TITLE: Everybody Else

AUTHOR: Jillian

TIMEFRAME: Season Nine Gibson Praise point of view

SPOILERS: Trust No1, The Truth, slight The Beginning and The End

FEEDBACK: Yes! PLEASE! It makes my brain function faster! [email protected] or here at fanfiction.net, my second home. ;)

RATING: PG-13

ARCHIVE: Ask me first, so I can be proud!

SUMMARY: Gibson contemplates life with Mulder, and Mulder's rather *interesting* thoughts while he hides out in season nine… Please read and review--it's shippy! Gibson POV

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing except the lousy computer I typed it up on. Mulder, Scully, Doggett, Reyes, Gibson Praise, and the X-Files belong to CC, 1013, and FOX. Copyright infringement? Oops. My bad. And I'm not making money off of this… I wish I was, though.

AUTHORS NOTES: I thought it would be cool to write a story about how Mulder's thoughts sometimes get a little raunchy and Gibson doesn't appreciate them. This is what came of that… Enjoy!

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I remember the first day Mulder came here. It was hot out, but it's always hot in New Mexico. He came in and joined me in hiding out... From everyone. He had left Scully and his newborn son and he come to hide out from *them.* I knew he didn't want to be here, but I didn't want to be here either. Nobody hides out from the world by choice.

Since that day, it's been a few months. He contacts her through e-mail, but he can't tell her where he is... He knows if she knew where he was... That gave her the possibility of coming to see him. Which put her and William in danger. I remember listening to him think as he wrote an e-mail to her. I always listened in, actually, not necessarily by choice. I just hear the thoughts in my head. Sometimes it gets confusing, but not here, it's quiet here. The e-mails are always sappy, but sad. They love each other yet they're apart. That seems wrong to me, most people who are together don't even love each other, yet these two love each other seemingly more than anyone, and they can't be together.

Then she contacted him. She told him he needed to come back, not only because she missed him but because something had happened. I remember listening to him think as he read himself the e-mail. She was vague in what she told him, saying she was being watched. He trusts her, only her, so he agreed. He hoped on a train and I didn't hear from him for a week.

It was boring while he was gone. I had Eric, the Navaho boy, but Mulder was my favorite person there. He was my friend. I didn't miss some of his thoughts, though. Honestly, a man's mind has no censors, or ratings, or warnings. All of sudden, he's thinking something really gross. Actually, it's most of the time he thinks that way. Of course, it's always about her. I mean, Agent Scully is pretty I guess, but she's old enough to be my mom. There's no way I needed to think about her doing *that* to anyone, let alone Mulder.

That's just one of the downsides of mind reading. It made me a very jaded fifteen year old boy. I know all about things nobody should have to worry about, my fears can never be assuaged because I know when someone's lying. You can't tell me I'm going to be okay if I'm not, I'll know you know your lying. I never got to make real friends, with a few exceptions. I never got to kiss a girl, because who wants to kiss a kid whose always mixed up in government conspiracies and whose head is constantly being cut open and tested on? Of course, mind reading was good for passing tests and winning chess matched. All of that get's boring after awhile.

So a week after he left on the train, Mulder came back to the house. He was dirty looking, he clearly hadn't showered since he left. He just stood there, looking really upset until I said something.

"You didn't see them, did you?"

"No. It was a setup. I'm afraid for them, Gibson." He said. "They've been watching Scully. They know everything." He muttered.

"How did you get home?" I ask.

"It's a long story. I had to run away from the Supersoldiers, and from Scully. I heard Agent Doggett calling for me... I heard her too. I heard her voice, Gibson, but I couldn't yell back. I had to disappear before the Supersoldier knew I was there... I hid out in the rock quarry that night, knowing the iron compound would eventually kill the Supersoldier. Late that night I ran, I was on my way to her house, but I turned around. It wasn't safe. I got on the first train as far away from DC as I could get, which coincidentally put me far from here... I had just needed to get out of there."

"I'm sorry." I said quietly.

"I just can't take that I could hear her voice and not be with her. Or comfort her. Or go home with her and see our son."

"You have an e-mail." I said. "It's from her."

He walked over and read the e-mail. I remember him reading in his mind, just as scared for her as she was for him. He got to the last line "Until then, I remain forever yours... Dana." He did something I didn't expect. He didn't reply to her. Why, I'm not totally sure. He had a lot of reasons. He was content that she was his, he was afraid they'd be monitored, that they'd know he was still alive and well--and searching.

