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Date Posted: 07:46:12 08/01/01 Wed
Author: Islandgirl
Subject: The rest of the story
In reply to: Islandgirl 's message, "New Fanfic — *MAJOR* spoilers for the end of Season 8" on 07:16:13 08/01/01 Wed

"A Brand New Life" (part 2)

***

Special Agent John Doggett sat in front of the his superior, Section Chief Kersh.
"Your assignment is simple, Agent Doggett," Kersh said. "Find Agent Mulder."

"Haven't I already been there and done that?" Doggett inquired. "It seems like we had this same conversation about this same time a year ago. Besides, I thought he wasn't an agent any more. You told me yourself his employment with the bureau had been terminated. If he's just a private citizen, and if no one has filed a missing person's report on him, then no crime's been committed and we have no jurisdiction to investigate the matter."

Kersh gritted his teeth. He had thought Doggett was someone he could trust to do his bidding, but this man was proving almost as obstinate as Skinner. "When was the last time you spoke to Agent Scully?"

"I haven't spoken directly to her in a couple of weeks. She left a message on my machine a few days ago, told me she, her husband and their baby were going on a little trip, that she'd call me when she got back. Sort of like a honeymoon, I suppose."

"Most people don't bring their baby along on their honeymoon," Kersh snapped.

"Most people get married before their child is born, not afterwards," Doggett replied. "What exactly are Mulder and Scully under suspicion of, having sexual relations outside of marriage? If I'm going to bust them for that, I'd have to bust about 80 percent of the adult population, including myself and, I dare say, you, sir."

"Just see if you can locate them, will you?" Kersh said. "Dismissed."

***

Mulder stared at himself in the mirror. He tried to think of the man looking back at him — a man with a scruffy growth of five days worth of beard stubble — not as Fox William Mulder, 39-year-old former F.B.I. agent and Oxford-educated psychologist. Instead, he was David William Carter, a 34-year-old part-time psychology instructor and sometime freelance writer. He had an undergraduate degree from the University of Vermont and a master's degree from Ohio State. He'd spent the last several years living and working in California.

Scully walked in behind him, and her reflection startled him almost as much as his own did. Her brilliant red hair was now a medium brown with streaks of blonde. For the first time since the early months of their partnership, she was wearing glasses instead of her habitual contacts. Her name wasn't Dr. Dana Katherine Scully any more, either. She was Katherine Marie Carter — maiden name O'Hara — and they'd met while they were both graduate students at Ohio State. She was 32, with an undergraduate degree in biology from a small Catholic college in Florida and a master's in biochemistry from OSU. She had also worked as an instructor in various California community colleges during the past few years. They'd been married for three years and had recently had their first child, a boy named William.

The call had come from Skinner last night. He was sure. Kersh was hunting for William. The only thing they had going in their favor — so far — was that Kersh was too worried about the bureau's reputation to let the media know two of its agents were missing. But, if all else failed, that would come. So it would behoove them to get moving as quickly as possible, establish their new identities — which Skinner emphatically did not want to know —  *before* their pictures were plastered all over every magazine and newscast in America.

Sam had arranged a job interview for "David" with a junior college in a small town in Oklahoma. The resume and references would check out. "Katherine" was taking a year off teaching to adjust to motherhood, then would seek a job, perhaps part-time, of her own. They were leaving this house in a few minutes, in the pre-dawn darkness. They'd had several suitcases and a week's worth of clothing delivered by members of Sam's team, so they wouldn't look out of place.

They left in a mini-van with California license plates on the back and Sam at the wheel. Mulder and Scully were slouched in the back with hats pulled low over their faces, William invisible in his infant seat between them. An hour or so later, just as the sun was beginning to rise, Sam pulled into a rest stop. "This is where I get off, agents. I'll wait at least another hour, then call a member of my team to pick me up. Head for Oklahoma. Remember, the credit cards and access numbers for the bank accounts in California under your new names are good. You've got my number; call me if you need me, but only if you absolutely have to. The less contact between us, the better. Goodbye and good luck."

Mulder took the wheel and pulled out of the rest stop, heading west. "Well, Katherine, how are you feeling?" he asked.

"Nervous, sad. . .but kind of excited, too. I guess this is the way my mother must have felt when she and my father were transferred to Japan just after I was born. In a way, it's kind of exciting, beginning a whole new life, being five years younger. The only thing I really mind is . . .my mother."

"I know," Mulder said quietly. "But this way she'll be able to say, honestly, that she has no idea where we are. If she'd been given a choice — never see us again or have William kidnapped, maybe killed — I know this is what she'd choose."

They reached their destination in northeastern Oklahoma about midnight. They checked into the hotel where Sam had made their reservations the day before and tumbled into bed, worried but exhausted.

The next morning, David had his job interview. "Really, Mr. Carter, you seem almost overqualified for a position at a college of this size. May I ask why you applied for the job?" the dean asked.

"My wife and I both grew up in small towns," he replied easily. "Now that we have a child of our own, we don't really want to raise him in the Los Angeles area, which is where we've been living. I grew up in Connecticut and she was raised in Florida; I wanted some place with four seasons, but she disliked the winters in Ohio, where we did our graduate work. So we thought Oklahoma might be a good compromise."

