"Reunion"
by Andra Marie Mueller
Part FourSee part one for summary, author's notes & disclaimer
****************************************
ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA
Two days passed, and aside from a brief phone call to tell her that Nicholas Wynmore had not provided any new information regarding the man he had seen leave the scene of Scott’s crash, Doggett had not seen or spoken with Jessica. The items Mulder had submitted to the Bureau’s evidence lab had been clean; no fingerprints or other DNA markers had been found on the papers. However, the lab had confirmed that the typeset on Jessica’s note matched the typeset on the one she’d had Mary type. Mulder and Scully were working with the Bureau’s Boston division in an attempt to uncover the source of the article about Christina, as well as more information on her case. In the meantime Doggett was trying to get more information on the adoption certificate before disclosing its existence to Jessica.
Early one evening, Jessica was sequestered in her office reviewing a case file when her private line rang. As she reached over to pick up the receiver, she called out to one of the uniformed officers passing by her door.
“Hey, Jenny; would you come here a minute please?”
The younger woman stepped into the lieutenant’s office as Jessica greeted her caller. “Jessica Doggett.”
“I was hopin’ I could catch you before you left,” a familiar voice replied.
She smiled at the sound of her ex-husband’s voice. “Hello, Sunshine,” she said. “Hold on a minute.”
Jessica glanced at Jenny and handed her one of the files on her desk. “Would please give this to Detective Moore? He should be up at the front talking to Ben.”
“No problem, Lieutenant,” Jenny said, and took the file from Jessica.
“Thanks, Jenny.”
Jenny exited Jessica’s office as the lieutenant returned her attention to John. “So stranger, to what do I owe the honor of your call?”
“If you don’t have other plans, I thought maybe you’d like to meet me for dinner at the little bistro that just opened around the corner from your precinct,” Doggett said. “It’s supposed to have the best pasta dishes this side of Italy.”
“Any other night I’d love to, but unfortunately my evening is already accounted for,” she told him. “Sarah has to work a double shift at the hospital tonight to make up the time she missed after Scott’s funeral, so I told her I’d take the kids. It’s pizza and movie night at my place.”
“Sounds like fun,” Doggett remarked. “Mind if I join the party?”
“You really want to spend your down time with three rowdy kids and a dog that weighs more than all three of them put together?” she prompted.
“Actually I was more interested in spendin’ time with their babysitter,” Doggett responded softly.
The implication in the casual remark caused Jessica’s breath to catch in her throat. Oh my, she thought to herself. To Doggett she said, “I like the sound of that.”
“I’m gonna swing by my place and change into something more comfortable…” Doggett began, and was interrupted by a light chuckle from Jessica.
“Isn’t that supposed to be my line?” she asked wryly.
“Was that an invitation, Lieutenant?”
“An open one.”
There was a pause on the other end of the line. “You’d better be careful about makin’ promises you can’t keep, sweetheart,” he cautioned huskily, “or I’ll hire a babysitter of my own and bring you home to my place to take you up on your offer.”
The lieutenant flushed at the thought. “I’ll keep that in mind,” she replied. “I’m going to pick up the kids and the pizza, then swing by the movie rental place, so I should be home in about an hour.”
“I’ll see you in an hour, then.”
*********************************************
Just under an hour later, Jessica pulled into her driveway and discovered Doggett waiting on the front porch. The children promptly burst from the car and ran across the front lawn to launch themselves at him with shouts of delight.
“Uncle John!”
“Hey, Uncle John!”
“Hi, Uncle John!”Affectionately dubbed the Three Musketeers by Jessica, the children clearly adored Doggett, his separation from Jessica having done little to dampen their affection for him. Fifteen year-old Cameron was a miniature version of Scott; thirteen year-old Eric was an even blend of both parents; and ten year-old Kim was the mirror image of Sarah. The group exchanged hugs just as Jessica approached them and exchanged a smile with John.
“You made good time,” she remarked, balancing the pizza in one hand and the bag of movies in the other.
“The traffic was pretty light,” Doggett responded, and confiscated the pizza as he gestured at the plastic bag with the movie rentals. “So what are we watchin’?”
