All Eyes Lead to the Truth | Existence (8x21)
“Agent Mulder,” Line Pilot Nate Lawson says through his aviation mic. “Do we have an exact location?”
Despite his own headset firmly over his ears, the eager man who’d called the emergency air transport for his partner is silent, his forehead pressed determinedly against the helo’s window.
“Just Mulder,” he eventually responds, his wide eyes steadily scanning the inky sky. “I did drag you out of bed. And if by ‘exact’ location meaning an abandoned town hidden in Nowhere Northern Georgia, then yeah.”
Grunting, Nate grips the controls, steering the helo further south.
“I appreciate you rushing,” Mulder adds.
“A pregnant agent’s in danger.” For Nate, it’s as simple as that. ”It’s important."
“It’s… everything,” Mulder mutters. Like a confession meant for only God to hear. But the helo’s comm system is crystal clear, and Nate’s ears burn with the admission.
To his left, Mulder’s brow is pinched with worry. His jaw clenches, his knee anxiously bouncing so rapidly that Nate feels the jolt of it beneath the vibration of Big Bell’s engine.
He checks the navigation and points to the 4x6 photo of his family taped to the console. “My wife, she had our son last year in our mini van during a snow storm. The ambulance took forever to meet us. I almost lost her... So I know.”
There’s compassion in Mulder’s eyes as he tears his gaze away from the darkness. “Is it like you hoped?”
“Fatherhood?” Nate’s grin rushes up from somewhere deep in his chest. “It’s hard and it’s terrifying. But it’s better than I could’ve ever imagined. You’ll see.”
Mulder inhales sharply. As if the possibility that he could have that too had just occurred to him.
“I wasn’t in bed, by the way. My son was,” Nate redirects. “I was singing the classics to Logan. He’s teething and can’t sleep. And Leanna’s losing her voice.”
Mulder smirks, “I have good reason to doubt Scully sings Elvis.” Suddenly he’s lurching forward, his nose smooshed to the cockpit’s glass. “There’s a light! Follow that.”
Time accelerates. One light turns into several, which blurs into a whole damn horde. All surrounded by nothingness.
“Down there! Get me down there,” Mulder vehemently says.
Nate’s fists clench the controls as he deftly maneuvers Big Bell around cabins and cars, hovering just feet above the ground.
Mulder leaps out, weaving through moving vehicles weirdly out of place in such a remote area.
“Scully!” Nate watches him pound on car windows, wrenching on their locked doors as they drive past, desperate to find his partner. “Scullaayyy!”
Nate knows all too well what that feeling of absolute panic is like. That overwhelming fear for loved ones pushing your mind and body to its limits, not giving a damn if you break every bone in your body to save them. You’d willingly lose your limbs and lay down your life to keep them safe.
Mulder bursts from a cabin minutes later with Agent Scully carefully cradled within his arms. She’s pale but alive, wrapped in several white sheets, her bare feet bouncing in time with Mulder’s determined steps. It looks like a scene from Leanna's drama shows.
Behind them, another agent holds a swaddled newborn tight to her chest.
Cautious of the propellers, Mulder hauls himself and an exhausted Agent Scully into the fuselage, letting her upper half lay across his lap. While Big Bell is safe and fully equipped, Nate will push her hard with this rescue tonight. He tells Mulder this when he slides headsets on himself and his partner as the dark-haired agent gently hands the baby over to its mother.
“Thank you, Monica,” Agent Scully sighs gratefully.
“You were amazing, Dana.” She smiles fondly. “Congratulations,” she tells them both before hopping out of the fuselage and jogging back toward the cabins.
Nate flicks on the night-vision cameras to keep an eye on the precious cargo. There’s a flurry of activity behind him as the wailing baby settles. He radios coordinates back to D.C. as Big Bell rises 12,000 feet.
“…Nice shirt,” Mulder chuckles, touching the oversized gray t-shirt she’s wearing bunched up beneath the newborn nestled atop her chest.
Nate hears her huff a raspy laugh.
“I’ve held a longstanding theory that my missing tees over the years were hiding in your go-bags,” Mulder teases, seemingly gathering every scrap of composure he has left to piece together a light-hearted smile for her. “Of course I had no solid evidence until tonight.”
She just grins through her drooping lashes.
“God, Scully…” his choked sigh crackles through the mic. “Billy Miles, those strangers… Jesus. Everyone’s okay?”
Nate sees her hand that’s not cradling her sleeping baby rise to cover Mulder’s as he thumbs her cheek. “We’re okay,” she breathes. “Just tired.”
“I’m sorry, Scully. I missed it. After everything—”
She cups his jaw. “You’re here now, Mulder. That’s all we need.”
“I’m here.” He places a protective hand to the delicate curve of the baby’s back. “I’m here.”
Finally, Agent Scully sleeps.
They’re twenty minutes out of D.C. when Nate watches Mulder stare down at the newborn tucked safely between two chests, transfixed. Even through a screen, Nate sees his eyes well.
It’s a look of a man who holds his entire world in his arms.
Before Nate can voice that, the baby whimpers, its tiny fist poking out from the bundle of blankets.
“Shhh, buddy,” Mulder soothes. “None of that.”
The baby continues to stir and Nate senses Mulder’s uncertainty of what to do next. So Nate says, “Sing” into the mic.
“Uh, okay.” Debating, Mulder’s fingertips gently graze the baby’s soft tuft of hair. “Jeremiah was a bullfrog,” he finally croons. “Was a good friend of mine…”
Nate grins under the brightest star in the sky as they descend for landing. Later, he’ll follow his own light home, kiss Leanna, and sing to little Logan one more time.
“…Joy to the fishes in the deep blue seeeeaaa. Joy to you and meeee.”
Read the rest of All Eyes Lead to the Truth on Ao3 @monikafilefan
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