"Will your wife be seeking a position on our faculty as well?"

"Not immediately. Katherine wants to take this year off, be a full-time Mommy for a while. If something becomes available next year, she might be interested. She's also toying with the idea of going back to school, maybe getting her doctorate. . .possibly even attending medical school. Her plans are a bit up in the air at the moment."

The dean nodded. After a few more minutes, he offered him the job.

***
"Nothing?" Kersh asked his operatives.

They shook their heads. "Last call from either their home phone or one of their cell phones was the evening they disappeared. Three calls within ten minutes, to Margaret Scully, Melvyn Frohikie and John Doggett; no call more than three mintues in duration. That same evening they withdrew $800 from their joint checking account at a local ATM machine. Since then, it's been like they've vanished from the face of the earth. No more ATM withdrawals, no credit card charges, no reported sightings of their license plate, no phone calls from their cell phones."

"How much did they take with them in the way of clothes, personal items and luggage?" Kersh inquired.

"It's difficult to tell, since we don't know what they had in the way of clothing and luggage to begin with," the operatives said slowly. "But I'd say not much; maybe enough for a week or two."

"We'll wait then," said Kersh, with barely disguised impatience.

***

Within a week, Mulder and Scully has settled into the new town and their new lives. After the original job interview, they'd driven as far west as eastern Arizona, and gone on a shopping spree where they'd loaded the mini-van and a small U-Haul trailer with boxes of newly purchased household items and a few pieces of furniture, careful never to buy more than a couple of items at any one store. They'd explained their lack of furniture by saying most of the stuff they'd owned in California had been junky — typical grad student furniture, David had said with a laugh — and a small legacy from his recently deceased father was enabling them to buy virtually all new furnishings for their home here. So they did more shopping, without being so careful about it, in Tulsa the weekend after the arrived. They were renting the house, but the landlord assured them he'd be willing to sell it to them after the end of the year, if they could agree on a purchase price.

They were immediately caught up in the excitement of a new school year beginning. They joined a health club and the local Catholic church, where David began taking an inquiry class for adults interested in possibly becoming Catholic. Katherine soon established casual friendships with several other young mothers she met in their neighborhood, at church or at the health club. David was well-regarded by both his students and his colleagues at the community college; if he seemed a bit reserved, sometimes, well. . .not everybody was outgoing. Everyone understood that, as new parents, the Carters wanted to spend as much time with their baby as possible, even if it meant sometimes refusing social invitations.

***

Section Chief Kersh shuffled through the pile of papers on his desk. Surveillance reports of Scully's Georgetown apartment (which Mulder and their son now shared with her), the Mulder family beach house in Rhode Island, the residences of Margaret Scully, Walter Skinner and John Doggett, the home/office complex of three individuals known collectively as The Lone Gunmen and the Naval base where Bill Scully Jr. was stationed had all turned up negative. Unless the Mulder family has somehow snuck aboard the nuclear submarine where Charles Scully was currently on duty, they weren't being sheltered by any of their family and friends, nor were they at either their apartment or their beach house. Even if they were staying in no-frills motels or camping out in National Parks, the original $800 they took with them when they left over a month ago would have long since been used up for necessities like food, diapers and gasoline, yet there had been no further ATM withdrawals and no credit card charges.

"We can't wait any longer," Kersh said. "Call a press conference for tomorrow morning."

***

They'd been there a little more than a month when the shit hit the fan. There was no warning. They simply picked up the Tulsa newspaper one morning at breakfast — as the nearest daily paper of any size, it was delivered to subscribers throughout eastern Oklahoma — and saw their pictures on the front page. "F.B.I. seeks missing agents" blared the headline. A beardless Mulder and a thinner-faced, sans glasses, Scully looked back at them. Kersh was quoted as saying the F.B.I. needed to contact former agent Fox Mulder and Special Agent Dana Scully as soon as possible, and that anyone who had information as to the agents' whereabouts was asked to contact the bureau as immediately. They were assumed to be travelling with their infant son, William. Buried in the last paragraph of the story was a quote from Assistant Director Walter Skinner, stating that the agents were not known to have broken any laws and that Agent Scully was still on an official maternity leave, during which she was not obligated to check in with her superiors.

It was one of the worst day of their lives. Mulder forced himself to go to work, but checked in with Scully between every class. She stayed inside with William, the doors locked. Mulder kept expecting someone to point out the amazing similarity between Associate Professor David Carter and missing former F.B.I. Agent Fox Mulder, but no one did.

After a few days, they began to breathe again, only to have the breath knocked out of them when they saw a copy of "Newsweek" at the grocery store. Casually tossing the magazine with their pictures on the cover in with their basket full of diapers, baby food and grocery staples, they went home and devoured every word.