“One for each,” Jessica answered. “Cameron wanted Terminator 2; Eric chose The Lost World; and Kim selected Monsters, Inc.”
“Excellent choices,” Doggett replied.
Shifting the bag to her other hand, Jessica unlocked the front door and swung it open, where the group was immediately greeted by 175 pounds of exuberant dog.
“Trouble, stay!” Jessica ordered sharply.
The dog obediently refrained from bolting out the door and instead greeted each of the children with a slobbery dog kiss on their hands as they made their way inside.
“You guys can stash your stuff in the guest bedroom upstairs,” Jessica instructed, “and I want you to wash your hands before we eat.”
“Can we have popcorn while we watch the movies?” Cameron requested.
“If you still want it after you eat your dinner, yes.”
The children all flashed her grateful smiles before dashing up the stairs, Trouble close on their heels. Jessica deposited the movies in the living room before gesturing for Doggett to follow her into the kitchen.
“They seem to be dealin’ with Scott’s death pretty well,” Doggett observed.
“Sarah thinks so,” Jessica allowed. “She spoke to one of the child psychologists at the hospital and he said that the best thing to do was to resume their normal daily routine. He said that the kids will go through a variety of emotions over the next few weeks and to just deal with them as they come. And Sarah’s seeing her own grief counselor, so hopefully they will all get through this with as little scarring as possible.”
“I hope so.”
Depositing the pizza box on the counter, Doggett flipped open the lid and grimaced at the sight before him. “You got a pizza that’s only half meat?”
“You and the boys are the only meat eaters,” she reminded him. “Kim is a vegetarian.”
“What about you? Still walkin’ both sides of the line?”
She gave him a mock glare. “The only reason I don’t consider myself a full vegetarian is because you got me hooked on those Polish sausages you were addicted to while we were living in New York.”
“Yeah but you’re conveniently forgettin’ that you got me back by making me switch to decaffeinated coffee and forcin’ me to drink it black.”
“Once you got used to it, you admitted that you liked it better that way,” she countered. “You said the milk and the sweetener ‘contaminated the coffee’s natural flavor’ or some such thing.”
Doggett paused. “I did say that, didn’t I?”
“Yes, you did.”
The children entered the kitchen then and Jessica and John quickly served up their dinner, as well as Trouble’s, after which the lieutenant herded them into the living room and positioned them on the couch.
“You’re going to watch Kim’s movie first because she has to go to bed before you two,” Jessica told them. “After her movie is done, you boys can decide amongst yourselves whose movie gets watched next. I’m going upstairs to change clothes and then take Trouble for a walk. If you still want popcorn after you eat, I’ll make it when I get back. Deal?”
The children nodded in agreement and she put the first movie in the DVD player before retreating upstairs. A few minutes later she came back down dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt, and after a quick glance toward the living room to ensure the children were behaving, she walked into the kitchen to join Doggett.
“I’m going to take the old man for a stroll around the block,” she said. “You want to stay and supervise the Three Musketeers or tag along with Trouble and me?”
“If I choose the latter, will the kids be okay by themselves?” Doggett asked.
“They should be. My gun is locked in my car and Cameron knows not to open the door to strangers. Besides, we won’t be gone more than half an hour.”
Doggett nodded and rose to his feet. “In that case, let’s take a walk.”
Summoning Trouble, Jessica crossed over to the closet by the front door and retrieved the leash hanging on the inside handle, then snapped it onto Trouble’s collar before she and John bid the children farewell and left the house. They had walked about a block when they encountered one of the neighbors, an elderly woman named Violet Fisher, who was walking her own dog, a white toy poodle no bigger than Trouble’s head.
“Good evening, Jessica,” she greeted. “I saw the notice in the newspaper the other day about Scott’s accident. I’m so sorry.”
“Thank you, Violet,” Jessica responded. “How’s Henry?”
“He’s doing much better after I took him to that doctor you recommended,” Violet told her. “He hasn’t had an attack in over a week.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
Violet glanced at Doggett. “Who’s this handsome young fellow?”
“Violet Fisher, John Doggett.”