He cried as he shut down the computer, I remember. It made me sad to see him sad. He was afraid for her, and for their son. I wondered about their son a lot, I mean, I knew Agent Scully was barren. I figured that out when I first met her, when she was comparing herself to that other woman, Agent Fowley. She loved Mulder back then, I remember listening to her think. Agent Scully's thought didn't have a censor or ratings or warning either. Anyway, she thought he'd never want her, she could never have kids. I think it was just a miracle. He thinks about that night a lot... I don't like when he thinks that way. It's gross.

He was quiet for a week, but after that time he opened up again. His determination came back, and again he began searching for his truth. He was looking for the colonization date, and he narrowed it down to one army base. He spent a lot of time trying to spy on the base, trying to find out where the answers were and how to get to them. A way in, a way out. So he could finally have it, and go home to his son and his mother.

His thoughts ran a lot that day, as he planned the break in at the base. Quietly he planned how he would see her again for the first time in so long. He'd let himself in with his key in the middle of the night, while she was sleeping. He'd first go look at his son, and kiss his forehead. Mulder thinks vividly, it's almost like watching a movie. He'd then walk into her bedroom, and crawl into bed next to her. She'd wake up, startled, and turn to face him. Quietly she'd ask him to prove she wasn't dreaming. And he'd prove it to her, he'd kiss her. Then he'd tell her how much he had missed her and William and how badly he wanted to be with them. He'd kiss down her neck and... It was right about that point that I interrupted him.

"Can you please stop thinking like that?" I asked.

He laughed a little. "I miss her, and I love her, of course I'm going to think about her."

"Do you have to think about her like that? It's gross."

"It's not gross. That's my favorite way to think... You act as if you never looked at an issue of Playboy or peeked at a dirty movie."

"Everyone knows you watch plenty of them." I said.

"Not since I left her." He replied quietly.

"Yeah, I know. Anyway, it's not the same."

"Why not? Dana's a beautiful woman..." He began.

"She's old enough to be my mother." I replied simply.

"You just don't appreciate how much we love one another."

"I appreciate it. Honestly, I do, but I don't want to have to think of you too like that."

"Then read somebody else's mind." He says.

"Nobody here is interesting. Besides, everybody thinks about sex. And it seems they only think of it with people old enough to be my mother, or father for that matter."

"So women think about sex a lot too?"

"Of course. Everyone does." I replied.

"Even Scully?"

"That's confidential. Knowing she thinks about you is enough." I replied.

"Like confidentiality ever stopped me from getting information." He replied.

"I know you really wanted to see her. I'm sorry." I said.

"Yeah, me too. Someday, maybe someday soon."

"You're going to the army base, to find the colonization date soon, right?" I asked.

"Yeah. Then maybe after I know, I can go see them."

"Good luck." I had said quietly.

He would get to see her. Just not as he had planned. Instead he got himself arrested and slapped with a murder charge. So I ended up testifying, which pissed him off because he wanted me to be safe. It doesn't matter. I'll never be safe. Of course, we all knew he'd never win. Even Agent Scully knew it, but she didn't want to believe it. When they told her his sentence, I remember her thoughts. Of him dying. Leaving her completely alone. She even briefly thought of killing herself. I wouldn't have let her. She's too good of a person amongst so many bad.

Now, they're gone. I'm sitting in an apartment with Agent Doggett and Reyes. They're good people. I like Monica better than John, though. He has a closed mind. They think of each other a lot, too. They love each other, but it doesn't seem to be anything compared to Mulder and Scully. Nobody could love each someone the way they love each other.

That's the story of how Mulder left. It leaves me, here, in an unfamiliar place for the millionth time in my life. I have no idea where my parents are, what the Syndicate did with them... I bet John and Monica will hang onto me for a while. I'd rather have gone with Mulder and Scully, but it "wasn't safe." They don't realize I'm not safe here either. I'm not safe anywhere. Safety doesn't exist, it's just some concept made up to make people feel better. Mulder and Scully can't be safe, Doggett and Reyes can't be safe, William can't be safe... Nobody can be safe in a world like this.

Not even a boy who can read minds. What chance is there for everybody else?