From: susannastarz@hotmail.com   
      
   TITLE: The Great Baseball Prodigy of Caribou Cove (2/2)   
   AUTHOR: Susanna Starz   
   E-MAIL: susannastarz@hotmail.com   
   FEEDBACK: Yes, please!   
   DISTRIBUTION: OK   
   RATING: PG-13   
   CATEGORIES: SRA -- Story, Romance, Angst   
   KEYWORDS: William, Mulder/Scully Romance   
   SPOILERS: Through season 9   
   DISCLAIMER: The characters of The X Files belong to Chris Carter and   
   1013.   
   NOTES: The town of Caribou Cove is my own invention, entirely   
   fictional, and no similarity to any real place is intended.   
   SUMMARY: William moved through a nightmarish landscape of a world on   
   the brink of madness, feeling like a stranger to his own history.   
      
      
   *   
      
             She had taken them inside, rushed them through the tiny   
   door into the cramped living space. She was shaking, barely   
   controlled as she moved instinctively to the stove to put water on   
   for tea. Will watched as Skinner went to her, spoke to her in a   
   familiar way, and finally managed to get her to sit down.   
             "I guess," Will said finally, staring into those   
   frighteningly familiar blue eyes. "That you're my mom."   
             She smiled at him, something that seemed an amazing feat   
   given the tears that glimmered in her eyes. "I'm Dana Scully. I   
   haven't seen you since you were a baby."   
             Will wanted to bombard her with a million questions. He   
   wanted to know everything about her, about her life, about his dad—   
   his dad!   
             "Where's my dad? I want to meet him too," he said quickly,   
   looking around the room hopefully. The furniture was sparse but cozy   
   looking, covered with Navajo blankets. A single poster of a UFO with   
   the words `I Want to Believe' hung unframed on the wall over the   
   couch.   
             When he looked back at his mom—his real mom—he saw that   
   her expression had fallen. She suddenly looked so small, so helpless   
   and pained that he had a hard time imagining that she was the same   
   woman that had struck terror into him moments ago outside in the   
   dark.   
             "He's…um…" She attempted to smile at him, brushing a stray   
   tear out of the side of her eye. "He's dead, William."   
             Will felt as though someone had dropped a bowling ball on   
   his stomach. He leaned forward in his chair with a grunt.   
             "Bullshit," Frohike said behind him.   
             "How?" Skinner asked quietly, his face horrified.   
             "I don't really know," she said, staring down at her   
   hands. "It's been almost a year. He had gone outside, probably for   
   an early morning jog…" She let out a strangled sob, looking somewhat   
   sheepish. "Sorry, I haven't really been able to talk about this. I   
   was inside—just a few feet away—when I heard the sound… "   
             "What sound?"   
             "I couldn't identify it at first. It was muffled. It could   
   have been anything. But we live out here in the middle of nowhere,   
   and we don't usually get sounds like that…" She sighed. "I guess I   
   knew something was wrong."   
             Will noted with some pride that his dead godfathers had   
   all convened around his mother and were staring down at her with an   
   expression of utmost sympathy. If they could have hugged her, they   
   would have.   
             "I went outside, and he was just lying there in the sand,   
   he'd been shot. He was dead before I even got to him. I never even…   
   got to say goodbye."   
             "Did you ever see who shot him?" Skinner asked quietly.   
             "No." Scully laughed bitterly. "I ran inside to get my   
   medical bag and some towels, and when I came back outside he was   
   gone. There was a bloodstain in the sand, but his body had just   
   vanished. He's been gone for a little over a year now." Her eyes   
   flitted back towards Will, who was still leaning forward in his   
   chair, feeling rather faint. "William, I'm so sorry. Maybe I   
   shouldn't—"   
             "No," he said quickly. "I needed to know."   
             He felt someone touch his arm gently and looked over to   
   show Pam a brave face. She smiled sadly back at him.   
             "Who…" Scully said, peering at her for the first time.   
             "I'm Pam Sullivan," she said, sticking out her hand. "A   
   friend of Will's."   
             "We were the only two from our town who survived."   
             "Survived?" Scully stared at them before something seemed   
   to click. "My god. Caribou Cove?"   
             Suddenly everything seemed to pour out of William at   
   once. "It's starting, colonization is starting, and they came to   
   Caribou Cove because they knew I was there and now they think I'm   
   dead, only I'm not dead—I got away, but they don't know that so they   
   think it's safe to start and now we only have a day to stop it—"   
             His mother reached across the table and clasped his hands.   
   He was surprised at the strength he felt in them. His other mother   
   had always seemed so dainty.   
             "How do you know all of this?" she asked him, her voice   
   full of wonder.   
             "They told me."   
             Scully glanced at Skinner and Pam with a raised   
   eyebrow. "They told you?"   
             "Not them," William sighed. He had taken his dead   
   godfathers for granted and was unaccustomed to explaining them to   
   everyone he met. "THEM." He pointed vaguely at the space behind   
   Scully's head.   
             She stared at him for a moment, before turning and looking   
   behind her. Will noted with a small smile that Frohike was straining   
   to peer down her shirt; it was the same way the rather short-   
   statured ghost had behaved when particularly attractive soccer moms   
   had walked by.   
             Several emotions flitted across Scully's face as she   
   turned back to face her son. Confusion, concern, fear… "William, is…   
   is there someone there? Behind me?"   
             "Three people, actually. My dead godfathers."   
             "It would be kinda helpful if the rest of us could see   
   them," Pam muttered.   
             "Shut up," Will scowled at her, before returning his   
   attention to his mother. "One of them is looking down your shirt   
   right now."   
             "He's what?" Scully looked horrified and seemed torn   
   between whether she should check her son for a fever or put on a   
   turtleneck.   
             William laughed at the guilty expression on Frohike's   
   face. "Okay, he says he's sorry. Frohike, Langly and Byers have been   
   with me since I was little."   
             "Frohike!" Scully hissed, swatting her hand at the air   
   behind her. Her hand went right through Langly's head, and he   
   winced.   
             "See," Will stuck his tongue out at Pam, who rolled her   
   eyes.   
             Scully was still staring at the empty air behind her, her   
   expression reverent. "Mulder told me once, that he saw them…by the   
   road…"   
             "My dad could see them too?"   
             "The three of them were very good friends of ours when   
   they were alive," Scully said softly. "They helped your father and I   
   out so many times, saved our lives. I don't know if I ever got the   
   opportunity to properly thank them."   
             "You just did," Will said quickly, noticing the misty-eyed   
   expressions on the faces of his odd guardians. "They've been looking   
   out for me since I was little. They're the reason I got out of   
   Caribou Cove in time."   
             "Thank you," Scully whispered.   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)