Doggett smiled and extended his hand. “A pleasure to meet you, Ma’am.”
Violet shook his hand as she responded, “Likewise, Mister Doggett. Are you a friend of Jessica’s?”
He glanced questioningly at Jessica, who answered in his stead. “Actually John is my ex-husband,” she revealed.
“Oh, so you’re the one she let get away,” Violet remarked, and glanced at Jessica. “I like the looks of this one. Are you going to keep him this time?”
John glanced at Jessica in amusement as she flushed in embarrassment. “I’m working on it, Violet,” she allowed.
“Good for you,” Violet said. “Well, Pearl and I had better get inside. You two enjoy your evening.”
“Good night, Violet,” Jessica said, and she and Doggett resumed their walk as Violet and Pearl retreated inside their house. Once they were safely out of earshot, Doggett addressed Jessica.
“She seems like a sweet old lady,” he remarked. “I take it Henry’s her husband?”
“Henry’s her other dog,” the lieutenant clarified. “He had been having some sort of seizures for over a week, so I referred Violet to Trouble’s veterinarian, and now Henry is on anti-seizure medication.”
Doggett nodded. “I’m curious about somethin’,” he said. “The other day when I went to the police station with you, the desk sergeant knew who I was as soon as I gave my name, and so did Violet a minute ago. How is it that people I’ve never met before know who I am?”
“Let’s just say that you’re not the only person who wonders why I wear a wedding ring when I have no husband,” Jessica replied wryly. “Every once in a while I’ll get someone who takes it a step further and asks if we had children.”
“What do you tell them?”
“I tell them the truth. After we first lost him, I refused to discuss it. But my grief counselor told me that I should talk about him. Luke existed and was a part of our lives for eight wonderful years; how he left us doesn’t change that. And I know that he would want us to remember him with smiles, not tears.”
“Do you still miss him?” Doggett asked.
“Every day,” Jessica confirmed. “But I’ve learned to live with his loss, and God willing I’ll see him again when the time comes for me to leave this life.”
“I wish I could be as at peace with it as you are,” Doggett remarked. “Every time I think about what happened it makes me so mad I could kill somebody.”
“You know as well as I do that it would have served no purpose. Even if Bob Harvey was responsible for Luke’s murder, killing him wouldn’t have brought Luke back, and it would have dishonored his memory.”
“Maybe, but it also might have made up for puttin’ him in danger in the first place. I knew Harvey was dangerous, but I was so busy tryin’ to be the hero I didn’t watch over my own son.”
Jessica stepped in front of Doggett, blocking his path and forcing him to stop in his tracks.
“What happened to Luke was not your fault, John,” she declared heatedly, using her free hand to poke him in the chest. “You had no way of knowing that Harvey was trailing us that day. It was a random act of violence, and could just have easily happened to any of the other families in that park. The fact that we were police officers doesn’t make us any more liable. I will not allow you to accept the blame for Luke’s death.”
“Who else am I supposed to blame?”
“The only person responsible for what happened to our son was the man who killed him. Luke’s death was a horrible tragedy, and we will both carry that pain for the rest of our lives. But we have to move past it and allow ourselves to live again. Drowning in grief and self-recrimination only pours salt into open wounds. Let it go, John; let him go.”
Ice blue met dark blue as Doggett held Jessica’s gaze in silence for a long moment before responding. “I’m scared, Jess,” he admitted. “I’m scared that if I let go of the anger and the grief, then one day I’ll wake up and not feel anything at all.”
She gave him a comforting smile and lifted her hand to gently place her palm against his cheek. “You’ll feel love,” came the quiet reply. “You’ll remember the smile on his face the morning he woke us up to show us he’d learned to ride his bike. You’ll hear his laughter the morning he came downstairs and discovered Trouble. You’ll feel his breath on your cheek as he kisses you good night. Those are the feelings you can hold onto.”
It’s moments like this that remind me why I love her, Doggett mused silently. Aloud he asked, “How did I ever manage to let you walk away from me?”
