Title - What's Bred In The Bone
Author - Lady Disdain
E-mail - The_Lady_Disdain@mailcity.com
Rating - G
Summary - "What's bred in the bone will not out in 
the flesh." 
Spoilers - Implied Sein Und Zeit and Closure. (sort-
of post ep)
Distribution - Gos, Eph, Xemp are okay. For others just 
ask first. 
Disclaimer - Mulder and Scully and their ensemble 
cast are owned by Fox.
Thanks to blackswirl for beta.
-----------------------------
What's Bred In The Bone by Lady Disdain 
The_Lady_Disdain@mailcity.com

 Dr. Werber looked straight into the camera lens, "Today
is June 9, 1989. The patient is Fox Mulder. He is trying to
recall his sister's abduction. This is his second session
of hypnosis."

 The doctor sat down out of view of the camera and began
to speak softly.

 "Now Fox, I want you to go back to the safe place. Do you
remember what the safe place is?"

 The man spoke in a slow monotone voice, "Yes, it's the
beach where Sam and I used to build sand castles together."
His dimples showed as he smiled, "I was always King Arthur
and made her be Morgan Le Fay. She never got it." 

 "Very good Mulder. Now, I want you to think back to
*before* your sister was taken. Do you remember any
problems at home?"

 Silence filled the room as the patient laid still. 

 Suddenly Mulder's he jerked and he spoke, "Cookie dough.
Slowly dripping down the counter towards the floor. 

 I had asked Mommy if I could have some chocolate chip
cookies. She had smiled at me and pinched my cheek. She
told me to go watch Sesame Street with baby Jeffy and that
she would have the cookies ready for after dinner.

 Jeffy followed me into the kitchen when I heard Daddy's
car pull up. Jeffy was always following me. Daddy looked
sad and pushed us away when we held our arms toward him
chanting, "Up, Daddy, Up."

 He told us to go back to the living room and made Mommy
go out on the porch with him so he could smoke.

 Jeffy and I pressed our ears to the window. Mommy and
Daddy were arguing. We couldn't understand what they were
saying but Mommy was starting to cry.

 Daddy tried to grab her arm and hug her but she twisted
away and yanked open the porch door.

 I ran into the kitchen and got there in time to see her
bolt through the door and accidentally knock over the
cookie pan.

 Tears streamed down Mommy's face as she picked me up into
her arms. Over her shoulder I watched the cookie dough
slowly drip to the floor as she whispered in between sobs
that nobody was going to take her boy away.

 Then Daddy came in and did just that."

 A thousand questions and answers flooded Werber's brain
but he remained silent. In the silence he made a decision
that would change a life.

 Heitz cleared his throat and spoke in a shaky voice,
"Mulder, listen to me. Your parents have always been
William and Teena Mulder. You never had a brother. You are
going to forget everything you just remembered."

 Mulder nodded and then the doctor began the process of
being the agent out of hypnosis.

 The young man opened his eyes and sat up. "Well?"

 "I'm sorry Fox, you didn't recall anything about
Samantha's abduction this time." Werber spoke in a feigned
condoling voice, "Maybe we could try again next week. Are
you open on the sixteenth?"

 Mulder bit is lip and thought for a moment, his haunted
eyes looking toward the ceiling. "Yeah, I'm free that day."

 Heitz managed a smile, "Great, I'll see you then."

 The two men shook hands as Mulder thanked the doctor and
left.

 Dr. Werber swore under his breath as he turned off the
camcorder.
***************************************************** The
man stood and smoked a cigarette as the so-called doctor
played the video. There was nothing he hadn't already seen.
The bugs and camera in Heitz's office had paid off. The
good doctor would not have problems with his air
conditioning for awhile now. 

 The tape demonstrated that Dr. Werber could be
compromised. Mulder was lucky to have a doctor that thought
so quickly on his feet. All it would take some extra money
in the bank and maybe a threat to emphasize silence Heitz
on the matter permanently.

 The timid Werber stood with a deer in headlight's
expression as his visitor made his case. Heitz nodded
readily and gave the man the tape assuring him that it was
the only copy in existence.

 With a sneer the man stubbed out his cigarette and took
the tape out of the doctor's shaking hands. He began to
leave but paused at the door.

 Mulder was a man capable of knowing all truths. But some
truths he would learn of sooner than others.

 "In the next session, Dr. Werber, ask Fox what he
remembers about the bright red light."

 With that the smoker left.
*****************************************************
Mulder slowly walked around the house listening to a
silence forty years in the making.

 With a sigh he sat down on the couch and looked around
the cottage. He was flooded with memories, more bad than
good. His focus changed from the empty chair where his
mother used to sit to the fireplace where he and Sam used
to roast marshmallows. His eyes finally rested on the
coffee table before him.

 On a whim he pulled on the knob of the table drawer. It
resisted and groaned and squeaked until finally opened to
reveal its treasure.

There it was exactly how he left it. He picked up the
book; its pages were yellowing. It opened immediately to
the partition between the first and second book.

 After Samantha disappeared he could never read the second
book of "The Once and Future King". He couldn't bring
himself to read past the fairy tale of "The Sword In The
Stone". He never wanted to leave the magical place where
the lowly Wart found out he was to son of Uther Pendragon
and became the King Of England.

 And so the book was creased in the break between the two
parts. Mulder stared down and read the quote, which began
the second book, "The Queen Of Air And Darkness".

 It said: "When shall I be dead and rid Of the wrong my
father did? How long, how long, till spade and hearse Put
to sleep my mother's curse?"

 He put down the yellowed book and asked a loud, "How long?"

 The ghosts of too many forgotten memories and remembered
nightmares answered with silence.
***************************************************** He
had a vague understanding of how DNA paternity testing
worked. Essentially the technicians saw if yellow and blue
made green. Mulder had the sinking feeling he was going
turn out orange.

 Mulder stared and the wall as he thought of his years in
Oxford. He and his buddies frequented one particular pub
quite often during their sophomore year. 

 By that time he had lost all of his romantic notions of
King Arthur. His new friends had scoffed at him over their
warm beer and had told him that was so American of him. It
was they that had introduced him to Phoebe.

 At that pub it was tradition to tap the proverb placed
above the doorframe on your way out. He had once asked the
bartender why. The man had only shrugged and said that the
proverb had been there as long as anyone could remember and
customers had always tapped it.

 Mulder was jarred out of his reverie when the technician
entered the room with the results. If all three of the
strands lined up then his mother and father were exactly
that. 

 He closed his eyes and squeezed Scully's hand as he
thought of the saying he tapped so many years earlier,
"What's bred in the bone will not out in the flesh."

 He opened his eyes and looked at the test results.

---------------------

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