Mulder shrugs. It's an intellectual argument at best, at this point, but it's another one he never actually got to discuss in any detail before now. Now that he has tacit permission to talk about it - about William, about everything - he can't stop.
"I'm sure it was an open secret at best," he answers, since that's the first concern. The work, how it would have affected the work, who would have seen it as an opening to get to him. Saving the world seemed so much more important before 2012 ended. "But making it official could have been...dangerous. I guess we both figured we had time to find a way to tell William."
And then it became a moot point. William knows nothing about either of them now; he's probably not even called William anymore. Mulder tries not to think about that, generally.
"Sometimes I thought I'd propose, once I knew it wouldn't put the two of you in more danger." Saying it aloud sounds absurd now. They never quite got that far. "Or that we'd tell him when he was old enough for school, if it seemed like he could keep a secret. But even if I spent his whole life living in Alexandria, being Mom's friend Mulder, I would have taken it. He needed you more than he needed me."
no subject
"I'm sure it was an open secret at best," he answers, since that's the first concern. The work, how it would have affected the work, who would have seen it as an opening to get to him. Saving the world seemed so much more important before 2012 ended. "But making it official could have been...dangerous. I guess we both figured we had time to find a way to tell William."
And then it became a moot point. William knows nothing about either of them now; he's probably not even called William anymore. Mulder tries not to think about that, generally.
"Sometimes I thought I'd propose, once I knew it wouldn't put the two of you in more danger." Saying it aloud sounds absurd now. They never quite got that far. "Or that we'd tell him when he was old enough for school, if it seemed like he could keep a secret. But even if I spent his whole life living in Alexandria, being Mom's friend Mulder, I would have taken it. He needed you more than he needed me."