“It must have stemmed from the same idiocy that prompted me to leave you in the first place,” Jessica responded dryly. “Now, enough serious stuff. We have a dog to walk and trio of rambunctious children to supervise.”
“Lead, on Lieutenant.”
*************************************
It was after midnight when the final movie ended and Jessica ushered the boys off to bed. Kim had been put to bed shortly after her movie had ended, after recruiting John to tuck her in. Trouble was sprawled on the floor in front of the couch, sound asleep, and the boys gave him a gentle pat before giving Jessica and John good night hugs and heading up the stairs to bed. Once they were out of earshot, Doggett flashed Jessica small smile.
“They’re good kids,” he remarked. “Scott and Sarah did a good job.”
“Yes they did,” Jessica agreed. “I’m just sorry that Scott won’t be here to watch them become adults.”
“I’m sure he’s watchin’ over them,” Doggett responded. “He was always playin’ the part of a guardian angel when he was alive, so I imagine now that he’s official it will only make it easier.”
She smiled at that. “I’m sure it will,” she said. “Well, it’s late and we both have to work Tomorrow so I’d better let you go.”
“Walk me to my car?” Doggett asked.
“Of course.”
He extended his hand, and Jessica took it in hers as they quietly made their way outside. The walk to John’s truck was made in companionable silence, and he waited until they reached the driver’s side door before turning to face Jessica.
“I had a good time tonight,” he said. “It brought back some nice memories.”
“I’m glad you joined us,” Jessica replied. “It was good for the kids to spend some time with you.”
“What about you?”
Her smile returned. “It was good for me to spend some time with you, too,” she said. “It was nice to enjoy some quality time without it being strictly business.”
He smiled back. “Maybe next time we can recruit someone else to baby-sit and I can accept that open invitation you extended earlier.”
Jessica met his gaze in silence for brief moment before softly replying, “You’re welcome to preview coming attractions.”
Doggett’s smile faded as the air between them suddenly flared with sexual tension. Keeping his eyes locked with hers, Doggett lifted his hands and placed them on the edge of his truck bed on either side of Jessica, effectively trapping her. Shifting his weight, he closed the short distance between them and pressed his body to Jessica’s, feeling a visceral tremor ripple through her as he lowered his mouth to hers. Desire immediately flared to life at the contact, and Doggett deepened the kiss as Jessica placed her hands on his hips and pulled him closer. They remained locked in one another’s embrace for several minutes before a thread of sanity penetrated Doggett’s passion fogged brain and he reluctantly broke off their kiss. It took a moment for them to get their breathing under control, and once they had Jessica was the first to speak.
“What was that you said earlier about making promises I can’t keep?” she asked dryly.
“If this was only a preview, the main attraction is probably gonna kill me,” Doggett muttered.
She smiled at that and lifted her hand to gently press her palm against his face. “You’d better go before one of my colleagues has to arrest us for lewd behavior in public,” she teased.
“With my luck it would be Lupen,” Doggett said. “I’ll call you Tomorrow.”
“I’ll be at work after ten,” Jessica told him. “I have to drop the kids off at school.”
Doggett nodded, then indulged himself in another kiss before climbing into his truck. Once inside, he lowered the window and gave her a final smile. “Good night, Jess. Sweet dreams.”
“Sweet dreams, John.”
The lieutenant stepped back as he started the truck, and stood in place to watch him drive away until his taillights disappeared into the night. Smiling to herself, she slowly made her way back inside her house. Only after the front door had been closed and bolted did a lone figure emerge from the bushes of the house next door, and stare at Jessica’s house in silence for moment before retreating into the darkness of the night.
*******************************************
FBI HEADQUARTERS
It was near noon before Doggett managed to make it to his office. Upon his arrival at the Hoover Building that morning, he had been summoned to Kersh’s office for a meeting regarding a recent case Doggett had consulted on for D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department. Piqued because Doggett had not informed him about the case, Kersh had spent twenty minutes lecturing the agent about the ‘importance of the chain of command’. No sooner had the Deputy Director finished his dressing down than the evidence lab had called to inform him that the specimen he had submitted last week for a DNA test on the bloodstains had accidentally been contaminated when one of the forensics experts had spilled coffee on the clothing. All in all, Doggett’s day was not off to an auspicious start.
