#and i'm like...nope

His second Halloween he wore a plump little pumpkin costume, his downy ginger hair working perfectly, and a curly green stem on an Alice band that he kept pulling at. Three rolls of film were taken up with shots of him gumming on pumpkin and ghost-shaped cookies, wandering amongst the pumpkins scattered across Maggie Scully’s lawn, and toddling down a street filled with all the other kids in the neighbourhood filling up baskets and pillowcases with treats.

Not long after that second Halloween, he was back in his father’s arms and they were on the run, hopping from motel to motel across backwater America. Whilst his mother collected and washed glasses in a dive down the street, his father draped him in the sheet from his travel cot and himself in a spare sheet from the closet in the motel room and they went from door to door, two ghosts laughing maniacally with every creepy voice and ruffled head the various guests gave out, Mulder thanking each and every one of them for humouring him and his son.

Just after his third birthday, they settled into the little farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. That Halloween he sat on the kitchen table as his parents carved pumpkins. Mulder spent hours creating a trick or treat hunt around the property, setting out a candle at each of the locations, either hiding candy or a small skeleton or spider or bat. They dressed him as a scarecrow, took photos of him as he lead them around their property, chortling at every spooky thing he came upon.

At age four Scully dressed him in a glow in the dark skeleton outfit, and painted his face to look like a skull, dressed in a matching costume and face paint, dyed her hair black; anything to make her look less recognisable. They left Mulder at the house, waving goodbye as she buckled him into the car and drove an hour away to trick or treat in a neighbourhood nobody would remember or recognise them in.

The next year Scully had started her residency, and Mulder spent the weeks leading up to Halloween working on making matching sasquatch costumes that he and his son could wear that hid their faces. They walked into town to hit up the few farmhouses that bothered to lay out candy for the few kids in the area.

He started school the year after that, something that gave both his parents more to worry about than ever, with his father still being a fugitive. But he dressed up as Spiderman for Halloween. And for the weeks leading up to and coming after Halloween. After a long fight the evening of the first day he put it on, unable to get him to take it off for bath and bed, Scully found herself driving to buy two more of them, so he had one to wear, one to wash and one to dry. Rambunctious like his father, every waking minute was spent bounding around the house, pretending to shoot his webs and flinging himself at his parents. The day before Halloween, whilst Scully was still at work, Mulder stood him on a chair in the kitchen and they baked bat-shaped cookies and pumpkin cupcakes that were sold at the school Halloween bake sale and praised for their creative shape and good flavour.

That winter his father was declared a free man, and nearly a year later he was a regular attendee of all of William’s school events, which in October included helping chaperone the annual Halloween disco for the younger grades and the costume competition. William’s ‘space alien tentacle monster’ costume that he designed himself and made with the help of Mulder was a hit. Scully managed to get the evening off of work after, and they drove to Maggie’s for an evening of trick or treating around suburbia.

After finding a photo of his father dressed as Spock, William insisted they watch all of Star Trek. All of it. Which led to Trek costumes for all the family when Halloween came around. Scully as Dr. Crusher, because ‘Mom, she’s a doctor just like you,’ his father as Spock again, and himself as Kirk, because ‘I would be a great captain’.

As Halloween came around year after year, costumes frequently showed his interests at the time, often taking inspiration from the paranormal ideas often discussed over the dinner table as well as concepts from the films and shows his parents shared with him as he grew up; Star Trek was followed by The Twilight Zone, Plan 9 From Outer Space was followed by The Exorcist. Halloween remained a big thing in the Mulder household, and no matter what parties and plans William had with friends, he always made sure to spend a couple of hours with his parents, baking cookies, telling scary stories, and watching horror films.