Message-ID: <35853875.2C3D@wmcstations.com> Date: Mon, 15 Jun 1998 15:06:40 +0000 From: Lyle Bontrager Reply-To: lbontger@wmcstations.com X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01Gold (Macintosh; I; PPC) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: fishies@onelist.com Subject: The Way IV: Sunday (1/2) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Title: The Way IV: Sunday (1/2) Author: RocketMan >lbontger@wmcstations.com< SPOILERS::::::::REDUX::::::::RED AND THE BLACK::::::::COLONY/ENDGAME see part one for other The Way IV: Sunday (1/2) ===== "And now I will show you the most perfect way." --1 Corinthians 12:31 "The cruelest ironies are those consecrated by the passage of time: chanced and occasioned by shocking discovery." --Scully, Redux ===== He tapped once more on her motel door, lightly so he wouldn't wake her if she was asleep. He pushed open the connecting door after a moment and stood in the dim light coming from his own room. She was lying sprawled in the bed, one leg crooked and stradled across her pillow and the other straight. Her arms were flung to either side as if embracing the bed and her cheek was flushed against the sheets. He sat down in a rickety wooden chair and let his laptop and case files clatter to the table. She jerked and drew in, her limbs displayed in neat lines and her face more clearly seen. He walked over to the bed and squatted down next to it, balancing on the balls of his feet and leaning against the side. He stroked the side of her face and whispered her name, hoping to bring her out of sleep slowly, without nightmares. Her eyes opened instantly and she stiffened. "Scully?" He saw her twist, felt the bed shudder as she looked straight at him, and heard her breath coming slowly in and out. He relaxed. "Mulder?" she asked hesitantly, looking down at herself then at him. "Just came in to wake you, Scully." "Oh no. What time is it?" She pulled herself up and blinked, growing accustomed to the environment again. "Eight." She frowned. "How long have you been up?" "Not long. I took a run and grabbed a shower then spent some time on my laptop." She nodded. "Well, give me some time to take a shower and we can go get breakfast." ~~~~~ His room was dark and just looked seedier even though it was the exact same layout as hers. She followed him reluctantly to his door and deposited the bag of muffins on the table, throwing her sunglasses down next to it. He shut the door and slumped onto the bed. She sat down next to him and pushed the hair from his eyes. "You okay Mulder?" He nodded and took her hand, then stood and grabbed the bag containing their breakfast. He handed her the raisin and nut muffin and kept the chocolate chocolate one for himself. "Wait a sec," she muttered and sprinted for her room, shoving open the connecting door so he could see her rooting around in her bag. She pulled out two bottles of water and tossed one to him, letting him catch it with a rushed grace. She untwisted the cap and gulped down the clear water. "Uh, Scully, I don't like bottled water." he said softly. She smiled. "I know. It's not. Plain tap water in a bottle. I rinsed out some old ones I had and filled it with water." He gave her a bright smile and an odd look. "Thanks. . . I never . . ." She tilted her head. "Never what?" "Never had anyone think of me like that." She smiled, but her eyes were soft and hurting for him. "You're welcome." she said gently and sat back down on the bed, eating her muffin in silence. He scarfed his down and tried to dispel the feeling of suffocating they were under by pacing the room and growing agitated. Finally, he sat down and stared at her. She swallowed a bite and sighed. "What'd you find Mulder?" He gave her a show-off grin and pulled out his laptop. "I was thinking about something you said the other day. You asked if I had joined the children's crusade." "Right. I remember." "So I was looking that up on the net, trying to figure out why that stuck in my head so much. Did you know there really was a Children's Crusade?" She frowned. "No." "A huge number of children during the Crusade era became convinced they could reclaim the Holy Grail and so they marched all the way to France, huge scores of them, Scully. Once they met there, they walked all the way to the Medditeranean Sea where they believed it should part for them like Moses and the Red Sea. About 90% of them died on the long journey over and the few survivors tried to hitch rides on ships. The rest drowned in storms or were sold into slavery to the Muslims." She frowned and shook her head. "All those kids. How in the world did all that get started?" He shrugged. "For a long time, people thought that God had directed them. But it came out that one of the religious leaders of a church in France spurred a few kids who ended up having a fervor unmatched by anything. They spread the word and . . . well, you heard what happened." "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations. . ." she quoted, rubbing her forehead. "Yeah, they took that to heart." She looked up at him. "So what does this have to do with our warehouse?" "Merchandise, Scully. An army of children, just like in the Children's Crusades. Sam said she thought they were kids, but were called weapons, meaning that they were probably both. A whole army of kids, Scully. That's what they've got in there." "Mulder, that's so hypothetical, it's insane." "What else could it be?" "I don't know, Mulder. But don't limit yourself to that. Come on, surely there are thousands of other explanations you can give me." He