Walking into his office, he found only Mulder there, reviewing the file they had started for what they had dubbed the “Triad” case: Scott’s death, Christina’s kidnapping and Jessica’s adoption.
“Mornin’, Agent Mulder,” Doggett greeted.
Mulder glanced up. “Good morning, Agent Doggett,” he returned.
“Where’s Agent Scully?”
“She took Will to the doctor this morning for his first year check-up,” Mulder said. “She should be in any time now.”
Doggett gestured at the file on Mulder’s desk as he settled behind his own. “Any new information on the Triad case?”
“I’m waiting for a return call from one of the archivists at the Bureau’s Boston division. She’s going to try and track down the file on my sister’s kidnapping.”
As if on cue, the telephone rang then and Mulder picked up the receiver. “Fox Mulder.”
“Agent Mulder, this is Janet Schimmel from the Boston office. We spoke earlier this morning about a case file involving your sister’s kidnapping.”
“Yes. Were you able to find it?”
“It took some doing, but I did manage to track it down,” Schimmel told him. “Unfortunately, I don’t think that there is anything in here that will be of any use. The file has a copy of the original police report when your parents reported Christina missing, as well as affidavits from neighbors who were questioned about the abduction. If I’m reading this correctly, the case was closed after six months and your sister was officially declared ‘Missing-Presumed Dead’.”
“Does it state the name of the agent who was in charge of the original investigation?” Mulder questioned.
“Yes. His name was Carl Spender and apparently he quit the FBI shortly after your sister’s case was closed.”
“Spender,” Mulder muttered to himself. “I should have known.”
“I’m sorry, Agent Mulder; I didn’t understand that.”
“I apologize, Mrs. Schimmel. I was talking to myself. I appreciate you taking the time to check on this for me. Would you please fax what you have to me at 202-555-1101?”
“Certainly. I’ll send it over in just a few minutes.”
“Thank you very much.”
Hanging up the phone, Mulder met Doggett’s inquiring gaze. “Apparently the agent in charge of investigating Christina’s kidnapping all those years ago is the same man who was responsible for my sister Samantha’s abduction five years later,” he revealed.
“The guy you call the Cigarette Smoking Man?” Doggett prompted.
“That’s him.”
“He must have been pretty desperate to abduct two girls from the same family.”
“Deranged would be my adjective of choice,” Mulder countered dryly. “So what about you? Any luck finding the source of Lieutenant Doggett’s adoption certificate?”
“Not yet. I was thinkin’ that maybe we should take what we have to the Gunmen and see what they can come up with.”
“I suggest you tell Lieutenant Doggett what’s going on first. I know from personal experience that keeping secrets from the people you care about only does more harm than good, regardless of how good your intentions are.”
Doggett smiled at that. “Nice to see Agent Scully’s finally rubbin’ off on you,” he chided.
Mulder smiled back. “Just don’t tell her,” he said. “It would ruin all my fun.”
The other man shook his head as he reached into his desk drawer and withdrew a business card, then flipped it over and picked up the phone to dial the number printed there. A clearly distracted Jessica answered it on the second ring.
“Jessica Doggett.”
“Good mornin’ beautiful,” Doggett greeted.
“Hi, John,” she returned hurriedly. “I’m on my way into a meeting with Captain Phillips. May I call you back in about an hour?”
“Actually I was hopin’ you could swing by my office this afternoon. There’s something I need to talk to you about.”
Jessica paused. “That sounds ominous,” she remarked. “May I ask what its about?”
“It’s somethin’ relating to Scott’s death.”
“Ah. Well you should have just said so. For a minute there I was worried you were going to say that last night was too much too soon.”
Doggett smiled. “On the contrary, Lieutenant, I have every intention of finishin’ what we started when time and opportunity permit,” he told her.
“I hope so,” Jessica responded pointedly. “I’ve got some things to finish up here after my meeting, but I should be able to make it into D.C. by about four o’clock.”
“I’ll see you then.”
