landed in my life, I stopped
expecting that she was ever coming back for him. There was this news
story about a single mother who had been murdered a few days earlier,
and whose baby son was missing. Debbie Tyler, the same initials as in
the note. I worried for a while that someone would come up to me and
recognize him, but that never happened either."

"And now he's got a good home." Mulder squeezed my hand.

"A safe home, where no one will know that he wasn't born normal. More
human than human." The image of Joey tear-stained and screaming at
the hospital was the one thing that let me give him up. It hadn't
seemed like a risk to allow him to "be" William up until then, but
that night made me fully realize that we were playing a dangerous
game with that little boy's life. Giving him to someone else was the
only way he'd ever be safe, and at the very least I owed him that
much.

"There are probably a lot of babies like that out there." I added as
an afterthought.

"And here's one now." Mulder announced, and I looked up to see my
younger brother striding towards us. William looked terribly excited,
and was holding his arms out to me.

"William!" I took him immediately and cuddled him in my arms. When I
looked up both Mulder and Charlie were smiling at me. "Charlie, I
can't thank you enough-"

"Nope, you can't." He grinned at me. "But seeing the look on your
face just now makes it all worth it."

"Thank you." Mulder told him.

"You're welcome. Keep him safe."

"We will." I was still stunned to be holding my baby in my arms,
finally.

"And if you can drop Mom a line when you're settled, I'd appreciate
it." Charlie added.

"I'm not sure how long that'll be, but we'll get in touch with your
mom." Mulder promised. "I wish we'd finally met under better
circumstances."

"Me too." Charlie turned to look up at the fight board. "When's your
flight?"

"Pretty soon." I shifted William to my hip so I could hug him.
"Thanks, little brother."

A minute later I watched him walk away, and prayed it wouldn't be the
last time that I saw a member of my immediate family. It was hard,
but at least I had Mulder and William with me as I faced an uncertain
future. We'd get through it. Together.

The End

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Author's notes: 
As I'm sure is obvious, I wrote this story for all the philes who
also couldn't imagine Scully giving away her "miracle baby" like
she did in "William." 

This fic was a response to The Foundling's Tale challenge.
http://www.geocities.com/mulderscreek/tnf/challenge13.html
write your own fic for it, I dare you ::grins::