Chapter Eight - Visitations and Announcements 
 
The sound of a toddler in dire need woke Mulder suddenly from a sound 
sleep. He lurched to his feet, making soothing sounds and searching for 
the cause of the ruckus. As he blinked sleep from his eyes, he made out 
the child's words. 
 
"Daddy! Poopy, poopy!" 
 
"Oh shit," Mulder groaned, accurately, as it turned out. His son had 
apparently decided not to wake him for this "potty emergency," and had 
made a mess of his pants. Stripping off the offending garments, Mulder 
wondered what evil he had committed to be punished with this? 
 
"Oh...oh man...Will." Mulder wrinkled his nose in disgust. "How about 
you 
and me get in the shower? I think that's the best solution to this 
problem." 
 
When they were clean and dressed once again, Mulder decided to take 
Will 
out for lunch. He had a favor to ask of some old friends anyway.... 
 
As they waited for Frohike to open the door, Will slowly counted the 
locks as he heard each one being manipulated. When the little man 
appeared on the threshold, he sauntered right in. 
 
"Come in, make yourself at home," Frohike rolled his eyes at the tot's 
assuming attitude, so like his father's. 
 
"What's up, Mulder?" Langly asked, turning from his computer screen. 
"You 
want us to run some more IQ tests on William?" 
 
Before Mulder could answer, Will spoke up in a clear voice. "Unca 
Byers's 
sad." 
 
Mulder, Frohike, and Langly all looked at him. "How do you know that?" 
Frohike asked incredulously.  
 
Will shrugged, more interested in the banks of computer screens. "I feel 
him. Suzanne's dead." Now he cocked his head in perplexity. "I hear him 
crying now." He began to move purposefully towards the bedroom area in 
the back of the Gunmen Lair, though he had never been to that part of the 
building before. 
 
Mulder scooped him up as Langly sputtered, "We only just heard about it 
this morning!" He looked closely at the ordinary looking little boy. 
 
His father attempted to ignore the incident and answered his friend's 
earlier question. "There's actually two things I need you guys to do for 
me. And yes, I need a test for Will, but not an IQ one this time." 
 
"I want you to find some people for me. I want you to find Teresa Hoese, 
and I want to know what happened to Gibson Praise." While his friends 
gaped at him, he hit them with his second request. "And I want some 
genetic testing done on Will." 
 
It was several days before the results of the genetic tests came through. 
The Gunmen assured him that it would be some time before the people he 
wanted could be found. When they were ready, a slightly pale but 
otherwise composed Byers presented him with a thick manila envelope. 
Eagerly, Mulder slid it open while Frohike amused Will. 
 
"I can't believe this," he said, scanning several pages. "This looks a 
lot like the test results on Gibson...only...." 
 
"Only a lot more so," Langly agreed. "Near as we can tell, only half of 
Gibson's junk DNA have begin-end codes. *All* of William's are turned 
on." 
 
In Gibson Praise, they remembered, the so called alien virus had been an 
intrinsic part of his DNA.   
 
"What does that mean?" Mulder looked bewildered and excited at his 
friend, who looked solemnly back at him. As one they turned and looked 
at 
the laughing boy trying to snatch a toy from Frohike. There was no sign 
that he was anything but a happy, healthy toddler. If he had an ability 
like Gibson's, he had hidden it well, except for occasional strong 
flashes of empathy. It was in his very guts that his uniqueness showed. 
 
------------------- 
 
It was Mulder's turn to cook next day. Scully insisted on making dinner 
at least two times a week. Generally Mulder tried to make large portions 
when he cooked so she could make use of leftovers. Breakfast was easy: 
Scully still insisted on their long-standing tradition of coffee, 
pastries and yogurt (for her) in the mornings. They were in the middle of 
preparing an elaborate meal of chicken, fettucine alfredo with broccoli, 
and a salad, when Will looked up. Mama Scully walked in the door, three 
hours early. 
 
She was upset, he could see by the set of her shoulders and the tension 
in her jaw, though she greeted her enthusiastic toddler with as much joy 
as he showed her. He set the tongs aside and gave her a kiss and a warm 
gathering-up into his arms. 
 
"I had a visitor today," she drew in a shaky breath. "Lizzy Gill came to 
see me." 
 
Mulder was stunned. He frowned at the thought of the older redheaded 
woman. No matter how altruistic her reasons, she had put his Scully in 
harm's way and that had forever tainted her in his eyes. "Isn't she in 
protective custody?" he asked. No matter how urgent his news about Will 
seemed to him, it could wait. 
 
Abruptly Scully turned aside and fetched a snack for Will from the 
kitchen. When he was comfortably ensconced in the sofa with a banana 
and 
his favorite line up of cartoons, Mulder and Scully sat down at the table 
to talk.  
 
She described for him how the woman apparently bribed one of her female 
guards - Mulder was amused at her blush and sudden averting of her eyes 
at that part - and made her way into the Hoover building. At some point 
she sneaked away from her tour and went to the basement office. 
Fortunately for Lizzy, Scully was there dropping off some forensic 
reports. 
 
Mulder's brow darkened and his lips pressed together tightly as she then 
described the conversation she'd had with Lizzy. The former Consortium 
lackey had first inquired into the health of Dana's baby. Caught off 
guard, the agent had stuttered that her son was just fine, thank you. 
 
Then Lizzy had said to her, "You should be proud. You're not the first 
one to have one like him, but he's the first one to be so successfully 
engineered. And it'll just pave the way for more of them." 
 
Scully concluded, "She would have said more, but security was coming 
for 
her and she ran away. I was too stunned to be much help to the guards." 
 
Despite her shakiness over her unexpected encounter, there was a twinkle 
in her eyes that her partner found suspect. There was a brief pause as 
she finished her narrative. The pause was filled by Will's small voice 
piping up, "Tell him now, Mama." 
 
Scully started and glanced towards the living room with a frown. Although 
she was not the primary caregiver of their child, she was certainly 
around him enough to know that such instances of insight from him were 
not uncommon. 
 
"Tell me what?" Mulder teased softly, cocking his head slightly. 
 
With a big grin, Scully answered him. "The shock of seeing Lizzy almost 
drove it out of my mind. Although I've been sure for about a week now, I 
went ahead and confirmed it at lunch today. 
 
"Mulder...I'm pregnant!" 
 
He sat back in his chair and just gaped at her. His mouth was 
simultaneously hanging open and stretched wide in a silly grin. For 
Scully, it was a moment she had missed with William, a fantasy memory 
she 
hadn't dared re-anact. 
 
"Baby?!" he whispered. His eyes and hands flicked toward her belly. He 
seemed almost in awe of her. "We started another baby?" 
 
Now her own face threatened to split as they shared their joy. They 
hugged, and Scully missed the brief shadow of fear that crossed his face 
as he remembered the results of those tests.