SEATTLE, WASHINGTON
EARLY EVENING

"Do you think they'll be okay?" Byers asked. He stared down into the bottle of beer in his hands.

Frohike shook his head. "Mulder and Scully will be fine as long as they have each other. Yves -- well, she can take pretty much anything. I just wish we hadn't had to do this to Jimmy. He'd never have understood." He sipped his own beer.

"You know Yves will take care of him, though," Langly added, tossing his empty bottle in an arc across the room of the small apartment they'd just rented. It landed with a glassy crash in the plastic garbage can. "If we'd tried to tell him, he'd have blown the whole thing. We couldn't risk it."

Byers sighed. "I know. I just wish we didn't have to do it this way. It'll take years for us to rebuild our operations."

"We're not even the same people anymore, man. We can't go to any of our old contacts. Hell, if we even try anything like what we used to do, somebody's likely to track us down." Langly pulled another slice of pepperoni pizza from the box.

"All that we learned, all that we did. Sometimes I feel like it was all for nothing," Frohike said quietly.

"I thought we could change the world," Byers agreed sadly.

Langly swallowed his mouthful of pizza. "We did, " he said, "in some ways, anyway."

"I never thought it would come to this -- having to fake our deaths in order to avoid being killed." Byers shook his head and turned his face from his friends. "I'll never see Susanne again."

Frohike put a hand on Byers' shoulder. "You knew that when you put her in that taxi in Vegas. What she told you was just to make it hurt a little less. You know that all we need is just to believe in ourselves; we face the truth, we see it clear, with no disguise. I'm sorry, Byers, I know you wanted to find her again, but what we've learned, what we know... we hold the key, buddy. We hold the answers. We've passed those answers on to the people who needed them most, and now we just have to believe in ourselves and survive. It's the changing of the guard. We've gotta let go now."

Langly nodded. "It was just the three of us for years, dude. You and me and Frohike. Susanne got us started on this, and Jimmy joined us for a while, but we were meant to be together, the three of us. It's, like, karma or something. Fate. We were brought together for a reason, and we've done our job. Nobody knows what the future will bring. We just need to lay low for a while, to rest after all those years of putting our asses on the line. Give yourself some time."

Byers looked at his friends. It would take a while to get used to responding to new names, living new identities. The truth might not wear a disguise, but for the rest of his life, he'd be wearing one, even if he looked just the same. "We've left so much behind. Friends. Family. Work that we've done. People we've helped. People we've... people we've loved. When does that part stop? When do we stop making sacrifices for everyone else?"

Frohike and Langly sat in silence, sipping beer and eating pizza.

Byers put his beer down and stood to pace the room. "We stopped the release of a deadly virus, saved potentially millions of lives, I'll grant that. But what do we have to show for our lives' work? We've got no money. We don't own anything. We have nobody but ourselves to turn to now. We've abandoned our friends. We can't go back to our families. We can't continue the work we've devoted our lives to. We don't really even have identities anymore. No jobs. Nothing. What's left?"

"You don't think saving millions of lives was what we started out to do?" Frohike asked.

Byers looked down at his feet, ashamed. "Okay, so maybe I'm just being selfish. What we did was necessary. It was right and good, and ultimately we succeeded in at least part of our mission. We're where we are now because we did what we had to do. None of us could do any less. But aren't we entitled to a little happiness somewhere along the line? A life that's worth living, rather than just enduring?"

"We can make that for ourselves now," Langly said. "That's what beginnings are for. We can try being normal people for once."

Frohike looked over at Langly and snorted. "You? Normal? In your dreams."

Langly reached across the coffee table and smacked Frohike. "I'm trying to make Byers feel better, man. You're not helping."

"The only way you'd make him feel better is if you got a hair cut, blondie."

Langly grinned. "Nah. I have a better plan than that." He pulled a slip of paper out of his pocket and waved it triumphantly in the air.

Byers watched, curious.

"So you got a piece of paper. So what?" Frohike said.

Langly handed the paper to Byers.

Byers' eyes widened as he read. Langly's scrawl spelled out, 'Holly Fitzgerald, 32146 Emerald Way, Redmond, WA, 98415, 425-555-1013'. His face lit up with a smile brighter than Frohike and Langly had ever seen on him before.

"Welcome to our new life ," Langly said, patting his friend's shoulder.

*end*

The lyrics for this story:

The More We Live - Let Go (Yes)

You and I can change the world;
The more we live, the more we learn, the more we know.
From this moment on we share the world;
The more we give, the more we love, the more we grow.
The spirit of imagination can lead us through the dark;
The more we see, the more we try, the more we show.
The evidence of our confusion, life has left its mark;
The more we fear, the more we lie, the more we hide.

As we walk into tomorrow
(Turning away from the path we know)
Holding the future with our hands
(We carry the weight of the world we go)
It's up to you and I -- We hold the key; we hold the answers

All our thoughts of doubt and fear are leaving one by one
The more we live, the more we learn, the more we know.
For each of us the road is clear and life has just begun;
The more we give, the more we love, the more we grow.
It's time to reach the goals we've set for ourselves;
The more we fear, the more we lie, the more we hide.
All we need is just to believe in ourselves;
We face the truth, we see it clear, with no disguise.

Cast away our doubt and sorrow
(Turning away from the past we know)
The Universe at our command
(Conserving the fate of the world we grow)
Together you and I, we hold the key to all the answers

Let go
Let go
Let go
Let go
Let go

--