Kersh was quoted in detail as to the need — which he claimed was one of national security — for Mulder and Scully to contact the bureau as soon as possible. The reporters noted, however, that Kersh was vague as to the exact reason why the agents had become the objects of a massive manhunt. They also pointed out that, as a private citizen, Fox Mulder could not be compelled to report to F.B.I. headquarters unless a subpeona or arrest warrant was issued for him. The situation of Special Agent Dana Scully was a bit more complicated; she was still techincally an active duty F.B.I. Agent, and it was standard bureau policy for agents — even those on vacation or medical leave — to leave a contact number where they could be reached in case of an emergency, and she had not done so. But, the reporter pointed out, this was a minor bureaucratic infraction that could easily be attributed to the forgetfulness of an exhausted new mother; it hardly meant the active duty agent and her former-agent husband were involved in some sort of conspiracy.

Skinner was also quoted. He gave a perfectly credible account of both their previous disappearances and said, presumably with a straight face, that alien abduction could not be ruled out as a possibility. Maggie Scully was quoted, saying she was worried about her daughter, son-in-law and grandson, but that she was sure they hadn't done anything wrong; that her daughter had been in good spirits the last time they spoke.

For a while, it was a media circus. Everybody had a theory or an opinion. Losing a couple of its own agents made the bureau look even sillier than it had when they'd "misplaced" a number of weapons and laptop computers containing classified information. Several editorials and commentators pointed out that it was a free country, that Fox Mulder was no longer an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and had not been charged with any crime; that Special Agent Dana Scully, who might possibly be suffering from postpartum depression, was guilty only of the very slight breach of protocol of failing to leave a number where she could be reached while on maternity leave. But the question did remain that, even if their disappearance was voluntarily and innocent, they must surely be aware, by now, that they were being sought, so why didn't they come forward?

"I like that 'postpartum depression' suggestion. Like, what? I flipped out, killed you, William and myself? Good Lord, I've never been happier in my life than since he was born!" Scully said one evening, after they'd watched the news.

"Somebody asked me at work today what I thought. I said — you'll like this, Scully — that I thought the alien abduction theory was a bunch of hooey, because everyone knows aliens don't exist."

The story gradually died down, only to flare up again when the time for Agent Scully to return to work after her maternity leave came — and went — without an her reporting to work or contacting her superior to offer an explanation as to her whereabouts for the past months. She was now officialy derelict in her duties. The bureau could have fired her in abstentia, but chose not to, as it would have given them less legal standing to continue to search for her.

Never, at any point in any of the articles, was a U.S. Marshal by the name of Sam Gerard mentioned.

Mulder was a bit worried about Scully. After regaining most of her former energy within a couple of months of William's birth, she was now as exhausted as she had been during the weeks immediately after delivery; sleeping almost constantly during the hours she wasn't tending to him; sometimes even napping during William's waking hours, if Daddy was home. He wondered if she was coming down with some sort of bug or if the stress was simply getting to her. A few days later, he got his answer.

"Mulder — David — there are a couple of things we need to talk about. First, I think we have to stop referring to each other as 'Mulder' and 'Scully', even in the privacy of our own home. I'm Katherine. You're David. That's who we *ARE* now and we have to accept it, stop trying to cling to our old identities."

"You're right, Scu, uh, Katherine. I'll try to remember."

"There's something else. It's something that, with everything that's been going on in our lives lately, we've never really talked about. I hope it's something you'll be happy about because, if nothing else, it will provide us with a more perfect cover than anything Sam could have devised."

"What?"

"Well, the search is for a married couple with one baby. Before too long, David and Katherine Carter are going to be a married couple with *TWO* babies."

"You're pregnant?" he asked. At Scully's answering nod, he swooped her up in his arms and kissed her.

***

Epilogue

Katherine Carter smiled even as she sighed with exasperation, trying to get the last of the cake crumbs up from the dining room carpet. William's fifth birthday party had been an enjoyable but exhausting experience. Now she could hear William and his three-and-a-half-year-old sister, Sally, splashing in the bathtub under their father's supervision.

After being a full-time mother for most of her time in Oklahoma — two babies born barely fifteen months apart had left her with hardly enough energy to brush her teeth, much less contemplate employment — Katherine had begun teaching at the same community college where her husband was employed this past semester. She only worked part-time, and enjoyed the job, but it *had* made her life more hectic.

Finally, when the house was reasonably clean — Katherine had given up on achieving "totally clean" at any point before both children were in college — and the kids were asleep, she went up and climbed into bed. Snuggling close to her husband, she whispered, "David, do you ever have any. . .regrets? About the life we gave up?"

"What is this? Do you think because I 'officially' turn 40 next month, I'm about to have some sort of mid-life crisis? Decide that I prefer the identity of Fox Mulder, alien-obsessed G-Man, to that of David Carter, mild-mannered psychology instructor? Do you actually think I'd want to go *back* to that life? That I'd put William — and presumably Sally, too, once they knew she existed — into danger like that?"

"I know you'd never *do* it," she assurred him. "I was just wondering if you ever wished you could?"

He was quiet for a long moment. Then he said, "No. I'm glad we did it. I'd like to think that we achieved something important; that we did our part to keep humanity free, to fight the future that the aliens and the consortium had envisioned for our planet. But I'm no longer the same man who did those things. As David Carter, I've achieved a goal Fox Mulder thought was an impossible dream."

"What's that?"

"Happiness," he replied, drawing his wife into his arms for a long, deep kiss.

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