turned to see her, clued in by the way her voice was laughing at him. She was smiling. "Are you laughing at me?" he said, darting in close to her. She grinned. "Maybe." He sat down on the bed and shook his head. "Ah, so now the truth comes out. You've secretly been laughing at me all these years." She shook her head. "I'm just trying to make you see what you're saying. We have no ideas or clues as to what's in there, virtually nothing but an address and you've come up with armies of children. Mulder, listen to yourself." He shook his head and looked at her with a bit of sadness. "Yeah, I know. It sounds nuts, but it feels right." "Well, we won't know if we don't start driving. Come on, Mulder, let's get going." He stood and watched her head back to her room to put up the few articles she still had laying out. He smiled when she didn't shut the connecting door. ~~~~~ It started to rain as they passed by Nashville, the drops large and splattering heavily into the windshield. She watched it with half a mind, thinking more on what he had said earlier. He'd never had anyone to take the time to care about him. It made her sad, made her want to look after him forever. What she had done was so small, but it made such a difference to him, to know she was thinking about him and his needs. She always thought about him, she loved him. That went without saying she thought. Maybe he just didn't know what love was, and that was why he was so surprised. She sighed and closed her eyes wishing to be somewhere else, maybe at home with a good book and no signs of an X-File. She felt his hand come to rest on her knee and squeeze. She opened her eyes to look at him. "You okay, Scully?" he asked, eyes still carefully on the road. "I'm fine, Mulder." That got her a quick glance from him and his hand withdrew. "Mulder, really." she said softly, taking his hand and holding it tightly. He nodded and chewed the inside of his mouth, then pulled away his hand and focused on the highway. ~~~~~ It was lunchtime when they arrived in Dickson, the closest town to Charlotte that still had a motel, and they stopped at the McDonalds smack in the middle of the small town. When they walked in, Scully had the distinct impression of being incredibly overdressed, even though she was in black pants and a cotton short sleeved sweater. Mulder, in his black jeans and grey T-shirt blended a bit better, but not in the way his hair looked imacculate and his jeans free of dirt or grease. Scully surveyed the dining area as Mulder ordered and sat down at a table by the window, waiting for him with straws and napkins. A man in a large dirtied cowboy hat scooted past a couple coming from the restrooms, and a little boy with a dirt smudged face followed behind with a vacant look. In his hand he gripped a Might Morphin Power Ranger. Even Scully knew that Power Rangers were no longer the cool thing for little kids. A woman wearing three plastic bangle bracelets was chomping loudly on her fries in the booth over, the white and blue and green jewelry clanking loudly. Scully raised her eyebrow as Mulder came over and sat down and she looked right at him. "Do you get the idea that everyone here is a few years off fashion? And that they really couldn't care less?" He chuckled. "Shame on you Scully. Just because your taste is superb doesn't mean you have to look down on everyone else. They're just poor country bumpkins." She raised her eyebrow just as a not-so-poor man walked in McDonalds. "Better re-assess, Mulder." He looked back and whistled. "Never mind. His taste blows yours out of the water." The man was wearing a finely tailored suit with grey pin stripe and a small lapel pin that sparkled with diamonds. His dress shirt was grey with maroon lines running thinly downward, and his tie was silk and matched perfectly with his shirt and suit. His wrist watch caught in the light and she guessed gold band with silver frame and his initials engraved in it too. "Wow. He's got money." "Or something." She narrowed her eyes, watching the gears turn in Mulder's head. "No, Mulder. Do not jump to conclusions. Stay right here." He flashed her an excited look. "But Scully, everyone else obviously isn't as well off-" "Mulder, wait until we can thoroughly case the warehouse and know for certain what goes on." He attempted to stand, but she yanked on his sleeve hard. "Mulder." she growled. He blinked and looked back to her. "Scully." "Do not get up. Stay right here. Let's just eat and find a place to stay." He looked at her for a long time, eyes warring with hers and his heart screaming at him to let it go. He sighed and slumped back into the booth. "Let's eat, Scully." ~~~~~ There was one motel and it was fairly nice, clean and fresh with the smell of Pine-Sol and Tide. Mulder got them one room with two beds inside, giving her some obscure reason that sounded fairly good. Something like it would be harder for anyone tracing them if there was only one room. Something like that. She was a little too tired to care. She dumped her stuff on the bed closest to the bathroom, letting him have the one by the door. He watched her unpack for a moment then sat down. "Scully. . .if this turns out to be bogus, I'll take you anywhere you want to go." She turned to see him. "What?" "Well, this is our vacation time and while I don't mind spending it on this, you deserve-" "Mulder. Hold on. I came up with this idea. I'm fine. Believe me. I'm fine." He nodded and started unpacking himself. "As soon as we're done here, we'll go check out the warehouse." ~~~~~ end part one of IV adios In Him RM