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Title: Dawn Summary: Post-Roswell. Until they make that second movie, every fan has to envision for themselves what happened next.
William had changed. In the two months since she'd sent him away, he'd begun the inevitable transformation from babyhood to toddlerhood. Longer-legged and sturdier now, wearing his first pair of tennis shoes, he peered, sleepy-eyed, up at her from the warm cocoon of his car seat in the pre- dawn light. One fisted hand reached up and scrubbed over his face as she watched, and his soundless yawn revealed a glimpse of two more tiny baby teeth. Scully knew she should be listening to the hushed conversation taking place beside her, but she was still reeling from the shock and unable to peel her eyes away from her son's precious features. She rocked back on her heels, sensing Mulder's gaze on her in the brief pause before he continued his interrogation of James Van de Kamp. "And you haven't heard anything more?" she heard him demand, his voice raspy from too little sleep and the early hour. "Nothing," said the man Scully now knew had never really been her son's adoptive father. "It's been quiet. We're going to head south into Mexico, lie low for awhile." Scully found herself tuning them out again. She reached out a trembling hand and stroked William's soft tufts of light auburn hair once more. Above William's head, Mulder's grasp on the car seat handle tightened as he adjusted his grip. Somewhere in the distance, a coyote howled, and Scully finally tore her eyes away from her baby boy, surveying the dusky desert cautiously. She shivered, drawing her jacket more tightly around her. The Utah morning was chilly despite the late spring heat she knew would bake it only hours later, and the empty, alien landscape seemed more sinister than ever now that she and Mulder had something to protect. Anything could be lurking out there in the shadows of buttes and canyon walls. And it wasn't anything as pedestrian as local wildlife that she was concerned about. Mulder seemed to sense the direction her thoughts had taken, for he ended the conversation fairly abruptly after that, reaching out to shake James Van de Kamp's hand firmly. Scully followed suit, looking him in the eye as she did so, this man who had risked his life to look after her son. "Please tell... your wife," she stumbled slightly, knowing now that their relationship was just a cover but not knowing how else to refer to the woman, "that I appreciate all you've done for us. Both of you." Her voice, though trembling, rang with sincerity and all the suppressed emotion of the past eight trying weeks. Van de Kamp met her eyes, nodded solemnly, and squeezed her hand once before letting go. "It was the least we could do," he said. He glanced up, including Mulder in his next words. "Best of luck to you both." "And to you," Scully murmured. Van de Kamp nodded, and then reached over to slam the back door of the minivan shut before walking around to the other side and hoisting himself into the driver seat. Not wasting a moment, Mulder shifted the car seat once more, then reached down with his free hand and guided her to their vehicle, which was pulled over just a few feet behind the van on the dusty road. The other car grinded to life then, the engine sounding unnaturally loud in the morning stillness. Scully hurried, throwing open the back door of the Explorer and clearing a space on the backseat for her son. Mulder leaned in beside her with William, and she buckled the baby in as Mulder left her side and got in up front. Slamming the door, she hurried around to the other side and got into the back beside William as he started the car. She watched as Van de Kamp's vehicle pulled away, doing a U-turn and then heading west on the dirt road back toward the highway. Mulder's eyes tracked the van in the rearview mirror for a moment before shifting to meet her own. "What's next?" Scully asked, her voice hoarse from emotion, yet strangely calm, to her ears. It would be hours before the shock started wearing off. Mulder put the car in gear, pulling back onto the road and accelerating toward the slowly brightening horizon. "I don't know, Scully," he said. "But I have a feeling that whatever it is, it ain't on the map." The End
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