*******************************************
He hated being summoned like this, as if he were a dog that was required to heel upon command and come when called. Yet he knew all too well the choice to disobey would a fatal one, and he held his tongue as he entered the smoke filled room.
“You have a task for me?”
“Yes,” came the raspy response. “It seems that Lieutenant Doggett and her friends from the FBI are more resourceful than I gave them credit for, and have managed to uncover my role in the events in Boston thirty-eight years ago.”
“I thought you wanted them to uncover the truth.”
“I do, but I wasn’t prepared for them to do so as quickly as they have. If Mister Grant and Senator Caldwell are taken to task for their parts in this plan, then we must be ready to have our people fill in the gaps.”
“What do you require of me?”
He took a drag from his cigarette before responding. “I think its time to remind Lieutenant Doggett what fate befalls the curious,” he said.
“You want her killed?”
“Not killed, but taken out of commission long enough for us to put our replacements into position.”
“That will take an outsider’s experience.”
“Fine, but make it someone expendable. Once the deed is done, I don’t want our ‘outsider’ getting an attack of conscience and confessing to the crime.”
“I’ll make certain all loose ends are tied together.”
“See that you do. Once everything is in place, we can reveal the rest of the puzzle to Lieutenant Doggett and Agent Mulder.”
********************************************
HOOVER BUILDING
A few minutes before four o’clock, Jessica walked into the office occupied by the X files agents and found only Scully and Will present.
“Lieutenant Doggett,” Scully greeted. “I’m Dana Scully.”
“Nice to meet you, Agent Scully,” Jessica responded. “John speaks very fondly of you.”
“I could say the same to you.”
The other woman gave her a curious look. “He’s told you about me?”
“He filled me in on the basics, yes.”
“He obviously places a great deal of faith in you to trust you with our history,” Jessica remarked. “So where did John disappear to?”
“He and Mulder will be right back,” Scully said. “They had to talk to our boss about a case they’re working on.”
The lieutenant nodded, then shifted her attention to Will. “This handsome little fellow must be Will.”
Scully smiled. “Yes. My mom was spending the day with friends and couldn’t watch him, so I brought him to work.”
“He’s a beautiful boy.”
“Thank you.”
Scully watched Jessica watch Will, and saw a brief flash of anguished longing pass across the other woman’s face before vanishing. She still misses Luke, she observed silently. Aloud she said, “You’re welcome to hold him if you want. He likes people.”
The lieutenant graced Scully with a grateful smile and set her purse on Doggett’s desk before bending over to pick up Will. “Hello there little Mister,” she greeted. “You’re quite the looker, aren’t you?”
Will eyed Jessica with typical infant’s curiosity, and Jessica handled him with the ease of someone who knew and loved children.
“You’re very good with him,” Scully remarked.
“I’ve had a lot of practice,” Jessica demurred. “Even before I had Luke, John and I used to baby-sit my brother’s kids. We wanted a large family of our own, but unfortunately it didn’t work out that way, so instead of a sibling, Luke got Trouble.”
“Trouble?” Scully echoed questioningly.
“Trouble is my dog,” Jessica clarified. “Or a pony in dog’s clothing, as John used to say. After I suffered my second miscarriage, John decided to get me a puppy to help ease the pain. I’ve always been partial to large dogs, and so one of our friends on the force that bred Mastiffs gave one of his puppies to John to give to me. The first night we had him, he chewed through two pairs of John’s shoes, one of mine, marked his territory on every rug in the house and shredded Luke’s bedding. John made a comment about the puppy being more trouble than he was worth, and Luke promptly announced that he was naming him Trouble. He’s lived up to his name ever since.”
“With a dog that size I imagine that’s easy to do.”
The sound of muffed voices in the hallway signaled the return of Mulder and Doggett, and the women glanced over expectantly as they walked into the office. Spotting Jessica holding Will, Doggett felt his heart skip a beat as old memories threatened to overwhelm him.
Even after all this time the sight of Jess holdin’ a baby still makes my heart ache, he mused.
As if sensing his thoughts, Jessica flashed him a faint smile tinged with sadness before returning Will to his mother. As Scully placed him in his stroller, the lieutenant addressed the men.
“So, what was it that you wanted to talk to me about?” she asked.
Mulder and Doggett exchanged a look, then Mulder answered the question. “While we were at your brother’s office the other day, I found a folder in his filing cabinet labeled with your name that contained information about you,” he revealed.
She frowned. “What kind of information?”
“Most of it was personal stuff, like what you’d find in a standard personnel file,” Doggett said, then crossed over to his desk and retrieved a folded paper, which he handed to Jessica. “This was at the back of the file.”
Jessica took the paper and unfolded it, her confusion turning to disbelief as she scanned the copy of the adoption certificate. Once she was done, she glanced at Doggett, shock etched in her elegant features. “I assume you’ve validated the authenticity of this,” she said.
“Not officially,” Doggett demurred. “But the date of the certificate is your birthday, and I can’t imagine Scott botherin’ to hang onto it if it were a forgery.”
“Maybe it is fake, and he was keeping it so he could find the person responsible for creating it and pursue legal action,” Jessica suggested.
“Then why would it be stashed in a file in the back of his filing cabinet?” Mulder countered. “You’re a police officer; why would he not tell you about its existence and enlist your help in finding the forger?”
“Why didn’t you tell me about its existence when we were at his office two days ago?” the lieutenant shot back.
“I wanted to show it to Agent Doggett because if it was authentic, I felt he should be the one to present it to you,” Mulder responded.
She couldn’t argue that. “This makes no sense. If I am adopted, why wouldn’t my parents have told me? Why keep it a secret?”
“We think it has something to do with the abduction of Christina Mulder thirty-eight years ago,” Scully told her. “According to the adoption certificate, you were adopted in Boston shortly after Christina was kidnapped in Martha’s Vineyard. Our theory is that there was some kind of black market for baby girls at that time, and you and Christina were victims of it.”
“Y’all are telling me that I was stolen from my birth parents so the Caldwells could adopt me?” Jessica prompted incredulously. “That’s absurd. I come from one of the richest families in the country. Why would they need to resort to being accessories to kidnapping to adopt a child?”
“That’s not what we’re sayin’ Jess,” Doggett interjected. “Its entirely possible that your parents thought they were obtainin’ you through legitimate means. But whoever they went through to get you may have been involved with the kidnappers.”
“And I’m supposed to be relieved that my parents aren’t the criminals, just their associates are?”
Doggett winced at the angry sarcasm in her voice, but wisely remained silent, knowing all too well how futile it would be to try reasoning with her when she was in a temper. Mulder, however, did not have the benefit of Doggett’s history with Jessica and made an attempt to calm her down.
“Don’t shoot the messengers, Lieutenant,” he said. “We’re only trying to discover the truth.”
The lieutenant shot him a look that would have curdled milk. “Don’t pacify me and make it sound like you’re doing me a favor, Agent Mulder,” she snapped. “If your ‘truth’ is indeed just that, then it may have cost my brother his life. Someone is going to answer for that.”
The ring of the telephone interrupted the heated discussion and being the closest, Scully picked it up. “Dana Scully.”
“Agent Scully, it’s John Byers. Is Mulder there?”
“Hold on.” Scully handed the receiver to Mulder. “Its for you.”
Mulder took the phone. “Hello?”
“Mulder, its Byers. It took some digging, but I think Langley may have found some information that may prove useful in verifying that adoption certificate you faxed us.”
“Good. We’ll be there shortly.”
Mulder hung up the phone and met the others’ inquiring looks. “Byers says they may have some information about the validity of the adoption certificate,” he revealed.
“Who’s Byers?” Jessica asked.
“Ever heard of the Lone Gunmen?” Mulder asked.
“With a mother who works in D.C.? Yes, I’ve heard of them.”
“Well Byers is what you would call the ringleader.”
One delicate eyebrow arched upward. “And these are the men you’re trusting with my life secrets?”
“They’re a bit unconventional,” Doggett allowed, “but they are trustworthy.”
“Well then, let’s go hear what they have to say.”
*************************************
On to Part five
Please email me at this addy with any questions, comments or feedback.
